New Blues

Chelsea soundly beat the Seattle Sounders yesterday by a score of 4-2. New boys Eden Hazard and Marko Marin each scored, while Romelu Lukaku picked 2 up himself. The Blues future showed itself in fine fashion last night. Di Matteo started Hazard, Markin and Lukaku, as well as Nathaniel Chalobah, Kevin de Bruyne and Gael Kakuta. The result was lovely for Chelsea fans. Marin and Hazard showed themselves to be quite superb. The speed with which Marin and Harzard attacked and counter attacked was frightening. 3 of the Blues goals came off turnovers from the Sounders; such quick counters will put the Blues in good positions this year in the premier league. Think of the blues potential lineup. Di Matteo will have them line up in a 4-4-3. Bosingwa, Terry, Cahill and Cole will hold forwards in check. Ramires, Lampard and Marin will control the pace and play the right balls for the forwards. Mata and Hazard will take up the wings, putting crosses into the striker. Here is where a dilemma begins. Chelsea holds a plethora of attacking options. Torres, Sturridge and Lukaku all will contest for the spot, but the Blues have allegedly assured Torres the starting role. However, Abrahmovich has been chasing after Porto striker Hulk; his buying will really complicate things. Even with the striking problem, the Blues should be fine; Di Matteo looks rather Mourhino-like in handling players. After all, more is better.

Swan City

As you may have noticed, many if not all of my posts have been about Chelsea FC. That is because I am a fan of Chelsea; but, I would like to apologize to those of you who are not explicitly interested in Chelsea. I am now becoming a fan of a different team; Swansea City. Several things attracted me to the Swans. 1.) Swansea plays some of the best attacking football in England. They pass like Barcelona, using triangle passes to silence opponents. 2.) Swansea is the first Welsh team to play in the Barclays Premier League ever. 3.) I like how Swansea seems to be filled with young players. Those teams, like the Tampa Bay Rays in Major League Baseball and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the National Basketball League, attract me. And finally, and this reason is truthfully the biggest, 4.) The Swans have probably the my favorite jersies in the whole league. The white and gold looks great.

ESPN Soccernet has a blogger who follows Swansea and Swansea alone; I think he is quite good, and found something especially cool. He analyzed the whole of Swansea's year, and did a good job of it. Here is the link, http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/swansea/, so you can enjoy that. I'll be back with more next time.

Spain wins... again.

Spain thrashed Italy 4-0 to win their 2nd consecutive Euro championship, and their 3rd straight major championship victory, a record. The arguments have begun to say that Spain is the greatest international side ever to play.

The final score line was deceiving; the game, to me, will always be 2-0. The final Torres and Mata goals were a little jaded, since the Italians were playing with ten men, most of whom were demoralized and out of energy. Spain really showed why they haven't lost in 40 some matches; it's so hard to beat them. They pass so well, even if they don't score after 30, 40, even 60 minutes, they will eventually score, because Xavi and Iniesta and Xabi Alonso and others dissect the defense. The only way to stop them is to put all your men behind the ball and play for penalties/draw. This isn't a secret; Chelsea showed the whole world this in beating Barca in that infamous two leg UCL semifinal. It's just impossibly hard to execute this plan that many teams can't win. Spain dominated the whole game, obviously, but they astounded the audience with beautiful play. The first goal showcased a beautiful through ball from Iniesta to Cesc Fabergas, who crossed the ball from the touch line to a flying David Silva. Silva headed the ball past Gianluigi Buffon. Jordi Alba, Spain's left back, made it two when he made a run past Xavi, recieved the ball then hit past Buffon. Italy still pushed to make a comeback, and looked like it until Thaigo Motta, who had been brought on as the Azzuri's last sub, was taken off with an injury. This brought Italy to ten men, and ended the game. Fernando Torres scored, and then fed Juan Mata, his Chelsea teammate, with an assist, which clinched him, not Mario Gomez, not Mario Balotelli, the Golden Boot for the tournament. That seems a little wrong doesn't it?

So then, here is the question; is this Spain team, the one that has made the run, the greatest ever? My answer is, yes. This is a record for a reason. No other team has done this. Not 1970 Brazil or early 70's West Germany. Spain plays the best football, despite being called boring, I have ever seen. They are without flaw in my mind. I can't wait to see them with a healthy, albeit older, David Villa at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Watching this Spain team is watching history.