World Football Postulant

Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs will shift toward the middle of the pitch.
Image courtesy of FIFA.

This is the part of the program where you get to learn a little more about the author’s history.

Ryan Giggs is the reason I follow football.  My fantasy football team names are usually “Welsh Wingers.”   I was lucky enough to have my initial introduction to European club football coincide with his cracking United’s senior team.  I have been able to follow his entire, illustrious career.

While I have slowly trained myself to be (a little more) objective when it comes to all things Giggsy, seeing his name in the headlines always evokes more comment that you would get regarding a similarly situated player.  This is why today’s news that Sir Alex Ferguson plans to shift Giggs away from his wing position.

The United boss has said that Ryan Giggs’ days of patrolling his left wing position are over.  This is not news to Premier League followers.  Giggs’ age (34) has made him a less frequent selection and less effective when in the lineup.  Last year he dealt with various injury concerns and this season, after being arguably United’s best player in their season opener against Newcastle, was out for near-a-month with a leg injury.

After Giggs returned to health last year, Ferguson started using him in a central, supporting role - something short of a true second striker, but not quite an attacking midfielder, either.  As was the case in the Champions League final, Giggs would be brought on in the last third of the match to provide direction and decision-making prowess to help stabalize a young United team.  In a bit of symmetry, he would often come on for Paul Scholes, another Red Devil from a generation’s past whose role is subtly changing.

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England center back Rio Ferdinand will miss Saturday’s World Cup Qualifier against Andorra.

Manchester United and England international Rio Ferdinand will miss Saturday’s World Cup Qualifier against Andorra with a back injury. Fabio Capello said that he will be the only player to miss the match with injury but should be available for next week’s match versus Croatia. Everton’s Joleon Lescott or West Ham United’s Matthew Upson will take Ferdinand’s place. Wes Brown could also be called upon to move in from the right, with Glen Johnson to take that position.

The nature of the back injury has been described as “stiffness.” It is unclear when Ferdinand suffered this injury. It is possible he has been playing with it at Manchester United. If so, the move to bench him may be precautionary.

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Kevin Keegan, today, made it official.  He has resigned as manager of Newcastle United FC.  This comes after a week of speculation as to whether he was still with the club.  Word had leaked on Monday that he had been fired, a rumor the club later refused.  With news outlets monitoring the team’s facility, noting Keegan’s parking spot had been empty all week, there w ere only so many secrets that could be kept.  After releasing a statement through the League Manager’s Association today, Keegan made it official.  Newcastle has lost their manager.
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I just finished posting my Week 3 review article to American Soccer Reader. Here is a direct link.  I name Player of the Week, Manager of the Week, XI of the Week, talk briefly about how the teams lay giong into the international match break, and rank the tops one through twenty.

Now, I am going to spend some time updating ASR for all the big Premiership news.  There are three main pieces which stick out (off the top of my head):  Dubai, Robinho, Berbatov.  I’m sure I’ll find other news, too.

Owen Hargreaves had been expected to return to Manchester United’s lineup today against Zenit St. Petersburg in the UEFA Super Cup.  Although Alex Ferguson was going to use the exhibition as an opportunity to get the England international some playing time, the midfielder has been ruled out of today’s match after his knee was deemed not ready for the match.  Having already ruled himself out of England’s internationals next week, Hargreaves will have two more weeks to get fit for Manchester United’s trip to Anfield on August 13.

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Newcastle United midfielder James Milner has joined Aston Villa. The former England U21 international has submitted a transfer request last week in what has become a highly publicized wantaway saga. Over the last two days, the transfer request become known after the club had asked the player and his representation to keep his August 20 request private. The Professional Footballer’s Association was brought in to help in what became a dispute after the news of his transfer request leaked.

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One of the more exciting days of the European club football season is the day the Champions League group stage is drawn.

The 32 teams that have qualified for the group stage are drawn into eight, four-team groups.  Before that happens, all teams are broken into four pots, labeled A through D, where they are grouped according to a team’s strength (as determined by a formula called a coefficient).  Each of the eight groups can have no more than one team from each pot, no more than one team from a country.  The eight groups end up pretty even.

The draw is fun because you end up with a series of matches which, in addition to being high profile based on the quality of the teams involved, are rare.  In the days before the draw, you start considering the possibilities and potential story lines:  Chelsea and Fiorentina in a group, forcing Adrian Mutu to play the club he owes £14 million; Marseille being slotted with Arsenal months after having sold them Samir Nasri, and potentially getting Bayern Munich in the group, so they would have to face Franck Ribery; Barcelona being slotted with a Zenit St. Petersburg team whose star, Andrei Arshavin, so badly wanted to play at Camp Nou; FC Porto being grouped with Inter Milan and facing Jose Mourinho.

Here’s how the eight groups ended up being drawn, with the clubs listed in order of the group they were drawn from:  A to D.  Continue Reading »

After Liverpool’s defeat of Standard Liège, it was announced that Steven Gerrard would undergo surgery Thursday morning to correct a groin problem that has bothered him for the last month. The Reds’ captain decided to play through the pain this weekend against Middlesbrough as well as tonight, though against the Belgian champions he was a none factor and Rafa Benitez probably would have been better served with somebody else in the lineup. That Liverpool does not have somebody to fill that spot may have contributed to the decision to play Gerrard, and thanks to the upcoming break in the club schedule for World Cup qualifiers, Liverpool should only have to go one match without Stevie G.

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I wrote a recap of the particulars for American Soccer Reader.  You can see it here.  The only detail left is how much Tottenham paid for their new striker.  The figures I have seen to this point are £14 million to £16 million with no sources reliable enough to quote.  At this point, it looks like it does not matter.  Roman Pavlyuchenko is moving from Spartak Moscow to Tottenham with a significant ripple effect.

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Due to time constraints, I have published my Manchester United-Portsmouth thoughts directly to American Soccer Reader.  Normally I write the draft here, edit it, and them move it over to ASR, but time has been short over the last day, and routines (which I abhor) have to change.

Here is a direct link to that review.