Biggest shocks of 2009-10 season
While the new season is closer right now than the season that has just passed, I thought it would be nice to take a look back at some of the biggest surprises that were thrown up by the footballing gods last season. Everyone likes a shock once in a while, that is after all what makes the sport an interesting spectacle rather than a pure statistical amusement.
5. Barcelona v Rubin Kazan (1-2)
First up a clash in the Champions League group stages. Rubin Kazan had qualified for the competition as champions of Russia, based in Russia’s 8th largest city deep in the Russian vastness it may have been less surprising had the result come at home. However the Russian’s went to the Nou Camp on the 20th October and came away with all three points.
Rubin’s manager, Kurban Berdyev, revealed his master plan after the match. Having seen Barcelona’s 0-0 draw with Valencia he noted that there was space to shoot from distance because of the Catalan midfielder’s reluctance to drop into the penalty area to screen the defence. Rubin’s players were told to shoot on sigh, in truth they were rather fortunate to score an absolute screamer of a goal and were lucky not to concede late in the second half when Barca forced an oustanding save and Yaya Toure headed against the post. Rubin pulled off a smaller shock at home two weeks later, taking a 0-0 draw in freezing temperatures.
4. Allianza Lima v Estudiantes de la Plata (4-1)
When Tim Vickery asked is the Copa Libertadores more entertaining (better) than the UEFA Champions league, he was served up the perfect example by Peruvian side Allianza Lima. They faced the holders Estudiantes one round after the Argentinians had demolished Juan Aurich, another Peruvian team, 5-1 at home. Estudiantes had also come within a mere minute of being declared club champions of the world when they faced Barcelona at the 2009 Club World Cup.
The game looked as though it would be another rout for the visiting side when Jose Sosa put the holders ahead after just 4 minutes. Wilmer Aguirre, the Allianza striker, was having none of it and scored a neat hat trick before Jose Fernandez put the icing on a 4-1 defeat.The altitude would certainly have been a factor in the defeat, Lima is approximately 5,000 ft (1,500m) higher than La Plata, but the first two goals came in the first half which suggests that fatigue was not purely to blame. You can see the highlights on Youtube here.
3. Spain v Switzerland (0-1)
In the build up to the 2010 World Cup Spain hit Poland for six, pardon the pun. They had held an incredible record over the past 4 years having lost just twice in 45 matches, the curse had been lifted at Euro 2008 and it appeared that they were absolutely unstoppable. Nothing would stand in their way, except for Switzerland’s determined dogged, determined and tenacious defending. Spain were stifled by their own lack of width and they were even showing signs of panic, they appeared to run out of ideas against a Swiss side harking back to the days of the ‘Verrou‘ or Catenaccio. Although Switzerland should’ve had 2 goals, it is safe to say that Spain were well and truly mugged.
We are all aware that they went on to take the trophy, so perhaps it gave them the wake up call required to really knuckle down and grind out the performances. They only won one of their 7 games by over a goal margin (against Honduras), they may not have been playing in the same manner as their pre-tournament friendly win but the Swiss lesson taught them to get the job done.
2. Manchester United v Leeds United (0-1)
The FA cup has a great reputation for delivering upsets to the fans. When these two sides met for their 3rd round tie there was not a vast chasm in leagues between them, just two divisions effectively separated the sides. The writing was on the wall however from the previous round. Leeds were held to a 1-1 draw against Kettering, both home and away, needing to go to extra time before they were able to despatch the conference side. After the initial draw at Kettering’s home ground the 3rd round draw was made and Manchester United together with Leeds United/Kettering Town were drawn as the final tie. Almost as though it had been scripted.
Leeds were by far the hungrier side on the day, after Jermaine Beckford’s scuffed shot trickled under Tomasz Kuszczak and into the United goal the home team appeared somewhat stunned and unable to reply. Leeds were hardly subjected to the kind of pressure cooker style attack that we normally expect to see in these types of game situations.
1. Real Madrid v Alcorcon (1-4 agg.)
Cup competitions are rarely taken as seriously in European countries as they are in England but I still think was the biggest shock of last season. Following the dawn of the new galacticos era Real Madrid spent hundreds of millions of pounds, euros and dollars in an attempt to buy some glory. Real Madrid travelled to Alcorcon with a side consisting of expensive reserves, not a single youth player was included in the side. The side was as follows: -
Dudek; Arbeloa, Albiol, Metzelder, Drenthe; Mahamadou Diarra, Guti (Gago, 46), Van der Vaart; Granero (Marcelo, 63); Raúl (Van Nistelrooy, 72), Benzema.
These millionaires were trounced by the lowly Segunda Division B, Spain’s third tier, side 4-0 in the first leg and were only able to win the home leg 1-0. Dumping Manuel Pellegrini out of the Copa del Rey, defeat was to become a running theme throughout the rest of Real’s season much to Pellegrini’s dismay.
I’d like to hear what your favourite shocks and cupsets have been over the past year or so.
Exotic Leagues: Bolivia
Following on from my earlier post about League Format. Today we’ll look at how the National championship works in Bolivia. Like many of the other countries in Latin America, Bolivia use an Apertura-Clausura style system and their top level league has 12 clubs.
Apertura
The Apertura, which kicks off in February, operates a 2 stage format. The first stage involves splitting the 12 clubs into two groups of 6, they play a double round-robin within their groups as well as home and away matches from a rival from the other group. Once these 12 fixtures have been played the top 3 from each group progress into a ‘winners’ group or hexagonal, and the bottom 3 go into a losers hexagonal.
Both groups again play a set of round-robin fixtures, home and away, the team that finishes top of the winner’s hexagonal is declared the Apertura champion. The winners also earn a berth into the Copa Libertadores group stage, the runner up gets a place in the 2nd round of the Copa Sudamericana. Bizarrely the winner of the losers hexagonal receive a place in the Copa Sudamericana, this is analogous to a mid-table Premier League side receiving a place in the Uefa cup for finishing as the best team in the bottom half.
Torneo de Invierno (Winter tournament)
In between the Apertura and Clausura, the Bolivian FA hold the ‘Torneo de Invierno’ literally translates as the winter tournament. This used to be a play off tournament for the Apertura but after the format change it has remained as cup competition, something that is unusual to see in a Latin American league. All 12 sides enter, 6 ties are played in the group round with the 6 winners going through as well as the best two runners up. The rest of the tournament is a 2 legged knockout tournament with the winner receiving a place in the Copa Sudamericana.
Clausura
The Clausura is a much simpler affair, the 12 teams play a double round robin league with the winner being crowned as champion. Winner and runner-up get a Libertadores place while the 3rd place side receives a place in the Sudamericana the following season.
Relegation
Relegation is decided over the past two years performances, the team with the worst average is relegated immediately. The second worst team has to play off against the runner-up of the Copa Simon Bolivar, Bolivia has a 9 league 2nd tier, similar to 3/4th tiers in countries such as Italy. The runner-up of the play off competition gets a second chance to get into the top division.
Libertadores shock for holders, U de Chile finally lose
Teams left in the Copa Libertadores, South America’s premier club competition, concluded their quarter final ties last week. Going into the 2nd legs the ties stood as follows: -
Chivas de Guadalajara (Mexico) 3 – 0 Libertad (Paraguay)
Universidad de Chile 3 – 2 Flamengo (Brazil)
Sao Paolo (Brazil) 2 -0 Cruziero (Brazil)
Estudiantes (Argentina & Holders) 0 – 1 Internacional (Brazil)
The biggest of those games were held in Santiago and La Plata. The holders Estudiantes went into their home game with Internacional of Brazil looking to overturn a 1 goal defecit and looked on track to do so after a great first half. On 19 minutes Juan Sebastian Veron delivered a magnificent cross field ball from 10 yards inside his half to the edge of the box where Leandro Gonzalez had lost his full back and chipped simply over Abbondanzieri. Two minutes later Enzo Perez netted a second and Estudiantes led the tie up until the 88th minute Giuliano scored a crucial away goal for the visitors in a smoke filled penalty area. The end of the game was marred by a bit of a big scuffle.
Flamengo had a poor first tie at home to Universidad de Chile. The Chilean side were the only undefeated side in the tournament though so they were hardly dealing with poor opposition. U de Chile had won that game 3-2 despite being down to 10 men for the majority of the second half. Flamengo scored two cracking goals, the first was assisted by an inspired overhead kick from Adriano which Vagner love helped towards the goal at the far post. Walter Montillo equalised for U de Chile by delicately chipping the keeper from all of 25 yards out. The second Flamengo goal came from a lovely piece of interchange between Kleberson and Adriano leading to the ‘Emperor’ scoring. Sadly this wasn’t enough to put Flamengo through to the semi finals.
The other results of the 2nd leg games were
Libertad 2 – 0 Guadalajara (2-3)
Sao Paolo 2 – 0 Cruziero (4-0)
This means that the semi finals will be as follows:
Sao Paolo vs Internacional
Guadalajara vs Universidad de Chile
To be played on the 29th July and 5th August, there will be at least one Brazilian side in the final.