Things that are good

1. Toronto FC finally won a game -- not only that, but it was an away win! And a game they really shouldn't have won at all. They were missing a bunch of players, and they had a grand total of two shots on target -- but one of those was the only goal of the game, a gorgeous free kick by Chad Barrett. Picking up three points means that TFC have pulled themselves up into playoff contention again, although it's all looking very tight at the bottom of the Eastern division.

2. The Canadian women's team has made it to the Olympic quarter-finals, despite losing 2-1 to Sweden this morning. They finished as one of the two best third-place teams in the group stage, and as a reward, they'll face the USA on Friday. Oh goody.

3. Manchester United beat Portsmouth in the Community Shield. Although it seems that I don't care so much about the Community Shield if it doesn't involve somebody beating Chelsea. Still, it was nice to see Gary Neville and his dubious moustache again.

4. Cristiano Ronaldo is staying at Old Trafford. This is mostly good in the "oh, thank god that's over" sense. (As an aside, I have a confession to make: I don't really get the hoopla about tapping up players. You can't really stop people from talking to each other. What you can do is have contracts with steep penalties for breaking them. Yes?)

5. I am off on vacation for the next week. Not that you'd really notice, with the level of posting around here recently, but anyway.

Community Shield

Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea (United win 3-0 on penalties)

Yeah, I know the Community Shield is nothing more than a glorified friendly. But as I said last year when Liverpool won it, beating Chelsea and picking up some silverware is always a good way to start the season.

And just like last year, Chelsea are struggling with injuries -- including Terry and Drogba out with some vague problems, and Frank Lampard playing despite a broken toe. (Ballack and Shevchenko are out too, but somehow I don't think Mourinho really cares.) But United weren't exactly fielding their strongest lineup either. Two words: John O'Shea. Two more: Mikael Silvestre. Oy.

I'd say Chelsea did have more of the possession, but that's not exactly surprising, considering they were lined up in a Roma-style 4-6-0 and were able to clog up the midfield. Actually, it was more like 4-5.5-0, since as far as I could tell Lampard did absolutely nothing apart from saunter around with the armband and flub his penalty. How much of that can he blame on the broken toe, rather than just being a useless lump?

Malouda did look good for Chelsea; he basically handed Rio his ass for that goal. And SWP had a decent game too, although I think that's partly just due to Silvestre being crap, because although he had lots of the ball it didn't really come to anything.

As for United: high points (not that many) included flashes of that incisive, flowing style we saw last year, the defence looking more solid after giving up three goals against Inter, getting a first look at Nani (who's apparently Ronaldo v2.0), and Van der Sar turning into a penalty-stopping machine, which should hopefully boost his confidence going into this season. Low points: starting the game with six (six!) defenders, not getting to see any of the other new signings, and Tal Ben Haim being a thug and getting away with it. Also those stupid white strips down the back of their new kits. I really hate those.

Finally, a link to your Unintentionally Hilarious Photo Of The Day, courtesy of Malouda and SWP. It could only amuse me more if Ashley Cole was somehow involved.

Beating Chelsea is always a good way to start the season

Yeah, yeah, I know it's only the Community Shield, but that was fun to watch.

Mourinho can whine all he likes about how his team was only 50% fit going into this game, but I'm not that sympathetic, considering that they've had just as much time to prepare as all the other games, and chose to fuck off to the States instead of focusing on the upcoming season.

And I especially love Rafa's response to the attempted mind games. You say your squad isn't at full strength? Despite having eight gazillion pounds worth of new signings in your starting lineup? Okay then, we're going to start with Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso on the bench.

Also, I don't think that lack of match fitness should be an excuse for John Terry completely failing to mark Peter Crouch for Liverpool's second goal. I mean, Crouch is rather large. It shouldn't be that hard to notice him lurking around the far post. (On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't be so hard on Terry. Maybe he was distracted by Crouch saying something about his mother.*)

Best moment of the game: Momo Sissoko absolutely flattening Michael Ballack. Followed shortly thereafter by Ballack limping off the pitch with an ice-pack. Welcome to the Premiership, Micha.


* There is a rumour going around that John Terry's mother shagged Jamie Carragher's brother during the World Cup. I have no idea if it's actually true, but just the possibility is enough to send me into hysterics. This definitely wins for cracked-out football gossip of the week, beating out Steven Gerrard's fiancée being arrested and Rio Ferdinand supposedly naming his newborn baby after his mistress.