In the other hand there is always the doubt whether what type of opposition can Boro create. For example last season at Riverside Arsenal miserably lost two to one and in the visit to the Highbury in 2005/2006 the score-sheet was 7-0.
First half settled the encounter's score. Although many pundits have stated that this is the most vulnerable Arsenal's side in years the tempo in which the match was played was really high. This one-touch game led to several plays that ended wide off the mark. The early lead came at 17' when Adebayor headed a corner in the middle of the area; hilarious since no one was marking him. In the following minutes Arsenal defyied physically the relatively weak Riverside team. This form is the perfect one for visiting; high-tempo plays with strong physical dominion. The turning point was Aliadiere. The man scored a good goal, in the 29', following a Tuncay aggresive cross. After the equalizer the visiting squad retracted more and more, reaching the point of a "defensive style." Adebayor and van Persie made some good efforts but none of them encountered the back of the net. Boro played with no mistakes, except the ones made by Robert Huth, the "talented" German defender.
Immediately after the beginning of the second half Boro began to apply pressure, and it seemed as if the second half was a mere continuation of the first. The midfield was so confused that by the 56' the Arsenal had not arrived a single time. Cesc's absence from the field and the improvised right midfielder were among the problems that the visiting side faced. Van Persie's shot went just wide at 62' while a disordered Arsenal went on through the 75' mark. I would like to return to Miguel Simón's quote on the Porto match. It is true that Bendtner as I have argued before, lacks offensive power as well as striker tricks to overcome opposition as in this case again. The match ended with an Arsenal far from grace.
Title race has been the topic everybody talks about this week and also why is important for everybody to rule Arsenal out of the competition. Not just these remarks were brought in the press withOld Jol came out this week, but from the arch-rivals skipper and even our own boss. With all this fuss going around the Emirates in the build-up against Mersey side this Sunday, we are reminded about the same fuss last season: Ancelotti's declarations, Fergies' usual bounce and some casual thoughts from any manager, including UEFA Chairman Platini. Obviously Arsenal is a special team that manages to tremble any top-flight teams inland or continental. This is rather vague in the previous months with the mediocre Arsenal demostrations; mediocre in the sense of not achieveing a constant display.
Toluca was crowned as Mexico's Summer champions in a wrethched match from the level of football, which was excellent by the way, to the refering and the penalty shoot-out. The match was really a "final" and the atmosphere surrounding the stadium was perfect. The game itself was enjoyable, despite the huge number of dangerous tackles, one which brought Villaluz to the hospital. The referee, Roberto García, was a complete disaster. Cruz Azul came from a 2-0 down defeat to bring the match to its utmost end.
Regarding the transmission of the match, by Televisa, I have to say that pseudo-commentators Bermudez and friends are a complete shame to the journalism industry, or at least fot the casual football fan watching it. Bermudez stated, in a complete passionate, disoriented, and unobjective manner that Alejandro Vela was to fail the penalty because he (Bermudez) "sensed it." Yes he "sensed it." I do not know how a "lectured" man working in the football transmission over the past twenty years can say such things. TVC, my favourite football broadcaster, was the other option, which I took without doubting. The bad thing is that several ammount of his aphorisms have trascended to popular culture. Thank God that the Spanish commentator option in the new FIFA 09 can be changed to English, this in order to not hear his voice anymore.
Now that I have touched FIFA 09 I shall put at least a mini-review of it. New features for Wii such as the Footii 8v8 and the re-engineered browser for online games are among the highlights. The return of the Manager mode is a good thing to receive. The problem is that for experimented players who have reached at least five years in the same mode in FIFA 07 or played Football Manager is less than new and lame. Footii matches and Online gaming are the best features. In the online mode it would have been nice a detailed statistics center and more care with connection issues. The game goes afloat due to these two features, being the latter the most attractive one to the FIFA gamers. Regarding the new control mode for the Wii it is a copy from the innovative and highly adaptable control of the PES 2008. Even when copying some aspects of the control, PES overwhelms the newly developed FIFA control. I hope the new version of PES will go out on Wii. A 7.5/10 will be enough with FIFA 2007 being among the highest football Jav's game rankings with a 9.5/10, and the Football Manager 2008 a 9.2/10. By the way if anyone wants to play online, add me as friend (javbrad14) and we will play whenever you want to, dear reader.
"El Clásico" took place in the most dispaired situations, for both sides believe it or not, in the past twelve years I have been watching it. Madrid came with renewed forces after a win against Zenit while Barsa had a defeat with not much importance. In the pitch Ramos and Guti were responsible to batter (fortunately) the young Argentinian Messi. In any case the sum of the scoresheet was two-nil on the blaugranas.
Phill Ball's decision on taking his "sabbatic year" has stunned me. While being among Soccernet's best columnists (Hesse-Lichtenberger the first) for eight years, he has announced his momentarily relapse from his column. From here at Deviations we send him a warm good bye, we will be waiting for his "desert typos." Any case I wil continue to quote him when needed. Good Luck!
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