UEFA Semi-final, BPL

     Welcome to my last April blog. This week's blog will include the latest news in the UEFA Cup and some league (BPL) games.
     To start off, an incredibly dull over-hyped match was played today: Real Madrid vs Manchester City. Leg 1 of the UEFA Cup semi finals, both teams had to settle with their score of 0-0, not providing much for the current Cup or the fans. One of the main highlights of this game was Modrić's amazing box-to-box midfielding, where he led in passing, dribbling, shooting, and defending today.
     Of course, the underdogs are back. Leicester won their game against Swansea today 4-0, setting giving them more and more points to lead in the BPL (contradicting how Chelsea are doing right now). The game led them eight points above the second placed Tottenham Hotspur, who could've cut it to five by beating West Brom. Too bad it didn't happen.
     Honestly, the Spurs should feel lucky to even have drawed 1-1 yesterday to Bromich; it was lucky. Spurs had the lead of the game 33 minutes in by an own goal (courtesy of Dawson), who barely redeemed himself 73 minutes in to just bring the game back. The Spurs remain second today.

Injuries, Progression

This week, I'll discuss some soccer injuries and progressions of serious injuries. Some great players have been taken out of their careers due to one nasty foul on this pitch. One example is Aguero; he's been injured since last November, and still expected to miss next week's game against Brazil, though he might return soon.
Also out since late last year is the one Messi. He's been out since last October from a nasty slide that disrupted his knees, and is still out indefinitely, meaning it's unknown when he'll fully recover. So far, Barça's learning to play without him.
On to a more recent injury is Arsenal's Petr Čech. His calf was injured on the third of March, during a game against Swansea, where he rushed back to his penalty box after a last minute corner, plus he reported to Arsene Wenger about a groin injury before the game, but says he was still a hundred percent confident to play; he almost made it through the whole game. Ospina made is return to play in place of Čech, but the Czech International is planning his return quite soon.
Finally for this list is the Yaya Touré. During yesterday's game against Stoke he had a suspected injury to his quads, possibly due to insufficient warm-ups for the game. Though his injury, like Čech's, wasn't caused by a dirty tackle, it still affects Man City's potential in the UEFA Cup, whose match is next week against Real Madrid. With him doubtful to be playing, City will be lacking Touré's signature free kicks, strength, and box-to-box midfielding.

MLS, UEFA, BBVA

Not much has happened this week in futbol terms, but I will provide the highlights of the week. First game that happened was after Barça started mourning over their Valencia loss; they made up for it, though, after they beat Deportivo 8-0. MOTM Luis Suárez ended up with four goals all to himself, Neymar, Rakitić, Messi, and even Bartra got a goal in plus a clean sheet. After 2-1 to Valencia, this is definitely the best they could have done.
My team (LA Galaxy) played against Houston Dynamo today, and completely turned the game around for themselves. Funny enough, Houston scored a decent goal in the very first minute, depriving some people of hope so early in the game for an entire three minutes, where Giovani dos Santos scored to bring the game back, Husidić in the 31', dos Santos again to secure the win, and Zardes in the fourty ninth just for fun. Santos is, because if this, Player of the Week in the MLS.
Now that inter-league matches are dying out, we finally can watch games between leagues; this one being Liverpool versus Borussia Dortmund, which was a near perfect match to watch. This quarter final of the UEFA Cup resulted in Liverpool's win, contradicting their status in the BPL. 3-1 Liverpool was losing by Dortmund's third goal, but they managed a classical comeback to win; once the Germans went defensive, the Englishmen saw chances to get through, with successful finishing from Sakho, Coutinho, and Lovren (who scored one minute into added time, saving them from continuation to 120' or penalties).

League Finals

For this week, there will only be more matches to talk about. The first controversy of the week is Saturday's El Clasico. Rooting for Barça, I really thought they had it. But their win streak had to eventually end; in this case, in the final. Of all people, Piqué was the one to score for BAR at 55', giving hope to the fans. On the other side, Benzema and Ronaldo became the heroes of the match, both scoring late goals to win them the La Líga title.
       In the other league, meanwhile, Chelsea is finally crawling up the table of the Barclays league, but it's too late now; that was the final. Chelsea managed themselves into the top 10 (tenth, unfortunately), saving them from relegation. This means Aston Villa is to be released from the Premier League: They're in twentieth place. José Mourinho is in an awkward position, with his team growing, new players getting goals and players like Hazard doing... not so well. Scorers here were Pato, Loffus-Cheek, and the ex-Barça Pedro (who Chelsea is now lucky to have).
           Finally, in the BPL Finals, Leicester won their last game 1-0 to Southampton, securing their Barclays title. The spotlights of this game were shined on both goalies of the game: Fraser Foster of SOU and Kaspar Schmeichel of LEI who both made amazing saves to keep opposition off goal, but Foster let one in, unfortunately, which cost them three points. Leicester just got lucky for not conceding a penalty when somebody hand-balled without the ref seeing. Anyway, it's all about the underdogs that went from being a three-star abomination to a five-star threat.

Potential

Welcome once more to my pro soccer blog! This week's discussion will disclose some very game and team changing things that have happened recently that might affect the outcome of them. The first of these is a loaned transfer; Atlético Madrid star Jackson Martínez was loaned to Guangzhou Evergrande, a club of definite lesser authority in the leagues, but might make a rise after Martinez comes, as Madrid may fall without him. Another affective incident is an injury. In this case, seven. Today seven players were injured playing for Arsenal, even Petr Čech. None of the injuries are completely severe, and take no more than two weeks to heal. This brings the remaining at Arsenal to a challenge at striving on their own in the BPL top 5, especially with Ospina being placed as goalie. A major change occurred to legendary PSG, where Ezequiel Lavezzi was transferred to the Chinese League, where he definitely doesn't belong. At least Hebei Fortune has a chance against their league for the time being of the Lampard of France

Randoms

For this week of my soccer blogs, I'll just discuss some of random leagues, games, and championships. First game up is Manchester City against Dinamo Kiev, an easy win for Manchester, but it could have been easier. Agüero and Silva both scored in the first half, Hart denying opportunities for the Ukrainian team to gain a goal, except Buyalsky's 58' goal that sparked the team with hope, but Touré just added some salt to the wound at the 90' with a magnificent rebounded goal.
Our BPL game of this week will be the 2-1 victory of the Reds against Crystal Palace. Always bantered and made fun of for their drawing streaks, Liverpool finally won, nearly continuing their annoying ties. Ledley scored as soon as the second half began, enriching a spirit of hope into Crystal Palace. But, Liverpool earned themselves a 1-1 equalizer in the seventy second minute from a total howler of a through-ball from the Reds' goalie, resulting in Roberto Firmino's goal. The finale of the match resulted in a penalty that could NOT have been better timed into the very last minute of added time (90 + 5), Benteke picked to save the team.
As a final for today, I'd like to include Barcelona vs Getafe FC, simply because of home's astounding performance. A devastating match for the losers, Barça won a clean sheet 6-0. Rivals of Barça, Getafe knew what was coming; they're always clean sheeted. An embarrassing piece of play towards them, though, was Juan Rodriguez's own goal in the 7'. After that, goal after goal was scored by Home, nearly every ten minutes until Getafe took down the attack and "parked the bus."

FA Cup- BPL

The underdogs are dominating the BPL. Leicester is number one on the BPL standings, crushing their opponents with their sixty three points. Their most recent game resulted in their 1-0 victory against Newcastle, who watched in terror as Shinji Okazaki scored a lonely bicycle kick into the back of the net, scoring the Foxes' sole goal that led them five points above Tottenham. Just eight matches left. Chelsea, on the other hand, is on the very verge of relegation. Their most recent game cost them three points that could possibly keep them in the Premier League. Everton inevitably won 2-0, with two totally unstoppable shots from Lukaku that went straight past the visiting goalie to score for the League. Both teams still remain at the bottom of the table and face the incoming threat of relegation; especially Watford, who somehow beat Arsenal, who remain third, a few days back, 2-1. It was an average match- halftime 0-0. Watford then put out two goals within ten minutes after HT, which won them the game. Arsenal was thhisss close from winning, though. After Welbeck came on second half, he scored a goal with two minutes left, and nearly two minutes later missing a wide open goal which could have changed the stats totally. Best luck to the BPL in the FA Cup; may the best team win.

Capital One Cup 🏆

In today's blog I will be discussing the Capital One cup, won yesterday by the deserving Manchester City. Of three games to be discussed today, the first will be Liverpool vs Southampton's 6-1 win. The Reds were never really expected to be winners in any case, even to a team like So'ton, but they ended up with marvelous victory with Sturridge's 2 goals, Origi's hat trick, Ibe's goal, and Mane's puny Southampton goal that let up to the final, along with their 1-0 win to Stoke . Next up are the Everton vs City games. Man City showed their dominance to the league after their 3-1 win, but Everton strikes back two weeks later and beats the legendary team 1-0. Manchester continued on through the cup, though, with only one loss. And to complete the Cup is the highly anticipated Man City against Liverpool game. The Reds ended up drawing City at 45', but by 120 minutes ET it was 1-1. This led to penalties, which, after all of Mignolet's efforts ended 1-1 (4-1) to Manchester, giving them their well-deserved trophy.

Injuries/ Recoveries

This week will be a bit different in this blog. Rather than the usual matches, today we'll discuss the occasional [crucial] injury blog that could cost some teams a championship. First is the infamous flop by the name of Arjen Robben. He is injured for Bayern for a currently unspecified amount of time. His injury took place during the Bayern v Wolfsburg game in the 51st minute. He was taken off to reveal that he had torn his left abductor muscle and can't play for now. He says he needs playing time, but all he got was ten minutes and his replacement (RM Douglas Costa) was brought on. Two days ago, Man City legend Kevin de Bruyne injured his knee, but not too severely. However, he watched City struggle in his absence, getting smashed by Chelsea in the Capital One Cup. His knee brace was already removed, and he can't be back on the pitch soon enough. Other effective injuries of City are Bony and Navas' injuries, but are expected to soon recover from their minor injuries. Finally, there are some returning players. A vast majority are coming from Man Utd, a team classified as injury prones. The players waited for and anticipated the most for are Wayne Rooney, Martial, De Gea, and Chris Smalling, who might just bring ManU back up on the BPL Table when they return tomorrow. Tune in next week for a set of transfers/ transfer rumors!

UEFA Cup

Hello friends and welcome to the UEFA edition of the blog; this week will include matches in the UEFA Championship of 2016. Up first is February 19th's match where players like David Luiz were brought against former allies: PSG 2-1 Chelsea. With the negative connotation Chelsea has set for themselves this season, it was anticipated like Germany vs Brazil. But, thought everybody felt they could have done much better than just 2-1, PSG claims to be very thankful for their win and, of course, hope to win the Cup. Another Europa UEFA match was Real Madrid vs Roma, declared as a biased match. Thought it wouldn't make a difference towards their 2-0 loss, Roma should've earned a penalty in the second half, which could have at least put them back in the game. Anyway, both goals were exceptional, Ronaldo scoring with a cut-in from the left, Jesé scoring a terrific solo effort four minutes after coming onto the pitch. As is anticipated though, Real will eventually have to overcome the obstacle known as Barça this Cup, as they are advancing with their 6-1 win to Celta Vigo. This was a magnificent scoreline, as Barcelona was only drawing up until halftime, where Messi scored with a finesse and Guidetti brought it back for Celta in the 38'. Apparently, their defenses started to fall apart in the second half, as home managed to score Suárez yet another hat trick, Neymar earned himself a goal, and even Rakitic got in on the action. Overall, these winning teams are the ones I believe have a real chance at the victory of the 2016 UEFA Cup.

Lewandowski+Leicester+Rivalries

This week I'd just like to include an extra match that happened in late 2015, but it was such an unbelievable match that I must write about it. Starting, though with some recent matches is Manchester City vs. the not well known Leicester City; 3-1. This game pushed the infamous Leicester into FIRST place in the entire BPL, and nudges the well-deserving Manchester City into fourth. In this game, Leicester 's win was almost certain after the for goal. They scored three goals, and only one was scored for MCI, by Sergio Agüero. Entering the next two games, I will show the progress between rivals Barça and Real Madrid. Visitors Barcelona won 2-0 against Getafe by Neymar and Messi (of course), leaving them at the top of the La Liga table with 53 points. Just behind with 50 points is Real Madrid, who played a 2-1 victory to Granada, their second team of rivals. In a nutshell, Benzema scored the first goal in the first half to put Real in the lead, which was soon equalized by El Arabi of Granada. Luckily, a Modric "wonder strike" gave Madrid the final lead and the victory. Finally, to the legendary game I wanted to mention: Bayern vs Wolfsburg 2015. This game was set forth with a goals by Wolfsburg which could not be rid until the second half, where Lewandowski scored a wonder strike to equalize the game. Exactly one minute later, another goal to set the lead was scored by Lewandowski. And again. And again. And again. Full time, Bayern wins 5-1, all Bayern goals scored by their striker. The wondrous part is: these were all scored in under ten minutes, breaking an all-time record, achieving Lewandowski a "record-breaker" card in the popular video game known as Fifa 16.

Chelsea Progression, La Líga

Welcome to the final edition of Leo's Blog of January! Since I already wrote a blog a couple days ago, matches I write about today will have been today or yesterday. Let's dive in to our first match (saving the best for first), Real Madrid vs. RCD Espanyol. Some stunning goals scored by Ronaldo, Rodríguez, and Benzema led Madrid to yet another 6-0 win, just like last season. The highlight of the game was Ronaldo's perfect hat-trick, where he scored a right footed penalty, a left footed solo dribble, and a header. The other three goals were scores by Benzema, Rodríguez's deflected curve, and a forced own goal, caused by substitute Jése. Second game, played yesterday, was Barça's 2-1 win to Atlético Madrid. Contrary to what the score suggests, it wasn't a very close game. Atlético was set in front from Koké's goal 10 minutes in, but Messi scored to make it level, assisted be Alba, and Suárez scored for the win and to keep Barça at the top of the La Líga table. Transitioning to the BPL, our last game shows Chelsea's (decent) progress on their table. They beat Mk Dons in the fourth round of the FA cup, 5-1. There was yet another hat-trick, this one scored by Oscar (24), who I believe is turing out to be the best CAM in the world. The strange thing is, Eden Hazard, Chelsea LM/LW, who is widely regarded as one of the best players right now, isn't doing too well, as he only scored once. Anyway, Chelsea's been winning and drawing all of their recent games, which is my point right now. They're definitely getting themselves together

International Matches

As I said last week, this week will focus on the most recent international matches (thought they were a while ago) First game up is Russia's win over Portugal, by 1-0. The remarkable winning goal was scored by Shirikov in the 89th minute, leaving no time for Portugal to score an equalizer. Even more unfortunately for Portugal, they had to play in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo, controversially the best player in the world. This was definitely a memorable win for Russia. Next game up is a stunning England vs France. This was especially an outstanding match because of the help of a junior, nineteen year old Dele Alli. This boy was a part of both goals scored by England. His first goal was a 24-yard screamer and his second was an assist to Wayne Rooney's spectacular volley. England ended up on top, two-zip. The final game included in this week's blog is Belgium vs Italy. The reason I think this was particularly a good game is because of how Belgium immediately set Italy down. Italy's Candreva almost instantly scored in the third minute to set it 0-1, but Verotnghen of Belgium scored a header from De Bruyne's corner in the 13th minutes to make it 1-1 until halftime. The rest of the match was all Belgium's. De Bruyne scored a rebound off of Batshuayi, who scored himself seven minutes later to secure their win. Thanks for reading this weeks's blog!

Weeks 20-23

Welcome! After losing a few weeks of blogging, its time to catch up to what's been happening lately. Today, instead of looking at recent games, we'll look at teams' standings after the last two weeks. First is La Liga. Barça's last few games have been a breeze, beating Athletic Bilbao 6-0 and Granada 4-0. Real Madrid has been doing very well, too. In the last two weeks, they've played against Sporting and Deportivo, winning both with a lovely 5-1 and 5-0. It's been said that the BPL is the best league in the world, but that becomes hard to believe when you see that nine out of eleven players in Team of the Year are from either Real Madrid or Barcelona. Speaking of the BPL, it's still looking the same. Chelsea isn't doing too well. They've drawn every game for five weeks except in week 18. The top teams in the division, of course, remain Arsenal, Manchester City, and (somehow) Leicester. Manchester City won their last game 4-0 against Crystal Palace, showing the future dominance over the rest of the division. Arsenal drew their last two games, unfortunately, against Liverpool and Stoke, which is dragging them lower on the high-end totem pole. Finally, to conclude this week's blog Ligue 1 has been officially devastated by PSG. Looking at the standings, where PSG stand with ZERO LOSSES, you can see how terrifying they are to play against. They obviously won their last three games, 1-0 to Toulouse, 2-0 to Bastia, and 3-0 to Caen. Anyway, next week I'll (finally) be writing about inter-league games, where some of the greatest of the world play against each other.