Oooh, the power of American soccer!
Yes, TDH will move quickly past the Brian McBride-aided defeat of our lads down at Craven Cottage, which saw a handful of Yanks on the pitch, and straight onto El Clasico de Norteamerica, also known as US v Mexico.
What? Wasn't TDH watching France v Argentina yesterday? Of course. And alas, the US match didn't make it onto the telecasts here (unlike England v Spain). But TDH swells with pride when images of Jimmy Conrad blasting a header and Landon Donovan juking past El Pajaro Sanchez appear. Rafa Marquez didn't take the defeat too well, apparently, but who cares? The 64,000 crowd in Phoenix was almost entirely pro-Mexico, so there were no excuses for the Tricolores.
There were no excuses for Steve McLaren, either. England still isn't clicking, and one has to wonder why. Is it just that the players lack sufficient technique? All that running doesn't make a whit of difference if you have a lousy first touch. We know they're capable of playing well, but it's simply too difficult for them to string passes together. And Crouch, Crouch! Why, why, must England have a towering striker who can't head the ball and insists on turning every chance into a bicycle kick, his flailing limbs doing a credible impression of a Dutch windmill?
That Argentina match was pretty great viewing in the first half. Coco's boys played some pretty neat football, and the defending was as solid as it gets, with Ayala and Heinze going for every ball and Zanetti providing the out. In fact, the Inter contingent was in full flow, with Burdisso, Cambiasso and Crespo pushing forward. The second half wasn't as much fun, despite Domenech laying out five of his seven strikers - Anelka, Henry, Govou, Cisse and Ribery - all at once! Add in Saha, and it's a lineup anyone would salivate over... yet somehow impotent.
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Meanwhile, the repatriation of Argie stars continues with Riquelme, Riquelme, RIQUELME, R I Q U E L M E! being brought back to La Bombonera on loan. Maybe Mauricio Macri is just trying to boost his chances of moving up from President of CA Boca Juniors to President of Argentina. Or maybe he saw Veron win the Apertura for Estudiantes and decided he needed some seasoned talent for himself. Either way, Roman is far too young to stay in South America longer than a few months. Hopefully he'll make his way back to Europe afterwards, but you can bet TDH will go to see him while he's here!
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Alas, Mara, your Rossoneri will have to play in silence for a while. Of course, TDH doubts that the players will mind too much. Won't they be doing just what all of us used to do at weekends in the park? It might even be more fun than usual. TDH thinks they should dispense with those silly uniforms and play light and dark shirts instead....
What? Wasn't TDH watching France v Argentina yesterday? Of course. And alas, the US match didn't make it onto the telecasts here (unlike England v Spain). But TDH swells with pride when images of Jimmy Conrad blasting a header and Landon Donovan juking past El Pajaro Sanchez appear. Rafa Marquez didn't take the defeat too well, apparently, but who cares? The 64,000 crowd in Phoenix was almost entirely pro-Mexico, so there were no excuses for the Tricolores.
There were no excuses for Steve McLaren, either. England still isn't clicking, and one has to wonder why. Is it just that the players lack sufficient technique? All that running doesn't make a whit of difference if you have a lousy first touch. We know they're capable of playing well, but it's simply too difficult for them to string passes together. And Crouch, Crouch! Why, why, must England have a towering striker who can't head the ball and insists on turning every chance into a bicycle kick, his flailing limbs doing a credible impression of a Dutch windmill?
That Argentina match was pretty great viewing in the first half. Coco's boys played some pretty neat football, and the defending was as solid as it gets, with Ayala and Heinze going for every ball and Zanetti providing the out. In fact, the Inter contingent was in full flow, with Burdisso, Cambiasso and Crespo pushing forward. The second half wasn't as much fun, despite Domenech laying out five of his seven strikers - Anelka, Henry, Govou, Cisse and Ribery - all at once! Add in Saha, and it's a lineup anyone would salivate over... yet somehow impotent.
---
Meanwhile, the repatriation of Argie stars continues with Riquelme, Riquelme, RIQUELME, R I Q U E L M E! being brought back to La Bombonera on loan. Maybe Mauricio Macri is just trying to boost his chances of moving up from President of CA Boca Juniors to President of Argentina. Or maybe he saw Veron win the Apertura for Estudiantes and decided he needed some seasoned talent for himself. Either way, Roman is far too young to stay in South America longer than a few months. Hopefully he'll make his way back to Europe afterwards, but you can bet TDH will go to see him while he's here!
---
Alas, Mara, your Rossoneri will have to play in silence for a while. Of course, TDH doubts that the players will mind too much. Won't they be doing just what all of us used to do at weekends in the park? It might even be more fun than usual. TDH thinks they should dispense with those silly uniforms and play light and dark shirts instead....
posted by Daniel Altman at 5:47 PM
1 Comments:
Nice assist from the ref for your second AG. Although to be fair nice drop of the shoulder from Donovan to take him clear of the last two mexican defenders.
I know it's crass and possibly quite hypocritical coming from an English football fan, but the level of schadenfreude from myself regarding the current situation in in Italy is through the stratosphere. Serie A is a backward Eastern European league with money. Match-fixing, account-fixing, inherent racism, violence, antiquated stadiums. will recent evnets change anything? Will they f***. A token stadium ban before things are allowed to continue as normal. Witness the italian FA's gutless stand over the match fixing. Can we take back their World Cup yet?
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