Fan With A Laptop

After Capello...

2012-02-09T21:00:00.000Z

So what did you watch on Wednesday night? Did you see the Middlesborough V Sunderland replay, or were you taken aback by the events unfolding at the English FA's headquarters. Capello's resignation brings forward the decision that the English FA needed to make at the end of this season, who to give the poisoned challice of the England Manager's job to.

Firstly, Capello's big mistake was to put so much faith in John Terry. Whether he is guilty or not of the charges he faces, his past conduct makes him an unsuitable leader of a football team, never mind inspiration to millions of England football fans. Possiably Capello thought that this England generation was devoid of leaders. Whatever his rational, Terry does not strike me as leadership material.

So, what next for England. Stuart Pearce will take charge for the friendly against the Netherlands at the end of the month, after that who knows? The clamour from within Football for Harry Redknapp though has been unanimous. I'm not sure that he would be the ideal candidate for the suits at the English FA, to much of Terry Venables about Redknapp for some people within the EFA's liking I suspect, while his own tactical nouse might come into question from some people. Given his record with Switzerland from 1992-96, maybe Roy Hodgson might appeal to the EFA's suits. I just have this feeling that Redknapp is just too obvious to be the next England manager.

What Capello's resignation has not done is dampen down the expectations of certain sections of the media, with some people suggesting that this crisis will bring the players together. Not sure about that, but i think that we can now say with 99.99% certainty that England will not win the European Championships this Summer.

Sporting Picks of 2011, Part 3 - July 23rd

2012-02-03T12:00:00.000Z

Tour De France, Stage20

Cadel Evans is all but certain to become Australia's first Tour de France winner after astunning time trial-victory in the suburbs of Grenoble. Evans recorded a time of 55 minutes 40 seconds to take the yellow jerseyfrom Andy Schleck before Sunday's largely ceremonial final stage in Paris. Germany's Tony Martin won thetime-trial from Evans, who moved 1:34 ahead of Schleck in the overallstandings. Schleck began the day with a53-second lead in the general classification.

Evans (right) with Green Jersey winner Mark Cavendish

So in the year thatCycling seems to have entered the British Sporting consciousness big stylethanks to the Manx Missile’s Green Jersey win, I’ve not plumped for one ofCavendish’s wins but for the penultimate stage in what was a remarkably closeTour.

To recap, thedefending champion, Alberto Contador was racing under the cloud of a dopingban. This was rendered meaningless earlyon when Contador suffered a series of setbacks that put him all but out of thetour. The surprise package of the tourwas the French rider Thomas Voeckler who stayed in Yellow until Andy Scleck eventuallyoverhauled him on stage 19 – which finished on the slopes of the iconic Alped’Huez. Shleck had missed out on yellowthe previous day by 15 seconds. NeitherAndy Schleck, nor his brother Frank, were renowned time trialists though, whichmeant that Cadel Evans, who had performed admirably to stay with the leadinggroup throughout the mountain stages, was still within touching distance 57seconds behind Andy Shleck.

The stage was setfor an almighty tussle. What unfoldedwas the most dramatic sporting spectacle of the year as Cadel Evans tore intothe course, as both of the Shleck brothers dramatically collapsed. By the first check point at 15 kilometresEvans had taken a huge chunk out of that 57 second lead, with Andy Shlecktrailing (on this stage) by 36 seconds, by not long afterwards Evans had riddenhimself into yellow.

Stage 20 was won byTony Martin, but only finishing 7 seconds behind was Evans. Andy Shleck had though conceded a total of 2minutes and 31 seconds to Cadel Evans on this stage – more than enough forEvans to take Yellow and to hold it through Stage 21’s lap of honour through Paris. This was one of the most remarkableturnaround’s this race had ever seen, in what proved to be the closest race formany years.

Sporting Picks of 2011, Part 2 - July 3rd

2012-01-26T12:00:00.000Z

All EnglandChampionships, Mens Final; Wimbledon; Novak Djokavic beat Rafael Nadal 6-4,6-1, 1-6, 6-3

Serbia'sNovak Djokovic won his first Wimbledon titleand proved himself the best player in the world with a stunning win over RafaelNadal. Djokovic came through 6-4 6-1 1-66-3 to end Nadal's reign as Wimbledonchampion, before overtaking the Spaniard as world number one on Monday. It was his 50th win in 51 matches and hisfifth win over Nadal this year. Hebecomes the first Serbian man to win Wimbledon,his third Grand Slam title after two Australian Open victories.

Just when we weregetting used to the possibility that the King (Federer) was dead, long live theKing (Nadal). Djokovic came along andhad one of the all time great years in Tennis history. From the start of the year until the end ofthe US open, Djokavic lostonly one match (the French Open semi to Federer), amassing the Australian Open,Wimbledon and the US Open – to add to hisAustralian Open win in 2008.

This match makes itinto the list for three reasons. Firstlybecause for the first time since 2004, neither Nadal or Federer held the numberone ranking in the world. Djokovic’s semifinal win over Jo-Wilfred Tsonga was enough to take him to number one.

Secondly, becauseof Wimbledon’s stature in the game this winacted as confirmation that Djokavic had reached the level attained by Nadal& Federer in previous years. Indeed,this win was probably at that point Djokavic’s best performance. Djokavic’s break in the twelfth game of thefirst set acted as the catalyst as Djokavic then bombarded Nadal with winnersthroughout the second set. Nadal didcome back in the third, but faltered in the fourth when Djokovic broke straightaway and would break Nadal again before winning the match in the fourth.

The last reason isthat this Wimbledon felt like the start of thechanging of the guard. Federer failed tomake the quarter finals for the first time since 2002, while Nadal showed thatwe wasn’t as infallible as people thought he was when he won 3 out of the fourSlam titles in 2010. Indeed up until thesemi final Nadal seemed to be on cruse control.

If it is the startof the changing of the guard, then the rivalry between Federer and Nadal willbe in its last days (at the highest level at least). However the rise of Djokavic means that theend is not yet in sight for Mens Tennis latest golden age.

Sports Picks of 2011, Part 1 - May 28th

2012-01-22T12:00:00.000Z

56th European CupFinal, Wembley – London: Barcelona3, ManchesterUnited 1

"Barcelonadelivered a masterclass to inflict another Champions League final defeat on Manchester United asLionel Messi inspired an emphatic victory at Wembley. ManchesterUnited's hopes of emulating their first European Cup final success here againstBenfica in 1968 foundered as Barcelonadeservedly repeated their win against Sir Alex Ferguson's side in Rome two years ago. The pattern of an entertaining game bore anuncanny resemblance to events in the Stadio Olimpico in 2009 as United startedwith optimism and intent before being swamped by Barcelona's brilliance."

The problem withmodern sports reporting is that every win is instantly translated into hype andhyperbole. Every once in a while thougha performance comes along that makes it difficult to separate the hype from thetruth. It is true that Manchester Unitedmade exactly the same mistake that they did in the 2009 final, in going in witha 4-4-1-1 formation, it is also a possibility that Barcelona would still havewon had Manchester United gone into the game with an extra midfielder. However the hype surrounding Barcelona’s win does seem over the top.

What Barcelona did do was provideproof, if it were needed, that they are the dominant force in European footballat the moment. Both Vidic and Ferdinand,international defenders, looked lost trying to track Messi playing in what hadbeen dubbed the “false 9” position (ie, a player who’s starting position is asa forward, who vacates that position to take up a separate position). Once Barcelonatook control of the midfield, Messi (below, celebrating his goal) dropped back to run at the United defence,providing space for Rodriguez and Villa to move into, from the flanks. The problems come in trying to place this Barcelona side into thepantheon of great European sides.

On the one hand,they have won three European Cups in five years, and would have won three in arow were it not for Jose Mourinio’s tactics in the semi final last year. The second win defined both the Barcatici-taka style and the Spanish national side’s tici-taka style that took themto their maiden World Cup win. This Barcelona side, and theplayers who form the nucleus of the Spanish national side, have re-inventedpossession football for the 21st Century and re-defined the pressing game.

On the other, thebest European sides have retained the European Cup. The last side to achieve that feat was the ACMilan side that featured the Dutchmen of Rijkaard, Gullit and Van Basten. Liverpool won back to back European Cups in1977 and 1978, while Ajaxand Bayern Munich dominated the early Seventies by winning 3 in a roweach. Going back further Inter Milan wonback to back European Cups in the mid Sixties, as did Benfica, who supplanted 5in a row champions Real Madrid. Thepoint is that to truly be considered one of the great European sides, this Barcelona side needs toretain the European Cup. After all, goodthough the Juventus side that had David’s, Del Piero & Zidane was, theroad-block to greatness was that habit of loosing at the final hurdle (twice,in 1997 and 1998).

Yes, Barcelona’s performancein winning their fourth European Cup was exceptional, which is why they are onthis list. Remember though they arestill a wee bit to go until they can be considered one of the greats. Assuming of course that Guardiola survivesthe three year rule that is.

First Footing 2012

2012-01-02T23:30:00.000Z

Firstly can I wish all the readers of this blog a Happy New Year!

Secondly, blogging will be a wee bit light just now. I am working on my sporting picks of 2011 just now. These will appear soon.

All the best for 2012

It's SPOTY Time All Over Again...

2011-12-17T18:30:00.000Z

Next Thursday seesthe BBC’s now annual smug-fest round-up of the Sporting year. Except that this year should be slightly lessof a smug-fest than usual because of the controversial list of nominees forSports Personality of The Year.

When the list wasannounced at the end of November, there was immediate controversy as there wereno sportswomen on the list – with the BBC receiving the most brickbats. While the Beeb were undeserving of criticism aboutthe makeup of the list, they should have been criticised much more for the makeup of the electorate. They’ve onlychosen to canvas The Herald over The Scotsman and the Daily Record, yet havecanvassed both the daily and the Sunday editions of The Telegraph, The Times,The Star The Daily/Sunday Mail and the Guardian/Observer.

However the worsttransgression was inviting the views of those well known dedicated “sports”magazines “Zoo” and “Nuts”. Perhapsmindful of this, the votes cast by those magazines show a modicum of knowledgeof sport outside the sphere of Football – with the vote for Judd Trump beingmaybe the one least justifiable. Atleast they didn’t disgrace themselves… unlike the Manchester Evening News who voted for those fine Britishsportsmen Dimitar Berbatov, Yaya Toure and Patrick Viera.

For my money, I’mnot really surprised at there not being any women nominated. Most of the sportswomen who garnered voteswill have won championships without very much exposure, but will be looking forbetter performances come Olympic year next year when the exposure will be there. However there are sportsmen who I amsurprised that have made the final 10. Amir Khan won the WBA Light Welterweight championship this year, butsurely there are tougher opponents in Khan’s division as exemplified by hisdefeat to Lamont Peterson. Both AndyMurray and Luke Donald have had excellent years, but both have Slam/Major sizedholes in their locker. As for Alastair Cook,I suspect that his nomination is more for his Ashes exploits last winter thanhis form during the summer, where apart from his 294 against India atEdgbaston, he didn’t make a century. Andrew Strauss hasn’t hit a century since the first Ashes test at theGabba last November, but he makes this list because of his captaincy of thebest test cricket team in the world.

By the looks ofthings there are three frontrunners for this prize. Mark Cavendish was nominated a couple ofyears ago after winning 6 stages of the Tour de France. He only won four this year… but won the GreenJersey for the first time. Cavendishalso became the World Road Racing Champion, the first Brit to win it since1965. Cavendish’s strongest opponentsfor the prize come in the shape of two Northern Irish golfers.

Rory McIlroy madelast years Ryder Cup team, but this year he truly arrived in the world ofGolf. Four shots ahead going into thelast day of the Masters, McIlroy struggled before folding at the 10^thon his way to an 80, finishing 10 shots behind Charl Schwartzel. At the next major, the US Open, McIlroy puthimself into a similar position, this time sealing the deal to become theyoungest US Open Champion in 88 years, and the youngest major winner sinceTiger Woods stormed to the Masters title in 1997. If the rise of McIlroy is the story of futurepromise and the emergence of a new sports star, the story of countryman DarenClarke is one of emotion and triumph against the odds. Having been a mainstay of the European RyderCup team since the mid 90’s, many thought Clarke would never win a major – hisbest chance came at Troon in 1997 when Justin Leonard came through and beatboth Clarke and Parnevik to the title. Clarke’s first Indian summer came when his performances were key toEurope retaining the Ryder Cup at the K Club in 2006, months after the death ofhis wife Heather from Breast Cancer. Hissecond came this year when he landed the biggest Golfing Major of the lot – TheOpen Championship.

Both Dai Green andMo Farrah would have expected to have been in the running had the threesportsmen mentioned above not had excellent years, and had their WorldChampionship’s winning performance been broadcast on the BBC – not a sleight onChannel 4 who did an excellent job of broadcasting the World Championships meetin Daegu (as well as give an overdue promotion to TV for the former 5Live commentatorJohn Rawling), more that the BBC would have been promoting their case slightlyharder had they held the rights to the World Athletics Championships. In truth, the contest will be between Cavendish,McIlroy and Clarke, with possibly Clarke winning – with the Golfingconstituencies love of Clarke’s emotional back story pulling him through. This year there will be no Tony McCoy (above) styleleft field winners.

"Gentlemen" And "Players" - Cricket At The Crossroads

2011-12-02T11:45:00.000Z

In amongst thetributes to the England All-rounder Basil D’Olivera, there was the re-tellingof one of the most shameful chapters in English cricket. The behind the scenes campaign (by the SouthAfrican authorities) for the MCC (as the Englandtouring party were called at that time) to tour South Africa was bad enough,without the MCC’s own version of twisting in the wind. That D’Olivera came out of that episode andplayed a further 5 years for Englandis a testament to his fortitude.

As a sort ofcoincidence, there is a book out at the moment which deals with English Cricketfrom 1967 to 1977 and looks into the huge controversies that rocked EnglishCricket during this period. Yes, EnglishCricket in crisis. There was me thinkingthat English Cricket was (at least until relatively recently) in perpetualcrisis. “Cricket At The Crossroads”by Guy Fraser Sampson tells the story of this period. As well as detailing how England played during this period – a time whenbetween January 1970 and February 1973, England would (it has beenretrospectively calculated) be the worlds best test team. The book focuses on the three big crises tohit English Cricket during this period, the (it is alleged) class motivatedsacking of Brian Close as England captain, the afore mentioned D’Olivera affairand the rise of World Series Cricket – or as some other wag put it KerryPacker’s Flying Circus.

The book starts offby explaining the world of 1960’s English cricket, where there were the playersand there were the gentlemen. And moreoften than not, the gentlemen more often than not were from an English Public School background. As Fred Trueman put it, quoted in the bookfrom his own biography “As It Was” - “Those charged with running the game andselecting Englandteams… were former schoolboys who wentto Oxford or Cambridge… They looked down on the pros and considered an amateur with a cricketblue from Oxford or Cambridgea much superior choice when it came to selecting the England teams”.

It was in thisatmosphere that the “pro” Brian Close was appointed Englandcaptain, succeeding the “gentleman” Colin Cowdrey at the end of the West Indies 1966 tour. Fraser-Sampson makes the case that the appointment was a temporary onemaking the point that “the Englandselectors found themselves in the position of having selected as captainsomeone whom they had already discarded as a player, and finding that he hadthe knack of winning matches”. Oneof the hallmarks of this book is the logical and almost clinical manner thatFraser-Sampson makes his arguments and dispenses the revelations.

A case in point iswith the sacking of Close. Close hadbeen involved in a couple of incidents during a County Championship match at Edgbaston,just before the selection meeting to decide the touring party for the 1967/68series in the West Indies. The incidents,alleged time wasting and a bit of a heated debate with a spectator, were smallbeer compared to the events in the lives of today’s sportsmen. Yet as Fraser-Sampson points out, Close waspicked as captain for the tour before the Edgbaston incident was broughtup. At this point, the selectioncommittee backed away from Close, and backed an alternative candidate… oneColin Cowdry. Of course the conflicts ofinterest at play in this decision never made the light of day at the time. However Sampson does an excellent job inexposing them and the humbug surrounding English Cricket at that time. The past, as is pointed out in this book, isanother country.

If there are a fewpeople who emerge from this episode with their reputations intact, then Sampsonensures that save the late D’Olivera, no one emerges with their reputationintact from the next episode. Sampsonnot only details the vested interests at play, but also the foul play indulgedby BOSS – the South African Security Police – at the behest of the SouthAfrican government. All of whom had different motives for ensuring thatD’Olivera was not picked to tour South Africa for the 1968/69 test series. When D’Olivera was picked for the tour, notas a first pick but as a reserve and then making the tour party following theinjury to Tom Cartwright, the tour was called off by South Africa. The picture painted by Sampson is one ofineptitude mixed with vested interests, all cocooned within the old boy’snetwork.

England beat Australia at the Oval thanks to Basil D'Oliveira's 158 (top right)

This air of, what anEnglandcaptain of another sport would describe as “57 old farts”, permeates thisbook. It was the past, it leads tobotched fudged decisions. Like thefudged decision on D’Olivera – one which led indirectly to South Africa’sexclusion from Test Cricket. Yet as thebook details, there were people not prepared to put up with this attitude formuch longer. The surprise battlegroundwas the 1970/1 Ashes tour. Havingreplaced the injured Cowdrey at the start of the 1969 season, Illingworth had –with the same chagrin of the selectors as was displayed during Close’s tenor –obtained the knack of winning matches. By the time of that Ashes tour, England were the best cricketingside in the world, so the MCC attempted to undermine that by appointing a teammanager from the same school tie mould as Cowdrey, Smith and most of theselectors.

Sampson’s journalof how the Team Manager David Clark and Captain Ray Illingworth’s relationshipdeteriorated over the course of this tour again shows the clash between the oldorder and the new ways of doing things. One of the key reasons that the tour was a success was the willingnessof Illingworth to stand up for his players, D’Olivera would not have made thetour for Illingworth, while his man management skills did not go down well withpeople who thought of themselves as Illingworth’s superiors. By the end of the tour, the “Gentlemen” weremarginalised while the “Players” celebrated regaining the Ashes. Ironically enough, Cowdrey had such amiserable tour, his dropped catches enabled several players – chiefly IanChappell – to make scores and keep their places. Chappel would be particularly grateful as hewould be installed as Australian captain by the end of the mammoth 7 test series.

If the first 2thirds of the book is full of excellent articles and is well researched, thenthe last third is a slight disappointment. Most of this third is taken up with narratives on England’s testmatches from the end of the 1970/1 Ashes series up to the 1977 Ashes. That’s not to take anything away from thosenarratives, but there does feel as if there is a lull – at least until the TCCBbungled again by sacking Illingworth and replacing him with another “Gentleman”in the shape of Mike Deness.

In fact the bookdoes not really pick up again until the 1974/5 Ashes series comes intoview. With the TCCB making all themistakes they made with Cowdrey again, and with the knowledge Samson hasprovided, the carnage inflicted by Australia is really like the sportingequivalent of “Lions lead by donkeys” – a critique of the British army from theFirst World War. Yet unfortunately thereis a slightly disapproving tone towards Chappell’s Australian side. Most of this tone is directed towards theAustralian pace pair of Lillee and Thompson – essentially because Sampsonbelieves that the Australian pace-men to be the harbingers of the West Indies pacemen (like Michael Holding and Andy Roberts who were already in the West Indiesteam, and latterly the likes of Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Courtney Walsh& Curtley Ambrose – who were all “decedents” of the West Indies 1960’sattack of Charlie Griffiths and Wes Hall) that would dominate the next 20 yearsof Test Cricket.

Surprisinglyenough, the last scandal to feature in this book I feel didn’t really receivethe attention it should have. The riseof World Series Cricket revolutionised the game. Coloured clothing for limited overinternationals, day/night games, drop in pitches (which was an additional aidto the rise of the fast bowlers) and protective clothing were all innovationsthat came from this period. The biggestchange was towards proper remuneration for cricket professionals. The part World Series Cricket played here wasthe issue that eventually ended the Gentlemen & Players culture. While Sampson was thorough about how WorldSeries Cricket came about, that essentially it was an act of revenge by KerryPacker for not getting the broadcast rights for Test Cricket, the ACB awardedthem to the public broadcaster ABC, and also recommended to the TCCB that therights to the 1977 Ashes series should be awarded to ABC as well. Sampson was not so thorough about theinnovations or about how compromise came about after such an acrimoniousdispute, which came to court when players sued the TCCB for restraint of trade.

In 1979, whenCricket began to come to terms with the split and people were tentativelylooking at ways to heal the split, the world was ready for the next paradigmshift in attitudes. Yet despite being inthe middle of the end-game of the left-wing post war consensus – a culture wasending within cricket. The old order ofGentlemen and Players had been comprehensively routed at the player level. However it would take another decade or sobefore this mindset would be gone from the highest level of the game in England. What this book does well is that it tells thestory of the end of the world of “Gentlemen” and “Players”, and the beginningof the professional era of English Cricket. It does a very good job of showing how this old mindset contributed tothe major crises that gripped English Cricket from 1967 to 1977.

In spite ofSampson’s attempts to paint a picture of the mid 1960’s social and economicclimate, which struck a clumsy and stridently Anglo-centric viewpoint, thisbook successfully tells the story of English Crickets painful transition fromthe time of “Gentlemen” and “Players” and explains in depth the myriad ofvested interests and school tie links which would be on the run at the end ofthis book. “Cricket at the Crossroads”is an interesting and well researched book that is detailed about thisturbulent period in the history of English Cricket.

The Rain In Spain

2011-10-12T21:30:00.000+01:00

So Scotland rather predictably lost out to Spain last night while simultaneously the Czech Republicbooked their playoff place with a fortuitous 4-1 win. Had Lithuania been given a penalty justbefore the Czech’s scored their third, things might have been different. At the end, Scotland came up short in anothergroup that they should have escaped from.

David Silva Scores the goal that ended Scotland's hopes

As predicted from the outset, Scotlandwere vying with the Czechs for that second place, and it was those two tieswhere the playoff place was decided. Formany Scottish fans, the tie in Praguewas all about Levein’s 4-6 formation, imagine the lack of ambition in notplaying a striker. In reality, this wasa close game not helped by the Scottish defence’s tendency to hoof the ballforward to the Czech defence. If it wasthe inability to hold on to possession that was Scotland’s only failing on the night,that might have been forgivable. Thebigger crime was Scotland’sawful defending at the goal as the defender Hubnik was given the freedom of Prague to do whatever hewanted… which was to put the ball in the back of the net.

That game wasLevein’s early problems in a microcosm. Strugglingto get his team to gel while still trying to figure out his best formation,Levein’s Scotlandstruggled to retain possession and to do anything useful with it. It is symptomatic of the period that in thenext game, against Spain,Levein played 4-2-3-1. It wasn’t until theCarling Cup matches and the early season friendly with Hungary thatthe 4-5-1 formation, with a midfielder dropping into a defensive position,developed. Then, the return match withthe Czechs was upon us.

In truth, Scotland didnot perform. Yet found themselves 1-0 and2-1 up. Had they not sat back, thenmaybe the Czechs would have left Hampden with nothing. But as soon as Scotlandwent ahead, the Czechs seemed to pin Scotland back with relative ease. The Czechs still showed better technique thanScotland,but there is no way that this side are as good as some of the Czech sides ofthe past. An opportunity lost then.

While Levein is analmost certainty to be at the helm of the Scotland national team come the firstWorld Cup qualifier, there is a growing backlash. 4-6 and those early sluggish performanceshave sparked criticisms, with callers to “Your Call” on Tuesday night callingfor Levein’s head. So far those callsare in the minority. There is howeverthree things to bear in mind. The firstis that at the moment there isn’t really an obvious successor to Levein.

Callers namedSouness as someone they would like to see at the helm. The thing is, Souness hasn’t really been a successfulmanager since leaving Rangers in April 1991. He won the English Cup with Liverpoolin ’92, and memorably won the Turkish Cup with Galatasaray in 1996 and… well that’sit really. Secondly, Scotland is still very much a workin progress. Lastly there is a record ofScottish Managers failing to get the country to the European Championships but succeedingwith qualifying for the World Cup. Steinand Roxburgh failed to qualify for any of the European Championships in the1980’s. Stein then took us to the WorldCup in 1982, and before his untimely death got us almost to the 1986tournament. Roxburgh failed to get us toEuro 88, before taking us to Italia 90.

I think that Leveinis still the best person for the job, even if it has taken him a bit of time toget to grips with the job. But it islooking more and more as if his whole career rests on what happens during the WorldCup qualifiers. No pressure then.

Almost There?

2011-10-09T09:59:00.000+01:00

EuropeanChampionships, Qualifying Group I: Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz;Liechtenstein 0, Scotland1

Scotland’s unnecessarilyhard fought win in Vaduz has, coupled with the Czech Republic’s 2-0 loss onFriday night to Spain, seen them creep past the Czech Republic into secondplace. All Scotlandneed to do to keep a hold on the play off place is to get a better result in Spain than the CzechRepublic gain in Lithuania. Easy!

The win was unnecessarilyhard fought because Scotlandreally should have been home and hosed by half time, with Naismith missingthree chances. Naismith’s first chancecame on 11 minutes when he headed an Adam free kick wide. Ten minutes later, Naismith headed a crossweakly into the ground, which fell into the hands of the Liechtensteingoalkeeper, four minutes after that Naismith rounded the goalkeeper but putinto the side netting. Just past thehalf hour, Scotlandgot the goal they deserved. Bardsley puta high hanging cross into the box and Craig Mackail Smith (above) put a looping headerpast keeper Jehle. It was the first timein the game that the forward actually got on the end of a cross, or wassupplied with service.

The second halfpretty much followed the same pattern, Scotlandretaining possession and probing, with Liechtensteincontent to put 10 men behind the ball. Both Naismith & Berra had chances at the end, but both were kept outby good saves by Jehle. Don’t know aboutyou, but a 1-0 win felt like a below par score and not really representative ofScotland’sdominance – but completely representative of chances created.

Scotland’s last date in this Euro 2012 campaign isof course that game in Alicante on Tuesday, withthe Czech Republic’s tie in Lithuaniataking place simultaneously. In short avery difficult task awaits against the World Champions and defending EuropeanChampions, knowing Scotlandwe’ll either win 1-0 or lose 4-0.

The Rugby World Cup Proper Starts Here

2011-10-05T18:30:00.000+01:00

40 games down and 8 to go in what has been at times a dramatic World Cup tournament. Not quite the vintage of 2007, or 1995, but there are those 8 games and there have been big fallers. Most notably Scotland, who did show some signs of a revival but couldn’t defend at key moments. Rather like four years ago, there are some interesting ties.

Ireland V Wales; Wellington: Saturday 6pm (6am BST)

Ireland beating Australia 15-6

First up is the clash of the two form teams. Ireland topped Group C, by beating Australia in the second week and by thrashing Italy last week. Wales should have, could have beaten the defending champions, South Africa, in week one. That loss though has a silver lining in this winnable quarter final (as opposed to Australia).This really could be the tie of the round.

The head to heads in this competition are not a great indicator neither. Wales won the first World Cup encounter in Auckland during the inaugural tournament, Ireland won the last World Cup encounter at Johannesburg in 1995 to set up a Quarter final with France. With this possibly being the last hurrah for Driscoll, O’Gara and one or two others I think Ireland may do it.

England V France; Auckland; Saturday 8:30pm (8:30am BST)

For the third World Cup in a row, England play France in the knock out stages. France are in disarray after their shock defeat to Tonga, where a last minute try saw them get the bonus point that gets them here. The Six Nations Champions are struggling for form, having seen them get here via a second half fight back against Scotland.

History suggests an England win. England has only lost one World Cup meeting to France, the 3rd/4th place playoff in 1995. France lost the Quarter Final in 1991 (in Paris), and two semi finals (2003 and 2007). England will win again, and play possibly Ireland next Saturday.

South Africa V Australia; Wellington: Sunday 6pm (6am BST)

Truth be told, this tie may well be as close as the Wales/Ireland tie. South Africa should have lost to Wales and struggled to beat Samoa, while Australia put away Italy but lost to Ireland. Both sides look as if they need to find their best 15 (and some form) fast.

With a win apiece in their previous World Cup meetings (South Africa winning the opening game of the 1995 tournament, Australia winning a tense Semi final in 1999), this tie looks too close to call. I think Australia will somehow bag a result and face New Zealand in the second semi final.

The key moment of this World Cup?

New Zealand V Argentina; Auckland: Sunday 8:30pm (8:30am BST)

New Zealand has gone through this tournament with ease, and should win this tie. Yet, it’s normally at this point the nerves start for the All Blacks. As if to ratchet up the tension further, the All Blacks have lost their virtuoso Fly-half Dan Carter (right) to injury.

I think New Zealand will win, like they did in 1987 in their only other World Cup meeting. There’s plenty of time for the All Black hex to strike against Australia next week.

Czech-mate for Levein?

2011-09-04T18:05:00.001+01:00

European Championships, Qualifying Group 1: Hampden; Scotland 2, Czech Republic 2

In yesterday’s must win game, Scotland contrived to throw away 1-0 and 2-1 advantages to draw 2-2 against opponents who themselves should have been 2 up inside the first 15 minutes. However this has been obscured by two controversial penalty decisions, which we will come to later.

The Czechs started the brighter and should have been two up. Firstly Jiracek crossed to Baros who put the ball over the bar. Then Rajnoch headed over the bar from a Rosicky free kick. Before long Scotland got back into the game, enjoying a bit of possession without actually doing anything useful with the possession. Until half time, the pattern was Scotland holding on to possession but struggling to get at the Czech defence, punctuated by moments of Czech counter-punching where they were able to get at the Scotland back line with ease. Going forward from one of these counter punches, Scotland got the first goal. Fletcher drove forwards towards the box and then slipped the ball to Miller at an angle to goal. His shot went under goalkeeper Lastuvka’s legs and into the corner.

Scotland had a golden opportunity to take a grip on the game, squeeze the Czech’s out of mid-field and then push for the second goal. What happened is that the Czech’s then hung in there, put on a second striker and then began to dominate the game. Baros sliced shot within second’s of the re-start was a shot across the bow’s, one that Scotland did not heed. When the Czech’s equalised, Scotland had been hanging back and defending grimly for about 7 or 8 minutes. Holding onto the ball, a cross came into the box and the ball was turned into goal via Plasil’s mid-riff. Scotland now had 13 minutes to get a winner.

Within 4 minutes Scotland had a second. Miller dispossessed one of the Czech’s who made his way into the box, and then returned the favour to the free Fletcher who side-footed home. Again Scotland decided to defend what they had and surrendered the midfield, rather than keep hold of the midfield, and they got their “reward” by conceding a penalty with two minutes to go. Rezek ran into the box and “fell” over some invisible part of Danny Wilson, some part only visible to Rezak and the referee Blom. It was a dubious decision on first viewing, and only looked worse with each replay. Kadlec scored the penalty.

Yet Scotland had one last chance to get an undeserved win, but blew it. Berra picked up the ball, made his way into the box and fell over the Czech defender. Yet, now referee Blom pulled out the book for simulation.

Truth is, Scotland were the masters of their own downfall. They won hard fought advantages and were far too content to give away those advantages. Had Scotland retained the miniscule control of mid-field that they had when they were leading, the Czechs would not have been able to camp themselves inside the Scotland third. Scotland can still finish second and take the play-off place, but the Czech’s are now 6 points clear having played a game more than Scotland – their next game is at home to Spain. While Scotland face Lithuania on Tuesday in what is now a must win game for both Scotland and Levein.

Back On The Road To Kiev

2011-09-03T01:59:00.000+01:00

Scotland begin the second half of their Euro 2012campaign with the visit of their closest challengers for the playoff spot, TheCzech Republic. The Czech Republic haveonly played here once in a competitive match, a Euro 2000 qualifier in March1999 that saw them win 2-1 (below) at Parkhead. Scotland currentlysit in 4th place in the table, 5 points behind the Czech Republic but with a game inhand. A win for Scotland reallyis a must.

Bearing in mind thecontroversy surrounding the away tie in Prague,4-6 and all that. Levein has announced ateam that looks like the favoured 4-5-1 formation. McGregor is in goal with a back four of Hutton,Caldwell, Berra and Bardsley. HoweverLevein has retained the three man central midfield tactic that has served Scotland sowell since the Craig Brown years. Makingup the midfield trio are Fletcher, Adam & Brown. I suspect that Morrison and Naismith willstart on the flanks, however the inclusion of Naismith gives a flexibility,which Scotlandcould switch to a 4-4-1-1 (with Morrison playing in midfield and Naismith asthe “second” striker behind Miller).

Whatever formationLevein uses today, Scotlandwill have to retain possession an awful lot better than they did lastOctober. If the Czech’s are able tosettle into a pattern and retain possession better than Scotland, then Scotland will be in trouble. Remember, it was not the 4-6 formation thatsunk Scotland,but the inability to retain possession.

If Scotland gowith the 4-5-1 formation, it will give them the best chance to disrupt theCzech’s passing rhythm, retain possession and to create chances to win. If they do that then Scotland can win to keep us going to Lithuania onTuesday.

Groundhog Day

2011-08-25T22:59:00.003+01:00

Unlike Bill Murray, I didn’t wake up to “I Got You Babe” this morning but it does feel as if Scottish Football is having its own Groundhog Day with the elimination of both half’s of the Old Firm and Hearts at the preliminary stage, that’s the preliminary stage ladies and gentlemen, of the UEFA Cup… sorry Europa League.

If you heard the so called pundits though, you would have thought that we had hit rock bottom. The problem is that we hit rock bottom a while ago, we are just bumping along the bottom. I remember the week Rangers were eliminated by AEK Athens and Aberdeen were knocked out by the giants of European Football, Skonto Riga, while since 2004, this is the fourth season that every Scottish team has been eliminated before the end of August. These results will keep happening until things change.

If we take the synopsis of no money, no talent, no infrastructure, tactically naïve, game riddled with self interest with them (the OF) and everyone else at loggerheads as being an accurate description, then what do we do? In terms of money, a serious rethink needs to be made about how to market Scottish Football, both in terms of how it is broadcast as well as admission prices. Average SPL prices are about £20, which is among the highest in Europe. A ticket to see the current Bundersliga champions Borrusia Dortmund will set you back £10.

The galling thing is that there is talent here in Scotland, which unfortunately is overlooked for cheap experienced foreign players. Celtic had three Scottish players in their team, while Rangers fielded four with another two on the bench. If you think back to the teams that have fielded young talent, it is because they have been forced to. Motherwell when they went into administration in 2002 were forced to blood young players, including James McFadden & Stephen Pearson. Yet throwing young players into the white heat of Scottish Football is something that we should be doing and yet we are not.

We have talent in spite of the wretched infrastructure we have and in spite of the fact that our football is essentially a part time pursuit. One of the most astute observations Craig Brown has ever made is that every town in Norway has an indoor sports centre, we only have on equivalent (in the south side of Glasgow). Tactically naivety, well what do you expect with essentially two rookie managers in charge of Scotland’s two biggest teams.

This brings us to the self interest. You can write a book about the rank self interest at the heart of Scottish Football, the smugness eminating from the Old Firm at the demise of Setanta, the campaign by the Chief Executive of the SPL for a ten team league, down to the SFL’s ramrod refusal to discuss a pyramid system with the Juniors and non league teams. The biggest symbol of self interest is the fact that we have three governing bodies, why? There are bigger things at stake here.

I would like to think that the only way now is up, unfortunately the current precedent is that the powers that be will continue to stick their heads in the sand, while the sack McCoist/Lennon/The Board chants grow louder.

A Swift Kick In The Co-Efficients

2011-08-20T08:59:00.001+01:00

On the surface, this week’s results in Europe might look to be the same old same old poor results for Scottish teams. Yet with the exception of the Hearts result, things are not all lost.

Hearts were always going to have a difficult task against Tottenham, who have been there or thereabouts in Europe and in the “Champions League” places. They had to play well, which is precisely what they didn’t do. Spurs were only too happy to take their gifts, which have pretty much put them into the first round proper. Part of me thinks that this result was always likely especially given the aftermath of the sacking of Jim Jeffries two games in. It’s not that Sergio is a bad manager, it’s too early in his time at Tynecastle to make that kind of judgement. It’s just that in his 4th match in charge, a game of this magnitude has come too quickly in his tenor.

For both half’s of the Old Firm, they may have had bad results but are not out of things yet. Celtic’s draw at home to Sion is not a great result. However there is the added bonus of not having conceded an away goal. A score draw will be enough to see Celtic through. On the other hand, Rangers loss is leavened by the away goal they scored in Maribor. Rangers should be good enough to put the tie away at Ibrox, with a 1-0 win good enough to see them through.

All of our sides suffered poor results that will affect the Scottish co-efficient, the ranking system that determines the amount of teams eligible to play in European competitions. However once again, it’s the Old Firm in the best position to reverse some of the damage inflicted by the other teams.

England: The Best In The World?

2011-08-13T20:59:00.002+01:00

England took a 3-0 lead in the test series against India today, a lead that ensures that England replace India at the top of the ICC Test Rankings table. India have been top since December 2009 when, ironically, South Africa’s failure to beat England at home allowed India to over take them with series wins in Sri Lanka & Bangladesh.

Sreesanth c Pietersen b Bresnan 5, England win.

In truth this has been a disappointing series so far, India’s batsmen have succumbed to England’s pace attack while their bowling attack has been stretched by injuries. England’s batsmen have been happy to capitalise on India’s woes. Dravid apart, India’s vaunted batting line up has struggled with England’s mastery of… er… English conditions and making the most of swing friendly conditions.

England’s next aim will be to consolidate their position at the top, a position they last held in the 1950’s from regaining the Ashes in 1951 to succumbing to Richie Bennaud’s Australia side in the 1958-59 Ashes series. Any team wishing to follow in the footsteps of the West Indies teams of the 1980’s and the Australia sides from the mid 1990’s onwards has to do two things, they have to beat their immediate rivals and win in the sub-continent.

For England, the next 12 months give’s them an indication of how long their stay at the top will be. They are scheduled to play Pakistan (in the UAE & Dubai) and Sri Lanka away during the winter. While these will be tough challenges in dry, flat conditions conducive to spin, completely different from the humid, damp swing & seam friendly conditions here. After that will be a much tougher challenge. Should India lose at the Oval next week, they will slip to third, their place taken by South Africa who happen to be touring England next year.

Of course, by the time South Africa visit these shores next Summer England might have consolidated their place at the top no matter what happens as both India and South Africa have tricky series coming up. Both Australia and Sri Lanka come to South Africa over the winter, while India also face Australia who will be desperate to rebuild under Michael Clarke.

England has reached the top of Test cricket’s rankings. However we are a very long way from finding out if this side is a flash in the pan or the newest team to join the pantheon that includes the great West Indies, Australian and England sides of the past that dominated cricket in their time.

The Ghost's Of World Cups Past

2011-08-01T12:00:00.000+01:00

Scotland V Croatia: 1 September 2001

While England had a horrible draw full of banana-skins & France got drawn with the defending Champions Spain, Scotland’s World Cup draw was full of the ghosts of World Cup’s past.

Scotland have been drawn against Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Macedonia & Wales. All of whom Scotland have played prominent qualifiers against. Both Croatia & Belgium finished ahead of Scotland during the qualifiers for the 2002 tournament. Yet the results that hurt Scotland during that qualification process did not come from top seeds Croatia (1-1 in Zagreb in October 2000, and 0-0 at Hampden in September 2001), but from Belgium (who came from 2 down to draw 2-2 at Hampden in March 2001 - see below, and won 2-0 in Brussels in September 2001).

Serbia will be a tough side, having been to last years World Cup – they beat Germany but lost out to Ghana for a place in the last 16. As Yugoslavia, they topped Scotland’s group in qualifying for Italia 90, drawing 1-1 at Hampden but winning 3-1 in Zagreb (ironically enough now the capital of Croatia).

Completing the 3 former Yugoslav nations in the group is Macedonia, who Scotland had trouble getting points from in the last qualifying group. Macedonia’s win in the first game of qualifying for South Africa 2010 put Scotland in a hole that the eventually found that they could not escape from, even after a 2-0 win in the fixture at Hampden. One would hope that Craig Levine will have the nous not to agree to the away fixture being played at the height of Macedonian summer with a 3pm kick off.

All of which brings us to the most poignant member of Scotland’s group. Scotland have played Wales twice in qualifying rounds. In the qualifyers for the 1978 World Cup, Scotland beat Wales 1-0 at Hampden before wining 2-0 at Anfield (Jordan’s handball and all that). Wales revenge came in the qualifiers for the 1986 tournament when they became the second team to win a World Cup qualifier at Hampden. The return game at Ninian Park saw Scotland get an equaliser 10 minutes from time to take a play-off place. The 1-1 draw was overshadowed by the collapse & subsequent death of the Scotland manager Jock Stein.

If Scotland’s draw is full of the ghosts of World Cup’s past, there was an element of that with England’s draw. Both of the Euro 2012 hosts have been drawn with England, with most attention being on Poland and their famous world cup meetings in 1973 & in 1986. Ukraine will also cause problems for England, as they did during qualifying for the last World Cup. They avoided France, but got Montenegro an opponent in the current Euro 2012 qualifying round. Moldova & San Marino complete the line up there.

Undoubtedly the headline part of the draw was the pairing of France & Spain in group I, with Belarus, Georgia & Finland making up the numbers from that group. Bear in mind that only the group winners automatically qualify. The runners up play off against each other for the final four places. The first qualifying matches will be played from September 2012.

For the home nations, the route to Brazil 2014 has been set, none of the draw’s can be described as easy. They are tricky, but not impossible. Just remember those ghosts.

SPL 2011/12: The Earliest Start To A Season Yet...

2011-07-22T12:30:00.006+01:00

9 weeks after the Scottish Cup Final brought the curtain down on season 2010/11, the madness is about to descend once again as the curtain is about to go up on Season 2011/12. A season one hopes will finish with the national team taking part in the finals of the European Championships in Poland & Ukraine.

Way before that though, the domestic season begins with Rangers unfurling the league championship flag before taking on Hearts at Saturday lunchtime. New season, same old rubbish scheduling of matches by television companies.

Rangers have had the most interesting close season. A new owner in the shape of Craig Whyte, who has wasted no time in trying to dispose of the old Rangers board, and a new manager in the shape of their former striker Ally McCoist. While we haven’t seen the revolving door that accompanied the first days of Graeme Souness, Dick Advocaat or Paul Le Guen’s appointments, McCoist has set about making some changes. The Spanish winger Ortiz has been brought in as has Hearts Lee Wallace, while McCoist is hoping to bring back Carlos Cuellar. However key to McCoists bit to emulate Souness, Smith & Advocaat in winning the Championship in their first season in charge may well be the new contracts signed by McGregor & Davis.

Celtic’s close season could have been interesting, had the players supposedly agitating for improved terms not been placated. As it is Celtic start on Sunday at Easter Road with essentially the same squad that came close to the Championship, but won the Scottish Cup. Defenders Wilson (from Nottingham Forrest) and Matthews (Cardiff) were pre contract signings made in January, while the only close season signing to date is the midfielder Wanyama, they have lost Forster – his loan spell coming to an end. With a years experience together in the bank and Neil Lennon actually turning out to be a surprise package as Celtic manager, I think Celtic will win the league by between 4 – 7 points.

Hearts should be favourites for third, they have added to their third place squad, John Sutton & Taouill have come west from Motherwell & Kilmarnock respectively, while options at the back have also been added with the acquisition of Hamill & Granger. Dundee United have lost key men, and may still lose prised forward David Goodwillie before the transfer deadline. They should be good enough to finish in the top 6 but not usurp Hearts for 3rd, even though they were not good enough to stay in Europe until the season stared properly. I suspect that Hibernian & Aberdeen will make up the top six, Brown’s experience will help Aberdeen to go in the right direction, while Hibernian may well be boyed by the return of old boys O’Connor & Sproule. So far so last season.

The tightest battle over the past few seasons has been the battle against the drop. Last season however, Hamilton had an appalling season, finishing 7 points behind St Mirren. Danny Lennon has taken the hint and reshaped his attacking options. Paul McGowan is now a permanent player at St Mirren & has been joined by Nigel Hasselbaink & Steven Thompson, joining his boyhood heroes from Burnley. Those three, plus the additions of Teale, Tesselaar & Carey, who impressed on loan at St Mirren during the second half of the 2009/10 season should mean that St Mirren finish out of trouble, so long as defensive options are strengthened.

So who will go down? Dunfermline are the favourites, though they have added experience in the shape of John Potter & Paul Gallacher from St Mirren. They start on that coveted Monday night slot against St Mirren, probably harbouring thoughts about their relegation from this league in May 2007. Motherwell maybe look vulnerable as Stuart McCall begins his first full season in charge at Fir Park. Inverness might suffer from second season syndrome, while St Johnstone will need to gel quickly. Kilmarnock will need to arrest the poor finish to last season. These teams have their own achillies heel, but have that quality that will keep them up, experience. I think Dunfermline will finish between 5 - 9 points behind Motherwell.

By the end of last season, Scottish football was in the dock. No one particularly covered themselves in glory, not Celtic, not Rangers and certainly not any of the fans who rose to the bait provided by Neil Lennon, pantomime villain (compared to… oh take your pick of any of the board members of the Old Firm). This season, those guilty parties need to show that lessons have been learned & that we can move on. More than most, Scottish Football needs to turn the corner, and garner positive headlines rather than continue as the sick footballer of Europe.

Shooting For The Top

2011-07-20T10:59:00.006+01:00

England’s 1-0 series win last month saw them consolidate their 3rd place in the Test rankings. Starting on Thursday England will be up against the current top dogs in Test cricket. India, for their faults, have a formidable batting line up, and will be the most formidable line up England have faced on home soil since the 2001 Ashes series.

31 July 2007: Dravid & Ganguly celebrate winning the 2nd Test at Trent Bridge

While India will be without the force of nature that is Virender Sehwag (missing untill possibly the third test), the Indian batting line up will still only consist of honorary Scotsman Rahul Dravid (12,314 test runs at an average of 52.40), Sachin Tendulkar (14,692 runs @ 56.94) and VVS Laxman (8,146 runs @ 47.36). Tendulkar holds the record for most career Test runs, while Dravid needs 49 runs to move into second place (Laxman sits at 19 in the all time list, between Geoffrey Boycott & David Gower). Oh and for all three, this may well be their last hurrah on English soil, a last chance then for the threesome to get themselves on the Lords Honours board.

Unlike Sri Lanka, India do have pace bowlers who have experience of English conditions. Zaheer Khan & Sreesanth both played 4 years ago, when India’s win at Trent Bridge (above) was enough to win them the series (Khan took 4/59 and 5/75 in that victory). Providing the spin options for India will be Harbhajan Singh, the right handed off-spinner who has taken 404 test wickets (just outside the top 10 on the all time list of test bowlers). With all of that talent, India really should be comfortably wearing the mantle taken from Australia in the winter of 2008.

Yet India are still vulnerable away from home. Their series win in the West Indies was not as dominant as you would expect. Perhaps their eye has been on this tour and this test series. England though are at the heels of India.

A series win for England will see them overtake South Africa as number 2 in the world, however a series win by two clear tests will see England dethrone India and see them occupy a position they have not been in since 1959, the best Test team in the world. With the number 1 position to play for, and on the occasion of the 2000th Test match, this test series looks like being the most eagerly awaited test series since last winter’s Ashes series.

Botham's Ashes - 30 Years On

2011-07-15T11:00:00.004+01:00

This summer sees the thirtieth anniversary of not just one of the most memorable test series of all time, but one of the key sporting moments of the post war years. The 1981 Ashes series from the outset looked to be a close contest, but the reverses suffered by Australia in this series haunted them until the Mark Taylor/Steve Waugh lead teams became the best team in the cricketing world in 1995.

Australia started slight underdogs, entirely down to their inexperienced batting line up. Greg Chappell was missing, his younger brother Trevor would play during this series. Captaining the side would be Kim Hughes, three years before Brisbane & all that. Graham Yallop was the other experienced batsman, while Alan Border was playing in his first Ashes tour (after making his debut during the 5-1 home defeat in 1978/79). Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee were still there, Lillee was backed up by the inexperienced duo of Geoff Lawson & Terry Alderman, with Rodney Hogg making up the pace attack. England had blooded lots of promising players during the Packer years, in particular Gooch, Gower, Gatting & Botham. Botham started this series captaining the England side.

Trent Bridge hosted the First Test, a test that started badly for the favourites. Australia skittled England out for 185, with the debutant Alderman taking 4 for 68, his away swingers immediately finding a home in English conditions. England countered, by bowling Australia out for 179. Border top scored with 63, with Dilley & Willis taking 3 wickets each. Given the chance to set a tough target for Australia, England were then skittled out for 125, Lillie & Alderman taking 5 wickets each. Australia won by 4 wickets, on what was the first time that play took place on a Sunday during a test match.

The Lords test was notable for two things. Lawson’s 7 for 81 in England’s first innings, and Botham’s pair. Botham was now under pressure, the headline in London’s Evening Standard said Botham Must Go. After that test, he did. Taking over was Mike Brearley, who Botham replaced the year previously. His first Test back in charge would be the Third Test, taking place at Headingley, which would start thirty years ago tomorrow.

Things did not start well for the new regime. Australia batted first and made 401 for 9 before declaring just before the end of the second day. Opener John Dyson top scored with 102 (the first century of the series), the captain Hughes made 89. Botham took 6 for 95. England crumbled to 174 in their first innings, with Botham top scoring with 50, Dennis Lillee took 4 for 49. The follow on was enforced, with England finishing day three on 7 for 1, losing Gooch for a duck. At this point the scoreboard flashed up the latest odds, with an England win quoted at 500/1. Lillee and Marsh took the bet, not knowing what would happen after the rest day.

England checked out of their hotels on the Monday morning thinking that they would go 2-0 down at some point. Australia were certainly intent on making inroads, and did just that reducing England to 135 for 7. With Botham & Dilley at the crease, both batsmen began to slash and to play shots. At first it was to frustrate the Australian’s, to go down with a fight. Both batsmen then began to mount a substantial partnership, as the 200 approached. When they passed 227, Australia knew they had to bat again. Dilley was out for 56, but the game had changed in the 80 minutes that both men were at the crease. England were effectively 25 for 8. Botham was still there and carried on apace, as steadily one of the great sporting moments was unfolding. Just before reaching his century, Botham hit a shot over Alderman into the Football ground end, prompting the legendary piece of commentary from Richie Bennaud “Don't even bother looking for that. It's gone into the confectionery stall… and out again.” By the end of day four, England led by 124 runs and maybe had something to play with depending on how long Botham stuck around.

England only put on a further 5 runs before being bowled out, setting Australia the relatively easy target of 130. Botham nabbed the early wicket of Wood, but Australia then settled down, proceeding to 56. Willis had been bowling from the Football stand end for 5 overs, and then Brearley switched Willis to the Kirkstall Lane end. When Willis got Chappel to a rearing delivery, suddenly Australia started to collapse. Hughes, Yallop, Border & Dyson fell in quick succession, while Marsh stuck around for a bit. Bright & Lillee put on 35 before Willis broke through again. Willis took 8 for 43 as England completed a remarkable turnaround to win by 18 runs. The first time since 1895 that a side won after following on.

If England had though that they had turned the corner, they got a rude awakening during the next test, which took place at Edgebaston. England were skittled out for 189, with Alderman taking 5/42. A stand of 51 form Hughes & Yallop helped Australia to a first innings lead of 69. Ray Bright’s 5/68 helped to restrict England to 219, which gave Australia a target of 151. In short England found themselves in a similar hole to the one they found themselves in at Headingley. Australia seemed to cope better advancing to 87/3 and then to 105/4 before disaster struck. Border was caught off his gloves off Emburey just before Botham was given a spell bowling from the pavilion end. Botham’s pitched up deliveries brought about another Australian collapse, as Botham took 5 wickets for 1 run in this spell (right) to win the match for England by 29 runs.

Australia were now behind in a series that they controlled for all bar 3 sessions. It got much worse for them in the Fifth test at Old Trafford. Batting first, England posted 231, with Chris Tavare top scoring with 69, which took 4 hours and 47 minutes to compile. Lillee & Alderman took 4 wickets apiece. In response England reduced Australia to 130, Willis taking 4/63. England took a first innings lead of 101, but squandered that position as England lost 3 quick wickets on the third morning. When Brearley went at 105 for 5, England were effectively at 206 for 5 and in a bit of trouble. Enter Botham again, who once again took the fight to the Australian bowlers. He smashed 6 sixes and 13 fours as he struck 118 in 123 minutes. The sixth wicket stand of 149 between Botham and Tavare took England to a lead in excess of 350. England were bowled out for 404, setting Australia 506 to win. Australia showed fight, but were eventually bowled out for 404 half an hour into the final session of day five. Yallop made 114 in just under 3 hours, while Border top scored while struggling with a broken finger, making 123 in 7 hours. England had retained the Ashes.

The sixth and final test at the Oval could have given Australia a consolation victory. Batting first, Australia posted 352, Border scoring 106 not out. In reply, a 115 run partnership between Boycott (137) and Gatting (53) helped England to 314, conceding a 38 run deficit to Australia. Lillee taking 7/89. Second time around Australia set a target of 383, declaring on 344/9 before the start of day five. The debutante Dirk Wellham top scored on 103. Mike Hendrick & Botham shared 4 wickets apiece. England clung on to get to 261 for 7 before the close of play. Gatting top scored with 56, while Brearley’s dismissal on 51 was the last time on English soil that the combination of c Marsh b Lilley appeared on scoreboards.

It is interesting to note that the commercialisation of the sport is still in its infancy here, and that this series is sandwiched between the Packer years (which affected Australian cricket) and the rebel tours of South Africa (which would affect English Cricket the following year and Australian Cricket later on in the decade). As I said above Australia were now a team in decline, though this did not appear visible until the West Indies visited Australia in the winter of 1984/5, England fared slightly better though they too suffered at the hands of a rampant West Indies team (who inflicted 5-0 “Blackwashes” in 1984 and in 1985/6). This series showed two sides moving in opposite directions and because of the sporting theatre will live long in the memory.

The English FA Fail Once Again

2011-06-01T20:59:00.005+01:00

Today saw Sepp Blatter re-elected as FIFA President on a unanimous vote & unopposed. He swept to a fourth term by 183 votes, despite an attempt by the English FA (aided by the SFA) to postpone the vote until investigations into the bribes for votes scandal has been resolved.

While the English FA are correct to try and postpone this event, the problem that many people have (and possibly the reason that their proposal received such a lukewarm response) is that the English FA are precisely the wrong body to lecture people on probity and sound clean ethical governance. After all before they lost the vote to host the 2018 World Cup, the English FA were, like some sort of lap dog, perfectly willing to do anything to please Sepp Blatter.

They rushed to pull the trigger in the political assassination of John McBeith, after he made claims about African officials and about Jack Warner. Handily enough, the English FA Chairman Geoff Thompson stepped in to replace McBeith as a FIFA Vice President. They lobbied the government to amend tax laws should England win the bid and also lobbied for the removal of the World Cup from the list of “Crown Jewels” (sports events that are guaranteed to be shown on “Terrestrial” television channels and not exclusively on Pay TV channels). All in all, the English FA’s conduct has been questionable to say the least, and that’s before we look into their inability to curb the power of the English Premier League (who demanded support for their 39th match proposal in exchange for their support for the World Cup bid).

Of course, its not as if Blatter was squeaky clean up until last December, as the English FA would have you believe. If you have caught any of Andrew Jennings output (either on Panorama, on in the Sunday Herald or other publications), you will be aware that the ticking timebomb for Blatter is the findings of a criminal investigation into the collapse of ISL, which used to win marketing rights from FIFA before it went under. Yet when the second Panorama programme (which aired more allegations about Herr Blatter) was aired last December, the BBC were treated as traitors by certain sections of the bid team & by certain journalists (Oh and Celtic flop Ian Wright). How the snakes have turned.

All in all, not a very good day to be a football fan, and if these commentators are correct, maybe there are implications for the Scotland national team.

Barca Come To The Four

2011-05-29T16:59:00.004+01:00

56th European Cup Final, Wembley – London: Barcelona 3, Manchester United 1

Abidal lifts the European Cup for Barcelona

Two years ago, Barcelona – shorn of 2/3rds of their defence through injury and suspension - won ‘against the odds’ against Manchester United by re-inventing the concept of possession and through their re-interpretation of Total Football. Barcelona won tonight by essentially taking that concept and evolving it. Because of that, Barcelona laid claim to be the best European team since the great AC Milan team of 1988 – 1991, the team of Gullit, Van Basten & Rijkard (ironically the Barcelona coach that took them to their second cup win in 2006). Were it not for Inter Milan’s defensive display in their semi final last year, we could well have been talking about Barcelona’s third European Cup in a row.

That’s not to say that Manchester United were helpless. They could have learned from two years ago and played a different formation, instead of the 4-4-1-1 formation they started with. As it was, like two years ago, from ten minutes in Barcelona swamped the Manchester United midfield and kept a stranglehold on possession. Vidic and Ferdenand were often left marking nothing as Barcelona’s forward Messi constantly dropped back, took passes from Xavi, Iniesta, Pique or anyone else.

Like 2 years ago, United started brightly before Barcelona hit their strides. Unlike two years ago, a goal did not act as the spark for Barcelona’s dominance. Merly Barcelona just shifted up a gear as their movement and passing range kicked in. What was surprising was that it took so long such was the dominance of Barcelona. Messi put Villa in but was denied by Ferdinand after 10 minutes, then Xavi put Pedro Rodriguez in for him to shoot wide. Villa and Messi also had chances before finally breaking through on 27 minutes. Breaking at the United defence, Xavi put a pass through to Pedro on the united right who sidefooted past Van Der Sar – who maybe though Pedro would shoot.

Barcelona then sort of retreated into their shell a bit, maybe they wanted to hold on to what they had. What happened next though was completely against the run of play. Six minutes after Barcelona scored United picked up the ball down Barcelonas right, Rooney picked up the ball, 1-2’s with with both Carrick and Giggs before fired a curling shot into the top left hand side of goal. United went in at half time level pegging with Barcelona, having weathered the storm. Little knowing that they were about to be blown away.

Messi Goal (54")

Second half and Barcelona went straight for the jugular. Mascherano had a cross blocked. Alves had a shot blocked by Van Der Sar, with the follow-up shot from Messi blocked by Vidic. Messi didn’t have to wait long before getting his first goal on British soil since bagging a brace against Celtic in the last 16 of this competition in 2008. A passing move outside the box between Xavi and Inniesta ended when the ball went to Messi. He took a touch before unleashing a shot that flew past an unsighted Van der Sar. Now Barcelona were intent on inflicting the coup de grace. Messi had a shot against Van Der Sars legs, while Fabio injured himself keeping out a Messi back-flick, had it gone in it surely would have been new Wembley’s own Zidane moment. Messi then ran past a couple of United defenders before having the ball taken off of him. The clearance was fluffed, Busquets regained possession and layed off the ball to David Villa who curled his shot past Van Der Sar. Beaten. All. Ends. Up (though it should be pointed out as well that this goal, more than any others scored in this game, is a great example of the Barcelona/Spain ethos of pressing).

Game over!

In truth, Manchester United were lucky that their defence performed or else they would have been on the wrong end of a real hiding. Ferdinand & Vidic were good at scrambling. The problems came when Messi dropped into midfield and ran at the United defence, such was the dominance of the Barcelona midfield. Maybe Ferguson picked his best team, I suspect that he should have started with an extra midfielder (possiably Fletcher?). With a resurgent Liverpool, a trophy winning Manchester City on top of Chelsea and Arsenal, Ferguson will need to give some thought about how to approach next season.

Barcelona have now won their fourth European Cup, their eleventh European trophy in all. Their performances over the past three seasons have seen them raise the standards of European football. In winning in such a dominant fashion, they have staked a claim to become the next great European club side joining such greats as the Real Madrid team from 1955-60, The early 60’s Benfica team, The Ajax team of the early 70’s, the Bayern Munich team of the mid 70’s, The Liverpool sides from 1977-1985 and the AC Milan teams from 1988-94. Indeed, this Barcelona side is the best European team since that AC Milan side that contained Gullit, Van basten & Rijkard.

In among the hype now surrounding this team, to reach that level of legendary status, they need to retain this trophy next season. However, they must be aware of Guttman’s rule (named after the former Benfica coach Bela Guttman, who won 2 European Cups with them & went on to win the Coppa Liberatores with Penarol). He believed that there is a natural lifespan for a successful team/manager. Guttman put that lifespan at 3 seasons. Pep Guardiola has been Barcelona coach for 3 seasons, whether he will and what happens next will determine whether this side enters the pantheon of great European club sides. Their performance last night suggests that they deserve to.

Where It All Started

2011-05-27T17:59:00.002+01:00

Barcelona Lift the European Cup at Wembley: 20th May 1992

For Liverpool, it’s Rome. For Celtic it’s Lisbon. For Real Madrid, its Hampden, while for Barcelona supporters the place that has a special place in their hearts is Wembley. Barcelona return there for the first time on Saturday since Koeman’s screamer broke their European Cup duck, intent on regaining the big cup with the big ears. In their way is a team which also has fond memories of Wembley. On top of the 9 FA Cup’s won at Wembley, Manchester United also broke their own European Cup duck with a win under the old twin towers, back in 1968.

Both of these teams will be going for their fourth win in this competition, with recent wins in this competition, and against each other. Manchester United won the European Cup in 2008, beating Barcelona in the Semi final. One year on, both sides met in the final as a suspension ravaged Barcelona upset the odds to beat Manchester United in Rome, accidentally setting the template for their 4-1-2-3 formation that has captivated the world.

This time around Barcelona are firm favourites. Five of their key players took part in Spain’s World Cup win last year (Pujol, Busquets, Xavi, Inniesta & Villa), while leading the line will be the world’s favourite footballer Lionel Messi – who piloted the “false 9” position in the previous European final two years ago. Everyone knows that Barcelona will play the possession football that won them huge plaudits two years ago, with Xavi Hernandez and Andreas Inniesta pulling the strings behind the front three of Messi, Villa and possibly Pedro. Busquets will play as the holding midfielder. One development from 2009 is that Javier Mascherano has been deployed as a recycled central defender since his move from Liverpool, while Dani Alves is free to make the deep runs that he could not make in 2009 (due to suspension).

Bobby Charleton lifts the European Cup at Wembley: 29th May 1968

While Manchester United are not hamstrung by suspensions, there is the suspicion that the 2010/11 team is not quite of the same vintage as the 2008 or 2009 teams. Possibly because of this, United have reverted to 4-4-1-1 for key games in Europe this season (opposed to the 4-2-3-1 of 2007/8 to 2008/9). It is thought that Hernandez will start ahead of Berbatov, with Rooney deployed in the second striker spot. Apart from that, not very much is known about the exact nature of United’s starting line up or formation. They have played the 4-4-1-1 formation, but may push the wingers up field for a 4-2-3-1 on Saturday. No-one knows, and Ferguson (taking part in his sixth European final) is certainly keeping shtum.

In order to beat the team many people are acclaiming as the best club side since the AC Milan team of Gullit, Van Basten & Rijkard, Manchester United have to put pressure on the Barcelona midfield. They have to make sure that the Barcelona midfield has little time or space to get their rhythm going. Barcelona are masters at the art of pressing themselves, and will do likewise with United. I think as well that a 5 man midfield (or variation of) will work better than a flat 4 man midfield. With this respect, key to Manchester United’s chances will be whether the Scotland captain Darren Fletcher makes the starting line up, as he will give the base of the midfield some solidity – which lets not forget was lacking in the 2009 final.

I think that logic dictates that Barcelona will win. However, I think that if Manchester United start brightly and score first, then they will have an excellent chance to repeat their triumph of 1968.

After The Ashes

2011-05-25T14:00:00.004+01:00

While England have had a very tough winter with a glorious Ashes series followed quickly by a less than glorious World Cup, this summer though not so glamorous will be as tough, if not tougher. Later on in the Summer England take on the World Cup winners, and currently Test Cricket’s number one team India. Before that, and starting on Thursday, is the team England deposed from the number 3 spot, Sri Lanka. This summer will go a long way to showing how good this England team really is.

Flintoff & Muralitharan walk off after Englands win at Edgebaston in 2006

Sri Lanka arrive on the back of that World Cup loss in Mumbai. They have not won a series in England since Muralitharan spun them to glory in a one off test in August 1998. Since then, England won a series in 2002 & tied the 2006 series, both of these were at home while they won in Sri Lanka in 2000/1.

Key to any Sri Lankan success will be how their bowlers perform. Since the Wold Cup, Muralitharan has retired while Malinga has gone from the test arena. Long touted as the heir to Muralitharan, this might be Ajanthan Mendis opportunity to step up. More likely given the conditions, is the prospect that one of the Sri Lankan pace bowler will have to step up and fill the shows of Malinga, and of an earlier vintage Vaas. Looking to be the leader of the pack will be Dilhara Fernando, he has the most experience and has at least played tests outside of Sri Lanka. Marahoof has also played test cricket outside of Sri Lanka. However, overall the Sri lankan attack looks lightweight and inexperienced in English conditions.

If the Sri Lankans should be worried about their bowling attack, their batting line up is in good health. Their batsman/wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara is currently rated the third best batsman in the world, just ahead of both Jonathan Trott (4) and Alistair Cook (5). Mahela Jayawardena (8) & Thilan Samaraweera (10) are also rated in the top ten. The only other country with three batsmen in the top ten is India.

Not that Sri Lanka are the only team with places to fill. Paul Collingwood’s retirement leaves a space in the lower middle order. First up to audition for that role is Eoin Morgan. Morgan got his place by scoring 194 in the Lions tour mach against the Sri Lankans. He has so far played 6 tests (playing in all of the tests played last summer), averaging 30.00. He surprisingly edged out Ravi Bopara – who has a slightly better record in test cricket despite a nightmare 2009 Ashes series.

The bowling berths are also still to be decided, with maybe 3 out of James Anderson, Chris Tremlett, Stuart Broad and Steven Finn making the team. Finn might be the favourite to drop out despite being the top wicket taker in the Ashes series when he dropped out of the England team.

England start as favourites for this series, and must win to consolidate their credentials as the best test team in the world. However Sri Lanka’s win in their warm up match against the Lions at the weekend has shown that despite looking like having a lightweight attack, Sri Lanka have got teeth. However, if England’s batting line-up continues the form shown in Australia during the winter, there will be only one winner.

Heading For The Sunlit Uplands....

2011-05-21T21:59:00.002+01:00

126th Scottish Cup Final, Hampden: Motherwell 0, Celtic 3

Celtic won the 126^th Scottish Cup Final by overcoming the tactical problems set out by Motherwell, and in the end creating the quality of chances that their superior use of the ball provided to them. The win was built on Ki-Sung Yeung’s 32^nd minute thunderbolt. Further goals came in the shape of an own goal from Motherwells Steven Craigan and a free kick from Charlie Mulgrew. This win extends Celtic’s record to 35 Scottish Cup wins, is Celtic’s first win in this competition since 2007 and halt’s Celtic’s trophy drought stretching back to the League Cup of 2009.

The game was played in constant torrential rain, the first rainy final since 2005. As a result a lot of first half was not good. Celtic had a chance within the first minute when Hooper had a shot that hit the bar, but Hooper was flagged offside. That apart the first half hour became bogged down in a midfield battle. Celtic’s Majstorovic was booked for showing studs in a challenge, as was Motherwell’s Lasley a couple of minutes later. Hammel was clattered by the Celtic captain Scott Brown, who was booked. Then Ki was booked for a challenge on Lasley, replays showed that Lasley had not been touched by Ki.

Motherwell had been good in depriving Celtic of space, but the first lapse from Motherwell cost them a goal. Celtic moved the ball down the Motherwell left, the ball came infield to Ki-Sung Yeung who took a touch before unleashing a shot that flew past Motherwell keeper Randolph. A crackerjack of a shot, we have been lucky to see goals in the last three cup finals that have been great Hampden moments. That goal was another one. Within five minutes, we nearly had another. Motherwell recovered, and broke forward. The ball came to Galvin Gunning, who’s shot hit the bar. The ball fell into space, had a Motherwell player been there, they would have had an excellent chance to score.

Ki's Goal 32nd Minute

For a season blighted by issues surrounding the standard of refereeing, it would be a surprise if we didn’t get one controversy. Instead we got two as both Celtic’s Majstorovic and then Motherwell’s Craigan escaped bookings when both players handled the ball. Majstorovic handled at the edge of his area, and escaped a second yellow. Craigan wafted the ball away with his hand. Unlike Majstorovic’s offence, no free kick was awarded, I suspect that the referee may have been unsighted as subsequent replays showed that Jennings may have obscured the referees view. The fates would have a much crueller punishment for Craigan,

The second half started brightly as Celtic pushed for a crucial second. An Izaguirre cross was deflected away, while another cross fell to Hooper, who’s close range back heel was parried away by Randolph. Samaras then drove into the penalty area only to fluff is chance, despite Hooper being in a better position. Samaras did not have a good game, he looked disinterested most of the time. Had he been engaged, Hoopers cross into the box midway through the second half into might have been met by Samaras. At this point Motherwell were starting to get back into the game, so a second goal would have sealed the game.

Though Motherwell came back into it, they lacked quality possession and crucially someone to provide a bit of creative guile, to be the foil to John Sutton (who was tireless upfront). This also meant that as the game opened up, Celtic began to get better quality chances. Commons really should have scored when Brown put him through (pass of the day that one!) and he sped past Randolph only to have Hutcheson clear his shot. That second goal was coming.

It came with 15 minutes to go. Substitute Stokes passed to Commons who had ran into the box at an angle. Commons passed back to Mark Wilson, whose shot took a deflection of Stephen Craigan and into the back of the net, despite the attempts of Hutcheson. Game over. To add insult to injury, Celtic claimed a third. Stokes was fouled by Craigan just outside the box, Charlie Mulgrew hammered home the resulting free kick.

For Celtic, this will be the “what if” season. What if they had won the League Cup in March, what if they had avoided defeat in Inverness three weeks ago. I had questioned the logic of Celtic bringing in a rookie manager in the shape of Lennon, considering that rookie managers often fail (Graeme Souness excepted). Lennon has shown that he is capable of being a good manager. Yes he is annoying and irritating when talking about referees. But deep down, we would like our own managers (and I am talking to those of us who don’t support one of the Old Firm) to be as combatitive as Lennon has been. It will be interesting to see if he can take the next step, which is winning the championship and progress in European competition.

For Motherwell, they would like some managerial stability. Stuart McCall is the third Motherwell manager in two seasons, Motherwell fans will hope his appointment will be longer term than Jim Gannon & Craig Brown’s tenors were.

So goodbye season 2010/11. Not one that will be looked back with any joy & pride in future years, and one that leaves a very bitter aftertaste.

Last Shot At Glory For This Year

2011-05-20T14:00:00.001+01:00

Saturday sees the last chance for football silverware in Scotland as Celtic and Motherwell take part in the 126th Scottish Cup final.

26 May 2007: Celtic's Last Scottish Cup Win

Celtic are favourites to win, having beaten Motherwell on Sunday 4-0 and having come so close to winning the Championship. Celtic have had a very mixed season. Their manager, Neil Lennon, has formed the basis of a good Celtic team, one that came within a point of the Championship. However Lennon has become the most controversial figure in Scottish football. The controversy surrounding refereeing in the aftermath of the first Old Firm game and a game at Tannadice (stoked lest we forget not by Lennon but by Celtics Chairman & Chief Executive) led to referees going on strike. The controversy obscured the fact that a debate on refereeing standards was overdue. Lennon also became embroiled in touchline arguments at Tynecastle and against Rangers.

That Celtic came so close to the championship was unseen by myself, but their achievements this season should have been greater. They lost the mental battle against Rangers in the League Cup, and could not summon enough mental strength to come back from 2 down at Inverness. The one thing Celtic could do with next season to usurp Rangers is more mental toughness. We will see if they have any reserves left to win what would be their first Scottish Cup win since 2007.

Facing Celtic will be a Motherwell side that have shipped goals since their semi-final win against St Johnstone last month. It might be that Motherwell, under rookie manager Stuart McCall, are keeping themselves for Saturday. One suspects that Celtic might still be favourites even if this were the case. That’s not to rain on Motherwell’s parade, its just fact. This will be their seventh Scottish Cup final, and history has not been kind to them against Celtic. They contested the finals of 1931 and 1933, Celtic winning both times (4-2 after a replay in 1931 and 1-0 in 1933).

Motherwell next reached the final in 1939, beating Celtic 3-1 in the quarter finals, only to lose 4-0 to Clyde in the Final. Their next final was in 1951, and yes it was against Celtic, losing 1-0. Motherwell made the final the following year, and with Celtic exiting at the first round, had grounds for optimism. On the 19 April 1952, Motherwell broke their duck and won the Scottish Cup for the first time, beating Dundee 4-0.

18 May 1991, Motherwell 4, Dundee United 3

It would be 39 years before Motherwell would appear in another Scottish Cup final. When they did, they broke another hoodoo. In the Semi Final they were drawn to play Celtic at Hampden. The first game finished 0-0, but 6 days later they eased past 4-2 making it a non Old Firm final with special resonance. The first time that two Scottish cup finalists were coached by brothers – Jim McLean was still managing Dundee United while Motherwell were coached by Tommy McLean. Wednesday was the 20th anniversary of that final, which went down as one of the best Scottish Cup finals played. Motherwell won 4-3 after extra time. However any nostalgia is tinged with sadness as Davie Cooper & Phil O’Donnell, who played that day, are no longer with us. Paul McGrillen & Jamie Dolan, who did not play but were in the squad, also died young.

Celtic are the clear favourites for this game. However if Motherwell can shackle the Celtic forwards, frustrate them and most importantly score first, I think they will have a chance. I’m not sure that Celtic perform at their best under pressure – as we have seen against Rangers (in the League Cup) and at Inverness. The first goal will be the key factor. I think that Celtic will win 2-0.

The Irresistable Forces Meet....

2011-05-15T09:32:00.001+01:00

While the destiny of the championship will be decided today. The protagonists will face teams determined to make their own mark on the championship, teams who have been here before.

Rangers have won Championships at Tanadice, at Easter Road and even at Parkhead, but I am not sure that they have won a championship at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock, who had an fantastic first half of the season before the departure of firstly Connor Sammon and then Mixu Pattelainen, stand in their way today. Whether this is some sort of omen or not, but Kilmarnock have been involved in two of the closest championship races of all time. In 1965, they won the championship from Hearts by beating them 2-0, a Kilmarnock win of 3-1 or 4-2 would have seen Hearts win the championship through the now disused count of goal average. More recently Kilmarnock lost 4-0 to Celtic at Rugby Park, who lost toe championship to Rangers by one goal (Rangers won 6-1 against Dunfermline).

Should Rangers falter, Celtic will be waiting in the wings. However their opponents Motherwell are scrabbling for form and might not want to give too much away ahead of their next meeting in next weeks Scottish Cup Final. If Celtic are looking for inspiration, they could always think back to the events of 22 May 2005. Celtic were leading the championship with 3 minutes left, Motherwell equalised and then scored a winner to leave the championship heading towards Easter Road, where Rangers had beaten Hibernian. Both Lennon & Thompson played at Fir park that day, and will spend some time reminding his players of that day. Helicopter Sunday, as the day was dubbed, was the most dramatic last day turnaround since Hearts lost 2 goals in the last 10 minutes at Dens Park to spark celebrations among the Celtic fans at Love Street.

As I said previously, I hope that both Kilmarnock and Motherwell play a part today, and don’t get caught up in the hype.

Just Another Helecopter Sunday

2011-05-14T09:59:00.002+01:00

Celtic’s event filled win on Wednesday night meant that once again, and for the seventh time in the last 20 years, the league championship will go to the last day of the season. Whatever happens on Sunday the curtain will come down on the Rangers career of the Rangers Manager Walter Smith. It could also bring a first domestic trophy for the Celtic manager Neil Lennon.

Lennon’s first season as Celtic manager has been a mixed one. The Celtic team is now playing some good football, having been much changed from the Tony Mowbray led side from last season. Yet for all of the good football that Celtic have produced, there have still been mistakes and lapses of judgement. This Celtic team looks flakey at times, it lacks fortitude. They should be ahead of Rangers and they should already have a trophy in the locker already. Lacking fortitude is an old failing of Celtic teams. Fortitude and Andy Gormam denied Tommy Burns one maybe two Scottish Championships.

The other thing that has not helped Celtic this season is the attitude of Lennon himself, who has shown himself to be the most divisive figure in Scottish Football since Souness arrived a quarter of a century ago. Whether it is losing it at Tynecastle in November, or railing against referees, Lennon has not really covered himself in glory. Lennon cannot do that, and has to learn not to. If anything because it does affect how the team plays, its no coincidence that Celtic were very shaky when they visited Greenhill Road – at the height of the referees controversy. That’s not to say that he has deserved the bullets or the bombs or what happened at Tynecastle on Wednesday. However I think that the events of Wednesday night have cemented Lennon’s position, no matter what happens on Sunday, as Celtic manager at the start of next season.

Rangers though are in the pound seat to win the Championship. A point ahead, a win will see their first hat trick of championships since Smith’s first time in charge. Smith’s sides have always been based on the foundations of being hard to beat allied with mental toughness; even the Laudrup & Gascoigne sides had incredible mental toughness. That the championship is still up for grabs now is probably down to Smith’s know how and the fortitude he has instilled in his teams. Not being able to bring in new faces has also helped, as the squad is now used to playing with each other.

I think Rangers will win on Sunday, putting the Championship out of the reach of Celtic. I would hope though that both Kilmarnock & Motherwell have a say in the championship before the destination is revealed.

Penny For John McBeith's Thoughts

2011-05-14T00:31:00.000+01:00

Aaaannnnd welcome back. Sorry for the delay, hard drive crashed on me & I have been busy. There has been an election on you know...

You might remember the strange case four years ago of the former SFA president John McBeith, who had to resign as FIFA vice president elect for some comments he made about certain FIFA delegates. The damaging quotes were

"As soon as you hit Africa it's a slightly different kettle of fish. They're poor nations and want to grab what they can.

I know two or three whom I'd want to count my fingers after shaking hands with them.

I presume the Caribbean is much the same - they just come at it in a different way.

If I come across corruption I have to expose it. I must try to stay true to my beliefs and hope I don't get seduced."

The fate of McBeith came to mind on Tuesday during the testimony of David Triesman during parliament’s inquiry into the running of the FA and the botched bid the World Cup in 2018. A testimony where Triesman named four FIFA delegates that he believed were seeking bribes. Before that came evidence of McBeith’s synopsis of the rulers of African football.

The Sunday Times submitted evidence that claimed that $1.5 million was paid to CAF president Issa Hayatou and to Jaques Anouma by Qatar, supposedly in return for votes for their bid for the 2022 World Cup. There were also claims that Qatar “employed” an African fixer.

However it was the claims of Triesman that garnered the headlines. Two of the names, Nicolas Leoz and Worawi Makudi are new to people. The other two people are not, for Triesman also named McBeith’s nemesis Jack Warner and Ricardo Teixeira the boss of Brazilian football.

Warner has form for these types of stories. McBeith aleges that after Scotland played Trinidad in 2004, Warner requested that the Trinidad half of the receipts be paid to his own account. There were stories surrounding the “proceeds” of Trinidad’s 2006 World Cup campaign and also there were stories about the contract for the sale of those World Cup tickets ending up with Warner’s son’s. Teixeira might not have the same charge sheet, however he is the son in law of the former FIFA president Joao Havelange.

Whatever happens with this story, there is one thing that the English FA should ask themselves. Why did they rush to suck up to these people so much? After all, McBeith did warn us all what they were like. It’s just I suppose that the English were so desperate to host the World Cup.

Break in Play

2011-02-27T11:00:00.000Z

Due to technical diferences, I have been unable to blog. Normal (?) blogging service will resume, as soon as possible.

In the meantime, please insert your own rain delayed piece of sports archive filler here...

Mulling Things Over

2011-02-01T16:00:00.001Z

There has been a lot of reaction in the Scottish media about Andy Murray’s defeat to Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s Australian Open final. Having missed the Final (i was at a party the night before and didn’t get home until just before 3am), most of the reports have said that Murray was beaten by the better man. The consensus seemed to be that Djokovic was the better player, as opposed to Murray not being very good.

What the final has done is spark a debate and scrutiny of whether Murray can win a major. I don’t know whether he will win a major, but there is two points to bear in mind. Murray has all the tools to win a major, possibly he is maybe that extra 1% away from winning. Any comparison between Murray and Colin Montgomerie is invalid for two reasons. Firstly because part of Montgomeries problem was that he was effectively playing in an away from home atmosphere when he went close to winning the US Opens in 1992, 1994 & 1997 and the USPGA in 1995. Secondly, Murray is better at handling pressure than Montgomerie, and I would say is currently the best British sportsman at handling pressure. I certainly wouldn’t say that Murray has disgraced himself by losing to one of the finest tennis players of all time (in Federer) and his contemporary who is two places higher than him in the ATP rankings.

The other point to make is that Tennis is such a swings and roundabouts game. Two years ago, Federer was given a similar hammering by Nadal in this championship. People were beginning to write Federer off. He then went and won his maiden French Open – completing his personal Grand Slam – and regained the Wimbledon Championship – enabling him to pass Pete Sampras record for Grand Slam tournaments. It is not inconceivable that Murray could win either at Wimbledon or at Flushing Meadow this year.
Rather than take that two month break Murray was hinting at, the best thing he could do is get back to playing, as quickly as possible.

Change For Change’s Sake

2011-01-31T12:00:00.001Z

As tiresome and as boring as it was, the dance between the SPL and its member clubs in trying to formulate some sort of change to the set up of the SPL did see some questions unanswered. Like why?

To put it bluntly, Scottish football is terrible, fans are voting with their wallets and staying away from “the national game”. One of the normal scapegoats for the lack of talent is the size of our top division, which has fluctuated between 10 and 12 since it was cut from 18 in 1975. While there are other factors at play for the diminishing amount of technically good young Scottish players coming through, the current system does not encourage the “hothousing” of young players. The current system, where teams play each other up to four times a year, only encourages stagnation.

For the same reasons of boredom, the fans have already expressed a dissatisfaction with the current set up, with Supporters Direct publishing results from a poll which show that 88% of fans polled are against plans for a 10 team league. Many fans, including myself, are in favour of a 16 team league. Teams would play each other twice, and we would also be able to re-introduce the winter break – which was such a success, it was scrapped in 2000. So why are we not heading towards a larger to league?

The resistance towards these proposals have come from those running the SPL. Neil Doncaster, the SPL Chef Executive (pictured above with the SPL Trophy) has stated that each club would lose £1million in revenue if the league was set at 16 teams. What went unspoken was that BSkyB are effectively paying for the rights to broadcast 4 Old Firm matches a season, which like it or not is the only Scottish fixture that pulls in a substantial audience. As a result, their position as the paymaster of Scottish football would possibly become vacant.

Interestingly enough, and with a possible eye on the future, the SPL have commissioned IMG Media to look into the feasibility of launching their own television channel. We have of course been here before, the SPL’s first chairman Roger Mitchell proposed SPL TV as far back as 2002,before the idea was firstly defeated and then Mitchell was ousted from his job by an Old Firm addicted to the Murdoch shilling. When the idea first surfaced 9 years ago, I thought that it was a good idea. Not so much with domestic broadcasters (where rights could be sold on to BSkyB, ESPN or even BT Vision via the proposed company), but more so with overseas markets. In particular with the Scottish diaspora that reside in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America.

The problem with the current talk of reconstruction is that it seems to be about change for changes sake, as opposed to a motive based change. The supporters want change to drive up the standard of Scottish football. The SPL is looking for change to look as if it is making changes, while preserving the revenues from their broadcasting deals. The truth is, the ghost of Setanta still stalks the SPL and their powerbrokers, and has spooked the SPL away from change for the better.

End of the Australian Age of Dominance

2011-01-18T10:00:00.001Z

If the series losses to India and South Africa in the autumn of 2008 were warning signs, then they are warnings that were not heeded by Australian cricket. The hammering by England in the Ashes series is a great big huge wake up call for Australia.

When England arrived in Australia for the series, many commentators were cautious about the chances of England pulling off a win, bearing in mind that England had only won 4 test series in Australia since the war (1954/5, 1970/1, 1978/9 & 1986/7). We needn't have worried as England batted fantastically and bowled superbly – even managing to swing and reverse swing the ball after the 20 over period when the new ball loses it’s shine & hardness. Key to England’s success was their ability to put high scores on the board. With the exception of their first innings 260 at the Gabba and the woeful performance at the WACA, England racked up huge first innings leads. Leading the way was Alistair Cook, who emulated Chris Broad and Michael Vaughan by scoring three centuries in an Ashes series in Australia. His 235* helped to draw the Gabba test while centuries in Adelaide (148) and Sydney (189) set up innings wins. His aggregate of 766 (at an average of 127.66) is a post war record for an England batsman.

Not that the England batting display was a one man band. Jonathan Trott accumulated 445 runs during this series, he was the other man during the marathon 329 second wicket stand which broke the Australians at the Gabba – chipping in with 135*. His 168* in Melbourne cemented England’s position in the game after a mini wobble early on the second day. The Captain Strauss, Prior and Bell also scored centuries, while Kevin Pieterson scored a double ton in the win at Adelaide.

Cook (235*) & Trott (135*) leave the Gabba

There to profit from the platform afforded to them by the batsmen were the bowlers. James Anderson lead the bowlers charts with 24 wickets @ 26.04. His 4/51 was as key on the first day at Adelaide as his 4/44 on the first day at Melbourne. Despite only playing 3 tests, Chris Tremlett impressed by bagging 17 wickets @ 23.35 – the best average of the series. Despite not having the best series, Graeme Swann still took 15 wickets – level pegging with Australia’s best bowler Mitchell Johnson. Swann’s haul includes the 5/91 that won the Adelaide test before the weather closed in.

However good England were during this series, this Ashes continues the precedent set from the 1970/1 series – that every England victory has come at a time of transition/turmoil in Australian cricket. The 1970/1 series saw the beginnings of the Chappell/Marsh/Lillee era in Australian cricket (Ian Chappell was appointed captain during this series, while his brother Greg made his debut, alongside Lillee and Marsh ). The 1978/9 series was played out against the acrimony of the Packer “World Series Cricket” split – a split that resolved itself when Packer’s Channel 9 won the rights to broadcast test cricket in Australia.

Perhaps more pertinent to this series is the circumstances of the 1986/7 win, which came in the middle of Australia’s worst drought in form. From the series against Pakistan in 1983/4 to New Zealand in 1987/8, Australia failed to win a test series. They lost two Ashes series and were comprehensively hammered by the West Indies – their captain Kim Hughes famously wept when he relinquished the captaincy after the Brisbane test against the Windies in 1984. That win against Pakistan saw the retirements of Lillee, Marsh and Greg Chappell from test cricket. The Sydney Ashes Test of four years ago also saw retirements of players that Australia have to date struggled to replace – Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer.

England’s next ambition should be to reach the number one spot in Test Cricket. Already they have overhauled Sri Lanka to finish the Ashes in 3rd place. They have the chance to consolidate 3rd place with a home series against Sri Lanka, before taking on the current top dog’s India in a home test series. However history dictates that Australia come back stronger than ever after a home Ashes defeat. The 1970/1 defeat saw the seeds of the 1970’s Australia side that dominated test Cricket, with the high-points being the 4-1 win in the 1974/5 Ashes and the 5-1 defeat of the embryonic West Indies side that would dominate Cricket in the 1980’s. The 1978/9 defeat brought to an end the Packer split, while the 1986/7 defeat began the process which saw Australia become the best cricket side once again by 1995. England will hope that this time their side will be able to buck the trend for some time to come.

Even Pitch

2010-12-24T23:30:00.001Z

Game on!

One of the main attributes of Australian sport in general is their never say die attitude, an attitude we do not have here. That's not to say that Australia are going to now run away with this series, but they have put themselves back into the game.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Australia had to win in Perth, and given the unique set-up at the WACA, this was their best opportunity. They took it. The WACA pitch is currently still the quickest bounciest pitch on the Test circuit, Australia had the players capable of utilising it and of playing it. The person who benefited the most was Mitchell Johnson (above). Johnson made his debut against Sri Lanka 3 years ago, but to date his performance in South Africa – where he took 16 wickets and emerged with the Man of the Series gong, but apart from a spell against England at the Headingly test has not really reached that standard again. Until Perth when he took 6/38 and 3/44 (to go with his first innings 62 with the bat).

Australia might have won convincingly in Perth, however the problems besetting the team are still there in victory. The win was held together by Johnson’s 62, had he gone early Australia would not have made 200, and in the second innings by Mike Hussey’s 116. Hussey now leads the series averages with an aggregate of 517 runs at an average of 103.40, with Shane Watson & Brad Haddin the only other Australians to have made over 200 runs during this series so far. At least the bowlers now have a bit of form and wickets behind them.

Having lead, England are now facing questions about their team, with calls being made to push Bell up the order to bat at No# 5, and for an extra bowler to be included. I think the only change that should be made is that Bell is switched with Collingwood, with Collingwood coming in at 6. I am also surprised that Collingwood has not had more of a bowl as well, considering how much work that Finn/Anderson/Swan and Broad/Tremlett have done.

While Perth has always produced hard, fast and bouncy wickets, the pitch at Melbourne (right) is expected to be a slow one. Being a drop in pitch it may well suit the seam bowlers, and be a little bowler friendly. Unlike Perth, England have a good record at Melbourne, winning memorable tests at the MCG in 1982, 1986 and 1998. If last year is anything to go by Australia racked up 454 on first use of the pitch.

For England, a win will see them retain the Ashes, Australia need to win to take the series to the last test. The question will be who’s nerves will hold out?

SOPTY Time is Apon Us Again…

2010-12-18T10:59:00.001Z

Sunday sees the BBC’s once good now rather excruciatingly smug roundup of the sporting year. The glitzy glamour and razzmatazz rather masks the poor year that BBC sport has had, with the corporation receiving all manner of brickbats in relation to its lazy coverage of the World Cup, not to forget the games played in relation to their failed attempt to pick up the free-to-air Ashes highlights contract (which eventually went to… um… ITV4).

The centrepiece of the old Sports Review of The Year programme used to be the Sports Personality of the Year award (pictured, right), which like some sort of lethal virus has grown and taken over the programme. So much so that the programme has now taken on the name Sport’s Personality of the Year, as the awards aspect has side-lined the sports review aspect (with the addition of "Team of the Year", "Coach of the Year", Overseas awards and Outstanding Contribution awards). One look at the nominees underlines why the review section might have gone on the slide.

The favourite should be the Northern Irish golfer Graeme McDowell, who won the US Open, 40 years on from the last British triumph in that tournament. There is also the small matter of his contribution to Europe’s Ryder Cup win in Wales in October. His Ryder Cup team-mate Lee Westwood is also nominated. Though he did not win a major, his nomination is down to his unseating of Tiger Wood’s as Golf’s number one player.

The Heptathlete Jessica Ennis is nominated for the second year in a row, she added a European Championship to the World Championship she will defend next year, she should be close as well. I would also like to see Mark Cavendish do well too. In 3 Tours, Cavendish has won 15 stages and holds a reputation as a deadly finisher on the flat stages.

Of the others, Haye’s anti-climatic defeat of Audley Harrison might count against him, people are split on Horse racing, so AP McCoy is an outsider, as is the teenage diver Tom Daley. Graeme Swann might make the top three, depending on his performances during the ongoing test in Perth. Amy Williams is another outsider, even though she is the first Brit to win an individual winter Olympics gold medal in 30 years. The Dart’s lobby might also push Pill Taylor into the top three.

I think that McDowell will win, ahead of Ennis and I think that either JP McCoy or Phil Taylor will sneak into third, depending on who get’s their vote out. After last year’s shock win for Ryan Giggs, its not a confident prediction.

The Doctor Will See You Now…

2010-12-15T23:00:00.000Z

Intriguingly, while we are in the middle of an interesting Ashes series, South Africa and India begin their series tomorrow. The winners will be crowned the best test side at the conclusion of this series. I wish that I had the time to properly do a preview (Steyn V Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar etc.) – but with Christmas around the corner and having just returned from Holiday, this is a subject i should return to.

This Ashes series is perfectly poised though. After Australia dominating for 3 days in Brisbane, England found their form to dominate the last two days and then to crush Australia in Adelaide. Next up is Perth, which really represents Australia’s last chance to get back into this series. England’s only win at the WACA was during the 1978/9 Ashes tour, when the Australia side was severely depleted by the rival Packer series. Generally the WACA pitch is a pitch for the quick bowlers to enjoy as the leading wicket takers comprise a who’s who of Australian strike bowling – noticeably as well the West Indies first loss at the WACA came during the 2000/1 whitewash, winning all of the 5 tests they played up to that point.

Australia have brought back Mitchell Johnson (as well as Ben Hilfenhaus), and have brought in Beer & Smith as options in the spin bowling department. All of the changes smack of desperation for a side who do not repeat the trough’s of the mid 1980’s. England, who are one up, have a selection headache of their own. Stuart Broad is injured, with Chris Tremlett tipped to take his place. I think that Bresnan might be a better bet.

A win for England will se them retain the Ashes for the first time since 1986/7. However Australia are notorious for their fighting spirit. Now would be a good time to see that.

The Size Of England’s Task…

2010-11-20T17:00:00.001Z

In the previous post, it was mentioned that England have only won 3 Ashes tests on Australian soil since winning the Boxing Day test of 1986, which sealed the series for England. Here is a reminder of those tests…

26-30 January 1995: 4th Test, Adelaide – England (353 & 328) beat Australia (419 & 156) by 106 runs.
Having lost the first two tests by 185 and 295 runs respectively, England responded by putting themselves into a good position to win at Sydney. May & Warne’s rear-guard action saved the draw, and ensured Australia retained the Ashes.

For the fourth test, England batted first & posted a par score of 353, Gatting making his last test century in this test with 117. Australia then went on to take a 66 run first innings lead, debutant Greg Blewitt made 102*. England then set Australia 263 runs to win with their second innings score, with an 81 run 7th wicket partnership between Crawley (71) and DeFretas (top score of 88) helping England to that position. Mark Waugh spun his way to 5 for 40. Australia then collapsed, with Devon Malcolm (4/39) and Chris Lewis (4/24) doing the damage.

26-29 December 1998: 4th Test, Melbourne – England(270 & 244) beat Australia (340 & 162) by 12 runs
Another win for England in a dead rubber, England managed to draw in Brisbane, with the rain coming to their rescue, before losing in Perth (7 wickets) and in Adelaide (by 205 runs).
Play on Boxing Day was washed out. This meant that play in the remaining days were elongated to compensate for the loss in play. This resulted in play on the 29th December lasting for nearly 8 hours, as the test came to an exciting conclusion.

Alec Stewart smashed his first Ashes century on Australian soil as he made 107 in England's 270. In reply Steve Waugh rescued Australia, taking them from the parlous 98/3 to a first innings lead of 70 with his 122*. Darren Gough nabbed the bowling honours with 5/96. Stewart, Hussain & Hick all made 50’s as England could not get going, and set Australia a gettable 175. Australia were on their way, but collapsed from 140/5 to 162 all out. Dean Headley got 6/60, including the wicket of Darren Lehmann which started the rout.

Vaughan with his man of the match & man of the series gong's

2-6 January 2003: 5th Test, Sydney – England (362 & 452) beat Australia (363 & 226)
Yet another win for England in a dead rubber, this one meant that they avoided a 5-0 series whitewash as Australia had won the previous four. Butcher scored his second century on Australian soil with his 124, while Hussain & Stewart made half centuries in their last test appearances on Australian soil. In reply Australia were struggling on 56/3, when that man Steve Waugh entered the stage once again. Cue an emotional century, which included Waugh passing 10,000 test runs when he reached 69*. Waugh was rumoured to be retiring (or to be retired by the selectors), before that hundred. Gilchrist top scored with 133 as Australia only scraped past England’s score.

In England’s second innings, it was once again the Michael Vaughan show (left), as made his highest Ashes score of 183. In doing so, Vaughn equalled the feat of Chris Broad in making three centuries on Australian soil (having made 177 in Adelaide and 154 in Melbourne). His century helped England set a target of 452 to win, which proved to be difficult on a wearing pitch. The night watchman Andy Bichel made 49 as Andy Caddick took 7/94

Ashes 2010/11: Up For Grab’s

2010-11-18T10:30:00.001Z

They might have gone with trepidation in 1994 & 1998, and they might have gone with hope in 2002 & 2006, but for the first time since 1978 England go to Australia with a real opportunity to retain the Ashes on Australian soil. The irony is that when they toured in 1986/7, they were touted as the team that couldn’t bat, couldn’t bowl, and couldn’t field. Until they won the first test in Brisbane by 7 wickets.

Austraila Retain the Ashes in 2007

Draws followed in Perth & in Adelaide before England retained the Ashes by winning the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. Perth & Adelaide may be reversed, but the challenge England will have to negotiate if they are to retain the Ashes this series remains as hard. England have not won in Brisbane since that test in 1986, and have only won there on one other occasion since the Second World War. In 1994 & ‘98 England were batted out of a chance of victory by Australia making huge first innings totals. In 2002, England ceded the advantage before then, by opting to field. In 2006, nervousness and a lack of match practice cost England dear as Australia racked up 346 runs for the loss of only 3 wickets. Brisbane is a place where batting first and putting a big score on the board will put you in the pound seat, as bounce allied to a wearing pitch takes it’s toll on the opposition.

Australia though are not the force they were 4 years ago, as England found out by regaining the Ashes 15 months ago, by only really dominating in 5 sessions (The first two days at Lords and the Friday afternoon session at The Oval), the momentum swings provided by these sessions proved insurmountable for an Australian team who put in the runs but only saw their bowlers on top at Headingley. They have not won a test since beating Pakistan at Lords, having lost the second test of the series at Headingley followed by both tests in India. They are also in the middle of a run of defeats in the one day form of the game. Though the form of the Australian test side is not as bad as the drought experienced in the mid 1980’s (when Australia failed to win a test series between January 1984 and December 1987), there are still worrying signs.
Australia announced a squad of 17, which will be trimmed down, for the first test which starts on 25 November.While Katich is expected to open with Shane Watson, with Ricky Ponting coming in at his customary No. 3 position, the middle order places are less certain. The men in possession, Hussey & North have not had the best of years,with the selectors bringing in Khawaja and Ferguson as possible replacements. Interestingly the selectors have kept Phillip Hughes out of the squad for the time being. Before his dismissal for a brief 30 odds at the Sophia Gardens Ashes test, Hughes was the latest supposedly great batsman to come off the conveyor belt. Both Michael Clarke & Brad Haddin should also make the Gabba.

England Leave the field well on their way to regaining the Ashes, August 2009

The Australian attack is similarly unsettled. Peter Siddle has been injured since January and might miss out this time, especially as Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger are the current men in possession. Ryan Harris, who played during the test series in New Zealand might be an outsider. The inclusion of Xavier Doherty has also put pressure on Nathan Hauritz ahead of the First Test.

England also have their selection issues. With the return of Kevin Pieterson & Ian Bell, it looks as if Eoin Morgan will make way. I suspect England will go for Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pieterson, Bell, Collingwood, Prior, Broad, Swann, Anderson & Finn.

History will be against England. Since their last series win in Australia, England have only won 3 tests in Australia. Since the end of the second World War, England have only won 4 series in Australia (1954/5, 1970/1, 1978/9 and 1986/7), while Australia were unbeaten at home in a test series between 1992/3 (when the West Indies won a 5 match series) and 2008/9 (when South Africa won a 3 test series). However, they do have a good chance to win against an opponent still trying to find it’s next generation of greats. I think that with both sides much of a muchness, that this series will be a draw.

Reffing Hell!

2010-11-10T10:59:00.001Z

Ah, the latest (in a long line) of refereeing controversies. Where do I start…

It would be nice to think that Celtic’s motives were honest and all for the good of Scottish Football. But they are not. I can think of at least 3 very poor refereeing decisions which went for Celtic and against my own team (St Mirren) in recent years – for the record those decisions are Nakamura falling over to get a free kick at Love Street in the February 2008 fixture, the sending off of Haining and the award of a penalty for his challenge with Venegoor of Hesselink in the opening game of the 2008/09 game, and the non punishment of Artur Boric for flattening Dargo in Celtic’s last visit to Love Street.

Instead, Celtic’s complaints rather smack of petulance. This is a pity because Celtic’s stance obscure’s the fact that the current crop of referees are not very good. The criticism of Willie Collum after the last Old Firm game was that he gave a penalty for Rangers, when Broadfoot dived. It seems to have bypassed these critics that referees are not particularly good at picking up dive’s, not least Collum who failed to curb Hamilton Accies players lack of balance the week before. They are even less inclined to punish dives, Stephen Naismith being the latest to commit that particular sin…

Not that referees are 100% to blame for their failings. In most games I see nowadays, the referee makes the majority of decisions unaided by his linesmen. In no sense of the word do the majority of linesmen deserve the term “Assistant Referees”. This season seems to be some sort of nadir, with linesmen unable to ascertain who’s throw in it should be, even though I and the people sitting next to me can see precisely who’s throw in it should be from the back of the stand. Some sort of training or testing initiative should be the SFA’s response. However I'm not holding my breath, after all the SFA have form in going down the inactivity route.

Tactic’s Shmatic’s…

2010-10-09T00:05:00.000+01:00

European Championships, Qualifying Group I, Synot Tip Arena, Prague; Czech Republic 1, Scotland 0

Scotland's Jamie Mackie competes for a header with Marek Suchy.

Not one of Scotland’s finest nights, but Craig Levin’s tactic’s seem to have detracted from how badly Scotland kept possession. Worryingly this is the second international on the trot where Scotland’s poor technique on the ball has translated into a poor performance. That the world’s best exponents of possession football are Scotland’s next opponents should be a worry to Levein, on current form, Scotland will struggle to hold on to anymore than 5 minutes possession out of the 90.
Touted in various quarters as 4-2-2-2 or 4-1-5 or ever 4-6-0, it eventually panned out as 4-2-4 when Scotland were going forward. There was however on glaring fault with the system, the quality of passing from the back four was utterly dire. As a result, in the first half McManus & Weir kept on hoofing the ball towards the space vacated by the lack of a centre forward. Which resulted in possession being given back to the Czech Republic.
It was a tactic which seemed to work well in the first half, as the Czech Republic seemed to be becoming more and more frustrated. The second half however saw the Czech Republic step up a gear. Kadlec had a chance saved by McGregor, who also made a great save from a Polak header. Scotland were looking like a team needing a change personnel as the tactics that had worked to some effect now stopped working, Miller prehaps should have been on for the last 25 minutes of the game (or at least we should have gone to 4-2-3-1 with Mackie in front of Morrison, Naismith and Dorrens with Caldwell & Fletcher acting as midfield anchors).
The goal was a criminal goal to concede. From a corner, a Rosicky header was flicked on by the former Hearts forward Roman Bednar to the defender Hubnik, who had found some space to head home from metres. Scotland had deployed a zonal marking system, but still should not have afforded Hubnik the time to get into position to head home.
The game then opened up, with Scotland switching to a straightforward 4-4-2, but crucially still could not put together enough fluid passing moves to trouble the Czech Republic. The Czech’s on the other hand were able to break at speed and pick out space, looking way more comfortable on the ball than their Scottish opponents. In the end, with superior technique and a desire to win, the Czech’s deserved their win.
While the result will not be a disaster (the Czech Republic are now on 3 points, one behind Lithuania and Oh ourselves – Spain lead on maximum points), it will be the manner of the defeat, especially the controversy surrounding the formation and the “dropping” of Kenny Miller (BTW, Mackie did ok, even if he was played out of position. He deserves an opportunity as the forward in Scotland’s regulation 4-5-1 formation) which will ensure a tough couple of days for Craig Levein. Of more concern should be the lack of basic football technique from some of the Scotland players, who were wasteful in possession, and awful in retaining it. Perhaps some video’s of Spain’s run in South Africa is in order for the Scotland team to look at and to learn from… before the real thing visits Hampden on Tuesday.

Repeating Past Glories

2010-10-07T19:59:00.000+01:00

So, just how good are the Czech Republic, Scotland’s next opponents in Euro 2012 qualifying? The easy answer is that we will find out on Friday. But that won’t do for a preview piece.

The Czech Republic have been, since their split from Slovakia 20 odd years ago, one of those sides that you would file firmly as “Dark Horses”. In Euro 96, they got to the final after escaping from that tournament’s version of “The Group of Death” – losing to Germany before beating Italy and drawing with Russia. After condemning Scotland to a Playoff against England, they once again lined up in another group of death in Euro 2000 – this time failing to make it out of a group containing France, The Netherlands and Denmark. The hat trick of “Group of Death” appearances came in 2004 when they topped a group containing Germany, The Netherland’s and Latvia. The Czech Republic then slipped into favourites camp, and wilted against Greece.

Since Euro 2004 though the Czech Republic have gone backwards. The qualified for their first World Cup in 2006, but failed to get out of a group containing Italy & Ghana. They also got to Euro 2008, but again failed to get out of their group. Despite beating the hosts Switzerland in their opening game, they fell to defeats against Portugal & Turkey. In qualifying for the last World Cup, they finished 4 points behind Slovenia and six behind their neighbours Slovakia as both countries went to the World Cup. On the face of it, the Czech Republic is in transition, and not really of the same vintage as 1996, 2004 or even 2000. That impression is not hindered by the start the Czech’s have made to this group, losing at home to Lithuania.

Yet, there looks as if there is still the quality there to see off Scotland. Milan Baros will miss the game through injury, while the injured Roman Bednar has been included in the squad. Petr Cech and Thomas Rosicky, familiar names to followers of the EPL, should start against Scotland. Jaroslav Plasil of Bordeaux has also been included in the squad. Vaclav Kadlec of Sparta Prague has also been included in the squad, if he makes his debut either against Scotland or Liechtenstein (on Tuesday) he will become the second youngest player to be capped for the Czech Republic.

Scotland will be missing Lee McCulloch for the tie against the Czechs through suspension, while Hutton, McGreggor, Whittaker are the obligatory walking wounded, with injury already rulling out Broadfoot, Scott Brown, McFadden & Hartley from the last squad – Brown though may make the Spain tie on Tuesday. Gary Caldwell is recovering from hip surgery, so may not be match fit yet. While there are rumours that Kenny Miller may be left out of the starting 11.

While the Czech Republic are unbeaten in European Championship matches against Scotland (2-1 at Parkhead and 3-2 in Prague in March & June 1999 respectively), Scotland have won their last meeting against the old Czechoslovakia. Though they have not won in Prague since 1937, Scotland have a good chance of a win. However such is the tight nature of this group (Spain apart), an away draw should also be seen as a good point won, i think that it will finish 1-1 tomorrow.

The Third Biggest Sport’s Event In The World?

2010-09-30T21:00:00.000+01:00

Yep, that’s the boast I heard tonight about the Ryder Cup. Not really sure how that conclusion has been reached, especially with the Commonwealth Games and the Athletics World Championships having a better argument to be on the same podium as The Olympics and the football World Cup.

What the Ryder Cup does bring is an almost certain guarantee that there will be some sort of drama right at the climax, either with a missed put, or with some unsporting behaviour, as occurred in 1991 and 1999. Both Kiawah Island & Brookline have entered the annuls of the sports books under the heading as notorious. Whatever happens, we can hope for some nerve shredding drama at Celtic Manor this weekend.

The action starts tomorrow morning with the Fourballs. First up will be Lee Westwood & the USPGA winner Martin Kaymer up against the US Masters winner Phil Mickelson & Dustin Johnson, this will be at 7:45am tomorrow. At 8, it will be the all Northern Irish pairing of US Open winner Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy up against last years Open champion Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar. English pair Iain Poulter and Ross Fisher will be up against the Tiger and Steve Stricker from quarter past 8, while last to tee off will be the pairing of Luke Donald & Paidraig Harrington up against Bubba Watson & Jeff Overton.

Europe will be hoping to put the nightmare of Valhalla behind them, while the Americans will be hoping to retain the cup and win on European soil for the first time since 1993. I thought at the time the teams were announced & the wildcards picked that Europe would lose. Now I'm not so sure. I think Europe will cling on by a point.

Disaster Averted… But…

2010-09-09T20:30:00.001+01:00

European Championships, Qualifying Group I, Hampden; Scotland 2 Liechtenstein 1

McManus Scores against Liechtenstein

During the victory which heralded Scottish Football’s anus mirabilis, Dennis Law and Jim Baxter were supposedly engaged in some sort of debate about how exactly to beat England. Law, having played during the 9-3 drubbing in 1961, wanted to exact revenge by piling on the goals. Baxter just wanted to extract the urine. It seems at times as if the need to extract the urine has overtaken the need for results in Scottish football, and this was the case on Tuesday night when, no matter what the management and the players say, eleven players trooped on to the pitch at Hampden expecting to roll over a side 100 places below them in FIFA’s rankings system.

Scotland, were awful and at times bordered on the unprofessional. They could not string passes together and gave the ball away far too many times. Better sides than Liechtenstein would have taken Scotland on that performance, but then again Scotland would not have dropped their performance levels so alarmingly against better sides. For such a poor side, Liechtenstein produced 2 of the best moves of the whole game either side of half time.

Weisser shot straight at McGregor before half time, but Mario Frick scored with a fantastic drive just after half time, topping off a good move which exploited Scottish players being out of position. Frick’s goal woke Scotland up, as they belatedly began to go through the gears, with the equaliser coming about 15 minutes later through a Kenny Miller strike.

Scotland’s winner came deep in injury time, and evoked memories of their famous win in Limmasol during the qualification process for Italia 90. But still, we cannot escape the fact that Scotland were seconds away from drawing with Liechtenstein, and the can must be carried by the poor fortitude displayed by the players. It is a mantra of mine, but it is one which bears repeating. It’s not about how good you are, but how good you are upstairs. Unfortunately the players did not display the correct mental attitude on Tuesday, which is a shame as they did so many things right on Friday in Lithuania. We hope they can gather themselves together, as the Spain game is now approaching quickly.

If It’s Lithuania, It Must Be The Euro’s Again

2010-09-02T17:30:00.001+01:00

Dailly's score's V Lithuania, September 2006

12 years ago Scotland started a Euro 2000 campaign that would end in heartbreak at Wembley with a 0-0 draw in Villnius, a game that saw Neil McCann & Barry Ferguson make their debuts, 4 and a half years later, a 1-0 loss in Lithuania nearly derailed Scotland’s hopes of qualifying for Portugal (losing 6-0 in Amsterdam eventually did that), while four years ago Scotland’s 2-1 win made it two wins out of two going into their crunch clash with World Cup finalists France (before losing out, by that most Scottish of means, with a loss away in Georgia). On Friday, Scotland are again in Lithuania, this time in Kaunas, for European Championship qualification duty. All that will be missing will be the rendition of “I’ve Got You Babe”.

The background for this game couldn’t be more difficult for Scottish football. Last week saw a series of results which together were a disaster. Celtic were particularly culpable in surrendering a two goal lead by crashing to a 4-2 aggregate loss to Utrecht. That is the equivalent of going to somewhere like Paisley and losing… no wait they did that last season. Celtic are now clearly a side in transition, Lennon will need to be afforded time to see if he can get things pulling in the right direction. Motherwell’s fate was also frustrating, and alongside Dundee United’s fate, symptomatic of the general lack of exposure to the higher levels of the game. Both sides lacked experience (Motherwell have got thus far with experience in the dug-out, they could have done with some experience on the pitch on Thursday). All of which leaves Rangers alone in Europe struggling to keep the Scottish co-efficient afloat, a task not really helped by their European Cup draw.

For Scottish football, it will be key that the national team get off to a good start, starting with Lithuania. For the double header (Scotland play Liechtenstein four days later at Hampden), Craig Levin has re-called David Weir, Lee McCulloch & Paul Hartley. Should Weir play, he will be the oldest outfield player ever to have been capped by Scotland. Making up a triumvirate of returning defenders for Scotland will be Andy Webster. With Gordon still missing with injury, and a shaky defensive display against Sweden last month, the return of Weir, McCulloch & Webster will provide needed stability at the back. I would also like to see Scotland start with a 3 man centre midfield (either playing 3-5-2 or 4-5-1, maybe evolving to a 4-3-2-1 as the game goes on).

Lithuania will be familiar bedfellows in more ways than one, no fewer than 9 of the Lithuania squad have plied their trade in Scottish football at one time or another. Zaliukas is still with Hearts, Velicka has joined Aberdeen on loan from Rangers this week, while Saulius Mikoliunas (he of the subtle dive during the last meeting, at Hampden in September 2007) is also in the squad. His motivation will clearly be that the dive made him the most hated player in Scottish Football for a short period, with the media fallout forcing him from Hearts.

A win on Friday really is vital for Scotland to have a chance of qualification for Euro 2010. After Liechtenstein on Tuesday, Scotland will be away to the Czech Republic before the arrival of the Defending champions, and new World Cup winners Spain. Maximum points from the first quarter of the qualifying programme would provide Scottish Football with a much needed shot in the arm.

SPL 2010/11: The Season Starts Here!

2010-08-13T13:00:00.001+01:00

Rangers get ready to recieve the championship trophy for season 2009/10

Barring Celtic’s abortive European Cup campaign, Hibernian’s abortive UEFA Cup campaign, Motherwell’s run in the same competition and Wednesday’s defeat in Sweden, the 2010/11 football season begins in earnest on Saturday with the start of the Scottish Premier League (with apologies to the Scottish Football League who started last week). With all of the action which has occurred already, this must be the smallest close season in living memory.

Aiming for a hat trick of championships are Rangers, who like last year have not added to their squad. However they have lost seven of their squad, with Thompson and Boyd making the move to Middlesbrough, and Danny Wilson making the switch to Liverpool. However the transfer of Kevin Thompson is arguably the only transfer involving a key player. Weir will be around for another year, and will be supplemented by the returning Andy Webster, and Boyd was firmly second pick for the key games Rangers played. In Walter Smith’s last season, Rangers have the necessary experience to win the Championship.

At the other side of Glasgow, Celtic have been busy in the transfer market. After finally confirming the appointment of Neil Lennon as Manager after his caretaker stint. Celtic have brought in Joe Ledley from Cardiff, and Charlie Mulgrew from Aberdeen. However they have lost the “Holy Goalie” Artur Boric. The questions posed for Celtic are the same ones from 12 months ago; can they pull a new side together under a new coach and overhaul Rangers. The Omens are not good for Celtic, who have sacked their previous “inexperienced” coaches (Liam Brady after 2 years, John Barnes within 6 months). I take Rangers to win by between 4-7 points.
Elsewhere, Dundee United have pretty much kept their Scottish Cup winning team intact (save for the aforementioned Andy Webster), Hearts have rather shockingly bought in Scottish players in the shape of the former Falkirk captain Darren Barr and Kilmarnock’s Kevin Kyle, while Aberdeen have brought Paul Hartley back from exile in Bristol. Those three teams, as well as Hibernian, should be in the running for third.

The tightest battle over recent years has been the battle to avoid the drop, with Inverness Caley dropping down on goal difference in 2009 and Falkirk loosing out by a point in May. Inverness are back in the top flight, the first team to bounce straight back up since Hib’s flew through the First Division in 1998/99. They might find themselves at the bottom end once again, but should see themselves safe come the end of the season.

Calderwood celebrate's Kilmarnock's survival against Falkirk

The weakest squad on paper is St Mirren’s. Their dismissal of Gus MacPherson, is one that gathered criticism among the media, but among the supporters, the opinion was that Gus’s teams looked more and more stale as the weeks went on. In his place, St Mirren have brought in the highly rated Danny Lennon from Cowdenbeath. The problem for many journalists is that Danny has also brought 4 players from Cowdenbeath, as well as bringing back Marc McAusland from Queen Of The South and David Van Zanten from Hamilton. St Mirren’s survival depends on the ability of the lower league players to step up to Premier League level, which to be honest is not as big a step up as most sports writers seem to think.

Hamilton have lost the talented James McArthur, their survival depends on their much vaunted conveyor belt of talent continuing. I suspect that this will be a difficult season for Hamilton, and for Kilmarnock, who brought in Mixu Paatelainen to replace Jimmy Calderwood as Manager. I think that the team to go down will come from those four, and I think that once again it will be too close to call.

More than most, Scottish football needs to come out and provide a season to remember, it needs to show that it was watching the events in South Africa, and that notes were being taken about technique and attacking football. Above all Scottish football needs to realise that for the third season on the spin, the Old Firm are vulnerable. The Old Firm will finish in the top two positions, but a winning mentality and a bit of ruthlesness needs to be shown from the other sides before they can be taken seriously.

The Shape Of Scotland

2010-08-10T21:59:00.001+01:00

I must admit that I should be thinking about the preview pieces for the start of the SPL and the EPL. Instead Scotland are playing an International friendly tomorrow in Stockholm. The thing that had got my ire up though was Chick Young’s piece in the BBC website, in particular his favoured Scotland team of “Allan McGregor in goal. A back four of Steven Whittaker, Garry Kenneth, Christophe Berra and Lee Wallace. A four in the middle of Barry Robson, Darren Fletcher, Kevin Thomson and Charlie Adam. And, up front, the great James McFadden playing off Kenny Miller.

England V Scotland in the Euro 2000 playoff, second leg

Does that not light your candle? "

The question that should be asked is, did Chick actually see any of the World Cup, you know the tournament that saw Spain, the Netherlands and Germany reach the last four with split mid-fields, and Uruguay playing with a diamond four in midfield at times. One of the tactical developments coming from the World cup was that 4-4-2 just doesn’t work anymore, that 4-1 game should have told you that.

The interesting thing about Scotland is that their best results over the past 16 years have come from deploying a 3 man central midfield. Craig Brown played with a 3-5-2, while both Walter Smith and Alex McLeish played with a 4-5-1. I think Voghts went with 4-4-2 for most of his games (i could be wrong here, i stand corrected if I am), which was ironic as many people thought Voghts would be the natural upgrade from Craig Brown, while George Burley varied between a 4-4-2 and 4-3-3.

Three in the middle of the park puts a premium on space, and also enables Scotland to split the midfield, playing McFadden & A N Other (possibly Steven Fletcher) between the midfield and the lone forward (maybe Kenny Miller?). It’s a tactical trick we have deployed with some success for the past 16 years. I hope that the 4-3-2-1 formation is one we stick with into the double header with Lithuania and Liechtenstein at the start of next month.

The Art Of Intimidation

2010-08-05T15:00:00.001+01:00

We shouldn’t be surprised that the new Celtic' managers attempts to whip up an intimidating atmosphere has failed. Celtic’s loss on aggrigate has shown that Neil Lennon is a work in progress. It does raise the interesting question of what makes an intimidating atmosphere?

Celtic fans on their last visit to Love Street in 2008

For me part of the equation is the crowd itself. The most intimidating atmosphere’s I have been part of have been when the Old Firm visit, this is partly down to our hostility to the particular Old Firm teams supporters choice of song’s. That atmosphere is warm compared to the atmospheres waiting for teams who visit Turkey & Greece. Manchester United were famously greeted with a banner saying “Welcome to hell” when they played Galatasaray in a European Cup tie in 1993, and that was as welcoming as it got for them. Rangers had two scary visits to Greece in the 1990’s. In a preliminary tie for the European Cup in 1994, they fell to a 2-0 defeat against AEK Athens, while four years later the visited the stadium dubbed “The Tomb” to play PAOK Salonika to defend a 2-0 lead. It’s no coincidence that both Italy and Spain tend to play their trickiest qualifying games at the most intimidating stadiums (Naples and Seville respectively), while Wellington is seen as New Zealand’s most intimidating venue for a Rugby Union test.

The other part of the equation though has to be the strength of the opposition. Parkhead probably won’t have scared Braga so much at the moment, as Celtic are currently a team still being put together. Had they played Celtic during the O’Neill years, things would have been different. Barcelona I'm sure is a daunting place mostly because of the quality of the teams over the years (though this probably doesn’t apply to Dundee United who are still the only undefeated British team to have played there) though even more so now that half their side have just won the World Cup. And also there’s a very good reason why the Netherlands lost two World Cup finals in the 1970’s, they came up against very good sides buoyed by home advantage, and in Argentina their fans played their part - “They who are not jumping are Dutchmen!”

The truth is that a good atmosphere feeds off of a good team, which is more likely to strike fear into the hearts of opponents. It is a good team which Neil Lennon needs to work on first, the atmosphere will come later.

Some Summer Games…

2010-07-28T14:00:00.000+01:00

The World Cup has been and gone, Wimbledon went like a flash and the 150th Anniversary Open Championship went past with no last day pyrotechnics. All of which leaves us with two sporting events (bearing in mind the Commonwealth Games will be held in October) left before we can contemplate the beginning of the domestic Football season (and after that winter). Firstly, there’s Athletics version of the European Championship’s, which is held this year in Barcelona and started yesterday. After that though will be the four test series between England & Pakistan, which begins tomorrow.

Normally I'd be excited about the prospect of another test series coming around. However an element of excitement has been sucked out by the Test’s only appearing on terrestrial television via highlights on Channel 5. The majority of the laziz faire attitude to this series though comes from the fact that, like the West Indies, the current Pakistan team is not really the same as the great Pakistan side’s of yesteryear. The all conquering side of 1992, who arrived as World Cup winners the previous winter, who contained the twin spearheads of Waquar Younis and Wasim Akram, coupled to the leg-spin of Mushtaq Ahmed. In 1996 this was supplemented by the stellar batting talents of Aamer Sohail, Saeed Anwar, Ijaz Ahmed and Inzamam Ul-Haq, as Pakistan won convincingly 2-0.

Four years ago, Pakistan subsided to a crushing 3-0 series loss (could have been 4-0 but for their no-show on the fourth afternoon). Since then they have lost Inzamam and Afridi to retirement and Youssuf to fights with the Pakistani Cricket board. Pakistan could easily resemble a car crash waiting to happen. Except they inexplicably won the second test last week at Headingly against Australia, in Salman Butt’s first match as Pakistan captain. Alongside Butt, the players to watch are Kamran Akmal, their explosive batsman/wicketkeeper and paceman Umar Gul (above, celebrating scoring the winning runs at Headingley against Australia on Saturday). Their new ball pairing of Asif & Aamer have been much hyped, especially after their display’s against Australia. Pakistan still posess the guile and spin of Danish Kaneria, who still resides in the second division of test spinners, behind contemporaries Warne, Muralitharan & Kumble. Despite this, Kaneria is this squad’s leading wicket taker, and most prolific wicket taker among Pakistan’s spinners.

England though will start as favourites. They have home advantage, and have had two notable test results in the past year, they regained the Ashes a year ago and also drew the away series in South Africa. However they were so so against Bangladesh with two series wins which have been comfortable rather than crushing. There is a vacancy in the England middle order, with Bell being injured. Pieterson is still to find his form, while England are still auditioning for pacemen to supplement James Anderson. With Pakistan having drawn a test series against Australia, and England due to tour Australia just before the World Cup, this will be an intriguing series.

World Cup 2010: Winners & Losers

2010-07-18T16:17:00.000+01:00

Anyone who followed the last Westminster Election will know that alongside the election itself, there were dominant trends that emerged and winners and losers outwith the eye of the storm. This is even more true at this World Cup where there are victors outside the sporting paddock, and trends appearing…

Winner: The Broken Midfield: This World Cup was the tournament where 4-2-3-1 became the formation of choice for many of the leading teams, indeed the author of “Inverting the Pyramid”, Jonathan Wilson, claimed in his article for the Sunday Herald at the weekend that the World Cup saw the “death of 4-4-2 as the universal default”. Perhaps of more significance is that this has had the effect of breaking up the midfield into attacking and defensive components, the defensive component has been as importaint to Spain’s win as has the attacking component’s ability to hold onto the ball until the opportunity arises. As a result, we may have seen the genesis of the next tactical shift. Germany were officially credited with playing the 4-2-3-1, but on the attack it looked more like a 4-2-1-3 with the attacking midfielder Ozil playing more like a withdrawn striker of old, playing behind Muller, Klose & Podolski.

Looser: 4-4-2: Solid, dependable with little room for flair, the “two banks of 4” had a tournament to forget as all of the main contenders operated with broken midfields and players operating between the lines. The one high profile team to operate 4-4-2 (lest we forget, England) flopped dismally.

Winner: Chris Waddle: The most interesting and thought provoking of the analysts on the broadcast media. It’s no coincidence that Waddle was the only one of the English born pundits who has actually played overseas (and for Falkirk – Boom Boom). His experience of how football is played on the continent shone through, especially during the commentary for the Germany V England game. Honourable mention should go to Clarence Seedorf for asking Alan Hansen & Lee Dixon how they defended at set pieces.

Looser: ITV Sport: It’s an obvious target, but even this World Cup, they surpassed themselves for jingoistic stupid o’clock coverage. Both Left Back & Two Hundred Percent have posted blogs lamenting ITV’s tabloid (and quite frankly, tabloid doesn’t quite describe how lowest common denominator ITV’s coverage was) coverage. Rumours that they had signed Alan Partridge were sadly unfounded.

Winner: Radio 5 Live: Despite being burdened by the British Media’s version of Statler & Waldorf, and a crop of steady but not stellar commentators (no Champion, Hawthorne or Drury yet, and they should have drafted in Radio Scotland’s David Begge, how come Pat Nevin gets to be the “token Scot”?) 5 Live made the World Cup a much more interesting experience than it could have turned out. Having to listen to games during my lunch hour at work probably helped.

Looser: BBC Sport (Television): Despite trouncing ITV in the ratings, and there being a couple of features which worked very well, the BBC’s coverage has not been exactly the quality informed broadsheet to ITV’s tabloid coverage as has been the case in previous tournaments, this time it was more Daily Sexpress. Partly down to an element of resting on their laurels, partly down to some weird choices as pundits (Mick McCarthy?), and partly down to the BBC’s inability to identify a worthy (and lets be honest, a one nation) candidate to replace John Motson. But lets be honest here, the BBC are still to get round to replacing Barry Davies in their football coverage so maybe we shouldn’t hold our breath.

Winner: Possession Football: When I was growing up, the difference between football played on the continent and football played here was that the teams that tended to come and play here on European and International duty were more adept and more comfortable with keeping the ball. This seemed to have died out in the mid 1990’s as the pressing game took hold of European football. Since 2008 though we have seen the evolution of the first post-pressing teams schooled in the art of keeping possession of the ball. Barcelona’s European Cup triumph was a throwback to old school European football, but Spain’s twin triumph’s in the European Championship’s and here in the World Cup has seen a revival in possession football.

Loser: Seire A and the English Premiership: Twenty years ago Serie A was at the zenith of it’s powers, its stadiums were hosting the 16th World Cup finals, while all three European trophies were held by Italian clubs. Crucially all of Italy’s squad which reached the semi final were playing in Italy, and for the big teams. “Foreign” players were there, but were not the roadblock to the progress of young Italian players – of course at that time there was the 4 Foreigner rule. Now, there are hardly any indigenous players playing for the top Italian clubs.

At least Italy has experience of recent International success. The English Premier League was set up with the aim of assisting the England national team. In nearly 18 years of its existence, it has had the opposite effect, acting as a roadblock to the evolution of the English national team, this became evident at this World Cup. Most of the England players looked lethargic, and tactically looked lost. Yes, Manchester United, Chelsea & Liverpool play 4-2-3-1, but the default formation for EPL sides is still 4-4-2, where the pace is frenetic, the play is very direct and no emphasis is placed on possession of the ball. Not conducive to World Cup winning football. The EPL didn’t do any favours for the foreigners plying their trade in England either, Van Persie was a virtual passenger for most of the Netherland’s games, Torres was injured and Fabregas only got on from the bench a couple of times (even though one of those times was to provide the assist for the goal that won the World Cup). The rest, forget it. The English failure is a subject we will come back to.

The biggest winner though was South Africa, who put on their smiley face and were excellent hosts for this tournament. You certainly can’t blame South Africa for the failings of this tournament. FIFA on the other hand certainly come out as one of the biggest losers. The first World Cup not to properly sell out since 1978 (attributable to the commercial deals FIFA did with travel agents, which led to extortionate prices for travel & lodgings), the failure to take seriously & clamp down on cheating footballers, their handling of the twin refereeing blunders in the Germany v England and Argentina v Mexico second round ties and their luke warm support for the World Cup final referee(who lost control of the game very early on and failed to take control as a result – Super nanny would have been better suited). Overall, the best phrase I can think of is must do better for Brazil 2014.

Is That What You Do In The Face Of Skill?

2010-07-12T00:01:00.001+01:00

19th World Cup Final, Soccer City – Johannesburg; Netherlands 0 Spain 1 (After Extra Time)

Sometimes the final of a tournament put’s the cap on a wonderful tournament, sometimes the final is a damp squib after a good tournament and sometimes like in 1990 and here, the final was as poor as the rest of the tournament. Spain deserved to win the game and the tournament because they were the most skilful side, the best side defensively, and when it mattered the most incisive side. My only criticism is that at times they pass the ball just for the sake of passing the ball even after the chance has appeared.

The game started with Spain keeping possession early on. Ramos had a header early on which he should have scored with. As the first half wore on though the Netherlands got back into the match, with less than fair means. Van Persie picked up the first yellow after 14 minutes for going in late on Captevillia, Puyol then picked up a yellow a couple of minutes later for a foul on Van Persie. Van Bommel picked up a yellow for a tackle from behind on Iniesta, while his midfield partner De Jong picked up a yellow 5 minutes later for a foul straight out of the Graeme Souness book of X-rated fouls (pictured left). One of my childhood friends who i still see regularly, had a phrase which perfectly describe’s the Netherlands tactics “Is that what you do in the face of skill?” .

The second half was not a great improvement. Robben had a great chance to open the scoring, but his shot was diverted by Castillias foot, while with 9 minutes left Iniesta is thwarted by a Sneijder stop. Robben had a golden opportunity minutes later when he was through and shrugged off a challenge from Pujol, but couldn’t recover from that challenge. In extra time, the game opened up, but still failed to hit the heights. Substitute Fabregas was put through on goal but saw his shot saved by Stelelenburg. Minutes later Iniesta was put through but indecision cost him his moment, Navas saw a shot deflected by Van Bronkhorst, while just before half time in extra time Fabregas shot just wide of the goal.

Advantage Spain arrived with 10 minutes to go in Extra time, when the Dutch defender Heitiga brought down Iniesta going for a 1-2 from his Barca team mate Xavi. The English referee Webb sent the Dutch defender off. Webb it has to be said did not have the best of matches, but was not aided by the behaviour of the players. With 4 minutes to go, Spain produced a passing movement which brought about relief more than excitement. Substitute Torresput a cross into the box which found its way to Fabregas, who passed to his right to an advancing Iniesta who volleyed past Stekelenburg (picture right). Four minutes later and the ordeal was over.

Iniesta’s goal, the two Robben chances and a couple of Spain chances are the moments which have saved this game from being one of the worst games I have seen. South Africa 2010 has not been a successful World Cup, with a very poor standard of football played with a joke of a ball, and many games played in front of stadiums which were not full. Everyone concerned with football needs to take a long, hard look at themselves starting with FIFA.

The Best Team In the World?

2010-07-11T15:45:00.002+01:00

Rather fittingly, the two sides that qualified for this World Cup with 100% records now face off for the title itself. While the Dutch have only suffered one defeat since the start of Euro 2008 (the quarter final loss to Russia), the European Champions Spain have suffered two, both in South Africa.

While they lost to the USA in last years Confederations Cup, the loss to Switzerland in Spain’s opening match of this tournament has revealed a vulnerable side to this much lauded side. Spain at times give off the air of a side more content to keep the ball rather than a side keen to force the decisive move, which is strange considering they have two of the deadliest fowards in the game playing for them. Indeed David Villa is the tournament’s leading scorer with 5 goals, and will be looking to add to that total in the Final.

Spain have taken their time in getting going. After the loss to Switzerland, they registered wins against Honduras & Chile to ensure that they avoided Brazil in the knock out phase. They did have to face Portugal and got through thanks to a 1-0 win against a side that might have won had they a decent forward in their side. In the quarter final’s Spain faced a Paraguay side that finished ahead of the defending Champions Italy in their group, and again struggled to a 1-0 win.

It’s only when the big games came along that Spain showed signs, showing some form to see off Portugal. Spain though hit form when they faced Germany in the semi final. They had to as Germany had been destroying sides en-route to the semi scoring four past Australia, England & Argentina. Spain kept hold of the ball and gradually wore Germany down. Germany though had their chances just before half time, and could have had a penalty. In the second half though Spain stepped up to 3rd gear, and the chances came. In the 5 minutes before the goal, Spain had about 4 or 5 chances to score, and eventually scored from the corner conceded after one of those chances. Puyol’s header from the corner was unstoppable. Germany then came to the party and managed to get themselves forward, creating space for Spain to counter attack.

Spain will be the number one ranked side in the world come Monday, they are favourites to emulate the West German side of 1974 in being European Champions who lifted the World Cup (The France side of 2000/02 were also European Champions & World Cup winners but won the European Championships as World Cup winners) . They know what to do to win, however i think that Spain at times are not direct enough. I think that Spain will win, but I'm not 100% certain that they will win, I certainly don’t think that its as inconceivable that The Netherlands can win as most observers are making out, if they score early i can see Spain having problems. Much depends on who score’s first, but i take Spain to win after extra time & confirm their place as football's dominant team.

Is The Future Here?

2010-07-11T01:59:00.002+01:00

In all the obsessing about the World Cup & England’s performance, spare a thought for Scotland. In qualifying for the Last World Cup, they had to get past Italy for the automatic place. At the qualification process for Euro 2008, Scotland faced three of the teams who reached the Quarter finals of the World Cup, Italy (again) and France contested the final of that contest, while Ukraine were the fallers at the Quarter Final stage. For the qualifiers for this tournament Scotland had to get past the Dutch for the automatic place, but fell behind Norway. It doesn’t get any easier for Scotland for the qualifiers for Euro 2010, in their way are the other World Cup finalists (and current European Champions) Spain.

The seeds of this current Dutch side were sown, ironically enough, in a previous encounter with Scotland. 1-0 down after the first leg of the Euro 2004 play-off. The Dutch turned to the likes of Wesley Schneider, Arjen Robben and Van Persie (they also discarded Patrick Kluivert in favour of Ruud Van Nistelrooy for the second leg), and reaped the rewards as they blew away Scotland 6-0. The tone being set with Schneider’s turning of Cauldwell before shooting from distance. It would be the following European Championships under Marco Van Basten where the Dutch would adopt their current formation of 4-2-3-1, again the rewards were instant, they blew away both Italy & France to qualify for the quarter finals, but looked sluggish against an equally talented Dutch coached Russia. It should be pointed out that this was the Netherland’s last defeat in competitive football.

For this World Cup though, the Netherlands have been content to grind out the results. Uninspiring wins against Denmark, Japan & Cameroon saw them into the knockout phase and a half with only one of the heavyweights of football. After a last 16 win over Slovakia, the Dutch had a quarter final with Brazil to contend with. Not unlike the Dutch themselves, Brazil had adopted a 4-2-3-1 formation. Unlike the Dutch, Brazil had been heavily criticised back home for not being expansive enough. Despite the fact that they had been convincing winners in each of their games up to that point, I though that Brazil were maybe vulnerable. The Brazil game-plan was based around Kaka, but there did not appear to be any plan B/C… for if Kaka did not perform, or was nullified.

When Brazil scored (traditional manner for them, ball through the middle of the Dutch defence to the borderline offside forward – compare & contrast this goal to the Romario & Bebeto goals in the ‘94 Quarter Final or the Ronaldo Goal from the ‘98 semi or even Lopez equaliser in the Quarter final against Argentina in ‘98) it looked like a question of how many. The Netherlands buckled down, and in the second half equalised and then took the lead. The goals both came from fantastic, accurate, crosses from the Brazil left, Brazil were now under pressure and crumbled as a result.

Facing the Dutch in the semi final were a revitalised Uruguay, who unfortunately for them were shorn of the talents of their defender Lugano and the forward Suarez. The Dutch did not get going until they switched to a 4-1-4-1 by bringing on Van Der Vaart for the second half. It was only then they were able to step up the tempo and put Uruguay out of the match, despite a late goal to take the match to 3-2.

“The Future’s bright… the future’s Orange” was the old Orange mobile phone network’s slogan. For this type of orange to bring the future forward by winning, they have to make the most of any possession that they have, and also minimise any opportunities for Spain.

World Cup 2010: The Last 8

2010-07-01T23:30:00.002+01:00

56 games gone, 8 to go. We are down to the last 8 of this World Cup, which lets be honest has not been a vintage World Cup. Let’s hope the final 8 games provide enough drama and jaw dropping action to compensate for the dull, sterile, over tactical matches that have gone previously.

Brazil V Netherlands; Port Elizabeth: Friday 4pm (3pm BST)

First up is the fourth World Cup meeting between these two sides, the Dutch winning the first meeting in 1974, Brazil won the next 20 years later while both sides played out a 1-1 draw in the Marseilles semi final of 1998, with Brazil going into the final on penalties.

Brazil have been solid during this tournament, but they have shown very little flair. North Korea were successful in keeping Brazil at bay for 52 minutes of their tie, Portugal managed to keep them out for the full game. They have scored 3 goals twice, against below par Cote d’Ivoire and a very open Chile. The Dutch will be a tougher test. Like Brazil, the Netherlands have been solid but unspectacular this tournament. However with Van Persie and Robben just back from injury, there are causes for this solid start. Both teams play a 4-2-3-1 formation, with the key being how the creative midfielders play/handle the attention, especially as Kaka replaced Schneider at Real Madrid. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Netherlands will get through this one.

Uruguay V Ghana; Soccer City, Johannesburg: Friday 8:30pm (7:30pm BST)

Waiting for the winner of the first quarter final will be one of these two sides, meeting for the first time in World Cup finals. Uruguay have been something of a revelation this tournament, with Forlan and Suarez floating up front, both were joined by Caviani for the 2nd round win over South Korea. Uruguay will be hoping that they keep their form for their first Quarter final in 40 years. Remarkably Ghana will be only the third African side to reach a World Cup quarter final (after Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002), and the first African semi finalist should they make it. I think that Uruguay’s diamond midfield might be too strong for Ghana and their flat midfield.

Argentina V Germany; Cape Town: Saturday 4pm (3pm BST)

Arguably the tie of the round. These two have contested 2 World Cup finals between them, with Argentina’s coach Maradona taking part in both contests. Their last meeting, at this stage 4 years ago, ended in a penalty shoot-out after Argentina inexplicably surrendered the initiative. The loss, according to the book “Inverting the Pyramid” even sparked a nationwide debate in Argentina over the enganche (or playmaker position) in the Argentinean team. In particular the debate was over Juan Roman Riquelme, who’s substitution after 72 minutes was seen as something of a turning point.

Both sides play variations of 4-3-3, with Argentina adopting a classical 4-3-1-2 formation with everyone’s favourite footballer Lionel Messi occupying the floating forward/trequartista position. Germany have fallen into a 4-2-1-3 formation with Ozil exploiting the space behind a front 3 of Muller, Podolski and Klose. I think Argentina’s experience will tell and see them through. Hopefuly this one will be a classic.

See no mention of England… Doooh!

Paraguay V Spain: Ellis Park, Johannesburg: Saturday 8:30pm (7:30pm BST)

The winners of the Argentina/Germany clash will play the winners of this match on Wednesday in Durban. These two have met twice in the World Cup, in the group stages on both occasions (0-0 in 1998, 3-1 to Spain in 2002). On paper the European Champions should go through. Spain found some form and some momentum during their win against Portugal. However Paraguay have been excellent this tournament, with Cardozo spearheading the attack. If Paraguay neutralise Spain’s tiki-taki style of football, and score early, we will see how good Spain really is. I think Spain will get through in extra time.

As I said at the top of this piece, lets hope the tournament really starts here…

2010-06-24T06:59:00.006+01:00

The second of our look at the conclusion of the group stage of the World Cup looks at Group’s E to H.

Group E

Netherlands     +3      6
Japan                 =      3
Denmark          -1      3
Cameroon         -2     0

The Dutch will win group E with a draw against Cameroon in Cape Town. All eyes will be on the other match in Rustenburg, with a draw enough for Japan to qualify for the knockout stages for the second time. Due to their inferior goal difference, Denmark need a win to keep up their record of qualifying for the knock-out phase of each World Cup finals they have qualified for. Both matches take place tonight at 8:30pm (local time, 7:30pm BST)

Group F
Paraguay          +2      4
Italy                 =         2
New Zealand   =         2
Slovakia          -2        1

A win for Paraguay against New Zealand in Polokwane will see them qualify as Group F winners. New Zealand have to do better than Italy to qualify. Italy have to beat Slovakia in their match at Soccer City to ensure qualification, and avoid the fate of Brazil in 1966 and France in 2002 by avoiding elimination as defending champions at the group stages. Slovakia need win and hope that Paraguay win to see them into one of the qualification spots. Both matches here take place this afternoon at 4pm (local time, 3pm BST).

Group G

Brazil                +3      6
Portugal            +7      4
Cote d’Ivoire    -2       1
North Korea     -8       0

Portugal only need a draw against Brazil to ensure qualification as Group runners up. A Brazil win in Durban would let in Cote d’Ivoire, who would need a heavy win against North Korea in Nelspruit to snatch an unlikely qualification spot. Truith be told though Brazil and Portugal are playing for winning Group G in Durban. Both matches here take place on Friday at 4pm (local time, 3pm BST).
Group H

Chile               +2     6
Spain              +1      3
Switzerland     =        3
Honduras       -3        0

Chile need a point from their match against the European Champions in Pretoria to ensure qualification to the knockout stages. Spain need a win to qualify and to overtake Chile as group H winners, possibly avoiding Brazil in the process. Switzerland needs to beat Honduras by a larger margin than Spain manages against Chile, to overtake Chile in qualifying for the knock out stages. Both matches take place on Friday at 8:30pm (local time, 7:30pm BST)

After that, it’s proper knock out football. Sudden death. Oh and I’m sure we’ll see penalties.

The World Cup So Far (Part 1)

2010-06-21T21:30:00.000+01:00

This week sees the World Cup effectively enter the sudden death phase, as teams race for their positions in the knock out phase. So now would be a good time to look at the state of play in the groups, starting tonight with Group’s A-D.

Group A

Uruguay	+3	4
Mexico	+2	4
France	-2	1
South Africa	-3	1

Uruguay and Mexico require a draw to qualify for the Last 16. Handily enough, they play each other in Rustenburg so you might think that a cosy 0-0 draw will be on the cards.

Err… not quite. On the horizon will be a possible Second round clash with Argentina, which both sides might be anxious to avoid. Heavy defeat for one side might let France or South Africa (both playing in Bloemfontein) in for an unlikely knockout berth. Both Mexico & Uruguay have been the class sides in this group, and will be dangerous floaters in this draw. Both games are 4pm (local time, 3pm BST) kickoffs tomorrow.

Group B

Argentina	+4	6
South Korea	-1	3
Greece	-1	3
Nigeria	-2	0

Argentina require a draw against Greece in Polokwane to qualify as Group B winners, and you would imagine they would get it with their 4-3-1-2 formation firing along quite nicely. South Korea need to beat Nigeria in Durban and hope that Greece don’t win to take the second qualifying place. Nigeria’s cause is not entirely hopeless, a win against South Korea coupled with an Argentinean win might see them leapfrog both South Korea and Greece on goal difference.

Both of these games kick off tomorrow night at 8:30pm (local time, 7:30pm BST)

Group C

Slovenia	+1	4
USA	=	2
England	=	2
Algeria	-1	1

A win for Slovenia will see them win Group C, and possibly avoid Germany, their opponents England must win, and hope they do better than the USA in order to win this group. England, as you might have gathered, have not started brilliantly, but are past masters at getting out of groups while not playing well. Slovenia V England will take place at sea level in Port Elizabeth.

The USA must beat Algeria in Pretoria to seal qualification. To win the group, the USA will hope that England beat Slovenia and that their margin of victory is as good as England’s (the USA are ahead of England on goals scored). Algeria must win by at least 2 goals to at least put themselves in the mix. These games take place at 4pm (local time, 3pm BST) on Wednesday

Group D

Ghana	+1	4
Germany	+3	3
Serbia	=	3
Australia	-4	1

A win for Ghana will see them equal Nigeria’s record of reaching the knockout stages of two World Cup’s in a row. They only have to beat Germany at Soccer City to do that. Germany themselves have to win to avoid elimination from the group stages of a World Cup for the first time since… since… well ever (they were knocked out on the first round in 1938 by Switzerland, when the whole tournament was played as a straight knock out. That was in a replay). A draw would leave both sides looking at the result from Nelspruit.

Serbia need to win to ensure a place in the last 16, simple as. In their way is an Australian side missing Kewell which showed considerable fighting spirit in getting a 1-1 draw against Ghana, after their 4-0 loss to Germany. To qualify, Australia need to win and hope that Germany loose. This group concludes on Wednesday with a 8:30pm (local time, 7:30pm BST) kick off.

Fabio’s Jump The Shark Moment

2010-06-19T00:11:00.000+01:00

FIFA World Cup, 1st Round Group C: Green Point, Cape Town: England 0 Algeria 0

While the media are beginning to turn on Fabio, tonight’s game was uncomfortable viewing for many England fans. To put it bluntly, England were outplayed and made to look like novices against a compact and very technically proficient Algeria side.

All credit should go to Algeria. If they had a good playmaker and a striker, Algeria would have beaten England, comfortably. They were comfortable on the ball (as predicted here), they pressed the England players and shock horror!!! they played 3-5-2. This meant that for the second match in a row, England’s midfield was out-numbered, which again was a contributing factor to England’s lacklustre display. This was a richly deserved point for Algeria, their first World Cup point since their 1-1 draw against Northern Ireland in 1986. But they should have had so much more.

For England there are now concerns that they might exit the tournament at the group stages, for the first time since 1958. For the first time, there is now criticism over Capello’s management style, with his insistence that the team is picked a short period before the game coming in for some attention. However there are other aspects at play here. While England has a couple of very good players, they do look too rigid tactically. They look most comfortable playing a 4-4-2, yet both of England’s opponents have employed tactics which have constricted England. A change to 4-2-3-1, with Carrick & Barry anchoring a mid-field with Joe Cole, Gerard & Lampard (or A N Other) in more advanced positions, might well be in order. a change to 3 at the back is unthinkable, entirely because Terry, Carragher et all have never played in a back 3 (Ferdinand of course played in a back 3 at West Ham).

The other thing which did not help England is the league that many of these players play in. The English Premier League might be the richest, most heavily marketed league in the world. It is a fact though that is is also a harem scarem league, where good passing technique is often bought in rather than raised. Arsenal apart, there are no teams who play possession football in the EPL, and most teams play a 4-4-2 (only Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Bolton have moved towards variations of 4-5-1). It is this lack of variation and lack of technical competence which proved to be a hindrance to England.

There are also rumours that all is not well behind the scenes. The former England manager Graham Taylor, working for BBC Radio 5 Live noticed that “There’s something not right behind the scenes. I don't know what it is. I have an idea: I don't believe the proper preparatory work is being done. Look at the body language: something is wrong." This was followed shortly afterwards by David James reply to Capello’s view on why England are playing badly (Capello: “England are playing badly because of the pressure”, James: “Really”).

England have until Wednesday to try and find solutions to their problems. Next up are Slovenia, who are a technically good, tight passing side who England should… oh we’ve just seen one of those teams haven’t we? The worry for England is that they are desperately out of form, need a win, and with Germany’s defeat to Serbia today might still face Germany in the Last 16 whether they finish top or second. The one crumb of comfort is that England have been in bigger holes and recovered, in 1986 and in 1990. After tonight’s performance though, the word’s “Straw’s” and “clutching at” comes to mind.

A Penny For Jimmy Greaves' Thoughts

2010-06-12T23:30:00.001+01:00

FIFA World Cup, 1st Round, Group C: Rustenburg; England 1, USA 1

People of a certain vintage will remember ITV’s Saturday afternoon football preview show “The Saint & Greavsie”. One of the on running narratives on the show was Greavsie’s stream of gags about the standard of Scottish goalkeeping, which with the emergence of Alan Rough, Jim Leighton and Andy Goram had grown more and more tiresome. Up to around about 1996, conventional wisdom was that England had the best goalkeepers in the world. I'm not really sure when that started to become less a fact but more a myth, but Robert Green’s moment tonight (above, left) is the latest in a growing list of howlers for English goalkeepers.

Truth be told England did not deserve to win, and the howler gave the USA a parity they deserved. Capello decided to start with Green in goal, and decided to go with a midfield 4 of Milner, Gerrard, Lampard and Lennon. It is this decision to pair Gerrard & Lampard which contributed to the USA’s dominance as much as Milner’s lack of fitness and Lennon and Wright-Phillips inability to tuck in. The USA played with a tight 4 man midfield, which lacked width but provided the USA with an advantage in the middle of the park. Capello would have been better off playing Carrick (as Barry is possibly still unfit) as he would have been a more natural anchor for the midfield.

When England did manage to get forward, they found a soft defence, However, England did not put sustained pressure on USA, and seemed incapable of putting several passes together. It is ironic that in earlier coverage of Argentina’s match with Nigeria, the summariser Mick McCarthy kept mentioning that Veron was a failure in the English Premier League, despite the fabulous passing range he has. England were crying out for the kind of player to pass the ball. Certainly England’s forwards suffered from the lack of retained possession. Rooney was hardly in the game. Heskey fared a little better, he set up Gerard’s goal after 4 minutes. His pass finding Gerard in space. Heskey also had the opportunity to win the game, but shot tamely at Howard.

It is to the credit of the USA that England became bogged down in mid-field, which again comes back to Capello’s decision not to play with a midfield anchor. Unexpectedly, the USA may also have found out that the England defence are a tad suspect at crosses. The USA had a couple of chances in the second half, which England (having replaced King with Carragher) were unconvincing in clearing.

The consolation for England is that the USA are the toughest opponents in this group. Next up for England will be Algeria next Friday. For Capello, all that he has are questions about his squad, and whether to re-shape his team.

The 19th World Cup Finals

2010-06-11T09:59:00.000+01:00

World Cup’s are open affairs, they always are. No one really knows who the form teams are going to be until the competition starts. Even then, it is sometimes difficult to pick a winner, the most recent example being the defending campions themselves (right). For pundits to say that this will be the most open World Cup in years is just, well rubbish. Most of the comentariat seem to have settled on either Brazil or Spain as potential winners of this tournament.

Brazil are more solid defensively than they have been for many years, and have firepower in the shape of Robinhio and Luis Fabiano. Pulling the strings in midfield will be Kaka. The problem with Brazil though is that they may not have enough attacking options. For me Brazil will fall short of reaching the Final. Spain by sharp contrast are the current European Champions, and have been playing a fantastic brand of possession football, with Iniesta and Xavi at the heart of it all, pulling the strings and making the bullets for David Villia and Fernando Torres. The key game for Spain will be whoever they meet in the Last 16 (one of Brazil, Portugal or Cote d’Ivoire), should they come through that they could well win.

The World Champions, Italy, begin the defence of their crown against Paraguay on Monday. Should they get through their group as leaders they are seeded to face either Denmark or Cameroon, with Spain as possible quarter final opponents, which is where that defence may well end. Before then, our nearest and dearest begin their campaign. Despite the media hype and hyperbole, there is a sense, coming from the general English public that perhaps England’s best chance was four years ago. This is a squad that is similar to the squad that fell short four years ago. Whether England win depends on three things. Firstly whether their coach Capello can get the England defence to perform as a unit. Secondly, how soon they can get Gareth Barry into the side. Barry is the key because he acts as the anchor in the midfield. The third thing England success depends on will be the shape Capello goes for, whether it’s the “traditional” 4-4-2, or maybe the 4-1-4-1. There was a hint that Capello may go for three at the back, which wouldn’t work (most English defenders are used to being part of a back 4, and are unable to adapt).

There are three sides who I have a sneaking suspicion might do something at this World Cup. I think the Cote d’Ivoire will finish ahead of Portugal, and might get to the last 8. The Netherlands have a good looking squad, and maybe crucially have a good draw which will enable them to build up some momentum before a possible quarter Final against Brazil. Interestingly, a few of the Netherland’s key players (the likes of Schneider, Van Persie and Robben) are 26 and already have 40-60 caps. I also have a sneaking suspicion that Argentina might do something. Ok, their coach is frankly barking, and has so far displayed very little skills in terms of team organisation and tactics. But there is a semblance of a spine there. The experienced Samuel at the back, Mascherano in midfield, with Veron acting as the midfield schemer. Up front could see Tevez and Aguero with the world’s current favourite footballer Messi playing just off.

I think that the last 4 will be England, Netherlands, Argentina and Spain, with Argentina coming out on top. Let the games commence.

World Cup 2010: The 1st Round’s Key Games – Part 1

2010-06-10T10:59:00.002+01:00

With the 19th FIFA World Cup beginning tomorrow, Fan With A Laptop looks at the key games which will shape knockout stages of this World Cup. Part 1 looks at the first two rounds of the Group Stages.

Uruguay V France; Cape Town, 11 June 19:30
The first of the big guns in action, the 1998 champions (and Runners-up four years ago) do not have a good World Cup record against the team who won their last World cup 60 years ago. France lost 2-1 at White City in 1966, while 8 years ago Henry was sent off in a 0-0 draw in Busan. Uruguay represent very tricky opponents in what will be Dominech’s last campaign as the French Coach.

Argentina V Nigeria; Ellis Park, Jo-Burg, 12 June 15:00
First sight of the Argentineans, featuring everyone’s favourite footballer at the moment, Lionel Messi. Their World Cup bow this campaign comes against the team their manager (need i mention Diego Maradona) made his last World Cup appearance. Caniggia bagging a brace in a 2-1 win in Boston.

England V USA; Rustenburg, 12 June 19:30
It’s England’s first game, what else is there to say. Well… plenty. England are traditional slow starters, but need to be quicker off the mark here as this USA team are ranked only six places below them. Defeat for England here would make it difficult for England to qualify. Should they finish second, they would be seeded to play Germany in the Second Round, while their probable quarter final opponents would be Argentina. Both side’s they have not beaten in the World Cup finals since 1966. Defeat for England would not be as seismic as the loss to the USA in the 1950 finals.

Serbia V Ghana; Loftus Versfield, Pretoria, 13 June 15:00
Group D features 3 sides which made the last 16 four years ago… and Serbia who relegated France to the play-off’s during qualification. Ghana were the standard bearers for Africa 4 years ago. Assuming that Germany will qualify from this group, both of these sides are playing for the other qualifying place, and presumably a last 16 game against England.

Cote d’Ivoire V Portugal; Port Elizabeth, 15 June 15:00
Vying with Group D for “Group of Death” status is this group (G).The Ivory Coast were unlucky enough to be in a tough group last time around, while Portugal went all the way to the semi-final,and are currently ranked third. Both sides will want a good start to this group, as the seed in this group is Brazil.

Spain V Switzerland; Durban, 16 June 15:00
First sight of the current European Champions and many people’s tip to win this tournament. Spain are up against the team who got to the last 16 of the last World Cup despite not scoring and not conceding. A good chance for Spain to get some much needed momentum. Their draw for the last 16 sees them play one of Brazil/Portugal/Cote d’Ivoire should they qualify.

South Africa V Uruguay; Pretoria, 16 June 19:30
The hosts second match, and a key match for the tournament. A win for South Africa could see the hosts get into a qualifying position. A draw or a loss could see them out, and a lot of the atmosphere disappear.

Germany V Serbia; Port Elizabeth, 18 June 12:30
A key game in Group D. A Germany win could see them through to the knockout stages. A Serbia win could blow the whole group, and that half of the draw, apart. These two sides have met 5 times in World Cup final’s under different guises, their last meeting was a 2-2 draw in Lens in 1998.

Cameroon V Denmark; Pretoria, 19 June 19:30
20 year’s on from their breakthrough performance in Italy, Cameroon can take a big step towards their first knockout tie since that Quarter Final with a win here. They start this tournament as Africa’s highest ranked team at the tournament (Cameroon are ranked 19, Egypt are ranked 12 despite not qualifying for the World Cup). Denmark 2010 is not really the same vintage as either the 1986 or 1998 teams, but they do possess experience in Sorenssen, Gronkjaer & Tommason, as well as Arsenal’s Bendtner. Whoever finishes second in this group is seeded to play Italy in the Last 16.

Brazil V Cote d’Ivoire; Soccer City, Jo-Burg 20 June 19:30
The last of the key games in the group stages (of the first two rounds of matches) features what might be the best game of the tournament. Brazil 2010 are looking to be a more solid team and are currently rated number 1, but this game will be a test for them. The Toure brothers, Zokora, Eboue, Kalou are very well known to British audiences, even before their striking figurehead (and major doubt) Didier Drogba is mentioned. With Portugal also in this group (they will be meeting North Korea for the first time since 1966), a contender for this trophy will be going home early, while the second placed team will be seeded to play Spain.

World Cup Warm-up – My Memories

2010-06-07T12:00:00.000+01:00

So, I'm just back from my holiday’s. Plugged the lap-top in and switched my wi-fi back on, and i get an e-mail from Craig, the grand fromage from the Last Ditch Tackle blog regarding memories of previous World Cup’s. Seb from the Inside Left blog has provided his already, so here are mine. Get your Castle Lager’s in…

First World Cup they can remember (i.e. not Spain 82 when only 1 year old lol) - Actually my first memory of a World Cup was Spain 1982. I was 6, in hospital and peed off that all the older patients were hogging the television with this football rubbish. I wanted cartoons. I didn’t really get into Football until the 86 tournament, when all the talk was of the “Group of Death”. The Denmark game I seem to recall was a late kick off (after 11 o’clock if memory serves), but the West Germany and Uruguay games were 8pm kick off’s so I remember those games. I also remember England’s game with Paraguay was the same night as our Primary 6 disco.

Favourite goal - Maradona’s first against England, it was worth 2 goals anyway. The Scottish Football blog has gone for Bergkamp’s against Argentina, which is also worthy of a mention (I would have picked it had i seen it at the time – i was at a wedding that day). With hindsight, there are also a couple of Brazil goals from 1982 (Zico’s free kick and Eder’s chip against us) which are also worthy of a mention. Fellow Buddie Archie Gemmil’s goal would have been here, had I been a bit older than 2 years old

Best individual performer at a World Cup - Whoa… Diego Maradona. I don’t think anyone since has so firmly dominated a tournament as Maradona did in 1986. Honourable mention’s should also go to Roberto Baggio who seemed to single handedly drag Italy to the Final of USA 1994, and to Ronaldo (the Brazilian one) who’s 8 goal haul in 2002 was the most by any striker since Muller’s haul in 1970.

Scotland memory – Always seeming to draw defeat from the jaws of victory (like in 1978, in 1982 and in 1990), and always seeming to batter teams and not winning. Costa Rica and Norway (in 1998) spring readily to mind.

Best game - Two Brazil V Netherlands games spring to mind. In 1994 we witnessed a see-saw match where Brazil went two up early on in the second half, but were pulled back before Brazil got a winner from a Branco free kick, while the semi final between the two sides 4 years on was also a great game between two of the best sides of that tournament. Best game involving Scotland was our 2-1 win over Sweden in 1990, the same night as England’s 0-0 draw with the Netherlands.

Worst game - Hmmm I have two here, both from 1990. The worst game I have ever seen was that year’s final – West Germany V Argentina. The worst game featuring Scotland was the first game against Costa Rica. We battered them in the first half, but with a combination of Conejo’s heroics and Alan McInally not being able to hit a Coo’s backside with a banjo, Costa Rica were able to hold us to 0-0. Cayaso then scored to really stuff us. A mention also for the game against Morocco, not so much because Scotland were absolutely taken apart that night, but more because unjustly Morocco were also eliminated from the World Cup that night, by dint of Norway’s 2-1 win against Brazil.

Nostalgic memories (ie merchandise, cheesy songs, ad's etc) – Apart from a couple of computer games (the Playstation ones for France 98, South Korea 02), not really got any merchandise. Having said that, I am still miffed that neither BBC or ITV had any Kraftwerk for their coverage 4 years ago, after ITV used some Jean Michel Jarre in 1998.

Leaving The Grand Old Lady...

2010-05-23T18:45:00.001+01:00

55th European Cup Final, Santiago Bernabeu – Madrid: Bayern Munich 0 Internazionale 2

Jose Mourinho last night took Inter Milan to their first Champions League win in 45 years, and then announced that he is likely to be coaching at the scene of his latest triumph next season, an announcement which overshadowed Inter’s win.

Inter were well worth their win, when they attacked they had penetration, and defended solidly. They were aided in this respect by the one dimensional attacks from Bayern. Shorn of Franck Ribbery through suspension, the attacking onus fell on Arjen Robben, one of Real Madrid’s rejects during Last summer’s transfer window. This job though looked beyond him, as Bayern looked rather static up front. Olic, Altentop and Robben had chances in the first half hour to score, but these were long range shots. Bayern should also have had a penalty as English referee Howard Webb failed to spot a handball by Maicon. The opener from Inter came rather against the run of play. Julio Cesar’s long kick was knocked down by Diego Milito to his team mate Wesley Schneider, another of Real Madrid’s rejects, who passed back to Milito, now in space, who clipped the ball past Bayern keeper Hans-Jorg Butt. In the remainder of the first half Bayern pressed forward, without creating a clear-cut chance, though Inter could have doubled their lead as, hitting on the break, Milito passed the ball to Schneider who shot straight and weakly at Butt.

Bayern got their chance right at the start of the second half, a good move found Thomas Muller right in front of the Inter goal, and he shot right at Cesar. Within seconds Inter were up at the far end, Milito’s cut back found Goran Pandev, who’s shot was put past the post. The match settled into the pattern of the first half, lots of Bayern possession but no clear chances created. In the 70th minute, Inter sealed the deal. a surprisingly anonymous Samuel Eto’o passed down the Inter left to Milito who turned Van Buyten and then side-footed his shot past Butt. It was noticable that both Inter’s goals came at points when Bayer’s defence were caught out of position. Inter were now in the pound seat, and could have had a third, but for Bayern’s scrambling defence.

It was a historic night for Inter Milan. Not only was it their first European Cup since the back to back triumphs under Helenio Herrera, but Inter became the first Italian side to win the treble of European Cup, Lo Scuddetto and Italian Cup. Yet all of this was overshadowed by his hints that he would be managing Real Madrid next season. If he did go to Real for next season, i think that it will be something of a mistake to go this summer. For one thing, in Spain it is the club presidents who buy the players. In amongst the spending spree Real unleashed last season, almost the last person that was put into place was the current Real manager Manuel Pelegrini. He was installed as manager after Kaka, Ronaldo, Diarra and Benzema had been signed. Secondly i suspect that Mourinho’s pragmatic tactical approach will not go down well with sections of the Real Madrid support who believe that they should be the best and play like the best.

Personally I don’t like Real’s constant “chase” for the next it thing in football, their constant courtships of certain players always smacks of being a tad vulgar. At least this time we have been spared the tabloid tit for tat so far… Whatever happens, Mourinho’s hints have left a sour taste after what should have been a wonderful achievement for his team.

A Gulf In Class…

2010-05-15T20:59:00.002+01:00

125th Scottish Cup Final, Hampden: Dundee United 3, Ross County 0

Dundee United won the 125th Scottish Cup by, in the end, emphasising the gap between the middle of the 1st Division and 3rd in the Scottish Premier League. The first half was a sterile affair, with Dundee United finally shacking off their nerves towards the end of that half. Dundee United survived a spirited fightback at the start of the second half, only to score 3 goals through Goodwillie and Conway.

The game started with both sides still struggling to overcome their nerves. Dundee United were going for their second Scottish Cup win in their first Scottish Cup final since 2005. They were overwhelming favourites against a Ross County side making their first Scottish Cup final appearance. However, as Dundee United legends will tell you, they were favourites in 1987 (against St Mirren) and in 1991 (against Motherwell). Ironically, United’s goalscorer when United won their only Scottish Cup (against Rangers in 1994), Craig Brewster, was on the coaching staff of Ross County.

Truth be told, this final didn’t really get going until pretty late on in the first half when United started to press Ross County back. County were pressed into a 4-5-1 shape during this game, unable to get either of their wide men forward. The fact that there were 3 men in the middle of the County midfield made it more difficult for United to break through in the first half. Danny Swanson should have scored with a break from midfield, but was caught in two minds. United did have a flurry of set pieces just before half time, before David Goodwillie broke from deep only being stopped by a county defender.

The second half started with United in a much more determined mood. Conway had a shot at goal, and Swanson had a difficult header. United took the lead with a catastrophic error from County goalkeeper McGovern. He raced out to clear a cross into his box, and headed it straight to David Goodwillie. From about 30 yards, he lobbed the ball over McGovern and 3 County defenders and into the back of the net. Dundee United now took control of the game, pushing forward for a second. Twenty minutes later United got that goal. A throw-in by United was not picked up by Country, and the ball was picked up by Conway, who sped past the County defence putting the ball under McGovern from an angle.

United at this point were well worth their lead, they had hit their stride, while County who had stopped United playing in the first half now looked drained. The first goal in particular inflicted psychological damage on County. When United got the second, County looked as if they might seriously loose by 3 or 4. United did get a third, a Gomis cross from the left found Conway, who turned to his left and scored his second of the game. Within 5 minutes, United had won.

For United, it proved to be a good end for a turbulent season, losing Craig Levin to the Scotland job and seeing his assistant Peter Houston struggle in the first couple of games after Levin’s departure. United have come a long way since the heavy 7-0 loss at Ibrox, even knocking Rangers out of the Cup four days after their own League Cup win. While a new contract for Houston might well be in the offing now, all of a sudden some of their players will be on the radar of certain clubs. For Ross County, it won’t just be their players who will be on clubs wish list. For example, their manager Derek Adams is already touted as a possible replacement for Gus MacPherson.

This has been something of an Anis Horriblis for Scottish football, hopefully we can put this poor season behind us and move on.

The Alternative McLeish Report

2010-04-13T19:59:00.000+01:00

Last year, the Former First Minister Henry McLeish was commissioned by the SFA to lead the Scottish Football Review Committee. While this committee ruminates and generally chew’s the cud, several Scottish footballing bloggers have decided to put forward an alternative report. This includes Left Back in The Changing Room, The Scottish Football Blog, Inside Left and More than Mind Games.

To my mind there should be three aims towards any attempt to improve Scottish Football. The area’s that should be looked at are as follows…

1) Improvement of “Scottish” players: The stock of the home grown Scottish player has only been lower in the late 1990’s, when our clubs preferred to buy in ready made players from England, Scandinavia and all other points around the globe. Since the first crash in football finances though, more and more Scottish teams have turned to players from this country. The standard of the average Scottish player though is still not very good. For example watch a Scottish game and count the amount of times the ball is given away, and you will see my point. Ball control is appalling and should be a starting point for driving up standards.

Before i move on, can I also point out that we do not spend nearly enough on keeping our population healthy with exercise, by we I mean our politicians. For example every town in Norway has a large indoor sports centre not unlike the indoor football centre at Toryglen. Nice to see they’ve spent their oil windfall wisely.

2) Improvement of “Scottish” Managers: This might seem like some sort of misnomer. After all with the likes of Alex Ferguson, David Moyes and Alex McLeish all prospering in the English Premier League the stock of Scottish football managers you would think has never been higher. So why is it that so many of the current crop of managers plying their trade in the SPL are content to use dull negative tactics, where most teams are playing if not 4-4-2, then 4-5-1. Gus MacPherson won the Scottish League Championship (Ok the First Division) playing 3-5-2, yet the moment St Mirren played in the SPL, MacPherson reverted to 4-4-2. Only recently has he reverted to playing 3-5-2, getting to a cup final but still going backwards in the league. Simply put, managers in the SPL are not that competent in setting their teams up to defend and attack. Not that the current football climate helps which brings us to…

3) Improvement of the Structure of the Scottish League Season: Yes the top division is too small, yet there are too many games in the top division, there should be a 16 team top division. And yes there should be a pyramid system. And yes we should have a mid-season break. And yes there are too many chief’s… But that still might not solve the problem in terms of marketing Scottish Football. For example how on earth is lunchtime kickoffs supposed to entice people to come and watch football in this country, especially in area’s of Scotland which still suffers from poor public transport. Ideas which might be useful to look at might be i) Going back to group stages for the first round of the League Cup, but playing these as a pre-curser to the League season ii) The mid season break starting after the Christmas/New Year programme and ending at the start of February with the 4th Round of the Scottish Cup iii) Playing the semi-finals of all national competitions at league grounds, with the exception of Old Firm semi final’s. iv) having specified reserve dates for matches scheduled between November and March and v) ensuring that there are clauses inserted into broadcast contracts which ensure matches are played at reasonable times and that highlights are released to terrestrial television companies a reasonable time after the matches (which hopefully would bring an end to Monday night highlights packages)

This i think is the 3 main areas that should be looking at.

Tony Mowbray: Our Part In His Downfall

2010-03-25T21:59:00.000Z

Scottish Premier League: St Mirren 4, Celtic 0, Greenhill Road

So you’re a team that has dominated a national cup final against one of the country’s biggest teams, and saw them reduced to 10 men, then 9 men, and then against all of your rising expectation you see the nine men floor your team with a stunning counter attacking goal which owes as much to top class technique as to your defenders being out of position. you see your team lose. Then 3 days later the other biggest team in your country come to visit. If you’d have mentioned that the result would be 4-0 you would have though that Celtic would have over-run a dispirited St Mirren side, and you would have heard the faint sound of the SPL trap door beginning to open.

The thing to say about St Mirren’s instantly legendary win over Celtic is how utterly insane the whole thing was. This was supposed to be the second best team in Scotland. St Mirren spent the first 20 odd minutes feeling themselves into the game, a bit like someone the day after a hard night out feeling their way into the day. We were all tense, because we were expecting an absolute hiding from Celtic, regardless of the fact that this was not Celtic in one of their less mighty incarnations. Samaras had a shot saved early on by Gallacher, and Keane also had an excellent opportunity to put Celtic one up. Had either shot gone in, Celtic probably would have found their wind and won by a hatful. as it was Celtic in the first 25 minutes played like a team in desperate need of a spark, holding on to possession but not really doing anything with it.

The game changed 7 minutes before half time, when a couple of half clearence/half headers saw the ball fall to Andy Dorman just outside the box. Normally he needs no invitation to score, that this was only his third of the season is proof as to how much this has not been a great season for Dorman. Celtic were still a threat, Keane had a chance to equalise within minutes of the re-start. Then St Mirren got their second when Dargo played a couple of one-two’s with Mehmet, which carved a hole in Celtic’s defence for Steven Thompson to score.

The damaging goal though was the third goal. Thompson headed the ball through to Dorman who was in space and nabbed his fourth of the season. At this point the confidence drained from Celtic, their team, their fans and very possibly their manager. Thomson’s second of the night was really the icing on the cake as St Mirren registered their first league win over Celtic since April 1990, and their first home league win over Celtic since September 1989, and their heaviest win over Celtic since 1959. For the St Mirren fans it was the perfect tonic, though it was tempting fate for the St Mirren fans to sing “You’re getting sacked in the morning” as they have a history of sacking managers after wins against Celtic. St Mirren now have to build on that win, with another result against Aberdeen on Saturday.

For Celtic, the story doesn’t end there. With the League championship all but gone and only really the Scottish Cup left to play for, Celtic decided to dispense with their Management team of Mowbray, Venus and Grant. Truth be told, the loss at St Mirren probably was the last straw for Mowbray. If your manager insists in the press that a game is an important game and your opponents are not to be taken lightly and the players then proceed to play expecting St Mirren to fall apart like a house of cards, it’s clear that Mowbray and his management team had no discipline over the players. Sure Celtic dominated the first half hour of the first half, but there was no real urgency. After St Mirren got their first, the confidence started to trickle away.

Now the main question is where do Celtic go from here? Neil Lennon has been installed as caretaker manager, which is a sensible move. After all, Celtic cannot afford another panic appointment.

The Mother of All Sucker-punches!

2010-03-23T23:59:00.003Z

Co-operative Insurance Cup Final – St Mirren 0, Rangers 1 – Hampden

Of all the things I listed in my previous post about things to do to beat Rangers, I did leave out keep the back door locked. Well, you would think that you don’t need to tell a team to keep the defence well manned. I also assumed that the St Mirren players had the brains to keep the pressure on Rangers, rather than waste possession and perform fancy dan moves which give away said possession. After all, the great sports teams are the ones who when they have their foot on your throat… keep it there.

The match itself was a remarkable match, and not just for the fact it was won by a side reduced to 9 men. Rangers have been streaking away with the Scottish Championship, yet for the first half they looked decidedly second best. St Mirren’s 5 man mid-field overran Rangers. St Mirren’s loan star Carey saw a lot of the ball, but unfortunately his delivery was poor, with crosses being constantly over hit. One would think that certainly Celtic, but Rangers Scottish Cup replay opponents Dundee United might be taking notes.

Mehmet had a run at goal earlier on which was cleared. Just before half time Steven Thompson had a shot cleared off the line by Alexander, while from the resulting corner Barron had a shot come off the bar. Mehmet also had a shot saved by Alexander before the sides retreated for some respite.

Rangers started the stronger side in the second half, partly down to Rangers re-shaping their side to match St Mirren’s 3-5-2 formation. But St Mirren still had chances, Mehmet had a shot which Alexander held on-to by his fingertips. With 10 minutes gone in the second half, Rangers were reduced to 10 men. Rangers broke up the field after Brady was tripped by Kevin Thompson, who then barged his way into Potter. While Miller and Mair were indulging in some handbags at 40 paces, the ball broke back to Steven Thomson, who as soon as he had passed the ball on was caught with a high and wild tackle from behind from his near namesake Kevin. The other near namesake on the pitch, referee Craig Thomson had no option but to send Kevin Thomson off.

Higdon had an excellent chance to open the scoring, but pulled his shot wide. He was right in front of goal, and should have scored. This bizarrely was the last chance St Mirren got as they were shortly to have a 2 man advantage. A ball forward by Brady saw substitute Craig Dargo goal side of Rangers defender Danny Wilson, who pulled Dargo back. It was a clear goal scoring opportunity, so Wilson had to go. It was the foul which would go on to win the game for Rangers.

At this point St Mirren let the situation go to their heads. Rather than keep the ball and tire Rangers out, St Mirren kept on playing it into the box. Rangers were now decamped in their own box, keeping things tight and minimising St Mirren’s opportunities. With seven minutes to go a mistimed piece of trickery gave Rangers the ball and finally some momentum to go forward. Weir found Rangers substitute Naismith on the right and in space, who crucially had 2 players inside and out of position St Mirren defenders. His cross found the first player on the inside, Kenny Miller, who was goal side of his defender. His header found the far corner of Gallacher’s goal, Rangers had produced the mother of all sucker-punches.

For Rangers, it’s yet another trophy to polish. This win will be a masive boost going into the Scottish Cup replay on Wednesday, and on to the Championship, which is only 6 wins away for Rangers now. For St Mirren, the ramifications might be more ongoing. Gus MacPherson has a good record as St Mirren manager, but it is a major blight that most of his teams are incredibly profligate in front of the white sticks. Even back when the Saints won the Scottish League Championship/First Division, St Mirren were hammering sides 0-0. The four goals we plundered at Ross County just before Christmas that season being our biggest win. The inability to score is worrying at the best of times, to be so in a major cup final while being 2 points off the bottom of your league is even more so, which is one of the reasons why there are so many Gus-o-phobes among the St Mirren support.

MacPherson has been tipped for better things than St Mirren for some time now. It’s time to start showing the substance.

A First Smell Of The Brasso

2010-03-20T13:30:00.000Z

Sunday sees the staging of the 64th Scottish Football League Cup, or to give it the sponsors moniker – the Co-operative Insurance Cup Final. In the Blue corner are Rangers, who have won this trophy a record 25 times and are making their 33rd final appearance. In the Black and White corner are St Mirren, making their first appearance at this stage of the competition since 1956, when they lost to Aberdeen 2-1.

The difference in the fortunes of both teams are stark, and carry on into current form. Rangers are currently the runaway leaders of the Scottish Premier league, and need a further 18 points to retain that championship. They are in the quarter final of the Scottish Cup final, but have a tricky re-play to negotiate. St Mirren are on something of a poor run, and could be a point off the bottom of the SPL come kick off on Sunday if results today do not go their way. With the smell of fresh Brasso filling their nostrils, Rangers will be odds on favourites to win.

Yet, upsets do happen. So what must St Mirren do to upset the applecart. Firstly they should keep with the 3-5-2 formation which they have been playing since the semi-final win over Hearts. This has, defensive errors notwithstanding, made them a more solid team. It has also strangled the life out of teams playing 2 in the centre of mid-field. Of course, Rangers might go for a 4-3-3 formation with Miller, Boyd and Novo up front, but Smith is perhaps a bit to conservative for that. Secondly, Gus must start with Craig Dargo. Dargo has pace, he can upset Rangers rearguard and before joining the Bud’s, Dargo had a reputation as a goal-getter. The surprising thin about Rangers back line this season, considering how far ahead of Celtic they are is how slow their defenders are, and not just pace wise. In the League game between the two in January, I was staggered at how many loose balls they did not pick up. Dargo’s speed and quickness of thought might be able to pick up on these.

The other thing Gus might do is to play the loan player Graham Carey from the start. When he has played, he has been deployed as a left wing-back and has been solid. Where he has excelled is in his delivery from out wide. His crossing has been excellent, and has the potential to cause mayhem in the Rangers Box. If McPherson does not start with Carey, he should play Robb there. With Robb, the problems would come from his running and committing other players to the tackle.

St Mirren had a better record than most teams in the SPL against Rangers, their 1-1 draw at Ibrox in the first season back in the SPL essentially saw Paul Le Guen off the Ibrox premises, while St Mirren won their last meeting at Love Street in October 2008. They also drew their 5th Round Scottish cup tie last month before going down to a late late goal from Kris Boyd. Rangers though have won every league meeting since then. Rangers also won their last meeting at Hampden, Last seasons Scottish Cup Semi-Final (pictured).
However the stats don’t lie. This is the cup trophy Rangers have a very impressive record with. As the Scottish football blog points out, Rangers have only lost twice in finals to non old firm teams (Dundee in 1951/2 and Aberdeen in 1989/90). Alas I suspect that Rangers will win and take the first step to an unlikely treble, by winning 2-1.

20 Years On: Scotland 13 England 7

2010-03-11T21:59:00.000Z

While this fixture in recent years has been overshadowed by events in Cardiff and Dublin, there is still something about the Calcutta Cup match between Scotland V England. Monday sees the 30th anniversary of Englands 18-30 win at Murrayfield which saw them win their first Grand Slam since 1957, having won their first Championship outright since 1963 four weeks earlier.

However the most famous Calcutta Cup match occurred 20 years ago on Wednesday when Scotland and England met with the Grand Slam at stake for both sides. England were overwhelming favourites having swept aside Ireland 23-0, France 7-26 and Wales 34-6, scoring 10 tries in the process. England had Gusscott & Carling in the centre while on the wing they had Rory Underwood. The mostly English based press had England not so much as favourites, but more or less said that all England had to do was turn up and they would win.

Scotland on the other hand had crept though the contest unnoticed and without a great deal of fanfare. Staring in the second week of the contest, Scotland beat Ireland 10-13. This was followed up by a convincing 21-0 win over France. Scotland’s game during England’s week of was a 9-13 win against Wales. Once Scotland won at the Arms Park, it was game on for the championship decider. If Scotland were looking for omens, the Calcutta Cup match would be held 6 years to the day since Scotland clinched their previous Grand Slam. If the press were to be believed, it was all Scotland had to clutch at.

In Scotland there was an element of animosity towards the England Rugby team. This was fanned partially by the English based media’s firm belief that England were certainties to win the Grand Slam. This was also a very political time as well, with an unpopular Conservative Government, who had made themselves even more unpopular with the implementation of their new funding system for Local government. The Community Charge had been unveiled and implemented in Scotland a full year ahead of the rest of the country, as a scheme to bring the voters back on board it was a disaster. In the Tabloids, and in particular the Daily Retard, the England Rugby team were re-cast as Team Thatcher. A further twist was that i think this was the first season that Flower Of Scotland was adopted as the national anthem played before Rugby matches. After this game, “Flower…” grew in popularity and supplanted “Scotland The Brave” as the Scotland Football teams anthem of choice within a couple of years.

From memory, this was a tight game. England only managed to break through once as Guscott went over for the only try of the first half, which Hodgkinson could not convert. Scotland won and converted their 3 penalties (pictured, top) to eke out a 9-4 half time lead. Scotland got their chance to score at the start of the second half. from the first scrum of that half, the ball found it’s way to Scott Hastings out wide. His kick on was chased by his brother Gavin and winger Stanger, ahead of a couple of England backs. Stanger got to the ball first and touched down for the try. Scotland were now 13-4 ahead, the question was could they hold on?
England did lay siege on the Scotland back line in the latter stages of the game, but could only claw back 3 points, from the boot of Hodgkinson. In the end it was a famous victory, and for those who had not seen Scotland over the course of this championship a huge upset, as Scotland claimed only their third, and to date their most recent, Grand Slam.

The team though that took the most out of the defeat was surprisingly England. Hurt by the defeat and surprised at how overconfident they had become, England over the next year and a half withdrew and started playing what was dubbed “10 man rugby”. Essentially this was rugby which used the power of the scrum to physically ground down your opponent, where kicking for position was paramount. England used this tactic as the launchpad to dominate the 5 Nations Championship’s in the first half of the 1990’s. The eventually won the Grand Slam the following year, and reached the World Cup final in the Autumn of 1991, gaining a sort of revenge by beating Scotland 9-6 at the semi final stage at the same venue. They retained their Grand Slam in 1992, the first time this had been done by England since the 1920’s. For England it was well and truly lesson learned.

Mapping out the road to Euro 2012

2010-02-07T21:15:00.001Z

On the face of it, this morning's draw for the qualifying groups for Euro 2012 gave with one hand and took away with the other.

On the minus side first, the top seeds in our Group will be Spain, the current holders of this particular crown who might be heading to Hampden as World Champions as well such is their standing in the game at the moment. Our record against Spain is surprisingly mixed, having beaten them twice in competitive fixtures. We beat them 4-2 in qualifying for the 1958 World Cup while more famously we won 3-1 at Hampden during qualifying for the Mexico 86 World Cup (featuring Dalgliesh's famous slalom run before smashing the ball into the top lefthand corner of the Spain goal). We also face, remarkably for the fourth European Championships in a row, Lithuania. Scotland have always found Lithuania a handful, particularly away from home.

On the plus side, although we do not have the best record against the Czech Republic, it looks as though Czech football is entering a fallow period considering their poor showing in World Cup qualification. Whether this is true remains to be seen. What is strange though is that the scheduled friendly in March against the Czech’s has not been cancelled. The bottom seeds in Scotland’s group are Liechtenstein, who Scotland have never played. Liechtenstein have played England a couple of times, and played a 10 at the back style not unlike San Marino, Andorra and the Faroe Islands.

In the other groups, England did not get their customary easy draw, as they were drawn in the same group as Wales, Bulgaria and Switzerland. Northern Ireland were thrown in at the deep end with Serbia and Italy ahead of them in the seeding order, and Slovenia behind them. The Republic of Ireland also have a tough draw, with Slovakia and Russia ahead of them in the seeding, and Macedonia in their group too.

Thankfully this is not a group of death that Scotland faced the last time in this tournament. I would suspect that as the group unfolds Scotland will be vying with the Czech' Republic for the playoff place from the off. What we need now is a good order of fixtures.