European leagues are in full swing. There are few surprises but mostly the leagues are going as predicted. In English Premier League, Chelsea is at the top along with Liverpool. Aston Villa is just one point behind the leaders. Arsenal is playing the most dazzling soccer on this season. But the most surprise package is Hull. They upset the free flowing Arsenal in Arsenal’s den. Hull also played a 2-2 draw with Everton after faltering against Wigan 0-5. This is most surprise result so far in EPL. Manchester City’s 6-0 win over Portsmouth is another surprising result.
Liverpool started the season with a bang. Their 2-1 win over Manchester United is the high point of the season till now. But they could not beat lowly Stroke at home. The match ended 0-0. Chelsea has usual start. They mean business and they are playing professionally. Of the top four, Manchester United has a slow start. But I believe they will bounce back. They are one of the best club team in the world.
Surprisingly, Newcastle and Tottenham are lying in the bottom of the table. Newcastle is looking vey awful in the start of the season. I am not sure what the future is for this club.
Referring is really very bad in some of the matches. Yesterday it was for Manchester United and today it was Wigan who benefited by the bad decisions.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
World Cup 2010:Excitement Started
In the two rounds of World Cup 2010 qualifying match most of the big guns struggle. In South American group Paraguay is marching ahead of others. They drew with Argentina 1-1 and defeated Venezuela 2-0 to lead the group with 17 points. Surprisingly, Argentina is struggling in the group. They started well with three consecutive win but now they failed to win in five consecutive matches. Brazil continued their struggling when they failed to defeat 10 men Bolivia at home. Brazil though moved into second position in the group with 3-0 win over Chile. The picture will be clearer with 2 rounds of matches in November. Chile bounced back with 4-0 win over lackluster Columbia.
England surprised everybody including themselves when they defeated Croatia 4-1 in an away match. Earlier they were very lethargic in 2-0 win over Albania. France was crushed by Austria 3-1 though they bounced back to defeat Serbia 2-1. For me Lithuania was the most surprise package this week. They won both their matches. They defeated Austria 2-0 and Romania 3-0. They are at top of their group which includes France. Italy and Spain won both their matches. Italy won 2-0 against Georgia and 2-1 against Cyprus. Spain won 4-0 against Armenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0. Germany drew 3-3 with Finland. Portugal surprisingly lost 2-3 to Denmark in their second match. But the most surprising result in the European leg is Switzerland’s defeat at the hand of Luxembourg at home (1-2).
New Zealand qualified for the next stage when they defeated New Caledonia twice (3-1, 3-0). They will play play-off with the fifth-placed Asian side in 2009 for a berth in World Cup.
Nigeria continued their 100% record. They defeated South Africa 1-0. They have already qualified for the final round of qualifying. Cameroon and Benin also joined Nigeria in the next round. Cameroon defeated Cape Verde Islands 2-1. Benin qualified by defeating Angola 3-2.
In Asia two Koreans played 0-0 draw. Uzbekistan and UAE both lost two consecutive matches. It is long way to go. But with start of the European leg the excitement is fully on.
England surprised everybody including themselves when they defeated Croatia 4-1 in an away match. Earlier they were very lethargic in 2-0 win over Albania. France was crushed by Austria 3-1 though they bounced back to defeat Serbia 2-1. For me Lithuania was the most surprise package this week. They won both their matches. They defeated Austria 2-0 and Romania 3-0. They are at top of their group which includes France. Italy and Spain won both their matches. Italy won 2-0 against Georgia and 2-1 against Cyprus. Spain won 4-0 against Armenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0. Germany drew 3-3 with Finland. Portugal surprisingly lost 2-3 to Denmark in their second match. But the most surprising result in the European leg is Switzerland’s defeat at the hand of Luxembourg at home (1-2).
New Zealand qualified for the next stage when they defeated New Caledonia twice (3-1, 3-0). They will play play-off with the fifth-placed Asian side in 2009 for a berth in World Cup.
Nigeria continued their 100% record. They defeated South Africa 1-0. They have already qualified for the final round of qualifying. Cameroon and Benin also joined Nigeria in the next round. Cameroon defeated Cape Verde Islands 2-1. Benin qualified by defeating Angola 3-2.
In Asia two Koreans played 0-0 draw. Uzbekistan and UAE both lost two consecutive matches. It is long way to go. But with start of the European leg the excitement is fully on.
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