UEFA will decide about Ibrahimovic tomorrow

PSG's appeal about Ibrahimovic's punishment will be considered by UEFA tomorrow. The Swedish striker was punished not to play for two games after his direct red card after he fauled Valencia's defender from Mexican origin Andres Guardado during the first game of the 8th finals of Champions League. Now he has to miss the tough game against Barcelona during the qarter finals. UEFA may approve of PSG's demands tomorrow, but could as well decide to prolong Ibrahimovic's punishment. PSG's fans will have a very tense day, as UEFA's decision may put their team in a very bad situation.

NHL Classic- Detroit-Chicago

                          

 

NHL season is going towards the mid-season. The entire league is impressd by one phenomenal streak. The 22 consecutive point games of the Chicago Blackhawks. Starting from the opening day with the La Kings and ending to the great rivalry game yesterday against the  Detroit Red Wings. Yesterday the game fo the week match on NHL on NBC was a thriller. Detroit and Jimmy Howard was saving absolutely everything. Chicago had complete domination over the first two periods. However, in the third Detroit came back and a great goal by Tatar seemed to be enough to end the extraordinary sterak of the Hawks. However in the last two minutes due to some awful delay of game penalties Chicago and Patrick Kane equalized. This turned the game. There were no golas in OT. And then in the shootout a great performance by Corey Crawford and again a brilliant Patrick Kane's style goal ended the game and continued the streak. This made Chicago Blakhawks the second best team in the entire NHL history. Now the quest for the playoffs continues, but there is one certain thing. Chicago are the main favorites to win Lord Stanley once again.

 

Nadal wins his second tournament in a row after his return to the courts

Rafael Nadal won his second tournament after he returned to professional tennis. Former world number 1 triumphed in the ATP tournament in Acapulco, Mexico, with a prize of 1,21 million dollars.

In the final, the second seed Spaniard outplayed his countryman David Ferrer with a score of 6:0, 6:2.

This match serves as further evidence that Nadal has begun his return to his prevois form. About a week before the final, the Spaniard triumphed in Brasil, where he defeated David Nalbandian in the final.

At the start of February, Nadal returned to playin professional tennis after his injury and took part in official matches after a 7 month gap from the last time he played in a tournament.

The international Italian tennis player Sara Erani won the women's tournament in Acapulco, after she managed to defear Carla Suarez-Navaro with a score of 6:0, 6:4.
 

Champions League Preview

In this short preview I would want to make some predictions about the upcoming round of 16 in the most prestigious league in the world. Celtic-Juventus is the first game. I believe in this game we have to not very equal teams. Juventus as an Italian champion and the leader in Italy right now seems to be the favorite and I believe they will win with at least 2 goals. PSG is the favorite against Valencia as they have now better players, but still it would be difficult for the French team if Valencia plays at the top of their game. In one of the most interesting battles Shakhtar takes on the German champions Borussia Dortmund. Here Borussia is the favorite as they are one of the favorites for the title in the league. Real Madrid takes on United in the last game on Wednesday and we eagerly await this clash of european champions that will focus mainly on the the return. I will predict that Real will take this battle, but it will be a close game that will probably be decied by one goal or penalties.So let's what happens. Good luck to everybody.

Nadals defeat in VTR

Nadal's matches in the VTR Open tournament definately ended amazingly. Horacio Zeballos won against Rafael Nadal in a  really close game where they finished 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-4 for Zeballos. Their prowess was almost ideally matched and they were neck and neck for the entire time. Eventually however, Zeballos finaly won and just dropped on the red clay from exhaustion and stood there. In an after-match inteview, Zeballos commentated on the match and how it was practicallty the one of his best games and he stated that he will never forget the match in which he managed to fight against one of the best players in the world. Nadal did not express any negative emotions toward the conclusion of the match and even said that he was both gratefull for being able to experience the feeling of challange in the face of his opponents and the fans themselves managed to move him emotinally due to their huge support from the sidelines. In the end Nadal left in preparation for his doubles match with Juan Monaco and Zeballos continued experiencing the trill of the game long after it finished.

The Bundesliga is almost decided

This weekend there were some pretty interesting games in the Bundesliga, which, in a way, secured Bayern Munich's first place. Hamburger crushed the 2nd team in the German league with 1-4 in Dortmund, thus increasing the difference between them and Bayern to 15 points. Even though Robert Lewandowski gave Dortmund the lead, the team was unable to preserve their lead and this was the cause for one of their worst defeats this season. Bayern Leverkusen also had an intense game and its result was unknown until the very end. Full of comebacks, the game ended 3-3, which, however was bad for both teams. Martin Stranzl scored for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 44th minute. Leverkusen then got to a draw in the 52nd minute. Mönchengladbach scored just 6 minutes later, returning their lead. Leverkusen them amazingly scored 2 goals in just 4 minutes. After this goal fiesta Leverkusen appeared to be the winners, but their opponents scored through Herrmann in the 86th minute and formed the end result. In the third German game this weekend Bayern Munchen crushed Shalke on the Bavarian stadium. The final score was 4-0. Interesting fact is that in the Bundesliga so far the 15th team is much closer to the European competitions than to falling to 2. League. Thus, even though the first place is pretty much decided, the passion for the other 17 places remains.

LeBron James and the Heat vs Lakers game

On February 10 2013 the basketball team  Miami Heat won over the Los Angeles Lakers with 107-97. This is their fifth win in a roll. James made the most points in the game with the amazing 32 points (almost a third of his whole team points).  Dwyane Wade follows him with 30, but the more interesting fact is that this is also James fifth game in a roll in which he scores 30 points or above. He is actually only one of the three official NBA players to score 30 points or above and have at least 60% accuracy in five games in a roll. The only two players are Adrian Dantley who played back in 1979 and Moses Malone in 1982. His coach, however, Erik Spoelstra doesn't celebrate about that too much. Maybe he doesn't want is player to end the streak from over excitement and overconfidence.
The two teams were fairly equal throughout most of the game untill Wade gave the Heat a lead of seven points making the score 89 to 82. After several minutes with cooperation between Wade and James the Heat got another lead of seven points making the game almost certainly a win. All that was caught by the audience. The spectacular plays made the whole crowd stand on their feet cheering for the Heat. James made the final 4 points for his team in the last 6 seconds. The Heat won in the end with which they can progress in the competition with confidence. The Lakers, however, lost the game which put them in 4-3 situation. This means that they dropped out of the competition. The coach, Nash, isn't happy from the results as his team could have done much much better. They had opportunities to win the game and to even get a significant lead, but overall Heat turned out to be better. Maybe next year the Lakers will have more luck and less mistakes.

Mario Balotelli Feels Comfortable at AC Milan

              Many people questioned the decision of Mario Balotelli to move to AC Milan from Manchester City. For such a young player, switching teams so often is usually a sign of inconsistency and underperformence. However, with the first two games for his new team Mario Balotelli proved to everyone that he is a world-class striker. Ever since he started playing for Internazional Milan there were many people praising his talent and even more critisizing his attitude. This trend continued in Manchester City and is still going. However, Mario Balotelli demonstrates an unexpectedly high level of consistency for his new club. The reasons behind his improvement can be many, but I will underline the ones I consider major for this sudden change. First of all, Mario Balotelli plays for the club he loves. And don't get me wrong, I am not composing this, he said it frankly in front of the media when he was in Internazional Milan. A very bold statement, but a sincere one, you have to admire it. The fact that he plays for AC Milan now provides him with extra motivation to perform better. Another reason for his recent success is the freedom on the pitch, provided by Masimilliano Allegri. The coach of AC Milan gave Balotelli an opportunity to maximize his potential. A player with such rare technique and creativity thrives when he is given the right amount of freedom on the football pitch, because this allows him to produce these unique "magical" moments in the game. The third major reason for his improvement is the fact that he is finally introduces as a central forward, the position he knows best. In Internazional Milan and Manchester City he was often used as a winger, and the two positions require dramatically different skillset and experience (NOTE: Balotelli was still doing a very good job at times). It is important for Balotelli to work on his temper and improve his personality, and as long as he continues to work hard for his team, success will surely come.

Sharapova and Grigor Dimitrov: Is It True?

The tennis world has been intrigued recently by a scandalous rumor: the best Bulgarian tennis player Grigor Dimitrov is said to be dating the Russian top player and the dream of many men Maria Sharapova. Both of them denied any comment, stating that their private lives are private and should not be discussed in public. It was clear that a sound investigation of the avialbale facts was needed to determine whether Grisho is really screwing the infamous Russian goddess or not.  Until recently Sharapova was engaged to a Serbian basketball player, but then announced their splitting up. According to the rumor she did not spend a long time being alone because she was spotted with Grisho in Milan, apparently taking a walk. After that the rumor took on and Sharapova and Dimitrov were proclaimed a pair by the paparazzi in no time.  The strongest proof of their affair is by far a recent Tweet Sharapova published: "I would like to hug my little puppy Grigor Dimitrov." Because Sharapova's dog is called Dolce, the media immediately adopted that nickname and started calling the Bulgarian tennis star "Dolce." Calling somebody "a little puppy" might seem as an unimportant detail to some people, but if a woman like Sharapova calls you her "little puppy," you can count yourself lucky. And it is quite certain that Grisho, who is one of the newest sensations in the tennis world and who is enjoying rising popularity and a place in the top 50 of world tennis, is one lucky man.

The Victory of Eckermann

     

           On 30th Dec. 2012 the Swedish rider Henrik von Eckermann made it to the first place and won the important competition from the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping series. It took place at Mechelen in Belgium and it’s the eight part of the Western European League. Besides him as a winner the men from Sweden also had another reason to celebrate because the third place was taken by their presenter-the rider Jens Fredricson who si 31-year-old. The competition started with 40 horses but only nine could make it to the jump off where they had to compete with the watch and find the best path to get over the higher obstacles. In the second round jump off von Eckermann clearly showed that he possessed better qualities and concentration together with his mare Gotha FRH. He led her carefully and fast enough to ensure his win in the jump off which requires balance, speed and turning skills. He also declared his desire to continue riding the 11-year-old horse which was earlier under the coaching of the German legend-Ludger Beerbaum.

NHL is Back

After 119 days, long four months of unsuccessful negotiations the waiting has finally ended. The NHL and NHLPA  have finally signed a new collective bargaining agreement for the next 8 to 10 years. The agreement was officially signed Saturday when the players voted for the signing of the the new agreement. Neither the NHL owners nor the players actually won in these negotiations. The one that benefit the most are the fans. After losing once again a bunch of games Gary Bettman and the whole league where entirely criticized for the fact that tehy alowed another extensive lockout. The losses are enormous. The league has lost 24 million a day in the lockout. besides that in America, where the audience is just limited and most people turn to american football and basketball. Thus it seemed that we are heading again for another lost season, but we were suprised and fortunately this Saturday the big show returns.

Here is the schedule enjoy the games and wait for more reports from the fastest game in the world!

Falcao's New Record

The goal-scoring machine Radamel Falcao scored once again in the match against Zaragoza yesterday. That way he became one of the top players of his club Atletico Madrid. It was his 18th goal for Atletico since the beginning of the season when he scored from penalty in the 38th minute of the match. This is a record umber of goal for the club. The brazilian player Baltazar was the only other player to score 18 goals in the first 19 rounds of Primera Division during the 1988/1989 season. Then he finished the season in La Liga with total of 33 goals and won the Pichichi Trophy for becoming the top scorer in Spain. However, Falcao probably won't win the same trophy, because Leo Messi has already scored 28 goals.

Tsvetana Pironkova is out of Australia Open

The best bulgarian woman tennis player in present times was eliminated from the Grand Slam " Australia Open"  in the first round. Tsvetana had not lost in the very first round since 2007 when she was bested by Akiko Morigami. Today she played a very tough match against Romina Oprandi which she sadly lost with a score of 6:4, 5:7 and 2:6. The match lasted a total of one hour and fifty-two minutes and was full of comebacks and breaks. The two tennis players had a total of 11 breaks during the match. Pironkova managed to best her opponent in the first set in which she managed to secure it with a break when the score was 5:4. However, in the second set, which was very close until Romina Oprandi broke Pironkova's service game at a score of 6:5. The third set was very one sided as Oprandi completely dominated and closed out the match with a score of 6:2. In the second round, she is going to face Julia Georges, who is ranked number 18 in the world.

Bayern Munchen - Determined to become a super team

The past week Bayern was having a series of test games against various teams to determine whether they are ready for the second half of the season. The first game was against Shalke 04. The clash of the German teams that are also competing in the Champions League resulted in a 5-0 victory for Bayern. Jupp Heynckes appears to have prepared the team well after the break so that now they are ready to face Arsenal in the Champions League and defend the first place in the Bundesliga. On Saturday, 12 January, Bayern Munchen faced the Swiss team on St. Jakob-Park in Basel. The Bayern players crushed the hosts with the classical 0-3 in front of 30 000 spectators. The goals in the net of the Swiss started in the 8th minute when the Croatian star of Bayern Mario Madzukic scored. Just 3 minutes later Schweinsteiger scored again and doubled the lead of the Germans. The last goal for Bayern was scored by the player of the French national team Frank Ribery just before the end of the first half. The last test game of Bayern was on 13.01 when they faced SpVgg Unterhaching from the 3rd Liga - the team where Tobias Schweinsteiger, the brother of Bastian, is loaned for a period of 6 months. Claudio Pizzaro opened the game with a goal in the 10th minute. The "Super Mario" of Bayern, Mario Gomez doubled the score in the 68th minute and formed the final result: 0-2. As these games illustrate, Bayern are more than ready for the season and the expectations are that they will preserve their form throughout the season, aiming at both the Champions League title and the Bundesliga, which sliped away from them last year.

 

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.