With so many France internationals in the Newcastle United team nowadays, I just thought I’d post a live stream for this evening’s crucial World Cup Qualifier between France and the Ukraine so you can see how the likes of Cabaye, Remy and Sissoko get on. Alas, there will be no Ben Arfa as he is about as popular as Eichmann at a Bar Mitzvah with current France manager Didier Deschamps, who was Benny’s manager when he went on strike at Marseilles.
The kick-off will be at 8.00pm UK time and the show should start around 7.45pm. (more…)
Nasty Nigel doing what he does best.Manchester City’s midfield hatchet man, Nigel De Jong, has been once again been omitted from the Netherlands team by manager, Bert Van Marwijk for their game against Turkey on 17th November.
Van Marwijk’s refusal to select the player could possibly for his complete lack of contrition over his assault on Newcastle United’s Hatem Ben Arfa, which left the player with his leg broken in two places, and out of action for several months in what was only his fourth game for the Magpies.
Speaking of his meeting with De Jong after the incident, Van Marwijk said:
Goal? What goal?It’s a headline that is nowt to be proud about! England have again worn a familiar path, and that is an early path home from a tournament that the team were universally tipped to do well in.
The headlines tomorrow will read that England lost 4-1, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Any self-respecting football fan should be able to tell that a team that are chasing the game will have a different tactical setup to a team that isn’t chasing the game, and that was the story of the game for me.
After England found themselves 2-0 down, Matthew Upson managed to cut the deficit and give England fans a glimmer of hope and suggest that perhaps the game wasn’t quite over yet. That was until a legitimate goal was ruled out for England. Frank Lampard shot from the edge of the area only to see his shot rebound off the crossbar and bounce behind the line, yet despite the eyes of the world seeming to indicate that a legitimate goal was scored, the Uruguayan linesman, Mauricio Espinosa, managed to miss the fact that the ball had bounced some two feet behind the line. What a fecking joke! (more…)
Free State Stadium - BloemfonteinThe build up has been going on for days now, ever since both teams were confirmed as being opponents in the last-16 of the World Cup in fact.
But it is nearly time for England fans to put that behind them and for the team to get down to the business of, hopefully, eliminating the Germans out of the World Cup this afternoon.
There are no second chances, there are no replays, this is it, and only one team can go through to the quarter-final stage of the competition. As ever, this is the place where everyone can come together and piss and moan about events in the World Cup, a place to share the joy, pain, thrills and spills and, most importantly, to have a bit of banter inbetween, all in the interests of fun and merriment of course. (more…)
Come on England!By this time tomorrow, all England fans will know whether they can continue watching the World Cup with a keen interest in looking at potential opposition, or whether they will be forced to look on as jealous spectators watching other teams progress through the tournament.
These are the knock-out stages of the World Cup, and in every game from now on the aim is to win. England’s inability to top their group has forced the match between themselves and Germany, and arguably created a more difficult path for progression through the tournament, but the fact remain the same – England must win!
Germany made a flying start to the World Cup and looked by far the most impressive of the so called “big” teams, although admittedly it was only against a disappointing 10-man Australia that they swept aside 4-0. Since that win the Germans have looked a bit shaky as their young side limped into the last sixteen rather than at the canter it first looked like they would do. In contrast, England started off poor against the USA and got worse against Algeria. That led to a barrage of criticism from the press before they finally managed to put in a performance in the last group game against Slovenia, although many England fans will have wanted a greater winning margin than the 1-0 scoreline that game ended up being. (more…)
