// November 29th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // Uncategorized
I received the following head scratcher in my mailbox this week:
Name the current premiership player who has 3 England caps, each cap won when he was at a different premiership team?
Obviously use of any internets is not allowed
// November 28th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized
By the time Saturday rolls around, it’ll feel like a long time coming after having Thursday and Friday off. So, while you’ll be full of turkey, you’ll be starving for footie.
Saturday
Get out of his way, sucka.
Bayer Leverkusen v Bayern Munich 11.30am on GolTv. It’s the battle of the teams that begin with Bayer. I used to think this was a derby until someone told me that Bayer was a compnay (the one that makes the aspirin). Just a crazy coincidence. These two teams are 2nd and 3rd in Germany, and Ribery, Toni and Klose, are great to watch together. If Ribery played in England or Spain, he’d be in the player of the year discussion. Watch him and enjoy.
Sevilla v Barcelona 4pm on GolTv. This starts a run of a series of good games between the top sides. It’s tough to play in Sevilla, and it will be an interesting return for Dani Alves. Sevilla appear to miss him, but still have Navas, Capel, Fabiano, Kanoute. Barsa saw their lead cut to two points over Madrid, so will be under a suprising amount of pressure here. It’s going to be a tense 2-1, but I’m not saying who wins.
Sunday
Man City v Man United 8.30am on Setanta. The Manchester derby is one of the top five derbies in the world. City will be feeling like they willhave to take a point thi year. United have looked a bit blah of late. Probably means a 1-3 after an early fluke goal for United. Sorry, Cass.
Inter v Napoli 9am on FSC. North v South. Money vs passion. How many women will Cassano sleep with on the night before the game?
Chelsea v Arsenal 11am on FSC. Arsenal look terrible, Chelsea look good (last week notwithstanding). Seems to have a 5-0 all over it, which means it’s going to end 1-1. And Wenger will be a genius again.
posted by Lazar
// November 25th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized
One of our favorite readers sends in a comment from another blog about the Real Madrid midfield, and midfields in general. If you can’t decipher the Spanish, the writer is basically saying that successful teams have one or two central midfielders that give personality to their teams, through an organizing/field marshal type of role. That player sets the tone for how his team plays — see the examples below. Real Madrid does not appear to have any right now (although the writer thinks De la Red could succeed in this role–I have my doubts), and that may be what ails them. Yes, they win some games, but it’s not enjoyable to watch, nor do they have any sort of style.
I just read this and feel it sums up at least my sensation about midfields, and the particular players mentioned, rather well…
“para mi el madrid, lo que necesita de verdad, es un centrocampista que organice, y sobretodo, que de personalidad al juego del equipo. en otros equipos punteros de europa, vemos una interaccion de su juego con un jugador franquicia de su estilo futbolistico
barcelona-xavi
liverpool-gerrard-alonso
chelsea-lampard+essien+deco
arsenal-cesc
manchester-carrick+scholes
milan-gatusso+pirlo+seedorf
los demas equipos, aun siendo grandes como juventus, inter, sevilla, valencia, y demas, han estado fallando estos ultimos par de años, por lo mismo, por no tener un centro del campo consolidado y con personalidad que aporte un caracter determinado al estilo de juego del equipo. al madrid en mi opinion le falta reconstruir ese centro del campo, y para eso, necesita de un centrocampista total, que organice y le de un estilo de juego. es como si a este barcelona que tanto nos hace disfrutar, en un momento dado, pierde a xavi y no tiene a iniesta. entoces, perderia a los jugadores que le proporcionan el estilo de juego que ahora practica, y que sin ellos, dejaria de hacer en poco tiempo. van der vaart, no es otra cosa en mi opinion que un mismo perfil que sneijder. un jugador de llegada y ultimo toque, pero que baja mucho enteros si le pones a organizar el ritmo de juego del equipo. con guti pasa tanto de lo mismo, ultimo toque, gol, pero todo su esplendor en la ultima franja del campo. no le puedes pedir jugar de medio centro, ya que no tiene ni conceptos defensivos, ni mentalidad defensiva, ante una perdida de balon nunca regresa, (siempre a sido delantero, no le puedes hacer que cambie, ademas el tampoco quiere). por lo que nos quedamos con diarra, de la red, y gago. diarra, es un gladiador, perfecto para acometer dosis de fuerza en el pivote defensivo, sin exigirle nada mas. gago solo rinde de pivote en un centro del campo en rombo. para que funcione, necesitamos de un medio centro total, con capacidad de creacion, rigor tactico, y mentalidad defensiva. sneijer nos valdria para jugar en banda. de la red, yo lo pondria para hacer la mismas funciones que realizaba en el getafe, donde triunfo. o de central con salida de la pelota, o de pivote defensivo, pero ahi se la veria con gago, su perfil mas parecido en la plantilla. pienso que uno de los dos, deberia de salir, si de la red se recupera, la salida en mi opinion seria para gago. por lo que nos quedamos entonces con la necesidad de un medio centro para el equipo, y eso en navidad no se ficha.”
I agree with the above. I happen to love Wesley Sneijder, and think he is extremely dangerous, but he doesn’t run a midfield. Even in the best games I’ve seen him play (the first two games of Euro 2008), he was more of a scorer/final pass man. Incredibly, that midfield was run by two guys I had barely heard of, Engelaar and De Jong. The latter of the two was consistently good, but more of a worker. Incredibly, Engelaar set the tone for the team: he was great in a couple games, and horrible when they lost to Russia. As did Luka Modric, Hamit Altintop (a consistenly terrific, yet overlooked tournament), Xavi, and Andre Arshavin, if from a more advanced position, for their squads. I I were R. Madrid I would try to get a Diego, Altintop, or Stephen Appiah — stat.
One wonders if this is also Inter’s problem. A team of stars, but who gives personality that midfield? Viera? Zanetti? Cambiasso? I’m not sure that they’re going far in Europe until they figure that out.
Posted by Lazar
// November 21st, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Uncategorized
It always annoyed me when people thought they were smart by trying to stand directly in front of the thrower. This lad is going to think twice about doing he same thing next time.
posted by Cass
// November 21st, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
It’s going to be cold and let’s face it, the field you play on is not great at the best of times, but when it’s frozen? Stay home, and watch instead. I recommend eating a large turkey dinner too as a practice for next Thursday.
Saturday
Chelsea v Newcastles 9.30am FSC. Now that you’ve decided not to play on Saturday you’ve no reason to hold back on the Friday after work drinks. Nurse that hangover by watching Anelka (currently on one of his scoring streaks) score a brace against the barcodes with one from Frank Lampard after his miraculous recovery from whatever it was that meant he couldn’t play for his country on Wednesday. If only he was as brave as John Terry. Then again, if I decide to transfer Anelka into my fantasy team tonight ignore all of the above.
Aston Villa v Manchester United 12.30 FSC. Which Villa are going to turn up? The one that deservedly beat Wenger’s boys last weekend or the one that lost to Middlesborough and Newcastle? I’ve no idea but Agbonlahor is sure to be up for it after his performance for England in midweek. With Berbatov set to miss due to being too mercurial we might get to see Tevez play. Despite United having an incredible record at Villa Park in the last few years I fancy Villa to take something from this one.
Inter Milan v Juventus 2.30 FSC. I’ll hold my hands up and admit that my knowledge of Serie A doesn’t extend a whole lot beyond remembering not to call Inter Milan, Inter Milan, but, they are top, 2 points ahead of the old lady (oh look, I do know something) with AC Milan (yes, Meeeeeelan) sandwiched in between. Also it’s the clash of ex Chelsea managers so if you stopped watching Serie A sometimes in the early 90′s now might be the right time to give it another go.
Manchester City v Arsenal 5.00pm FSC (delayed). If you can managed to avoid the score of this one all day (hint: don’t check facebook 5 mins before kickoff cos someone is sure to write about it in their status message) then it may turn out to be a tea time treat. Hughes had a pretty good record for Blackburn against Arsenal and there’s sure to be some repercussions from Captain Gallas really helpful comments midweek. If you missed it, Gallas said something along the lines of: “All the young players at Arsenal are over paid weaklings and should cower before me as I am a superhuman”. Well, something close to that. Expect Stevie Ireland (could his lastname be any more ironic?) to continue his rich vein of form.
Sunday
Sunderland v West Ham United 11.00 am FSC. Is it possible for both teams to lose? Probably not, but it is possible for you to win by not wasting your time on this one. Let’s face it, you watched enough football yesterday, you need more balance in your life, watch one of the Sunday morning political talk shows instead. It’ll make you a better person.
posted by Cass
// November 19th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
Two great goals (Sporting Gijon’s second and third) and a class tune. No further comment needed.
// November 17th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized
Don’t miss Cass’ article below on good stories from the weekend. But one jewel from Saturday was Zlatan’s first goal against Palermo, above. What I love about him is that he is constantly doing stuff that I have never seen before. I love the little detail before the shot, where he kind of fakes a pass and cleats the ball a little, freezing the defenders a bit, giving himself an extra bit a space to sneak the shot (an absolute missle). His second goal wasn’t shabby either.
Posted by Lazar
// November 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Four slightly bizarre stories caught my attention this week:
1) I was shocked to see some headlines concerning what appeared to be match fixing in the League of Ireland. The story was that St. Patrick’s Athletics’ Gary Dempsey had been caught betting against his team to win. On closer inspection it turns out to be more about comical bad judgement than anything too sinister. He had a EURO 20 combination bet on St. Pats losing to Galway United and Manchester City beating Newcastle United. Being in the stands for the game there’s little influence he could have exerted and as shoddy a state as the League of Ireland is in, even in these economic troubling times there is no way his prospective meagre winnings would be enough to buy any kind of influence. Apart from the bad judgement of betting against his team, who would ever rely on Manchester City to do what you expected?
2) There’s been talk of a non-league team signing on a whole squad of former England Internationals to represent them in the FA Cup. It’s an absolutely farcical idea that more belongs in the world of ‘professional wrestling’ than the oldest competition in the world. But you would watch, wouldn’t you?
3) Athletics Ireland have said that they would have Stoke City’s Rory Delap (he of the incredible long throw, the source of nearly half their goals this season) represent Ireland in Javelin in the next Olympics. This is surely just some bureocrat looking for a bit of publicity. Right?
4) Forget their surprising good early season form, Hull City have announced themselves as a real premiership team with some late night player fighting at a casino. Marlon King headbutted his striking competition Dean Windass who then was seen taking off his watch and saying it was stolen. Casino workers saw him remove his watch and put it in his pocket and then found it in said pocket. Very embarassing allround. Welcome to the premiership!
posted by Cass
// November 14th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
No better way to finish nursing an Obama hangover than by watching some weekend footie. There are a lot of so-so games this week, only a couple real biggies:
Saturday
Sunday
Posted by Lazar
// November 10th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Uncategorized
A lot of you have heard of My Football Club (a web-community owned and run football team). For those of you who haven’t heard of it, here’s a quick summary:
14 months ago people were invited to sign up to the website paying GBP 35 ($60) with the promise that a team playing in the English league would be bought and then fully controlled (right down to picking the team) based on the web member’s wishes. In February of last year Ebbsfleet United (who play in the Blue Square Premier League – 4 division below the Premiership) were purchased based on the capital raised by the 30,000 people from all over the world who had signed up.
Although a very enthusiastic and patient member for the first 6-9 months, once the team had been purchased I started to lose faith in the venture for a variety of reasons. I was recently contacted by a journalist from the New York Times who had seen one of my disillusioned posts on the site and wanted to learn more about why the venture is failing. Below are the replies I gave to his questions:
Why did you first pay that £35 to participate in MyFC? What was it about it that attracted you?
I loved the idea of the ‘power of the crowd’ and the socialist type ideal involved. I also liked the power I would have in controlling a real team and the sense that it would provide the fun of a computer manager game, but with real results. I was intrigued by what could be achieved with so many people providing thought, analysis, research, etc towards a common goal. I had also been starting to feel disenfranchised with following football in general and thought this would help rekindle my passion which I felt had been slightly diluted in recent times.
What did you think of the way the club was run – the votes, the forums, etc – and did you feel happy as a member? Was it everything you hoped for? (I’m assuming you haven’t renewed.)
I was very patient for the first 9 months. The votes were an absolute joke with no viable alternatives ever proposed. E.g ‘Do you vote to enable the manager to pursue a transfer target he wants to add to the team?’ Yes or No. All the beginning votes were of this manner. Finally, they eventually had a vote that had viable alternatives but a few days after the results of the vote came in, they decided to ignore the vote and do the opposite to what the people voted!. I couldn’t believe this!
The general chaos of the website and forums meant that it was impossible to know what was happening or feel your voice was being heard. There was very poor communication from the management. I thought this was all part of the growing process so didn’t really express any annoyance (many other people did). But as it became clear that the owner had his own agenda, the votes were purely worded in a way to make the users feel like they were participating but didn’t have any effect on the governing of the club. I was really really disappointed as I believed in the idea and convinced about 5 other friends to sign up.
I’m surprised by the fact that most people don’t choose to pick the team (PTT), as I thought that’s why most people signed up – the fantasy football element. Why do you think most people choose not to use the selector and does it surprise you too?
The tool itself is totally unusable. There’s no useful information available as you pick the team. It’s set up in such a way that you’re made to feel like you’ve no idea what you’re doing. If they had useful pro-zone statistics as well as who had played when, in what position, who was available, etc, it would be a far easier process and give people the confidence that they knew what they were doing. It’s been very obvious from the beginning that the manager of the club didn’t want to give up control of picking the team. A decision was made to not let the fans pick the team and when people kicked up a fuss about this all sorts of excuses were used. The tool was so unfriendly to use, and the general message coming from management was that ‘you aren’t in a position to know about players form, only the manager should pick the team’. There’s been various very biased votes so far about the team picker, but no viable scenarios have been suggested or made available for a vote. If they had a nice PTT tool in place and users were encouraged to use it, it would have been sucessful. Instead, the system was a shambles and management tried to get people to vote on ‘suggesting a team to the manager, but he didn’t have to use it’. The general consensus was that the PTT tool was being ignored, so why bother voting.
You said in a post that “I for one definitely won’t be resubscribing, nor will the 5 people I convinced to sign up. Myfootballclub is dead.” Why did you say that?
1. Badly run venture.
2. Management don’t have faith in the people who signed up to actually make real decisions. Instead they put trivial or no brainer votes to the people and allowed the club to be run as normal
What would it take to lure you back to the club?
Far more power given to the users, better information and communication. more transparency, less chaos.
Do you think football teams are losing touch with their fans, in this age of billionaire owners, foreign players and rising ticket prices?
Absolutely. It’s a lot harder to relate to the players and teams. Why should we spend so much time and money and energy when businessmen are using our passion to take advantage. There seem to be far fewer likeable players now than there used to be. Money and greed has harmed the game. In saying that though, I read about football every day, watch a few matches a week and talk about it whenever I can, so I’m not fully disenfranchised yet!
Do you think the members-own-the-club-and-vote idea of MyFC can actually ever work, either at Ebbsfleet or on a much larger scale?
Absolutely. Reading the book ‘The Wisdom of Crowds’ convinced me of the intelligent decisions that can be made by crowds. Running a football team seemed to be the ideal situation that could benefit from the wisdom of crowds.
posted by Cass
