You were good when you wore this shirt. What happened?
[Ed. Note: I'm still in a daze over Beckham joining Milan after Christmas, so forgive the light, well, non-existent posting this morning. Thoughts on that at some point.]
See, I told you there’d be barely any goals in the CL yesterday. Tuesday stole them all, dammit!
Considering we have Villa and Spurs fans reading along, today is their day. All the big clubs are tucked up in bed after their big, important European adventures, and today, it’s the kids’ turn in Little Cup. To which exotic destinations will these brave clubs travel? What languages might they need to speak? Will we have heard of any of the teams they’re playing?
(I could keep going, but I won’t)
In light of David Bentley’s “bit shit” comments last night, which surely served as the perfect digestif to Juande’s long lunch spent staring into the abyss and drooling, we will have some fun watching just how Spurs manage to corral their flabby, directionless collective into a coherent 90 minutes in Italy. Or maybe Ramos will just use the opportunity to check out Serie A “wanted” ads.
After the jumps, lineups, fun, and your colourful comments. It’s a good day to be alive.
Udinese v. Spurs
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Udinese: Handanovic, Motta, Coda, Domizzi, Lukovic, Inler, D’Agostino, Isla, Sanchez, Quagliarella, Di Natale.
Subs: Koprivec, Sala, Ferronetti, Pasquale, Obodo, Pepe, Floro Flores.
The Serie A club known as the “Little Zebras” are at virtually full-strength, anchored by an alarming number of Chileans. Alexis Sanchez and Mauricio Isla anchor the midfield, and the strike partnership of Italian National side fringe players Antonio Di Natale and Fabio Quagliarella should thrive against the visibly-aloof Spurs back 4.
According to his wikipedia page, Di Natale is “well known known for scoring impressive goals.” Considering the form of Spurs at the back this season, any goals he scores tonight will seem rather ordinary and run-of-the-mill by comparison to previous tallies.
Spurs: Gomes, Hutton, King, Woodgate, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Zokora, Jenas, O’Hara, Bale, Bent.
Subs: Cesar, Dawson, Gilberto, Gunter, Modric, Campbell, Giovani.
Gomes has been warned to not injure any of his own tonight, and we see rare starts for Assou-Ekotto and Jamie O’Hara. The center-back pairing of Samson-esque Woodgate and Samsonite-esque Ledley King should provide some comedy this evening. And yes, Ramos looks to be employing UF’s favourite formation, the 4-5-1.
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Other games tonight:
Aston Villa v. Ajax (kick off: 3.15pm ET)
Braga v. Portsmouth (kick off: 3.15pm ET)
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Updates:
Spurs are still losing 1-0 from a 1st half penalty given up by Gomes, which is a shame as he’s been superb since. Jamie O’Hara did manage a rather Barton-esque feat of greatness in getting 2 yellows within a minute and taking an early bath. Close to the end there. 1-0 Udinese still.
Aston Villa v. Ajax
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Aston Villa: Friedel, Luke Young, Cuellar, Laursen, Shorey, Reo-Coker, Petrov, Barry, Milner, Agbonlahor, Ashley Young.
Subs: Guzan, Sidwell, Harewood, Davies, Knight, Salifou, Gardner.
Expected line-up, right? O/U on number of misplayed passes for Reo-Coker currently set at 102.
Ajax: Vermeer, Silva, Oleguer, Vermaelen, Emanuelson, Lindgren, Sarpong, Vertonghen, Suarez, Huntelaar, Gabri.
Subs: Vonk, Van Der Wiel, Cvitanich, Leonardo, Sno, Anita, Schilder.
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Braga v. Portsmouth
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Braga: Eduardo, Frechaut, Moises, Alberto Rodriguez, Evaldo, Vandinho, Alan, Matheus, Aguiar, Renteria, Meyong.
Subs: Mario Felgueiras, Mossoro, Paulo Cesar, Jorginho, Stelvio Cruz, Cesar Peixoto, Joao Pereira.
4-5-1, probably? No clue. I hear Renteria is good.
Portsmouth: James, Campbell, Pamarot, Armand Traore, Distin, Davis, Diop, Hreidarsson, Little, Defoe, Crouch.
Subs: Ashdown, Utaka, Mvuemba, Hughes, Kanu, Belhadj, Wilson.
Nothing outrageous here either. Seeing a Traore in the starting XI is instant cause for concern. The Traores don’t make things easy for their teammates, oh no sir. Little and Large continue to spearhead a decent Pompey attack.
Written by Darkvader on October 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Lingering Bursitis and Spurs and Spurs are awful and UEFA Cup and adventures in travel and aston villa and portsmouth.
Nothing will ever be simple for the Hicks family in Liverpool. They were welcomed with the same cautious enthusiasm that met soldiers in Baghdad square (well, we’re led to believe so anyway), and now, they’ve been exposed as rather insidious and dishonest since then.
Liberators on one hand, now they’re the dismal status quo holding us back.
Well, it seems like even a monumental win over Manchester United this weekend STILL couldn’t buy them some second-hand goodwill.
Tom Hicks’ son, Alex Hicks, thought that a night on the town would be a bit of fun, although a drunk American outside the Cavern Club is going to draw some attention, especially when traveling with a small cadre of minders and bodyguards (Rule #1: no matter how restless and crude the natives appear to be, treat interaction with them as something more relaxed than an anthropological journey).
Back at the hotel, a fight broke out, and his bodyguard punched out a security guard and spent the night in the clink.
From the report:
“Witnesses said alcohol and cutlery were hurled out of an upstairs window to the street below. A drunken fracas is believed to have revolved around Alex Hicks and his group of friends.”
He was charged with assault and sent on his way, but it is yet more bad press for the already embattled Americans in charge at Anfield. At least Gillett has been seen at some games recently! He even tried to sing along with You’ll Never Walk Alone!
Still, it’s worth noting that the incident took place at the Hard Day’s Night Hotel, the recent downtown development of a Beatles-themed hotel. There’s an All You Need Is Love joke in there somewhere…
Written by Darkvader on September 18th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on American Owners and Fights and Liverpool FC and adventures in travel and crime.
I don’t often enjoy being proven wrong, but this is one time where I’m completely fine with it.
Hit the jump for the big scores round-up. Not a bad night for the Home Nations overall, with Wales being the only loser. Scotland bagged a great result away from home, and Northern Ireland did well to hold the Czechs to a goalless draw.
Croatia 1 - Mandzukic 78
England 4 - Walcott 26, Walcott 59, Rooney 63, Walcott 82
FYR Macedonia 1 - Pandev 77 (pen)
Netherlands 2 - Heitinga 47, van der Vaart 59
Finland 3 - Johansson 33, Vayrynen 43, Sjolund 53
Germany 3 - Klose 38, Klose 45, Klose 83
France 2 - Henry 54, Anelka 64
Serbia 1 - no clue who scored it
Iceland 1 - Gudjohnsen 77 (pen)
Scotland 2 - Broadfoot 18, Robson 59
Italy 2 - De Rossi 17, De Rossi 89
Georgia 0
Lithuania 2 - Danilevicius 53, Danilevicius 58
Austria 0
Moldova 1 - Picusciac 1
Israel 2 - Golan 40, Saban 45
Montenegro 0
Rep. of Ireland 0
Northern Ireland 0
Czech Republic 0
Portugal 1 - Nani 40
Denmark 0
Russia 2 - Pavlyuchenko (pen) 22, Pogrebniak 81
Wales 1 - Ledley 67
Spain 2 - Capdevila 8, Villa 17
Armenia 0
Written by Darkvader on September 10th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Croatia and England and I no longer have a man crush on Slaven Bilic and Lingering Bursitis and adventures in travel and wow.
I love stories like this because they remind me just why we’re all fans of this wonderful game. Despite their lunacy, you can’t fault a loyal crowd of Man City fans from doing literally whatever it takes to see their team play.
As their UEFA Cup qualifier against EB/Streymur from the Faroe Islands loomed, a group of fans noticed how expensive plane tickets were to the tiny Northern European country, and so they made alternative arrangements: they hired a fishing vessel to take them.
For Mancunians, this is some seriously forward thinking.
The plan was simple: drive from Manchester to Aberdeen, then take a ferry from the northeastern tip of Scotland to the Shetland Islands, and then board the vessel that would carry them on a 26-hour odyssey across to the Faroe port of Torshavn. Presumably they could then walk to Streymur from there considering how small the islands are.
It’s a brilliant plan, and an inspiring one at that. It’s just a shame that Mother Nature shat on their parade already.
Within 24 hours of the original story via the Telegraph, the BBC reported this afternoon that the vessel was grounded in the Shetlands due to sustained poor weather. Dear oh dear.
If you needed more proof that Man City were not God’s team of choice, that would be it.
However, as with all feel-good stories of love and devotion, the force of human kindness intervened, not without the natural PR upside, and gave these sullen Mancs a happy ending: a Faroes-based airline, Atlantic Airlines, has agreed to come and pick them up and fly ‘em round trip for free.
Said company president Magni Arge:
“We’ve agreed to help these Manchester City supporters because this is a great event in the Faroes having Manchester City here.
This is a great opportunity for us to show there is an airline based in the Faroes which can serve both Shetland and the Faroes Islands and we’ve got some sponsors to help us make this feasible.”
Problem solved! Now all they need to worry about is the Blues coming away with a solid victory.
Written by Darkvader on July 16th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Lingering Bursitis and Manchester City and UEFA Cup and adventures in travel.
