Left horribly exposed by his defenders' inability to deal with a long ball, Peru under 20 goalkeeper Angelo Campos made a split-second decision to just charge out of his goal towards Uruguay striker Gonzalo Bueno and hope for the best. After completely missing the ball, Campos appeared to have left Bueno with an easy chance.
The clash of two unbeaten teams playing attractive, attacking soccer and it was the Baggies
walking away with the full three points. Deservedly so. They were the dominant team bossing Everton
in the midfield because of the excellent Youssuf Mulumbu. And a constant threat down the flanks
through Peter Odemwingie and Liam Ridgewell.
Whatever went on in that kid's creepy swimming pool/laboratory, it hasn't done
Neymar's foot-eye coordination any good with the Brazilian cockatoo filing a wretched open-goal
miss against New Zealand last night.
The opening day of the men's football at London 2012 included a big upset, some terrible tackles
and the worst miss ever. Switzerland's Admir Mehmedi was the man responsible for the latter.
Presented with an open goal at the back post, four yards out, Mehmedi some how managed to scruff
the ball with the inside [.
Looks like the IOC have shut down any official highlights and we can only rely on shaky handcams
and cell phones to follow the progress of the US women's team. The long and short of it. The USA
faced an uphill climb after a very good French side took a 2-0 lead within the first 15
minutes.
Group B should see on paper an outpouring of goals. But the Germans were no less profligate than
their Dutch counterparts when it came to missing out on scoring opportunities.
They had eleven of them but just when it looked like this would be a long evening for the
Germans, Mario Gomez was able to majestically elevate himself at the right time to put away Sami
Khedira's deflected cross past Rui Patricio.
This'll be all-too familiar to those of a Liverpool persuasion out there, once-ponytailed lummox
Andriy Voronin farting a 'gimme' of an open goal over the crossbar from all of six yards or 'doing
a Voronin' as it's now become known during Ukraine's 4-0 friendly spanking of Estonia last
night.
Crewe defeated Southend last night to reach the League Two play-off final and nobody was more
relived than striker Byron Moore. The Railwaymen's victory means Moore avoided a lynching for this
shocking miss. With his side 0-2 up on aggregate, Moore was presented with an open goal after a
scuffed clearance from Shrimpers' keeper [.
Over in the 2. Bundesliga on Tuesday evening, promotion-chasing St Pauli (they of 'toaster'
fame) found themselves 2-1 up over Union Berlin in the 80th minute when Marius Ebbers appeared to
nudge a looping cross into an open goal with his head.
It then came to light that Ebbers had in fact used an outstretched arm to guide the ball over
the line and, consumed by guilt, the St Pauli striker implored the referee to chalk off his illegal
goal.
Having spent the majority of the tie 1-0 up (2-0 up on aggregate) through Frank Lampard's
21st-minute penalty, Chelsea had to ride out what's known in the business as a 'late scare' to
secure themselves a berth in the Champions League semi-finals when Javi Garcia's 86th-minute header
put ten-man Benfica within another goal of knocking the Blues out on away goals.
Having spent the majority of the tie 1-0 up (2-0 up on aggregate) through Frank Lampard's
21st-minute penalty, Chelsea had to ride out what's known in the business as a 'late scare' to
secure themselves a berth in the Champions League semi-finals when Javi Garcia's 86th-minute header
put ten-man Benfica within another goal of knocking the Blues out on away goals.
Real Madrid did eventually manager a comfortable away victory against Champions League minnows
Apoel Nicosia, but they must have wondered if it was going to be their day when this happened.
Karim Benzema, arguably Europe's most in-form striker, managed to miss an open goal against the
Cypriots. The Frenchman just had to tap-in after the [.
As the prophecy foretold, Real Madrid yomped to a 3-0 first-leg victory over
APOEL in Cyprus last night; Benzema grabbing a brace (after spluffing one clean over the bar from
roughly 30cm out) and the excellent Kaka posting home t'other.
The Ukrainian league served up a spectacular miss at the weekend thanks to Shakhtar Donetsk's
Brazilian star Luiz Adriano. The 24-year-old had the goal at his mercy, finding himself one yard
out with the goalkeeper stranded in the middle of nowhere at his near post. Somehow the striker
managed to clear the crossbar with his [.
Mesut Ozil could have got Real Madrid all three points had he not hit the crossbar with a wide
open goal at his mercy last night, instead he saw Getafe coming from a goal down to beat the
champions 2-1 leaving them with just a point on the board out of a possible six on offer.
Mario Gomez curses the deceptively flat bit of grass that caused him to miss an open goal. Luckily
for Bayern, he made up for it later. Image: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images.
Last night, Cristiano Ronaldo's poor performance vs. Bayern Munich was blamed on thieves who
stole three pairs of his boots from the dressing room at the Allianz Arena prior to kick-off.
Rapids get lead, Rapids lose lead, Rapids lose cool, Rapids lose game, again. That's pretty much
the description of Saturday's game.
My key to the game was keeping things going from last week. Nope, reverted back to our July
form. Other Observations:
Despite me saying this was the same as past games I will say that the defensive breakdowns
weren't as bad.
Out-of-favour striker Andy Carroll capped a comfortable 3-1 victory for Liverpool over Bayer
Leverkusen in their final pre-season friendly before they kick off their Barclays' Premier League
campaign.
It took just three minutes for the home side to break the deadlock at Anfield through youngster
Raheem Sterling.
Brazilian superstar Neymar misses an open goal in yesterday's Olympic Football tie with New
Zealand, Luckily for him the game was as good as over with Brazil leading the All Whites 3-0.
Brazilian sensation Neymar is quite possibly the biggest football name at the London 2012 Olympics.
Given his flamboyant flicks and eye-catching invention with the ball, it's easy to see why the
world's biggest clubs are buzzing around him like a bee over spilt Tango. The stick-thin prodigy
failed to add to his endless showreel of [.
In front of a crowd of over 70,000 people at Wembley last night, women's football in Britain was
given the perhaps the biggest boost that it could have been given. There has been considerable
huffing and puffing on the subject of teams representing the constituent parts of Britain being
represented at this summers football tournament, along with familiar cries that football in spite
of a long history that is usually overlooked when making such bold statements is somehow "not an
Olympic sport", but such considerations were put on the back burner yesterday evening as the
British womens team both beat and outplayed a Brazilian team that many prior to the tournament
would have considered to be amongst its favourites to win the gold medal in a couple of weeks
time.
In a match between Guarany and Sergipe to decide the Campeonato Sergipano in Brazil, Sergipe led
1-0 very late in the game. So, in a last ditch effort to get an equalizing goal, Guarany's
goalkeeper went forward for a corner kick, leaving his own net empty.
Guarany's corner kick was a poor one, though, landing right in the hands of the Sergipe keeper,
who tried to take advantage of his counterpart's gamble by throwing the ball to a teammate who was
making a run for that empty net.
Morning all, another interesting night at the Euros and a couple of Arsenal related bits going
on, so we'll get straight into it.
Group C was decided last night and unsurprisingly Italy and Spain qualified. That said, it was
certainly a lot closer than it seemed in the Croatia v Spain game.
The Portland Timbers came out with guns blazing but did not get the early goal and had to cool
their heels for a short weather delay at half time. Portland continued their first half momentum
and finally broke through, but the Vancouver Whitecaps got a late goal to equalize.
First Half:
John Spencer made some surprising changes to the line-up for this game.
First rule of goalkeeping: Shut your eyes and hope for the best!
1. Chelsea, meet England. England, Chelsea. Seems we have a new blueprint for
nullifying technically superior sides in this country and boy does it work a treat!
We left it late, but a richly deserved three points. Thoughts as follows:
* There was a degree of consternation when the line-ups were announced, but it's hard to know who
else Arsene could've played. Gervinho was apparently injured, and Ramsey could hardly start after
the vitriol he received last week.
Ugly game which starts exactly how the Portland Timbers didn't want to start as the New England
Revolution score 30 seconds into the game. Portland then was never able to claw back into the game
and go down 1-0 in front of an empty stadium.
First Half:
Not sure what was in the minds of the Timbers from the first whistle but it obviously wasn't
about playing soccer.
A great game of football that ended the right way, but boy was it close.
We've often talked about moments being decisive in these games, isolated incidents that on their
own seem to change the game thoroughly and remarkably. In this case Clint Dempsey slid the ball
across Ruddy onto the Norwich post.
A great game of football that ended the right way, but boy was it close.
We've often talked about moments being decisive in these games, isolated incidents that on their
own seem to change the game thoroughly and remarkably. In this case Clint Dempsey slid the ball
across Ruddy onto the Norwich post.
A cagey first half was concluded with a goal mouth scramble as Rafa had his point blank shot saved
by Cech and the rebound blocked by Cole. That was pretty much it in an evenly contested first 45 in
which both teams seemed more content just not to lose.
A more fitting second half was produced given the occasion, as Spurs began to control the game and
find the better of the chances.
For all the abuse that Steve Kean has had hurled at him by Rovers fans this season, the
Blackburn manager has his side 6 points above the drop zone, albeit with a game more played than
their rivals.
Tuesday nights 2-0 win at home against Sunderland was the first time Blackburn have clinched
back-to-back victories for the first time since November 2010 and it was also Rovers' first
successive clean sheets since August that year.
In their quarterfinal against New Zealand today, the USWNT came away with a 2-0 win after
looking by far the better side for the entire match. Abby Wambach scored yet again (if I were a
betting man, er, woman.
This is the LAST team to get a mock-up logo. Its been bad luck, really.
Overcast Saturday afternoon. Fresh, yet not cold. Props to the scheduling gods for picking a
kickoff closer to the train schedules. Don't have to wait an hour before the match, won't have to
wait 45 mins after it.
Chicago is 1-1-2 and Toronto has neither earned a point nor scored a goal at home.
