A lot of time you'll hear the phrase that something was so dull it puts you to sleep. Most of the time it's a figure of speech -- like, for instance -- who actually watches paint dry?
Saturday morning the second half of Arsenal's 1-0 loss to Fulham at Craven Cottage indeed put me into slumber land. One minute I'm stretched out on the couch and its around the 55th minute of Arsenal's hapless display. Next thing I know there's about 10 minutes to go.
Turns out I didn't miss much. I don't recall a time that I've seriously watched football/soccer where the old refrain of 'boring, boring Arsenal' applied. I thought it was a myth contrived by Nick Horby to make us Yanks feel sorry for him in 'Fever Pitch.' Saturday, Arsenal, the Arsenal Arsene Wenger has insisted doesn't need high-priced imported stars -- lighting bolt strike me down -- could have been an MLS team in disguise.
The point here isn't to bash Arsenal -- the Gunners started Emmanuel Eboue and Denilson in the center of the midfield for pete's sake.
Maybe the bigger picture is through all the hype and hoopla the Premier League generates across the globe, are the games themselves that good? Through the first two weekends of the season we've only seen a couple exciting things, Hull City beating Fulham and Stoke City with a riveting 3-2 triumph over Aston Villa -- and those only get consideration since they were the clubs first-ever wins in the Premiership. I suppose Steve Gerrard's 99th (actually 94th) minute winner for Liverpool vs. Middlesbrough gets the hair standing up on the back or your neck, but it's Gerrard so you expect it and even still it masks a pretty stinky overall performance at Anfield.
During Sunderland's 2-1 win over Tottenham I consistently found myself flipping over to GolTV to watch Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich play to a 1-1 draw. The German product was much more appealing to the eye, instead of the thoroughly non-descript play going on at White Hart Lane. The Bundesliga might not have the 'household' names but the players only know one way to play -- attack. The German crowds definitely put most Premier League equivalents to shame. (Plus I just love reading the word 'Jack Wolfskin' lining the field. Also, it was a chance to see 19-year-old 'American' Neven Subotić play for Dortmund. I hope Bob Bradley was playing attention, we got to get this guy a cap before he's recruited by Bosnia or Serbia. Nice player from defense getting forward.)
Of course I could be jumping to early conclusions about the Premier League -- again.
A lot of the teams in England are still trying to meld their new players into cohesive units. Still, the style of play seems so disjointed for the most part, which seems counter-intuitive since the Premier League is the richest in the world, buying the most players and such. I'm not asking for four or five goals a game, but simply something more than 90 minutes of guying trying to cross the ball. Could England's traditional huff-and-puff style destroying the individuality and skill of all the foreign imports?
Sunday I hoped things would be different when Chelsea played Wigan. Even though Chelsea are a loathsome bunch, at least they have the all-star, "FIFA" lineup that could produce more than two goals a game. Deco's top-drawer freekick -- aided by the hapless Matthew Poulitt in net -- got things off to a great start...until Wigan decided to pretty much outplay the Blues (in black) the final 90+ minutes, doing everything but find the goal.
Again it might be early to leap to this kind of statement, but when it's all said and done maybe we'll remember this 2008-09 Premier League season for its utter parity.
Think about it, the promoted teams have shown that they won't be 3-point ATMs like Derby County last season. Chelsea -- which hasn't lost in the league since December 2007 -- will certainly be tough to beat and should be a class ahead of everyone. If Ronaldo is healthy, Manchester United should too be among the elite. Naturally Liverpool has the talent to be in the title race, but their chronic schizophrenia between League and Europe might catch up with them. Arsenal? Only God and Wenger know where the Gunners are headed.
That leaves 16 other teams, which right now if you threw into a hat and pulled them out it would be quite difficult to separate on any given weekend. If Aston Villa -- a team many including myself tipped for the top four -- loses at Stoke and gives up three goals in the process, what does that say about the league as a whole? Even look at the three pointless teams -- Wigan, West Brom and Spurs -- they haven't exactly been blown away. (Ok, Spurs look dreadful.)
It's a small sample size, but after two weeks nine teams have won one game, lost one game. Only two teams -- Liverpool and Chelsea -- went 2-for-2. A sign of things to come? We'll see.
This isn't a huge revelation, since around the world most leagues are dominated by a handful of team each season, with the remaining teams filling out the numbers (think the Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, etc.). We'll get to test this theory when we see how England's mid-pack squads fare in the UEFA Cup. It's a shame these teams only ambition is to survive relegation rather than to aspire for greatest, but that's the flipside of financial annihilation.
Really what could develop is a 2007-08 NFL-type season. Chelsea has the potential to be the New England Patriots, right down to the level of hatred. (Tom Brady, Frank Lampard, eh?) Manchester United and Liverpool are the Colts and Chargers. That leaves everyone else scrapping along. The one difference is that without playoffs, there isn't a chance for a mid-tier team to rise like the New York Giants. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Time will tell.
Then again, maybe it was an off weekend in England, a blip out of 38. Perhaps it's too much to ask for thrilling highs and lows each weekend. These guys aren't robots, right? At least there weren't 45 commercials for the new episodes of 'CSI' and 'Cold Case', which is a win in my book.
** Stars -- Michael Owen came off the bench to score the winner for Newcastle vs. Bolton -- t-minus two days until he asks for another raise. ... Gerrard and Deco were already mentioned. ... In a losing effort John Carew displayed a nice set of skills, playing a role in both goals for Aston Villa. ... Mamady Sidibe scored a fluke winner for Stoke off a throw-in. (Probably the last we'll hear his name.) ... Breda Hangeland scored maybe the sloppiest goal in a while, basically just throwing his leg in front of a ball from the corner against Arsenal. ... Jamie Carragher leveled for Liverpool. How he got credit for the goal, beats me. Nice deflection. ... Elano with another trademark August tease, netting a brace in City's 3-0 win over West Ham.
** Duds -- The North London top-flight collective. Not much to say here that hasn't already been addressed. ... Dutch free-kick takers. I though Robin van Persie was brutal, hoofing at least three deadballs into the Fulham wall. Then Sunday, I saw Wigan's Daniel de Ridder. The one-time U-21 star took about half a dozen pathetic attempts from free kicks and corners. What in the world of Arie Haan is going on here?
** Goal of the week -- Tough call this week, between Deco's freekick, Ricardo Fuller's amazing first-touch flick for Stoke and finally Richard Garcia's looping header from an acute angle for Hull City. I'll side with Garcia since it chumptized Paul Robinson and he celebrated with a faux jumpshot.
** Save of the week -- Boro's Ross Turnbull with a full-extension denial of Gerrard off a freekick in the 91st minute looked to preserve a tie, until the King of the Scousers won it three minutes later.
** (Brock) Sampson alert -- Was it a coincidence that Middlesbrough's Egyptian striker Ahmed Mido scoring a cracking left-foot driller against Liverpool since he grew his long, flowing locks back? By the same token, any doubt Djibril Cisse's debut winner for Sunderland was aided by the bottle of peroxide? One more hair note, was Spurs' David Bentley wearing a wig Saturday?
** Twist and shout -- As negative as I was about the games this week, I could watch Tuncay's spinning dummy against Liverpool all day. It's a shame he shot it directly at Pepe Reina.
** Best showing by a teenager -- Could Daniel Sturridge's left foot blast for Manchester City be the start of something special? The samba inspired goal celebration, not so much.
** Burly shove of the week -- Somehow Petr Cech pushed over Emerson Boyce as Wigan was taking a corner kick and escaped a penalty.
** Reason No. 42,128 how England and the U.S. are different covering sports -- Sunday Manchester City captain Michah Richards was carted off the field on a gurney and with an oxygen mask. He was down for a couple minutes. I was prepping for my fantasy football draft and didn't see the incident. They never showed a replay during the lengthy break in the action. I rewound the DVR and it was a pretty innocuous looking head collision with Tal Ben Haim. Until the rewind I thought Richards might have been picked off by a sniper or something. If that was an NFL game, we'd have seen every angle of the injury until our stomachs were sick. (Amazingly, the ref added a full 10 minutes of extra time in the match with the score 3-0 no less.)
** Brah-som-est moment of the week -- John Terry's super-close hug on Petr Cech. Was that sort of PDA necessary after beating Wigan? (Apparently the Mourinho-instilled fraternal spirit has washed off from some of the old boys.)
** FSC paid advertisement of the week -- Oxygen in the can. The winded joggers. Low budget goodness. Yes, I have a case in transit as we speak.
** Question of the week -- What is the deal with day-glo yellow away kits. Didn't anybody learn from Chelsea last season? Everton and Stoke appear to be rocking the Ocean Pacific inspired kits this season away from home. Anyone for some hacky sack?
** Suggestions of the week -- I've kind of wanted to get a running name for the Monday wraps, what do you think of this one? Too Peter King-y? Do you need things I think I think? Let me know. Is spelling center in the English-y 'centre' manner too pretentious?
Let me know that and all my mistakes and overlooks.
Saturday morning the second half of Arsenal's 1-0 loss to Fulham at Craven Cottage indeed put me into slumber land. One minute I'm stretched out on the couch and its around the 55th minute of Arsenal's hapless display. Next thing I know there's about 10 minutes to go.
Turns out I didn't miss much. I don't recall a time that I've seriously watched football/soccer where the old refrain of 'boring, boring Arsenal' applied. I thought it was a myth contrived by Nick Horby to make us Yanks feel sorry for him in 'Fever Pitch.' Saturday, Arsenal, the Arsenal Arsene Wenger has insisted doesn't need high-priced imported stars -- lighting bolt strike me down -- could have been an MLS team in disguise.
The point here isn't to bash Arsenal -- the Gunners started Emmanuel Eboue and Denilson in the center of the midfield for pete's sake.
Maybe the bigger picture is through all the hype and hoopla the Premier League generates across the globe, are the games themselves that good? Through the first two weekends of the season we've only seen a couple exciting things, Hull City beating Fulham and Stoke City with a riveting 3-2 triumph over Aston Villa -- and those only get consideration since they were the clubs first-ever wins in the Premiership. I suppose Steve Gerrard's 99th (actually 94th) minute winner for Liverpool vs. Middlesbrough gets the hair standing up on the back or your neck, but it's Gerrard so you expect it and even still it masks a pretty stinky overall performance at Anfield.
During Sunderland's 2-1 win over Tottenham I consistently found myself flipping over to GolTV to watch Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich play to a 1-1 draw. The German product was much more appealing to the eye, instead of the thoroughly non-descript play going on at White Hart Lane. The Bundesliga might not have the 'household' names but the players only know one way to play -- attack. The German crowds definitely put most Premier League equivalents to shame. (Plus I just love reading the word 'Jack Wolfskin' lining the field. Also, it was a chance to see 19-year-old 'American' Neven Subotić play for Dortmund. I hope Bob Bradley was playing attention, we got to get this guy a cap before he's recruited by Bosnia or Serbia. Nice player from defense getting forward.)
Of course I could be jumping to early conclusions about the Premier League -- again.
A lot of the teams in England are still trying to meld their new players into cohesive units. Still, the style of play seems so disjointed for the most part, which seems counter-intuitive since the Premier League is the richest in the world, buying the most players and such. I'm not asking for four or five goals a game, but simply something more than 90 minutes of guying trying to cross the ball. Could England's traditional huff-and-puff style destroying the individuality and skill of all the foreign imports?
Sunday I hoped things would be different when Chelsea played Wigan. Even though Chelsea are a loathsome bunch, at least they have the all-star, "FIFA" lineup that could produce more than two goals a game. Deco's top-drawer freekick -- aided by the hapless Matthew Poulitt in net -- got things off to a great start...until Wigan decided to pretty much outplay the Blues (in black) the final 90+ minutes, doing everything but find the goal.
Again it might be early to leap to this kind of statement, but when it's all said and done maybe we'll remember this 2008-09 Premier League season for its utter parity.
Think about it, the promoted teams have shown that they won't be 3-point ATMs like Derby County last season. Chelsea -- which hasn't lost in the league since December 2007 -- will certainly be tough to beat and should be a class ahead of everyone. If Ronaldo is healthy, Manchester United should too be among the elite. Naturally Liverpool has the talent to be in the title race, but their chronic schizophrenia between League and Europe might catch up with them. Arsenal? Only God and Wenger know where the Gunners are headed.
That leaves 16 other teams, which right now if you threw into a hat and pulled them out it would be quite difficult to separate on any given weekend. If Aston Villa -- a team many including myself tipped for the top four -- loses at Stoke and gives up three goals in the process, what does that say about the league as a whole? Even look at the three pointless teams -- Wigan, West Brom and Spurs -- they haven't exactly been blown away. (Ok, Spurs look dreadful.)
It's a small sample size, but after two weeks nine teams have won one game, lost one game. Only two teams -- Liverpool and Chelsea -- went 2-for-2. A sign of things to come? We'll see.
This isn't a huge revelation, since around the world most leagues are dominated by a handful of team each season, with the remaining teams filling out the numbers (think the Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, etc.). We'll get to test this theory when we see how England's mid-pack squads fare in the UEFA Cup. It's a shame these teams only ambition is to survive relegation rather than to aspire for greatest, but that's the flipside of financial annihilation.
Really what could develop is a 2007-08 NFL-type season. Chelsea has the potential to be the New England Patriots, right down to the level of hatred. (Tom Brady, Frank Lampard, eh?) Manchester United and Liverpool are the Colts and Chargers. That leaves everyone else scrapping along. The one difference is that without playoffs, there isn't a chance for a mid-tier team to rise like the New York Giants. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Time will tell.
Then again, maybe it was an off weekend in England, a blip out of 38. Perhaps it's too much to ask for thrilling highs and lows each weekend. These guys aren't robots, right? At least there weren't 45 commercials for the new episodes of 'CSI' and 'Cold Case', which is a win in my book.
** Stars -- Michael Owen came off the bench to score the winner for Newcastle vs. Bolton -- t-minus two days until he asks for another raise. ... Gerrard and Deco were already mentioned. ... In a losing effort John Carew displayed a nice set of skills, playing a role in both goals for Aston Villa. ... Mamady Sidibe scored a fluke winner for Stoke off a throw-in. (Probably the last we'll hear his name.) ... Breda Hangeland scored maybe the sloppiest goal in a while, basically just throwing his leg in front of a ball from the corner against Arsenal. ... Jamie Carragher leveled for Liverpool. How he got credit for the goal, beats me. Nice deflection. ... Elano with another trademark August tease, netting a brace in City's 3-0 win over West Ham.
** Duds -- The North London top-flight collective. Not much to say here that hasn't already been addressed. ... Dutch free-kick takers. I though Robin van Persie was brutal, hoofing at least three deadballs into the Fulham wall. Then Sunday, I saw Wigan's Daniel de Ridder. The one-time U-21 star took about half a dozen pathetic attempts from free kicks and corners. What in the world of Arie Haan is going on here?
** Goal of the week -- Tough call this week, between Deco's freekick, Ricardo Fuller's amazing first-touch flick for Stoke and finally Richard Garcia's looping header from an acute angle for Hull City. I'll side with Garcia since it chumptized Paul Robinson and he celebrated with a faux jumpshot.
** Save of the week -- Boro's Ross Turnbull with a full-extension denial of Gerrard off a freekick in the 91st minute looked to preserve a tie, until the King of the Scousers won it three minutes later.
** (Brock) Sampson alert -- Was it a coincidence that Middlesbrough's Egyptian striker Ahmed Mido scoring a cracking left-foot driller against Liverpool since he grew his long, flowing locks back? By the same token, any doubt Djibril Cisse's debut winner for Sunderland was aided by the bottle of peroxide? One more hair note, was Spurs' David Bentley wearing a wig Saturday?
** Twist and shout -- As negative as I was about the games this week, I could watch Tuncay's spinning dummy against Liverpool all day. It's a shame he shot it directly at Pepe Reina.
** Best showing by a teenager -- Could Daniel Sturridge's left foot blast for Manchester City be the start of something special? The samba inspired goal celebration, not so much.
** Burly shove of the week -- Somehow Petr Cech pushed over Emerson Boyce as Wigan was taking a corner kick and escaped a penalty.
** Reason No. 42,128 how England and the U.S. are different covering sports -- Sunday Manchester City captain Michah Richards was carted off the field on a gurney and with an oxygen mask. He was down for a couple minutes. I was prepping for my fantasy football draft and didn't see the incident. They never showed a replay during the lengthy break in the action. I rewound the DVR and it was a pretty innocuous looking head collision with Tal Ben Haim. Until the rewind I thought Richards might have been picked off by a sniper or something. If that was an NFL game, we'd have seen every angle of the injury until our stomachs were sick. (Amazingly, the ref added a full 10 minutes of extra time in the match with the score 3-0 no less.)
** Brah-som-est moment of the week -- John Terry's super-close hug on Petr Cech. Was that sort of PDA necessary after beating Wigan? (Apparently the Mourinho-instilled fraternal spirit has washed off from some of the old boys.)
** FSC paid advertisement of the week -- Oxygen in the can. The winded joggers. Low budget goodness. Yes, I have a case in transit as we speak.
** Question of the week -- What is the deal with day-glo yellow away kits. Didn't anybody learn from Chelsea last season? Everton and Stoke appear to be rocking the Ocean Pacific inspired kits this season away from home. Anyone for some hacky sack?
** Suggestions of the week -- I've kind of wanted to get a running name for the Monday wraps, what do you think of this one? Too Peter King-y? Do you need things I think I think? Let me know. Is spelling center in the English-y 'centre' manner too pretentious?
Let me know that and all my mistakes and overlooks.
Labels: Monday recaps, Premier League, Soccer
Eh. Villa's achilles heel last year was playing to the level of their opponents, and conceding late. Add that to a crap penalty call, and I'm not entirely worried. I think the lassds were looking forward to the UEFA tie on Thursday, and hosting Liverfourth on Sunday.
the second half of the fulham arsenal match was interesting in my opinion.
after constantly seeing updates of fulham's season last year, you know they could easily lose 2-1 at any point. this kept me on edge as arsenal kept attacking but couldn't muster any attack inside the box. it was also of note to see dempsey actually have an attack or two.
i do agree at this point, outside of the top 3 clubs its a toss up between all. should produce an interesting season.
Tuncay is Turkish, not Egyptian (unless you're just saying he looks like The Sphinx). I agree on the Bundesliga game being more interesting, Subotic looked good going forward but a bit shaky defending.
I actually thought Spurs looked pretty good with all the playmakers out there, they were just lacking that final ball.
yeah, you're right on that. i must have been confused for a second with shawky, who is from Egypt.
good catch.
The weekend wrap-up is good. Keep it up. Plus it gives us a chance to bitch/brag a little along the way.
Yeah, it's too Peter King-y, but naming is a bitch and I wouldn't spend too much time trying to be the cleverest.
All that said, am I dreaming? Newcastle is light-years different from last season. Jonas is a gazelle in midfield and Colocini is rock-solid. I hope they can pickup another defender before the window shuts. Also, I hope the striker injuries aren't too serious.
Yeah, Owen is a prima-donna, but when he plays, he scores. Hard to argue with that.
Also, the gold-medal game was a disgrace. They stopped play for drinks how many times? At the end, the players were literally wobbling all over the field, dehydrated and sun-stroke-y.
Fox Soccer Channel's ads are only 5% better than the stuff you find on your regional sports network. Thank god for Tivo.
Ives is already using MMCB. I'd come up with something else.
As for Spurs, I agree with the above - in the best case scenario, they can be a similar to team (on a far lower level, I admit) to Spain in the Euro, with great midfielders working together. However, Bent was simply not what he needs to be up front in the match against Sunderland.
It's clear this team needs another striker. However, I think equally clear is they still need help in the back. Two goals bled to Boro and Sunderland are not enough.
Brad, I've been impressed with Guthrie as well. I think if he was paired with a more offensive minded player than Nicky Butt, it would be a formidable central midfield.
"Tuncay is Turkish, not Egyptian (unless you're just saying he looks like The Sphinx)."
Actually Tuncay doesn't look like the Sphinx. But he does look exactly like a combination of Balke's Cousin Larry Appleton and Blaine, Missouri Councilman/Pharmacist Stark. Seriously, mesh those two guys together, add just a touch of swarth, and you'll have the Turk in question.
As for the post, I agree there are some god-awful matches in the Prem. Sadly, the team I support has many of them. But there are some terrible games in very league in every sport. If four matches of the 10 are exciting, that works for me (as long as I get to see it, or extended highlights, of course). Let's take America's most popular sport: Are all 16 NFL games barnburning thrillers every week? Not even close. I'm cool with 6 or 7 great games, since that's the custom these days, given the effects of NFL parity. Same with baseball, basketball, whatever. No league is perfect -- just give me enough! And make sure I see it.
More to the direct point, people have asked me what I make of the Torres/Keane partnership. My answer every time is "we'll see." It's two games. You need a bigger sample size to make such decisions about a whole 38-match season. The Prem's two games deep, that's it. Every team made changes, some huge, some minor, but everyone's still settling. Give 'em five to find their collective feet, maybe even 10. Then predict the future.
Two weeks, two penalty calls against Villa that could charitably be deemed, "questionable."
But Goddamn, does that team concede late goals. Immensely frustrating, but, I guess you can never turn off a Villa game with ten minutes to go.
Two weeks in and even my kids are yelling "F-ing Spurs!!!"
Last season, Tottenham conceded something like 17 points after the 88th minute. I feel your pain.