It’s Friday, which is a day of hope in football, just as Saturday is a day of madness and Sunday is a day of hiding under the stairs, in the dark, beneath a dirty blanket, breathing. It’s not a conspicuously exciting weekend of matches coming up, but there are a few we can look forward to. I’ve got eyes for…
- Everton v. Man City: Two upstart clubs in contention for European places, two potential big-four spoilers, and two teams that, if you throw your under-the-stairs despair blanket over the history of Thaksin Shinawatra, offer a lot for the neutral fan to like. Both teams have been losing their grip recently—Everton has lost two matches in a row, including one to Oldham—and will be trying to get their form back, which could make for an entertaining game. However, if Nicolas Anelka is ready to start for Chelsea, I might instead watch
- Chelsea v. Tottenham: Tottenham played well against Chelsea last year (one win, one draw, and two one-goal losses) and have been looking like a new team since Juande Ramos put the kibosh on the pre-game sausage buffet that had apparently become a Spurs institution. They’re probably not going to win, but the fact that the God of Goals loves Tottenham matches, plus the chance to watch Anelka in his first Chelsea match, makes this one worth checking out. (both games are Saturday at 3pm GMT; 10am US Eastern time)
- Barcelona v. Murcia: There’s been a lot of excited talk out of Barcelona since the draw with Sevilla on Wednesday. It’s not as if a home game against last year’s third-best Segunda División team was ever going to be a real test of character for them, but there’s a reasonably good chance that they’ll try to put on a show to prove to the world that they’re back. This is also Samuel Eto’o’s last game before he rushes to join Cameroon for the African Cup of Nations. (Seriously; I think he’s going be lifted off the pitch clinging to a rope ladder dangling from a helicopter, like Neo in The Matrix, only without such perfect manners.) (Saturday at 7pm GMT; 2pm US Eastern time)
Sunday…Sunday I’m not sure yet. Sunderland-Portsmouth might be interesting if Harry Redknapp doesn’t show up, and it might be grimly entertaining to see how bad Bolton look without Anelka against Blackburn, but if you can imagine a thermometer, neither of these matches is exactly shattering the top of it. Otherwise, the upper half of Serie A seems to be playing the lower half of Serie A, and I can’t tell whether or in what way that prospect looks better than going outside.
What about you—any games tickle your fancy? I’ll be staying in the vicinity of this space with the idea of maybe talking about some of the matches, so as always, feel free to leave thoughts, observations, stock tips, discount software solutions, and links to cheap Canadian pharmaceuticals in the comments.
Y’know, I’d really like to see those games live. Unfortunately, FSC and Setanta are sticking us with Arsenal-Birmingham and Boro-Liverpool for the live games. Everton-Man City is only a 4:30 replay. Oh, and the London derby is on Setanta Xtra, which means DirecTV only.
Guess I have to figure out this SopCast thing…
Milan-Napoli on Sunday night is a must , though it appears not to be on RAI International (I will forego making predictions lest the ursus cursus rear its head); Sampdoria – Palermo is the other marquee matchup down here, both teams can score, neither is terribly good at the back.
Ugh, Sopcast somehow will not work with my wireless internet, but TVAnts will, so I’m hoping desperately that I can watch the Liverpool game. Knowing Liverpool it’ll probably be a woeful mess, but hey, what else is there to do on the weekend, right?
Surely Liverpool will be on TVAnts somewhere. And there’s nothing quite like watching your team struggle against Middlesbrough on a tiny, pixellated window that freezes every fifteen seconds.
Not that I’d know anything about that. But Dave, I have this friend who says that figuring out SopCast is worth it.
Ursus, I’m going to try to catch Milan-Napoli. I understand your not wanting to make a prediction, but the suggestive way in which you didn’t make one made me think about what you’re thinking. If that makes sense. [EDIT: Also, geez, where's my head? It's got Pato!]
Milan v Napoli.
To Milan: you can mostly be counted on to play good footy, but for goodness’ sake, try winning by doing it too. Let’s see what you with Pato are made of.
Brian, my son is a dyed in the wool Interista and a Napoli simpatizzante. A certain result would make Monday a better than usual day at school for him.
I was a few minutes late tuning into the London derby, and I turned the commentary off almost immediately in order to listen to Felt songs while I watched. For the first ten minutes or so I kept thinking, “Tottenham are swallowing Anelka…it’s almost like he’s not even playing in the game.” Then I noticed him sitting on the bench. Expert analysis: that’s why you read this site.
A couple of other adroit observations:
• Claudio Pizzaro looks depressed. And I guess I can understand why.
• This Petr Cech character isn’t bad at all.
• I just love watching Berbatov. He’s as smooth as silk, and yet he always looks like a teenager who’s just been asked to bring his great-aunt’s luggage in from the car. It’s a special sort of genius, really.
• Don’t shoot the ball, Kevin-Prince Boateng. Kevin-Prince, really, don’t shoot it.
• So far I can’t tell a difference between Spurs with Paul Robinson and Spurs without Paul Robinson. I’ll keep looking. More to come.
• I think Anelka’s going to fit in fine at Chelsea. He nearly scored on a back-flick from Shaun Wright-Phillips about 0.82 seconds after he came into the match, and then hit the post near the end.
All in all, a reasonably good match, although Tottenham never really stood a chance. I’m not sure what I’ve missed elsewhere around the world, but I’ll most likely be looking in on Barca in a couple of hours.
The Spurs game was painful to watch, not only because Spurs are my favourite PL team.
Chelsea’s just such a suffocating team to watch; if Abramovich really wanted champagne football, shouldn’t he have paid more attention to Avram Grant’s dress-sense when he appointed him? He looked like a men sent home from a funeral for looking too dour.
I too will be peeking in on Pato tomorrow, and Barca are playing some pretty football as we speak, presumably to Eto’o’s chagrin.
Dainty stuff from everyone’s favorite socialist revolutionaries. I realize I’m not exactly breaking new ground by saying this, but that Bojan kid gives me high hopes.
I didn’t see Man Utd’s 80s-lit-professor-like deconstruction of Newcastle, but I wonder why it is that so many clubs that want to sack their coaches choose to do so right before the game at Old Trafford. First Chelsea, now Newcastle. If I were Arsenal, I would not be happy about this.
UPDATE: Also, it’s not going to make Liverpool fans feel any better after drawing with Middlesbrough, but did you see what Fernando Torres did? Save me, Jebus.
Torres is starting to show what he can do for Liverpool, but the one Ibrahimovic just scored for Inter at Siena is better.
“Torres is starting to show what he can do for Liverpool, but the one Ibrahimovic just scored for Inter at Siena is better.”
Wow, what a game. Ibrahimovic and Locatelli were putting on a clinic. I would love to see Brian’s prose bear on Zlatan’s qualities sometime.
What a game from the San Siro today. I started with a sentimental leaning toward Napoli, but the multi-generational family saga of Milan was a lovely thing to watch. There was Ronaldo, playing like his old self (although visibly slower) and scoring a brace in just his second match back; there was Kaka, in his confident prime, coolly slotting one in after a really nice back-flick from Seedorf; and there was Pato, giving every football writer the headline he wanted by scoring (and scoring well) in his first start for the side. I hadn’t seen Pato play at any level and really enjoyed his enthusiasm and his relentlessness. It’s odd to say that an 18-year-old drove his side forward, maybe, but he seemed so determined to make a mark in his first game, and was so heedlessly energetic from start to finish, that he did seem to pull the old guys along, almost like a kid with his parents at the zoo. “There’s a goal over there, Dad! Hurry!”
Seedorf also played a good match, and Pirlo’s soft stab to Ronaldo to set up the first goal may have quietly been my favorite moment of the match. It’s worth noting that Napoli hadn’t won at the San Siro for nearly 22 years—almost as long as it’s been since Milan won there.
Ursus, I’m sorry for your son’s sake, but I hope the Ibrahimovic show today will take most of the sting out of it.
Speaking of which, you’re right, his goal was better than Torres’s.
I’ve made a resolution never to watch another broadcast of Milan in a language I can understand. I had to turn it off after about an hour yesterday, so deep was the ZOMG PATO! coming out of my TV. God save him from the hype. (Also, anyone see the 17 year old score for Siena? Jeez, they gotta build themselves a media machine. Right after they beat the drop, I mean.)
Martha, I know what you mean. It’s incredibly strange that on a night when an actual superstar returned from a long absence and triumphantly scored two goals, the only story anyone cared about was the potential superstar scoring one. I mean, Pato will be lucky to become even half the player Ronaldo was/is. But I loved seeing them do so well in tandem.
I got a kick out of the news that Forestieri had scored because I’ve seen him turn into an absolute monster (not for my team, unfortunately) in a long game of Football Manager. Though I worry that next year he’ll be the most gifted 18-year-old in all of Serie B.
“the only story anyone cared about was the potential superstar scoring one”
Well not entirely true. I watched the game on RAI international and though I don’t understand much Italian I can tell you with certainty that the commentator was waxing lyrical about Ronaldo. His final assessment of the Phenomenon as he was taken off was as “la gran protagonista”.
That’s good to know, A. I was watching in English, and there were times when the commentary verged on: “…and Ronaldo tucks the ball into the net. *yawn* WAIT! PATO IS CELEBRATING! LOOK AT THIS! LOOK AT PATO! THIS EXTRAORDINARY YOUNGSTER CELEBRATING HIS TEAMMATE’S GOAL! WHAT A HUG FROM PATO!”
I’m glad RAI had more perspective.
Sky Italia gave Pato Man of the Match, but recognised that it was a bit over the top. Their commentary was also reasonably balanced, given the pre-match hype.
La Gazzetta gave Pato a 7.5, and Ronaldo an 8.