Both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland produced poor performances on Friday night in
their opening World Cup qualifiers of the new campaign.
The North travelled to Moscow to face Fabio Capello's Russia.
Liverpool squeaked through to the Europa League proper last night, with Pepe Reina leaving Luis
Suarez with a couple of minutes to rectify the situation and restore their aggregate lead to 2-1
after letting David Templeton's shot fart through his fingers in the 85th minute of the match.
Liverpool squeaked through to the Europa League proper last night, with Pepe Reina leaving Luis
Suarez with a couple of minutes to rectify the situation and restore their aggregate lead to 2-1
after letting David Templeton's shot fart through his fingers in the 85th minute of the match.
Levante enjoyed its first European Cup game in the club's over 100-year history, as it beat
Scottish side Motherwell 2-0 in Scotland to all but secure a place in the Europa League group
stages is practically secured.
The Valencian club only took a few minutes to settle its early nerves in Scotland and assert its
superiority.
So, then, to Kiev and to the quarter-finals of the European Championships. It's the final match
of the round this evening, featuring an Italian side that is something of a curates egg, excellent
against Spain in matching them every inch of the way before being slightly underwhelming against
Croatia and The Republic of Ireland, whilst England remain somewhat enigmatic, decent enough in
fits and starts but also a little lucky in places and, for fifteen minutes against Sweden nine days
ago, almost apocalyptically disorganised.
MSNsportsnet profiles Raymon Gaddis after his first start with the Union. Gaddis says of the
start, "I had to get my feet under me just because I hadn't played in a game with the first team. I
was excited and was trying to get the ball as much as possible those first couple of minutes to get
my touches underneath me and get comfortable with the pace of the game.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers felt harshly treated by referee Phil Dowd after seeing Liverpool
crash to a 3-0 defeat at West Brom on the opening day of the Barclays Premier League .
Dowd awarded two second-half penalties, the first of which also saw Daniel Agger red-carded and
the second awarded for Martin Skrtel's foul on Long which was tucked away by Peter Odemwingie.
A quite, considered hush fell over Upon Park about ten minutes into the second half of West Ham
Uniteds match against Reading yesterday afternoon. As the visiting team dispatched their third
goal, a penalty kick from Ian Harte after a clumsy tackle by Abdoulaye Faye in fifteen minutes
either side of half-time and extended their lead to three-one, it was as if this was the collective
moment of realisation for their supporters that, having been there or thereabouts for most of this
season, the possibility of thereabouts being the sum total of their forty-six league matches us
starting to become rather more of a likelihood.
I hope you're having a fine Monday because I'm not. I was earlier, but I'm not now. Probably
because it dawned upon a couple of minutes ago that today is going to be a pivotal of the season.
Because today is the day, we announced that Robin van Persie would be sold.
A third trip to the Britannia in three seasons brought with it some mixed
emotions. The 2009/10 game was played in February, a month after being beaten by the Stokies in the
4th round of the FA Cup. Ramsey's leg snapped like a twig but the team responded magnificently to
record a fine 3-1 victory.
A third trip to the Britannia in three seasons brought with it some mixed
emotions. The 2009/10 game was played in February, a month after being beaten by the Stokies in the
4th round of the FA Cup. Ramsey's leg snapped like a twig but the team responded magnificently to
record a fine 3-1 victory.
When we lost 2-1 against QPR a couple of weeks ago it was easy to throw around the C-word. No,
not the one that so wonderfully describes John Terry, but complacency. After last night's 2-1
defeat to Wigan it's C-word time again: this time, Consistency.
It was a game that potentially could have been a banana skin. In the end we took the skin off
the banana, ate the banana, then put the skin under Wolves who seemed unaware of the danger of a
banana skin, thinking that oranges were the only fruit.
This game was anti-climatic in some ways. As discussed in the preview, the fighting spirit of a
relegation candidate could have been the only factor that made this a compelling contest. It was
nowhere to be seen. Wolves started in a somewhat diffident manner and the events of the opening 10
odd minutes virtually killed the contest.
This game was anti-climatic in some ways. As discussed in the preview, the fighting spirit of a
relegation candidate could have been the only factor that made this a compelling contest. It was
nowhere to be seen. Wolves started in a somewhat diffident manner and the events of the opening 10
odd minutes virtually killed the contest.
Arsenal won this evening's match against AC Milan at the Emirates in the Champions' League. But
unfortunately, the Italians brought their four-goal advantage into this game and so our 3-0 win
wasn't enough for us to go through.
The Gunners started with a real attacking intent as they had nothing to lose in this one.
Chelsea fans all over the world it's time to come together and support two of our supporters in
their challenge to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to mark it as "Chelsea Territory" and most importantly
of all, to raise money for FOUR tremendous charities: Help a Capital Child, Right to Play
International, Association for Suicide prevention and Save the Children.
Chelsea fans all over the world it's time to come together and support two of our supporters in
their challenge to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to mark it as "Chelsea Territory" and most importantly
of all, to raise money for FOUR tremendous charities: Help a Capital Child, Right to Play
International, Association for Suicide prevention and Save the Children.
Chelsea fans all over the world it's time to come together and support two of our supporters in
their challenge to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to mark it as "Chelsea Territory" and most importantly
of all, to raise money for FOUR tremendous charities: Help a Capital Child, Right to Play
International, Association for Suicide prevention and Save the Children.
England winger Theo Walcott only played the final half hour against Sweden -- up from the final
couple of minutes against Ukraine -- yet he played an integral part in taking his side from losing
to winning in just 15 minutes. And then he got hurt.
Luckily it didn't seem too bad this time, but after playing his longest and arguably best season
at Arsenal, there's the slightly menacing sound of a ticking clock that Walcott is trying very hard
to ignore.
Mario Mandzukic did the lion's share of reducing the Republic of Ireland to a pile of sticky
green goo last night, scoring an outrageous 'down on one knee' header to open the scoring after a
couple of minutes before forcing Shay Given into conceding an incredibly cruel own-goal to finish
off the scoring in the second half.
OADBY TOWN 4-1 WOOTTON BLUE CROSS
Saturday 8th September 2012
United Counties League Division 1
Wigston Road, Oadby, Leicestershire
Another glorious sunny day with temperatures hitting twenty-five degrees Celsius, or seventy seven
Fahrenheit in old money. I made my way to Oadby Town FC for a league match against Bedfordshire
side Wootton Blue Cross.
The Portland Timbers once again go to Colorado and get absolutely pasted. The Colorado Rapids
did everything they were supposed to do and wanted to do, meanwhile the Timbers looked listless on
offense and some of the defenders looked clueless. 3-0 loss and back into the cellar.
Someone out there really, really loves Alan Pardew...
Okay, so it's probably actually been made by some swarthy teenage boy in his bedroom somewhere
in the North East, but it's really quite amusing if you suspend your disbelief for a couple of
minutes.
The earliest rounds of the FA Cup could, for those participating, be considered to have a small
amount of nuisance value about them. Clubs seeking to build a little rhythm to their league seasons
find that the cup interjects every two or three weeks or so, and those that are successful can find
themselves with a backlog of cancelled fixtures that can cause major headaches later on in the
season.
"I thought it was a really good battle. Obviously, we were down early. I haven't seen the video,
but I think that they created some opportunities in the first couple of minutes and put us down. It
showed a lot of character from the guys that kept fighting." - Schellas Hyndman
It is a reflection of the curve ball that was thrown into Group B of this summers European
Championships that, whilst Portugal may have left the pitch at the end of last nights match against
Germany disappointed at having failed to collect a point from their endeavours, they'll probably
feel considerably more confident than they were at the start of the day of qualifying from their
group.
Where do I start on one of the greatest nights of our history considering the circumstances. Up
against it before the game, written off and with members of the press and media thinking that
Barcelona just needed to turn up to win the game, Chelsea produced a performance that is right up
there with the best of them.
Week 3 of MLS action saw quite a few goals being scored in front of some fairly impressive crowds.
Some, like Seattle, left extremely happy with the result. Others though fell at home, sending fans
home unhappy. Pedro Gomes recaps the weekend for us.
Seattle Sounders 2, Houston Dynamo 0
The Houston Dynamo looked to continue their unbeaten road record as they traveled to face the
Seattle Sounders in front of 38,304 supporters at Century Link Field.
