Monday, January 3, 2011

Welcome Back!

2010 is over and 2011 is in with a bang! First off, a recap: Inter Milan captured the World Club Cup title thanks to a convincing performance against the African Champions in the Final. Domestically, as 2011 kicks off, lots of postponed games have been played and two clubs from Manchester lead the English league: United are at the top with 41 points having played just 19 games while City have played 21 and only have 41 as well. Arsenal hold third position with 39 points from 20 matches as Tottenham and Chelsea round out the top five places with 36 and 35 points from 20 games respectively. In the Spanish La Liga meanwhile, Barcelona lead with a two point margin over Real Madrid with 46 and 44 points tallied from 17 games each. Villarreal CF have strengthened their hold on third place, leading fourth place Valencia CF by five points. Finally, fifth place RCD Espanyol are two points beneath Valencia with 28 points from 17 games. In the Italian Serie A, AC Milan control the table with a three point lead over the hungry Napoli side who have so far amassed 33 points from 17 games. Lazio also have 33 points, leaving Juventus and Roma to pick up fourth and fifth place with 31 and 29 points respectively. Inter Milan you say? Champions of the World? Well, having fired Benetiz they sit in seventh place with 23 points. Not terrible, but not what they want at all. The Bundesliga of Germany meanwhile has different news headline as well, with Borussia Dortmund currently in the lead with 43 points, ten points above second place 1. FSV Mainz 05. Bayer Leverkusen hold third with 33 points as well while Hannover 96 have 31 as a resurgent, fifth place, Bayern München have 29 points from 17 matches. France still has a tight league with Lille holding the apex with a game in hand at 32 points while PSG are a point behind. Stade Rennais, and Lyon are as well. Last but not least, Marseille finish out the top five with 29 points, tied with St. Etienne. In Portugal, the New Year feels like most years recently with Porto leading as Benfica hold second. There is an eight point gap between the top two while Sporting is "only" five points off of their rivals. UD Leiria hold fourth place with 24 points, a point behind Sporting. Fifth place is weakly occupied by Vitoria SC who have 22 points from 14 games. Finally, Scotland is colored green and white at the moment as Celtic lead Rangers by four points following a fantastic derby victory. Rangers do have two games in hand however, which means they could quickly retake their rivals who have 45 points from 19 games. Cheers! More 2011 news in the next post possibly including some news about January 10, when the Ballon d’Or is to be awarded! Some other big dates: the final of the UEFA Champions League will take place on the 28th of May in Wembley Stadium while the Women’s World Cup will be taking place in Germany from the 26th of June to the 17th of July, the  U-17 World Cup will go down in Mexico from June 18th to July 10th before the U-20 World Cup in Colombia takes place from the 29th of July to the 20th of August. Finally, a couple of continental titles will be in contention in the U.S. and Argentina in the form of the CONCACAF Gold Cup from the 5th of June to the 25th of  June and the Copa America between the 1st of July and the 24th.

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