Show: EPL Talk Podcast, Weekend Review Show, Week #1 Cast: Myself, Kartik Krishnaiyer Match of the Week: Liverpool vs. Arsenal Other noes: Chelsea’s demolision of West Brom, Wigan looks horrible versus Blackpool, Joe Cole is not the one

Wrapping-up Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League results, I joined Kartik Krishnaiyer on the EPL Talk podcast to talk about:

I spent the first segment and a half updating everybody on Europe (including audio highlights) before going through the groups ahead of Tuesday’s start [...]]]> Episode #21 of the Inside the Six (21 already?) concentrates on getting everybody caught up on the club season, seeing as we took a week off to concentrate on international football.

I spent the first segment and a half updating everybody on Europe (including audio highlights) before going through the groups ahead of Tuesday’s start to UEFA Champions League group stage.

Then, I updated everybody on South and North America before sharing my feelings on Emmanuel Adebayor.

In the final segment, I talked about fantasy football with Kevin Coleman, who edits and writes at Back Page Football but is also going to be writing a regular fantasy column for EPL Talk.

I hope you enjoy. It will be available via World Soccer Reader, where you will get more (and more regular) information on these podcasts, but it’s also available via my personnel iTunes feed and via the inline player, below:

[podcast]http://www.pointoneohradio.com/pods/its_episode21_20090913.mp3[/podcast]

In case you don’t want to click the link, here’s the comment:

“Quite frankly I’m shocked about the apparent lack of interest in the Russian Premier League. In fact, with the exception of Ligue Un, the RPL trumps all these [...]]]> Here’s a comment from a friend, but I share his views, as I mentioned on this site.

In case you don’t want to click the link, here’s the comment:

“Quite frankly I’m shocked about the apparent lack of interest in the Russian Premier League. In fact, with the exception of Ligue Un, the RPL trumps all these leagues and is ranked 6th in Europe. Also, they’ve been rising fast. They have 3 UCL spots, like France, including 2 automatically in the group stage. Zenit beat Man U last year in the Super UEFA Cup. The Russian National team is one of the best in the world and they are very aesthetically pleasing to watch. Also, considering the lack of English language coverage, I would think it would be on the radar of more.”

That comment is from Chris Riordan.

I agree. Even though a poll is just a poll, I do have an interest in this one.

However, don’t vote for Russia just because I tell you to. If you don’t care about Russian football, don’t vote for it, because the lack of votes is telling me something.

It’s telling me that people need to be educated about Russian football. For all the reasons the commenter mentioned, Russia football is a viable option.

More than that, though, the argument can be made that if you can’t be truly an expert on the highest levels of football without being cognizant the Russian league. I’m not saying everybody should be an expert; however, if you’re somebody who likes to throw opinions around (and also likes those opinions to correlate with fact), you need to know how highly influential players like Arshavin, Zhirkov, Pavlyuchenko, and Pogrebnyak were formed. You need to know why the Russian national team (made up predominantly of players from their domestic league) is one of the top 5 or 6 sides in the world. You need to now why the UEFA coefficients (for their faults and virtues) say this is a much better league than (to evoke the poll) the Dutch or Scottish leagues.

And when I watch the league, there’s no doubt in my mind. Russian football is in the discussion with Germany, France, and until it recovers, Italy. The Dutch league is in the discussion with Portugal and the Ukraine. The Scottish league is another tier below.

I’m not saying you need to watch Russian football. There’s only one match per week distributed in English, it’s on at weird times, and there is a (for lack of a better term) learning curve. But this is the type of league where you could go to a good English-language site, get your updates, and make up this gap that I’m describing.

But, enough. You get my point. I don’t want to force my opinions on you, particularly on this topic, because my love for these leagues is a bit time-consuming, and in that way I’m advocating a lifestyle choice. But, then again, that’s why it would be nice for fans to have an English-language site where they can get their updates in under 10 minutes per day.

And this is the same argument that can be made about the French, Argentine, and Brazilian leagues, all of which are under-covered.

I have a dog in this fight.

The options are Eredivisie, Mexican Primera, Scottish Premier League, and the Russian Premier League.

Without a doubt, the best of these four leagues in terms of quality of [...]]]> EPL Talk just launched a survey to gauge interest in a few leagues, none of which are represented within their network of sites.

I have a dog in this fight.

The options are Eredivisie, Mexican Primera, Scottish Premier League, and the Russian Premier League.

Without a doubt, the best of these four leagues in terms of quality of play and players is the Russian League. Each of the other leagues have a reason to follow it; however, I believe the Russian league is the only one of these league is the only one of the four where the quality of players, play, club, and its relation to a highly successful national team requires football fans to maintain perspective.

There are other factors (historical, cultural) that play into this, so I’m not going to tell somebody to not follow any of the other three leagues. For me, as somebody that wants to have highly-informed opinions about club and international football, the Russian league is an absolute requirement, as are the leagues of Brazil, Argentina … and Spain, England, and Italy (amongst others). They call fit the criteria:

I think you can see, based on that criteria, which leagues I do and do not follow, but there are also leagues I follow which do not fit this criteria. I definitely follow Major League Soccer, and it’s debatable where the Uruguayan league fits in all three of those areas.

But the leagues that hit all three, I follow. Avidly.

Russia is undoubtedly in that list.

Please go to EPL Talk and tell the staff that you would like to give the league a chance.

And, again: I have a dog in this fight.