Spanning the Globe: United Gunned Down, Inter Streaks On, Celtic Cruises

By: Bob | January 22nd, 2007

Chances are you probably don’t have the time to follow every football league in the world closely. Never fear. We are here to help. Here’s a quick and dirty rundown of some of the highlights and lowlights from the weekend that was.

Spain – It is a wonderful muddled mess atop La Liga’s table with Barcelona drawing even with Sevilla and Real Madrid. Barca beat up on basement dwellers Gimnastic Tarragona 3-0 with striker Javier Saviola picking up his seventh goal in four games. Meanwhile, Sevilla still hasn’t come back from their winter holiday, drawing 0-0 against a Villarreal side that has no clue what to do with its disgruntled playmaker Juan Roman Riqueleme. It took a brilliant free kick from Jose Antonio Reyes to lift Real Madrid to a 1-0 win against Real Mallorca.

Top 4: Barcelona 38 pts, Real Madrid 38 pts, Sevilla 38 pts, Valencia 36 pts

England – The top four teams got together for a little square dance and in the end things haven’t changed, but boy how things have changed. Liverpool put a hurting on an uninspired Chelsea side 2-0 on Saturday. Just when you were ready to hand the trophy to Manchester United, Arsenal came up with a pair of goals that they pulled out of their proverbial backside to defeat the Red Devils and to keep the race interesting for at least another week.

Top 4: Manchester United 57 pts, Chelsea 51 pts, Liverpool 46 pts, Arsenal 45 pts

Italy – Inter Milan hasn’t lost since the Reformation. A come from behind 3-1 win over Fiorentina extended Inter’s Seria A winning streak to 13 games. Adding a cherry to Inter’s ice cream sundae, second place AS Roma could only muster a 1-1 draw at Livorno and third place Palermo also lost ground as they were held 0-0 by lowly Reggina.

Top 4: Inter Milan 54 pts, Roma 43 pts, Palermo 39 pts, Empoli 28 pts

Netherlands – PSV Eindhoven and Inter Milan should square off in a battle of teams that are 11-points ahead of their closest competitors. Eindhoven maintained their winning ways by downs Heerenveen 3-1. Heerenveen was apparently playing a man down, perhaps as a punishment for all the ‘e’s in their name.

Top 4: PSV Eindhoven 56 pts, Ajax 45 pts, AZ Alkmar 44 pts, Twente Enschede 41 pts

Scotland – The race in Scotland is officially over. Actually it was officially over a couple of months ago when Rangers decided to suck, but now it is emphatically over. Celtic is a whopping 17 points clear at the top having lost only one game in 25 tries. They put a 5-1 hurting on St Mirren thanks to three goals by Jan Vannegoor of Hesselink. Jan is the man.

Top 4: Celtic 62 pts, Rangers 45 pts, Hearts 40 pts, Aberdeen 39 pts

France – The Coupe de France has been whittled down from 32 teams to 16 and after this weekend most of the minnows have drowned. The round did not lack for drama as some of the small guys pushed the big boys to the limits, but now we move on to a round of 16 that should be somewhere between amazing and epic.

Mexico – The opening weekend on the Clausura championship saw champions Chivas scoring on the last kick of the game to earn a dramatic 1-1 draw at home against Toluca. Midfielder Ramon Morales is the reason the tequila flowed in Guadalajara as he beat keeper Hernan Cristante with a free kick in the third minute of injury time. Meanwhile, Jared Borgetti is back in Mexico and he is back scoring goals. He notched one in Cruz Azul’s 3-2 win at home against Pachuca.