Shoe Wars: Champions League Style

Around the world shoe companies are battling to grab attention of consumers. One way that they do that is by supplying uniforms to teams and in soccer that is no different. The Champions League Round  of 16 is a who's who of shoe companies.

A breakdown below: 

Paris Saint-Germain vs Chelsea: Nike vs. Adidas

Manchester City vs Barcelona: Nike vs. Nike

Bayer Leverkusen vs Atletico Madrid: Adidas vs. Nike

Juventus vs Borussia Dortmund: Nike vs. Puma

Schalke 04 vs Real Madrid: Adidas vs. Adidas

Shakhtar Donetsk vs Bayern Munich: Nike vs. Adidas

Arsenal vs Monaco: Puma vs. Nike

Basle vs Porto: Adidas vs. Warrior  

Nike has seven  of the 16 teams including an all Nike game in  Barca vs. Manchester City.  Adidas has six including an all Adidas match up of Schalke vs. Real Madrid. Also this years Round of 16 marks the first time that Warrior has had a club make the knock out round.

Which clubs NFL fans support in the BPL

The first full Sunday of the NFL season is here. To honor that event, the Daily Mail has given NFL fans a guide to which Barclays Premier League team that they should support. Its an interesting list, for Eagles fans out there they said we should pick West Brom. 

The power of TV

There used to a time when I would have to watch the Premier League on an illegal box at my then girlfriend's, current wife, parents house. Fast forward 15 years and you can watch a variety of different leagues on your tv. This week that is what I did.

Friday:
French League: Stade Rennais vs. AS Saint Etienne

Saturday:
FA Cup: Wigan vs. Everton
Premier League: Aston Villas vs. Reading
League Championship: Crystal Palace vs. Leeds United
MLS: New England at Chicago
Spain: Barcelona vs. Deportivo La Coruna
Mexican League: Cruz Azul vs. Jaguares

Sunday
FA Cup: Millwall vs. Blackburn
FA Cup: Manchester United vs Chelsea
Premier League: Spurs vs. Liverpool

Now I'm not saying I watched all of these games in their entirety, but I did flip between all of them. It's amazing to know that soccer fans in this country have more options than people in Europe or even South American. Isn't cable great.

Mid-Term Team of the Season

The Barclay's Premier League season is halfway over. Most of the teams have played 19 games, marking the half way point of the 38 games season. Here is a look at The OTWT All Mid-Season Team.I'm sure people will complain about it, if you have a different view post your team in the comment section.

Goalie: Asmir Begovic, Stoke City
Defender: Vincent Kompany, Manchester City
Defender: Jan Vertonghen, Spurs
Defender: Ryan Shawcross, Stoke City
Defender: Leighton Baines, Everton
MF: Micheal Carrick, Manchester United
MF: Juan Matta, Chelsea
MF: Marouane Fellaini, Everton
MF:Michu, Sweansea City (pictured above)
Striker: Luis Suarez, LFC
Strick: RVP, Manchester United

Boxing Day Drama

Could Boxing Day become the day the Braclays Premier League title race came into focus. This British Tabloid thinks it could be and I hope they are right.

The Premier League is Printing Money

So Burma is one of the poorest countries in the world and they have the money to show Premier League. Around the world, £5.5bn was spent by channels to show the Premier League. Shows how incredible a TV asset it is and how popular it is, even if the quality of the league is down over the last couple of years.

OTWT All Transfer team

With the transfer windowing now finally shutting around Europe. Here is the OTWT ALL Transfer Team. This team may have cost a ton, but I bet I can could coach them to a league title in any country.

Goalie: Hugo Lloris from Lyon to Tottenham Hotspurs
Defenders: Thiago Silva from AC Milan to PSG
Defender: Jordi Alba from Valencia to Barcelona
Defender:Javier Martineze from Athletic Club to Munich (I know he players in midfield but he has played 22 times in defense last year with Athletic Club)
Defender: Jan Vertonghen from Ajax to Tottenham Hotspur
Midfielder: Marco Reus from M'Gladbach to Dortmond.
Midfielder: Eden Hazard from Lillie to Chelsea
Midfielder: Luka Modric from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid
Midfielder: Alex Witsel from Benfica to Zenit St. Petersburg
Forward: Robin van Persie from Arsenal to Manchester United
Forward: Zlatan Ibrahimovic from AC Milan to PSG

Bench: Lucas Mora from Sao Paulo to PSG, Hulk from Porto to Zenit St. Petersburg, Oscar from Sao Paulo to Chelsea. Gregory van der Wiel from Ajax to PSG.

Find your favorite club

Awesome photo of soccer crest from all over the world. Where is your favorite.

Eden Hazard = Lebron James

For the last couple of week Eden Hazard has keep the soccer world waiting. Everyone wants to know where he is going to be playing next season, is it going to be Manchester City, Manchester United or Chelsea. Hazard has drug this out over the last couple of weeks and there seems to be no end in sight. Hazard is turning into Lebron of soccer world, all that is missing is the "Decision Special."

Keep Calm, Win Titles

As the soccer worlds celebrates the new kings of Manchester, just remember this is not the first time that people have questions the future of Manchester United.

When Sir Alex took over in 1986, he said that the club would surpass Liverpool when it came to league titles. People laughed at him and people said it would never be done, fast forward to today and Sir Alex has seen off Liverpool.

Next up people said that Arsenal was passing Sir Alex by after the Invincibles in 2003-2004, that was not the case, Sir Alex saw off their challenge and pushed them aside.

Fast foward to 2003 and people said Fergie and United could not compete with The Special One and Roman's billions at Chelsea. After a couple of years, Sir Alex saw off that challenge and chased a number of managers out of the Premier League.

Today its Manchester City and their billions. Sure Sunday hurt, but lets be honest this United team was not classic and we came with 90 seconds of a title. Just remember Sir Alex has taken on all comers and he is usually the last one standing, which is exactly what is going to happen. 

These kids are valuable

An interesting list of the 30 best young players in the world of soccer, put together by Futebol Finance. Very interesting to see the value of some of the players.

A bad day for Chelsea all around

If you think throwing away a three goal lead is a bad day at the office, it got worst for Chelsea Sunday morning. Chelsea spelled their own website URL wrong, on their advertising boards during their game against Manchester United, according to 101 Great Goals. Now that is a bad day at the office and it only happened with a billion people watching.

Fox will continue to grow the game

In September, I wrote how Fox Sports choice to show Barclay's Premier League games on tape delay was a brilliant idea. Two weekends ago, Fox took it the next level by showing Manchester United vs. Arsenal live as a lead into the NFL Conference Championship Games. Sure the rating where not great. According to ESPN, the match was seen by 1.3 million views. 

This week Fox is at it again as they show Manchester United vs. Chelsea on Super Bowl Sunday at 11 a.m. I personally expect the numbers to increase and this to be more of a rating success. I would not be surprised if there was a couple of more Premier League games show on Fox before the end of the year.

Fox has to stay committed to showing top flight soccer over the next couple of years. In October, Fox won the English-language U.S. television rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, outbidding incumbent ESPN and NBC for soccer's showpiece tournament. Fox agreed to pay around $425 million for the two-tournament package, a person familiar with the bidding told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the figure was not made public. It also secured English-language radio rights. If they are going to make these tournaments work they are going to have to continue to show soccer to gain the respect of fans.

Fox should have learned a lesson from doing the BCS Bowl games a couple of years ago. During that time, Fox just did the bowl games and did not do any regular season games. During the  BCS games Fox had people who had no real college experience doing the games and it made for a terrible TV product. They have to stay connected to soccer before these events to ensure fans that they are committed to doing things right.

OTWT Starting 11 for 2011

Everyone is doing it, so I thought we would too. Here is the OTWT starting 11 for 2011

• Goalkeeper: Joe Hart, Manchester City
• Left Back: Ashley Cole, Chelsea
• Center back: Vincent Kompany, Manchester City
• Center back: Nemanja Vidic, Manchester United
• Right Back:  Gregory van der Wiel, Ajax
• Left side: Eden Hazard, Lille
• Central Midfielder: Javier Mascherano, Barcelona 
• Central Midfielder: Xavi, Barcelona
• Right side:Mario Goetze, Borussia Dortmund
• Striker: Ronaldo, Real Madrid
• Striker: Lionel Messi, Barcelona

I know everyone does not agree with my starting 11, so let the trashing begin. 

Its so bad that Bieber is going replace Torres at Chelsea

If life at Chelsea can not get any worst for Fernando Torres at Chelsea, now the blues are looking a signing a replacement him, Justin Bieber. Bieber trained at Chelsea with Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres and some people said he does not miss sitters like Torres does.

Fox might have something

More then a week ago, Fox tried something new and they were rewarded for it. After showing the Manchester United vs. Chelsea game live on FSC, the network decided to show the game on their regular Fox stations after the local NFL was over.

In Philly it was during the 1 p.m., while in other cities it was the 4 p.m. slot. While showing soccer games on tape delay sounds like a bad idea, it did not turn out that way for Fox. According to industry reports the game had 2.5 million viewers making it the most watched Premier League game ever.

Now here is the question, would Fox be willing to do that every week. So lets the Eagles are playing at 4 p.m. on Fox would they show the Sunday 11 a.m. game on tape delay on that Fox station at 1 p.m.. Traditional stations that have a late game  show infomericals during the time leading up to game and the same thing with an early NFL game with respect to the late slot. Now the ratings might not be the same for a game that features Aston Villa and QPR, but it would increase the footprint of the league on network television and might drum up a lot of interesting. So what's the risk.

A new Premier League Transfer Policy

Things are changing in the Premier League, gone are the days of clubs spending $14 million on a 26 year old players, now its all about the kids. The Daily Mail's Matt Barlow takes an interesting look at practice.Clubs are looking at the resale value of a player kind of like what happened with Ronald at Manchester United.  

Premier League A to Z

The Premier League season is here and here is a look at league from A to Z. Should be a fun and interesting season, can not wait for opening kickoff in a couple of hours. Seems like it has taken forever for the season to return.

It's gotta be the shoes

The Premier League season is about to kick off, and here is a look at the boots that the players will be wearing.

PSG outguns Chelsea with Money

PSG has outgunned Chelsea in the race for Javier Pastore. The $62 million move is more then a move to acquire a top rated creative midfielder, its shows that PSG is set to become a huge force in the transfer marker for years to come.