Newcastle were treated to a five star performance from Spurs as we despatched five goals without
reply. The first came after some quick passing between Bale and Ade, the latter sending a cross
along the six yard box, Benny unmarked on the far side, steamed in and blasted the ball into the
net. 1-0
The second goal came after Krancjar controlled the ball with a neat touch and sent Ade down the
wing.
Sunday was Genoa striker Rodrigo Palacio's 30th birthday, so to mark the occasion, he scored a
tremendous backheel goal to begin his side's 3-2 win over Lazio that day. In the 10th minute, the
Argentine floated a backheel volley off a corner kick while running away from the goal, landing the
ball gently in the far corner of the net.
It was a big night for the Missouri Comets as they set multiple records at the Independence Events
Center in their 33-12 rout over the Syracuse Silver Knights. They set a team record for the largest
margin of victory since the teams rebirth, with 21. They tied a league record with 3 players
recording a hattrick (Byron Alvarez, Geison, and Vahid Assadpour).
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about successful and yet past-their-prime players
moving to the United States to earn the big bucks and to continue their career in the American
limelight. This began with David Beckham moving to LA Galaxy, with much of the commotion
surrounding his wife, Posh Spice's desire to hang out with Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise.
Surprised? No. Disappointed? Of course.
Watching that match was painful, and I'm sure most of you caught the match. I will describe the
match in laconic detail, in order to spare us the pain:
First Half: We were dire. Really, really dire. We couldn't get out of own half
for most of the half, as United, who weren't so hot themselves, probed for an opener.
Lionel Messi scored his first away hat-trick of the season to give Barca a comfortable 4-1
victory over Malaga. The match wasn't as comfortable as the score-line suggest. In the first half
Malaga had some serious chances and ended as 1-0. Rondon scored the consolation goal for
Malaga.
Newcastle's hopes of taking advantage of Chelsea's draw at Norwich were stopped by a five-goal
second-half blitz from Fulham as they lost 5-2 at Fulham.
Fulham were poor in the first-hald and it was no surprise that Newcastle scored first thanks to
a Danny Guthrie thunderbolt from outside the area.
This weekend saw lots of action in the Serie A: a furious downpour which forced the
suspension of a game; a feisty, highly-anticipated derby; and some very decisive wins. The result?
The Serie A standings have been, to borrow from the late, great Elvis Presley, "all shook
up"!
On Saturday, Roma travelled South to Sicily to take on Catania.
Last night in the Missouri Comets' game against the Wichita Wings was the epitome of a back and
forth game. Neither team scored 2 goals in a row all night, and there was only one lead the entire
game that was more than 1 point. Unfortunately for the Comets though, the Wings ended up getting
the last goal and getting the 10-9 win in front of over 8,000 fans at the Sprint Center in downtown
KC.
Manchester City slumped to their second home defeat in four days as Steven Gerrard's early penalty
moved Liverpool to within 90 minutes of their first Wembley appearance since 1996.
Lacking key men, including skipper Vincent Kompany who sat forlornly in the stands as he began a
four-match ban, and drained by the energy exerted at having to play for 78 minutes with 10 men
against Manchester United at the weekend, City were a shadow of their usual selves.
Liverpool will take a 1-0 advantage back to Anfield after defeating Manchester City in their
Carling Cup semi-final on Wednesday.
A first-half penalty from Steven Gerrard was all that separated the sides at the Etihad Stadium
after City defender Stefan Savic clumsily felled a charging Daniel Agger in the box.
Why, top of the morning to you, and you, and you with the crooked nose as well. May a squadron
of Twix bars find their way into your mouth by day's end, and may time go by as smoothly as
Thierry's first touch. The day has gone by that smoothly in fact; exploding capacitors and
leaking transformers having taken up so much of my time that this review is sinfully late (A word
of caution- never put the positive pin of the capacitor into the negative pin of the battery,
unless you want the electronic equivalent of the Vietnam War in your face)
The FA Cup game against Leeds can broadly be divided into two storylines playing out in
parallel- a feel-good fairytale with returning Kings, and a tragicomedy about knights whose swords
have been replaced by rubber ducks.
Such a poor match between Arsenal and Leeds in the 3rd round of the FA Cup last night... that is
of course until Thierry Henry came on as a sub late in the game before scoring a great goal with
just his 4th or 5th touch of the ball. A nice through-ball found Henry who had an excellent first
touch then instant finish, placing the ball past the Leeds keeper in the far corner of the net.
Match report Video and highlights -
It's rare that I sit here in the morning to write this blog and don't quite know where to begin.
This is one of those mornings.
I guess there's only one place, isn't there? The 79th minute of Arsenal's FA Cup tie against
Leeds. We've dominated the game, in terms of possession, in terms of shots on goal, in every
department, yet the game is heading towards a dreary, goalless conclusion.
szólj hozzá: Arsenal v Leeds 1:0 HIGHLIGHTS
The stage was set after 68 minutes of frustrating football with Arsenal brought to a standstill
by a Leeds Utd team that parked the bus. The moment everyone was waiting for with bated breath.
Number 12 strode in to a standing ovation - Thierry Henry had arrived home to a flood of good time
memories.
The New York Red Bull's Thierry Henry came on as a second half substitute to a rapturous
reception from the Arsenal fans, and then in pure Hollywood style, scored the winner against Leeds
United tonight.
It took Henry less than 10 minutes to show the ineffective Marouane Chamakh how it is done as he
took one touch to control Alex Song's clever pass in his favourite inside left position and, before
the Leeds defenders could react, he had planted the ball beyond keeper Andy Lonergan and into the
far corner.
Thierry Henry came on as a second half substitute to a rapturous reception from the Arsenal
fans, and then in pure Hollywood style, scored the winner against Leeds United tonight.
It took Henry less than 10 minutes to show the ineffective Marouane Chamakh how it is done as he
took one touch to control Alex Song's clever pass in his favourite inside left position and, before
the Leeds defenders could react, he had planted the ball beyond keeper Andy Lonergan and into the
far corner.
If you didn't see the Chelsea v Fulham match yesterday, it was a 1-1 tie. Amobi Okugo sums it up
well on the twitter.
The Red Bulls continue to insist they will embrace another MLS team in the Big Apple. It's going
to be lonely playing in front of 1,500 people in Harrison in 2014.
Alex Morgan is one of Scott French's best stories of 2011.
A shaky performance, but we won. So, Yay?
An early pelanty goal from Robin van Persie, taking his tally to 34 goals in the calendar year,
and a late goal from Yossi Benayoun (from a header, no less) secured a nervous, underperforming,
but ultimately crucial midweek win at Villa Park today.
Sacha Kljestan's run of form is turning out to be anything but temporary.
Kljestan continued his strong season for Anderlecht, scoring a goal in the club's 5-3 triumph
over Lokomotiv Moscow in their UEFA Europa League battle. His curling effort to the far corner dug
Anderlecht out of an early 1-0 deficit and helped the Belgian side win its group, which should make
for a more favorable result during Friday's knockout round draw.
By Chris Wright
In which Gualberto Mojica plays a nifty one-two with Oriente Petrolero teammate Roberto Galindo
before teeing himself up and sending a fine overhead kick into the far corner to round off his
hat-trick during his side's 4-1 thrashing of Guabira in the Bolivian Apertura last night (skip to
the 54 second mark).
FC Barcelona closed down the lead between them and Real Madrid to six points with a comfortable
5-0 victory against fourth placed Levante. Cesc Fabregas opened the scoring, then doubled it
followed by Cuenca, Messi and Sanchez goals gave Barca a comfortable victory at Camp NOu. Now all
the focus will shift to next week's Clasico action at Bernebeu.
It will go down in the records book as a comfortable 4-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano at the Camp
Nou tonight. But this game was much more than that. After the weekend's shocking 1-0 defeat to
Getafe, Barcelona found itself in the unusual position of looking up at Real Madrid. Before
tonight's kick-off Barca was six points behind Madrid and Pep Guardiola's team knew that they could
not allow that gap to grow any wider if they were to have any hope of retaining their La Liga
crown.
Manchester City maintained their five point lead at the top of the Premier League after a 1-1
draw at Anfield.
But City owe a great debt of gratitude to goalkeeper for the point as he made several world
class saves to deny Liverpool all three points.
City started the game well and bossed the opening 15-20 minutes with Samir Nasri and David Silva
pulling the strings.
Goals:Kompany 31'
Lescott (og) 33'
I guess a second consecutive late winner against more-fancied opposition is asking too much. Still,
if not for Joe Hart, we'd be reveling in one.
Today's match was far more in line with what I expected last week against Chelsea.
Well that was no fun. Despite outplaying Fulham, luck was not on our side today, and we dropped two
important points at home. Credit goes to Schwarzer in particular for keeping them in it, while
RvP's prowess around the goal finally let him down today. Vermaelen was the goat for his howler of
an own goal, but he gained a measure of redemption with a header to level things late.
Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool | Premier League match report
Liverpool seized victory in the 84th minute, and that outcome had often looked likely before the
right-back Glen Johnson took a Charlie Adam pass, drove into the area, went past Ashley Cole and
shot into the far corner of the net.
You may well have already seen this, but on the off chance you've been off the grid, as I have,
in the last 24 hours or so, here's the extended highlights of England's 5-0 win over Iceland in the
2013 European U21 Championships qualifier in Colchester.
Nathan Delfouneso was in the starting eleven, but left the pitch with the game barely 10 minutes
old after pulling up chasing a ball into the box.
By Chris Wright
Scotland laboured to a 2-1 win over Cyprus in Larnaca, but the goals oh, the goals. Kenny Miller
got the ball rolling with a wonderful opener, plucking Christophe Berra's arching ball from the
ether and letting rip with a looping 20-yard shot into the far corner in the same fell swoop.
By Chris Wright
Scotland laboured to a 2-1 win over Cyprus in Larnaca, but the goals oh, the goals. Kenny Miller
got the ball rolling with a wonderful opener, plucking Christophe Berra's arching ball from the
ether and letting rip with a looping 20-yard shot into the far corner in the same fell swoop.
An exciting new service from TOMM to you, dear reader! Choose a match report from the two
options available! No need to argue or comment, just read the one you agree with and carry on with
your day happy in the knowledge that you were right all along!!!
Option 1 Gritty Spurs Rearguard Action Sees Us Through
In the old days, stretching back as far as, oh, 6 or even 7 months ago, Spurs would have let
this one slip.
Hows the heart after than one? That second half was probably the most stressful 45 minutes of
football I've seen in a long while! Backs to the wall, goal line clearances, lucky to escape with
the win. But that's what the top teams do right? Win ugly, it all counts.
The goals I have to say, pretty much all came against the run of play.
For ten minutes it was there. The passion, the drive and the aggression that have inspired the
team to so many tough wins was nearly palpable. It may have been palpable, because who knows what
else kept knocking Brian Ching over.
And though the Union never, ever gave up, Houston survived the early pressure and then there was
no way through for Philadelphia.
Goals:Jones 43'
Suarez 54' 85'
For 53 minutes, it was last month at Stoke and last weekend at Norwich all over again. The same
overriding, unavoidable, all-consuming narrative: Liverpool couldn't take their chances while the
opposition managed to tally from far fewer, usually from a defensive mistake.
By Chris Wright
Two second-half goals in the space of two second-half minutes were enough to seal a
come-from-behind victory for Arsenal against Bolton last night, thus booking the Gunners a berth in
the last eight of the Carling Cup.
Fabrice Muamba opened the scoring for Bolton against his former club shortly after the interval,
nabbing the ball off Emmanuel Frimpong, playing a elongated one-two with Darren Pratley and sliding
in to smash the ball into the roof of the net.
Real Madrid continued their impressive form in the Champions League with a comfortable victory
at home against Lyon. Former Lyon striker Karim Benzema again found the net against his old team
and second-half strikes from Sami Khedira, Sergio Ramos and a Hugo Lloris own goal sent the home
fans away happy.
OADBY TOWN 5-0 GRAHAM STREET PRIMSSaturday 8th October 2011
East Midlands Counties League
Greene King Park
Following on from a disappointing 1-1 draw last Saturday against Ibstock United, Oadby are at home
again for the third successive Saturday. For good measure Oadby will be at home again next Saturday
as well in a rearranged game against high flying Heanor Town.
Mid-week MLS action saw the race for the Eastern Conference get even tighter. It also saw a heated
exchange between Daniel Paladini and Kyle Beckerman which saw Beckerman walk off with a red. Pedro
Gomes has your recap.
Sporting Kansas City 2, Columbus Crew 1Kansas City hosted the Columbus Crew with a chance to take first place in the extremely tight
Eastern Conference.
By FRANCO PANIZO
It seems nothing can stop FC Dallas' current free fall.
Having been beaten in its last three games, Dallas was once again on the losing end on Wednesday
night, falling 5-3 on the road to Panamanian club Tauro FC in a wild CONCACAF Champions League
match that saw three red cards and two penalty kicks.
By Chris Wright
An early first-half double from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and fellow summer-signing Andre Santos
was enough to earn Arsenal a win over Olympiakos at the Emirates last night and subsequently pick
up the first victory of their Group F campaign.
Oxlade-Chamberlian opened the scoring in the 8th-minute, playing a slick one-two off a
defender's knees before cutting a low shot back across goal through his marker's legs and into the
far corner - thus becoming the youngest ever English Champions League goalscorer in the
process.
