The Day Wimbledon Beat The Germans
Jun 23rd, 2010 by 'holic
I feel like a fraud. What sort of a football supporter sits through nearly four hours of a tennis match between two nobodies, and misses the two final matches in the World Cup group D? I have a feeling I am not alone, however, and will be keeping an eye on the third day of the remarkable Isner v Mahut match on court eighteen.
The intensity being displayed at Wimbledon was even greater than that being experienced by England’s followers. The national side just about crawled out of basically the easiest group as runners-up to the United States, themselves dramatic last-gasp winners.
You won’t be surprised to hear I cannot really comment on the American performance, having been glued to radio five coverage of the England game, and a regularly buffering stream on a mobile broadband dongle. It sounds every bit as nerve-wracking, although for entirely different reasons.
England, frankly, should have been home and hosed long before desperate defending was required to prevent a Slovenian equaliser in the closing stages. Yet again a nation is left wondering why the likes of Lampard and Rooney seem incapable of justifying their huge reputations at club level.
Too often England, hyped to the rafters, fail to deliver at the highest level. It used to hurt, a lot, so I understand fully what younger supporters of the national side are going through. Nowadays I accept our technical deficiencies more readily, and don’t set my expectation levels too high. If, and that is a bloody big if, the Germans are despatched on Sunday, then we will have surpassed what I expected of us.
As the record of the week points out, it could be worse, we could be French! Obviously because of the Arsenal connections I usually keep an eye on them in the major tournaments. Let’s face it, we did win the World Cup in 1998 as the Mirror famously pointed out. Even I have to confess though, that I was pleased to see their final humiliation in this tournament at the hands of the hosts.
Player power has reared its ugly head at this most prestigious of tournaments, and those who considered themselves demi-Gods have been chopped down a peg or two, not by their national associations, but by those who these pampered ponces thought worshipped them. Patrice Evra and John Terry now know exactly where they stand. Somehow, I doubt they care.
Right, hopefully there will be a bit more Arsenal news to comment on by the weekend, as well as hopefully some positive news from South Africa. I’m really looking forward to the Song versus the Dutch tomorrow. Then on Friday I may just take in the Chile versus Spain game instead of Bohemians clash with Dundalk!
Cheers all.
73 Responses to “The Day Wimbledon Beat The Germans”
Holic
Darn forgot were I was .. we dont play that game here. Ill order a clubsoda then thank you .. I actually rushed home from work to see the second half of England’s game and although I love ridiculing them Im happy to see them through. Plus we get to se a recap of Worldwar2 vs Ze Germans looking forward to that one. And Usa quite fairly won the group Im looking forward to see the English dream team win the Olympic basketball next Olympics.. USA more or less achieved something similar today.
I agree. Extraordinary match, the tennis. I had the German game on a stream and the tennis on TV.
Oh Holic, were the players at fault for six years of gross and willful mismanagement, at the hands of a football association who thinks the worst thing that has happened here is not the record of RayDom the RanDom, but a player snit in the face of deliberate and contemptuous handling of their aspirations in the brief part of their youth that they could play on this stage? (Well, excepting Anelka, of course.)
The response in France is all very English, very class oriented, Paris vs the banlieus, etc. We saw something snap, when we didn’t know it had been bent back so far.
As for Wimbledon, I’ve always thought that having to play at the highest level, for four hours, relying on no one but yourself, has to be among the hardest athletic tasks. Today, it wouldn’t have got one through the fifth set! Talk about mental strength, forget the stamina and physical side of it.
Agreed Joel. Cruel to think that either will go out, but if it is the poor sod who has served to save the match over fifty times already, that is just horrendous.
Also take your point about Domenech, and I have been critical of him before, but the players were quite happy to go along with the World Cup runner-up of four years ago until it went Pete Tong this time around.
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the last two matches were alright with the Aussies having a glimmer of hope but in the end out on GD. Compares nothing to the match this morning AMERICA vs Algeria. USA wins the group.. not really a surprise to loyal supporters of the squad here. We seem to have a sense of camaraderie and hunger that the English stars do not. That said looking forward to Germany vs England at an early stage should be an interesting prospect between historic sides.
Also, FIFA officials got it terribly wrong again with ANOTHER disallowed goal. First heartbreak with Ireland, then furious with the disallowed goal vs Slovenia, and then today vs Algeria. Jozy and the lads might’ve saved international football for me.
oh and cheers holic for your brutle honesty about now viewing those two late matches for a tennis competition , between two nobody’s. that happens every year! Probably took a lot of guts to tell everyone that haha.
Matt – to continue from yesterday, probably one last time so as not to try people’s petience –
I am sure Colin Lewin is highly qualified in his field.
The issue is the “field”.
To illustrate what Catalan and I have been saying, here is one very brief “case history” for you.
A 50 year old woman ran a 10km (6 mile) road race 2 weeks ago.
Nothing unusual about that – only that this woman was told last October, by an orthopaedic surgeon, never to run again.
She had been suffering with Sciatica for over 2 years and had gradually had to give up almost all exercise due to the pain.
The consultant diagnosed disc damage and degeneration of the spine.
To me, the pattern of symptoms she described fitted exactly with muscular problems.
By realigning her twisted pelvis – quite possibly due to a difficult child birth 12 years previously – and doing a lot of deep soft tissue work, coupled with a lot of stretching, strengthening and muscle balancing exercises, she began running early in the new year, and has been running 15 miles per week since March.
I am sure Catalan has many similar stories – but it just illustrates the difference between the conventional and holistic approaches.
Meersseman contends that only Milan adopt the holistic approach – most evidence would make it hard to argue.
I am sure Arsenal would not rest our best players if they were really fit. I just wonder why our recovery time from soft-tissue injuries is so long.
As Catalan will know, you will never properly cure a hamstring injury, for example, if there is any sign of pelvic twisting or rotation. It will improve to a point, and then “go” again, on the raised side of the sacrum, as soon as it is really stressed. Sound familiar ?
Anyway, that’s my lot, probably to the relief of most.
Cheers and apologies ‘Holic – I did warn you it would get a bit long.
Better have a short then, please.
Trev, apologies not necessary. I’ve enjoyed the posting and may well return to the subject and ‘pinch’ some of it once the World Cup is out of the way.
Those who know me love my approach to apologies. Never say sorry. Your friends don’t need it, and the other bastards don’t believe it.
An England win. About all I can say. A better performance but one that will need to go up a gear or 2 on Sunday.
I hate Wimbledon. I always remember the days when the bloody BBC would switch from the test match to bloody tennis. Drove me nuts and I have hated it ever since. That said, that is one hell of a game. What is the betting that it is all over within 20 minutes tomorrow morning???
Keep the faith.
Holic,
The American press has noted that Wenger on French TV has been very complimentary of the US team, especially Michael Bradley. If I remember correctly, he also went out of his way to praise Russia right before signing Arshavin.
Age-wise Donovan and Dempsey might be a touch old, but what about Michael Bradley as Song’s backup? Tireless runner, can pop a goal, and seems to be tactically sound.
‘Holic, wherever you may be, you watch tennis in your home country. It could be worse, you could be French, tennis on clay and a football stench!
Also… It’s up for grabs now! Donovan! Right at the end! An unbelievable climax to the Group Stage! Well into injury time!
As for England… Well done when they need to. And I can’t root for the Krauts, can I? Unless they’re playing Maradona. Let’s see if I have this song right… “There were ten German bombers in the air… “
And, Andy, Michael Bradley will be 23 on July 31. That makes him 29 in Wenger Years, well worth the effort. And he has Bundesliga experience, so he’s ready for the Premiership. I’m not sure if he fills Arsenal’s needs, but he’ll probably screw up less than Diaby or Denilson.
@Trev: Thanks for the clarification, I definitively did see your point 100% (and I am a full believer in the non-exclusively medical approach) which had me raise doubts about the future performance of Colin Lewin in regards to injuries. I’m sure he is qualified in his field but whether that will make a difference remains to be seen.
Man I would definitively have watched that game of tennis although I haven’t in years. History in the making! I’m so jealous I can’t.
Yes the US is a hell of a team. I have been repeating it at every world cup, they may not have a great league but their qualities shine in international competitions. They too can make history, they’re a real bunch of winners this year. And yes a yank or two would do wonders to the spirit in our team.
Trev – Why do you think then that our recovery time is THIS long? Are we overprotective and resting guys too much ? Could it be that players are 90% fit and still sit out before coming back the next week 100%?
Holic – To be honest, this WC just proves to me what I’ve been thinking all along – Thank god we don’t have a lot of Englishmen. They’re just not good players. Milner, Lennon, Defoe, Crouch etc’ are AVERAGE at best, they’re not world class, there isn’t a lot of potential around the UK.
About Wimbledon – WOW!!! I was watching the game and talking to a friend of mine who’s a tennis player and he just couldn’t believe it, he actually stood up and applauded when play was suspended.
This was truly unbelievable – To see Isner’s reactions was hilarious. There was one time a ball fell out of his pocket and he just didn’t have any energy to pick it up so he asked for a new one – That was a classic moment!!!
Matt – Could you please tell me why there is a sudden drop in interest in Soccer in the US?
Seriously, I lived in MA when I was young, and I played there and there are tons of players and “Soccer Mums” and really a lot of support for the sport in young ages.
When people get to college and MLS ages there is a sudden drop, why is that in your opinion?
I blame the media – watching PTI the other day I heard Tony Kornheiser tell Wilbon “Inter beat Bayern for the UCL, is that a big thing”?
In addition, I surf a whole lot on Espnboston.com and when I go into the Red Sox team page under the “Boston Sports” there is no Revolution – Just Celtics, Patriots and Bruins.
Do you think the media is to blame???
Holic, I do like the occassional tennis match myself. I’m like the non footy fan who turns up just for the World Cup or the Champions League final. But a 59-59 scoreline is just ridiculous. If we wanted to watch games that long, like I mentioned someplace else, I’d just watch a test match.
@Snir: In CA it seems football is the primary choice of parents for their kids sport. Also this world cup is generating a lot of press and interest with less negative comments (“soccer is boring”) than the previous ones. If the US reaches the semi-final that will help even further. There’s definitively a great future in the US for football as a sport for kids and young adults.
As for the MLS it’s a poor league anyway you look at it. They aren’t as technical as they could be (it’s less pleasing on the eyes), the most talented leave for Europe, there’s a lot of sports on TV (the market seems pretty saturated already) so the competition is stiff, all he foreigners/foreign-born follow their origin leagues instead.
Also even though I’m almost classifying a whole nation , Americans live in this rationality where patience is not a virtue. we’ve always been about excitement and scoring, so many Americans fill that void with homeland sports such as basketball and American football . that is why baseball is slowing down alot too for inner city African Americans because they want to score and use their athletic ability almost every play in basketball, which is tougher to do in the more patient and slow build up play of soccer which is attractive to different mindsets and interests of placing ability. one thi g is for certain though, America produces the best athletes and if more of these athletes start playing football (soccer) we will be unstoppable. imagine Lebron james type players up top at striker with his speed strength leap and agility… unreal. there are too many choices for sport in America unlike England where right away EVERYONE wants and is bred to be a footballer.
Football as in soccer is probably the most played game in America under the age of 16 but in real terms it is the least watched on TV because the game does not lend itself to the American TV advertising schedule as play cannot be stopped to allow for ads.
American football has made this concession and baseball is naturally suited toward it anyway. It could be argued that the quality of the game in the case of American football has declined as a result but I’m no expert.
The simple fact is that as long as “soccer” is a game of 2 uninterrupted halves of 45 minutes each, No American broadcasting entity will be interested in putting serious investment into a domestic league in say the way SKY has in the UK.
Not much to add to your post holic, though having seen several World Cups, this one has hardly held my attention for the whole ninety minutes in many matches.Messi is a joy to watch,and up to now is the only true world class entertainer that I have seen.
The BBC pundits were creaming themselves that we won, though I reckon more with relief than anything else.We did play better than the opening two matches, but that wasn’t hard.
Rooney is a complete arsehole,regardless if he is injured or not, he couldn’t even acknowledge the fans when he came off.
Maybe England can lift their game against better opposition in the shape of Germany, but overall when you have a continent of one billion people and only 40000 can actually get access or can afford to attend matches, it’s a sorry state.
I can’t get excited about England,as this is not the squad that played so well in the qualifiers,and I still believe that certain senior players influence Capello’s selections.The only bright spark in all 3 games has been cashley.
my dark horse is Chile.
Terence good post, but it is interesting to note that we have had a fair share of good keepers from The states, as nearly all their major games are hand orientated as opposed to feet.
Tennis over football?
Very disappointing!
‘Hols, it’s quite simple – this World Cup is shite. Pure and simple. I have never seen so much dross. Let’s hope the next round is better.
And yes, Wimbledon, sunshine, ladies, fillies, women, sunshine, strawberries, drinks, girls, did I mention chicks?
No competition!
Worst year ever in the history of British tennis at Wimbledon,only one survivor past the first round. Tennis is my second love and both my kids played at County level from the ages of 9 to 14,under immense pressure, tremendous cost,and then discarded as not being good enough.Boys are selected for advancement at the age of 11, what a joke, before they are fully devoloped. it is still an elitest sport, and the weather has nothing to do with it.only a few years ago the ladies number 1 and 2 were from Belgium.The Williams sisters came from the slum districts of L.A.taught by their father.Grass roots is the problem a parallel to football.Tennis clubs don’t persuade kids to play, if anything they kick them off the court so the adults can supposedly play what they call tennis.and the kids are allotted a small time to play on a certain day.Wimbledon make 30 million GBP every year and plough back 3/4 of a million into the junior game.Henman was discarded by the LTA but got picked up by David Lloyd, and murray was originally coached by his mother. It’s a shambles. rant over.
@Chicago: Americans can be very patient considering how many watch baseball games or a week-end of left turns at Daytona 😉
I can’t believe Wimbledon chose to NOT even update of what the score was during the game yesterday afternoon. Just goes to show where priorities are for the great English game.
Funny that as well during the game bozo Mark Lawrenson said it’s called a tackle and that should not have been a foul and when on the receiving end he said he took his legs out (when he got the ball and never touched the player). It’s the same old story with Arsenal, we are the foreign team of the EPL and nothing will change that if Le Boss is still in charge.
Tennis is the rich man game end off, I played well to what I can remembert but my old man couldn’t afford it.
@ Trev… any time you’re in Barcelona, pop in for a beer or three!
33,000 of the 35,000 have renewed their season ticket by June 1. Only a few hundred of the 6,700 Club level seats have not. The club cashed £65m.
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2010/06/22/1989186/arsenal-given-65m-season-ticket-boost-despite-cesc-fabregas
About the patience – Matt’s quite right, baseball is for patient people 🙂
About the ads- they can make a small ad just like they do during the NBA or something.
I still don’t really understand why there is a sudden drop in interest in soccer in the us as people grow up.
Cesc has come out and said things we already knew but happily this whole saga hasn’t changed anything – he said Pep was his idol growing up and that Wenger means everything to him and he owes him a lot.
I really do believe he’s staying and we already improved our striking options, now Schwarzer’s looking like he’s gonna be our keeper and he’s quite solid (for people watching the Aussie’s games at the WC he had two awful mistakes but was quite good other than that and I’m not judging based on that beach ball) and Koscielny to replace Gallas, things are looking way better!!! 🙂
A proof the Jabulani is a beach ball – EVERY team has a Rory Delap in them…
‘holic I apologise for hijacking the thread but I have some news regarding memberships that I thought you might find interesting following your piece on memberships a few weeks ago. After six years of waiting I finally got my e-mail today saying that I had reached the top of the waiting list and so would I arrange an appointment to discuss where I wanted to sit etc.
So hooray for me! However the thing of interest for you is that a condition of becoming a gold member (season ticket holder) is that you must give up any silver memberships that you hold. I think that is a new requirement. Now whether all season ticket holders are going to have silver cards removed I don’t know. As I’m only a red member it doesn’t effect me. I can also confirm that it takes much longer to reach silver membership than to reach the top of the season ticket waiting list. this might just clear the blockage.
To celebrate I’ll have a glass of Puligny Montrachet please. 45 years of supporting the Gunners, first time I’ll have had a season ticket. Hallelujah.
@ Matt and Snir Geuli- Yes baseball is a patient sport but thats why it has dropped dramatically for inner city participants playing baseball. Baseball and all ex African Americans players are starting up programs to get the you black child back into playing the game and being interested in the game , but it’s not working. And let’s just face the facts here that most major athletes in Americans sports american football and baseball, and sports all across the world are black- besides football (soccer) where many dont take interest in. this does lead the arguement to why an african nation haven’t been able to have all powering soccer teams and this is because they haven’t been able to produce as many technically sound players as we have started to. Drogba is one African athlete, along with Kolo toure, Eto’ etc. that have both from being sent away at an extremely young age to fine tune their skills.
The key for soccer and also baseball in ( even though i think it’s a dreadful sport) is to spark interest in these sports again. All the best athletes hands down play basketball and football. If we funneled them into having soccer as another choice then the sky is the limit with the athletic abilities we would have as a team, along with the growing technical abilities american soccer and youth soccer in america has proven to be able to begin to produce.
Also out of context but two players on USA team on the pitch when we scored the winner, Carlos Bocannegra and DeMarcus Beasley, both started playing football with our local MLS team the Chicago Fire… pretty exciting stuff
Congratulations Countryman, and thanks for the membership news. You didn’t read what I said earlier about apologising, did you 😉
Lucky Countryman! Let’s wish you got your ticket right in time to witness the second coming of the Invincibles 😉
@Chicago: Interesting perspective. I am under the impression football is doing well in CA (apart from the MLS) considering the competition with the more established american sports. From the butcher to the gas station attendant to coworkers to random people in the street, a lot of people are following the WC and it’s been on the uptrend in the last 10 years.
The problem is with the MLS. Granted it needs more stars, there’s already Donovan even if for now he’s the only world-known world-class player there but there will be more and more.
Unfortunately the US sports system with franchises (meaning there are no relegations) and without international competitions (no equivalent of European cups) leaves the teams without anything to fight for (besides winning the title). Now if they could have an All-Americas cup it would be a huge booster (phat chance with a 12 hours flight to play against River Plate or Fluminense…).
On the other hand support for European teams is definitively on the up. Now for a quarter-final of the CL you’d better arrrive early at the pub which is a big change compared to 10 years ago (when there were no streams either).
Some really interesting drinks there ‘holics. Clean forgot tomorrow I am on the golf course, so next post will be Saturday.
What’s the betting we make a signing tomorrow 🙂
Between now and Saturday night? Both Schwartzer and Koscielny of course!
I agree that it is definitely gaining more and more popularity in American media with ESPN showing games in the mornings now, and also dscussing it very briefly on sportscenter ( which is a small step atleast). the youth set up has also improved dramatically over the past decade and the next generating of footballers will be much better because there was a statistic that showed soccer ( yes calling it soccer so no American football confusion ) as the most played sport in America youth so the future looms brighter.
and there have been a few all- American cup competitions such as the Superliga which the MLS Chicago Fire side features in the final vs Mexican first division side Tigres. but there are also a few more competitions like this one which offer similar tournament structure so sponsor and tv money is thin, and big south American clubs such as Santos and Boca don’t really have much incentive to join. hopefully one major tournament can be organized soon.
Sccer barges in even on Daily Show!
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-23-2010/world-cup-2010–into-africa—us-beats-algeria
My son is about to go over to the US to try his luck at getting a US soccer scholarship for 2011/12. It will be really interesting to see what the standard is like over there as he will be up against ‘the next generation’. Under no illusion that competition from the US kids will be fierce.
My take of it is that although the college structure is brilliant – there is too much fluidity between the evolving leagues and structure for the fan base to grow real roots in the lower professional leagues. Still a bit of shifting sands – but they will get it right sooner or later.
Holic. Golf is worse than tennis……………
@Chicago – Congrats for the Stanley Cup 😉
Well – Easier said than done… It’s obvious we need to raise the interest in soccer as opposed to football and basketball but how can it be done?
And what you were saying is partially right…
MLB, NHL, MLS – White
NBA, NFL – Black
So if people can play Hockey they can play soccer too…
I just don’t know how you can raise the support in soccer in the US without the media’s help cause the way I see it – THERE IS a grown interest in Soccer, it’s just not as prestigious to be an MLS player rather than an NBA/NHL/NFL/MLB player.
The Mirror has lost all respect I have for them because of how they wrote about Cesc’s comments stating on the headline that Cesc’s saying “Barcelona is my home and Pep is my idol” where different sites chose to write “Arsenal ace owes his mentor”.
They make me sick.
@ Catalan – cheers, and likewise if you make it over here for a game.
Noticed today, by the way, that Bendtner was a fitness doubt again for Denmark’s match, as he has been for all three of their group games. Apparantly it’s his groin, again, which has not yet settled since last season’s operation.
Sadly, it hardly comes as a surprise. Pre-season starting in a week or so, and injuries to Bendtner and Vela (no, really!) already lie in wait.
It couldn’t happen again, could it ???
@Catalan- Is there any chance you can find the interview that Cesc did for Ona FM and translate for us please? I really wanna know what was said there and don’t really trust the media to translate it properly 🙂
Steve T,
Heh!
Copy-pasting from a few articles to give you and idea of the progress of “soccer” in the US. Pretty impressive progression overall, and the numbers are underestimated because they don’t count the 1.5 million people watching the live streams on ESPN3 (pretty impressive btw, DVD quality streams live and they even cut the ads out!) nor the people in bars/pubs. So yes there is definitively hope!
According to Nielsen, 13 million total viewers watched Saturday’s England-USA match, which ended with a 1-1 tie. Some 3.8 million more watched the match on Univision, giving the game a total audience of 16.8 million viewers, or 400,000 more than the audience for game four of the NBA finals and more than double the audience for the deciding game of the NHL finals.
That was just part of a strong start to the World Cup for ABC, sister network ESPN and Univision, who are averaging an impressive combined 8.1 million per game through the first five matches, up 80 percent over 2006.
“Thanks to social media and enhanced access to games and news from around the world, soccer fever has hit a critical mass in the United States,” said Stephen Master, Nielsen’s vice president of sports. He also called the high ratings a validation of “soccer’s momentum across America.”
@KingsVeryCross: Good luck to your son!
But why is Womens Soccer more popular than mens in The States?
So after last night’s games, one could argue that the Europeans aren’t performing that well, and the South Americans, for the moment,have the upper hand.
Most impressed with Honda from CSK Moscow, could be targetted for the PL .
@40 Matt – sorry but u dont know the half of it
as someone who watches Daily Show quite often (on More4) it has caused the special UK-US relationship to come tumbling down in last 2 days – the interplay between the 2 Johns is awesome, no matter what subject they choose
I look forward more to seeing how the results of the weekend games
pan out on the Daily Show than watching the games themselves
BTW – who thinks an Asian team has a chance to win now?
A vanilla Grand Marnier for me please (I only found out recently that GM is made from Cognac – you live and learn)
@ Snir
Bit of a busy day, but I’ll have a look for it. Testing my language skills though!
But, whatever he said, I wouldn’t stress about it. If he goes he goes, if he stays he stays. And there is nothing we can do about it.
Maybe I’m a fatalist.
@Matt. Thanks.
I will get the low down from him when he gets back in August and report back as to the level of competition and how the WC was recieved.
Strong coffee please.
Alright Holic and Holics,
Its seems an age since i last posted, Ive been on my Hols and am now fully refreshed awaiting pre season 🙂
Watched the First 2 England games in Portugal and even the locals were laughing at how inept we were and who could blame them :-),
Great bunch the Portuguese a more friendly race Bar Ronaldo you couldnt wish to meet,
I see that Holic is still firmly hitting the nail on the head
“Player power has reared its ugly head at this most prestigious of tournaments”
Couldnt agree more and as you go on to say it seems the Fans are finally starting to turn against the Egotistical wankers so hopefully they will start to step back into line, Id love to have seen Capello drop Mr Terry ,
Also i say it every world cup but the cheating and play acting just seems to get worse every world cup, Fifa and Uefa really need to stamp it out as its making a mockery of the game we all love,
For once i really fancy Englands chances on Sunday and for me it seems like the World cup has finally started so a great weekend should be had be all,
I want Filipe Melo at Arsenal!
Some of what he has been drinking please!
Likewise Chippy – just back from Portugal, where the locals kept commiserating with me due to “the English results….” only to realise I was Scottish 😉
I think that if the Germans are able to put in a full strength team then they will be too strong for England. Whatever happens there should be goals as there are weaknesses in both teams at the back.
Speaking about play acting etc – I think there are a number of things that Fifa could do to clean up and improve the game:
1. Send off defenders for wrestling with opponents in the penalty box.
2. Send off offenders for simulation – how cute would it be to see Rooney and Gerrard sent off in the same match? 🙂
3. Award more points for goals scored in the group stages – these cagey fixtures where teams are terrified to go forward is killing the game.
4. Stop messing around with the match ball – agree a specification and stick to it – you can change the pattern or maybe even the colour but this messing around with a new ball every tournament is a nonsense.
PS – Nic Bendtner played last night like he has done many times for Arsenal – either injured or couldn’t be arsed – either way it’s not good news for the Gunners.
Its good to be back – pint of guiness landlord !
zicoinexile,
Ouch that must have hurt a proud scot :-),
Made me laugh tho i couldnt work out if we were in Brazil or Portugal by the amount of Brazillian flags and Kaka shirts they must be hating seeing todays game maybe they support each side for a half 🙂
Couldnt agree more on the cleaning up of the game its getting beyond a joke,
Wow, great statistics Matt. @ Snir- cheers, there were quite some parties all over the city with Stanley Cup since most of the core players were just regular 21 or 22 year old guys.
@ KingVeryCross – goodluck to your son and I’m sure he may be surprised at the level of Division I college play over here is high. Ky brother is also having a trial next month for a D 1 school, and next year before I go to college I’ll be doing the same. Also alot of foreigners come over here and receive football scholarships to play at colleges and receive their degrees too so I’m sure he’ll fit in great.
.
my brother*** (guilty of the phone auto changing my words once again..)
@ zicionexile
stop messing with the match ball!
Jubulani is actually a pretty good ball – state of the art design by loughboro university
obvisiously there are regulations regarding diameter and weight etc which it conforms (actually only 2grams lighter than ball used at last world cup) also in the rebound test (where ball is dropped from a height of 2 metrres onto steel platform) it performs much more uniformly than any other ball – within 4 cm difference each time -the regs are within 10cm each time.
True there are groove and dimples that make it fly through the air truer and slightly faster – is this not down to improved technology? Should we still use an old pigs bladder?
Problem is leagues have signed contracts to use a certain ball -prem uses nike so we couldnt use it (and get used to it) early unlike the bundsliga who could!
Way back in 1930 argentina and uraguay contested the first world cup final but couldn’t agree which ball to use – so they played the first half with the argies choice and the second with uraguays choice- argies were 2-1 up at half time but lost the second half 3-0! So we always had a discussion about the balls!
The main problem for england was that some twat at the fa lost(LOST!) our first quota of balls – so we had even less time to practice with the? Than anyone else!
Come on chile!!
@kevnal: The quality of football in this world cup (like the previous ones) would have been much better if the ball had been introduced for the qualification games 2 years earlier instead of a month before tournament. Even now there are still too many passes with too much weight and too many approximative controls.
BERLIN – A 2-year-old octopus oracle — born in England, but raised in Germany — has predicted a German win over England in Sunday’s World Cup game.
The mollusk named Paul chose a mussel out of a water glass marked with the German flag over a mussel in a glass with the English St. George’s Cross, said Tanja Munzig, a spokeswoman for the Sea Life Aquarium in the western city of Oberhausen, on Friday.
Paul has proven to be a reliable oracle in the past — he predicted Germany’s win over Australia and Ghana and its loss to Serbia. During the 2008 European Championship, he predicted 80 percent of all German games right, Munzig said.
Germany’s national team faces England in a much-anticipated round of 16 faceoff in South Africa.
“Paul’s prediction was phenomenal,” Munzig said. “He swam straight over to the German glass, climbed in and even put a lid on top once he was sitting inside. It was completely crazy.”
The organizers of Friday’s event were still analyzing why Paul covered the glass with a lid.
“Either he was a bit ashamed that he gave up his English roots so quickly,” Munzig said, “or he was just absolutely convinced about a fast, overwhelming German victory.”
Munzig said that even though Paul was born in England, “he now carries a German passport,” because he has lived in Oberhausen for most of his life.
@ Chicago Gunner
Actually not expecting an easy ride – very respectful of D1 college football – he and I have had a good look on the internet and looks like a really decent level. Will be pleasently surprised if he gets through. Will be interesting to see how it all compares. Good luck to you two too.
Kevnal, when I see even Brazilians overhit passes regularly and fail to control the ball when it bounces in front of them, then it tells me something is untoward. I for one am convinced that the ball has made a major contribution to the lack of quality in this particular tournament.
I am not saying its the only reason, but I just don’t understand why they can’t use similar footballs from one tournament to the next, made of the same material(s) and to the same specifications. On the corporate side they can have their bun fight on whose name/brand logo goes on it – but thats where the differences should end.
Yes, a pigs bladder, with black and white spotted hexagons, like in the Seventies 😉
@55 – KingsVeryCross
so do I!
Felipe Melo is big, strong and not afraid to “put a foot in” when necessary. On occasion, in his career, he has been a bit too keen to put both feet in, but when we’re being kicked off the park, isn’t that just what we need?
The Shawcrosses of this world would be a bit more reluctant to fly in if they thought a Felipe Melo might be serving up the afters.
Apart from that, he seems to be a very solid defensive midfielder who is happy to sit and defend. He and Song over a season could hold the team brilliantly.
Sport.co.uk (as ref by Arseblog) have a LONG and interesting piece on Bob Wilson, and a rather bizarre report that the transfer of the other Polish player I can’t spell, is only being held up by the fact that AW has left his Blackberry at home and cannot, therefore, approve the latest terms! Not like there’s any urgency to sign a defender, after all.
Finally, does anybody know the current state of play regarding a player who often threatened to be sensational, but normally ruined everything with a bit of outrageous exaggeration. I refer you to the one and only Quincy Owusu Abeye. I thought he had been sold, but I have some very strong information that he is going to be around next season. Anybody got anything?
He is, of course, still involved in the WC with the Ghana squad.
A mysterious little red, please ‘Holic, and your good health sir!
@ Trev
Can’t help you with Quincy, but I thought he was gone. How about another enigma – Nacer Barazite? Does anyone think he’s going to make a break through?I’ve had high hopes for a few years, but it seems he doesn’t really fit in anywhere. I’m sure there are many of you who have seen the reserves etc and are more informed then me.
The ball – is it possible it doesn’t have enough absorption? Players running in a straight line with it are regularly losing it through a heavy touch.
zicionexile
the bucky ball from the seventies – white hexagons and black pentagons is obviously a great ball design as most balls available are made with this design – problem is the weight increases dramatically when the ball is wet due to the amount of seams – surely we can move on and develop a more consistent ball in all weather conditions!
I remember having an orange ‘pig bladder ‘ buckyball which i took down the park with my mates in the mid seventies – heading one of those fuckers gave you a headache for a fortnight!
I recall medical experts trying to get heading banned from the game because of the brain damage risk!
Maybe the reason the players have struggled with the jubulani is they’re not as good as the players from previous world cups. Not one player has stood head and shoulders above everyone else – like gascionge, benkenbauer, pele etc did.
Look at the african nations – one team through to last 16 shows you the quality- how many of these african players do we have playing in the prem- maybe they are and the quality of the football inthe prem not that good
Never one to believe rumours, but I believe we will be making a serious bid for a player not mentioned by any blogs that I have read.
The player is Anton Ferdinand,the source is Pat Rice.
Pat Rice as your source – quite nice 🙂
Not really determined to have an opinion on A. Ferdinand, not for the good nor for the bad…
O.K – Can ANYONE help me and tell me what “Matchday Revenue” contains exactly? I just find it hard to believe we can make so much MORE money out of that only cause we moved to a bigger stadium.
The revenue from premium seating almost matches Highbury on its own. Just over 7000 Club Level seats between £2500 and £4750 each, 150 executive boxes which start at about £65000 and then there’s Diamond Club which is £25000 a year plus an up front fee.
Not sure how many Diamond Club places there are, but Club Level and boxes account for around 9000 seats at premium rates.
But what exactly does it contain apart from season ticket sales ? Merchandise on matchday counts? Cafetria?
@Snir: Matchday revenue is any monies coming in in direct relation to the games, i.e. ticket sales (which includes season tickets, executive boxes etc), beer sales, buffet dinners at club level and so forth. It does not include whatever is sold at The Armoury even if it’s on a matchday because sales there does not relate to any specific game even if sales are much higher because of the increased amount of people there on matchdays.
And as Ricey points out, just the Club Level and boxes bring in what the whole of Highbury brought in.
@Snir: You have to read the Swiss Ramble at http://swissramble.blogspot.com to get a deep understanding of Arsenal finances.