Van Persie Makes the Difference

It was speculated last summer that the sale of Robin Van Persie to one of the Manchester clubs would make the difference in the title race this year.

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has regularly bemoaned his club’s failure to sign Van Persie as the reason they have not managed to defend their title this season.

Last night Van Persie scored a hat trick as Manchester United won 3-0 in the game that sealed their 20^th English title win, including a wonderful second goal which he took on the full volley from a Wayne Rooney pass which dropped just over his shoulder. 

The goals were also significant as they moved Van Persie ahead of Luis Suarez in the scoring charts, and also put Van Persie firmly back in the limelight on the week the Player of the Year nominations were announced.

Van Persie was last season’s PFA Players’ Player of the Year, though this time he will face stronger opposition from the likes of Gareth Bale, who has made Tottenham look like a one man team at times, and Juan Mata, who has had a hand in more goals than any other players in Europe this year, bar Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Mata’s Chelsea team mate Eden Hazard is also in the running, as is Manchester United’s midfield heart Michael Carrick.  Luis Suarez would be one of the hot favourites for the award, but his impressive performances have been overshadowed by other recent controversies which make him an outside bet.

Van Persie is not the only man to have moved between top clubs to have made a difference in the title race in recent seasons.  The transfer of Andrea Pirlo from Milan to Juventus has also been hugely significant in the destination of the Serie A title in the last few seasons.

Having only appeared 17 times in his last season for Milan, he was allowed to leave for rivals Juventus as a free agent.   It is no coincidence Juventus have taken control of Serie A since, unbeaten last year and with a healthy lead at the top this year.

Reports in Germany appear to indicate that the star player of the Borussia Dortmund team, Mario Gotze is all set to join runaway leaders Bayern Munich this summer.

Bayern have completely dominated the Bundesliga this year, and look set to complete an unprecedented treble.  The purchase of their closest challengers star player might make next seasons title race a formality.

Perhaps they have looked at the example of Van Persie, who has brought 24 league goals with him to last season’s league runners up, and helped them move far ahead of last season’s champions Manchester City. 

His goals which could have come for Manchester City instead have almost certainly made the difference for Manchester United this season, and makes him the most significant player of the season, and now a favourite for the Player of the Year Award.

With Pep Guardiola at the helm, and players like Mario Gotze joining the ranks, Bayern Munich may well be unstoppable next season, if they are not already.  Their match against Barcelona tonight will be a good judge of just how good they are just now.

The British Premiership?

This week Cardiff won one of the most lucrative matches in their history.

A 0-0 draw with Charlton Athletic was enough to secure their passage to the English Premiership.

However Cardiff isn’t in England.  Neither are Swansea, who recently won the English League Cup and will compete in European competition next year.

Welsh influence

There are a further four teams in the English league structure that come from Wales.  As the Welsh Premier League was only founded in 1992, many of the Welsh clubs who had already been part of the English League set up for most of their history rejected the chance to move to the Welsh League.

It is not a phenomenon that is unique to England.  San Marino Calcio, from San Marino play in the Italian League, Vancouver Whitecaps from Canada play in the USA’s MLS, Wellington Phoenix from New Zealand play in Australia’s A-League and even Monaco is technically a principality, and therefore Monaco FC are not based in France!

Open Borders?

What this does raise questions over is why should the English Premier League not allow entry to clubs from other countries?  With the Scottish Premier League suffering crisis after crisis, the most recent being a failed attempt at reconstruction of the league, Scotland’s most famous clubs, Rangers and Celtic have long pined for a move to England.

Tradition

The main difference between the case of Celtic and Rangers, and Swansea and Cardiff, is that the Welsh pair have been a part of the English League set up for a long time.

When it comes to football, tradition always plays a major part, especially in Britain.

Rangers and Celtic have always been Scottish clubs, and that is the way it will stay according to tradition, unless there is an overwhelmingly convincing reason for the English leagues to accept them.

Opposition

Even if the move could have minor benefits for all involved, the change won’t happen.  Football fans are opposed to changes, as demonstrated by Cardiff City themselves at the start of the season when owner Vincent Tan insisted on a kit change from red to blue.

Fans of the ‘Bluebirds’ were outraged, despite the commonly known fact that teams in red statistically win more, and the greater association with the red of Wales.

Maybe they will be more convinced to wear their bright red kits next season in the Premiership when going up against teams like Manchester United and Liverpool who have some experience of the advantage of a red kit.

Whether those teams will ever see the advantage of facing Rangers and Celtic on a regular basis is another matter.

The Best of the Weekend's Action

With so many titles around Europe already decided, it was noticeable that the big games this weekend had other prizes at stake.

The biggest match in England was either for a place in the final of the FA Cup, or the Tyne & Wear derby between Newcastle and Sunderland which now looks more like a relegation scrap than anyone had expected it to be at the start of the season.

Sunderland hadn’t won a match in their last 9 games, but looked rejuvenated in Paolo Di Canio’s second game in charge, gaining a valuable three points with a 3-0 win that moves them further away from the relegation zone, and brings their rivals Newcastle back towards danger.

All Sunderland’s goals came from outside the box, with perhaps the most impressive being Adam Johnson’s fine run and finish.  Newcastle did have a goal wrongly ruled out for offside, but the result was emphatic and it looks possible that the decision to appoint Di Canio will be vindicated on the field.

There were also two FA Cup semi finals this weekend vying for attention, with Wigan facing Milwall for the right to face the victor of the heavyweight clash between Chelsea and Manchester City in the other semi final.

As a Premiership side against a Championship side, it was little surprise that Wigan were able to overcome Wigan, and the other semi final went with form too, with an inspired performance from Manchester City’s stand in goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon helping keep Chelsea at bay, and earn Manchester City a 2-1 win.  Goals came courtesy of Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero, with Demba Ba scoring a second classy volley against a Manchester side in the FA Cup in a matter of weeks.

In La Liga, with Barcelona so far ahead in the league, they played a second string against Zaragoza, and like recent years the second string for Barcelona is often mightily impressive, and they recorded an easy 3-0 win.

The match was much more significant for Zaragoza than Barcelona as they fight for La Liga survival.^th place with Mallorca in 19^th.

Mallorca moved level on points with Zaragoza due to a 1-0 win over bottom side Celta Vigo thanks to a Giovanni Dos Santos goal, and only two points now separate Deportivo La Coruna in 16

Elsewhere in Europe, former Real Madrid and Everton man Royston Drenthe scored his first goals for Alania Vladikavkaz in Russia, scoring a hat trick in total!  Will the once capped Dutch international now finally realise his potential in Russia?

Saving Your Best Form for When it Barely Matters

Last night, Galatasary waited until they needed to score 5 goals against Real Madrid before they ever looked like a team that was capable of knocking Los Blancos out of the competition.

3-0 down on aggregate, Galatasary conceded a further early goal, and still didn’t really begin playing until Emanuel Eboue’s thumping drive in the 56^th minute led to two more goals, and for the first time, some hope that they might go through.

Wesley Sneijder missed a sitter before converting a much more difficult chance, before a Didier Drogba backheel goal, however Ronaldo’s second goal of the game brought everyone back to reality.

League form

 In Europe’s domestic leagues, many are already as good as over.  The German Bundesliga has been won in record time by an astonishingly strong Bayern Munich team.  The Scottish Premier League can be won next weekend by Celtic, and it would take a massive leap of the imagination to see anyone other than Barcelona and Manchester United winning their respective leagues.

Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City boss, expressed his frustration at playmaker Samir Nasri after his inspired display against Stoke City, stating that he wanted ‘to punch’ him, because Nasri’s performance had shown what he was capable of, so why hadn’t he been able to produce performances of a similar ilk for the entire season?

Mancini must have wanted to punch a lot of his players after their victory over Manchester United reduced the insurmountable gap of 15 points between them, to an insurmountable gap of 12 points between them

Arsenal

It is well documented that Arsenal haven’t won a trophy in 8 years.  After going out tamely in both domestic cups and falling far behind in the league, the Champions League was their only remaining hope.  After surrendering 3-1 in the home leg to Bayern Munich, Arsenal’s hopes of a trophy were hanging by the thinnest thread.

After managing to win the return leg 2-0 against Bayern Munich, unfortunately not quite enough to see them through, Arsenal have won every game since.

This burst of form may help them overtake local rivals Tottenham in the league and secure an all important Champions League spot, but it is a bare minimum for the Arsenal fans who demand trophies.

Pressure

There is an obvious reason why teams often do better when all hope appears lost; the lack of pressure.  When it seems impossible to achieve, there are no expectations, and players like Arsenal’s can play with freedom.

There is also an element of other teams taking their foot off the gas.  With Manchester United out of all cup competitions and sitting comfortably at the top, they will canter to the end of the season.  Man City had much greater motivation going into the match. 

Arsenal are also said to have conditioned their players to come good towards the end of the season, perhaps in anticipation of a title charge, however a sprint finish won’t work if you give yourself too much ground to give up, and that’s what Arsenal have done in numerous recent seasons.

Perhaps next year Arsenal can remain in contention to actually achieve something when they hit their end of season purple patch which has not worried their traditional top of the table rivals for years.

Angthong 0 - 2 Seeker Futera

Seeker Futera has a new hero.

Although he has been part of the club for three weeks now, the registration papers for Mbazomo Stephane / STEPHANE (29) were only processed this week, and he took his place on the bench for the match against Angthong FC today.

When Federico Santana went down injured in the first half, Stephane was handed his chance, and he certainly took it, with two goals in the second half helping Seeker Futera FC defeat the team that occupied top spot in the league before start of play, in their own stadium.

The first half started with Angthong FC, known as the ‘Rice Warriors’ looking neat and tidy in possession, looking effective, but not quite living up to the expectations you would have from facing the league leaders.

Seeker Futera played a more direct route to goal, utilizing Federico Santana’s (10) height, with a few knock downs for Somsak Musikaphan almost resulting in good opportunities for the ‘Iron Horse’ (Seeker Futera).

Angthong only bothered the Seeker Futera defence with a few shots from range in the first half.  Seeker Futera’s more direct route caused problems, and there were calls from a penalty when talismanic striker Santana was brought down in the opposition box.  These were dismissed by the referee however, and Santana was left with an injury that meant he could not continue.

New signing Stephane was introduced to the action, and immediate comparisons were drawn with the Ivory Coast superstar Yaya Toure due to his physical build and powerful running style.

It would be the second half before Stephane would have an impact however, with a powerful run and shot which was deflected over the bar serving as a warning to Angthong FC of what was to come.

Angthong came closest to scoring first however.  After numerous free kicks in the first half that came to nothing, their first free kick in the second half came crashing back off the bar.

The Virtual Managers (VMs) had a decision to make at this point.  They could continue to play it safe against the league leaders and try to gain a respectable point, or they could be inspired by the belief that Chairman Apisit Chaleekul had in his players, and decide to attack.

Attacking proved to be an inspired choice, and within 5 minutes, Somsak Musikaphan / BALL (9) played Stephane in behind the defence and the big French – Cameroonian made no mistake with the finish.

Angthong FC clearly failed to do their scouting homework as they persisted with a  high defensive line for the whole match, despite Seeker Futera’s obvious pace up front.  While the talents of Stephane were unknown to most of us, the pace of Musikaphan and Nattaporn caused lots of problems throughout the game, as they have done in many previous matches.

The Virtual Managers were divided on what to do after the goal, and a vote resulted in a 50:50 decision, and Apisit Chaleekul had the deciding vote, opting to play on the counter attack.

The rest of the game was a valiant defensive performance, even when the referee added on a whopping 7 minutes of extra time, Seeker Futera stood strong.   Thierry Rostand said after the game, that he looked at Anfthong’s attack, and just said ‘No!’

5 minutes into injury time, the Iron Horse broke the defensive shackles, and Stephane broke clear of the defence again, beating the keeper to the ball, and then rolling the ball into an empty net to put the result beyond doubt.