Wait, what? You're saying I'm NOT FIFA World Player of the Year?

And Sometimes It's More than a Game

Sometimes football divides people -- e.g. Rangers, Celtics -- but more often, it's a force to bring people together. One of the reasons I like the France national team so much is that it symbolizes something much larger than football, as did the German team during the World Cup. Here's another example:

Iraq ground to a halt today as Iraqis from all walks of life crowded around television sets to watch their national team play Qatar in the final of the Asian Games in Doha (most of the Qatari team only recently received their citizenship -- typical). Iraq President Jalal Talabani apparently cleared his diary to watch the match from his presidential palace. "The national team brings happiness to a country where there is so much sadness. We forget the differences," said Razaq Hussein, whose mother is a Sunni and whose father is a Shiite, as he gathered with others in the hotel lobby (as quoted on WorldSoccerNews.com).

Fourteen Shiites, four Sunnis Arabs and a Kurd make up the 19-man team managed by a Sunni Arab and a Christian assistant coach. "Everyone in the team is a friend," said captain and star player Yunis Mahmud, a 23-year-old Sunni, who was suspended for the final. "We care only for the interests of the Iraqi game."

"When we win we are defeating all our sectarian problems," said Alaa Abdel Zahra, a Shiite and one of only two team members who plays internationally, in his case with Iran's Mes Kerman Club. Still, two managers have resigned due to death threats, and let's not forget that player who was kidnapped earlier this year.

Unfortunately, Iraq lost 0-1.

Champions League, UEFA Cup Draws

Champions League
Roma v Lyon
Barcelona v Liverpool
Internazionale v Valencia
Porto v Chelsea
PSV v Arsenal
Lille v Man. United
Real Madrid v Bayern
Celtic v Milan

Dave, will need your help on the logistics here. Is the deal that each play the same team twice, once at home and once away? If so it seems the games are February 20-21 and March 6-7. But then how do they decide who advances to the next round -- what if they each win one?

Wenger on Arsenal's draw: “The draw is not kind, not unkind. PSV have experience of this level. They dominate Dutch football and every year now they are in the last 16, Quarter-Final, Semi-Final even of the Champions League against Milan. So it is a tough draw...Of course we have the experience of having been in the final last season. Also we have a little advantage with our first game being over there. It is like a game of 180 minutes where the first 90 decide the rest." (I don't understand the last part -- how do we have an advantage with the first game away?)

Mourinho, who won the Champions League with Porto in 2004, said in Rumsfeldian fashion, "Porto is a team with tradition in European football and is a team with ambition so they deserve respect from us and they will have it. Do we want to go to the quarter-final? Of course. Are we confident? 100 per cent. But I repeat, only a good Chelsea playing at a high level will do it."

On the draw with Liverpool, Barcelona's Joan Laporta said: "I am happy with the draw. Liverpool are one of the sides I fancied at this stage. They are powerful opponents who play very physical football and have players we know very well, like Luis García and Xabi Alonso. But let's not forget, we are the team to beat this season."

In any case...Barca v Liverpool, interesting. That makes me a bit nervous, although I think Messi will be back by then and Barca do know how to turn it on when they need to. Plus it seems from yesterday's game that Ronaldinho and Deco are playing the way they should. We'll see. And anyone playing Arsenal these days makes me nervous, given the uneven way they've been playing. Still, Henry will be back by then, and Rosicky and of course Gallas. I'm hoping for some Porto/Lille miracle (Lille did beat Real, after all), but not likely. And I think Lyon will pull it out as well. Am voting for Celtic over Milan, just b/c I hate Berlusconi.

UEFA Cup
Zulte Waregam v Newcastle
Braga v Parma
Lens v Panathinaikos
Leverkusen v Blackburn
H. Tel Aviv v Rangers
Livorno v Espanyol
Feyenoord v Tottenham
Fenerbahçe v AZ
Bremmen v Ajax
Spartak Moskva v Celta
AEK v PSG
Benfica v Dinamo Bucuresti
Steaua v Sevilla
Shakhtar v Nancy
Bordeaux v Osasuna

Wow, I have no idea who half these teams are -- or rather, I do, but no idea how they're playing. Still, Tottenham are playing well, so I'll go with them. Same with Sevilla, Parma (or is that Palermo I'm thinking of?). I'll root for the French teams, but not sure any of them have a prayer.

Arsenal Win Ugly Match

Arsenal played Wigan Athletic at The JJB on Wednesday in a very ugly match pulling off a 1-0 victory late in the match.

I don't think that Arsene Wenger was really pleased with the teams performance as well based on his comments.

"It was a frustrating night until late on," said Wenger.

"I can understand if Wigan are frustrated as well
because they gave it absolutely everything, they created chances, and always looked dangerous. "But the spirit is right. This is the kind of game a year ago we would have lost 1-0, but instead we won it 1-0. "Even this season we lost 1-0 at Manchester City, a game we should have won three times more than we did here. This was a much more difficult game. "At West Ham they had one shot on goal, yet again we lost 1-0. I think we have learned not to make mistakes. "We also know how to deal a little better with the kind of game Wigan gave us, which is very physical." "Overall, I feel the team has learned quickly and is improving every week." "They show great spirit, great resilience, fight very hard, and that is why we maybe got the result."

It wasn't until the 75th minute that Cesc Fabregas came on and made the difference with a nice through pass to Adebayor who put the ball passed the Wigan Keeper to seal the victory.

The game could easily have gone either way.

In the other match it was a late goal by Drogba to put Chelsea up 1-0 against Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge. This one could easily have ended in a draw as well.

So in the tables Man United still hold the top spot with chelsea only 5 points behind. In a distant 3rd place is Arsenal. Hopefully they will pick up the pace and remain in that position to qualify for the Champions League next year again.

Alan Curbishly has been officially named the new boss at West Ham. The Hammers have struggled this season after a very nice finish last season. Not sure what Curbs will do for them, but it seems like a change that was needed.

Transfer window opens up on January 1st it will be interesting to see what rumors start about who's going where. Looks like Shevchenko may be loaned out to his old club Milan from Chelsea. Apparently his wife is finding it difficult to adapt to the English culture and it's showing in his performance as he has done very little for the £35 million they paid for him. But Chelsea has all sorts of money to blow.

This weekends matches are as follows:

Sat., Dec. 16
Arsenal vs. Portsmouth
Aston Villa vs. Bolton*
Charlton vs. Liverpool
Newcastle vs. Watford
Reading vs. Blackburn*
Wigan vs. Sheffield Utd*
Sun., Dec. 17
Everton vs. Chelsea
Man City vs. Tottenham*
West Ham vs. Man Utd*
Mon., Dec. 18
Fulham vs. Middlesbrough*

* will air on FSC

Procrastination Musings

I have to write a communications plan and I REALLY don't want to, especially since I've been at work since 7 AM and am excited about going to the Rockettes show tonight. So...

Barca 4-0 Club America. That said...I was up at 5:45 AM this morning and was able to have the second half of the Barca-Club America game, which Barca won 4-0, with four different players scoring. I only listened, but it sounded like a good game for Barca fans (like me). Messi wasn't playing, but my favorite still-playing midfielder Deco was on form, as was Ronaldinho, and all in the pouring down rain. Nice job. Hope this augurs well for Champions League play.

FIFA World Player of the Year. In other Ronaldinho news, he is lined up to win the FIFA World Player of the Year award for the third year in a row. Truly perplexing. Again, WHERE'S HENRY??? Let's review -- Henry gets to the Champions League final, fine he loses to Ronaldinho's team, but come on, it's the final. Next, World Cup -- the Brazil team, including Ronaldinho, pretty much suck, particularly in the France game, where Henry scores the only goal. They play so poorly that Ronaldinho apologizes to Brazilian fans. Henry reaches the final, scoring I think eight goals, making him one of the Cup's top scorers. And then in Euro 2008 play he scores more, making him France's second-leading score of all time, after Platini. Even the Fox Football Fone-In guys said that Henry is the best player (not foreign player -- just player) to ever play in the Premiership. Ever. So don't get me wrong -- I love Ronaldinho. But Jesus -- who do you (or Henry) have to sleep with to get some recognition around here? What is UP with these people?

Liverpool. Read this. Having traveled to the Middle East, I have seen first-hand many Gulf Arabs' treatment of their labor force, which is composed mostly of Bangadeshis, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Palestinans, Filipinos and Indians. And camel racing there with young boys lifted from these countries is a huge problem. When I was there, the accusation was that these royal families were basically starving these kids so the camels' load would be lighter. I'm not being xenaphobic here, it's just the truth. The Middle East is a whole different world, and I don't mean that in a good way. Even if this guy is enlightened by Middle Eastern standards, that's not saying much.

West Ham. Sucks that Pardew was sacked, and sucks that yet another team has to answer to some random billionaire, instead of its fans. Big money really is destroying the game. But I guess that is endemic to sports in general, not just soccer. In other Pardew news, Arsene Wenger was fined for losing his temper and scuffling with Pardew after the Arsenal loss to West Ham earlier this year.

Beckham...scored a beautiful, beautiful goal (watch the whole thing) off a free kick in the game against Sevilla (which Real lost). There is some anti-Beckham bias in the soccer media, so he didn't get nearly enough credit for it. But man, some goal. I wonder if McClaren was watching. Also, DB looks pretty good in blue. : )

Higuain Comes to Europe. Real Madrid are set to sign this Argentine-erstwhile-French player from River Plate, for €13 million. Now that he's in Europe, maybe he'll agree to play for France.

PSG Finally Wins...without incident at Parc des Princes. PSG 4-0 Panathinaikos. On to the UEFA round of thirty two.

Zizou...picks up yet another honor. Nice.

I'm Back and Henry is Out :(

After a long period of draught and writers block I'm getting back into the blog business - Sorry Shona! I will start to fill you up with EPL news that will always include Arsenal but the rest of the league as well.

Arsena Wenger came out today and said that Thierry Henry will be out until 2007. Here's a bunch of quotes from todays paper from Wenger: "Thierry Henry has started his rehabilitation," said Wenger. "He's still not completely free with his hamstring but he starts to work again. "We hope we can build him up and make him competitive again. "The neck problem is sorted out. It was sciatic nerve problem but the hamstring is the most troubling at the moment." Asked if Henry would be out until the New Year, Wenger said: "Realistically, certainly yes. "I wouldn't set a precise timescale as it's difficult to predict but Christmas certainly we will miss him. "

"William Gallas is out for one week, maximum two."

This is going to hurt us a bit at Christmas - Yes I said Christmas not the Holidays - Christmas is what it is and Santa Clause is part of Christmas - it's not about Jesus being born it's all about the fat jolly old man with is red suit bringing us all presents.

So back to Arsenal - TH14 (Thierry Henry) is going to miss at least 6 EPL matches that are coming up. Tomorrow we take on Wigan and then Portsmouth on Saturday. Once we get into the next week we have matches schedules on 12/23, 12/26. 12/30 & 1/2. This could be a big swing for us to make a run at Chelsea and Man U. I really hope we see him back soon. No one else seems to know how to put the ball in the back of the net the way he does.

Speaking of tomorrow. Arsenal will take on Wigan Athletic and Chelsea will be playing Newcastle. So lets hope for a big Arsenal Victory and a Chelsea loss.

We are sitting somewhere around 6th in the table bit we have a game in hand so if we win that one we would actually be in 3rd place at the moment. This was because we had to move an earlier match because we had to qualify for the Champions League this year.

There will be a new Transfer Window opening up on January 1st and will run for one month. Hopefully we don't sell off too many players but maybe we will actually buy someone this time. Now that we qualified for the next round of the Champions League, I feel a little better about Henry staying with us.

In other EPL news - Alan Pardew was the first manager to get sacked this year by West Ham. The Hammers brought on two of the "Worlds Best" players and have nothing to show for it. Like many other South American players Mascherano and Tevez have not done well in the EPL. They were awesome in Argentina and Brazil, but have done nothing in the EPL. Their style of play is really more suited for the Italian League or the Spanish League. So now West Ham are looking at Alan Curbishly who retired from Charlton at the end of last season. He never took them anywhere, wonder why they want him.

So that's the news and ramblings for today. Tomorrow we will talk more about the Arsenal v Wigan and Chelsea v Newcastle matches.

Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal

So I'm tired of hearing/reading about how Chelsea were so much stronger than Arsenal, blah blah. Let's remember that Arsenal played without Henry, Gallas, Rosický and Toure. For God's sake. You can't tell me that Chelsea would be half as good without Drogba, Terry, Lampard and whoever else. And despite Arsenal missing all these players, and Chelsea missing no one, we still held Chelsea scoreless, at home, for most of the game. I mean, if Chelsea are as good as people say they are -- and yes, I'll admit they looked good yesterday, often if not most of the time better than us -- then they would have blasted Arsenal. Right? So enough already.

Since I'm a pretty new Arsenal fan, and am usually watching Henry, I hadn't noticed how really good some of the others are. I always knew about van Persie, of course -- and his waving off the ref when he slipped in the penalty box was all class. But Gilberto was amazing yesterday. Fabregas was pretty good as well -- nice save in the second half when Lehmann was off somewhere else. And WHY WHY isn't Flamini on the France squad???

Speaking of Lehmann -- nice dust up with Drogba there. I thought they would both get red cards. Nice to see that they made up a few minutes later but man did he give us all a heart attack. I also loved how Arsenal fans boo'd Ashley Cole. I always feel sorry for Ronaldo when they do it, but I just laughed this time.

Dave, add what you will. I'm sure your commentary will be a lot more educated than mine.

Nervous...

Keeping my fingers crossed for Sunday, but sans Henry, Gallas...

Vote Now -- 2006 UEFA Team of the Year

Vote for your 2006 UEFA Team of the Year. A great picture of two of my picks above.

The whole list (admittedly based less on skill than on how much I like them):

Keeper -- Buffon (see how magnanimous I am?)
Defenders -- Sagnol, Thuram, Cannavaro (ditto)
Midfielders -- Lahm*, C. Ronaldo, Deco, Fabregas, Ronaldinho
Strikers -- Henry, Drogba
Captain -- (who else) Henry
Manager -- Arsene Wenger (unless he trades Henry, in which case it's Klinsmann)
Club -- Arsenal

*Don't know him, not sure I like him, but he was the only familiar non-Italian name. Not that I have anything against any non-Materazzi Italians.

Reflections on the Past Two Weeks...

...when I was in France. Great wine, great food and the nicest, nicest people. No joke -- I only wish we were so civil here. But in any case...

PSG Violence. My first night in Paris, PSG played Hapoel Tel-Aviv in a UEFA Cup game. They lost 4-2, in a game where captain Pauleta said that some of the players did not deserve to be playing in Paris. Yikes. After the game, there was an altercation between the two sets of fans, which led to an undercover policeman shooting and killing one PSG supporter and critically injuring another. Apparently what happened was that a group of one of PSG's notoriously racist fans (the "Ultras") apparently starting attacking the Tel-Aviv fans. "The mob grew to some 100 people," said state prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin. "The crowd hurled insults -- dirty Jew, dirty nigger -- and monkey cries and raised Nazi salutes," he added. Marin said Granomort (the policeman) had sought to shield one of the fans being attacked and to keep the crowd away using his tear-gas canister. What happened at this point was that the supporters turned to attack the police officer, who I take it is non-white, chanting things like "France for the French." Lovely. One of the attackers hit Granomort on the head and another kicked him in the groin, causing him to fall to the ground, at which point he got out his gun and started shooting.

All French media were consumed by this story for days, with headlines like "When Football Kills." French authorities are investigating and everyone in the country -- as far as I could tell -- were appalled, as indeed they should be. Of course the whole thing is terrible, and sad, and we all know how I feel about racism in football. It's even sadder that this took place in France, which is, with Britain, the only true multi-cultural country in Europe. That said, of course this is not representative of the views of the country as a whole, any more than the Klan is representative of America as a whole. But of course the anti-French sentiment made itself clear in American reportage of the incident. I don't think I can say it any better than this. Grrr.

Cannavoro Controversy. When football media (including in Italy, where it seems they are equally divided between pro and con) weren't occupied with the PSG incident, they were completely engrossed by the Cannavaro-Ballon D'Or controversy, which, whatever. So apparently most people (including me) think the award should have gone to Thierry Henry -- I just don't think a World Cup performance is enough for this award. Henry had a Champions League final AND a World Cup final to brag about. Not to mention a none-too-shabby fall. So that's one part of it. The other part has to do with Cannavaro as role model: a 1999 video, shot by Cannavaro himself in a Moscow hotel room, shows the Parma medical team injecting performance-boosting drugs into the arm of the then 25-year old defender on the eve of Parma’s 3-0 UEFA cup finals win against Olympique Marseille.

My thinking on this is first, let the Henry thing go. It's done, it's awarded, and yes, it's a shame, but let's move on. As to the second, clearly that was team policy -- it's not like Cannavaro was shooting up in an alley somewhere. Can a player go against team policy/his coach? I would imagine not. So let's not blame Cannavaro here, and take a closer look at Italian football, which I am convinced is rotten at the core, in more ways than one.

FIFA World Player of the Year. FIFA announced the finalists for World Player of the Year -- Zidane, Ronaldinho and Cannavaro. My money is on Cannavaro even though we all know who I would pick. Keep your fingers crossed for Zizou. But to be honest, I'm a bit surprised at the choices. WHERE'S HENRY???

Premiere League Angst. Man Utd and Chelsea drew and Arsenal lost to Fulham (thanks for the emails Dave). Fulham!!!! I HATE Man Utd and am sad that it looks like they'll win the League. Plus now they've advanced to the next stage of the Champions League. And I don't know if anyone watched the game against Middlesbrough last Saturday, but...Cristiano. You are really, really talented. You don't need to dive. Cut it out. And Arsenal. Sigh. Dave tells me there is talk of Henry being traded because he is out to injury for a month. WHAT??? Honestly, I get mad just thinking about it. If this happens I'll never, ever forgive you Arsene. I mean, you can't be furious that he didn't win the Ballon D'Or one minute and trade him the next. Plus, there's no way he's not playing against Chelsea. Come on.

In other news, the Dubai government has made an offer to buy Liverpool. The buy, which is being positioned as an "investment," would take place through Dubai International Capital, the international investment arm of Dubai Holding, which is a government-run entity. What up in the Middle East? Are they collecting football clubs? I'm all for free trade and foreign investment, but I don't blame the Brits for chafing -- Fulham, Portsmouth, Man Utd, Chelsea, West Ham, Aston Villa and now this. Imagine how we would feel if the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bulls, New York Yankees were foreign-owned -- I wouldn't care, but plenty would (er, they're not foriegn-owned, right?).

Thank God. Barcelona made it through to Champions League knock-out round. Let's hope they beat Chelsea AND Man Utd. And Arsenal drew 0-0 with Porto today. Which means they're through. Fuh-ew.