Today In Sport

Just when England were looking to go into half time a goal up, a speculative shot by US midfielder Clint Dempsey made England’s goalkeeper Rob Green look extremely silly.  Say what you want about the crazy ball, this was just a massive howler.

Give us this day our daily cricket

And appease our appeals with bountiful wickets

Forgive us our wides and no balls

As we forgive those who bouncer us

We ask this in W. G. Grace’s name

Amen.

Well the most eagerly awaited test match of this week is upon us.  There is always a buzz around the world when England plays at Lords and when Australia plays there, well it normally means a win for the convicts. (continue reading…)

It would seem that England have resigned themselves to losing the Ashes unless they are allowed to cheat as much as they can.  After posting a half decent total in their first innings, they went on to completely lose control of the match as Australia put up a huge total with four batsmen posting centuries in one innings for the first time in Ashes history.

So as soon as it seemed as though the match was slipping away from them, the English resorted to stalling tactics.  First captain Andrew Strauss took an hour to set a field after every over and then there was a revolving door on the English dressing room as every man and his dog went off for a rest. (continue reading…)

The 2009 edition of the oldest rivalry in world cricket is about to begin.  Australia versus England is known as The Ashes in memory of the day when the tea lady at the Earl of Wessex Hotel burnt the English Breakfast that was being made for the Aussie team.  The remains were put in a little urn and are housed at Lords.

The English brought cricket to the poor colonists of Australia in the mid 1800’s and have regretted it ever since.  They have tried everything from Bodyline to stealing our coaches and players and even tried adopting South Africans and Indians to beat Australia but to no avail.

So this year Australia has decided to go easy on them.  They told Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Langer and Hayden thanks for your service, you can go have a rest.  Now they have rocked up to the first test with the most inexperienced lineup since they sent a bunch of random aboriginal guys to go play the first series. (continue reading…)

The Australian Test cricket squad for The Ashes series against arch enemy England was named today.  The team is a mixture of time tested experience and youthful exuberance.

Coming back in to the squad are quicks Brett Lee and Stuart Clark along with spinner Nathan Hauritz who has impressed recently.  The experience of Lee and Clark will be invaluable for the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle.

Andrew McDonald and Shane Watson take the All-Rounder spots at the expense of troubled genius Andrew Symonds.  Marcus North can also fill an all-rounder role if needed.

On the batting side young star Phil Hughes gets his first taste of Ashes cricket after his superb form against South Africa.  The opener joins with the resurgent Simon Katich at the top of the order.

Out of sorts middle order batsman Michael Hussey retains his spot in the squad.  Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin gets his chance to prove he can perform on the big stage.  His back up is the uncapped South Australian keeper Graham Manou.

Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke are the captain and vice-captain continuing the great leadership that has served Australia so well.

This is the complete 16 man squad.

• Ricky Ponting (captain)
• Michael Clarke (vice-captain)
• Stuart Clark
• Brad Haddin
• Nathan Hauritz
• Ben Hilfenhaus
• Phillip Hughes
• Michael Hussey
• Mitchell Johnson
• Simon Katich
• Brett Lee
• Graham Manou
• Andrew McDonald
• Marcus North
• Peter Siddle
• Shane Watson, subject to fitness

The young fast bowling group of Mitchell, Siddle and Hilfenhaus get to try their tricks for the first time on English soil in test conditions.  Twenty year old Phil Hughes has been tearing it up with county side Middlesex giving him a great feel for English pitches.

Make no mistake, this is a very inexperienced squad but it is full of guys who want to cement themselves in the team for years to come.  What better way to prove themselves than in the biggest Test cricket showdown of the year.

I can’t wait for The Ashes to start.

There are some big games happening this weekend as the race for premierships heat up.  Can Liverpool maintain the pressure on ManU?  Is Real Madrid good enough to catch Barca?  Is Inter Milan already champion?

In the EPL, Liverpool play host to Blackburn in the hopes of continuing a title run.  They have almost blown their Champions League shot so this is it now.  Manchester United travel to Sunderland and hope to shake of their poor performance against Porto in the UCL.  Chelsea still have a slight chance to cause problems to the top 2.  They take on Bolton in a game they have to win. (continue reading…)

After a week off for some international football matches the players are back with their clubs and ready for the home stretch in their leagues.  One of the bigger stories during the break was the signing of Alan Shearer as manager for Newcastle.  He only has eight games to save the club from relegation and his first hurdle is more of a wall, Chelsea.

Liverpool after having re-signed captain Steve Gerrard during the week face Fulham.  Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer after having helped Australia inch closer to the World Cup berth we crave returns to Fulham to hopefully continue his great form.  After having denied Manchester United he will be looking to upset Liverpool’s apple cart as well. (continue reading…)

A few weeks ago The FA had been preparing to send the premiership trophy to the engraver to get a head start on putting Manchester United’s name in as this seasons champions.  But the last two weeks have thrown the whole title race into disarray.

Liverpool travelled to the Theatre of Dreams and turned it into Sir Alex Ferguson’s worst nightmare by thrashing ManU 4-1 and getting their central defender Nemanja Vidic sent off for a rash challenge on Steve Gerrard.  Chelsea also continued their revival under Guus Hiddink with a 1-0 win over Manchester City.

This weekend was the real spinning top though.  Arsenal captured 4th spot which a few weeks ago seemed unreachable with a 3-1 win over Newcastle.  Chelsea’s dream run came to an abrupt halt after a 1-0 loss to Tottenham.  The real shocker came at Craven Cottage where ManU had a major brain explosion and lost 2-0 to Fulham.  To be fair it was Paul Scholes who had the brain explosion when he thought he was playing volleyball as he palmed away a shot on goal.

His sending off and the subsequent penalty made United’s night a long one.  Fulham goalkeeper, Australian Mark Schwarzer produced a number of great saves to preserve their lead.  The result was assured when sub Zoltan Gera put away goal number two.  To make matters worse for the Red Devils, striker Wayne Rooney had the second brain fart of the game when he petulantly threw the ball near the referee after a free kick decision he didn’t agree with.  The ref had no choice but to send him off as well.

Sir Alex spent the post game press conference trying to defend Rooneys’ actions.  I think that was more about his frustration at having three players suspended for next weeks game against Aston Villa.

Speaking of Villa, they travelled to Anfield to take on a rejuvenated Liverpool team.  Liverpool knew that a win would take them within one point of ManU.  Both teams came out running and chances were had at both ends.

On eight minutes Dirk Kuyt latched onto a rebound and fired home the first of what would be five unanswered goals.  Villa tried valiantly in the first half to put one past Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina but he was definitely on his game as he produced a number of fine saves.

After Liverpool ended the first half 3-0 up it became a matter of damage limitation for Villa.  Unfortunately that lasted five minutes as Gerrard put the fourth away.  Fifteen minutes later Villa’s humiliation was complete when Fernando Torres was brought down by Villa keeper Brad Freidel.  Actually “brought down” is harsh as Freidel tried to turn his body away from Torres and the Spaniard ended up falling over him.  Hopefully the red card Freidel received will be looked at and revoked.

But what this has done is make the last two months of the season very interesting.  Let’s just hope that the race goes right down to the last weekend of the season.

The evil Galactic Empire were paid a visit by the Rebel Alliance at Old Trafford on Saturday.  Most observers saw this as the opportunity for ManU to wrap up the title with a win over their nearest rival.  And everything was going well for them when Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina brought down Park Ji-Sung in the box when Park was pretty much going nowhere but over the goal line.  Some random guy called Ronaldo stepped up to take the penalty and even though Reina picked the right way still managed to score.

This was not the only defensive calamity of the day.  In fact the Empire’s force field over their goal was about to fail completely.  Just five minutes later Nemanja Vidic made the first of his calamitous errors by allowing Fernando Torres to muscle past him and get one on one with Van Der Sar.  Torres froze the goalie with a little delay move and then slotted the ball past him with ease.

It got worse before the half ended when Patrice Evra was caught napping by Steven Gerrard as he got behind him onto a through ball from Torres and Evra tried to recover but ended up bringing down Gerrard in the box with an ill-timed lunge.  Gerrard put the penalty shot past Van Der Sar who also guessed the right way but was unable to stop it.

After half time Man U tried to tie the game up but were unable to do so.  On 76 minutes the end was nigh.  Vidic’s horror night came to and when he was sent for a clumsy “tackle” on Gerrard when he grabbed the Liverpool captains’ shirt and dragged him down as Gerrard was blowing past him.  The subsequent free kick was surprisingly taken by Fabio Aurelio with Stevie G standing over the ball.  His left foot curling shot caught everyone off-guard and Edwin Van Der Sar could only stand and watch as it went in his goal.

The match was capped off when sub Andrea Dossena latched onto a route one ball from the back and found the hapless Van Der Sar off his line and with a chip volley caused the Dutchman to pick the ball out of his net for the fourth time.  His long run of cleansheets are now a distant memory.

Liverpool finished the game 4-1 winners and breathed life back into the title race.  For now the Rebel Alliance have a chance to bring down the Empire but it will still be a hard road with Man Utd still four points clear and with a game in hand.  But just maybe this result will give the Red Devils the wobbles or it might just cause them to play at their best for the rest of the season.

Time will tell.

The past few weeks has been a wild ride in the world of cricket.  From the beginning of the “World Title of Cricket” matchup between South Africa and Australia to the potential end of international cricket, at least for a while in the nation of Pakistan after the attack on the Sri Lankan players and the umpires.

There are so many series’ happening at the moment it’s hard to know where to look sometimes.  Obviously everything has been overshadowed by the terrorist attack in Pakistan during their series with Sri Lanka.  Many teams had refused to tour Pakistan lately with India being the latest due to unrest and bombings in the country.  Sri Lanka has always tried to maintain an open door policy with regards to travelling to Pakistan and stepped into the void left by India.  This would now be looked at like a bad decision by most but some of the players seem determined to go back whenever possible.

The umpires on the other hand will not be going anywhere near any place with Stan on the end of it for a long while.  I believe they are thinking of avoiding all people named Stan as well just to be safe.

But on to the actual games on the pitch, the South African juggernaut got sideswiped by a bunch of kids from Australia on some kind of joyride.  After his first innings rush of blood, 20 year old Phil Hughes has become a run machine for the Aussies.  His wacky batting style has bamboozled the Proteas attack and they are struggling to figure him out.

The Aussies went into this series with the most inexperienced bowling lineup since time began.  But the likes of Hilfenhaus, Siddle and McDonald have supported new superstar Mitchell Johnson and part timers like newcomer Marcus North and the ever reliable Michael Clarke.  It would seem some of the Sth African batsmen looked at the lineup and forgot that they actually still had to bat to beat us.  They looked like they thought they could just hold their bat and score runs.  Didn’t really work out that well for Graeme Smith did it?

So Australia remains as the number one team in Test Cricket.  Was there ever really any doubt….except from everyone including me?  It appears the only people who really thought they could do it were the players themselves (and maybe some of them were faking too).  But good on Ricky and his band of merry men for doing the fine job they are….doing.

Elsewhere India was flogging New Zealand in some meaningless one-dayers and England was being beaten by the West Indies.  Actually further to that end, I have a massive bone to pick with one Paul Collingwood.  Are you really still claiming that “catch” you took off of Simmons?  You know the one I mean.  Last time I checked you can’t catch the ball and then have the ground help you to complete said catch.

If this is how England try and “win” games then I hope Ponting doesn’t enter into the Gentlemans Agreement on catches during The Ashes.  At the moment The Ashes are looking like a good bet for the Aussies if things continue like they are.

Let’s just hope that Test Cricket continues to be as interesting as it has been lately.