August 5th, 2008
You are currently browsing the articles from TOP FootBall Player written on August 5th, 2008.
Steven Gerrard limps off in friendly with likely groin problem [Soccernet]
Henry not as open when talking about coming to MLS this time [NY Post]
Italy will let you sue and win when you are offended by other team’s banners [Guardian]
More below
Craig Bellamy is all class, all the time [Guardian]
Jared Sebastian Leto loaned out to Olympiacos, Scousers happy not to lose him completely to passport problem [Sky Sports]
A reasonable foreigner look at MLS [Goal]
And, finally:
Rooney likely to miss start of season because of bug picked up in Africa [Soccernet]
Written by Darkvader on August 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Backpasses and ü75.
The Premiership season is just around the corner. You know what that means….Fantasy Football (feet not hands)…and UF has got you covered. The official game of UF is the Yahoo Fantasy Football game. Why is it the official one? Because I deemed it so. Now, no more questions.
Here are the details:
Group Name: Ronaldo’s Servitude
Group ID #: 5785
Password: saf
Sign up here and see if you can top the league. There may or may not be a prize involving more than pride in this one, although we are still waiting for the Euro Fantasy Game Winner to Cash in his prize, a free post on whatever he wants.
If this group fills up, I will probably start another group. Or maybe not. I’m lazy like that.
There is also an unofficial UF league with the EPL Fantasy game, here. Code: 247966-56569
Written by Darkvader on August 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Games and The Fan's Attic and fantasy football.
(I WISH this story was going along those lines…)
Well, naughty in the sense of embezzling money to fund after-school soccer activities. Then this story warrants such a headline!
From the shore of Australia, we find this wonderful gem:
“NURSES have demanded their union chief resign after the union sponsored his daughter’s soccer team with funds from their membership fees.
The NSW Nurses’ Association donated $5000 to the Hills District Women’s Football Club, which has the Beaumont Hills Lady Hawks in its ranks. One of the team’s star strikers is the daughter of Brett Holmes, the association’s general secretary.
The sponsorship deal was funded from the Nurse Power Fund - a financial reserve raised through member contributions.”
Oops. Now I’m all for parents supporting the extra-curricular activities of their children, but surely this goes a bit too far?
Understandably, the nurses are pissed:
“RPA emergency nurse Cate Cunningham said nurses felt “disillusionment and disgust”.
“When we heard at Thursday’s branch meeting our fighting fund money was being used to sponsor a women’s football team we were speechless. Then on Friday, news filtered through that it was Brett Holmes’s daughter’s team,” she said. “I can’t tell you how angry and upset we all are. This has never been reported to members.”
Mrs Cunningham said the branch meeting had been held to address the union’s willingness to fritter away valuable workplace entitlements in exchange for a “pissant pay increase” of 7.8 per cent over two years.
“We were all sitting there, wondering how on earth our union could have left us in such a mess … then it was casually mentioned a women’s football team had been kitted out with cash deducted from our own wages,” she said.
The sponsorship was approved at the association’s council meeting on November 29. The successful motion read: “The NSWNA contributes $5000 in sponsorship to the Hills District (Female) Football Club for the 2008 year from the Nurse Power Fund.”
The message here is simple: don’t join unions. That 5-minute addition to your lunchbreak is definitely nice, but it gets ugly when you suddenly find your dues paying for knee-high polyester socks and half-time oranges.
Perhaps the best quote was saved for last, from the guilty party himself, chairman Brett Holmes. When quoted that he was going to defend the $5000 outlay, he had this beauty:
“We have a turnover of $24 million. We can’t go to our members about every dollar spent.”
Indeed Mr. Holmes, indeed. Good luck with finding a new job… hopefully there’s some money to be made in the selling of 2nd-hand football equipment until an HR executive comes-a-knocking.
Written by Darkvader on August 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Australia and Lingering Bursitis and crime and nurses.
I have got to hand it to Sunday Soccer League players. They create some of the most hilarious stories out there, especially when violence occurs.
On Sunday, a perfectly genteel Australian man (perhaps not) was kicked out of a match for fighting with another player. Alright, simple enough, but it gets better. Not satisfied with getting a red card for his troubles, the man decided to up the ante.
Both players were sent off, but police say the 32-year-old man walked to the carpark and returned carrying a metal tyre lever.
It is alleged he then confronted his 42-year-old rival and hit him with the lever several times, breaking his arm.
Not being Australian, I wasn’t quite sure what a “tyre lever” was, but I was sure they didn’t know how to spell tire. I assumed the story meant a lug wrench and that the device was mistakenly identified as a tyre lever (or in proper American, tire iron), which as everybody knows is a tool used to pry the rubber of a tire away from the rim on a tube tire, like bikes have but haven’t been on cars since the 1950s or so. Tire irons are small little pieces of metal, unlike a lug wrench (seen above), lot likely to break somebody’s arm.
But, I digress, the man was arrested and the victim was sent to, of all places, Liverpool Hospital. You see, even all the way on the other side of the world, Liverpool means one thing: criminals and violence.
Written by Darkvader on August 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Sunday Soccer League Violence and The Fan's Attic.
The men’s Olympic football tournament will be one of the most highly anticipated sporting events of the upcoming 2008 Beijing Games.
This year’s tournament features three teams from Africa, with Cameroon, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast sending over their young, developing talent in hopes of Olympic glory.
We covered this topic in some depth in an earlier post. Now today, ESPN Soccernet journalist Sulaiman Folarin offers his take on Africa’s chances. And really, he’s a lot more qualified than I am at this point to offer a worthy opinion …
Can Africa strike gold? Can the young talent at display in China come up big?
I don’t know. I don’t see why not … African teams have won gold two of the last three times.
From my uneducated view, I’d say it’s probable.
Folarin is an educated journalist whose opinion I value. He seems to think along the same lines.
Here’s a small excerpt of his article. For more, please click here.
Of the three representatives, two teams; Nigeria in 1996 and Cameroon four years later, have finished with a Gold medal. The Ivorians, making their debut appearance this year, will hope to follow them when they send out a young and energetic team for the first game against Argentina.
The West Africans have a few mainstream names, but none in category of the Toure brothers; Kolo and his brother Yaya, and they could certainly use the services of Didier Drogba. But with coach Gerard Gili in charge of the team - a tactician with Ivorian football for over two years at all levels - the young Elephants have the potential to trample their way to the podium at end of the competition.
With the full commitment of young talents like Salomon Kalou pairing with the enterprising playmaker Gervais Yao Kouassi (popularly referred to as Gervinho), the Ivory Coast, up front, will be a threat to teams during the group stages and should be safely through to the knock-out phase.
With key players plying their trade in smaller clubs around Europe, fans should also watch out for Sekou Cisse and Kafoumba Coulibaly; two of the players that exemplify the potential of a team with relatively unfamiliar talent.
There are also the home grown players from some established local clubs; Asec Mimosas and Africa Sports. Both have been known not only to develop quality African players, but also prove themselves as quality opponents in the physical African club competitions.
But you cannot mention anything about physical football without pointing in the direction of Cameroon. The Indomitable Lions parade the most physical team in Africa, and probably the world. This style compliments Cameroon’s pattern of play, although the Lions are probably the least skilled of the powerhouses on the continent.
Written by Darkvader on August 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 2008 Olympics and Cameroon and Ivory Coast and Nigeria.
We all know how good Micah Richards is. The Manchester Citeh ace even made his debut against the Gunners on 22nd October 2005 as a sub and was given his full debut on February 12, 2006 against Charlton Athletic.
He played in the majority of Manchester City’s matches for the rest of that season, and was named as the club’s Young Player of the Year for the 2005-06 season. He even scored a 94th minute goal against Aston Villa in the Cup and swore live on television, and continued with the interview completely unaware!
On July 25, 2006 he signed a new four-year contract, quashing rumours of a move away from the City of Manchester Stadium. Throughout 2007, Richards was linked with a big money move away from Eastlands, with Arsenal and Chelsea the main contenders to sign the youngster for £15m or even more.
At the time Stuart Pearce was in charge of Citeh and said “I am not actively looking to sell Micah because he has a great future here. Whatever offers come in for him, it is going to take a ridiculously big offer to get him out of this football club.I would love to see Micah stay here, captain the club, and maybe be here for 10 years and carry the club on his back if he can. He is good enough to do it. I have not worked with anyone so good and so young.”.
He has captained Citeh too, and has played for England 12 times and scored once for his country. When making his debut for England on November 15th 2006, he became the youngest Defender to ever play for England. And will surely one day be the rock in England’s defence.
It’s a well known fact that Micah is a Gooner. They were his boyhood team and his favourite players were Ian Wright and Patrick Vieira. He has admitted that he fancies a move to London one day but it would be to join the Gunners and not the roubles of Ch$lski.
“I was a big Ian Wright fan when I was younger, so I supported Arsenal. “Wright and Patrick Vieira were my idols so if the opportunity came to play for them one day I’d take it.”
The only problem I see in Micah joining Arsenal one day would be the transfer fee. It would cost a huge amount to prise him away from Eastlands especially since he is English. Wenger has admitted that he will pay top prices for a “super-class” player and I wonder whether Micah is in this class in Wenger’s eye’s?….
I think Gallas will be at the club for another couple of seasons and then either hang up his boots or join another club in Europe somewhere. This is where Micah fits the mould to join. He would be the perfect long-term replacement for Gallas. Imagine Richards and Toure at the back!! That would be the dream defensive partnership, without a doubt.
Centre back is one of the few positions that we could improve on, and in my eyes Micah Richards would be the perfect signing as he is also versatile enough to play at right or left back. He has the talent to be one of the best in the world and with Wenger having a huge amount of money available to him if needed I would love it if he joined and fulfiled a boyhood dream.
So Micah is a Gooner, but will he ever be a Gunner?…..I hope so one day.
Keep it Goonerish………….
Written by Wrighty7 on August 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Football-Player.
MICHAEL BALLACK 07-08
STREAMING LINK:Click here!!!!
DOWNLOAD LINK:Click Here!!!
Credit: to the hard working man jano7.
by BA13ACK
————————————————————————-
Michael Ballack vs AC Milan
Railways Cup, Pre-season friendly
1:48 min | 15 MB | 1 Mbps | 704×512
Tune: Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl
zSHARE
by Jano7
Written by Darkvader on August 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Football-Player.
The Valley…Looks like it could be another year of under-achievement!
Not that much to say about Charlton except that there is a big sale going on and they have been flogging some of their top players in what appears to be an attempt to balance the books. Charlton failed to reach the promised land last season, finishing 11th, and so it looks as if they’ve decided to settle for life in the Colaship and recoup some money.
Not what Bigus was expecting at all. I had not paid much attention to Charlton this off-season until now, but I expected a few in and a push for the playoffs this season. Lets have a closer look at the comings and goings…
Out: Marcus Bent (on loan last year), Sam Sodje, Leroy Lita (loaned from Reading), Madjid Bougherra (to Rangers for 2.5 million), Chris Iwelumo (to Wolves), Patrick McCarthy (to Crystal Palace), Greg Halford (loaned from Sunderland, moved to Sheffield United), Ben Thatcher (Free agent to Ip… Ip… Them) and Chris Powell.
In: Oh dear… Mark Hudson (from Palace), Stuart Fleetwood (from Forest Green).
Not a happy chappy…Pard’s.
Addicks boss Alan Pardew seems a little unhappy at all of the exits at the Valley…
“The agenda that I was given this year was a bit of a shock to me, especially the financial situation we’re in which wasn’t made clear to me,”
There is no doubt that Charlton will miss Bougherra, Halford, Iwelumo (46 games last term), McCarthy and the out-going Zheng Zhi (7 goals from midfield last season). Pardew admitted today that Charlton were considering a bid made for the Chinese national team captain (look out for Zhi in the Olympics starting this week!).
Varney: Needs to find his Crewe shooting boots.
Pardew will need to sign a couple of players fast and return to his contact book to bring a couple of loans in. Lita won’t be returning though, Reading have joined Charlton in the Colaship and his goals will be needed for their promotion push.
Ambrose, Faye, Holland, Fortune and Varney are all good players but they will need to step up and stay fit for Charlton to have any hope of the playoffs. Varney especially. He has only managed 8 goals in 40 games after a 2 million pound move from Crewe.
My prediction? 9th.
-Bigus.
Written by Darkvader on August 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Bigus Dickus and Colaship and charlton athletic and previews.
Chelsea FC Pre-Season goals
Download
Credit: Iker91,tvgolo,simaofcp
Written by Darkvader on August 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Football-Player.
Remember the autobiography that is coming out at the end of this month? It’s none other than Liverpool’s top goalscorer in history, Ian Rush. And as I’ve promised, you readers of The Red Cauldron are a blessed bunch as there is a special deal in place for you if you pre-order the book now!
Just head down to http://www.ianrushbook.co.uk/ and click on the ‘pre-order’ button. There, you’ll receive a 35% discount once you purchase it with the promotional code, which is IANRUSH.
Why are you still here. Just head down and get it already!
Written by DROGBALLS on August 5th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Autobiography and Ian Rush and The Red Cauldron.
« Older articles
No newer articles
