December 2008 Archives

With just seconds remaining, the game between Sunderland and Reading was into the fifth minute of added-time. Reading won a corner.Adam Federici left his goal and came up for the last effort - and scored.
Much the the delight of the mascot and others.
And there were these immortal words from Steve Coppell.
"It was a good take. He had to get up off the floor quickly to finish, which is a skill he would have learnt in goalkeeping practice. I’ve seen him score for us before in a pre-season game at Bromley when he played outfield. He’s a good outfield player. All goalkeepers are frustrated centre-forwards anyway."

Emanuel Pogatetz and C Ron exchanged friendly fire as the game progressed.

Arsenal let a game they were winning 2 -1 slip away from them in stoppage time the other day.Wenger left the field wagging his finger at the referee.Chelsea managed the same against Fulham yesterday.Scolari left the field wagging his finger at Petr Cech.

Shew Mewa Lall - legendary Indian footballer, who guided India to the 1951 Asian Games title with a solitary goal in the final, died on Friday after a brief illness.
His legend died before he did and he passed away unremembered by most.Most newspaper reports even got his name wrong.A sad commentary on the way India remembers sporting heroes of it's past.
A brief summary of his achievements .........
For India: 1951 Delhi Asian Games — India played three matches on way to gold. Mewalal was the topscorer, getting goals in all three matches
Represented India in 1948 London Olympics and 1952 Helsinki Olympics
Clubs — Aryans, BNR, Eastern Railway (then Eastern Indian Railway), Mohun Bagan, Rajasthan Club
Top scorer in CFL 1949 (ER), 1951 (ER), 1954 (ER), 1958 (BNR)
Scored more than 150 goals in the local league.
Scored 39 goals for Bengal in Santosh Trophy which included five hattricks

More...

I'm not sure if that's grammatically correct.Poor syntax aside - it just a way of saying that Liverpool are living it up at the top of the charts after a 5 goal victory over Newcastle.Wait I just thought of a better title to this post.
Liverpool takes goals to Newcastle.....! ( That's a pun on taking "coals to Newcastle" Get it ? Never mind.)

Gallas scored this comeback goal somewhere near the end of the game and Arsenal managed to hang onto the three points.

We are at the halfway stage of the Premier League season but there seems to be a serious dearth of contenders for footballer of the year? Nicolas Anelka, Ashley Young and Brad Friedel seem to be shining the brightest.Ronaldo,Rooney,Berbatov,Robinho,Adebayor ,Robin van Persie, Torres etc have only been glowing fitfully for most of the season so far.The deadly Drogba is casting a pale shadow of himself.So why are the stars so dim ?
Another gloomy question to ponder on in the pale starlight......
"Can Aston Villa win the Premier League ?"

Two goals out of three gave Liverpool three more points and took them back to the top of the table again.

The game was in stoppage time and Arsenal were on the verge of reclaiming fourth place in the Barclays Premier League.Then Wenger saw Zat Knight pop up in the box to score the equaliser .
And he got that old sinking feeling again........
And Arsenal almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory again....
And he got mad with the ref again.....
"I know how it works here [in England]," he said, "At half-time the referee gets stick and in the second half every little 50-50 decision goes the other way. That's what happens. I waited at half-time to see what happened and I was not disappointed. There is nothing to explain more than that."

Tevez gave Man U the three points.

Why is it called boxing day ??
While you ponder over that one you can take a look at Drogba finally opening his account.(Scolari finally managed to figure out that he could pair Drogba and Anelka in the front line.)

While still pondering you can see Frank Lampard adding another one to his tally.

A happy and merry Christmas to all....The song is based on this story from the first world war I guess.

You can go through your whole life not knowing that you have medial knee ligaments and then sudddenly one day you are out of action for four months because of them.Cesc Fabregas has a partial rupture of the medial knee ligaments courtesy a (fair) challenge from Xabi Alonso.
Wenger is putting on a brave front but its pretty obviously a blow below the water line.Whatever title hopes remained are already sunk or sinking fast.
In the meantime here's an interesting war of of words between Wenger and Graham Poll....
The dispute was sparked by Poll's comments on Setanta Sports on Monday night that referee Phil Dowd's dismissal of Terry in Chelsea's game against Everton would have greater repercussions because of Terry's status as England captain. Wenger said: "It's embarrassing when you listen to the comment of Graham Poll and he says you have to consider that you are sending off the captain of the England national team. What has that got to do with the rule book? When you listen to that, it's frankly quite embarrassing for the referees. It is a big concern when the former No 1 national referee talks like that. I don't think they are taking reputations into account, but when I hear statements like that you change your mind. I have no problems with Poll."
Poll then said that Wenger knew exactly what he had meant when the former referee had discussed the "ramifications" of sending off high-profile players. He said: "He has taken my words out of context. If you send off John Terry or Cristiano Ronaldo or Arsenal, when they had big players, you are aware of the consequences. You know that it is a high-profile decision you are making.Wenger is aware of that, he knows that, he understands that. I'm not saying that you chicken out of the decision or that John Terry gets an extra chance because he is England captain, but you know that when you do send him off it is not a standard dismissal. For example, the last time he was sent off it was overturned. The last time I sent him off I was under investigation for two weeks. It is not a normal decision in that respect."
More on that here...

.....was when John Terry got a red card.The rest of the game was so dull that several fans are reported to have fallen asleep before the game finally ground to a halt after 90 minutes of mind numbingly boring football.In fact even Scolari must have nodded off during the game.He tried to cover up by refusing to see the media because he was very angry over Terry's dismissal.A quick look at the video will show you that the ref was perfectly justified for sending him off.


John Terry - video powered by Metacafe

It was a game Wenger had hoped to win but it ended with some familiar excuses. "We would have won this game. We showed a great spirit and commitment. We missed that final thing that makes a difference when you are down to 10 men. That cost us two points today."
Whistling in the dark.

Wayne Rooney ( man of the tournament) scored the only goal of the game as Manchester United won the final of the Club World Cup against Liga de Quito.Nemanja Vidic was sent off for not being to keep his elbows under control.

In what surely must be a first of its kind story an Argentine soccer player Gaston Aguirre killed a pigeon with a football.The pigeon was on the field getting a very low birds eye view of the proceedings between San Lorenzo and Tigre.It unfortunately did not manage to get out of the way of a pass by Gaston.Why Gaston passed the ball to the pigeon has probably got something to do with the fact that the pigeon had wings and his team also had wings.He seems to be pretty mortified by the casualty and is not looking forward to being remembered as "Gaston - The pigeon killer"

"The Champions League draw has been diabolical. I didn't expect the three Italians teams to be drawn with English teams. But they are games that will bring numerous suggestions and impossible predictions.It will be difficult for Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United but it will be equally difficult for Roma, Juve and Inter." - B P Scolari.
Chelsea - Juventus
Villarreal - Panathinaikos
Sporting - Bayern
Atletico Madrid - FC Porto
Lyon - Barcelona
Real Madrid - Liverpool
Arsenal - Roma
Inter - Manchester United
Meanwhile Mourinho is alternately licking his chops and slavering in anticipation at the prospect of taking on Manchester United.

He stamped his authority on the game and also on a player from the other team.He scored two goals for the former (stamping authority on game) and got a yellow card for the latter (Stamping on opposing player).
His twin goal salvo saw Manchester United go past a gritty japanese side in the Club World Cup.Gamba Osaka were two goals down at half time.They came back with a goal in the second half before Rooney put things beyond doubt with his authority stamping salvo.The final score read 5 -3

The last movie I saw him in was called "Escape to Victory"He's making a comeback to showbiz in an animation film to be made by an Indian company called Compact Disc India Ltd.
What are they going to call it ? The legend of the Black Pearl ? Sound's like something Johnny Depp would want to act in.They haven't apparently decided on the name yet.All we know at present is that Pele is going to be the main character.

Eduardo is back in the Arsenal side 298 days after Martin Taylor broke his leg in February.
Arsenal never really recovered from the traumatic loss of one of their main strikers.It's good to see him back.Whether he will play like he used to again remains to be seen.It will be a test of courage.You wouldn't blame him for flinching after having gone through an injury like that.

On Sunday 21st December, Arsenal Football Club is dedicating its Premier League match against Liverpool to its Charity of the Season, Teenage Cancer Trust.
Arsenal players and directors will be donating a day’s wages to the charity dedicated to helping improve the lives of young people with cancer and are encouraging supporters to give what they can through the ‘Be a Gooner. Be a Giver.’ campaign. The Club has a £300,000 target to reach over the 2008/09 season and the dedicated matchday will be a milestone for the partnership on the road to achieving this figure.More here and here

..of falterers.They became the third team in a row to falter [the other two being Real Madrid and Arsenal - remember?].Chelsea faltered in their attempt to regain the top spot in the PL standings when they allowed themselves to draw the game against West Ham.
Scolari is saying to the fans" Go ahead and boo us.We deserve it...."

Arsenal weren't the only ones to falter.Real Madrid ( despite Juande's brave words to the contrary) faltered.Faltered twice actually.
First falter - Samuel Eto'o

Second falter - Lionel Messi

The last post was titled Arsenal bow.And now they have faltered.Against Middlesbrough.Not a good combination of things to do when you are trying very hard to get back into the title chase.Things were looking good initially when Emmanuel Adebayor headed home in the first 15 minutes.Then they faltered.

Real Madrid are enjoying a revival of sorts under Juande Ramos as they trounced Zenit St Petersburg 3-0.The acid test will be the game against Barcelona scheduled for tomorrow.
Brave words from Ramos as they go into the game"We're going to the Camp Nou to win. We're capable of doing so, as has happened on other occasions. It's going to a great, hard-fought game,"
And as we wait for that to happen we can take a look at their goals from the game against the somewhat lacklustre Zenith St Petersburg team.

Scoring a wonderful goal through the goalie's legs and all - keeping the score against Aalborg at a respectable 2 goals each.Then he faces the prospect of being hauled over the coals by Uefa after the opposition complained against him for violent play.

They have been bowing a lot these days -not the kind of bow you do when you win but the other kind.

A post titled like that needs some menacing music to go with it to set the mood.A lethal strike from the deadly Drogba took Chelsea to the knockout phase of the CL.His goal was the decider in their 2-1 win over CFR Cluj.Terry says its not good enough.

The only consolation Inter Milan had after Werder Bremen beat them 2 -1

This bit of news must have slipped through the cracks in my ceaseless vigilance while I was occupied with weightier matters.Thierry Henry is back to his goal scoring ways - grabbing a complete hat-trick as Barcelona romped home to a 4-0 win over Valencia.Last saturday.
First

Second

Third

Steve Sidwell’s shock opener for Aston Villa came within the first 40 seconds of the game.

Everton came back through a Joleon Lescott equaliser.Ashely Young took Villa ahead again and the game went 127 seconds into the three minutes added time before Joleon Lescott, Everton’s outstanding defender, made the score two apiece.It looked like the points were going to be shared.Then Young came up with this twist in the tale....

This must go down as taking match fixing to absurd lengths. Emerson Acuna, of Atletico National in Columbia goes down in the area with no one near him.The ref gives a penalty.The X Files music on the video is very appropriate.Mulder and Scully need to move in and find out if there was some alien skullduggery going on.

"It's tough to be a God
Tread where mortals have not trod
Be deified when really you're a sham
Be an object of devotion
Be the subject of psalms
It's a rather touching notion
All those prayers and those salaams
And who am I to bridle if I'm forced to be an idol
If they say that I'm a God, that's what I am "
Lyrics from an Elton John song from the movie "The road to El Dorado" They kind of sum up the Maradona mania that has overtaken the City of Joy.
Kolkata has gone berserk.Thousands lined up to get a glimpse of the great man and spent a lot of time shouting "Diego" as hysterically as they could manage.
Maradona himself waved and smiled and graciously acknowledged the worship and the adulation. He visited the largest football stadium in the world and left the imprint of his left foot in a bit of plaster there.That was for posterity.A replica of the Taj Mahal was presented to him as also a portrait of revolutionary Che Guevara.A life-size wax statue made by Asansol artist Sushanta Roy was thrown in for good measure.More here...

Oh you can listen to the Maradona song too.

The goals of game ( 2 from Chelsea and 1from Bolton) here ..
Other action from the weekend.
Man U beating Sunderland 1 - 0 (Video) and Liverpool beating Blackburn 3 - 1 (Video)

Emmanuel Adebayor did the needful.Cesc Fabregas made it three wins in a row as captain.

This ref is even faster.Looks like some chap in the stands shot the first card out of his hand.He drew the second one in the blink of an eye and there was no escape for the bad guy.Wow...! The game however was between Nancy and CSKA Moscow so I'm not sure now if that counts as being in the west.

Blackburn are out of the Carling cup as Tevez played the game of his life.Poetry in motion.He scored 4 out of Man U's 5 goals. The other outcomes of the game are that Blackburn manager Paul Ince is on the brink and Fergie needs a rethink. That's more poetry for you now.

In a clear case of life imitating art or art imitating life Ronaldinho imitated his playstation lookalike or vice versa.Palermo goalkeeper Marco Amelia's outstanding role in their 3-1 win over AC Milan involved stopping a Ronaldinho penalty among other things.Amelia spoke about the save he made....
"It was like playing against Ronaldinho on the Playstation," he excitedly claimed, according to Channel4. "He did the exact same run-up, it was very strange." It however only worked once because he only managed to stop one of the two penalties that Ronaldinho took in the game.

A brutal reality check for Arsene Wenger's much-vaunted young stars.

Actually he makes a complete hash of it.He used both hands...!
He needs to look at old Maradona videos..!