Blog Archives

Juggling a Ball Has a Cool Side

It’s the middle of May, which means the weather is nice and is warming up into the 70s and 80s in most areas. What to do outside? Well, if you have a few minutes this weekend, I suggest taking up juggling. However, forget about those boring yellow tennis balls and pick up a soccer ball for a more exciting and entertaining challenge.

Don’t believe me that juggling a soccer ball can be entertaining?

Now that’s German efficiency at its best.

Pep’s Boys Couldn’t Repair the Damage

Bayern Munich’s defenders (again) got temporarily lost in Barcelona’s offensive Bermuda Triangle that resulted in two surprisingly easy goals for Neymar (15′ and 29′) in Munich.

Despite scoring first in the 7′ and a valiant 90-minutes of attacking Barca’s German-born keeper Ter Stegen, a 3-2 win wasn’t enough to advance to the Champions League Final in Berlin. And even though it’s irrelevant now, Bayern had many great opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net. Without its world-class wingers, Bayern Munich created many quality scoring chances.

Offense wasn’t the primary problem.

Shifting Lahm to the midfield and playing without the injured outside defender Alaba, the major weakness for Bayern Munich was glaringly obvious: it’s back line. Like Boateng, they looked confused and turned around in both games against Barcelona when attempting to slow down Messi, Neymar and Suarez.

Simply put: Barca’s trio was unstoppable.

While Bayern Munich lost in tragically frustrating fashion (defensive tactics and devastating injuries), they never gave up. The Allianz Arena fans can be proud of their team’s effort. However, it’s two Champions League semifinal series losses in a row to a surging Spanish club: Barcelona and Real Madrid. For Pep Guardiola, something needs to change for next season. Conversely, Barcelona was the better team and they will be a formidable force against either Juventus or Real Madrid.

Tomorrow we’ll learn if the Champions League Final will be a classic…oh?

The Soccer-Pointer

Basketball games are filled with lots of points. They’re not hard to come by. Conversely, goals in soccer are (comparatively) significantly more rare, but lauded with comparable energy and jubilation as an alley-oop, backboard-breaking slam dunk or buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

So, how would world-class footballers fare in the world of basketball, with that tiny hoop and a regulation size 5 soccer ball? Interestingly, a layup seems more impressive when soccer players do it:

The half-court heave has nothing on this:

“Basketttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!”

(That’s soccer for, “Yeah, that just happened”).

Recycling Success

7-nil.

FYI – Bayern Munich has scored 33 goals and conceded 3 in their last 9 games in all competitions.

For any Champions League match, that’s a startling final score. After dismantling Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk following Müller’s successful penalty (and the fastest red card in tournament history) in the 4th minute on the friendly pitch at the Allianz Arena, Bayern Munich sent a clear message in their final game in the round of 16: Will Smith and Margot Robbie aren’t the only people in the world who are focused.

Last year’s devastating and embarrassing loss to eventual tournament champions Real Madrid in the semifinal still appears to be on the minds of the German leaders. 4th and 5th gears only. Pep’s Boys, regardless of potentially securing their 25th Bundesliga title with games in hand, will not rest until they can hoist their second Champions League trophy in three years. Or, in other words, winning the trophy that was the reason why Pep was hired as manager. As a matter of fact, they won’t rest until they get another historic Treble, like they did in 2013 with his predecessor Jupp Heynckes.

What are they doing to accomplish this? Oddly enough, it partially involves large buckets.

The goals are really piling up for Bayern Munich.