Here's to the last man standing

The European football season is under full sail. The window of opportunity for world football stars to get some rest was never open because of the World Cup this summer. You might expect the major competitions in Europe to be wars of attrition. Which players can survive all the way to May of next year?

The drawings for the group stage of the Champions League were held this week. Barcelona, last season's CL champion and Spanish champion, is in the same group as Chelsea last season's English champion. That has left many scratching their heads over the CL seeding system. Werder Bremen is also in that group, so the group definitely can be called the group of death.

People debate whether the club or country competitions are the more exciting. I like the club competitions. When the top clubs play each other you have more stars on the field than in most country competitions.

I have a four team parlay on the Premiership games this weekend. I picked Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Man. U. in their respective matches. Middlesbrough's defeat of Chelsea the other day still has me gnashing my teeth since Chelsea was part of a three team parlay I had at the time.

Here's a preliminary toast to the last man standing at the end of May 2007.