Survival Sunday

Well then. Once again, the Premier League season came down to the final day. 5 teams wanted to stay up. Only 3 could. Who would avoid the Premier League trapdoor, and who would be joining West Ham in The Championship? Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Wigan Athletic, Wolves and Birmingham City were the teams fighting for survival. I personally wanted Blackpool to go down, and so long as they went down I didn't care who else did. 
Blackpool faced a massive task, playing champions Man Utd at Old Trafford, as did Birmingham, who were away at Spurs. Wolves were at home to Blackburn, and Wigan faced Stoke away. Based on the fixtures, Blackpool were clear favourites to go down, as were Birmingham City.

This is the table before 4pm:

Pos.    Team                  GD       Points

15        Blackburn          -14          40

16        Wolves              -19          40

17        Birmingham        -20          39

18        Blackpool         -21          39

19        Wigan               -22          39

(R)       West Ham          -24          33

If any team won, then chances are they would stay up. So on to the action. I personally was in between a rock and a hard place, with Man Utd playing Blackpool. Much as I wanted Blackpool to go down, I wanted to see United lose. I think I wanted United to win, but it wasn't a good feeling. Anyway. After some general play with nothing real going on in any of the games, Man Utd took an unsurprising lead vs Blackpool, and then 2 minutes later dominant Blackburn took the lead at Wolves. Blackburn scored again 15 minutes later to take a 2-0 lead, and then a fantastic free kick from Charlie Adam at Old Trafford drew Blackpool level. Blackburn then essentially secured their survival when David Hoilett waltzed through the Wolves defence and scored to make it 3-0 on the stroke of half time.

Half-Time scores:

Wolves 0-3 Blackburn

Tottenham 0-0 Birmingham

Man Utd 1-1 Blackpool

Stoke 0-0 Wigan

Half-Time table:

Pos.    Team                  GD       Points

15        Blackburn          -11          43

16        Birmingham       -20          40

17        Blackpool          -21          40

18        Wolves             -22          40

19        Wigan              -22          40

(R)       West Ham         -24          33

So at half-time, the 3 Ws were in the relegation zone, and the 3 Bs were safe - for the moment. But just 4 minutes into the 2nd half, Pavlyuchenko scored for Spurs to push Birmingham into the bottom 3. 8 minutes later, Blackpool incredibly took the lead at Old Trafford to take them further away from the drop. That lead lasted for 6 minutes though, when Anderson scored to tie it up. This still left Blackpool above the drop zone with Wigan and Birmingham still in it. O'Hara then scored for Wolves in the 73rd minute to improve their goal difference to -21, and keep them slightly above Wigan and Birmingham (Man this is difficult to write. I can't visualise the table haha). 2 minutes later, Man United took the lead against The Seasiders to drop them down to the 19th and budge B'ham up to 18th and Wigan up to 17th. 

(So with 15 minutes left, Blackburn were 15th, Wolves were 16th, Wigan were 17th, Birmingham were 18th and Blackpool were 19th)

It all went down in the 79th minute when Rodallega scored for Wigan to move them to 16th, and then Gardner scored a shock equaliser for Birmingham to move them up to 17th and put Wolves in the relegation zone. Michael "Who-shall-not-be-named" scored for United to pretty much condemn Blackpool to The Championship on 39 points. Gardner nearly gives Birmingham the lead when he hit the crossbar with 7 minutes left to play. Stephen Hunt scored a potentially priceless goal for Wolves to bring it back to 2-3, and more importantly, bring them out of the drop zone on Goals Scored. Just as it looked as if Wolves were going to be joining Blackpool in the 2nd tier of English Football, Roman Pavlyuchenko smashed in his second goal of the game 93 minutes in to put Spurs 2-1 up and send Birmingham down.

So that's how it went down. A topsy-turvy day ended up with Blackpool and Birmingham City going down and Blackburn, Wigan and Wolves staying up.

Final Table:

Pos.    Team                 GD       Points

15        Blackburn          -13          43

16        Wigan               -21          42

17        Wolves              -20          40

18        Birmingham     -21          40

19        Blackpool         -23          39

(R)       West Ham         -27          33

Final Results:

Wolves 2-3 Blackburn

Tottenham 2-1 Birmingham

Man Utd 4-2 Blackpool

Stoke 0-1 Wigan

So I was pretty pleased Blackpool went down, and not displeased that Birmingham went down. I'll miss Ian Holloway's post-match interviews, but at least we get Mick McCarthy's crazy interviews where he barely talks about the match. 

At the top, all that was left to fight for was the Europa League place, which was essentially Spurs', and 3rd and 4th position. For the Europa League place, Spurs were trying to hold off Liverpool, who faced Aston Villa away. Downing scored for Villa after 33 minutes to give them the lead going into half time, and Spurs were still drawing 0-0. Liverpool had to win and Spurs had to not win for Liverpool to get it, and this wasn't looking likely. Liverpool never looked like winning, and when Pavlyuchenko scored the goal that sent Birmingham down, Spurs had secured 5th. As a side note, I preferred that Liverpool didn't win, rather than looking like we were going to qualify for Europe until the 93rd minute.

In the fight for 3rd and 4th, the difference between having to qualify for the Champions League and going in automatically, Arsenal were fighting against FA Cup winners Man City. Arsenal were away to Fulham and Man City were at Bolton. City were 1 point ahead of Arsenal at the start of the day. At half time, City were up 1-0 and Arsenal were drawing 1-1. City held on and Dzeko scored in the 62nd minute to secure 4th, whilst Arsenal could only muster a draw at Craven Cottage thanks to an 89th minute Theo Walcott goal. This left Arsenal in 4th on 68 points and City in 3rd on 71. City actually finished level with Chelsea, who suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Everton. But for City to claim second, they needed a 12 goal turnaround. 

For the final table, go to:

http://www.premierleague.com/page/LeagueTables/0,,12306~20110524,00.html

Champions League:

Man Utd

Chelsea

Man City

Arsenal

Europa League:

Spurs

Birmingham City (League Cup winners)

Stoke City (FA Cup final runners-up)

Relegated:

Birmingham City

Blackpool

West Ham United

So that's the Premier League done for another season. I hope the off-season brings up some good transfers, which I will blog about at indeterminate point in the future. So, yeah. Stay tuned for  a Champions League Final Blog. Also I will do an NHL and NBA post soon.

Champions League Final Preview

There is no better stadium to host the final of Europe's biggest club competition than Wembley Stadium. And there are no better teams to contest the final than Barcelona and (much as it pains me to say it) Manchester United. Messi vs Ferdinand. Iniesta vs Scholes. Rooney vs Puyol. It's all set up to be the greatest final since, well, 2 years ago when they last met at this stage. But you get the point, because this has the makings of a greater one than last time around. But before I look ahead to the final, I'm going to look at how they got to this stage. 
         Barcelona looked to have a simple ride from the word go, after being drawn against Copenhagen, Panathinaikos and Rubin Kazan in Group D. They showed good form in the opening match, beating Panathinaikos 5-1 at home. They slipped up against old bogey team Rubin Kazan, drawing 1-1 in Russia (The same team who beat them at the Nou Camp 2-1 in 2009), but 4 points in their next 2 matches against Copenhagen took them on to 8 points and pretty much saw them through. They eased past Panathinaikos and Rubin in their next matches to top the group with 14 points from a possible 18. 
However in the round of 16 they faced a tough test at the hands of Arsenal, with the first leg in London. David Villa scored after 26 minutes to give Barca the lead they thoroughly deserved. Arsenal never got going until the 2nd half, but when they got going, they got going. A fantastic goal from an impossible angle from Van Perise drew Arsenal level, and then 5 minutes later, Arshavin scored on the break to give Arsenal a lead to defend in Spain. Unfortunately for them, beating Barcelona at home is almost impossible this season. Messi gave Barca the lead on the stroke of half time to give them the lead on away goals, but a Busquets Own Goal gave Arsenal the lead again on aggregate on 53 minutes. Van Persie was then controversially sent off for kicking the ball away after being called offside. He claimed not to have heard the whistle, which is fair enough considering there was a crowd of over 95,000 people all blowing whistles and making noise. Xavi scored on 69 minutes to bring the tie level, and Messi scored a penalty 2 minutes later to all but settle the tie. 
Their next match was against Shakhtar Donetsk, which they dominated from the first minute. They were leading 2-0 at half time, and then Pique scored soon after half time. A Rakitskiy goal gave Shakhtar some hope, but a Keita goal seconds afterwards and then a Xavi goal on 86 minutes pretty much put Barca through to the next round. The second leg was pretty standard for Barca; a few good early chances for Shakhtar could have brought them back in to the tie, but Valdes was in top form to make the saves. Messi scored just before half time, and that was that. Barcelona had qualified to the semi-finals, where they would face Real Madrid for a place in the final. 
The first 'El Clasico' was a pretty drab affair for a lot of the match. It didn't get going until a dubious red card for Pepé resulted in Barca being a man up, a chance they firmly took. A good run from Afellay on the right resulted in a low cross which Messi tucked away with his right foot. Then came goal of the tournament (In my opinion). Busquets picked up the ball on the halfway line and unleashed a 45-Yard shot past a stunned Casillas. (Only kidding). But seriously, Busquets gave Messi the ball just inside Real's half. Messi then proceeded to ghost past 4 Madrid defenders and, with his right foot again, slotted the ball past a helpless Casillas. The second leg, at the Nou Camp, started with Barcelona attacking, as you might expect them to do at home. Casillas was at the top of his game to keep the score at 0-0 going into half time. It took a glorious pass from Iniesta into Pedro to break the deadlock. This got Madrid going, and a rare misplaced pass from Barcelona gave Dí Maria the ball who smashed a shot against Valdes' post, before squaring it to Marcelo from the rebound, who subsequently scored. Real rallied for the remainder of the match, but could not break down Barca's defence. So it was Barcelona who would triumph and be going to Wembley on 28th May.
         Manchester Utd had a very similar route to the final. Like Barcelona, they also claimed 14 points from a possible 18. Man Utd however, were wholly less convincing. They drew their opening game against Scottish champions Rangers, and a late Hernández goal gave them victory in Spain against Valencia. In back-to-back games against Turkish opponents Bursaspor, they claimed hard-fought 1-0 and 3-0 victories. Their next game was in Glasgow against Rangers, where an 87th Minute penalty from Rooney gave them a 1-0 victory. Knowing a draw would see them top the group, they played out a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford against Valencia. Pablo's goal in the 32nd minute in that match was the only goal they conceded in the group stage.
The next round saw them drawn against French opponents Marseille. A 0-0 draw in France set the tie up nicely for the 2nd game in Manchester. Hernández scored inside 5 minutes to give United the lead. But United looked nervous, at least until the 75th Minute when the little Mexican scored again. Wes Brown scored a trademark own goal to bring Marseille back into the tie, but United held out to secure victory. That victory set up a mouth-watering clash against title-rivals Chelsea. 
Rooney scored in the 24th Minute at Stamford Bridge to give United that all-important away goal and a 1-0 victory. Another goal from new fan-favourite Hernández just before half time increased United's lead and they looked to be headed to the semis. But a Drogba goal in the 77th minute gave Chelsea a bit of hope, before a Park goal just 50 seconds later secured the win for Man Utd.
The semi-final was essentially a walkover for the Red Devils. Drawn against a Schalke side that had done extremely well to reach this stage of the competition, United were favourites. Schalke were boasting the likes of former Real Madrid legend Raúl and Germany 1st-choice 'keeper Manuel Neuer, and despite having already beaten Inter and Valencia, they didn't live up to expectations. A nervy start from both sides meant the game never got going. United were the stronger of the two teams for most of the match, and the pressure finally paid off twice in a matter of minutes. First Giggs scored a 1-on-1 to give United the lead, then just 2 minutes later Rooney doubled the advantage with a cool finish. United could have scored so many more but for a brilliant performance from Neuer in the Schalke goal. The second leg was more of the same. Relentless United pressure paid off in the 26th minute when a mix-up at the back put Valencia through to make it 1-0. 5 minutes later, Gibson all-but settled the tie with a deflected shot past Neuer that he really should have saved. Jurado replied for the German outfit in the 35th minute, but Schalke couldn't build on it. Two Anderson goals on 72 and 76 minutes for Man Utd took them into the final.
        So the final has the makings of something brilliant. I not only want Barcelona to win, but I also think they will. I don't think Man Utd will be able to stop Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets passing it about in the middle, and I don't think they wil stop Lionel Messi up front. This will be by no means an easy game for Barca, but I think they will prevail 3-1. 
        This will be my last post until Sunday afternoon/Monday afternoon, which will be about the final round of Premier League fixtures.

NHL Conference Finals

Another post today! I'm like a blogging machine. Anyway, on to the Stanley Cup.
             If you have read my first post, you will know that I support Tampa Bay Lightning. Because Steve Stamkos is a beast. Anyway, the Eastern Conference has pitted them against Boston Bruins (who have the best jerseys in the NHL), who have the same Play-Off results as Lightning - a 4-3 win in the opening series and then a sweep in the semis. With both teams having the same records, you might be thinking this series is going to go to the wire. And you might be right. But I think you would be wrong. Against Pittsburgh Penguins in the opening round, Lightning fell behind 3-1 after losing their first two home games. Going in to game 5 needing a win, they did so much more than that; blowing out Pittsburgh 8-2 in front of the Penguins' home fans. This gave them the momentum they needed to carry on and win the series in 7 and qualify to the next round where they would face 1st-seed Washington Capitals. Boston on the other hand had a fairly routine series win. I know that sounds like an odd thing to write when the series went to 7, but they never seemed in trouble. They won all their home games and lost all their away games, which booked them their place in the semis vs Philidelphia Flyers. Both teams. of course, swept their respective opponents, and never really looked in any doubt of doing so. However I think it is far more impressive of 5th-seed Lightning to beat 4th-seed Penguins and 1st-seed Capitals, than 3rd-seed Bruins beating 6th-seed Canadiens and 2nd-seed Flyers. For this reason, I'm predicting a 4-1 series victory in favour of Lightning. (I'm completely aware this seems biased, which it kind of is haha, but that's not the point. Also I'm aware I've only included recent form and not players' ability etc.).
         On to the West, which has been far more exciting in my opinion. Both teams in the Conference Final have nearly thrown it away once this post-season. Vancouver Canucks almost did in the opening round when they were 3-0 up against Chicago Blackhawks and seemed to be cruising. But Blackhawks rallied back to force game 7, which Canucks scraped through in OT. Canucks then went on to routinely beat Nashville Predators in 6, winning 3 of their games at Nashville. San Jose Sharks meanwhile had a routine series in the opening series, beating Los Angeles Kings 4-, and like Canucks, struggled to win at home and won 3 games on the road. In the next round against Detroit Red Wings, 2 OT victories helped them take a 3-0 series lead. They subsequently lost the next 3 games but they could and maybe should have won games 4 and 5. They lost game 4 after a Darren Helm goal for Red Wings with 1:27 left in the game put Detriot up 4-3, and they lost game 5 after blowing a 2 goal lead. So it came to game 7. Could Detroit do the impossible and win 4 games in a row? No. They could not. But they came close,narrowly losing 3-2. So Sharks vs Canucks in the Western Final. Despite home games seeming not to favour either side, I'm going to go with a 4-2 Canucks victory. 
         As for the Stanley Cup Final, well I'll wait and see who gets there, and do another post then.

FA Cup Final

Hello again!
          (This isn't a match report, these are my thoughts on the match) So we had the FA Cup Final today. Pretty average match, to say the least. I thought Man City deserved to win, but Stoke did play like FA Cup Runners-Up. Up until Toure scored, I thought the match could have gone either way. Stoke were defending valiantly and Kenwyne Jones played very well up front. Stoke would have stood a better chance of winning if Etherington was fit, and also if Pennant and Walters had played like they have throughout the season. Balotelli didn't really deserve Man of the Match; I think that honour should have gone to Sorensen, who made some great saves off of Tevez and Balotelli in the first half. Didn't have too much to do in the 2nd half, and was not at fault for the goal, so he was my Man of the Match. Overall, Man City thoroughly deserved the victory, but any more than the single goal would have been harsh on Stoke.
           Now, I'm a firm believer that the FA Cup final should be at the end of the season. I don't mind it being now, but I would prefer it to be at the end of the season. UEFA are to blame for it being now. They moved the Champions League Final (Which I will do a post on before and after the game sometime) to a Saturday night from a Wednesday night, meaning that the FA Cup Final has to be played earlier than normal, just in case a team should get to both (and also due to the UCL final being played at Wembley). They should have left it on Wednesday nights. And they can't play the FA Cup next weekend because of the final round of Premier League fixtures which all teams should be involved in. I hope this move to during the season is only temporary due to the Champions League final being at Wembley.
          The other thing that peed me off today was the 4 fixtures that were played this lunchtime. The FA Cup Final is supposed to be a special occasion, yet having 8 other teams play today seemed to take some of the prestige off of the match and made it feel like just another Premier League game. Also Man Utd won the title today, so I wasn't best pleased about that. They should have moved all Premier League fixtures to tomorrow.
          NHL Conference Finals post coming very soon, so be aware of that

NBA Playoffs

Hey hey!
         I know it's been a while since my last post, so I'll have to make up for it here (just my little joke - I'm aware my last post was only yesterday). So the NBA Playoffs are in full swing now, and I am of course cheering on Thunder. But I don't really think they have what it takes to go all the way. Sure, they have Durant and Westbrook, two fantastic players, but they have not shown that they can go all the way and win. I think they should beat Grizzlies in game 7, but when they face Mavericks in the Western Conference Final, I think they'll go home. Mavs have shown they can beat the best with the sweep over LA Lakers, and so they should probably win the West. But 8th-Seed Grizzlies are a force to be reckoned with, having proved that with their astounding 4-2 series victory over 1st-Seed San Antonio Spurs, and have shown they can play with big boys having led the series vs Thunder. But they are unfortunately a two-man team in Z-Bo and Marc Gasol - sorry to Memphis fans, but it's pretty much true. I'm aware that Gasol didn't play too well last night, but it was one of the first times in the post season that players like Conley and Mayo have more than made up for it. Even in the Triple-Overtime thriller in game 5, they only contributed 34 points. So I'm thinking Mavericks for the West.
        Ah, the East. LeBron, Wade, Rose, Bosh, Deng. What a conference. And what a series we have in store. MVP vs the Big 3. It's going to get feisty. I personally will be cheering on Bulls, but that's based on the fact I don't like LeBron, as I am a Cavs fan. I don't think I need to say any more. Based on what I think will actually happen in the series, this could easily go either way. Deng and Noah have to support Rose really well and need to show the type of form they did against Hawks. For Heat, it's all about Chris Bosh. The question is, and has been throughout the post season, which Chris Bosh will show up? Will it be the one that can score 30 points and grab 10 rebounds, or will it be the one that can't throw a rock in the ocean at the beach? Only time will tell.
        Look out for my next post, probably about the FA Cup Final, and one very soon after that about the NHL Conference Finals. 
        

Me and Sport

Hey,
       So this first blog is basically about me and who I support in sport, and also what sports I will be blogging about. My main focus will be on NBA, NHL and NFL probably. I know the first two sports are in post-season, and the latter is in the off-season and may not happen next season, but yeah. Also MLB, MLS and Football, or "Soccer" for you yanks, will be talked about fairly regularly. 
So about my teams:
           Football: Liverpool FC are my main team, but I also like Notts County, Bolton Wanderers AS Roma and Real Madrid. You should probably know that football is my main and favourite sport. 
           NBA: Cleveland Cavs are the main team, but I also like Oklahoma City Thunder.
           NHL: Toronto Maple Leafs are my main team, but I also like Tampa Bay Lightning and Anaheim Ducks
           MLB: Toronto Blue Jays are my favourite team, but I also like Cleveland Indians and San Francisco Giants
           MLS: Toronto FC are my favourite. Don't follow it enough to like any other teams
           NFL: New Orleans Saints are my favourite team, but I also like Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers.
So that's me. You may notice a common theme between Toronto and Cleveland. There are reasons for that. I like Toronto because I went there on holiday in 2004, so I feel like I should support them. I like Cleveland because of Drew Carey, and the Drew Carey show. I love that show, and since it's based in Cleveland, I thought why not?
          Look out for my first real Blog.