Who Will Win the Race in England? The Premier League has nearly reached its halfway point, and the title race has narrowed to five, as there is no reason to supsect any team from Bolton on down to make a serious run to the summit. The current leaders Manchester United stand two points clear and have yet to lose, but have not impressed, relying on late comebacks from both ahead and behind to draw too many matches. They have good depth and teamwork under the rule of Sir Alex, but individually there is little magic to be had. Then again, maybe Berbatov has found some, but the laconic Bulgarian is not known for his consistency. They benefit from little World Cup fatigue as only Park and Chicharito had substantial roles in South Africa. They have survived, despite the only occasional presence of Rooney, mostly due to
Yes, we couldn't resist tuning in this morning to fifa.com for their live stream of the honorable Sepp Blatter hosting Double Decision Day. But we also tuned into our twitter stream. Here's a curation of what we read in those 30 minutes: 10:28amET: "Whisper in the auditorium is England "punished" for nasty media. But it was never ours to lose (contrary to bookies' odds)" "Guess what, folks. More unconfirmed reports. Russia are believed to have won the vote for 2018. Putin's plane on standby..." "Rumores rusos. Rumores Rusos. En definitiva sólo rumores..... Confiemos, somos IBÉRICOS!!!!!" "#usa2022 #goUSAbid Here we go!" 10:32am: "Ugh Sepp Bladder loves the sound of his own voice." 10:33am: "12 years as #FIFA Prez and I think his English has gotten worse..." "Hey Scotland got a mention!" "is he getting paid by the word?" "Sepp, I can't handle the taste of bile anymore. Just announce it already." 10:34am:
Let me get something cleared up straight away, this is not sour grapes about England not winning the bid. While I think it would've been great for the country, the downside of England hosting the 2018 World Cup would have been huge - potential hooliganism and terrorism, and inevitable jingoism of how the home side would win it again "just like in '66". Good luck to Russia and their 2018 World Cup, I hope they do a fantastic job and the development of the infrastructure and stadiums helps provide jobs and an economic boom to their people. Now, Qatar 2022, that's a completely different story. Remember how their national team performed in the last World Cup? What about the one before that? Oh right, they've never been in it before. The last hosts to have not been in the tournament before? That would be 1934 Italy, who hadn't travelled to the first
Berbatov to Blackburn: "Talk to the Hand" Amid all the pre- and post-El Clasico hype, we'd be remiss not to mention that the Quiet Bulgarian, Dimitar Berbatov, scored una manita himself over the weekend, in a 7-1 thrashing of Blackburn. The NYT's Rob Hughes devoted his "On Soccer" column on Monday--titled "Through Feast of Goals, Stealthy Genius Is Revealed"--to Berbatov and his performance: Teamwork wins matches, but one man’s performance transcended all others Saturday. Dimitar Berbatov, the Bulgarian in the Manchester United lineup, scored five goals in the 7-1 demolition of Blackburn Rovers. Five goals, and I swear he spent half the match trying his best to set up a goal for his partner, Wayne Rooney. “It is good to have Wayne back,” Berbatov said after the game. “He knows how I play and I know how he plays, and we understand each other’s game well.
The Carling (i.e., League) Cup is certainly a lesser competition in England than the FA Cup, but it's hardware nonetheless. The quarterfinals just kicked off in a matter of minutes, with two matches today (West Ham-Man U & Arsenal-Wigan), and two more tomorrow (Birmingham City-Aston Villa & Ipswich Town-West Bromwich Albion). All games start at 7:45pm in England (which corresponds to 2:45pm ET). One match each day is available for viewing here in the US. Today, West Ham-Man U is on FSP, as well streaming on foxsoccer.tv. Tomorrow, the same goes Birmingham City-Aston Villa. Carling Cup Quarterfinals Tuesday 30th November Arsenal vs Wigan Athletic FC Kick-off at 19:45 at Emirates Stadium West Ham United vs Manchester United Kick-off at 19:45 at Upton Park Wednesday 1st December Birmingham City vs Aston Villa Kick-off at 19:45 at St. Andrews Ipswich Town vs West Bromwich Albion Kick-off at 19:45 at Portman Road
"What did la manita say to Mourinho?" If you didn't get to watch, nor haven't heard the news, the world did not end Monday night in Barcelona--although no doubt there are a good number of people in Madrid who would disagree, as the result was almost as surprising and devastating as the apocalypse itself. 5-0 for Barcelona. Yes, 5-0. We'll be back up in here with additional commentary. For now, we give you some video highlights (down below at the bottom), and direct you once again to read Sid Lowe (who provides the best commentary in English on La Liga, at least that we've come across). His column this morning in the Guardian is headlined "Barcelona, the 'Orgasm Team', win another epoch-defining clásico" (you'll have to read all the way to the bottom of the column for the orgasm allusion), with subhead: "It was not that
We find it useful to have full squad lists in front of us while watching a match. Find below Real Madrid's and Barcelona's, pulled from Wikipedia (with links conveniently preserved, so that you can click thru to each player's entry), as well as each team's starting XIs for today's El Clasico. Spain's Starting XI - World Cup 2010 (Casillas, Iniesta, Villa, Xavi, Puyol; Pedro, Busquets, Ramos, Xabi Alonso, Capdevila, Pique Spain obviously dominates the squads--but Barcelona's much more than Madrid's. In fact, Barcelona's starting lineup consists of the core of Spain's World Cup winning lineup (Pique, Puyol, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro Villa), with a couple wingbacks slotted in (Dani Alves certainly; and either Abidal, Maxwell or Adriano on the other side)--plus Messi front and center. The other Spanish starters start for Madrid: Iker Casillas, Xabi Alonso, Sergio Ramos. (Well, 7+3=10; the one missing Spanish starter from
The game we've all been waiting for kicks off in just over an hour (3pm ET, 9pm local time--at the Camp Nou). El derbi español, "más conocido como El Clásico"--Barcelona vs Real Madrid, which also means: Catalans vs Castilians, L'Equip Blaugrana vs Los Blancos, La Masia vs Los Galacticos, Los Cules vs Los Madridistas, regionalism vs centralism, Cryuff vs Franco, Guardiola vs Mourinho, Messi vs Ronaldo. It's no wonder that Sid Lowe saw the need to talk us down from all the El Clásico hype--before talking it up: Contrary to what you might have heard, the world will not end on Monday night. The sun will rise on Tuesday morning. And there is life beyond the clásico. It's just that right now, it doesn't feel like it -- it feels like nothing else matters, like no other games exist, like no other teams do. Every year Barcelona versus Madrid, already the biggest club game in
