Saturday, March 3rd 2007
Liverpool 0, Man Utd 1
John O'Shea, who let's be honest, doesn't score much, sealed the victory for the Red Devils today. He did in a great fashion too - waiting til the 90th minute. The win was not expected after Paul Scholes 86th minute red card. This win has proven to me that this team will win the Premiership. Sir Alex Ferguson reaaally wants to rub it in Jose Mourinho's face. The Devils were outshot and basically outplayed all game, but Liverpool couldn't do what they had to do to win.
MVP: John O'Shea, cause he'll probably never get it again.
Portsmouth 0, Chelsea 2
Didier Drogba does it again, scoring his 29th goal of the season and 18th of the Premiership in the 28th minute. Salomon Kalou came on as a substitute and put the game away in the 82nd minute. Petr Cech was the hero as P'smouth actually had most of the chances and put a good amount on Cech's net.
MVP: Drogba, no explanation necessary.
Newcastle 0, Middlesbrough 0
Oguchi Onyewu quarterbacked an effective Newcastle defense as M'bro didn't really threaten much. That's saying a lot as physical Aussie Mark Viduka normally eats the Magpies alive. Unfortunately, Newcastle's offense played like Portsmouth, with 8 shots on goal and nothing to show for it. Thoughts of European competition next year could be in jeopardy. Therefore, they must make the best of their European ambitions this year by beating the hell out of AZ Alkmaar this Thursday night.
MVP: Titus Bramble, as he controlled Yakubu somehow - all 90 minutes.
Arsenal 2, Reading 1
Reading somehow didn't lose by more. Arsenal had 17 shots and Julio Baptista had one of his best games in a Gunners' uniform. Reading hung in there, however, but couldn't put the ball in the net. Instead, they needed a Cesc Fabregas' own goal to stay in it. Gilbero Silva and Julio Baptista both scored to put Arsenal ahead in 51st and 62nd minute respectively. Big win for Arsenal with PSV coming up in the middle of the week. Still gotta love that Reading is this far up in the table, I hope they get a European slot so Bobby Convey can come back next year to European play.
MVP The three Brazilians, Julio Baptista, Neves Denilson, and Gilberto Silva. All pretty solid games.
Fulham 1, Aston Villa 1
American legend Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra both started for Fulham. The game was actually marred by a controversial goal by former-OL striker John Carew in the 21st minute. It wasn't really controversial - just another non-agile ref not being able to get out of Chelsea cast-off Alexei Smertin's way. I guess flat-footed refs just plain follow the Yanks everywhere they go. Carlos Bocanegra said no to Aston Villa through a beautiful backpost header. Clint 'Don't Tread on Me' Dempsey sat this one on the bench.
MVP: Antti Niemi and Thomas Sorenson
Watford 2, Charlton 2
Yep, both teams going down. Watford go up 2-0 only to give it all back. Jay Demerit had a so-so game and it seems like that has become a trend for him. I don't really have much to say about this game, except that in a couple years Hameur Bouazza will be a star.
MVP: The viewer, anyone who watched this deserves the MVP.
Wigan 1, Manchester City 0
Why did Citeh let this slip through their fingers? DaMarcus Beasley started the match and went all 90, but even his presence didn't give any redeeming qualities to the play of Manchester. If they didn't have that decent run of form at the beginning of the season, Citeh could have been in the position that West Ham is right now.
MVP: Caleb Folan, grabs the game winner for the Latics.
Sheffield United 1, Everton 1
Terrible news for the Toffees as Tim Cahill is out the rest of the season with a damn broken foot. He's one of my favorite guys to watch on that team, so that's a shame. Tim Howard was pretty solid but Sheff Utd used its' home-field advantage and hard-nosed defending to grab a point from Everton. Cahill has been an injury magnet this season and one can only hope he gets healthy soon. Everton didn't have a terrible run of form without him earlier in the year, so here's to hoping they can produce the same results as before.
MVP: Tim Cahill, for being the world's best fragile person.
West Ham United 3, Tottenham 4
Yikes. This game was reaaalllly fun to watch, but it was sad to see the Hammers give up every damn lead they had. Spector sat on the bench and must of had a conniption watching his team give up everything they worked for. Tevez scored one. Young'un Mark Noble scored one earlier to put WHU up 2-0, but Tottenham fought back to 2-2 thanks to Defoe and Finnish Teemu Tainio. Super-sub Bobby Zamora and former Tottenham cast-off put a nice header home in the 85th seemingly putting the game out of the Hotspur's reach. Nope, the type of season West Ham was having it felt so obvious that the Hotspur was going to respond. And they did, with two goals in the last 2-3 minutes from Dimitar Berbatov and Canadian Paul Stalteri (only his 3rd goal in 4-5 years with the team). Exciting and painful to watch at the same time. Alan Curbishley looked as if he was going to cry. I would have.
MVP: Berbatov - the guys a rock and makes things happen. Also, Adel Taarabt - the 17 y.o. former Lens U-19 potential star, who got his first chance at the first team with T-ham. He came in and actually made a difference.
Here's a link to the English Premiership standings with about 10 games to go.
German Bundesliga
Vfl Wolfsburg 1, Borussia M'gladbach 0
Kamani Hill sat on the bench for Wolfsburg's win over Kasey Keller's Borussia Monchengladbach. The key is though VFL Wolfsburg has been winning as of late, whereas Keller's boys aren't having as much luck.
Dutch Eredivisie
Ajax 0, Heerenveen 1
Michael Bradley got on the pitch late in this upset. Heerenveen in no way dominated, but they got the job done which seems to be the underlying theme of this weekend in world soccer. The team that didn't dominate, got the win for the most part. If any team needed it, it was Heerenveen, breaking a 4-game winless streak. Give Bradley more time. This week, we should also find out the fate of Mr. Rogers.
Italian Serie A
Lazio 1, Sampdoria 0
Gabriel Ferrari didn't even make the squad and Sampdoria succumbed to a Tommaso Rocchi goal late in the game. Sampdoria was lucky they didn't give up more.
French Ligue 1
Lyon 3, Saint Etienne 1
Les Lyonnais dispatched Les Verts, according to Brittany, with somewhat sloppy play but took the chances they could. Read the first half recap from our March 4th post.
Other notes:
* Colorado waived GK Matt Jordan due to injuries and his semi-oldness. The guy is still really good so now there are two quality GKs on the market right now in Jordan and Jon Busch. Also, Fabrice Noel is gone too.
* The United States U-20 Men's National Team was drawn with pretty stiff competition for the U-20 World Cup in Canada this summer. They have Brazil, South Korea, and Poland. Not exactly the group of death, but certainly capable of being one. This take place from June 30th to July 22nd. Should be exciting.
* On top of West Ham's heart-breaking loss today, there will be a FA probe into the transfer of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to the team. Apparently, even though everyone knew this before, the Premiership doesn't allow third party 'ownership' of players. I'll keep you updated.
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