re: Boro 4 – 1 United

What a disgraceful, shamful embarassing performance

At this rate the match against Chelsea next week we are so going to go humiliated. We never seem to do well against Boro but 4-1!! Passing was shocking, from the little I saw and the stuff I have read no one played well except possibe Ronaldo or maybe Rooney. VDS made a bad error but f*cking Rio was terrible. The stupid lazy arrogant tw*t!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! I have no idea why Park was taken off instead of Fletcher. Smith just isn’t a central midfielder – hes a decent forward but just isnt good enough. We need to get someone like Ballack ASAP. We do have some important players out but thats no excuse. For whatever reason keeping possession of the ball seemed to be a problem for the overpaid lazy millionaires.

I am going to support Wigan this season!!! Come on the Latics!!! (Only joking!)

Went to the cinema for the first time in what seems like ages. Went to see Into The Blue which stars Jessica Alba and Paul Walker. I wasn’t expecting much from it as I heard some poor-ish reviews. I thought it was pretty good and my friends also thought it was quite good. Maybe we were biased cause they were all appreciating the beautiful attributes of Jessica and Paul. (Jessica did look really really hot ).

We then went for a drink and then a meal. It is one of my best friends birthday soon so we give him his present then (since some people may not be able to come to his birthday do). The card we got him I thought was very funny – its a 40th bday card but hes going to be 30. I will upload a picture of it soon.

Homer Simpson has been named in the list for Top 10 Men of the decade!!!

The complete list are:

- Philosopher – Homer Simpson
- Activist – Bob Geldof
- Sportsman – Lance Armstrong
- Musician – Damon Albarn
- Manager – Sven-Goran Eriksson
- Visionary – Jonathan Ive
- Designer – Sir Paul Smith
- Writer – Ian McEwan
- Scientist – Craig Venter
- Chef – Jamie Oliver

Don’t understand why Sven is in the list though. The list was compiled by a group of ‘experts’ for Men’s Health magazine.

Related links:

BBC News Article

United played Lille on Tuesday in one of the dullest matches ever. The match ended 0-0. After 2 or 3 decent (ish) performances, we were poor again. Rooney was not playing because he was suspended after has sarcastic clapping in the game versus Villareal.

Pretty much everyone was rubbish apart from Van Der Sar who did OK and Park was really good (for the 10 minutes he was on). Park was actually captain while he was on after coming on for Giggs (properly a mis-communication and he should have passed it to someone else – not sure who it could ofgone to).

To make matters worst we had more injury problems. Adding to Keane, Heinze, Neville, Brown,… we now have Giggs out for several weeks with a fractured cheekbone. He was elbowed by Tavlaridis. Tavlaridis actually fouled loads and for some reason did not even get a yellow card. In fact most of there team were really dirty. To add to our problems, Scholes got sent off for 2 yellow cards. It was the usual bad timed tackles by Scholes but just stupid to go into the challenge with a yellow card already.

Thank goodness Rooney is back for the next match.

Related links:

BBC Sport

I went to London this weekend for a long weekend. I went with my Mum and visited my brother. We went on the London Eye and also the River Cruise. Both were really good. I had been on the London Eye a few years ago when it first opened. I had also been on a river cruise but this was even longer ago (I remember seeing Concorde flying over us). Also went to the HSBC building where my brother works. Went up to one of the top floors and got a really good view – unfortunately it was a little misty but still impressive. We also went to Covent Garden and had some nice waffles.

We also went to Carnaby Street to check out some of the trendy shops and also went to Oxford St. Went to the Apple store which was pretty cool. Although I don’t really like Macs I really like the way they look.

Food wise the breakfasts in the hotel were very nice. I usually just have cereals for breakfast but I had a proper full breakfast (bacon, mushrooms, hash browns, beans, potatoes, sausages,…). For the evening meals we had one meal in the hotel which was OK – the meat was a little dry but the salad was actually delicious. The other evening we all went to Sakura – a Japanese restaurant in the centre of London. We all had set meals – I had a beef terrayaki meals – a really tasty appetizer, miso soup, terrayaki, rice, dessert – quite a lot for less than £20. The restaurant is well known for not having the best service in the world. This was the second time I had been here and have both times found the service fine – this time they were actually pretty polite.

It was a good break and we were very lucky with the weather and also the traffic. I had borrowed my Dads portable Sat Nav but didn’t really need it – it was handy though to know we were not heading in the complete wrong direction.

Photos

England beat Poland 2-1 today to top the group. Although the result may not mean anything, it could mean that England will be seeded in the World Cup and not have to play teams like Brazil and Italy early on.

The performance was so much better than the past 3 or 4 games. It signs that Sven may be getting his act together. Some of his substitutions were arguably slightly odd – like taking SWP off (but I think he was slightly injured) so fair enough.

Pretty much everyone played really well. Rooney was class. King played excellent in midfield – a position he is not used to. It just shows that we need a defensive midfielder playing alongside an attacking midfielder. The problem is its unlikely Sven will drop Gerrard AND Lampard. I personally would play Lampard because he is in form (at the moment) and plays really well alongside a defensive midfielder. Although SWP did well I would still play Becks but SWP is a good option. (Especially when G. Neville is back since they play well together). It will also be good to get A. Cole back since he has a left foot!! J. Cole did well but would be much better if he had a left foot. One thing to come out of this game is that it will hopefully make Sven thing about what is his strongest 11. The main one being “Does he play a defensive midfielder?” (King, Carrick, Butt, Parker,…)

One other thing to is that it was a shame to hear Crouch being booed. He did an alright job – I think some of the boos were cause SWP had been subbed and Sven had once again gone for the defensive option.

As well as the change in personnal, one major thing that changed was the England team played at a much higher tempo and pressurized the opposition (and played much higher up on the pitch) – this was obvious from the very first minute.

I think we will do well in the world cup and we have a chance of winning it but I don’t think we should suddenly think we will win it all etc. (It was only days when we were the worst team in the world!!!).

Seems like I am just talking about football on this blog recently.

Over the last week or so has been the celebrity reality show The Match – the idea is a bunch of celebs train for about a week and play against a team of legends in a big match at St James Park. The legends still have the skill and touch BUT are now older. This is the 2nd year its been done. The legends this year were generally younger so it made it even tougher. The match finished 2-0 to the legends (which as a football fan is good) but it would have been nice to see the celebs score at least one. They had a good few chances including a penalty but Chris Woods saved well. The celebs properly had more chances but Neville Southall saved a few times brilliantly and also missed some good chances. It was pretty entertaining. The celeb team seemed more up for it than the England football team!!!

Another poor lacklustre boring performance by an England team. A team on paper full of world class players. Somehow they just play rubbish for England.

Even going back to a 442 formation didnt fix things. Crouch didnt do much. We were abit lucky getting the penalty (but we were unlucky not to get the 2nd one). Once again Sven’s substitutions were puzzling.

We really needed to start the game with pace and tempo. Especially with the past crap 3 games you would have thought they would have wanted to really have a go and pressure the opposition but instead we just sat back. We play like what Sven is boring, cool and no passion.

Beckham was really unlucky to get sent off – at the very very most the 1st yellow card was just a foul. Its not possible to jump for a ball without lifting your arms. The 2nd yellow card, Becks pulled out from the tackle and may have not even touched the player. I think they are going to appeal so lets hope he doesnt miss the next game.

Thank goodness Rooney is back on Wednesday.

The final score was 1-0 in the end – we were lucky not to concede a goal when they almost lobbed the keeper. The only positive was that we got 3 points. In fact if Holland beat the Czech Republic tonight (currently they are winning 2-0) we are in the World cup. (Not too sure how that works out but who cares!!)

BBC Sport – Whos qualified?
BBC Sport