Bonus Feature: Haters Gonna Hate

Let’s start this right off. I hate Bayern Munich. No I mean I really hate them. As a Nurnberg fan, I have to hate them and vehemently do. Nurnberg and Bayern Munich are historically the two big German league teams from Bavaria and so are rivals. I also hate them as they basically are the Yankees of the Bundesliga. They have the new fancy stadium, the larger player payroll, and are nicknamed “Bayern” even though there are other teams in Bayern (Bavaria). Next season, there will actually be three others besides Bayern Munich from Bayern in the Bundesliga – Augsburg, Greuther Fuerth, and of course Nurnberg.

I could list many more reasons why I hate Bayern Munich, but I feel I have to admit something first. I shamefully actually own a Bayern Munich jersey. Yes, it’s true. Lying in the very bottom of the bottom drawer of my dresser, it hasn’t seen the light of day in years though. I bought it years ago when I was in Germany on a trip, but it was before I really followed German football and before the roots of my Nurnberg fandom really started to grow. Yuck. I shudder at even the thought of ever putting the jersey on again.

So back to all that hatred… Why do I bring up my strong disliking for Bayern Munich? They are playing Chelsea this Saturday in the Champions League final. As UEFA had scheduled the final to be in Munich’s Allianz Arena far in advance, Bayern Munich had been gunning for the final all season. That tunnel vision helped Dortmund win the Bundesliga season title as well as the DFB Pokal final against Bayern Munich (not that Dortmund didn’t just dominate anyway). Rather lamely, Bayern Munich say winning the league doesn’t mean anything anyway. Said very well from a team that always sets their expectations to win the league, but hasn’t now in the last two years.

Anyway… back to the Champions League final. Although I hate Bayern Munich, I was actually cheering for them in their semi-final with Real Madrid. My hate for Bayern Munich is so twisted that I wanted them to get to their precious final, to play in their home park, to play in front of thousands upon thousands of home fans – and lose! There is little worse than a team losing such a huge match, in front of so many home fans, in their home stadium. I’m hoping to see the disappointed faces of Bayern Munich fans as Chelsea lift the trophy. I want to see tears on Arjen Robben’s face from losing. (Neuer, Schweinsteiger, and a few others I wish no real harm on. They just play for the wrong team. Robben though… I really hate him. I want to punch him in the face too.)

Cheering on Chelsea in the Champions League final though very nearly came at a cost. With Chelsea not finishing in the Premier League in a Champions qualifying position, only winning the final will put them in the tournament for next year. If that happens, the lowest seeded Champions qualifier in the league gets bumped down to the Europa League. Newcastle was in the mix for that final spot – 4th in the Premier League – but finished in 5th. While they still qualified for Europa League anyway, I would’ve been just fine with them being bumped from Champions to Europa League as any European competition qualification was far above preseason expectations. Of course if that had happened, the HUGE consolation prize would have been that Bayern Munich lost the final. Luckily, that still can happen.

Come Saturday afternoon, I’ll be watching the final wearing my Chelsea jersey (yes, purchased before I was ever a deep-rooted Newcastle fan), while probably drinking a beer, and loudly cheering against Bayern Munich. It doesn’t seem that it’s a given that the match will be on television in my area, so I may have to watch the soccer season’s biggest match on live feed somewhere online. Well, wherever I end up watching it, as far as Bayern Munich is concerned, this hater will be hatin’.

The Magpies Get Clipped at the End

Today was the last regular league feature of the 2011 / 2012 season. With Nurnberg and Oxford finishing their decent and disappointing (respectively) seasons last weekend, Newcastle played today against Everton. Earlier in the week, Chelsea lost their second to last fixture, putting them out of reach of Newcastle. That meant that the Magpies would at worst finish in 5th, giving them a spot in next year’s Europa League. With that safety net under them, they could go for a win in their match against Everton and hope for 3rd place Arsenal and 4th place Tottenham to lose their matches, then qualifying them for Champions League.

Newcastle United vs. Everton – While the Toon would be vying for a win, Everton were riding high in league games, having not lost since late March. Although it wouldn’t mean anything but bragging rights, they were also hoping to finish higher in the league table than city rivals Liverpool. All they needed to make that official was a win.

To be blunt – and to fast forward through the first half – Newcastle was basically out of the match at halftime. Through the season, they have been a side of two faces – either one that wants to score goals or one that doesn’t. Today it was the latter. Although Newcastle had a chance at the Champions League and Everton just simply finishing above rivals Liverpool, it would be the latter side in this fixture that wanted the match more. In the first half, the Magpies just had three shots, all off target. Everton on the other hand had eight shots, two of those finding the back of the net.

The second half was a bit better, but mildly. Demba Ba was finally able to work Everton and US National team goalkeeper Tim Howard with a strike in the 65th minute, but Howard kept it out. Just a minute later, Everton got their third putting Newcastle even in a larger hole.

Everton though apparently felt sorry for the lads from the Northeast. After a 72nd minute strike from Yohan Cabaye, Everton gave up an own-goal in the 73rd. Even with that little bit of hope that it was now just a 3-1 match, Newcastle would only get just one more shot on goal in the 78th minute – a Cisse header, totaling a poor three shots on goal total for the match. Although Everton would have chances after that, the match would end 3-1. Well… I should say the match would mostly end there. There was some fighting after the final whistle, with Everton’s Tim Cahill being awarded a red card. 

With that flap up at the end, Newcastle’s season would come to a close. It would be a great season that, with the 2-0 loss to Man City last week, would finish with two losses. Still though, Newcastle finished the season far above expectations. They finished with 64 points in the Premier League table, landing them in 5th place – still good enough to qualify for a spot in next year’s Europa League.

Out with a Whimper

While Newcastle has their final match next weekend, this weekend brought the season to a close for my other two teams, Oxford United and FC Nurnberg. Nurnberg had nothing to play for, already knowing they would finish in the middle of the Bundesliga table. Oxford on the other hand (as I have mentioned plenty before) were still trying to make it into the League Two promotion playoffs. Their chances were little as they had to win and 7th place Crewe Alexandra had to lose their match.

FC Nurnberg vs. Bayer Leverkusen – I’ll delay the drama for now and start with Nurnberg as they (as always) were the first match on Saturday morning. I’ll start this off by being very blunt. This match did not start the weekend off well. Nurnberg got a surprise win over Leverkusen earlier in the season, but that sure wasn’t going to happen today. Der Club went down 1-0 already in the 7th minute when Leverkusen’s Kiessling scored. Kiessling again scored in the 32nd to put Nurnberg down 2-0. Der Club would go into halftime needing to dig out of a hole.

Nurnberg at least got things moving in the right direction with the first goal of the second half. Robert Mak took a pass from Albert Bunjaku in the 58th minute to make it 2-1. However, that one goal deficit only lasted about twenty minutes as Leverkusen’s Schurrle scored in the 77th. The score line would get worse though for Der Club as Kiessling would not miss out on getting his hat trick and scored his third goal in the 89th minute. Nurnberg would lose to Leverkusen 4-1 in the final match of the season. The shot tally made it look worse too. Nurnberg just looked wasteful with 12 shots with five on goal compared to the perfect shooting of Leverkusen with 4 shots, all of which were not only on goal but went in for goals.

Nurnberg finishes the season in 10th place with 42 points and a goal differential of -11.

Oxford United vs. Port Vale – Oxford needed to win this match to have any shot of getting into the promotion playoffs. Like last week, Oxford’s starting keeper Ryan Clarke and second string keeper Wayne Brown were still out with injuries. Last week, they were able to do an emergency loan for young Connor Ripley from Middlesbrough. As he was sent back, Oxford signed another emergency loan for goalkeeper Damian Martinez, a reserve keeper from Arsenal. While only 19-years-old like Ripley, Martinez not only plays for Arsenal, but also has player in international competition for Argentina. While his credentials were better, a must win last match of the season is a hard time to throw in a new keeper.

The match started off well for the Yellows as John-Paul Pittman nearly got a goal in the 2nd minute, missing just right of the post. Oxford would take a few more tests at goal in the first half, but sadly Port Vale would be the ones to find the back of the net first. They scored in the 41st minute, putting the Yellows down 1-0 at halftime.

Besides needing to win their match, Oxford also needed Crewe Alexandra to lose their match with Aldershot. Mindful of the fact that Aldershot was winning that match at the half, Oxford manager Chris Wilder decided to throw an all out attack at Port Vale as the second half opened. The formation was changed from a 4-4-2 to a 4-4-3, and Wilder subbed in two forwards. Oli Johnson came in for forward Tom Craddock and Scott Rendell came in for defender Andrew Whing. A midfielder swap would also take place, bringing in Adam Chapman for Liam Davis.

Regretfully, the attack minded changes didn’t seem to do much… except make things easier for Port Vale. That is always the gamble of course, but Oxford really seemed to crumble in this instance. After a few tries, Port Vale would get their second goal in the 69th minute.

It quickly went for bad to worse too as in the Crewe / Aldershot match, Crewe leveled at 2-2 just a few minutes later (more or less in the 76th minute of both games). Oxford were surely out of the promotion playoffs at that point. However, Port Vale, who really didn’t care about Oxford’s status of course, put one more goal on the scoreboard in the third minute of the match’s stoppage time. The goal would give Oxford a horrible end to the season – a 3-0 loss to Port Vale and out of the promotion playoffs.

The loss also made Oxford United fall from 8th to finish 9th in the league table, being passed by Gillingham.

Newcastle United vs. Manchester City – Unfortunately for me the results didn’t get much better with Newcastle’s match against league leaders Manchester City. Newcastle of course would be looking to win to move up into a Champions League spot, but Man City would also be looking to take the victory to keep hold of the league lead and keep Manchester United at bay. As aforementioned in the last post, I was indeed glued to my laptop watching a live stream of the match.

The first half began with City keeping much of the possession with the Magpies keeping them at bay in the defending third. When Newcastle did manage to have the ball, they weren’t threatening at all and just simply passed the ball around in the back, often passing back to goalkeeper Krul for a long clearance. The Magpies were though playing mostly defense, much of it coming right in front of goal with crucial blocks. A few of those were also blocks on the goal line with Krul out of position. With sighs of relief from all the Geordies in the stands of St. James, the match went into halftime scoreless.

The second half became a cagey back and forth of near chances between both sides. City made two tactical substitutions in the 62nd and 70th, ones that proved the right choice for manager Mancini as City’s midfielder Yaya Toure got a goal in the 70th. Even at 1-0, the match was still being watched on the edge of seats as the teams were playing a back-and-forth game of near chances. Of course, Manchester City would have much nearer chances though, eventually with Toure getting his second goal in the 89th. That put the final stamp on the outcome and the match ended with a 2-0 victory for Manchester City over Newcastle.

Luckily Newcastle didn’t lose too much ground in the league table with the loss. Both Arsenal and Tottenham drew their matches, so things are still up for grabs going into the final match of the season. Chelsea was busy winning the FA Cup final so they didn’t play a league match this weekend, instead playing it on this coming Tuesday. With that said, if anything was a negative for Newcastle, it was that Chelsea now has a game in hand to make up ground. Here’s how things look in the Magpies neck of the table:

3rd place (Champions League)                             Arsenal           67 pts / 24 goal differential

4th place (Champions League qualifying rounds)  Tottenham      66 pts / 23 GD

5th place (Europa League)                                  Newcastle       65 pts / 7 GD

6th place [two matches left to play]                    Chelsea           61 pts / 21 GD

To be perfectly honest, I would be excited for Newcastle to get either a Europa or Champions League spot. Not that I wouldn’t be ecstatic for to watch the Magpies in a Champions match, but I almost feel the Europa League would be better as the team is still developing into a league leader. To get to the Champions or the Europa League though, they still have to hold off Chelsea for 5th.

Both way, I’m looking for Newcastle to win this next Sunday, making the fate of Arsenal and Tottenham decide the Toon’s European destiny. For their final match, Newcastle travel to Liverpool to take on US National Team goalie Tim Howard and his Everton teammates. Sorry Mr. Howard, you may be my favorite on the national team, but I’m hoping you’ll be picking the ball out of the net a few times next weekend.

Midweek Magpie Magic

On Wednesday Newcastle played a huge match against Chelsea, who sat just a point shy of the Magpies in 6^th.  A Newcastle win would almost assure that they would be playing in at least the Europa League next season.  Luckily, Chelsea seemed a bit worn from playing not only league matches but also still in the hunt for FA Cup and Champions League glory.  As well, Newcastle – and one could say specifically, Cisse – came out flying, with hopes of bouncing back from the poor loss to Wigan with a dramatic turn-around win at Chelsea. 

It looked as though it would be a shooting gallery type night, as both sides traded shots in the beginning of the match.  However, the Magpies’ marksman Papiss Demba Cisse settled down that shooting competition rather quickly in the 19^th minute.  With an assist from Davide Santon, Cisse hit a one-touch left-footed shot past Chelsea’s goalie Petr Cech and into the upper right corner.  The match seemed to settle down after Newcastle took the lead, but things heated up just before the break.   Chelsea would get a few chances in that later part of the first half, but all would go wide of the mark.  Newcastle actually threatened the most, just before the halftime whistle, requiring a few saves from Petr Cech and Demba Ba having a shot strike the bar.

The second half was again very back and forth and both teams became tired and the game play became sloppy.  It also became quite scrappy too.  Newcastle’s Chiek Tiote was down for seven minutes with a head injury, eventually being carted off.  Just as the first half would end with good chances, so would the second.  Chelsea had their chance first in the 88^th minute, with John Terry taking a header.  Thankfully that was cleared basically just off the goal line by Newcastle’s Santon.  

Newcastle’s chance would come in the 2^nd minute of stoppage time.  Ryan Taylor threw in the ball from a good 40 yards out to Shola Ameobi who was just to the left of the outer limits of the 18-yard box.  If that accurately thrown ball wasn’t impressive enough, Ameobi then chested the ball to Cisse at the top of the 18-yard box who put the final stamp on the match with one of the best Premier League goals of the year.  Cisse kicked a wicked bent shot over the head of Chelsea’s keeper Petr Cech (one of the best goalies in the world mind you) and into the top corner of goal.  The strike was the epitome of a “banana shot” and too good not to share a video clip:

That strike capped a 2-0 win for Newcastle over Chelsea.  Although they still remain in 5^th place, the Magpies move four points up on 6^th place Chelsea.  With two games remaining, the win nearly (but not quite) locks them into at least a Europa League spot for next season.  However, they still could also qualify for the Champions League.  Here’s how things standing going into the last two games:

3^rd place (Champions League)                            Arsenal          66 pts / 24 goal differential

4^th place (Champions League qualifying rounds)  Tottenham      65 pts / 23 GD

5^th place (Europa League)                                 Newcastle      65 pts / 9 GD

6^th place                                                         Chelsea          61 pts / 21 GD

The four point buffer should be enough for two match days remaining.  However Newcastle hosts league leaders Manchester City on Sunday.  A loss to them, and if Chelsea when their next league match, the door is still open for Chelsea to sneak back through and jump ahead of Newcastle just at season’s end.  Oh yeah, you bet I’ll be up early at 7:30 am on Sunday, glued to a live feed of Newcastle vs. Man City.  Howay the lads!

When the Fan is Away, His Teams Still Play

Instead of sitting down with a cup of tea and following my weekly matches, I did a running race this past Saturday morning and missed all of my matches completely.  A part of me always feels guilty when I ignore my teams, as if my fan support will make a difference.  Of course making matters worse, the season is winding down and the matches (for Newcastle and Oxford anyway) are becoming very crucial.  Here’s what I missed and what you may have missed as well – 

FC Nurnberg vs. TSG Hoffenheim –  Der Club continued to take a relaxed cruise to the end of the season with their match against Hoffenheim.  In their first meeting this season, Hoffenheim managed a 2-0 shutout victory so I was hoping for better out of Nurnberg in this match.  They would indeed score goals but so would Hoffenheim in what would become a back-and-forth goal-fest.  

Nurnberg opened up the scoring first in the 9^th minute with Tomas Pekhart shooting a rebound from Hoffenheim’s keeper into the net.  Hoffenheim would answer back in the 22^nd basically in the same fashion with their own shot from a rebound from Nurnberg’s keeper Schafer.  It looked like the match would go into the halftime interval on even terms but Nurnberg’s leading scorer Daniel Didavi poked the ball into the net from a cross just as the 45^th minute clicked on.  

In the second half, Nurnberg increased their lead as Pekhart tallied his second goal in the 71^st minute.  Pekhart again scored off of a rebound, but this time it was from his own shot.  Javier Pinola first took shot which rebounded back of the Hoffenheim keeper, Pekhart fired that back with a left-footed shot which rebounded off the cross bar, and finally Pekhart headed that back for a goal.  It had to be a crazy sequence to see live.  Hoffenheim managed to make it 3-2 in the 88^th minute, but it (thankfully) was too little too late and Nurnberg would take the 3-2 victory.

The win continues Nurnberg’s unbeaten run which is now at 5 matches.  They also propel up from 11^th to 10^th place in the Bundesliga standings.  

Oxford United vs. Southend United – Oxford had a difficult match to get back into the promotion playoffs, having to play 5^th place Southend.  In the week prior, things also became tougher as Oxford’s backup goalkeeper – who has been playing because starting keeper Ryan Clarke has been out injured – also picked up an injury.  The Yellows were able to do an emergency loan for a goalie, a 19-year-old keeper from Middlesbrough.  I think they did the best they could with the loan on such short notice, but still it was a younger player with very little time spent with the team.  

Southend didn’t make things easy either for the young keeper.  By halftime, Southend was up 2-0 having scored in the 19^th and 31^st minute.  It wasn’t for lack of trying on Oxford’s behalf, but nothing was making it past between the posts and into the net.  They Yellows outshot Southend taking 12 shots (5 on goal) compared to their 5 shots (2 on goal).  It was those two shots though that they made count.  Unfortunately, Oxford would never catch up and they would go down losing 2-0.  

The loss keeps Oxford in 8^th place in the League Two standings and out of the promotion playoffs.  Disappointingly they now have also not won a match since March 27^th.  The season’s injuries seem to be now catching up with the team.  The time could not be worse of course as next week is the final match of the season.  Mathematically Oxford still have a chance, but it’s very slim.  Crewe Alexandra sit in 7^th place with 71 points and a goal differential of 8 goals.  Oxford currently have 68 points and a goal differential of 14 goals.  They only way that the Yellows are in the playoffs are if they win and Crewe loses.  Looking at the fixtures, Oxford play at 15^th place Port Vale whereas Crewe is hosting 11^th place Aldershot Town.  It’s really a toss-up as Oxford play away but Crewe plays the better team.  Either way Oxford need to win.  COME ON YOU YELLOWS!!!

Newcastle United vs. Wigan Athletic – Of all three matches, this result surprised me the most when returning home from my race and checking the scores.  I’ll just come right out and tell you – Newcastle lost 4-0 to Wigan, a side flirting with relegation.  

Newcastle’s normally very solid defense was out of character and actually gave up all four goals in the first half.  Two of those came back to back in the 13^th and 15^th minutes, with the third coming in the 36^th, and the fourth coming in the 2^nd minute of the first half’s stoppage time.  Newcastle were of course trying to rally back but everything was either just wide or high of the goal.  Sharpshooter of late, Papiss Cisse, even hit the bar twice in the second half but just nothing would find its way into net.  

The loss moved the Magpies back down to 5^th and allowed Tottenham back into 4^th.  Both teams have 62 points in the table but Tottenham has a greater goal differential with 20 goals versus Newcastle’s 7 goals.  Chelsea won their match on Sunday, giving them 61 points and moving them closer to Newcastle.  However, Newcastle play Chelsea in a midweek Wednesday fixture which will not only decide those two teams’ current placing in the league but will most likely also prove to be decisive in Newcastle’s push for European league action.