UEFA Cup Draw: Do We Look Familiar To You?

By: Sam | October 7th, 2008

I’m extremely stoked for the UEFA Cup this year. One look at the clubs that are participating and you know the caliber this year is a good deal higher than previous editions. And frickin’ thankfully, Spurs got the benefit of being a top seed (take that, other Premier League clubs who have more than two points so far). And frickin’ thankfully as well, we’ve got perhaps one of the easier groups to deal with. But that’s not the interesting part!

The four opponents we’ll be playing are: Spartak Moskva, Udinese, Dinamo Zagreb, and Nijmegen. If you haven’t caught on yet, Roman Pavlyuchenko came to the Lane from Spartak, and Modric from Zagreb. Sure, Pav isn’t eligible to play in the cup, but boy is this group funner all of a sudden!

So let’s take a quick look at these four teams.
Spartak Moskva: I hope to God (even if I don’t believe in him) we don’t have to go to Russia for this one. Not only are Spartak the second seed in the group, but who the fuck wants to play at Luzhniki in the fall/winter? Especially if you’re an English club. Ha. Ha. Ha. Also, they’ve got a slew of not-so-bad players. Stipe Pletikosa minds the net, and there’s also some good defenders in the squad, such as Brazilian Mozart and Austrian Martin Stranzl. The Russians also count home internationals Vladimir Bystrov and Ivan Saenko in their ranks. They advanced to the group stage after beating Banik Ostrava of the Czech Republic 2-1 on aggregate.

Udinese: Antonio Di Natale. Fabio Quagliarella. No thanks. Here’s a team who’s been in the Champions League in recent years, and who knows how to get things done, in Serie A as well as in Europe. Along with those two Italians, they boast the skill of two young Chileans, Alexis Sanchez and Mauricio Isla, whom I had the pleasure of seeing in my hometown of Edmonton at the U-20 World Cup last summer, and let me tell you, those guys are good. Their stadium in the north of the country can hold 30,000. They’re here after disposing of Borussia Dortmund on penalties after coming back from a 2-0 first leg defeat. Yikes.

Dinamo Zagreb: Obviously, this side isn’t the same without Modric, but to say they’re useless without him is being thick. (According to Wiki, their nickname is “Modri”, meaning The Blues. Hahahahahahaha) To tell you the truth, most names on their squad list don’t ring too many bells, but just for good measure, they do have Brazilians and Argentinians, if that means anything. To our comfort, they only got through against Sparta Praha on away goals.

NEC Nijmegen: The question mark in the group, for sure. They finished 8th in the Eredivisie last season, so they’re takeable to say the least. Among the names in their teams, we can find Youssef El Akchaoui, Moroccan defender who was voted their best player last year, and Jhon van Beukering, who scored 11 last season. They’ve only got a 12,000 seater, so let’s hope we travel there. They got through after beating Dinamo Bucarest 1-0 on aggregate on a Van Beukering goal.

There’s our group. Call me naive, extremely naive (because you should), but we can top this group. I mean, we still haven’t lost in non-Prem matches, anyway. There’s definitely potential to get at least a point out of every match.

As far as the group of death goes, I’m debating whether to give the honors to Group A or C. A has Schalke, PSG, Man City, ~~Real Betis~~ Racing Santander and Twente. Jesus. C has Sevilla, Stuttgart, Sampdoria, Partizan and Standard de Liège. Jesus.

More on all this once things start to take shape. First match on the 23rd. COYS, muthafuckas.