TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| Man U plane crash survivor Scanlon dies Albert Scanlon, a Manchester United forward and survivor of the 1958 Munich air disaster, died Tuesday. He was 74. cbc.ca |
Robinho given short shrift by Mancini Manchester City's new manager showed no qualms in leaving the £32.5m Brazilian on the bench against Wolves after a lacklustre weekend outingWhen Roberto Mancini took his first steps into the manager's technical area it was in a rich man's overcoat and polished loafers, with only the blue and white Manchester City scarf draped round his neck indicating that he was dressed for a football match rather than a cappuccino on the Piazza del Duomo. The Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters in the Jack Harris stand responded accordingly with a chant of "You're getting sacked in the morning".It was a nice line but the Premier League's newest and best-dressed manager now has two wins from his opening two games, with six of the bottom 10 clubs next on the fixture list. The former Internazionale head coach may have been stretching the boundaries when he said that City could catch and overhaul Chelsea at the top of the league but he has clearly picked a good time to take control of this team, even if it also means inheriting the £32.5m problem that his predecessor, Mark Hughes, never got to the bottom of.Robinho was not in the team tonight, relegated to the bench and sat huddled against the cold before coming on as a substitute for the last five minutes. Within a minute the most expensive player in English football had supplied the pass for Carlos Tevez to score the third goal but, even so, there was the overwhelming sense that Mancini was being benevolent when he said he had left out the Brazilian simply to spare him from the threat of fatigue as City played their second game in three days. It had felt more like a demonstration of strength from the new manager.Mancini had talked of Robinho "making the history of this club" when he held his introductory press conference just before Christmas but the Brazilian was disappointing, to say the least, when the new era got underway with a 2-0 defeat of Stoke City last weekend. Robinho's desire is to leave and Craig Bellamy, his replacement for this match, flourished even if he did miss two great chances.Bellamy is in the form of his life and the manner in which he set up the first goal, accelerating away from Jody Craddock on the left wing before crossing for Tevez to score with a deflection off the luckless Christophe Berra, was particularly impressive and it was no surprise that Mancini identified him for special acclaim after what has been a difficult period for the Wales international.Bellamy was so upset about the sacking of Hughes that he considered his own position at the club but that now seems to be behind him judging by his words after collecting the man-of-the-match champagne. "On a personal level I have great affection for Mark Hughes but at the end of the day that's the nature of the game and nothing surprises me in football," he said of the change of manager. "This is a club that is definitely going places. With this group of players and the management staff, it's going to happen. So I want to be a part of it for as long as I can."Mancini was equally effusive about a player he joked was "not my friend" but who seems to have adapted seamlessly to the Italian's new tactics. "I think Craig is a strong character, a good player and a good man and, for me, it's good that he stays with us," Mancini said. "I'm happy to have difficult players. I played for 20 years and I know very well the way big players work. I don't have a problem with that. If the player has technical quality, is strong and a good character, these are the most important things."The new manager will be glad that talk of dressing-room mutiny has been exaggerated and that his team, on the whole, seem to have taken on board his instructions. City have now kept successive clean sheets, having previously managed only one in the league since August. The team had conceded three goals in each of Hughes's last three league matches and Mancini quickly identified it as a weakness."We have to concentrate for 95 minutes in every match. If you don't concede a goal, it's important. We've worked with the defence for only four days in training because in the last three days we have not had time but it is already much better."RobinhoWolverhampton WanderersManchester CityPremier LeagueDaniel Taylorguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
1963: When football in Britain froze for nearly 10 weeks The current deep freeze has nothing on 47 years ago when football was gripped by an ice ageThe current big freeze has far to go before it equals the paralysis that disrupted the season of 1963. When Middlesbrough beat Blackburn 3-1 in a replay at Ayresome Park on 11 March, this brought to an end the most chaotic third round in the then 91-year history of the FA Cup. The round had begun on 5 January and lasted 66 days through frost, snow, ice, power cuts, thaw, rain and mud. The third round was spread over 22 different playing days and there were 261 postponements. Sixteen of the 32 ties were called off 10 or more times.Topping the list was Birmingham v Bury, which stretched through 14 postponements plus one abandonment and a replay, while Lincoln v Coventry was postponed 15 times. The record was set in Scotland, where the Stranraer v Airdrie cup tie was postponed 33 times, while in Yorkshire Barnsley played only two matches between 22 December and 12 March. It was Britain's coldest winter since 1740 and also caused mass postponements in both rugby codes and the loss of 61 days of National Hunt racing.The FA Cup third round of 1963 gave birth to the Pools Panel which, on four successive Saturdays under different chairmen – Lord Brabazon, Sir Alan Herbert, Group Captain Douglas Bader, and Sir Gerald Nabarro (the Tory MP) – gave results for the postponed games, of which there were more than 30 on 26 January. On the resident panel were the former England internationals Ted Drake, Tom Finney and Tommy Lawton; from Scotland, George Young; and the Fifa referee Arthur Ellis. Lord Brabazon, on the opening day of the panel, was of the opinion that "forecasting is a farce" and there was a shortage of draws from the panel in relation to a normal programme.The disruptions caused, inevitably, many distortions, but one of the unlikeliest was Fulham's. George Cohen, later to be England's winning World Cup right-back, recalls: "When the freeze struck we were in danger of relegation. Luckily we were able to go and train at the ground of Leatherhead FC, near to where I lived at Chessington. When the thaw arrived, we went 13 weeks without defeat and moved to safety."It was rather the reverse for Brighton, where a local builder on the club board managed to unfreeze the pitch with his tarmac-laying equipment. However, this destroyed the pitch, and Brighton were still relegated.The FA agreed that, in emergency, clubs might play third- and fourth-round Cup ties on neutral grounds where available. Yet Billy Lane, the manager of non-Lleague Gravesend, refused to shift the home tie with lofty Sunderland, and the Kent team held them to a draw, narrowly losing the replay. The Scottish FA, meanwhile, vainly discussed the possibility of summer football.Coventry City, led by the imaginative Jimmy Hill, went to play friendly matches in Ireland, including against Manchester United in Dublin, a 2-2 draw in front of a 20,000 crowd. Halifax turned their pitch at The Shay into a public ice rink and charged admission. Chelsea, with Tommy Docherty as manager, flew to Malta.If there was disruption on the field, there was confusion elsewhere. The League management committee proposed to extend future seasons to the end of May, and devised a relegation system that defied mathematical analysis but was ultimately abandoned. The government, pressed by the Wolfenden Committee on Sport to create a Sports Development Council with an annual budget of £5m, ignored the proposal and instead appointed as minister of sport Lord Hailsham (Quintin Hogg), who spent most of his time shooting or fishing. His assistant was Sir Patrick Renison, who may have performed splendid service as governor of British Honduras, British Guiana and Kenya, but knew next to nothing of sport, admitting: "I'll be starting from scratch." Nothing new there.I remember well the opening paragraph of a match I reported at Charlton during the worst of the crisis, a goalless draw at home to Bury. I wrote in the Telegraph: "Take one frying pan (or football pitch), melt a quantity of ice, stir in enough earth, sand and peat to form a liquid paste. Add 22 players, flavour with a referee, simmer for 90 minutes until players are uniformly brown and unrecognisable. Serve chilled to half‑frozen spectators who, after weeks of neglect, have such an appetite for the game that they are unlikely to summon the Maître d' (manager)."By the time the league was back to normal in March, it was clear that the race for the title rested between Spurs, Leicester and Everton. After Everton lost 2-1 away to Sheffield United on 30 March, it looked good for Spurs, even though Everton had two games in hand. Leicester stood between the two rivals, but success in reaching the FA Cup final limited their League focus. An epic clash between Everton and Spurs on 20 April opened the way for the title to return to Goodison after a lapse of 24 years. A crowd of 67,650 saw Everton win by the only goal from mercurial Alex Young. Though they dropped a home point to Arsenal, Everton finished with four victories, away to West Ham and West Brom, home to Bolton and Fulham. Their triumph owed much to big-name signings: Tony Kay at left-half from Sheffield Wednesday, Alex Scott from Rangers on the right wing, and Gordon West in goal from Blackpool.The FA Cup final was delayed until 25 May, three weeks later than the 1962 final. Manchester United, having only narrowly escaped relegation, defeated Leicester. Throughout the season United's rhythm had been predominantly absent, whereas Leicester at one stage were in line for the Double. They had no stars to match Matt Busby's glittering array, but under the shrewd guidance of their manager, Matt Gillies, were a sound unit. However, at Wembley, their midfield trio of Cross, McLintock and Gibson were so busy attempting to stem the flow of United's attack that Leicester seldom provided any thrust up front.Even that was not the end. The League Cup final, then played over two legs, and featuring Birmingham and Aston Villa, was not completed until the Monday after the FA Cup final – two days before the Derby.David Miller has been covering sport in Britain's national newspapers for more than 50 yearsFA Cupguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Angola Attack Won't Impact US WCup Security NEW YORK (AP) -- Last week's attack in Angola that killed three members of Togo's delegation at the African Cup of Nations won't change U.S. security arrangement's for this year's World Cup in South Africa. feeds.nytimes.com |
Cristiano Ronaldo protests innocence after red card in Real Madrid win against Malaga Cristiano Ronaldo insists he did not mean to hurt Patrick Mtiliga after leaving Malaga defender with broken nose. telegraph.co.uk |