With the stage set for the return of an Arsenal legend, redbull.com gives you the lowdown on the four teams involved in this summer’s Emirates Cup.
While the majority of teams in world football gear up for the finale to a long, hard season, preparations are already being made for this summer. The prestigious pre-season tournament, the Emirates Cup, takes place on July 30-31 and will feature among other things the return to London of Thierry Henry...
Arsenal
Arsenal have won three out of the four competitions since the Emirates Cup was inaugurated in 2007, but it is the lack of more significant silverware that is an increasing cause for concern in the red half of North London. The Gunners have been firing blanks for a good while and are now six years without a major trophy. February’s shock Carling Cup final defeat to a fairly modest Birmingham City side led to many questioning the desire of a team whose passing style seems to lack the simplicity and precision that once made it so effective. Without the pomp of Pires and the hunger of Henry (Arsenal have yet to lift a piece of silverware since the striker’s departure to Barcelona in 2007), Arsene Wenger’s team are still known to exhibit a certain amount of Gallic flair, even if their undoubted talisman remains the Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas.
New York Red Bulls
Head coach Hans Backe hopes the prestigious pre-season competition in London will prove a good advertisement for Major League Soccer in America. The New York Red Bulls, based in nearby New Jersey, were a founder member of a league which was not inaugurated until 1996, the same year in which Arsene Wenger took over at Arsenal. Despite the league still being in its infancy, increased investment means the New York Red Bulls, or the Metrostars as they were known in the mid 90s, have been able to attract some big names. The arrival of former Barcelona players Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez stateside, and before them David Beckham, could soon be followed by many more. Star names on the back of shirts took a while to translate into results on the pitch but, by the end of April 2011, the Red Bulls were sitting atop the Eastern Conference and the team are expected to make a major tilt at the end-of-season play-offs.
Boca Juniors
While fans of River Plate might disagree, Boca Juniors represent the true heartbeat of Buenos Aires in Argentina. As the name suggests, the club that gave us Diego Maradona, and more latterly Carlos Tevez, hail from La Boca, a region of the capital steeped in working-class tradition. Derbies with River Plate resemble a class war with the fans of the more affluent and upmarket River. The battleground is a cauldron of noise called La Bombonera, or chocolate box, on account of the stadium’s strange shape. Sweet is not a word you could use to describe their supporters though. Bedecked in blue and yellow, their fans are as passionate as any in the world and, although Boca Juniors may not be the force they once were (the team finished 11th in the 2010 Apertura), they can certainly lay claim to be one of the continent’s most colourful clubs, with the surrounding streets either a graffiti artist’s wildest dream or a painter's worst nightmare, depending on your propensity for primary colours.
Paris Saint Germain
A club founded in August 1970 after the merger of Paris FC and Stade Saint-Germain, remain, for all the logic applied at the time of amalgamation, something of a misnomer; because, for all the pretensions you associate with the French capital their prized football team continue to be put in the shade by the likes of Lyon and Marseille. PSG, who have competed in the Emirates Cup twice before, finished 13th in Ligue in 2010. They finally gave their success-starved supporters something to shout about after lifting the Coupe de France last season, though, and have improved considerably this campaign as they bid for a return to European club competition.
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