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Commentary
What’s That Stink on Rooney?
Commentary
Remember Adebayor?
It's tough to care much about the beginning of the european footballing season. After the buzz of the world cup and the always fun transfer drama, club football's jerky starts seem less urgent. Then comes this international break, and we're only now really getting started. (By the way, Neymar and Ganso are both injured and not playing for Santos at the moment, and with Robinho gone too I have a hard time wanting to tune in.) So I went strolling around for a bit of news about this weekend's matches, and came across this little piece about Emmanuel Adebayor. The article is a couple of weeks old, and has ripened with age. Adebayor has to fight for his position at City, but he's acting like the starter's role is owed to him. He sits on the bench, not with a hunger in his eye, but with a pissy look on his face.
News
Arg – Esp Highlights
Place: Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires Teams: World Cup winners Spain & Sergio Batista's Argentina Result: a thrashing, though one Mr. Fabregas was heard to remark that it wasn't quite as bad as the 4-1 scoreline suggests: "We need to applaud them because they had four chances and scored four goals. It's true that it wasn't our best game, but neither was it a 4-1. We hit the post three times and had more chances. I think the result was too emphatic." Spain's coach, Vicente del Bosque, started the game playing a number of "fringe" players, including Alvaro Arbeloa and Nacho Monreal in defence and Pepe Reina in goal. The previously quoted Fabregas got plenty of playing time too, something he wouldn't normally see with the likes of the Barca midfield at Bosque's disposal.
Commentary
England: so great in qualifying!
Today the Lions had their way with a Swiss side usually very firm at the back, and the chests were quite pushed upward and outward. Just a quick note for now as there's lots to absorb, but we'll be back with more to say through the week and into the weekend fixtures. Dog-house one minute, top dog the next. Football’s wheel of fortune spins quickly. Wayne Rooney still has serious domestic issues to address but at least he returns home with the admiration of England’s players and supporters for a pedigree display of discipline and dynamism capped by a hugely significant goal. For Rooney, today’s newspapers will be worth reading leisurely rather than shredding instantly.
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UEFA Euro 2012 Qualifiers Begin Today
Commentary
The Magnus Effect
A new article on the physics of free kicks linked back to this gem of a piece from a 1998 issue of Physics World. The Roberto Carlos strike in question is still one of the most fantastic goals ever recorded. Head over to the Physics World site for the full article. And just to whet your whistle: The drag force, FD, on a ball increases with the square of the velocity, v, assuming that the density, r, of the ball and its cross-sectional area, A, remain unchanged: FD = CDrAv2/2. It appears, however, that the "drag coefficient", CD, also depends on the velocity of the ball. For example, if we plot the drag coefficient against Reynold's number – a non-dimensional parameter equal to rv D /μ, where D is the diameter of the ball and μ is the kinematic viscosity of the air – we find that the drag coefficient drops suddenly when the airflow at the surface