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Syndicate
The Anfield Cat
http://deadspin.com/5882763/there-is-a-cat-on-the-pitch-at-anfield-for-the-liverpool+tottenham-match
11 mins: There's a cat on the pitch. It's currently settled in Tottenham's penalty area. Not a fox in the box, but not too far off. "After the Manchester United game Carroll said that Kuyt had shouted at him to knock the ball down for him to run on to it. Which he did. To great success," writes Phil Sawyer. "And then carried on doing during the Wolves match. Had it not occured to Dalglish to mention this tactic in the previous 12 months, or have Carroll's travails at Liverpool been because he's really really hard of hearing?"
13 mins: The cat has now been removed, quite gently, by a burly steward. Carroll celebrates this with a couple of tasty touches.
16 mins: "Would it be unfair to say that the stray cat has already shown more awareness in the penalty area than Andy Carroll?" asks Michael McCarthy, not alone in comparing the two. It showed a good turn of pace and its movement was decent if unconventional, but it also showed a very limited grasp of the offside law and offered limited aerial ability. I'm giving Carroll the nod here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/feb/06/liverpool-tottenham-premier-league-mbm
bekayne, that was awesome. Anfield Cat=legend (and a better instinct in the 6-yard box than Andy Carroll. Snap!)
Fabio Capello resigns over John Terry affair; 'Arry Redknapp favourite to replace
Guess who has their eye on the England job
Ha ha ha ha
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/feb/08/england-captain-anfield-cat?newsfeed=true
The non-human captain
You'd hesitate to describe Capello as whimsical but, as he sat mutinously in the stands at Anfield on Monday night, perhaps he took a look at the cat that wandered into the Tottenham penalty area and thought: "You've impressed me as much as anyone else English on the pitch tonight." Had he sought to make some sort of inscrutable philosophical point to his FA handlers, the Italian could have done worse than naming the tabby as his next leader of men. After all, the feline had a familiar quality for an England football captain: an air of having found itself in the middle of a big game by mistake.
Now there's a song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpOdLIHsUSM
Wolverhampton Wanderers fired manager Mick McCarthy on Monday, a day after a humiliating drubbing by its local rival left the club fighting to preserve its Premier League status.
The former Ireland coach's final match in charge of Wolves was Sunday's 5-1 home loss to fellow Midlands team West Bromwich Albion, a fifth straight home defeat that plunged the team back into the relegation zone with 13 matches remaining this season.
McCarthy, who joined Wolves in 2006, became the third manager to lose his job in the Premier League this season - after Steve Bruce at Sunderland in December and Neil Warnock at Queens Park Rangers last month.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2012/02/13/sp-epl-wolves-mccarthy....Poor Mick. He's a good coach. I don't know what makes Wolves think they'll find a better one -- it always seems to be the way with managers. One of Wolves's rivals will just pick up McCarthy in a few months and he'll have a crack at revenge. Not far off from Ancelotti--it cost Chelsea some 38-million pounds to fire him (a year after he won the domestic double!)--only to hire the new phenom who has them scrambling out of a Euro league position.
Menawhile, Suarez, who never denied using a racial slur against ManUtd's Patrice Evra--just that in Uruguay you can use racist language and it's not offensive--decided not to shake Evra's hand in their Saturday's match. "He could have started a riot," said Sir Alex Ferguson. "He should never play for Liverpool again." It sure was dumb--almost as dumb as Kenny Daglish's strained defence of the classless move after the match.
Oh, and apparently Carlos Teves and Man City's coach Roberto Mancini are set to make peace. Well that's nice.
Rangers appoint administrators and incur 10-point deduction
ARRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
ETA: It is time to challenge the 10 point rule in the courts.
Don't sweat it, Caissa. Even with a ten-point penalty, you'll still finish above Hibs easily.
Football must be popular on Babble - at the end of many threads there's a plug for the CFL.
Three own goals helped Liverpool ease past Brighton to secure an FA Cup quarter-final tie against Stoke.
Martin Skrtel gave the Carling Cup finalists the lead but Kazenga LuaLua levelled from 25 yards.
Brighton's Liam Bridcutt put through his own net before Liverpool striker Andy Carroll made it 3-1.
Two more own goals came from Bridcutt and Lewis Dunk before Luis Suarez completed the rout just minutes after missing a late penalty.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17001835Sophie Schmidt scored twice as Canada opened defence of its Cyprus Cup women's soccer title with a convincing 5-1 win over Scotland on a chilly afternoon Tuesday.
Kelly Parker, captain Christine Sinclair and Melissa Tancredi also scored for the seventh-ranked Canadians. Jane Ross replied for the No. 22 Scots.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2012/02/28/sp-canada-cypruscup-sco...Christine Sinclair scored the 131st international goal of her career and Robyn Gayle added an injury-time goal Thursday to give Canada's women's soccer team a 2-1 victory over Italy at the Cyprus Cup.
Sinclair latched onto a long ball from Shannon Woeller in the 43rd minute, chipping it past Italy's goalkeeper. The Canadian captain is now alone in third on the all-time international scoring list, moving past American Kristine Lilly with her 11th goal of the season.
Gayle found the top corner in the dying seconds to give seventh-ranked Canada its second-straight win of the tournament.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2012/03/01/sp-cypruscup-canada-ita...Canada lost 2-0 to France today in the final of the Cyprus Cup. No three-peat for Canada.
And no revenge. Sixth-ranked France beat (now optimistically seventh-ranked) Canada 4-0 in the World Cup last year to effectively send Canada out of the tournament.
One minute a fan was hurling a beer can down on David Beckham, the next minute the world-famous footballer was parlaying his anger into a goal for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Landon Donovan scored off Beckham's corner kick in the 89th minute to lift the Galaxy into a 2-2 draw with Toronto FC in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.
http://www.tsn.ca/soccer/mls/story/?id=389741Canada shocks the U.S. 2-0 in Men's Olympic Qualifying
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/03/24/olympic-qualifying-canada-shock-us-jump-group
That is quite a shock, considering how feeble Canada looked against El Salvador in the 0-0 draw on Thursday.
In other news, Christine Sinclair scored both goals for Canada in a 2-1 victory over Brazil in a women's soccer friendly Saturday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. Highlights video
The men's team can pretty well forget about the London Olympics, after giving up a 91st-minute goal to Cuba on Monday. By allowing the Cubans to tie the score, Canada ended up out of first place in their group, and now they have to beat Mexico next Saturday (yeah, right).
The only consolation is that the US won't be going. El Salvador scored the tying goal in the 95th minute on an amazing goalkeeper blunder.
Hibs Hibs Hibs for the cup! Our team's the greatest, we'll never give up!
Could be the Hoops or the Jambos in the final. Glory to the Hibees!
Heart of Midlothian beat Celtic 2-1 on a dubious, late penalty in the other Scottish Cup semi-final. It's a capital affair for the final. A Cabbage and Jam Tart Derby.
Come on you Hibs!
Q.: is Mourinho truly a miracle-worker?
cf. also Champions League next week....
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/sports/soccer/newcastle-united-on-a-gallop-after-winning-sixth-straight.html?_r=1&ref=global
Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the 73rd minute to send Barcelona to its first loss in 55 home games and put Real Madrid on the cusp of breaking the Catalan giants' three-year hold on the Spanish league crown with a 2-1 win Saturday.
It was only a matter of time before that team managed to sneak at least one league title away from Barcelona. Mourinho has a good record, but I wouldn't count this as one of his greatest challenges. Especially if, as I expect, Bayern Munich progress to the CL final over Franco's team.
Jonathan Wilson asked yesterday if any of Pep Guardiola's signings actually improved Barcelona. Certainly his tactics did, but if you have a team that perfect, how can you introduce another player into it?
Chelsea wins the most ludicrous match in Champions League history, reach final and dumps Barcelona FC.
Manchester City FC are champions of England. When they gave Sir Alex Ferguson the worst bollocking of his career, beating Manchester United at Old Trafford 6-1 in October (United's first loss of the season), it looked like they would waltz to their first top league title since 1968. But their early season form started to flag while Sir Alex's Red Devils (who had called Paul Scholes out of retirement) calmly, like champions, racked up a series of wins from January to March. City's league lead, which had seemed unattainable, gradually bled away until United led by a seemingly unsurmountable 8 point lead with six games to play.
Even with the second Manchester Derby coming up, United had a much easier schedule and it didn't seem possible for United to relinquish their advantage, not after their relentless, merciless play since January. Cue their collapse: a loss to relegation-threatened Wigan, giving up a 4-2 lead to Everton to draw 4-4. Then the second Derby, when a buoyant City won 1-0, handing the advantage back to City with goal advantage.
And then the most ridiculous final day in living memory. For United to win the league, with goal difference out of reach, they need to better City's result. Both City and United score early, which seemed to settle the result. But City's opponent, QPR, themselves fighting relegation, equalized, incredibly. When QPR captain Joey Barton (who has done jail time for assault) was red carded for elbowing Carlos Tevez, it seemed inevitable that City would score again. But, again incredibly, it was QPR who scored again. United saw out their 1-0 lead, and seemd poised to take the title one more time.
Cue more unbelievable scenes: Eddie Dzeko heads in from a corner at 91 mins, and City player of the season, Sergio Agüero, at the death, took a touch from Mario Balotelli, danced around a QPR sliding tackle and slotted it into the corner. Pandemonium. Pitch invasion. The title, finally. Vincent Kompany, Man City captain: "Please, please. Never again like this."
I bet Liam and Noel Gallagher are pleased as punch right now.
Any day Man U finishes second is a good day. Too bad my Reds had an indifferent League season.
Okay, I know zero about football, but I was watching a match on Saturday between Manchester U and Sun Somethingorother, and this guy on the Sun team goes down, looking for all the world like he's in total call-911-agony, limps off the field. Not ten minutes later he's back on, no sign of injury.
What's with the extreme faking? I've seen this a lot in pro sports, but when it comes to football, it's Academy Award performances. Please, someone explain this to me.
ETA: I played soccer in school, and stood on the sidelines watching my daughter play. That's about it for my footie knowledge.