Football

Boateng's legs were still wobbling when he got up.
 
Terrific, engrossing football, just the right mix of sophistication and excitement. I haven't enjoyed a game as much as that in a long while.

It almost looked like Messi had pulled some sort of Jedi mind trick on Boateng that made him briefly lose all control of his legs.

Couldn't stand the thought of another round of games where everyone picked up points so much obliged to Steve "we've all been there" Bruce and his Hull City KR Tigers Inc. for resolving this. Having said that I wouldn't bet a bag of pork scratchings that feckless Spurs are necessarily capable of beating them next weekend. As for us, a bit helter skelter in the second half but we caused a bum rushed early on and deserved the spoils. Obviously everyone is playing a lot better since the death of Lambert's coma football and the birth of Sherwood fever but none more so than Clever Tom Cleverley, who's ascent from punchline to primetime almost defies belief. This was a man who seemed to have the footballing version of 'the yips', now he's an altogether different species.

Bye Burnley. Good riddance, QPR.

Spreading Sherwood's points return over a full season would see Villa eighth in the current table, and there's the small matter of an FA Cup final still to come, too. He might remain a difficult fellow to warm to, but it's getting harder and harder to claim that confidence of his is misplaced.
 
Sunderland have won 100% of games in which Danny Graham has scored. Talisman! We might already have enough points to stay up, we might not, but those three should go a long way towards booking another trip to Goodison next year. If we could find a way to edge out Leicester on Saturday, we'd be almost assured. Hopefully, Dick has it covered.

Thankfully, you can always count on QPR to do a QPR.

Sherwood. Yeah. You would think that the man's personality would not translate into a top manager, but apparently it does.

Partially face-saving scoreline for Pep's gang. A decent effort by the team in circumstances where many would have wilted altogether, although Barca were probably never in any real danger.

Morata eliminates Real a season after being transfered away from the Bernabeu.

Not quite the result we were after, although given the circumstances I suppose a tight, edgy affair was always on the cards. Can't help thinking that the occasion got to the players just a bit, with Danny Graham fluffing what was easily our best chance in the first half. It's hard to picture Newcastle and Hull both winning next week, but ideally we'd sneak a point at the Emirates on Wednesday night and avoid the dreaded last-day jitters at Stamford Bridge.

Gullible. Cowardly. Putrid. An offside trap that could've only been concocted whilst high on sleeping pills. I know Guzan made an utterly inept error against Man City but heavens above, Given looks geriatric enough to be having Crimean War flashbacks. If Vito Mannone can reimburse some fans after a Southampton tonking then Vlaar, Okore, Hutton and Bacuna should be building hospitals. Now go win the FA Cup, you rotters.

Is it wrong that I was a little bit relieved when Chris Smalling escaped punishment for pulling Giroud's shirt up to his neck, just so we were spared the Mike Dean crouch and point to the spot? That referees have their best games when they're not noticed is one of the oldest cliches in football, but 'Deano' clearly hasn't heard it.

Thank goodness for that. In typical Sunderland fashion, after months and months of nervous anticipation, checking every detail and statistic of games happening elsewhere and praying for the results to go our way, we did just enough to get ourselves across the line with time to spare. The job Advocaat has done in ensuring our safety has been quite remarkable, now the only bit of anticipation left in our season is whether he will or won't stay. I hope he does - I've had enough of taking chances on supply teachers, this is a job for the headmaster.

Roll on Survival Sunday! 

Whoops.

FIFA is on fire

On 27/05/2015 at 4:36 PM, Mahi said:

FIFA is on fire

At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if that were literally the case.

So while the British media were busy laughing about their attitude towards 'our' game and trying to belittle them with crap gags, turns out that the Americans were actually doing what nobody else would - properly investigating FIFA and acting upon the evidence. Who saw that coming?

The reason that the Met would never go after them is because England (like Germany and just about every other European FA) have their own skeletons to keep safely in their closets.

We all saw it coming sometime ago,just why now,don't know,maybe they scuffled on the share of each one of them.

What is weird,why Blatter hasn't been arrested with them,he's the head of everything, and among the arrested his vice-president,or he's Swiss?

I don't expect him to win at the soon-to-be held elections,but this would expose him to questioning and maybe arresting,though I find it impossible.

Ironically, Blatter won,don't know how with most European countries in UEFA are against him, and even some African ones, besides USA.

Blatter has decided to now resign. Benitez is officially the new Real Madrid coach and apparently has said he'd build the team around Bale, seems risky, and with Benitez already being an unpopular choice for coach as it is, he isn't doing himself much favours but I guess we have to see how it plays out in action. 

It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if, somewhere down the road, Old Man Sepp still tried to renege on his pledge to resign. You'd hope that the FIFA rebuild would start now, although I suspect it'll only happen if and when he eventually gets around to actually going. The International Olympic Committee was able to make the necessary changes after the Salt Lake City scandal, and that reform is one that perhaps football can look to as an example.

We need more than just Blatter gone to reform FIFA.

They would probably need to revise the whole presentation model (part of the problem is the one federation - one vote structure).