The Beginning of 2012/2013 Season

Image via Daylife

After such busy summer with Euro 2012 and Olympics one after another, the new season has finally began,. The Premier League and La Liga both started during the weekend, and of course The 12th Man has a lot to update our readers, as many changes had made in many clubs.

Guess nothing can be better than beginning this talk with the return of El Guaje. The Spanish player broke his leg last season, not only missed half of his season with Barcelona, he also missed the historical Euro 2012 where Spain lifted the trophy for the second time. After missing for such a long time, he began his new season with a good start by scoring in his first La Liga game after recovering from injury. Although gotten himself a yellow card by taking off his shirt, it was sweet for him to show the shirt with his family picture and words ‘Impossible without you!’ on it. Barcelona had a big 5-1 victory in the game against Real Sociedad that day.

Real Madrid, the defending champion, wasn’ t that lucky. They had their first game against Valencia and failed to win it, instead, they were held by a 1-1 draw and we know every point counts, especially in La Liga. On the other hand, without want away Llorente and Javi Martinez, Athletic Bilbao lost their season opener by 3-5 to Real Betis. As for the new comers (or maybe old friends) in La Liga, Deportivo de La Coruña, which made an immediate return to the top level and Real Valladolid, are both familiar names, as latter was also in La Liga two seasons ago. The third team, Celta de Vigo, however, was away longer, who left La Liga for five years. It will be interesting to see how these teams fight in La Liga, and, Will them be able to stay this time?

The Premier League too, began in the same weekend and had some surprising results. It was some goal-fest on Saturday which both Fulham and Swansea finished their games with a 5-0 victory. With high possibility that Dempsey might leave doesn’t seem to bother Fulham, and players went on to prove that they will do just fine without him. Swansea on the other hand, faced QPR who had spent quite an amount of money in the transfer market, yet the money doesn’t seem to pay off.

Man City continues to show that they are the team to watch, with Silva missing a penalty, and Southampton was leading in the game for awhile, they still managed to pull off a victory with a 3-2 scoreline. The three new additions to Premier League, Southampton, Reading and West Ham, only West Ham managed to win their first league game. Having Sam Allardyce as their manager, hopefully the team can stay away from relegation zone this time.

Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham all failed to win their season opener. Losing their captain to Man Utd and some other players, Arsenal might need some times to adjust and let’s hope the new season won’t go on like last season for the Gunners. On the other hand, in Man Utd, new players are still trying to fit into the team. Kagawa started in the game against Everton and had done a pretty great job; Van Persie came on as substitute when Man Utd was one goal down, and didn’t managed to help the team. Guess we should just observe and see how things change as the season progress, and we must emphasize how weird it was to see Robin van Persie wearing Man Utd shirt (felt like we were in the wrong universe!).