Football girls!

This is an odd one. An odd one indeed.

From time to time I look at the webmaster stats for this blog and recently I noticed that my blog had a large amount of search impressions for Arsenal girls, Man Utd girls, girls in football shirts, hot girls, soccer girls, and bizarrely "Man United fail".

The only thing I can think of that might've caused this was a post poking fun at Ashley Cole, and a tag on the post was "Girls Aloud"!

Yeah, I know this post is only going to increase the likelihood of this phenomena, but I see it as a bit of an experiment.

So, let's give 'em what they're after!

Firstly, here's Arsenal girls (which also covers girls in Arsenal shirts)

Erm, couldn't find a Manchester Utd Girls game, so here's FC Utd of Manchester girls team instead.



Man Utd fail? Well, here's David Beckham getting "punked" by Rio Ferdinand.


Okay. Here's a different epic fail for you.



Finally. Some shirts.



If you're a Man Utd or Arsenal fan who have visited this site please leave (a nice!) comment - I would love to know if this little experiment worked. Thanks.

Apologies if there's any offence referring to the ladies teams as girls. This was purely to link in with the references earlier (and for optimisation!)

Normal blogging (i.e. largely inactive) status will be resumed once more.

Football skills

Just bought a Futsal ball and a Futebol de Salao for the boys.

These smaller heavier balls should help with development of Football skills. If works for the Brazilians then it can work in England, the home of Football!!!

Cheryl Cole will be pleased

At last. The kit maker has finally sorted the spelling mistake on the back of Ashley Cole's shirt!

Perhaps he should text this picture to girls instead of pictures of his little winky.

Good luck to Arsenal and Man Utd in the Premiership title race this season.
Lets hope Chelski and Man Sheki fail - they've ruined football and their obscene spending must be stopped.

Phooey

That's it then. It's all over. What a load of rubbish.

Still, there was a moment in the 1st half when things seemed to be on the up. Our worst player on the pitch (Upson) had pulled a goal back to make it to 2-1 (it was a really poor header but it somehow looped in) and we were back on the attack. the ball fell to Lampard and he let rip. The ball cannoned off the underside of the cross-bar and bounced.......1 whole metre over the line and then bounced back into the keepers hands.
I'm jumping, I'm screaming with delight. That is until the referee made the worst decision in football history. Ever. No goal. Bollo*ks!

And the rest is history. Just maybe if we had gone in at half time level we could've pushed on in the second half. Instead we looked as poor as we had in the first 2 matches. Capello's substitutions were both baffling and inept, the back four (after being the most effective part of the team in the first 3 games) were none existent and the whole side seemed drained of all hope.

I guess the early signs were there when the referee actually tackled one of our players and set up a German attack! I cold say that every time the linesman gave us offside they saluted the fuhrer but that would be just bitterness. At the end of the day the Germans played together as a team. The annoying thing is had England played with a bit more togetherness this football match was there for the taking. The Germans aren't as good as they make themselves out to be and looked fallible at the back.

And the stats suggested England were on top. We had more shots on target, more possession, hardly any difference in the number of passes and tackles.

Were we robbed? Maybe. It's all ifs and buts. The only thing I'm sure of is this. The referee and the linesman who failed to spot a clear goal should never be involved in international football ever again. And as for Sepp Fatter Blatter he should hang his head in shame and give up his evil grip on the most powerful job in Football. And if he doesn't I suggest we force him out with a coup. Afterall, we invented the blinking game. I would suggest we take our ball home with us, but the ball just so happens to be a German one and is the worst ball ever made.

Next time, Fifa, give the job of making the World Cup football to Mitre. They make much better Footballs than Adolf Dassler. Here's a decent football for my U.S. readers. Mitre Platinum Football, Official Size 5 (White/Blue)

And here's the world's most advanced ball for UK readers (don't think this is available in U.S. yet, but I'd suggest buying this over the stupid beachball that is the Jubalani.





Right. Rant over. Laters. :-)

Good Luck

Just wanted to wish the England team all the best against Germany tomorrow.

I think it'll be a humdinger of a match between two great footballing sides.

Although our recent record against the Germans at major tournaments isn't great (I'm thinking of 1990 and 1996 particularly) but overall I think the score is 12-12 (and I'm being generous by giving Germany the two draws that they then won on penalties.

Our world cup hasn't been great so far, but I'm forever hoepful that we have a chance.

Disappointed

Disappointed, to say the least.

I thought England had done enough to win last night's football match.

Before the absolute howler from Green we looked very comfortable and dominating. Cracking early goal from Stevie Gerrard and he seemed to be playing really well for the first 30 minutes.

But after Green's error, the game seemed flat. England still did most of the attacking, but seemed to lack something.

To be fair, USA were pretty well organised, and hard to break down. That's how they set up their stall (only one player in the squad is classed as a centre forward/striker) so that made it difficult, but there was hardly any threat to Green's goal (only Green himself!)

I blame the damn Vuvuzelas!

Oh well. A draw is a point. So, all we need to do now is spank Algeria and Slovenia and everything will be cushdy.

Beckham gets told off for kicking a football

As we all know, Beckham is out of the worlds greatest competition, Football's World Cup, after he ruptured his achille tendon in March, but he couldn't resist having a few kicks of the ball despite an on-hand medic warning him against it. Footage can be seen at the link below.

Beckham gets told off for kicking a football

I suspect I'm not the only English fan who watched this and thought, bl**dy hell, wouldn't it be great if they announced he was fit before Friday (staight swap for Wright-Phillips.Sorry Shaun.)

Yay for me

Here's a link to a caption competition I won recently.
http://www.footballfancast.com/caption-competition-gallery/attachment/capcompwinner26feb-2
Of course, like all Football fans (especially English ones!) I'm gutted for Beckham who is unlikely to feature in the World Cup in June because of a torn achilles tendon.

Here's a link to an article for the local newspaper where I took the photo (from the top front seat of a double-decker bus!)
http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/eveningnews24/norwich-news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=xNews&itemid=NOED12%20Mar%202010%2010%3A52%3A07%3A910

I am of course hoping for other things (i.e. stories) to get published this year, but the small amount of kudos for anything published no matter how small is always appreciated :-)

Laurie Cunningham 8 March 1956 – 15 July 1989

It's 20 years to the day that Laurie Cunningham died in a car crash in Madird.

Laurie joined West Bromwich Albion Football Club in 1977. Laurie broke a lot of round as a player and a man. 30 years ago it was are for black players to be playing professional football and racist abuse from the terraces was shocking (a bit like being in Spain or Eastern Europe nowadays). So, Albion had three black players in the shape of Cunningham, Cyril Regis and Brendon Batson this was unheard of. It coincided with a period of time where Albion were one of the best footballing teams in Europe.

Laurie was the first black player to represent England at any level, and also the first to represent them in a competitive international.

His skills as an Albion player got lots of attention and in 1979 he was the first English player to sign for Real Madrid for £995k.

Desipte early success in Madrid he didn't quite recapture the form that made him one of Albion's greatest ever footballer and he had a bit of a Journeyman career, but was looking forward to facing Madrid in the Spanish topflight for local rivals Rayo Vallecano; a club he had just helped gain promotion.

Still, for those of us who saw him play, he will live long in the memories, and twenty years on his magic is missed.

A couple of years ago I showed the video below on this blog, and you can see how great a player Laurie Cunningham was. you will also notice the aforementioned racism from the crowd.



And the strangest thing is when walking into work this morning I was thinking about a close friend who died in a car crash less than 2 years after Laurie (before I realised it was the anniversary of Laurie's death.)

Football bloopers

I watched some football bloopers on the telly this morning -and thats why I stuck some on here. THe quality gets a bit grainy at times.

Sunday night...

...I can't believe there's a football match on at 10.30pm on a Sunday night!

As it's a friendly England will probably go with a weaker team than normal to try some newbies out, which is what firendlies are for. I'm pretty sure it should be a comfortable game against Trinidad and Tobago, probably even easier than Wednesday's 2-0 stroll against the USA.

David Beckham (he of the USA's Major Football League's LA Galaxy) is captaining England tonight, which is really weird because it's nearly 2 years ago since he gave up the captaincy and lost his place in the squad under Mclaren's dodgy management.

Back with a Boing!

Yep, I'm back from a 2 week vacation in Florida, and "back with a boing" too. Well, I should say "back with a Boing Boing" really as my beloved West Bromwich Albion won the Championship (the 2nd tier of England's Football leagues) today! Yay!

Already I've been on You tube to find some videos to celebrate this glorious occasion.

The Throstles with the Trophy!


Here's some pictures of the season set to some dodgy music.


Players celebrate with a slide towards the fans.


Pictures with more music!


And finally, someone's filmed the television, includes 1st goal today.


Although I've actually been back for 3 days I've been too I've been too tired to post. It's already gone 11pm tonight so I'll fill in some of the holiday details on another post some point this week, including all the highlights and low points.

Travesty

I hate it when the better team lose.

It's even worse when the result was settled by substandard refereeing. At 50+ minutes Albion were totally and utterly dominating crooked Harry's Portsmouth when Milan Baros (a player who should have been sent off earlier for repeat offending) handled the ball in the box in the move that resulted in the only goal of the game.

Referee Mr Webb and his linemen are supposed to be refereeing at the Euro championships in a few months time but this incident will surely change EUFA's mind.

So, two Wembley fixtures in 11 months and two 1-0 losses despite being considerably superior to the opposition.

I'm gonna be peeed off all weekend.

Boing Boing...Bagiies going to Wembley!

Yay! Mega-congrats to my Football team West Bromwich Albion for reaching the FA Cup Semi-Final for the first time since 1982 (and hopefully can go on to win it for the first time since 1968!)

Dennis Rommedahl a Baggie?

Another classic blog post (this was posted shortly after the Poing Poing [below] post both in early June 2007)

Dennis Rommedahl a Baggie?
Anyone watching highlights of the football internationals last night may have probably picked up on the fact Dennis Rommedahl celebrated scoring by revealing a t-shirt with the words BOING BOING inked on.
Here is the piccy, do not ask me to translate the article - I have tried using transation tools already!

What a way to announce he is signing for the Brazil of the Midlands!!!
Okay, I have checked the rumour boards and there has been no mention of his impending baggieness, so it might have something to do with popular Danish tune called "BOING" by Nik and Jay. It is pretty catchy!!! Check it out here!

Classic! Man Utd 3 Baggies 5

Found this Football clip from late 70's. Albion thrashing United at Old Trafford.
It cheered me up after West Brom lost the opening fixture of the season.