Marshall Norbal

This mid-week is European week, which means Arsenal, Manchester United, Fulham and Liverpool will be playing for semi final spots in The Champions and Europa Leagues. Always an eternal optimist – no sooner when the draws were announced I was thinking of the possibility of two all English finals. Now I am not betting man, […]

Another weekend, another twist in the race for the coveted prize of the Premier League. This weekend saw two different league leaders and one team slip a little off the pace. Seeing the reaction of Liverpool's no. 1 fan Gary Neville, you would have thought they had just won the title – especially when listening […]

With a little under three months left to the World Cup, the excitement is building up in the air over England's chances and who gets a plane ticket to South Africa. There are a few obvious 'shoe-ins' in the wide areas for the squad – barring fitness – including the likes of James Milner and […]

Arsenal's stunning Champions League win over Porto.

To me, the first half had three major themes. First, Nani wasting cross after cross, either sending them directly at Dida, or shockingly wide. Second, Beckham was largely absent from the first half, never doing anything dangerous. Third, if Beckham was “largely” absent, was Pirlo “utterly” absent? “Completely” absent? “Altogether” absent? “Fully” absent? I am not sure he had a touch in the first half.

On Monday afternoon the Premier League announced that it’s in discussion with all 20 teams on the possibility of a 4-team play-off for the final Champions League spot. The Premier League see this as opportunity to make the league more competitive, as 5 of the last 6 seasons have seen the so called ‘big four’ […]

Many of you may have already seen this movie, or read the book on which it was based. I recently re-watched Fever Pitch again for the first time in a few years. It's a movie that, at the heart of it, tells the story of the childlike enthusiasm the protagonist has for Arsenal. The movie […]

For five seasons Arsenal has been all but out the race of winning the Premier League title with a country mile still left to run. Now the opportunity has arisen and to the challenge of bidding for a 14th league championship. 4 games, 2 weeks against the best of what English football has to offer […]

I just stumbled across this trailer for "Looking for Eric", the 2009 film directed by Ken Loach. The film opened at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, and was released across Europe throughout last year. So far, there are no US DVD (Region 1) release dates. It looks like a good one, I wonder if us […]

An preview to the league clash between Liverpool and Spurs.

I am really curious about the Livorno players’ high jersey numbers. They started with only Nico Pulzetti sporting a single digit number. It reminded me of a spring training baseball team loaded with minor leaguers trying to make the big squad. The game featured lots of end to end action in this game, and the […]

Fox Soccer's coverage of the Champions League games is something to behold. No longer are we tied to ESPN's choice of which game we are allowed to watch. 10 of this week's 16 matches are available either live or on a delay. That is unbelievable, and a massive step forward. It poured rain throughout the […]

Looking at the Serie A table going into last weekend, the Lazio/Juventus matchup presented the most promise. Each team had won its first two games. Would this game produce beautiful, flowing football that might serve to entice a Serie A neophyte? In a word, no. The first half was almost completely forgettable. Other than Aleksandar […]

Milan vs. Inter Could the Derby della Madonnina, the first big derby of the 09-10 season in any European league, live up to the hype? Inter came into the game favorites to win the scudetto after mostly adding to the squad that has won the Serie A four years running. AC Milan did not add […]