Today, the Olympic Park Legacy Committee selected West Ham United as the preferred bidder to become the new tenant of the Olympic Stadium, beating out competition from Tottenham Hotspur. This decision will have a severe negative effect on an historic London club, formed in the early 1880s - not Spurs, but Leyton Orient. The London skyline and 2012 Olympic Stadium (via BBC.co.uk) The Olympic Stadium is just a mile away from Brisbane Road, Leyton Orient's stadium, and a tenant like West Ham will have a severe impact on their ability to attract new local fans. Having been in existence since 1881, Orient have enjoyed just one season in the top flight in their history, back in 1962-3. Despite this, they have a hardcore group of fans, attracting just over 4000 fans as an average attendance, and invest in the local community and in a youth program which gives opportunities
A More Meaningful France-Brazil Match Than Today's (12 Juin 1998, Paris) There is a full slate of meaningless international friendlies today, with the European and South American powers in action in some attractive matchups (Guardian blogger Paolo Bandini, in a bit of hyperbole: "Is this the best night of friendlies ever?"). Moreover, most of those matches available for viewing here in the US (at least on ESPN3). We may peek in on France-Brazil, Argentina-Portugal, or even Denmark-England. Especially since the storyline for that latter one, at least from the English point of view, seems to be young Jack Wilshere's first start. Fabio Capello did nothing to manage expectations of a nation looking for yet another savior by mentioning "Baresi, Maldini, Raúl" when asked about Wilshere. Such expectations which have been building his performances in the early stages of the Premier and Champions Leagues last
Cheik Tioté: From the Ivory Coast to Belgium to Holland...to Newcastle Hero The much-hyped Chelsea-Liverpool game Sunday of course didn't live up to the hype (a surprising but desultory 1-0 victory for Liverpool)--but there was a bunch of exciting action over the weekend. Let's start with Arsenal visiting Newcastle. The Gunners scored 3 goals in the first ten minutes against Newcastle (Walcott 1', Djourou 3', van Persie 10'), added a 4th in the 26th minute (RVP again), and held that 4-0 lead until the 68th minute--and subsequently collapsed to end the game 4-4. Newcastle was sparked by not one but two penalties in their favor, both converted by Joey Barton--who also helped Newcastle gain a man-advantage for nearly the entire second half. Sean called it back in August: Joey Barton is a cheap thug. Barton's vicious tackle on Abou Diaby early in the 2nd half led the
YouTube is littered with overdramatic Liverpudlian tributes to Torres. To add to the buildup for today's Chelsea-Liverpool match (kicking off at Stamford Bridge at the top of the hour), here's one that is a highlight reel of El Niño when he was at the top of his game, in 2008-09--primarily Liverpool highlights, followed by a coda of Spain national team clips (set to an Akon soundtrack): Meanwhile, the teams are in, according to the Guardian's liveblog: The teams are in: The Team With Torres: Cech; Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole; Mikel; Essien, Lampard; Torres, Drogba, Anelka. Subs: Turnbull, Paulo Ferreira, David Luiz, McEachran, Sala, Malouda, Kalou. The Team Without Torres: Reina; Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Kelly; Johnson, Gerrard, Lucas, Maxi; Meireles; Kuyt. Subs: Gulacsi, Aurelio, Suarez, Jovanovic, Kyrgiakos, Ngog, Poulsen. So Suárez isn't considered ready to start despite impressing in midweek. Torres, as expected, starts for the Team With Torres. Very, very interesting to
But will King Kenny be this happy at Stamford Bridge this Sunday? A handful of viewing options for the weekend, culled from the full set of televised matches. If you have to pick just one to watch, it's got to be Chelsea-Liverpool on Sunday, with the £50m man Fernando Torres set to debut for the Blues against his former Liverpool teammates and manager Kenny Dalglish (pictured to the right, celebrating after scoring at Stamford Bridge to clinch the title for Liverpool in 1986). As usual, all times ET: Saturday, Feb 5 England, Newcastle-Arsenal or Manchester City-West Brom 10am, FSC/FSP respectively: Take your pick to see whether the two teams right behind Man U in Premier League table can keep pace. Arsenal are on 49 pts, Man City on 46, while Man U are at the top with 54 (and still undefeated, which we expect them to
A nail-biter at the Emirates yesterday left our resident Gunners enthusiast in a giddy state. If Nasri hadn't gone down (he looks unlikely for the clash with Barça mid-month), this would've been an almost perfect day for our friend from the Rockies. Arsenal snatched a win at the death, but Nasri was sacrificed to the hamstring gods. What a struggle, what a game. Facing Huddersfield at home in Sunday's 4th-round FA Cup tie, Arsenal showed that when healthy, they can field a tourney-worthy team comprised mostly of subs. Arsenal are often so pretty, but Sunday they showed that a win is a win, no matter how ugly. An aside: Arsenal really have nearly enough quality players to play 2 in every position. I honestly don't think any team in the EPL, other than ManU and Tottenham, are that deep. Okay, okay, ManCity might be the deepest... but aren't they still a work-in progress? (I think Arsenal
Javier Camuñas nets his second of the year. Javier Camuñas' toe poke after a mess of a defensive play was just enough to bring victory to the Pamplona side, who saw off Real Madrid from their lowly spot at the edge of the relegation zone. The 30 yr old Spaniard was the bright spot in attack for the team who are a full 30 points behind their opponents, and though he'll take most of the praise today it was in fact the defensive effort that gave Los Rojillos the chance at the win. Madrid were stifled at every turn, and when they did manage to work a pass through to the front, it was only to find Benzema in an offside position. Di Maria was lacklustre on the right wing, and Ronaldo tried dipping inside, as he does, but his shots were forced from 30 yards
Two semifinals gone (one actually exciting, sorry Hammers fans for that tough extra time loss) and we're on to Wembley at the end of February with Birmingham City and Arsenal for the league cup. This one's been traditionally contested by mid-table teams since it's seen as a mostly meaningless achievement, that is until they changed the format to reward the victor with a Europa League berth (previously winners would gain entry to the UEFA Cup tourney). That sort of reward would certainly drive a team like Birmingham (who have in fact won the cup once, back in 1963), but what of the Arsenal, whose manager famously remarked back in 2009, "If you win the League Cup, can you honestly say you have won a trophy?" Looks like a couple more years without any hardware have changed the man's mind, as the competition was once described by the Frenchman as "...a
