Author Archives: 1960s: Days of Rage

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South American football awards 2010

Diego Forlán
“Hello and welcome to the Fútbol Fútbol Fútbol awards for 2010. The awards focus on events in South American football, however there is room for an expatriate player of the year section to pay tribute to the best of the thousands of South American footballers plying their trade on other continents. You may find some of the awards surprising or idiosyncratic, however if you are offended by any of these selections you can either find another website to tell you exactly what you want to read or failing that you could leave your opinion on why we are wrong in the comments section below. Enjoy.” Fútbol Fútbol Fútbol

The IBWM Torneo Apertura Review
“Last weekend Estudiantes clinched the Torneo Apertura title, and as Sam Kelly reports, they were undoubtedly worthy winners.” In Bed With Maradona

A Wrinkle in Time

“I do not remember whether the thought occurred to me during the first or second game when Gareth Bale carved up Inter Milan. At some point while watching the Welshman sprint past yet another defender (probably Maicon), I thought, for the first time in my life, ‘he is younger than me.’” Run of Play

Article: France rebuild after nightmare year

“A version of this piece, a review of the year 2010 in French football, was written for Agence France-Presse and published on the AFP newswire on Wednesday, December 15.” Football Further

List of Teams Qualified For UEFA Champions League 2010-11 Knockout Stage

“The Champions League has finished its group stage and below is the full list of clubs who have qualified for the knockout stage. In the draw for the round of 16, no teams from the same countries can face each other and group winners can only face group runner-ups.” The 90th Minute

Newcastle United’s Finances In Black And White

“Just when Newcastle United fans could be forgiven for thinking that their club had abandoned its frequent attempts to act as the setting for one of football’s longest running soap operas, their rotund owner Mike Ashley struck again, sacking the likeable Chris Hughton, who had guided the team to promotion last season on a shoestring budget, and replacing him with Alan Pardew, a man whose track record provides little support for his boundless confidence. In their first season back in the Premier League, Newcastle were handily placed in mid-table, having demolished local rivals Sunderland 5-1 and securing away victories against the likes of Arsenal and Everton, not to mention an impressive win at Chelsea in the Carling Cup.” The Swiss Ramble

How one little logo rocked Barcelona and left Johan Cruyff fuming

“For a man whose love of a logo is so strong he’s more turned on by the drivers’ brand-plastered overalls than the pit girls at Formula One races, Monday couldn’t have been better for Sandro Rosell. It was easy to tell just by looking at Rosell’s perky, beaming face just how tickled pink the Barça president was to have another logo to stick up on the walls of the Camp Nou club, as well as the institution pocketing some easy cash in the process.” FourFourTwo

Milan’s jump in class

“The omens are certainly good for Massimiliano Allegri. In 24 years under Silvio Berlusconi every Italian tactician that he has shrewdly appointed has tasted instant success, winning a piece of silverware for the trophy cabinet back at the club’s offices on Via Turati. The likes of Arrigo Sacchi, Fabio Capello and Alberto Zaccheroni all delivered the Scudetto in their first full season at the helm, while Carlo Ancelotti arguably went one better and lifted the Champions League. Throughout the same period, each of the four foreigners who sat on the bench at San Siro – Nils Liedholm, Oscar Tabarez, Fatih Terim and Leonardo – left without making a long-lasting impression on Il Cavaliere.” Football Italia

Non-League Videos of the Week

“This week’s non-league matches of the week come from a variety different competitions. As the weather started to return to something approaching normal, the a near-full schedule of matches was played, including matches in both the FA Trophy and postponed matches from the FA Vase. Our first match is the FA Trophy match between Wimbledon and Braintree Town.” twohundredpercent

Carlosmarch

“I hugely resent the management’s suggestions that I have been unduly influenced by others,” said Tevez. “I am disappointed that the management should now see fit to try to portray the situation in another light.” Run of Play

Henry Winter: Manchester City must remember that the club is bigger than any one player – including Carlos Tévez
“Adios, amigo, and thanks for all the goals. If Carlos Tévez leaves for Real Madrid, there can be no doubt that Manchester City and the Premier League would be a poorer place without the sparkling little Argentine. Eastlands and English football would, however, be a better place without his agent, Kia Joorabchian.” Telegraph – Henry Winter

Coronation of a Legend

“Rafael Benítez travelled to the Club World Cup hoping to save his job. In the first of two features looking at the competition, Adamo Digby recalls a clash between two heavyweights of world football, and a happier time for Italian teams.” In Bed With Maradona

Ghostgoal’s Premiership Preview

“I wanted to do some sort of preview of the forthcoming Premiership season here at Ghostgoal but really wasn’t sure how to go about it. I was especially unsure as to whether anybody wanted to trawl through my thoughts on clubs that I hadn’t followed in pre-season and didn’t really have a feel for the mood amongst the fan base. The brilliant solution – for me anyway – was to ask bloggers, websites, fans & fanzines of all the sides concerned to help me out and build some sort of picture of where everyone was at. It has been a task complicated by a transfer window that doesn’t shut until nearly 3 weeks after the season has begun and also by the time delay in compiling the preview – apologies to Damian, for example, the Villa fan who gave his views on the eve of Martin O’Neill’s dramatic walkout!” Ghost Goal

Manchester United 1-0 Arsenal: Clever Park header sends United back to the top

“Manchester United came out on top in a game where neither side played their best football. Sir Alex Ferguson sacrificed Dimitar Berbatov to go with a 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 formation. Paul Scholes was not fit enough to make the squad, so the side essentially picked itself after the decision about formation. Arsene Wenger kept the usual 4-2-3-1 shape. Cesc Fabregas was only fit for the bench, and Tomas Rosicky was picked ahead of Robin van Persie in the central attacking midfield role.” Zonal Marking

Good Day, Bad Day: Delicious Barca and vicious-looking Garrido

“The fact that Real Sociedad are no suffering saps – or Real Madrid perhaps – makes the 5-0 win for ‘Qatar Foundation presents Pep’s Dream Boys!’ over La Real so darned impressive. It’s hard to know whether the match highlight was Leo Messi weaving past five defenders on the edge of the box to equal Ronaldo’s league tally of 17 goals, or the outstanding Argentine finishing off a 28 pass move straight from the second half kick-off. ” FourFourTwo

The kids are alright
“The news that January’s Ballon d’Or will be handed to one of the three musketeers, Andres Iniesta, Leo Messi or Xavi Hernandez, is significant in various ways. Despite that opening assertion, it’s not the first time that one club has offered up all three candidates for the prize. In 1988, if I’m not mistaken, Marco van Basten won the gold, with his Milan team-mates Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard slightly lower on the podium, and the next year the same guy took the top prize, challenged only by Rijkaard, again, and Franco Baresi.” ESPN

Benitez under pressure at Inter

“Two quotes to reporters — in the space of a few days — from Inter president Massimo Moratti neatly sum up why the bad old days may be back. ‘Ten years ago, I would have sacked Rafa Benitez by now, but I’ve grown as well, we all have.’ Then, a few days later. ‘I’m not going to create problems before or during the World Club Cup, afterward, we’ll see.'” SI

World Club Cup deserves respect

“The champions of all the continents have congregated in Abu Dhabi for the annual World Club Cup – to the usual European indifference. The great Brazilian left-back Roberto Carlos recently spoke of how, in 2000, he tried in vain to get his Real Madrid team-mates excited at the prospect of becoming world champions, but they treated it as a holiday. It did not endear him to fans of Corinthians, his current club, who won the title a decade ago.” BBC – Tim Vickery

Apollo 11 and a Football Pitch

“You might remember this map – showing the walking routes of the Apollo 11 astronauts superimposed onto a standard-sized football pitch. On MTMG previously… The original map is actually taken from one of NASA’s own excellent sites – here – but still everyone treated it as something of a joke.” More Than Mind Games

Dortmund 2-0 Bremen: routine win for leaders

“The starting line-ups Dortmund weren’t at their best, but were still relatively comfortable. Jurgen Klopp selected an unchanged side, and with the exception of the absent Kevin Grosskreutz, this is the XI he has favoured so far this season.” Zonal Marking

La Retour. Marseille and a New Vintage.

“Scandal rocked and then destroyed one of Europe’s finest ever sides in the 1990′s. Juliet Jacques reflects on Olympique Marseilles’ return to the top as a personal highlight of 2010.” In Bed With Maradona

Newcastle 3-1 Liverpool: Liverpool unable to cope with aerial power of Carroll

Giulio Romano, The Battle of Zama
“Goals from Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton and Andy Carroll meant Newcastle leapfrogged Liverpool in the table. Alan Pardew’s intention was clear – change as little as possible. Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan returned to the side after being unavailable for last week’s defeat to West Brom, but the other nine players remained.” Zonal Marking

Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea: Drogba changes game, then misses crucial penalty
“Roman Pavlyuchenko’s opener was cancelled out by Didier Drogba’s powerful drive, before a frenetic finish. Harry Redknapp chose Roman Pavlyuchenko over Peter Crouch, and was without William Gallas, so Michael Dawson returned. Carlo Ancelotti left out Didier Drogba but maintained the 4-3-3 shape. Paulo Ferreira started at right-back with Branislav Ivanovic playing in the centre. Frank Lampard was on the bench.” Zonal Marking

Genoa 0-1 Napoli: Hamsik header decides match
“An intriguing game rather than an exciting one, as Napoli go up to second for the time being. Davide Ballardini seems to have settled on a four-man defence after preferring three at the back last seasonand in the opening games of this campaign. He shuffled his side with the return of Omar Milanetto. Marco Rossi played on the right, with Rafinha moving to right-back in place of Giandomenico Mesto.” Zonal Marking

Roda 1 – 1 ADO: The 4-4-2 diamond doesn’t help Roda at home
“Roda remain unbeaten at home, but fail to win a home game again. Difficulties to convert their possession into chances which seem connected to their formation and playing style seem related to their 3-6-0 home series. ADO replaced missing winger Kubik with Vicento, a similar type of player, rather than making adjustments to their system like in the away loss at AZ and came away with a point in a game they might just have been able to win.” 11 tegen 11

Heracles 2 – 2 VVV: Bad pitch, bad weather, bad footb….
“It may not have been the best of matches to watch, but VVV will definitely be happy coming away with a point after being 2-0 down at half time. Heracles easily dealt with VVV’s split 4-4-2 team in the first half, as they simply regained possession every time the ball was played up to VVV’s strikers who missed any connecting midfielders. In the second half VVV did connect to their forwards and imposed a physical direct game that proved too much for Heracles to deal with in the end.” 11 tegen 11

Freiburg 3-0 Borussia Mönchengladbach
“Papiss Cissé continued to show why Wolfsburg are intent on buying him to replace Edin Džeko as his brace and fantastic performance helped Freiburg defeat Mönchengladbach. Gladbach remain rooted in relegation trouble, but had they taken some of the numerous chances that came their way in the first half, the result could have been different.” Defensive Midfielder

An Optimistic Hungarian

“2011 will be the year that dictates who will and won’t be going to the European Championships in 2012. Tomasz Mortimer is feeling confident that this might be a good twelve months for Hungary.” In Bed With Maradona

Fear and loathing in Bury

“It’s Christmas. A time for reflection of what this time of the year means to us all. A time for families to come together and enjoy each others company. A time for peace and goodwill to all men. Is it heck! It’s about having a few beers, and parties night after night. Well that is what has been on the agenda this week for GTC Media’s equivalent of TinTin and Snowy, Danny Last and myself.” The Ball Is Round

Hannover 2-1 Stuttgart

“A brace from Didier Ya Konan punished two defensive mistakes as Hannover moved into second place. As a result, Stuttgart will be stuck in the bottom three over the winter break. Stuttgart came into this game as the only team who hadn’t won away from home in the Bundesliga this season, and knew that a win wouldn’t even be enough to lift them out of the drop zone. Hannover, on the other hand, went into the game knowing that a win would give them a new club record of five consecutive victories – and, as mentioned in the introduction, a win would also lift them up to second place. That’s Hannover. In second place. In December. Oh, and they’d be taking that position from Mainz. Yes, Mainz.” Defensive Midfielder

Tactical Breakdown: How High-Flying Hannover Edged Struggling Stuttgart
“A brace from Didier Ya Konan punished two defensive mistakes as Hannover moved into second place. As a result, Stuttgart will be stuck in the bottom three over the winter break. Stuttgart came into this game as the only team who hadn’t won away from home in the Bundesliga this season, and knew that a victory wouldn’t even be enough to lift them out of the drop zone. Hannover, on the other hand, went into the game knowing that a win would give them a new club record of five consecutive victories.” Goal

Newcastle United 3 – 1 Liverpool

“Andy Carroll and Joey Barton combined to hand Alan Pardew a winning start to his Newcastle reign as jeers turned to cheers at St James’ Park. The 21-year-old England international’s 10th goal of the season cemented a priceless victory for the Magpies after Scouser Barton’s 80th-minute strike had restored their lead.” ESPN

Alan Pardew’s Newcastle era begins with a gutsy win against Liverpool
“There have been almost as many fake messiahs as false dawns on Tyneside, but for a brief moment at least Newcastle fans have reason to believe that Alan Pardew may prove an unexpected answer to their woes after all. A gritty, gutsy win will not erase the mystification and misery induced by the club’s bizarre decision to sack Chris Hughton last Monday but at least it buys the latest messiah time to implement his personal blueprint for Geordie salvation.” Guardian

Crucibles and Coffee Houses

“While football may have been initially organised and codified on English soil, the tactical and theoretical development of the game has historically been cultivated in other pockets of Europe, most notably the inter-war bourgeois societies of the Danubian region. From Vienna, to Budapest, to Prague and beyond, football was met with a deeply philosophical and sophisticated approach to the game which resulted in a distinctive style of play emerging from Central Europe. The social driving force behind this development was, of course, the coffee house.” The Equaliser

When Warriors Speak

“It’s a day in the Premier League, and a lot of players are having thoughts about events! To you, that may sound like a joke, but to these grim warriors, whose wills are ruthlessly fixed on the next match, whose eyes scan a horizon more threatening than you or I could imagine, whose minds, if we could see inside them, would look like a slow camera-pan up a desolate mountainside, climbing higher and higher, past walls of rock, razor-sharp outcroppings, and windswept, snow-covered goats, past the bones of forgotten adventurers, past the shattered faces of cliffs, into a bleak, snowy nowhere a stone’s throw from the sky, where a lone castle rises like a spire, eternally vigilant, eternally armed against the encroachment of any imaginable foe—these proud champions understand that sometimes the best way to prepare for an epic battle is to engage in an absolutely piss-tacular slapfight.” Run of Play

Barcelona and the Sacrifice of Principles

“One of the more singular quirks of some football rivalries is an appropriation of the moral high ground by one club over another. It can be seen in some ways in the rivalry between Celtic and Rangers, where the perception from the outside has long been of a near-bunker mentality at Ibrox. A similar situation exists in Spain, where Barcelona have, in recent years, become a symbol of something other than just football. FC Barcelona was in itself, long ago, a political statement. Camp Nou was, in Franco’s Spain, the only place where Catalan nationalist feeling could be openly expressed and, although it is now more than three decades since the general’s death, a sense remains that Barcelona stands for something “other”, while Real Madrid are the club of the establishment.” twohundredpercent

La semaine en France: Week 16

“Just as Marseille looked to be gathering momentum, a setback arrived in the form of a 1-0 defeat at Nice. Little matter that OM dominated the game at the home of their Mediterranean near neighbours. They barely created a chance of note and were punished in the second minute of injury time when former Reading man Emerse Faé side-footed home unmarked from Anthony Mounier’s cut-back.” Football Further

Liverpool FC: On The Up?.

“It’s only fair to acknowledge that Liverpool have been playing well and moving up the league of late. After a fairly terrifying start to the campaign in almost all respects, things have settled into a more comfortable pattern. It took 16 games, but the Reds are finally into positive goal difference, the latest arrival at that point since 1964/5.” Tomkins Times

GhostGoal Awards 2010

Odysseus on the island of the Phaiakians, Peter Paul Reubens
“From what I can tell, it’s awards season in the football blogging fraternity. The Soccerlens awards, the WSC Web Awards and the NOPAs, to name just three. I’m not going to lie to you – GhostGoal didn’t get a single nomination from any of them. Did they not hear about my piece in November’s When Saturday Comes that one reader in the letters page described as ‘not letting the facts get in the way of a good story’? Actually maybe they did and that’s the problem..” Ghost Goal

Web watch: 2010 Web awards
WSC

UEFA Champions League 2010-11 Final Group Stage Standings

“Below are the final Group Stage standings for the 2010-11 Champions League. The top two teams advance to the knockout stage (round of 16), third place moves into the Europa League knockout stage (round of 32), and the fourth team is eliminated from the competition.” The 90th Minute

Racism in Russia: It’s Time to Move Past Peter Odemwingie

“Jonathan Wilson’s Guardian article on Brazilians playing for Ukrainian team Shakhtar Donetsk is a fascinating read. Wilson primarily focuses on Douglas Costa’s journey from Brazil to Ukraine and the struggles that Brazilian players endure when they uproot from familiar surroundings and head to new frontiers. But perhaps just as interesting as the article are the exchanges in the comment section about racism in Ukraine and Russia.” Nutmeg Radio

Soccernomics Was Wrong: Transfer Expenditures

“Zach Slaton, author of A Beautiful Numbers Game blog and Arsenal fan, recently asked to take a look at the massive Transfer Price Index database, to apply some advanced statistical analysis to the findings. What follows is a fairly complex, but also compelling, look at the correlation between transfer spending and league position.” Tomkins Times

Tactics: How Spurs changed their shape for the Champions League

“‘A lot of club managers will take note of what happened in the World Cup and adjust their tactics accordingly,’ said Harry Redknapp in the September edition of FourFourTwo magazine. ‘I’ve gone on record as saying England were far too open in the tournament and I think 4-5-1 would have been the formation to get the best of our lads and also close the space in midfield. In the Premier League, you’ve already seen a lot of teams using 4-5-1, especially away. It’s a formation I’d consider playing on the road, for sure.’” Football Further

Shakhtar 2-0 Braga: Braga beaten by Rat attacks

“Shakhtar progress as group leaders after a deserved victory. Mircea Lucescu used his usual 4-2-3-1 formation, in a Shakhtar side unchanged from their previous Champions League game, a 0-3 win in Belgrade.” Zonal Marking

Milan 0 –2 Ajax: Quite a managerial debut for new manager Frank de Boer

“New Ajax manager Frank de Boer succeeded in installing hope in the heart of the Ajax fans in this match against, it must be said, an uninspired Milan side where no less than seven regular players were rested. Milan either preferred to sit back of were forced back by Ajax (presumably the first) as Ajax combined along the flank and create a significantly higher amount of goal attempts. In the second half Ajax succeeded in converting chances into goals to win a game that might be categorized as a dead rubber in terms of the Champions League competition. But, in terms of installing new found self-confidence and providing hope for their fans, Ajax did a very good job tonight.” 11 tegen 11

Football Weekly Extra: World shrugs as Pardew takes the reins at Newcastle

“Welcome to a stereophonic, supercharged edition of Football Weekly Extra, with James Richardson, Barry Glendenning, Sean Ingle and Jonathan Wilson’s huge floating brain beaming down from near-earth orbit. We start our Premier League discussions with another fine mess at Newcastle United. The Geordies love a messiah – but really, Alan Pardew? Also in the podcast, we take in all the dead rubber action from the Champions League, while Sid Lowe tells us about the Barcelona-tinged Ballon d’Or.” Guardian – James Richardson

Inter vs Inter: Club World Cup preview

“No, this is not some concocted spin on in-fighting among the nerazzuri. Internazionale’s problems have been well documented of late, the only contention being whether this is due to Rafael Benitez’s tactical obduracy and fitness regime, sheer bad luck with injuries or a perfect storm of all of the above. But what about their Brazilian namesake, SC Internacional of Porto Alegre?” santapelota

Two for your Christmas wish list

“The last two weeks have been ones of significant travel delays for The Ball is Round team. Not only did we travel to the arctic wastelands of Northern Denmark to bring you all the action from Randers v FC Copenhagen, but we then had to endure Easyjet at its worst with a 5 hour delay long into the middle of the night, and finally closer to home we have had to suffer the ineptness of SouthEastern railways. But all of this time spent waiting gave us a chance to catch up on some long overdue reading and some new games on our iPhone.” The Ball Is Round

UEFA Champions League Video Highlights

“Below are video highlights for all the Champions League matches on December 7, 2010.” The 90th Minute

Liverpool FC’s ‘Directorial’ Debut.

“The road that led to the manager’s position as it is currently understood – the man who is in charge of practically everything – has been a difficult and tortuous one. So domineering is the manager today that it is difficult to reconcile with the knowledge that it is a position that was born of the need to put a buffer between the team and those who owned it, one that was originally routinely carried out by the club secretary.” Tomkins Times

Video of the Week 2: Only a Game, the Story of Scottish Football, Part 3: The Player

“It’s time for another video, and tonight we return again to the 1985 BBC documentary series ‘Only A Game – The Story Of Scottish Football’. For the third part of this series, the focus is upon the player. The development of the player himself is particularly key to the growth of the game in Scotland. During the 1880s, many of the the first professional players to come into the new powerhouses of the English game were brought south from Scotland on account of their superior technical ability, and throughout the entire history of the game in the British Isles we have been fortunate to see such great players as Jim Baxter, Kenny Dalglish and Jimmy Johnstone, amongst many, many others. This video is divided into five parts, and our thanks go to the original uploader.” twohundredpercent

History teaches us that Fifa has changed little

“A couple of weeks ago I was doing the translating when Dan Roan interviewed former Fifa president Joao Havelange at the Soccerex conference in Rio de Janeiro. Still entirely lucid well into his 90s, the Brazilian was asked what needed to change in Fifa. ‘Nothing,’ he replied. ‘It’s perfect. It’s not because of one fact in 50 years [a reference to the recent corruption scandals] that we have to change.’ It is impossible to agree.” BBC – Tim Vickery

Porto’s Buy Low, Sell High Strategy

“When football fans witnessed Barcelona’s dazzling 5-0 demolition of rivals Real Madrid, they would have been forgiven for assuming that this was an unprecedented performance, but they would have only had to look back three weeks for a similar exhibition in Portugal, when Porto crushed Benfica 5-0 at the Dragão Stadium. The country’s most successful team of recent times thrashing its celebrated capital city opponents? Check. Inspired by a South American phenomenon? Check. Guided by a progressive young coach? Check. After finishing a disappointing third in the Portuguese League last season, Porto replaced their coach Jesualdo Ferreira with André Villas Boas, a protégé of José Mourinho.” The Swiss Ramble

Finisterrae

“These days, Diego Tristán would be hard to find. It’s tough work to watch him on television: The games he played last year for Cádiz, in Spain’s second league, weren’t nationally or internationally televised, and this year, with Cádiz in the third division, it’s hard to prove that he’s on the team at all. It’s much harder to go in person, even if you are in Spain. Good luck looking through the papers. He can assume a caustic, detached air in interviews—if he’s even interviewed—and is already referred to as a has- (or could have-) been.” Run of Play

Football and the Beatles: The Easily-Uncovered Truth

“Every so often, on my perambulations around the footballing part of the internet, I come across a discussion of the Beatles and football: they were Scousers, in their sly way, after all. Were they Liverpool fans? Old Evertonians? Was the Walrus really Dave Hickson? Etc.” Run of Play

Crossing the Picket Line

“The question of the Italian players strike has reared its head once more. Like a dormant volcano, it had been resting beneath the surface of the Italian football landscape ever since the initial threats were made in September. Now the players have decided to invoke the strike action once more, and as a result, there will be no football this weekend. Stadiums will lie empty on the 11th-12th December in the hope that action rather than words will force more constructive negotiations between the AIC (Italian Players Association), the chairmen of Serie A’s twenty clubs and the league. Should the players carry out their threats, it will be the second strike in Serie A history. The first (which took place back in 1996) focused on contract details and changes required related to the Bosman ruling, which had been ratified earlier that year.” In Bed With Maradona

Smug cloud engulfs Barcelona, but Ronaldo is winning his war with Messi

“There are times when La Liga Loca is quite glad it doesn’t live in Barcelona, despite its beach and all that Gaudi architecture stuff. This week is one of those occasions. And not just because of the hell of la Rambla or the rats on the city’s metro system. Or the humidity in the summer. Or the pickpockets.” FourFourTwo

Gérard Houllier: The “Dynasty” Chapter.

“More so than any other Liverpool manager, Gérard Houllier’s stewardship is characterised by two distinct periods, divided by a single dramatic event: the building up of a very good side, and then failure as he dismantled it following a near-death experience as his aortic valve ruptured. Decisions made after that potentially fatal heart problem in October 2001 were no longer laced with a Midas touch, and while it may be merely coincidental, the After did not match up to the Before in any way.” Tomkins Times

Ten steps: Liverpool’s win over Aston Villa
“Liverpool recorded a comfortable 3-0 victory over Gerard Houllier’s Aston Villa at Anfield on Monday night. The scoreline reflects the home side’s dominance – they were good, Villa were particularly bad. The game looked over after Ryan Babel made it 2-0 on 15 minutes, and Villa offered little threat for the rest of the contest. Houllier switched to 4-4-2 at half-time, as he did in the game against Arsenal when Villa were also 2-0 down at the break, but there was little sign of a fightback.” Zonal Marking

Good Day, Bad Day: Barca’s pleasant coach trip & Benzema’s shadowy boots

“To be quite honest, the blog is utterly bored with all the nonsense in Spain surrounding Pep Guardiola supposedly controlling the bigwigs of la Liga and Spanish FA by asking for the Osasuna clash to be moved to Sunday as he didn’t much fancy traveling to Pamplona by bus, despite the city not being that far away really.” FourFourTwo

There Is Power In Union

“If the kids are united, they will never be divided. Not the kids or the fans this time, a retrospective look at unity from professional players. Here’s Andrew Thomas.” In Bed With Maradona

Top 100 Footballers Weave

David Villa
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Napoli 1-0 Palermo: two similar systems, the home side more fluent and fluid

“It took a 94th minute goal to win it, but Napoli were far the better side throughout. Walter Mazzarri made two changes to Napoli’s defence, bringing in Gianluca Grava and Salvatore Aronica. The rest of the side remained the same, in the 3-4-2-1 / 3-4-3 formation they’ve used throughout this campaign.” Zonal Marking

T.C.B.

“Second item: My latest Slate column addresses the World Cup bids. It’s more about the crazy theater of the bid presentations than the actual decision, which means that it’s as much about surfing kangaroos as common sense told me it could be. Keep in mind that it was written before caring about FIFA corruption made you a tool of sinister neoliberalism.” Run of Play

Total fitness from the land of Total Football

Johan Cruyff
“Nearly 40 years after Netherlands legends Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff unleashed Total Football on an unexpecting world, along comes a Dutchman espousing a new philosophy – periodisation.” BBC

Drugs, Poison, Guns, Football?

“In Central and South America the legacy of Andres Escobar’s death in 1994 appears to have left lessons unlearnt. Here’s Chris Ledger.” In Bed With Maradona

Zonal Marking: Analysing Arsenal’s Champions League campaign

“Arsenal need a win to guarantee progression to the knockout stages of the Champions League, but Partizan Belgrade, with no points so far, are unlikely to provide much of an obstacle. Here are five tactical points about the game, and Arsenal’s European campaign in general.” ITV

Video of the Week: Football, Fussball, Voetbal Part One

“This week’s Video Of The Week is a very special find from YouTube, the first part of the BBC’s 1995 documentary series on the history of European football, “Fussball, Football, Voetbal”. Recorded as part of the build-up to the 1996 European Championships, this two-parter, narrated by John Motson, traces the history of European club football, with the first episode coming at the subject from the point of view of British clubs, and the second from the point of view of some of the major continental powers. If you can get past the slightly oversentimental tone of some of it, it features one of the finest collections of archive footage of European football that can be seen in any single place. Our thanks go to the original uploader of this wonderful documentary series.” twohundredpercent

The curse of Manager of the Month

“We try and avoid the mainstream games as much as we can here at TBIR. You can pick up any newspaper and read a million different views on Carlos Tevez’s strop with Mancini, or that Arsene simply “didn’t see it”, but it is a bit harder to find the real details about the games that count. And that is why we have moved heaven and earth to sign up Mark Pitman to TBIR who will be bringing us the inside view on Port Talbot Town in the Welsh Premier League.” The Ball Is Round

Villarreal 1-0 Sevilla: Nilmar goal wins the game

“Villarreal produced a decent performance to remain ‘best of the rest’ in La Liga. Juan Carlos Garrido gave a rare start to Jose Manuel Catala at left-back ahead of Joan Capdevila. Marcos Senna started alongside Bruno Soriano in the centre of midfield, while Santi Cazorla started on the right, Cani on the left.” Zonal Marking

Boca finally win, and Vélez keep the heat on

“Boca Juniors at long last claimed another win on Sunday with a 1-0 defeat of Quilmes in La Bombonera. After recent talk of veterans – including on the Hand Of Pod – it was 20-year-old Cristian Erbes who got the only goal of the game midway through the second half. Elsewhere on Sunday, Vélez Sarsfield kept the pressure on Estudiantes with a 4-0 away tonking of Godoy Cruz. The hosts qualified for the 2011 Copa Libertadores all the same though, courtesy of Newell’s Old Boys dropping points in a 0-0 away draw to San Lorenzo. Highlights from these and the day’s other two games – a 3-1 win for Tigre over Huracán, and a 0-0 draw between Lanús and Independiente – are here right now, as are all the weekend’s scores and scorers.” Hasta El Gol Siempre