Tuesday night was not the best night for soccer fans. Sure there were some great goals considering a total of 9 goals were scored in just two Champion League match-ups. But there was no great stories. Two underdog clubs Porto and Paris St. Germain had their dreams of glory dashed by two historically dominant titans of football, Bayern Munich and Barcelona, respectively.
But for soccer fans there is some saving grace. A potential matchup between Bayern Munich and Barcelona. This Friday we will see the draw or the semifinals and though a Bayern-Barca final would be ideal, Real Madrid could easily act as spoiler for one of those teams were they to draw them for the semis.
Not only would the match-up be two juggernauts pitted against each other, it would be a matchup of Pep Guardiola’s old team, that he led to two Champions League trophies and three La Liga championships in just four years, and his new team that has been very successful in the Bundesliga. The teams have not played each other in a non-friendly match yet.
Since Guardiola’s departure from Barcelona the team has done well, but by no measure were they as dominant as they were under Guardiola. Bayern Munich fans have high expectations for Guardiola and winning a Bundesliga championship last year and likely again this year is not enough.
Barcelona is also likely to win their league as well. So both of these teams’ fans look to Champions League as the defining moment. And both of these teams are at their best. Bayern Munich’s 6-1 rout of Porto was surgical with each of their top players in top form. Barcelona’s 5-1 aggregate win over Paris St. Germain was no slouch either, proving they are consistently dominant.
All of this could lead to a stunning final, but we’ll settle for a semi-final if it means we can see them play.
If you want to practice your kicking accuracy but need a break from the soccer field, then consider FootGolf for your next cross-training workout. FootGolf is a relatively new sport that started about five years ago in Europe, but has recently spread to over 260 golf courses throughout the country.
The New England Small College Athletic Conference, otherwise known as the NESCAC, has served as an authority on the sport since its formation in 1971. It now sponsors 26 conference championships, including thirteen for men and thirteen for women. It represents and includes some of the most popular New England teams for the sport, including Amherst College, Tufts University, Wesleyan University and Williams College. However, the Conference has often struggled with how to handle unruly fans. In 2011, it proposed a policy, which served to ask game officials to help monitor any unsportsmanlike conduct on the part of participating fans. If any such behavior was detected, the policy asked game officials to address the issue speedily and readily.
Soccer Commentators Score New Deal
Roger Bennett and Michael Davies are two British soccer analysts, known for their amusing and cheeky commentary on the sport. They made a name for themselves by producing a podcast on ESPN’s website Grantland; for their work on the podcast, they have earned a small, yet devoted following of fans. However, according to an article recently completed for The New York Times, the duo recently won a significant increase in attention, due to their work for the World Cup. For the event, they created nightly reports from a tiny room on ESPN’s beachfront set in Rio de Janerio, in which they employed their whimsical and self-deprecating tones to create amusing and compelling storylines. Through these broadcasts, they have been propelled into the media mainstream in sports.
As a result, the pair will host their own show on NBC Sports on Monday nights, which is scheduled to start shortly after the Barclays Premier League season begins. The pair will be covering the league’s progress as a means of NBC attempting to pull on the increasing popularity of the sport in the United States. NBC covered the league for the first time last year, resulting in the most successful run for the event for American audiences; the Nielson company estimates that thirty one million Americans tuned into the league, which doubled the figure from the previous year. NBC’s choice to bring in Davies and Bennett indicates that they believe the sport is not only growing more popular, but the creative interpretations of the duo as well. As a result, the pair has also been assigned the task of writing and producing online videos for NBC sports.
Davies, who has served previously as a television executive known for producing such shows as Wife Swap and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, declared that he was very excited to join NBC’s sports division. This excitement is particularly rooted in joining the corporation that brought about some of his favorite television shows as a teenager, such as ALF, The A-Team and Miami Vice.