European Soccer 2009-10

[WJMorris3]

So there looks to be a few changes in the Bundesliga for next year... Kurányi says he's going to Bosman to Dynamo Moscow, Džeko looks to be leaving Wolfsburg, Lehmann's retiring. All shaping up to be an interesting summer (and I don't mind seeing any of it.)

Meanwhile, Bochum and Hertha down, Kaiserslautern and St. Pauli up, and Nuremburg and Augsburg will contest for the 18th spot in the Bundesliga Thursday and Sunday.

[Saintsfan]

My EPL [rediction (as everyone else is doing it)

1 Liverpool

2 Manchester United

3 Chelsea

4 Arsenal

5 Tottenham Hotspur

6 Manchester City

7 Everton

8 Aston Villa

9 Blackburn Rovers

10 West Ham United

11 Birmingham City

12 Fulham

13 Sunderland

14 Stoke City

15 Bolton Wanderers

16 Wigan Athletic

17 Burnley

18 Wolverhampton Wanderers

19 Hull City

20 Portsmouth

(Maybe a bit of bias at the bottom there, but the club is in turmoil at the moment, and if they have to sell anyone else before there takeover is finished they could be in real trouble).

There is no way Arsenal sack Wenger btw. He might get pushed upstairs, or leave of his own accord, but there is no way the guy gets fired. Far too respected by the club and its fans. About as much chance as Ferguson being fired by Manchester United. Also don't think Mourinho would take the Man City job. Has a decent job at the moment, and has already said he'd be interested in being United manager after Fergie retires.

Champions League winners- Chelsea.

FA Cup winners- Tottenham Hotspur

Whatever it is they are calling the EUFA Cup nowadays- Some Eastern European team you haven't heard of yet.

Managers whose job might be under threat- Phil Brown (Hull), Gary Megson (Bolton), Mark Hughes (Manchester City), Paul Hart (Portsmouth, but more because new owners will want to appoint own man). Probably others as well depending on form of their teams.

Championship promoted teams- West Brom, Cardiff City and Middlesboro

League 1 Promotions- Colchester, Charlton Athletic and (via the playoffs, even despite a 10 point penalty) Southampton

Carling Cup Winners (if you care) Manchester City.

Other than Liverpool disintegrating, my Premier League predictions weren't too bad. Managers under threat all left there teams, if Cardiff can get the playoff place, 2 out of 3 Championship promotions right, and Colchester lost there manager to the eventual League 1 champions, Norwich City, so not done too badly with my crystal ball for this season.

[AndrewPF]

FC Basel has beaten Lausanne in the Swiss Cup by a score of 6:0. Today Swiss Cup winners, tomorrow Schweizermeister.

[NEW.ERA]

I'll take a shot at the EPL

1. Chelsea

2. Liverpool

3. Manchester United

4. Manchester City

5. Arsenal

6. Tottenham

7. Everton

8. Aston Villa

9. Fulham

10. West Ham

11. Sunderland

12. Blackburn

13. Hull

14. Wigan

15. Wolverhampton

16. Portsmouth

17. Bolton

Relegated

18. Stoke City

19. Birmingham City

20. Burnley

Top Goalscorer

Fernando Torres 22 Goals

FA Cup: Chelsea

Carling Cup: Liverpool

Champions League: Barcelona over Liverpool

Promoted

Middlesbrough

Ipswich Town

Newcastle United

Managers Sacked

Arsène Wenger, Arsenal

Paul Hart, Portsmouth

Gary Megson, Bolton

- Chelsea takes the EPL by a fairly wide margin and gets a big name on January 1st 2010 through the transfer window

- Manchester City finally unseeds one of the big four and breaks into the Champions League for 10/11

- Everton will become the first team out of the EPL to win the Europa League/UEFA Cup since 2001

- Bolton again does just enough to stave off relegation for another year

- Barca does what Manchester United couldn't do and win back to back European Titles

- Got Chelsea winning correctly.

- Replace Man City with Tottenham and got that right.

- Paul Hart is no longer the manager for the Pompey.

- Gary Megson is no longer the manager for the Wanderers.

- Newcastle is back after a year in the Championship.

- Fernando Torres didn't win the Golden Boot and 22 Goals would be good enough tied for 5th.

- Chelsea will probably win the FA Cup.

- Burnley was the only team I predicted correctly that got relegated.

- Liverpool was terrible and Everton didn't get a spot in the Europa League for next year and won't win it this year. Fulham might though.

[TFoA]

Uh, N.E.P., you say that Chelsea's going to win the EPL in your standings prediction, then you say "Liverpool takes the EPL by a fairly wide margin..." Something ain't right here.

And here are mine:

1. Liverpool

2. Chelsea

3. Manchester United

4. Arsenal

5. Man City

6. Tottenham

7. Aston Villa

8. Everton

9. Fulham

10. West Ham

11. Sunderland

12. Blackburn

13. Bolton

14. Wigan

15. Portsmouth

16. Wolves

17. Hull

Relegated

18. Stoke City

19. Birmingham City

20. Burnley

FA Cup: Man U

Carling Cup: Liverpool

Champions League: Barca

Promoted

Middlesbrough

Reading

Newcastle United

Managers Sacked

Arsène Wenger, Arsenal (That's the only one I'm picking because I'm pretty sure he's gonna be gone if Arsenal doesn't win anything this season)

Yikes, I really picked Liverpool to win it all This entire thing was a mess, remind me to never make predictions again

That being said, this reminded me: The Football League playoffs are going on right now. With Championship winners Newcastle & 2nd place West Brom already clinching spots, the 3rd promotion spot will be fought for by these 4 teams:

Nottingham Forest vs. Blackpool (2-1 Blackpool after 1st leg)

Leicester City vs. Cardiff City (1-0 Cardiff after 1st leg)

If you can, try & watch this. Nothing better than watching some hungry 2nd division teams scratching & clawing to get promotion to the Premier League. It makes for some exciting, up-&-down action.

[jkrdevil]

Don't forget, Fulham could return to Europa League if they win it, which could also possibly earn Burnley a spot in next year's Europa League due to the Fair Play League. So that will definitely be a match to keep your eye on, if you haven't already decided to watch it.

The top 3 fair play nations were Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. They get the extra Europa league birth.

http://en.uefa.com/uefa/socialresponsibility/respect/news/newsid=1486635.html#sweden+uefa+respect+fair+play+rankings

Burnley not going to Europe.

[TFoA]

Don't forget, Fulham could return to Europa League if they win it, which could also possibly earn Burnley a spot in next year's Europa League due to the Fair Play League. So that will definitely be a match to keep your eye on, if you haven't already decided to watch it.

The top 3 fair play nations were Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. They get the extra Europa league birth

Shucks. I was really hoping to see a 2nd tier team get into Europe. That would've been hilariously awesome.

[TFoA]

Roy Hodgson voted Manager of the Year in England.

Considering that he helped guide Fulham (Fulham!) to their first ever European final, this is well-deserved. In addition, he won the award by the widest margin

[Saintsfan]

Roy Hodgson voted Manager of the Year in England.

Considering that he helped guide Fulham (Fulham!) to their first ever European final, this is well-deserved. In addition, he won the award by the widest margin

Roy Hodgson is a great manager, but Fulham finished 12th in the EPL this season. (Albeit some of that may be due to the Europa League run). I personally would have gone with Harry Redknapp (who actually won the Barclays Manager of the Year prize, the other manager of the year prize). Given that he took over Spurs when they were bottom of the EPL last season, and has turned them right around, they finished 4th and had a couple of good cup runs, I think he certainly deserves a mention as well.

[TFoA]

Roy Hodgson voted Manager of the Year in England.

Considering that he helped guide Fulham (Fulham!) to their first ever European final, this is well-deserved. In addition, he won the award by the widest margin

Roy Hodgson is a great manager, but Fulham finished 12th in the EPL this season. (Albeit some of that may be due to the Europa League run). I personally would have gone with Harry Redknapp (who actually won the Barclays Manager of the Year prize, the other manager of the year prize). Given that he took over Spurs when they were bottom of the EPL last season, and has turned them right around, they finished 4th and had a couple of good cup runs, I think he certainly deserves a mention as well.

Agreed, I was kind of surprised that Redknapp didn't get as much recognition from the managers from the entire football league, but I guess that the clubs on the lower level could empathize with lil ol' Fulham going from near relegation to a Europe final.

Also, Blackpool have punched their ticket to Wembley for the Final, going into the City Ground and beating Nottingham Forest 4-3 to win 6-4 on aggregate in what was a ridiculously exciting tie. But this being the playoffs, that was to be expected. DJ Campbell put in a hat trick that carried Blackpool to Wembley.

Blackpool will be pulling for Cardiff to defeat Leicester & meet them at Wembley, however. Not because they feel that Cardiff would be the easier draw, but because Campbell is at Blackpool via loan from Leicester. If Leicester makes the final, they would prevent Campbell from playing. So you could definitely make the case that Blackpool have a rooting interest in tomorrow's game.

I'll be pulling for the Tangerines to make it all the way to the Premiership. They've always been my favorite team to do Manager Mode with in the FIFA games, & it would be so cool to see them actually make it to the top tier, instead of just in a video game.

[WJMorris3]

Don't forget, Fulham could return to Europa League if they win it, which could also possibly earn Burnley a spot in next year's Europa League due to the Fair Play League. So that will definitely be a match to keep your eye on, if you haven't already decided to watch it.

The top 3 fair play nations were Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. They get the extra Europa league birth

Shucks. I was really hoping to see a 2nd tier team get into Europe. That would've been hilariously awesome.

It happened this past year - Guingamp was a French second division side.

[lordsketor]

Don't forget, Fulham could return to Europa League if they win it, which could also possibly earn Burnley a spot in next year's Europa League due to the Fair Play League. So that will definitely be a match to keep your eye on, if you haven't already decided to watch it.

The top 3 fair play nations were Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. They get the extra Europa league birth

Shucks. I was really hoping to see a 2nd tier team get into Europe. That would've been hilariously awesome.

It happened this past year - Guingamp was a French second division side.

That's because they beat Rennes 2-1 to win the Coup de France 2009 and thus qualifying for the 2009-10 Europa League as French Cup Champions.

[lost_limey]

The big news for me (as alluded too in my avatar) is that if the MIGHTY Oxford United manage to win the play-off final at Wembley this Sunday, then they'd return to the football league!

That's where they belonged before the financial cluster hit the fan.

Of course they do lose the quirk of being the only non-league team to have won a League Cup in their past.

Oh, and screw Swindon Town.

[lordsketor]

Diego Forlán broke Fulham hearts with 2 goals including the game winner in extra time as Atletico beats Fulham 2-1 aet to win the inaugural Europa League.

[MattF]

They've always been my favorite team to do Manager Mode with in the FIFA games, & it would be so cool to see them actually make it to the top tier, instead of just in a video game.

Same here, I either went with Blackpool or Scunthorpe, my Scunthorpe team on FIFA 05 was unstoppable.

[TFoA]

Cardiff City vs. Blackpool for the final promotion spot on May 22nd @ Wembley.

This game was just as exciting & dramatic as the Blackpool/Forest game, & this one ended up going down to penalties. Also, like I previously mentioned, this actually helps Blackpool because DJ Campbell, the hero of the 2nd leg, will be able to play.

If the 2 matches between these two during the regular season are any indication, the final will go to penalties as well. They tied 1-1 in both meetings. However, I think Blackpool is going to take it. They have been on fire since late March (their only loss from that point to the right now was to Newcastle), & needed to be just to make the playoffs. Normally the hot team is the team that does best in the playoffs, & Blackpool have been just that. The Tangerines just may go from barely making the playoffs to earning a spot in the EPL next season.

[NEW.ERA]

I wanted Nottingham Forest in the top division so badly but Cardiff would be nice.

[lost_limey]

Yeah, Forest is one of those teams that feels like it should be in the top flight, alongside Leeds, Newcastle and Coventry

[FiddySicks]

Awesome win by Chelsea, way to go out in style and bring in another Barclays Premiership title.

Stuff it, Malcolm Glazer.

[WJMorris3]

Nuremburg, looking to stay up, beat Augsburg today 1-0. They now need only a draw or a one-goal loss higher than 1-0 to stay in the Bundesliga.