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but i have to say, while benitez got his tactics right in midfield to push kaka off the ball (and was assisted by some ghastly milan passing), he should have tried starting with a better striker. or two strikers. peter crouch has been better than kuyt in europe this season, start with him! or use them both.

also, zenden, wtf. kewell wasn’t much better, but he was at least better.

final score, adidas 2-1 adidas. i mean, milan 2-1 liverpool.

and at least there were goals, unlike the previous final, settled late on by larsson.

a champions league final ticket. and somehow i think those are among the cheaper seats.

always wanted to do this. i’ll do this for the last world cup sometime soon. i like looking at sponsorship and how it permeates everything, not just in football.


Rank   Sponsor       Pld  W  D  L  GD Pts
1      Nike           38 28  5  5  56  89
2      Adidas         38 24 11  3  40  83
3      Adidas         38 20  8 10  30  68
4      Nike           38 19 11  8  28  68
5      Puma           38 17  9 12   3  60
6      Umbro          38 15 13 10  16  58
7      Reebok         38 16  8 14  -5  56
8      Puma           38 16  7 15   5  55
9      Jako           38 14 12 12   3  54
10     Lonsdale       38 15  7 16  -2  52
11     Hummel         38 11 17 10   2  50
12     Errea          38 12 10 16  -5  46
13     Adidas         38 11 10 17  -9  43
14     Reebok         38 11  9 18 -15  42
15     Reebok         38 12  5 21 -24  41
16     Airness        38  8 15 15 -22  39
17     JJB            38 10  8 20 -22  38
18     Le Coq Sportif 38 10  8 20 -23  38
19     Joma           38  8 10 20 -26  34
20     Diadora        38  5 13 20 -30  28

                Teams  Points per match
Nike                2              2.07
Adidas              3              1.70
Umbro               1              1.53
Puma                2              1.51
Jako                1              1.42
Lonsdale            1              1.37
Hummel              1              1.32
Reebok              3              1.22
Errea               1              1.21
Airness             1              1.03
JJB                 1              1.00
Le Coq Sportif      1              1.00
Joma                1              0.89
Diadora             1              0.74


i suppose the moral of the story is, wear nike or adidas. (ok, maybe it’s not a causative relationship–most likely the kit sponsors go to the most successful teams and not the other way around.) right. also i suspect my beloved manchester city got dumped by reebok because they were bringing their performance down, hahaha. and my london side (is it sacrilege to support another “backup” side besides your favorite?) has the weirdest kit sponsor ever.

someday i will finish this across many leagues or years, then we’ll really know what to wear if we want to win trophies.

UPDATE, i just finished the world cup, i have an excel sheet that i might post soon. however, suffice it to say, again, in general, you should wear nike or adidas, though a puma team did win the competition. some highlights:

• puma sponsored more teams (12), but fewer puma teams (3) reached the second round compared to adidas teams (5 of 6) or nike teams (5 of 8).
• adidas and nike continued to dominate the competition in subsequent rounds, making up over half the field in each round until the final (QF: adidas 3, nike 2, puma, lotto, umbro 1; SF: adidas 2, nike 1, puma 1)
• adidas and puma contested the final, in a weird parallel of the lives of the companies’ founders, i suppose.
• i was not the first one to do this, forbes magazine did this last summer when the competition was ongoing.