TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| Football League: your thoughts It's as you were atop the Championship thanks to a late QPR goal, but the games of the day came down in League Two• Click here for all of Saturday's scores and scorers• With all the talk about QPR this season, their remarkable defence has still slid somewhat under the radar. They were within minutes of a 9th clean sheet in ten league games when Kieron Cadogan grabbed what looked like a late equaliser for Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, only for Heidar Helguson to grab a last-gasp winner. It's what promotion-bound teams do. Second-placed Cardiff remain six points behind after Craig Bellamy scored in a 2-1 win at Barnsley.• The Sven effect? He was at the Walkers Stadium to see his prospective new players sink Scunthorpe and lift Leicester off the foot of the Championship, where they are replaced by hapless Bristol City. Norwich were the latest beneficiaries of playing City, leaving Ashton Gate 3-0 victors.• Brighton remain atop League One despite a late Aaron Creswell leveller for Tranmere at Prenton Park. As for two of the division's other south-coast teams, Southampton were busy in a different kind of derby to the ones they've been more accustomed to, against Bournemouth. It ended 2-0 to Saints in front of 26,289 fans.• Chesterfield had won all four league games at their new b2net stadium before today. That record went today, though after trailing 3-0 to Crewe after just 13 minutes, a 5-5 draw will feel more like a point gained.• And, in terms of another game-of-the-day contender, how about Accrington 7-4 Gillingham, with Stanley coming from behind for victory? You can take your Sunderland 0-0 Manchester United.Check out all of the latest league tables and have your say on all of today's Football League action below.James Dartguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Liverpool team must take blame for Fernando Torres's lean spell, admits Jamie Carragher Strikers sluggish form should be blamed on his team-mates for not providing chances, according to Jamie Carragher. telegraph.co.uk |
World Cup 2018 bidding process in turmoil as Fifa officials offer to 'sell' votes for cash Bidding process for 2018 World Cup in turmoil after two Fifa officials are accused of offering to sell votes in return for cash. telegraph.co.uk |
Controversial Spurs strike sinks Fulham Tom Huddlestone has given Tottenham Hotspur a controversial 2-1 win at Fulham after his winner was initially ruled out for offside. foxsports.com.au |
Your greatest ever football XI In the first of four-part series, David Lacey selects his favourite midfielders. Now vote for your four favouritesTo mark the 50th and 70th birthdays of Diego Maradona and PelĂ© over the next week, with your help we aim to pick the greatest ever football XI. Each day this week one of our writers will select their favourite players for a certain position, and we invite you to reply below the line with your own favourites. Then at 2pm each day we will post a poll, which you can access on this page, featuring the most popular choices, and ask you to vote from the list. The players who receive the most votes for that position will win a place in the Guardian and Observer's Greatest XI, which will be published on Sunday. Today David Lacey sets the ball rolling by choosing from the midfielders he saw in his many years as football correspondent for the Guardian...When it comes to midfield players, nowhere in football has a job description changed so much. Where there were once wing-halves and inside-forwards there are now central midfielders, right- and left-sided midfielders, midfield anchors and those who play 'in the hole' behind the strikers. In assessing the best of these over a period of five or six decades the task can be made simpler by looking for players who would fit into a team of any generation.These are relatively few. The best English midfielder of the 50s and early 60s was Johnny Haynes, a master of the telling long pass inside a full-back to be gathered by Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, Bryan Douglas or Bobby Charlton. But Haynes would not be found running for the ball any more than Steven Gerrard would now be seen running for a bus. Bobby Robson was Haynes's legs in his later England matches.The increased pace of the modern game means that contemplative midfielders once typified by Liam Brady and Johnny Giles have all but vanished. When Glenn Hoddle was England's manager more than 10 years ago he observed that his type of player was becoming obsolete. Sadly, such artists cannot be expected to be included in a list of superlatives capable of shining as much now as they did in their heyday.Changes to the offside law and the way referees are now supposed to interpret it have had a considerable bearing on midfield play. Where once a defending team pressed up behind the ball knowing that if possession was lost they could easily foil an opposition attack through a well-worked offside trap, now they cannot be so sure a linesman's flag will save them. So the tendency is for teams to stay back, awaiting a chance to strike on the break, which has had the effect of stretching the playing area.In the 60s coaches warned that easing up on offside, as the Americans did when they drew a 35-yard line across each half of the pitch behind which an attacking player stayed onside, would produce athletes with footballs, and to a certain extent their misgivings were justified. The top-class modern midfielder has to have the technique and vision of his predecessors but he also requires a degree of speed and athleticism which the likes of Danny Blanchflower and Peter Broadbent did not need. Duncan Edwards had the lot but was lost at Munich.One name from the past who would surely fit easily into today's Premier League is Blanchflower's Tottenham team-mate, Dave Mackay, a midfielder of power, perception and pace, and a great heart besides. Another is Alan Ball, who as a teenager in training at Blackpool was yelling at Matthews to run for a pass and not expect to have everything played to his feet. Ball, Colin Harvey and Howard Kendall formed what would now be a rarity, an outstanding all-English midfield combination, when Everton were champions in 1970.The critrerion also applies to the great creative talents overseas. France has produced a host of midfdield geniuses, from Michel Platini to Zinedine Zidane, but the all-round qualities, in defence and attack, of Jean Tigana and Patrick Vieira cannot be ignored. Johan Cruyff was Holland's inspiration in the 1974 World Cup yet Wim Van Hanegem had most of Cruyff's skill and better defensive qualities while Johan Neeskens would arguably be most at home in the cut and thrust of the 21st century.Maybe Franz Beckenbauer is Germany's greatest footballer but he retired to the sweeper position a little bit early and when it comes to assessing midfielders is arguably upstaged by GĂĽnther Netzer and Wolfgang Overath, although pride of this particular place must go to Lothar Matthäus, who led the West Germans to their 1990 World Cup triumph. Similarly Socrates would be a personal choice from an almost endless list of Brazilian candidates, while Marco Tardelli stands out among the Italians.Mackay apart, other British or Irish names that come to mind include Bryan Robson, Roy Keane and the superb Jim Baxter. Yet of the midfielders who have appeared in the English league since the ban on foreign imports was lifted in the late 70s the two who stand out are Tottenham's Ossie Ardiles and Arsenal's Cesc Fábregas. Each has helped his country win a World Cup, Ardiles with Argentina in 1978 and Fábregas with Spain this year, and each would be at home in the other's era.Picking four arbitrarily as the greatest midfielders in living memory simply persuades the mental processes to start arguing the cases of four more, but since one has to begin somewhere here goes …David Lacey's selectionJohan Neeskens (Holland), Dave Mackay (Scotland), Lothar Matthäus (West Germany), Marco Tardelli (Italy)Vote now for the four midfielders you think should be in the greatest XIOn Wednesday Daniel Taylor selects his favourite strikersDavid Laceyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |