Football news
This is going to be a post about soccer. You may want to stop reading now.
Several interesting tidbits of news have popped up in the last couple of days.
1. Sadly, two players collapsed on the field while playing (in different games on different days in different countries). The 27 year old player is reportedly doing well but doesn't know when he will be released from the hospital. The 22 year old player was revived enough to walk off the pitch and into the medical area of the stadium. He collapsed again, was taken away in an ambulance and died two days later. 22! I've done some reading about this and it looks like sudden cardiac arrest is not foreign to The Beautiful Game. Most of the players who suffer these kinds of attacks have congenital heart defects which are not found until something like this happens. Although, in the case of the 22 year old, he had fainted at least twice before during games and training sessions. Since he plays in Spain, it was chalked up to heat exhaustion and basically ignored. Very sad.
2. The European season has started again. I've only watched two Arsenal games, but I'm very happy with the results. As I mentioned before, I was very upset that my boy Henry left for Barcelona. However, it turns out that he was such a superstar that the rest of the team relied too heavily on him. Too often they made it their goal to get the ball to Henry instead of getting the ball in the, uh, actual goal. Now that he's gone, it looks like they've all realized that each one has to contribute. The games have been exciting, although I'm still annoyed that we didn't beef up our defensive line by buying more players.
3. Barcelona. Well now that my boy is playing over there, I've decided to watch their games. Unfortunately, I've had a hard time finding their games on TV. I will get to see them eventually. They've got too many superstars to be ignored. So I really really really like the Barca squad. A lot of that has to do with the presence of Ronaldinho, a man whose moves are as beautiful as he is decidedly not. Ronaldinho is a joy to watch. I just read an interesting bit of news that Chelsea (a very rich English team who can afford to buy as many superstars as they want) is pursuing Ronaldinho. On the one hand, I would get to see him when Arsenal play Chelsea. On the other hand, he would be playing for a team not mine in my league. On the third hand, I really do want to see him and Henry play together at Barca for at least a season. BUT! Hold the phone. The same news item explained that Ronaldinho's brother-manager was recently in England...at an Arsenal match. Now why would his manager go to an Arsenal match when it's Chelsea who's courting him? Could there be even the minutest of chances that Arsenal is secretly courting him? While I am salivating at the idea of seeing him play in my colors, I am not too certain that would be a good thing for the squad. Ronaldinho plays a different position than Henry, so he may not have the same superstar-get-the-ball-to-only-him effect (since getting the ball to someone is his job). But we are full up to the brim with midfielders right now. We had two midfielders playing as defensive players in a recent game because that's all we could substitute for injured linesmen. I know, I know, Ronaldinho is a winger and it would be amazing to see him, Cesc and van Persie play together. But I really do want to give Rosicky and Hleb a good shot this season. Oy. I wouldn't have Wenger's job for the world.
4. Speaking of Arsene Wenger, (Who is that, you ask? The Arsenal manager, that's who.) there has been a lot of talk about him leaving after this season. Henry said that Arsene told him he would leave and cited that as one of his reasons for going to Barca. Since Wenger brought Henry to Arsenal and made him a superstar, that was pretty strong evidence, in my mind, that Wenger probably would go elsewhere. Rumors have been circulating that he'd go to Real Madrid, another team I like to watch and would adopt if he made that move. But contrary to all that talk, the news coming out now is that he may be close to renegotiating a 3 or 4 year contract with Arsenal. I'm not pinning my hopes on it. I don't think Wenger tells the press what he's really thinking. But it does kinda make sense. Most of the players are incredibly young. Wenger hand-picked most of them because "he" saw something that he really liked and wanted to develop. This team of youngsters has made a decent showing, but hasn't shone yet. I think Wenger's ego won't let him leave until he has worked his magic and turned all these kids into superstars. But I could be completely wrong. It's happened once or twice.
5. Bayern Munich. Just when I wanted to stop collecting favorite teams, I had to tune in to a match between Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen. If you recall from last summer, Germany and France were my favorite teams at the World Cup. I don't really follow the German league, but I do remember the stars from that national team (one of whom is a keeper for Arsenal). I also can't follow the French league because none of the channels I get show their matches. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that several of my favorite players from those national teams now play for Bayern Munich - Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski, Oliver Kahn, and Franck Ribery. Last season, there were rumors that Arsenal was going to buy Ribery. Those obviously didn't pan out. I should also mention that one of Poly's favorite Italian players is on this squad, Luca Toni. This is a really good squad. So now I've got a third?, fourth? team that I would like to watch on occasion. I don't think it ever ends. How could I ever have thought this sport was boring?
[and now a word from our sponsors...]
Several interesting tidbits of news have popped up in the last couple of days.
1. Sadly, two players collapsed on the field while playing (in different games on different days in different countries). The 27 year old player is reportedly doing well but doesn't know when he will be released from the hospital. The 22 year old player was revived enough to walk off the pitch and into the medical area of the stadium. He collapsed again, was taken away in an ambulance and died two days later. 22! I've done some reading about this and it looks like sudden cardiac arrest is not foreign to The Beautiful Game. Most of the players who suffer these kinds of attacks have congenital heart defects which are not found until something like this happens. Although, in the case of the 22 year old, he had fainted at least twice before during games and training sessions. Since he plays in Spain, it was chalked up to heat exhaustion and basically ignored. Very sad.
2. The European season has started again. I've only watched two Arsenal games, but I'm very happy with the results. As I mentioned before, I was very upset that my boy Henry left for Barcelona. However, it turns out that he was such a superstar that the rest of the team relied too heavily on him. Too often they made it their goal to get the ball to Henry instead of getting the ball in the, uh, actual goal. Now that he's gone, it looks like they've all realized that each one has to contribute. The games have been exciting, although I'm still annoyed that we didn't beef up our defensive line by buying more players.
3. Barcelona. Well now that my boy is playing over there, I've decided to watch their games. Unfortunately, I've had a hard time finding their games on TV. I will get to see them eventually. They've got too many superstars to be ignored. So I really really really like the Barca squad. A lot of that has to do with the presence of Ronaldinho, a man whose moves are as beautiful as he is decidedly not. Ronaldinho is a joy to watch. I just read an interesting bit of news that Chelsea (a very rich English team who can afford to buy as many superstars as they want) is pursuing Ronaldinho. On the one hand, I would get to see him when Arsenal play Chelsea. On the other hand, he would be playing for a team not mine in my league. On the third hand, I really do want to see him and Henry play together at Barca for at least a season. BUT! Hold the phone. The same news item explained that Ronaldinho's brother-manager was recently in England...at an Arsenal match. Now why would his manager go to an Arsenal match when it's Chelsea who's courting him? Could there be even the minutest of chances that Arsenal is secretly courting him? While I am salivating at the idea of seeing him play in my colors, I am not too certain that would be a good thing for the squad. Ronaldinho plays a different position than Henry, so he may not have the same superstar-get-the-ball-to-only-him effect (since getting the ball to someone is his job). But we are full up to the brim with midfielders right now. We had two midfielders playing as defensive players in a recent game because that's all we could substitute for injured linesmen. I know, I know, Ronaldinho is a winger and it would be amazing to see him, Cesc and van Persie play together. But I really do want to give Rosicky and Hleb a good shot this season. Oy. I wouldn't have Wenger's job for the world.
4. Speaking of Arsene Wenger, (Who is that, you ask? The Arsenal manager, that's who.) there has been a lot of talk about him leaving after this season. Henry said that Arsene told him he would leave and cited that as one of his reasons for going to Barca. Since Wenger brought Henry to Arsenal and made him a superstar, that was pretty strong evidence, in my mind, that Wenger probably would go elsewhere. Rumors have been circulating that he'd go to Real Madrid, another team I like to watch and would adopt if he made that move. But contrary to all that talk, the news coming out now is that he may be close to renegotiating a 3 or 4 year contract with Arsenal. I'm not pinning my hopes on it. I don't think Wenger tells the press what he's really thinking. But it does kinda make sense. Most of the players are incredibly young. Wenger hand-picked most of them because "he" saw something that he really liked and wanted to develop. This team of youngsters has made a decent showing, but hasn't shone yet. I think Wenger's ego won't let him leave until he has worked his magic and turned all these kids into superstars. But I could be completely wrong. It's happened once or twice.
5. Bayern Munich. Just when I wanted to stop collecting favorite teams, I had to tune in to a match between Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen. If you recall from last summer, Germany and France were my favorite teams at the World Cup. I don't really follow the German league, but I do remember the stars from that national team (one of whom is a keeper for Arsenal). I also can't follow the French league because none of the channels I get show their matches. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that several of my favorite players from those national teams now play for Bayern Munich - Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski, Oliver Kahn, and Franck Ribery. Last season, there were rumors that Arsenal was going to buy Ribery. Those obviously didn't pan out. I should also mention that one of Poly's favorite Italian players is on this squad, Luca Toni. This is a really good squad. So now I've got a third?, fourth? team that I would like to watch on occasion. I don't think it ever ends. How could I ever have thought this sport was boring?
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4 Comments:
I stopped reading after your first sentence. ;-)
Nice to have you back, though, HnB. :-)
I read the WHOLE thing!! That must be some cable/satellite package you have to get all those games.
I read the whole thing too, proud to say :)
I love the fact that you love soccer so much and that you know so much about it. Don't ask me why...kinda hard to explain...i just do.
Jules, it's called digital cable. We're with dish cuz cable doesnt go this far out in country and we have five soccer channels.
I know what you're saying t. It's like I love golf, but know very little about it. It's the names thing that impresses me.
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