World Football Postulant

Group 4

We have found Miroslav Klose. The Germany and Bayern Munchen striker who has been slightly (or greatly) off form since moving to Munchen last year had all three Germany goals as the group’s favorites preserve a point. Each of Klose’s goals followed a strikes which put Finland in the lead. The final Klose goal came with even minutes left in regulation time.

If you were waiting intently for the Azerbaijan-Liechenstein slugfest, you’ll be bitterly disappointed by this result. The rest of us won’t. This game ends as seem fit.

The Russia-Wales result was already covered, here.

Continue Reading »

Group 4

Five second half goals from the Germans showed that Michael Ballack and Torsten Frings would not, at last for one night, be missed.  Lukas Podolski has the first two  German goals, again bringing into question how Kurgen Klinsmann could keep him on the bench at Bayern.  Simon Rolfes and Bastian Schweinsteiger scored within one minute of each other for the third and fourth goals.  Thomas Hitzlsperger and Heiko Westermann (what a month he’s had) finished the scoring.  Mario Gomez did not start but game on for Miroslav Klose at 64′.  Kevin Kuranyi came on for Podolski twelve minutes later.

Azerbaijan almost got a point out of this one, but Samuel Vokes saved Wales with an 83rd minute goal, giving them three points.  The 18-year-old Vokes, who came on at 72′, redirected a Gareth bale corner kick for the game’s only score.  The goal came fifteen minutes after Azerbaijan’s Fabio Luis Raham received his second yallow card of the match.  Wales had an opportunity earlier in the match to go up on a penalty kick, but Jason Koumas had his spot effort saved by Kamran Arhayev.

Group Standings

Where They Stand

For those who felt Germany was clearly the best tweam in this group, Saturday did nothing to disauade you, as Germany won in convincing manner, as they should.  Joachim Low should be happy.  The group’s dark horse pick, the Russians, start their qualifying campaign with Wales on Wednesday.  Finland, the other country who did not play today, starts their campaign with Germany.  Both Wales and Finland will be targetting Russia as the team to fall and let them into the playoffs.

Michael Ballack hurt his foot against Portsmouth on August 14 and had to leave the match.  He played last week, though it seems he probably should not have, as Chelsea has sufficient depth to prevent aggrevating injuries,  Now Ballack will be out for two weeks, missing Sunday’s match against Tottenham as well as Germany’s two World Cup qualifiers.

It is an injury which, like Steven Gerrard’s, seems convenient.  Continue Reading »

Predictions for the first round of Portugal’s Superliga season are proving a bit dangerous, as I already forgot that Portugal started their season earlier today. As it was with the Bundesliga predictions, I missed the opportunity to predict the Friday night opener. Continue Reading »

Hamburger SV have accepted a bid from Manchester City for 22-year-old right back Vincent Kompany.  No personal terms have been agreed to yet, but a move seems likely as Hamburger wants to rid themselves of their formerly prized prospect after a rift has formed over the Olympics.

Hamburg had negotiated a deal with the Belgian football federation that would have their player return from Beijing for last Friday’s Bundesliga start at Bayern Munich.  When Kompany complained about having to leave the Olympics, Hamburg became defensive, publicly noting an agreement had been in place for some time.

Continue Reading »

A fourth major European league kicks off this week when Portugal’s Superliga starts play on Saturday. Like the Bundesliga and Eredivisie, I could know more about this league and will spend this season educating myself, starting with the leg work I have to do to make these predictions. They may be worth no more than a reference point eight months from now, when I will hopefully be more knowledgeable about a league which is a major source of talent for the big three leagues.

Almost all of these teams I know from what I see when they play FC Porto, which is the dominant club of this league. More than PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands and much more than Bayern Munich in Germany, Porto is the class of this league. They are closer to seven-consecutive Ligue 1 champion Lyon, and as it concerns current distance from their rivals, Porto trounces their French analog. In 30 matches, Porto allowed only 13 goals last season while scoring 60; winning 24 of those games while losing only 3. They are the last club outside the big three to win Champions League, have a world-class winger in Ricardo Quaresma, and would surprise some if they did not advance beyond the UCL group stage this season. The won the league by 20 points this season and have suffered only one significant loss: Jose Bosingwa to Chelsea.

Porto should regress slightly, but if a serious challenge is to be made, it won’t be from them coming back to the crowd. A club is going to half to catch up to them. Two clubs, Sporting Lisbon (second last season) and Benfica (fourth), have loaded up, each having a laundry-list of additions they’ve made. Both clubs should score a lot more goals than last season to make themselves dangerous over a schedule that has only 30 games. Benfica, in particular, seems to have loaded up, though Sporting showed this weekend that they can be formidable when they beat Porto in the Portuguese Super Cup.

Benfica should mount a major challenge. They were already excellent defensively, allowing only 21 goals last season. Regression alone will have them close that difference with Porto, and the roster chances the two teams have made will close the gab a little more. Benfica has lost Rui Costa and Cristian Rodriguez, but they’ve also brought in Pablo Aimar and Reyes. Stabilizing their coaching situation will also help, as the club went through four coaches last season. I think all these changes together will have a dramatic effect.

Beyond these three teams, the table is somewhat of a crap-shoot.  Last year’s third place finisher Vitoria de Guimaraes finish well above where their goal differential would portend, as did fifth place Vitoria de Setubol.  They have more in common with the pack than any of the contenders.  The rest of the league is comprised of Brazilian imports and the seemingly hundreds to players on loan from Porto.  Most of them could “click” and make a run for the last couple of the league’s UEFA Cup births.

I am not picking Benfica or Sporting Lisbon to win the league, but I think at least one of them will make it interesting. Until a club proves otherwise, Porto is the club in Superliga, but this season Benfica should do for Superliga what Bordeaux did for Ligue 1 last season: make it a contest.

Schalke 04 exhibited a new, powerful approach during their 3-0 victory over Hannover on Saturday.

Bundesliga Standings Rank Club GP PTS DIFF 1 Hoffenheim 1 3 3 2 Schalke 1 3 3 3 Stuttgart 1 3 2 4 Hertha Berlin 1 3 2 5 Borussia Dortmund 1 3 1 6 Wolfsburg 1 3 1 7 Karlsruhe 1 3 1 8 Arminia Bielefeld 1 1 0 9 Bayern Munich 1 1 0 10 Hamburger SV 1 1 0 11 Werder Bremen 1 1 0 12 Bayer Leverkusen 1 0 -1 13 1. FC Koln 1 0 -1 14 VfL Bochum 1 0 -1 15 Borussia M’gladbach 1 0 -2 16 Frankfurt 1 0 -2 17 Energie Cottbus 1 0 -3 18 Hannover 1 0 -3 Results August 15, 2008 Bayern Munich 2 2 Hamburg SV August 16, 2008 Bayer Leverkusen 2 3 Borussia Dortmund Arminia Bielefeld 2 2 Werder Bremen Karlsruhe 1 0 VfL Bochum Schalke 3 0 Hannover Energie Cottbus 0 3 Hoffenheim Wolfsburg 2 1 Koln August 17, 2008 Borussia M’gladbach 1 3 Stuttgart Frankfurt 0 2 Hertha Berlin Next Week Home Away August 22, 2008 Hannover Energie Cottbus August 23, 2008 Hoffenheim Borussia M’gladbach Stuttgart Bayer Leverkusen Hamburger SV Karlsruhe Borussia Dortmund Bayern Munich Werder Bremen Schalke 04 Hertha Berlin Arminia Bielefeld August 24, 2008 1. FC Koln Frankfurt VfL Bochum Wolfsburg

When you stack their lineups against each other, Bayern Munich’s seems better, but it is surprising how much talent Schalke has. Announcing it to Europe in their Champions League challenge to Barcelona last season, Schalke is on the verge of transcending the perception of plucky, over-achieving club to league title contender. In round one of the Bundesliga campaign, they were the league’s best team.

Their 3-0 victory over Hannover did not do them justice.  Playing without high-profile summer acquisitions Jefferson Farfán (winger/forward from PSV Eindhoven) and Orlando Engelaar (holding midfielder from FC Twente) - both of whom were hurt in the middle of the week during the club’s impressive Champions League victory over Atlético Madrid - Schalke still exhibited the firepower that should make Bayern, who could have trouble with Farfán and Kevin Kurayni working together, scared.

Bayern limped to a tie against visiting Hamburg without Luca Toni, Franck Ribery and Martin Demichelis.  In round two, they play at a Borussia Dortmund team that confidently put three goals on Bayer Leverkusen in opening their season with a win.  If Bayern does not get healthy for their second match, they could find themselves four or five points behind a rolling Schalke 04 team that plays at a Diego-less Werder Bremen.

Four or five points may not sound like much, but in a Bundesliga that looks a little top heavy, the elite teams may face fewer teams capable of stealing points.  With four fewer matches in the Bundesliga season (compared to the big three leagues), a four or five point gifted Schalke now could be the type of thing Jurgen Klinsmann rues at season’s send.  And if there’s any club that knows about elite teams piling up points in the Bundesliga, it’s Bayern.

Werder Bremen was a near-elite last season (there was only one true elite last season), but without Diego they are a completely different team.  There may be no single player more important to his club than Diego, who is in Beijing for the Olympics.  Seeing them struggle to tie Arminia Beilefeld this weekend, Bremen’s desire to keep the Brazilian playmaker out of the Olympics suddenly made sense.  They weren’t involved in Champions League qualifying like Schalke or Barcelona, but even one match without Diego is a huge loss for this club, whose whole style of play is predicated on the young star’s ability to distribute.

Markus Rosenburg’s two surgical strikes helped Bremen get a point from a Bielefeld side that used the visitor’s wide-open style of play to their advantage.  Bremen is unlikely to alter their style for their match against Schalke, so expect Ivan Ratikic and company to have a big day.

In addition to Round 2’s Dortmund-Bayern, Bremen-Schalke headliners, Stuttgart hosts Leverkusen in another potentially defining match.  Stuttgart efficiently dealt with a Moenchengladbach team that, while having chances, lacked the firepower to play with Thomas Hitzlsperger and Mario Gomez.  Now Stuttgart hosts Bayer with a chance for a six point start.  If they get their win, Bayer will have gone without a point in their first two matches, an early hole for a team that has European aspirations.

There was bad news on the injury front from Round 1’s action.  Dortmund’s Dede, who gave Leverkusen so much trouble on Saturday, suffered a major knee injury and should be lost until spring.  And although Schalke has looked the league’s best team, their depth will take a major hit of midfielder Jermaine Jones, who missed almost all of last season with injuries, is out for more than just Wednesday’s Germany friendly.  Jones is doubtful for Joachim Low’s team.   The German-American midfielder is proving to be a vital cog in Schalke’s attack, running off of Kurayni and onto Farfán’s crosses, but any injury scare is twice as frightening for Jones, given his recent injury history.

World Football Postulant Bundesliga Rankings

As their result was injury related, there’s only so much I’m willing to drop Bayern, though they have looked poor all preseason. Likewise, I can only drop Werder so far, seeing as Diego is in Beijing.

With so many clubs who should finish in the top half of the table playing each other this weekend, a lot of teams have three points without being very high in my first rankings set. Those clubs have thirty-three more rounds to show me their value.

And just as was the case with the Ligue 1 rankings, this early in the season, the whole endeavor becomes worthless pretty quickly. We just need to have fun with it.

1. Schalke 04
2. Bayern Munich
3. Hamburger SV
4. Borussia Dortmund
5. Werder Bremen
6. Bayer Leverkusen
7. Stuttgart
8. Hertha Berlin
9. Arminia Bielefeld
10. Hoffenheim
11. Hannover
12. Karlsruhe
13. VfL Wolfsburg
14. Borussia M’gladbach
15. VfL Bochum
16. Koln
17. Frankfurt
18. Energie Cottbus

Manchester United fans may want to bemoan their club’s inability to get three points in their opener at Old Trafford, but solace can be found 930 miles to the southeast, where another storied European club was held to a tie in the home opener of their title defense.

Without three of their best players, FC Bayern Munich held on for a 2-2 victory over Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga opener on Friday,. Munich was playing without leading scorer Luca Toni, German Footballer of the Year Franck Ribery, or their best defender, Martin Demichelis. In other words: It happens.

The Red Devils got the benefit of Newcastle playing without their captain, Michael Owen, but Manchester United were still without Cristiano Ronaldo (injury, long-term), Carlos Tevez (bereavement), Nani (suspension), Anderson (Olympics), and Owen Hargreaves (injury) - all players that would have been expected to contribute in attack. That they were still able to create more and better opportunities throughout the match should be encouraging to Alex Ferguson and his supporters.

The lack of a cutting edge was, however, noticeable. Wayne Rooney played the whole match, whereas he was once thought to be out recovering from an illness acquired in Africa, but he lacked his world-class form, and it was evident when he was unable to make himself dangerous with the ball at his feet around the box. Frazier Campbell had three strong chances and should have had a goal early, but Manchester United’s only goal came when Darren Fletcher, two minutes after Newcastle went ahead off an Obafemi Martins header, guided a Ryan Giggs cross into the net. It was Fletcher’s way of evening the scales after he left Martins alone for a goal off a Magpies’ corner. After twenty-four minutes, the match had it final score.

Giggs was United’s best player during his sixty minutes on the pitch, a good news-bad news proposition for the Devils. The good news is the legendary left winger, who is thought to be in his final season at Old Trafford, looks able to contribute, where many had wondered what he had left in the tank. The bad news for Manchester United is that he was their best player, something (at best) peculiar for a European championship team. It was one example of how Manchester United’s injuries and absences had taken a toll on the pitch.

The injuries for the champions were not limited to before the match. Michael Carrick, who had been named to Fabio Capello’s England national team for Wednesday’s friendly against the Czech Republic, left with an ankle injury and will be out for three weeks. He has been replaced by Tottenham’s Jermaine Jenas for Wednesday, but with Owen Hargreaves still suffering from knee problems, it’s unclear Ferguson will be able to replace his holding midfielder as easily.

Ryan Giggs was not substituted because of age, form or fatigue; rather, he also suffered an injury and had to be removed. At the 2/3 mark of the match, Giggs left the match with a right hamstring injury which will also see him sidelined around three weeks. Late in the second half, center back Nemanja Vidic injured his knee with a supreme effort to get his head on a corner kick. The ball ended up going off the crossbar, and Vidic finished with a noticeable limp after hurting his right knee.

At the end of the match, names like Campbell, Rafael de Silva, and Rodrigo Possebon joined reserves like Fletcher and John O’Shea in United’s side, and while it was a team that was still able to trouble a Newcastle side that played over the last fifteen minutes as if to preserve their point, it was not enough to get a second goal. Newcastle’s two Argentinian imports saw to that.

The Magpies came into the season as the Premiership’s worst returning defense, but summer acquisitions Jonas Gutierrez (right midfield) and Fabricio Coloccini (center back) had a huge impact in preventing the champions’ a second goal. Gutierrez was the match’s best player, having a unparalleled activity rate between the boxes, an adept defensive sense that broke up many Red Devil attacks, and a couple of moments in attack that made him mildly dangerous. Coloccini was active in the middle of the back line - a rangy, physical presence who was frequently finding ways to disrupt the home side’s attack. Those two additions made a profound difference between the Newcastle that finished last season and the team that took a point from Olf Stafford on Sunday.

For Manchester United, the draw stings only because of what happened earlier in the day at Stamford Bridge. In isolation, the draw is defensible, but on the same day that Chelsea put up a 4-0 domination of Portsmouth, the draw becomes a source of worry. Again here, United can look to Germany, where Munich’s draw against Hamburg was made the more worrisome when Schalke 04, the Bundesliga’s third place team last season, dominated Hannover on Saturday. From a distance, it is difficult to convince the casual Bundesliga fan that Munich’s fortunes changed so much after two matches. With the distance of a couple of rounds of the Premiership going by, we will probably be looking on Sunday’s results with the same refrain.

In other words: it happens.

Note: This article will be edited for distribution at American Soccer Reader.

Links
Injury woes for Carrick, Giggs as United drop home points
Manchester United 1 Newcastle United 1: Fletcher spares United’s blushes as urgent need for striker intensifies
Gutierrez the type of player to light up toon
Keegan happy with United point
Magpies frustrate at Old Trafford
Carrick out of England friendly
Jenas replaces crocked Carrick
Fergie reflects on personnel problems
Fergie mulls over ‘credible’ point
Magpies frustrate United
Man Utd 1 Newcastle 1: Man Utd begin title defence in disappointing fashion
Man Utd 1-1 Newcastle: KK’s Toon stand firm
Man Utd v Newcastle stats and ratings
Rusty Manchester United held by Newcastle in opener
United held by buoyant Magpies
Frazier Campbell starts for Man United
Manchester United 1-1 Newcastle: as it happened
United begin title defence with dropped home points

One day after salvaging a great draw at Munich, Hamburg moved to replace the twelve goals they lost in selling Rafael van der Vaart to Real Madrid when they acquired Mladen Petric (top right) from Borussia Dortmund.   The Croatian striker will now join up with national side teammate Ivica Olic, who has carried over this Euro 2008 form into the club season, forming the most potent striking combination north of Munich.  He is best known farther west as the player who scored the goal at Wembley which kept England out of the European Championships.  For Slavan Bilic and Croatia, he’s become a key to that country’s rising international profile.

Petric had only spent one season at Dortmund after coming over from FC Basel of the Swiss league, where he’s played almost his whole club career.  Although he helped lead Dortmund to the DFB Pokalfinal, it was a slightly disappointing season for the club.  Still, the 27-year-old Petric had thirteen goals in 29 league games and will be difficult to replace.

But in dealing Petric to Hamburg, Dortmund gets back cash and a player who could end up being just as good.  For his national team, Mohammad Zidan (right) has been in key in making Egypt the best team in Africa and one of the more dangerous sides beyond international football’s elite.  In Germany, however, he has infrequently gotten a firm foothold.  He has struggled with injuries and playing time in his stints with Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV, scoring only six goals in 36 matches between the two clubs.  He was, however, during a spell at Mainz (between stops with the other two teams) dominant, scoring 22 goals in 41 league appearances.

He can be better than Petric.  Perhaps there is a cultural adjustment issue here, or perhaps it’s a big fish, small pond issue.  Going to Dortmund, he is moving to a smaller pond - a club that is closer to the position the to-be-relegated Mainz was.  Based on his performances in preseason, I like Zidan to be a more than adequate replacement for Petric and, if everything clicks, be even better.

This was a very astute move for Dortmund.  From Hamburg’s point of view, they may have felt they needed to get the more-recently-proven commodity.  It’s a conservative, uninspiring move that hints at there maybe being more to the story.

Dortmund pulled off a great victory at Bayer Leverkusen today (without either Petric or Zidan), winning 3-2 against a side I picked for Europe.

Links
Petric to Hamburg, Zidan to Dortmund

Le Championnat, the French football championship, starts this Saturday, marking the beginning to the European club season.

Because of Euro 2008 and the Olympics, the off-season has been squeezed on both sides, making for a much shorter down period than many would have liked.  I, however, can not wait for the season to start, and if you remember the circumstances behind Lyon’s seventh consecutive championship, their quest for their eighth can not start soon enough.

Bordeaux, under new coach Laurent Blanc, transcended the gap between Lyonnais and the rest of the table.  They sat only two points back of the champions on the last weekend of the season.  In that 38th round, Lyon beat Paris St. Germain while Bordeaux tied Lens, giving the holders a four point gap.  It was a gap that near evaporated after Blanc’s side went undefeated in their last nine, with six wins.  Bordeaux had improved by eighteen points while Lyon only slipped by two, foreshadowing a 2008-09 rivalry that will define the season.

While the dominant summer story line has been Lyon’s quest for eight, it bears wondering why Bordeaux can not challenge for the title again.  Their goal differential last season was +27, indicative of a team that was getting by on talent over timing.  They bring back their team in tact, ready to shoot down Lyon, while having added young, star forward Yoan Gouffran from Caen.

My predictions for Ligue 1 will come later today, but if you are looking upon France football from a far and seeing a one team league, consider the first of ten reasons why you should follow this season’s Championnat.

1.  Lyon will be pushed for the title

Bordeaux is not going anywhere.  With a year’s experience chasing Lyon and a little more firepower, they will be as strong.  Blanc’s side took 0 of 6 possible points from Lyon last season.  If they can come up with one win (or draw both matches), the four point gap is closed.  They do not need to improve that much to take the title.

Lyon has responded to this threat be restructuring their team.  They let center back Sebastien Squillaci move to Sevilla, goalie Gregory Coupet go to Atlético Madrid, and famously sold Hatem Ben Arfa to Marseille.  All of these players have been replaced, and in the case of the first two, Lyon’s taken the opportunity to get younger.  How the new additions fit into the squad Claude Puel, in his first season managing Lyon, designs will determine whether Lyon can maintain the league while continuing to push for European success.

No matter if you are looking for continued Lyon excellence or toward Bordeaux to snap the string, it will be a story to follow into May.

2.  Karim Benzema

Karim Benzema (pictured) has been knocked this summer for a Euro 2008 performance that was perceived as disappointing.  I even saw a list that held his two games amongst the most disappointing aspects of the European Championships, a claim that made my jaw drop.  Benzema was playing out of position for a manager who did not favor him.  A classic lead striker, Benzema was lined-up to accomdate the legend Thierry Henry.  Watch Benzema this season and you will see a player who should be accomodating nobody.

Follow Lyon and you will see a player that deserves his reputation.  At 21, he is clearly the best player in the league and probably the best player at his age in the world.  While he has gotten by to this point in his career on his superior athletic ability, he has continued to develop his technical ability and is on the verge of being a player who is consistently considered for World Footballer of the Year.

Get in near the ground floor on Benzema so you will be able to put his career and the French national team’s impending rise into context.

3.  League of Young Stars

Le Championnat has developed Benzema and has readied Samir Nasri for Arsenal.  They are only two of a series of French stars that are coming through the ranks.  The France national team disappointed at Europe 2008 with a series of aged stars.  The squad will reload for South Africa off the prospects blooming in Ligue 1 - prospects who can match technical ability with the youth of any country in the world.

4.  Overall quality is right below the big three

There is this mild misconception that the Bundesliga is the fourth best league in Europe, and while there is no way to prove otherwise, I will argue this point with anybody:  France has the fourth best football league on the continent.  The success of their clubs in Europe can back up this claim, as can watching the games.  The technical ability on display in France can be compared (if not favorably, then closely) to that of Spain and Italy.  The league lacks the athletes present in La Liga and Serie A.  The league is nowhere near as fast and demanding as the Premiership,and it does not have the same drawing power as any of the big three.  But as far as quality of play technically, France is top shelf.

The league is ranked fourth in UEFA coefficients (and has been for a while), one spot above Germany; five above the Eredivisie.

I’m just saying.

5.  Looking for the next, non-big three Champions League winners

It’s been almost five years since Jose Mourinho led FC Porto to the Champions League title.  Since then, the big three have had a stranglehold on the Champions League, with teams from outside their leagues rarely showing well in the knock-out phases.  It has become a quest to identify which club from other leagues might break back through.  When you look around for candidates, Porto, the Bundesliga’s Bayern Munich, and Lyon jump out.

To a greater extent than even Munich, Lyon is turning their attention to Europe.  Winning seven titles in a row will tempt you to do that.  Last year, they lost 1-0 on aggregate in the Champions League Round of 16 to eventual champions Manchester United.  Because they were drawn against United and knocked out so early, fans forget how good their team was.

This season, they have brought in Puel with the mandate to make Lyon a player on the continent.   As the team adjusts its goals, maintains one of the strongest midfields on the continent, and continues to groom Benzema as a player that can steal matches, Lyon will grow as a threat to the continent’s mega-clubs.

6.  For a broader Europe

As the big three leagues have continued to grow in power, wealth, and influence, us fans have seen our exposure to the great leagues in Germany, Holland, and Portugal dwindle.  Russia’s performance in Euro 2008 with a team made-up exclusively of Russian Premier League players reminded the world:  There are many places around the world where good football is being played.

French football has not been overlooked like the leagues in Russia or Brazil, but their exposure is more like that of those leagues than the big three.  Supporting Le Championnat, the Bundesliga, the Eredivisie, and the Portuguese Liga helps broaden the game and, depending on how you view the implications of that, improves the sport by increasing its scope.

7.  African presence in Le Championnat

The benefits of increasing the exposure of these leagues:  diversity.  As fans, we get exposed to more players - different players, different styles.  It really excentuates the beauty of the game, to see how many different styles and forms can be employed to play the same, simple game.

In France, one product of diversification is the African influence.  France’s history in northern Africa has led to a pipeline of African talent being recruited into Le Championnat. Some teams within Ligue 1 will have more than half of their starting XI made up of players with African origins.

The same multi-cultural spirit that’s defined the French national team over the last decade is seen throughout the French league.

8.  The rebirth of Paris St. Germain

One of the interesting aspects of the French league is the lack of clubs in the country’s largest city.  Paris St. Germain is the capital’s club, yet lest season they were almost relegated, needing a run of play over the last rounds to finish in sixteenth.  They found themselves in this precarious position despite winning the Coupe de la Ligue and qualifying for this year’s UEFA Cup.

Their plight and their wont to recover has drawn the attention of a number of expatriate Frenchmen, including Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger and captain William Gallas.  While that Gunner duo will not be in Paris this season, the club was able to convince icon Claude Makélélé to trade Chelsea for PSG to close out his career.  Former Roma winger Ludovic Guily has also returned to try and reestablish the club, hoping to make last season look more anomaly than pattern.

9.  It is the first league out of the gate

If you are like me and do not need a summer break, then the club season can not start soon enough.  Le Championnat is the first of the big leagues to start.  The Bundesliga and Premiership start next weekend, which gives us a whole week to either love French football or over-scrutinize the big three league.

I vote for France.

10.  World Football Postulant will follow Le Championnat with you

Throughout the year, I plan to post match predictions and reviews on Le Championnat, even if time constraints have help me from watching as much as I would like.  It is always more fun following a league with somebody else, so let’s do this together.  Stay with WFP all season long as we follow these and all the other story lines which evolve from one of the best leagues in the world.

Together, we will either become experts on Le Championnat or be berated by an expert who finds us.  I’m looking forward to both possibilities.

Later today, I will be posting my season predictions, as well as may picks for the first weekend of the season.  Please post your own predictions and picks, and we can hold each other to them as the season progresses.

Welcome back, football.  Welcome back, football fans.