The Key to Manchester City’s Dominance

Since Pep Guardiola stepped in to become Manchester City’s new manager in the summer of 2016 to succeed Manuel Pellegrini, even though with him Manchester City continued to impress with constant top 4 finishes for a good amount of time. Guardiola’s first year was rather quiet as he provided City fans with a strong 3rd place finish thus reserving a spot for Champions League football in the 2017- 2018 season.   

But before fully finding out about how and why Manchester City are such a force to be reckoned with this year in World and European football, we first have to find out about the man who is in this club’s driving seat, Pep Guardiola.  

Before Guardiola started training to eventually become a manager, he was a talented, playmaking midfielder for Johan Cruyff’s FC Barcelona back in the 90’s. Guardiola was a gifted player and won 4 La Liga titles with the Barcelona “Dream Team” from 1991 to 1994. Cruyff’s success as a manager came from a very renowned system of play that he invented called, “Tiki-Taka”, which is an intricate system of ground passing to break down a defense with short passes in the midfield which led to successful runs from the final third of the pitch to allow the attacking team to score an abundance of goals. Cruyff also played an aggressive high press style of football which went well with Tiki- Taka. During Guardiola’s long time at Barcelona he was a key part of Cruyff’s system as well as Louis van Gaal’s Tiki-Taka system. After his prolonged time at Barcelona, he kept on moving from club to club around the world until he retired in 2006. Clubs that he went to after Barcelona were, Brescia, Roma, Al-Ahli, and Dorados de Sinaloa.   

When Guardiola became manager of Barcelona B, he adopted Cruyff’s Tiki-Taka system which led to Barcelona B, FC Barcelona’s reserve team which currently plays in La Liga 123 dominating the league. His performance led to him becoming manager of FC Barcelona and delivering them 14 Spanish and European titles in 4 years. This display of excellence at Barcelona gave him a job at Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga where he delivered by winning giving them 7 German and European titles until he left to Manchester City in 2016.  

Now, at Manchester City he has signed quite a lot of youngsters like Bernardo Silva from AS Monaco and stealing Leroy Sané from FC Schalke 04. Guardiola was able to grow these already developed young stars into world class players along with developing experienced players in the club like David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, and Kyle Walker even more. He was able to bring the Tiki-Taka system into Manchester City which ended up making the team very dominant in all competitions.  

This is why I believe that Manchester City are as dominant as they are right now in World Football.

Read More

Is today's Sea Hawk Vs Patriots going to be a Super Bowl 49 rematch?

The Seattle Seahawks still dread the moment when Malcolm Butler intercepted the ball on the one yard line in Super Bowl 49 to seal the win for the New England Patriots led by veteran quarterback Tom Brady. They could've just handed it off to running back Marshawn Lynch so he could just punch in the score and their ticket to win the Super Bowl and edge out the Patriots. Instead, Pete Carroll called a gutsy pass play thinking that the Patriots wouldn't expect it by putting extra pressure on the quarterback. But, the Patriots knew that the Seahawks would pass the ball and intercepted it to win the game.

This year, the Legion of Boom from Seattle is back and ready to feast on Tom Brady and the Patriots. The only problem is… Tom Brady, coming back from his 4 game suspension for Deflategate has thrown 12 touchdowns with zero interceptions in the games he has played this season. He also leads the NFL with an accurate 119.0 passer rating. On the other side, Seattle’s Legion of Boom allows the third least amount of points per game in the NFL with a rating of 16.8. The Legion of Boom also allows only 222.3 yards per game which is ranked tenth in the NFL. Another key factor in this game will be that Seattle’s dominant pass rusher Michael Bennett will not be able to play Sunday night in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

This is certainly going to be a good game. Drop your comment down below on who you think is going to win this ballgame.

Photo credit: pvsbond 87 Rob Gronkowski via photopin (license)

Read More

Barclays Premier League : Week-11 Recap

Week 11 of the Premier League has just gone by, and your analyst, Sports Munch is here to bring to you the best of this week!

Starting off Veterans Day in England, Middlesbrough tied first place Manchester City 1-1. Sergio Agüero scored a goal in minute 43 in the match, making Manchester City fans believe that they could walk out with 3 points in the bag. Unfortunately, Marten de Roon of Middlesbrough scored in the 90th minute to tie the game so City wouldn't leave with a victory.

Moving on, one of this weekend’s most exciting games was when Chelsea led by Belgian Eden Hazard came home into Stamford Bridge after beating Southampton 2-0 in Southampton. Moving into Chelsea’s game against Everton, Romelu Lukaku returning to South London looking for revenge as Chelsea, at the time when they were led by José Mourinho transferred Lukaku to Everton for 40 million Euros. But the tides of people on Everton’s side rapidly shifted as the game progressed. Diego Costa of Chelsea ended the game with taking the lead for most goals scored this season with 9 goals. At halftime the score was 3-0 Chelsea leading. Eden Hazard also was able to get two goals behind Everton’s goalie, Maarten Steklenburg. Marcos Alonso of Chelsea was able to get his first goal of the season as well. Everton and their fans went out of Stamford Bridge disappointed. Chelsea on the other hand, went home happy with 3 points and earning 2nd place in the Premier League table.

To finish everything off, Liverpool finished the newly promoted Watford, 6-1 at home in Anfield in Liverpool. They put on a show as Watford didn't stand a chance. Sadio Mané walked out of Anfield with two goals on his name. Juergen Klopp led his team to first place and led them to first place for the first time in team history. The question is, how long can they hold first place?

That’s all for this weekend's Premier League recap. See you soon.

Check out the latest standings of Premier League Table ...

Read More

Top 4 Rookies To Watch Out For This NFL Season

This season, the NFL welcomed a big batch of rookies. These are the top four rookies you really want to keep a close eye on.

# 4 - Jared Goff

Goff has a huge role to play this year as the Rams have quarterback problems. I was very surprised when Jeff Fisher said he wasn’t going to start week one against Blaine Gabbert’s San Francisco 49ers. Instead, Case Keenum won the starting job and Sean Mannion is the backup. Goff ended up 3rd string QB. It looks like the Rams want to make sure he is adjusted to the environment before they start him.

# 3 - Jalen Ramsey

Jalen Ramsey has huge expectations this season to play well. Ramsey is in a team with a rather struggling secondary. He also has high expectations in the Madden 17 community. He even got rated two overalls higher than his former teammate Jameis Winston who has been in the NFL one more year than him. I also expect him to defend passes very well against top class NFL wide receivers.

# 2 - Ezekiel Elliott

Elliott got drafted by the Cowboys having the hope that he could be their next Demarco Murray. Demarco Murray was up there in the list of the Cowboys best running backs having an exceptional few years in Dallas. Murray was behind Hall-of-Famer Emmitt Smith by a few spots. Elliott was a little shaky in his first few games but he is slowly starting to settle into the league. I really mean that because he is already first for most rushing yards in the NFL and he is only a rookie.

# 1 - Carson Wentz

Wentz was barely known by a lot of people because of the fact that he went to North Dakota State, a university not recognized for its football program. But, when the Eagles scouts looked at him, they saw the next Brett Favre in action. When he got drafted second overall, people were like,”Who is this kid?” He led the Eagles to a 3-0 start in September throwing and rushing well. He played well against coverage improvising every moment. Wentz has high expectations due to the fact that the Eagles haven’t won a Super Bowl yet. That is why Wentz is number one on my list.

Who's on your list? Post it as your comments below.

Read More

Panthers Vs Broncos - Feels Like a Super Bowl Rematch

Today is the day!! The day when the football season starts. That’s how important today is. The Carolina Panthers will square off the Super Bowl 50 champions, the Denver Broncos. Here’s the scoop on all you need to know before the 2016-2017 kickoff.

Both teams have gone through vital changes during this offseason. The Panthers secondary is going to be a thing to see today as Josh Norman had been transferred to the Washington Redskins. The Panthers secondary and defense had a rather decent performance in their four week preseason show. Cam Newton was also a little off throwing two interceptions in week three against the Patriots.

Cam had said that this game really isn’t a rematch because both teams have gone through a harsh offseason, losing many players.

On the other side the Denver Broncos had also lost Peyton Manning due to retirement and Danny Trevathan getting traded to the Chicago Bears. This preseason the Broncos tried out their various options at quarterback as Brock Osweiler also had been traded to the Houston Texans. They had to choose between Trevor Sieman, Paxton Lynch, and the experienced Mark Sanchez. Gary Kubiak chose Trevor Sieman a shocker to the general public. He then traded Mark Sanchez to the quarterback plagued Dallas Cowboys, who’s starting quarterback broke his back and will sit with the clipboard for a few weeks. Von Miller the

Super Bowl MVP will have high expectations for tonight’s game.

I personally think that today’s game will be one for the books and one to get excited about. Here’s all the good stuff you need to know before tonight’s kickoff!!!

Photo Credit: WCU Homecoming 2014 via photopin (license)

Read More

AFC Wild Card Saturday - Recap

Hello, the AFC Wild Card was a stunner for the public with the Steelers overcoming a stunning deficit over the Bengals with Chris Boswell kicking a 35-yard-FG to make the final score 18-16 in Cincinnati.    

The game was nicely played with the comeback of Ben Roethlisberger unexpectedly entering the game and marching the Steelers to the Bengals’s 25-yard line and leave it all to Chris Boswell to kick the game winner from 35 yards out.    

Also, Antonio Brown left the game diagnosed with a concussion, the rest of the coming information about this injury will be shared.  Big Ben also injured his right shoulder when he got sacked by Vontaze Burfict who will probably face a suspension for the start of next season. Bengals players, Vontaze Burfict, Adam Jones, and, Jeremy Hill made this game possible for the Steelers to win.          

Meanwhile, in NRG Stadium in Texas, the Texans were suffering on both sides of the ball in their 30-0 washout failure against Andy Reed’s evolving Kansas City Chiefs with their 11 straight wins in the regular and postseason.    

Brian Hoyer messed up at the wrong time and at the wrong game after forcing 5 turnovers (4 interceptions and 1 fumble) against Kansas City.  What’s so funny is that he said the same thing at his postgame interview with the media, that the Texans, mainly him messed up which lead the rising Kansas City Chiefs to beat them very badly. 

During the game, J.J Watt suffered a groin injury against the Chiefs and this Texans defense was highly stressed out without the former Defensive Player of The Year because without J.J this Texans defense is reduced to bits. 

Kansas City’s next challenge in the playoffs will be the New England Patriots in the Divisional without their star wide receiver Jeremy Maclin due to a knee injury in the third quarter against the Texans. In fact, J.J Watt and Jeremy Maclin had been injured on the same play in the third quarter.    

Pittsburgh’s next opponent in their playoff run will be a rematch against the Denver Broncos in Mile High. The first meeting of the Broncos and the Steelers came with a fourth quarter comeback  in the name of  the now injured Antonio Brown and Ben Roethlisberger.    

The AFC is heating up and the race to Super Bowl 50 is getting harder and harder along the way with more teams wanting one of the most prestigious titles in sports history with the greediest teams waiting to crush each other just to win this title and redeem a name in sports history and be well known across America and across the world as the team that won Super Bowl 50.   

What do you think?

Read More