Three Up, Three Down: First Take

Welcome to the first post in what will be a weekly series highlighting those teams/players/ideas whose fortunes are on the rise or fall based on events during the week.

Three Up

1) APOEL F.C. - Everyone loves a Cinderella story, and the 2011-2012 Champions League has one, APOEL F.C.  The first Cypriot side to make it to the group stage of the Champions League (their first visit was in 2009-10), APOEL continue to be trailblazers for the Cypriot First Division. Marching its way through qualifying, APOEL knocked out 3 league champions along the way (Skënderbeu Korçë from Albania, Slovak champ Slovan Bratislava, and Wisła Kraków out of Poland).  Once in the group stages, APOEL took care of three more league champions (FC Porto from Portugal, Russian side Zenit St. Petersburg, and Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk). The plucky Cypriots haven't looked back, defeating Olympique Lyonnais 4-3 on penalties.  APOEL will likely face a much tougher draw in the quarterfinals, but don't count them out.

 2) Arsenal F.C. - This might look a bit like a homer call, as I make no attempt to hide my love of the north London side, but Arsenal have been trending upward for the last several weeks.  Following two embarrassing defeats (4-0 away to AC Milan and 2-0 against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light) in the span of a week, the Gunners seem to have found the form and luck they had been missing for much of the early part of the season.  A 5-2 drubbing of rivals Spurs was followed by a last gasp winner against Liverpool at Anfield and a comprehensive 3-nil victory over Milan in the return leg of their Champions League round of 16 match.  In the last two weeks, the Gunners have closed the gap on Spurs for 3rd in the Premier League table to 4 points from 10.  Beyond matches on the pitch, it was announced that Arsenal will sign German international forward, Lukas Podolski, in the offseason.  Not bad for a side that looked like it might miss out on Champions League football for the first time in 15 seasons.

3)  F.C. Barcelona/Lionel Messi - It might seem odd to put the defending European champions and three-time defending Ballon d'Ors winner on this list, but did you see the highlights of their 7-1 dismantling of Bayer Leverkusen?  Messi scored a Champions League record 5 goals in the match. While Barça sit 10 points adrift of Real Madrid in La Liga, they look every bit the favorites to repeat as winners of the Champions League.

Goal Line Technology Long Overdue

Exciting news out of England as the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body responsible for the laws of the game of soccer, announced that two goal-line technology systems will move forward with testing.  The two systems, Hawkeye (already used in tennis and cricket) and GoalRef, will undergo further testing with the goal of introducing the technology no later than the 2014 World Cup.

The topic of goal-line technology has been a hot one in the soccer world in recent years, though the IFAB has seemed reluctant to move on the issue.  It wasn't until the 2010 World Cup that the need for goal-line technology jumped to the fore, with this missed call:

Thoughts on the Champions League

The Champions League Round of 16 draw

NOTE: Due to a technical snafu, this post wasn't published yesterday morning (despite my scheduling it).  The post below was written on Sunday, prior to any of the Champions League games.  I must say, I hope I predict the outcomes of today's (Wednesday's) games as well as I did Tuesday's.


Embarrassing.  It has to be the first word that comes to the mind of any Arsenal fan or player after the Gunners' poor showing against Milan.

Impressive.  The only word that can describe Barcelona's run of dominance in Europe's most prestigious club competition.  Winning 3-1 on the road against an opponent (Bayer Leverkusen) from one of the top 5 leagues proves the Catalans' pedigree.

Hope. APOEL and Benfica have it despite narrow losses away from home.  The Cypriot side is down just 1-0 to perennial French powerhouse, Lyon, heading back to Nicosia. The Portuguese leaders may be in the driver's seat despite a narrow 3-2 loss to Zenit in St. Petersburg.  With two away goals in their pocket, much will be expected of the Eagles when the teams face off in Lisbon on March 6.

Looking ahead, there are 4 games on tap this week: CSKA Moscow hosting Real Madrid and Chelsea at Napoli on Tuesday; Basel at home against Bayern Munich and Inter travelling to Marseille on Wednesday.

The FA Cup Explained

The FA Cup trophy

A near constant in my conversations with casual soccer fans and non-fans alike is the confusion cup competitions cause when trying to understand international soccer.  To most American sports fans, a cup competition is an alien concept.  Most sports (baseball, football, basketball and ice hockey) in America compete against teams in their league for the league title and that's it.  Other than during the preseason, when was the last time the Red Sox played the Yankees with anything other than a trip to the World Series on the line?  Matches like the recent clash between Manchester United and Liverpool (check out the highlights here), or Arsenal'sstunning comeback against Aston Villa just wouldn't happen outside of the league in US sports.

In an effort to help the uninitiated begin to understand the craziness that is the soccer fixture list in other parts of the world (and America's domestic soccer scene for that matter), here's a brief history/explanation of the FA Cup:

Kick Off

Hey everbody, welcome to my new blog, FC Blacklabel.  I'm rejoining forces with my buddy over at Blacklabel Tennis to create what I will modestly call a sports network.  He focuses on tennis, I focus on all things soccer (football, fútbol, calcio or whatever you call it in your part of the world).

For quick thoughts, follow me on Twitter at @fcblacklabel.  If you enjoy the writing, join our Facebook fan page.  Ideally, this blog will focus on informing fans and non-fans about the beautiful game.  There will opinions presented, history discussed, predictions made, information shared and hopefully some surprises along the way.

To lay the groundwork for the launch, I've imported my old soccer posts from my former blog, The Rally Cap.  Check them out; I'd like to think I wrote some interesting pieces.  If you have any thoughts or comments feel free to post them here or send an email to fcblacklabel@gmail.com.

Get read for kick off.

Interview with Carli Lloyd

Funny things happen when you travel. Sometimes you board the plane and sit on the tarmac for hours. Sometimes you see the plane you are supposed to be on taxiing away from the gate just as you land. Sometimes through sheer serendipity, you encounter Carli Lloyd in the Philadelphia International Airport.

On a sweltering Wednesday afternoon in the City of Brotherly Love, that's just what happened. Carli, on her way back to Atlanta to continue the WPS season with the Atlanta Beat, was kind enough to speak with me for several minutes and agreed to a follow-up interview. Check out what the star of the United State's Women's National Team had to say:

Women's World Cup: French Fried

Stop me if you've heard this story before - The United States Women's National Team jumps to an early lead in a World Cup match, their opponent equalizes early in the second half, Abby Wambach saves the day.  In a match that, through the 78th minute, eerily mirrored Sunday's instant classic (minus the referee miscues), the USWNT was able to alter the script and book their place in the Women's World Cup final (their first since 1999).