Hammers find big Sam’s way is best
May 20, 2012 at 6:49 pm | Posted in General Football, Hammers | 2 CommentsI rolled out of my bed at 6AM Vancouver time to go to my friend Jonas’ house and watch our favourite English team, West Ham United, try to claw their way back up into England’s Premier league. A few cups of tea and some tasty muffins later it was West Ham 2, Blackpool 1, and West Ham were back up.
West Ham were the favourites going into the match, with several established veterans of the Premier league in their team, notably Carlton Cole, Robert Green and Kevin Nolan. Blackpool came into the game with a classic Championship side made up of hopeful youngsters and older players who never had the quality to play at the top levels of English football.
West Ham scored first through Cole; Blackpool’s Ince equalized soon after the break. Blackpool made heroic efforts to win the match but did not have the class or composure to finish their many chances. Around the 75th minute they ran out of gas and the bigger and fitter West Ham began to dominate until the inevitable occurred and Cole created a second goal by pressuring a rebound out of the Blackpool keeper. Hammer’s Portugese striker Ricardo Vaz Te knocked the loose ball into the top of the net.
It was vindication and a relief for big Sam Allardyce, West Ham’s manager, whose style of play this season has not suited Hammers fans. Sam’s mixture of high long balls and physical play did not suit the West Ham aesthetic of classy football with the ball played on the ground. But as they say, nothing succeeds like success, and big Sam has saved West Ham from the oblivion of another year in the second tier of English football. Had West Ham stayed down, they would have lost virtually all of their top quality players and would have taken a disastrous financial hit.
I have always felt the Premier League was lacking without West Ham. I look forward to next season! Now if only we could get Leeds United back up…
Rafael Marquez: a disgrace to Major League Soccer
April 17, 2012 at 8:25 pm | Posted in General Football, MLS Season 2012 | 1 CommentI hope that Major League Soccer and its disciplinary team come down hard on Rafael Marquez.
Marquez is one of MLS’ “designated players”. Designated players’ salaries exist either outside of an MLS team’s salary cap, or have only a part of their salary counted against a team’s salary cap. This rule was created by the MLS in order to entice high class, high quality, expensive footballers into MLS. This policy has worked in enticing Thierry Henry and David Beckham, two of the finest players to grace world football pitches during the last two decades, into the league.
But did the MLS intend on attracting goons like Marquez to the league? Having watched him play for the New York Red Bulls a number of times I have been struck by how violent this guy is and how intent on hurting other players he is. Marquez is not just aggressive and competitive: this guy is working out his anger issues on the pitch in a violent manner and intentionally trying to injure other players. Football is a rough competitive game, and injuries will occur, but going out of your way to deliberately injure other players is just not on. Perhaps because Marquez is a designated player, referees just seem to let a lot of his violence go.
All you have to do is look at what he did to ex-Whitecap Shea Salinas on the weekend (Salinas happens to be one of the nicest guys in the MLS). First of all Marquez broke Salinas’ collar bone when he mugged him in the penalty area (in full view of the ref I might add, who ignored the incident). He then intentionally kicked Salinas on the head with his trailing leg. You can see the incident for yourself here:
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/04/17/soler-marquez-we’re-prepared-whatever-comes
When the Red bulls hosted the Whitecaps in New York last year, Marquez did his best to break Eric Hassli’s leg.
In my view a lengthy ban is called for. Beyond this, the MLS should really be more careful who it tries to recruit to be a designated player in MLS. Marquez is a violent hatchet man, pure and simple. Had the league done some research they might have found this out.
There is no doubt Marquez has played at the highest levels of the game and is capable of being a top quality footballer. He had a wildly successful time at Barcelona FC. Unfortunately Marques is now more interested in deliberately injuring players than playing football.
MLS should not only discipline Marquez, but get rid of him for good. He is a disgrace to the league and to the game of football.
Fieldturf curse bites CONCACAF Champions League match
March 7, 2012 at 11:15 pm | Posted in General Football, MLS Season 2012, Vancouver Whitecaps | 4 CommentsBefore today’s match in Toronto LA Galaxy players Robbie Keane and David Beckham were already complaining about the fieldturf at Rogers Center, and as far as I am concerned, good on them. Having watched the magic Barcelona worked on their perfect grass pitch in the Nou Camp earlier in the day, the match at Rogers Centre looked like a dogs breakfast because of the terrible playing surface. Sure, the standard of play is lower between the Galaxy and TFC, but the bounce of the pitch made for a shockingly bad display of football.
It is high time fans of football everywhere work to get rid of this stuff for football at the professional level. It is simply no substitute for grass.
Women’s Olympic Qualifying: Canada not fit or fast enough
January 29, 2012 at 10:45 pm | Posted in General Football | 4 CommentsThe thrill of qualifying for the Summer Olympic Games in London this summer was dampened somewhat by a 0-4 drubbing at the hands of a superb American squad at BC Place this evening in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament’s final match. Canada were clearly the inferior team, and coach John Herdman’s work is clearly cut out for him if the team is to be competitive in the Games.
Tonights match showed a number of things: the US team was, almost player for player, fitter, faster and stronger than our Women’s team. Coach Herdman needs to get our players to the fitness centre if we are to hope to compete for a medal in London. Our strength, speed and fitness must improve if we are to improve on our abysmal 2011 Women’s World Cup. If other team’s are technically superior, as a good number of the teams in London will be, we must be fitter and faster in order to compete with them.
It happened time and time again during the match that Canadian defenders were left for dead by much faster American players. The first goal by Alex Morgan saw her sprint past one of our defenders and then shrug off another as she made her way to goal. On the American’s team’s second goal, Canada’s defenders were left huffing and puffing in the wake of the American forwards, seemingly too slow and tired to react properly.
Because they were less fit and fast, Canada’s players time and time again ended up fouling the Americans to try to slow them down. If the referee called the game properly, we should have had many more yellows than we did. Only striker Christine Sinclair and our dynamic little number 11 Desiree Scott (of the Vancouver Whitecaps) looked as though they were anywhere near as fit and fast as the US team.
If Friday night’s victory over Mexico was a time to celebrate and dream, Sunday night was the time to wake up: our squad needs a lot more fitness and strength training if we are to make a dent in London this summer.
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