Looking Forward to the Champions League Round of 16

Looking forward to those incredible matches resulting from the Champions League round of 16 draw. As usual, at this stage of the competition, things get really exciting for fans around the world. Given the outcome of the round of 16 draw on Thursday we just can’t wait to see those great clubs go against each other on February and March.

Manchester United vs Real Madrid…Really! Could we have asked for a better match than this one? I’m not a fan of either of these teams, but these two powerhouses represent institutions of world football that have accomplished greatness.

Things are not going as expected for Real Madrid this season on La Liga. But they are legitimate candidates to go all the way and win their 10^th Champion’s League title, which would immortalize Maurinho as the “special one”. But Manchester United is a tough obstacle to beat; they will put a good fight because they too want to go all the way and lift that beautiful trophy with big ears after being beaten by Barcelona in two finals in recent years.

It will be great to see Ronaldo vs his former club. I am sure Rooney, Nani and Van Persie will be glad to stop Real Madrid from going all the way. A clash of titans no doubt….

Here is the draw outcome:

Galatasaray AS (Turkey) vs.  FC Schalke 04 (Germany

Celtic FC (Scotland) vs. Juventus (Italy)

Arsenal (England) vs. Bayern Munich (Germany)

FC Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine) vs. Borussia Dortmund (Germany)

AC Milan (Italy) vs. FC Barcelona (Spain)

Real Madrid (Spain) vs. Manchester United (England)

Valencia (Spain) vs. Paris Saint-Germain (France)

FC Porto (Portugal) vs. Malaga CF (Spain)

Take Long-Range Shots

We would like to see more soccer players take long-range shots...

Often when I think about the training of professional soccer players I wonder how often do they practice taking long-range shots. As a soccer player for a professional league you would expect to see more strikers taking chances from outside the box. But unfortunately for the game it doesn’t happen that often.

Think about it… when we see stars constantly scoring goals such as Ronaldo and Messi we [the fans] want to give them the world. But I wonder why don’t we see more players like this? They all share the same profession; they all practice in the same turf, they have the same coaches and management team.

I often think that if I were a professional soccer coach I would dedicate a lot of my training to shooting from outside the box. Especially the forwards, I would make sure they practice so much that their shots would become perfected and it would be reflected on every match against opponents.

It would be interesting to see more competition from professional soccer players of different leagues when it comes to scoring goals. As a coach I would line up my best strikers, I would simulate situations that happen on regular games to put in practice long-range shots from the distance. Because we don’t see that too often, what we see is that teams want to walk with the ball inside the box and when we see a nice strike we can’t stop talking about it for a week.

There are only a few teams that can actually walk inside the goal line with the ball. One team has perfected that, we know who that is, but wouldn’t we love to see a team that can perfect the method of long-range shots. It would be great to see the underdog bombard their opponents at least for the first 20 minutes to test that method and see some results.

My advice for soccer players out there from semi-pro to pro is …Take long-range shots and you might score amazing goals. My advice to coaches out there from different leagues is… Put shooting from long distance to practice. I am sure that if you get this method to near perfection even the big teams will be scare of your team. 

Maurinho and Real Madrid

Maurinho and Real Madrid… what will happen on May 2013?

Maurinho and Real Madrid are facing a challenging season as they are eleven points behind of archrival Barcelona. So the question of what will happen on May 2013 arises. Given that the league title is sliding away this season, though there are so many games still to be played until the end of it, shifting focus on the Champion’s League title might be an encouraging option.

Real Madrid wants to get their 10th Champions League badly and Maurinho is there to help. Last year was a tough blow losing to Bayer Munich during the semifinals on penalty kicks and this year doesn't seem to be easy for los blancos either. 

The knock out round of the Champion's will no doubt be very tough. Borussia Dortmund has shown signs of going for glory, and Barcelona continues its dominance with their style of play. So the questions is...What will happen on May 2013?  If La Liga title continues its course away from Real Madrid and they don't end up lifting that beautiful trophy with big ears then will Maurinho and Real Madrid stay together? What will happen to Ronaldo? There are only few teams that can afford him is he decides to leave the Bernabeu like Paris Saint Germain or he might return somewhere in the EPL.

There is no question that the next round of the Champion's League will be very exciting. As Maurinho said after they ended up on second place of its group "a team that thought will have it easy next round will play agains Real Madrid". In my opinion there are no easy games at this level, sometimes the least expected team end up with the glory. Last year, Chelsea pulled a surprising victory against Messi and Barcelona, and this year the Champion's League season seems to have a lot a surprises that we don't know what will happen on May 2013...

Pep Guardiola on the news...

Pep Guardiola the former FC Barcelona coach is in the news again as a possible replacement for Arsene Wenger current Arsenal coach. This is good news, Guardiola stepped down from his job as Barca's coach early this year to take some time off. However, Soccer fans around the world know that when Guardiola took the reins of Barcelona in 2008 through 2012 the club achieved great success. During those years the accomplishments including the sixtuple: six trophies in six competitions in one year (season 2009-2010). 

Guardiola left a long lasting legacy in Barcelona and was instrumental in the rise of current stars such as Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. During those years as a manager the club accomplished 3 La Liga titles, 1 Copa Del Rey, 2 Champions League titles, 2 Uefa Super Cupas, 2 FIFA World Club Cups. Umm! undoubtedly a great resume in a short period of time. 

His name being linked as a possible future coach for Arsenal is good news. The reason I say this is simple, I would really like to see him back in action as a coach, especially in the EPL. I would like to see what changes he would do at Arsenal. Because he can bring change to a club, for instance, he gave the chance to players such as Pedro (of Barca), brought Alves in as defender and changed the formation from the previous manager. 

Arsenal would be a good fit for him, the club has a great academy as well as millions of fans all over the world. I as mentioned, I would like to see if he can accomplish in Arsenal what he did in Barcelona by applying his methods and coaching strategies in a different turf. That being said, I hope the next news about Guardiola is about accepting the job as Arsenal manager.