I'm not sure exactly what site it was, but my mate William is signed up to some sort of Yahoo group, & he forwarded me today's one! It's called the 'Early Doors blog, which you have to sign up to, & is in association with Eurosport. The main story was about 'Winning ugly'.
I copy the article here:
As Cristiano Ronaldo and Steven Taylor went into the tunnel after a fractious first half at St James' Park last night, a riled-up Ronaldo taunted his opponent.
"Your style of football is s**t," he sneered.
"Well you're ugly!" Taylor hit back.
It was an insult that must have penetrated Ronaldo's very core. All those hours spent on the sunbed, in front of the mirror road-testing different brands of hair gel, at the dentist's getting those perfect, white teeth. Was it all in vain?
Well, Taylor later gifted Manchester United the match with a backpass so ugly it made Luke Chadwick look like Luke Perry, so the joke was on him.
But he was right in one sense - United were decidedly ugly. Heck, for 10 minutes we nearly had a title race.
Edwin van der Sar - possibly as fed up as everyone else by his clean sheet record - pat-a-caked a Jonas Gutierrez shot straight to Peter Lovenkrands as Newcastle went in front.
Van der Sar's streak ended at 1,311 minutes, although it is significantly less if you include the Club World Cup, which you have to if you buy into this whole quintuple nonsense - the Dutchman managed to let in three goals against Gamba Osaka, a team desperately in need of a corporate tie-in with a prawn company.
It might have been worse, as Obafemi Martins gave a surprisingly ragged Nemanja Vidic the runaround - and an inadvertent elbow to the face that left the Serbian looking like an extra from Platoon.
Martins looked certain to make it two when he left Vidic for dead at the edge of the box, but the defender responded with an act of cynicism so pure and concentrated that Gordon Ramsay could call it a 'cynicism reduction' and serve it with a fillet steak and shallot puree.
As Martins scampered past, Vidic extended a leg and an arm to bring him down. He cheerfully accepted a yellow card in exchange for stopping a near-certain goal, and less than two minutes later United were on terms.
It was the very essence of a professional foul. Should he have been sent off? Perhaps. But that was never going to happen and Vidic knew it.
Admittedly he looked a bit silly, and the Match of the Day commentator asked incredulously: "One of the best defenders in the league?"
Yes. And that sequence proved exactly why. There is a time for artfully nicking the ball off the striker's toes and a time for, well, not.
And Vidic's impression of a nightclub bouncer denying entry to a drunken reveller wearing trainers, no collar and with vomit all down his front was probably worth at least two points to United.
It reminded ED of Vidic's full debut against Wolves in 2006, back when he was supposed to be rubbish, when he was stitched up by Kenny Miller of all people. Except he wasn't.
He halted Miller with the most blatant bodycheck imaginable and was duly booked.
Everybody tutted and said it showed how far out of his depth he was. In retrospect, it was exactly the kind of challenge that makes him so formidable/such a cheat, depending on your allegiance.
But it wasn't that I was interested in! For the email header from William told me: SCROLL DOWN TO WEBSITE OF THE DAY...so I did!
And here's what was featured:
WEBSITE OF THE DAY: ED doesn't normally promote other sites, but it was rather taken by the endearingly trainspotter-ish Grounds for Concern blog which features a Dulwich Hamlet fan travelling the world (well, Belgium and the Czech Republic) and taking copious photos of football stadiums. Ever wondered what a KV Mechelen home game looks like? Now's your chance to find out. It might sound geeky, and it is, but you'll soon find yourself curiously compelled to take a gander at Slavoj Vysehrad's ground.
Amazing or what? Well it made my day! Thank you to whoever wrote it!
No comments:
Post a Comment