After saying on the Friday show that I thought it inconceivable that Manchester United could lose to City in the Manchester derby the inconceivable happened. I feel obliged to impose a one show suspension on myself and so I will not be appearing on the FSR on Monday night. Well actually the truth is that I have long standing commitment on Monday night.
At least my second prediction of a certain Liverpool and Chelsea draw came true. But even then the Chelsea penalty award was as soft as I have seen for a longtime. But a soft penalty was enough to satisfy Jose Mourinho who also wants to invent new rules. His comment about no advantage rule in the penalty area (not that it was applicable in this case anyway) is not only wrong but will last until a referee opts not to play advantage after a foul in the penalty area and calls back a Chelsea goal!!
I noticed that there were a few questions that got posted late or cropped up in the comments section. If you would like them answered please repost and I will get to them this week. finally a Serie A preview will be up this week and I'l throw up a predicted La Liga finish later this week.
And to some articles.
Paul Wilson on the problem’s caused by having the most popular league in the world and trying to field a successful national side.
Gabriele Marcotti on Mourinho vs. Benitez. Needless to say the relationship will not have improved after Sunday's game.
A piece of Arsenal history. Whe I read the headline I thought it was a piece on Alex James as his first senior club was Raith Rovers. But this is someone that predates James and there is a Canadian connection.
Simon Kuper’s article starts with the following – “A friend of mine once tried to do business with a revered institution of English football. "I can do business with stupid people," he said afterwards, "and I can do business with crooks. But I can't do business with stupid people who think they are crooks."”
Although Styles penalty call was one of the all time worst, with Malouda jumping to let the ball run to an unmarked Drogba and no Chelsea player appealing, before the Scousers get in too much of a twist about it being unfair, consider this....
Just one week ago Gerrard scored after a complete non-free kick was given to them. Last year, Gerrard was given a penalty when he jumped to avoid being tackled and there was zero contact. At least Malouda wasn't trying to cheat. Score 2-1 to Liverpool.
Speaking of penalties: Belamy running into the Birminham keeper Colin Doyle on Saturday so he could be tripped up was another marginal one that could have caused a Hunt style injury, but gave West Ham 3 points. Doyle should never have gotten himself into that position, though.
2nd worst I've ever seen... Worst still, and probably will belongs to Markus Merk in the World Cup last summer... When he gave Ghana that pk against the US...
Although I don't know what team JM is watching when he said that... He doesn't have rough players, and bad tacklers... But yet he does have Michael Essien...
As far as McClaren goes, I thought he was a bad pick from the start. And then his whole idea on setting his team up to play a certain style, instead of picking the style that best fits the best players he has... Just plain dumb. Oh well, he'll be gone the moment England don't qualify for Euro '08...
Well, I'm quite happy you were a bit off about the City vs United game. I stuck with Kasper in my Yahoo Fantasy team, and it very luckily paid off. City didn't deserve the win, but for parity's sake I'm happy that it happened.
This reiterates the fact that Man U need Ronaldo, and lack creativity without him. I'm glad to see to that Heargraves had a good game as I'm a big fan, even though I'm a Frenchy Gunners Fanatic.
By the way, Schmeichel Jr. will let a couple slip through next week, while Fabiansky will keep a clean sheet. :)
Interesting article on goalkeepers. The same issue could be said about goalies in ice hockey. People around the NHL discuss decreasing the dominance of the goalie, people think that the game needs more scoring. I take a different view that the game just needs more scoring chances. 1-0 or 5-4, either game can be exciting.
In hockey, they discuss enlarging the net or decreasing the size of the goalie equipment, or further restrict how the goalie can play the puck. The mentioned article seems to focus on the same type of "solutions". I think it misses the point. The fact is that the new athletes have outgrown these games. Everyone is too fast and too big. If you increase the size of the goals, you'll just end up with more defenders between the ball and the goal. I haven't given soccer too much thought, but my instinct tells me that the way forward in both sports is to decrease the number of players on the field. Today's 10 men are certainly equivalent to 11 from 30 years ago, no? Same in hockey imo. I guess the natural instinct is to keep the game the same, but given the advances made in athletes and their training, there is no doubt in my mind that it is the players that need to change in order to return these sports to their original intention. Unless both sides completely give up the concept of offence, by removing a player you are bound to open up the game to more attacks. I'm not actually convinced that soccer needs to be changed; in fact, I had never considered it until reading the article. These comments are just a reaction to the mentioned article.
I will start by apologizing for the length of this post and for it’s very existence if the Paul Gardner article was a joke, which it has to be, right????
This article and the arguments used in it are, lacking a more appropriate phrase, complete ####. (Bollocks - translated for Bobby)
Gardner starts by noting that at one time there were no goalkeepers, as if this was how the sport was meant to be played and some wrongheaded fun-hater added them in a fit of stupidity. This was the 1870's!!!!! At that time, I think defenders could still wield sheleighlies in parts of Ireland, the English broke for tea whenever someone lost a tooth or an eye, and some on the losing side in Scottish matches weren’t allowed to “use” the sheep for a week after the game. Just kidding Bobby - but my point is that the game was hardly fully formed, but for ‘keepers, at the time.
As to goalkeepers being the “anti-soccer” this smacks of disdain due to ignorance. I know that Gardner hails from England but this sentiment sounds like the same idiotic stance American soccer fans have to endure from our less enlightened countrymen about the beautiful game: “Soccer is boring because there isn’t more scoring.” I can’t watch baseball because I’ve never played it and therefor don’t understand the subtleties of the game. This doesn’t mean baseball is boring: it just means it’s boring to me. I realize that non soccer fans don’t see the beauty in a well timed tackle or lane change at pace. Goalkeeping has it’s own intricate subtleties and I always assumed that field players and fans understood and enjoyed the difficulty in the stop and start of well countered one on one, the proper positioning needed to prepare for the unexpected at all times or at the very least, the acrobatic, almost impossible dive that prevents a sure goal. (For examples go to Youtube - Peter Schmeichel is my favorite - although I wish he had a daughter this week). Am I wrong about that mutual appreciation?
Gardner then moans on, like an old crone who misses black and white television, about a) long kicks, b)the coddling of keepers, c)rule breaking in the form of PK movement and d) keepers shouting at field players.
In response:
a) Long kicks are the least of the time wasting shenanigans that can be seen in your typical game.
b) Talk to Cech about coddling. (Or my Orthopedist for that mater)
c) Isn’t enforcing the rules the refs job? Should we get rid of defenders because they pull shirts?
d) No doubt, there is some grandstanding but directing your defense from the best position on the field is an art and skill that requires volume and urgency to get your voice heard above the din. (The din I refer to is both from the crowd and the background noise caused by cranial thickness relative to open space within some defenders heads - much like a seashell).
cont...
Last edited by ulsterson on August 20th at 12:52 AM.
Finally, he uses pseudo-science to press his point home. His contention that the "rise of the goalkeeper" is responsible for lower scoring averages, while using statistics, is completely and utterly baseless. What exactly happened between '58 and '62 that inspired Gardner to divide his samples into blocks of six? Does he just like that number? He also fails to take into account or even mention the many other changes (more defensive formations, defensive skill level and more defined positions throughout to name a few) that may have also led to a reduction in goals.
At the end of the day, this goes back to the question of does the number goals measure the quality o####ame? I think most educated fans would agree that the beauty of this game is not, and regardless of what Mr. Gardner says, never has been located on the score board. It is in the play on the field which includes a great tackle, a well timed run, a weighted pass, and an impossible save, as much as a great goal. Goalkeepers are part of that beauty and Paul Gardner’s comments are so asinine and kooky, that it makes me wonder..... what position did he play? He’s either dumb as some of those seashells I mentioned or crazy as a.......
Paul are you a member of the Tribe!?!?!?
Last edited by ulsterson on August 20th at 12:26 AM.
Although I usually don’t like to offer an unsolicited critique of the nightly Report, I do have a couple of comments after watching last night’s edition.
Carlos made a great point that it’s a shame to see a player score on an easy tap-in and then go on an elaborate, one-man-show celebration without so much as acknowledging his team-mate who just made a 50 yard run dribbling past 5 players before laying off a perfect pass.
If the hosts are going to mock Lehmann the entire show for his gaffe, then they can’t neglect to point out Freidel’s equally bad mistake. I understand going easy on the yanks in the EPL, but this time it was a bit too obvious.
why doesn't the MLS and media actually show a little love for blanco. he scored a wonder strike saturday and if you were watching the game he made salt lake seem pro fire. i'm not saying he is as big as beckham, but he is a favorite with the latin community which seems as beckham is not. so why not show him a little bit of credit for giving new life to the fire.
I'm not going to get dragged into a "diving" debate again, but Gerrard WAS fouled last week and Malouda ran into Finnan to avoid him getting to the ball. The penalty was unforgivable, even Styles has said so at this point. However, I'm not going to beat a dead ref who'd be better left doing League 2 games (that penalty wasn't the only bad piece of reffing from Styles yesterday).
That said, there were many positives from yesterday's game, not least of which was Liverpool completely outclassing Chelsea. All the big 4 have now dropped points, and it could be worse as Man U have now dropped 7 points.
Do you think Arsenal need to bring in a keeper before the window closes? If so, that you know of aside from Amelia are there any keepers that would be worth making a move for? How do you rate Arsenal's current keepers (Jens, Almunia and Fabianski)?
I guess the questions also brings up the German national team... Would you agree with me that they should hand over the gloves to Hildebrand?
Verbal-Thats exactly how I feel. No point getting into this debate again about diving and the foul against Gerrard last week(apparently molesting is ok?).
Although Chelsea did dominate possession at certain times they really didn't threaten and Liverpool looked the much better team. Torres goal was pure class, by the way. Never would have gotten a finish, or a run, like that last season. Already we see what he brings to the mighty Reds.
If Alves doesn't sign for Chelsea, the League is coming home...
Hi Bobby
I watched the Liverpool - Chelsea game and the penalty given to Chelsea was in my opinion correct as Malouda had already passed the ball through to Drogba and was running on for a pass back from Drogba Finnan took him out if Malouda hadn't fell as he did Finnan could have broken his legs. So Finnan was guilty of deliberately taking a player out of the play. He din't play the ball. His expression was one of taking out the player at all cost and he payed dearly for that action.
Harry May - Vancouver
Keep up the work even you can be excused for picking Man U to win
are you kidding me?!?! Even the ref has said that it should never have been a penalty!!! And he has been removed from officiating next week as punishment for his poor decision. Also, he is expected to personally call Benitez and apologize. Two players collided in the box and Malouda had as much to do with that as Finnan. I have no idea which game you're watching because even Chelsea supporters are saying the same thing!
RINGO, the season is too long to complain too much about one decision in the second game. Plus, if any fans should be aggrieved it should be Fulham fans. Not giving that goal cost them a point they may very well need for survival.
McClaren is not a good manager. He might be one hell of an assistant. But what exactly has he done as a manager?
Finally an argument with at least small merit concerning England's performance, lack of training time together. England pundits will climb trees and swim rivers to find arguments as to why England aren't the best in the world. Instead of admitting they don't have the best players.
One thing to remember it's not Sven's fault England are scared of penalties. What would the opinion of Sven be if they had made 2 consecutive semi-finals?
It is early, no one expects to win at Anfield anyway. A draw however unfair, gives Chelsea the edge over Liverpool. Torres dissappeared after 25 minutes.
naniamo if that was a penalty then surely football is coming to an end.
I thought Liverpool where the better team also but thats how it's suppose to be when you are at home. Liverpool do look good though. And Torres is proving to be better than I thought he would be I still don't think he'll get over 15 goals.
Good points Mas...Does England really train less than other nations? Plus, given the relative depth of world football, there will be closer games, thus, you HAVE to be good at penalties.
I said Allardyce should be appointed manager and it looks like I'm getting proved right about his merits. Newcastle's defense isn't an absolute disgrace anymore (that didn't take long) and Bolton are getting out-Boltoned and have had a horrible start.
Atleti,
By "unfair USA's economic practices" you must mean the inherent local,federal government corruption rampant in South America or all the military coup's by South American nationalists. Don't lay at the feet of the US what Spain could never figure out. Any country Spain colonized has been a failure. Try reading some Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Juan Rulfo. Or maybe studying Simon Bolivar and why he gave up hope for a better/ Greater South America. I could go on but lets stick to football/futbol/soccer. When Maradona speaks about soccer I will listen but all other comments I put in the same file as the Lindsay Lohan/Paris Hilton articles.
Last edited by neophyte on August 20th at 9:00 AM.
Bobby-any teams that look to dip into the transfer market that thought they were done? (man Utd for a striker/LB, Arsenal for a keeper, Bolton for a manager?)
If city was a "really need to win" game, Tottenham becomes a MUST win. But not as dire as last year. I sense with the big 4 beating on each other and an improvement in quality of the top 10 overall we will see a champion in the low 80's rather than 90's. There is still hope United aren't cooked yet(emphasis on 'hope').
I disagree that United lacked creativity. They created chances, but failed to finish. Nani was played on by nice interplay between Scholes and Tevez-missed, Evra free on a beautiful pass by nani, tevez through the middle stopped only by the speed of Richards (who did it again in the second half) all before the City goal at 30 min. There weren't any pitch-long running rampages-but United had all the possesion so there were not counters. Basically united are asking a 20 yo with no EPL experience and another player who just arrived 5 days prior after a nasty protracted transfer dispute to replace the top one or 2 players in the world and a top 5 striker. Oh and we absolutely MUST win. A tall order. They played tight and missed chances, but they created 5-6 quality chances that either were well defended (richards twice) or flat muffed (tevez twice, nani once, vidic bar)
ummufan-I agree that United haven't been lacking creativity at all this season. They have been lacking finishing. As for Ronaldo being one of the top two players in the world...He's not even the best on his team. Don't kid yourself after one terrific year.
Spain couldn't figure out how to maintain an Empire while giving the appearance of equality. The USA have maintained the Empire but the appearance of equality is beginning to evaporate.
What would happen to our economy if we had to pay fair market prices for all natural resources that we get from South America from aluminum to Zinc?
It is no wonder we back military dictatorships and try to destabilize true democracies and socialist reforms.
Question: if leftist leaning governments are fairly elected are they Democracies?
Important books on this subject:
1- "Open Veins of Latin AMerica" Eduardo Galleano
2- "Confessions of an Economic Hitman"- John Perkins
My final comment on this b/c people are rarely capable of analyzing these issues w/o emotion and prejudice. Nor is this the forum for it.
Atleti (and others):
We all love ya, but you should probably exercise caution with such a broad sociopolitical statement, even though I'm sure a lot of people (especially college students in NYC) probably agree with you. Sounds like neo isn't as new to politics as he is to football.
We let some national team/league arguments on this blog spill over into social and political bashing in the past, and it wasn't very pleasant.
Just my personal opinion, but I'd hate to see Bobby have to issue reprimands again.
Last edited by Venti_vidi_vici on August 20th at 9:37 AM.
LACF-I just thought, since you seem to be suffering some selective memory loss, that I'd remind you of a certain handball between Liverpool and Chelsea on a New Year's day league game that was never called.
Or how about that horrible dive from a certain player that is bound for Real Madrid that got Pepe sent off?
Come on now, we can both come up with past transgressions that would be equal to each other that were bad calls but to try to use them to justify yesterdays horrendous decision is absurd.
Rob Styles got disciplined, admitted he was in the wrong and apologized for the incident. I think that speaks louder than anything that any Liverpool supporter can say.
I am quite chuffed that my City upended United this weekend. I didn't pick it either, so don't feel bad.
I'm not sure what to think of City's new owner, though ... I'm surprised Glazer got the poor reception he got and this guy couldn't have been more welcome (perhaps because City actually needed money for the transfer market? -- though, I thought City had money anyway, aren't they in the top 20 richest clubs?).
United really are struggling out of the gate this year, though, like Liverpool last year. I'm hoping we see more than two teams challenge the big four this year. Am additionally glad to see Newcastle playing well and happy to see Sunderland made it to the Prem this season.
LGB: Selective memory loss is an essential ingredient for being a fan, especially when it's 18 years since LFC won the leaugue or in my case 50 years between. I thought Sunday's game was disappointing on a number of counts. I didn't understand the line up that Chelsea put out and the tactics they employed. Liverpool are obviously a work in progress. It was a shame because it could have been a good game if it had been played later in the season.
I don't like cheating whoever's doing it .... it just makes the game pointless.
VVV et al.,
I will hence forth abstain from any indepth political discussions out of respect for the other bloggers. I am terribly sorry for letting that blanket statement get under my skin..it won't happen again.
I was in a particularly bad mood due to United losing and Real Salt Lake getting smoked by the Fire. If you haven't seen Blanco's goal you should check it out.
As far as VVV's comment, I was simply answering a fellow blogger's question.
I take offence to that jab ('especially college students in NYC'), too, considering I'm the most neutral person in the Fox blogosphere. Hell, I delete comments so as to NOT offend anyone.
Footie-related: Rafael van der Vaart is desperate for a move to Valencia. Valencia missed out on signing Sneijder, another Dutchman who wanted to play for them, let's see if they can clinch a move for van der Vaart instead.
Well, after one year we found our soft spot. Everybody is entitled to have their own opinion and express it too. If you all read Atleti's answer to the question without judgement, you would read that she is talking in generals. It is no secret that most of the world's population views USA's economic practices as unfair. In all fairness to them, we can do a lot more but don't because the lack of corporate/economic insentive. But I will not preach my opinion here.
Atleti:
It wasn't intended as a jab, even though I concede it kinda reads like it. I apologize, I could've ommitted the side note.
Last summer, some of the discussions on this blog regarding the scandal in Italy and the World Cup, unfortunately escalated to uninformed criticism of entire populations, personal attacks and insults.
You are always very fair and neutral, and I was therefore very surprised to read your post from early this morning. Maybe it’s how you worded your response, but I didn’t like it at all (and I’m not even American).
Atleti-
I thought your comment re: Maradona was spot on. Ostensibly you answered a posters's question.
I thought VVV's response was a bit condescending but that's typical of him. He normally reserves such judgement for anyone that has the audacity to challenge his opinion of Italian football.
Opinions are like our backsides we all have one.
VVV, I'm confused. Nowhere in her response did she claim her own opinion. She answered why Maradona, a South American, may have some negative comments toward the US. I'm not offended. Only the most ethnocentric American (the kind that used phrases like Freedom Fries and Liberty Dressing) would be of the opinion that American policies are infallable. Like gongatore and others have said, to each their own...now back to a topic we all can enjoy, Man U's horrible start.
I saw the reply of the Liverpool Chelsea game.but before i saw it my friend only told me there was a penalty and see if you can call it before Styles does. When i saw Malouda jumbing into Finnan and heard the Styles blow i honestly thought it was a free kick to Liverpool. That must of been the worst call in sports history, if Liverpool lose the tittle by 2 pionts it will be on Styles.
Now we shall see what magic Wenger can produce regarding the glaringly obvious shortcomngs at CB, even if Senderos plays adequately as he did after Gallas went off, what happens if either he or Kolo go down, or more likely Senderos gets red carded.
I saw 2 somethings in the Chelsea Liverpool game that made my believe in Liverpool will win the tittle this yr even stronger. Mourinho respecting Liverpool attact so much that he went into a deffencive shell when i thought Chelsea could off and would off gone for the winner in the past. Also Bernitez finally have enough confidence in his attack to go for the winner by bring on Couch and Babel.
OK, I had to chime in on the South American political vs USA political debate. All I will say is we as a country don't really give alot of south american countries a chance. A good book to read on it is "Confessions of an Economic Hitman." Highly entertaining, and highly educational in my own opinion. . .
moving on how about that soccer game last weekend
;-)
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
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