I hate penalty kicks for a championship match. There should be a replay. If they decided it like they did a boxing match, I think Chelsea might have won in a split decision. (On another note, I think boxing matches that don’t end in a knockout should be settled with penalty kicks. To the crotch. Yeah. That’d be cool.) Admittedly, the penalty kicks created a ton of drama. Cristiano Ronaldo went from hero to goat to saved in a matter of minutes. On the other hand, John Terry went from hero (great second-half save) to tragic figure because of a bad pitch in bad weather. This game was just screaming for an old-fashioned replay.
Congratulations to Manchester United. You’ve spent several weeks at the top of the WCR Top 25 and justified the ranking with their victory. Chelsea also demonstrated that their number two ranking was justified. I’m going to miss European club soccer, but it’ll be nice to get outside over the weekends for a change.
In the Copa Libertadores, there were numerous upsets, though only one was truly shocking. Fluminense and Sao Paulo, who are both off to poor starts in the Brasileiro Serie A, faced off with Fluminense squeaking by. LDU Quito was a little more surprising, not because they aren’t good, but because I thought San Lorenzo was better. Club America beating Santos, on the other hand, was a shocker. How could a team do so poorly in domestic action and yet play so well against some of the best clubs in South America? Finally, Boca Juniors victory over Atlas should have surprised nobody.
To those of you who have been following these weekly rankings, it’s time to bid a fond farewell. The rankings are not going away completely, but there is no longer any justification to publish them weekly. It’ll be back in a few weeks when the semifinals of the Copa Libertadores is complete and again in July at its conclusion. Then, in August, we will have a pre-season ranking and I expect the weekly rankings will return in September. In the meantime, we’ll be publishing a ton of annual rankings over the summer to keep you entertained and informed. We may be publishing other features if we can think of any. If there are any you can think of, especially involving numbers and rankings, please let me know and we may work them in.
And now, the final Weekly Club Ranking of the season.
World Club Rankings – May 26, 2008
1. Manchester United (Eng) (1) – The Red Devils have spent the entire second half of the season on top of the charts and Wednesday night (and Thursday morning in Moscow), they showed why. In a tale of two halves, Manchester United dominated the first half, survived the second half, and defeated Chelsea on penalty kicks to win their third Champions League title. Perhaps you were a bit lucky, but you wouldn’t have won if you hadn’t put yourself in position to take advantage of a little luck. The reason you’re on top has more to do with your Premiership title than the Champions League victory, but nobody can say that the best team didn’t win.
Congratulations to Manchester United. You’ve spent several weeks at the top of the WCR Top 25 and justified the ranking with their victory. Chelsea also demonstrated that their number two ranking was justified. I’m going to miss European club soccer, but it’ll be nice to get outside over the weekends for a change.
In the Copa Libertadores, there were numerous upsets, though only one was truly shocking. Fluminense and Sao Paulo, who are both off to poor starts in the Brasileiro Serie A, faced off with Fluminense squeaking by. LDU Quito was a little more surprising, not because they aren’t good, but because I thought San Lorenzo was better. Club America beating Santos, on the other hand, was a shocker. How could a team do so poorly in domestic action and yet play so well against some of the best clubs in South America? Finally, Boca Juniors victory over Atlas should have surprised nobody.
To those of you who have been following these weekly rankings, it’s time to bid a fond farewell. The rankings are not going away completely, but there is no longer any justification to publish them weekly. It’ll be back in a few weeks when the semifinals of the Copa Libertadores is complete and again in July at its conclusion. Then, in August, we will have a pre-season ranking and I expect the weekly rankings will return in September. In the meantime, we’ll be publishing a ton of annual rankings over the summer to keep you entertained and informed. We may be publishing other features if we can think of any. If there are any you can think of, especially involving numbers and rankings, please let me know and we may work them in.
And now, the final Weekly Club Ranking of the season.
World Club Rankings – May 26, 2008
1. Manchester United (Eng) (1) – The Red Devils have spent the entire second half of the season on top of the charts and Wednesday night (and Thursday morning in Moscow), they showed why. In a tale of two halves, Manchester United dominated the first half, survived the second half, and defeated Chelsea on penalty kicks to win their third Champions League title. Perhaps you were a bit lucky, but you wouldn’t have won if you hadn’t put yourself in position to take advantage of a little luck. The reason you’re on top has more to do with your Premiership title than the Champions League victory, but nobody can say that the best team didn’t win.
2. Chelsea (Eng) (2) – I feel so bad for John Terry. Poor conditions on a poor pitch together with some poor luck and Terry will always be remembered for missing that penalty kick, though he will be remembered for his skill and leadership, as well. Losing 1-1 to Manchester United was fitting as they were the two best teams in the world and the closest of margins is something we expected. Oh, and before I forget, Didier, you’re an idiot. And what does Avram Grant get for taking a struggling team with a ton of talent to just an angel hair below the peak of European football? Fired. Talk about a tough job. My guess is that he will be replaced with Frank Rijkaard, but who knows for sure?
3. Internazionale (Ita) (3) – Fell to Roma in the Coppa Italia final 1-2 on Saturday, but you can’t take the scudetto away. The only team besides Manchester United to hold the top spot in the WCR rankings this year had a great season and, like Chelsea, will likely have a new coach next season. I’m rooting for Jose Mourinho.
4. Real Madrid (Esp) (5) – Got crushed in a friendly with Al-Nasr (KSA) 1-4 this week, but friendlies don’t mean much. Dominating season in La Liga.
5. Porto (Por) (6)
6. Roma (Ita) (7) – They couldn’t quite chase down Inter Milan for the league title, but winning the Coppa Italia over their rivals in a match in which they pretty much dominated will leave the team with a pleasant finish to a great season. It was unfortunate that they couldn’t advance further in the Champions League, but consider them victims of a lousy draw.
7. Arsenal (Eng) (8)
8. Sao Paulo (Bra) (4) – It wasn’t a good week in Sao Paulo this time around. They started it off by being eliminated in the Copa Libertadores quarterfinals to Fluminense, falling 1-3 in the away match. They followed that up by having to fight back for a 1-1 draw with Coritiba in domestic action. Why is Sao Paulo still ranked so high? Because it is too early in the Brasileiro season to base statistics solely on this season’s stats, Sao Paulo is still getting credit for its tremendous season in 2007. By the time the next rankings come out, that will change. With its poor beginning to the season, Sao Paulo likely will not be around for the next set of rankings. Between now and the next rankings, Sao Paulo will play Santos and Atletico-MG.
9. Lyon (Fra) (10) – Defeated Paris St.-Germain 1-0 in extra time to win a historic double in French football. While I thought PSG outplayed Lyon and deserved the victory, a win is a win and earns additional silverware. Play a friendly this week against Al-Shabab from the United Arab Emirates.
10. Juventus (Ita) (11) – Didn’t look good against South China, falling 1-2 in a friendly, but I’ve already let my thoughts on friendlies be known. In another friendly, Juventus goes to the A-League to face Melbourne Victory this week.
11. Boca Juniors (Arg) (20) – Boca has gone from a club struggling in the Copa Libertadores to the new favorite to repeat by virtue of some upsets and Palermo’s hat trick in Boca’s 3-0 victory over Atlas in Mexico this past week. Managed only a 1-1 draw against Velez Sarsfield this past weekend. Up next for Boca Juniors is Flumiinense in the Libertadores semifinals. Their next two domestic matches won’t be cakewalks either as they take on Copa Sudamericana champion Arsenal de Sarandi and Argentine Apertura champion Lanus.
12. Bayern Munchen (Ger) (9) – How did Bayern fall three spots after a week of idleness? Because Club America upset Santos in the Copa Libertadores. I won’t go into the details, but it caused some shuffling in the formulas and German teams paid the price. Math is funny, sometimes, huh?
13. Villarreal (Esp) (12)
14. Fluminense (Bra) (24) – The good news is that Fluminense defeated Sao Paulo 3-1 to advance to the Copa Libertadores semifinals. The bad news is that they lost to SPORT 1-2 in the Brasileiro and are off to an even worse start domestically than Sao Paulo has. I’m not even sure that advancing to the Libertadores finals will keep them in the rankings if they don’t pick things up domestically. The worse news is they face Boca Juniors in the upcoming round. Over the next few weeks, Fluminense play Flamengo and Gremio as they try to turn things around.
15. Barcelona (Esp) (13) – Like Real Madrid last week, Barcelona will face a club from Saudi Arabia this week when they face Al-Ittihad. We’ll see if they are able to reverse the results that European powerhouses have had in post-season friendlies thus far.
16. Liverpool (Eng) (14)
17. Sporting CP (Por) (15)
18. PSV Eindhoven (Ned) (16)
19. River Plate (Arg) (NR) – Having fallen out of the Copa Libertadores, River Plate has taken advantage by tying for the lead of the Argentina Clausura with Estudiantes, defeating Huracan 1-0 this weekend. Relatively easy schedule goes along with that lead as River’s opponents the next few weeks are Colon de Santa Fe and Olimpo.
20. Ajax (Ned) (18)
21. Bordeaux (Fra) (19)
22. LDU Quito (Ecu) (NR) – Last week, an anonymous poster questioned whether Liga would get any respect if they advanced to the Copa Libertadores semifinals. The answer is yes. They would have received even more respect had they not taken the weekend off and fallen to second place in the domestic table. It required penalty kicks, but LDU Quito advanced past San Lorenzo and earn the opportunity to play the surprising Club America in the Libertadores semifinals. Next weekend, Liga plays CD Olmedo in domestic action.
23. Cruzeiro (Bra) (NR) – Unlike their Brazilian counterparts in the Top 25, Cruzeiro has been prospering early in the Brasileiro Serie A, defeating Santos 4-0 this weekend. Cruzeiro has matches coming up against Coritiba and Vasco da Gama in Serie A action.
24. Everton (Eng) (23)
25. Fiorentina (Ita) (25)
Bubbling Under (alphabetically): Atletico de Madrid (Esp), Benfica (Por), Celtic (Sco), AC Milan (Ita), Werder Bremen (Ger)
Bubbling Under a Little Deeper (alphabetically): Aston Villa (Eng), Chivas de Guadalajara (Mex), Estudiantes (Arg), River Plate (Uru), Sevilla (Esp)
Matches Between Top 25 Teams Over Next Few Weeks:
28 May – (14) Fluminense at (11) Boca Juniors
4 June – (11) Boca Juniors at (14) Fluminense
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