19
May

Champions League + Europa League spots sealed

The Barclays Premier League has come to an end and the Champions League positions are set. The Premier League will be sending the same representatives as last year but will be hoping for a much better result as none of them made it through to the Quarterfinals in this year’s competition.

There will be a different look for the Europa League representatives this season.

Tottenham will be returning to the Europa League for the second consecutive season and will be joined by Swansea and a relegated Wigan club.

Swansea has secured their birth thanks to a 5-0 victory over Bradford in the League Cup final. Despite the impending relegation, Wigan will be heading to the Europa League group stage courtesy of a 1-0 defeat of Manchester City in the FA Cup Final.

16
May

Classic “Anchorman” prank!

An Australian news reporter was embarrassed by her colleagues while reading the highlights to Wednesday’s Europa League final. At the end of the highlight, her male colleague slyly changed the copy on the teleprompter to something completely non-soccer-related. Predictably, the reporter kept reading the script, sending the entire set into an uproar and reminding everyone of Veronica Corningstone’s prank on the legendary Ron Burgundy.

The lesson as always, don’t read everything you see on the teleprompter.

16
May

Trecker’s Travels, Day Eleven: Where’s the love?

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Photo: FOX Soccer

By: Jamie Trecker

BRUSSELS, BEGIUM

The conductor called the train: “Lille, Calais…and Chelsea FC.” The platform gave off a small roar of approval. Chelsea fans were headed home with another piece of silverware in their tuck. They seemed underwhelmed.

They should not have been. The Europa League final marked a number of firsts for the denizens of the Bridge: they became the first English team to have won all three major European titles (including the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup); the first European team to hold both European titles on offer simultaneously, and surely the first team to win back to back titles with, ahem, “interim” managers.

But as warmly as Roberto Di Matteo was regarded by the fans, his replacement, Rafa Benitez, is despised. Last night the ArenA and the arena of social media alike were filled with the moaning that has characterized Chelsea’s season.

Commentators made passing reference to the plastic flags that littered the away ends and a comment Benitez had once made about despising them. Unforgivable! The team started slowly – perhaps a reflection of the fact that they have now played more games in a season than any other English side since the Arsenal of 1970-71. So what! Chelsea’s now secured European play and won a major title under Rafa and erased a dangerous mid-season swoon. He was greeted by bedsheets and cardboard with the same message: “WE WANT MOURINHO.”

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Photo: FOX Soccer

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15
May

With the conclusion of what was a very memorable Europa League final (and really, the entire competition was the best it’s been in years) we present to you the top 10 goals of this year’s Europa League season!

Which one was your favorite?

15
May

Chelsea make history, win Europa League on stoppage time goal

What. A. Finish. Branislav Ivanovic rose higher than everyone else on Chelsea’s last-minute corner kick in stoppage time, and his arching header sailed past Benfica goalie Artur and into the back of the net for a dramatic, late, Europa League-winning goal.

Incredibly, Chelsea are now simultaneous Champions League and Europa League title holders. Congratulations!

15
May

Trecker’s Travels, Day Ten: Going van Gogh

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Photo: Jamie Trecker / FOX Soccer
By: Jamie Trecker
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
The calendar says May, the weather says October. Amsterdam, or at least Mother Nature, isn’t exactly welcoming Chelsea and Benfica with open arms. With the rain, and the wind, and the rocking of the houseboat up and down, up and down, I decided to do what people do in Amsterdam in bad weather: go to van Gogh.
The Museumplein is one of the most-visited areas in the entire city. It’s also one of the most controversial. Once a bus terminal with connection to the airport, today it looks like a barren college quad. There’s nothing wrong with that, until you learn that it cost millions upon millions of euros to make this open field. And it’s not even done yet.
The Museumplain is emblematic of Amsterdam’s struggle with public works in general. Amsterdam can be breathtakingly beautiful, particularly along the Golden Bend – but what they have done to some of their public spaces is tragic. A case in point is their contemporary art museum, the Stedelijk, the scene of a series of fiascos during a painfully long redevelopment. The result, an unflattering tack-on derided as “the Bathtub,” has been an architectural laughingstock since it opened.
But there are treasures amid the carnage. The Van Gogh museum, itself recently re-opened after a face-lift, is currently showing an engaging exhibition about how the master worked. It’s a great survey of his process, his contemporary influences and the dizzying end results before his suicide in 1890.
Van Gogh was not a born artist: he barely knew draughtsmanship and struggled to keep up with his colleagues. But he was a hard and ruthless worker, with a mean editorial eye. Van Gogh was also broke – his brother Theo floated him all those years while struggling vainly to sell his works at the gallery he owned – so he frequently re-used canvases. One of the most cunning things about the current exhibition is how the curators have framed his canvases so you can see both sides. On one frame, may sit a study for the “Potato Eaters;” on the other, one of his later, dazzling self-portraits.

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