Best day ever for Wenger? or best day ever for Wenger?

RVP hat-trick - Check
Oxlade-Chamberlain double - Check
Henry Goal - Check

GolTV Top 10 goals of the week

GolTV puts up a top 10 list every week and it's always  solid list. I'll start putting these bad boys up as soon as they are released.

The 100 greatest football moments of all time

A really cool list of the top 100 best moments in the sport. Be warned it is a hefty list and will certainly kill a lot of hours. In fact, I found myself up at 2:30am still reading it when I began reading it at 10pm. Enjoy!

Fernando Torres replacement

AVB get this kid a contract and sign him immediately! You see that shot? That is the shot of a winner right there.

The Best Variation of Soccer You'll See Today

Skip to 2:21 to see what this nonsense is all about. Don't get me wrong if you gave me a bubble suit I'd be out there in a second but this is plain silly, no two ways about it. There are more than a dozen bubble to bubble collisions in this gem of a video so sit back and enjoy the awesomeness of the Swedes.

For those of you who were wondering (like me) where to get one of these bad ass "funballz", they can be found here.

Movies!

A few days ago I made a post about soccer books which you can find here. So to build upon that I figured I'd also review some soccer movies too. These reviews will include both films and documentaries. So this review will start with two very good soccer documentaries.


So without further ado I present the first movie!

The Two Escobars


The Two Escobars was a part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series. This movie tells of the story of both Pablo and Andre Escobar (not related) and they influence they had on Colombian soccer. On one side Pablo Escobar, though his drug trade, pumped millions of dollars into Colombian soccer improving their team to be one of the best in the world. He funded fields to be made in the poorest areas in the country, which was where their best players usually came from. On the other hand Andre Escobar was a defender on the Colombian national team. He was said he be a very kind and good hearted individual that loved both his country and sport. In the 1994 World Cup which took place in the U.S., Andre accidentally scored an own goal against the U.S. trying to clear the ball away on a cross. Colombia was soon knocked out which was a huge disappointment to the country and a shock to the world and the blame fell upon his shoulders. Eventually when Andre returned to his home country he felt he should show his face in public and face the people himself. Unfortunately one night at a night club he got in a scuffle with two drug dealers who ultimately ended up shooting and killing Andre.


This documentary tells the whole story with interviews and unseen footage from all the players involved. I found myself glued to the TV watching this unable to pick up the phone or answer any texts, it's THAT good. The movie masterfully done and incredibly powerful tragedy which ANY sports fan should see. 


10/10 Amazon link for the movie

Pelada


Pelada tells the story of a very different side of the game of soccer. Starring Luke Boughen, Rebekah Fergusson Pelada focuses on the aspect of pick-up soccer around the world. They travel to twenty five countries including Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, France, Iran, Isreal, China, Japan, and Kenya. In every country they find new people to play pickup games with as they share and discuss the universal love of the game. From playing in a prison in Bolivia to playing on top of a skyscraper in Tokyo, Pelada really captures why people fall in love with this game and continue to play even if their career will never have anything to do with the sport. 


Definitely give this one a watch too, for American readers you can watch this on Netflix or if you are an Amazon Prime member you can stream it from there.


9/10 Amazon link for movie Link to the movie's website

Soccer cleat/boot reviews

If you guys play soccer yourselves and want some solid reliable reviews check out this website here. The website has firm ground shoes, indoor shoes, and good deals on shoes.

There needs to be more refs like this in soccer

I know absolutely nothing about rugby but this is fantastic. Look at this ref Nigel Owens just laying down the law, taking crap from no one. Soccer really needs refs to stand their ground and not let everyone crowd around them crying when there is a controversial call. 

Inter - Palermo (4-4)

I didn't catch the Inter - Palermo match but from watching the highlights alone it looked like one hell of a game.


Video highlights can be found here
Post match analysis can be found here

Horrible tragedy in Egypt

News link on what happened today in Egpyt


Not much to say on this one besides how horrible this is. If I find anywhere to post some kind of donation or anything of that sort I'll update it here.


Let's hope for some closure for the families of those who were injured and murdered. 

A bunch of clowns

There is a big battle for forth place going on in the Premier League between quality teams Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Newcastle. You would think that every team would fight tooth and nail every game to grab every point they possibly could. Today, this was not the case for Arsenal. 


For the first twenty minutes it was a one way battle for the Gunners, they were pressing and trying to create a lot of chances up top. With Arteta in the midfield distributing, Oxlade-Chamerlain on the wing, and RVP as striker they looked quite dangerous. That intensity seemed to fade as Bolton's David N'Gog nearly converted some nice play into a goal. Arsenal given that lifeline began to ramp up the intensity with a very nice pass from the young Alex Oxlade to Walcott who had a clear breakaway, but failed to convert with his usual lack of finishing (and the guy thinks he can seriously play striker).


Frustration began to take hold for the North Londoners as no one wanted to try and make any attacking play. The game became a stalemate. The second half wasn't much different as until RvP, as usual, tried putting the team on his back but was unfortunately first denied by the post, then later denied by the cross bar on which would have been a beautiful chip shot. 


Things did look brighter for the Gunners as Henry began warming up on the sidelines and eventually came in. The problem with this? Wenger in his infinite knowledge subbed Oxlade-Chamberlain off rather than Walcott. It seemed like deja-vu as Arsenal failed failed to score any goals. Arsenal now only taken 1 point from their last three away matches as they now drop to 7th place in the Premiership.


Cue the Oxlade-Chamberlain song!

D Bent scores his 100th Premier League goal

Not too far away from the Arsenal-Bolton fixture was the Aston Villa- QPR game at Villa Park. This match from a neutral standpoint was a ton of fun to watch. Lots of fast counter attacking play, everyone making runs, and everyone playing their heart out. 


The match started strong as Djibril Cisse scored his first goal, on his first game, for QPR with a very well placed strike inside the eighteen to go back corner of the net just twelve minutes in. Things look even better for the Rangers as Aston Villa scored a very unfortunate own goal from Stephen Warnock. From the replay it looked like he waved off his fellow defender but completely miss judged the clearance with his head as he sent it into his own net.


However Villa wouldn't go away quietly. They quickly began turning things around and began attacking viciously, they really wanted some points. Right before the half Aston Villa marched down the field with some clever passing and Darren Bent slotted him his 100th Premier League goal.


Second half Villa still came out swinging, they certainly began putting on a show as they tried attack after attack out-shooting QPR 26 - 4 and out possessing them 70% - 30%. Even though Aston Villa kept attacking, after a half hour they just couldn't seem to get by the QPR defense, no thanks to the referees who failed to catch a very clear handball in the box. In the 79th minute Villa's luck changed as Petrov sent in a beautiful cross to Charles N'Zogbia who expertly finished off the volley. 


With the score 2-2 Villa continued the intensity but in the end were unable to convert another goal and had to walk away with just 1 point today. Overall this was a very exciting fixture for both sides and you gotta credit Villa for never giving up even when they were down two with an unfortunate own goal.


Highlights from all of today's fixtures can be found here

Xabi verse the World

Below is a quote from Xabi Alonso in an interview with Sid Lowe of the Guardian.
Here is the link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/nov/11/xabi-alonso-spain-england-interview

“I don’t think tackling is a quality…it is a recurso, something you have to resort to, not a characteristic of your game…I can’t get into my head that football development would educate tackling as a quality, something to learn, to teach, a characteristic of your play. How can that be a way of seeing the game? I just don’t understand football in those terms. Tackling is a [last] resort, and you will need it, but it isn’t a quality to aspire to.”

While one of the main focal points of this interview is the discrepencies of football culture between Spain and England, I found this quote to be so intriguing.  At first glance I dismissed it entirely, because as far as I was concerned tackling is winning the ball from another player.  How could that not be important? Then I started to think about it a bit more.

Take a sport like basketball, very comparable to soccer in terms of fundamentals on both sides of the ball.  Defenders need to be quick and agile, they need to read the game well and understand passing lanes and how to anticipate ball movement.  No different than the skills sets needed to defend in football.   Now in basketball defensive players do not stand out for their ability to strip the ball off a dribbler, there is more to it than that. So why is so much credit given to defenders who can "tackle well" in football.

Next time you watch an EPL game count how many times Martin Tyler says "tackle" preceded by an adjective.  Xabi is right, the word is overused and encompasses too much of defending in Britain, we should include the US as well because our language and ideas for the game are greatly influenced by the Brits.  Tackling is not only a last resort, its a gamble. When a defender sacrifices their movement for an attempt at the ball they have committed themselves and the only question is what can the player with the ball do at this point.  Take the video below of Brazilian Ronaldo dribbling through legions upon legions of players.  Watch how many times he is simply reacting to players who have already committed themselves.  Now of course not every attacker can react, move and dribble like he can, but the man on the ball has the advantage either way once the defender sticks out a leg or slides to ground in search of the ball.

Alonso could not have described tackling more intelligently when he called it a "recurso" or last resort.  Picture a 1v 1 battle between a winger and a fullback near the touchline about 35 yards from goal.  It's really a game of chess.  If the defender tries to tackle too early he may win the ball high up the field, he may knock it out for a throw, or he may get beat entirely, leaving the winger with yards of space and an open look towards goal.  The reward does not outweigh the cost in taking this risk so far up the field with little cover from other defenders.  By not tackling the only thing the defender can control is his own positioning, this is real defending and it is measurable. Good defenders have the presence of mind to close space for an attacker the same way an attacker is able to create and exploit space.  The key is continuing to tighten those available yards until the attacker makes a mistake and shows too much of the ball.  This is where tackles are made and usually won, but the defending occurs only up to this point and not at it.

This is only one part of defending as Xabi mentions, but aside from athletic ability, this is something to look for in players' defensive abilities.

  The best advice I ever got as a defender was "don't lunge"

Allas the analyzer

So it's 3:45am and I woke up and can't go back to sleep. Just ran three miles around the block for shits and giggles and remembered some great videos by a guy on Youtube named AllasFCB2. Basically he's a Barca fan and does some fantastic analyses of their play and how they move. If you play soccer yourself you can really learn a lot by watching these videos. So I'll provide you with a couple of my favorite uploads of his.

This one is an all time favorite, I really recommend watching it a few times to digest all the information.

Here's a nice video of Alexis Sanchez's off ball movements. The guy has really adapted quite well to the Barca system and has been David Villa's replacement since Villa broke his leg.

And last but not least we have a great analysis of the first Clasico of the 2011/2012 season which took place back in December.

Check out more of Allas' stuff here and subscribe, he's always pumping out great content.

78 Minutes of Pure Dribbling Domination (featuring Calvin Harris)

Usually we keep it current here but this video is 78 solid minutes of legendary Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima (Brazilian Ronaldo) dribbling through anyone and everyone that crosses his path.

Seriously... Dude is destroying people for more than an hour in this epic highlight reel that stays light on replays and heavy on pure Ronaldo dribbling skill.

Power Post-match Post!

A quick post match analysis for (almost) all the premier league action today

Liverpool - Wolves (3-0)


The first half was pretty exciting for both sides. It was a back and forth game of counter attacks keeping each side on their toes. When the second half came Liverpool looked like a completely different team. Their attacks fast and calculated and they really began to demoralize the Wolves side. Andy Carroll got his first Premier League goal since Oct. 29th delivered by a nice cross from Charlie Adam. Carroll expertly placed the cross in the far side of the net bring Liverpool up 1-0. Liverpool's second goal from Craig Bellamy was more of a goalie error than a good goal. While well placed, any keeper should have kept that out. With the way the Reds were playing it didn't seem to matter much because in the 78', Dirk Kuyt put the exclamation point on the brilliant overall performance for the Reds. Out shooting the wolves 24 - 6 Liverpool was definitely the better team in this clean sheet performance.


Tottenham - Wigan (3-1)


The red hot Spurs put together another great performance thanks to their Welsh winger, Gareth Bale. Bale netted himself two very nice goals completely dominating Wigan all game. Not only did the Spurs out shoot the Wigs 20 - 9, they completely out possessed them 62% - 38%. From start to finish Spurs completely ran the show never letting off the gas.However, one thing does worry Tottenham fans, which was the injury to (the very injury prone) Rafael Van Der Vaart as he walked slowly off the field at the half hour mark. Hopefully it isn't too serious and he is back training tomorrow.


Swansea - Chelsea (1-1)


I predicted the Swans were going to walk away with three points this game. And for 90 minutes it looked like I was right, until Chelsea caught themselves a lucky break in stoppage time of the second half with a deflection off of Neil Taylor from what looked to be a cross from Jose Bosingwa (also can someone please go attack him with a razor and shave that uni-brow off? I can't look at it anymore). Even though Chelsea had to play without John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Didier Drogba they still came out with a point. I didn't look that the whole game as the Swans were dominating the midfield and had a very nicely placed goal from Scott Sinclair. Tough break for the Welsh side, lets see them bounce back against Roy Hodgson's WBA.


Man City - Everton (0-1)


It's evident that City is really missing Balotelli and the Toure brothers. Even though they out possessed Everton 68% - 32% they just couldn't find a way to get themselves a goal. Manchester had some tough breaks with Samir Nasri's rocket shot which hit the top right corner of the net and controversial no-call decision for Phil Neville's handball. Everton found themselves up a goal when Darron Gibson was assisted by Landon Donovan and blasted a shot into the net against his former team.


Man United - Stoke City (2-0)


I didn't watch enough of this game to comment on it. I just know The Continental, Dimitar Berbatov, scored off a PK which is pretty cool.


Highlights from all of today's fixtures can be found here

The Old Firm: The Pauper Giants of Europe

Since the Advent of Sky TV money and millionaire playboy-owned franchises in England, France, and Russia, the source of income for the “big teams” of European football has shifted away from the traditional sources: i.e., ticket sales.  While the Glasgow Giants still manage the 12th and 22nd highest average attendances per match in the world, they have fallen considerably in terms of European success.

 Both have suffered comparatively lackluster European campaigns since the height of their recent success in 2007-2008 where Rangers reached the Uefa Cup final and Celtic went on to the group stages of the Champions League registering wins over AC Milan, Benfica, and Shaktar Donetsk in the group. 

However, despite this dip in club performance at the highest levels for quite some time, a certain renaissance has been under way, with Old Firm players beginning to again attract interest from their more affluent English neighbors, amongst others.  Today, Rangers sold Nikica Jelavic to Everton for a reported 8m pounds after the Croat scored .67 goals per appearance in his time at Ibrox.  The Ibrox club were able to double their investment in the 26 year old signed from Rapid Vienna last year. 

To an even greater extent, Celtic have seen interest and solid bids for a slew of players including Beram Kayal, Ki Sung Yeung, Gary Hooper, Scott Brown, Anthony Stokes, and Adam Matthews.  The Hoops have knocked back all interest in their squad thus far and repeatedly have reasserted their desire to hang on to these players.  It is yet to be seen if they can keep their talent from being drawn to the bright lights of the EPL and the mountains of money available in places like Russia.  Yet, the question remains of where these players who are now so attractive in the market have come from? Why, after several years of struggling, has the Old Firm market again become fashionable?

Neil Lennon has adopted a very interesting transfer policy that seems to mimic that employed by Arsene Wenger, albeit, of course, at lesser level.  There are obvious differences Mr. Wenger scoured the likes of the Dutch League, the top of the English Championship, and Barcelona’s youth system for his talent, and often paid multimillion pound fees.  Lennon has looked through the lower levels of the Championship, across Scotland to promising youthful starters and U19 players, to middling teams of middling leagues, and to the Bosman market in order to bring together a side that competed well against Atletico Madrid (7th in La Liga), Udinese (3rd in Serie A), and Rennes (6th in Ligue 1).

Below is a list of the transfer moves made by Lennon in which his strategy becomes clear: target younger talent from lower level clubs or leagues and offer them a chance to play in a big stadium and experience European football while shoring up their inexperience with veteran Bosman signings.

Lennon Signings to Date

Gary Hooper (23) – Scunthorpe, 2.4m

Anthony Stokes (21) – Hibernian, 1.2m

Cha Du Ri (29) – Bosman (formerly of Freiburg)

Daniel Majstorovic (33) – Bosman (formerly captain of AEK Athens)

Joe Ledley (23) – Bosman (formerly of Cardiff City)

Adam Matthews (19) – Bosman (formerly of Cardiff City)

Beram Kayal (22) – Maccabi Haifa, 1.5m

Kris Commons (28) – Derby County, 300,000

Charlie Mulgrew (24) – Bosman (formerly of Aberdeen)

Victor Wanyama (20) – Germinal Beerschot (Belgian League), 1m

Mohammad Bangura (22) – AIK Stokholm , 2.5m

Lennon has managed spend very little on his squad over the past two years while putting together a more successful side than Tony Mowbray, his predecessor managed to, with a larger budget.  He now relies on finding young players either out of contract or available for what has today become nominal fees

While Ranger’s transfer strategy is harder to analyze due to their ongoing financial crisis, it seems to be attempting to mirror this strategy for finding diamonds in the rough.  They have signed Bosman players who started for their former clubs such as Dorin Goian (Palermo), Carlos Bocanegra (St. Etienne) as well as young prospects from lower leagues like Sone Aluko and Alejandro Bedoya.

If this strategy is effective will depend largely on both the scouting networks’ respective eyes for talent and each team’s ability to develop those bargain buys into a European-class players.  Some early signs of success surface from time to time in newspaper reports valuing Old Firm players at 2-3 times what they were purchased them for.  The transfer of Nikica Jelavic saw Rangers double their investment.  Celtic reportedly knocked back a similar opportunity to double up on what they paid for Gary Hooper when high-flying Championship leaders Southampton offered 6m this past window.

It will be interesting to see where this strategy takes the Old Firm.  It could very well be that they become feeder teams for the EPL much as the Dutch have fed the rest of Europe.  However, if the Scottish giants can resume successful European campaigns, they may be better placed to hold onto talent  as they have in past days.  Whatever the future holds, things have begun to change in Scotland and commentators would do well to watch this space.

-Greg

Did someone just handcuff himself to the net during the City - Everton match?

Apparently yes...

Well there's something I've never seen before. Guy just walks onto the pitch giving zero fucks handcuffing himself to the net. The accouncers are saying he is probably an Everton supporter who isn't happy with his club... I'm not really sure but he didn't seem too happy to talk to Neville or Cahill.


Also check out the ballin setup

From left to right: Spurs, Chelsea, Liverpool. Plus City game rocking on my Kindle Fire

Transfer deadline day!

The excitement of the transfer window thus far

To be honest I have not really followed the transfer window this year. There are a million conflicting reports and it's all based on speculation. I was going to write a post about it but when I sat down to actually start writing I realized that I had nothing concrete to write about.The real time to actually pay attention is when the window closes and everyone gets to see who went where and who stayed with their club, otherwise you are reading 99% crap.

In the midst of all this gray the guys at FitbaThatba delivered another hilarious Youtube video for everyone to enjoy! These are the same guys that brought us the beloved Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain song.

Check out some more of their stuff here. They are absolutely hilarious.

Not a soccer post but...

And this is what sports are all about

January 31st Fixtures

Tomorrow we have some mid week Premier League action. The most interesting game of the bunch I think will be Chelsea vs. Swansea. The Swans with their tight passing should give Chelsea a run for their money. Boasting "Europe's sixth most successful side in passing accuracy this season" they could very possibly walk away from this match with three points... Or Fernando Torres could get a hat-trick, you just never know.


List of all fixtures and live scores - ESPN

Books!

Who doesn't love reading a good book? No one that's who. Now what would you say if I could recommend you some good reads on soccer, would you be interested? Of course you would! So everyone once in a while I'll recommend some good soccer reads and give you a quick synopsis and what I rate it, plus a nice Amazon link should you be so inclined to purchase said book(s). 

 This guy knows what I'm talking about

So without further ado I present the first book.

Soccernomics is a book that takes the economics and numbers of soccer and tries to disprove or prove many known "facts" of the game. It is essentially Moneyball (with less Brad Pitt and more Monty Python) for soccer, with the main difference being that Moneyball was done on a micro level and Soccernomics is done more on a Macro level. Don't worry if you haven't taken any Econ classes, it is well written and explained for the layman to understand. 


Overall I thought it was a pretty solid read, they bring up a lot of fun and interesting points. The book talks about subjects such as racism in soccer and how it hurts teams, how most teams don't even turn a profit and shouldn't be run like a business, and which countries will come to dominate the sport in the future. On the flip side I thought some of the statistical analysis was useless and off-base but what I really wanted from the book was more of an analysis on the South American countries. I wanted to know why even though both Mexico and Brazil both had huge populations that loved soccer, why one has won 5 World Cups and one has won zero. The book mainly focuses on Europe, and even more so on England (I suppose that is to be expected when it was written by two Englishmen).


Overall I definitely enjoyed it, but it wasn't perfect. Does it get a recommendation? Yes.


7/10 Link to Amazon.com

Here we have Soccer Men by Simon Kuper. Simon Kuper co-wrote Soccernomics so I kind of had a feeling for what I was in for. This book takes a journalistic approach rather an economic one. The book is not actually a book, but rather a series of articles written for a magazine on specific players over the past two decades. Each of the 65 chapters (roughly ten pages each) follows one specific player or manager. It has your big glamorous players, and a couple not as well known players. 


This book really provides a window into a professional players life. Soccer Men is both insightful and entertaining and I found myself reading some chapters multiple times. The real beauty of the book is that you can really skip around and read whatever chapter you want since there is no correlation between them. So if you are just waiting ten minutes before class or eating lunch by yourself you can whip this baby out and read about how crazy Jose Mourinho is.


Overall I found myself really enjoying this book more than the previous one and certainly recommend it to any soccer fan.


9/10 Link to Amazon

Holy crap these books kick ass

Neymar skills and goals compilation

The 19 (will be 20 next week) year old Brazilian phenom Neymar doing his thing on both the national and club level. Let's hope we see him in Europe next season.

Compilation of all of David Silva's assists for the season

Link to Mcfc.co.uk for all of David Silva's assists

I honestly think Silva is able to make the world go in slow motion like Neo in the Matrix.

Sunday January 29th fixtures

List of all fixtures for Jan 29th, will also have live updated scores