World Football Postulant

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.

Michael Ballack hurt his foot against Portsmouth on August 14 and had to leave the match.  He played last week, though it seems he probably should not have, as Chelsea has sufficient depth to prevent aggrevating injuries,  Now Ballack will be out for two weeks, missing Sunday’s match against Tottenham as well as Germany’s two World Cup qualifiers.

It is an injury which, like Steven Gerrard’s, seems convenient.  Continue Reading »

Tottenham Hotspur many not have been able to prove themselves a big club this summer, having hit the end of the transfer window with few of their many rumored targets hit, but on the home-front they can at least show themselves capable of acting like a big-boy.  That could be the resolution of the Dimitar Berbatov saga:  Tottenham sitting on their best player, putting him on the bench or relegating him to the reserves, and implicitly telling him that nobody does this to Tottenham.

Continue Reading »

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.

Continue Reading »

It will be suggested that Middlesbrough was done wrong on Saturday, and if you look at how and when Liverpool scored their two goals, the suggestion is persuasive.  But Liverpool’s 2-1 victory is no more unjust than Middlesbrough’s 1-0 win would have been.  That both of the Reds’ goals came after the 85th minute - one deflection from a Jamie Carragher shot; another, a laser beam from Steven Gerrard - is an irony of timing.  It does nothing to change the rest of the match, a rather evenly played affair that had Liverpool continue their struggles in the opponent’s third.  For Middlesbrough, the match showed Gareth Southgate’s team may be ready to take another step forward in spite of their loss. Continue Reading »

If you read my EPL preview over at American Soccer Reader, you know I think highly of Middlesbrough’s chances this season. I picked them to finish ninth, and the simulation I wrote saw them as having a outside but meaningful chance at finishing in the top seven. But given a chance to pick Boro when they hosted a team of similar standing (by the prediction) to open the season, I picked the visitor.

That’s because that visitor was Tottenham. Continue Reading »

Two months of the Andrei Arshavin saga will end next weekend when the international transfer window closes, but unless Zenit St. Petersburg shows some new-found willingness to compromise their position, that window may as well be closed now, as it concerns Arshavin.

On the club’s web site, Zenit announced that they will not be selling Arshavin.  They were unable to come to an agreement with Tottenham, who the player and agent had zero’d in on as Arshavin’s best chance of moving this summer.  Wanting two weeks to replace the Russian Player of the Year, the inability to get the deal done today has Zenit convinced not to sell him.

Continue Reading »

Manchester United fans may want to bemoan their club’s inability to get three points in their opener at Old Trafford, but solace can be found 930 miles to the southeast, where another storied European club was held to a tie in the home opener of their title defense.

Without three of their best players, FC Bayern Munich held on for a 2-2 victory over Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga opener on Friday,. Munich was playing without leading scorer Luca Toni, German Footballer of the Year Franck Ribery, or their best defender, Martin Demichelis. In other words: It happens.

The Red Devils got the benefit of Newcastle playing without their captain, Michael Owen, but Manchester United were still without Cristiano Ronaldo (injury, long-term), Carlos Tevez (bereavement), Nani (suspension), Anderson (Olympics), and Owen Hargreaves (injury) - all players that would have been expected to contribute in attack. That they were still able to create more and better opportunities throughout the match should be encouraging to Alex Ferguson and his supporters.

The lack of a cutting edge was, however, noticeable. Wayne Rooney played the whole match, whereas he was once thought to be out recovering from an illness acquired in Africa, but he lacked his world-class form, and it was evident when he was unable to make himself dangerous with the ball at his feet around the box. Frazier Campbell had three strong chances and should have had a goal early, but Manchester United’s only goal came when Darren Fletcher, two minutes after Newcastle went ahead off an Obafemi Martins header, guided a Ryan Giggs cross into the net. It was Fletcher’s way of evening the scales after he left Martins alone for a goal off a Magpies’ corner. After twenty-four minutes, the match had it final score.

Giggs was United’s best player during his sixty minutes on the pitch, a good news-bad news proposition for the Devils. The good news is the legendary left winger, who is thought to be in his final season at Old Trafford, looks able to contribute, where many had wondered what he had left in the tank. The bad news for Manchester United is that he was their best player, something (at best) peculiar for a European championship team. It was one example of how Manchester United’s injuries and absences had taken a toll on the pitch.

The injuries for the champions were not limited to before the match. Michael Carrick, who had been named to Fabio Capello’s England national team for Wednesday’s friendly against the Czech Republic, left with an ankle injury and will be out for three weeks. He has been replaced by Tottenham’s Jermaine Jenas for Wednesday, but with Owen Hargreaves still suffering from knee problems, it’s unclear Ferguson will be able to replace his holding midfielder as easily.

Ryan Giggs was not substituted because of age, form or fatigue; rather, he also suffered an injury and had to be removed. At the 2/3 mark of the match, Giggs left the match with a right hamstring injury which will also see him sidelined around three weeks. Late in the second half, center back Nemanja Vidic injured his knee with a supreme effort to get his head on a corner kick. The ball ended up going off the crossbar, and Vidic finished with a noticeable limp after hurting his right knee.

At the end of the match, names like Campbell, Rafael de Silva, and Rodrigo Possebon joined reserves like Fletcher and John O’Shea in United’s side, and while it was a team that was still able to trouble a Newcastle side that played over the last fifteen minutes as if to preserve their point, it was not enough to get a second goal. Newcastle’s two Argentinian imports saw to that.

The Magpies came into the season as the Premiership’s worst returning defense, but summer acquisitions Jonas Gutierrez (right midfield) and Fabricio Coloccini (center back) had a huge impact in preventing the champions’ a second goal. Gutierrez was the match’s best player, having a unparalleled activity rate between the boxes, an adept defensive sense that broke up many Red Devil attacks, and a couple of moments in attack that made him mildly dangerous. Coloccini was active in the middle of the back line - a rangy, physical presence who was frequently finding ways to disrupt the home side’s attack. Those two additions made a profound difference between the Newcastle that finished last season and the team that took a point from Olf Stafford on Sunday.

For Manchester United, the draw stings only because of what happened earlier in the day at Stamford Bridge. In isolation, the draw is defensible, but on the same day that Chelsea put up a 4-0 domination of Portsmouth, the draw becomes a source of worry. Again here, United can look to Germany, where Munich’s draw against Hamburg was made the more worrisome when Schalke 04, the Bundesliga’s third place team last season, dominated Hannover on Saturday. From a distance, it is difficult to convince the casual Bundesliga fan that Munich’s fortunes changed so much after two matches. With the distance of a couple of rounds of the Premiership going by, we will probably be looking on Sunday’s results with the same refrain.

In other words: it happens.

Note: This article will be edited for distribution at American Soccer Reader.

Links
Injury woes for Carrick, Giggs as United drop home points
Manchester United 1 Newcastle United 1: Fletcher spares United’s blushes as urgent need for striker intensifies
Gutierrez the type of player to light up toon
Keegan happy with United point
Magpies frustrate at Old Trafford
Carrick out of England friendly
Jenas replaces crocked Carrick
Fergie reflects on personnel problems
Fergie mulls over ‘credible’ point
Magpies frustrate United
Man Utd 1 Newcastle 1: Man Utd begin title defence in disappointing fashion
Man Utd 1-1 Newcastle: KK’s Toon stand firm
Man Utd v Newcastle stats and ratings
Rusty Manchester United held by Newcastle in opener
United held by buoyant Magpies
Frazier Campbell starts for Man United
Manchester United 1-1 Newcastle: as it happened
United begin title defence with dropped home points

For a fanbase desperate for some team, any team to unseat one of the Premiership’s Big Four, Tottenham was a beacon of hope.  Over the summer ,the other North London club has been linked with seemingly every wantaway player in Europe, casting hopes and wishes into the minds of those hoping Liverpool could be brought back to the league.  But for all those picking Tottenham to crack the cartel at the top of the table, Saturday at the Riverside proved a rude awakening.

It was a fair result, 2-1, beyond just Middlesbrough outplaying Spurs.  If anything, the 2-0 scoreline posted before Tottenham’s late, resigning goal was more just.  Boro controlled the entire match and truly looked the better team, sending notice to a league fanbase that had overlooked Gareth Southgate’s young squad while swooning over Spurs and Portsmouth.  From the opening lineups, when it was known Dimitar Berbatov would not be playing, when you could make a side-by-side comparison of the teams, you could see how the same Tottenham back line that was so porous last season, Darren Bent as their lead striker, and a couple of unremarkable names in the midfield made for a club not so much different from Southgate’s, who nobody is picking to make the top four.

On the pitch, there were stark differences.  Middlesbrough was able to control the middle of the field, rendering Luka Modric practically invisible.  Whereas Middlesbrough’s defense was efficient in dealing with the few challenges Bent and Giovani Dos Santos provided, Tottenham’s defense showed no improvement over last season.  Middlesbrough scored two goals but had other good opportunities.  It was only poor finishing from Afonso Alves that kept the Brazilian from multiple goals.  Stewart Downing outplayed David Bentley, and David Wheater added to his growing reputation as Middlesbrough showed they may have the best players of the two teams.  The Modric having an off-day and Berbatov on the sidelines for most of the match, Southgate’s stars were shining brighter on Saturday.

This was not just a one goal loss on the road, something that would be forgivable for almost any club in the Premiership.  Tottenham did not play Middlesbrough to within a goal.  Their late tally masks the fact that they were rarely dangerous, and in the second half, when Middlesbrough turned the screws, Spurs had no means of responding.  When Dimitar Berbatov came on the pitch Tottenham’s attack started show the fluidity Juane Ramos wants.  But aside from those twenty minutes, they did not threaten.

That is not to say they won’t.  Switching David Bentley to the left side using his brilliant right foot to put the ball on as opposed to across the net is an inspired choice from Ramos.  Berbatov’s skill makes the team noticeably more dangerous as the speed of Modric and Dos Santos can play off the big target man.  Bent becomes viable when playing off Berbatov.  If Spurs keep the Bulgarian and convince him to play, there attacking problems will be solved.

And they will need to solve those problems if they are to compete.  I’m talking about Middlesbrough here, not Liverpool.  Middlesbrough can be a top ten team, and they played as such on Saturday.  If Alves can finish a bit better and the team (especially the goalies) can learn as the year progresses, Boro will be good.

Tottenham needs to worry more about how they are going to beat the Middlesbroughs of the world than how they are going to execute any Big Four attack plans. With Dimitar Berbatov lost, whether by transfer or by psychology, the top of the table is as far away as it was in May.

Note: This article will be edited for distribution on American Soccer Reader.

Links
Brooding Berbatov confronts club about his ‘dream move’ to United
Middlesbrough 2 Tottenham 1: Berbatov cocktail gives Spurs a bad head
Ramos gives mixed messgaes as Spurs stumble
Southgate delighted with start
Poyet - We must learn
Mido returns to haunt Spurs
Mido returns to haunt toothless Spurs
Middlesbrough 2-1 Tottenham: Mido sinks Spurs
Southgate: We Are A Threat
Poyet Rues Poor Defending
Berba benched as Spurs lose
Mido returns to haunt Spurs

Some will think Gretar Steinsson’s better, but Fernando Torres’ game winning goal against Sunderland has the benefit of being unambiguously intentional - a laser from just outside the box in the 83rd minute that was beyond Craig Gordon seemingly before he could leap. Off an innocuous build-up in a match that Liverpool and Sunderland has played somewhat even, Torres gave his fans another reason to think him the best player in the world. He took a performance that was by-the-book, recent vintage Liverpool - uninspiring, playing down to their opponents, potentially leaving points on the field - and salvaged the weekend with a win.

Given what happened Wednesday (a 0-0 draw in the first leg of Liverpool’s Champions League tie against Belgium’s Standard Liege), Torres salvaged the club’s week. Given what happened this summer (famously failing to get Gareth Barry), Torres may have salvaged the team’s last two months by finally giving LFC fans something to cheer. Given the subtle whispers that have started humming about Rafa Benitez’s status with the club, Torres may have temporarily unplugged the rumor mill.

But Benitez did not look his normal, confident self on the sidelines today. He seems legitimately concerned that his talented roster had so much trouble. The Reds tied gainst the champions from Belgium, and against Sunderland - a lower-half team without their biggest scoring threat - they were played surprisingly even.

In typical Liverpool fashion, they granted their opponents very few opportunities. Aside from some heart-starting miscues from Sami Hyppia and Andrea Dossena (miscues that made Liverpool backers thankful for the presence of Jamie Carragher), Sunderland were not afforded opportunities. At the same time, Liverpool showed almost no ambition in attack, allowing almost the same stalwart description to be applied to Sunderland’s defense. The difference, of course, is that the Reds have Torres, Steven Gerrard and Robbie Keane.  Liverpool should expect more of themselves.

The continued inability of Benitez to get his team to play to their talent level has to be the first charge in his indictment, a charge that looked all the more valid when you consider what Roy Keane is working with. Against one of the eight or ten most talented teams in the world, Keane assembled a collection of cast-offs and still almost salvaged a point. The Black Cats played tight and smart, but they did not bring out the bus. They did try to score, if they weren’t exactly ambitious. When you have players like Andy Reid in your starting XI, there’s only so ambitious you can be.

What would Roy Keane be able to do with Liverpool’s talent? It’s almost a scary question to ask, and there seems little doubt he would do more than Benitez has. And because Benitez was matched-up with Keane today and barely salvaged a point, it is as if the Spaniard lost, though his team got three points. For eighty-three minutes, Liverpool let Sunderland play even with them. If, on the season’s opening day and three days after an embarrassing result against Standard Liege, Benitez can not get his players to be the dominant force their talent dictates, then will Liverpool ever play the consistently great football it will take to challenge for the league title?

Saturday’s match gave us every reason to believe Roy Keane’s growing reputation well-earned. He appears to be on the verge of taking the Tottenham cast-offs he has acquired and making them into a team that might rise to the middle of the table. On Saturday, they looked as good or better than half the teams in the league.

Benitez, on the other hand, is forcing followers to ask questions. It is only one game, and Liverpool could still go on to have a great season. Yet, the match was so incredibly emblematic of every criticism leveled at Benitez over the last few seasons. If they can not show better in matches like today’s, when will they show?

Note: This article will be edited for posting to American Soccer Reader.

Links
Torres summons lightning strike
Sunderland 0 Liverpool 1: Moment of Torres magic lifts Benitez
Keane points to fatigue
Torres spares Reds’ blushes
Sunderland 0-1 Liverpool: Torres to the rescue
Rafa hails match winner Torres
Torres strike knicks Reds victory
Keane please despite defeat
Sunderland v Liverpool ratings&stats
Torres strike sinks Sunderland
Sunderland 0-1 Liverpool
Torres the hero as Reds leave it late