Soccer Around The World: 2015-2016 Season
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Soccer Around The World: 2015-2016 Season

We look at whats going on in the world of soccer for the season.

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Soccer Around The World: 2015-2016 Season
themichelicenter.com

Well, it’s another season of club soccer in the books. Let me say, it has been an insane ride. There’s been Cinderella stories, total dominations, close games, and new teams with new players. In this article, I am not going to discuss the MLS yet because their season is not completely done. But without further ado, let’s dive into the madness, and review the world of soccer for the 2015-2016 season.

In the Premier League, we saw the dream come true for Leicester City, as they clinched the Premier League Title for the first time in Club history. What a journey that was for them. Chelsea, last year’s Premier League Champs, stuttered and were almost at the point of relegation at one moment during the season, and are now under a new head coach, Antonio Conte from Italy. Another team that definitely underperformed was Manchester United. Stuck with what should have been a star squad, they also had trouble winning games and producing results that were highly anticipated. They had a nice late run, and ended up in sixth place, but it was also due to the fact that it seemed like most teams had underperformed this season. Key players were Jaime Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, Eden Hazard, Dimitri Payet, Harry Kane, David De Gea, Mesut Ozil, Petr Cech, Dele Alli and Willy Caballero. Some notable events that happened were the record that Vardy broke for the most games consecutively scoring at least one goal, and Aston Villa being relegated for the first time in club history.

The Bundesliga, in a stark contrast, was much straighter forward. Bayern Munich were predicted to win the title, and did so with no problem. Borussia Dortmund came in second, and then there was a massive gap in points between BVB and Bayer Leverkusen, with an 18-point difference. The Bundesliga has been a hot topic lately though, with a lot of players inside the league being targeted for transfers, both leaving and coming in. Mats Hummels, in a bit of a surprise, chose to leave BVB and transfer to Bayern Munich, angering a lot of fans on both sides. The domestic cup also ended in a predictable matchup, Bayern Munich against Borussia Dortmund. Bayern Munich ended up winning in penalties. Some events worth considering were Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski set a new record and shocked many of us by being subbed into a game, and then scoring five goals, yes count them out, five goals in nine minutes. Another new record of some kind without a doubt. Another new record set was the fastest goal ever scored, occurred when Bayern played Bayer Leverkusen, and Bayer’s winger Karim Bellarbi intercepted the ball on a defensive blunder, scoring in only nine seconds. As you can see, most of the stuff happening in the Bundesliga revolved around BVB and Bayern this season. Key players were Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, Karim Bellarbi, Marco Reus, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Loris Karius, Mats Hummels, Roman Burki, Chicharito Hernandez, and Rahf Fahrmann.

The more popular La Liga in Spain was a little more interesting this season, most in thanks to Messi’s injury in the early to mid-season, and missed eight weeks. During those eight weeks, Barca players Neymar Jr. and Luis Suarez were given the task of leading the team’s attack front, and they did so in a spectacular fashion. Other than that, the entire Barcelona team performed very well as usual, but conceded some unusual games, which surprised a lot of people this year. On the opposite front, Real Madrid did the same thing, performing very well and showing their usual expertise and class in soccer. Ronaldo played well, and was complimented by Welshman Gareth Bale and striker Karim Benzema. La Liga seemed to have a definite issue with the law this year however, as Benzema was arrested for supposed blackmailing, and barred from the French National Team. Lionel Messi is currently being investigated for tax evasion by the Spanish Bureau and the FIFA organization, and his name has even appeared in documents that were leaked earlier this year in the Panama Papers incident. The surprise of this year was the standout performance that Athletico Madrid gave this year. Lead by many veterans of soccer, as well as some very good young talent, the team gave consistently solid performances that never disappointed, and their starting goalkeeper actually had the most clean sheets this season. Barcelona took the league this season, but only by a point in front of Real Madrid with Athletico Madrid in a close third. Key players were Messi and most of the Barca squad, Ronaldo and the Real squad, Antoine Griezmann, Jan Oblak, Diego Godin, Filipe Luis, Yevhen Konoplyanka, and Marc Bartra.

Those are the three big leagues around the world, but skimming along some of the other ones, Paris Saint Germain won just about everything in Ligue Un, led by extremely talented Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In the Dutch Eredivisie, PSV Eindhoven took a quick jump late in the season to overcome the usual powerhouse Ajax Amsterdam, and won the league. The Italian Serie A was somewhat closer, with Roma, Napoli, and Juventus taking the league, from third to first respectively. Some worldwide notable players are Carlos Tevez from the Boca Juniors in Argentina, Paul Pogba from Juventus, Edison Cavani and Angel Di Maria from PSG, Hatem Ben Arfa from OGC Nice, Alexandre Lacazette from Olympique Lyonnais, Mario Gomez from Besiktas and Samuel Eto’o from Antalyaspor in Turkey, Gonzalo Higuain from Napoli, and Lorenzo Insigne from Napoli. There are many more great players from around the world, but attempting to highlight them all would be a much more difficult task.

As far as inter league competitions go, the Champion’s League was a lot of fun to watch this year. From group stages to the final eight, the entire series was a thrilling ride. PSG, favorites of the competition, lost to Manchester City in the elimination stage, and both Barcelona and Bayern Munich lost to Athletico Madrid in very close fashions, but nonetheless, still lost. The final was down to a classic Spanish Darby, Real Madrid against Athletico Madrid. Real took away the win after a very dramatic penalty kick. Athletico defender Juanfran missed the goal with a bounce off the sidebar, and Ronaldo put away the winning PK, winning the Champions League Trophy for the eleventh time in club history.

That just About wraps up the entire soccer world in one, very quick overview. With transfer season upon us, some very big names are on the table to possibly sign. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the biggest name right now, but his destination seems to be unknown at the moment. A couple of other notable occurrences this season include former FIFA president Sepp Blatter being banned from soccer, the Champion’s League finally using goal line technology, and the new goalkeeper rule during penalty kicks that prevent the goalkeeper from coming out over the line of the goal. But other than that, now we have the international competitions in full swing, and the big names are on the stage again, especially in the Americas, as the US hosts the Copa America for its 100th anniversary.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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