More of the same...

So over the past week we have seen some great games... Arse v Chelsea, ManU v Reading, and then Arse v Blackburn...

Everything swirling around Arse again because of their tries to get the suspensions lifted of their players for violent conduct. As I said before, Howard Webb did a great job in getting everything settled, taking his assistants advice and then dolling out justice. He gave Mikel and Toure reds before being at the start of the fight. And with that the FA came down and handed Toure a suspension and I believe Mikel one too. If you look at the replays the red and the suspension is hard done on Mikel, I know I am a Chelsea fan so I am biased but if you take a step back all Mikel tries to do is get away from the situation... Now here is where Wenger gets in the way, he does not believe Adebayor should have gotten his red even though replays show him coming in and throwing a punch, and Eboue gets off free in the end as well with his punch on W. Bridge. Like I have said, Wenger needs to come out and discipline his own players in the press, they are not perfect! this latest thing is ludicrous.

ManU v Reading - FA Cup 5th round Replay
Great game and unbelievable first 6 minutes. ManU destroyed a back four that had no communication and was basically invisible. However the red devils should consider themselves lucky cause in the end they deserved the extra half hour at least fight their way back to a respectable 3-2 defeat. I like that Howard Webb got to follow up the Carling Cup final with this game, it shows that the FA is behind their referees. I will still be partial to Reading for giving some Americans a chance and its unfortunate that Bobby is out for the rest of the season.


Arse v Blackburn - FA Cup 5th round Replay
The whistle sounded a lot I will give the critics that. Mr. Poll was up to his usual antics and I believed the game was going to end with a goal on a freekick. However McCarthy's goal was a piece of brillance and Senderos needs to check himself because he was horrible throughout the game. The one-nil scoreline is what many expected from the previous clash between the teams. The only American in the game, Friedel, made some great saves and the first 20 minutes had some great pace. The short passes were excellent. Another thing to come of this game is to show the bias of Football365.com. I usually like how they have opinions, they have a great referee section, and their articles are usually better that BBC and Soccernet, YET they have such a thing for Arse its rediculous. Everytime Arse lose its cause of the ref or the other team's lack of offensive football and everytime Tottenham win its because of the ref or some luck. This time they take it out of Mr. Poll who has the ManU v Liverpool game this weekend. Headline seen below:


Hopefully you can read that. I know Poll has made his mistakes such as the WC and one or two this season in the EPL but this is insane. The first was a clear dive and the 2nd would have been iffy at best.

looking forward to the weekend

Carling Cup Champions

Ahhh yes the first hardware of the year handed out to none other than the blues.... Since I havnt heard back from my red-headed friend (The one Arse fan amongst us - See the bottom photo) I will use the internets to show my celebration. I caught a little of the first half and then the last 25 minutes of the second.

First off credit to youngster Walcott for an amazing first goal and showing that England do have something to look forward to. From my understanding the gunners had excellent starts to both halves but just lost steam. On a note about the whole "young gunner" thing, yes Arse did play some of their younger players maybe 4 or 5 that dont normally start but if you looked at their bench and the people that came on (Helb, Adebayor, and Eboue) how much younger were they than normal? More on Arse - the stand in Captain should be ashamed of himself, the foul was miniscule and then for him to start a fight with such precious time to go? rediculous. Adebayor to also throw a punch or two when he came on as a sub and had a full load of steam to get one back. rediculous.

More on the fight. Howard Webb did a great job dealing with it. He tried to break up the original tussle but then let the teammates work it out and just took in everything that happened and was correct to send of Adebayor which was the hardest card to call because it happened in the thick of things. However I wonder what his reasoning is for the red card on Mikel was for... Mikel did commit a foul but then for Toure to come at him, Mikel did a lot to step away from the fight and not allow things to continue. He might have done a little shove back to give himself some space, i have no problems with the card, i think both had to be sent off if one was gone but Mikel was obviously upset because he had tried to get away from the situation. Webb should also be credited for handling the John Terry situation brillantly and relaying information to Jose and the Chelsea bench, he should receive a lot of applause for noticing it was a head injury and getting the right people involved. Overall Webb did a great job taking in information and talking to his other officials.

Now onto the champions!!! Chelsea were underfire at the start of both halves but they showed their composure. Especially after Terry went down again, and if you see the kick to the face it is unbelievable that he was back at the stadium to celebrate 2 hours later. Lamps showed his skill by leading his team on the charge after the incident - sparking interest back into the match with a long range shot that powerfully hit the crossbar. Once again I would like to point out that Sheva made a difference. He was a threat that had to be watched and thus drew attention away from Drogba. Sheva had a brillant strike only a little later that also hit the cross bar. Now finally to the man of the match - Drogba. If people arent talking about him as being the best striker they should be. Two more goals his 27th and 28th of the season should show that he is a force to be reckoned with.

Overall a great win and a great game that just was unfortunatly hurt with the injury to Terry and the brawl at the end.. I wonder what the Frenchman will say now and just which peice of hardware will be next.

Brief note

Love the new design! Good job, Ref.

My CL Recap

So I was thinkin about trying to so some live blogging on my thoughts on the game but that was too tedious of a task after being up since 7:30 and having to sit through 3 straight classes. I know its not a tough life but eh I was fore-going my afternoon nap for the games. Plus my internet broadcast from China was slacking on sound for the Chelsea game while being perfect for the 'pool-barca game. So my thoughts:

Chelsea 1-1 Porto
As the red head of the group will certainly be proud the underdogs held the visitors to a draw. Terry being out for the Carling Cup and being taken to the locker room was not a good sight to see. The defense looked horrible with him on the sidelines until the sub was put in and Essien being dropped down to the defense. Essien I believe has to be one of the most underrated players in the world, he has truly shown his world class status this season with the different possitions he has played and the stuff he has done. With Robben in the game it was a world of difference and that led to our goal. Sheva, I believe and I know meanbaldguy will say different, is coming into his form. While it might be late, he has scored goals recently. Totals are 9 goals in 35 total first team showings, but think of the recent goals in FA and League Cup games - along with a few prem goals (Maybe he is a fantasy pick up?). My confusion from the game is taking Robben out at halftime, it didnt seem to do anything for the match. But I will take the tie going back to the Bridge and look forward to the game in Cardiff this weekend.

Barca 1-2 'Pool
Ok so I had the sound on for this game but wasnt paying as close attention. Of course the story line is that the two golfers connected to win the game for the mersysiders. Bellamy and Riise both got their goals. Bellamy got a great game after all the reports saying he is done for at liverpool and that should help him stay with the club but who knows. Barca seemed lost going into halftime with the score tied and came out lost for the second half. The return leg should be interesting.

in response to the trudo comment in the cl recap yesterday:
Ok you think we are bashing on Wenger but get this he deserves it. Jose gets it plenty but think about the last time you read in the news something about Jose. As someone pointed out on F365, we havnt heard him complain in over a month now - check the chelsea news reports there is nothing there. now about Sir Alex there is no doubt he plays the media and plays it to his advantage - i am thinking about Worldwide Soccer manager and playing mind games with the the opponents. But if we are talking about the ManU game, he has plenty of reason to complain because that was disgusting the way Lille reacted to getting scored on and from the reports the fans were being crushed. And I am not hating on the French cause I am mostly french in heritage and I love my french-ness - hell they created democracy (think of ricky bobby and finish it).. But Wenger needs a change of policy on his comments cause he should come out against Henry's dive and taunting against wigan - a captain should act better. he should come out against Jens and all the stunts he pulls. and he should come out in cases not just saying the other team decided to play deep and protect the ball - honestly come on..

enough for now - i get some rest

Yesterday's CL action

Watched the end of the Arsenal/PSV game and then watched the taped replay of the Real/Bayern game on ESPN Classic. A couple of comments: first, it is good to see that ESPN finally deems it worthy to show a second game in lieu of highlights from the 1959 NBA championships or the 1999 Strongest Man Competition- a small victory for football but a victory nonetheless. Second, Arsenal is eminently stoppable and despite all their young starlets I am not buying them as the side of the future. If you play at all physically (go Blackburn!) they run away and hide. I know it was only a 1- nil loss on the road and they probably will win big at the Emirates in two weeks, but I couldn't be happier- if Arsene would only go back to France. Finally, the Real game was fascinating in a lot of respects. Despite Seamus Malin's fawning, Beckham did in fact play a superb 60 minutes of football- agressive, with pace (shocking) and smart- probably the best player on the pitch until the team went into a stupefying defensive shell which convinces me yet again that Capello is not the right man for this job (not that I have a clue who is). Robinho's insertion did nothing and he looked like a circus act- dribble around like a lunatic and see if something happens. The replay in Munich should be fascinating. Can't wait for today's action.

The Federation at its finest

I already sent this article to the red haired memeber of the group but I will post it here as well..
From reading this second article my first understanding has changed...

The whole rotation to awarding the World Cup based on regions and confederations is a great idea, largely in part because South Africa deserves to host the Cup and could use the money. With South America backing Brasil it should be interesting to see if anything comes of their lack of infastructure and proper stadiums. My understanding before re-reading the second article is that in 2018 the Cup was going back to Europe. But actually FIFA has not decided which confederation will get the nod. Of course with England stating that they had the backing of the Government and more say on IFAB they could out run us from the get go. However there are plenty of anti-england fans right now on the world stage especially since they got the 2012 Olympics. Yet is that enough to out weigh the anti-america stuff going on right now?

In the end I would love for us to get the 2018 WC but in the short term I would love even more a new USSF president

A long time coming

I take time away from the necessary work that must be done due to my recent illness to write about the game right now. As my tag suggests being "the ref" I feel that I must comment on the recent stuff going against refs right now. Just recently wigan v arse P. Dowd was given a stern talking to from the wigan organization because of his handling of the situation.

I think back in the day to my beloved Gtown Hoyas and when Coach Esherick went off on Big East referees and their handling of Mike Sweetney. Yet he came out at referees after a WIN not a loss. As he stated it would have otherwise been seen as sour grapes. Much like it did seem with Paul Jewell. There is much difference with Bball and soccer in this matter because many more fouls are called I believe in Bball and its much more of a stop and start sport. In soccer you can look at replays and see individual things that in Bball are more technicalities.

How this relates to Wigan. Well this is more for me to go off on the bastards at Arse than anything. Wenger is such a tool, he should be coming out against Jens but doesnt. Ok I digress and will be here - JENS is a bastard. What type of Goalie gets 5 yellow cards in a season and has to sit out? All of them being either for time wasting or running at the referee or at an opposing team player. He is ridiculous and should be sent back to Germany - prolly the best move Ill ever agree to with Wenger is to not sign Jens up for another season. Back to the topic. Wenger should have come out and said his opinion about Dowd. Given Wigan more credit because they didnt deserve to lose 3-1 and should have been up 2-nil to begin with. And if anyone complains about referees it is Wenger, Paul Jewell has been a decent man on the sidelines unlike his arsenal counterpart.

In the end Dowd got a lot of hell. Some of it deserved although it should be interesting to see what comes of him talking back to the players supposedly. That he used "industrial language" when you see Rooney make a fool of himself every time he talks to a ref.

Now the upcoming Champions League. My predictions - Arsenal lose after playing wigan in extra time and then a boring draw to blackburn over the span of 4 days last week. Chelsea pull out the win away either that or get an important away goal draw. Ronaldhino v Liverpool is of course the game to watch and with the recent news at both Liverpool and Barca it should be interesting who is more motivated.

thats all for now