Another fantastic match between two teams near the top of the table Thursday at White Hart Lane–Spurs hosting crosstown nemeses Chelsea.
Gareth Bale gets wide for Spurs vs Chelsea
First from Sean, written in real-time during the first half:
What a low camera angle at the Lane. Used to seeing the camera a little higher in the stands for more of a top down look – I think this may have been a switch over the last decade or so in camera placement, where english clubs used to have more ground-level camera placement, while league like serie a have had higher placement. THe later was useful when coming up as our coaches would show us those games to watch the tactical formations. This low-to-the-ground look make sit harder to appreciate the shift of all players across the ptich.
Spurs have come out flying, dominating the first 5 minutes and setting up in chelsea’s half. A loose pass gives them a touch for the first time it seems but that didn’t last very long. Always a problem with this sort of domination against a team with drogba up front — counter attack very possible with the slightest complacence on spurs part….and as I wrote that Bale motors up the left and adebayor touches in the cross bravely. At this point my 3-1 prediction seems a little conservative.
Kyle Walker is a mystery to me, how has he done this season? Is he in for King? He had one good run up the right but otherwise I’m not sure what his deal is. Oh there is he rushing up the ptich and barging into Cole at the 36′. Doesn’t look like Cole has done much except handle the ball into a position to cross for that goal, and can’t blame Walker for that, so credit to him so far.
Tuned out for a second while I talked to the father in law about who everyone is on the pitch. and in that time Chelsea have leveled, and missed a great chance to go ahead. Spurs have taken their foot off the pedal, but considering Bosingwa is not in centerback I imagine they’ll get back on the attack soonish.
Oof and another sub needed from a muscle pull on the Chelsea side.
Got to get off for now… might return for second half action!
Coach Larry sent along some of his thoughts post-game:
Thought it was a good game, but the 1st was better than the 2nd. felt far more even to me. you feel Spurs had run of play, but at one point, ESPN showed Chelsea ahead in “chances” (whatever the hell that means) by something like 14-3. Spurs had way more possession early, but Chelsea settled in, especially once Ferreira came in and did pretty well with Bale, as pointed by Zonal Marking (i think).
Lally’s line about Spurs being both lucky and unlucky sums it pretty well. Considering Chelsea’s goal, the ball clearly struck Cole’s arm and bounced perfectly for him to run into space. Was it intentional? No way. Should it have been whistled? I think so. My recollection (I’m too lazy to look this up) is an INTENTIONAL hand ball is cardable offense, while an INADVERTANT one is a foul when it provides an advantage. Ball strikes your arm when it’s right in front of your body? who cares, it would have hit your body anyway. Ball ricochets off your arm, straight into your path, behind the other team’s defense? Foul.
JT of course had a fine match as he does when everyone feels he should be in jail. Taking off VdV really discombobulated Spurs, as they seemed far less dangerous with fewer midfielders. Still love wathcing Adebayor play, especially his clumsy fouling which would have had many other players sent off. Chelsea cleared nearly every corner with a header just in front of the near post.
While it’s still up, this 20min highlight clip is well worth watching:
Update: See also our friend & lifelong Spurs fan John’s PoliticalFootballs post on the midweek matches and a look ahead at the Boxing Day fixtures. Here’s what he had to say about his team drawing Chelsea at home (which gives you some context to Larry’s great line above):
In similar news [to the Suarez-Evra controversy], John Terry found out he was going to face criminal charges over his alleged racist abuse of Anton Ferdinand in Chelsea’s match with QPR in October – his teammates did not wear t-shirts in support of their captain, but he did put in a fantastic defensive performance in his side’s 1-1 draw away at Tottenham. Spurs had dominated the opening exchanges in that game and were deservedly 1-0 ahead after Bale’s great work on the left-wing set up Adebayor for the opening goal – but their defence went to sleep for Sturridge’s equaliser and the second half was dominated by the away team. Both teams had excellent chances to win it – Ramires had a free header six yards out for Chelsea, but (thankfully) directed it wide of Friedel’s goal – and in the end the draw ensured Tottenham are London’s top club at Christmas for the first time since the city was called Londinium and being sacked by Queen Boudica and the Iceni.
A big game–especially in the world of CultFootball, which seems to be heavily populated by Gunners fans–took place this past Sunday in Manchester. Arsenal visited Etihad Stadium to take on the league-leading, Qatari-funded, completely stacked Manchester City. The result was a tense but exciting match, which ended 1-0 for City.
Some commentary from one of the CultFootball head honchos:
City deserved the win, though Arsenal had their chances and maybe the game would’ve tipped if Arsenal had scored first or at all. I wanted Arshavin in earlier after Walcott did nothing in the first half, only to wish the Russian had stayed at Zenit to begin with. Arsenal just don’t have any game-changers they can bring off the bench (though maybe they should’ve tried the Ox) [i.e., Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain]
The difference for Man City, not surprisingly, was a slight Spanish man named David Silva, who scored the goal in the 53rd minute (Alhough a great deal of credit also goes to “the flamboyant Italian” Mario Balotelli, who created the chance by running into acres of space on the right flank, taking the wide pass (can’t tell who provided it from midfield), squaring up Alex Song on the end of the box near the touchline–and then bursting back and in, creating just enough space to take a hard low shot that was just too difficult for Szecesny to handle–Kun Aguero got a head on the rebound, which fell to David Silva, who did well to half-volley into the open goal.)
Take a look at the highlights–not only the goal, but also two sitters that Man City flubbed (an early one by Kun Aguero, a late one when former Arsenal star Samir Nasri mishit an easy square cross just out of reach of both Balotelli and Silva); a fantastic play by Balotelli to bring down a high ball in between two Arsenal defenders while falling down and turning to get a good shot off; and Arsenal’s late chance to equalize via a curling shot by Thomas Vermalaen that Joe Hart did well to tip over the bar:
You don’t see it in the highlights, but we saw it during the telecast–a banner up in the Etihad stands emblazened with the words “Silva es magico.” Even though we’re more Gunners fans, we can’t dislike Silva. He’s a beautiful player to watch–perhaps the quintessential example of the attacking, creative midfielder who plays “in between the lines”: who drops back into midfield to pick up the ball, who provides the pass to “unlock” the opposing defense, and who often moves up into the box to score himself.
Silva is another example–as if there weren’t enough already of La Liga stock–of what the Spanish call the ‘media punta‘. This is an interesting term, which translates non-literally to the English concept of the man ‘in the hole’, or the one who plays behind the striker. This player has also been called the ‘false number 9’ but that epithet gives the (false) impression that the player is nevertheless a striker. The media punta is nothing of the sort in Spain, and there is a whole doctoral thesis waiting to be written on this one. Perhaps, in years to come, someone will look back and realise that this present period in Spain was a golden age of this type of player, and that such a proliferation of talent in this position is unlikely to ever re-occur.
In fact, Silva is a player who would (have) fit right into a Wenger squad. Indeed, 5 years ago he (and/or another Spanish media punta who recently moved from Valencia to England–Juan Mata) probably would’ve ended up in north London instead of east Manchester (and west London, respectively). Just as yet another Spanish media punta moved from La Masia to Arsenal back in 2004–Cesc being the previous great media punta in England. Of course, now he’s back in Barcelona, who have he’s perhaps only the 3rd best player who plays that sort of position–behind Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi, who just happened to be 2 of the 3 nominees for last year’s Balon d’Or (the 3rd being of course Barcelona midfielder Xavi, who plays a little deeper, scores less).
More from that Phil Ball column, specifically about Silva:
Who knew there’s a full slate of games in the Premier League, Serie A, Ligue 1, Spain (Copa del Rey)? Though to tell the truth, not a whole lot of must-see TV today. Actually the one match today that we will try to watch just kicked off, so this will have to be a very quick post:
Udinese-Juventus at Stadio Communale Friuli (12pmET, Fox Soccer Channel, RAI Internazionale, ESPN3 USA, FOX Deportes): 3rd vs 2nd – Udinese with 31 points, two behind Juve, who are in turn a point behind table-toppers Milan. Neither team was really expected to be competing for the Scudetto, but here they are. Udinese had a great season last year, but sold off three of their best players (Alexis Sanchez, Gokhan Inler, and a defender whose name escapes me right now). They failed to get past Arsenal in Champions League qualifying, but that may have been a blessing in disguise, as they’ve been able to concentrate on the domestic league.
Juventus is perhaps even more surprising–still undefeated in the league (9W 6D 0L). We finally got to watch Juve play (thanks to the fact we flew cross-country on JetBlue, and so were captive with GolTV for 10 hours), specifically the rather dramatic Coppa Italia match they played against Bologna. Players to watch on Juve: holding midfielder and Milan transplant Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio, Paraguayan Marcelo Estigarribia, ageless trequartistaAlessandro del Piero; we also like to see Dutchman Eljero Elia, whose been somewhat lost in the shuffle since coming over from Hamburg in August.
Fulham-Manchester United at Craven Cottage (3pmET, Fox Soccer Channel, FOX Deportes): Fulham has had success against MU at home: 2 wins and a draw in the past 3 seasons, according to the honorable Barry Glendenning (“purveyor of ‘lazy journalism’ and ‘anti-[insert name of your favourite team here]’ bias”) on this past Monday’s Guardian Football Weekly pod. Although he doesn’t rate them to repeat that success today. Raphael Honigstein, on the other hand, said he thinks Fulham could very well earn a point from this match, and cites two players to watch: Costa Rican attacking midfielder Bryan Ruiz, who arrived from FC Twente over the summer, and seems like he’s only now adjusting and fitting in; and Belgian striker Moussa Dembele, who also came over after success in the Eredivisie, with AZ Alkmaar, the previous summer. We wrote at the time that perhaps Fulham might have to choose between playing him and American Clint Dempsey–but they combined rather well last year, and from what we saw in their draw versus Liverpool a couple weeks ago, Bryan Ruiz is starting to combine well with the two of them.
Remember how yesterday we wrote about our friend that we’re aiming to initiate into the cult of football? (No? Read this real quick.)
Well, we emailed that link to him–not only did he read the post, when we asked if he clicked through and read the three links we posted (one each for Messi, Balotelli, Dempsey) he replied via email (and gave us permission to blockquote):
i just read them all.
i definitely like your cross-section.
i had no idea messi is only 22 … looks and plays like a wise old owl. as you predicted, i instantly fell for the dempsey story of a gifted (texan?) american cutting his teeth until finding success in the premiere league. as for the italian/african UPPERCASE!! phenom from grantland, all i can say is awesome. i cant wait for his highlights to live up to his hype.
awesome post.
You can tell the guy knows sports, and sounds like he’s up for our little project. This will be fun.
I promised him a YouTube clip in this post. I’ll do one better and offer up two
The 1st is a compilation of highlights from Mario’s short stint at Inter Milan (2007-2010, i.e., when he was 17-20 years old); that one is titled, oddly, “|►|Mario Balotelli-The Indisciplinate boy” (something lost in translation from Italian perhaps?). The 2nd is from his current tenure at Manchester City (Aug 2010 – ), titled “Mario Balotelli | The good, bad and funny | 2010/2011”:
We’ve got a good friend who’s a big sports fan, but mostly of the traditional American variety: primarily basketball and football, both college and pro.
We asked him if he’d ever thought about watching some soccer, and he said what it would take would be a compelling player for him to follow.
Which obviously got us thinking which one(s) we’re going to pick for him to watch.
Here are our preliminary picks–one obvious choice, one a bit less so, and one American:
1) Lionel Messi
2) Mario Balotelli
3) Clint Dempsey (Not only is our friend American, but he’s got an affinity for Texas–the teams he follows most closely are the Dallas Cowboys and UT football. Also the Lakers.)
We’ll be back with a followup post giving some context as to why these three, including some links to background articles and YouTube clips–not least for the friend in question. But we also welcome additional suggestions and/or feedback on these choices. Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.
Sunday [December 4] morning marked the passing of Socrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, better known simply as Socrates. The Brazilian midfielder was 57. He is survived by his wife and six sons.
Brazilian midfielder Socrates, seen during the 1982 World Cup. (European Pressphoto Agency)Sometimes greatness is measured through intangibles like leadership and personality, sometimes it is gauged through empirical achievement, like statistics and championships. Sometimes it’s a combination of all those things. But Socrates stood on an even higher plane: Soccer will probably never again produce anyone like him.The 1982 Brazilian team that he captained was perhaps the greatest never to win the World Cup (along with Hungary in 1954 and Holland in 1974). It was also one of the last Brazil teams to fully embody the romantic stereotype that comes to mind when we think of the green-and-gold. Sublime touches, languid pace, creativity … the sheer joy of what they call “jogo bonito,” or the beautiful game. Zico was probably the best player on that Brazil side, but Socrates was its philosophy made flesh.
In searching for more on Socrates and the CDM, we came to a more academic discussion of it–an article from the Spring 1989 issue of The Wilson Quarterly titled “Socrates, Corinthians and Democracy“, by one Matthew Shirts (“Editor-in-chief of National Geographic Brazil, author of O jeitinho americano, editorial coordinator of Planeta Sustentável, and chronicler at VEJA SP.”)
Before I am charged with unfair labeling, let me make clear that I am talking not about ancient Greece but 20th-century Brazil. The Corinthians under discussion rarely, if ever, travel by boat, and this particular Socrates, while given to philosophizing, is a popular soccer player.
“Corinthian Democracy,” to come directly to the point, refers to a political movement conceived by team administrators and soccer players in an attempt to alter the managementllabor relations of the “Corinthians,” a club in Siio Paulo, Brazil’s great southern industrial city. The movement seized headlines for the first time in 1982, on the eve of elections for the club presidency. It did so because of the soccer stars involved and also because of certain resemblances between the club’s internal politics and the larger Brazilian political arena
But we’re still working on tracking down the full text of that piece–it’s behind The Wilson Quarterly’s paygate (or if any of you academics that have access to JSTOR want to pass it on, it’s also available there).
In the meantime another academically minded blog treatment of Socrates and the CDM came to us via our resident philosopher, humanist and technologist Frank. He passed on the link to a post on NewAPPS: Art, Politics, Philosophy, Science titled Sócrates: making political history with football, written by a philosopher of Brazilian origin:
The importance of his political activism cannot be overestimated. One must bear in mind that, in the early 1980s, even though the most violent phase of the military dictatorship was over, Brazil was still not a democracy (in fact, the first real elections for president took place only in 1989!). Football had been widely used by the military regime to promote their own interests, in particular the 1970 World Cup victory in Mexico. The Corinthians Democracy went in the opposite direction; by establishing a democratic structure within the club, the players (led by Sócrates, Wladimir, Casagrande and Zenon) were clearly also making a statement against the authoritarian state of Brazilian politics in general, and demanding democracy and political openness.
I was 6 years old in 1982 (ok, so now everybody knows how old I am!), and have been profoundly marked by these events. My father was a communist*, a medical doctor and a Corinthians supporter, and together with friends who shared the same attributes (and thus felt the additional ‘doctor’ connection with Sócrates), believed that something novel and deeply moving was going on with the Corinthians Democracy. Plus, Corinthians was on a roll with championships and cups, as it had not been for decades! Sócrates was our hero both for his football and for his politics. Indeed, the 1982 election that is referred to in the quote above (not for president, but for state governor and parliament) is one of my most powerful childhood memories (there I was, standing by one of the voting sites and distributing flyers for candidates at age 6), as is the Corinthians victory in the state championship of 1982 – and sadly, also the defeat to Italy in the 1982 World Cup… Sócrates is part of each of them, and I can only thank him for being such a unique and inspirational role model for me and millions of others at such a crucial time in Brazilian history: he was making history with football.
(We should include the author’s footnote: “* In those circumstances, being a communist actually amounted to being pro-democracy and against the dictatorial regime.”)
As the final matchday of the Europa League group stages approaches Wednesday and Thursday, so does the best chance to see Americans in action overseas on a TV near you. And with some of the Americans’ teams in danger of crashing out of Europa, it may be the last chance for a while. That is, unless your cable package comprehensively covers the Portuguese, Dutch, German and Belgian leagues, in which case you’re really spending way too much for cable.
The two Fox Soccer Channels offer regular viewing of Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard and Brad Friedel in England and occasionally Michael Bradley in the Serie A, and GolTV shows some of the Bundesliga exploits of Steve Cherundolo and the German-Americans in the national team, but to see Oguchi Onyewu (Sporting Lisbon), Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar), Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht) or Jonathan Spector (Birmingham City) in a non-streamed format, Europa’s the ticket. Furthermore, with the Manchester teams now surprisingly in the impending mix, there could be some great matches ahead.
Some players, like Onyewu, Kljestan and Jones earned early admission to the knockout phase, as Sporting Lisbon, Anderlecht and Schalke 04 each clinched the top spots in their respective groups and secured berths in the last 32 with a game to spare. Others are less likely, but as it stands, everyone’s got a shot, even if mathematical probabilities aren’t as rosy as they might like.
Dempsey, the all-time leading American goal scorer in the Premier League, has been firing for Fulham this season, both domestically and in the Europa League, where he will always be remembered for his chip into the Juventus goal in 2010. But Fulham jeopardized their shot at the round of 32 when they slumped to a 1-0 loss in the 89th minute against group leaders FC Twente, down to 10 men. However, if Krakow lose to or draw with FC Twente, Fulham are through. But Dempsey & Co. are in charge of their own destiny. If they win, second is theirs. If Fulham lose to or draw with Odense and Krakow pull off the upset, however, Krakow takes the spoils.
Friedel has proven integral to the Tottenham first team, but he usually sits out Europa nights. For Spurs to progress, Rubin Kazan would have to lose and Tottenham have to win and overcome a goal difference of 5. Good time to have a proven shot-stopper, so Redknapp may choose to select him against Shamrock Rovers. However, one school of thought says exiting the competition would help Spurs finish in the top 3 or 4 in the Premier League, not playing weekend matches on the heels of Thursday nights in Europe, so perhaps the bald-pated American will again see some rest. Many betting sites tipped Tottenham to win the cup. Few expected they’d fail to pass through the group stage.
Spector and Birmingham may soon be crashing out, unless they’ve got some goals in them. They need first-place Braga to down second-place Brugge, while they themselves beat Maribor and hope it all works out such that they overcome the 4 goal deficit separating them from Brugge. Doable if they’ve got their shooting boots on (and Braga, theirs).
Altidore, whose career has witnessed a resurgence since joining the Dutch champions, will likely lead the line again for AZ Alkmaar, but the team must get a result against group leaders FC Metalist. Win and they clinch second. If they lose and Vienna defeats Malmo, they crash out. Draw and they squeak through, unless Vienna beats Malmo by 7 goals, which one would have to consider a tad unlikely, as they have conceded almost a third more goals than they’ve scored in the group stages. Altidore has 9 goals this season.
Onyewu, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s long-lost shorter, stronger brother, has similarly returned to form with Sporting Lisbon. In fact, he scored the lone goal in last weekend’s 1-0 victory over CD Nacional de Madeira. And with former club PSV Eindhoven still in the Europa mix, he may have a chance to exact some revenge for their lack of faith in him that led to selling him off this past summer.
Schalke 04 midfielder Jermaine Jones has been seeing more first team action and will live to see another Europa day, as the Schalke tops its group and is certain to go through.
Anderlecht is similarly a lock, and barring injury so is Kljestan, who has excelled at Anderlecht this season and must be wondering why he’s seen so little time with the national team. The midfielder has started 23 matches and scored 2 goals this season.
Hannover 96 captain Cherundolo and his team look favorites for second. Win or draw with last place Vorskla and they go through.
Possibles:
Clint Dempsey (Fulham, MF)
Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96, D)
Jonathan Spector (Birmingham City, D)
Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar, F)
Highly unlikely:
Brad Friedel (Tottenham, GK)
Wednesday, December 14
Besiktas v Stoke City 1:00 PM (DirecTV)
PSG v Atletic Bilbao 1:00 PM (GolTV)
Fulham v Odense 3:00 PM (GolTV)
Thursday, December 15
Hannover 96 v Vorskla Potlava 1:00 PM (GolTV)
Shamrock Rovers v Spurs 1:00 PM (DirecTV)
Atletico Madrid v Stade Rennais 3:00 PM (GolTV)
Birmingham v Maribor 3:00 PM (DirecTV)
Udinese v Celtic 3:00 PM (DirecTV)
Another El Clasico is upon us–Real Madrid hosts archrivals FC Barcelona at the majestic Santiago Bernabeu for a Saturday night La Liga match (kickoff is at 10pmCET/9pmGMT/4pmEST).
This will be, remarkably, the 7th El Clasico of 2011: there were the four matches packed into 18 days last spring (two meetings in the Champions League semifinal, the Copa del Rey final, and their 2nd La Liga match of the season), plus there were two legs to the preseason Spanish Super Copa. But the frequency of El Clasicos hasn’t at dampened the anticipation of seeing these two sides face off of the pitch. As we wrote 13 months ago, ahead of the first El Clasico of last season (the one at the Camp Nou that became, shockingly and memorably, “La Manita“), El Clasico 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.”
We recommend two match previews to get you ready for the match:
For instance, here are a couple specific issues raised in Sid Lowe’s & ZM’s pieces:
Does Cesc Fabregas start among the front 3 in Barcelona’s usual 4-3-3 lineup? If so, in place of Villa or Pedro? Messi seems to be the only one on the front line certain to play the full 90. In addition to whoever among Cesc, Pedro & Villa doesn’t start, Alexis Sanchez and youngster Isaac Cuenca are options to come off the bench. Zonal Marking on the possibilities:
Only Messi is a certainty for the front three, and his position is uncertain – he could play as a false nine, or on the right, as against Milan. He will probably be used with one wide forward (Pedro Rodriguez, Alexis Sanchez, David Villa, Isaac Cuenca) and one deeper, more central converted midfielder (Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara). Three forwards might be too direct and not strong enough in midfield, whilst Messi and two midfielders wouldn’t offer enough penetration. Fabregas and Pedro is a decent bet – but Pedro might not be fit. Cuenca would be a bold move, but he’s the closest to what Pedro offers, in terms of excellent positioning and movement from wide.
On the other side, all indications are that Mourinho will opt for 4-3-3 instead of their usual 4-2-3-1, with the talented German Mesut Ozil unfortunately left out in favor of a more defensive midfielder (Lass Diarra maybe, joining Sami Khedira & Xabi Alonso in the infamous trivote). Up front, of course there will be CR7 (cutting in from the left wing), speedy Argentine Angel diMaria wide on the other wing, and either Gonzalo Higuain or Karim Benzema in the center forward position–the latter being Mourinho’s famous “hunting with a cat or a dog” question. We devoted a post to it, titled “Mourinho on the Truth About Cats and Dogs“, following the initial remark approximately a year ago, and Sid Lowe has a section on it in his preview of this match:
Cat or dog?
“If I can’t hunt with a dog, I will hunt with a cat”. Mourinho’s remark has become legendary — analyzed and counter analyzed endlessly. This season, it has come more clearly into focus. Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuaín have different qualities: Benzema is far more technical, a better player in the absence of space, when you need tight passing and close skill; Higuaín applies greater pressure and is swifter on the break. The decision as to how Madrid play — will it pressure higher as it has done most of this season or lie a littler deeper waiting for Barcelona, employing the speed of counterattacks that sets it apart from any side in the world? — will go a long way to deciding who Madrid play.
![[soccer1204]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-QW036_soccer_D_20111204121118.jpg)
