So I’m sitting in my dorm room early on a Sunday afternoon, and, per usual, (except for someone making odd cat noises somewhere in the dorm), following the day’s football action and bringing it to you.
First, the big results from yesterday:
Aston Villa 0 Chelsea 1 - Expected really. The Premier League was always going to sort out with the best teams at the top, and let's be realistic, Chelsea are a better team than Villa.
Arsenal 0 Sunderland 0 - Well, I can't say the same about this result. What has happened to Wenger's side? Eduardo is now back from his long-term absence and Arshavin has fitted in nicely to the side, but a nil-nil home draw against Sunderland! A win from Everton today, and Arsenal will be in danger of falling to sixth. Unthinkable!
Middlesbrough 0 Wigan 0 - Nobody cares.
Man U 2 Blackburn 1 - The only thing significant about this is that Man U lost their clean sheet record. Of course, Vidic's and Edwin van der Sar's are still intact because they weren't on the field when Santa Cruz scored for Blackburn.
Real Madrid 6 Real Betis 1 - They're both royal sides, right? Well, Betis looked more like a mid-table segunda side - at least in the first half. They didn't need to play the second. The game was over, and there were no goals for the last 45 minutes. Yeah, that's right. It was 6-1 at halftime.
Barcelona 1 Espanyol 2 - Despite the fact that Espanyol are in relegation territory, Barca (for the third straight year) failed to win the home fixture of the Barcelona derby match. Cross-town rivals Espanyol proved too much, and it certainly didn't hurt to have Keita sent off in the first half. I haven't seen the tackle yet, but it better have been incredibly flagrant, or the pundits will be screaming injustice once again. The significance: the gap between 1st place Barca and 2nd place Madrid has gone from 12 to 7 points in two weeks. All you people who said the title race was over, think again. Barca need to pick it up NOW, if they want to avoid perhaps the worst collapse in La Liga history.
Sevilla 1 Atlético 0 - Makes me happy. Málaga now have the chance to move into sixth (Europa cup territory), and with Deportivo and Valencia playing the late game today, more points will be lost by their competitors for that place. It is, however, too late for Sevilla to make a title run. They're still 16 points adrift. More than anything else, I think this reveals just how good Madrid are (and I'm no Madrileño). That they have been able to keep pace with Barca is incredible. They don't have the goal difference, but they're getting close and points, and that's what counts. They have a tricky away fixture at Espanyol next week, so let's hope the same Espanyol side that played Barca shows up.
Then this morning's results...
Fulham 2 West Brom 0 - West Brom are going down - definitely. They have been at the bottom of the table for I don't even know how long. I know they're not that far down there, but they're staying there.
Liverpool 1 Man City 1 - I had the pleasure of listening to a streaming radio broadcast of this game. Unfortunately, it was a typically Liverpool experience. They were incredible in the final 15 minutes, equalizing, and then testing Shay Given on a number of occasions. The problem is why they didn't play like this for the first 75 minutes. When they attack, they do it brilliantly. The sense of urgency exhibited by the players is awe-inspiring. That they do not play like this consistently can be attributed to nothing other than the manager's lack of inspiration. He might be the best tactician in the world, but Rafa must get his troops inspired for each and every clash. I don't think he should go, but I think he needs to work on his personnel management.
Finally, for some editorializing:
I can't wait until David Beckham retires. Granted, maybe we'll stop getting the entertaining homo-erotic phone calls between Sven and DAVid on Special 1 TV (I encourage all football fans to check out puppet Jose Mourinho's satires of the footballing world), but then we can get real footballing news instead of some transfer saga about how Beckham might stay at Milan. The only other person who garners this type of media attention is Ronaldo, and he's the best footballer in the world. For someone who might be around the 100th best footballer in the world, the type of media hype Beckham gets is just preposterous.
In an interesting sales pitch from both Hull City and ESPN, ESPN the Magazine has agreed to track Hull City's progress throughout the rest of the season as the try to avoid relegation. After sitting the European places for some time, Hull have been on miserable form lately, having not won in I don't even know how many games. With a number of difficult fixtures left, I would expect them to go down at this point, despite being 6 points or so clear of relegations and sitting in 13th place. Their form of late has just been so bad, and the competition so staunch, that I fear for their fate. That being said, I really wouldn't mind seeing them stay up, especially at the expense of one of the traditional Premier Leaguers like 'boro or Newcastle. I find it interesting that ESPN finds Hull City the team to market to Americans? Granted, we love a great underdog story, but we like underdogs who win, not underdogs who fail. If Hull go down, it’s not like anyone in the US is going to pay attention to them next year. And even if they stay up, the chances are that they’ll go down next season. On the chance that it succeeds in some sense (Americans becoming followers of Hull City), Hull has a vast market to gain. None of the English sides, as of yet, have marketed intensely in this country. And if Hull do manage to make themselves America’s team, it will only serve to increase popularity for football in this country. I couldn’t be upset with that.
Málaga have won. This moves them temporarily up to 5th (a draw for Valencia in the late game against Deportivo would see Valencia reclaim the 5th spot). At worst, however, Málaga will end the weekend in 6th place, with the juices of European football moistening their (and my) lips.
Everton, despite being up a man for the entire second half, failed to capitalize on the opportunity to stuff Newcaslte. They will remain four points off of Arsenal for 5th place.
Until Next week…
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