Soccanalysis

UEFA CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE 2017/'18 SEASON DRAWS IS LIVE!!!

Billed to start off in September, 2017, the much-anticipated and awaited Champions' League Season is here again, starting off in its usual fashion with the live draws.

Below are the pairings for groups A - H;

GROUP A
Benfica
Manchester United
Basel
CSKA Moskva

GROUP B
Bayern Munchen
Paris Saint-Germain
Anderlecht
Celtic

GROUP C
Chelsea
Atletico Madrid
Roma
Qarabag

GROUP D
Juventus
Barcelona
Olympiacos
Sporting CP

GROUP E
Spartak Moskva
Sevilla
Liverpool
Maribor

GROUP F
Shakthar Donetsk
Manchester City
Napoli
Feyenoord

GROUP G
Monaco
FC Porto
Besiktas
Leipzig

GROUP H
Real Madrid
Dortmund
Tottenham Hotspurs
APOEL

*Which club/team will you be rooting for???

Lessons learnt from the Juventus Vs. Barcelona UCL clash:

Teamwork beats individual performance, anyday, anytime!

http://giphy.com/gifs/BRWP0a0vBTb0s

That sums up united's struggle to get out of sixth spot this season

Apologies to fans, but I've got a question??

What got him so twisted? Frustration??? Lmao!!!!

giphy.com

BACK TO THE BASICS

Hello there, Socca-Masters and Socca-Mistresses! Welcome back after a despairingly long vacation; necessitated by the fact that, some months back, all European football leagues and competitions closed for the 2013/2014 season; and as it stands right now, SOMEthing is in the AIR! (As some are already aware, I believe :) )

We are back to where we began this time last year! The English Premier League is here again; kick-started by the traditional Community Shield, played between the winning sides of both the PL and FA Cups, Manchester City FC and Arsenal FC respectively. The match ended in a rather uncharacteristic fashion; as the Gunners ran out worthy winners, beating Pellegrini's last year champions by three un-replied goals by Cazorla, Ramsey and Giroud in successive fashion.

Riding on the back of that, is the PL Match-day one starting tomorrow, 16th of August, 2014 and ending with the Chelsea's away clash to the newly-promoted Burnley FC on the 18th. I hereby predict (hope I'm proved right though) there are going to be a lot of surprises this year, as the community shield match connotes (especially within the first-four rankings).

The Gunners have been the first to draw blood; firing an early warning going into the season...I wonder which of the other high-ranked rivals would reply first? Soccanalysis, as usual, will be on hand to dish out the juicy highlights of these matches as they unfold. The 2014/2015 EPL Season promises to be a blast. Do watch this page!

N.B:
Predict the order of the first four teams by the END of the 2014/2015 EPL Season and stand a chance to win fabulous prizes. Type your name, leave a space, your phone number, leave a space, and type your prediction (number 1 team first). For example;
Adeola 09123546784 Liverpool Chelsea Arsenal ManCity

The first three (3) persons to correctly predict, ultimately win the prizes. Promo closes on Saturday, May 2nd, 2015. Hurry now!!!

MY 'SHOCKANALYSIS'... By 'Tunde Famuyiwa

8/6/2014; 1600Hrs - I was not enthused in any way, by the Brazil versus Germany Semi-final clash, which was to kick-off by 2100Hrs [GMT]. At any rate, I was not contemplating wasting 'precious' time watching the match. For me, my World Cup dream all but went up in flames, after Griezmann's injury-time strike [deflected into the net by Captain Yobo, on his much-advertised, 100th Caps appearance for the team] sealed the win for the Les Bleus; and brought an abrupt end to the Super Eagles' torrid, World Cup campaign. I couldn't have cared less whether a cat or bat was gonna win the WC trophy. I was less-concerned. I'd simply forgotten to 'never say Never'....

1900Hrs - I closed from work, languidly finding my way to 'mi casa'; a welcome haven to rest my weary head after a tumultuous day at work. To my greatest surprise [or chagrin], the enthusiasm that greeted this prospective clash by Nigerian soccer faithfuls, was of improbable proportions. People were seen to gather, arguing rather belatedly on match predictions [many defending the bets they favored on various online sports betting fora; a recent development which has come to stay, judging from the enthusiasm with which people have become addicted]. I was rather taken aback by this development, being a sports-lover myself. I began to waver...'to watch' or 'not to watch'?

2124Hrs - Having drifted to sleep after a hearty dinner, I awoke to frantic shouts of, 'goooaaaallllll!!!', 'haba!', 'again?', 'Na wa oh!' and the like. Moments later, half-clad, I began to sprint frantically towards the direction of the nearest viewing center to catch a glimpse of the 'miracle' which elicited such injunctions [as there was no 'light'...as usual]. I was greeted time and again as I ran with more shouts of 'goal', whilst still on the way; making me double-up on the acceleration.

Stopping to catch my breath, I looked at the TV screen, doing a quick double-take. WHAT THE......!!! 4 - 0!!!! The Selecao were already trailing their German counterparts by four goals before half-time! I was shell-shocked! And more was yet to come, as Sami Khedira wrapped things up at five goals to nil before the 30th minute mark.

Andre Schurrle piled on more misery on the dispirited home crowd, with two sweet strikes, to further drive the dagger in. The consolation goal by Oscar did little to console the host nation, who were distraught by the abysmal showing of their compatriots...

- 'Tunde Famuyiwa is an Engineer cm writer, whose explosive writing makes ''football come alive, in print''. Follow him on twitter-->

Cross-fire for Cavani!!! Visit facebook.com/Soccanalysis to post your comments...

MUMUNI ALAO AT IT AGAIN!!!

Mumini Alao’s W/Cup Diary-9: It’s Crunch Time for Super Eagles
29 JUN 2014 SOCCER TALK
NIGERIANS must hope and pray that the Super Eagles haven’t already lost the match even before they enter the pitch for their Brazil 2014 World Cup second round match against France at the Estadio Nacional Mane Garrincha in Brasilia, capital of Brazil on Monday, June the 30th.

Late on Thursday evening, June the 26th, news came out of the team camp in Campinas that the players had boycotted training until their qualification bonus for the Round of 16 was paid.

Friday morning, the team flew out to Brasilia to start preparing for the match reportedly following assurances that the Nigerian minister of sports, Mr. Tami Danagogo was flying in from Nigeria with three million dollars cash to pay them.

Presumably, the players would have collected the cash before going into the pitch to face Les Blues. It remains to be seen whether the cash boost will motivate them to fly Nigeria into the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time, or distract them. As someone joked on Twitter when the sad story of the Eagles boycott broke, African players struggle to run on the football pitch the moment they wear their cash belts!

When I heard the news, my reaction was “the Nigerian malaise hits again!”

“We lost the game before we entered the pitch,” I recall former Eagles coach Clemens Westerhof saying after Italy eliminated Nigeria at this same stage of the World Cup 20 years ago at USA ’94.

To the watching world, it was a narrow miss, as Nigeria led 1-0 until a few minutes left when Italy equalized and then won the game 2-1 in extra time. But for Westerhof, the outcome was determined nights before. “For you, we came close (to beating Italy) but for me, we lost it when discipline broke down in camp and players were fighting for the money. It was over then.”

Nigerians must hope that last Thursday’s brief mutiny in Campinas does not have the same impact on the Eagles’ fortune against France as the 1994 episode in Boston, Massachusetts had against Italy.

But we’ve already seen a similar episode at this World Cup having a similar outcome. Our African neighbors, Ghana Black Stars had three million dollars cash flown to them from Accra by their President before agreeing to play their final group match against Portugal.

In this modern age of electronic and mobile banking, I was thoroughly embarrassed to see on Yahoo! Mail a video of Ghana’s cash being transported on Brazilian streets from the airport to the team’s hotel in a convoy of security vehicles. Even FIFA was so embarrassed that Secretary General Jerome Valke announced that FIFA would intervene in the future to prevent such an eye-sore.

At the time of writing this, it wasn’t clear which method Danagogo would adopt to deliver the cash to the Eagles in Brasilia, following the uproar that trailed Ghana’s crude approach. But the cash had to be delivered anyway.

Despite the cash in their pockets, though, the Black Stars still failed to shine. In truth, they had a mountain to climb to qualify from their group, having to beat Portugal and hoping that Germany would beat USA. Germany played its part but the Black Stars unfortunately put in their worst performance so far in the competition. Two terrible defensive errors gifted the Portuguese two goals in a 2-1 loss for Ghana that eliminated both teams from the World Cup.
Will Nigeria’s fate be different? I guess we have to remain positive and hope, yes. But the Eagles have definitely put themselves in the firing line of critics in what promises to be a crunch game. The cost of failure on their credibility will be high.

FOOTBALL-WISE IT’S A 50-50, BUT….

BARING the self-inflicted money distraction, the Super Eagles would have entered this second round game on equal footing with the French. The World Cup knock-out phase is usually very open and any team that reaches this stage can win it. But France would have a slight edge over Nigeria based on psychological readiness and the statistics recorded so far.

World champions as hosts in 1998, Les Blues have suffered their own blues in the last three tournaments when getting knocked out in the first round as defending champions at Korea-Japan 2002; in Germany 2006 and in South Africa 2010. Their 2010 outing was particularly ignominious as in-fighting among players and officials tore the team apart and they returned home in disgrace.

France seem to have learned from that episode and their greatest strength at this year’s World Cup has been team unity. Coach Didier Deschamps said categorically that the reason he didn’t bring certain players to Brazil was to avoid any discord and it has worked wonders so far.

France won only one game (against Togo in 2006) in three World Cup outings between 2002 and 2010. But they have won two games here already in 2014, drawing the other one.

France were the third highest goal-scorers in the first round with eight goals behind Holland (10) and Colombia (9) while Nigeria only scored three. France also conceded only two goals compared to Nigeria’s three, showing that they have a good balance going forward and defending.

But as we have seen repeatedly, statistics often count for little and it is the team that wants it the most on the day that grabs the victory. Let’s face it now: Stephen Keshi’s Super Eagles are not a high scoring side, but they don’t concede too many goals either. And, for as long as you don’t concede a goal in the knock-out phase, the possibility exists always that you can steal a goal at the other end and run away with the victory.

So, my expectation is that France with Paul Pogba of Juventus leading the midfield and the in-form Karim Benzema in attack will see a lot of the ball, but they will not find it easy penetrating the Nigerian defence marshaled by Joseph Yobo and Kenneth Omeruo. France do not have the depth of creative talent that Argentina paraded against the Eagles, but they do have lots of black players with a lot of endeavor. So, both teams will probably neutralize each other in the physical aspects of the game.

Mikel Obi has really not lived up to his billing as Nigeria’s midfield lynchpin so far at this World Cup. He has been lethargic, slow, and making a lot of wrong passes. I hope the prospect of a midfield confrontation with the younger Pogba will motivate Mikel to raise his game. Whoever wins that battle may likely win the game for his side.

HOME-COMING FOR KESHI, ENYEAMA

THE France-Nigeria game will be a sort of French reincarnation for Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi and goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.

During his playing career, Keshi captained French club Strasbourg between 1991 and 1993 and led them to promotion from the second division to Ligue 1. That was the period he polished his French language, which he had picked up earlier in Belgium, to perfection.

French journalists will be looking forward to the Nigerian coach and former Eagles captain speaking to them in a familiar tongue at the post-match conference in Brasilia. Hopefully, he will be telling them how he out-foxed his opposite number, Didier Deschamps who also was captain of the French team that won the World Cup in 1998.

For Enyeama, the Lille goalkeeper will also be facing familiar friends and foes in Brasilia. Enyeama was the most outstanding goalkeeper in Ligue 1 this past season, pulling off a series of fine saves and clean sheets en route to a record run of unbeaten minutes between the goal posts for his club.

Most of France’s key players are based abroad in England, Germany, Italy and Spain so Enyeama may not be quite familiar with those players. But there’s also a healthy contingent from the home league and there will be quite some back-slapping for the Nigerian keeper from familiar faces during the pre-match formalities.

ASK BRASILIA, ASK ARGENTINA!
SUDDENLY, I have found myself singing Lagbaja’s boastful “Ask Brasilia, Ask Argentina,” track again.

As narrated in an earlier diary, I was singing the track animatedly in great expectation at the start of the World Cup. But I temporarily lost appetite for it after the Super Eagles huffed and puffed in their opening game against Iran.

“I switched over to “He’s a miracle working God,” as we sought divine intervention for Nigeria’s survival. God answered our prayer, Nigeria beat Bosnia Herzegovina and my natural response was “Ose o, Ose Baba.”

Subconsciously, I resumed humming Lagbaja’s track after the Super Eagles lost 3-2 to Argentina in our last group match, but still qualified to go and face the winner of Group E in Brasilia. I suspect that the combination of Argentina and Brasilia in that sequence of events must have reignited my humming of the track.

What will I sing if we beat France? I don’t know yet...

VISIT TO THE “GLASS HOUSE”

KUNLE Solaja and I paid a visit to the World Cup headquarters of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in São Paulo a day after the Super Eagles boycotted training in Campinas. An agreement had been reached with players by then, so there was no tension in the air.

Part of the NFF hierarchy are staying at Hotel Branston in downtown São Paulo which serves as the “Glass House” here.

We were received by media officer Demola Olajire, chairman of the media committee, Chief Emeka Inyama and a couple of executive committee members. We stopped over on our way back P1 Travels where we had gone to book our flights to Brasilia.

BRAZIL AVOID A DISASTER

WORLD Cup hosts Brazil narrowly avoided a disaster on Saturday when they escaped defeat by Chile in the first game of the knock-out phase of the tournament.

After a 1-1 draw at full and extra time during which Chile hit the Brazilian cross-bar late on, Brazil won a nail-biting penalty shoot-out 3-2 to crawl into the quarter-finals where they will face Colombia who dumped out Uruguay 2-0 also on Saturday.

Let me make a confession: I was rooting for Brazil primarily because I was scared of the possible repercussion of an early elimination for the hosts. Images of placard-carrying street protestors telling us “Don’t Come to Brazil” before the competition started flashed through my mind during the shoot-out. Thank God the win kept them on their leash, at least for now.

I’m c**k sure that even FIFA would have been seriously relieved. Phew!

- culled from compltesportsnigeria.com

PROFILER: MUMUNI ALAO is arguably the best Sports columnist Nigeria has got to offer. Follow him on twitter via his handle--> for more on Nigeria's exploits in the ongoing FIFA 2014 W/Cup.

Good evening SoccaFam!

Cavani was fingered to fill in the shoes of impulsive vampire, Luis Suarez; as the latter had been banned after the infamous incident against Italian defender, Giorgio Chiellini in their final group D match [lmao]. One word to describe Edi Cavani's performance in comparison to James Rodriguez Oficial's during the Uruguay Vs. Colombia 2nd round match yesterday....

I'll start.



Now your turn.... :)

'LA DECIMA' OR 'LA PRIMERO'??? by 'Tunde Famuyiwa

Shifting gaze to tomorrow night's UCL final, I deem it fit to put pen to paper, lending voice to rambling thoughts, which further embellish the sheer importance of this event to these two sides who have been victorious against many well-deserving teams to get to this point in UCL history.

Not many a football follower would anticipate much from this clash, being an all-Madrid affair; a far worse comparison to the previous four finals involving teams from same country in this same competition. I strongly believe much, if not all of the fault lies with the UEFA body, tainting competitiveness with its conspicuous paramour with the Spanish brand of football, 'tiki-taka' they call it [Platini himself, was quoted, voicing something related to an UCL/El Clasico final some years back].

Despite all these sentiments I shared above [and more still within my breast, left unsaid], it is still clearly visible that much hangs in the balance, with regards to the fate/destiny of both teams; Real Madrid gunning for her tenth CL trophy [La Decima], trashing its record nine and distancing themselves by three to second placed AC Milan, who have won the trophy seven times.

This is not going to be an easy task though, as they have to do that at the expense of their city neighbors, and current La Liga champions, Atletico Madrid; who have always been in the 'shadows' of Real's grandeur and majesty in years past, its pain still keenly felt. They have however proved that they are no minnows and that they are up to the task, beating both Barcelona and Chelsea [great teams in their own rights] on their way to securing their first UCL trophy [La Primero] in 40years!!!

Join me tomorrow in witnessing history rewritten. Whichever way it goes, it is history in the making!!!

One of the highlights of the 2013/2014 EPL Season. Apologies to fans in da house though! :D

Soccanalysis
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