TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| Messi wins FIFA world player award FC Barcelona and Argentina star Lionel Messi capped off an amazing 2009 on Monday when he was named the winner of FIFA's world player of the year award in Zurich. cbc.ca |
Fixture congestion good for Hull, says Brown • 'I want more congestion', says Hull manager• Brown claims his players are 'highly motivated'Phil Brown has flouted the traditional manager's cry of the festive season, claiming that fixture congestion could be beneficial to Hull City.Brown's side face a trip to the Reebok Stadium to play Bolton Wanderers a little over 48 hours after defeat to Manchester United at home. But the Hull manager said: "The programme has been highlighted by a number of managers and a number of clubs but I think the more congestion, the more success you are having. I want more congestion."However, he admitted that this time of year presents its own challenges. "My old mate Sam [Allardyce], when we were together at Bolton, always questioned the physiological side of two games in three days," he said. "I agree with him – it is very difficult – but when the spirit in the camp is good and the players are just desperate to play."What we take from that is joy and a lot of pride in the performance and commitment the players showed [against Manchester United]. We need to take that into this game. We are going there with a group of players that are very highly motivated at the state of play and cause of Hull City.""The match is crucial for both clubs," said Brown. "We have a very difficult January around the corner so it would be nice to finish December off out of the bottom three. I know we're 10 points behind the halfway stage last year but we've just got to make sure the second half is a lot better than we did last year."Kevin Davies insists Bolton have reasons to be optimistic before the match. The Bolton captain believes they are ready to climb out of the Premier League's relegation zone."We have got a lot going for us at the minute," said Davies. "We need to make sure that we continue to work hard against Hull in what is going to be a difficult match. We have given some really good and strong performances in recent matches. We were unfortunate not to beat Manchester City."We got the win we deserved against West Ham. Even when they got it back to 1-1, we kept our heads up and finished off the game in style. Now, it's up to all of us to maintain that level for our match against Hull."Fabrice Muamba is available after sitting out the Burnley match through suspension but Gavin McCann is likely to miss out for Bolton as he is still suffering from an ankle injury.Hull CityPhil BrownBolton WanderersPremier Leagueguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Birmingham v Man Utd! - live! If you get fed up of making snowmen, throwing snowballs, and slipping on black ice, shattering your coccyx into a million tiny splinters, please email scott.murray@guardian.co.uk86 min: After a couple of aerial challenges in the United area, the ball drops to Johnson, ten yards out, just to the right of goal. His volley is goalbound and decent, but Kuszczak's positioning is perfect, and he's right on hand to parry clear.84 min and a bit: RED CARD! Fletcher walks. He sticks out a leg to trip Jerome, as the Birmingham attacker drops a shoulder and swans past his right shoulder. It looks a reasonably soft booking, but then it was a deliberate trip. His second yellow of the day, he has to go.84 min: Alex McLeish responds with a change of his own, as Larsson is replaced by Fahey.83 min: Scholes has a wild slash from nearly 30 yards. It is hopeless. It's his last act of the evening: he's replaced by Diouf, who makes his United debut.81 min: The best passing move of the match, and it's by United. Giggs volleys a pass wide left to Valencia. It's a spectacular spray. Valencia takes it first time, cuts inside, then plays a reverse pass to Evra, haring down the left. The low is-it-a-cross-or-is-it-a-shot ball can't reach Rooney in the centre, and Hart flops down to smother it.79 min: Now Larsson is booked after tussling with Evra down the right, then arguing with the linesman.76 min: Evra sashays down the left and is ludicrously upended by an immobile Carr on the corner edge of the penalty area. That's the clearest booking you'll ever see. Carr looks at the referee with doe eyes as he picks up his card. The resulting free kick isn't worth our attention.75 min: Ferguson tries to release Benitez with a raking 40-yard crossfield ball, right to left. Brown is on the case, and Benitez is flagged offside anyway. United are enjoying more of the ball, though doing little with it at present.72 min: What a turn by Benitez! He traps a low, hard Carr cross from the right with his heel, and spins round Brown in one smooth movement. He's just to the right of goal, the angle allowing the alert Kuszczak to come out and smother the resulting shot brilliantly. Wonderful play all round, especially as you can't blame any defender for being beaten by a piece of skill like that.70 min: Birmingham had been the better side during the second half, but just like in the first period the goal came against the general run of play. Now Birmingham can hardly get their foot on the ball. Will they tire? The impressive McFadden and Bowyer have been doing a lot of running.66 min: It's a while before the game gets going again, as the linesman had flagged for offside, presumably thinking Rooney - just ahead of the last man in the centre - had scored. Mark Clattenburg puts him right. Alex Ferguson ostentatiously pops off inside to the lav, but not before replacing Park with Giggs.63 min: GOAL!!! Birmingham City 1-1 Manchester United. McFadden dinks a beautiful ball down the inside right channel to Jerome on the edge of the United area. He's got two men free in the centre, and a square ball will surely result in a second for Birmingham. But he elects for an elaborate chip, which goes horribly awry. And what the decision cost Blues, because United go up the other end, and after Rooney and Fletcher see shots blocked during a goalmouth scramble, the ball breaks to Evra on the left. From 10 yards out, he fizzes in a low cross-cum-shot - tempting Dann to slide in and deflect the ball straight into his own net.58 min: If United were hard done by with the penalty shout in the first half, they get at least a little payback here. Down the United right, Ridgewell charges down an Evans clearance with his back to the ball. The bounce goes his way and he tears clear into the area from his post on the left wing - only for the referee to blow up for hand ball. There were covering defenders, but Jerome and Benitez were hanging around too.55 min: From a United corner, Benitez latches onto a bouncing ball on the edge of his own area and nearly breaks clear upfield, United having committed most of their men in attack. A last-ditch interception from Evans in the centre circle saves the day for United.51 min: Park twists and turns down the left. For a minute he looks like breaking clear into the area, but Larsson is on his case. Rushed into action, Park attempts to cross but responds in high frustration as the ball rebounds off his defensive tormentor, off his own legs, and out for a goal kick. United may not be playing at their top level, but it's hardly a shambles and they haven't had a bounce of the ball yet today.48 min: After some aimless head tennis on the edge of the United box, Benitez sends a low snapshot on the turn rasping towards the centre of goal. An unsure Kuszczak parries it straight back out towards him - but Evans is on hand to mop up the pieces and clear the danger.And we're off again! There are no changes. Benitez powers down the right and into the United box, only to fall over. He's claiming a penalty, with Evra nearby, but that's a ludicrous claim. Speaking of penalties: Fletcher had a frank exchange of views with the ref as he'd seen a Michael Carrick shot ping of a Birmingham hand in the area. The shot was travelling, so you can't blame the ref - but you can't blame Fletcher for questioning it either.HALF TIME: Birmingham City 1-0 Manchester United. And that's it for a very strange period of football: up until the last seven or eight minutes of the half, it was pretty much all Manchester United.44 min: Fletcher is booked for a late sliding challenge on Bowyer, out by the touchline and miles from danger. A tad needless, but not particularly dirty either.42 min: God alone knows how Manchester United are losing this game. They've had all the possession, and looked pretty dangerous. And yet they were momentarily looking at shipping another, being caught by a quick break, Jerome and Benitez streaming up pitch. They're two on one with Evra, but the United man makes a simply outstanding challenge, sliding in to wheech the ball off Benitez's toe as the striker dithered. That was worth a goal to United.39 min: GOAL!!! Birmingham City 1-0 Manchester United. Well that wasn't in the script. First Jerome hassles Evans into conceding a corner, powering towards the right-hand post and forcing the defender to deflect his low snapshot wide. Then from the corner on the right, pandemonium! United fail to head the ball clear. Bowyer nuts it back into the six-yard box. Evans tries to clear it, but can only send it about one yard back up the pitch while falling over backwards in the slapstick style. The ball falls to the feet of Jerome, a couple of yards out, to poke home.38 min: United are wholly in charge here. They're taking a couple of shots every minute, each one being blocked by late lunges from Birmingham defenders. Park has a swipe, then Fletcher, then Carrick sends one up into the air and looping dangerously towards goal. Hart plucks it from the sky at the very last minute. This is surely only a matter of time.36 min: Fletcher has a long discussion with the referee, who momentarily thinks about booking the player. I have no idea what that's all about.34 min: Park is released into the right-hand side of the area by Fletcher. He elects to take a touch and is bundled wide right, away from goal. An immediate shot would have almost certainly resulted in a goal. As it was, nothing. Manchester United are well on top now.31 min: Manchester United take one of the worst free kicks in the history of All Football. They're 25 yards out and central. Rooney rolls it to the right for Valencia, whose shot is immediately blocked by a sliding challenge. Rooney belabours the rebound, his effort also charged down. Would it have been so hard to take a direct shot from the dead ball?28 min: Benitez cuts inside from the right and embarks on a strong run towards the United box. For no obvious reason, he opts to lay an elaborate ball wide left towards McFadden instead of taking a whack from 20 yards or so. The pass is inaccurate, approaching wild, and whistles into the stand.25 min: A dreadful scuffed clearance down the left by Ridgewell is intercepted by Valencia, who immediately sets Rooney free on goal with an exquisite first-time ball down the inside-right channel. Rooney comes inside from the right and welts a low shot towards goal - but the advancing Hart is right at his feet and smothers the ball away to safety. Great play all round, excepting the defensive aberration by Ridgewell.23 min: Rafael - there is no other way to put this - thrusts McFadden really hard in the buttocks with his groin. McFadden falls over. The referee wags his finger at Rafael quite a lot. But there's no booking. (And neither, in fairness, should there be.) "You realize it's summer in Antarctica, right?" asks Joe Pearson. No.19 min: Carrick splits a tatty Birmingham back line by rolling a simple ball straight down the middle of the pitch, 40 yards from goal. Rooney is onto the pass like a flash - but he's jumped the gun by milliseconds and is flagged offside. It's the correct decision, but that was promising for Manchester United.17 min: Benitez goes haring down the inside-left channel. It's a dangerous-looking run, but he's eased off the ball by Rafael and goes crashing to the ground. Alex McLeish does The Managerial Jig Of Unhappiness on the touchline, as the referee fails to award Birmingham a free kick.14 min: Scholes takes a pop from 20 yards. It's low and hard, and heading towards the bottom-left corner - but it's deflected away at the last from danger by a tree spirit. Or was it Johnson? The resulting corner, like this year's harvest, is wasted.12 min: United's fans are still singing that song! If they're not careful, tree spirits are gonna come and mess up this year's harvest real bad.9 min: Nothing is going on. United fans are singing their 12 Days of Cantona song, confusing the concept of snow with that of late December. Isn't this sort of behaviour supposed to be highly unlucky, breaking all Godly rules of candlemas?6 min: Birmingham have started putting a bit of effort into it. Bowyer, Benitez and McFadden all make quick bursts into United's half, though each time any threat is pretty much snuffed out by the time they reach the edge of the centre circle.3 min: Actually, this is a pretty dodgy start by Birmingham, who don't look at the races at all. United meanwhile have come out of the blocks flying. Valencia strolls past Ferguson down the right, as though he wasn't there, or going out to bat for George Burley. The winger reaches the byline and pulls the ball back for Fletcher, just to the right of goal, 12 yards out. His goalbound effort is deflected wide, and the resulting corner is wasted.And we're off. We. Are. OFF. Scholes plays a diagonal ball, left to right, into the Birmingham area towards Valencia, but the winger can't take it down. The first 37 seconds have been all United. So embarrassing for the home side.Pre-match blah drone with the managers: Alex Ferguson promises "big changes" at United. Is this a not-particularly-coded reference to him finally buggering off? Probably not. He mutters something about Senegal striker Mame Biram Diouf - on the bench today and with a chance of making his United debut - being right at the heart of something or other at some point. Alex McLeish meanwhile is giving Manchester United and Sir Alex maximum respect, and hopes Birmingham don't lose. Look, sorry, it's all my fault, I'm the one listening to these people and typing it all up.Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear)Manchester United: Kuszczak, Rafael Da Silva, Brown, Jonathan Evans, Evra, Valencia, Carrick, Scholes, Fletcher, Park, Rooney.Subs: Amos, Neville, Owen, Anderson, Giggs, Fabio Da Silva, Diouf.Birmingham City: Hart, Carr, Roger Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell, Larsson, Ferguson, Bowyer, McFadden, Jerome, Benitez.Subs: Maik Taylor, Martin Taylor, Phillips, Fahey, McSheffrey, Queudrue, Parnaby.Five o'clock, and all's well: The game is going ahead for sure. Incidentally, Ray Stubbs is back in the ESPN chair after his health wobble over the Christmas period, which saw him popping off to bed one evening with the job half done. "I hope to still be here at the end of the match," he quips merrily, as studio guests Kevin Keegan and Steve Coppell smile with thin lips, unsure how to react as Stubbsy faces up to his own mortality.Where travelling fans will lose their rag should the game suddenly be postponed less than an hour before kick off, if a replacement bus has been laid on as a result of engineering works: Knutsford services.Where travelling fans will lose their rag should the game suddenly be postponed less than an hour before kick off: Crewe.Kick off: 5.30pm.What am I trying to say? I'm not sure. Seven matches, though.Anyway, this is one of only two Premier League games to survive the Special Rain. The sum total of matches taking place in England today is seven. Five Scottish Cup ties survived, by way of comparison, including St Mirren v Alloa in Paisley, where the snow had been belting down this very morning, while the big Aberdeen-Hearts game also went ahead. Aberdeen's renowned journal of the press - the, erm, Press and Journal - is full of pictures of lorries jack-knifing all over the shop on the ice. Pittodrie stands about two hops from the North Sea. And the Granite City is not that far south, as a crow might haphazardly fly, of Altnaharra, the Highland village which recorded a temperature of -22.3C yesterday, a full 0.6C above the reading in Antarctica.In case you haven't noticed, Britain has been having some weather issues this week. It's been snowing a bit.Premier LeagueBirmingham CityManchester UnitedMinute-by-minute reportScott Murrayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Liverpool v Reading – live! Hit refresh for the latest entries or set your browser to update automatically using the button below. email any questions, observations or gags over to barry.glendenning@guardian.co.ukNeither of these teams have covered themselves with glory this season. Liverpool are seventh in the Premier League while their opponents are 21st in the Championship, just one place above the second divsion drop zone. Some who type minute-by-minute reports would say it serves the Royals right for having so many players whose names are difficult to spell: Brynjar Gunnarsson, Ivar Ingimarsson Khalita Cisse, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Grezegorz Rasiak take a bow. Liverpool with no Maxi Rodriguez, who has just signed for them on a free transfer: Cavalieri, Degen, Carragher, Agger, Insua, Lucas, Aquilani, Kuyt, Gerrard, Benayoun, Torres. Subs: Gulacsi, Aurelio, Babel, Ngog, Spearing, Skrtel, Pacheco.Reading: Federici, Gunnarsson, Mills, Ingimarsson, Bertrand,McAnuff, Cisse, Karacan, Sigurdsson, Rasiak, Church. Subs: Hamer, Tabb, Matejovsky, Long, Kebe, Pearce, Howard.Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire)Hello everybody. It's a bit of a shame this game is going ahead tonight, because having been inspired by Danny Baker's show from the weekend, I'd decided to declare it on even if it had been postponed and was going to do a minute-by-minute report on it anyway.It's probably to fair to say that my entirely fictional minute-by-minute report of the game would have been a lot more interesting than whatever's likely to unfold in reality, featuring as it was going to ... • an 18-man brawl sparked by a bust-up between Steven Gerrard and Reading mascot Kingsley the Lion• a bottle-fight on the touchline between Rafa Benitez and his opposite number Brian McDermott • five sendings-off and a pitch invasion by a man bearing a slight resemblance to Aerosmith frontman Steve Tyler, wearing a stripy nightshirt and matching tassled sleeping hat and riding a horse. • a tilting centre-circle with retracting spikes, like the platform on which Flash had his trial-by-combat whip-fight with Prince Barin in Flash Gordon. And that was going to be before the kick-off. Still, never mind, I'm sure whatever fare the players of Liverpool and Reading serve up in this FA Cup third round replay will be just as entertaining. For anyone who missed the first match, here's a reminder of how it went down.LiverpoolReadingFA CupBarry Glendenningguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Eccentricities show Africa's weakness Dodgy keepers are a feature of this year's Africa Cup of NationsThree-quarters of the way through Cameroon's second match in the group stages of the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, they seemed to be on their way out. Having lost their opener to Gabon, they trailed Zambia 1-0 and seemed devoid of ideas on how to break them down. Geremi slung in a typically uninspired cross from the right. Kennedy Mweene, the Zambia goalkeeper, started to come for it, checked, came again, got his feet in a terrible tangle, and finally sprawled on the ball, only for it to squirm under him and inside the post.In a tournament of atrocious goalkeeping, that was probably the worst moment, yet Mweene is a keeper of pedigree, having been named goalkeeper of the year in the South African Premier League in 2009.Of 53 goals scored in the group stage, 23 could be attributed to a greater or lesser extent to goalkeeper error. It is difficult to envisage much of an improvement between now and the summer, so goalkeeping ability, or lack of it, could be a massive handicap for the six African teams at the World Cup finals.There have been some real howlers here in Angola. The host nation, for instance, seemed to be cruising to victory in the opening game when Carlos Fernandes dropped a cross and allowed Seydou Keita to begin Mali's fightback from four goals down. In the same group, Algeria's Faouzi Chaouchi was responsible for two of Malawi's goals in his side's 3-0 defeat, fumbling a cross and smacking a clearance straight into a forward.It is not just that some of the goalkeeping has been bad; a lot of it has been unfathomably eccentric. Late in Mozambique's draw with Benin, for instance, Rafael came for an overhit through ball, gathered comfortably, and then attempted to flip over. Misjudging it badly, he landed on his neck, injuring himself and sending the ball squirting loose. He was lucky it did not cost a goal."You see a lot of mistakes," says the former Nigeria goalkeeper Idah Peterside. "You saw the game where the Mozambique goalkeeper tried to act funny. These things are long gone in football. We did that 20 years ago, but now the game is more technical."This means that sides with a good goalkeeper have a huge advantage – and it may yet be significant that Ivory Coast's greatest weakness is their keeper, Boubacar Barry of KSC Lokeren. "I think [Essam] El-Hadary is the best in the tournament," says Ahmed Hassan, Egypt's captain, of his side's keeper, who has been instrumental in the Pharoahs' successes in the past two Cups of Nations. "He is strong and secure and that gives us lots of confidence."El-Hadary has barely been tested so far in Angola, so survives with his Âreputation intact, as does ÂCameroon's Carlos Kameni of ÂEspanyol. He has had his wobbles, but Kameni appears to be the only African keeper going to the World Cup who looks up to the task.A new book on African football, The Feet of the ÂChameleon, sets out the theory why Cameroon has traditionally produced good goalkeepers. Claude Le Roy, who has as much experience of coaching in Africa as any European, tells of going into the Bassa region of central-Âsouthern Africa and discovering a game that involved two boys facing each other across a courtyard. One would head a ball and try to hit the roof of his opponent's house; the other would jump to try to save it. But Le Roy tells the book's author, Ian Hawkey, that even in Cameroon, goalkeeping lags behind that of the rest of the world."Look at the conditions. The pitches are covered in stones and broken bottles, or they're hard as concrete. Nobody wants to dive around and train on this."Cameroon aside, there is no great tradition on which young keepers can draw, a point made by Gabon's Didier Ovono, who has so far been the best goalkeeper in the Cup of Nations. "It's about the mentality," he says. "In Africa they don't give a lot of work to the goalkeeper. When you go abroad you must have the technique to play there. If you do not, you cannot."Overseas they start at eight years old to play goalkeeper. In Africa you must start outfield, and you go in goal later, when you are 12, 13. It's difficult because we don't have good goalkeeper coaches."The 27-year-old was a midfielder who converted to play in goal aged 12, and showed enough promise for his government to pay for him to attend Thomas Nkono's academy in Barcelona. Nkono played in two World Cups for Cameroon (1982 and 1990) and was in the squad for USA 94. "I stayed one year to get technique," Ovono says. "Nkono told me everything I know in football. After, when I was 18, I started in El Salvador." He moved on to Georgia where he won a league title with Dinamo Tbilisi, and is now a regular for Le Mans in France's top division.Peterside speaks similarly of going in goal in his teens because it was his best chance of getting into the side. Tellingly, his heroes were not African, but Gianluca Pagliuca of Italy and Sergio Goycochea of Argentina. "A lot of people want to score goals and have the glamour and the money," he says, before explaining his theory that African keepers cannot secure the moves to Europe they need to progress because so few African keepers have Âsucceeded before, so clubs are unwilling to take a chance."Everybody wants the new Michael Essien," says Tom Vernon, Manchester United's scout in Africa, who runs an academy in Ghana. "So other positions don't get a look-in."That may be so, but on the evidence of the past fortnight, their suspicion appears justified. And so the cycle of underachievement keeps on turning.The most common excuse for goalkeepers has been the ball, which is of global concern given it is the same Adidas Jabulani model that will be used at the World Cup. "It is a very fast ball and because of this, it is often very difficult to judge its flight," Nigeria's Vincent Enyeama says.Ovono agrees. "All the goalkeepers are talking about it. It doesn't have just one trajectory, it moves a lot. When they shoot it strong, you cannot follow the ball. You saw that against Tunisia. The ball came like this [mimes ball moving straight] and at the last moment, it moves. So you have to wait for the last moment."Watch out, then, for more howlers in South Africa.Africa Cup of NationsWorld Cup 2010Jonathan Wilsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |