Supercoppa
The Olympics football and pre-season matches have satisfied my football needs whilst waiting for the season to start. Many fans look forward to the summer for persuing the exploits of the transfer market and seeing which players will end up where. Have never been one to follow it closely and find the whole thing a bit boring. Know a-few people who'll stay glued to sky sports and count down the days to deadline day; on which they will spend the day charting it from start to finish.
Yesterday, Serie A rivals Napoli and Juventus against the other for the Italian Super Cup. The match itself was held in Beijing, abroad, as it has been for a number of years now. The idea of holding competitive matches abroad is something that is set to happen more and more. Talk of an eventual European Super League forming and two seasons ago rumours that the Premier League would introduce a play off match at the end of the season. Juventus, a club yet again mired in controversy. The most recent incident has been their managers banning for 10 months due to match fixing. It will be interesting to see if the club decides to stick by him. Look forward to seeing how Juve do this coming season, they have some excellent players and are back in the Champions League again too. Similarly Napoli always entertaining, intrigued to see if they can build on last season and having lost one of their star men to PSG in Lavezzi will be interesting to see how they do without him. It was an entertaining game, full of drama and some fantastic goals. Strong teams for both sides. Strong tackles and as usual when the two meet a pretty serious battle. In the matches opening stages Edinson Cavani was a real nuisance and had the Juve defence on the ropes. Napoli were the stronger team in the opening stages, they countered well and fashioned a number of chances. Juventus were excellent with the ball, players such as Pirlo, Vidal and Marchisio make keeping possession easy- Andrea Pirlo in particular, who looked very different sporting a beard! The hot headed Napoli were reduced to nine. Match needed extra time to decide, however with their 2 man advantage it became all too easy for Juventus who won the match 4-2.
Olympics
I didn't get too much opportunity to watch the Olympics football, seeing only four matches. Was sorry to miss the final, a surprise in that Mexico pitted the much fancied Brazil to the post and took home the gold. Going into the tournament, many expected Brazil or Spain to be the teams that would win. Spain, however exited early, in the group stage. Team GB's midfield play was more impressive and watchable than England's had been during the Euro's. Joe Allen, who has just made the move to Liverpool looks a tidy player and a player that I a more familiar with: Tom Cleverly had a very good tournament. His off the ball movement and ability to do the simple things right stood out, both he and Allen forming a strong partnership. South Korea knocked out the Brits in a game that went to penalties. The match itself was a good watch, however GB didn't make many clear cut chances. South Korea were impressive as a unit, they worked well as a team and pressed hard. Their movement was excellent Though he had a poor final Neymar da Silva had some eye catching moments over the course of the tournament. Was fortunate to see his best game against Belarus in which he scored a brilliant free kick. He looks absolutely full of skill and trick- first chance to see him in a live match and it did show that he has a way to go to even live up to some of the hype he has been getting. Oscar who has recently signed for Chelsea was another player that really stood out. Brazilians were very unfortunate to lose their first choice keeper early on, his replacement didn't look quite good enough. They averaged three goals a game and certainly found them to be entertaining when I watched, they will be all the better by the time the World Cup comes around. Damiao was the tournaments top scorer, rumours of him making a move out of Brazil with Tottenham apparently leading the race. In all the Olympics Football was played in good spirit and it made a welcome change to see, in action some of the unkowns, young and up and coming players of the game.
Manchester United Pre-Season
The preparations for the new season have taken Manchester United right around the globe. The tour itself covered 22,000 miles. A number of players were missing due to their getting an extended break after the Euro's, others due to the Olympics and a-few more due to injury. The first leg of their tour took them to Durban in South Africa where they played against Amazulu, following that they travelled further south to play against Ajax Cape Town. A trip to China was next to play Shanghai Shenua, a club with some famous faces in Didier Drogba and also Nicolas Anelka who has a player/assistant manager role. These early matches featured a very youthful squad and it was good to see the young players get a chance to shine. Of those Lingard, Petrucci, Brady all stood out. The team struggled to score and breakdown the defensive sides they faced. From China it was back to Manchester for extra training and it was at this point that the Euro members plus de Gea joined up.
The tour party travelled to Norway to play against Valerenga, where it was great to see Nemanja Vidic make his return to playing. A hop to Sweden to play in a glamour tie against Barcelona. The trophy up for grabs was flown into the ground by helicopter! Dominance by Barcelona as you'd expect, particularly in the possession stakes but it was a good game to watch as pre-season games go. The players weren't holding back from challenges and as many teams in the matches preceding were very defensive it was welcome to play against an attacking team. Some excellent moments for Nani and Scholes in the match- that pair stood out most for United. Defence stood strong and did well also. Front players including Young and Rooney looked well off form. Barcelona sealed the victory via penalties with both sides having to take three apiece after the full 90 minutes could only produce a draw. Back it was to Manchester again and a-few days later onto Germany. Club Hannover 96 were the first teams last opponents of pre-season. A come-back was needed in Germany, shaky moments at the back with both keepers making errors leaking 3 goals. It was a make-shift defence which also explained the lacklustre defending. Hopefully both Ferdinand and Vidic can start come the opening league match against Everton. Despite that, the attacking play was very good on the eye, Kagawa looks like he has been at United all his career and has settled in well. A spellbinding player to watch, very excited about him and the impact he'll make. Tom Cleverley also had a good match, fingers crossed he'll stay injury free. Anderson did well when he came on. Nani had some excellent moments and provided the main threat going forwards. A fantastic free-kick from Wayne Rooney set off the United come-back. He also added a penalty, Hernandez got a badly needed goal and Kagawa with a cool finish. It was an entertaining match to watch, it did show there were a-few kinks to be ironed out but hopefully the team will be fit and raring to go to start the season in earnest on the 20th of August. At this stage most pressing of all is to get defenders fit. United are pencilled in to play in a testimonial match versus Aberdeen for Neil Simpson one of Ferguson's ex-players. It is not likely many regulars will feature. It is a select 11 and will include some old faces such as Irwin, Blackmore, Yorke, Cole and Fortune mixed in with some youth. Rumours suggest that Vidic, Giggs and Scholes could make the journey up north.
The German Super Cup
The DFL Super Cup to give it, it's proper name was held in Munich, at Bayern's impressive home ground. The match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund whetted the appetite for the coming season of Bundesliga football. Notable absentees in Alaba, Badstuber, Schweinsteiger and Gotze, Gotze did come on later in the second half. The match provided the chance to see some of the clubs new signings such as Mandžukić, Dante, Reus, Shaqiri and Scheiber. Double winners Dortmund had a shaky start, with their defence struggling under the pressure of Bayern's attacks- Subotic in particular was hung out to dry on occasions. A great ball by Ribery set up Mandžukić for the games first goal. A summer signing from Wolfsburg, the Croatian looks like he will be a good addition to their side, a side which many argue lacks a goalscorer moreso now with Gomez injured. Bayern's second came less than ten minutes later, a typical and deadly counter-attack. Kroo's excellent through ball found Robben, whose shot rattled off the post and Muller netted the re-bound. Dortmund barely threatened despite having some good spells of possession. Improvements in the second half with the addition of new players- Scheiber, Gotze and Perisic had a good impact. Lewandowski came very close to scoring. It was a bad miss which he made up for scoring on the 75th minute- brilliant finish. It looked a real shout for a pen for the men in yellow, but the replay showed that the ball didn't touch Lahm's hand. Feel that if it was given it would have been a tad harsh. Dortmund really came alive in the last ten minutes but in the end it wasn't enough. Bayern Munich were the better side, had more chances and Robben was particularly impressive. Bayern also looked the much sharper and fitter of the two sides which will certainly stand them in good stead with the new season just around the corner. Sure that it must be relief for Bayern, before this match Dortmund had beaten them five matches in a row.
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