football !!

Tonight we´ll see if Lyon is as strong a team like , was it a year back, as they beat Real 3-0. (At least I think Alex Ferguson might have realized what he lost as Ruud scored a hat trick plus one failed penalty kick in the Spanish league last weekend for Real.)

Inter playing the usual stuff it seems. And Vieira got the red card...surprised anyone?

 

Hmm………Lyon beat Real Madrid 2-0, does that do it for you Kai? Ferguson’s Man U (at home) only beat Celtic 3-2 by virtue of a very dubious penalty award for Giggs falling over Arsenal won away to Hamburg 2-1, and Anderlecht and Lille drew 1-1 at Anderlecht.

’Come on, what about Milan’ . Oh yes, Milan 3 - Athens 0

From combing through the match reports – not being able to be there this year - it was a great game. Coach Carlo Ancelotti, (sounds like a pasta dish doesn’t he), decided to throttle back a bit this game and rest a few good ‘ole boys from the starting line-up. Nesta, Pirlo and Seedorf were not injured and graced the golden bench if needed. The new boys – Gourcuff and Oliveira - were given a carefully measured opportunity and performed impeccably.
Of course, ’Chief Devil’ Paolo Maldini was back at the helm .


On the field for the kick-off and mid match subs were:
Dida
Cafu, Simic, Maldini, Favalli (Jankulovski 78)
Gattuso, Brocchi (Ambrosini 74), Gourcuff; Kakà
Ricardo Oliveira (Seedorf 70), Inzaghi

Simic stood in for Nesta and played his socks off between Cafu and Maldini. Brocchi ran himself ragged standing in for Pirlo till relieved by Ambrosini. The first goal after 17 minutes sounds pure gold. Defender Maldini went forward into space, drawing the defence and getting the keeper to square-up for a shot, then crossed into space which he knew would be anticipated by Inzaghi, who did and put it past a static keeper. Second goal was a debut goal for young Frenchman Gourcuff who headed in a cross from Kaka just before half time. Third goal was a penalty shot from Kaka which came from Inzaghi being brought down.

And, Maldini got carded for a ‘late tackle’. Maldini, late tackle . Someone must have been misbehaving out of sight of the ref and was….ahem….dealt with

No.9

 

Not really a Lyon fan but must say their team is quite strong especially in home games. Especially I like their Brazilian striker Fred.

Mostly I like to use these matches for betting as the national companies usually rely on the big names and one can use his knowledge on football and get some decent betting odds.


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No goals for Kobenhavn nor Porto last night which looked rather odd....

 

Betting eh..........nice to know where the money is .

Wonder what the odds were for West Ham losing at home to Palermo? I thought the result could have gone either way, they both had their moments and they both kept up the pressure for 90 minutes.

Also in the European Cup, I see Chievo Verona continued to get hammered, this time by Portugal's Sporting Braga 2-0, and, had two men sent off. They lost their opening League game, at home, 2-1 to Siena, and, went out of the Champions League to Sofia .

Also read the Spanish press have turned on Cannavaro following Madrid’s defeat by Lyon. I’m neither surprised at Canna’s performance nor the peasant mentality of the Spanish press. As was seen in the World Cup, you can put Canna in the middle of the defence, but do not give him the job of controlling it – that is not what he does. Lippi gave him that role when Nesta was injured, but the back line never shaped-up until control was assigned to Buffon. Madrid has a defence pool of 6 Spaniards, 2 Brazilians and an Italian. What the f**k style is Canna supposed to play? He plays Italian style under Italian discipline – that’s it. IMHO the whole Madrid thing is another Spanish mess. No wonder they were screaming to have Kaka this summer (not that it would help their cr@p formation much), do you know they still only have four main midfield players – and one them is Beckham .

No.9

 

The big problem with big teams is that everybody expects them to attack all the time and create alot of goals. If you have most of the players attacking there will be huge gaps inside the defence or the midfield and defence are far apart which gives the opponent an area to play in and through. So I can see even one great Cannavaro cannot save it all even what he does.Also Lyon is the kind of team which has many top-level players and can win any team in the world at the moment in my opinion. So not really suprised with the result.

BTW, surprise surprise

"Inter Milan striker Ibrahimovic was one of three players sent home from the Sweden camp ahead of the game against Liechtenstein on September 6 after missing a curfew. Olof Mellberg and Christian Wilhelmsson were the others involved.

Ibrahimovic had issued an apology for his actions, but has continued to insist that he felt the punishment was too harsh.

Maintaining that stance, the 24-year-old has now withdrawn his services from the national team for their games on October 7 and October 10."

 

Read about rumours that Noel Gallacher was planning to offer some 8 million £ to get Paolo Maldini to play for Manchester City...Interesting...I´m sure Paolo would agree straight away...

 

Sun Sept 17

A hospital which overlooks the stadium of Italian second division side Crotone will be closed to visitors for fear of an invasion by ticketless fans desperate to see their team play Juventus.

With the game at the Ezio Scida stadium a 9,500 sell-out, staff at the San Giovanni di Dio hospital feared supporters without tickets would come into the building to try and watch the match.

The visit of fallen giants Juventus has sparked a frenzy in the Calabrian city with the last 4,000 tickets for the match being snapped up in a few hours on Sunday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060917/od_afp/fblitajuventusoffbeat_060917185507

 

Soccer Player gets leg amputated after accident.

Amputation

 

Anyone catch that Arsenal vs Charlton game this weekend? Of course, living in the states i didnt, but i check up on them on my trusty sportinglife.com site. So, it appears van Persies second goal is a contender for Goal of the Year. Luckily, youtube.com already has it on its website...if you havent seen it yet, you better check it out! simply amazing!

 

Results for the 7/10/2006 Euro 2008 Qualifying Round. Scotland, Sweden and Czech Republic are doing great so far.

UEFA EURO 2008 Standings

07/10/06 Grp B Faroe Islands 0 - 1 Lithuania
07/10/06 Grp D Wales 1 - 5 Slovakia
07/10/06 Grp B Scotland 1 - 0 France
07/10/06 Grp E England 0 - 0 F.Y.R. Macedonia
07/10/06 Grp D Czech Republic 7 - 0 San Marino
07/10/06 Grp C Moldova 2 - 2 Bosnia-Herzegovina
07/10/06 Grp E Russia 1 - 1 Israel
07/10/06 Grp D Cyprus 5 - 2 Republic of Ireland
07/10/06 Grp C Hungary 0 - 1 Turkey
07/10/06 Grp F Sweden 2 - 0 Spain
07/10/06 Grp F Denmark 0 - 0 Northern Ireland
07/10/06 Grp A Serbia 1 - 0 Belgium
07/10/06 Grp E Croatia 7 - 0 Andorra
07/10/06 Grp G Romania 3 - 1 Belarus
07/10/06 Grp G Slovenia 2 - 0 Luxembourg
07/10/06 Grp B Italy 2 - 0 Ukraine
07/10/06 Grp A Portugal 3 - 0 Azerbaijan
07/10/06 Grp A Armenia 0 - 0 Finland
07/10/06 Grp A Kazakhstan 0 - 1 Poland
07/10/06 Grp F Latvia 4 - 0 Iceland
07/10/06 Grp G Bulgaria 1 - 1 Netherlands
07/10/06 Grp C Greece 1 - 0 Norway

 

Yeah, go Finland go!



But not so great for the Spanish either...

 

07/10/06 Grp C Hungary 0 - 1 Turkey

And Turkey won with an unusual goal, Hungary almost scored a goal from a freekick but they couldn't get past the post. Things could have been very different, we were lucky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SFTxzPEzXE

 

I just read Marco Materarazzi has just "wrote" and published a book incl some 270 phrases he could have told last summer to Zidane to make the poor guy that mad.

 

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has compared international managers to joy-riding car thieves who 'abandon broken-down players'.

Wenger has often expressed his frustration at seeing his players return tired or injured after international duty.

"Gerard (Houllier's) thoughts on the matter echo mine," said the Gunners boss. "He thinks that what the national coaches are doing is like taking the car from his garage without even asking permission.

"They will then use the car for 10 days and abandon it in a field without any petrol left in the tank.

"We then have to recover it, but it is broken down. Then a month later they will come to take your car again, and for good measure you're expected to be nice about it."

Wenger also complained that international managers fail to contact their club counterparts, with one notable exception.

"Sven-Goran Eriksson was the only one who used to come and talk to me regularly," Wenger added.

 

Real Madrid have admitted they may be prepared to sell out-of-favour midfielder David Beckham for just £5million in January's transfer window.

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Towards the end of the career already...??

 

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is convinced the Red Debils can bring home the Champions League this season after a seven-year wait.

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,2483_1648408,00.html

Debils? Sounds like a ManC fan is doing the writing....? Or what club is Alex talking about?

 

Man U will be able to do that the same year the Spurs are ranked second in the Premiership League!

AKA; Not a CHANCE!

 

Tonights Arsenal-CSKA Moscow Champions League match was unbelievable. Especially Rosicky's shot at the end of the first half was absurd. The goal was wide open and the CSKA goalkeeper was nowhere near the goal. However the ball went directly to his hands.

Result is 0-0.

 

Tell me about it! With my crappy internet (still really slow) i turned on the tv to play some XBOX 360 but low and behold, my Gunners were on TV! I'm sure you can imagine my joy at being able to watch them play, and what a fast paced match by them! And i'm sure you can imagine my dismay watching all 6 goal-bound shots just miss their targets. Rosicky...i'd kick him in the arse if i could for missing that one...i could have done better, messed up ankle and all!

 

its gotta be Thierry Henry and gang.