TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| Premier League: Sunderland 1-1 Everton Rather like a couple of nervous drivers fearing the worst after venturing out on to the Christmas ice, Sunderland and Everton were tense and tentative in equal measure. With Steve Bruce's side having now won once in 10 Premier League games and David Moyes's men once in 12, confidence is so low by the Wear and the Mersey that both teams were probably simply relieved to end the afternoon having avoided a calamitous accident in front of a frustrated 47,000 sell-out crowd.Moyes is, with some justification, widely regarded as often being a rather defensive manager, with caution his default setting but even so Everton have not kept a clean sheet since September.No surprise then that Moyes's side swiftly fell behind to Darren Bent's 11th strike of the season here. Bruce is said to harbour doubts about the commitment of Kenwyne Jones but the instinctive understanding the Trinidadian striker and his partner displayed in the creation of the goal suggested that if Aston Villa, Tottenham or AN Other come calling next month Sunderland's manager should think long and hard before breaking up their attacking relationship.After pulling out wide to the right to collect a ball from Bent, who had connected with a long, defence confounding, punt forward, Jones advanced before presenting his co-forward with a cross ideally weighted for the ensuing goalkeeper defying header.Although, shortly aftewards John Heitinga was required to scoop another Bent effort off the line, Everton had arguably been the better side with a Leon Osman shot hitting a post and Louis Saha bending another just wide.Much of what was best about the Merseysiders flowed from Marouane Fellaini. Deployed, controversially, in central midfield the sometime striker alternated delivering the afternoon's best passes with assisting his defence to the point where, in certain situations, he performed a man marking job on Jones.So far so creditable, but the suspicion lingered Fellaini might have been better used up front alongside Saha - particularly as Tim Cahill, deployed in a withdrawn attacking role did not look properly fit and John Mensah, probably Bruce's best player, largely succeeded in marking Saha out of the game.It was no coincidence that Moyes's side looked appreciably more threatening when Yakubu Ayegbeni stepped off the bench and joined Saha up front. Tremendous nuisance value if nothing else, Yakubu quickly served as a decoy, drawing defenders and allowing Steven Pienaar sufficient space to carve out a fierce, swerving, shot which zipped just wide.With the considerable hesitancy on view from both sides such openings were disappointingly rare. Such tentativeness had even spread to Andy Reid. Sunderland's best player during the first part of the season may have seen a free-kick headed clear by Lucas Neill and very nearly created a headed goal for Paulo Da Silva with another but, generally, Reid proved well below his best.The problem for Bruce - badly missing the hamstrung Lee Cattermole here - is that when Reid does not play well Sunderland invariably perform below par as a team.They may have escaped conceding a penalty after Lorik Cana blatantly handed a Leighton Baines cross in the area but the Wearsiders' deficiences here were ultimately highlighted when Fellaini belatedly advanced into the area to half volley Tony Hibbert's cross beyond Marton Fulop.How Bruce must have rued the injury which, a little earlier, had forced Mensah to limp off.Premier LeagueSunderlandEvertonLouise Taylorguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
World Cup 2010: South Africans must show more enthusiasm, says Danny Jordaan Fifa president Sepp Blatter has previously criticised South Africa for lack of anticipatory atmosphere in build-up to finals. telegraph.co.uk |
Angola arrests two over Togo team attack Angolan authorities have arrested two people on suspicion of taking part in the attack on a bus carrying the Togo national football team. telegraph.co.uk |
Refreshed Bayern hope to dominate Bayern Munich should be refreshed after their winter holiday and, despite Dubai TV's efforts, can clinch the titleAvid readers of these lines (hello Mutti!) will be able to testify that Germanic football and humour rarely mix. Last week, further proof of this axiom was helpfully provided by the good people of Dubai Sports TV, whose idea of a laugh was to put Bastian Schweinsteiger on a chair that had one of its legs purposefully sawn off. The Bayern Munich midfielder nearly fell off the stage backwards when said seating device collapsed live on air. Other hilarious surprises for the delegation of Bayern and Werder Bremen players and officials in the TV studio included (intentionally?) inane questions – "Isn't it a problem that Bremen have so many good players?" – and the two hosts' insistence that both Philipp Lahm and Schweinsteiger must absolutely move to the Premier League. Somehow, Louis van Gaal managed to refrain from strangling the pair of desert Ron Burgundys.The rest of the shorter-than-usual three week winter holiday passed without too many problems. In a shocking break with tradition, Franck Ribéry was not allowed to crash the team bus this year. But then the Frenchman wasn't quite fit to drive: Bayern's team doctor had drilled holes into both of his big toenails to relieve inflammation on the first day of their training camp in Dubai. Blood and water gushed from Ribéry's feet, we are told. If this ingenious but somewhat brutal treatment was intended to ensure that his protracted move to Real Madrid could not happen before the summer, it certainly worked. The 26-year-old will miss out on tonight's curtain-raiser against Hoffenheim in the Allianz Arena but should return to action in a week or so.Bayern (33 points) start 2010 in third place behind Leverkusen (35 points) and Schalke (34 points) but a few decent results towards the end of last year have been enough to convince both the club and most of their rivals that they will end up winning the league again. Fourteen out of 18 Bundesliga managers are happy to finger the Bavarian giants as champions. Van Gaal refused to offer a prediction, however. "Our aim is to win it and I will work on that with my players", the Dutchman said. At his behest, Bayern have whittled down the size of the squad. The out-of-favour Luca Toni has forsaken a fourth of his wage packet – about €600,000 (£530,000) – to play for Roma until the end of the season; the Brazilian defender Breno and the midfielder Andreas Ottl were also sent out on loan, both to the relegation battlers FC Nürnberg. Bayern's prodigious bench-warmer Alexander Baumjohann was meanwhile sold to Schalke.Van Gaal's only problem will be the re-integration of Arjen Robben and Ribéry into a line-up that was showing signs of genuine progress before Christmas intervened. Both wingers are probably a little too undisciplined to fit into a 4-4-2, though. Van Gaal's favourite formation, 4-3-3, would conversely leave no room for his striker Ivica Olic, who has really turned his team's fortunes around with some spectacular performances. This little conundrum should not preclude Bayern from winning the title but might well ensure that the championship race will remain relatively open until the very end. Herbstmeister (autumn champions) Bayer Leverkusen, who are unencumbered by European engagements, will surely have a much better second-half of the season than last year, when they picked up 15 points less than they did before the break. Jupp Heynckes's young team have played the most balanced and at times aesthetically pleasing football but it's hard to see them going all the way.Schalke's prospects are still deliberately underplayed by Felix Magath. "I'm happy to hand the Meisterschale to Van Gaal, we're going for fifth place", said the S04 manager despite embarking on a veritable spending spree. The Macedonian striker Besart Ibrahimi (FK Renova) joined the club along with Peer Kluge (Nürnberg), Edu (Suwon Blue Wings), Tore Reginiussen (Tromsö IL/Norwegen), Bogdan Müller (SpVgg Neckarelz) and the club re-signed Alexander Baumjohann who left them once before in 2007. They've also requested the return of Ze Roberto II from Flamengo. After spending 12 months in Brazil, the midfielder still hasn't been able to come up with a better nom de guerre but he has looked surprisingly good in training.Der Spiegel's Christoph Biermann thinks that Magath wasn't convinced by the quality of the existing squad despite the phenomenal results – "he doesn't trust the success" – but if anything, this squad of youngsters and no-marks could be even more of a force this year when Magath's legendary fitness methods truly kick in. Last year, his Wolfsburg side blew everybody out of the water after the break and it was a similar story at Stuttgart and Bayern before. Despite picking up a mysterious hole in their stadium roof to go with the much bigger one in their finances, Schalke's opener against Nürnberg will incidentally go ahead on Saturday.Injury-plagued Hamburger SV (31 points) will remain in the mix, even without securing the loan-services of Brazilian striker Vagner Love. They welcomed back Ze Roberto, who cheekily extended his holiday by 10 days. Bremen (28) cannot be discounted and neither can Borussia Dortmund (30), despite running into some predictable problems at this time of the year. They had to change their team-hotel in Cologne before their game on Sunday when it emerged that it had been taken over by local carnival revellers who were to-ing and fro-ing until five in the morning every single night. A very big costume ball ("The Blue & Gold Loyal Hussars") was scheduled for Saturday, too. "Being funny is a nice thing, but only at the right time", said Borussia's manager Jürgen Klopp, decidedly not amused, "all we are interested in is a good start". The location of their new accommodation has been kept secret to prevent prank attacks from other carnivalists. This really isn't a laughing matter, naturally.BundesligaBayern MunichEuropean footballRaphael Honigsteinguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Teal Bunbury proud to follow in dad's footsteps The past month has been absolutely crazy for soccer star Teal Bunbury, so much so that his head has been spinning from a flurry of activity. cbc.ca |