Quite a half-year’s work for the Dutch holding midfielder. He’s been dropped from his national team after his latest leg-breaker against Newcastle’s Hatem Ben Arfa over the weekend, and who could forget his flying kick to Alonso in the World Cup final, or the way he broke US MNT player Stuart Holden’s leg in a friendly in the lead up to the cup.
You’d like to think he’d get his, but this sort of player never seems to be on the receiving end.
Thanks to our very own Blues supporter Sumit Sasidharan for this surprisingly fair & balanced evaluation of Chelsea’s latest victory, over London rivals Arsenal (with video highlights of the match embedded below Sumit’s comments):
No bogarting, it's puff puff pass, Jon.
That was the best match all week. Tempo, width, muscle and touch on display–exciting.
Drogba’s touch seems better than ever. I was more surprised by Gunner lack of possession by their big men; Diaby and Song failed to exert the kind of muscle that could’ve been the edge.
After reading the beebs’ and guardian reports on the game and listening to Wenger, must’ve been a different game than I was watching. It really felt pretty even. Both sides had chances and possession seemed pretty even. A. Cole’s goal should’ve made the margin 3 and Anelka’s 4.
Instead of the past two beatings, Arsenal seemed to have clawed their way to an even showing but the reality is goals decide the difference. Wenger’s been the best coach in the EPL for a long while but he’s got to stop putting kids out there. I love his approach to the game and the way his team plays but that place looks like an ER.
Blues in front by 4 points seven games in.
What does everyone think of Obi Jon Mikelobi for the newest line of Michelob?
With both media scrutiny and fan grumblings intensifying, Real Madrid needed to snap out of their early-season daze and start hammering opponents. It’s not that they haven’t been creating chances, they just haven’t been finishing. (They haven’t looked exactly dominate in their matches so far either, and have been lucky that no team has gone up on a quick counter before throwing up a rigid defense.)
That started to turn with the game against Ajax, where Mourinho was heard to remark “One day, some poor team will pay for all these chances that we have missed,” and has culminated with Real’s 6-1 demolition of Deportivo de La Coruña. Ronaldo was responsible for the first goal, joined by the cast you’d want in support: Ozil (his first for the club), Di maria, Higuain, and Ronaldo again. Yes, Ronaldo in fact supports himself. Do you doubt this?
This after a week when Jose Mourinho locked the doors on the practice facility to outsiders, and severely limited press access and interviews. A special touch from the special one, creating a “bunker mentality”, the us-against-the-world connection among his team that he’s instilled at every one of the clubs he’s managed. His only messages out of the stronghold have been in support of his players, serving to boost their confidence while giving them some breathing room away from the Spanish media’s intense eye.
Real Madrid are now sitting in third place, above Barça, with no losses and a +10 in the goals column. An easy opponent seems just what they needed to find their flow. Will they be able to continue the trajectory against mid-table side Malaga?
From our man beneath the Southern Cross comes the skinny on the impetuous Brazilian phenom Neymar and the storm he’s kick up around him. Plus, World Cup 2014 plans with a sinister undercurrent? Big thanks to Mark Gannon for keeping us all in the loop.
Step back, for I am Neymar.
In the game against Atlético Goianiense in Goiás on Wednesday of last week, the coach of Santos, Dorival Júnior, wanted a different player to take a PK. Neymar had a fit, cursed out the coach, and supposedly continued his tantrum in the locker room.
Dorival did not put Neymar on the list of players for Santos’s next game, against Guarani over the weekend. But then when he refused to put Neymar on the list for yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) game against Corinthians, he was fired.
Mano decided to leave Neymar off the seleção for the two upcoming as-yet-unspecified friendlies in Europe, but made it clear that when Neymar starts getting attention for the way he plays instead of other things, he’ll be back. Mano said Neymar’s return depends only on Neymar.
It was reported that Neymar didn’t speak during a Santos practice today (after Mano’s latest list was released), and was consoled by a teammate after the other players had left.
Just to add a little extra spice, Andres Sanches, the president of Corinthians, suggested that São Paulo FC was somehow involved in Dorival’s removal, because SPFC wanted to hire Dorival. I’m not sure what SPFC could do to force the ouster of a coach at Santos, but this should generate some interesting talk. It’s a shame I missed the lunchtime soccer discussion show on TV BAND and the late-lunchtime sports show on Globo today.
It’s interesting to me that Andres dislikes SPFC so much. The traditional arch-rival of Corinthians has been Palmeiras, but Andres seems to have some kind of “thing” with São Paulo. He was involved in making sure SPFC’s stadium wouldn’t be used for the World Cup, especially the opening ceremonies. The last I heard is that Palmeiras’s new stadium, on which construction has just begun, will be one World Cup venue and Corinthians’s new stadium, on which construction has not yet even started, will be another.
There has been talk about changing the Corinthians stadium (“o Fielzão”) to give it enough seats to host the opening ceremony. I’m not sure where the CBF currently says it intends to have the opening ceremony. It might end up being somewhere other than São Paulo, which would be a shame. I’m still not in favor of holding the final in the Maracanã, but I don’t think any other stadium was even really considered. I’ll be willing to let it slide if one condition is met: if Brazil is not champ in 2014 with the final in Rio, no carioca can ever again be in the CBF.
The Carling Cup is traditionally a time when managers run out a few reserve players they feel might just be on the cusp of first-team action. This week was no different, and of the limited amount of games we saw, there were a few significant standouts. Jack Wilshere for Arsenal should be no surprise, as the 18 yr-old has played more than a few minutes of league action this season already. And admittedly, we were psyched to see Man United’s Portuguese signing Bebe sent on with 16 minutes left in the match. The 20 yr-old mostly ran around chasing the ball all over the pitch at first, then seemed to settle a little. He’s big, fast, and not shy about uncorking a shot from the corner of the box.
Now lets focus on the most exciting game of the round, without actually talking about the game. Chelsea sent out 20 yr-old Patrick van Aanholt in left back against Newcastle, and the pacy Dutchman quickly got on the scoresheet. More impressively, he set up Anelka’s first goal as Chelsea pressed late in the second half. Van Aanholt simply passed to himself up the wing, then ran forward with some impressive speed to send a really smart cross to Anelka arriving in the box.
The Blues also put 17 yr-old, Oxford-born Joshua McEachran into the center midfield position in the second half. Either by way of composure beyond his years, or the impetuousness of youth, the kid was consistently on the ball, making defenders miss and sending intelligent balls forward. 17 years old! He is very slight though, and I can’t imagine him being thrown on in a serious match until he gains some muscle on that tiny frame.
Chelsea fans may say, well what about this Daniel Sturridge everyone is talking about? He looked greedy, and not in an “I’m a striker and I shoot” sort of fashion. He had a couple of opportunities to send a ball across the box to well-positioned teammates, but decided instead to fire at goal from a tight angle. Unimpressive. Granted, I only watched him while Chelsea were playing with 10 men, so I shouldn’t judge him harshly on his movement, but he didn’t seem to be finding the space he needed to make anything happen.
At the very end of a pretty entertaining match between Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona, Czech defender Tomáš Ujfaluši came in late on everyone’s favorite player Lionel Messi, and stomped on his ankle something awful. Messi went down in agony and held his hands over his face, crying as he was stretchered off the field. Fortunately for fans of the beautiful game, there is no break or dislocation, and the little peanut should be back in about 10 days.
From the live-action shot it looked intentional. Ujfaluši came in very late and from the angle it seemed as if he came down on Messi’s foot. Upon further inspection it looks like a real ankle breaker. The big man did issue an apology:
“I’m sorry. I would like to publicly apologize, because, honestly, it wasn’t my intention. I tried to go for the ball, but naturally, with the speed he had, he also could not stop and I was unlucky as my foot stepped on his ankle.”
Messi had, of course, been running around the pitch as he pleased before this. The first half was standard Barça—they controlled the ball 70% of the time (actual stat!), and whenever they lost it they seemed to win it back immediately.
The second half was more even, with Atletico clearly trying to wedge themselves back into the flow. They’d never wrest control though, not with Forlan gone missing, and Simão and Kun similarly nonexistent up front. Mainly they played more aggressively (ahem) and pulled off a number of dangerous set pieces before the crushing tackle on la pulga put them to ten men.
It ended 2-1 in favor of the away side, but it really could’ve been more with the chances Barça manufactured. Pep thinks so too, and more:
We are happy with the Atletico win and it could have finished 5-1 with the number of chances we had,” said Guardiola. “However, we are sad about the Messi incident. It is not only Cristiano Ronaldo (of Real Madrid) who needs protecting. The referees should protect all the players.
You know you like saying the name Dimitar Berbatov. Say it out loud and experience that staccato sing-song quality of Eastern Bloc phonetics. Like his name, the man is deceptively smooth, though his subtlety of movement and quality on the pitch haven’t quite shone through since his transfer from north London side Spurs. The Manchester fans haven’t exactly been the most supportive of his play, but the one man who matters, his manager, has kept the faith and now everyone is feeling the payoff.
The Bulgarian hit-man netted not once, not twice, but thrice in United’s 3-2 victory over Liverpool, scoring three quality goals with his second bound to be in the top goals of the season (a bicycle kick that nestled into the corner of the net as Reina stood and watched).
The game itself was mostly boring until the second half (only because United were so dominant in the first 45 mins), when it did look like Liverpool might walk away with at least a draw. The Reds picked up the pace and Torres seemed to be finding his so-far-missing stride. Play opened up and the game became stretched. It was gripping for a good 30 minutes there. Then Berbatov headed home his third, and set himself up for a standing ovation for scoring the first hat trick in the tie in some 60-odd years.
Berbatov is often described by commentators as laconic. He does indeed create much though seemingly doing very little. He’s an athlete who makes it look easy, the sort of player who seems like he has more time to work with the ball than the other players around him. Sir Alex has described the man as having a “touch of genius“, and it’s nice to see him finally putting all the pieces together in his new home.
If you haven’t heard, the gunners haven’t won a cup for a few years now and the team and its supporters are restless. Their lack of hardware has been generally chalked up to their youth and inexperience – they may be fun to watch, but in the grind-it-out fixtures they’ve been beaten into submission. Beyond their lack of physicality, I’ve always though they’ve missed that key bit of luck that sees top sides through to championships.
I honestly thought Fabregas’ opening goal was a sign that their fortune was about to change. His goal, which rebounded off his foot and into the net from a preposterous distance, seemed like just the thing that would break the back of a stubborn Sunderland side. Of course, Fabregas would soon go off with a hamstring injury aggravated by his goal-scoring motion, Alex Song would pick up a soft first yellow and was later ejected from the game, Rosický would miss a PK, and Darren Bent would score in the 95th minute to undo what would’ve been a great win against a Sunderland team that has caused Arsenal to drop points in their last few campaigns.
What has last weekend brought them then? Their injury list expands, they miss out on two points while Chelsea and United plowed through with the full haul, and they start playing twice a week what with the Carling Cup and the Champions League. It’s still early in the season of course, but have they already bled their shallow pool of luck?
