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.
11.30.08
Play to the whistle… the right whistle that is
Ronaldo’s sending off was silly, yes, but you need to notice the earlier booking Ireland got was because he played a forward pass after the whistle had blown, so Ronaldo didn’t want to do that and get a yellow card for the same offense, or so he thought. In the past he had got sent off for a second yellow by chipping the ball in the net after he was caught offside, he argued he wanted to give the ball back to the keeper who was on the line. The red card was rescinded but not the yellow because you can’t rescind yellow cards in the Premiership (unlike La Liga).
Whistles from the crowd has always been a problem. That’s why the football referee’s whistle is quite distinct – but you can still eventually find one and bring it to a stadium to put off the opposing team. I actually thought the whistles just a few days ago at Villarreal was excessive, but that time Ronaldo and the rest knew how to distinguish them from the referee’s.
That said it’s still three points, an away derby win, a clean sheet, a good kicking to the City slickers’ backsides for not scoring against 10 men. My mom actually mocked Joe Hart calling him an idiot some 30 times for coming up for the stoppage-time corner, ignoring the fact that it’s United’s very own Schmeichel senior who frequented it… ah mom I still love you for supporting the greatest team in the world (and actually watching footie unlike many moms or even women for that matter).
11.27.08
Squad numbers game
By bringing on Number 80 Jonathan Obika against NEC Nijmegen in the UEFA Cup, Tottenham have broken the record for fielding the player with the highest squad number for an English team in all competitions. The previous one was a Brazilian youth player for Arsenal, Juan, wearing number 57 for a League Cup game. Special mention must go for Ade Akinbiyi who holds the record for league competition, wearing 55 at Palace.
I love squad numbers and especially high ones, I’ve always wanted to write an article about squad numbering. We all know that leagues like Serie A and the Turkish league are very lax with numbering, but did you know that the strictest football association in Europe with this is the LPF of La Liga? The numbers 1 to 23 are mandatory numbers. Sevilla couldn’t retire the number 16 worn by Antonio Puerta because of this.
The English and Scottish FA is in the middle of the strictness policy – while it is not discouraged that players have high squad numbers, nobody could take any high number as he likes. Thus, one way of overcoming this is to give squad numbers to all your youth players, filling up the space so that the first-team player gets his preferred number. This is why Celtic have some players on high numbers – until this season, McManus wore my favourite 44, while McGeady, O’Dea, Cuthbert, Caddis etc. still keep their numbers given to them while they were still in the Celtic youth team.
The same principle is happening at Spurs now, that’s why Obika has number 80. Before I proceed, I was in the hopes that those players who were ousted from the team in Ramos’ reign would return, now that they are given squad numbers by Redknapp, but since Ramos didn’t name them in the A list for European competition, they wouldn’t be eligible. So Redknapp has to rely on the B list, and to Ramos’ credit he lists practically the whole youth setup in it. And for them to be in that list you need to give them squad numbers…
Juande Ramos, I salute you – even if you’ve already left and before that you brushed away players I rated, you’ve shown the way for other Premier League sides how to give their players the chance to own high numbers.
Win Pipped away from Fratton Park
Pompey were 2-0 up 6 minutes before time, how unlucky for them to lose their lead – but class is class, undoubtedly Milan, who were real favourites to leave Fratton Park with all three points and especially with the team on the pitch, got just one point only through this merit alone.
While Johnson provided the assist with both goals the most outstanding player in that game for me was Nadir Belhadj. I can’t believe Lyon let him go. It was nice for Tony Adams to field a 4-4-2, so easy for other managers to employ a cautious 4-5-1 against such opposition even at home.
I just felt Milan didn’t show up for 80 minutes. Inzaghi hit the woodwork three times, yes, but no one in that team took ahold of that ball, before Ronaldinho entered the fray, and scored a free-kick taken quickly but legally just like the one involving Barcelona’s Alves against Sporting. After that you can see some of the players getting nervous, but Milan needed to do their part, and cometh the hour, cometh the legend.
It would feel like a victory – an Italian job for Crest’s favourite Rossoneri. Pompey is close to my heart too, so it’s all a bitter taste, it was just so close.
11.26.08
Wayne’s changing world
I must admit, I feel ashamed of Rooney’s antics in the match against Villarreal. It looked like he took some of the more unsavoury skills from Ronaldo’s massive repertoire this time. And this happens when I thought his behaviour and conduct actually improved this season – and it is true that a married man needs to be a decent one.
Of course, this is more fodder for anti-United writers, in a game already billed as a rigged contest for the qualification to the next round of the Champions League. Sir Alex’s war with the media continues to rage.
The most disappointing thing with this is that English players have always been assumed as honest footballers. The culture of English football is very different, very sophisticated from other footballing cultures. Simulation has been condemned so fiercely by the English fans and media. I remember an incident between Shaun Wright-Phillips and former Newcastle defender Robbie Elliott, at a game near the end of the season where the latter was sent off with a second yellow after he was adjudged to trip the right-winger when in fact there was no contact. As he was soon out of contract, Elliott blamed Wright-Phillips for his exit, stating that the sending off reduced his chances of a new deal at his second Newcastle spell.
Honesty of the English players is probably why they’re never bought elsewhere. Jay Bothroyd, in his spell at Perugia, was lambasted for not falling down in the box so often. I can see why no Englishman has ever played in Seria A for the last 3-4 years… oh wait, one will play there next year!
There’s only one little defense for Rooney I can make of. It was a match in Europe, so when in Rome, do as Lazio and Roma players do!
