Hey guys. Us here at The Arsenal Offside have done a bit of a prediction for the season ahead.
It was going to go up last week before the season actually started, but sadly I got distracted and
wrote about some guy who decided to do what some little boy told him to and moved to Manchester
United. What gives?
This season is not the best season we had in the recent history. A few very hard defeats to take
on the chin. Losing one of the best players in the world. So compared to the last 6 seasons we have
had a hard time at moments.
Arsene Wenger has never been a great tactician, but tonight his bizarre decision killed us from
the start.
The boss was looking, as we all were, at the state of the San Siro pitch. The wings looked
deliberately battered to give us a hard time in one of our stronger positions. We've played on some
bad pitches before, but this was something different altogether.
As the Seattle Sounders prepare for this weekend's match with the Whitecaps, it feels as if
we've transitioned into a new phase of the season. For one thing, the team is coming back from the
first full week break since after the Chelsea friendly in mid-July. The relatively long rest has
given the team and the fans time to mentally prepare for the stretch run.
Some will still point to the Cal FC loss as the worst game in the Timbers history as a Major
League Soccer club, but last night's 5-0 loss that knocked the Timbers into last place in the
league has got to be up there. Positives were few and far between and even the optimists here at
Stumptown Footy had a hard time picking out someone to praise.
David Beckham found his line of underwear the butt of jokes during a reception at the White House
with President Obama. It's customary for the President to meet the MLS Cup winners at the end of
every season. But attention soon turned to Becks' moonlighting role with H&M. Obama said: "I have
to say, I [.
David Beckham found his line of underwear the butt of jokes during a reception at the White House
with President Obama. It's customary for the President to meet the MLS Cup winners at the end of
every season. But attention soon turned to Becks' moonlighting role with H&M. Obama said: "I have
to say, I [.
The MLS champion LA Galaxy visited the White House on Tuesday for the traditional winners'
ceremony/photo op -- an event especially notable since it brought together the most powerful man in
the world and the President of the United States. And President Obama's brief speech about the team
quickly turned into a roast of David Beckham (who brought some impressive Three Musketeers style
facial hair).
Growing up, we were always led to believe that the best defenders were the toughest players on the
field. Often, 'kicking' players and collecting fouls and cards were signs of soccer's 'hard
men'.
Years later, we've found that the best defenders are measured more by teams that win games and
don't concede goals.
Philadelphia Union are probably one the hardest teams in the MLS to score on due to their
propensity to just defend and counter. A lot of their games last year were close affairs, 1-0 wins,
and they had their fair share of ties, 15 to be exact. Last year offensively the Portland Timbers
had a hard time with Philadelphia and only managed 1 goal against them but defensively they were
able to shut down Sebastian Le Toux and Company and did not allow a goal against, Portland was the
only team to do so against Philadelphia.
Michael Carrick has been named in the England squad for the game against Italy next week. Having
told the FA he wasn't interested in being considered for the squad if he wasn't going to play,
Carrick was left out of Roy Hodgson's team that went to Euro 2012.
Despite statistically being the most effective English midfielder in the Premier League last
season, along with Paul Scholes, Hodgson rated Scott Parker, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and
Gareth Barry more highly, meaning that Carrick wasn't asked to come out of 'retirement' and Jordan
Henderson went in his place.
Arsenal go back into Premier League action with a match against Manchester City tonight and
we'll be looking to rebound back with a positive result after our defeat away to QPR last week. For
the first time since the inception of the Premier League, it is City who are challenging for the
title and not us.
Kenny Dalglish is convinced that the Reds have made significant progress over this season,
despite a dire performance in the Premier League.
Dalglish has spent around the £100M mark since succeeding Roy Hodgson in January 2011 and the
Merseyside giants were expected to be serious contenders for a top four Champions League spot.
To describe results of the past week ‘topsy turvy' is akin to calling Robbie Savage, "rather
punchable." Having returned from Milan late Thursday evening (cheers Easyjet) I haven't really had
a chance to collect my thoughts in any cogent manner. Indeed, the fact that the Milan trip, the 90
minutes on the pitch apart, was such an enjoyable one may mean I'm feeling softer and cuddlier
about the aberration of a non-performance than I ought to be.
It is now emerging that Neymar will not be leaving Santos after all. Premier League club Chelsea
have confirmed that they have ended their pursuit for the teen star after he committed his future
to Santos until 2014.
Villas-Boas revealed that his side have failed in trying to sign Neymar and that he has already
chosen his next destination which will most likely be Barcelona.
Recently, Michael Vick appeared on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption (PTI). Vick appeared on PTI
to plug his new book, Finally Free: The Power of a Second Chance. In his nearly eight
minute interview, the Philadelphia Eagles star openly acknowledged his problematic past and while
contrite and thoughtful he also admitted the book was also an attempt to end the conversation about
his history.
AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic is still reeling over the fact that Juventus
snatched the Serie A title from under his nose - literally. No surprise there, given that
Milan were pretty consistent this season and still failed to win a trophy. Yes, Gennaro
Gattuso, you've been missed!
Goalkeepers in the women's game often get a hard time, but OTP can't understand why. Look at the
pinpoint distribution from Bristol Academy's Siobhan Chamberlain as she attempts to return the ball
to Everton's Jill Scott but instead nearly beheads a photographer during a photo-shoot for the FA.
Player ratings for Sunday's match won't be quite as in depth as you're probably used to. This is
primarily because we four writers here at Stumptown Footy are running into ourselves trying to
finish up the post game coverage of the Colorado game while also getting all our preview game
material ready for tomorrow's game.
We've already seen the Portland Timbers make numerous trades throughout the first half of the
season. Mike Fucito came in, Bright Dike went out on loan, Steven Smith was recruited, Jorge
Perlaza was exchanged for Portland-local Danny Mwanga. Really, it's been a busy seasons in terms of
trades. Makes me wonder if the Timbers front office simply wasn't able to get everything done
before the season kicked off, or if they were scrambling after ot performing as expected.
We get it, some of you don't really want to read about Mike Fucito anymore. But this certainly
merits attention: the former Seattle Sounders player (and a favorite of this site) has been traded
from the Montreal Impact to the ... Portland Timbers.
Yes, you read that correctly. The next time you see Mike Fucito on a MLS field, he will be
wearing the uniform of our favorite rivals.
Defending champions Spain start the Euro 2012 quarterfinals with a match against Group D
runner-up France. The match will take place at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk, Ukraine with kickoff
scheduled for 20:45 local time.
Spain manager Vicente del Bosque
"Everybody thinks we're favourites because we won the EUROs four years ago and the World Cup two
years ago.
Barcelona picked up another victory on Saturday to keep their trail with Real Madrid remain on
six points, aside from the 2-0 success, one thing that Barca coach, Josep Guardiola, strongly
credited his team's is their attitude.
Barcelona once again were forced to play with 10 men against Mallorca as Thiago Alcantara
received a marching order in the second half, but it didn't disturb the team's shape as they even
managed to double their lead after the sending off.
Frem goalkeeper Jakob Kohler proved to his his side's secret weapon in a Danish Second Division
East (the third tier of Danish football) match against Birkerod. In the 92nd minute, with Birkerod
up 1-0, Kohler came forward for Frem's last-ditch effort to equalize off a corner kick.
After the ball was headed away from goal and a Frem shot was blocked by a defender, Kohler
executed a beautiful overhead kick off the deflection and, to the surprise of everyone, scored an
equalizer.
After failing to shut out their opponents in their last fifteen league matches, a run that
started in May, last night the Timbers finally were able to keep their opponents off the board in a
herculean defensive effort. The Timbers didn't quite click on the offensive end of things but the
team were able to put together several moments of magic in the first half that let them keep the
pressure on Colorado and put one in the back of the net.
In two interviews, four years apart, two different USWNT players casually identified themselves as
gay to reporters. Neither did so with the solemn declaration, "I'm a lesbian." Both players
answered a reporter's question in a way that snuffed out the presumption of heterosexuality
maintained by mass sports media on those rare occasions when it addresses women athletes, a
presumption it maintains in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
The mighty Rojas are done for. Well, at least their U23 team plus Adrian Lopez and Juan
Mata.
Los Catrachos, the Olympics version sent Spain crashing out of the tournament with a 1-0 win as
Roger Espinoza who plies his trade for Sporting Kansas City mailed in a cross that was met by Jerry
Bengtson of the New England Revs for a perfectly placed header past David De Gea.
Italian papers are reporting that Roma are keen on landing one if not both of Benfica's key
playmakers this season Nicolas Gaitan and Axel Witsel. The Italian club though would have a hard
time obtaining both players as each has a $40M buy out clause in their contracts.Roma was also
linked earlier this season with Benfica defender Garay and are said to be treading the waters on
all three
Two weeks after signing for Manchester United and on his second game for the club, Louis Saha
scored twice against Everton within the first half an hour. He had scored a goal on his debut too
so was feeling rather chuffed with himself.
When United went off 3-0 up at half-time, Saha was expected a pat on the back from Sir Alex
Ferguson, but instead was given a hard time for not putting away all his chances.
Last night the Rapids had an easy game against the Melbourne youth/reserves squad, controlling the
game from end-to-end in a 1-0 win. The starting XI:
Cascio - Amarikwa - MullanLarentowicz - Castrillon - MastroeniZapata - Wynne - Moor -
KimuraCeus
Other than Ceus and Amarikwa I wouldn't be shocked to see that same lineup on opening day in two
weeks.
Andre Villas Boas Out Before Easter? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
It's a familiar story: Chelsea hire a new manager for a lot of money, Chelsea don't do
as well under this manager as they did under Jose Mourinho, rumours then begin to circle claiming
that the manager is about to be fired and then finally (the bit that hasn't quite happened yet) the
manager is fired.
