Apologies if this is redundant, but I wanted to share some visuals to back up Rich's previous
post.
Dembele's dashboard is below:
For those wondering, the 'X' is a tackle, the hexagons are take-ons. Orange is successful,
purple is unsuccessful. And as we can see, he had many successful tackles and take-ons all over the
pitch; all while posting a 96% passing completion rate.
Apologies if this is redundant, but I wanted to share some visuals to back up Rich's previous
post.
Dembele's dashboard is below:
For those wondering, the 'X' is a tackle, the hexagons are take-ons. Orange is successful,
purple is unsuccessful. And as we can see, he had many successful tackles and take-ons all over the
pitch; all while posting a 96% passing completion rate.
Nicks' note: We have a Liverpool post for you today. Rather like the
transfer of Oussama Assaidi, this one is completely out of the blue.
Moonmoon, a writer for Sports Illustrated India, has written for BigFourZa
before; and she comes out of cryogenic sleep here to stop the bad press about Joe Allen.
Fenway Sports Group and Liverpool FC confirmed today that Head of Sports Medicine and Sports
Science, Dr. Peter Brukner will leave the Club by the end of the season.
Managing Director Ian Ayre said: "We are grateful to Peter who has been the catalyst for the
transformation of our Sports Medicine and Sports Science capability at the Club since he joined two
years ago.
Fenway Sports Group and Liverpool FC confirmed today that Head of Sports Medicine and Sports
Science, Dr Peter Brukner will leave the Club by the end of the season.
Managing Director Ian Ayre said: "We are grateful to Peter who has been the catalyst for the
transformation of our Sports Medicine and Sports Science capability at the Club since he joined two
years ago.
Papiss Demba Cisse is the best winter transfer maybe of all times in the Premier League.
Exaggeration? 7 matches, 7 goals. He's scored three winners already against Aston Villa on his
debut, Norwich, and Liverpool today. And to top it they have all been easy on the eye.
A big question will be answered today. Whether Arsenal can maintain the consistency and
explosiveness that they showed last Sunday against Tottenham Hotspur, and whether Liverpool's
Carling Cup Final victory can be a catalyst for greater glories...
Add a lack of communication to the growing list of problems that the Revs are having in this
second half of the season. Tonight's match was perhaps most indicative of that, as the Revolution
strayed and mist-timed pass after pass, ultimately leading to their own demise at the hands of the
visiting Montreal Impact.
Saturday's tilt against Real Salt Lake was an all around great game to watch. It was a match
filled with drama, emotion, goals and controversy. The Revs eventually fell 2-1 in what devolved
into a 10v10 match. The go ahead goal came off an RSL set piece, where New England defenders again
failed to trail their assignments and Alvaro Saborio, unmarked, headed it home.
Manchester City made possibly their most critical signing of the summer transfer window this
week, after captain Vincent Kompany agreed a new contract with the club.
Kompany's deal will keep him at City for six more seasons, a timeframe that will span the best
years of the Belgian's career.
Arsenal Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis is committed to turning the club into a global powerhouse
by focusing more on activities that are aimed at increasing the Gunners' presence overseas.
The Gunners enjoy one of the strongest domestic fan-bases in English football but Gazidis is
aware that there is significant untapped potential that the club needs to explore outside the
United Kingdom.
Wigan, in recent seasons have played a type of football which is pleasing to the eye. Since the
appointment of Roberto Martinez, he had taken the blueprint he developed at Swansea and imbued it
onto the Latics DNA. Their passing was amazing against Newcastle last weekend. Rarely kicking a
ball in anger, the Latics players played the ball out of defence into midfield, down the channels
and finally exploiting the openings with quick one-two wall passes.
Tonight's game at Columbus is not a season defining game, but it may well demonstrate whether
the first 17 minutes of last Sunday's match at Houston or the 73 that followed were. Coherence and
a small degree of dominance broke down when Bill Hamid was ejected and DC United failed to survive
the loss of one player.
The New England Revolution will have to put last week's disappointing home draw with Houston far
behind them as they travel to the nation's capital to take on D.C. United at RFK Stadium. Despite
the Houston draw, New England is in decent form, having recently beaten Colorado and Vancouver
before the Dynamo draw.
The Revs face off Saturday at home against an eager Portland Timbers looking to elevate their
standing in a competitive Western Conference. For the Revs, after falling on the road to both the
San Jose Earthquakes and Sporting Kansas City, this may be their best chance at garnishing three
points before their loyal fans next see them on April 14th against DC United.
OTP revisits some of the transfers that the country's largest clubs would rather forget... 10.
Gerry Creaney Creaney was the catalyst for City dropping out of the Premier League, with the
Citizens giving Portsmouth ÂŁ500,000 and Paul Walsh for the Scottish striker. While Walsh scored
for fun at Fratton Park, Creaney scored just four league [.
The Netherlands begin the UEFA Euro 2012 tournament against Denmark in Group B play. The match
will take place at the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv, Ukraine with kickoff scheduled for 18:00 local
time.
Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk
"They say they're going to be underdogs and I think so as well, but that doesn't mean it's going
to be easy for us.
Week 12 in the MLS season was quite kind to the Columbus Crew.
Led by striker Emilio Renteria, the Crew came up with their first MLS win over former coach Sigi
Schmid in seven tries to defeat the Seattle Sounders 2-0 at CenturyLink Field before returning home
and topping the Chicago Fire 2-1 a few days later to win SBI MLS Team of the Week honors.
On Sunday afternoon, the New York Red Bulls scored early and often, defeating the Colorado
Rapids 4-1 in their home opener at Red Bull Arena.
Thierry Henry found the back of the net twice, his first strike coming just three minutes into
the match, and was the catalyst all game for an offense that produced eight shots on goal and just
missed on several opportunities late to expand their lead.
The New England Revolution fell to Sporting Kansas City tonight in their host's home opener,
providing them with their second consecutive loss in the 2012 campaign. The 3-0 scoreline was a
pretty accurate representation of the match which saw some questionable officiating early on that
seemed to throw the Revs off their gameplan all together.
The Philadelphia 76ers surprised a lot of people in the 2012 National Basketball Association
playoffs, partially due to Chicago Bulls superstar Derrick Rose suffering an injury that knocked
him out of the series. Veteran power forward Elton Brand was a catalyst for the team's progression
over the course of the year and helped the Sixers almost upset the Boston Celtics, who nearly made
the NBA Finals.
Diego's stock plummeted after his underwhelming Juventus stint where he fell out with manager
Ciro Ferrera and headed for an acrimonious exit. The Brazilian did not endeared himself at
Wolfsburg with his temperamental ways and he was loaned out to Atletico.
Many club volunteers and board members have asked me directly in one way or another how they get
in front of a politician to plead their case for more fields, better infrastructure and more money.
The simple answer is you don't, but that's because you haven't developed a strategy to get on their
radar yet.
Despite racing out to a two goal lead, the Union reserves faded in the closing minutes,
surrendering the lead and settling for a 2-2 tie at Widener's Quick Stadium.
Antoine Hoppenot led the line for the Union, opening the scoring in the 11th minute, having been
set up by Josue Martinez.
Possession, then, might only be nine-tenths of the law after all. When push came to shove at the
Camp Nou last night, the young tigers of Barcelona were cast aside by Chelsea's old dogs in a
match of events so improbable that it at times stretch the credulity of the viewer. Such, though,
has been the nature of Chelsea's season since the departure of Andre Villa-Boas two months ago.
The day after we had a decent discussion focusing on possession not always leading to substance,
Barcelona exhibited exactly how you can pass a team to death, and complete such exquisite sequences
with an end product. The blaugrana were in great form when they traveled to Zaragoza,
gliding to a 4-1 victory.
As Manchester United extend their lead over Manchester City and close in on their fifth title in
the last six seasons, goalkeeper David De Gea's improvement since the start of the campaign has
been significant. And the 21-year-old Spaniard credits an unusual catalyst for his journey from
unreliable laughingstock to vital shot-stopper all in his first season with the club:
doughnuts.
Recently Soccer Speak USA, a humble blog of ideas that was created to help act as discussion
tool and more optimistically, a catalyst for change at the grassroots of U.S. soccer â surpassed
5000 hits.
Not a number that screams âlisten to my me because my ideas are great' but rather an indicator
that there are indeed people out there that believe soccer can reach its potential in this country
through innovative approaches to help foster a cultural shift in the big four âAmericanized'
sports of NFL, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey.
Following on from the success of the #GrowTheGame pilot which was held in San Diego on April 14
& 15 and saw over 500 people participate in a weekend of soccer related activities, it was only a
matter of time before #GrowTheGame picked up its organizing kit and headed to a new host city to
act as a catalyst for grassroots change and new conversations between tits local soccer
community.
