The Annoying Aspects of Todays Sport

I decided to do a post on things that have really been annoying lately in the entire sporting world! This will probably be like Rafa’s rant, but I’m not going to limit myself to just talking about Sir Alex.

Cristiano Ronaldo!!

Now I bet you’re thinking “diver” right now! Well no that’s not the only reason! Yes he may be a diver, but then I could be here all day talking about a lot of footballers in every league as well as Drogba!! But the annoying thing about Ronaldo now is his free-kicks! I mean what a bloody waste!!! Man Utd are used to high quality free-kicks, as they did have David Beckham!

Don’t get me wrong, Ronaldo can strike a ball brilliantly, and when he gets it right, no keeper in the world has a chance!! But he RARELY gets it right! One free-kick out of about thirty isn’t really a good odd! Everytime there is a free-kick he runs to take it, all for the bitter taste of hitting the wall! At least what he could do is aim for the other teams star player! Maybe even try and get the old jingle bells region!

United really need to sort out another taker! Maybe Giggsy? Or even Rooney! Ronaldo should only be allowed to take one when Leyton Orient with the premiership! It’s ridiculous!!

FIA

Next on the agenda to chat crap about is Formula One! McLaren and Hamilton’s lie to the stewards has really landed them in a pile of piss! But what gets me is that it is McLaren Vs the FIA… again!! They’ve had many situations built up before, but I gurantee that if it was Ferrari instead, this matter would have been settled with already!

I’m not the biggest McLaren fan as they are known to “act out” as well as made silly mistakes costing them chances. But they do get some sympathy as the stewards seem to be screwing them over! Hamilton seems affected by it but he’ll bounce back! I wouldn’t be surprised if he left!!

Eccelstone thinks they may be banned, which would be outrageous!! They really won’t be with the amount of funding F1 get from Mclaren. However, if they were, I’m sure Hamilton will still be allowed to drive so he may well  join another team!

Manchester City

Now you’re thinking, “what the hell?!”. Well Man City really think they can get any player in the world. Yes they maybe able to OVER afford them, but it does not mean that the player will come! They’re kind of turning into Spurs, thinking they can aquire any player of any reputation in the world. They should have learnt with the trillion pound Kaka move that players of high stature will not go to a club that is 10th in the league! They don’t even have a high profile manager!

So those are the three major things getting on my nerves in the sporting world! However we do have things to look forward to such as the Twenty20 world cup! Also all the finals come in May!! In addition, the fight for the premiership comes down to the wire!! Liverpool look good but so do United!!

What’s annoying you on the sporting scene? Become Rafa, let it all out right here on Touchline Pundit’s!

F1: Malaysian GP

The Malaysian grand prix usually provides a real test of straight line speed for the car, as well as measuring down-force ability. It also tests driver endurance with the insanely high humidity and cockpit temperature which apparently can get up to 60 degrees! If this was the case, the drivers would want some sort of shower to cool them down. They did not however want such a big one!

With the race red flagged, Jensen Button was able to secure a second consecutive victory. However, as the race was not 75% complete, the first 8 places get half points which to be honest, is quite ridiculous. However, nothing would spoil the party for JB with his great Brawn GP car.

This post however, is not so much to do with racing but more to do with the stupid timing of the race. They made the race 5pm Malaysian time. Straight away we know tha visibility will be an issue especially with Malaysia’s ability to change weather almost instantly. The rain was almost inevitable as it is Malaysia but the extent to which it rained was simply phenomenal.

Martin Brundell said as soon as the rain started that you have to be on the right tire. Kimi was not. He selected the extreme wet when there was no water on the track whatsoever! This decision was simply suicidal! What the hell where they thinking?! Timo Glock was the one that had fantastic tire choices and his almost perfectly timed switch to intermediate tires paid great dividends as he secured a podium finish.

The race was right to be abandoned as the amount of standing water was simply un-driveable. Kimi almost sensed this, he must of enjoyed his cold ice cream and coke while his team mate Felipe Massa and Hamilton were still sitting in their respective cars waiting for the restart.

Formula one now takes a two week break which allows time for car development. The McLaren and Ferrari cars have to use this time effectively to even start thinking about catching the Toyota, Red Bull and Brawn GP pace! They will see small tweaks to their cars to attempt to get it to their optimum.

During this break, the diffuser of the Toyota and Brawn GP in particular will be closely looked at to decide if they have interpreted the rules correctly. If they have not, I would imagine they would not be disqualified from the first two races, nor deducted points. But they will have to change it, which may prove costly. If their diffuser is okay to use, I am certain that other teams would want to get their hands on it. The diffuser provides extra down force to the back, it works in a sort of opposite way to aeroplanes.

Let’s hear your thoughts on this years Malaysian GP!

F1: Malaysia Qualifying!

BBC Sport: Brawn GP Qualifying

This is a special post for those who could not be bothered to get up this morning and watch the second formula one weekend of the year! I on the other hand was forced to wake up by The Doc (¬_¬)!

The second week of formula one usually outlines what could happen in the rest of season! If this is the case, well then I guess by November 1st we’ll have a new world champion. Jensen Button has experienced a tremendous roller coaster over the last few months after scares that he would not even be driving this season. However, the newly formed Brawn GP team have provided him with great success. Two consecutive polls and one of them a win! The funding from Virgin will also help their cause!

This year certainly looks like Button’s and no one would bet against him. However, there are other drivers that have a good chance. Jarno Trulli for example almost matched Button’s pace throughout qualifying! The Toyota man really looks good this year, as does Vettel in the Red Bull! He was able to secure P3 but with a ten place grid penalty for what happened last week, he’ll start in p13!

Talking about formula one would not feel right without talking about political issues outside the racing. Lewis Hamilton was at the centre of it again this week but I’m sick of talking about it, and I bet you’re sit of hearing it too! But the McLaren has not been the same this year as it has lacked pace through the corners. He only qualified in

I hate to speculate at this early stage, but if the McLaren’s do not get there car to the pace, Hamilton will not become the first British driver to regain a world championship. Even the Ferrari’s do not look like they can catch the pace of the Brawn, Toyota or Red Bull as Kimi will start tomorrow in P9 as Massa had a ridiculous team decision. The Ferrari engineers thought his Q1 time was enough to see him through to the next round, however it was not and as a result, he will start tomorrow in P16!

This year then certainly will develop to be the closest yet and the level of competition is quickly increasing! The closeness of these races is simply phenomenal and great for the entertainment factor. At the moment though, it looks like Button and his Brawn GP car are simply dominating the circuit! Obviously different circuits demanding different attributes from car and driver will play heavy roles but Button’s pace is simply staggering!

I have a sneaky feeling though, that there will be numerous winners of races this season giving us a close encounter on the road to world championship glory!

My Prediction: Well it’s almost a no brainer, Jensen Button to win! However, it will probably be raining during the race tomorrow, so do not count out those who are fast in the rain (i.e. Kubica, Vettel and Hamilton). Fuel loads look good for Button, he may have two more laps than the first few people behind him which shall aid him in the race. Cars running the KERS will use that to their overtaking advantage during the back straight, and the long straight down to the finish line and the first corner!

Links: BBC Formula One |  Yahoo! Formula One

Tennis: Miami Masters Round Up

Rafael Nadal had to fend of a spirited battle from Federico Gil to go through the 4^th round in yesterdays clash, he went through after a tough first set winning 7-5, and then claim the second 6-3 after some impressive tennis from his opponent.

Murray also went through in straight sets Nicholas Massu, but the score line didn’t reflect how well the Chilean played, I watched this game in full and he played aggressively, but Murray did the business and took down the sets to join Nadal in the fourth round.

Roger Federer is another top seeded player to advance into the fourth round of the Miami masters, he is on a mission this season to hold his 2^nd spot and challenge for 1^st, Murray is catching up and head to head Murray has disappointed Federer several times. The Swiss star was very convincing in his victory against Nicholas Kiefer 6-4, 6-1 to reach the 4^th to face local Taylor Dent, should be a good match up.

Former world No.1 Andy Roddick powered into the fourth round by defeating Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov 7-6 (11-9), 6-2. The fifth-seeded American, who won the title here in 2004, will face either French ninth seed Gael Monfils or Russia’s Marat Safin after coping with strong winds.

So that’s the update with some of the top names left in the tournament. I will update from every round now so keep posted. These masters are really exciting now as everyone apart from Nadal needs to win in order to hold their rank.

F1: It’s Back!!!

After a long awaited beginning, the formula one season will be underway this weekend in Melbourne. The winter testing has proved challenging but useful for all teams that will make up the starting grid. Over the last four months, we’ve seen many ups and downs on the formula one frame with many rule changes making this years season both exciting and very anticipating.

Changes:

Where do I begin?! Well the biggest change would be the look of the cars! You’ve probably noticed how ridiculous they look this year compared to last with the narrower rear spoiler and wider front wing.

Another change which is noticable is the tires. This year slick tires are back and boy is this a good change.

KERS has also been added to reduce the amount of wastage energy.

James May Section (Technicals):

The new shape of the cars provide a better aero dynamic package and inturn giving the cars more grip around the corners. However, straight line speed won’t be affected which is a bonus!

Slick tires are those with no grooves in them meaning even further grip around the corners giving the drivers more confidence to approach any corner.

KERS basiacally provides a six second boost with the use of a button. This provides extra horsepower and is ganed from the energy created whilst braking. It’ll come in handy when overtaking or protecting yourself from being overtaken.

The Teams and their Drivers:

McLaren – Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen

Ferrari – Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen

BMW – Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld

Renault – Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr.

Toyota – Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock

Toro Rosso – Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastien Buemi

Red Bull – Mark Webber and Sebastien Vettel

Williams – Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima

Force India – Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fishichella

Brawn GP – Jensen Button and Rubens Barrichello

Football: Premiership Review – International Break

After a fantastic weekend of football action from the best league in the world, we are left with complete uncertainty of whose hands the title is going to end up in.

As things stand Manchester United are still favorites with one point ahead of Liverpool and a game in hand, but the form Liverpool are in is undeniably breathtaking, their 5-0 win against Aston Villa looked like a day out in the sun, nothing taken away from Villa who just were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Man Utd carried on with their low confidence dropping three crucial points at Fulham, who have shown to be a tough team to break down for the big four this season. Though Sir Alex’s men still have a cushion from the brilliant run earlier this season, Liverpool are creeping up and the pressure is now on.

Chelsea on the other hand look good and buried with their defeat to Spurs, a superb goal from Modric was enough to seal the win for the North Londoners, but Chelsea performed well and deserved a point from the game, if not more. Chelsea do have the easiest run to the finish however, apart from Arsenal all their tough games have been done with, so they will need to win for the rest of the season and hope the other two slip up to have a chance.

Arsenal are out of the race, mathematically still possible but now they are just looking to secure fourth spot and focus their attentions to the FA cup and Champions League, the game against Newcastle was a classic end to end game we’ve have come to miss from both teams, great football from both sides but a managerial decision (or indecision) cost Newcastle the game, when Steven Taylor was off the pitch receiving treatment the manager didn’t fill the hole, why? It was an odd decision for no one to think quickly which of course Arsenal took advantage for a splendid goal from Abu Diaby to get the gunners ahead. With the luck Newcastle are running on, relegation fears are looking likely to continue right till the end of the season.

So that’s the review of how the top four are looking as we go into the international break, it will require a whole new post to discuss the relegation battle this season, lets just say the way its ended up positions 10 and 11 (Manchester City and Tottenham respectively) are not safe from the drop, a few bad results and they may face the axe.

Football: Champions League Draw

Draw 1 – Villarreal FC Vs Arsenal FC

The turnaround of fortune continues for Arsenal as they have drawn one of two possible teams that they really wanted, the other being Porto. After beating Roma on a very fortunate night for Arsenal, they had the best Premier League weekend they could have hoped for, beating Blackburn in a emphatic 4-0 win at the Emirates and Aston Villa losing to Arsenal’s bitterest rivals, Tottenham, to get the gunners in fourth spot for the Champions League. A further positive is nearly all their injured players will be back, and for the first time, Arsene Wenger will have a squad with in depth strength and creative options on the bench. Villarreal have had a better season thus far also sitting fourth in the Spanish Premier League, but matching the quality of the sides makes Arsenal the bookies favourite for this tie.

Draw 2 – Manchester United Vs FC Porto

A very fortunate draw for Manchester United, Porto are considered the weakest side remaining, though at one stage they had been tipped as outside favourites to make the final this season, but after losing to Arsenal 4-0 early on in the group stages, and losing one of their key players Ricardo Queresma, they really are up against it in this tie. Man Utd had just suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Liverpool, but they are still tipped to win the Premier League title and the Porto tie may even be considered a breath of fresh air.

Draw 3 – Liverpool FC Vs Chelsea FC

The third draw came in as the most mouth-watering of them all, Liverpool and Chelsea have such a large history in the competition and in the domestic games, with Guus Hiddink bringing out Chelsea’s best form and Liverpool have just come through two monumental wins against two monumental teams so this tie is set up to be something special. Neither team can be happy that their other two domestic rivals got “lucky”, but to win this competition they will have to face the best and beat the best at some point. As both teams are locked in the Premiership on 61 points the game looks dead even, only Chelsea have the advantage with the second leg being at Stamford Bridge.

Draw 4 – FC Bayern Vs FC Barcelona

The two highest scoring teams this season in the champions league lock horns with the first game played at Nou Camp, Barcelona have been on high scoring form in their domestic games recently, but they did show a hint of struggle against Lyon with their back line, and against a stronger opponent a weak defence would be ripped apart with ease, as Liverpool showed against Barca’s rivals Read Madrid in the first stage. Bayern are just fresh from beating Sporting by 12 goals over 2 legs, it was pure free-flow football from the German side and they are now full of confidence and really have nothing to lose against Barca who are considered one of two favourites to pick up the title, it should be an interesting clash.

The Conversation While Playing PES

Doc: Moyes should leave!!!!! He’s a great manager!

Ash-Sta: I don’t think he would do well at a big club with loads of money!

Doc: I do, I think he will be brilliant!

J-Lee: Im hungry!!

Doc: its 00:00 and your hungry? you’re fat

J-Lee: Dude I way like 46kg! Im not fat!

Ash-sta: gooaaaaaaaaaaaaal!!!

Doc: you are the best at pro-evou I must admit,

J-Lee: yes you are a pro evou God! You beat the Doc with Stoke City against Barcelona 8-0, bravo!!

The Brief Summary

This is the first post of 2009 for Touchline Pundit’s and my first post since the 3rd November! Since then, there has been a lot of news both in sporting terms as well as something called the global economic crisis (haven’t heard a lot about that though…)! Here’s just a quick summary on the stuff we haven’t blogged on:

Football:

• Kaka’s possible trillion pound move to some team in Manchester (not the red half).
• That same Manchester team trying to buy the rest of the world.
• Manchester United having 11 consecutive clean sheets.
• Chelsea beginning to crumble.
• Liverpool beginning to lose track.
• Arsenal…

Cricket:

• KP’s “resignation”  as captain of England (replacement as Straussy).
• Peter Moore’s departure.
• Flintoff’s injury …again!

Golf:

• Urm….

Formula One:

• Honda’s possible departure from the sport.
• How the new seasons F1 cars look shit!
• The new united front of Ferrari and McLaren.

Tennis:

• Federer’s tremendous return to form.
• Murrary’s red hot form (before his knock-out of the Aussie-Open)
• Nadal’s greatness …again
• Something about the woman’s tennis… probably.

So we haven’t missed a lot then!! But I’m sure the “bloggers” on BBC Sport have kept you fully up-to-date and entertained…

Don’t worry though because we’ll be blogging on some of the points mentioned above to give you the Touchline Pundit view!

Football: Barclays Premier League Mid-Season Review

Christmas is approaching and so is almost the 19 game mark, things have been quite interesting in the beginning half of the season with teams like Hull and Fulham have been killing off some of their giant competitors leaving a very uncertain view of the top four and how things will shape up in the new year.

Liverpool started off with some brilliant results but with some very poor performances but they got the results that they needed and that’s why they are top. Having wins against Man City away and Chelsea away are all great but then drawing to Hull, Fulham and West Ham all at home is shocking, two of them being goalless, sure Hull are playing well but if Steven Gerrard wants to live up to his wishes pre-season of actually challenging for the title the whole season and not just playing for 3^rd or 4^th, they really had to get at least 7 out of 9 points in those games, had they had done, they would have been 5 points ahead of Chelsea which would definitely have boosted their chances.

Chelsea showed great promise thrashing teams near the beginning and with their prolific striker Nicholas Anelka, actually I say prolific but I am only really quoting what the press say, I think personally Anelka is the most boring goal scorer in the Premiership, that’s harsh I know but he doesn’t do anything, he doesn’t threaten defenders, he doesn’t link up well he doesn’t know how to pass, he just finishes all the things left on a plate. Its not a bad thing I guess but Chelsea want to live to a standard of attractive football and Anelka is not it, ok sure people will criticize me in saying this but just wait when he goes through a period of not scoring goals he will as useless as the referee, or even worse, Kalou.

Now Drogba, there’s a striker who knows how to make an impact, he terrorises defenders and scores some wonderfully team and individually crafted goals, that’s a striker to be proud of (apart from his attitude). Chelsea did look really good but a string of poor home form has left in doubt whether they really have that edge to win convincingly this season, I do believe they will be up there at the end, but it will be very close with them and Manchester United

Speaking of Man Utd, who out of the top four have had the hardest first half of the season, playing 9 away games against the 9 teams that were in the top 10 last season, and they have managed to come out of this quite well being 3^rd in the Premiership only 6 points behind Liverpool with a game to spare, they did lose two really important games against Liverpool and Arsenal, but they have done the business against the rest, the 2^nd half will be easier for Man Utd and if Berbatov can kick his old goal scoring form into gear, Man Utd are sure to be strong favourites.

Arsenal on the other hand are not, they have struggled this year and its hard to explain why, the only thing that really makes sense about Arsenal is that they don’t have Flamini, or a replacement of him that is experienced enough to hold that mid-field strong, Denilson is absolutely rubbish, this player doesn’t know how to pass the ball, stay on his feet, or score! I think even Eboue is better than him, and Song, who has started playing in that position recently, is just not good enough. Why Arsene Wenger insists on playing Bendtner I don’t know, especially when you have Carlos Vela rotting away on the bench. I really think Wenger has been very stubborn this season and it does seem he is trying to make a point, his first point being not to fall for the presses pressure, the press said he needs experience, pundits said if he has money to spend, then spend it, he went against this, they also said buy experience, he ignored this and went young again, this has cost them dearly, and they just can’t win games with conviction anymore, just like Arsenal used to.

Middle table looks exciting as ever too, Aston Villa are playing some attractive football and so are Everton, Man City have disappointed defensively but attacking football has been immense for them, almost to the standard of the top four, if they spend in January and with over half a trillion funding them I’m sure they will, you can be sure they will be a menace in the 2^nd half, and especially next year.

So in the end, I do predict Manchester United will be crowned once again, but if Chelsea can get their home act together it will be a very close race to the finish. Liverpool, no chance, thats harsh I guess, they do have a chance but I really think its more luck than talent that will take the crown. Arsenal, I don’t like to say but this season they need to pit their hopes on the Champions League, because the premiership is going to need a miracle. I do believe the top four will remain the same as last season.

Please leave your thoughts and predictions.