The better team, dominant indeed for extended periods. Friedel has a quiet afternoon. That
superiority isn't converted into goals. Sure we come close, hit the woodwork maybe, but all the
flowing football means little if the chances aren't taken. Time passes, we fade, our opponents take
full advantage of rare but significant errors and we are punished, albeit with at least one
excellent strike.
Chelsea play their second match of their 2012 USA pre-season tour against French side Paris
St-Germain on July 22, 2012. The match is part of the World Football Challenge featuring teams from
across Europa and North America.
Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo
'The challenge will be to integrate the new players that we have signed for the next years and
continue to build on the foundation we laid down last season.
Before I get all nasty with this ... just a touch of background.
I went to watch the final of a U.S. Adult Soccer Association regional (huh?) between a team
called PSA Elite and a team that Eric Wynalda formed, Cal FC. (That was May 6th)
These are two teams that were just slapped together this past month in hopes of qualifying for
the US Open Cup.
Despite being in a lower league position than their opponent, Atletico Madrid, managed to show
their superiority against Valencia in the Semifinal of Europa League as Diego Simeone's side
eliminated Unay Emery's boys with two victories.
Having already taking a 4-2 lead in the first leg, Atletico picked up another victory at
Mestalla thanks to a lovely striker from their young striker, Adrian Lopez, which simply ended the
home team's effort.
Many times I've consideredwriting a piece on this and then discarded the idea, deciding it better
not toget into something so controversial. But now it's gone beyond the point where Ican take it. I
don't even have the time to be writing this but I am so infuriatedright now that I have to do this,
to vent everything.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic hasn't wasted anytime showing his superiority to his new PSG team-mates,
first he puts Nene to the ground with a blow to the ribs and not content on doing one of his
team-mates, big Zlat then catches Jeremy Menez on the eye and sat out the rest of the session
holding an ice-cube to his eye socket.
Like the truly dominant creature that he is, Zlatan Ibrahimovic does not waste time in exerting
his superiority over whatever herd he finds himself leading. So even though he has only been
training with his new PSG teammates for a few days, he has already decided to instill the fear of
Zlatan in them by inflicting pain upon several of them in one training session.
After winning he 2008 European Championship, now successfully defended Sunday, brackets the
squad's 2010 World Cup win for three successive crowns.
La Roja defended their European title in impressive fashion with a 4-0 victory against Italy on
Sunday and have now been rewarded with yet more acclaim.
The day after beating Germany 2-1 to advance to a Euro 2012 final against Spain, Italy manager
Cesare Prandelli celebrated his team's success by enjoying a beer at his press conference with a
man wearing a Super Mario shirt.
One would hope that this is more Prandelli's way of showing his superiority over the land of
Oktoberfest and not a sign of letting down his guard before the job is done.
The markets don't lie. Germany holds the whip-hand over Greece. And despite a heroic
comeback straight out of Euripides, Teutonic willpower triumphed and the odyssey ended in
Gdansk.
Georgios Samaras' unlikely equaliser came courtesy of a cheeky shirt-pull, an infringement all too
visibly unpunished throughout Euro 2012.
When, a year after it had won the American Cup, Tacony FC traveled to St. Louis in 1911, they
came back from two goals down to draw 4–4 with St. Louis champion St. Leos in what newspapers
called a "blue ribbon" match to decide the "national championship." With the draw, talk of a
national champion ended.
Just what Spurs needed three points. No alarms, a decent effort that lacked a cutting edge to
convert our massive superiority into more goals but none was needed in response to opponents who
reeked of the sickly unpleasant odour of apathy. And people have said our players don't care. I'm
surprised the Blackburn squad could summon up the effort to climb the stairs of the team coach.
For an hour this was arguably Spurs' best performance of the season. United fought to come to
terms with the unusual experience of being pushed back deep into their own half, of struggling to
get hold of the ball, of being unable to break free. All this effort and hard won superiority was
thrown away in three mad moments of shoddy defending.
For an hour this was arguably Spurs' best performance of the season. United fought to come to
terms with the unusual experience of being pushed back deep into their own half, of struggling to
get hold of the ball, of being unable to break free. All this effort and hard won superiority was
thrown away in three mad moments of shoddy defending.
We have been down this path before. Remember last fall, when you generously agreed to kickstart
a little site known as The Classical? Since then, the site has rocked, gotten sponsors, and
produced some quality writing. Now, a promising North American soccer quarterly needs your
crowdsourced dollars.
With a new MLS season four days away, it's time to start up the SBI Fantasy MLS League yet
again.Â
We'll have our league set up by Thursday so you can select your teams and vie for SBI Fantasy
MLS superiority ahead of First Kick, but before we do that we want your input on which game we
should use.
Since being given the club captaincy, Arsenal striker Robin van Persie's performances and injury
record has certainly improved a great deal, but he says that the responsibility of leading the
Gunners hasn't forced him to change his style of play at all.
Liverpool have hit some sort of form since Gerard has returned from injury. Chelsea stole a
point late in the game at Swansea and are now six points ahead of Arsenal. This season has always
been about a battle for fourth an it's time for the Gunners to buckle up and pick up the points in
games like the next one at the Reebok, many much tougher games will anyway see Arsenal dropping
points in the coming weeks.
That Locomotive called Arsenal was back on track today charging once again towards the top of
the table. After frustratingly slowing down at Fulham last weekend it was full steam ahead up north
to Wigan to pick up what turned out to be an easy three points.
The players exuded superiority from the moment they stepped onto the pitch.
That Locomotive called Arsenal was back on track today charging once again towards the top of
the table. After frustratingly slowing down at Fulham last weekend it was full steam ahead up north
to Wigan to pick up what turned out to be an easy three points.
The players exuded superiority from the moment they stepped onto the pitch.
If you every hypothesized that the Europa Cup last season was the competition with the talent,
the passion, and the more compelling matches, then you had your proof today. It was Atletico at the
end looking as if it could have played another 90 minutes while Chelsea looked like it wanted back
those 90 minutes, each minute more painful than the one before.
Mexico fully deserved their 2-1 victory against Brazil today in the Olympic final, and seals
Mexico's strength in youth football, where they are U-17 World Champions and did well in the last
Copa America with a team that looked very much like the one that won gold today. But in spite of
Mexico's superiority, what will be most discussed in this final is Brazil.
In the two years since France's still unbelievable self-destruction in the 2010 World Cup,
they've quickly reorganized under manager Laurent Blanc and returned to their position as a
formidable opponent. And so with a few days to go before they begin their Euro 12 campaign against
England, let's take a look behind the scenes at their training base in Ukraine for any hints of
another meltdown in the making.
What a surprising result! But Coach Watkins put it into perspective after the game saying, "It's
one of those things, you play a team that you should beat, and every once in a while they get
lucky." That's not to say that BYU doesn't feel pretty good about (an admittedly lucky) point
against RSL. I was also surprised to see James Rust and Brian Kamler, the ESPN 700 team, in the
media area calling the game.
Coach John Spencer's changed line up against Columbus Crew made for an entertaining, albeit
scoreless, match. The 20,438 crowd saw the Timbers out shoot Columbus 15 to 8 (shots on goal:6 to
3) without being able to capitalize on their superiority.
There is a temptation to level what might seem a fair criticism at Manchester United and their
generally underwhelming performances this season but, in truth, the isolated idea that the side is
too complacent in winning positions or in situations where they are expected to coast is a touch
unfair and, simply put, a bit lazy.
Fishtown Hipsters, kicking in the balls. I have to give it to the Russians, they know how to
make surprise moves, even Bobby Fischer wouldn't have seen this one coming. We all were
anticipating a team of skilled bullies in order to break us physically, to get at least one of us
hurt. Instead they went the other way.
Familiar storyline: Liverpool fail to convert chances when dominant, leading to more points dropped
in a game Liverpool bossed. New plot twist: Refereeing decisions punish Liverpool even more than
usual, culminating in an egregious red on Spearing that gave Fulham the advantage needed to take
all three points.
OADBY TOWN 1–1 (aet) TIPTON TOWN Saturday 3rd December 2011 FA Vase 3rd Round Greene King
Park
Another home game for Oadby Town this afternoon, this time against former adversaries in the
Midland Football Alliance Tipton Town in the 3rd round (last 64) of the FA Vase. This is the first
time since the 2004/05 season that Oadby have reached this stage of the competition.
