Congratulations to Atlético Madrid for winning the 2013 Copa del Rey!! They beat Real Madrid 2-1 after a chaotic game and 30 minutes of extra time. This marks the first time Atleti have beaten Real Madrid since 1999. Atlético also ended Real Madrid’s 2 year home unbeaten streak (about 40+ games). At the end of this season Atleti will have claimed 3rd place in La Liga, qualified for next year’s Champions League, and won the Copa del Rey. Congratulations!

Atlético Madrid win 2013 Copa del Rey

On the flip side, this was a terrible ending to a terrible season for Real Madrid. They’ll finish 2nd in La Liga, 10 points behind champions Barcelona. They failed to come back against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League semifinals and were subsequently eliminated. I don’t even want to talk about all the drama surrounding the club this season. And they just lost what looked to be their best shot at winning some silverware this season.

For the past two hours (and most of this season, really) my reaction to Real Madrid’s game looked something like this: 

It’s hard to blame any one party for the way this season has gone and, if we’re being honest, finger-pointing usually goes badly. However, I’m going to ask you to give me a little bit of leeway because I’m hurting pretty badly after this loss.

The main target of my anger is the ref, Clos Gomez. He did make some good decisions every now and then, but he was inconsistent and clearly lost control of the game. By the final whistle, he had handed out 7 yellow cards to Real Madrid, six yellow cards to Atlético Madrid, and a red card each. I’m not even entirely sure why Gabi was sent off for Atleti. Half the time Gomez carded a player on their first offense; the other half of the time he waited until the 5th or 6th foul to show them a card.

He’s as appalled as I was.

The one sending off that really rubbed me wrong was José Mourinho. As far as I could see, it was the first time Mou had gotten up from his seat to yell at the pitch whereas Diego Simeone had spent the entire game standing! I guess Mou had to have said something terrible to warrant the sending off, but there’s no way Gomez would’ve heard it from where he was standing.

I kinda loathe myself for saying this but…Cristiano Ronaldo deserved his red card. The idiot kicked his opponent in the nose.

Above all else, pure luck was against Real Madrid. Los blancos should have easily won this game with as many shots as they had hit the post. That plus Thibaut Courtois’s phenomenal goalkeeping display stopped about 4 or 5 of Real Madrid’s closest chances. There was one period of a couple minutes where Real kept pinging the ball towards the net and it looked like a force field was over the line flinging the ball straight back. Unbelievable.

Now all we can do is wait. Wait to see if Mourinho goes or stays (my bet is he returns to England). Wait to see which players leave Real Madrid (unfortunately I think quite a few are on the way out). Wait to see if Atlético can hold onto Radamel Falcao (probably not). And wait for the start of next season which will hopefully wash away the remnants of a shoddy season for Real Madrid.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to bury myself in comfort food.

Photos courtesy of www.ligabbva.com, www.guardian.co.uk, and tumblr.com. Check in with @AerysSoccer every day for the latest news on La Liga, the EPL, and MLS.

It’s the Champions League, baby!

Needless to say, this match up was anything but brilliant as Real Madrid hosted Manchester United, both clubs winning their league titles respectively.

Ronaldo’s first half goal. Just look at his hang time!

I guess to sum up the match for those who couldn’t watch, both Real and United both got a ‘head’ of each other, only to draw at 1-1. In the 20′ United’s Danny Welbeck scored a header that his defender, Sergio Ramos would be proud of. And as the jokes flooded twitter, it almost looked as if Danny boy scored using just his hair.

Ten minutes later, golden boy Ronaldo also headed the ball in which it seemed he stopped time as it appeared he was just hanging in the air.

Both clubs had great chances throughout the match as both Real’s Angel Di Maria and Fabio Coentrao almost put the club up two more goals. A wasted goal opportunity from Robin Van Pursie kept United equalized until the final whistle.

Defensively, Real was on their best performance, barely letting United’s dangerous forwards a way to sneak past the backline. With the absence of captain Iker Casillas, Diego Lopez really stepped up tending the goal while David de Gea, the young keeper for United, played a fantastic match and kept focused, which saved Real from scoring more goals.

Ronaldo talks to old manager Sir Alex Ferguson

It was a special moment for one player specifically, Cristiano Ronaldo, who faced his former club for the first time since leaving back in 2009. Ronnie began his lustrous career as a Red Devil where he further developed his style and perfected his fancy footwork. Before signing with Real, Ronaldo won 3 league titles, 1 FA Cup as well as other numerous trophies.

It was highly anticipated as to how Ronaldo would celebrate had he scored a goal. By far the best moment of the match was when he did, in fact, score that goal. He kept it classy, nodding and raising two fingers up in the air before being pummeled by his teammates.

The second leg of this intense match up will be on March 5th at Old Trafford. This match is one you want to mark on your calendar. Even as an Arsenal supporter, the reaction I’ll have seeing Ronaldo walk onto Old Trafford’s pitch, his old stomping grounds, will be a pivotal moment. And just imagine if he’d score yet another goal. Till then, we have to wait another 3 weeks.

I’ll just leave this here for you’re viewing pleasure. #TeamRonaldo

Stay tuned to Aerys Soccer for all your Champions League updates and more!

Photo courtesy of Real Madrid C.F.

Basque team exacts revenge on Atléti

Athletic Bilbao came out strong Sunday night in the San Mames to steamroll rivals Atlético Madrid. After a shaky first half of the season, Athletic managed to produce one of their strongest games yet in which the exacted some revenge on Atléti from defeat in the Europa League final last year.

The game was even at 0-0 going into the halftime break with Atlético Madrid almost going ahead in the last seconds. Minutes after the teams reentered the pitch, Athletic scored on a corner. As the game progressed, the field became more and more stretched as both teams attacked with as much force as they could. Both keepers, Courtois for Atléti and Iraizoz for Athletic, were forced into some pretty dramatic saves. However, Atléti’s attack lacked that lethal bite that injured Radamel Falcao usually provides. This loss for Atléti puts them even further behind leaders Barcelona (11 points in case you were curious) and only 4 points ahead of Real Madrid.

The other impressive performance from the weekend came from Rayo Vallecano as they defeated Real Betis 3-0 as well. Rayo’s success this year is made all the more impressive when you consider how well they’ve done in comparison to their financial instability. Their players do not sign contracts till the end of the season due to the uncertainty of whether or not the club will have money for a stadium or wages in the following season. There are no big names on the team aside from the names like Piti that the Rayo fans adore.

Another strong performance puts Rayo near top four

And yet, Rayo have more or less consistently exceeded expectations (for example, when they beat Levante 3-0). This weekend they produced another astonishing home performance to bring them 1 point within the top four teams in the league. Granted Betis didn’t do much to help themselves as they wasted several close chances. Their most ridiculous miss occurred when a free kick soared over the ginormous wall which enclosed the end of the Vallecas stadium. Remember Sergio Ramos’s penalty kick in last year’s Champions League semifinal? Yeah, it kind of looked like that.

The weekend also saw another round of “anything you can do, I can do better” between Ronaldo and Messi as Ronaldo scored a hat trick only to be outshone by Messi’s quartet later on. Mallorca is facing some serious problems with another loss. I don’t expect their manager to be there for much longer unfortunately. Here are the full results from the weekend:

Saturday:
Celta Vigo 1-1 Real Sociedad
Levante 2-1 Valladolid
Real Zaragoza 0-0 Espanyol
Deportivo La Coruña 2-3 Valencia

Sunday:
Real Madrid 4-0 Getafe
Rayo Vallecano 3-0 Real Betis
Barcelona 5-1 Osasuna
Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Atlético Madrid
Mallorca 2-3 Málaga

Monday:
Sevilla 3-0 Granada

OH! El Clásico this weekend with the first leg of the semifinals of the Copa del Rey!!!

Photos courtesy of LigaBBVA.com. Tune into @AerysSoccer for daily updates!

Jose Mourinho is sticking to his new year resolution – win every match in 2013. So far so good, yet this is only the first match of the new year. Real Madrid faced Real Sociedad at home beating the club 4-3 in typical Madrid fashion.

Karim Benzema, who was sporting a new hairstyle (I like to call it the Benzhawk), opened the scoring in the second minute with a right-footed shot to the center of the box. Despite Mourinho’s odd choice of not starting captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who was recently voted best keeper in the world for the fifth consecutive time, backfired as Antonio Adan brought down Real player Carlos Vela in the box and was immediately sent off. Madrid were down to 10 men within the first 6 minutes.

With a penalty in the 9′, Xabi Prieto put Real on the board and the match at 1-1. That is until Sami Khedira got his foot on the ball and scored off a corner kick from Carvalho in the 35′. Real equalized the match again, though, before the half with another goal by Prieto five minutes later then topping off with  hattrick after a goal in the 76′.

Real ended the last 10 minutes of the match with 10 men as Dani Estrada brought down Ronaldo, receiving his second yellow and being sent off. Though it was two goals by Cristiano Ronaldo that inevitably sealed the victory for Madrid, only to be scored two minutes apart from one another. The Portuguese international evened up his career stats with Madrid as he scored 171 goals in 171 matches.

Just minutes before the final whistle, Gonzalo Higuain made his comeback from injury, almost scoring a goal.

Even though Madrid were missing Ramos, Pepe, Marcelo and Coentrão, los blancos drove the ball as fiercely as they good, taking every opportunity to counter-attack and rack up those very-needed goals.

Real Madrid end the week with a Copa del Rey match against Celta Vigo on the 9th before facing Osasuna in Liga on the 12th.

Stay tuned to Aerys Soccer for all your La Liga coverage!

Photo courtesy of Real Madrid C.F.

125-year old Celtic defeats Barça.

Last week was very tumultuous for Spanish clubs! First there was UEFA craziness followed by a weekend filled with drama.

Okay so to start with Champions League, Real Madrid barely managed to escape with a draw from their home fixture against Dortmund thanks to a brilliant free kick from Mesut Ozil. Talk about a thing of beauty for the defending La Liga champions. Málaga are still unbeaten even though Milan tried their hardest to change that status. Then on Wednesday, Barcelona fell to Celtic. What. A. Dramatic. Game! It was Celtic’s 125th anniversary, Lionel Messi was still looking for the goal to celebrate the birth of his son Thiago, and, in the end, little ole Celtic took down the giants. To round off Champions League, Valencia put on a great showing at home to defect Borisov 4-2. In the Europa League, Atlético Madrid suffered their first defeat at the hands of Académica and Athletic Bilbao just lost out on a highly exciting game against Lyon. Here are the full results:

Champions League:
AC Milan 1-1 Málaga
Real Madrid 2-2 Borussia Dortmund
Valencia 4-2 BATE Borisov
Celtic 2-1 Barcelona

Europa League:
Académica 2-0 Atlético Madrid
Athletic Bilbao 2-3 Lyon
Twente 0-0 Levante

Whew. Now to get to the really juicy stuff. Real Zaragoza was the highlight of Saturday’s games as they managed to come back from 2-0 down against Deportivo La Coruña to win 5-3! Of course it helped a bit that Pizzi was sent off with his second yellow of the night for diving. Depor suffered greatly without him and conceded to Zaragoza four times in 22 minutes. Osasuna also pulled off an incredible away 3-0 win defeating Espanyol, who are just above them at the bottom of the table. Maybe this win will provide the boost Osasuna need to move up from the relegation zone.

Half blind, still scores

The big headline from the weekend came from Levante vs. Real Madrid. Last time Madrid visited this team in Valencia, they lost 1-0. Already 8 points behind Barça, Madrid could not afford anything other than a win. With both Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuaín out with injuries, Ronaldo took up the role at center forward and came away with an injury that removed him from the game after half-time. Levante’s Navarro punched CR7 in the eye leaving the Portuguese captain needing medical aid. Regardless of the injury, Ronaldo managed to score before he completely lost his sight. After Levante equalized and with no strikers left on the field, Mourinho put in  former youth team forward, 20-year old Álvaro Morata. With just his first touch of the game, Morata scored! A 20-year old saved Real Madrid’s title hopes. Incredible!

What happened after the game is still murky, but we do know that the police were called in to stop fighting between “employees” from Levante and Real Madrid. The names “Sergio Ballesteros” and “Pepe” were included in the hubbub. There are conflicting reports on who punched who and who insulted who, but both clubs released statements this week backing up their players. Whew. That’s one sticky situation. The rest of the results from the weekend are:

Saturday:
Rayo Vallecano 3-2 Celta Vigo
Espanyol 0-3 Osasuna
Real Zaragoza 5-3 Deportivo La Coruña
Málaga 1-2 Real Sociedad

Sunday:
Valladolid 1-1 Valencia
Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Sevilla
Mallorca 2-4 Barcelona
Atlético Madrid 2-0 Getafe
Levante 1-2 Real Madrid

Just a heads up, my recap of next weekend’s games will be my last for a few weeks. My semester is coming to an end, so all my teachers are piling on the work before finals. Until next time!

Photos courtesy of LigaBBVA.com and FoxSoccer.

During internationl week, a few of Real Madrid’s players were injured. Marcelo, Alvaro Arbeloa  and Fabio Coentrao were all injured while they were with their respective national teams. Of the 3, the most serious injury was Marcelo’s broken foot, which rules him out for up to 3 months. With this many injuries, people wondered how Real Madrid would do in their next La Liga match. Well, they won 2-0 against the newly promoted Celta Vigo.

This wasn’t Real Madrid’s best performance at all! They only had 3 shots on goal throughout the whole match. That was enough for them however, as they were able to score 2 goals. The first goal came from Argentine Gonzalo Higuain. Apparently, he’d meant to cross the ball, instead he ended up scoring. Later on, Cristiano Ronaldo doubled Madrid’s lead after scoring a penalty.

Here’s one of the goals from the game. It might’ve been an accidental goal, but it was still pretty great!

http://youtu.be/zxhrc9JrrqA

The next match for Real Madrid will be on Wednesday against Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund, who lost 2-1 at home to their rivals Schalke. Dortmund will be a tough match for Madrid. Not only will they be looking to rebound from their loss, but they will try to move on from the group stage after missing out last season.

The second week of the group stages are officially over as some pretty big clubs took to the pitch on the world’s biggest stage. Perhaps the biggest headline in today’s match-ups was that of Real Madrid and the-one -and-only Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese international stole all recognition as he knocked in his second hat trick in two matches. Real Madrid played CL rivals Ajax once again in the Group of Death, beating them 4-1. Ajax’s only goal came from Niklas Moisander in the 56′.

The king of hat trick Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the 42′, 79′ and the 81′ but it was the Frenchman Karim Benzema who scored the Goal of the Match (and I’ll say the day too,) after a stunning chilean, or bicycle kick, just after the second half kick-off assisted by Kaka.

Los Blancos sit atop their group with 6 points and will face league rivals FC Barcelona Sunday at Camp Nou for the first El Clásico of the season. Hopefully this CL match will light the fire under the boys so they can come on top of Barça once again.

http://youtu.be/CBMy7rWUeQA

Looks like Arsenal are one step closer to securing their spot in the knockout stage after winning 3-1 against Olympiakos. After a defeat by Chelsea in the Premier League last weekend, the Gunners looked refreshed on the pitch.

The goal scorers were Gervinho, Lukas Podolski and Aaron Ramsey while Kostas Mitroglou scored the lone goal for his side. The second half was fast-paced as many opportunities arose for the Gunners.

I have to give a Flop of the Match award to Olivier Giroud who has not yet been the key player for Arsenal as others expected. Only time will tell with him and perhaps on Saturday when Arsenal face West Ham, could we see something more from him.

Dynamo Kiev 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb

FC Porto 1-0 PSG

Schalke 04 2-2 Montpellier

Anderlecht 0-3 Málaga

Manchester City 1-1 Borussia Dortmund

Photo courtesy of Real Madrid C.F.

Considering the fact that Real Madrid was my only team to win this weekend (I’m talking football and fútbol), I’m going to assume all my sports mojo went towards the merengues winning and therefore deserves most of my attention in this La Liga recap.

Thank the heavens they’ve remembered how to win!

Thanks to their rather rocky start to the season, Los Blancos have put themselves in the position such that they just about have to win every game from here on out or until the teams above them start losing; and it’s not just Barça to worry about. Both Málaga and Atlético Madrid have been performing beautifully so far this season. On Saturday, for a split second I thought Barça might fall off the top spot until they managed to scrape a late winner against a 10-man Sevilla.

RM faced returners to the primera division Deportivo de La Coruña. This was the team that Kaká, Benzema, Albiol, Alonso and Ronaldo all made their debuts against. Mourinho’s starting XI was a little bit different than usual: he moved Ramos out to right back, put Varane with Pepe as centerback, and started Xabi Alonso on the bench. Weird. I’m so used to seeing Alonso as the crucial piece linking up Madrid’s play and seeing him on the bench was odd. It makes sense though. I’m assuming Mou wanted to rest him against a “lesser” team in preparation for the midweek Champions League fixture.

Deportivo drew first blood as Varane, showing a bit of inexperience, failed to stop former Madrid academy player Riki who slotted the ball home in the 16th minute. At this point in the game, I’m freaking out. Madrid’s confidence has just been so shaky so far this season. Last season, if they went 1-0 down early on, you knew they’d come back with a vengeance. This season, I could feel a mini heart attack coming on even after Ronaldo brought Madrid level with Deportivo through a penalty kick. Then Di Maria scored off a gorgeous through ball from Modrić! Words cannot describe how thrilled I was after that goal. My boys were finally starting to look like the team from last year! The match ended 5-1 with a goal from Pepe and the first hat trick of the season from Ronaldo. Whew. Finally Real Madrid had a win where they completely clobbered their opponent. (Sorry Deportivo! I do feel a little bad…but just a tad.)

Around the league, Espanyol still haven’t managed to find a win, Falcao is ahead of Messi in goal totals, and being involved in UEFA may be taking its toll on Levante who lost 4-0 to Osasuna (Osasuna’s first win of the season by the way). The full results from the weekend are:

Saturday:
Valencia 2-0 Real Zaragoza
Málaga 4-0 Real Betis
Real Sociedad 2-0 Athletic Bilbao
Sevilla 2-3 Barcelona

Sunday:
Granada 2-1 Celta Vigo
Osasuna 4-0 Levante
Real Madrid 5-1 Deportivo de La Coruña
Espanyol 0-1 Atlético Madrid

Monday:
Getafe 1-0 Mallorca

Champions and Europa League return this week so look for the La Liga teams in midweek fixtures. The obvious highlight for next weekend: El Clásico! Hope you’re ready because my nerves are certainly are not!

Photo courtesy of Real Madrid C.F. Official Website.

It’s okay Ronnie, we still love you, even when you don’t score.

What did you expect? Losing 1-nil to Seville, a club that is currently unbeaten at home in this early stage of the 2012-2013 campaign. Filled with rojiblanco colors, Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan was completely sold out for the match between the Sevillistas and Madridistas.

After a week off during the international break, news poured out of Madrid concerning Cristiano Ronaldo’s feelings. The man had feelings, who knew! Critics and supporters alike were wondering if the recent controversy stemming from Ronnie’s sadness at & with the club would affect his game on the pitch.

The answer is simple; I’m not sure. Ronnie didn’t get on the board today, nor did anyone from Real Madrid but it certainly wasn’t his fault. Within the first 2 minutes, Sevilla’s Trochowski landed in the center of the box off a beautiful right-footed kick. A goal that early on can be damaging to a club yet the boys in white never gave up. The starting lineup wasn’t out strongest having Sami Khedira in the midfield when he usually plays a better wing position.

Madrid’s defense fought hard to keep it a one-goal difference however it seemed passion was lacking from our attackers. With 11 shots on goal between Ronaldo and Higuain, the ball just wouldn’t go in (hold the ‘thats what she said’ jokes!)

I however, being the superstitious freak I am, like to bring the blame on the hideous third kits Real Madrid wore today. Though it seems un-rational to be bringing blame upon a piece of clothing but I don’t care. If I had to wear a kit that looked oddly familiar to Liverpool’s  08-09 away kit, I probably wouldn’t play too well either.

At the end of the match it all comes to performance. The tension and desperation from Madrid wasn’t enough to get them on the board; Sevilla had the better match, hands down. This is the part where the headlines from football’s top newspapers will start accusing of Ronaldo’s faith to the club and the butthurt supporters begin blaming the ref.

You have to remember, the season is in it’s early stages. We still have 8 months left of La Liga so there’s no use in getting in the mindset of ’we suck’ or ‘seriously, why is this happening??’

Relax and take a chill pill and breathe. Things will work out and Madrid will find their groove.

Catch the boys play against on Tuesday against Manchester City in the first stages of Champions League!!

NOTE: Though it doesn’t help that Jose Mourinho ended his press conference with the words, “Right now I don’t have a team.” Ugh.

Photo courtesy of Real Madrid C.F.

We have lots and lots of news from the Premier League, as well as more info on which players are reportedly unhappy with their current situations.  We also take a look ahead at the US national team’s World Cup qualifiers!  It’s all in Tuesday’s Daily Kick Around!

EPL

The transfer window may have closed, but that doesn’t mean the signings are finished.  Since former England striker Michael Owen was a free agent, he was able to sign a one year deal with Stoke City even after the window closed  Friday.  He only made four appearances for his most recent club Manchester United last season, and hasn’t played competitively since November due to a thigh injury.

One of Tottenham’s biggest and most recent signings, French national team goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, is a bit peeved that he will not automatically be taking over the No 1 spot–at least according to France manager Didier Deschamps.  Current keeper, and former US international, Brad Friedel has made it clear that he will fight to keep his spot in the starting lineup.  Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas has indicated that he will not drop Friedel in favor of Lloris; stating, in fact:

“When you transfer it’s not written in the contract that you have to play.”

Touché.

Liverpool players have more than just pride to play for.  LeBron James has promised the players a party in Las Vegas, co-hosted by Kanye West, if they win a trophy this season.  According to James, a stakeholder in the club, “nobody does Vegas like LeBron and Kanye.”  I am inclined to believe that.

Ligue 1

Amid all the talk of Cristiano Ronaldo’s “sadness” and rumors of a possible move, one club has made clear they are NOT interested in the superstar.  Paris St. Germain had been rumored to have interest in the Portuguese international, along with the two Manchester clubs, but their sporting director attempted to quell the rumors, pointing to their marquee signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

“Ibrahimovic is the best striker in the world.  So why hire Ronaldo?”

USMNT

US head coach Jurgen Klinsmann announced his roster for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers over the weekend.  Although he was forced to leave out some heavy hitters due to injury, some familiar faces made a reappearance.

One of those qualifiers will be against the Jamaican national team in Jamaica.  The national team is currently training in Miami in an attempt to acclimate themselves to the weather conditions they will be likely to face (i.e. HEAT!).  Were the US to pull out a victory, it would be the first time beating Jamaica in Jamaica.  As we saw in the friendly against Mexico, there is a first time for everything!

Image courtesy of Fox Soccer