Top 5 Early Season Euro-Surprises

[Photo: Bongarts]

We're now far enough into the season to start reveling in instant nostalgia, so let's take a quick look at the most stunning headline grabbers thus far - for both good and bad reasons.

For this Top 5 List, I will mention each club with a corresponding player I find emblematic of their surprise factor. As is often the case, these early shockers have several people to rave or pan, so the player choice was actually quite difficult in a few cases.

Before we begin, I'd like to give an honorable mention nod to Mounir El Hamdaoui and AZ Alkmaar. He leads the Eredivisie with 12 goals (looks like Spurs gave up on him too soon), while the club have bounced back from a disastrous 2007/08 season to head the Dutch table through nine games.

With that bit of business taken care of, away we go...

#5 - Germán Denis - Napoli

Perhaps it shouldn't that much of a surprise that the Blues are within early reach of the top spot in Italy. Manager Edi Reja took the reins of a Serie C club in January of 2005, and Napoli have been steady climbers ever since. With much thanks to central defense duo Paolo Cannavaro and Fabiano Santacroce, the team hope to improve on last year's eighth place finish and Intertoto Cup invite.

Denis, who finally arrived to Europe from Independiente in Argentina this summer after a seemingly endless transfer serial, leads the team with five goals in 10 games. Some observers were beginning to wonder if is hesitancy to make the move across was a bad harbinger, but the 27-year old striker has quickly made himself at home in Napoli's attack.

Too bad Denis also scored an own goal last weekend to allow AC Milan keys to the Serie A penthouse. The loss leaves "the other Azzurri" two points off the title pace in fourth... I guess they could have been a bigger surprise after all.

#4 - Gomes - Tottenham

Let's face it: were it fashioned two weeks ago, Spurs may just have headed this list - for all the wrong reasons. Suddenly, they've beaten Bolton and Liverpool back-to-back, and my two White Hart nutter friends are off suicide watch.

With so many new players (and more to the point, players new to the Prem), it's little wonder Tottenham struggled to start the season. Several of the new boys have kicked it up a notch since Harry Redknapp arrived 10 days ago, so the shock value of their fist nine games is slowly eroding. Still, their beginning was so incredibly bad, it would be criminal to leave them off this list.

One summer acquisition that has regularly forced Yids to pull their own hair is netminder Gomes. The Brazilian has been extremely slow to corner serves/crosses and lazy about where rebounds are left, weaknesses he seemed to have licked at PSV Eindhoven.

Of course, their problems at the back have not been entirely his fault, but Gomes needs to regain top form and fast; management is already looking at new keepers for January.

#3 - Semih Şentürk - Fenerbahçe

It all looked so ripe for the Yellow Canaries in September. The Turkish runners-up had seen a few players star at Euro2008 (MF Uğur Boral, GK Volkan Demirel, F Semih Şentürk), a few star players arrive (Emre, Daniel Guiza, Claudio Maldonado) and a Champions League group that arguably left them as second favorites to Arsenal.

Fast forward two months: Fener are ninth in the league table with a .500 record and sit last in their CL group with a lone point from three matches. They are leaking nearly two goals per game (combining league and Champions League) and have failed to score more than once half the time out. Following the dark of a 4-1 home loss to Kayserispor on October 5th, the bright side may have finally arrived with seven points from their last three outings.

The biggest headache has been Semih Şentürk, who has struggled with injury and accuracy after a Superman display at the European Championships this summer. The reigning Turkish Golden Boot man is surprisingly having a little trouble blending with Guiza, leaving far too much of the goal duties to Alex.

#2 - Vedad Ibišević - Hoffenheim

Perhaps in another season, this would be an easy #1 pick. After all, the promoted club (who were amateurs in the eighth division less than two decades ago) stand atop the German table nearly a third of the way through their rookie campaign in the top flight and they've done it with a scintillating fast break style that has bagged 31 goals in 11 games.

Unleashed weekly by former Hannover and Schalke boss Ralf Rangnick, Hoffenheim have used the team's afterburners (and a fair amount of new owner cash to burn) in jetting from the Regionalliga Süd to the Bundesliga penthouse in less than two years.

All roads to goal lead through speedsters like Demba Ba, Carlos Eduardo, Chinedu Obasi and Sejad Salihović, but the most surprising player of the early going has been 14-goal monster Vedad Ibišević. This most did not see coming.

He didn't excel at PSG, Ligue 2 side Dijon or Alemmania Aachen, and he only scored five times last season as Hoffenheim gained entrance to the big leagues - in fact, he hadn't been "the man" since starring at St. Louis University. Suddenly though, Ibišević has Inter Milan, Juventus and Manchester United monitoring him.


[Photo: Getty]

#1 - Geovanni - Hull

C'mon. You had no idea. Don't even play. I can't even imagine you could find a regularly drunken Tigers supporter that might have defiantly worked over the local betting parlor when they consecutively beat Newcastle, Arsenal and Tottenham away. Right?

Well, if anyone saw Hull sitting sixth off a pair of losses through 11 games, I'd like to speak to that person about lottery numbers. Fact is, they've not done this with mirrors at all. They've done it like a fighter with a puncher's chance on gusto alone. Just ask defending English and European champs Manchester United, who wobbled away from a 4-3 home win over the upstarts this weekend having taken a few shots to the chin.

Yes, Hull is certainly punching above its weight for now, but they are surely fun to watch scrap. The roster is heavily stocked with plumbers, with most of their surprising offensive acumen coming through or from painter Geovanni, rescued from Man City to run the KC Stadium show. Fair warning to opponents: do not let this man size up a danger free kick late in a tie game. You may be the next to wear a look of disbelief.

- Greg Seltzer