Champions League Whetting the World Cup Appetite

I’ve had the fortune the past couple of days of watching a pair of Champions League matches that featured many of the players we’ll be seeing at the World Cup this summer. Yesterday I watched Arsenal beat Real Madrid in Spain. Today I tuned in to see a fantastic match between Chelsea and Barcelona. I’m not a fan of any of these teams, but what a pleasure it was watching some of the world’s top talent battling it out in games they clearly wanted to win.

There have been some commentators that have complained that players these days play too many matches and that this takes away from big events like the World Cup. They argue that made-for-television competitions are hurting the game and that it will lead to fan fatigue.

I thoroughly disagree. Having the chance to see Lampard, Messi (I’m starting to love this dude), Ronaldinho, Cech, Robben, Crespo, Larsson, Terry, Drogba, et al on the same field only makes me hungrier to see how they’ll do against one another in Germany this summer when they are playing for the sport’s ultimate prize.

I’m not that old, but I remember a time when there wasn’t an Internet (hard to imagine life exisiting without World Cup Blog) and there wasn’t satellite television. In those days I was lucky to see weekly highlights from the leagues around the world. When the World Cup came around every four years, I’d know about some of the foreign players but in a lot of cases the World Cup games were the first opportunity I had to see the players I had read about in the papers and in magazines.

As exciting as the World Cup was back then, I don’t think there is anyone who would want to go back to those days. The World Cup hasn’t lost its importance because of the growth of the game. It has only gotten better. Games like the ones in the Champions League are proving to be the perfect appetizer for the main course.

And for those questioning the red card call on Chelsea in the first half, check out what our referees blog has to say about it.