Thanks for the memories, Bundesliga
On to EPL, at least till North American sports make return
The Bundesliga did the job there for a couple of weeks for the sports-starved, but now we can all go back to not caring about German soccer.
The drama in that league, such as it was, is over, with Bayern Munich having already clinched the league title for the eighthstraight season. It’s fun to watch Alphonso Davies, the marvellous young Canadian, tear all over the pitch for Bayern, but less exciting now that his games don’t mean anything.
Conveniently, England’s Premier League is now sputtering back to life, with 90-plus matches — fixtures, if you will — to be crammed in before the end of July. So, as you wait for North America’s pro leagues to whip themselves into playing shape before their expected late summer returns, we provide this quick guide to all you need to know to become a diehard Premier League fan for, oh, the next 36 days or so.
WHO IS GOOD?
Liverpool. Liverpool is crazy good. They were pretty much that way last season, too, finishing just one domestic loss and a title in the Champions League — the competition among elite European clubs — but were beaten in the Premier League by Manchester City, which won 32 out of 38 games for a second-consecutive title.
Liverpool kept rolling this season, winning 27 of 29 matches before the pause, with one draw and one loss. Man City has wobbled a little, meaning Liverpool’s first league title in 30 years is all but inevitable, as their 82 points are 22 more than City. They are a fun international bunch, managed by Jurgen Klopp, a wise German with teeth like a horse. If you are looking for a bandwagon to join, that’s the one.
WHO IS BAD?
Here’s where it gets interesting. Six clubs have 29 points or fewer, and five of them — Brighton, West Ham, Watford, Bournemouth and Aston Villa — are bunched between 26 and 29 points. (Norwich City is in the cellar with 21.) Three teams will be relegated to England’s second tier when the season is completed, meaning at least two of those five will fall, and three if Norwich manages a heroic final run.
So, it’s essentially a five-team rock fight for the safety of the spots above the relegation zone. For a big, storied club like West Ham, which plays home games in London’s Olympic Stadium, a drop down would be calamitous, as it would lose piles of money. North American sports can certainly offer drama, but rarely is anything quite so concrete on the line.
OTHER SUBPLOTS?
Man City has a big off-field issue, which will ultimately have a significant bearing on the remaining league fixtures. It was dinged for improper financial hijinks and banned from European competitions for two years, which would include the high-profile, big-dollar Champions League. City appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport — the one familiar to those who follow doping offences — and a decision from the court is expected in early July. If the ban is upheld, or even reduced to one year, then the fifth spot in the Premier League table suddenly becomes very important.
The top four teams get into next year’s Champions League, but the fifth would also go if Man City is out. Chelsea sits in fourth with 48 points, and five teams are within eight points of them. That group includes big clubs like Manchester City and Arsenal, but also recently promoted teams like Wolverhampton, which came up last season, and plucky Sheffield United, back in the Premier League for the first time in 12 years this season. Well, only sort of plucky. The club is owned by a Saudi prince.
WHO ELSE IS CHASING SPOTS?
Tottenham Hotspur, the fabulously named north London club that lost the Champions League final to Liverpool last year, has a chance to get back in the competition. They have had a lot of drama this season, including the sacking of their manager and the loss of midfielder Christian Eriksen, who sulked his way out of town and to Italy.
But striker Harry Kane, who was originally lost for the year due to injury, is now back and healthy after the season took its three-month pause. Spurs are now managed by Jose Mourinho, who is at once massively successful and also widely disliked. This would be a weird bandwagon to jump on, if only because you would soon wish your team wasn’t managed by such a sourpuss.
WHAT ABOUT THE PLAYOFFS?
No playoffs! The beauty of the Premier League is that the regular season matters, which is why they were desperate to finish off what they had. If they can get through this next jampacked month, they can reset for whatever next season might look like. And where games are normally bunched on the weekends, they will have them on all days of the week from here on out. For a fan of English football, it is as though there was a long period of drought followed by an absolute deluge of rain. It is more football than they will know what to do with.