The veteran Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky was brilliant in scoring both goals against West Brom last week, but Arsenal's newest secret weapon believes that the Gunners need to start being consistent at home as well and need to win all our games to make surte of a Top Four finish.
He said: "During the last couple of games we have produced some good football,"
"It gives you confidence when you win in Munich and at a place like West Brom when in the last 20 minutes your backs are against the wall.
Newcastle to dominate Aston Villa - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Newcastle look a cracking bet at 1.62 with bet365 and Betfred to beat Aston Villa at St James'
Park.
Alan Pardew's men Newcastle have lost just one of their last 11 Premier League home games (W8 D2
L1), whereas Villa have won none of their last nine away matches (W0 D4 L5) a run which started
with defeat at this ground.
Tottenham v Norwich: Winless Spurs hungry for points - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Spurs are a top priced 1.4 with Paddy Power to register their first victory of the season
against Norwich at White Hart Lane and are strongly fancied to do just that.
Both sides have started their seasons with an away defeat followed by a disappointing home draw,
but this looks a good opportunity for Andre Villas-Boas men to secure all three points.
QPR have little hope against Man City - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Manchester City look bankers at a general price of 1.2 to beat QPR at the Etihad.
They won the the title in this fixture last season, becoming the first team to ever be losing a
Premier League game at 90 minutes and come back to win the match, and everything suggest they will
come out on top once again.
Swansea tough nut to crack for Sunderland - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Swansea look one of the bets of the weekend at 2.2 with Boylesports to beat Sunderland.
Despite the fact that they have won all three of their games this season by an aggregate of 11
goals to one, and have a tremendous record at home bookmakers still seem to take them on.
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has wished Dimitar Berbatov the best of luck in his new
adventure at Fulham and explained that the striker's limited experiences for United in recent times
were down to incompatibility in playing style.
Berbatov was in prolific goal-scoring form for the Red Devils throughout the 2010-11 season but
his exclusion from their Champions League final squad against Barcelona was followed by frequent
omissions from United's squad.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Chantaburi are favourites to get relegated from
Division One in Thailand. I know, it's not often I go out on a limb like that but I just get that
feeling that their days are numbered in Thailand's second tier.
Never seen them play so can't say I have any special insight.
In ten days time, we will be licking our lips at the imminent prospect of live premier league
football.
I have really enjoyed watching Arsenal in the friendly games: not the results, which are
meaningless anyway, but the individual performances of our players.
In ten days time, we will be licking our lips at the imminent prospect of live premier league
football.
I have really enjoyed watching Arsenal in the friendly games: not the results, which are
meaningless anyway, but the individual performances of our players.
A ruddy balls up, I tell you. Just as I was getting into the spirit of making money each week, I got bitten by Lazio's inability to hold on to a half-time lead and Morocco's inability to score against Angola. Still Watford's 4-0 win (I could have been a great deal greedier on that one [...]
THURMASTON W.M.P. 2009 4-3 F.C. HOSKINS
Friday 31st August 2012
Alliance Football League Division 1
Garden Street, Thurmaston, Leicestershire
Sunday League football on a Friday night!!!
After a busy weekend a week ago with two games in Somerset and a further one in Birmingham, a quiet
one is one the cards with less travelling involved.
Arsenal may be a good bit away from the top of the Premier League, but Arsene Wenger still believes that the Gunners can have an impact on where the title goes this season by beating the current Champions Manchester City at the Emirates today.
Arsenal held City to a draw at the Etihad earlier in the season, and Wenger thinks this will give him team confidence to take all three points this afternoon.
Arsenal's new boys can help fans forget RVP and Song against Stoke - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
The first Sky televised game on Sunday sees Stoke take on Arsenal at the Britannia Stadium, and the
visitors look bankers at 2.1 with bet365 and Paddy Power to come away with all three points.
Pepe Reina has called on his Liverpool team-mates to turn Anfield into a fortress as they prepare
for a tough run of home games.
Liverpool will play host to Manchester City, Arsenal and then Manchester United before the end of
September and, although it is not possible for a team to win a championship in the first two months
of a season, Reina knows it is possible to lose it.
The 2012 season has the Chicago Fire at a points per game average that is unseen since the
Golden Era of 1998-2003. Forty-four points in 26 games is identical to the 2003 season pace when
Chicago won its only Supporters' Shield. This will almost certainly be the first Fire team to hit
50 points since that 2003 season and it may happen before the team even plays 30 games.
Yep, you read that right, a 1-1 win. Let's be honest, any result in Honduras other than a loss
was going to be a tremendous positive. Falling down a goal early, losing Nathan Sturgis to a red
card and still pulling off a draw...well that's just epic.
The Dynamo are now in the drivers seat for qualification in to the knockout stages of the
tournament.
The Supporters' Shield is San Jose's to lose at this point. (US Presswire)
As I mentioned yesterday, the MLS Supporters' Shield race has gotten a little tighter in recent
weeks. Overall though it is not anywhere close to being a five or even a six team race like
previously thought. No, it really is down to three maybe four teams at most.
Chicago and New York are battling for playoff positioning in the East. (Getty Images)
The MLS Playoff race is hot folks. As we head into the final two months of the season, both
conferences have different but good races going on as we try to figure out who will be the ten
clubs that go to the post season dance.
Here's this week's comparison for home games. Through 13 home games, Kansas City has once again
gotten another sellout at Livestrong keeping the 2012 season well ahead of last year's pace for the
most well attended season.
1996 - Arrowhead
7,891
Thursday August 15, 1996 vs San Jose 4-1 win
Average - 12,762
1997 - Arrowhead
9,278
Saturday August 17, 1997 vs New York 3-3(2-0) shootout win
Average - 8,928
1998 - Arrowhead
6,401
Wednesday August 26, 1998 vs DC 1-2 loss.
On this edition of Monday Morning Centre Back, we take a look at the looming reality that is the
coming MLS Playoffs.
That's right people. Playoffs!
The Dynamo have eight regular season matches left on their 2012 schedule. It seems like only
yesterday it was March and the season was kicking off, now we're sitting here roughly five months
later staring at the butt end of the season and wondering where the time went.
In Cup Finals numbers don't matter. It's a one-off game. It doesn't matter that the Seattle
Sounders own the US Open Cup tournament. It doesn't matter that Sporting Kansas City hasn't given
up a goal since the Third Round. It doesn't matter that Seattle has 26 more wins in all
competitions since 2009.
Spurs are a top priced 1.4 with Paddy Power to register their first victory of the season against
Norwich at White Hart Lane this weekend. Both sides have started their seasons with an away defeat
followed by a disappointing home draw, but this looks a good opportunity for Andre Villas-Boas men
to secure all three points.
Back in 1984, Tottenham's UEFA Cup semi-final against Hajduk Split was forever besmirched by the
image of an irate Split fan encroaching onto the pitch and breaking a live cockerel's neck before
kick-off. The protest was seen as a 'hostile act' by UEFA, who duly fined the Croatian club 3,000
Swiss francs and banned them from playing home games within a 300km radius of their Poljud stadium
for a fair old while.
In what is news to fans, but not necessarily to the teams and clubs active in the United States
Soccer Development Academy system, US Soccer announced today that they adding the U13/14 age group
to the competition for the 2013-14. United States National Team Coach Jurgen Klinsmann said in the
announcement;
"I am very excited to see this important next step in the process of developing young players in
this country.
Games are not played on paper. If they were this is one of those that could already be over. The
Goats are not a good soccer team. They have a broken offense and a defense that is kept alive by
Dan Kennedy. They also aren't as bad as their numbers say. Still, the Sounders are road favorites,
strong road favorites.
Saturday's 7:30 PM match between the aspiring Seattle Sounders and struggling Goats features one
of the hottest teams in MLS and a team that is bewildering. Despite several name brand players on
offense Chivas USA has 9 fewer goals than the next worst in the league. If it wasn't for Dan
Kennedy and the strong defense there would be no chance for the other SoCal team to make the MLS
Cup Playoffs.
This, we could get used to. The Seattle Sounders generated plenty of chances, finally converted
a couple in the second half and moved into sole possession of third place in the Western Conference
with their 2-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday.
The early part of the game was mostly filled with frustration for the Sounders, as numerous
chances went wanting.
Saturday's 1 PM Cascadia Cup match should feature over 55,000 fans watching the most significant
contest in this rivalry's young MLS history. Both the Seattle Sounders FC and the Vancouver
Whitecaps are poised for MLS Cup Playoff runs and the points from this match could mean the
difference in seeding.
The battle for the Cascadia Cup is as tight as ever. The Timbers have the early lead, but the
Vancouver Whitecaps and Seattle Sounders FC are better teams and in a points tie for the third spot
in the West. Saturday's 1 PM match isn't just for key points in the trivalry contest, but has
implications for the Playoff hunt.
San Jose is an odd team. They actually give up more goals early in the game. They and the
Sounders both score more often in the second half, but tonight with Seattle being exhausted from a
compact schedule they could push for an early goal well as fresh as they can be and sit back. This
kind of cynical tactic is rarely used by Sigi Schmid, but today it makes sense.
Riding a five-game winning streak and six shutouts in their past seven matches, the Dynamo have
climbed to No. 1 in this week's SBI MLS Power Rankings. Houston's latest triumph, a 2-0 result
against the New York Red Bulls, put the Dynamo on top of the Eastern Conference as well.
New York hopes to knock off D.C. in their own building. (Getty Images)
Just like yesterday, I'm going to be a tad bit pressed for time today to attend to things on the
blog. Just how life goes sometimes though I am hoping to get to a list of potential MLS home growns
in the college ranks as well as a look at some of the top moves made this season in MLS.
The wild week in Major League Soccer ended with the same group on top as the previous week.
Really the only changes after Week 24 ended was in the middle of the order as Vancouver and Salt
Lake continue to slide while Chicago makes their way upward.
The third tier also saw some changes as FC Dallas and Montreal climb closer to a playoff
spot.
It wasn't the highest attended game in Livestrong Sporting Park history as Don Garber mentioned on Twitter on Friday, but it was still another game where KC pulled over the capacity of LSP. Here's the comparison of 15 home games.
1996 - Arrowhead 12,141 Sunday September 7, 1996 vs Columbus 1-5 loss Average - 12,612
1997 - Arrowhead 8,761 Friday September 12, 1997 vs New York 0-0 (2-3) shootout loss Average - 8,830
1998 - Arrowhead 6,755 Saturday September 5, 1998 vs San Jose 5-1 win Average - 7,734
1999 - Arrowhead 9,592 Saturday September 25, 1999 vs Colorado 0-0 (2-3) shootout loss Average - 9,516
2000 - Arrowhead 8,485 Friday August 18, 2000 vs Miami 1-2 loss Average - 9,202
2001 - Arrowhead Season finished Average - 10,954
2002 - Arrowhead Season finished Average - 12,287
2003 - Arrowhead 14,923 Saturday October 18, 2003 vs Dallas 1-0 win Final home game of the season Average - 15,573
2004 - Arrowhead 20,435 Saturday October 16, 2004 vs Los Angeles 1-0 win Final home game of the season.
In a little under 2 months, the indoor soccer season kicks off at the Independence Events Center.
The Missouri Comets will start their third season in the MISL. Yesterday the league released the
schedule for the 2012-2013 season. Once again this year the league is a 7 team league, with the
Chicago Soul entering the league while the Norfolk Sharx go the way of the dodo.
Celtic have been gifted a chance to make the knock-out stage of this season's Champions League
after being drawn in a group they are capable of overcoming. Neil Lennon's side will fancy their
chances against Benfica and Spartak Moscow, although a scalp over Barcelona may be beyond them.
Nevertheless, Group G looks like it will go down to the wire and Celtic, who beat Helsingborgs 4-0
on aggregate in the play-off round, are in with a chance of progressing to the latter stages.
THORPE ASTLEY 9-2 BLABY FOXES
Sunday 2nd September 2012
Hinckley Sunday League Division 2
Holmfield Park, Wardens Walk, Leicester Forest East
I had no plans to go to a game this morning after witnessing two high scoring games in the previous
two days, firstly a 4-3 victory for Thurmaston WMP 2009 over FC Hoskins on Friday, and secondly a
4-4 draw between Whitwick United and Markfield on Saturday.
Virginia Opens Road Schedule Friday at Texas Cavaliers and Longhorns play on first day of
Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational
CHARLOTTESVILLE – The No. 7 Virginia women's soccer team makes its first road trip of the
season this weekend as it heads to Austin, Texas, for the Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational.
Tickets? What tickets?! A group of Envigado supporters (Colombian team)
watched a Copa Sudamericana match against the visiting Uruguayan Liverpool squad 'Live'Â
from the comfort of their homes (or the roof) in Envigado on Tuesday. No
need for an Envigado season pass, guys all you need to do is to track these guys down and you'll
get front row access for all their home games!
Tosaint Ricketts (UW-Green Bay) has had a tough time with his club career
recently, but he continues to progress with the Canadian national team.
Ricketts scored his fourth international goal to open the scoring as Canada went on to a 2-0
victory over CONCACAF rival Trinidad and Tobago in a friendly Wednesday night in Lauderhill,
Fla.
