Champions League returns

The Champions League groups stages kick off returns tonight and depending upon your viewpoint,  it’s either the moment when the European season truly kicks off or, the start of yet another endless procession of predictable matches culminating in the same clubs reaching the knockout stages.
The pick of tonight’s games sees Italian champions, Milan, start their campaign with a daunting trip to holders Barcelona.
The match provides Milan midfielder Mark van Bommel with an opportunity to renew acquaintance with his former team mates. The midfielder spent a season at Camp Nou five years ago, but the lasting memory most of his former colleagues will have of him will be from last year’s World Cup final.
Van Bommel, along with his team mates, earned criticism for an overly physical approach to that game, and his presence for Milan has prompted questions about a fear factor within the Barca camp.
“I do not fear Van Bommel, I had no problems with him at Barca. I have nothing against him,” Andrew Iniesta told reporters during a pre-match press conference.
“I like to think we all act in good faith, defending our own interests. There were hard tackles but it ended very well for me, for us.”
It did for Iniesta, who scored the winner in that game, but a quick look at this clip shows how differently it could have ended.

Kick-start the season

For Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal, tonight’s Champions League opener represents an opportunity to kick-start their respective seasons.
Arsenal’s problems have been well-documented, and Bundesliga champions, Dortmund, have not exactly fared much better. Five games into the campaign and they languish in the lower half of the table with just 7 points.
Another team looking for a transformation in form, is Marseille. Last year’s runners-up in the French league have picked up just three points from their opening five matches this season.
Marseille face Greek side Olympiakos, who have yet to play a match this season having seen both their league games postponed.
As openers go, Marseille couldn’t really have asked for much more. Coach Didier Deschamps though, was in a glass half empty kind of mood.
“The fact Olympiakos haven’t played yet is not ideal, as we only have information from their friendly matches, but they are an attacking side with quality players in midfield and attack,” he said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ-MsI4XvFQ&feature=player_embedded

Dispatches

Channel 4′s Dispatches exposé on the problems of drug taking within English football turned out to be something of a damp squib. Viewers hoping for any scandalous revelations about big-name players, or at least a chemical explanation for England’s dismal World Cup campaign in South Africa, will have been left disappointed by the programme.
The highest profile player named was Scottish international, Garry O’Connor, who tested positive for cocaine while on Birmingham’s books in 2009. Perhaps more damaging was the revelation that his then manager, Alex McCleish, covered for O’Connor when the player was serving a two-month drug ban, by telling reporters the striker was undergoing an operation.
The FA do not reveal the identity of those who fail tests, claiming that the public exposure would undermine their attempts to rehabilitate players. Mmm.
O’Connor is now with Scottish outfit Hibernian and last May fled from police officers who eventually caught up with him and found him in possession of a white powder, suspected to be cocaine.
So much for rehabilitation.