Football's almost back!

Summer is difficult when you're trying to keep a football blog up to date - do you leave it untouched for months and hope your viewers come back when the next season begins, or try to make posts with little to talk about and risk filling your blog with boring ramble?

Euro 2012 somewhat filled the gap between the seasons, and now with just over a month until the majority of the leagues begin, it's time for pre-season to start to kick in. Pre-season of course never compares to competitive football in terms of entertainment and atmosphere, but it can just be nice to be back at the grounds and enjoy the simple things you don't get from seeing it on tv.

For me a return to going to competitive matches happens before the new season starts however, as I'm at a couple of the Olympic football games at Old Trafford.  I've heard it all with the whole 'yeah but it's not taken seriously' 'it's mostly youth players so it'll be rubbish' etc, but for £20 for a ticket it seems well worth it to me.

First on the 29th July I see a double header in the group stages, Egypt vs New Zealand and Brazil vs Belarus (and seeing the Brazil team will contain the likes of Pato, Neymar, Hulk, Marcelo and Thiago Silva that seems an attractive prospect!).

Then on 4th August I see the first of the quarter finals, the winner of Group D vs the runner up of Group C. Group C is the four countries I mentioned above so it would be optimistic to think there'd be any chance of Brazil only being runners up, but Group D contains a strong Spain team (Mata, Alba, Martinez) so I've got my fingers crossed I'll be seeing them!

In the meantime I'll be at the local pre season matches, starting with Mossley vs Oldham Athletic this Wednesday at 7pm. As with last year Oldham are planning on taking their full first team, which is excellent for Mossley in terms of getting a decent crowd paying admission and buying food and drink - think I'll be getting one of their excellent cheese and onion pies too!