My Sporting Weekend: June 2011

Monday 27 June 2011

2nd Chances for Some, None For Others

My Sporting Weekend 25-26th June 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Engage Super League (Rugby League):

Wigan Warriors V Huddersfield Giants,

Wigan opened the scoring on minutes when some expansive play left the Huddersfield defence chasing shadows as Sam Tomkins touched down. But the Giants responded soon after with winger David Hodgson going over after a Sam Tomkins mistake gave the Giants field possession from a goal-line drop-out. But off the restart full-back and goal-kicker Scott Grix fumbled the ball and, from the resulting field position, Sam Tomkins went over for his 2^nd try, after a good run.

The Warriors 3^rd try then came on 17 minutes, after another Huddersfield error gave away possession, and Thomas Leuleuai went over from dummy half, with the markers out of position.

Both teams carried on making errors, with Wigan's Paul Deacon fumbling the ball twice, but it was fast hand from him that got the ball away from the ruck quickly, before Brett Finch flicked on to Tomkins who released George Carmont to go over on 25 minutes. The Giants defence did improve but they couldn't keep out Pat Richards as he went over on half time and extend their lead to 22 points.

Huddersfield had a slow start to the game, which may be attributed to their coach breaking down and their late arrival to the ground, but Wigan were playing well, and it was both teams that were making silly errors, but it was Wigan who made the most of these errors.

The 2^nd half had a closer scoreline, but Wigan still dominated as Huddersfield couldn’t get any moment going forward, and Josh Charnley and Lee Mossop got the 1^st 2 tries of the half for Wigan to seal the victory.

The Giants did get a consolation on 71 minutes when Danny Kirkmond went over, but it was Wigan who got the final score when Sam Tomkins went over to complete his hat-trick, on 75 minutes, after a good meandering run.

Gareth Hock made his return to the Wigan team after a 2 year drugs ban, coming off the bench to a resounding cheer from the Wigan faithful, and although he didn't make that much impact on the game he looking in good condition, and this is a good time for him to come back into a Wigan team looking to win another Super League title.

UEFA Euro U21's Final (Football):

Switzerland V Spain, A 2-0 victory for Spain, over Switzerland at the Aarhus Stadium, Denmark, has meant that they have been crowned European Champions at the under 21 level.

Spain had another good game, with lots of dominating possession, but like in previous games they didn't really create that many good chances, at least until they scored the 2^nd goal, and after that point they never looked like losing.

Switzerland did play well in patches, but they never looked threatening as they moved into the final third of the pitch, although Fabian Frei did have a good volley in the 1^st half to force a save from Spanish keeper David De Gea.

Overall it wasn't the most entertaining match to watch, but it did show that Switzerland's programme to bring players through a system to make the senior national team more successful is potentially working, although they did seem to have quite a lot of foreign born players, now if they have lived in Switzerland most of their lives that is fine, but if they are going out poaching foreigners then surely that negates the system put in place to bring through good young talent to improve the senior team.

Also as Spain look to build on their current international success at senior level this shows that there are players coming through that can slot into their team, so that they can become force that can genuinely complete at every tournament for the foreseeable future.

FIFA U17 World Cup (Football):

England V Uruguay, both sides were already through to the next round but their was still something to play for with the winner going on to play a 3^rd placed team from another group, and the loser playing a 2^nd ranked team.

The 1st half was pretty uneventful, apart from when England took the lead in the final minute, with Nathaniel Chalobah heading in off a corner, after being left unmarked by the Uruguayan defence.

For the 1^st 15 minutes of the 2^nd half England looked a bit shaky in defence, with the Uruguayans having move of the ball in the final 3^rd, and drawing a couple of fouls. But England held on and they got their 2^nd goal on 58 minutes when Max Clayton slotted in after a good weighted cross from Hallam Hope, as the defence just stood and watched him run through.

This goal sealed the victory for England as they dropped back and allowed Uruguay to have more possession, but they never looked like scoring, and the game finished 2-0.

England now meet Argentina in the next round, and one would assume that they will defiantly be a step up in class and prove a much tougher task than their 3 opening group games. And one of the areas they need to improve on is Jordan Pickford's goalkeeping, as he seems to have a tendency to come out of his net easily, and normally at the wrong time, but he did seem to recover well, so just needs to improve his discipline.

Iowa Corn Indy 250 (IndyCar Series):

The oval season continued with its 4^th race of the season, and 8th race overall, and with Will Power and Dario Franchitti being tied at the top of the championship ladder this was an extremely important race for somebody to take control of the lead.

The Versus coverage started with Robin and Dan Wheldon doing a grid walk before the start of the race, which was a good feature and gave good insight insight before the start of the race, as well as a new dimension to the coverage of the race.

The Iowa race is always good to watch, with the short, tight, nature of the track leading to constant action and overtaking, as well as the ability to run 3 wide and quick laps.

The 1^st caution came out on the 24^th lap with James Jakes losing control of his car in dirty air, and hitting the wall, putting him out of the race. During the caution Power was released into Charlie Kimball's path, damaging the nose cone, and putting him to the back of the field, but fortunately for him he didn't lose any laps.

2^nd caution on lap 46 with Ana Beatriz losing control, and collecting Mike Conway, as she went into the wall, as well as showering the track with bits of carbon fibre.

Unfortunately for Will Power his weekend got worse when he spun out and hit the wall, bringing out the 3rd caution of the day, on lap 93, ending his race in 21^st position, and putting Franchetti to the top of the championship ladder, and then on lap 115 Sebastian Sevadra brought out the 4^th caution as he spun out in the same place of Power.

After getting to the front early on Franchetti then led until Marco Andretti made a good run, overtaking Takuma Sato and Tony Kanaan, before taking the lead on lap 157, but Franchetti got him back a few laps later as they battled for the lead, and as they both came into the pits for what would be their final stops Sato spun out, again at the 2nd corner. This brought out the 5th caution and luckily for them they got into the pits before the caution came out and Andretti led on the restart, after a quick pit-stop.

On the restart Kanaan and Scott Dixon joined the battle for the lead as Franchetti dropped back to, and finished in, 5^th, and Andretti took the victory followed by Kanaan in 2^nd, Dixon in 3^rd and JR Hildebrand in 4^th.

Andretti had a fantastic win, for the 1^st time since Sonoma in 2006, and looked strong throughout the race as he made his way through traffic after qualifying in 17^th.

KV Racing had a mixed weekend with Takuma Sato qualifying on pole, but crashing out and finishing in 19^th, Tony Kanaan qualifying in 3^rd, before finishing in 2^nd and their 3^rd driver EJ Viso finished in after having to run in his slower back-up car after crashing last week in Milwaukee and not being able to get it ready in time for this race.

And after a mistake in qualifying Scott Dixon started in 23^rd, and had a fantastic race to get up to, and finish in, 3^rd, team-mate Franchetti extended his lead in the championship to 20 points with his 5^th place finish.

Grand Prix of European (Formula 1):

Red Bull locked out front row with Vettel taking his 7^th pole, out of 8, for the season, and his dominance continued when he pulled away from the start, negating, team-mate Mark Webber's opportunity to use his DRS against him.

After a poor star dropping from 3^rd to 5^th, behind both Ferrari's, Lewis Hamilton was the 1^st of the front 6 drivers to come in, from 5^th, but after a couple of good laps he could only get past Felipe Massa with the undercut, after the rest of the leaders had pitted.

On the 2^nd set of pit stops Mark Webber got the undercut, going back into 2^nd with Fernando Alonso dropping back down 3^rd, after Alonso overtook Webber earlier in the race.

Midway through the race Jenson Button lost his KERS system, and the 3rd set of pit-stops came and went with little effect and Vettel went on to easily take the victory.

Since it was added to the calender the Valencian Grand Prix has normally been quite a poor race due to it being incredibly difficult to overtake, leading to a 2 hour procession around the streets of the Valencian port, but this year race promised so much more with the introduction of DRS, and it was a truly disappointing race. Like normal their was very little overtaking especially in the KERS areas.

Main Event:

NatWest International T20 (Cricket):

England V Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field first, and this seemed the right decision with openers Michael Lumb, for 2, and Craig Kieswetter, for 4, falling during the 1st 3 overs. But Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen fought back with a partnership of 83 off 54 balls, until Morgan, for 47, was caught by Mahela Jayawardene, but not before Angelo Mathews dropped him deep in the field when he was on 23 and Thisara Perera's 1st over went for 24. Pietersen was then out in the next over, after a faster ball from veteran spinner Sanath Jayasuria, and England's innings stuttered to end end, with Samit Patel being out for a duck, Ravi Bopara for 19, Luke Wright for 9, Chris Woakes for 9 and new captain Stuart Broad being run out for a duck, as they only put on 35 in the last 7 overs for a final score of 136.

Sri Lanka will have been happy with their effort in the field to limit England to only 136, and if it wasn't for Morgan and Petersen's brilliant partnership the score could have easily been 20 or more less, and the Sri Lanka batters should have thought that they would be able to catch that score without too much trouble, meaning that England had to bowl well and take wickets.

England made a bad start, with some poor bowling, as Sri Lanka's opening partnership of Jayawardene and Jayasuria made 40 before Jayasuria was caught be Pietersen at the start of the 5th over. After the power-play spin was introduced to slow down the run-rate, and although Graeme Swan only gave away 19 off his 1st 3 overs, but Patel was more costly allowing 18 off 2 overs and was taken out of the attack, with Bopara replacing him, and in the 11th over Jayawardene reached his 50.

Jayawardene and Sangakkara then kept the run rate up with occasional boundaries, as England found it hard to take wickets, but it was lax bowling, giving away too many wides, 11, that cost England the game, as Sri Lanka quite easily reached the target set by England with 17 balls remaining.

During the 2nd innings Sri Lanka never looked fazed and looked like they could easily have chased down a higher score as the England bowling attack failed to put the Sri Lankan's under any pressure. And unfortunately for England this was a 1 match series so they don't have the chance to get any sort of revenge, but starting Tuesday is the 5 match ODI series and after this good performance Sri Lanka will be looking for another series victory.

Cool-Downs:

The Women’s football World Cup kicked off this weekend at a sold-out Olympic Stadium in Berlin with current world champions Germany taking on Canada, and even though the Germans dominated the match Canada did create a couple of good chances and actually scored the fist goal against Germany, in a World Cup Finals since the final of the 2003 tournament. But unfortunately for the Canadians 2 goals in the 1^st half sealed the victory for Germany.

The English drew in their opening match, against Mexico, and this could be a big blow to their chances of getting far in the tournament as they will now probably come 2^nd in the group and would, also, most probably face Germany in the next round.

Monday 20 June 2011

Youth Is The Key, Supposedly

My Sporting Weekend 17-19^th June 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Engage Super League (Rugby League):

St Helens V Wigan Warriors, The Warriors made a good start, keeping the Saints pinned back in their own half with a good kicking game that the Saints could not diffuse, and at the the half they were leading 20-0. And although the Saints played well to absorb long periods of Wigan attacks, they did little going forward and Wigan took control of the match when they went from a lead of 6 to 20 within a 6 minute period when Pat Richards got a penalty goal, on 25 minutes, followed by a try out wide after a good Paul Deacon kick, and Joel Tomkins then went over after the Saints defence didn't deal with Richards high kick.

Wigan then virtually secured their victory early in the 2nd half when Brett Finch forced his way over, after breaking through a couple of tacklers, but the Saints did come back with a pair of their own trys, with Tony Puletua and Thomas Makinson going over, as the Wigan defence lapsed . Wigan then completed the scoring when Jeff Lima got his 1^st try for the Warriors after being the 1^st to a loose ball in the Saints in goal area.

Wigan played fantastic as a team, dictating the speed of the play of the ball, pinning St Helens back in their own half, as well as scoring some great trys and Jeff Lima and Brett Finch probably had their best games since joining the club. Although it wasn't reflected in the scoreline St Helens actually didn't play that bad, especially in defence, it was just a case of Wigan executing their game plan so well, and if Wigan were playing a weaker side they would have probably put at least 60 points past them, but going forward St Helens found it hard to get any momentum going, and their kicking game was pretty much non-existent.

FIFA U17 World Cup, Group (Football):

Rwanda V England, I only saw the 2^nd half and England made a good start creating a few chances, but as the game settled down Rwanda came back into the match and had more of the ball, creating a few chances of their own. But England were just physically stronger, and this showed with their 1^st goal, with Everton's Hallam Hope out muscling a Rwandan defender after a quick break, before fooling the keeper with a shimmer, and then lifting the ball over him.

England then sealed the victory with 4 minutes to go when Liverpool's Raheem Sterling scored with a curling right footed shot from outside the area.

England should now easily qualify for the next stage, and hopefully they can put on some good performances and go deep into the competition. And realistically English football needs their national youth teams to do well in, in this, and all tournaments if they want to build towards winning major honours at senior level, and hopefully the media can give this tournament the coverage and respect it deserves.

Milwaukee 225 (IndyCar):

After dominating the start of the race Dario Franchitti, leading the 1^st 130 laps or so, he fell behind Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves as they came to the front of the field. But fortunately for Franchitti, Kannan spun out with 25 laps to go, ending his race, and during the caution Castroneves had to come in for an unscheduled pit-stop, because of a potential flat tyre, leaving Franchitti to easily take the victory.

After starting in 17^th Will Power did well to make his way through traffic, and eventually finished in 4^th, but due to Franchitti's 1^st place finish he is now on equal points with him at the top of the championship standings.

This wasn't the most entertaining race ever, and the main issue was that more than a quarter of the race was run under caution conditions, after 6 yellow flag periods, and this led to no pit stops being taken during green flag conditions, which normally shakes up the positions, meaning more overtaking. But it was not to be and it was good too see Franchitti win again and go to the (joint) top of the championship standings.

Main Event:

UEFA U21's European Finals, Group B (Football):

England V Czech Republic, A disappointing loss for English team has left them finishing 3^rd in their group, and out of the tournament, as the Czech team progressed to the semi's with a 2-1 victory, after 2 late goals from Jan Chramosta and Tomas Pekhart. To an extent England played well again, keeping the ball and looking to play from the back, as the Czech's just looking to break on the counter, but they seemed tactically naïve as the 2 defensive midfielder's sat too deep, compacting the space between them and the the 2 centre halves. And as well as sitting deep the 2 centre midfielder's were also too static when they got the ball, not moving forward to support each other, or to support the more attacking players, and as the Czech's defended deep their was not really much use for 2 defensive midfielder's and I think that England would have been better off pushing Jordan Henderson further forward to give the defence and Fabrice Muamba a better outlet.

Kyle Walker, surprisingly, had a quiet game, after 2 good performances against Spain and Ukraine, as he didn't really get in the game and make many good runs down the wing, and was mainly used as an outlet, before mainly moving the ball along to Daniel Sturridge.

The only midfielder to come out of the game with any real credit it Henri Lansbury, who, after coming on as a 2^nd half sub, wanted the ball, and helped bridge the gap between midfield and attack.

Throughout this tournament I feel that Stuart Pearce has been tactically naïve and inflexible by sticking to his 4-2-3-1 formation, that was too defensive at times, and left a large gap between the 6 defensive players and the 4 forward players, as the 2 centre midfielder's sat too deep, and didn't really push forward to support the attackers. This also meant that their was a lot of long balls played forward as the gap was too big to play short, fast, passes on the floor, and although Danny Welbeck is a good header of the ball their wasn't really any support for flick ons and he found it hard to hold on to the ball. As games went on England did improve, but normally after substitutes were introduced, so were the players coming off not good enough, and if so why where they starting, as Scott Sinclair, Henri Lansbury and Jack Rodwell did more coming off the bench than starters Jordan Henderson, Tom Cleverly, Michael Mancienne and Danny Rose did.

Overall this was a disappointing tournament for England and I expected them to get through the group stage, and even through they were missing both Jack Wilshire and Andy Carroll, I didn't think that it would make a difference, but Carroll has the ability to hold up the long ball that England were playing, and Wilshire would have probably been more creative in the defensive midfielders position than Jordan Henderson.

Monday 13 June 2011

Comebacks, Rain or Shine

My Sporting Weekend 10-12^th June 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Friends Life t20 (Cricket):

Lancashire V Yorkshire, Lancashire batted 1^st but made a poor start when Tom Smith was bowled for an LBW by Adil Rashid and was out for a duck with only the 2^nd ball of the game. Wickets then steadily fell until the 13^th over, with Rashid getting another and Azeem Rafiq taking 3 and Lancashire looked in trouble as they only had 62 when the 6^th wicket fell. But Karl Brown and Luke Procter stabilised the innings with a partnership of 60 off the last 7 overs for Lancashire to reach 122.

Yorkshire made a steady start and looked set to win with a couple of overs to go, until Procter took hold of the ball and ripped through the Yorkshire middle order taking Anthony McGrath and Gerard Brophy in 2 ball in the 13^th over and Gary balance in the 17^th to keep the match alive. Yorkshire then began to fall apart with Richard Pyrah and Rashid both being run out leaving Rafiq and Ryan Sidebottom needing 10 off the last over for the victory. And this was reached with 2 balls remaining after Rafiq hit 2 4's, with paddle shots, over the wicket-keeper's head to win the match.

The near capacity crowd seemed a little quiet, and I think that this was due to the slow (!!!) run-rate, with an outfield that was slow and big boundaries, their was lack of 4's ad 6's, but overall does it really matter if a match is high or low scoring, surely as long as it is competitive that is what matters. Oh and Yorkshire winning helps a lot too.

International Origin (Rugby League):

England V Exiles, The Exiles got the opening score, after Jamie Peacock turned over possession with a poor offload, and after some good play Willie Manu went over on 7 minutes, England then responded on 21 minutes, with Richie Myler going over after James Graham made a good break. But it was the Exiles who led at the half with Francis Meli going over after Iosia Soliola knocked Brett Hodgson's chip kick back inside. The next points didn't come until 10 minutes before the end of the game when Joel Tomkins intercepted a long pass and went the length of the pitch to take the lead, but as England tired George Carmont found a gap in the defence with an angled run and went over with the final play of the game, for the Exiles to take the victory 16-12.

England did have some spells where they played well in defence but going forward they found it hard to string together good series of plays, especially as they had so many players taking the ball at 1^st receiver, instead of playing it simple.

Rangi Chase had an excellent game for the Exiles, easily breaking through the English defence with his mazing runs, and even through he was a bit suspicious in defence, this performance, as well as his Castleford form, could push his way into the New Zealand squad, but I don't see him taking Benji Marshall's spot any time soon as he probably the worlds current best rugby league player. He also made a great half-back partnership with Thomas Leuluai and they easily controlled the Exiles offence with virtually no mix ups or errors.

Unfortunately for the concept of an united England team Sam Tomkins was on the receiving end of a lots of boos from a significant section of the crowd, surely if you are paying to see an English team you should support the English players, and it you happen to have a dislike for a certain player you should just keep quiet, but overall I think that this was the type of game England need to play in preparation for playing the Aussies or Kiwis and was a success.

Firestone Twin 275's (Indy Car):

After returning to its historic place on the schedule a few years ago, following the Indy 500, the format of the Texas Grand Prix has now reverted back to an old format with 2 races on 1 night to give fans at the Texas Motor Speedway double the action. Both races consisted of 1l4 laps with the grid in the 1^st race being set by standard oval qualifying, and the grid in the 2^nd race being set by a lottery draw-out after the 1^st race.

Race 1, After the 1^st start was waved off, for Alex Tagliani jumping the gun, Dario Franchitti made a good start and pulled away from the rest of the field, until Will Power got into 2^nd and bridged the gap. The 1^st set of pit-stops came and went with Franchitti extending his lead further and as it came up to make a decision whether to splash and go, or change the tyres, for the final stop of the race, Charlie Kimball and Wade Cunningham came together bringing out the 1^st caution of the race. The race restarted with 10 laps remaining and although Franchitti led until the end their was some close racing between the front 4 cars of Franchitti, Dixon, Will Power and Tagliani as they pulled away from the rest of the field, with Franchitti winning by a car length. Further back in the field Takuma Sato had a good race finishing 5^th, after doing well to run up front with the leading pack all race.

After a quick celebration from Franchitti, and a few driver interviews, the draw was made for the 2^nd race, which was actually quite interesting with each driver getting some air time to review their 1^st race or talk some rubbish, but it was a bit drawn out due to their being 30 drivers. Tony Kaanan selected the pole, with Franchitti taking 28^th, Dixon 18^th and Power 3^rd, which was unfortunate for Franchitti from a championship point of view as he had to get around 25 cars to challenge Power. And with some faster cars further back in the field it looked as if their was going to be constant overtaking through out the 2^nd race, but saying that their was a lot of overtaking in the 1^st race anyway.

Race 2, At the start of the race Power pulled away from the rest of the field with a group of 4 cars, including leader Kannan, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves, as Franchetti was finding it hard to overtake towards the back of the field, mainly due to being set-up for running up at the front. After the 1^st set of pit-stops the 3 Penske cars were running in the 1^st 3 spots, with Power leading, followed by Ryan Briscoe and Castroneves, and Franchetti was down in 15^th. The final pit-stops started with about 10 laps to go, and after some near misses the green flag stayed out until the end of the race with Power taking the chequered flag and Franchetti finishing in 7^th. But from the start of the race Power always looked like he was going to win due to his starting draw, and the fact that their were no cautions played in to his hands as he pulled away from the rest of the field, leaving his competitors behind as he extended his lead over Franchetti in the championship standings to 21 points. Marco Andretti had a good 2^nd race finishing in 6^th after gaining 21 spots from his 26^th position start, as did Dixon who finished in 2^nd from a 18^th place start.

This was a great format, with each race being ran in different conditions, dusk and night, meaning that the cars needed different set-ups, as well as the short sharp races meaning that the drivers didn't have much time to hang around, and had to get to the front as early as possibly for any chance of winning. Although I am not too sure about the random draw to set the grid for the 2^nd race, maybe a completely inverted field would work, so 1^st place finisher starts in 30^th, 2^nd in 29^th, etc. etc., but I can understand that their needs to be something happening between races to keep TV viewers and fans in the stands interested. So maybe a random draw could still work, but with the finishing grid of the 1^st race being split into 3 groups of 10 (ie. 1-10, 11-20 and 21-30), and then having the random draw within that group, so if you finished between 1^st and 10^th the worst you would start would be 10^th, and the same between places 11^th to 20^th and 21^st to 30^th.

Also Indy winner Dan Wheldon did a good job in the commentary box, providing some good driver experience and explaining some driver nuances that would have been missed by the rest of the commentary team.

Grand Prix du Canada (Formula 1):

The race started under safety car conditions due to the heavy rain and standing water, Sebastian Vettel was on pole and Fernando Alonso made a good start after the safety car went in, but he was unable to take the lead as Vettel held him off. Also on the start Lewis Hamilton spun Mark Webber out as he went up the inside of him up to the 2^nd corner, earning him a stewards investigation. But this investigation was never completed as on the 8^th lap, he had an incident on the pit straight when he tried to pass team-mate Jenson Button , who had made a mistake, when he faded back across the road and left Hamilton nowhere to go apart from the wall.

Button then received a drive through penalty for speeding under safety car conditions, and as the rain stopped he was one of the 1^st to switch to intermediate tyres, and was soon overtaking cars and making up positions, but his progress was halted when the rain came again, bringing out the safety again, and eventually the red flag with 25 laps complete.

After a 2 hour break the race re-started again under safety car conditions, with Kobayashi making a good restart, in 2^nd place, holding back Alonso until he had to pit, due to the wet tyres not being fast enough any-more, where he lost a lot of time after getting backed up behind team-mate Filipe Massa. Then after coming back out, on lap 38, Button went up the inside of him, but he did not yield and Button hit him on the right rear corner, leaving him spinning out and beached on the grass, as well as puncturing Button's front left tyre, sending him to the pits for the 5^th time.

After restarting Vettel easily pulled away again from the rest of the field, and further back in the field both Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil earned themselves drive through penalties for avoidable accidents with Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg respectively.

On the 51^st lap, after running well in 2^nd, Kamui Kobayashi made a mistake and allowed both Michael Schumacher and Massa past him and as slicks became the tyres of choice Massa found himself clipping the wall and damaging his nose cone after aquaplaning across the wet track.

On lap 56 Nick Heidfeld tagged the back of Kobayashi's car, and slid off the track as his front wing went under his car, and the safety car was soon out due the the debris on track, and this helped Button , who was 4^th, with the field closing up again, as for the previous 10 laps or so he was making good lap times after taking slicks early and getting good heat in the tyres, as well as making up a few positions.

The race restarted with 10 laps to go and Vettel pulled away again, but left behind a fantastic battle for 2^nd between Schumacher, Webber and Button, and after getting into 2^nd Button was catching Vettel and going into the final lap he was within a second. Then on the last lap Vettel made his 1^st mistake of the race, going wide onto the wet, allowing Button to pass him and take the win, with Webber in 3^rd, Schumacher in 4^th and surprisingly Vitaly Petrov in 5^th, who managed to sneak through all the carnage with out getting too much TV attention.

This was a fantastic and highly entertaining race that was made by the wet weather, but spoilt by the 2 hour red flag

Main Event:

Uefa Euro U21's Group B (Football):

Spain V England, England made a good, energetic, start putting Spain under pressure high up the pitch as soon as they got the ball, which allowed them to win the ball back fast and put the Spanish defence under pressure. But it was Spain who got the opening goal, on 14 minutes, when Ander Herrera headed between Tom Cleverly and the post, after Javier Martinez headed across from a corner. Burt the goal was without controversy with a Spanish player blocking off Michael Mancienne, leaving a clear path for Martinez to get to the ball, and then replays showed that Herrera may have handled the ball at exactly the same time as he headed towards goal.

England then dropped back and didn't really do much as Spain kept the ball for longer periods and created a couple of chances, but England came back into the game for the last 10 minutes of the 1^st half, with Kyle Walker making some good runs down the right wing, which brought Daniel Sturridge into the game.

Throughout the 2^nd half Spain were always on top, and England were left chasing the ball, as Spain easily kept possession, but with 2 minutes to go Danny Welbeck got the equaliser when he beat the offside trap and slotted in after a Walker through ball, as the Spanish defence went walkabout.

Defensively England played quite well, with Phil Jones and Chris Smalling forming a good partnership, but it was in the centre of midfield that England lost out as they found it hard to keep the ball, as well as Mancienne, Tom Cleverly and Jordan Henderson not really getting into the game, and breaking up the Spanish possession, England did create a couple of good chances though, and Walker always looking dangerous when he got the ball and ran with it. Also England’s substitutes didn't really make that much impact on the game, but I think that Scott Sinclair should have come earlier, to try and give England something down the left-hand as they were pretty ineffective down that wing.

Spain controlled the ball well, but had a couple of mix-ups in defence that England couldn't capitalise on, and they just didn't have enough shots at goal to try to kill the game off. Martinez played well for Spain, and probably was their best player, as he bossing the central midfield position by moved the ball around well and building the Spanish attacks. Both teams now need to win their next games, and I think that their will be a repeat of this game in 2 weeks, when the final is played.

Cool-Down's:

I was watching the 24 Hours of Le Mans Sportscar race and saw Audi's Allan McNish's big crash after contact with Anthony Beltoise's slower Ferrari and even though it was quite disturbing and emotional to watch it was riveting viewing and was a testament to the build quality of the cars and track that neither driver was seriously injured, as well as the Ferrari driving away from the incident. It was also very lucky that none of the marshals or photographers were injured after being showered by bits of carbon fibre as they were stood on the other side of the crash barrier that look the impact of the car, which although it shot the car in the air, it kept it out of the void in-between the stands and safety barrier protecting the track officials and spectators.

Yorkshire CCC were meant to be on Sky for their 2^nd televised game of the weekend on Sunday, but unfortunately the weather prevailed and not a single ball was bowled, with both teams taking home a point each.

Monday 6 June 2011

Summer Blues

My Sporting Weekend 3-4^th of June 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Engage Super League (Rugby League):

St Helens V Leeds Rhinos, The 1st half was a tight, and tense, low scoring affair with Leeds leading, after Kevin Sinfield scored 2 penalty goals, until Saints got the 1st try just short of of the half-hour mark when James Graham burst through the Leeds goal-line defence after a flat pass from James Roby. Both defences put in good performances, but neither team really had any sustained periods of pressure within their opponents 20 meter line.

Saints made a good start to the 2nd half with Roby going over after a brilliant offload from Jonny Lomax, and they extended their lead 10 minutes later when Francis Meli intercepted a Sinfield kick, broke down the left hand-side, and went over. Leeds problems then got worse with Lomax and Scott Moore going over in quick succession, followed by a Paul Wellens try on 64 minutes that virtually sealed the game for the Saints.

Leeds had a late rally with Jamie Jones-Buchanan and Lee Smith going over, but the game had already gone, and the match ended with Saints Lee Gaskell completing the scoring at 42-16 after intercepting the ball from an attempted cut out pass across the Leeds back line.

Saints winger Jamie Foster had another good game with the boot, scoring all 7 of his kicks, as did the other youngsters in the Saints team, including Gaskell and Thomas Makinson, who were virtually unknown at the start of the season. For a 20 minute spell in the 2^nd half Leeds just fell apart as they just let Saints run riot, apart from that period they didn't play that bad, but they need to increase their concentration levels, especially with goal-line defence.

International Friendly (Football):

USA V Spain, Spain started well with David Silva having a disallowed for supposed offside, before Alvaro Negredo hit the underside of the bar, and it was Santi Cazorla who got the opening goal, after a good run and cut back from Silva, on 28 minutes. 4 minutes later Negredo doubled the Spanish lead after getting in behind US defence from a ball straight down the centre by Gerard Pique.

The US found it hard to keep the ball and it took until nearly the 40^th minute before they had their 1^st shot and their dismay continued when Cazorla got his 2^nd goal just before half time, with Silva pulling the ball back across the goal for David Villa, who couldn't get a shot off, and the ball ran through to Cazorla who slotted in. The US defence needed to be more organised as their were too many players stood still in, and around, the box with no one was tracking Cazorla's run, but the speed of the Spanish play would probably been too much for even the top defences.

Spain dominated the 1^st half and as the inexperienced US team dropped deeper and deeper this gave Silva enough space to create numerous chances for his team. At half-time the US made 5 changes, including bringing on Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley, and during the 2^nd half they played a lot better, having more of the ball and creating some good attacking moves, as well as breaking up Spanish play higher up the pitch. But against the run of play 2^nd half sub Fernando Torres slotting past Tim Howard after a good through ball from Borja Valero on 73 minutes to complete the scoring at 4-0.

WBC Super-Middleweight title/Super Six semi-final (Boxing):

Carl Froch V Glen Johnson, The fight started slow and was pretty even until the 6th round with both fighters landed good head shots and in the 7th Johnson got a few more head shots in with his high right overhand shot. Froch came out fighting in the 8th, but as the round went on Johnson took control and landed some big shots of his own, but Froch responded well and had a good 9th round. Johnson seemed to tire over the final rounds, as Froch took control, but he didn't really pick up the pace and look to end the fight early, and it went to points to decide the winner as the crowd gave both fighters a standing ovation on the final bell. The Japanese judge scored the match even, with the other two judges going with Carl Froch, by a 4 and 6 round majority to give him the victory. The fight didn't really come to life until the 6th round, but when it did both fighters put on a good performance with some big hitting and Froch did brilliant to absorb Johnson's big right handed shots, and he looked unfazed as he responded with some of his own good counter-punching. Froch now progresses into the final of the Super Six tournament against WBC Super-Middleweight title holder Andre Ward for a unification fight.

Main Event:

Euro 2012 Qualifier, Group G (Football):

England V Switzerland, This was the final game of the English season (for the full internationals anyway), but their didn't seem to be much of a build up to it, although their was a full week between it and the Champions League final. As soon as the squad was originally announced players were pulling out to start their summer holidays early demeaning playing for their national team which surely, from an outsiders point of view, is a great honour and privilege. But then again this argument comes up every time an England squad is announced and players pull out, its just a shame that players find an easy way out with international retirement.

England made a bright start, creating a couple of chances, but Switzerland settled and with their increased possession they created their own chances and on 32 minutes got the opening goal when Tranquillo Barnetta hit a high looping free-kick, from just left if the centre of the pitch, that went in unopposed, with Joe Hart not being able to get across. Then only 3 minutes later Barnetta got his 2nd with another free-kick, that crept in the near post from out wide on the left wing, again Hart was at blame for not covering his near post, but it was James Milner breaking away from Theo Walcott in the wall that let the ball through towards goal, and he has to take most of the blame. Jack Wilshire then got England back in the game, after winning the ball ball he made a good run into the box and drew the foul from Johan Djourou to win England a penalty, which Frank Lampard converted.

Tactically England, who were supposedly playing 4-3-3, were a bit poor in the 1st half with Milner and Walcott being too wide and deep, leaving Darren Bent isolated up front, also, as a team, England didn't hold onto the ball long enough to build pressure on the Swiss defence.

Lampard went off at half time, for Ashley Young, with England switching to 4-4-2, and this switch paid off, after some quick play and good movement Young got England level on 51 minutes with a shot from the edge of the area. England then dominated pretty much the rest of the game but never looked like scoring and were unable to get the winner.

England's performance was lack-lustre and lethargic, with only the introduction of Ashley Young giving the game any real excitement, although Leighton Baines did play well after coming on for an injured Ashely Cole in the 1st half, but it is a shame he can't play on the right as Glen Johnson was virtually non-existent going forward as well as giving away the foul that led to the 2^nd Swiss goal. Ashley Young probably should have started, playing in a forward 3 with Bent and Walcott, with either Milner or Lampard missing out, as neither really contributed anything to the match.

Apart from the result the sad thing about this match is that the press will say that England are better playing 4-4-2 as it was that formation that got the equaliser, but playing 4-3-3 can allow you to involve the full-backs, which England want to do, without crowding the wings as the forwards and midfielders would be tuck inside, and this also gives England the opportunity to play 3 central midfielders, which they have seemed obsessed to do over the last 5 years or so.

Cool Downs:

Yorkshire made a poor start to the Twenty20 tournament with 2 pretty convincing losses, and with a televised game coming up on Friday against Lancashire hopefully they can turn it around and put on a good performance.