Author Archives: 1960s: Days of Rage

About 1960s: Days of Rage

Bill Davis - 1960s: Days of Rage

Rangers: The Future Is As Murky As Ever

“This weekend the News of the World reported that the Andrew Ellis takeover of Rangers was back on, this time with funding from the almost inevitable Russian tycoon, in the form of Vladimir Antonov. The ‘paper quoted a “source close to” Antonov who claimed the deal was ‘99% complete’. This apparently came as news to Rangers who immediately denied any knowledge, and indeed to Antonov who also denied that any contact had been made, though he didn’t deny an interest. At the moment it seems likely to be yet another red herring in the ongoing Rangers saga, but for all the denials there is some plausibility to the idea that Ellis and Antonov might have teamed up. Antonov has the cash and is searching actively for a football club in which to invest it.” (twohundredpercent)

Match Of The Midweek: Lewes 2-1 Thurrock

“After a defeat at Staines Town in their opening Blue Square South match of the season on Saturday afternoon, the real test followed for Lewes this evening. Tonight’s match against Thurrock wasn’t merely their first home match of the new season. It was the first test of a brave new world, the first chance to see if they have a chance of stabilising their club under new management.” (twohundredpercent)

Werder Bremen 3-1 Sampdoria: Late Pazzini goal keeps the tie alive

“Bremen were the better side and looked to be sailing through to the group stage, but their loss of concentration might come back to haunt them. The game was an interesting match-up in terms of formations – Bremen played a 4-3-1-2 / 4-4-2 diamond system, with Aaron Hunt shuttling across the pitch into wide areas, hoping to impress after the departure of Mesut Oezil.” (Zonal Marking)

Paul Scholes: Adapta-Dull

“For the past week Paul Scholes has deservedly had his name in lights, and you imagine he’s spent most of the time squinting. Compliments sit as cosy as crabs in the pants of the Manchester United midfielder, or so we are led to imply from his meek, modest, once in a fuchsia moon post-match interviews. Every so often a marvellous performance, like that in the 3-0 win over Newcastle last night, demands his interrogation by the media, and he proves to be consistently coy.” (Spotters Badge)

Young Boys 3-2 Tottenham: Spurs fortunate to avoid a thrashing

Francesco Guardi
“A wonderful match – Tottenham looked like being given the thrashing of their life after half an hour, but recovered to take home a decent result, considering the two away goals. They made three changes from the side that were unfortunate not to beat Manchester City at the weekend – in came Sebastien Bassong, Giovani dos Santos and Roman Pavlyuchenko. The 4-4-2 remained. Young Boys lined up with a very interesting 4-2-3-1 shape, that became a 4-1-4-1 and a lopsided 3-3-3-1 at various points in the game.” (Zonal Marking)

Young Boys 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Champions League
“The UEFA Champions League play-off qualifying round began with several matches on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 including Tottenham Hotspur traveling to face BSC Young Boys.” (The 90th Minute)

Stepchild of Time

“Over Brian’s last few posts about Pelé, we—RoP’s community of contributors/commenters and readers—have advanced the notion that history punishes perfection by consigning it to irrelevance. Perfection is so unrelatable that it becomes ahistorical. It supersedes the ordinary to such an extent that it isn’t even extraordinary: it simply doesn’t belong in any category of our own experience. We have so little truck with it that we forget to adapt it for the generations that will follow us.” (Run of Play)

Zenit 1-0 Auxerre: Early Kerzhakov goal settles first leg

“Zenit deserve their slender advantage to take to France – but they’ll be disappointed they didn’t score more than one goal. The Russian leaders are unquestionably one of the most fascinating sides in Europe at the moment – Luciano Spalletti has them playing a distinctive, fluid brand of football which has brought them tremendous success in their own league – into the second half of the season, and still unbeaten.” (Zonal Minute)

US World Cup Cycle Report Cards: Forwards Edition

“This is the third of a four-part Series of Report Cards for the U.S. Men’s National Team’s Four Year World Cup Cycle, 2007-2010. While we are not issuing grades for all 92 players capped by Bob Bradley during the cycle, we will feature players not on the World Cup roster who figured prominently in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup. We will issue grades of A-F, rather than player-rankings style grades of 1-10. This edition focuses on the American strikers. For prior entries– See Part I, Goalkeepers. See Part II, Midfielders.” (Yanks are coming)

Liverpool: Truths, Half-Truths & Downright

“‘I want Rafa to stay,’ screamed the headline in the Daily Mirror on April 24th this year. The thrust of the story was that a potential bidder for Liverpool FC had reached “a crucial stage” in negotiations with Tom Hicks and George Gillett to buy the club. The bidder had ‘been granted access to the club’s accounts’ yet still hadn’t been put off. Indeed, he believed a deal ‘could be finalised’ in June as ‘my audit team is examining the books and my legal team is in close contact with theirs.’ On August 3rd, the UK national media reported that Liverpool had ’11 days to consider’ the bidder’s ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ offer. A week later, the bidder’s spokesman finally spoke: ‘No decision to submit a bid has been made.’ The bidder’s name? Huang Jin-Hua. ‘Kenny’ to his mates.” (twohundredpercent)

Junito: Fearing Fear itself, Fearfully

“Every society has a cultural expression for childhood fear. In the United States of America, a land of abundance, vast homes, and suburban distance, the isolation manifests itself in the form of monsters. These monster do not lurk in the woods, the roof, or the basement. Rather, these insidious fiends dwell in the vacant spaces that we reserve for our bloated quantity of non-essential material possessions: the closet, under the bed. At night, after you parents have left and the clouds have strangled any glimpse of light out of the moon, you can hear the creepy critters scattering about. You pull the sheet up and over your head, but to no avail. The monster can hear you breathing. And, more disturbingly, you can hear them breathing.” (futfanatico)

The Fans’ Season Preview: Celtic

“Hopes for the season: I have rarely felt as pessimistic about an impending season as I do about this one. Last month I would have said ‘to avoid embarrassing ourselves in the Champions League’, but we’ve already been knocked out of that particular competition before it’s even really started. I still expect us to win the title though, and a run in the Europa League would be nice, even if it does sound like a gay Bulgarian pop duo. I’m not holding my breath.” (Sabotage Times)

Jose & Pep Change Places In La Liga

“The football season in Spain still has over a week to go before it finally gets going, but everything is already a touch topsy-turvy with la Liga’s supreme beings, Barcelona and Real Madrid. The narrative in recent years reads that the president of the Camp Nou likes to humour his managers by affording them a certain freedom in the hiring and firing of players. The coach’s job at Real Madrid tends to be given as much importance as the poor soul responsible for oiling up Cristiano Ronaldo’s pre-match pecks. Come to think of it, the latter still had more say at the club than Manuel Pellegrini did during his one and only year under Florentino Pérez.” (Football365)

Özil’s latest dream comes true
“If the front cover of Marca is to be believed – which it never should be, really – Real Madrid have landed themselves an absolute charmer of a footballer in Mesut Özil. According to Wednesday’s edition, the German told his former club, Werder Bremen, that “either you sell me or I won’t play” ahead of their Champions League clash with Sampdoria on Wednesday night.” (FourFourTwo)

Hamburg in a mess

“It was roughly two decades ago that the Crash Kid came to prominence in east Hamburg. For at least ten years, this schoolboy struck fear into the city’s car owners. He took, drove away, collided and repented – only to repeat the cycle at the first available opportunity. At round about the same time, a similar phenomenon was plaguing the western part of the city. This time, the car crashes weren’t being caused by a juvenile delinquent, but by the city’s leading football club.” (WSC)

Louis Vuitton and the Eternal Champion

“Science fiction and fantasy author Michael Moorcock has written an enormous sequence of novels about the Eternal Champion, the same hero reborn in dozens of different persons. Whether the Eternal Champion is named Elric of Melniboné, Oswald Bastable or Ulrich von Bek, he is always first and foremost the Eternal Champion. The particularities of each champion’s life and personality are different, but their role is the same every time, to restore balance to an off-kilter world.” (Run of Play)

Americans Abroad: Michael Bradley shines, while Tim Howard flops

Michael Bradley
“After all the hype and speculation surrounding a major transfer for Michael Bradley in the aftermath of the World Cup, the 23-year-old New Jersey native stayed put at Borussia Monchengladbach, and the Bundesliga club couldn’t be happier to have him. Bradley scored the opening goal in his team’s DFB Pokal (German Cup) first-round victory on Saturday, executing a give-and-go with Mohamadou Idrissou and bouncing a sliding volley from about nine yards out into the goal in the 39th minute to keep up his run of good form.” (SI)

Manchester United 3-0 Newcastle: Sublime Scholes dictates the game

“A comfortable victory for Manchester United – the winning margin could have been greater, but Newcastle were not without their opportunities. United fielded Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov upfront together, in a fairly traditional 4-4-2 shape with two natural wingers. Newcastle played their expected 4-4-1-1 shape, with Kevin Nolan deployed in behind Andy Carroll, the lone striker.” (Zonal Marking)

The End

“By 1977, the disco starship of the NASL had already blasted off pretty far into its groovy cartoon orbit—that was the year the New York Cosmos dropped the ‘New York’ from their name. It was a league of John Oates mustaches—half the players looked like mellow plumbers—and haystack man-perms, a green festivity of daffy-eyed showmen in 100% cotton shorts. Pelé was in his third season with the Cosmos, deep in his ‘Black Pearl’ phase and now officially representing not only Studio 54 and Andy Warhol’s eight bzillionth Factory, but the glittering expanse of all creation, everywhere: Henry Kissinger went to his games. Pelé had been the MVP of the league the season before, but he was 36 and now he was going to retire.” (Run of Play)

Forced From Home

“Stay in the game long enough, doing whatever it is that keeps you afloat, and you’re bound to get the email – how do I become a soccer writer? How do I make money off my website? They come from kids and adults, from established bloggers and newly launched dreamers. …” (This is American Soccer)

My Favourite Footballer…Alessandro Del Piero

Alessandro Del Piero
“I feel in my thirties I can say this, knowing whole-heartedly that I will feel no greater affection or appreciation for any other player, past or present. I have seen better footballers, such as Maradona, who’s skills were truly breathtaking. I have seen better goalscorers, Marco Van Basten, even the eternally frustrating Fillipo Inzaghi. My appreciation of Del Piero transcends sport. I admire him greatly as a player, believing him to be both more effective and more consistent than many of his peers such as Zidane and Totti.” (The Equaliser)

Argentina mired in transition

“Rebuilding the sense of team after the painful World Cup exit, and following on from the discharge of Diego Maradona, was never going to be easy for Argentina. Only a handful of Argentinian press travelled to Dublin, to cover the 1-0 friendly win against Ireland on Tuesday, which marked the international soccer launch of the new Aviva stadium, as well as that of Sergio “Checho” Batista’s interim appointment to the adult men’s squad.” (SI)

It’s not Liverpool who are in crisis, it’s Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal side

“There was a time when a stalled contract negotiation would be a trauma at Highbury/the Emirates. Is it possible that an uncomplicated extension to Arsène Wenger’s stay at Arsenal, agreed over the weekend, could soon be cause for concern?” (Telegraph)

Fabio Capello & The Tabloid Pack Mentality: Fatuous Expectation And Poisonous

“So it is that the love affair between the British press and the Italian comes to an end. England’s friendly match against Hungary last week was what it was – a team in transition playing a mediocre team in a pre-season friendly match – but there was no way that Capello could ‘win’ this match, especially after his response to a leading question over the future of Sir David of Beckham. The press were looking for a reason to stick the knife into Capello and twist it and this question coupled with his answer to it gave them all the ammunition that they needed, although no-one has yet indicated the real reason why this may be.” (twohundredpercent)

Man … Superman … Leo Messi

Leo Messi
“It’s not big and it’s not clever but sometimes swearing is the only thing that will do. Sometimes you’ve used up every other word and nothing else quite hits the spot. You’ve rummaged round the back of the sofa, rifled through the drawers, turned out your pockets and still come up empty. Pep Guardiola insisted that he was clean out of adjectives and frankly so was everyone else. Spain was suffering a severe shortage of superlatives last night. The Catalan newspaper Sport invited readers to send in headlines for what they had just witnessed and there were plenty of super, sensational and sublimes, some magic, magnificent and marvellouses, wows and wonderfuls, plus deities by the dozen, and even a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but still there was no way to really do it justice. No polite way anyway. Just wide eyes, a wider mouth and a simple: holy shit!” (Guardian)

Super Cup sulking and Özil obstruction
“On Saturday night, LLL was considering breaking a firm blog tradition by sacrificing its precious time to watch a pre-season friendly. In this case, the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup between Sevilla and Barcelona. That was, until it discovered that Barça bigwig Sandro Rosell wasn’t bothering to travel to the Sánchez Pizjuán – apparently because he wanted to make his official debut at the Camp Nou next week, showing that the expansion of his presidential ego is progressing at a very pleasing place.” (FourFourTwo)

Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal: Arsenal dominate, but only just grab a point

“A crazy game that neither side truly deserved to win. Arsenal’s side was largely as expected – injuries in the centre of midfield meant Jack Wilshere was deployed alongside Abou Diaby, who played a more conservative role than he likes. Laurent Koscielny made his debut alongside Thomas Vermaelen, whilst Marouane Chamakh also started. Liverpool played a 4-2-3-1 with Steven Gerrard deep alongside Javier Mascherano and Joe Cole as the link player. Milan Jovanovic played an industrious, Kuyt-esque role on the left, ahead of Daniel Agger in an “unfamiliar” left-back role.” (Zonal Marking)

10 Thoughts on Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal
“After the first heavyweight game of the 2010/2011 season (or was it, given it pitted 7th vs 3rd from last year?), here are ten observations and conclusions I came to after an interesting match…” (Just Football)

Robinho in urgent need of fresh start

“Robinho is in footballing limbo. He sat out Manchester City’s opening game of the Premier League campaign and although he might be in action in midweek in the Europa League, or possibly playing his football somewhere else before the end of the month, he needs to sort things out fast because this is a huge season for him. I well recall his debut in the Brazilian Championship for an astonishingly young Santos side that went on to lift the title. That was eight years ago. Eight years from now, Robinho will be 34 going on 35, so his time at the top has probably already passed the halfway mark and yet a huge question mark still hangs over him.” (BBC – Tim Vickery)

The IBWM Serie A Preview

“Premier League, Premier League, Premier League….but where did last season’s Champions League winners come from? Italy of course. With the new Serie A season upon us, Rocco Cammisola looks at what we can expect. From afar it would appear that Serie A’s title race has been – and will be – a foregone conclusion this season. Inter have taken the past five Serie A titles, including the title awarded to them following the Calciopoli scandal, under 2 different managers. But last year’s campaign had its fair share of twists and turns to keep us captivated.” (In Bed with Maradona – Part 1), (In Bed with Maradona – Part 2)

McGeady could open the floodgates

“He’s probably oblivious to it all, but Aiden McGeady might just be about to spark another Russian revolution. McGeady’s £9.5 million move to Spartak Moscow from Celtic might have raised more than a few eyebrows among Scotland’s football fraternity but others could soon follow his lead.” (ESPN)

You, me and Rothmans

“This week, it was with no small amount of delight that I took delivery of this season’s Sky Sports Football Yearbook (or ‘Rothmans’ as all football fans still refer to it). I haven’t had one for a long time – not since my teens – and had forgotten what a pleasure it is to leaf through its thin, cheap pages. Reassuringly still edited by father and daughter team Jack and Glenda Rollin, it does a brilliant job of reminding you all the stuff from previous seasons that you’d forgotten about – particularly the most recent season.” (Narrow The Angle)

EPL Weekend Review Show #1: EPL Talk Podcast

“The first weekend of the season went into the books with the final whistle at Anfield, Arsenal’s visit to Liverpool the EPL Talk Podcast Match of the Week. To talk about the match and the eight from Saturday, I was joined Sunday night by Kartik Krishnaiyer for the first EPL Talk Weekend Review Show of the season.” (EPL Talk)

Marseille already in the eye of a storm

“When Patrice Evra pointed out to Lilian Thuram that ‘walking around in glasses and a hat does not turn you into Malcolm X’, he could equally have been referring to Hatem Ben Arfa, albeit in a completely different context. The richly talented, if inconsistent, France international bore a faint resemblance to the human rights activist while posing for a moody portrait to accompany an interview with L’Equipe at Charles-De-Gaulle airport over the weekend. Ben Arfa’s beard and his choice of spectacles meant he certainly carried off the look of a freedom fighter, even if his behaviour has once again divided opinion.” (FourFourTwo)

Liverpool 1 – 1 Arsenal

Victory of Joshua over the Amalekites, Nicolas Poussin
“Jose Reina’s late howler enabled Arsenal to snatch a draw from a thrilling Premier League opener at 10-man Liverpool. The Liverpool goalkeeper saw the ball rebound off him after Marouane Chamakh had hit the post in the final minute at Anfield to cancel out a David Ngog strike. The goal was reward for a late spell of Arsenal pressure but it was unfortunate for Liverpool, who had survived most of the second half unscathed after the sending off of Joe Cole.” (ESPN)

A few thoughts on Liverpool’s draw with Arsenal
“Roy Hodgson would gain employment as a psychologist … The new Liverpool manager has made a greater impression on the morale of his club than on the shape or make-up of his team. Last season an early dismissal of a key player would have been the signal for moody introspection and finger-pointing, but today they responded superbly to adversity. Not even the timing and manner of Arsenal’s scrappy equaliser should disguise that fact. Liverpool played better with 10 and occasionally nine men on the pitch than they had done before Cole’s red card.” (Guardian)

Pepe Reina howler gives Arsenal a point against 10-man Liverpool
“This was a draw that felt as if it contained a season’s worth of incident. That was encapsulated in the figure of Laurent Koscielny, the centre-half making his competitive debut for Arsenal. He was fouled in the incident that brought a red card for Joe Cole, yet would be dismissed himself in the final moments with a second caution.” (Guardian)

Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats “It was a match that wasn’t pretty and ultimately was decided by poor goalkeeping on both sides. The match was about even in the first half with each team getting some chances but no goals. A turning point came just before halftime when Joe Cole was sent off for a late challenge. It was a red card as Cole had gone on with both feet and the referee had little choice (following the rules/guidelines set by the FA).” (The 90th Minute)

Presenting the Trophy: 1929, 1954 and 1958

“In 1929, the crowd are more specifically spectators, and less participants, than they are today, at least at Wembley. Wembley was strange turf – an away ground for everyone present, of course, and it would be interesting to have e.g. a ‘talking picture’ from Stamford Bridge, Burnden Park or Maine Road to contrast the 1929 Final with.” (More Than Mind Games)

Paulo’s discovery of attacking

“We are delighted to publish below our first guest post from David Bevan, Head Honcho of the estimable new Football League website, The Seventy Two. It has been an enjoyable few weeks sharing ideas with David and we look forward to further fruitful cooperation. Here is David’s take on the early days of Sousa-ism at the Walkers.” (thetwounfortunates)

Tottenham 0-0 Man City: Spurs dominate but Hart keeps it level

Roberto Mancini
“An excellent game to get the new Premier League season up and running. No goals, but tremendous entertainment and some interesting tactical elements too. Tottenham lined up with ten of the eleven who were involved in the penultimate game of last season against City – Vedran Corluka in for Younes Kaboul was the only changed. Roberto Mancini chose to field new signings Aleksandar Kolarov, David Silva and Yaya Toure, in a defensive-minded 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 that essentially featured three holding midfielders.” (Zonal Marking)

Citizen’s Arrest(ed) Development?
“Manchester City are without doubt English football’s most rapidly rising force, but Roberto Mancini’s team of supremely gifted guns for hire are struggling to find a collective identity. In many ways this situation is not surprising, most of the players have only known one another for a matter of days, but it was a problem that also seemed to afflict the Eastlands outfit last season and has come, unfortunately, to be a defining feature of the Mancini era.” (The Equaliser)

The Premier League 2010/2011 – Just Football’s New Season Roundtable Discussion

“A month and a day after Andres Iniesta slammed the ball low and true past Maarten Stekelenburg to win the World Cup for Spain, the Premier League is back. Richard Keys and the boys have some shiny new suits and ties, the 20 competing teams are ready for a shot at the title (who are we kidding, Blackpool’s title odds of 10,000-1 to win the league says it all), and the phrase ‘best league in the world’ is being dusted down, showered, groomed and dressed ready for an outing roughly every single time any league game has more than 2 goals.” (Just Footballs)

France’s World Cup mutineers quick to move on

“Leaving the Stade de France after the Thierry Henry handball against the Republic of Ireland, a prominent figure from French politics, Philippe Seguin, remarked to a friend: ‘Even football isn’t what it was.’ Seguin, a former president of the French parliament, died a few weeks later. If he was glum about France’s dubious passage to the World Cup finals, one wonders what would he have thought had he lived to see the mutiny.” (WSC)

The Premier League Previews 2010/11, Part 20: Wolverhampton Wanderers – Age Before Beauty?

“For a team that won three league titles in the 1950s, and has four FA Cup wins to it’s name, last season was as good as it’s been for a whole generation of Wolverhampton Wanderers fans, seeing as it will be 29 years since the club last embarked on consecutive seasons in the top flight. Mick McCarthy made some controversial decisions last year – his fielding of a virtual reserve side at Old Trafford by far the most standout one. Some of his other decisions now seem hypocritical, considering how defensive Wolves were last season, and how McCarthy spent the last few weeks of June criticising every World Cup minnow who dared to play for a draw in the group stages.” (twohundredpercent)

The Premier League Previews 2010/11, Part 19: Wigan Athletic – International Men Of Mystery
“One of the dangers of writing these predictionless previews, as our Premier League previews have been on twohundredpercent this year, is that it’s very easy to fall into the trap of saying nice things about everyone. When it comes to football, my nature is always to look on the positive side anyway – I’m at a loss to explain this because I can assure you I’m one miserable git in every other walk of life, but on Saturday afternoons I become the eternal optimist. So it is that, while I’m in no sense a Wigan supporter, when I come to look at Roberto Martinez’s squad and make my best assessment of how they’ll do, it’s easy for me to look on the bright side and think – yeah, they’ll be fine.” (twohundredpercent)

The Premier League Previews 2010/11, Part 18: West Ham United – Owner Over-Occupied?
“It’s been an interesting few years when you look at the financial side, and the stewardship of West Ham United. When the club were last relegated in 2003, chairman Terence Brown played a canny hand when dealing with players exiting the club. Unlike other relegated clubs in previous seasons, who proclaimed a firesale the moment their fates had been sealed, and followed it up with almost weekly media proclamations that they had to sell players, thus reducing the value of said players, Brown made it clear: West Ham did not need to sell. Brown even went as far as turning down a transfer request from Jermain Defoe, submitted less than 24 hours after the Hammers had been relegated.” (twohundredpercent)

Announcing Pelé Week

“The Premier League season starts in about six minutes, so you’re probably expecting this site to revert back to blanket coverage of the tiny crinkle above Arsène Wenger’s nose. (‘It’s looking world-weary, Jim.’) But first, we’re going to make room for something else, because I keep thinking about the last post, and I’m convinced that this sad neglect of Pelé has to end.” (Run of Play)

The Joy of Six: great Liverpool v Arsenal moments and matches

“From Michael Thomas’s title-decider to Robbie Fowler playing Good Samaritan, via a spectacular John Barnes free-kick” (Guardian)

Scottish Premier League 2010/11 Preview

“Just in time for the new season, kicking off at lunchtime today, here’s the last of twohundredpercent’s pre-season previews: the SPL. Daft as it might sound for a league with only twelve teams, there are four separate battles or mini-leagues going on within the SPL these days. The title race which has long since been restricted to the big two; the battle for third, which I almost think of as the real Scottish Championship; the chase for any remaining spots in the top six, which might sound pretty trivial but it’s about extra revenue post-split as well as the chance to chase a European spot; and lastly the struggle to avoid the single relegation spot. There is a fair amount of fluidity between these groups of course, particularly the bottom two, and a good run post-Christmas can alter the targets for the season. But by and large it’ll be reasonably clear which battle each team is fighting before we’re very far into the season.” (twohundredpercent)

Inverness Caledonian Thistle 0 – 1 Celtic
“Paddy McCourt seized an early chance to prove he can fill Aiden McGeady’s boots as his superb strike earned Celtic a 1-0 winning start to their Clydesdale Bank Premier League campaign at Inverness.” (ESPN)

6 Players to Watch in Premier League 2010/11

Dani Pacheco
“Well it’s time for that obligatory Premier League Preview. However due to lack of time and the fact that several esteemed journalists (and some not at all esteemed) have previewed the league, I feel it’s best to highlight 6 players who have all the tools needed to be proficient and efficient in the Premier League. It’s been a strange transfer window really. Very quiet bar the big spenders Manchester City and also a case of ‘chase the hottest prospect around Europe’ game (Loic Remy, Mesut Ozil) in which several managers have participated in and ultimately coming up with no signing.” (6 Pointer)

2010-11 English Premier League Preview, Parts I-IV: EPL Talk Podcast

“We’re one day away from the start of the 2010-11 English Premier League season, and in response to your requests, we roll into the weekend with our full EPL preview. This podcast is all four of our preview shows edited into one file for your listening ease.” (EPL Talk)

There’s always last year ~ Premier League 2009-10

” The predicted Premier League table in the WSC guide for 2009-10 turned out to be right in only two positions: we had Man City to finish fifth and Hull second from bottom.” (WSC)

Expect another close EPL-title race

Antoine Caron, The Triumph of Mars
“With the Premier League season kicking off Saturday, here’s what the next nine months might have in store …” (SI)

Premiership season predictions
“With a week to go before the season begins, here is my read on how the 20 Premier League clubs will finish, with the caveat that rosters could still change because we’re in the midst of the transfer window.” (SI)

Fergie squanders Ozil money on Oliver Twist
“The new season is nearly upon us and Off The Ball will be scratching around the underbelly of professional football for some bizarre and often inexplicable revelations every step of the way. This week, we have Manchester United spending £7.4 million on some bloke from the Portuguese third division, Steven Gerrard claiming Joe Cole is better than Lionel Messi, Patrice Evra’s attack on Lillian Thuram and a referee running for his life.” (ESPN)

Pretenders eager to kick-off after poor pre-seasons
“It was a stroll in the sunshine, a chance to introduce new players to an appreciative audience. That, historically, was the role of the pre-season friendly. Now its definition has changed. It can become part of a global PR campaign, winning new friends and cementing distant allegiances. For the biggest clubs, it can be a lucrative interlude before the official start of business.” (ESPN)

Will a defensive-minded World Cup mean a defensive-minded Premier League season?

“ZM was planning to publish an extended article about how the defensiveness of the World Cup could result in a more defensive Premiership season. However, Jonathan Wilson got there first and covered everything. The last time we had this was 2004, the year of the underdog – Jose Mourinho’s Porto won the Champions League and Otto Rehhagel’s Greece won the European Championships by playing defensive-minded football. The start of the next Premier League season was the most negative in the short history of the division, with Mourinho summing it up with his legendary ‘park the bus’ comment following a goalless draw against Tottenham.” (Zonal Marking)

Camus: Football’s Great Intellectual

Albert Camus
“Here at The Equaliser we like to think, perhaps a trifle pretentiously, that football and philosophy are more closely related than some would have us believe. That in mind, Albert Camus is something of a hero to this humble blog, the French-Algerian goalkeeping philosopher having merged two of the world’s greatest muses, sport and existential thought.” (The Equalliser)

Football’s Greatest Managers: #15 Giovanni Trapattoni

“Giovanni Trapattoni, now 71, is one of the grand old men of European football and a manager who has won numerous titles across the continent; in Italy, Germany, Portugal and Austria. In fact, he is one of only two coaches to have won a league title in four different countries, the other being the great Austrian manager Ernst Happel. He may have opted to take on several lower-profile jobs in recent years, but Trapattoni more than deserves to be recognised as one of the most astute and relentlessly successful coaches of his generation.” (The Equaliser)

SPL season 2010-11 preview

“Twelve months ago Celtic had a new manager who had gone on a summer spending spree. Across the city, Walter Smith hadn’t been able to supplement his Rangers squad at all due to financial restrictions. Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same.” (Guardian)

Who will top the scoring charts in the SPL?
“Wanted: a new hired gun to be crowned the leading goalscorer in the Scottish Premier League. Since sharp-shooters Kris Boyd and Scott McDonald left to join Middlesbrough, a goal-scoring vacuum is waiting to be filled. Boyd, as the statistics show, was a goal machine during his time at Rangers as he terrorised opposition defences. He topped the goal-scoring charts in four of the five seasons he was at Ibrox, with former Celtic striker McDonald taking his crown in the 2007/08 season.” (BBC)

Football Weekly Extra: Premier League season preview

“Football Weekly returns with a director’s-cut length Premier League preview show with host James Richardson and an old-school line-up of John Ashdown, Barry Glendenning and Sean Ingle. First up we discuss the contenders for the title: Will Man City be hampered by having too many holding midfielders? Will Man Utd’s ageing squad be a problem? Are Chelsea on the way down? Who comes out best in the Cole/Benayoun swap? What the hell is going on at Aston Villa? And has Barry really bet Sean £20 that Liverpool won’t finish in the top six?” (Guardian – James Richardson)

Bob Bradley: The Safe, Responsible Choice For US Soccer

Bob Bradley
“At a crossroads, the United States Men’s National Team’s decision about its next coach seems to break down to simple mathematics. Don’t worry or stop reading now, I’m not about to break into a lecture on derivatives or differential geometry. I might however, use a rudimentary game theory model. In fact, I will. You have three Figures involved in the search, or technically, a figure Y, a figure X, and an unknown variable that at least has a relatively stable, speculative identity based on the Federation’s past. In other words, we don’t know who Figure Z is, but we can make a predictive assessment about the pool where Figure Z will be drawn from, if chosen. Let’s try this out, shall we?” (Yanks are coming)

The Premier League Previews 2010/11, Part 17: West Bromwich Albion – Haven’t We Been Here

“It feels like we’ve been here before. West Bromwich Albion are promoted back to the Premier League, and have played some beautiful football to get here. Having spent eight seasons in what is now called the Championship, West Bromwich Albion have become a bit of a yo-yo club, so to speak, having not spent more than two seasons in the same flight since. And while they can only continue that trend this season, they must certainly look to this season to lay the foundations to break the spell next season.” (twohundredpercent)

Braga hope to go one better in the Portuguese league

“The Portuguese football season kicks off tonight, with Braga hosting newly promoted Portimonese. Braga almost won the title last year, only losing out on the final day of the season. There was a possibility that Braga’s players would be sold off in the summer, but the only significant sale was the Portuguese international goalkeeper Eduardo. They’ve since secured the services of the inspirational Uruguayan midfielder Luís Aguiar for another season and if they keep their current squad together they should prove that last season was no fluke.” (WSC)

Decent performance from England as Capello experiments with new systems

“A nervous performance, but overall a deserved win and a decent night for England in their first game since their embarrassing exit from the World Cup against Germany. The result and performance will largely be ignored in the mainstream media, thanks to the news that David Beckham’s England career is supposedly over. The determination to not give Capello or England any praise whatsoever means that the ‘announcement’ was superbly timed – no need to focus on what actually happened on the pitch.” (Zonal Marking)

Menezes’ Brazil start with impressive victory

“One suspects that getting the Brazilian public onside with good attacking football was Mano Menezes’ first priority as Brazil manager, with a result in his opening game second on the list. With a 2-0 win over the US, he managed to achieve both. Dunga’s reign as manager will not be remembered fondly by the majority of the Brazilian public – even before the World Cup exit he was disliked for the perceived negativity in his side’s football, and for constantly selecting his ‘favourites’ ahead of established stars like Ronaldinho, and younger, emerging talents such as Neymar and Ganso.” (Zonal Marking)

England v Hungary – as it happened

“Good evening everybody. Well, both of you. Sorry, us. It would be easy for me to begin tonight’s commentary by wondering about the pointlessness of it all: an international friendly being contested by two groups of players who almost certainly have no interest in playing it and chronicled on a minute-by-minutely basis by a reporter who has no interest in watching it for people who have no interest in reading about it.” (Guardian)

England 2-1 Hungary – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Friendly – 11 August 2010
“England played their first match since the disappointing exit from the 2010 FIFA World Cup with a friendly match against Hungary. The England side saw several changes from the World Cup with call-ups of new players and an emphasis on younger players.” (The 90th Minute)

2010-11 English Premier League Preview, Part IV: EPL Talk Podcast

“In the final part of our preview series, Laurenca McKenna, Kartik Krishnaiyer and myself talk about the three clubs we expect to compete for the 19th Premier League title: Arsenal, Chelsea, and Mancester United. We also talk surprises and disappointments, themes and trends, and our first match of the week: Arsenal’s visit to Liverpoll.” (EPL Talk)

The Match-Fixing Allegation Tainting Spanish Soccer

“As Spain continues to revel in reigning supreme after lifting soccer’s World Cup in South Africa last month, a match-fixing allegation is threatening to overshadow the start of the country’s top domestic league. The scandal surfaced when the main shareholder of second division team Hercules was allegedly caught on tape boasting that he paid €100,000 to the goalkeeper of the opposition side Cordoba to throw a match in May.” (TIME)

Football transfer rumours: Chelsea keeping tabs on Neymar?

“The die, it seems, is cast. England won, Hungary’s goal never even crossed the line, the first-half performance was actually quite good to watch and the second-half display wasn’t a great deal worse and the captain scored two lovely goals. So everybody’s happy, right?” (Guardian)

US v. Brazil – An American Dreaming Realities

“Let’s play in the world of a constructed binary. The land of television is seduction. Images and sound combine to tempt you, seduce you, and entertain you. Helpless, you sit there, motionless. The flashing light leaves you still, like a deer in front of a semi on a back alley road in the dead of night. Pause. Welcome to reality. The sunlight burns your eyes and warms your skin. A gentle breeze caresses your neck. The feint odor of garlic abounds, flaring your nostrils. You are in your body. This is reality.” (futfanatico)

The Premier League Previews, Part 16: Tottenham Hotspur – To Dare Is To Do (Again)

“Following the 1-0 win against Manchester City that secured Champions League football for the club for the first time in their penultimate match of last season, Tottenham Hotspur players celebrated as if they had just won the Premier League itself. In some respects, this was understandable – consider, for example, what this must have been worth to them in bonuses alone – but in others, it was the end of one battle and the beginning of another. As Arsenal supporters have not tired of reminding them over the summer months, finishing in fourth place in the Premier League didn’t actually guarantee Spurs place in the Champions League proper. Rather, it granted them a place in the final qualifying round for a place in the Champions League.” (twohundredpercent)