RGdot

Month: July 2019

  • 2019-2020 Kickoff

    With August approaching the long European seasons that start in August are about to begin. The 2019-2020 season will end with the scattered and complex Euro 2020 in June of next year. For now however the major European leagues and their immense wealth will start the season, some teams with many changes and more to come by the time the transfer window closes.

    The 2019-2020 English Premier League will kick off on August 9th with the three promoted teams, Norwich City, Sheffield United and Aston Villa, seemingly taking different approaches to life back in the top league. Aston Villa, notably, are on a spending spree and unlike the other two teams are very busy in the transfer window. Reigning champions and runners up, Manchester City and Liverpool are likely to challenge for the title again. Arsenal and Manchester United may not be challengers, they are both still a step or two behind. Chelsea with new coach in former player Frank Lampard look to be starting a new cycle. However, Tottenham, with the arrival of highly rated midfielder Tanguy Ndombele ,will push the top two once again.

    The Spanish La Liga will start on August 17th with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid providing the inevitable rivalry. Both Madrid teams have been busy spenders and Griezmann’s move from Atletico to Barcelona will mean all three teams have made big splashes. Osasuna, Granada and Mallorca are the promoted teams.

    Serie A’s three promoted teams are Lecce, Brescia and Verona. The top teams’ headlines have been of the coaching variety with Max Allegri leaving Juventus and Luciano Spalletti leaving Inter. They were replaced with Maurizio Sarri and Antonio Conte respectively. The new season starts on August 24th and will likely be dominated by Juventus once again. Napoli and Inter can be considered close rivals but will they last the season or collapse sometime in the middle again?

    Bundesliga starts on August 16th with a busy Borussia Dortmund making another attempt at dethroning Bayern. The reigning champions are a younger team with Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben gone. FC Koln, Paderborn and for the first time in their history Union Berlin are in the Bundesliga.

    Holland’s Eredivisie will feature a weakened Ajax. The champions sold two of their Champions League semi final team stars. With Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong leaving for big money the team will have new restart to tackle. PSV are likely the only challengers but Ajax will not have fallen much behind their 2018-2019 form. Twente, RKC Waalwijk and Sparta Rotterdam rejoin the top league which starts early on August second.

    The 2019-2020 Primeira Liga features a team promoted via a court decision. Gil Vicente won the right to return to top league and are joined by Famalicao and Pacos de Ferreira. Benfica stormed to the top after January and have sold Joao Felix, their super star to be teenager, for over €120 million to Atletico Madrid. The Porto challenge will be as fierce as ever and Sporting will be in the mix but likely to be weakened because of the departure of the soon to be sold Bruno Fernandes. The new season will start on August 9th.

  • Transfer rater: Fekir, de Ligt, Trippier, Delph

    With the transfer window in full swing some surprising low cost and some not so low cost moves provide for interesting talk.

    First up is Nabil Fekir’s move from Lyon to Real Betis. A fee of around €25 million is low for the attacking 26 years old. There had been talk of a move to Liverpool last year – and this year – that would have cost the Reds more. The Frenchman’s production had dipped this past season but Betis do have a relative bargain.

    Matthijs de Ligt career has risen considerably, while talented his debut for the Dutch national team, at 17, was seen as a failure. Still only 19 he has improved immensely and is seen as of one of the best defenders in the world, at any age. Part of the Ajax team that reached the 2018-2019 Champions League semis he is a big star and having chosen to sign in Italy is a good statement for Serie A. Juventus have paid a very big prize for him, €75 million plus bonuses, but he will give them many years of top quality service.

    Kieran Trippier is a surprise move from Tottenham to Atletico Madrid. A 28 year old English player moving to Spain is not a common occurence. The € 22 million paid for him is not the most surprising but it is nevertheless unexpected. The right back is probably most famous for his free kicks, most notably for the semi final game that was played against Croatia at World Cup 2018.

    Fabian Delph is not the first central midfielder to move to Everton as a veteran, he is not even the first one to make the move from Manchester City to Everton. Much like Gareth Barry and Morgan Schneiderlin’s moves the Toffees grab a solid player at a relative bargain price. This move falls under €10 million. Very good value for the 29 year old.

  • York9 FC 2-1 FC Edmonton

    In Canadian Premier League action York9 FC beat FC Edmonton 2-1 on July 14, 2019. The first half was mostly played in York9’s half as both teams struggled to muster anything meaningful.

    A counter in the 13th minute gave York9 FC the lead. A rare foray into Edmonton’s half was finished by Kyle Porter. The score remained the same when in the 67th minute Ramon Soria’s equalized with a freekick. The ball made its way in just at the far side. Most players seemingly misjudged the ball and let it drift in. In the 80th minute Ryan Telfer converted another counter. Connor James in Edmonton’s goal could probably have done a better job of closing the angle.

  • Africa Cup of Nations Semis

    The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations has reached the semi final stage.

    The hosts exited at the round of 16 stage of the 24 team tournament. Mohamed Salah led Egypt could therefore be seen as the disappointment of the tournament, losing 1-0 to South Africa.

    Madagascar were the surprising team of the group stage topping Group B with seven points, one more than Nigeria. The Barea islanders were led by Carolus Andriamatsinoro and their form extended into the knockout stage where they beat DR Congo on penalties before losing 3-0 to Tunisia in the quarter finals.

    Benin were also surprising. The did finish only third in Group F behind Cameroon and Ghana but in the first knockout round beat Morocco on penalties, before losing 1-0 to Senegal. Mickael Pote scored Benin’s only two group stage goals as they tied all three games.

    Despite the surprises the final four is made up of traditional African powers. It is Senegal vs Tunisia and Algeria vs Nigeria.

    Algeria are the in form team having scored six but not conceded in the group stage. The North Africans then beat Guinea 3-0 in the round of 16 and won on penalties vs Ivory Coast (coached by Clarence Seedorf)

    Algeria’s Adam Ounas shares the lead of the goal scoring chart and has scored three times so far. Riyad Mahrez and Youcef Belaili have scored two each. Senegal’s Sadio Mane has scored three and so has Nigeria’s Odion Ighalo.


  • Finals Day

    July 7, 2019 featured three finals. The 2019 Women’s World Cup, Gold Cup and Copa America played their finals on this Sunday.

    In the day’s first final the 2019 Women’s World Cup was decided between the USA and Holland. The latter had reached their first final on the back of solid if unspectacular play and needed a massive game to dethrone the defending champions. The US had won the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada and was big favorites to repeat. A scoreless first half had given the Dutch some hope but US took control and scored twice to win for the fourth time since 1991. Megan Rapinoe from the penalty spot and Rose Lavelle sealed the win.

    The day’s second final featured favorites and hosts face the surprising Peru in the Copa America final. Peru had surprised a disappointing and aggressive Chile in the semi final and reached the final. Peru was one of the third placed team to qualify fro the knockouts. The VAR (Video Assisted Referee) dominated Copa had reached farcical levels at times with multiple stoppages to check a play on video. The once again struggling Argentina had been beaten in the semis and Brazil overcame Peru with relative 3-1 ease. Everton had opened the scoring but Peru had leveled late in the half through a Paolo Guerrero penalty. The Peruvians couldn’t hang on to the tie with a minute left in the half as Gabriel Jesus found an opening in the middle and beat Pedro Gallese. Late in the second half the win was confirmed with a Richarlison penalty.

    Unsurprisingly the Gold Cup final was contested between the US and Mexico. Although the match was taking place in Chicago the crowd consisted, as usual, mostly of Mexican fans. The first half featured the US missing several half chances and a good one early when Jozy Altidore missed the net by inches. The second half was a mirror of the first with Mexico repeatedly winning the ball back and not being able to finish. Andres Guardado shot high several times as Mexico threatened often. In the 73rd minute a simple and short Raul Jimenez layoff was shot in by Jonathan dos Santos. The 1-0 score stood in a sometimes scrappy game. Mexico raised the trophy for the eighth time.

  • Transfer rater: Pellegrini, Spinazzola, Suarez, Manolas

    Konstantinos Manolas is off to Napoli

    It is July 1st 2019 and the European transfer window is open. As usual lot of changes will happen and unimaginable money will be spent for the upcoming season.

    Teams like Real Madrid are on a spending spree, Barcelona making changes after a disappointing European season. Others like Arsenal and Milan will need to find creative ways to improve. Liverpool get ready to take a shot at overcoming Manchester City in the premier league. PSG continue the search for European glory.

    Two related but officially separate transfers that have been confirmed are the swap of left backs between Roma and Juventus. Twenty year old Luca Pellegrini was sold by Roma to the Turin team for €22 million and at the same time 26 year old Leonardo Spinazzola went the other way €29.5 million. The latter has seven Italian caps and didn’t play much for Juventus, spending many seasons away on loan. The former is more of a prospect. The deal being concluded separately makes a big difference in the teams’ finances as they can both claim a majority of the amount received as profits for UEFA’s Financial Fair Play purposes. Both players had been on the books of their now former teams for a long time and a big portion of their transfer fees count as gains. A very good deal for both sides. One gets an experienced full back and the other gets a prospect to play behind Alex Sandro on the pecking order.

    Denis Suarez, 25, spent the second half of the 2018-2019 season on loan at Arsenal. The Barcelona midfielder failed to get much playing time due to not being 100% fit. His stock has fallen and now Barcelona in the midst of a mini rebuild have sold him to Celta Vigo for less than €13 million. The deal will have a relatively small net gain on Barcelona’s finances but if Suarez regains some of his promise he will be a good player for Vigo’s midfield for many years to come.

    Roma’s decision to sell 28 year old Konstantinos Manolas to Napoli is a bit strange, even though the Naples team had triggered his release clause so Roma found themselves handcuffed. The €36 million received is a very good amount but that strengthens a direct rival and leaves Roma’s defensive line weaker too. Roma are now surely buyers as only having Juan Jesus and Federico Fazio is a weakness. Ivan Marcano is there as well but likely to exit as well. To sort of make up for it Roma have bought 21 year old defensive midfielder Amadou Diawara from Napoli for €21 million.

    It is very early in the window and late August is weeks away. A few teams like Real Madrid have jumped quickly and fast but others will need to be more careful and need time to find realistic deals.