The football season is done. After donning the colors of club teams now it’s time to play for the national sides. As teams gear up for the Euro Cup (arguably the biggest football title outside the World Cup), let’s revisit the season that was and rank the top clubs during the regular season.
1. AC Milan (4th Serie A 61 points, UEFA Champions)
Italy plays the best football on the planet. They not only ruled the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in Germany but their club team rep to UEFA the Champions League beat Liverpool in a game for the ages. But the back story to AC Milan is much more complicated than that. They began the Serie A at an eight-point deficit because of the match-fixing scandal that hit Italian football prior to the World Cup, but still the Rossoneri finished fourth. Although they lost both times out to eventual champion Internazionale, AC Milan got their act together for the Champions League where they blitzed some really good teams. There was that unbelievable shellacking of Manchester United 3-nil, the trouncing of Bayern Munich on their home field 2-nil, and that injury-time win against Celtic before getting enough luck to beat erstwhile tormentor Liverpool despite being outplayed for most of the game. And all this without Andriy Shevchenko.
2. Manchester United (Champions EPL 89 points, 3rd UEFA)
The Kings of the English pitch are back where they feel they should rightfully be… the English Premier League champions. After surrendering the premiership to Chelsea the past two seasons, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo buried their differences during the past World Cup to lead the team against strong challenges from virtually almost every club in the 20-team EPL finishing with 89 points in 39 matches. They fell short of a Treble after losing to Chelsea in the FA Cup Final and to AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League semis.
3. Chelsea (2nd EPL 83 points, FA & Carling Cup champion, 4th UEFA)
For almost up to the last weeks of the footballing season, Chelsea was not only in the running for the premiership, but the FA Cup, the Champions League. They already pocketed the Carling Cup so a Quadruple was well within reach. The FA Cup victory over Manchester United might have soothed the pain of losing the EPL but manager Jose Mourinho will take it. After all, Chelsea has won all the titles available in Britain and with a plenty strong and talented side, they’ll be a threat in England and in Europe for years to come. The Blues scored 117 goals this season with Didier Drogba accounting for 33, Frank Lampard with 21, and Andriy Shevchenko adding 14 to round up the double-digit scoring.
4. Real Madrid (Champions La Liga 76 points, 5th UEFA)
The galacticos era has ended in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Yet, Madrid are still champions. Gone are Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, and David Beckham. After playing inconsistently for ¾ of the season, Manager Fabio Capello got his team to play their final 12 league games as if they were their “cup finals.” The result – their first La Liga title in four seasons. And it came over archrival Barcelona on a match that came down to the final playing day of a long and arduous season. Ruud Van Nistelrooy found new life in Spain after a tumultuous final year with Manchester United to lead the team in scoring with 25 goals.
5. Internazionale (Champions Serie A 97 points)
With Juventus relegated and AC Milan penalized, Intern Milan took full advantage and blitzed through the league with an incredible 30-7-1 record. With balanced scoring by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Hernan Crespo, and Marco Materazzi, Inter captured its 15th Scudetto with five matches to play tying the record set by Torino FC way back in 1948. AS Roma finished a far 76 points behind for second place.
6. FC Porto (Champions 69 points, 6th UEFA)
Jesualdo Ferreira has walked out of the long shadows of FC Porto’s long line of successful managers to stamp his class with this traditional Portuguese power. After Co Adriaanse left with the season barely two months old, Ferreira guided his team as led by Helder Postiga and Ricardo Quaresma to a heart-stopping finish that was every bit similar to the neighboring Spanish La Liga. The league crown was decided on the last day of the competition with Sporting Lisbon finishing one point behind.
7. Olympique Lyonnaise (Champion Ligue 1 81 points, 7th UEFA)
Lyon won its sixth straight French league title but this might have been one of the hardest to capture. This feat only serves notice that Gerard Houllier is one of the best managers in the world right now after picking up from where Paul Le Guen left off and after having also steered Liverpool back to prominence in his previous stint. Led by Ligue 1 Player of the Year Florent Malouda and their twin Brazilian attack of Fred and Juninho, Lyon won the title in Week 32 of the competition.
8. VfB Stuttgart (Champions Bundesliga 70 points)
Looks like Bayern Munich underestimated the loss of skipper Michael Ballack to Chelsea as they stumbled this season allowing Stuttgart and Schalke to battle it out for the league title. But Stuttgart despite all its new players in Mario Gomez, Sami Khedira, Pavel Pardo, and Antonio da Silva blended just in time for this Baden-Wurttemberg team to win its fifth national title.
9. PSV Eindhoven (Champions Eredivisie 75 points)
In the first half of the season, PSV looked to take the league title as early as the 20th week. But the second half saw the mother of all meltdowns as Alkmaar Zaanstreek NV and Ajax Amsterdam caught up. AZ in fact did wrest the lead but a freak loss to Excelsior Rotterdam on the final match of the season allowed PSV to escape with the league title owing to a superior goal difference even against Ajax. Although that’s nothing manager Ronald Koeman is proud of it kept their grasp on the Eredivisie for the third straight year.
10. AS Roma (2nd Place Serie A 75 points, 5th place UEFA)
For much of the season, AS Roma kept themselves within striking distance of Inter Milan for the Serie A title and the UEFA Champions League where they eventually bombed out. But they did salvage the year when they won their eight Coppa Italia beating league champions Inter Milan on aggregate score.
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