Liverpool legend John Barnes is my favourite footballer of all time. No other player has given me
as much joy and excitement over the years, and he always has compelling views on football. However,
I have to disagree with Barnesy's recent assessment of Stewart Downing's impact for Liverpool.
Once again, Liverpool flattered to deceive. At Anfield, against a Swansea that does not travel
well, the mighty Reds laboured to a disappointing draw. An out-of-sorts Liverpool performance was
made worse because of a superb goalkeeping display by the Swans' Michel Vorm. His two saves from
Suarez highlighted his sterling performance.
Maxi Rodriguez was in blistering form for Liverpool at the tail-end of last season, scoring 7 goals
in 3 games, including two hat-tricks in a row. That clearly wasn't enough to move him higher in the
first-team pecking order though, and this season, the Argentinean has struggled to get into Kenny
Dalglish's first eleven.
Liverpool defender Jose Enrique insists his club team-mate Luis Suarez is not a diver.
The Reds striker endured a frustrating evening against Norwich on Saturday when he came close to
scoring on a number of occasions, and was left frustrated when no foul was given after Marc Tierney
appeared to bring down the Uruguayan when he was clean through on goal.
Right? Am I right or am I right? Or am I right.
Samba causes us problems
I'm actually not going to write much about Samba. I'm glad we didn't get him in the summer, as I
think he's wildly overrated. Mertesacker is a far better pick-up for us.
Tomorrow (early morning for some of us), Arsenal are away to Blackburn in yet another match in
which every tiny move will be assessed as an indication of how our season is going, how our new
players are gelling, what our chances for making that last Champions League spot, and how likely it
is that Wenger will be with us next summer.
Colorado sent a young team down to Honduras, and you could tell from the play. The Rapids had few
chances last night and were under siege most of the game. They managed a 1-1 draw and the one point
is a good result given their youth, but 3 points was there for the taking had the coaching staff
done a better job managing the squad over the last couple of weeks.
About two years ago I was first informed of a 16-year-old Belgian wonderkid named Romelu Lukaku.
While I'm not a follower of Belgian football, I must admit I have loosely followed Lukaku's career
having heard of his talent, waiting patiently to receive the news that one of European footballs
giants had put in a bid for him.
One of the things to be decided in the coming week is the status of Joey Barton. Alan Pardew wants
to sort out the Joey Barton situation Fabio Capello has already said this weekend that while Joey
is a very good player, he can also be a dangerous player for a team too, because [...]
Can I cuss here? I mean, I guess I kinda make the rules, so I should probably just answer that
myself. So let's think ... OK, I'm holding off. I'm going to hold the cussing for a much more
meaningful loss than this one. But I honestly don't think they'll be any more frustrating that this
one.
Losing 1-0 to San Francisco FC in the away leg of their CONCACAF Champions League preliminary
round game is not the end of the world for the Sounders.
After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of
the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5
average, 10 perfection). This week Sean Donahue contributed ratings for the Revs 2-1 loss to
Seattle.
Matt Reis – 2.
The Fire played to yet another 0-0 draw for their tenth tie of the season. Neither team created
many opportunities and Real Salt Lake failed to even register a shot on goal in the second half.
The New York match on Sunday will mark the half way point of the MLS season and it still seems that
we're still not exactly sure what this team is capable of accomplishing.
The Galaxy came to town without Donovan "Glass Jaw" Ricketts, Old Spice, and PrimaDonnavan. They
left with 3 points and a bunch of Rapids fans wondering which team was really missing their best
players.
The Galaxy picked apart the Rapids on offense and throttled any offensive chance Colorado got
started.
Philadelphia Union's match against Real Salt Lake this past weekend seemed to be for the taking
for the Union. Despite RSL being in fourth place in the West, they were missing three players due
to the Gold Cup and had won only one of its last five. Meanwhile, the Union entered the match
unbeaten at home and without a loss since May 14.
11am ET, live in the US on FSC
Last four head-to-head:
1-2 Spurs (a) 11.28.10
2-0 Liverpool (h) 01.20.10
1-2 Spurs (a) 08.16.09
3-1 Liverpool (h) 05.24.09
Last three matches:
Liverpool: 5-2 Fulham (a); 3-0 Newcastle (h); 5-0 Brum (h)
Spurs: 0-1 City (a); 1-1 Blackpool (h); 1-2 Chelsea (a)
Goalscorers (league):
Liverpool: Kuyt 13; Maxi 10; Meireles 5; Gerrard, Suarez 4; Carroll, Cole, Johnson,
Kyrgiakos, Ngog, Skrtel 2
Spurs: van der Vaart 12; Pavlyuchenko 8; Bale 7; Crouch, Defoe 4; Lennon 3; Huddlestone,
Hutton, Kranjcar, Modric 2; Bassong, Dawson, Kaboul, Sandro 1
Referee: Howard Webb
Naturally.
Colorado Rapids have been waiting weeks to get Conor Casey back from a strained hamstring, but
now the Rapids will be forced to play without their most dangerous player.
Colorado striker Omar Cummings is set to miss 2-4 weeks with a sprained ankle suffered during
the Rapids' 2-1 win vs.
It is rare when our pick for SBI MLS Player of the Week is someone who hasn't scored a goal, but
this week Andy Najar deserved the nod for the creative spark he supplied to help D.C. United
register four points this past week.
Najar assisted on both goals in D.C. United's 2-1 win against Seattle last Wednesday, and then
was United's most dangerous player in a scoreless draw against FC Dallas that D.
I got a feeling this is what everyone envisioned would happen when this team was assembled.
That game exemplified just how good New York can be as they dominated in all facets of the game.
Oh, and Thierry Henry finally got on the scoreboard. A sign of things to come?
One can only hope.
The Lady Bears opened their Spring season this afternoon with 90 minutes of soccer on the fast
and windy Plaster Stadium pitch. Facing off against D2 Missouri S&T, the Spring season allows the
teams to work on some projects and take out their energy against another team rather than their
teammates.
Three-time European Cup winners Manchester United travelled to the Stade Veladrome Wednesday in
first-leg action from the UEFA Champions League knockout stage, squaring up against the successful
French outfit Marseille.
For no legitimate reason, Reds manager Alex Ferguson opted for Darron Gibson in midfield in lieu of
Paul Scholes.
An article from Babette van Haaren, a 19 years old Ajax fan from Tilburg, The Netherlands. You can
follow Babette on Twitter at @babettex23
Since 1995, I'm Ajacied.
I've you're good at maths, I was indeed 4 years old when I started supporting them. Ever since,
it went downhill with the club but my love for this club is still increasing every day.
An Italian walks into a bar in Tokyo and asks for a local brew, but not wishing to disappoint,
the barman discreetly pours the visitor a Peroni instead.
It's a plausible scenario in a country like Japan, where citizens are eager to please and
equally desperate to avoid criticism.
Perhaps that's why the Japanese press were quick to turn a blind eye to another poor performance
from the Samurai Blue at the Asian Cup in Qatar, as Alberto Zaccheroni's men laboured to a 2-1 win
over a spirited but technically inferior Syria.
