Rafa Benitez has finally let the water-off-a-duck's-back approach to the hostile treatment he's received since arrived at Chelsea slip as he hit out at the club and its supporters. The Blues boss also confirmed he will leave his post at the end of the season. He criticised the club's hierarchy for undermining his position by [.
Chelsea take on Atletico Madrid tonight in Monaco in the UEFA Super Cup and this is one we all want
to win. After winning the Champions League last term, we have the Super Cup and the World Club Cup
to fight for this season and make no mistake, RDM and the Chelsea boys want both these titles!.
First up tonight is Madrid and they are an impressive side.
The Rob Green experiment is over already at Queens Park Rangers and the club today announced the
signing of Brazilian international, and Champions League winner, Julio Cesar.
Green was signed over the summer from West Ham, and was expected to be the club's number one
goalkeeper this season.
With most leagues a week away from starting. There was still plenty going on around the soccer
world from the Olympic Gold Medal game to the FA Community Shield to the German Super Cup. Here are
some thoughts on each game.
Olympic Gold Medal Game
• As a United fan, not surprised by the mistake by Rafael.
Arsene Wenger started off a massive ten days for Arsenal by seeing his side dumped out of the FA Cup by Championship side Blackburn Rovers. As usual the Gunners completely dominated possession without putting the ball in the back of the net, while Blackburn sneaked a freak winning goal towards the end of the game.
Well, three games into the season and still not a single goal. Not a single goal conceded that
is! For the third straight game Arsenal has held its opponent goalless. At this point last season,
we had conceded ten I believe. Okay, so maybe we don't really need Alex Song in the midfield. I
must say, I was impressed by how solid the team looked against what should have been a tougher
opponent in Liverpool.
Somehow, that was more demoralizing than the 0-3 loss at West Brom, despite the quality of the
opposition and the slightly less embarrassing scoreline.
There were excuses for that first loss, most stemming from the red card. But this script becomes
more painful the more we're subjected to the same film.
By all accounts Theo Walcott wants £100,000 a week.
That is exactly £99,999 a week more than I would pay him.
Seriously though, he is lucky I don't run the club, because if I did, and he demanded that amount
of money, I would hire Jonny Wilkinson to drop kick him and his agent out of the Emirates.
It's all back. The League, the buzz, the anticipation, even typing that blasé headline has me
tingling, everything's back.
Arsenal start at home. Martin O'Neill's Sunderland provide the first hurdle. Big games are just
around the corner and the transfer scene is very much alive, but once again we're at the time where
the next game means more than anything else.
Following speculation that Wayne Rooney was again ready to make a move away from United, he has
today given an exclusive interview with the Evening News where he claims that he wants to stay at
the club for as long as we want him.
"I look at the likes of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes at United and they are a massive example
to us all," he said.
Following speculation that Wayne Rooney was again ready to make a move away from United, he has
today given an exclusive interview with the Evening News where he claims that he wants to stay at
the club for as long as we want him.
"I look at the likes of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes at United and they are a massive example
to us all," he said.
You may remember a week or so back when a certain lithe striker pulled his 'Where on Earth is
Dimitar Berbatov?' act, u-turning on a move to Fiorentina somewhere over the Adriatic sea in lieu
of joining Fulham on transfer deadline day.
You may also remember that Fiorentina weren't best pleased, using a club statement to deem Berba
underserving of 'their city and their shirt' after paying through the nose for him
and his agent, Emil Danchev, to fly business class from Manchester to Florence in order to bash out
a contract.
Sir Alex has explained that David de Gea has been left out of the starting line-up for
Southampton because of his mistake against Fulham last weekend. United were comfortably winning 3-1
but after failing to make a cross his own, Fulham were let back in to the game and we looked fairly
shaky from then on.
Now that Zlatan Ibrahimovic has left Milan to score all of PSG's goals, Stephan El Shaarawy has
spoken about the delicate care he requires from his teammates. Much like a Mogwai that can't be fed
after midnight or get wet, a Zlatan requires certains things in order to keep him from turning into
a gremlin.
We've joked about the relief Milan players must feel now that Zlatan Ibrahimovic and his
teammate-kicking ways have moved on to PSG, but Stephan El Shaarawy reveals that it might be more
true than first thought.
From Football Italia:
Ibrahimovic took on the teacher role of sorts for El Shaarawy, often spotted shouting at him
during games.
It was only by the time Cristiano Ronaldo managed to score his second goal for the night, to make
it 2-0 for Real Madrid that I finally managed a sigh of relief. ‘This wasn't going to end up like
those matches' – I thought, recalling our slip-ups against Valencia and Getafe. There would be no
freakish, frantic comeback for the opponent and no moments of panic for our boys – just absolute
control of the match and further questions if we can manage a 3rd , 4th, 5th goal and so on.
Facing their first crisis of the season, Real Madrid responded like champions as they beat
10-man Barcelona 2-1 at the Bernabeu tonight to win the Spanish Super Cup on away goals.
It must have been one amazing pre-game speech by Jose Mourinho as Real Madrid came out of the
gatyes flying and scored two quick goals from Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo to go ahead 4-3
on aggregate.
Facing their first crisis of the season, Real Madrid responded like champions as they beat
10-man Barcelona 2-1 at the Bernabeu tonight to win the Spanish Super Cup on away goals.
It must have been one amazing pre-game speech by Jose Mourinho as Real Madrid came out of the
gatyes flying and scored two quick goals from Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo to go ahead 4-3
on aggregate.
Sometimes being well prepared leads to an itchy trigger finger and it seems that was the case
when Luka Modric's profile page appeared on Real Madrid's official website on Tuesday. Though
Modric to Real Madrid has been this summer's tedious transfer soap opera, as of this writing he's
still officially a Spurs player.
Swindon boss Paolo Di Canio has been up to his tricks again, showing his unique management
philosophies during his side's defeat to Preston at the weekend. Unimpressed with the performance
of goalkeeper Wes Foderingham, the Italian manager subbed the keeper just 21 minutes into the
match. A furious Foderingham stormed off the pitch and straight [.
After conceding two goals in quick succession during the opening exchanges of their League One
game against Preston (the first stemming from a botched clearance), an irate Paolo Di Canio took
the express decision to substitute Swindon 'keeper Wes Foderingham off after just 20 short
minutes.
Less than a week after literally kicking his players up the backside and pulling off the upset
of the Capital One Cup second round with a 4-3 extra-time win over Stoke, Paolo Di Canio and
Swindon Town returned to League One player and lost 4-1 to Preston North End. Preston scored twice
in the first 10 minutes, with the first goal coming off a goalkeeper error, prompting Di Canio to
take 21-year-old goalkeeper Wes Foderingham off in just the 21st minute.
RVP has gone and the speculation as to his reasons for leaving is rife. In fact a lot of absolute
rubbish is being spouted by a lot of people with rather obvious vested interests. The photo of
Kevin Pietersen is not a mistake, it is there to hint that the team must always come before the
individual, and that arrogance can be a great destroyer of team spirit.
szólj hozzá: Liverpool vs Man City 2:2 MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Liverpool bossed the game and took the lead with a Martin Skrtel header after a brilliantly
struck corner kick from Steven Gerrard. Yaya Toure equalised just after the hour following a Pepe
Reina mistake, but just three minutes later Joe Hart was picking the ball out of the net after Luis
Suarez brillintly curled the ball home from a free-kick 25 yards from goal.
Chelsea retained their 100 per cent start to the season with a 4-2 victory over Reading last night.
But it was the Blues' third goal, scored when the match was level at 2-2, that will be playing on
Royals boss Brian McDermott's mind today. Fernando Torres was quite clearly offside as he tucked
the ball [.
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com. You can do a lot worse, but I promise you won't not regret it.
Newcastle played well within themselves tonight in Athens, Greece as they strolled to a 1-1 draw
against Atromitos, but only after going 1-0 down to the Greek side after 24 minutes from a
defensive mistake. Newcastle handed debuts to Gael Bigirimana, Romain Amalfitamno and Adam
Campbell during this game, and Adam became the youngest player ever to play for [.
That is the maxim which has been known as "The Golden Rule" for several centuries, but how would
Newcastle United feel if they were treated the way they have been treating some other clubs
recently? Make no mistake, there have been reams of complete fiction embroidered around our recent
attempts to sign players in an [.
While most of us were watching the US beat Mexico last night, Jerry Bengtson was busy continuing
to play far better for his national team than he's ever indicated he will for the New England
Revolution. Honduras beat Boca Juniors 2-0 in a friendly in Miami on Wednesday night. Bengtson
scored the opener in the 23rd minute with a diving header.
Finally a game to break the monotony of the "I hate Gavin" vs "Let's wait and see" argument
because that horse hasn't been shot, beaten, dragged behind a car, beaten some more and then left
out in 100 degree weather. What a game it is too! A battle for the wooden spoon (for those of you
who don't know what that is check this link out).
Timbers general manager/interim head coach Gavin Wilkinson
Thoughts on the match:
"I thought we deserved to win it. I said that in the last game against Chivas USA. I'll give a lot
of credit to the guys. We went down 1-0. It feels that every mistake that we make at the moment we
get punished for, and I think that's a valuable lesson for us.
Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini has revealed that former manager David Moyes brought him in for a one-on-one training session following his headbutt on Stoke's Ryan Shawcross. Moyes gave all the other players and coaching staff the day off, with only the Belgium international required to report for training.
Carl Ikeme is likely to be ruled out for the rest of the season after breaking his hand by punching a tactics board. The Wolves keeper lashed out in frustration after manager Dean Saunders gave him an earful over the farcical own goal he had conceded. Saunders initially claimed that Ikeme, who was subbed at [.
TURKISH NATIONAL TEAM COACH ABDULLAH AVCI . (photo by TFF )
After losing first match in the group against Holland on Friday, Turkish National team will face
Estonia in Istanbul,Turkey on Tuesday, September 11th,2012 at 21.00 local Turkey time(2:00 PM
At the press conference today, Turkish National team coach Abdullah Avci said, they respect Estonia
team but they want to win against Estonia.
Matt Hedges has definitely not been a typical rookie for a majority of this season. However, in
Sunday's 2-0 loss at the Los Angeles Galaxy, the FC Dallas rookie center back definitely had a
pretty bad rookie mistake. His gaffe in the 66th minute that saw him dispossessed by the Galaxy's
Jose Villarreal led to the first goal of the game by Juninho, one which proved to be the
game-winner in a contentious win for the reigning MLS Cup champs.
A couple of observations: This goal would not have been scored if Iker Casillas had stayed on
the line. That was his mistake. But even the slimmest of chances punching the ball away evaporated
after he got into the way of an out of control Pepe who launches himself with the single purpose of
annihilating Jonas.
San Antonio Scorpions 1-0 Minnesota Stars It's widely understood in the world of soccer that
goal scorers cost money. Usually, a lot of money. That's something the NASL Minnesota Stars do not
have much of as a league-owned team. So it's no surprise Minnesota have struggled to find goals as
the season has pushed beyond [.
