Rangers and Valencia

I have been waiting for this match up for a long time; these are two of my favorite teams. That's why it disappoints me to say this game ended at a tie 1-1. I was really hoping we would get a winner out of this one but neither team really stepped up and played there best. For this game I was really rooting for the rangers of Scotland to win. I have always liked this team because they are all very fast players and I enjoy watching how they use their speed to their advantage in every aspect of the game. This team also has one of my favorite strikers, Kenny Miller. Ok onto the game. The first 15 minutes the Rangers were playing vary defensive. Valencia was on the ball about 90% of this time. What would happen is Valencia would keep the ball for a while trying to create a scoring opportunity but the Rangers would always get the ball back before they could score. Although they would get the ball back they would give it away again and then Valencia would keep it for a while to try and create a scoring chance but no good chances were being made, and it repeated this for the first 15 minutes. After this there was a dramatic change in the way Scotland was playing, all of the sudden they were attacking like crazy. They went from no shots taken in 15 minutes to 5 very close shots taken in only 4 minutes and now they were on the ball for most of the time in the next ten minutes. Out of these 5 shots there were 2 outrageously close ones. One of them was when one of the players on Scotland chipped the ball over the head of a Spanish player to one of his team mates then it was a one on one with the goalie and the striker and the striker dove forward with his legs to shot the ball as the goalie was running towards the ball and he kicked the ball right into the goalie’s chest. Next was almost the same situation one of the players on Scotland crossed the ball to his team mate in the goalie box and he tried heading it in but the ball hit the post and the goalie was there to clear the ball. After a few more chances in the 33rd-minute of the game the rangers were lining up for a corner. The player on Scotland kicked the ball with perfect accuracy and power into the middle of the goalie box and the goalie of Valencia jumped to grab it and a player of Scotland went to head for the goal and the player of Scotland met the ball with his head and launched it into the back of the net making it 1-0 Scotland. The rest of the half was scoreless thus going into half time 1-0 Rangers. At half time the total shots from the Rangers were 10 and shots from Valencia was 12. There was only one yellow card that was awarded to a player on Scotland and there were 0 red cards. In the next half within the first 40 seconds of the half there was a goal for Valencia making the game tied. There was a free kick for Valencia and the player kicked the ball into the box to his teammate who headed the ball in right passed the goalie. In the rest of the game no really good opportunities were created it was more just defensive and the score remained 1-1.                

Spain at Scotland

There are two games that are going to be played tomorrow in-group C (the group I have been fallowing) of the Champions League. It is going to be the Rangers of Scotland against Valencia of Spain and also Manchester United of England against Bursaspor of Turkey whom I have already talked about. In this post I will talk about the Rangers and Valencia. The game will take place in Glasgow in Scotland; this place actually has a history with one of the players on Valencia. The players name is Cesar Sanchez and he is the Goalkeeper for Spain. Last time he was in Scotland 8 years ago, though it wasn't against the rangers, he played fantastic and also received a Champions league Winners metal. So you can see why he would have fond memories of this place and now tomorrow he is hoping for another successful outcome during this trip. Cesar Sanchez even said him self, “I have good memories of this place.” In this group Valencia still lies only a point behind their opponents for tomorrow. The Rangers have 4 points so far in this Champions League and Valencia only has three. On another note Manchester United of England has 4 points so far as well and Bursaspor remains scoreless, so England and Scotland are tied for first, Spain is in second, and Turkey is in last for there group. Goalkeeper Cesar Sanchez says that tomorrow him and his teammates have to embrace the game rather than allowing it to diminish there powers. He said that, “the atmosphere of this place is incredible and it's a special place to play in.” He also added, "We have come here to get a good result and make life as easy as possible. It's another big game for us and we are ready, but we must also be careful. “This competition is like a sprint. If you make a mistake in the group stage, you may not have the chance to put it right”." Well that's all for todays blog post my next post will be about what happens in these to games that are happening tomorrow.         

Bursaspor against Manchester United

Match day 3 is coming soon for Bursaspor of Turkey. They are going to be facing Manchester united of England in England. Last time Ertuğrul Sağlam, the head coach of the Turkish team was in England he faced a Liverpool team his team was beaten. He was on the receiving end of this 8-0 defeat. This heavy loss came in one of the later stages of the 2007 Champions League in stage 6. So far Bursaspor has lost both of their games. One game at home to Valencia of Spain. This game was also a shut out 4-0; they also lost a game to the Rangers of Scotland 1-0. So as you can see this team is off to a very rocky, and frustrating start. Manchester United most recent victory against a Turkish team was in 2004. In this game Wayne Rooney the up and coming star at the time was 18 years old marked his Man. United debut with a stunning hat trick, thus ending a game with the victory 6-2, he scored half their points. The last time Turky won against an English opposition was in 1995, a 4-0 victory. Bursaspor has yet to even score a goal. I will be looking forward to this next game (Bursaspor at Manchester United) it should be a good one because of the history between the 2 countries and how badly Turkey needs this and wants it. I cant wait to watch the out come and I will be sure to fill you in on the details in my next blog.

Champions League Back Round

For those of you who don't really know what the Champions league is or how it works you might want to consider reading this. The teams of the champion’s league are decided by wining your divisions in your country of Europe. For example each or most of the countries in Europe have there own league with different teams in it. The team who wins the champion ship of there countries league goes to the champions league to play against other European countries teams that one in there league. The Champions league is divided into three stages, the qualifying stage, the group stage and the playoffs. The governing body in European football UEFA, has a point scale for the different leagues, the better the teams from a certain country, the more teams from that country get qualified for Champions league and the UEFA cup. Spain, Italy and England all get four spots for the Champions League, position 3 and 4 has to play in the 3rd qualifying stage. Smaller leagues only get one team who enter in the 1st qualifying round. Every league in Europe get at least one team into the tournament, but most teams are knocked out before they get into the main stage the Group/playoffs.

Winning the champions league is a pretty big deal for some countries. For teams in England, Italy and Spain winning the Champions League is just as big as winning their premier league cup. You get more recognition outside your own country for winning it though. In the smaller leagues winning it means more than the premier league cup, but it is very rare that a team from those countries will win. The three teams who have won the title the most are, Real Madrid who have won 9 times, AC Milan who have won 7 times, and Liverpool who have won 5 times. Other teams who often perform well, both recently and historically are Manchester United, Juventus, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich.

Champions league info

As you may know there is a soccer tournament going on know. This tournament is called the champions League cup. Teams from around the world compete in the cup and face other teams from different places. The tournament consists of 7 different groupings (A-H) with 4 teams in each. I will be focusing on group C and following their games. In-group C the 4 teams are as fallows, Manchester United of England, Rangers of Scotland, Valencia of Spain, and Bursaspor of Turkey. These teams sounded like the most interesting to me so that is why I chose them. Also a few of my favorite players play on these teams Wayne Rooney and Fabio of man. United, and Kenny Miller of Scotland. Rooney and Miller are two of the best strikers in the world. Rooney is better then Miller but he is up there as well. I have favored these two outstanding strikers since I first watched them play. Other than that I don't know much about the teams in the group. I am very much looking forward to find out more about Spain because I know they have got some great players over there some of the best in the world. I am also looking forward to seeing this team play because Spain one the world cup and I was very excited about that and it would be great to see them take this cup as well. I don't know much about Turkish soccer but I am very much looking forward to learn more about it and the team and can not wait to share it whom ever may be reading this blog. So that is some things you should know about the cup. I will also be talking about player new (injuries etc.), crazy ref calls, some of my old and new favorite players, players I bealeve have the potential to lead their team to the finals, the rules of the game and cup, standing’s in the cup, great goals and plays and more. That is what I will be talking about in my champions league blog.