Archive for the 'Sport' Category

14JulPost World Cup Address

The World Cup is soon becoming a distant memory, the Final finally coming to a close 2 hours after kick-off on Sunday 11th July 2010 and now, we’re in that situation we experience every summer where we have the long wait for the new football season to start.

The long and short of this World Cup is that it sucked. It sucked hard. From the god awful coverage from both ITV and the BBC, to the complete lack of crowd personality with the Vuvuzela simply drowning out great chants and support with its incessant buzzing and the competitions rather poor football.

I’ve watched World Cup’s regularly since Italia ’90, so this was my sixth and I think it’s safe to say that this was my least favourite. We’ll get this out of the way first… I really don’t like England, I feel no heart and passion for the side, nor do I fall into the common misnomer that England are a major side, so going into this competition, as with other World Cups, I wasn’t in a position whereby if England were eliminated far too early it wouldn’t affect my enjoyment of the tournament. Of course I want them to win and do well, but if they don’t then I’m really not bothered. Some people do seem surprised by this, they can’t understand how I can’t get behind my country (albeit only half, I genuinely feel more passion for the efforts given by the Scottish despite a lesser quality squad) when I was born here, especially when I’m so passionate about football on a regular basis and be a die hard Man Utd fan. The simple answer is that I support Manchester United every single second of every single day, I’ve been to see them countless times live, I watch every single game and follow the news every day, with England they don’t play too often, Friendly’s are pointless and major tournaments are only every 2 years. In Lehman’s terms, I’m full-time Man Utd and England are a summer job.

The first round of the World Cup saw teams going out there not to lose rather than going out there to win. Games were cagey events and, if I’m being honest, the quality of football just wasn’t up to snuff and the overall tournament statistics go some way to proving this, with the 2010 World Cup having less shots on target than any other World Cup in history. The games did improve over time, but barely and no games reached the quality of Argentina vs Mexico from World Cup ’06 in Germany, which is one of my favourite, if not my favourite, International games of all time.

The final saw the Dutch, who had played solid football all tournament against a stuttering and rather boring Spanish side and, much like the rest of the tournament, it also disappointed. The Dutch, instead of focussing on what they can do, as they did against the Brazilians, went all Man Utd against Barcelona, and tried to stop the opposition, resulting in some of the worst tackling you will see in a major tournament. The Spanish of course were no saints, throwing themselves to the floor and surrounding the referee waving imaginary cards. It was a case of all my least favourite things in football on display from both sides. Sods law then that it would be a refereeing mistake to not award a corner resulting in yet another last minute winner from Spain.

All in all it was clear that South Africa was never the right place to hold the World Cup, and thankfully it won’t be there again for a while. We’ve just sat through a month of one of the most instantly forgettable International football and now I’m really hoping that the footballing seasons ahead will allow us to forget that rubbish.

One thing good did come from the World Cup though, and that’s a realization of just how good Martin Tyler and Andy Gray are as commentators. Every single pairing on terrestrial TV World Cup coverage were shockingly bad.

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28Jan2009 Awards: Part One

Every year I do some awards where I jot down a whole bunch of things from the previous year that stood out, from games, protagonists, music and movies. I’ll be doing it a little differently this year as I plan to write something about each particular thing and plan to keep adding to them over the coming days. To change it up a little from the talk of games, the first area I’m going to cover is going to be football.

Football

Team of the Year:

I always feel a little dirty voting against Manchester United, but last year you really, really couldn’t look past Barcelona. I genuinely feel we should have beaten Barcelona and forgoing an injury to Owen Hargreaves and a ridiculous suspension to Darren Fletcher then we would have set up differently and, I’m confident, have beaten them on the night. Aside from that though, Barcelona really were a cut above the rest, from an insane number of goals shared across their three strikers, Messi, Henry and Eto’o to the complete domination of the midfield through the silky skills of Andres Iniesta and passing quality of Xavi. All over the pitch they had stars that performed week in and week out, they definitely deserved their plaudits.

Best Player:

Everyone seems to say that Messi was the best player last season, I really don’t agree, sure he bagged a load of goals but he doesn’t do it on his own. For me, both Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique stood out at Barcelona above anyone else last year. I do love my defenders, but for me, the mercurial Iniesta deserves it, he was the heart of the Barcelona midfield, rescued them against Chelsea (the biggest fix ever) and seemed to be an integral part to every single flowing move that Barcelona put together. If I could take any player at Manchester United right now then Iniesta would be the one, he just oozes class.

Honourable Mention:

I’ll go with Gerard Pique. I was always a huge fan of him at Manchester United and was incredibly dismayed when we opted to keep Jonny Evans, not a bad defender, but not one that I’d rate too highly, he certainly didn’t have the presence or reading of the game of Pique, who, since joining Barcelona has only gone on to prove me right, dominating the back line as well as being a real presence up front from set-pieces. Pique is good enough to have a starring role in any defensive line-up in world football, I just wish it was still ours.

Biggest Disappointment:

Without a doubt, for me, the biggest disappointment has been Anderson’s progress at Manchester United. He’s gone from one of the most promising young players in the world game to a player who is clearly terrified at the prospect of shooting, no longer goes in for tackles and often looks lazy as well as trying the killer ball a little too often. His passing ability and strength on the ball are still very good, and there’s no doubt that a lack of playing minutes has impacted him hugely, but in the last 24 months we’ve seen Anderson completely superseded by Fletcher, who has gone from being inferior to becoming a world class midfielder. I have no doubt that Anderson will leave Manchester United in the future, which I really should be more upset about seeing as he is so promising, and I have no doubt that at another club he’ll shine and become a real star, but he really needs to improve his attitude and work ethic as well as working on the finer attributes of his game.

Honourable Mention:

This is an obvious one, it’s the player I never wanted, and certainly never at the ridiculous price paid, Dimitar Berbatov. I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s lazy, certainly not like many others would, we knew what we were getting, but he could perhaps try a little harder with his effort getting into the box, try a few more shots. He has been excellent at holding up the ball, he is one of the best around for it, but he should have adapted other areas of his game. A good example would be his pace, people think he’s slow, but he’s not, he’s actually pretty quick, but the nature of his game is to drop lower than the front man, which doesn’t happen at Man Utd because Rooney plays in a free role naturally. I never wanted him, we could have bought so much better for £30m and to think we passed on a £20m Fernando Torres to buy a £30m Berbatov is enough to boil my piss. Argh!

Goal of 2009:

This should be easy, but it’s really not, there are 5 goals that come to mind, 4 of which are Man Utd, 3 of those scored by Cristiano Ronaldo. The none Man Utd goal was by Maynor Figueroa of Wigan, a free-kick quickly taken from his own half which beat Sorenson off his line. Another is the free-kick by Ronaldo against Arsenal in the Champions League semi-final which stands out for two reasons, the fact it was over 40 yards out and secondly due to the commentators line, “Too far out, even for Ronaldo… Oooohhh”. The other goal by Ronaldo in the same game also stands out, a text book example of the counter-attack.

My second favourite though was Federico Macheda, a goal that was not only of the highest skill and quality, but a goal that arguably won us the title last year at a time when we were wobbling more than ever. Receiving the ball on the left hand side of the area, Macheda flicks the ball back underneath himself before quickly striking the ball around Brad Friedel and into the far right hand side of the goal. To win the game. In the 92nd Minute. On his debut. At 17. Brilliant.

The winner however should be no surprise, a Ronaldo wonder strike that rightly won the official UEFA goal of the season award. In need of a win after a poor first leg against Porto, Man Utd needed an away goal, step forward Cristiano Ronaldo to rifle hom a goal from 40 yards into the opposite top corner to progress us through to the Semi-Finals of the Champions League. Breathtaking.

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14JanAnd there’s the debt…

In some horrible news today, I was awoken to hear of stories regarding new refinancing of the Manchester United debts, most notably the potential selling of Old Trafford, the Carrington training facility and even a major clearout of players, many of whom I really wouldn’t be too bothered in seeing the back of, those being Nani, Berbatov, Foster and more disappointingly, Anderson, Vidic and even Rooney.

The simple fact is that Manchester United are a club living outside of their means, we have no Russian billionaire to write off £300m of debt by way of a good will gesture, or a middle-eastern sheik who has more money than sense, no, instead we have some massively skint Americans who plunged the club into debt because they couldn’t afford us. I’m not entirely sure what they get out of the deal either. Of cours

On the bright side, we’ve actually won quite a lot over the last few seasons… It could be worse, we could have been Leeds United or Liverpool.

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13JanTeam of the Mid-Season

There can be little doubt that this years Premier League has been one of the most bizarre in recent memory. You have Manchester United, the existing (and 3-time back to back) Champions having lost 5 games already and sitting in second. you have Liverpool, a team who competed all the way only to finish in second last season sitting way back in seventh. You have Man City, with a new manager after the last one was sacked having being given a target of 70 points after 38 games and reaching 32 in 18. You have Birmingham, Fulham and Stoke all sitting rather comfortably in the top half of the table and Portsmouth, FA Cup winners only 2 seasons ago, failing to pay players wages three times already this season despite a major takeover at the start of the season.

All in all it has been something  that no one could have predicted. So with that I bring to you my personal team of the mid-season 09/10.

Continue reading ‘Team of the Mid-Season’

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06JanI just don’t get Cricket…

It may be one of our oldest past-times and even something that on rare occasions we’re actually good at, but I just don’t understand cricket.
It’s not so much the rules, of which I do actually understand the general basics, as well as variations in test cricket and 20/20, but more to do with the popularity of it. Just why the hell is it so goddamn popular? I am genuinely sick of putting Sky Sports News on and seeing Cricket all the time. You actually see loads of Cricket but no NFL, no MLB, no NBA and very, very little Rugby, all sports which are infinitely superior to cricket and I’m starting to become really annoyed with it all.

I’m not one to criticise someones likes and dislikes, it’s entirely up to them what they want to follow, yes, even if it makes absolutely no sense at all. First of all, it’s not exactly a world game, there are to my admittedly short knowledge, only five actually competitive teams, or at least it seems that way, Australia, England, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka. That actually equates to less competitive teams than you’d get in the opening group stages of a UEFA Cup. There are some big competitions, like a World Cup (again, quite a tenuous name at best considering the lack of quality national sides…) and the Ashes, which if I remember correctly is a series of 5 test matches against Australia to commemorate a game between the countries where the wickets were burned to ashes and kept in a mini cup, which becomes the prize. Nice history, but let’s be honest, it’s not like we’re not playing Australia every couple of weeks anyway, so it’s not like it’s really that special.

This is where my point comes in. There is no table, no knockout competition, nothing, it’s just a case of playing the same short list of teams again and again and again with absolutely nothing to show for it. Why do we do that? It’s the only sport that comes to mind where you don’t actually win anything for winning. In Baseball you have the World Series (again, ridiculously titled seeing as all teams are American), in American Football you have the Superbowl, in Football you have the World Cup and European Championships (or otherwise for countries not in Europe) which feature qualifiers to get in to those competitions. It doesn’t seem very progressive as a sport, which means it lacks competition and therefore entertainment.

Of course, it also doesn’t help that it’s also incredibly boring to watch…

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02JanUFC 108 – Evans vs Silva

Evans vs Silva

One of my great loves, Mixed-Martial Arts, namely UFC has another of its numbered monthly pay per views (PPV), UFC 108 – Evans vs Silva which is sure to have an explosive main event featuring two fighters with real knock out pedigree as well as under cards with some rather promising young fighters.
It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen Rashad Evans fight, his last fight coming way back in May 2009 from a devastating loss to an undefeated Lyoto Machida which resulted in Evans’ first defeat, a dropping of the title belt and by a knockout, so it will certainly be exciting to see him back in the ring. Thiago Silva hasn’t been out of the ring as long, defeating Keith Jardine via a punches knockout back in August at UFC 102, one fight on from his first defeat back in January 2009, also to Lyoto Machida. Both of these fighters have the vast majority of their victories by way of Knockout so other than a potential points decision it’s difficult to see this going any other way than a KO.

The card itself isn’t the strongest after becoming victim to an alarming number of drop-outs due to injury with Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin and Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort two of the fights originally penciled in to take part.

Ones to look out for at this PPV are Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley, a real hard puncher from the UK who will be looking to continue on from his devastating introduction to the UFC and Junior Dos Santos, a young Brazilian fighter who has been mentored by both Antonio Noguiera and Anderson Silva in the past.

The card and my predictions as they stand:

Continue reading ‘UFC 108 – Evans vs Silva’

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23JanBare-Bones at Manchester United

AndersonAs Harry Redknapp is famous for muttering, it’s now Manchester Uniteds time to be down to the bare-bones with no less than almost a full Premiership challenging XI out injured, the latest being 4 injuries at the midweek Derby Carling Cup game. Having recently gaining the top spot in the Premier League after failing to set the world alight this season we have now been reduced to a squad of players playing out of position, the latest victims being my favourite player, Anderson, out for 3 weeks with an ankle injury (it was originally suspected to be broken and despite this, Anderson played on the last 5 minutes), Jonny Evans, like Anderson with an ankle injury, again for 3 weeks, Nani is out with a groin strain for 1 week (though knowing him, it’ll probably be a month) and Rafael has a hamstring tweak, so that’s 3 weeks minimum.

Those players now join Wes Brown, Owen Hargreaves, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Ji-Sung Park as sidelined players, a total of 10 players, if we had a goalkeeper out injured you would literally have a team who could even compete for the Premier League injured. Now more than ever we need Berbatov to start shining, along with Tevez and Ronaldo and as long as Vidic remains fit we will have someone who will fight for everything at the back.

January into February could be a gruelling few weeks, though we may get to see more of young James Chester and Rafael’s twin brother, Fabio. Sadly, at the one time this season Anderson was almost guaranteed a solid run of games he gets injured, so we have to keep putting up with Darren Fletcher in the middle of the park. The only real highlight is that we do have some truly key players still fit in Tevez, Ronaldo, Carrick, Vidic and Van Der Sar, the latter two of which are crucial as we’ve seen in the past when we’ve lost them to injuries.

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