One team to rule them all

Going in to the weekend, there were five teams with a chance to win the league: Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Aston Villa. Really, though, practically everyone on the planet ASSUMED Manchester would win it all, and the fight would be who would place 2, 3 and 4. These spots are significant as the top four play in the Champions League tournament next season -- the most prestigous and lucrative tournament there is. Fifth place gets to play in the second best tournament, the UEFA cup. Of course Manchester would win. They looked unstoppable. They've got the best forwards (Ronaldo and Rooney); the best veteran players in the center of the pitch (Scholes and Giggs); the best defenders (Ferdinand and Vidic); and a keeper who hasn't let in goals for what seems like months. It's funny how football goes, though. Everything we assumed has been turned upside down by four games.

Manchester lost two in a row. They got KILLED by Liverpool and then lost to a scrappy Fulham outfit that came ready to play. Liverpool were the best team in the world for three games in a row: dismantling Real Madrid, sticking it to Manchester, and thrashing Aston Villa, 5-0 today. Arsenal took care of business, and might have an outside shot. Way, way outside. Chelsea lost to Spurs, confirming the blues as pretenders to the throne. I don't see any way Chelsea can reclaim the level they had a couple of years ago. Aston Villa gave it their all, but they are simply a second best team. How will it all end? I'd love to know, but cannot. That's the beauty of the game. Next week everything may change again.

Rafa as Don Corleone? More like Fredo

There is a nice image in the Sun today showing Rafa Benitez, the manager of Liverpool, in black and white as if he were Marlon Brando's Don Corleone, the head of a crime family. As creative as the image is, I don't see the analogy. To me, Rafa is hanging by a thread. He has Torres and Gerrard to score and create goals, and Carragher to hold the back four in defence together. Liverpool plays at Anfield, of course, one of the hardest grounds in England in which to get points. It's not that Rafa is a bad manager. He's just not a great manager.

His outbursts at the press, at the owners of Liverpool football club, at the Football Association, and at Manchester United's manager Sir Alex Ferguson, reflect frustration. I'm sure Rafa wants to take his club to the next level. He just doesn't know how. Very few people would. Compare Chelsea -- they have had 3 managers in 3 years with the same world class players. Chelsea are still great, but they are not at the highest level. Don Corleone, by contrast, knew exactly what he was doing. A better analogy for Rafa is Corleone's milquetoast and disrespected son, Fredo.

Why fans love Robbie Keane

Robbie Keane left Spurs and joined Liverpool. After 6 months of frustration and few goals, he returned to Spurs. Yet he is loved by all, and his contributions back at White Hart Lane are celebrated and analyzed and the subject of headlines. Fans love him because they think he is a fan as well. He seems like he is. His boyhood team was Liverpool, and fans love the fact that he even had a boyhood team -- like them -- and that he is not some sort of football playing demigod or robot. It's a connection like that provides the benefit of the doubt. I'm the same way. I want Keane to succeed; I want him to win and be happy and bring glory to Spurs. Not because he's that stylish. It's because he's a fan.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=243783&cc=5901

Foreign Ownership

Are Liverpool and Manchester United the clubs they once were? I think no. Clubs are not just a bottom line, but an emotional connection that gets passed on from generation to generation. Clubs are like reputations. You can't build them in a day, but you can destroy them in an instant. Ownership from beyond the British Isles -- beyond Europe even -- takes something away. It replaces the club with a brand. And then you get . . . the LA Galaxy and their ilk.