Monday, March 10, 2014

Wigan Stun City, Valladolid Shock Barcelona, Arsenal Beat Everton, Chelsea Crush Spurs, MLS Gets Going, Juve Beat Fiorentina, Napoli Beat Roma

No...
Hello, Monday! Some shockers over the weekend! Notably, Manchester City lost to Wigan in the FA Cup, and Barcelona lost to Valladolid in La Liga. Why a club with the money of City continues to play Martin Demichelis is beyond us. When he was purchased it seemed a solid buy to have an experienced defensive player on the bench in case of an emergency. Instead, he's played loads, made plenty of errors, and yet continues to maintain his place in the starting 11. Incredible. Wigan will now face Arsenal (4-1 winners over Everton -- the scoreline is flattering) in their Cup Semi next month. We'll begin with Premier League and FA Cup action before moving across Europe and then back to the United States...

Peter Berlin: Five Thoughts

As noted above, Barcelona suffered a shock defeat at Valladolid that leaves them off the pace for the title in Spain. Guillem Balague claims it's simply a case of the Catalans continuing "Toward the Inevitable End of Their Cycle of Dominance." Gotta give Guillem props because he's been saying this was underway for a while. More on Spain tomorrow with Scribes.

Over in Italy, Juventus topped Fiorentina thanks to a ridiculous bit of skill from Asamoah. See the gif below. Roma's dreams of Scudetto are done thanks to a loss to Napoli, and Inter Milan continue to enjoy a late-season surge. More on Italy tomorrow with Scribes.

Since we're on the Continent at the moment, let's take a moment to check in on The title hunt in Europe's top leagues.

Gerald Kwadwo Asamoah's sick goal for Juve...

Right. So, Major League Soccer kicked off over the weekend. Let's go to Ives for a look at how things went. Apparently, some of the "revamped" sides did quite well in their openers. Sticking with MLS, this Anti-MLS piece in Deadspin has been getting some attention. It's certainly well worth a read.

"Inside: U.S. Soccer’s March to Brazil." That's the title of a series that ESPN has ready to go beginning May 13. Should be interesting. Maybe. Actually, it could really suck.

Onward!!

-SSN

2 comments:

David said...

You don't miss much, Geoff, but speaking of MLS articles, this post from Stefan "Soccernomics" Szymanski is a good read. Much wonkiness, but the comments are especially entertaining as SS faces off with indignant readers.

Short version: MLS salaries are about 1/30 of Premier League salaries, and that's pretty directly correlated to the quality of play in the respective leagues.

http://www.soccernomics-agency.com/?p=562

The Editor said...

Excellent -- many thanks. The comments are indeed entertaining. I'll add to today's post. Cheers.