Weekend Watch: Hold on for the ride

By: Bob | August 10th, 2007

The getting gets good for football fans this weekend. The 2007/2008 English Premier League and Bundesliga campaigns get underway while there is also some action in Spain. They’re kicking things off in Turkey as well, while the leagues in North and South America continue on. All in all, it is a good time to be a fan of the beautiful game.

Saturday

Sunderland v Tottenham – It is the start of the English Premier League and the first game features newly promoted Sunderland against Tottenham. Sunderland have splashed out 9 million pounds for Scottish keeper Craig Gordon. Tottenham have splashed out gazillions for Darren Bent, Gareth Bale and Kevin-Prince Boateng among others. There is something right in the universe with a Saturday that includes Premiership football.

Ankaraspor v Ankaragucu – A quick look makes one think that the same team is playing itself to start the Turkish Premier Super League season. If only the league practiced such hijinks! Alas, these are two different teams that play in Ankara and neither likely has a snowball’s chance of beating out the usual suspects – Galatasaray, Fenerbache, Besiktas – for the league title.

Bayern Munich v Hansa Rostock – Recently promoted eastern Germany club Hansa Rostock begin their Bundesliga campaign with a trip to Allianz-Arena to play Bayern Munich. Welcome to the league, kids! Your Wikipedia fact of the week about Hansa Rostock: “In 2005, the club successfully sued three streakers who disrupted their 2003 match against Hertha Berlin, to recoup the €20,000 they were fined by the DFB for failing to maintain adequate security at their ground.”

Real Madrid v Sevilla – It is curtain raising time in Spain with the Super Cup ushering in the return of football. The home and away competition features regular season champions Real Madrid against King’s Cup winners Sevilla. Real Madrid have won the Super Cup seven times. Sevilla have never lifted the trophy.

Sunday

Aberdeen v Hearts – In the race to finish behind Celtic and Rangers in the Scottish Premier League last season, Aberdeen and Hearts finished one-two. They’ll need to do better than they did last week if that is going to be the case during this campaign. Both teams lost.

Sanfrecce Hiroshima v Nagoya Grampus Eight – Letter-for-letter these two Japanese teams have the best names of any match this week. Sanfrecce comes from the Japanese numeral for three, San and an Italian word frecce or ‘arrows’. This is based on the story of Mori Motonari who told his three sons that while an arrow might be easily snapped, three arrows would not be broken and urged them to work for the good of the clan and its retainers. Nagoya Grampus Eight’s name is derived from the two most prominent symbols of Nagoya: the two golden grampus dolphins on the top of Nagoya Castle, and the Maru-Hachi (Circle eight), the city’s official symbol.

Argentinos Juniors v Boca Juniors – Why do people name their kids after themselves? When you have a Jr in your name it only leads to an inferiority complex. Boca Juniors have been able to overcome this throughout the years. Argentinos Juniors, well, they should have stuck with their original name – The “Martyrs of Chicago”, a homage to the eight anarchists imprisoned or hanged after the 1886 Haymarket Riot in Chicago.