A few thoughts why I ponder how a season of high hopes can go so negative in a handful of days. Hopefully a good performance in the Europa League against Rapid Vienna on Thursday can get some confidence back in the Villa squad. Maybe they'll start their path of Europa League success that will probably come to a screeching halt sometime this winter when they send a bunch of 19- -year-old's to some far off eastern Europe local to get knocked out of the tournament. How crazy is this tournament? There are 38 fixtures on Thursday alone. On the positive side maybe the trip to Vienna will allow O'Neil to uncover some unknown central defender or central midfielder that he can magically add to the lineup by the time they make the trip to Anfield next Monday.
Champions League: "The Champions...the Champions"...
I'm not exactly delighted that Fox Soccer Channel has picked up the Champions League due to their maddening inability to pick up Hi Def. It's a bit concerning that I can turn on my television and watch a rinky dink regional outfit like the Big Ten Channel broadcast in Hi Def but can't watch a network that broadcasts throughout the US and Canada adopt the technology. I am delighted that FSC will be showing a whole lot more CL than ESPN2 did. They kick off their broadcasting today with a handful of matches including the Arsenal trip up north to take on Celtic. Tuesday also gives us a nice matchup between Sporting Lisbon and Fiorentina while Wednesday features the Atletico Madrid and Panathaikos pairing. As far as the glory fixture from Glasgow I clearly can't see Arsenal lighting up the score sheet like at Goodison Park but do see them gaining a vital away goal in a 1-1 draw before 60,000 at Parkhead. In classic Arsenal fashion they'll already likely be without Cesc, Denilson, and Sagna. Two days ago I, like a lot of people, noted that Arsenal could win the Premier League this season if they were healthy so naturally three days after the thrashing of Everton the Arse is without a few major components.
Weekday Premier League? Hell Yeah.
Beyond the fact that my fantasy team is absolutely jacked due to the CL and Europa League matches this week we have the beauty of weekday Premier League matches. Unfortunately FSC is showing the Champions League all week so there is nary a match that I can set the DVR for. Today features Chelsea traveling way up north to take on Sunderland while resurgent Wigan plays host to Wolves. As far as the Chelsea match it looks good on paper but like your typical Chelsea match you know they'll grind it out and then score at the death on some cracker by Lamps or perhaps a mistaken cross by Drogs. I realize the diamond formation is made for European football but watching them grind it out week in and week out is going to be exactly that, a grind. All kidding aside it should be a good early season test for Steve Bruce and Sunderland who suddenly look like a top ten club. As far as Wigan v Wolves, we'll see if the dismantling of Aston Villa was an aberration or not. As a Villa fan who sees the team regularly crap the bed versus Wigan I'm inclined to think its an abberation.
Wednesday sees Manchester United head to Turf Moor to take on Burnley in what surely will be a 1-0 or 2-0 United victory. The featured match for me is Liverpool taking on Stoke at Anfield with Stoke looking to once again surprise Liverpool. Based on the form they showed at White Hart Lane on Sunday its pretty clear that Liverpool misses Alonso and the idea of them winning the league this year just may be a pipe dream. Add the injury to Skrtel and the defense is banged up. It's long odds but I think you'll see a draw between Stoke and Liverpool tomorrow.
Finally...a bit on US Soccer and Freddy Adu:
It's hard to believe that Freddy Adu is only (supposedly) 20 years old. He's been around so long that I swear he used to play with Eric Wynalda and Marcelo Balboa. After riding the pine at Benfica and then on loan at Monaco for what seems like forever it looked as if Benfica was going to loan Adu to Danish club Adu-Odense. Now reports are coming out that the loan deal is about to fall through. I can't imagine why the deal wouldn't go through. I can't imagine he's in Benfica's plans at this point, why not send him somewhere, anywhere, to get him some playing time and build up his value to make some money in the transfer market for him. From a US soccer perspective he badly needs playing time. He may only be twenty but with so little playing time over the past three years and the rust he displayed in the Gold Cup, his star is fading fast. Is he even highly regarded any more?
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