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FA Community Shield: Man Utd defeats Chelsea 3-1

August 9, 2010 — by Suman

"Javier Hernández puts United two up – but there is a hint of fortune about the goal, the ball skewing off Hernández's boot before striking him in the face and flying into the net" (via The Guardian)

Yesterday was the traditional pre-opener to the English season–the FA Community Shield. We watched bits and pieces off the DVR later in the day.  Personally, I was impressed by Antonio Valencia, Man U’s newly acquired Ecuadorian winger, as well as (like last season) Nani.

Some additional commentary by our man (and Chelsea supporter) Sumit:

Saw it on replay. Chelsea looked the better team in terms of ball control and movement for very long periods of time. The attack is just not there; Malouda looks his old lazy French self and Salomon still hasn’t got a f’in Kalou while the defensive communication is poor. Terry’s not fast so they need to work cover schemes with the midfielders or the wingbacks right quick before they get torn to shreds in a game that actually matters. Chelsea need some organization quickly. Glad to see the Bison back and playing, big boost there. Chelsea desperately need a quick flank player, o/w the 4-3-3 scheme is going to look a little ponderous and get caught out in a midfield tussle.

ManU didn’t impress me enough to be scared of them (famous last words). Aside from Rooney’s work rate and, oddly enough, Berbatov’s movement and touches there wasn’t much in the way of an attacking threat and the midfield was poor. I stopped really watching at the 75 minute mark.

In case you missed it, here are video highlights of Sunday’s match, via footytube:

NewsUncategorized

AC Milan v Panathinaikos? In the Pontiac Silverdome? On grass?

August 7, 2010 — by Suman

"Panathinaikos' Sotiris Ninis, front left, and AC Milan's Alexandre Pato fight for this ball in the first half at the Silverdome on Friday. (JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/DFP)"

Doesn’t it seem like every club in Europe is somewhere in the United States over these few weeks, playing warmup matches and making odd publicity appearances?  Thierry Henry scoring on Spurs yet again, but this time after “Coming to America” (really MSG?), making a memorable appearance on NY1, and taking the lovely PATH train from Manhattan to Harrison NJ; Sir Alex eating ribs while competing with a gospel choir in Kansas City; Cristian Ronaldo lecturing at UCLA (hat tip for that link to faculty member Steve Lee (although some are pushing him to try out for goalkeer on the 2014 South Korean squad–Be the Reds Steve–literally!)); and hapless Portsmouth on the pre-season tour from hell.

Live BlogNewsOpen Thread

New York Red Bulls v Manchester City – some notes

July 25, 2010 — by Suman — 4

Macoumba Kandji - clearly looking to step up

We just sat down after a full day in the city (pick up this morning in some serious heat on the Nike Fields in the LES, followed by dim sum at Ping’s (22 Mott, on the recommendation of the Singaporean who organizes the aforementioned pickup game–good call), followed by an early beer at Der Schwarze Kolner back here in the neighborhood for a friend’s birthday); just in time to see the New York Red Bulls kick off against Man City in the final game of the Barclays New York Challenge.

(Unfortunately we missed seeing Sporting Clube of Portugal play both Fri night v Man City and in the first half of today’s doubleheader in Harrison v Tottenham–of the Portuguese clubs, we’re partial to SCP, just by fact of having visited their stadium last Oct in Lisbon, and having bought a jersey at said store.)

This being only the 2nd Red Bulls game we’ve watched–after Thursday night’s game v Tottenham, we’re only starting to get familiar with their roster. We should also start getting familar with Man City’s roster, as they’ll no doubt be looking to break into the top tier of the Premier League in this upcoming season

See below for some notes on today’s game and on the rosters of the two teams.

Live BlogOpen Thread

Liveblog/Open Thread: Tottenham Hotspurs at New York Red Bulls

July 22, 2010 — by Suman — 11

"Are we really in Harrison NJ?"

They’ve just kicked off at Red Bulls Arena in Harrison, NJ.  Well, we’re not in beautiful industrial north Jersey–we haven’t left Brooklyn all day.  But we do have a CultFootball contributor on the scene–an Englishman, and a Spurs fan no less.  We’ll be getting a game report from him at some point in the near future..but in the meantime we’ll be throwing up some real-time commentary from the comfort of our couch(es).

We can’t remember a more anticipated game involving an MLS team–because tonight is Thierry Henry’s debut with the Red Bulls.  The game is being televised on both Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports Espanol..and is also being streamed on the oddly named (but rather slick-looking) video broadcaster Veetle.com.

Below the jump (of after the bump, as some prefer to say)…starting lineups and some occasional liveblogging.

News

Barclays NY Challenge: Red Bulls, Tottenham, Man City, Sporting Clube de Portugal

July 21, 2010 — by Suman — 3

It’s been 10 days since the World Cup ended, and if you’re like us, you’ve filled the days and nights watching replays of last year’s Champions League matches and episodes of “The Greatest” and “Great Rivalries” on FSC and FSE.

But here comes the Barclays New York Challenge (also on Twitter and Facebook), just in time to rescue us from this purgatory of top-flight-football-lessness.  Four matches over 3 separate days, with our very own New York Red Bulls hosting Prem Leaguers Tottenham Hotspurs and Manchester City, and Iberian powers Sporting Clube of Portugal (commonly but mistakenly called Sporting Lisbon).

The schedule is as follows (all times ET, and all matches played at the quite nice and quite new soccer-specific Red Bulls Stadium in Harrison NJ, and all games will be televised on Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Espanol, and also streamed online via some website called Veetle):

July 22 – New York Red Bulls v. Tottenham Hotspur (8pm)
July 23 – Sporting Lisbon v. Manchester City (8pm)
July 25 – Sporting Lisbon v. Tottenham Hotspur (1pm)
July 25 – New York Red Bulls v. Manchester City (3pm)

CommentaryTactics

WC2010: “The tournament of 4-2-3-1”

July 17, 2010 — by Suman — 1

"Spain have adopted the Barcelona formula, which seems to be the way club football is going"

From a Guardian Football column by one Jonathan Wilson, published just before the WC2010 final between Spain and Holland, and brought to our attention at that time by one otheradamnovy; the column is titled “The Question: What have been the tactical lessons of World Cup 2010?” and open as follows:

This has been the tournament of 4-2-3-1. The move has been apparent in club football for some time; in fact, it may be that 4-2-3-1 is beginning to be supplanted by variants of 4-3-3 at club level, but international football these days lags behind the club game, and this tournament has confirmed the trend that began to emerge at Euro 2008. Even Michael Owen seems to have noticed, which is surely the tipping point.

Click thru for more–much more: commentary on the tactics of Spain, Germany, Holland, Argentina, Ghana, and Brazil, with some notes about all that fit into the context of club football tactics over the past decade , e.g.:

News

“Mike Tyson cheers on Peterborough vs West Ham”

July 15, 2010 — by Suman — 1

"We're not in Brownsville any more..are we?"

We here at CultFootball HQ are still quite new to the footy blogosphere.  We were poking around Twitter a couple weeks ago, looking for soccer-related feeds to follow, and came across Off The Post (on Twitter here, and also on Facebook here), and we’ve since become a big fan.  Like us, they have a healthy sense of their own importance (their subhead: “The best football blog on the planet!”).

What we like is their idiosyncratic take on the sport, such as their “Top 5 [or 10] Conclusions” series.

Or news reports like this:

West Ham’s pre-season friendly at Peterborough was given some extra, erm, bite by the presence of Mike Tyson. The cash-strapped boxer was in Peterborough for a £100-a-head Evening With The Baddest Man On The Planet.

He went onto the pitch at half-time wearing a Peterborough shirt and told the crowd through a loudspeaker: “I’ve never heard of Peterborough before but as soon as I heard it was West Ham I thought, we’ve got to really give it to them.”

He obviously didn’t see much of West Ham last season!

Live BlogOpen Thread

3rd/4th Place Game, Germany v Uruguay: Liveblog/Open Thread

July 10, 2010 — by Suman — 3

World Cup 1970 3rd/4th Place Game: Uruguay v Germany (Azteca Stadium, Mexico City)

We live up to our chosen moniker–the 3rd/4th place game is quintessential Cult Football.  We will be liveblogging, and we hope you will join us in the comments!

For a preview, we can do no better than the Guardian:

It’s the most pointless match in all football. An anti-climax like no other. A non-event played out by desperately disappointed, and possibly thunderingly depressed, men who know all too well their only chance of immortailty has gone, some kidding on they still care, others failing dismally to hide their displeasure. All the same, it’s still the World Cup, this, isn’t it. And with 62 matches down, there’s only two to go, after which we’ll be done for another four years. Sniff! Panic! So let’s enjoy it while it lasts, eh?


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