Real Madrid beat Levante 4-2, capitalizing on Barcelona's 3-2 loss to Osasuna on Saturday and
putting themselves a comfy 10 points clear at the top of the table. Cristiano Ronaldo scored Real's
first three goals -- all within 12 minutes of each other -- but his third was the perfectly arched
effort from outside the box you see above.
Isn't this a case of two plus two equals six here?? Surely the press have something better to do
than to carry on with the ridiculous articles about Roman turning up the heat on AVB by
attending training every day this week!
The next ridiculous rumour is that AVB is to be replaced by Fabio Capello "sooner rather than
later"!
Photo: Earl Gardner
There are a lot of quotes from Sebastien Le Toux in this article. Many of them come from
Chris Vito's (of the Delco Daily Times and The Times Herald) fantastic interview with Seba. Check
it out. Many quotes from Peter Nowak are from his January 31 press conference.
The tackle that started the comeback
The team needed a lift after results of recent weeks. A 1-0 win is great but coming back from 2
goals down to win it, is surely going to give the team the boost that we so desperately need. A
game of two halves is the old cliche but certainly applies in this scenario.
I watched the game and come away from it thinking "Good performance" and "Good result, we're
through!" and being honest I cannot believe the negativity that has come from "Chelsea fans" on
here and Twitter to me after the game.
Some of you lot need a kick up the arse and to get a sense of realism right now.
Luis Suarez race row, comment: Keith Curle: This must stick
Every single player should have the right to perform on a football pitch without having to put
up with being abused. I don't think I was ever discriminated against.
View the full story here: The Mail
A news article on 2011-12-20 23:20:26 from: The Mail
This news item has been reproduced from today's media.
Tottenham Hotspurs' upcoming encounter with Chelsea this midweek is not only being regarded as a
big match or another London derby for Spurs' Brazilian midfielder, Sandro, but he also believes
that the match can be the moment for his team to confirm their status in the league.
The former International Porto Alegre player is confident that a victory over the Blues can lift
his team into a legit title winning candidates this season.
Tottenham Hotspurs' upcoming encounter with Chelsea this midweek is not only being regarded as a
big match or another London derby for Spurs' Brazilian midfielder, Sandro, but he also believes
that the match can be the moment for his team to confirm their status in the league.
The former International Porto Alegre player is confident that a victory over the Blues can lift
his team into a legit title winning candidates this season.
No stats? Good luck.
For those not aware, the Hermann Trophy is soccer's equivalent to the Heismann.
So I'm scanning the blogs out there, and I came across the following comments on this post
concerning the 15 semifinalists for the award.
Mark said:
12 forwards and 2 mids in that list.
Chasing after his former self, not the opponent
Carling Cup returns to the menu as the victors of tonight's game will seal their path into the
semi final of this competition. It won't be so easy to win this year's competitions, well, compared
to our run last season. Apart from Manchester City, there's still Manchester United, Chelsea and
Liverpool still in this competition.
Rafa clearly believed in the power of his groin a little too much"Pay your tax, my lord, pay
your tax," the Aston Villa fans sang to Harry Redknapp, to the tune of 'Kumbaya', during the second
half on Monday night. Within seconds, the home crowd replied in near unison with: "2-0 down, my
lord, 2-0 down, oh you're 2-0 down.
The second step in the MLS offseason also occurred today as MLS teams waived players to make
room on their rosters. Not surprisingly Portland did not waive a single player but quite a few
other teams did waive players. Including Vancouver, who waived 3 players and Toronto, who waived 7
players.
All of the waived players are now free to sign with any club in any country they wish.
Left foot, right foot. Easy as 1, 2, 3
Qualification to the next phase of Champions League, the first of any English club to do that in
this season's competition. Finishing as group winners with a game to spare. Robin Van Persie
continued his more than impressive goal-scoring form. Another stand-out defensive performance from
the team (the one single minute apart).
What's In a Name: England's Greatest Football Surnames - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
On Tuesday night Tottenham's youngster, Kyle Walker, who made his debut on Saturday
started his first England game. The promising defender is the 4th player named Walker to have a
have represented his country.
Given that today is 11/11/11 and the conveniently equivalent number per team on a football
pitch, Marca decided to put up a discussion piece of the greatest XI players in a laid-back 3-4-3.
And despite having an unapologetic Real-bent, they've got two players from the current incarnation
of Barcelona.
"It is impossible to watch a Brazil game right now, our soccer is hideous. The national team is
patterned, stigmatized and absolutely conservative. You watch an entire match and there is not a
single player dribbling. It is European soccer disguised as Brazilian."
-- Former Brazil star Socrates offers his opinion on the Brazilian national team under coach Mano
Menezes
Not everyone enjoys watching Barcelona play football these days, some find them incredibly
boring, but I happen to be among the group who gets a lot of pleasure from watching them play.
I'm reluctant to hold them up as an example of what other teams should be doing least of all
Aston Villa as they have players from another planet in terms of ability.
Nine games. 39 shots: 17 on target, 16 off target, six blocked. Four goals. That's an awful lot of
shots without much return. Which seems to be the story of Liverpool's season so far.
This isn't to criticize Suarez. More often than not, especially against Norwich, he's looked the
only one capable of magic, capable of somehow hauling Liverpool to three points.
Benny Feilhaber has been a big addition to the New England Revolution. (Getty Images)
Yesterday the MLS Player's Union released their final player salary information for the 2011
season. This information included all the newcomers that have come into the league during the
summer transfer window.
With the victory of CSD Comunicaciones of Guatemala in the CONCACAF Champions League by the
Seattle Sounders one phrase seems to have rocketed to the top of the charts. #ChurchOfFucito (now
in the left sidebar here for your viewing pleasure) started as a way for someone to mock my near
constant call for Mike Fucito to start.
Liverpool Reserves recently enjoyed a two-day workshop aimed at enhancing their conduct as
professional footballers - both on and off the pitch.
The young Reds retreated to a secluded hotel in the Lake District where they listened to a variety
of presentations as well as taking part in some good-natured team building exercises.
Busy couple of weeks, busy weekend. All conspiring to keep my post production low, and that
means...Grab Bag time.
Better Up Top
Those damnable "local blackouts" applied, leaving me with only the Match Day Live condensed
version of the United vs. Quakes tilt. Obviously, I feel pretty unqualified to deal in minutiae as
a result, but that won't keep me from making the one obvious observation: De Rosario needs to be up
top.
By Chris Wright
The England U20 side (of which, in all honesty, I recognise not one single player) touched down
in Colombia for the U20 World Cup yesterday, and were greeted at Medellin Airport with a 'crazy
Colombian welcome', i.e, a troupe of dancing security staff and some poor chap slowly poaching
himself to death in a giant parrot suit just what you need after a twelve-hour flight.
If you make your way to Red Bull Arena for today's New York-FC Dallas, you're likely to find it
much, much quieter than usual.
The Red Bulls upset many of their fans for their recent treatment of the U.S. Open Cup
quarterfinals (sending a complete reserve team and not even flying in first-team coaches in an
eventual 4-0 loss to the Chicago Fire) and now New York Supporters Groups are ready to let the club
know just how upset they are by staging a protest at tonight's match.
Winning 11 out of 14 games hasn't been enough to give the Real Colorado Foxes control of the
team's playoff destiny.
Instead of running away with the division, the Highlands Ranch-based side faces a two-game tie
with its closest competitor and the possibility that this weekend could leave the team in first, or
sitting out of the playoffs in third.
Well it seems that JT has been the one person the media has really focused on in these early stages
of our pre season tour to the far east. Yesterday he was quoted talking about Luka Modric and then
afterwards about Fernando Torres but now the focus turns to Andre Villas-Boas.
JT was quick to admit that we under achieved last season and it's now up to every single player to
prove their worth at Chelsea once again under AVB and so far, the impressions of him as manager has
been good.
During the fanzine explosion of the late 1980s a magazine was brought out with a title that drew
attention to Liverpool's most glaring weakness of that era. Another Wasted Corner was its name but
if a similar publication had been launched at any time during the last three years it would have to
have been called Another Wasted Summer.
Fireworks in Cary as the Railhawks win again.
Rob Kinnan PhotographyThe Montreal Impact made the trip down to Cary to take on the Carolina
Railhawks. The Railhawks were coming off a 5-1 shellacking of Atlanta while the Impact were coming
off a 0-0 draw with Puerto Rico. The game promised fireworks, both because of the two teams and of
course for the 4th of July holiday show afterwards.
Andre Villas-Boas is Chelsea's new manager and I have to say I am really excited about the
appointment after seeming for so long that Roman Abramovich would entrust his beloved Chelsea to
Guus Hiddink once again.
The appointment of Villas-Boas seemed somewhat out of the blue as the news broke that he could be
leaving Porto.
Every club has players who polarise opinions. We've had and still have our share. Those players
who are loved and loathed in almost equal numbers. For years Jermaine Jenas was the ultimate
'marmite' player, though it now appears most agree he's more 'arsenic' than a harmless yet
disgusting yeast based spread.
Didn't do too well against Stoke did he? Why are we still in for him then
As usual, lets get through the updates for those that I've done.
The Cesc Fabregas deal looks increasingly likely to go through sooner rather than later, if the
rumours are to be correct. His latest comments are here.
Andre Villas-Boas is Chelsea's new manager and I have to say I am really excited about the
appointment after seeming for so long that Roman Abramovich would entrust his beloved Chelsea to
Guus Hiddink once again.
The appointment of Villas-Boas seemed somewhat out of the blue as the news broke on Tuesday that he
could be leaving Porto.
As Manchester United parade their 19th league title, the rain-soaked celebrations are an
appropriate metaphor for the 2010/2011 season.
On one hand, they've won their 19th league title (12th under Ferguson), a title United fans
wanted more than the Champions League for the last two years, and a title they've richly
deserved.
Meet Doris - our Barcelona Futbolita from Poland! The 24-year-old has been a Cule for over six
years and is also a contributor at
Totalbarca.com. On the day of her club's Champions
League finale showdown against Man United, Doris answers our traditional "Tres Cosas" (Three
Things) game. (See this post for our Tres Cosas game with the Man United futbolita!
I don't like Manchester United.
From the owners of the club, to the manager, to a whole host of players past and present and
onward to "19″— I'm not a fan.
So, you'd naturally think I'd be supporting Barcelona in Saturday's Champions League final.
Lefty. Progressive. Unicef.
Who says nice guys finish last? Well if you're referring to the Europa League, that's definitely
not the case. After a season in which they didn't have a single player... Read more »
Here's hoping el capitan bids adieu to the two-most dis-satisfied Gunners
Another season bites the dust and so does our hope of lifting silverware, finally. From
'vying-for-all-4-cups' to '4th-in-the-league', its been a long, ardous journey.
One thing we must refrain from doing is start from where it all began, and then one-by-one curse
every single player in our coffer, rip the very belief in le boss, and eventually resign
in as sore losers.
Here's hoping el capitan bids adieu to the two-most dis-satisfied Gunners
Another season bites the dust and so does our hope of lifting silverware, finally. From
'vying-for-all-4-cups' to '4th-in-the-league', its been a long, ardous journey.
One thing we must refrain from doing is start from where it all began, and then one-by-one curse
every single player in our coffer, rip the very belief in le boss, and eventually resign
in as sore losers.
Ready. Set. Goal.
In a Southland [New Zealand] senior women's soccer game on Sunday, 14-year-old student Alex
McIntosh slotted 12 goals in the one game. In doing so, she led the Old Boys women's team to a
whopping 25-nil win over Queens Park. The Invercargill teen was all smiles after the match.
He's played against the very best in the world for years, yet Ashley Cole will not have had a
harder afternoon's work than he did at Old Trafford last Sunday. For the last decade, against the
best the Premiership, European and International teams have had to offer in the shape of right
wingers, he has more often than not, dealt with consummately.
