I am a terrible person

Hello everyone! Long time no speak, but as you can see in the title, I have apologised for being such a terrible person. All I can say is that I accept all your loathing and endeavour to move on with things this week. Do you know what's pathetic? I haven't done a blog post since 17th September. That is stunningly absent-minded, but all I can say is that I have been very busy with work and my new post as Ponthir 2nd's Match Reporter (www.ponthirafc.co.uk incase you fancy checking out those match reports) so I only hope you'll tune back into the blog from this week onwards.

So this week I caught just one of the Barclays Premier League matches, but fortunately, it was the best one of the weekend as Liverpool took on Chelsea at Anfield yesterday afternoon. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking Liverpool would surely be in for an absolute hiding from a Chelsea side who have been dominating English football this season. They did however throw a surprise into the line-up as Drogba was told he would not start, but would instead play from the bench. Despite the non-presence of my blog (I'm sorry I haven't got a really good jounalist-y word for that one yet) we all know Liverpool have been struggling in the early part of this season and that Fernando Torres has been ridiculously under-par. Cometh the hour, cometh the man then as Torres finished a wonderful move in the 11th minute to send Anfield into delighted applause. Dirk Kuyt lifted the ball over the Chelsea defence for Torres who cushioned the ball with his first touch, and then powered the ball past Pepe Reina into the net. That was an absolutely stunning start and Chelsea looked shell-shocked as they hadn't really got going against their illustrious opponents. As the first half drew to a close, Torres once again thought he would underline his return to form with a stunning turn inside the Blues defence and smashed the ball back across the goal past the outstretched hand of Petr Cech. This seemed to totally deflate the Premier League champions and even the introduction of Didier Drogba at half-time didn't spark them into life and they couldn't fashion any chances against a resolute Liverpool defence meaning that Anfield could celebrate a fantastic victory against the biggest of the big four teams. That victory also means Manchester United close to within just 2 points of their biggest rivals after their late, late win against Wolverhampton Wanderers. The full classified results from last weekend's Premier League matches is as follows then:
Birmingham City 2-2 West Ham United
Blackburn Rovers 2-1 Wigan Athletic
Blackpool 2-2 Everton
Bolton Wanderers 4-2 Tottenham Hotspurs
Fulham 1-1 Aston Villa
Manchester United 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Sunderland 2-0 Stoke City
Arsenal 0-1 Newcastle United
West Brom Albion 0-2 Manchester City
Liverpool 2-0 Chelsea

The big, big game of the weekend in the Championship was of course, the South Wales derby. Cardiff City, sitting second in the table, took on their arch rivals Swansea City, sitting third, but 6 points behind Cardiff, in the table. This was perhaps the biggest derby of recent history, and both clubs were desperate to win in order to give their promotion chances that added boost that comes when you win against your hated rivals. As a Swansea fan, I think it was obvious which team I wanted to win Sunday lunchtime. We have never ever won at the Cardiff City Stadium, but after an absolutely stunning performance, we came away with a 1-0 win courtesy of loanee Marvin Emnes' second league goal in just 4 league games. I have to say, we were absolutely stunning with the midfield of Joe Allen, Andrea Orlandi and Mark Gower breaking up play at every opportunity and spreading the ball fantastically to the forward 3 of Nathan Dyer, the previously mentioned Emnes and our brilliant new winger Scott Sinclair. Cardiff barely showed up, and the chances that they did create were either fluffed by Craig Bellamy or fantastically defended by the away side. I have to say, I think the performance was one of the best I have ever seen from Swansea, and the result was absolutely fantastic for us as it closes that gap between us and Cardiff to just 3 points and also puts us 5 ahead of 4th place. I know this seems harsh on Cardiff, but I think most of their fans will tell you they were absolutely useless yesterday, but I also think they will be promoted at the end of the season, hopefully alongside Swansea City. Time for the full round-up of Championship games then:
Barnsley 0-2 Leicester City
Bristol City 1-1 Preston North End
Coventry City 2-3 Leeds United
Derby County 2-0 Portsmouth
Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Millwall
Hull City 0-1 Scunthorpe United
Middlesbrough 2-1 Crystal Palace
Norwich City 2-2 Burnley
Queens Park Rangers 3-1 Reading
Sheffield United 1-2 Ipswich Town
Watford 1-1 Nottingham Forest
Cardiff City 0-1 Swansea City

Usually, we have a look at League One and Two here. I say usually because this week those teams were in FA Cup action and so didn't take to the field in their respective leagues. I know that Newport County lost 2-1 against Barrow in the Conference and so they're out of the promotion places at the moment. That's unlucky for them, but I expect them to bounce back sooner or later as Dean Saunders isn't the sort of guy who will let his team get slack when they are so close to the League system once again.

That's all for this week guys, and once again, I'm soooo sorry I haven't been at the races recently. I will be alot better from now on I promise. See you soon guys!

Mid-week Championship report

I had planned to do a Championship blog after the mid-week games, but it sort of got to the point where I didn't have alot to say as I hadn't seen much/any of the highlights. I will endeavour to give you something though as obviously this is the league my very team is in and I'd feel terrible if I didn't report every game they played in.

So mid-week, Swansea City were looking to recover from the away loss last weekend at Leeds United. Fortunately for us, we were at home against Coventry City. The reason being at home was fortunate for us was because we hadn't lost at home this season going into the game and pretty soon, it looked like that record was set to continue as Darren Pratley beat keeper Kieran Westwood with a header from a corner. Obviously it was nice to have him back in the squad after his suspension, and he showed his worth even further in the second half as his strike came back off the post for Scott Sinclair to tap in and extend the Swans' advantage. In the 56th minute, the Swans then conceded the first goal at home of the season as Ben Turner lashed in from a corner after Dorus De Vries made a decent save and once again none of the Swansea defenders reacted, much like Bradley Johnson's goal for Leeds against us last Saturday. We were able to hold on and keep our 100% home record and in a nice twist, we play Scunthorpe, who smashed 4 past Sheffield United on Tuesday, at home tomorrow and so hopefully we can keep that fantastic home record going for a little longer and then improve our stuttering away form next week. All that leaves for me to do is to summarise the mid-week scores from the Championship then:
Barnsley 5-2 Leeds United
Bristol City 0-2 Watford
Crystal Palace 4-1 Portsmouth
Doncaster Rovers 3-1 Norwich City
Hull City 2-0 Derby County
Ipswich Town 0-3 Queens Park Rangers
Leicester City 2-1 Cardiff City
Middlesborough 2-1 Burnley
Milwall 0-0 Reading
Preston North End 1-2 Nottingham Forest
Sheffield United 0-4 Scunthorpe United
Swansea City 2-1 Coventry

Right then guys, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. I'll watch as much football as possible and bring you as brilliant a blog as I possibly can either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, depending on when the games finish and also if I can do it Monday night before falling asleep. Hope you all enjoy your team's exploits this weekend. See you later

Another weekend full of fantastic action...for some of you!

Hello everyone. I'm pretty sure everyone's comfortable with the format of this blog by now so all that's left to do before we get down to it is...well nothing really. How was the international break for you all? As a Welshman, I was left without any football (because what we play internationally can't be called football technically) and so I was so glad when it returned last weekend. I was at Elland Road this past Saturday and so I didn't see the game of the weekend, or what seems like it, at Goodison Park.

I did however see two Premier League games over the weekend and so I'll take you through those first before we carry on. The first game of the weekend that I saw was at St Andrews where Birmingham City took on Liverpool on Sky's Super Sunday coverage. The undoubted star of the match was Liverpool's Pepe Reina who made a succession of fine saves from Birmingham's players. Other than that, it was quite a drab match and the performance's of Liverpool's star players Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres will not inspire the fans of the Merseyside club much, whereas Birmingham will be highly enthused by their general play and indeed the results that that play is bringing them. Another plus for the Midlands club is that the draw at St Andrew's extends an unbeaten run at home dating all the way back to September last year.

That first match was very drab unfortunately and so I was hoping the 2nd Premier League game of the weekend, Monday night's encounter between Stoke City and Aston Villa at the Britannia Stadium, would be a little more entertaining. Pointless Stoke must've been eyeing up this fixture as the game where they'd finally be able to make their mark in this Premier League season as they have a good record of beating Villa at home. Despite this, it was Aston Villa who took the lead when Stewart Downing headed in a brilliant Gabby Agbonlahor cross after it had wrong-footed Robert Huth. For a man not known for his heading abilities, it was actually a pretty decent header back across Thomas Sorensen and into the corner. It had actually been a very good start from the home team who must've felt down on their luck being a goal down at half-time, but that is what happened. The problem for Stoke was that they didn't start the second half particularly brightly and really looked like they might capitulate completely. However, in the 79th minute, Matthew Etherington got to the bye-line and clipped a brilliant cross into Kenwyne Jones who headed home excellently past Brad Friedel to give the Potters hope of not only salvaging a single point, but also the chance to go on and score a second which, incredibly, they managed to do in the 93rd minute as Robert Huth turned in Matthew Etherington's wayward drive. Spark scenes of absolute jubilation at the Britannia and for Stoke, it does enough to alleviate the pressure on manager Tony Pulis whilst also pulling them slightly out of trouble ahead of their match with pointless West Ham United next weekend. For Aston Villa, they must still be in shock that they haven't at least got a point from last nights game. Full Premier League results are as follows:
Arsenal 4-1 Bolton Wanderers
Everton 3-3 Manchester United
Fulham 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Manchester City 1-1 Blackburn Rovers
Newcastle United 0-2 Blackpool
West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Tottenham Hotspurs
West Ham United 1-3 Chelsea
Wigan Athletic 1-1 Sunderland
Birmingham City 0-0 Liverpool
Stoke City 2-1 Aston Villa

As I said in the pre-amble, last Saturday I was at Elland Road to watch my team play against Leeds United. As was expected at Elland Road, Leeds came quickly out of the blocks and had quite a few chances early on which I though was quite bad for a defence that was second to only the champions Newcastle United last season. However, after 13 minutes, Swansea took the lead totally against the run of play as a long ball forward was missed by Richard Naylor and Stephen Dobbie ran onto it and tucked it away under Leeds goalkeeper Higgs. Soon after, Swansea actually had a chance to double their lead as Scott Sinclair ran through totally unchallenged only to stumble into Higgs and waste a glorious opportunity for Swansea. Leeds went into half-time 1-0 down but still in the game as Swansea still hadn't turned themselves into the dominant side. Leeds did, however, turn it around completely in 8 second half minutes as first Bradley Johnson capitalised on some poor Swansea defending, and then Luciano Becchio did the same as Dorus De Vries could only palm it back to the Leeds attackers after they had 3 shots on goal. It was hard to take for me after De Vries' brillaint performances last season, but I suppose the fact that a new coach has come in is bound to change things slightly. One could argue that Joe Allen should've had a penalty as he was felled in the Leeds box towards the end of the game, but the simple fact is that we weren't good enough on Saturday, as has been the case much of the time away from home this season. Cardiff were facing another new Championship side on Saturday as they took on relegated Hull City at Cardiff City Stadium. As part of his loan deal, Seyi Olofinjana was allowed to play against his parent club and he scored the first of Cardiff's 2 goals with Gavin Rae getting the second in the second half. In all fairness to Cardiff, they dominated the game against Swansea's opening day conquerors and truly deserved their win. There is more League football tonight so there will be another post before Saturday regarding the Football League. Full Championship results were:
Burnley 4-3 Preston North End
Cardiff City 2-0 Hull City
Coventry 1-1 Leicester City
Derby County 0-1 Sheffield United
Leeds United 2-1 Swansea City
Norwich City 2-1 Barnsely
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Millwall
Portsmouth 0-0 Ipswich Town
Queens Park Rangers 3-0 Middlesborough
Reading 3-0 Crystal Palace
Scunthorpe United 0-2 Bristol City
Watford 2-2 Doncaster Rovers

I have once again neglected League One and League Two again but luckily under my new format, all the scores are recorded on here. League One scores were:
Bournemouth 3-0 Dagenham & Redbridge
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0 Milton Keynes Dons
Bristol Rovers 0-0 Brentford
Charlton Athletic 1-0 Notts County
Colchester United 1-1 Plymouth Argyle
Hartlepool United 2-3 Exeter City
Leyton Orient 1-2 Huddersfield Town
Peterborough United 5-2 Oldham Athletic
Rochdale 3-2 Walsall
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Carlisle United
Swindon Town 1-0 Southampton
Yeovil Town 3-1 Tranmere

And the League Two scores were:
Cheltenham Town 1-0 Stevenage
Crewe Alxeandra 3-0 Bury
Gillingham Town 2-0 Shrewsbury United
Hereford United 0-2 Oxford United
Lincoln City 1-0 Barnet
Morecambe 1-1 Chesterfield
Northampton Town 2-1 Southend United
Port Vale 1-0 Aldershot Town
Rotherham United 3-3 Burton Albion
Stockport County 1-1 Bradford
Torquay United 0-0 Accrington Stanley
Wycombe Wanderers 1-2 Macclesfield

My usual bumph about Newport County then at the end of the post. Since we've been on a break, they've played two games. One of them was a Welsh derby at Newport Stadium and the other was an away trip to Rushden & Diamonds. In all fairness, they'd have to be happy with the 4 points attained from those games as they battled back superbly to draw 1-1 with Wrexham and then Craig Reid struck on Saturday to give them an away win against R&D which is mightily impressive to say the least.

Now then I am off to watch some Champions League football, namely Spurs v Werder Bremen and also get on BBC's live updates of Swansea v Coventry. I'll see you either tomorrow or Thursday with a post about tonight's league action. Thanks for reading guys. It means alot that people still read this blog and I'm thankful to you all. Bye then

Another belated post

I can only apologise for the fact that this is once again belated. I've been awfully busy and so I'm sure you can appreciate the fact that I haven't been able to find the time to do it again. As usual, we'll have my 2 featured games in each division followed by a round-up of the scores from each league. I also will give my usual tell of Newport County's score.

So we start as usual at the top. The Premier League entered it's 3rd week last weekend and the first match of the weekend I witnessed was Blackburn-Arsenal at Ewood Park, a fixture renowned for being feisty and controversial in previous seasons and afer Arsenal's brilliance the previous weekend there was surely no way that this match could disappoint. Theo Walcott answered his critics in the finest fashion with his hat-trick in the 6-0 demolition of Blackpool continued his fine performance as he slammed Arsenal into a 1-0 lead from an acute angle, once again showing his critics what he is made of. It was a brilliant finish from the England and Arsenal winger and a finish that has too seldom been seen from the player when he has been on international duty, but can he now impress on that stage after his early performances this season. Soon after, El Hadji Diouf was set down the left wing after a brilliant pass from Christopher Samba and he squared across goal for new Blackburn loanee Mame Biram Diouf to slot into the net which meant that the home side went in at half time level with their London rivals. As usual then, this game was turning out to be a brilliantly pulsating game in which both teams looked like they could win. Arsenal were the team who came out on top after Andrey Arshavin struck into the Blackburn net to give his side a 2-1 lead. That was fairly early in the second half but it was effectively the end of the game as both teams cancelled each other out in the later stages. Overall, it was a brilliant game, and the win meant that Arsenal went top, for a few hours at least.

The second game that I saw live in the the Premier League last weekend was from the Reebok Stadium as Bolton Wanderers took on Birmingham City. Most avid followers of the Premier League would've been looking at this match as an almost guaranteed Birmingham win, though some will have been bright enough to notice the stat that Alex McCleish had never beaten his former employee Owen Coyle and so on paper, it could've gone either way. It was perhaps a surprise then when Birmingham took an early lead, after just 5 minutes of play, as Cameron Jerome's touch across goal was tapped in by Roger Johnson, the defender who had been bought from Cardiff just over a year ago scoring his first ever goal for the club and making the task all the more difficult for Mr Coyle. The game the took an even worse turn for Bolton as veteran goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen stood up and slapped Roger Johnson after the Birmingham defender has made a particularly heavy challenge on the Finn, although when both got to their feet, it did look like Johnson was trying to apologise to him and so perhaps the veteran should've used his knowledge of the game a bit more. After half-time, Cameron Jerome then headed across goal for Craig Gardner, the hero the previous weekend against Blackburn to tap into the net and make it 2-0 to McCleish's Birmingham and the Scotsman must've believed he finally had the better of Owen Coyle. Just 20 minutes later, Kevin Davies backed into Johnson who allegedly fouled the Bolton striker allowing him to score from the spot and bring Coyle's Bolton back into the match with 19 minutes left to play. What was Coyle's next move then? Well, he immediately bought on Robbie Blake to give Bolton more of an attacking threat up front and try to salvage something from the seemingly impossible task. It took moments for the former Burnley man to make his mark as he stepped up in the 81st minute and take a free-kick, which he promptly smashed into the top corner to level things up in the later stages of the match at the Reebok. Not only did this mean that Bolton took a point that they hadn't looked like getting, but it also meant that the unwanted statistic still hangs over Alex McCleish. He has STILL never beaten Owen Coyle. Full Premier League results then:
Blackburn Rovers 1-2 Arsenal
Blackpool 2-2 Fulham
Chelsea 2-0 Stoke City
Manchester United 3-0 West Ham United
Tottenham 0-1 Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Newcastle United
Aston Villa 1-0 Everton
Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Birmingham City
Liverpool 1-0 West Bromwich Albion
Sunderland 1-0 Manchester City

Last weekend in the Championship, the two Welsh sides came up against two former Premier League clubs as Cardiff City visited relegated Portsmouth and Swansea City hosted relegated Burnley. Let's look at the game at the Liberty first then. As early as 8 minutes, Swansea had taken the lead as summer signing Scott Sinclair scored his first league goal for the club and diminished hopes of a Burnley walkover. That was pretty much the main and only incident of this game as Burnley failed to score to bring themselves into the game, and Swansea failed to extend their lead further. Both teams did however have a man sent off and it was in pretty quick succession as first Darren Pratley picked up his 2nd booking, and then Tyrone Mears earned his for a disgraceful challenge on Nathan Dyer. And Cardiff managed to complete what was a brilliant day for the Welsh clubs as they earned a 2-0 away victory at Fratton Park against a team who had beaten them in an FA Cup Final jus 2 years earlier. So in what was a great weekend for the Welsh clubs, lets take a look at the classified results for the Championship:
Barnsley 2-0 Middlesborough
Derby County 2-2 Queens Park Rangers
Doncaster Rovers 3-1 Hull City
Ipswich Town 2-0 Bristol City
Leicester City 1-2 Reading
Milwall 3-1 Coventry City
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Norwich City
Portsmouth 0-2 Cardiff City
Scunthorpe United 3-0 Crystal Palace
Sheffield United 1-0 Preston North End
Swansea City 1-0 Burnley
Watford 0-1 Leeds United

I'll be honest, I am severely neglecting League's One and Two so far this season. I will be better with these as we go on, but for now, I've already missed half an hour of Wales' vital European Championships Qualifying game against Montenegro in Podgorica and I'd quite like to watch a bit of it. So League One scores last weekend were:
Bournemouth 3-3 Notts County
Brentford 1-3 Rochdale Town
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-1 Walsall
Bristol Rovers 0-4 Southampton
Dagenham and Redbridge 2-2 Tranmere Rovers
Hartlepool 0-5 Sheffield Wednesday
Huddersfield Town 3-1 Charlton Athletic
Leyton Orient 3-0 Exeter City
Milton Keynes Dons 2-1 Swindon Town
Oldham Athletic 0-0 Yeovil Town
Plymouth Argyle 0-3 Peterborough United

And the scores for League 2 last weekend were as follows:
Bradford 0-2 Southend United
Aldershot Town 1-1 Stevenage
Barnet 1-1 Bury
Cheltenham Town 2-1 Burton Albion
Hereford United 0-1 Rotherham United
Lincoln City 0-1 Crewe Alexandra
Macclesfield 1-1 Chesterfield
Morecambe 0-0 Gillingham
Northampton Town 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers
Oxford United 0-0 Accrington Stanley
Port Vale 1-2 Torquay United
Stockport County 0-0 Shrewsbury

And finally, there have been 2 Newport County games since my last post so I'll give both scores. On Saturday the 28th August, County romped home 3-0 against Kidderminster Harriers and on Monday the 30th August, they acheived a 2-2 draw away to early leaders AFC Wimbledon. That means there were 2 very positive results for County over the course of last weekend and so well done to them as they attempt to make it back into the league.

Just my final little bit to say thank you to you guys for reading. I know they haven't been of the highest quality of late, and I can only apologise profusely for that and hope that you will carry on reading what I put out because I can promise you, these posts will get only get better as we go further into the season. Thank you everyone, I hope you're still enjoying this blog, and I hope to write again soon. I'll probably leave it until after the internationals as I only really want to do the major international tournaments, not qualifying. See you probably Monday the 13th September. Until then...

The week the Premier League went gooooal crazy!!

Hello blog fans. How is everybody doing out there? Some of you could well be watching your team in League Cup action right now. I know I am frantically checking BBC Sport for updates on Swansea City's match at Tranmere and so excuse me if I seem distracted in this post. Alot of goals to get through this week however, and so maybe it's best if we dive straight in and get on with it.

As usual, I managed to see two full Premier League matches last weekend, both of them involving team's from Manchester. On Sunday, Manchester United took on Fulham, looking to follow on from champions Chelsea's shining start to the season, the dominant Blues having scored 12 goals in their opening 2 Premier League fixtures. As early as 11 minutes in, last season's runner-up's looked set to go on and show that they can match Chelsea's early season scoring exploits as Paul Scholes blasted an effort in from outside the box past David Stockdale. It showed yet again why Paul Scholes has so regularly been hailed as one of the best players ever to come out of the United academy and United fans will be hoping the 35-year-old can replicate this form for much of the season and hopefully help to bring the title back to Old Trafford. It took until half-time for the home side to show any sort of desire to get back into the game and to this end, it was on 57 minutes that the brilliant Bobby Zamora laid the ball back to former Welsh international Simon Davies who shot past United keeper Edwin Van Der Sar, a former fan favourite at Craven Cottage. In what was a game of twists and turns, it was the turn of Manchester United to strike and take what looked like it could be a decisive lead as Brede Hangeland deflected a United corner into his own net. Soon after, the Red Devils were even awarded a penalty which David Stockdale did brilliantly to save after Nani's poor attempt to slot it into the corner. Watching it, you'd have been amazed if there wasn't more drama to come in the dying moment's and thats exactly what the game gave us as Brede Hangeland headed in from a Fulham corner to make it 2-2. In such a topsy-turvy game, there would be scope to say that you expected yet more drama, however, this was the end of the controversy and the drama, at least from this instalment at the Cottage. Surely United will already be worried about whether they can catch their rivals who have barely broken a sweat so far sweeping teams aside 6-0.

The other Premier League game I saw from the second round of fixtures was last night's fixture between Manchester City and Liverpool, a game that historically always ended quite close in terms of the scoreline. Well last night's game defied history in that one side came out very much on top. That team was the one managed by Roberto Mancini, the team that have spent copius amounts of money buying all the star players they can possibly get their hands on, a tactic that seems to be paying off so far. Manchester City opened the scoring after 11 minutes as their newest acquisition James Milner made a brilliant run around the outside of Daniel Agger and after being found by Adam Johnson laid the ball across the box to Gareth Barry who slotted past Pepe Reina in the Liverpool goal. After that, the rest of the first half passed with little incident as Manchester City remained on the attack but couldn't find a way through a better Liverpool defence. The second half continued in the same vein almost except for the fact that Liverpool attacked Manchester City aswell as the other way around, but the game was basically settled after Micah Richards' header was turned in by the brilliant captain Carlos Tevez to make it Manchester City 2-0 Liverpool and really turn the heads of many of City's apparent doubters. Joe Hart was the next hero of Manchester as he made a brilliant double save from David Ngog and Fernando Torres to stop the Merseysiders getting their foothold in the game. The game was over in the dying minutes after Adam Johnson was felled and Carlos Tevez tucked away the spot-kick to further compound the woes of the travelling supporters. Liverpool will have to desperately improve on this performance if they are to improve on their 7th place finish from last season, whereas Manchester City already look like they may have enough in the tank to compete for their place in the top 4. Scores this week then are:
Arsenal 6-0 Blackpool
Birmingham City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
Everton 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Stoke City 1-2 Tottenham Hotspurs
West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Sunderland
West Ham United 1-3 Bolton Wanderers
Wigan Athletic 0-6 Chelsea
Fulham 2-2 Manchester United
Newcastle United 6-0 Aston Villa
Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool

In a similar vein to my Premier League features, my Championship matches come from two rival teams this week. The first is obviously Swansea City's match away at Norwich City, a team, who like Swansea, play some very attractive football and have been tipped for a good season in the Npower Championship. Unfortunately, they got the better of us at Carrow Road as a late Ashley Williams own goal and an even later Simeon Jackson volley proved the difference between the teams. It was very unfortunate for us as we bossed the game and even missed a penalty towards the end. Looking at that incident, I think Norwich should've been down to 10 men after their goalkeeper John Ruddy, formerly of Everton, felled Scott Sinclair in the area and for me, I consider that a red card offence. Nevertheless, our away form has been very rubbish and we have to accept that loss at Carrow Road and move on, hopefully getting better as the season goes on as we need to get our away form to match up to our dazzling home form if we hope to make a serious impact on this league. The other match I want to look at, although not for long, is the match at Cardiff City Stadium between Cardiff City and Doncaster Rovers. This match was special because it was Craig Bellamy's homecoming and his first game for his hometown team. In fairness to the guy, he bossed it and proved the biggest difference between the two sides as he set up two of the 4 goals they scored and indeed scored a screamer of a free kick to give Cardiff a 4-0 home win. So, Npower Championship scores:
Bristol City 3-3 Barnsley
Burnley 3-0 Leicester City
Cardiff City 4-0 Doncaster Rovers
Coventry City 2-1 Derby County
Crystal Palace 1-2 Ipswich Town
Hull City 0-0 Watford
Leeds United 3-1 Millwall
Norwich City 2-0 Swansea City
Preston North End 1-0 Portsmouth
Queens Park Rangers 2-0 Scunthorpe United
Reading 1-1 Nottingham Forest
Middlesbrough 1-0 Sheffield United

I've dropped the ball again guys, although in all fairness, it takes something extra special for me to actually see a game from League One or Two. I'll just give you the scores again, and I unreservedly PROMISE to bring you a game or two from these divisions next week. Sorry again. League One scores then:
Carlisle United 4-1 MK Dons
Charlton Atletic 1-1 Oldham Athletic
Exeter City 2-2 Bristol Rovers
Notts County 1-0 Dagenham & Redbridge
Peterborough United 4-2 Huddersfield Town
Rochdale 1-2 Colchester United
Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Southampton 1-1 Leyton Orient
Swindon Town 1-1 Brentford
Tranmere Rovers 0-3 Bournemouth
Walsall 2-1 Plymouth Argyle
Yeovil Town 0-2 Hartlepool

And now the League Two scores for you:
Accrington Stanley 3-0 Macclesfield
Burton Albion 3-2 Morecambe
Bury 1-1 Northampton Town
Chesterfield 4-0 Hereford United
Crewe Alexandria 7-0 Barnet
Gillingham 0-1 Lincoln City
Rotherham United 6-4 Cheltenham Town
Shrewsbury 1-1 Aldershot
Southend United 1-3 Port Vale
Stevenage 3-1 Stockport
Torquay United 2-0 Bradford
Wycombe Wanderers 0-0 Oxford United

Blue Square Premier is the only other league I discuss on this blog but I'll be honest, I never get to see a game from that league, not unless I journey down to Spytty Park to watch the Newport County. I know the score from the County match last weekend, but thats really the only details I could tell you, but I will bring you the whole league round-up:
AFC Wimbledon 3-0 Tamworth
Altrincham 0-1 Crawley Town
Barrow 2-0 Rushden & Diamonds
Bath City 2-2 York City
Cambridge United 0-0 Southport
Eastbourne Borough 4-3 Wrexham
Fleetwood Town 0-3 Luton Town
Forest Green 1-1 Gateshead
Grimsby 1-2 Hayes & Yeading
Kettering 0-0 Darlington
Kidderminster Harriers 1-3 Mansfield
Newport County 2-2 Histon

Thats your lot for now then. I tell you what, that's taken me ages so I hope you enjoy it, although admittedly I don't think it's my best work either so... Anyway, pop back next week, I'll have highlights from the 3rd, yes THIRD, weekend of the British football season. Peace out

A belated first Premier League post of the season!

Apologies to all my "fans" out there/anyone who reads my blog regularly, I have kind of dropped the ball after my post from the opening weekend of the Football League season. I have been very busy this week, quite ill, and then my internet connection broke for a bit. I can only apologise for not doing it sooner, but as you can see, I have also had some terrible luck.

So, last weekend, the Premier League and Blue Square Premier joined the rest of British football in the 2010-2011 football season. I saw two games from the Premier League on opening weekend, and so I will disucss those and also highlight an absolutely stunning result that the best league in the world threw up last Saturday. Let's get on with all these action-packed updates and reports then.

The first game I saw of the Premier League 2010-11 was actually the Sunday afternoon as two of the perceived big guns, Arsenal and Liverpool, met at Anfield, a place the reds were no doubt hoping they could make into a fortress this season as they looked to snatch 4th place again amid the massed contenders. The first half passed with little incident, that was until Joe Cole saw red in his first Premier League outing for his new club after a horrendous tackle on new Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny. I think personally that Koscielny made a bit of a meal of it given that he was fit enough to come back out after the half-time interval, but nonetheless, it had to be a red as players simply cannot throw themselves into tackles like that anymore, and a model professional like Joe Cole really should've known that and so I feel he really can't have any complaints about it. As you can imagine, Liverpool came out after the half-time break determined to right the perceived injustice of Cole's departure, and soon they had managed to do that as David Ngog turned in the area and struck a beautiful shot into the top corner past a sprawling Manuel Almunia, though most critics will say he should've done better with it. What a change in a player who has so often disappointed since his arrival on Merseyside, and yet this season has managed 3 goals in 4 competitive games. The drama of this game was to come in the last few minutes however as Arsenal pummeled the 10-men of Liverpool looking for an equaliser to earn a less than deserved point. In the 89th minute, an Arsenal cross fell to Marouane Chamakh, the new Arsenal striker diverting the ball onto the post and as Pepe Reina tried to collect, he spilled the ball into his own net. One must feel that that was harsh on a man who had made so many good saves to deny Arsenal earlier in the game, but it was better for the game as a whole as both teams went into the 5 minutes of injury time looking for the vital winner. Neither team managed this, but they were briefly put on a level playing field in terms of players as Laurent Koscielny was booked for a second time in the 94th minute earning him a red card in his first competitive game for his new club. Arsenal will now have to struggle on as their defensive shortage has been sprawled all over the back pages this season and what with Koscielny now being ineligible for the next 3 games, these frailties could come to the fore.

The second game I saw from the opening Premier League fixtures was Monday's game at Old Trafford as last season's Premier League runner-ups Manchester United took on last season's Championship winners Newcastle United in what was a hotly anticipated battle between the United's. This time two seasons ago, Newcastle managed to take a point against their Manchester rivals and got relegated, so they were looking for a little more on Monday night after their immediate return to the Premier League otherwise the signs could be ominous for the Geordie side. Both sides shared the early exchanges and indeed Newcastle even had a brilliant chance to score early on and out Man Utd under some serious pressure. They didn't take the early chances though and they were punished in the 33rd minute as Dimitar Berbatov fired past Steve Harper and once again showed doubtful United fans why Sir Alex rates him so highly. Once again as with the Community Shield, his team-mates rushed to him in what was clearly a very public show of affection to United's board and owners and that makes me and other pundits think that perhaps Berbatov will actually be staying at Old Trafford for the forseeable future. Just 8 minutes later, Wayne Rooney diverted a cross into the path of Darren Fletcher who added a second for Manchester United and effectively ended Newcastle's resistance. From there on in it was pretty simple for the Community Shield winners and in the 85th minute they struck their final blow as man-of-the-match Paul Scholes floated a delightful ball over to Ryan Giggs who struck the ball left-footed past Steve Harper to cap a fine performance from Manchester United. Scholes in particular was exceptional and there will be people who will wonder what sort of effect this Paul Scholes could've had on England's disastrous display in South Africa. I also wanted to just bring it up in passing, Blackpool played their first game in the Premier League at the DW Stadium last Saturday and somehow not only came away with 3 points, but also 4 goals as they thumped a pathetic Wigan side and sent themselves top for a few hours at least. It was a miraculous story and I just wanted to mention that before I recap all of the opening weekend scores. Here are those scores then:
Aston Villa 3-0 West Ham United
Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Everton
Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Fulham
Chelsea 6-0 West Bromwich Albion
Sunderland 2-2 Birmingham City
Tottenham Hotspurs 0-0 Manchester City
Wigan Athletic 0-4 Blackpool
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 Stoke City
Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal
Manchester United 3-0 Newcastle United

Onto the Championship and I only have 1 feature game from this division this week as I am in a bit of a rush, and to be honest with you, I didn't really see much of the Championship last weekend anyway. My feature game, as always, involves Swansea City and comes from the Liberty Stadium. I was meant to be at this game but because of circumstances outside of my control, I didn't end up getting to go, and boy, am I sad I missed it. I got all the ribbing from mates about goal-scoring last season, but last Saturday, Swansea City smashed 4 goals past Preston North End as they did their best impression of Blackpool at the DW Stadium. The goals came from last season's Blackpool loanee Stephen Dobbie, Darren Pratley, Nathan Dyer and David Cotterill who finished the thumping from the penalty spot after Nathan Dyer won it late on. A fabulous game to be a Swansea City supporter, and our biggest win in two and a half years incidentally. I don't think there'll be many criticising the appointment of Brendan Rodgers now. So the Championship classifieds are as follows:
Barnsley 1-0 Crystal Palace
Derby County 1-2 Cardiff City
Doncaster Rovers 1-1 Bristol City
Ipswich Town 1-1 Burnley
Leicester City 0-0 Middlesborough
Milwall 4-0 Hull City
Portsmouth 1-1 Reading
Scunthorpe United 0-1 Norwich City
Sheffield United 0-3 Queens Park Rangers
Swansea City 4-0 Preston North End
Watford 2-2 Coventry City
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Leeds United

I won't lie to you, I didn't see any of League's One and Two last week, so I can't comment, and I'm still in that original rush, so I'll just bring you the scores this week and concentrate more on these 2 leagues next week:
Bournemouth 5-1 Peterborough United
Brentford 1-2 Walsall
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-2 Rochdale Town
Bristol Rovers 2-1 Yeovil Town
Colchester United 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday
Hartlepool 2-2 Swindon Town
Huddersfield Town 0-0 Tranmere United
Oldham Athletic 3-0 Notts County
Plymouth Argyle 1-1 Carlisle United
Leyton Orient 1-3 Charlton Athletic

League 2:
Aldershot 1-0 Southend United
Barnet 0-0 Burton Albion
Bradford 1-0 Stevenage
Cheltenham 3-2 Crewe Alexandria
Hereford 0-0 Gillingham
Lincoln City 0-2 Torquay
Macclesfield 0-1 Shrewsbury Town
Morecambe 0-0 Rotherham
Northampton 0-0 Accrington Stanley
Oxford United 1-2 Bury
Port Vale 1-1 Chesterfield
Stockport 0-0 Wycombe Wanderer's

And last weekend there was only 1 result I was looking at in the Blue Square Premier League, and that was Newport County's result. They unfortunately lost 1-0 to Darlington, but that's no crying shame and they'll be looking for a win this weekend no doubt.

That's it until Sunday or Monday now guys. Sorry it's been so rushed but trust me, you have no idea how much of a rush I'm in and it will return to it's brilliant standard next week I promise. If you've taken the time to read it and actually hated how bad it was, I am sorry, but be safe in the knowledge that next time it'll be back to it's good old self. Cheers everyone. TTFN

First weekend

Hello everyone. How are we after that opening weekend?? If you support a football league side, I hope your side had a little bit more luck than mine and that you enjoyed yourselves whether you were at a match or not. For now, let's get on with the new style of blog that I promised on Friday and more importantly, see if it actually works.

So, Friday night I watched the game between Norwich City and Watford and brought you the summary of that game. I also saw 45 minutes of Cardiff's game with Sheffield United on Sunday, a game which incidentally ended 1-1 giving us our only Championship draw of the weekend. The goals in that game came from Ched Evans and Jay Bothroyd. The one thing I will say is that it looks as though Leon Britton has really settled in at Sheffield United after turning his back on Swansea City so cruelly at the beginning of the summer. Cardiff perhaps should've done better aswell, despite the fact that they had to come from behind, against the 10-men of Sheffield United who had Lowton sent off in the first half. The other feature game for me in this division was obviously Swansea's season opener which resulted in a 2-0 loss at the Kingston Communication's Stadium courtesy of goals from John Bostock and Ian Ashbee. I have no complaint's about the first one as it was an absolute screamer, which I don't think Dorus De Vries could really have done all that much about. The second goal however just shows that Dorus De Vries has learnt nothing from the error's he made last season. I know that sounds harsh seeing as how he really didn't make that many error's, but when he did, they usually involved him flapping at corner's which is what he did once again just before Hull captain Ashbee put them 2-0 up. We weren't without our chances which is encouraging, and I guess this game was always going to be difficult against the relegated Premier League side, so now I think we should just look forward to the Preston North End home game on Saturday, a game I will myself be going to and which I will feature next weekend. The full list of Championship results then are as follows:
Norwich City 2-3 Watford
Bristol City 0-3 Milwall
Burnley 1-0 Nottingham Forest
Coventry 2-0 Portsmouth
Crystal Palace 3-2 Leicester City
Hull City 2-0 Swansea City
Leeds United 1-2 Derby County
Middlesbrough 1-3 Ipswich Town
Preston North End 0-2 Doncaster Rovers
Queens Park Rangers 4-0 Barnsley
Reading 1-2 Scunthorpe United
Cardiff City 1-1 Sheffield United

League One next, and another game I saw alot of on Saturday morning was the clash between favourites for promotion Southampton and relegated Plymouth Argyle. In my eyes, it was easy to see why Southampton have been billed as such huge favourites as they created most of the early chances, even without star striker Rickie Lambert who watched on from the stands injured. It was somewhat surprising that Argyle managed to get in at the break on level terms, and then soon after the restart, take a 1 goal lead. I think Southampton were so shell-shocked after the goal that they never really got back upto their first half levels, because if they had, Plymouth would not have been going away from St Mary's with 3 points. Full League One results then are as follows:
Carlisle United 2-0 Brentford
Charlton Athletic 1-0 Bournemouth
Exeter United 2-2 Colchester United
Notts County 0-3 Huddersfield Town
Peterborough United 3-0 Bristol Rovers
Rochdale Town 0-0 Hartlepool United
Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Dagenham & Redbridge
Southampton 0-1 Plymouth Argyle
Swindon Town 1-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
Tranmere Rovers 1-2 Oldham Athletic
Walsall 1-2 Milton Keynes Dons
Yeovil Town 2-1 Leyton Orient

So, we're all the way down to League Two's opening weekend. I'll admit to everyone right now, I didn't see much of League Two this weekend but one match I saw the result of was Stevenage's result against Macclesfield. Of course, Stevenage were beginning their first season of league football EVER on Saturday and it looks like they may have a good season this season having taken a point from their first game and scored 2 goals, one of them after just 7 minutes and the second one, an 89th minute equaliser. I will be keeping a close eye over Stevenage's results on this blog throughout the season as I think it is a brilliant story to follow so keep your eyes out for that if you're a Stevenage fan/sympathiser. Full list of League Two's results can be seen below:
Accrington Stanley 0-0 Aldershot Town
Burton Albion 0-0 Oxford United
Bury 0-1 Port Vale
Chesterfield 2-1 Barnet
Crewe Alexandria 0-1 Hereford United
Gillingham 1-1 Cheltenham
Rotherham 2-1 Lincoln City
Shrewsbury 3-1 Bradford
Southend 1-1 Stockport
Stevenage 2-2 Macclesfield
Torquay United 3-0 Northampton Town
Wycombe Wanderers 2-0 Morecambe

So that's all for the weekend. Tonight Stevenage play Portsmouth in the League Cup, and there are alot of first round matches tomorrow night aswell so I will more than likely post again on Thursday giving you an update of how those matches have gone. I hope you like the new layout. It is longer, but it is also more comprehensive so probably better in a few ways. Hope you've all enjoyed this blog, and keep your eyes open for Thursday's post.

2010/2011 season: The kick-off

Hello guys. Long time no post I know. Last time I posted, I did promise that I would do an overall sweep of bests and worsts at the World Cup. The only reason I didn't get around to this was that by the time I had perused all the relevant info, and made my decisions on certain bests and worsts, it had been about 2 weeks since the World Cup had ended so there seemed very little point so sorry to anyone who had been awaiting the arrival of that and still wanted me to do it.

So what's new?? Well, tonight, the football season officially started again as Norwich City took on Watford in the first game of the inaugral Npower Championship having changed sponsors from Coca Cola last season of course. Pre-kick-off, there was alot of talk about Norwich City challenging for promotion this season after the way they ran away with League One last season and subsequently gained promotion back to England's second tier and also alot of talk about Watford being contenders for a possible relegation to League One. Everything seemed set then for a big win for the team from East Anglia, but as so often happens with this division, we were in for a surprise. Watford first took the lead through the unlikely first goalscorer of John Eustace, a player who had looked like he would move on from the Londoner's at many points this summer. It was a very well taken goal aswell for a defender as Eustace took the ball down on his chest after it had been lofted in to him and struck a beautiful left-foot half volley past the despairing dive of John Ruddy to give Watford a 1-0 lead. The Hornets managed to double their lead before half-time as striker Danny Graham finished off a beautiful flowing move with a stunning finish. As the ball was lofted to Graham, he chested the ball to Marvin Sordell who played a glorious through-ball back to his compatriot allowing Graham to stroke the ball into the right-hand corner past John Ruddy and send the away fans into delirium and severely trouble the Canaries. Paul Lambert looked like he had alot to do at half-time then and it seemed he must've done that as just 6 minutes into the second-half, Delia's Canaries pulled themselves back into the game through Andrew Croft's brilliant low-strike after good build-up play involving debutant Simeon Jackson. After that there seemed to be a very sustained period of pressure from Norwich which ended when Graham got a controversial second goal in the 81st minute. The reason it was controversial was that it seemed as though Watford player's had fouled a few of the Norwich boys in the build-up to the goal, but it was a very good finish from the Watford striker when he was given the chance. 3-1 then and it seemed as though it was all over, however, when Michael Nelson swept in a goal in the 90th minute, and the news was revealed that there would be 4 minutes of extra time, the Norwich fans and players sensed there may still be something in this game for them. Unfortunately that was not the case, but it was still nice to see a grandstand finish in the first Championship of the season. So plaudits to Watford who become the first team to win this season and are the first leaders of the Npower Championship. Final result: Norwich City 2-3 Watford, a result which shows that anything is possible in this league.

This blog isn't just about that match, I also have something new to reveal. From now on, I will be covering every division in England down to the Blue Square Premier and giving all the scores on this blog having spoken about select games from each league. I feel this will be more comprehensive and so I hope you guy's enjoy the new format of the blog this season. Thanks for reading as usual, and here's to what will hopefully be a fantastic season for everyone. Good luck to your individual team's this season, and I hope you enjoy this blog week in, week out.

The end of South Africa 2010

Last time I wrote a blog for you guys out there, we were waiting for the last 2 matches of the 2010 World Cup. These matches were the 3rd place play-off between Uruguay and Germany, and the final itself to be contested by Spain and Holland, 2 teams who had never won the World Cup in their history. So, I think we should get going with all that and then after, possibly Thursday, I will give my best and worst's of the 2010 World Cup so look out for that aswell.

Saturday night, the 2 unlucky semi-finalists met in Port Elizabeth for the 3rd place play-off to determine who would gain the bronze metal at this World Cup. The spirited Uruguayan's came into this game as the underdog's, but in fairness to them, I don't think anyone, least of all themselves, thought that they would get this far and be in a position where they may just sneak a medal out of this World Cup. In all seriousness, Diego Forlan had possibly been one of the best players at South Africa 2010, but it was another one of the player's who had emerged as exceptionally gifted, Thomas Muller, who got the early goal to give the favoured German's the lead after just 18 minutes. That goal looked to have set the 3-time champions on their way to a second consecutive 3rd place finish having registered the same result in their home nation just 4 years ago. However, once again, the Uruguayan's sprang a shock on the millions watching around the world as Edinson Cavani slotted past German keeper Hans-Jorg Butt after just 28 minutes. The German's had hung onto the lead for just 10 minutes, and in all reality, it didn't really come as a shock after what the Uruguayan's had done so far at this tournament and so the game went into half-time on level terms. As the second half began, Forlan's Uruguay looked very dangerous and just 6 minutes in, Forlan himself scored to enhance his chances of winning the Golden Ball for the best player and also get himself back in the hunt for the Golden Boot, for the top scorer. Muller's earlier goal had put him on 5 goals, equal with Villa and Sneijder, and so Forlan's goal was necessary if he wanted to be seen as the best player at this World Cup. It was a very well-taken goal aswell and one that Forlan will undoubtedly watch again and again. In this topsy-turvy game however, the Germans got back level just 5 minutes after Uruguay had taken the lead through a Marcell Jansen header. That was unlucky for a side who had been enjoying their best World Cup in 40 years and it would then be down to who blinked next to decide the bronze medal of the 2010 World Cup. Duly, up stepped midfield maestro Sami Khedira, the young German heading into the goal after 82 minutes to seal the German's second successive 3rd place finish. Or so it seemed. As the seconds ticked away in injury-time, Luis Suarez, a man who had been heavily booed by the African contingent in the crowd for his part in defeating Ghana at the quarter final stage, won a free-kick right on the edge of the box for Forlan to take. It would have to be the last kick of the game but many onlookers doubted whether he could get it over the wall and back down in time. Well, he stepped up and struck it, and it looked for all the world as if it was a spectacular goal to take this fantastic game into extra-time, but unfortunately for Forlan and Uruguay, it struck the bar and rebounded out, upon which the referee blew the final whistle and gave Germany their bronze medal position for the second time in 4 years. Unlucky Uruguay will go home feeling they could've done so, so much more, but have completed their best World Cup in 40 years so perhaps they shouldn't look down on what they have acheived this year.

Onto the 2010 World Cup final then, which came live from Soccer City, Johannesburg on Sunday night between perennial World Cup underacheiver's Spain and Holland. The Dutch had previously been to 2 World Cup final's but had a 100% loss rate whereas this would be the first World Cup final for the Spanish having finally broke their jinx at the quarter-final stages at this year's finals. They can also now boast a 100% record in World Cup semi-finals and so would they take this chance to win the World Cup and establish another positive 100% record, or would they lose their composure having come this far and establish a 100% losing record in World Cup finals? In what was a hotly-contested finals, many pundits criticised the tactic's the Dutch had used to try and get their first World Cup success, but I genuinely think that they used the only tactics that they thought would be successful in breaking up the Spanish passing game. It may not have been pretty, but can you really blame them for doing so? Despite the utter brilliance of the Spanish, and the swift counter-attacking of the Dutch, we didn't really get any clear-cut chances until the second-half when Robben ran straight through the Spanish defence but failed to beat Iker Casillas in the Spanish goal. The Spanish also had a chance as Sergio Ramos headed over a free header from a Spanish corner. For the second successive World Cup, the game ended 0-0 after 90 minutes and we entered extra-time, where there would be yet more drama before the night ended. The first half ended without much incident, but most of the games action came in the second half as the Dutch had a man sent off on 109 minutes (Johnny Heitinga) having collected his second yellow card. In all fairness, the Dutch could've had 5 or 6 sent off during the course of the match, but luckily Howard Webb kept his composure and made sensible decisions which benefited the final as a whole. Just 7 minutes after this fatal blow to the Dutch, Andres Iniesta, the brilliant young midfielder from Barcelona got the ball just inside the box and struck past Maarten Stekelenburg (who had been brilliant in the Dutch goal) to give the Spanish their first World Cup triumph in their only final, but condemn the Dutch to their 3rd defeat in their 3rd final. That came as a crushing blow for the Dutch, who had gone through qualifying and the finals all unbeaten, but in all fairness, Spain were the best side at this World Cup and so it's fitting that they actually came through to win the trophy in the end. Congratulations to Spain who are now double champions (European and World) and right now, will definitely be the number one international team in the Fifa rankings, and deservedly so.

My congratulations then go to Spain and I have to admit I'm devastated that this World Cup has come to an end. I've thought it has been an exceptional tournament despite the fact that most of the football has been poor. We have however seen some brilliant goals and some brilliant individual performances, and the colour and vibrancy of this World Cup will surely live very long in the memory. Thank you for experiencing it with me, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have and enjoyed reading this blog throughout the tournament. As I said earlier, tomorrow I will present my best and worst's of the 2010 World Cup, and after that we have a few week's until the start of the football season although I will be blogging about transfer's, pre-season friendlies and the like. See you all soon guys, and once again thanks for reading

The semi-final stage

The World Cup is sadly reaching it's end, and this week, we saw the last 4 teams attempt to reach the pinnacle of World football that is the World Cup final at Soccer City Johannesburg on Sunday 11th July. The stage was set for Holland-Uruguay and Germany-Spain, the 4 best teams of 2010.

Tuesday saw the clash between two times winners Uruguay and two times beaten finalists Holland. Could the Dutch get to a third World Cup final where they would have the chance to break their World Cup duck?? Or would the Uruguayans again reach the final and attempt to join the likes of Germany, Italy and Brazil by winning their 3rd World Cup?? The Uruguayans have been the surprise package of this World Cup, winning a tough group containing the host nation South Africa, former champions France and the excellent Mexicans to set up a last 16 match against South Korea. Having won that, they then knocked out the last African side, Ghana, having narrowly survived an Asamoah Gyan penalty towards the end of extra-time and then winning through 4-2 on penalties. The Dutch had come through tough encounter's with Slovakia and Brazil to get to the semi-final against Uruguay and with all their brilliant attacking players, it looked like it would be an overly entertaining tie. As a stat before the game, no World Cup semi-final had ever been won by more than a one-goal margin and many critics didn't expect that to change during this tie. The Dutch looked to hit out early, and that they did as Gio Van Bronckhorst smashed in a long-range effort in the 18th minute that Muslera had no chance of getting to. That goal was perhaps the goal of the tournament and unlike many long-range shots at this World Cup, the Jabulani didn't seem to deviate in any way, shape or form and perhaps that is indicative of how good a strike it was from the experienced defender and Dutch captain. The Uruguayans managed to get back level just before half-time when Diego Forlan curled in a brilliant effort from outside the box that Maarten Stekelenburg perhaps should've saved, but unfortunately for him, he took a step to the right having not anticipated the flight of the ball correctly. The Dutch then went and scored 2 goals in the space of 2 second-half minutes after first Wesley Sneijder (70 minutes) and then Arjen Robben (73 minutes) pretty much made the game safe for the Oranje Army. Or so the Dutch thought. Having indicated that there would be just 3 minutes of injury time, the Urguayan right-back Maxi Pereira curled in a delicious finish from just outside the box. After that, the referee seemed happy to let the Uruguayans attack for a few more minutes before blowing up and sending the Dutch into Sunday's final at Soccer City after a 3-2 win over their South American rivals. Having talked so much about how the South American's were dazzling us all at this World Cup, it seem's ironic that for the 2nd successive World Cup, Hollands victory confirmed that we would once again have an all-European final as Germany took on Spain in the second semi-final. Incidentally, it is also the first time there has been an all-European final outside of Europe and so once again, the World Cup of 2010 throws up a first.

Tonight then we got to witness the combined brilliance of Germany and Spain as they duelled for the second place in the World Cup final in the brilliant setting of Durban. Both teams will have been going into this game thinking it was a game that they could win and would have been confident of making Sunday's final. The Germans had the advantage of their extensive experience at this stage of the World Cup, whereas this was the first time the Spanish had gotten to a World Cup semi-final having finally broken their quarter-final duck against the Paraguayans in the previous round. The Germans has illuminated the tournament with their excellent incisive play and mechanical attitude and the fact that they scored 4 goals in 3 games during this tournament, all against quality opposition. The Spanish however, dominated large periods of the game and the European champions always looked the more likely to score the winning goal throughout the game. The eventual winner came as Carles Puyol headed in a Spanish corner after 73 minutes, hardly a goal that was circa Spain 2008. But that goal was enough to win the game even though the Spanish should've sealed the game late on after Pedro failed to find Fernando Torres in an advanced position, but luckily for the European champions, the Germans simply weren't strong enough to craft the opening that could get them back into the semi-final and hence they go into Saturday nights 3rd place play-off with Uruguay, and Spain will meet Holland at Soccer City on Sunday night for the right to be called the World champions. That win not only means that there will definitely be a new name on the famous trophy, incidentally the nation that wins will be the 8th nation to have ever won the title, but also that the stat stated earlier stands: no nation has ever won a World Cup semi-final by more than a one goal margin.

So then, we have the 3rd place play-off on Saturday, and then the final on Sunday night. I will cover both of those games and then next week, I will bring my bests and worsts of the World Cup 2010. I've really enjoyed this brilliant World Cup and I hope you've enjoyed it aswell. I've loved covering it, and I'm glad that you guys have enjoyed reading this blog as usual. Having said all that, see you Saturday, and have a great Thursday and Friday. Cheers guys

Nadal-Bedrych and what looks like another summer of turmoil

So today I am going to go over the Mens Wimbledon Final from yesterday in some brief detail and also I'm going to go over the big story for all Swans fan's, a story that will break hearts and dominate the early part of the Summer for all of us.

Yesterday at Wimbledon, Rafael Nadal came up against the conqueror of Roger Federer on Centre Court, Tomas Berdych, in the final at the All England Tennis Club. Nadal never technically lost the Wimbledon crown having been injured last year and therefore not able to compete, so as he was walking onto Centre Court, it had an air of him coming out to regain the title he never lost against a man who had never been this far in a Slam before. If Nadal thought that Berdych's inexperience and nerves would get to him early on, he was sorely mistaken as as the Czezh held serve all the way until 3-3 in the first set. At this point, the Czech's game seemed to disintergrate and Nadal broke the Czech's serve to take a 4-3 lead. From there on, Nadal won the next 2 games to take the first set 6-3. That then was Berdych's chances pretty much up as most commentators would agree that he had needed to take the first set to grab the initiative in the match and to stand a realistic chance of taking the final from Nadal. As the old addage goes, the proof is in the pudding, and Nadal served up Berdych's just desserts as he waltzed through to a 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 win to clinch his second Wimbledon title and secure his place as World number 1 for at least the forseeable future. The brilliant Spaniard now has 2 Slam titles to his name this year and could go on to win another one and make it a hat-trick after the US Open later on in the Autumn.

Swansea fans, I think you should brace yourself for this, it looks very much like we'll be having another unsure Summer. That's right, after all the drama of Roberto Maritnez calling time on his Swansea City career last Summer, we've managed to bring back all the drama yet again as Paulo Sousa, the man appointed to replace Roberto, has left the club to join fellow Championship club Leicester City. I actually think the pain of this betrayal could be worse than Roberto's last year, because this time he hasn't left for a club he loved before, or because they're a bigger team than us, he's simply left for a team in our division who can afford to pay him more money. Obviously, money makes the world go round and who can say that they wouldn't take a job with more money than the job they have right now? I mean that much is pretty self-explanatory, but remember, Sousa was a man who had had his reputation severely tarnished by the fat cats of QPR before we bravely picked him up last July and said come on and have a go. This then is really the crux of why it hurts so much to have Paulo walk out on us like that. To me, and I'd surmise most other Swansea City fan's, it feels as if Mr Sousa has walked in to our club, used us as a way back into management and having done OK, decided to ditch us because somebody has simply thrown some money his way. That may be too harsh an assesment of Paulo, but I geuninely believe that to be the truth of the matter and I don't think I will be forgiving him at any time in the near future. I actually met Paulo once, and he didn't strike me as the type of man who would do that sort of thing to the fans who so vehemently supported him through his time at the Liberty despite all the rumour's about player and board discontent. Possible names that have already been touted for the once again vacant manager's role at the Liberty Stadium are the likes of Gus Poyet, Chris Coleman and Paul Tisdale. I'd like to see somebody like Gary Speed personally. He's the sort of man all the player's would respect from day one and who would implement a good footballing ideology and another main positive is that he is actually Welsh. Of course, another aspect which Speed has in his favour is that he is pretty much a rookie, which as we know from the previous 3 appointments, is the type of manager that Swansea would be looking at. Maybe I'll apply for the job as well. Let's face it, they won't find anyone more committed or passionate about the team than me.

That's all I've got for today then guys. I had to do a blog about the depressing news as soon as I heard it, but I had been predicting this for a couple of days and so it really doesn't come as such a massive surprise to me, even though it still hurts. Well anyway, I guess I'll be off, but I hope you all enjoyed the blog and the little insight into my feelings about the news coming out of the Liberty this afternoon. See you all on Tuesday with my blog on the first of the 2 World Cup semi-finals, take care guys

Quarter-finals in the football, semi's at Wimbledon, and my FINAL drinking rule (very sad!)

Last night, the quarter-final stages of the World Cup came to a conclusion, and boy were they dramatic. In today's post, we take a look at all 4 quarter-final's in our World Cup round-up, aswell as a semi-final round up of the tennis at Wimbledon but unfortunately, we have our last World Cup drinking rule. I can sense the tears flowing for you guys already, so I'll dive straight in and get the round-up's done before you break down completely.

As chronolgically as possible then, Friday's lunchtime kick-off saw Brazil take on Holland in what was one of the most highly anticipated match-up's of the 2010 World Cup. Having watched Brazil destroy Chile in their last 16 match, I doubt there was any heavy betting against the Samba star's going into this match and when Robinho swept in deliciously after 10 minutes, it seemed as though the Brazilian's would almost certainly be waltzing into the semi-final. Despite all the positive talk about the Dutch defence before the match, it seemed to simply dissolve when, on 10 minutes, Felipe Melo spotted the run of Robinho and slid a brilliantly insightful pass through to the Manchester City man who, much like he did against Chile, swept in first time past the onrushing Maarten Stekelenburg, who actually had a good game despite his early lapse. The rest of the first half passed without much extra incident, and the Brazilian's must have been going in at half-time feeling very confident of booking their semi-final place against either Uruguay or Ghana. However, a defensive mix-up just 8 minutes after the restart changed the game as the seemingly unadventurous Dutch were gifted a goal thanks to a Felipe Melo deflection. As the ball came in after a lofted ball was played by Wesley Sneijder, both Julio Cesar and Felipe Melo went up to clear the ball, but unfortunately for Melo, the ball glanced off his head and crashed into the back of the net giving the Dutch a way back into the game. Just 15 minutes later, and the Oranje Army took the lead through a Wesley Sneijder goal and Brazil seemed very much on the ropes. I actually haven't seen the second Dutch goal yet as I was watching Andy Murray, but I have been assured it was of the highest quality which is what you would expect from a player like Sneijder who has been excellent for the Dutch thus far. Needless to say, the 2nd Dutch goal sparked the Brazilian's into action and they threw everything at Holland. Unfortunately for Melo, he got a bit too worked up and was sent off for a blatant stamp on Arjen Robben. In all reality, that just typified what was a bad day for the midfield stalwart, despite his assist for Robinho's goal, and he will now head back to Brazil in disgrace at how his tournament has sadly come to an end. Not long after that, the World Cup had come to an end for all the Brazilian player's and Dunga's time as manager of Brazil simultaneously came to an end as he resigned shortly after. It would've been a brave man to bet on Holland before the game having seen the sort of football that Brazil were playing heading into the game, but afterward's he would probably have been quite a rich man as Holland produced a massive shock to make it to the semi-final's. Final score then was Holland 2-1 Brazil.

I'm sure people would've looked at the match-up's on Friday and possibly made plan's to go out during the night-time game as it could never match the excitement and drama of the early kick-off. If you did that, get online and check out the highlight's because this was genuinely one of the best games at this year's World Cup. Full of attacking football, hot-headed challenges and 2 brilliant goal's, it was a pleasure to watch and a very, very good advert for World Cup football. In a topsy-turvy first half, the Uruguayan's were the one's who made all the early running after a few early shot's were well-saved by Ghana keeper Richard Kingson. However, midway through the first-half, the Ghanain's started to come into the game a bit more as Asamoah Gyan and Kevin-Prince Boateng started to get chances on goal. During this period, the Ghanain's managed to snatch the advantage just moment's before the interval after a speculative 40-yard drive from Sulley Muntari deceived Uruguay keeper Muslera off-guard and flew into the bottom right corner sending the African contingent within the stadium absolutely delirious. It looked very much like Ghana would become the first African team to reach the semi-final of a World Cup, but the game would take a swing back to deadlock just after half-time as the spectacular Diego Forlan drilled a free-kick into the back of the Ghanain net to break African heart's. The game was then very stretched as both team's tried to find the killer goal against their opponent's and the Ghanain's wasted quite alot of good chances and good positions by picking out the wrong pass in advanced positions. The game then ended 1-1 and we were thrust into extra-time for only the second time at this World Cup and as the Uruguayan's visibly tired, the African's seemed to get a second win as they looked for that Golden goal that would give them their semi-final place against the Dutch. At the end of extra-time, it was Forlan's strike partner's turn to break the hearts of the Ghanain's. As Adiyiah, one of the Ghanain substitutes, headed the ball goalward's, Luis Suarez raised his hand's instinctively and pushed the ball away from just under the bar. In all fairness to the referee, he saw it straight away and Suarez was immediately given a red card, and as he walked off the pitch in tears with his shirt over his face, Asamoah Gyan stepped up to take the penalty, and everyone in Accra and in the stadium must've thought it was a dead cert that Gyan would send Ghana through. After a short run-up, Gyan decided to go for power rather than placement and unbelieveably struck the bar with the last kick of the game. As the game headed to penalties, footage was played of Suarez celebrating Gyan's miss, and I think that's pretty bad because he went from inconsolable to jumping around like a mad man almost mocking Ghana. It was terrible behaviour to do that on the side of the pitch as it looked very disrespectful to the Ghanain's. I have to give credit to Gyan who just moment's after his crucial penalty miss stepped up first in the shoot-out and banged his penalty home. That did take alot of guts and so I have to say well done to him for that. The Uruguayan's though don't live on sentiment and they eventually took the penalty shoot-out 4-2 to knock out the only remaining African side and break the heart's of a continent. They will face Holland in Cape Town on Tuesday.

So next is the team that I predicted would waltz to the final and win the whole thing. I'm really glad that I put that out there and made such a big call. At least I didn't bet anything on it which is nice I guess. Saturday 3 pm was the big quarter-final between Argentina and Germany. This was the big one that we all looked at when we knew the shape of the quarter-finals and was set to be one of the games of the tournament between one of the sure fire favourites and an inexperienced but brilliantly talented young team. It was certainly a brilliant game, but unfortunately for me, I had predicted an Argentina win, in fact I believe I even said that they would definitely win the whole tournament on this very blog. Well they won't win it now after they were crushed 4-0 by the insanely clinical German's. The goal's came from Thomas Muller, after 3 minutes, two for Miroslav Klose, 67 and 89 minutes, and finally Arne Friedrich, 74 minutes which was the defender's first international goal and what a time to score it really. I was hugely disappointed with the Argentine's attacking and defensive play. They looked as though they didn't care about being in the quarter-final and definitely didn't look as though they wanted to play a semi-final. It's a shame really because now the two team's that were playing the best football at this World Cup are both out and it's because neither of them showed enough desire to go out and beat what should've been, for them, relatively easy opponent's given how poor the European team's have been thus far. It's strange because I thought Maradona and Argentina had more in the bag than that and maybe they do, but they just needed to show it against the German's. As England proved, you can't just turn up to face the German's unless you are playing your best game which the Argentine's obviously didn't learn. Sorry for being foolish and predicting that they would win the tournament, and so now I have to pick a new team. Germany??

Saturday evening saw another Europe-South America clash and so far, it was 2-0 to Europe. Could Spain make it a clean sweep of European victories over their South American counterparts?? The Paraguayan's actually played very well against the European champions and I think they were unlucky to come away having been eliminated courtesy of an 83rd minute David Villa goal. That was the striker's 5th goal at these finals and he now stands alone as the top scorer, an accolade his play has surely deserved so far. The Paraguayan's were unlucky to miss a penalty they won in the second half of the game, but perhaps even more unlucky not to be given the chance to take it again after the Spanish defence was seen encroaching on the replay. Just moment's later, the Paraguayan keeper stopped a retaken Spanish penalty and in all honesty, after that, I genuinely thought that the Paraguayan's might make a fight of it and possibly come out on top, they did fight until the very end and I think they can be immensely proud of the way they played against the hotly favoured Spanish and the fact that it was only a 1-0 victory sort of show's you that the game wasn't all Spain and wasn't dominated by Spain so thank you to Paraguay for at least making a game of it.

Ummm semi-finals of Wimbledon then. Tomas Berdych, conqueror of Roger Federer, came up against 3rd seed Novak Djokovic in his semi-final. Surprisingly, Djokovic didn't really show up and Berdych eventually ran away with it in straight sets which meant Andy Murray came out onto Centre Court around 4 o'clock right in the middle of the Holland-Brazil showdown hence why I didn't see most of the second half. The man who stood in his way?? Rafael Nadal. The man who won the French Open 4 years in a row and the current World number one. Some people were giving Muzza a chance as Nadal had been taken to 5 sets a couple of time's during the tournament whereas Murray had only lost one set and that had been in the previous round. As the match got underway, both men seemed to be on a par, although Murray was making much more of a fight of it on Nadal's serve than Nadal seemed to be making on Murray's service games. However, it was actually Nadal that made the first breakthrough and ended up taking the first set from his British opponent 6-4, putting Murray under some serious pressure early on during the match. Both men then held their serve all the way through the second set and during the tie-break, Murray had the chance to win the second set and push himself back into the match and give him a chance at getting through to the final and making himself the first Brit to reach a Wimbledon final since Buddy Austin 74 years ago. Unfortunately though, Murray missed his chance and Nadal clinched the second set to give him a 2-0 lead and to effectively end Murray's chances. Despite an early break in the 3rd set, Murray didn't manage to hold his way through to get back into the match at 2-1, and Nadal broke back and then managed to take the set 6-4 and put the brilliant Briton out. That 6-4, 7-6, 6-4 victory means Rafa sets up a final at the All England Club with Tomas Berdych. That match is due to start in about 10 minutes time so I'll get off and have a watch of that for you guys.

I am now struggling. I think I may have given you all of my World Cup rules, but I'm going to think of one as I right so forgive me if it's rubbish. Ok, so I may sort of have one, but this is very dependent on you ACTUALLY watching the game properly closely, but it's decent. This is the "Jabulani" rule. Anytime there is a goalkeeping error/error/the ball moves in a weird way, the last one to say some variation of "I blame the ball", or "Jabulani", essentially something ball related, must do the assigned punishment. I'm sorry it's rubbish, but let's be honest, we knew that they were actually going to get worse as we went on didn't we. That's your last World Cup rule. I'm sad about it, I bet you guys are back home aswell. How could you not be in all honesty??

Right then, off to watch a mixture of T4 On The Beach and Wimbledon. More Wimbledon to be honest as I want to cast my eye over that final to bring you some of my writing tomorrow. So I guess I'll see you all in a bit. I hope you've enjoyed this instalment and as always, thank you for reading and I'll see you soon for more blogging.

I have messed up....again!

I had meant to do another post after Andy Murray's quarter-final with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but I totally forgot and so in this post, I will summarise, Japan-Paraguay, Spain-Portugal and Murray-Tsonga. I think we should get on with it seeing as how right now I am trying to do this, and watch Ghana-Uruguay so I can post on that and Holland-Brazil very soon. Having said that, I may just post all the quarter-final's together as the other 2 are tomorrow anyway.

I believe the last sentence of my last post said I was hoping for a Keisuke Honda thunderbolt against Paraguay. I was obviously expecting a little too much there as both teams played out a dire 0-0 draw. The match itself was annoyingly pathetic as neither team showed any desire to win a match to put them into a quarter-final. There was none of the Japanese industry and skill that we had seen against Denmark last Friday, and none of the South American flair that we have seen in such abundance at this World Cup from the Paraguayan's. I had thought that my award for worst game in this competition was definitely going to France-Uruguay, but I've gotta be honest, this game has given it some major competition and maybe the French won't win anything at this World Cup, not even one of my sought after World Cup awards. The game then was undecided and goalless at the end of extra-time, so, in total contrast to the rest of the game, we got the high drama of a penalty shoot-out for the first time at this World Cup. The Paraguayan's qualified after they scored all their penalties and Camano missed for Japan with the end result appearing as 5-3 after penalties. Cue Japanese tear's and I have to admit, I was a little bit gutted for them myself. Well, I say I was gutted for them, but I was more gutted that Keisuke Honda, a player who has looked magnificient at this World Cup A) did not have a good game at all (although who did??) and B) we don't get to see more of him, that is unless he signs for a Premier League club, and he has been linked with many so hopefully that will come to pass.
So Paraguay would be the quarter-final opponents for the winner's of the Iberian derby between Portugal and Spain. Many would have assessed the Portuguese chances as very, very poor before the match as the European champions had seemed to regain some form towards the end of their group games whereas Portugal had never really looked like they had got going despite their 7-0 drubbing of North Korea. Mind you, after the first-half, the game looked too close to call after some brilliant Portuguese play inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo, but unfortunately, they couldn't continue this brilliance in the second half as the Spanish got their passing game together and a wonderful passing move was finished by the one and only David Villa to send the Spanish into a 1-0 lead over their local and most hated rivals. Despite Portugal then trying to exert some pressure and get back into the game, their effort was not enough to bring down the European champions who progress to the quarter-finals with a 1-0 win. One of the big stories to come out of this was post-game when Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to spit at a TV camera as he walked off the pitch, although for my money, I don't think he saw the camera and intentionally spat at it, I think he just needed to spit as the camera followed him. It wasn't as if he walked up to it, spat, and then walked off in a completely different direction, but obviously a lot was bound to be made of it as he is one of the best player's in the world.

Talking about best player's, Andy Murray was back in action at Wimbledon on Wednesday as the 4th seed took on 8th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals. With all the country looking on, how would Andy Murray fare?? Would he crumble under the pressure as he has done at times this year, or would he deliver a confidence-boosting victory over a rapidly improving and widely talented player?? The first set went with serve as both player's looked intent on taking the advantage, and after a tie-break, it was Tsonga who had the advantage over a player who was doing his best impression of Tim Henman out on Centre Court. That tie-break also incidentally meant that Murray lost his first set of the tournament. After the excitement of that first set, the second followed in much the same vein with both players holding their serve to take us into another tie-break. At 5-4 to Murray in the tie-break, Tsonga served a big first serve into Andy Murray who manage to block the ball back into play, and over the advancing Tsonga, who, thinking the ball was flying out, decided not to go with the easiest of volley's to get back level in the tie-break, however, as Tsonga turned around to watch the ball, he saw it drop onto the baseline and give Murray a 6-4 lead, and 2 set points. Having managed to save the first one, Murray served an ace to equal the match at 1-set-all. Murray then produced some stunning tennis to take the 3rd and 4th sets 6-2, 6-2 and dump the 8th seed out at the quarter-final stage and set up an appetising semi-final against World number 1 Rafael Nadal. I witnessed that match today, but if I'm going to do a post on the quarter-finals of the World Cup tomorrow, I think I'll include that match report just to beef it all out a bit. Just to summarise the final score of the Murray match, it was as follows: 6-7, 7-6, 6-2, 6-2. As a quick afterthought, Roger Federer was surprisingly knocked out at the quarter-final stages of this year's Wimbledon by 12th seed Tomas Berdych who faced Novak Djokovic in his semi-final. I will bring the result's of that tomorrow as well.

One of my last Fifa drinking rules then, which I think I will end tomorrow when I bring you the quarter-final round-up, so this is my penultimate one. This is the dance rule. Whenever a goal is scored in the remaining matches, everyone must do a dance (which obviously is pre-agreed) in celebration and anybody that does not do it receives their drinking punishment. The personal favourite amongst my group of friends is the samba, but again you are welcome to pick your own before the match, with examples including the robot, the saturday night fever and the moonwalk. That is actually one of my favourite rules and so I hope you really enjoy that one.

Right, that's your lot for today then guys, hope you have all enjoyed today's post and come back tomorrow for your quarter-final round up. As I always say, I can't thank you guy's enough for reading this and for being so complimentary about it because I do genuinely enjoy writing them knowing that I might be bringing a smile to the faces of you reader's and that you guys get a bit of a kick out of it. Cheer's everyone, see you tomorrow, I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Friday night

Holland-Slovakia, Brazil-Chile and Murray domination

With England out of the World Cup, everybody's sporting focus, in this country at least, turns towards Andy Murray who is taking part at Wimbledon, quite possibly the biggest tennis tournament in the world, and whether he can go onto win it and end Britain's barren run for a Wimbledon champion. The rest of the world however is focused on the World Cup, so today I will be given an overview of yesterday's matches, and then discussing Andy Murray's match that took place on Centre Court yesterday.

As you will know if you are a regular reader of this blog, I try to be as chronological as possible (incidentally, I have been trying to think what that word was for week's and even meant to include it in a previous blog, so I'm taking that as a small victory for my brain) and that doesn't change in today's blog, except for the fact that Andy Murray had technically finished his match before Brazil kicked off, but I digress. So, after all that rambling, let's get on with it, yesterday's first World Cup last 16 match saw the mighty Holland take on little Slovakia, although they were the team that knocked Italy out, so a team not to be taken lightly by the Dutch. The game was fast-paced from the outset and a brilliant one to watch with chances and goals at both ends. It was the Dutch who took the early lead as returning midfield ace Arjen Robben came inside the Slovakian defence before slotting a finish past the despairing Jan Mucha after 18 minutes to send the Oranje contingent ecstatic. After that goal, the game seemed to open up a little bit more as the Slovakian's desperately attacked to try and get back into the game. Despite this, they didn't really carve out any openings until midway through the 2nd half when Miroslav Stoch came inside onto his right foot, but unfortunately, Maarten Stekelenburg was at this brilliant best to tip the ball over the bar when it seemed certain it was in and Slovakia were level. Just moment's after this, and another chance fell Slovakia's way as Marek Hamsik, another of the player's at this World Cup to be linked with a summer move to Old Trafford, poked the ball through for Robert Vittek who, unfortunately for Slovakia, showed none of the composure he'd had against Italy and fired straight at Steklenburg. The game was unfortunately all over after 84 minutes when Dirk Kuyt played the ball across the box to Wesley Sneijder who finished easily after Mucha had made a mistake in coming off his line. The Slovakian's did just about have time to add a consolation after Stekelenburg brought Vittek down in the box, allowing the striker to get his 4th goal in 4 games at this World Cup. That mean's that despite his team exiting, he is at the moment the join top scorer with Gonzalo Higuain of Agrentina. Final score here then, Holland 2-1 Slovakia.

When Brazil vs Chile kicked off, every single losing team in the round of 16 had scored a singular goal against their opponents, and Chile faced the unenviable record of having played Brazil twice at World Cup final's, and losing both times (4-2 and 4-1) the latest of these losses coming in the corresponding round in 1998. Could they then change this record?? The start of the game was very lively with both teams attacking in abundance, however just after the half hour mark, a Brazilian corner wasn't defended very well and the big Brazilian defender Juan managed to head in very confidently to give the Brazilian's a Juan-0 lead (I'm sorry, but I had to really didn't I??). Just 4 minutes later and we saw a goal that we would associate more with the Brazilian style of play as Robinho played the ball to Kaka, who knocked it through first time to Luis Fabiano who proceeded to take it round the keeper and beautifully slot it in to the net. At this point, it looked certain that there would be no way back for the Chilean's and that they would be the first South American side to be eliminated from the competition. 2-0 down at half-time, they went in knowing they had to change something and come out positively after the break. Unfortunately, their push never materialised and the Brazilian's capitalised on the space in the Chilean midfield after Ramires picked the ball up before going on a surging run and laying the ball off to Robinho, the Manchester City player finishing beautifully with his right foot first time and effectively ending the Chilean's fight. Very little then happened between that goal and the end of the game, and the Chilean's not only became the first South American team to be knocked out of the competition (which quite frankly is a stunning effort considering that this was a last 16 match) but also the first team to be knocked out at this stage having not scored a goal in their match. On a little side note, the Brazilian's looked absolutely deadly, and realistically, an Argentina-Brazil final is still on, so that could be absolutely AMAZING if it happen's because right now both team's are playing unbelievably good football.

As promised then, the man who now carrys Britain's sporting hopes on his shoulders, Andy Murray. Yesterday, he faced Sam Querrey, the impressive American, on Centre Court for a place in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon. Now that all expectation was back on him, how would Murray fare?? After a tense first set, Murray should've sealed it at 5-3, but Querrey managed to break back in the 9th game and then held his serve to make it 5-5 and once again, Murray looked like he might shrink away from the limelight. Murray managed to hold his serve and then break Querrey yet again to seal the set 7-5. After that, Murray seemed to dominate every game and even had enough confidence to pull off ridiculous shot's like the volley in the 2nd set that John McEnroe said might be the shot of the tournament. With ease then, Andy Murray won the match 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 and remains, thus far, the only man not to have dropped a set at this year's Wimbledon. That's some turnaround from the Andy Murray we've seen since his loss in the Australian Open final to Roger Federer in January. This is a man who got knocked out of the French Open and Queen's by average player's and yet he seems to be strolling through Wimbledon and, trying to be as respectful as possible to Murray's opponent's at Rolland Garros and Queen's, is playing against a higher class of opponent in my opinion. This is now the main focus if Britain want a succesful sportsman this summer, and so I will be keeping you up to date with every Murray match as soon as I know the result's.

World Cup drinking rule. I won't lie to you, I'm really struggling to come up with good one's now, but I'll keep doing them just because I know that you guys may be enjoying them. This is one for the more boring game's really, but it's quite fun when there is a boring game on so it almost creates entertainment. The rule is, "Who is that?" and basically, when the camera pans to a randomer in the crowd, everyone must say "who is that?". As with most of these rules, the way you lose is by saying it last. I know this seem's to be the standard formation of the rules, but there has to be someone who loses and does the punishment and that just seem's the easiest way of deciding a loser does it not?

Right then, my internet has decided it wants to be an idiot and go on-off, on-off. I will post this as soon as I get a period of it being on, but I hope you have enjoyed this as I have really enjoyed writing it as I usually do. I'm off right now to watch another of the team's I've really enjoyed watching at this World Cup, Japan, play Paraguay. Hopefully Keisuke Honda will score another screamer eh??

Last 16 matches

As the title suggests, we've had more action at the World Cup. So far we've already seen 4 last 16 matches, with 4 more to come over the next 2 days. After these have been played, we'll know more about who could possibly be going on to win the tournament and who has the easiest route to the final stages of the tournament.

The first match we saw of the World Cup's second round was the clash between Group A's winners, Uruguay, and Group B's runner-ups, South Korea. On the face of it, this looked like it could be a close match as both teams play a similar sort of football and have player's who can change the game in their team's favour. In reality, Uruguay were deserved winners, eventually walking into the quarter-final's with a much-deserved 2-1 win. The Uruguayan's took an early lead through supposed Manchester United target Luis Suarez after just 8 minutes, with a strike at the far post after yet another goalkeeping error. As the ball came across, the South Korean keeper seemed to fall over as it went past him where Suarez was on hand to tap the ball in and give the two time winner's hope of making their first quarter-final appearance since 1970. After this very bright start, it was perhaps strange to watch the Urguayan's sit back and seemingly try to defend the one goal advantage they had, but despite this, the Korean's somehow went in at half-time still trailing 1-0. Something had to change then at half-time otherwise the Uruguayan's would progress and the South Korean's would be out. Again, the Uruguayan's came out and started to defend seemingly prefering to stick with what they had than to go and kill the game off, and they were made to rue this tactic when, after 68 minutes, Bolton Wanderer's striker Lee Chung-Yong stole in ahead of Uruguayan keeper Muslera to nod into the net and restore hope of a South Korean comeback. In my mind, Muslera didn't need to come for the ball, and he got absolutely nowhere near it, and yet again, a goalkeeping blunder has proven the downfall of a team at this World Cup. The goal that won Uruguay the game came from Luis Suarez, the brilliant 23 year old coming in from the left and curling a delicious shot into the top right corner past the Korean keeper to finally seal their quarter-final place after 80 minutes. The Uruguayans do look like a handy squad, and if the rumours are true about Luis Suarez and Manchester United, it looks like we could have another young, exciting player coming to the best league in the world.

To see who would face Uruguay in the quarter final, the USA and Ghana met at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in what was a highly anticipated game as Ghana remained Africa's only hope at the first African World Cup. Both team's have performed brilliantly so far in this tournament, but Ghana had not yet scored a goal from open play, a stat which they undoubtedly wanted to change against the US. Just 5 minutes in, Kevin-Prince Boateng went on a slaloming run through midfield before firing a shot past Tim Howard and giving the Ghanains a goal from open play, and raising hopes of an African team progressing to the quarter-finals, and possibly further, of the tournament. Naturally, when the US managed to grab an equaliser through a 62nd minute Landon Donovan penalty, the locals were not happy, but the American's looked like they could finally justify their talent by gaining a quarter-final place at this World Cup. Unsurprisingly, with only 28 minutes left, neither team wanted to leave themselves open to a killer goal and so the game closed up slightly and the game went to extra-time, the first time we have seen extra-time at this World Cup. It actually didn't take too long for a goal to come after extra-time had gotten away, and it was Ghana's World Cup hero who sent the local crowds and the Ghanain's in the stadium absolutely delirious as he slotted in a delightful shot, and gave Ghana their 2nd goal from open play. Asamoah Gyan, the man who previously, scored both goal's for Ghana in the group stage, was the man who sent them into a quarter-final against Uruguay after his stunning strike just 3 minutes into the first half of extra-time. You may think that game will be one of no contest, a match that surely Uruguay can't conspire to lose, but I actually think it may just be closer than everyone is giving Ghana credit for, and it wouldn't surprise me if we had our first ever African semi-finalist's at this World Cup.

Sunday brought a very different type of game. A rivalry like no other, a team that had looked poor given their reputation, and a talented young side looking for blood. Yes, it was the big one as Germany took on England in Bloemfontein. Prediction's at the start of the day suggested that if England were to beat the old enemy, one in six people would phone-in sick for work the next morning, but luckily that didn't happen. In a game full of controversy and rivalry, the German's eventually waltzed into the quarter-final's with a margin of 4-1. Not only was this result embarassing for England, but it made many people doubt whether England had in fact been ready to go to this tournament as they certainly didn't look it at any time whilst they were in South Africa. Germany were ahead after a defensive mix-up between Matthew Upson and John Terry allowed a Manuel Neuer goal-kick to bounce all the way through to Miroslav Klose, and as you will know if you look at his international record, you do not let him get a chance as he will probably bury it. That's exactly what he did after 20 minutes, and it was a goal that had England reeling as the German's started to attack at will while the English player's wilted in front of them. Lukas Podolski's goal for Germany meant that after just 32 minutes, the German's had a 2-0 lead and looked like they would smash England, however, this German optimism didn't last long. In the 37th minute, Matthew Upson headed in a Steven Gerrard cross just to give the English player's a lift and keep the hope alive. What followed next was even more surprising than an England goal, and will have left the German's with a sense that justice has now been done after the 44 years of hurt that they have had to suffer. 44 years ago, Geoff Hurst struck a bar and the linesman incorrectly asserted that the ball had in fact crossed the line, giving England a goal, this time around, the linesman didn't see what everyone else in the stadium and on the pitch saw as Frank Lampard's stunning lob beat Manuel Neuer, crashed against the underside of the bar, and landed a couple of feet over the line. However, as Frank Lampard and Fabio Capello celebrated, they were both stunned to see the referee and his linesman wave play on having not given a goal. It was such a stunning mistake that I can't comprehend it, and I'm not even English. It was a definite goal and you could tell that from the live action replay. The slow motion just made it look even worse and the linesman will be appalled with himself when he see's that. England then went in 2-1 behind. Despite coming out and attacking, England still didn't create much apart from a Frank Lampard free-kick that struck the bar, and of course, as you so find when you're chasing a game, this meant that England were left with huge gaps at the back which the German's exploited with some brilliant counter-attacking in the 67th and 70th minutes, both chances finished by Thomas Muller. England then, not only crashed out, but also suffered their worst ever World Cup defeat at the hands of their old enemies. You always hear about decisions evening themselves out and so possibly England deserved not to be given that goal after Mr Hurst's was given in 1966, but it will spark up a fresh debate over whether we need goalline technology, to which the sensible answer must surely now be yes.

The second last 16 game of Sunday was also tinted with controversy, as Argentina took on Mexico. In what was a brilliant opening period, Mexico seemed to dominate their fellow South American's, but after Tevez's shot came back off the Mexican goalkeeper to Lionel Messi, Tevez was offside. What followed was an absolute debacle as Lionel Messi chipped the ball over the goalkeeper and Tevez headed it in from his offside position. The referee and his linesman gave the goal but both saw it on the big screen's inside the stadium, and so both will know that the decision they have made is absolutely awful. Again, this enhances the argument for video technology, but FIFA have still refused to do this, and it remain's to be seen whether all this controversy will change their minds. The second Argentinian goal came just 8 minutes later after a defensive mistake was pounced on by one of the early frontrunner's for the Golden Boot, Gonzalo Higuain. It was a brilliant goal and all but put the Mexican's out. After half-time, the Argentinian's came out looking to kill the game, and when Carlos Tevez smashed in a typically brilliant goal after 55 minutes from outside the box, it seemed like it was definitely over and that Argentina and their flamboyant manager Diego Maradona would be going on to play a quarter final against Germany. Mexico did get a consolation goal through new Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez, and United fan's will have been delighted to have seen it as it was an absolutely brilliant turn followed by an even better strike into the roof of the Argentinian net. This is the team I am predicting to win the World Cup just to reiterate that to everyone out there.

Drinking rule time?? I think it is. This one is German specific. Everytime Germany play, you must drink throught their national anthem, and, if at any point there is a close up of Joachim Loew, you must say "Where's Fabio??". As usual, last person to say it must do the pre-arranged punishment. I'm off to watch Andy Murray try and reach the Wimbledon quarter's now, but I'll be back with a post after the Brazil-Chile game this evening, so I guess I'll see you then. Cheer's for reading guys.