World War Z, Wimbledon 2013, and other matters…

Today we watched the trailer for World War Z, Brad Pitts's latest film that is scheduled to start playing in Japan in August. It looks pretty exciting, though I know some of the reviews are not so favorable. Before then, I want to see Love is all you need, a movie set in Italy and starring Pierce Brosnan. Check out the lemon creme brulee recipe!

The Wimbledon 2013 tournament finished last night. I didn't have time to watch any matches over the two weeks…until the ladies' final on Saturday night, when Marion Bartoli from France beat Germany's Sabine Lisicki. It was a fairly easy win in the end, but I found the match very entertaining. Last night, of course, witnessed Andy Murray beating Novak Djokovic in straight sets to become the first British man to win Wimbledon in 77 years. Even though he won in straight sets, it was a very tough match, with many long rallies and many deuces.

Soccer in December and January

• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day
• matches
• disappointment
• move up the table
• relegation
• avoid relegation
• be unlikely to avoid relegation
• promotion
• near the relegation places
• New Year's Eve
• New Year's Day
• The Guardian

In the holiday, I didn't have much chance to see or read about football, because the place where I was staying doesn't have any Internet connection. That was a pity, because the winter holiday is a very important time in the football season. Most teams in the Premier League play a match on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day, i.e. December 26th) and another match on New Year's Day. It is often said that, if you at the foot of the table on New Year's Day, you are rather unlikely to avoid relegation. At the top of the table, it is generally thought that, if you are not in the top 3 or 4 spots at this time of year, you are very unlikely to be the champion.

I get most of my football news from the Guardian, my favorite British newspaper. Although I was not able to read it during the holiday, I did see some news about Kagawa, who returned from injury to set up a goal or two for Manchester United.

By the way, what films are you looking forward to in 2013?

New Year holiday

This New Year holiday was a little shorter than usual. I went to Amakusa on January 30th, then came back to Kumamoto on January 3rd to prepare for intensive lectures at PUK, which went on from January 4th to January 6th.

Euro 2012

As I have mentioned a few times recently, the Euro 2012 football tournament is starting soon. England has a new manager, Roy Hodgson, who has not had time to work with the players. England has had two friendly matches and has won each one. Unfortunately, both in training and in the two matches, players have been injured and Hodgson has had to get permission to call up extra players. In Saturday's match, England lost Cahill, a defender, when he fractured his jaw. England's first match is against France, and everyone is worried that, with all the new players, teamwork will be very difficult.

In club football, Chelsea has signed two expensive new players, Eden Hazard from Belgium and Hulk from Brazil, even though Chelsea has no manager appointed for next season. Maybe next season will be a close fight between Chelsea, Manchester City, and Manchester United.

Champions League

On Saturday night, the Champions league final was held. It was a surprising match-up, between Chelsea (England) and Bayern Munchen (Germany), surprising because the teams had met Real Madrid and Barcelona in the semifinals, and most people had expected the Spanish teams to win their semifinals and meet in the final. Chelsea, especially, was a big surprise, because they had defended through nearly all the semifinal and won by not allowing Barcelona to take shots in the final quarter of the pitch. The final was the same, with Chelsea getting only about two shots in 90 minutes. Unfortunately for Bayern, one of those shots, in the 88th minute, became a goal for Chelsea.

Neither team was able to get a winner in the 90 minutes or in the extra 30 minutes, so finally there was a penalty shootout. Chelsea's goalkeeper, Cech, saved a couple of kicks very well, and Chelsea were champions, for the first time ever!

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Last day of the season

The last day of the Premier League season was yesterday. Like much of the season, it was very tense and up and down. Manchester United and Manchester City were level on points at the start of the day, but Manchester City were ahead on goal difference, so Manchester City would win the league if they won the match. If they didn't win the match, then they would have to hope that Manchester United didn't win theirs.

Most of the matches started at the same time, and I followed them on the Guardian web site. It looked as if City were going to lose the match until extra time, when City scored two goals in the 92nd and 94th minutes, to win City's first league title in 44 years!

Premier League & F.A. Cup in early May

The Premier League season is almost over. Most teams finished their 37th (out of 38) match yesterday. Both Manchester United and Manchester City won their matches, so now both are equal on points going into the last week of the season, with Manchester City ahead on goal difference. That means that Manchester City will win the league if they win their last match. Their opponent will be Queens Park Rangers, who nearly always lose away from home. But this match is likely to be rather special, because QPR are at risk of being relegated if they don't get some points from the game. In addition, their manager, Mark Hughes, used to be the manager of Manchester City, but was sacked a couple of years ago; and Joey Barton, QPR captain, also used to be a Manchester City player. (138 words)

Premier League again

In the last post, I said that many people believe that the top 3 places will be taken by Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea, and that that order seems most likely. I actually think that Chelsea will overtake Manchester City once the new manager gets used to his team and possibly brings in a new player or two in the January transfer window. So my prediction for the top 3 is:

1. Manchester United
2. Chelsea
3. Manchester City

The 4th spot is very interesting and important because the 4th team also gets a chance to play in the Champions League, which as I mentioned before brings in a quite a lot of money. For the last 14 years, Arsenal has always been one of the teams qualifying for the Champions league places but that looks unlikely this year. Most people think either Liverpool or Tottenham will get that 4th spot. I think it will probably be Tottenham, because many of Liverpool's players are not so strong (I believe), although Liverpool's manager is probably a little better than Tottenham's.