Sportzine - Volume 3

SOCCER

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

As expected, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich reached the Champions League Final.  Dortmund had a brief scare after two late Madrid goals but they managed to hang on to win 4-3 on aggregate.  Bayern managed to avoid any scares and ran out 3-0 winners in the Camp Nou, winning 7-0 on aggregate.  Barcelona have been an amazing side in recent years but Bayern Munich taught them a real lesson and Barcelona will have to look at how they can improve for next season. 

Borussia Dortmund have been a revelation in the last few years in Germany but never really brought their domestic form into Europe.  Dortmund's biggest problem is going to be holding onto their star players and manager.  They have already lost Mario Gotze to Bayern Munich for next season and there are strong rumours linking Mats Hummels, Marco Reus and Robert Lewandowski with moves away from the club.  If the club sell all their main players then I would think Jurgen Klopp may follow them out and if he does leave Dortmund there looks to be plenty of big job openings across Europe.  Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester City could all be looking for new managers and any of those would be a natural progression for Klopp who has worked wonders in his managerial career so far. 

Many people are calling Bayern Munich the perfect team.  I don't buy into that to be honest but they are certainly a very good team, in excellent form at the moment.  Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund have both used pressing in recent seasons to win trophies and Bayern Munich have taken that a step further with their own version of gegenpressing.  As good as they are off the ball, they are equally as good on it and can retain possession as well as anyone.  Barcelona and Bayern Munich play the game in a similar way but the big difference is that Bayern are using athletes.  Barcelona are all quite small and while it doesn't often affect them, Bayern Munich are doing the same things with six footers and the vast majority can move around quickly too.

The Final looks like being a great occasion with two fully deserving teams taking part in one of the best, most modern stadiums in Europe.  Bayern Munich look to be favourites on paper but many a favourite has lost a cup final.  All we can hope for is a good game and that they both come to London to try to win the game rather than the cautious approach we see so often in big games.

I should also mention Chelsea and Benfica who successfully made it through to this seasons Europa League Final in Amsterdam.  It's good to see two sides who started the season in the Champions League reach the Final as while many don't agree with the loop hole that sees teams enter the Europa League after elimination from the Champions League, I think it gives the competition credibility.  In recent seasons we have saw teams play second string sides in the Europa League which has devalued the competition but Chelsea and Benfica have put out solid sides and they have been rewarded with an appearance in the Final.


GENERAL FOOTBALL

Hull City secured promotion back to the Premier League after drawing 2-2 with already promoted Cardiff City on the final day of the season.  Hull needed to match Watford's result and as the games were ending, a Watford goal would have sent them to the Premier League but it wasn't to be and Ross McCormack finished them off with a late winner to send them into the playoffs. 

The Championship playoffs will now see Watford take on Leicester and Crystal Palace take on Brighton.  I usually think the team coming into the playoffs with momentum has a fair chance and for me that's Brighton.  Four wins in their last five and nine games unbeaten is exactly the way you want to finish the season if you are heading towards the playoffs.  It doesn't seem that long ago that Brighton were one game away from exiting the Football League and it would be some what fitting if they could finish off the season with promotion to the Premier League. 

Finally, as much as it pains me to say it, Glentoran also deserve a lot of credit for a fine victory in Saturday's Marie Curie Irish Cup Final.  I was at the game in the Cliftonville end and despite Cliftonville taking a 1-0 lead at half-time, Glentoran weren't to be denied and ran out 3-1 winners after extra time.  Cliftonville hadn't already secured the league title and the League Cup but they were denied their treble by a hungry, hard working Glentoran side.  The Glens were excellent after half-time and were first to every ball and Cliftonville just couldn't live with them.  Cliftonville had a great season but Glentoran had the last laugh but hopefully the players and staff will learn from it and Cliftonville can bounce back and enjoy another successful season next year.   
 

BASKETBALL

NBA

The first round of the playoffs have been completed and there were a few upsets.  Of the eight first round ties, only five were won by the higher seed.  In the Eastern Conference the top three seeds made it through safely with only the fifth seed, Chicago Bulls overcoming a higher seed.  The Bulls managed to win game seven in Brooklyn to set up a repeat of the 2011 Eastern Finals against the Miami Heat.  It will be a big ask for the Bulls as the Heat are overwhelming favourites to defend their title but if they set themselves small targets, and avoid getting swept then you just never know what could happen if they reach game six or seven. 

In the East's other game, the third seeded Indiana Pacers made the perfect start with a fine win in New York over the Knicks to go 1-0 up in the series.  Before the playoffs started I was looking at this game as a New York win in five or six games.  However, things have gone badly wrong for New York in the last week or so.  After they took a 3-0 series lead over the Celtics they lost momentum and had to win game 6 in Boston to avoid the possibility of becoming the first NBA team to lose a series after leading 3-0.  The Knicks will be pleased to have avoided that unwanted piece of history but unless they can sort themselves out fairly quickly it will be Indiana who reach the Eastern Finals.

Out West the top two seeds both made the next round but the third and fourth seeds both dropped out.  San Antonio were the most impressive victors, sweeping the LA Lakers.  Oklahoma are the number one seed but it took them six games to dispose of the Houston Rockets.  In the other games, the Memphis Grizzlies overcame the LA Clippers in six games and Golden State also beat Denver in six. 

In the second round Oklahoma managed to edge out the Grizzlies in Game one of the series.  The Thunder have been rocked by Russell Westbrook's injury and this series looks like being far from easy for them.  In the other game San Antonio and Golden State get things under way tonight.  San Antonio look like favourites to represent the West in the NBA Finals and I expect this series could be theirs in five.

ICE HOCKEY  

NHL

The NHL playoffs are now under way and the majority of the ties are tight but going the way they are expected too.  In the East, Pittsburgh lead the New York Islanders 2-1, Washington lead the New York Rangers 2-0 and Boston and Toronto are tied at 1-1.  The only potential shock at the moment is the seventh seed Ottawa Senators are currently leading the second seeded, Montreal Canadiens 2-1.  There's still a long way to go though and nobody is really out of it as things stand.

In the Western Conference the story is similar.  Chicago, Anaheim and St Louis are all 2-1 up against lower seeded teams.  The biggest shock so far is the San Jose Sharks being 3-0 up on the third seeded, Vancouver Canucks.  Vancouver face an extremely tough task to stay alive but the other three ties are still very much alive.  They are all as they would be if the home team had won each game so every team will be considering themselves very much in with a chance. 

Just a word on my Detroit Red Wings.  We started off losing game one in Anaheim but bounced back well to win game two and take the series back to Detroit at 1-1.  Unfortunately, we were well beaten in game three at the Joe and now need to win tonight to give ourselves a chance of progressing.  It won't be easy as Anaheim are a good side but now that the streak has been kept alive we may as well do what we can to go as far as we can in the playoffs.

FOOTBALL QUIZ

Here's another chance to answer last weeks football quiz.  Send answers to @gjsportsblog on Twitter or alternatively answer them in the comments section.


1. The last Final to take place at Wembley was between Barcelona and Manchester United but who were the beaten semi-finalists?

2. Who are the top three goalscorers in Champions League/European Cup history?

3. Lionel Messi has finished as top goal scorer in the Champions League/European four times. Which other striker has won the title four times?

4. Five different English clubs have won the Champions League/European Cup but how many titles do they have between them?

5. Which European city has the most combined wins?

Football, The Biggest Loser

This blog is called GJ Sports Blog for a reason. I intended to use it and my Twitter account to discuss nothing other than sports. I never had any intention of using it to discuss politics but unfortunately sport and politics met in the ugliest of manners yesterday in North Belfast. Cliftonville and Crusaders were due to meet at Seaview, home of Crusaders, in a vital league match. The two sides currently sit in the top two places of the IFA Premiership and as things stand it looks like one of them will end the year as league champions. Neither side are in the habit of winning the league title, it has been fifteen years since Cliftonville won it and sixteen years since Crusaders won it. This should have been a great day for football in North Belfast. Unfortunately what materialised was something no right minded individual or football fan would have wanted. A protest took place which I will go further into later and the Police Service of Northern Ireland were unable to guarantee safe passage to the stadium for the Cliftonville fans and the game was therefore postponed.

I know that most of the hits this blog gets are not from Northern Ireland so I will give a bit of background on the situation. Politics in Northern Ireland are not quite like any other country. Unfortunately people don't care what political parties thoughts are on education, health, social welfare. People in this country will vote for someone or not vote for someone purely because they are catholic or protestant, British or Irish. It's a quite ridiculous state of affairs but unfortunately that's the country I live in and to be honest it sickens me. There are a lot of potentially good politicians who will never get the opportunity to make a difference as they either stand as independents or live in the wrong constituency. On the other hand there are as many idiots who get elected every time purely because they attach themselves to one of the big parties and people only care about what you are and not what you can do. Until this country moves beyond the green and orange divide it has no future. Sadly that doesn't seem like it will happen any time soon as any time there is trouble in Northern Ireland it always seems to be young people on the streets rioting. These people are younger than me and I only have vague memories of a time when the troubles were at their worst. Unfortunately we still seem to be teaching bigotry to our children and until that changes then I'm afraid to say this country has no chance.

Today's protest was the latest in a long line of protests throughout Northern Ireland about the decision by Belfast City Council to remove the Union flag from Belfast City Hall. As it was the flag flew 365 days a year but after a vote on 3rd December 2012 it was decided that the flag would only fly on eighteen designated days. Flags and emblems have always been a huge issue in Northern Ireland. Catholic areas will often fly the Irish tricolour and protestant areas will fly the Union flag. In the last election the nationalist (Catholics) gained a majority and were therefore able to get the motion passed and the flag now only flies on the eighteen designated days. Since then unionists and loyalists (Protestants) have took part in protests all over Northern Ireland in opposition to this decision. The majority have passed off peacefully but unfortunately on some occasions these protests have ended in violence. In recent weeks these protests have usually took place around the area of Belfast City Hall on a Saturday afternoon. There had been no protests at Seaview until today. Maybe I'm paranoid but I don't think it's a coincidence that the protesters picked today to hold a protest outside Seaview when Cliftonville, a team with a majority nationalist/catholic support were due to play at the stadium. It is nothing other than bigotry and there is absolutely no place for it in football or society in general.

It's important that I make it clear that this was in no way the fault of Crusaders Football Club. Crusaders have been working alongside Cliftonville in recent times to ensure that religious differences were kept away from this game and unfortunately for them they will ultimately be the biggest losers from this. The game will have to be played at some point and as I see it we are now left with just two options. The powers that be may decide to move the game to another venue as it can't be guaranteed that the protesters won't block the roads on the day that the game is to be replayed. The other option is the game goes ahead at Seaview with restrictions on travelling fans. Neither option will be ideal for Crusaders and regardless of what happens the game will now be played during the week which will reduce the attendance further and Crusaders will lose out on a lot of money. My opinion on what will happen is that the game will be played at Seaview but that Cliftonville fans will be forced to travel to the game on buses which is quite ridiculous when you consider that the journey would take less than five minutes on a bus. Many Cliftonville fans have already said that they won't go to Seaview if they are forced to go on a bus and not only are Crusaders losing revenue but the Cliftonville team will be without much needed support.

For me, the PSNI also have to accept most of the responsibility. They allowed protesters to gather on a route were they knew over a thousand football fans were due to pass on the way to a game. I was at Seaview earlier in the season for the first meeting between the clubs and the police presence was bordering on ridiculous. Every ten feet there was an armed police officer and dozens of Police Jeeps lined the streets. All for a football match were there has been no history of trouble between fans. Residents in the local area have made accusations of damaged property and sectarian abuse in the area but despite residents standing on the streets and in their gardens videoing fans, no evidence to back up these accusations has ever emerged. Police are obviously taking this seriously as the sheer volume of them is a lot more than I've ever saw at any other football match.

I was in Belfast early yesterday as I live over 30 miles away and had to collect a ticket I had ordered online from the Cliftonville shop. I was making my way down the Antrim Road at just after 1pm, two hours before kick off and there was already a heavy presence in the area that the Cliftonville fans were due to meet for the walk down to Seaview. I refuse to believe that there wasn't a similar presence in and around Seaview. Surely once even one person arrived in that area the police should have moved them on instead of standing watching them and allowing a situation to develop that they were no longer able or wanted to control. Being a Celtic fan and an Irish Catholic I've been accused of paranoia on many occasions but perhaps some clear thinking, better educated individual than myself can explain to me how a police force with a history of removing protesters forcibly, stood back and allowed a small crowd of people to cause disruption on such a huge scale. I'm all for allowing people their right to protest. In fact I have joined in many protests in my time, usually anti-war, against job cuts or poor pay but I have walked on the streets alongside fellow protesters as I felt a sense of injustice about something. The difference is that this protest took place to spoil a football match between two clubs who have been working together to keep these sort of issues away from their football clubs. The police handled this situation very poorly and I would like to think that neither Crusaders, Cliftonville or their fans will suffer due to their inability to handle what should have been a straight forward situation.

On a personal level, my initial shock has been overcome by anger. I had been looking forward to this match for weeks. I drove the 30 plus miles to get to Belfast and arrived around two hours before kick off to collect my ticket. I then went and sat in the car for about an hour as I had no other reason to be in Belfast whilst I waited or the organised, stewarded walk to the stadium. I got to Glandore Avenue were the fans were meeting and the Red Army were out in full force waiting for the go ahead from police to began the ten minute walk down to Seaview. Word spread quickly that a protest was under way down the road but we were then told that things were fine and the delay was just to make sure all the Cliftonville fans had arrived before setting off. Shortly afterwards a club official told us that there were issues down the road due to a protest and that unless the police gave assurances that the fans would get into and out of the ground safely the game would be called off. The next thing we were told was that the kick off had been delayed but that we were about to move. We got about twenty feet down the road before we were stopped again and this time people were saying that a riot was under way outside the ground and shortly after we were told that the game was postponed. Credit to the hundreds of Cliftonville fans who were gathered as once the game was postponed, they dispersed without any fuss. I have to be honest and say that I feared the worst as with a crowd that size, it only takes one idiot to start trouble but there was none of that and people were obviously disappointed but turned on their heels and made their back to the Antrim Road to get on with whatever they had planned for the rest of the day.

No doubt there will be much wrote about what happened but it is very important to remember that this had nothing to do with football, Crusaders, Cliftonville or the IFA. This was a bunch of bigots who choose to target a football match to get publicity for their cause and the inability of this countries police force to deal with it. The sad thing is that politicians will be trying to jump on this to gain votes and that is going to complicate things. If this issue was left to football people and only football people it would be sorted in no time but like everything else in this country it will be turned into a religious issue and politicians will point the finger at anyone for a vote and I have no faith in them to point their fingers at the right people. Sadly, it's football and it's supporters, whether catholic or protestant who are the biggest losers.