As I wait to board a plane to Perth for a week of gigs, I remember that I’ve not updated you all with what’s happened in the world of the round ball.
Frankly it’s been a shitty week. Melbourne Victory got thumped 5-0 again, local rivals Heart got bought by Manchester City with their bottomless pits of money and because the FA Cup was on the most interesting match in England was Liverpool beat Bournemouth.
This week should be better with top placed Brisbane playing 3rd placed Mariners in the A-league and a Merseyside derby in England plus Juve v Inter Milan in Italy.
I myself will be in the away support at Perth Glory v Melbourne Victory crossing every appendage that Kevin Muscat learns how to coach a side.
Tune in Monday for my reports on all of these! Gotta fly!
January 28, 2014
January 28th 2014
January 20, 2014
20th January, 2014
Hi all, apologies that the Bluff is a bit late this week. My laptop did some sort of big software upgrade which inadvertently made my modem obsolete. Now my old modem is pointless and irrelevant. The Craig Foster of modems.
Anyway – back to football. As I reported last week the English Premier League is a three horse race. Arsenal sit on top after defeating Fulham 2-0; Manchester City sit second after dispatching last placed Cardiff City 4-2; and Chelsea are yapping at their heels in third place after beating Manchester United 3-1 this morning. Samuel Eto scored all the goals for Chelsea, meaning this rather foolish twitter user will have to make good on his promise:
Samuel Eto is a rather attractive Cameroonian, so the tattoo will be weird but not too scary. He must be grateful he’s never made a similar promise about Wayne Rooney.
In the A-League some droughts were broken. Melbourne Heart won their first match in eleven months defeating Newcastle Jets 3-1! The Jets have responded by sacking their manager Gary Van Egmond [who is named after a Disney villain] and replacing him with Clayton Zane [who is named after a Disney heartthrob].
It’s cruel to sack a manager but sometimes it’s necessary. If a coach is clearly not qualified for the task then sometimes it’s just best to move them along. Keeping them there would damage the players self belief and the reputation of the club. On an unrelated note Kevin Muscat is still at Victory.
Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Ballon d’Or! The best male player in the world for 2014! The best male coach went to Jupp Heynckes for winning the Champions League with Bayern Munich. Silvia Neid, the German National team coach won the best female manager and the best female player went to Nadine Angerer, the goalkeeper for Brisbane Roar. Yes! Our Brisbane Roar!!! Why this wasn’t front page news I honestly don’t know! Call it sexism, anti-round ball sentiment whatever you want. It’s disappointing.
Ballon d’Or also has goal of the year. Zlatan Ibrahimovic won for this:
January 13, 2014
13th January 2014
Welcome back to the Football Bluff for 2014. This is a weekly football [soccer, round-ball, association football, kicky-kicky foot-foot whatever you want to call it, I don’t care] blog aimed at people who aren’t obsessed with the game but do want to keep abreast of what’s going on in the sport.
Do you know people like that? Tell them about this blog. You’ll seem cool. It might even get you laid.
It’s a good time to get into football as the EPL is a genuine competition for the first time in years. In the past 48 hours the top of the table has gone from Arsenal to Chelsea to Manchester City, and could be back to Arsenal by tomorrow morning. The eventual champions could be any of those three teams, not to mention the dark horses of Liverpool and Everton. Although the reason we don’t mention those dark horses is they won’t win it.
Down the other end of the table is the relegation battle. For those who don’t know, in most round ball leagues the bottom club[s] will drop down into a lower league as punishment for being rubbish. This doesn’t happen in Australia, much to the relief of fans of Melbourne Heart; [both of them]. Six points is all that separates bottom placed Crystal Palace and middle placed Hull, meaning half the league is only a couple of losses away from the drop zone. This won’t be resolved for a few weeks, probably months so feel free to ignore it. Most of the media will.
Down Under, the A-League is less of a competition. It’s pretty much certain that this year is a tussle between Brisbane Roar and Western Sydney Wanderers. Victory & Mariners have both had their coaches stolen and replaced with work experience kids. Although Adelaide United’s new manager has been saying they were a sleeping giant all season and have strung a few decent performances together. If the Reds finally have clicked and adapted a new style of play, what could stop them from winning the title? Well, I mean apart from the fact that they were rubbish for the half the season.
Sadly it’s not all good news this week. Actually have I given you any good news? Not really. Right – Bush is no longer President, the World Cup is coming and if you work hard you can avoid hearing a Katy Perry song today.
But sadly it’s not all good news. In the French Cup semi finals, Paris Saint-Germaine knocked out the greatest named teams in the world. Brest FC. It was a great game, Brest play a double fronted attack, which may have its knockers, especially when it’s exposed and goes bust. Okay I’ll stop.
For fans of teams with great names I can report that FL Fart are doing okay in the Norwegian women’s league, Thai Tobacco Monopoly FC are struggling in the Thai 1 division but in Argentina, Deportivo Moron are in second place!
Goal of the week:
Danny's Football Bluff 