World Football Postulant

The marks of Mourinho were all over Internazionale when they debuts at Sampdoria on Saturday.  There was a crispness in their play, with their players using the maximum width of the pitch, in Jose’s preferred three midfielder, two winger formation.  And it was a brilliantly taken goal by Zlatan Ibrahimovic that put Inter up in the first half and hinted that Mourinho was ready to take Milano to another level.

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The European Match of the Week is in Serie A, where Juventus starts their march towards recapturing the Scudetto against an Adrian Mutu-less Fiorentina side.  We’ve seen examples in the Bundesliga (Diego, Werder Bremen) and the Premiership (Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal) of what one player can mean to a team, but Mutu’s meaning to Fiorentina might prove to be just as large.  Continue Reading »

The final set of predictions for the 2008-09 European club season takes me to Italy, where your view on who will win the league will undoubtedly be dependent on what you think of Jose Mourinho.  He has been the big name transaction of the Calcio summer,  A has dominated the Italian media and made himself the face of not just Internazionale but the league.  There may not have been one better move the league could have made to reassert itself on the continent after the bad news of recent seasons.

I am a Mourinho fan and have great respect for everything he’s accomplished.  Show me a real football follower who does not respect what Mourinho has done.  And he and Internazionale are a perfect fit.  It is a club with history and resources, is ready to win now, and will appreciate Mourinho more than he ever seemed to be over the last two years at Stamford Bridge.  Everything is in place for him to succeed, and he better.  This is a club that has won the last three Scudetto.  Their management not only expects a repeat in the league but also challenge for the Champions League.  Anything less than the final four in Europe will bring questions as to whether Mourinho had a successful season.  To his credit, he seems to realize this.

Domestically, there are four teams which critics see as challengers.  There’s Adrian Mutu’s Fiorentina, but the loss of Tomas Ujfalusi and goalie Sebastien Frey coming back to Earth a bit make it unlikely they will improve on a successful 2007-08.  Milan, who finish behind Fiorentina, will have to make up 21 points on Inter despite an aging and injury-prone team.  Roma came within three points last season, but this is another case where questions can be raised as to whether they can replicate an 82 point season, especially if Francesco Totti can never find true health.

That leaves Juventus, who I was biased towards at the start of this exercise.  They have the best set of strikers in the league and could get 50-60 goals from just those four.  They can expect a little better luck with health, and they have the best goalie in the league in Gianluigi Buffon.  People outside Italy seem to forget that last season was their return to Serie A.  This year they will have no issues of adjustment.  More than any of this, though:  this team really wants to win the title.  There is a certain pride thse players have in playing for the Old Lady that’s admirable.

However, when I sat down and looked at the rosters, man-by-who should be playing man, it was just difficult to see Juve making up 13 points on Inter.  In fact, I expect Inter to improve slightly with Mourinho.  Juve will have to make up more than 13 points to take the Scudetto.

Ultimatley, I like Internazionale to win.  Again.  And thanks to a just quick fall-off in quality through the table, I think Inter (and the other top teams) to put up a lot of points.  Last season inter only lost three matches.  I don’t expect that number to increase this season.  They tied ten times.  I do see some of those matches turning into wins.

Amongst the surprise teams of the league, I like Torino to jump into UEFA Cup contention.  Lazio, I like to make the top seven, which would hopefully find them in Europe.  I also like Catania to avoid many of the struggles they had last season and easily avoid relegation battles.

At the other end of the spectrum, I like both Chievo and Lecce to stay up after being promoted from Serie B.  Bologna, I don’t see as fortunate.  Amongst the teams that I see fighting for survival:  Reggina, Palermo, and Genoa.

Other teams I expect to falter a little:  I think Udinese will finish closer to relegation than another UEFA Cup spot.  I also think Fiorentina not only will not challenge for the league, I like them to get passed by Sampdoria, both of them finishing will behind Roma for the last Champions League spot.

I got too busy yesterday to publish my thoughts on Shaun Wright-Phillips moving to Manchester City, though I just updated American Soccer Reader with the story.

The move came about pretty quickly.  Not so much the Wright-Phillips moved from Chelsea-part.  That seemed to be a given all summer, and it was somewhat surprising when, over the last two weeks, it seemed Wright-Phillips would not be moving.  If anything, he looked to play less under Scolari than he had last season.  But this week rumors regarding Everton and Manchester City surfaced, and while they were initially denied by Wright-Phillips, the winger moved on Thursday.

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One of the more exciting days of the European club football season is the day the Champions League group stage is drawn.

The 32 teams that have qualified for the group stage are drawn into eight, four-team groups.  Before that happens, all teams are broken into four pots, labeled A through D, where they are grouped according to a team’s strength (as determined by a formula called a coefficient).  Each of the eight groups can have no more than one team from each pot, no more than one team from a country.  The eight groups end up pretty even.

The draw is fun because you end up with a series of matches which, in addition to being high profile based on the quality of the teams involved, are rare.  In the days before the draw, you start considering the possibilities and potential story lines:  Chelsea and Fiorentina in a group, forcing Adrian Mutu to play the club he owes £14 million; Marseille being slotted with Arsenal months after having sold them Samir Nasri, and potentially getting Bayern Munich in the group, so they would have to face Franck Ribery; Barcelona being slotted with a Zenit St. Petersburg team whose star, Andrei Arshavin, so badly wanted to play at Camp Nou; FC Porto being grouped with Inter Milan and facing Jose Mourinho.

Here’s how the eight groups ended up being drawn, with the clubs listed in order of the group they were drawn from:  A to D.  Continue Reading »

I miss Jose Mourinho in the Premiership, think he’s a great coach, and still wonder why Chelsea would let him go without having somebody like a Luiz Felipe Scolari ready to replace him immediately. It’s all working out fine at Stamford Bridge (even if the firing may have cost them three trophies last season), but my English language league lots a lot of entertainment value when Mourinho went east. Nobody combines honesty, humor, and arrogance more brilliantly than The Special One.

Those qualities are in full view in Mourinho’s comments on Andriy Shevchenko. Continue Reading »

The determining moment of Chelsea’s 1-0 win at the JJB may have come before kickoff.  Wigan goaltender Chris Kirkland, having missed England’s Wednesday international with back trouble, was ruled out of Sunday’s match a reoccurred in warm-ups.  His absence may have proved costly for a home team whose 1-0 loss fell on the end of an early, possibly savable, direct kick.

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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.

One week after being on the verge of a move to AS Roma, Fiorentina star striker Adrian Mutu has signed an extension with La Viola that will keep him at the club through the summer of 2012. The extension contains a raise on his salary of about ten percent, making this contract extension less of an upgrade for the Romanian star and more of a pledge. Mutu’s reputation suffered a bit during the Roma ordeal because he had said, shortly before, that he wanted to stay at Fiorentina for life. Upset La Viola fans might want to note that their star has essentially taken less money to finish out his career with their club.

It is unlikely to assuage those committed to bitterness towards Mutu.   Thankfully, those seem relatively few.  For many fans, it is hard to think if terms of sympathy as it concerns a “mere” ten percent wage.  Over the next few seasons, as star players are signed or re-upped at their clubs, La Viola fans might want to note the find of money that Mutu passed up.  It will be notable.

But with the contract issue behind player and club, Fiorentina can now concentrate on their Champions League qualifying match-up against Slavia Prague.  Due to start in just under two weeks, Fiorentina has a difficult match-up against the Czech Republic club.  If Fiorentina can not solve problems at the back that have manifest  during the preseason, they will lose this tie.  The gap between Fiorentina (the fourth place team from Serie A) and the champions of the Grambrinus liga is not so big that Cesare Prandelli’s team can afford to be off their game.

Regardless of how they perform in Champions League, Fiorentina can use the knowledge that Mutu will be in fold to focus on re-qualifying for Champions League:  finishing in Serie A’s top four.  Inter has struggled to find their rhythm while implementing Jose Mourinho’s new system while AC Milan has looked old and thin.  In the early going, those two look most vulnerable, but Fiorentina must be ready from the get-go as they host Juventus in Round 1.

With the Mutu saga now over, Prandelli can stay preparing his team for their fights.

Links
Mutu Extends Fiorentina Contract
Mutu Signs Contract Extension
Mutu to extend La Viola deal

It was early this weekend, after getting caught up on the friendlies from the middle of last week, that I had the idea to write a column catching up on the reclamation projects from around European club football. I could talk about how Clarence Seedorf looks revitalized, how Darren Bent is making his case to Juande Ramos, and how Ronaldinho is showing flashes to greatness while training for the Olympics. That piece now seems opportunistic after Niclas Anelka rained on my parade yesterday.

In case you have not seen the results, Niclas Anelka scored four goals for Chelsea against AC Milan in the third place game of the Russian Railways Cup. One of the goals was practically given to him by Cristian Abbati when the Milan goalkeeper whiffed on a back-pass from Mathieu Flamini, fell to the ground, and gave a hard-working Anelka an easy goal. The other three Anelka goal were well-earned.

His first was a great strike from just outside the penalty area, taking a ball Shawn Wright-Phillips headed down to his feet and putting it into the lower right hand corner. It was the type of strike that we had forgotten Anelka capable of. The next earned goal was a great header from near the top of the area, a ball that the Frenchman was able to get a lot of power on despite the ball being slightly towards his back shoulder. The final ball was a cross from the left that, going all the way across goal, Anelka had to work to get a high, outstretched leg to for his fourth goal.

Part of Anelka’s success way Milan, who played an embarrassing, uninspiring match. It was remarkable. The 5-0 final score was actually generous. Milan rarely, if ever, threatened. For most of the match, they did not have a true forward on the pitch. That did not help their defense, which Chelsea just out-worked all match. It was ridiculous how much faster and more willing Anelka, Wright-Phillips, and Florent Malouda were. Even Branislav Ivanovic gave them trouble. Any time Milan would try to counter, John Terry barely broke a sweat in dealing with the attack.  As impressive as Chelsea was (they looked sharp), the match had to be depressing for fans of the Rossoneri.  They were unable to compete for all the reasons the detractors have been highlighting all summer.

Taking that into account, you have to think Anelka’s four goals scored under favorable circumstances, yet this is not the first match in which the Frenchman has impressed. In the club’s previous match, against Lokomotiv, Anelka showed the same work rate and rejuvenation of skill, highlighted by a beautiful chest trap to set up Michael Essien’s goal. In China, Anelka again impressed, and through his performance over four games has started to revitalize his deservedly negative reputation.

During the winter and spring for Chelsea and the summer for France, Anelka look lost. His greatest skill was verifying the referee’s whistle worked as he was called for offsides. Coming from Bolton during the winter transfer window into the firestorm that was Chelsea after Jose Mourinho left, hindsight sees him as unsettled. He never looked comfortable.

Now Anelka seems intent on reestablishing his reputation, and although you never want to put too much stock in friendlies, his work-rate alone is encouraging. That he has been Chelsea’s leading scorer and has done a great job of providing means, if he can keep up his form, Chelsea has a viable option at center striker should Drogba be unable or unwilling to be Didier Drogba.