I Know You'll Count on the Me From Yesterday

Congratulations to Mr. Joseph R. Halbert for correctly naming "When I Come Around" by Green Day as the Tuesday Song of the Day.



Despite flak I might receive from Dan Carlson, my Dad, and Ryan Searcey for the content of the following post, I'm doing it anyway. It's what some might call "damning the torpedoes." I don't know exactly what that means, but it sounds right.



Today, the UEFA Champions League Group Stage draw was held in Monaco. In what looks like a remedial lottery course, the various football clubs of Europe have their names thrown into a variety of bowls, where they are mixed with the names of other elite clubs and eventually drawn out to determine the seedings for the Champions League matches of 2007-2008.




Here are the results:



Group A

• Liverpool FC (England)


• FC Porto (Portugal)


• Olympique de Marseille (France, as if you had to ask)


• Beskitas JK (Turkey

Group B

• Chelsea FC (England)


• FC Valencia (Spain)


• Rosenborg (Norway)


• Schalke FC (Germany)

Group C

• Real Madrid (Spain)


• Werder Bremen (Germany)


• Olympiacos (Greece)


• Lazio (Italy)

Group D

• Celtic FC (Scotland)


• AC Milan (Italy) (Current Title Holders)


• Benfica (Portugal)


• Shaktar Donetsk (Ukraine)

Group E

• FC Barcelona (Spain)


• Olympique de Lyon (France)


• Stuttgart (Germany)


• Rangers FC (Scotland)

Group F

• Manchester United FC (England)


• Roma (Italy)


• Sporting Lisbon (Portugal)


• Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine)

Group G

• Internazionale Milan (Italy)


• PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands)


• CSKA Moscow


• Fenerbahce (Turkey)

Group H

• Arsenal FC (England)


• AEK Athens/Sevilla (Match postponed due to the death of Antonio Puerta of Sevilla)


• Steaua Bucharest (Romania)


• Slavia Prague (Czech Republic)

Note: The group stage is played in a round-robin format with each team playing a home/away series with every other team for a total of 6 matches for each team.

I don't anticipate that Liverpool will have much trouble with Beskitas or Marseille (although Zenden and Cisse will have revenge on their minds as they face their old club), but Porto could be a bit of a different story. Under the direction of current Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, Porto took home the 2004 Champions League crown by defeating AS Monaco. I don't think they are quite as good as they were that year, at least I hope not, but as well as the Reds have been playing so far this campaign, it does not seem to matter who the opponent is.

The preceding sentence will make me feel very foolish if we are bounced from the competition at the conclusion of Group Stage play in mid-December. Only time will tell.