THE BALLON DOR 2018, 30 MAN SHORTLIST
-Eddie
As we approach to the near end of 2018, France Football announced its 30-man shortlist for the best player of 2018. They were some unexpected entries and snubs as well. Some surprising entries were Hugo Lloris, Mario Mandzukic, Karim Benzema and more. It was quite a wonder as David De Gea (Premier League Golden Glove winner), Robert Lewandowski (Bundesliga top scorer), and much more weren’t included. The 3-man ballon d'or shortlist will be out in the near future, and these are some players that could make it in the shortlist.
Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona, Argentina)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus, Portugal)
Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint Germain, France)
Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia)
Eden Hazard (Chelsea, Belgium)
Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid, France)
These are some notable mentions as well:
Raphael Varane (Real Madrid, France)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool FC, Egypt)
Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur, England)
These predictions were made by their current form, and since there is still a couple of months ahead of us, there is a chance that everything could turn around.
FOUR SOCCER TEAMS AT A CRISIS CURRENTLY…
-Eddie
The new 2018/19 season started on August, and we can see some top European teams having a poor start. There are four clubs that are currently undergoing a hard time, and they are - FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, and FC Bayern Munich.
FC Barcelona
After signing some new players in the summer, the Catalan Giants were expected to be exceptional this season. The season started of amazing with victories when it all went wrong in a league game where Barcelona drawn against a lower rated team. The next two league games were not good as we saw Barcelona lost one and tied in the other. When the Champions League came rolling by, Barcelona thrashed Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 at Spurs’ home with Lionel Messi being exceptional in their victory. This didn’t changed the Bulgarians form in the League as this was later followed by another draw making Barcelona winless in their last four league games.
Real Madrid
After losing a key player, Cristiano Ronaldo and their manager, Zinedine Zidane, Los Blancos seems to be in some harsh time. The start of the season was amazing. However, everything took a turn for the worse when they lost 3-0 to a team that didn't have high quality players like Real. This was followed by a goalless draw at home to their neighbors, Atletico Madrid, which wasn’t as bad as before since they lost to Atletico 4-2 in the UEFA Super Cup earlier this season. Two losses were followed up with one coming from the league and the other from the Champions League. This also means that Real Madrid hasn’t scored in their last four games. To be more precise, the 13 times Champions League winning team hasn’t scored in 409 minutes (49 minutes including from their 1-0 win in the League earlier this season).
Manchester United
The Red Devils had a poor start to the season as they won the opening game but lost the second one. After playing 11 games this season, Man. United has only won five games and tied in two games, leaving four losses. The manager, Jose Mourinho, is under huge pressure as the Portuguese is in danger of getting sacked in the near future. After coming back from a 2-0 loss, United turned the game against Newcastle around to keep Jose alive by finding the net three times in the last game.
FC Bayern Munich
The German superpower were doing brilliant in the German league along with their rivals Borussia Dortmund. Bayern’s last four games has seen them winless with two losses and two draws with a draw coming from the Champions League against Ajax. As Dortmund continued their unbeaten start, Bayern struggled. They are currently sixth in Bundesliga (German League) which is quite surprising as Bayern used to be the only team that really has a chance of lifting the league trophy at the end of the season with Dortmund being a favorite as well.
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Eddie
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUPS: GROUP OF DEATH?
The Champions League is a competition where the top clubs compete in. Out of 32 teams, only half of the team will be able to make it to the knockout stages. Each team will play six games. For instance, Team A will play against Team B, C, D twice where a match will be played at at A’s home and the other at the opposition’s home. There is a possibility of three groups of death (hard groups).
The deadliest group is said to be Group B with FC Barcelona, Tottenham, PSV, and Inter Milan. Barcelona and PSV finished 1st in their domestic leagues. Tottenham is also a huge threat as they finished as 3rd place in the Premier League and went to the Round of 16 (1st Knockout Round).
Another formidable group is Group H which includes Juventus, Manchester United, Valencia, and Young Boys. Juventus has a good shot of acing this group because of the new summer recruitments of arguably the best player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo. Manchester United also has a good shot in this group with the likes of David De Gea (Premier League Goalkeeper of the year, highest rated gk in Fifa 19), Paul Pogba (a first team player of the 2018 World Cup winning team, France), Romelu Lukaku (2nd highest goal scorer of World Cup 2018) and more. Valencia could cause problems to Manchester United and Juventus as Valencia used to be a threatening team in the Champions League.
In addition, Group C, consisting of PSG, Napoli, Liverpool and RS Belgrade is a hard group to get around. RS Belgrade is probably the least favourite to top the group, but the rest are capable of making it to the top half of the group. PSG won the French League last season, and Napoli finished 2nd with just 4 points behind the team that won the Italian league. Moreover, since Napoli just got a new, experienced manager, they will be giving their best in order to get over Liverpool or PSG. Further, Liverpool stands as a strong contender as they finished 4th last season even though they made it all the way to the finals before losing to Real Madrid with a score of 3-1. These two goals, however, helped secured Real Madrid their 3rd consecutive Champions League trophy.
These are the teams that are highly expected by people to make it out of the groups: Atletico Madrid, Dortmund (Group A), Barcelona, Tottenham (Group B), Paris, Liverpool (Group C), Porto, Lokomotiv (Group D), Bayern, Benfica (Group E), Man City Lyon (Group F), Real Madrid, Roma (Group G), and Juventus and Man Utd (Group H).
THE BEST TOP 3 NOMINEES, MESSI SNUB
UEFA player of the year has announced their final 3 nominees. Two Real Madrid stars, Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo (currently at Juventus), were included in the shortlist. They were joined by Liverpool’s forward, Mohamed Salah. Surprisingly, Lionel Messi wasn’t included. Salah who only won an individual trophy (Top Premier league scorer) was included whereas Messi who won the Golden Boot, La Liga, and Copa Del Rey wasn’t in the shortlist. Besides Messi, Antoine Griezmann from France could have been included as he contributed a lot to the national team and his club, Atletico Madrid (Won Europa League and UEFA Super Cup).
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ATLETICO MADRID LIFTS THE UEFA SUPER CUP, DEFEATS REAL MADRID
Both teams from the city of Madrid (Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid) traveled to Tallinn, Estonia to try and lift the UEFA Super Cup. The UEFA Super Cup is a one-match game where the Champions League winners, Real Madrid, and Europa League winners, Atletico Madrid, had a showdown. A 1st-minute opener from Diego Costa gifted Atletico a lead before Karim Benzema headed in an equalizer at the 27 minute. Savic conceded a handball at the 63 minute which led Sergio Ramos to score from the penalty spot. Diego Costa found the net again at the 79 minute to equalize Ramos’s penalty. Just eight minutes after starting the extra time, Niguez scored at the 98 minute meaning Atletico once again took the lead. Koke secured the Super Cup at the 104 minute with a left-footed volley inside the box. Real Madrid wasn’t able to get any goals, and this created rumors of Real Madrid missing Ronaldo.