What ever happened to Bunyodkor?

In the summer of 2008 the transfer merry-go-round featured the usual suspects, Barcelona looking to cut Ronaldinho lose, Chelsea taking on Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo pledging another year to Manchester United. However there was a team that were making headlines that summer. They were the little known club from Tashkent, Uzbekistan called Kuruvchi.

What made this club part of the headlines wasn't the fact that they changed their name to Bunyodkor, but they announced they had "signed" Samuel Eto'o on a six-month deal from Barcelona. At the time it seemed legit as newly installed Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola didn't quiet fancy Eto'o in his side and was available to sign. However as it turned out the Eto'o "signing" was false but it did have the club in the headlines.

With this fame they did sign big in August 2008. They had lured 2002 World cup winner Rivaldo to the club along with Zico as manager. This seemed to be the start of something big with the club aiming to dominate at home and abroad. 

The club did end up winning their first ever Uzbek league title that November. Zico however didn't stay around long and by January 2009 he was in Moscow in charge of CSKA. Rivaldo however extended his contract with the club. 

In 2009 Bunyodkor ran away with the title, finishing 22 points ahead of Pakhtakor. Rivaldo was the top scorer in that campaign with 20 goals and the club reached the quarter-finals of the AFC champions league, going out to Pohang Steelers. 

2010 under Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari saw the club exit the AFC champions league at the last 16 stage but did retain the league title as well as winning the cup. 

However 2010 was to be the turning point for the club. The major financial force behind the club was folded. Luiz Felipe Scolari resigned as manager and Rivaldo terminated his contract in August 2010. 

The following season did see the club win it's 4th straight league title but they fell again at the last 16 stage in the AFC champions league to Sepahan from Iran. The big stars were gone at this stage and the club was preparing a move into a brand new stadium which would happen in 2012. 

Traditional Uzbek powerhouse Pakhtakor won back the league title in 2012 by two points from Bunyodkor. Abroad the club did have a better season. The reached the semi-finals of the AFC champions league falling to Korean's Ulsan Hyundai in a fairly one-sided tie. 

By 2013 the club was forgotten about in the greater world media. Long gone were the days of Rivaldo, Zico, Scolari and of course Eto'o. The league title returned in 2013 edging out Lokomotiv Tashkent by a point. Their AFC champions league campaign was a disappointment as they bowed out at the last 16 stage being beaten by Thai side Buriram United. 

The club are now operating on a more sound footing but without the riches to attract the big stars. They are also no longer a dominant force at home as 2014 showed with them finishing 4th and another last 16 exit in the champions league. 

This season they exited the champions league at the group stage with just a single point won and are currently lying in 4th in the league. The glow from their fame well and truly faded. 

Portuguese contender?

The Superliga is now 7 games old this season and leading the way is the familiar name of Porto but they have company at the top, and no it's not Benfica.
Instead sitting in second place level on points with Porto is Sporting Club de Portugal (Sporting CP to most). Now those who knows their Portugese football know that Sporting are one of the "Os Três Grandes" in Portugal which means they are historically one of the dominant three I'm sure you don't need me to tell you the other two. However in the last decade they have fallen quiet a bit behind their rivals Porto and Benfica. So far in fact that in 2012-13 Sporting finished 7th and missed out on Europe altogether.
That 2012-13 season was a disaster for Sporting. They were at one point actually flirting with relegation but for a revival in the second half of the season to push them to 7th. What is surprising is that the previous season Sporting were outdone in the Europa league semi-finals by Athletic Bilbao.

Proud winners of the Superliga on 18 occasions throughout history their last title was back in 2001-02 when they finished five points ahead of Boavista. What helped them win the league that season was probably star striker Mário Jardel. The Brazilian hit-man struck a phenomenal 42 league goals that season which was long before Messi and Ronaldo started posting such figures. However the league wasn't as highly ranked as it is now and so Sporting entered the following seasons' champions league at the 3rd qualifying round stage which they lost to Inter Milan. They missed out on the riches the group stage had to offer and fell in round 1 of the UEFA cup to Partizan.
The challenged for the league title in 2006-07 which they missed out on by an agonizing point to Porto. Again in 2008-09 they finished 2nd to Porto but four points off in the end. They fell away after that and didn't finish in the top 2 until 2013-14. Last season Sporting were never in the title equation but this season they could be.

Why the sudden surge up the table? well during the summer the club completed one of the most fascinating yet controversial moves in Portuguese football in recent history. They managed to get Jorge Jesus installed as manager. Jesus had turned around Benfica's fortunes in a six year spell which ended with him winning Benfica's 34th league title, which is a record. A former Sporting player Jorge Jesus' move across town was controversial given the intense rivalry between Sporting and Benfica but it is his winning mentality that seems to have got Sporting on the rise into contention.
Goalkeeper Rui Patricío is still about as is midfield general William Carvalho who has recently returned from injury. Algerian striker Islam Slimani is their top scorer with five so far and his form will also be key, as will Adrien Silva's goals from midfield. Sporting are also able to call upon some familiar names from abroad. The likes of Bryan Ruíz and Alberto Aquilani are about as is Colombian Teofilio Gutierrez so the depth seems to be there to juggle both league and Europa league this season. In Europe they are in group H with Lokomotiv Moskva, Besiktas and Skenderbeu Korce with one point from two games thus far.

With the two week international break now upon us, fans of Sporting are eager to see what will happen in their first game back. Sporting are away to Benfica in the Lisbon derby. A massive test to their title credentials. Should Sporting emerge with a victory then that could give them the confidence to go ahead and push Porto and Benfica for that first title since 2002.

Struggling Maccabi

Maccabi Tel-Aviv are embarking on only their 2nd ever champions league group stage campaign and its looking so far that their 2nd campaign will be tougher than their first.

Maccabi reached the group stage for the first time in 2004-05 and were pitted alongside three former European winners in the group (Ajax, Bayern Munich and Juventus). On that ocasion they managed to pick up 4 points. They beat Ajax and drew with Juventus both at home.

This campaign however they aren't playing their home games in Tel-Aviv. Despite previously hosting champions league group games, UEFA has deemed the Bloomfield stadium too small to host games so Maccabi have taken temporary residence in the new Sammy Ofer stadium up the road in Haifa. This is another disadvantage when it comes to trying to negotiate a difficult group. Maccabi for home games domestically are backed by a partisan crowd that can intimate visiting teams much like the Turkish, Greek and Eastern European teams are backed by a vociferous crowd. Moving the games to Haifa will take a bit away from the crowd as well the team not being used to playing on the surface.

A quick look back through previous seasons shows that Maccabi's home ground of Bloomfield was used when their arch-rivals Hapoel qualified in 2010-11. It was also used when Maccabi Haifa reached the group stage the previous season although they went on the lose all group games without scoring. So Bloomfield has previously hosted games at this stage which is rather surprising that it's not hosting games now. The Sammy Ofer stadium is a newly built ground for Maccabi Haifa and its a modern 30,000 seater stadium. The Bloomfield stadium is a proper old school ground of just under 15,000 and quiet atmospheric despite the lack of a roof.

As for the team well it looks like Maccabi have it all to do to even get 3rd place in the group. In a group with Chelsea, Dynamo Kyiv and Porto it was always going to be tough but even more so after two defeats. In those defeats they have struggled. The 4-0 defeat away to Chelsea was a tough introduction to the group but last night's 2-0 defeat at "home" to Dynamo Kyiv showed how much Tel-Aviv need to catch up on. The Dynamo defense wasn't tested enough by the Maccabi attack and they looked toothless up front. Their main goal threat Eran Zahavi wasn't able to impose himself on the game with a lack of service and possession wasn't maintained enough. Just the lack of penetration allowed Dynamo to build from the back. The goals were well taken especially Junior Moraes' goal and Dynamo have joined Porto and Chelsea in the tussle for qualification leaving Maccabi at the bottom.
Up next for them is back-to-back games against Porto, it just doesn't get any easier for the Israelis.

Impressive Villarreal

Saturday night saw Villarreal defeat Atlético Madrid 1-0 at El Madrigal to go top of La Liga after six games played. They stayed top after Celta Vigo could only get a 1-1 draw at Eibar later in the night. The table makes for pleasant viewing for fans of the yellow submarine.

The goal last night came from Léo Baptistao who is on loan from Atlético and was allowed to feature given that there was no clause in the loan to prevent him from doing so. The goal was a nice finish from the Brazilian and a reminder to the Atlético management of what he can do. 

Villarreal's impressive start to the season has been built around the newly found confidence from Roberto Soldado the big summer signing from Tottenham while Congolaise striker Cédric Bakambu, who was signed from Bursaspor got in among the goals until his unfortunate injury last week. The midfield features experienced Bruno Soriano and backed up by young budding stars such as Samu Castillejo and Manu Trigueros. The team play a very eye catching short passing game which has continued the tradition built from the Pellegrini era. 

One question that might be asked in the next few weeks is can Villarreal stay competitive at the top? in short probably not but there is optimism that they have given themselves a good chance of ending the season in the final champions league spot. The start of this season has seen both Sevilla and Valencia get off to shaky starts and in the former's case they were bottom going into this weekend's round of games. However both have picked up victories this weekend and are expected to climb up the table into the race for 4th place. Villarreal need to keep this start going. 

In terms of anything more, its very unlikely Villarreal will be able to challenge for the league. They have Europa league football to juggle as well as some testing next few league games to contend with but if they find themselves in a similar position come the new year they could be a dark horse. 

Their next games in the league will be a good indicator to see if they are up to the challenge of staying in the top 4 and maybe higher. 

In the league they have a tough looking next few games. Away to Levante next Sunday before hosting the other surprise package so far in Celta Vigo, a trip to Las Palmas and hosting Sevilla all before November 2nd. Should they come out of those next few games in a similar position to where they are now they will have given themselves a great platform to go on and take the game to an injury hit Barcelona just before the international break in November. 

Previous:

In 2007-08 Villarreal ended the campaign in 2nd place behind runaway winners Real Madrid. They made a similar start to that season as they have done to this. Below is the table in 2007-08 after six games. 

Villarreal this season are actually a point better off than in 2007-08 and also have conceded one goal less also. In 2007-08 they also had a UEFA cup campaign to juggle as well, they reached the last 32 before going out to eventual winners Zenit St Petersburg.

Hopefully Villarreal stick around near the top of the table. It would make for an interesting season if they do. 

Champions first night talking points

Group A
A big talking point from last night was the first Real Madrid penalty award. An outrageous call from referee Ivan Bebek where a shot hit Darijo Srna on the back but was deemed handball, go figure.
Real Madrid were helped by a generous Shakhtar side with first Andriy Pyatov handing Benzema a tap-in before Taras Stepanenko decided he had enough of the game and got himself sent-off ridiculously.

Group B
Luke Shaw suffered a horrible injury last night when making a dash towards the PSV goal. He was stopped in his tracks by Hector Moreno but unfortunately appeared to have his studs caught in the ground as the Mexican made the challenge. Suggestions are today that Shaw will be sidelined for at least six months which will do United no favours but also has England sweating on his fitness for next summer's European championships.
The Shaw injury overshadowed the result which saw United lose 2-1 in Eindhoven despite taking the lead through former PSV winger Memphis Depay. PSV rallied to comeback and secure the three points on a horrible night for Manchester.
Wolfsburg's new recuit Julian Draxler got off to a scoring start against CSKA as the Germans started with a win.

Group C
Atlético got off to a great start with a victory away at Galatasaray. Antoine Griezmann showed his class for the first goal and was helped by Godín's clever header for the second. Galatasaray weren't up to much apart from a flurry of chances early in the second half but its a poor start from them in the group.
Astana played their first ever group stage game and for a while it was looking like ending all square but goals from Nico Gaitan and Kostas Mitroglu gave Benfica the three points.

Group D
Manchester City's champions league hoodoo continued last night when the fell to defeat against Juventus. The runaway leaders of the premier league took the lead through a dubious own goal from Giorgio Chielini with Vincent Kompany clearly impeding the Italian. Mario Mandzukic levelled before Álvaro Morata's delightful curling shot off the post sealed a 2-1 win for the old lady.
Sevilla made light work of Borrusia Monchengladbach in the other game which had a flurry of penalties. Kevin Gamerio scored the first one, crashed the second off the bar and let Éver Banega convert the third before a fortuitous goal from Yevhen Konoplyanka sealed  a memorable night for the Andalucians.

Tonight:

Group E
Bayer Leverkusen will be looking to edge ahead of Roma in the race for 2nd in the group when they host BATE Borisov. The Belarussians endured a horrible group stage last campaign and will be coming to improve on that showing. In any case Leverkusen to nick this game.
Roma face Barcelona at home and I fully expect Barcelona to hit a few past them tonight.

Group F
Dinamo Zagreb host Arsenal in a pretty predictable game. Arsenal to win comfortably.
Olympiacos will be hoping their partisan home crowd can earn them some valuable points against Bayern Munich but the quality that the Germans have will be too much. An easy Bayern win.

Group G
Porto face a tricky assignment in Kyiv tonight and it could be a massive indicator of who might finish 2nd behind Chelsea in the group. Porto are a decent side but so are Dynamo and can see this being a score draw.
Chelsea at home to Maccabi Tel-Aviv is a no contest. Chelsea to knock a few past the Israeli side.

Group H
Valencia host Zenit in what looks like will be a good match-up between two sides with designs on making 1st place their own. Valencia are back in after a few years away and Zenit have to be honest underachieved in this competition. However the unrest with the André Villas-Boas situation could be a distraction so a narrow Valencia win for me here.
Lyon and Gent make up the group and both will be looking for a positive start. Lyon have made an indifferent start domestically and Gent won a first ever Belgian title last season and are 6th currently. Lyon are without Nabil Fekir until the new year and hitman up front Alexandre Lacazette isn't in flying form. Score draw.

Champions League Group stage returns

The group stage returns tonight and some of the match-ups are interesting. We'll start at the start in Group A.

Group A:
PSG v Malmo
Real Madrid v Shakhtar Donetsk

Zlatan dominates the build up as he faces his first club Malmo. The Parisians are unsurprisingly overwhelming favorites for this game and should show why. The Swedes could do with sneaking away with a point but its hard to see that happening. Domestically PSG are top in France by a point from Rennes while Malmo run the risk of missing out on Europe completely for next season as they currently sit 5th in the Allsvenskan.
Nothing much to be said about the other game in the group tonight except that Real Madrid will stroll to a big win.

Group B:
Wolfsburg v CSKA Moskva
PSV Eindhoven v Manchester United

Wolfsburg face CSKA without the sold Kevin De Bruyne but do have Julian Draxler to call upon. The wolves will be a tough test for CSKA especially as they were among the stronger sides that were seeded 4th in the draw. Both sides have made good starts domestically coming into this game with Wolfsburg 3rd in the Bundesliga behind Dortmund and Bayern while CSKA are leading the Russian Premier league by 5 points from cross town rivals Lokomotiv. The obvious goal threats for CSKA are Seydou Doumbia and Ahmed Musa up front although Doumbia is yet to hit top form domestically it was his goals that overcame Sporting CP in the play-off round.
PSV old boy Memphis Depay returning to his previous club is a nice subplot in this game. Can PSV take points off United, maybe. PSV are a step above Club Brugge who were so easily dispatched by United in the play-off round so this will be a closer game than that but expect United to edge it.

Group C:
Galatasaray v Atlético Madrid
Benfica v FC Astana

I do like the look of Galatasaray v Atlético. The fanatical atmosphere from Galatasaray is always a good addition to the competition. Even though they have lost a little bit of that atmosphere with the move into a more modern stadium compared to the old Ali Sami Yen, they still are a tough opponent at home even for Atlético. For the Spaniards though they will be looking to get the Barcelona defeat out of their system. Big question here for them is does Simeone persist with Torres or does he go with Jackson or give Vietto his starting debut. On the domestic front, Galatasaray havent exactly set the world alight. They lie 8th and 5 points behind arch-rivals Fenerbahce and joint leaders Trabzonspor. Atlético meanwhile are 6th and 3 points off Barca.
The longest trip of the group stage between these two as Benfica look to get through the group stage this season. Newcomers Astana will be out to frustrate and successfully did that against Maribor and APOEL in the qualifiers. Benfica however were in goal scoring mood over the weekend hitting Belenenses for 6 and could if given space do the same tonight. Benfica lie a point behind Porto domestically while Astana are a point behind Kairat Almaty in the race for the Kazakh title with a game in hand.

Group D:
Manchester City v Juventus
Sevilla v Borussia Monchengladbach

The group favorites clash in Manchester and given the form book it seems this tie is only going one way and that is a City win. Manchester City have, since being taken over by the sheikhs, been pathetic in this competition and almost every year it's "will this be the year?". The could make a statement tonight against the beaten finalists from last season but I do think Juventus will make it difficult.
A repeat of last season's 1st knockout tie in the Europa league. Borussia M'Gladbach have endured a nightmare start to their domestic campaign and sit bottom of the league while Sevilla haven't had a good start either and are still winless. A game that could kick a season for whoever emerges with the three points and I'd probably side with a home win in this.

An unexpected 2nd chance

The latest round of qualifiers for the European championships in 2016 offered Ireland a 2nd chance of qualification.
Back in June Scotland managed to claim a point in Dublin which gave them the better head-to-head record over Ireland so should the two sides finish level on points it will be the Scots who rank higher.
There were four games left before this double header of games and Ireland really did need a favor from somewhere. That somewhere turned out to be from Georgia. The Georgians have been a tricky opponents despite their results in this group. They were keeping Poland out for long periods in June while we needed an Aiden McGeady special late on to beat them in the 1st game.
Georgia ended up beating Scotland 1-0 thanks to Valeri Qazaishvili's control, turn and shot. The Scots looked out of ideas in trying to rescue a point but that win for Georgia gave Ireland an unexpected 2nd chance, which was taken. A comfortable 4-0 win over bottom side Gibraltar meant Ireland climbed a point clear.
3 days later Scotland hosted Germany and Ireland hosted Georgia. Scotland were not expected to get anything out of their game while pressure was very much on Ireland to get three massive points. Scotland gave Germany a very good go, pegging the world champions back twice before succumbing to a 3rd German goal for which there was no reply. Ireland meanwhile laboured to a narrow 1-0 win. Not a vintage performance at all from Ireland but enough to climb four points clear of Scotland with two games to play.

The final two games are in October and something will have to give. Scotland face Poland at home and Gibraltar away while Ireland have a much more difficult finish with Germany at home and Poland away.
It could very well be decided with the Scotland Poland game. If Scotland lose its over as Ireland will finish 3rd. Germany haven't qualified yet and will do with victory over Ireland. The picture gets a bit darker for Ireland should they lose and Scotland draw or win as it will put Scotland at least 3 points behind Ireland with Gibraltar still to play for the Scots while Ireland face a tricky looking game in Poland.
Of course a famous Irish win over Germany will end any doubt over Scotland while also propelling Ireland into the frame for automatic qualification with a winner take all clash with Poland to finish the group.