Book Roundup (Yes, footie fans write books and I'll be damned if we don't read as well)

(Provided by Wikipedia and Penguin Books)



So, I am not a huge Arsenal fan but I passed this book in Boarders one day and I decided to give it a go. I think it is unfair to put it in the sports section of the story. Sure, it deals with the authors devotion to the Gunners, but it is more of a life story and therefore deserves a spot in the biography isle.

The book is a wonderful collection of events in the authors life. It covers the time period between 1968 and 1992 and highlights what was a very bleak Arsenal squad in the good ol' days. The author takes each match and compares it to an event in his own life.

Perhaps the most interesting quality of the book is how the author abandons Arsenal over and over again but somehow always makes it back to Highbury. The fan base for an English team is more intense than anything an American football team will ever experience. And to see a fan leave the game on more than one occasion is an amazing thing to read. This couples well with the authors description of his level of ritual before and during a match. Hornsby allows the reader into the mind of someone who abandons what he loves.

A second interesting factor that is brought out in the book is the presentation of the life that the author leads. When you look at the fan who commits such a large portion of their life to a team, one would expect them to have no life, no love, no nothing. Hornsby shows the reader something entirely different. He discusses his school life and proceeds to his college life. Then he shows the black and white world of office work and how football can make a boring day at work interesting. He then moves on to being a teacher. This takes the mask off the average American picture of a European soccer fan.

The third and final point that the author strives to drive home is that all English fans are not hooligans. To look at a work like "Among The Thugs" that stresses that violence is key to the football experience and then look at "Fever Pitch," it is a complete 180.

If you want to see how a true fan lived during twenty plus season of football, read "Fever Pitch." It is extremely well written and is a quick read that any true fan of the game would enjoy.

Memories

(courtesy BBC)


This is a photo of the Croatian international for Arsenal, Eduardo, on the weekend after a challenge gone bad. The bad tackle shattered the strikers left fibula and left an open dislocation of his ankle. Reading this instantly brought back memories of my injury over the summer. I think I suffered almost the same injury as Eduardo and let me tell you, it really is the suck. He has it a bit better though, he won't be doing most of his crutch work in the middle of a Southern Summer like I did. All reports though say that Eduardo will be out for about nine months, which will bring him back around the Christmas window of the 2008/09 season. What impact will this have on the leaders of the Premiership though?

It could have been worse for them, that's for sure. However, from the numbers alone, it could hurt them in European competitions. He trails Fabregas by two goals in that category. All around though, he is the only striker for the Gunners with goals in all competitions. Where he will be missed the most will not be with the north London side but with his national team. Eduardo, a Brazilian native but a Croatian national, has been on fire for his team throughout the qualifiers for Euro 08. In twenty two appearances, he has stretched the back of the net thirteen times. And with an expected return in nine months, he will miss the European Championships this summer.

There is another side to this incident though that should not be downplayed. The role that Martin Taylor played in this. Taylor challenged Eduardo three minutes in and caught the striker with the spikes of his boot on his ankle. Taylor was red carded straight away but it does not stop there. Birmingham's skipper, Alex McLeish, agreed with the decision to card Taylor but has tried to downplay the severity of the action by leaning on the emotional state of his player. Arsene Wenger has called for Taylor to be banned from football, he thinks the attack was intended to take out the Gunner. This, coupled with the personal grief that Taylor must be feeling and the harrasment from fans will compound for some time. It could certainly be worse. Eduardo is expected to make a full recovery and will more than likely go on to play another seven or so years (rough guess). There have been players that have went down and never got up again. That would be a far more traumatic experience for Taylor.

At the end of the day, should Taylor be punished? Sure. Should he be dismissed forever? No. It was a rough challenge but with a strong chance of Eduardo coming back, there is really no need to dismiss Taylor from football forever. Wenger's reaction that everyone is "targeting" Arsenal is rubbish. Birmingham is seventeenth in the league right now with a negative GD. The only team that could catch them right now would be Man U. But that would take two by the Red Devils and at least a loss and a draw by the Gunners. It could happen but it's unlikely. But it is likely that Taylor and Eduardo will continue to play for years to come and that Wenger, like every other Premiership gaffer, will be paranoid when they are at the top.

You Win Some. You Draw Some

That seems to be the story of the start of the round of sixteen for the UEFA Champions League. The best clubs that Europe can offer took to their respective pitches on Tuesday and Wednesday evening and gave their fans something to talk about for the next fortnight.

I dug into the previous posts and found that I called some of the groups right but others I called wonderfully wrong. Valencia did not make it through. And I certainly do not remember picking Olympiacos to make it this round. But if I remember correctly, they are not teaching me to predict the future, here in grad school, they are only teaching me how to make educated guesses off the available information.

The match action itself over the last two nights was descent. I will focus on the two games that I got a chance to watch, since I do not have Deportes. Liverpool and Inter from Anfeild. If you can not play at the San Siro, then by God Anfeild is just as good. The fans were getting their Merseyside pride on for the better part of the match. However, I'm not too sure what they really had to cheer for, apart from the two late goals right before the whistle. Inter went down to ten men at the 30 minute mark off a rather poor call by the ref. Materazzi was cautioned early in the game for a foul against Torres and then he was carded a second time for "fouling" Torres yet again. This would get him sent off and saw Inter go down to ten men.

It is interesting that it would take the Anfeild boys almost an hour to poke a hole through the ten men that were out there. Inter responded well to the hasty send off and really displayed what a minimum amount of effort was needed to hold off a Liverpool squad that has been knocked out of any hope of a domestic cup this season.

The goals in this one came almost at the full time whistle and the first goal by Kuyt, should have been handled better Cesar. The second goal by Stevie G was just poor pick up by the Brazil national teams keeper. All in all, this was a game that Liverpool should have won by a larger amount but the lack of cohesiveness within the squad played a large role in this, I think. Needless to say, it will be an interesting home leg for Milan at the San Siro in three weeks. With a full squad and fresh hit of steam, it is not unlikely that they could pull a three-nil victory and send Liverpool and Rotating Rafa back to England.

Arsenal and AC Milan. I have been excited to see this fixture since the round of sixteen draw was announced. You have a wonderful marriage of Premiership talent mixed with the technical and aged play of AC Milan. Early on, I don't think that AC were expecting Arsenal to come out and play at Premiership speed, but the Gunner surprised the current club champs. On the contrary, I do not think Arene Wengers side expected AC to be able to shut down their offense. Inter did an amazing job of shutting down Eboue, Fabregas, and Adebayor. Even after the start of the second half, when the Gunners seemed to find their boots, the back four of AC turned away attempt after attempt, making it look like child's play.

The chances in this match clearly favored Arsenal. Kalac, in goal for the injured Dida who hurt his back while sitting on a bench at the weekend against Palma, faced an amazing six shots on goal and performed with little strain even though there were concerns over his injured finger. With all these chances and four minutes of stoppage time, one would consider that the Gunners could get at least one goal out of this one and they almost did. However, Adebayor's header would ring off the crossbar and get sent out into touch, effectively ending any hope for a score in this one.

So, who do I favor for the return leg? I would have to put my money on AC. For starters they are playing at home. The San Siro is one of the most intimidating stadia to play at in all of European football. Secondly, Pato. The "Duck" had his first taste of European competition against the Gunners and had he calmed down just a tad, he would have had a goal and gave his team an away advantage. Lastly, it's AC. One of the most successful European club sides ever. It should be renamed the AC Milan League. Yeah, I know that is pushing things but hey, it's my blog. You don't like it, go read 90 Minutes magazine.

Shut up and leave already!

(courtesy of BBC)



It seems that there is more than one cry baby at Stamford Bridge these days. Apart from Roman Abromavich, you now have Didier Drogba.

Drogba, who is currently on national team duty in the African Cup of Nations, has said consistently that he wants to leave the London club during the summer transfer window.

What makes him a cry baby about it though? He won't shut up about it! I understand that the posh lifestyle that he leads in London is too much on him and that the pressure he feels at the club is immense. Had he kept his mouth shut in the wake of Jose's departure, his name might not be in so much mud at present. But no, he did what most athelets do when faced with something that they don't like, they run straight to the press.

How many times does he have to see his name in the paper before he does something about it though? Good God man, you should have asked for an out during the winter break. A striker like Drogba though never would have done that because he would have been cup tied for the Champions League and how dare he not get to score goals for another team.

I don't think he will have a hard time leaving in the Summer. Chelsea's signing of Anelka will hopefully combine well with the existing squad. While I don't think the mighty Blues will finish first or second this year, I think a top four finish is in store with them and hopefully, they will return to the top of the table next year. So, Avram, the board of directors, let Drogba out of his contract when summer gets here, he's rubbish and there has been enough garbage around the Bridge in the last few years, time to start cleaning it up.

Becks and Brown

(photo courtesy of BBC news)


Ah, my two favorite topics in the world, footie and politics. These two things put together make me as giddy as my friend Josh would get if he was at the World Series of Poker final table, making the nuts on the river. These are my two specialties, so when they show up in the news together, I have to check my knickers.

So, I get up this morning and check my Google feeds and I see that Beckham was talking to Gordon Brown today. This caused me to raise an eyebrow and I clicked on the link and read the article. As I scanned over the BBC story I found myself damn near in a tickle fit. Before I finished reading it I zoomed over to Soccernet to see what the people that lick Beck's boots had to say about the meeting.

David Beckham, the man who was touted to bring life back to American soccer, met with Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of England, to discuss various things. Brown is interested in football according to Becks and apparently Beckham was the only person that 10 Downing could muster at this time of the year. That fits really, all the wonderful English players are in the middle of real games and are training for the Champs League and international friendlies right now. What is Becks doing? Training with Arsenal. And for those of you that are following the Prem at this point in time, you are saying to yourself, "holy shit, Becks training with Arsenal. Oh God, he's going to destroy people in the MLS this year." Yeah, what most people, BBC and Soccernet included, never report is that Becks is training with the second squad. He is not fit enough to play around with the big boys anymore.

Anyways, Becks and Brown talked about football for about an hour and apparently Brown will be visiting Beck's academy on Thursday to see how things are going and he has expressed interest in working Beckham's academy into the national scene with the schools. I think Brown is doing this as a favor to someone or he's doing it for the photo op. Maybe Becks thinks that if he comes home to talk to the gaffer of the country, that when Cappello starts naming squads, the PM will give the Italian a call to get ol' David back on the squad. There is also speculation that Beckham will be the World Cup ambassador for England. If he ends up doing this, then the Galaxy can expect Becks to be broken for the rest of his contract. Becks returns home and soccer dies in America again until Josey Altidore goes away for a few years and comes home and starts to score goals with his eyes closed. Happy footies all.

Blatter's Banter

England's new coach, the sixty-one year old Fabio Cappello, arrived for his first day at work today and he has already miffed the president of the world's governing body. Sepp Blatter went on record today and voiced concern that England had picked its second international gaffer in the last five years. Blatter compares England to the other great footballing nations of Germany and Brazil. These countries all have homegrown managers. Blatter blames the influx of foreign players to the English and the lack of training for England's up and comings on their current slump in the international game.

There are several things wrong with Blatter's argument. Not since 1962 when England hosted the World Cup, have they even come close to winning under an English manager. Two of the world cups, the team failed to qualify completely. When England failed to qualify for Euro 08, the FA had had too much from McClearan. You can not blame the FA for going outside of England to look for someone. There is no clear gaffer talent within the country. The only person that I can think of would be to bring Sir Alex on board but he won't double dip with Man U.

The other claim that English football focuses too much on international talent. I don't know if Blatter has looked at the number of clubs and teams on a global scale. According to the most recent information that I have on hand, from The Thinking Fans Guide To The World Cup, England has 42,000 clubs with more than 1.5 million registered players. With the size of England's population, roughly 49 M, that's more than 30 players per thousand.England has clubs and they have players. They have academies by the boat load. Second teams. Third teams. Hell, if Arsenal could expand their academy, you would have a first rate English team every year.

You can not argue that the teams are not being managed and cultivated the right way. They would not be capped for the national team if the players did not show some sense of talent. You could argue that with the proper coaching, that the younger players that will be populating the team as Becks and Terry finally move off to the retirement pitch, England regain their namesake as the country that started it all.

Cappello is the man to do this. He has coached mainly in Italy, with a brief stint at Real Madrid. Cappello has won the domestic title for most of the years that he has managed these big squads so, it's fair to say, that he knows what he is doing and will not possibly do any worse that McClearen did while he was at the helm. The earliest friendly and test for Fabio comes up soon against Switzerland and it will be interesting to see if he stays around for the World Cup qualifiers that begin in October of this year.

I should drop of graduate school

So I can write about soccer full time. Since I started this program, my focus has been shifted from the beautiful game to the ugly world of international terrorism and crime and all those yucky things. Once good ideas has come from this though, I am currently enrolled in a law enforcement intel class and the training I get from it could possibly land me a job working for the MET in London. It would be ground zero for my doctorate research.

So, as far as English football is concerned, most things are the same. One of the top four teams that normally lead the Prem are leading the Prem in the form of Arsenal. England has failed to qualify for a big competition, what else is new? The FA has fired yet another coach for the national team. But, the interesting thing is who could be filling the role of gaffer for the country that spawned the damn sport.

The Special One. Jose Mourinho. That's right, the manager who loves the English game is considering making a return to the game he loves oh so much. Now, there are a few issues that come out of this. First, Jose is playing a nice little cat and mouse game with the FA boys. He has went from not wanting to coach in England for a year, to wanting to coach the national team, and now he it is rumored that he has withdrawn his interest because he wants to coach a club in Europe. I can't speculate who would want to bring Jose on as the manager. With his attitude, he would probably try and outshine the players. So that would mean no top flight clubs. So, Jose is indecisive, how does this effect the situation? England is looking for a gaffer that can come in and get things on the ball. World Cup qualifiers will start soon and you very well can't march onto the pitch without someone to tell Wayne Rooney to shoot from outside the box or tell John Terry to press up on the strikers.

Speaking of the skipper for England, Terry brings up another issue in this. JT has went on record saying that he wants Jose to captain the national team. This is obviously a reaction to Jose leaving the Bridge a few months ago. This would cause conflict among the team. I think Mourinho would play favorites and who better to be his favorite than his old squads skipper?

Do I like the Special One. Hell yeah I do. I think he is a great manager but England needs something different. When Mourinho arrived at the Bridge, like most top flight managers, he had a group of stellar players. That's not to say that the England national squad isn't amazing, they lack the cohesion that Jose would be use to working with. I think the social pressure would hurt the team as well. Jose, being the manager he is, would be expected to rework English football in a few weeks. Fergie couldn't do that himself and he is perhaps one of the greatest gaffers to have coached.

When it comes down to it, I think Martin O'Neil could be a great manager. He plays a style close to what the English would play having come from Ireland. He is also a more low profile individual and wouldn't carry the level of press that Jose would. England is in need of a special one but I don't think it's Jose this time around.