OTWT Champions League Predictions

The draw for the 2010/2011 Champions League has been made and there are some tastey groups including Group B, which includes: Spurs, Inter Werder Bremen, and FC Twente and Group G, which features three former winners of the event. Here are OTWT predictions on who is going advance to the knock out stages.

Group H: ARSENAL, Shakhtar Donetsk, SC Braga, FK Partisan: Arsenal and SC Braga
Group A: Inter Milan, Werder Bremen, TOTTENHAM, FC Twente: Inter and Spurs
Group B: Lyon, Benfica, Schalke, Hapoel Tel Aviv: Lyon and Benfica
Group F: CHELSEA, Marseille, Spartak Moscow, MSK Zilina: Chelsea and Spartak Moscow
Group D: FC Barcelona, Panathinaikos, FC Copenhagen, Rubin Kazan: Barcelona and Rubin Kazan.
Group G: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax, Auxerre: Real Madrid and Ajax.
Group C: MANCHESTER UNITED, Valencia, RANGERS, Bursaspor: Manchester United and Rangers
Group E: Bayern Munich, AS Roma, FC Basel, CFR Cluj: Bayern Munich and AS Roma

They get WFAN in Russia?

Wow WFAN has some far reaching power. During an interview on this week on The Mike Francesa Show, new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov asked Mike where the mad dog was. I know that Chris Russo has been gone for a while but its impressive to me that the Russian even knew about the iconic Mike and the Mad Dog Show. Talk about a show that had a world wide reach.
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OTWT Champions League Predictions

The business end of the season is here and the Champions League last eight kicks off today. The slate is littered with good match ups including the rematch of the 1999 Final between United and Munich. Here is how the OTWT Scouting Department sees the ties breaking down.

Lyon (France) vs. Bordeaux (France): Lyon has the feeling of a team that is built better for Europe then the league. I know Bordeaux has taken over as the force in France, but for some reason I can not turn my back on Lyon. So Lyon it is.
Bayern Munich (Germany) vs. Manchester United (England): The '99 Final rematch. As a United fans, this is a tie that worries me. Robben and Ribery worry me to no end, but in the end United are the more complete team and therefor head to the semi-finals.
Arsenal (England) vs. Barcelona (Spain): Barca and it will not even be easy. Arsenal are doing what they do best implode at the end of the season.
Inter Milan (Italy) vs. CSKA Moscow (Russia): Inter Milan. CSKA has had a nice run and shown that Russian soccer is nothing to mess with in the coming years. Inter stay on course for the final.

OTWT: UEFA Cup predictions

During its history the UEFA Cup has been the red haired step child to the Champions League, but this year in its final year as the UEFA Cup, it has some interesting match-ups in the the Round of 32. There are a couple of former European Cup winners and even some up and coming clubs.

Here is how I see the round going:

• Paris St Germain v Wolfsburg: PSG, the only top flight club in Paris has shown a rebirth this year after a couple of years battling relegation.
  
• FC Copenhagen v Manchester City: Manchester City, the only question is what will the roster look like after the January transfer window.
  
• NEC Nijmegen v Hamburg: Hamburg.
  
• Sampdoria v Metalist Kharkiv: Sampdoria
  
• Braga v Standard Liège: Standard Liege, could be a team that makes a run deep into the knock of rounds.
  
• Aston Villa v CSKA Moscow:Villa, this might be one of the hardest ties to call. I would not be shocked if the former UEFA Cup champions beat the rising English team.
  
• Lech Poznan v Udinese: Udinese
  
• Olympiakos v St Etienne: Olympiakos
  
• Fiorentina v Ajax: Fiorentia
  
• Aalborg v Deportivo de La Coruña: Aalborg
  
• Werder Bremen v Milan: Milan, maybe Golden Balls will make an appearance in the knock out stages.
  
• Bordeaux v Galatasaray: Galatasaray
  
• Dynamo Kiev v Valencia: Valencia
  
• Zenit St Petersburg v Stuttgart: Stuttgart. Zenit look like a team that could care less to be there.
  
• Marseille v FC Twente: Marseille.
  
• Shakhtar Donetsk v Tottenham: Donetsk. I think that Harry will be more concerned with the Premier League rather then the UEFA Cup.
  

The match ups are really not that bad, some are really interesting.

Dream A Little Dream

Alex Hleb's dream was to play for Barca.
Ronaldinho dreamed of playing for AC Milan.
Deco dreamed of playing for Chelski.
Dani Alves dreamed of playing in the blue and red Barca shirt.
Arshavin's dream is to swap Zenit for Barca.
Ronnie dreams of playing for Real Madrid.
Drogba dreams of playing for a different team every week.

So far the limited transfer market can be described in a couple of worlds: Dream a little dream. Every summer players put on their new shirts and talk about how much of a dream it is to play for their new team. This year that is no different.

It's funny how money can make you dream things. I'm sure that Samuel Eto'o dream to play in Uzbekistan. That dream might not be that far away.

Rangers Fans Love their Soccer

Here is the deal of a lifetime: One son for one ticket to the UEFA Cup final between Rangers and Zenit. Now that is a deal that you can not turn down. I wonder how the boys mother feels about the deal or does she even know about it.

Thanks to The Guardian for the photo.

FSC should look to Russia

With the English and the Italian seasons coming to close, FSC is going to be light on program over the next couple of months, but that does not really have to happen. In order to keep program fresh FSC should look to one of the ever growing leagues in the world, no not MLS, but the Russian Premier League.

I know what people are thing, what the Russian Premier League. Just think about it, because of the weather situation in Russia the season runs from March to November, which would cover the problem areas in FSC schedules, hey who wants to see reruns of a Crew vs. Rapids game. Another thing that might make it attractive to FSC is that the contract might come on the cheap, which is a good thing for the network.

Over the last couple of years, the Russian League has show how good it is. This year Zenit St. Petersburgh has made a great run to the UEFA Cup semi-finals. The Russian League has even had a UEFA Cup winner in CSKA Moscow in 2005. The growth is going to continue with more and more rich Russians investing money in the league, just think little bitty Romans running around.

Besides the money and the schedule, the league features quality players like Vanger Love and Jo. It might be nice to see a different kind of football on TV, so come FSC go out and try to get this contract.

Map courtesy of Bills Sports Map.