Europa League Group Stage Wrap

Prelude and Preview to the draw...

The group stage of the Europa League is over and now everyone awaits the draw for the knockout stages.  48 teams in the 12 groups have been whittled down to 24 clubs.  They will be joined by the eight dropouts from the Champions’ League.   The 32 teams will be squaring off in early February.

 

In truth, this season has seen some early separation with many teams a cut above the opposition, in the Europa League.  Several teams powered ahead early and secured qualification as early as Matchday 4, easily proving to be too good for most of their opponents.  But before anyone rushes to brand the tournament as a voluminous exercise in mediocrity, consider this, there is no tournament that has more parity.  Also ponder the fact that many of Europe’s biggest guns faltered and either, only stumbled through in unconvincing fashion, or missed out on progression altogether.

 

I summarise the notable points from an engrossing Group Stage:

Crash and Burn Country: Big Guns, Going Home

Juventus – The Old Lady was unable to bring its best game to the tournament and finished third in Group A.

Dinamo Zagreb – The Balkan giants, despite the latest wave of young Croat talent, lagged 4 points behind in Group D.

AZ Alkmaar – Group E was too much for the 2009 Dutch Eredivisie winners, logging 3 defeats to end in third spot.

Sampdoria – Getting out of Group I was a step too far as the Genoa club were out of contention after 5 games.

Borussia Dortmund – The Germans may be tearing up the Bundesliga but were inconsistent in Group J.

Atletico Madrid – The defending Champions exited with a whimper, behind Leverkusen and Aris in Group B.

 

Surprise Central: Plucky Underdogs, Standing Tall

Lech Poznan – The small Polish club, not even a domestic heavyweight, tied Manchester City on points in Group A.

Aris – With 10 points and second spot in Group B, one of an impressive trio of Greek clubs to progress.

Bate Borisov – Emerging from Group E after an excellent autumn for the Belarussian team.

Young Boys – The Swiss side followed up their narrow Champions’ League elimination with a strong second in Group H.

Metalist Kharkiv – Presaging upcoming tournaments in Eastern Europe, the Ukrainian side snatched second in Group I.

Setting the Standard: Laying down a marker

Zenit St. Petersburg – Following up on our tip for the tournament, the Russian Champions won six out of six, in Group G.

CSKA Moscow – The Russian World Cup is in 2018 but the Moscow side are right here right now, 16 points atop Group F.

FC Porto – Group L were out to the sword as the Portuguese side scored 14 goals and notched 16 points to go through.

Manchester City – Not spectacular but steady, with 11 points to win Group A and set themselves up for a long run.

Stuttgart – The Germans put aside league woe to win 5 games and nail down a top seed for the round of 32.

Players who caught our eye: Outside bets for player of the tournament

Radamel Falcao – The Colombian forward notched seven goals for Porto to lead all scorers.

Tomas Necid – Czech youngster on a purple patch for CSKA Moscow with five goals in six games.

Giuseppe Rossi – The Italian has responded to his World Cup snub with continued good form for club this season.

Roman Eremenko – Finnish playmaker who pulled the strings for a resurgent Dynamo Kiev side, setting up five goals.

Edinson Cavani – The Napoli forward was persistent and deadly with five goals and 15 shots on target.

Artem Milevskiy – The Ukrainian forward is at the peak of his career and notched five goals for Dynamo Kyiv.

 

With Liverpool and PSV Eindhoven still alive and growing in strength and confidence with every passing week, the tournament is still anyone’s to win, especially with the Champions’ League dropouts still to be drawn.  But once the knockout rounds arrive, this tournament will once again serve up a healthy dose of evenly matched football and close games.

Qatar 2022

The only American connection to the World Cup in 2022 will be the military base in Doha.

Holding the voting for two World Cups on the same date was not the only dubious first by FIFA.  The utterly incredulous decision to award the 2022 World Cup to a rank outsider, with no facilities or pedigree of any kind, was surely the coup-de-grace.  On December 2 2010, shortly after awarding the 2018 edition to Russia, in another surprise decision, the FIFA executive committee went one better by giving the 2022 tournament to the tiny Gulf nation.  Like Russia, Qatar is rich in hydrocarbon wealth, having the world’s second largest natural gas field.  One suspects, with good reason too, that mineral wealth went further in convincing voting delegates than the pure merit of the bid itself.  Apparently, new space age stadiums which will use massive air-conditioning to keep players and fans cool (a necessity in June and July, when the tournament is slated for) while allowing themselves to be dismantled and shipped to other developing nations was a large part of the technical bid.  However the award is still a joke, as better qualified nations like Australia (having hosted the Olympics twice) and the USA, who has hosted an excellent tournament in 1994, were overlooked.  The Americans were especially optimistic as both the continued success of the MLS as well as the growth of grass-roots football in the country, were seen as the perfect foil for a strong World Cup bid.  Qatar, on the other hand, has never made it to the World Cup and possesses no Asian Cup record to speak of.  The local top division was notable for being a massive retirement cheque for over the hill ex-superstars like Romario and Luis Figo while the national team has recently been called up for nationalising Brazilians in order to raise their performance.  Already top football executives are calling for the tournament to be moved from the summer months.  Watch this space.

Sepp and The Steppe

Russia 2018

 

Russia has been awarded the 2018 World Cup in a surprise decision by FIFA.  Many expected the English bid, led by David Beckham and featuring both Prince William and David Cameron, to be awarded the hosting rights for the tournament.  However, in a dramatic twist, that saw England finish dead last garnering only two votes, while being eliminated in the first round, Russia were awarded the hosting rights, having received 14 votes in the final round.  While the Russian bid was far from shoddy, questions remain over the infrastructure and professional abilities of the Russian FA.  Meanwhile rumours of votes for money, already exposed in a BBC expose weeks before the final vote, loom large over the process.  Stories abound of FIFA President Sepp Blatter having received close to $3 billion dollars from Qatar (shock winners of the 2022 World Cup bid process) and Russia combined.  With the notion of dark politics and non football decisions pulling the strings behind the scenes, never in doubt, it remains to be seen whether Russia can host a World Cup as well as its Western European neighbours – notably England and fellow bidders, Belgium and Holland.

Russia:

Population: 142 million population

Area: 17.07 million square km

GDP: $2.109 trillion

Notable clubs teams:  CSKA Moscow, Zenit St. Petersburg, Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, Rubin Kazan

International Pedigree: 2 World Cup appearances, Euro 2008 semi-finalists.  As USSR, winners of 1960 European Championships during 5 appearances and 7 appearances at the World Cup.

FIFA Ranking: 13

Joan Capdevila

Elevation:

In 2006, Joan Capdevila was, arguably, the third best of a back four featuring himself, Antonio Barragan and Alberto Lopo, at Deportivo La Coruna, who were then mid to lower table.

(I know this because they kept several clean sheets that helped me dominate a La Liga fantasy football game - 82nd out of 13,000 - woot)

In 2010 the same Capdevila has won a Euro Title and World Cup with the Spanish national team, being an ever present at left back.

How things change.

Capdevila, you lucky bastard.