Champions League Soccer

Happy for the Blues: Why even Bayern Munich fans (and Chelsea Haters) canappreciate the Champions League Finals outcome

"This past Saturday was a lesson in how a team with no business winning a matchon paper can do so on the pitch. And in resiliency. And in the delightfulunpredictability of soccer – or, as the Brits are so often fond of saying,“Football, bloody hell."

Resiliency, thy name is Chelsea.

For those who watched the Champions League Final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich eight days ago, it was a lesson in how a team with no business winning a match on paper can do so on the pitch. And in resiliency. And in the delightful unpredictability of soccer — or, as the Brits are so often fond of saying, “Football, bloody hell."

Qualifying for the tournament means prize money, more lucrative sponsorship opportunities and increased attractiveness to star players who want the CL spotlight.

The UEFA Champions League has become vitally important to European soccer clubs. English teams like Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea have made qualifying very much a holy grail — qualifying for the tournament, which pits Europe’s top club teams against each other in a 32-team format taking place concurrent with their regular league seasons, means prize money, more lucrative sponsorship opportunities and increased attractiveness to star players who want the CL spotlight.

Winning (or keeping) Champions League status can help great teams become greater; losing it can hasten the plummeting of a top-tier team into a chasm of mediocrity.

Here’s what Chelsea was facing heading into the Champions League finals against Germany’s perennial power Bayern Munich:

1. Chelsea was decidedly the underdog team. Soccer website Caught Offside, in a promotional tie-in with betting site Bet365, gave the Blues 7-2 odds to win, whereas Bayern was a 5-6 favorite to win.

2. Because of controversial UEFA rules about yellow cards (and not so controversial ones about red cards) earned in prior matches, Chelsea was without the services of four key players, including winger Ramires (arguably the quickest and most creative of Chelsea’s midfielders), defensive midfielder Raul Meireles and fullback Branislav Ivanovic (important cogs in the lockdown defense machine Chelsea’s run all tournament), and captain John Terry (perhaps not the defender he once was, but still a key defender, and the captain).

3. To make it through to the finals, Chelsea had two taxing matches against Barcelona, regarded by many as the best club team in the world, with the best striker in the world, and a maddening-to-opponents style of play relying on possession-heavy, pass-happy ball movement. Pundits everywhere wondered how Chelsea could get past them.

4. To get past the round of 16, Chelsea faced Napoli, and lost the game in Napoli 3-1. To advance, Chelsea had to win by at least three goals in their home match with Napoli. (They did so, 4-1, winning in extra time — which was needed to break the 4-4 aggregate tie they’d achieved after 90 minutes of the London match.) (If you're fuzzy on what aggregate means, or why teams play home and away matches, go ahead and take a moment to review the Champions League tournament format.)

5. In addition to those games, Chelsea had a Premier League race in which they were still, up until the final few weeks, mathematically alive for a top four slot – which is how Premier League teams qualify for Champions League status.

6. Because they eventually were out of top four contention (ultimately finishing sixth), they had to win the finals to stay in the Champions League, supplanting the Premier League’s Number Four team through a UEFA rule that allows the winning team to defend its title.

7. While this was going on, Chelsea played additional games, due to their successful run in the FA Cup — a tournament involving multiple levels of English football teams. They beat Liverpool in the finals, which earned them bragging rights as FA Cup Champions, but did little else for the team’s fortunes.

8. Did I mention the manager situation? They had to replace beleaguered manager Andres Villas-Bollas in March — then just nine months into a three-year contract – replacing him with former Chelsea player Roberto di Matteo.

9. Did I mention Chelsea’d never won a Champions League Finals? And has only been in a finals in 2008? (Bayern Munich had won four and lost four CL Finals prior to the match eight days ago.)

10. Oh, and by pure chance/apparent destiny, the 2012 finals site was … Allianz Arena, in Munich – the home stadium of Bayern Munich.

The game itself was remarkably (and deceptively) statistically one-sided. After an early standstill — in which the highlight for American viewers was a camera lingering on a woman in the stands unabashedly picking her nose for a good fifteen seconds — Bayern came with shot after shot on goal, or, at least, in the relative direction thereof. Bayern ended with a 35-9 advantage in shots and a staggering 20-1 advantage in corner kicks.

It looked like Bayern had won the game on a tricky Thomas Muller header in the 83rd minute, but on Chelsea’s lone corner five minutes later, striker Didier Drogba (notoriously clutch in tournament finals) answered with a high-degree-of-difficulty header of his own.

The game went into extra time. Bayern should have won it then, as extra time started with an inadvertent, potential hero-to-goat foul by Drogba, which led to a Bayern PK — which Bayern captain Arjen Robben missed. The game was ultimately decided on penalty kicks.

Despite the handwringing over settling ties in this way, including FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s just-announced plea for an alternative to this “tragedy” — it made for a highly dramatic finish worth watching.

At Frank, where I watched with a mix of casual Chelsea fans and more dedicated Bayern fans, seeing Drogba convert the game-winning PK (and of course it was Drogba) led to a collective sense of “Whoa, Chelsea just won that” bemusement and surprise. I can only imagine the scene at Cuatros, claimed by both Chelsea and Arsenal fans in Austin as home base, though Arsenal fans on the Austin Gooners Facebook page pretty much said, “Uh, let’s not hang around the Chelsea fans for this one either way.”

It’s more than a little bittersweet — but indicative of sports as business — that Chelsea’s about to break up, or at least change its composition, for next season’s wild ride.

We’re entering what should be an even more tumultuous off-season than usual for multiple teams. For Chelsea, it starts with uncertainty about whether di Matteo will stay on as Chelsea manager (which fans and players are, as you might expect, quite in favor of).

Drogba’s already on his way out, reportedly to Chinese team Shanghai Shenhua, for a Krusty the Clown-style, they-drove-a-truckload-of-money-up-to-my-house deal. This looks like an opportunity for Chelsea’s forgotten striker, the possibly-fading Fernando Torres, to cheer up and be more utilized, though Chelsea’s rumored to have a deal about sewn up with Brazilian striker Hulk (yes, as in Hulk Smash) and some other big-name signings in the works. This includes Belgian scoring machine Eden Hazard, who is orchestrating his own version of LeBron James’ “The Decision” (and sure to be as beloved by rival teams' fans at its conclusion) with all four Premier League Champions League qualifiers.

But Chelsea — on the heels of the just-finished, still-celebrated, epic end-of-days in the Premier League — has contributed mightily to giving soccer its Best Month Ever. “Football, bloody hell” has perhaps never been repeated more cheerfully by more people.

(Update May 29: Hazard announced on Monday night that he's chosen Chelsea.)

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High Score

Austin named the nation's pickleball capital in industry report

Photo by Henry Selis Photo

Other Racquet Social Club is back after city woes.

It's no secret that Austinites love pickleball. A new study proves just how much by ranking Austin the No. 1 city for pickleball in the whole country. Dallas and Houston also made the top 10 at Nos. 3 and 8, respectively.

The report was published by TeachMe.To, an online marketplace for learning sports (and sometimes music) from private instructors. It used data from its own platform, USA Pickleball, Places2Play, local pickleball associations, and more. It also referred to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), which named pickleball the fastest-growing sport in America, with a growth rate of 223.5 percent over three years.

Similarly, TeachMe.To ranked Austin as the fastest-growing city for pickleball, and citing this as the main reason for the overall title of "the nation's pickleball capital."

It name-checked the Austin Metro Pickleball Association (AMPA) — with approximately 3,000-3,500 members — and the Austin Pickleball League (APL), estimating that overall, "15,000-20,000 people play pickleball at least occasionally in the greater Austin area." About half of those players — about 8,000-10,000 people — play at least twice a month.

The report did not include gender data on Austin, specifically, but it did note that not only are two-thirds of pickleball players female; women's involvement in the sport is also growing 50 percent faster than men's.

New courts everywhere
This probably isn't a surprise to people who have noticed the number of courts opened around Austin in recent years. By 2024, TeachMe.To's data shows 32 dedicated courts in Austin, and thanks to with a utility rate of 92 percent it doesn't look like that'll be slowing down.

In the summer of 2023, the online booking platform Swimply noticed how many pickleball courts there were in Austin compared to such great demand, and added courts to its service. In fall 2023 and summer 2024, at least two important developments expanded that availability: Other Racquet Social Club opened as a friendly, country club-like neighborhood option, and national chain The Picklr announced it's bringing five locations to Austin and Round Rock.

Perhaps because Austin is such a food-obsessed city, there seems to be some growing opportunity for food and beverage hospitality around pickleball, too. Other Racquet recently started hosting the Bill's Dips food truck, a spinoff of the popular downtown restaurant Bill's Oyster; and a pair of bars with pickleball courts, Drifters Social Coffee & Cocktails and The Pickle Pub, also opened in South Austin this year, with strong online ratings already.

The trend has even reached into real estate (see this cute house with its own pickleball court) and inspired athletes to introduce similar sports to the local market, as in the case of the padel club Paddle39. TeachMe.To's report also mentioned tech companies adding pickleball to their campuses.

Aside from growth, the study also considered lesson activity (including information about teacher availability and diversity of clinic offerings), infrastructure, community vitality, the tournament scene.

Austin had the highest concentration of all the cities of players under 40 (65 percent), as well as the highest share of national lesson bookings. At 16.90 percent, that means about one in six of the pickleball lessons contracted through this platform were in Austin. Lesson demand, the report says, is growing 125 percent year-over-year.

Elsewhere in Texas
Dallas was No. 3 thanks in part to its "central location" according to the report.

"The city's 45 dedicated courts and 85 [percent] public accessibility rate have fostered one of the most active competitive scenes in the country, with 8,500 registered league players," it says. "The combination of strong tournament presence, extensive infrastructure, and a 112% growth in lesson bookings solidifies Dallas as a powerhouse in the national pickleball landscape."

Houston made No. 8 with an emphasis on integrating pickleball with other sports.

"The city's 22 dedicated courts have seen a 92% increase in lesson bookings, driven by innovative programming that includes the nation's first corporate league system," it says. "Houston's success in integrating pickleball into existing sports infrastructure while maintaining 72% year-round utilization demonstrates a sustainable model for rapid growth."

Overall predictions
After laying out data about the top cities in pickleball, the report made some predictions. As the Austin newcomer mentioned above believes, the report also thinks padel is the next big thing. It also guesses more cities will act like Houston by focusing on hybrid facilities.

It also expects to see an expanded professional circuit and mainstream coverage, more technology used on the court, a rise in the prevalence of young players, and more opportunities in corporate wellness and real estate. "Dedicated pickleball facilities will become as common as swimming pools in luxury developments," it says. Texans will be the judge of that one.

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