Yes, I am aware many of Europe's big leagues are still active as I write this. So I'll just review what's happened in the year 2011 in the world of the beautiful game.
And man it was beautiful if you were a Barcelona fan or a lover of glorious football which is probably all football fans apart from ex-defenders like Scotty Donaldson of Redemption FC.
After their hiccup against Mr Mourinho's Inter last year, Barcelona came back with a vengeance and swept all asunder including the venerable Sir Alex Ferguson to claim their 4th European Cup title.
It was the 2nd time Barcelona took on Fergie's Manchester United for the title and again Barcelona were easily the better side - and that's actually 3 out of 3 for Barcelona against English opposition in a Final; Arsenal of course were the other team to lose to Barcelona in a Final.
Forget that the Final was at the glorious new Wembley Stadium. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and their henchmen still dominated the roost from the first to last minute of the game.
Barcelona's football has been a delight to watch under Pep Guardiola - it was already brilliant to watch when Rjikaard and Ronaldinho were at the Camp Nou but Guardiola with Messi and the amazing youngsters coming out from Barca's academy have just taken it to levels not seen since Johan Cruyff's Ajax.
And isn't it not surprising that Barcelona's dominance in European club football coincides with Spain's dominance in international football?
Yes, Spain may not have the genius Messi but they've got other players like Manchester City's own maestro, David Silva, the winger, Juan Mata and even Fernando Torres on his day.
It looks like only Germany who have followed Spain's youth policy aggressively and the Dutch have a chance to stop the Spanish at EURO 2012.
Back to England, the powerhouse of football appears to be in England's third largest city with both Manchester clubs very much dominating the scene. Even though they may have exited this season's Champions League surprisingly early, they're still the teams to beat in the Premier League.
Meanwhile, the race for the Champions League spots has become hotter than ever with Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and even Newcastle United fighting to play amongst Europe's elite. Tottenham's title hopes may have evaporated slightly with their loss to Stoke City but they're still right in the mix to make a return to the Champions League.
The race to stay up was also hot this year - easily the closest survival battle in Premier League history. Wolves fans sighed a breath of relief as their club stayed up after a strong run at the finish while Wigan again pulled off the unlikely miracle, defying the odds to stay up.As I write though, it looks like Wigan may face their toughest battle yet to stay up and avoid a triple relegation for Lancashire clubs.
Elsewhere, the decline of West Ham United was alarming although their rise in the new season has been quite impressive courtesy of Sam Allardyce and the return of his trusted players from his Bolton days, e.g. Kevin Nolan. Southampton's rise to prominence has also been magnificent given the club were struggling to survive only seasons ago.
It has to be said that the English Championship is really two divisions in one now with sides like West Ham, Southampton, Middlesbrough and Cardiff having almost the same amount of resources as the likes of Wolves, West Brom in the Premier League and thus able to afford the best players and push their claims for promotion, while sides like Doncaster Rovers, Coventry and Watford are perenially in the middle and battling to stay up. A bit like the Premier League really.
Finally to New Zealand football, it was a season that didn't quite live up to expectations for the Wellington Phoenix - perhaps the All Whites in their squad and the coach of course suffering World Cup hangover even if they didn't quite admit it. Nevertheless the Phoenix still made the playoffs of the A-League although it didn't last very long. The All Whites as expected didn't play very often and when they did, they were outclassed by the likes of Mexico and Australia. The junior rep teams impressed at World Cups though meaning a bright future for the game in rugby mad New Zealand.
Perhaps more alarming was the Phoenix's poor financial health in the middle of the year as former owner, Terry Serepisos struggled to fund himself let alone a football club - probably the reason why Marco Rojas, Jade North and Dylan McAllister left the club. Mercifully, the club was sold to the Welnix consortium including Gareth Morgan and other Wellington businessmen and the club can look forward to buying some badly needed players for a very thin squad in the January transfer window.
So who makes the team of 2011?
Manuel Neuer, Germany (GK)
Dani Alves, Brazil
Carlos Puyol, Spain
Nemanja Vidic, Serbia
Patrice Evra, France
Gareth Bale, Wales
Andres Iniesta, Spain
Xavi, Spain
Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal
Robin van Persie, Netherlands
Lionel Messi, Spain
No comments:
Post a Comment