This week we discuss the Sicilian and Madrid derby. We also talk about Club Atlético de Madrid and their UEFA problem. We take the Ballon d’Or “short list” and make it really a short list. All that and so much more on this weeks episode of Forza Futbol.

The matches begin on October 23. These are some great groups and I can't wait until the games kick off. Out of all eight groups I only see two (Groups G and H) that don't look as strong as the other six. Some match ups I'm looking forward to have to be Sevilla - Sampdoria, Olympiakos - Galatasaray, AC Milan - Wolfsburg and Hamburg - Aston Villa.
Group A
Schalke
Paris Saint Germain
Manchester City
Racing Santander
FC Twente

Group B
Benfica
Olympiakos
Galatasaray
Hertha Berlin
Metalist Kharkiv

Group C
Sevilla
Stuttgart
Sampdoria
Partizan Belgrade
Standard Liege

Group D Tottenham
Spartak Moscow
Udinese
Dinamo Zagreb
NEC Nijmegen

Group E
AC Milan
Heerenveen
Braga
Portsmouth
Wolfsburg

Group F
Hamburg
Ajax
Slavia Prague
Aston Villa
MSK Zilina

Group G
Valencia Club
Brugge
Rosenborg
FC Copenhagen
Saint-Etienne

Group H
CSKA Moscow
Deportivo La Coruna
Feyenoord
Nancy
Lech Poznan

This week on Forza Futbol we look at week six in Serie A and La Liga. We also discuss the Azzurri call ups from the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers.

Giuseppe Rossi has gotten the call from Lippi and is making the jump from the Azzurrini to the Azzuri. Rossi is just one of four new faces to enter the squad. Christian Maggio, Fabiano Santacroce and Simone Pepe are also included. I'm really looking forward to seeing Rossi get his chance at the senior level. I believe he is really going to be a main contributor to Italy in the next few World Cups and Euros. Here is the full list of call ups for the games against Bulgaria and Montenegro.

Goalkeepers: Buffon (Juventus), Amelia (Palermo), De Sanctis (Galatasaray)
Defenders: Bonera (Milan), Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Chiellini (Juventus), Dossena (Liverpool), Gamberini (Fiorentina), Santacroce (Napoli), Zambrotta (Milan)
Midfielders: Aquilani (Roma), Camoranesi (Juventus), De Rossi (Roma), Gattuso (Milan), Maggio (Napoli), Montolivo (Fiorentina), Nocerino (Palermo), Perrotta (Roma)
Forwards: Di Natale (Udinese), Gilardino (Fiorentina), Pepe (Udinese), G Rossi (Villareal), Toni (Bayern Munich).

Love him or hate him Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of the worlds best strikers. He can create something from virtually nothing. If you haven't seen his most recent magical moment you need to see his goal from Saturday against Bologna. An amazing back heal from behind the defender. Just amazing.

Well the UEFA draw for the Champions League Third Qualifying Round and the UEFA Cup Second Qualifying Round. Confused yet?

Participants in the CL 3rd Round in La Liga and Serie A are the 3rd and 4th place winners of our leagues.

Participants in the UEFA Cup 2nd Round is the Intertoto winners in La Liga and Serie A.

The Cup winners or 5th and 6th place winners in our leagues will take part in the Group Stage, I believe.

Now that we got that squared away. Here's the draw:

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:

Pick of the draw: Atletico de Madrid vs Schalke 04. Good news: let's get to business right away! Bad news: Las Pupas? Or rather why us? This could possibly be an early exit for Atleti. Especially without Kun. But Atleti has the talent to seize the day and beat Schalke. This is going to be a mouth watering affair. Save the date! August 12th and 27th!

Other notable: Fiorentina vs Slavia Prague. Fiorentina has been waiting for this moment to play with the big boys. Put playing away against the Eastern European teams could be a banana skin. Fiorentina has reengineered their squad a lot. Will they be in sync and have their chemistry together in time? I certainly hope so.

Cakewalks: Why do the big teams get all the breaks? Luck or conspiracy? Barcelona failed to place first or second and have to qualify. They will face either Beitar Jerusalem or Wisla Krakow in Poland. I don't think missing Messi will make a difference with Eto'o, Henry, Bojan, and Gudjonsen. Nope they are loaded. Meanwhile, Juventus is back to vye for Champions League glory! They will face either Tampere United of Finland or Artmedia of Slovakia. No problem, ya think?

UEFA CUP

A Coruña draw a toughie! Deportivo La Coruña are back in Europe after hard times financially. Team Depor will face Hadjuk Split from Croatia. This could be a difficult tie, especially if Depor lose hard man Coloccini to Newcastle. Depor ended their summer early and are raring to go. They will need to be at their best.

Easy peasy for Maradona's old team. Napoli who have been long missing from Europe to face off against KS Vilaznia of Albania. This should be a shoo-in for the Southerners. Forza Napoli.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree? What are your predictions? Post your comments and let's discuss.

‘I think in football there’s too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere,’ Sepp Blatter.

‘I agree with the comments of the president of FIFA. What he said is right,’ he told Portuguese channel TVI. Cristiano Ronaldo.

Cristiano Ronaldo believes he is being treated like a slave? Last time I checked slaves didn’t get paid. I am appalled anyone would make such a statement, not surprising it comes from Blatter. That is utterly ridiculous and extremely offensive. You might want to check yourself Cristiano, you get paid to do a job, no one holds a gun to your head or chains you to a post. Last time I checked you get paid a nice penny for your job and are under contract which apparently means nothing to you, FIFA or UEFA. Yes, Sepp Blatter first made the analogy but I think it is absolutely ridiculous for the statement in the first place and then for the comment by Ronaldo agreeing with him. I’m sick of the run around about is he going is he not. If Manchester United are smart they will sell Ronaldo to Real Madrid and soon. Get as much as they can for him and stop this circus of crap coming out of everyone’s mouth.

Blatter quote taken from Soccernet

Ronaldo quote taken from Soccernet

Every year, the infamous Fifa World Player of the Year Award comes out and every year I find myself wondering why I ever paid attention. Yes, if you’ve been living under a rock, or as I have suffering the after effects of jet lag and Barcelona, here’s the list. ‘ll join you after you read it.

FIFA World Player of the Year nominees:
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Petr Cech (Czech Republic), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Deco (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Ghana), Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon), Gennaro Gattuso (Italy), Steven Gerrard (England), Thierry Henry (France), Juninho (Brazil), Kaka (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Frank Lampard (England), Rafael Marquez (Mexico), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Alessandro Nesta (Italy), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Franck Ribery (France), Juan Roman Riquelme (Argentina), Ronaldinho (Brazil), Wayne Rooney (England), John Terry (England), Carlos Tevez (Argentina), Lilian Thuram (France), Fernando Torres (Spain), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Netherlands), Patrick Vieira (France.

See anything glaring? Now I won’t argue that Lionel Messi, Didier Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ruud or even Riquelme deserve to be on that list. Maybe Essien. They all had spectacular years. Kaka, Gerrard, Pirlo and Gattuso met in the Champions League final so you could also make a case for them as well. But the rest? How many of these are here because of reputation? Thuram and Viera are washed up has beens. Ribery hadn’t yet come into his own, and Torres had never lived up to his billing in Spain. Tevez spent most of the year on the bench at West Ham, Buffon most of the year in Serie B, and most everyone else spent a significant portion of the year injured; except for Deco who spent most of the year being confused with Iniesta and Xavi. Am I getting to my point yet?

I think I’m not arguing that these people shouldn’t be nominated, I’m not even worried so much with who will win because it’s obvious that one of these, Kaka, Drogba, C. Ronaldo, or Messi, deserve it just as much as any.

Yet, eternally injured Rafa Marquez gets nominated, over the Golden Boot winner in Europe- Francesco Totti?

I realize that I’m biased for Totti, but I’m trying to be objective here as well. Is Petr Cech more deserving of the award than Pepe Reina who got his club to the CL final? Is Miroslav Klose more deserving than Raul Tamudo or Daniel Alves who both met on the field in Scotland for the UEFA Cup final? God, even David Beckham deserves votes for inspiring his club to wins down the stretch for Real Madrid.

I realize this is a popularity contest, and Francesco Totti, who isn’t even liked by the majority in his own country (outside of Rome I guess) won’t be winning any, but there are glaring cases like this that completely underscore how stupid this award really is. Give it to Kaka, who seems the darling of Fifa anyway, and of Brazilian extraction which helps for starters but don’t come to me afterwards and tout a player by how many individual awards he’s won, because clearly don’t matter.

Mando from FF

The Real G14

Everybody knows the G-14: The 14 or so most powerful clubs in Europe, but who really are the best clubs in Europe?

You couldn't just look at 1 or 2 years. 5 years is a trend, and a good start, but I decided to go with 10 years. I figured that competing against each other meant most when factoring these choices, so I looked at European competitions, but knockout competitions are never a real determining factor when weighed against a long season, so I looked at average points per season over those years and I had to make tough choices. I valued momentum. I valued stability: other than one exception I didn't believe that spending a significant amount of time in the second division gave you the right to brag about being top of the heap. So here's my list.

1. Manchester United:
2. Real Madrid:
3. Barcelona
4. Chelsea
5. Bayern Munich
6. Arsenal
7. AC Milan
8. Liverpool
9. Valencia
10. Juventus
11. Inter Milan
12. Lyon
13. AS Roma
14. Bayer Leverkeusen


Some observations: Dominance domestically gives United the top spot, and that 1999 season cements it. Chelsea was a surprising pick, but factor in those two monster years that upped their average tally per season, plus their cup record and I picked them fourth over Bayern and Arsenal. Momentum is important: both Munich and my Gunners are years removed from glory. Over 10 years in Spain, Barcelona and Real Madrid are level in points separated by decimal points. Overall European victories give Madrid the edge, despite Barcelona's edge in the cup competitions. I knew Liverpool had never won the Premiership and so they were very much a European cup-centric side, but I had no idea how poor AC Milan had been domestically over that span despite their 2 Champions League titles, so I couldn't move them past any of the top 6. I hated putting Juventus in the mix but Europe is not something that Luciano Moggi had much control of but I docked them places nontheless.

Opinions? What's do you think?