Wednesday 28 August 2013

28 August 2013 Roundup

This blog is a day or two late but I just wanted to get a lot covered and also have the game of the week Chelsea vs Man United in here somewhere. But that match was just a bit of a drag but thankfully there's been plenty of things going on in around in football so for those who have missed a lot and don't have time to look up the news or watch the highlights, well then this is for you. Firstly I'd like to thank those hundreds and hundreds of people for reading my opening blog, lets keep that going; share, recommend, like etc etc.

Since my last weekend's roundup a lot has happened. This maybe surprising to some people but the game of the week for me was a championship game between Wigan and Bournemouth.....YES thats right. I'm a defensive player but that game showed some beautiful attacking football, long balls, short passes, just proper attacking both ways. AND you could tell the atmosphere in that game was all to do with that football match, the crowd weren't concentrating on how their teams are currently spending their money or how their star players might not be there the next game. I believe if you go to a football match, go to the damn football match to watch the beautiful game. NOT to boo the manager, not to boo the players or yell abuse at the opposition. Cause at the end of the day, they are getting thousands and millions of dollars to do what they love, so stop hating! ARSENAL FANS, this is partly due to your ignorance to boo a man that was the key reason to your last title, so what if that was eight years ago, he's still the reason you go it! And if you haven't forgotten, he put a team on the field that went undefeated for a full 38 games and much more. Going back to the Wigan and Bournemouth game Lewis Grabban who scored the only goal of the game, I hope to see you in the EPL next season. Nurnberg got their second draw against Hertha BSC who were lucky to get a penalty which took them up 2-1 but one of the best free-kicks by Hiroshi Kiyotake in the 86th minute leveled it up for Nurnberg FC. Those were the weekend games, the weekday highlights started with Manchester City vs Newcastle City where Jesus Navas was brilliant and Kun Aguero showed his class with a beautiful and pitch perfect finish for his goal and Man city was that game 4 nil and the Newcastle goalkeeper was horrible. STEVEN TAYLOR what were you thinking, elbowing another player in front of the ref, really? What you thought you were going to get away with it, good player, silly decision. The transfer market was being very noisy but nothing was happening until Ex Lyon left back signed for Liverpool on a One Year loan deal. This could be a good back up for Enrique who I thought had a brilliant season last year for the Merseyside team. The next day Arsenal got a much needed victory over Fenerbache in their first leg away from home and that pretty much booked their place in the champions league proper. AC Milan did not fair so well and had a poor performance and were lucky to get a draw out of the game. In the first leg of the La liga version of the community shield, Messi picked up and injury but highlight of the game was DAVID VILLA's Golazo goal.....people google it! Brilliant but labelled slap in barca's face. Second leg will be interesting, Messi should be back for it. Arsene Wenger admitted Suarez deal looks like it wont happen. Mourinho admitted that he wouldnt pursue Rooney until after their clash win the Red Devils. The midweek game between Chelsea and Aston Villa was a good game, I feel bad for Aston Villa who failed to get any points out of it but that man BENTEKE was brilliant again with another goal. In terms of Europa League, Swansea and Spurs got massive wins with both teams getting 5 goals on their opponents although Swansea did concede one.

Im going to do a team of the weekend starting now; Team of Last week:

Mignolet (Liverpool)
Dani Alves(Barcelona), Kolo Toure(Liverpool), Luna(Aston Villa)
Ramsey(Arsenal), Mountiho(Monaco)
Lampard(Chelsea), Aspas(Liverpool)
Benteke(Aston Villa), Giroud(Arsenal), Van Persie(Man United)

Transfer News
Demicheilis signs for Manchester City to give cover at centre back as they've had a lot of injury problems at the back.
Nicholas Anelka has not retired, his agent passed away so thats why he didnt feature for his EPL team WestBrom this past weekend as he was given compassionate leave but yes in a spur of the moment conversation he did use the word reitrement but that is not the case.
Suarez saga has come to a hault as far as Arsenal are concerned as Liverpool make it clear they will only accept high 50 million offers which Real Madrid are considering and that will open up talks for a Benzema to Arsenal so now it all depends on Liverpool but I dont think Liverpool will budge as Real Madrid have offered a actual bid worth around a $100 million, their interest in Suarez lessens as the Bale saga seems to be nearing its end.
Samuel Eto'o is very dear to Mourinho but the move to stamford bridge doesnt look very likely at the moment even with Anzhi doing a firesell forced by the club owner who's having financial difficulties. Chelsea seem to be focusing on Rooney as the main striking option in this transfer window. Napoli looks on the cards for Eto'o as Benitez has said that they have put in a bid for the Cameroonian to the Russian club.
Mourinho early this week confirmed that he, Ramirez and Luiz (the brazillians) flew out to see Willian and convince him to sign for Chelsea over Tottenham where he'd already done a medical.
Arsenal still havent bought anyone but it seems that they have put in bids for everyone, the player bids that I can confirm are for Cabaye of Newcastle which was rejected, a talk has been done for Di Maria and Benzema and the latest and the one I'm most excited about is Juan Mata of Chelsea but Mourinho has come out to say he will not sell Mata but he also said he would be the manager to bring the 10th Champions League title to Real Madrid and everyone knows how well that turned out and Wenger has come out strongly suggesting they will make a formal offer for spaniard in the coming days. But Arsenal today have also come out and said they are preparing a massive bid for Rooney later today. Things are getting interesting now.

Injury News
As usual Arsenal players are highlighted on this list with Mikel already out for 3 months, Ox has been ruled out for 6 weeks and Konscielny is out too. Hence why Sagna paired with Metersecker in the weekend win away to Fulham. More on that later but also Messi will make his comeback from injury against Athletico in their second leg tie but might have to be a substitute appearance. Vincent Kompany is out for a month due to a recurring groin issue which is a massive blow for Manchester City and it showed in the weekend's loss. Affelay is out until next year and Thiago Alcantra who did play last weekends match has been told he will miss 7 weeks of football. Just while writing this more bad news for Arsenal fans, Wilshere and Ramsey seemed to have picked up knocks and are awaiting medicals. Higuain gets stitches cause of a fishing trip but is fine.

Bundesliga
Borrusia continue their form with Lewandoski tapping in for a one nill victory over the weekend against a good Bremen team who had kept two clean sheets prior to this match with Naldo having another excellent match. Even with Alaba missing a penalty in the first half for Bayern, two second half goals from ROBERY(Robben and Ribery) ended Nurenberg as they were too defensive for my liking but I guess it wouldve been difficult to match the pace of Robben and Ribery if they played more attacking, hence why Hiroshi Kiyotake only made a substitute appearance but by then it was too late. Shalke lose another Bundesliga tie but winning doesnt seem to be a problem for Hyypias Leverkusen who get another win under their belts. In the midweek clash, Bayern and Pep were held to a draw.

EPL
Arsenal are the first team to win any sort of derby match for the 100th time and they did that by defeat Fulham in a london derby match. That makes it a hundred london derby wins for Arsenal with Chelsea currently sitting at 96. Aaron Ramsey gets two man of the match awards, actually make that 3 in a row, in both clashes with Fenerbache and Fulham game over the weekend. Giroud is also in form with 3 goals in 3 games. Even Szcesny looked more then decent against Fulham, couldnt be helped with Darren Bents tap in goal though. I'm a big anti Jenkinson fan but even he impressed both in attack and defense for once. Southampton showed quality attacking football against Sunderland but since they had conceded early they were playing catch up the whole game and in the end got their deserved point. I felt bad for Lambert the whole match, seemed so unlucky with everything. Good player, hope he bounces back next week, bad choice of captain for fantasy -_- Hull city got their first win with a penalty and then the penalty scorer got sent off for a headbutt.Crystal palace seemed to have done great business in the transfer market when their marque signing Chamakh scored the opener but a more experienced Stoke side made a comeback to win the game 2-1. Liverpool and Daniel Sturridge made it two goal in two games meaning two wins but again aston villa unlucky and played brilliantly. Spurs 2 games, 2 goals, 2 penalties, 2 goals for soldado and 2 one nil victory for spurs. Headliner goes to Cardiff City for getting their win against giants Manchester City in a game where city were shown what football in wales means. Brilliant!

Serie A
Juventus win and Pogba impresses and Tevez gets his account started with the only goal of the match. Luca Toni and newly promoted Hellas Verona cause shock defeat to AC Milan, other results were all expected.

Ligue 1
Monaco draw at Touluse, Lyon suffer defeat which PSG and Marseille secure wins away from home.

Champions League
Even though they are struggling in the Bundesliga, Shalke managed to qualify for the Champions League Proper 4-3 on aggrecate and PAOK and Arsenal and Aaron Ramsey got two goals to add to their previous 3 to secure there place in the draw later this week.

Capital Cup
Liverpool almost got caught by surprise by a Notts country that decided to show up to Anfield 30 minutes into the match and put up a fight, forcing extra time but unfortunate to lose. Respect to any underdog team that shows up to win the game believing they will win. Good game. Gerrard is poor class, perfect passing.

Honorable Mentions
Deco has called it quits in an illustrious career while Raul got the chance to score against his current club Al Sadd while wearing the Real Madrid Jersey one last time and it was beautiful scenes as he kissed the Bernabeu goodbye and thanked the fans for all their support. And amazing send off for a true legend of the game while Barca thank Deco for what he did for them in the past.

Team of this weekend:

Szczesny (Arsenal)
Rithe(Fulham), Lahm(Bayern Munich), Adriano(Barcelona), Glen Johnson(Liverpool) (i realize there arent any centrebacks)
Robben(Bayern Munich), Ramsey(Arsenal), Gundogan(Borrusia Dortmund), Ribery(Bayern Munich)
Giroud(Arsenal), Luca Toni(Hellas Verona)

Sunday 18 August 2013

August 17th and 18th Roundup

This blog and the ones following this will be a roundup for those who are unfortunate to miss the weekends action.

English Premier League:

Starting with the big one, Arsenals first matchday one defeat since the year 2000 against an Aston Villa team which had been playing their opening games in London since 2009 and had failed to score a goal let alone win until this weekend. As an Arsenal fan, I could use all the excuses being thrown out such as the ref's call's not going our way, penalty that shouldnt have been and the red card but the plain facts are clear, the score at the end of the game said 3 - 1, champions win even when it all goes against them. Arsenal need to comeback strong in their midweek clash against Fenerbache to qualify for the Champions League proper. Speaking of Champions, RVP showing his class once more and Man United getting a deserved victory against a good Swansea side. Liverpool, Daniel Sturridge and Simon Mignolet made there mark in the opening weekend by getting the first 3 points of the opening weekend. Mignolet becomes the first ever LFC keeper to stop a penalty in his debut game and opening game of the season. Suarez seems to be reconsidering his move to Arsenal but I think that will come down to the wire and Arsenal class against Fenerbache will be deciding factor in the Suarez saga. Rooney's substitute appearance does not mean anything in terms of his saga, thats still up in the air. BALE who? Tottenham fans have a new hero in Soldado. All other results were predictable but Lampards penalty miss and amazing freekick deserve a mention. #Legend

Bundesliga:

Pep's Bayern and Klopp's Dortmund getting the results they needed and get 6 points out of 6 to keep the title race interesting from the start. Schalke get another thrashing and the team picked to challenge strongly for the atleast 4th are not looking great. They have a young talented squad but maybe the lack of experience might cost them. And why would you take out Huntelaar, clinical striker such as him should be allowed to finish a game like that. He came off and everything fell apart. And honorable mention to ex Liverpool man and current coach of Bayer Leverkusen Sami Hyypia who also have 6 points out of 6.

La Liga:

Barca 7 nil -_- Messi cant stop scoring....more like Levante cant defend! Real Betis gave RM a scare but they got the win at the end with Isco having a star performance with a goal and assist.

Ligue 1:

Monaco getting a comfortable win ago OM who are predicted to finish top 4 but people are underestimating this Monaco team and writing them of but with talent like Falcao in a team you cannot compare them to a team like QPR who the money was not enough. PSG struggled against Ajjacio but Cavani showed why he's worth $50 million with a stunning 86th minute effort.

MLS:

Had to mention the GOLAZO goal from Agudelo for New England Revolution! GOOGLE THAT S**T

My own footballing news:

Comeback game this weekend, Counties Cup loss against the defending champions. Amazing game. Last minute wrong call by linesman cost us but other then that beautiful game of football. Wish South Auckland Rangers the best of luck for their semi final. Great to be back on the pitch and being recognized for my performance with invitation to play for other teams. Felt GOOD!