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Serie A Round 27

Tue, 9 Mar 2010 20:46:11 +0000

7 March 2010

ATALANTA 0
UDINESE 0

Bianco was sent off for doing a Shawcross on Sanchez. Bianco actually had the ball but overran it then jumped in two footed as Sanchez was about to intercept. Sanchez wasn't injured. Thought this was worth mentioning.

Attendance : 11,000
Red Card : Bianco 86 (Atalanta)
Assists : n/a

BARI 1 (Castillo 20)
CHIEVO 0

Attendance : 16,071
Assist : Allegretti

BOLOGNA 2 (Zalayeta 7, Adailton 12 fk)
NAPOLI 1 (Rinaudo 14)

Busce shot from distance and Zalayeta flicked out a boot to score against his former club. Adailton took a free kick from absolutely miles out, the ball bounced in the six yard box and over De Sanctis. Rinaudo found space in a packed penalty area to score his first Serie A goal with a firm, low header. Bologna's Viviano made brilliant saves from Gargano and Quagliarella while Bologna also had chances in a wide open game.

Attendance : 21,052
Assists : Busce, Raggi (won fk), Lavezzi

CAGLIARI 2 (Lazzari 9, Cossu 74)
CATANIA 2 (Mascara 31 Pen, Lopez 35)

Goals were at a premium this weekend and Lazzari scored one of the best. Conti touched on a free kick and Lazzari's left foot shot rocketed into the top corner. Martinez won a penalty after Canini yanked at his shirt. Mascara converted and four minutes later Catania were a goal up. Jeda collected from a throw-in and passed to Ricchiuti, Ricchiuti threaded a ball through the Cagliari defence (via a deflection) as they pushed up en-mass and Lopez rounded Marchetti before tapping into an empty net. Canini was shown a ridiculous second yellow for charging down a goalkick but despite their numerical disadvantage Cagliari came away with a point minutes after Catania hit the woodwork, Cossu converted Biondini's centre with a superb first time shot inside the right post.

Attendance : 10,000
Red Card : Canini 69 (Cagliari)
Assists : Conti (fk), Martinez (won pen), n/a, Biondini

PALERMO 1 (Miccoli 81)
LIVORNO 0

Attendance : 25,108
Assist : Bertolo

SAMPDORIA 2 (Guberti 29, Pazzini 36)
LAZIO 1 (Floccari 7)

Despite being outnumbered 4-1 in the Sampdoria penalty area Floccari controlled a Zarate cross, kept his balance as his marker fell and tripped him then poked the ball past Storari. Guberti, on loan from Roma, finally scored his first Serie A goal. Palombo played a free kick from close to the left touchline and rolled the ball to the edge of the D, the midfielder took one touch before blasting a right foot shot past Muslera. Samp tried to repeat the trick, Guberti passed infield to Semioli, his first touch was heavy but the ball popped up to Pazzini who finished with trademark precision. Cassano made an appearance as a second half sub and was great.

Attendance : 24,000
Red Cards : Reja 68 (Lazio), Zarate 77 (Lazio)
Assists : Zarate, Palombo (fk), Semioli

SIENA 1 (Vergassola 69)
PARMA 1 (Biabiany 34)

Over-rated shortarse Biabiany got in front of Del Grosso to head Valiani's cross past Curci. Vergassola, who is almost old enough to be Larrondo's father, slammed the 21 year olds centre past Marchetti. Siena are still six points from safety.

Attendance : 10,151
Red Card : Jimenez 79 (Parma)
Assists : Valiani, Larrondo

INTER 0
GENOA 0

Attendance : 45,000
Assists : n/a

6 March 2010

FIORENTINA 1 (Marchionni 32)
JUVENTUS 2 (Diego 2, Grosso 68)

If there's one weakness in Prandelli's tactics, and it's major one, it's his stupid, high offside trap. Diego, who was possibly marginally offside, latched onto Candreva's through pass, dropped Frey on his arse with a fantastic dummy then walked the ball into an empty net. Marchionni punished some equally poor defending to equalise against his former club. Gobbi pumped a longball into the box and De Ceglie left midget Marchionni to head past Manninger, who collided with De Ceglie as he ran of his line. Grosso finished off a brilliant move to score the winner, a rare moment of quality from this Juve side. Diego, who was playing mostly on the left flank, passed infield to Sissoko who stabbed a perfectly weighted first time pass between four Juve defenders to Grosso and he found the inside of the right post from an improbably angle. Iaquinta replaced Trezeguet four minutes later. His return could be hugely significant in Juve's battle for fourth place as he's tailor made for Zac's system.

Attendance : 34,805
Assists : Candreva, Gobbi, Sissoko

ROMA 0
MILAN 0

Attendance : 72,000
Assists : n/a

LEADERS
59 points - Inter
55 points - Milan
52 points - Roma
46 points - Palermo

Sky and The BBC Inflame Ramsey/Shawcross Incident

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:25:30 +0000

Sky Sport's and MOTD's decision not to show the tackle/foul that left Arsenal's teenage midfielder Aaron Ramsey with a broken leg inevitably lead fan's to conclude that the perpetrator, Stoke's Ryan Shawcross, must have committed a heinous, leg breaking foul similar to the one by Birmingham defence Martin Taylor that left Eduardo with a detached ankle. Wenger did not help matters in his post match interviews when mentioning Eduardo and, bizarrely Diaby who no one can have any sympathy for given the murderous challenges he has committed in the past.

Before I get to what actually happened, with the benefit of a slow-motion DVR replay, let me make one thing clear. I do believe in the cliched rubbish trotted out by the pundits on Sky Sports and MOTD such as 'he was going for the ball', 'he got the ball', 'he's an honest lad' and all that other bollocks. As far as this country is concerned the media and the fans fester an environment in which putting in ILLEGAL tackles is encouraged. I saw a number of yellow card challenges in the Man City game, in addition to the bookings, that went unpunished. In the Stoke-Arsenal game Cesc Fabregas should have been red carded for his foul from behind late on, Birmingham's Liam Ridgewell should have seen red for a wild two footed lunge on James McCarthy (but the media instead chose to focus on an injury to the linesman) and this season Tottenham's Jermaine Defoe had committed some atrocious fouls. He stamped on Aaron Mokoena, he stamped on Sunderland goalkeeper Craig Gordon's elbow AFTER he had the ball in his hands and just this past week at Wigan after a two footed, jumping foul on Gary Caldwell, which again did not even earn him a booking, Paul Merson on Sky Sports claimed he isn't 'that type of player' - he clearly is. The referees, the fans, the players, the coaches, the pundits, they don't know the rules, they don't know the difference between a tackle and a foul. The types of challenges committed on a weekly basis in the EPL simply do not happen in Italy or Spain and I dare say in other leagues as well. In Serie A especially half a dozen red cards in one round of fixtures is not uncommon. A look at last season's team discipline between the top three European leagues shows a staggering disparity in the red card count between the EPL as compared to both La Liga and Serie A :

2008-2009 Team Discipline

EPL : 1170 yellow cards, 62 red cards
La Liga : 2053 yellow card, 151 red cards
Serie A : 1711 yellow card, 123 red cards

Back to the Ramsey/Shawcross incident. Bendtner was trying to turn Shawcross on the centre circle, the ball popped up and hit Shawcross on the hand, as Bendtner appealed for handball Shawcross ran forward but his touch was heavy, Ramsey came steaming in with his left foot in the air as he made a challenge, almost jumping into a tackle HE SHOULD NOT BE MAKING, Shawcross followed through, trying to kick clear and judging by the still from MOTD Ramsey's right ankle was at an angle to the ground as Shawcross made contact. I know I'll get grief for this but that hasn't stopped me in the past, I actually blame Ramsey to some extent. There is no way he was going to win the ball without hurting either himself or Shawcross. These are the type of tackles players like Messi, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho etc, etc do not make. So why is it encouraged in the EPL? 50-50 balls always seem to result in an injury anyway. Shawcross was just going for a ball that was more or less his, Ramsey made a stupid challenge and paid a heavy price.

In a broader context Wenger is right and something needs to be done to change the attitudes of fans, players, coaches and the media but I don't expect anything to happen. The rules are and have been designed to protect players from foul play. They need to be applied in the EPL as they are in Italy and Spain.

EPL Round 28

Tue, 9 Mar 2010 21:41:14 +0000

8 March 2010

WIGAN 1 (Rodallega 35)
LIVERPOOL 0

Wigan moved four points clear of the drop zone after an excellent win against Liverpool who remain in sixth. The only goal came late in the first half as Dirk Kuyt's poor pass found Emerson Boyce who sent in a fine cross for Hugo Rodallega to tap home.

Attendance : 17,427
Assist : Boyce

7 March 2010

EVERTON 5 (Arteta 17, Arteta 39, Garcia 51 og, Donovan 82, Rodwell 86)
HULL 1 (Carney 32)

Everton kept their European hopes alive as they blitzed Hull at Goodison leaving the Humberside club in the bottom three. Mikel Arteta was the star performer for the hosts as he put them ahead when Yakubu - who hit the post early on - crossed for him to volley in at the far post. The lead should have been doubled but Yakubu's penalty was well saved by Boaz Myhill after he'd been clattered from behind by Kamil Zayatte. Hull then levelled when Jimmy Bullard's free kick was cleared to Tom Cairney who took a touch and then sent a superb volley across goal and inside the far post but within six minutes, Arteta struck again with a side footed finish from Steven Pienaar's back heel. After the break Everton took control as Arteta's cross looped over Myhill and Richard Garcia headed into his own net from almost on his own line. More followed late as American loanee Landon Donovan added a fourth with a stinging finish at the far post from a cross by Leighton Baines before Jack Rodwell wrapped it up with another crisp finish as Donovan turned provider.

Attendance : 34,682
Assists : Yakubu, n/a, Pienaar, n/a, n/a, Donovan

6 March 2010

ARSENAL 3 (Fabregas 34 , Walcott 60, Arshavin 94)
BURNLEY 1 (Nugent 50)

Arsenal move level on points with Chelsea after seeing off Burnley at the Emirates. They took over half an hour of domination to break through when Samir Nasri scooped the ball over the defence for Cesc Fabregas to run onto and side foot in first time. Nicklas Bendtner missed a couple of glorious chances before Burnley levelled early in the second half as David Nugent latched onto a header by Leon Cort to lob the ball over the keeper and in. The hosts regained the lead as Bendtner found Theo Walcott who cut in from the right to slot inside the far post and they clinched it in stoppage time when Eduardo set up Andrey Arshavin to drill in the third.

Attendance : 60,043
Assists : Nasri, Cort, Bendtner, Eduardo (ck)

WEST HAM 1 (Diamanti 88)
BOLTON 2 (Davies 10, Wilshere 16)

Bolton move above West Ham in the dogfight at the bottom after narrowing clinching a vital win at Upton Park. The visitors were off to a flyer with two early goals as Kevin Davies sent a superb header in from Chung-Yong Lee's cross and then Jack Wilshere doubled the lead with a close range volley from Tamir Cohen's header. Bolton were reduced to ten men in the second half when Cohen collected a second yellow for a challenge on Scott Parker and although the Hammers netted late on when Alessandro Diamanti curled in a beauty after Jonathon Spector's cross was only half cleared but they couldn't find an equaliser.

Attendance : 33,824
Assists : Lee, Cohen, n/a

WOLVES 0
MANCHESTER UNITED 1 (Scholes 73)

Man United move two points clear at the top after a late Paul Scholes goal beat Wolves. Scholes' strike - his 100th Premier League goal - came after a cross by Nani was half cleared to him and he made space before finding the bottom corner.

Attendance : 28,883
Assists : n/a

LEADERS
63 points - Manchester United
61 points - Chelsea *
61 points - Arsenal
49 points - Tottenham *
49 points - Manchester City **

* = 28 games played
** = 27 games played

Gary Dowden - Joint Admin YahooGroups Premier-L list
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/premier-l/
Leeds United and Scotland and proud of it