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Premier League Preview for the Chilean Miners

October 14, 2010 — by John Lally — 1

David Villa signed jerseys going down the shaft.

On August 5th, 2010, 33 Chilean miners got stuck in a mine and were down there for 69 days. While their story has been covered in depth, one aspect has not been mentioned anywhere else…Chile is a nation of football fans and these 33 guys have completely missed the first seven matches of the Premier League season. Just for them, here’s a look at the weekend’s fixtures with a Chilean Miner’s view (i.e. what you would have expected had you not seen anything in the last 69 days) weighed up against how the rest of us see the games.

Arsenal v Birmingham

Miners’ View: Arsenal too strong at the Emirates and won’t have any trouble dispatching with a middle of the table team.

Rest of us: Having slipped up at home to West Brom, followed by a loss away at Chelsea, Arsenal will be intent on not suffering three straight league defeats.  Birmingham have not started well, however, and lost at home to Everton last time out.

Prediction: Miners will prove to be right and that West Brom game will (unfortunately) be a minor blip on Arsenal’s otherwise formidable home form.

Bolton v Stoke

Miners’ View: Bolton tough to beat at home, Stoke not so good away from the Britannia.  Likely to be a narrow home win.

Rest of us:  Bolton have played three home league games so far, and drawn all of them.  Stoke started poorly, but have won 4 and drawn 1 of their last 5.

Prediction: An inevitable, scrappy, bore draw: 0-0. A game so dull that you’d almost consider going back in the mine rather than sit through it. Almost.

Fulham v Tottenham

Miners’ View: Fulham always good at home, Tottenham now resilient away from home under ‘Arry. A must watch game (even Chileans love Tottenham, in my world view at least)

Rest of us: Van der Vaart has shown he can win any match almost single-handedly, but the rest of the team might be distracted with a trip to the San Siro in midweek to look forward to.  Fulham are actually unbeaten thus far this season, but have also only won once.

Prediction: I can’t decide who will win but I feel confident the score line will be 2-1 to somebody.

Man United v West Brom

Miners’ View:  West Brom will be cannon fodder for United and will not put up much of a fight in an away game at one of the top four teams.  Coule be the sort of game where Rooney is rested, with Berbatov given the chance to impress.

Rest of us: Man Utd’s strike force has been the complete opposite of what you would have expected. Berbatov back to looking more like his old self from his Tottenham days, Rooney struggling with “injuries” and personal issues. West Brom won at Arsenal in their last away game and are level with the team from Woolwich and Spurs for fourth place.

Prediction: United to win, but in a close game.

Commentary

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Yankees

October 6, 2010 — by John Lally — 1

John Lally's triumphant return to White Hart Lane.

“Why are we watching this again?” was the perfectly valid question my wife posed to me half way through Four Days in October, ESPN’s documentary about the Red Sox improbable come back in the 2004 ALCS.  Why, indeed, would two big Yankees fans be watching this again? It was my fault. “It’s the Tottenham fan in me that has to watch it” was my only defence.  To me, it made sense.

The fact that I’m a Yankees fan, who’s not from New York, is something that always had bothered me to some degree.  I felt akin to the legions of Manchester United fans there are across the globe, glory hunters attracted to the name and the success, but once you have your team, it’s your team.  I started following baseball with the 1996 World Series, so I didn’t have a choice of 30 teams, I had 2: Atlanta Braves or the New York Yankees.   New York, the city, had always been of interest to me, so I was drawn to them. Futhermore they were the underdogs – the Braves were the reigning World Series Champions, the Yankees hadn’t won since 1978.  A team with great history that hadn’t won anything of significance in my lifetime? Sounds like my kind of team – so I sided with the Yankees.  Of course, they won – which was great. And then again 2 years later, and in 1999, and in 2000.  It started to feel a little easy: baseball – a game where they play 162 regular season games and then the Yankees win the World Series.

I paid my dues as a fan over those first years – watching games that started at 1am in the UK and finished as dawn was breaking. Trips I made to New York incorporated when possible a trip to the Stadium for a game and I considered myself to be a “proper” fan.  Once I moved to New York, I was able to watch most the games at a reasonable hour and go to them much more regularly.  Less than 2 months after I started dating my wife, we went to our first game together and have continued to share our Yankees fandom together ever since.  However, the rivalry with the Red Sox was a sore point to me, as Boston was the team most similar to Tottenham.  Both teams were constantly beaten by their hated rivals.  Year after year, no matter how good their chances seemed, something would happen to perpetuate the underachievement.  Maybe the lack of success had lasted longer for Red Sox fans, but when you’re born in 1981 it doesn’t really make too much difference if your last title was in 1961 or 1918, it was history. Even sportswriter and Red Sox fanatic Bill Simmons saw the alliance and picked Tottenham as his Premiership team back in 2006

Commentary

Nigel de Jong: Hatchet Man

October 5, 2010 — by Sean — 4

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.

Link to the Ben Arfa video here, and the other mentions embedded below.

CommentaryVideo

Chelsea Power Through, Defeat Arsenal

October 4, 2010 — by Sean — 2

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?

Video highlights courtesty of Fox Soccer Video Central:

CommentaryNews

Real Madrid Find Top Gear Against Easy Foe

October 4, 2010 — by Sean

Squeezing the breasts of god himself — CR7

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?

AfricaCommentary

Players of African Origin: Chelsea v Arsenal

October 3, 2010 — by Suman — 2

African power: Drogba spreads his wings

We here at CultFootball have been kicking around the idea of doing a series of post focusing on African football: its players, its nations, its history, its future.

For a quick start, note that today’s highly anticipated Premier League clash between Arsenal and Chelsea will prominently feature a number of African players:

Chelsea

Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast) and Michael Essien (Ghana) are among Chelsea’s stars, and keys to their success; John Miel Obi (Nigeria) is also starting today, while Salomon Kalou (also Ivory Coast) may come off the bench.

Arsenal

Arsenal’s Bacary Song and Abou Diaby are both of French nationality, but are of Senegalese and Ivorian descent, respectively. Emmanuel Eboué is also Ivorian, while Alex Song is Cameroonian. Both Samir Nasri and Marouane Chamakh were born in France but of North African descent (Algerian and Moroccan, respectively)–Nasri has chosen to play the French national team, while Chamakh opted for Morocco.

Commentary

Arsenal v Chelsea – probable starting lineups

October 2, 2010 — by Suman — 2

Via the Guardian, see below a diagram with probable starting lineups for tomorrow’s big Premier League match, Arsenal visiting Chelsea (11am ET on FSC).  We find it’s very useful to have this in front of us while watching a match, as well as the Current Squad sections of the Wikipedia entries for Chelsea & Arsenal (in particular since they link through to the Wikipedia entry for each individual player)

CommentaryNewsSchedule

What to Watch This Weekend (Oct 2-3)

October 2, 2010 — by Suman

We’re back with our weekly guide to Sat/Sun footy TV action (here in the US).  Here’s what catches our collective eye–again culled from SoccerInsider’s full TV listing, with some notes from various members of the CultFootball team:

Saturday Oct 2

England, Sunderland-Manchester United 10 a.m. ESPN2: Another former Man U player now managing and probably hoping to replace Sir Alex one day.  Plus Ghanaian striker Asamoah “Baby Jet” Gyan partnering with Darren Bent up front for Sunderland, and a good northeast crowd

England, Spurs-Aston Villa 10 a.m. FSC: Uncle ‘Arry brings flair to White Hart Lane–most recently with the big win Wednesday in Champions League action–while Gerard Houllier tries to keep last season’s thriller team in it. Gareth Bale really turning it on this season for Spurs–and Dutch import Rafael van der Vaart playing all over the field, and doing it well

England, Birmingham-Everton noon FSC: Everton still looking for their first win (with USMNT stalwart Tim Howard in goal), and Birm looking to win another against Merseyside

Brazil, Botafogo-Flamengo 6 p.m. GolTV: Just for a look at some Brazilian club ball

Sunday Oct 3

But really Saturday is just prelude to Sunday, when we get the first really big match of the season:

England, Chelsea-Arsenal 11 a.m. FSC: Both teams coming off disappointing losses in their previous Premier League games last weekend (see here), but both bounced back with wins mid-week in the Champions League.  This London rivaly will have an impact on the table, and it’s one that a long and storied history–see the Guardian’s “Joy of Six” feature, this week about six classic Chelsea-Arsenal matches.

For good measure, we’ll throw in a handful of add’l  Sunday matches–from Spain, Italy, Mexico and the MLS:

Spain, Real Madrid-Coruna 3 p.m. ESPN2, ESPN Deportes: Will Madrid–and in particular Cristiano Ronaldo–break out of the funk?

Italy, Inter Milan-Juventus 2:30 p.m. FSC: Even if Juve have struggled since the match-fixing (they have) this is still a first-class, traditional Serie A fixture

Italy, Napoli-Roma 9 a.m. FSC: Another big meeting of the Derby del Sol (though a bigger meeting in the 70s and 80s), with Roma is trying to get out of the bottom of the table while Napoli challenges for a champions league spot

Mexico, Cruz Azul-America 6 p.m. ESPN Deportes: A longtime rivalry between two Mexico City clubs–a derby known as Clásico Joven

MLS, Chivas USA-Los Angeles 8 p.m. ESPN2: a clash of local rivals, probably the biggest rivalry in the MLS

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