The Stars Shined in the 1st Leg of the UEFA Champions League Semis

The biggest thing we learned in the first leg of these two semi-finals matchups is that Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo are the two best players in the world. Messi had two goals (one of which was absolute magic) and an assist in Barcelona’s 3-0 win against Bayern while Ronaldo scored Real Madrid’s lone goal in their 1-2 defeat to Juventus. The two cushioned their lead as the top two all-time Champions League scoring leaders, with Messi on top with 77, and Ronaldo on his heels with 76.

The story of the second of the two semi-finals was Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez going up against the backline of Jerome Boatang, Rafinha and Mehdi Benatia. The backline of Bayern bended but did not break all the way until the ’77 minute wen Messi got his first. Manuel Neuer did an incredible job in goal keeping the away side in the match; however, Messi and Co. proved to ultimately too much.

The first semi-finals featured Juventus hosting Real Madrid in Turin. In the last 7 meetings between the two sides in Turin, Juventushad won 5 and only lost once. Moreover, Juventus was undefeated at home in European competition this season going into the match … and yet they were still considered the underdog by many.

Alvaro Morata gave Juventus a dream start when he scored against his former club in the opening minutes. Ronaldo answered about 20 minutes later with a punctuating header after a nice buildup through midfield for Madrid. 10 minutes into the second half, Carlos Tevez was hauled down by Madrid defender Dani Carvajal with a rash tackle, resulting in an ensuing penalty and the eventual game winner by Tevez.

The stars came out and shined in the first leg. Madrid still has lots of work left to do at home next week, as a 1-0 win would put them through the finals. While Barcelona feels pretty comfortable with their 3 goal cushion heading into the second leg.

I anticipate the two Spanish powers meeting the Champions League finals when all is said and done, which will give us a dream final of Ronaldo vs. Messi.

benslingerland

Ben Slingerland is a young sports business entrepreneur, administrator and marketer who has worked at such organizations like Nike, the NCAA and IMG. Most recently, Ben served as the General Manager and Student-Athlete Advisor for the Lacrosse Program at IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL. Over the span of two and a half years as the General Manager, Ben quadrupled the size of the program and developed it into one of the nation's leading boarding prep school lacrosse programs. Prior to taking over the lacrosse program at IMG Academy, Ben headed up the sales efforts of the IMG Academy's $4 million/year soccer camp business. Ben has held past positions at the NCAA Office of Government Relations in Washington, DC where he tracked state and federal legislation on Capitol Hill affecting collegiate athletics. Prior to that, Ben spent a summer in Beaverton, OR working at Nike's World Headquarters. At Nike, Ben worked in the North America Soccer division where he was a sports marketer for the Nike signed professionals, the US Men's and Women's National teams, Nike-affiliated collegiate soccer programs, and Nike-affiliated youth soccer clubs. Growing up in Beverly, MA, Ben was an accomplished athlete himself. After being a three sport athlete (soccer, basketball, and tennis) at St. John's Prep in Danvers, MA, Ben went on to play Division 1 college soccer at Georgetown University. At Georgetown, Ben served as a team captain and led the program to win it's first ever Big East regular season championship title in 2010. Following Georgetown, Ben had stints playing semi-professionally with DC United's U23 team and the Tampa Bay Rowdies. After his soccer career, Ben got his Master's of Professional Studies in Sports Management at Georgetown University.

Author archive Author website

May 7, 2015

Uncategorized

Ben_Slingerland

The Business of Sports