An emotional David Beckham played his final home match for PSG and his first match since announcing his decision to retire at the end of the season. Asked if there had been any tears, Becks said: "I expected to have them a little bit, you know it was hard. You try to fight it back [...]
We've seen physios, ball boys and fans run onto the pitch to make decisive tackles or goal-line clearances, but rarely have we seen a coach get involved in the action... and certainly not in a situation so lacking in danger as this. It comes from an Italian amateur match between Corpolò and Rivazzurra.
The goal celebrations on FIFA 13 have thrown up this rather unusual effort, which seems to show the goalscorer fraternising with the opposition goalkeeper they've just humiliated. Presumably this is where the phrase 'keeping a clean sheet' originates. Via Dirty Tackle
A brace from Lionel Messi, and goals from Carles Puyol, Pedro, and David Villa as Barca
sauntered through their opening fixture against Real Sociedad. The opposition got a consolation
from Chory Castro.
Perhaps no goal was as satisfying as Villa's coming back to the game after an 8th month injury
absence.
There aren't many more embarrassing situations at football matches than celebrating a goal that you
think has gone in, only to realise a second later that the ball in fact went wide and rippled the
side netting. The joy is snatched away from you, only to be replaced by the relieved catcalls from
opposition fans, [.
They said it could never happen, but in his testimonial game against AEK Athens last night, Tony
Hibbert finally, finally scored his first goal for Everton.
After almost 11 years and 309 games of dedicated service without so much as troubling an
opposition 'keeper, Hibbo powered a 20-yard free-kick in at Dimitris Konstantopoulous'Â near post
and sent Goodison into rapture sparking a mass congratulatory pitch invasion as 17,500-odd
Evertonian's sang 'Tony Hibbert, he scores when he wants' in unison as they deliriously celebrated
something they thought they'd never get to see in their lifetime.
No, folks, not all Manchester City fans have six fingers on their hands this chap simply uses too hands. It's another one of those moments where an opposition supporter has obviously grovelled for a photo opportunity with a rival team's player only to cruelly prank them as the picture was being taken.
1. Now Manchester City know what it's like to be on the receiving end of an epic 3-2 comeback. At least no trophies were on the line this time. 2. Roberto Mancini is presumably wishing that all parties had taken his advice about Cristiano Ronaldo taking a six-month sabbatical seriously. 3. Somebody at Channel 5 [.
Blame it on the fatigue or preseason woes (yes, they do exist!) for Chelsea, but their 3-2 loss
to an impressive Manchester City side earlier today cannot possibly be attributed
to any of those reasons. The Community Shield is often viewed as a prelude to the Premiership
season, a curtain raiser of sorts based on the premise of providing a motivational boost to the
eventual winners.
Ingenious. Got a keeper who's a bit dubious underneath the high ball? Simply place a sign saying 'CLAIMS SPECIALISTS' behind his goal facing the opposition strikers for the entire match. They won't even bother crossing the ball anymore knowing that the goalie would only claim it from the air like a specialist in any case.
Well, I promised to do these comprehensive infographics for all the "big" matches. I guess I can't
stop after one because the second big match went so comprehensively awful. And no, I still haven't
come up with a better title for the series.
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.
No matter all the differences, the end result is the same. For all of Liverpool's good play, clever
tactics, and growing into Rodgers' passing system, it's another season where another two points are
dropped at home despite being the far better side because of self-inflicted errors.
Could Carroll get a start?...
Image: guardian.co.ukHearts are the opposition for Liverpool on Thursday night as they continue
their attempts to proceed through the Europa League rounds. The Reds will look for a result to take
back to Anfield and with Manchester City looming at the weekend they will surely want to go about
this in the easiest way possible.
Well, that took long enough. All that haggling, only to eventually, finally, reportedly meet Joe
Allen's £15m release clause. Well done, Ian Ayre, you shrewd so and so.
Now then. I truly hate the "if he wasn't British..." or "if he were Brazilian/Spanish/nationality
du jour..." aphorisms that frequently fly around whenever Liverpool – or some other club – buy
a British player.
1. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has obviously cleared the paperjam that was stopping him 'performing against English sides'. It's safe to say he performed last night. 2. His spectacular fourth goal was something else. You know that's the case when you see England fans applauding an opposition goal. 3. But it did ruin a thousand Zlat-trick headlines.
Wayne Rooney has revealed how he battles against his weight to keep himself in shape for football.
The England and Manchester United striker says he always puts on weight when he's not staying.
Several pundits had suggested that Rooney didn't look fit in the opening matches of this season and
was carrying a few extra [.
All gather around the prayer circle for this man please
The fight continues, probably none the more apt word to be used considering who we are up
against today. Stoke City, have made quite a name for themselves (in our minds at least) since
their promotion to the Premier League. They've managed to make themselves the scourge of Arsenal
fans.
Come on Chelsea fans I want to hear from as many as possible on this. With no disrespect to Wigan
or Reading, Newcastle is our first of the bigger games this season especially as we still have what
happened at the Bridge towards the end of last season fresh in our minds.
Chelsea have started with two wins from two and will be looking to take another three points
against Alan Pardew's good Newcastle side and as we all know, this is far from being a home banker!
Come on Chelsea fans I want to hear from as many as possible on this. With no disrespect to Wigan
or Reading, Newcastle is our first of the bigger games this season especially as we still have what
happened at the Bridge towards the end of last season fresh in our minds.
Chelsea have started with two wins from two and will be looking to take another three points
against Alan Pardew's good Newcastle side and as we all know, this is far from being a home banker!
Newcastle were drawn against Greek side Atromitos  in the fourth qualifying round of the Europa
League yesterday, and Newcastle will face a very tough start to the season, with 5 games in
the first 15 days. Alan Pardew tough games against Athens based side Three of the games areÂ
against tough Premier League opposition in Tottenham, Chelsea and Aston Villa, and sandwiched
in between [.
1. A supposedly easy match against eastern European opposition and the referee awards England a
penalty after three minutes. He clearly didn't know how these matches are supposed to go. 2. Steven
Gerrard and Frank Lampard can play together... so long as Tom Cleverley is playing the
Lampard/Gerrard role.
1. A supposedly easy match against eastern European opposition and the referee awards England a
penalty after three minutes. He clearly didn't know how these matches are supposed to go. 2. Steven
Gerrard and Frank Lampard can play together... so long as Tom Cleverley is playing the
Lampard/Gerrard role.
La Liga 2012-13: An alternative look at the new season in Spain is a post from: Just
Football
by Ashley Escobar
It's back! Like an action movie villain with a bad attitude, La Liga sneaks
back into our psyche. Spain's victory at the European Championships is still fresh in our minds but
fresher still is their epic collapse at the Olympics (see, I told you Wales would win!
In amongst the media frenzy that led up to the closing of the transfer window on Friday, news of
the Europa League and Capital One Cup draws was almost lost amongst the gossip and rumour.
As we all know, the club has been drawn away to Carlisle in the Cup while Lazio, Panathinaikos
and Maribor await in the Europa League.
Second match in a row that we have looked devoid of ideas, got a goal out of nothing, and thenÂ
conceded late on. Long balls, panicky defending, the team looks as scared as a new born lamb
walking down Tottenham high road late at night.
The first half was utter tosh. From Lennon there were a few successful crosses but more attempted
and failed ones, mixed in with some some promising, yet fruitless runs by Bale.
Spurs head coach Andre Villas-Boas was honest about the side's performance as we conceded
another late goal for a second successive 1-1 home draw. After a busy week of transfer activity,
new signing Moussa Dembele grabbed the lead on 68 minutes before a Robert Snodgrass effort ensured
that the points were shared.
For the second time in his short yet promising professional career, Ruben Luna went a full 90
minutes for FC Dallas in Saturday's 3-2 win over Colorado. The last time the young striker went the
distance was on April 1, 2011 at Columbus. And by all accounts, Luna was solid against the Rapids,
displaying some of the same skills-like holding the ball, drawing cards and generally making life
difficult on the opposition, that everyone who has seen him play knows he can display at a moment's
notice.
Whatever the real meaning behind John Terry's abusive words to Anton Ferdinand last October, we can
all agree that the Chelsea captain's verbal salvos towards opposition players are usually somewhat
antagonistic to say the least. In a refreshing twist on that consistently fulfilled caricature, the
England international was caught on camera (and indeed on mic) [.
Tunisia visited Sierra Leone's National Stadium over the weekend for the third round of Africa
Cup of Nations qualifiers. Things were gong well for the visitors for approximately seven minutes,
at which point Tunisian striker Saber Khelifa demonstrated the correct way to kick the ball into
your own face and set up a goal for the opposition.
I have taken some stick on my blog over the past day or so because I have changed my opinion. As we
all know, Chelsea have played with the tried and trusted 4-3-3 formation ever since Jose Mourinho
was manager in 2004. That formation has brought Chelsea major successes as we know.
In recent seasons however, it seems that the opposition had worked out how to defend against the
4-3-3 formation we were using and Chelsea found it very difficult to break down.
Speaking after the game on Saturday, Alan Pardew was quick to lavish praise on Eden Hazard and
believes that he is bringing Torres back for form and has given Chelsea an extra dimension compared
to last season. He said:
"You can see why so many top clubs were chasing Hazard and he has certainly given
Chelsea an extra dimension in the first few games of this season.
Welcome to Saturday and a quick Saturday round-up.
The only extra team news from yesterday is that Wojciech Szczesny is a 'slight' doubt but
'should be ok', according to the boss. Which is still a bit scary considering who tomorrow's
opposition are. It would be reasonable to say that SZCZ is more dominant in his area than the
alternatives (Fabianski is fit again, by the way), so fingers crossed there's nothing too badly
wrong with him.
James Grossi writes from Toronto for The Shin Guardian
Bare quotes are always dangerous without context.
In what amounted to a vain attempt at researching the actual source of the attributed quotes,
only to discover that the Gazzetta Dello Sport website has a pay-wall – though it must be
admitted that comprehension would have been a problem anyways – the problem of what to make of
snippets from a player or manager who has been asked for their view on MLS has reared its head
again.
As pointed out at NASN by Kelly McClain the Timbers' offensive numbers on average have started
to climb in the last few games. A lot of analysts and people who casually follow this league
probably look at the schedule and see Portland Timbers at New York and automatically write off
Portland's chances.
It is the U.S. men's national team's house of horrors, one of the more daunting places to play
around the world. And it looms Wednesday night.Â
The U.S. men's national team has never won at the storied Estadio Azteca, and despite bringing a
less-than-full-strength squad to Mexico City for Wednesday night's friendly against El Tri, the
challenge remains the same: Finally put a "1" in the "W" part of the W-L-T column that current
reads 0-8-1 all-time at Azteca, 0-19-1 all-time in Mexico City and 0-23-1 all-time on Mexican
soil.
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).
Hey guess who? I was sitting on the ground from a workout and thinking of the Arsenal and what's
in store for the season and realized that I really wanted to have a forum to place lay out all my
thoughts. This is when I realized I had promised Lachlan that I was going to search for my password
to writing blogs here for him and the gang that have dutifully picked up where I and the others
left off.
ATT: circa 150
Additional: Entrance £5.00, Programme run out
Afoneitha Road in pictures
Ground Statistics (marks out of ten, maximum 40)
Character 6, Structures/Terracing 5, Hospitality 7, Backdrop/Scenery or aesthetics for larger
stadiums 7 Total 25
Another Cymru Alliance tick at Afoneitha Road, the home of Penycae FC.
