World Power Rankings 9/23

Recently on the latest episode of the tbrfootball.com video podcast my friend Nate and I gave our takes on the top 5 teams in the world right now. This was based off of the Power Rankings done by ESPNFC. We both had the same 5 teams in almost the exact same order. My list looking like:

1. Real Madrid
2. Bayern Munich
3. Barcelona
4. Manchester United
5. Arsenal

With his list looking like:

1. Bayern Munich
2. Real Madrid
3. Barcelona
4. Manchester United
5. Arsenal

I think it's time to revise the list after Manchester United got totally dominated by Manchester City and I'll tell you why my list is the way it is.

1. Bayern Munich - Now in the upcoming episode I said Bayern Munich would only move up to number 1 over Real Madrid once they set a lineup, well this weekend against Schalke they played so well and dominated the game that I can't justify making the only reason they get to move up being a set lineup. Bayern played almost perfect football, controlling the tempo, passing crisply, attacking and defending with ease, and just making Schalke look completely inferior. Bayern are catching fire at the moment, with 7 goals in their past 2 games. Can anyone stop a fully realized Bayern side? Probably not, and early in the seasons of world football it looks increasingly likely the European Champions will repeat for the first time ever.
2. Real Madrid - Real Madrid get bumped down to number 2 on my list for really only one reason, the quality of the team they beat this weekend wasn't enough to keep them from holding off Bayern. a 6-1 win at Galatasaray in the Champions League followed by a 4-1 win over Getafe have Real Madrid flying right now. They are my picks to win La Liga and make a Champions League final unless paired up with Bayern in the Semis.
3. Arsenal - This is going to be the most controversial spot on my list, but Arsene Wenger's side are playing as well as any team on the planet right now. A great 2-1 win in Marseille was followed up by a good 3-1 win over Stoke City this weekend. Mesut Ozil leads the EPL with 3 assist and has only played 2 games in the league. Olivier Giroud is looking reliable, Flamini has added some fight to the midfield, and their back four are playing in top form. 
4. Barcelona - Now some might call me crazy for placing Arsenal ahead of Barcelona in my power rankings, but right now I feel that there is just something missing at the Nou Camp. Again, you might think I'm crazy after back to back 4-0 wins, but I just feel like Barcelona aren't playing to full power. Their back four is suspect, and that right now is my main concern with the Blaugrana. 
5. Napoli - Big spending Napoli make an appearance in my top spot this week. A win over AC Milan where Pepe Reina became the first keeper to ever save a Mario Balotelli goal and a good win over Champions League runners up Dortmund have Napoli in good form, and Gonzalo Higuain looks the deadly striker that many knew he would be. How long Napoli can keep up their great form remains to be seen, but they're my wildcard pick for the Serie A title this year. 

And there it is, my top 5 in the world as of September 23rd. What do you think? Am I crazy for putting Arsenal ahead of Barcelona? Should Man City be in the list after decimating Manchester United? Let me know in the comments below or on twitter @theinformsoccer.

The Boot Room Video Blogs

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know you can check my buddy Nate and I out on YouTube at youtube.com/clsoccer2012 making our weekly video blog for The Boot Room, my more professional site!

Here is this weeks video, if you like it please thumbs it up, subscribe to the channel, comment, and share the link!

Mesut Ozil: The Pressure is On

Arsenal fans were crying out for a signing, and it seemed as though the club were going to have another disappointing transfer window. And then it happened.

Soon after Gareth Bale completed his world record move to Real Madrid there were grumblings about what stars Madrid would be willing to sell to cover the cost of Bale. Di Maria, Benzema, and Ozil were all names thrown out as potentially expendable. One club linked to all of the names was none other than Arsenal. Arsene Wenger's lack of spending was the butt of every transfer market joke this summer, and then he broke the club record transfer fee.

Ozil was announced with less than an hour left in the transfer window, and though Ozil wasn't the signing that was needed, he's the signing every fan of the club wanted. A marquee, big money move by a club being slammed for not being able to attract top talent.

It seemed Ozil saw the writing on the wall with the transfers of Isco and Bale. That coupled with the fact he was regularly not finishing games and being subbed off with a good portion of the games he started remaining made it most likely an easy choice. Fans of every other team in La Liga should be rejoicing right about now, according to Squawka Ozil created 91 scoring chances last season. He is arguably the best playmaker in the world right now, and his ability combined with the likes of Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere, and the other attackers on the team could be deadly. Not to mention he will likely make Olivier Giroud look even better than he has already this season.

Now, as amazing as the signing of Ozil is, it doesn't completely make us forget what Arsenal lack. They still need a box to box midfielder, another center back, and a second striker. But we can't dismiss that Ozil will make the Arsenal attack something that has to be looked at closely and feared by all defenses.

Does Ozil make Arsenal a title contender this year? No, not at all. As amazing as he is he won't make up for the deficiencies the club still have. But, he will invigorate the clubs fans with a feeling of, "this is the start of something special." A player like Ozil is the perfect building block for Arsene Wenger, and maybe the first real step to Arsenal finally ending the silverware drought.

For a more tactical look at how Ozil will effect Arsenal check out this post.

Potential Young Stars, Revised

A few days ago I made a post with players that have the potential to have huge breakout years this upcoming season. To expand on that post I came up with a data sheet with all their past data from pass completion percentage to average match rating. I also added a few names onto the list that weren't in the post. To see the original post go here: http://theinformsoccer.blogspot.com/2013/06/potential-20132014-season-breakout-stars.html

Player Name	Pass Success	Shots on goal	Clean Sheets	Avg Match Rtg	Tackles Won	Dribbles Completed	World Class Potential
Thiago Alcantara	91.9	0.8	N/A	7.25	1.5	1.6	Yes
Paul Pogba	82.5	1.8	N/A	7.21	2.4	1.5	Yes
David Alaba	88.8	1.2	N/A	7.3	1.9	0.7	Yes
Isco	85.6	1.9	N/A	7.17	1.2	2.2	Yes
Thibaut Courtois	47.3	N/A	20	6.82	N/A	N/A	Yes
David De Gea	60.3	N/A	11	6.83	N/A	N/A	Yes
Julian Draxler	81.7	2.1	N/A	7.39	1.4	2.7	Yes
Stephan El Shaarawy	84.2	2.6	N/A	7.16	1	1.1	Maybe
Kevin De Bruyne	76.8	2.7	N/A	7.58	1.5	3	Maybe
M'baye Niang	76.5	1.2	N/A	6.6	1.3	1.2	No
Raheem Sterling	84.1	1.2	N/A	6.77	1.5	1.5	No
Marc-Andre ter Stegen	63	N/A	9	6.86	N/A	N/A	No

I made this list of players that are some of the hottest young commodities I could think of and looked up some key stats that pertain to players and used those stats along with the "eye test" of how well they play when you watch them to determine if they can be considered world class one day.

Players that got a "Yes" in the World Class Potential category did so because they have shown that they can be great players on the biggest stages, and are at a young stage in their careers at which they are still improving. Not only did the players with a "Yes" have pretty good statistics this past season, but during the eye test it was clear these players had what it takes to become truly great.

Players that got a "Maybe" still have some question marks about them. The standout of the two will probably be El Shaarawy. Now I absolutely love El Shaarawy but he fell into the "Maybe" category for reasons mostly due to becoming second fiddle to Mario Balotelli, which raised question marks for me if AC Milan saw something we didn't in that maybe he isn't a viable number 1 option. But instead of dropping him in the "No" category I had to give him a "Maybe" because last summer I saw him play in person against Chelsea in Miami and the kid had a flair and confidence about him that looked like no other on the field.

Lastly we have the players that got a "No" and that doesn't necessarily mean I don't think they will be world class level, but it means at the moment from what I have seen I can't give them a "Maybe" or a "Yes" because their body of work just isn't enough to make that judgement.

So what do you think? Should we weigh the potential of players on stats and the eye test alone? One more than the other? And what do you think of the list? Let me know!

Potential 2013/2014 Season Breakout Stars

Great young talent is the key to the development of our sport. While established names are fun to watch and discuss, the young talent of the world can be just as fun to talk about. Everyone knows about the young stars of today that have already made a name for themselves such as Neymar, Mario Gotze, Eden Hazard, and Oscar, but there is a plethora of young talent that you probably wouldn't pay attention to unless they were playing at a big club or on big stages. Here we will highlight a few.

Julian Draxler – Julian Draxler could be the next great German attacking midfielder. This season at Schalke he put up astounding numbers, in 36 appearances for the German club he netted 11 goals and assisted on 3. Now this may not seem like much, but given the fact he is only 19 years old and thrusted himself into the starting line-up for Schalke, he shows lots of promise going forward. Draxler is more than capable of using both feet, is creative on the ball, a great passer (he completed roughly 82% of his passes this season), and is as lethal a finisher as midfielders go. Draxler is one to watch for this upcoming season, and I don't expect him to stay at Schalke for long if he keeps improving his performances.

Raheem Sterling – Outside of England you may not find many people that rate Raheem Sterling very high. Sterling found himself in the Premier League spotlight after he made a move to Liverpool from the QPR youth team at the tender age of 17. Sterling shows lots of promise, a speedy, crafty winger with great agility. The downside to Sterling is that we haven't seen enough of him in the first team for Liverpool, as he usually comes on as a substitute. In 31 matches for Liverpool this season, he only had 2 goals and 2 assists. That isn't that impressive for a player of his potential and its hard to give other stats for him because of his lack of playing time, but what is impressive is how much he improves each and every game. I see Sterling breaking into the starting line-up consistently next season and seeing his output improve in turn.

Deulofeu – His name may be hard to pronounce, but his quality isn't hard to recognize. Deulofeu looks like he could become another one of Barcelona's, La Masia, prodigies. Speed, ball control, vision, great passing. Deulofeu possess all of these qualities, qualities that a winger needs to have to be effective at the top level. His chance to get permanently promoted to Barcelona from Barcelona B seems to have dwindled a bit with the addition of Neymar, but a player with his potential won't be playing in a second tier league for long.

Marc-Andre ter Stegen – A lot of us like to talk about field players as they are usually more exciting to talk about, but we can't forget about the men between the sticks. Ter Stegen is one of the most, if not the most, promising young goal keeper out there today and some in Germany don't think it will be too long before he can find his way to more first team appearances for the National Team. At the age of 21 years old it seems like ter Stegen already has amazing skills that many veteran keepers took years to develop.

Beginners Guide to Soccer Part 2

     It's been awhile since my last post since I've been so busy with work recently but the last week allowed me some off time and time to watch the Tottenham vs. Basel game. Although we did not have a chance to watch from the beginning we picked up at around the 85th minute at 2-2.

     Ironically enough while watching what we thought would be the end of this game I was talking to the Informer about if they go into overtime how it works. Luckily for me I was able to watch it myself as the game went into overtime and ultimately penalties. Although this was a somewhat boring game with many goals that could have been but never found the back of the net. This was still a chance for me to see how a penalty shootout worked. Throughout the game I was going for Tottenham and for some reason when the penalties came I had a feeling that they wouldn't come through and I was right, Brad Friedel was unable to block Basel and ended in a 4-1 in the penalties with Basel going through.

  

Although rooting for Friedel he was unable to block any of Basel's penalty kicks.

DeAndre Yedlin can be the future of United States defending

It's no secret the state of the United States National Team defense is in limbo. Despite some good showings against Costa Rica and Mexico, there is no set back line for Jurgen Klinsmann's side, and it just seems to be who is available at the time that will start in the back for the National Team and the fact that the old guard of the USMNT defense is starting to look, well, old doesn't help.

Enter DeAndre Yedlin, the rookie defender for the Seattle Sounders. Yedlin burst onto the scene during the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions League, scoring his first competitive goal as a professional in a 3-1 win over heavily favored Tigres. But followers of United States promising youth will know him for his time spent at the University of Akron and during his time in the Seattle Sounders Youth Squad.

Yedlin brings lots to the table in terms of on field abilities and potential. Only 19 years old it is amazing that Yedlin has solidified his spot in the Sounders starting XI, but it's not surprising. In his final season at the youth level in 2012 he was named to the All-PDL First XI. Yedlin possesses a great top speed, and has shown he an get up the field to attack and be back on defense in time to not have to worry about him playing out of position.

There are still questions surrounding Yedlin, and those are justified by his play. There are times when he pushes up when he should maybe stay back, and times when he tries to do a little too much with the ball at his feet than most would like to see a full back do. But one thing is for certain, the kid has game. Having been recently called up to train with the United States U20 squad at their upcoming camp.

Yedlin is a step in the right direction for the United States and MLS, a homegrown player that is showing his quality now, and his future potential. Yedlin seems set to join an emerging group of young American players that can potentially or have already joined the senior squad. He might not play a flashy attacking position, but Yedlin is a prospect that any fan of United States soccer will want to keep an eye on now, and for years to come.

What do you think? Will Yedlin break into the senior squad and provide a boost to the defense? What other young players should be on the radar?

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