UEFA cup en espanol

[Freakaholic]

Being an American w/o cable, i missed the entire UEFA cup process, and am jsut now watching the highlights.

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v50098387rfsTy9 (in what i believe to be russian?)

absolutely some wicked soccer (football, whatever), but what struck me is that 3 of the top 4 teams were from Spain, and both finalists. i havent been following closely, or barely at all, but i thought the club level was dominated by Italy, England, and Germany. Have I just been clueless, and is Spain that much of a powerhouse?

Any other thoughts on this game?

 

[vimothy]

UEFA Cup = second tier teams

 

[Freakaholic]

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

ok, no wonder i was totally confused by getting 2 different resulsts from looking for the championship.

the Champions Cup was AC Milan and Liverpool, which makes more sense to my simple mind.

 

[tht]

nah spain has had the most success in the champions league too in recent years, germany is nowhere near that level, and all the significant italian teams except inter have been affected by corruption investigations or financial collapse in recent years

england and spain are probably about the same level on aggregate right now, with spain having the edge in terms of competitiveness (the title going to the wire) and the most gifted players tend to play there (exceptions would be kaka, ibrahimovic, henry & c ronaldo), although english teams are easily the wealthiest now and things may change rapidly

 

[IdleRich]

Yes but in the history of the European Cup (1st tier teams) the most successful of all time by some way is Real Madrid. Barcelona although having a relatively poor record in Europe also won it last year so Spain is indeed a powerhouse. In recent years the main club competition has been dominated by sides from Spain and Italy and in recent years England, Germany having fallen somewhat behind.
In 1985 after the Heysel Stadium disaster all English clubs were banned from Europe indefinitely. Up to that point England had (I believe) been the most successful nation but that draconian punishment (punishing all clubs for Liverpool's transgression) dealt a massive blow to football in this country (both club and country in my opinion). On their return to Europe in about 1990 the English clubs had been left behind and it was not until 1998 (was it?) that an English side won the main trophy again. Nowadays English clubs are becoming dominant (though not totally so as last night demonstrated) once again with an English side making the final in the last three years and three teams in the last four this year.