Reuters Soccer Blog

Soccer Break Friday – R.I.P FA Cup?

When I was in a French campsite in the 1990s a Dutchman caught wind of the fact I was English and immediately asked “Do you know the scores in the FA Cup semi-finals?”

Ask most football fans about what day in the season they looked forward to the most in the past and the FA Cup would have often topped the list, but the grand old competition is on the wane.

This year, four Premier League fixtures will be played before the trophy-starved Manchester City and Stoke City take to the Wembley turf for a shot at glory, the irony being Manchester United could clinch the league title about 20 minutes before their bitter city rivals try to win their first piece of silverware since 1976.

Is this farcical and disrespectful to the FA Cup or a sign the times-are-a-changin’? Money rather than trophies seems to rule modern football, so it’s no surprise to see the lucrative Champions League taking over as the ‘must win’ competition.

Off the pitch the red half of Manchester had a pleasing day after announcing their revenue was up by 30 per cent. The Red Devils roll on.

Over to the ongoing FIFA corruption scandal, and president Sepp Blatter has written a letter to Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport about his re-election bid on June 1. 

The talk in Africa is that one of the executive members embroiled in the affair, Issa Hayatou, should step down from his role as one of African football’s most influential figures. Agree?

Soccer Break Wednesday – Real v Barca. Take three.

Growing tired of Real Madrid and Barcelona playing each other? Not here we aren’t. And nor is an octopus named Iker (see picture).

The Champions League is the biggest club competition in the world and generally where players peak, so Wednesday’s semi-final first leg should be the best of the recent encounters between the Spanish rivals.

A place in the final, most probably against Manchester United after their barnstorming performance on Tuesday albeit against a lacklustre Schalke 04, will be at stake. Will the third ‘clasico’ in 12 days be an all-out attack fest or a nervy 0-0?

Who is your favourite of the two sides? Barcelona for their slick-passing panache or Real for their watchability factor, in which coach Jose Mourinho plays a large role.

A player in form in the Champions League is Schalke keeper Manuel Neuer. Alex Ferguson heavily praised the German but it seems he is set for Bayern Munich as Neuer himself has ruled out a move to the Premier League.

Finally, in England Stoke City edged further away from the relegation zone with a 3-0 defeat of Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday and Wolves find themselves deep in trouble. Can they stay up? But at what cost to the FA Cup finalists Stoke after influential midfielder Matthew Etherington went off with a hamstring problem?

Discuss all these topics and other stories in world soccer on the Reuters Soccer Facebook page. And please feel free to send us recommendations for your pick of the day’s stories.

Soccer Break Tuesday

Short and sweet today with little news on Monday and plenty of action to look forward to this week.

Manchester United will look to stretch their Premier League lead against Newcastle United on Tuesday, though will their Wembley antics distract them? ‘A hole lot of trouble for United’ read one headline.

The week’s big game, big being an understatement, is Real Madrid v Barcelona in the Spanish King’s Cup final. Jose Mourinho, silent before last Saturday’s ‘clasico’ which prompted a walkout by media in protest, has a tactical dilemma. Play with caution and risk the wrath of former club great Alfredo Di Stefano or attack and risk a hammering from Barcelona’s slick forwards.

What would you suggest the Portuguese coach does?

A recap of the past few days looks at Villarreal’s push for Champions League football next season in La Liga after Monday’s 1-0 win over Real Zaragoza, and the usually dogged Stoke City’s five, yes five, goal FA Cup semi-final win on Sunday against Bolton Wanderers who are enjoying a great season in the Premier League.

To round off the best of Tuesday’s reads, Toronto is being hailed as the new ‘epicentre’ of Canadian soccer and click here for a debate on developing youth talent.

Finally, which is your favourite stadium? Browse this site for venue reviews and post your thoughts on grounds you have visited. The Nou Camp in Barcelona does pretty well.

Soccer Break Monday

Real Madrid 1 Barcelona 1. Pictures of the teams suggest they were both pleased with the result but you would imagine Barcelona came away the happier side. Though Real were down to ten men for almost the entire second half so must be relieved not to have lost.

Who gained the upper hand then from the first of four clasicos between last Saturday and May 3? Wednesday will be an interesting affair in the King’s Cup final, a one off match as opposed to the two-legged Champions League semi-final.

Another fierce rivalry that was played out over the weekend was the Manchester derby, where the blue half of the city emerged victorious to ease the pressure on Roberto Mancini who must surely fancy his chances of beating Stoke City in the FA Cup final to hand City their first piece of silverware since 1976.

Ugly scenes marred the end of the match in which Rio Ferdinand and Mario Balotelli clashed but the United captain was quick to play down the spat. Balotelli in the news again though, will he stay at City?

At Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium a quite extraordinary end to the match provided two penalties and a managerial dispute after the final whistle following Liverpool’s 102nd-minute penalty to snatch a 1-1 draw with the Londoners, whose chances of the title are diminishing rapidly.

Thankfully Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who suffered a sickening but accidental blow to the head in the second half and was stretchered off holding up play for eight minutes, is well.

In Europe several teams moved closer to winning their respective leagues, and back in England Tottenham Hotspur’s Gareth Bale was given the player of the year award. If the price on his head wasn’t already big enough, surely now he will be a major target for European clubs this summer. Will he stay or will he go?

Soccer Break Friday – Clasico fever rises

Only one day to go now until Real Madrid face Barcelona in La Liga for the first of four ‘clasicos’ between Saturday and May 3. Excited? You will be now…

Barcelona destroyed their fierce domestic rivals 5-0 in November, and although the gap at the top of La Liga remains difficult for Real to peg back, they looked a very difficult team to beat against Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League quarter-finals.

So, Real to narrow the gap, Barcelona to cut through Jose Mourinho’s men, or an edgy draw?

A former Real player David Beckham knows all about the drama of Barcelona meetings, and the England man is in the news in the MLS. Here’s a wrap of other games. Oh and here’s another Beckham story, it appears Fulham aren’t the only ones making statues of famous people.

On Thursday it was Portugal’s night in the Europa League, where three team progressed to the semi-finals. Villarreal took the fourth spot for a truly Iberian domination of Europe’s second tier competition.

This weekend in England there’s the FA Cup semi-finals and Manchester City’s time is surely now. Lose to Man Utd and manager Roberto Mancini could face a nervous wait to see whether he retains his job for next season. Triumph and they will face either Stoke City or Bolton Wanderers in the final, which you would have to fancy them to win.

One fan hoping for a Bolton victory has flown in from Australia, read more here.

Soccer scores and the power of the pub

Let’s be honest here, people, predicting the English football scores has proved to be a lot trickier than many of us imagined.

You’d have thought that the frankly obsessive interest most of us here at Reuters Soccer Blog Heights take in football would see us approach this competition with the pitiless, sweeping brilliance of Celta Vigo in their ‘EuroCelta‘ heydey of 1998-2000*.

But no. It turns out we’re strictly second division, rather like Celta now, in fact, when it comes to predicting the scores. Still, at least we now know why.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger puts his success in football down to being brought up in the Croix d’Or bistro in Duttlenheim. Wenger said:

“I even learned about tactics and selection from the people talking about football in the pub… who plays on the left wing and who should be in the team.”

This is good news for me, as my dad was brought up in a pub so I’m going to get him to do my predictions this week. Expect great things.

To recap, briefly, you get one point for predicting the right result, and make that five points if you get the score spot on. This week there are double points, and possible forfeits, for Stoke v Manchester United, and there are always bonus points available, but I’m afraid they are entirely on my whim. Here’s how things stand at the moment:

Johnson can provide home comfort Liverpool need

Last season, Liverpool dropped too many points against teams from the bottom half of the table and finally it cost them that long awaited title.

It may well be, then, that the signing of the impressive, energetic Glen Johnson at full-back turns out to be a more significant bit of transfer business than the much criticised decision to sell Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid.

With the arrival of Johnson, Liverpool have found an extra man who can torment well-packed defences and the evidence was there in the 4-0 win over Stoke City last week.

What a difference from the two goalless draws Liverpool had against The Potters last season, as Johnson scored one and provided another.

The England man needed no time to establish a good working partnership with the tireless Dirk Kuyt and make the fans see just why Benitez spent so much money to buy a right-back.

It might sound strange to say you can replace a midfield maestro with a defender but that is what Liverpool have done.

As they showed last season, getting the better of your direct rivals is not good enough to win the league — you have to beat just about every other team as well, and a player with Johnson’s aggression and ability to make things happen is going to make a big difference, I expect.

Midweek Premier League special. Can you beat the panel?

Never let it be said that we at Reuters Soccer Blog shirk a challenge. Our attempts at score prediction on the opening weekend produced results that were modest at best but never fear, we’re straight back in for another shot (that’ll doubtless be blasted over the bar).

Once again, please send in your own predictions … they can scarcely be any worse than ours, and if you do especially well, we’ll gladly let you lord it over us here on the blog.

The six matches this week are as follows:

Sunderland v Chelsea: After Chelsea’s scare in the opening game of the season, and Sunderland’s positive start, the predictions for this are a little more circumspect. Mitch Phillips: 1-1; Owen Wyatt: 0-2; Patrick Johnston: 1-1; Mike Collett: 0-2; Paul Radford: 0-2; Kevin Fylan: 1-0. Late entries: Miles Evans: 0-2; Martyn Herman: 0-2.

Wigan Athletic v Wolverhampton Wanderers: What a result from Wigan on Saturday, eh? Hardly anyone expected them to beat Aston Villa, but I suppose when you consider how badly Villa finished last season it wasn’t such a shocking result. Wigan to make it maximum points from two? Mitch Phillips: 2-0; Owen Wyatt: 4-4; Patrick Johnston: 3-0; Mike Collett: 1-1; Paul Radford: 1-0; Kevin Fylan: 1-0. Late entries: Miles Evans: 0-1; Martyn Herman: 2-1.

Wednesday:

Birmingham City v Portsmouth: Birmingham came close to getting something from Old Trafford on Sunday so that should have done something for their self-belief. Maybe. Another bad day for Portsmouth? Mitch Phillips: 1-0; Owen Wyatt: 2-0; Patrick Johnston: 2-1; Mike Collett: 2-1; Paul Radford: 0-0; Kevin Fylan: 0-0. Late entries: Miles Evans: 2-2; Martyn Herman: 4-1.

The long arm of Delap

Something strange is happening in English football. Stoke City, one of the less fashionable teams in the Premier League, have started a trend that has swept down through most levels of the game.

Rory Delap is the man responsible, with his long throws directly involved in seven of Stoke’s first 13 goals of this season, scored between August 16 and November 1.

The tactic has certainly been copied at Sunday League level – I can vouch for that as a goalkeeper in the West Fulham League — yet for some reason top-level clubs haven’t followed suit.

I can’t imagine Arsene Wenger employing such tactics, for it wouldn’t fit well with his beautiful football ethos, but last year Chelsea’s Luiz Felipe Scolari openly declared his love for the Stoke man’s talent.

So why are other teams hesitant to try it out?