Derby weekend and rich players who refuse to play

This weekend serves up a double dose of derby challenges with the Merseyside and North London derbies. As a "Red" the Everton game is always a fixture I look forward to as we try to prove our superiority over the blue side of Liverpool. I'm anxious about which team Kenny will select, will he be cautious or will he be adventurous. Personally I think this game calls out for a 4-5-1 with Kuyt and Bellamy out wide, Suarez up front and Spearing in the middle with Lucas and Adam. I think we could win this one and really hope we can start winning more games away from home.


Spurs v Arsenal should be interesting, the last couple of years have seen some high scoring draws and maybe this will be no different. It's a strange one as Spurs are probably favorites, not just because they are playing at home but due to their winning three on the trot. Arsenal are hard to predict this season but I think they'll be up for this game and it should be a good one to watch.


It's funny how this week's events turned out; Man City seemed to be assuring everyone they'll beat Bayern but failed to deliver. Mancini is probably thankful the focus is all on Tevez and not on how City fell short. Bayern are hot right now and with Gomez scoring for fun I expect them to reclaim the Bundesliga title. On the Tevez matter, my view is that he has no excuse refusing to play no matter how he felt. I wonder if in some novel way a club can sue a player for loss of revenue or for being the reason they lost a game (Now that's an idea). Think about it, if they could argue that by refusing to play he denied the club a chance to salvage something from the game ergo he lost them the game and any revenue associated with winning a UCL game.

Supporting the underdog

One of the things I truly love is an upset, I mean it's exciting to see the underdog triumph. I had joined the Real Madrid game with Rayo Vallecano 1-nil up and reveling in Real dropping more points and it got me thinking why do I fancy the unfancied? 


I guess it's the unexpected nature of their success. A classic example, Greece in Euro 2004. Nobody expected them to beat France but they did, then they beat the Czechs and finally Portugal. See what I mean? if they had lost to any of these teams it will have been just another day at the office, thankfully they didn't and we can say "look the underdog can have his day".It doesn't happen often but it does keep me watching games hoping for an upset.


The return of Ranieri
Gasperini was bound to go after failing to win in any of his five games leading to Ranieri's return to management. I quite like Claudio even though he's more often the bride than the groom. He started off with a win which bodes well and it'll be interesting to see how far he can take Inter.


No Home Comforts
I was excited to play in MFC's first home game of the season,even more so when at kickoff I noticed that the away team had no subs. It didn't quite go to plan as we got thumped 5-2, we just never seemed to get going and will need to pick it up for the upcoming games.

Fanhood

If you didn't already know it, I'm a Liverpool fan (A red of the non-mancunian breed). I kept up with our 4-nil thumping while returning from a road trip with my wife soberly passing on the scores as I drove (more on her Man U delight later). The result got me thinking about what fans go through, the office derision after your team's loss, the heartache, the pain and occasionally the sweet taste of victory or success. 
I've got a bit of practice, ask anyone who knows me. False dawns with Roy Evans, the French renaissance with Houllier that never was, the Rafalution that almost was, to the dark day's under Hodgson last season so I have some sympathies for Arsenal fans (Goners anyone).
This season they have had their worst start since the '50's with the worst goal difference in the division but they should take respite from knowing that next weekend at kickoff they'll start nil-nil against Bolton. I keep telling my missus who's a Man Utd fan (save this for another day hey!) that being a fan is more about keeping your head up when your team is losing and the chips are down than when you're beating everyone left right and center and top of the league. I've got a colleague in the office who's a Leeds fan and is in no hurry to see them in the Prem, a dawg who is a Fulham fan but I truly doff my hat to the lower league fans (the paying kind). I caught an NASL (US lower league game) the other day and was surprised at how there where no empty seats and then they're all those non-league travelling fans. So to all the suffering fans out there your "Istanbul" moment will come and trust me it's much sweeter when it's rarer.


Footie Seer
My wife's a bit of a seer when it comes to footie, she can watch 5 mins of a game and predict who'll win. She has a history of calling games I'm watching and rarely gets it wrong, she's also anti-Torres and keeps  telling me the best thing that happened to LFC was getting 50 mill for El Nino in January. Apparently her "hex" on him is  the reason why he had only 1 prem goal for Chelsea so imagine her horror when today she calls "Torres can never score against Utd" and he goes and does (his miss seems to be getting more attention than his goal though). So for all those willing punters or if you just need some help in picking your fantasy team, you can get in touch and I can consult her on your behalf so you can be a witness to the full force of her "footie zen" except you plan to pick/bet on Torres.


In Closing ...
So I caught up with the scores of my Sunday league team (MFC)and the lads got beaten away so we stand on 1W and 2L from out first 3 games. First home game is next week hopefully we'll get a home win and push on. 


I have to pick out my result/performance of the week - Napoli beating Milan 3-1 and Cavani's hat-trick (should give my Inter pals something to smile about)


For anyone who's looking for some footie to listen to (footie audio is a dying art form, I remember live audio commentaries growing up and that was raw tension, drama, adrenalin pumping stuff) I do have two recommendations.


BBC's 5 live Football Daily
Soccernet's podcast


The advantage of podcasts is you can subscribe to them via iTunes, stream online or download the MP3 file to listen to later. Happy listening.

The return of European football

It's been great to have the return of the Champions and Europa leagues. Finally some real competitive football and what an opener with the Barca v Milan game which was the pick of the ties for me. Both sides will expect to go through but you'll feel advantage Milan with the draw at the Nou camp. Across the UCL, it must be dark days for Inter; they've lost their opening two games of the season and you must feel the new coach is feeling the heat (to think we thought Rafa had it bad). Well done Trabzonspor though, they only got "promoted" because of Fenerbache's match-fixing issues . This was definitely the result of the round and it'll be interesting to see if this was a one-off or not. Also Real, Chelsea, Bayern, Marseille and Porto quietly did their business and you'll expect these sides to navigate to the knockout rounds with the usual customers ManU, It's tough to call for the other groups and Man City, Arsenal, Lyon and Ajax are in groups that look juicy and makes it hard to call if they'll make it through.


After my last rant on shocking scorelines it's good to have fiercely contested matches and see that the Real's, Manchester's and Bayern's of this world don't always rack up "video-game" scores. Speaking of games has anyone sampled PES 2011 or FIFA11? 


The Europa is always a mixed bag for me; first there are so many matches I can't keep track of the scores or the highlights (the roundup is on later this week) but then on the flip side they're always goals galore which every footy fan just loves (I'm not a hypocrite, the scorelines ain't that crazy they're of the 4-1, 5-1 variety you know just good enough to appreciate and not bad enough to be headline grabbers). I'll start to pay attention when the knockout stages come along but for now I'll just look forward to the "goalazos"


The journey so far


My Sunday league team got an away win last week, your's truly duked it out for a hard fought 1-nil win. We probably had enough chances to score more but to be fair the other side could have nicked 1 back as well. I'm out this weekend so no Futsal or league games this Sunday for me. Wishing the lads all the best, strangely our first 3 games of the season are all away games if we can end up 1-1-1 that'll be decent.

Are the top teams pulling further away?

8-2, 6-0 and 7-0; these are footie scores from the last few weeks in the top European leagues. Maybe it's no longer a joke that some of the top divisions have a virtual divide with a mini-league for those competing for the title and another for the rest. 


It can be hard on the eyes to see these results (or watch these games) and even harder to believe these leagues are competitive but fair play though no matter the opposition you still have to go out and score the goals.
Whisper it anyway though, I'll be watching Le Championnat and a little Italian league to see games where I can't easily predict who'll win before kickoff and actually watch the whole 90 without "BBing".



Futsal anyone!!

I recently got re-introduced to Futsal around my area and played a game this Friday night. It's an understatement to say I'm a bit off the pace but I'm hoping that the futsal exposure will polish my outdoor skills as my Sunday league kicks off this weekend (for me @ least). I'll try to keep you posted on my exploits on both Futsal and the Sunday league (exquisitely called the Over The Hill Soccer League (OTHSL))

My Deadline day review

I got home a little late but just in time to catch SSN's "Transfer Deadline Latest" with the smashing background colors and giant touch screen.
I was a little disappointed with the lack of a marquee signing but there were still some exciting transfers and surprises. Below I highlight a few of note in "buckets"


Big Signings
Raul Meireles: Reportedly moved for 12m Pounds from Liverpool to Chelsea. Puzzling why 'pool will sell one of their better performers to a rival but we heard the rumors during pre-season. Personally I hope he does a 'Torres' especially against Liverpool.
Mikel Arteta: A 10m pound buy from Everton. Could he make gunners everywhere forget about the other Spaniard (Fabregas)?
Bryan Ruiz: Fulham took advantage of Jol's Dutch connections to snap him from Twente. I watched him in the Gold cup earlier this year and he's got bags of skill packed in his left foot.


Great Expectations  
Per Mertesacker & Andre Santos: After letting in eight(8)last weekend, Arsenal fans will be hoping these additions tighten up their defence.
Royson Drenthe: With Arteta's loss he'll be expected to provide a creative spark and goals to supplement Everton's depleted attack


Interesting choices
Joe Cole: Brit's don't travel well so I wonder how Joe handles this. In a way it's a step up as Lille are in the champions league.
Owen Hargreaves: Aside from jumping to a city rival, he has fitness concerns... will he be able to break into the team?
Yossi Benayoun: Another puzzler, why will Chelsea loan a player to strengthen a rival team? 


And those who stayed..
Luka Modric: Not every club can say no to 40m. The question though is will he sulk till January or get on with it?
Gary Cahill: Priced out of a move by his club?


What about them champions? No late signings by Man Utd show the confidence they have in their current squad.
Elsewhere in Europe.. Forlan signed for Inter, Gago & Pjanic to Roma and Elia (surprised there where no prem takers) to Juventus.


In conclusion ...this is some "palm rubbing" stuff, signings are only judged at the end of the season and come next summer we'll be able to say who among these names delivered.