Page 3 - Monthly Archives: August 2015

21st August 2015
Sparta Prague have truly kicked off the new 2015 2016 Czech First League season with a bang, ascending to the top of the league standings table with big, high-scoring wins over clubs like Ziln, Mlada Boleslav, and Banik Ostrava. Add the fact that both last season's league champions (Viktoria Plze?) and third-placers (Jablonec) are languishing in the middle of the pack after disappointing starts, and it looks like the Sparta Prague prospects 2015 - 2016 are heading at winning a national football championship title.

Sparta Prague's Proud History

Sparta Prague are, of course, the most decorated football club in Czech Republic history. Since the inception of the Czech First League in 1993, the Maroons have won the title 12 times, and been the runners-up on eight additional occasions. (In comparison, Slavia Prague, Viktoria Plze?, and Slovan Liberec have each won the First League title three times.)

We preview the upcoming Arsenal V Liverpool 2015 fixture. As a general rule, the Premier League seems to avoid showcasing any major matchups in the first week or two of competition. The logic behind this practice is clear, since everyone is going to be paying attention during week one, and it makes more sense to save the big matches of the football season-like a Manchester City vs. Manchester United derby, for instance-for later weeks, to keep the excitement at a fever pitch.

This year was no different in regards to that rule, with the biggest fixture of week one probably being the matchup between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur-teams that finished fourth and fifth, respectively, on the 2014 2015 Premier League table. Things

Most eyes in the soccer world this past weekend were fixed on the opening weekends for Germany's Bundesliga, France's Ligue 1, or the Dutch Eredivisie-not to mention the second weekend of the 2015 2016 English Premier League. Also launched over the weekend, though, was the Portuguese Primeira Liga, where it looks like the reigning champions from Benfica are already establishing a thorough title defense. Keep reading for more information on week one Premeira Liga 2015 - 2016 fixtures.

Benfica surged into the new season in high style, crushing Estoril 4-0 to establish an impressive three-point, +4 goal difference start to the season. Unsurprisingly, the four-point win places Benfica at the top of the Premeira Liga table.

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Newcastle United face tough fixtures in weeks three and four, how has the opening weeks gone? And can they score some points in the coming fixtures? After week one of the 2015 2016 Premier League, Newcastle United seemed to be off to a solid-enough start under the new management of Steve McClaren. They didn't nab a win in their opening fixture, but they did manage a 2-2 draw against Southampton-a team that beat them 4-0 last fall. All things considered, escaping that match with one point in the standings instead of zero was good news for the Magpies, and predicted a better season to come for the embattled football club.

Now, though, just a week and a half later, things are looking a good deal less promising for McClaren's soccer squad. Following an 0-2 loss against Swansea City this past weekend, the wearers of the Newcastle United shirt 2015 2016 are currently ranked in 15^th place on the Premier League table. That fact, by itself, is no big deal: after

Three times in little over a week Spanish football hosts Athletic Bilbao V FC Barcelona. The first two of those fixtures were in the Spanish Super Cup, and just like that, Barca's campaign to win six trophies in a single calendar year has come to an end. Following their remarkable treble win during the 2014 2015 season, followed by a UEFA Super Cup victory over Sevilla last week, it looked like FC Barcelona were going to replicate the six-trophy feat that the club managed back in 2009. Unfortunately for fans in the Barcelona football shirt, it just wasn't meant to be. But, will the Super Cup result impact upon the third meeting of these two clubs in the first game of the 2015 - 2016 La Liga season?

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Barca's 2009 Hall-of-Fame Year

In 2013 2014, the German Bundesliga season ended with Bayern Munich as the champions, Borussia Dortmund as the runners-up, and Schalke 04 in third place. Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg rounded out the top five. Now, in the wake of the opening week of 2015 - 2016 Bundesliga play, it's as if we've found a time warp back to the 2013 2014 season, for how similar today's standings look like the final rankings from that season.

Indeed, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and Schalke 04 are the opening week's top three performing football clubs. Bayer Leverkusen, meanwhile, are in fifth, while VfL Wolfsburg are just outside the top five, at sixth place. Talk about déjà vu.

Two Returns to the Top

For Bayern Munich, returning to the top of the Bundesliga table is more or less a foregone conclusion at this point. The soccer club has won 25 German championship titles since inception, including six of the past 10 Bundesliga

Following the Manchester City V Chelsea 2015 Premier League Week 2 fixture the question has arisen, are the Blues in trouble? Last season, there was never a week where Chelsea FC were not ranked at the top of the Premier League table. Starting with a 3-1 week one win over Burnley, the Blues were in first place for England's top-flight football division. After 37 more weeks of play, they still occupied that position, earning the Jose Mourinho-managed team a well-deserved league title.

With two weeks on the books for the new 2015 2016 season, though, it looks as if Chelsea FC have lost control. Starting with a surprise week one draw against Swansea City-a team that the Blues crushed on a point aggregate of 9-2 in their two head-to-head fixtures last season-Chelsea seem to have been thrown into a tailspin. Now, following the first big fixture of the English soccer season-an August 16th match between Chelsea and Manchester City-the Blues have picked up a loss and are sitting in 16th

What is the Sergio Ramos saga 2015? It looked like Manchester United had nailed down a deal with the Real Madrid defender, offering him £9.8 million a year (or £200,000 per week) to play in England. That would have been a significant step up from what Ramos is currently making with Real Madrid, and seemed to be enough to lure the 29-year-old Spaniard away from the football club where he has spent the past 10 years of his career. In fact, the rumor was that Ramos actually agreed to United's high-paying deal, before backing out and deciding to stay at the Santiago Bernebeu. Now, Sergio is reportedly preparing to sign a brand new contract at Real Madrid.

To be fair, it may have been Real Madrid President Florentino Perez, or even new club manager Rafael Benitez, who threw a wrench in Sergio's plans to leave the Spanish La Liga in his rearview. After all, in 2011, Ramos extended his contract with the Vikings to run until 2017. In other words, even if Sergio really did

The transfer deadline for Premier League teams is September 1st, which means that Newcastle United still have a few weeks left to bring in some new talent for the 2015 2016 season. As is, it has been a busy Newcastle United summer transfer window 2015 so far, finalizing three fairly large signings, a fourth less expensive arrival, a handful of loans out, and the permanent departures of five different football players. Is there any more to come?

Transfers In

So far, new Magpies manager Steve McClaren has brought four new players to St. James' Park ahead of the 2015 2016 soccer season: midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, forwards Aleksander Mitrovic and Ivan Toney, and defender Chancel Mbemba.

Wijnaldum, who will don the Newcastle United home shirt 2015 2016 this season after having spent four seasons at PSV Eindhoven, is McClaren's most expensive signing of the summer, reportedly commanding a £14.5 million transfer fee.

AC Milan will officially begin the 2015 2016 season on August 23^rd, when they play an away match at
Fiorentina for the opening weekend of the latest Serie A campaign. For now, though, the summer transfer window is still wide open, and the Red and Blacks are taking advantage of it by continuing their streak of signings. This week it was announced that AC Milan signs Alessio Romagnoli, in total the club has brought nine new transfers aboard since June, several of whom have been quite expensive-including Roma midfielder Andrea Bertolacci, Sevilla forward Carlos Bacca, and Luis Adriano, who was a star of last year's Champions League for Shakhtar Donetsk.

The Red and Blacks have paid reported transfer fee of €25 million to bring another Roma player to Milan, Alessio Romagnoli. He is a 20-year-old center back who came up in Roma's youth program before starting his senior career in 2012. He spent the last soccer season on loan to Sampdoria, but Milan will