Cult Football - Rob Kirby

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Commentary England Schedule

Matchfixing Not Yet Suspected in “Arsenal 7”

February 4, 2012 — by Rob Kirby

Arsene Wenger was allegedly seen loading briefcase after briefcase of unmarked bills into each of the Blackburn players’ cars at precisely noon today in every time zone.

The 7-1 home exhibition match between Arsenal and Blackburn in the early kickoff Saturday contained everything anyone could ask for in a match. (In that sentence, “anyone” should probably read, “any Arsenal supporter.”) If only we could play Blackburn every match. Scratch that. The first meeting this past fall was one of the lowest moments of the season. Perhaps some cosmic invoice has finally been paid. Who knows, but it really was like a give-‘em-what-they-want-type performance. We needed it. But there’s a long way to go yet before we’re exactly sitting pretty.

To backtrack, the checklist for the most enjoyable viewing experience:

Attacking play
Total Domination in Possession, and not just lame side-passes, either
Hatrick from an Arsenal striker considered one of the world’s best: Robin van Persie
First Premier League goal by Arsenal teen rising talent, subsequently doubled by said Arsenal teen rising talent: Alex Oxlade Chamberlain
Outside goal from experienced, cool-headed midfielder and solid summer transfer signing: Mikel Arteta
First Premier League goal in five years for Arsenal’s all-time highest goal scorer: Thierr–OK, the point has been made

And yet, it’s not as if the month of January didn’t happen. Or August and September at the beginning of the campaign.

Essentially Arsenal finds itself back at the beginning of the season. Granted, being on the right end of a 7-1 demolition will definitely lift spirits, but corners get turned over a period of time, a several-game arc—not just one match. I don’t think anyone’s going to let anyone off the hook quite yet. Not Wenger, not Walcott (who provided some excellent assists), not Arshavin. If wondering, Arshavin helped his cause by not playing today.

Tomorrow’s results and those of Monday will put today’s in context, to see if we did actually make up any ground with regard to Chelsea, Liverpool and/or Newcastle. We are tenuously in fifth again, but could easily be right back in seventh.

Anyhow, up next: matches in the FA Cup, Arsenal’s best chance at a trophy, as well as the two legs against AC Milan in the Champions League and then Tottenham, Liverpool and Newcastle in the league. The month span between February 11 and March 12 could go so many different directions. A return to form makes one cautiously optimistic, but the track ahead could be roller-coastery, so we’ll see how the twists turn.

But it was awesome to see, wasn’t it? Especially at home. (Meaning the home stadium, of course. Not simply the comfort of my couch.)

Excellent for Oxlade-Chamberlain. What a way to start his scoring career in the Premier League.

Final Stats

Arsenal                           Blackburn
87%        Pass Accuracy      73%
68%      Possession             32%
19            Shots                       5
8              On Target              2

Arsenal fixtures ahead:

February 11 Sunderland   v   Arsenal       Premier League
February 15 AC Milan   v   Arsenal      Champions League (Round of 16)
February 18 Sunderland/Middlesbrough   v   Arsenal      FA Cup (Round 5)
February 26 Arsenal   v   Tottenham Hotspur       Premier League
March 3 Liverpool   v   Arsenal     Premier League
March 6 Arsenal   v   AC Milan     Champions League (Round of 16)
March 12 Arsenal   v   Newcastle United       Premier League

Commentary Italy Preview transfers

AC Milan Needs to Beat the Top Teams, Stat

February 3, 2012 — by Rob Kirby

The Tevez-Pato “will he? won’t he” questions ricocheted every which way this January as the musical chairs transfers song played at AC Milan, but at the end everyone retook their own chairs. Boring. Perhaps they were dating Berlusconi’s daughter, or were on £200,000 a week slave wages that no one else could match, but whatever the reason, that anti-climax will be followed up by a busy February and early March. The Rossoneri take on first-place Juventus twice in the Coppa Italia and once in the league, Napoli and Udinese in the league, not to mention the two Champions League legs against Arsenal.

It all starts with the home match/grudge match against Napoli this Sunday at 2:30 ET (Fox Soccer).

To put the upcoming matches in perspective, Milan has not beaten any team in the top five in a league match this season, including the painful loss to Inter in the Derby della Madonnina in January. Furthermore, Napoli beat Milan 3-1 in their only other matchup this season. If Milan continues to find itself unable to beat the top teams, this upcoming run could prove very difficult and very damaging.

However, aside from the Tevez-Pato dud of inaction, Milan did bring in five reinforcements over the window to deal with the second half of the season, including striker Maxi Lopez from Catania and out-of-favor midfielder Sulley Muntari from Inter. Coming off a disappointing 2-0 loss to Lazio that could have seen them take pole position, they have everything to play for—and conversely, everything to lose.

Napoli has stuttered to a string of draws and a defeat to Genoa of late, but Cavani fired them to a 2-0 victory over Inter in the Coppa Italia last week and they could come roaring back this Sunday.

Feb 5, 9:00 ET AC Milan vs. Napoli
Feb 8, 2:45 ET AC Milan vs. Juventus
Feb 11, 12:00 ET Udinese vs. AC Milan
Feb 15, 2:45 ET AC Milan vs. Arsenal
Feb 19, 9:00 ET Cesena vs. AC Milan
Feb 21, 2:45 ET Juventus vs. AC Milan
Feb 25, 2:45 ET AC Milan vs. Juventus
Mar 3, 12:00 ET Palermo vs. AC Milan
Mar 6, 2:45 ET Arsenal vs. AC Milan

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has 15 goals in the Serie A this season. But should he get injured or need a breather during the fast-and-furious fixtures ahead, Lopez may be called into action. Alexandre Pato suffered a thigh strain last month that may see him missing out on the next 4 matches, including the home leg against Arsenal. Lopez was not top-choice at Catania, so while there is cover, it’s not of the same quality. The decision between Lopez and Tevez was never one of equals, rather of finances.

New loan signing Muntari continues his international engagements with the Ghana national team in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon and may not be back in time for the Champions League fixture against Arsenal in the San Siro, either. Muntari was brought on to help bolster a depleted midfield that has lost Mathieu Flamini, Gennaro Gattuso, Alexander Merkel and Alberto Aquilani to injury. Kevin Prince-Boateng also has spent quality time on the injury table of late.

Obviously, with talented players such as Thiago Silva, Robinho, van Bommel, Seedorf, Ambrosini and Zambrotta all hale and hearty, the team is not in crisis, but performances this month could very well determine their fates in all remaining competitions: the league, the Coppa Italia and the Champions League.

It should be getting quite interesting quite soon.

Commentary England Europe Spain transfers

The Inevitable Van Persie to Barcelona Endless Speculation Transfer Story

February 2, 2012 — by Rob Kirby

With Arsenal currently sitting 7th in the Premier League table, it’s now truly inevitable that Robin van Persie will choose a new club come summertime, barring some miracle. But because it seems so predestined, the notion doesn’t trigger anxiety levels of Fabregas-ian proportions from summers past, where you just really didn’t know what was going to happen. Even with Samir Nasri, one thought Arsenal might just take the financial hit and force the Frenchman to stick around, because surely Wenger wouldn’t let two of his three/four best players go at the last possible moment, would he?

Anyhow, just as Robin’s departure seems inevitable, so too does speculation of the destination club. Cue the inevitable stories of van Persie to Barcelona.

Van Persie currently ranks among the most in-form strikers in the world. It’s only natural that he be linked to the best clubs in the world. Money is not the motivating factor. What Robin wants is to win trophies and play with other players of his caliber. Even the most ardent Arsenal supporter will admit that van Persie is in his own league. Wilshere could get there, but certainly not while he’s out for the season.

With talk of Barcelona being the best team of this generation, obviously lazy journalists make “Van Persie to Barcelona” their go-to. They’ve already got the templates, having been through the whole business before with Henry, who left for similar reasons. And they can naturally cut-and-paste parts from the Fabregas template. (Hell, even Alex Hleb!) Despite not currently topping their own league, Barcelona is the best team is the world at present. So, even without a shred of supporting evidence, the link makes sense.

Why player, club and every onlooker might think it’s a good fit is too obvious to really go into any further.

The real question (to me) is: Would van Persie do well at Barcelona? Would he be the preferred starter?

If not, if he knows he will only provide cover for the main striker, utilized mostly as an impact sub, would he choose Barça? (Impact subs get CL winner’s medals, too…)

Van Persie comes from a system not entirely different from the Catalan way, but so did Henry, and that wasn’t exactly an unqualified success. David Villa had played with the midfield maestros on the national team, which made him less of a risk, but Ibrahimovic never had and didn’t mesh especially well, whereas Eto’o did.

Individual chemistry with the team is the unknown and unknowable but crucial factor towards determining an import striker’s success at Barcelona.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Honestly, I really don’t know how it would pan out. Van Persie would certainly kill to play with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Fabregas (again), but I find it hard to believe he’d settle for a spot on the bench.

I also find it unlikely he’d move to another club in England, so who else does it leave? AC Milan? Perhaps next year’s coach at Real Madrid can come up with a new hunter-animal analogy for him?

To be fair to both Henry and van Persie, the comparison with Henry is not entirely like-to-like. Many often cite age as a factor with Barcelona-era Henry, but Henry was only a year older than van Persie will be in the summer. (Henry turned 30 in mid-August 2007; van Persie turns 29 this August.) It really was more that Henry was not at his peak, whereas van Persie is most definitely enjoying his peak and may stay there for a few years to come. (He could even get better with excellent through-pass service, however there was no mistaking the gray hairs in Wednesday’s match against Bolton.) With Robin, it has always come down to his injury status. He’s never lacked the finish, simply the fitness.

Henry in his peak combined with the current-day Barcelona squad would have been incredible to behold. God, I wish that had happened. Except that they were all wearing the Red and White. (And except for the whingeing, whining, diving Dani Alves—Barcelona can keep him. Hmm, I just realized that if you take the “an” out of Dani and “Al” out of Alves, you’re left with “Dives.” Sounds about right.)

Commentary England

The Night Arsene Lost the Stadium

January 26, 2012 — by Rob Kirby — 1

After the 2-1 defeat to Manchester United at the Emirates on Sunday, I was emailing with a friend who has been an Arsenal season ticket holder since the ‘70s. He knows infinitely more about the team than I do, so I figured I’d let him speak in his own words. (My email comments inserted for clarity of what questions/comments he’s responding to.)

_____

Me:

Crazy outrage from the fans yesterday.

Incidentally, I really hate Piers Morgan.

http://cultfootball.com/2012/01/can-arsenal-please-disown-piers-morgan/

Response:

Last night represented a tipping point the moment that Arsene lost the stadium.

And here is the key thing, doesn’t really matter if he was right or not about taking off the Ox (i.e. the strain) the thing is that people no longer trust him. The anger and resentment at the lack of recruitment is going to boil over…

Bad times ahead, but here is the thing, due to injuries we have no idea how good we are or aren’t…

Let’s try and stay calm and judge at season’s end.

Me:

I would agree that Wenger has lost the home support. The outrage about the substitution dwarfed by far the “Spend some fucking money” episode of late Aug.

Everyone wants to blame someone. Right now the finger’s pointed at Wenger. Not surprising, as it’s been in that position for 6 months, 18 months. However, re: throwing baby out with bathwater, let’s say Wenger goes, per the collective wish. Who the fuck can attract talent to a non-Champions League side at Arsenal whose first name is not Arsene. RvP is likely off, anyhow. In my opinion, if Arsene gets sacked, it’s not even a question. Furthermore, if Wenger gets sacked, Sagna and Vermaelen seem in major doubt. I don’t mention Wilshere, Szczesny and Frimpong because of their love of the club. But look at their ages. Their only personal memories are of an Arsene Arsenal.

Arsene has made Arsenal believers believe they are pre-destined to end up in the top four. Say he’s axed (and I realize you’re not necessarily saying he should be–rather that that’s the vibe), who would do better? Perhaps a couple folks… But who would the board pay for? None of them.

If Wenger gets axed, the only way I can see it not being an utter fiasco is to surprise-hire a former star to be coach. If experience is a judge, it’s highly risky and rarely pays off. If he’s to get sacked, obviously I hope for the Cinderella story. But isn’t that exactly what has pissed people off about Wenger? He keeps saying, “We can, we can,” and then when the mioracle fails to transpire, we don’t and the fans turn on him. How much leeway would Steve Bould get? Or Tony Adams. Or Bergkamp, even, though he seems eminently happy at Ajax.

Response:

The Wenger issue is wrapped up in what the board do or don’t want the club to be.

It is clear that twice in the last five or six years the team needed a little investment and they could have pushed on. But the investment never happened. This lack of investment finally produced the inevitable when we started the season in disarray…

Now, there are only a few possible reasons for this:

1. Wenger won’t spend.

2. The board won’t back him.

3. The money isn’t there

4. Wenger has identified players and the board, which doesn’t feature a single real football man, doesn’t know how to get a deal done.

Only when you can make a call on the above can you make a call on Arsene.

My own take on it is that more 2-4 than 1, but also that Wenger is appalled by the prices and wages. He is to some extent the last sane man football, but there lies the problem, football isn’t sane…

However, changing him as manager only makes sense if you want to change the way the team operates. And why would silent Stan do that? We are very well run financially and we generate our own money… And are vaguely competitive.

So you are right, what is the point in changing wenger? He is the best man for the job. As defined by the board. And the board isn’t changing….

But, what the fans see is a Tottenham team made competitive by Scott Parker who cost peanuts. A manager who started the season with a woefully weak squad, a manager who has allowed our best player to get into the last two years of his contract without renewing. And now won’t.

A manager who puts too much faith in players who are always injured or just not good enough… Diaby, Gibbs, Denilson and Chamakh and so the anger mounts and the frustration grows and last night something broke. Mutiny is upon us. Something snapped last night and I am not sure that the return of Henry or promise of Wilshere can fix it. Wenger needs a marquee signing to lift the club’s (everyone’s) spirits and perhaps if he combined that with dropping Arshavin and Chamakh (perceived as non-tryers by the fans) and playing some of the homegrown players then he might turn it around.

But I am not holding my breath.

It’s very sad but I think this is the end of the Wenger era.. Football has changed for the worse (look at man city) and I think rightly or (almost certainly) wrongly Wenger can’t compete any more. He needs a new challenge and we need a new leader to rally round.

P.S. The irony is that if he does get this squad to fourth it will be his greatest ever achievement!

Me:

Thanks for your thoughts. I guess the primary point is that regardless of how divided Arsenal supporters are, everyone hopes for fourth. A common enemy can be powerful.

There are, of course, those who wish their team to fall on their face so that change happens, but I don’t believe in that. And frankly, I feel incredibly negatively towards that mentality. If a fan wants their own team to lose, fuck them.

Response:

Want the team to fail? Sorry but I think you are wrong on that. There isn’t a fan in the stadium who wants them to fail. Getting pissed at Wenger or the board because you don’t want them to fail is not the same as wanting them to fail..

But you have to get the context.

English football has been through seismic changes in the last two decades, partly due to the revolution on the pitch that Wenger started.

Fans (including me) are starting to feel alienated.

Twenty years ago I could arrive on match day and pay £6 on the gate to get in.. I watched mostly English players play a game we recognised as English. And we loved it. Yes we envied the Europeans their flair and sophistication, but our game was hard, fast, harem scarum and damned exciting.

Games were at 3pm on Saturday. the FA Cup meant something and you couldn’t watch matches on telly very often. Our stadium carried 70 years of history and the club felt special and unique. We felt part of something, and our songs and our chanting helped the team, or so we believed. Better still the players were accessible, they were like us, we knew them, or knew someone who knew them. They earned four times as much as us, maybe ten times as much but we all lived on the same planet. So we belonged to our club and more importantly our club beloved to us.

Now at Arsenal we sit in the modern corporate bowl that is the Emirates and we cringe at the ‘Arsenalisation’ process (adding murals etc) that for us equates (no offence) to an Americanisation. We wonder how ‘our’ club got sold to a billionaire who won’t speak to us and what happened to the promise of competing we were sold when the club decided to move.

We loved our old home, it and we meant something to us, and man, we loved Wenger, this strange unknowable Frenchman who brought Vieira, Petit, Overmars, Ljungberg and Henry. Who kept the steel and grit of The Arsenal and added unbelievable flair.

Now we sit in this wonderful, soulless edifice to the new middle-class game and pay absurd ticket prices to watch players who aren’t fit to polish the boots of the invincibles and we wonder what the deal is?

We wonder why did we leave Highbury and we still can’t compete. And to make it worse the club operate a weird system of omertà. They massage the attendance figures as if we are morons who can’t count the empty seats and they tell us the money is there but then never spend it.

They sell our best players and they buy kids to replace them and we look around and we wonder if David Dein was right?

We wonder if we should have stayed at home and looked for investment for players not seats. We wonder why Tottenham spend more money than us, and we are sick and tired of watching Wenger build half great teams and then refusing to go the extra million or two for the player that would/could/should make the difference and we want to believe….

We want to believe that Wenger still knows, that the five, six, seven year plan will bear fruit, that UEFA will enforce the Financial FairPlay rules. That we will somehow have the last laugh and then we look at our squad and we look at the oh so obvious fault lines – fault lines that we all discussed in the pub at the beginning of the season, but which the club didn’t fix and we wonder WTF, and then, well then we get mad, wouldn’t you?

We feel ripped off, sold out and lied to. We don’t trust the board, or the manager anymore and we don’t trust in the players any more either.

So to go full circle to your primary point. the Arsenal fans want to believe. But we just don’t. The support this year has been great until recently, really behind the team. But something broke last week. There was real, genuine anger. The worst I have ever heard. I heard serious anti-Wenger chants for the first time and I am not sure his haughty response in the press conference will have helped.

I think the club is at a tipping point and revolt is in the air. Fourth place might quell it. But I’m not sure.

Gonna be an interesting ride between now and the end of the season.

Africa Commentary

My Kingdom for an AFCON Group of Death

January 25, 2012 — by Rob Kirby

Without a “Group of Death,” and without 5 of the top 8 ranked African countries (Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa all failed to qualify), the opening stages of the African Cup of Nations lacks a bit in the tasty fixtures department. For perspective, Tunisia, the participating country with the fourth-highest FIFA ranking is still behind tiny Cape Verde Islands (who also did not qualify).

Far too sensibly, the four teams with the best shot at hoisting the trophy—the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal and Tunisia—each belong to a different group, so there’s no early heavyweight matchups. (Damn Pot A…) Tunisia and Morocco dueled in a North African derby of sorts on Monday, as did neighbors Mali and Guinea yesterday, but until the tournament enters the knockout stages, it’s hard to call any match a must-see event. (Tunisia and Mali both won.)

Even if something must-see does arise, it’s impossible to see any of the matches without the glitches and freezes of streaming video. Did the absences of Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa make the Cup of Nations a less appealing broadcast prospect? Presumably other factors dictated that, but one can see why a broadcaster wouldn’t break the bank for the rights to show Sudan versus Burkina Faso.

On the immediate horizon, the Ghana-Mali match on Saturday looks interesting. (John Mensah, Ghana’s lone scorer and gamewinner against Botswana, misses out due to also grabbing the lone red card. Ghana are also without Kevin Prince Boateng, who retired from international soccer, to focus on AC Milan.)

However, it all looks somewhat tame until the quarterfinals on February 4. Come February, though, there could be some excellent matchups ahead. Despite Senegal’s stumble to Zambia in their opening match, the four frontrunners will likely top their groups, and host nations historically make the quarters and semis with freakish regularity, so there could be a lot of energy pinging about. Both Equatorial Guinea and Gabon won their first matches, so they’re starting off on the right track, especially considering Equatorial Guinea is ranked 151st in the world.

(Update: Senegal lost to Equatorial Guinea, which sees them eliminated from the tournament even before the third match vs. Libya. Thanks for making me look like an ass, guys.)

I watched the Mali-Guinea match yesterday. Pretty interesting game—relaxing without being boring—and then I realized, no vuvuzelas. Ahh.
Load up your favorite stream for these upcoming fixtures:

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
11:00 ET Libya vs. Zambia Group A Estadio de Bata
2:00 ET Equatorial Guinea vs. Senegal Group A Estadio de Bata

Thursday, January 26, 2012
11:00 ET Sudan vs. Angola Group B Nuevo Estadio de Malabo
2:00 ET Ivory Coast vs. Burkina Faso Group B Nuevo Estadio de Malabo

Friday, January 27, 2012
11:00 ET Niger vs. Tunisia Group C Stade d’Angondje
2:00 ET Gabon vs. Morocco Group C Stade d’Angondje

Saturday, January 28, 2012
11:00 ET Botswana vs. Guinea Group D Stade de Franceville
2:00 ET Ghana vs. Mali Group D Stade de Franceville

Sunday, January 29, 2012
1:00 ET Equatorial Guinea vs. Zambia Group A Stade d’Angondje
1:00 ET Libya vs. Senegal Group A Estadio de Bata

Monday, January 30, 2012
1:00 ET Ivory Coast vs. Angola Group B Stade d’Angondje
1:00 ET Sudan vs. Burkina Faso Group B Estadio de Bata

Tuesday, January 31, 2012
1:00 ET Gabon vs. Tunisia Group C Stade de Franceville
1:00 ET Niger vs. Morocco Group C Stade d’Angondje

Wednesday, February 1, 2012
1:00 ET Botswana vs. Mali Group D Stade d’Angondje
1:00 ET Ghana vs. Guinea Group D Stade de Franceville

Commentary England

Can Arsenal Please Disown Piers Morgan?

January 23, 2012 — by Rob Kirby — 3

Come on everybody, channel your inner Piers Morgan. Throw your hands up in the air, aim for the hills and run with abandon. Just don’t forget to unlock your wrists, so that the sprint for the horizon seems that much more fueled by pure terror. And remember to shrill.

Wayne Rooney, his sidekick hair transplant and his nefarious Mancunian buddies traveled to the Emirates on Sunday. As everyone knows Manchester United won 8-2 in the last (cataclysmic) matchup. They won 2-1 this time. Rooney had scored six goals in his last six appearances against Arsenal in all competitions. Over the years, he scored his first Premier League goal against Arsenal, as well as his first Premier League goal for Man United, his 100th Premier League goal and his 150th goal for Man United in all competitions.

Everyone feared the big bad Roondog. But this time he let Antonio Valencia and Danny Welbeck rack up the numbers tally and run riot over centerbacks playing out of position as fullbacks.

But to listen to Piers Morgan, sports expert par excellence, the match had nothing to do with anything but a substitution at the 74 minute mark. The first hour and a quarter meant nothing, because a 74th-minute substitution made it all a foregone conclusion. At 1-1, three minutes after Robin van Persie equalized off a quality Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain assist, Arsene Wenger substituted Arshavin for the Ox. It was surprising, since Ox had been playing fantastically, but it was his first Premier League start. Tell that to the fans, though.

The crowd boo’d, van Persie shouted, “Nooooo…..!” and the crowd boo’d on. It was “Spend some fucking money” all over again, but more intense.

Shortly after, Valencia slid past Arshavin, Song and Vermaelen and crossed to Welbeck for the winner. Predictably, on Fox in the post-match, Morgan had heaps of blame to apportion.

According to Morgan, the substitution of Arshavin for Ox singlehandedly led to United winning. Furthermore, the United win means Arsenal will now definitely not nab a Champions League spot. Not qualifying for the Champions League means a loss of £30 million in TV revenue, all because of that substitution. Wenger must now be sacked.

The only true statement in that paragraph is that failing to qualify for the Champions League would mean a massive loss in revenue (though that could happen in the 4th place qualifying spot, as well).

Take a step back. United is the defending champion and is hot on the trail of City for the title. Arsenal lost 2-1 to United. Welbeck, Rooney, Nani and Valencia manoeuver past specialized fullbacks on a weekly basis. And Arshavin could have done better defensively, but does that mean that Ox would have? And anyway, the Arshavin/Ox question is really one of attack–Ox was playing a great attacking game, whereas Arshavin has not put in a great game since many moons ago, which is precisely why Ox started. When the substitution happened, no one was thinking, “Oh great, now the defense is going to fall apart.” Arshavin does not hustle enough to be a great help to the defense, but the raw teenager is hardly the lynchpin of the Arsenal defense, either.

If Arsenal fails to qualify for the Champions League, the recent draws and defeats to bottom-table teams have much more to do with it than a 2-1 loss to the defending champions and second team in the league.

As for Wenger’s job, I think Arsenal would be shooting itself in the foot, but that’s a question for another day. If Arsenal ends the season outside of the top six, let alone top four, van Persie and Wenger would be the two main selling points for any players the club might want to sign. Van Persie may be off this summer regardless, but without Wenger, that departure is a lock. So, without van Persie or Wenger, would Eden Hazard ever consider signing? Mario Goetze? No Champions League, no van Persie, no Wenger = “No chance in hell.”

Lest one forget, there were positives in the match: Ox playing out of his skin and laying off to RvP for the equalizer, Rosicky putting in the best performance I’ve seen from him in a long time, RvP getting a knee knock and walking it off instead of being out for the rest of the season…

But if we’re not going to look at the positives, let us not, at least, be swayed by the judge of “America’s Got Talent.”

Ideally, Ox would not have been substituted, especially given the assist shortly beforehand and the narrow miss, but Wenger made a choice. After the match, Wenger had to justify that Ox had started to fatigue and his calf was feeling off, after coming off an illness during the week.

“Oxlade-Chamberlain had started to fatigue, started to stretch his calf, and was not used to the intensity. He was sick during the week. Arshavin is captain of the Russia national team. I have to justify a guy of 18 who’s playing his second or third game? Let’s be serious.”

The Wenger of years past would never have had to justify the substitution. Like it or not, his stock has fallen with the Arsenal fanbase, which could lead to he and the club parting ways and Arsenal locked out of the top 4 for years to come. If that happens, will the self-aggrandizing Morgan see any connection? Of course not. He wants everyone to look at him, listen to him, follow his pointing finger to his chosen object of blame.

Any damage resulting from Wenger’s dismissal will be someone else’s fault. Or still Wenger’s fault.

In case it hasn’t come across clearly enough, I’ll just spell it out. Piers Morgan sucks. All sports commentary outlets should file a restraining order on him immediately.

Africa Commentary

The Ivory Coast’s Year, This Year?

January 22, 2012 — by Rob Kirby

The Ivory Coast won their first match of the 2012 African Cup of Nations today, a 1-0 defeat of Sudan with Didier Drogba scoring the lone goal. Shockingly, Gervinho rocketed a few over the crossbar. And he’s usually so clinical…

Curious as to their current FIFA ranking and who else might likely put up a fight against the Elephants, I looked it up. Learning that they rank 18th internationally didn’t surprise, but the fact that only 5 other African countries make up the top 50 did.

Current FIFA rankings:

18 Côte d’Ivoire
26 Ghana
32 Algeria
36 Egypt
43 Senegal
45 Nigeria

Then I looked up the past few winners of the cup. 2010, Egypt. 2008, Egypt. 2006, Egypt. 2004, Tunisia.

Egypt? For three tournaments running?

More current Ivory Coast players have played for Arsenal in the past two years than I could even name on the Egypt national team. Actually, anyone I named on the Egypt national team would be a guess–I don’t know any player for certain who is Egyptian.

(I just looked up the current team roster–I recognize nary a name. I somewhat remember Zaki for Hull City, but he’s been dropped from the most recent squad.)

Compare with the Ivory Coast: Kolo Toure (Manchester City), Yaya Toure (Manchester City), Gervinho (Arsenal), Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Salomon Kalou (Chelsea), Cheik Tiote (Newcastle United), Arthur Boka (Stuttgart), Didier Zokora (Trabzonspor), Emmanuel Eboue (Galatasaray).

The Ivory Coast didn’t light the world on fire in either the 2006 or 2010 World Cups. They failed to make it out of the group stages of either one, incidentally the only two for which they’ve ever qualified.

Do Les Éléphants choke when it really comes down to it, or will this year finally be the year? Egypt didn’t even qualify for this year’s Cup–the top spot is wide open!

(The Ivory Coast did win in 1992, to be fair.)

Cup Winners:

2010 Egypt 1-0 Ghana
2008 Egypt 1-0 Cameroon
2006 Egypt 0-0 Ivory Coast (4-2 Pens)
2004 Tunisia 2-1 Morocco
2002 Cameroon 0-0 Senegal (3-2 Pens)
2000 Cameroon 2-2 Nigeria (4-3 Pens)
1998 Egypt 2-0 South Africa
1996 South Africa 2-0 Tunisia
1994 Nigeria 2-1 Zambia
1992 Ivory Coast 0-0 Ghana (11-10 Pens)
1990 Algeria 1-0 Nigeria
1988 Cameroon 1-0 Nigeria
1986 Egypt 0-0 Cameroon (5-4 Pens)
1984 Cameroon 3-1 Nigeria
1982 Ghana 1-1 Libya (7-6 Pens)
1980 Nigeria 3-0 Algeria
1978 Ghana 2-0 Uganda
1976 Morocco (League Format)
1974 Zaire 2-0 Zambia (After Replay)
1972 Congo 3-2 Mali
1970 Sudan 1-0 Ghana
1968 RD Congo 1-0 Ghana
1965 Ghana 3-2 Tunisia
1963 Ghana 3-0 Sudan
1961 Ethiopia 4-2 Egypt
1959 Egypt 2-1 Sudan
1957 Egypt 4-0 Ethiopia

Commentary News United States

U.S. Youth System Fired

January 10, 2012 — by Rob Kirby

We’ll keep you posted. More on this at 5.

Wait, start from the beginning.

Out of seemingly nowhere, the U.S. Soccer Federation has cleared house. Today, the power that be announced U.S. U-17 coach Wilmer Cabrera will leave his post at the end of January.

The Colombian, 44, was appointed U-17 coach in 2007, and led the side into the second round at both the 2009 and 2011 World Cups. Not nearly enough, apparently.

His dismissal follows that of Thomas Rongen, coach of the U-20 team; Mike Matkovich, manager of the U-18 side; and Jim Barlow of the U-15 team.

What the French, toast?

Without other info, perhaps it stems from the appointment of former U.S. international Claudio Reyna as youth technical director of the U.S. Soccer Federation in April. If he were queen, we imagine him saying, “We are not amused.” Or perhaps it’s totally unrelated. Whatever will be, whatever was, is/will be.

That made perfect grammatical sense to me.

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