It’s not that Messi is great.  It’s how many different ways he’s [...]]]> Bayern Munich. (Photo: ZumaPress)" width="494" height="353" />

An aspect of Lionel Messi’s four goals few have talked about:  their variety.  Self-created or running onto the ball.  Left foot.  Right foot.  Strikes.  Lobs.  Important equalizers or late match insurance.  From the right, left, or the middle of the box.

It’s not that Messi is great.  It’s how many different ways he’s finding to be great.  Yesterday, he was so great, people forgot the other match was even played.

On Wednesday, there again is an element of featured match, other match.

The “other match” is taking place in Bordeaux, where Lyon takes a 3-1 lead into the Stade Chaban Delmas.  Lyon will be without Lisandro Lopez and Sidney Govou, but one round removed from holding Real Madrid to one goal over 180 minutes, they’ve shown they can keep a score down.

Continue reading this article at World Soccer Digest.

The Louis van Gaal-watch is the 48-point-font headline in the Bundesliga, and although mid-week speculation held the Dutch coach needed a win over Schalke to retain his job, Saturday’s 1-1 draw exhibited enough life from his team to keep van Gaal on at Allainz Arena through the international break. With Bayern now sitting in [...]]]>

The Louis van Gaal-watch is the 48-point-font headline in the Bundesliga, and although mid-week speculation held the Dutch coach needed a win over Schalke to retain his job, Saturday’s 1-1 draw exhibited enough life from his team to keep van Gaal on at Allainz Arena through the international break. With Bayern now sitting in eighth place, that relative goodwill is unlikely to last for long. Though another tough match awaits them after the break, München stays at home for Round 13, where they will be expected to beat league-leading Bayer Leverkusen. Should they fail to do so, it will be clear to Bayern management that, on the heels of Champions League failure, van Gaal is unable to meet league expectations. At that point, those 48-point headlines will shift from monitoring a job to reporting a job opening.

The van Gaal watch picked-up in earnest mid-week when it became clear München would not make it out of their Champions League group. Their inglorious display on Tuesday against French champions Bordeaux (a 2-0 loss at Allainz), justifiable in the context of having to start a depleted squad, serves as the prime example of what’s gone wrong in the brief van Gaal-era. More than losing that one match, how did the glorious Bayern get into a position where one loss puts them on the brink? In group stage, in league, it’s never about one match. It’s always about what’s led up to it. If you’re Bayern and you face one match to survive (and it’s not the last round of the season or tournament), at some point in the past, something went very wrong.

This post is continued at The Kartik Report. Please, read more.

Credits: lead photo, Getty Images

To get any conversation started, I throw a list together as quickly as possible, send it out, and let people yell at me for being dumb.

This [...]]]> Each week, I aggregate a World Club Top Ten lists from the view of the staff at World Soccer Reader. I always start the discussion with my knee-jerk list.

To get any conversation started, I throw a list together as quickly as possible, send it out, and let people yell at me for being dumb.

This is how dumb I was after today’s matches:

1. Barcelona
2. Chelsea
3. Real Madrid
4. Juventus
5. Bordeaux
6. Manchester United
7. Lyon
8. Sevilla
9. Estudiantes
10. Manchester City

Others: Tottenham, Inter, Arsenal, Benfica, Porto, Fiorentina, Sao Paulo, Dynamo Kyiv, Hamburg, Rubin Kazan, Bayern Munchen, Liverpool, Velez Sarsfield, Palmeiras, Marseille, Club America, Bayer Leverkusen

The “others” are slightly ordered and mostly thrown in there to stimulate conversation. I’m probably missing clubs. Does PSV deserve consideration? How about Shaktar?

Please, drop some knowledge. On me.