Barça vs. Shakhtar Donetsk

It sounds like a cheesy spinoff of a Godzilla title, but this afternoon's (evening in Europe) Champion's League clash of titans will leave you awestruck and ready to soil yourself...kinda like this guy.

Funny name aside, Shakhtar Donetsk are veritable footballing monsters, albeit, unknown monsters.  They unassumingly topped group H in the first stage of the tournament, allowing the Ukrainians to avoid Barcelona for the first knockout stage.  UEFA Cup Champions in 2009, Shakhtar is not unfamiliar to top-level football.  They have only lost one player in their starting 11 from 2009 and have since added former Arsenal midfielder Eduardo and Brasilian U-20 star Douglas.

 2009 UEFA Cup Champs 

Eduardo (nationalized Croatian) and Douglas are 2 of 7 Brasilians who inject "joga bonito" into an already attack-minded Ukrainian style of play.  Luiz Adriano and Jadson will need to influence the match with their counter-attacks if Shakhtar hope to grab an all-important away goal at the Camp Nou.

Bolstering the defense for the Ukrainian side is former Barcelona center-back Dmytro Chygrynskiy.  The failed 2009 signing returned home after one year in Spain as the first Ukrainian to play for the blaugrana.  He likely share his knowledge of the Barcelona system to give his Brasilian teammates an edge.

Flanking Chygrynskiy will be two world-class fullbacks in Darijo Srna and Razvan Rat.  The Croatian and Romanian, respectively, play similarly to Dani Alves and Adriano.  Between them, they have made over 150 caps for their countries  Srna, captain of his national side as well as Shakhtar, will have his hands full with Adriano and Andres Iniesta while Rat will be scurrying to mark Messi and Alves.

While (The) Ukraine has a relatively young nation and national team that played its first official match in 1992, Ukrainian players have been featuring prominently on the world stage for decades.  The USSR was able to achieve success throughout the decades thanks to players from Ukraine.  The former Soviet Republic's most capped player, and leading goal scorer is Oleg Blokhin, the 1975 Ballon d'Or winner.  The USSR's second leading scorer all-time is also Ukrainian, Oleh Protasov.

I fully expect this afternoon's affair to deliver drama and excitement.  Hopefully not too much drama in the eyes of a Barcelona supporter, but bring the excitement!

Messi is returning after sitting out this past weekend's difficult match at Villarreal.  Pedro could return as well.

Shakhtar were smashed 5-1 at the Emirates earlier this season.  While they were able to defeat the Gunners 2-1 at the Donbass Arena, I expect the Cule to sing their team to victory.  Like they say, it doesn't get any better than rooting for Barça.

Japan withdraws from Copa America

If we were still wondering whether or not soccer and politics were one and the same, Japan's withdrawal from Copa America this summer is a harsh reminder that the beautiful game is only as fruitful as the soil upon which it is played.

Currently, Japanese futbol is radioactive.

Today CONMEBOL announced that Japan will not travel to Argentina to participate in the 43rd edition of the Copa America.  They were invited to compete with the South American teams for the second time in the tournament's history along traditional invitees Mexico.  

With J-League fixtures suspended until April 23rd, Japanese officials are rightfully focusing on rebuilding a nation damaged by the tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis following the earthquake on March 11, 2011.  Japanese Soccer Association president Junji Ogura stated, "we want to restart our season, but the priority is to save lives and rebuild cities".  

This move comes as no shock to CONMEBOL nor should it come as a shock to the avid fan.  It was expected that the Asian Cup champions were going to use the summer tournament as an opportunity for younger players to gain valuable international experience.  European stars like Kagawa, Honda and Uchida would be available, however J-League standouts would be more likely to feature.

Now that Japan's national league will run well into the summer months, Copa America participation would interfere with the "business end" of the season.

The tournament, scheduled to run July 1-July 24, is now missing one team and CONMEBOL is searching for a replacement team.

Spain officials have claimed that La Roja has already been invited.  The World Champions would join hosts Argentina along with Colombia and Bolivia in group A.

Spain has played both Argentina and Colombia in recent international friendly matches.  They were demolished 4-1 in Buenos Aires on September 7th while it took the Iberians 89 minutes to break the deadlock against the Cafeteros in the Bernabeu back in February.

While Spain's introduction into the tournament could be tasty, it is unfortunate that Japan will be unable to participate.  They are a team that has risen to the occasion of big tournaments as of late (World Cup, Asian Cup) and have a strong league that produces more AFC Champions League teams than any other nation.  

When the league began in 1993, tremendous resources were poured in to ensure success, the most important being managers.  World-class managers such as Arsene Wenger, Carlos Queiroz and Big Phil (Luiz Felipe Scolari) have all been at the helm of J-League squads.

With billions of dollars lost to damage, soccer will be way down on the list of necessary repairs.  Basic necessities like buildings, food and water need to be ensured before Japanese can begin to think about sport.  And yet, the beautiful game has a way of bringing people together.

Perhaps the J-League will not be able to bring in Wengers and Scolaris, but there could be an upside to the situation.  Japan will be required to rebuild from the ground up.  Focusing inward on training nationals to coach and develop youth as opposed to hiring expensive internationals could pay dividends in the long run.

But before we think of that, let us hope that the people of Japan recover and return to health and safety.