Certified Soccer Addict

Milan was blocked by Juventus

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:06:00 +0000

AC Milan 1 - 1 Juventus

MILAN - At San Siro it finished Milan-Juventus 1-1 in the Sunday evening match of the 35th matchday of Serie A. The Rossoneri went in front in the 57th minute with Clarence Seedorf's goal, Juventus drew in the 60th minute with Vincenzo Iaquinta's goal.

After a very tactical and blocked first half, the two teams return on the pitch with the same formations. Juventus attacked very well, with Iaquinta and Amauri always dangerous.

Milan does not find spaces where to launch Kaka and Juventus often opt for long balls for the attackers. Only a quick counter attack allowed Milan to take the lead. In fact Inzaghi overcame the offside line in the 57th minute and read very well Ambrosini’s movement who shot weakly. However, Seedorf is good to be on the ball’s trajectory and beat Buffon.

However, the lead of the Rossoneri lasted only four minutes, because Iaquinta, following a perfect cross by Camoranesi, managed to head past Kalac.

The final minutes of the game are authentic and continuous attacks and counter attacks with two teams wanting to make full points. In the 85th minute a nice shot by Pato is rebounded in the penalty area, whereas on the other hand is always very dangerous. Ronaldinho and Pirlo tried, but the three point hit did not arrive.

La Liga: Barca draw against Villareal

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Mon, 11 May 2009 08:35:00 +0000

Barcelona 3-3 Villareal

Barcelona were made to wait for a first piece of silverware under Pep Guardiola as they let a two-goal lead slip at home to Villarreal in the Primera Liga this evening.

Barca had all but wrapped up the title following last weekend's incredible 6-2 win at Real Madrid, a which result saw the Catalans move seven points clear of their fierce rivals with just four games remaining. And Madrid's 3-0 defeat at Valencia last night meant Guardiola's side could seal their first trophy of what has been an amazing season today.Seydou Keita's deflected effort gave Barca an early lead, and although Joseba Llorente equalised 10 minutes later, the home side took a two-goal lead in at the break thanks to strikes from Samuel Eto'o and Dani Alves.

And they were cruising in the second half until Eric Abidal was dismissed for the second time in five days with 14 minutes left. Mati Fernandez converted the resulting spot-kick and Llorente crashed home a dramatic late equaliser to silence an expectant home crowd deep into injury time.

There was a carnival atmosphere inside a packed Nou Camp as Barca set out to win their first piece of silverware this season.

Chelsea won against Arsenal

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Sun, 10 May 2009 17:01:00 +0000

Chelsea 4-0 Arsenal

A match between the two strongest team in English Premiere League where their fate depends on this game. As Man United won their game having another point advantage between these two teams.

Chelsea made the most of their chances at the Emirates to beat Arsenal 4-1 and assure themselves of an automatic Champions League place. In a terrible week for both clubs, the Blues took advantage of some sloppy defending to end the Gunners' unbeaten run in style.

Manchester United edge closer to the Title

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Sun, 10 May 2009 14:55:00 +0000

Manchester United 2 - 0 Manchester City

Want-away striker Carlos Tevez picked up the headlines as he scored to help Manchester United to a 2-0 win over rivals City

First-half goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez earned Manchester United a 2-0 win against Manchester City and took them to within four points of another Premier League title.

Ronaldo produced another superb free-kick to put United in front.B ut that 18th-minute strike was overshadowed by Tevez's effort, the South American racing to the dug-outs and cupping his ears listening to the celebrations after claiming on Sunday morning that his future will be away from Old Trafford.

Bayern Munich

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:04:00 +0000

FC Bayern Munich (German: Fußball-Club Bayern München) is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional football team, which is the most successful club in German football, having won 21 German titles and 14 cups.

The club was founded in 1900 by eleven football players led by Franz John. Although Bayern won its first national championship in 1932, the club was not selected for the Bundesliga at its inception in 1963. In the middle of the 1970s, the club had its period of greatest success, when the famous team led by Franz Beckenbauer won the European Cup three times in a row (1974–76). In recent years they have been by far the most successful team in German football, winning seven of the last ten championships. The club's last international title was the Intercontinental Cup in 2001.

The Allianz Arena

The Allianz Arena is a mere three years old. Following on from the Grünwald Stadium and later the Olympic Stadium, the new ground in the north of Munich is the third home venue in Bayern’s long Bundesliga history, and certainly the most spectacular. Europe’s most modern stadium, with a capacity of nearly 70,000, has already established itself in the collective conscience of football fans all over the world within a short timescale.

Bayern Munich PLayers

Goalkeepers

Nr.

Player

Michael Rensing

Portrait

Hans Jörg Butt

Portrait

Thomas Kraft

Portrait

Defenders

Nr.

Player

Lucio

Daniel van Buyten

Martin Demichelis

Philipp Lahm

Massimo Oddo

Christian Lell

Breno

Midfielders

Nr.

Player

Franck Ribéry

Hamit Altintop

Zé Roberto

Andreas Ottl

Mark van Bommel

José Ernesto Sosa

Tim Borowski

Bastian Schweinsteiger

Portrait

Forwards

Nr.

Player

Luca Toni

Portrait

Lukas Podolski

Portrait

Miroslav Klose

Portrait

German BundesLiga

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:00:00 +0000

The Bundesliga is the highest level of Germany's football league system. The term Bundesliga also applies to football in Austria and is used to refer to the highest level league competitions in several other sports in those two countries.

Germany was unusual, in that, unlike in other countries, a unified national league structure was quite late in developing. The Bundesliga was not formed until 1963 and the structure and organisation of the nation's football leagues have undergone frequent changes right up to the present day. The league was originally founded by the German Football Association, but is now operated by the Deutsche Fußball Liga.

Every team in the two Bundesligen must have a licence to play in the league, or else they are relegated into the regional leagues. To obtain a licence, teams must be financially healthy and meet certain standards of conduct as organisations.

nternationally, the most well-known German clubs include Bayern Munich, Hamburger SV, Borussia Dortmund, FC Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen. Hamburger SV can lay claim to being the only club that has played continuously in the Bundesliga since its foundation.

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Thu, 07 May 2009 08:59:00 +0000

Futbol Club Barcelona (Catalan IPA: [fudˈbɔɫ ˌklup bəɾsəˈlonə], Spanish IPA: [ˈfutβol ˌkluβ baɾθeˈlona]), also known simply as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça (Catalan IPA: [ˈbaɾsə], Spanish IPA: [ˈbaɾsa]), is a sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is best known for its football team, which was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Spanish men led by Joan Gamper. The club has become a Catalan institution, hence the motto "Més que un club" (More than a club).

FC Barcelona is one of the only three clubs that have never been relegated from La Liga and the second most successful club in Spanish football having won eighteen La Liga titles, a record twenty-four Spanish Cups, seven Spanish Super Cups and two League Cups. They are also one of the most successful clubs in European football having won eight official major European trophies in total. They have won two European Cups, a record four UEFA Cup Winners' Cups and two UEFA Super Cups. They also have a record three Inter-Cities Fairs Cups.

Stadium Information
Camp Nou stadium

* Name - Camp Nou
* City - Barcelona
* Capacity - 98,772

* Other Facilities:
o Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper (FC Barcelona's training ground)
o La Masia (Residence of young players)
o Mini Estadi
o Palau Blaugrana (FC Barcelona indoor sports arena)
o Palau Blaugrana 2 (Secondary indoor arena of FC Barcelona)
o Palau de Gel

Barcelona Players

Real Madrid FC

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Tue, 05 May 2009 08:51:00 +0000

Real Madrid Club de Fútbol(Spanish IPA: [ɾeal maˈð̞ɾið kluβ de ˈfutβol], usually known simply as Real Madrid)are a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. It is the most successful team in Spanish football and was voted by FIFA as the most successful club of the 20th century, having won a record thirty-one La Liga titles, seventeen Spanish Cups, a record nine European Cups and two UEFA Cups. Real was a founding member of FIFA and the now-defunct G-14 group of Europe's leading football clubs as well as its replacement, the European Club Association.

Estadio Santiago Bernabéu is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. It is the home of Real Madrid. Work on the grounds started on October 27 1944. Originally called Estadio Chamartín after Madrid's previous stadium, it was inaugurated in December 1947. Real Madrid officially adopted the present name, Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, on January 4, 1955 in honour of the club president Santiago Bernabéu. The stadium has been officially sanctioned by UEFA as Elite or 5 Star on its 60th year of its existence.

Real Madrid Players

Current Squad
G1 Iker Casillas	M18 Rubén De la Red
G13 Jordi Codina	M6 Lassana Diarra
G25 Jerzy Dudek	M Mahamadou Diarra
G30 Antonio Adán	M Julien Faubert
G29 Felipe Ramos	M8 Fernando Gago
D26 Chema Anton	M14 Guti
D32 Chema Anton	M31 Pedro Mosquera
D5 Fabio Cannavaro	M17 Daniel Parejo
D12 Marcelo	M10 Wesley Sneijder
D15 Royston Drenthe	M23 Rafael Van der Vaart
D24 Javi Garcia	F28 Alberto Bueno
D16 Gabriel Heinze	F35 Palanca
D3 Pepe	F7 Raúl
D21 Christoph Metzelder	F20 Gonzalo Higuaín
D26 Mateos	F19 Klass Jan Huntelaar
D4 Sergio Ramos	F11 Arjen Robben
D2 Míchel Salgado	F9 Javier Saviola
D22 Miguel Torres Gómez	F Ruud van Nistelrooy
D27 Javier Velayos

Juventus- The white-blacks

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:29:00 +0000

Juventus- The white-blacks

Juventus Football Club (BIT: JUVE) (from Latin iuventus: youth, pronounced [juˈvɛntus]), commonly referred to as Juventus and familiarly as Juve, is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont. The club was founded in 1897 and have spent their entire history, with the exception of the 2006–07 season, in the top flight First Division (since 1929, called Serie A).

Juventus is the most successful team in the history of Italian football. Overall, the club have won 51 official trophies, more than any other team in the country; 40 in Italy, which is also a record, and 11 in European and world competitions. The Old Lady is the third most successful club in Europe and the sixth in the world with the most international titles officially recognised by one of the six continental football confederations and FIFA.

The Olimpico (Olympic) Stadium, formerly known as Comunale, is owned by the city of Turin, who carried out extensive restoring of the facility for the 2006 Winter Olympics; the Stadium hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the event.
As from the 2006/07 season, both city clubs, Juventus and Torino, play all their home matches there. The Stadium can hold 25,442 people.
The former Comunale Stadium was built in the Thirties. The first match played there, on June 29 1933, was Juventus vs. Ujpest (6-2), the return leg of the quarter finals of the Central European Cup, a tournament of the time featuring clubs from Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
Juventus played 890 games at the Comunale Stadium between 1933 and 1990, and won 17 League titles there in that same period.

Juventus Players

AC MILAN

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Fri, 01 May 2009 08:10:00 +0000

Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to as AC Milan and as just Milan in Italy, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. The club was founded in 1899 by English lace-maker Herbert Kilpin and five other Englishmen and has since spent most of its history in the top flight of Italian football (only two years in Serie B in the eighties).

The team's current stadium is the 80,018 seat San Siro, officially known as Stadio Giuseppe Meazza after the former player who represented both Milan and Internazionale. The name San Siro is taken from the district where it's located. The stadium is shared with Internazionale, the other major football club in Milan. The stadium is well known for its fantastic atmosphere due to the closeness of the stands to the pitch. There is the frequent use of flares by the fans which often cause trouble.

AC Milan players:

12 Christian Abbiati	M32 David Beckham
G1 Dida	M14 Mathias Cardaccio
G16 Zeljko Kalac	M5 Emerson
D77 Luca Antonini	M84 Mathieu Flamini
D25 Daniele Bonera	M8 Ivan Gennaro Gattuso
D36 Matteo Darmian	M22 Kaká
D19 Giuseppe Favalli	M53 Nicola Pasini
D53 Denis Fondrini	M52 Jordan Pedrocchi
D18 Marek Jankulovski	M21 Andrea Pirlo
D4 Kakha Kaladze	M10 Clarence Seedorf
D3 Paolo Maldini	M51 Rodney Strasser
D Felipe	M20 Tabaré Viudez
D13 Alessandro Nesta	M54 Osuji Wilfred
D55 Alessandro Ruggeri	F11 Marco Borriello
D24 Philippe Senderos	F7 Pato
D33 Thiaguinho	F80 Ronaldinho
D15 Gianluca Zambrotta	F9 Filippo Inzaghi
M23 Massimo Ambrosini	F76 Andriy Shevchenko

Arsenal! ! THE GUNNERSS

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:29:00 +0000

Arsenal Football Club (often simply known as Arsenal or The Arsenal, or by their nickname The Gunners) are an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London. They play in the Premier League and are one of the most successful clubs in English football, having won thirteen First Division and Premier League titles and ten FA Cups, and hold the record for the longest uninterrupted period in the English top flight.

For the majority of their time in south-east London, Arsenal played at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, a three-year period at the nearby Invicta Ground between 1890 and 1893 excepted. The Manor Ground was initially just a field, until the club installed stands and terracing in time for their first Football League match in September 1893. They played their home games there for the next twenty years (with two exceptions in 1894–95), until the move to north London in 1913.
Arsenal Stadium, widely referred to as Highbury, was Arsenal's home from September 1913 until May 2006.

Arsenal Players:

MAN UNITED!! Red Devils

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:34:00 +0000

Manchester United Football Club is an English football club, based at Old Trafford in Trafford, Greater Manchester, and is one of the most popular football clubs in the world. The club was a founding member of the Premiere League in 1992.

Manchester United are the most successful Premier League club having won the title 10 times. It all began in 1993 when manager Sir Alex Ferguson ended a 26-year wait to lift the Premier League crown.

Man U won several trophies including League Cup, Title, FA Cup, Super Cup, Charity and Community Shield.

Here are some Man U players..

Chelsea F.C.. Chelsea! Chelsea!

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:45:00 +0000

Chelsea Football Club has been good at celebrating special anniversaries. The year 2005 saw us reach the major milestone of 100 years-old. What better way was there to mark the centenary than by becoming champions of England for the second time in our existence?

Chelsea's home stadium is called Stamford Bridge and has a history as varied and unique as the team itself.
The current capacity stands at 42,055 and the ground has gone from being a huge oval shape to 4 sides close to the pitch. There is almost no part of the current stadium that hasn't markedly changed in the past 10 years with only the old Shed wall remaining of the original stadium. As well as all the work on the stadium itself the whole 12.5 acre site has seen the building of 2 four star hotels, 5 restaurants, conference and banqueting facilities, nightclub, underground car park, health club and business centre. It has come a long long way since the original athletics venue was first built in 1876!

Chelsea won several trophies including League Cup, Title, FA Cup, Super Cup, Charity and Community Shield.

Chelsea Players are versatile and strong players hungry for goals in order for the team to won every matches that they played. Famous Chelsea players includes:

	Goalkeeper	Petr Cech
2	Defender	Branislav Ivanović
3	Defender	Ashley Cole
5	Midfielder	Michael Essien
6	Defender	Ricardo Carvalho
8	Midfielder	Frank Lampard (vice-captain)
9	Forward	Franco Di Santo
10	Midfielder	Joe Cole
11	Forward	Didier Drogba
12	Midfielder	John Obi Mikel
13	Midfielder	Michael Ballack
15	Midfielder	Florent Malouda
17	Defender	José Bosingwa
18	Forward	Ricardo Quaresma
19	Defender	Paulo Ferreira
20	Midfielder	Deco
21	Forward	Salomon Kalou
26	Defender	John Terry (captain)
27	Goalkeeper	Rhys Taylor
30	Defender	Alex
33	Defender	Alex
35	Defender	Juliano Belletti
39	Striker	Nicolas Anelka
40	Goalkeeper	Henrique Hilario
42	Defender	Michael Mancienne
43	Midfielder	Miroslav Stoch
47	Midfielder	Lee Sawyer
48	Forward	Gael Kakuta

Italian Seria A

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:51:00 +0000

Serie A (officially known as the Serie A TIM, for sponsorship reasons) is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top echelon of the Italian football league system. It is widely regarded as one of the elite leagues of the footballing world. Historically, Serie A has produced the highest number of European Cup finalists. In total Italian clubs have reached the final of the competition on a record of twenty-five different occasions, winning the title eleven times. As of 2008, Serie A is ranked third among European leagues by UEFA, based on the performance of Italian clubs in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup, and second in the IFFHS rating.

In its current format, the Italian Football Championship was revised from having regional and interregional rounds, to just one solid league for the 1929–30 season onwards; the Serie A system carries on today. The championship titles won before 1929 are officially recognised by FIGC as a championship in the same way the ones since then are.

The league hosts some of the world's most famous clubs: Juventus, Milan, Internazionale, Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina, Lazio, Genoa and Torino. Juventus, Milan and Inter were all founding members of the G-14 a group representing the largest and most prestigious European football clubs; Serie A was the only league to produce three founding members. More players have won the coveted Ballon d'Or award while playing at a Serie A club than any other league in the world. Milan is one of two clubs with the most official international titles in the world. Juventus, the most successful Italian team, is tied for third in Europe and tied sixth in the world in the same ranking. They are also the only club on the planet to have won all official club competitions.

Spanish La Liga

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:46:00 +0000

The Primera División (First Division) of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional (Professional Football League), commonly known as La Liga or Liga BBVA since 2008, is the top professional football league in Spain. It is contested by 20 teams, with the three lowest placed teams relegated to the Segunda División and replaced by the top three teams in that division. La Liga is one of the top national football leagues in the world, currently ranked second in Europe behind the FA Premier League. It has been ranked as the top European league by UEFA more than any other European league.

A total of 58 teams have competed in La Liga, nine of which have been crowned champions. Since the 1950s, Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated the championship. The former have won the title 31 times while the latter have won it on 18 occasions. However, during the 1930s and 1940s and in the last two decades, La Liga has seen other champions including Atlético Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, Sevilla, Deportivo La Coruña, Real Sociedad and Real Betis.

La Liga is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world, with an average attendance of 29,029 for league matches in the 2007-2008 season. This is the eighth highest of any domestic professional sports league in the world and the third highest of any professional football league, behind the Bundesliga and the Premier League.

English Premier League

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:34:00 +0000

The Premier League is an English professional league for football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 20 clubs, operating a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders. Seasons run from August to May, with teams playing 38 games each. It is sponsored by Barclays Bank, and is therefore officially known as the Barclays Premier League.

The competition formed as the FA Premier League on 20 February 1992 following the decision of clubs in the Football League First Division to break away from The Football League, which was originally founded in 1888, and take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal. The Premier League has since become the world's most watched sporting leagueIt is the world's most lucrative football league, with combined club revenues of around £1.4 billion in 2005–06, which are expected to rise to around £1.8 billion for 2007–08 due to media revenues.It is also ranked first in the UEFA rankings of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five-years, ahead of Spain's La Liga and Italy's Serie A

A total of 42 clubs have competed in the Premier League, but only four have won the title: Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal, and Chelsea. The current champions are Manchester United, who won their tenth Premier League title in the 2007–08 season, the most of any Premier League team.

UEFA Champions League

noreply@blogger.com (RaiN) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:18:00 +0000

The UEFA Champions League (usually referred to as simply the Champions League or less frequently as the European Cup) is an annual football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It is the most prestigious club trophy in European football.

Prior to 1992 the tournament was officially called the European Champion Clubs' Cup but was usually referred to as simply the European Cup or European Champions' Cup. The competition was initially a straight knockout competition open only to the champion club of each country. During the 1990s the tournament began to be expanded, incorporating a round-robin group phase and more teams. Europe's strongest national leagues now provide up to four teams each for the competition. The UEFA Champions League is not to be confused with the UEFA cup.

The tournament consists of several stages. In the present format it begins in mid-July with three knockout qualifying rounds. The 16 surviving teams join 16 seeded teams in the group stage, in which there are eight groups consisting of four teams each. The eight group winners and eight runners-up enter the final knockout phase, which ends with the final match in May.

The title has been won by 21 different clubs, 12 of which have won the title more than once. The all-time record-holder is Real Madrid, who have won the competition nine times, including the first five seasons it was contested. Since AC Milan successfully retained the trophy in 1990, no club has managed consecutive wins. The latest winner last season is Manchester United.