English premier league play begins

Though almost completely off the radar of US sports media and fans, the rest of the world is keenly aware that English Premier League play is underway. While Americans are preoccupied with the Olympics, Brett Favre, the upcoming college football season, NASCAR and baseball pennant races the reality is that even in slow news cycles the EPL attracts little attention. Professional soccer—even at its highest level as represented by the EPL—is a niche sport in the US and coverage is relegated to high numbered cable TV channels and satellite radio.

That’s most definitely not the case in the rest of the world where, even with the Beijing Olympics underway, soccer (or ‘football’ as it’s called everywhere else but the US) is front page news. While several other country’s top professional soccer circuits can make a case for being the best in the world—the Spanish La Liga, the German Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A immediately come to mind—most soccer experts concur that the English Premier League is, as its name suggests, ‘the premier league’.

Play starts against the backdrop of the usual rivalries and drama, but also with a few new subplots. England is stinging from the failure of its national team to qualify for the prestigious European Championships earlier this summer. This disappointment resulted in some housecleaning in the national team, but England’s coach Fabio Capello is confident that he can make the squad a force to be reckoned with at the 2010 World Cup competition. The first step, however, is to qualify and that circuitous route will begin in September.

In 2007, the storied Manchester United club—essentially the “New York Yankees of English football”—won their 17th EPL title, which is second only to Liverpool’s 18. They’ll have a tough task repeating, however, as both Liverpool and arch rivals Chelsea spent a lot of money bolstering their squads. While Liverpool and Chelsea spent millions upon millions of pounds on player acquisition, ManU essentially stood pat though there’s still a chance that they’ll make a personnel move before the season progresses too far.

Most British soccer observers, however, suggest that the most significant signing took place off the field: Chelsea’s hiring of former Portugal national team manager Luiz Felipe Scolari is being hailed as a move that could possibly allow the team to leapfrog ManU to win the Premier League title. Liverpool could also pass up the defending champions, as they’ve spared no expense to challenge for the EPL title in an effort to placate a their fanbase who’s growing ever more disenchanted at the fact that despite having won the crown more times than any other team they haven’t done so since 1990.

While lacking in what could be considered ‘marquee matchups’ in the opening week of play, both Chelsea and ManU play middle of the table teams that could provide at least a nominal challenge. Liverpool, meanwhile, has an easier time against a Sunderland side that was lucky to avoid relegation.