Each week, Luis Miguel Echegaray discusses his likes and dislikes from the soccer world including standout performances, games you might have missed and what to keep an eye on in the coming days.
ONSIDE
Erling Haaland, Manchester City and their masterclass
In Nordic culture, long hair was regarded as a symbol of power, so when the hair goes down it’s a message to suggest the end of a warrior’s journey. “My work here is done,” they might say.
And when Haaland let his pony tail down right before scoring Man City’s fourth goal against Arsenal, you knew this game — and most notably this title — was done. Pep Guardiola’s men put on a masterclass against Arsenal at the Etihad on Wednesday with a 4-1 victory and despite the mathematical uncertainty, it’s fair to say that City’s chances of winning their seventh league title — fifth in the last six seasons — are all but set. Not only that but they are also 11 matches away in all competitions from being crowned treble winners as a Champions League semifinal against Real Madrid and an FA Cup final vs. Manchester United await. The match at the Etihad was a clear message to everyone else who is standing in their way, including Madrid and United: this City side is in no mood to slow down.
Champions League in the U.S.? Perhaps. Champions League final? I hope not.
Earlier this week, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin discussed the possibility of Champions League fixtures in the U.S. “It’s possible,” he said. “We started to discuss about that but then one year it was the World Cup, [20]24 is Euro, this year [the final] is [in] Istanbul, ’24 is London and ’25 is Munich and after that, let’s see.”
Here are my two cents. In order to maximize the potential of a brand, which in this case is the Champions League, this statement from Ceferin is not a surprising one. Market revenue and the potential benefits of attaining a new, young audience, specifically in a promising market such as the U.S. and North America, show it makes sense to experiment with attendance outside of Europe.
This is exactly what the NFL does. Next season, the league will host a record five games in the old continent (two in Germany and three in England). Given the U.S.’s European community, the right teams could pose a great atmosphere, whether it’s the Meadowlands or SoFi stadium.
However, a couple of things are different when comparing this idea to what the NFL or NBA is doing. For one, there’s the player’s mental and physical health to take into consideration. Traveling across the pond for a Wednesday fixture and then flying back almost immediately in order to be ready for a weekend fixture in their respective leagues sounds daunting.
And when the NFL hosts these games abroad, they are within the regular season, so the only way I can envision this concept is for it to happen during the group stage. A final or even a knockout stage fixture doesn’t make sense to hold outside of Europe. It’s the same reasoning that the NFL would never host the Super Bowl in Europe, equally the ultimate European knockout competition should never have its final anywhere else.
Either way, as a New Yorker, the idea of Napoli in the Meadowlands sounds amazing.
