Manchester, What Are Your Plans for Thursday Nights?

In a somewhat hilarious turn of events, both Manchester teams got sent crashing out of the Champions League this last week, leaving just the two London clubs - Chelsea and Arsenal - alone to carry the mantle in Europe...or are they alone? Wait, isn't there another league that Manchesters United and City might feel more comfortable in? Ah but of course! The Europa League! Otherwise known as the greatest insult known to football, the Europa League is a competition that exists for the sole purpose of generating some extra money for UEFA and Channel 5. It is a wonderful competition, full of the clubs that just weren't good enough to make it into the Champions League; so of course, we must add to the pain of being knocked out in the first round of the Champions League, and throw those rejects in there as well! What joy it will bring to the rest of the country to see City and United playing on Thursday nights against teams such as Olimpi Rustavi and FK Minsk in front of a channel 5 audience! I can hardly wait!

As if to add insult to injury, Manchester City were also defeated today by none other than Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. This made Andre Villas Boas very happy, a message to his critics it seems:

"Are you not entertained?"

Poppies

With 11/11/11 upon us, it was nice to see the many tributes in the sporting world for Armistice/Remembrance day. Despite FIFA's best efforts, the England football team were finally given the go-ahead to wear poppies on their black armbands for their friendly match against Spain. I was so glad to see that common sense had prevailed. I guess that the worry had been that it was some sort of a political statement, and FIFA didn't want to have to start making exceptions to their rules. But in England, the poppy is nothing political (for most people). It doesn't have to be pro-war or anti-war. It is simply a symbol - a way for us as patriotic people to honour anyone who has died in any conflict. To deny us that show of respect would be heart-breaking. It was great then, to see the boys wearing their poppies with pride, and also observing a two minute silence before training and the game itself.

As a side note...in that very game, England beat the World Champions, Spain! Yes! It wasn't pretty, but it was efficient, and showed great promise for the future of the England team. Now if we could only see that in a tournament...

Here Come The Girls

The other day I stumbled across this article in the Telegraph. I guess as a punishment for hooliganism, the Turkish FA decided that the female fans could teach a thing or two to the men about what it means to be a real football supporter. As a result, 41,000 women turned up and sang and cheered their way through the match. All this just proves to me is that us girls make the best fans in sports...or at least the nicest! What a great idea by the Turkish FA though, I'm sure that the last thing that the men would want is to be replaced - and then shown up by - a bunch of girls!

In other sports "news," here is a quite funny, not-meant-to-be-insulting Internet meme:

Ode To David Beckham (II)

I'm sure everyone knows by now just how much I love David Beckham. In fact, a while ago I posted this hilarious video of him on Ellen. Well, guess what? He went on the show again and did another hilarious video. Enjoy!

World Cup! World Cup!

The Rugby World Cup starts Saturday and I can't wait.

Source: google.com via Rachel on Pinterest

England's chances are relatively slim, but remember, we've done it before...




Shortly after the whistle blew, this picture was taken. It is also the inspiration for the title of this post, as Jonny himself claimed to be yelling "World Cup! World Cup!" in his excitement.



Of course, as per usual, the favourites this year are the All Blacks, so here's a little something to set the mood...



Kind of makes you embarrassed for when the BYU football players attempt it...

Weekly Round-Up

In a shocking turn of events, I am actually going to write a post that is actually about sports this week!

Source: bbc.co.uk via Rachel on Pinterest

Last week England's cricket team became the number one test team in the world, after destroying the previous top team India. Alastair Cook was the star man with an amazing 294 runs. It's always great to see an English sports team succeed, especially when you consider that in 1999, England were sitting shamefaced at the bottom of the rankings. Here's to many more years at the top!

On to football, and the start of a brand new Premier League season. It came as much of a surprise to most that Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea all failed to win on the opening day - with all three teams drawing with underwhelming opposition (although we must give at least some credit to Newcastle, Sunderland and Stoke respectively). For your information, here were the results from that opening weekend:

Blackburn 1-2 Wolves

Fulham 0-0 Aston Villa

Liverpool 1-1 Sunderland

Newcastle 0-0 Arsenal

QPR 0-4 Bolton

Wigan 1-1 Norwich

Man City 4-0 Swansea

Stoke 0-0 Chelsea

West Brom 1-2 Man Utd

I guess you could look at this and predict an easy win for Manchester United this season (not that I would ever automatically rule out Man City...except I do), but I don't really believe that there's too much that you can learn from one round of matches, and I still believe anyone could win it.


Over in the United States, Robbie Keane has become the latest player to join the ranks of the MLS, by signing for L.A. Galaxy. Here's what he had to say about it: "I have always wanted to come and play in MLS so it's the perfect combination for me and a dream come true." Now as much as I love the MLS, I find it really hard to believe this statement. If it was indeed a "dream come true," then why on Earth didn't he come over earlier - some time before he turned 31? Come to think of it, why didn't he join Real Salt Lake or any other team here? I suspect that the "dream" lies in living in Los Angeles, rather than playing for their team...

Mini Mourinho

I recently realised that the Premier League season is upon us (yobs permitting), and I have been remiss in failing to mention the (sort of) recent acquisition of one Andre Villas-Boas as the new Chelsea manager. So young and relatively inexperienced, he is something of an unknown quantity. However, having followed closely in one Jose Mourinho's footsteps at both Chelsea and F.C. Porto, I would like to say that I am more than happy to welcome our very own Mini Mourinho to the Chelsea management team - even if it's for no other reason than his looking rather good in a suit...



Let's hope that he's the master tactician that he promises to be!