Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Who needs proper analysis when you've got YouTube links?

Happy New Year, everybody. Hope you all had a lovely holiday. Personally, I started 2007 with a big greasy breakfast and an afternoon of football, which I would highly recommend to anyone.

Liverpool 3 - 0 Bolton
Liverpool have a stellar home record again this season, so the fact that they beat Bolton wasn't really a surprise. That they did it so easily was. Yeah, it took them an hour to score, but they'd been pretty dominant before that and Bolton never looked threatening -- they mustered up a whole one attempt on goal in the entire game, compared to Liverpool's 19. The previously useless Jermaine Pennant had a good game for once and linked up well with the front two -- including providing the cross for the first goal, which Peter Crouch put away with an overhead kick that was reminiscent of his goal against Galatasaray. I really don't know how he does that. You expect him to just end up crumpled on the ground in a tangle of limbs, and yet somehow it works.

Newcastle 2 - 2 Manchester United
Away games at St. James' Park always have the potential to trip you up, but Man United made hard work of it against a ramshackle Newcastle lineup that featured a converted midfielder and a bunch of kids in their back line. The Red Devils looked a bit sluggish, while Newcastle harried them for the whole 90 minutes. Still, Man United should've had enough to win, with goals from Paul Scholes on either side of halftime...until Canadian teenager David Edgar popped up with a long-range strike late in the game. After that, with Louis Saha having gone off injured and no real attacking options on the bench, United weren't able to conjure up a winning goal, as Newcastle defended tirelessly for the last 15 minutes. If it had been against any other team, I would be delighted for Edgar -- especially since he's from my mom's hometown, which is kind of cool (the Toronto Star has an article about him here). As it is, meh.

So, that was a bit humbling. But I'm heartened by the fact that Chelsea are currently drawing yet again. Come on Villa.

Other results:
Fulham 0 - 0 Watford (Blurry video of Antti Niemi taking a header into the turf: Ouch.)
Manchster City 2 - 1 Everton
Middlesbrough 3 - 1 Sheffield United
Portsmouth 1 - 1 Tottenham
Reading 6 - 0 West Ham (Speaking of ouch.)
Wigan 0 - 3 Blackburn

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was pretty stunned after I saw Crouchie's overhead kick. I think it's all of that 'robokop' dance practice that he was upto over the summer really helped his balance and agility! I've never been a fan of Crouch, and I've never supported his selection for the England national team. If Dean Ashton didn't get injured, I'm pretty sure SM would have chosen him over Crouchie to play in every game. That said, if Crouch does come into his own over the remainder of the Premiership campaign and the Champion's Leauge, I am never going to hear the end of it!

Shay Given is the only reason I acknowledge the Magpies existance in the Premiership. However, after O.Martin's came over from Inter, I have had no choice but to begin cheering for them. Martins has to be on of my favourite strikers, and I'm glad he broke his duck a few weeks ago. I thought they would get blownout by a strong United side, but I'm glad that a fellow Canadian came to the rescue.

Coach F said...

Looking for girls who want to play Division one soccer in America and get a University Degree!!

Do you have what it takes?

Contact:
Marguerite Ferrell
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Ferrell@fdu.edu
201 692 2007

Go Knights!