European Dispatches

Around the Continent

Portugal

Normal service has resumed in the Portuguese Liga as perennial champions Porto have stormed into an early lead.  Six consecutive wins to start the season, have seen the giants open up a big lead, as they try to atone for a disappointing season last year.  Having failed to make the Champions’ League, on the back of a rare third place finish, the Dragons look to cement their lead in the league as they quietly build momentum in the Europa League.  Someway behind, barely in touch, are all time leading domestic champions Benfica, who hope to make up ground in their bid to retain the title they won last year.  At the moment the league looks like Porto’s to lose.

Behind them, the middle of the table has a glut of teams scrapping for the Europa League positions, as minnows Olhanense and Vitoria Guimares try to break free from the pack.  Champions’ League debutantes and 2010 runners-up Sporting Braga are in 6^th while the other domestic giant, Sporting, props up the top half of the table.  Promoted sides Portimonense and Beira Mar are dangerously close to the bottom two relegation spots. 

Impressively nicknamed, Porto striker, Hulk leads all scorers with six league goals followed by Academica’s Senegalese marksman Modou Sogou, who has four.

France

A trio of middleweights are taking turns atop the Ligue 1 summit as French football is fully in role reversal.  First Toulouse, then St. Etienne and now Stade Rennes have all made it to the top, while the traditional giants recover from a slow start.  Lille, recently in the Champions’ League is nominally the best placed of the recent top guns, sitting a few points off the top.  

PSG, forever stuttering, and defending champions, Marseille, are both in mid-table, the latter still paying for a dreadful start.  Further down Bordeaux, now coached by Jean Tigana, are in 10th while the class of the last decade, Lyon, are just outside the relegation spots.  Having bought playmaker Yoann Gourcouff from Bordeaux a couple of games in, Lyon were expected to carry all before them but coach Claude Puel is under pressure to return silverware to France’s most successful club in recent history.

Amongst the promoted teams, Brest are just outside the top four and Caen are in the top half, but Arles Avignon sit rock bottom.  Pitch pioneers Nancy and Lorient, who switched their pitches from grass to artificial turf, the first time in French football history that this has been done, don’t look so smart now as they both reside in the bottom five.  And in keeping with the theme of inversion, Champions’ League participant Auxerre and former champions Monaco are both in the bottom half.

Recently capped French forward, Dimitri Payet, of St Etienne is in the scoring lead with 7 tallies while Caen’s Moroccan, Youssef El-Arabi follows him with five.

Scotland

The annual Scottish race for the title between Rangers and Celtic, otherwise known as the Scottish Premier League, is off to a flyer as both Glasgow giants had perfect records after seven rounds.  Celtic sits on top, only by goal difference, as a single strike separates them from Rangers.  The last team to win the title other than the Old Firm, Aberdeen, are in mid-table while Dundee and Motherwell are the best placed amongst the also-rans, which is, quite literally, the rest of the 12 team division.

Rangers are proving quite handy in the Champions’ League as they try and make it out of the group stages for the first time.  Celtic on the other hand, can concentrate on regaining the league crown after having crashed out of both Champions’ and Europa League qualifying in August.  Plucky promoted side Inverness are sitting pretty in the top five.

Rangers striker Kenny Miller has 10 goals to his name, having hit a hat trick against Hamilton on the opening day of the season.

Holland

The Dutch Eredivisie makes for compelling viewing as only three points separated the top five teams after eight rounds.  PSV sit atop the table, closely followed by giants Ajax, while defending champions FC Twente (in the Champions’ League for the first time), Groningen and Roda are all too close for comfort. Ajax have not won the title since 2004, but are currently in the Champions’ League.  Meanwhile, PSV seek to regain the crown they last won in 2008, as they embark on a second successive journey in the Europa League, ostensibly as one of the favourites.

Amongst the other continental participants, Utrecht are finding competing on multiple fronts somewhat challenging as they cling on to the top half of the table.  2009 Champions AZ Alkmaar, currently just outside the European places, are similarly tied up but should improve as the season goes on.  Former champions and domestic heavyweights Feyenoord are languishing just above the relegation scrap with promoted side De Graafschaap.  Fellow promoted club Excelsior, are doing somewhat better, sitting in mid-table.

Creatively named Utrecht forward Ricky van Wolfswinkel leads all scorers with nine goals.

Focus: To Russia with Love

With two-thirds of the 2010 Russian Premier League season completed, Zenit St. Petersburg sit atop the standings and look good value to regain the title.  Defending Champions Rubin Kazan are six points behind, having played two games more.  Although Rubin look to close the gap on the leaders, they must look over their shoulders at CSKA Moscow, currently in third but just a couple of points behind Rubin, with games in hand.

Further down the table, traditional heavyweights from the capital Moscow, Spartak and Lokomotiv, can hope for European qualification at best, as they sit outside the top places, out of contention.  Promoted sides Sibir Novosibirisk and Anzi Makhachkala have had similar campaigns so far.  The former are stuck at the foot of the table, six points from safety while Anzi are just a point clear of the drop zone.

Zenit’s campaign, has been both assured and predicted, as they currently occupy the position of primus inter pares in Russian football.  Their ascent and consolidation is in marked contrast to the decline of the Moscow trio, traditional giants of the local scene.  Zenit’s rise is also mirrored by the increasing profile and money currently associated with the sport in Russia.  Whereas Russian teams in the recent past, post Soviet collapse, have relied on local talent backed by a domestic support structures, Zenit has bucked the trend to improve its own status.  The presence of foreign talent, formerly a sprinkling, has been increased in doses to a generous helping; while higher profile coaches, notably Dick Advocaat, have arrived to infuse ideas, concepts and training, as Zenit aspires to be more continental in both philosophy and delivery.

With an excellent UEFA cup win in 2008, outclassing Rangers 2-0, in the final, Zenit secured their first continental trophy.  The campaign was especially memorable for Zenit, who crushed Bayern Munich 5-1 in the semi-finals, Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 in the quarterfinals and edged past Marseille and Villareal in earlier rounds.  Moreover, Europe was treated to a new brand of flowing football served up by a fresh generation of Russian players such as Andrei Arshavin and Pavel Pogrebnyak, who became household names, while compatriots Roman Shirokov and Igor Denisov elevated themselves to becoming regulars for the Russian national team.  Following this win, in 2009, Arshavin transferred to the most marketed league of all, the Premiership, as he moved to Arsenal, while Pogrebnyak moved to Stuttgart.

Furthermore, Zenit has cemented its place in the upper echelons of the continental football scene, by showing that its performance was not just a one off.  While the European Super Cup, picked up at the expense of Manchester United in 2008, was little more than a curtain raiser; Zenit performed well in an initial foray in the Champions’ League in 2008-09, finishing behind giants Real Madrid and Juventus in their group.

Signing coach Luciano Spaletti in December 2009, was a masterstroke.  It signalled the start of a new era, as Dick Advocaat’s hard work in creating a competitive base was not to be squandered.  The popular and highly sought after Italian coach, who had a good spell with Roma in Serie A, arrived with much fanfare and brought Italian coaches in tow.  Following this, Zenit reversed the flow of talent by signing players from around Europe, including from bigger clubs in the top leagues.  In the past year alone, Bruno Alves, Danko Lazovic and Aleksander Lukovic, World Cup participants, were signed from Portuguese giants Porto, Udinese and PSV respectively.  This is on top of Portuguese striker Danny, on the roster since 2008 and Alessandro Rosina, the former Torino captain.  Since when did Italian players play anywhere but Serie A and occasionally Spain and England?

However, this is a sign of things to come as the Russian league is now a destination for players of a higher standard and not just a source for players to be exported.  Of course, being sponsored by Gazprom, Europe’s largest energy company, helps matters but money alone without clever investment does little.  As of now, Zenit is unbeaten in the league and is one of the dark horses for the Europa League, as an outside favourite.  Proof enough that its pedigree is respected and its potential, very real.

The brass at Zenit is creating a winning style and culture that is both attractive and uniquely theirs.  Czar Peter the Great (after whom the city is named) strove to change Russia’s image, culture and technology, 300 years ago, as he established this Eastern capital in an effort to keep in touch with Europe.  In an eerie postscript, it appears the leaders at Zenit aim to do the same.  An excellent city with a deep cultural legacy and plenty of entertainment, St Petersburg itself is quickly becoming the destination football in Eastern Europe.