Live The Pitch » Chelsea

Chelsea release Ballack and Cole

Jeff Ramos — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:33:30 +0000

Reigning English Premier League champions Chelsea announced today that they will not re-sign German star Michael Ballack and English international Joe Cole. Ballack is a huge surprise to be let go, but Cole was rarely seeing the pitch recently for Chelsea.

Ballack has been in England for the past four seasons and was a huge part of Chelsea’s success this year. Ballack will have numerous offers from big European clubs in the next few weeks. We will see if he chooses to go back to Germany or take an offer from another English club. He is also linked to Real Madrid and a few teams in Italy.

Cole has been with Chelsea for the last seven years. He has been fighting off numerous injuries the past few years. When healthy, Cole can still be extremely dangerous on the flank. Cole will also find a new club with ease as he’s already been linked with Arsenal and Tottenham of the Premier League.

Chelsea remain one point clear of Manchester United

Jeff Ramos — Mon, 03 May 2010 20:19:48 +0000

Both Chelsea and Manchester United won over the weekend to set up a winner take all scenario this coming Sunday. Chelsea defeated Liverpool 2-0 and Manchester United took care of Sunderland 1-0.

Chelsea will face off with Wigan and United will face Stoke City. For the cup to come down to the last match is great for all fans who follow the English Premier League. United will try to become the first club to win four straight league titles.

Chelsea hold the advantage but anything can happen at this level. Frank Lampard was quoted, “Obviously Manchester United have a tough game but we’ll never go that far (thinking we have already won). We have a big game next week. But we knew the Liverpool game was huge for us. We knew if we had dropped points we would have given the momentum to United.”

Here is a great article from ESPN Soccernet: Lampard eyes Premier League party at the Bridge

Chelsea Win Inaugural World Football Challenge

Jeff Ramos — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:14:25 +0000

This past Sunday, Chelsea FC took the Inaugural World Football Challenge trophy back to England with a 2-0 victory over Club America. Chelsea clearly were the dominant squad in the preseason exhibition tournament. The English squad finished with a 3-0 record. The surprise of the tournament however was Club America. The Mexican powerhouse stunned everyone by posting a 2-1 record. Serie A champions Inter Milan posted a 1-2 record. The biggest disappointment of the event had to be AC Milan. This team is in desperate need of a play maker after the loss of Kaka. AC Milan had a dismal record of 0-3.

With an average attendance of 56,101 this inaugural event was a huge success in the United States. Games were played in six different cities throughout the U.S. The largest turnout of 81,224 was at the Rose Bowl to see Chelsea take on Inter Milan. With the USA looking to get either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, these attendance numbers look very good to the eyes of FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

The Livethepitch.com crew were privileged to be in attendance in Atlanta, GA for the AC Milan-Club America match. Here are some pics from our great experience. Please check out the entire album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/livethepitch/. Let’s hope this great event continues for years to come!

Great Matches Ahead Here In The USA

Jeff Ramos — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:56:04 +0000

Throughout the next two months the United States will be the home of over 30 great matches. There is the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the World Football Challenge, the Barcelona Summer Tour and other top European clubs taking the pitch in the U.S. This is a great opportunity to see some of the best soccer in the world right in our own backyard!

The CONCACAF Gold Cup will run from Friday, July 3, to Thursday, July 23. This tournament consists of the USA, Panama, Honduras, Mexico, Canada, Grenada, El Salvador, Jamaica, Guadaloupe, Haiti, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The U.S. are the two-time defending champions of this event. The winner of the Gold Cup will represent the CONCACAF region in the next FIFA Confederations Cup. Matches will be played in 13 different cities throughout the competition.

Schedule- http://www.concacaf.com/competitions/goldcup/2009/schedule.aspx

Tickets-Concacaf Gold Cup Tickets

The World Football Challenge is a new event for 2009 in the the United States. The games will be played from July 19-26, in six different cities across the U.S. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for soccer fans in the U.S. to see AC Milan, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Club America face-off against each other. AC Milan is considered one of the top clubs in the world with Ronaldinho leading the charge. Chelsea is one of the powerhouse clubs in the English Premier League continuously finishing in the top of the league. Inter Milan is coming off one of their best seasons ever winning the Italian Serie A. Club America comes into this competition as a huge underdog but don’t count out this Mexican powerhouse.

Schedule- http://worldfootballchallenge.com/

Tickets-World Football Challenge Tickets

The 09 Barcelona Summer Tour also comes to the states with Barcelona facing-off against the LA Galaxy, Seattle Sounders, and Chivas. The first match against the LA Galaxy will take place on August 1, at the Rose Bowl. The next match against the Seattle Sounders will be played on August 5, at Quest Field in Seattle, Wash. The final match against Chivas will take place on August 8, in Oakland, Calif., at The Coliseum. Barcelona is coming off on the best seasons in the clubs history. This is a great opportunity for U.S. soccer fans to see the Champions League winners in action!

Tickets- FC Barcelona Tickets

Here are some other games definitely worth looking at!

7/19- LA Galaxy vs AC Milan at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

Tickets- LA Galaxy vs AC Milan

7/22- River Plate vs Toronto at FC BMO Field in Toronto, Ontario.

Tickets-River Plate vs Toronto FC

8/7- Toronto FC vs Real Madrid at BMO Field in Toronto, Ontario.

Tickets-Toronto FC vs Real Madrid

8/9- DC United vs Real Madrid at Fedex Field in Landover, Md.

Tickets-DC United vs Real Madrid

Chelsea vs. Liverpool – Champions League Game of The Year!

Jeff Ramos — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:23:09 +0000

There is no doubt that watching the final leg of the quarterfinal between Liverpool and Chelsea was a treat for us all. Chelsea went into the game with a score of 3-1 on aggregate so Liverpool had a huge mountain to climb. This was a back and forth affair that no one wanted to end. It had the making of on of the greatest matches in recent history between two English Premier league powers.

The scoring started when Fabio Aurelio of Liverpool struck a free kick to the near post completely fooling Chelsea gk Petr Cech. It was just awful goalkeeping from arguably one of the best keepers in the world. Liverpool made it 2-0 with Xabi Alonso finishing off a penalty into the left corner of the net. Overall both teams had their share of chances in the first half but Liverpool still needed more.

The second half of the match in my opinion was the best half of soccer I have seen in a long time….

Didier Drogba got Chelsea on the board with a flick off a cross that cought the Liverpool keeper off guard in the 51st minute. Then just six minutes later Chelsea defender Alex struck the goal of the year. From about 25 yards out Chelsea was awarded a direct free kick that Alex surprisingly struck and he hit a perfect shot that was knuckling from his initial impact of the ball.

Liverpool would change thier tactics throughout the second half and now needing a miracle they were caught pushing players forward when Frank Lampard found the net in the 76th minute. Chelsea took the lead 3-2 and it seemed there was no hope for Liverpool. Yet they would not give up.

Liverpool came back and score again off a deflection in the 81st minute with Lucas getting credit for it. Just one minute later Dirk Kuyt would net home a great header from a cross from the outside midfield. This made the score 4-3 Liverpool with Chelsea looking stunned on the field.

Liverpool was extremely close to netting a 5th if not for Michael Essien saving a shot off the line with his head. Liverpool was pushing everyone forward trying to get one more goal when Frank Lampard put Chelsea into the next round in the 89th minute with a shot that hit both posts!

Final Score 4-4! Chelsea advances to the semifinals with a final score of 7-5.