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Champions League Review 09/10
Soccerlens looks at the 2009/2010 Champions League season, from the format changes to the upsets, sublime attacking performances and their masterful tactical counterbalances, and of course, destiny.
09/10 La Liga Review: Barcelona conquers, Galacticos denied glory & the rest of Spain left helplessly behind
As 08/09 ended, Barcelona were roundly recognized as the world’s greatest team. They had dominated in La Liga, claimed the Spanish Cup, and comfortably beaten Manchester United in a much-hyped but ultimately bathetic Champions League Final. Following on from Spain’s triumph at Euro 2008, it led to the Hispanic media celebrating what they called a…
09/10 Serie A Review: Five-times Inter, the rise of Roma, the fall of Juventus and Milan
Serie A is a league of pragmatists. There are pragmatic coaches, who specialise in delivering results rather than entertainment. There are pragmatic owners, who will sack a manager without blinking. And there are pragmatic players, who will (allegedly) occasionally agree to play for a scoreline that suits both teams. It is a league still recovering…
09/10 Europa League Review
It is easy to forget that this season’s Europa League was in its inaugural year. After picking up an undesirable yet understandable reputation as the Champions League ‘sinferior little brother, Michel Platini oversaw the rebranding of what we once called, with a pejorative sneer, ‘the UEFA Cup’. The Europa League has a parallel structure to…
09/10 Bundesliga Review
For a long time, European football fans regarded the Bundesliga as the backwater home of poor defending and psychotic goalkeepers. It was a league that lived in the shadow of its more illustrious neighbours: Serie A, La Liga, and the Premier League. However, growing disillusionment with the ‘bigger’ leagues has seen the Bundesliga become the…
2009/2010 Premier League Review
Congratulations then to Chelsea, who have emerged as rightful Champions, with 27 wins, 86 points, and 103 goals in the bank. For a long time this looked like the competition no-one wanted to win, but once Jose Mourinho had robbed his former side of a shot at Champions League glory, the west-Londoners revved their domestic…
Hats off to humble Hodgson
Fulham’s opponents on the 12th May will be Atletico Madrid. Aletico and Fulham are diametric opposites, the former loaded with individual talent but lacking organisation, the latter a unit greater than the sum of their parts. Who will triumph in Hamburg?
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