Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Mourinho Proves Hubris Pays Off




- What can you say about someone who says things like "Mourinho does not lose at Stamford Bridge", speaking about himself in the third person, and not only that but saying in essence that he will come in to Stamford Bridge and knock one of the most successful clubs of the last decade out of the Champions League? Knowing that if he doesn't do it that the club he is coaching is probably going to fire him because they hired him to win the Champions League? Then he backs it up?

What I say is that he's got balls bigger than King Kong.

Mourinho's Inter Milan went to his old house with a 2-1 lead, and finished the job by clearly showing they were the better team, beating Chelsea 1-0 and advancing to the final 8 of the Champions League. Samuel Eto'o knocked in the goal that iced it on a breakaway in the 78th minute. Didier Drogba then erased any doubt that it was over by getting a red card, and Mourinho leaves the conquering hero.

Some choice quotes from The Special One after he got done cuckolding Carlo Ancelotti like he were Wayne Bridge:

"I'm not happy because my ex-players or Roman (Abramovich) lost, or that Chelsea supporters go home sad. I'm not happy about their unhappiness.''

"My people will always be my people. But today I was the enemy. And the enemy won. That's life. It's a very important victory for me as a coach, but not the victory of my life. That will be in the future.''



- Yesterday's other round of 16 match gave us a surprise. People have been talking up Sevilla as a possible sleeper to win the tournament. By people I mean I've heard it on Fox Football Fone In for a couple of weeks now. Way to be wrong. CSKA Moscow got a game winning free kick from Keisuke Honda in the 55th minute, and they advance to the final 8 for the first time in their history with a 2-1 away victory in the second leg.

- In today's Champions League matchups, Barcelona hosts Stuttgart after drawing 1-1 in the first leg. If Barca doesn't advance, La Liga will have a big fat 0 representatives in the Final 8, because Sevilla and Real Madrid are already eliminated.

- While La Liga could have 0 teams in the final 8, France's Ligue 1 could have 2 if Bordeaux can finish off Olympiakos today. The French league co-leaders lead the series 1-0 with their win in Greece in the first leg.

- An interesting breakdown of geography in the final 8 versus how it's been the last couple of years.

2008
England 4 (Arsenal, Liverpool, Man U, Chelsea)
Germany 1 (Schalke)
Turkey 1 (Fenerbahce)
Spain 1 (Barcelona)
Itay 1 (AS Roma)

2009
England 4 (Arsenal, Liverpool, Man U, Chelsea)
Spain 3 (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Villarreal)
Portugal 1 (Porto)

So the last 2 years, you had 4 English teams both times, and last year it was pretty much all England and Spain. Now look at the cosmopolitan array we've got this year (I'm projecting out 2 winners).

2010
France 2 (Bordeaux, Lyon)
England 2 (Man U, Arsenal)
Italy 1 (Inter)
Germany 1 (Bayern)
Russia 1 (CSKA)
Spain 1 (Barcelona)

So France has as many teams in the final 8 as England, and more than Italy and Spain. That's a little coo coo. Things get really nuts if Stuttgart can manage to upset Barca today. It's been the most wide open Champions League in recent memory, especially when you consider in the entire last decade we've had only 2 finalists from outside the England/Spain/Italy axis, and both of those were in 2004 when Mourinho's Porto team beat AS Monaco in the final.

***
- As a Fantasy owner of Larry Fitzgerald, should I be concerned that the Cardinals have signed Derek Anderson to "compete" with Matt Leinfart to be their starting "quarterback"?? Hey Kurt, can you please do a Brett Favre and come back? Please? For Jesus???

1 comment:

Patrick N said...

This year is more balanced maybe because the economy didn't allow for domination nation. Liverpool got raped players by Real Madrid and Chelsea got unlucky and faced probably the only team that could beat them because Mourinho has Ancelotti's number. Forever.

Matt Leinart better get the job or else they just wasted all that "development" on him. Derek Anderson sucksssss