Soocer Week (8 of 8): Good Day for Swansea City (plus 11 European teams you've never heard of)

Today, our image is of Wilfried Bony, an Ivory Coast teammate of one of our favorite soccer players Didier Drogba, formerly of Chelsea who now plays for GalataSaray (Istanbul, Turkey). Today, Bony scored one of Swansea City's three goals in their 3-0 victory over Valencia on the road in Spain.

Swansea City is a Welsh team that plays in the English Premiere League as does Cardiff.

Today, a staggering 24 games were played across Europe, which in soccer also includes Israel and Kazakhstan, two countries which are clearly in Asia (but, hey the Dallas Cowboys play in an 'eastern conference' in the 'other football.')

Here is a look at 11 teams you may have never heard of:

1) Austria Wien (Austria): This team based in Vienna is playing in the UEFA Champions League. Though they lost at home this week to Porto (Portugal), one can continue to expect good things from them.

2. Swansea (EPL)

3. Freiburg (Germany): This Bundesliga club held their own today at home in a 2-2 tie with Liberec (Czech Rep.); Swiss national Admir Mehmedi scored for the home team.

4. Plzen (Czech Rep.) Though this team lost to Manchester City 3-0 in the Champions League two days ago; Plzen are one of several competitive teams in a small, but soccer-worthy country.

5. Shakhter Karagandy (Kazakhstan): Though this team created a scandal when they sacrificed a sheep before their match with Celtic United in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, they do have an array of talented players including Roger Canas, a Colombian player, who scored for Karagandy in the team's 2-1 loss to PAOK (Greece).

6. PAOK (Greece): They are a team with lots of long last names, and one of the most successful Greek clubs. In their 2-1 win over Karagndy, Zvonimir Vukic of Serbia scored the winning goal.

7, Tromso Il (Norway): This team plays all the way up in the Arctic Circle! Though they went scoreless today in London with a 3-0 defeat to Tottenham; this squad will likely be competing strongly in Norwegian domestic play.

8. AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands): Though American star Jozy Altidore to Tottenham, the team still has a great Icelandic futboler in Johan Gudmundsson who scored the team's lone goal in a 1-0 over M.Haifa in Israel today.

9. Legia Warsaw (Poland)

10. Steau Bucharest (Romania): Alas, this Romanian team did not fare well in Germany in the Champions League with a 3-0 loss to Schalke '04, but hey they are in the Champions League.

11. Elfsborg (Sweden): Not to be confused with Esberg in Denmark; both teams are in the Europa League. Though with a 4-0 loss to Salzburg in Austria, it appears Esberg which won its game 2-1 over Standard Liege in Belgium had a happier flight back home.

We were going to make fun of Iranian soccer, but it's almost midnight here at the sports desk in Portland, Maine (not really where we are at), so we'll save that for another time!

http://www.greeksoccer.com

http://www.az.nl/en

http://www.swanseacity.net

Soccer Week (7 of 8): American Player Tim Howard Shuts Down Chelsea

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
We now how Dutch international Maikel va der Werff, who plays for the Dutch soccer team Zwolle, felt when he kicked in an own goal which propelled Ajaz Amsterdam to defeat Zwolle 2-1.

As we were typing to score for the Southampton-West Ham game which ended in a 0-0 tie, we punched the wrong button and all of our work (if one can call blogging work) vanished.

But, our header was that American goal-keeper Tim Howard (pictured above) came back from helping Team USA earn a World Cup bid by defeating Mexico 2-0 in Columbus, Ohio. And, then he flew back to England to help his team Everton (based in Liverpool) defeat London powerhouse Chelsea 1-0.

The lone goal of the match was scored by Steven Naismith of Scotland during extra time of the first half.

Mesut Ozil, a German national of Turkish heritage, had a solid debut with Arsenal as he contributed an assist in the team's 3-1 win over Sunderland.

Gyfli Sigurdsson of Iceland score two goals for Tottenham Hotspur.

French national Yoan Gouffan scored the game-winner for Newcastle United in the 73rd minute of play.

Finally, the stars came out for Manchester United as both Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney came through for the home team.

Here is a complete list of weekend games in the English Premiere League:

Man U 2 Crystal Palace 0

Southampton 0 West Ham 0 (tie)

Liverpool 2 Swansea 2 (tie)

Aston Villa 1 Newcastle 2

Fulham 1 West Brom 1 (tie)

Tottenham 2 Norwich 0

Everton 1 Chelsea 0

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 3

Stoke City 0 Man City 0 (tie)

Hull City 1 Stoke City 1 (tie)

http://www.premiereleague.com

http://www.evertonfc.com

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com

http://www.nufc.co.uk/

Soccer Week (5 of 8) Games of the Week Scores

Stefan Klessing (pictured) a German national player who scored two goals this week for his team Bayer Leverkusen in the German Bundesliga is one of the items we will cover as we look at the results of the Games of the Week, which were mentioned in Friday's blog entry:


Germany:

Bayern Munich 2 Hannover 0

Bayer Leverkusen 3 Wolfsburg 1

Netherlands:

Ajax Amsterdam 2 Zwolle 1

Twente 2 PSV Eindhoven 2 (tie)

England:

Stoke City 0 Manchester City 0

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 3

USA/Major League Soccer:

Real Salt Lake 0 Seattle Sounders 2

Colorado Rapids 2 FC Dallas 1

Mexico:

Santos Laguna 1 Club America 0

Cruz Azul 0 UANL Tigres 1

Soocer Week (1 of 8): A Look at Big Games in the USA, England, Mexico (and more)

This is the start of Soccer Week, which is also running on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com ..........In this edition, we look at ten important games in Europe and North America.

The above images are of: 1) David Ferrera, a Colombian international who is captain of FC Dallas in the United States, 2) Maurice Edu, an American international with Stoke City in England who also recently played for BursaSpor in Turkey and 3) Oswaldo Sanchez, the Mexican international who is the captain and goalkeeper for the popular Mexican team Santos Laguna.

Here are the games (we hope to post the results on Monday):

USA/Canada (Major League Soccer):

Fri: Real Salt Lake vs. Seattle Sounders (the two top teams in MLS)

Sat. Colorado Rapids vs. FC Dallas

England/Wales (English Premiere League):

Sat. Stoke City vs. Manchester City

Sat. Sunderland vs. Arsenal (this game will presumably be the first Arsenal match for Mesut Ozil)

Netherlands:

Sat. Ajax Amsterdam vs. Zwolle

Sat. Twente vs. PSV Eindhoven

Mexico:

Fri. Santos  Laguna vs. Club America

Sat. Cruz Azul vs. UANL Tigres

Germany:

Sat. Bayern Munich vs. Hannover

Sat. Bayern Leverkusen vs. Wolfsburg

http://www.fcdallas.com/

http://www.stokecityfc.com/

http://www.psv.nl/home-english.html (PSV Eindhoven web page)

Coming Soon (we hope): Futbol Week

On Friday, we are hoping to launch a seven-day series devoted totally to soccer both here in the United States with weekend MLS games as well as Mexico and Europe.

The top image is of Serbian national Branislav Ivanovic, a star player for London's Chelsea football club. Today, German national Mesut Ozil, who is of Turkish heritage, signed with one of Chelsea's main rivals, Arsenal.

The bottom image is of Drew Moor, an American defender who plays for the Colorado Rapids in the MLS. Alas, our personal favorite MLS team, DC United is having a disastrous year so far!

Saturday Night Tweets: Political Futbol

With images of Cong. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), the Aston Villa soccer team and a map of where Kansas is in the United States, we present this entry that we're calling 'Political Futbol' since all the entries pertain to soccer or politics/political figures.

There were two major upsets in European soccer play today (the first weekend of the season) as Aston Villa shocked Arsenal 3-1, and in Turkey, Konyaspor surprised Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahce 3-2 after being down by two goals.

The soccer team for the nation's capital here in America, D.C. United was also in action today, but they lost to their  Major League Soccer rivals from Canada, Montreal Impact.

Here are the tweets:

1. DC United @dcunited: "Final #DCU 1 Montreal Impact 2. Conor Doyle (a young player for DCU) nets his second, but it's not enough for the Black and Red."

2. Cong. Morgan Griffith (R-Va) @RepGriffith: "Rep. Griffith hit 333,333 miles on his car outside the Jonesville courthouse yesterday!" (Jonesville is in remote southwestern Virginia, far away from Griffith's hometown of Salem, Va., and even father away from Washington DC, we believe Nashville is actually closer to DC, and perhaps even Salem!).

3. Turkishsoccer.com @turkishsoccer/Ahmet Bob Turgut: First game of the season: Antalya 0 Kayseri Erciyes 0! Boring....

4. Cong. Ami Bera (@RepBera): "To everyone celbrating in India and, at home in the US, and around the world_ Happy #IndianIndependenceDay"

5. Stephen Olson (@Silent_Fusion, a soccer fan in Buffalo, NY): "Premiership is back baby! Glory Glory Man United!!!" (Manchester United won their home opener today)

6. Tom Perriello (@tomperriello, a former Democratic Congressman from Virginia): "Good to see @TerryMcAuliffe w/Bishop Campbell and Rev Avon Keene remembering Bloody Monday in Danville (Va)." (Terry McAuliffe is the Democratic candidate for governor in Virginia; Danville is a city in south central Virginia, which is 50 miles north of Greensboro, NC).

7. Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl, a Sports Illustrated writer): "Dig 3-1 win for Brad Guzan and Aston Villa at Arsenal, where the boos rain down." (Guzan is an American international playing for Aston Villa who is a goal-keeper).

8. Cong. Tim Huelskamp @CongHuelskamp: "I guess violating the 4th amendment 2776 times is ok now." (Like Griffith, Huelskamp was elected in November, 2010. He is an arch conservative representative from Kansas, one of America's most Republican states. His first district includes 63 counties, which is most of the Jayhawk state).


http://screaming-eagles.com/

http://www.americanprogress.org/about/staff/perriello-tom/bio/

http://morgangriffith.house.gov/

http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

http://www.7500toholte.com/

http://www.ksdp.org/ (Kansas Democratic Party)

http://ksgop.org/ (Kansas Republican Party)

Soccer Night: England_ Chelsea Is the Homecoming King

It is now 4:45 a.m. in London, England, and you are with the BBC; well, actually you are with us, and we are in Providence, Rhode Island (not really where we are, but the same time zone).

To avoid any confusion, let's first mention that the top image is of Theo Walcott of Arsenal who defeated struggling QPR 1-0 today on a goal from the English national in the very first minute of play. Similarly, Gareth Bale, one of the EPL's top stars, scored the lone goal for his Tottenham Hotspurs in a 1-0 win over Southampton.

Neither player is with Chelsea, the London team which has its logo in the middle, but Chelsea did advance to the UEFA Europa League finals in Amsterdam with a win over FC Basel, a Swiss team with a Turkish-Swiss coach Murat Yakin, who at 38 is younger than some active players.

The current EPL standings have Manchester United in first with 85 points (they have already clinched a league title) followed by Manchester City with 72 points. Arsenal is in third with 67 points. And, Chelsea and Tottenham are tied for fourth with 65 points.

The EPL has also made headlines for a biting incident involving the very notorious Luis Suarez of Liverpool, who plays for Uruguay internationally, against Chelsea. Alas, for the folks in Montevideo, Suarez is the most recognized person from their country. Perhaps, Vatican City should have chosen a pope from their country instead.

Let's cut the nonsense, here are the EPL scores for LAST week's games:

1. Manchester City 2 West Hampton 1

2. Reading 0 QPR 0, tie

3. Arsenal 1 Manchester United 1, tie

4. Everton 1 Fulton 0

5. West Brom 3 Southampton 0

6. Aston Villa 6 Sunderland 1

7. Chelsea 2 Swansea 0

8. Tottenham Hotspurs 2 Wigan Ath. 2, tie

9. Liverpool 6 Newcastle 0

http://www.premiereleague.com

http://www.nocturanlguy38.blogspot.com (Our sister blog)

English Premiere League Scoreboard

American women's soccer goalie Hope Solo certainly doesn't play in the English Premiere League, but we thought posting an image of her may help our hit counts; we understand she has a loyal following in Slovakia (well, we aren't 100-percent certain of that).

Many of the soccer games in the EPL this weekend (plus one on Monday) were lop-sided, but there were some real gems as well.

Tottenham Hotspur prevailed over Arsenal 2-1 with goals from English national Aaron Lemmon in the 35th minute and Welsh star Gareth Bale (pictured bottom); for Arsenal, the lone goal came from German player Per Mertesader in the 43rd minute of play.

Japanese sensation Shinji Kagawa scored a hot trick for Manchester United in front of a home crowd of 75, 586 spectators in the team's 4-0 dismantling of Norwich.

And, our beloved Chelsea won a 1-0 match on a goal from Senegalese national Demba Ba in the 28th minute in a game against West Brom on Saturday.

Here are the scores:


Everton 3 Reading 1

Queens Park 2 Southampton 1

Swansea 1 Newcastle 0

Manchester City 1 Aston Villa 0

Tottenham 2 Arsenal 1

Sunderland 2 Fulham 2

Manchester United 4 Norwich 0

Liverpool 4 Wigham Ath. 0

West Ham 1 Stoke 0

Chelsea 1 West Brom 0

Quote of the Day/Week-Ethan Hawke

Today, since we were all born in 1970 here, we are going to quote famous people born that year. On our other blog "The Daily Vampire," we quoted Uma Thurman, so to be 'fair and balanced,' we are quoting her ex-husband the actor, singer, novelist Ethan Hawke, who will turn 42 on Nov. 6. Thurman turns 42 on April 29.

Here is his quote:

"Memory is a wonderful think if you don't deal with the past."

SIDEBAR ONE: Kudos to the Harvard Crimson men's basketball team as they won the Ivy League title by beating Cornell on the road in Ithaca, NY, 67-63 to capture the crown.

The Crimson (26-4) won over the Big Red thanks to Oliver McNally who scored 17 points, and Brandyn Curry, a junior from Huntersville, NC, who added 12 points, including three 3-point shots.

SIDEBAR TWO: Yes, English soccer games can air pretty darn early here in the United States. So, in case you didn't get up at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday to watch the match either, I thought I would mention that Arsenal won over rival Liverpool 2-1.

For the winning side, both goals came from Dutch superstar Robin van Persie (31st, 92nd mins.) and for Liverpool the lone goal came from French player Laurent Koscielny.

Sports Desk- Arsenal 5 Tottenham 2

We focus again on the English Premiere League (EPL) where an amazing seven goals were scored between Arsenal and Tottenham, which was won by Arsenal 5-2.

For Arsenal, the goals came from French national Barca Sagna (40th minute), Dutch star Robin van Persie (43rd min.), Czech national Tomas Rosicky (51st minute) and two goals from English national Theo Walcott (65th and 68th mins.), who is pictured with this entry.

For the losing Tottenham Hotspurs, which actually was ahead of Arsenal in the EPL table (they were in 3rd place, Arsenal in 5th) the goals came from French national Louis Saha (64th min.) and the Togo national Emmanuel Adebayor (penalty, 34th min.).

Chelsea had a big day on Saturday as it blanked Bolton 3-0 with a goal coming from the Ivory Coast superstar Didier Drogba (61st min.). Other Chelsea goals came from Brazilian national David Luiz (48th min.) and the team's English captain Frank Lompard (79th min.).

Both Manchester teams continued to fight each other for top of the EPL as Machester City shut out Blackburn 3-0 on Saturday with goals from Mario Balotelli (30th min.), Sergio Aguero (52nd min.) and Edin Dzeko (81st min.).

Manchester United won on Sunday with a 2-1victory over Norwich City; the goals for MU came from Paul Scholes (74th min.) and Ryan Giggs (92nd min.) while Norwich City's captain Grant Holt scored the lone goal for his side in the 85 minute.

Here are the tables for this weekend's EPL games:

Aston Villa 0 Wigan Athletic 0, tie
Manchester City 3 Blackburn 0
Fulham 1 Queens Park 0
West Brom Ath. 4 Sunderland 0
Chelsea 3 Bolton 0
Wolves 2 New Castle 0

Manchester United 1 Norwich City 1
Arsenal 5 Tottenham Hotspurs 2
Stoke City 2 Swansea 0

Sports Desk- Updates on Turkish, Greek and English Futbol

Since we congratulated the UCLA Bruins for winning the NCAA women's volleyball title last night, we are putting together all the soccer info we've gathered from weekend action here in this one entry.

Let's start in the Turkish Premier League where two of the three Istanbul powerhouses sitting on top of the league standings once again Galatasaray and Fenerbahce won their matches. The third powerhouse team Besiktas drew a 1-1 tie.

For Galatasaray, in the team's 2-0 victory over Orduspor, the goals came from Milan Baros (22nd minute) and Kazim Kazim (67th min.).

In Fenerbahce's 1-0 win over Trabzonspor, the lone goal in the match came from Mehmet Topuz (pictured). He scored in the 24th minute of play, and it was yet another shut-out for Volkan Demirel, the star goalie for Fenerbahce who plays the same position for the Turkish national team.

In Sunday action in England, Russian player Roman Palychenko, who should make our next long and difficult names list, scored the lone in the 61st minute to lead Tottenham past Sunderland 1-0. The Russian came into the match as a substitute in the 22nd minute of the game.

Additionally, EPL-leading Manchester City scored a 1-0 win over Arsenal thanks to goal from Spanish superstar David Silva in the 53rd minute of play.

In the UEFA Champions League, two English teams will be in the knock-out round of
16, including Chelsea as they face Napoli. Arsenal, the other English team in that particular group, will play an Italian team as well in AC Milan.

Ironically, neither Turkey nor Greece has a team in the Champions League round of
16, but there will be two teams each from both countries in the UEFA Europa League, but Cyprus, a tiny island country that lead Turkey and Greece to fight a brief, but ugly war in 1974, has a team in the Champions round as APOEL will face the French power Lyon.

While researching this piece, we were also stunned to learn that there is a Turkish player named Erol Bulut (born in Germany) who plays for the Greek team OFI Crete.

Here are the results of weekend play;

Turkey:

Galatasaray 2 Orduspor 0
Ankaragucu 0 Gaziantepspor 0, tie
Idman Yurdu (Mersin) 5 Karabukspor 3
Eskisehir 1 Kayseri 0
Bursaspor 0 Antalyaspor 0, tie
Istanbul BB 1 Sivasspor 1, tie
Ankara GB 1 Manisa 0
Besiktas 1 Samsunspor 1, tie
Fenerbahce 1 Trabzonspor 0

Greece (partial list):

Panathinaikos (Athens) 3 Asteras 1
PAOK Salonika 2 Doxa Dramas 0
Atromitos 1 AEK Athens 0
Olympiacos 2 PAS Giannia 0
OFI Crete 0 Kerkyra 0, tie

England (Sunday games only):

Manchester United 2 Queens Park 0
Liverpool 2 Aston Villa 0
Tottenham 1 Sunderland 0
Manchester City 1 Arsenal 0

Turkish, Greek and English teams in the Europa League and their match-ups, with games starting in mid-February:

FC Porto (Portugal) vs. Manchester City

Machester United vs. Ajax Amsterdam (Holland)

Rubin Kazan (Russia) vs. Olympiacos

PAOK vs. Udinese (Italy)

Besiktas vs. Braga (Portugal)

Trabzonspor vs. PSV Eindhoven (Holland)

Sports Desk- American Comes Through for Fulham

Even though there are seven American players in the English Premiere League and American teams have generally played competitively in World Cup play, the term American soccer star may still seem like a bit of an oxy moron in Europe.

But, today one American soccer star Clint Dempsey (pictured here) scored the lone goal in the late stages of the match to ensure a huge 1-0 upset for Fulham over visting Liverpool; Dempsey's goal came in the 84th minute of play as Liverpool was down a player due to a red card. The match was televised in America in the late afternoon (New York time) on ESPN-2.

On Saturday, ESPN-2 also televised Chelsea's 3-0 drubbing of New Castle. The game was much more competitive than the final score indicates. Didier Drogba, the sensational Ivory Coast national, hit an amazing header to give Chelsea the 1-0 lead in the 38th minute. His countrymen and Chelsea teammate Solomon Kalou scored in the 89th minute followed shortly thereafter by an extra-time goal from Daniel Sturridge.

Chelsea will play Spanish power Valencia in the UEFA Champions League tomorrow.

Tottenham continued their hot streak with their own 3-0 win over Bolton. Goals came from the young Welsh emerging superstar Gareth Bale. English players Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe added one goal each.

Tottenham feautres American goalie icon Brad Friedel, who is still playing at age
40. He has also played for Galatasaray (Turkey), the Columbus Crew (MLS) and Liverpool, among many other teams. The last part of his long career has been in the English Premiere League.

As for Bolton, the team features the EPL's only active Turkish player Tuncay Sanli, formerly of Fenerbahce, Galatasaray's main rival, and American player Stuart Holderly, formerly of the Houston Dynamo (MLS), so we wish them well.

In a low-scoring affair, Phil Jones, a 19-year-old English player, scored the lone goal in Manchester United's vital 1-0 win over Aston Villa.

Arsenal, a team that plays Greek powerhouse Olympiacos in the UEFA Champions League tomorrow, had no challenge from the struggling Wigan squad as they decimated them
4-0. Arsenal's goals came from Spanish national Mikhel Arteta, German player Thomas Vermoelen, Ivory Coast national Yao Gervinho and the Dutch superstar Robin van Persie, who has been scoring many goals all season in both domestic and UEFA play.

With a 5-1 win over Norwich, Manchester City remained on top of the English Premiere League standings, which currently stand this way:

1. Manchester City 38

2. Manchester United 22

3. Tottenham 31

4. Chelsea 28

5. Arsenal 26

Here is a complete list of the scores from domestic play in England:

Chelsea 3 New Castle 0

Tottenham 3 Bolton 0

Arsenal 4 Wigan 0

Stoke City 1 Everton 0

Wolverton 2 Sunderland 1

Manchester United 1 Aston Villa 0

Queen Park 1 West Brom. 1, tie

Machster City 5 Norwich 1

Blackburn 4 Swansea 2

Fulham 1 Liverpool 0

CLARIFCATION: Though we had the correct title for German filmmaker Werner Herzog's documentary in our entry last Tuesday, which is called "Death Row" in Europe, the title here in America, where the film about American death row inmates is called "Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life." It is now playing at theatres in major American cities.