Monday Backpasses: Referee madness

Rob Styles would like someone to apologize for him to Bolton [Daily Mail]
Mike Riley appeared to change his mind on Cahill’s card when the Aussie would not come to him for admonishment [Soccer 365]
Dive of the weekend. No, not Ronaldo [101 Great Goals]

Newcastle’s caretaker manager signed a contract until October 30. He has an old touchline ban that will expire October 20. Oops [Telegraph]
Iraq lose their World Cup Qualifying appeal to CAS [NYT Goal]
Robbie Savage, who pisses off new teammates by driving flash cars, may be going to the team who had Skint as a shirt sponsor (trust me, the English will get it) [Sky Sports]
Wenger hates the away goals rule, wants it changed [Guardian]
Germans. ’80s to ’90s. Hair [Bild]

And, finally:
Euros to expand to 128 teams, so that “the excitement of the groups will go on for longer” [Football Cynic]

Written by Darkvader on September 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Backpasses and ü75.

SPANISH FOOTBALL - MORRONS & VIOLENCE

Situation: It´s Saturday & ESPANYOL plays FC BARCELONA
in a “high risk” local derby. That´s not the problem, the problem
is when FC Barcelona radicals called “Boixos Nois” ( “Our Boys”,
shows us real originality by these guys) begin throwing flares at
Espanyol fans. No reason at all, just to hurt, provoke & if lucky
cause some disgrace. That is go to Football not to watch Football,
irrationality, this is the prime characteristic of these primitive
animals.

These objects - flares - are alight & burning & very dangerous
flying objects; there are numerous cases of lost limbs & even death by
receiving a direct hit, & there they are, as the pictures show, when they
are banned by law from Football fields.

This, of course, caused the Espanyol fans to react in the same manner,
with the logical result that things get out of control & the game gets
called off for 10 mins. Great, thats good, but why in the hell are these
piece of shit with two legs allowed to go to Football when they are known
criminals, allowed to represent FC Barcelona & allowed to take in flares
& who knows what other illegal stuff to cause injury & possibly death.

Everyone is blaming everyone: Espanyol blames Barça, Barça blames a
relaxed Espanyol security, both blame local police…bla bla bla. Luckly the
social outrage has lead Police to quickly identify via CCTV at least 5
brain damaged morrons that have been arrested. Thank god no one was
seriously injuried or killed, thank god!

This mental disease, were “useless” human wasted find their lost
identity in the “group” & the worship of abstract “concepts” as my
colours - what the fuck is this! - need psychological help. Seeing this
is not possible the law must be enforce with harsh punishment. The
Clubs should work to erradict this from their fans & players should
have the “balls” to go out in public & make a stand against this sort of
behaviour.

Unfortunately the disease is here, in the UK, Germany , Italy , Greece ,
Turkey…, & players score goals & celebrate jointly with these barbarians
( Barça players did this after scoring twice on Saturday - they claim they
knew nothing…obviously blind to flare lights & screams) or go public &
claim that they admire Fascist ideas - Milan goalkeeper Abiatti - as a
group thing, the power of the collective. You idiot, collective & ideology
to an untrained mind - stupid mind - is interpretated as me vs the World.
Add drugs & alcohol & the World , the other Club & other people
become enemies to be hated & eliminated. Its dangerous stuff guys!

Either we take a stand or we are all going to feel a REAL disaster soon.
It maybe you one day, your friend, your son or the person next to you
that receives a flare driven in their face to explode…& then what!

A disgrace for Espanyol, a disgrace for FC Barcelona, a disgrace for
Spanish Football, a disgrace for Catalans, a disgrace for Spaniards,
a disgrace for any rational & thinking human being to witness this
senseless obedience to concepts that will not solve their life. Sport is
to united & not divide, to enjoy & not to cause pain. Its really simple!

Written by STRIKER on September 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on FC Barcelona and La Liga and Spanish Football and Spanish Soccer and Violence and espanyol.

RIP Futsal Fred

One of my daily reads is The Offside Rules, a blog with the straight dope on all things MLS. We certainly don’t link to TOR enough around here. We should.

Today, TOR posted a little link that suggests the Hunt Sports Group may be interested in selling a share of the Columbus Crew to the consortium that was trying to bring MLS to Las Vegas. That’s all good and may bring more rumors of club movement, but it’s the takedown in the comments that is absolutely priceless.

I don’t want to steal too much TOR’s thunder so I will only tease it a bit.

Anonymous posted:

Written by Darkvader on September 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Commenter Takedowns and The Fan's Attic.

Barca and Espanyol Fans In Old School Video Game

The Catalan derby this weekend between Barcelona and Espanyol was a thriller. Barca pulled off the comeback win against a 10-man Espanyol after an 85th minute equalizer from Thierry Henry and then Leo Messi converted a dubious penalty kick (weren’t they all this last weekend?) in the 103rd minute. (By the way, take a look at the shot graphic on that link, Barca outshot them 33 to 5.)

Yeah, that’s right, the 103rd minute. Not a typo. Which gets me to the reason for the old Tank Wars graphic up top.

Seems during the match the visiting Blaugrana fans decided to turn the match into their own personal old-school video game as they tossed flares on to the home fans. Naturally, this did not go over well and ended up in the match being stopped for 8 minutes in the second half.

After the jump, see the video of the flare toss. The first is better than the second, and the end of the video has a nice chant with the word “Puta” involved, although my Spanish is about as good as Newcastle United’s football team so I could be wrong.

Needless to say, the emotions were running high after the controversial match concluded after the witching hour. My parents used to tell me, nothing good comes from actions at that time of the night. I would submit to you that they were wrong because I get to read about these sorts of things from The Guardian Blog:

Way after midnight under the hulking concrete stands of the Lluís Companys stadium Barcelona’s Thierry Henry shrugged, washing his hands conveniently clean, and Leo Messi beamed. Espanyol’s broken players mostly bit their tongues and walked on by silently simmering, as the coaches Pep Guardiola and Tintín Márquez tried to impose peace. But few were having it.

Samuel Eto’o returned to the scene of the crime, glorying in it. The Espanyol president Daniel Sánchez Llibre spontaneously combusted. A kerfuffle broke out and suddenly Gerard Piqué was squaring up to an Espanyol director. “I don’t want to call it a robbery because they’ll charge me for it,” snapped Sánchez Llibre, forgetting how much he liked La Liga when Espanyol were top. “This league is completely prostituted.”

Puta, indeed.

Update: The Offside has another video of the flare throwing.

Written by Darkvader on September 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Barcelona and Puta and The Fan's Attic and Video and espanyol and fan violence.

Setanta is Psychic

With so many footy matches every weekend, wouldn’t it be great if you knew the results beforehand so that you could concentrate on watching the good ones? I mean, I probably still would have watched Arsenal-Hull even knowing the outcome, but that’s just because I like to torture myself. But what if you could avoid the shit-tastic matches like Machester City-Portsmouth?

Have no fear! Setanta Sports TV network has the ability to predict the future, thus ensuring that you only watch the important matches. This past Friday, I received the following from Setanta in an e-mail:

Once tonight’s presidential debate is over, switch your attention to the competition taking place in England. If you thought Obama and McCain were battling it out, just wait until October 26th, when unbeaten Liverpool travels to undefeated Chelsea for a clash of the titans, LIVE on Setanta Sports.

Wow! So Liverpool and Chelsea will both be unbeaten (and even undefeated!) on October 26th? They correctly predicted this week’s results, with Liverpool beating Everton 2-0 in the Merseyside derby, and Chelsea beating Stoke 2-0. But I’m sure that Manchester City (v. Liverpool, Oct. 5th), Aston Villa (@Chelsea, Oct. 5th), Wigan (@ Liverpool, Oct. 18th), and Middlesbrough (v. Chelsea, Oct. 18th) are all very excited to know that Setanta thinks they have zero chance of winning those matches.

And now you can go out and bet everything that you have on those 4 matches! Thanks, Setanta!

Written by Darkvader on September 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Setanta and The NY Kid and watching tv.

Premiership Weekend Roundup: September 27-28

On the one hand, I am insanely busy right now. Booo. On the other hand, I finally have Setanta set up at my new apartment so I can watch the games properly. Yaaaay. So here we go…

Manchester United 2–0 Bolton
Yes, okay, that penalty was ridiculous. I’m not even going to try to defend that. I’m more interested in seeing Wayne Rooney come on as a substitute and link up with Cristiano Ronaldo to score a beautiful goal. And now, in seeing whether he’s actually going to get to start their Champions League game this week.

Everton 0–2 Liverpool
Fernando Torres did basically nothing for an hour, and then won the game in the space of two minutes. (Should have had a hat trick, actually.) And it was an excellent performance from the whole team; they thoroughly deserve their spot at the top of the table.

Arsenal 1–2 Hull
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Other results
Stoke City 0–2 Chelsea
Newcastle 1–2 Blackburn
Middlesbrough 0–1 West Brom
Fulham 1–2 West Ham
Aston Villa 2–1 Sunderland
Portsmouth 2-0 Tottenham
Wigan 2-1 Manchester City

Written by Jen on September 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Arsenal and Bolton and Everton and Hull and Liverpool and manchester united and premiership.

Scotland Wrap Up

Due to an outpouring of support (one guy at least), I’ll be reviving my once-a-week look at fitba from the league to the north of the EPL. Skip ahead if you like, but know this is the only post for at least half an hour.

This weekend saw the seventh round of matches take place. Rangers entered the weekend with a three point lead over Celtic. No surprises there, then. Hearts were one more point back. Hibs, Killie and Hamilton filled out the Top Six.

Saturday saw a slate of five games, with the big one being Celtic hosting Aberdeen. Early season from has not been kind to the Dons, at least at home. They nicked a point off of Rangers, but lost their other three home matches. On the other hand, Aberdeen came in perfect on the road, and, at one point, looked to be keeping that intact.

Celtic had the much better start, putting pressure on the Aberdeen backline early. It paid off in the 14th minute when Aberdeen failed to clear their lines, and Jan Vennegoor of Hessleink (now and forever to be referred to as JVoH on this site) slammed home from 10 yards out. Aberdeen upped their game for the rest of the half, and looked the better squad at the break.

That continued into the second half. In the 57th minute, a run down the right produced a cross that Lee Miller flicked on. All the Celtic defenders had run to the near post, leaving Charlie Mulgrew alone at the back from 15 yards. His volley found the back of the net. Twelve minutes later, Mulgrew took a blistering free kick from 30+ yards and beat both the wall and Boruc to the near post. Celtic should have immediately replied, but a open header from three yards out was bounced over the crossbar. No matter, Celtic would break my heart soon enough. Substitute Scott McDonald scored seven minutes after his introduction, and JVoH scored when the ball squeaked under Aberdeen keeper Jamie Langfield and off the post in the 90th. In a game where the teams were pretty even, it was one heck of a letdown for the struggling Dons. 3-2 Celtic.

The other Saturday games, i.e. the ones I did not watch, were home wins as well and went like this:
Dundee United slaughtered Heart of Midlothian 3-0. As the BBC guy said, this was a shoot on sight from 30 yards game for the Terrors. A couple of those went in, courtesy of Conway, Daly and Robertson.
Falkirk scored five against Hamilton Academical, but only four of them were in the correct goal. Scott Arfield scored a brace for the Bairns. Hamilton, which started their SPL campaign brightly, did not look good at all, and only a 90th minute own goal spared them sole honors for the worst defeat of the week. 4-1
Motherwell edged out St Mirren 2-1, reversing a 0-1 deficit from halftime. St Mirren felt hard done by in the 70th when the assistant referee signaled that Franco Miranda had elbowed his opponent while jostling for a throw in. The referee produced a straight red for the offense. To be fair, though, Motherwell had already taken the lead by that point.
Finally, Inverness CT continued their fine early season run by defeating Kilmarnock 3-1. Killie scored early, but Caley scored two in the first half and finished the game off in the 81st, shortly after Kilmarnock had Fowler sent off.

On Sunday, Hibernian hosted Rangers, and Rangers were not very nice. Hibernian had the early chances, with two clear efforts being saved. Rangers scored on the half hour, as Kenny Miller headed home against his former team. Miller scored again 10 minutes later and Madjid Bougherra produced the final goal of the match on the 73rd. The scoreline flattered the visitors, as Hibs had many chances. But,as we know, chances don’t count unless converted. Rangers retain the top spot 0-3.

Updated table (team, points, goal differential)
Rangers, 19, +10
Celtic, 16, +7
Hearts, 12, -2
Inverness CT, 10, +2
———————-
Kilmarnock, 10, -1
Hibernian, 10, -2
———————-
Hamilton Academical, 9, -2
Dundee United, 8, -1
Falkirk, 7, -2
Motherwell, 7, -3
Aberdeen (sigh), 7, -3
———————
St Mirren, 5, -3

Written by Darkvader on September 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on SPL and Scotland and just for joe. and ü75.

TENNIS: SPANIARD RAFAEL NADAL REMAINS WORLD ATP Nº1

Spanish Tennis player RAFAEL NADAL maintains his Nº1 ATP World
ranking after the standings were released by the Association today. The
Spaniards maintains a more than a thousand point lead over his next
rival, ex – Nº1 Roger Federer.

The other Spanish player in the Top 10 of the ATP listing is DAVID
FERRER with 2.490 points & in the 5th position.

Written by STRIKER on September 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on ATP World Ranking and David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal and Tennis.

Caption Competition-BJ Edition

Written by Darkvader on September 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Bigus Dickus and blow job jokes and caption competition.

There is no room for sentiment-Toure must be dropped.

Its hurts to say but I think that Le Boss needs to drop Kolo Toure and bring Johan Djourou into the side.

It’s obvious that the Toure-Gallas partnership isn’t working. There is no doubt that both are superb defenders but as a pair they struggle.

Both need a dominant player alongside them. Toure was immense with Sol Campbell and Gallas equally as good with John Terry next to him.

Djourou can be the dominant centre back we require. Physically he is the right size and when he has played he has looked the part.

I have defended Gallas in the past and will continue to do so. Gooners are split on him and I imagine we always will be. He was blamed for Hull’s second goal from the corner but it wasn’t his fault. In fact it was Toure’s.

Toure was actually marking Cousin and lost him. Gallas was trying to deal with it and was caught out by Toure losing his man.

I think Gallas brings more to the side than Toure and out of the two I’d say Gallas is the more in-form player. Toure hasn’t been the same since coming back from the ANC in January and needs to be the player sacrificed.

I think the problem at Arsenal is complacency. Certain players are undroppable and they know it. Le Boss needs to shake things up and at the back is the first place I’d start.

We all love Toure and rightly so but we can’t be blinded by that. He is the player that needs to be dropped in favour for Djourou and you never know, in the long run it will do him good.

Keep it Goonerish………

Written by Wrighty7 on September 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Football-Player.