Wow! Just Wow!
Come back here, I'm gonna eat you!!!
What a couple of days in the Champions League. And a crazy finish between Real Salt Lake and the Galaxy last night. Oh, and United are atop the East. Let’s get to it.
Champions League
Arsenal slip up
Any doubts about the outcome vanished like Kieran Gibbs’feet from beneath him and Ji-Sung Park (does he even play in the EPL?) put Arsenal in a spot where they had to score thrice. Then Cristiano Ronaldo summons his inner Cristiano Ronaldo with a free kick that gave Manuel Almunia no chance. Game over. One more for good measure on a beautiful counter let fans leave The Emirates early. The only thing left for Sir Alex to do was take off Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra (done and done) so he’d have everyone available, barring injury of course, for the final. And then Darren Fletcher summons his inner Paul Scholes and is sent off for a dumb foul. Despite protests about whether it was deserved -- it was -- Fletcher can’t be dumb enough to put himself in a position to be sent off. Robin van Persie took the penalty and didn’t injure himself, making it a successful night for the Dutch striker. All in all, the better team advanced to Rome.
Chelsea’s bus broke down
I can appreciate defensive soccer and was impressed by Chelsea’s display for shutting down a Barcelona side that exploded for six goals at the Bernabeu between these two legs for 180 minutes plus three halves worth of stoppage time. But then Andres Iniesta hit what was basically a buzzer beater to put Barça through to Rome. (A side note, I would have been greatly amused had Iniesta already been on a yellow when he took off his shirt in post-game winner euphoria and subsequently been suspended for the final.) Michael Essien’s first half wonder strike was worthy of winning the game itself, and Chelsea did attack in the first half even with the lead. But you have to think the soccer Gods punished Guus Hiddink for “parking the bus” last week at the Camp Nou.
The bigger story is, of course, the ref. And frankly, I’m tired of it. Look, refs are humans and have bad games, yet we expect them to be infallible. It ain’t gonna happen. Ever. And don’t talk to me about video replay. The red to Abidal was deserved -- why else would a defender move to the outside of a striker cutting towards goal except to try and “accidentally” trip him? Once Anelka went down it was a foul and automatic red. Chelsea should have earned probably two penalties, both in the second half. Gerard Pique admitted he handled the ball and Samuel Eto’o’s arm was in an unnatural position when he blocked Ballack’s shot. But stuff happens. Be grown men and don’t accost the referee and make me respect you even less Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba. As if I wasn’t pulling for Tim Howard’s Everton side in the FA Cup final already, now I’m hoping for a 4-0 thrashing.
John Terry, as always, showed great class in going to Barcelona’s dressing room to congratulate the victors. I don’t like Chelsea or England, but I’ve long been a Terry fan.
The Final
Gotta say I’m happy its Barça and Man U playing in Rome. Well, really I wouldn’t have minded Arsenal-Barça, but this is the best matchup of the possibilities. It’s a shame Carlos “Wet Dog” Puyol will be the only first choice defender available for Pep Guardiola. But that could result in a high scoring affair. It will be interesting to see how much of Chelsea’s tactics Sir Alex takes in shutting down Barça’s vaunted attack (they’ve scored 100 goals in 34 games). Right now the edge goes easily to Manchester United, but there can be plenty of injuries picked up in three week’s time.
Major League Soccer
United are first
It wasn’t a pretty game to watch, but D.C. head home with smiles thanks to Rodney Wallace’s fortuitous goal. In all honesty, I didn’t United’s goal as I had flipped over to see the Caps game, but MLSnet.com didn’t crash my browser so I saw it on the highlights. When I was on Comcast I kept wondering if Lance “mini-Dirk Diggler” Watson was the best Curt Onalfo could do at right back. Wallace abused him all night, including on the goal, and with converted striker Josh Wolff in front of him any team with a decent left side will find easy going against that pair. Brandon Barkledge didn’t greatly impress in his first team debut, but he was no Rod Dyachenko either. Avery John was solid, as you’d expect from the vet and Craig Janicki was good in his return (as in he didn’t incur any head injuries from a teammate). As for Wolff’s goal, “Where’s the outcry for offsides,” says the man who defends referees.
Don’t Leave Early
Hopefully RSL fans took advice from the Barça win earlier in the day in that the game isn’t over until the final whistle. Real looked set for a 1-0 win at the 89th minute. Then a handball gave Landon Donovan a penalty, which was followed by Fabian Espindola drawing a foul -- not a make up call, Bruce Arena -- for a Will Johnson penalty, which was followed by a Mike Magee sighting as he capped a crazy five minutes by nutmegging Chris Seitz. Didn’t see the game, but you have to think Jason Kreis is not happy about giving away two points twice. Of course, it all would have been different had Seitz’s hand been able to block Donovan’s penalty instead of just taking off some of the pace en route to the back of the net.
Other stuff from a busy Wednesday
- Two WPS thoughts:
First, why is this league playing on international dates? This is even more ridiculous than MLS as ALL of its stars are international players. They can’t add a week or two on for these friendlies?
Second, I already mentioned Abby Wambach’s foul on Daniela. But the fact that Commish Tonya Antonucci apparently wasn’t happy with the League Disciplinary Committee’s decision that everything was hunky dory shows some naïveté from the league’s top brass. Yes Daniela, a star in the league, was hurt badly. But the challenge showed no intent to injure and was dealt with on the field. It wasn’t a tackle as nasty as the one that broke Eduardo’s leg last year. Just move on, there’s nothing more to see or do here WPS, though apparently my initial thoughts about a suspension may prove correct.
- All rumors are pointing towards Philly’s expansion team being named “Philadelphia Union.” Me likey. The always fab DuNord has the alleged team badge. A bit of “Don’t Tread On Me” in there that I also like. Now let’s just hope United are in D.C. long enough to build another good I-95 rivalry.
- To wrap up things, if you were a Caps and a Chelsea fan yesterday, you can’t like anyone with a whistle at this point. Again, I didn’t see the whole game between flipping, but the disparity in power plays (7-2 to the Pens) is pretty glaring. The Caps weren’t at their best, but to get just two penalties called against the Pens for the second time this series doesn’t bode well in their favor. Maybe a bit of crying in the press like Sir Sidney did after Game 2 is needed? I certainly hope not.
Oh, and explain to me how a “White Out” is supposed to intimidate the other team at all, let alone when that other team is wearing white. That makes as much sense as loving I.C. Light.
- Pat Walsh
Champions League
Arsenal slip up
Any doubts about the outcome vanished like Kieran Gibbs’feet from beneath him and Ji-Sung Park (does he even play in the EPL?) put Arsenal in a spot where they had to score thrice. Then Cristiano Ronaldo summons his inner Cristiano Ronaldo with a free kick that gave Manuel Almunia no chance. Game over. One more for good measure on a beautiful counter let fans leave The Emirates early. The only thing left for Sir Alex to do was take off Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra (done and done) so he’d have everyone available, barring injury of course, for the final. And then Darren Fletcher summons his inner Paul Scholes and is sent off for a dumb foul. Despite protests about whether it was deserved -- it was -- Fletcher can’t be dumb enough to put himself in a position to be sent off. Robin van Persie took the penalty and didn’t injure himself, making it a successful night for the Dutch striker. All in all, the better team advanced to Rome.
Chelsea’s bus broke down
I can appreciate defensive soccer and was impressed by Chelsea’s display for shutting down a Barcelona side that exploded for six goals at the Bernabeu between these two legs for 180 minutes plus three halves worth of stoppage time. But then Andres Iniesta hit what was basically a buzzer beater to put Barça through to Rome. (A side note, I would have been greatly amused had Iniesta already been on a yellow when he took off his shirt in post-game winner euphoria and subsequently been suspended for the final.) Michael Essien’s first half wonder strike was worthy of winning the game itself, and Chelsea did attack in the first half even with the lead. But you have to think the soccer Gods punished Guus Hiddink for “parking the bus” last week at the Camp Nou.
The bigger story is, of course, the ref. And frankly, I’m tired of it. Look, refs are humans and have bad games, yet we expect them to be infallible. It ain’t gonna happen. Ever. And don’t talk to me about video replay. The red to Abidal was deserved -- why else would a defender move to the outside of a striker cutting towards goal except to try and “accidentally” trip him? Once Anelka went down it was a foul and automatic red. Chelsea should have earned probably two penalties, both in the second half. Gerard Pique admitted he handled the ball and Samuel Eto’o’s arm was in an unnatural position when he blocked Ballack’s shot. But stuff happens. Be grown men and don’t accost the referee and make me respect you even less Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba. As if I wasn’t pulling for Tim Howard’s Everton side in the FA Cup final already, now I’m hoping for a 4-0 thrashing.
John Terry, as always, showed great class in going to Barcelona’s dressing room to congratulate the victors. I don’t like Chelsea or England, but I’ve long been a Terry fan.
The Final
Gotta say I’m happy its Barça and Man U playing in Rome. Well, really I wouldn’t have minded Arsenal-Barça, but this is the best matchup of the possibilities. It’s a shame Carlos “Wet Dog” Puyol will be the only first choice defender available for Pep Guardiola. But that could result in a high scoring affair. It will be interesting to see how much of Chelsea’s tactics Sir Alex takes in shutting down Barça’s vaunted attack (they’ve scored 100 goals in 34 games). Right now the edge goes easily to Manchester United, but there can be plenty of injuries picked up in three week’s time.
Major League Soccer
United are first
It wasn’t a pretty game to watch, but D.C. head home with smiles thanks to Rodney Wallace’s fortuitous goal. In all honesty, I didn’t United’s goal as I had flipped over to see the Caps game, but MLSnet.com didn’t crash my browser so I saw it on the highlights. When I was on Comcast I kept wondering if Lance “mini-Dirk Diggler” Watson was the best Curt Onalfo could do at right back. Wallace abused him all night, including on the goal, and with converted striker Josh Wolff in front of him any team with a decent left side will find easy going against that pair. Brandon Barkledge didn’t greatly impress in his first team debut, but he was no Rod Dyachenko either. Avery John was solid, as you’d expect from the vet and Craig Janicki was good in his return (as in he didn’t incur any head injuries from a teammate). As for Wolff’s goal, “Where’s the outcry for offsides,” says the man who defends referees.
Don’t Leave Early
Hopefully RSL fans took advice from the Barça win earlier in the day in that the game isn’t over until the final whistle. Real looked set for a 1-0 win at the 89th minute. Then a handball gave Landon Donovan a penalty, which was followed by Fabian Espindola drawing a foul -- not a make up call, Bruce Arena -- for a Will Johnson penalty, which was followed by a Mike Magee sighting as he capped a crazy five minutes by nutmegging Chris Seitz. Didn’t see the game, but you have to think Jason Kreis is not happy about giving away two points twice. Of course, it all would have been different had Seitz’s hand been able to block Donovan’s penalty instead of just taking off some of the pace en route to the back of the net.
Other stuff from a busy Wednesday
- Two WPS thoughts:
First, why is this league playing on international dates? This is even more ridiculous than MLS as ALL of its stars are international players. They can’t add a week or two on for these friendlies?
Second, I already mentioned Abby Wambach’s foul on Daniela. But the fact that Commish Tonya Antonucci apparently wasn’t happy with the League Disciplinary Committee’s decision that everything was hunky dory shows some naïveté from the league’s top brass. Yes Daniela, a star in the league, was hurt badly. But the challenge showed no intent to injure and was dealt with on the field. It wasn’t a tackle as nasty as the one that broke Eduardo’s leg last year. Just move on, there’s nothing more to see or do here WPS, though apparently my initial thoughts about a suspension may prove correct.
- All rumors are pointing towards Philly’s expansion team being named “Philadelphia Union.” Me likey. The always fab DuNord has the alleged team badge. A bit of “Don’t Tread On Me” in there that I also like. Now let’s just hope United are in D.C. long enough to build another good I-95 rivalry.
- To wrap up things, if you were a Caps and a Chelsea fan yesterday, you can’t like anyone with a whistle at this point. Again, I didn’t see the whole game between flipping, but the disparity in power plays (7-2 to the Pens) is pretty glaring. The Caps weren’t at their best, but to get just two penalties called against the Pens for the second time this series doesn’t bode well in their favor. Maybe a bit of crying in the press like Sir Sidney did after Game 2 is needed? I certainly hope not.
Oh, and explain to me how a “White Out” is supposed to intimidate the other team at all, let alone when that other team is wearing white. That makes as much sense as loving I.C. Light.
- Pat Walsh
Labels: Walsh
posted by Bushman @ 10:35 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Good stuff, Pat. Thanks for taking over this week and putting up some excellent articles. I'll be back to take the pressure off next week, and the quality of work on the site can drop down again. :)
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