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Sunday was a good day for me.
Not because my team had won. They weren’t even playing, and probably wouldn’t have won even if they had been.
No, Sunday was a good day as Manchester United were knocked out of the FA Cup, 1-0 to Leeds United. This was a result to savour. Manchester United losing, not only to a team two divisions beneath them, but to one of their great historical and geographical rivals too. Wonderful.
Petty? Maybe, but then isn’t most sport pretty petty anyway?
This form of sporting Schadenfreude is not unusual. I’m sure many of us delight in the sporting misfortune of others. I have known football supporters who cannot just revel in their own team’s victory – for it to be a perfect day, all their rivals need to have lost too. Bizarrely, perhaps, there can be just as much joy in seeing another team’s failure as there is in seeing your own team’s success.
As a Liverpool supporter enduring a torrid season, I’m not proud, I’ll take what enjoyment I can get. As trophy after trophy slips away, I end up focusing more on hoping certain teams, such as the aforementioned Manchester United, will start to struggle too. As this season has seen all the ‘bigger’ sides be pretty inconsistent there has been more opportunities than normal for some Schadenfreude. Last season the top four sides lost 17 games in total between them. This season those same teams have already lost 19, with half a season still to go.
Sunday’s result saw yet another Alex Ferguson gripe about injury time, with him labelling the five minutes given as an ‘insult’. I’d suggest that was insulting itself, to the referee and to Leeds United. The arrogance is beyond belief, to essentially suggest that if one or two more minutes had been played Manchester United would have probably equalised. Ferguson should really look closer to home for the reason behind the defeat. His team lost because he picked the wrong side, not because the referee didn’t play a game of ‘next goal wins’. Yet, no sanctions will follow. Respect campaign? What Respect campaign?
Still, Ferguson’s rants do have one upside. Each time he complains about a lack of injury time, or indeed benefits from injury time given, more people visit here, and my post from earlier this year. So, thank you Alex, and thank you Google, for bringing me those people googling “fergusons injury time bitching” and “ferguson complains about injury time”. Much appreciated!
We think in generalities, but we live in detail. Alfred North Whitehead
English mathematician & philosopher (1861 – 1947)
The web and the wider world are full of ‘best of’ lists, looking back at the past year and indeed the last decade. However, I thought I didn’t have a whole lot worth adding to the more general debates, such as best albums, best films, best sportsmen and women. Does the world really need another end of year/decade review?
So…instead I’ve decided to compile a list of some ‘little’ things I’ve enjoyed this year. Maybe this will offer a tiny insight into my world, and hopefully prompt some thought on those little things in life that make the world a more enjoyable place. Life is all in the details.
1. The seaside
This year I’ve been to the seaside several times with my Significant Other, and had a wonderful time on every occasion. In the UK we’re really lucky in that you are never that far from the sea. Maybe there is some primal pull, but more likely it’s great to regress to being a kid again, with ice creams, crazy golf, dashing around the arcades, skimming stones and fish and chips on the beach. We realised that we can jump on a train and in an hour or so effectively be on holiday, if only for the day. A great way to ‘get away from it all’, and cheap too!
2. Actually going to the football
I used to go to games all the time years ago, but I think following a team week-in, week-out is probably a young man’s game. Saying that, there’s nothing to stop me going to see a match from time to time, and I’ve got back into that this year, again accompanied by my ever-supportive Significant Other. We live close to Charlton Athletic, who late last season started giving tickets away as they hurtled towards relegation. This season has been far better for them, and popping down the other week on a whim and catching a game was a lot of fun.
3. Piccolo coffee
I was never a big coffee drinker. But this year I’ve fallen for the trendy coffee brigade’s fancy drinks. A piccolo is kind of like a very strong, yet miniature, latte, essentially an espresso topped up with a little milk. I’ll often grab one from a little coffee stall near work, generally at lunchtime, to kickstart my afternoon. It is absolutely delicious, and a welcome change from the luke-warm, sugary, whipped cream abominations from the big chains. I’m on course to become a coffee snob!
4. Scoring baseball
More to come on this soon, folks, I promise. But generally speaking, I had real fun following this year’s MLB season. Even though the Mets were beyond rubbish.
5. Staying in on a Saturday night
I used to get rather jittery staying in on a Saturday night, worried I was at home while everyone else was out having fun. No more. I think I’ve finally hit full-fledged Grumpy Old Man mode, and so can’t abide jostling crowds and overpriced drinks in trendy bars, or nightbuses home from dingy nightclubs. Also, I’ve loved spending some time with my Significant Other, a takeaway and some crap telly. Strictly Come Dancing, X Factor, Match of the Day, bed. I never thought this would be my idea of bliss!
6. Spicy chilli peanuts
My snack food of the year. I’ve bought a big tub of them for Christmas, and can’t see it lasting long. Plus, I can kid myself that peanuts are a healthier option.
7. Cain’s Mild
My drink of the year. A classic beer from a Liverpudlian brewery. Full of flavour, but low in alcohol, so I can drink plenty of it without falling over. Coveting a can of mild, again, suggests I am now truly an old man, in heart, mind and increasingly in body. This is not a bad thing. I think I’m actually growing into myself.
8. The New York Review of Books
On the surface, this is a periodical with a load of book reviews. But really, they are just a launchpad for articles on much wider issues, so an issue might throw up some interesting perspectives on all manner of things – the fall of the Berlin Wall, Theodore Roosevelt’s environmentalism, the new ballparks in New York, prison reform, schooling…you name it. It is refreshing to see such a wide range of issues covered, and for writers to be given the room to cover them in sufficient depth. Plus, it makes me feel a bit cleverer for reading it.
9. QI
It’s bloody brilliant, isn’t it? And like number 8 above, I feel a bit cleverer for watching it. You can never have enough trivia stuffed in your brain, as far as I’m concerned.
10. Listening to Christmas songs
I love Christmas songs. Big Rock Candy Mountain feeds my addiction with some weird and wonderful efforts, but I’m just as happy with the more mainstream fare. Phil Spector’s Christmas album is probably one of the best (not just Christmas) albums ever. Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You is my number one guilty pleasure. To me, that song is perfect. It’s a shame that in just a few days I won’t be listening to these songs for another year…
So, what little things made your 2009 a good one? I’d love to hear about whatever helped make your year.
Incredibly out-of-date post shocker! Last Friday saw the draw for next summer’s World Cup. I won’t go into a group-by-group preview just yet, although I will say England got off with an awfully easy draw. No disrespect to the USA, Algeria and Slovenia, but if England fail to qualify for the second phase I’ll eat my hat.
However, not every nation got off so likely. As in every major international football tournament draw, talk inevitably fell to that old reliable subject, “What group is the Group of Death?”. What was the toughest group, with the strongest sides and the best chance to see a contender knocked out in the first round?
This World Cup we have two contenders. Group D pits Germany against Australia, Ghana and Serbia, while Group G sees Brazil face Portugal, Ivory Coast and North Korea. Whatever way you look at it, those groups are tough. But is it the end of world? Far from it.
I’d like to say that I’ve undertaken a rigorous statistical exercise, but I can’t lie to you folks. I just looked up Group of Death on Wikipedia (since edited, sadly), and unearthed (or is that over-egging the pudding?) something interesting. Should a country survive the so-called Group of Death, they stand a pretty good chance of progressing well in the competition, if not winning it all.
In 2006 Italy had to get past Ghana, the Czech Republic and the United States. That they did, and then they went on to win the World Cup. In years gone by Argentina in 1978, Brazil in 1970, England in 1966 and Brazil in 1958 all negotiated incredibly difficult groups on their way to winning the World Cup. So, for every major side that has failed to survive (Argentina in 2002, Spain in 1998), there is a side that has gone on and prospered.
I’d suggest that this is perhaps the footballing equivalent of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. If a team qualifies from a tough group it is already primed and ready for truly competitive football. Playing against other strong sides is a much better preparation for knock-out football than playing a minnow. What better way to build momentum?
And so, and boy am I going out on a limb here, don’t be surprised if Brazil do well next summer. And Germany too. Hah! You don’t get insight like that anywhere else, eh?
For those of you new to the blog, I quite often put together a list of sports-related links I’ve enjoyed over the past week. As part of the broadening of this blog’s horizons, I thought I’d put together a more general list this time. I hope it leads you to some interesting corners of the internet, and as always if you have any links to share, please do!
Non-sporting stuff for your enjoyment
Regular commenter and nicest guy on the internet, Steven Harris, has been talking about meeting celebrities, and remembering the time he met a Beatle. You might see in the comments that I have had quite a celeb-spotting week, seeing both Lisa Snowdon and Angela Rippon. Please note, I don’t mix in showbiz circles. Nor do I stalk people off the telly. Honestly.
Another commenter here, Nathan Henrion, has recently published his book for the Kindle. I’m looking forward to hearing how the experiment goes, with such a new and relatively untested medium. I’m going to have to buy the book itself very soon. It’s a steal at 99 cents.
Raven Mack is always worth a read. His lastest post is about pumpkins, and a whole lot more.
Sporting stuff for your enjoyment
The ever-reliable BaseballGB is reviewing the 2009 season a division at a time. Sadly, the verdict of the New York Mets as the “New York Mess” is right on the money.
Tim Lincecum won the Cy Young Award this week, ahead of Chris Carpenter, leading to a wave of controversy among the baseball internet-y fraternity. Wezen Ball serves up a nice little parody of the uproar.
There’s been a lot written about France beating Ireland to go to the World Cup, via Thierry Henry’s hand. Twohundredpercent writes perhaps the most level-headed assessment of events.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend folks!
So, the league programme gets interrupted again by an international break. This weekend sees the first legs of the play-offs to decide the final spots for next year’s World Cup finals. Plus, a fair few meaningless friendlies, including Brazil versus England in Qatar in an exercise to make as much money as possible, and annoy as many players, managers and fans as possible too, by the looks of things.
Here we go with Saturday’s international sport on television for those in the UK…
- New Zealand vs Bahrain starts at 7am on British Eurosport for all you early risers
- Wales vs Scotland is at 3pm on Sky Sports 1
- Russia vs Slovenia is on ESPN from 4pm
- Brazil vs England kicks off at 5pm on ITV1
- Northern Ireland vs Serbia is at 5.30pm on Sky Sports 1
- Republic of Ireland vs France is at 8pm on Sky Sports 1
Plenty of footy then this weekend..fill your boots!
We’re in the midst of a jam-packed weekend of sport. David Haye slayed the giant Nikolai Valuev, which I may well blog about in the next couple of days, Australia beat England in the rugby (boo), and there’s been fun and games in the football, particularly the Manchester City/Burnley 3-3 draw, and a fair few upsets in the first round of the FA Cup.
And there’s still the circus of Chelsea/Manchester United to come!
But here’s what I’ve enjoyed perusing the rest of this week…
The Yankees won the World Series this week, in no small part because of the strength of their closing pitcher, Mariano Rivera. The New York Times has produced a funky graphic to illustrate just how good he is in the post-season.
Meanwhile Matt at BaseballGB has written a comprehensive breakdown of performances in this year’s World Series.
And it’s not all about the winners, you know, as The Daily Something decides on the ten best performances by World Series losers.
In football, meanwhile, The Political Economy of Football looked at Rangers’ financial woes and twohundredpercent looked at the 1946 FA Cup.
So, what have you enjoyed reading this week?
Not that long ago we heard about Hull City manager Phil Brown talking down a woman contemplating throwing herself off the Humber Bridge.
Now another story. World Series winning coach, Joe Girardi, on his way home from the game, reportedly came to the assistance of a woman who had crashed her car, flagging down police officers to take care of the situation.
Amid so many whining, manipulative, selfish managers in sport (I’m naming no names!), it’s good to see there are a few knights in shining armour out there.
Or maybe we just forget that people in the public eye are human and decent at heart, like the rest of us?
This blog seems to have had a certain bee in its bonnet about stoppage time, with one post, on Manchester United, injury time and the need for reform, proving a popular one.
So, it was interesting to look through last night’s Champions League results and see so many late goals.
In eight games, there were four goals in injury time. Those for Atletico Madrid and Manchester United (them again!) were game-changing.
In total, 12 goals out of the 26 scored in those games took place after the 80th minute. By my rudimentary calculations, that’s over 46 per cent of goals scored in the final stages.
So what does this mean? Without any statistics for games generally as a ‘control’, it’s hard to say for sure. But why let that stop us speculating? Tiredness must be a factor. Games will often open up as they reach their conclusion. A losing side, such as Atletico or United, will push more in the final moments. A side doing particularly well, like Marseille last night, might knock in a few more goals. Maybe this happens more in the Champions League, as qualification is in sight?
Either way, this tiny sample of games shows how important fitness and concentration is, right up to the final whistle. It also shows how important injury time can be to the result of a game, or even to a team’s goal difference. Too important to just leave to the referee, I’d suggest.
There may well be more late, late shows tonight.
Liverpool are one particular exponent of pulling something out of the fire late on. I do, however, wonder if this is one ‘must win’ game too far? I’m not sure pinning your hopes on an injured Torres is the best idea, but then again, even an injured Torres is better than 95 per cent of strikers in the world. If he plays, that is. Here’s hoping…
Apologies to all my avid readers for the lack of new posts this week – I had a brief holiday, with no access to the internet. But here I am, back with a vengeance, with another one of those annoying filler posts!
This week, following Liverpool’s big win against Manchester United last Sunday, here’s a classic goal from that fixture in 1985, this week’s Man Crush – Jan Molby…look at him move!
And while we’re raiding YouTube for clips, here’s regular commenter Steven Harris‘ crush from last week, King Kenny himself…
I’ll be back into the swing of proper posts sooner rather than later, but hopefully this should keep you all going for now!
Two months into the football season and there have already been several managerial casualties.
Perhaps the strangest, and least expected, is the most recent, Gareth Southgate. Southgate has been Middlesbrough boss since 2006, and took them to two mid-table Premiership finishes before last year’s relegation into the Championship. If he was going to get the sack, you would have thought it would have happened this summer. But instead, Chairman Steve Gibson took the advice of Tammy Wynette to heart and stood my his man.
Until now, that is. It is well-documented that many clubs have struggled in the Championship after dropping down. Middlesbrough, however, have held their own. They currently lie fourth, only one point off the top, and last night beat Derby County 2-0. So, Southgate was dismissed after a win, and with Middlesbrough in a very strong position to build on.
There have certainly been bad results this season, including a 5-0 home defeat to West Bromwich Albion, but the league table doesn’t lie. Middlesbrough could easily push on for promotion.
So why remove Southgate now? Has Gibson got someone lined up who he thinks will give Middlesbrough an extra edge? Has Southgate lost the confidence of players? Or has there been a grand falling-out behind the scenes? It will be interesting to see how this story develops.
Meanwhile, Liverpool lost their fourth consecutive game last night, with Lyon snatching a last-minute goal in a 2-1 at Anfield. To add insult to injury, Steven Gerrard left the pitch barely a quarter of the way into the game, injured. Liverpool are now on their worst run of results for 22 years. And the ever-patient Liverpool supporters are getting increasingly restless with manager Rafa Benitez.
Last night highlighted his managerial failings, certainly. The faults were manifold. There is clearly no quality replacement for Torres when he is injured. The substitutions were baffling. Gerrard goes off and is replaced by Auerlio, a defender. Benayoun, the most creative presence for Liverpool, is taken off with five minutes to go. Liverpool were set up to defend a 1-0 lead, rather than push for a bigger win, and almost inevitably came unstuck.
It’s a good job I was suitably satiated in a prime pub spot with a plate of scampi and chips, a pint of good beer, and my ever-understanding Significant Other (that is not my order of preference, by the way). Otherwise, my blood pressure would have been going through the roof at such a frustrating performance. Or maybe I’m just getting worringly used to Liverpool losing?
So, should Rafa go? I’m extremely wary of managers being sacked mid-season. While there then might be an initial surge with a new manager, does it really help in the long-term? And how many top-class managers are available right now?
Liverpool face Manchester United on Sunday, and things don’t get any easier for Rafa. A win would certainly be a reprieve. But if they lose in the manner of the past few games, or worse, more and more questions will be asked.
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