Tag: soccer

Qatar and Russia Beat out US and England to Host WC

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Today, 22 FIFA members voted to put the World Cup in Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022. This comes as a bit of a surprise when there were countries like the US and Australia bidding against Qatar. Russia receiving the 2018 bid was not a huge shock after allegations surfaced that England FIFA members had possibly participated in unethical business practices (To put it nicely).

Sepp Blatter hands over the world Cup to Russian minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko

So some stats on Qatar. First for all of you who have never even heard of it, it is in the Middle East, a peninsula sticking off of Saudi Arabia. The population is just over 1.5 million with 4, 416 square miles of land, making it the smallest country in land and population to ever host a World Cup. Qatar has the second highest GDP per capita in the world, with wealth coming from its large amount of oil and gas reserves. The country is an absolute monarchy, being ruled by the al-Thani family since the mid-19th century.

Qatar

Obviously Qatar has the resources to build stadiums and other necessary infrastructure for the World Cup but there are some potential problems. First Qatar is a strict Muslim country, and soccer hooligans have a tendency to make religious people upset.

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Blazing Berba

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The Red Devils are at it again, proving that they are the best team in the world. Ok so that is an overstatement but a 7-1 victory is impressive.

Dimitar Berbatov

This Saturday, Manchester United faced an admittedly less than decent Blackburn Rovers side. United proceeded to score 7 goals, allowing only a late consolation goal by Blackburn.

Even more impressive was Dimitar Berbatov’s 5 goal scoring binge. he joins only 3 other players who have managed to score 5 in a game. I admit that up until this season, I had not been at all impressed by the Bulgarian. But his effort and his performances so far during this campaign make me proud to have him.

Dimitar Berbatov

This might seem like a statement based on one performance but it is far from the contrary. I have seen a large increase in effort and he has developed more awareness to the players around him. I feel that it is another example of the potential Sir Alex is able to release in so many players. he makes good players great.

Excuse My French

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Many an Englishman will tell you that the only problem with the 100 Years’ War is that it did not last long enough. Well today the war was reborn, with England facing their rivals: the French. The battle was quite one-sided, the French looked the more dangerous and came out the victors in a 2-1 win.

England look disconsolate during the defeat to France

Although this is a cause for depression amongst the English there are multiple good things to be taken away from this. The first is that there was a very good performance by Andy Carroll, a promising young player. Peter Crouch continued his scoring, grabbing his 22nd goal for his national side.

But what really should make the English happy is that it looks like the national squad is finally realizing that the key to success comes from youth. Look at Germany in the last World cup, all but two or three of their players will easily be young enough to compete in Brazil in 2014.

This is the key for England and with players like Carrol, who knows, they might be able to make enough progress to get through the round of 16 in Brazil.

However France finally showed that they have the potential to win after their stunningly abysmal World Cup performance. They do have some up and coming youth that could give them the opportunity to build a team that can win and not have to use their hands to make it to the finals.

For a full report of the game go to: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=843399&sec=global&cc=5901

Blues Get Rocked and Shocked

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Chelsea suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Sunderland this past weekend. Steve Bruce’s side played a fantastic game, beating the champions 3-0. This was Chelsea’s first home defeat this season, also allowing the first goals at Stamford Bridge so far this year.

Nedum Onuoha waltzes through the Chelsea defence

For the rest of the teams in the league, this comes as quite a pleasant surprise. Sunderland was not the team many would have picked to upset Chelsea at home, especially given Chelsea’s recent form.

Chelsea did not look like they wanted to be out on the pitch. They looked sluggish and non-potent. Sunderland was quite the opposite, creating many chances and playing a more aggressive style than many would have predicted.

Bacary Sagna celebrates his goal with Sebastien Squillaci

Arsenal came away with three points against a disappointing Everton team.  Everton has been lacking style and competency lately, barely staying mid-table. This result puts Arsenal two points back of Chelsea in second. Man United drops to third, three points back of the leaders, followed by Man City.

Non-English Football

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Because Manchester United did not win today, I do not feel inclined to talk about the EPL. All I will mention is that Manchester City looked remarkably like Mark Hughes’ side of last year in their unimpressive draw to Birmingham.

But on to football in the rest of the world. I do not usually like to talk about the MLS because the football is sub-par to say the least. The team that I support is the LA Galaxy, being the team that I have seen play the most times, going to games at a very young age with my father. They beat the Seattle Sounders to make it all the way into the Western Conference Championship.

Los Angeles Galaxy

This is not a huge feat for the Galaxy; one would expect them to make it al least this far with players like David Beckham and Landon Donovan. But the Galaxy have a habit of not being able to score goals in big games. I am happy to see them make it this far and I hope that they win the league title after their extremely disappointing finish last season (they lost on penalties in the final).

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Football Wednesday

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A Wednesday full of football makes it a great day for a blog. Today we saw games with results that were not very surprising. Manchester united tied Manchester City, a result neither side was happy with.

Carlos Tevez and Rafael are kept apart by Chris Foy

As a Manchester United fan, I felt very upset. Not only is Man City our derby rivals, but this tie means that we are now 4 points back of Chelsea after their win over Fulham. We were the better team on the day but we looked as dangerous as a flower in front of the goal. Hopefully Rooney will recover quickly and come back with his vicious striking ability intact.

Arsenal grabbed a 2-0 win over Wolves thanks to a brace scored by their rising hero Chamakh. Chelsea’s win over Fulham keeps them in that top spot, one that they don’t seem like they are ever going to give up.

West Brom 3-2 Arsenal goal

With how the results ended up today, there was not any movement in the table whatsoever. So in the end no big surprises, and I can say that even though Liverpool drew Wigan, that makes my day.

Ji Sung Park to the Rescue

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Ji Sung Park saved the day today. Manchester United was facing a Wolerhampton Wanderers side that looked destined to destroy our title hopes. Although it is not even midway through the season, dropping points to a team like Wolves could prove disastrous when Chelsea is on such great form. But today we had a secret weapon, a Korean soccer player, hair dyed red, fire in his eyes.

Park Ji Sung

Ji Sung Park is a fantastic soccer player. When he was signed by United, many people said they only signed him to get the whole country of Korea supporting them. Yes, many Koreans do support Man U, but today Park proved that he was signed for his talent over anything else.

Wolves looked like they really wanted to ruin Man U’s day, and United did not seem to mind. United may make the excuse that they were resting Berba and missing many key players including Nani, who has been our star this season. I commend Wolves for their tenacity and this should be another warning for Man U that they must pick up their game or face serious repercussions.

Every member of Man U should thank Park for saving them from the rath of Sir Alex Ferguson. Park did have help, especially from Darren Fletcher, but Park did a magnificent job of tying the team together. So thank you Ji Sung Park for your hard work and great play.

For a summary of the game go to: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/210072/Manchester-United-v-Wolves-Ji-Sung-Park-s-last-ditch-winner-rescues-Ferguson-s-party

For more on Ji Sung Park go to:http://www.manutd.com/publish.sps?pagegid=%7BFE60904B-C2A8-4E60-9B05-700DBBC29BBC%7D&teamid=458&section=playerProfile&bioid=91966

Brilliant Bale

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Although I support Manchester United, a fantastic player by the name of Gareth Bale of Tottenham Hotspurs deserves some recognition.

Gareth Bale

The 21 year old Welshman has quickly risen to stardom, scoring 7 goals so far in the 18 games he has played. But much more than the number of goals he has is his intensity and is cleverness. He is an extremely bright player, quick to hit the right ball and even quicker to beat an opposing player. He is exactly the type of player football needs. He is young, plays aggressive, yet possession football and is a great ambassador for the sport. He is well spoken, intelligent and has not done anything stupid yet. He started as a leftback, but has moved up to a left winger role. He hits crisp crosses, snappy one touch balls and has a blistering shot.

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Lets Talk About Refs

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Yesterday, during the match in which the greatest team in the world (Manchester United) defeated Tottenham Hotspurs, a very questionable call occured. I would put a video of this goal up, but the Footballing Government has removed it from the internet due to how controversial it is. Here instead is a description of what happened: Man U’s Portuguese winger Nani dribbles into the penalty box, gets pulled down by his jersey (an obvious penalty). Nani falls down, puts his hand on the ball and looks at the ref, who has not made a call. Goalkeeper for Tottenham assumes it is a hand ball and picks up the ball to place it for the free kick. Nani looks again at the ref and realizes that the ref has not blown his whistle. Nani then kicks the ball into the back of the net from the goalkeepers feet. Chaos ensues.

To most football fans, this was one of the weirdest moments they have ever witnessed. What happened in my perspective was a communications breakdown. The goal keeper for Tottenham (Heurelho Gomes) is from Brazil, Nani is from Portugal and the ref is from England, already there is a language barrier. Although the ref did miss an obvious penalty call, his non-call on the hand ball in my mind was the right call. As a referee, we are encouraged to make the game flow as much as possible while maintaining the fairness and safety required. Whether the ref blew his whistle or not, Tottenham got the ball, but by blowing his whistle he would have slowed down the game. In reality karma happened because Man U got the goal that should have come from a penalty kick. Now if I was a Tottenham fan I would not be angry at the center ref, I would be furious at the linesman. The linesman raised his flag when he saw the handball, which is his job. The center official however, get to decided whether or not to call it. Players are told to play the whistle because it’s the only thing that really matters. yes, he did raise his flag. However the ref made the right call and the keeper messed up. And anyways, Man U would have won even if they hadnt scored because…they ARE the greatest team in the world.

A Great Day in Football

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Today was a marvellous day for a soccer fan. Manchester United (the greatest team in the history of sports) finally got an away victory thanks to Chicharito, one of the new additions from the summer. He scored two goals, the first a wonderful header.

Javier Hernandez watches his header fly in

Another great team, Rangers, also won against the arch rivals Celtic.  The Rangers Celtic rivalry is far beyond that of any other rivalry in the world. This is because it is truly over religion, it is Protestants vs. Catholics. Many people have died due to the intense hatred between the two clubs.

Kenny Miller celebrates his first goal against Celtic

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