12.29.08
What’s in a (near-)namesake?
Recently, Chippenham Town’s attacking midfielder David Pratt became the fastest senior league football player to get sent off – just three seconds after kick off. His team are playing in the 7th tier of England’s league system.
If not for the subtle difference, it probably would’ve been quite a concern to former England international David Platt, both players play in the same position. But hang on, he wouldn’t rest so easily if I tell him this: when both names are written in Japanese, they would be the same!
12.28.08
Marseille a turn for the worst
When you’re rushing at the ball, don’t do a Marseille turn. Instead do it when you have complete possession.
The sending-off of Benoit Assou-Ekotto against West Brom was just the consequence of that. The initial step of the turn, to shield the ball from your opponent, involves you turning your back on him, planting your foot in front of the ball to act as a pivot for your other foot to drag the ball away. But when done wrongly and the forward foot hits the other player, this initial move could be seen as a stomp on your opponent – which always results in a red card. What makes it even more hazardous is that you couldn’t see where the opponent is because you’re looking away from them. Other examples of this is Augustin Binya for Benfica versus Celtic’s Scott Brown, though there was a hint of pre-meditated assault at that time.
Congratulations to Clint “Deuce” Dempsey for scoring two goals against Chelsea. Last season he was adjudged to manhandle Michael Ballack in the box which resulted in a penalty and a 1-0 win for the Blues. Sweet revenge eh?
Liverpool’s big win against a disappointing Newcastle United looks to give them the right tonic for the belief that they can make it all the way. A 5-1 win without Torres and Keane is astounding. Well now I guess we won’t see them again for awhile.
12.19.08
CL draw a killer for English sides
The draw for the knockout stages of the Champions League wasn’t kind for any of the English teams – indeed, looking at the draw, there is a possibility that none of them will get through… and they didn’t even get Barca.
Conversely, there is a huge possibility that all four Spanish teams will advance – so now Platini and even Blatter could afford a huge smile on their faces. In a drastic turn of events, the monopoly of the most hated English clubs will be severely diminished – and replaced by, and arguably rightfully so, the country that is the current European champion.
You could be sure that next comes the damned comparison between the two leagues. England is probably where all the money is (or what’s left of it), but Spain has that more traditional qualities of team play, technique, and most importantly, home-grown players.
They will look to their own kind of sorts to overthrow the current holders. Jose Mourinho has a very good record against Sir Alex and United, and with Inter resurgent after an indifferent start, by February the two sides may even be in totally different situations in their domestic campaigns.
The Arsenal v Roma matchup invokes a superb hat-trick by Thierry Henry in the past, but the Gunners’ talisman has now long gone and living happily in Spain. Roma still keep theirs in Totti, and if their last season’s first knockout game’s form be replicated when they totally overpowered Real Madrid, Wenger’s European campaign may all be finished, as is their title run-in.
Of course, Spain’s “foreign-based” team is Liverpool, and have always sided the Reds on their European campaigns, but this time they will hope Rafa Benitez’s return to the Santiago Bernabeu will end in failure. Juande Ramos would have recharged and reinforced his Madrid side by February, while the ongoing ramblings on and off the pitch (and now, on the bench) will hinder Liverpool. This will hold true especially if they are still leading the Premier League by then. The fans will urge Benitez to focus more on the championship run-in than Europe, he will begin to get more stubborn instead of giving what they want (look at how he handles the Robbie Keane saga) and screw everything up in the end.
The only draw easy on the eye at hindsight is Chelsea v Juventus, but Chelsea’s European away form is now as good as their home form in the league. If Juve can hold the Blues at the Bridge, they’re good as gone. Ranieri will finally get his revenge on the club that discarded him against the fans’ wishes.
Now, along with Barca, Bayern looks to be cutting their odds to win the Champions League. Bayern is a side to be watched closely in the latter stages, I feel. And not the English sides, because I don’t think any of them will be in the running after this round is over.
12.18.08
Give the WCC a bit more respect
It’s only lucky that there is an outlet in Paul Scholes for Man United to say what they think about traveling halfway around the world for a club tournament. Scholesy has always been a very frank player and never stirs up any controversy with what he says. Thus it’s no surprise – nor there is backlash, you see, that’s the wonderful thing – that he calls this tournament worthless.
From next year, the WCC will be held closer to Europe i.e. in the UAE, a change in sponsor from Toyota may also be imminent. But save FIFA’s experimental Club World Cup in Brazil a few years ago, Japan has always been the arena to stage the showdown for the world’s greatest club. It is a chance for a team to play a competitive match against another team coming from the other end of the world, to get some good prize money and claim the auspicious title of the best club in the world.
So what’s there not to be happy about? Save the players’ jet lag, but jet lag rarely troubles normal people that much, and they all are fit athletes in the middle of their season. They’re also not the only ones having to sit on a plane for hours. If you say this cup is worthless, I’ll say the League Cup is worthless and should change to a Club Under-23 Cup.
Just like Miss Universe having to go to photoshoots all around the world after winning it, the European Champions must also bear the responsibility of being that. United may play half-heartedly or complain all they want but honestly, that wouldn’t be the stuff of Champions, so I’m sure they won’t take it too far.
And take it all the way to the end.
12.14.08
A Decrease in Expectations
Well what do we know, it happened again. The top four drew all their games. But unfortunately, unlike what had transpired last time around, West Brom looks to be this season’s whipping boys. Having no striker of Premier League class, they are struggling to find the back of the net, Mowbray doesn’t have time to pick another striker out of the Championship. It would be interesting how he would wheel and deal come next month.
See, if you are in the mire of relegation, January is an important period. This is the time when you need to convince a good foreign player to sign for you on-loan. Managers like Harry Redknapp and Sam Allardyce are the masters of this. And who can forget how Dugarry single-handedly kept Birmingham up in 2003, only signing for them in the winter.
Mid-table still a lively affair though, a side like Sunderland who look to be doomed suddenly gets a win and shoots up the table. This will spell doom for Paul Ince – Blackburn’s next win will be without him in the manager’s seat. And that, I must say, will come very soon.
12.09.08
One-Trica Pony
Sometimes, there’s one player in the starting eleven who lets his team down. Those who switch off at the last minute, those who get red-carded early in the game, those who miss glorious or golden chances, those who missed a crucial penalty, those who played a suicide pass, etc. Such cruelty there is for these cases that most often, the rest of the 10 players don’t deserve to be in the losing side – they may even be playing better than the opponents in that game.
The tragedy that is Malaysian football has again happened in the Suzuki Cup when the keeper Hilmi let in a stray long ball over his head in stoppage time for Vietnam to win. Obviously the Malaysian media that is comparable to the English in terms of its venom has rained the curses down heavy on him – I don’t think he’ll ever recover from this.
But Hilmi would be a decent man if he raises his hand up and admit his guilt – but I don’t expect the same from Eugen Trica, the man who single-handedly foiled CFR Cluj’s Champions League campaign.
When I first started watching Cluj, I noticed amongst other players, the Number 10 of the team, the playmaker Trica. But then I asked myself, why hasn’t he featured regularly for the Romanian national side? Is he not as good as the likes of Dica or Nicolita?
In truth he does have the eye for a pass and the skill to go past players. But his downfall is his temperamental edge and showboatness. Having been booked in the Bordeaux game he attempted an audacious dive inside the box which granted him a second yellow – he applauded the referee and shook his hand after getting his marching orders. That was to me inversely a sign of disrespect to the referee and more importantly to his teammates who had to play the next 50 minutes one man down – and lost.
Having wasted a glorious opportunity to get points against the weakest of the other three sides in their group, they find themselves needing a win at Stamford Bridge, which until recently is an impossible task. They nearly got it, if not for Trica.
Having been hit in the head by Ballack’s knee, he took offense of what honestly looked like an accident and lunged at the Chelsea midfielder, getting a booking and most importantly the free-kick that led to the first Chelsea goal. All of Cluj’s hard work in the 40 minutes before, which had kept the Bridge quiet, all gone unrewarded – the likes of Pereira, Dubarbier, Kone and Culio were keeping good possession while Muresan and the rest were winning 50-50s. Trica still had the mouth to remonstrate to an uninterested Ballack at half-time.
Cluj deservedly went level after the break, Trica was not involved in the move. But they were already losing their legs by the third quarter of the game, and facing a new powerful threat in Drogba, look to be doomed. And surely enough, Trica’s last contribution – or severe lack of it – was to lose the ball while attempting a fancy flick to return the ball to Alcantara who was out of position, which made the gap for Drogba to poke in the winner.
It’s just not fair to the rest of the team when one player spoils the party. If it comes from a human error like Malaysia’s goalkeeper, there is less brutality because as humans, we all make mistakes. But if it comes from selfishness and stupidity, I just can’t condone it. I hope Cluj gets back to the Champions League soon. But I just have the feeling they won’t make it again while Trica’s still playing for them.
