Lets Talk Soccer

Well its been a week of firsts for the blog, first we went with the NHL and now I will writing my first article about soccer. I am all about soccer, all for soccer, I think its a great sport and I will go into later on why I dont write more about soccer in the blog.

If you didnt watch today (shame on you) Barcelona defeated Chelsea 1-1 but they had won because Barca had the advantage on the away goals. I have to say it was probably one of the best moments in sports so far this year.

Chelsea took the lead early on a Michael Essien goal which was just an awesome strike from right outside the penalty box to give the Blues the early lead in the first half. Throughout the game there were many questionable calls such as a flop by Florent Malouda which appeared to be in the penalty box yet it was right outside the box. There was a hold non-call on Didier Drogba in the box that wasnt called either in the first half. Barcelona was playing with fire during the whole first half but managed to keep it at a 1-0 game.

The second half was pretty much dominated by Chelsea and there was no reason to believe that the Blues were going to hook up with Manchester United in the Champions League Final once again. It almost seem even more certain after Eric Abidal got a red card for an absolute bullshit call leaving Barca with a man down the rest of the game.

Heading into extra time, Barca had one more chance to make an attempt on scoring a goal and they started heading on the offensive. For the first time in the game, Chelsea backfield struggles to clear the ball and Lionel Messi sent it in to Andres Iniesta drills a goal for the win. Chelsea had one more attempt to win this and they actually got a corner where they brought up goalie Petr Cech and Michael Ballack had a thunderous strike deflecting off a Barca defender which appeared after a replay to be a hand ball but if youre the ref its pretty hard to see the difference between his triceps and shoulder.

This creating an outcry from Ballack, Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry, and Cech who are all veterans had words for the ref after the game with yellow cards for Ballack and Drogba who will probably get some more punishment after saying "Its a fucking disgrace" on live TV. Not good whatsoever.

After reading this, I bet you wish you watched this game. Its great really to see all the passion of the players and I really wish one national TV outlet would realize that they could gain great attention if they featured a game of the week from either the English Premiership, Spanish La Liga, Italy's Serie A, or even German Bundesliga. I think many people would have interest in this and maybe led to more popularity in the United States.

-Charlie.