WSR World Club Top Ten: October 2
The Spanish takeover of European football is happening, if World Soccer Reader’s Club Top Ten is any indication.
The rumored shift of power from England and Italy to Spain deserves more discussion (and data points), but the early season returns from the league’s top three clubs provide plenty of evidence for those arguing Spanish primacy. Those three clubs are all in the top-half of this week’s list.
Elsewhere, we see the Bundesliga regain its representation while Italy loses theirs, with mediocre-to-bad results from Juventus and Internzaionale seeing those European titans dropped from our lists. Where Italy is on the verge of losing it’s top-three spot in Europe to Germany (based on UEFA coefficients), another discussion is how the Serie A compares to France’s Ligue 1. In Champions League, the results have been mixed, but on this list, France is respresented. Twice.
As always, the WSR World Club Top Ten is a collaborative effort from the entire writing staff. Over the last two days, the staff has debated and discusses, with snippets of the discourse listed, below.
Without further ado, here is this week’s list:
| #10 | Estudiantes de la Plata (Argentina) |  |
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| Estudiantes beat Boca Juniors on Saturday, a win that always turns heads, though this year’s iteration of Boca Juniors players is about three years past their expiration dates. Regardless, Estudiantes continues rolling past through the Primera, now stands alone in first place, begging the following question to and from our panel: What can/could Estudiantes do to climb in this listing? Since they are not in the Copa Sudamericana, they will have to keep winning until they get a crack at Barcelona at the World Club Cup. | ||
| #9 | Hamburger SV (Germany) |  |
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| World Soccer Reader’s DC United correspondent Ed Morgans makes his Top Ten debut, working in a plug along the way: “Better football in Bundesliga than many give it credit for, as I discussed with Ray Hudson on our Fighting Talker podcast earlier this week.” That’s the Fighting Talker podcast, featuring our own Ed Morgans, everybody! |
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| #8 | Manchester City F.C. (England) |  |
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| Manchester City’s only loss this season is the controversial defeat at Old Trafford to Manchester United. Despite their otherwise perfect record, not everybody is impressed. Take, for instance, our Manchester United correspondent, Seena Vali:
“Maybe United were lucky to win the derby at the death, but let’s face it, City were lucky that it was 3-3 by the end of 94 minutes. It was all one-way traffic barring some short spells of City attacking, and all three of City’s goals came against the run of play … The only team they’ve beaten so far that hasn’t been absolutely awful is Arsenal, and the scoreline puts a gloss on a dominating Arsenal performance that only lacked the finishing touch. City have to prove they deserve to be in amongst Chelsea, United, Arsenal, and Liverpool in terms of quality, and the truth is they have only beaten one quality team this season.” |
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| #7 | Olympique Lyonnais (France) |  |
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| “Lyon are top of their Champions League group and are second in Lique 1. After the 4-0 drubbing of Debrecen, Lyon look poised to advance into the CL knock-out round. They may have sold Benzema, but Lisandro Lopez and Bafetimbi Gomiz have filled the void and returned OL to its rightful place of glory.”– Jordan Wise | ||
| #6 | F.C. Girondins de Bordeaux (France) |  |
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| “The French won’t be ignored any longer! Bordeaux are top of the Ligue 1 and are second in their Champions League group, forcing Juventus to challenge for second place. They may not be destroying opponents like Real Madrid, but Bordeaux are winning games that count.”– Jordan Wise | ||
| #5 | Sevilla F.C. (Spain) |  |
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| “With so many Spanish teams in the top 10, it may seem like bias, but our hands are forced here. The teams at the top in La Liga aren’t there by chance, they’re there because they’ve been embarrassing the rest of the table. Sevilla put up 4 away goals against both Athletic Bilbao and Rangers in their two matches this week, which means the top three in Spain have now put in 44 goals while only shipping 8 at the back. It makes England’s ‘Big 4′ ashamed of their nickname. However, it appears someone’s headed for a fall this weekend as Sevilla play host to Real Madrid on Sunday.”– Lee Radke | ||
| #4 | Chelsea F.C. (England) |  |
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| “What was it that was said about the fleeting nature of a team’s form last week? Didier Drogba described the defeat at Wigan as the single worst Chelsea performance during his tenure at the club – and he was part of the team that was laughed off the Old Trafford pitch after a 3-0 reverse last season left them in fourth. Suddenly cast in a new light, their 1-0 victory midweek over APOEL gave off a cagey and unconvincing feeling, where previously the perception was that a good team finds a way to grind out results once in a while. Don’t be mistaken, this could be an anomaly, but with the power of hindsight it could be said this downturn was on the cards for a while.”– Lee Radke | ||
| #3 | Manchester United F.C. (England) |  |
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| “I’m pretty sure Ryan Giggs has a fountain of youth in his back yard. That, or he feasts on the stem cells of babies and drinks the blood of virgins to stay so prevalent. Giggs may be the single reason Manchester United are playing as well as they are, but he couldn’t do it without his battering ram, Wayne Rooney, or the maestro at the top, Dimitar Berbatov. The back line needs to tighten up and Sir Alex has to be ready for Edwin Van Der Sar to return, but once all those pieces fall into place, this team could be unstoppable yet again.”– Jordan Wise | ||
| #2 | Real Madrid C.F. (Spain) |  |
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| “I can finally give them props as deserving to be on this list. A 3-nil thrashing of Marseille was impressive in midweek, and for me Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player on the planet right now, and there’s nothing any defender can do to stop him from scoring. Their defense is still weak, but so far they’ve outscored their opposition so it hasn’t been an issue. Whether that continues to be the case over the course of the season is another questions altogether, but for now Madrid are taking no prisoners up front.”– Seena Vali | ||
| #1 | F.C. Barcelona (Spain) |  |
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| “Messi has been on fire and Ibrahimovic’a current run of form appears to erase any doubts about getting rid of [Samuel] Eto’o. The Spanish and European champions better watch their backs though, Real Madrid are pushing hard to overtake the Catalans as the best team in the world. The only question I have about this club is ‘Who chooses those dreadful kit colors?’”– Jordan Wise | ||
Dropped out: Juventus (6th), Internazionale (8th)
Also Considered: Fiorentina, Arsenal, Juventus, Tottenham, Palmeiras, Sampdoria, Bayer Leverkusen, Braga
Last week we noted the ranking’s lack of diversity, and although there are no more or less leagues represented in the list (still five), dropping the Italian teams and adding a German club gives the list less of a “Big Three” feel. England and Spain do occupy six spots on this list (and the entire top five), but the French clubs are very close to breaking that hold (and Bordeaux was fifth last week).
The greatest debated behind the scenes centered around Sevilla, Manchester City, and Estudiantes.
The discent on Manchester City is noted by Seena Vali, above. For Estudiantes, the criticism comes down to a lack of competition.
For Sevilla, the detractors have changed their tune. After an impressive week that saw them put up an 8-1 aggregated in two matches, the questions center less on the club and more on the league. Sevilla was very close to rising to number four in the rankings, a phenomenon that raised the following question: Is La Liga so much better then other leagues that they have three of the four top teams in the world?
Whether the excellence of three of the league’s twenty teams should speak that loudly for the entire league is another debate. The way that the discussion was broached should inform this Sunday’s match between Sevilla and Real Madrid. For at least one week, our panel sees the two teams at similar levels. In that light, the match will be this season’s first battle of titans.
Now, to our contributors. You may have noticed a name absent from this week’s quotes. Our resident Russia-phobe and hater of all (my) attempts to keep Estudiantes in this poll, Jared Dubois, is out of commission this week. While everybody at World Soccer Reader wishes him our best, he did send along the following message:
“Apparently, upon semi-waking from my sedative induced slumber at the dentitst today, spoke Spanish and then proceeded to try and talk the assistant into a three way with my wife… None of which I remember.”
Funny, heart-warming, and daring, but worth no points in our rankings:
15 – Jared DuBois, LA Galaxy/MLS correspondent
11 – Jordan Wise, Houston Dynamo/EPL correspondent
9 – Seena Vali, Manchester United/EPL correspondent
5 – Lee Radke, EPL Correspondent
1 – Mark Goodman, La Liga correspondent
1 – Ed Morgans, DC United correspondent
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About Richard Farley
Richard Farley is a U.S.-based contributor to World Soccer Reader. He also hosts Inside the Six, the site's regular podcast. He can be reached at richardfarley at gmail dot com and followed on Twitter, username "richardfarley." And while you are at it, feel free to check out RF Football.
“The rumored shift of power from England and Italy to Spain”
World Champions-Italy
European Champions-Spain
Champions League-FC Barcelona
UEFA Cup-Shakhtar Donetsk
Oh and re Chelsea “Won 3-1 in league play on Satruday, at Wigan Athletic.”
Aside from the spelling mistake, i think you’ll find that was a loss.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/8269672.stm
Thanks for catching the mistake, Charles. A lot of this article has gotten to be cut-and-paste, but you spotted a big problem with that process, and I appreciate it. We’ve corrected it. Definitely appreciate you devoting so much time to World Soccer Reader! It’s good to know people are dedicated to the site!
Not sure what Estudiantes are doing here. And where are the Italian clubs? Inter Milan played Barcelona to the letter in a scoreless draw a few weeks ago.
Man City eighth is a bit generous. Porto probably deserves a look as well.
Not a bad job but I still prefer my list better (not that there’s any reason for me to biased or anything)
Where’s Joe Public?
Joe Public F.C.?
Tunapuna.