7 Players Who Made the Difference in the Champions/Europa League

Instead of doing the usual wrap up where I tediously go mention every score of every game in the Champions and Europa League, of which there are 40 in total every midweek. I've decided that when there's midweek action in European tournaments, I'll be mentioning the most influential players which played in the tournaments. It'll usually be seven (could be more, could be less) players who truly made a difference in their Champions/Europa League games, and as the competitions progress out of the group stages, I'll focus more on match reports.

So here we go:

Gareth Bale


Gareth Bale was the one-man team when Tottenham played against Inter Milan at the San Siro. Although his side was 4-0 down by halftime, thanks to an impressive display by Inter, accompanied by Tottenham's keeper Gomes being sent off, Bale managed to give the European champions a scare. He made an amazing run and finished wonderfully past Julio Cesar for his first around the 51st minute, and then in the final minutes of the match, he scored another similar goal, and then another great strike to end the match 4-3! He's truly become a fast, physical, and complete player who dominates the left flank for Tottenham, it'll be interesting if there might be any offers coming Tottenham's way for the Welshman around January.


Philippe Coutinho


Another player from the fantastic 4-3 match played out between Inter and Tottenham, and while he didn't have a massive impact like Bale did, Coutinho was instrumental in the match. The 18 year-old Brazilian didn't look out of his depth at all among all the star players and veterans which surrounded him, he was calm and composed, and he provided moments of individual brilliance. He kept possession with his smart passing, was always in the right spot to help teammates, and he was a constant threat for Tottenham. Although he didn't score, he provided Eto'o a fantastic through pass for Inter's fourth goal which the Cameroon forward finished a little sloppily. One to watch for the future, without a doubt.


Lionel Messi


While nobody can doubt the talent of this little Argentinean, it seemed like he'd had a slight dip in form recently. But it was Lionel Messi who singlehandedly secured three points for Barcelona against Copenhagen in their 2-0 over the Danish side. While we're used to seeing Messi curl in his shots with finesse, he showed that he has power in his shot as well with his first goal. A spectacular strike which flew up into the top left hand corner to give Barcelona the lead at the Camp Nou. His second goal wasn't as fantastic, just a simple tap-in, but still, Messi has shown that he can single-handedly dominate games yet again just like last season.


Adebayor


Adebayor has often been criticized for being slightly lazy, but he was wonderful for Manchester City in their 3-1 win over Lech Poznan at Eastlands. In fact he scored all three goals for the English side, it was his first which was the best: a delightful spin past a defender and a perfect finish around the keeper. His second was a pinpoint header from David Silva's cross, and his third a tap-in from another one of Silva's crosses. A truly wonderful hat trick, and the situation becomes all the more interesting for Adebayor, especially because Manchester City will be facing Arsenal over the weekend...


Hulk


Porto had to travel away to Besiktas, all the way in Istanbul for a difficult match, but having Hulk in their team made things a lot easier for the Portuguese side. Things started well for Porto, Falcao headed in from a corner to give them the lead, but their central defender Maicon was sent off before halftime for a silly foul. But that didn't matter to Hulk, the Brazilian scored two phenomenal goals, both of them being tracked by defenders as he finished with flair past the keeper. And while Porto were winning 3-0 with only ten men, they eventually got another sent off! Fernando was sent off when he got his second yellow card, and Besiktas managed to pull a goal back at the end of the match.


Maurice Edu


Rangers faced Valencia at Ibrox Stadium in Scotland, and my choosing the American, Maurice Edu, as one of the influential players this matchday is slightly ironic. Things were going perfectly for Rangers when Edu headed in from a corner before halftime, a good goal for Rangers who haven't scored too many in the Champions League so far. But it was to be a sad day for Maurice Edu, because in the second half a low cross flicked off of his head and into the back of Rangers's net. An unlucky own goal which caused the match to end 1-1 for Rangers, who happen to be second in their group, behind Manchester United, and above Valencia and Bursaspor.

Jose Mourinho

While Jose Mourinho isn't a player, I felt like I had to include him in this list. The other massive clash in the Champions League which took place was Real Madrid - AC Milan, and while the 2-0 scoreline didn't illustrate much dominance from Mourinho's side, they were much better than the Italians. It seems like Jose Mourinho is the man who knows how to take vengeance on people, he's had his revenge against AC Milan, and mainly Ibrahimovic who snubbed him at Inter to go to Barcelona. I fully expect Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid to be drawn against Inter in one of the later stages of the competition, and guess what, I think he's gonna win. That's the type of guy he is.

I hope you've like this new format of reviewing the European midweek games, please share your thoughts below!

John W. Henry finally buys Liverpool only to Watch the Team Fail

The steely gaze of a winner...

Well, I've decided that after this weekend's action I'll be focussing on Liverpool a bit. Of course they'll be some coverage of the other leagues, but a little less than usual.

And before I begin, just in case you haven't already seen these posts, you should because they're getting insane amounts of views! I posted a Lightweight Soccer Cleats Review over the weekend comparing speed cleats on weight, price, durability, and anything else you can think about. And if you're interested in FREE STUFF, you probably want to check out the competition over at Soccer Cleats 101 to win a pair of Nike Mercurial Superfly II's.

A new era for Liverpool... which starts next week

But moving on to other things, Liverpool are (supposedly) moving on to better days now that John W. Henry has taken over with his New England Sports Ventures (or NESV) for 300 million British Pounds. Things are looking rosy for the red side of Merseyside now, especially because the new American is really trying to mend relationships with the fans which were undoubtedly damaged under the reign of Tom Hicks and George Gillet.

John W. Henry even went out to talk to fans and local MPs, and although he has surely reassured them, he didn't reveal anything regarding transfer funds, or a new stadium. Here's what he said regarding his meetings:

"It was great to finally get to work, we met with supporters' groups. No, we didn't give any assurances. We are here to listen and to learn from them and we learned a lot today. I think the biggest issue was a sense of disenfranchisement and their sense of not being part of their own club and that is what we discussed. This was a big first step today."

And so Liverpool fans now have an owner who will listen, all that we were missing was for the actual team to spank Everton in the Merseyside derby, but alas the situation isn't that perfect. Liverpool were defeated by Everton 2-0 at Goodison park, and while John W. Henry went to the match to learn more about this "soccer", he'll have understood that the team played pretty badly.

Tim Cahill smacking in the first goal

Everton who have been playing well this season, but not getting results, finally got an important win which drags them up to 11th in the Premier League. They wen't ahead with Tim Cahill smashing a volley from close range, and then Mikel Arteta scored from outside of the box after a corner. After the two goals, Everton conceded possession to Liverpool, and while you'd expect Roy Hodgson's side to do something with it, they didn't.

It was undoubtedly a bad performance from Liverpool, one which some might say was lacking heart and spirit, but I think that maybe they're just lacking a lot of things in general. Starting with their manager, Roy Hodgson who could only stare at his watch instead of actually telling his team to do something with the ball.

Roy must've looked at his watch the whole game...

If you disliked Benitez's defensive style back when he managed Liverpool, Roy Hodgson is taking it to another level. But I should stop talking about Liverpool's performance, and share with you what Roy thought about his side's performance:

"In the second half that's as good as I've seen a Liverpool team under my management play, that's for sure... and in my opinion from what I saw we dominated the second half. I thought the shape of the team was good, I thought the quality of our passing and movement was good, but we didn't score the goals and Everton did. But I refurse unfortunately to sit here and accept that we were in any way outplayed or in any way inferior."

Now even if you watched about 40 seconds of the match, you'd have had a better idea of how the teams played than Roy Hodgson did. And while he can talk about his team's "quality of passing", the point of the game is to score, and if you don't score, you don't win. Everton scored and Liverpool didn't, that should be enough to explain to Roy Hodgson that his side played poorly, but I guess it takes a new American owner who just watched his first match of soccer to explain that to him...

Manchester United - West Bromwhich Albion

Moving on to other things which happened this weekend, in the Premier League we saw Manchester United crumble to West Bromwich. While Ferguson's side took a 2-0 lead before halftime, Roberto Di Matteo inspired his side to pull back two goals and get a great 2-2 draw at Old Trafford. This result comes in a very bad time for Ferguson, especially because Wayne Rooney has decided to explain that he isn't injured, the manager just doesn't want to play him.

So the question is, Ferguson first decided not to play Rooney to protect him after the prostitution scandal, but now it seems like the Scotsman has taken things to another level. And doing so, Rooney has decided to look at other options instead of renewing his contract with Manchester United. It seems very possible that he'll be out of the club when January rolls around, with the main buyers being either Real Madrid or, wait for it... Manchester City!

So will Rooney join up with Ronaldo under Jose Mourinho over in Madrid, with Benzema possibly going the other way, or will he decide to truly betray Manchester United, just like Tevez did, and go to Manchester City. We'll just have to wait and see, whether the relationship will mend between player and manager, or whether it'll be another superstar which leaves Old Trafford.

Serie A time!


But it's not all English Premier League here, I've decided to talk a little about the Serie A. Especially since there was a match this weekend which was temporarily stopped due to racist chants. Cagliari at home against Inter Milan was filled with racist chants from Cagliari fans towards Samuel Eto'o, so the referee Tagliavento stopped the match, got the racist fans to stop chanting, and resumed the match. Well, the home fans got what they deserved, because the match finished 1-0 for Inter Milan, with a spectacular goal from  Samuel Eto'o.

Now Rafa Benitez can look forward to Wednesday when he'll have to face Tottenham in the Champions League. Inter Milan will surely be missing Diego Milito and Esteban Cambiasso, but the Spurs will be missing Rafael van der Vaart, so I guess both sides will be slightly weakened.

If you're interested in more coverage of the Serie A, I'd advise you to visit Serie A Talk, where I write a weekly Five things to Note from Serie A this weekend.

La Liga time!


In La Liga we saw two interesting matches, played out by guess who? Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The Catalans faced Valencia in a tough game where they came back to win 2-1 with a beautiful give-and-go by Xavi and Iniesta which ended with the latter slotting home an equalizer. The second goal was also impressive with Carlos Puyol showing us all how to do a bullet header, the caveman captain had his hair flying everywhere as he arched his body and headed the ball home for the winner.

But there's some bad news for Barca fans even with this win, it's that Xavi probably won't play in the Champions League midweek against Copenhagen. The midfielder has had recurring problems with his achilles tendon, and he hasn't been recovering very well. I hope this won't seriously jeopardize his career considering that he's the best passer of the ball which exists in the game today. We'll just have to wait and see.

Real Madrid on the other hand had a pretty easy win against Malaga with Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo scoring doubles. Ozil assisted both of Ronaldo's goals, and Ronaldo assisted both of Higuain's goals, so I guess Mourinho has really developed a working system over in Madrid.

But the true test for Real arrives on Tuesday against AC Milan in the Champions League. This is going to be a fantastic match, and I can't wait to see whether Jose Mourinho will win against his former rivals, or whether Ibrahimovic will teach his former coach a lesson by scoring a couple of goals.

I hope you've enjoyed this wrap up of some of the weekend's news and results, please share your thoughts by commenting below!

Lightweight Soccer Cleats Review

Nike Mercurial Superfly II Pink Cherry

This is a full review regarding lightweight soccer cleats, in this review I'll be comparing the Nike Mercurial Superfly II, Adidas F50 Adizero,Puma V1.10 SL, along with the Umbro GT Pro. If you're interested in winning a free pair of Nike Mercurial Superfly II's, Soccer Cleats 101 is having a competition to win a pair of Nike Mercurial Cherry Superfly II's! And now, onto the review!

Nike Mercurial Superfly II

Nike have released probably the flashiest cleats I have ever seen, their Mercurial Superfly II's are designed to look like pure speed. Whether it's the Cactus Green, the Mach Purple, or the Pink Cherry, Nike always release some of the coolest colorways I've seen for cleats. 

Nike's state of the art Mercurial Superfly II cleats (priced around 400 dollars!) are what hundreds of professionals use because of their lightweight quality. They weigh an impressive 210 grams (or about 7.8 ounces) thanks to the FlyWire technology that runs along the inside and outside of the boot.

A picture of the Adaptive studs

The boot also features a Pressure-Activated Adaptive Traction System on the front two studs of the cleat. What all those big words mean is that the circular part in the middle of the stud actually extends when you put pressure on the cleat, allowing you to swivel/change direction quickly.

If you're interested in reading a great review of the cleats, you can visit this Nike Mercurial Cherry Superfly II's review over at Soccer Cleats 101.

Adidas F50 Adizero

The grip on the synthetic Adizero

Although Nike has included all these cool technologies, they still haven't managed to make the lightest cleat in the soccer boot market. Before the World Cup, Adidas released their lightweight cleat, the Adidas F50 Adizero which pushed the boundaries of lightweight. Messi, Forlan, and David Villa all wear this cleat, because of it's comfort and extremely light weight which is just 164 grams (or 5.8 ounces) for the synthetic version!

The Adidas F50 Adizero's come in two different formats, the leather version, and the synthetic version. The leather version is more comfortable, with a better touch on the ball as it moulds to your foot, while the synthetic version is for those who want pure speed. Although about 90% of the players who wear the Adizero opt for the leather version, the synthetic version has it's features. 

For example it has the grip on the upper, which is very similar to the Jabulani ball. It's not really grip, but it's more like bumps in a pattern which are supposed to help when hitting the ball. Although I'd certainly prefer the leather version, if you're looking for pure speed, go with the synthetic version.

Adidas's cleat right now costs about 150-200 dollars, much less compared to Nike's cleat, so if you're looking for a lighter, and cheaper cleat, you might want to think about the Adidas F50 Adizero.

The top stud fell off playing on an artificial surface

But there's a small thing I should mention, the Adizero's have a little bit of a stud problem. Many have reported that playing on artificial surfaces, their studs have fallen off, like in the link above. So if you're a big player on artificial/turf surfaces, be careful, because these might not be the right choice for you!

If you're interested in a review of the F50 Adizero's from Soccer Cleats 101, you can click here.

Puma V1.10 SL

And finally, when you speak of lightweight cleats, you have to mention the king of speed, the Puma V1.10 SL's. Puma recently surprised everyone releasing this cleat, right when everyone thought that Adidas had created the impossible, Puma took it a step further and made their cleat which weighs only 150 grams (or about 5.3 ounces)! 

Three wicked diamonds in the heel

There's two versions of this cleat, and while they both weigh and perform the same, they have different appearances. The first is the Yellow/Green version which Inter Milan's Samuel Eto'o wears, and then there's the less flashy white/blue version. Now the reason that the Yellow/Green version costs so much more than the white/blue version is because the Yellow/Green cleats have diamonds studded into the heel of the boot! Talk about flashy.

Now you might be asking, "How much will the lightest soccer cleat in the world cost? If the Nike's Superfly II's cost 400 dollars, then these must be 1000 dollars!" Well, no, Puma have made these super light, super comfortable cleats, and the white/blue version only costs about 200 dollars! While that's still quite a sum of money, it's a great deal compared to Nike's high priced cleats, and Adidas's which might have a stud fall off on you.

The white/blue version of the V1.10 SL

If you want to read a great review of the Puma V1.10 SL's at Soccer Cleats 101, click here.

Overall 

So if you're looking for a new pair of cleats, and you're interested in the lightweight options, please take into consideration what I've said above. Think about the surfaces you'll be playing on, whether you want to be flashy with the Pink Cherry, or whether you just want pure lightweight speed by Puma.

I found a couple of great comparison pictures from Soccerlens which compare's cleat weight (in grams), and then cleat price (in British pounds). Here they are below, they compare the Nike Mercurial Superfly II's, Adidas F50 Adizero's (synthetic version), Puma V1.10 SL's, and the Umbro GT Pro.

The top cleats ranked by weight

The top cleats ranked by cost

I hope you've enjoyed this overall review of lightweight cleats, and remember to enter in Soccer Cleats 101's Nike Mercurial Superfly II Cherry competition!

Win Nike Mercurial Cherry Superfly II's at Soccer Cleats 101!

You can win a pair of these cleats at Soccer Cleats 101!

Are you interested in having the same cleats as Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Alexandre Pato?

Well now you can, because Soccer Cleats 101 is having a competition to win a pair of Nike Mercurial Cherry Superfly II's! So if you're interested in a free pair of super-light cleats click on the link above, or go to Soccer Cleats 101 and enter quickly, because the competition ends October 20th.

And if you're interested in lightweight cleats, check out this full review comparing speed cleats from Nike, Adidas, Umbro, and Puma. Trust me, if you're interested in buying a new pair of cleats, make sure to read this review first, because it'll provide you with tons of information on weight, price, and durability.

But remember to enter in Soccer Cleats 101's Nike Mercurial Superfly II Cherry competition!