I decided to watch Roma vs. Real Madrid simply because both teams have a style of football that pleases me a lot. Even though Madrid played without Robinho I would have the chance to see Robben, Sergio Ramos, Casillas. Raul, Van Nilsterooy and Julio Baptista and on the other side I really like the way Roma plays. Mancini, Totti, Pizzaro, Juan... I knew this would be a great game.
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The first half was not as good as it could be but Robben was the differential. At the 8th minute he started the play that ended with Raul putting the ball inside Doni's net. Real was up by 1 and looked pretty comfortable in the game.

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The problem is that "Los Merengues" miss Robinho very much. Mainly because he is the one able to cause defenses to collapse simply by moving without the ball. And when he has it he is able to take defenders easily and create spaces for Raul and Van Nilsterooy. Without him Real Madrid was not able to transform its first half superiority into goals.

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So that at the minute 24th Pizarro scored Roma's equalizer confirming that if don't score when you have the chance you end up boosting your opponent's morale.

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Pizarro celebrating his goal .

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And then came the second half. Roma came back a different team. Still the same players but with a different spirit. At minute 12 Mancini did what he does best. Coming on the left side in an individual play he shoots and puts the home team on the lead..

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After the goal, Roma became a little bit more cautious and Real Madrid still wasn't able to be really dangerous. Even though the (fanatical) "Diario Marca" states that the result was unfair I honestly didn't think so.

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In football you got to transform superiority into opportunities and those into goals. Real Madrid didn't but Roma did.

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I know 7 teams are missing from the picture (Porto, Olimpiakos, Fenerbahce, Schalke, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United) but I just thought that it was really cool to open my closet and see that I have 9 of the 16 Champions League teams jerseys. Who will take the "Big Ears" trophy this year???

AC Milan versus Inter will be he frist great battle this sunday.

It's a match that will be interesting more because of the rivalry, the tradition and the number of great players that will bo on the pitch but in fact if you look at the Serie A table you will see that this game matters a lot more the World Champions AC Milan than for their rival neighbors.

Internazionale is leading the Serie A with a reasonably comfortable 7 point difference to the second place (Roma) on the other hand AC Milan has only 18 points in the 11th position.

If AC Milan intends to repeat the sucess of 2007 they'd better start winning games and what would be better than starting against their biggest rivals?

I believe it will be a close game and I really can't wait to see Kaká for AC Milan and Ibrahimovic for Inter to put up a great show!

Any score prediction??? I'd say 2 x 1 for AC Milan - just because the game matters a lot for them.

Here is how the teams might play, according to the Italian Newspaper "Corriere Dello Sport"

I have been watching a few games of the English Premier Football League and one conclusion came to my mind: the British style of football is outdated.

 

 I know a lot of my fellow English friends are gonna be very upset with me but this is my very honest opinion and I’ll explain how I got to this sad conclusion.

 

When you analyze the dynamics of modern football you will end up talking about teams like Chelsea, Real Madrid, Milan, Barcelona, Boca Juniors, São Paulo just to name a few. These teams represent a huge evolution in strategies, efficiency, and ability. An almost perfect balance of defense and offense without taking away the finesse that the sport requires. But when it comes to National Teams we don’t see that same balance.

 

Some National Teams were able to evolve and some others just got stuck in their own tradition. That’s the case of England.

 

I don’t like to analyze football using numbers but they will play an important role in this case so let’s check them out:

 

Even though being the inventors of football, England only started playing in the World Cup in 1950. Since then the event happened 15 times and England qualified for 12 of them. (England did not qualify for the 1974, 1978 and 1994 WCs)

 

In those 12 participations England only won 1, in 1966 when they were the hosts. The next best result was a 4^th place in 1990.

 

England never won the European Championship. The best results were a 3^rd place in 1968 and they also got to the semi-finals in 1996. That’s it.

 

I know that England gave the world of football some amazing players: Gordon Banks, Bobby Charlton, Alan Shearer, Gary Lineker,  David Beckham, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney… but the question is: how many of them could actually lead the English team to a title? Well, Gordon Banks and Bobby Charlton did in 1966…

 

I’m not a fan of the British style of football. I grew up admiring Gary Lineker but I haven’t seen any transformation in the English team since then. I saw “the promise” Michael Owen become not more than a promise, I saw David Beckham rise in the eyes of the media but didn’t see him being really effective for the country, and I’m still waiting to see something amazing from Wayne Rooney.

 

England is out of the Euro 2008 so we will have to wait for the 2010 World Cup to see some changes. Well, that’s if they qualify (?)

 

What do you think should change in the English team to make them a winner team?

 

Is the massive presence of foreigner player in the Premier League a problem?

 

Is the fact that all players in the National Team only play in England a problem?

 

Do you think if England “exported” its players to countries like Spain, Portugal, Russia, Italy… the game style would be improved?

 

Let us know what you think…

 

 Hoping for some future Glory...