Captain Terry-bull Sing Along Post
3 Comments Published by Cardillo on November 9, 2009 at 10:00 AM.
It's weird, isn't it, that the same player could be hailed as both "Lionheart" and the "Bionic Woman" in the same breath?
Maybe it's not so strange if that player is John Terry. On the one hand, if you're English -- particularly in the media -- you have to love Terry's grit and even if you hate Chelsea, he is sorta the captain of the National Team, after all. At the same time, you'd probably get turned off by Terry with his constant -- ahem -- lionizing by the very same press and broadcasters.
Anyway, when I first started really getting into the Premier League, Terry was one the players that impressed me the most.
During Chelsea's first title run under Jose Mourinho in 2004, he was literally in the mix every game. At the time I couldn't believe a central defender could stamp his imprint on a game with so much regularity and authority. Back in those days you simply weren't getting through the brickwall formed by Terry and or Ricardo Carvalho/William Gallas. And when Chelsea needed a goal, Terry had that Favre-like knack for rising to the occasion and getting his Supercuts-styled head onto a ball.
The thing is, the last couple years Terry hasn't played with that same dynamic edge. That's not saying he's been poor -- far from it. It'd probably be impossible to play at that high standard for nearly a decade. He's just not what he was.
So that's my roundabout way of saying that Terry dialed it back to 2004 as Chelsea got a huge 1-0 win over Manchester United Sunday at Stamford Bridge brought to you by Generic British telecom company/bank.
Or consider it the only thing that I could think about after what proved to be a really nondescript affair between the top two teams in the table.
Other than Jonny Evans' kung fu kick into Didier Drogba's solar-plexus, there wasn't too much in this. Leave it to Drogba to start convulsing on the field AND end up with the yellow card.
Yeah, we had some almost standard Sir Alex Ferguson complaining about a possible foul on Wes Brown in the box on Terry's goal, but that was about it.
Chelsea went about its business, sort of like the 2004-05 version. It was a little surprising that Drogba and Nic Anelka couldn't do very much against Evans and Brown. In fact, that's the biggest stunner from this one.
Manchester United certainly didn't do itself any favors by isolating Wayne Rooney all by himself up top. If I had a dollar for every time I saw Anderson standing around on the field, well, I'd have quite the feast at McDonald's. Ryan Giggs, as always, showed up, but overall once against the United attack was Rooney-or-nothing.
If Sunday's match didn't reiterate the fact that United doesn't have the "juice" to hang with Chelsea, than maybe nothing will. Chasing five points in early November doesn't seem like an insurmountable lead, but barring some wheeling-and-dealing in January, how will United get any better than Chelsea?
At the very least, this match didn't devolve into the theater of the absurd, though it came close in the final 20 minutes, including a swarm of angry players circling the ref at midfield.
Maybe it really is Sir Alex's fault, because to quote Dr. Robert Doback, "where does he get that sense of entitlement?" Whenever something goes against United the hackles go up and they feel they can bully the refs into changing the call. It's starting to wear on me. Sir Alex, you lose. Deal with it. Nobody likes a grumpy old man grumbling incessantly about the refs.
Ever since "Stoppage Time-Gate" against Manchester City, it's hard to think any refs are going to go out of their way to "help" United.
And this year United could use any "help" it can get to keep the pace.
Not fair:
Anyone else remember that old Nick show, "Kid's Court?" If you do, they ended every show with essentially a bitch-fest from the audience where a kid aired a beef (think parents making him do homework) and the audience would decide, "Fair" or "Unfair." Only once did I hear the crowd call it fair.
Whatever.
Arsenal's 4-1 demolition of Wolves at Molineaux was unfair.
It was so unfair it probably left Wolves honorary vice president Robert Plant dazed and confused. Two own goals by the Wolves defense? Talk about communication breakdown. When Mick McCarthy slapped away the camera while walking toward the locker room at halftime, you felt like he was hanging from the gallows pole.
Ok. I'll stop.
What can I say? Arsenal's performance deserves a whole lotta love.
The Gunners host Chelsea on Nov. 29, followed by a trip to Manchester City. Don't forget Arsenal still has a game in hand, too.
A sign of restraint:
Look, I'm not going to make fun of baby Kai Rooney. It's too easy.
The Guardian had the best take anyway. How can you top the Yoruba word for "gravy" anyway? You can't.
Schitzo-City:
When you're Manchester City, you're Manchester City for a reason.
Apparently all the oil bucks and flashy new players in the world can't pay the hoodoo hanging over Eastlands to go away.
I watched a lot of City's 3-3 draw at home to Burnley. This was setting up to be a really nice win for City, rallying from a 2-0 deficit and end its sudden run of draws. It was impressive to watch City calmy take care of business with goals by Shaun Wright-Phillips, Kolo Toure (he's the club captain?) and Craig Bellamy.
Yet this ends up being a disastrous dropped two points. The City defense got caught and Wayne Bridge's shanked clearance went right to Steven Fletcher who flicked it over to Kevin McDonald, who clinically finished it. (The second nice finish by Burnley on the day following Fletcher's nice first-half tally.)
Despite all the talent it brought in, it's same old City.
On the bright side, the team is still in fifth place. Yet it still seems to be lacking a clear identity or leader. Maybe Mark Hughes is a manager that's better suited to do more with less, because right now he's doing less with more.
And speaking of that, salute Owen Coyle's job at Burnley. The Clarets are surprisingly competent without any household names. The biggest asset for Burnley is that know who they are. They play, proverbially, within themselves. They'll take their lumps, but they're also sound enough, barring a major tailspin, to pull a Hull City and defy the odds and stick around another season.
Other stuff:
Add Harry Redknapp to the list of sports people that weren't made for HD. ... Gomes? Suddenly a decent keeper. ... Darren Bent? You want a retry on that penalty kick? ... Nice job by the Bolton defense. You don't have to stand and watch John Carew score, you know. ... Blackburn might have posted the most important win of the year, coming back from down a goal to beat Portsmouth. ... Then again, Hull City's late win at home vs. Stoke probably saved Phil Brown's job for another week. ... Guess it's pretty impressive that Clint Dempsey took the penalty kick for Fulham in a 1-1 draw with Wigan. Or does it simply point to the lack of options at Craven Cottage? ... Jozy Altidore started for Hull, logging 83 minutes, but here's what one match report had to say about the newly turned 20-year-old, "Jozy Altidore does not look like a player capable of firing Hull out of trouble and his shooting boots were sadly awry after he had worked space for himself on the edge of the box." Ouch.
Fantasy Team O' the Week:
Kevin Bagley's MVee FC takes top honors for the second week straight with 71 points, thanks to a balanced effort with the likes of Cesc Fabregas, James Milner, Graham Alexander, Robin van Persie and Ardrey Arshavin. Well done.
One other thing:
Easy recommendation this week. Go out and watch, "Anvil: The Story of Anvil." The real-life "This is Spinal Tap" except with Canadians with bad hair. That should be enough.
Looking ahead:
Today it's Liverpool looking to get back in the win column with a match against Birmingham City, then a break for international matches.
Maybe it's not so strange if that player is John Terry. On the one hand, if you're English -- particularly in the media -- you have to love Terry's grit and even if you hate Chelsea, he is sorta the captain of the National Team, after all. At the same time, you'd probably get turned off by Terry with his constant -- ahem -- lionizing by the very same press and broadcasters.
Anyway, when I first started really getting into the Premier League, Terry was one the players that impressed me the most.
During Chelsea's first title run under Jose Mourinho in 2004, he was literally in the mix every game. At the time I couldn't believe a central defender could stamp his imprint on a game with so much regularity and authority. Back in those days you simply weren't getting through the brickwall formed by Terry and or Ricardo Carvalho/William Gallas. And when Chelsea needed a goal, Terry had that Favre-like knack for rising to the occasion and getting his Supercuts-styled head onto a ball.
The thing is, the last couple years Terry hasn't played with that same dynamic edge. That's not saying he's been poor -- far from it. It'd probably be impossible to play at that high standard for nearly a decade. He's just not what he was.
So that's my roundabout way of saying that Terry dialed it back to 2004 as Chelsea got a huge 1-0 win over Manchester United Sunday at Stamford Bridge brought to you by Generic British telecom company/bank.
Or consider it the only thing that I could think about after what proved to be a really nondescript affair between the top two teams in the table.
Other than Jonny Evans' kung fu kick into Didier Drogba's solar-plexus, there wasn't too much in this. Leave it to Drogba to start convulsing on the field AND end up with the yellow card.
Yeah, we had some almost standard Sir Alex Ferguson complaining about a possible foul on Wes Brown in the box on Terry's goal, but that was about it.
Chelsea went about its business, sort of like the 2004-05 version. It was a little surprising that Drogba and Nic Anelka couldn't do very much against Evans and Brown. In fact, that's the biggest stunner from this one.
Manchester United certainly didn't do itself any favors by isolating Wayne Rooney all by himself up top. If I had a dollar for every time I saw Anderson standing around on the field, well, I'd have quite the feast at McDonald's. Ryan Giggs, as always, showed up, but overall once against the United attack was Rooney-or-nothing.
If Sunday's match didn't reiterate the fact that United doesn't have the "juice" to hang with Chelsea, than maybe nothing will. Chasing five points in early November doesn't seem like an insurmountable lead, but barring some wheeling-and-dealing in January, how will United get any better than Chelsea?
At the very least, this match didn't devolve into the theater of the absurd, though it came close in the final 20 minutes, including a swarm of angry players circling the ref at midfield.
Maybe it really is Sir Alex's fault, because to quote Dr. Robert Doback, "where does he get that sense of entitlement?" Whenever something goes against United the hackles go up and they feel they can bully the refs into changing the call. It's starting to wear on me. Sir Alex, you lose. Deal with it. Nobody likes a grumpy old man grumbling incessantly about the refs.
Ever since "Stoppage Time-Gate" against Manchester City, it's hard to think any refs are going to go out of their way to "help" United.
And this year United could use any "help" it can get to keep the pace.
Not fair:
Anyone else remember that old Nick show, "Kid's Court?" If you do, they ended every show with essentially a bitch-fest from the audience where a kid aired a beef (think parents making him do homework) and the audience would decide, "Fair" or "Unfair." Only once did I hear the crowd call it fair.
Whatever.
Arsenal's 4-1 demolition of Wolves at Molineaux was unfair.
It was so unfair it probably left Wolves honorary vice president Robert Plant dazed and confused. Two own goals by the Wolves defense? Talk about communication breakdown. When Mick McCarthy slapped away the camera while walking toward the locker room at halftime, you felt like he was hanging from the gallows pole.
Ok. I'll stop.
What can I say? Arsenal's performance deserves a whole lotta love.
The Gunners host Chelsea on Nov. 29, followed by a trip to Manchester City. Don't forget Arsenal still has a game in hand, too.
A sign of restraint:
Look, I'm not going to make fun of baby Kai Rooney. It's too easy.
The Guardian had the best take anyway. How can you top the Yoruba word for "gravy" anyway? You can't.
Schitzo-City:
When you're Manchester City, you're Manchester City for a reason.
Apparently all the oil bucks and flashy new players in the world can't pay the hoodoo hanging over Eastlands to go away.
I watched a lot of City's 3-3 draw at home to Burnley. This was setting up to be a really nice win for City, rallying from a 2-0 deficit and end its sudden run of draws. It was impressive to watch City calmy take care of business with goals by Shaun Wright-Phillips, Kolo Toure (he's the club captain?) and Craig Bellamy.
Yet this ends up being a disastrous dropped two points. The City defense got caught and Wayne Bridge's shanked clearance went right to Steven Fletcher who flicked it over to Kevin McDonald, who clinically finished it. (The second nice finish by Burnley on the day following Fletcher's nice first-half tally.)
Despite all the talent it brought in, it's same old City.
On the bright side, the team is still in fifth place. Yet it still seems to be lacking a clear identity or leader. Maybe Mark Hughes is a manager that's better suited to do more with less, because right now he's doing less with more.
And speaking of that, salute Owen Coyle's job at Burnley. The Clarets are surprisingly competent without any household names. The biggest asset for Burnley is that know who they are. They play, proverbially, within themselves. They'll take their lumps, but they're also sound enough, barring a major tailspin, to pull a Hull City and defy the odds and stick around another season.
Other stuff:
Add Harry Redknapp to the list of sports people that weren't made for HD. ... Gomes? Suddenly a decent keeper. ... Darren Bent? You want a retry on that penalty kick? ... Nice job by the Bolton defense. You don't have to stand and watch John Carew score, you know. ... Blackburn might have posted the most important win of the year, coming back from down a goal to beat Portsmouth. ... Then again, Hull City's late win at home vs. Stoke probably saved Phil Brown's job for another week. ... Guess it's pretty impressive that Clint Dempsey took the penalty kick for Fulham in a 1-1 draw with Wigan. Or does it simply point to the lack of options at Craven Cottage? ... Jozy Altidore started for Hull, logging 83 minutes, but here's what one match report had to say about the newly turned 20-year-old, "Jozy Altidore does not look like a player capable of firing Hull out of trouble and his shooting boots were sadly awry after he had worked space for himself on the edge of the box." Ouch.
Fantasy Team O' the Week:
Kevin Bagley's MVee FC takes top honors for the second week straight with 71 points, thanks to a balanced effort with the likes of Cesc Fabregas, James Milner, Graham Alexander, Robin van Persie and Ardrey Arshavin. Well done.
One other thing:
Easy recommendation this week. Go out and watch, "Anvil: The Story of Anvil." The real-life "This is Spinal Tap" except with Canadians with bad hair. That should be enough.
Looking ahead:
Today it's Liverpool looking to get back in the win column with a match against Birmingham City, then a break for international matches.
Labels: Chelsea, English Premier League, manchester United, Premier League, Soccer
Pretty ho-hum performance from Chelsea, whose midfield looked very poor. Other than Essien, everyone seemed to sleepwalk. I'd been telling everyone that listened that Ballack - Lampard - Deco - Essien is the right combination in midfield because they overlap so well and are able to cover for one another. There was no interplay and United's midfield did a very good job of maintaining them. I don't know what the answer is, but I know that putting Lampard on the left and having him stay there is not it.
I wasn't surprised that Drogba got that yellow (although I wasn't happy) given the angle of the challenge which was facing away from both the ref and his assistant. The other thing that didn't surprise me ws reading this morning that Fergie has "lost faith" in officials because his team got cheated and that Fletcher is convinced that Arsene Wenger is the reason he gets a lot of fouls called against him. You already touched on Fergie, but maybe the reason Fletcher isn't getting the benefit of the doubt is because he screams at the ref every time he is whistled for a foul. Or when a United player is whistled for a foul. Or when an opponent is not called for a foul. Or when an opponent is called for a foul but not carded.
Oh well, hopefully Chelsea can come out of the international break healthy and get their act together against Wolves. They have a tough 10 days after that @ Porto (CL), @ Arsenal, @ Blackburn (Carling Cup), @ City.
Pretty underwhelming game from a quality perspective. I don't have anything to add other than an observation.
In the second half there was a play in which Anderson was trying to strip the ball off Essien. Anderson was harrasing Essien for a good 15 to 20 yards. I don't know many players that could have 1st held off that kind of an assault that long, or maintained such pressure. With the Anderson's dreadlocks flying around and Essien's musculature bulding, I just kept thinking this was a football version of Alien Vs Predator. In this case, I definitely think Alien held his own and came out on top. The only highlight of the game in my mind.
Chelsea will lose Drogba, Kalou, Essien and Mikel Obi to the ACN in January. Not saying they can't work through that but it's going to hurt their squad -- esp with Drogba being healthy and in form.