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More Old Firm Madness

March 3, 2011 — by Sean

El Hadji Diouf takes his greivences to the sidelines
A fifth round replay for the Scottish cup devolved into another in a long string of violent contests between Glasgow sides Celtic and Rangers. This time around it was Rangers who came off looking uglier, not only losing but having three red cards issued against (Steven Whittaker, Madjid Bougherra, El-Hadji Diouf). After a scuffle in the tunnel during halftime, Celtic's manager Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist, the Rangers assistant manager, also nearly came to blows and had to be separated by support staff. Still, nothing like the good ol' days, as this clip from the 1980 cup final between the sides reminds us. Seeing as it wasn't necessary for mounted riot police to hold back riotous pitch invaders, we can call yesterday's outing a success!

Commentary

Deportivo Pereira’s Owl Killer

March 2, 2011 — by Sean — 1

News out of Colombia that the mascot of Atlético Junior, an owl that lived in the rafters of the Estadio Metropolitano, has died of trauma after being kicked off the field by Pereira's Luis Moreno. Moreno, a defender with the Panamanian national side, went to remove the bird off the pitch after it had been struck by a clearance, but perhaps he shouldn't have done it with his foot. Vets say the combination of being stuck by the ball and the rough handling from Moreno were direct causes of its death. Fans are particularly peeved seeing as they'd adopted the bird as their mascot, and the defender has received numerous death threats against himself and his family back in Panama. He's attempted to make good by visiting a zoo for an owl lecture, and has promised to return to volunteer with the animals on a monthly basis.

Commentary

Chelsea Take all the Points

March 1, 2011 — by Sean

Luiz was lucky to have not picked up a second yellow
You'd have never known Chelsea were having a rough run of form with the way they turned around what looked to be a losing outing today. Statistics suggest they were producing more chances and even controlling the game, but the reality was that they were lucky to get out of the first half only a goal down. United looked bright up top, and Chicarito, preferred to Berbatov at the start, was linking well with Rooney and Nani up the left (Fletcher on the right saw almost none of the ball in the opening period). On fifteen minutes United created a wonderful chance. The little Mexican pea turned well with the ball before sliding through Chelsea's center and feeding an overlapping Evra, only for the Frenchman to play a ball just slightly in front of an

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Preview

Chelsea v Manchester United Preview

February 28, 2011 — by Sean

Chin up, Nando. Today might just be your day!
The past few seasons have seen the meeting between  Abromovich's blues and Fergie's boys in red decide the winner of the Prem. This time around the result will have similar impact, but Chelsea are fighting for different honors. Three points to the home side will lessen the gap to the league leaders (an insurmountable twelve points with a win), but more importantly victory for Chelsea means they leapfrog Spurs into fourth and a place in the Champions League. What's more, a win for Chelsea holds United at four points above the Arsenal, who would then have a game in hand. It's hard to say exactly who comes into the match with more pressure upon them: the holding champions, with their aging foundation of Terry, Cole, Lampard and Drogba, none of them having a particularly stellar season, or

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Commentary

Arsenal’s Carling Cup Failure

February 28, 2011 — by Tyler

Arsenal caught a serious case of the Blues on Sunday, for sure. I wasn't terribly surprised by the 2-1 defeat to the old boys from the second city in the Carling Cup final. Birmingham can hold down the fort when they need to. The defense is often well-organized, stubborn, and capable of scoring on set pieces; the midfield is scrappy and confident; the forward line, while less than imaginative, can obviously take advantage of the odd bounce of the ball. I'm not the first, nor the last, to praise Blues' keeper Ben Foster. He was everywhere and anywhere on Sunday, playing as if it were his last match on earth. Quite a superb solo effort by England's future number two! As for the Gunners: With Cesc and Walcott nursing minor injuries, I had hoped against hope that Rosicky would remain on the bench, that Nasri would move to the attacking,

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Commentary

Borussia Dortmund beweisen ihren Wert

February 26, 2011 — by Sean

Lukasz Piszczek shut down Ribery for large portions of the match.
As far as google translate is concerned, the post title says Dortmund have now proven their badassedness. The team came into Bayern's Allianz Arena today 13 points ahead of the Bavarians but as 4-to-1 underdogs who hadn't won a match there since 1991. After early-week comments out of the Bayern Munich's front office that defending champions would win by a minimum two goals, Dortmund's manager Jürgen Klopp told the press, "Well we've all had a long talk about it, and we've decided to travel to Bayern anyway." They more than just showed up, they took their game to Die Roten and jammed a 3-1 victory down their  throats. The game started brightly with both sides looking to establish their attack. From the outset Munich worked up their wings (as they do), with Robben on the

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CommentarySchedule

What to watch this weekend: Feb 26-27

February 25, 2011 — by Sean

Born in Germany, plays for Turkey, Nuri Sahin will be key to breaking down the Bayern defense.
Standard fare with mostly mid-level clashes across the leagues this weekend, though there are a few standouts for which you should ignore all other matches and plans. We'll keep it short and sweet (click the teams for channel info by country): Saturday, Feb 26th 12:30 pm (2pm replay on Gol TV) Bayern München vs Borussia Dortmund Bundesliga This promises to be a wide-open match. After their complete domination of Inter mid-week, and with a squad that's essentially full strength (yes first choice strikers Olic and Klose are out, but Gómez has something along the lines of 27 goals for his club this season...they're just fine as-is), Bayern will be looking to earn back a few points against the league leaders. It's unlikely they'll actually catch them, as Die Schwarzgelben

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Video

Edu Strike Puts Rangers Through

February 25, 2011 — by Sean

Lots of games happening in the Europa League tonight, but it was a sliding extra time goal from US midfielder and Rangers clutch-man Maurice Edu that has sent the boys from Glasgow through to the next round on away goals. US defender Oguchialu Onyewu was in action with Twente as well. Big guy has been getting starts and playing pretty well. Highlights of the match after the bump, along with highlights of the Villarreal - Napoli game, the pick of the litter last night. Sporting Lisbon 2 – 2 Rangers Villarreal 2 – 1 Napoli FC Twente Enschede 2-2 Rubin Kazan
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