Weekly Soccer News, June 2, 2010
Chelsea won their first post-Mourinho title, and the first League-FA Cup double in their history. Mourinho himself won another championship at Inter, plus the Italian Cup and the Champions League. In Spain, Barcelona defended their title in a dramatic championship with Real Madrid, both teams breaking the old total points' record. Olympique Marseille finally broke the match-fixing scandal curse dating back to 1993 under the guidance of one of the luckiest personalities in modern soccer, Didier Deschamps.
Robben and Olic bring the Bundesliga crown to Bayern
None of the big clubs had it so hard as Bayern Munchen, who lagged eight points behind Bayer Leverkusen after only eight matches. Coupled with a pathetic run in the Champions League, where they suffered two humiliating defeats to Bordeaux, it was one of the worst starts for the Bavarians in their history and Louis van Gaal's position was in question. Luckily, Arjen Robben hit the best scoring streak of his life and lifted Bayern in the darkest moments of the autumn. And Robben was not alone. Ivica Olic proved Van Gaal right to keep him on the team after initial doubts about his quality, and the young centre forward Thomas Muller adapted quickly to life in the Bundesliga. After 24 matches, Bayern finally surpassed Leverkusen on top and resisted a final onslaught from Schalke to clinch their 22nd German title.
The season that promised so little in November turned fabulous when Bayern reached the finals of both cup competitions, ultimately winning the German DFB Pokal with a fine 4-0 thumping of Werder, but losing to Inter by 0-2 in the European finals in Madrid. In spite of this last slip, Bayern's fans gave their idols a heroes' welcome. They deserved no less after completing one of their best seasons ever. Schalke and Werder also made it to the next year's Champions League while Leverkusen, the perennial losers, ended the race 11 points adrift of Bayern.
Chelsea win and entertain
In England, Carlo Ancelotti led Chelsea to an unprecedented double, just a point ahead of Manchester United. Alex Ferguson was right to predict Chelsea would take advantage of their early exit from the Champions' League to Inter, but United was further hurt by Wayne Rooney's misfortunate foot injury in Munich.
Without their top scorer, United lost to Chelsea 1-2 at Old Trafford and fatally drew 0-0 away to Blackburn. A loss to Tottenham did not hurt the Blues, who finished the season with an impressive tally of 103 goals scored in the Premiership alone. And the football presented by Ancelotti's Chelsea was far more attractive than that displayed during the Mourinho years.
Inter win fifth consecutive Serie A title
The Portuguese wizard did it once again, helping Inter to their fifth consecutive Serie A title, second during his tenure at Milan. Curiously, the key contributor to Internationale's success were Sampdoria and Lazio. Samp stunned leaders Roma at Stadio Olimpico with three matches to go, enabling Inter to go top. Then there was that bizarre match between Lazio and Inter, also at Olimpico.
With their place in Serie A virtually secure, Lazio did not try very hard to defeat Inter, while the home fans unanimously cheered for the away team. The reason? Well, the worst thing that any Lazio fan can imagine must be seeing Roma win the title. Without a real opposition on the field, Inter cruised to a 2-0 win, practically clinching the scudetto. The events led Roma's chairwoman to say Rosella Sensi that she would be "ashamed of winning a title in such a manner."
Inter rounded up the fantastic season with a 1-0 win over Roma in the Coppa Italia finals and a sublime triumph against Bayern in the Champions League finals for the first ever treble for any Italian team.
McClaren, the hero of Enschede
In Holland, Twente Enschede stunned the competition by winning their first ever championship ahead of Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and the outgoing champions AZ Alkmaar. Twente's triumph helped manager Steve McClaren recover a part of his reputation squandered in 2007 by failing to lead England to the 2008 European Championships in Austria and Switzerland. For the feat with Twente, McClaren was rewarded with a coaching job at the 2009 German champions Wolfsburg.
Elsewhere in Europe, Panathinaikos returned to the top in Greece after five years of Olympiacos domination and crowned their wonderful season by adding the FA Cup to the league title. Benfica spent four years in Porto's shadow, but this year the Eagles managed to take advantage of their historical rivals' slump to reclaim the Portuguese crown. In Scotland, Rangers had a virtual walkover due to Celtic's prolonged poor spell, while Bursaspor achieved an amazing win in Turkey thanks to favourites Fenerbahce's draw at home against Trabzonspor.
Record-breaking title for Barca
Barcelona and Real Madrid starred in an emotional title race, in which both teams pushed the other to the limit. When Barcelona defeated Real 2-0 at Bernabeu with seven matches to go, many people gave the race up, but Madrid won the next six games to keep the outcome uncertain until the final day. However, when Barcelona managed to snatch the three points from Sevilla in the penultimate week, even Real knew it was over. On the last day, Barcelona thrashed Valladolid 4-0 at Camp Nou with more goals from Leo Messi, condemning the Violets to the Second Division, while Real drew 2-2 at Malaga, who avoided relegation by the narrowest of margins. Shockingly, not even 98 points were enough for the Castilians to conquer the league, since Barcelona amassed a record 99 points - the highest points total ever in any of the major European leagues.
It took Didier Deschamp's return to the Velodrome for Olympique Marseille to break the spell that had followed them ever since that fateful May in 1993 when the magnificent French team fixed the away game at Valenciennes to secure the domestic title before the Champions League final against AC Milan. Olympique won both trophies, but some Valenciennes players denounced the plot and the French FA rescinded Marseille's league title.
Since then, Olympique have been relegated due to financial irregularities, but after returning two seasons later never managed to win one single piece of silverware before 2010. Twice OM finished second in the league, twice they lost in the UEFA Cup finals, but only under their former captain and talisman Deschamps did they manage to break the spell: earlier this spring OM picked up the League Cup, before clinching the most cherished prize with a 3-1 defeat of Rennes.
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