We are almost at the halfway point in the Premier League season, 18 games complete and Boxing Day signals the halfway point on December 26th. It’s quite the day of soccer in England. 18 teams play, it’s wall to wall soccer. I checked our local TV schedule and you will have opportunities all day to catch some top flight soccer. Channel 662 NBC Sports or also on the NBC Sports App as well.

6:30 Tottenham vs. Brighton

9:00 Chelsea vs. Southampton

11:30 Manchester United vs. Newcastle United

And to top off the day, the #1 and #2 teams in the table, this doesn’t happen very often so you might want to check this one out.

11:30 Leicester City vs. Liverpool

Boxing Day- A Quick History

A national holiday, the day after Christmas (also called St. Stephen’s Day) has come to be known as Boxing Day in England. While there is some debate on the origins, a few popular stores provide the clues. One theory suggests the date was a day off for servants who would receive a Christmas box from their employers to take home to their families. Another proposes that great ships setting sail would have a sealed box full of money onboard for good luck. If the voyage was a success, the box was given to the church and the contents donated to the poor on this day. Regardless, the real key is the tradition leads us to an incredible day of soccer. The story goes…in a moment of peace in 1914 during WWI, English and German soldiers dropped their weapons and decided to have a little game of football (the English kind). A ball appeared and a little impromptu game ensued. Crazy but probably true. Wow–what a moment. From that history, soccer on Boxing Day became a Thing! Local Derby’s were the rage for many years….big games against local rivals.

The Premier League fully takes advantage of the Holiday, much like we have Football in America on Thanksgiving, with not much to do but sit around and watch soccer all day. Sounds good to me!

Match Week 17/18 Recap

1. Four teams went undefeated the past two matches….Liverpool, Manchester City, Burnley and Sheffield United. Sheffield surged to 5th in the table.
2. Leicester City in a mini-slump. After roaring out the first half of the season and challenging for the top spot, Leicester City had a draw and loss the past week. The draw to Norwich City is a bit alarming. Manchester City had a solid 3-1 win to re-establish the faith in their fans that they have a chance to challenge Liverpool in the second half of the season.
3. Chelsea had an important win. After a bad run of form, winning only 1 of their last 5 and facing their former manager, Chelsea found their form and really dominated Tottenham to extend their gap and take control of the 4th spot in the table.
4. Manchester United, at the time in 6th, lost to #20 and bottom of the table Watford this week. A shock defeat really. Watford has been last all season and had only 1 win to show for their first 17 games. A new manager was assigned recently, and as sometimes happens, the new coach finds a new energy and a new passion from the players. Watford looked the better team all day and Manchester United looked frustrated. As is typical in a big upset, it was a mistake and PK that led to the win, but a deserving 2-0 win regardless. Wow! Have I ever mentioned, the Premier League is the toughest league in sport. Where else do you see these kind of upsets.

Games of the week. Mentioned above, these two top 6 match ups were big games. Manchester City now ready to challenge. Chelsea with a rebound win and a statement to their ex-manager. Lets take a look.

Leicester score on their first shot of the game, but then things just go City’s way…. a deflection goal, a PK and then Manchester City closes the door on a nice goal in the second half.

Chelsea switched up their formation to 3-4-3 and really won the tactical battle, owning possession, owning the shots and shots on goal stats as well. It was their best performance of the year and biggest win of the year. Sweeter that is was against “The Special One”, former coach Mourinjo.
For first year coach and club legend, Frank Lampard, it was “A Special Day”. And Tottenham, well, Tottenham just imploded a bit on two occasions. The penalty on their GK was a bit crazy…what was he thinking…a crazy jump and attempt to kick the ball resulted in a take down of Chelsea defender Alonso. He whiffed the kick and just ran over Alonso. Very clumsy. Most surprising was the initial call was goal kick. VAR correctly overturned and award the penalty. Later, what was Son thinking when he kicked out on Rudiger. Just lost his mind for a split second….Red Card. As a Chelsea fan….we don’t like Tottenham, so a pretty cool day for Chelsea fans. Win the game, beat Mourinjo and watch Tottenham implode twice.

Race for the Top 4

1. Liverpool 16-1-0. 49 Points and still undefeated, plus a game in hand.
2. Leicester City 12-3-3 39 Points
3. Manchester City 12-2-4 38 Points
4. Chelsea 10-2-6 32 Points
5. Sheffield United 7-7-4 28 Points
6. Wolverhampton 6-9-3 27 Points

Tottenham, Manchester United, Newcastle United and Burnley round out the Top 10. Arsenal has slipped to 11th but named a new head coach this week. Mikel Arteta, the #2 behind Pep Guardiola at Manchester City was named to replaced fired Unai Emery. Lots of talent there, and can Arteta get them to find their potential and challenge for a top 6 spot.

The Relegation Zone

There are currently only 4 teams within 3 points of the relegation zone. Bottom teams are finding some key wins and climbing the table. Southampton sits in 17th, just outside the zone with 18m points. The current bottom three include:

18. Aston Villa with 15 Points. 19. Norwich City with 12 points. 20. Watford with 12 points.

Game of the Week—Week 19

Leicester City vs. Liverpool. Leicester City need a rebound after a tough week. The rest of the league needs to know that Liverpool can be caught and will not be a runaway winner of the league.

UEFA Champions League Update

The annual competition of the top clubs in Europe is well under way with teams having completed the round robin matches. The 16 Teams advancing to the Knock Out stages have been determined and the draw for match ups happened last week. Here is the next round match ups. 5 Countries represented. England (4), Spain (4), Germany (3), Italy (3) and France (2)

1. PSG (France) vs. Dortmund (Germany)
2. Bayern Munich (Germany) vs. Chelsea (England )
3. Manchester City (England) vs. Real Madrid (Spain)
4. Juventus (Italy) vs. Lyon (France)
5. Liverpool (England) vs. Athletico (Spain)
6. Barcelona (Spain) vs. Napoli (Italy)
7. RB Leipzig (Germany) vs. Tottenham (England)
8. Atalanta (Italy) vs. Valencia (Spain)

Big Rivers All Conference Recap

In case you missed it, here is a little recap of the All Conference Teams and POY announcement.

Player of the Year. Lu Shi Xiong. Memorial.

First Team. Kolton Prater (Hudson), Lu Shi Xiong (Memorial), Cole Ober (Hudson), Logan Junker (Memorial), Luke Rosenberger (Memorial), Gage Espanet (River Falls), Nick Thompson (Hudson), Parker Bowman (Rice Lake), Jacob Peloquin (Memorial), Cory Denning (Hudson), Ayden White (North). Of note….all Seniors selected this year to the first team.

Second Team. Ryder Woodworth (Memorial), Kyle Siddons (Chippewa Falls), Owen Wise (River Falls), Tyler Albrecht (North), Ben Kemp (Rice Lake), Garrett Woodford (Memorial), Josh Linton (River Falls), Sam Ross (Hudson), Shane Drazkowski (Menomonie), Louis Larson (Rice Lake), Jonathan Fenton (Menomonie). Observations….Memorial, River Falls, and Menomonie with 2 Juniors on the list.

Honorable Mention. Jared Nunez (Memorial), Braeden Williams (Hudson), Teig O’Kelly (Hudson), Matt Gyorfi (Memorial), Landon Brunke (Chippewa Falls), Jake Engebritson (Rice Lake), Jack Echternach (North), Miles Longsdorf (River Falls), Joey Grikis (Hudson), Will Hartman (Memorial), Ben Matheson (River Falls). Of note….4 sophomores make the list. No sophomore on the 1st or 2nd teams.

So, it’s time to get caught up. The State tournament has been completed and we need to congratulate Verona for winning then D1 tournament. Let’s take a look at the Semi-Finals and Finals results.

State Tournament Recap

Semi-Finals Verona vs. Kenosha Tremper. Verona was in control and found the net via three different players in a comfortable 3-0 win. They out shot Kenosha 25-7 and had 9 corner kicks to 3. A 1-0 lead at half extend to a 3-0 win and a trip to the finals.

Semi-Finals Neenah vs. EC Memorial. The stats in this game don’t really tell the story. If I told you the shots on goal were 9-9 and the corner kicks were 4-3, then you would surmise it was a really close game, likely OT or PK’s needed to decide it. Unfortunately for Memorial, that wasn’t the case. Two goals with a Nasr assist and Priest goal led Neenah . Priest is rumored to be headed to Marquette to play D1 soccer next year. A pretty impressive talent for sure. Memorial scored late but it was not meant to be. Neenah was efficient and clinical in their finishing and advanced to the state finals against Verona. Congrats to Memorial on a great season and advancing to state. It’s quite an accomplishment. They have a ton of returning players and will reload for another run. Thank you to all the seniors for giving their best to Old Abe soccer. We will miss you. Thank You Scott Knowlton, Logan Junker, Ethan Pawlak, Ashton Johnson, Evan Smith, Jacob Peloquin, Will Hartman, Lu Shi Xiong, and Luke Rosenberger. An impressive group of young men, a few of whom will go on to play college soccer. We wish them the best. My lasting EC Memorial memory of this year. Sectional Champs.

D1 State Finals Verona vs. Neenah. Verona completed their championship in I think their first ever visit to the State Tournament. An efficient 2-0 win, scoring a goal in each half. The stats reflect a pretty solid win and a game where they were in control. Shots favored Verona 19-5 and corner kicks favored Verona 9-3. Two solid wins at the tournament crown them the champs.

D2 Recap. New Richmond was knocked out in the Semi-Finals, losing to Brookfield East 4-1. Brookfield Central defeated Brookfield East in the championship game. It was tied 1-1 after regulation and the stayed 1-1 after OT. An epic PK shootout ensued with Brookfield Central escaping with an 8-7 victory and a State Championship. What a way to win….the celebration likely was pretty awesome. 8-7 PK….wow!

D3 Recap. Rice Lake also lost in the semi-finals 7-2 to McFarland. McFarland took on Shorewood in the finals and Shorewood prevailed 2-1 to win for their second state tournament title.

D4 Recap. Sturgeon Bay secured the state title with a 2-1 win over The Prairie School. It was Sturgeon Bay’s second title and they defeated perennial favorite, The Prairie School with 5 state titles to their credit.

USWNT Names New Head Coach

A new era for the USWNT has begun. Legendary coach Jill Ellis retired from the job coaching the US Women’s National Team and passed the torch to newly named head coach Vlatko Andonovski. A little quick review of Jill Ellis and her career.

Played college soccer at William & Mary from 1984-1987.

Assistant Coach at NC State, Maryland and Virginia

Head Coach at Illinois and UCLA

USWT Coach for U21 and U20 National Teams before being named Interim coach of the USWNT and then officially head coach from 2014-2019. Her record of 106-19-7 is pretty impressive. As well, she is the back to back winner of the 2015 and 2019 World Cupsa, only the seocnd coach to do that I am told. An impressive resume for sure. But now we move on to a new era and a new coach.

Vlatko Andonovski played professional in lower level European leagues, played in the US in the NPSL and MISL, lower level professional leagues in the US. He moved into coaching and was in charge of the FC Kansas City and Rein FC teams from the National Womens Soccer League. In addition to being named Coach of the Year in 2013, he won two league titles in 2014 and 2015. He is well respected and knows soccer and the women’s game from years of coaching in the NWSL. He also understands the player pool well and is well positioned to bring in the next wave of USWNT players. He is off an running with two wins in two to start his career, a solid 3-2 win over talented Sweden and a strong 6-0 win over Costa Rica.

MLS Cup Results

The MLS season came to a close this past weekend with the MLS Cup between the Seattle Sounders and the Toronto FC. It was a bit of a surprise final with Seattle being a #2 seed of 8 in the West and Toronto being a #4 seed in the East. Seattle upsetting the top seed LAFC in the semi-finals while Toronto getting past both the #1 and #2 seeds along the way, NYCFC and Atlanta United. Quite a path to the finals.

Toronto could not keep their run going though, losing to a strong game from Seattle. Three second half goals provided Seattle all the room they needed in a dominating second half. A stoppage time goal for Toronto made it a bit more respectable. 3-1 in the finals.

Premier League Quick Update

Game of the Year- Liverpool vs. Manchester City. This past weekend marked the marquee match up of the season to date. Liverpool the early leader and Manchester City, last years champions but currently chasing Liverpool. The game was played at Anfield in Liverpool and the crowd was electric. Liverpool really dominated the game and was stunningly effective on the counter attack. Two really amazing goals jettisoned them to an early 2-0 lead and they never looked back. The Fabinho goal from 25 yards away was a rocket…an amazing strike. One of the best of the year for sure. As always in big games….a little bit of controversy. What could easily have been called a hand ball in Liverpool’s box that would have led to a PK for Manchester City was waived off and immediately Liverpool counter attacked and produced a moment of magic on the other end for a goal for Salah. Crazy. From no penalty to a goal in like 15 seconds. VAR reviewed and declared no penalty. Oh my. Kind of looked like a hand ball, but that’s a tough rule to interpret and the rules have changed on that recently….but it was not called a hand ball and Liverpool pounced! It went 3-0 until a late Manchester City goal salvaged a little respect. Liverpool extended their league lead to 8 points over second and 9 points over 4th place Manchester City. It’s Liverpool’s title to win.

Chelsea’s Pulisic Scores Again

Captain America, the USMNT’s best player…in my opinion….and the great hope of American soccer, Christian Pulisic was at it again this past weekend. He notched his 5th goal of the season and helped Chelsea to a much needed win against Crystal Palace moving up to 3rd in the table. He has now recorded 5 goals and 5 assists on the year, one of only a handful of players to do so this year. Pretty impressive. The only bummer, he injured his hip on the play and had to back out of a couple of important games for the National Team. He will be missed as he is playing a a really high level the past month.

The Premier League is off for a few weeks on the international break, MLS is completed, so look for an update on Champions League later this weekend.

Hope these updates can keep you covered until then!