Gazza!

When he played he was one of the best that England has ever produced. I was lucky to see him play numerous times throughout his career (mostly for England) and he was phenomenal when he had the ball at his feet. Gazza has always been the “Clown Prince” of football, famous for pranks he pulled on friend and foe alike, but that never detracted from his great talent. His flick over Colin Hendry in the EURO 96 match against Scotland was just one of many great moments in his career. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzPjlnQEkps

The news broke Thursday that Paul Gascoigne was sectioned under the Mental Health Act for behavior detrimental to himself and others. This is another sad step for the great man. Ian Wright said it best on his radio show – it is time for the FA to step forward and help this man. I agree and this is why: Gascoigne came up at the time when everything changed in football. Salaries skyrocketed and pressure mounted on players on and off the pitch. Media exposure became rabid. No one knew how to handle all of these new difficulties. Paul was a young lad without someone to guide him. So he handled the spotlight the way he had always handled things, by going out and having a good time. And the world of English football shunned him as a buffoon. All players of that era faced the same problems and not everyone went down the same path, but some did and all of them deserve to get help.

Give something back to a man that has given so much to England. He lives and breaths football. This isn’t a cliche, it’s fact. I’ve heard many accounts of his love for the game and how he lives in the world of football 24/7. He is a good man who needs to be brought back into the fold. He needs to pass along his knowledge of the sport to those young lads who need to know.

GET WELL SOON GAZZA!

        

Quarter-final Cup draw is out

The draw has been announced and the ties are going to be interesting:

Barnsley v. Chelsea

If the Tykes play with the passion that they showed against Liverpool they have a great chance against the holders. The element of surprise is gone however and Avram Grant will not want to go down the same road as Rafa Benitez. Chelsea have a cadre of better strikers and they have something the Reds didn’t, Michael Essien. When he sets his mind to taking over a match he’s a right terror. Barnsley do have something over the Blues though, they have absolutely NOTHING to lose in this match. no-one expects them to win, they shouldn’t have gotten this far, blah, blah, blah. The fact is that if they win they will go down in history as giant killers of the highest order, but if they don’t they’ve achieved more than they could have hoped already.

Barnsley have a back line that plays with reckless abandon, giving Luke Steele extra confidence in goal. Where they lack though is in the attack. There goals against Liverpool came from the defenders. That’s not a bad thing, but is brings into question their vulnerability to counter attack by a very quick Chelsea squad.

The Blues rested some of their top players against Huddersfield and they never really needed them. Grant won’t hesitate to bring them in for this game as they are the holder’s and can’t afford to crash out to a League One side.

Bristol Rovers v. West Brom

Bristol came out quickly against Southampton and they will need to repeat the feat when the Baggies come calling. West Brom showed an ability to score at Coventry City with five goals in the score column. Rovers will need to be tight defensively or stay home for the semis. West Brom didn’t outplay the Sky Blues in any aspect but the scoreline so they too will need to be vigilant. This match could send a League One side on so it holds the underdog interest for me.

Sheffield United/Middlesbrough v. Cardiff City

Hard to pick out the impact for this until the host side is settled. I think that Cardiff would beat Sheffield United but lose to Middlesbrough. Odd I know. However, there is a difference between the Riverside and Bramall Lane as we’ll see in the replay. Boro will play better at home and move on to host the Bluebirds. For their part Cardiff City have done well in the tournament so far, they just don’t have enough to beat Boro.

Manchester United v. Portsmouth

This match will be good. Pompey have shown an ability to beat the Red Devils, therefore they will not go into Old Trafford all nervy. BUT, if United comes out like they did against Arsenal and Portsmouth repeat their performance against Preston this match could get UGLY early. Sir Alex sat out some of his big timers against the Gunners. Don’t look for him to change things up too much for Harry and the lads. United will be ready for this tie and Rooney should give them fits from the start. I’m glad that Manchester United drew a Premiership club for this round so they won’t be looking past a team that could shock them. They will be concentrating on the task at hand when Portsmouth come to town so this should be a great game.

FA Cup 5th round Saturday

TYKES LIVE LARGE AT ANFIELD! I said when the draw came out that if Barnsley caught Liverpool just right they could surprise them and they did. Luke Steele kept the visitors in this match with some stellar keeping in the last 20 minutes of the game. He should be buying a few pints for the defenders that saved him a few times. Stephen Foster, Bobby Hassell and Robert Kuzluk threw themselves at anything that headed towards the net and were very frustrating for the Reds attack down the stretch.

Dirk Kuyt started the scoring with a 32nd minute goal and it looked like the rout might be on. Liverpool pushed constantly for the insurance goal, they just couldn’t find the solution to the Barnsley defense.  Foster tied the match early in the second half with a nice goal off of his noggin. Martin Devaney sent in a cross with very little space and found the defender for the goal. Rafa Benitez was forced to bring on Harry Kewell and Steven Gerrard to salvage the game, but even they couldn’t solve the riddle of Steele. It looked as though this one was headed for a replay until Brian Howard kept his head, created space for himself, then fired home the shot of the round as he sent Barnsley to the quarter-finals and Liverpool out of yet another competition. Liverpool 1-2 Barnsley!

            

            

Saints go marching home. Bristol Rovers have now beaten clubs in every division of English football from the Blue Square Premier to the Premier League. This was probably the easiest of the lot. The Rovers only faced one dangerous shot from Southampton all day and that one would only have counted on a rugby pitch. The only goal of the match was a snapshot of Soton’s day. Rickie Lambert’s free kick deflected off of Saint’s defender Jermaine Wright and into Kelvin Davis’ net. Southampton never really looked to threaten the League One side and deserved to hang their heads at the final whistle. Bristol Rovers 1-0 Southampton.

        

       

Lampard sinks Huddersfield at the Bridge. Avram Grant started a good side for this match with John Terry coming back from his broken foot. However, it was recent returnee Frank Lampard who welcomed himself back to the lineup with two goals and an assist. Huddersfield were scrappy and actually gave the Blues some concern at the half when they tied the score at 1-1. Chelsea showed that they are the FA Cup holders though in the second half with two scores and cruised into the quarters. Chelsea 3-1 Huddersfield.

            

           

Bluebirds nip Wolves early at Ninian Park. The Welsh contingent for the quarter-finals is ready to go, after their early goals by Peter Whittingham and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink made the rest of the game moot.  Wolverhampton did well when they played Cardiff City in Wales earlier in league play. They just didn’t have the same spark today. Cardiff City 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers.

            

Baggies rock the Ricoh Arena. The Sky Blues beat Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup and Manchester United in the League Cup, both were away games for Coventry City. So hosting West Brom in the 5th round should have been easy….right? Apparently the Baggies didn’t get the memo. The stats were even in all aspects of the game, except one. Goals by Chris Brunt, Roman Bednar (2), Ishmael Miller and Zoltan Gera had the City faithful seeing blue in the end. Coventry City 0-5 West Brom.

       

                                      

Beating at Old Trafford! No one would have predicted that when the top two teams in the country got together on Saturday night that it would be such a lopsided affair. Arsenal had some injuries for this match, but the team that Arsene Wenger put on the pitch would be a starting lineup that many Premiership clubs would love to have.

The Red Devils out-shot the Gunners 5 to 1 and at times Jens Lehmann had to be wishing that he were riding the bench for this one. Arsenal were down 2-0 in the first 20 minutes and could have been up by more. Sir Alex Ferguson started Nani and Anderson in the midfield and was well rewarded. These two were involved in all four goals today. Speaking of involved, where has this Darren Fletcher been? Two goals by the Scotsman brings his season total to…two. Welcome back Fletch!

On the ugly side, Emmanuel Eboue was sent off very early in the second half with a bad challenge on Patrice Evra. Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Darren Fletcher, De Silva Eduardo, Emmanuel Adebayor and Gilberto Silva all saw yellow cards in the second half.

Both clubs have big Champions League matches this week so thankfully there were no major injuries for either of them.

             

             

More matches Sunday and the draw for the next round is Monday so the fun continues.

EPL going global?

 

The Premier League has announced that they are looking to expand the season by one extra match that will be played in cities like Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Sydney, Johannesburg, Dubai and Beijing. Not surprisingly the blow-back has been enormous. Supporters, managers and club officials have been in an uproar since Thursday’s announcement. One of the comments that I read on a discussion thread said that they shouldn’t have to pay for twenty home games if one of them is going to be played in another country. Actually the report I read (and they may have reported it wrong) was that it would be an extra game, so all of the home and away fixtures would be available.

            

Sir Alex Ferguson has come out and said that if you are going to add an extra fixture to an already filled schedule, the managers should be consulted before making it a public issue. A crowded fixture schedule didn’t seem to curtail a trip to Saudi Arabia. The managers should have been consulted, but to say that the crowded schedule is a problem is asinine. Premiership teams travel quite a bit in the pre-season to global destinations (not every team does, but more do it every year) and trot out their B team while charging the international fans quite a bit.

                                      

This isn’t about making the English game available to the world. If the Premier League really cared about reaching around the globe it would be easier to watch the League matches we want to see. And how are they going to make the travel worth it for all of the teams? I would walk to Los Angeles to see Manchester United play Arsenal if all of the stars are going to play. But, why would I pay to see West Brom play Reading? Nothing against either team, they just don’t have enough of a fan base in the US to make it worth their coming over. The Premiership should put together a promotional tour of globally followed clubs versus smaller clubs. People will turn up for Middlesbrough if they are playing Chelsea, not if they’re playing Wigan.

Another con would be Sepp Blatter getting involved as the plan progresses. THAT’S the kiss of death to any plan. If you want to watch an idea swirl it’s way down the bog get FIFA involved.