Monthly Archives: October 2015

Louis van Gaal is never one to pull his punches. The Manchester United manager certainly didn't mince words following the first meeting between his team and crosstown rivals Manchester City in the 2015 2016 season. "We don't have the luck," he said following the 2015 Manchester derby, arguing that his team should have won-and would have done just that, with better officiating on the field.

The highly-anticipated Manchester Derby ended in a scoreless draw, ruining a chance for Manchester United to leapfrog City and take the top spot in the 2015 2016 Premier League. Van Gaal blamed the loss on a key moment early in the second half, when a Raheem Sterling challenge on Ander Herrera arguably should have resulted in a penalty. The challenge was difficult to see, though, and officials ultimately didn't award the penalty.

Bad Luck for Manchester United

That challenge wasn't the only instance of Manchester

Rewind the clock back 10 months to the final Bundesliga games of 2014, and things were looking pretty dire for Borussia Dortmund. The football club had dipped to second-to-last place in the German top-flight and had only won three league fixtures in the past three months. It wasn't entirely clear what the problem was, but BVB, under the normally dependable management of Jurgen Klopp, had lost their groove. But the Borussia Dortmund recovery under Thomas Tuchel has been dramatic, with this season's performances offering a massive departure from those of 2014.

Making a Comeback

Now, with former FSV Mainz manager Thomas Tuchel in the driver's seat, it looks like Borussia Dortmund has found a new groove. Even considering a 1-5 loss against Bayern Munich on October 4^th, the Black and Yellows have been one of the big success stories of the German football season so far. They won their first five Bundesliga fixtures,

Are West Ham United the best football club in London? In past years, the Irons have run a distant third, behind Chelsea FC and Arsenal. This fall, though, West Ham are hovering near the top of the 2015 2016 Premier League and have enjoyed victories against both of their London-based league rivals, meaning West Ham United take London bragging rights. Could we feasibly see the Irons contending for their first-ever top-flight soccer title come spring 2016?

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The London Wins

West Ham's strong 2015 2016 season got started off on the perfect foot, with a 2-0 away win at Arsenal on August 8^th. The Gunners had been strongly favored to win the match, given their recent successes. Indeed, in the 2014 2015 Premier League, Arsenal ran a slow and steady race to finish third-ahead of a

Leading up to the third week of play there was stalemate in Champions League Group B 2015 2016, with each of the team's on exactly the same number of points. In week one, Wolfsburg beat CSKA Moscow 1-0 and PSV Eindhoven topped Manchester United 2-1. In week two, however, Man United bounced back with a 2-1 win against Wolfsburg and PSV Eindhoven crumpled in a 2-3 loss against CSKA Moscow. Those outcomes left each team in Group B with three points in the standings and goal difference tallies at zero. PSV Eindhoven technically had the edge, since they'd scored the most goals (four) across the first two fixtures, but for all intents and purposes, Group B was anyone's game.

Week three of 2015 2016 Champions League competition officially breaks the stalemate in Group B-at least for now. The matches played on October 21^st saw Wolfsburg pulling ahead with a 2-0 home win against PSV. CSKA Moscow and Manchester United, meanwhile, played a soccer match that ended in a 1-1 draw.

FC Barcelona found the magic formula last season by combining the offensive talents of Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suarez into an unstoppable vanguard. The football club won the treble (the La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League), and the Messi-Neymar-Suarez trio was named by some soccer pundits as the best front three in Barcelona history.

This season, Barcelona have struggled to live up to the immense hype of their 2014 2015 season, though the deck has at times seemed stacked against them. Between a transfer ban that kept Barca from bringing in new players for the fall, and an injury for Lionel Messi, Barca haven't looked quite as unstoppable as they did a year ago. Still, though, it's difficult to count the team out of any competition, simply because they could easily reach their highest heights yet once Messi returns from injury.

While Barcelona's magic formula can't last forever, though-no unstoppable front three ever can-at least one star footballer could

Being an Olympique Marseille fan hasn't exactly been easy over the past few years. From 2004 through to 2011, the football club was one of France's finest, notching top-five finish after top-five finish. In 2010, they won the Ligue 1 title; in both 2009 and 2011, they finished as the runners-up. Since then, though, Olympique Marseille have been inconsistent, to say the least. In 2011 2012, they dropped to 10^th place on the Ligue 1 table; in 2012 2013, they jumped back up to second place; and in 2013 2014, they fell out of the top five once again. And now it seems that in 2015 - 2015 Olympique Marseille hit rock bottom.

Last season, it looked as if the Olympians might win another title. For 14 weeks in the middle of the season, they were in first place in the league in terms of point totals. But when they only won eight games in the second half of the season, Marseille fell from first place to fourth.

A Rough Start

It was a do-or-die moment for Arsenal, as the English football club prepared to face off against Bayern Munich in the Champions League group stage on Tuesday afternoon. The Gunners lost their first two matches in Group F, beaten by Greece's Olympiacos and Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb in fixtures they should have won. The losses left the team in a rough place, as they prepared to face their group's most fearsome opponent. They had two choices: win the game and stay in the mix for a possible round of 16 advancement or lose and fall irretrievably behind in Group F. Ultimately, and against all odds, Arsenal chose the former as Bayern Munich suffer surprise loss after a flawless season so far.

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A Defensive Battle

By most measures, Bayern Munich had the better game. Arsenal

Only five teams have ever won the English Premier League title, but that has to do more with the relative brevity of the division's existence (the Premier League was founded in 1992) than it does with long-standing club dominance. The Turkish Super Lig, on the other hand, also has seen only five different champions, but the difference is that the Turkish football division has been going since 1959. That means the soccer league has split 57 titles five different ways. So does that make the first eight weeks of 2015/16 Turkish Super Lig play predictable?

The Turkish Super Lig is one of the more predictable competitions in European club football. The proceedings are made even more predictable by the fact that one of the five teams, Trabzonspor, hasn't won a title since 1984, while another, Bursaspor,

Paris Saint Germain have a way of getting tough draws in the Champions League group stage. Last year, the French champs were drawn into a group with FC Barcelona. Barca were, of course, favored to win the group-and they did, before going on to win the entire UCL tournament. But PSG held their own, too, actually beating Barcelona 3-2 the first time the two teams played one another in the group. The match, played on September 30^th, 2014, marked Barcelona's first loss of the 2014 2015 campaign and marked PSG as potential contenders for the Champions League title. The Parisians would ultimately bow out of the conversation in the quarterfinals, after having the misfortune of being drawn against Barcelona for a second time.

This fall, PSG have just as difficult of a draw in the group stage, where they are pitted against Barca's La Liga rivals (and 10-time UCL champions) Real Madrid. This time around, though, the Parisians didn't shock the soccer world with an early upset of

Guest Post By Karl Matchett

Two games into the Jurgen Klopp reign at Liverpool, Adam Lallana has been one of the players counted upon to feature heavily and in a pivotal role as the new manager seeks to transform both style and consistency of the team.

Starting against Tottenham and Rubin Kazan in a withdrawn, right channel role to support the main striker and be an outlet for the midfield, Lallana has been very involved in receiving possession quickly and charged with being both a conduit and a creator. With injuries robbing Klopp of his main forwards, offensive-minded midfielders have been relied upon throughout both 90 minutes, without huge success so far.

Lallana, at his best, is a great technical talent. His first touch is immaculate and he is able to turn his body in tune with the flight of the ball, evading