Wigan 0-1 Liverpool
English Premier League
8 March 2010
Liverpool once again struggled to score goals on the road as they lost 0-1 at Wigan on Monday. Wigan Athletic started out a bit slow but started to work their way into the match.
Most of the possession was with Liverpool but they failed to turn that into goals. Fernando Torres has a few decent chances but his rust form injuries showed in the match. Overall, the team seemed to lack the quality and finishing that let to a second place finish last season. Wigan would grab the lead in the 35th minute as Hugo Rodallega scored on a cross from Emmerson Boyce.
The goal was scored because Liverpool gave the ball away in the final third and Wigan took advantage of that chance. The win puts Wigan in better position to avoid relegation while the loss for Liverpool hurts their chances of a 4th place finish. It could be the Europa League and not the Champions League next season for Liverpool.
Wigan 0-1 Liverpool Video Highlights
Rodallega 35′ (1-0)
“Wigan 1-0 Liverpool – Video Highlights – 8 March 2010” was originally published at Soccerlens.com – Football News.
When AC Milan takes the field at Old Trafford to face the European giants Manchester United, David Beckham will step foot in the ‘Theater of Dreams’ as well – this time against United. Beckham is a product of United, absolutely loved by the fans, Alex Ferguson’s main man in the 1990’s and the early 2000’s and simply a Manchester United hero.
Whatever David Beckham is today, it is all because of United undoubtedly. He wore the red shirt for about ten years, played 265 games for them, scored 62 goals from midfield (although after CR’s 42, that seems like a minuscule total for ten years). He will make his return to his former home ground after seven years. In these seven years, Becks has played for the Spanish giants Real Madrid and then joined LA Galaxy. Currently, he’s on loan to AC Milan and it seems like Galaxy are unwilling to let him go because both Milan and Beckham like each other quite a bit.
The Englishman was interviewed by the Milan Channel about his much anticipated return to Old Trafford:
“Am I nervous? No, but I’m happy because for the first time in seven years I am returning to Manchester to take the field.”
“I will meet many friends who supported me for so many years. It was always my dream to play in Manchester and I would have never expected to play here wearing a different jersey. Now going back there as a Milan player will be exciting.”
“Those who dream of playing for Manchester Untied should not do so to become rich. You must do it for the pride of playing for Manchester United. As a child this is the only club I wanted to play for.”
“Like Milan, it is a big club that is a family. The first thing Sir Alex Ferguson told me at Manchester was to work hard.”
“If I play Wednesday night I will not be scared, in a way I will be excited because I was a Manchester United player for so many years and I know what it means for other players to go there.”
“Playing at Old Trafford is always difficult, it will be hard to win, especially 2-0.”
“We know that if we play well, make good passes and create lots of opportunities that we have many players who can score. We are aware it will be a very difficult match, but nothing is impossible.”
Milan trail 3-2 on aggregate after they were defeated at San Siro. Wayne Rooney’s presence in the return leg is still a question mark. A lot will depend on that as United seemed a little unsettled with Dimitar Berbatov playing as the lone striker lately.
Just because of Beckham’s return to Manchester, the United v Milan match is currently over-shadowing the other games being played in the Champions League including top clubs like Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
Interview taken from Goal.com.
“Beckham eager for his return to Old Trafford” was originally published at Soccerlens.com – Football News.
Danny Last, from the blog European Football Weekends talks about his footballing guilty pleasures.
A guilty pleasure is something one enjoys and considers pleasurable despite feeling a trifle of guilt for doing so. Should we fear others discovering our lowbrow fascination with Eastern European floodlights and Real Zaragoza’s ”deepest goal nets in Europe” or is that “guilt” too much to bear!?
Well, if you promise not to tell, I’ll share some of football’s guilty pleasures that we’ve been discussing on European Football Weekends lately. We’ll kick off with a football shall we? The Stuart Surridge red and white panelled ball favoured by Ipswich Town and Norwich City in the 80’s was a rare thing of real beauty. Of course the Adidas Tango was rightly lauded but the Surridge had me mesmerized. It must have been Justin Fashanu’s goal of the season for Norwich against Liverpool in 1980 that set that particular ball rolling. I had an inferior plastic version of it that that used to sting like anything on a cold day up the rec when smacked into your legs.
And now for the classified (why classified I wonder?) football results read by James Alexander Gordon. James = genius. For the full effect one had to listen on the radio – preferably on a railway platform hundreds of miles from home. The way his voice went up to signal a surprising away win (Leeds United 2 BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 3) , down in disapproving fashion for a careless 3 points tossed away (Bradford City 2 Brighton & Hove Albion 0) or the undisguised glee at the 3 points on his pools coupon afforded by Barnsley 2 Brighton & Hove Albion 2 was something to behold.
Wading through muddy pitches whilst listening to the theme tunes to Sportsnight and the Radio 2 Sport on 2 Theme tune we find ourselves at another guilty pleasure – Shoot Magazine’s (or was it Match? probably both) League ladders. Wealdstone fan JohnathanTaffel tells me they weren’t ideal when you supported a non-league team. So he simply turned the tabs around and wrote the names of the Southern League teams on the back.
Panini stickers. Of course Panini stickers. In our youth, the Italian word “Panini” meant more to us than Rossi or Tardelli. Walking around playgrounds or standing outside Spar with our pile of unwanted stickers of Coventry’s Mick Coop – resplendent in his chocolate brown kit – in a vague hope of finding that illusive shiny Liverpool badge and the second half of the Swansea City team sticker to complete our album.
Ski hats anyone? Why exactly did these go out of fashion as they were by a country mile the best ever genre of football headwear. Immediately after exiting club shop the excited buyer would carefully separate the twin peaks (nod to Kyle MacLachlan) to obtain the pleasing triangle effect . Wasn’t there some minor obsession with the Scottish Premier around this time? Might have been something to do with Hammers legend and darling of page 3 girls everywhere Frank McAvennie? Whatever it was it heralded the arrival of “half and halfers”.
I blame the Goldstone Ground, Brighton for my mildly disturbing infatuation with floodlights. I could see those enormous pylons from miles away as my Dad drove down the Old Shoreham Road to see the Brighton aces. I’d stand on another guilty pleasure “The milk crate” in the chicken run whilst he sipped on a cheeky beer, which he’d strategically placed in said crate without the knowledge of Mum. Before Multimap and Internet route planners. The only way to sniff a ground out from afar was to squash your nose up against at train window on the approach to Wolverhampton and keep ‘em peeled for those floodlights which were the size of a bus and fantastically pleasing on the eye. New stadiums have done away with towering floodlights.
Why new sets of goal posts no longer incorporate the “stanchion” is a mystery to me. Who could forget Trevor Brooking’s famous goal against Hungary in which the ball got lodged in the stanchion. Who doesn’t immediately contemplate the amount of billowing one could produce upon seeing a new goal net? Those dreadful tight goal nets at The Dell, Southampton aesthetically ruined many a Matt Le Tisser wonder-strike. The ball would sometimes ping straight back out of said saving the goalkeeper the indignity of arching his back in front of the masses of fans wheeling down the terracing in cartwheels of delight.
The smell of cigars wafting across the posh seats, footballers with beards and big hair, silk scarves, 8 panel beanie hats, the orange ball and the artistic results of a groundsman’s mower. These are a few of the umpty thrumpty guilty pleasures of football and we haven’t even started on Subbuteo accessories and those Striker figures whose heads we used to pound down in the vague hope of catapulting one in the top corner. I’m off up to the loft to fetch my Panini Albums down – got any swaps?
You can read more of Danny’s work at http://europeanfootballweekends.co.uk
“Football’s guilty pleasures” was originally published at Soccerlens.com – Football News.
Stuart Fuller, from the Blog The Ball is Round tries to find out where the orange ball has gone.
In the first week of February I ended up through a variety of reasons in Barrow-in-Furness. Of course it was timed to co-incide with a game, more specifically Barrow AFC’s game with Luton Town. After weeks of poor weather it was with deep joy that I woke up to bright sunshine and cloudless skies. On the way down from Penrith I tuned into the Merseyside derby on the radio where the commentators kept referring to a “Sea Fret”, which according to Wikipedia, is a mist found on or near the coast. No such problem at Holker Street as we had to squint to make out the ball at the far end.
Half time came, and like a few hundred other fans headed up to the Crossbar for a beer. Fifteen minutes later we re-emerged into a different world. The sea fret had headed north and had completely engulfed the pitch, making visibility poor to say the least. Thirty minutes later Luton scored. Or so we later heard on the radio as we simply could not see a thing from the far end. But not once had the referee decided to ask for the “yellow ball”. Playing on with a white ball in these circumstances was madness, but as long as he was happy he carried on. Later in the evening I turned on the TV to watch Match of the Day and there was a yellow ball being used at Wigan, and one at Burnley – both games being played in the sunshine we had earlier in the day.
So what are the rules? I am sure there used to be a ruling saying that all games from 1st November to 1st March had to use the “visibility” balls. Yes I can remember games at Upton Park around Christmas where the white ball has been used this season. With the harsh winter we have just experienced many games have been played on a blanket of snow where even a yellow ball is hard to see, but I have yet to see the use of the old fashion orange ball except on one occasion, and that was bizarrely a FA Cup 2nd qualifying round game in August at Brimsdown Rovers. And wasn’t an orange ball used in the 1973 FA Cup Final on a glorious May day when Sunderland beat Leeds United? What about 1966? Our finest footballling moment in this country was achieved using the orange ball at Wembley was it not?
In fact it wasn’t until 1951 that a white ball was introduced into the English game. Previous to this the heavy leather balls were simply kept in their natural colours, meaning that no two were identical in terms of shade. The white ball was ironically brought in to improve visibility. In 1998, Mitre did some tests with a number of league clubs and found out that using a yellow fluorescent ball allowed players to see it a whole 3 milliseconds before a normal white one.
According to FIFA, under the laws of the game, Law 2 relates to the ball and it does not specify that it has to be a specific colour as long as it does not carry and endorsements that are not sanctioned by FIFA or a constituent governing body i.e. The FA or Football League.
So who decides what colour ball is going to be used? And have there ever been games when a blue ball or even a crazy pink one has been used? This season we have seen the Premier League use the new yellow and blue ball aka The Nike Total 90 Hi-Vis ball but a comprehensive search of the FA site unearths nothing on the conditions where a non-white ball has to be used, meaning that a club could in theory play with any colour ball as long as it had the correct endorsements on. Mitre, the official supplier to the Football League actually produce a “Snow Ball”, an orange, yellow and red concoction (for just £64.99) but I have yet to see this being used in a game.
Malcolm Clarke, Chairman of the Football Supporters Federation recently lamented the demise of the orange ball, and how its re-introduction could have meant some games could have been played during the last few months of snow.
The controversy does not end in real life though. Apparently fans of the game FIFA10 are up in arms that there is no coloured ball option when the weather conditions are snowy. Here is a quote from one such unhappy gamer:-
“Disappointing EA… your tagline ‘If it’s in the game, it’s in the game’ should have you sued for false advertising. I’ve only ever seen a professional game played once with a white ball in snow. and it ended up on a Nick Hancock video. your software should receive the same humiliation.”
Subbuteo had it right though, bringing in the three pack of orange balls long before they even developed the fancy black and white ones in the early 1970’s.
So please can someone tell us what the rules are? Can we play with a pink and blue spots ball or will FIFA come down and give us a slap on the wrists?
“Give us back our Orange Ball!” was originally published at Soccerlens.com – Football News.
Franck Ribery believes Bayern Munich’s dramatic progression to the Champions League quarter-finals at the expense of Fiorentina on Tuesday underlines the unity in the ranks at the Bundesliga club.
