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On this week’s show Damon and Damian look back at some of the highs and lows of the footballing world in 2007.
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Transcript
Kaka has just been named the best player of 2007 for his performances for AC Milan during the past year but in this languagecaster review of 2007 we hope to remind you of some of the other teams, moments and personalities of the past 12 months.
In England, the Big Four continued to dominate with Chelsea winning the Carling Cup in March in a tumultuous game against their London rivals, Arsenal. Indeed at one stage the Blues looked as if they might win an unprecedented quadruple but after losing to Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final they a€˜onlya€™ ended up with a Cup double after winning the first FA Cup final at the new Wembley Stadium against Manchester United in May. Sir Alex Fergusona€™s Reds had been thwarted from winning the double in that final having already won the Premier League for the first time in four years with Cristiano Ronaldo dominating the league and winning the English Player of the Year award. This season has seen little change at the top as the big four dominate again though Arsenal look as if they will push United all the way.
Spaina€™s La Liga saw one the most exciting title races in recent times as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla were all battling to win the league. It went down to the wire on the last day of the season with Fabio Capelloa€™s Madrid eventually winning the three-horse-race. Inter ran away with the Serie A title in Italy as their rivals were unable to recover from the calciopoli scandal and though this yeara€™s title race in Italy is a much tighter affair, Roberto Mancinia€™s team yet again lead the scudetto at Christmas.
With Bayern Munich struggling last season the Bundesliga also proved to be an exciting affair with Stuttgart winning the championship on the final day of the season to deny Schalke the chance of their first German title, remaining the nearly men of German football. This season has seen another exciting race this time with a resurgent Bayern battling with Bremen and Hamburg for the title. In other European leagues there was more of the same as Celtic won their second title in a row in Scotland, Porto their third in Portugal and amazingly Lyon won their sixth French title in a row. Unsurprisingly, all three of these teams are top of their countriesa€™ table at the half way mark this season again.
In European competitions, Sevilla repeated their UEFA Cup triumph in beating fellow Spanish team Espanyol in the final while in the Champions League we saw a repeat of the 2005 final between AC Milan and Liverpool.
In Japan Urawa Reds were unable to win their second J-League crown in a row as Antlers came with a 9 match winning steak to pip them at the post, though the Reds did manage to become Asian Club champions for the first time in their history. Congratulations too to Etoile Soleil from Tunisia, Pachuca from Mexico and Argentinaa€™s Boca Juniors for winning their respective continental championships though Boca were unable to win their own domestic league as this honour went to little Lanus for the first time. Sao Paolo were Brazilian champions but perhaps the biggest story in that country was the fact that former winners, Corinthians, were relegated for the first time in the cluba€™s history. In the MLS New York lost their third final in a row a€“ this time to Dallas but the biggest story there was all about this man.
The jury is still out on whether Beckhama€™s impact was a positive one but it cannot be denied that he still is a huge draw wherever he goes. Other personalities to make the news this year included Jose Mourinho being sacked from Chelsea – an unthinkable prospect this time last year, Steve MacClaren was also fired for his lamentable performances as the England manager while his predecessor, Sven Goran Erikssonn, has reinvented himself as a very successful Manchester City manager. The Argentinian striker, Carlos Tevez was at the centre of a storm at the end of last season as he helped West ham to survive in the Premier League. Other clubs, most notably Sheffield United, were not convinced that he was legally entitled to play for the club however.
The Euro 2008 qualifying section was completed with few surprises as all the big teams made it to Austria-Switzerland for next summera€™s finals. Actually, there was one surprise as England failed to reach the major final for the first time since 1994. Outplayed, out thought, out classed and out of the competition was how one critic described them. There were no surprises in the Womena€™s World Cup in September as the dominant Germans won their second trophy in a row as they stormed to victory without conceding a goal. No surprises either in the Copa America in August as Argentina and Brazil met in the final. Few would have predicted such a comfortable 3-0 victory for the Brazilians. One result which almost nobody would have predicted at the start of 2007 and one that I feel makes it as the moment of the footballing year was the 1-0 victory for Iraq over Saudi Arabia in the Asian Cup Final in August. With the country torn apart by Civil War and the football infrastructure in tatters, the team won the competition for the first time in its history. Kaka may have been the best player of the year but undoubtedly the best team performance and surprise package of 2007 was the Iraqi football team.
