Weekend Club Soccer Wrap-Up: Europe, the Big Five

It was not the performance that you would expect from a team being purported as the world's best, though in context, it was a masterful performance by Manchester United, defeating Liverpool 2-1 on Sunday.

Fernando Torres's fifth minute goal had Liverpool up 1-0, giving the impression this match would turn out like the last three, all Liverpool victories, none that close.

Then the match turned, depending on to whom you talk.  Howard Webb awarded Manchester United an eleventh minute penalty kick after Antonio Valencia went down in the box.  Was it a penalty?  Liverpool supporters say no.  Manchester United supporters say yes.  Based on what I've inferred from Liverpool fans, Howard Webb is a Manchester United supporter.

Park Ji-Sung put Manchester United ahead in the second half on a beautiful goal, headed home at the far post as the diving attacker got on the end of a Darren Fletcher cross.

As side from two Fernando Torres chances, United controlled the match and put on a display of why Liverpool has struggled to ascend to last year's, second place heights.  Manchester United was able to move the ball freely and decisively, and although Liverpool defenders did well to destroy a number of attacks before they developed, it was only moments before they were faced with having to destroy again.

Liverpool is just not good enough, and while some will point to the talent, that's poor excuse.  A team with Torres, Steven Gerrard, Javier Mascherano, Glen Johnson, Pepe Reina, Dirk Kuyt, Yossi Benayoun and Daniel Agger should be preforming better.  

It's not that United is more talented.  Arguably, they are not.  But they are the better team, as evidenced by getting elite performances from role players:  Fletcher and Park.

It's hard to imagine Lucas Leiva and Emiliano Insua giving those types of performances.

England:  Chelsea's draw at Blackburn was predictable, says the man whose correct predictions are so scarce that he's going to take the world's biggest magnifying glass to this one.

On Sunday, Chelsea got an early goal from Didier Drogba but was unable to find an insurance tally before half.  To start the second, Carlo Ancellotti put Yuri Zhirkov in at left back and moved Paulo Ferrera to right back, a move that proved to be a mistake when El Hadj Diouf out-jumped Branislav Ivanovic's replacement for the tying goal.

But a slow, physical side like Chelsea was destined to have trouble in this match, coming off a mid-week Champions League fixture and going to Ewood Park to face a slow, physical team.  Without the fluidity to take advantage of Blackburn's plodders, a draw was always a possibility.

With the draw Chelsea is now third, with Arsenal taking second after a 2-0 win against West Ham.  Arsenal saw Thomas Vermaelen red-carded just before half time but were able to weather a second half surge from the Hammers, eventually sealing the match when Cesc Fabregas converted a late spot kick.

Elsewhere, Tottenham held on to fourth, winning at Stoke City, with Manchester City only two points behind after their win at Fulham.  Aston Villa dropped points in the race after drawing at home to Wolverhampton.  The Villans are five points back of Spurs, holding a game in hand.

Spain:  Such is the star of Lionel Messi that he nearly knocked the United-Liverpool match off the headline.  I seriously considered leading thus column with Messi's hat trick against Real Zaragoza, and I can see being called an Anglophile by not doing so.  The world's best players started in the fifth minute, added two more before Zaragoze puled two back right before time.  Zlatan Ibrahimovic's late PK made it 4-2 and was the first time in 299 La Liga minutes that somebody other than Messi has scored for Barcelona, a span in which he scored nine goals.

Barcelona is drawn on points atop La Liga with Real Madrid, who scored three goals in fifteen minutes in response to Sporting Gijon taking a second half lead at the Bernabeu.  Alonso, Higuaín and van der Vaart where Madrid's goal scorers.

The Spanish Big Two are eighteen points up on third place Valencia, who got a 2-0 win at the Mestalla over Almeria.  Mallorca went fourth with a 4-1 win over Atletico, taking advantage of Sevilla's beguiling 2-0 loss at Espanyol.

Italy:  After Inter drew at Palermo on Saturday, Milan had their chance to go top, with a struggling Napoli side coming to the San Siro.  A strong start from Napoli had them up a goal early, and while Ronaldinho eventually found Pippo Inzaghi for the equalizer, Napoli had many chance to take all three points.  And, in fairness, Milan had their chances to win, too.  It was that type of match, one where a 1-1 draw was ultimately fair.

That kept Inter atop the Serie A, the Nerazzurri escaping Palermo with a point after a their own 1-1 draw, a fortunate result considering how well the Rosenaro played.  The attacking trio of Edison Cavani, Fabrizio Miccoli, and Javier Pastore kept Palermo on the verge of a second throughout the match, Cavani having gotten the first.  Inter look tired and spent the match chasing the play, but the result was less about their deficiencies and more about Palermo.  Alone in fourth place, this was the Rosenaro's Champions League credential.

Other important results:  Roma beat Udinese 4-2 to take advantage of Milan and Inter's draws; Sampdoria sits fifth after an Antonio Cassano and some bad goalkeeping gave the Blucerchiati a 1-0 win over Juventus, possibly the turning point in Juve's chance to get back into Champions League.

Germany:  Bayern Munich lost in the Bundesliga for the first time since September, collapsing in the final minutes at Eintracht Frankfurt, losing 2-1.  Frankfurt was on the three match losing streak yet still find a way to goals in the 87th and 89th minutes to down the league leaders.

If there was a week for Bayern to lose, it was this one, with second place Schalke (at Hamburg) and third place Bayer Leverkusen (at Borussia Dortmund) underdogs in their later matches.

On Saturday, Leverkusen ran into a buzzsaw; model name:  Lucas Barrios.  The Argentine's brace led Dortmund to a  3-0 victory, impressive because Bayer did not play that poorly.  Barrios's second half goals puts him on fifteen for the season, second only two Bayer' Stefan Keißling, whose injury and halftime substitution was a turning point in the match.

On Sunday, you could argue that Schalke deserved more from their match at Hamburg, where their passing and movement have their hosts trouble.  But their unwillingness to pull-the-trigger on some shots combined with goals from Ruud van Nistelorry and Jonathan Pitropia garnered HSV their draw.

Schalke is now one point back of Bayern Munich, who has 56 points through 27 matches.  Bayer is three back.

France:  Ligue 1 has been a target of my criticism, and I would say they felt my wrath had I enough juice to affect something as big as a major European soccer league.  This week, I take it back, as we finally saw some teams at the top of Ligue 1 step-up, given strong performances, and gets wins.

For league-leading Bordeaux, it took an early goal from visiting Lille to wake-up Girondins, but once awake, the defending champions dominated.  Goals from Mickael Ciani, Jussie, and Yoann Gourcuff were part of a 3-1 win, ending a thee match winless streak in league.

Bordeaux got their second goal from the spot as a result of a call that gave them a man advantage.  You could see that as the turning point of the match, leading to their second and third goals, but that would miss Bordeaux's play before the dismissal, play which showed an ambition that we have rarely seen from the Girondins.  It is almost as if they were too good defending, too good executing set pieces, and they don't have to attack.

On Sunday, Lille's early goal forced them to be ambitious, and as they showed last month against Saint-Étienne and Lorient, they are capable of succeed when playing this way (begging the question of why Laurent Blanc insists of playing do conservatively).

More and more, I've thought I've been unfair to Bordeaux.  Yes, they have been boring.  Yes, they could be better, but considering my criticisms of them and my continued insistence that Internazionale will win the Serie A, it seems like I'm being unfair.  Has Inter shown themselves stronger in Serie A than Bordeaux has been in Ligue 1?  Why the constant critique of Bordeaux?

I know the answer, though it won't hold of Bordeaux can continue going for goals.  When you play too conservatively, you leave more matches open to be stolen be one or two unexpected plays.  If Bordeaux stayed conservative on Sunday and Lille's goal came in the 82nd minute as opposed to the 23rd, would they have been able to adjust and come back?

That's why I want Bordeaux to play more ambitiously more often - so that this talented team can play to their potential and be less likely to see matches and the league taken from them.  Until they can constantly play like team that fell behind to Lille, they're apt to have the league taken from them by Montpelier or Auxerre.

Montpelier stayed even on points (one more match played) with their win over Valenciennes, Auxerre is one back after downing Le Mans, and Marseille had the weekend's most impressive win, dominating a second half and overcoming a late goal from Batetimbi Gomis to beat Lyon, 2-1.  Left backTaye Taiwo responded to the Gomis goal one minute later, collecting a corner kick's clearance and hitting the inside of Hugo Lloris's far post with a 20 meter shot.

Marseille is three back.  Lyon is now five back but in sixth place.