Posted by Sports Snob on August 24, 2006
What a day yesterday in England. Lots of action on and off the pitch.
Return of the Supersub!
First, Manchester United defeated Charlton, well the result was no big deal but Mr. Baby Face Ole Solsjkaer scored in the 90th minute. After three years of injuries and frustration, it looks like Ole is back and every United fan will be hoping that the Norwegian has two good years left in him.
Boro beat Chelsea (again)
What a result for Boro last night! Defeating Chelsea 2-1 at home after getting beaten by newly promoted Reading last week. Aussie Viduka scored the winner in the 90th minute after Shevchenko scored for Chelsea and Pogatez equalized for Boro. I hope this is the start of a long and hard season for Chelsea (hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things!) Steve McClaren may have left but the fact is Boro are still proving as unpredictable as last year. Expect more of the same from Boro all season, will probably end up 10th or 11th.
Why am I making such a big deal out of this? Lets just face it - every Chelsea defeat is a RARE event! All the more reason to celebrate it. Especially when Lampard ends up like that! 
Roy Keane to take over Sunderland
It looks like Roy Keane is going to be named as the next manager of Sunderland. The Black Cats might have gotten themselves rid of Mick McCarthy but the club has lost five straight games under new manager-chairman Niall Quinn. Now, it looks like Quinn is set to name former Irish teammate as the new boss of the club. Roy Keane as a manager, now that’s got to be interesting! How will he treat players who don’t give 100 percent everytime. Will we have more hair-dryer and boot incidents? Expect a great deal more interest in the English Championship. Sunderland is going to become a fashionable club. Plus, they will now have a LOT of supporters in the far-east!
Z
Technorati Tags: Manchester, United, Chelsea, Charlton, Boro, EPL, Football, Soccer, Keane, Sunderland
Posted in EPL, English Football, Football | 3 Comments »
Posted by Sports Snob on August 20, 2006
10. CANNOT accept a draw. Need overtime, Double OT, Triple OT.
9. There are no Cheerleaders
8. Average Yank: “What? I LOVE football. Every year I tune in to watch the Super Bowl!”
7. Not enough goals. Yep, unlike baseball where there is a home run every TWO minutes.
6. Football is a dirty, filthy sport played by the commies.
5. Cannot understand how a WORLD cup has teams from all over the world participating. (Unlike this)
4. They didn’t invent it.
3. The offside rule is just too damn hard to understand.
2. Football is boring. They rather watch Golf.
1. They suck at it.
Z
Technorati Tags: Football, Soccer, America,
Posted in EPL, English Football, Football | 31 Comments »
Posted by Sports Snob on August 11, 2006
Well, was this a surprise! England’s new coach Steve McClaren has dropped David Beckham from the English squad that will play European Champions (that seems like ages ago) Greece in a friendly next week. With this move, the odds are that Beckham’s international career is over. Filled with more downs than ups, Beckham has failed to do anything of note in the last three major championships- although an injury could be faulted for his terrible performance at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea.
While a number of fans will point out the fact that Beckham scored once and set up a number of goals in the World Cup in Germany, it is an absolute fact that Beckham was absolutely awful in most of the games. His corners, free-kicks (barring one) and crosses inevitably found the wall or the first defender. He has lost a lot of pace and the fact is that England seem to have better attacking options now. With this move, young Aaron Lennon or maybe even Shaun Wright-Phillips will get to blossom into a dependable right midfielder for England. There is still a lot of time for the coach to experiment.
It will be interesting to see what this does to brand Beckham. He has to win the trust of new coach Fabio Capello at Madrid and also try and win back his place in the national squad. And at 31, time is running out.
I don’t think we have seen Beckham at his best since the horrific Aldo Duscher tackle in the Champions League quarter final at Old Trafford in the 2001-02 season. Since then , he has lost pace and also the penetration in his crossing has come down several notches. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming season.
Best Beckham moment:
1. Scoring against Greece in the final qualifying game for the 2002 WC at Wembley. England needed a draw to qualify and Beckham equalized with a stunning freekick in injury time.
See video here
Steve McClaren
With this move and also by naming John Terry as captain, McClaren has sought to distance himself from the previous manager Sven Goran Erikkson under whom Beckham seemed beyond reproach and team seemed bereft of ideas. Hopefully, this will be the start of a new era where Gerrard and Lampard don’t play side by side in the centre of the park, the English team plays with a lot more pace and purpose culminating in a great showing at Euro 2008.
P.S. : What the hell are Phil Neville and Jermaine Jenas doing in the English team?!
Technorati Tags: Beckham, Madrid, English, Football,, Terry
Z
Posted in English Football, Football | 4 Comments »
