Top 5 talents in the world.

There is a lot of talk about the next Messi or Ronaldo. There many young talented players in the world right now. Every player has the potential to be special. They can only achieve this if they try their best every time. An example of player who was very talented but did not try to get there is Micheal Johnson. Most people haven't heard Johnson. He used to be in the youth academy of Man City and was considered as the future of Man City and the English national team. Now he is a free agent. This means that his earlier club , Man City, ended his contract. Now he is unemployed at the age of only 20. It's a shame actually. The English do need a top class midfielder now because Lampard and Gerrard are aging. Wilshere can't handle the hold midfield considering his injury problems. Anyway, Here is who I think are the players who  will be great in the future:

5. Julian Draxler, 18, (Schalke 04), Germany,

     He might not be heard of, but he is an amazing talent. He plays for Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga. He is only 18 and has over 100 appearances for Schalke 04. He broke into the team at the age of 17. He plays in left midfield. He might not be the quickest winger in the world but his passing and dribbling skills makes him a real threat. Already a fan favorite in Schalke he has the potential to be amazing. He also operates down the middle. I expect him to depart from Schalke soon because soon clubs will come with big money for him and such offers that Schalke will not refuse.

4. Oscar, 20, (Chelsea), Brazil

     Oscar is another amazing talent. He plays for Chelsea FC in the English Premier League. He arrived at Chelsea from Internacional in Brazil. His fame came from the U-21 World Cup when he scored a hat-trick in the final. His amazing dribbling skills and neat passing makes him very dangerous. He is quite quick and has a good shot. He will remain in Chelsea and will do great things for the club. He has already broken into the Brazilian national team and played in the London 2012 Olympics, in which Brazil lost in the final. A great talent for the future.

3. Stephan El Shaarawy, 19 (Milan) Italy

Egyptian by origin he migrated to Italy and now has Italian citizenship. He joined Milan last year as an emerging talent. He is nicknamed The Pharaoh because of his hairstyle and his origin. He has stepped to replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He has already scored 16 goals in the Seria A. He plays a very passive attacking football and has some tricks up his sleeve. In the future he will become a regular starter fo r the Italian national team. He has a bright future ahead of him.

2. Eden Hazard, 21, (Chelsea), Belgium

   Another Chelsea player on this list. Eden Hazard has to be here. He started his career in RC Lens and then move to Lille in the French league. In Lille he made his name with some mesmerizing displays and some amazing goals. He is naturally a play maker. He can also play on both wings because of his great pace. He is a great dribbler and should be considered at the heights of Messi and Ronaldo in the future. He is the all round player. He defends, attacks, dribbles, passes. He can do every thing. His pace combined with his dribbling makes him extremely hard to tackle. Also he is great at winning penalties. An excellent player.

1. Neymar, 20 (Santos), Brazil

Of course, he had to be on top. Neymar, the hottest talent in World Football right now. He is courted by the biggest teams in Europe. He currently plays for Santos in his native Brazil and is expected to move after the 2014 World Cup. There is speculation that he has agreed a pre-contract agreement with Barcelona. He is amazing. Last year, he won the Puzcas Award with an amazing dribbling goal. He scores wonders. He is surely the next Ronaldo or Messi. He should surely move from Santos.

What do you think?
Did I miss anyone? If so, leave a comment below.

Man City!

Manchester City's title hopes are over with another loss to Everton. Everton had recently lost to Wigan 3-0 in the F.A Cup. Everton had conceded 3 goals in 3 minutes in that F.A Cup match. An excellent long range shot from Leon Osman put the toffees ahead. In the dying moments Jelavic scored on the counter attack. Jelavic's shot took a deflection and over Joe Hart. An excellent game overall which was dominated by Everton. Everton were also down to 10 men in the 60th minute. A dangerous challenge from Peinarr on Javi Garcia. Javi Garcia exaggerated by rolling on the floor 3 times. I would given a yellow for that challenge because the challenge wasn't that nasty. He wasn't injured (Garcia). After the challenge he got up and started playing again. Also there wasn't much contact between the players. Everton was dominating Man City with crosses and dangerous attacks. In my opinion, Everton's crossing and Arial ability was what held Man City. This loss means Man Utd have a 15 point lead on the league because the beat Reading 1-0. Man Utd have the title in the bag.

Champions League and Europa League Draw.

The draw for the Quarter Finals of the Champions league and Europa League took place on Friday, March 15, 2013. There were some very interesting match in both of the European competitions. The Europa league and Champions league will have a new title holder because previous holders Chelsea got knocked by Donetsk in the group stages. Athletico also got knocked out by Rubin Kazan in the group stages of the Europa League. Chelsea became the first London based team to win the Champions league and were the first title holders to be knocked out in the group stages. Chelsea's Champions league run last year involved luck and teamwork. On their way to the final they beat Benfica, came back against Napoli and beat Barcelona. They also beat Bayern in the final on penalties. Athletico Madrid won the competition with ease because of hit-man Falcao. Falcao had an amazing run and scored in almost every game. The draw is:
UEFA Champions League-

The champions league draw was an interesting one. Malaga face Dortmund, Real Madrid face Galatasaray, PSG face Barcelona and Bayer Munich face Juventus. The stand out fixtures for me would be PSG vs. Barcelona and Bayern vs Juventus. There are 3 Spanish sides left in the competition and 2 German sides but no English teams. My predictions for the first leg are:

1. Malaga 1-2 Dortmund
2. Real Madrid 4-0 Galatasaray
3. PSG 1-3 Barcelona
4. Bayern 2-0 Juventus.  

UEFA Europa League-

The Europa league has 3 English teams in it. Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle. Chelsea face Rubin Kazan who knocked out holders Athletico Madrid. Tottenham face Basel who bravely won against Zenit. Fenerbache face high-flying Lazio and Benfica face the rejuvenated Newcastle. Chelsea came to the competition because they finished 3rd in their Champions League group and so the were demoted to the Europa League. Tottenham had finished 4th last season meaning they qualified for Champions league and because Chelsea won it last year but didn't finish in a Champions League qualification spot last year. So Tottenham play in the Europa League and Chelsea play in the Champions League. My predictions for the first leg are: 

1.  Chelsea 2-0 Rubin Kazan
2. Tottenham 4-1 Basel
3. Fenerbache 1-3 Lazio
4. Benfica 1-1 Newcastle

 What do you predict?

Writ in the comments below.

     

Barcelona reassures everyone that they are the BEST!

Barcelona put in an excellent performance to beat AC Milan and progress to the Quarter-Final's. The world's best player put in a sublime performance. Barcelona headed into this game 2-0 up. They were feeling confident ahead of the game. This was their big mistake. Going against Barcelona at the Camp Nou is very difficult. Perhaps Milan were overconfident because they had seen it happen before with Barcelona and Chelsea the previous year. Milan's second mistake was starting M'Baye Niang.

Naing became the second youngest player to start a Champions League game at the age of 18 years and 54 days. He is vastly inexperienced. He was coming up against Pique and Mascherano, who are experienced. He missed a glorious 1 on 1 with Valdes. He was through because of a defensive error and he hit the post. If that goal had been scored, Milan would have restored their 2 goal lead, which would have made Barcelona's task much harder. When Barcelona scored in the 5th minute it seemed as if Barcelona were going to win. Messi did wonders to score both opening goals. His 53rd in 42 games. An amazing record. David Villa put Barca in the lead with a precise finish. Then to put the nail in the coffin, Jordi Alba scored in the dying moments of the game. The game ended 4-0 to Barca and 4-2 on agragate. It was an overall entertaining match. There was a suspicion that Barca might slip up considering their poor form in their last 3 games. This win means Barcelona are qualified along with Galatasaray, Real Madrid, Juvetnus, Dortmund and PSG. I expect Barcelona to go to the finals then lose out to Juventus.

What do you predict?

Liverpool vs. Tottenham

There were some great football games over the weekend. Liverpool came back to beat high-flying Spurs and Chelsea came back to draw with Man Utd. The game between Liverpool was an interesting one because both team deserved to win. Liverpool played an excellent game to beat Tottenham. Defender, Jan Vertongen, got both of Spurs goals. Suarez, Downing and Gerrard got the goals from Liverpool. For me, the  stand out player in the game was Tottenham's Vertongen. He played an excellent match and scored two goals. He was also very solid in defense. He attacked from time to time and didn't make many mistakes. Overall a great performance from the Belgian. Suarez got another goal to his name with a cheeky finish past Brad Jones. Suarez has been playing amazingly this season. He has scored goals. He has been carrying Liverpool on his shoulders this season.Him and van Persie are contending for the golden boot this season. The young Cutinho showed his potential to be one of the world's best with another brilliant performance. Hugo Lloris put in another solid performance. The whole Liverpool team showed character to comeback from a 2-1 scoreline. The fought for their victory and they earned it. This loss ends Tottenham's run of 12 games unbeaten. Tottenham on the other hand played well but not well enough. They were sometimes caught ball watching. Tottenham played well but didn't have enough willingness to win the game. This loss means that Tottenham can fall to 4th place because now there is only a 2-point gap separating them and Chelsea. Chelsea have a game in hand. Chelsea play West Ham next week. In a couple of week there will be a match between Chelsea and Spurs. It should be an interesting game.

     

Manchester City vs. Chelsea

Defending champions, Manchester City, beat 3rd placed Chelsea 2-0. Yaya Toure and Carlos Tevez go on the scoresheet. Chelsea had the chance to take the lead through Frank Lampard. Chelsea were awarded a penalty because Joe Hart took out Demba Ba's legs in the penalty area. Lampard stepped up for his 200th goal in Chelsea jersey and missed. An excellent Joe Hart, who saved a penalty from Ronaldhino, saved Lampard's shot. After that, Chelsea had many chances but couldn't find the final pass. Demba Ba started ahead of Fernando Torres but didn't impress. You can't blame Ba because Matija Nastasic did an excellent job containing the Senegalese striker. The 19 year old defender didn't allow Ba for any space. Another excellent player was Kolo Toure. He showed his experiance eith some world-class tackles and interceptions.  His only error came when he let Ba through behind which caused the penalty. Chelsea's game overall was very poor. Ivanovic was often found sleeping and David Luiz ran too much up the pitch leaving holes in the defense. Cahill looked solid and so did Cole. Mikel did a good job in holding the midfield. Hazard and Ramires didn't affect the game much and often dribbled too much. Jack Rodwell had an excellent game anticipating play and tackling in the City midfield. He had one or two chances to score but was denied by the superb Cech. Cech played and excellent game in terms of stopping the shots. The goals he conceded he could not do anything about. Chelsea's defense didn't tackle and waited for the City player to move first. They gave time for the City players to think and shoot. Overall it was a poor performance from Chelsea. Man City played an excellent match. Torres came on in the 2nd half but didnt make much of an impact on the game. Tevez scored through a brilliant shot from outside the box. Again Cahill gave Tevez too much time and space. Chelsea are now 7 points behind City and if Tottenham beat West Ham on Monday Spurs will be third place. Chelsea are one point behind Arsenal who are 5th place. Man City still have the 11 point gap between them and United.   

Will be seeing this again for the 20th time?

1st half UCL review

The first half of the champions league has finished with some surprising results. The most anticipated game was Real Madrid vs Manchester United. The game ended 1-1 with Ronaldo and Welbeck getting on the score sheet. It was intense match but everyone expected a win for Real Madrid because of their home advantage. Manchester United drew first blood with a headed goal from Danny Welbeck. A corner was whipped in by Wayne Rooney and Welbeck, who was marked by Sergio Ramos.Welbeck jumped highest and headed home. Later in the game a cross from Di Maria which found Ronaldo, who was marked by Evra. Ronaldo towered high and headed a powerful one into the goal of the superb De Gea. Evra didnt jump for the ball which left Ronaldo to jump with ease. An excellent performance from De Gea and Ozil of Real Madrid. PSG beat Valencia at the Mestalla stadium in Spain, 2-1. Goals from Lavezzi and fellow country men Javier Pastore. Zlatan Ibrahimovic got sent of in the 89' minute for being too aggressive and Rami scored in the following corner. PSG will be without the inspirational Ibra for the second leg. 

The other match up saw Borussia Dortmund face Shakter Donetsk at the Donbass Arena in Ukraine. The scoring was opened with a marvelous free-kick from Rat. Then Dortmund equalized with Robert Lewandowski. Shakter scored again with substitute Douglas Costa and Hummels equalized at the 90' for Dortmund. An interesting game but should be a tight math at theSignal Iduna Park. Juventus saw off Celtic with a comprehensive 3-0 win with goals from Matri, Marchisio and Vucinic. It was a tight game and there was a lot tugging shirts from the Juventus side but Juventus deservingly won the game. An interesting week and next week should have some amazing matches