Highlights of Newcastle United’s 2-1 victory against S.C. Braga in the pre season “Guadiana Torneo” at the Estádio Algarve, Faro, Portugal.
It was Demba Ba who opened the scoring in the 64th minute. It was a decidedly lukewarm penalty which was saved by Beto in the Braga goal initially, however Ba made up for it by taking good advantage of the rebound and sticking it in the back of the net at the second attempt. Braga were to equalise four minutes after though with a timely strike by Amorim, but thankfully, it was Ryan Taylor who had the final word with another one of his handy set piece masterpieces in the 73rd minute. (more…)
Nee scran for Ramadan?In more Demba Ba news to add to my story from earlier today, it’s that time of year again (Ramadan) and the Senegalese hitman is already off his scran during daylight hours for a month.
Of course, many of you will remember the fuss from last year when Ba had just joined the club, and the debate on how it affected his performances, and his goal scoring. Having written that, it did begin 11 days later in the year of 2011, and Eid Al-Fitr, which brings the end of the fasting, didn’t come until the end of last August, after several weeks of Premiership games had taken place. On the other side however, with the added burden of European competition to contend with, the demands on players will be higher than ever. Lee Ryder from the Evening Chronic stated in one of his pieces on Saturday the Demba had indeed started his fasting for this year’s Ramadan last Friday (January 20th). Whatever the dates in any given year though, there may be a solution to the problem in years when Ramadan fall within the Premiership calendar, which I will explore a little below.
Tracking back a little though, the same observance of the fast will almost certainly be true of the other Demba too, Papiss Demba Cisse, as they seem to be like peas in a pod. Though if it is true, it certainly didn’t stop Cisse scoring freely with Freiburg at the beginning of last season. (more…)
Pardew: More hot air?In an interview with the Evening Chronic’s ace football reporter, Lee Ryder, Newcastle United’s Silver Supremo exclusively revealed on Saturday that he will be playing Demba Ba centrally “in 90% of the games next year” in a bid to keep Senegalese hitman happy on Tyneside.
Pardew said:
“Demba wants to play in a central role. He wants to get himself chances to score goals, and I think that in 90% of the games next year that’s where he will play.”
But what could this mean?
Will Pardiola be abandoning his fancy foreign experiment with the 4-3-3 formation and return to his good old fashioned, decent, British 4-4-2 with Ba and Papiss Cisse as the two big lads upfront? Or will it be Cisse who will be shunted to the flank this time, or even left on the bench as an impact sub? (Admittedly, those last one would be somewhat doubtful!) (more…)
Highlights of today’s 1-0 victory for Newcastle United in their pre season friendly against Claudio Ranieri’s A.S. Monaco, which was decided by a solitary Demba Ba goal.
As usual, I shall update these with longer highlights if they become available.
Chemnitzer Fans.Dear reader, I realise that I’m probably setting myself up for a fall with this piece.
Actually, I sincerely hope that I am, just as the BBCs “Panorama” programme did when they screened a documentary about racism in Polish and Ukrainian football on the eve of the recent European Championships. However, I feel that even if things do go well in the first of Newcastle United’s first pre season friendlies tomorrow evening against Saxon third division side, Chemnitzer FC, it was an extremely foolish decision to arrange it against a team with such an awful reputatiion for overt racism with it’s fans, and even it’s security staff (see below) with several black and / or Muslim players in the current Newcastle United side. One thing’s for sure, there certainly won’t be the same kind of policing that there was at the above mentioned European Championships when the game takes place.
Saxon lower league sides are one of the largest hotbeds of neo-nazi activity in the whole of football, and Chemnitzer FC are one of the worst. As you will see below, sometimes the behaviour of a very vocal and violent group of their fans can go far beyond the usual monkey chanting and so on. But first, here’s an extract from a 2010 report by the European Forum for Migration Studies (EFMS). On German lower league football in general, especially amateur sides such as Chemnitzer, they write: (more…)
