[Lucky_Will]

The regular season is only days from finishing and many of the league titles have been clinched while there are trophies, Champions League places, promotion places still in platy and relegation is still on the table.

Standings – Clinched Races

In England, Chelsea clinched the title on 26 October with five games to go, and second through fourth places are set: Liverpool, Spurs, and Manchester United will be in the Champions League next season. Bolton and Wigan are heading down to the Championship, while two games separate Stoke City in 18th and QPR in 17th. If Stoke can win both games against Chelsea and QPR drop their two games to Wolves, Stoke will stay up based on head-to-head record against QPR.

The season in Germany is complete! Munich clinched the Bundesliga title on 7 October with 12 games to go. Joining the Reds in the Champions League are Mainz, Dortmund, and Schalke. Schalke held off a late charge by Leverkusen to keep a hold on the final Champions League place. Going down are Hertha Berlin, Nurnberg, and Werder Bremen.

Milan clinched the Scudetto on 19 October with 8 games to go. The rest of the top four are Roma, Inter, and Genoa. Headed to Serie B are Novara and Palermo, but Siena have hope against Catania, they’re tied on wins and head-to-head record. Catania has the last safe spot based on a tiebreaker criteria I can’t figure out, but with two games to go, either team can reach safety with a strong performance. Catania face 10th place Atalanta, Siena face Roma.

With two games to go, Bordeaux have clinched the Ligue 1 title despite only having two games on Lille. Bordeaux crushed Lille head-to-head this year, 5 games to 1. Lille have put together a nine-game winning streak to finish the season, but it’s not enough. Dijon and PSG are tied on points and head-to-head for third. Dijon play 13th place Auxerre, PSG play the champions. Both Dijon and PSG won the first games of their respective series in extra innings. PSG need to win out and have Dijon stumble to capture third, a tall order against the league winners. At the bottom of the table, Thonon have two games left to make it four wins on the season, they’re headed to Ligue 2 with Toulouse and Valenciennes.

Porto clinched the Liga Portugal title at the end of the month, they’re five games up on second place with three games to go. In second place are Pacos de Ferierra and Rio Ave. Rio had a terrible month, falling out of second place early on and notching 7 losses in October to find themselves out of the Champions League with a series against 10th place Guimaraes. Pacos have three against Setubal, who sit 15th and who need a win (or two) to avoid relegation alongside Coimbra.

Russia’s Rubin Kazan clinched on 27 October and will play in Europe next year. Going down are Sovetov and Tom Tomsk.

The Dutch league is complete and the winners are RKC Waalwijk who clinched on 21 Oct and finished 5 games ahead of Utrecht. NAC Breda and Excelsior are going down to the Eerste Divisie.

Club Brugge are Belgian First Division champions with 3 games to go, they clinched on 27 October. Lierse are relegated, but only one game separates Mons and Lokeren for the second relegation place.

Austria’s season is over and Strum Graz are headed for the Champions League. Mattersburg escaped relegation by two games despite a three-game losing streak at the end of the season. Innsbruck and Kapfenburg are going down with only 7 wins apiece out of 54 games.

In Europe, Astana have cliched a trip to the Europa League championship, they’re five games up on IFK with four games to play. Bucharest have won the South, they clinched on 26 October to beat Besiktas. IFK are through to the Champions League, while Donetsk and Plzen are separated by just one game with four to go. The last Champions League place is anyone’s ballgame. Donetsk have a chance at the Champions League knockout stage and a series against Astana, but they’ll clinch third place on head-to-head if Viktoria can’t put some wins together. In the South, however, the race is over: Besitkas and Hapoel Tel Aviv have clinched second and third place respectively. Going down are Kosice and Galati.

Standings – Races to Go

The big contest is in Spain. With two games to play, Barcelona are only a game behind Real Madrid. Barca play Valencia who are in 14th, while Madrid play Osasuna who are in 15th. The fourth Champions League place is still up for grabs, Seville are only one game up on Real Betis and two on Levante. The relegation places are set: Gijon, Espanyol, and Santander, who are still sitting at one win.

In Scotland, Celtic are only a game behind Kilmarnock with four games to play. They need to pick up wins against St. Johnstone and Motherwell to hoist the trophy and play in Europe. Kilmarnock have one game against Motherwell and then go away to Hibs to finish the season.

Standings – Champions League

With two group games to go, the action is in the middle of each group table.

Group A – The first two places are still up for grabs. City-Bayern will make the difference here as Villarreal have a favorable draw against struggling Naples.

1. Man City, 11-5
2. Bayern, 10-6
3. Villarreal, 9-7
4. Naples, 2-14

Group B – Inter and Lille are through in that order. Inter clinched first after last match day and will play the second place team in Group G.

1. Inter, 15-1
2. Lille, 12-4
3. CSKA, 4-12
4. Trabzonspor, 1-15

Group C – Are two wins from running the table, and the second place spot is down to the last two games as Benfica and Basel are tied. Benfica play perennial losers Galati and must like their chances to go through. Basel have the head-to-head advantage 4-2 over Basel.

1. Man United, 16-0
2. Benfica, 8-8
3. Basel, 8-8
4. Galati, 0-16

Group D – No worries for Ronaldo and Madrid, they’ll face the Group E runners-up. Lyon and Ajax, meanwhile, are close and Ajax has the better odds, they face Zagreb while Lyon have to play Madrid.

1. Madrid, 16-0
2. Lyon, 7-9
3. Ajax, 6-10
4. Zagreb, 3-13

Group E – Chelsea and Valencia go through without any trouble. Chelsea will play either Ajax or Lyon, while Valencia will play Real Madrid.

1. Chelsea, 16-2
2. Valencia, 10-8
3. Leverkusen, 9-9
4. Genk, 1-17

Group F – Dortmund are through but Arsenal and Marseille are tied for second. Marseille have to hope Dortmund are coasting because Arsenal have Olympiacos and can expect two wins.

1. Dortmund, 13-3
2. Arsenal, 9-7
3. Marseille, 9-7
4. Olympiacos, 1-15

Group G – Porto are through, but Zenit and Donetsk are tied and they’ll play each other for a chance at the knockout stage. Donetsk are fighting for a Champions League place in the Europa League, so their season is hanging on the next few days, while Zenit hope a win will salvage a forgettable 7th place league finish.

1. Porto, 15-1
2. Zenit, 7-9
3. Donetsk, 7-9
4. APOEL, 3-13

Group H – Barca and Milan are through easily. Messi and Barcelona will play the Group A runners up, Milan will face the winners.

1. Barcelona, 17-1
2. Milan, 13-5
3. BATE, 4-14
4. Plzen, 2-16

That’s the run down for the Champions League. Two games will make or break the group stage for teams on the bubble while the group winners have a chance to rest and recover before the knockout stages. As a reminder, it’s a three game series through the semifinal with a HAH format. The final will be played at the Baseball Arena Munchen.

Awards

It’s the last round of monthly player awards until we hear about who takes home season honors. As usual, it’s a mix of new and old faces:

ENG – (H) David Silva (ESP), Man City| (P) Jose Delgado (ESP), Chelsea
GER – (H) Schweinsteiger, Munich | Godfrey Gottschalk (GER), Mainz
ESP – (H) Ronaldo, Real Madrid | (P) Adrian Muniz (ESP), Villarreal
ITA – (H) Zlatan, Milan | (P) Giovanny Vollpato (ITA), Roma
FRA – (H) Eden Hazard, Lille | (P) Tristan Malaret (POR), Bordeaux
NED – (H) Eddie Ketelaar (NED), Utrecht | (P) Owen Laird (SCO), AZ
POR – (H) Anders Fenger (DEN), Maritimo | (P) Rocky Terrazas (VEN), Famalicao
BEL – (¬¬¬H) Luther Bowness (CAN), Mechelen | (P) Emmanuel Ghini (ITA), Club Brugge
RUS – (H) Amghar Modupe (SEN), Zenit | (P) Diego Perez (ARG), Lokomotiv
SCO – (H) Blair Young (SCO), Kilmarnock | (P) Lenny Aylward (ENG), St. Johnstone
AUT – (H) Fred Bird (ENG), Sturm Graz | (P) Marco Hinojosa (ESP), Rapid Wien
EUR N – (H) Rainer Schatz (GER), IFK (SWE) | Jonathan Bell (ENG), Widzew Lodz (POL)
EUR S – (H) Sergio Silva (VEN), Steaua Bucharest (ROM) | (P) Ricky Sanchez (ESP), Galatasaray (TUR)

Highlights

Last month it was cycles, this month we’ll look at dominant pitching in the top five leagues.

In England, Man United continues to benefit from its Champions League draw. Two pitchers no-hit Galati, a repeat of September’s performance. Hanno Aman (GER, 18K 2 BB) and Ricciardo Macchi (ITA, 15K) went back-to-back against the poor Romanian side, and as with last month’s double, the second game this time was a perfect game. Meanwhile, Adelfried Brown (GER, 13K) no-hit last-place Wigan. Roberto Dominguez (ESP) threw 15K for QPR against Norwich but ultimately Queens Park lost the game 1-0 in the 14th inning, keeping QPR within touching distance of relegation.

In Germany, Jon Melendrez (ESP, 12K 1BB) throw a no-hitter for Schalke against Dortmund, while Lukas Klein (GER, 10K, 2BB) did the same for Bayern against Werder Bremen. The Bundesliga ends the season with comparatively modest pitching standouts: three no-hitters and one 15K game across the league this year, and no 15-game winners.

Real Madrid’s Ilker Casillas threw his third no-hitter of the season in October, 10k and 0BB against Espanyol. The ace is a free agent after this year. Two hurlers notched 15+ Ks this month, Villarreal standout Victor Tzintzun (ESP) struck out 15 against Racing Santander, and then Rayo Vallecano did the same when Willie Montalvo (ESP) threw 16K against the cellar dwellers.

Italy saw more no-hitters than anywhere else this year: 13 to this point, with two gamedays to go, maybe there’s one more out there. The most recent was Parma’s Emmanuele Philarghi (ITA, 14K, 1BB) against Palermo. There have been too many 15K games to bother counting with Gigi Buffon (Juve) as the most likely suspect. He accomplished the feat 11 times.

Montpellier’s Jose Medrano (CUB) threw Ligue 1’s fourth no-hitter of the season, throwing 13K and 1BB against Thonon (poor Roses). Three players have 20+ wins: Tristan Malaret (POR, Bordeaux, 20-2), who has the chance to win number 21 in his last start of the season in a few days, Oscar Veiga (BRA, PSG, 21-2) who can earn number 22 against champs Bordeaux, and Andrew Sharratt (ARU, Lille, 20-4).

That does it for October!

My next update will cover the end of the regular season and the conclusion of the Champions League group stage. The we’ll get into the Champions League knockout rounds and Europa League playoffs and look ahead to the Euros!