This Manchester United fan from Durban, South Africa, must've picked up his sister's ear muffs on
the way to the stadium during United's friendly against Amazulu last week.... How
else do you explain this fashion catastrophe?! (Photo via Gettyimages)
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Meanwhile, fan support for the Olympic football events in London has been amazing!
I know what you're thinking. 1. You don't want to revisit that wretched night in Moscow. 2. You
don't want to revisit that wretched night in Moscow. However, we're going to, not just because we
have a final coming up in three days and change but also because, dammit, it's time we extinguish
this nightmare from the memory once and for all.
If we are to believe the lovely Mayans, the bearers of good news, then, sometime in 2012, the
year we've just entered of course, the beautiful human race – and also Luis Suarez – will be
wiped out by some sort of terrible catastrophe. Oh well. Thankfully however, there are a bunch of
cool, slick wordsmiths who are considerably more optimistic than the Mayans and see this year as
one, not of doom and gloom, but of happiness – in particular, forManchesterUnited.
If we are to believe the lovely Mayans, the bearers of good news, then, sometime in 2012, the
year we've just entered of course, the beautiful human race – and also Luis Suarez – will be
wiped out by some sort of terrible catastrophe. Oh well. Thankfully however, there are a bunch of
cool, slick wordsmiths who are considerably more optimistic than the Mayans and see this year as
one, not of doom and gloom, but of happiness – in particular, forManchesterUnited.
According to Rob Beasley at The Sun, Arsenal midfielder
Denilson admitted that he will be leaving Arsenal this summer due to the
frustration of a lack of silverware. Denilson said,
"There's something missing at Arsenal but no one knows what it is.
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson is targeting Champions League football, admitting his side is not in
the title race after a 3-2 defeat to Manchester United.
Hodgson's side had trailed by two Dimitar Berbatov goals until a penalty and free-kick from Steven
Gerrard brought the visitors back into the game.
On an individual level, there is no doubt that France is more skilled than Mexico. However,
today, Mexico out-played the French and handed them an embarrassing 2-0 loss.
After returning to play following a scoreless first half, Manchester United's Javier "Little
Green Pea" Hernandez entered the match in the 55th minute, and netted the game's opening goal just
nine minutes later.
Liverpool host Aston Villa tomorrow afternoon with a view to turning around the horrible run of
league results that's seen them entrenched firmly in the middle of the table. Six losses in seven
have left the club a point behind Everton and eleven off of Newcastle and Chelsea. Villa are safely
out of the relegation discussion but have had struggles of their own, with only two wins in 2012
and seven goals conceded in their last two.
With something close to optimism sweeping through our barren and lifeless souls over the past
week, you'd be forgiven for expecting some sort of catastrophe to follow closely after Wednesday's
win. A victory amid reports of cannibalism in the changing room. A well-struck penalty suspected of
being guided by a boot with a secret sandpaper layer.
Liverpool FC's season couldn't really have gone any worse, but this morning they are reeling from
the shock that part of the Centenary stand suddenly collapsed in the early hours last night.
A mild earth tremour in the Irish sea is reported to be the cause, as there is widespread minor
damage to buildings all around the Merseyside area, but a previously unseen crack in the Anfield
foundations broke apart to leave half the stand in ruins, and the whole stadium declared a no-go
zone by officials until the safety of the other three sides and assorted other buildings can be
ascertained.
Mr. Champions League does it again: Karim Benzema broke APOEL's dam last night What is that
smell?.. or rather, that scent? That my friends is the smell of the Champions League Semi-Final. .
Short of a catastrophe that would be far greater than Alcorconzo, Mourinho and his men would likely
be arranging early travel plans to Munich – not for the Final, but to likely to meet Bayern in
the Semi-Finals (unless Marseille would have something to say about it).
I am quite busy at the moment and simply do not have the time to give the complete and proper
reviews for all the games played in the last two rounds. For this reason, I am giving a quick
update here so that I can focus on Friday´s European Championship qualifier against Hungary in
more depth. Look for that post tomorrow!
At the Emirates we were made to look like a lower league team in the first twenty minutes or so.
Big Al made saves that no one expected he could. Our defense was made to defend for their lives at
one point even Tony Adams would have been proud of some interceptions and blocks made.
After Saturday's loss to Real Salt Lake, Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said he would "have to make
changes against Toronto."
He made two changes to the lineup from Wednesday's game in Toronto, and apparently fatigue forced
the Galaxy to crash and burn in the end. Changes then seemed not only likely but necessary.
We'll have more photos and highlights tomorrow, but Ireland have stuck four unanswered goals
past nine-man Estonia in Talinn thus, barring complete catastrophe (let's not rule it out just
yet!), you'd think will be enough to ferry them through to Polkraine in the return leg next
Tuesday.
Curses. There has been some debate across various corners of the interweb, but here at AANP
Towers we had rather been enjoying the exalted status of title dark-horses, and accordingly mark
this down as two points lost. No catastrophe, but if we can win at the Emirates we should be able
to win just about anywhere, especially after giving the opposition a one-goal first-half thrashing,
if such a thing there be.
The lasting effects of this horrible slaughter could reverberate down the years. Not because of
the score we've shipped five against them before and we'll do so again in my lifetime. Not even
because the top two have left us far behind in their wake. No, it's because after this, how we can
trust our Spurs again?
The lasting effects of this horrible slaughter could reverberate down the years. Not because of
the score we've shipped five against them before and we'll do so again in my lifetime. Not even
because the top two have left us far behind in their wake. No, it's because after this, how we can
trust our Spurs again?
What is it with unusual pitch invaders on Merseyside lately? Last week, a protestor cuffed
himself to the posts at Goodison Park to register his disgust with a budget airlines, and tonight a
cat found its way onto the pitch during Tottenham's bout with Liverpool at Anfield.
Brad Friedel was visibly freaked out by the impromptu appearance of the misplaced moggy —
perhaps he thought Harry Redknapp had sent one of his pets in his absence from the match — and
Liverpool fans responded with the inventive chant "a cat, a cat, a cat, a cat, cat.
The last few meetings with Sp*rs in the league have not been events to write home about. In a
nutshell, we have epitomised the phrase 'self-destruct' in most of them.
However, whilst I understand a lot of the pundits placing their money on a Spurs win today
because of our poor start to the season and T*ttenham getting a few wins under their belts, they
seem to forget they have done this a fair few times before.
Besides the human loss, it is sad that the attention of the world on African football during a
great tournament as the African Cup of Nations, is drawn away by the game, to the catastrophe that
happened in Egypt.I am certain that this is not what Egypt is about, with its great people and
fans, and it is not what African football is about.
Arsene Wenger wrapped up as many as five quality signings on the transfer deadline day but not
all members of his squad are feeling confident about the future ahead.
Russian winger Andrei Arshavin, for one, believes that the Gunners' failure to sign a defensive
midfielder such as Rennes' Yann M'Vila not only left the Arsenal midfield incomplete, but also
prevented Wenger from compensating for the departures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri.
Ives Galarcep absolutely flips his shit over CONCACAF's proposed changes to its World Cup
qualifying process. I'm feeling lazy, so I'll let Ives summarize.
Quote: Under the new format, which is awaiting approval from FIFA, CONCACAF would do away with the
six-team, ‘Hexagonal' format in the final round of World Cup qualifying, replacing it with a two
groups of four.
At the World Cup this summer, both England and France fans were dealt some disappointing blows.
Sure, the details of what happened in the squads may be different. Arguably, what happened to
France was by far worse. While England merely fizzled out (with a few sparks-both good and bad)
during the tournament, France exploded.
1. We are through. That's the main thing. 2. Another startlingly accurate performance from the
Wembley branch of the Italia 90 Re-enactment Society. 3. John Terry has definitely redeemed himself
for his press conference catastrophe with some trademark brilliant defending and blocking. 4. This
was a satisfying result in that it wasn't a scraped, undeserved 0-1 win, [.
Patrice Evra was understandably not too impressed after France suffered a 2-0 defeat at the
hands of Mexico. It was his new Manchester United team-mate, Javier Hernandez, who scored the
opening goal before Abidal conceded a penalty.
Evra, who has been chosen as captain since Thierry Henry has been relegated to the bench, has
voiced his frustration with the team's performance.
Awkward. Maybe we should begin at the beginning...
The Glorious First Five Minutes
Ah, ‘twas a pleasure to be a Tottenham fan. Our heroes produced some ovely stuff. Swift, slick
passing; patient but pacey; sideways if necessary but probing forward whenever opportunity even
threatened to knock.
Currently, Siena lie second in Serie B, eight points ahead of third placed Novara. The club are
also only one point away from the summit, and it seems that promotion to Serie A is easily within
the club's grasp, barring any late season catastrophe. The club are somewhat fittingly preparing to
build a new stadium featuring an odd characteristic: it's partially underground.
We have three players called up for England and every one of them picks up some sort of injury.
It's enough to make you think that internationals should be banned.
Yet with every cloud, we are reliably informed that there is a silver lining. It seems that it's
not just England players that get injured in internationals.
"Salzach had never been right": this was the widespread agreement in Brooklyn, not only in the
hours after the catastrophe but in the days and weeks after it. And in this case the consensus was
correct, for when the authorities supervising his case sent back to Europe in an effort to turn up
his relations, they unearthed to their astonishment a family of ferocious German dukes, who
explained not personally, of course that Salzach was in fact the fourth male issue of a creature
called the Baron von Salzach, from whose house he had disappeared nine years ago, defeating all his
family's subsequent efforts to find him and restore him to his birthright.
Football wasn't really important in Poland at the weekend. Due to well known circumstances the
majority of Ekstraklasa matches were delayed. Poles abroad played with black armbands to honor the
victims of the catastrophe. The Gran Derby was preceded by a minute of silence. [read more]
