Sunday Wrap Up February 24, 2008

  Reading 1 - 2 Aston Villa 

Villans roll at the Madejski. Reading’s woes continued today as their guests gave a good demonstration of dominance. James Harper got things off to a rousing start for Reading when he created a scoring opportunity in just thirty seconds. Scott Carson smothered the chance and set the tone for the rest of the match.

The Royals’ defense could have used some extra bodies as Ibrahima Sonko and Kalifa Cisse seemed confused in the centre of the defence. Cisse gave up an iffy penalty for handling the ball. But, karma came quickly when Gareth Barry sliced his shot wide. Ashley Young broke the stalemate at halftime as Gabriel Agbonlahor gave him the ball with yards of space and he slotted it home. Marlon Harewood drove the final nail in at the 83rd minute with a curling shot into the upper corner of the goal. Nicky Shorey got a consolation goal in the 90th from his free kick, but it was too little too late as the Villans came away with all three points.

    

  Blackburn 4 - 1 Bolton 

Wanderers penalized at Ewood. It’s hard to win a match when you give up two penalties. Blackburn was gifted the first penalty and Benni McCarthy took full advantage. As he did after Gary Cahill fouled David Dunn for the second in answer to Kevin Davies’ leveler. David Bentley’s header and Morten Gamst Pedersen’s injury time goal added to Bolton’s troubles.

Bolton played well they just couldn’t take advantage of their opportunities. Brad Friedel deserves full credit for keeping Bolton at bay with some great saves from El Hadji Diouf and Ricardo Gardner. Blackburn’s victory came at a good time, they needed the points and the confidence.

      

Sunday Wrap Up January 13, 2008

 Cats roar at Stadium of light. Kieran Richardson’s brace in the first half was all Sunderland needed to gain three valuable points in their race to stay in the Premiership. Sol Campbell made an uncharacteristic mental error when he gave up on a ball too early allowing Kenwyne Jones to keep it in and send it back in front of the goal. Richardson took it and put Roy’s boys up just after the half hour mark. Eleven minutes late he gave Suderland some breathing room when he pounded home a loose ball. He hit the crossbar later to just miss out on the hat-trick. This match was by no means one sided. Benjani Mwaruwari and Niko Kranjcar both had excellant chances to score, but Craig Gordon’s net remained unsullied.

Harry Redknapp was without Nwankwo Kanu, Papa Bouba Diop, Sulley Muntari and John Utaka who are all away on international duty at the African Nations Cup. When you recruit heavily in Africa though you can’t be surprised when your team is depleted during this tournament. I think that the uncertainty surrounding him as to whether he was headed north to Newcastle or not had to have had an unsettling effect on his side as well. Sunderland 2-0 Portsmouth.

     

Roberts’ late goal stuns Reebok. Bolton took the lead late in the first half with a sublime goal from Kevin Nolan. The Trotter’s forward lashed out at Joey O’Brien’s cross and a ball that looked like it was going to sail over the top right corner dipped down behind Brad Friedel’s back and into the net. Christopher Samba leveled the score in the 53rd with a header making Jussi Jaaskelainen’s uncertainty cost dearly. A gritty second half looked to be grinding to a well deserved draw, then Jason Roberts took the ball from the centre spot to the edge of the Bolton box and fired home a deflected shot past Jaaskelainen.

Roberts had requested a transfer and been turned down by Mark Hughes. If that’s what it takes to win, Hughes should get more of his players angry. That was a fantastic finish for Rovers. Bolton Wanderers 1-2 Blackburn Rovers.

        

       

Boxing Day treats for all the kiddies

When these two met earlier this season at Anfield Derby lost 6-0. At one time the Rams looked more like they were directing traffic than defending. Now Paul Jewell is here and everything is right with the world. Oh, the Reds are still going to give Derby a thumping, but hopefully only four or five goals. Seriously, if Rafa rotates the squad like he usually does to rest up his big players for mince pie after the match, Derby might be able to rescue some dignity at home. Stephan Bywater may be between the posts for the Rams, but he injured his shoulder against Newcastle so he might be short on mobility although the Liverpool offense with give him plenty of stretching during the match. 4-0 Liverpool.

Roy Keane gets to play host to his former boss at the Stadium of Light. When these teams met at Old Trafford the Black Cats only lost 1-0, not bad. Now Sunderland is third from the bottom and squarely in the relegation battle. They are going to need some of that Keane magic that brought them the League Championship title last year. What better way to start it off than by a Boxing Day beating of Man U? Roy has all of his top scorers available for this match, Kenwyne Jones, Michael Chopra and Danny Higginbotham will have the hopes of the Cats’ faithful on their shoulders.

Manchester United will have their full complement of players for this game with the exception of Van der Sar (groin). They visit West Ham on the weekend so a couple of key players might sit this one out. Either way Fergie’s boys should win this one, but Sunderland will keep it close. 2-0 Manchester United.

Villa beat Chelsea at Villa Park earlier this season and if the Blue’s form against Blackburn carries over they probably will again on Wednesday. Petr Cech is probably out due to injury so Avram Grant may need his third choice keeper to step in again. Henrique Hilario didn’t get much of a workout against the Rovers, but he should get more action against the Villans. Didier Drogba is still out, but with all the talent they have there is absolutely no reason they can’t still score on anyone. 

Gabriel Agbonlahor has scored six goals for Martin O’Neill’s side, one of those against Chelsea. Gareth Barry and Olof Mellberg have been solid and will need to be Wednesday to keep Chelsea at bay. Scott Carson has had an up and down season so concentration could be an issue. He’s not a bad keeper and when he’s on, he’s on. I think he’s going to step up. 1-1 Draw.

Everton can feel good, even though they are coming off of a loss to Man U. They played fantastic defense and really should have walked out of Old Trafford with a draw. Mikel Arteta might be back from illness and that would be bad news for Bolton. He’s a crafty midfielder so the Wanderers could have a rough day. Bolton are playing much better under Gary Megson, Nicolas Anelka could be playing for a big money transfer and this would be a prime opportunity for him to show the goods. This will be a good game so if you get to see it, do. 2-1 Everton.

Manchester City has had an impressive turn around this season and Sven-Goran Eriksson has the squad playing cohesively. Blumer Elano, Rolando Bianchi and Martin Petrov lead the team in goals, but the Blues are getting goals from all over. Joe Hart seems to have the nod as City keeper and Kasper Schmeichel is coming back from his loan spell with Cardiff City. Andreas Isaksson will probably end up moving on I think. Blackburn will be missing Robbie Savage, Stephen Warnock and Keith Treacy for this match and that will give Mark Hughes some heartburn. The Rovers do have Roque Santa Cruz though and they know how to put the pressure on, just ask Chelsea. 2-2 Draw.

Happy Christmas to all!

Sunday Wrap Up December 23, 2007

Great escape at Old Trafford. He is cocky, brash and he dives like an olympian, but my god Ronaldo can be fun to watch. His goal in the 22nd minute from twenty yards out gave the home crowd a glimpse of the electricity that this young man can bring to a game. But, Tim Cahill’s strong header just five minutes later gave the travelling Toffees hope that they might be able to go home with a point.

This was scrappy, like it always is (23 fouls total for the game), with four yellow cards in just fifteen minutes. Rooney got a card but no goals although he and Tevez both got off some really good shots. The Red Devils out shot Everton 19-5, but Everton just wouldn’t co-operate until Steven Pienaar stuck out a foot in the box and tripped up Ryan Giggs. This one was so obvious that even David Moyes couldn’t disagree. Ronaldo sent the ball where Tim Howard wasn’t and with two minutes to spare he closed the gap again on Arsenal. Manchester United 2-1 Everton.

                                     

Viduka saves Newcastle. Derby County have one win in the Premiership this season, against Newcastle. For thirty minutes the Toon Army had to sit in anguish at the thought that they might be the only team in the top flight to lose all six points to the worst team in the league. The Australian striker saved some embarassment when he pounded home a goal from the corner of the box. Stephen Bywater made 11 saves to give the Rams a shot at this one, he just couldn’t stop Viduka’s 87th minute equalizer. Too bad because Derby were worked hard and yet they still hung in. Nothing against Sam Allardyce I would like to have seen the underdog win this. Newcastle United 2-2 Derby County.

                        

Rovers rue chances at Ewood. Joe Cole’s superb strike half way through the first half proved to be all that Chelsea needed to pull within six points of the Gunners. But, the story of this match was the tenacity of Mark Hughes’ side as they took the game to the Blues for large chunks of the game. Roque Santa Cruz missed a number of chances to get on the score sheet and when Petr Cech hobbled off with a hip injury in the second half, a draw seemed immenent. Henrique Hilario made a couple of good saves when he stepped between the posts for Avram Grant’s side. However, the Chelsea defense did a great job of tightening up in the box and the Blackburn rally never materialized. Blackburn 0-1 Chelsea.