It’s been a long time since Raikkonen was on top of the podium of an F1 race but he did it this weekend in Belgium picking up his forth ever win at the legendary circuit. The circuit is a racing mans circuit and it’s some of the all-time best who have the most wins here so it is no surprise to see Raikkonen as a common winner here. Not that he is an all-time best but he certainly is one of the all-time best talents. His attitude has often allowed his production to fall short of his talent but when he wants to race and wants to go fast there is few drivers in the world that can stay with him. Yesterday Raikkonen showed this and only a Force India of all cars could come close to matching him.

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BOLTON V LIVERPOOL
29/8/09

You cannot win the league in August but you can sure lose it and Liverpool found themselves in the uncomfortable position this weekend of needing to win their game against Bolton to keep in contention for the title. Had they lost they would have been far from mathematically ruled out but it would have required a momentous effort the rest of the season with next to zero defeats the rest of the way … pretty much impossible … but thankfully they did win — only just. They made hard work of it, looked awfully frail at the back and required Steven Gerrard to bail them out yet again.

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Remember Giancarlo Fisichella? He is still in F1, but tends to roll around in the mid to backfield these days, but today showed he still has something left in him when he came out of nowhere to stick his Force India car on pole. Indeed, he hasn’t moved teams, he is still with the Indian outfit and has put them on the front row for the first ever time. Fisichella is one of the old boys of F1 and he wasn’t alone in the old men showing that age doesn’t matter because Jarno Trulli put his Toyota on second. Trulli just this week said he wants to fight to stay at Toyota for next season and went about fighting in the right way today. He always has been a great qualifier but an average racer and on a circuit which brings out the best in the drivers and their ability to take chances through the fast corners someone like Trulli always is rewarded but it was Fisi who went to the front of the grid with his effort.

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This weekend the Vuelta a Espana gets underway and for those not in the know it is basically Spain’s version of the Tour de France with its own set of savage mountain finishes, time trials and three weeks of leg busting cycling action. Unfortunately for me the racing is not being shown on Canadian TV, which shouldn’t come as much surprise given Canada’s real lack of proper coverage of the World Athletic Championships last week, but as for this race I can look into cycling.tv as an option for following it online.

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I was in work today during the Champions League draw and had to rely on live update blogs online and online radio to inform me of what was going on. I tuned in for the midday (Canada time) draw but ended up waiting closer to 1 p.m. before the dam thing actually got underway. The legend that is Maldini got a special award while John Terry, Xavi and Messi got the defender, midfielder and forward of the year awards respectively for 2008/9, all before the actual draw took place. Anyway when it did get going here is what we were presented with … Read More»

Everyone talks about the old days of football being the best days. It is known as nostalga and it blinds you from any of the downsides of the game years ago as you profess how dam good it was then when money wasn’t everything. Well last night in the Carling Cup game between West Ham United and Millwall everyone got a reminder of what is great about modern football as well, compared to what we had years ago when the scenes in last nights game were common place.

I didn’t see the game, and if you didn’t either then you can also catch what went on in the following video … Read More»

LIVERPOOL V ASTON VILLA
24/8/09

I’m two days late in writing something so there isn’t really much more to say and even if there was I don’t think I could be bothered going into more depth on that pathetic showing that has left Liverpool with two defeats through three games. Given Liverpool lost just two games all season last year and still came second it shows the margin for error is so slight and Liverpool are already risking dropping out of the title race. Just not good enough is all I can say. Oh, and at least Torres done his bit for my equally struggling fantasy football team.

LIVERPOOL: Reina, Johnson, Insúa, Carrigher, Ayala, Mascherano, Leiva, Gerrard, Kuyt, Benayoun, Torres.