he FA cup and the Champions League. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, especially because the Red Devils still have to play Chelsea once more in league play and could very well face them in both cup tournaments as well. Things are further complicated by the recent injury to Christiano Ronaldo, who has been far-and-away United’s best player this season. Alex Ferguson himself has recently gone on record as saying he believes the team will NOT achieve the treble (his comments can be found here: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=417168&cc=5901) because there are simply too many games for the club to play at the end of the season. United fans and also many neutrals hope, however, that Manchester hangs in there and gives us something to watch as the season winds to a close. United haters, on the other hand, (and they are legion) would love to see them drop all three, even if it meant they fell to the equally-hated Chelsea. The fun will begin for all of us this weekend. Just some quick thoughts on a dreary Tuesday morning as we await the start of league play once again…
One of my favorite clubs, Real Madrid, played and won a game this weekend, 2-0 against bottom-feeders Gimnastic. Aside from the sheer rarity of Real actually winning a game, (their first in the last four matches) the game was otherwise a rather standard Real Madrid affair: lackluster defense, disinterested stars, and blown scoring chances. Raul, Cassano, Cannavaro and the rest all seemed completely indifferent to what happened on the field.
Real
Robinho has long been an intriguing player. He was born in São Vicente in 1984 and was playing with Brazilian superclub
Robinho has not been without his critics at Real. Some say he is to long on the ball, and too prone to trickery, while others say he dives. His defense is questionable at times and he does seem to drift in and out of games.
Still, Robinho must be considered one of the best young players in the world. There is, perhaps, no one better on the ball in the world save Christiano Ronaldo. He constantly attacks the goal, is a good passer, and isn’t afraid of a long-range shot. He is also improving: his passing is better than last year and commentators have noted that he seems to have cut out the diving.
Robinho is a young man to build a team around, but Fabio Capello disagrees. (Note that Robinho didn’t start this weekend.) The young player has made noise that he wishes to be transferred if he does not start getting more playing time, but we will have to see what occurs since Capello himself will likely be gone at the end of the season. In the meantime, Arsenal, Spurs, and a host of other big clubs have been liked to the young man. It will be interesting to see how he, and the situation, develops.
One of the fun things about being a football fan is wearing your favorite clubs’ gear around, especially the teams’ shirts and scarves. In Europe, as you can imagine, it is very easy to get football gear; virtually every corner store in
Online
Most people in the states (and especially in rural areas) don’t live near a brick-and-mortar store that sells soccer goods. So, for most Americans, buying on-line is the best option. Here is a brief list of some of the best places to get your stuff:
For me, World Soccer Shop is probably the best place to get all you current soccer gear. Their big, easy-to-navigate website breaks up their products by country, club, or price, so finding your favorite teams are easy. They have the current shirts of most of the big clubs around the world, and are particularly strong with gear from premiership, MLS, and national clubs. Whenever I want a shirt of a current player or team, I get it from World Soccer Shop. In addition, it is a big, professional company of generally very nice people, and everything is shipped very quickly. Two bonus points: they do jersey personalizations on-site, and they are located in the
Like World Soccer Shop, Subside is sort of a football ‘superstore’ located in
Both UK Soccer Shop and Kitbag are two more soccer shops located in
Toffs is a very interesting company that makes reproductions of vintage jerseys. Most of the reproductions are made in cotton (as jerseys were made at the time) and most are repros of pre-1990s shirts, so there are no advertising on the shirts. Most of these shirts look quite different from what they players wear today, and many of the items the company sells are very, very interesting. I strongly recommend Toffs.
Club Sites
Virtually every club these days has a website (even little Series B clubs in
Used, Rare and “Classic” Shirts
www.footballnotmuggybonehead.com
There are also a number of dealers on the internet selling old football shirts, which range from “never-been-worn classics that were bought and stored for twenty years” to “stained and ripped.” Regardless, old-school football shirts are fun. By far my favorite dealer in classic football shirts is Footballnotmuggybonehead. Hundreds of great shirts at competitive prices. I bought a 1990 Pisa FC and love it: the shirt was in brand-new condition and the price and shipping were fine. Also, if you ask nicely, proprietor Paul might even explain what “footballnotmuggybonehead” means.
http://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/
Another fun site that has lots of pictures of classic shirts. Good products that are a bit on the expensive side.
Yet another used football website from
At this point, pretty much everybody knows (and seems to use) eBay. There are still bargains to be found here, but there are also outrageous prices sometimes spent on very ordinary shirts. (Just this week I was astounded by the prices fetched by Eric Cantona shirts from the mid-1990s.) Anyway, when doing a search for football gear, be sure to include in that search sellers from other countries. While there are not many people in the
Brick-and-Mortar Shops
I am lucky to live in Southeastern Massachusetts, as the place is virtually a hotbed of soccer-themed stores here in
The draw was announced this morning for the next round of Champions League play; looks like the organizers managed to keep the English teams apart and generally set up some good match-ups. The Roma-Manchester tie and the Chelsea-Valencia tie seem to have the potential to be great matches.
I‘ll have this weekend’s matches up in a bit.
Tuesday, April 3
AC Milan v Bayern
PSV Eindhoven v
Wednesday, April 4
AS Roma v
Tuesday, April 10
Manchester United v AS Roma
Wednesday, April 11
Bayern Munich v AC
Liverpool v PSV
Semi-finals
Tuesday, April 24
AS Roma/Manchester United v AC
Wednesday, April 25
Chelsea/Valencia v PSV
Tuesday, May 1
PSV Eindhoven/Liverpool v Chelsea/Valencia
Wednesday, May 2
AC Milan/Bayern Munich v AS Roma/
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL
Will be played at the Olympic Stadium in
Now that we have completed this round of the Champions League, we can settle once again into league football. There are two big matches this weekend, including the very, very big Real Madrid v.
Anyway, I encourage all of you to watch the game as it will be a chance to watch two skilled teams compete in one of the most passionate and competitive derbies in the world. It will also provide the opportunity, just as we are provided two or three times every weekend, for us to listen to the surreal commentary of GOLTV’s lead color commentator, Ray Hudson.
Ray Hudson has been a figure in professional football for quite some time. He has played professional foot
ball in
I don’t even know where to start with Ray; he is an experience unto himself. At first his manner of commentating on a game is so strange, so startling, that you want to watch the match with the sound off. Soon, however, just like that crazy uncle you have, you start to like the old guy and soon after that can’t imagine life without him. As with many truly terrible sports announcers, eventually you get used to Ray and want him around. Although it can take a while.
Some of Ray Hudson’s, er, shall we say weaker traits as a commentator are most obvious when you first hear him call a game. Most obviously, he seems to me to be most interested only when a “big” team (like
Fair enough, perhaps. Ray seems to know his audience and seems to understand that most Americans tune into a Real Madrid game to see David Beckham, not Sergio Ramos. Still, the viewer needs to constantly remind himself that there are two teams playing in most of the games GOLTV televises, even if the announcers prefer to discuss only one.
Beyond the big names, Ray has his favorites, and readers should be prepared to listen to the constant praises of certain players, including Robinho and Lionel Messi. This is fine as well (The NFL broadcaster in the
Although Ray Hudson isn’t afraid to provide negative commentary; it is, in fact, his ability to swing from the greatest compliments to the sharpest criticism (often times of the same player, and sometimes within a few seconds) that is among Ray’s most delightful personality quirks. Above all it is the ridiculously overstated compliments that make me smile. When someone on the field does something moderately impressive, like a nice stepover or a sharp pass, Ray starts screaming “magic!” at the top of his lungs, as if the player just repeated Diego Maradona’s famous slalom through the English defense at the ’86 World Cup.
But at the end of the day, what makes Ray Hudson so good (MAGIC! in fact) are the throwaway quotes he gives you during the game, the quotes that make up for all of the other nonsense. The internet site Wikipedia has a great entry on Ray Hudson, which can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Hudson. The site does a great job of collection the best of Ray Hudson’s game commentary, but I just wanted to share a few of the highlights here. Among the best:
"We had just strung like 17 passes together, beautiful silky soccer, and I turn around and see a guy yawning in the crowd. I wanted to jump over the fence and head-butt him."
"Congratulations, Seamus Malin -- you ugly man. Oh, come on, you didn't think he got (in the Soccer Hall of Fame) on his looks, did you?"
"Bruce Arena has to pick these boys up by their jockstraps and put lobsters in their jockstraps because they went down like flies against the Czech Republic, how humiliating to have that happen to a team that was coming out to the world scene seeking respect. What a joke!"
"Look at the angle. Look at the distance. That is absolutely exquisite. Dynamite finish. It's extraordinario! It's magnifico! When you see it again from this angle, it will take your breath away. It's postage-stamp delivery by a player that is as good going the other way defensively than he is going forward. You cannot give a higher compliment to an absolutely wonderful player who is at the absolute apex of his game! Look at that for confidence! That's world class! That's Zidane, beyond belief! That's an absolute exquisite footballer -- MVP, no question. Magnifico! Extraordinario! That should be in high definition! That wasn't just literature, that was Shakespearean beauty. Ah,God, I'm sorry, I love that guy. If I could love a man, I'd love Dwayne DeRosario!"
"Genius, genius, genius. Absolutely superb strike. And look, not a smile! What makes this guy smile? I mean, come on, Román, give us a look, give us a smile, baby. I mean, is there anything more exquisite in life than watching this man play football? Look at this! Perfection. [...] That is an orgasmic goal, Phil. We said he treats them like penalties -- that's what he does. Enjoy him while you can, enjoy him at the World Cup next year when he's wearing that beautiful blue and white shirt for Argentina. The man is magic."
"He needs to be on his tippy-toes, like a midget at a urinal."
"He's funner than a barrel of monkeys!"
"As electrifying as a hair dryer thrown into a hot tub, my friend. Absolutely breathtaking! It puts the Haitian Voodoo rattle on this one. When he finishes -- oh! Like Betamax, they do not make them like him anymore! What more can you say? An extraordinary goal by an extraordinary player! That will send these people into their dreams tonight thinking of heavenly things. Absolutely bamboozles his defender with this virtuoso goal ... Look at this, gets all of his angles right, sets it up for himself. Cygan is just a spectator, looks down at him and says, 'That's not human.' And it is not. It is superhuman." - November 2006, Barcelona versus Villareal, after Ronaldinho scored a spectacular overhead kick.
“Without penetration, it’s just masturbation, and right now, we’re playing with ourselves.”
"I'll give you two words, Sven...Goran...Eriksson." (Realizes his mistake and counts 1-2-3 with his fingers while rehearsing the name silently to himself while Lindsey Dean says, "Three words.")
I hope you enjoy the game this weekend, and also enjoy the sublime announcing of Ray Hudson.
n entertaining, attacking match. I can’t see why it wouldn’t be. Today is the sort of day we are interested in football in the first place.This weekend, one of my readers asked me for my picks of who would win in
The easiest work is done in
Much more intriguing is the race for the top four spots in the league, which grants the teams places in next year’s champion’s league. Inter obviously has their spot and Roma seems to have theirs as well. The final two could be
This weekend Manchester United managed to squeak by Liverpool and remain 9 points up on
I predict that the top four in
La Liga is, by far, the closest and most competitive league that I am following this year. Sevilla played a great match against Barca this weekend, beating them and taking over first place. In spite of this, I do believe that Barca will ultimately win the league; once they get Ronaldinho, Eto’o, and Messi back in form they seem to me they will be quite unstoppable, in spite of the team’s defensive deficiencies. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see Barca drop the ball, both as Real Madrid fan and as an admirer of beautiful football. Sevilla is a fun team to watch. I just think Barca is a better team than we have seen so far.
My top four in
Champions League
This is probably the toughest league to predict, as there are literally six or seven teams good enough to win it. Thus, I am going to go out on a limb here: I predict the final will be…(drumroll please) Inter v.
Strange prediction, I know. I don’t think
