Part 147: Appendix: The Year in Football/Futbol/Fußball/Calcio/Soccer, 2022-2023

Appendix: The Year in Football/Futbol/Fußball/Calcio/Soccer, 2022-2023
June 9, 2023

It's time for our annual spin of the globe as we check out how the world of soccer played out in selected other regions of the blue marble.



But first, let's have another look at that end of season table. I'm curious to see what happens to Liverpool and Southampton in the Championship, both have oceans of money when compared to most teams on that level.



Swansea is coming back to the Premier League! The Welsh derby is back on! It's also nice to see Portsmouth return to the Premier League since they imploded in every possible way after the 2009-2010 season. Pompey are another supporter owned club, and has been since April 2013.



I took out a full page ad in the Tackleford Cormorant after we completed the double thanking Tackleford City FC on behalf of Wrexham. Yeah, there's a reason why my professionalism attribute is a 1 out of 20. Mainly because I'm happy to get into wars of words with any manager who thinks they can give me the what-for.



We've now won the three highest honors a club playing in the English Football Pyramid can attain. We still don't have a League Cup to our name.



The one significant honor we didn't capture this year. Along with winning the League Cup, it gives us something to try and improve upon.



Celtic were forced to work for it this time around, but it's looking like that Rangers title three years ago might not have been the omen their supporters were hoping.



Brett Woods dragged Valencia to second place in La Liga, but there's no way anyone is overcoming the juggernaut that Real Madrid has put together.



You have to say this for Serie A, they have exciting title races. I believe Inter winning the Europa League knocks Napoli out of the Champions League next year, so it's the second year in a row that one of their clubs gets Spurs'd out of CL qualification.



Bayern Munich win for the first time in six years, and by a convincing margin at that.



PSG's interregnum was much briefer than the one Bayern suffered through. I guess that's to be expected when you're in the fifth best domestic league in Europe and at the same time have the highest wages in the world by almost £20m over second place Real Madrid.



Reversion to the mean in Portugal sees Braga drop from first to sixth while Porto wins again.



Ajax edges out PSV in a squeaker.



Internazionale joins us in next years Super Cup after triumphing over Barca to claim the Europa League. We'll see how serious they are about adding to their trophy collection.



We scored oodles of goals on our way to the trophy. We needed them.



The board made a good pick for our affiliate- I hadn't realized they'd won the league.



The Mexican Chivas also takes home a title in the Liga MX Apertura, while Tigres won the Clausura.



Hey, a MLS team made it to the final! They were beaten soundly by Atlas, but it's still better than the US teams usually do against the best Mexican clubs.



The same clubs as always are clustered near the top of the Brasileiro, with Flamengo coming away with the top spot this time around.



Velez Sarsfield took the Apertura by a single goal over Boca Juniors, but Boca Juniors won the Clausura over Instituto Atlético Central Córdoba and Deportivo Moron by the same margin. The season isn't quite over yet, but the only question is which of Velez and Gimnasia finish fourth.



Fuerte Atlas made it all the way to the finals of last year's Libertadores, but Brazilian domination continued with a 5-0 thrashing in the final by Flamengo.



If I were South Korea, Australia, or Japan I'd feel embarrassed about Saudi Arabia winning the Asian Cup.



Let's end on an upbeat note, little Mali won the Cup of Nations. Congratulations Mali! Hopefully nine years hence in real life you'll be celebrating the same victory.