Oscar Shines Brightly in Chelsea FC Starting Debut

In his Chelsea FC debut, Oscar celebrates one of his two goals in their 2-2 Champions League draw with Juventus. (AP Photo)

In terms of this year's UEFA Champions League, the pressure may be greatest on Chelsea FC. As the reigning champions of Europe, they must overcome history if they hope to repeat this year as champions. Since 1990 and the beginning of the Champions League era, no club has managed to successfully defend their European crown.

Chelsea's title defense began with their greatest competition in the group stage. In recent years, Juventus has emerged as the class of Italian football in Serie A. It was Chelsea that got on the scoreboard first with a pair of first half goals (more about those is forthcoming). Juventus answered with one goal to pull within 2-1 at halftime.

As Chelsea tried to hold on for the crucial victory, they set back defensively. However, poor decision making and play allowed Juventus multiple opportunities to comeback. The Italians took full advantage in the 80th minute when Fabio Quagliarella scored the equalizer. Juventus had chances to score a winner, but the final whistle sealed a draw for both sides.

While it is easy for Chelsea to be disappointed by the result, there were certainly a number of positives that emerged from the game. The foremost being the emergence of a blossoming star. Oscar is one of the young superstars coming out of Brazil ready to burst onto the international scene. Just 21 years of age, the midfielder has a world of potential in his footballing prowess.

When acquiring Oscar for a cool 25 million pounds, many openly wondered if Chelsea had panicked and overpaid for a young talent that only had potential to accomplish great things. Making his club debut as a starter, Oscar left little to doubt that he is ready for the big stage. His first goal did benefit from some good fortune when his shot deflected off a Juventus player and into the net.

Only two minute later, Oscar's second goal was the result of pure skill and the talent he has been blessed with. His beautiful strike didn't even grant Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon a hope of saving it. The goals weren't the only thing that caused Oscar to shine brightly before his peers, supporters, and viewers around the world. His play all over the field was superb to say the least.

When writing about Oscar's performance, ESPN.com's Phil Lythell described it as follows, "The strike (first goal), though, filled the youngster with confidence and his second goal a couple of minutes later was a thing of beauty, leaving everyone in Stamford Bridge wide-eyed and open-mouthed. His tricks and flicks were all measured and to the benefit to the team, every backheel purposeful rather than indulgent. Given room to operate, he began to dictate Chelsea's forward momentum and became the central figure in the home side's display."

Chelsea did have to settle for a draw with Juventus. However, regardless of how they play in the Champions League, they have witnessed the emergence of a new star. Oscar is not only loaded with potential, but is capable of making a significant impact immediately. It will be a joy to get to watch him mature and grow with both Chelsea and his native Brazilian national team.

Ryan Lochte Dominates Field to Win 400 IM Gold Medal

US swimmer Ryan Lochte proudly displays his first gold medal and patriotic dental work. (Fabrice Coffrini)

Very few Olympic swimmers marched in the Opening Ceremony. The long standing duration during the parade would be too much for many of them who began competition today. One of those races today was the men's 400 IM. What made this race an even bigger deal is that it was the first of the much anticipated head-to-head battles between Americans Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

Phelps, of course, is an Olympic legend. In his final Olympics, he looks to go out in golden glory. In the four years since Beijing, Lochte has become the greatest swimmer in the world. Phelps claimed none of that mattered until Lochte proved it on an Olympic stage. Their first opportunity came tonight.

Lochte got a great start right out of the starting blocks. As the race wore on, he seemed to get stronger. Phelps stayed in contention through the first 200 meters, but then started to lose pace the rest of the way. After Lochte led the butterfly leg, Phelps' best stroke, it seemed certain that it was all but over. The only question that remained going into the final leg was whether or not Lochte could beat Phelps' world record.

As it turned out, Lochte (4:05.18) didn't quite have enough left in the tank to capture the record, but he still won the gold by a wide margin. Brazil's Thiago Pereira (4:08.86) and Japan's Kosuke Hagino won the silver and bronze medals, respectively. Meanwhile, Phelps (4:09.28) finished off the medal podium at a disappointing fourth.

For Lochte, the gold medal has to be rewarding. Even though he is the greatest swimmer in the world, he continues to be overshadowed by Phelps. At this point in their careers, Lochte is simply the superior athlete. The main advantages Phelps had coming into the Olympics were experience and confidence. His experience clearly didn't matter in this race. It is uncertain how this will affect Phelps' confidence. He's never really experienced failure, so it will be interesting to see how he bounces back. Round One goes to Ryan Lochte in convincing fashion, but there's still much more swimming to come.

LeBron James Helps Team USA Survive Test From Brazil

LeBron James and Team USA held Anderson Varejao and the Brazilians just out of reach in their 80-69 victory Monday night. (Patrick Smith)

When Team USA destroyed the Dominican Republic by 54 points last week in their first pre-Olympic exhibition, many naive Americans thought Team USA would simply waltz its way to gold medals, like they did in 2008. While many worried about the debate of whether or not this is the best "dream team" ever, they failed to look at the potential flaws and shortcoming of this team.

Team USA got a wakeup call right away from the Team Brazil. After all, the Brazilians do have four current NBA players (Nene, Leandro Barbosa, Anderson Varejao, and Tiago Splitter) and a handful of other international talent. However, it was a former NBA guard Alex Garcia, who took the game over early. Garcia scored 12 points to help build the Brazilians lead to 10 after the first quarter.

Nene came up with a huge slam dunk and a block of Kobe Bryant on the other end as Brazil's lead stood at 29-21. That's when the Americans responded. They scored 12 points unanswered and turned up the pressure defensively. During the second quarter, the Brazilians had 12 turnovers with only nine field goal attempts. Team USA was up 37-32 at the break.

The Americans continued the offensive attack and defensive intensity, but could not seem to put Brazil away. The Brazilians even pulled within six points late in the fourth quarter. Team USA did finally put them away for the hard fought win. LeBron James led the way with 30 points. Kevin Durant had 11 points and Chris Paul added 10 of his own for Americans.

What did this exhibition tell us about Team USA? They are far from invincible. Their inability to truly put away Brazil shows that they weren't that much more superior of a side. The front court is clearly a weakness. It's not that they are bad, but the lack of size is apparent. We learned that Team USA's road to the gold won't be a walk in the park. They are still the favorites, but they should be careful to not get overconfident.

Brazilians Bring U.S. National Team a Reality Check

Marcelo celebrates his goal with teammates Neymar and Hulk. (AP Photo)

The U.S. Men's National Team came into tonight's game with much hype. They had won five straight, including a convincing 5-1 win over Scotland. However, the team they were about to play wasn't anything like the Scots. This was a real test. Brazil.

In their history, the U.S. came into tonight's match with a 1-15-1 record against the Brazilians. Granted this was basically Brazil's Olympic team. In the Olympics, teams are limited to players under 23 years old and three older players.  So there was a glimmer of hope for a potential upset bid by the confident Americans.

The glimmer vanished fairly quickly. The Americans started out trying to create for Hercules Gomez, who started at striker. The Brazilians' first chance can when Hulk dribbled through the center of the U.S. defense and into the box. His blast forced a quality save by goalkeeper Tim Howard. Howard didn't get an opportunity to save the next shot because Leandro Damiao's shot inadvertently struck the arm of American center back Oguchi Onyewu. Despite the protests of the Americans, the referee immediately awarded the Brazilians the penalty kick. Young phenom Neymar buried it to gain the 1-0 advantage.

The Americans tried to counter, but Brazilian goalkeeper Rafael would have none of it. In the 26th minute, Brazil capitalized on some poor defending, as Silva's header found the net off a corner. The Americans showed signs of life before the end of the first half. Michael Bradley played a nice through ball to Fabian Johnson on the outside. Johnson played a low cross in that found the head of Gomez to trim the deficit to one.

But in the second half, it was the Brazilians who capitalized on their opportunities. In the 55th minute, Neymar cut through the U.S. defense and found Marcelo for the easy goal. The Americans had opportunities to get back in it, but couldn't find the net. Their best opportunity probably came in the 63rd minute. Gomez had a powerful shot that was beautifully saved by Rafael. His rebound though came right out to Terrence Boyd. Boyd's blast was amazingly denied by Rafael as well. In the 87th minute, substitute Pato put the icing on the cake, as he scored to make it 4-1 off a nice cross from Marcelo.

The main difference in this game is that the Brazilians capitalized on their opportunities, while the Americans did not. While the Americans may claim that the score was not indicative of the game, the bottomline is that you have to score to win. The Brazilians have understood that concept for decades. The backline for the U.S. clearly had holes exploited. They need to be much tighter in order to give Howard a chance to succeed. Finally, the Americans did way too much complaining, especially their leader, Landon Donovan. There were some questionable calls, including the hand-ball in the box, but that is always going to be the case. Donovan spent way too much time whining, rather than actually creating chances. He clearly needs to set a better example on the field. The Americans are making progress, but this is a reminder that there is still a long ways to go.

Friendly Fire: A Look at Some of the Action on 11/15/11

New U.S. Men's National Soccer coach Jurgen Klinsmann has taken a lot of heat for how much the team has been struggling. Since Klinsmann took over, had been outscored 5-2 and had a record of 1-4-1. The team dropped to 34th in the latest Fifa rankings and finished last year 6-8-3, their worst record since 1994.

Coach Klinsmann decided to change his lineup formation. To help make up for a lack of scoring, he changed in to a very offensively minded 4-4-2. On a fog-filled night the U.S. got to test their new lineup in a World Cup rematch with Slovenia. The U.S. attack responded with three goals and some desperate defending and great saves by Tim Howard gave the U.S. a 3-2 victory.

The U.S.'s old coach, Bob Bradley, was in action with his new team as well. Egypt started well against Brasil, but then the Brasilians took over. Brasil had no shortage of good opportunities on the attack. Jonas scored the only two goals of the game and almost had a third in Brasil 2-0 win.

A weakened Uruguay team pulled off a stunning victory in Rome 1-0 over Italy. Uruguay was without four of its best players do to injuries and fatigue. In the 3rd minute, Sebastian Fernandez scored for Uruguay. Despite Italy's large edge in shots and shots on goal, Urugauy did enough to keep them from scoring.

Germany is starting to look like the best team in the world after a convincing 3-0 win over the Netherlands, who is the #2 ranked team in Fifa's current rankings. Prior to this, Germany finished World Cup qualifying with a perfect 10 wins in 10 games. In this friendly, Mirslov Klose scored one goal and had assists on the other two.

The #1 ranked team and defending World Cup Champions, Spain, got all the could ask for and more from Costa Rica. Costa Rica controlled the first half and led 2-0 at the intermission. Spain played better in the second half, but couldn't find the net until David Silva finally scored in the 83rd minute. David Villa added another in the 90th minute to help Spain salvage a 2-2 draw in a game they could have easily lost.

Fifa's current rankings: http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/index.html