Chelsea is?

ON TOP!!!

On top of the table after gameweek 6.

Now since Chelsea has claimed the prem they can focus on Champions league

round up

Aight. So I take some time away from work to write about this past week and this upcoming weekend.
First off, Alonso scored once again from his half but all I can say is that it was all luck. The goal would not have happened if the GK hadnt slipped. So still nothing as impressive as Beckham's strike while at Man Yoo.
2nd, all the talk of "bungs" shows my lack of knowledge about british terminology (yet I found French terms here). Big Sam at Bolton was named heavily from what I have read and nothing looks good. Although every club is asking for evidence to be shown. Chelsea and Liverpool are fighting back after the TV Show approached them and not the other way around. but most of all it seems like BBC is reaching although I am sure some illegal stuff happens in the game but then again how can USA talk about it when we allow steriods in baseball.
3rd, why are we concerned about the premiership anyways when they all crash out of the carling cup? 8 of the best teams in england were in action during this round and half of them crashed out. Reading maintained to further my opinion that they will avoid the drop due to their togetherness even though they dont have "premiership qaulity" players. But Man City, Wigan, Fulham, and Boro dropped. Beaz still hasnt come thru at Man City yet although he has already stated he wants to stay in England, I think he needs to prove that he should be kept first.
4th, and most crushing I think is that Klinsmann is going somewhere else. A huge blow, the US job should be his. He did a great job this summer and I think he was the fresh blood US soccer needs. However he is now consulting for Austria thru 2008 for Euro. Since they qualify as the hosts he doesnt even need to worry about the run up but just about the draw and who they will end up facing. He doesnt even need to worry about selections since he is only an Advisor! Sunil disappoints me.
Two coaching notices: Some important matches in their time. Wenger will celebrate his 10th aniversary at Arsenal this week. So ten years ago this week the french infusion started. Yet he still cant speak without the french in it. Eh, Mais, But, Eh, Such is life.... please he and Jens should be sent back. (jens might be deported anyways due to kicking a water bottle at Man U fans so police are taking care of the situation anyways) The 2nd is Sheffield United's Warnock will be at the helm for his 1,000th game as a manager. He even says he hasnt been unemployed more than 3 weeks since 1980s which is something to be celebrated. Yet, he needs some help to keep his team up in the prem and he should admit it.
Finally, a different Harry is magical in england. That would be the one at Pompey. He has his team on top, yes i know only a few games in. However they dont seem to be doing too bad. Sol in the back has changed the team into a rock, only one goal allowed in the prem. Yet he isnt in the England squad. McClaren is still in his transition phase so ill give him a break but maybe just maybe he should give Sol a second call and give him a chance.

I realize that is all in the past for now, a look towards the future shall come but help me along

Say it's not so!

Yesterday i commented on a posting by the ref on the US coaching vacancy and said "i vote for klinsman, but really say 'anyone but Sven.'"

Along comes today's New York Times which has the headline "U.S. Seeks Eriksson as Team Manager".

God help us.

see story at www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/sports/soccer/15soccer.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

And the new coach?

Ok so Bruce stepped down a while ago, either that or his contract wasn't renewed at this point I am not sure. July 9th was the end of the tournament and it is now two months later and there is no USA national team coach. While I believe Mooch is still in charge as interim there needs to be a head coach and soon. England knew who the next coach would be before the tournament. South Africa got a new coach right after along with Germany and Italy, both countries didn't wait longer than two weeks.
Klinsmann seemed to be the perfect match - speaks English, lives in the states, got Germany to the semi finals(when no one thought they had a chance). However the current US Soccer president seems to be in no rush. He is even making a list, which has been said to include DC United coach Novak. But for more competition to Klinsmann comes Jose Pekerman.
As the article states Pekerman is a possible for the US coaching slot although he doesn't speak English but has a lot of past history with youth development. The main problem right now is money. The head of US Soccer is known for being stingy. He was once with the NE Revolution and kept their payroll the lowest in the league, but this is one position that money shouldn't be the biggest problem but the vacancy there is right now.

Nice Job, Ref!

Watched the Ref work yesterday at a U19 boys game. It was his third game of the day, after centering a U16 boys game (5 yellow cards!) and working 15 minutes in the center and then on the line of a U19 boys game. So by the time of his final game, he was a bit more than run out.

But all things considered, he kept up pretty well with the boys. For the most part, the players played a clean game and there were very few fouls. The Ref also plays advantage quite well, letting fouls go when the attacking team retained possession. One thing I think he needs to work on here is calling the play back when the advantage doesn't pan out, but for the most part, he uses this tool quite well given his years on the job and level of experience. (Way better at this than yours truly.)


One other thing stood out: the Ref gave only yellow card during the game and it was not clear from the stands what it was for. After the game, he told me that it was for dissent. The technique he used was what I'd call the English method -- you see this a lot in the EPL. When the ball went out of touch, the Ref called to the player to be carded to come over to him, he took out his pad, talked to the player as he wrote the number in his book and then took out the card and held it up. Very calm and very, very professional. Who says watching hours and hours of soccer on FSN is not educational?!?

It's been a while . . .

since I posted; a WC hangover I'm slowly getting over.

Like the Ref, I also have begun my fall refereeing season, though with decidedly less competitive games. Last weekend, when the Ref's games were washed out, my games were played: a couple of centers at the U11 and U13 level (the U11 was a solo) and lines at the U13 and U14 level. Nothing particularly striking about any of these games, aside from the absence of vocal complaints about calls or noncalls from any of the participants! I think everyone was too wet to complain (it spritzed through the first 3 1/2 hours I was out there; the sun made a brief and surprise appearance for the last half hour of the final game, drying me off for the car ride home).

Yesterday, I was part of a 2-ref team at a private school JV boys game. Again, nothing remarkable about the game. There were only a couple of fouls all game, one team play fairly well and the other relied on counterattacks that were few and far between, several ending with offside calls when balls were played to players totally unaware of where they were in relation to the defense.

Just one other comment for now. Let me preface this by saying that I think I do an OK job as a ref. Foul recognition remains a work in progress, as is knowing when to use cards and when to use words to deal with problem players. But the one thing I do pride myself on is the effort I bring to each game, no matter the level. I try to stay up with play and will run as hard as I can to be in position to make calls. From first game to last game. So it grieves me no end when I work with folks who don't make the effort. When I am in the center and have an AR who is constantly behind the play, it makes it hard to rely on him/her for the offside call. Same thing in a 2-ref game: both refs need to keep an eye on the offside line as well as watch play when it moves to the other half of the field. And don't think the players, coaches, and fans don't notice.

Lions, Transfers, Goals oh my

    So I tried to make a play on words and I know it failed, eh I tried.  So much happened this past week.  Of course England got on track with Euro with a 5 - nil thrashing of Andorra (Crouch x2, Gerrard, Defoe x2).
    West Ham came out on top in what is an unbelievable transfer move with Tevez and Mascherano.  I am a little sketched out about this.  The same group wants to buy West Ham that sold the players, just seems a little shady, but then again Chelsea is my team and everything they do is shady.  While West Ham was celebrating all the top teams were in spin mode, Man U released a press statement saying that they thought about the duo but decided they werent worth the trouble.  We will see how Sir Alex thinks when he realizes how much a striker shortage he has.
    Back to the Euro Qualifiers.  While Steve's competitive era started off with a bang some others didnt do so well.  Italy is still in their "hangover" from the WC and only got the 1-1 tie.  And guess who they have next and where they play... France in the Stade de France.  Too bad Zizou wont be on the pitch, the Italians would probably be scared if even stepped in the stadium.  Talking of the French brings me to Jose's slave comments about Makalele.  Claude had sent in his letter saying he was retiring from international football after the world cup final, which is a great stage to go out on, however Raymond called up the player and threatened to have him benched for Chelsea if he did not show.  Kind of sucks.  Another French Chelsea player, Gallas, who finally moved to the French Suburb of London that is called Arsenal, as reportedly said that if he was played in games for Chelsea he would have scored Own-goals against his team.  My question is how did it get so bad for him.  He missed the USA tour, he could have come late, eh oh well Chelsea has 4 england regulars in their midfield and defense... not too bad.
    Refereeing started off well, it should only get more interesting.  I have a boys varsity game tomorrow afternoon between a public and private school in the area. While my games this weekend got canceled due to a tropical storm, this next weekend I have a u16 center and a u19 center, should get very fun/interesting...
im sure something else will come up this week