Copenhagen make group stage

Danish Champions FC Copenhagen secured their place in this season’s group stage of the Champions League thanks to an away goals victory over Norwegian side Rosenborg in the Danish capital.

Going into the tie 2-1 down from the first leg, Copenhagen were thankful for Solvi Ottesen’s first goal for the club in the 33rd minute. That goal was enough for Copenhagen to reach the group stages for the first time since the 2006/07 season although they are still amongst the outsiders in the Champions League betting. Summer signing Ottesen said he “couldn’t describe the feeling” after scoring the all important goal in the first half.

Twice in the previous three seasons, Copenhagen have fallen at the final qualifying hurdle and their fans will have been worried at the start of the match, especially with Rosenborg enjoying an intimidating 31 match unbeaten streak this year.

Both sides had plenty of chances in the first half but neither could find the breakthrough until Icelandic centre back Ottesen got on the end of a long throw with a smartly placed header. This ultimately sent Stale Solbakken’s men into the draw for the group stage of Europe’s biggest competition.

Copenhagen are currently top of the Danish Super League, having only dropped two points from their opening six matches. They will now be dining at Europe’s top table this season. When they were last here they went out at the group stage, finishing bottom despite collecting seven points.

Norwegian side Rosenborg will have to settle for a place in the Europa League draw. They have been drawn in a tough group alongside Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen and Thessaloniki, denting their chances in the Europa League betting. However, they can take confidence from their record and could spring a few surprises.

More Important – Cup or League?

As clubs all across Europe prepare to enter the vital stretch run of the campaign, quite a few managers will have to make some tough decisions and prioritize which matches are the most important for their club. Every season we have managers, especially at the bigger clubs, who frequently will sit key players in matches they feel don’t require their best players for their team to win or simply so that their players are rested for more important matches. Sometimes, this strategy backfires though.

For instance, this season Manchester United and Arsenal have already made shock exits from the English FA Cup due to fielding far less than their best XI. This happens quite frequently in the early rounds of domestic cups as teams underestimate their opponent and look forward to league and European play.

With all of the trophies yet to be decided, it will be very interesting to see where each club’s priorities lay. Liverpool find themselves struggling to reclaim a coveted Champion’s League spot, and even with a possible nine Europa League matches ahead of them (if they make the Final) Rafa Benitez surely will focus his club’s sights on the league. On the other hand, a club like Aston Villa, who haven’t won a trophy in quite some time, may view things a little differently. Martin O’Neill has his men on the verge of a Carling Cup title and Villa also may see an opportunity to win the FA Cup this season with many of the typical favorites gone. But at the same time, Villa sit in 7th in the Premier League and are only three points out of 4th with a game in hand over Liverpool and Spurs. At a club desperate for trophies, O’Neill may find himself focusing on the cups and putting off top four hopes until next season.

In the end, it really depends on the club’s situation. Liverpool have a history of doing well in the Champion’s League and missing out on the top four could be potentially devastating for such a storied club. While in a similar position in the league, Villa make look at the chance to win trophies domestically and say ‘Let’s go for it’ especially with the knowledge that lack of depth and poor quality would probably mean an early exit in the Champion’s League anyways. Furthermore, Spurs have won cups in recent history so they are probably more likely to go for fourth…and so on, and so on…

It will surely be a fantastic finish to an already tremendous season, but don’t be too shocked if you don’t see your favorite players sitting out a match or two or six.

There is one thing I know for sure though, if I was 25 years old, extremely talented, and being paid as much money as players make today playing the greatest sport in the world, I think I’d find the energy to give 100% for 90 minutes every match to do everything I could to help my team win.

By RJ Sepich, Villa4Life11

Send Your Encouragement to Kieran Gibbs

For Arsenal fans (myself included), everybody knows what happened just nights ago, enduring the  heartbreak of losing to one of our rivals in the Champions League semi-finals. But instead of lamenting ourselves over it, why don’t we do something positive?

All of us know that Kieran Gibbs made one a costly mistake in the match, slipping and then allowing United to score. How devastating that could be for a 19 year-old boy. However, this kid has a bright future ahead of him and what he needs to do now is to get his confidence back on track. And WE can do that for him. Why don’t we send some encouragement to him? Everyone loves encouragement, no matter how good you are.

So here is my big plan: To collect as many comments as possible, then send Arsenal.com those comments through email.

Some of you would argue it’s a waste of time, but then, think about it. How difficult is it for the webmaster of Arsenal.com to tell his boss to inform Arsene Wenger of the comments? Then Arsene Wenger can tell Gibbs about it and he’ll probably have a look. There is no harm for Wenger in doing all this; he knows as well as us that encouragement from the fans is what he needs. The whole process only takes minutes, if not days.

If you are interested, click on the article’s title, then post a comment in this format:

Name: Darren Chow

Location: Singapore

Message: Cheer up Gibbs, you’ve lots of potential. Don’t let the incident get the better of you! What’s over is over, get out there and show the world what you can do!

Lol… Sorry if you find my message corny. Try to keep your message short and sweet. If you don’t feel comfortable leaving any of your particulars, you can skip it.

And 1 more thing: You do not, I repeat, do not, need to be an Arsenal fan to send your regards. So even if you’re a Chelsea or Liverpool fan, you can also send encouragement! Tell your friends to participate too. It would be awesome if a Man United fan send some touching message for him! Come on, we support different clubs, but we all love football don’t we.

I hope to see the kind words rolling in. Good luck!

Why Aston Villa doesn’t deserve Champion’s League Football….yet

Hello all. First off I’d like to thank Abayomi for inviting me to join his team here with this growing blog and it will be my pleasure to voice my opinions on the world of soccer because it is one thing I certainly love to do.  Here’s a bit about myself:  my name is Roger Sepich and I’m an Aston Villa supporter born and raised in America.  My recently found love of the best game in the world (soccer) has led me to becoming utterly mystified and enthralled with the “beautiful game” and The Barclay’s Premier League in particular.  After choosing Villa as my club I’ve lived and breathed English and European soccer and now here I am discussing the sport and team I love…

But now to my first thoughts as a writer for SFB:  Why Aston Villa doesn’t deserve Champion’s League Football…yet.  Yes I can see that many of you believe me when I say those words, judging by the large number of Arsenal and Everton fans currently writing for this site, but it’s extremely hard for me to admit considering I’m a diehard member of Martin O’Neill’s claret and blue army.  As a Villa supporter, I’d LOVE to see Villa back where they belong in the biggest club tournament in Europe, but at the same time, I have to admit finishing in the top 4 this campaign could possibly be a bad thing for Aston Villa.  Villa do have an extremely young and talented squad, but one thing the gaffer has failed to do is bring in any type of quality depth.  With the likes of Nicky Shorey, Moustapha Salifou, and Craig Cardner usually being the best quality on the bench, it allows even a Villa fan like myself to ask if we are deserving of a spot in the hallowed grounds of the Premier League top four.

I know Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor have performed lights out this season and Laursen continues to be strong at the back, but with our lack of depth, if one of these guys were to be sidelined for an extended period of time I’m afraid I could see the Villans losing out on their top four chances rather easily.  Injuries are indeed a part of the game and are something that help determine the final league table come May and so far Villa have been rather fortunate on this front.  But I’m afraid this may end at some point and leave Villa in quite a hole.

With Aston Villa currently sitting in fourth, level with Man U on points and 3 clear of Arsenal, here is a short list of other reason I feel we should consider ourselves lucky to be where we are:

• With the season beginning in July for Villa through the Intertoto Cup, fatigue suprisingly hasn’t set in despite only consistently using about 15 different players in important matches.
• Throughout the course of the season Villa have played certain clubs at perfect times with their opponents being on horrible form such as their matchups with Tottenham, Sunderland, Wigan, WBA, Hull, and argueably Arsenal away. This lead to 18 easy points that easily could’ve been between 12-14.
• Two early (and somewhat lucky) UEFA Cup wins allowed Villa to rest key players in the other two matches.
• Here’s one that a smile at when I see:  Villa have been the fortunate recipient of 4 own goals in the past two months that resulted in at least 4 more points than they would’ve had.

I believe the next month or so will ultimately decide whether Arsenal, Villa, or even Everton can finish the season 4th.  Villa have West Brom, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Wigan, and Blackburn in their next five matches before they enter a tough period in February and March and I believe they MUST get at least 12 points from these matches and need to be a solid 5 points clear of Arsenal after this period.  If they don’t do this I cannot see them breaking up the Big Four this year, but either way it could come down to the wire.

So what do you all think?  Will Villa last and finish in the top four or will lack of depth catch up to them and maybe their luck will run out? I hope not! Feel free to comment. Cheers for now.

By RJ Sepich