Premier League Champions

Vincent Kompany lifts the trophy for Man City

Manchester City won the Premier League for the first time in 44 years defeating Queens Park Rangers 3-2. City went into stoppage time losing 2 to 1 but got two goal in less than two minutes to clinch the championship. Had they tied the game or lost the championship title would have gone to Manchester United who also won this weekend beating Sunnderland 1-0. I'm happy Manchester City won because they were clearly the better team all season long. They won 29 games and lost only 5 while scoring 93 goals, more than any other team this year. Man City coach Roberto Mancini said that taking the title away from Manchester United would be his "greatest achievement." Manchester United have won the championshio 12 times in the last 20 years and have won it 19 times total, no other team has won it more than them, and they are the current defending champions.

Lee Nguyens Revenge

Nguyen vs. DC United

On Saturday May 12 the Revolution played the Vancouver Whitecaps for the one and only time this season and they came out on top by a score of 4 to 1. The goals for the Revolution were scored by Lee Nguyen (2) Saer Sene, and Shalrie Joseph. The lone Whitecaps goal was scored by Eric Hassli. Lee Nguyen was cut from the Whitecaps roster late in preseason of this year after coaches said he wasn't good enough. Now is his only chance this season to show up his former team, and he did with a stellar performance.Vancouver struck first in the fifth minute but then the Revs marched down and got it back one minute later with Nguyen's first goal. The Revs never looked back after dominating the entire first half. They took the lead in the 24th minute with a Nguyen assist. He scored again in the 77th minute off a volley from 25 yard out, and he is now a goal of the week candidate. In a post game interview Nguyen said  "The way it ended up I couldn’t have dreamt it any better." The Revs were certainly happy to get their fourth win of the season, they are currently in fifth place in the eastern conference

FIFA Rankings

The FIFA rankings have recently come out this month and Spain still tops the list followed by Germany, Uruguay, Netherlands, and Portugal to round out the top five. The United States moved down two positions to be in 29th place. In their conference the US is second behind Mexico. FIFA considers four factors when calculating the rank of a team. Those factors are match result, match status, opposition strength and region strength. Match result would be win, loss or tie. a team receives three points for a win, one point for a tie and zero for a loss. Match status would be what level of competition the game is, obviously a world cup game will receive more value or weight than a friendly game. The way to calculate opposition strength is by using the formula 200-their current ranking divided by 100. Their are currently six regions in the FIFA system, each of the confederations has a different ranking. To find out the regional strength you use Team 1 regional ranking + Team 2 regional ranking divided by 2. The way FIFA takes all these factors into account is by using the formula 100*(result points*result strength*opposition strength*regional strength)

Man City favorites?

Manchester City coach Roberto Mancini

There are two teams in the running to win this years premier league title, which makes for an exciting time as we enter the last week of the season. Manchester United and Manchester City both have 86 points, but Man City holds the goal differential tie breaker with a plus 63 while United have a plus 56. In order for Man U to win the league City would either have to lose their next game and have a Man U win or tie. Or if Manchester City tie then Manchester United would be forced to win their final game. In the last week City are playing Queens Park Ranger, who are in sixteenth place, while United are playing Sunderland, who are in thirteenth place.

Honoring a Legend





Felipe Alverez's tattoo of the Escobar Jersey

A man from Columbia decided to have Athletico Nacional's jersey tattooed on his entire upper body. He choose number two and did this out of respect to honor the legacy of Andres Escobar. Escobar was a Colombian soccer player who was murdered after the 1994 world cup in the United States. He was murdered by members from the Colombian drug cartel, who had an enormous influence on their government at the time. Columbia were huge favorites to win the world cup that year however they were bumped out in the first round that year by the United States. They were knocked out because Escobar let in an own goal to lose the game. To make matters worse the loss was to the United States who were not respected as a soccer team by many countries. Drug lords bet millions of dollars on their team, and after the loss the Colombian national team received death threats, and were scared to return to their country, and many did not. Escobar was one of the few to return and he payed the ultimate price. (pictured below is Escobar, in yellow,giving up the own goal in World Cup 1994 against US, it was his last game.)

Championship Thriller

Chelsea won their fourth FA cup in the last six years defeating Liverpool by a score of two to one. The FA cup is a  huge knockout tournament in England that consists of every team in England, all 763 of them. The teams that play in it range from amateur to world class. It is also the oldest known soccer tournament, even before the world cup. Chelsea took the early lead in the 11th minute after coming out strong, quick, and ready to play while Liverpool came out slow, flat, and still sleeping. Didier Drogba made it two to zero early in the second half before Liverpool finally woke up. Shortly after substitute Andy Carroll came into the game and scored almost immediately by getting the ball to his feet in the box from a cross, faking out the defender with some step-overs and then beating goalkeeper Petr Cech high to the near post. However there was some late game drama when Andy Carroll again headed the ball on goal and the whole ball seemed to cross the line before the Chelsea players quickly knocked it out without the referees seeing it. It was ruled a no goal. If it had been ruled a goal then the game would have been sent into extra time and then it could have been anyone game to win. (pictured top Carroll heads the ball in the 84th minute to create late game controversy, bottom the entire ball appears to cross the line but ruled a no goal by the referees)

Revs Get 1st Win

The New England Revolution ended their home debut on a good note with with their first win of the season. They got their first three points after defeating Portland Timbers by the score of 1-0. The Revs scored early, just 28 seconds into the match by newly aquired player Saer Sene making his MLS debut. This was also Jay Heaps first win as a professional coach. another milestone in the game was when long time Revs goalkeeper Matt Reis made his 1000 career save, he entered the game with 997 saves. They did however have to work for the win with their best player, Bennie Feilhaber injured, as well as missing three other defenders to injury, and one player suspended from getting a red card in last weeks game in Kansas City. One more disadvantage was scoring so early into the game. By scoring early they left Portland 89 minutes and 32 seconds to equalize.

(Pictured Saer Sene against Kansas City)

Revamped Revs

After a less than impressive season last year, the New England Revolution look to be back in playoff form with major changes to their roster. The team has 13 new players and counting added to the roster, out of all the players that started the season last year only three return. This is not including their new head coach Jay Heaps, who retired in 2009 after a 13 year playing career with Major League Soccer. The Revs are by far the youngest team in MLS with 20 players under the age of 26. A couple of their more promising aquisitions include french forward Saer Sene, and also newly drafted midfielder Keylan Rowe.

Best Player EVER

He is perhaps the greatest player of all time and for some time to come. His name is Lionel Messi. Messi has played for FC Barcelona since 2004 when he was just 17 years old. By the time he turned 21 he had earned the FIFA world played award for the first time. in making 205 appearances with Barcelona he has scored 154 goals, the most in the Spanish league ever. In his time there Messi has won 5 league championships and 3 champions league titles, as well as one Olympic gold medal with his home country of Argentina. He is the most technical player in the game. He can take the ball down the field and no one can get it away from him, its almost like the ball is glued to his foot.

Technology in Soccer

Many people are afraid that if we bring technology into "the beautiful game" then it will be ruined. Soccer is one of the only sports with no form of review after goals. However after some contraversial calls in the 2010 world cup in South Africa, FIFA is considering goal line technology. They will not review other calls the referee makes, only goals!

There are two slightly different concepts that FIFA are looking into. One of them is putting cameras in the two goal posts and the crossbar and the other is putting a chip inside the ball and sensors under the grass to see if the FULL ball crossed over the white line. There are eight companies creating there own product to present to FIFA, the company that wins the competion and has their idea implimented in games will get 100 million Euros. Hawkeye, the company developing the cameras is already being used in most tennis matches.

I think its a good thing that technology will be in the game because it eliminates all of the bad calls and what if's. Many people believe that it will slow down the game to have the referee go off the field to look at the camera but this is untrue. If this system is implimented then there will be a seperate fifth offical whose job it is to watch th monator and relay the message to the main offical on the field with a wireless microphone. The problem with the chip inside the ball is that it will break inside the ball and not relay the correct information to the ref.

Soccer or Football?

Have you ever wondered why in some parts of the world it's called soccer and in other parts it's called football? Well it all started in 1863 when it was given the name association football to distinguish it from rugby, another type of football. The term association football was shortened to just "football." In the late 1800's the term started to develop slang terms. So it is said that the word "association" was first shortened to "ssocia" then to "socca" and it eventually it became "soccer." The word soccer originated in England although it is no longer used there they call it football. If someone says that word in the United Kingdom they will most likely be made fun of, and they will not be taken seriously if they talk about the game.

my favorite team

My favorite team in the whole world is Liverpool FC (FC stands for football club). They are my favorite club because they are the most accomplished team in the world. They have won 18 league titles, and were runners up 12 times, only Manchester United FC has more titles with 19. Liverpool has won 7 league cups, 7 FA cups, and 5 UEFA cups, more than any other team in the world.

Aside from their on the field success, LFC is my favorite team because the city of Liverpool resembles Boston in many ways. Both are historic, hard working port cities. LFC is owned by John Henry and the Boston Red Sox organization.

In Egypt, 74 soccer fans were killed as a result of rioting. The moment the whistle blew to end the game fans from both teams ran onto the field. At this time the stadium lights were turned off and the gates to the stadium were locked by the Egyptain army. Fans from the winning team went to the bleachers to attack the fans of the losing team. They were armed with knives, bats and fireworks, however most of the deaths were the result of suffocation from people being pressed up against the locked gates while trying to escape.

This violent outburst was about more than just the game. Supporters of the winning team started the riot after they said the police allowed the other teams fans to attack them before the game. Others say it was a planned attack from the supporters of the former government.