[mosta]

I've been a lifelong follower of the game with very limited exposure--Brazilian father, but lived in US. basically all I saw was world cup on tv, until the nineties or so when I started to catch the occasional premiership game on tv (and a little ronaldo with psv einhoven at one point (wow)). the really revelatory match I saw was chelsea v. arsenal probably in 2000 or thereabouts. after that I thought I've been watching the wrong games all these years--better ball movement and a lot more attacking in those EPL games, I thought. so I asked the question, what really are the better teams, national teams or top league teams? one american friend also with limited exposure said he thought basically any top 20 national team would be strongly favored over most any league team. is that right? (I guess this has probably changed a lot recently as leagues allow a lot more foreign players, right?) how would good and superb national teams rank versus good and superb league teams, hypothetically in god's eyes. not meaning to debate particulars but just to throw some names out, how do you think god would rank brazil, germany, denmark, poland (all 2002), chelsea, liverpool, bolton, and real madrid (suppose los galacticos in their best days). It does seem to me that as you drop into the middle of the table of the epl, it's not nearly so impressive. and also I suppose the int'l game is intentionally a different style of play--a lot more defensive. but playing together week in and week out must count for a lot.

tomorrow, seeinng my first major live match, kaiserslautern v. triere.