Precious Roy
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Well the results are in. And we lost. Woo hoo!
Oh wait, losing is bad, isn’t it?
It appears that, despite our parents telling us otherwise, we are not actually the Best Soccer Blog. US Soccer announced the winners of its 2008 Best of… and we ain’t on it. The sadness is almost palpable.
U.S. Soccer has announced the first four winners of the 2008 Best of U.S. Soccer Awards following nearly three weeks of fan voting online at ussoccer.com. Fans can view a special episode of Studio 90 on ussoccer.com, where the winners for Best Soccer Specialty Store, Best Soccer Bar, Best Soccer Blog and Best Fan Photo are revealed. Studio 90 will be back throughout the week, as eight more winners are set to be unveiled.
If that Studio 90 is anything like a special episode of “Facts of Life” I’m not sure I could in good conscious recommend you watch that. Really, I’m never going to be able to scrub that image of Natalie having sex from my cerebellum.
As far as we’re concerned, the only result that matters is for Best Soccer Blog. And that fucking honor goes to Soccer By Ives. So congratulations Ives. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that we’ll have to redouble our ballot-stuffing efforts next year. Either that or be better.
To our readers who voted for us, well, we can’t thank you enough. It tickles us to no end that you click over to our site on a daily basis or thereabouts. And it tickles us even more that Mike Georger feels compelled to comment on every thread. Here’s to hoping that more of you join him.
Written by Darkvader on December 16th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Ballot Box Shenannigans and Blogs and Precious Roy and US Soccer.
If reports are to be believed, FC Barcelona will be tossing its proverbial hat into the ring for the chance to land an MLS expansion team. There had been rumors of this previously, but it appears legit now as The Miami Herald is now reporting that they will indeed buy an MLS lotto ticket.
From the Herald:
Barcelona announced on its website that it would partner with Miami resident Marcelo Claure, a Bolivian cellphone magnate and owner of FC Bolivar, to launch a team in Miami. Claure is the CEO of Brightstar Communications, a multibillion-dollar company that is one of the largest Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States. Joan Laporta, president of Barcelona, and Joan Oliver, the club’s general director, plan to be in Miami Wednesday to present their plans.
First, are they many phrases more intrinsically entertaining than “Bolivian cellphone magnate”? Second, a Spanish team with global appeal opening up a subsidiary in a market full of latinamericanousness, this seems like a no-brainer, right?
Not so fast, mi amigo.
Remember Miami already had an MLS team, the Fusion. They closed up shop in 2001, along with their Floridian brethren the Tampa Bay Mutiny, as MLS contracted from 12 to 10 teams. And even though the league is seemingly on better financial footing, attendance levels are only now back up to what they were during the league’s inaugural season. Plus, if Miami does get a team, it will be in 2011, after 2 other cities (in Seattle 2009, and Philadelphia 2010) have jumped in to dilute the talent pool. That’s a problem for whoever gets bids, though, as a two team expansion in 2011 is happening.
But maybe South Florida just ain’t the sports hotbed that people want it to be. Of the 10 Sports Franchises Most Likely to Move as ranked by Forbes, two of them, the Rays and the Marlins, are in the region.
The Marlins were drawing crowds in the hundreds despite being on the fringe of the playoff race into September. And the Rays made the playoffs and still can’t sell out. Even of the area teams that didn’t make the Forbes list, the gate ain’t great. The Florida Panthers draw 28th out of 30 in the NHL and the FBI is starting to relocate witnesses to Heat games.
So whether the jackpot is really worth winning for Miami remains to be seen.
TFA UPDATE: The Offside Rules had a post recently regarding the potential situs of Miami’s stadium. It’s a neat little stadium with retractable seating to fit soccer fields better. Although, it is not soccer specific as MLS desires, but given the current economic climate, probably isn’t a bad deal to begin with.
Written by Darkvader on October 14th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Barcelona and MLS and Miami Fusion and Precious Roy and Stupid MLS Wankers and Tampa Bay Mutiny.
The US should net 3 or 4 and hold Trinidad and Tobago to 0 or 1. And the fact that’s pretty much a consensus amongst people that consensutize these things, it makes me a little nervous. More nerving is Bob Bradley’s ĂĽber-conservative approach to World Cup qualifying.
Still, at home and against a weaker opponent (although one with decidedly more rhythm) anything less than 3 points would be bad. Really, really bad.
Come back at kick and play along.
T-minus 10: I’m eating.
T-minus however much bullshit pregame is on ESPN: Done eating. I’ll go get the starting XIs. And all right… We get some Shaka Hislop. That should liven things up in the booth.
Tim Howard
Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, Heath Pearce,
Michael Bradley, Sacha Kljestan, DaMarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan
Brian Ching
[Not certain if that's a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3 with Dempsey and Donovan joining Ching up top. I'm guessing it's not]
T&T
Marvin Phillip
Akile Edwards, Osei Telesford, Keyeno Thomas, Cyd Gray, Makan Hislop
Clyde Leon, Carlos Edwards, Densill Theobald, Keon Daniel
Cornell Glen
Anthems. Would have thought T&T’s would have had a little more bass. And some kind of a beat.
Ford Field looks all sparkly. Sorry, inside joke. Looks like kind of a weak crowd. See lots of empty seats in the upper deck.
Oh, fuck. They’re going to bring 9/11 into this. Fuck you ESPN and Disney. And that’s followed-up by a Marines commercial. You know if we were playing Afghanistan, I’d be okay with this, but we’re not. In fact T&T is probably the opposite of Afghanistan… if countries can have opposites.
Kick.
1st minute: ESPN has perfected a graphic that obscures the upper left corner of the screen. Nice.
2nd minute: Beasley offside on a ball across the pitch. US controlling possession early.
3rd minute: Had two players in naked on a ball from 25 out, but both were offside. Hey, at this rate we’ll rack up 60 offsides calls.
5th minute: First counter from T&T. Play down the left and Pearce comes out with it. US working back through the midfield. Lots of room. Now pushing forward the US is. Yoda I’ve become.
6th minute: A good two years behind everything, the US fans have started chanting “7 Nation Army.” Stop, please. Thank you. T&T with possession in the midfield. First free kick of the game here. About 30 yards out from center right. Shot goes to the far post by no Soca Warriors in the zip code and Howard goes to his knees to grab it.
8th minute: Kind of tuned out from teh commentary, but did they say that John Terry scored the last goal against the US? That would be wrong.
9th minute; GOAL! Donovan from a set piece to Bradley. Bradley put a foot on it and redirected it back to the back post. Pretty. By the way… on replay that looked like it MIGHT have been offsides.
12th minute: Oh so close. Couldn’t see who that was, but that could have easily been 2-0. I haven’t livebogged since the Euro. I’ve forgotten that typing and watching takes some skill and a second pair of eyes. I have neither. Anyway, I missed all the action. Only saw the keeper flying out and the ball flying someplace besides on goal.
13th minute: Does Stern John still play anywhere? Who’s the other T&T player I’m trying to think of? Played at United. Brainfaring. Long ball went too long from the US. Goal kick for T&T.
16th minute: We’ve got a piper diwn. Ack… very little contact from Ching. Maybe a touch of the cleat. Get up you pansy. Anyway, the US is dominating play in the midfield with all kinds of space to operate in. They’d be wise to start marking tighter or trying to shut down the passing lanes.
18th minute: GOAL. 2-0 US. Beasley with a nice little through ball to Dempsey, who was totally onside (Ching was off). Dempsey had the keeper beat before he put his foot to it. Good finishing. Nice play. (And Ian, England can only put a donkey stomp on teams when they are a man up, at even strength they are still a mediocre side… Plus they were probably trying to throw the game to get the World Cup vote).
21st minute: Ooh, the keeper Philip kind of threw his legs over Donovan as he came out to make a play on a ball in the box. They gonna card Landon? Nope. Keeper is up. Play on. Well, play on from the dead ball. T&T coming into the midfield and they are really struggling to get into the attacking third.
23rd minute: A little more possession from T&T. But it’s not very productive possession. Ugh… then they just give it away. I like a pasting every now and then, but I like a competitive pasting better. Come on Soca Warriors (bang, bang), put up more of a fight.
25th minute: That’s two straight giveaways from Ching…. oh, and a long ball. Donovan settles. Handball? Nope. And he can’t control it anyway.
26th minute: Back to Ching. I really like Brian Ching. Think he’s an upper-tier MLS striker, but at the international level, he’s not going to scare anyone outside of CONCACAF. He’s just not. Ever. So why not bring in Altidore and let him play with an experienced supporting midfield? If we have any hopes in South Africa, it’s going to rest on those kids. Let’s get them the experience.
28th minute: During my pontificating, Ching and Donovan both got in alone on goal, but it was offside. Now to Beasley down the left. He cuts inside and fires low, but it goes into the side netting.
29th minute: Case in point. Donovan put it right on Brian Ching’s waistline and Ching does nothing with it except let it deflect of his nads and into Marvin Phillip’s hands. Should have been a goal.
31st minute: Beasley upset. He was tripped up and the ball went over the endline from the T&T player’s foot, but a GK was called. Bad call. Beasley was right to whinge.
32nd minute: Cyd Gray on the right is the only player from T&T earning his pay for the night on defense so far. And I love his name. So I shall call him El Cyd from now on.
34th minute: You know, Onyewu and Bocanegra are a dynamite defending tandem when nobody is mounting an attack. I need a toothpick. Be right back.
37th minute: Duh… Dwight Yorke. That’s who I was trying to remember. Stupid me. US playing a lot of long balls and it’s working with the space T&T is giving. It would never work against a Top 20 international side.
39th minute: And Beasley can’t finish a sitter. Good thing he was offside to spare himself the humiliation. It was a good ball from the right side between the 18 and the 6 through to Beasley coming in on the left hand side. He just mistimed the run.
41st minute: T&T is just giving it away. Really. They’ll put together about 3 or 4 passes then just send it to a white shirt wihtout making him work for it. The US is in white by the way. Corner for T&T cleared. On the break, the US counters. Dempsey… And he goes down. No call?
42nd minute: Still waiting for a replay. Haven’t seen one. That probably should have been a PK. Hislop just said he thinks the Jamaican res if pro-T&T. I appreciate that kind of candor in my color commentary.
43rd minute: Donovan with a great run on the right from a long feed out of midfield. He crosses it but Beasley can’t get a good foot on it to threaten goal. Ball is deflected wide left before the US can re-mount the threat.
45th minute: Dempsey pulled down. No call. Starting to think Hislop is on to something. 1 minute stoppage time. US gives the ball away in midfield. T&T gives it back. How nice. Howard clears the ball played back. Think the US defense played it back just to make sure Howard wasn’t sleeping.
Half. 2-0. US.
Well in the interest of finishing what I started… The second half is moments away. Just found out that Wreckless Eric is in town on Sunday (with Amy Rigby… think they might be married now), anyway, slightly stoked about that.
Kick… And we’re back
46th minute: Hey a shot from T&T. It’s from 35 out and it’s no where near a threat but it’s a shot, I believe their first of the game. Ching is slow to get up in midfield behind the play. He’s limping.
47th minute: Corner for T&T. Good service. Deflected up. Now to the top of the box. Still a threat. T&T can’t control it and an errant leg sends an errant ball someplace errant. US now in midfield. The good news is that the Soca Warriors have some fight in them and we might get some action on both ends this half.
49th minute: Daniel with a great cross, but the only person in red in the box can’t get on the end of it. Cleared by the US. Corner.
50th minute: Corner comes in… and goes out. And results in another corner. Again. And another… Oh wait, this last one was a throw. El Cyd lost it and the US takes a throw, then turns it over. Ugh, this is not pretty from the US. But credit T&T for getting forward and putting pressure on the ‘Mericans.
51st minute: Daniel with a free kick. Goes in low to the first line of US defense just inside the 18. No threat to Howard. T&T with a throw in.
53rd minute: T&T with another good cross blocked out by Onyewu, but about the 5th corner for T&T. And Cherundolo saved a goal. GREAT play on the line. From a header off the corner Howard was beat. Steve-O saved it at the post.
55th minute: US with a beauty counter Dempsey to Donovan to Ching and Ching can’t finish the cross again. Donovan put it right at his foot. There were a couple of defenders but Ching should have done more with that. More pressure from T&T back the other way.
56th minute: The US can’t buy a call, and considering this is a third world ref that should be cheap and easy to do. Uhp… and I stand corrected Edwards gets a yellow for T&T on what looked clean.
57th GOAL 3-0. From the deadball, Beasley sends it in. Onyewu got a head on it and the keeper failed to collect it. Ching was there to tap it into an empty net (although it looked like he was offside… but no flag).
59th minute: Yellow to Cherundolo. Now T&T with another yellow. This one on Leon for a hard challenge on Donovan. And did the ref just give one to Beasley too? Cards are flying.
60th minute: GOa… Nope. T&T offside. Too bad. They should have scored there. Okay, could not should, but great chance at least forced a save from Howard.
62nd minute: Cherundolo gets free on the right, then lofts one tall enough to clear the Hancock Tower. Get it, Chicago… Hancock. Okay stupid. And the US blew another chance while I was being stupid. Loose rebound in the box. Nobody could poke it away. Decent save from Marvin Philip.
65th minute: Ricardo Clarke (sp?) and Eddie Johnson are both up. So maybe some changes coming.
67th minute: And Clark comes in for the coach’s kid. And Johnson for Ching. Important minutes for Johnson here. He needs to show some decent form.
68th minute: Long ball into the box for T&T. Cornell gets a head to it. It goes over the bar. Howard doesn’t need to make a save, but it keeps him alert. The liveblog is probably better if I publish my updates. Stupid me.
70th minute: Pace is slowing. US in no hurry to do anything. T&T is not forcing them to do anything. Teams exchange a little possession, then the US gets forward. Beasley can’t find Johnson. Well, he found him, he just failed to get him the ball.
Sorry… answering texts. Nothing of consequence happened anyway.
75th minute: Cornell Glen is down for T&T. So Yorke is still playing for the national team, he just didn’t come in from Sunderland. First they’ve mentioned of it.
78th minute: Dempsey off. Eddie Lewis on.
80th minute: Lewis with a ball in. Corner US. Apparently this is our first of the match. Really? Clark with a good header. Almost looked like a handball on T&T to stop it.
82nd minute: And Johnson thwarted twice from inside the 8… Ack. He needs to get off the schnide. But to no avail.
83rd minute: Much sloppier in the midfield from the US. A little more pressure on the back from T&T and we’re not super solid. The scoresheet is going to look really good, but there will be plenty to coach from in the second half. Wonder if it will be coached. This is CONCACAF. We can get sloppy and not be punished and we can go a whole qualifier without our backline having to prove much.
85th minute: Ball to Glen. But the space is shut down and he’s got no place to go with it. He had a step where, if he had been decisive, he might have had a play, but it was shut down. Bummer for T&T. They’ve played much better in the second half. Be nice if they got something out of it.
87th minute: This chant is annoying. But, the fact that we have a crowd that will sing anything this long (they’ve been at it for like 20 minutes if not more) is kind of a positive. T&T into the US third… then they give it away. Too much of that. They need better linkage out of the midfield.
90th minute: Glen with a ball at the top of the box… Oh, almost got it to Leon. He would have been in alone, but Bocanegra (maybe) got a foot on it. And we’re into stoppage time.
+2 minutes: Another almost for the US. To a corner. Then a ball to Donovan. Cleared for another corner. Apparently Eddie Johnson was offside. Really? Not sure how. T&T with some passing on some tight marking. The US is working to keep the clean sheet.
Whistle. Final. 3-0. Really solid in the first half. Less so in the second. But a solid win and we’re on 9 points out of 9 possible.
Thanks for playing along people. This weekend the EPL returns (Suck it, Barclays). Yeah.
Written by Darkvader on September 10th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Precious Roy and Trinidad and Tobago and USMNT and World Cup Qualifying.
Or something like that. But according to Cuba, the USMNT were failures in their World Cup qualifier against the island nation and only Mother Nature could even muster a threat to the team. Of course according to Cuba it’s also 2007.
The pic above is a screenshot in case Pravda The Cuban News Agency gets hip to what year we’re in. Or maybe in their version of history, there is a Year Zero, so it really is 2007. Hey, close enough for government work.
At least you know not to trust state run propaganda.
The game started with Cuba attacking and a nervous US team didn’t seem to find its way of playing. The first actions were on Cuba’s behalf when at the second minute Carlos Francisco hit a ball coming from a corner kick over the goal. Cuba didn’t seem to be worried and was playing in an easy and confident way.
Anyway, conspicuously absent from the article is the final score. Obviously, Cuba is not threatened by losses.
Ike Threatens Cuba [www.cubanews.ain.cu]
Written by Darkvader on September 9th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Cigars and Cuba and Precious Roy and USMNT.
Uh, how the fuck did, Cambodia (see above) make the Olympic soccer tournament, much less make it out of the group stage and into the quarters?
Oh right. They didn’t. In fact, Cambodia totally sucks at football, currently holding down spot number 183 (out of 207) in the FIFA rankings.
Clearly this is a mistake as Brazil was matched up against Cameroon, an entirely different country on an entirely different continent, in the quarterfinals of the Olympic soccer tournament.
My initial reaction was that somebody working at wherever Comcast buys this service from (TV Guide?) is really fucking stupid and when they saw the country abbreviation on an information sheet someplace reading ‘CAM’ they assumed it was for ‘Cambodia.’
But then I thought that, given how fucking stupid Americans are when it comes to geography in particular, whoever had the job writing this copy probably didn’t even know there was a country called Cambodia. Instead they saw ‘CAM’ and checked it against an alphabetical list of countries. When they came to ‘Cambodia’ they simply stopped and didn’t bother to look at the next item on the list.
That’s plausible except for the fact that the abbreviation for Cameroon is ‘CMR’ not ‘CAM.’
And you’d have to be phenomenally stupid to get from CMR to Cambodia, because, while Cambodia actually does have an Olympic delegation in Beijing, they don’t have an ‘R’ in the name of their country.
America, trying to live up to every stereotype about it.
Written by Darkvader on August 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Cambodia and Cameroon and Olympics and Precious Roy and Stupid Americans.
With the departures of Keller, Bocanegra, and McBride, Craven Cottage will be decidedly less xenophobic this season.
On the upside, fewer Americans might also mean less of a struggle to avoid the drop.
Or not.
Last season the Cottagers won four of their last five to keep their Premiership afloat. And even then it was just barely as they survived on goal difference alone. But Keller was the keeper during that run, and McBride also returned to the line-up shortly before then, giving the team an emotional (and scoring) lift. So the Americans had a strong hand in keeping Mohamed Al-Fayed’s club in the top tier.
See, we don’t hate all brown people.
Anyway, Roy Hodgson has made some decent off season moves. Andy Johnson isn’t one of them.
Bringing Mark Schwartzer over from Boro and Fredrik Stoor in from Rosenborg should help shore up the defense. Remember, Fulham lost three of their first four by a score of 2-1. In all three of those instances they either held a lead at some point (Ha, ha, Lehmann) or were level at the 75th minute or later. They then drew their next four fixtures after holding late leads in two of them.
In other words, if they hadn’t sucked late early, they wouldn’t have been worrying so late. The upgrades in back should help them defend leads, assuming of course they get some.
To that end Bobby Zamora is a serviceable striker who should give the Cottagers a little scoring boost. Also allowing Clint Dempsey to play a more comfortable midfield position should help the same. Hell, just having Jimmy Bullard healthy for a full season will be beneficial. Plus, even with the lower Yank quotient, Fulham maintains a soft spot in my heart simply for fielding a player who could be Bob Pollard’s body double (and he plays like a guy with bulldog skin).
The Cottagers also benefit by the widening gulf between the Premiership in the Championship. Hull and Stoke are almost locks to finish 19th and 20th. That means that Fulham (and everyone else for that matter) just have to be better than one more team.
And in a league with Stupid Fucking Bolton, that shouldn’t be too tough.
Written by Darkvader on August 15th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on EPL Season Preview and Fulham and Fulhamerica and Precious Roy and Stupid Fucking Bolton.
Anyone clicking over from Deadspin on noticing that half The Closer post never made it up can find the rest of it (with a paragraph overlap to get you started) after the jump. I’ll leave it up until things get fixed on Gawker servers.
…
Go back to Deadspin. Post is all better.
Written by Darkvader on August 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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What’s the going rate on humiliation?
If you’re Dave Kitson, it’s apparently ÂŁ5.5 million. That’s the price Stoke City paid so that the red-headed Reading striker could come over and experience the thrill of relegation for the second consecutive season.
Because Stoke is going back down. The only people who don’t think so are Stoke City fans and people who believe in fairies, magical gumdrops, and politicians.
But for the season being Stoke is up and for that they get pleasure of being previewed. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with a happy ending.
Unless you think that pushing for 19th equals happy.
Starting from the back, with the movement of two American keepers to Villa, Thomas Sorenesen was allowed to walk. Stoke picked him up on a free transfer, so the Potters will have a serviceable keeper with experience at the top flight.
On the back line Stoke will struggle, not Derby-type struggle, but only three teams in the top half of the Colaship—Watford, Ipswich, and Charlton—let in more goals than Stoke during the last campaign. Lack of skill will be compensated for with physical play. Ideally for the candystripers, runs into their defensive third will be nasty, brutish, and short. In reality though, they are still losing often and going back down, and watching it happen might be just brutish for fans of attractive football (or even unattractive football).
The midfield—and manager Tony Pulis probably won’t stray from a 4-4-2—will likely feature Liam Lawrence on the right with some combination of Salif Diao Glenn Whelan, and Nigerian Seyi Olofinjana, who is over from Wolves, up the middle. On the left? No idea.
Whoever plugs that hole better be a nominal threat to score as the lot of the likely midfield line-up only total about 60 strikes since 2004.
Who’ll be playing up top with Kitson? That might be TBD. Stoke is currently fighting with Hull for the possible services of Claudio Pizarro.
Stoke is also in talks with Valencia over the services of Nikola Zigic, the Croatian Crouchie. Okay, he’s actually Serbian, which totally fucks what would be one of the better nicknames in football, but at 6′8″ Zigic is really good at being tall.
But that’s about the only thing Stoke will be really good at (that’s assuming they get him). And even the most optimistic of fans can’t put expectations much higher than a fight to avoid rerelegation. If they are close, Stoke does have a couple of late matches where they might be able to pick up points (at Stoke Hull and home to Wigan) but they better be clear before the season’s last week as they close at the Emirates.
Written by Darkvader on August 11th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on EPL Season Preview and Precious Roy and Relegation and Stoke City.
Arsenal is going to win the EPL (Suck it, Barclay’s).
I say that not because I fully believe it, but because I said the same thing about Spain for their Euro preview. I not only nailed that one but maybe in some Heisenbergian way, I caused that one.
So I’m being greedy and going for a repeat. Ergo: Arsenal wins the Prem.
I’m sure everyone is laughing. But about this time last year just about anybody with a pulse and regular access to the Prem was saying Arsenal would finish outside the top four and maybe someone else, like Tottenham, would crack a Champions League spot.
Yet, entering the last weekend in February, there were the Gunners, sitting on top of the table five points clear of United.
Then they played Birmingham City.
And as bad as the hatchet job by Taylor on Eduardo’s leg was, the bigger blow that game was the bullshit penalty call awarded to the Brummies in the 89th minute. That set off a string of four consecutive draws, three against teams that finished in the bottom half of the table.
A blown lead at Stamford Bridge to book end the draws and the Gunner’s season had gone from celebration to shit before they were even out of March. Some egregiously awful calls both home and away to Liverfourth—seriously, if that ref had one more eye, he would have been a cyclops—in the Champions League and zero cups later, the season was done. In a word: fuck.
So in the off season Flamini walks on a freebie, Hleb fucks off Barca (yeah, that’s a quiet town you Belarusian prick), and Adebayor pitches a money fit. Arsenal fans start waking up nightly in cold sweats mumbling, “Spend some money you French twit.”
Wenger responds by signing a couple of zygotes and starts accosting drunk couples in bars to see if they are going to fuck without protection because he’s already scouted the girl’s uterus.
Lovely. Just fucking lovely.
But Aaron Ramsey has looked comfortable in pre-season, while Nasri has looked even better, and frigging sixteen year old Jack Wilshere has looked awesome. Really, he’s all of 16. When I was his age I was trying to get into AP Calculus and Amy Ryan’s pants, not the starting XI at Highbury.
Oh, and Adebayor? He’s still a Gunner. Van Persie navigated the Euros without getting hurt, so he’s good for at least the first 10 fixtures of the season. By then Eduardo might be walking again. And what if Walcott finally has a breakout season? Because he’ll be getting fed by Cesc in the midfield. Jesus Crispies, even Bendtner has been menacing in exhibitions. And I almost forgot Carlos Vela, who has been scoring more than an electrified scoring machine on the scoringest day of the year.
I mean, why the fuck would Wenger go splashing cash around just for the sake of splashing cash around? The Gunners going forward are still talented as all get out and it is going to be a thing of beauty to watch.
Yeah, yeah. They don’t give style points (but if they did we’d be looking at like a 5-peat on the treble). You’ve got to put the ball in the back of the net. And pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, miss will make 08-09 look a lot like 07-08. And the backline is still a concern. I mean Senderos is still a Gunner. And that can’t be good for anyone, even Senderos.
But so far this year (which hasn’t even started) sounds a lot like last year when, at this time, there was lot of talk about Arsenal’s rivals and lots of handwringing going on at the Emirates.
So yeah, Arsenal is going to win the Prem. And they are going to look good doing it.
Fuck, now I’ve gotten myself all excited for the season. Hurry the fuck up, Mr. Calendar, I’ve got some football to watch.
Written by Darkvader on August 8th, 2008 with no comments.
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Well this is likely to get messy.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
But perhaps the ruling earlier in the week by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that clubs did not have to release players for the Olympics wasn’t translated into Spanish as the one of the key figures in the row, Lionel Messi, was on the pitch for the Albicelete’s Olympic opener against the Ivory Coast.
Barcelona wanted Messi in club colors as they have a Champions League qualifier that overlaps with the Olympic schedule, while Messi wanted to play in the Olympics to fulfill a boyhood dream of winning a gold medal.
Thing is this wasn’t a sneak attach as Argentine coach Sergio Batista said that, even after the CAS ruling, Messi would play.
Good thing for the Albiceleste as Messi netted the first goal then, late in the second half, did all the hard work that led to the Argies 86th minute match winner. Messi got loose deep on the left side and let fly with a howler. The Ivorian keeper was able to get a hand on the ball, but it deflected right in front where Acosta poked it into an open goal: 2-1 Argentina.
Update: Apparently, Barca is totally cool with Messi playing, meaning that ultimately this story boils down to: “Soccer player plays soccer.” Awesome.
Hey, sometimes this shit happens while we’re asleep. We’ll take credit just for finding soccer on TV at 7 am on a Thursday.
Written by Darkvader on August 7th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Lionel Messi and Olympics and Precious Roy and argentina.
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