Owen to feature at Wembley?
It’s mostly going to be Newsy Notes today, but I did want to say a couple things this morning.
First, to Ryan Shawcross’ terrible tackle on Aaron Ramsey in yesterday’s charged Stoke City-Arsenal clash. Here’s the thing regarding “malice” in tackles. Most players at the top level are professional enough to have respect for their fellow competitors and therefore, they recognize that this is a livelihood, not a hobby. They have respect enough not to try to injure their fellow competitors. I don’t care if you weren’t “trying” to hurt Ramsey. What I care about is the complete lack of skill shown in a tackle that was clearly late. Nothing good could come from a tackle like that, and well, we saw the result. So stop with the “malice” talk. Apologize for your awful display of skill, take your punishment and move forward. As to Arsenal being a bit cursed? Well, the book on playing Arsenal is to suggest that they do not like to be played closely and in a physical nature. That’s three broken legs in five years (Eboue, Eduardo and Ramsey), so while I won’t go so far as to say they are being targeted, I think you can draw your own conclusions from the fact that no other major English club has had that type of loss.
In terms of the Chelsea-Manchester City soap opera, I covered my thoughts on Wayne Bridge yesterday. It was a match that clearly had the potential to get a bit out of hand, but there’s something that Chelsea supporters should be more concerned about then the loss. Chelsea’s players live in a bubble, they are world-class and they are apparently not taught or coached to deal with adversity very well. I thought the display by both Ricardo Carvalho and Michael Ballack were not only shameful, but indicative of things I’ve seen from this group before during trying matches where things are not going the Blues way. It’s not often that Chelsea gets manhandled at Stamford Bridge, but when it does happen, they must learn to cope much better than they did yesterday.
- Nothing new to report on the MLS labour situation, but I would expect the players and the owners both realize how damaging a strike would be, so let’s continue to hope cooler heads prevail. [Toronto Star]
- Edwin van der Sar signed a new deal with Manchester United. Bad news, Ben Foster. [Daily Mail]
- Both Real Madrid and Barcelona were victorious yesterday, so no change at the top of La Liga as Barcelona holds that slim two point lead for another week. [Fox]
- Bayer Leverkeusen stayed unbeaten in 24 straight matches, but their draw with Cologne only put them a point clear of Bayern Munich, who can go top today when they see about Hamburg. [Soccernet]
- There’s a fantastic race for the top spot in France, as Bordeaux, Lyon and upstarts Montpellier are fighting it out with only three points separating them after the latest round. [SI]
- Mexico named their squad for this week’s friendly with New Zealand in the Rose Bowl, and it’s a good one. [New Zealand Herald]
- Not all is well for Aston Villa keeper Brad Friedel ahead of today’s League Cup final at Wembley. His soccer school in Ohio is in heavy debt and has been hit with a foreclosure order. [Sunday Mercury]
- The Houston Dynamo may get a new stadium. Let’s hope they do. [Houston Chronicle]
Today’s television and internet schedule:
8:00am- Setanta USA- Tottenham Hotspur vs. Everton [England]
8:30am- ESPN Deportes/ESPN360.com- PSV Eindhoven vs. Walwijk [Netherlands]
9:00am- FSE- AC Milan vs. Atalanta [Italy]
9:00am- ESPN360.com- Napoli vs. AS Roma [Italy]
9:00am- ESPN360.com- Udinese vs. Inter Milan [Italy]
9:55am- ESPN360.com/Setanta USA- Aston Villa vs. Manchester United [England - League Cup]
10:00am- FSC- Liverpool vs. Blackburn [England]
11:00am- ESPN Deportes/ESPN360.com/DirecTV- Villarreal vs. Deportivo La Coruna [Spain]
11:00am- DirecTV- Xerez vs. Espanyol [Spain]
11:00am- DirecTV- Racing Santander vs. Almeria [Spain]
11:00am- DirecTV- Sporting Gijon vs. Osasuna [Spain]
11:00am- DirecTV- Real Valladolid vs. Mallorca [Spain]
11:00am- FSE- Liverpool vs. Blackburn (Delayed) [England]
11:30am- GolTV- Bayern Munich vs. Hamburg [Germany]
Noon- FSC- Sunderland vs. Fulham (Delayed) [England]
1:00pm- ESPN Deportes/ESPN360.com/DirecTV- Sevilla vs. Athletic Bilbao [Spain]
1:00pm- Telemundo- Toluca vs. Indios [Mexico]
2:45pm- FSC/FSE- Juventus vs. Palermo [Italy]
3:00pm- GolTV- Athletico Madrid vs. Valencia [Spain]
3:00pm- Setanta USA- Paris St. Germain vs. Marseille [France]
3:15pm- ESPN360.com- Sporting vs. FC Porto [Portugal]
5:00pm- ESPN Deportes- Puebla vs. Jaguares [Mexico]
5:00pm- Setanta USA- Chelsea vs. Manchester City (Delayed) [England]
5:00pm- FSC- AC Milan vs. Atalanta (Delayed) [Italy]
5:00pm- GolTV- Santos vs. Corinthians (Delayed) [Mexico]
5:00pm- FSE- Independiente vs. Racing (Delayed) [Colombia]
As usual, we’ll be around in comments and on Twitter today, so come find us. Enjoy the day, and let’s hope for some great action. Cheers.
Um….congrats to United? No, screw those guys.
Who scored the winning goal in the 94th minute of the Old Firm Derby today?
Maurice Edu.
Yes, THAT Maurice Edu.
He had another goal called back earlier in the match as well.
/checks the sky for flying pigs…
I hate to be this guy, honestly, but someone’s gonna have to shoot Rooney (which obviously is me kidding, lest anyone think I’m serious) to get him out of this form.
Should we call Bullet Tooth Tony?
On second thought, Boris the Blade is probably more amiable to our point of view.
Interesting comment on the Canadian network showing the game today.
They were talking about Owen. The one Liverpool fan was defending him (he’s had bad luck and been hurt and that sort of wingeing) . The other guy had an interesting point – that the way football is played has changed and that Owen is too one-dimensional to ever be elite again even if he was healthy. He wasn’t disputing Owen’s instincts close to the goal, just arguing that Owen hasn’t adapted to the changing game, like Rooney.
My thought is that maybe this had somehting to do with his lack of time on Real?
**It was Diaby, not Eboue, that had his ankle broken at Sunderland a few years ago.
Have blogged about the Ramsey incident – a slightly different tack, to be honest.
RCM
http://leftbackinthechangingroom.blogspot.com