Two goals by Juan Albin early in each half set Getafe on the road to a 3-1 win over Real Madrid on Saturday. Saviola pulled a goal back but with less than ten minutes to go Albin selfishly set up Uche for a clincher. All three goals were products of a swift counter attack that Real could not cope with.
Wigan’s 2-1 win over West Brom took their unbeaten run to five games. However, Wigan had goalkeeper Chris Kirkland to thank for the win. Kirkland pulled off some stunning saves that held Wigan in the game and allowed an acrobatic effort from Henri Camara and a powerful header from Emerson Boyce to grab three valuable points.
Two consecutive had pulled Reggina off the bottom spot in Serie A but their streak ground to a halt when they met a ruthless Juventus side on Saturday evening. Alessandro Del Piero was again the ringmaster setting up the opening goal with a cute back heel and scoring the fourth and last goal from the penalty spot. The spot kick was Del Piero’s 250th goal for Juventus.
The Manchester derby was decided by a goal from Wayne Rooney. The open goal effort from only a couple of yards out was his 100th in club football but his contribution was far from limited to that one moment. With United down to ten men after Ronaldo was sent off Rooney seemed to be every place. Back defending one moment, driving United the next and supporting Berbatov and Giggs when United reached City’s half of the field.
For the second time this season Hearts missed their payroll but they still managed to beat Rangers and extended their winning run to five matches.
Palermo have struggled to put together a convincing performance over the last few weeks with only one win in seven matches – up until Sunday that is. Amelia saved a penalty kick in the first half and Palermo scored three second half goals to beat Milan 3-1.
Hoffenheim striker Vedad Ibisevic just can’t stop scoring goals. He added two more goals against Armenia Bielefeld on Saturday in a 3-0 win to bring his count to 17 goals in 15 games. Last season’s top Bundesliga marksman was Luca Toni who scored 23 times. The two might get a chance to discuss the art of scoring next weekend when leaders Hoffenheim face Bayern Munich in a top of the table clash. Best forgotten…..
It would have been difficult for Sunderland to turn in a more dire performance than last Sunday’s effort against West Ham. But they managed to look even worse in going down 4-1 at home to Bolton. The fact that they are two points better off than last season at this stage is mitigated by a league position that is 18th rather than 14th.
The Sevilla defence entered the game against Barcelona with the best record in Liga. It was difficult to square that with their performance on Saturday. Admittedly the first goal from Samuel Eto’o came off a bad break of the ball but even then the central defenders were slow to react as the Cameroon international latched on to the loose ball.
Goals two and three from Lionel Messi were as basic as they come. Defence pushing up and sitting square; simple through ball; forward that has the pace of a frisky whippet outruns the defence to score.
Stat facts…..
The Aston Villa – Fulham game marked a new mark for consecutive appearances by a player in the Premiership. Brad Friedel made it 167 and overtook fellow goalkeeper David James.
After a scoreless draw Fulham are still without a league win at Villa Park in three and a half decades. But on the bright side Fulham’s improved defensive record is something that has gone largely unnoticed this season.
The Cottagers have only conceded 11 goals – the fourth best in the Premiership. It has, however, come at a cost – only West Brom have scored less goals this season and their 14 matches have only produced a total of 23 goals (12 for, 11 against).
Middlesbrough and Newcastle have chalked up a number of draws over the last few seasons when they have clashed. But Saturday’s scoreless draw was the first in 34 years and in 24 matches between the two sides on Teesside.
Four games into his job as Bologna Coach Sinisa Mihajlovic has still to taste victory…..or defeat. A draw away to Genoa was the fourth consecutive 1-1 result. The draw ended Genoa’s 100% home record.
With Sunday’s loss at Portsmouth Blackburn have now gone nine games without a win – the longest run by any side in the Premiership so far this season
Gareth Bale came on as a substitute for Spurs against Everton and again failed to finish on the winning side in a premiership game. Sunday’s loss to Everton makes it 18 games and counting for the Welshman.
“CBC's telecast of the MLS Cup on Sunday, New York Red Bulls-Columbus Crew, drew 65,000 viewers.” – Reported by William Houston in his Tuesday Globe and mail column. CBC is the national public broadcaster in Canada.
Matthew Upson is following a very unusual injury prevention regime.
Coming up this week…..
The Carling Cup quarter-final -Stoke City v Derby County, Manchester United v Blackburn Rovers, Burnley v Arsenal, Watford v Tottenham Hotspur.
The UEFA Cup including - Manchester City v PSG, Sevilla v Partizan Belgrade, Standard Liege v Sampdoria, Udinese v Dinamo Zagreb, Aston Villa v MSK Zilina, Heerenveen v Braga (for Carlos) and Wolfsburg v Portsmouth.
Roy Collins compares the arrival of David Beckham to that of Wayne Gretzky’s move to the Los Angeles Kings in the late eighties. Given the NHL’s almost joke-like status in the US it is not something that MLS should try hard to emulate.
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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