Transfer Window Ends Today!

We are in the last hour of the transfer window for Europe and at this point I don't think a whole lot has happend.

We know Ronaldo is going to go to Milan. David Beckham will join the LA Galaxy at the end of the season. I believe Mascherano is leaving West Ham to move onto Liverpool, but I haven't seen much action today.

Maybe they are all waiting until the last moment.

Here's the unexciting news of what's been going on:

Francisco Manuel Duran: Malaga to Liverpool (free)
Johan Cavalli: Istres to Watford (free)
Alvaro Arbeloa: Deportivo to Liverpool (££2.6m)
Manuel Fernandes: Benfica to Everton (loan until the end of the season)
Paul Lawson: Celtic to St Mirren (loan until the end of the season)
Jon Macken: Crystal Palace to Derby (free)
Wayne Henderson: Brighton to Preston (£200,000)
Matthew Upson: Birmingham to West Ham (£6m)
Mark Yeats: Spurs to Leicester (loan until the end of the season)
Michael Duberry: Stoke to Reading (undisclosed)
Francisco Manuel Duran: Malaga to Liverpool (free)
Johan Cavalli: Istres to Watford (free)
Alvaro Arbeloa: Deportivo to Liverpool (££2.6m)
Manuel Fernandes: Benfica to Everton (loan until the end of the season)
Paul Lawson: Celtic to St Mirren (loan until the end of the season)
Jon Macken: Crystal Palace to Derby (free)
Wayne Henderson: Brighton to Preston (£200,000)
Matthew Upson: Birmingham to West Ham (£6m)
Mark Yeats: Spurs to Leicester (loan until the end of the season)
Michael Duberry: Stoke to Reading (undisclosed)

I'll have to check into the internation papers to get the story on any other last minute deals. This really just involves the UK.

Arsenal Storm Back in OT Victory in the 2nd Leg of the Carling Cup

The picture is actually from this weekends FA Cup Draw against Bolton 1-1. Bolton took the lead and Arsenal made their way back with a header by Kolo Toure. The second leg will determine who moves on to play Blackburn in the 5th round.

Tonight Arsenal took on Spurs at Emerites Stadium in the second leg of the Carling Cup semi-final. The first leg ended in a 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane the previous week. This one went scoreless until the 77th minute when Arsenal went on the board with a goal by Adebayor. Shortly after in the 85th minure Mido put one away to tie it up at 1-1.

the match went to extra time. I thought the away goal rule was in effect, but not so. This forced the match to extra time and it was then in the 105th minute that Aliadiere put one in the net to give us a 2-1 lead and 4-3 aggragate. It was the 113th minute when the deal was sealed with Rosicky having a shot off the post and bouncing off Pascal Chimbonda and going into the net. Rosicky played a tough match to help Arsenal move onto the final against Chelsea at Millenium Stadium in Cardiff.

Job well done this week.

First Leg of Carling Cup Semis Ends in a Draw

Arsenal played the first leg of the sem-finals of the Carling Cup, also known as The League Cup, to a 2-2 draw at White Hart Lane.

Julio Baptista ended up with a hatrick in this one scoring two goals for Arsenal and one for Spurs.

Spurs took the lead in the 12 minute of the match with a goal by Berbatov, this was followed up with an own goal on the 20th minute by Baptista. Arsenal went into the second half down 2-0, it wasn't looking good.

Baptista scored 4 goals in the previous Carling Cup victory over Liverpool. In this match he put the first one away in the 64th minute and the second in the 77th minute.

The second leg of the Cup Tie will be played at Ashburton Grove on January 31st. Arsenal need to win or draw 0-0 or 1-1 in order to move onto the finals.

The winner will face Chelsea on February 25th in Cardifff at Millineum Stadium for the final.

The match was supposed to be played at Wembley, but as we all have read, the reconstruction of the new stadium has been nothing but a nightmare. It was supposed to be finished by last May, but doesn't even look like it will be finished this year at all. Tune in and see.

Meanwhile, on the International Front...

...the U.S. team proved that it could actually beat someone by winning against Denmark 3-1. I only watched like 15 minutes, but saw Landon Donovan score the penalty -- other goals came from Jonathan Bornstein and Kenny Cooper. Anyway, bravo. (Although, according to the SUCKY commentators on ESPN -- honestly, can't we just get someone British who knows how commentary works?? -- the Danes played without their best players, since they are all in Europe playing with their clubs. All players were therefore drawn from the Danish domestic league, which doesn't play in January.) The United States play another friendly on February 7, when they host Mexico in Phoenix.

And in Holland news, Ruud van Nistelrooy has said he does not want to play for Holland again under coach Marco van Basten, saying he did not have "sufficient confidence" in the team's backroom staff. I don't even know what that means, but apparently the coach told him he wasn't guaranteed a starting slot, since he has so many other good strikers. Who? van Persie, of course, and Kuyt? But who else is Dutch?

Stand Up If You Hate ManU, Stand Up

I know that Shona has already written a story on this one, but it deserves two stories because it was just such a sweet day. ManUtd came into this match with only two losses this season and one of those was to Arsenal at Old Crapford. Now we just handed them their third loss and let everyone get a little closer to them in the table. Actually Chelsea lost as well to Liverpool so they won't be gaining anything :)

The first half was pretty intense ending 0-0 and not really allowing many opportunities to score. Arsenal really weren't passing well and getting things together. It certainly was a back and forth evenly matched match until the second half.

When Shrek scored on that pass across the middle, I though we were done. Watching him celebrate just devastated me. I hate that little pecker. At that point I was just sitting there just thinking how much more of an ulcer can Arsenal give me.

It made a world of difference when we brought Robin van Persie on late in the match. With 7 minutes left on a ball slotted across RvP stuck it in the back of the net. My friend Neil was over and scared the shit out of my daughter Madeline and we started jumping around and yelling. She started to scream her head off and had to go in the other room.

Now with two minutes left when Eboue sent that cross in to Henry's head and right in the back of the net. We went nuts -- it was just so amazing to see us finally stick it to ManU. Madeline fortunately was in the other room or she may have been scarred for life.

What a sweet victory. Now we need to keep that going and finish off the final 14 matched strong and maybe we can get outselves in the top two if not first.

Come on Arsenal!

UN-FRIGGIN'-BELIEVABLE

Arsenal 2-1 Manchester United

Dave, I'll let you do commentary, you're better at that, but let me just say -- Henry!! van Persie!! Amazing, amazing goals, and a nod to Fabregas, Rosicky, Toure, Clichy and Lehmann, who all had good games despite Rosicky missing a few shots on goal. Eboue needs to stop the childishness, even if I do understand, I hate Rooney too, and that Lehmann thing at the end was just embarrassing. It was cloudy and cold in New York on Sunday, but as of 1 PM EST my apartment was warm and sunny. The one sad note: van Persie broke the "fifth metatarsal in his right foot," and will be out for about six weeks.

Arsenal v Manchester United

Well, it's round two. No Robin van Persie, which I know Dave you don't think is a big deal since Henry is around, so I'll just hope you're right. Plus we're at home, so that is something -- Arsenal is undefeated at home, if I remember correctly. I just wish Gallas was back, and Gilberto. Sucks to not have both of them PLUS van Persie. But we'll see. I'm a bit stressed, but then I am ALWAYS stressed about Arsenal and France games. Man Utd and Chelsea too, but for the opposite reason -- I always want them to lose.

For the other big game tomorrow -- Liverpool v Chelsea -- we want Chelsea to win, right? Because then if they win and we win, we move up one to third on the table. So let's hope Lampard et al are on form...

Keep your fingers crossed.

Blackburn 0-2 Arsenal, Savage Sucks

The first thing I have to say is that the Gilberto red card was COMPLETE CRAP. Robbie Savage is no Materazzi, but dude is he close. Yes Gilberto reacted, big whoop. That "kick" was pretty gentle, all things considered, and it deserved a yellow for sure, but red! And then doing that and not giving what's-his-name-that-tripped-van Persie a red as well is more crap. What about Tugay stomping on Fabregas? What about Emerton reacting and throwing Fabregas to the ground? (Did Fabregas stick out his tongue at Emerton after that? Looked to me like he did -- pretty funny.) What about that red, huh? Terrible ref.

Deep breath. Having said that, how amazing is it that we won 2-0 with ten men? Jens, I take back (almost) everything bad I've ever said about you. Senderos, Fabregas were awesome, and of course TH. Sigh. The world is a little brighter when he's on the pitch. Beautiful goal.

Mourinho Leaves, Sheva Stays

In a nice little turn of events, reports today indicate that Mourinho is leaving Chelsea and Shevchenko is staying. Lots of rumors flying around about both of these things, but The Sun reported today that Mourinho told a friend, "That's it. I'm going at the end of the season... I don't know where yet." He is apparently mad that the club refuses to give him money to fund the purchase of new players -- i.e. defenders. If that is really the case that's freakin' pathetic. Wasn't Chelsea's second team supposed to better than most first teams? Collecting individual stars doesn't mean you'll have a good team -- that's as true of Chelsea as it is of the England national team. Anyway, I'll miss Mourinho. I don't really agree with him, but he is without a doubt the most charismatic manager out there.

Meanwhile Sheva insists he's not going anywhere, despite rumors of a move back to Ukraine and/or Real Madrid. If he doesn't go to Barca or Arsenal I think he should stay where he is. I think Mourinho leaving is good for him -- maybe if he gets the confidence of the new manager, I bet he'll play better as well as more. And people should lay off -- give him a chance.

And I wish everyone would stop obsessing about Beckham. Enough already.

LA Bound Becks

Well it looks like the picture says it all to what Becks has to say to Real Madrid. So he's going to come and play with my LA Galaxy team, which means that my season ticket prices will more than likely go up about $25 per match. If it does, I'll have to rethink the possibility of renewing. The offer is said to be worth something like $250 million in endorsements and $1 million a week.

The last time an American soccer league (NASL) did this they went broke and folded. Bringing players like Pele, Beckenbauer, Best, Kruyff and many others over cost the league so much money they couldn't stay afloat. Let's hope this doesn't backfire on LA. I'd have guess that they would be getting rid of Landon Donovan to cut the salary cap back a bit.

Posh is completely behind this. I just hope he doesn't become a creepy scientologist.

I Like this Picture

It's just nice to see.

Everton to Be "Inspired" by Stallone

Forget Liverpool, Chelsea troubles. Apparently Everton are so hard up that they are calling in Sly Stallone, who as far as I know has had two big hits (not counting franchises) -- Rocky (1976) and Rambo (1982). Oh and all right, also "Escape to Victory" (thank you, IMDB), a WWII movie about a team of Allied prisoners of war who take on and beat Nazi Germany's finest (he was the keeper). Stallone, a friend of some Everton owner or part-owner, will travel to Liverpool and on to the pitch before Sunday's match against Reading.

How this over-the-hill ACTOR is supposed to inspire anyone is beyond me. I don't know where Everton are on the table, but god, surely not this low. Man does he look like shit. Yikes.

Wycombe Hold Chelsea

With this team: Hilario, Geremi, Bridge (Lampard 67), Ferreira, Ashley Cole, Essien, Makelele, Mikel, Ballack, Kalou (Sinclair 90), Wright-Phillips (Sahar 61). Chelsea still could not beat a team that's in the 3rd division. Drawing Wycombe 1-1 in the Carling Cup Quarter Finals to force a 2nd leg to have to be played.

It just amazes me that people say that Chelsea can field a 2nd team that's good enough to win the EPL, but yet they play a 3rd division team in the Quarter Finals of the Carling Cup to a draw.

Amazing - that's all I have to say. I actually own a Wycombe Wanderers Jersey. My good friend who I stay with when in London lives just up the hill from Wycombe in Hazelmere, so I stopped down at the club at seasons end and picked one up for next to nothing as they were relegated from 2nd to 3rd division.

When I refer to 3rd division I mean what they call in England League Two - it goes EPL, League One, League Two, then who knows what - non or local league.

Wanderers had already beaten two Premiership sides - Fulham and Charlton - on their way to the semi-finals and they were showing the conviction that they could make it three.

Let's go Wanderers!

Will He Stay or Will He Go

With 3 weeks left to the final scamble of the open transfer window, will David Beckham stay with Real Madrid or will he make his way back to England and play once again in the EPL?

The tougher question is if he were to come back to the EPL who would want him?

He certainly couldn't play at Chelsea and Man United wouldn't take him back as long as Sir Alex Red Nose is there. I would think that Posh would want to be close to London and their mansion they own there. So you have Charlton, Spurs, Arsenal, Fulham, Watford and West Ham. I would guess that he would probably go to West Ham if anywhere. If Arsenal get Ribery, they certainly wouldn't want a 31 year old midfielder to come play with the youngsters. I wouldn't mind seeing him in an Arsenal uniform, more for the revenues that would be generated on kit sales than anything. Arsenal shirts would be seen all over Japan & China for sure.

3 week, no contract from Real yet. We will see.

Now the latest is that Posh has been seen in LA house hunting and that the MLS is trying to negotiate with Becks to come and play for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Right now the highest they pay for a player in Landon Donovan and I think it's like around $1 million. How are they going to come up with the money to pay a guy who's currently making around $10 million a year plus another $40 million in endorsements. Will people continue to sponsor him?

I just don't see the LA thing happening, but if it does it will bring more money to the MLS in ticket sales and shirt sales.

Baptista Explodes in the Carling Cup Quarter Finals

Julio Baptista destroyed Liverpool's defense by scoring four goals in the Carling Cup quarter-final match on Tuesday evening. The Gunners started the match off with a team made up mainly of second team players, but played like they could compete against any first team club in the EPL. The final score of this one was 6-3 with Song & Aliadiere putting the other two in.

The real hero of this one wasn't Baptista, but was Jeremie Aliadiere who tore apart the defense and fed most of the goals into Baptista. Aliadiere has had a tough time trying to break into the first team lineup. He's been sent out on loan and has spent most of his time on the reserve team. He looked fantastic in this match.

Liverpool started a mixed lineup with Gerrard, Bellemy, Fowler, Garcia, Kuuyt and a few other first team players getting in on this one.

Baptista's first goal was an amazing shot from 25 yards out. He took the free kick and bent it right over the wall and into the corner. I'm really not sure why the Liverpool keeper was standing 6 yards off his line, but he paid the price.

This was the second match this week against Liverppol. We played them to a 3-1 victory over the weekend with out full first team in action minus Jens Lehman. Manuel Almunia did make some nice saves even with letting in one Saturday and three on Tuesday.

It was nice to see a the Gunners looking like a top form club again. Let's hope that they can continue the effort this weekend against Blackburn. Arsenal will face Bolton in the 4th Round of the FA Cup and Spurs in the Semi-Final of the Carling Cup. The Semi-Finals of the Carling Cup will have two matches, both home and away with the goal total settling who win.

A New Year's Wish List

I was going to do a "Best of 2006" report, but my neck issues got the better of me, so I'll do this instead. I didn't include stuff that's obvious to anyone that knows me, like hoping Arsenal win the Champions League, or that Materazzi only scores own goals in 2007. Not all of these are realistic, of course, but what the hell. In descending order, that:

10. Sepp Blatter retires. If I have to explain why, you shouldn't be reading this.

9. Cristiano Ronaldo gets the hell out of England. I know he just signed a contract, but honestly, he needs to go to Barcelona or something (although I understand they turned him down this summer -- hmm, why?). Hating Marco as I do, I understand why the English hate him, but still. I don't know how he can keep taking it.

8. Drogba doesn't get the Ballon D'Or (or FIFA World Player of the Year) for 2007. He's good, he really is, and I do like him. But it had better be all about Henry this year, or I am going to write a very sternly-worded letter to France Football and FIFA. I might anyway. This year was a travesty.

7. Buffon joins Arsenal. Look, I like Lehmann. I wonder why he always chews gum, but I do like him. But he (like Barthez) always gives me a heart attack. Starting a fight with Drogba! He was lucky lucky lucky not to get a red card. And that goal in the Sheffield game was shameful. And Buffon seems to be looking for a new gig, and since he is one of two Italians I like, I think he should come on over. He'd be great.

6. Sheva leaves Chelsea. I hate to see him treated like a second-class player -- who, in god's name, lists him as a sub? Leave leave leave. But don't go back to Italy. Doesn't Barca need a striker, sans Eto'o?

5. France changes the law and lets soccer teams go public. Unfortunately, like everything else in this world it's all about the money, and even Lyon can't compete with the Man Utds of the world (forget Chelsea -- NO one can compete with them) without it, and going public is the best way to get there. I'd love to see a French team win the Champions League one day, or just be home to a few of the top European clubs -- plus I'm sure a lot of French players would love to stay home.

4. Domenech comes to his senses and puts Flamini, Clichy on the France national team. Stop chasing Higuain and look in your own frickin' back yard, for god's sake. And what about this Adel Taarabt guy that the Spurs just signed?

3. South Africa pulls it together. It would be so great to see the World Cup in an African country, especially if a team like Ivory Coast lives up to its potential and goes far. But I am not at all convinced. I hope Australia and/or England are prepared...

2. Italy doesn't qualify for Euro 2008. That would be so great. Part of this would mean that France beats them at home this year, which will be tough, but you gotta believe.

1. Henry finally, finally, gets the credit and recognition he deserves. Oh okay, this is an obvious one, and somewhat redundant of #8, but still. Every time I watched an Arsenal game when Henry was injured some stupid commentator would say something along the lines of the Henry factor being "overrated." And during the World Cup it was always "he plays harder for club than country." Come ON. I'm not sure why, but the official football world doesn't seem to ever give him the credit he deserves, and it PISSES ME OFF. Let's hope they comes to their senses in 2007 .

Happy New Year.