Beautiful Horizons

A Dish Best Served Cold

What do you do when your one time friend sleeps with your girlfriend and cheats on his wife?

Well, the one thing you don't do is shake his hand, right Wayne Bridge?

The Bundesliga

There was an excellent article in Tuesday's New York Times about the Bundesliga, Germany's professional football league. It appears to be the very model of a well run business:

“When people talk about the dominance of the Premier League and La Liga, they’re talking about four clubs in the U.K. and two in Spain,” the Bundesliga’s chief executive, Christian Seifert, said in a telephone interview from Miami, where he was attending the Super Bowl. “Do people really think that what happens in Spain, Italy and the U.K. is really the way to the future? No. It is completely unsustainable.”

The Germans have just released an annual report that covers the 2008-9 season, the first played since the global financial crisis began in September 2008. And perhaps with a bit of a bump from the 2006 World Cup, which was played in Germany, the league reports some impressive numbers: the highest average attendance in the world, nearly 42,000 a game in modern stadiums; revenue that exceeded $2.7 billion (with player costs reduced to 40 percent of gross income); lowest average ticket prices, about $28 (in England the average is nearly $60); every game available live on television; and three different Bundesliga champions in the last three seasons (and three other clubs winning the German Cup over that period).

He's absolutely right about the leagues in Spain and England. Don't get me wrong, two of my favorite teams play in those leagues, but the consistent finish of either Barcelona or Real Madrid (Valencia was the last one to win other than those two and that was six years ago) in first place in La Liga and either Manchester United or Chelsea to win the English Premier League with Arsenal and Liverpool rounding out the top four.

What is also encouraging is this:

Several years ago, Major League Soccer and the Bundesliga signed a strategic agreement that has yet to provide many tangible results: no German clubs have played exhibitions in the United States during the summer, for example.

“Our cooperation with M.L.S. is an exchange of know-how,” Seifert said. “The U.S. is very interesting, and we have a lot to learn in terms of the media landscape. On the other hand, M.L.S. people have been over to watch our ref system and the academies.”

I have no illusions that the MLS has the ability to compete with baseball, gridiron football or basketball in this country. What it can do is carve a decent niche for itself and if one of those ways is to follow the Bundesliga by keeping ticket prices affordable, it could succeed.

A Friendly Suggestion to Jonathan Bornstein

Jonathan Bornstein, the US Men's National Team defender is a national hero in Honduras and while I certainly understand why, perhaps, before he becomes buddies with acting president coupmeister Roberto Micheletti, he might want to read this report by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission about human rights abuses under the coup government,.

He might also want to watch this video by Witness for Peace:

Soft Bigotry of Lower Expectations - Professional Sports Division

So let me get this straight: Jay Feely gets kudos for doing what every goalkeeper in soccer does in every game?

Color me unimpressed.

Goal of the Decade

Rivaldo playing for Barcelona June 2001, the last game of the season:

What makes this so valuable?

• It was the third goal of a hat trick for Rivaldo.
• It was the last game of the season.
• At that point in the game (about the 89th minute), they were tied 2-2 with Valencia (their opponent). They had to win the game in order to qualify for the Champions League the next year; Valencia just needed a tie to qualify.
• By qualifying, Barcelona assured itself of at least 8 million dollars that it would not have received if it had qualified for the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League).

Here's a look at all three goals:

Leo Messi

An extraordinary finish to an extraordinary year. Congratulations!

In a Word, Breathtaking

FC Barcelona has defeated Estudiantes to win the FIFA World Club Cup. This is now the sixth title that they have won in 2009:

1. Spain's La Liga Title
2. Spain's Copa del Rey
3. Spain's Supercup
4. UEFA Champion's League
5. UEFA Supercup
6. FIFA World Club Cup

Has any club ever done better in a single year? I can't think of one.

Goal of the Year

From Nelson Figueroa of Wigan Athletic:

The Groups Selected

Here are the groups:

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
South Africa	Argentina	England	Germany
Mexico	Nigeria	USA	Australia
France	South Korea	Algeria	Serbia
Uruguay	Greece	Slovenia	Ghana
Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H
Netherlands	Italy	Brazil	Spain
Denmark	Paraguay	North Korea	Switzerland
Japan	New Zealand	Ivory Coast	Honduras
Cameroon	Slovakia	Portugal	Chile

Let's look at them and I'll make some semi-educated guesses:

Group A: The conventional wisdom largely has it right: France and Mexico will probably go through, with France winning the group. France could not have gotten an easier group. South Africa may be the first host country to not make it out of the first round. Uruguay has some talent up front, but their defense is wretched. The Mexicans and the french should feast.

Group B: Argentina and Greece go through, with Argentina winning this weak group and Greece squeaking through on stubbornness. South Korea will be running all over the place, but their skills are crap. Nigeria is but a shadow of the times that appeared in 1994 and 1998.

Group C: USA and England go through with England taking the group, although despite their skill at many positions, the English have crap goalkeeping these days. A few have said look out for Slovenia as they eliminated Russia, but they did so on away goals and against a Russian team, most of whose players play in Russia and were playing at a point nearly at the end of the Russian League season. In the end the US experience in big games should be the edge against both Algeria and Slovenia. This is clearly the best draw the US has gotten in years, perhaps ever.

Group D: Germany and Serbia go through with Germany winning the group. Ghana may surprise, but I believe that they got lucky in 2006 against the US with a wretched penalty call. Michael Essien is the most solid player on the team, but we saw what happened when he couldn't play. Australia is cursed by the draw this time.

Group E: Netherlands and Denmark go through with Netherlands winning the group. Japan will be an appetizer for these two teams while Cameroon, Samuel Etoo notwithstanding, is also a shadow of its former self.

Group F: Italy and Paraguay to go through. Slovakia may cause some headaches, but this may be the one group where everyone except New Zealand gets a win.

Group G: Time to go a little out on a limb, here: Brazil and Ivory Coast go through with Brazil taking the group. Ivory Coast has some solid players with significant European League experience. Portugal has Cristiano Ronad, Deco and a few players that have a lot of miles on them. It will be close, but the decisive match will be Portugal v Ivory Coast. Expect everyone to feast on North Korea.

Group H: Spain and Switzerland go through with Spain winning the group. Honudras has some talented players, but wretched defending and Chile is not much better.

186 days to go. Can't wait!

The Draw

I think Dave Brockington largely has it right here about the possible outcome for the draw for World Cup groups, although my preference for the US would be South Africa, USA, Uruguay and Slovenia.

Here is the New York Times breakdown of the groups. It'll be interesting to see which group ifany will be the Group of Death.