From what I’ve seen so far, Chelsea seems to have more of a tech thumb than the other footie clubs (note one of my previous posts here). But the role of tech/new media in footie is still unclear. Then again, the role of tech/new media in footie is still unclear in many other sectors.
Still, I’m following ‘em.
As I said in my previous post, an extremely busy stretch at work kept me from posting things. There were about two weeks at Revlon that I was practically twiddling my thumbs, then the dam burst with projects. On top of that, I picked up three REALLY big freelance projects, keeping my busy not only nights but weekends, which kept me from watching matches.
Thing is, my weekends were not THAT busy. I could have stepped away for bit and watched some footie. I’ve also got a DVR which allows me to time-shift a boatload of games…I just never seemed to do that. For a minute, I though that my time as a soccer fanatic was over.
Then I started to recap the last few weeks in my head. While it may have seemed that I wasn’t watching recorded games, it turns out that I was wrong there. I watched a TON of games, particularly in La Liga. I watched a seemingly beaten-down Real Madrid go through a phenomenal rebirth of winds while simultaneously watching a fatigued Barcelona club go on a ridiculous string of draws and losses. Real Madrid may not win the league this year, but they DEFINITELY have a chance to take three points from Barcelona at the May 3rd superclassico.
I witnessed Liverpool’s annihilation of Manchester United in the best match of the year. Many believed that Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, couldn’t pick his best team of eleven players but it seems that team is gelling right now. Doubt that they’ll win the EPL trophy this year though.
Of course, there was the Champions League, where the round of 16 has come and gone. Inter Milan’s out. Real Madrid’s REALLY out. And we’re all hoping for a Barcelona – Man United match in the final, which seems possible.
But best of all, GolTV is now carrying Brazilian club level football from the Sao Paulo state…and I LOVE it!!! Jumping back to rebirths for a second, I have been born-again thanks to Sao Paulo football, especially since I have access to Corinthian club games, which I can watch the great Ronaldo. But while Corinthians are great, I’ve decided to support the the Palmeiras club after watching them play. These games, I’m not missing.
So I watched a decent amount of football, just not a lot of English Premier League football. And this brings up an interesting point.
See, the EPL promotes itself on a scale much grander than any other football league in the world. Said promotion has created a strong customer demand for access to as many televised games as possible, particularly in America. The American cable and satellite operators know all this so they try to sell as many sports packages with EPL access as they can to customers. All of this means that whenever an American begins to get into football, they are most likely to be exposed to EPL football first.
This happened to me. When I first got in to footie, all I knew was the Premier League. Thanks to the Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV, I watched at least two EPL games over the weekend along with the Barcelona and Real Madrid matches in Spain. Then we brought a condo and got satellite subscription with Setanta, meaning that I now had access to all games played by the EPL’s big four teams every weekend. And since the condo increased our monthly expenses, we had no problem substituting football for our weeklong entertainment in lieu of going out as much.
Now after two years of being a football nut, I’ve realized the the English game is just not that exciting as the game in Spain and Brazil and Italy and France and many other regions. Don’t get me wrong, I love Chelsea and am curious about how Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool and Hull are doing, but not enough to give all five of these teams all of my weekend time. And now that I’m getting into the Brazilian game, the Italian game and (sorta kinda) the French game, I just cannot get into the EPL as much as I did in the past. As a result, I will budget my time around the really good games from ALL leagues, while using the internet to keep up with standings and fixtures of others. This means that whenever Man U plays Arsenal, I’ll be in front of my TV. But I’ll be somewhere else when Man U play Stoke City.
Don’t misunderstand me here. I absolutely do NOT hate the British game. It’s just that with the three soccer channels that I have, I have access to so much more football now. And when you watch all types of football from all types of leagues you start to notice the difference in styles of play, and the British style football is just not as exciting right now. It’s as if I’d been listing to my parents record collection all my life and have now discovered punk rock and rap music.
It’s been a LOOOOOOOOONG time since I posted. My day job’s been kicking my a** recently and with the current state of the global economy, I want to make sure that I do my day job well…REALLY well. As a result, I slacked on blogging.
But two things have happened in the past 24 hours that made me want to post. First of all, Oscar at Soccer Blogs responded to a request to get kaidez.com added to the aggregation site. Seeing that I hadn’t posted in over a month, he asked me “are you still writing your blog?” Which is nice way of saying “why the hell should I add you if you’re not blogging?” Good point, Oscar…let me get back on the horse.
But the A-number one reason this: as some may know, there’s one hell of a footie tour coming this summer. Inter Milan, AC Milan, Chelsea and Club America are doing a six-city round-robin tour of the states. One of the stops is on July 24th at the M & T Stadium in Baltimore where two of my teams, AC & Chelsea, are meeting up.
Guess who got tickets?!?!?!?!?!?!
That’s right, guys! The Wife on are a-going. I scored seventh row seats RIGHT BEHIND THE CHELSEA GOAL!!!!
We plan to make a weekend of it. Take Friday off from work and hop a bus down to B-more. Check in to our hotel, it the aquarium at the Inner Harbor and catch an early dinner. And then off to the M & T!!!!! And if it’s anything like the last two touring team games I’ve seen (the Argentinian national Team and Barcelona), I expect to see throngs of American football fans travel from near and far, just to catch a glimpse of this game. I expect a high energy level of excitement as well as a few drunks (okay, a lot of drunks). We also plan to see my family in nearby DC as well the day after.
I plan to cover this game via my Twitter and Facebook page pages. If I get an iPhone before the game (and there’s a slight chance that I will), then I’ll only cover it via Twitter.
The Baltimore Sun has a good story that covers both the Baltimore game as well as a good overview of the tour itself.
Good article that mentions Bayern Munich (whom it seems will be OK) and Chelsea (whom may not be okay). The lower leagues, not surprisingly, have taken the biggest financial hit and are the most ripe for bankruptcy.
Again, I’m of the belief that Chelsea will be okay. The club owes money to Roman Abramovich, not banks. Big difference.
Courtesy euFootball.biz.
Kinda Buck Rogers-ish. Personally, I’m happy with both my 07/08 Drogba jersey and my old school Umbro one with the Emirates logo.
Courtesy Carefree Chris via CFCnet.
Dear Nicolas:
After closely watching your game this season, I felt the need to review past posts where I mentioned your name. I found one here where I wasn’t really nice to you and another one here where I attempted to apologize. But it was a weak, half-hearted attempt, especially since you’re the leading scorer in the English Premier League right now. Because of this, I’m using this post to give you a proper mea culpa:
You play for Chelsea, of whom I am a die-hard fan. No matter how much I still have to learn about football, I know what it takes to wear a title like that. It takes staunch loyalty, season-long commitment and most all, patience. But patience is a virtue that American sports fans don’t abundantly possess.
We used to though: we knew that teams and individual players would have good years and bad years. We also knew that really good teams would have championship seasons one year while barely squeaking by the next. And while we would have loved it if our fave teams and players won every prize every season, we knew that they would sometimes lose. And we accepted it.
Michael Jordan changed all that. After getting picked third overall by the Chicago Bulls in the 1984 NBA draft, MJ changed basketball as soon as he finished his first preseason Bulls game…and looked real pretty doing it. He created dunks from 20 feet out. He made all-net jump shots look quaint. Most of all, he was a leader. While Jordan didn’t take Chicago to the championship that first season, his on-court performance carried a promise that he would. A promise that he delivered on in 1991 as he led the Bulls to their first of six NBA titles.
Since then, American sports fans are looking for the next Michael Jordan. Or the next Wayne Gretzky. Or Joe Montana. Maybe not carbon copies of them, but we’re looking for those that get the results as soon as they sign the contract. The Jets expected it from Brett Farve. The Yankees have expected it from a seemingly endless parade of pitchers. This type of mindset, I believe, will always exist in American sport fandom on some level.
So when I started watching footie, I came in with this American mindset. And if my above theory is true, then the absolute worst thing that could’ve happen to me happened…I got instant results the day I started watching the game.
The results were delivered courtesy of your current teammate, Didier Drogba. It was during that 2007 FA Cup Final when he spanked that goal past the Manchester United keeper, giving Chelsea the win. They say that you shouldn’t look for a club to support, the club will find you. Chelsea found me the second Didier’s ball found the back of the net that day.
With Didier’s win and the instant gratification I received, I just assumed that Chelsea would always be winning and DD would be the reason why….like it eventually was with Jordan. This built up such a bias in my head, that I felt threatened by you when you came to my beloved Blues during the January transfer window of the 2007/08 season. Drogba was hurt so you came in to pick up the slack and I thought you were being primed to take his place. So I subconsciously said to myself, “He’d better get results immediately and lead this team to victory.” In short, I demanded that you be better than Michael Jordan.
You weren’t. To be fair, you sucked that first season with Chelsea and that’s why I started to write you off has a has-been. But as I said yesterday in my observation of the rumored-Thierry Henry move out of Barcelona, I’ve learned that all players must be given proper time to acclimate themselves to their new football club. And in your case, I’ve watched you acclimate yourself to Chelsea brilliantly and have therefore, learned and this lesson too late. I put harsh words on you and you’ve made me eat every one of ‘em.
And you know what? you’ve looked real pretty doing it. Despite Chelsea’s current cold spell, you’ve scored 14 goals for my club, more than anyone in the league right now. You’ve to taken the role of center forward and commanded the position quite nicely. The Blues are currently in fourth place…they have you to thank for not being in sixth place.
But now your club manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, isn’t starting you up front. Instead, he’s starting Drogba, who’s been a lazy-a**. Neither his teammates, his coach nor his club’s owner know whether or not this fool wants to stay with Chelsea or split. Oh, he said he wanted to stay last week, but he likes to change his mind. And while he’s doing that, you’re all ready to go.
You’ve got my respect, but Mr. Scolari needs to give you his after all you’ve done for Chelsea this season. And he needs to do it now. Otherwise, he may be forced to deliver a late apology for his mistakes…like I had to.
So Sorry Nick,
kaidez
I just discovered a REALLY cool fan-powered site called FanIQ which, like Bleacher Report, allows sports fans of all stripes to post their own their own sports stories for all the world to see. As Bleacher Report has partnerships with both Fox Sports and CBS Sports, its visibility is a little higher than FanIQ’s (Bleacher Report is pop music and FanIQ is punk rock). But not only do I designate FanIQ as a Coolsite, I also listed it on my Blogroll.
I discovered FanIQ when I came across one its recent posts, “The Fall of Chelsea – The Roman Empire.” The phrase “Roman Empire” directly refers to Chelsea’s current owner, Roman Abramovich. It’s a little long but an excellent read.
The gist of the article is this: the once can’t-miss Chelsea Football Club is currently misfiring on all engines. They’ve yet to beat one of the other top three clubs in the English Premier League (and you can’t win the league title if you do that) and are currently in fourth place, making them no shoe-ins for entrance into next year’s Champions League competition. The writer, jumbovonolyphant, places the blame squarely on Roman Abramovich’s shoulders, pointing to his well-documented micromanaging that’s led to good managers getting axed, short-sightedness, and creating an atmosphere that prevents Chelsea from bringing in young talent (as an FYI, I think that the last things is a big part of Chelsea’s problems). He does give him his well-deserved credit for raising the profile of the EPL.
The only part of the story that I’m not 100% on board with is jumbovonolyphant’s statement that Chelsea’s one the teams “affected by the credit crunch.” While the team may have spent too much too fast, they’re technically not having a credit problem. The teams that are (Manchester United for example) borrowed a whole bunch of money at a respectable interest rate to fund their businesses, whereas Chelsea got their cash straight from Abramovich’s deep pockets. Leverage is certainly part of his business and I’m sure that he’s feeling the pinch in some places, but I have a hunch that he’ll survive it. This is splitting hairs but it’s an important characteristic that’s getting loss in credit crunch discussions, that the less you borrow, the more prepared you are to ride out the storm. But this is just part of the story and not its basis.
I attempted to post my opinion about this statement on FanIQ but had to register as a site member to do so. I tried to join but the process took waaaaaaaay too long. I have to point this out because I’m not telling the author my opinion straight on-although not for lack of trying-and don’t want anyone to think that I’m hiding my statements from him.
Regardless of my feelings about the credit crunch statement, I still think that the story is well-written and makes valid points. Please read the story, and form your own opinion.
I’m trying to drum up a new section called “Soccer Books,” which is a collection of my personal reviews of footie-related literature. Franklin Foer’s How Soccer Explains The World has received wide praise from football fans of all stripes so this is the best book with which to start things out.
A bit about Foer. As of this writing, he’s the editor at The New Republic whose writing has appeared in Slate and New York magazine. In the interest of full disclosure, it seems that Foer went to my high school (go Hoppers), so I’m slightly biased going into this post. He played soccer as a kid, although not well by his own admittance. Along with a plethora of document research, Foer traveled to far reaching corners of the world to interview a wide array of subjects in order to tell this story: from soccer players to old-time footie hooligans to former henchmen of Slobodan Milosevic.
The subhead of the book is “an {unlikely} theory of globalization” and I agree that it is. Merriam Webster defines “globalize” as “to make worldwide in scope or application” and if you want to make a comparison centered around a worldwide application, soccer’s a really good a centerpiece. Foer describes the backdrop role that footie plays in ten social, political and economical instances. the Kosovo Conflict, the role of the church in Old Firm Derby, Islam’s archaic rules preventing women from participating in soccer, the strong Jewish football community in pre-Nazi Austria…to name just a few instances.
How Soccer also provides an excellent case study in the global gentrification of the game mostly due to the fourth and sixth chapters-respectively “How Soccer Explains the Sentimental Hooligan” and “How Soccer Explains the Black Carpathians.” The former takes an in-depth look of Chelsea’s role in moving football’s traditional hooligan and middle class fan base out of view in order to gain an upper class one. The latter observes football in the post-communist Ukraine, where the new club owners went on a buying spree for top Nigerian footie talent. The new talent didn’t fit into the country’s fabric too easily as the simultaneously enjoy praise and racism from the fans.
But Foer’s states in the prologue that the How Soccer story “begins bleakly and grows progressively optimistic” and the optimism is best expressed in the book’s eighth chapter, “How Soccer Explains the Discreet Charm of Bourgeois Nationalism,” the chapter that put a smile on my face six pages into it. Here, Foer recalls Franco-era Spain and how the forward thinking region of Catalonia held it’s own against the many backwards thinking ones. How the Catalonian capital’s team, FC Barcelona, fits into all this is a fascinating story. And Foer, and admitted die-hard Barca supporter, waxes poetically about all that’s good about not only the team but of Barcelona itself. So poetic that I told my wife, a lover of all thing’s Spain like me and herself a die-hard Barca supporter, not to read the book because of this chapter. If she did, I warned, then she would insist that we move to Barcelona ASAP.
Football’s long-standing xenophobic fabric isn’t How Soccer’s central theme, which is correct since there’s so much more to the game then that. Sadly, racism is part of the game and Foer didn’t try to hide or dress up this fact, also correct. Along with the “Black Carpathians” chapter, the racist past of many big name clubs is reviewed, including my that of my beloved Real Madrid whom Francisco Franco staunchly supported. Chelsea’s long past of hooligan-led antisemitism isn’t glossed over. And in the books final chapter, “How Soccer Explains the American Culture Wars,” America itself is held accountable it’s own long-standing soccer prejudice.
This post may seemingly suggest that the book is more down than it is up, but that’s incorrect. While there are sections where the content is tough to take in, the sum is greater than the parts. How Soccer’s simply describes how football is an integral part of the global stage (except for the states) and it’s effect on past, present, and future communities. The second-to-last a chapter may discuss why women can’t play soccer in Islamic communities, but that chapter is called “How Soccer Explains Islam’s Hope.” And hope is the operative word here as it tells of a people’s rebellion to get women involved in the game.
As an addendum, the book is filled with some fascinating trivia. I didn’t know that Pele was broke, got rich, went broke again and then got rich again. I learned the “hows” and “whys” of Celtic’s and Ranger’s seemingly infinite hatred of one another. And if your curious as to how Real Madrid aquired David Beckham, Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane seemingly all at once, How Soccer explains why.
I highly, highly, HIGHLY, suggest the book to everyone. Die-hard football fans, those curious about soccer itself or people that simply just like to read! How Soccer Explains The World is a fascinating sociological study of the beautiful game. And while the story is a tough read sometimes, the story doesn’t make the game any less beautiful.
Buy it at either Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
Stoke City boss Tony Pulis tells the BBC that foreign ownership of English Premier League clubs is wrong, taking direct aim at Roman Abramovich and the Abu Dhabi United group, owners of Chelsea and Manchester City, respectively. He feels that the current crop of foreign owners don’t understand the history club footie and that he would much happier if EPL clubs were owned by those from within their respective communities.
I’m in no way coming to his defense here but while he may be acting protectionist, I see no evidence of racism in his statement. Some of his potshots are directed at Abramovich, who just happens to have white skin.
Also, and quite curiously, he didn’t mention either Manchester United owner Malcom Glazer or Liverpool co-owners Tom Hicks & George N. Gillett Jr., all whom are American and have received a boatload of criticism for not being English. Hicks and Gillett especially.
Pulis is expressing a common sentiment held by many traditional football fans, particularly English ones. I’ve said this before but in my footie learning process, I’ve found that old school fans have HUGE issues with Non-British ownership. It’s a direct result of football’s gentrification, and the gentrification as a whole ticks off the old timers to no end. And in reviewing some past instances, Pulis may have a point. An example of an instance is Roman Abramovich’s constant bumping of heads with then-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho over team signings and playing styles. The conflict got to be so big (and in all fairness, Jose needs to take the blame for some of the conflict), that Roman eventually had to give Jose the axe.
All of this been said, it cannot be denied that the money brought in by these foreign owners (particularly Abramovich) has helped all of these clubs. And while we’ve yet to see this money yield many results at both Stoke and Man City, all the others have done well with the cash.
Got this from the Give Me Football blog (a potential Coolsite) who got it from the Sunday’s London Telegraph.
Current Inter Milan Skipper and walking Armani ad Jose Mourning says that Northern England footie powerhouse Liverpool can take the the English Premier League trophy this year. Now, he did NOT say that they will absolutely, without a doubt win it, but that “they have everything they need to win the title.” A little CYA on the Special One’s part if you ask me.
First of all, I wholeheartedly disagree with this. As I said in a previous post, Sir Alex Ferguson has created a mechanism over at Manchester United that makes the club pretty much unbeatable. That may all change next year but for now, the 2008/09 EPL title is Man U’s to lose.
And why did I mention Steven Cohen in the title? Well as most football fans know, Steve is a leading footie pundit that co-hosts and co-owns the World Soccer Daily radio show and co-hosts the Fox Football Fone-in call-in TV show on Fox Soccer Channel. Not only is he an avid supporter of Chelsea but he’s an avid hater of Liverpool, but of the fans and not the team. For as long as I’ve been following Cohen, he’s been in a verbal back-and-forth with ‘Pool fans, call “scousers”, or, “thieves” (go here for an historical explanation of this reference). Liverpool fans, in turn have responded sometimes respectfully but many times ignorantly, making physical threats to him via phone and email and also throwing anti-semetic comments towards his faith.
And to make matters worse, Mourinho, who used to manage his beloved Chelsea, are now saying that Liverpool can win the title.
As of this post, I’m dialing into the WSD live stream on iTunes, wondering if he’ll talk about this. I’ll also be watching FFF tonight on Fox Soccer Channel and look for comments there.
Been a while since I posted something…gotta back into it…wish it was under more positive circumstances.
As most footie fans know, Manchester United introduced Chelsea to the concept of prison love last Sunday and made Chelsea their b*tch, spanking them 3-0. I’m not using 20/20 hindsight here when I say that I wasn’t surprised… Man. U’s on a comeback trail whereas my beloved Chelsea are struggling to find itself during one of the most competitive stretches of the season.
Chelsea’s troubles, however, don’t matter here. I had an epiphany during this match as two facts came to light:
1) Manchester United has an arsenal (no pun intended) of scorers In Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, the Red Devils possess three natural born strikers that seemingly score at will. In Nani, Darren Fletcher, Carlos Tevez and J.S. Park, they possess the strongest supporting cast in competitive soccer-a cast that puts up enough points to keep Man U high up in the table. As far getting goals, Ronaldo may not behaving the season he had last year but he’s still an integral part of Man U’s scoring process.
But these players are nothing unless the boss whips them into shape. Speaking of which…
2) Give Fergie his props Rafa Benitez can say what he wants but he has to give Alex Ferguson his due, along with the rest of us. Ferguson is the most tenured club manager in football and there’s really nothing that he hasn’t seen in this game. He’s seen players, club owners, referees, and FIFA presidents come and go. He’s managed in every major club competition and beaten the best more than a few times: Red Star Belgrade, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Ajax to name but a few. He pulled his team out of the relegation zone his first five months on the job. This list of achievements is a drop in the bucket to what he’s done.
And while the list of players I mentioned at the top of the post are quite impressive, he’s nurtured many other classic players while at Old Trafford. Let’s take a look at but a small list of players he’s cultivated: Eric Cantona. Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Roy Keane, David Beckham (who played his best footie at United) Paul Ince, Peter Schmeichel, Gabriel Heinze. I mean, Fergie’s basically managed a Fantasy Football team.
Most important of all, he demands respect from his players day in and day out…and he gets it. Case in point: Real Madrid offered Cristiano Ronaldo a US $1million a week salary to leave Man United. That Fergie got in his face over this isn’t the only reason that CR7 stayed on, but it was big reason. Would he have stayed if that had been Arsene Wenger or Juande Ramos or even Jose Mourinho in his face? Nope.
My epiphany was this: Manchester United are nearly unbeatable in club competition, including the Champions League, as long as the above two points are true. The combination of the team’s scoring power and near-omniscient manager are too much for their opponents to deal with. Oh, their opponents will win sometimes, but not too often.
As a Chelsea fan, it gives me NO joy to write this post, but it’s true.
Congrats, however, are thrown to the Brain over at Arsenal Column.
At a FIFA conference in Zurich, the Chelsea F.C. CEO gave his take on the current global crisis and how he thinks it’ll effect football clubs as a whole…including Chelsea.
A couple of things he said caught my attention:
“A lot of people misunderstand debt. Chelsea are not in the same position as other clubs. We pay no interest on our debt as we have no external debt.
‘Our “debt”, such as it is, is to the owner. He has invested the money in the club. And while that is currently in the form of loans, this can be turned into equity. I think our financial structure does give us some strength and competitive advantage.
‘There is nothing inherently bad in financing one’s business through debt. It’s the ability to make the repayments that is the issue. We don’t have those repayment issues. Companies all over the world are financed predominantly by debt, this is normal in business.”
His specific comments about Chelsea’s debt do carry some weight. The fact that they owe money to the club owner, Roman Abramovich, and not a financial institution do give the club a much better outlook than others.
His comments about “nothing inherently bad in financing one’s business through debt” tick me off for a personal reason. I’ve been doing a lot of personal finance reading and research for the past three years and view all debt as the eighth deadly sin. I may not own a multi-billion dollar club but if I did, I know that I would run it without using debt. Just the way my head’s screwed on.
This blog obviously doesn’t spend a lot of time on transfer rumors but because it involves a team that I support, I’ll mention this story.
Goal.com reports that ex-Barcelona, current Tottenham midfielder Giovanni dos Santos is rumored to have caught the eye of Luiz Felipe Scolari for a possible transfer to the Blues during the January transfer window. This rumor was also around this summer so it’s a bit lukewarm.
Personally, I think Chelsea needs a top-notch striker before it needs a midfielder but Gio’s still got talent. I’d be happy if he went to Stamford Bridge.
I am NO Celtics fan…no way, shape, or form. And while I respect Kevin Garnett’s game AND his 2008 NBA Championship ring, I’ve never really followed his game: either now or during his run with the the Minnesota Timberwolves. But his devotion to footie AND Chelsea means I now have to watch at least five Celtic games this season. Kay Gee’s devotion is nicely laid out in this ESPN Soccernet article that I found via the Real Recognize Real blog.
EPL Talk also has a thread on this as well as a clip of him receiving the personalized 08/09 Chelsea jersey he’s sporting in this picture. He says to his presenter “You made my day man!”
With a comment like that, I may have to watch at least 10 games now.
…and the answer is A LOT!!!
Let me start off by saying that I am THRILLED that my Chelsea Blues beat Hull on 29 October. I was, however, disappointed by their 1 November loss to Manchester United: partially because I wanted to see the underdogs win and partially because when one supports Chelsea, throwing a little dislike to the Red Devils is the default position.
But while watching these two games, I had my BEST footie knowledge experience to date.
The Chelsea game was a mess for the Tigers from start to finish. Geovanni and Daniel Cousin did what they could but the entire defense (Boaz Myhil included) acted as if they did a few bong hits prior to coming on to the pitch. They gave up a goal with in the first three minutes and allowed Nicholas Anelka a goal. I mean, I love my Blues but Anelka is not exactly a goal scoring machine. Chelsea takes the match 3-0…a bit of a surprise but not a disappointment on my part. Hull City then goes on to lose at Old Trafford three days later, but it was a completely different game. Hull lost to Man U 4-3 but not after getting three goals off of the Red Devils and forcing them to work to preserve their lead. Any team that forces Manchester United to work deserves props.
Now while none of these end results are surprising when you think about it, the Chelsea game deserves a little scrutinizing. See, Chelsea’s good right now, they’re just not that good. Regardless of Anelka’s performance, he’s no Didier Drogba and can be locked down without much effort. And Frank Lampard may be the most consistent scorer for Chelsea right now but is he scoring that much? Nope. Hull could’ve beaten Chelsea last Wednesday, but played as if they didn’t want to. But it was WHOOOOOOOLE different ball of wax against Man U. Hull faced a marquee team which contains three of the current top scorers (Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Dimatar Berbatov) and puts three goals on them. This was without question, United’s toughest win to date as Hull pushed them to the limits, forcing Rooney to try and score and making sure he was unsuccessful at every attempt. Either they blocked him or they forced him to take quick shots, but the belief that he was the man this season in the EPL was, for 90 minutes, shut down by the Hull Back Four. Hull earned the respect of many on 1 November, including Manchester United. Why? Because they walked out onto the pitch with the confidence that they could win!!!!
And therein lies the moral of this post: that I learned that confidence is a key characteristic of any winning team, and it’s a must that Hull corner the market on it since it’s what’s really winning them games right now. As an example, let’s take a look at Chelsea again, particularly during the 2007/08 season. When José Mourinho vacated the Chelsea managerial post in October 08, everyone wrote them off for the rest of the season. Yet they not only made the UEFA Champions League final that season but also made sure that the EPL Champions didn’t get confirmed until the last day of the season. That’s confidence and that’s one of the many reasons why my Blues support is unwavering.
I’ve said before that Hull has such confidence and still believe that they have it. They just need to be consistent with it, especially if they want to stay in the EPL.
Anyone that’s read this blog knows that the current EPL season is causing me some internal conflict. I’m a “blue-till-I-die” Chelsea fan; however, I find myself passionately rooting for the Tigers in every game. And with the two due to meet up tomorrow, I found myself somewhat conflicted on who to root for. I LOVE Chelsea but how can one not root for the underdog?
I meditated over this and have decided to stick to my guns and root for Chelsea, but have acknowledged that Hull City could win it. Not only could they win it but they have a good chance when you line up each teams good points and bad points. Let’s take a look at those, shall we:
CHELSEA CAN WIN BECAUSE…
They have more experience: Chelsea’s been in the top flight for sometime now and it’s been ages that they’ve been anywhere else. They’ve been against the best and have beaten more than their fair share of top notch clubs.
They have a better manager: Phil Brown is great but Felipe Scolari is better.
They have the home pitch advantage: Regardless of Liverpool ending Chelsea’s loss-less home record, the Blues are still tough to beat at Stamford Bridge. Speaking of which…
They’re pumped to win after their Liverpool loss: Chelsea’s home record (86 home games without a loss) is phenomenal! Because the Merseyside Kings just ended it, the Blues are most likely seeking redemption from any source that they can get it….destroying Hull may be that source.
HULL CAN WIN BECAUSE…
They have the confidence: If you ask me, this is the primary source for the Tiger’s success. Simply put, Hull have either won or drawn games that many (including myself) predicted that they would lose, and one of the games that they won was against Arsenal at the Emirates. They know that they can beat the best when it comes down to it.
Their team “backbone” is stronger than Chelsea’s right now: By this, I mean that on each level of pitch formation (goalie, defender, midfielder, striker) lies a top notch player. And with Boaz Myhill, Ian Ashbee, Geovanni. and Daniel Cousin, Hull’s backbone is the strongest. Chelsea’s almost there, with Peter Cech, John Terry, and Frank Lampard. but Nicholas Anelka is the weakest link in the chain right now.
Peter Brown is still good at what he does: As I said before, Scolari is the better manager. On the other hand, so is Arsene Wenger and just look how Peter came off on that one. Yes, Hull City is confident that they can beat the best, as is Peter Brown.
Look REAAAAAAL closely at the standings: Yup, Chelsea’s in second place and Hull’s in third. Look at the games played though and you’ll notice that Hull is one of only two teams have beaten the traditional “big four”. That counts for something.
At the end of the day, I’m rooting for Chelsea but will be secretly happy if Hull takes it. All in all, I expect a good game.
I want one!!! Only available at the Chelsea Megastore this coming season.
FYI, this story comes from Shiny Shiny, who’s parent is Shiny Media, whom I view as the UK equivalent of Gawker Media . Shiny Media has a network of sites covering all topics so Shiny Shiny is to Shiny Media what Gizmodo is to Gawker. SS also has their network of footie-related Pie sites that I check out sometimes.