A Soccer Recap

A Sad Farewell to the 21/22 Season

Liam Gregory, Reporter|June 1, 2022

The coveted Premier League Trophy. It is awarded to the team with the most points at the end of the 38 game season. Only one team has gone an entire season unbeaten, and that was Arsenal in the 2003/04 season. To commemorate the achievement, the Premier League commissioned a gold trophy`

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Troph%C3%A9e_Premier_League_13-14.jpg

The coveted Premier League Trophy. It is awarded to the team with the most points at the end of the 38 game season. Only one team has gone an entire season unbeaten, and that was Arsenal in the 2003/04 season. To commemorate the achievement, the Premier League commissioned a gold trophy`

Real Madrid have won the Champions League a record 13 times, and they haven’t lost a Champions League final since 1981. If I were a betting man, I would be taking Real Madrid

It’s that time of year for soccer fans: May. It’s a time of cup finals and down-to-the-wire domestic league conclusions, and nowhere do final day antics get better than the Premier League. If Liverpool were to win their match against Southampton on May 17, then they would move within one point of league leader Manchester City. Then it would all come down to the final day, Sunday, May 22. All the games are being played at the same time, so results will be relayed across England. Liverpool (86 points) play Wolverhampton Wanderers at home on the last day of the season, and Manchester City (90 points) contests Aston Villa at their home stadium, the Etihad. If Liverpool were to win their game against Wolverhampton and Manchester City lose their game against Aston Villa, then Liverpool would win the Premier League, again assuming they beat Southampton today. But there is a weird situation at play. If Liverpool beat Southampton 0-6, Manchester City lose to Aston Villa 0-1, and Liverpool draw against Wolves 1-1, then the winner of the Premier League would be decided by a playoff game at a neutral venue. It’s unlikely to happen, but stranger things have happened in the Premier League.

Tottenham Hotspur find themselves in the driving seat for a top 4 finish. All they have to do is come away with a point from Norwich. This would be the first time since the 2019/20 season that Tottenham would be in the Champions League.

A little further down the Premier League table, a race for 4th place rages on. Tottenham currently sit 4th on 68 points, with their bitter rivals Arsenal in 5th on 66 points. Tottenham and Arsenal played each other on May 12, with Tottenham coming away the victors with a score line of 3-0. Tottenham are now in the driver’s seat for a top 4 finish after Arsenal lost to Newcastle on Monday, May 16. If Tottenham can manage to get a point against Norwich, who sit dead last and are already relegated to the lower league, and thus have nothing to fight for, then they will secure 4th place no matter the result of Arsenal’s match against Everton. That match will be tough for Arsenal, as Everton are fighting against relegation. A win against Arsenal would assure Everton’s safety, so you can imagine that they will be fighting tooth and nail for the full 90 minutes.

Furthermore, in the world of European football, the finals for all competitions have been set. Liverpool will contest Real Madrid on Saturday, May 28th, in Paris to determine the winner of the Champions League. These two clubs have history, as they played each other in the Champions League final in 2018. Many Liverpool fans were angry because forward Mohamed Salah came off with an injury in the first half following a tackle by Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos.

This year, the Champions League final will take place in Paris. Real Madrid and Liverpool will square off again, a rematch of the 2018 final. (David Flores, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

The fans were angry because they felt Ramos did this on purpose. Real Madrid ended up winning, and now Liverpool are seeking revenge. In fact, when asked who he would rather face in the final, Mo Salah replied, “I want to play Madrid, I have to be honest. City are a really tough team, we played against them a few times this season, but I think if you ask me personally, I would prefer Madrid.” Real Madrid midfielder hit back at Salah, saying he was “disrespecting the badge.” This is set up for a spicy final. Moving on, though, the Europa League final is being played on May 18th in Seville, Spain between Eintracht Frankfurt of the German Bundesliga and

Rangers of the Scottish Premiership. Frankfurt did the impossible by coming back from a first leg deficit to knock out favorites Barcelona. Rangers had a fairly straightforward route to the final, and this will be the second year in a row that they win a trophy after they won the Scottish Premiership last year. And finally the Conference League.

Although the Barcelona men’s team did not make it to any major finals, their women’s team had just about the most perfect season ever. 30 games, 30 wins, 159 goals scored and only 11 conceded.

Its the first ever final for this competition, and either team will make history as the first ever winner. The teams in question are Roma of the Italian Serie A, and Feyenoord of the Dutch Eredivisie. Jose Mourinho reached the final in his first year as Roma’s manager, and hopes to take them all the way this season. He may have some difficulty with that, however, as Henrikh Mkhitaryan is still questionable after an injury to his flexor muscle in the first leg of the semifinals against Leicester City.

No matter what takes your fancy this month, there is something for everyone, and this looks to be one of the great concluding match weeks.