SoccerBlogs

Alcohol is not merely a constituent of a good party. Rather, it's the party's host.

Shay Given knows this, which is why he issued a call to the Republic of Ireland fans before last night's Euro 2012 qualifier vs. Armenia to hit the booze. Shay apparently felt that a wee dram or ten might help the faithful blow the roof off the stadium and simultaneously propel the team to victory.

Every morning when I'm at home I get up, make coffee, go upstairs and write my blog. This morning I am daring to be different. Instead of going upstairs, I am staying downstairs and writing the blog on my laptop.

A change is as good as a rest as they say. That said, a rest would be good too for I was forced out of the house last night by the nefarious Mugsmasher who needed the goodness of Guinness to help him get over an adventure race thing he did yesterday.

Stupid rain.

Everywhere you look, rain. I am all for a bit of moisture, the world would be a much worse place without it, but this is ridiculous now. It's cold, it's wet and it's supposed to be summer. How is a man supposed to scorch large chunks of meat over charcoal in this kind of weather?

That there is a photo due some infamy.

Some Arsenal fans, probably getting several groans from the majority, enjoyed their pregame booze by making an "art installation" in front of Milan's Duomo, possibly commissioned by UEFA in a strategic attempt to garner one of their main sponsors a bit more publicity.

Most Fridays find us cracking open the bubbly at Kickette HQ by Noon sharp under the adage of "it's 5 o'clock somewhere." In honour of Ladies Day at The Grand National today, we started the booze flowing this morning with a bowl of Wheatabix in order to keep a steady buzz on while viewing photos such as these.

When it comes to flying first class in casual clothes, there were three distinct themes that a few Barcelona 'ballers and their WAGs abided by during the all important procession in front of the paps this morning.

Options for you to pick from are below, with the question being: which of these couples' looks best describes your own airport arrival style?

We've read a lot of tips and tricks for losing and keeping the baby weight off, but have never had to heed any anonymous advice ourselves, thankfully.

Liverpool get back in the swing of things to see out a busy January, heading to the Reebok in hopes of getting three points for only the second time in six matches. As has mostly been the case in league over the past month and a half, they won't face an entirely overwhelming opposition, with Bolton only a point above Wigan in 19th.

Liverpool and Chelsea meet tomorrow in one of the more hotly-contested matchups of the past few years in English football, with both clubs on the front end of particularly important stretches of their respective seasons. Action off the pitch has added more spice to the fixture in the past calendar year, and the matches themselves have been fairly even Liverpool's done the double in league twice of the last three years, with Chelsea splitting it up and winning both matches two seasons ago.

Capello is right: alcohol DOES cast a shadow over our game

In football, just as in our ­society as a whole, there is a booze culture that is ­careering out of control. So, I was interested to hear Fabio Capello say Andy Carroll drinks too much. I have no idea whether the Liverpool star has been hitting the bottle too hard, but I know ­today's players are the product of a system that makes it tough for clubs to educate them how to refuel.

Why Carroll critics are wrong to play the booze card

At Anfield over the weekend, there was much head-scratching over Fabio Capello's pronouncement that "we need to help Andy Carroll". As help went, they mused, the England manager's actions were akin to offering a drowning man a glass of water.

Terry backs Carroll to cut out the booze and turn his England career around

"He's a really good pro on the pitch and good around the camp," says Three Lions skipper

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-09-05 22:00:38 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Stop worrying and learn to love Stewart Downing | Barney Ronay

Reports of Stewart Downing moving to Anfield have been met by a shrug from many Liverpool fans. This is depressing The summer transfer window is the most obvious example of football's refusal ever to stop happening.

As 50 Cent once said, 'get rich or die trying'.

And 'get rich' is exactly what one man did after he posed as Yaya Touré's football agent.

Last November, an unidentified conman supposedly approached a fine wine shop in Luxembourg, France, on behalf of his Manchester City star client.

We stuttered early on in the season but since then we have had some decent results. This is not altogether too far off from the Arsenal's season. I am talking, crucially, about me and the lads trying to find a decent boozer to call home for games at the Ems after we got a free transfer from our previous drinking establishment.

Andres Iniesta is slowly but surely pining for our sweetest of alcoholic spots, Kickettes. Not too long ago he first gave us an excuse to make like a martini as we watched him flaunt his sezzual side in a sharp, fashion editorial. Now, however, he's really blown the roof off our recently renovated Kickette HQ with some wonderful, wine-tastic news.

Yes, unfortunately we said "tee off" and not "ripped their t-shirts off," but one day they will. We can feel it. Perhaps even at our own outing next year? We've already established a tournament name (the '1st Annual Kickette Charity Golf Tournament'), ground rules for players (all male participants must play shirtless) and which charity we'd sponsor (proceeds would be generously donated to our booze and handbag fund).

The only thing worse than a hangover is an angry hangover; the kind where you are just mad about how you even got to be hungover in the first place. The booze may have worn off, but the emotions remain. Stupid emotions. That's kind of where I've been at all day, just truly mad. As if the Gold Cup loss to Mexico wasn't bad enough, we had to go and give away an early lead to the Sounders, who then took us to school for about 70 minutes.