March 2008 Archives

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake may have to be called the 'black Maradona' after this wonderful goal against Charlton on Saturday - says Wolves skipper Karl Henry.

His 35th goal in as many games came off this impudent backheel.Denis Law's feat of scoring 46 goals in a season is not so far away.Man U have 11 games left if they reach the Champions League final so a goal in each game will at least allow him to equal Law's record.But he says he's not that interested in records....

Trailing by two goals and reduced to ten men following the dismissal of Abou Diaby and facing a sixth league game without victory on Saturday - they still managed to pull off a stunning comeback.

So Arsenal are still hanging on grimly to their title hopes.Down at the other end of the scale Aston Villa did not do so well.They got mangled pretty badly by the jaws of defeat ...!
You can see Manchester United beating the daylights out them here..Ronaldo and Tevez took a goal each and Rooney gave his fans something to cheer about by scoring the other two.

A 3-0 victory over Poland in front of a boisterous crowd Wisla Stadium in Kraków. It's the third straight road win for Bob Bradley's side.All the goals came off set pieces.Carlos Bocanegra and Oguchi Onyewu scored off a free kick and a corner kick respectively - both taken by Landon Donovan incidentally. Eddie Lewis added the third with a free kick that went straight over the wall and into the back of the net before the goalkeeper knew what was happening.

Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht gave Iran an early lead with this great back to the goal scissor kick in a 2010 world cup qualifier against Kuwait.Unfortunately for him and for Iran the Kuwait team came back strongly and game eventually ended at 2 goals each.

Georgios Karagounis scored two incredible free-kicks to take Greece to a 2-1 win over Portugal.Ronaldo - conspicous by his absence - must have been impressed.The first goal....goalie left standing.

....and the second one in the same corner.Goalie left standing again.

Pato scores the winner in Brazil's 1-0 victory over Sweden.He had only been on the pitch for 12 minutes as a second-half substitute when he punished a mistake from the swedish goalie by with a goal any of Brazil's legendary figures would have been proud of.

After Rio's life story from cradle to captain here is another life story - Beckham's.The outstanding moments of his career from cap 1 to cap 100 told in 12 sets of photographs.
It begins on 1 September 1996 with New England coach Glenn Hoddle giving a fresh-faced Beckham his first cap in a World Cup qualifier against Moldova and ends with the latest twist in the saga - Beckham being recalled to the England squad for the friendly against France in Paris on 26 March.

The story of his life from Cradle to Captain is outlined here in broad brush strokes,a bit of detail and the occasional picture.Capello insists on respect and role models.Ferdinand admitted he is "living the dream"

The see saw story continues.Real Madrid went down to Valencia -their 5th defeat in 8 games. Barcelona won against Valladolid.The fantastic four have not been able to get their act together for Barcelona.Actually its the fantastic two now.Ronaldinho has been mysteriously missing for a while and Messi is injured.Bojan is the new super hero of the team.Videos below

Drogba has now scored seven goals in seven matches against Arsenal two of them yesterday.

In the other clash of the titans Man U beat Liverpool 3 - 0 and Chelsea trail them now by 5 points.

The three-part definition of the modern offside law can be remembered as 'PIG' - if a player doesn't Play, Interfere or Gain, he is not offside.Confused? Did you think that Jérémie Aliadière's goal for Middlesbrough (video) against Arsenal the other day was offside? Do you think that if you had 10 referees in a room you would get 10 different decisions ? If so you need to read this article.All will be made clear.

Brittle Barcelona broke against Valencia,went down 3 -2 and lost their place in the Copa del Rey finals.Ronaldinho didn't play and also didn't get booed that much because he celebrated his 28th birthday yesterday but it may well be the end of the road for Rijkaard.

Ronaldo is at the receiving end of many plaudits and accolades and pats on the back after he beat George Bests 40-year-old record of 32 goals from a winger in one season.He is also 13 goals short of equalling Denis Law's tally of 46 goals in all competitions.Here are some comparisions of his and Best's stats.
George Best
League title winner 1965, 1967
European Cup winner 1968
European Footballer of the Year 1968
Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year 1968
Cristiano Ronaldo
League title winner 2007
FA Cup winner 2004
League Cup winner 2006
Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year 2007
PFA Player of the Year 2007
PFA Young Player of the Year 2007

United appearances and goals in all competitions
Best (1963 -74): 474 apps, 180 goals
Ronaldo (2003 - present): 227 apps, 83 goals

Internationals
Best (Northern Ireland): 37 apps, 9 goals
Ronaldo: (Portugal) 57 apps, 20 goals
But is Ronaldo the best? Or will those other chaps pictured above give him a run for his money ?

The only highlight of an otherwise fairly dull Belgian Cup semifinal game which ended with Standard and Gent sharing the honours at two goals apiece - was this scorpion kick from the Standard goalie Espinoza.

Chelsea may have surrendered their best chance of taking the Premier League title when they let Tottenham draw even with them after being ahead three times in the game.
They were ahead 1-0, 3-1 and 4-3 and then went and let Robbie Keane equalise two minutes from time to draw 4-4.A win would have taken them level with Arsenal and into second place. They now trail Manchester United by five points after they beat Bolton Wanderers 2-0.Cristiano Ronaldo took his tally for the season to 33 with two more goals.He was also wearing the captain's armband for the first time.Goal videos below.
Chelsea - Tottenham (4 goals each )

Man U -Bolton (2 - 0).

The (once) dreaded Drogba has scored one goal for Chelsea since the end of November.He didn't even score one goal out of the six that were scored the other day when Chelsea were beating the daylights out of Derby.Is this the same dreadful Drogba who demoralised defenders and ran up a wholesome tally of 33 goals last season in all competitions ?
He is either missing Mouriho or still recovering from his knee surgery or still recovering from the African Cup of Nations.
Grant thinks its the african aftereffect and is hoping for the best.
"In Africa, it was not easy.I think all the players, except Salomon Kalou, from all the clubs, didn't come back the same because they played in 40-degree heat, a lot of humidity; they didn't train and the pitches weren't so good. But all of them are now better, including Didier."
I'm inclined to think its the missing Mourinho that's taken the sting out of his game.Rumours..

The U.S. Women’s National Team beat Denmark, 2-1 to win the 2008 Algarve Cup.This marked USA's sixth straight appearance in the Algarve Cup title game and its sixth Algarve Cup championship overall, winning in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and now 2008.For those among you (like me) who had not heard of the Algarve Cup till yesterday here are some Wikipedia facts.
The Algarve Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's football (soccer). Held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious women's football events, alongside the Women's World Cup and Women's Olympic Football. Currently, 12 teams are invited, with the top eight competing for the championship. The teams are divided into three groups of four — A, B and C. Group C was added in 2002 to provide second-tier teams with high-level match experience every year. The most successful teams have been the USA with six titles and Norway with four. Norway's titles all came in the early years of the tournament, while the USA have won all their titles in the 2000s, including five in six years since 2003. Sweden and China, also traditional powers in the women's game, have won two titles each, while current FIFA Women's World Cup holders Germany have won once. The USA, Norway and Germany are (so far) the only nations to win both the FIFA World Cup and the Algarve Cup.

Jeremie Aliadiere converted Tuncay's pass from close range and Middlesbrough were one up.

Kolo Toure's 86th minute equaliser gave the gunners their 4th successive draw.

It came close to an unexpected upset.A combination of dogged defence a bit of luck.Derby held on tenaciously until the last quarter of an hour and even had a couple of chances that would have won them the game."There are ways to lose a match," Jewell said. "Today we lost with dignity and went down fighting. On Wednesday it was men against boys, so today was all about character. And the players certainly showed that."Ronaldo made the difference again.Missed a few,got fouled more than a few times but finally came up with this....

The Rangers held Werder Bremen at bay with difficulty to progess into the UEFA quarters.The only insufficent goal for Werder Bremen came from Deigo and it is a great one.

Lampard scores the 6th goal to complete the demolition of Derby.He also scored a hat trick before scoring this goal.Those three goals can be seen here,here and here.Kalou's goal here and Cole's goal here.And picture of Avram Grant smiling for a change here....!

Hat trick man Torres gave Liverpool a 1-0 win over Inter Milan on Tuesday night to give England's Premier League an unprecedented four teams in the European Champions League quarter-finals.

Goal line technology has been kicked out of football for the forseeable future.The IFAB's 11th-hour change of heart, at a conference in Gleneagles, was a big shock to FA chief executive Brian Barwick.He described goal-line technology as "dead in the water"
Most angry of all was Hawk-Eye managing director Paul Hawkins, who was encouraged 10 days ago to press ahead with his research during a private showing for IFAB members at Reading's Madjeski Stadium. "I am livid," Hawkins said. "This decision is completely out of the blue. A year ago they laid down four specific criteria and now they change their minds. My company has invested an awful lot of money and now we will get no return on our investment."

Blatter said that the whole thing was simply too complicated.Here's some Blattertalk doubletalk.
"There has been no change of heart. Referees make decisions, not machines," he said. "I have defended goal-line technology but it has become clear that such systems are too complicated and very costly. Nor would they necessarily add anything positive to the game and could harm the authority of the referee."
"We have to maintain the laws of the game in their simplicity. Do you want technical devices to take decisions? That's why, after three years of tests with no conclusions, I am in favour of putting the whole thing on ice."

But here's what Premier League general secretary Mike Foster says: "The Premier League had wanted to have this in place for the 2009-10 season.
"The clubs had been driving this and they had been more anxious than anyone to have a system in place. The referees were all in favour as well."

Barnsley unbelievably dumped holders Chelsea out of the FA cup.This the first time they have been in the final since 1912.The video shows a bit of the game,some Chelsea misses,the all important goal from Nigerian striker Kayode Odejayi and wild celebrations from fans invading the pitch at the end.

To Portsmouth.At Old Trafford.And they got themselves knocked out of the FA cup in the bargain.Sulley Muntari gave Portsmouth a 1-0 victory.And the hapless goalkeeper in question was Rio Ferdinand.This becauseEdwin van der Sar was injured and substitute goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak got a red card.Man U will rue the billion chances they missed and Portsmouth have beaten them at Old Trafford for the first time in 50 years.Details...

Torres scored his third Liverpool hat-trick - and second in successive home appearances - in the 4-0 win against West Ham United.Gerrard scored the fourth goal and it was a good one.One of his best.
“Fernando is frightening” ..is Gerrard's description of Torres's feat of scoring consecutive home hat-tricks.This is something which has not been achieved by a Liverpool player since 1946.I don't know who did it in 1946 but you can read a bit more about why Gerrard is calling Torres scary here..

Martin Hiden is the first to get that impressive sounding title.With regard to Euro 2008 he plans to compensate for all CO2 emissions made in the course of his travels by investing in Austrian projects to combat climate change. "I want to increase my involvement in climate protection while giving a clear signal to the younger generation," Hiden said.
And while on the subject the Wörthersee Stadion in Klagenfurt, one of the venues for UEFA EURO 2008, has been awarded the Green Ball award for its environment friendly infrastructure.

Xavi scored the goal but the move began with one of those famous Ronaldinho no look passes.

Cesc Fabregas struck a magnificent goal, a brilliant 30 yard scorcher that knocked the crown off the defending champions of the league with six minutes to go.The mighty Milan were beaten in their San Siro fortress, their misery completed when Emmanuel Adebayor added a second a little later.

Bolton Wanderers went down 3 -1 to Liverpool.The first goal was a bit crazy.Went in off the head of the goalkeeper when he was on the ground.

The Serie A title race is on again .Inter Milan went down for the first time this season and Roma are now just six points behind - having been 11 three matches ago. Julio Cesar gifted Napoli's Marcelo Zalayeta the winner in the third minute of the game.See video.

The first goal for Barcelona came from a spectacular Ronaldinho bicycle kick .But 19 year old Sergio Agüero ensured that the lead did not last long and Atletico Madrid won the game 4 -2.

Substitute striker Nicklas Bendtner gave Arsenal a last-second equaliser to preserve the slenderest of leads at the top of the Premier League.

Manchester United have moved up and are one point behind Arsenal after a 3 - 0 win over Fulham yesterday.