Preview 2009-2010: New Boys

Burnley: The three of us went to see them play Arsenal in the FA cup last year. They are a decent side who play football, they have a number of young talented individuals for could make a name for themselves. However, I think they will be another West Brom: Good football but no result, ironically very similar to Arsenal.

Birmingham: I’ve read a few peoples reviews and opinions on Birmingham and they’ve all said that they’re going to struggle. For that reason alone, I think they’ll do brilliantly! Maybe for the first season at least, like all the other promoted clubs. Honestly, they will be in a battle to survive, but should escape.

Wolves: This team have a very experienced manager who has dealt with recently promoted teams into the top flight before which will be their talismen for survival. They also have players like Kevin Doyle who’s played in the Premier League before and has the ability to score goals. A tough one to call but they’ll survive, I’m just not sure how well.

Why Villa Don’t need a Bentley

The press are suggesting that David Bentley is being targeted by Aston Villa and Martin O’Neil is keen to get the right winger. I have huge respect for O’Neil and I think he probably should go to a bigger team (i.e. Man U/Arsenal) but I simply do not understand this one.

Bentley is useless, arrogate and did I mention useless? I’m not even sure where they would play him. Villa have Miller, Young, Downing and now Delph. Would he be prepared to keep his mouth shout and sit on the bench?? I don’t think so! Totally the wrong type of signing for them and would be very surprised if it works out.

oh and he is in the news again

Football.co.uk; Mirror; Bentley to Villa

Cricket: Ashes 4th Test Scorecard and Review

England 1st Innings – All out

			Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Strauss	c North	b Siddle	3	17	0	0
Cook	c M Clarke	b Clark	30	65	3	0
Bopara	c M Hussey	b Hilfenhaus	1	6	0	0
Bell	c Haddin	b M Johnson	8	26	2	0
Collingwood	c Ponting	b Clark	0	5	0	0
Prior	not out		37	43	5	0
Broad	c Katich	b Clark	3	12	0	0
Swann	c M Clarke	b Siddle	0	15	0	0
S Harmison	c Haddin	b Siddle	0	6	0	0
Anderson	c Haddin	b Siddle	3	10	0	0
Onions	c Katich	b Siddle	0	1	0	0
Extras		3nb 1w 5b 8lb	17
Total		all out	102	(33.5 ovs)
Bowler	O	M	R	W
Hilfenhaus	7.0	0	20	1
Siddle	9.5	0	21	5
M Johnson	7.0	0	30	1
Clark	10.0	4	18	3

Australia 1st Innings – All out

			Runs	Balls	4s	6s
S Watson	lbw	b Onions	51	67	9	0
Katich	c Bopara	b S Harmison	0	4	0	0
Ponting	lbw	b Broad	78	101	12	1
M Hussey	lbw	b Broad	10	10	2	0
M Clarke	lbw	b Onions	93	138	13	0
North	c Anderson	b Broad	110	206	13	1
Haddin	c Bell	b S Harmison	14	23	1	0
M Johnson	c Bopara	b Broad	27	53	5	0
Siddle		b Broad	0	1	0	0
Clark		b Broad	32	22	1	3
Hilfenhaus	not out		0	3	0	0
Extras		3nb 4w 9b 14lb	30
Total		all out	445	(104.1 ovs)
Bowler	O	M	R	W
Anderson	18.0	3	89	0
S Harmison	23.0	4	98	2
Onions	22.0	5	80	2
Broad	25.1	6	91	6
Swann	16.0	4	64	0

England 2nd Innings – All out

			Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Strauss	lbw	b Hilfenhaus	32	78	4	0
Cook	c Haddin	b M Johnson	30	84	4	0
Bopara	lbw	b Hilfenhaus	0	1	0	0
Bell	c Ponting	b M Johnson	3	12	0	0
Collingwood	lbw	b M Johnson	4	10	0	0
Anderson	c Ponting	b Hilfenhaus	4	10	1	0
Prior	c Haddin	b Hilfenhaus	22	29	3	0
Broad	c S Watson	b Siddle	61	49	10	0
Swann	c Haddin	b M Johnson	62	72	7	1
S Harmison	not out		19	28	4	0
Onions		b M Johnson	0	7	0	0
Extras		11nb 5w 5b 5lb	26
Total		all out	263	(61.3 ovs)
Bowler	O	M	R	W
Hilfenhaus	19.0	2	60	4
Siddle	12.0	2	50	1
Clark	11.0	1	74	0
M Johnson	19.3	3	69	5

Well how do Australia fans review fourth test, two words, Kicked Ass! That’s exactly what happened, it was a great effort for the baggy green’s to get 20 wickets leaving England trailing an innings and 80 runs.

There wasn’t much secret to this victory but just to say England players played poorly, looked awfully weak in all areas of their game, and lacked some serious backbone without Freddie and KP. You could see the wheels turning in the heads of the middle order batsman over thinking too much, it showed on the faces of players like Bell and Bopara who had to prove their worth with their test life hanging in the balance, and the Australian players were just licking their lips after the first inning demolition knowing that it would take a major thunderstorm for them to lose this one.

If we look back at the bowling its hard to really point out a star, Broad’s 6 wickets is probably the only thing to be proud of, but his figures 6-91 probably doesn’t show the real picture of his bowling but impressive none the less.

There were many stars in Australia’s bowling line up, Stuart Clark with figures of 3-18 in the first innings was just half the story for how he bowled that day, jaffer after jaffer catching the batsman in two minds nearly every ball, I don’t know if this is a credit to him or how bad England were with the bat, but it was some beautiful swing bowling. Peter Siddle mopped up the tail in that first innings with his own 5 wicket haul.

The second innings of bowling for the Aussies looked like this, Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Johnson, Hilfenhaus, Johnson, Johnson etc… This was the two bowlers show along with some brilliant catching in the slips and by Brad Haddin, just too good, I had a discussion with my mates that when Mitchell Johnson will get stuck in and find form he will be a power house, and along with his performances with the bat, he was one of the outstanding players of that match, he also may be the difference in the 5^th.

As with the bat for Australia, Marcus North showed how you don’t have to show off like Matt Prior to get runs, whilst Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting played some elegant strokes to get their runs for this match Marcus North showed a Steve Waugh or a Rahul Dravid like innings with some classy shots and some discipline play, with 3 centuries under his belt after 6 tests, this is the type of player England need for their middle order. Maybe time to see him move up the order?

Overall this game leaves an interesting and exciting final, Australia will go for the win its in their nature, and if Justin Langer’s dossier is anything to go by England will act hard on the first day and clam up like little girls for the rest of the match. My Predictions, Australia!

Cricket: England vs Australia – 3rd Test Ashes Preview

After a nail-biting first two tests we are in for some contest for the last three tests. England’s nervous start to the campaign let the Aussies dominate in the first test, and their was big talk on how after that Australia will sail through 4-0 to win the Ashes, most notably from Glen McGrath who did say he found laughable England’s claims that they were the better and more complete side of the two before the contest. But now England have shown they are big contenders and maybe favourites we are in for a mouth watering 3 tests.

Team News

England have just received the shocking blow that the KP will miss the rest of the Ashes, Ian Bell is set to replace him in the team. This is quite bad news as he is one of very few players in the team who is a match winner. As proved in the last test Freddie Flintoff is the other. In other news Andrew Strauss has confirmed England won’t be using Monty Panesar for this test and he has been sent home to do his First Class cricket duties.

Apart from that one replacement it looks as though England will be unchanged from their win at Lords, Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad will be under the spotlight for not performing so well in the previous tests, but to be fair their really is no great replacement for them at this time, so the pressure will be off for now and hopefully this will give them freedom to perform better.

Australia will most likely keep the same team, in the first innings of the 2^nd test their whole team collapsed so no individual can be blamed, this happens to every team once in a while. Mitchell Johnson has been in the spot light since the first test and their recent game against Worcestershire still causing problems for the Australian pace man, there are talks about Stuart Clark replacing him, so we will have to wait near to the end who will be Australia’s bowling line up. Brett Lee has been ruled out for the third test officially which is a shame as when it comes to pace he matches right up their with Flintoff. With Lee you can’t always guarantee wickets but you can guarantee pressure and a hitting the rib cage of the batsman at 95mph, lets hope to see him on the fourth.

Predictions

It is easy to get excited over England’s win in the last test, but people seem to forget the first test when Australia looked their usual dominating selves. This is a mistake England make all the time, they get hyped up over a win, the media go crazy and the fans start rejoicing in the view that they will be the best team in the world. Australia have a completely different view on winning, its normal to them, and this is why they do better.

England do look strong as a team, but this match will be the biggest test from them, because Australia will bounce back, they don’t like to lose, and people like Mitchell Johnson will be looking for revenge so this is key for him.

As a prediction to the way the pitch looks like its defiantly going to be a lot for batters and not much for the bowlers to work on, the pitch has dried over the last few weeks and their won’t be much for both spinners to work on.

Its hard to say overall but I say Australia should win this if not then the rain will take the game to a draw.

Crouch moves to Spurs

Peter Crouch has completed his move away from the south coast side Portsmouth, following his old manger Harry Redknapp to Tottenham Hotspurs. Although the full reports are still coming in the fee is believed to be around the £10-12 Million mark.

Its not a bad signing by Spurs, they do not have a player like him so he will defiantly add something different to the squad. It probably does mean that Huntelaar will not be heading to this North London club, Maybe the other one…

Finally this does leave poppy incredibly short up front: leaving just Nugent and Kanu. (poppy squad)

Orient hit Toon for 6!

I actually wanted to get this up yesterday. Leyton Orient beat Championship side Newcastle 6-1 feels weird calling them a Division one team.

You can find a full report here: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/25072009/58/championship-magpies-hit-six-orient.html

Ash-sta: Did you hear that 6-1 to the Orient!

Summer Transfers

So the summer bazaar has been open for a few weeks, its been anything but quiet. So I’ve decided to summarise what has happened so far and try and predict what may happen in the coming weeks.

Cristino Ronaldo

So lets start of with the biggest move in history: Ronaldo decided to move from Manchester United to Real Madrid for  €80 Mill, that’s a lot of money even for Man U. They would be stupid not to sell him for that price especially, for someone who obviously did not want to stay. I have to say next seasons line-up for Real Madrid looks very scary, imagine playing against Kaka & Ronaldo!! I would not want to be a full back in La liga right now. (Although I would never say no…)

Teves, Adebayor, Santa Cruz, Barry.. More??

So on the blue side of Manchester: they continuing to spend STUPID amounts of money… Thinking that if they send Billions and pay ridiculous Wages they could become a world class team…wait a minute we have been here before, Oh yeah Chelski. I guess Man City would like to emulate the success that Chelsea have had, they have already signed a number of good signings. However I do wonder what will happened to all the other crap not so good players. I do get a sense of deja vu here.. I reckon they will sign a defender (not Terry, Toure or Lescottt).

Eto’o <–> Ibrahimovic

Barcalona have decided to let go of there prolific striker Eto’o, the Cameroon international has decided to join Inter Milan as part of an exchange deal for Ibrahimovic (+30 mill). Inter are getting a very good deal, they are getting an awesome striker as well as €30 Milll. Also the papers believe that Touchline Pundit favourite Hleb (not!) will also be going on loan to Inter. This is an interesting signing by the Catalonia side, not sure how they will line up next season but I will be interesting.

Owen

Bargain of the century, I have to say this is very good busy by Sir Alex! He has picked up a very good striker for absolutely nothing. He may be injury prone but he has always proved that he an eye for a goal, if Sir Alex and his team can keep him fit I think Owen will score at least 15 goals..(I may put some money on this)

Right, that’s enough for now. Will be back soon with more rumors and any signings…

F1: Hungarian GP – Race Review

Well, what a race!! After thinking that the race would be fought my the usual suspects of the 2009 season, what a turn around! Where shades of last year and traditional Formula One fashion was resumed. This hour belonged to McLaren and the supreme driver that is, Lewis Hamilton! The world champion holder simply had a flawless race where a lot of things just went his way! Which is a massive turn around from the last race in Germany where nothing went his way! An amazing victory for Hamilton.

So how did he do it? Well after qualifying on the second row, he sat in a good position to use the KERS button on his car. After making up a place off the line, Hamilton was eventually hunting down Webber and Alonso. The Renault driver was fuelled extrememly light so was able to pull away leaving Hamilton to chase down Webber, which he managed to do before the first lap was up! It was then down to him and his old rival Alonso. The former team mates have an amazing history together, and lets be honest, they hate each other!

Alonso was then hit with the bad luck! Coming in a couple of laps early to change worn down tyres, the right front was not put on properly! Renault will now be suspended from the next race because of this incident as it lead to his tyre later falling off, giving Lewis the perfect opportunity which he took with both hands! With perfect pitstops and amazingly fast lap times, Hamilton was able to capture his first victory this season!

With Vettel and Alonso not finishing the race, Kimi (I cannot be bothered to spell his second name but you know who I mean) was able to clinch second place in a McLaren, Ferrari one two finish with Webber getting another podium in third. As for the current championship leader, he had a tough weekend indeed. He only managed a seventh place which does not go well for his title hopes. The car has not gained any pace and has dowgraded in terms of aerodynamics! The car also cannot manage its tyres even with Button so there is limited pace. It will be interesting to see if McLaren can match a fully formed Brawn GP car.

We must spare a thought for Massa who is being held in hospital right now. Q2 yesterday saw a freakish accident in which a spring from Barrichello’s car flew off hitting Massa right on the crash helmet. It was even more freakish after having lost a Formula Two driver last sunday to a similar accident. We are told that Massa will be fine but just has a fractured skull. I’m sure he shall be fit and raring to go for the next race in Valencia in four weeks time. Let’s just hope that he is fine sooner rather than later.

What are your thoughts?

F1: Hungarian GP Preview!

Here we are a year later in Budapest! Over the last year many aspects of the game have changed. Last years winner Heikki Kovalinen will certainly not be this years winner as we have a new front brall with Brawn, Red Bull, and Toyota. Instead of Hamilton Vs Massa, we have Button Vs Vettel! You may recall last years race as the Massa show! He literally demolished the entire race track with his supreme glowing Ferrari!

Last year he overtook the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and was three laps away from winning the race. But after an epic engine failure, the Fin Heikki took first place with Glock finishing in a stunning second! Not to mention a few punctures to other cars and almost three fires! This basically means we’re in for a boring race compared to the one of 2008.

However, it would be hard to compare this year to last with tremendous changes on the grid. This year we’ll be looking out for Barrichello to lose it again at Brawn saying they are putting Button first and Vettel trying to prove that he’s as good as Michael Schumacher! Not to mention Mark Webber showing that Aussies do have some talent after all.

My predictions on this weeks race? Well the usual will happen in practice where Rosberg shows all the potential to steal the race weekend with his own glory but inevitabley will let Williams down! After that, Hamilton will show some promise and deliver well in respect the uselessness of his car! But again, this weeks race is out of Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button!

Button has not won a race for a while now so it is becoming quite scary! But my prediction for this race weekend goes to Mark Webber. He is a sort of dark hourse but at the same time, he’s just come off a great victory in Germany! He will surely be full of confidence this weekend. Vettel will definately look good again so I expect a straight battle between both the Red Bull cars with the Brawn’s making the second row.

What are your predictions?

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!