Super Sunday Football

     Last week's Sunday was truly an eventful one. United supporters rejoyced, Citizens suffered last-minute disappointment and unbiased fans of football enjoyed a real treat. Though the Manchester Derby was stained by a few unnoticed fouls and a goal that was wrongly  ruled out for an offside, the refs did a good job and allowed the two teams to truly provide an entertaining show. In fact, one might even say that the decision to not count Ashley Young's goal was what allowed the match to become such a spectacle. The match itself started in United's favour and Rooney did not miss the opportunity to score. Twice. Reminding us of his early years in United, Wayne Rooney took on the position of center forward and did not disappoint. Man City had its opportunities during the first half, but failed to capitalize on them. The two teams went into  halftime with a 2:0 lead in United's favour. But City had a lot of fight left in them, still, and came out of the lockers inspired. The second half started quite evenly for both teams and fast football was displayed. No one was able to score, though, until Van Persie hit the right bar with an amazing strike, leaving the ball flying toward Ashley Young, who put it in the net with ease. This goal, however, was ruled out due to an offside, which replays show was a wrong decision. Man City took advantage of the frustration the United players were feeling and managed to score with a swift counterattack. The score was now 2:1 and City fans were cheering on their team harder than ever. It seemed to help, because the inspired Man City team crushed United in the next 15-20 minutes, managing to equalize the score. The frustration of United was deepening and they were running out of ideas. Sir Alex Ferguson knew a change was needed and substitutions were the way to go. Phil Jones and Danny Welbeck came in, revitalizing the right wing of the United attack. This change proved to be the key to United's victory, as the pressure on City defenders was too much and in the very last minutes of the match, Welbeck managed to take the ball from a tired City defender and pass it to Valencia, who was fouled. With the score equal at 2:2 and United making a ditch effort to win the three points, Persie took on the responsibility of taking the foul. His strike was strong, but aimed right at Joe Hart. Nasri, however, made an unusual decision and raised his foot, allowing the ball to knock off it and swerve right into the right corner of Hart's goal. Etihad stadium plunged into silence, with only the roar of United fans echoing through. In the end, Man United deserved the win and took the three points justly, but the City team should not feel disappointed, because they showed some impressive football and treated us with a real derby. The Manchester Derby.

 

Hristo Stefanov

Thiago Silva - A Humble Captain

Thiago Silva is one of the world-class defenders in modern football. And as you may guess, I am not talking about the former CSKA player, but about the Brazillian who plays now at PSG. PSG quickly gathered a lot of critics because of the policy they implied in recent years to buy contemporary star players. A policy that was first introduced by Sheikh Mansour in Manchester City in 2007, copied by Anzhi and Malaga new owners. One may say that PSG even went over the ilmit this summer. Apart from ensuring the signature of Napoli star winger Eziquel Lavezzi, as well as new talent Veratti, they also bought probably Milan's two best performers for the last football campaign - Zlatan Ibrachimovic and Thiago Silva. It is interesting to note that both players, and especially Silva insisted on the fact they wanted to stay at the club, however, Milan's financial problems forced them into selling the talneted duo. It is worth mentioning that Thiago Silva captained Brazil during the Olympic games football tournament and performed well, but his performance in the last two season with Milan was sensational and earned him praises from many critics and football players and coaches, including Milan's former great player - Paolo Maldini. The former Milan captain was stunned by the selling not of star forward Ibrachimovic, but of Thiago Silva's departure. He described Silva as brilliant player and a captain for the future of Milan. Now, however, the Brazilian central defender is playing for PSG, a club that cannot match the silverware of Milan at this moment, but has started a project that is both promising and efficient. And Thiago Silva is the centre of this project, he is captaining his new team in his first season with PSG, and he is also captain of Brazil national team. The latter team has never been famous for producing brilliant defenders, but Thiago Silva has proved many people with his performances that unlike many of his Brazillian colleagues he prefers do to his job in defence, and leave the attacking duties to the rest of the team. And this is one of his brilliant qualities, aside from his anticipation, speed, good heading skills, technique, tackling abilities, he also loves his job playing defence and plays with both passion and determination, he does not take risks by going on forward runs (take a look on Lucio or David Luiz) which can be dangerous, but often produce greater hazard for the defender's team. Thiago Silva is also very humbe in his opinion of himself, but this is another honorable quality of his character which complements with his football abilities and makes him so remarkable player.

                                                                  To be continued...

"Arab Money" not enough to make the club a legend

Since 2007 there has been a new team, which was competing in the title race for Barclays Premier League. Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the new owner of Manchester City, invested more than 300 million dollars in the club and won two cups with his new team. First, it was the FA cup in 2011, and after that it was the Premier League at 2012, when City prevailed against their city rivals- Manchester United. And even though that Mansour Al Nahyan has spent more than 300 million on players, his team is still considered insignificant in Europe competitions. Manchester City failed to continue the Champions League groups after two years, finishing 3rd and 4th respectively. The owner of Man City announced that Manchester City will become the greatest teams in the world, but in the last years Manchester City doesn't show the form that a great club should show. Even though it is gradually picking up speed, Manchester City is way behind English legend-teams such as Liverpool, Arsenal and ofourse- Manchester United. In the previous years the Manchester derbies are not just city derbies, but title derbies. That makes the intrigue even bigger, and the city of Manchester is now colored almost equally in two colors- lightblue and red. Some opposers of Manchester United recently after the arrival of Mansour, became Man City fans in order to oppose "The Red Devils". Some people, however may not realize that money don't make history, nor class. This change definately makes the Premier League more challenging and more intriguing, but this change is only temporary. In history Manchester City will remain only a spot of glory, and will always remain in the shade of its greater opponent, and the city of Manchester will become entirely red, singing " Glory Glory Man United!"

Is United that ahead?

As Manchester United were  able to defeat its city rival Manchester City, the Red Devils were able to solidify their first position in the Premier League. Manchester City were on second place before the match and with the win of United they felt behind them with 6 points. On third palce is the Chelsea with their new manager, Rafael Benites. As Man United was able to beat their rivals they took a real secure position in the league. The season is far from being over, but many people think that the Red Devils have almost won the tournament. However, many people seem to have forgotten last season when the team of Alex Ferguson managed to lose the title with an 8 point advantage from their rivals, again Manchester City. Manchester United was able to lose their advantage in 3 matches. One of them was exactly against Manchester City. The other 2 matches ended in a loss to Wigan and a draw with Everton, while Manchester City was able to win all their matches. Then the title was going to be decided on the last match of both teams. Manchester City had better goal advantage through the season so any win for Manchester City would have won the tittle. They played agaisnt QPR, who actually were visitors on Etihad Stadium. They had controlled the match with the result of 0-2 for QPR. After that they lost a player by getting a red card. However, their defence seemed magnificent as they were holding countless attacks. Manchester City was able to reduce the deficit by scoring a goal. After that Manchester City scored 2 goals in the last minutes of the match. The last goal was in the actual last minute of the extended time. They were some conspiracy theories that actually QPR let Manchester City win, but that will never be proved. This only shows that in football  no matter how much a team has advantage it hasn't won untill the very last.   

F1 News

The race on Sunday ended up with the win of the champion Vettel. Ferrari, however, are putting a complain about this as they have been thinking that Vettel has made an overtake of another car while there was a yellow flag. This is against the rules, and if the claim is approved and Vettel is found guilty, then he will recieve a penalty for his actions. The usual penalty in this type of cases is 20 seconds, but that is enough for Alonso to take the first place of the World Championship surpasing Vettel. This is why this action and the decision of the judges are so crucial. They can determine who the winner is going to be in the end. The judges have looked at a video footage about this scene, but they have reached to the conclusion that Vettel did not cheat at all. He gained one position while the green flag was up. How is this possible then when all the viewers on TV including some of the Ferrari crew saw that there was a yellow flag? The answer to that according to the referees is that there was a TV illusion. People looked at the pannel for lights all the time, and Vettel started gaining speeed during that. He surpased the other car after the green flag was up, but the speed gaining started earlier. This is whypeople ot confused and the complain was given. In the end the complain was withdrawn and no penalty was given to Vettel.

Barcelona Celebrates its 113th Birthday

Today, one of the most popular football clubs in the world celebrates its 113th birthday. The Spanish team was created on the 29th November 1899, and the person who had the greatest impact on its creation was the Swiss Max Camper, who later became famous as Joan Gamper. Everything began with just a table, four chairs and two notebooks and naming the newly created Football Club Barcelona. Gulateri Vild is chosen as the first president of the club and Joan Gamper became the first ever captain in Barcelona.



 The first even major trophies of the team were in 1909/1910 when the team won the Cupa del Rey. The first ever "El Classico" was played in 1902 and Barcelona defeated Real Madrid with a score of 3:1.

Top European Goalscorers and Team Performances

So far, the top european leagues have hade some momorable matches and outstanding performances. Plenty of goals had been scored and some uncredible results and standings can be seen so far. We will offer you a list with interesting facts and outstanding performances that will surely make you a bit more interested in what's going on with the European Football.


Surprises of the Season(team perfomance):

Italy - bad performance - Milan

After Milan manager Berluskoni sold two of Milan's most valuable players Milan have a hard time winning matches. After 14 rounds, Milands are 8th in the league with a total of 18 points won, 14 points away from the first Juventus. In addition to that they have scored only 21 goals, 10 of which by Stefan El Sharaawi who proves to be one of the few good players in the team. Still the team has no chance to win the title and it is even the 2nd team to qualify for the elimination stage of Champions League after the spanish team of Malaga.

Italy - good performance - Fiorentina

Fiorentina seem to be playing on a top level again.8 wins out of 14 matches may not seem that impressing but the team has only two lost matches and an outstanding performance by it's main player Stefan Jovetic. Comparing this performance to last year when they barely remained in the league means that there is a great improvement in the team withing the last year.


England - bad performance - Newcastle and Arsenal

Both teams were expected to be in the fisr 6 teams by now but the reality is not quite the same. Newcasle finished in the fisrt 5 last year but now is struggling to get in the first 10(14th position). And even though they are the first in their group in Europa League tournament, this is still no quite what the team managed expected this year. If we take a look at Arsenal their performance is not that different. 6th place and 10 points away from the fisrt in the league is the worst start the team has in 10 years and the worst under the coaching of Arsene Wenger.


England - good performance -West Bromich

Noone ever expected that after the first 13 rounds West Bromich will be in Champions League zone. But after 8 wins out of 13 matches the teams has shows quite some progress in the league. Only one lost in all their domestic matches is the key role of their success.

Formula 1- the end of a season

Yesterday, the last race of the 2012 Formula 1 citcuit came to an end. A large ammount of people gathered in São Paulo for the final showdown between the top F1 pilots of the season:

Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen. The race itself was rather invigurating as all the drives strived to showcase the best of their abilities. A surprising crash by Hamilton caused him to leave the race and so the race for first place was mostly between Button, Alonso and Massa with Vetel being kept away from the first positions. In the end Button won the race  with Alonso Massa and even Vetel being at about 2 seconds from each other. The thing that made the race so memorable was all the emotion felt after the drivers left their cars. Button broke into tears after winning this last race and even though he was 5th in the global drivers ranking, he was still more than happy to have the privilage to hold the last race cup of the year. Of course, even the drivers ranking brought tears to the ones who won the first three positions. Alonso and Vetel were really close contenders for the first position and even after Vetel won by a close 3 point win, both players showed sportsmanship and congratulated each other with mutual wishes that they will win the next one also.

Bayern Munchen continue their strong season with 3 points against Hannover 96

On 24th November Bayern accepted Hannover 96 on Allianz Arena in Munich. They got back to their traiditon this season for winning games with a crushing goal difference. After scoring 5 goals against Hannover, their GD is the amazing +35 in 13 games, scoring an average of 3 goals per game.
The leaders of the Bundesliga already had the classical 3-0 lead at the end of the first half after beautiful goals from Javi Martinez, Toni Kroos and Franck Ribery. During the second half Dante scored the fourth goal in the 63rd minute. The profligate Mandzukic was taken off minutes later and the top striker Gomez made a dream return from injury when he scored with the first touch of the ball. So far Bayern Munchen have a strong lead, but are just 9 points ahead of the champion of 2011 and 2012 - Borussia Dortmund.

NBA Season 2012-13

        So it is winter and the big show in the USA has started. The big games in the big arenas have arived. The new NBA Season has already started and it started in a fashion and emotion. So before starting to discuss the latest games lets analyze the rosters of the main contenders. In the west one of the main teams that have aimed at the title are the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers have had a big offseason with getting Steve Nash and Dwight Howard. Both acquisitions are expected to contribute to a succesful return to the throne for the Lakers. Gasol, Kobe, Nash and Howard are one of the most talked about lineups in the league, but the reigning West Conference champions the Oklahoma City Thunder are again a strong contender even though they traded James Harden and got only Martin from the Rockets. In the east nothing has changed. Again the main contender not only to win the conference, but to have a double is the Miami Heat. King James is stronger than ever and with the help of Bosh and Wade he has a good support next to him.The new contenders in the east are the newly formed Brooklyn Nets and their rivals the New York Knicks. Both New York based teams started very well the season and now are very dangerous for everyone. Of course the season is in its early stage, but still the leaders are already formed in both of the conferences. The big disappointment so far are the Lakers who started with a 1-3 and are still with a losing record of 5-6. Their new coach Marc D'Antoni has a lot of work in order to reach Erik Spoelstra's team and ultimately take the crown from king James. So expect a great season and don't worry the big games have just started and you will constantly see news about the situation in the NBA.

No Big Transfers in Liverpool

Apparently there will be no big transfers in Liverpool during the winter transfer window. This intention of the Reds was unveiled by the manager of the club Brendan Rodgers. He admitted that new attacking players should be bought in order for Liverpool to score more goals. however, his expectations are that new players will join the club no sonner than during the summer transfer window next year.

"If we add some class to our attack, that would be vital for the development of the whole team. Nevertheless, I'm not convinced that this will happen during the January transfer window. We have to revise our current financial status and documents. After that, we will be able to plan our investment in new players. A lot of players left the club during the summer and there were new investitions as well. If possible, we will try to get the transfers done in January."

STAUT OVERPOWERS IN STUTTGART

Kevin Staut won an amazing victory and disappointed the Germans even though the chances were on their side. He managed to win the fifth qualifying round of the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping 2012/2013 Western European League series at Stuttgart. Together with his mare Silvana HDC, Staut took the almost certain victory of the hands of the German rider Marcus Ehning and his mare Noltes Kuchengirl. In the jump-off he was faster only with one hundredth of a second and managed to go through the 11 obstacles in the round without mistakes quick enough to overpower Ehning.

The third place went to the rider from Portugal Luciana Diniz and her Winningmood and the one who was behind her in his points was Jens Fredricson from Sweden together with Lunatic. The result of Kevin Staut brings him up with the same amount of points as the leader of the Western European League Sergio Alvares Moya from Spain who on the other hand made one mistake in the first round of this competition. However, the rider from Spain continues to be the main leader and goes to the next round in Geneva, Switzerland in December because he has been more consistent in his good results through the Rolex indoor season.

Chelsea's chances for the title are becoming a mirage

Last night's match between Chelsea and Liverpool offered another great derby to the fans. After 90 minutes of non-stop goal attempts at both ends of the putch and some magestic momnets of the striker of the both teams, the final score was 1-1. The fisrt half ended 1-0 for the Blues with some really good opportunities for a goal and only one scored. John Terry socred his first Premier League goal this season but unfortunalely he was badly injured when Luiz Suarez accidentaly fell on his leg 5 minutes before half brake. Later on, up intil the 73 minute, Chelsea fans were delighted to see their favourites organizing a lot of attacks, but the second goal was not coming yet. The attack lead by Oscar, Juan Mata, Ramires, Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres seems the deadlist combination for Roberto Di Matteo, but unfortunately for him Liverpool score with a late goal of Luiz Suarez. Th final score left Chlsea 3 points after Manchester United and 1 point after Manchester City.
The last 6 games of Chelsea reveal that this is not the best period of the club. 1 win, 3 draw matches and two lost games come to show that there is something wrong in the performances of the team lately. Still the only game won during this period was the one against Manchester United for the English Cup and this might be a signal for the hope in Chelsea players. Still improvement is needed, because if Chelsea continue with these unsatisfying results, they may even end up out of the big 4 in England , which would mean they will lose their place in Champions League next season.

Solid win for Moya in Verona

       

          In the day of 11th November at the stadium of in Verona, Italy a rider made an extraordinary victory. Sergio Alvares Moya from Spain made it clear that he is the champion of the fourth part of the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping 2012/2013 Western European League. The competition was special for two reasons. One is that the horse of Moya is only eight years old and the other is that the vice-champion Luca Moneta was so proud of the Spaniard and yet took the place after him. The culmination of the competition was when it was time for the jump-off with 12 horses. The spectators were so into it like watching a scene in the theater that they literally grabbed their seats. Malin Baryard-Johnsson from Sweden finished third and in his excitement he said: “the sport was amazing, I haven’t competed in a class as exciting as this in a very, very long time!”. The win of Moya is a good background result for the rest of the series and especially for the next one which is the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping Final in Gothenburg, Sweden next April. He is already in the board of the leaders and with this win has made sure that he is well qualified with solid 58 points.

Schumacher: I was expecting a title with my return!

The legend in Formula 1 Michael Schumacher announced that with his return he was expecting to add up one more title to his previous 7. After a 3-year break the champion returned to race with the hope of continuing his glorious career but things didn't go as planned and Schumacher generally announced that he will withdraw forever at the end of season 2012.


I’ve thought long, three-year contract is difficult to maintain the motivation and energy. I’ve Had my doubts, because I have energy to continue, in 2006 said that my batteries were empty and now I’m in the red zone. While I do not know if recharging but I look forward freely, is a great deal, but in another sense."


"Now my immediate future is the six races remaining, as I did in 2006, ending a hundred percent this season. And then we’ll see, he had offers from teams to run and to work with them, but sometimes it’s better leave."


Either way, you wish the best to Michael, and wait to see if before the end of the season you can return to shine in his farewell.

South American Jumping competition

Riders from Brazil were in great shape at the FEI Americas and South American Jumping Championships 2012 on their home terrain in Passo Fundo. The hosts took all the team gold medals and  also three of the four individual titles. Alexandre Imschenetzky from Chile was the only one to break their luck when  he won the Pre-Junior Individual Championship in which the brazilians had to settle for bronze.

The event took place at the Centro Hipico e Haras MD in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil on 22 Sept 2012.  There's been many years since Championships of that class were last organized by the Brazilian National Federation.It was really exciting to watchthe starting program of the tournament. The very successful 2011 Championships which was in Guayquil, Eduador triggered the interest of the fans. There the 15 year old Emanuel Andrade from Venezuela managed to put himself in the top list after he took the Junior Jumping Award at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida, USA, earlier this year. 

These Championships succeed apparently in developing and encouraging the talent and skills of the the children and teenagers of jumping ridersin bothAmericas who look really promising in the future of the sport. There were many competitors from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. 

 

Felix Baumgartner jumped from the edge of space

The Austrian Felix jumped successfully during the mission Red Bull Stratos. He made his jump from 39 000 meters, thus beating the world record for highest free fall. He also managed to beat the record for highest speed by a human during free fall, surpassing the speed of sound. According to Discovery News, his speed was 1342 kph. He, however, did not beat the previous record for longest free fall, as he was in the air for 4 minutes and 19 seconds before he opened his parachute. The previous record was of 4 minutes and 36 seconds. After a 16 minute total fall, he landed safely in New Mexico. According to the Austrian newspaper "Krone" the main sponsor of the even, Red Bull, financed it with about 50 million euro.

Bulgaria Wins a Point in a Heroic and Controversial Match

Friday, 12 October, 11 p.m. The French referee had just blown his final whistle, and the Bulgarian team could congratulate itself on a point well earned.  Lyubo Penev's team got off to a good start and scored an early goal to confrim their advantage over the Danish side.  However, the French referee gave his precious contribution to the game by expelling Ivan Bandalovski.  After that, the Danes pressed the Bulgarian team and managed to score an equalizer till the end of the first half.  In the second half, the Bulgarian side showed exemplary defensive skills and did not allow Danmark to score another goal.  A controversy arised over the alleged racist cries of the Bulgarian side toward the Danish player Patrick Mtiliga.  The Danish football federation threatened to make a complaint to UEFA, in which case Bulgaria could be fined. This lastly happened last year, when we had to pay a fine of 40,000 euros because of insults toward the English players. 
Tomorrow, Bulgaria will engage the Czech Republic in a match of great importance. As of now, Bulgaria is on the second place in the group, followed by the Czech Republic and Armenia.  We wish our lads good luck and three points in Prague.

Marcelo seriously injured

Real Madrid's left back Marcelo broke a bone in his right ankle. It happened during a practice game of the Brazilian national team in Wroclaw in Poland. The injury is serious and the player would be off for nearly 3 months.
During the practice Marcelo felt pain in his foot and he was driven to the nearby hospital, where the injury was confirmed. He was allowed to leave the Brazilians, who are preparing for a friendly match against Japan, and go back to Madrid. There his treatment will continue under the supervision of Real Madrid's doctors.
The bad thing about Real Madrid's coach Jose Mourinho is that Marcelo is the second left back that isisinjured after Fabio Coentrao (who will be off for 1 month). This means Mourinho will have limited options in the left zone of the defence.

Milan Boss Flying to New York to Negotiate with Guardiola

AC Milan boss Silvio Berlusconi wants Josep Guardiola to become a coach of his team AC Milan. Guardiola is jobless at the moment after he left his club Barcelona. The most successful football coach in the last 5 years lives in New York. The Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport informs that Berlusconi ordered to the vice president of Milan Adriano Galliani to reserve a flight to New York, where he will meet with Guardiola. If the rumor is true, it would be very hard for Galliani to convince the 41-year old ex-Barca coach to come to Milan. It's because clubs from England are also interested in signing Guardiola, for example the winner of the Champions League Chelsea.
Besides signing Guardiola would cost a lot of money for Milan. The current Milan team does not enough high-quality players for winning the Champions League or the title in Serie A so new high-class players are needed. That contradicts with the financial strategy of Milan, which reduced its spendings and sold its most expensive players - Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Paris Saint-Germain. The salaries of most of the players were reduced as well and there was almost no money spent for new signings during the summer transfer window, which lead to unimpressive results in most of the matches. It's the worst start of the season from the Berlusconi era in Milan: 4 losses and just 7 points, 12 points behind Juventus and Napoli.
The current coach Massimiliano Allegri would be possibly fired if he loses the next match against Lazio. Mauro Tassotti would probably be appointed as the new one if that happens, but Guardiola remains the long-term solution for the problematic situation in Milan.

CSKA - SLAVIA Start and finish with a goal

The match starts and pretty much ends with a 40 second goal by Lucas Sasha for CSKA. After suffering this loss Slavia starts playing defensively until the very end. Slavia formed very little attacks and the ones they did were repelled by their opposition. CSKA plays mostly an offensive game and maybe even a bit too offensive since they made a lot of fouls and god more than their share of yellow cards. As if the game wasn’t bad enough for Slavia they suffered a goal during the added time, completely demoralizing them and taking away any chance they had at winning the game. The crowds were lively as always, chanting their teams songs throwing a few small bombs here and there swearing across the stadium at the opposing

Bulgaria faces Denmark in a vital 3-point qualification match

     The football national teams of Bulgaria and Denmark will play on the bulgarian national stadium"Vasil Levski" an extremely important match in the world cub qualifying stage. In the same group are the teams of Italy, Czech Republic, Armenia and Malta. The points earned by each team are as follows:

1. Italy - 4 points - 2 matches played(2-2 draw with Bulgaria; 2-0 win over Malta)
2. Bulgaria - 4 points - 2 matches played(2-2 draw with Italy; 1-0 win over Armenia)
3. Armenia - 3 points - 2 matches played(1-0 win over Malta; 1-0 loss from Bulgaria)
4. Czech Republic - 1 point - 1 match played(0-0 draw with Denmark)
5. Denmark - 1 point - 1 match played(0-0 draw with Czech Republic)
6. Malta - 0 points - 2 matches played(1-0 loss from Armenia; 2-0 loss from Italy)


     The football game of Bulgaria and Denmark with be played 21:00 sharp(BG time) and will have a significant impact on the final qualification results and points won. Football society in Bulgaria, including fans of the teams and supposrters among the managers of local clubs say that bulgarian football has won back it's position among the best in Bulgaria. Due to the hard work of the mational coach Dimitar Penev Bulgaria made a draw(2-2) with one of the strongest and most famous football nations in the world - Italy. This was an outstanding result for the bulgarian players whose regrets after the match showed that they were unhappy with the 2 points lost against such a strong team. Such words and performances by the coach and the fans had lifted the spirits of the nation for the next match against Armenia. Another fabulous work by both the manager and the bulgarians resulted in a 1-0 win against the armenians. 4 points out of only two matches played means that the fans revive their memories of the summers of 1998 and 1994 when was the last time the nation played in a World Cup Tournament.
  
     Even if the the bulgarian team finished second, after the super favourite Italy, and these are the expectations, than the team will have a 2 play-off matches and the unique opportunity the participate in a big tournament from 16 years.

     The other top teams

Balkan League starting in 2015

Today it became clear that UEFA has agreed to establish the so called "Balkan League" after the negotiations started about a year ago. The Croatian newspaper "Globus" announced earlier today the beginning of the new competition.
The talks were held today in the Montenegrian town of Budava, with the participation of representatives from 6 Balkan countries including Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Bosnia.
Last year UEFA was against the project, but the low level and quiality of the Balkan teams convinced them to establish the competition. First of all, it will greately improve the competatibility of the teams and will eventually help them reach further into the competitions on the Old continent. Lately, many Balkan countries experience difficulty sending teams to the Europe League and the Champions League. Also, many fans are eager to see their teams play on a Balkan scale, because the teams are equally balanced and people are able to easily travel to see their favorite teams play in Balkan derbies. Many people know the Balkan fans and it will be interesting to see the first games in 2015.
UEFA has not yet released the format of the competition as well as the prize for the winner. What we know so far is that the competition starts in 2015 with the participation of 16 teams from 8 Balkan countries.

NHL Lockout

Although it is October and it is cold in some parts of Europe and North America all of the hockey fans around the world are experiencing a second stoppage of the league in 7 years. A devastating act to the wide-audience of the NHL and the enormous tv contracts that were signed a year before. There are two sides in the conflict. The owners who are presented by the league, whose leader is Gary Bettman. The other side is the NHL Players Association who is leaded by Donald Fehr. Both of the sides want to gain a bigger share of the pie, especially talking about revenue. You may do not know that NHL is the only american-based sport league that had a strike or a lockout 3 times in its existence, this is Gary Bettman's second lockout. So as a regular fan you feel terribly to see another lockout especially after the great 2011-2012 season. In 2004-05 there was not a season, because in this year the lockout emerged again. The past shows that Gary Bettman is a man with ability to win his battles and he is ready to sacrifice another season. On the other side Donald Fehr is known for his experience in the lockout in baseball so in every way you see it we are in a tough situation where we see a conflict between two stubborn people wanting to win no matter what will cost them. NHL fans already are pissed of the league and how it deals with the situation. The fans are making inspirational videos and uniting against the cause, however the reality is that there is 70% chance that the season will not start. The most favorable outcome of the situation is that next year agreement will be signed and it will be in favor of Gary Bettman and the league, because players have to play, they have to earn money and to gain form in this way in some point the players will lose. From all that I said one thing is well known that today October 11th the NHL season is not starting as it was planned and the fans and players want a new agreement soon.

Ireland to play without Robbie Keane?

 

Ireland may have to play without their star player and captain Robbie Keane in the upcoming qualifier against Germany. The Irish captain has problems with his achilles, which will take him out of the match against the Germans. "I have problems with my achilles. I took a heavy hit during practice with my team and the pain has only increased since," said the Irish captain in an interview for the "Irish Times". Robbie Keane has passed medical tests which say that he cannot participate in Saturday's game. The Irish team will have to find another inspiration in order to win against the German team. The contenders for the position of Keane for the upcomming match are Shane Long and Jon Walters. In my opinnion, Shane Long will be chosen to sub for Keane in the match, as he is more experience the Jon Walters.

Federer continues fighting in the ATP Masters

The ATP Masters in Shnaghai is one of the interesting tournaments happening in October this year. After receiving positive feedback from ATP players from around the world, Shanghai was voted for the torunament of the year award for 2010 thus giving it a large boost in popularity and funding with the prise money this year being at about 3.5 million dollars. Federer is just one of the several professional players striving to win this tournament. Apart from hopping to win his 22nd title in the ATP Master 1000, he is also striving to keep up his performance and even improve on it in order to stay at the top of the professional players. Even now at this moment, he is playing against Stanislav Wawrinka who is fairing well against Federer, taking the first set 6-4 for him. And even the second set is seemingly tipping towards Wawrinka wininng. This just goes to show that not only Federer is striving to win this tournament and because of that we, as viewers, can see the players at  the best of their game shwoing the spectators how it's done.

Formula 1 Japan's race analysis and Korean expectations

This weekend a new race will be held in Korea. Sebastian Vettel won the last race in Japan and is preparing for the new one. The leader so far is Fernando Alonso, but now after the last victory of Vettel, Alonso has only a four points lead which means that a severe fight between these two drivers will form. Red Bull is better in this track, but a third consecutive win for Vettel is something that is a little bit too early to think of. This year the races have been tougher to the Red Bull drivers. A new threat has appeared for them. Lotus is emerging. Ferrari has been having some difficulties lately especialy with the recent collision with Kimi Raikkonen right at the begining of the race. Improvements on the car are needed and Felipe Massa can sense it. Alonso is looking to scoring more than his competators. Hamilton's chances are not that big for winning the title for Mercedes, but he still has some chances. In races like this anything is possible, so they he shouldn't give up at all. Even someone with a solid lead can make a collision and lose so much points. In the last race in Japan, he could not stop Vettel from winning, but managed to remain second and keep Mark Webber behind him untill the end. Handling problems had occured during the race, but in the end he became second which is still good. Hamilton has never had a victory in Korea. Each year something different happend and stopped him from succeeding. This year things might change. The race is going to be amazing, and watching it is really worth the time.

United's Revived Play

     After a somewhat rough start to the new season, having conceded a goal in 4 out of the first 5 Premier League matches, Manchester United are showing great performances these last few weeks. With the return of one of United's leaders - Wayne Rooney, the Red Devils have convincingly won their last three matches. Team manager Sir Alex Ferguson acclaimes the revival of United's great play to the new midfield lineup and formation. With Carrick on the back, Cleverly and Kagawa on the sides, and Rooney up in front, the midfield is governed by United's diamond formation, which leads to many opportunities for the attackers to play with the ball and hopefully score. This new strategy was highlighted in Manchester United's latest match against Newcastle, where Sir Alex Ferguson's team was in firm control of the midfield, which led to three United goals and none from Newcastle. Sir Alex Ferguson showed great optimism regarding the use of the same strategy in Manchester United's matches to come. Whether it will continue to be successful, it remains to be revealed.

Ireland to face Germany without Robbie Keane?

Ireland will be without its leader in the upcoming World Cup qualifier match against Germany. The captain of the Irish team has problems with his achilles and is going to have to recieve medical attention which will take him out of the match against the Germans. "I have problems with my achilles. I took a heavy hit during the team's practice and the pain has only increased since then," said the captain of the Irish team in an interview for the "Irish Times". Roby Keane has already passed medical tests which say that he will not be able to take part in the match and will have to rest for a couple of days. Ireland will have to find inspiration elsewhere if they have any hopes of beating the German team. They must not think about the absense of their captain, but rather focus on the game and give their all. With the absense of Keane, the question remain as to who will sub for him. The two contenders are Shane Long and Jon Walters, but I think that Shane Long will take this position. It is also unsure if Keane will play in the qualifier against the Faroe Islands, as it is uncertain how long his recovery will take. 

 

New Hope

The Bulgarian national team has been left in ruins. Since the golden age of our national team during the year of 1994 is when Hristo Stoichkov led the Bulgarian lions to the semifinals of the World Cup. They were the biggest underdogs, but still they managed to win the prestigious fourth place. After that there has been no success even close to that achievement. For many cosecutive years the Bulgarian team has not even been able to classify for either the World Cup or the European Cup. However, there is some hope for this year's classification for the World Cup. Bulgaria managed to defeat  Holland in a friendly match and since then everything has been goin really great for them. Bulgaria acquired itself a new trainer, Lubo Penev, and the results were imeddiately seen. The national team of Bulgaria was able to make a draw with the world class tam of Italy. Bulgaria even had way more chances to win as they dominated the second half. After that match Bulgaria managed to pull out a hard victory from Armenia as the match ended 1-0 in favour of the lions. Tomorrow there will be the match between Bulgaria and Denmark. All of the Bulgarian football fans are hoping that we will again be able to come on top. This qualification for the World Cup is going reall well as the Bulgarian team is better than they have been for a long time. Now we have a real chance of qualifying for the World Cup and that way end the losing streak.

Philipp Weishaupt from Germany won  second leg of the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping Final on 20th April at ‘s-Hertogenbosch  in an amazing three-way jump-off against the time which was little. But it is runner-up,  Pius Schwizer from Switzerland, who holds the advantage to go to the next week's final competition which will decide the end result of the 2011/2012 title.

It was really hard evening for both the group of the horses and the competetors. Weishaupt’s friend and countryman,  Marco Kutscher, was the only other starter to get the passing of the course set by Louis Konickx, but the current Olympic champion,  Eric Lamaze from Canada, didn't have luck and missed out on the final barrage.He managed to get in the time frame and stop it just 500ths of a second off the pace and got out of the barrage with only one penalty but unfortunately he succeeded to finish fourth and couldn't make serious position for going to the final or moving himself to the closing stages.

Chelsea draw at Barca as they reach the final

Chelsea have overthrown Barcelona from the European throne. On Camp Nou both teams came and Barcelona was expecting to come back after the disappointing 1-0 at Stamford Bridge, but Chelsea didn’t come just to lose. The match started as expected and Barcelona dominated mostly but they were not efficient in the finishing part. Messi and Sanchez had good chances in the 4^th and 19^th minute but Cech and some luck saved Chelsea. In the 26^th minute Chelsea had a good chance but Drogba couldn’t score from a very small angle. In the 35^th minute Cuenca went fast into the box and sent a ground pass in front of the goal and Busquets was there to score. Barcelona equalized the average score and just two minutes after that John Terry received a red card. The defender hit with his knee Alexis Sanchez without ball, and even though the striker was not hit that severely Terry received a deserved red card and left his team with 10 people. In the 43 minute Messi possessed the ball and he made a through pass to Iniesta who scored for 2-0, so that Barca went in front on average. And just when everything was looking grim for Chelsea, Lampard made an amazing pass to Ramires who with an extraordinary lob shot he shot the ball over the goalkeeper and into the net for 2-1. The half time ended and Chelsea were in front because of the goal at Nou Camp. The second half began as a nightmare for Chelsea. In the 48^th minute Fabregas was fouled by Drogba  in the box and penalty was awarded for Barcelona. The contact seemed very little or none but Messi prepared to score the penalty. However the top striker kicked the upper bar and missed it. Barcelona’s attack lacked ideas and in the 78^th minute Busquets shot a desperate shot which passed well wide. In the 82^nd minute Messi hit the post from a long shot but Cech seemed to cover his goal. While Barcelona were 10 man in attack Chelsea had a perfect chance to score. In the 1^st minute of added time, a corner was cleared and the ball went to Torres who wasn’t offside because he received the ball before he reached the centre and was through. He passed through Valdez and scored against the clean goal. Barcelona were shocked and Chelsea won their way to the final in Munich on May 21^st.

ROLEX FEI WORLD CUP™

The oldest horse in the competition was the 16 year old horse Flexible from Irland. He won the first round of the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Final 2011/2012 in the Netherlands on 19th of April.
Just like his name, the stallion’s got out of a really hard fence to jump-the fifth one on the track of 13 fences. It was made by the Dutch course designer Louis Konickx. The stallion proved his qualities in every sense, and none of the other horses could match his pace when he made the best time in 60.26 seconds.
Steve Guerdat from Switzerland and Nino des Buissonnets were at the second place, while the astonishing Rik Hemeryck finished third for Belgium with Quarco de Kerambars. He had on his way the trouble of being first into the ring.
Pius Schwizer and Ulysse finished up fourth and were before  Kevin Staut and Silvana HDC for France in fifth place and Rolf-Goran Bengtsson from Sweden, was sixth with Casall La Silla.
With that night's results converted into points, Fellers  would go into the second round with an advantage of two points at the top of the board. But like any other competition of the FEI World Cup™ final, there are more big fences that have to be jumped. Only there the 2011/2012 Rolex champion will be announced the next round.

Bayern Munich made it to the finals after a dramatic penalty shoot - out

Bayern’s greatest dream has come true! The men from Munich will face Chelsea at their home Allianz Arena in the Champions League final after beating Real Madrid in penatlty shoot out in a dramatic semi-final second leg.

The 80,000 crammed into Estadio Santiago Bernabeu saw Jupp Heynckes’ men make a shocking start, missing two good chances and conceding a Cristiano Ronaldo double strike within the first quarter of an hour. But neither defence looked secure and Arjen Robben cut the deficit from the spot after 27 minutes of a remarkable, end-to-end first period.

The second half opened with a half-chance at either end, but the frantic action died down and the tension mounted as the sides probed for openings. The visitors finished normal time well on top, but Mario Gomez missed a fine opening with five minutes left and the game went into extra time. Bayern Munich picked up a couple of the yellow cards they had so dreaded in the goalless additional 30 minutes, sending the tie into a shoot-out.
Signs of exhaustion crept in on both sides as the second period of extra time went underway, Boateng producing a superb block to deny Kaka in the box, before Real sub Esteban Granero was booked for diving after a challenge from Neuer. Gomez stumbled after Schweinsteiger’s charge into the box, but that was that and the game went to penalties, where the Bavarians held their nerve and saw the chance to realize their dream..

Both sides were riddled with nerves in the decisive spot-kick confrontation, but Manuel Neuer saved twice, with David Alaba and Gomez both scoring before Schweinsteiger calmly applied the final shoot.

Bologna 1:1 Juve in the derby in Serie A

After the postponed game of Serie A Bologna and Juventus ended draw in this midweek Serie A clash.
The hosts scored a goal in the 17th minute after their first serious situation in front of the door of their opponents. The captain Marco di Vaio sent the ball in the lower right corner of Buffon's door.
Until the end of the first half Juventus did not make a serious threat to Bologna's door, while the hosts were keeping advantage.
The second half began in a similar manner to the first one, but in the 58th minute after a counter attack the Montenegrin Mirko Vučinić scored for Juve after an accurate pass from the captain Alessandro Del Piero.
Untill the end of the game Juve's player Claudio Marchisio missed a 100% goal chance.
In the 83rd minute Leonardo Bonucci again from Juventus received a second yellow card and was sent out just a bit after the referree cast out the coach Antonio Conte, because of protesting.
At the end both teams shared their points. Juve remain undefeated, but still are 2 points behind Milan who are 1st in Serie A

The match with the unexpected outcome

Apoel vs Lyon was a match that presented a very interesting experience to everyone who watch the game both from their homes and live on the field itself. Both teams fought furiously, not giving much chances for any scoring to be done and thus the match continued on through the first half, with only one goal for Apoel and at the same time, several hits on the goal. The second half showed off, both teams' annoyince with the fact that the score was still quite challinging, being 1-0 and they started to play somewhat more aggressively. Lyon was advancing throughout the match and at the same time they had kept their aggresiveness to an ammount at which they did not receive many fouls in comparision to Apoel, who received one red card during the game. After progressing into the final penalties, Apoel gave a last push and managed to finish the penalties 4-3, thus giving them their victory.

Barca destroyed Leverkusen, Messi with 5 goals

The last holder of the Champions League trophy humiliated the German Bayer Leverkusen, earning a victory of 7-1 at Camp Nou. Lionel Messi scored five goals for his team at the second match of the 1/8 finals and his teammate Christian Tello added another two. Karim Bellarabi scored one for the Germans in the last minute of the match. Barca won their first match with 3-1.
In the 11th minute Messi received a good pass and fired a shot from a small angle, but Bernd Leno saved. Messi again gained the ball and passed to Pedro, but his shot was blocked.
In the 24th minute Pique made an attempt to score after Xavi sent the ball into Leverkusen's box. His header was saved by the keeper, however.
The goal show started in the 25th minute. Xavi showed his extraordinary ability and passed the ball to Messi, who sent the ball into the net, beating Leno. That was his goal number 50 in his matches in Europe with Barcelona.
In the 31st minute Messi advanced to the Germans' goal, but his shot was blocked by the defenders in the very last moment. Two minutes later Simon Rolfes from Bayer tried a shot, but unsuccessfully. That was the only possibility for Bayer in the first half.
In the 42nd minute Messi scored another one. He humiliated the defense of Leverkusen and eliminated the keeper with a precise shot. Two minutes later there was another possibility for PepTeam, but Leno stopped Fabregas and then Pedro was unable to score.
In the 50th minute Messi added spectacular goal after an assist from Fabregas. The Argentinian was left alone by Bayer's defenders and had no problem firing the ball into the net.
IN the 54th minute Eren Derdiyok from Leverkusen attempted to score, but his shot was just a few centimeters away from the goal. In the subsequent attack Barca sent the ball into the net once again. Tello, who had come as a substittution just a few minutes before that, fired the ball into the empty goal froma few meters.
A couple of minutes later Messi scored his 4th goal. Bayer's defenders and Leno made a stupid mistake and allowed him to steal the ball and send it into the net.
In the 62th minute Tello received the ball from Alves and with a powerful shot with his right foot beated the keeper, who was unable to stop the ball from crossing the goal line.
Five minutes before the end of the match Lionel Messi punished for the last time Bayer Leverkusen. With a shot from about 20 meters he added a 5th goal,
IN the last minute Bayer managed to return 1 goal, but the humiliation for the players and the club remained.

Man City vs. Sporting

The 1/8 finals of the Europa League are starting this night. We have eight great matchups, which will make our Thursday nights a lot more fun. Man City continues it's second run in the Europa League against another Portuguese team. This time the opponent is Sporting. After a dramatic win versus Legia Warsawa he portugals are ready to face the first in the Premier League. Although City focuses all of their powers in the league they want to perform at their best in the Europa Legaue as well.

It is going to be an interesting matchup between two good teams eager to win and perform at their best. With 4 top strikers, including the scandal personality of Carlos Tevez, City have the chance to rotate the team as the depth in the team is big. I predict that it will be a tough match maybe with a lot of goals and a close result at the end. My prediction for the result of the matchup is that City will beat 1-1 Sporting in the first match. In the second match City easily will get the match similarly to the match against Porto. After all I expect and interseting battle.

Release the Gracken!Please...

Once upon a time there was a great zerg player that was regarded as one of the best in the world and the best in the Europe. His name was Idra. His real name is Greg Fields. His strange nickname comes from a thing he read which was named "Idrajit". Idra is one of the players that has the most fans in the Starcraft 2 community. One of the reasons is that he never wants to chees and always plays a macro game. He was so good that he always seemed just to have more stuff than his opponent. However, he also received many fans because of his attitude. Idra is well known for his rage quitting and calling people cheesy especially players from the terran race. Before he looses he always insults people and leaves the game. He also left a game where he had won a huge engagement and left for no appearent reason. When Idra played with the legend of Starcraft Boxer, he was called Grack as Boxer doesn't have a good english. Then came a lot of new nicknames such as the Gracken or just the Grack. Idra dominated the Starcraft 2 community as he was regarded as the best zerg in Europe and of the best in the world. He went to Korea in GSL where he did recently. He became the only player to leave the GSL in Code S without droping to Code A. However now Idra seems never to win. He now is regarded as a weak player that can loose his temper really quickly and just cheese because he is angry. If he drops one game you can expect him to go 6pool in the rest of the series. Recently he played in the IEM and in the groupstages he was only able to win 1 out of 5 matches. It also seems that he hasn't won anything in a while. All his fans are wondering when Idra goes on the stage and they can say aggain: "Release the Gracken".

Arsenal Falls Short of Greatness

Arsenal played one of the best matches in its history, but this proved not enough for the Gunners to qualify for the next round of the Champions League. The first match went disastrous for the London team, which lost 0:4 to AC Milan. Despite the terrifying result Arsene Wenger kept his optimism and hoped to overthrow the Italian machine in the second leg. His team played extraordinarily well. In the 7th minute, Kozscielni scored the first goal, giving a head start to Arsenal. In the 26th minutes, the spirits of Arsenal fans were raised when Tomas Rosicky scored the second goal. Just before the end of the first half a penalty was given to Arsenal: Robin van Persie made the result 3:0. Arsenal seemed to be invincible. When the second half started, Arsenal tried to maintain the pressure on Milan's defenders, but its attacks were unable to result in a fourth goal. Gervinho and van Persie both missed excellent chances to equalize the aggregate result. Milan also had its chances to destroy Arsenal's hope for qualification, but Ibrahimovic missed several good chances. When the refree blew the final whistle, Milan was triumphant, but Arsenal fans and players had to leave the stadium with the sense of defeat that was further embittered by the fact that they were so close to a historical victory over one of the strongest clubs in Europe.

CSKA Moscow : Real Madrid - any surprises?

Real Madrid : CSKA Moscow - Before the game

Real Madrid is to face the Russian leader CSKA Moscow in the first game the two teams will play in the 1/8 finals. The Russian giant is a well-known in the European tournaments team, but it is well-known fact that football in Russia is not what it used to be. On the other hand we have Real Madrid who are having their best performance for the last 5 years. It seems this is their season, is it not? Well it seems statistics are on CSKA's side - they have the previous two games in Russia. Moreover the temperature during the game will show -6 - -7 C. It wouldn't be a surprise if Madrid find the temperature too cold for them to reveal their great skills. But what Real Madrid have on their side is Mourinho. He has beat CSKA with both Chelsea FC and Internazionale Milan. He knows the Russian style and the weaknesses. Anyhow the game promises an interesting match, a derby between the Russians under their cold turf and the Espaniols the conquiztadors.

Don't miss it!!

Match Report: Chelsea 1 Birmingham 1

First half

Very little happened in the opening 10 minutes apart from a determined run into the Birmingham area by Daniel Sturridge, but forced wide he eventually knocked the ball out for a goal-kick. On 12 minutes Birmingham were forced into a change, losing their veteran captain Stephen Carr to injury. Three minutes later, Mata, in the part of the pitch partly policed by Carr's replacement Jonathan Spector, almost plucked a Sturridge cross out of the air with his back to goal but as he turned, it ran out of play.Then, on 19 minutes, a previously drab encounter exploded into life in favor of the guests from Birmingham.

First the visitors took the lead. Having won a corner, it was played into the near-post area where David Luiz couldn't clear it. Ivanovic also missed the chance to make contact which left David Murphy in space to drill the ball home from close range. That was the first shot of the game from either side and it had inflicted a blow to Chelsea confidence.The chance to slap the Championship side back down came just two minutes later when an unnecessary and clumsy challenge by Wade Elliott tripped Ramires in a crowded penalty area.Mata, who scored with his previous Chelsea penalty, was the obvious choice to take it with Lampard and Drogba on the bench but his low shot was tipped onto the post and was then cleared. It was a good save by Colin Doyle.

25 minutes and Sturridge was not far away from finding Torres with a cross but Curtis Davies interrupted it. Chelsea remained on top for the rest of half but without creating enough chances.Sturridge, from the left this time, put a little too much pace on a curling cross for Ivanovic, who had evaded the offside flag. Chelsea by now had switched to 4-2-3-1 with Mata now central and Ramires on the right. Sturridge for a short spell decided to shoot at every opportunity and his best effort was a dipping one that didn't clear the bar by much. Birmingham's only effort of the half since their goal saw Cech save comfortably from Redmond.

In the second half, Drogba replaced Torres. Chelsea continued to dominate possession but a good link between our midfield and attacking play was not there, although one Mikel long pass almost picked out a well-placed Drogba. In the 54 minutes, Cahill was wrongly booked for what was nothing more than good strong defending on Birmingham's lone striker Adam Rooney and two minutes later, the manager of Chelsea made a second change, bringing on Kalou for Mikel.There were 61 minutes played when the Spaniard spotted Ivanovic in space down the right and found him with the necessary pass. The cross from the Serbian was delivered with pace and accuracy and it was given the finishing touch it deserved, Sturridge guiding a header inside the far post to put his side back level.

The quest was on for a winner. Kalou headed over from a Drogba cross and Ivanovic got the ball tangled among his feet after Mata had volleyed a cross with the power of a shot. Meireles then had a shot from the edge of the area deflected up and just over the bar. There was a rare shot from Birmingham on 76 minutes after Ramires had conceded a free-kick, but Cech gathered it low down. The Chelsea defence, and Cahill in particular, were proving solid. With 12 minutes left on the clock, Lampard replaced Mata. Drogba hadn't been involved much but he won a corner soon after that latest switch. With 86 minutes Birmingham did have their chance to win after the Chelsea defence was caught square as Jervis knocked the ball forward but Redmond fluffed his big moment and the save was easy for Cech.Wth 89 minutes gone and the rain now falling, Chelsea's chance came when Ivanovic was fouled 20 yards out and in a central position. Lampard however hit the free-kick into the wall.It had been an improved second-half display but despite substitutions, the cutting edge was not sharp enough.

The replay will be Tuesday 6 March. kick-off.

22nd round of the Bundesliga

During the last 22nd round in the German Bundesliga only one team from the top was unable to get its victory - Bayern Munich. The team failed to win over one of the weaker team - Freiburg and after it did not score a goal in their door, the end result was 0:0. Because of this Borussia Mönchengladbach got second in the Bundesliga with 46 points, just one point ahead of Bayern Munich and 3 points behind the leader at the moment Borussia Dortmund. Borussia won against Hertha BSC Berlin with 1:0, preserving its 1st place. SV Werder Bremen got 3 points and beat Hamburger SV who fell from the 10th to 11th place. Köln also lost position and fell behind to the 14th place being dangerously close to the last 3 positions. The top in the Bundesliga is intense as always with all of the teams there having actual chances of getting the trophy.

CSKA in Libya

The team of CSKA(Sofia) is currently in the Libyan city of Benghazi where they are about to play in a tournament with the teams of Al Ahli and Al Nasser. The tournament is part of the celebrations in the city due to the freedom of the regime of Colonel Gaddafi.
In Monday(20.02.2012) at 15:30 Bulgarian time, CSKA is going to play 45 minutes against Al Ahli and then after a 15 minutes brake another half time against Al Nasser. The host expect the stadium to be full, since there has not been any official football game in Libya since the revolution began. Surptisingly, before the revolution many of the teams' leading players joined the revolutionary army, since they are a paragon for the society there, and now refused to continue their carrers as footballers. So the Libyan teams are mostly composed of young players, who are the future of the country's sport.
The starting eleven for CSKA are already known. Rais M'bolhi is the goalkeeper, and in fron of him are Bandalovski, Hadad, Grancharov and Stoyanov. In the center are Galchev(C), Muchat and Chuto. The forwards are Paun, Priso and Karachanakov.
In Wednesday CSKA is coming back to Bulgaria and the next saturday is facing the team of Chernomotets(Burgas).

Three Own Goals helped Liverpool Dominate Over Brighton

Liverpool earned a 6-1 win yesterday against Champinship team Brighton & Hove Albion. This means they'll play against Stoke City in the next round of FA cup. This means they'll have the opportunity to win 2 trophies by the end of the season.
The Reds started with a goal in the very first minutes of the match. Martin Skrtel scored after a corner kick in the 5th minute. Liverpool played well prior to the 17th minute, when they received a goal from more than 30 meters. Kazenga LuaLua scored a spectacular goal after a tricky execution of a free kick. Liverpool againt launched numerous attacks to Brighton's goal and Suarez, Carroll, and Gerrard (from a free kick) tried unsuccessfully to score. In the last minute of the first half, after a chaos in front of Brighton's goal, received second goal. Luis Suarez shot, Brighton's goalkeeper Brezovan saved and the following Glen Johnson's header was not cleared by the defenders. The ball hit Bridcutt's foot and went into the net.
The second half started with a strong Liverpool dominance, which produced a goal in the 57th minute. A combination between Suarez, Gerrard, and Downing resulted in a pass of the latter to Andy Carroll, who scored with an accurate shot In the 71th minute, Gerrard fired a shot from an almost impossible possition. Bridcutt tried to clear the ball, but was unsuccessful and scored an unlucky own goal for a second time. Four minutes later Brighton's players scored their third own goal in the match. Lewis Dunk scored one of the most unfortunate own goals ever seen. Without the preesence of any Liverpool players around him, he attempted to calm down the ball and clear it away, but instead of that kicked the ball in his own goal. In the 81st minute Suarez missed a penalty kick, and a few moments later Dirk Kuyt's shot hit the bar. After all, in the 83rd minute, Suarez scored the last goal in the match with a header against the empty net, after an assist from Andy Carroll.

Red Wings made history

Besides the constant battle for the playoffs that is starting to get intense the main topic of this week are the "red-hot" red wings. Incredible run that shocked the hockey world. Incredible 23 consecutive wins at home in the national hockey league. A record that was held from the 1929-30 Boston Bruins and 1974-75 Philadelphia Flyers. The people from the motor city are so strong in their matches that believe it or not the opposing team is beaten even before the start of the match. One of the main reason for Red Wings success is the strong performance in the first period and thus in every game they set themselves in a perfect position to win. Of course because of this unbelievable performance the Red Wings are the team with most points in the NHL. They have 84 points and are definetely going to be a contender for the title. Besides Red Wings success yesterday was Hockey Day in America, which showed us very passionate and dramatic games with the NBC Sports crew covering the games from the state of Hockey St.Paul, Minesota.

Cristiano Ronaldo - finally a team player

Yesterday El Classico match between rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona was probably one of the most equal Spain battles. Despite the lost the home side showed how close they were to finally overwhelming their opponent. In many ways the game may have seemed "boring" to the fans that have been used to watch a goal show every match. But in my opinion it was a match that showed some very interesting things. First of all the performance of the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo was absolutely incredible. But in a little bit different aspect. He was fighting for every single ball and doing his best to help his team beat Barca. It was evident that on that night Ronaldo was outstanding, despite the loss and despite all the criticisms he had to go through. In my opinion that exact night he became the team player. Yes that's right - the team player! the footballer Mourinho always wanted. There are many thoughts about him but he proved them all wrong. Just as he scored the first goal in the match(31st minute) he was taring himself in fight with Dani Alves and ultimately he made more tackles than any of the Real Madrid defenders. So what do you thin - is it true that Cristiano Ronaldo is selfish on the pitch?

Leenock

Competitive gamer has become really famous as more and more torunaments appear. More and more people take this for their job as they can make a lot of money. In the past year the game that has been given the most money for tournaments is Starcraft 2. They are a lot of palyers that came from the original Starcraft, which was also the most competitive game at that time. However, new players emerge which have a lot of talent and are able to compete with the old pros that have played for more than 15 years. One of these players is Leenock. He is a 16-year old boy and he comes from South Korea, where Starcraft is like religion. He has been able to take down the best players of Starcraft 2 like IMMvP, OGS MC and Nestea. Leenock was also able to take down one of the best players now MMA. Leenock was able to win the MLG Providence at 2011. He has been doing very well at Code S, where the best players of Starcraft 2 play. He was able to take a second place at GSL November only loosing to the terran player Jjakajji.

Draw for the European Volleyball League 2012

The groups for 2012 (men) are the following:
Group A: Greece, Denmark, Israel, Spain and Slovakia
Group B: Austria, Romania, Turkey, Netherlands, The Czech Republic

In each of the groups 5 tournaments made by 4 teams are played - one tournament in each country and one team rests. They will take place from the 25th of may until the 24th of June. The final 4 will play on 30th June and 1st July and the host is still not determined. The winner will get the right to participate in the international qualifications for the world league 2013.

The groups for 2012 (women) are the following:
Group A: Spain, Romania, Serbia, Hungary
Group B: Bulgaria, Turkey, France, Switzerland
Group C: Greece, Israel, Netherlands, The Czech Republic

As in the groups of the men here we also have 4 tournaments - 1 in each country, from the 1st of June till the 1st of July. The final four will play in the Czech republic from the 5th till the 7th of July . The first two teams in the end standing will have the chance to participate in the World Grand Prix in 2013.

Ducks escalate

Hello again. Another article about the hardest game on ice. Latest report from the NHL are the following:
In the last months Rangers mainly dominate in the east closely followed by the champions Bruins but there is still much games left till the end of the regular season and everything is up for grabs. Washington and Philadelphia are also following them. In the west again Vancouver, Chicago, Detroit are the main suspects ,but there is something very interesting about the bottom of the standings. Anaheim Ducks after having just 10 wins from 37 matches are now on a very hot streak. Bruce Boudrue and his mighty ducks have 6 wins from 7 matches and their only lost was in Overtime. Sensational, the Ducks were 20 points away from the last playoff spot and now they are just12 away and with less matches than others. What a great prospect to see one flying Anaheim at the end of the year and I why not see the miracle come true. If it really happens we might see one of the greatest comebacks in a regular season in the history of the National Hockey League. So Go Ducks.