Footy Speak

There will be no action this weekend due to an International break. But before going on this week’s break, Arsenal’s defeat through Manchester United is still afresh. There have been accusations from Arsene Wenger and Arshavin that Manchester United played anti-football, to break Arsenal’s free flow passing football. To add to Wenger’s frustration, Eduardo was banned for two matches by Uefa for diving in a Champions League qualifier match against Celtic.

Wenger also stated that, to play football the way United played against them, was a bigger crime than Eduardo’s diving. Such tactics can ruin the fun of the beautiful game, he believed. The good news for Wenger, was that his two key players, Nicklas Bendtnar and Denilson have successfully signed contracts with Arsenal. The details are not known but it is to be believed that the contracts will keep the two 21 year olds, at Emirates for at least another five years.

There was also sad news from the Manchester City camp, as they lost their best defender on the last day of the summer transfer window. The new summer arrivals forces 29 year old Richard Dunne, an Irish player, to leave the club for Aston Villa.

England were again the top spenders for the 2009 summer transfer window with a total spending of $715.1 million. Spain came second with $676.6 million, of which $355 million were spent by Real Madrid alone.

Bomb blasts rocked two seperate hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia, forced the United match, against an all-star Indonesian team to be canceled. The match had a huge hype around it, however, staff, feared for the safety of the team. The tickets, 73,000, we’re fully sold out 3 weeks prior to the game. This will come as sad news to many Indonesians. My heart and wishes go out to those who have died, or lost loved ones in these blasts.

“It’s a bit of a shock for all of us. We just got news of this when we landed,” manager Alex Ferguson said on the team’s arrival in Kuala Lumpur.

“There was no other solution as we had to safeguard our players. So it’s the correct decision.”

Witnesses said the bombings at the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton, where the team were due to stay, were minutes apart and it appeared both had occurred inside the hotels, judging from the way windows were blown out.

Andy & Eddie Johnson scored the first two goals, with Erik Nevland guiding Fulham to a 3-0 win over Melbourne Victory. The match was played at the Etihad Stadium. You can read more about the game below:

England striker Andy Johnson put the Cottagers ahead just after the half-hour when he converted a penalty awarded after he was knocked to the floor by Melbourne keeper Mitchell Langerak.

Substitute Eddie Johnson then doubled the lead shortly after the hour when he raced on to an Andranik Teymourian ball and he fired into the back of the net.

Nevland then rounded off a comprehensive victory when Seol Ki-Hyeon flicked the ball into the path of Nevland with the outside of his boot and the Norwegian slotted home.

The past couple of weeks saw the footballing world stand up in disbelief as they witnessed a great tournament of football in the Confederations Cup.

For the uninitiated, the Confederations Cup, commonly called the Confed Cup is a tournament organized by FIFA, involving eight teams – the winners of the six respective confederations championships along with the winners of the World Cup and the host nation. The tournament is held every four years and this year’s tournament was organized in the Rainbow Nation – South Africa.

This edition of the Confed cup saw teams from Brazil, Italy, United States, Iraq, Egypt, Spain, New Zealand and the host nation – South Africa, compete in the tournament spread over a couple of weeks.

This edition in particular would be remembered for the amount of upsets that the tournament got to experience. Some of the big teams were knocked out before they could reach the significant stages of the tournament. The biggest upset of the tournament was that of the reigning world champions Italy, who couldn’t make it past the group stages after having won a solitary game and having lost two games- against Egypt and Brazil. The defeat must have stung the world champions and may have landed a psychological blow to the team ahead of the world cup in the same county in 2010.

As if the results of the group stages were surprising enough, the knock out stage had some more surprises in store. In the knock out stage, group A winners Spain took on the Group B runners up, the football minnows, United States. The reigning Euro champions may have perhaps taken the team from the other side of the Pacific a bit too lightly and were made to pay heavily.

The minnows played with guts and resolve and took the fight to Spain, who at most times looked a shadow of themselves. Altidore scored for the United States in the 27th minute and Clint Depsey, the Fulham midfielder delivered the knock-out punch in the 74th minute to ensure that the Spaniards were handed their first defeat in years.

The second semi final between Brazil and South Africa didn’t spring a lot of surprises apart from the fact that the samba boys almost made a hash of it, before Dani Alves, the Barcelona right back chipped in with Brazil’s first and only goal.

The victory ensured that Brazil set up a final clash with the United States while Spain were forced to a third place play off against South Africa.

On the final day of the tournament, the Spaniards almost went home medal less after having conceded first and then as the game went onto the extra time, Liverpool’s real Madrid target Xabi Alonso restored some pride by netting in the winner in the 107th minute.

The final match between Brazil and United States would be remembered for a long time to come. It started off with United States ending the first half with a two goal lead, courtesy of goals from Dempsey and Donovan in the 10th and the 27th minute respectively.

The game then got some much needed Samba thrust as Brazil fought their way back in the 2nd half to first negate the two goal advantage and then even managed to sneak in a winner courtesy a Lucio goal in the 84th minute.

Brazil went home winners with Luis Fabiano receiving the golden boot for the maximum number of goals (5) and Kaka bagging the Golden Ball after being adjudged the player of the tournament.