Champions League
Posted by dapple1 on October 19, 2006
In my opinion, the UEFA Champions League is one of the best ideas in professional sports. Everyone knows that all of the best professional soccer is played in Europe, whether in England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, or numerous other European countries. You can argue that the Premeirship in England is better than La Liga in Spain, but it’s undeniable that both are better than the MLS, Mexican, Brazilian, African, Japanese, or any other country’s league. All the best players go to Europe to play so that they can play with and against the best in the world.
That’s why the Champions League is so good. The competition started in the 1950’s. It consists of the best teams from each country’s domestic league, as well as the runner-up, and possibly more depending on the strength and UEFA ranking of the league. That means that powerhouse leagues like La Liga and the English Premiership will have more teams than the Belgian Jupiler League. Essentially, all the best teams in the world will be able to compete for the Champions League title. The teams that are eligible play 3 qualifying rounds, then proceed to play a group stage. There are 8 groups with four teams in each. Every team will play the other teams in their group in a home and away series. The winners of the group along with the runners up then advance to the knockout round. There is a draw to determine the pairings in the knockout round and they also play home and away matches. This proceeds until there are only two teams left. For the championship game, there is only one match that is played in a neutral site to determine the overall champion.
Basically, they are crowning the best soccer team in the world every year. Last years champion was Liverpool from the English Premiership, who beat Italy’s AC Milan after coming back from 3 goals to none and winning on a penalty shootout. It was really the best game I’ve ever seen. That’s what you expect from the best and that’s usually what you will get.
