The last time we checked in with Bayern Munich, the German champions had dominated their first three matches of the Bundesliga campaign and showed no signs of slowing down. Five matches later and they have not only made good on that, they have somehow improved. In both their Bundesliga and Champions League campaigns they have appeared invincible. They have defeated their five German opponents by an aggregate 13-2, and that includes their two dominating 5-1 performances over the last two second place finishers, Borussia Dortmund and Wolfsburg, respectively. Meanwhile, continentally, they travelled to Greece and defeated Olympiakos 3-0 and throttled Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb 5-0 in Munich. Quite simply, Bayern is playing the best soccer in the world right now.

I could gladly talk about how Bayern has done this and about extoll the virtues of manager Pep Guardiola and the various players who have been so incredible. That’s boring. Let’s talk about a problem Bayern faces.

Bayern is not a perfect team, and they have had one noticeable flaw this year. They are incredibly susceptible to being caught with their pants down on the counter-attack. It is understandable; they spend so much time possessing the ball and playing the ball in the attacking third that they find themselves flat-footed when they are forced to return to their third. If they have the time to get settled, they look better, but on fast breaks, they lose their shape and put Manuel Neuer in tough situations.

Neuer, of course, is still the world’s best goalkeeper and that does mitigate this problem. A team with as good a defense on paper as Bayern, though, should not be so frequently forcing their star keeper to make difficult saves. Neuer is human, and if he keeps being forced to make acrobatic saves, he will eventually err. A perfect example of how this can be problematic occurred while Bayern was still down 1-0 against Wolfsburg. In the 38th minute, a Xabi Alonso corner found the hands of Wolfsburg keeper Diego Benaglio. Benaglio then sent the ball just past the halfway point, which is where we inexplicably find Neuer, acting as sweeper. Neuer ends up attempting a terrible sliding tackle on the Wolfsburg side and only by the grace of God does a Josuha Guilavogui long strike not find the back of the empty net.

It is easy to write this play off as a mental mistake by Neuer, and it is. What is important here is why he makes that mental mistake, because players of Neuer’s quality do not do that of their own volition. The reason he makes this mistake is that from his unique vantage he can see that Bayern will be outnumbered and he will be vulnerable in the net if he does not act as sweeper. They have begun to lose their shape and they are already undeveloped on the wings. Bayern has a ton of great defenders and it is possible, if not probable, that the likes of Philipp Lahm and David Alaba would have recovered and been able to stop the mounting Wolfsburg attack. That is not a guarantee, of course, and Neuer knows this. In a way, he may have saved a goal – by creating a very unique type of chaos in the middle of the field, we end up seeing a very low percentage shot rather than a strategic run of play from the Wolfsburg offense.

That play was an outlier no doubt, but it shows that Bayern is vulnerable on the counter attack and will surrender opportunities while focusing on the attack. With Neuer in the net and the offense scoring at an incredible click, this may end up not being a problem at all. Neither of those is given, though, and should one falter, Bayern will need to make sure their defense is airtight, especially as the season progresses and injuries inevitably mount.

In a 2006 New York Times article, the late David Foster Wallace described something he coined as a “Federer Moment,” coined for the now legendary tennis player:

“These are times, as you watch the young Swiss play, when the jaw drops and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if you’re OK.”

Moments like these are one of the many reasons we watch sports. To see human beings accomplish things that seem so far beyond their abilities makes one question whether we have entered an age of human-like androids, with all of our favorite athletes the first humans to be replaced by replicants.

These “Federer Moments” have the potential to break us out of our shells of disillusionment. They are moments where adults are able to channel, if only for a second, that feeling of being a child again and witnessing something truly unbelievable, because we have not yet been broken down by the rote misery that can be life.

This is the visual representation of that happening:

That is Bayern Munich head coach Pep Guardiola after witnessing Robert Lewandowski score five goals in nine minutes last week against Wolfsburg. This monumental event in goal-scoring history has, of course, been covered at length here and by every other news outlet that even tangentially relates to the sport of soccer. It is a Federer Moment of the highest degree, an event that really does not need any additional exposition besides simply saying what happened: Five goals in nine minutes.

SEE MORE: Bayern 5-1 Wolfsburg: Lewandowski makes history | The final goal, animated

That Federer Moment did not stop there though. Just five days later, Lewandowski scored a brace as Bayern defeated Mainz 05 3-0. Then, exactly a week after his five-goal explosion, Lewandowski scored a hat trick against Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb, once again in the Champions League, as Bayern coasted to a 5-0 victory. That is 10 goals in three matches — technically, two and a half, as he came on as a second half substitute against Wolfsburg — spanning seven days by one man. Or perhaps it was goal-scoring cyborg; if I was Borussia Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel, Bayern’s next opponent, I would demand to see evidence that this man is indeed human.

People, it is time you stopped what you are doing and take time to appreciate that we are living in the Robert Lewandowski Moment.

What Lewandowski has done over the past 225 minutes he has spent on a soccer field is the kind of thing that transcends explanation. As  fans, we are always trying to examine the sports  we love for trends and patterns. We pore over statistics and replays and the writings of so-called experts in order to try to understand games that are, by their nature, unpredictable, but there is nothing that could have foretold the explosion we are witnessing right now. The simple facts of the Lewandowski’s Moment do not do it justice. He could easily have another goal or two; he has had a couple opportunities late in these games that did not go in, possibly on account of apathy or pity, but that would still not truly give you an idea of how otherworldly he has been.

* * * * *

The only way to understand what has happened over the past three matches is to relive each goal:

Wolfsburg, 51’ – Wolfsburg is up 1-0 at halftime when Lewandowski enters as a sub, but the buildup to this goal is fast and unrelenting – beautiful until the end; typical of Bayern, as of late. As with many moments of greatness this one starts inauspiciously, as Lewandowski simply parries a Muller cross into the back of the net. Nothing special. Allianz Arena breathes a sigh of relief, its club now even with a Wolfsburg team that’s become the star of a rising Bundesliga bourgeoisie.

Wolfsburg, 52’ – Those sighs of relief were, of course, followed by inhalations, as the majority of exhalations are. That is how this thing called ‘breathing’ works. In the time it took some to perform their breaths, Lewandowski netted again, this time from distance. Watching the match on TV, I did not even see how Bayern got the ball back so quickly; the network was still showing replays of his last goal.

Wolfsburg, 55’ – During the three-minute gap between goals, the fans at Allianz Arena surely lit up cigarettes, sat up on their pillows and patted Lewa on the head. ‘That was great, but I think that’s enough,’ to which Lewandowski said, ‘Nah. Not yet,’ completing his hat trick with a goal from sheer determination. The third goal is where Lewandowski stops looking at the idea of a goal as something to strive towards but as something that is his by right.

Wolfsburg, 57’ – It feels weird to do, but for a second let’s talk about another Bayern player: Mr. Douglas Costa. Over this three-game stretch, it feels as if almost every Bayern goal has started with him speeding down the left flank, just waiting for his team to catch up so he can find someone for of his perfectly placed crosses. This time, that recipient was Lewandowski, and he made good on the deal. You get me the ball, Doug, and I’ll swing my right leg out at almost 90 degrees from my body and somehow send the ball in just over the keeper’s hands.

This fourth goal is where we realize we have entered the land of the absurd, where anything is possible and the fifth goal is almost expected.

Wolfsburg, 60’ – Maybe we did expect this goal, but not like that: A Mario Goetze cross followed by a leaping sort of roundhouse kick from Lewandowski, followed by the ascension of the righteous into heaven.

Ridiculous amounts of money and time are spent all to the ends of putting a small orb through a large rectangle loosely outfitted with some cotton latticework, in nine minutes Robert Lewandowski made it all look so easy. Everyone kindly remove your jaws from the floor, there is another match on Saturday.

Mainz, 51’ –  One cannot help but feel sorry for the poor men in red. Perhaps it was that sense of pity that led Thomas Muller to shank a penalty kick early in the first half. He knew that six minutes into the second half, a Kingsley Coman cross would drop towards the center of the box, where Lewandowski’s head awaited to send the ball netward. Those 50 minutes of goalless soccer from Lewandowski were a ruse, it turned out. They were the eye of the storm. We knew not of what we were witnessing, only that we were witnessing something of great magic.

Mainz, 63’ – Just foul him. He strolls past three Mainz players and their keeper in order to score; one of them should’ve just fouled him. I never want to endorse the more cynical side of soccer, but when dealing with a force of nature, sometimes evil is necessary.

Zagreb, 21’ – On to match three. Costa scored the opener here, obviously trying to lull Dinamo Zagreb into a false sense of security regarding Bayern’s Polish missile. An embarrassingly misplayed header gave Thiago the ball, and as he casually walked towards the net, he seemed to remember that Lewandowski was there. Why be selfish and score yourself when you can contribute to what could end up being one of the greatest goal-scoring runs of all time? It does not even appear as if Lewa is trying at this point.

Zagreb, 28’ – It took a second to determine whether or not this ball actually went in. It bounced off the crossbar and downward and, upon initial viewing, it was ambiguous as to whether it had landed in the goal. Except it actually was not that ambiguous: Robert Lewandowski had touched it, and our footballing King Midas turns everything he touches to goals.

Zagreb, 55’ – What even is this. That subtle touch from Thiago to Costa. That sublime backheel from Costa back to Thiago. Lewa gets the ball with his back to goal yet somehow turns around and in a second the ball is already headed towards the net. This is confidence radiating out of Lewandowski and into his teammates. This is contagious excellence. This is the platonic ideal of total soccer.

* * * * *

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross famously formulated her five stages of death and grieving — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — while working with terminally ill patients. I wonder that a similar model might apply to great moments of joy. Just as humans struggle to accept the horrors of life and the human condition, it is at times just as difficult to accept joy. At times, it feels illusory, or undeserved; a brief moment of respite that only serves to remind us that life is mostly mundane, at best, and miserable at worst. When we experience great moments of joy, it takes a process to accept that yes, this joy is real, and yes, we do deserve it.

I am not sure what those stages of joy may be, but I know I experienced them over the last week in. These three matches served as a reminder as to why we love sports. To live is to face a near constant struggle. We must search for joy wherever we can find it, because it will not find us.

At its worst, sports can provide a few hours in which we do not have to face these struggles. At its best, it can be a salve; it can provide us so much happiness that we spend the rest of the day (or an entire week, in this case) stumbling around with smiles on our faces and songs (specifically “Stern des Südens”) in our hearts.

What Robert Lewandowski is currently doing will not last forever. Enjoy it while you can, because we may never see anything like it again.

Unbridled optimism is standard for Bayern Munich. Bayern is one of the rare clubs whose, no matter the circumstances, fans will always see the glass as half full. Even during last year’s capitulation to Barcelona in the Champions League, the sense was that this was an aberration of some kind. Barcelona were not better than Bayern, they were simply better at the right time. Bayern was injured and tired, Barcelona was peaking at the perfect time, much like the last side to win a European treble – Bayern in the 2013-2014 season. For Der Rekordmeister, failure is not aceeptable, but when it can be so easily washed down with champagne after victories – it makes it slightly easier to stomach.

This optimism, and being accustomed to winning, does result in exceedingly high standards, and the failure of Bayern to live up to said expectations can result in harsh consequences. Despite having won the Bundesliga in both of his first two seasons, Pep Guardiola finds himself on the managerial hot seat after consecutive Champions League failures. The second Bayern is perceived to be somehow less than perfect its fans will turn on the nearest scapegoat. Luckily for Pep, the first three matches have been nothing short of spectacular for Bayern, and optimism is easy to come by as the team returns from the international break and turns their eyes to the coming Bundesliga campaign.

Best starting XI: Manuel Neuer, Medhi Benatia, Juan Bernat, Philipp Lahm, David Alaba, Arturo Vidal, Xabi Alonso, Douglas Costa, Arjen Robben, Thomas Muller, Robert Lewandowski

This is a difficult lineup to craft because, outside of the inclusion of German stalwarts Neuer, Lahm and Muller, there is no wrong answer. This not only speaks to how well the team has played thus far, but also to Guardiola’s managerial ability. The positional fluidity of his side and his squad rotation has seen 14 or 15 players worthy of being considered for this XI, and it has seen them excel at different points on the field. Looking at this particular lineup, it could a 4-4-2, 4-3-2-1 or even a 3-5-2 and still make sense and win matches. Each of those lineups could feature different players at different positions as well. While this team is not perfect, its depth and Guardiola’s intelligence should guarantee that they will continue to be competitive for Champions League honours. 

Best performer: Thomas Muller

Muller is an easy choice here solely because of his goalscoring prowess thus far (five goals in three matches). This is only a part of his game though, and right now Muller is playing absolutely magnificent soccer. Guardiola has used him as a midfielder, a centrally attacking midfielder and a forward, and while he has looked best at his natural position of midfield, he can seamlessly push forward to attack or stay behind the attackers and uses his endless reservoirs of creativity to set up the likes of Costa and Lewandowski. Muller was already one of the best players in the world entering this season, yet he has somehow taken another step forward.

Most improved player: Mario Gotze

I almost want to give this to Muller as well, but let’s spread the wealth. Gotze has been a bit of an enigma for Bayern since his arrival. At times, he has looked like the future talisman of the team he was supposed to be; other times he has looked desperately overwhelmed and out of place. This year his time on the field has been limited (127 minutes) but productive. While he has yet to score, he has been completing about 90% of his passes and he has shown an acceptance of Guardiola’s passing dogma. Part of the reason he has struggled is that his style of play does not coalesce with Guardiola’s managerial style. If Gotze is to succeed under Guardiola, he will need to show a willingness to compromise and respect the system, and he finally seems to be doing that. He is playing a more complete game with less of an attacking focus, and while he still has great strides to make, he has finally started to come around in a significant way.

Injury news: 

International duty has once again resulted in a key injury for Bayern. Arjen Robben went down with a groin injury while playing for the Netherlands against Iceland. He will be out four weeks, but as we have seen over the past few years with Robben, one injury has a disturbing tendency to roll into another one. Meanwhile, Franck Ribery, Holger Badstuber and Javi Martinez all have yet to see any action this year as the oft-injured trio all attempt to return soon. Martinez’s return will likely come first, as he returned to training this past Tuesday. There has been very little coming out of the Säbener Straße in regards to Ribery’s injury, but Philipp Lahm was recently quoted saying, “I am convinced that Franck will return to his best. Everybody who writes him off is making a big mistake. We are there for him as a team to support him and to build him up again after all his misfortune. And he is 100 percent motivated. It is not like he has lost his desire to return. I am absolutely certain that he will get back to his best form.” Finally, Badstuber is supposedly close to returning, but there is no timeframe for his return right now. The best one can do is to keep their fingers crossed for the oft-injured defender.

Best business completed in transfer window: Douglas Costa

This is a toss up between the Brazilian forward Costa and the Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal. Both players have been fantastic for Bayern thus far, arguably their two best players behind Muller. I’ll give the nod to Costa because he has produced two assists and a goal, but that is mostly due to where he plays versus how he plays. Costa has shown an exceptional nose for the net, and while Robben may not like his post-goal celebrations, there will definitely be more to come and when they lead to more Bayern successes, Robben will likely find said celebrations more palatable. 

Rating the manager: A

With all the controversy that has surrounded Guardiola’s future in Munich, he has come out and made an authoritative statement about his abilities as manager. He has shown a great fluidity with where he is playing his men as well as which formation he plays them in, and this has brought out the best from a lot of his players. He has integrated two very different players in Costa and Vidal seamlessly into the squad; both players have played all 270 minutes for the team. He is also rotating the squad already; Vidal, Costa and Muller are the only to have played all 270 minutes. Guardiola is still one of the best managerial minds in world soccer, and three matches into the season he has proven that to any doubters.

Weaknesses: 

Are there any? This team is so complete. The one concern I have is that they possess the ball so often, and that possession tends to be in their opponent’s third, that their defense can sometimes grow disinterested, allowing their opponents to create easy chances where there should not be any. Once the defense realizes this they do a good job closing down, but when they start to regularly play better sides, this could become a serious problem. 

Forecast for remainder of season: 

As high as Bayern are riding right now, this is in part because of the quality of their opponents, or lack thereof. They did demolish a talented Leverkusen side, but that was in Munich and early season matches are not always a good barometer for later matches. That being said, Bayern will continue to dominate. They have never won the Bundesliga four years in a row, so the team can use that possibility as added motivation. 

Overall rating: A

Now that we know how to pronounce his name, the more important question regarding Tottenham Hotspur’s recent acquisition of Toby Alderweireld is how they plan to use him. Tottenham’s defense was abysmal during the 2014-2015 campaign, and that may be giving them too much credit. If Tottenham hope to compete for a Champions League spot, Mauricio Pochettino’s number one concern must be how to improve his atrocious back line, and the addition of Alderweireld should help fix their defensive woes.

Those woes will persist if Pochettino does not use a tactical approach that allows him to get the most out of his shiny new toy. Alderweireld will certainly start along fellow Belgian Jan Vertonghen on the backline. Both players are most comfortable playing as center-backs, but have the ability to play wide, with the former preferring the right and the latter the left side of the field. Pochettino will most likely deploy the two in the center with some combination of young fullbacks flanking the two. An interesting option for Pochettino to consider, however, is the 3-5-2.

Back threes are not quite en vogue, despite Louis van Gaal and Brendan Rodgers both using back threes at some point during the most recent Premier League season (Rodgers used a 3-4-3, though). Antonio Conte used a 3-5-2 while winning two scudetti with Juventus and Netherlands employed it against Spain in the 2014 World Cup. The 3-5-2 is either enjoying the beginnings of a nascent renaissance or is simply a flash in the pan. Regardless of where one falls in this debate, the aforementioned successes are not aberrations, and for a team trying to punch above its weight class, as Tottenham is always trying to do, a trendy formation may be exactly what they need.

So what would a 3-5-2 look like in North London? Tottenham is an interesting team to play around with when it comes to formations because they have a lot of young, exciting talent. This means that a lot of these players are not as wed to a static position as, say, a veteran winger who has spent his entire career outside. This means Pochettino has more leeway to play someone out of position. This starts with that back three. Vertonghen and Alderweireld are locks. As I mentioned, both are best in the center, but in a back three, of course, only one can actually be in the center. Alderweireld does not do as well when he has to play on the flank, so he can stay in the center where he is most comfortable. Vertonghen can easily play on the left side, he is such a talented and versatile back that there is no real discernable drop-off for him when he plays wide.

Right-back is where we begin to see come controversy. The simplest answer is to plug newly-acquired Kieran Trippier in there. He is a promising and young and playing alongside the more experienced Vertonghen and Alderweireld will help his progression. As an American, I would be remiss not to mention that DeAndre Yedlin could start at right back, but Trippier has already spent a year competing against the Premier League’s best. While Yedlin does have more raw talent, it is never wise to force a player into a position he is not ready for simply because his ceiling is high. Pochettino can play around with some other combinations, throwing Eric Dier in at right back is tempting; he could also switch Vertonghen and Alderweireld and play Danny Rose at left-back. One other option would be to play Kevin Wimmer in the center with both Alderweireld and Vertonghen out wide.

Things are just as fluid in the midfield. Assuming he goes with the Vertonghen-Alderweireld-Trippier back three, Pochettino needs a defensive midfielder in the center. He’s shown a fondness for Dier, understandably so, and he would do well in that position, where his errors can be hidden by Alderweireld. Dier is not a true defensive midfielder, but Spurs’ only real defensive midfielder of any repute is Benjamin Stambouli, and he did not impress last year. Placing youngsters Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb on either side of Dier will also help him. Mason and Bentaleb are only slightly more seasoned than Dier, but they each showed a lot of potential last year, and have great chemistry together. I do not like the idea of putting Dier between them, but hopefully that will allow both of them to press forward more, something Mason especially shows a propensity for. The two wing positions would most likely be filled with Nacer Chadli on the right and Christian Eriksen on the left. Alex Pritchard, returning from loan at Brentford, is yet another exciting young talent who could usurp Chadli on the right side.

The real problem with the 3-5-2 for Tottenham is the front. Who plays alongside Harry Kane? Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor are not legitimate options should they remain in North London past the transfer window. The best-case scenario would be if Spurs could somehow sign Christian Benteke from Aston Villa. Liverpool appears to be a lock to land the striker, but he would fit perfectly up front with Kane. Saido Berahino is another option and he would be an easier target for Tottenham, but once again will require Daniel Levy to open up his wallet.

The best option they have amongst players the actually employ is the mercurial Erik Lamela. While he has had his fair share of struggles since joining Spurs, he is still immensely talented and is just 23. Being pushed out of his comfort zone and up front alongside Kane may be exactly what he needs to take a step forward developmentally. Kane will pull defenders toward him naturally, giving Lamela more space to work, and in this formation he will be playing directly in front of creative genius Eriksen, who would be able to set the table beautifully for Lamela.

Tottenham Hotspur is a team eternally on the precipice. They sit on the precarious razor’s edge between greatness and obsolescence, fame and obscurity, goals and misses, and success and failure. Tottenham is constantly striving forward, trying to play with the big boys while simultaneously being pushed backward. They are swimming upstream. They are running against the wind. They are walking up the down escalator. Use whatever metaphor you would like, but leave it to Sir Alex Ferguson to describe them perfectly: “Lads, it’s Tottenham”.

The past two seasons at White Hart Lane have been interesting to say the least. Gareth Bale was sold, that money was spent, Andre Villas-Boas was sacked, Tim Sherwood was sacked, Mauricio Pochettino was hired and finally, Harry Kane ascended. The great irony of the past 730 days is that, despite all the turmoil and hand-wringing, the results were ultimately the same. At the end of the 2014 season, Tottenham sat sixth in the table with 69 points, while at the end of the 2015 season they sat at fifth with 64 points. How very, very Tottenham.

As the transfer window begins to enter full swing, the questions facing Tottenham, Pochettino and chairman Daniel Levy loom large – where are we going, and how are we getting there? The first part of that question is deceptively easy to answer. Tottenham should be competing for the top four every year. The second part is far more difficult to rankle with. The approach in the past has been to spend, spend, spend, and not always in intelligent ways. Since 2009, Spurs have brought in 35 players. Of those 35, 15 have already moved on with the recent exit of Paulinho after an incredibly disappointing time at White Hart Lane. The problem with this is that it erodes stability, of course, but also that these moves seem to be occurring with no rhyme or reason. It’s as if the top brass uses the same method to sign and sell players as the writers of ‘Family Guy’ use to craft jokes.

For once, it would serve Tottenham well to exhibit some restraint this off-season. They have a good core of young players, highlighted by Kane. We know they believe strongly in the futures of Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason, although both players had their struggles this year, especially Mason. Christian Eriksen was a revelation last season, and he is just 23. Danny Rose is 24 and certainly showed he has potential if he can be more consistent. Eric Dier is a question mark at full-back – his season was marked by moments of brilliance interspersed with far more frequent shortcomings. All of this is to say that Tottenahm is young and raw and has a lot of potential. The best way to turn that potential energy into kinetic energy is to let these players play. Give their young minds and legs some stability and guidance, and good things will come. Spend and sell rashly and risk sending the entire team into a state of tumult.

Thus far, Tottenham seem to be doing just that, surprisingly enough. While the transfer rumor mill is never to be believed in full, it is still useful if you can remember the difference between smoke and fire. Rumors do not come from thin air; that is to say, if you hear your team’s name or your favorite player’s name being thrown around a lot, something is likely afoot. Tottenham have not been on the mouths of many pundits, and that is a good sign. They have made two very intelligent signings thus far, Kieran Trippier from Burnley and Kevin Wimmer from Cologne. Neither of those players are big names, but both are young, came at a low price and played regularly for their respective squads last year. These are the kind of signings that Tottenham need to continue to make – low risk, high reward.

The other reason these were good signings is simple – defense. Despite the fact that Tottenham employs a world-class keeper in Hugo Lloris, they surrendered an astounding 53 goals this past year, tying them with Burnley as the fifth worst defensive side in the Premier League. Tottenham desperately needs to improve their defense this off-season. Wimmer and Trippier are both good additions. Trippier has a chance to start at right-back, especially if Kyle Walker makes an exit this summer, which is rumored and does seem somewhat likely, but is far from guaranteed. Wimmer will find an entry into the starting lineup a more difficult endeavor, as Dier, Younes Kaboul and Jan Vertonghen all stand in his way at center-back.

Tottenham still should add one more full-back this summer. DeAndre Yedlin is not yet ready to start every Saturday, although there is definitely potential there. The speedy Rose is their only surefire starter on either side of the defense and his play can at times leave Tottenham open to easy counter-attacks on the flank. They need to strengthen their defense around the edges, which will hopefully stabilize their central defense led by Vertonghen, their only legitimate Premier League starter in defense.

Moving up the field, their number one need, now that they have at least added two defensive backs, is a defensive midfielder. Benjamin Stambouli and Etienne Capoue are incomplete players at best. Neither can shoulder the entire brunt of the defensive midfield work, and Capoue is one of many Spurs players rumored to be on his way out. The two made a total of 24 combined appearances last year, making minimal impact. Tottenham needs to have a strong spine, and they need at least once consistent defensive midfielder to help build that spine. Besides Vertonghen, the back four will inevitably be inexperienced and prone to getting run over by some of the league’s best strikers. The best way to hide these weaknesses is to win battles in the midfield, especially in their own half.

The rest of the midfield provides more stability. Pochettino clearly believes in central midfielders Mason and Bentaleb, and reasonably so, both showed enough flashes of brilliance (or at least competence) to give the Spurs faithful hope that they can develop into an adequate central midfield battery. They have Eriksen to lead the midfield, but he cannot do the job entirely by himself. Spurs would be wise to augment him with another young creative attacking midfielder, and luckily they have one already in Alex Pritchard, who will be returning from a successful loan at Brentford. Pritchard is probably not ready to make an immediate impact, but pair him with Eriksen and give him Kane to feed the ball to and expect his ascension to occur sooner rather than later.

Finally, we arrive at the front, where we join Sir Harold of Kane himself. Enough ink has been spilled over the past season praising Kane that I will avoid doing too much of that here. Quite simply, Kane is their attack, and there does not need to be much more of a conversation than that. They can play him in a 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or even a 4-3-2-1. It does not matter. He will score. Tottenham do need to add at least one more body in the front though. Andros Townsend is probably out. The less said about Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado, the better. This leaves Nacer Chadli, who can contribute, but is far from a sure thing, and the biggest wild card in North London, Erik Lamela. No player has tantalized and tormented Spurs’ faithful as much as Lamela. The mercurial winger is equal parts unbridled potential and infuriating failure. It is impossible to separate one’s personal feelings on the player from a realistic assessment of whether or not he can become a successful Premier League player. The talent is there, though, and when it shines through it is blinding. Give him some stability and make sure he stays healthy for an entire season and hope that he takes the steps forward that are necessary.

It is fitting that Lamela is a Lilywhite. There is no player in all of soccer that personifies Spurs’ current plight than Lamela – young, talented, at times brilliant, at times very obviously youthfully impetuous and foolish, full of potential and on the precipice of either great success or great failure. It is impossible to divine which way either player or team will go as we approach the coming season. What is clear for both is that now is the time for rationality in favor of rashness and for a deft hand rather than a heavy one. The white and blue side of North London has many reasons to be hopeful for the first time in a long time, and some of those reasons do not wear number 18.

Today’s Bundesliga vocabulary word is Englische Woche, or English week. It refers to any week where the clubs play multiple matches, a fairly frequent occurrence in English soccer but a relative rarity in Germany. With Bayern losing to Wolfsburg this past Friday and Schalke FC 04 taking all three points from Hanover 96 on Saturday, this Englische Woche has already provided plenty of intrigue for both clubs as they prepare for what is consistently one of the best matches of the year.

The first meeting between the clubs this season saw a hard-fought 1-1 draw at the Veltins-Arena. Reflecting on this early match, it is striking how much has changed in the succeeding five months. Philip Lahm and Xheridan Shaqiri were in Pep Guardiola’s starting lineup. Xabi Alonso was making his Bayern debut. Jens Keller was still Schalke’s manager. Since then we have watched Schalke struggle mightily, eventually firing Keller and replacing him with Robert Di Matteo. Since then they have been a completely different club, and currently sit fourth, after sinking as low as 18th and sitting at just 11th after eleven matches.

Bayern, on the other hand, had been typically dominant until they travelled to Wolfsburg suffering a shocking 4-1 loss. Manuel Neuer allowed as many goals in that match as he had in the entirety of the season (17 matches) leading up to that point, and for the first time in a long time, Bayern looked vulnerable. This vulnerability may stem from over confidence or simply be an aberration caused by the month long layoff. It is very difficult, after all, to anticipate how extended breaks will affect any given team.

Watching Bayern stumble their way through that match though, I think their problems lie mostly in their back four. Before I get into that, though, hats off to Wolfsburg. It’s a common sports trope to argue about who won or lost a game, and while Bayern certainly did little to aid themselves, Wolfsburg put on an inspired performance, especially given that in the opening few minutes Bayern appeared to be the stronger side.

Anyway, Bayern’s back four. The first problem stems from the absence of their captain, Philipp Lahm. Not to denigrate any of the other players that play in the back with Lahm, but he turns great players into amazing players. His versatility and ability to help guide his younger and less talented counterparts is incredible. Lahm can play all over the field and can simultaneously defend his side of the field, allowing his teammates to focus on their roles, and move around to assist his teammates should they need it. Without him, the weaknesses in the games of player like Sebastian Rode, Jerome Boateng, Dante or Juan Bernat (the starting back four against Wolfsburg) are far more visible and easy to exploit.

The other big question regarding Bayern’s back four is David Alaba. Now, before his injury, Alaba was arguably the third best player for Bayern, after Neuer and Lahm. He is not strictly a back player, and he did of course start in the midfield against Wolfsburg, but he plays his best games when he starts in the back with Lahm. He looked like he was still building his confidence after a long injury layoff, and he was not his usual vibrant, world-beating, transcendent self. Especially given Lahm’s absence, Bayern will need Alaba to step up; luckily he should improve the more he plays, even between the beginning and end of the Wolfsburg match he seemed to settle in. Expect him to have a huge impact against Schalke.

On the other side of the ball, Schalke will be hoping that rather than the Wolfsburg loss being a wake-up call for Bayern, as a handful of player described it, it is a sign of weakness. Wolfsburg gave Schalke the blueprint for how to beat Bayern, but executing this blueprint in Munich will be difficult. Benedikt Höwedes will be vital to this and he needs to anchor the Royal Blues’ defense. Höwedes can play anywhere in the back four, but expect Di Matteo to deploy him from a central position in his experimental three-man defense, allowing him to branch out wide should speedy players like Arjen Robben or Mario Gotze be cut loose on the flanks. Bayern will be aggressive and Schalke will be relying on Höwedes to spearhead their defense. Di Matteo will likely pair him with Jan Kirchhoff and Matija Nastatsic, the same trio he started against Hanover 96. The three play exceptionally well together, and will be the genesis of any potential upset at the Allianz.

Meetings between Schalke and Bayern have been consistently intense and exciting over the past few years, even as Bayern has asserted its dominance. Bayern needs to re-establish themselves as the dominant club in Germany, while Schalke needs a positive result to stay competitive in what has become a heated race for a Champions League berth. A win will not come easily for either side, and expect them both to play with the intensity of a team that knows their season may hang in the balance.

For soccer fans in the United States, the game is being shown live at 2pm ET on GolTV.

If you don’t get GolTV, you can watch the game live on your computer, smartphone, tablet or Roku with fuboTV PRO with their free 14-day trial.

We reviewed fuboTV PRO last week. Unlike illegal streams, fuboTV PRO is a legal streaming service that doesn’t contain pop-ups, malware or any of the hazards of illegal streaming. Instead, you get a high quality stream. And if you like the service, it’s only $6.99 month.

With access to fuboTV PRO, you get:

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The beginning of the Rückrunde is perhaps the most exciting time of the Bundesliga season, and is definitely my favorite time of the year. For me, what makes the first couple of matchweeks as the clubs return from their extended winter breaks is the renewed sense of commitment to a singular goal that each team displays. This is true of the beginning of the year, of course, but come January, teams have not only played enough matches already that they have come into form, but they have also learned about what their capabilities are as a team, where they stand in the Bundesliga and, most importantly, what their goals realistically are.

When Bayer Leverkusen travelled to Dortmund during matchweek one, both teams had dreams of finishing in the top two and, less realistically, giving Bayern Munich a run for the top spot. Leverkusen would emerge 2-0 victors and have played exceptionally well this year, currently sitting in third. Dortmund, on the other hand, have not. Rankled by injuries, injuries and more injuries, Dortmund have been not only the biggest disappointment in Germany, but probably the biggest surprise in all of European soccer. They currently sit at 17th in the table and rather than preparing for a battle for yet another UEFA Champions League spot, they find themselves in a relegation battle.

Bayer Leverkusen comes in 17 points behind Bayern, a gap that sporting director Rudi Voller recently described as “a gap which you will never be able to close…because that gap has grown so big that you can’t scout well enough that you will be anywhere near the same level as them. We are poles apart.” They are just nine points behind second place Vfl Wolfsburg, however, and that gap will be much easier to close. Just as important, five clubs sit within 4 points of Leverkusen, so they will need to improve their form to ensure a Champions League berth.

Programming note: For viewers in the United States, the Bundesliga game is being shown exclusively on GolTV. If you don’t have a TV subscription to GolTV, you can access the channel via online streaming service fuboTV PRO for $6.99/month. Better yet, sign up for their free 14-day trial today via their website.

In this match, and for the rest of the year, look for Roger Schmidt to continue with his high-pressing, incisive and aggressive style of soccer, especially against a Dortmund side that has conceded 26 goals this season. The key will be to use these tactics to create as many set pieces as possible, as these have consistently troubled Dortmund. By keeping the ball in the attacking third, they will give themselves a better chance to score, but just as importantly, they will prevent a Dortmund attack that has not spent a lot of time together this year from building a rhythm and gaining momentum.

Schmidt does face some roster challenges in doing this however. He will be without Robbie Kruse and Heung-Min Son due to the AFC final between Australia and South Korea, and he will also be without Tin Jedvaj due to injury. Schmidt is creative with his players though and Leverkusen had impressive depth. The key player for them will be Josip Drmic. Since signing from Nurnberg last summer, Drmic has struggled mightily. Now would be the perfect time for him to right the ship, especially as the rumors begin to swirl about his future with die Werkself.

Meanwhile, Dortmund needs to counter Schmidt’s high line with patience and precision. Regardless of the lineup that Jurgen Klopp chooses, it will a squad that has spent very little time together on the pitch. This will be a problem that is consistent for Klopp’s side; inexpercne with each other. Through the first of the season, Dortmund was decimated by injuries. Through the Rückrunde, the key for Klopp will be establishing a steady eleven that can compete with not only Leverkusen but also Bayern, Scahlke, Wolfsburg and the other tope clubs in the Bundesliga.

Dortmund should rely heavily on Marco Reus and his return to heath. For all of the problems that have surrounded the side this year, a player of Reus’s ability is a cure-all. When he is 100%, Reus has the ability to change the way a team functions. Leverkusen is incisive and aggressive, Dortmund needs to fight fire with fire if they should have hope in this match, and Reus is their only hope to do so. The story of the second half of the season for Der BvB may very well be how Reus returns from his injury. Their first match will set a precedent for how their Rückrunde goes.

The Rückrunde represents a chance for Leverkusen to recommit and for Dortmund to rebound. Look for both clubs to attempt to do so from the second tomorrow’s match begins until the final whistle.

With an injury-cursed Borussia Dortmund floundering at the bottom of the 2014 Bundesliga table and with a typically dominant Bayern Munich sitting pretty at the top, Der Klassiker may have lacked some of the drive that it has had in the past few years, as we have seen it determine the winner of the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal and the 2013 UEFA Champions League, yet watching the match one could have easily been fooled into believing otherwise. It was the men in yellow and black who struck first, scoring just after the 30-minute mark, and it looked as if Bayern may had underestimated their rivals and tricked themselves into a loss.

Watching the match, I know I found myself having a small heart attack as every second ticked away without a Bayern goal. Had they truly come into this match not expecting a resurgent Dortmund? Had Pep Guardiola failed to prepare his men properly? Had they forgotten that, injuries notwithstanding, this is largely the same Dortmund team that has consistently rained on Bayern’s parade for the past five years?

Then, in the 72 minute mark, Robert Lewandowski put the ball in the back of the net, and all was right with the world. Bayern’s second goal would come just thirteen minutes later, as Arjen Robben scored on a penalty, and the rest of my Paulaner tasted all the sweeter. Those worries that plagued me just twenty minutes ago were forgotten, and I turned my focus to Bayern’s midweek Champions League fixture with AS Roma.

As we check in with the defending champions, the Dortmund match is as good a barometer as there is for how Bayern has been playing this year. As I reflect on their undefeated Bundesliga and Champions League campaigns, I see at once the team that dismantled and embarrassed Roma 7-1, yet I also a team that has drawn with Schalke 04, Borussia Monchengladbach and Hamburg SV. Multiple times, I have seen what I believe to be the best iteration of this team under Pep Guardiola. Yet watching them in some of their matches, I fear that Bayern may be a team that plays down to its opponents.

As far as flaws go, this is not the worst one to have, as in order to play down to one’s opponents, a team must be fundamentally better than their opponents in the first place. What concerns me is that this quality is a sign of a mentally incomplete team. The idea of “mental toughness” in sports is a difficult specter to rankle with. There is no statistical category that proves that one team is stronger between the ears than the next, it is simply something that must be witnessed or experienced. A lack of mental toughness can be an extension of many things. In London, for example, it seems as if Tottenham Hotspur so consistently expect to lose that they will themselves out of winnable matches. Last year in Italy, AC Milan was a team that thought it was better than it was; I recall watching one of their matches and an announcer calling them “a team full of names that is not winning games.” That is another form of mental weakness.

The type of mental weakness that may be influencing Bayern this year is a simple one: Cockiness. Bayern will win the Bundesliga, of this I have no doubt. They have already sealed their advancement to the knockout stages of the Champions League as well. Yet the distance by which they win the Bundesliga, and how far they advance in the Champions League, may not be determined by their feet but by their heads. It is my opinion that it was this same cockiness that saw them obliterated by Real Madrid in a way they had not been in years during last year’s Champions League. In order to avoid that same fate, I need to see Bayern play like they did during their magnificent treble winning campaign of 2013, and as many of their players did for the German national team en route to their World Cup victory this year. In both of those instances, we saw what to me is the platonic ideal of German football – efficient and exacting, yet still beautiful and elegant. This perfection begins at the head and ends at the feet, not the other way around. In order to play like this, a team must not only be talented, but be mentally prepared for the travails of a trying campaign. I believe that Bayern has it in them to channel this austerity and toughness, but only time will tell if they actually manage to do so.

With all that said, let’s hand out some awards take a look at some other signs of progress:

Best Starting XI 

Manuel Neuer

Medhi Benatia

David Alaba

Jerome Boateng

Phillip Lahm

Juan Bernat

Xabi Alonso

Arjen Robben

Thomas Muller

Mario Gotze

Robert Lewandowski

Best Performer 

Nothing has made me happier this year than watching the combination of Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski wreak havoc on opposing defenses. They are, individually, absolutely stunning players, and their talents work perfectly together. Yet neither of them has been even close to being Bayern’s best player. That distinction is saved for their number one, Manuel Neuer. At 28, Neuer is not only the best goalkeeper in the world, but he has made even the idea of there even being a conversation about it irrelevant. This season saw him go an incredible 688 consecutive minutes in the Bundesliga without allowing a goal, and that streak would have been even longer and would have extended to the DFB-Pokal and the Chamions League had Neuer not conceded two late goals in already decided matches; one in their 3-1 victory over Hamburg and one in their 7-1 thrashing of Roma. Neuer continues to elevate his game and, while many players have been impressive for Bayern this year, no one has played as consistently and at such a high level as Neuer.

Most Improved Player

Here is where Gotze can step up and accept his award. Since his Dortmund days, it has been clear that Gotze has possessed the talents to be a truly exceptional player.  This year has seen him start to become what we all knew he had the potential to be, and that is one of the best players in the world. No, he is not quite in the Ronaldo-Messi realm quite yet, but he easily places into that crowded second-tier of burgeoning stars. Four months younger than Neymar, I would vehemently argue that Gotze is, at this point, a superior player. His game is flawless. This is not to say that there is not room for improvement, but quite simply there is nothing the young man cannot do on the pitch. 

Injury News 

Bayern is such a deep team that while they have faced numerous injuries, their play has been largely unaffected. Their biggest loss to injury has been talismanic midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, but he retuned to first team training on Tuesday and his projected return of early 2015 seems very likely. It is possible that he will outpace that projection, but the smart move for Guardiola here is to keep him on the bench through the end of this year, as that will give Schweinsteiger a greater chance of enduring what are sure to be long and trying campaigns both nationally and internationally.

While the Schweinsteiger injury has loomed over Bayern’s head all year, David Alaba and now club captain Philipp Lahm’s injury too will be a major source of concern for Munich. First, let us take a second to admire what an incredible player Alaba is. Had I said he was Bayern’s most improved player, would anyone have batted an eye? He has developed into one of the best all-around players in the world, starting ten of Bayern’s eleven matches, a number bested only by captain Lahm. The loss of Alaba is crushing, in both the sense that it is going to be a difficult road for Bayern to traverse without him, and in the sense that no one wants to see such a talented 22-year-old in the midst of his best season succumb to injury. Fortunately, the injury does not appear to be as devastating as we once may have thought. Like Basti, Alaba will almost certainly return in early 2015. On the other hand, Lahm’s three month layoff compounds the side’s woes and will be a very difficult player to cover.

Transfer Window Forecast

How Bayern handles the coming transfer window will be interesting, and it will be indicative of where Guardiola sees this team going. If they stand pat, it says two things – A. Guardiola is not concerned about the injuries to Schweinsteiger, Alaba, Javi Martinez or Thiago Alcantara, and B. Guradiola believes that any roadblocks Bayern have hit are best overcome through allowing the team to gel and work together rather than a lack of talent.

That being said, teams like Bayern never simply watch a transfer window pass. When considering the players that may be available in the coming window, I simply do not see anyone who would make sense for Bayern to aggressively pursue. Sergio Ramos may follow Xabi Alonso’s suit and ditch Spain for Germany. Marco Reus and Meszut Ozil’s names will be thrown around, as they always are. Daley Sinkgraven and Martin Odegaard are two hot young names to eye carefully. Still, barring a significant name becoming legitimately available, however, I expect this to be a quiet transfer window in Munich.

Managerial Progress 

Pep Guardiola is, in my humble estimation, the best managerial mind in soccer. His accomplishments in Barcelona and in Munich thus far speak for themselves, but his ability to incorporate diverse talents into a set strategy is a truly incredible ability and a testament to his understanding of the game. There is no better strategist pacing the sidelines in 2014.

Guardiola still has work to do in Munich, though. My concern is that the aforementioned lack of mental toughness starts with Pep. It is not that he lacks mental toughness, watching his dominant Barca sides shows that, it is that he has not found a proper way to bring an essentially Spanish approach to the game in to Germany. He is progressing towards that in a nice way, though. He clearly understands his team better than he did a year ago, and vice versa. It was always going to be a problem incorporating two known commodities smoothly, but I think every match is a step forward for Guardiola and his men.

Weaknesses 

If you have been paying attention, you know the answer to this – mental toughness. A successful campaign for Bayern is a treble, at this point. That is a mentally trying goal. Knowing that this is the expectation will undoubtedly weigh heavily on the minds of the Munich men. They need to be able to overcome this weight and play as if nothing is expected of them. Part of the reason I believe they were so incredible in that 2013 campaign was that they were haunted by the specter of their home loss to Chelsea in the previous year’s final. This embarrassment led them to play with a hunger they had lacked previously because they had now known the sting of defeat on the highest level. They need to show that they can channel that energy and hunger once again. 

Rating (out of 5 stars): 4.5

I wish I could give my beloved Reds a perfect record, but they are not quite there. I wish I could write off their draws in the Bundesliga as aberrations, but something tells me they might not be. I wish I could forget their unceremonious Champions League exit last year, but alas, their 5-0 aggregate thumping from Real Madrid still gives me the fantods. They are the best team in Germany, but that is not enough. Success in Munich is means that they hoist not one, not two, but three trophies at the minimum. They are tantalizingly close to doing so, but I am not sure that they are there, and that is why they are not yet a ten.

This is a disaster. That may sound like hyperbole, but for anyone who has watched Bayern Munich play soccer over the past few months, not to mention the past decade, knows how significant it is for Der FCB to lose captain Philipp Lahm for three months to an ankle injury. Not only is Lahm the team’s captain, he is their most versatile and talented defender and is easily one of the best full backs playing right now. Losing him, just as both their Bundesliga and Champions League campaigns heat up, could very well prove to be the Bayern’s undoing.

It is not just Lahm’s injury that is so problematic for Bayern. It is his injury coupled with existing injuries to David Alaba and Bastian Schweinsteiger that makes this a precarious time for the men in Munich. Under coach Pep Guardiola, players are less confined to a specific position than they are asked to perform certain tasks. Positional fluidity is a key to Guardiola’s success and has become a huge strength for Bayern this year, despite struggles to adjust last year.

One perfect example of this positional fluidity has been Guardiola’s response to Schweinsteiger’s prolonged absence. We have seen Lahm play further forward in an attempt to alleviate Basti’s absence, even resulting in Lahm’s first career brace earlier this year against Werder Bremen. Now, with Lahm missing as well, Guardiola will have to reassess how to replace Schweinsteiger andLahm.

This is where Alaba would have been a godsend, especially given his notable progression this year. Of course, Alaba is out as well. Lahm would have been the natural choice to spend some time at left-back to replace Alaba, but now without any of the three players, Guardiola must use some of his ingenuity to shore up Bayern’s defense.

The problem with losing Lahm is that Bayern has no real facsimile for him. The best hope Guardiola has is 19-year-old Dane Pierre-Emile Hojberg. While certainly a talented player, Hojberg has just 17 Bayern appearances in the last two seasons, a fact that makes it hard to imagine him ably taking over for Lahm. It is not that he lacks the ability; he is a preternaturally talented young man. Lahm simply plays the fullback position in a way that no one else can. He can play both sides of the field, he can cut incisively, he may be the best tackler in Europe and his dribbling skills are bar none. Hojberg is a young, raw talent, but Lahm is a generational player who is playing some of the best soccer of his already splendid career.

So yes, while this may be Bayern, a team with seemingly unlimited resources and an ability to somehow endure even fate’s cruelest twists, the Lahm injury is indeed bad news of the highest order. He is not their best player, but he is the hardest to replace, and he is their captain. There is no player on this team that is not vital to the team’s success, but there is no player as important as Lahm right now. This will be a tough three months for Bayern and how they deal with it will answer a lot of questions about their ability to compete come April and May.

In the Bundesliga, there is an inevitable end, and it is dressed in red and blue — Bayern Munich will win the league. This does not make the league any less exciting though, and as we take a breather for the Euro 2016 qualifiers, it is a perfect time to assess where we have been and where we are going in Germany.

Last year, Bayern not only won the league, but also did so with a record seven matches to spare. Bayern will almost certainly be walking away as champions once again, but there is some cause for concern at the top. It starts in the midfield. Bayern made some very smart additions during this past transfer window, but they also made one very notable subtraction: Toni Kroos is now holding down the midfield spot in Madrid. The German is one of the most dynamic midfielders in the sport, and Bayern simply does not have an immediate replacement for him.

Compounding this issue further is the absence of Bayern talisman Bastian Schweinsteiger due to a patellar tendon issue. It seems increasingly likely that Basti will not see the field until 2015, and that is the best-case scenario. He was Bayern’s best hope for filling in for Kroos, but it now seems that Bayern will have to find another solution. And therein lies the rub for the rest of the Bundesliga. Bayern has a litany of options here. There is of course, Thomas Muller, upon whose shoulders the weight of leading the midfield will fall upon. Anyone who has seen Muller play can testify that he is more than capable of doing this. In addition, Bayern have veteran leadership from newly acquired Xabi Alonso. Finally, while their midfield may have digressed ever so slightly, they have improved at the attack with the addition of Robert Lewandowski and the continued ascendance of Mario Gotze as well as adding defenders Juan Bernat, Sebastian Rode and Medhi Benatia to shore up their protection in front of Manuel Neuer. All things considered, Bayern will be losing very few matches and very little sleep this year.

There will, however, be many sleepless nights across the rest of Germany. Over the past few years, it has been Borussia Dortmund that has given Bayern the best run for its money. This year is a different story for Jurgen Klopp’s men as they currently sit at 13th and have shown none of the pluck and aggressiveness that made them one of the most exciting clubs in Europe as of late. Dortmund has been the most creative side in Germany and, arguably, all of Europe under Klopp’s reign. Now it looks like Klopp may be out of ideas. Dortmund is playing lethargic and uninspired football, and that is a recipe for continued failure.

Dortmund is not the only traditional German power facing unexpected challenges. Schalke 04 sits only two spots above them and just sacked manager Jans Keller, replacing him with former Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo. Outside of a satisfying, if not impressive, draw with powerful Bayern, there has been little cause for celebration thus far at the Veltins-Arena. Schalke is far from being in full disaster mode, however. They have played well in Europe and seem to be suffering from a simple case of expected early season struggles. This makes the decision to change managers somewhat odd. The change to Di Matteo could be the spark that the men in blue need, but it could just as easily cause a downward spiral as the team is forced to adjust to a new manager’s style. Schalke is still a very talented team. For the most part, they resemble last year’s team that finished third. Only time will tell if the Di Matteo appointment was the smart move, but at least for now the outlook remains at least mostly rosy for Schalke.

While Schalke and Dortmund face unsure futures, traditional Bundesliga stalwarts are still excelling. Bayer Leverkusen has looked like the most accomplished side outside of Munich thus far. They currently sit fourth in the table, but they are second in the league with thirteen goals. They appear to be a club on the cusp of great things, just ask Benfica. Leverkusen looked dominant as they picked apart the Portuguese side with ease.

Sitting directly underneath Bayern, with thirteen points and a plus five goal difference each, are 1899 Hoffenheim and Borussia Mönchengladbach. Hoffenheim, undefeated thus far, most recently handed Schalke a 2-1 defeat, which spelled the aforementioned end of Jans Keller’s managerial reign. They also drew with Mainz. Hoffenheim looks to be the Bundesliga’s most improved side this year, and with Schalke and Dortmund facing potential off years, there is great opportunity for a club like Hoffenheim to take advantage of that and steal an UEFA Champions League berth or at least get into the Europa League.

Mönchengladbach, meanwhile, have also looked excellent this year, but the question with them is how well they’ll do when the schedule gets tougher. They drew with Mainz (sixth in the table) and defeated newly promoted SC Paderborn 07 (ninth), but otherwise their matches have all been against teams in the bottom half of the table. They did defeat Schalke, but of course we all know that is not the accomplishment it has been in years past.

We are now seven matches into the 2014-2015 Bundesliga season and one thing is certain: Bayern. Outside of that, however, the only thing that is certain is that every matchday will bring a new set of storylines: Are Schalke and Dortmund’s struggles abberations or will they persist? Can Leverkusen keep battering opponents into submission? Are teams like Mainz, Hoffenheim and Mönchengladbach for real? So while things may be business as usual at the top of the table, there is intrigue and excitement abound everywhere else.

If you think the Bundesliga begins and ends in Munich, the upcoming weeks and months will only serve to prove you wrong.

We are just four matches into the Premier League season, so the words sample size must be kept in mind, but Erik Lamela has been a revelation for Maurice Pochettino’s men so far. After a lost season last year under the bumbling management of Andre Villa-Boas and Tim Sherwood, in addition to a difficult transition to England and flagging health, the future was not looking bright for Lamela, who was supposed to be the biggest and brightest of the players purchased with the Gareth Bale windfall. That has all changed with his series of breathtaking performances that have the Spurs eyeing the all-important fourth position in the table.

As much as the reasons mentioned earlier played a vital role in his emergence, the actual reason behind his resurgence is that Pochettino has been deploying him correctly in a midfield position behind Emmanuel Adebayor, a true striker. Neither Sherwood nor Villas-Boas knew how to use Lamela correctly, or if they did they tried to force him into their vision of the team nonetheless. His inability to acclimate to England and his health issues became more prominent because of his misuse, which only complicated the central problem: His managers continually tried to fit a square peg in a round hole.

Should Lamela’s resurgence continue, Pochettino deserves a great deal of the credit for turning him into a star. In Saturday’s ultimately star-crossed match at Sunderland, Pochettino went with a fairly straightforward 4-2-3-1 lineup. By pairing Lamela with Christian Eriksen and Nacer Chadli, Pochettino freed Lamela to do what he does best: Use his masterful on-ball skills to set up his fellow offensive threats. Lamela is not comfortable playing up front; he is best when he is allowed him to establish himself in the middle of the field. Chadli, Eriksen and Adebayor allow him to do exactly that.

Throughout Saturday’s match, we repeatedly saw him dispossess opposing players and scoop up loose balls. This is what he does best, and this is what he is able to do when focusing more on setting up his teammates, rather than creating opportunities for himself. He displayed a previously unseen aggression near the ball, and once he had possession, no one on the field was able to take it away from him. His deft footwork was a huge reason why Tottenham racked up an impressive 68% of possession and, by extension; it was vital in creating their two goals.

Lamela’s game is not quite perfect, of course. While he is at his best in the midfield, we still need to see him apply a little more tact and touch downfield. The majority of his passes near the net ended on the feet of Black Cats, as Lamela was over-aggressive at times and potentially cost the Spurs possession once or twice. Obviously, any player is going to see the success rate of their passing decrease in their opponents third, but given how magnificent Lamela was in the middle, it is not unreasonable to expect a little more in higher pressure opportunities.

As far as flaws go, however, that is but a blemish on what was otherwise a remarkable match for Lamela. While many Spurs have flourished under Pochettino, no player’s success has been as significant or as gratifying as Lamela’s. By far the most expensive of last year’s acquisitions, the expectations were reasonably high for Lamela around White Hart Lane. His coronation may have been delayed a year, but it looks like he has finally arrived. With a little added luck and focus, it is quite possible that Tottenham Hotspur have arrived as well.

Before the final whistle had sounded, the brow-furrowing and hand-wringing and calls for Carlo Ancelotti’s head had already begun. Real Madrid, looking less than resplendent in their hot pink away kits, were staring at a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Real Sociedad – a team they beat 9-1 on aggregate last year and a team they had not lost to since 2004. Just two matches into the season, the outlook in Madrid seems to have taken a drastic turn southward. Adding James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos in the offseason had Real fans dreaming of a triple. Now, after the Sociedad loss and an unimpressive opener against promoted Cordoba, clouds have started to form over El Bernabeu.

The question now remains – are the clouds here to stay, or is it merely a storm passing through? Luckily for Madrid fans, Los Blancos’ rough start is most likely an aberration – a result of the team working to gel with new additions Kroos and Rodriguez, while coping with the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo and the departure of Xabi Alonso. Rome was not built in a day, and sporting empires are not typically built in a single match.

The biggest problem facing Madrid is luckily one that will eventually come to pass, and that is Ronaldo’s flagging health. Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Rodriguez are three of the best strikers in the world, yet they are not Ronaldo. When a team is built around a talent as transcendent as Ronaldo, no amalgam of players can compensate for his absence. As well as Bale and Benzema played during Madrid’s title run last year, they were playing with Ronaldo most of the time. Bale and Rodriguez are both insanely promising talents, yet they are both still young and need more time to develop into the kind of strikers that and offense can be built around. Until Ronaldo returns to full health, this is not the same side that looked so dominant last year.

While that problem will eventually solve itself, the other problems facing them are more permanent. The first is the departure of Alonso to Bayern Munich. This is mitigated by the earlier arrival of Kroos, who is highly talented and eight years younger. However, while Kroos is probably a more talented midfielder, he lacks the experience and intelligence of Alonso. Although Ronaldo is the club’s leading player, Alonso was the heart and soul of Real for the past five years. That cannot be replaced immediately, and it it will take time for the team to figure out who they are now that the former Liverpool man is gone. For the meantime the side’s raw talent should be enough to compensate for the loss of Alonso.  A combination of veteran leadership from Ronaldo and Iker Casillas should also help.

The final problem facing Madrid is the most difficult to rankle with, and that will be incorporating new additions Rodriguez and Kroos into the lineup. In theory, more talent will bring about more success, but talent must be integrated and utilized correctly for it to be truly effective.

The solution to this problem is actually very straightforward, but it is not a quick fix by any means. The only real solution to this problem is time. The more time the teams spends together, the greater chance they have of becoming a cohesive unit. This is also dependent on Ancelotti’s coaching abilities and the team’s leadership. Kroos and Rodriguez are far too talented to fail in Madrid, especially when world-class talent like Gareth Bale and Ronaldo surrounds them. Their success may not come immediately, but the powers that be in Madrid will be able to help expedite the process.

The road to the treble will never be an easy one to traverse. Right now, for Los Merengues, it may seem as if the end of the trail is so far out of sight that it does not exist. Just because clouds may obscure it now, however, does not mean that it is not there. So hold tight, Los Blancos. The clouds are dissipating ever so slowly and right now patience is a virtue.

Last season, Swansea proved to be a startlingly brisk team struggling to transcend the crowded middle of the Premier League table. Led by the sure feet of Wilfried Bony and Michu, the Swans consistently proved to be anything but the pushovers one expected they might have been. Manchester United, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. The defending champions were not only terrible (by their standards, of course) but were terrible in completely uninteresting ways. They played staid, bloated and lackadaisical football that would surely never have flown under Sir Alex Ferguson.

This is a new season though, and Michu is in Italy and Louis Van Gaal is in Manchester, so the expectation coming in to this game was that both sides would be playing differently than the last time we saw them. So much for that. The Red Devils played like a team unsure of what their identity is and Swansea played with all the self-assuredness of eleven Zlatan Ibrahimovics, and here we are looking at Swansea at the top of the table and Manchester at the bottom.

There will be much discussion of how this happened, and we will undoubtedly hear about how Manchester United was “nervous” or “timid” or “haunted by the specter of last season.” While these the things are true, the simple truth remains: This game was won by the feet of Swansea, not lost by the brains of Manchester. Swansea played an aggressive match that saw them constantly pressing into United’s third and exposing their defensive weaknesses, and in the end they were simply too much for a thin Manchester side.

The most important tactical realization from the match is the presence of Gylfi Sigurdsson, who proved a more than formidable replacement for the on-loan Michu. Sigurdsson, paired with Bony, consistently played balls over the top, and in turn put Manchester United on their heels. Twenty seven minutes in, this strategy paid off, as Swansea shattered the right side of the Manchester defense and Ki Sung-Yueng easily put home Swansea’s first goal.

The Red Devils responded well though mainly via their incredibly adept passing attack. They completed almost two thirds more passes than Swansea and tripled the Swans’ number passes in the attacking third. It was a brilliantly simple plan of attack by the shrewd Van Gaal: Keep the ball moving in the midfield, away from crashing Swans, and use chaos in the attacking third to open up shots for the side’s best assets, newly-minted captain Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata. It was, of course, Rooney who would ultimately take advantage of a lovely corner and draw his team equal just seven minutes into the second half.

While the score may have been even, the match never felt that way; it seemed as if Manchester United was always seconds from toppling over, and that is exactly what happened at the 70-minute mark. Van Gaal’s best decision of the day was to play the second half with a back four; it allowed them to simultaneously protect the net from several dangerous Swansea attacks and it negated their weaknesses in midfield. The back four’s strength also allowed Rooney and Mata to plunder and pillage up front. Matches are won and lost in the midfield, however, and this is where Swansea was most dominant. They used strength, skill and a fair amount of cynicism to build plays in the midfield that would result in severe attacks on the wing. They used that exact blueprint as Sigurdsson scored a glorious goal and sent Van Gaal to the locker room a loser in his first match.

There will inevitably be much hand wringing in Manchester after the match; but Manchester United supporters must remember that it is indeed only one match. This is a Manchester side still vexed by injury and a lack of a real identity. Both of those problems will most likely subside as the season progresses. Swansea, on the other hand, should be ecstatic with what this match indicates. This is a side that is building on their relative success from last year and, while it may be only one game, it is hard not to be hopeful for the Swans.

Argentina left it late, but a goal by Angel Di Maria deep into extra time helping the South American team defeat Switzerland to advance to the quarter-finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Argentina certainly seemed to sense that the clouds of doubt were forming as they came storming out of the gate today. Josip Drmic’s attempt 38 minutes in felt like the best attempt Switzerland had up until that point, and Romero treated it as a horse’s tail would a gadfly. Up until that point, the match had largely consisted of Argentina driving the ball forward and getting it to Lionel Messi and letting him do his thing in and around the penalty area. Unfortunately for Argentina, goalkeeper Diego Benaglio was playing like a man on a mission and none of their opportunities found the back of the net.

Within five minutes of the start of the second half, both teams had great efforts on goal that were once again sent wide; first Javier Mascherano’s and then Xherdan Shaqiri’s just minutes later. At the 63rd minute, Gonzalo Higuain once again seemed just inches from a goal, but a spirited save from Benaglio kept the score even. Argentina appeared to be on the verge of breaking through and Switzerland seemed to be ever so slowly capitulating under the persistent pressure.

Red and white proved stronger than azul and blanco, though. Switzerland’s stout, imposing defense kept valiant attempt after valiant attempt out of the back of the net and sent the two teams into extra time. Finally, after 28 hard fought minutes of extra time, Messi connected with Angel Di Maria, who then drove the ball home with a strong left foot. Minutes later, the final whistle blew and Argentina could breathe again; they had secured safe passage to the next round.

As satisfying as that Di Maria goal must have been for Argentine supporters across the globe, one cannot help but imagine that they are nervous as they prepare for the winner of today’s USA-Belgium match. Outside of Messi and Di Maria, few if any of their players have played to the caliber we know them to be capable of. They struggled against Nigeria and Iran, and seemed no better today. Despite dominating in possession and having far more shots on goal, they found themselves minutes away from a shootout. Argentina has thoroughly outplayed their opponents so far yet they have won each match by just a single goal. This could be a sign that they are this close to breaking through, or it could mean they are just as close to coming up short. As they prepare for their next match, they must commit themselves to making sure the latter is not the case.

Watch the video highlights from Argentina vs Switzerland here:

After the thrilling finish between Chile and Brazil earlier in the day, it felt as if our collective hearts had just returned to their normal rates when it was time for the second game of the day to begin. Yesterday, the match between Colombia and Uruguay seemed to be for a rather dubious honor: That of losing to Brazil in the next round. Having watched Brazil struggle against an impressively valiant, although ultimately outmatched, Chilean side surely gave both Colombia and Uruguay a glimmer of hope that today’s match would not be their penultimate 90 minutes of their 2014 World Cup campaign.

The question now remained: Which side would take this motivation and use it to drive themselves to victory? It became clear well before James Rodriguez’s first goal gave Colombia a lead that would last through the remaining 62 minutes that it would Los Cafeteros who would step up. The match started with the two teams grappling for position as a cynical and physical Uruguay side did its best to batter the spirits of the upstart Colombian side. Through the first twenty minutes or so, Uruguay seemed to adopt a tactic of using brute force to overcome the absence of star striker Luis Suarez. Without Suarez there to dominate the opponent’s half of the field and wreak havoc on their defense, Uruguay did their best to dominate their own half of the field and keep the ball away from Colombia’s young starlets.

Unfortunately for Uruguay, there is no strategy to prevent a goal like James Rodriguez’s. It was truly a piece of footballing art, as he played the ball perfectly off of his chest on to the laces of his boot and drove the ball to the exact place it needed to be. It was such an electrifying goal that it completely deflated what had been up to that point a spirited Uruguayan side playing sans their best player. As amazing as Robin Van Persie’s header or Lionel Messi’s game-winner were earlier in the tournament, Rodriguez’s goal somehow seems to stand apart from those. There was something intangible and transcendent about watching a boy become a man with a simple swing of the foot, an entire nation’s hopes and a player’s career living and dying by the arc of the ball.

Colombia did not rest on their laurels after this, though. They continued to play crafty football that kept the older (and boy did they look old) Uruguayan side on their heels. Coming out of the half, they seemed to have a fury and vigor about them for which Uruguay’s experience was no match. Just four minutes into the half, lightning struck a second time as Rodriguez put the ball in the back of the net again to become this tournament’s leading scorer. Two beautiful crosses spread out Uruguay’s defense and they found themselves not only outnumbered in the penalty area but also out played.

Minutes after the second goal, Jon Champion commented that it felt like the “End of an era” for Uruguay. Diego Forlan would leave the pitch shortly after in favor of Christian Stuani; most likely marking the end of Forlan’s tenure with Uruguay. (Today marked his 112th cap for Uruguay, the most all time.) There was a notable poignancy about Uruguay after this, despite playing a spirited final 47 minutes in the face of sure defeat, it seemed as if Uruguay had heard Champion’s earlier comments and agreed with him. The pathos felt not just by Uruguayans but also likely by soccer fans all over the world (myself included) was even starker when placed next to the rising star that is Colombia. As one South American dynasty potentially begins its descent into the valley, another one surely seems to be rising to the mountaintop. If I’m Brazil, Colombia’s next opponent, I am very scared about that.

Watch the video highlights of the match here:

I made a mistake: I started writing this article before the match ended. I started to write about how Mexico should actually be happy with a draw. I started to write about how both sides should be satisfied with the outcome, rather than disheartened. Then, 72 minutes in, Rafa Marquez headed home an incredible header to take the lead. And then from that point on, there was only one story: Mexico, Mexico, Mexico.

El Tri confirmed everything we suspected to be true about them after their impressive draw with Brazil. We suspected that they had endured all of the turbulence of the past few months and had actually come out stronger for it. We suspected they would not be hampered by injuries, but would instead win in spite of them. We suspected that Guillermo Ochoa might be the best goalkeeper in the tournament. All of these suspicions are ever closer to being accepted as truths after today’s throttling of Croatia.

This outcome is, by all measures, a huge surprise. Of course, many people expected Mexico to build on their recent success with a victory, myself included. I know that I didn’t expect the match to look like this, though. Seventy minutes of tactically sound and evenly matched soccer followed by a total and complete capitulation by the Croats matched with an absolute onslaught of offense from Mexico. Many will engage in a debate about whether Croatia lost this game or Mexico won it, but there doesn’t need to be a choice in a match like this. Croatia fell apart, but it took only the lightest push from Mexico to cause them to implode.

Croatia could do little to prevent Marquez’s first goal, it was an almost perfectly taken corner followed by a header executed with equal perfection. Afterwards though, Croatia could simply not recover. Normally a side that plays smart, aggressive football that compensates for the fact that they are a better than average team but still far from being an elite side; they played a disjointed and ugly final twenty minutes. Their midfield was porous and sloppy with the ball, allowing Mexico to push their line back even further than it already had to be. The chaos in the midfield degenerated into despair as Mexico pushed forward, buoyed by their lead.

The first goal was undoubtedly a display of Mexican talent. Hector Herrera deserves as much credit for placing that corner kick in the exact spot it needed to be as does Marquez for driving it home. There was little Croatia could do to prevent that. It is the subsequent two goals that should leave Croatian supporters and players alike shaking their heads. I understand the offensive push in a dire situation that necessitates a goal, but Croatia seemed to lose all semblances of balance and tact as soon as they fell behind. Keep in mind they actually maintained the upper hand in possession throughout the game, although it rarely felt like that was the case.

While Pep Guardiola may argue otherwise, possession does not win games in the end. Mexico was too strong and too fast for what is still a very talented Croatian side. Croatia’s surfeit of possession time is likely more a result of their inability to create useful opportunities and their stalling when they did have possession in the hope that it would eventually drive Mexico’s sound defense apart. Mexico remained steadfast, however, and their persistence and patience ultimately proved far more vital than Croatia’s possession. Thanks to that, Mexico will be advancing to the next round to face the Netherlands, while Croatia will watch the rest of the tournament from home.

The great conundrum of New York City is that it provides one with an impossible amount of options for watching almost any sporting event including the World Cup. The wide variety of options makes the decision all the more difficult but luckily there are no real bad choices here. Any place with a TV and some cold beer will make a great spot to take in any match; but you and I both know that there are right choices and then there are righter choices.

Here are ten of the best spots to watch the 2014 World Cup in New York City:

1. The Football Factory,
6 West 33rd St.

Hands down, this is the best place to watch soccer in the city, period. Every Saturday and Sunday between September and May, you will find supporters of almost every international club here, from Arsenal to Zenit. During the World Cup, the fervor only increases. Not to mention, should it get too crowded for you or if your colors are red, white and blue, Jack Dempsey’s caters specifically to U.S. fans and is right next door.

2. Loreley Restaurant and Biergarten,
7 Rivington St.

Whether you will be wearing black, red and gold this summer or if you just enjoy liter drafts of the finest German beers, Loreley is one of the best spots to both watch a game and be outside. They have a projection screen in the basement as well, but I recommend avoiding that and sticking to the biergarten. Get there early though; it fills up well before the beginning of the match.

3. Houston Hall,
222 W. Houston St. and

Flatiron Hall,
38 West 26th St.

I’ll lump these two together since they’re almost identical. Houston Hall has the advantage of being “outdoors,” the ceiling is covered all in glass and it’s very open so it does feel outdoorsy despite not technically being outdoors. You can also play beer pong at Houston Hall if that’s your thing, or if decide that the next match simply doesn’t excite you. Both bars boast massive projection screens and almost perfect vistas throughout, as well as equally massive beers and phenomenal pub fare. Neither is specifically geared to a national club, which helps keep the crowd size slightly smaller as well.

4. Nevada Smith’s,
100 3rd Ave

It’s tough to pick out an East Village bar since there are so many that come to mind (Professor Thom’s, Dempsey’s and 11th Street Bar are great choices, amongst many others), but for the true soccer fan, Nevada Smith’s is the way to go. Their slogan is, after all, “Where football is religion.” It boasts a lot of TV’s with a good food and drink selection to watch them with, including a special World Cup menu. You can raise a Peroni to Gli Azzurri or a Sam Smith to The Three Lions.

5. The Churchill,
45 East 28th

I’m sure there are many England fans reading this article, so this is my bone to throw to you. Transport yourself to Jolly Old England at Churchill’s and enjoy classic English pub far with a good, cold pint. Dark and a little bleak, in the best way possible, Churchill’s almost perfectly mirrors the likely morale of the average England supporter given recent results.

6. Hecho en Dumbo,
354 Bowery

High-end Mexican food and a deep tequila selection make this spot a no-brainer for the classier fan. Need to impress a date but also want to catch the Mexico match? This is the perfect place. Elegantly designed with handsome wrought iron and dark wood, but not too pretentious that you’ll be out of place slamming your hands on said dark wood to celebrate.

7. Sweet and Vicious,
5 Spring St.

Once again, a phenomenal outdoor patio with a massive projection screen is the main selling point here. (Noticing a pattern?) Getting there during happy hour (2-7) means you can get as many $8 frozen margaritas as you can drink. Even if you’re not there during happy hour, I still suggest going the margarita route, but their beer selection is always on point as well.

8. The Jeffrey,
311 East 60th St

In my opinion, The Jeffrey has the best beer selection in the city. I consider myself somewhat of a beer aficionado and I still find myself baffled by most of the beer list, which rotates daily. They also boast one of the best cocktail lists around, if hops and barley isn’t your thing. The food is killer as well. Only two TV’s though, so get there early to get a good seat. This is the bar for the more casual fan.

9. Miss Favela,
57 South Fifth St., Brooklyn

I’ll end this list with a couple Brooklyn spots that are maybe better than anywhere in Manhattan. Miss Favela makes the list as the best place to go if this year’s host team also happens to be the team you support. The menu is stacked and the $10.50 Prato Feito lunch special is one of the best deals in the city and will give you a great base upon which to pour celebratory shots of Cachaça when Brazil scores. Their brunch is also one of the best and most unique in the city.

10. Kent Ale House,
51 Kent Ave, Brooklyn

My other Brooklyn pick is the Kent Ale House, which brands itself as the “Best soccer and rugby bar in Brooklyn.” It’s hard to argue with that when one walks in to the roar of a hundred Arsenal supporters every weekend. During the World Cup, the energy is just as palpable and the atmosphere just as conducive to enjoying any match. Their beer selection is eclectic and oftentimes locally sourced and their food is the perfect complement to a midday match. This is definitely a spot for the hardcore fan, but fans of all stripes, colors and levels of dedication will be happy to be here.

As we quickly progress through the group stage in the 2014 World Cup, there are a handful of soccer axioms that we find repeating. While the sport is in a constant state of flux, on both micro and macro levels, there are certain truths about the game that seems to always rear their heads no matter who is taking the field and no matter what larger context the game itself is being played. One such cliché is not to take anything for granted. No matter the seeming impossibility of a certain outcome, it is a possible outcome nonetheless.

While all logic certainly seems to dictate that today’s match between France and Switzerland will be played more so to determine seeding for the knockout round than it will be to determine placement in the knockout round, that should not be taken for granted. Switzerland and France have been the presumptive favorites to emerge from Group E since the day the groups were announced, but the reality is that neither team have secured advancement. After today’s match, only one side will be able to say that they have secured a spot in the knockout round. The answer to this question lies in which team realizes this and plays accordingly.

In order to secure safe passage into the round of 16, both teams need to improve their performance from their respective first matches. Switzerland should take more pride from their victory over Ecuador than France should from their victory over Honduras. Of course, France gave Honduras a more thorough beating than the Swiss did the Ecuadorians, the final score does not tell the entire tale of a match. Ecuador is a more talented team than Honduras, and Switzerland played a fierce, tactically sound match that prevented the Ecuadorians from ever establishing any real chance against the stronger Swiss side. The Swiss were aggressive without being sloppy, smart without being overly judicious and, most importantly, they played as a team while understanding that individuals are still responsible for the outcome of the game at times, as shown by Haris Seferovic’s sublime game winning goal.

France, meanwhile, played Honduras with all the style and tact of an adult beating a child. They knew they were stronger and simply pounded Honduras in a display of brute force. Karim Benzema played an absolutely phenomenal game, but there were flaws in France’s game that will be exposed by better opponents. Take, for example, Paul Pogba’s childish reaction to Wilson Palacios’ intentional kicks midway through the first half. Pogba responded with a well-placed foot of his own, earning a well-deserved yellow. France should only expect more of the same from Switzerland, and the French players will need to remember there is a time and place for everything. In addition, near misses, like Patrice Evra’s header that met the crossbar in the 23rd minute, will be costly against a stringent defensive team like Switzerland. Opportunities will be hard to come by, so France needs to take advantage of every one they get.

For all this exposition, though, the simple truth remains: France is the better side. Switzerland may appear to be in better form, and they are certainly capable of giving France a serious challenge. Especially with Benzema playing so well France doesn’t seem to mind the absence of Franck Ribéry, it’s hard to imagine a scenario that doesn’t result in a French victory. We must remember though: In soccer, and in life, take nothing for granted.

A “Must-win” game is a cliché that one might have used to describe this past Sunday’s match between Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid, if one does not fully understand the gravity of that match. “Must-win” is one of those infinitely haranguing sports clichés that, while spoken in voices of lofty timbre about battles between gladiators, not athletes, is ultimately a hollow phrase; a platitude used to save lazy writers and analysts the trouble of actually thinking about what a particular match may mean for either side. “Must-win” says nothing about that Sunday match.

There is no simple way to encapsulate all that the match, the most recent chapter in El Derbi Madrileño, meant for the two sides taking the pitch at Estadio Vicente Calderón. One of the more storied soccer rivalries in Europe, the (at least) bi-annual match had taken a backseat to El Clasico for a good decade or so, but that ended last year as Atléti beat Real 2-1 in the Copa Del Rey final at the Bernabeu. La Liga has felt like a two-man race in the past because it has been a race between two men.

The Diegos Costa and Simeone have ensured that, at least for the time being, there is a three-man race for the top of La Liga and the honor of being the best team in Spain. However, after Sunday’s 2-2 home draw with Madrid, Atléti’s dream of championship has never been further out of reach. With twelve matches left, Madrid sits at the top of the table with 64 points, Barça follows with 63 and Atléti is left in third with 61.

If Atléti has any chance at seizing the title, Barça may prove to be the key to their success. El Derbi is in the books for this year, but both of the Madrid clubs have La Liga matches left with Barça. While all three clubs still have challenges against teams like Athletic Bilbao, Villarreal and Real Sociedad left before a champion is crowned, the season will undoubtedly be decided by how the top three fare against each other.

On March 23, the next chapter of El Clasico will be written at the Bernabéu. The last time these two teams met, Barcelona was victorious at home, by a score of 2-1. This was also the last time Real Madrid lost in any competition. That was October 26th. In the five months that will have passed come their next match, Madrid has asserted themselves as not just the best team in Spain but also, arguably, the best team in Europe. Record transfer Gareth Bale has finally returned to full health, and even losing Ronaldo for three matches could not slow down the resurgent Blancos.

Meanwhile, both Barça and Atléti have struggled, comparatively. Most recently, Real Sociedad and Valencia both handed Barcelona shocking upsets, with the tilt against Valencia played at Camp Nou no less. Atléti’s embarrassments have come at Real’s hands, as they were bounced from the Copa Del Rey 5-0 on aggregate. Of course, this could prove a blessing in disguise: Real and Barça will face off for the Copa Del Rey final on April 19th, meaning both clubs will have one match’s worth of extra wear on their legs. The exhaustion of their foes may be Atlétí’s best hope for success.

Real Madrid has the inside track on the title, but the race is not over. If Atléti hopes to be the club that usurps Los Blancos, the enemy of their enemy will be their best friend. They need to continue to play their best football as the season draws to a close, but that will not be enough. They need Barcelona to beat Madrid later this month. It is not hard to believe that Atléti can finish the season without dropping another point. They will have to travel to Athletic Bilbao, Levante and Valencia, but outside of those tricky matches, their schedule is a cakewalk.

Given their schedule, a Barcelona victory on the 23rd could leave them at the top of the table come May 18th, the last day of the season. On that day they will be welcoming Atlético Madrid to Camp Nou. This could very well be the match that decides who walks away with the title in La Liga. Real Madrid sits in the driver’s seat for the time being. Atléti and Barça are breathing down their necks. There is a lot of football to be played in the next 76 days. The title may very well be decided on the 76th day.

Programming note: For viewers in the United States, La Liga games — including el Clasico — are shown exclusively on beIN SPORT, beIN SPORT Espanol and DishWorld. Even if you don’t have a TV subscription to beIN SPORT, you can access those channels via online streaming service DishWorld for $10/month. Read our review of DishWorld. And sign up for DishWorld via their website.

Something is rotten in England. Over the past two days, the country that is allegedly home to the strongest, deepest professional soccer league in the world saw two of its three best teams lose to two of the rest of Europe’s best teams in embarrassingly spectacular fashion on its home soil. The English representatives, Manchester City and Arsenal, did not just lose to their counterparts, FC Barcelona and Bayern München, they had their trousers pulled down in front of a global viewing audience.

If one had to summarize the English sides’ attitude to the matches, it would be harder to find a more fitting image than the obscene gesture made by Arsenal’s goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny after he was sent off late in the first half.

On Tuesday, Manchester City took to the pitch at the Etihad Stadium against Barcelona and were made to look foolish by a Barça side that seemed to be so far ahead of their English opponents that losing Martin Demichelis 54 minutes into play seemed superfluous. Lionel Messi proceeded to convert his penalty kick, while a last minute goal by Dani Alves not only sealed the Citizens’ fate for that match, but also spells almost certain elimination from the competition. Even using the best sites for gambling online, it would take a brave person to wager that Arsenal would score three unanswered goals in Munich in the return leg.

Fast forward 24 hours later, and a disturbingly similar story unfolded at Emirates Stadium in London. Arsenal played host to defending champions and the competition’s presumptive favorites Bayern München and proceeded to act as a welcome mat for the German side. The Gunners played a competitive half hour or so of football, although this is not entirely surprising as Bayern has been notoriously slow starting against strong sides. A questionable call led to the aforementioned red card for Szczesny, and in a moment of depressing English symmetry, at 54 minutes in, Toni Kroos put home a strike from 20 yards out and at 88 minutes, Thomas Müller sentenced Arsenal to the same fate as Manchester City.

There is no nice way to put this: England is in trouble. The Premier League is, ostensibly, the finest collection of football clubs in any country. Serie A has put just one team in to the round of 16. La Liga is, despite the resurgence of Atlético Madrid, still a two-team league. The Bundesliga is the only league that can reasonably be compared to the BPL, having sent four clubs to the round of 16 and featuring enough talent that clubs like Borussia Mönchengladbach can conceivably compete with table leaders Bayern. Nonetheless, the perception in Europe as well as the entire world is that the Bundesliga is, at best, good competition for England.

So if all of that is true, how have England’s best clubs seemingly fallen so far behind the best Spanish and German sides? (And, after watching Paris Saint-Germain dismantle Bayer Leverkusen, one might argue a French side as well.) It is, quite simply, hard to imagine the UEFA Champions League trophy not ending up in Munich, Madrid, Paris or Barcelona when all is said and done.

Arsenal’s lack of a true striker was arguably the key to their undoing at the hands of Bayern. Even if Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud had been available yesterday, Arsenal looked languid against the Germans who have seemingly perfected Pep Guardiola’s tiki-taka style of play, completing 94.6% of their passes and possessing the ball for an astounding 79% of the game. Manchester City, meanwhile, played a sloppy, uninspired match that saw them commit 19 fouls in a sort of desperation act, as they clearly stood almost no chance against their opponents. Barça played an aggressive game that prevented the normally attacking Citizens from controlling the tempo of the game as they so often do against their fellow English sides. To put the results of the past two days in to the simplest of terms, Arsenal and Manchester City were simply outplayed, outclassed and, in general, treated like doormats rather than doormen.

Manchester City, Arsenal or Chelsea will win the Premier League this year. This is less a prediction than it is a fact. Here is another prediction that some may consider a fact as well: Chelsea will be the only side of the three advancing to the Champions League quarterfinals. I’m not discussing Manchester United here because, while I think they will beat Olympiakos and give England two teams in the quarterfinals, their appearance is an aberration brought on by luck and easy draws. They will inevitably be dismantled by whichever club they meet in the round of eight, and I don’t necessarily think that is up for debate.

Chelsea, notwithstanding, England’s best clubs are all fatally flawed in such deep ways that they are unable to compete with the best clubs in the world. We have believed for so long that the Premier League is the best league in the world simply because nothing has led us to believe otherwise. When we watch clubs like Swansea or Newcastle play top-tier clubs competitively, we chalk that up to the depth of talent across the entire Premiership. Perhaps the real reason is because the top-tier clubs just are not that good anymore, and the Premier League is no longer the finest collection of soccer clubs in Europe.

After Chelsea’s 3-0 victory over Newcastle, José Mourinho said of Eden Hazard: “He’s the best young player in the world. Under 23, under 24, he is for sure the best in the world and if he continues in this direction, who knows where he can arrive?” Hazard may have failed to lead Chelsea to victory against a West Brom side fighting off the specter of relegation, but the Blues still remain on top of the Premier League table (thanks in part to Manchester City’s match against Sunderland being delayed, admittedly.) This begs the question: Why did Mourinho feel the need to qualify his adulation of Hazard by limiting his comparison to his fellow youngsters? Hazard is not quite yet on the level of the Ronaldos, Messis or Ribérys of the world, but his recent play has begged the question: Is Hazard the best player in England?

A month or two ago, this was not debatable, and in the eyes of many Liverpudlians, it still isn’t: Luis Suarez has been having a season to end all seasons. He leads the league with an astounding 23 goals, and he has almost singlehandedly kept Liverpool in Champions League contention. Hazard has 12 goals this year, tying him for fourth with Yaya Touré. As any fan can tell you, though, true greatness is not measured solely in goals. Furthermore, the ultimate measure of greatness is victory, and as Hazard has improved, so has Chelsea.

Still, whether it’ll be Suarez or Hazard who will win the Footballer of the Year award, don’t be surprised to see a flurry of activity as English football supporters place a wager on their pick after reviewing the best sites according to GamblingSites.com.

Hazard’s ascension began in earnest with his sublime Boxing Day performance against Swansea. His first half goal was the difference at Stamford Bridge, but that goal does not do his performance justice. His passes were crisp, his crosses on target and despite valiant challenges from a spirited Swansea side, the match never felt close. The entire Chelsea offense flowed through Hazard that day. It was the kind of match that may not look incredible on the stat sheet, but to watch the game was to witness the birth of a star in blue.

This star-making performance was followed by perhaps the most crucial victory for Chelsea so far this year, a 2-1 victory over Suarez’s Liverpool. Hazard scored again, launching a beautiful curling shot into the back of the net to break an early 1-1 tie. Once again the game was close, and after the match Mourinho emphasized the myriad opportunities his side had to score a finishing goal, saying, “We had some counter attack situations where we could have killed the game with Eto’o, Torres and Hazard, but we didn’t and it was hard until the last minute, but we deserved it.” Much like the Swansea match, the Chelsea offense was led by Hazard, who performed two vital tasks that day: He kept the ball on the feet of his fellow men in blue, and he kept the ball away from Suarez.

Hazard stayed in fine form as Chelsea continued to win, beating Southampton 3-0, Hull 2-0 and Manchester United 3-1. Hazard’s only goal in these three matches came against Hull, but he was electric in all three matches. His creativity and his drive forced opposing defenders to play at a pace they were not prepared for, and this showed in goals by Torres and Oscar and an unreal hat trick by Eto’o against Manchester United. Even when Hazard was not scoring goals, he was creating vital opportunities for players that have long received the highest billing at Stamford Bridge. The Blues would stumble slightly as they drew 0-0 with West Ham, but they followed this with another incredible win against Manchester City and then, of course, Hazard’s coronation would come just five days later with his hat trick against a spritely Newcastle side. If you’re keeping track, by the way, Chelsea hasn’t lost since December 7 against Stoke, and in that time they are 8-3-0.

Watching Eden Hazard take the pitch over the past two plus months, we have witnessed him make the jump that so many talented youngsters fail to make: He has turned all of his potential energy into kinetic energy, and that energy has propelled Chelsea to the top of the table. There is little chance he will finish the season with more goals than Suarez, and for that the Uruguayan will most likely be taking home the Player of the Season award come May. No player, however, has had as profound an impact on his club’s success as Hazard, and not coincidentally his club has a wonderful opportunity to seize their first title since the 2009-2010 campaign. Whether or not the Blues actually hoist the Premier League trophy may rest no more squarely on any players’ shoulders than Hazard’s; but make no mistake: His shoulders are broad enough to carry Chelsea to glory.

For the latest Chelsea news, analysis and opinion, visit the Chelsea team page.

Manchester United is not just a football club. Manchester United is an idea. The idea is that they are exceptional in some fundamental way. The idea is that the general rules somehow do not apply to them — They do not struggle, they do not lose and they do not accept anything less than the best. Just as political, national and racial exceptionalism have ultimately found those who believed in it hoisted by their own petards, so will Manchester United if they do not learn to accept that they are indeed just a football club.

Manchester United does not believe that they must abide by the rules that govern other clubs because they never have had to before — in recent decades. They have never had to, say, consider selling Wayne Rooney because, despite his failure to live up to expectations, he has been the face of the club since he joined them. They have never had to consider managerial upheaval because they had the greatest manager of all time leading them. They never had to consider playing younger, more inventive lineups because they could always develop young players alongside their established stars. This all stems from the fundamental belief that they are exceptional, and up until this year they have been able to believe that because it has been true.

But now, times have changed. The air of invincibility and exceptionalism has gone. Fergie has left. Rooney is not the White Pelé of yore. Van Persie has been injured. The development of young talent has been stalled. Manchester United is no longer exceptional. And it is time for them to reckon with that fact. This means that they need to start acting like other clubs. This begins with accepting that David Moyes may not be The Chosen One, as banners hanging from the stands at Old Trafford decree. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they must sack him, but they need to accept that a lot of the problems they have had this year stem from his ability, or lack thereof, as a manager. What Moyes accomplished with Everton was undoubtedly impressive but with all due respect to the Toffees, they are not Manchester United by any stretch of the imagination. Moyes has a great mind for the sport, but he needs to address the idea that he needs to tailor his strategy to his players, not vice versa. Whereas smaller clubs like Everton must construct their teams from the ground up, the best clubs construct from the top down by purchasing the best talent and supplementing it with homegrown players.

Moyes stepped into a club with an already-forged identity and in his attempt to impress his own style, he sacrificed both his own integrity and that of his players. Ultimately, the club must accept that their first manager after Fergie does not have to be The Chosen One, and that it is acceptable to sack him because that’s what clubs in seventh place do.

Of course, the blame does not lie solely on Moyes’ shoulders. Injuries have plagued the team. The age of their former stars has slowed them down. These are not intractable problems, though. What the team needs to do though is stop hoping and waiting for their legends to return to form because that may (read: probably) never happen. Last year’s healthy RVP may very well be an apparition amidst a career of injuries. Rooney may have peaked. Giggs, Evra and Carrick are all old. It is time to accept this and move on, and that may mean selling Rooney and focusing more on developing their young stars, Adnan Januzaj, chief among them.

In considering Manchester United’s recent struggles, I find myself reminded of the Mark Twain quote of specious origin: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” When all is said and done, the club sits in seventh, just nine points out of a Champions League qualification. Speaking of which, they are still alive in the Champions League, and a win against Olympiakos in the first leg later this month would be a huge boon for them. All of this is to say: Part of not ending the Manchester exceptionalism means believing in the club’s ability to overcome adversity. As hard as it may be to believe that there is a silver lining to this season, far worse clubs have overcome far more. Manchester United may not be exceptional, but with just a few months left in the season, they can still salvage a season particularly with qualification for next season’s UEFA Champions League as well as a healthy run in the competition this season.

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