FootballFilter Blog

Football Filtered #7

Hello and welcome to my latest look at what has been passing through football filter this week.

Keano’s back!

The assorted media are rubbing their hands with glee now that Roy Keane is back in management as reported in THE GUARDIAN. The choice of Ipswich town is an unusual one though, given as Keane’s brash, passionate style doesn’t necessarily compliment the Tractor boy’s sleepy, family club image. But with a new owner who looks like he means business, exciting times could lie ahead for Town fans.

We saw a mini-classic at Anfield on Wednesday as Liverpool, who can’t stop scoring at the moment, shared eight goals with Arsenal. Missed the action? Well you can see all the goals over at MIGHTY FOOTBALL.

Jose Mourinho has been speaking out again, this time claiming life as a manager is tougher in Italy due to the impatience and unfair expectations of Serie A clubs boardroom hierarchy. He claims England is ‘a paradise’ for managers, as reported in THE SUN, as they have time to plan for the future rather than achieve instant success. Is Jose pining for a move back to the Premier League? Well there is a vacancy at Stamford Bridge this summer……

Real Madrid’s Pepe had what can only be described as a moment of madness this week, giving away a penalty before proceeding to kick and stamp on his opponent, as reported in THE TELEGRAPH. He has since come out and apologised for his actions, though that is unlikely to stop him from escaping a lengthy ban.

Nostalgia time as DAILY MOTION count down the top ten European Championship goals, from John Jensen’s stunner for Denmark to……… well that would be telling wouldn’t it??

Why Are Premier League Crowds So Quiet? That’s the question posed over at EPL TALK with Old Trafford, rather unsurprisingly, picked out as an example of the subdued supporters now found at modern grounds.

And finally…

With the 20th Anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster still fresh in the memory David J Colbran’s Flickr has some poignant images of the tributes laid by fans of all sides at Anfield and the Hillsborough stadium itself. Worth checking out.

Flickr Favourite

Just wanted to make a passing comment about a guy on Flickr who I have mentioned before who goes by the name of Toksuede.  As far as football photography goes there’s a lot of good stuff out there and the newspapers deliver pretty high standard stuff on a daily basis, but I have to say that Toksuede’s photos are some of my favourites.  

Why?  Because he has his own style.  He focusses on certain elements of players or of certain events (e.g Drogba professing his innocence, or Robben bombing it down the wing) which I think is lacking in this middle of the road football media industry.  I have spoken to him briefly via Flickr but couldn’t tell you if he makes a living out of his work – if he doesn’t give him a bloody job.

Anway, heres a link to Toksuede’s Flickr Photostream

Football Filtered #6

Hello and welcome to my latest look at what has been passing through the football filter this week.

The Champions League dominated most of the back page headlines this week, with plenty of fall-out between the four games and the four English clubs involved.

Liverpool’s inspirational skipper Steven Gerrard injured his groin in the 3-1 defeat to Chelsea and THE GUARDIAN reports that he now may miss a crucial part of the Reds run-in.

John Terry meanwhile has accused the Liverpool players of influencing the referee during the Anfield clash in an article in The SUN. Terry was booked for a challenge on Pepe Reina and will now miss next week’s return at Stamford Bridge. Terry only believes he was booked because of the reaction of Liverpool players, who surrounded the referee asking him to brandish the yellow card. Liverpool are up against it in the second leg and football odds suggest they will go no further in the competition but the absence of Chelsea’s influential captain gives them a glimmer of hope.

A few weeks ago Man United appeared to be coasting towards a quintuple and barely looked like conceding a goal let alone losing a game. But after a disastrous few weeks things have changed quickly, the gap at the top is down to just a point and their Champions League hopes are hanging by a thread. The INDEPENDENT tries to examine what just has gone wrong at United.

Across Manchester and perennial bad-boy Craig Bellamy told the DAILY MAIL he would happily clean the other players’ boots if it meant prolonging his City career. Some people may say they would rather have him cleaning boots than be on the pitch, but that debate is for another time!

Headline of the week? Adriano: I’m not dead
Inter’s troubled Brazilian striker reassuring us in THE SUN that he is not dead, but is, in fact, alive and well at his mother’s house in Brazil Well, I’m glad we cleared that one up.

The best excuse for losing a game has to go to Brazilian side Cruziero, who blamed their 4-0 defeat to Estudiantes in the Copa Libertadores on the traffic! ESPN reported that the match kicked off 40 minutes late after Cruzeiro were forced to take an alternative route to the ground after the Buenos Aires-La Plata highway became blocked.

And finally…..

Never the best of friends, North and South Korea clashed on the football field last week, with the South winning 1-0. That wasn’t the end of things though as North Korean officials accused their Southern counter-parts of poisoning their players, according to this story from REUTERS. This was an accusation flatly denied by South Korean officials of course.
With North Korea causing global outrage by launching long-range rockets last week, it is another clear example of how politics and sport don’t mix, and while they can be competitive on the football field, their disputes need to be cleared up around the negotiating table.