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Reina Flubs It

August 15, 2010 — by Sean6


Barely a minute before the final whistle, Arsenal were gifted a goal in ludicrous fashion by up-’til-then standout Pepe Reina. The keeper was responsible for maintaing 10-men Liverpool’s advantage on more than one occasion, but his terrible mistake cost them two points. It remains to be seen what effect the draw will have over time, though you can be assured that this goal will be part of  “Worst Goals Ever” compilations for many years to come.

What else did we learn watching today’s match? Arsenal aren’t going to win the league this year. Fabregas wasn’t playing, and Van Persie only had a short run around at the end, but Arshavin turned in a muted performance, Chamakh wasn’t finding any space, Nasri wasn’t seeing any passing lanes, and the delivery from the wings was consistently lobbed to the far post with no pace on the passes. Plus, they’re a bunch of pansies.

The bright spot in attack was Vermaelen. Yes, Arsenal’s center back was their most potent offensive weapon, and not just throwing himself at set pieces—the man likes to attack with the ball at his feet. Eboué tried to keep the play moving forward quickly, but lacked the precision needed to execute his intent. That’s about it for threats from the Londoners.

Liverpool had their typical hard-nosedness about them, and played resolutely a man down. Ngog’s blast right at the opening of the second half gave them the lead (4 goals in 3 games for him), and they didn’t look about to relinquish until the aforementioned slip by their keeper.

CommentaryNews

Tottenham v Man City Starting Lineups

August 14, 2010 — by Suman1

Guardian Squad sheets: Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City

If you’re not up early (kickoff was at 7:45am ET) watching this opening game of the 2010-11 English Premier League, you’re missing a doozy.  As the inimitable Guardian liveblog put it, “a cracking start, real 200mph This Is What The Premier League Is All About™ stuff.”

We have a Spurs season preview from cradle-to-grave Tottenhamite John Lally up here, and we expect he’ll also post a match recap later today or tomorrow.  At some point we’ll also have to comment on Man City’s chances, as they’ve been more active in the transfer market than any other EPL side (having spent an astounding ~$156 million to bring in international stars David Silva (Spain), Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast), Aleksandar Kolarov (Serbia), Jerome Boateng (Germany), and just in the last 24 hours, Mario Balotelli (Italy).

That list points out the internationalization of the Premier League.  Here’s a run through the starting lineups in this morning’s match, along with the national side of each player:

Tottenham: Gomes (Brazil); Corluka (Croatia), Dawson (England), King (England), Assou-Ekotto (Cameroon); Lennon (England), Modric (Croatia), Huddlestone (England), Bale (Wales); Crouch (England), Defoe (England).

Man City: Hart (England); Richards (England), Kolo Toure (Ivory Coast), Kompany (Belgium), Kolarov (Serbia); Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast), De Jong (Netherlands), Barry (England): Wright-Phillips (England), Tevez (Argentina), Silva (Spain).

Commentary

It’s lucky for Spurs when the year ends in 1…

August 13, 2010 — by John Lally2

Or at least it used to be.  By the end of this season, it will be 20 years since Chas ‘n’ Dave wrote those lyrics.  Since then, there has been very little for Spurs fans to cheer about.  Prior to the formation of the Premier League, Tottenham were considered one of the “Big 5” clubs (along with Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton) and had a strong cup tradition.

The “Year ending in 1” superstition came from FA Cup wins in 1901, 1921, 1981 and 1991; the League in 1951; and the magic year of 1961 when Tottenham were the first club in the 20th century to win the League and Cup double.  May 2011 will see the 50th anniversary of this achievement and 20 years of mediocrity with just a couple of League Cup wins in that time.  This year brings a potential Champions’ League campaign, a tough fight in the league to cement our place in the top 4 and, with any luck, good cup runs alongside it.  However, we’ve had optimism before and Spurs fans all over will fear the worst while hoping for the best.  A Tottenham season has long been akin to a George Pelecanos scripted episode of The Wire; no matter how you feel at the beginning, you just knew that it would end with heart wrenching misery.   But no more…right?! Can we dare to hope?

Commentary

How to fix a broken Union

August 13, 2010 — by RyanPine1

After watching my beloved Philadelphia Union throw away some more points on Wednesday night against Real Salt Lake, it dawned on me that Piotr Nowak is trying to utilize a 4-2-2-2 formation.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate the setup.  It worked to devastating effect for Real Madrid last season in La Liga and had it not been for Los Blancos facing the greatest club team in the history of the world, their record points total would have been more than enough to take the title.  The biggest problem with the Union employing the same tactic is that, well, they’re not Real Madrid.  MLS players need more discipline than that particular free-flowing shape can provide.

On Wednesday, the Union lined up with Harvey, Gonzalez, Califf, and Orozco in the back.  In front of the flat four is the two holding midfielder setup we’ve utilized for nearly the entire season.  Against RSL, it was Coudet and Nakazawa.  Traditionally it’s been Miglioranzi.  In front of the two holders stood Fred and newly acquired Justin Mapp.  And in front of those two the forwards- Danny Mwanga and the two-thirds season MVP, Sebastien LeToux.  The personnel is not necessarily the problem, though I’ll address that in a bit.  The problem, as galling as the green and blue MLS paint on the side of PPL Park, is the lack of natural width.  This has been plaguing the team all season and has been further exacerbated by the untimely injury to Shea Salinas, one of the few pure wingers the team has on its books.

Commentary

Bob Bradley to Aston Villa?

August 11, 2010 — by Sean

There’s a lot of rumbling about Coach Bob heading to Birmingham to take over at Aston Villa after Martin O’Neill’s surprising departure just days before the season starts. It’s been a strong side, and O’Neill has done well during his tenure there. His leaving was as sudden as it was mysterious, though most assume he was simply fed up with the transfer pot at his disposal.

Bradley has 11/4 odds of being selected, and he was given polite backing by Sir Alex during Man U’s tour of the States. Before the Brazil matchup last night, Tim Howard thought better of criticizing the coach:

“With his style, I think he’d be accepted by all the players. It’s hard to say how he’d do, because the way things happen now with managers in Europe, and certainly England, is pretty damn crazy. But overall I think he’d be accepted. And that’s the biggest thing, is player acceptance.”

There’d be a learning curve for certain, but Bradley is a decent tactician and clearly knows how to motivate his players. He prepares well, his teams are always fit, and I think he’d make a good showing holding the reins at Villa. I say go for it, Bob!

CommentaryNewsTacticsUnited States

Tonight: USA v Brazil — em Nova Jersey

August 10, 2010 — by Suman

USA v Brasil - Aug 10, 2010 @ New Meadowlands Stadium

An exciting day here at CultFootball HQ, and more generally in the NYC metro area–if one is a soccer fan, and in particular a fan of the USMNT and/or the Seleção Brasileira, as the two national teams will be facing off this evening em Nova Jersey, i.e., in New Jersey–at the brand spanking New Meadowland Stadium.

Yours truly will be heading out soon to make the trip out to NJ for the game, and so I’d been planning to write up some sort of match preview–at the very least to acquaint myself with who’s going to be on the pitch tonight, in particular for the Brazilian team.  As has been widely reported, Brazil’s new coach Mano Menezes has chosen to bring along only 4 players who were on the squad that went to South Africa for the World Cup (Robinho, Thiago Silva, Ramires and Daniel Alves), and so the remainder of the roster will be players that most of us haven’t seen play before–though in the weeks since the WC ended, we have reported on tranfer news regarding two highly touted players that we should be seeing tonight, Ganso and Neymar.

Commentary

RedBulls v Fire: A Few Thoughts

August 9, 2010 — by Sean

Having watched a good portion of last night’s Designated Player matchup I am again reminded that while individuals can make an impact in moments, it’s the whole team that wins or loses a game. Obvious stuff, but easy to forget when the hype swirl around Henry, Marquez, Angel, Ljungberg and Castillo would have you think we were about to see these 5 guys play between themselves in some sort of Yuen Woo-ping gravity defying super-powered action.

Henry left early with a groin strain, not good but probably just being cautious. But he hadn’t done a ton before that anyway, though it’s not entirely his fault. He had poor service, and Marquez, for as calm as he was interrupting play and delivering the ball to the wings, couldn’t quite deliver a 50 yard pass to his striker’s foot. There looked to be loads of open space in the middle of the red bulls attack with no one willing to manage the area, while the Fire came forward well with their latest DP, Freddie Ljungberg.