The Beauty of the Playoffs -- Part II

If you're still opposed to a playoff format at the end of the season, you're crazy. It doesn't have to be one that determines the champion, it can be one that determines the UEFA Cup places or Champions League places. After watching Bristol City book a date at Wembley in 12 days' time after beating Crystal Palace 2-1 today and 4-2 on aggregate in the Championship playoff semifinals, I'm more convinced than ever that some postseason system should be in place.

I didn't think the first leg of this tie could be topped in terms of excitement and drama, but I was wrong. This game went back and forth; both teams enjoyed dominant stretches where it looked like they'd be the side to advance. I watched the full 120 minutes today and came away impressed with both teams and both sets of supporters, although Crystal Palace's fans wanted to storm the field when their team was losing during extra time, presumably in order to get the match abandoned (GROW UP!!).

You just don't see many games like this during the regular schedule. There were so many twists and turns that I felt like I was watching a rollercoaster over and over again. The crowd was amazing, the goals were great, the tackles and 50/50 balls were all hotly contested, and there was even a missed PK that smacked the left post that could've won the tie for Crystal Palace. Lee Trundle, a terrific player but one who apparently has no right foot whatsoever, curled in a goal just right of the top of the penalty area to put City ahead in extra time, and a low, driven free kick from Michael McIndoe sealed the deal for Gary Johnson's team.

After this game, you just can't be opposed to a playoff system. Well you can be, of course, but you'd be insane if you weren't at least open to the idea.

David Noble's Wickedly Struck Game-Winning Goal Yesterday

Wow, check this out.

The Beauty of the Playoffs

Those of you against some form of playoffs at the end of the season, what do you have to say for yourself now?

Bristol City, a relative lightweight who won League One just last year, stunned most pundits' pick to win promotion to the Premiership, Crystal Palace, today with a 2-1 victory at Palace's Selhurst Park. The hosts looked like they were going to pull out a draw after equalizing through a Ben Watson PK in the 87th minute, but David Noble came up with an absolute cracker of a goal from 30 yards in the 93rd minute to give City the win. Neil Warnock's Crystal Palace side will now have to overturn the deficit in Bristol on Tuesday.

I don't want to say that this was a true David vs. Goliath story, but let's face facts: Crystal Palace was the form team coming into these playoffs having lost only once in their last 12 games. They had a +15 goal differential over Bristol City despite finishing three points behind. This is City's first year back in the Championship, whereas Palace was in the Premiership just a few years ago, and their stadium's seating capacity is only about 21,500. Palace have a manager in Neil Warnock who has a lot of experience in England's lower leagues and took Sheffield United to the Premiership. Looking at his roster, he has quite a few players that are fairly recognizable to soccer fans in Clinton Morrison, Scott Sinclair, Shefki Kuqi, Scott Flinders, and others. City, on the other hand, have maybe one name you've heard of -- Darren Byfield.

Suffice it to say that Palace looked to be the easy pick to go through to the Championship playoff final at Wembley, not Bristol City. If I was a betting man, I would've put a lot of money on it.

But that's the magic of the playoffs. You can't underestimate anybody because on any given day, any team is capable of getting a result. We see it all the time in the FA Cup and to a lesser extent, the Carling Cup. Yes, you can argue that that is because the Premiership teams don't care as much about those competitions any more, but you can't say that Crystal Palace doesn't care about being promoted to the Premiership.

It's not just the fact that City won, it's the manner in which they won. After giving up that PK, they would have had every excuse to fold up the tent and take a 1-1 scoreline back home. To their credit, they kept fighting and were rewarded with a game-winning goal in the 93rd minute to silence the home crowd. It was something dreams were made of. Rarely in real life do we see something like that happen, especially not in a game as meaningful as today's contest. You couldn't script it any better if you're affiliated with the Robins, either as a fan, player, or coach, and you couldn't be more heartbroken if you support Crystal Palace. In one minute, their hopes of returning to England's top flight were likely crushed.

You never know, though. Just as I said that David Noble's goal and City's win today was unlikely, Crystal Palace could come up with their own fairytale story and do the job in the return leg in Bristol.

That's what the playoffs are all about -- passion, life, exuberance, drama, and unpredictability. You just don't get that during a typical 38-game league season when most of the meaningful places have been wrapped up with a month and half left to play. Sure, it hasn't happened like that this year in the Premiership, but the fact of the matter is that the run-in of most seasons just doesn't have much excitement. This season has been an anomaly in that regard.

When I see moments like I saw today, it just makes my desire for a playoff format even stronger. I hope that my recent posts on this topic have forced you to think about it a little more, to think about how we can spice up a league that has become stale at the top.

Football League Playoff Schedule

First of all, congratulations to West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City for their automatic entry into the Premier League next season, congratulations to Swansea and Nottingham Forest for heading up to the Championship, and congratulations to Paul Ince's MK Dons, Peterborough, and Hereford for their promotions to League One. Also, a shout out to Aldershot for winning the Blue Square Premier division and earning a berth into League Two.

With that out of the way, there are still three more promotion spots in total up for grabs through the playoffs, one in each league. The passion and win-or-go-home attitude displayed at this stage of the season is really a great treat to watch, and if the semifinalists are lucky enough to advance, a one-off, winner-take-all match in front of a massive crowd at Wembley awaits. No pressure or anything...

Here it is, the complete schedule for the Football League playoffs. Games start this weekend, so enjoy. All times are BST, home teams are listed first:

Championship:

Saturday, 10 May 2008
5. Crystal Palace vs. 4. Bristol City -- Semifinal, Leg 1, 12:15

Sunday, 11 May 2008
6. Watford vs. 3. Hull -- Semifinal, Leg 1, 12:00

Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Bristol City vs. Crystal Palace -- Semifinal, Leg 2, 19:45

Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Hull vs. Watford -- Semifinal, Leg 2, 19:45

Saturday, 24 May 2008
Winners 3rd vs. 6th vs. Winners 4th vs. 5th -- Final (@ Wembley), 15:00

League One:

Friday, 09 May 2008
6. Southend vs. 3. Doncaster -- Semifinal, Leg 1, 19:45

Monday, 12 May 2008
5. Leeds vs. 4. Carlisle -- Semifinal, Leg 1, 19:45

Thursday, 15 May 2008
Carlisle vs. Leeds -- Semifinal, Leg 2, 19:45

Friday, 16 May 2008
Doncaster vs. Southend -- Semifinal, Leg 2, 19:45

Sunday, 25 May 2008
Winners 3rd vs. 6th vs. Winners 4th vs. 5th -- Final (@ Wembley), 15:00

League Two:

Saturday, 10 May 2008
6. Darlington vs. 4. Rochdale -- Semifinal, Leg 1, 17:35

Sunday, 11 May 2008
7. Wycombe vs. 5. Stockport County -- Semifinal, Leg 1, 18:00

Saturday, 17 May 2008
Rochdale vs. Darlington -- Semifinal, Leg 2, 12:00
Stockport vs. Wycombe -- Semifinal, Leg 2, 18:00

Monday, 26 May 2008
Winners 4th vs. 7th vs. Winners 5th vs. 6th -- Final (@ Wembley), 15:00

For All You Lower-League Fans Out There...

Admittedly, this is a blog focusing mainly on the Premiership, with occasional Champions League talk and even discussion about the UEFA Cup when the situation calls for it.

I've tried to pay as much attention as possible to the promotion, playoff, and relegation races in the lower leagues in English soccer this year, though, and so this update is for those of you are interested but can't find much coverage of the Coca-Cola Championship, League One, and League Two:

Championship:

West Bromwich Albion are on the brink of sealing promotion. Only the massively-improbable combination of a final-day loss at QPR coupled with a Hull win over Ipswich, turning over a 12-goal deficit in the process - combined with Stoke getting at least a point - will prevent the Baggies' return to the top division.

In reality, Stoke and Hull are battling for the right to join West Brom, with Stoke needing a point to deny the Tigers.

Stoke, Hull and Bristol City are guaranteed at least a playoff place.

Watford, Crystal Palace, Wolves, Ipswich and Sheffield United are all in with a chance of joining the playoffs.

If Cardiff City wins the FA Cup, they will qualify for the UEFA Cup after they were approved by the Football Association's board on April 24 to represent England in the Uefa Cup. (Welsh clubs normally only qualify through their own competitions).

At the bottom, three teams go down. Colchester were relegated on April 9 and Scunthorpe joined them three days later after their defeat by Crystal Palace.

Blackpool, Coventry, Sheffield Wednesday, Leicester and Southampton are battling to avoid filling the third place - with Southampton occupying the dreaded 22nd position going into the final day of the season.

League One:

Swansea clinched promotion by beating Gillingham on April 12, and won the title a week later after Carlisle's defeat to Southend.

The Football League had decided not to hand them the trophy until Leeds' arbitration hearing over their 15-point deduction was concluded - but Leeds lost their appeal on Thursday, confirming the Swans as champions.

The second automatic spot will be decided on the last day of the regular season. Doncaster will take it if they win at Cheltenham, or match the results of Nottingham Forest and Carlisle. Forest will snatch it if they beat Yeovil at home and Doncaster slip up.

Doncaster, Forest and Carlisle will at least make the playoffs. Southend and Leeds will also be in the playoffs.

Four teams are relegated from this division. Luton and Port Vale both went down on April 12, and two more teams will join them on the final day. Bournemouth will go down if they lose at Carlisle - or if they draw and either Cheltenham avoid defeat at home to Doncaster or Gillingham win at Leeds. Gillingham are also down unless they win and other results go their way - while a Cheltenham win will guarantee their safety, and Crewe need a point at home to Oldham to avoid being drawn into the relegation scrap.

League Two:

Milton Keynes Dons and Peterborough secured promotion on April 19. Hereford joined them on April 26, when Milton Keynes also clinched the title with victory over Bradford.

Rochdale, Stockport, Darlington and Wycombe will contest the play-offs.

Wrexham were relegated on April 22 and Chester's draw against Stockport one week later meant that Mansfield also drop out of the Football League.


Got it? OK, good. Thanks to BBC Sport for all the info.

Congratulations to West Bromwich Albion

Math has never been my strong point, at least not since 6th grade. Once I started taking pre-algebra the next year, I just knew I was in trouble for the rest of my school days.

I believe, however, that my math is correct in this scenario. If West Brom, currently on top of the Coca-Cola Championship with 77 points after 44 games, gains two or more points in their last two games, or if third-place Hull City fails to win both of their remaining games, the Baggies will be assured of automatic promotion to the Premier League for next season.

Realistically, West Brom only needs one more point to move up to England's top flight. That one point would give them 78, and even if Hull City was to win their last two games (which would put them on 78 as well), W.B.A. would have a far superior goal differential and that's the first tiebreaker in England.

If you're wondering, West Brom's final two matches are against 21st place Southampton (at home), and at QPR, who are in 14th, so their chances to pick up a point or two are obviously pretty good.

Stoke City, in second place, has 75 points right now. The Potters' position isn't quite as secure but is still strong; their goal differential is five goals worse than that of Hull, but they do have a three point advantage and games against two teams in 20th place or lower. They seem like a good bet to join West Brom in the Premiership next year.

The playoff spots are still up for grabs and will go down to the last day of the season. We have an idea of who the four teams competing for that one last berth to the Premiership will be -- Hull, Bristol City (who was on top of the Championship only a couple weeks ago), Watford, and Crystal Palace -- but a victory for Wolverhampton over Cardiff today would complicate things. Only four points separate teams 3-6 and obviously, you want to finish in either 3rd or 4th to gain the "home-field advantage" in the two-leg playoff semifinals.

I did a post about the Championship recently, talking about the parity in the league and how exciting and heart-pounding it was for fans. While I don't think any of the teams who come up to the Premiership next season will be able to stay up, you still have to give them a lot of credit for making it out of this league this season. Every game is a fight, every game is a battle for three points and every point you can get is so valuable. That's not the case in the Premiership, where some teams basically packed it in for the season in February. I've enjoyed this race in the Championship, and wish more people in the mainstream media would pay attention to it.

An American League in England?

Well, not really, but there are definitely some similarities between professional sports leagues here in the States and England's most exciting, most competitive soccer league.

And no, I'm not talking about the Premiership.

I want to show a little bit of love to the Coca-Cola Championship, England's second-tier domestic league.

The Championship is fabulous. I don't get to watch it that often; most of the English games on TV are Premiership games and that is part of the problem I'll get into in greater detail later; the same teams benefit from the wildly lucrative TV contracts that the Premiership has signed in past years and the little guys don't get to bask in that sunlight.

Parity. It's a word that fans of many Premiership clubs, particularly fans of the "Big Four", and fans of other big clubs across Europe hate hearing. They seem to believe that their teams are entitled to finish at the top of their respective leagues each and every year, and that their teams are the only ones allowed to actually win trophies.

They look down at the little guys, which their club could very well have been at some period in history, and sneer at the notion that anyone else can challenge them. Their clubs bring in significantly more money than their competitors, and they are at such a financial advantage that not only can they sign big-name, high-profile players in the prime of their career, but they are also able to snatch rising young stars from the clubs that developed them in their youth systems as well.

These teams have built their reputations over time, although there are a few instances in which a team shot to prominence in a short period of time for some reason or another. Chelsea is an example of this, having been a relatively mid-table team until Roman Abromavich and The Special One himself, Mr. Mourinho, came to West London. Usually, though, the traditional superpowers have enjoyed their status as such for the majority of their history and if not, were at least on the periphery before rising to the top.

It has progressed over time to the point where within Europe's top three leagues, for example, there are actually at least six mini-leagues, and I'll show you what I mean in a second.

By and large, and there are a few exceptions, of course, only the teams in the upper tiers of the full 20-team leagues have a realistic chance to win the domestic title and cup competitions. They are usually the only teams to take part in the Champions League and benefit from the huge financial boost that comes with it. Sure, there are years in which we see outliers, as I said, but it's not too often that someone from beneath the top four or five teams can break the stranglehold that those big clubs have on the rest of the pack. Unfortunately, it is a situation in which the rich get richer and the rest of the league, well, they're basically treading water, stuck in neutral; whatever expression you want to use.

England:

Upper Tier-Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal
Lower Tier-everyone else

To be more specific, there actually seems to be three tiers in the Premiership. The upper tier is the same, then comes Portsmouth, Everton, Aston Villa, and Manchester City, then comes everyone else.

Italy:

Upper Tier-Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus, Roma, possibly Fiorentina
Lower Tier-everyone else

Spain:

Upper Tier-Barcelona, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, Atlético Madrid
Lower Tier-everyone else

Now, take everything I just said and put it in the back of your mind for a second. Don't throw it out completely, but let's move on.

In American sporting culture, parity reigns supreme. This is a country with four main professional leagues, the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), and National Hockey League (NHL). All four leagues have some sort of salary cap and while I'm not suggesting one should be used in world soccer, I will say that the fact that an enforced, to some extent or another, limit to how much money teams can spend on their players controls and checks, for the most part, domination of these leagues by one or a few teams.

It is a common occurrence for teams who win a championship in their respective sports leagues to not even make the playoffs the next season. Sometimes they're forced to cut payroll, or they have a bad rash of injuries, or players who had good seasons the year before can't duplicate their success the next season for some reason another.

There are plenty of reasons for the merry-go-round that can be sports in the US, but one common factor is that the talent is fairly evenly spread across the leagues and there are upwards of 30 teams in these leagues (30 in MLB, the NBA, and the NHL, 32 in the NFL). It's very difficult to assemble a roster full of superstars like what we see done every year at Manchester United, Barcelona, and Inter Milan. In fact, teams that often win championships here are the teams with a bunch of solid, capable, good players, with a crucial contribution from a role player or two every now and again, but without a true superstar.

As a result, we see different teams winning championships or at least, making the playoffs, routinely in America. In the NHL, seven different organizations have won the Stanley Cup since 1997-1998. In the NBA, only four different teams have won the finals since 1998-1999, but in the Western Conference at the moment, only 6.5 games separate teams 1-8 in the standings and 4 games separate teams 5-8. In the NFL, eight different franchises have won the Super Bowl since 1998-1999. In MLB, seven different franchises have won the World Series since 1999. The Colorado Rockies reached the World Series last year with a payroll ranking in the bottom third of the league. This doesn't even include the teams who made the playoffs in those years, but you get my point. Success is there for the taking and isn't shared by the same four or five teams year in and year out.

Now, to the main point of this article.

The Coca-Cola Championship, a 24-team league, is a great example of parity and almost every team has a legitimate chance to gain promotion to the Premier League in a given season. Yes, some teams have a more realistic chance than others, but nearly everyone is in with some form of a shout. There is no salary cap like we see in American sports, but by and large, teams have similar budgets and there's only a relatively small difference in the salaries their players are getting paid.

The 2007-2008 season has been a great one. The league's top two teams, currently Bristol City and Stoke City, gain automatic promotion to the Premiership. These two teams, on 70 and 69 points respectively, are only about ten points ahead of the clubs in places in 7-10 right now. Burnley, in 10th, is 12 points behind Bristol City with seven games to go. Twelve points can mathematically be made up in four matches, so Burnley will fight tooth and nail until the end of the season.

If they don't manage to catch Bristol City or Stoke City, there's a good chance that they can still end up in the playoffs, where teams 3-6 (3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5) play a two-legged semifinal, with the winners advancing to a one-off affair at Wembley for promotion to the Show, aka the Premiership. Burnley is only three points behind 6th place Wolverhampton at the moment. Cardiff City, in 12th position, is just five points adrift of Mick McCarthy's Wolves side.

Listen to this. If the season ended today, Southampton would be relegated as they're in 22nd place. Southampton was a playoff team last year, finishing 6th, and took eventual playoff winner Derby County to penalties before being eliminated. Even in 22nd, the Saints are 15 points (just five games) out of a playoff spot right now and are three points away from 17th place Norwich City and safety, where they could live to fight another season in England's second division.

Bristol City, who are leading the league as I mentioned earlier, wasn't even in the Championship last season. They were in League One, where they finished as the runner-up to Scunthorpe United. Where's Scunthorpe this year, you ask? 23rd.

Suffice it to say that things in the Championship are tight and the title race, playoff race, and relegation battle will undoubtedly go down to the final game of the season. Teams can jump several places in the table or fall several places in one day depending on what happens in other games.

It is this unpredictability and competitiveness that I find highly entertaining. We see it all the time in American sports and rarely, if ever, in Europe's top leagues. Before every Premiership season in recent memory, nearly every "pundit" has the same four teams finishing in the top four. It is considered to be almost of a freak of nature or a superhuman performance for any team outside those four teams to crack their vicegrip on the league, and when someone is able to do it, they are praised to the high heavens. Those same four teams are the ones picked to go far in the Champions League and who usually go far in the FA Cup and Carling Cup.

Yes, the Premier League has the best athletes soccer has to offer and yes, individual games are great to watch. The same four teams nearly always come out on top though, and it's usually the same group of teams who make up the bottom of the league. Instead of striving for excellence, teams settle on striving for medocrity and simply retaining their Premiership status.

Can you ever see a team like Middlesbrough or West Ham or Bolton or Manchester City ever actually winning the Premiership? I certainly can't.

Can you ever see Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester United ever finishing in the lower half of the table? I certainly can't.

For sheer drama and entertainment, give me the Championship over the Premiership any day of the week. Sure, the players in this league have nowhere near as much talent as their comrades one league above, but I guarantee you that collectively, they have more heart and more fight and play for their teams more than they play for themselves and the money. We have our share of primadonnas in America just like there are in the Premiership, I won't lie to you. But, our top leagues are more competitive and more closely contested than the Premiership.

Hopefully you see that the Championship deserves more attention. Hopefully you see that like sporting leagues in the US, this is a league built on parity and one in which everyone has a chance to achieve their dream, to one day play in the Premiership.

Al Bangura Should Stay in England

For those of you who haven't heard, a very interesting (and possibly life-threatening) situation is brewing across the pond right now, one that has crossed the line between soccer and politics and has snowballed over the past few days.

Al Bangura, a 19-year old midfielder who currently is under contract to Championship side Watford FC, is being faced with deportation back to his native Sierra Leone. Bangura fled his country when he was 15 with his country amidst civil war. His father had died and it was the custom of the Poro Secret Society, a voodoo cult in Sierra Leone which he led, that Al, short for Alhassan, was to replace his father in the cult when the time came.

Instead of joining the PSS, who Bangura said threatened to kill him if he didn't join and take part in tribal rituals, including mutilation, he fled to Guinea. There, he met a Frenchman who wanted to sell him into the homosexual prostitution business (Africa is known for human trafficking) and took him to France. From France, he took Bangura to the UK where Bangura escaped again and approached the Home Office to seek asylum, which was granted.

Now that Bangura is over 18 and legally an adult, however, that asylum status has changed, according to Britain's Home Office. The Home Office is essentially the UK's department of internal affairs and ruled in mid-November that Bangura would be deported back to Sierra Leone, pending a hearing at which Bangura could plead his case to remain in the UK. That hearing took place on Tuesday and its outcome did not go in Bangura's favor. A UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal decided that Bangura was exaggerating the risk to his life if he was forced to return to Sierra Leone, and thus the Home Office will now start the process of removing him from the country.

Bangura had 10 days from Tuesday to appeal this decision and his manager at Watford, Aidy Boothroyd, has already said they would be doing so. Many notable figures in England, including Elton John, have come out in support of Bangura and now the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, will get involved. FIFpro, the world representative organization for professional soccer players, is backing Bangura, as is the English Professional Footballers' Association.

Bangura has a fiancee and a son who is not even a month old, and if he was to be deported he would leave them both behind. He paid over $240,000 last year in taxes and has been a law-abiding, tax-paying resident while he's been in England. He's never played for Sierra Leone on the international level so it's not possible for him to get a work permit, so this appeal will likely be his last chance to stay in England and to survive. Watford are using their contacts for whatever possible help they can get and I'm sure they are not alone in the soccer fraternity that is the Football League and the Premier League.

The "should he stay or should he go" debate is a tough one, because there are those who take a hardline on immigration and resident visas and permits and whatever else for security reasons and at a time where the threat of terrorism is always prevalent, I understand their reasoning for doing so. They don't look at cases on an individual basis and they tend to just go by the book; that is, if a person has a legitimate reason and purpose for staying, he can stay, if not, he has to leave. There are those who look at it on a case-by-case basis and apply common sense and rationale to the situation. As Stephane Burchkalter, the general secretary for FIFpro's African division, said, "Football must play its part as an engine of integration and we back their appeal. We expect the government to favour the spirit of the law."

To me, the Home Office and this Asylum and Immigration Tribunal are guilty of the same thing many bureaucracies fall to these days: Red-tape. Bangura has a young family, he's paid his taxes and followed the laws while he's been in England, he fled civil war in a country and region that is really struggling economically. They are almost dehumanizing Bangura and just viewing him as another ritualistic decision they have to make, a simple "Yes or "No" when in actual fact, it is not that black and white; there's so much gray in between. It's ridiculous to deny him a work permit on the basis that he doesn't play for Sierra Leone's national team because he doesn't want to go back to Sierra Leone! He obviously is "working" by playing for Watford (53 league appearances since 2005), he contributes to the economy, and he's supporting a young family. It's easy for those white-collar government officials or whoever sits on these Asylum and Immigration tribunals to make a decision about whether to send a person back to their native country; they have their cushy, upper-class lifestyle and safe existence in Britain, but that person may be going back to his or her death in the country from which they came.

He has said that "I am just praying every night that the Home Secretary will review this and allow me to stay because, inside of me, I know I'm supposed to be here. I would love to be a citizen here. If I was given the chance to be British, I would take it with both hands". There are plenty of people in England who would love to leave their country, I'm sure. England is full of some of the most miserable, unpleasant people in the world and for Bangura to actually WANT to be there, to LOVE becoming a citizen there and not get the chance to would be a disgrace.

The public support and outcry is really growing and I wouldn't be surprised if Bangura wins his appeal and is allowed to remain in England. It never should have gotten this far though; there was no real reason other than a technical, nitpicky rule to even start this process in the first place. That's the sad thing about governments these days, they are more concerned about following procedure and going by the book instead of caring about the people who put them there.

Please, go to http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-al-bangura to "sign" the online petition to help this cause and sway the people who hear Bangura's appeal. The folks there have a goal of 5,000 signatures and as of my typing this post, 4,098 people have signed and it's looking like that goal will be reached.

I hope Al Bangura is allowed to stay in England. Anything else would be a travesty of justice.

Coca-Cola Championship

This Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day here in the US), West Bromwich Albion and Derby County will square off to determine the third team to join Birmingham City and Sunderland in the Premiership next season. Beautiful new Wembley Stadium in London will host this game, which is sure to be hotly contested as two Midlands rivals clash for the third time this season.

The two teams split their two games earlier this season; each squad won on their own home ground. These meetings took place much earlier in the season (Nov. 4 and Dec. 2) however, and I have a feeling this third game will be the best one of them all considering the stakes.

The game will be televised at 9 AM on Setanta and is a must-watch for true soccer fans. Games in the Championship are often very high-paced, up and down affairs and so this should be a good 90 minutes of action.

Personally, I'm tabbing West Brom to win this game, as they've been on solid form lately (4 wins in a row). A Derby win would not surprise me in the least because these types of games are always unpredictable, so it should be a great game to sit down and enjoy this Monday.