Chelsea beat Derby County 3-1 in their Capital One Cup quarterfinal with help from another fine performance from Cesc Fabregas, who seemed to be just about everywhere during the match. Referee Jonathan Moss found this out the hard way. Read more
Tag: Dirty Tackle
Thierry Henry retires, compares Arsenal comebacks to decline in quality of Rocky movies
Thierry Henry, one of the greatest players of the Premier League era, has announced his retirement at the age of 37. Henry concluded a four-year stint with the New York Red Bulls in November and was rumored to be considering another comeback with Arsenal. But an announcement on his official Facebook page put an end to that speculation, as well as his illustrious career.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s expert analysis of the Champions League round of 16 draw
The time has come. The prayers to myself to finally make this the season that I, Zlatan, win the Champions League have been completed and the Champions League round of 16 ties are set. Why have I not answered my own prayers sooner? Because Zlatan works in mysterious ways. Now it’s time for the Zlanalysis.
Club World Cup groundskeepers attempt to dry flooded pitch with large sponges
The Club World Cup quarterfinal between Cruz Azul and Wester Sydney Wanderers was played on a swampy pitch in Rabat, Morocco. In fact, it was so bad that the groundskeepers at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium broke out the giant sponges and buckets in futile attempt to sop up the lake that had overtaken the playing surface.
Borussia Dortmund halt play until opponent gets his shoe back on
Borussia Dortmund’s nightmare season continued with a 1-0 loss to Hertha Berlin on Saturday, but that didn’t stop them from displaying an admirable bit of sportsmanship during the match.
With the score still 0-0 in the 27th minute, Hertha midfielder Per Ciljan Skjelbred went down with his boot partially off his foot. Seeing this, the Dortmund players slowed things down and passed the ball around, even just standing on it at one point as Skjelbred adjusted his footwear.
Once the Norwegian international was ready to continue, he gave his opponents a thumbs up and play resumed at full speed. Just 13 minutes later, Hertha’s Julian Schieber scored the only goal of the match.
Schalke coach hit in the head by a lighter thrown from the stands
Schalke assistant coach Sven Hubscher was left with a bloody forehead after taking a direct hit by a metal lighter thrown from the stands during his side’s 2-1 loss to Cologne. Video of the incident shows that the lighter broke apart on impact.
Future News: Man City take every NYCFC player on loan in hopes of finding another Lampard
Manchester City have decided to take every player signed to MLS affiliate club New York City FC on loan for the remainder of the season just in case they are all able to contribute the way Frank Lampard has.
“Chelsea will be tough to beat this season and we need all the help we can get,” said Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini. “NYCFC have provided us with one of our best players so far in this campaign, so we are going to take the rest of them because clearly they have an eye for talent. I know David Villa quite well already from his time in Spain, of course. But Jeb Brovsky? Kwame Watson-Siriboe? We can only imagine they are just as good as Lampard. And at the very least they can’t be worse than Dedryck Boyata.”
The 36-year-old former Chelsea midfielder signed with newly formed NYCFC over the summer and was immediately loaned out to parent club Man City as the MLS side will not begin play until March 2015. Since then, Lampard has surpassed all expectation, scoring six goals across all competitions. Only Sergio Aguero currently has more for the reigning Premier League champions.
Lampard was supposed to return to the New York club in January, but now Man City are eager to keep him longer, along with the rest of his MLS teammates. But this arrangement might not be limited to just the players.
“If I can’t get world-class performances out of these players, then I might take a more limited role and let [NYCFC manager] Jason Kreis take charge for the last few months of the season,” Pellegrini added. “After all, Lampard didn’t play a single match under him before coming to us and yet he still managed to turn him into one of the best players in the Premier League this season. It’s incredible.”
When asked how NYCFC will be able to compete in their inaugural MLS season without any players, Pellegrini replied: “What’s MLS?”
Thomas Muller plays in goal during training, Manuel Neuer abandons goal during match
Thomas Muller decided to give goalkeeping a try during a Bayern Munich training session. And just as his scoring techniques can be unusual at times, so can his shot stopping.
Cristiano Ronaldo gives each of his teammates a personalized Bulgari advertisement
Camino de Almería con este detallazo de @Cristiano con la plantilla con motivo de #LaDécima #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/xFTuBaocnh
— Álvaro Arbeloa (@aarbeloa17) December 12, 2014
Continuing the seasonal good will started by Pepe earlier in the week, Cristiano Ronaldo has given each of his teammates a personalized Bulgari Diagono watch worth €8,200. The back of the watches feature the words “La Decima” to mark Real Madrid’s historic 10th European Cup earlier this year, the player’s name and, most prominently, Ronaldo’s CR7 mark. Just so his teammates don’t go thinking it was James Rodriguez who did this.
DT Exclusive: Jose Mourinho responds to Alan Pardew’s claim that Arsene Wenger is better than him
In a recent defense of Arsene Wenger, Newcastle manager/troll king Alan Pardew declared that the Arsenal boss ranks higher than Jose Mourinho on the list of the best manager in Premier League history (all 22 years of it!). Though this is not an entirely unreasonable assertion, it is one that Jose Mourinho would almost certainly disagree with. So we asked him. Except, you know…not really.