Our preview of Olympique Marseille‘s visit to Old Trafford a couple weeks ago focused in large part on their young Ghanaian striker Andre Ayew (and by extension his famous father Abedi Pele). And then we told you to watch Le Classique this past weekend.
Well, hopefully you’ve been listening to us. Although Marseille disappointingly couldn’t score against Man U, you would have been watching for Ayew in Sunday’s match, and he did deliver, scoring a beauty of a goal OM over their capitol city rivals PSG:
We’ll be watching for Marseille’s remaining Ligue 1 matches, to see if they can catch Lille at the top of the table (or conversely, hold off Rennes and Lyon to ensure a return to the Champions League next fall). A match to circle on the calendar: Lyon visits Marseille on May 5.
March has not been kind to the spiky-haired kid from Sugar Land, Texas (by way of Aberdeen). When with Sunderland on trial he was attacked outside a pub and had his eye socket fractured (March 12). Last season, with Bolton and primed to play a big role in South Africa for the US, he had his leg broken by De Jong in a friendly against Holland (March 3). And now his most serious injury just last weekend, when United’s Evans came in high and took out the poor bastard’s knee.
How bad is it? Nobody knows yet. There was a nasty gash and he needed some 26 stitches to close the wound. His teammates were certainly disturbed, and it was said that the knee was “opened”, which could only mean you could see bone. Now without any official word on what the problem is exactly, the midfielder has been ruled out for six months, just as Bolton were making a strong challenge for a spot in Europe.
A firm starter for Owen Coyle’s side, the American has been a tough tackler and can also get forward in attack. He has been consistently calm with the ball all season long, making intelligent passes out of the backfield and scoring some really lovely goals when arriving late in the box. A hard worker, you wouldn’t expect him to have shied away from a challenge. Unfortunately this one came off twisted and he’ll be watching from the sidelines until next season.
11am: Manchester United-Bolton (FSC) and/or West Brom-Arsenal (FSP & foxsoccer.tv): Man U seems to have righted themselves, with victories against Arsenal (FA Cup) and Marseille (Champions League) in the past week. Arsenal, on the other hand, have been in a free fall over the past few weeks. From 4 competitions to just 1–and they’ll need to keep winning to keep pace with Man U and stay in that one.
1:30pm: Borussia Dortmund-Mainz (ESPN Deportes & ESPN3.com): After a tremendous start, newly promoted Mainz is now in 5th–so still in contention for a spot in Europe. Borussia Dortmund is almost a lock to win the league–9pts ahead of #2 Bayer Leverkeusen.
1:30pm Everton-Fulham (FSC): Americans in action–Tim Howard in goal for Everton, Clint Dempsey in the midfield for Fulham.
5pm: Atletico Madrid-Real Madrid (ESPN Deportes & ESPN3.com): El derbi madrileno. It will be a shock if Atletico win–but you never know.
Sunday, March 20
12pm: Chelsea-Manchester City (FSC): Two teams battling to finish in the top 4. Whose oil money wins here?
2pm: Athletic Bilbao-Villarreal (GolTV): #6 vs #4: Villareal have been slumping lately, with only 6pts from their last 7 league matches (and they weren’t dropping them against La Liga powerhouses either: losses to Depo and Levante, draws with Malaga, Santander, Gijon). But they’re still comfortably in #4, 8pts ahead of #5 Espanyol, 9pts ahead of Bilbao–and only 3pts behind Valencia. Players to watch: de Rossi, Cani, Llorente
4pm: Marseille-PSG (FSP & foxsoccer.tv): Le Classique!
4pm: Valencia-Sevilla (GolTV): #3 vs #7; Sevilla seem to be finally coming on, holding Barca to a draw in what was apparently a scintillating game. Valencia dumped out of the CL, but look to hold on to the #3 position to return next year; Sevilla hoping to move up to make a return to Europa at least. Players to watch: Kanoute (Sevilla), Aduriz, Mata
4pm: Schalke-Bayer Leverkusen (ESPN Deportes): A team that’s in the final 8 of the Champions League (but is languishing in the 10th spot in the Bundesliga) against a team that just got eliminated from the Europa League–but that’s #2 in the Bundesliga and so may be in the Champions League next fall.
Olympique Marseille visits Old Trafford today, attempting to advance to the final eight of the Champions League for the first time since 1993--when they went all the way and won the title--the one and only time a French club has won the Champions League. Marseille held Manchester United to a scoreless draw at home in the Stade Velodrome in the first leg--and hence Man U needs an outright victory in today's match to advance. Look for Marseille to sit back and play a disciplined defensive game--and attempt to score at least one goal via a counterattack.
**WARNING** – This article – teased a long time ago here – contains spoilers for all 5 seasons of The Wire. If you haven’t watched The Wire yet, go to amazon.com; buy the complete set, watch all 60 hours, then read this. You’ll thank me for it (probably more for having seen The Wire than for this article, but still).
Non-Spurs Fan: “If you know they’re going to end up disappointing and frustrating you, why do you keep supporting them?
As my wife would attest, I have a special way of watching Tottenham’s games – leaned forward, literally on the edge of my seat, with a nervous look on my face and the occasional nail being bitten – similar to how I used to sit in the Paxton Road end of White Hart Lane, now transferred to our sofa in Brooklyn. The only other thing that has brought me to this viewing position, this physical display of angst, nervousness and sense of impending doom, was the greatest television show ever made, The Wire.
Each season of The Wire is set up very much like one for Tottenham Hotspur: first you have to get used to a new cast of characters and squad members; the story of the season then unfolds with various highs and lows; the penulitmate act brings some type of heartbreak and you then lick your wounds, wrap up and look to see where it will go next year.
Ever Expanding/Changing Cast
The Wire was unique in the way it approached it’s story telling with such a large number of characters – introducing many new ones through the years and trusting that the audience would keep up. In the same way, many a time I’d arrive at White Hart Lane one January and have to try and figure out who the Japanese player wearing number 4 in our midfield was (turns out it was Kazuyuki Toda…no, I have no idea what happened to him either). Take a look at the major characters introduced through the five years of The Wire (listed as when they became involved in the plots not based on first appearance, cf. Prop Joe is in Season 1 but his significance becomes more apparent from Season 3 onwards), and the players who signed for Tottenham in that same time period (2002-2008)
May, 1999. I had just experienced three confident days on my own in Madrid. Music, museums, and majesty. The sink in my tiny bedroom was clogged, but my Spanish was up to par. Off to Barcelona!
Barcelona: I departed the overnight train from Madrid and realized I hadn’t brought enough money with me. Worse, the station concierge told me that all the hotels were full. (A couple days later, I learned that Manchester United and Bayern Munich were in town for a thrilling Champs League Final. So many chubby, pale, sunburnt drunkards, spewing their anthems, separated by black-garbed Spanish military/police carrying machine guns.)
I eventually sorted out my funds in the station, and realized that the Catalan language barrier (not Spanish!) had contributed to my confusion. (I was looking for a hostel, not a hotel.) I paid for my room, celebrated, and hit Las Ramblas.
As dusk became darkness, I noticed the increasing cacaphony of car horns. Crowds were gathering; people were hanging from lightposts, lighting flares, and singing. I asked around and learned that FC Barcelona had just won the league title.
Two days later, I happened upon a medium-sized square in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter. The Barca team bus arrived to greet the swelling of several hundred adoring fans. The players spoke from a second-story hotel balcony. I remember Figo, and I was in awe of the adoration. (Also on that balcony: Reiziger, Rivaldo, Kluivert…)
(The team that won La Liga during my first night in Catalunya also featured Xavi Hernandez and Josep Guardiola…)
Barcelona showed me Gaudi, as I stopped traffic to take pictures of his organic living spaces. Barcelona gave me La Sagrada Familia, again by Gaudi, perhaps the most beautiful of all unfinished architectural masterpieces.
I stood in line to see Picasso’s early sketches, accompanied by a street-guitarist. I watched young boys, in school uniforms, showing and telling a disturbingly large, silver handgun, out of sight of the cops, directly beneath the towering coastal statue of Columbus/Colon.
My one awkward memory: I had learned that Barca had won the league. People were celebrating all around me that night. There were pre-made cardboard cutouts of the trophy. I saw a woman who had 4 or 5 of those trophy cutouts. I asked her for one, using body language more than words. She shook her head, “no”.
I found my own cardboard trophy on the ground, trampled and dirty, with the handles torn off. I still have it.
The first leg of Arsenal-Barcelona did not disappoint, with the Gunners stunningly coming from behind to win 2-1 three weeks ago at home in London. So the return leg today in Barcelona is even more tantalizing.
As Fabregas indicated in his first leg post-match interview, one should think of these home&away aggregate-goal fixtures as a single 180 minute match. So Arsenal lead 2-1 at “half”; do they come out and try to defend that lead for 90 minutes on the road? That is to say, will they attempt to park the proverbial bus? Many believe Wenger is philosophically incapable of doing so, and he has said this week that Arsenal won’t do so–which perhaps mean they will? It will be interesting to see the starting XIs Wenger and Guardiola will choose, the formations they deploy, and how they instruct their sides to play.
Both teams will be missing key players due to injury or suspension, requiring both managers to start players that haven’t done so most of the season. Barcelona will be without both Pique and Puyol–the solid central back partnership for not only club but also World Cup-winning country. So Barça will have a very different look in the back, which will most likely ripple into midfield. Indications are that Guardiola will move Busquets back from his usual defensive midfield position to partner with Abidal in the center of the defense, and Mascherano will get the start in the holding midfield role.
Beyond that, Barcelona’s lineup should be consist of the usual suspects, arrayed in their usual 4-3-3: the Brazilian wingbacks (Dani Alves and either Maxwell or Adriano) on either side of the center backs; Xavi and Iniesta in the heart of the midfield; Messi, Villa, and Pedro providing the attack.
Though as tactical guru Jonathan Wilson described in a column last fall, it’s not unusual that both of Barca’s wingbacks go forward to provide width in attack–especially against sides that are sitting deep in a firmly parked bus–in which cases Busquets would drop back to stay home and keep Pique/Puyol company (and hence the 4-3-3 would morph to something more like a W-W, i.e.. a 2-3-2-3).
Two points to take away from that. One: central defense is not such a foreign place for Busquets. Two, watch for if/when the wingbacks get far forward, to see if Arsenal can regain possession and counterattack into that space. That’s what Arsenal was able to do at the Emirates–most memorably on the beautiful winning goal, when Fabregas picked out Nasri behind the defense on the right wing, and Nasri waited for Arshavin to come up into the box up the right wing (running past a casually jogging Dani Alves). But it also happened in the first half, when Fabregas and Walcott got behind the defense on two separate occasions.
Indeed, Arsenal could use Walcott on the pitch tomorrow, as his speed is something Barcelona is has worried about in previous matches. Unfortunately for the Gunners, he’s out due to injury, so it will fall to Nasri, Arshavin and most likely Bendnter to make those breaks forward, with Fabregas and Wilshere feeding them from the central midfield. (Recall that in the 2nd leg of last year’s quarterfinals at the Nou Camp, Bendnter scored to put Arsenal up in the match and on aggregate–but shortly thereafter the Messi show started.) Even though Robin van Persie was a late surprise inclusion in the squad, look for him to start on the bench and come on if Arsenal find themselves down.
The battle to watch is in midfield. Arsenal is significantly without their defensive midfield stalwart Alex Song. We expect it will be Abou Diaby to start alongside young Jack Wilshere as the two in Arsenal’s 4-2-3-1 (although Zonal Marking makes a case in his match preview that Wenger might go with Denilson). If you can, simultaneously track Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi when Barcelona have possession (which should of course be most of the time), and watch for who out of Barcelona’s midfield is able to track that trinity, tackle to regain possession–and potentially start counterattacks.
El Hadji Diouf takes his greivences to the sidelines
A fifth round replay for the Scottish cup devolved into another in a long string of violent contests between Glasgow sides Celtic and Rangers. This time around it was Rangers who came off looking uglier, not only losing but having three red cards issued against (Steven Whittaker, Madjid Bougherra, El-Hadji Diouf).
After a scuffle in the tunnel during halftime, Celtic’s manager Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist, the Rangers assistant manager, also nearly came to blows and had to be separated by support staff.
Still, nothing like the good ol’ days, as this clip from the 1980 cup final between the sides reminds us. Seeing as it wasn’t necessary for mounted riot police to hold back riotous pitch invaders, we can call yesterday’s outing a success!
Saturday, March 19
May, 1999. I had just experienced three confident days on my own in Madrid. Music, museums, and majesty. The sink in my tiny bedroom was clogged, but my Spanish was up to par. Off to Barcelona!
