Borussia Dortmund are in the UCL Final

Borussia Dortmund made me proud today. They got the better of Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals today. 

Who would have ever thought that Borussia Dortmund would be in the Final at the expense of Real Madrid? Who? But that’s football for you.

Borussia Dortmund came to the Bernabeu not respecting the name “Real Madrid”, they played their game and even had many chances to increase their lead further. i would have preferred they won at the Bernabeu but all the same Dortmund has shown that they can compete with Europe’s football elite and get favourable results from them.

Mourinho’s dream of a tenth crown for Real won’t happen anytime soon and am happy because as a Barca fan, the saddest sight would have been to see Mourinho lifting that cup in May.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Co tried all they could and although Madrid almost won the tie after scoring two quick goals, Dortmund held on for a famous win.

Congrats Dortmund, you deserve to win!

Football’s paradigm is shifting to Germany

Recent events in the Champions league semi-finals are making me start to think of something; power is shifting form Spain to Germany in footballing terms.

For those of us who watched the semi-final 1st leg clashes between Bayern Munich and Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid we could clearly see what the German representatives did to their Spanish counterparts. These are good times for Germany and with the World Cup just around the corner they may just be hitting top form at just the right time.

So what is happening to our two representatives from Spain? Real Madrid and Barcelona were comprehensively beaten by these two German teams like they were some kind of Amateurs!!!! 

Check this out: Bayern wallop the hell out of Barcelona one day and Dortmund set out to do just the same thing to Real Madrid! These are the two best clubs in Spain by a distance and they were beaten like this!!!

I really admire these two German clubs; they have brought joy to their Country with their healthy competition unlike the heated rivalry between Spain’s big and this may just be the start of something spectacular between them as they prepare to dominate European football albeit for the mean time (trust me barca and madrid will be back soon).

I really think they are prepared to hold off any competition for the mean time as they are in great shape and have the right players at the moment who play as a compact unit and not as one-man teams. 

Dortmund’s rise from the brink of Administration in 2005 to being in the semi-finals at the expense of other great teams has been nothing short of remarkable; i hope they continue this way. Football needs this so that the top clubs in Europe don’t get to take all the big trophies every season. It’s time for a change.

I hope more average clubs take Dortmund’s example and upgrade themselves. This can only favour football in the long run.

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Luis Suarez should probably change sport

Everybody knows Luis Suarez. He plays for Liverpool FC and he bites his fellow players. 

This guy let his mouth do the talking in the game between Liverpool and Chelsea as he bit Branislav Ivanovic’s arm. Why would a sane football player bit the arm of an opponent; even a non-football player wouldn’t do that!

Luis Suarez should be sanctioned heavily this time to avoid a repeat of this ugly incident. This is the second time he is doing this. Football is the best sport on earth but behaviours like this tend to spoil it’s image. We don’t want no biting on our football fields, we want good football.

Is that too much to ask Suarez?

Which team will Mourinho coach next?

The self proclaimed special one is on the move again. So which team do you think he’ll coach next?

The football world is waiting for the special one to make his pick of the top clubs in Europe as he allegedly plans to leave the Santiago Bernabeu at the end of the season. Every club, except Barcelona of course would want Mourinho to be at their  helm next season.

But there’s been an ugly trend in Mourinho’s timeline as a Coach; every club he leaves finds it hard to replicate his success with another coach and it takes them up to two to three seasons to find their feet.

Real Madrid will soon suffer this same fate. Chelsea, Inter Milan and FC Porto have all suffered heavily after Mourinho left them. It won’t be long before Madrid fall into that pit of underachievement for at least a season or two.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t last longer than that.

 

Is Vidal worth 40million Euros?

Dear Readers, Arturo Vidal is a Chilean international who plays for Juventus in Italy. Do you think he is worth this price?

Arturo Vidal is a good player; not a great player. As far as i’m concerned this dude has no business with 40million euros. 

There are very few footballers in the world right now who can command such a sum of money and Vidal is definitely not among them. 

Juventus is just returning to the top of Italian football after the Calciopoli scandal that rocked the club some years back; Vidal himself came from Bayer Leverkusen and since joining the club, although he has been their standout player he still has a long way to go to prove he is really a top player.

A fee in the zone of 15million euros isn’t bad for a player of Vidal’s calibre. We all know all footballers are overrated, except Lionel Messi and to some extent Cristiano Ronaldo. Apart from these two, i can’t think of any player in world football that can command such a mammoth fee right now; not even Neymar.

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Ronaldo & Messi cementing their status as the modern game’s greatest goalscorers

The two biggest starts in world football are breaking new grounds every season. What are the rest doing?

They are obviously not on the same level with these two though Messi is in a league of his own. Everybody knows that. 

The two goal behemoths have been competing fiercely since Ronaldo made the mega million pound move to the Bernabeu and look to continue improving even into their late twenties and probably early thirties.

But on a more serious note what are the ‘others’ doing because it seems as if Messi and Ronaldo have completely monopolized all the goals. These players score for fun; as if it’s their birthright to score goals every match day and when they don’t, you can see the visible disappointment etched on thier faces. They always want to score and push themselves to do even more each matchday.

These two players have scored more than 50 goals for the past three seasons and are on course to continue doing it in the foreseeable future barring any injuries.

Sadly most of the footballers of today don’t have the kind of grindstone dedication that these two have; the so called superstars of other big clubs can’t even deliver 30 goals each season and they expect their salaries to be paid in full. What a shame!

 

 

Do you think Madrid is afraid of Dortmund?

Mesut Ozil recently said Madrid is not afraid of Borussia Dortmund. What do you think?

I definitely think Real Madrid is afraid of Borussia Dortmund. Dortmund almost disgraced Real Madrid during the group stages; i would have liked it if Real Madrid had lost to them over the two legs. Dortmund outplayed and outclassed Madrid over 180 minutes of exciting football, Mourinho was visibly shaken; the dude probably did not expect what he was seeing.

Now the two sides meet again in the semi-finals. I sincerely hope that Dortmund even go one notch higher and cause the biggest upset in football history yet; I hope they bit the hell out of Madrid!!!

The Semi Finals beckon!

I’m excited about the Champions League semis. This promises to be one of the best semi-final rounds in the history of the Champions League.

The two best teams in Germany and Spain fight it out for the right to be called the best in Europe. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have played some unbelievable football this season.

Bayern have bounced back from last season’s dissapointment and are on course to lift the Champions League and the German Cup this season. To be fair, they have been the most in-form team in the whole of Europe this season and are looking very dangerous.

Barcelona on the other hand have been a little shaky at the back in recent matches but with Lionel Messi in the team you know they’ll always be the favourites. They have the personnel to bring them glory this season. Tito and Abidal are back from their fights with cancer and liver transplant respectively and this can mean only good news for the Catalans as they will want to honor their colleague by bringing the trophy back to the Nou Camp come May.

As for Real Madrid and Dortmund, i sincerely hope Madrid get beaten thorughly by the German side. The sight of Jose Mourinho lifting that trophy with a third club would be too much for me to stomach.

I personally don’t think Real Madrid will win it. Either of the German clubs or Barcelona has a better shot at the trophy.

I hope i won’t be proved wrong.

 

 

Arsenal in race to sign Mario Gotze

This must be very funny indeed. Arsenal have forgotten they are Arsenal.

What is Arsenal thinking? They really are bidding for Dortmund’s Mario Gotze? Very funny. For the record, the German International’s release clause is 40million Euros and i don’t see Arsenal pulling out that kind of money for only one player. It doesn’t happen in the Emirates.

One thing i know for sure is that Mario Gotze will not be going to the Emirates next season or any other season after that. Arsenal have underachieved when it comes to winning trophies in recent years and the worst part of the whole thing: they are not even fazed. Afterall, Arsene Wenger said qualifying for the Champions League can be compared to winning a trophy; it’s clear he is not the man for trophies.

Mario Gotze is a progressive young footballer who wants to win trophies: he has been doing that in Dortmund and will want to continue in that line. In light of this, Arsenal is not the best destination for him. Real Madrid or Barcelona or the two Manchester clubs will do.

So Arsenal back off. Look for other footballers who have no ambition whatsoever when it comes to winning trophies and just want their weekly alerts on their mobile phones.

That is what Arsenal FC is really all about isn’t it?

Fernando Torres has got 19 goals this season. Hurray!!!

This is big news. The much maligned Chelsea has scored 19 goals this season and the whole Chelsea camp is celebrating.

So there is a lot of Champagne and Rose in the Chelsea camp because Fernando Torres has scored 19 goals so far in all competitions this season. Hmmmm

I think Chelsea fans should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. I support Football Club de Barcelona and the stats from one of the strikers in that club (you all know him) should be what Torres should be delivering right now.

What Chelsea fans have failed to understand is that Fernando Torres is no longer a top player; he is only playing at a top club; like Demba Ba. The quicker they know the better it will be for Torres as this will lift off all the unnecessary pressure that has been on him ever since he arrived at Stamford Bridge.

Am sorry to say this but Chelsea has not been a very good breeding groung for strikers since Mourinho left. Strikers who have moved to the London club in recent seasons have found it hard to deliver the goods as they used to in their former clubs. Demba Ba, Andriy Shevchenko, Claudio Pizzaro et al have all failed to live up to expectation after touching down at the ‘Bridge’.

The same thing is happening to Torres. My advice for future superstar strikers: Don’t go to Chelsea, come to Arsenal and Barcelona will snap you up after about 3 seasons. 

Isn’t that every footballer’s dream? To play for the almighty Barcelona?