Sometimes, when you're watching a ton of sports on television, you forgot how often times when you actually go to an arena or stadium how it always looks like you're watching something entirely different.
In the year 2010, with the right set of cables and Inter-nets, it's almost difficult to avoid a televised soccer match. While television does a fantastic job capturing the innate drama and entertainment of the sport, it doesn't always give you the full picture in terms of athleticism or strategy. Even with advances in HD and widescreen, the average television angles only pick up a third of the field at one time.
Saturday night I took in my first game at the sparkling new Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. Walking out with the crowd and through the the old brick factories that lead up to the stadium, I marveled how Chicago Fire defender Wilman Conde wasn't a little better known. The dude was clearly the most impressive player on the field in the Red Bulls 1-0 win. The Columbian was everywhere, throwing his body around, marshaling the defense and even starting the attack.
Not sure this kind of game translates through television, or even the rest of the stadium where Red Bull keeper Bouna Coundoul was voted Man of the Match. (Sure he made some saves, but he is walking a fine line between save and disaster. You know, the whole Spinal Tap stupid/clever conundrum.)
Anyway, long story short, when you're not attending matches in person you forget how much different the game plays out when you can look down from your seats and watch plays -- or more importantly space -- develop.
Enough about that, you probably want to read about the stadium.
Let me give you a slice of perspective.
I reside in Connecticut, in the shadow of New York City. During my time I probably attended under five games of the NY/NJ Metrostars/New York Red Bulls. Quite simply, there might not be a worse venue for MLS soccer than Giants Stadium. It was too big, half the time it had turf with football lines and bottom line, it's a pain in the ass to drive to with the George Washington Bridge prominently involved. As much as I enjoyed having a laugh at the Rhett Harty's and Broncos of the world, it wasn't worth the trip. (Personally, wasting an hour of your life sitting in an eight-lane becomes four-lane traffic apocalypse isn't my idea of a good time. But that's just me.)
Bear in mind my first trip was with my father, a man who's watched more MLS -- the Red Bulls/Metrostars in particular -- than any sane person I've ever met. It was a gift I bought for him over the winter when he was laid up on the couch after knee replacement surgery. So it wasn't like I was with a group of beer-drinking friends, looking to get rowdy, rather a lame old father-and-son bonding experience.
So where does Red Bull Arena stack up?
For one, it's a very nice looking venue both from the outside and the inside. It actually looks like a soccer arena. Sitting in the upper deck, even, the sight lines were great, with the seats at a very sheer angle so you're looking down on the game. (Remembers those angles and space on the field, too by neither side had a true midfield maestro with vision.)
And the game was all that mattered, as little forced distraction (think minor league baseball) as possible took away from what transpired on the field. This cannot be emphasized enough.
The only oddity is that the upper deck only extends about three quarters of the Arena, with luxury boxes dominating one side. The all-metal aspect of the upper section -- which at first glance looks rickety -- does create a lot of noise, just by stamping on the floor. (For "FIFA 10" fans, it definitely had a feel of one of the generic Euro stadiums. That's a compliment.)
That said, it'd be the envy of nearly any club across the globe that doesn't reside in a mega, 40,000+ ground. Everton, to name one club, would kill for the building if were about 30 percent larger.
Red Bull Arena probably needs a couple seasons to replace its sanitary "new car smell" with a little grit and personality. As it stands it's a beautiful, but a little antiseptic, though millions miles better than Giants Stadium.
Will it ever (unfair comparison alert) be the former Westfalenstadion where 30,000 cram into one stand to cheer on Borussia Dortmund? Obviously not, but it has potential to have the best acoustics of any building in North America, albeit at a smaller scale.
The are where the jury remains out on Red Bull Arena is fan culture, then we'll know what kind of building it is. That, naturally, takes time to develop. It takes time for thousands of people to sing a song in unison about how great Dane Richards is. Will opposing teams fear their one road trip to New York, or will the cushy environs -- not to mention grass surface -- make it a welcome stop?
Sure the section behind the goal was packed with the Empires Supporter's Club. They sunk and danced and waved flags all game, even setting off some smoke bombs at the end.
However, in the upper section where I was, the majority of the noise came from the 200+ traveling Chicago fans that kept up at it all match. They certainly drowned out most of the noise from where I was sitting. It was a display that impressed me, considering I never thought that many people would hope on a plane and make the journey halfway across the country for a March MLS game.
Away fans at an MLS game involving teams over 1,000 miles apart? Bestill Don Garber's heart.
[Side note, I salute soccer fandom for the creativity it spurs, double that for anyone that takes hours of their lives to make a gigantic banner to unfurl over a section of stadium reading, "Our home, your hell." To sacrifice all those man-hours for a few fleeting glimpse of awesome-ness, well, all I can really do is digitally tip my cap to you. Most other professional sports (college is different) take their fans for granted, to show up and cheer when the scoreboard says so, with exceptions to the rule. Soccer, it's a little more personal. The fans are making an investment, or at least a little elbow grease. Maybe this is ultra cheesy to write, but in our ever increasing impersonal world, where we only connect through Twitter or text messages, where people are more an more isolated inside their own headspace, the positive, communal cheering and singing at a soccer match is a connection which cannot be discounted. End sidenote.]
It makes sense, though, that a coordinated group with chants, songs, etc. would out-loud groups of disconnected fans who were a little unsure of what to do. (The collective energy generated by fans is key. The buzz needs to spread around the area.)
Therein lies the million-dollar question for the Red Bull management, which despite a beautiful new arena still faces some uphill battles.
For one, as FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids have shown us, simply building a new stadium doesn't guarantee fans will come watch an MLS team play. The Red Bulls will have a nice boost for a while, but it's not a cure-all panacea. There aren't the carnival aspects of new-fangled MLB stadiums, where the stuff away from the field -- carousels, dunk tanks, face painters, etc. -- as almost as important as the baseball itself. At Red Bull Arena its all soccer, plus concession stands.
And also hurting the Red Bulls is that the team has been bad for nearly its entire 15 year existence. Aside from a run to the 2008 MLS final -- ironically enough winning the Western Conference -- the cupboard is fairly bare. This has clearly damaged the club's ability to connect to the fans. (And being named after an energy drink is a whole different set of encyclopedias, though if Manchester United began its life as Newton Heath, anything is possible, though New Yorkers are cynical by nature.)
How the club will be able to turn the people who formed lines out the door at the two club shops buying jerseys, scarves (actually needed for warmth Saturday) and hats into living, breathing fans who care about the on-field exploits of the club is a challenge. Perhaps winning, or playing entertaining soccer is the only answer. How many of the 24K in attendance Saturday, for instance, will tune in next week on Fox Soccer when the Red Bulls play at Seattle? That kind of devotion to the men in red-and-white is nearly as important as erecting a new home stadium.
Why buy a sparkling new German sportscar is nobody cares to drive it? How can the precision Alpine-Euro design and engineering meld with with North American passion? (Dance music might be a European ground staple, but it's a turnoff here.)
In the meantime, Red Bull would be well-served to increase the fan culture at the Arena, as it stands now its minimal. Of course this takes time. But little things, like playing or finding a "theme" song, or a "goal" song would be a boon. Figuring out a way for the passion of the supporters section to spread across the entire venue would be huge. Or even minimal gestures that would increase the camaraderie across the sections. (One bane of soccer fans in the states is the "look-at-me"/"too cool for school" aspect, which is far to exclusionary for the sport to grow.)
For instance, there was a kid sitting next to me, maybe 10 or 12, that didn't really even seem to open his mouth the entire match. Was he bored? Tired? Beats me.
Who knows, maybe he was just quietly taking in all that was going on in front of him. Perhaps one day he and his buddies will carve out their section of the Arena and make it their own, creating their own supporters club in the process.
This isn't to say all 20,000 people need to have the arm around the person next to them and bob up-and-down for the full 90, but a little more passion spread out beyond the supporters designated section is how you grow the game and plant the seeds inside people where they schedule their lives around home matches. You want it so people carve the vibe created at a match and the positive energy it yields -- the hidden aspect of soccer's popularity -- nearly as much as what transpires on the field.
This will clearly take time. Red Bull, at least, seems to be trying their best to make inroads into the millions of area soccer fans and get them excited about their local club.
It's going to take time to get fans to react in places to from the Allainz Arena to Parkhead where 60,000+ rise as one at the first strings of the Fratellis' "Chelsea Dagger."
Building an arena is the first step toward making the club relevant in the New York market. It's a first class building that puts the game first and all the other b.s. we've come to expect from a stadium experience, a distant second.
It can't stop there, the club needs to keep building and figuring out how to convert the curiosity seekers into passionate fans.
It'll take time, sure, but at least the stage is set for New York to at least enter the world football equation, finally.
One things for certain, I'll be back on April 24 when the Philadelphia Union comes to town. That ought to be fun.
Until then, Red Bull built it, but will they come back for more?
Miscellany:
* For what it's worth, it was under 30 degrees. People were freezing, compared to the opener a week before vs. Santos it was 70+. Nor did I take the train to the stadium, which I will try in the future, though I've read delays getting back were rough.
* In a welcome development, there weren't any ads on the public address during the match.
* The crowd skewed a lot older. More 20 and 30 year olds than parents with kids. (I'm not complaining.)
* Not sure what the actual in-building attendance was, but the upper section was filled near 90 percent capacity. Not sure what ticket prices had to do with it. My upper deck seats near the corner were $35, which isn't exactly peanuts.
* Chicago fans had a great sign: "Brand New Stadium, Same Crap Team." Well played.
* It was disappointing Brian McBride didn't get a warmer reception. The dude is an American legend so far as I'm concerned.
* If stadium food is your bag, Red Bull Arena doesn't disappoint. Tacos, Empanadas, meat pies, Portuguese meat sandwiches, pulled pork, etc. Everything you could want.
* A large beer was $9 and not that massive. On the plus side, it was the first time I've never been asked for my ID at a stadium. (No security frisking walking in, either, another welcome development.)
* Red Bull, at least in the short term, is going to be printing money. Granted, with a salary cap it doesn't mean they can sink it on a big-name player. (Thierry Henry, might not be the true "need" for the Red Bulls, but he would help create more a buzz or electricity on the field, for sure. It would be hard for soccer fans, even those that hate MLS for no reason, to ignore the chance to see one of the 50 greatest players of all time in the flesh in a beautiful new sporting ediface.)
* Nice giveaway, too, a commemorative "press pass" type thing on a lanyard denoting the inaugural MLS match. (Also handed out were this strange placards that folded into fan-like noise makers. Pretty inventive, I must say.) Red Bull seems to be a fan-friendly outfit, if only through those crazy flying contraption contests they host every year.
* On a general MLS note, between New York and Chicago, there wasn't much midfield creativity, though Joel Lindpere is looking like a savvy signing. Clearly the best Estonian to ever play in MLS.
* One Chicago fan bemoaned the lack of tail-gating ahead of the game. I can't argue with him. Having said that, if the loan convenience store in Harrison I saw on the walk to the stadium sold beer, it would make an absolute killing.
* Not sure how well the stadium translates on television. Reports say it "sounds" good.
* Sadly, in the second half, the "Mexican wave" appeared. The only wave in my book is the Mike Francesa handwave.
* By the same token, upset of the night was the lack of "Ole" chants every six seconds.
* I bought a commemorative scarf. Guess that makes me a poser. At the same time, I wouldn't mind buying season tickets, if only to carve out my own section of the Arena and build some kinship with my area-mates and start some chants of my own.
Hell, I might even go out and track down an Estonian flag.
In the year 2010, with the right set of cables and Inter-nets, it's almost difficult to avoid a televised soccer match. While television does a fantastic job capturing the innate drama and entertainment of the sport, it doesn't always give you the full picture in terms of athleticism or strategy. Even with advances in HD and widescreen, the average television angles only pick up a third of the field at one time.
Saturday night I took in my first game at the sparkling new Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. Walking out with the crowd and through the the old brick factories that lead up to the stadium, I marveled how Chicago Fire defender Wilman Conde wasn't a little better known. The dude was clearly the most impressive player on the field in the Red Bulls 1-0 win. The Columbian was everywhere, throwing his body around, marshaling the defense and even starting the attack.
Not sure this kind of game translates through television, or even the rest of the stadium where Red Bull keeper Bouna Coundoul was voted Man of the Match. (Sure he made some saves, but he is walking a fine line between save and disaster. You know, the whole Spinal Tap stupid/clever conundrum.)
Anyway, long story short, when you're not attending matches in person you forget how much different the game plays out when you can look down from your seats and watch plays -- or more importantly space -- develop.
Enough about that, you probably want to read about the stadium.
Let me give you a slice of perspective.
I reside in Connecticut, in the shadow of New York City. During my time I probably attended under five games of the NY/NJ Metrostars/New York Red Bulls. Quite simply, there might not be a worse venue for MLS soccer than Giants Stadium. It was too big, half the time it had turf with football lines and bottom line, it's a pain in the ass to drive to with the George Washington Bridge prominently involved. As much as I enjoyed having a laugh at the Rhett Harty's and Broncos of the world, it wasn't worth the trip. (Personally, wasting an hour of your life sitting in an eight-lane becomes four-lane traffic apocalypse isn't my idea of a good time. But that's just me.)
Bear in mind my first trip was with my father, a man who's watched more MLS -- the Red Bulls/Metrostars in particular -- than any sane person I've ever met. It was a gift I bought for him over the winter when he was laid up on the couch after knee replacement surgery. So it wasn't like I was with a group of beer-drinking friends, looking to get rowdy, rather a lame old father-and-son bonding experience.
So where does Red Bull Arena stack up?
For one, it's a very nice looking venue both from the outside and the inside. It actually looks like a soccer arena. Sitting in the upper deck, even, the sight lines were great, with the seats at a very sheer angle so you're looking down on the game. (Remembers those angles and space on the field, too by neither side had a true midfield maestro with vision.)
And the game was all that mattered, as little forced distraction (think minor league baseball) as possible took away from what transpired on the field. This cannot be emphasized enough.
The only oddity is that the upper deck only extends about three quarters of the Arena, with luxury boxes dominating one side. The all-metal aspect of the upper section -- which at first glance looks rickety -- does create a lot of noise, just by stamping on the floor. (For "FIFA 10" fans, it definitely had a feel of one of the generic Euro stadiums. That's a compliment.)
That said, it'd be the envy of nearly any club across the globe that doesn't reside in a mega, 40,000+ ground. Everton, to name one club, would kill for the building if were about 30 percent larger.
Red Bull Arena probably needs a couple seasons to replace its sanitary "new car smell" with a little grit and personality. As it stands it's a beautiful, but a little antiseptic, though millions miles better than Giants Stadium.
Will it ever (unfair comparison alert) be the former Westfalenstadion where 30,000 cram into one stand to cheer on Borussia Dortmund? Obviously not, but it has potential to have the best acoustics of any building in North America, albeit at a smaller scale.
The are where the jury remains out on Red Bull Arena is fan culture, then we'll know what kind of building it is. That, naturally, takes time to develop. It takes time for thousands of people to sing a song in unison about how great Dane Richards is. Will opposing teams fear their one road trip to New York, or will the cushy environs -- not to mention grass surface -- make it a welcome stop?
Sure the section behind the goal was packed with the Empires Supporter's Club. They sunk and danced and waved flags all game, even setting off some smoke bombs at the end.
However, in the upper section where I was, the majority of the noise came from the 200+ traveling Chicago fans that kept up at it all match. They certainly drowned out most of the noise from where I was sitting. It was a display that impressed me, considering I never thought that many people would hope on a plane and make the journey halfway across the country for a March MLS game.
Away fans at an MLS game involving teams over 1,000 miles apart? Bestill Don Garber's heart.
[Side note, I salute soccer fandom for the creativity it spurs, double that for anyone that takes hours of their lives to make a gigantic banner to unfurl over a section of stadium reading, "Our home, your hell." To sacrifice all those man-hours for a few fleeting glimpse of awesome-ness, well, all I can really do is digitally tip my cap to you. Most other professional sports (college is different) take their fans for granted, to show up and cheer when the scoreboard says so, with exceptions to the rule. Soccer, it's a little more personal. The fans are making an investment, or at least a little elbow grease. Maybe this is ultra cheesy to write, but in our ever increasing impersonal world, where we only connect through Twitter or text messages, where people are more an more isolated inside their own headspace, the positive, communal cheering and singing at a soccer match is a connection which cannot be discounted. End sidenote.]
It makes sense, though, that a coordinated group with chants, songs, etc. would out-loud groups of disconnected fans who were a little unsure of what to do. (The collective energy generated by fans is key. The buzz needs to spread around the area.)
Therein lies the million-dollar question for the Red Bull management, which despite a beautiful new arena still faces some uphill battles.
For one, as FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids have shown us, simply building a new stadium doesn't guarantee fans will come watch an MLS team play. The Red Bulls will have a nice boost for a while, but it's not a cure-all panacea. There aren't the carnival aspects of new-fangled MLB stadiums, where the stuff away from the field -- carousels, dunk tanks, face painters, etc. -- as almost as important as the baseball itself. At Red Bull Arena its all soccer, plus concession stands.
And also hurting the Red Bulls is that the team has been bad for nearly its entire 15 year existence. Aside from a run to the 2008 MLS final -- ironically enough winning the Western Conference -- the cupboard is fairly bare. This has clearly damaged the club's ability to connect to the fans. (And being named after an energy drink is a whole different set of encyclopedias, though if Manchester United began its life as Newton Heath, anything is possible, though New Yorkers are cynical by nature.)
How the club will be able to turn the people who formed lines out the door at the two club shops buying jerseys, scarves (actually needed for warmth Saturday) and hats into living, breathing fans who care about the on-field exploits of the club is a challenge. Perhaps winning, or playing entertaining soccer is the only answer. How many of the 24K in attendance Saturday, for instance, will tune in next week on Fox Soccer when the Red Bulls play at Seattle? That kind of devotion to the men in red-and-white is nearly as important as erecting a new home stadium.
Why buy a sparkling new German sportscar is nobody cares to drive it? How can the precision Alpine-Euro design and engineering meld with with North American passion? (Dance music might be a European ground staple, but it's a turnoff here.)
In the meantime, Red Bull would be well-served to increase the fan culture at the Arena, as it stands now its minimal. Of course this takes time. But little things, like playing or finding a "theme" song, or a "goal" song would be a boon. Figuring out a way for the passion of the supporters section to spread across the entire venue would be huge. Or even minimal gestures that would increase the camaraderie across the sections. (One bane of soccer fans in the states is the "look-at-me"/"too cool for school" aspect, which is far to exclusionary for the sport to grow.)
For instance, there was a kid sitting next to me, maybe 10 or 12, that didn't really even seem to open his mouth the entire match. Was he bored? Tired? Beats me.
Who knows, maybe he was just quietly taking in all that was going on in front of him. Perhaps one day he and his buddies will carve out their section of the Arena and make it their own, creating their own supporters club in the process.
This isn't to say all 20,000 people need to have the arm around the person next to them and bob up-and-down for the full 90, but a little more passion spread out beyond the supporters designated section is how you grow the game and plant the seeds inside people where they schedule their lives around home matches. You want it so people carve the vibe created at a match and the positive energy it yields -- the hidden aspect of soccer's popularity -- nearly as much as what transpires on the field.
This will clearly take time. Red Bull, at least, seems to be trying their best to make inroads into the millions of area soccer fans and get them excited about their local club.
It's going to take time to get fans to react in places to from the Allainz Arena to Parkhead where 60,000+ rise as one at the first strings of the Fratellis' "Chelsea Dagger."
Building an arena is the first step toward making the club relevant in the New York market. It's a first class building that puts the game first and all the other b.s. we've come to expect from a stadium experience, a distant second.
It can't stop there, the club needs to keep building and figuring out how to convert the curiosity seekers into passionate fans.
It'll take time, sure, but at least the stage is set for New York to at least enter the world football equation, finally.
One things for certain, I'll be back on April 24 when the Philadelphia Union comes to town. That ought to be fun.
Until then, Red Bull built it, but will they come back for more?
Miscellany:
* For what it's worth, it was under 30 degrees. People were freezing, compared to the opener a week before vs. Santos it was 70+. Nor did I take the train to the stadium, which I will try in the future, though I've read delays getting back were rough.
* In a welcome development, there weren't any ads on the public address during the match.
* The crowd skewed a lot older. More 20 and 30 year olds than parents with kids. (I'm not complaining.)
* Not sure what the actual in-building attendance was, but the upper section was filled near 90 percent capacity. Not sure what ticket prices had to do with it. My upper deck seats near the corner were $35, which isn't exactly peanuts.
* Chicago fans had a great sign: "Brand New Stadium, Same Crap Team." Well played.
* It was disappointing Brian McBride didn't get a warmer reception. The dude is an American legend so far as I'm concerned.
* If stadium food is your bag, Red Bull Arena doesn't disappoint. Tacos, Empanadas, meat pies, Portuguese meat sandwiches, pulled pork, etc. Everything you could want.
* A large beer was $9 and not that massive. On the plus side, it was the first time I've never been asked for my ID at a stadium. (No security frisking walking in, either, another welcome development.)
* Red Bull, at least in the short term, is going to be printing money. Granted, with a salary cap it doesn't mean they can sink it on a big-name player. (Thierry Henry, might not be the true "need" for the Red Bulls, but he would help create more a buzz or electricity on the field, for sure. It would be hard for soccer fans, even those that hate MLS for no reason, to ignore the chance to see one of the 50 greatest players of all time in the flesh in a beautiful new sporting ediface.)
* Nice giveaway, too, a commemorative "press pass" type thing on a lanyard denoting the inaugural MLS match. (Also handed out were this strange placards that folded into fan-like noise makers. Pretty inventive, I must say.) Red Bull seems to be a fan-friendly outfit, if only through those crazy flying contraption contests they host every year.
* On a general MLS note, between New York and Chicago, there wasn't much midfield creativity, though Joel Lindpere is looking like a savvy signing. Clearly the best Estonian to ever play in MLS.
* One Chicago fan bemoaned the lack of tail-gating ahead of the game. I can't argue with him. Having said that, if the loan convenience store in Harrison I saw on the walk to the stadium sold beer, it would make an absolute killing.
* Not sure how well the stadium translates on television. Reports say it "sounds" good.
* Sadly, in the second half, the "Mexican wave" appeared. The only wave in my book is the Mike Francesa handwave.
* By the same token, upset of the night was the lack of "Ole" chants every six seconds.
* I bought a commemorative scarf. Guess that makes me a poser. At the same time, I wouldn't mind buying season tickets, if only to carve out my own section of the Arena and build some kinship with my area-mates and start some chants of my own.
Hell, I might even go out and track down an Estonian flag.
Labels: MLS, red bull arena, Soccer
(Abbreviated Monday Premier League post thingamajig today. Missed most of the Saturday action, aside from the highlights.)
So yeah, Saturday morning Carp Energy conceived for an abbreviated spring training softball scenario in wonderfully chilly 38-degree weather. It was glorious, nonetheless.
In between turns at bat I snuck a couple peeks on my phone to keep up with the Premier League scores. When I left my house I knew Chelsea was up 1-0 on Aston Villa and when I arrived at the field it was 1-1.
Every time I went back to check, the Chelsea score kept snowballing and snowballing until Frosty himself would have to be pretty damned impressed.
A 7-1 victory at Stamford Bridge against a very solid Villa team is a salvo across the bow toward Manchester United if I've ever seen one. (Most importantly, even with Manchester United's rather ho-hum 4-0 win at Bolton, Chelsea are still a point back of United, but now are two goals ahead in the possibly all-important goal differential.)
Considering what a big fan I am of knee-jerk reactions, Chelsea's recent outburst is pretty enjoyable, especially since nearly all the pundits had them left for dead after its Champions League ouster a couple weeks ago.
As long as Frank Lampard is still breathing, the Blues in their current incantation are hard to write off. Is the core getting older? Sure. Are they still capable of bludgeoning most Premier League opponents to a pulp? You bet.
Since I previously mentioned knee-jerk reactions, it makes sense not to go overboard over four days worth of matches, where Cheslea beat Portsmouth and Aston Villa by a combined 11-1 margin. There are still some cracks in the foundation, no doubt. I'm always on the mind to throw out games that finish in the 7-1 range as huge outliers. In fact, while most would say it gives Chelsea a huge edge psychologically heading into next weekend's showdown, to me, the Blues would have been a lot more dangerous off a hard-fought 1-0 game or even a draw. Sir Alex Ferguson shouldn't have trouble rousing the troops when all he has to do is plop down the numbers, "7-1".
You'd have to think, though, that the players must have taken it upon their shoulders to shape up. They definitely heard the rumors of who'd be coming to Stamford Bridge in the summer. And even if you've made more money than you know what to do with, no professional wants to lose his job.
It also helps for Chelsea that Flourent Malouda has decided to kick his game up a notch, or three, giving the Blues another dangerous attack-minded player to complement Didier Drogba -- who amazingly didn't even start vs. Villa. (No Rooney this weekend, either, and the clubs combine for 11 goals. Go figure.)
Of course all this does is set up the biggest game of the season, early Saturday morning when Chelsea goes to Old Trafford.
We'll have plenty of time to discuss this match on Friday. It should provide us with everything we could want as fans.
Oh, and Arsene Wenger hoping like hell for a draw.
What's the French word for pacifier?
To one end Wenger's conviction is admirable. In his mind, Arsenal should never lose a game, and when they do its either a combination of: a) mother nature b) a shoddy pitch c) negative tactics d) the officials e) the same secret cabal behind the Kennedy assassination.
Just once, that's all I'm asking for, is when the Gunners drop points, Wenger tips his cap to the opponent or just keeps his mouth shut.
Granted, it's hard to know what kind of context these post-game comments were made -- heaven knows if it was a few minutes after the match when the blood is still boiling -- but still, even if the reporter was trying to goad him, these words are a bit out of line:
Having not seen the match from start to finish, it's hard to get a gauge on Arsenal Saturday vs. Birmingham. Were the Gunners good? Did they deserve all three points?
When you don't score until the 80+ minute, I have a hard time buying that.
And when your keeper -- Manuel Alumnia -- decides to stop a shot from Kevin Phillips as if he were trying to set up a teammate for a volleyball spike, then your arguments ring a little hollow. (Too bad, it canceled out a great little run-and-strike from Samir Nasri.)
Even four points back of United, Arsenal aren't done. The manager knows this, too.
A word on Manchester United:
As much as I've ragged on the Red Devils for being just so-so aside from Wayne Rooney, that might be a little off base.
Dmitar Berbatov has stepped up massively lately. Luis Valencia has been good as season, same with Ryan Giggs as long as he's healthy.
And the once impenetrable defense of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic are starting to channel their 2008 form. (Look, don't mess with Vidic. This is what happens. My quick top three guys you wouldn't want to fight in the Prem: 1. Vidic, 2. Abdoulaye Faye 3. Lee Cattermole.)
Plus, it doesn't hurt that United's second-leading league scorer is "Own Goal."
(Remember a few weeks ago I posed if there were any "bad" players in the Prem? How could I have forgotten Jlloyd Samuel. Horrendous own-goal.)
A word on Liverpool:
So are Los Reds fans happy now, that the ship seems righted? Is finishing fourth place the key to retaining Fernando Torres? Is the team actually good right now? Is it too little too late?
I'm confused, and I'm definitely not a Liverpool fan.
All I know is that I'd take Torres in the first few picks in an actual fantasy soccer draft. The only guy who there that might rival his genius for scoring goals is Leo Messi. The ball Torres hit inside of five minutes vs. Sunderland was nothing short of sublime.
Strikes like that do re-confirm the thought that Liverpool are contenders with a healthy Torres for 32+ games per season. (Only place you could really see Torres going is Chelsea, if Roman Abramovich made Liverpool a debt-clearing $200+ million dollar offer. As good as Torres is, that cash would be hard for the Hicks gang to turn down. Of course, the cost of rebuilding Anfield after fans riot in the streets and burn it to the ground is likely a little bit more.)
Other stuff:
Anyone hanging onto the thought of Aston Villa finishing fourth is deluding themselves. ... Another three points in the bank for Spurs. As long as Harry Redkanpp keeps them away from pregame lasagna, fourth place is theirs to lose. ... West Ham United? Ugh. Survive the drop or, not there will be massive housecleaning at Upton Park this summer. I'd say every single player on the roster is available. Guess it turns out the owner calling out the players and manager wasn't the soundest strategy of all time. Who knew? ... How does Ricardo Fuller only have two goals this season? That was snaky-good quality vs. West Ham. ... Good to see Jozy Altidore back on the field for Hull City, which continues to linger. ... Does Arsenal have the most traveling away support in the league? Always seems that way. ... Owen Coyle's short-shorts and high socks wasn't a good look. ... Gianfranco Zola? You're lost, friend. At this point it's looking like it might take an act of god to keep West Ham for dropping when the pilot is closing his eyes and jumping out of the plane with or without a parachute. Disaster.
Fantasy team o' the week:
D. Mahon's "gerrardia" put up 90 points this week with 56 from Lamps and 13 from Torres. At the top the game is three points. Great battle between Kevin Bagley and Ian Podraza.
Coming soon:
Visited Red Bull Arena Saturday night. A full recap forthcoming.
And I'm be on the Twitter on Tuesday and Wednesday yapping about the Champions League. Be sure to check it out.
(Next week I'll try to snap out of this West Ham-like snide of recent so-so quality recaps. At least this weekend I had an excuse.)
So yeah, Saturday morning Carp Energy conceived for an abbreviated spring training softball scenario in wonderfully chilly 38-degree weather. It was glorious, nonetheless.
In between turns at bat I snuck a couple peeks on my phone to keep up with the Premier League scores. When I left my house I knew Chelsea was up 1-0 on Aston Villa and when I arrived at the field it was 1-1.
Every time I went back to check, the Chelsea score kept snowballing and snowballing until Frosty himself would have to be pretty damned impressed.
A 7-1 victory at Stamford Bridge against a very solid Villa team is a salvo across the bow toward Manchester United if I've ever seen one. (Most importantly, even with Manchester United's rather ho-hum 4-0 win at Bolton, Chelsea are still a point back of United, but now are two goals ahead in the possibly all-important goal differential.)
Considering what a big fan I am of knee-jerk reactions, Chelsea's recent outburst is pretty enjoyable, especially since nearly all the pundits had them left for dead after its Champions League ouster a couple weeks ago.
As long as Frank Lampard is still breathing, the Blues in their current incantation are hard to write off. Is the core getting older? Sure. Are they still capable of bludgeoning most Premier League opponents to a pulp? You bet.
Since I previously mentioned knee-jerk reactions, it makes sense not to go overboard over four days worth of matches, where Cheslea beat Portsmouth and Aston Villa by a combined 11-1 margin. There are still some cracks in the foundation, no doubt. I'm always on the mind to throw out games that finish in the 7-1 range as huge outliers. In fact, while most would say it gives Chelsea a huge edge psychologically heading into next weekend's showdown, to me, the Blues would have been a lot more dangerous off a hard-fought 1-0 game or even a draw. Sir Alex Ferguson shouldn't have trouble rousing the troops when all he has to do is plop down the numbers, "7-1".
You'd have to think, though, that the players must have taken it upon their shoulders to shape up. They definitely heard the rumors of who'd be coming to Stamford Bridge in the summer. And even if you've made more money than you know what to do with, no professional wants to lose his job.
It also helps for Chelsea that Flourent Malouda has decided to kick his game up a notch, or three, giving the Blues another dangerous attack-minded player to complement Didier Drogba -- who amazingly didn't even start vs. Villa. (No Rooney this weekend, either, and the clubs combine for 11 goals. Go figure.)
Of course all this does is set up the biggest game of the season, early Saturday morning when Chelsea goes to Old Trafford.
We'll have plenty of time to discuss this match on Friday. It should provide us with everything we could want as fans.
Oh, and Arsene Wenger hoping like hell for a draw.
What's the French word for pacifier?
To one end Wenger's conviction is admirable. In his mind, Arsenal should never lose a game, and when they do its either a combination of: a) mother nature b) a shoddy pitch c) negative tactics d) the officials e) the same secret cabal behind the Kennedy assassination.
Just once, that's all I'm asking for, is when the Gunners drop points, Wenger tips his cap to the opponent or just keeps his mouth shut.
Granted, it's hard to know what kind of context these post-game comments were made -- heaven knows if it was a few minutes after the match when the blood is still boiling -- but still, even if the reporter was trying to goad him, these words are a bit out of line:
"How is Fabregas? I don't know. But it was a bad tackle, one more. He got tackled at the knee, kicked just under the knee. We tried to take him off but he said he was all right. Am I suggesting there were a lot of bad tackles? Leave me alone with that, for f***'s sake. The pitch was difficult to play on but in the second half we were on top but then got caught at the end. Their goal was offside but in football you are never finished when two teams fight to the end and we had enough chances to have scored a second goal."
Having not seen the match from start to finish, it's hard to get a gauge on Arsenal Saturday vs. Birmingham. Were the Gunners good? Did they deserve all three points?
When you don't score until the 80+ minute, I have a hard time buying that.
And when your keeper -- Manuel Alumnia -- decides to stop a shot from Kevin Phillips as if he were trying to set up a teammate for a volleyball spike, then your arguments ring a little hollow. (Too bad, it canceled out a great little run-and-strike from Samir Nasri.)
Even four points back of United, Arsenal aren't done. The manager knows this, too.
A word on Manchester United:
As much as I've ragged on the Red Devils for being just so-so aside from Wayne Rooney, that might be a little off base.
Dmitar Berbatov has stepped up massively lately. Luis Valencia has been good as season, same with Ryan Giggs as long as he's healthy.
And the once impenetrable defense of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic are starting to channel their 2008 form. (Look, don't mess with Vidic. This is what happens. My quick top three guys you wouldn't want to fight in the Prem: 1. Vidic, 2. Abdoulaye Faye 3. Lee Cattermole.)
Plus, it doesn't hurt that United's second-leading league scorer is "Own Goal."
(Remember a few weeks ago I posed if there were any "bad" players in the Prem? How could I have forgotten Jlloyd Samuel. Horrendous own-goal.)
A word on Liverpool:
So are Los Reds fans happy now, that the ship seems righted? Is finishing fourth place the key to retaining Fernando Torres? Is the team actually good right now? Is it too little too late?
I'm confused, and I'm definitely not a Liverpool fan.
All I know is that I'd take Torres in the first few picks in an actual fantasy soccer draft. The only guy who there that might rival his genius for scoring goals is Leo Messi. The ball Torres hit inside of five minutes vs. Sunderland was nothing short of sublime.
Strikes like that do re-confirm the thought that Liverpool are contenders with a healthy Torres for 32+ games per season. (Only place you could really see Torres going is Chelsea, if Roman Abramovich made Liverpool a debt-clearing $200+ million dollar offer. As good as Torres is, that cash would be hard for the Hicks gang to turn down. Of course, the cost of rebuilding Anfield after fans riot in the streets and burn it to the ground is likely a little bit more.)
Other stuff:
Anyone hanging onto the thought of Aston Villa finishing fourth is deluding themselves. ... Another three points in the bank for Spurs. As long as Harry Redkanpp keeps them away from pregame lasagna, fourth place is theirs to lose. ... West Ham United? Ugh. Survive the drop or, not there will be massive housecleaning at Upton Park this summer. I'd say every single player on the roster is available. Guess it turns out the owner calling out the players and manager wasn't the soundest strategy of all time. Who knew? ... How does Ricardo Fuller only have two goals this season? That was snaky-good quality vs. West Ham. ... Good to see Jozy Altidore back on the field for Hull City, which continues to linger. ... Does Arsenal have the most traveling away support in the league? Always seems that way. ... Owen Coyle's short-shorts and high socks wasn't a good look. ... Gianfranco Zola? You're lost, friend. At this point it's looking like it might take an act of god to keep West Ham for dropping when the pilot is closing his eyes and jumping out of the plane with or without a parachute. Disaster.
Fantasy team o' the week:
D. Mahon's "gerrardia" put up 90 points this week with 56 from Lamps and 13 from Torres. At the top the game is three points. Great battle between Kevin Bagley and Ian Podraza.
Coming soon:
Visited Red Bull Arena Saturday night. A full recap forthcoming.
And I'm be on the Twitter on Tuesday and Wednesday yapping about the Champions League. Be sure to check it out.
(Next week I'll try to snap out of this West Ham-like snide of recent so-so quality recaps. At least this weekend I had an excuse.)
Labels: English Premier League, Premier League, Soccer
Couldn't think of a theme this week, plus I was a little jammed up otherwise.
Standalone picks are going to have to suffice.
Ok, I'll admit it. I'm just hungover from the Sounders/Union match last night.
Saturday:
* Birmingham City v. Arsenal -- (Live, FSC+, 11 a.m.) March is more like the Birmingham City we thought, 1-2-1. Granted, that's not the story here, it's Arsenal's return to St. Andrews, the sight of Eduardo's awful broken leg. (Interstingly, this link here show's Birmingham City's lineup for that match in Feb. 2008. Talk about turnover.) The Gunners have been exorcising the demons ground-by-ground the last few weeks. Does the trend continue here? Probably, though Arsene Wenger might air with the side of caution with the mega-match with Barcelona looming. Arsenal do face an defending mini-crisis, with Thomas Vermaelen's red card ban, plus the injury to William Gallas. Can Sol Campbell and his mystery partner hold the fort? Let's just say Niclas Bendtner's hot streak better continue. If Birmingham is "up" for this game and doesn't mail it in if Arsenal scores early (they're ought to at least try for the home fans) Camerone Jermone & Co. could cause from trouble. ... Birmingham City 1, Arsenal 3
* West Ham United v. Stoke City -- I can honestly say, West Ham might have played the worst 30-minute stretch of football this season in the EPL Tuesday vs. Wolves. Just and outright disaster. Owner David Sullivan said as much in an open letter on the club website, mind you a very very honest and ballsy letter. As much as you have to love honesty from the top, part of me wonders, if heaping even more pressure on the club really worth it at this point? It's not like they have a wonder-player like Carlos Tevez who can carry the burden all by himself? Blaming the manager, too, is an easy course of action but Gianfranco Zola hasn't done a good job. About the only player he's made better is Diamanti, everyone else has dropped. Granted a lot of the troubles at West Ham come to the ill-fated reign of Alan Curbishley, where players like Luis Boa Morte and Kieron Dyer. Zola's recent signees -- Mido, Ilan, Benni McCarthy and Guille Franco -- haven't quite gotten the job done either. All-and-all, it's a disaster. More than that though, it's survival too, since a drop down to the Championship could spell death for the club, which is about as celebrity endorsed (Russell Brand, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, etc.) as possible. It would be a shame. It just falls on the players to pull out of this tailspin. If Saturday, they can't stop the Delap Bombers, well, it's time to go down. ... West Ham 2, Stoke City 1
* Chelsea v. Aston Villa -- (Live, ESPN Classic, 11 a.m.) Chelsea righted the ship Wednesday at Fratton Park, with a big assist from David James' gaffe-a-roonie. The Blues do lose Ricardo Carvalho's who's craftiness will be missed, especially against Manchester United next month. Against Aston Villa, Alex will be just fine, assuming John Terry regains his form. Chelsea has stumbled vs. Villa, with only two wins in their last eight against the Birmingham club. That said, Villa might just be due for a let down. After a string of four matches in 11 days, Martin O'Neill's club took just six points, going 1-0-3 and are still four point behind Tottenham for fourth place, and would have to leapfrog Manchester City and Liverpool to do it. More concerning, since February in 11 matches, Villa have only kept two clean sheets. For a team based on defense, that doesn't bode well. Oh right, James Milner seemed to pick up an injury, too. Either Villa have thrown in the talent, or this is their last stand. ... Cheslea 2, Aston Villa 0
* Wolves v. Everton -- Sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due and Mick McCarthy has Wolves playing like a team that wants to get relegated in its *second* season in the top flight, not the first. Wolves aren't winning any beauty contests, but at least they're playing with spark and or a purpose. As for Everton, so long as Mikel Arteta is on the field and fit, maybe the Toffees can harbor faint hopes of an unlikely fourth-place run. They're arguably playing as well as anyone in the top half of the table not named Arsenal. ... Wolves 0, Everton 1
* Hull City v. Fulham -- If Hull City somehow survive the drop this season, the club would be wise to take a page from Fulham's current model and follow it. Of course, Phil Brown did have a core team that was successful, moving up the English football ladder until it reach both it and the ladder's peak. The parts Hull has brought it to supplement its core in the Premier League just haven't worked out very well. ... Hull City 1, Fulham 1
* Tottenham v. Portsmouth -- (Live, FSC, 11 a.m.) This one is an FA Cup semifinal preview, which certainly means a lot more to Spurs than Pompey. How Tottenham is going to hang onto fourth with half its team injured will be a marvel, but I have a funny feeling they'll pull it off. Who would have thought Eidur Gudjohnsen would've been the best move in January? The Icelandic forward is a winner. It would be typical Tottenham to follow a gritty away win at Stoke and a nice second half charge in the midweek FA Cup replay vs. Fulham with a giant, sulfur-smelling egg at White Hart Lane against the last place team in the league. Somehow I feel this team might be different. ... Spurs 2, Portsmouth 1
* Bolton v. Manchester United -- (Live, FSC, 1:30 p.m.) No Wayne Rooney? Can United find a way to avoid a major stubbed toe? Since the start of 2010 United haven't won a game where Rooney hasn't scored. So yeah, a little pressure on the Continental & his Merry Band of Red Devils. Barring a fluke set piece, hard to see Bolton scoring here. Whether it's been Paul Scholes, Park Ji-Sung, or even a guy like Nani, every match United is getting somebody to step up when it needs it. Figure that happens here, too. (Update -- Apparently Rooney is fine and will play. Okay, then.) ... Bolton 0, Manchester United 1
Sunday:
* Burnley v. Blackburn -- (Live, FSC+, 7:45 a.m.) Last real chance for Burnley to make an impact this season. Even if they go down to the Championship, the Clarets can at least take some bragging rights by beating their Northwestern rivals. ... Burnley 1, Blackburn 0
* Liverpool v. Sunderland -- (Live, FSC, 11 a.m.) Two teams who've disappointed their fans, albeit with a different set of parameters. Guess Liverpool can always point to the beach ball that Darren Bent scored off as the reason it's season derailed. ... Liverpool 2, Sunderland 0
Monday:
* Manchester City v. Wigan Athletic -- (Live, ESPN2, 2:45 p.m.) Seems like some variation of these two clubs are always on the Monday afternoon match, doesn't it? Unless Tevez takes over, this one might not have a lot in it with Roberto Mancini still thinking he's in Italy. Settle down buddy. ... City 1, Wigan 0
Last round: 1-4
Season: 162-141
Standalone picks are going to have to suffice.
Ok, I'll admit it. I'm just hungover from the Sounders/Union match last night.
Saturday:
* Birmingham City v. Arsenal -- (Live, FSC+, 11 a.m.) March is more like the Birmingham City we thought, 1-2-1. Granted, that's not the story here, it's Arsenal's return to St. Andrews, the sight of Eduardo's awful broken leg. (Interstingly, this link here show's Birmingham City's lineup for that match in Feb. 2008. Talk about turnover.) The Gunners have been exorcising the demons ground-by-ground the last few weeks. Does the trend continue here? Probably, though Arsene Wenger might air with the side of caution with the mega-match with Barcelona looming. Arsenal do face an defending mini-crisis, with Thomas Vermaelen's red card ban, plus the injury to William Gallas. Can Sol Campbell and his mystery partner hold the fort? Let's just say Niclas Bendtner's hot streak better continue. If Birmingham is "up" for this game and doesn't mail it in if Arsenal scores early (they're ought to at least try for the home fans) Camerone Jermone & Co. could cause from trouble. ... Birmingham City 1, Arsenal 3
* West Ham United v. Stoke City -- I can honestly say, West Ham might have played the worst 30-minute stretch of football this season in the EPL Tuesday vs. Wolves. Just and outright disaster. Owner David Sullivan said as much in an open letter on the club website, mind you a very very honest and ballsy letter. As much as you have to love honesty from the top, part of me wonders, if heaping even more pressure on the club really worth it at this point? It's not like they have a wonder-player like Carlos Tevez who can carry the burden all by himself? Blaming the manager, too, is an easy course of action but Gianfranco Zola hasn't done a good job. About the only player he's made better is Diamanti, everyone else has dropped. Granted a lot of the troubles at West Ham come to the ill-fated reign of Alan Curbishley, where players like Luis Boa Morte and Kieron Dyer. Zola's recent signees -- Mido, Ilan, Benni McCarthy and Guille Franco -- haven't quite gotten the job done either. All-and-all, it's a disaster. More than that though, it's survival too, since a drop down to the Championship could spell death for the club, which is about as celebrity endorsed (Russell Brand, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, etc.) as possible. It would be a shame. It just falls on the players to pull out of this tailspin. If Saturday, they can't stop the Delap Bombers, well, it's time to go down. ... West Ham 2, Stoke City 1
* Chelsea v. Aston Villa -- (Live, ESPN Classic, 11 a.m.) Chelsea righted the ship Wednesday at Fratton Park, with a big assist from David James' gaffe-a-roonie. The Blues do lose Ricardo Carvalho's who's craftiness will be missed, especially against Manchester United next month. Against Aston Villa, Alex will be just fine, assuming John Terry regains his form. Chelsea has stumbled vs. Villa, with only two wins in their last eight against the Birmingham club. That said, Villa might just be due for a let down. After a string of four matches in 11 days, Martin O'Neill's club took just six points, going 1-0-3 and are still four point behind Tottenham for fourth place, and would have to leapfrog Manchester City and Liverpool to do it. More concerning, since February in 11 matches, Villa have only kept two clean sheets. For a team based on defense, that doesn't bode well. Oh right, James Milner seemed to pick up an injury, too. Either Villa have thrown in the talent, or this is their last stand. ... Cheslea 2, Aston Villa 0
* Wolves v. Everton -- Sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due and Mick McCarthy has Wolves playing like a team that wants to get relegated in its *second* season in the top flight, not the first. Wolves aren't winning any beauty contests, but at least they're playing with spark and or a purpose. As for Everton, so long as Mikel Arteta is on the field and fit, maybe the Toffees can harbor faint hopes of an unlikely fourth-place run. They're arguably playing as well as anyone in the top half of the table not named Arsenal. ... Wolves 0, Everton 1
* Hull City v. Fulham -- If Hull City somehow survive the drop this season, the club would be wise to take a page from Fulham's current model and follow it. Of course, Phil Brown did have a core team that was successful, moving up the English football ladder until it reach both it and the ladder's peak. The parts Hull has brought it to supplement its core in the Premier League just haven't worked out very well. ... Hull City 1, Fulham 1
* Tottenham v. Portsmouth -- (Live, FSC, 11 a.m.) This one is an FA Cup semifinal preview, which certainly means a lot more to Spurs than Pompey. How Tottenham is going to hang onto fourth with half its team injured will be a marvel, but I have a funny feeling they'll pull it off. Who would have thought Eidur Gudjohnsen would've been the best move in January? The Icelandic forward is a winner. It would be typical Tottenham to follow a gritty away win at Stoke and a nice second half charge in the midweek FA Cup replay vs. Fulham with a giant, sulfur-smelling egg at White Hart Lane against the last place team in the league. Somehow I feel this team might be different. ... Spurs 2, Portsmouth 1
* Bolton v. Manchester United -- (Live, FSC, 1:30 p.m.) No Wayne Rooney? Can United find a way to avoid a major stubbed toe? Since the start of 2010 United haven't won a game where Rooney hasn't scored. So yeah, a little pressure on the Continental & his Merry Band of Red Devils. Barring a fluke set piece, hard to see Bolton scoring here. Whether it's been Paul Scholes, Park Ji-Sung, or even a guy like Nani, every match United is getting somebody to step up when it needs it. Figure that happens here, too. (Update -- Apparently Rooney is fine and will play. Okay, then.) ... Bolton 0, Manchester United 1
Sunday:
* Burnley v. Blackburn -- (Live, FSC+, 7:45 a.m.) Last real chance for Burnley to make an impact this season. Even if they go down to the Championship, the Clarets can at least take some bragging rights by beating their Northwestern rivals. ... Burnley 1, Blackburn 0
* Liverpool v. Sunderland -- (Live, FSC, 11 a.m.) Two teams who've disappointed their fans, albeit with a different set of parameters. Guess Liverpool can always point to the beach ball that Darren Bent scored off as the reason it's season derailed. ... Liverpool 2, Sunderland 0
Monday:
* Manchester City v. Wigan Athletic -- (Live, ESPN2, 2:45 p.m.) Seems like some variation of these two clubs are always on the Monday afternoon match, doesn't it? Unless Tevez takes over, this one might not have a lot in it with Roberto Mancini still thinking he's in Italy. Settle down buddy. ... City 1, Wigan 0
Last round: 1-4
Season: 162-141
Labels: English Premier League, EPL, Prem Picks, Soccer
(It's Wednesday, so let's throw out some thoughts on the World Cup, which is rapidly approaching. Today, let's take a look a the three rank longshots -- the No Hopers.)
In the year 2010 it seems like there are increasingly fewer certainties in life. When it appears the United States is headed toward universal health care, you know all bets are off.
Now, having said that, there are still some things I'll add to this blog without fear of impunity.
1) Uwe Boll will never win an Oscar.
2) The Toronto Blue Jays will not make the playoffs in the foreseeable future.
3) Ray Parker Jr. will never have another No. 1 hit where it's video features brief cameo from a future U.S. Senator. (Al Franken, it happened, 3:41 mark.)
And now the statement that we're here for: New Zealand, North Korea and South Africa will not win the 2010 World Cup.
If one of these three somehow manage to pull it off, I will take a page from Werner Herzog and eat my own shoe. (Hell, we can even post it on YouTube.)
What's that I hear in the background? Crickets? Audible yawning? Perhaps a "no shit, Sherlock"?
Pipe down for a second.
Look at it this way, we could harness the power of the Large Hadron Collider, applying it to soccer (somehow) and these three still wouldn't have a shot. We could sit inside the computer lab from the Dharma Initiative's Swan Station and run probability simulations for the next 108 years, and the probability of these three winning world football's biggest prize is still John Blutarsky's Faber College GPA -- 0.0.
Hell, the odds of one of these three advancing out of their respective groups likely range in the 0.1 percent chance (North Korea) to, at best, 10 percent. (South Africa, if you want to give them a homefield bonus.)
It's worth remember, of course, that realistically only a handful of teams actually harbor legitimate hopes of winning come the Jul 11 final -- Brazil, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Argentina and in its own mind -- England.
So, why you ask, is it worth even looking at the tournament chances of North Korea, New Zealand and South Africa?
Even if they have next to no hope at the Cup, they certainly can certainly be the proverbial fly in the ointment for their three group stage opponents. Remember, when your raison d'etre is simply to not get embarrassed, sitting behind the ball to frustrate and flummox the favorites is a sound stratagem. Playing for the 0-0 draw might be the best these teams have to offer. From the lowest levels of the game to the top, the anti-soccer, 10 men behind the ball tactic is frustratingly effective. (By contrast, say you're Italy against New Zealand on June 20 in Nelspruit, the best move is to come out guns blazing, trying to score within the first 15 minutes. Then the rout is on.)
Nine nations are looking at these three as automatic, 3-point ATMs. Should they be that confident?
South Africa:
On one online betting site, the hosts are 4-to-11 odds NOT to qualify from the group. All the vuvuzelas in the world might not change this.
Steven Pienaar might.
The play of the Everton midfielder lately in the Premier League gives the Bafana Bafanaa glimmer, albeit a slight one, of hope.
Could they spring an upset on Mexico in the tournament opener on June 11? Might it be possible to grind out a result against a rugged Uruguay team? Can they hang with France and make Les Bleus sweat?
In a word? No.
The home fans have definitely been a boost at the last half dozen World Cups. The U.S. got through its group on homesoil. France lifted the Cup on the outskirts of Paris. South Korea and Germany each made the semfinals in front of rapid, flag-waving partisan crowds.
That might end here. Sure South African fans will get behind their team and cheer and go wild and construct some crazy costumes and dance in the aisles.
The South African fans, too, are realistic and realize that if not for Sepp Blatter's plan to stage a World Cup in Africa, they wouldn't have even sniffed the competition.
This team, even with the recent purple patch from Pienaar doesn't have a lot of talent, particularly in the back line even with towering back Matthew Booth.
South Africa is 1-1-3 in is last three matches, including a 1-1 draw with mighty Namibia earlier this month.
So the big question for South Africa is if the home crowd provides a boost? Or does the expectations end up weighing down the team? Will the players push too hard to impress, ending up hurting the team?
Maybe, since it's the opener, they can figure out a way to knock off an improving Mexican team. The best bet for the hosts to avoid a last-place finish is getting something off a middling Uruguay team. Guess it's worth mentioning, too, South Africa might have a chance against France depending on which Star Charts Raymond Domenech consults before he fields his lineup.
Put it this way, the South African players have heard since May 15, 2004 -- the day it was awarded the tournament -- that the host nation has always made it out of the group stages. Six years on, that minor molehill has become a major mountain of trouble for the Bafana Bafana.
Perhaps they can pick the brains of Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman for some answers, because frankly I don't have any.
New Zealand:
The Kiwis/All Whites are probably the weakest team in the field from top-to-bottom, coming out of the laughable Oceanic qualifying region, which deserves to be relegated from actual FIFA sanctioning in all honesty. This team looked more out of its element at the 2009 Confederations Cup than Donnie during Walter and the Dude's discussion of V.I. Lenin, going 0-2-1 without scoring a goal. (Losing 5-0 to Spain could be considered a slight outlier, since Spain is a bit special.)
Couple this with the fact their manager -- Ricki Herbert -- has a named more in line with a female pornstar than an international manager, and its best/most-well known player -- Ryan Nelsen -- is currently injured and you'd have predict New Zealand going 0-3-0, with a goal difference in the -10 range, right?
Probably, though it's not a slam dunk.
The Kiwis are getting 16-to-1 odds to advance from the group. And that group is hardly murderers row -- Italy, Paraguay and World Cup debutantes Slovakia. (There would be worse ways to blow $20.)
Yes Italy is a favorite by default, but isn't the Azzurri's M.O. to struggle in the opening round matches? With an aging cast of characters, the only reason you'd think they'll blow out New Zealand is because of history. (Italy did only win 4-3 in a June 2009 friendly, for what that's worth.)
And Paraguay is good, no doubt, but not exactly the most dynamic team in the world especially with arguably its best attacker -- Salvador Cabañas -- recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. (Sorry, Roque Santa Cruz. Don't see the Man City part-time starter as a one-man wrecking ball.)
Slovakia? When your best player -- Marek Hamsik -- looks like he's an extra on a live-action Anime adaptation, you don't get the benefit of the doubt.
Gun to my head would I pick New Zealand to advance, let alone get a point? Probably not, but with forwards Shane Smeltz and Chris Killen, the All Whites should at least be able to keep the opponents honest. It's biggest problem is avoiding getting overrun in the midfield and its three group stage opponents might not be best equipped to do that.
From a pure talent standpoint New Zealand is either 31st or 32nd, something makes me think they play a little better than that, assuming they don't concede a goal to Slovakia in the first five minutes in their match on June 15 then they might as well just fly back home immediately.
(Self-high five. Made it through the entire Kiwi part without one 'Flight of the Conchords' reference/joke. That that is an upset. ... And good for Murray [Rhys Darby] to land those HP ads. A man's gotta eat, though is he supposed to be Murray?)
North Korea aka Korea DPR:
Oh Beloved Leader, where to begin?
North Korea qualifying is, in-and-of itself, nothing short of amazing. The kind of feat worthy of an elaborate, choreographed dance spectacle.
The specter of Kim Jong II adds an entire wrinkle into the whole Cup. Literally anything is in play with this guy, with the bottom floor of craziness beginning with how he's threatened not to show the games unless North Korea wins. (Which might be a truth inside the country.) We're already hearing rumors of players swapping jerseys or different players showing up under different names.
In a recent friendly against Venezuela the team lost its jerseys and had to use spares from the hosts.
Like Charlie Kelly on "It's Always Sunny", North Korea is the ultimate wild card. We barely know anything about the country itself, let alone its national soccer team. In the year 2010 nearly every team or player could be scouted with a little bit of internet/video savvy.
The North Koreans? Nope.
North Korea might be completely unknown to nearly everyone aside from Asian soccer uber-aficionados. But are they any good? Could they possibly spring an upset like they did in 1966, defeating Italy 1-0 in England?
Doubtful since they were placed in the "Group of Death", or as it's known in North Korea, "The Group of Everlasting and Beloved Happiness."
Does this communist-approved, interchangeable, group of no-names have the chance to knock of Portugal, Brazil or Cote d'Ivoire? Let's call it very slim.
What Korea could do, is cause some major consternation in that group, since it's being looked as three automatic points by the other teams. If, say, Portgual has a hiccup and draws North Korea on June 21 in Cape Town that might be all it takes to send Cristiano Ronaldo & Co. home. Or how about the scenario facing the Ivorians on the last group stage game, when they are likely facing the pressure of needing to defeat North Korea, possibly by a large number of goals.
We can reasonably guess North Korea will work as hard, if not harder than any team in the tournament. God only knows what kind of pressure is facing them on their return. They're either getting the hero's welcome, free designer sunglasses for life, or perhaps never being heard from again. You never can tell with Kim Jong II.
Not to get into a huge geopolitical tangent, but North Korea is clearly a thorn in the international communities' side that wants to be taken seriously -- even if it goes about it in all the wrong ways, you know with the whole nuclear weapons thing.
Portugal, Brazil and Cote d'Ivoire would be best served to tread lightly and not casually dismiss North Korea. Their World Cup fates might, believe it or not, hinge on it.
(One final North Korea tangent. The best summation of North Korea, for me, is it's description during the zombie apocalypse described by Max Brooks' "World War Z". Check it out sometime, otherwise this makes 0.0 percent sense.)
South Africa, New Zealand and North Korea are clearly the weakest teams in the tournament, with dozens of nations probably able to put together an better resume of players. While they'll likely result in three points for the opposition, I tend to doubt those three-points will be gift wrapped.
USMNT Stock Watch:
Great week for the USMNT, ipso facto because of the slate of injuries now befalling England. Forget David Beckham, who was -- at best -- a 20 minute cameo sub. On the shelf are probable starters Ashley Cole, Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe. Throw in Jolean Lescott's recent injury and a possible "niggle" which will sideline Wayne Rooney this weekend, and things are looking a lot brighter for June 12 in Rustenberg.
Let's not forget the rapidly declining form of John Terry and Steven Gerrard, coupled with England's lack of a true No. 1 keeper and maybe, just maybe, the U.S. repeats its famous result from 1950. (1,000 percent different parameters, mind you.)
On the flip side, Clint Dempsey is clearly back. Charlie Davies is getting there, and oh right, MLS kicks off Thursday night too.
This week's rating: Bullish
In the year 2010 it seems like there are increasingly fewer certainties in life. When it appears the United States is headed toward universal health care, you know all bets are off.
Now, having said that, there are still some things I'll add to this blog without fear of impunity.
1) Uwe Boll will never win an Oscar.
2) The Toronto Blue Jays will not make the playoffs in the foreseeable future.
3) Ray Parker Jr. will never have another No. 1 hit where it's video features brief cameo from a future U.S. Senator. (Al Franken, it happened, 3:41 mark.)
And now the statement that we're here for: New Zealand, North Korea and South Africa will not win the 2010 World Cup.
If one of these three somehow manage to pull it off, I will take a page from Werner Herzog and eat my own shoe. (Hell, we can even post it on YouTube.)
What's that I hear in the background? Crickets? Audible yawning? Perhaps a "no shit, Sherlock"?
Pipe down for a second.
Look at it this way, we could harness the power of the Large Hadron Collider, applying it to soccer (somehow) and these three still wouldn't have a shot. We could sit inside the computer lab from the Dharma Initiative's Swan Station and run probability simulations for the next 108 years, and the probability of these three winning world football's biggest prize is still John Blutarsky's Faber College GPA -- 0.0.
Hell, the odds of one of these three advancing out of their respective groups likely range in the 0.1 percent chance (North Korea) to, at best, 10 percent. (South Africa, if you want to give them a homefield bonus.)
It's worth remember, of course, that realistically only a handful of teams actually harbor legitimate hopes of winning come the Jul 11 final -- Brazil, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Argentina and in its own mind -- England.
So, why you ask, is it worth even looking at the tournament chances of North Korea, New Zealand and South Africa?
Even if they have next to no hope at the Cup, they certainly can certainly be the proverbial fly in the ointment for their three group stage opponents. Remember, when your raison d'etre is simply to not get embarrassed, sitting behind the ball to frustrate and flummox the favorites is a sound stratagem. Playing for the 0-0 draw might be the best these teams have to offer. From the lowest levels of the game to the top, the anti-soccer, 10 men behind the ball tactic is frustratingly effective. (By contrast, say you're Italy against New Zealand on June 20 in Nelspruit, the best move is to come out guns blazing, trying to score within the first 15 minutes. Then the rout is on.)
Nine nations are looking at these three as automatic, 3-point ATMs. Should they be that confident?
South Africa:
On one online betting site, the hosts are 4-to-11 odds NOT to qualify from the group. All the vuvuzelas in the world might not change this.
Steven Pienaar might.
The play of the Everton midfielder lately in the Premier League gives the Bafana Bafanaa glimmer, albeit a slight one, of hope.
Could they spring an upset on Mexico in the tournament opener on June 11? Might it be possible to grind out a result against a rugged Uruguay team? Can they hang with France and make Les Bleus sweat?
In a word? No.
The home fans have definitely been a boost at the last half dozen World Cups. The U.S. got through its group on homesoil. France lifted the Cup on the outskirts of Paris. South Korea and Germany each made the semfinals in front of rapid, flag-waving partisan crowds.
That might end here. Sure South African fans will get behind their team and cheer and go wild and construct some crazy costumes and dance in the aisles.
The South African fans, too, are realistic and realize that if not for Sepp Blatter's plan to stage a World Cup in Africa, they wouldn't have even sniffed the competition.
This team, even with the recent purple patch from Pienaar doesn't have a lot of talent, particularly in the back line even with towering back Matthew Booth.
South Africa is 1-1-3 in is last three matches, including a 1-1 draw with mighty Namibia earlier this month.
So the big question for South Africa is if the home crowd provides a boost? Or does the expectations end up weighing down the team? Will the players push too hard to impress, ending up hurting the team?
Maybe, since it's the opener, they can figure out a way to knock off an improving Mexican team. The best bet for the hosts to avoid a last-place finish is getting something off a middling Uruguay team. Guess it's worth mentioning, too, South Africa might have a chance against France depending on which Star Charts Raymond Domenech consults before he fields his lineup.
Put it this way, the South African players have heard since May 15, 2004 -- the day it was awarded the tournament -- that the host nation has always made it out of the group stages. Six years on, that minor molehill has become a major mountain of trouble for the Bafana Bafana.
Perhaps they can pick the brains of Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman for some answers, because frankly I don't have any.
New Zealand:
The Kiwis/All Whites are probably the weakest team in the field from top-to-bottom, coming out of the laughable Oceanic qualifying region, which deserves to be relegated from actual FIFA sanctioning in all honesty. This team looked more out of its element at the 2009 Confederations Cup than Donnie during Walter and the Dude's discussion of V.I. Lenin, going 0-2-1 without scoring a goal. (Losing 5-0 to Spain could be considered a slight outlier, since Spain is a bit special.)
Couple this with the fact their manager -- Ricki Herbert -- has a named more in line with a female pornstar than an international manager, and its best/most-well known player -- Ryan Nelsen -- is currently injured and you'd have predict New Zealand going 0-3-0, with a goal difference in the -10 range, right?
Probably, though it's not a slam dunk.
The Kiwis are getting 16-to-1 odds to advance from the group. And that group is hardly murderers row -- Italy, Paraguay and World Cup debutantes Slovakia. (There would be worse ways to blow $20.)
Yes Italy is a favorite by default, but isn't the Azzurri's M.O. to struggle in the opening round matches? With an aging cast of characters, the only reason you'd think they'll blow out New Zealand is because of history. (Italy did only win 4-3 in a June 2009 friendly, for what that's worth.)
And Paraguay is good, no doubt, but not exactly the most dynamic team in the world especially with arguably its best attacker -- Salvador Cabañas -- recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. (Sorry, Roque Santa Cruz. Don't see the Man City part-time starter as a one-man wrecking ball.)
Slovakia? When your best player -- Marek Hamsik -- looks like he's an extra on a live-action Anime adaptation, you don't get the benefit of the doubt.
Gun to my head would I pick New Zealand to advance, let alone get a point? Probably not, but with forwards Shane Smeltz and Chris Killen, the All Whites should at least be able to keep the opponents honest. It's biggest problem is avoiding getting overrun in the midfield and its three group stage opponents might not be best equipped to do that.
From a pure talent standpoint New Zealand is either 31st or 32nd, something makes me think they play a little better than that, assuming they don't concede a goal to Slovakia in the first five minutes in their match on June 15 then they might as well just fly back home immediately.
(Self-high five. Made it through the entire Kiwi part without one 'Flight of the Conchords' reference/joke. That that is an upset. ... And good for Murray [Rhys Darby] to land those HP ads. A man's gotta eat, though is he supposed to be Murray?)
North Korea aka Korea DPR:
Oh Beloved Leader, where to begin?
North Korea qualifying is, in-and-of itself, nothing short of amazing. The kind of feat worthy of an elaborate, choreographed dance spectacle.
The specter of Kim Jong II adds an entire wrinkle into the whole Cup. Literally anything is in play with this guy, with the bottom floor of craziness beginning with how he's threatened not to show the games unless North Korea wins. (Which might be a truth inside the country.) We're already hearing rumors of players swapping jerseys or different players showing up under different names.
In a recent friendly against Venezuela the team lost its jerseys and had to use spares from the hosts.
Like Charlie Kelly on "It's Always Sunny", North Korea is the ultimate wild card. We barely know anything about the country itself, let alone its national soccer team. In the year 2010 nearly every team or player could be scouted with a little bit of internet/video savvy.
The North Koreans? Nope.
North Korea might be completely unknown to nearly everyone aside from Asian soccer uber-aficionados. But are they any good? Could they possibly spring an upset like they did in 1966, defeating Italy 1-0 in England?
Doubtful since they were placed in the "Group of Death", or as it's known in North Korea, "The Group of Everlasting and Beloved Happiness."
Does this communist-approved, interchangeable, group of no-names have the chance to knock of Portugal, Brazil or Cote d'Ivoire? Let's call it very slim.
What Korea could do, is cause some major consternation in that group, since it's being looked as three automatic points by the other teams. If, say, Portgual has a hiccup and draws North Korea on June 21 in Cape Town that might be all it takes to send Cristiano Ronaldo & Co. home. Or how about the scenario facing the Ivorians on the last group stage game, when they are likely facing the pressure of needing to defeat North Korea, possibly by a large number of goals.
We can reasonably guess North Korea will work as hard, if not harder than any team in the tournament. God only knows what kind of pressure is facing them on their return. They're either getting the hero's welcome, free designer sunglasses for life, or perhaps never being heard from again. You never can tell with Kim Jong II.
Not to get into a huge geopolitical tangent, but North Korea is clearly a thorn in the international communities' side that wants to be taken seriously -- even if it goes about it in all the wrong ways, you know with the whole nuclear weapons thing.
Portugal, Brazil and Cote d'Ivoire would be best served to tread lightly and not casually dismiss North Korea. Their World Cup fates might, believe it or not, hinge on it.
(One final North Korea tangent. The best summation of North Korea, for me, is it's description during the zombie apocalypse described by Max Brooks' "World War Z". Check it out sometime, otherwise this makes 0.0 percent sense.)
South Africa, New Zealand and North Korea are clearly the weakest teams in the tournament, with dozens of nations probably able to put together an better resume of players. While they'll likely result in three points for the opposition, I tend to doubt those three-points will be gift wrapped.
USMNT Stock Watch:
Great week for the USMNT, ipso facto because of the slate of injuries now befalling England. Forget David Beckham, who was -- at best -- a 20 minute cameo sub. On the shelf are probable starters Ashley Cole, Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe. Throw in Jolean Lescott's recent injury and a possible "niggle" which will sideline Wayne Rooney this weekend, and things are looking a lot brighter for June 12 in Rustenberg.
Let's not forget the rapidly declining form of John Terry and Steven Gerrard, coupled with England's lack of a true No. 1 keeper and maybe, just maybe, the U.S. repeats its famous result from 1950. (1,000 percent different parameters, mind you.)
On the flip side, Clint Dempsey is clearly back. Charlie Davies is getting there, and oh right, MLS kicks off Thursday night too.
This week's rating: Bullish
Labels: 2010 world cup, new zealand, north korea, Soccer, south africa, USMNT, world cup 2010, world cup wednesdays
If you had the one, the only El Hadji Diouf as the man swinging the balance of the 2009-10 Premier League title, step forward to the window and collect your winnings Mr. Tannern.
You'd likely have needed a sports results book from the future to figure that Blackburn would manage a 1-1 draw at home against Chelsea.
In fact, when Didier Drogba put Chelsea ahead inside of six minutes I turned the channel to the Syracuse/Gonzaga NCAA tournament game. We'd seen it so many times from Chelsea, get the early goal and take it from there. (I was back for the final 15, and the Blues didn't mount much of a challenge.)
This, being the surreal season, it didn't happen at Ewood Park, with Blackburn getting a deserved equalizer, thus putting an exclamation point on Chelsea's lowest ebb since Jose Mourinho walked away in 2007.
You could expect Chelsea lack of creativity to hurt them in the Champions League, but surely the Blue had enough to still hammer down the lower half of the table. Scoring, though, isn't the problem as the once solid Chelsea defense is being to show cracks and or signs of age. (Since January, Chelsea has kept only four clean sheets across all competitions, a low number based on its recent history.)
Wednesday's trip to last place Portsmouth -- the Blues game-in-hand -- is beyond must-win territory. You almost have to wonder how Chelsea reacts to all the pressure. Carlo Ancelotti is probably packing an extra pair of undies for the trip to Fratton Park, to be sure.
Chelsea aren't out of the race, just not the favorites anymore.
It's funny, today though, that we can predict looking back to the controversial Senegalese Blackburn player as the man that undid Chelsea's title hopes. (And what's the deal with his head? Bleached blond? Just shiny? The mohawk certainly was bleached, so that answers that. I always looked at Diouf with the same mystery of how Adibeyse's little hat stayed on his head in "Oz.")
The question going forward, is Roman Abramovich going to pull a personal Real Madrid and make a parade of "godfather" offers, trying to poach the best players in the world from their current clubs? Or will Chelsea play it more reserved and supplement around its core?
If the club loses the Premier League, on the back of getting KO-ed in the Champions League quarters, head will roll in West London.
Regardless isn't this fun? A genuine three-horse race for the big trophy with the crown?
While Chelsea stubbed its toe on the bumpy ground at Ewood, Arsenal and Manchester United took care of business.
Arsenal got its brief hold of the top, with a semi-tough win at the Emirates over West Ham. Admittedly, once Arsenal got up 1-0 early through Denilson, I was in-and-out of the match. (This time it didn't come back to bite me.)
Obviously the Thomas Vermaelen sending off and penalty was the big talking point. Of course Maunel Almunia made the huge save and eventually Cesc Fabregas made it 2-0.
It hit me later Saturday night on a long drive home, how remarkable that Arsene Wenger has been able to exhume the corpse of Sol Campbell and coax some reasonable performances from him. It's perhaps the biggest upset, or the most unlikely story of the season.
Arsenal could have caved, just like last week at Hull, but made sure to bank the three points and are now second favorites to Manchester United for the crown.
Okay, waited this long. Let's get into Manchester United's 2-1 win at Old Trafford over Liverpool.
Here's the quick Liverpool take. How frustrating is this team? Could it be any more annoying to root for? Just when you think you're out, you're back in. And vice versa.
Liverpool, thanks mainly to the threat of Fernando Torres, looked super dangerous anytime the ball was in the United half, like the Spanish ace could pounce at any time.
Of course the game HAD to come down to a strange penalty call when Javier Mashcherano pulled down Luis Valencia, on the edge of the box. The Ecuadorian gave it a good sell, stumbling into the box and getting the spot kick, which Wayne Rooney missed, but cashed in the rebound off Pepe Reina's correct guess to stop the initial attempt. (Does that count as a miss?)
I'm not getting too wrapped up in the fact Mascherano pulled down Valencia outside the box. It was a bad call. They happen. At this point Rafa, railing at the refs is wearing thin -- what's next blaming Sir Alex when's he's finally fired? Howard Webb screwed up that call. He didn't script the ensuing 75-odd minutes for Los Reds. (I'd love Man Utd./Liverpool match that didn't have the ref involved afterward. Oh well, I'd like to win the lottery, too.)
After the penalty the air went completely out of Liverpool, which decided it didn't feel like doing anything else, in essence an encapsulated of its season.
At this point, does winning the Europa League even matter to Los Reds fans? Will it be enough to keep Rafa Benitez around Anfield? How many lives does he have? With the instability and volatility in the manager's box at almost all top flight clubs not named Arsenal and Manchester United it's a minor miracle Rafa has survived.
Enough about that.
Oh there is the rapidly oxidizing decline in form from Steven Gerrard, but let's safe that for another day.
United did, as it's done all season. It found a way to win. This time it was Park Ji-Sung, or is it Ji-Sung Park? At times the Korean was described as "reserved", "hard working" and "unassuming." Not sure what kind of veiled code that is?
Park got a head on Darren Fletcher's cross and that was that. Liverpool was cooked, which is sad because the game was there to take since Rooney's shooting touch was off all match.
Torres did have a chance late, that he fluffed.
The 90 minutes summed up the seasons so far for the two giants of English football. Manchester United keeps on finding ways to pile up results, while Liverpool can't get out of its own way for more than a couple minutes at a time.
To the consternation of many, there Sir Alex sits, two points clear with seven to play.
True grit?:
Tottenham is such a strange team. Spurs are chock full of solid B+/A- talent, but 30 games into the season it still seems like Harry Redknapp is a guy trying to put together a 10,000 piece puzzle without the benefit of the picture on the box.
From the Croatian trio, the English guys with lines shaved into their eyebrows, its simply a strange mix.
For all bad results logged by Tottenham this season -- losing at home to Wolves springs to mind -- Redknapp's crew might have punched in the grittiest result of the season, winning 2-1 at 10-man Stoke on Saturday.
Why was this that impressive?
Let's see. Jermaine Defoe -- basically the team's only consistent scorer -- was already out with hamstring. Then Roman Pavlychenko went down in the first half, leaving Peter Crouch and Eidur Gudjohnsen up front. Yikes.
Gudjohnsen somehow got behind the defense and scored only a few seconds into the half. That goal wasn't enough, with Stoke leveling from a penalty kick.
Yet Spurs managed to grind out a second goal, with Niko Kranjcar getting onto the end of ball from Gareth Bale. (The Welshmen was actually very positive all game.)
Spurs now hold onto a tenuous grip of fourth place -- two points ahead of Manchester City, which has a game-in-hand.
The typical M.O. of Tottenham is to tease fans and ultimately collapse. That win though Saturday, it really spoke volumes about this squad's ability to find a way to win.
Can Redknapp coax them past hard-charging City, especially with his attack options muted? (Loaning out Robbie Keane and even Gio dos Santos looks bad in retrospect.) Everything logically says no, but considering how crazy this season has been, maybe it'll happen.
Vanilla Villa:
The league's best defense with a savvy manager in Martin O'Neill, it seemed like Aston Villa might sneak away with fourth place.
The path back into the Champions League -- remember Villa won the European Cup in the early 1980s -- took a major hit early Saturday with a home 2-2 draw against rival Wolverhampton.
It's hard to call it anything other than a terrible loss, up 1-0 at home only to give up goals off a set piece to a 30-something defender and then an own goal from your best player -- James Milner.
Sure they showed a little heart getting a point, with John Carew's second possibly offsides goal of the match, but it still as them five off the pace, albeit with a game-in-hand.
Troubling was the lack of any variation of attack for Villa, which just kept whipping crosses from Ashley Young and hoping one of them would stick. When O'Neill needed offense in the second half, all he had to turn to was 20-year-old Marc Albrighton.
Emile Heskey? Clearly the English equivalent of Brian Ching. Let's leave it at that.
Villa remains stuck in that uncomfortable gray zone in the Premier League.
O'Neill has worked wonders, building a solid, sturdy squad, which almost as importantly is fun to root for. As seen in the Carling Cup and the FA Cup, the Villa first XI can hang with anybody in the league.
Where the problem lies is making that next step, if it really wants to challenge for at lest a place in the Champions League.
How do make that final push up the mountain? Where do you can that extra canister of oxygen with upsetting the apple cart? (How's that for a mixed metaphor?)
Or look at it this way? How can you improve without abandoning what got you there in the first place?
The answer could be pretty easy. With O'Neill moving Milner into the middle of the field now that Stuart Downing is healthy, the ex-Newcastle midfielder needs to take his game to a Gerrard-like level. Or he's got to find a way to rise to the occasion and lift Villa up by the proverbial bootstrap when they need it. (Late Saturday a long ball over the top was played to Milner, who ended up stumbling allowing Marcus Hahnemann to collect it with ease.)
Pretty soon O'Neill is going to have to make some kind of move, figure out a way to get a little more dynamic, or this team may have peaked. The problem, beyond the Cristiano Ronaldo-caliber players of the world, there's not a simple solution to buy a player, plop him into the XI and cash the UEFA check in 10 months.
The alternative is consolidating and taking a more Fulham-like approach and playing within your means. That's not meant as an insult for either club.
Sometimes you just have to be realistic. Villa needs to figure out which road it wants to take.
My new slogan for Barclays:
Wonder what Richard Scudamore thinks of this statement -- "The Premier League is played in England, but it belongs to the world." ?
Other stuff:
John Terry please shut up. Please. A officiating conspiracy in the Champions League against Chelsea? Nobody every thought you were a Mensa member, but just stop talking, sit this next play out. ... Looking at Richard Dunne, doesn't he look like a guy that could have easily purchased a ticket and watched the game for the stands. And aren't there a lot of guys in the Prem, if you took them out of uniform you'd never expect them to be a world-class athlete? ... Even with Jozy Altidore, who Twittered during the match and might have picked up an injury, Hull City you are the weaknest link. Goodbye. Coughing up a pair of leads to Portsmouth. The Prem will be a lot more fun with Newcastle United back up in your place. ... Speaking of the Magpies, watched a ton of their rousing 2-2 comeback at Bristol City. Andy Carroll is going to be a beast in the top flight next season. A 6-foot-3 beast with John Belusi's samurai delicatessen wig. The Geordies are loving this team so much about a half dozen ran onto the field to mob Carroll after his late equalizer. (Just don't blow a 10-point lead guys.) ... Did you know that Paul Hart, the guy in charge of Portsmouth to start the season is now managing Crystal Palace, which is 22nd in the Championship and also in "administration"? Keep him away from your club at all costs. ... The play of Steven Pienaar for Everton might give South Africa a glimmer, albeit a slight one, when it hosts the World Cup in June. He's playing like a man on fire. ... Another guy playing a little too much "FIFA 10" -- Denilson. His goal celebration dance was lifted straight from digital life. ... I heard Charlie Davies was online with fans playing the game Saturday? How is Chuck Deezy? ...
Fantasy Team O' the Week:
Scott Graham's Steaua Needarest gets top honors with 63 points thanks to Fabregas, Mikel Arteta -- sick free kick goal -- Drogba and Darren Bent.
Me? My goose is cooked. I made James Milner captain and he scored an own goal. I had Craddock on the bench and Tommy V getting sent off. Ugh.
One other thing:
Am I crazy that the Clint Dempsey goal vs. Juventus still has put a spring in my step? I'm about thiiiiiis close from biting the bullet and buying his jersey.
Midweek Fixtures:
Remember that cold spell in England, that left all the pitches frozen? These apparently are the makeup dates.
Tuesday:
* West Ham United v. Wolves -- (Live, FSC+, 3:45 p.m.) A true six-pointer here. West Ham can't afford anything less than three points. It's that simple. Unlike Newcastle, West Ham might not either have the squad to bounce back up or survive in the Championship. No pressure Gianfranco Zola. (Play Carlton Cole. Just a thought.) Wolves are playing with resolve, which might play against the nervy Upton Park crowd. ... West Ham 2, Wolves 1
Wednesday:
* Manchester City v. Everton -- (Live, FSC+, 3:30 p.m.) Something tells me this will be a fun one to watch. ... City 3, Everton 1
* Aston Villa v. Sunderland -- No excuses here for Villa. Hold off Sunderland early, and the result will come. Gabby Agbonlahor, get well some. ... Villa 1, Sunderland 0
* Portsmouth v. Chelsea -- (Live, FSC, 3:30 p.m.) This has been a crazy season. Could the craziest result be lodged here? It could get nutty, I just sense it. Then I realize how leaky Pompey's defense has been. ... Portsmouth 1, Chelsea 2
* Blackburn v. Birmingham City -- Meh. ... Blackburn 1, Birmingham City 1
Last round: 7-3 w/a couple scores pegged too!
Season: 161-137
You'd likely have needed a sports results book from the future to figure that Blackburn would manage a 1-1 draw at home against Chelsea.
In fact, when Didier Drogba put Chelsea ahead inside of six minutes I turned the channel to the Syracuse/Gonzaga NCAA tournament game. We'd seen it so many times from Chelsea, get the early goal and take it from there. (I was back for the final 15, and the Blues didn't mount much of a challenge.)
This, being the surreal season, it didn't happen at Ewood Park, with Blackburn getting a deserved equalizer, thus putting an exclamation point on Chelsea's lowest ebb since Jose Mourinho walked away in 2007.
You could expect Chelsea lack of creativity to hurt them in the Champions League, but surely the Blue had enough to still hammer down the lower half of the table. Scoring, though, isn't the problem as the once solid Chelsea defense is being to show cracks and or signs of age. (Since January, Chelsea has kept only four clean sheets across all competitions, a low number based on its recent history.)
Wednesday's trip to last place Portsmouth -- the Blues game-in-hand -- is beyond must-win territory. You almost have to wonder how Chelsea reacts to all the pressure. Carlo Ancelotti is probably packing an extra pair of undies for the trip to Fratton Park, to be sure.
Chelsea aren't out of the race, just not the favorites anymore.
It's funny, today though, that we can predict looking back to the controversial Senegalese Blackburn player as the man that undid Chelsea's title hopes. (And what's the deal with his head? Bleached blond? Just shiny? The mohawk certainly was bleached, so that answers that. I always looked at Diouf with the same mystery of how Adibeyse's little hat stayed on his head in "Oz.")
The question going forward, is Roman Abramovich going to pull a personal Real Madrid and make a parade of "godfather" offers, trying to poach the best players in the world from their current clubs? Or will Chelsea play it more reserved and supplement around its core?
If the club loses the Premier League, on the back of getting KO-ed in the Champions League quarters, head will roll in West London.
Regardless isn't this fun? A genuine three-horse race for the big trophy with the crown?
While Chelsea stubbed its toe on the bumpy ground at Ewood, Arsenal and Manchester United took care of business.
Arsenal got its brief hold of the top, with a semi-tough win at the Emirates over West Ham. Admittedly, once Arsenal got up 1-0 early through Denilson, I was in-and-out of the match. (This time it didn't come back to bite me.)
Obviously the Thomas Vermaelen sending off and penalty was the big talking point. Of course Maunel Almunia made the huge save and eventually Cesc Fabregas made it 2-0.
It hit me later Saturday night on a long drive home, how remarkable that Arsene Wenger has been able to exhume the corpse of Sol Campbell and coax some reasonable performances from him. It's perhaps the biggest upset, or the most unlikely story of the season.
Arsenal could have caved, just like last week at Hull, but made sure to bank the three points and are now second favorites to Manchester United for the crown.
Okay, waited this long. Let's get into Manchester United's 2-1 win at Old Trafford over Liverpool.
Here's the quick Liverpool take. How frustrating is this team? Could it be any more annoying to root for? Just when you think you're out, you're back in. And vice versa.
Liverpool, thanks mainly to the threat of Fernando Torres, looked super dangerous anytime the ball was in the United half, like the Spanish ace could pounce at any time.
Of course the game HAD to come down to a strange penalty call when Javier Mashcherano pulled down Luis Valencia, on the edge of the box. The Ecuadorian gave it a good sell, stumbling into the box and getting the spot kick, which Wayne Rooney missed, but cashed in the rebound off Pepe Reina's correct guess to stop the initial attempt. (Does that count as a miss?)
I'm not getting too wrapped up in the fact Mascherano pulled down Valencia outside the box. It was a bad call. They happen. At this point Rafa, railing at the refs is wearing thin -- what's next blaming Sir Alex when's he's finally fired? Howard Webb screwed up that call. He didn't script the ensuing 75-odd minutes for Los Reds. (I'd love Man Utd./Liverpool match that didn't have the ref involved afterward. Oh well, I'd like to win the lottery, too.)
After the penalty the air went completely out of Liverpool, which decided it didn't feel like doing anything else, in essence an encapsulated of its season.
At this point, does winning the Europa League even matter to Los Reds fans? Will it be enough to keep Rafa Benitez around Anfield? How many lives does he have? With the instability and volatility in the manager's box at almost all top flight clubs not named Arsenal and Manchester United it's a minor miracle Rafa has survived.
Enough about that.
Oh there is the rapidly oxidizing decline in form from Steven Gerrard, but let's safe that for another day.
United did, as it's done all season. It found a way to win. This time it was Park Ji-Sung, or is it Ji-Sung Park? At times the Korean was described as "reserved", "hard working" and "unassuming." Not sure what kind of veiled code that is?
Park got a head on Darren Fletcher's cross and that was that. Liverpool was cooked, which is sad because the game was there to take since Rooney's shooting touch was off all match.
Torres did have a chance late, that he fluffed.
The 90 minutes summed up the seasons so far for the two giants of English football. Manchester United keeps on finding ways to pile up results, while Liverpool can't get out of its own way for more than a couple minutes at a time.
To the consternation of many, there Sir Alex sits, two points clear with seven to play.
True grit?:
Tottenham is such a strange team. Spurs are chock full of solid B+/A- talent, but 30 games into the season it still seems like Harry Redknapp is a guy trying to put together a 10,000 piece puzzle without the benefit of the picture on the box.
From the Croatian trio, the English guys with lines shaved into their eyebrows, its simply a strange mix.
For all bad results logged by Tottenham this season -- losing at home to Wolves springs to mind -- Redknapp's crew might have punched in the grittiest result of the season, winning 2-1 at 10-man Stoke on Saturday.
Why was this that impressive?
Let's see. Jermaine Defoe -- basically the team's only consistent scorer -- was already out with hamstring. Then Roman Pavlychenko went down in the first half, leaving Peter Crouch and Eidur Gudjohnsen up front. Yikes.
Gudjohnsen somehow got behind the defense and scored only a few seconds into the half. That goal wasn't enough, with Stoke leveling from a penalty kick.
Yet Spurs managed to grind out a second goal, with Niko Kranjcar getting onto the end of ball from Gareth Bale. (The Welshmen was actually very positive all game.)
Spurs now hold onto a tenuous grip of fourth place -- two points ahead of Manchester City, which has a game-in-hand.
The typical M.O. of Tottenham is to tease fans and ultimately collapse. That win though Saturday, it really spoke volumes about this squad's ability to find a way to win.
Can Redknapp coax them past hard-charging City, especially with his attack options muted? (Loaning out Robbie Keane and even Gio dos Santos looks bad in retrospect.) Everything logically says no, but considering how crazy this season has been, maybe it'll happen.
Vanilla Villa:
The league's best defense with a savvy manager in Martin O'Neill, it seemed like Aston Villa might sneak away with fourth place.
The path back into the Champions League -- remember Villa won the European Cup in the early 1980s -- took a major hit early Saturday with a home 2-2 draw against rival Wolverhampton.
It's hard to call it anything other than a terrible loss, up 1-0 at home only to give up goals off a set piece to a 30-something defender and then an own goal from your best player -- James Milner.
Sure they showed a little heart getting a point, with John Carew's second possibly offsides goal of the match, but it still as them five off the pace, albeit with a game-in-hand.
Troubling was the lack of any variation of attack for Villa, which just kept whipping crosses from Ashley Young and hoping one of them would stick. When O'Neill needed offense in the second half, all he had to turn to was 20-year-old Marc Albrighton.
Emile Heskey? Clearly the English equivalent of Brian Ching. Let's leave it at that.
Villa remains stuck in that uncomfortable gray zone in the Premier League.
O'Neill has worked wonders, building a solid, sturdy squad, which almost as importantly is fun to root for. As seen in the Carling Cup and the FA Cup, the Villa first XI can hang with anybody in the league.
Where the problem lies is making that next step, if it really wants to challenge for at lest a place in the Champions League.
How do make that final push up the mountain? Where do you can that extra canister of oxygen with upsetting the apple cart? (How's that for a mixed metaphor?)
Or look at it this way? How can you improve without abandoning what got you there in the first place?
The answer could be pretty easy. With O'Neill moving Milner into the middle of the field now that Stuart Downing is healthy, the ex-Newcastle midfielder needs to take his game to a Gerrard-like level. Or he's got to find a way to rise to the occasion and lift Villa up by the proverbial bootstrap when they need it. (Late Saturday a long ball over the top was played to Milner, who ended up stumbling allowing Marcus Hahnemann to collect it with ease.)
Pretty soon O'Neill is going to have to make some kind of move, figure out a way to get a little more dynamic, or this team may have peaked. The problem, beyond the Cristiano Ronaldo-caliber players of the world, there's not a simple solution to buy a player, plop him into the XI and cash the UEFA check in 10 months.
The alternative is consolidating and taking a more Fulham-like approach and playing within your means. That's not meant as an insult for either club.
Sometimes you just have to be realistic. Villa needs to figure out which road it wants to take.
My new slogan for Barclays:
Wonder what Richard Scudamore thinks of this statement -- "The Premier League is played in England, but it belongs to the world." ?
Other stuff:
John Terry please shut up. Please. A officiating conspiracy in the Champions League against Chelsea? Nobody every thought you were a Mensa member, but just stop talking, sit this next play out. ... Looking at Richard Dunne, doesn't he look like a guy that could have easily purchased a ticket and watched the game for the stands. And aren't there a lot of guys in the Prem, if you took them out of uniform you'd never expect them to be a world-class athlete? ... Even with Jozy Altidore, who Twittered during the match and might have picked up an injury, Hull City you are the weaknest link. Goodbye. Coughing up a pair of leads to Portsmouth. The Prem will be a lot more fun with Newcastle United back up in your place. ... Speaking of the Magpies, watched a ton of their rousing 2-2 comeback at Bristol City. Andy Carroll is going to be a beast in the top flight next season. A 6-foot-3 beast with John Belusi's samurai delicatessen wig. The Geordies are loving this team so much about a half dozen ran onto the field to mob Carroll after his late equalizer. (Just don't blow a 10-point lead guys.) ... Did you know that Paul Hart, the guy in charge of Portsmouth to start the season is now managing Crystal Palace, which is 22nd in the Championship and also in "administration"? Keep him away from your club at all costs. ... The play of Steven Pienaar for Everton might give South Africa a glimmer, albeit a slight one, when it hosts the World Cup in June. He's playing like a man on fire. ... Another guy playing a little too much "FIFA 10" -- Denilson. His goal celebration dance was lifted straight from digital life. ... I heard Charlie Davies was online with fans playing the game Saturday? How is Chuck Deezy? ...
Fantasy Team O' the Week:
Scott Graham's Steaua Needarest gets top honors with 63 points thanks to Fabregas, Mikel Arteta -- sick free kick goal -- Drogba and Darren Bent.
Me? My goose is cooked. I made James Milner captain and he scored an own goal. I had Craddock on the bench and Tommy V getting sent off. Ugh.
One other thing:
Am I crazy that the Clint Dempsey goal vs. Juventus still has put a spring in my step? I'm about thiiiiiis close from biting the bullet and buying his jersey.
Midweek Fixtures:
Remember that cold spell in England, that left all the pitches frozen? These apparently are the makeup dates.
Tuesday:
* West Ham United v. Wolves -- (Live, FSC+, 3:45 p.m.) A true six-pointer here. West Ham can't afford anything less than three points. It's that simple. Unlike Newcastle, West Ham might not either have the squad to bounce back up or survive in the Championship. No pressure Gianfranco Zola. (Play Carlton Cole. Just a thought.) Wolves are playing with resolve, which might play against the nervy Upton Park crowd. ... West Ham 2, Wolves 1
Wednesday:
* Manchester City v. Everton -- (Live, FSC+, 3:30 p.m.) Something tells me this will be a fun one to watch. ... City 3, Everton 1
* Aston Villa v. Sunderland -- No excuses here for Villa. Hold off Sunderland early, and the result will come. Gabby Agbonlahor, get well some. ... Villa 1, Sunderland 0
* Portsmouth v. Chelsea -- (Live, FSC, 3:30 p.m.) This has been a crazy season. Could the craziest result be lodged here? It could get nutty, I just sense it. Then I realize how leaky Pompey's defense has been. ... Portsmouth 1, Chelsea 2
* Blackburn v. Birmingham City -- Meh. ... Blackburn 1, Birmingham City 1
Last round: 7-3 w/a couple scores pegged too!
Season: 161-137
Labels: aston villa, English Premier League, Liverpool, manchester United, Monday recaps, rafa benitez, Soccer, tottenham hotspur
My first encounter with the üüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüber-catchy "Tom Hark" was back in August when Burnley lodged that shock 1-0 result over Manchester United.
Since then, I've noticed its undeniably catchy "da, da, daaa" piping up in the background during halftimes and pregames all across England. In fact, as the title of this post reads, it's my song of the season. Hopefully some MLS supporters adopt it for this year since "Seven Nation Army" is so 2008.
Anyway, I'm not huge on embedding videos since the YouTube Copyright ninjas work in funny ways. (This was written before Dempsey's goalazo on Thursday afternoon.) This video from 1980 featuring a ska-punk band named The Piranhas is so out-and-out amazing, that it almost deserves a @DanielTosh video breakdown, or at least a countdown. (Tosh is the biggest asshole on TV right now, that's a compliment.)
A shirtless greaser playing the drums with rubber fish?
And he's positioned as the frontman?
A guy that looks about 60, or like Bob Fossil from "The Mighty Bosh" playing a flute?
Porkpie hats?
Dancing in place?
Terrible camera angles?
Again, it all comes back to the guy with the fish?
Let's just stop talking about it. Either way you're going to be humming that riff in your sleep tonight anyway. (If the song from the Nike "Human Chain" ad isn't already occupying that spot. As somebody anonymously commented yesterday, can't wait to see what Nike rolls out for the World Cup.)
Da, da daaaah, da da daaaah......(sorry)
Champions League leftovers:
* As weird as it sounds, coming from somebody that writes about the Premier League week-after-week, I'm the first person on that planet happy to see only a pair of English clubs in the Champions League quarterfinals. Diversity, here, is a good thing.
No, reaching the quarterfinals isn't turning CSKA Moscow or even Bordeaux into attractive long-term targets for top talent, or even shifting the balance of power from England. Yet, I'm on board for anything that keeps us away from a Chelsea-Liverpool match. (As for Liverpool where does winning the Europa League stand? To me, if you're Liverpool FC and you win the Europa League, you're a winner and a loser.)
(I wrote this Thursday, before Friday's awful draw.)
As it stands, it would be nice to give Barcelona a "soft" bracket, with either French club or CSKA, why waste a heavyweight match for only the quarters? The only teams that might be able to beat Barca are Inter (in Jose we trust), Arsenal (only midfield that could keep up with Xavi/Iniesta) or maaaaaaybe Bayern (they could score some goals at least), though the German defense is just so weak. Manchester United? The Red Devils couldn't do it with CRon9, so even SuperRoon isn't enough this season.
Part of me thinks maybe Lyon, with a defense-first approach might make some noise with the right draw, too. Les Gones would almost certainly have to keep a clean sheet at the Stade Gerland to even have a chance if they ran across Barca. Hope they aren't content after taking bows for knocking out Real Madrid.
If Michel Platini can embrace his inner David Stern, he'll give us Manchester United-Inter, anyway, if only to satiate the English press and kick the Jose Mourinho-to-Liverpool, or as Sir Alex's successor at Old Trafford into high gear.
Right now I'd love to see an Inter-Barca final, especially played in the heart of Madrid. That would just be a world class game and a prefect way to send off the club season before the World Cup. Sometimes simple is best.
* My unofficial, pre-draw odds to win it all. Let's put Barca as 2-to-1 odds vs. the field.
After Barca, I'd rate it: Inter, Arsenal, Manchester United, Bayern, Lyon, Bordeaux and CSKA.
* Of course, UEFA cooked up a semi-questionable draw. We gets a finals-worthy Barca-Arsenal pairing, while both French clubs get each other. Inter gets the rank outsider -- CSKA, while Manchester United and Bayern actually should be a fun matchup with goals-o'plenty on the docket.
Overall, I'm not crazy how the draw broke, but it's a little different even if Manchester United's path to the final seems considerably more clear cut than the other favorites. At least we do get to see Barcelona and Arsenal, which is a must-watch game for every fan of the sport.
Let the Cesc Fabregas-Barcelona rumors re-commence!
(Side note, Fulham must be happy getting Wolfsburg, while Liverpool can't complain with Benfica.)
* Chelsea is dead. Or at least the press would have you think that.
Funny how overnight a team in soccer can become "old", an offshoot of the classic parallel for a player becoming "fat."
It amazes me how the ages of Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Nic Anelka, Michael Ballack and John Terry weren't an issue around noon on Tuesday, then it was the end of the world after the Special One coaxed Inter past them.
For one, Chelsea's style is certainly more suited toward the Premier League, where they can beat up and eventually bowl over the softer teams. The Blues are like a medieval battering ram, with Drogba's head instead of an affectation of a horned-ram at the end of it.
Against Inter, Chelsea's lack of creative spark -- namely in the center of the park -- was a killer. Aside from some runs by Flourent Malouda, there was nothing going for Chelsea, which dearly missed Ashley Cole, too.
The key now, for Chelsea is to figure out if its time to tear it all down and start a new run -- finally flushing away the core of the Mourinho team -- or supplement it with some new blood. You've already heard Fernando Torres name mentioned, and that's just the start. Expect a summer of Franck Ribery-to-Stamford Bridge stories to begin. (Is he that much better than Malouda, beyond his marquee value?) Hell, let's throw Wesley Sneijder's name into the mix, as a prototype of a creative player Chelsea needs.
Every player in Europe that isn't bolted down to the floor will probably hear his named bandied about toward Chelsea.
Me, I wouldn't tear everything down at the Bridge, just yet. You can probably coax another run out of the Terry-Lampard-Drogba core, at least in the Premier League. Anelka -- who's been pretty awful in 2010 -- should be out the door, in favor of a better complement to Drogba, or at least a little more pace (Kun Aguero? David Villa?). It's time for Ballack to pack his bags, too. (If I'm a team like Sunderland, Blackburn, Stoke, I'd make a run at the loathsome German ace, he'd be very useful marshaling the midfield for a midtable team for a year or two. As it stand he'd probably only settle for a club in the Champions League, and a Bundesliga club might be willing to pay for him, so it won't happen.)
One thing to consider with Chelsea, is that the Blues are a different squad with a healthy Michael Essien, who unlike John Obi Mikel, does more than just take up space and run into people, accruing a yellow brick's road worth of cards.
For Chelsea right now, even with Roman's billions, who is running the ship, since you'd think Carlo Ancelotti isn't long for England after Tuesday's KO.
Methinks after a couple years of somewhat penny, err, rubles-pinching, Uncle Roman is opening the piggy bank. Think the Yankees splurging for CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira last winter.
One MLS quibble:
* Here's my quickee take on the whole MLS-CBA-strike issue. It's a lot like the famous Robert Evans quote, "There are three sides to every story, yours, mine and the truth."
As someone that's not completely invested week-to-week by the league, here's my semi-detached question.
The only things cited by people who say a strike would be a disaster, are:
a) Philadelphia fans traveling for Thursday's opener at Seattle
b) Red Bull Arena opening. (I have tickets for RBNY/Santos, but had to pawn them off to my dad since I'm covering a high school championship basketball game at the same time. Grumble.)
Doesn't it make sense to reach a tenable deal for both sides, than rush something through? Missing a couple weeks of games to get the right deal that fits both sides wouldn't be the end of the world, no?
Hate to say it, but with the NCAA tournament in full bloom, the MLS going on strike is a lot like that old Chinese proverb of a "if tree falling in the woods, does it make a sound."
Having said that, I hope they avoid a work stoppage. (I have tickets to the Red Bull/Union match on March 27, after all.)
Saturday:
* Aston Villa v. Wolves -- (Live, ESPN2, 8:45 a.m.) Mini derby alert here, but that's secondary to Villa's pursuit of the Champions League. Martin O'Neill's crew did pretty good last week, taking four points from a pair of road matches. Villa is still on pace for fourth, trailing Tottenham by three with a game in hand on Spurs. Obviously they can't afford to stub their toe here, against a Wolves side that he proved pretty plucky plucky trying to cruise above the drop zone. Considering how toothless Wolves' attack is, I can't see them scoring on Villa. ... Villa 3, Wolves 0
* Everton v. Bolton -- (Live, FSC, 11 a.m.) Landon Donovan in MLS CBA limbo. Stuart Holden on the sidelines with a broken leg. Yeah, this one lost a lot of its juice for us in the States. In a blink of an eye Owen Coyle has Bolton ten points clear of the drop. How did this happen so fast? Was I asleep? The Trotters have settled on a lineup, and the pairing of Johan Ellmander and Kevin Davies seems to be getting the job done. Gary Cahill could be back, too. Still, Everton are just a little better, at Goodison Park. ... Everton 2, Bolton 1
* Portsmouth v. Hull City -- I guess if you're on Portsmouth you can't just give up, since you need to make yourself as marketable as possible for the summer. I know Jamie O'Hara wants to stick in the Premier League, if not when his loan with Spurs is over. How about Mark Wilson? (Okay, the rest of the team is pretty soup kitchen.) Now how will Hull react now that Phil Brown's would-be operatic singing is relegated to the shower? Iain Dowie? Well, I suppose he was available. His career track record? Not so good. His best spell as at QPR in 2008, going 8-3-4. It's not like he plays defense, because Hull's defense is an atrocity at the moment. Sorry Jozy. ... Portsmouth 3, Hull City 2
* Stoke City v. Tottenham -- (Live, FSC+, 10:45 a.m.) Show me something here Spurs. Cue up the Olivia Newtown John, because this game could get really physical. Be ready Tottenham. ... Stoke City 1, Tottenham 2
* Sunderland v. Birmingham City -- Back in October, I would have said Sunderland would've been the surprise of the season. Instead it was Birmingham. The pressure is off Sunderland a little bit and they're starting to play better. Allowing the Adam Johnson late leveler last week was tough, but I liked Sunderland's grit in that match. Birmingham? Don't get greedy this summer. ... Sunderland 1, Birmingham 1
* Wigan Athletic v. Burnley -- If the rest of the Premier League is "Seinfeld" during NBC's "Must-See TV" era, this game is the equivalent of "The Single Guy" or "Caroline in the City". For Burnley, we're in "Must win" territory the rest of the way. ... Wigan 2, Burnley 1
* Arsenal v. West Ham -- (Live, 1:30 FSC) West Ham are going to be in some trouble. Not sure they have the fight to stay up either. They're one team that doesn't seem to have the ability to play defense cohesively for the full 90, that's why Robert Green gets so many chances to impress Fabio Capello. It's hard to see anything other than an Arsenal stroll in this one. ... Arsenal 3, West Ham 1
Sunday:
* Manchester United v. Liverpool -- (Live, FSC+, 9:30 a.m.) Are we entering the "dead cat bounce" portion of the Liverpool season? Would a win over Manchester United at Old Trafford be enough to change the tenor of the year? Or the winning the Europa League? Considering the Red pure schizophrenic nature two-straight strong showings in a row? I doubt it. Fernando Torres should prove a good test to see if the Rio Ferdinand/Nemanja Vidic duo is back. Liverpool do have the talent to cause Sir Alex's club to stub its toe, but how are the Reds going to slow down Wayne Rooney? Unless Rafa pretends this is the second leg of a European tie, it doesn't seem likely. United wins, but it won't be easy ... Manchester United 2, Liverpool 1
* Fulham v. Manchester City -- Fulham can't afford a Europa league hangover. Well, they can, but will City be able to take advantage of it? He's not a sexy choice, but Roy Hodgson certainly could figure out a stable, winning lineup with all the talent on display at City, couldn't he? ... Fulham 1, City 2
* Blackburn v. Chelsea -- (Live, FSC, noon) Chelsea will not look old at Ewood Park. ... Blackburn 0, Chelsea 2
Last round: 9-2 (I'm surprised, too.)
Season: 154-134
Since then, I've noticed its undeniably catchy "da, da, daaa" piping up in the background during halftimes and pregames all across England. In fact, as the title of this post reads, it's my song of the season. Hopefully some MLS supporters adopt it for this year since "Seven Nation Army" is so 2008.
Anyway, I'm not huge on embedding videos since the YouTube Copyright ninjas work in funny ways. (This was written before Dempsey's goalazo on Thursday afternoon.) This video from 1980 featuring a ska-punk band named The Piranhas is so out-and-out amazing, that it almost deserves a @DanielTosh video breakdown, or at least a countdown. (Tosh is the biggest asshole on TV right now, that's a compliment.)
A shirtless greaser playing the drums with rubber fish?
And he's positioned as the frontman?
A guy that looks about 60, or like Bob Fossil from "The Mighty Bosh" playing a flute?
Porkpie hats?
Dancing in place?
Terrible camera angles?
Again, it all comes back to the guy with the fish?
Let's just stop talking about it. Either way you're going to be humming that riff in your sleep tonight anyway. (If the song from the Nike "Human Chain" ad isn't already occupying that spot. As somebody anonymously commented yesterday, can't wait to see what Nike rolls out for the World Cup.)
Da, da daaaah, da da daaaah......(sorry)
Champions League leftovers:
* As weird as it sounds, coming from somebody that writes about the Premier League week-after-week, I'm the first person on that planet happy to see only a pair of English clubs in the Champions League quarterfinals. Diversity, here, is a good thing.
No, reaching the quarterfinals isn't turning CSKA Moscow or even Bordeaux into attractive long-term targets for top talent, or even shifting the balance of power from England. Yet, I'm on board for anything that keeps us away from a Chelsea-Liverpool match. (As for Liverpool where does winning the Europa League stand? To me, if you're Liverpool FC and you win the Europa League, you're a winner and a loser.)
(I wrote this Thursday, before Friday's awful draw.)
As it stands, it would be nice to give Barcelona a "soft" bracket, with either French club or CSKA, why waste a heavyweight match for only the quarters? The only teams that might be able to beat Barca are Inter (in Jose we trust), Arsenal (only midfield that could keep up with Xavi/Iniesta) or maaaaaaybe Bayern (they could score some goals at least), though the German defense is just so weak. Manchester United? The Red Devils couldn't do it with CRon9, so even SuperRoon isn't enough this season.
Part of me thinks maybe Lyon, with a defense-first approach might make some noise with the right draw, too. Les Gones would almost certainly have to keep a clean sheet at the Stade Gerland to even have a chance if they ran across Barca. Hope they aren't content after taking bows for knocking out Real Madrid.
If Michel Platini can embrace his inner David Stern, he'll give us Manchester United-Inter, anyway, if only to satiate the English press and kick the Jose Mourinho-to-Liverpool, or as Sir Alex's successor at Old Trafford into high gear.
Right now I'd love to see an Inter-Barca final, especially played in the heart of Madrid. That would just be a world class game and a prefect way to send off the club season before the World Cup. Sometimes simple is best.
* My unofficial, pre-draw odds to win it all. Let's put Barca as 2-to-1 odds vs. the field.
After Barca, I'd rate it: Inter, Arsenal, Manchester United, Bayern, Lyon, Bordeaux and CSKA.
* Of course, UEFA cooked up a semi-questionable draw. We gets a finals-worthy Barca-Arsenal pairing, while both French clubs get each other. Inter gets the rank outsider -- CSKA, while Manchester United and Bayern actually should be a fun matchup with goals-o'plenty on the docket.
Overall, I'm not crazy how the draw broke, but it's a little different even if Manchester United's path to the final seems considerably more clear cut than the other favorites. At least we do get to see Barcelona and Arsenal, which is a must-watch game for every fan of the sport.
Let the Cesc Fabregas-Barcelona rumors re-commence!
(Side note, Fulham must be happy getting Wolfsburg, while Liverpool can't complain with Benfica.)
* Chelsea is dead. Or at least the press would have you think that.
Funny how overnight a team in soccer can become "old", an offshoot of the classic parallel for a player becoming "fat."
It amazes me how the ages of Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Nic Anelka, Michael Ballack and John Terry weren't an issue around noon on Tuesday, then it was the end of the world after the Special One coaxed Inter past them.
For one, Chelsea's style is certainly more suited toward the Premier League, where they can beat up and eventually bowl over the softer teams. The Blues are like a medieval battering ram, with Drogba's head instead of an affectation of a horned-ram at the end of it.
Against Inter, Chelsea's lack of creative spark -- namely in the center of the park -- was a killer. Aside from some runs by Flourent Malouda, there was nothing going for Chelsea, which dearly missed Ashley Cole, too.
The key now, for Chelsea is to figure out if its time to tear it all down and start a new run -- finally flushing away the core of the Mourinho team -- or supplement it with some new blood. You've already heard Fernando Torres name mentioned, and that's just the start. Expect a summer of Franck Ribery-to-Stamford Bridge stories to begin. (Is he that much better than Malouda, beyond his marquee value?) Hell, let's throw Wesley Sneijder's name into the mix, as a prototype of a creative player Chelsea needs.
Every player in Europe that isn't bolted down to the floor will probably hear his named bandied about toward Chelsea.
Me, I wouldn't tear everything down at the Bridge, just yet. You can probably coax another run out of the Terry-Lampard-Drogba core, at least in the Premier League. Anelka -- who's been pretty awful in 2010 -- should be out the door, in favor of a better complement to Drogba, or at least a little more pace (Kun Aguero? David Villa?). It's time for Ballack to pack his bags, too. (If I'm a team like Sunderland, Blackburn, Stoke, I'd make a run at the loathsome German ace, he'd be very useful marshaling the midfield for a midtable team for a year or two. As it stand he'd probably only settle for a club in the Champions League, and a Bundesliga club might be willing to pay for him, so it won't happen.)
One thing to consider with Chelsea, is that the Blues are a different squad with a healthy Michael Essien, who unlike John Obi Mikel, does more than just take up space and run into people, accruing a yellow brick's road worth of cards.
For Chelsea right now, even with Roman's billions, who is running the ship, since you'd think Carlo Ancelotti isn't long for England after Tuesday's KO.
Methinks after a couple years of somewhat penny, err, rubles-pinching, Uncle Roman is opening the piggy bank. Think the Yankees splurging for CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira last winter.
One MLS quibble:
* Here's my quickee take on the whole MLS-CBA-strike issue. It's a lot like the famous Robert Evans quote, "There are three sides to every story, yours, mine and the truth."
As someone that's not completely invested week-to-week by the league, here's my semi-detached question.
The only things cited by people who say a strike would be a disaster, are:
a) Philadelphia fans traveling for Thursday's opener at Seattle
b) Red Bull Arena opening. (I have tickets for RBNY/Santos, but had to pawn them off to my dad since I'm covering a high school championship basketball game at the same time. Grumble.)
Doesn't it make sense to reach a tenable deal for both sides, than rush something through? Missing a couple weeks of games to get the right deal that fits both sides wouldn't be the end of the world, no?
Hate to say it, but with the NCAA tournament in full bloom, the MLS going on strike is a lot like that old Chinese proverb of a "if tree falling in the woods, does it make a sound."
Having said that, I hope they avoid a work stoppage. (I have tickets to the Red Bull/Union match on March 27, after all.)
Saturday:
* Aston Villa v. Wolves -- (Live, ESPN2, 8:45 a.m.) Mini derby alert here, but that's secondary to Villa's pursuit of the Champions League. Martin O'Neill's crew did pretty good last week, taking four points from a pair of road matches. Villa is still on pace for fourth, trailing Tottenham by three with a game in hand on Spurs. Obviously they can't afford to stub their toe here, against a Wolves side that he proved pretty plucky plucky trying to cruise above the drop zone. Considering how toothless Wolves' attack is, I can't see them scoring on Villa. ... Villa 3, Wolves 0
* Everton v. Bolton -- (Live, FSC, 11 a.m.) Landon Donovan in MLS CBA limbo. Stuart Holden on the sidelines with a broken leg. Yeah, this one lost a lot of its juice for us in the States. In a blink of an eye Owen Coyle has Bolton ten points clear of the drop. How did this happen so fast? Was I asleep? The Trotters have settled on a lineup, and the pairing of Johan Ellmander and Kevin Davies seems to be getting the job done. Gary Cahill could be back, too. Still, Everton are just a little better, at Goodison Park. ... Everton 2, Bolton 1
* Portsmouth v. Hull City -- I guess if you're on Portsmouth you can't just give up, since you need to make yourself as marketable as possible for the summer. I know Jamie O'Hara wants to stick in the Premier League, if not when his loan with Spurs is over. How about Mark Wilson? (Okay, the rest of the team is pretty soup kitchen.) Now how will Hull react now that Phil Brown's would-be operatic singing is relegated to the shower? Iain Dowie? Well, I suppose he was available. His career track record? Not so good. His best spell as at QPR in 2008, going 8-3-4. It's not like he plays defense, because Hull's defense is an atrocity at the moment. Sorry Jozy. ... Portsmouth 3, Hull City 2
* Stoke City v. Tottenham -- (Live, FSC+, 10:45 a.m.) Show me something here Spurs. Cue up the Olivia Newtown John, because this game could get really physical. Be ready Tottenham. ... Stoke City 1, Tottenham 2
* Sunderland v. Birmingham City -- Back in October, I would have said Sunderland would've been the surprise of the season. Instead it was Birmingham. The pressure is off Sunderland a little bit and they're starting to play better. Allowing the Adam Johnson late leveler last week was tough, but I liked Sunderland's grit in that match. Birmingham? Don't get greedy this summer. ... Sunderland 1, Birmingham 1
* Wigan Athletic v. Burnley -- If the rest of the Premier League is "Seinfeld" during NBC's "Must-See TV" era, this game is the equivalent of "The Single Guy" or "Caroline in the City". For Burnley, we're in "Must win" territory the rest of the way. ... Wigan 2, Burnley 1
* Arsenal v. West Ham -- (Live, 1:30 FSC) West Ham are going to be in some trouble. Not sure they have the fight to stay up either. They're one team that doesn't seem to have the ability to play defense cohesively for the full 90, that's why Robert Green gets so many chances to impress Fabio Capello. It's hard to see anything other than an Arsenal stroll in this one. ... Arsenal 3, West Ham 1
Sunday:
* Manchester United v. Liverpool -- (Live, FSC+, 9:30 a.m.) Are we entering the "dead cat bounce" portion of the Liverpool season? Would a win over Manchester United at Old Trafford be enough to change the tenor of the year? Or the winning the Europa League? Considering the Red pure schizophrenic nature two-straight strong showings in a row? I doubt it. Fernando Torres should prove a good test to see if the Rio Ferdinand/Nemanja Vidic duo is back. Liverpool do have the talent to cause Sir Alex's club to stub its toe, but how are the Reds going to slow down Wayne Rooney? Unless Rafa pretends this is the second leg of a European tie, it doesn't seem likely. United wins, but it won't be easy ... Manchester United 2, Liverpool 1
* Fulham v. Manchester City -- Fulham can't afford a Europa league hangover. Well, they can, but will City be able to take advantage of it? He's not a sexy choice, but Roy Hodgson certainly could figure out a stable, winning lineup with all the talent on display at City, couldn't he? ... Fulham 1, City 2
* Blackburn v. Chelsea -- (Live, FSC, noon) Chelsea will not look old at Ewood Park. ... Blackburn 0, Chelsea 2
Last round: 9-2 (I'm surprised, too.)
Season: 154-134
Labels: English Premier League, Prem Picks, Soccer, youtube
Due to the copyright police, I've tended not to embed videos on the site lately.
Clint Dempsey's goal for Fulham today to push the Cottagers by Juventus today in a March Madness-worthy Europa Cup game was worth it.
Anyone that's played "FIFA 10" knows, Dempsey must have had the "chip button" held down. (Is it possible it was a cross? I tend to doubt it the way it was hit.)
Wonderful. Watching it in real time, it seemed to float in slow motion.
And not to be "that guy", but I might have called it on the Twitter.
In light of this goal being:
a) incredible
b) important
I love it even more in light of Dempsey's postgame comments: "I just thought, what the heck and tried to put it in the far post and it went in. Nine times out of 10 you won't make it but sometimes you've got to take a risk."
Amen. Americans never seem to try that kind of audacious stuff, and nothing looks better on television that a crazy long range goal like that. Are you listening Sportscenter?
(Too bad that kind of risk-taking seems to go against the Bradley the Elder team ethos.)
Let's throw out this question -- was it the most important goal scored by an American for a European club? Right now Dempsey might hold both spots, with his famous goal in 2007 that helped Fulham from being relegated.
Even if it was only the Europa League, it was a thrilling match winner that put Fulham past a European giant and its best foray ever in European play. That's pretty huge, in my book.
Note, this isn't in "European" play, ie. the Champions League. It's a goal, by an American that was important. (I'd tend to think this list is short. It's certainly at the top of best goals scored by guys wearing purple boots.)
What do you guys think?
On another note. Well done Juventus. Way to undo all the good for Italian soccer that Inter did Tuesday at Stamford Bridge. One the perennial powers of Italy absolutely owned by a middling English team? That's not good for business. (Juventus, the sum is less than the parts.)
Madness.
Clint Dempsey's goal for Fulham today to push the Cottagers by Juventus today in a March Madness-worthy Europa Cup game was worth it.
Anyone that's played "FIFA 10" knows, Dempsey must have had the "chip button" held down. (Is it possible it was a cross? I tend to doubt it the way it was hit.)
Wonderful. Watching it in real time, it seemed to float in slow motion.
And not to be "that guy", but I might have called it on the Twitter.
In light of this goal being:
a) incredible
b) important
I love it even more in light of Dempsey's postgame comments: "I just thought, what the heck and tried to put it in the far post and it went in. Nine times out of 10 you won't make it but sometimes you've got to take a risk."
Amen. Americans never seem to try that kind of audacious stuff, and nothing looks better on television that a crazy long range goal like that. Are you listening Sportscenter?
(Too bad that kind of risk-taking seems to go against the Bradley the Elder team ethos.)
Let's throw out this question -- was it the most important goal scored by an American for a European club? Right now Dempsey might hold both spots, with his famous goal in 2007 that helped Fulham from being relegated.
Even if it was only the Europa League, it was a thrilling match winner that put Fulham past a European giant and its best foray ever in European play. That's pretty huge, in my book.
Note, this isn't in "European" play, ie. the Champions League. It's a goal, by an American that was important. (I'd tend to think this list is short. It's certainly at the top of best goals scored by guys wearing purple boots.)
What do you guys think?
On another note. Well done Juventus. Way to undo all the good for Italian soccer that Inter did Tuesday at Stamford Bridge. One the perennial powers of Italy absolutely owned by a middling English team? That's not good for business. (Juventus, the sum is less than the parts.)
Madness.
Labels: clint dempsey, Fulham, Soccer, USMNT, videos
(Unlike in 2006, an executive decision was made to eschew team-by-team previews for all 32 World Cup teams. Instead, starting now I'm going to try to write one World Cup-centric piece every week, or at least every other week. Today I'm starting with a bit of an oddball choice, if ESPN selling the World Cup is the best way to sell soccer to the skeptical American public?)
Getting sick isn't fun, obviously you don't need a degree in medical science to know this.
One beneficial offshoot for me last week as I grappled with some kind of mild flu bug (think lightning bolts attacking my stomach and head)was the ability to laze on the couch and watch a ton of college basketball, namely the Big East tournament.
After a couple nights of this, I can safely say that I've watched nearly every: truck, lite beer, insurance and cell phone advertisement ever conceived by Madison Avenue. No matter how "bro-tastic" theses ads might indeed be, commercials every five minutes or so are tough to take. Sorry, 21st century Don Draper wannabes.
Along with all these Maxim magazine approved ads, ESPN decided to sprinkle in plenty of shots of: William Gallas, Harry Kewell, Michael Ballack and Clint Dempsey. (As well as Gigi Buffon in a 1-v-1 fight with the goal netting.)
You know the ad I'm talking about. It's on the Worldwide Leader at least three or four times per night. They're on so often I've been searching my collection of historic maps for the "City of Blinding Lights."
Oh, and, Nuno Valente trying to karate kick Arjen Robben in half during the infamous "Battle of Nurermbeg" is currently running inside my noggin every time I close my eyes.
A word of warning here. The rest of this post isn't my typical crankiness or just an excuse to take some potshots at ESPN. And not, it's not sour grapes since the odds are slim that I'll be making the trek down to South Africa despite having tickets for the U.S. group stage matches.
Having said that, I'm beginning to wonder if all the pomp-and-circumstance that ESPN is trying to convey about the World Cup -- if only through the radio-approved chords of U2 -- is going to translate to the 2010 version in South Africa.
As we all know the World Cup is perfect sporting made-for-television drama, and it doesn't even need the Olympics on NBC soft focus, tape-delayed treatment. However, one of my long-standing beliefs is that although the World Cup might be high on dramatic moments and instances of individual brilliance, it doesn't always produce the greatest set of games to introduce/indoctrinate the game to newbies.
For every Dennis Bergkamp goal vs. Argentina in 1998, there seem to be about as many Ukraine/Switzerland scoreless Round of 16 matches.
Granted the soccer fan in America is about as disparate a group as possible.
You range from losers like myself that get up at all sorts of weird hours to watch Premier League matches on the weekends, to extreme casual fans who basically only know who that David Beckham fellow is (or at least the current status of his facial hair), or should I say, was. In between there is every sort of fan, too, from the MLS diehard to the weekend warrior player. And let's not forget the huge Latino audience (though they'll be glued to Univision) and the whole "soccer mom" crowd, who probably don't give two licks about the pro game.
Obviously you don't need to market the World Cup to the actual day-in, day-out soccer fan. They're locked into the game no matter what. They've been counting down the roughly 1,400 days since Fabio Grosso's penalty in the Olympastadion beat Fabian Barthez to give Italy its fourth Cup triumph four years ago.
But the casual sports fan? The kind of person that actually gives a guy like Jim Rome some credence? The person that mindlessly nods as ESPN force feeds highlights from the Danica Patricks of the world?
Are a couple cords from The Edge and some shots of cheering fans going to be enough to convert them, or at least plant the subliminal seeds in the back of their heads that, yes, come June I should be watching what ESPN is beaming into my television in the place usually reserved for Skip Bayless to debate Tiger Woods return to golf with Mateen Cleaves and Jaylen Rose?
To boil it all down, is the product on the field produced by the 64 World Cup matches produce the best representation of the "beautiful game", even with the world's best players all on display? Is that fact that entire nations -- not counting the U.S. -- are wrapped up on a nearly live-or-death struggle, enough to compel people to tune in?
Dramatic yes? Compelling athletic contests? We'll see.
It's almost on par with trying to sell, say, a European dude on American football by solely watching the Super Bowl every year -- and that's it.
There certainly going to be great games in South Africa, but just how many?
International matches are so high stakes and with the World Cup only once every four years, coaches tend to take a cautious approach. Playing for the draw -- or one point -- is a surefire way for a coach to get fired or his team relegated in league play, but in group play, it's a smart approach against stronger opponents. Double this in the knockout stages, where playing defensively or for one goal can bode well, especially with the lottery that is penalty kicks looming 120 minutes away on the horizon.
It's doubtful when Marcelo Lippi, Morten Olsen, etc. are considering the entertainment value for the American television viewer when they trot out their starting XIs.
Take, for instance, Tuesday's Inter Milan/Chelsea Champions League match at Stamford Bridge. As a diehard fan, I was enraptured by this match for 90 minnutes, even though the teams combined for just seven shots. It was such a tactical beauty to behold -- throw in the Special One's return to Stamford Bridge coupled with Chelsea's lack of creativity -- and I was hooked.
But would a soccer novice exactly walk away impressed by that match, even with 17 of the combined 22 starters likely featuring for their countries at the World Cup?
Chances are, they'd walk away with the stereotypical (and, frankly, ignorant) opinion that, "soccer is boring."
Again, I love the World Cup. In the days before Fox Soccer Channel, Internet streams and even the advent of MLS, it represented really the only time for a guy like me in America to get a soccer fix, especially since I didn't speak Spanish and the games on Univision gave me a headache with their rapid-fire delivery.
From the 1990 tournament, even up to the 2002 version, I never would have even thought that the World Cup wasn't 100 percent amazing. How could it not be? I just assumed every game would be like Roberto Baggio during the first half hour of Italy's semifinal 2-1 win over Bulgaria at Giants Stadium. (Maybe I just shot down my whole argument right here. All it might take is one or two moments of virtuosity by Lionel Messi or Wesley Sneijder to hook a 12-year-old or 52-year-old. And now there are more outlets to foster the would-be fan's growth.)
Before some lingering issues, it's 100 percent tremendous ESPN will televise every match in High Definition and have an announcing staff actually in the stadium for every match, too. (The fact they are all British is a different story. It does lead to casual fans adopting a bad/broad English accent to talk about the game, throwing out words like "jolly." This is a bad development, as much as I enjoy Adrian Healey's cheesiness.)
One major issue to consider -- South Africa remains a huge X-factor with the whole tournament.
As we stand today, there are some concerns.
For one, ticket sales both in the country and abroad have been soft. Me? I got tickets to the U.S. games, but since a flight cost around $3,000 and a decent package for the group stage started around $6,000, it was impossible to afford going. Sad but true.
And I'm not the only one staying away, with sales soft in continental Europe.
Contrast this to 2006, where the Germans put on a well-received tournament that was in the center of European, making it fairly accessible to millions and millions of fans.
Will this compare more favorably to the tournament in 2002 spread over South Korea and Japan, which did help to allow the U.S. advancing to the quarterfinals, and outsiders like the South Koreans and Turkey in the semifinals?
From what we saw at the Confederations Cup, the stadiums in South Africa aren't exactly enclosed to trap in the noise and the seats are a bit away from the field. This tends to suck away whatever "atmosphere".
Let's be totally blunt, is Australia v. Serbia going to have the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit rocking?
I hate to say it, too, but the vuvuzela will be a major turnoff for casual fans.
Bill Simmons -- as casual a soccer fan as you'll find -- repeatedly made light of this on Twitter during the Confederations Cup. It's a part of South African culture, yes, but it has the effect of getting your teeth drilled over the course of a match. If they're the only source of "atmosphere" we might be in trouble.
Expect to see a deluge of articles from English-language outlets, perhaps even once a day, about the vuvuzela. Every American media critic, whether a soccer-lover or soccer-hater is going to take a swipe here.
But the tournament is in South Africa, so the nation's traditions should be allowed, even if it makes for a less-than-enjoyable television experience.
Something else to consider is the altitude factor. Will it suck the energy out of the players as the tournament progresses, especially on the heels of the grueling European club season? This could either lead to some high-scoring games, since the defenders will be heavy-legged, or it could be, to borrow my favorite British expression, produce an array of "damp squibs."
So it'll be an interesting litmus test to see how far soccer has come in America come June. Will people get up early in the morning for matches, with the majority of kickoff times at 7 and 9:30 a.m. on the East Coast during the Group Stage?
In the end, maybe I'm still stuck, to a degree, in that 1998 mentality where really the only outlet I had to talk about the game was my German high school European history teacher.
The soccer culture in the States is here to stay and growing each day, thanks to the explosion of the Internet and satellite television. In a way it mirrors the U.S. melting pot in general, taking a healthy cut of Euro-centric meat, a dash of Latin American flare and the solid potatoes (CBA pending) from MLS, and then everything in between.
If the World Cup doesn't exactly wash down like a cool glass of lemonade on a hot day, it's not the end of the world. Soccer's media presence in the States continues to grow each and every day. As a whole, too, I think we're beyond that ever-present need for acceptance by the "mainstream", which is continuing to get older and more marginalized.
Nothing shows this more than the fact that soccer's survival in American on the mainstream radar isn't reliant on a tournament once every four years. Throw in that people tend to be drawn to international competitions, and despite some of my worries, I think we'll be okay.
Now just point in in the direction of that city with the blinding lights...
Getting sick isn't fun, obviously you don't need a degree in medical science to know this.
One beneficial offshoot for me last week as I grappled with some kind of mild flu bug (think lightning bolts attacking my stomach and head)was the ability to laze on the couch and watch a ton of college basketball, namely the Big East tournament.
After a couple nights of this, I can safely say that I've watched nearly every: truck, lite beer, insurance and cell phone advertisement ever conceived by Madison Avenue. No matter how "bro-tastic" theses ads might indeed be, commercials every five minutes or so are tough to take. Sorry, 21st century Don Draper wannabes.
Along with all these Maxim magazine approved ads, ESPN decided to sprinkle in plenty of shots of: William Gallas, Harry Kewell, Michael Ballack and Clint Dempsey. (As well as Gigi Buffon in a 1-v-1 fight with the goal netting.)
You know the ad I'm talking about. It's on the Worldwide Leader at least three or four times per night. They're on so often I've been searching my collection of historic maps for the "City of Blinding Lights."
Oh, and, Nuno Valente trying to karate kick Arjen Robben in half during the infamous "Battle of Nurermbeg" is currently running inside my noggin every time I close my eyes.
A word of warning here. The rest of this post isn't my typical crankiness or just an excuse to take some potshots at ESPN. And not, it's not sour grapes since the odds are slim that I'll be making the trek down to South Africa despite having tickets for the U.S. group stage matches.
Having said that, I'm beginning to wonder if all the pomp-and-circumstance that ESPN is trying to convey about the World Cup -- if only through the radio-approved chords of U2 -- is going to translate to the 2010 version in South Africa.
As we all know the World Cup is perfect sporting made-for-television drama, and it doesn't even need the Olympics on NBC soft focus, tape-delayed treatment. However, one of my long-standing beliefs is that although the World Cup might be high on dramatic moments and instances of individual brilliance, it doesn't always produce the greatest set of games to introduce/indoctrinate the game to newbies.
For every Dennis Bergkamp goal vs. Argentina in 1998, there seem to be about as many Ukraine/Switzerland scoreless Round of 16 matches.
Granted the soccer fan in America is about as disparate a group as possible.
You range from losers like myself that get up at all sorts of weird hours to watch Premier League matches on the weekends, to extreme casual fans who basically only know who that David Beckham fellow is (or at least the current status of his facial hair), or should I say, was. In between there is every sort of fan, too, from the MLS diehard to the weekend warrior player. And let's not forget the huge Latino audience (though they'll be glued to Univision) and the whole "soccer mom" crowd, who probably don't give two licks about the pro game.
Obviously you don't need to market the World Cup to the actual day-in, day-out soccer fan. They're locked into the game no matter what. They've been counting down the roughly 1,400 days since Fabio Grosso's penalty in the Olympastadion beat Fabian Barthez to give Italy its fourth Cup triumph four years ago.
But the casual sports fan? The kind of person that actually gives a guy like Jim Rome some credence? The person that mindlessly nods as ESPN force feeds highlights from the Danica Patricks of the world?
Are a couple cords from The Edge and some shots of cheering fans going to be enough to convert them, or at least plant the subliminal seeds in the back of their heads that, yes, come June I should be watching what ESPN is beaming into my television in the place usually reserved for Skip Bayless to debate Tiger Woods return to golf with Mateen Cleaves and Jaylen Rose?
To boil it all down, is the product on the field produced by the 64 World Cup matches produce the best representation of the "beautiful game", even with the world's best players all on display? Is that fact that entire nations -- not counting the U.S. -- are wrapped up on a nearly live-or-death struggle, enough to compel people to tune in?
Dramatic yes? Compelling athletic contests? We'll see.
It's almost on par with trying to sell, say, a European dude on American football by solely watching the Super Bowl every year -- and that's it.
There certainly going to be great games in South Africa, but just how many?
International matches are so high stakes and with the World Cup only once every four years, coaches tend to take a cautious approach. Playing for the draw -- or one point -- is a surefire way for a coach to get fired or his team relegated in league play, but in group play, it's a smart approach against stronger opponents. Double this in the knockout stages, where playing defensively or for one goal can bode well, especially with the lottery that is penalty kicks looming 120 minutes away on the horizon.
It's doubtful when Marcelo Lippi, Morten Olsen, etc. are considering the entertainment value for the American television viewer when they trot out their starting XIs.
Take, for instance, Tuesday's Inter Milan/Chelsea Champions League match at Stamford Bridge. As a diehard fan, I was enraptured by this match for 90 minnutes, even though the teams combined for just seven shots. It was such a tactical beauty to behold -- throw in the Special One's return to Stamford Bridge coupled with Chelsea's lack of creativity -- and I was hooked.
But would a soccer novice exactly walk away impressed by that match, even with 17 of the combined 22 starters likely featuring for their countries at the World Cup?
Chances are, they'd walk away with the stereotypical (and, frankly, ignorant) opinion that, "soccer is boring."
Again, I love the World Cup. In the days before Fox Soccer Channel, Internet streams and even the advent of MLS, it represented really the only time for a guy like me in America to get a soccer fix, especially since I didn't speak Spanish and the games on Univision gave me a headache with their rapid-fire delivery.
From the 1990 tournament, even up to the 2002 version, I never would have even thought that the World Cup wasn't 100 percent amazing. How could it not be? I just assumed every game would be like Roberto Baggio during the first half hour of Italy's semifinal 2-1 win over Bulgaria at Giants Stadium. (Maybe I just shot down my whole argument right here. All it might take is one or two moments of virtuosity by Lionel Messi or Wesley Sneijder to hook a 12-year-old or 52-year-old. And now there are more outlets to foster the would-be fan's growth.)
Before some lingering issues, it's 100 percent tremendous ESPN will televise every match in High Definition and have an announcing staff actually in the stadium for every match, too. (The fact they are all British is a different story. It does lead to casual fans adopting a bad/broad English accent to talk about the game, throwing out words like "jolly." This is a bad development, as much as I enjoy Adrian Healey's cheesiness.)
One major issue to consider -- South Africa remains a huge X-factor with the whole tournament.
As we stand today, there are some concerns.
For one, ticket sales both in the country and abroad have been soft. Me? I got tickets to the U.S. games, but since a flight cost around $3,000 and a decent package for the group stage started around $6,000, it was impossible to afford going. Sad but true.
And I'm not the only one staying away, with sales soft in continental Europe.
Contrast this to 2006, where the Germans put on a well-received tournament that was in the center of European, making it fairly accessible to millions and millions of fans.
Will this compare more favorably to the tournament in 2002 spread over South Korea and Japan, which did help to allow the U.S. advancing to the quarterfinals, and outsiders like the South Koreans and Turkey in the semifinals?
From what we saw at the Confederations Cup, the stadiums in South Africa aren't exactly enclosed to trap in the noise and the seats are a bit away from the field. This tends to suck away whatever "atmosphere".
Let's be totally blunt, is Australia v. Serbia going to have the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit rocking?
I hate to say it, too, but the vuvuzela will be a major turnoff for casual fans.
Bill Simmons -- as casual a soccer fan as you'll find -- repeatedly made light of this on Twitter during the Confederations Cup. It's a part of South African culture, yes, but it has the effect of getting your teeth drilled over the course of a match. If they're the only source of "atmosphere" we might be in trouble.
Expect to see a deluge of articles from English-language outlets, perhaps even once a day, about the vuvuzela. Every American media critic, whether a soccer-lover or soccer-hater is going to take a swipe here.
But the tournament is in South Africa, so the nation's traditions should be allowed, even if it makes for a less-than-enjoyable television experience.
Something else to consider is the altitude factor. Will it suck the energy out of the players as the tournament progresses, especially on the heels of the grueling European club season? This could either lead to some high-scoring games, since the defenders will be heavy-legged, or it could be, to borrow my favorite British expression, produce an array of "damp squibs."
So it'll be an interesting litmus test to see how far soccer has come in America come June. Will people get up early in the morning for matches, with the majority of kickoff times at 7 and 9:30 a.m. on the East Coast during the Group Stage?
In the end, maybe I'm still stuck, to a degree, in that 1998 mentality where really the only outlet I had to talk about the game was my German high school European history teacher.
The soccer culture in the States is here to stay and growing each day, thanks to the explosion of the Internet and satellite television. In a way it mirrors the U.S. melting pot in general, taking a healthy cut of Euro-centric meat, a dash of Latin American flare and the solid potatoes (CBA pending) from MLS, and then everything in between.
If the World Cup doesn't exactly wash down like a cool glass of lemonade on a hot day, it's not the end of the world. Soccer's media presence in the States continues to grow each and every day. As a whole, too, I think we're beyond that ever-present need for acceptance by the "mainstream", which is continuing to get older and more marginalized.
Nothing shows this more than the fact that soccer's survival in American on the mainstream radar isn't reliant on a tournament once every four years. Throw in that people tend to be drawn to international competitions, and despite some of my worries, I think we'll be okay.
Now just point in in the direction of that city with the blinding lights...
Labels: 2010 world cup, ESPN, Soccer
Didier Drogba scored twice.
Wayne Rooney scored twice.
Arsenal left it late for Niclas Bendtner on the road.
For once it seemed to be a normal weekend in the Premier League.
As a neutral fan, that also happens to love pro wrestling terminology, this "three-way-dance" for the title should be fantastic, especially now that we can see the finish line with eight or nine matches left for the title contenders.
And with all three possibly fighting on the European front, too, the drama and intrigue could be off the charts. Hell, this may even come down to goal differential.
Has the English first division ever been decided that way?
Could we say Arsenal, even though the Gunners are even with Chelsea on 64 points and two behind Manchester United, are the favorites? Their schedule is clearly the easiest? At Birmingham City could be tricky, but it could also exorcise the ghosts of Martin Taylor? Aside from that the Gunners are at Tottenham and host Manchester City. None too daunting.
Arsenal still have to play at Wigan and Blackburn, two kind of matches that have been stumbling blocks in the past. Saturday's grind-it-out win at 10-man Hull showed maybe this crew of Gunners have enough grit. Maybe. They did get a good bounce near the death, allowing Nic Bendtner to cash in, though the penalty conceded by Sol Campbell was very soft.
Meanwhile, Manchester United has a tough road to hoe, starting next Sunday with Liverpool. It also hosts Chelsea on April 3 and Tottenham, with a trip to Manchester City sprinkled in.
Of course Manchester United have Rooney, which seems to be all that matters. His easy-as-pie brace vs. Fulham Sunday gave him the most Premier League goals by an Englishman in about a decade (23). (Kevin Phillips had 30 for Sunderland in 1999-2000.) You think with that Beckham fellow getting hurt Sunday, English fans are holding their collective breath with Rooney each and every day?
Chelsea still are alive in the FA Cup and pending Jose Mourinho's return to Stamford Bridge, the Champions League.
The Blues might have a bigger impact in the race for fourth place, playing three of the challengers -- home to Villa and at Spurs and Liverpool. In fact, couldn't you see the May 1 date at Anfield as a way for Liverpool to at least put a bow on its stinking turd of a season?
Chelsea, as they did in a 4-1 win over West Ham, still have the muscle power to score goals. Unlike Manchester United they aren't as reliant on one player -- Drogba -- to fill up the scoresheet either.
Right now I'll refrain from picking a winner, though Chelsea was my preseason selection.
All I want to do is sit back and enjoy the ride.
* * *
Amazingly, it's as close as it is in the Premier League across the rest of the "power" leagues in Europe.
In the Bundeliga it's a three-team race with Bayern, Schalke and Bayer Leverkusen all within three points of each other.
Serie A is all of a sudden wide-open, too, with Inter stumbling a little bit. Inter is only up a point on AC Milan -- a soon-to-be Beckham-less Milan -- only a point behind. Roma, which somehow drew Liverno 3-3, is six back. (Let's be honest, Beckham's injury is more of a story from a non-soccer standpoint that it is on the field. It's crazy Beckham's injury headlines 'Sportscenter' on selection Sunday, with zero mention of Landon Donovan coming back to the Galaxy. England's bigger concern is the lingering groin injury to Aaron Lennon, meaning once again Theo Walcott is in the crosshairs. I say this is a win for the USMNT.)
If you saw Lionel Messi on ESPN2 Sunday afternoon, then you know that his hat trick vs. Valencia pushed Barcelona back into a first-place tie in La Liga with Real Madrid, which got a semi-redemptive 3-goal output from Gonzalo Higuian. (Still, that miss vs. Lyon will be rued in Spain for months to come.) Real and Barca both have 65 points, with the Madrid club up two via goal difference.
As for Ligue 1? Well, folow my ami @polyesterfreak on Twitter. He has this stuff sorted out better than me. Right now five teams -- Montpellier, Auxerre, Lille, Olympique Lyon and Olympique Marseille -- are all within three points of defending champion Bordeaux.
Obviously all these races are great for fans. The bigger picture to how this shakes out -- especially in Germany, Italy and France -- is where the Champions League spots go. That extra cash on the bottom line certainly helps, plus in Italy it's a mark of honor, where a club like Juventus' malaise continues as it pulls some plays from the Liverpool playbook.
Bad Pavs:
Ask yourself this question, how many players currently in the Premier League are out-and-out "bad". Guys that shouldn't ever seen the field in a league match?
I'm waiting...
The answer is its a pretty short list. Ibrahima Sonko comes to mind as dreadful. Maceo Rigters has been on the books for a while at Blackburn and can't find the field. Fulham's Stephen Kelly looked to be picked on by Manchester United Sunday. Łukasz Fabiański, if we just go by the Champions League is fairly comical. (Keepers might be disqualified from this discussion.)
Everyone would label Titus Bramble "bad" for his stint at Newcastle, but he's been useful for Wigan. (As usual, please fill me in on what an idiot I am here, I'm sure you've got your picks. I'd like to know who you consider the bottom of the barrell.)
Even at last-place Portsmouth, the team's roster isn't stocked with "bad" players. For instance, striker Aruna Dindane has played 16 games with four goals. Not very good. But is he a bad player? (I'll reserve judgment for John Utaka and Papa Bouba Diop.)
How about promoted Burnley? Sure the Clarets aren't great, but is anyone on their roster and unmitigated disaster?
Or take the individuals at, say, Hull City. Good enough players, nice resumes. In a vacuum they are probably better than, just a guess, 90 percent of current professionals around the globe. Yet none of them are really elite level players that can rise to the occasion every week, so that's why they linger at the bottom end of the table.
I'm on record that I don't think David Ngog is very good, but he's decent enough that he's not an embarrassment. (Roque Santa Cruz, on the other hand, might in fact be a "donkey.")
Why I mention this, is Roman Pavlychenko who's been eviscerated by the press and the Tottenham fans, but now is proving to be a quite useful player, if only as a guy to finish off movements and put the ball into the back of the net -- twice Saturday in a 3-1 win over Blackburn.
Was he worth the the roughly $25-30 million Spurs paid to Spartak Moscow for his services? Obviously not.
If you look at him as simply a player, he's not all that bad.
And as mindless as some of the people running Premier League clubs seem to be, the managers are at least smart enough to limit the dregs of their squad to Cup games and the reserve matches, or glue them to the bench for important ones. (In that same Tottenham/Blackburn game, Michel Salgado definitely drifted toward the "bad" category. Fernando Hierro, he is not, Sam Allardyce.)
The problem, as three clubs will tell you on May 9, is that while "not that bad" might be okay in many walks of life, it gets you relegated from the Premier League.
Other stuff:
Wayne Rooney is 24. Danny Murphy is 32. Yet they share the same receding hairline. ... Mark Schwarzer made two excellent saves, one on Rooney the other on Darren Fletcher to keep Fulham in the game, at least for a little while Sunday at Old Trafford. ... Good to see Clint Dempsey back to his usual stuff. He almost beat Edwin Van der Sar from 30+ yards early in the match Sunday. Hope some of his long-range forays for Fulham translate to the USMNT this summer. ... Looking at what Landon Donovan did at Everton, it's a shame Jozy Altidore couldn't have gone to a more established team other than Hull City, which can't get out of its own way. It's going to be a tricky off-season for Alitdore, with the World Cup either boosting or knocking his stock. Guess Villareal still holds the cards, though. (More on Jozy a little further down.) ... For all the years that Brad Freidel was at Blackburn Rovers, I always just assumed Jason Brown was even a real person, or just a prop dummy. Turns out, he isn't, since he played Saturday vs. Spurs when Paul Robinson limped off. ... 20-year-old David Meyler is looking like an agitator extraordinaire for Sunderland. ... Important win by Wolves Saturday 2-1 at Burnley, put Mick McCarthy's team out of the drop zone. Impressively, 11 of the team's 27 points have come on the road. Compare that to the four by Hull and one by Burnley, who are now in the relegation spots with Portsmouth. Wolves are still the second-worst home team, just ahead of Portsmouth. ... What more can be said about Donovan? He looked a natural at Everton. He should be back at some point. If he's good at the World Cup it might be able to pick his place. (Those Chelsea rumors do seem outlandish.) ... Craig Gordon earned his money Sunday in goal for Sunderland. ... Rarely to I regret picks I make on Friday but the fact I didn't pick Stoke City-Aston Villa as a 0-0 draw irks me. ... Trying to backheel a ball at the edge of his own penalty area is probably why Craig Bellamy is Craig Bellamy and not one of the world's best. ... Until Adam Johnson came on, not much creativity for Manchester City Sunday, who were beyond lucky to get a 1-1 draw at determined Sunderland. The one point, still keeps them three behind Spurs with a game-in-hand for fourth place. ... Has anyone ever seen Jimmy Bullard and David Coverdale in the same room at the same time? Just sayin'. ... It probably wasn't intentional from George Boateng, but that tackle was awful. Arsene Wenger has to wonder if his players are being targeted. ... Wish I could go on "gardening leave" like Phil Brown. Doubt this affects Altidore all that much. He barely played last season and looked plenty fine at the Confederations Cup. A change of managers shouldn't do too much to change his role/status for the World Cup.
Fantasy Team O' the Week:
Ian Podraza's Merrimac United FC open up a little more room at the top witha 77 point week, thanks to an imposing front line of Bendtner, Rooney and Drogba. The key here was Drogs wore the captain's armband, for 20 points. Meanwhile, my team, I picked Gabby Agbonlahor (two games) as my captain, and he plays about 10 minutes. D'oh.
One other thing:
They don't need the pop, but the FoxSoccer.tv is a pretty good value, the rest of the season at just $45, especially since unlike the Setanta online package, it includes the Champions League matches. Sure you have to pay, but it beats the alternative of streams cutting in-and-out during matches.
The top quality Fox stream might even look better than its Standard Definition television broadcast.
If you want those extra games and don't want to fool with streams, it's a good buy.
Wayne Rooney scored twice.
Arsenal left it late for Niclas Bendtner on the road.
For once it seemed to be a normal weekend in the Premier League.
As a neutral fan, that also happens to love pro wrestling terminology, this "three-way-dance" for the title should be fantastic, especially now that we can see the finish line with eight or nine matches left for the title contenders.
And with all three possibly fighting on the European front, too, the drama and intrigue could be off the charts. Hell, this may even come down to goal differential.
Has the English first division ever been decided that way?
Could we say Arsenal, even though the Gunners are even with Chelsea on 64 points and two behind Manchester United, are the favorites? Their schedule is clearly the easiest? At Birmingham City could be tricky, but it could also exorcise the ghosts of Martin Taylor? Aside from that the Gunners are at Tottenham and host Manchester City. None too daunting.
Arsenal still have to play at Wigan and Blackburn, two kind of matches that have been stumbling blocks in the past. Saturday's grind-it-out win at 10-man Hull showed maybe this crew of Gunners have enough grit. Maybe. They did get a good bounce near the death, allowing Nic Bendtner to cash in, though the penalty conceded by Sol Campbell was very soft.
Meanwhile, Manchester United has a tough road to hoe, starting next Sunday with Liverpool. It also hosts Chelsea on April 3 and Tottenham, with a trip to Manchester City sprinkled in.
Of course Manchester United have Rooney, which seems to be all that matters. His easy-as-pie brace vs. Fulham Sunday gave him the most Premier League goals by an Englishman in about a decade (23). (Kevin Phillips had 30 for Sunderland in 1999-2000.) You think with that Beckham fellow getting hurt Sunday, English fans are holding their collective breath with Rooney each and every day?
Chelsea still are alive in the FA Cup and pending Jose Mourinho's return to Stamford Bridge, the Champions League.
The Blues might have a bigger impact in the race for fourth place, playing three of the challengers -- home to Villa and at Spurs and Liverpool. In fact, couldn't you see the May 1 date at Anfield as a way for Liverpool to at least put a bow on its stinking turd of a season?
Chelsea, as they did in a 4-1 win over West Ham, still have the muscle power to score goals. Unlike Manchester United they aren't as reliant on one player -- Drogba -- to fill up the scoresheet either.
Right now I'll refrain from picking a winner, though Chelsea was my preseason selection.
All I want to do is sit back and enjoy the ride.
Amazingly, it's as close as it is in the Premier League across the rest of the "power" leagues in Europe.
In the Bundeliga it's a three-team race with Bayern, Schalke and Bayer Leverkusen all within three points of each other.
Serie A is all of a sudden wide-open, too, with Inter stumbling a little bit. Inter is only up a point on AC Milan -- a soon-to-be Beckham-less Milan -- only a point behind. Roma, which somehow drew Liverno 3-3, is six back. (Let's be honest, Beckham's injury is more of a story from a non-soccer standpoint that it is on the field. It's crazy Beckham's injury headlines 'Sportscenter' on selection Sunday, with zero mention of Landon Donovan coming back to the Galaxy. England's bigger concern is the lingering groin injury to Aaron Lennon, meaning once again Theo Walcott is in the crosshairs. I say this is a win for the USMNT.)
If you saw Lionel Messi on ESPN2 Sunday afternoon, then you know that his hat trick vs. Valencia pushed Barcelona back into a first-place tie in La Liga with Real Madrid, which got a semi-redemptive 3-goal output from Gonzalo Higuian. (Still, that miss vs. Lyon will be rued in Spain for months to come.) Real and Barca both have 65 points, with the Madrid club up two via goal difference.
As for Ligue 1? Well, folow my ami @polyesterfreak on Twitter. He has this stuff sorted out better than me. Right now five teams -- Montpellier, Auxerre, Lille, Olympique Lyon and Olympique Marseille -- are all within three points of defending champion Bordeaux.
Obviously all these races are great for fans. The bigger picture to how this shakes out -- especially in Germany, Italy and France -- is where the Champions League spots go. That extra cash on the bottom line certainly helps, plus in Italy it's a mark of honor, where a club like Juventus' malaise continues as it pulls some plays from the Liverpool playbook.
Bad Pavs:
Ask yourself this question, how many players currently in the Premier League are out-and-out "bad". Guys that shouldn't ever seen the field in a league match?
I'm waiting...
The answer is its a pretty short list. Ibrahima Sonko comes to mind as dreadful. Maceo Rigters has been on the books for a while at Blackburn and can't find the field. Fulham's Stephen Kelly looked to be picked on by Manchester United Sunday. Łukasz Fabiański, if we just go by the Champions League is fairly comical. (Keepers might be disqualified from this discussion.)
Everyone would label Titus Bramble "bad" for his stint at Newcastle, but he's been useful for Wigan. (As usual, please fill me in on what an idiot I am here, I'm sure you've got your picks. I'd like to know who you consider the bottom of the barrell.)
Even at last-place Portsmouth, the team's roster isn't stocked with "bad" players. For instance, striker Aruna Dindane has played 16 games with four goals. Not very good. But is he a bad player? (I'll reserve judgment for John Utaka and Papa Bouba Diop.)
How about promoted Burnley? Sure the Clarets aren't great, but is anyone on their roster and unmitigated disaster?
Or take the individuals at, say, Hull City. Good enough players, nice resumes. In a vacuum they are probably better than, just a guess, 90 percent of current professionals around the globe. Yet none of them are really elite level players that can rise to the occasion every week, so that's why they linger at the bottom end of the table.
I'm on record that I don't think David Ngog is very good, but he's decent enough that he's not an embarrassment. (Roque Santa Cruz, on the other hand, might in fact be a "donkey.")
Why I mention this, is Roman Pavlychenko who's been eviscerated by the press and the Tottenham fans, but now is proving to be a quite useful player, if only as a guy to finish off movements and put the ball into the back of the net -- twice Saturday in a 3-1 win over Blackburn.
Was he worth the the roughly $25-30 million Spurs paid to Spartak Moscow for his services? Obviously not.
If you look at him as simply a player, he's not all that bad.
And as mindless as some of the people running Premier League clubs seem to be, the managers are at least smart enough to limit the dregs of their squad to Cup games and the reserve matches, or glue them to the bench for important ones. (In that same Tottenham/Blackburn game, Michel Salgado definitely drifted toward the "bad" category. Fernando Hierro, he is not, Sam Allardyce.)
The problem, as three clubs will tell you on May 9, is that while "not that bad" might be okay in many walks of life, it gets you relegated from the Premier League.
Other stuff:
Wayne Rooney is 24. Danny Murphy is 32. Yet they share the same receding hairline. ... Mark Schwarzer made two excellent saves, one on Rooney the other on Darren Fletcher to keep Fulham in the game, at least for a little while Sunday at Old Trafford. ... Good to see Clint Dempsey back to his usual stuff. He almost beat Edwin Van der Sar from 30+ yards early in the match Sunday. Hope some of his long-range forays for Fulham translate to the USMNT this summer. ... Looking at what Landon Donovan did at Everton, it's a shame Jozy Altidore couldn't have gone to a more established team other than Hull City, which can't get out of its own way. It's going to be a tricky off-season for Alitdore, with the World Cup either boosting or knocking his stock. Guess Villareal still holds the cards, though. (More on Jozy a little further down.) ... For all the years that Brad Freidel was at Blackburn Rovers, I always just assumed Jason Brown was even a real person, or just a prop dummy. Turns out, he isn't, since he played Saturday vs. Spurs when Paul Robinson limped off. ... 20-year-old David Meyler is looking like an agitator extraordinaire for Sunderland. ... Important win by Wolves Saturday 2-1 at Burnley, put Mick McCarthy's team out of the drop zone. Impressively, 11 of the team's 27 points have come on the road. Compare that to the four by Hull and one by Burnley, who are now in the relegation spots with Portsmouth. Wolves are still the second-worst home team, just ahead of Portsmouth. ... What more can be said about Donovan? He looked a natural at Everton. He should be back at some point. If he's good at the World Cup it might be able to pick his place. (Those Chelsea rumors do seem outlandish.) ... Craig Gordon earned his money Sunday in goal for Sunderland. ... Rarely to I regret picks I make on Friday but the fact I didn't pick Stoke City-Aston Villa as a 0-0 draw irks me. ... Trying to backheel a ball at the edge of his own penalty area is probably why Craig Bellamy is Craig Bellamy and not one of the world's best. ... Until Adam Johnson came on, not much creativity for Manchester City Sunday, who were beyond lucky to get a 1-1 draw at determined Sunderland. The one point, still keeps them three behind Spurs with a game-in-hand for fourth place. ... Has anyone ever seen Jimmy Bullard and David Coverdale in the same room at the same time? Just sayin'. ... It probably wasn't intentional from George Boateng, but that tackle was awful. Arsene Wenger has to wonder if his players are being targeted. ... Wish I could go on "gardening leave" like Phil Brown. Doubt this affects Altidore all that much. He barely played last season and looked plenty fine at the Confederations Cup. A change of managers shouldn't do too much to change his role/status for the World Cup.
Fantasy Team O' the Week:
Ian Podraza's Merrimac United FC open up a little more room at the top witha 77 point week, thanks to an imposing front line of Bendtner, Rooney and Drogba. The key here was Drogs wore the captain's armband, for 20 points. Meanwhile, my team, I picked Gabby Agbonlahor (two games) as my captain, and he plays about 10 minutes. D'oh.
One other thing:
They don't need the pop, but the FoxSoccer.tv is a pretty good value, the rest of the season at just $45, especially since unlike the Setanta online package, it includes the Champions League matches. Sure you have to pay, but it beats the alternative of streams cutting in-and-out during matches.
The top quality Fox stream might even look better than its Standard Definition television broadcast.
If you want those extra games and don't want to fool with streams, it's a good buy.
Labels: Arsenal, Didier Drogba, English Premier League, manchester United, Premier League, Soccer, Wayne Rooney
