September comes to a close and the leagues are going into the last full month of the season. There will be a handful of regular season games in November, but most of the focus will be on the Europa League and Champions League playoffs. September may be the pivotal month of the season for many teams, we’ll see how it goes!
Standings
In England, the top four race is still in play.
Chelsea remain on top of the table but both
Liverpool and
Spurs are within striking distance, 2 and 4 games behind respectively.
United is trying to put space between itself and
Arsenal, they’re currently in fourth place and 6 games ahead of the London club. At the other end of the table,
Bolton and
Wigan look doomed to relegation, but three teams:
Swansea,
Stoke City, and
QPR are in touching distance for
Norwich City who are trying to escape the drop.
Mainz 05 has had a strong month, dropping only 3 games in September to leapfrog
Dortmund for second.
Schalke are close on third place and are slowly pulling away from
Leverkusen to tighten their hold on Champions League baseball next season. The race in the 2. Bundesliga is a close one, six teams are still in the mix for the league’s three promotion places.
Barca started the month seven games back of
Real Madrid and ended it having picked up two games to make it a title race in Spain. Can
Messi keep the team in good form to challenge for the title?
Sevilla is desperately hanging on to fourth place. Teams all the way down to 12th place
Real Sociedad are within two series striking distance of the fourth position. Meanwhile,
Racing Santander finally won one! They managed a 3-1 win over
Espanyol to spoil the bookies’ odds on their perfect season.
Milan,
Inter and
Roma stay atop Serie A but second through fourth are still up for grabs. Meanwhile,
Siena have had a terrible month and now find themselves in the relegation zone a game behind
Catania.
Crotone in Serie B are charging towards promotion and the league title. Meanwhile, a scheduling error has been discovered wherein third-tier Lega Pro will continue to play well into December. League officials report that “Auto adjust date if matching XML schedule found” has been unchecked for next season.
Bordeaux and
Lille have continued their battle atop Ligue 1 and they end the month with Bordeaux a game ahead.
PSG, meanwhile, is still trying to hold off
Dijon for the final Champions League place. At the bottom of the table, however, relegation is basically determined for
Valenciennes,
Toulouse, and
Thonon.
Montpellier in 17th place is 13 games clear of relegation.
Portugal’s
Pacos de Ferreira have had a strong month to put them within 4 games of second place
Rio Ave. Rio had a strong start to the month and briefly took first from
Porto but now find themselves having to look nervously in both directions as they try to hold on to a shot at the title and the league’s second Champions League spot.
Club Brugge has maintained first place in Belgium and is pulling away as the teams below them fight each other. At the bottom of the league,
Mons are trying to catch
Lokeren and avoid relegation, but Lokeren have a 5 game lead.
In Holland,
Uttrecht is closing on
Waalwijk and ends the month only 3GB. A late season charge could see them in first and in the Champions League. Nothing will prevent
Excelsior from going down, but
NAC Breda are hoping to catch
de Graafschap, they’re 4 games clear of safety.
With 15 games to go in Austria,
Sturm Graz has a 5 game lead over
Admira Wacker, but
Red Bull Salzburg have only dropped two games in September to climb into second place. No one in the top half of the table is eliminated from the title yet.
Rubin Kazan are staying strong in Russia. Several big Moscow clubs are faltering, but
Lokomotiv is in second, tied with
Grozny. There are 20 games to play, so Champions League is anyone’s ballgame.
In Scotland,
Kilmarnock have pulled ahead of
Celtic, they have a 4 game lead after Celtic had a tough month with 9 losses. They’ll need a strong showing to catch back up with the Killie. At the bottom of the league, the three-way fight to stay up continues.
Dunfermline,
Hearts, and
Inverness are within 2 games of each other.
The top 6 in the Europa League look certain:
Astana (KAZ),
IFK (SWE), and
Donetsk (UKR) in the North,
Bucharest (ROM),
Besiktas (TUR), and
Tel Aviv (ISR) in the South.
Galati (ROM) is sure to go down, and
Kosice (SVK) needs a miracle to catch
Salvia Prague (CZE) and avoid relegation. There’s a big series between the two this month that will determine the fate of the North.
In the Champions League, the second place spots are widely contested, while each group seems to have a pretty solid winner and loser:
Group A- Man City, 8-4
- Bayern, 8-4
- Villarreal, 6-6
- Napoli, 2-10
Group B- Inter, 11-1
- Lille, 8-4
- CSKA, 4-8
- Trabzonspor, 1-11
Group C- Man United 12-0
- Benfica, 7-5
- Basel, 5-7
- Galati, 0-12
Group D- Real Madrid, 12-0
- Ajax, 6-6
- Lyon, 3-9
- Dinamo Zagreb, 3-9
Group E- Chelsea, 10-2
- Valencia, 8-4
- Leverkusen, 5-7
- Genk, 1-11
Group F- Dortmund, 10-2
- Arsenal, 8-4
- Marseille, 6-6
- Olympiacos, 0-12
Group G- Porto, 11-1
- Zenit, 6-6
- Donetsk, 6-6
- APOEL, 1-11
Group H- Barca, 11-1
- Milan, 9-3
- BATE, 2-10
- Plzen, 2-10
Awards
Monthly awards are attached below. Here’s who took home the honors in each league:
- ENG – (H) Gerrard, Liverpool | (P) Mario Rodriguez (CRC), Newcastle
- GER – (H) Schweinsteiger, Munich | (P) Franz Badem (AUT), Hoffenheim
- ESP – (H) Messi, Barcelona | (P) Wlodz Wyrobek (POL), Levante
- ITA – (H) Gabra Kirinyaga (CIV), Milan | (P) Loflinger Gardner (GER), Milan
- FRA – (H) John Maloney (USA), Lille | (P) Yann Soulier (FRA), Nice
- NED – (H) Arjan Pasveer (NED), Ajax | (P) Han Beerens (NED), AZ
- POR – (H) Danny Agurero (MEX), Rio Ave | (P) Simao Grelo (POR), Gil Vicente
- BEL – (H) Nicoli Canavaro (ITA), Club Brugge | (P) Martial Varlet (BEL), Kortrijk
- RUS – (H) Jose Becerril (CUB), Grozny | (P) Gavrie Rokotov (RUS), Rostov
- SCO – (H) Kaspar Steinberg (GER), St. Johnstone | (P) Logan Hughes (SCO), Hibernian
- AUT – (H) Fred Bird (ENG), Sturm Graz | (P) Tony Diaz (ESP), Red Bull
- EUR N – (H) Jasper McAlister (CAN), IFK (SWE) | (P) Jonathan Pemberton (ENG), Nordsjaelland (DEN)
- EUR S – (H) Sergio Silva (VEN), Steaua Bucharest (ROM) | (P) Louis Corfield (ENG), Bucharest (ROM)
Highlights
This month let’s talk cycles!
Premier League
- SS Ambo Liu (CIV), Man United, 5/6, 3 RBI versus Blackburn
Bundesliga- C Jordan Martel (FRA), Freiburg, 5/6, 8 RBI versus Wolfsburg (his second of the season)
La Liga- SS Ronaldo, Real Madrid, 5/5, 3 RBI versus Betis
- 1B Iniesta, Barca, 4/5, 3 RBI versus Santander
Serie A- Mihai Burdulea (ROM), Milan, 4/5, 1 RBI versus Catania
Liga Portugal- LF Jose Rosero (DOM), Rio Ave, 4/5, 4 RBI versus Olhanense
Belgian First Division- 3B Alix Lemaire (FRA), Club Brugge, 4/5, 4 RBI versus Gent
Eredivisie- 2B Lars MacDonald (NED), Uttrecht, 5/6, 3 RBI versus Rotterdam Excelsior
Europa League- 1B Archie Perry (ENG), Maccabi Haifa, 5/5, 2 HR, 4 RBI versus Hapoel Tel Aviv
One last highlight: in the Champions League,
Man United had back-to-back no hitters against
Galati.
Hanno Aman (GER) pitched a perfect game and the next day
Brendan Bagely (ENG) did the same with an error by RF
Sebastiaan den Boer (NED) marring the performance.
Next month the title races, promotion and relegation, and the Champions League group stage will all come down to the wire!