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.

Spurs will be better without Bale

As Gareth Bale prepares to walk out on Spurs for Real Madrid the demise of Spurs might be greatly exaggerated. Actually Spurs might have a stronger team without Bale.

Last year with no defined striker the goal scoring fell on Bale, while this year with Spurs have a proven goal scorer in Soldado who will come close to matching Bale's goal output. This years starting 11 for Spurs is deeper and stronger with Bale gone. With the addition, this also allows AVB to change the game when he needs to on the bench.

Just take a look:

Last years Spurs went with a 4-2-3-1 formation: 

Striker: Adebayor/Defoe 
Attacking Midfielder: Dempsey/Sigurdsson
Attacking Midfielder: Bale
Attacking Midfielder: Lennon
Holding Midfielder: Sandro 
Holding Midfielder: Dembele
Defender: Walker
Defender: Dawson 
Defender: Vertonghen
Defender: Assou Ekotto
Goalie: Lloris 


Now look at this years roster for Spurs playing 4-2-3-1, if the rumoured transfer for Willian and Lamala go through:

Striker:  Roberto Soldado
Attacking Midfielders: Lennon /Lamala
Attacking Midfielders: Willian
Attacking Midfielder: Sigurdsson/ Nacer Chadli
Holding Midfielder: Dembele 
Holding Midfielder: Paulinho
Defender: Walker
Defender: Vertonghen 
Defender: Dawson/ Capoue
Defender: Rose/Contrao
Goalie: Lloris

If the rumoured deals for William an Lamala go through, Spurs would have spent 117 million pounds on player this summer. That makes this team deeper, which might allow them to reach their ultimate goal which is Champions League football next year, even without Bale. 

World's Richest Transfers

If Bale leaves Spurs for Real Madrid, he will then top this list, but before that happens here are the top transfers fee record breakers. A great list and hours of fun.

Overkill on Golden Balls

So yesterday David Beckham said goodbye to soccer. This morning I woke up and checked the beIn sports app to see what the soccer schedule was this weekend and to my surprise the first four stories where tied to Golden Balls. I'm for covering his retirement but don't you think, that is a little overkill.

The end of the treble

Manchester United saw their dreams of a second treble come to end earlier today. The game against Real Madrid turned on a terrible red card against Nani. It's not often you get all of the English papers to agree but they did on the red card, using words like robbed and cheated.

This is Gus Baby

This is not Dave O'Brien at the World Cup, but I was afraid that it would be. Gus Johnson became the voice of soccer on Fox Sports when he called the first leg of the Champions League epic clash between Real Madrid and Manchester United.

For a first outing it was not that bad. I was at work for the game, so I listened to it on Sirius and they used the Fox Sports audio featuring Johnson and Warren Barton. To be honest, I'm not the biggest Johnson fan to begin with. Never been a huge fan of his over the top style.

But to his credit he was a true professional during the game, he seemed to do a great deal of research in preparing for the game and that showed during the broadcast.

My concern about Gus was that he would not let the game breath and he allowed the game to breath, which was good to see. What makes English announcers so good is that they don't talk over everything and Gus did not. Fair play to him.

Gus said a couple of little things that annoyed me, the main one being when he called the ball a "football"

I think that Awful Announcing summed up Gus's performance perfectly.

"Gus didn't sound like a basketball announcer calling soccer, he sounded like a soccer announcer,'' Awful announcing wrote. "The rhythm of his calls and his excitement as the action reaches a crescendo is a fantastic pairing."

The $pecial One and $ir Alex

It reads like a who's who of managers: Sir Alex, The Special One, and Carlo.  The group heads the  best-paid football managers in the world, list according to a Brazilian sports marketing group.  The interesting thing about the list is some of the out of way clubs that employee these high priced managers, from Anzhi to Guangzhou to Swiss National Team. The list shows the impact that new money is having on the game.

Pirlo for Ballon d'Or

The race for European Footballer of the year appears to be a two horse race: Messi and Ronaldo, but maybe there is a third player that deserves a look.

Last season Andrea Pirlo left AC Milan to sign with fellow Italian League superpower Juventus. The move paid off for the Old Lady and Pirlo. During the league season Pirlo was the midfield anchor that helped lead Juve to an undefeated season. That alone should put him near the top of the list for the European player of the year. People have to remember this was not a classic Juve team, which means he had to carry more of the load.

Now Pirlo is leading his beloved Italian national to team to success at Euro 2012. An average Italian team has made the semifinals with Pirlo leading the way. Pirlo has been their best player and his penalty against England will be remembered for years to come.



I know he has no chance but Pirlo should be considered. Anytime a player leads his team to an undefeated league season should be considered for this award.

Could Nick Powell be the Ronnie?

Not saying this is a fair comparison but some suggest that newly signed Manchester United player Nick Powell could be the next Cristiano Ronaldo. Interesting to see the similarities, but Powell as a long way to go to live up to that comparison.

Start Spending Like Crazy

A list put together by BBC Sport on the top 50 players from around the world that could be on the move during the month ahead.

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. 

What could be

With talk of Real Madrid and Barca destroying Spanish soccer and leaving for a European Super League, I talk you back to a post I did two years ago on what a European Soccer League would look like. The League would feature 24 teams and could be really interesting. It could work, but I would hate to see the current structure destroyed.

Not the Greatest way to earn respect

While European teams look at the World Football Challenge as a way to get ready for upcoming season, Major League Soccer have looked at it as a way to show Europeans how far the league has come. This year the league has done nothing but embarrass itself. Through the first six games that have featured MLS teams vs. top European clubs, MLS teams have been outscored 16-6 and lost all five games.

Here the list of results

• Manchester United 4-1 New England Revs
• Real Madrid 4-1 LA Galaxy
• Manchester City 2-1 Vancouver
• Manchester United 3-1 Chicago
• Real Madrid 2-1 Philadelphia Union 
• Manchester City 1-1 LA Galaxy

After a couple of years of closing the gap, MLS has appeared to fallen behind again. Something needs to be done so this does not continue. 

News of the World says Good Bye

The News of the World is set to close its doors and here are some of the back pages of sports coverage over the years. There are some great headlines and telling stories that mostly ended up being true, including Manchester United selling Ronnie.

Please be nice to your trophies

As the European soccer season winds to a close, people are collecting trophies all over the place and some players are having a hard time handling the trophies.

Ajax goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenberg drops Dutch title trophy


Sergio Ramos drops the Copa del Rey


While its not a soccer trophy, the Spokane Chiefs break the Memorial Cup in 2008, classic, one of my favorites

Special 1TV: The end of the season

The Special One puts all of his chips on red for the Champions League Final.

Can not wait

Every year the OTWT Tailgating crew takes in a soccer game of a EEuropean giant that is touring the United States. One year it was Barca, another year it was Real Madrid. Last year it was Manchester United vs the Philly Union. Now this year its Barca vs. my beloved Manchester United in Washington DC in late July. Can not wait, it has the potential to be a rematch of the Champions League Final.

Obertan: Maybe he is a bust

After CR7 left Manchester United for Real Madrid two years ago, United brought in a promising french winger named Gabriel Obertan to help fill that void. After a year and a half, I'm really starting to question if Obertan is going to make the grade.

During the season Obertan has had his detractors for his performances, I was not one of them. I thought that he had not been given a fair chance to show his skills, but that all changed on Saturday against Wigan and it had nothing to do with his performance on the field, but rather off of the field.

While watching the game on TV, the telecast showed a shot of Ryan Giggs sitting next to Obertan and Bebe in the directors box. One thing was different about the three of them, Giggs was sitting their watching the game, Bebe was checking his phone, while Obertan had head phones on. I'm not excusing Bebe for checking his phone, but who really knows if he was on during the whole game. I don't care if you are an academy player that has not been used all year, you should not be wearing headphones in the directors box.

If Obertan really cared about his spot or his future at United he would act like a professional and professionals don't sit in the director box wearing head phones, its not acceptable.

A true great: Ronaldo

Over the last couple of years people have talked about the joke Ronaldo has become, but lets not forget the greatness of the player he was before injuries took their toll. Simply Amazing.

Professional Tailgating: There goes a piece of my tailgating soul

Sometimes it's time to move on, but moving on can hurt. After weeks of waiting it finally happened, the tailgating car, a 2002 vw golf, was traded in as part of a deal for a new car for the family.

The car was getting up there in miles and in memories. It has seen its fair share of sporting events, most of them documented on this site. It went to Rutgers for the famous Louisville game and saw a bunch of years of season tickets. Its been to countless baseball games, Eagles games, and seen friendlies involving Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United and two USMNT games.

Its helped me lug my golf clubs to a variety of courses around the state including Blue Heron Pines, Echo Lake, and the Architects Club. It also assisted with a trip to North Carolina to play a variety of different courses that had hosted USGA events.

I'm sure the new tailgating car, a honda accord, will produce the same type of memories but its always hard saying good bye to your first love and that is exactly what I had to do :(
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