This week in soccer

This week there was no action in the Premier League as World Cup Qualifiers took precedence. I think people care more about this anyways because while not everyone has a favorite Premier League team, everyone has a country or two that they root for. Yesterday, France beat Ireland to keep the Irishmen out of yet another World Cup. This is important for two reasons. The first is the controversy that resulted when the playoffs were made for the remaining eight European teams to get into the World Cup.

France, Portugal, Slovenia, Russia, Greece, Ireland, Ukraine and Bosnia-Herzegovina were the final eight European teams playing for four spots. The controversy resulted when Fifa "randomly" placed traditional powers France, Portugal, Russia and Greece in different games. The point is that if it were really random, then there probably would have been at least one matchup between the traditional powers and one of them would go home. The Irish, who were the most vocal concerning the controversy, ended up drawing France in the playoff.

France won the first game 1-0. The Irish tied the aggregate score by scoring first in the second game. What then resulted was possibly the worst no-call this year in sports. Thierry Henry, France's captain, so blatantly used his hand to stop a ball that it looked like he tried to catch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oBtyriW5-M. Henry even admitted after the game that he used his hand to guide the ball.

There are two reasons I am sad about Ireland not making the cup. The first is that they have not made it in so long that it would be great to see the way their fans react. The second is that it would be quite a sight to see the Irish pack the bars around the local area come World Cup time. Many fans revert back to cheering for their ancestral countries in the tournament and I cannot think of a country that more people would root for in the area than Ireland.

Portugal ended qualifying, erasing the fears, and hopes, of people around the world that Cristiano Ronaldo would not perform in the tournament. I can probably think of five people that I know that are fans of soccer because of Ronaldo alone.

There is no sporting event like the world cup, even for those not really fans of the game. The entire world is transformed for the month or so that the event goes on. The world cup is a place when war torn countries can actually have a month or so of pure and simple joy. Historic rivalries are played out when the games truly mean more than bragging rights for a year. You think Ohio State-Michigan is a rivalry with passion. A little more than 50 years ago, Germany invaded Poland and murdered millions of its citizens. They played each other in the World Cup in 2006. There is no joy like the joy of scoring a goal in soccer, especially for one's country. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc1JcYQvrZo&feature=related

Plus, having Shakira perform the opening song beats anything the Super Bowl has done for years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpr6ylT109I

The premier league's most famous manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, stated the obvious concerning the first place Chelsea FC when he said that they are "the team to beat". Chelsea absolutely thrashed Bolton over the weekend to keep the first place side, beating the Wanderers 4-0 with which Didier Drogba capped with a delicately superb goal. Drogba also was able to get his feet back on European ground as he finished the term of his three match ban from the Champions League for improper conduct after last year's loss to Barcelona (http://tinyurl.com/yfo5wv8). Drogba scored both goals for Chelsea in the Champions league match but Atletico Madrid tied the game in the 90 minute (http://tinyurl.com/yb9p92r). Chelsea still advances to the next round though with the one point they got from the draw.
The Red Devils also won in their league game over the weekend, 2-0 over Blackburn, and got a remarkable goal from their $30 million striker, Dimitar Berbatov (http://tinyurl.com/yj3of9d).
United advanced past the first round of the Champions League in the same way that Chelsea did, tying the game but advancing on points. United received one of the worst calls of the year as Darren Fletcher went down in the penalty box and the ref gave the Moscow player a red card, but did not award the Devils a penalty kick. United did get their share of luck though, as their last goal by Antonio Valencia came via deflection off of one of the CSKA players. Sir Alex had some interesting comments on the call, or lack there of (http://tinyurl.com/ye3ftyl).
The two point leaders will meet this Sunday at Stamford Bride, Chelsea's home field.