THE RED MIST
A Scholes red card and a Balotelli wink, and they will be talking about that semi-final for days and days.
The stories coming out of United-City yesterday:
It was a victory for City supporters more than anything else. That’s a sentiment I can get behind. [Yahoo!]
City “wanted it more”. I always find this take on things a bit dubious, but they have to write something, right? [Guardian - Richard Williams]
Despite his inability to stay out of trouble, sulk and potentially start a riot, City did not have much of a choice but to play Mario Balotelli yesterday. [Guardian - Paul Hayward]
Apparently it was a wink of the eye that turned Rio Ferdinand into a raving lunatic yesterday. That Balotelli is such a troublemaker. [Mail]
Fergie says it wasn’t Paul Scholes being sent off that killed United, it was rubbish defending on the goal by Yaya Toure and Dimitar Berbatov being unable to finish from two yards out. He might be right about that. [Mail]
Roberto Mancini has warned City to not think of yesterday as “winning the Cup”. [BBC]
The other big story from yesterday was the Clasico, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Here’s a look at the stories around that match:
Some are suggesting that this draw is a “moral victory” for the Special One. I bet he would much rather have a “real victory” over Pep. [ESPN - Leander Schaerlaeckens]
Mourinho went defensive and it mostly worked. [SI]
ESPN set the stage for this match by showing a graphic comparing Ronaldo and Messi. The problem was that someone in the research department clearly just ran a Google Image search on “Ronaldo” and not “Cristiano Ronaldo”. [Dirty Tackle]
Whether it’s a moral victory or not, the result probably sealed the league title for Barcelona. [Guardian - Sid Lowe]
Of course the English media had to castigate former Real Madrid manager and current England manager Fabio Capello for attending El Clasico instead of seeing City-United. Of course they did. [Mail]
Of course, other things happened in the world of footy yesterday. Those stories:
Your MLS results saw victories for New York Red Bulls, Columbus and DC United, and draws between Seattle-Philadelphia and Chivas USA-Vancouver. [NE Soccer News]
Most of the “drama” in the Barclay’s Premier League right now is the “fight” at the bottom of the table. [Soccernet]
Benny Feilhaber has signed with MLS and now it’s up to some sort of convoluted allocation draft process to see who he will be playing with. [Miami Herald]
Some are wondering whether or not new Arsenal kingpin Stan Kroenke is spread too thin. [St. Louis Today]
AC Milan closed in on the Serie A title yesterday with a victory, while Inter was losing. [Reuters]
Rangers went top in Scotland while Celtic was off for a Cup semifinal today. [BBC]
Here is today’s television schedule, all times Eastern.
England, Reading-Leicester 8 a.m. FSP
Netherlands, Graafschap-Twente 8:30 a.m. ESPN Deportes
Italy, Fiorentina-Juventus 9 a.m. FSC
England, Arsenal-Liverpool 11 a.m. FSC
England FA Cup, Bolton-Stoke 11 a.m. FSP
Spain, Levante-Hercules 11 a.m. DirecTV (477)
Germany, Borussia Dortmund-Freiburg 11:30 a.m. GolTV
Spain, Deportivo La Coruna-Santander noon ESPN Deportes
Mexico, Pumas-Queretaro 1 p.m. Telemundo
Italy, Napoli-Udinese 2:30 p.m. FSC
Spain, Espanyol-Atletico Madrid 3 p.m. GolTV
Germany, Bayern Munich-Bayer Leverkusen 3 p.m. ESPN Deportes
France, PSG-Lyon 3 p.m. FSP
MLS, Chicago-Los Angeles 4 p.m. Telefutura
Brazil, Ponte Preta-Palmeiras 5 p.m. GolTV Premiere
MLS, Portland-Dallas 6 p.m. Direct Kick
Mexico, Tecos-America 6 p.m. Telefutura
WPS, Boston-Western New York 6 p.m. FSC
MLS, Houston-New England 7 p.m. Direct Kick
ESPN3‘s schedule. It’s a pretty good day of matches overall, from all over the world. I hope you enjoy the matches today and as always, thank you very much for your clicks and comments.
Feilhaber will be going to Chivas- unless they don’t want him. They’ll probably take him as he won’t count as a designated player.
I read today that his agreed-upon salary is somewhere past 350K per annum. Think Chivas can handle that? Someone with deep pockets is going to take him, but I’m not sure who that might be. If he ends up with either NY or LA I give up.
There’s the money issue, and also the fact that if Chivas take him they then drop to the bottom of the allocation rankings (even if they take him and immediately trade him to another club), meaning that if a better and/or cheaper player becomes available later in the season they would have no chance of getting him. The current allocation order is:
1. Chivas USA
2. Philadelphia
3. New England
4. Houston
5. Toronto
6. Chicago
7. Kansas City
8. Seattle
9. Columbus
10. New York
11. Real Salt Lake
12. San Jose
13. Los Angeles
14. Dallas
15. Colorado Rapids
16. Vancouver Whitecaps
17. Portland Timbers
18. D.C. United
I’d actually love to see the Revs take him- if your Union doesn’t first- but in any case I can’t see him getting past Houston, much less all the way down to N.Y. or L.A.. I don’t think he’s a “star,” but the kind of player that could make a “good” team “very good” or a “very good” team “great.”
All of that being said, Chivas have taken 3 points from their first 5 matches, so maybe they can’t afford NOT to take him.
Is Feilhaber really the kind of player that’s going to change Chivas? I can see him as effective as part of a system, but not as the focal point of said system; I’d bet Toronto would want to look long and hard at taking him to replace De Rosario (if he gets that far).
That’s my point- they’ll be slightly less worse with him, where with a better team he might be the difference between making the playoffs or not.
Wait, or does everybody make the playoffs this year?
In other news, apparently I blinked and the WPS’s “Washington Freedom” moved to Boca Raton, FL and became, “magicJack”?! The details of this deal (the team was purchased and relocated by the inventor of MagicJack) are BEYOND sketchy and if it doesn’t signal the death throes of this league I don’t know what does.
Oh, and it’s not a typo. The product is “MagicJack” with a capital “M” and the team is “magicJack.” What?
I’d tell you more, but on this- the night of the weekly WPS match on FSC- the league’s website is down. Apparently, however, the site still lists the club as the “Washignton Freedom.”
Seriously, as somebody who has devoted his entire coaching career to the women’s game this is as disappointing as it is embarrassing.
wow.