November 15th, 2008
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Ho-boy! Why not?? *crickets*
Yes, that’s right, in a league where the New York Red Bulls are playing in the Western Conference (muh?), it’s a liveblog of the Western Conference Final! Will I be able to stay awake? Will I change the channel? Will it actually be a decent match? Let’s find out, shall we….
Pregame Welp, the pregame program has started. Apparently it’s really cold in Salt Lake City (what a shock). Highlights of the program so far was Landon Donovan accepting his fifth MLS player of the year and basically saying, “yeah I’m off to Bayern,” and then an actually pretty funny VW ad (Episode 2 “Juice Boxes”). One of the RSL players is talking about his wife who has a terminal disease…. great, it can only get better from here.
Right, so your starting lineups coming up as soon as I can find them. And, if you want to read a liveblog from someone who actually cares about the game, here’s Ives.
Pregame Ugh, I’m bored already.
Pregame Found the lineups!
RSL: Nick Rimando, Robbie Russell, Nat Borchers, Chris Wingert, Jamison Olave, Kyle Beckerman, Dema Kovalenko, Will Johnson, Javier Morales, Clint Mathis, Yura Movsisyan. Bench: Chris Seitz, Ian Joy, Andrew Williams, Tony Beltran, Kenny Deuchar, Robbie Findley, Fabian Espindola
NYRB: Danny Cepero, Chris Leitch, Carlos Mendes, Kevin Goldthwaite, Diego Jimenez , Dave Van den Bergh, Dane Richards, Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Luke Sassano, Juan Pablo Angel, John Wolyniec. Bench: Caleb Patterson-Sewell, Gabriel Cichero, Andrew Boyens, Juan Pietravallo, Jorge Rojas, Mike Magee, Macoumba Kandji
1: And they’re off. Salt Lake City crowd seem happy. Bless those Mormons.
2: On the plus side the pitch doesn’t have American football hash marks, so my eyes are bleeding like the normal MLS match. I’m waiting to see if either team can string together more than 10 passes in a row. Anyone want to give me odds? I’d say 3:1 that it doesn’t happen.
4: RSL is attacking. Oh, feel the excitement!
7: Yup, not much happening.
9: Wolyniec had a nice breakaway for the Red Bulls but it was well-saved low and left. Red Bulls get a decent header on the resulting cross. Slightly promising.
11: Red Bulls play kind of a controlling style, a la Arsenal, and RSL play more of a counter-attacking style down the wings, a la Aston Villa. So, it’s basically like this morning’s match except the players seem to be running in molasses and can’t complete a pass. Oh that’s right, it’s exactly like Arsenal this morning.
13: Color me shocked, but there are honest to god traveling Red Bulls supporters in the crowd.
15: Just when I was starting to wonder what was on another channel, there’s some action. Red Bulls make an inch perfect sliding tackle in the box, then turn the ball over on the next play, almost creating an open shot for RSL that predictably fizzles.
17: Clint Mathis is officially a cock. He receives a threaded pass between the defenders that’s just a little bit beyond his reach, and so Mathis proceeds to yell at the other player. Okay dude. Just keep yelling I’m sure he’ll get it perfect next time.
20: Comical play with players flopping all over each other in a man pile that ends in a wasted free kick for RSL. Pretty much the entire game has been in the Red Bulls half. Sideline commentator says that Red Bulls having trouble deciding who to pick up on the backline. Isn’t that what the manager is supposed to tell them before the game?
23: Rojas on for Ubiparipovic who I guess has a hamstring knock
25: Movsisyan has a break on the left and makes a driving shot on goal that’s well saved. RSL still attacking down the wings.
28: GOAL 1-0 Red Bulls! Van der Bergh scores off a Wolnyac pass squared into the box. Angel set up the play with a very nice pass down the left. Quite professional! Can RSL equalize?
32: RSL defense looks pretty shaken. Meanwhile, Dane Richards appears to be a pretty good player for the Red Bulls…. Good pace and control down the wing.
35: A lot of flopping around in the box by RSL. The Italians would be proud.
37: And just like that Dane Richards is down and it doesn’t look too good. He got taken down on a late tackle, yet somehow play keeps going and RSL gets a free kick going the other way. Richards is up now.
39: RSL off the post on the free kick! Okay, I will admit that this is actually a pretty decent game. I watched the Crew Fire match the other day and it was horrid, but this is, you know, kind of exciting. Lots of open play and lots of plays in the box. MLS, you are not utter shit afterall.
42: RSL’s Russell bumped into a Red Bulls player and is now down on the ground holding his shoulder. The dude looks pretty solid so that was a comical “injury.” RSL would do well to grow a pair.
44 Goldwaite picks up a yellow for a late tackle against Morales, who is by far the best player for RSL. Free kick is swung into the box but nothing comes of it. Game is petering out a bit. 2 minutes extra time.
Written by Darkvader on November 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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So Far it looks like he has quite a good chance in our 2008 Hottest Sportsman Awards
Written by Darkvader on November 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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It’s one thing to lose, all teams go through rough periods, but for REAL MADRID to be not only losing, but playing an uninspired, average, hardworking pedestrian style instead of the world class flowing attractive attack minded soccer which is supposed to be its trademark is in no uncertain terms . . . UNFORGIVABLE.
Unfortunately, with the lack of world class talent (CASILLAS is the exception)on the current REAL MADRID roster, I really shouldn’t blame Schuster, but I will. CALDERON, MIJATOVIC, SCHUSTER, RAUL(once a legend now a cancer), VAN NISTELROY, GUTI, ROBBEN, HEINZE, SALGADO - must all go, for the greater good of MADRID!!
Written by estoverao on November 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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Over the next three days, we are publishing a triumvirate of posts relating to that financial fallacy, the free market.
In this first offering, we focus on the very concept of a free market and we link these atmospherics to International Financial Markets (IFMs).
Tomorrow, we address the non-regulated global football betting markets.
On Monday, we will compare the demise of the shareholder capitalist model to the equivalent non-sustainability of a sport that may soon find itself totally dependent on a psychopathic marketplace.
Although, not if we have anything to do with it, it won’t…
In each of these posts, we will be paying particular attention to the clichéd façade of the mainstream media, and their role in supporting these inappropriate structures.
Exciting eh…?
“True democracy,” wrote Penn Jones Jr, “is constant vigilance: not thinking the way you’re meant to think and keeping your eyes wide open at all times.”
The only strategies available to us in order that we might truly understand the machinations of the marketplace are self-generated. All publicly available information is ‘in the price’ and private inside information is not allowed to reach market or regulatory daylight, such knowledge being gamed for proprietary benefit on the private markets instead.
Market Analysts outside the corrupt inner cores of these allegedly free markets need to tool up in order to balance the playing field.
Aside from the Analytics, our kit must include #################################
################################################################################# #######################################################
Such big picture approaches must possess the ability to adjust to new hyperrealities in real-time, both holistically and specifically.
Okay so, fundamentally there is nothing wrong with the concept of a free market. All bartering processes and swaps are essentially free, in that they do not have the hand of the state involved in their operation and completion. Such social exchanges are dependent simply on the goodwill of the participants in the deal.
This is, effectively, a social contract.
These micro-free markets are a thing of beauty.
Macro-free markets are something else entirely, however.
A good friend of mine is the Philosopher, John Shand.
We do not agree with one another politically - he upholds the Austrian School of Economics (Hayek etc), the Chicago School and Milton Friedman, and, being a good man, he honestly believes that macro-free markets will always be the most efficient structure for economic growth.
Leaving aside issues of climatic change and the non-inclusion of externalities in price, his optimistic view of human nature does not stand up to scrutiny.
Right wing libertarians like Hayek and Friedman believed that unfettered markets with no regulatory or government obstructions would be self-sustaining.
Not so.
If one allows such a systemic template, the most psychopathic of individuals will be attracted to such marketplaces, precisely because of the complete lack of regulatory oversight.
We were warned when Long Term Capital Management went bankrupt in the late nineties; Enron and WorldCom were further prompts as to the infeasibility of this macro-free market. The current banking and insurance crises are just the icing on the cake.
If there is no social component to a market, individuals with Psychopathic Personality Disorder/Style (PPDs) and Antisocial Personality Disorder/Style (ASPDs) will always come to dominate the markets.
Worse still, the short-termism that is one of the foundations of such psychologies will become the timescale that defines market robustness.
Focus is always on the current market price, the quarterly figures, the annual reports, the annual bonuses, and never on the longer term impacts of the decisions that maximise such short-termist profits.
Our global economy is dominated by the psychopathy of the rapscallions.
We have repeatedly pointed out the various ways that Hank Paulson is seemingly gaming the Recession/Depression on behalf of his ‘former’ colleagues at Goldman Sachs.
It should not be forgotten that his original proposal for the bailout of the banking sector filled just three sides of A4, and didn’t even mention the term “housing crisis”.
Money for the Moneyheads was all the man desired…
And, furthermore, he grabbed the money under false pretences.
The $700 billion was primarily supposed to be utilised for buying up the toxic assets that were preventing the fuel of finance from flowing.
But then Hank changed his mind.
Why are unelected officials being allowed to act in this manner with our existences?
As Jim Sarni of Payden & Rygel Investment Management stated: “For the Treasury to come out and now say that they are not going to do what they originally planned, is a real credibility problem.”
As was letting Lehman Brothers go under…
As was the banning of short-selling…
As was the rampant targeting of hedge funds…
As was saving AIG with firstly $75 billion, then a further $37.5 billion, and recently a further $150 billion.
Consequently, for just one company, this bailout has cost the equivalent of five years of universal health cover for all residents of the US.
The current chief executive at Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, can hardly believe his good fortune - the market is being repeatedly primed in positive correlation with Goldmans’ hidden agendas.
Blankfein stated this week that, although Goldman may post its first ever quarterly loss on November 30th, he saw “historical opportunities for growth”.
While all about them have been losing their heads, Goldman have added a further 100 top tier clients to their roster this year.
As Kevin Warsh, a governor of the Federal Reserve, stated: “We are witnessing a fundamental reassessment of the value of every asset everywhere in the world.”
The fact that one bank is, in effect, making the decisions that drive these reassessments is, apparently, an example of the free market model.
One might wish to believe that global regulation could protect us from such gaming of the system, but, unfortunately, this is not the case.
Any regulatory template is simply a new format to be psychopathically gamed.
Find the loopholes, corner the markets, trade your inappropriate edge…
So when Mr Paulson was muscling our money off us, claiming that it would be used to bolster the banking system, with its toxic assets, he was lying.
And, furthermore, at the same time that shareholder capitalism was begging with the left hand, they were already planning the next abusive template with the right hand in the form of Dark Pools.
These non-regulated private markets for institutional traders would completely eliminate the possibilities of normal individuals monitoring individual trading activity.
Which brings us on to the global football markets and the lead-in to tomorrow’s post.
The football world is full of Dark Pools - private markets where insiders trade their knowledge of rigged matches and markets.
Except in football, there isn’t even lip service given to any regulatory framework.
All regulation is weak and, where it does exist, national.
There is currently no obstacle to psychopathic gaming of matches to suit the betting strategies of industry insiders.
Absolutely none…
But, the atmosphere is changing.
When we started the Football Is Fixed blog two years ago, there were only a few individuals from outside the loop who believed our assessment of the state of the game.
No longer is this the case.
And, moreover, there is a broad consensus developing.
If we aren’t able to trust bankers, hedge funds, private equity firms, governmental regulators, trading exchanges, investment banks, insurance companies and pensions providers, then why on earth would anybody choose to trust bookmakers and the gambling sector?
The global economy has, in Reality, been in Recession throughout this year.
Only the corporate media has sustained the myth of a different hyperreality.
The same has been true of the media’s reporting of the state of football.
No longer is this the case.
As John Pilger states in reference to the legendary Texan journalist mentioned at the beginning of this post: “This was journalism as it had been before corporate journalism was invented, before the first schools of journalism were set up and a mythology of liberal neutrality was spun around those whose ‘professionalism’ and ‘objectivity’ carried an unspoken obligation to ensure that news and opinion were in tune with an establishment consensus, regardless of the truth.”
With regard to football, we repeat…
…No longer is this the case.
Unfortunately, the blocked out parts of the posts and all posts labelled # are available in full to subscribers only.
Our roster is now full for Football Is Fixed.
But, please enjoy the free snippets that we are posting on this site.
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
Written by Football Is Fixed on November 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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For your viewing pleasure, Al Ahly’s two goals against Coton Sport in the first leg of the African Champions League final last week.
The second leg is tomorrow … should be a good one!! Enjoy!
Written by Darkvader on November 15th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on African Champions League and Al Ahly and Coton Sport.
West Bromwich 0-3 Chelsea
640×352, HQ, English
0-1 Bosingwa
0-2 Anelka
0-3 Anelka
by Lewy10
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0 - 3
by ScreaManUnited
Written by Darkvader on November 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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AS Roma president Rosella Sensi has backed coach Luciano Spalletti to prove his critics wrong and bring success to the Giallorossi.
Spalletti’s future has been brought into question following his side’s inconsistent start to the season which has left them just one place and one point above the relegation zone.
However, Sensi claims the former Empoli and Udinese coach retains her faith and is likely to still be in the Stadio Olimpico hot-seat next season.
“There will always be negative factors - football is like life,” she said.
“Spalletti? He will give us certainties. I am not a betting person, but I would wager that he will be here next season too.”
Meanwhile, Sensi has also revealed that they club are pressing on with plans to build their own stadium.
They currently share the Stadio Olimpico with city rivals Lazio.
“The budget is in surplus and we are looking towards the future,” read a club statement.
“We aspire to have a stadium owned by us and are giving new motivation to an industrial plan.
“We are working very closely with developers.”
Written by eugeniu on November 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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Captain Raul claims the entire Real Madrid team must take the blame for their embarrassing Copa del Rey exit at the hands of Real Union.
The Segunda B side scored in the 90th minute of Tuesday’s second leg to level the tie at 6-6 and progress on the away goal rule.
Raul had scored a hat-trick on the night but, despite Real now conceding 12 goals in their last five games, is refusing to blame his defensive colleagues for their recent troubles.
“This elimination is another low-point for this club that we defend, but it’s not the first time it has happened either,” he said.
“It’s an elimination that is very painful to take. We have been knocked out by a Segunda B team and we have conceded six goals.
“Now we have to analyse our mistakes, correct them and move forward with confidence.
“We have a lot of problems at the back. But all the goals that we have been conceding is an issue for the entire team.”
Written by eugeniu on November 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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Manchester United centre-back Rio Ferdinand has backed team-mate Jonny Evans to become a major star at Old Trafford in the future.
The 20-year-old Northern Ireland defender impressed while on loan at Sunderland last season and has been a regular member of the United matchday squad this term.
Ferdinand told the club’s official website: “Jonny is a top, top player. A few managers wanted to buy him in the summer, so that tells you what a good prospect he is.
“At Sunderland last season he was probably one of their better players. He’s good with both feet, he’s playing for Northern Ireland and he’ll probably be their captain in the near future.
“You can see why the manager fought so hard to keep him and to make sure Jonny realises his future is here at Old Trafford. He’ll have a major part to play in the coming years.
“The manager will just make sure Jonny trains hard and takes the best bits from all the players he works with and brings it to his own game.
“He’s looked assured each time he’s been called upon this season and I’m sure that will continue.”
Written by eugeniu on November 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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Chelsea are co-operating fully with the Football Association and Metropolitan Police after Didier Drogba was charged with violent conduct following an incident in the Blues’ Carling Cup defeat to Burnley on Wednesday.
The Ivory Coast international appeared to throw a coin back into the visiting fans at Stamford Bridge, having been the target of missiles after opening the scoring for the Blues.
The statement from the club read: “Chelsea Football Club will be co-operating fully with the Football Association and Metropolitan Police processes that are now underway regarding the regrettable incidents on Wednesday night.
“We welcome Burnley’s assistance in trying to help identify the small minority of their support who spoiled a great occasion for their club.
“Although Didier Drogba was hit by an object, that does not excuse his subsequent actions. He also recognises that, has not sought to justify it that way, has sincerely expressed his regret and has apologised for the incident.
“The matter will be dealt with internally by the club after the FA and police processes are completed.”
Earlier on Friday, the FA confirmed they had charged Drogba with violent conduct, saying in a statement: “Drogba is alleged to have thrown a missile into the away section of the crowd after scoring during the League Cup match at Stamford Bridge.
“He has until 6pm on Monday 17 November to respond to the charge and a regulatory commission will hear the case on Tuesday 18 November.
“Referee Keith Stroud confirmed to the FA that he had booked Drogba for going towards the opposition supporters to celebrate, but that he had not seen the missile incident.
“The FA has written to both Chelsea and Burnley to request information on missiles thrown at Chelsea players from the Burnley section. The FA is also liaising with Metropolitan Police regarding these incidents.”
Written by eugeniu on November 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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Ho-boy! Why not?? *crickets*
