Arsenal beat West Ham United 2-0 today and moved to the top of the Premier League title race with just 7 games left. The only problem is that Man Utd and Chelsea right behind them have one and two games in hand respectively. Given that Liverpool cannot win the league now, and to be fair have been out of the running since sometime in early September, my full backing has gone behind Arsenal.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see a young team, build through the youth system more so than through a very rich owner, win the title for a change? When was the last time that actually happened? It would be a breathe of fresh air and might, just might, encourage other teams to adopt a similar approach of youth policy rather than the checkbook though I wouldn’t hold out much hope when reports already seem pretty confident that Manchester City will break the bank in order to buy their way to the top this summer. Of course, it’s hard to begrudge Man City fans a bit of glory regardless of how it comes given what they have put up with the past fifteen years or so, but I can’t help but back the Arsenal way.
Arsenal are a curious case, for at least three times this season that I can recall they have lost a game or two in close succession an the pundits and experts have ruled them out of the title. In fact, on more than one occasion the argument has taken place of whether Wenger is the right man for Arsenal and whether his policy of youth and little spending is realistic in 21st century Football. It usually happens after a shock defeat to a smaller team who have kicked them off the park. Some people even called for change. Even I was a doubter halfway through the season when it looked like they might fall short of a trophy yet again with United and Chelsea moving clear, as much out of frustration at the same teams winning rather than anything else. Of course, somehow - in part due to nobody actually being very good this year - they have hung in there and suddenly find themselves top of the table and in with a shout of the championship. Of course, they could yet finish with nothing and again criticism of Wenger’s approach will rear its ugly head heading into the summer, but if they can actually pull out all the stops and win the title, Wenger would cement his place as a genius of Football management.
Liverpool can do them a big favor by beating United tomorrow when they play their game in hand, while Chelsea travel to Blackburn in search of an almost guaranteed three points. That’ll put them back ahead of Arsenal but it’ll keep the championship race incredibly close with little more than a half dozen or so games to play.
Oscar Freire won the 101st Milan-San Remo in a sprint from a group of about 25 riders. It was the third win of La Primavera for Rabobank’s three-time world champion. Tom Boonen (Quick Step) was second and Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) came third.
Unfortunately here in Canada I don’t get to see many races and this was another. Television coverage of cycling is dire, yet Sports stations such as TSN, Sportsnet and The Score show a ridiculous amount of poker during the day. I love a good game of poker but it isn’t a sport, certainly not with some brilliant cycling races are taking place around the world. Would it be too much for these channels to fill an hour or two during the day by covering some high end, elite sporting events? Outdoor Life Network covers the Tour de France, but that is it. There is nothing on the Giro or the Tour of Spain and if I am to see any of it I’ll have to subscribe to Cycling TV online. Shame they don’t have a physical television because I’d be a member tomorrow.
Come on TSN, Sportsnet etc. pick up some real world class sport, I’m betting you’d be surprised at the ratings.
My latest issue of F1 Racing dropped through my letterbox just the other day and I’ve started leafing through it to try get through as much of their pre-season guide as possible given that one race has already taken place. Living in Canada means the magazine reaches me from the UK a little later than I’d prefer and so some stories are a little out of date sometimes. Anyway, one short story that jumped out at me was with regards to the new points scoring system and I was amazed at how many times the outcome of past World Championships would have changed under the new system.
Eddie Irvine would have been 1999 world champion under the 2010 points system and if the new 25-18-15-12-8-6-4-2-1 scoring system had been in place since 1950, Alain Prost would have won seven world titles, Michael Schumacher only six and James Hunt wouldn’t have been champion at all.
— F1 Racing, March 2010
Take a look:
1964: Graham Hill champion, not John Surtees
1965: Graham Hill champion, not Jim Clark
1976: Niki Lauda champion, not James Hunt
1981: Carlos Reutemann champion, not Nelson Piquet
1983: Alain Prost champion, not Nelson Piquet
1984: Alain Prost champion, not Niki Lauda
1988: Alain Prost champion, not Ayrton Senna
1994: Damon Hill champion, not Michael Schumacher
1999: Eddie Irvine champion, not Mika Hakkinen
Now I’m sure Alain Prost is sitting at home thinking “what if,” while Nelson Piquet would likely be against these current changes due to what it would have done to his career!
Today one of the most anticipated games of the entire National Hockey League season is taking place in Boston and not for any reason that is right, unless of course you are a blood thirsty Bruins fan, of which, to be fair, I would likely be one if I had also seen my team sinned against - not only by a Hockey player from an opposing line-up, but also by the NHL itself.
The pinstripes that run the game have had a nightmare month with cheap shop, late hit, blindside hit one after another leaving players injured, fans enraged and a disciplinary committee so confused that they are currently working out their arse from their elbow before proceeding. One bad hit warrants two games, another blindside shot is deemed clean and then, last night, a brutal assault warrants 8 games. It is almost as if they see an incident, get together, close the shades on the office windows, get drunk and then reach into a hat and pull out a number to decide the amount of games to suspend the player for. And in no instance does the number appear to sit well with anyone. How long must it go on before someone leaves the ice on a stretcher and ends up lying on a mortuary slab?
Below are the You Tube video’s of two separate indicents this weekend involving the games two biggest stars. In one it is Alex Ovechkin - the offender - shoving an opponent into the boards, in the other it’s Downie … just kidding, it’s Sidney Crosby - a victim - being pulled down by Steve Downie. In the Ovechkin incident his victim Brian Campbell got injured while in the other one Crosby was fine and as such some are saying these are the reasons Ovechkin was suspended and Downie wasn’t. But it’s not as complicated as that I don’t think. More»
David Beckham is probably the most famous Footballer in the World, but regardless he remains one of the classiest players of all. A true good guy of the game who works dam hard at his game and even at the age of 34 was still doing his stuff for Milan in the winters and for L.A. Galaxy in the summers chasing a place in the World Cup with England this summer. But today it all came crashing down when he snapped his Achilles in a game against Chievo and it will likely rule Beckham out for the better part of a year destroying his Milan season, World Cup hopes and his MLS 2010 season.
Stan Collymore of TalkSport has been Tweeting about the injury this evening and had the following to say thoughout the evening on his Twitter:
Achiles Tendon tear. Zero chance of WC. In my experience,a physio will tell you a bad rupture is around 10-12 months before you’re anywhere near fit to play. I think Becks will play again in the MLS just as a courtesy to Galaxy but it’s a very serious injury for a 35 year old. You can’t rule anything out but 10 months out,potential complications when back,secondary injuries etc IMO makes European club, international football virtually impossible.It’s an injury that virtually no player who’s had it,is ever the same. 21 you have a chance, 35, very difficult.
Feel your achiles.Do it now.(thick gristly rope that runs to your heel).Feel how thick it is.Imagine snapping itn two. Achiles when ruptured rides up the calf a lot of the time like cutting a tense elastic band.Surgeon stitches two ends back together.
No doubt Stan and the boys will be discussing this one further on TalkSport in the coming week.
Not many players at 34 will, would or could play year round Football in two leagues - one through the winter, one through the summer - with such dedication to try and make the World Cup for England. It isn’t like Beckham hasn’t been at the World Cup before and many similar players would have said their time had been and taken their big money and went to lie on a beach for the rest of their lives. Beckham however just loves the game regardless of his celebrity status and was willing to do what it took to impress England coach Fabio Capello and get picked for the squad.
Going by recent selection I think Beckham would indeed have made the squad but the debate of whether he should or shouldn’t be picked has suddenly ended and will become a debate on whether he would have or wouldn’t.
It’s hard to know whether this will end his career. An Achilles injury is tough to come back from and few players come back to be the same again. At 34 and with such a long recovery road ahead of him it wouldn’t come as a shock if he finally hung up the boots. Then again, this is Beckham and I likewise wouldn’t be surprised if he worked himself back to fitness and was able to play a year or two more out in America for L.A. One thing is almost certain, his European career is done. I wish him well on his recovery and although there isn’t much to take from such an injury, especially so close to the World Cup, I can only say at least he got to play one last time at Old Trafford just last week.
Reading that headline you might be thinking, “Here we go again.” Well, here is what the Guardian reported today:
Liverpool are in talks with a private-equity firm, the Rhone Group, over a £118.5m deal to buy a controlling share of the club and halve their debts.
It is understood the investment group wants a 40% stake at Anfield, which would considerably strengthen the club’s financial position.
The offer from the Rhone Group – which is the first real result of Purslow’s search – would be used to slash the club’s debt by half. That would make Liverpool a more attractive option for further outside investment.
The Rhone Group was founded in 1995, has its headquarters in New York with other offices in London and Paris, and describes itself as “one of the world’s leading mid-market private-equity firms”.
Forgive me for being skeptical on this, but I’ve seen what Liverpool have been through the last few years under current American ownership and until I see a financial improvement, a stadium being built, a new manager in place and good money for spending then I ain’t getting too excited. Call it lessons learned from when I did get excited back when Hicks and Gillett took over.
Still, it would be nice if this move indeed made Liverpool a more attractive option for further investment that might give them a fresh start. Ideally they would be British and understand Football, Liverpool and the heritage of the club and the game, but these days those type of people a few and far between and generally not wealthy enough.
Three new teams took to the grid today and only one of them managed to see the checkered flag. That team was Lotus who got fine drivers out of their drivers to make it round in touch conditions. Nobody expected much reliability from the new teams and when HRT and Virgin cars left the race early it came as no real shock but Lotus hung in there and made it to the finish and when their cars crossed the line the team celebrated like they had just won the race. Their go-ahead was only confirmed six months ago and so to get a car designed, built and to the finish of the first race in extremely difficult conditions in the desert marks one heck of an effort. Praise should go to their choice of driver line-up. Where the two other newcomers went for relatively inexperienced and completely inexperienced drivers, Lotus went with veterans Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli.
Another thing Lotus did which was brand new to F1 and something I’d love to see more of from the other teams, was live Twitter updates during the race. Team owner Tony Fernandes and technical director Mike Gascoyne were both Tweeting throughout the race with Gascoyne even going as far as to tell his followers that he was going to bring forward Trulli’s pit stop for soft tyres.
A breathe of fresh air to an otherwise uneventful afternoon.
While F1 was badly dropping the ball in their opening race of the season, Indy Car was on the other side of the world in Sao Paulo, Brazil getting it right in theirs. The race was won by Will Power from Ryan Huter-reay and Vitor Meira in what was reported to be a highly exciting race with plenty of overtaking and tight racing. Here is what was reported on Indy Cars Facebook page:
What a race! A crazy start, heavy rain, a rookie leading laps and a dramatic last stint! Congratulations to our Sao Paulo Indy 300 podium finishers 1st: Will Power, 2nd: Ryan Hunter-Reay, 3rd: Vitor Meira. Log on to www.indycar.com for the complete post-race wrapup!
I went to the Indy race in Toronto last summer for my first ever experience of Indy Car and was blown away by how exciting the racing was and how much overtaking I seen. I didn’t follow the season much thereafter but did say I would try get into the 2010 series so that come July when it returns to Toronto I will know a little more about what’s going on. Well, if the racing continues like this, it shouldn’t be hard.
Over on his blog, ex-ITV commentator James Allen is also talking about the dull race we got today in Bahrain, but he is talking about how the show could yet be improved before we all write off the season entirely.
My proposal would be more simple than that and would not require unanimous agreement. It is for Bridgestone to bring tyres which are closer together in performance, rather than two steps apart as at present. This was done last season and it improved things, but now they have gone back to bringing super soft and medium to the first race. Because the soft is so much faster, around 6/10ths and degrades more quickly, it will always be the qualifying tyre, which then leads to an early first pit stop for the medium, which is the better race tyre.
With tyres that are closer together, the performance difference is less and so are the wear rates and it is more attractive to try a different tactic. I’ve asked quite a few engineers tonight and they agree that it would be a step in the right direction without disadvantaging anyone.
“It would be bad if we don’t react, ” said Mercedes CEO Nick Fry. “We need to look at what we can do on the technical side and the sporting side. The most important people to consider are the fans and the customers who pay to come .”
It seems an interesting idea though I suspect they might wait a few races to see how the cars and tires preform under different conditions though can they afford to just leave it as is and risk another race like today’s? Maybe we can just hope for wet races the rest of the way!
I didn’t get up at 7:45 a.m. Canada time for this one. I had gotten to bed pretty late and I have work on Monday morning so I craved the sleep in. I had set the PVR to record the race anyway and the minute I woke up I’d be in to watch it live. Well I eventually woke and I eventually made my way into the living room only to turn on the TV and realize it was set to the channel that would be covering the race and what did I see but Fernando Alonso’s big mellon walking down the pit-lane with a big smile and some kind of graphic at the bottom of the screen declaring him the race winner. Perfect.
It’s not often I fully agree with Don Cherry and he is the last time I expected to fall on this side of the fence on this subject, but last night on his Coaches Corner segment on Hockey Night in Canada he addressed the cheapshot, blindsided head-shot by Matt Cooke on Marc Savard and the lack of a suspension that followed. Everything Don says here is bang on and when he takes this view point you really know these kind of hits are wrong because Don is usually right behind gritty, physical, tough North American style Hockey. Amazingly some people still think the Cooke hit was okay and so I despair, but thankfully the powers that be are looking to address these vile incidents.
The most disturbing bit of all was hearing that Savard is having to spend his time in a dark room unable to even watch television due to his concussion and so to think that Cooke is back playing again is quite disgusting.
Funny stuff this and some brass neck on these guys to ask this question. Terry looks furious but credit to him for holding it together and not thumping them. I suspect he had an idea the whole thing would have been videoed from one angle or another. Now while John Terry deserves some stick for his behaviour of late, this is also a reason why some players are very coy with fans these days - this camera is clearly hidden and hoping to catch a Terry freak out.
Fernando Torres today spoke up on his frustration at Liverpool’s current season. Well, not quite actually, but he spoke up about how the team needs to add “four or five” top-class players in order to compete at the top of the table. I don’t think anyone would disagree either, but Torres also went on to say they he is committed to Liverpool and while words don’t mean much in 21st century Football, it will still be nice to hear by Liverpool fans who are growing evermore concerned about the direction their club is heading.
“Being in the Champions League is not so important for me,” admitted Torres of his manager Rafael Benítez’s goal of a top-four finish. “What is really important is that the club makes an effort and brings in important players to improve the quality of the squad.
“I want to be fighting for the Premier League, the Champions League or the Europa League, but to do this we need signings to come. We need four or five top-class players to compete, players better than the ones we have.”
It isn’t as easy as throwing around the cash though as we’ve already seen under Rafa. Firstly you need the right money and then you need the right man to use the money wisely and bring in the right players. Rafa ain’t that man and I suspect Fernando knows it. Six years into his tenure and all that money spent and to still require 5-6 players isn’t really on.
Anyway. Here’s the good news:
“I don’t plan on going back to La Liga for a while. I have made my move away from home and I owe Liverpool a lot. I like it here, and people have treated me like one of their own. I am very happy here and hopefully my future is here. I think the club deserves to win again, but at this point they know they are a long way away.
The race is only six or seven hours away but I thought I’d say something about qualifying before all attention turns to the main event and the first race of the new season. Qualifying was, well, interesting this morning, though it always is with the first serious running of the cars of the season. You never really know what to expect and the speculation of who is going to be quick and who is going to be awful is just that - speculation … well except for the speculated performances of HRT which were as expected, or maybe even worse.
I have always believed Sebastian Vettel could win a World Championship one day but the only thing holding me back from going all out in belief it could be this year for him was whether the Red Bull car could build on their sensational finish to last season. There’s often a perception in F1 that if you are fighting it out all season one year that you don’t put enough attention into the next year, but today we found out that Red Bull have worked on making this car quick and so far so dam good. Vettel was - other than Massa (more on him in a moment) - so much quicker than the rest and convincing me already that he can indeed win this title. A silly prediction before a race has even been run, but he is the real deal and his car is going to be quick.