Archives For Football

Barclays Premier League 2012/13 Game 2: Manchester United vs Fulham

26 August 2012

Manchester United kicked off their first home game of the season with a hard earned 3-2 win over Fulham in rainy weather. It seemed like Rooney and Nani both paid the price for their poor performance against Everton on Monday night with Rooney starting on the bench and Nani not even featuring at all.

Young replace Welbeck on the left wing and with Valencia pushed upfront and was relieved of his right back duties by Rafael, United’s defence had a more assured look. Van Persie started as United’s lone striker and Kagawa slotted in a deeper role just behind the Dutchman.

There was a sense of urgency to the start of the game with United wanting to atone for the loss at Goodison Park but it was Damien Duff who silenced the Old Trafford faithfuls by slotting in a well worked goal in the 2nd minute of the game. United did not falter and in the 9th minute, Evra swung in a cross and van Persie flick ball across Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer with his left foot and the ball nestled at the back of the net for van Persie’s first goal on his home debut.

United’s equalizer and first goal of the season was the perfect boost that they needed and soon after, Kagawa, another new summer signing, tapped in his first goal for United after Schwarzer pushed Cleverly’s fierce drive into the path of the Japanese star.

Rafael almost made it three for United just before half time when he was clever put through by Valencia only to have this goal ruled offside by the linesmen. The decision did not put of the Brazilian right back though because a couple of minutes later, he was on hand to hand in United’s third goal at the far post from an Ashley Young’s cross. United went into the break looking comfortable and there were signs that service was back to normal at Old Trafford.

Both teams came out for the second half with their line ups unchanged and United had some nerve-y moments when Dembele tried to boss the midfield and Fulham managed to pull a goal back. Briggs sent in a harmless looking cross but Vidic and De Gea got in each other’s way and the ball somehow managed to trickle into goal off the Serbian’s heel for an own goal.

United managed to hang on for the last 30 minutes for the win but it was marred by a nasty looking injured for Rooney for a gash on his thigh after Rodallega landed his studs on the England striker. Rooney is expected to be out for 4 weeks and it seems like van Persie would be leading United’s attack for the coming month alone.

Player Reviews

David De Gea
Rating: 6.5/10

It wasn’t De Gea’s fault when Fulham scored in the second minute and he was on hand to deny Fulham two good chances (one which he flicked onto the crossbar with his foot) in the first half. Probably should assert himself more when collecting crosses because his casual leap in the second half lead to a confusion with Vidic resulting in the Serbian scoring and own goal. Did well to deny Brian Luiz in the final minute to deny Fulham a point.

Rafael
Rating: 7.5/10

First start of the season and impressed with his attacking prowess. Had a goal ruled correct offside before scoring a wonderful header which ultimately won United the match. Could probably improve on his defensive skills because he was constantly out muscled and and ran against the faster and bigger Fulham wingers.

Nemanja Vidic
Rating: 7/10

Still trying to find his way around the United backline but is doing a good job partnering Carrick in defence. Shouldn’t be blamed for Fulham’s second goal but did seem like communication with his goalkeeper needs to improve after that blunder.

Michael Carrick
Rating: 7/10

Continues to be deployed at the back because of United’s defensive injuries and is doing a good enough job with no fuss. Could tell that he wants to roam upfront to the middle of the park but is shackled by his defensive duties. Spreads the ball well and needs to be playing in midfield to realize his full potential.

Patrice Evra
Rating: 7.5/10

Didn’t have much to do defensively because Fulham attacked down United’s right flank pretty much the whole game which left Evra with alot of space and time to venture upfront and support Ashley Young. Provide the scintillating cross for van Persie to finish beautifully.

Tom Cleverly
Rating: 8/10

Linked up well with Kagawa and the wingers and was the pivotal point from United’s defence to attack. His powerful drive lead to Kagawa’s goal and was looking like he could partner well with Carrick when he comes back into midfield.

Anderson
Rating: 6/10

The weak link for me in United’s midfield last night. Anderson was holding up play and giving it away when passing the ball sooner would have been a better option. Defensively didn’t provide much cover and when Ryan Giggs did more tackling when he came on was a telling sign that Anderson need to improve his game.

Ashley Young
Rating: 7/10

Seems like he lacked confidence after a lacklustre Euros and wasn’t providing enough crosses as I would have life. Played alot of safe passes to Evra instead and left the crossing to him. Had a couple of wayward shots and when he did tried and cross the ball in, he provided an assist for Rafael. Definitely need more games to improve but did well enough to be ahead of Nani in the pecking order.

Antonio Valencia
Rating: 8.5/10

Was a constant threat to Fulham’s backline with his crossing and linked up well with Rafael to terrorize Briggs. Played in his preferred right wing position this week and looked more comfortable than when deployed in the right back position. He even flashed a shot wide in the first half. Easily United’s most consistent and dangerous player last night.

Shinji Kagawa
Rating: 8/10

Scored his first Barclays Premier League goal after tapping in Cleverly’s rebounded shot. Had a chance to score his second goal but hit the post. The Japanese star looks to be coming out of his shell slowly but it still pretty safe with his passes, always making himself available to passes. Got over ran a couple of times by the strong Dembele but is starting to attempt more shots which is good to see.

Robin van Persie
Rating: 8/10

Had one shot on goal and scored with a sublime flick of the ball with his deadly left foot. Showed the world by Alex Ferguson paid so much for a 29 year old. Needs to be starting games in order to feel the effort of what he can do.

Substitutes

Danny Welbeck for Ashley Young
Wayne Rooney for Shinji Kagawa
Ryan Giggs for Anderson

Robin van Persie Post Match Interview

Usain Bolt at Old Trafford

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Telstra’s New Uniforms Look Familiar

23 August 2012

I was reading on Gizmodo about how Telstra got Australian fashion design house Ginger and Smart to design their new retail uniforms and for some unbeknownst reason, they decided to design it to look like the new 2012/2013 Manchester United home kit.

There is not too much to it but all I can say is they both look hideous but at least the Manchester United kit will go in a year.

telstra1 telstra2 telstra3 FA12 Manchester United kit pattern mufc2 mufc3

Barclays Premier League 2012/13 Game 1: Everton vs Manchester United

21 August 2012

It wasn’t the prettiest start to the season. Manchester United travelled to Goodison Park to play Everton in the season opener and all eyes were on Robin van Persie and I have to admit that I was a tad disappointed when Sir Alex left the Dutchman on the bench and started with Rooney and Welbeck upfront.

Everton was not fazed by van Persie’s presence on the bench and they came out all guns blazing against the league’s runners up from last season. Fellaini was a constant pain the United’s defence and for the first 45 minutes, Everton was doing all the playing and United doing most of the chasing. Everton looked like the better team, threatening to score whenever they pushed forward and De Gea had to pull off a couple of good saves to keep United in the game till half time.

The second half was no difference from the first and United was struggling to break down the Toffees defence. Welbeck came close twice to breaking the deadlock when put through but was thwarted by Jagielka’s precise tackling. Everton continued to probe at United’s makeshift defence of Vidic and Carrick and when ex-United midfielder swung in a corner in the 57th minute, Fellaini rose above Carrick and powered home the header with De Gea stranded.

The goal shocked United into life and Cleverly came close to equalising with a tap in but Jagielka was at the right place to clear off the line. Van Persie came on for Welbeck with 20 minutes remaining and even though United poured forward late on, it was too little too late. Everton protected their lead with vigour and when the referee blew the final whistle, Everton easily overshadowed van Persie’s much awaited debut to register their first win of the campaign.

Hopefully Sir Alex will do what all United fans want to see and start van Persie in the next game against Fulham to allow him to showcase his scoring prowess so evident in his last season at Arsenal

And with news that United is close to signing Alexander Buttner and in the process of negotiating a loan deal to bring Kaka to Old Trafford, it seems like the defeat tonight could help hasten those deals along and get their season back on track seeing how Chelsea and Manchester City both registered wins in their opening games.

Player Reviews

David De Gea
Rating: 8/10

The Spaniard was the best player for United tonight and was probably the only reason why they only conceded a single goal. Easily the best player for United on a night when everyone else was below par.

Antonio Valencia
Rating: 7/10

Forced to play at right back because of United’s injury crisis in defence, Valencia did a fair job without too much fuss. Would probably be more effective as a right winger but had limited chances foraging up front with Nani playing in front of him.

Michael Carrick
Rating: 6/10

Another makeshift defender and started the game along side Vidic. Fellaini was a thorn in United’s defence but Carrick was fairly comfortable despite the Everton onslaught but was probably the player to blame when he was out jumped by Fellaini and the Belgian powered home a header.

Nemanja Vidic
Rating: 6/10

Making his comeback since he got injured late last year and it almost seemed like he was a new signing. A pity the rest of the defence were absent but with Ferdinand coming back and more games to come, it wouldn’t take long for Vidic to be back to his best. Certainly a welcoming sight for United fans.

Patrice Evra
Rating: 6/10

Tireless full back for United and was consistent in defence but had to deal with running up the left wing with Welbeck constantly drifting into the centre. Had a couple of good chances to put the ball into Everton’s box late into the second half after United conceded but failed to do so after Hibbert defended brilliantly against him. The arrival of Alexander Buttner from Vitesse Arnhem could prove interesting now that Fabio, United’s other left back, is currently on loan at QPR.

Paul Scholes
Rating: 6/10

Played deep in midfield in almost what seemed like an anchor position. Picked up a yellow card early in the first half for a reckless tackle but was assured in his passing as always. Could be alittle bit more adventurous by taking some shots but played it safe by choosing to pass and keep possession instead.

Tom Cleverly
Rating: 7/10

Continued his run in the team similar to the start of last season before his injuries plagued him. Saw alot of the ball in the 80 minutes that he was on the field and could have scored a simple tap in if not for Jagielka’s off the line clearance.

Shinji Kagawa
Rating: 7/10

Showed glimpses of brillance with his running and passing but lacked the final cutting edge to make a difference on his debut. Played off Rooney well with the occasional one two but Everton was defending well and didn’t give him much space. Had a chance to equalize from a van Perise cut back but fluffed his shot.

Nani
Rating: 5/10

Definitely the disappointment of the night for me and United. He slowed play down by trying to take on defenders when passing would have been a better option, his crossing was below par and the United strikers were just not getting the service they should be expecting of him. His inconsistency is on show here and needs to do better.

Danny Welbeck
Rating: 7/10

Was full of running deployed on the left wing which is not his natural position. Tends to drift into the middle of the field and it opened up space for Hibbert and Leon Osman to attack United down that wing. Had a couple of good chances to score but probably needed a bit more composure.

Wayne Rooney
Rating: 7.5/10

Rooney was his usual energetic self and was the pivot of United’s attack. Unfortunately, Everton was defending extremely well and a visibly frustrated Rooney had to drop deep to collect the ball, even appearing at the right back position on one occasion. Would do well to have a strike partner like van Persie to take defenders’ attention off him.

Substitutes

Robin van Persie for Danny Welbeck
Ashley Young for Nani
Anderson for Tom Cleverly

Robin van Persie’s First Training Session

18 August 2012

Robin van Persie has passed his medical and signed a 4 year contract with United and is now officially a Manchester United player. The photos of van Persie’s first training session with United on Friday has been released. Looks like he’s fitting in well with the boys and should start on Monday night against Everton. Can’t wait for the season to start!

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We Got Him: Robin van Persie Moves To Man United

16 August 2012

It was just like any other morning when I stepped into the office and when onto Soccernet and there it was, splashed onto the front page of the website with headlines screaming about Manchester United’s capture of Arsenal talisman, Robin van Persie.

I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs and I did. The ecstasy of knowing the transfer saga that has been dragging on for the whole of the European summer has finally come to a positive fruition was just too hard to hold back. I’m all too familiar about reading United transfer rumours and would not believe that deals have been done until United have announced it themselves.

Players like Ronaldinho, Robben, Essien and the mercurial Zidane have all almost don the red of United before been tempted by big offer moves to other clubs. When early reports suggested that Manchester City and Juventus were in the running for van Persie along with United, I didn’t think too much about it but was still secretly hoping that Alex Ferguson gets the man he thinks will challenge City for the title next season.

Not since 2001 when United signed both Juan Sebastian Veron and Ruud van Nistelrooy have I gotten so excited about a big name signing. The Arsenal (ex)captain has the pedigree we so sorely lacked last season when we lost the title to Manchester City and with Rooney and van Persie leading the attack for United, it’s going to be raining goals for the red half of Manchester.

I do feel a little for Arsene Wenger though with so many star players leaving Arsenal in the last 16 years that he has managed the team. I figured I’ll write up a list of star players that have left Arsenal and wasn’t surprised that it turned out to be a pretty huge list:

PlayerLeft Arsenal ForYear
Nicolas AnelkaReal Madrid1999
Emmanuel PetitBarcelona2000
Marc OvermarsBarcelona2000
Nwankwo KanuWest Bromich Albion2004
Sylvain WiltordLyon2004
Edu GasparValencia2005
Patrick VieiraJuventus2005
Robert PiresVillarreal2006
José Antonio ReyesReal Madrid2006
Freddie LjungbergWest Ham United2007
Thiery HenryBarcelona2007
Ashley ColeChelsea2007
Gilberto SilvaPanathinaikos2008
Alexander HlebBarcelona2008
Mathieu FlaminiAC Milan2008
Emmanuel AdebayorManchester City2009
Kolo ToureManchester City2009
William GallasChelsea2010
Gaël ClichyManchester City2011
Cesc FàbregasBarcelona2011
Sami NasriManchester City2011
Robin van PersieManchester United2012

All is not lost for Arsenal though. They’ve shored up their attack with the captures of Giroud, Podolski and Carzola and even though winning the title is probably out of their reach next season, I’m sure they’ll still be fighting for a Champions League spot.

Today has really made me realized how much I’ve really missed my weekly dose of English Premier League and Champions League football. In the mean time, a montage of United’s new striker who was also last season’s top goal scorer would suffice for now.

The Ghanian Prince

15 August 2012

I was chatting with a friend last night about her dancing, found out she was doing Ghanian dance classes and without a second thought, Kevin Prince Boateng popped into my head. Kevin is a Ghanian football player plying his trade with Italian giants AC Milan and is probably the most prolific player after the great Tony Yeboah from Leeds United in the mid nineties.

Being German born, Kevin could have opted to play for the European juggernauts but chose to represent Ghana instead. His younger brother, Jerome, chose to play for Germany. In a weird twist of fate, both brothers were called up to the national squads for  their respective nations for the 2010 World Cup and their teams were drawn in the same pool. It was the first time in history that two brothers have played on opposite teams in the World Cup and Germany won the match 1-0.

Everyone was surprised when AC Milan bought Kevin from Portsmouth in the summer of 2010 but he has since established himself as one of Milan’s greatest attacking threats. His dynamic pace and the way he “dances” around opponents is my preferred kind of Ghanian dance I reckon.

And it seems like the guy CAN seriously dance.

And he can sing too. Is there anything the Prince can’t do!?

Melbourne Victory vs Port Melbourne Sharks

18 July 2012

I popped by the SS Anderson Reserve, home ground of the Port Melbourne Soccer Club, last night to catch Melbourne Victory’s first pre-season friendly against the Port Melbourne Sharks and at the same time, had a first hand look at how some of our new signings would fare against local opponents and they didn’t disappoint.

I was particularly impressed by Jonathan Bru and Jimmy Jeggo, bossing the midfield with their assured passes and spraying the ball ala Scholesy. It was also comforting to see that we didn’t resort to the long ball game and concentrated on keeping the ball even though Port Melbourne was defending well. Hopefully Ange Postecoglou has drilled it into the players to play simple passes, run into spaces and keep the ball.

New Brazilian signing Guilherme Finkler looked like he had the typical flair of a South American player. He was put through by a team mate and he finished with a deft chip with the outside of this right foot to give Melbourne Victory a 1-0 lead mid way through the first half.

Julius Davies and Matthew Foschini both looked lively on the right wing and Davies surprised me with his composure and keen eye for through passes. He was making intelligent runs and was good with both feet and the boy’s only 17 years old! What was even more impressive was that he spent 3 years at Bayern Munich and then a year with Hoffenheim before signing for Victory.

Port Melbourne did eventually equalize just before half time and it was a poor defensive lapse that caused Victory to concede a soft goal.

Ange Postecoglou made a whole heap of changes in the second half and another new signing, Theo Markelis came on for Archie Thompson and he certainly didn’t do his chances any harm with good touches on the ball and was extremely quick with his feet giving his marker lots of trouble with his fast turns. And it was his quick thinking that earned Victory a penalty when he was chopped down from behind and Danny Allsopp stepped up to dispatch the penalty confidently.

The game finished 2-1 to Victory and I think the crowd was certainly pleased with how the team was playing and with superstar Marco Flores and Mark Milligan joining up with the squad soon and with Marcos Rojas away on Olympic duty with New Zealand, the future of the club looks good with this new core batch of players.

I certainly can’t wait for the A-League to start and we can start exorcising the ghost that is Harry Kewell and get on with our winning ways again after last season’s disappointment.

Photos courtesy of the Port Melbourne Sharks Facebook Page.


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Apple WWDC 2012 Aftermath

18 June 2012

I have to admit, I’ve been busy for the past week trying to hunt down the MacBook Pro with retina display after it was announced by Tim Cook and had no fucking luck at all. The Apple stores in Doncaster, Southland and Chadstone had no or minimal stock of these wonderful machines and the online store is qouting a 3-4 week wait.

I don’t wanna wait 3-4 weeks god damn it.

I was fortunately enough to have a play with the display model at Chadstone and it was just something I had to have. The retina screen was amazing and the machine was surprisingly light weight and this is coming from me who has been using the 11 inch MacBook Air for the past 18 months.

Retina MacBook Pro at Chadstone Apple store.

I’ve got an order with my on-campus Apple reseller and they’re telling me they’re getting stock this week but I’m not convinced. Fingers crossed I’ll get my MacBook Pro soon.

To tell the truth, the retina display isn’t really the most compelling feature I’m after. I’ve been wanting to upgrade to a portable with more screen estate as I’m doing more work on it nowadays. My preference was to wait for the WWDC hardware refresh announcement and pile the cash on a top specced 13 inch MacBook Air because I really want the portability.

Tim Cook and Apple decided to throw the spanner in the works for me by announcing the super thin retina MacBook Pro. After the keynote, I was holding out to see the MacBook Pro in person to decide if I should get that or stick to my plans on getting the  MacBook Air. When I finally laid my eyes on the MacBook Pro, it’s love at first sight.

I wanted text Sonti to tell him that I have seen the MacBook Pro in person and wanted to make love to it. I was afraid that would be weird so I stopped myself.

And of course there were tons of other announcements at Tim Cook’s keynote. Craig Federighi demoed tons of features on the next version of Mac OS X Mountain Lion and I’ve been using the developer’s preview for the past 6 months on my MacBook Air and it’s been pretty good so fair. The newer features like system wide sharing and Power Nap looks interesting but the best part of it was that the cost of upgrading to Mountain Lion would be only AUD$20.99.

Couldn’t complain about the price really.

Scott Forstall also took the stage to show everyone what iOS 6 is going to bring to the masses and one of the biggest announcement that everyone was expecting would be that Apple would be dropping the Google Maps app in iOS 6 and implementing a new Maps app built in-house. First impressions look interesting but Apple’s maps look like they might be lacking in details compared to Google’s in Melbourne CBD area as detailed in this Gizmodo article.

The Flyover feature of the Maps app was pretty impressive though but as always, iOS 6 is still in beta and won’t be expected till September/October when it should be released at the same time as the purported iPhone 5.

But my favourite moment of the WWDC keynote? Apple had Siri do opening jokes at the keynote and the best one was where Siri asked the crowd who was naming Android’s firmware Ice Cream Sandwich and Key Lime Pie. Ben & Jerry?

Burn.

Alright, so this is a very quick and brief wrap up of what’s happened at WWDC this year and what I’ve been up to after the announcements. Oh! I’ve also been busy with Euros 2012 though but the time of the matches shown isn’t really helping with my sleep schedule. I’m still insisting  that Germany and not Spain will win the Euros though.

UPDATE: I just found out Apple uploaded the keynote video to YouTube so I thought I’d embed that into this post as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gn4sXgZbBM&feature=plcp

Socceroos To Make It For Brazil 2014?

10 June 2012

With the English Premier League season ending about a month ago and with the A-League not starting until October, it’s tough being a football fan in Australia. It’s an even TOUGHER task wanting to support our very own Socceroos but we have to accept the inevitable that the golden generation of Australian football is truly over.

Omani keeper Ali Al-Habsi

The World Cup qualifying match against Oman last Friday demonstrates that the Socceroos need to pull their socks up if they want to qualify for Brazil 2014. Oman was fielding a fairly young and inexperience team and we had trouble matching their pace and technical skills. We went back to our old habit of pumping the ball up field and hoping someone does something with it.

Granted Carney pull a good save out of Oman’s goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi, who ply his trade with Wigan in England’s top league, the rest of the Socceroos team was struggling to find inspiration, running around like headless chooks trying to break down an organized Omani team.

Oman had two men marking Kewell from the moment the kick off whistle blew and with Kennedy and Cahill on the bench, our crosses into the box was never really going to be effective.

And the fact that our team was complaining that the 5pm kick off in Muscat was not favourable because the heat was too much for the Aussie players was just embarrassing. It wasn’t like the heat was just going to affect the Aussie players.

We were just not good enough.

I’m no genius when it comes to football but it was clear that we need some young blood in the Socceroos camp. Why call up Archie Thompson we have Melbourne Heart youngster Eli Babalj who recently secured a move from Heart to Serbian power house Red Star Belgrade, coached by former Barcelona and Real Madrid star, Robert Prosinecki?

Kagawa and Honda

It scares me knowing that our next opponents are the Japanese in Brisbane next Thursday. With mercurial superstars like Honda and Kagawa, who famously made the swap from Borussia Dortmund to my favourite team Manchester United recently, our defence is going to have a field day making sure those two don’t run rings around our players.

The mood in the Japanese must be buoyant after beating Jodarn 6-0. Hopefully, our old guards like Sasa Ognenovski, Lucas Neil and Mark Scharwzer could save us from embarrassment and we can score on the break and frustrate the Japanese.

Fingers crossed that results will go our way because if not, the AFL buffoons will have another weapon in their anti-football arsenal.