Hideous Yellow Away Shirt #4

Wales:

Disgusting Yellow Away Shirt #3

Sheffield United:

Carling Cup Final; Chelsea

I'm not normally much of a lad for football's tribalism, but I was at the Carling Cup Final yesterday, and I finally saw why people hate Chelsea. There are some sound individuals - Joe Cole, Petr Cech - but their fans, their Lampard, their Drogba...

On TV* you see Drogba doing something cool and you think, "how can anyone have a problem with this guy?", but off the ball, and so off-camera, he never stops being objectionable.


* I say "on TV" - obviously I don't mean that I watch whole games. I don't even mean Match of the Day highlights - I mean short clips on the news or youtube.

I fucking hate fucking Liverpool

They are such awful cunts. Now we'll get the same old guff about those "glorious European nights" at Anfield. Inter were the victims of the softest sending off since teams used to bribe the refs back in the 80s and lost their other centre back on a stretcher.

The only good thing to come from tonight's games was ITV getting a workmanlike Beglin in to do co-commentary and sending that moronic arse Pleat out to Greece. Can you leave him there?

Why must Sepp Blatter ruin everything?

Obviously the idea to play Premiership matches abroad is brilliant. Fuck Blatter, and fuck the World Cup.

Kammy

The best sending off ever?

What was he thinking?

More things to agree on

Obviously we are all completely psyched about the Premier League's plans to play ten league matches abroad in January 2011? Good.

Meanwhile - I am in town for the final group matches of the Hong Kong Football Association League Cup, which is next weekend. Assuming girlfriend permission, I intend to provide full coverage. Nine of the ten HKFA league teams are playing, which gives me a chance to pick my HK team (although unfortunately the one team that isn't playing, Workable FC, is already a frontrunner on name basis alone.) Wonderfully, all the teams except Lanwa Redbull play on the same ground, Mongkok Stadium, which will make the whole thing easier.


mongkok stadium

Hideous Yellow Away Shirt Update

Spain's is a stinker.

Something we can all agree on

Surely the most annoying "classic greatest goal" of all time is that bloody Argentina goal from the last World Cup, the one with the 146-pass build-up (mostly defenders passing to each other in their own half). Agreed? Good.

Anatomy of a goal

I'm not sure what the best Premiership goal ever was, but I'm certain that it was scored by Thierry Henry, my favourite Premiership player. Here's one from the FA Cup. Why is it so good? First, the audacity and creativity of the initial self-pass. Second, the pace needed to catch up with Carra (not the player he originally tried to tonk it around). Third, the physicality and agility to rob Carra, who gets to it first, of the ball. Fourth, the confidence and composure to pull away from goal, around Agger, when Agger starts to close him down (watch the slo-mo replay: 90% of strikers would shoot at 00:42-00:43, not bring the ball horizontally across the goalmouth at two Liverpool defenders to open up the angle). Fifth, he doesn't actually strike the ball that hard - as much as I can appreciate traction-engine legs like Hasselbaink's, true class is a calm, unhurried slot into the corner.