Capturing Cardiff (The Points Anyway)

My Sporting Weekend 25-27^th of March 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Engage Super League (Rugby League):

Wigan Warriors V Warrington Wolves, Warrington were sublime as they easily beat rivals Wigan in a top of the table clash. Matty Blythe opened the games scoring, on 9 minutes, down the right wing after Wigan's Andy Coley gave away a penalty for a high shot. Wigan then got back in the game when Aussie Brett Finch, who was making his Wigan debut after having neck surgery in January, pulled off a fantastic piece of skill to get his first try. He kicked through towards the post and he then got on the end of the ricochet and went over virtually unchallenged. Joel Monaghan then got Warrington's 2^nd try down the right wing, after Blythe drew in the Wigan winger Josh Charnley, to silence the Wigan crowd. A 40-20 from Sam Tomkins gave Wigan good field possession towards the end of the 1^st half, but they couldn't covert this into points.

7 minutes into the second half Monaghan got his second try, after a high bomb from Lee Briers putting Charnley under pressure, Monaghan claimed the ball in the air and spun over. This was followed by 2 tries being knocked off by the video ref, 1 for each team, before Ritchie Myler got Warrington's 4^th try. After intercepting a pass from Sean O'Loughlin Myler ran 60 metres to get an easy score to seal the game. Brett Hodgson's goal kicking all game was brilliant converting all 4 of his kicks, including 2 from out on the right wing.

Wigan didn't play particularly bad, but they were just outclassed by a superior Warrington side, who look like they will dominate this season if they keep up this form.

Euro 2012 Qualifier (Football):

Spain V Czech Republic, Jaroslav Plasil had scored on 29 minutes to give the Czech's a 1-0 lead at half time, and as I turned on for the second half started they looked as if they were going to defend for their lives and hope to play out the game for a 1-0 win. Spain started the second half well, having most of the possession and creating a few chances, and after a few substitutions and formation changes they eventually got the breakthrough on 68 minutes. David Villa scored with a shot to the bottom right corner, beating Petr Cech, with a placing quite similar to Plasil's. Spain then seemed to step up a gear, their attacks looked more dangerous and 3 minutes later Jan Rezek took down Andreas Iniesta to give away a penalty, and Villa converted to give Spain the lead.

Czech Republic never looked like scoring and they didn't have a single shot in the second half, they did win two corners though, but they came to nothing.

International Friendly (Football):

USA V Argentina, Before the game started their was a moments silence for the disaster in Japan and ESPN did a pretty good job of positioning microphones that picked up the idiots shouting some stupid things, I don't see why they just don't mute the crowd mics for these situations, leaving TV viewers oblivious to these imbecile's. The pitch looked in pretty poor condition and this was probably because the temporary grass surface had been under a foot of snow earlier in the week, but this didn't matter to Argentina, who kept the ball well and passing it around at a fast pace. Argentina dominated the possession in the first half, but when USA eventually got the ball they moved it forward fast, looking to counter attack although this mostly came to nothing. Argentina eventually got the first goal on 41 minutes, after a good save from Tim Howard, the ball rebounded in Esteban Cambiasso's direction, who blasted it past the defenders on the line and over the stranded Howard, into the top of the net. Argentina controlled the first half having most of the possession and creating lots of chances, but Howard made some good saves that kept the USA in the game.

At half time USA brought on the New York Red Bulls striker Juan Agudelo and changed the formation from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2, but they still found it hard to create chances in open play. The USA did get an equaliser though ,on 59 minutes, after the Argentinian keeper, Mariano Andujar, fumbled a header off a Landon Donovan free-kick, Agudelo was the quickest to react and slotted the ball over the keeper. After that the USA did have more of the ball but could not get another goal, but they did have a good end to the game. In the second half Argentina didn't look as dangerous, but the game was played at a high tempo and was entertaining to watch.

If Argentina play like they did in the first half in the upcoming Copa America in July they will have a very good chance of winning, but they need to have a few more shots on target, and maybe the addition of Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain or Sergio Aguero could help that cause.

Qantas Australian Grand Prix (Formula 1):

The opening round of the 2011 Formula 1 season was a pretty boring race with only a few bits of action, with the one that had the most effect on the overall outcome of the race being McLaren's Jenson Button penalised with a drive through penalty for leaving the track to overtake Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and not conceding the place straight away. A few laps later Button was trying to hold back Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel to help his team mate, Lewis Hamilton, so that it might give him a chance of catching him, but Vettel made a good move to overtake Button, and after that Vettel ran away with the race, giving last seasons champion the best start to the new season. Further back in the field Mercedes 's had a pretty rough day with Williams's Rubens Barrichello taking out Nico Rosberg after trying to overtake him under breaking, and Michael Schumacher having to retire after receiving damage on the opening lap. British newcomer Paul Di Resta, racing for Force India, had a good day picking up a championship point on his debut, after the Saubers that finished in 7^th and 8^th were disqualified due to technical infringements. Hamilton, who finishing second, also had quite a good race, especially after damaging the floor plank and under-tray.

But overall I think something needs to be done to make Formula 1 more entertaining, with the main thing being increasing the amount of overtaking in a race. I think that this could be done by reducing the amount of development that goes into aerodynamics and taking away some pieces of the aero kit that the cars have on them. This would then allow cars to run directly behind another car without becoming unstable, and give them a better chance of being able to overtake.

Honda Grand Prix of St Petersberg (IndyCar):

The opening round of the 2011 IndyCar Series featured 4 British drivers, rookie James Jakes, as well as Mike Conway, Justin Wilson and last years champion Dario Franchitti. The race started with a big accident on the first corner with Marco Andretti going over Scott Dixon and landing upside down, Conway also received damage and had to retire. On the restart Franchitti went round pole-sitter Will Power on the first corner and then led until then end. The race was then stop-start until the 17^th lap when the first complete lap, under the green flag, was run. This was followed by a long green run, with the leaders starting to pit around lap 38, but on lap 40 Charlie Kimball broke his front left suspension, after clipping the wall on cold tyres, causing a full course caution. On the restart Danica Patrick damaged a second front wing putting her in last place of the cars on the lead lap, and after this their was then not much action on the track. The second set of pit-stops then came and went with no incident as did the rest of the race. HVM Racing's Simona De Silvestro had a great race keeping in the top 4 for most if the race, and eventually finishing 4^th. The racing was very close but their was not much overtaking, apart from on the main straight away, this was mainly because of the nature of the tight street circuit.

Main Event:

Euro 2012 Qualifier (Football):

Wales V England, This was my second visit to the Millennium Stadium (1^st being the League 1 play-off final in 2005) and it is such a great venue where you are right on top of the action (sitting in the second tier, although the first tier looked a bit shallow). England had a fantastic start to the game putting the Welsh players under pressure as soon as the got the ball, as well as having some good, accurate, passing, and movement off the ball, as well as forcing Welsh errors. England had scored 2 goals in the first 14 minutes (Frank Lampard, 7, Darren Bent, 14) and from that point never looked like losing. During the second half England didn't look as sharp, but they never looked like conceding and the game turned into a bit of a non event, but I throughly enjoyed my second visit to Cardiff.

Overall I was pretty disappointed with Wales's performance and they hardly created any chances and didn't have a single shot on target. If Gareth Bale was fit and played the fear of what he could do could have changed England's approach to the game, and given Wales a boost but they would have still had to get the ball to him, and if England played like they did closing down quickly and putting players under pressure he wouldn't have even got a touch. Also I think that it is possible that the captaincy has been given to Aaron Ramsey so that he doesn't lose interest in playing for Wales, and starts pulling out of future squads for the smallest reasons.

England played with a 4-3-3 formation, and this worked well packing the centre of the field, as well as giving the opportunity for the full-backs to get forward to get the crosses in. The only real problem that I can see with the formation though it that Ashley Young played out wide on the right, and Wayne Rooney tucked in on the left, meaning that Ashley Cole was constantly pushing on out wide on the left, which may leave him exposed against stronger opposition, but I suppose with playing Scott Parker as a defensive midfielder he can always come across and cover. Hopefully we can they will carry on using this formation as it means that we can fit 2 fantastic centre midfielders (Jack Wilshire and Steven Gerrard) into the team without having to worry about 1 of them playing too defensive, or even worse sticking them out of position on the wing.

Cool-Down's:

Sheffield Eagles got their second win of the season, beating Toulouse on Saturday, by all accounts they had a fantastic first half, scoring 5 tries, but they were not very clinical in the second half, with the match finishing 34-16 to the Eagles. This weekend they are playing Halifax and they will need to put together a full match performance to have any chance of winning.

England, who couldn't even take a wicket, were hammered in their Cricket World Cup quarter final by Sri Lanka, but I suppose it is not as bad as South Africa who lost their quarter final and have now lost 3 out of the 4 World Cup knock out matches they have participated in. And they game they didn't lose they drew with Australia, but got knocked out due to having a poorer Super Sixes record.

 

Recent Results:

The Co-Operative Championship: Sheffield Eagles 34 Toulouse 16

Npower League 1: Dagenham and Redbridge 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1

Evo-Stick South: Stamford 2 Sheffield FC 2

ICC Cricket World Cup: Sri Lanka: 231-0 (39.3 overs)

                                       England: 229-6 (50.0 overs)

                                       Sri Lanka beat England by 10 wickets

Benzema Strikes Again

My Sporting Weekend 18-20 March:

Warm-Up's:

Npower League 2 (Football):

Chesterfield V Rotherham, This was Rotherham's first visit to Chesterfield's new ground, the B2net Stadium, and was played in front of Chesterfield's largest attendance for 20 years, a full house of 10,089 the match started off with an extremely fast pace, that hardly let up during the first half, 2 defensive errors led to Chesterfield's first 2 goals, for the first Callum Kennedy mis-kicked in the box, giving the ball away, and Dean Holden scored from the following cross, and for the second Ryan Cresswell played an awful back pass straight past the Millers keeper Any Warrington, and Craig Davis scored from the following corner, after some sloppy defending and a good flick on from Deane Smalley. Jack Lester then got the Spireites third, just before half time, with a fantastic solo effort, after a good through from Whitaker, Lester went round 2 players before curling the ball in to the top left corner. During the first half Chesterfield had most of the possession and created some really good chances, but Rotherham did create a few of their own chances, with Chesterfied's keeper, Tommy Lee, making a couple of good saves.

The second half started a bit slower with Rotherham having more possession, but they could not get the breakthrough, and Lester got Chesterfields 4th and 5th on 80 and 82 minutes, to complete his hat-trick and seal the victory. It now looks as if promotion is now virtually guaranteed for Chesterfield, and they also should easily win the championship if they carry on playing as well as they did. Rotherham are now struggling a bit, after being 2nd at Christmas they have steadily dropped down the league and are now 6^th and could easily fall out of the play-offs come the end of the season, they responded to this on Monday by sacking their manager, Ronnie Moore.

Evo-Stik League South (Football):

Sheffield FC V Leek Town, Leek opened the scoring on 14 minutes after a Dan Cope volley from the edge of the area that just sneaked inside the post, Sheffield then replied straight away with Ant Lynam scoring before they then took the lead 2 minutes later with James Gregory getting the goal.

During the second half after looking as if the game would finish 2-1 to Sheffield Leek got 2 quick goals of their own with Anthony Malbon and Dan Cope scoring on 76 and 80 minutes respectably. And the game wasn't finished their with Sheffield's Andrew Gascoigne equalising with a header from a corner on 89 minutes, Sheffield then pushed forward and as Leek defence panicked they conceded another corner and Gascoigne popped to get his second, with a volley, for Sheffield to take the lead in injury time.

The match was pretty dire to watch, with neither team really being able to hold the ball, move it round and create very much pressure, although the 7 goals did turn the game into a bit of a thriller with the lead quickly changing 4 times.

But the main incident of the day was the crowd trouble that stemmed from a couple of quite young Leek fans (if you can call them that) that had had far too much to drink, the slightest comment wound them up to a point of frenzy where they couldn't control themselves, and they surely made fools of themselves and the club they were representing.

Npower League 1 (Football):

Southampton V Sheffield Wednesday, During the first half the match was end to end but neither team really created anything, Wednesday loanee Isaiah Osbourne did have a good run but shot wide. Both teams found it hard to keep hold of the ball and Wednesday were playing ok in defence until they went to sleep and Fonte scored, on 60 minutes, from a Chamberlain corner, after this Southampton dominated the game. They then got their second on 66 minutes, with Lee Barnard doing well to shield the ball in the box from before crossing for Nicky Lambert to put the ball into the net, from that point Wednesday couldn't get hold of the ball in Southampton's half and never had any real urgency to get the ball forward to create any sort of goal scoring opportunity. Wednesday's best player was their débutante keeper, Richard O'Donnell, who made some good saves and kept the score down to only 2 goals.

La Liga (Football):

Barcelona V Getafe, I only saw bits of this match, and just after I turned on Danni Alves opened the scoring on 16 minutes with a fantastic volley from outside the area, after a poor clearance. Normally he would find it hard to hit the target but this was a fantastic finish, and the keeper had no chance. On 22 minutes the Barcelona fans showed their great appreciation, by clapping for a minute, for Eric Abidal, who on Thursday had successful surgery, to remove a tumor from his liver.

Towards the end of the match Getafe created a but of pressure by forcing 2 corners in a row, but nothing came of them and by this time with Barcelona winning 2-0 they didn't really look like getting back into the game. But on 87 minutes Getafe's Manu De Moral got on the end of a good cross and volleyed past Victor Valdes. After the goal Getafe put pressure on Barcelona forcing them defend deep and hang on to their lead, but they could not get the equaliser and the game finished 2-1.

WBC Heavyweight Title (Boxing):

Vitali Klitschko V Odlanier Solis, Klitschko got the victory at the end of the first round when he knocked Solis down with a short right jab. On his way down Solis twisted his knee, potentially tearing a ligament, and couldn't get up without the help of the ropes, and the referee stopped the fight straight away. Klitschko had taken control of the centre of the ring, and Solis had matched him up to that point, but made the mistake of walking onto Klitschko's powerful right jab. This was an extremely disappointing fight after the build up that it had being given in the commentary, leaving the capacity Cologne crowd jeering and Klitschko looking on as if he couldn't believe that the fight had ended.

Qatar Grand Prix (Moto GP):

The opening round of the Moto GP season was a visit to Doha for the night race at the Losail International Circuit. Cal Crutchlow made his debut in Moto GP for the Yamaha satellite team Monster Yamaha Tech 3, and became the first Brit to race in the series since James Toseland in 2009, Valentino Rossi was also making a debut, for his new team Ducati, and Casey Stoner has moved to Repsol Honda. Stoner had the pole but last seasons champion Jorge Lorenzo had a good start and was leading by the end of the first lap. After a few laps the 2 Repsol Honda riders got themselves into the first 2 places and pulled away from the rest of the field before battling between each other for the lead, but Dani Pedrosa had a bad lap and dropped away, leaving Stoner to win the race. Pedrosa was then overtook by Lorenzo, and he was lucky not to drop back any further and finished 3rd. Further back in the field Rossi and Ben Spies had a good battle for 6^th place and Crutchlow finished in 11^th, after overtaking Hector Barbera on the last lap.

The Honda's look as if they will dominate this season, and it also looks as if it will take some time before Rossi has his Ducati up to scratch

Main Event:

La Liga (Football):

Athletico Madrid V Real Madrid, Real started the game using 3 more defensive minded midfielders, instead of the usual 2, leaving Di Maria out of the starting line up, and playing with more of a 4-5-1 formation instead of the usual 4-2-3-1. Real got the first goal of the match on 10 minutes, after a good through ball from Laasana Diarra and a nice flick off Sami Khedira, Karim Benzema slotted the ball into the back of the net. Athletico then had most of the ball and were unlucky not too score, but Real did score, on 31 minutes after Marcelo pulled the ball back for Mesut Ozil and Athletico keeper David De Gea couldn't get his hand behind the ball. In the build up Cristiano Ronaldo was fouled by Tomas Ujfalusi in the box and a certain penalty was waved play on, but Real got what they deserved and straight after the kick off Sergio Aguereo was booked for Athletico for diving in the box, trying to win a penalty.

During the first half both teams had lots of good attacking chances, with each keeper having to make some good saves, but Athletico were not that good in defence, allowing Real to get 2 goals, but the attacking nature of their game kept them in the game.

During the second half Real took their foot off the pedal and didn't create as many chances as they did in the first half, but they still defended well, keeping their shape and making it hard for Athletico. As Real were looking to play the game out by keeping possession Aguero eventually scored for Athletico on 85 minutes after a good one-two with Koke Merodio, but they couldn't get the equaliser and Real extended their unbeaten league record against Athletico to 19 games.

This was a very enjoyable game of football to watch with both teams making some good opportunities as well as playing good football. Benzema had another good game and extended his tally to 10 goals in his last 8 games and 21 for the season. Also Ronaldo went off injured again, with his hamstring, and may miss the Champions League game against Tottenham.

Cool-Down's:

England had another dramatic win midweek in the Cricket World Cup, but two matches this weekend decided their future in this years tournament, the first South Africa beating Bangladesh, meant that England went through to the quarter-finals stage, and the second India beating the West Indies meant that England will play Sri Lanka in the next stage of the competition. The only issue with this is that it to be played on Saturday and clashes with the Wales v England football match in Cardiff.

Recent Results:

The Co-Operative Championship: York City Knights 10 Sheffield Eagles 28

ICC Cricket World Cup: England: 243 (48.4 overs)
                                       West Indies: 225 (44.4 overs)
                                       England beat West Indies by 18 runs

On a lovely, warm, spring day in Sheffield...

My Sporting Weekend 12-13^th of March:

Warm-Up's:

Evo-Stick South (Football):

Sheffield FC V Rushall Olympic, Rushall started the match well as they created some good chances before Nick Amos scored from a header, off a corner, on 13 minutes. Soon after Sheffield's keeper, Dan Whatsize, came rushing out to clear a high looping ball, before mis-timing his jump and flicking the ball back towards his own goal, two

Rushall players were through on goal and Danny Lennon shot from just inside the area, but the ball rolled wide of the open goal, it what was probably the worst miss I have ever seen. Rushall were dominating at this point but Sheffield got themselves back into the game after an intelligent free kick from Chris Adam on 35 minutes. The Rushall keeper, Chris Gemmell, was shielding the ball out for a goal kick, but pressure from Adam caused him to bring the striker down, Adam then took a quick free kick, from an incredible tight angle by the byline, that looped over the retreating keeper and curled into the open net. Sheffield were lucky to be going into halftime with the scoreline of 1-1 as Rushall had most of the play and Sheffield hardly created any chances.

During half time an announcement was made for an officially qualified referee to step forward, and after a slight delay the announcer stepped up the mark and took his position on the side line, vacated by the lineman who was now reffing the game. The second half started pretty even until Rushall's Matthew Lewis scored from a penalty, after Ahmed Obeng was taken down in the box, on 61 minutes. Rushall then got their 3rd 3 minutes later after Obeng had good control in the box, before turning and pulling it back for Danny Ashton to put it in off the crossbar. After that point Sheffield had a lot of the ball, and made a couple of chances but never looked like scoring. The match was looked as if it was drawing out to a 3-1 Rushall win, until Sheffield won a free kick, on 87 minutes, on the edge of the area and a deflection off Rushall's Ashton found its way past the keeper. For the final few minutes of the game Sheffield pushed players forward but never created anything leaving them to lose the game 3-2. Rushall played well and deserved the win as Sheffield never really were on top during the game, apart from the start if the second half, and on another day Rushall's Lennon could have scored several goals but today he had no luck and had some pretty poor misses.

The FA Cup (Football):

Manchester United v Arsenal, Arsenal started the match on top having most of the possession and creating a few chances, as Man U dropped back and allowed Arsenal to attack them, but Man U got the breakthrough, on 27 minutes, with Fabio scoring after a blocked shot from Javier Hernandez. Man U were playing a 4-4-2 formation but Rooney was coming back too deep leaving Hernandez isolated on his own up front against the Arsenal defence. Antonio Valencia made his come back from a broken leg coming on at half time for Fabio as Man U switched to a 4-5-1 formation with Rooney playing on the left wing. Man U doubled their lead 4 minutes into the second half with Rooney scoring a header, from another blocked Hernandez shot. Arsenal played out the last 10 minutes of the game with 10 men as Johan Djourou had to be stretchered off with a shoulder injury and they had used their allocation of subs. Arsenal had created the most chances during the match but Man U keeper Edwin Van Der Sar had a great game keeping them out. Even though Man U have had injury problems, playing 3 defenders in midfield made it look as if they were not taking the match that seriously, and were looking towards the Marseille match midweek, but they played better than last weeks performance against Liverpool and quite comfortably beat Arsenal in the end. Arsenal's season is currently falling apart, from having the chance to win 4 trophies 2 weeks ago, they can now only win the league. But last weeks draw at home to Sunderland was a missed opportunity to catch Man U even further as they lost to Liverpool, but they do have a game in hand and are only trailing by 3 points, so if they can put together a good run and keep key players fit they may have a chance of lifting the title.

La Liga (Football):

Real Madrid v Hercules, Real Madrid dominated the first half with Kareem Benzema scoring on 23 minutes after some good passing play through the box, but Hercules did create a few chances, forcing Iker Casillias to make a couple of saves. In the second half Benzema got his 2nd goal, after cutting in across the box from the left wing, before firing into the far corner, after the second goal Hercules never looked like scoring and Real Madrid didn't really create that many more chances. With Christiano Ronaldo out injured Emmanuel Adebayor played the full game but didn't have much of the ball and when he did he never looked dangerous. Benzema did have a good game, as he has done over the last couple of weeks, and will surely be pushing Gonzalo Higuaín, when he is fit, for a place in the starting line-up.

WBO Super-Featherweight Title (Boxing):

Ricky Burns V Joseph Laryea, This was Ricky Burns's second defence of his WBO title, fighting the Ghanaian Joseph Laryea, in front of a partizan Glasgow crowd. Both boxers are quite tall and spindly and they looked at bit out of place fighting at this weight. The fight started quite tight and slow with a lot of short jabs, the early rounds were close with Burns just edging it, Lareya had a good 4th round, but Burns came back in the 5th, and started to dominate the fight and in what seemed quite a shock decision, at the time, Lareya retired after the 7th round, but it turned out he had injured his hand, breaking a knuckle. This gave Burns the victory and he is now looking towards a possible unification fight.

Main Event:

The Co-Operative Championship (Rugby League):

Sheffield Eagles V Widnes Vikings, The 2011 Championship season kicked off on a lovely sunny afternoon at Bramall Lane with Sheffield Eagles being the first pro sports team to wear a kit promoting a anti-homophobic message with the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans History Month, Pride Sports and “Homophobia: Tackle It!” logos emblazoned across the shirt.

Widnes started the game well, having all the possession and forcing 2 drop-outs before Steve Tyrer went over for the first score of the game on 7 minutes, when Sheffield eventually got hold of the ball they won a penalty before Dane McDonald got a try on 13 minutes. A dummy from Widnes's Thomas Coyle left a big gap in Sheffield's defence and Simon Finnigan went over for an easy score on 22 minutes, and 4 minutes later Sheffield's sliding defence couldn't keep out Tyrer for his second try as he stepped inside. Widnes then got their 4^th try of the game, 3 minutes later, when Kirk Netherton went over from dummy half on the goal line. A penalty for a high tackle gave Sheffield field position and Alex Rowe went over on 32 minutes, and Corey Hanson went over soon after, after a break from New signing Quentin Laulu-Togagae and a cross-field kick from Simon Brown, but this was chalked off as the furthest official from the action ruled a Sheffield player was offside.

The Half-time score was 12-22 with Widnes dominating most of the first half, but Sheffield's two trys kept them in the game and they had some good play towards the end of the half. After a handling error by Sheffield, Widnes's Allen got over on their first possession of the half for their 5th try of the game. A 60 metre run from Widnes's James Ford was stopped by a fantastic try saving tackle from Tim Bergin, but Sheffield's defence couldn't regroup and Finnigan got over for his second try of the game, and a seemingly unassailable 20 point lead. Sheffield did get another try, responding straight away with Corey Hanson going over down the right hand side on 63 minutes. But another error off the kick-off gave Widnes the ball back and Allen went over 2 minutes after the last score, Allen then completed his hat-trick on 74 minutes. The game finished 44-16 to Widnes but to an extent Sheffield played well in defence in patches, but giving away silly penalty's gave Widnes the ball back in good field position, and a team that has that much possession is always going to score, no matter how good the defence is. Also Sheffield didn't look that dangerous going forward and their kicking within Widnes's 20 metre line was pretty poor, not being able to force any drop-outs and the 2 good kicks led to an offside and a knock-on by Sheffield players. Sheffield's next match is away at York on Thursday night, in front of the Sky cameras, and with Menzie Yere and maybe a few of their dual-registration backs, from Bradford and Huddersfield, in the team hopefully they can put on a good performance and get the win.

Cool-Down's:

England's loss to Bangladesh in the Cricket World Cup left them needing to beat the West Indies in their final group match, and other results to go their way, to have any chance of getting through to the quarter finals.

Also over the weekend the ECB announced that they have agreed with Cricket Australia to shorten future ODI series's, but will this really help to reduce burn out. Yes I think that a 7 game series is too long anyway as from a general fans perspective it is too many games to hold their attention, also potentially playing in 3 dead rubbers does not look too good for an outsiders perspective. If the last series in Australia was reduced to 5 games it would have meant that the players would have got home a week earlier, but is an extra weeks rest going to make that much difference going into a 6 week long World Cup, after a 3 month tour of Australia. Another thing they are doing in the future is moving the cycle of Ashes series backward a year so that they do not clash with world cup years.

But on of the things that I think should be looked at the playing of shorter series inbetween tours, for example last year they visited the UAE to play Pakistan in 2 T20 games before going to Bangladesh, even though Pakistan were scheduled to come to England later that summer and play in a series that included t20 games and they also played Australia, in England, in a 5 game ODI series, even though they had played Australia in a 7 games series the previous year, in England. Surely these periods would be better used as rest periods, also these matches seem to be played to extract the maximum amount of money out of the England fans.

Recent Results:

Npower League 1: Sheffield Wednesday 0 Notts County 1

ICC Cricket World Cup: Bangladesh: 227-8 (49.0 overs)
                                       England: 225 (49.4 overs)

                                       Bangladesh beat England by 2 wickets

Kuyt Flies On Merseyside

 

My Sporting Weekend 4-6^th March:

Warm-Up's:

Aviva Premiership (Rugby Union):

Leicester Tigers v Saracens, the game was pretty evenly matched with a tight start and a 6-6 scoreline until Manu Tuilagi got the first try on 28 minutes after receiving the ball just inside Saracens half and beating 4 men down the left hand side. This was followed by each team scoring a penalty, with the Tigers going into half time with a 14-9 lead.

Saracens started the second half well but good defending from Leicester kept them out after 23 phases in their own 22, with the Tigers players celebrating winning a penalty like they had scored a try. Saracens had virtually all the field position and finally got the first points of the second a half with a Alex Goode penalty on 64 minutes, but then the Tigers finally got into the second half, missing a penalty, but having some possession and field position of their own. Alex Goode then scored another penalty, from 40 meters, for Saracens to take the lead on 74 minutes, Leicester put the pressure on and Saracens gave away a penalty, for being offside, with 30 seconds to go. Replacement Billy Twelvetrees stepped up but missed with the last kick of the game, giving Saracens the victory.

The first half was pretty even, with the Tigers getting the break though with the only try, but Saracens played well in the 2nd half, keeping the Tigers pinned in their own half, and deservedly won the game.

Barclays Premier League (Football):

Manchester City V Wigan, the game was pretty evenly matched, with Wigan playing well, until an awful error from Al-Habsi on 38 minutes, letting a shot from David Silva through his legs, gave City the lead. The second half was pretty uneventful with neither team really creating any goal scoring opportunities, but Wigan did play some good football, keeping possession well, and City looked as if they were playing for a 1-0 win from the moment they scored. Man City had a lot of the ball but didn't play fast enough to put Wigan under any real pressure, as they had time to get men behind the ball.

British Super-Featherweight Title (Boxing):

Gary Sykes v Carl Johanneson, this all Yorkshire bout pitted Dewsbury's British champion Gary Sykes against Leeds's challenger Carl Johanneson, who was looking to kickstart his career, at the Huddersfield Leisure Centre. Sykes dominated the opening rounds with his fast movement and quick punches, but Johanneson came back into the fight during the 4th round, before taking control during the 6th with his big hits. The pair were then evenly matched until Johanneson knocked Sykes down in the 9th and tried to finish the fight straight away, Sykes controlled himself and came back into the fight as Johanneson tired, ending the round on top. Sykes then took control during the 11th putting the pressure on for the final 2 rounds. The fight pretty even and was boxed at a fast pace throughout, with Gary Sykes winning on points. This was a really exciting and hugely entertaining fight between 2 evenly matched boxers, with Gary Sykes now looking towards a European Title fight.

Cricket World Cup:

England V South Africa, I turned on to see that South Africa needed 100 from 23 overs and thought that the game would all but over pretty soon with England losing too easily. But they fought back and with the help of a slow pitch, some good, economical, bowling and good wicket keeping from Matt Prior England got themselves back into the game. South Africa started to fall apart from the 32nd over, losing 4 wickets for 3, over 5 overs, South Africa steadied themselves and picked the run rate up, leaving them needing 30 from the last 60 balls with 3 wickets in hand. After 10 overs without a wicket England took control of the game with Tim Bresnan getting the 8th wicket with 22 balls to go, and Stuart Broard finished the game getting the 9th wicket with 17 balls to go and the 10th 3 balls later for England to win by 6 runs. What I saw was really entertaining with the slow pitch playing a huge part in that, hopefully England can now kick on and put together full team performance's for the last too group games, against Bangladesh and the West Indies, and qualify for the quarter-finals in a good position.

Main Event:

Barclays Premier League (Football):

Liverpool V Manchester United, Liverpool started well with some good passing and movement, with United not being able to keep up with them.

Liverpool got the first goal after some good control in the box from Luis Suarez, taking the ball round 3 players, and crossing the ball for an easy tap in for Dirk Kuyt, Kuyt also got the second goal after pouncing on a mis-timed header back towards the United goal from Nani. Their was a bit of a bizarre incident just before half time, after being on the end of a bad tackle from Jaime Carragher, where he studded him on the shin, Nani got up and walked around before diving/collapsing in front of the ref, and requiring to be stretchered off, leaving the rest of the players squaring up to each other. Liverpool did excellent in the first half, playing with confidence and having lots of possession in the Man U half and creating the better chances. Man U had a lot of possession around the half way line but didn't really create anything going any further towards Liverpool's goal.

Man U started the second half well but could not get the break through, and when Kuyt then completed his hat-trick, on 64 minutes, following up a Suarez free-kick that Van Der Sar couldn't keep hold of, the game was all but over and the Man U players were left standing still with their hands in the air. Hernandez got a consolation during injury time, from a header off a Ryan Giggs cross where he was poorly marked. To an extent the second half was a bit of a non event, and after Liverpool got their 3rd goal they never looked like losing, as Man U didn't create anywhere near enough good chances to get themselves back in the game. Suarez had a excellent game, putting defenders under pressure and creating good goal scoring chances, and with Andy Carroll finally making is Liverpool debut, they could potentially form a good partnership, depending on what formation is played around them. Man U had a bit of a patched up team with Wes Brown and Chris Smalling starting at center halves, but this shouldn't be an excuse as Smalling has been playing well and Brown has lots of experience at the highest level. Also with both Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes starting Man U didn't have any impact players on the bench that they could bring on, apart from Javier Hernandez who replaced Nani, that would make a difference.

Cool-Down's:

Eric Cantona was back in the UK media this week with his interview for Football Focus, where he mentioned that the karate kick was his career highlight, but his position of Director of Soccer and the future of the New York Cosmos is of more interest to me. At the moment all that New York Cosmos is a name, they want to join Major League Soccer (top tier in the US), but they currently do not have a first team. They teamed up with 2 existing clubs, Blau Weiss Gottschee, based in Queens, NY and Los Angeles Futbol Club, based in Pasadena, CA, (who have recently severed ties with the Cosmos and changed their name), but all they have done is change the names of the youth teams and gave them nice shiny new kits. Yes they may have put money into these clubs to help with running costs and other expenses, but surely they should be starting their own youth teams from scratch, and develop it into their own style of academy, and not just jump on board a club that may already has a good setup and take the credit for it. Another issue I have is that recent teams that have joined, or are joining, the MLS, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver and Montreal, ran teams at lower levels of the American professional structure to build up fan bases and links with the local community, as well as developing their own stadiums and training facility's, but the Cosmos do not have any plans to join lower levels of the American structure, or build their own facilities. There is precedent set with teams joining the league without playing at a lower level, Philadelphia is the most recent, but Cantona talked in his interview about academy players playing professionally in 5 years time and surely for a club to grow this way they need to be fielding teams at a lower level than the MLS before stepping up so that they know the standard of player they need to be producing. After looking around for the Cosmos future plans I have found virtually no information, apart from that they want to play in the MLS and that they want to produce their own players. Now there are lots of different teams, in different sports, in America that come and go each year all thinking that they can establish themselves and at least break even, but the Cosmos have the history of their name and hopefully they can establish themselves as a viable team in the US, and are not just owned by someone looking to make some quick cash off a historic name in American soccer.

Sheffield Wednesday were back to losing ways this week with a defeat to bottom club, (albeit because of a 10 point deduction for going in to administration), Plymouth, and it seems nothing has changed over the last few years. Excuses such as players are not interested, manager is not good enough, it is to intimidating to play at Hillsborough, board/chairman don't know what they are doing are becoming boring, maybe we should all support someone else and their would be no complaining then.

Recent Results:

Challenge Cup (Rugby League): Sheffield Eagles 82 Leeds Met 0

Npower League 1 (Football): Sheffield Wednesday 2 Plymouth 4

Evo-Stik League South Division (Football): Sutton Coldfield Town 4 Sheffield FC 2