A bit of conjecture here. The injury news is looking a bit more positive but that might not be
what could be worrying Arsene Wenger now.
He has to get William Gallas and Bacary Sagna to refocus on club football after the Ireland
France odyssey. Gallas of course was one of the principal characters in the France farce and might
be in for some stick with fans with Irish national players in their club like City and Aston
Villa.
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17 arrests for a match fixing scandal which affects 200 matches in nine European countries.
The matches include the Bundesliga second division, and the leagues in Belgium, Switzerland,
Croatia, Slovenia, Turkey, Hungary, Bosnia and Austria. 12 Europa matches and 3 CL matches are said
to be manipulated this year, and it is unclear as to whether it is the group stage or qualifying
rounds.
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Douglas Adams will tell you that the best way to escape from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of
Traal is to close your eyes.It is so mind boggling stupid that it thinks if you can't see it, it
can't see you.
Our own football version of the Bugblatter is sitting with mouth tightly closed and is thereby
firmly convinced that no one will notice that he hasn't bothered to say anything about the Henry
Handball issue one way or the other.
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The Egyptians summon the Algerian envoy twice, recall their envoy from Algiers. Sudan summons
the Egyptian envoy in Khartoum. The Algerian embassy is currently under siege in Cairo with
thousands of fans trying to storm their compound. It's all happening in rapid succession.
Now Egypt has upped the ante threatening to pull out of football for two years in protest of
what happened to fans, sports officials, and players in Sudan.
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Sports pundits and fans are going full tilt at Thierry Henry calling him a "cheat", "morally
reprehensible", "unsportsmanlike", "a snake oil salesman".
Richard Williams crosses that line when as a Brit he forgives Maradona's hand of God goal saying
it amounts to breeding.
"To rank the incident in Paris alongside Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" in 1986 is
misleading.
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Author Randall Barfield sends us 10 questions from his
Little Soccer Quiz Book.
See how many you get right >>
1. Sir Alex Ferguson is boss of which UK team?
2. In what city is the Santiago Bernabeu stadium located?
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My introduction to Daniele De Rossi was the vicious elbow that he threw at Brian McBride,
leaving his face bloody in the USA vs Italy match in the 2006 World Cup. It left a negative
impression of him but here is De Rossi doing something rare in football nowadays, acknowledging
that he used his hand to score a goal against Serie side Messina.
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Arsene Wenger had some good news.
"After being assessed by the Arsenal medical staff, the club can confirm that Kieran Gibbs has
sustained severe bruising to the bones and soft tissue of his right foot."
There is no fracture of the metatarsal as feared at first. Gibbs injury is short term and he
should ready to face the highly anticipated Chelsea showdown.
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Amidst all the drama with the Ireland vs France match and earlier the Egypt vs Algeria showdown,
the USA played a friendly with Denmark. Bob Bradley started Jeff Cunningham and I am happy to say,
it turned out well because he scored his first international goal and nearly set up Altidore with
another.
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Its not just the Egyptian and Algerian governments having a holy go at each other.
The replay request is now being echoed in the upper echelons of the Irish government as Brian
Cowen, the Irish PM is now suggesting that he will approach the French premier Nickolas Sarkozy to
discuss a replay and circumvent FIFA's objections.
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Berbatov scored twice in a friendly against Malta and went on to become Bulgaria's leading
goalscorer - notching up 48 goals in 74 games.
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The Egyptian ambassador to Algeria was recalled by Cairo as the soccer feud between the two
countries has now escalated into a full scale diplomatic row.
It is also believed that Hosni Mubarak himself called the Algerian ambassador, Abdel Qader Hadja
hours before the recall of the Egyptian envoy, to voice his grievance over the assaults on Egyptian
citizens who went to Khartoum to support the Egyptian team.
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Two of his former projects, Australia and South Korea, that he nurtured to World Cup glory are
in. Russia, his current and most talented team which in actuality should have the easiest of
playoff passages, are out.
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Thierry Henry's left forearm makes first contact with the ball but then as the ball bounces off
ever so slightly his hand comes up and he steers the ball onto his foot. The first touch was
inadvertent but his second touch had clear intent. What is so amazing about this is that the
linesman on the opposite side should have seen happened because as far as one can see his vision
remains unobstructed with Henry furthest out clear of the Irish defenders and Shay Given.
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