http://uefa.theoffside.com News from the UEFA Cup European soccer tournament Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:13:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Sometimes, I just can’t help myself. Against all of my better judgment, I read as much of the self righteous indignation that erupted after the France – Ireland World Cup playoff as I could physically stand. I have to admit to being less than moved by the whole ... http://uefa.theoffside.com/europe/a-contrarian-take-on-france-ireland.html Even though many of the Champions League groups are closely contested, and won’t be decided before match day 6, I think we’re far enough along to make some wild speculations on the clubs that would join the Europa League cast. The major problem with this endeavor is the lack ... http://uefa.theoffside.com/europe/you-want-to-live-with-common-people-some-very-early-thoughts-on-the-champions-league-drop-ins.html It’s match day four in the Europa League. While we’re very much in the business end of the group stage at this point, some groups are no closer to being decided than they were on match day one. Here in the US, the major televised early game was, ... http://uefa.theoffside.com/europe/group-stage-match-day-4.html It’s certainly been a fun week for European football; the Europa League did its part to keep things going. So, let’s get into what happened on match day 3. There were a couple of notable thrashings in matches that we probably thought would have been closer affairs. Benfica, ... http://uefa.theoffside.com/europe/group-stage-match-day-3.html As long as the North Atlantic league proposal is back on the table, let me just preemptively mention a few other things from the late 90s that I emphatically hope do not enjoy the same sort of revived popularity. These things are as follows: the phrase ‘is that ... http://uefa.theoffside.com/europe/i-dont-love-the-90s-the-north-atlantic-league-is-still-a-terrible-idea.html In club land, the international breaks are something like an enforced naptime. But, in anticipation of the Uruguay – Argentina match that might send the Argentines crashing out of the 2010 World Cup, I have been thinking a lot about Schadenfreude. If Argentina did fail to qualify, I ... http://uefa.theoffside.com/europe/the-joy-of-shameful-joy.html There was a little bit of everything on match day 2 in the group stage: redemption, surprises, and some consolidation of power already. In the first batch of games, Red Bull Salzburg scored another surprise victory. Unlike their late smash and grab against Lazio, the caffeinated advertisements enjoyed ... http://uefa.theoffside.com/europe/group-stage-match-day-2.html Does it get more simultaneously pathetic and irritating than the whining we’ve had to put up with from Celtic for the past few weeks? In case you’ve missed Celtic stop just short of accusing Rapid Vienna of war crimes, a recap of the situation can be found in today’s ... http://uefa.theoffside.com/uefa-cup-memories/a-pre-match-rant-about-rapid-vienna-celtic.html Grim news from Belgrade this morning, where a Toulouse fan who was assaulted prior to the French club’s group stage match with Partizan Belgrade died in the hospital. Unfortunately, in the world of Serbian football, this murder is another bullet point on a long list of violence that actually ... http://uefa.theoffside.com/europa-league/murder-in-serbia.html In case you hadn’t already heard, UEFA is investigating a rather significant number of European qualifying round matches from recent seasons for evidence of match fixing. There really isn’t a whole lot to say about match fixing that doesn’t invite a response of ‘duh, really?’. That altering the ... http://uefa.theoffside.com/europe/crime-committed-celebrities-not-involved.html