1. Chelsea know how to win these trophies against the run of play. They were inferior to Benfica for huge chunks of this match, but Bayern Munich will testify that counts for little. 2. "Winners of Europe's second most prestigious club competition, we know what we are" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
1. It looks distinctly like Arsenal's last hope of a trophy this season has just slipped away like a Bayern Munich player escaping from an Arsenal defender at a set-piece. 2. Arsenal had to resort to kicking another team off the park as they can't cope with their pace, passing & movement. Presumably even Arsene [.
Liverpool will attempt to bring talented Barcelona youngster Cristian Tello to Anfield as part of any deal that takes goalkeeper Pepe Reina to the Spanish champions. Barca want to bring 30-year-old Reina to Camp Nou to replace Victor Valdes, who is expected to leave the club this summer. Reds boss Brendan Rodgers is keen to [.
My apologies for posting my thoughts on the match too late – I've only managed 3 hours of sleep
since the night of the match (until last night). But, even as the fanfare from our victory dies
down in the wake of being drawn with the Champions of Germany, Netherlands and England in the
Champions League, I continue to find myself waxing lyrical about last Wednesday's (or in my case,
Thursday early morning) match.
When news broke last night that Andy Carroll had signed for West Ham on loan with an option to make
the transfer permanent next summer, I thought to myself "That's Sturridge off then!".
It's a shame really isn't it. RDM even made a point of talking up Sturridge yesterday in his pre
match press conference ahead of tonight's Super Cup in Monaco.
Liverpool Football Club today reached an agreement to sign 24-year-old Moroccan international
winger Oussama Assaidi from Dutch club Heerenveen for a fee believed to be around £3 million.
Assaidi scored 20 goals in 68 appearances for the Dutch club and has 22 caps for Morocco making
his international debut in February 2011.
Rugby World Cup-winner Jonny Wilkinson helped Newcastle midfielder Yohan Cabaye to battle depression, the Frenchman has admitted. Cabaye revealed he turned to Wilkinson's book for advice as he struggled with depression after Euro 2012. The 27-year-old said: said: "Depression? I am not afraid to say that.
Wayne Rooney has suggested that as he gets older and loses some of his pace, he plans to play in
central midfield. Having played there a few times last season when United were hit by injuries,
Rooney grew to enjoy the role, although would still prefer to play up front for the time being.
"I did my bit by dropping into a central midfield role when the team got hit by injuries
last season," Rooney said in My Decade in the Premier League, which is being serialised by the
Daily Mirror.
Most of the main points from yesterday's game have already been covered, so here are five quick
thoughts to chew on:
* The defence remains brilliant, and it's a team effort. Mertesacker made several impeccable
interceptions, and continued to disprove the notion that you need huge amounts of pace to be a top
defender in the Premier League.
I took a kind of day off from Arsenal yesterday. After the intensity of deadline day and all the
action we had to cope with, on top of August's mentalness in general, it was quite nice to just not
involve myself at all.
However, it's right back into it today as we face the Mugsmashers at Anfield in a game which
could lift the mood considerably or tip some folk over the edge entirely.
Former Arsenal striker Eduardo has described the club's decision to sell Robin van Persie and
Alex Song as a "big mistake".
"It is a big mistake to sell them, they were the most important players last season," Eduardo
told BBC Sport. "But they have other quality players to stay as a big club at the top.
I may be speaking out of turn here and I apologise to be people if I am, but to me the game
yesterday wasn't great was it. Don't get me wrong it was a good start to the campaign with three
points but apart from a couple of glimpses of magic, Chelsea could have been better overall.
Wigan are a hard working side and caused us plenty of problems.
Continuing our look at the team for the upcoming season, it's the turn of the full backs.
First choice on the right should be none other than Bacary Sagna. The French defender took to
English football like a duck to water, ever since he joined us and has gone from strength to
strength.
Is this proof that yellow cards that are incorrectly given for diving are good for football? Gareth Bale, a man who has previously claimed that the slightest touch will always send him sprawling when he's running at full pace, opted for the Messi approach against Norwich last night. Despite a blatant foul from the Canaries' [.
A 2-0 home defeat to Burnley will have hurt Millwall's players but Tottenham loanee Adam Smith felt it worse than most. The 21-year-old discovered the dangers of running at pace towards the edge of the pitch in icy conditions. Smith ended up flying over the advertising hoardings in painful fashion. Thankfully he was able [.
Being a cameraman at top level football can't be easy given the pace of the game. But the situation isn't helped by pesky so-and-so's like Victor Moses who insist on jumping out of shot all the time. The cameraman at Chelsea vs Southampton's FA Cup third round clash thought he was perfectly placed to capture [.
This season has seen some significant changes in personnel and style of football signalling that we really are starting to see Martin Jol's team. One of the most interesting changes has been that this current Fulham side has become a lot more balanced when it comes to attacking. Last season attacks were split like so:
Left 27%
Middle 38%
Right 35%
This shows the influence of Dempsey's consistent cutting in and the impact of Dembele, Ruiz, Diarra, Murphy and Duff who attacked through the middle or on the right.
This season has seen some significant changes in personnel and style of football signalling that we really are starting to see Martin Jol's team. One of the most interesting changes has been that this current Fulham side has become a lot more balanced when it comes to attacking. Last season attacks were split like so:
Left 27%
Middle 38%
Right 35%
This shows the influence of Dempsey's consistent cutting in and the impact of Dembele, Ruiz, Diarra, Murphy and Duff who attacked through the middle or on the right.
So last night was fun wasn't it? When I started writing this I thought the only thing I'd be
able to say was "and then that was awesome". So prepare yourselves. Everything below the jump is
going to a giant thing of positivity. Well almost everything. The negativity isn't even really that
bad.
Seriously, though, despite the loss, the Revs weren't all that bad in this one. Granted, the
defense was clearly the weak link, falling back into old habits and what have you, but at least
there were a few bright spots. And, if you've read this segment before, you know I like the bright
spots.
With Fabian Castillo unavailable for Sunday's 1-1 draw with Seattle Sounders FC, FC Dallas was
definitely going to miss the young Colombian's pace on the right flank. To his credit, Jackson did
a solid job filling in for No. 7 and even delivered the game-tying goal in the 32nd minute but
after this one was in the books, FCD head coach Schellas Hyndman admitted he sure could have used
Castillo, who ended a string of five straight starts due to a strained right hamstring.
They're likely going to need it. In some ways, it's a bit unlucky for Seattle that two of the
seasons three meetings come in the late days of the season, as FC Dallas has improved significantly
since the first meeting between the two sides. Those are the breaks, unfortunately, and if the
Sounders hope to have a run at the top of the standings before the end of the season they'll need
to pick up three points in this game.
The current U.S. squad had two players find the back of the net for their club teams this weekend,
bringing a little extra zip in their step heading into training camp.
Jermaine Jones scored the game-winner for Schalke when he finished off a mazy run with a rifle to
the far post, the hosts running out 3-1 winners against Augsburg.
Big spending Paris St. Germain looked set to make a splash in the world of football this season
after signing the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva. Les Parisiens were heavy
favorites to bring home the Ligue 1 title this season, but this weekend succumbed to a third
successive draw as the French league gathers pace.
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.
Matt Besler, if nothing else, sure has stayed busy this summer.
The Sporting Kansas City centerback has been there for his team's surge back to first place. He
also was a stalwart for the club's run to the U.S. Open Cup title, playing all 120 minutes and
converting a penalty kick in the final earlier this month.
Yesterday was the 7th game between Sporting Kansas City and Toronto FC at BMO Field and yesterday's
game was extremely similar to the previous 6 match ups. Games that were for the most part dull and
lacking good finishing chances. For only the 4th time in the 7 games one of the two teams scored.
Not once have both teams scored in the same game, and there have been only 5 goals in the 7 games.
Nike Football introduces the CTR360 Maestri III football boot with a new commercial entitled
"Take Control" featuring FC Barcelona soccer great Andres Iniesta. The advert showcases Iniesta and
the competition as string puppets before reverting to real life footballers.
Ad Credits:
The music in Nike commercial is Zigeunerweisen, Op.
Over 100 un-signed UK players started out with dreams of progressing to the Nike Global Finals
in Barcelona, where the winner will get the chance to sign a pro-contract.
The Chance UK finalists who underwent rigourous tests of skill and temperament are Jose Figura,
Liam Baker and Ashleigh Artwell who were put through their final pace's at the Theatre of Dreams
under the watchful eye of the United coaching staff and players including Rio Ferdinand who left
them some great gifts to at least look like a pro in Barcelona.
As we all know Chelsea lost the Community Shield to Manchester City 2-3 yesterday at Villa Park and
I have an important message to the Chelsea faithful - DO NOT JUMP ON THE BANDWAGON!.
We have to remember this is pre season and if you think about our pre season it hasn't gone well
has it!
While Wednesday's match didn't end up being the away win that we were all desperately hoping
for, the end result wasn't too bad. I mean, don't get me wrong, I really want the Portland Timbers
to earn 3 points again, it's just that they managed to score twice on the road which is encouraging
for the future of the team.
After taking just two points from five straight games against the league's worst teams, the
Portland Timbers are about to face one of the MLS' best. Oi.
Any discussion of the New York Red Bulls, from Portland's perspective, must start with Kenny
Cooper. His 13 goals in 2012 have been a sore spot for Timbers fans, mainly because of how much
more that number is than his 2011 total.
Normally in a transfer saga, it's the selling club that puts a price tag on the player that's in demand. But in the case of Gareth Bale, Zinedine Zidane director of football at Real Madrid, one of Bale's main suitors has done the job for them. Doing his best Antiques Roadshow impression, Zizou [...]
Here's the official announcement, the Rapids get a conditional draft pick from Chicago in exchange
for Wells Thompson.
There's a good deal of consternation in the on-line Rapids fanbase about wells asking to be traded
to find playing time, but it doesn't bother me. Look at what's happened this season:
*Wells was on pace for 727 minutes this year, his lowest season total of his career.
Manchester United have today confirmed the signing of 18-year-old Angelo Henriquez. The Chile
under-23 striker joins United from Universidad de Chile for an undisclosed fee, believed to be
around £4m.
"I am thrilled to be joining the biggest club in the world. Manchester United is a great team
and has a great manager," he said.
The talented Spanish midfielder Santiago Cazorla believes he will settle into playing with his
Arsenal team-mates very quickly, although he admits that the pace of the game in England is a lot
faster than he's used to after playing in La Liga. Also there were many rumours last summer saying
that Arsenal were in contention [.
D.C. United bounce back from an emotional night on Sunday with an emphatice 4-2 win over the
Chicago Fire at RFK Stadium. Captain Dwayne De Rosario had a goal and an assist to help pace the
United response.
The game changed midway through the half when Gunn made some substitutions to light a fire under
the Cardinal. The group of reserves, led by freshmen midfielder Aaron Kovar and redshirt sophomore
Austin Meyer immediately began to change the pace of the game.
"The players that came in midway through the first half really turned the game around," said
Gunn.
