Barcelona, Still The Real Deal

Domestic football returned yesterday, (29.08.10) in the land of the games World Champions, a season which again expects a two horse title race between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Madrid under the new leadership of the self proclaimed ‘special one’ Jose Mourinho, had the tougher opening fixtures of the two, away at Mallorca, a team that narrowly missed out on a Europa League place last term. Los campeones began their defence at Racing.

It was Pep Guardiola’s men that took to the field first, an eleven that was without Captain Carles Puyol who was rested due to injury.

The absence didn’t seem to affect Barcelona as within 3 minutes they were leading. Lionel Messi was sent racing through the middle and with his usual flair and panache, delicately chipped over the oncoming Antonia Tono.

If we thought Barcelona couldn’t score a better goal in this game we were outrageously corrected by World Cup and new national hero Andres Iniesta.

After the Racing keeper managed to punch clear a deflected David Villa cross, the ball head for the stationary Iniesta, 25 yards from goal. Without a moments hesitation he side footed it back toward goal with his instep on the volley, the ball teasing the crowd as it sat up and looped slowly over the crowd of players into the empty net, an absolute genius touch from Spain’s golden boy.

Barcelona survived a penalty scare moments later with Victor Valdes saving superbly from Mohammed Tchite. The champions looked comfortable throughout this one, a finely tuned machine with each player playing their part like a well oiled rig.

New boy Villa linked up delightfully with Messi and was finally rewarded for his efforts with a goal after having one chalked off late on in the first half for offside. Another peach too from the Catalan giants, the first of many I expect from Villa.

A pacey Dani Alves cross was met by the head of Villa, a technique of text book as he powered it back toward goal giving Tono no chance, 3-0, buenos noche Racing.

Each Barcelona goal sublime, three of the best your likely to see all season coming from three of the best players you will see all season.

How could Mourinho follow that? Well, in truth he couldn’t.

Madrid, without Kaka, looked frustrated throughout. A season that promises so much has started pretty flat for them. Mourinho has some great players at his disposal but he knows more than anyone that this is a team of individuals whereas the boys setting the benchmark in the North East of Spain are a team…………and a bloody good one at that.

New German signings Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira came on late in the second half but couldn’t help the likes of Gonzalo Higuaín and Cristiano Ronaldo break down the islander’s resistance.

La Liga looks set to be another exciting season, especially with that extra twist of involvement from Jose Mourinho.

The campaign will build up to the first Catalan derby on 28th November 2010 at Camp Nou when I anticipate Mourinho to do all the talking off the pitch and Guardiola leaving his campeones to do all the talking on it.

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Copenhagen make group stage

Danish Champions FC Copenhagen secured their place in this season’s group stage of the Champions League thanks to an away goals victory over Norwegian side Rosenborg in the Danish capital.

Going into the tie 2-1 down from the first leg, Copenhagen were thankful for Solvi Ottesen’s first goal for the club in the 33rd minute. That goal was enough for Copenhagen to reach the group stages for the first time since the 2006/07 season although they are still amongst the outsiders in the Champions League betting. Summer signing Ottesen said he “couldn’t describe the feeling” after scoring the all important goal in the first half.

Twice in the previous three seasons, Copenhagen have fallen at the final qualifying hurdle and their fans will have been worried at the start of the match, especially with Rosenborg enjoying an intimidating 31 match unbeaten streak this year.

Both sides had plenty of chances in the first half but neither could find the breakthrough until Icelandic centre back Ottesen got on the end of a long throw with a smartly placed header. This ultimately sent Stale Solbakken’s men into the draw for the group stage of Europe’s biggest competition.

Copenhagen are currently top of the Danish Super League, having only dropped two points from their opening six matches. They will now be dining at Europe’s top table this season. When they were last here they went out at the group stage, finishing bottom despite collecting seven points.

Norwegian side Rosenborg will have to settle for a place in the Europa League draw. They have been drawn in a tough group alongside Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen and Thessaloniki, denting their chances in the Europa League betting. However, they can take confidence from their record and could spring a few surprises.

Steven Pienaar to stick with Toffees

Everton have enjoyed a relatively quiet summer this year, with the arrival of Jermaine Beckford the only high-profile movement in or out of Goodison Park. In light of this, the recent announcement that key midfielder Steven Pienaar will see out the final season of his contract with the Toffees will come as a major boost to the Merseyside outfit.

With the Toffees hoping to ensure that this season is more successful than the one they endured last year, when a dreadful start left the side playing catch up for the rest of the domestic campaign, the announcement that Pienaar will be staying with the squad will provide a massive boost to their football betting prices for a place in Europe.

As Steven Pienaar joins Mikel Arteta in commiting his future to the Toffees, Everton fans will be aware that Chairman Bill Kenwright will need to pull out all the stops if the club is to secure the long term future of his top stars.

With Premier League betting pundits noting that Chelsea have cooled their interest in youngster Jack Rodwell, Everton fans will be aware that this season may be the one in which the team needs to put in a top performance in order to secure the long term future of its best players. The finances generated by European qualification would go a long way towards helping the club continue to look at improving itself both on and off the field, with Everton still looking for adequate funding for their long-awaited stadium.

While Everton’s fans will be enjoying their successful summer so far, many will be hoping that their Merseyside rivals Liverpool collapse and, in the process, help to spur the club on to a bigger and brighter future in which they continue to build on their current potential.

Television Armageddon……………….for football fans

August 23rd 2010 will forever be remembered as a dark day for football fans across Britain, as this day marked the end of airing of Sky Sports News on free-view television.

Sky Sports broke the news to us through their new high definition (HD) adverts, informing the public that the biggest transfer in this season’s window, the Sky Sports news team, are moving on into the world of HD.

It’s another gentle push for the public to subscribe to the HD package they provide, and a clean right hook in the face for the rest of us who aren’t Sky Sports subscribers.

I fall in the demographic of those living without a Sky subscription, one that got my football fix through channel 83 on free-view. Free-view offers a good number of channels but the one used 85% of the time, the only other 15% being E4 when the Inbetweeners air, would be Sky Sports News.

Open to you 24 hours a day it provides all the breaking news and highlights a football fan could wish for. You can sit in front of the channel all day long, with the continuous cycle of features not being an issue because any minute now something will break through on that little yellow scroll bar.

However, August 23rd 2010 will seem like television Armageddon for a large number of the British population. How on Earth will we get our constant need for football information now? I’m also concerned of the consequence it may have on the fragile British economy.

The solution to losing Sky Sports News points toward the Internet. This widely available source consists of all the latest developments around the world and we have it at our homes, work and mobile phones.

However a morning without a hit of Sky Sports News will mean the need to surf the internet when we get to work or browse our smart phones even more than normal on the time of our employers. Our constant need for football news consequently changing our working lives forever, being plunged into a cyber world of forums and opinion polls instead of the activities we’re actually being paid to do.

I fear the loss of Sky Sports News from so many lives will mean more time spent browsing the Internet to accommodate it, time which will probably be used at work. The click of people minimising this screen now because of the oncoming boss can be heard if you listen hard enough.

So by taking away Sky Sports News from the population of non Sky subscribers, you are affecting peoples work ethic which in relation will harm the companies they work for which as a result will hit the already failing British economy.

So Sky, can you really live with this roll you could play? A part that can potentially further hurt the Country we live in and not just the common man? You brought this channel into our lives and have changed the way we watch TV forever. Taking it away could be detrimental to so many things, even if you do now offer Georgie Thompson in HD.

Even an evergreen loses its leaves one day

Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, and Gary Neville embody the dedication required to be a hero at Manchester United, and also to survive at the club under the ruthless Sir Alex Feguson. However, despite the former two players enjoying yet another fantastic start to the Premier League, even these three evergreens are all too aware that the end of their careers is not that far away…but does Sir Alex agree?

Normally, it would take a very naive fan to suggest that Sir Alex is a sentimental manager; just ask David Beckham whether the boss will forgive players for mistakes. However, in the case of Giggs and Scholes, the United manager seems to be ever more reliant on them despite their increasing age.

With no real replacement ever found for Giggs, and no upcoming youth players expected to replace him in the near future, Ferguson inadvertently displayed his reliance on him by admitting he was unsure why one of Giggs’ potential replacements, Nani, took (and missed) the crucial penalty at Fulham this weekend. With United’s only goal scorer on the day being Paul Scholes, another still not properly replaced by Ferguson, it is questionable according to those who look at Premier League odds how United will cope when these two step down.

What must be even more infuriating for United fans is that, with the exception of a few iffy games, Rafael has successfully been brought into the United side to replace the increasingly crocked Gary Neville.

Having shown he can replace his aging stars, and in good time to allow their replacements to adjust to the Premier League, Red Devils and those who bet football money on United will be hoping that the evergreen duo continue to be just that.

Toon Me Toon You

Newcastle United midfielder Joey Barton seems as confident about the clubs chances in the Premiership this season, as fans do of him staying out of a referee’s book during 90 minutes of football.

The controversial Barton is currently donning a ridiculous moustache as part of a bet with his Newcastle teammates, stating ‘not to shave it off until we win’. This is no Tom Selleck by any means and the new tash on the toon looks about as convincing as the players hopes of Premier League survival sounds.

The bet that stemmed from his colleagues claiming, he couldn’t grow a beard, escalated into the outcome seen at Old Trafford on Monday night, (16.08.10), when Manchester United hosted Newcastle’s Premiership return.

Barton admitted after the game his facial hair been getting some flak and “hoped it’ll be gone soon”. I don’t think he’s alone in that sentiment either.

It was like watching the third Chuckle brother trying to get to grips with the classy Paul Scholes, it’s just not good viewing, especially in HD.

I’m not sure what will be more demoralising for the Geordie faithful, Barton’s ‘optimism’ for the season or them having to cheer on a man who seems to be wearing a dead slug underneath his nose.

Newcastle host an inform Aston Villa side this coming weekend and will be hoping to get off the mark after last season’s dominance at England’s second tier. The club have strengthened over the summer, most noticeably in the defensive department picking up James Perch and Sol Campbell, with the latter yet to make his debut pending fitness.

Dan Gosling was also brought in to St James Park but he too will have to wait before deputising in the famous black and white jersey. A serious knee injury picked up on his last appearance for Everton means it will be early 2011 before the Toon army get to see him in action.

Starting at Old Trafford was never going to be an easy return to the English top-flight but with Wolves and Blackpool following Villa on the fixture list, Manager Chris Hughton will be ear marking those games as the winnable ones.

The opening 3-0 defeat, shown on Sky sports first ‘Monday night football’ of the new season, will mean Barton continuing to look like an extra from a Harry Enfield sketch for at least another week.

I’m sure it won’t just be the referees telling him to calm down, calm down.

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England v Hungary – ‘The home coming’……

Prior to the programme, ITV built this up as a new beginning, ‘the rejuvenation of England’ I think was the term used, my hearing was muffled from the yawning reflex I get when settling down to watch an England friendly.

Host Adrian Chiles opened the programme with the hopeful statement of, “I knew you couldn’t resist it.” This was then followed by shots of smiling young England fans outside Wembley, there cheery faces telling you that their lives of supporting England just beginning, give them another four years and that pre-match optimism they all share will have faded into the permanent frown the rest of us wear when watching our Country play football. Chiles oversees the pictures, “there are lots of kids here, but have they been brought as a treat or for punishment.” My yawn morphed into an appreciative chuckle.

The new look England, which consisted of 7 starters that were humiliated in Bloemfontein only 6 weeks ago by Germany, opened brightly in front of what seemed to be a confused, yet impressive, 72,000 crowd who appeared to have forgotten their reasoning for attending this ‘homecoming friendly’, with a mix of jeers, claps and half hearted chanting throughout the evening.

The neat passages of play England enjoyed during the game would have no doubt been followed by the International viewing tourettes many armchair fans get, as the almost approving murmurs of the ‘That’s more like it’ seep through are unwilling lips.

The end of the first half was greeted with ITV singling out one moronic England fan doing his best Mike Basset impression. His jesters to the England bench that we should be playing four four two just highlight what a fickle breed we are as this was probably the same moronic England fan that was shouting at his TV 6 weeks ago, questioning why we weren’t playing four five one.

To summarise the game that nobody wanted, England wasn’t bad. We looked lively in parts and knocked the ball around well. The opposition wasn’t of the highest calibre by any stretch of the imagination, but you can only beat what’s put in front of you and well beaten they were. Fabio Capello also got to see some impressive displays, in particular the energetic Adam Johnson and effective Theo Walcott, part of the new, dare I say it, ‘silver generation’?

Hungary made a game of it though and took the lead after 63 minutes through a Phil Jagielka own goal, which immediately looked dubious. As the country experienced a Frank Lampard flash back our fear was confirmed as replays shown Michael Dawson clearing before the ball managed to cross the line.

England’s dominance shown for nothing and as the host’s trailed that all too familiar emotion of English embarrassment was back alongside us, shadowing our ever-quickening deposit of lager.

Pantomime villain Wayne Rooney lapped up his hostile reception when being substituted three minutes later for Fulham’s Bobby Zamora, by waving back at the fans that booed him. I’m still not 100% sure if the reaction was for his abysmal performance at the World Cup or for the fact Bobby Zamora was about to make his England debut, this was a confused crowd of people at Wembley remember.

England hit back with two goals in the space of five minutes that if had come from the boot of a David Villa or Andres Iniesta, we’d be hearing about as world class for the next few years.

Captain Steven Gerrard dug the team out of the sinking foundations that was to be ‘the new beginning’ with an absolute screamer from 25 yards. The winner came from the same source and was equally as impressive. The Liverpudlian’s quick feet inside the Hungarians area enabled him to get away from four defenders before adding a deft chip over the oncoming Gábor Király.

Stevie G had brought to Wembley what we’d all been begging him to bring to South Africa, his best Liverpool form and he’d done it in the position we’d all been begging Fabio Capello to play him in throughout our drab World Cup stay.

Well 6 weeks too late, Fabio Capello obliged to our formation prayers and guess what? It worked.

Ivory Coast ‘under more pressure than England’

Everyone connected with English football knows that there has always been a huge expectation on the national team. However, Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba has revealed that the massive pressure his team are under from their adoring fans.

The Chelsea man – who hopes to play some part in the World Cup finals despite breaking his arm on Friday – says that the expectation back home in Ivory Coast is ‘higher than England’.

This is partly because the Ivory Coast fans always expected a decent standard, but mainly because it has been concluded that the current squad of players is the most talented the country has ever had.

As Drogba says, he and most of his team mates ‘play for big teams and have won things’ but have never done so with their county. Basically, it is about time they did so and therefore, nothing other than winning the World Cup will do.

Spain World cup betting  odds may suggest they are the favourites, but the Ivory Coast public won’t want to pay attention to this.

If sufficient success is to be achieved though, much depends on the fitness of Drogba. Therefore, it is good news that after it was feared he would miss the entire tournament, he now has an outside chance of playing the first game.

There won’t just be weight on the player’s shoulders either – there manager Sven Goran Eriksson will be feeling it to. So what does Drogba make of his boss?

Well, he says that the former England head coach is ‘one of the best managers on the market’ and that his experience can be used ‘to beat one or two big teams at the World Cup’.

They will need to do just that to progress from the toughest group of the tournament too. Brazil and Portugal World Cup Betting pundits will expect their respective nations to progress and Ivory Coast will have to defeat at least one of them.

A victory over Portugal in their opening game on Tuesday would certainly help them settle into matching their country’s expectations.

Arsenal Gossip – June 9th

As the world cup approaches most the Arsenal news are slowing down. I do not expect much action on the transfer front until after the tournament, but I promise to give you the latest updates in all matter concerning Arsenal.

 Philippe Senderos has officially agreed a 3 year deal with Fulham. To be quite honest I liked the man. He seemed to be a very intelligent and also very humble (which is rare these days) so I wish him all the best with Fulham. He has all my respect and I will applaud him when he returns to the Emirates. The competition was just too fierce for him at Arsenal, and I don’t even think he was offered a new deal by Wenger.

 We are being linked with every single midfielder in the world at the moment, and to be quite honest I am getting tired of it. Werder Bremens whiz kid Mesut Özil is the latest player on the list, and reports suggest that Arsenal are preparing a £12m offer. The Joe Cole rumors won’t die down and he could be on his way to Arsenal. My question here is, if Cole does sign for us, who is heading out? We have way too many midfielders to our disposal at this point, and I cannot really see where Cole would fit into our current lineup. I do rate him as a player, but this signing makes little sense. We need defenders, not more injury prone midfielders.

 At this point I just want some action. Do you hear that Wenger? Give us fans some action and make your first signings. You told us at the end of the season that your dealings would be done before the World cup. We are less then 48 hours away and we have seen nothing…

Have a good night Gooners!!

PS. If you have any suggestions on topics you would like me to cover, feel free to shoot me a comment and I’ll do my best.

United relief as Real rule out Rooney

by Simon Sparrowhawk

Get ready to breathe a huge sigh of relief Manchester United fans, because Real Madrid are not going to try and take Wayne Rooney to Spain, yet.

After months of speculation surrounding a possible bid for England and United’s star striker it has finally been confirmed that Real will not make a move for Rooney this summer. Despite, Jose Mourinho being a huge admirer of the former Everton hitman, it seems the price is too steep now.

Florentino Perez told the gathered media yesterday that the Bernabeu club will not move for Rooney or Barcelona’s Lionel Messi before the new season, but that may not end the speculation.

However, the Real Madrid president was not so clear on potential offers for Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard, Arsneal’s Cesc Fabregas and Chelsea pair Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard. It seems that at least one, and possibly more, of these will be playing in the white of Madrid in August.

There are fresh rumours this morning of a £32m bid from Madrid for Liverpool captain Gerrard. If true, then it’s a sign of real intent on behalf of the La Liga runners-up.

It seems that United can plan for the future with Wayne Rooney but the future is less certain for the rest of the Premier League big boys.