Luca Toni gets an eyeful of Ribery during Bayern's cup win over Stuttgart. Notice the defensive hand posture: fight or flight has clearly kicked in.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Watch where you're aiming that thing
Luca Toni gets an eyeful of Ribery during Bayern's cup win over Stuttgart. Notice the defensive hand posture: fight or flight has clearly kicked in.
HELWA HELWA ROBIN VAN PERSIE
In anticipation of all the HELWA HELWA footage that should be incoming from the weekend games I'm posting my pick of the litter from the midweek goals, Van Persie's late stunner against the Toffees:
Oh, that's nice.
Oh, that's nice.
Transfer News: Charles Insomnia apparently headed to Wigan, Veloso megabid, Faubert to Los Blancos
After only a couple days' commotion, Charles Insomnia... er... In'zomnia... Charles... (pictured to the left fleeing from Andy Carroll) appears to be packing for Wigan after possibly the shortest manager bust-up to transfer in recent memory. £6 million and Ryan Taylor will see the formerly well-loved Newcastle winger off from the rapidly sinking Tyneside club to newer, thicker-striped pastures.
Such obvious loyalty and love of club should endear him to Latics fans immediately.
Bolton has also bid an incredible £14m for one of my favorite players, Sporting's deep-lying playmaker/defensive midfielder/all-around insane midfield talent Miguel Veloso. I'd love to see him in the Premier League, but Bolton? Hold the pen on that one, Miguel.
In La Liga Real Madrid managed to get Julien Faubert on loan as their new right winger. For a fee of €1.5 million, the experienced winger will play for los Merengues until this summer. Earlier, Aaron Lennon, Jermaine Pennant and Antonio Valencia were linked with Real to fill the gap out wide. Faubert joined West Ham in 2007 and featured in 27 games but never managed to find the net.
Updates will continue as news arrives.
Friday, January 30, 2009
When did the Bundesliga become fun to watch?
Hamburger SV 1-0 Bayern Munich. Hoffenheim preparing to go 2 points clear. Suddenly my least favorite league has the most compelling storyline and the most competitive field.
Honestly enough, Hoffenheim is one of the few bright points in an otherwise drab and depressing recession-hit season. Possibly the most exciting side to watch outside of Barcelona, they play beautiful Arrigo Sacchi-style ball, their defense is textbook with the offside trap, and they have created one of the most productive offensive linkups in Germany out of a squad of veritable nobodies. The only team that can touch these guys has Luca Toni, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski, and they just lost. Can anyone name me the starting forwards for Hoffenheim?
Mid-table stalwarts like Hamburger SV are challenging for the top, and my favorite German club (Borussia Dortmund) is up from a 13th place finish last year to 6th.
This is the stuff that makes football curmudgeons melt, and it's happening in the least likely place of all.
Midweek impressions: Serie A
Luka:
1) Julio Cesar and Maicon are running Inter at the moment. After a couple bad collective team performances, those guys were the heart of the team against Catania. Maicon is certainly the best right back in the world right now, and with guys in midfield like Cambiasso having career seasons, and the always inconsistent Ibrahimovic looking inspired again for the first time in ages, Inter is undoubtedly the team to beat in Serie A again.
2) Normalcy is retuning. After Udinese and Napoli were shaming the likes of Fiorentina and Roma, the table is beginning to settle back into the familiar old Serie A hierarchy. Despite a shock win against Juve on Wednesday, Udinese is one of the worst teams in Italian football (by form) at the moment, and Napoli is slowly beginning to feel the drain of losses at their hopes of a top four finish, and with numerous suspensions and injuries turning their squad into the Italian Newcastle United, it's not looking any better. Roma should break back into the Champions League Zone soon, and the book will be closed.
3) Whatever Gasperini is doing at Genoa, he should keep doing it. They've really impressed me this year, and even with all the Juve loans/co-ownerships, this team is relatively young (by Italian standards) and solid enough to compete in Europe. Gasperini has forged a team in the Moyes mold, play together, win together, lose together, but do it as a team. It doesnt hurt that unlike Everton, Genoa has an extremely hot-streak striker in Diego Milito. 14 goals in 17 games is good enough for me.
4) Fiorentina needs to stay strong. They're always a threat for a top four finish, and even with the blow of Mutu's injury, they've done well to keep within striking distance. With the Romanian's return imminent, the squad can only look to do better. The hardest part of their schedule has been behind them, and surviving in 6th place has set them up well. But their next to matches will be the defining point of their season. A home game with Lazio is always dangerous, despite their recent bad form, and facing the sterling Genoa away will be the type of challenge that will allow them to broadcast their intent to Roma above them.
5) Why can't Udinese do this every week? They didn't just get lucky against Juve, they clearly outplayed them. They went in with the intent to stop their slide, and they did. This isn't an awful squad, and with Di Natale finally back to health for the Zebrette things can only get better. Inler, Isla, Asamoah; the team clearly has talent. A solid mid-table finish could be in the cards if this surge of post-Juve enthusiasm holds, but at least surviving relegation isn't far out of reach. A tough away match to a depleted Napoli will give them the perfect chance to ride the wave.
Gino:
Lazio had great start to the season. (note the period) Yeah.. well.. and that was just about it for the biancocelesti. Sadly they have fallen back into the random sort of performances which sank them to being the mediocre mid-table team which they were last season. Let's face it, Lazio just lacks some decent creative midfield players. Sure Ledesma can be brilliant but he likes to hang around the middle of the field too much, there's noone who can play behind Rocchi and Pandev to get some diversity in the game, because right now Lazio is Rocchi and Pandev. So I guess you're feeling pretty depressed right now, is there any hope? I'm glad to say there's still a tiny bit left: The Coppa. Right now Lazio is in the semis which will be played at home. Facing either Juventus or Napoli, they are only one match away from the final which will be played at the Olimpico. So all in all Lazio are still in complete control of their destiny and European football is still within their grasp.
1) Julio Cesar and Maicon are running Inter at the moment. After a couple bad collective team performances, those guys were the heart of the team against Catania. Maicon is certainly the best right back in the world right now, and with guys in midfield like Cambiasso having career seasons, and the always inconsistent Ibrahimovic looking inspired again for the first time in ages, Inter is undoubtedly the team to beat in Serie A again.2) Normalcy is retuning. After Udinese and Napoli were shaming the likes of Fiorentina and Roma, the table is beginning to settle back into the familiar old Serie A hierarchy. Despite a shock win against Juve on Wednesday, Udinese is one of the worst teams in Italian football (by form) at the moment, and Napoli is slowly beginning to feel the drain of losses at their hopes of a top four finish, and with numerous suspensions and injuries turning their squad into the Italian Newcastle United, it's not looking any better. Roma should break back into the Champions League Zone soon, and the book will be closed.
3) Whatever Gasperini is doing at Genoa, he should keep doing it. They've really impressed me this year, and even with all the Juve loans/co-ownerships, this team is relatively young (by Italian standards) and solid enough to compete in Europe. Gasperini has forged a team in the Moyes mold, play together, win together, lose together, but do it as a team. It doesnt hurt that unlike Everton, Genoa has an extremely hot-streak striker in Diego Milito. 14 goals in 17 games is good enough for me.4) Fiorentina needs to stay strong. They're always a threat for a top four finish, and even with the blow of Mutu's injury, they've done well to keep within striking distance. With the Romanian's return imminent, the squad can only look to do better. The hardest part of their schedule has been behind them, and surviving in 6th place has set them up well. But their next to matches will be the defining point of their season. A home game with Lazio is always dangerous, despite their recent bad form, and facing the sterling Genoa away will be the type of challenge that will allow them to broadcast their intent to Roma above them.
5) Why can't Udinese do this every week? They didn't just get lucky against Juve, they clearly outplayed them. They went in with the intent to stop their slide, and they did. This isn't an awful squad, and with Di Natale finally back to health for the Zebrette things can only get better. Inler, Isla, Asamoah; the team clearly has talent. A solid mid-table finish could be in the cards if this surge of post-Juve enthusiasm holds, but at least surviving relegation isn't far out of reach. A tough away match to a depleted Napoli will give them the perfect chance to ride the wave.Gino:
Lazio had great start to the season. (note the period) Yeah.. well.. and that was just about it for the biancocelesti. Sadly they have fallen back into the random sort of performances which sank them to being the mediocre mid-table team which they were last season. Let's face it, Lazio just lacks some decent creative midfield players. Sure Ledesma can be brilliant but he likes to hang around the middle of the field too much, there's noone who can play behind Rocchi and Pandev to get some diversity in the game, because right now Lazio is Rocchi and Pandev. So I guess you're feeling pretty depressed right now, is there any hope? I'm glad to say there's still a tiny bit left: The Coppa. Right now Lazio is in the semis which will be played at home. Facing either Juventus or Napoli, they are only one match away from the final which will be played at the Olimpico. So all in all Lazio are still in complete control of their destiny and European football is still within their grasp.
In case you missed it... HELWA HELWA CRAIG BELLAMY
Have to say, the man has a nice swing. Good bit of work, fee justified? David James seems to think so.
Check out the Guardian's new chalkboards
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jan/30/chalkboards-premier-league-stats
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards/create
What a cool idea. Now when you're arguing with your mates whether or not Lucas Leiva really is crap, you can fire up the chalkboard to show that most of his distribution in the Wigan game was in the form of back-passes to Skrtel and Carragher, and that he was relatively ineffective in tackling.
Certainly one of the best football analysis ideas I've seen in a while.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards/create
What a cool idea. Now when you're arguing with your mates whether or not Lucas Leiva really is crap, you can fire up the chalkboard to show that most of his distribution in the Wigan game was in the form of back-passes to Skrtel and Carragher, and that he was relatively ineffective in tackling.
Certainly one of the best football analysis ideas I've seen in a while.
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