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April 10, 2010

Major League Baseball: list of foreign-born players (231) on MLB teams’ rosters on opening day (April 6, 2010).

Filed under: Baseball — admin @ 1:45 pm

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From MLB.com, April 6, 2010, by Robert Gonzalez, ‘Rosters showcase foreign-born players’.
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The list was released by Major League Baseball on April 6, 2010, to coincide with Opening Day rosters of the 30 MLB teams. Here is an article from The Biz of Baseball.com site… ‘Complete List of 231 Foreign-Born Players in MLB for 2010′”. The article includes a pdf of the 231-player list.

Two notes….The list includes Puerto Rican-born players, even though Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the USA. Evidently, according to MLB, for the purposes of this list, United States-born means born in the 50 states and the District of Colombia.
[Note: see Comment #4, for more on this.]
The list comprises the active rosters of the 30 MLB ball clubs, plus players who are on the disabled list and who are suspended.
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Here are all the foreign-born players that made the 2009 MLB All-Star game last July…
American League: 8 36 players on 2009 All-Star roster were foreign-born.
AL starters-
Jason Bay, OF (Canada)- Boston Red Sox [now on New York Mets].
Ichiro Suzuki, OF (Japan)- Seattle Mariners.
AL pitchers-
Felix Hernandez, SP (Venezuela)- Seattle Mariners.
Mariano Rivera, RP (Panama)- New York Yankees.
AL reserves-
Victor Martinez, C (Venezuela)- Cleveland Indians [now on Boston Red Sox].
Justin Morneau, OF (Canada)- Minnesota Twins.
Carlos Pena, 1B (Dominican Republic)- Tampa Bay Rays.
Nelson Cruz, OF (Dominican republic)- Texas Rangers.

National League: 8 of 36 players on the 2009 All-Star roster were foreign-born.
NL starters-
Yadier Molina, C (Puerto Rico)- St. Louis Cardinals.
Albert Pujols, 1B (Dominican Republic)- St. Louis Cardinals.
Hanley Ramirez, SS (Dominican Republic)-Florida Marlins.
Carlos Beltran, OF (Puerto Rico)- New York Mets.
NL pitchers-
Francisco Cordero, RP (Dominican Republic)- Cincinnati reds.
Frankie Rodriguez, RP (Venezuela)- New York Mets.
Johan Santana, SP (Venezuela)- New York Mets.
NL reserves-
Miguel Tejada, 3B/SS (Dominican Republic)- Houston Astros.

Foreign-born 2009 MLB All-Stars by country- Dominican Republic, 6 players; Venezuela, 4 players; Canada, 2 players; Puerto Rico, 2 players; Japan, 1 player; Panama, 1 player.

Thanks to ESPN, MLB Players.
Thanks to Maury Brown at BizOfBaseball.com… http://www.bizofbaseball.com.

Comments (7)

April 5, 2010

Israel: Israeli Premier League, 2009-10 season.

Filed under: Israel — admin @ 1:23 pm

Currently, Israel is ranked #20 by UEFA, for European league competitions (for 2011-12). That’s up from #22.

Here are brief explanations of the large amounts of football clubs in Israel with Maccabi or Hapoel in their names…Maccabi, here: ‘What is Maccabi GB?’. “…Maccabi was founded at the turn of the century in Central and Eastern Europe. Following rising anti-Semitism, Jews were excluded from local sports and social clubs. So they decided to form their own. …”

[From Wikipedia:]…Hapoel is an Israeli sports association. It was established as a union of the Histadrut of the workers in the land of Israel. Histadrut, here: Histadrut. “…founded in 1920 in Haifa as a Jewish trade union…”

Most Maccabi football clubs in Israel have that star-of-David-with-Hebrew-letters device as part of their logo, while most Hapoel football clubs in Israel have that quasi-Bolshevik-style-worker-with-sickle-and-hammer device in their logos. And most Hapoel clubs feature red in their color scheme, so you can see the original left-wing base of the Hapoel clubs. Israel football clubs are supposed to have shed themselves of official political affiliations, but it remains that Hapoel clubs are decidedly more left-wing. The biggest bastion of the right-wing in football in Israel remains Beitar Jerusalem. You are apt to see a plethora of Likud Party faithful at Beitar Jerusalem home matches, and literally zero Palestinians and Arabs. In fact (no surprise, they being so far right-wing) there is a significant amount of racist Beitar Jerusalem fans {see this, ‘Bigoted Israeli Soccer Fans Walk Out After Muslim Player Scores For Their Team‘ (deadspin.com, from 3 Mar.2012)}. The biggest bastion of the left-wing in football in Israel remains Hapeol Tel-Aviv. You are apt to see Che Guevara banners at Hapoel Tel-Aviv home matches.
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The 2009-10 season in the Israeli Premier League is the first with the expanded size of 16 teams, up from 12 teams. Also new this season is the playoffs system, which sees the league split into 3 separate round-robin competitions after the 30-match regular season is finished. The 30th round is the weekend of 10-11 April.
On the upper left-hand corner of the map page, I have briefly outlined the playoff system, and I will talk about it at the end of this post.
Also on the map page is an all-time titles list for Israeli clubs. The most successful club in Israel is Maccabi Tel-Aviv, who have won 20 titles, but none since 2003. Second are Hapoel Tel-Aviv, with 12 titles, but none since 2000. [Tel Aviv is Israel's largest city, with a metropolitan area population of 3.25 million {2009 figure}.]
The third most-titled club in Israel are Maccabi Haifa, with 11 titles, including 2009. Fourth are Beitar Jerusalem, who won their 6th title in 2008. Not coincidentally, these four clubs are also the highest-drawing clubs in Israel, pulling in 9,000 to 10,000 or so per game. The league as a whole averaged 5,305 per game last season, but with the expanded size of the league, cumulative average attendance has gone down over 1,000 per game this season. This is because two of the just “promoted” clubs draw crowds that number only in the hundreds (Hapoel Acre 2000, and Hapoel Ra’anana). 2009-10 attendance figures, here… Israel 2010 attendances (E-F-S site).
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Reigning champions Maccabi Haifa are from Haifa, which is the third-largest cityi n Israel, with a metropolitan area population of 1.04 million {2007 figure}. Maccabi Haifa was a small club overshadowed by local rivals Hapoel Haifa, until the 1980s, when Maccbi Haifa started winning titles. The Yerukim, or Greens, won their first title in 1984. The club became known for their flashy offensive style, but with a sometimes porous defense. By the 1990s, with new ownership, the club became stable financially. In 1994, the club won it’s fifth title, but then faltered in the following seasons, as the club lost key players (like Eyal Berkovic) to Western European clubs. 2000 saw the arrival of Avram Grant, the former Maccabi Tel-Aviv manager who had won titles there in Tel Aviv in 1991 and 1995. Grant helped Maccabi Haifa regain it’s dominating offensive style. Standout player was attacking midfielder Yossi Benayoun, who went on to tally 55 goals (many of which were spectacular) in 130 games for the Greens. Maccabi Haifa won the 2000 and 2001 titles, and became the first club from Israel to qualify for the UEFA Champins League Group Stage (for the 2002-03 CL season). The subsequent departure in the summer of 2002 of Grant, for the Israel national team coaching job (Grant now manages Portsmouth), and of Benayoun, for Racing Santander in Spain’s La Liga (Benayoun is now at Liverpool), contributed to the club’s failure to win three straight titles. But Maccabi Haifa did in fact achieve that three-in-a-row feat in the following seasons, winning the Israeli title in 2004, 2005, and 2006. This was under manager Ronny Levy, who was an early proponent of the use of computer software for player evaluations and for tactics. Ronny Levy now manages recent Romanian champions and CL Group Stage qualifier Unirea Urziceni (of Romania). Maccabi Haifa are currently managed by Elisha Levy (no relation), who had captained the squad in the 1982-83 season.
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Elisha Levy has Maccabi Haifa comfortably at the the top of the table, with one round to go before the newly implemented Top Playoffs begin. The club has been propelled by prolific-scoring forward Shlomo Arbeitman.
Below- Top 2 Israeli league scorers this season below: Shlomo Arbeitman of Maccabi Haifa, and Itay Shechter, of Hapoel Tel-Aviv…

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The 2009-10 Israeli championship will be decided by a round-robin schedule between the clubs placed first place through 6th place. The clubs retain half their points total from the 30-match regular season (with odd-numbered points rounded up). With that factored in, only the top 2 clubs have any real chance of winning the 2010 title… Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel-Aviv. That’s because Maccabi Haifa have a 14 point lead, or more, over the clubs in third place and lower.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org… ‘Israeli Premier League’.
Thanks to Martin at TankedUp site, for research help. TankedUp.com, here, Tanked Up, All European Football League Maps.

Comments (8)

April 2, 2010

Korea Baseball Organization, 2009 attendance map.

Filed under: Korea: baseball — admin @ 1:10 pm

My post on the KBO from February, here… ‘Korea Baseball Organization: the 8 teams, with parent corporations listed, and baseball stadium photos.’”.

The KBO began it’s season last week. 2009 Korea Series champions were the Kia Tigers, of Gwanju.
Last season, as a league, the Korea Baseball Organization averaged 11,138 per game.
The biggest draw in South Korea are the Lotte Giants (of Busan), who averaged 20,597 per game last season. The next highest drawing teams are two of the three ball clubs from the capital, Seoul…the Doosan Bears, who averaged 15,731 per game in 2009, and the LG Twins, who drew 14,778 per game. Fourth highest were the SK Wyverns of Inchon, who pulled in 12,556 per game last year. Fifth highest were the champs, Kia Tigers, who drew 8,818 per game. That was a 51% increase over the 2008 figure, which was 5,838 per game. That puts the Kia Tigers as having the same small-sized fan base as the other 3 KBO teams, who all drew below 6,000 per game in 2009.
[Note: if you want to see KBO attendance figures, I would recommend going to my February 2010 post (via the link at the top of this post), and scroll down 2/3rds of the page, to 2 paragraphs above the Kia Tigers photos. Because at the KBO site, on the attendances list, half the teams' names are printed in Korean...I translated them and listed them in the order that they appear on the KBO site.]

Thanks to the Demis site, for the base map of the Korean Peninsula… Demis.nl.
Thanks to Locker Room.co.kr, for the cap photos… KBO merchandise.

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March 28, 2010

2009-10 UEFA Europa League, Quarter-finals: the 8 clubs, with stadium photos.

Filed under: Football Stadia,UEFA Cup / Europa League — admin @ 12:39 pm

Europa League fixtures/results, Europa League fixtures/results (ESPN Soccernet).
The Quarter-finals of the 09/10 Europa League begin on Thursday, 1st April, with the second leg matches a week later. Of the 8 clubs still alive, there are 2 English clubs (Fulham and Liverpool), 2 German clubs (Hamburg and Wolfsburg), 2 Spanish clubs (Atletico Madrid and Valencia), a Belgian club (Standard Liege), and a Portuguese club (Benfica).
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How ’bout them Cottagers? At Craven Cottage, West London, on 18th March, Fulham found themselves down to Juventus 4-1 aggregate, after a 2nd minute goal by Juve’s David Trezeguet. Fulham they got one goal back 9 minutes in, from Bobby Zamora, then were given a man advantage after a straight red card to Juventus’ Cannavaro. Fulham’s Zoltan Gera then scored late in the first half, and netted a penalty kick in the 49th minute, after Diego handled the ball. But it was a tense match that looked headed for extra time. In the 71st minute, Fulham manager Roy Hodgson put in Clint Dempsey for Stephen Kelly, and 9 minutes later the move proved brilliant, when the Texas-born Dempsey, at the top edge of the box on the right-hand side, chipped a stunning, where-on-earth-did-that-come-from shot that looped all the way across the goal mouth to land just inside in the upper-left corner of the goal. It could arguably be called the greatest moment in the history of Fulham FC, a club that has won no major trophies, has only played 21 seasons in the English top flight, and had never played in Europe prior to this season.

Thanks to Tim’s 92 site for the panoramic photo, www.tims92.co.uk.
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There is a new site on my blogroll…Tanked Up-Imaging.com site, which has an unusual feature that all other deep-sea-diving/underwater photography sites lack…maps of football leagues and competitions from Europe and beyond.
The maps are interactive (that’s an element that is beyond the limited technical abilities of Bill T, here). A cool feature is when you hover your cursor over the club’s name on the map, the club’s logo appears along with a small box that lists the club’s stadium and domestic titles. Click and you get sent to that club’s site.
Tanked-Up, interactive maps…European Football League maps and history.
Thanks to Spurs fan Martin, at Tanked-Up site, for the link, and for the entertaining e-mails.

Comments (3)

March 24, 2010

2010 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, 3rd Round (aka the Sweet Sixteen).

Filed under: NCAA Men's Basketball — admin @ 3:07 pm

2nd Round upsets…
Saturday, March 20, 2010-
#11 Washington Huskies over #3 New Mexico, by 18 points
#10 St. Mary’s Gaels over #7 Villanova, by 7 points.
#9 Northern Iowa Panthers over #1 Kansas, by 2 points.
Sunday, March 21, 2010-
#12 Cornell Big Red over #4 Wisconsin, by 18 points.
#6 Xavier Musketeers over #3 Pitt, by 3 points.
#5 Michigan State Spartans over #4 Maryland, by 2 points (at the buzzer)

That 18 point victory by Cornell, a squad full of experienced seniors, is notable. It is the first time ever that the Upsate New York, Ivy League school has ever had a team in the Sweet 16.
The St. Mary’s Gaels, of Moraga, California (25 miles east of San Francisco) also have a team in the 3rd Round for the first time. St. Mary’s enrollment is just 4,700. Check out how tiny their home arena is, McKeon Pavillion, capacity 3,500 (photo halfway down page on right, here…St. Mary’s College Gaels (Wikipedia page).
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The giant killing of Kansas by the unflappable Northern Iowa is simply awe-inspiring. Aki Farokhmanesh, the lightly recruited, American-born son of an Iranian immigrant volleyball coach, showed real poise in making the decision to shoot rather than eat up the clock, when he was part of a 2-on-1 break, alone and unguarded, with 35 seconds remaing. The safe thing to do would have been to pull back and wind the clock down. Especially with a 1 point lead, and after Farokhmanesh had missed his 7 previous shots. Well screw conventional wisdom, because Kansas was all but certain to gain the lead they had been chipping away at all second half. So Farokhmanesh went for it. His 3-pointer put the Jayhawks in a 4 point hole that they couldn’t crawl out of. The shot also put Ali Farokhmanesh on the March 29, 2010 cover of Sports Illustrated.
Sports Illustrated, March 29, 2010, by Tim Layden, ”As Good As It Gets‘.

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Thanks to ESPN site/CBS sports online tv coverage…ESPN/Men’s College Basketball.

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March 21, 2010

Czech Republic: 1.Liga (aka Gambrinus Liga), 2009-10 season.

Filed under: Czech Republic — admin @ 11:44 am

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The Czech Republic’s Gambrinus Liga is the top tier of football in the country, and has been around since the late summer of 1993, which was half a year after the Czech Republic and Slovakia peacefully separated. That was two and a half years after the modern, 20th century Russian empire, also known as the Soviet Union, collapsed (hallelujah), in August 1991. Which was 20 months after the Vaclav Havel-led Czechoslovakian “Velvet Revolution” occurred, in 1989, at a similar point in time as when the Berlin Wall fell (in November, 1989).
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Sparta Prague’s Generali Arena

The most successful club in both the new Czech Republic, and the old Czechoslovakian nation is and was Sparta Prague (known in their homeland as Sparta Praha). Sparta Prague have won 10 of the 16 Czech titles, but not the last two championships. Those were won by city rivals Slavia Prague (or Slavia Praha), who have now won 3 Czech titles, after their back-to-back titles in 07/08 and 08/09. Slavia Prague have a nice, new 21,000-seat stadium (Stadion Eden) that opened in May, 2008.
The other clubs that have won Czech titles are Slovan Liberec (twice, most recently in 2006) and Baník Ostrava, who won the 2004 title. Slovan Liberec are from Liberec, the 5th-largest Czech city (105,000 population {2009}). FC Baník Ostrava are from Ostrava, in the eastern side of the country in the Moravian-Silesian Region. Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic, with a population of 336,000 {2009}. [Note Brno is the second-largest Czech city (population, 405,000 {2009}.]

The Gambrinus Liga is at exactly the two-thirds mark, with 20 of the 30 matches played. The race can be called a three-way race with two more in touching distance. The three top teams are leader Sparta Prague, with Teplice and Jablonec two points off the pace. Sparta just took the lead Saturday, 20th March from Teplice. Six points off the pace are Viktoria Plzn and Banik Ostrava. A couple of the teams battling for the title have never won a Czech or a Czechoslovakian title…FK Teplice, Jablonec (who really need to design a logo that doesn’t look like it was made from clip-art), and Viktoria Plzn. Teplice are from the spa-town of the same name close to the Ore Mountains and the German border about 75 kilometers (45 miles) north-west of Prague. FK Teplice have won the national cup twice, and are current holders, having won the competition last spring.

Like the lion’s share of top flight clubs in the Czech Republic, FK Teplice does not draw more than 5,000 per game…they averaged 3,847 per game last season, but this season they have seen a 70 percent gate increase to 6,792 per game after 7 home games… 2009-10 attendances (E-F-S site)}.

Many clubs in the Czech top flight have compact stadia smaller than 10,000-capacity (there are ten sub-10K grounds in the league this season). The three highest drawing clubs are course the two big Prague clubs, Slavia Prague and Sparta Prague, plus Banik Ostrava.

Slavia Prague’s Stadion Eden (aka Synot Tip Arena)-

On the strength of the new stadium, Slavia Prague had the highest turnstile count in 2009-10, drawing 11,971 per game. Sparta Prague drew second best in 09/10, at 8,642 per game. Baník Ostrava was third highest, at 7,822. Czech clubs can have widely divergent gate figures from year to year, depending on league form. For example, in recent years, Baník Ostrava have drawn as high as 15,000 per game (in their title-winning season of 2003-04), but they range more between 11,000 and 6,000 per game, with a 7,822 per game figure in 2009-10.
Banik Ostrava’s Bazaly-

Slovan Liberec and Sigma Olomouc can also pull in higher-than -6,000 gates in good years. The only other Czech club that has an above-average fan base is venerable club Bohemians 1905, of Prague, who had a near-winding up in 2005 and then endured two separate top flight relegations, but are now back in the Gambrinus Liga. In the interim, while relegated, the club somehow ended up in the position of selling their insignia to another Prague club, FC Strizkov Praha 9, who are now known as Bohemians Praha (Strizkov). So since Bohemians 1905 won promotion last year, there are now two clubs in the Czech top tier that have a green kangaroo as their crest and are called Bohemians…Bohemians 1905 and Bohemians Praha.
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From the Voices In Football site, here is a write-up with photos, of the August, 2009 Champions League 2nd Round Qualifier between Slavia Prague and Moldova’s Sheriff Tiraspol, written by Damon Main, ‘A new sheriff in Town, Match Report- Slavia Prague 1, Sheriff Tiraspol 1′.
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Thanks to Footiemap.com, for location help, Footiemap- Czech Republic.
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia,
2009-10 Gambrinus Liga page.
Thanks to Kassiesa.com, for some of the logos, European football Club Logos.
Thanks to MapsOf.net, for the Prague map, MapsOf.net.
Thanks to the invaluable European Football Statistics site, for attendance figures, E-F-S, attendance figures.
Thanks to Demis of Netherlands, for the base map, Demis Web Map Server.
Thanks to Joaquin, who made a comment here earler this month, asking for Czech top flight map.
Thanks to Gruner83 at Flickr, ‘Generali Arena, Prague (Czech Republic)’.
Thanks to Banik Ostrava site, [panoramic photos of Bazaly]-Bazaly in Ostrava, panoramic photos.

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March 20, 2010

2010 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, Second Round (32 teams).

Filed under: NCAA Men's Basketball — admin @ 8:44 am

2010 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, First Round upsets…
Thursday, March 18, 2010-
#14 Ohio Bobcats over #3 Georgetown, by 14 points (!).
#13 Murray State Racers over Vanderbilt, by 1 point.
#11 Old Dominion Monarchs over #6 Notre Dame, by 1 point.
#11 Washington Huskies over #6 Marquette, by 2 points.
#10 Florida Gators over #7 BYU, by 7 points in 2nd OT.
#9 Northern Iowa Panthers over #8 UNLV, by 3 points.
#9 Wake Forest Demon Deacons over #8 Texas, by 1 point in OT.
Friday, March 19, 2010-
#12 Cornell Big Red over #5 Temple, by 13 points.
#10 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets over #7 Oklahoma State, by 5 points.
#10 Missouri Tigers over #7 Clemson, by 8 points.
That’s a lot of upsets. March Madness almost never ceases to surprise and amaze. I heard on the radio Friday that 4.8 milion people had entered brackets online at ESPN, and only 56 of those entries had picked the first 16 games on Thursday correctly. That’s awesome.
Now you can watch games, live online, free. Just go to ESPN/ College Basketball, Scoreboard…scores.espn.go.com/ncb/scoreboard. [ Note: sometimes the games get jammed, sometimes there is a nice feed, and sometimes you can only get one of the live games...I guess they haven't got the glitches out yet. ]

Thanks to CBS Sports…CBS Sports.com/College BK.

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March 17, 2010

2010 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, the 64 team field, with 2009 average attendances.

Filed under: NCAA Men's Basketball — admin @ 8:26 am

The 2010 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament begins on Thursday, March 18. Three games will start just after noon, ET, and by midnight on Friday, all the first round games will have been played.

This map includes all 64 teams attendance figures from 2009 (the NCAA won’t release 2010 figures until later in the spring). Again, the Kentucky Wildcats boasted the nation’s highest attendance for college basketball, drawing 22,239 per game. Only this year, the Wildcats qualified for the tournament, and look like a genuine threat to win it all, propelled by stand-out play from the freshman and 2009-10 SEC player of the year John Wall, a 6′ 4″ point guard from Raleigh, NC.
At the bottom of the average attendance list of teams that qualified, again, are the Robert Morris Colonials, from suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Colonials have made it to the tournament 7 times, but have never progressed past the first round.
In terms of the longest gap between tournament appearances, this year it is the Houston Cougars, from the University of Houston in Texas. The Cougars return to the tournament after a 17-year absence.
Speaking of Texas, that state has the most teams in the 2010 tournament, with 7…Baylor, Houston, North Texas, Sam Houston State, Texas, Texas A&M, and the University of Texas-El Paso (aka UTEP). The list of states with representation in the tournament, {here}.
Thanks to the NCAA site, for attendance figures, ’2009 National College Basketball Attendance” [pdf].
CBS Sports.com/College BK, CBS Sports-College Basketball page

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March 15, 2010

2010 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament (aka March Madness), the 65 teams.

Filed under: NCAA Men's Basketball — admin @ 7:25 am

Defending champions North Carolina topped the sizable list of traditional powers that didn’t receive spots in this year’s tournament. That list also includes Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, and all-time titles leader UCLA (11 titles, last in 1995). Arizona’s streak of 25 consecutive appearances was broken (although the NCAA had retroactively vacated their 1996 bid because of recruiting violations, so technically that streak was over a long time ago). The current longest-consecutive-appearances streak is now the 21 straight made by the Kansas Jayhawks.
Kansas goes into this tournament as the top #1 seed. The other three #1 seeds are Duke, Kentucky, and Syracuse.

Play-in game Tuesday night is Winthrop versus Arkansas Pine-Bluff.

Brackets, NCAA College Basketball Brackets, at CBS Sports.com.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, 2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Thanks to the Bracket-ville site, for a head-start on possible entrants (before the selection), BRACKETville.
Thanks to CBS Sports, CBS Sports College Basketball.

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March 11, 2010

2009-10 UEFA Europa League, Round of 16.

Filed under: UEFA Cup / Europa League — admin @ 6:37 am

The 2009-10 Europa League’s Round of 16 will have it’s two-legged matches on Thursdays 11th and 18th March.
Fixtures, Europa League Round of 16 fixtures.
Europa League page at UEFA.com, UEFA.com/Europa League.
Still alive in the competition are 3 German clubs, 2 Belgian clubs, 2 English clubs, 2 French clubs, 2 Portuguese clubs, 2 Spanish clubs, and 1 club from Greece, Italy, and Russia.
Kudos to Roy Hodgson’s Fulham, who ousted de-facto reigning champions Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine. Unlike some English clubs in recent seasons (like Bolton and Aston Villa), Fulham have taken this second-echelon competition seriously. Their reward is a high profile draw versus Italian giants Juventus, who are one of 5 clubs in this round who have in the past won titles in Europe’s first-echelon competition, the European Cup (1956-1992)/UEFA Champions League (1993 to present). Those 5 are: Liverpool (5 titles, most recently in 2005), Juventus (2 titles, most recently in 1996), Benfica (2 titles, most recently in 1962), Marseille (in 1993), and Hamburg (in 1983).
As for winners of the Europa League’s predecessor, the UEFA Cup, 4 of the 16 clubs here have titles: Liverpool (3 titles, most recently in 2001), Juventus (3 titles, most recently in 1993), Anderlecht (in 1983), and Valencia (in 2004).

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