Wilson: Champions League’s return a good thing for sports fans

With the NHL lockout now official and the NBA not truly mattering until after Christmas, sports…With the NHL lockout now official and the NBA not truly mattering until after Christmas, sports fans need something to satisfy their fix in the middle of the week. Champions League soccer should fill that void.

The 32-team European professional soccer tournament run by the Union of European Football Associations — the continent’s governing body for soccer — is the most competitive and arguably the most exciting of its kind in sports.

For casual soccer fans: Imagine the level of skill at the World Cup, but better. The World Cup requires countries from all around the world to participate, meaning nations such as Togo, Montenegro and New Zealand get beaten on by traditional powers. The Champions League has a smaller, but more talented pool to draw from since its participants are the best teams from the strongest soccer continent. A higher level of play results.

The tournament’s group stage began on Tuesday, and the final is on May 25. But what’s great about this event — besides the games themselves — is its format.

Because of the time difference between the U.S. and Europe, most games happen at 2:45 in the afternoon. This is the perfect time slot no matter who, or where, you are. Have a boring lecture? Watch some action on your laptop. At work? Plan your lunch break around a game. Matches take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so the commitment required for viewing even one game a week is minimal. No need to find the fortitude it takes to wake up early on the weekends to watch European league games.

The two-legged structure used in the group and knockout stages works well on television because it’s short enough that you don’t get bored of a particular matchup, and you also get to see which team is truly better instead of witnessing the arbitrary nature of single elimination knockout.

The games last two hours, which gives you flexibility with your schedule, and the fact that match days occur every two weeks ensures that the product won’t become stale in the way that day after day of baseball does.

Fox, which has held the American broadcasting rights to the competition since 2009 and will continue to do so until 2015, needs to manage such a precious jewel with more love and care. The network’s soccer-specific channels such as Fox Soccer Channel aren’t on standard cable, which keeps the general public from having easy access to the sport.

This approach makes sense as a business strategy, but it also comes off as a blatant abuse of power. Currently, the regional Fox sports network, Root Sports in Pittsburgh, shows only two games each match cycle. The final is always on the local fox affiliate, WPGH, and big games are sometimes there or on FX. Hopefully more games will be regularly featured on those stations so the game can continue to expand its reach here.

The wild finish to the Real Madrid-Manchester City game on Tuesday made me realize how much I missed this competition these past four months and how much I wanted to convince people who aren’t yet soccer fans of the competition’s appeal.

José Mourinho, the manager of Real Madrid, has appeared in three Champions League finals and won two with other clubs already, yet he celebrated Cristiano Ronaldo’s game-winning goal as though he had just won the lottery.

That level of passion holds true for players and fans alike. This is the trophy they all covet. For many of the world’s best players, it has a greater cache than the World Cup because their native countries aren’t strong enough to compete seriously,  while their clubs are (e.g., Ryan Giggs of Wales or Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast).

The environment of these stadiums mesmerizes and can serve as a lesson in how true support of professional teams should look and sound, in contrast to the artificial and manufactured noise  that permeates our domestic leagues. I’m looking at you, NBA.

Also, what other sports competition has its own anthem?

As I’m writing this column, Oscar, a 21-year-old Brazilian player, has just scored his second goal of the game against Italian power Juventus in a breathtaking strike for Chelsea, his new club, to formally introduce himself to the soccer-watching world. Chelsea won the Champions League back in May, and Oscar probably joined the Blues because he, too, wants to win.

The London club’s owner, Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, has gone through seven managers in nine years, including Mourinho. Despite winning nine trophies during that time and becoming the owner of one of England’s most successful clubs, he only had his eyes set on one achievement: Champions League glory, which proved elusive until this past season.

It’s captivating whenever you get to watch people who are the best in world do what they do, and that’s what players in the Champions League are: the best.

Simply put, give it a watch, and you won’t be disappointed.