<div><figure class="image"></figure></div>On December 31st we throw a party, we have some drinks and we make promises for the new year. I’m going to eat better. I’m going to drink less. I’m going to get myself on track, baby! If we keep one or two of these promises&nbsp;deep into the year,&nbsp;we feel good. But the important thing is it’s a new year.&nbsp; A fresh beginning.
So here we are: the eve of the new Premier League season. For most football&nbsp;fans, this is where the year changes over. Happy New Year.
&nbsp;I’ve decided to make some resolutions as a follower, a writer and a fan. Please feel welcome to post your own “New Year” resolutions in the comment section.
1) Fantasy Football…
I’m going to see it through to the end this season. For once.
&nbsp;Here’s how my fantasy football odyssey usually goes: Ethan signs up. Ethan feels great about his starting XI. Ethan does well for a&nbsp;few weeks. Players get injured and booked. Ethan forgets to make changes before the deadlines.&nbsp;Ethan finally trades that striker who’s been doing f*ck all. That striker gets a hat trick and two assists&nbsp;the following weekend.&nbsp;Ethan throws his hands up in the hair mid-December as the notification emails pile up in his inbox and his team becomes a hollow shell of former greatness. Ethan tells, himself: next year, next year…
Well its next year. And I am keeping up with it this time. For real.&nbsp;I don’t care if I end up in the relegation zone of my group with less points than 07/08 Derby County. As long as I am still involved in the spring, I’ll be happy. Must be how Michael Owen feels as well.
2) Watch More of the Matches…
I am always up for watching good football no matter who’s playing. But last season I pretty much just watched Liverpool plus whatever was shown on FSC. Since I don’t have&nbsp;Setanta at home, watching those matches means going to the pub and going to the pub means spending too much. Last season I’d go for Liverpool and maybe stick around for the fixture afterwards. But this season I’m going to try to go both days and catch as much as possible. I’m sure I’ll miss some of the earliest morning matches, but I want to take in more and thus have more to write about, more to complain about, more to&nbsp;over-speculate about in the next transfer window. Besides who needs sleep when there’s football to watch?
3) Drink Less…
(Whispering: “How is he going to manage this? He just said he’ll going to the pub more often…”)
I’m not one to go out at night and drink until the sun comes up. But when watching football in the mornings and afternoons, I’ve been known to&nbsp;take down&nbsp;one or two more pints than I intend. The problem is the sipping of the beer becomes a nervous habit during a tense match. I clutch the glass like a security blanket and continually drink from it not out of thirst, per se, but just to have something to do besides fret. The beers go down fast during a match and head right for my love handles.
The solution is simple. I’m going to put the&nbsp;pint glass&nbsp;down. Set it on the bar or on the table and step away. I can pick up some other nervous habit like drumming my fingers or cracking my knuckles and go back to drinking beer at a leisurely pace. If the beer is not in my hand, I will only sip at it&nbsp;intermittently during pauses in plays. As long as there’s not an overwhelming number of corner&nbsp;kicks, I’ll be fine.&nbsp;I gave this a test run during the Atletico friendly last weekend. It went well. One cup of coffee and two pints got me through&nbsp;the whole ninety minutes.&nbsp;This is my new target. We’ll see if I can keep it up during the matches that matter, where the tension really mounts,&nbsp;but I think I can spend/drink less while watching more this season. It’s just a matter of adjusting my routine.
4) Get Fit…
Now this is starting to sound more like a traditional new year’s resolution list. And this one&nbsp;ties into drinking less. But it also ties into wanting to get in shape and play some regular football. Writing during the day and working in a restaurant at night has made it hard to get together a regular exercise schedule, but as with the cutting back on matchday pints, it is a matter of altering the routine. Besides: I want to look sexy for the day my future wife stumbles into our pub in a Torres kit and asks: “Is this seat taken?”
5) Keep Up With The Championship…
Since the Championship isn’t largely broadcast in the states, this will be harder than watching more Premier League matches, but I’m determined to know more about the teams in the next flight down in the coming season. Even if it just means reading more, I want to have a better grasp of all things Championship.
Last Saturday, I stuck around for the West Brom/Newcastle match on Setanta 2. A Geordie I know showed up (the only Newcastle supporter in the pub that day) and I hung out with him while he watched his side grind out a 1-1 draw. Everytime a Newcastle made a bad pass or a bad play, he groaned and said, “Welcome to the Championship.” But mostly he had a decent attitude considering his circumstances. “I’ll take a draw away,” he said at the end, a lot less glum than I would have expected. Made me think about how I’d act if my club got relegated.
I watched as a neutral, but I admit I got chills when Damien Duff scored. The build-up and the goal looked top-flight and gave me a thrill.
There’s so much drama in the Championship. So much can happen. With relegation and promotion changing the face of the league each year, there is ample room for new teams to become dominant and successful in an ever-changing arena. It is never the&nbsp;same teams coming up every other season.&nbsp;There’s something to fight for on both ends but the quality of football still makes&nbsp;the Championship a&nbsp;good watch. I look forward to seeing which teams fight for promotion and also how John Barnes does with Tranmere. I’d like to see Newcastle come back up for&nbsp;sentimental reasons. Maybe with one or two of the other former top flight stalwarts. Sheffield Wednesday? Nottingham Forest? (Ah, how I’d love to see Liverpool beat Nottingham Forest for old time’s sake.)
6) Read More…
As a writer and as a fan, I like to read as much as possible on the beautiful game. But working, writing and watching often gets in the way of plowing through a good book. (I’ve been chipping away at the mammoth The Ball is Round by Steven Goldblatt for weeks and I’m only an eighth of the way through the thing…) But I’m determined to keep up with the books.
My reading list includes:
Among the Thugs by Bill Bruford, Brilliant Orange by David Winner and Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson are all at the top of my list. I’m also curious about The Beckham Experiment by Grant Wahl, though I’ll probably look for it in the public&nbsp;library&nbsp;rather than buy it,&nbsp;and I’ll be picking up Bill Simmons’s The Book of Basketball when it comes out for some nice sporting contrast (I like to inject some baseball and basketball reading here and there).
So there it is. My resolutions for the year. We’ll see how many I keep.

Premier League Eve: Tell Me Your New Year's Resolutions - World Soccer Talk

Premier League Eve: Tell Me Your New Year's Resolutions

<div><figure class="image"></figure></div>I’m generally&nbsp;not one to promote proselytizing, but I found this old pamphlet in an antiquarian bookstore in southern Maine. It was written by St. Dickie of Assisi F.C., a reknowned football missionary and Premier League devotee who travelled throughout North America in the late 20th century, bringing the love of English association football wherever he went. This is his advice to other missionaries&nbsp;following in his footsteps.
When spreading the joy of football in the North America, you will find many obstacles in your path, but despair not. For I’ve seen&nbsp;the work become easier in the time I have been here. For instance, each year, more and more natives have seen the light and can now be found watching football in this country’s many Irish and English pubs. They are&nbsp;eager to soak in as much of the beautiful game as time and broadcasting rights will allow. Many have even made pilgrimages across the sea to visit the great places of worship. From Fratton Park to Anfield, from St James Park to Stamford Bridge, they have seen the game and all of its glory first hand.
You can look to these American converts to aid you in&nbsp;bringing the love of football to others. Whether helping you teach the matchday&nbsp;hymns or helping you explain the intricacies of the sacred offside rule, these new supporters&nbsp;will be there to&nbsp;echo your&nbsp;passion and inspire the football spirit within others with cheering, song, swearing and adlib dissection of the referee’s many short-comings.
I have distilled the challenges of such&nbsp;missionary work in America to three main obstacles all stemming from aspects of the game that are rare in popular American sport.
1.) Low Scoring Matches
As with many sport enthusiasts, Americans love action. On this continent, spectators often equate action with high scorelines. American football games regularly end in double-digits and basketball games are known to get into the hundreds. In baseball,&nbsp;a batter&nbsp;can&nbsp;create multiple runs at once if there are&nbsp;already&nbsp;men on base (See also: The Grand Slam).
Thus, an association&nbsp;football match with, say,&nbsp;a 1-0 scoreline can confuse those unaccustomed to watching the sport. My favourite way to overcome this barrier is to compare such a match to a baseball pitchers’ duel. When opposing pitchers are both&nbsp;preforming their best, a baseball game can go hours without a single run. Americans consider this a thrilling, special occasion.&nbsp;Compare this to two English defenses each shutting down the other’s offense. It becomes a great match to watch&nbsp;because of the suspense. When will the run be scored? When will the away team sneak a goal in? In both cases, specators are on the edge of their seats. A great example to relate one sport to the other.
If that doesn’t work use the following conversion chart to explain the true value of a goal:
Baseball:&nbsp;1 run =&nbsp;1 run
Basketball:&nbsp;1 basket = 1, 2 or 3 points (depending on the circumstances)
American Football:&nbsp;1 touchdown = 6 points (plus an additional point if the extra kick is scored)
Association Football: 1 goal = 100,000 guiltless orgasms (if scored&nbsp;by your club) or 100,000 black holes sucking all life out of the universe (if scored against your club).
2.) Draws
Fans of American sports are used to seeing somebody win. In most cases a game will not end in a draw.&nbsp;Americans will&nbsp;endure overtime and&nbsp;embrace the practice&nbsp;of “sudden death” before they walk away from a fixture unsatisfied by a level scoreline.
To relate to this, explain that association&nbsp;football sometimes has extra-time and penalty kicks to determine the outcome in matches where a draw is not acceptable.
For all other occassions, I like to turn back to baseball once again for an inviting comparison.
In a level baseball game, the teams will simply keep playing until someone can take the lead. Even when nine innings are reached, the players&nbsp;will continue into extra innings, sometimes playing for hours until a result is achieved. This is bearable in baseball where there&nbsp;are plenty of calm moments. The action is not all out for the five hours and the specators can relax, travel to the restrooms, purchase food and beverage, talk about everyday life in between plays. The&nbsp;noise of the crowd at a live game will tell them&nbsp;when&nbsp;a great play is&nbsp;ensuing and they can bring their attention&nbsp;back to the action. If they are at home,&nbsp;a similar signal comes when the announcers end a fifteen minute conversation about shoe laces&nbsp;to resume talking about baseball.&nbsp;Spectators might be tired at the end of&nbsp;an extra-innings&nbsp;game, but they probably won’t lose their minds. Unless of course it is a playoff.
In association football, however, an invested supporter is emotionally wound tight and mentally stretched thin for nearly every minute of nearly every&nbsp;match. Each play, each pass,&nbsp;each dispossesion,&nbsp;each attempt on goal, has the football fanatic’s knuckles turning white and stomach clenching itself into a fist. A football fan can survive two hours of stalemate, but to endure four or five? If matches didn’t end in a draw&nbsp;as needed – &nbsp;if they always&nbsp;went on and on until a result was achieved –&nbsp;most supporters would have heart attacks by the time they turned 25 years of age and there would soon be nobody left&nbsp;to support football. Out of necessity most matches must end after 90 min to ensure the supporter survives to watch the team the following weekend.
3.) Lack of Commercial Breaks
In America the sporting event is not only a chance to live and die with your favourite team – it is a chance to learn about all the fast food meal deals, car insurance plans, four-by-four hemi-laden&nbsp;trucks, sexual performance enhancing drugs and upside-down rotating hanging tomato planters that could be all be&nbsp;yours if you are willing to max out your credit cards. The televised commercial is entrenched in the culture. Baseball goes to commercial every half inning and every pitching change. Basketball&nbsp;goes during the longer time-outs. And&nbsp;American football goes during every other stoppage in play –&nbsp;about every&nbsp;few minutes&nbsp;plus every time the quarter-back gets a wedgie (See also: problems with spandex).
Because of the ease with which television commercials can be&nbsp;injected into these sports, American advertisers (and broadcasters) have long pushed the sports with the most breaks as the&nbsp;games to watch. Association football with its lone commercial break at half-time has always struggled to compete for attention in this environment.
There is of course plenty of advertising in world football. It simply takes a different form. Players wear their sponsors on their shirts and ads run around the sides of the stadium on electric billboards. The competitions themselves take on the names of sponsors: Barclay’s Premier League, the Coca-Cola Championship.
Explain to potential converts that this is a good thing. That the reduction of commercials means more uninterupted action. Imagine if this was applied to other television programmes… a viewer is watching the daytime soap operas:
This week on MasterCard’s The Young and The Restless:
Jim enters the house&nbsp;and grabs Mary roughly by the arms. She puts her hands on his&nbsp; chest, careful not to cover up his Verizon Wireless logo.
Jim: Mary, I must have you! I don’t care who knows it!
Mary (pulling away): Oh, Jim! We shouldn’t! Mike could be home any minute!
Jim: I don’t care! My passion for you is unending… much like the Energizer Bunny…
Mary: Oh Jim! 
Mary tears open her blouse, revealing a sexy red&nbsp;negligee, brought to you by Carlsberg. Jim moves toward her… but&nbsp;as he is about to pop a Mentos and lock into a passionate&nbsp;kiss… Mike bursts into the room…
Mike: What in the name of new&nbsp;Kentucky&nbsp;Grilled Chicken is going on here? 
You get the idea.
Ultimately, through time and exposure, I truly believe&nbsp;association football can find its way into mainstream sporting culture in America. The thrill, the suspense, the beauty and athleticism of the sport all have universal appeal. These things make the best&nbsp;games in America’s favourite sports great as well.&nbsp;It is simply a matter of getting the uninitiated hooked under the right circumstances. The passion the converted already feel is no accident and it is&nbsp;highly&nbsp;addictive. One can feel an overwhelming football curiosity spreading throughout this land. America may be only one or two&nbsp;crusades (see also: World Cups) away from tumbling&nbsp;toward the widespread acceptance the rest of the world enjoys.
Until then, brothers and sisters, keep the faith and keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Brother&nbsp;Dickie of Assisi F.C.

From A Guide For The Football Missionary In America - World Soccer Talk

From A Guide For The Football Missionary In America

<div><figure class="image"></figure></div>Saturday, 8th Aug 2009
It was the last of the pre-season friendlies. The last chance to gauge how our side looks going into the season proper. We gathered outside the pub in our red kits, awaiting the sound of the deadbolt sliding out of place.&nbsp;All season the sound of that door unlocking will be like Pavlov’s bell to&nbsp;Boston’s Liverpool supporters, a signal it is time to&nbsp;pour inside, choose&nbsp;the best&nbsp;vantage point and wait for the&nbsp;friend with the&nbsp;iPhone to announce the starting line-up.
Saturday was a beautiful New England day. Not a cloud in the sky. A&nbsp;warm breeze licked&nbsp;our ears.&nbsp;The rains that had hounded us all summer were long gone.&nbsp;Probably bought by Real Madrid for £80m.&nbsp;Passers-by gave us odd looks: Are these dudes really waiting outside a bar at ten in the morning? On a&nbsp;perfect day?&nbsp;Really? No, don’t organize the intervention: we’re simply football supporters.
Liverpool would take to the pitch against Anfield with something pretty close to their best starting eleven.&nbsp;We wouldn’t see Riera, Agger or Skrtel (all of us hoping their fitness woes would be short-lived), but there’d be some sense of what we will field in next week’s match at Spurs.
I was really hoping for a good performance from Lucas Leiva.
If you’d told me in late May, you’d heard Lucas was about to depart Liverpool, I would have had no complaints. The kid has not lived up to expectation since his arrival from&nbsp; Gremio in the summer of 2007, but he’s done enough I’m sure we could get&nbsp;a decent price for him. Or at least put him out on loan&nbsp;and hope we get a more rounded player back in a year.&nbsp;But now with Xabi Alonso gone and injured newcomer Alberto Aquilani not expected to start for a while, we need Lucas. We need him to blossom into his&nbsp;full Brazilian being. Now.&nbsp;He needs to take his game up a level and fill that gaping&nbsp;abyss that Xabi left behind like a hole in the chest. Otherwise Gerrard will play too deep and Torres won’t have enough support and we’ll never break down those ten-men-behind the ball sides that kept us from the league title last season.
So we waited outside, chatting about Lucas and Aquilani and title hopes and&nbsp;so on&nbsp;until the door opened.
The pre-season doesn’t pull out as many supporters. Saturday, nine of us gathered at the bar and ordered pints and breakfast. The bartender smiled at us and welcomed us back, but you could tell she&nbsp;really wanted a&nbsp;couple more hours in bed. I myself downed half a cup of coffee before digging into my lager.
The opening minutes looked promising enough. Dirk&nbsp;Kuyt&nbsp;took a&nbsp;blistering&nbsp;shot on target&nbsp;a dozen minutes in. Soon after though, Jamie&nbsp;Carragher was down after a knock. He was still moving and stretching, looked like he might be alright,&nbsp;but in the end he&nbsp;wouldn’t return to the pitch. Atletico’s wonderboy Sergio Aguero took advantage of our defensive&nbsp;thinness and scored a beautiful header off Antonio Lopez’s service. “Buy him!” yelled my co-supporters.
San Jose came on for Carra, joining Ayala in the back. I’d seen very little of these two in action. Never mind together. Not too comforting with the league opener a week away.
At least Lucas looked good. One&nbsp;hopeful sign is his new size. He looks bigger… well… bigger for Lucas. He told us he was going to bulk up and he kept his promise. Last season, a hearty sneeze was enough to push him off the ball. Now he looks ready to stand firm. His movement was solid as well. Good turns, good thinking. His final ball often left something to be desired, but to be fair, everbody’s final ball left something to be desired.
On 32 minutes, Forlan was in on goal when a miscue between Glen Johnson and San Jose gave the former Manchester United man enough space to blast a shot into the far side of the net. Painful.
Both conceded goals came from poor organization in the back. If Carra had still been in, we wouldn’t have given up two. Maybe one, with Aguero looking ready to take on any starting eleven all on his own, but never two. And here we were, worrying over Carra’s fitness. Skrtel. Agger. Carra.&nbsp;Would we start the season without a single fit established centre-back?
During a league match, our corner of the&nbsp;pub is&nbsp;usually&nbsp;too wound up for much&nbsp;talk. We curse, we moan, we cheer. We make asides but we don’t really&nbsp;form any fluid&nbsp;conversation&nbsp;until half-time. But since it was only a friendly we chatted about transfers and fitness and everything else to do with the oncoming season. Buzzing over Aguero, we wondered aloud: could he fit at Anfield? Would he be worth it? Could we get him?
“We don’t need another striker,” declared my friend Tetteh. “Anybody who’s good enough isn’t going to sit on the bench waiting for Torres to get hurt anyway.”
Moments later Torres rattled a shot off the bar.
Tetteh (laughing): “F*ck it. Maybe we do need another striker!”
The second half saw some early chances and then on 67 minutes Torres&nbsp;carved his&nbsp;around three defenders but couldn’t get the goal.
Finally, on 82&nbsp;minutes, Gerrard found Lucas with a prescient through-ball. The Brazilian knocked it home.
There wouldn’t be an equalizer but with Lucas getting a goal for all his effort, I felt&nbsp;better about next Sunday.
When Lucas first&nbsp;came to Anfield, he&nbsp;had to live in the shadows of Gerrard, Alonso and Mascherano. He was like a bungalow built&nbsp;at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids. Now Gerrard has&nbsp;moved forward to form a partnership with Torres, and Alonso&nbsp;has shipped&nbsp;off to Real Madrid. This is Lucas’s chance. Maybe what Lucas needed all along (apart from a summer lifting weights and eating pies) was a shot at some consistent starts. If Aquilani is out for “one month or so” (Rafa’s words), Lucas will have his chance to establish himself and come into his own. If he plays like he did&nbsp;Saturday (only with more connections on that final pass), he could prove to be the man for the job.
When Liverpool took on Manchester United at Old Trafford&nbsp;last March, they were without Xabi&nbsp;Alonso. He’d been our most influential player all season.&nbsp;But for that all-important match,&nbsp;he was out with injury. Lucas&nbsp;started and played out of his skin. Where had this kid been all season? We needed him. He came up big.
This is the same. Xabi’s gone. Only this time for good. We need Lucas to come up big. If he can manage this, it won’t matter if Aquilani needs time off for fitness. It won’t matter that our Spanish midfield visionary has gone back to his peninsula. Lucas can do it. He just has to dig in and unlock the the quality that’s been simmering there all along. His play has been a whisper. It’s time for him to scream.

Fan Diary #1: Is This Lucas Leiva's Season? - World Soccer Talk

Fan Diary #1: Is This Lucas Leiva's Season?

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Football supporters thrive on animosity. We need to be able to shake our fists in the air and yell all the bad words at our hated teams and players.
When Jose Mourinho left Chelsea, I had mixed feelings. On one hand, a gifted manager of a rival team was out the door. I wouldn’t&nbsp;have that same level of dread when Liverpool faced Chelsea. On the other hand, I knew I’d miss his presence in the league. The pacing. The brooding. The eccentricity. To me he was evil. But he was&nbsp;the ingenious side of evil. If he came&nbsp;to a match wearing a top hat, long black cloak, twisting a long, curly&nbsp;moustache I wouldn’t have been surprised.&nbsp;I didn’t want a Premier League without Mourinho. It would be like Star Wars without Darth Vader. I needed my villain.
With Mourinho gone, I had to turn to my reserve&nbsp;villain: Cristiano Ronaldo. He’s been&nbsp;the chief&nbsp;bad guy for most non-United supporters for a while and fills the bill perfectly. And I even have a couple United friends who seemed wary of expressing their love for him. They were thankful for his talents for sure, but one friend seemed almost relieved when he left, like: “Thank God I don’t have to defend&nbsp;his cheating&nbsp;anymore.”
But now Ronaldo’s off to Spain. I’m without a pure villain. I’m glad the threat he can create out of a millisecond of time and an inch of space is safely away from English stadia. But at the same time, I’ll miss his presence. I’ll miss despising him. Who’s going to fill his&nbsp;boots for me in the season(s) to come?
In looking for a suitable replacement I need to consider what made Ronaldo my top football villain. For me it boils down to three things:
1) The Cheating – Ronaldo’s prolific history of diving makes your average Olympic gold medalist look like an underachiever. While he toned it down the last couple of years, he still managed to make an art form out of it. It was almost an athletic feat in and of itself each time he did it.
2) The Smugness – Ronaldo perpetually gives of the air that he’s better than everybody and he knows it. It’s fine to be better than everybody. But, good lord, man, find a way to feign looking modest. As an overpaid world class athlete you owe it to us. Practice in the mirror in the morning.
3) The Greatness – Ronaldo is brilliant. His skills on the ball are unreal. His set pieces are often devastating. The true villian needs to be a great player. I need to despise him because the endless threat he poses to my side. Any Joey Barton can be irritating. But it takes a player of Ronaldo’s caliber to be a top-shelf bad guy.
4) Plays for&nbsp;a Rival – If Ronaldo had been at Aston Villa or Tottenham I don’t think he would have earned my ire in the same way. Since I support Liverpool and he was United’s top gun, he’s an easy choice. I can understand why Steven Gerrard fills the role for so many United supporters even if he’s my favorite player. That’s how this thing works.
So in looking for a replacement I turn to Liverpool’s rivals…
Arsenal:
Fabregas –&nbsp; He looks like he&nbsp;could be full enough&nbsp;of himself to fulfill condition 2) and he’s certainly great, but&nbsp;he’s not as devastating as Ronaldo and I don’t know him to be a cheater. He’s actually a player I’ve always liked so I don’t know if I could make a villain out of him. If he has more goals against Liverpool like his 80th minute scorcher in Oct 2007 I may reconsider him. But for now he’s out of the running.
Arshavin – This guy only enters the fray because he scored 4 goals at Anfield and crushed Red title hopes. I’ll need to see a lot more of him to know if he can fit top villain status. For now he’s just a one-off villain. He can’t touch Ronaldo’s consistent and long-standing work.
Chelsea:
Terry – John Terry is certainly brilliant and smug and plays for a rival. His love for towering over a referee to intimidate and influence the call certainly hugs the cheating line. He’s on the down-slope of his career though. Too injury prone. If I make him a villain he’ll probably retire or&nbsp;move to the&nbsp;MLS&nbsp;and I’ll have to start this process all over again.
Drogba – Didier Drogba might be the best candidate I can think of. Olympic class diving. Top-shelf skills. Smuggly bursting with ego. I may have to wait and see how much of a role he plays for Chelsea though. Last season Anelka played so much as a lone striker and earned the golden boot and kept Drogba out of the running. If Drogba gets the starts this year he may be my man.
Everton:
I know Everton are rivals, but it’s hard to make a villain of any of them since David Moyes gets so much out of&nbsp; such an inexpensive side. I completely respect that and I hope they win the Carling or&nbsp;FA Cup in the near future to have something to show for their efforts.&nbsp;If forced to chose, I guess Tim Cahill because of his goals against Liverpool last season and&nbsp;for some reason I love seeing anyone named Neville see a red card,&nbsp;but in truth I can only feel ire toward Everton on derby day. The rest of the season, I have no problem with them.
Manchester United:
The rival rule alone&nbsp;suggests they should have the winner hands down. But while they collectively&nbsp;enjoy most of my&nbsp;football ire&nbsp;I just can’t feel that strongly against any individual United player now that Ronaldo’s gone.
Giggs –&nbsp;Filled the brilliance role in his heydey but is now on the wan. He’s one United player I’ve always respected. Can’t hate him.
Rooney –&nbsp;Doesn’t seem to cheat. Isn’t smug. He’s brilliant when he’s fit but that’s not enough to be my top&nbsp;villain.
Vidic – Top defender. He’s got the skills but not the Ronaldo-sized ego. Given the chance, I’d accept him as a Liverpool player. No go.
Owen – I don’t want to hate Michael Owen. If he scores ten goals against Liverpool or he gets the winner in a deciding match that gives United the title by a mere point over us, I’ll feel differently. For now, he can’t be my villain.
I am shocked United don’t have any better contenders. Hopefully it’s a sign they don’t win the league.
I’m afraid I have to go with Drogba. He’s been in Ronaldo’s shadow all this time. Now, I’ll give him this season to blossom into true evil glory and become my top football villain. Good luck, Didier. I believe in you.
So that’s my pick. How about you? I accept you won’t all share my perspective and&nbsp;some of you will pick Steven Gerrard. I’d like to hear your take on this as well. Just keep the language clean. It’s a family website.

Do Supporters Need A Villain? - World Soccer Talk

Do Supporters Need A Villain?

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If Steven Gerrard is the heart of Liverpool then Xabi Alonso&nbsp;was one of the lungs. So Liverpool just lost a lung. It’s lung-wrenching. I know they have a potential organ donor lined up (AS Roma) and that a new&nbsp;lung (Alberto Aquilani) could be on the way already, but what if the operation doesn’t take? They won’t know until the season gets going.
You really want to know&nbsp;your key organs are working before you get out there and start running about full tilt. Things can quickly go awry.&nbsp;See: Robbie Keane.
When Liverpool finished second last season, four points&nbsp;shy of the top, it was clear this season would require some tweaking. No serious overhaul needed.&nbsp;A lick of paint here. Replace some vinyl siding there.&nbsp;Liverpool&nbsp;finished last season with&nbsp;a group of players who could almost win the title. They could look at it up close and admire its shine. They could definitely smell it.&nbsp;No touching. A couple adjustments could put the title in reach.
Enter Glen Johnson for Alvaro Arbeloa. The proven right-back who loves to get forward and create chances. Kuyt and Benayoun are at their best drifting in toward the box&nbsp;from wide areas and with Johnson providing reinforcement on the wing,&nbsp;they’ll each have much more freedom to do so. Potentially a&nbsp;stellar adjustment.
After the Johnson pick-up, I put Liverpool at the status of title-ready. Maybe one more purchase to be safe (perhaps a back-up striker for Torres, yes?) But Boom! Crash!&nbsp;Now the Reds have hit a wall.&nbsp;Last season’s&nbsp;most influential playmaker packed his bags and&nbsp;went to the great Spanish talent vacuum: Real Madrid. It feels like as&nbsp;Liverpool&nbsp;got in sight of the top of the ladder, Florentino Perez cut the middles out of the&nbsp;upper&nbsp;rungs. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
I know this was&nbsp;unavoidable. Real have the money (well they don’t actually have the money – they have banks who don’t care that they don’t have the money, which is just as good), and Xabi wanted to go back to Spain. Two inexhaustable&nbsp;&nbsp;forces.
Despite my naive&nbsp;belief that the deal would collapse at the last minute, Xabi’s leaving now seems like it was a forgone conclusion all along.
There’s nothing to be done but move on.
Today,&nbsp;the same buzzing network that told us Xabi was going seems convinced Aquilani is on his way. Searches on Bing and NewsNow call up a slew of articles&nbsp;that claim&nbsp;the deal is nearly done.&nbsp;(Liverpool have also been linked with Standard Leige’s Steven Defour and there’s still talk they might go for David Silva. Though it feels like they’ve been going for&nbsp;Silva since the Bronze Age.)
If it is Aquilani to replace Alonso (reports insist the deal could be tied up in the next week), hopefully the feeling Rafa and co. have about&nbsp;the 25-year-old Italian&nbsp;comes from the part of their instinct that told them Torres and Mascherano were the right targets. Not the instinct that told them to spend £7m on Andrea Dossena.
I know a club is not any one man and, as a supporter, I have to accept my favorite players&nbsp;are not always going to stick around. But Xabi is a tough one to let go. Other than Gerrard and Torres, I think I’d rather give up any other Liverpool player over Xabi. (Ooh: Javier… I didn’t really mean that… please don’t go anywhere, dude!)
Really, I don’t really want to give up any of the first team players except Dossena, Lucas&nbsp;and Andriy V*****n.&nbsp;But Xabi going leaves that big empty hole in the middle. It feels irreparable. It’ll take a lot of convincing from the new kid (whoever he may be) that we’ll be alright.
Again: a lung is missing. I’m feeling wheezy.

Replacing Xabi Alonso - World Soccer Talk

Replacing Xabi Alonso

<div><figure class="image"></figure></div>Former winners Celtic are amongst a number of big name teams already fighting for their lives in this season’s UEFA <a href="http:\/\/betting.betfair.com/football/champions-league-betting/">Champions League</a>.
Celtic travel to Russia desperate to overturn a 1-0 deficit, but with opponents Dinamo Moscow on a fine run of form, defender Gary Caldwell knows it will take something special to emerge victorious. In addition, the Scottish giants have never won a European tie after losing at home and Caldwell said: “We understand that it’s a big game. You have that feeling in your stomach.
“It would be big for us to get through but I don’t think it’s about making history, it’s about getting through this stage of the competition and trying to qualify for the Champions League.”
Also in danger of early elimination are Sporting Lisbon who travel to Dutch club FC Twente with the scores level at 0-0. The first leg became a one sided affair after FC Twente were reduced to 10 men when their goalkeeper, Sander Boschker, was dismissed after just 27 minutes. However, on loan Liverpool goalkeeper Nikolay Mihaylov saved the resultant penalty and proceeded to secure a clean sheet for the visitors.
After the game Mihaylov said: “It was very hard for me as I came on without having any preparation. I just put my gloves on and went in goal. Of course the penalty save gave me some confidence.
“Now we have the second leg at home and we have the chance to decide the tie in front of our own fans.”
Elsewhere, last season’s UEFA Cup winners Shakhtar Donetsk face a difficult trip to Romanian outfit FC Timi?oara, having only managed a 2-2 draw in the home leg. The Romanian runners up have little history in Europe but it seems a good <a href="http:\/\/betting.betfair.com/international-football/champions-league/champions-league-betting-real-shorten-as-ronaldo-i-070709.html">Champions League bet</a> that they will fancy their chances courtesy of two away goals from speedy striker Gheorghe Bucur.

More big names on the brink as Champions League third qualifying round reaches a conclusion  - World Soccer Talk

More big names on the brink as Champions League third qualifying round reaches a conclusion

<div><figure class="image"></figure></div>I am a football writer, but I am football reader too. I demand fresh&nbsp;information.&nbsp;I want it now. I want it in abundance.&nbsp;Coming up to&nbsp;a match, I scour the net for preview.&nbsp;Is player&nbsp;X still injured?&nbsp;Did player&nbsp;Y travel with the team? Did player Z’s red card get overturned?&nbsp;&nbsp;An hour before kick-off, I’m “handcuffed” to my laptop hitting the&nbsp;refresh button&nbsp;again and again&nbsp;until&nbsp;the starting&nbsp;elevens finally emerge&nbsp;through the haze.&nbsp;After a match, I search for confirmation: was I the only one who saw the offside call was&nbsp;ridiculous, the penalty was&nbsp;nonesense, the goal was imagined?
The amount of information&nbsp;streaming through the devices&nbsp;in our laps and in our&nbsp;palms is unheralded.&nbsp;In the age of the blogosphere it is hard to keep up with everything flying&nbsp;past&nbsp;our screens at pace. As old editing traditions are often&nbsp;discarded to keep up with the speed of the blogosphere, readers become editors,&nbsp;sifting out the valuable information from the flood of superfluity.
This morning in my&nbsp;daily caffiene-driven news hunt, I&nbsp;searched for updates on Xabi Alonso’s impending move to Real Madrid. Half the headlines suggested it was a sure thing. Half&nbsp;told me the deal was&nbsp;about to collapse. There was plenty of material up. But only when Liverpool posted the official news on their official site later in the day could I confirm he was leaving.
Amidst a web search, we are often plagued by too much information. The specific&nbsp;details we seek&nbsp;are buried under a heap of semi-relevant material. But just as often we’ll find a slew of pertinent articles on the&nbsp;our topic… only to find they are all based on the same small thing.
Yesterday, I wanted to write an&nbsp;piece about David Beckham’s upcoming appearance with Arnold Schwarzenegger in an advertisement for California tourism. I was going to talk about what this means for Beckham.&nbsp;Is he trying to prove his loyalty to California amidst speculation of a move back to Italy?&nbsp;Is he just trying to make a few extra bucks so Posh can buy that diamond-encrusted yoga mat? Is he trying to get his foot in the door for a future career as an action movie star? Is he preparing for a future gubernatorial bid in the state of California?
Problem is: every article I found on the Bex/Arnie&nbsp;ad campaign&nbsp;stemmed from the same quote from The Sun. Everybody wanted to get something up on the topic, but nobody had anything new to say. Essentially the same article&nbsp;was posted a dozen times in a dozen different places&nbsp;with slightly different wording. I decided not to add to the heap of rushed articles based on&nbsp;little information from a famously unreliably source.
Granted, the transfer season might be the worst time for hungry readers. Writers have less to write about but no less demand for information so it’s easy&nbsp;to dwell on whisps of transfer rumors and allow&nbsp;the tiniest of&nbsp;hint of a&nbsp;new development spark a&nbsp;full article. The less there is to talk about means&nbsp;readers are likely to see the same story rehashed again and again.
But look at&nbsp;the audience: football readers. We want to know and we want to know now. If you don’t have something to tell us: come up with something quick!
Football readers demand instant gratification.
But this is nothing new.
According to David Goldblatt (and I’ll probably be citing his book The Ball is Round in my articles for months since the thing is 900 pages long and will take me ages to read—a nice counterweight to the speedy reading/writing I’m talking about), the great demand for written coverage in the late-nineteenth century quickly gave rise to the sporting dailies and soon would inspire rapid coverage of the matches:
“Special Saturday-evening editions were printed on coloured paper – and thus known as&nbsp;Pink ‘Uns and Green&nbsp;‘Uns – at such extraordinary speed that you could pick one up on the way home from the game.&nbsp;The whole report from the game would have been dictated move by move down the phone as the game developed, ready to go to press on the final whistle.”
Our demand for the&nbsp;instant update is nothing new, but the technology that brings it to us has evolved to the point where we are now updated&nbsp;before the match,&nbsp;throughout the match,&nbsp;right after the match and every hour until the next match.
I don’t want&nbsp;you to think&nbsp;I’m complaining. This new era is exciting. The&nbsp;pace of things makes it like a good football match.&nbsp;The viewer tries to see where the movement is going like a spectator watching a counter-attack unfold.&nbsp;But it can be overwhelming as well.
When I started writing regular nonfiction, I tried to figure out how I fit into the relentlessness of the new&nbsp;online journalism. I read an article last November in The Atlantic that was a great help in steering my thinking: “<a href="http:\/\/http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/andrew-sullivan-why-i-blog" target="_blank">Why I Blog</a>” by Andrew Sullivan.
Sullivan speaks of the blogosphere as a broadcast. When we think of this ever-moving media as a typed out&nbsp;radio feed, it makes more sense than comparing it to the slower-moving&nbsp;printed word. Bloggers broadcast their opinions and reactions almost as they happen. Like live&nbsp;gameday commentary in text form. Sullivan says:
“For bloggers, the deadline is always now. Blogging is therefore&nbsp;to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways,&nbsp;writing out loud.”
And while many online&nbsp;journalists still keep toward the traditional side of article writing, we cannot deny that blogging, with all its pace and spontaneity, has had a huge influence on the digital&nbsp;writing arena. The deadline might not always be now, but it’s much sooner than tomorrow.
I myself prefer to hug the middle between traditional slower-paced writing and the high-speed blog. I still scrawl out my initial ideas in a notebook (how analog is that?) and I still try to give myself time for revision (although, writing about five times a week keeps a sometimes painful&nbsp;limit on this). Some days&nbsp;I wish I had someone editing my work (especially the days I go back and find that blatant mistake hanging in the hair like a fart at a wedding), but mostly I enjoy that I can say what I want and transmit my thoughts at the click of a button.
Finding that space in the middle is key to&nbsp;the future of the&nbsp;medium. Online&nbsp;correspondents&nbsp;of all types would do well to&nbsp;maintain the considered thoughfulness of old school writing as they embrace the pace and need for endless current material that blogging demands.
The pace of football writing is not going to slow down. The floodgates have been opened wide and&nbsp;there is no going back. The trick will be to find away to integrate the more considered pieces and not have them get lost in the shuffle. I don’t know how that’s going to work, but I’m&nbsp;determined to keep&nbsp;looking for the answer. I know it&nbsp;won’t pop up&nbsp;on the first click at my favorite search engine.

Football Writing Today - World Soccer Talk

Football Writing Today

<div><figure class="image"></figure></div>Murmers abound: Arsene Wenger may be planning a move for old Arsenal stalwart&nbsp;Patrick Vieira. This is either the&nbsp;perfect plan or a complete waste of time. I haven’t figured it out yet.
The Vieira who once&nbsp;helped lead&nbsp;Arsenal through the&nbsp;glory days of trophies and titles&nbsp;could be what the Professor needs right now. Wenger’s kids are in dire need of core&nbsp;leadership and defensive stability.&nbsp;There’s a&nbsp;Lord of the Flies comparison in here somewhere, but I can’t quite flush it out.&nbsp;Arsenal definitely need a&nbsp;grown-up on their island&nbsp;to keep them grounded and direct them.&nbsp;And Vieira&nbsp;is an obvious candidate.&nbsp;A legendary defensive midfielder with undeniable leadership and experience, a&nbsp;Vieira-type presence could be the thing Arsenal need to steady the ship and give it direction once again.&nbsp; But can Vieira bring anything near the old stuff?
He’s 33 years old. Well past his prime. He’s struggled with form. He’s struggled with injury. He&nbsp;might step into his old boots with success or he could spend most of the season on the physio’s table. Wenger knows he won’t be getting the old Vieira. He knows he’d be investing in a hit-or-miss package. So the question becomes, will&nbsp;the off-the-pitch&nbsp;influence of&nbsp;Vieira outweigh&nbsp;any on-the-pitch inconsistency?
With the market’s inflated prices I wonder if we’ll see more aging players going to big English clubs. Owen to United. Vieira might go to Arsenal.&nbsp;Who else?&nbsp;If big club can get a discount price on such&nbsp;established-yet-fading talent,&nbsp;who can blame them for trying to integrate the old and young?&nbsp;Owen and Vieira won’t start every match, but if they can perform well in small doses and influence younger, still-developing players, such moves can pay off.
Arsenal have also been connected to Blaise Matuidi from Saint-Etienne. The 22-year-old defensive&nbsp;midfielder&nbsp;can give Arsenal the tactical difference they need and help balance their flowing attack-mindedness with some central rigidity. But what Vieira can bring as a veteran might be as important to Wenger as the vitality Matuidi can bring as a young player. Wenger should probably grab them&nbsp;both. The best of both worlds and two promising options in deep midfield, a place Arsenal have shown a painful vacancy.
Last season, Wenger relied on his plethora of youngsters. But what was missing was someone to teach them. There was no Vieira, no Henry to look up to, to follow.&nbsp;Vieira could do wonders as a leader and a&nbsp;teacher, helping&nbsp;works-in-progress like Fabregas, Nasri and Walcott bloom into their fullest potential.
The remaining quesiton is would Vieira embrace the move? He wants to play in South Africa in 2010. He wants to spend the next year proving he’s up to that challenge. Playing in the Premier League again could mean less starts than if he landed in a gentler league. The roughness and intensity&nbsp;in England could put him at a higher risk for recurring injury. At his age, he might be more likely to get the starts he wants at a smaller club. He might be more likely to enjoy a full season of play in a gentler league. Can his history with Arsenal and his relationship with Wenger outweigh these considerations?
Like Owen for United, Vieira shouldn’t cost Arsenal much. Owen came on the free.&nbsp;Vieira only has a year left on his contract. If Arsenal can convince him to come and&nbsp;bring him in at a modest price they’ll have no complaint if he doesn’t give them the old stuff every week.
I guess all this thinking out loud leads me to this: If Wenger can get him, Wenger should go for him. Why not? Set up a performance-based deal akin to Owen’s and Wenger will get what he pays for with Vieira. As when Robbie Fowler came back to Liverpool in 2006: Fowler didn’t tear up the pitch every week and he didn’t magically&nbsp;regain his old abilities, but he scored 10 goals in all competitions and gave his teammates a lift just by being there. A dose of a Vieira could be&nbsp;a great thing&nbsp;for the ailing Gunners.&nbsp;I wonder if he’d embrace a return to north London.

Should Wenger Bring Back Vieira? - World Soccer Talk

Should Wenger Bring Back Vieira?

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