Sunday Morning Football, Vol. 2

Last week I wrote about Bilbao player Aldekoaotalora Ustaritz. He played again this week, but I'll make the focus of this column something more interesting than a funny name - I promise.

Every week, soccernet.com, my site for football news and scores has someone sitting in a room watching one of the games on television typing commentary about what's going on in the game. My question is, why don't they have it for every game. For the rest of the games, they have these automated responses that go something like, "foul by Nicola Zigic (Racing)" or "Gnegneri Yaya Toure (Barcelona) is shown the yellow card." What I can't believe is that there's nobody who would be willing to sit around, watch a football game, and type commentary for it. I would! I'd do it for free. I mean, I've already said I'm going to be sitting here every Sunday morning watching the scores and the little automated blurbs come in. Of course I'd rather be watching the game and typing the commentary myself. I can't believe that with all the technology we have, they can't have someone off-site doing it.

Anyway, this week I'm fortunate enough to have real commentary for the Liverpool-Chelsea game which is coincidentally taking place at the same time as the bulk of the La Liga fixtures this week. The big news out of Liverpool is that Robbie Keane has been left out of the 18 man squad again - the second game in a row - without having been injured. Benitez just isn't playing him, and won't even include him among the substitutes. Any Liverpool fan knows that Keane is better than David Ngog, so this has led to a lot of speculation that Robbie may be on his way back to Tottenham to have a Tottenham-players-who-left-for-half-the-season reunion with Jermaine Defoe and Pascal Chimbonda. Tottenham must have some brilliant financiers. These guys figured out that they could sell a player who was playing brilliantly, get him to suck at his new club, and buy him back for a reduced price. I wouldn't be surprised if they made 5 million pounds off the whole Robbie Keane ordeal. Who would pay 20 million for him now? I wouldn't (not that I have 20 million pounds).

Well, I haven't written about any of the game action going on, and there's a good reason for that - there hasn't been any!!! The 12 teams playing in Spain plus the 2 in England combined for 4 first half goals, all of which came in the first 10 minutes of the half. This means that for the last 35 minutes, I've had nothing whatsoever to write about. Mascherano and Ashley Cole both got booked in the Liverpool - Chelsea game. The only thing miraculous about that is that they both don't get booked in EVERY game. More to come during the second halves...

GOALS!!! After 40 minutes of goalless football in sevevn games, I now have two goals to write about. How exciting! Actually, neither one of the goals was particularly interesting, and there's now a third equally uninteresting goal. One goal apiece now for Atletico Madrid and Valladolid. Barcelona have gone down against Racing 1-0 courtesy of a Nicola Zigic penalty (no, I did not go back to insert his name earlier in this post because he scored now - highly coincidental). Maybe this means Messi will enter the game - he's been sitting on the bench. Maybe Guardiola thought he could get by without him today. As if on cue, Messi has come on for Sergi Busquets.

LAMPARD'S been sent off!!! What a shame. From the commentary it sounds as if it was a bit of an injustice. As far as I'm concerned, there is never any injustice when it comes to Chelsea players being sent off. In most games, they should be finishing the game with 8 or 9 players, but the referees seem to turn a blind eye to their dissent and reckless tackles. Liverpool must take advantage now. They simply can't give up 2 points at home to 10-man Chlesea. Meanwhile, in Spain, Xavi has equalized for Barca within 6 minutes of Messi's entrance. Good idea Guardiola (and me too)!

The footballing world seems to approve of my blog because it has just provided further evidence as to why I should provide commentary for the matches on soccernet.com. Apparently Ikechukwu Uche just assisted his own goal. I'm not sure how that works - did he pass the ball to himself or something. Most likely, an error in the computer program putting up the stilted commentary. In the Depor - Villarreal game, Lafita has scored his second for Depor. He said earlier in the week that Depor had to win to get their season back on track (they've lost the last three, although it must be said they were all against top 6 teams). Let's see if he can get his hat-trick and seal the deal. Should Villarreal lose, they will be able to refocus on the Champion's League. I wouldn't be surprised (or that unhappy) if they won the whole thing.

Uche has scored again (they have now changed the original goal to being assisted by Romanian Cosmin Contra) and Betis have blown another 2 goal lead. Speculation this week was that this could be the end of Paco Chaporro's reign there. It's looking increasinly likely should they lose, and they're down to ten men as well. Ciao Chaporro - at least it's an aliteration. Depor have scored a third, but it's not Lafita. A win will see Depor leapfrog Málaga and into 7th place, 1 point out of the European places. Unless Atletico lose today, but they are tied with Valladolid right now.

Xavi and Xabi Alonso have each hit the woodwork in their respective games. Unfortunate for the X-men and my two favorite teams.

Goal for Messi! Barca now lead 2-1. Messi, el mágico. And perhaps I spoke too soon about Atletico not losing - Valladolid have just gone up 1-0. Another illustration of the incompetency of the Atletico defense. They gave away a penalty in the 78th minute. You just can't do that!

TORRES!!!! Liverpool must win now. Torres has given them the lead with less than 2 minutes left. 5 minutes of stoppage time! Chelsea certainly cannot complain about that. What an absurd number! Anything over 4 is extremely rare.

Back in Santander, Barcelona have won 2-1 but not before their central defensive pairing of Rafa Marquez and Gerard Pique were sent off. Must have made for a nervy final few minutes, and it could create issues next week with both of them suspended, but they've got the points today and that's all that matters for now. But the other half the city isn't doing so well. Espanyol, already in the midst of a miserable season have just blown a 1 goal lead in the dying stages after their keep took out a Huelva player in the box, got sent off, and conceded a penalty. It's a harsh way to lose, but it does seem to encapsulate Espanyol's season at the moment. With Osasuna's win over Mallorca, those three teams (Espanyol, Osasuna, and Mallorca) will all be tied for last on 17 points. The relegation battle in Spain will be an interesting one. Let's see if Liverpool can hold on...

TORRES again! That'll seal the deal. Torres scored his second after (much to my pleasure) an error from Ashley Cole. That's the game. El niño does it again. Liverpool sit by themselves in 2nd place, and it will come down to the two best teams from the Northwest of England for the title this season. Let's hope this reinvigorates Liverpool's season. You know what they say: "January showers bring February flowers." Okay, well maybe it's not quite like that, but that's what they'll be thinking in Liverpool. If the Super Bowl goes as well as the sports weekend has for me so far, it will have completed one of the most memorable sports weekends in my history.

And for those of you statistics lovers, before the final two La Liga fixtures this weekend featuring Valencia and Sevilla facing two lower clubs, Barcelona's goal difference is +50. If you sum the rest of the postive goal differences in La Liga, those of Real Madrid, Valencia, Villarreal, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, and Málaga, you get +54. The rest of the teams in La Liga have negative goal difference. Barca have scored 21 more goals than the next best team (Real Madrid) and have conceded 3 fewer than the next best team (Sevilla). Talk about dominance...

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings on the week's football action. Until next week!