The Monday Morning Drip grinds up the footy fare from the weekend into a blend of the choicest bits from leagues all over the world. It’s also a weekly opportunity to appeal to footy bloggers out there, who are looking for a new forum in which to display their wares.
Meanwhile, open your laptop wide and say Ahhh.
Here’s this week’s Drip…
Unlike last week, this Premier League Sunday was hardly an afterthought. Instead, it rose up and smacked fans of Liverpool and Manchester City right between the eyes. Then it delivered a blow to the mid-section of an unsuspecting Stoke City, and, for good measure, kicked Chelsea in the butt.Spurs hammered Liverpool 4-0, while Kenny Dalglish fumed and referee Mike Jones did his best to keep a straight face as he sent off both Charlie Adam and Martin Skrtel, who will be having nightmares about Gareth Bale for weeks to come. Dalglish at least has learnt to keep his remarks regarding officiating between himself and the men in black. He had plenty to say to Jones in the tunnel at the half but absolutely nothing to the press after the match. Meanwhile, Harry Redknapp was feeling like the Prince of the City, after Ex-Gunner Emmanuel Adebayor hit for a brace and Chelsea wannabe Luka Modric swallowed his pride and contributed the opener at White Hart Lane.
Stoke, who stole three points against the Reds, last week, learnt that there is no easy match in the Premier League, as Sunderland came off the bottom of the table to hit them up for another 4-0 shellacking. The legendarily prolific trio of Titus Bramble, Craig Gardner and Sebastian Larsson were aided by an own goal from Jonathan Woodgate. While Tony Pulis was tearing his hat to pieces in frustration, punters across the Northeast were doing the same with betting slips touting Steve Bruce to be the first manager sacked in 2010-11.
Manchester City failed to heed the lesson of the Blackburn/Arsenal match, wasting Sergio Kun Aguero‘s seventh and eighth goals for the club and letting struggling Fulham back into the match. Goals from Bobby Zamora and captain Danny Murphy split the points and dropped the Billionaire’s Club further behind United’s Boys Club.
Fergie’s Fledglings made the most of their toughest test thus far. Although Chelsea had their fair share of ascendancy, they did little with it. Fernando Torres did score his second goal in six months for the club but then refused to increase his rate of production, circling a helpless David de Gea and sliding his shot wide of an unprotected goal. Other than that, however, De Gea was the reason that United led 3-0 at the half, through Chris Smalling, Nani and Wayne Rooney, rather than trailing by the same score. He had to rescue his teammates in the second half, as well, when Rooney pulled a John Terry, slipping as he struck a penalty kick which would have killed off the match.
The one worry to come out of the match, as United moved clear at the top of the table, was Ashley Cole’s nasty tackle on Javier Hernandez, who limped off under duress and may now become Tom Cleverley’s FIFA ’11 partner for the near future.
The question in Germany, this week, is has the country fallen in love with Ashton Kutcher and That ’70s Show in the same manner as they did with der Hasselhoff? It seems as though they may have, with the table beginning to look much as it did in the Polyester Decade. Last year’s relegation survivors, Borussia Mönchengladbach, are suddenly flashing back to the days when they challenged Bayern for Bundesliga honours on a yearly basis.Igor Camargo got his kick in minute sixty-six, to give M’gladbach a win over Hamburg and solidify their grip on third place, level on points but a goal behind Werder Bremen, whose application for three points was denied at the EasyCredit Stadion, leaving them with a 1-1 draw with hosts Nurnberg. Both Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund continued their inconsistent starts, suffering defeats, 4-1 at home to Cologne and 2-1 away to Hannover, respectively. Lukas Podolski picked up a double for Cologne. Hoffenheim and Stuttgart also stayed near the top, with wins over Wolfsburg and Freiburg. Hoffenheim’s 3-1 cruise over Felix Magath’s side, has the embattled boss considering petitioning the league to play Schalke every week.
The Royal Blues, who took it on the chin to their former manager, last week, were kicked by Bayern while they were down. The league leaders opened some space on the chasing pack with a 2-0 victory in Gelsenkirchen. Manuel Neuer had all the time in the world to count the ‘Judas’ signs sported by Schalke fans, as his new mates didn’t let his former ones anywhere near the goal.
If you’ve read David Winner’s Brilliant Orange, you know that Total Football was born out of the Dutch knack for coping with a lack of space. No surprise then, that the Eredivisie table is gridlocked after week six. Four clubs are grouped within a point of each other at the top, and the season is just getting warmed up. The key match was at the Philips Stadion, where PSV pushed Ajax to the limit but failed to close ground. Neither did they give any away, so, on the whole, they won’t be complaining too much. The 2-2 draw saw the Eindhoven side on the front foot for most of the match, with Tim Matavz’s second minute strike and Giorgio Wijnaldum’s penalty just before the hour eventually pegged back, in turn, by Kolburnn Sigthorsson’s leveller before the half-time whistle and Dmitry Bulykin’s point-splitter on seventy-nine minutes.
FC Twente and AZ Alkmaar each took advantage of the stalemate, moving into the top two slots, on fifteen points. AZ had to work hard to get by new boys RKC 2-1, but Twente reclaimed the league lead with a resounding 5-2 win over ADO Den Haag. Luuk de Jong was on the board twice in the Enschede romp. Feyenoord‘s 4-0 pasting of de Graafschap, put them fourth. Ironically, the Rotterdam giants, along with Ajax, are the only two unbeaten sides in the Eredivisie but are both looking up at the Champions League places. Don’t you just love the early doors?
Elsewhere, disciplinarian John van den Brom may have finally driven the message home to his young charges at Vitesse. After back-to-back 4-0 embarrassments, the Arnhem club drilled five past Roda JC, who had no answer.
Okay, here it comes: my first official Evian pun. I’m sure it’s been said elsewhere and more than once, but PSG, will tell you that whatever the newly promoted club have, they ought to bottle it. The club is stubbornly hanging onto a place in the top half of the table, this week jumping out to an early two goal lead against the well-heeled Parisiens. Javier Pastore paid off another installment in his €43 million price tag, by pegging a goal back, appropriately in the forty-third minute. It was left to Mathieu Bodmer, who had come on with a quarter-hour remaining, to salvage a point for the Qatari-backed club. It took him six minutes, but the job was done and PSG remain within shouting distance of the leaders.That is no longer Montpellier, however. The unlikely table topper could only manage a 2-2 draw at Brest, allowing Lyon to move top, after a battle of Olympian proportions with Marseille, won 2-0 at the Stade Gerland on goals from Bafetimbi Gomis and Michel Bastos. The defeat won’t sit well with Didier Deschamps, who, less than two years removed from a championship is parked at the bottom of the table.
Were you beginning to think that Barcelona was mortal and that Real Madrid finally had the answer to the Catalans’ mastery? Foolish human. The Blaugrana got their feet under them in the third week of the Primera Liga campaign and dropped an eight spot on a ridiculously optimistic Osasuna. Lionel Messi had a hat trick, David Villa a double, with Cesc Fabregas and Xavi also helping out. Osasuna defender Roversio apparently thought the second letter in his name was an ‘e’, rather than an ‘o’, as he put the remaining tally into his own net.Conversely, Real Madrid were reduced to ten men and fell to Levante 1-0, after Sami Khedira was sent off in the first half and Arouna Kone scored the only goal of the match in the sixty-eighth minute. Given that the start of the season was delayed a week, and Levante’s kit is remarkably similar to Barça, I suppose it’s possible Los Blancos thought they were playing a much tougher match.
Meanwhile, there are two teams with perfect records but strange shirts at the top of the table. Real Betis went into San Mames and, impressively, came away with a 3-2 win over Athletic Bilbao. Likewise, Valencia won away at Sporting Gijon, albeit by a more subdued 1-0 score.
Although it’s only two matches into the Serie A season, and the table has yet to settle, there is a hint that the scoring race, at least, will be a repeat of last year’s heated competition. Udinese and Napoli are two of the four teams with two victories in as many tries, and they are being led by their talismans, Antonio di Natale and Edinson Cavani.Cavani hit a treble as the Neapolitans did away with Scudetto holders AC Milan. Alberto Aquilani’s first goal for the Rossoneri went for nought, once the uruguayan cranked up his game. For his part, Di Natale has now scored in both of his club’s 2-0 victories. Even without Alexis Sanchez to feed him the ball, the veteran appears intent on keeping his golden boot for a third Serie A consecutive year.
Competition continues to be fierce in the Russian Premier League. CSKA Moscow‘s 1-1 draw away to FK Rostov, languishing near the drop zone, was costly for the capital giants. Zenit St. Petersburg refused to let up, themselves, away to the much tougher Rubin Kazan, and outlasted the recent champs 3-2, with Roman Shirokov’s opener andDanny’s brace providing maximum points.Dinamo also took advantage of their neighbours recent slide. After toppling CSKA 4-0, a week ago, Dinamo made Amkar Perm’ their third victim on the trot, with former Liverpool benchwarmer again sparking the victory.
Zenit now have a clear lead in the table, but Dinamo lay two back and CSKA three. The weather may be cooling on the Steppes, but the race in the RPL is definitely heating up.
Last week, I wrote that Kashiwa Reysol have their groove back. This week, they emphasised that fact in a major way, knocking off Vitesse Kobe, 4-0, to leapfrog Yokohama F Marinos and close to within a point of Gamba Osaka.Rafinha continued his good run for the current leaders, as Gamba drew with Marinos, affording Reysol the opportunity to edge within reach of the top. With eight matches left in the campaign, the J-League race is providing fans, who have been through a tragic 2011, a pleasant diversion from their daily travails. Unfortunately, however, tragedy is refusing to take any time off in the Land of the Rising Sun. Former Shimizu S-Pulse keeper Masanori Sanada, just forty-three, passed away from a heart attack early in the week. He is the second Japanese footballer to be stricken by a coronary siezure this year, following defender Naoki Matsuda, who died in August.
With half a dozen matches left on the schedule, New York Red Bull have begun to be something other than indifferent about the MLS season. A hard fought 1-0 victory on the road, against Western power FC Dallas has lifted the Red Bull, who have drawn half their matches, back into the play-off picture. Former Notts County bad boy Luke Rodgers, making his first start after mising ten weeks with an injured heel, provided the only goal of the match.
Another side lagging behind their usual pace, Real Salt Lake, also notched a big win by halting the progress of Sporting KC. Nat Borchers potted the lone strike, as RSL stayed ten points behind LA Galaxy, with two games in hand.
The thing about a split season is that a sudden run of form, good or bad, can quickly change a club’s fortunes. TakeJaguares, for instance. They were one of the worst teams in the recently completed Clausura, and when the Apertura opened, they didn’t seem much better. However, a string of three victories, including an electric 5-3 triumph, on Saturday, against the suddenly hapless America. Edgar Andrade‘s brace cancelled out Daniel Montenegro‘s and Christian Valdez’s tally did the same to Christian Benitez. That left the two late goals, one in each half, from Franco Arizala and Jackson Martinez, respectlively to claw out the victory.
Puebla‘s stunning 4-1 victory away at the Estadio OmniLife against Chivas knocked the Goats from the top of the hill, with Cruz Azul also leapfrogging the Guadalajara side, after a road win of their own, 2-1 over Monterrey. Tigres reversal to Atlante leaves them one point behind the three pacesetters.
Corinthians have slipped into a dangerous funk, dropping their last two matches and three of their last five. Sunday’s hammering at the hands of Paulista rivals Santos, who won the match 3-1 despite Paolo Henrique Ganso seeing red, has cost them their place atop the National Championship table. In fact, it has dropped them all the way to third, with the slide seeming more severe for the performances of the two clubs which overtook them.Both Vasco de Gama and Sao Paolo recorded comprehensive 4-0 victories over Gremio and Ceara, respectively. The two clubs each featured four different goal scorers, but it was pleasing to see old warhorse Rivaldo on the score sheet for the Paulistas. Vasco now sit top, ahead of Sao Paolo by a single point.
Boca Juniors managed to stay a step ahead of giant killers Atletico Rafaella for a second week, with a 2-1 victory over Lanus. Defender Juan Insurralde made the match closer than it was with an own goal just after the restart, but Walter Erviti’s strike, after the hour, restored the lead.The Genovese will be looking nervously over their shoulder to see what Rafaella are up to next. The upstarts took the lead with twenty minutes remaining against San Lorenzo, only to endure a mad frenzy at the end of the match. Sebastian Gonzalez leveled a minute from time and then, in added time, Federico Gonzalez put Rafaella back in front. Moments later, Nicolas Castro put the game to bed from the spot, after Bernardo Romeo saw red for the hosts.
With both clubs winning on the road and putting some distance between themselves and the pack, Argentina may be in for an unusual two-horse race in this year’s Apertura. Circle Sunday October 30th on your calendar. That’s when these two meet, at La Bombonera, perhaps to decide the title race once and for all.
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