Arsenal v. Fenerbahce 0-0 5/Nov/08

A dull and and boring draw was the result of today's match against a visiting side who was almost as boring as Mexican football. Several changes in the line-up did not attract as much attention as it "should" but even with absences the home side looked strong enough to equal the potential reached in the previous visit to Turkey.





In the first half a rather dull and boring Arsenal side expected the visiting side to make a move but neither made one! Stupid as that any Gooner had to chew the dulliest forty five minutes of the current campaign when everybody was focused on the clash against Utd on Saturday. Even with all the possession that Arsenal enjoyed during the first half and the ammount of arrivals to Volkan's goal the game was far from having the intensity of the previous tie. Van Persie's wide side-net shot, at 8', or Ramsey's inbox play, at 12', were proof of that. Rossetti managed the match to be smooth and without pauses. That did not help in any way the quality of the game. There were several knocks on the door by the home side like Denilson wide shot or van Persie shot on the cross bar, in 32'. By the 35' the only important Turkish attack was lead by the brilliant Colin Kazim Richards.





Second period started with a curled shot by Touré at 48'. Much for the surprise of the home fans the Arsenal did not offer anything spectacular. The first ten minutes Fenerbahce tried to oppose against a dull and permissive Arsenal. Cesc was playing one of the worst matches of his season with wide passes. Wenger began to exasperate. Above all was the "enthusiasm" of the Gunner side who was reluctant to make an impression on every aspect of the match. The game moved through the left side mostly with Bendtner, Nasri and Clichy's attempts. The poor level showed by both sides suggested that this was a Carling cup match rather than a competitive one. In the freekicks there was nothing to be alarmed. At 70' dull attemps kept coming. Reaching the 80' mark it was by far Arsenal's worst match in UCL. I kept aware of the Turkish Euro comebacks but it did not appear.
The final grasp of the match was that everybody was waiting for something. The final four minutes were wothlesss due to the absence of emotion even with Nasri's side change. In the end Arsenal did not even want to get the lead.

Stoke City v. Arsenal 2-1 1/Nov/08

Misery still surrounds Gunners, after the ignominious draw against Spurs on Wednesday, now on the travel to Stoke with a horrid loss against promoted Potters. Missery is the perfect word for describing the feelings the current Gunner squad, this missery is the result of a horrible performance and the fact that the "fake Arsenal" still looms in all the matches. Richard Jolly depicts our misery in clear way. With this pace, we will never get to title race. Even with the midweek game against the Turkish side all the pressure was put on the English Derby at Saturday.





In the first ten minutes the Arsenal pushed with the typical touching, arriving in several opportunities, with the most notable in Cesc's shot at 5'. Strangely enough Captaincy rolled now to the one that was in the "Unnamable" times the third captain, Ivorian Toure. It was a mistake by the African that costed Arsenal the lead. One of those famous and record-breaking throwings by Rory Delap went into the goal. I think it was not deflected by Fuller. In any case the FA attributed the goal to the latter in a tremendous throw-in. I ignore if the IFFHS would consider Delap's pass as an assistance, because it is a pass outside the pitch, unlike freekicks. Anyway the Arsenal was confused and Stoke progressively gained possession and confidence while a couple of more Delap's rockets dangerously reached the box.
Even with time passing Arsenal's efforts were the delight for the Stoke crowd, such as Diaby WIDE shot at 25'.
All defensive situations for Stoke were stopped in Arsenal's counters. Cetainly many Arsenal players underestimated the situation an waited until the equalizer arrived. The visiting squad was speculating and Stoke fans kept their party going with all the wide opportunities by the opposition.





But actually the second half did not looked that promising as the first for the visiting side: Stoke rose above level with several nice opportunities. Two injuries attended infield at 55', Adebayor and Sagana, gave a far unlucky promising run for Arsenal. Still Arsenal's wide attempts showed a lack of training in practice sessions. As the game progressed and with Theo's entrance on Sagna's injury, the travelling Londoners roared on the visiting stand for the Dutchman van Persie. Arrivals from Arsenal to mention were Kolo Toure's over-the-bar shot and a wide Theo shot, all at 60'. Finally fans request was granted when the Durchamn came on for Denilson. By 70' Arsenal's signs of desperation did not appear until Adebayor got replaced by Mexican Vela. The swaying 3-2, 3-3 again was used by Wenger. Immediately after the substitution Delap took another throw that managed to get inside the net after a strange two-chest stroke by Olofiniana. Stoke had the time of its life, beating two-nil one of the Big Four. Just when the missery was beginning to pile up for the visiting squad the required Dutchamn featured another one of his baby riots, after innecesarily pushed Sorenssen. Two-nil down and with ten men the Arsenal hoped for the miracle to come. Walcott's old and niggling shoulder injury came off when Delap made him fall badly. Even when every supporter expected one of that famous late shows in which the Arsenal could tie or win the late goal came at 94' when a surprise shot from Clichy entered the net after several deflections by Stoke defenders. The dissapointing result could not have been worse for the upcoming decisive fixture against Utd.

Arsenal v. Tottenham 4-4 29/Oct/08

An eight goal thriller today occurred when the Arsenal FC faced Tottenham Hotspur in the North London Derby. The Gunners permissively gave the lead and later the equalizer in the last gasp of the match. Spurs fans must have been gliding with zest as their team did not produce the ammount of game the home side did. But in Football the one who scores the most wins. Three of the four away goals were circumstancial; two rebounds and a long shot. Arsenal again showed the two faces of the team which has been discussed in previous posts; a relentless and effective attack against a mere holding permissive defense. It may have been the end of League title contention for the Gunners as Liverpool and Chelsea soar above all others in quality and quanitity.





The match was high on emotion with all the crowd booing that bastard Bentley. Spurs situation could not have been better, with a struggling side that had not win until the arrival of Redknapp. Giovani dos Santos was left out of the squad as well as Vela, and the Mexican media frenzy over a "Mexicanized North London Derby" was left out. Immediately Spurs began the match aggressively with a shot on the side-netting by Bale at 3'.
A parenthesis should be made in order to mention the Spanish commentators (Mexican) in the match. I counted the minutes they left silent the screen and in 45 it reached 2 minutes! They spoke through forty three minutes! It is really incredible the ammount of stupidity Fox Sports Mexico is bringing with these two stupids who, not just do not shut up, but talk pure nonsense. Anyway if you hear the names of Gustavo Mendoza and Juan Carlos Gabriel de Anda run from your transmission.

Just after the game began to settle that old bastard Bentley scored a tremendous volley. The shot took completely offguard Almunia and Spurs were one-nil up. The Arsenal began to quicken its attacks and through the middle three chances were created. At 22' Nasri took its first corner for Arsenal, while the unsure home side defense was merely holding it up. Mendoza made one comment, that left him completely unguarded towards criticism, about Gallas: "[Gallas] completed eight games for France in the EURO 2008." The first part of this utterance was clearly a fallacy, but the second is a lack of preparation and of knowledge. You may know dear reader, that Gallas only played three games in the EURO. This is obviosly due to the fact that; first in the group stage there can only be three games, and second that the maximun ammount a squad can have in that tournament is six. Certainly nonsense and stupidity. The home side growed permissive within minutes and by the 32' with an inbox shot by Theo the match turned from being completely owned by the Gunners to an equal possession. Tottenham zonal marking could only be broken with a spot kick. Twice at 37'and 46' the Gunners rose from the bad marking made by the Spurs defense.





The second half brought us the early lead through dreadful captain William Gallas. The Arsenal went for the match and several arrivals ended either on wide shots, such as Denilson's 51' and Adebayor's 60', or on good plays by the sides. The third goal came through a brilliant van Persie midfield long ball which was flicked on by Nasri and pushed by Adebayor at 65'. Things could not have went more than good for the home side. But Bent immediate replied the net after Almunia's rookie bounce on a Huddlestone shot at 67'. Van Persie fulminated Gomes nearly forty seconds after leaving the score line 4-2. The happy crowd overwhelmed the chorus of songs by the visiting fans and the ambient was spectacular for the Gunners. As far as 88' the match seemed a complete practice and on the way to the end Arsenal lost their way. Possession and will was the effort made by Tottenham. Spurs solid performance gave them their two points but the news was the Arsenal deception, far from being heroical it was dismal. Jenas finishing in the 90' and Lennon's goal were far from being a real result for the Arsenal. Arsenal's confidence doomed the aspirations of the team, and against Tottenham you cannot allow that.

West Ham Utd v. Arsenal 0-2 26/Oct/08

One of the London derbies took place today at Boleyn Ground when a late show of Manu Adebayor close the score two-nil on the visiting side. The Hammers took on the first half defensively and the pressure was on the Gunners due to the early won of Liverpool on Chelsea.





First half went really passive. The attack of the visiting side was based, as usual, in possession but this time United's defense was different. Zola has been working on a deep defense based on a mixed zonal marking. This is the terror for the Gunner attack due to the style of passing; the game is not interrupted when attacking but the defending block has the advantage of covering all spaces, thus leading to less maneouvering from the attacking part. The Arsenal was uneffective while attacking; the left and right backs were not overlapping and French prodige Nasri completely dissapeared. Theo wide shot at crossbar at 21' and a deflection on Green's goal were the only attractives near the 30' mark. At 32' some hints of hte "Permisive Arsenal" appeared. The same mistakes that permited Hull and Everton to equalize were being made by the North London side. Fortunately for the Arsenal Cesc corrected the mistakes by applying immediate changes in rhythm on the pitch. Arsenal touching out of the box was meek and the first half ended with a shot by Bendtner.





Second half went quite impressive for the Hammers since the attempts by them were nearly on goal. Pressure and desperation for the Gunners became evident and by the 60', Wenger had made at least two substitutions. Robin van Persies twice shots, one at woodwork, were not enough to beat goalie Green. The pressure was so intense that after and Adebayor shot, the goal came, on a deflection by Faubert. The Gunnesrs deserved the goal for the pressure and resilence of the attacks rather than the talent displayed by the team. Faubert suffered with Clichy throughout the match and the second goal came on a counter commanded by Cesc. A long pass to Adebayor broke the offside trap and in a crazy exit by Green Adebayor dribbled and scored. In the end missery piled up for the Hammers due to the sent off of Cole.

Good times never change

Some say that the Cold War never ended. Others that there is a "New" Cold War coming and others that it did not exist at all, that it was WWIII. In any case the old chase between cat and mouse is still going on with major military forces and certainly will never end. I refer to the Cold War due to the recent (well a year ago) deployement of the F-22 to Alaska in response to Tu-22 long range exercises in both the Pacific and in the Northern seas. The old game of the chaser versus the chased is as old as war itself.
What impressed me today was an old news actually, but has to do with this topic. It was a from Strategy Page and it talks anbout the newest Russian ATG system, the PG-30. The article refers to the purpose of this missile. It has a primary warhead that intends to hit the target seocnds before the main missile, thus making either ERA or APS systems vulnerable. As many have noted several flaws in the intended hit of one surface, as many modern APS have a multiple thret choice system. My question is; should not be more intelligent to fire two or three RPG-7 instead of a coaxial missile as in the case of the PG-30?

For example information sources do not agree abput the capability of the HEAT round penetration in RHa, in the last link someone says 600 mm and in other stance 1000 mm. It may never be cleared since many of these systems have either not being proved or will go through revision. I ignore the case of the PG-30.
Again the old game of the missile, that is intercepted, and that the attacking missile has another measure to counter the interception of the latter is a typical war measure, but not the return of a military age, as someone would put. It is the old game of the cat versus the mouse.

"I drink much more..."

There has been a resurgence for Jeff Buckley in the last few months and I thank George for introducing him to me nearly year and a half ago. But even when Grace was released in 1994 it still has the same power, intensity and energy of its original date release.
What stroke me the most of Buckley's lyrycs was their "Poetic" aspect. But what nonsense am I talking about!? Does this term exists? Well it has its roots on the primal definition of Poetry and the Poetic. If we take Jakobson' definition of poetry it would seem too simplistic, but I would agree in the definition of Conceit for this case and particularly for Buckley's work; that what means something else with one or several intentions in one statement/utterance. So, in a wide and loose definition of "Poetic" in Buckley's lyrics I shall start the discussion.





I do not intend to make a full and deep analysis of the lyric because, unlike many others, it has its elements well "Explained" and it also has a metaphorical sense. It would seem as a paradox but actually it is very evident. Here the definition of Conceit for Buckley fits perfectly. The wine can be taken as the harvest of the mind or the love or simply as the fruit of the tree. Many metaphors containing harvesting occur in Latin literature and the transcendance can be traced as far as "Lycidas." The rhymes, although a bit forced, establish a clear pattern to follow and the musicality of the text, as if it were treated as a poem, fits perfectly. The "meaning" of the lyric along with its prosody could make perfect sense regarding it as a poem. Although the musicality of the pattern in the lyric fits as in a poem several conjunctions and commas could be added in order to make it as close as possible to verse, and to give a fluent reading. Repetition also could be avoided or rearranged. In any case if we treat Buckley's lyric as a poem following my definition of Conceit we could easily talk of "Formal" poetry in Jeff Buckley's lyric, and not only in this song but in others that share these elements. Try to read it out loud, dear reader, and tell me of you agree with me, or disagree in any case.


"Lilac Wine"

I lost myself on a cool damp night
Gave myself in that misty light
Was hypnotized by a strange delight
Under a lilac tree
I made wine from the lilac tree
Put my heart in its recipe
It makes me see what I want to see
and be what I want to be
When I think more than I want to think
Do things I never should do
I drink much more that I ought to drink
Because (it) brings me back you...

Lilac wine is sweet and heady, like my love
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, like my love
Listen to me... I cannot see clearly
Isn't that she coming to me nearly here?
Lilac wine is sweet and heady where's my love?
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, where's my love?
Listen to me, why is everything so hazy?
Isn't that she, or am I just going crazy, dear?
Lilac Wine, I feel unready for my love...

Fenerbahce v. Arsenal 2-5 21/Oct/08

Arsenal cruised on a slow and dull Turkish side after several drops in game in Premier League. Even though the visit to Fenerbahce with stars such as Güiza, Roberto Carlos and Senturk the home squad failed to prove their difficult star among Europe's finest. The tough visit to Turkey was as struggling as any visit to any top flight team in Europe. Certainly the hostile crowd helped the Arsenal to bring their best. With Fenerbahce showing many international players who featured in the last EURO 2008, one would have expected at least a come-back, such as the Epic ones against Croatia, Germany and Switzerland.





Right at the beginning of the first half Arsenal showed resilence and above all will towards the three points. Adebayor's fine shot went over the bar at 5'. But misery fell rapidly over the shoulders of Volkan and the Turkish defense when the visiting side scored two goals in two minutes. By 12' the lead was on two for the Gunners. The first, created by Diaby, through a Cesc' pass, that Adebayor finished neatly on 10'. The second another Cesc pass to Walcott, who broke the offside trap and scored passed Volkan. The problem with the offside trap was that three defenders gave wide spaces bewteen them, thus enabling deep through-passes to overhaul the Turkish side. Two arrivals from Fenerbahce and a bummer from Nasri before the fifteem minute mark made this match completly dynamic. Even though the Arsenal was the visiting side, they played with such pace that the fact that they were visiting was in doubt. The pace of the game could not go faster when Güiza netted his first goal of the night in a rambling situation after an indirect free-kick by the Turkish side, at 19'. A minute and a half later Diaby went through a disastrous defense and gave the two-goal lead the Arsenal had at 20'. The defense missed him in position and when they tried to rectify it was too late. Four goals in twenty minutes.
Even with the lead Arsenal's defense showed a lack of form, both physical and technical. Song and Silvestre couple did play like they had never met each other. Boral, Turkish left back, was a complete disaster. By 35' the Arsenal began swaping the ball around the box, as usual, with no repercussion at all. Diaby pulled the strings of the team along with Cesc, and he grew confident after his goal. Near the end of the half, Güiza's shot went inches away from goal, showing several flaws in Arsenal's defense.





As the game advanced, second half looked promising for the Turkish prospects. But Alex Song gave the visiting side a three goal advantage after a freekick by Cesc, which was deflected on the Turkish defence, all that at 49'. The match went on with several dispossesssions by both teams with a struggling home side and a now tranquil visiting one. By 67' a rampage maneouver was made by Güiza on a through Semih pass, followed by several defelection-shots in the 5 yard box. Miraculously the Arsenal was saved from the second. Aaron Ramsey made his European debut at 73', replacing Diaby. Following his debut, he rapidly adapted the game, and in the remaining fifteen minutes each attacking play passed through his feet. Even the Welshman enjoyed more freedom in midfield than Cesc. At 79' Güiza narrowed the lead on offside trap that saw the spanish striker eluding his markers and scored on top of Almunia. Even with this goal and with all the wide spaces given by the visiting defense the game went calmly for Arsenal when Ramsey netted a crossed shot, in his debut at 93'. He showed abilities he is capable of. We hope that he keeps improving them.

"One year have passed"

Colin White departed one year ago, on Saturday.
If you remember well last year I posted something concerning the death of our dear teacher.

I remembered him the other day I was writing my paper on "The Cold Heaven" by Yeats. I am afraid I have nothing more to say but to quote the poem.

I have already stated that in Mexico people do not have memory. Nobody remembered it, even in my faculty. Nobody mentioned anything or at least I did not hear of it. I am sure that there are persons who did remember but the moarners that "wept" last year are not doing so now. Even in the site that was so popular in the previous months did not mention anything. I am not fighting against anyone, just mentioning what happened. Argel mentioned the subject but aside from him no body remembered.

Memory is an important topic on a paper I am writing on Atonement and which will be for the next Colloquium. I promise post will be regularized from Thursday, it has been a tough period.


Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting Heaven
That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice,
And thereupon imagination and heart were driven
So wild that every casual thought of that and this
Vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season
With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago;
And I took all the blame out of all sense and reason,
Until I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro,
Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to quicken,
Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent
Out naked on the roads, as the books say, and stricken
By the injustice of the skies for punishment?


Yeats, W. B. Yeats Poetry, Drama and Prose. Jame Pethica, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000.