O'Donnell's Observations: Full slate of games
by Paul O'Donnell
A full slate of games in the midweek in Italy's Serie A, the Carling Cup and the CONCACAF Champions League provided some surprises. Among them the success of the USL-1 Puerto Rico Islanders and Montreal's Impact should be getting top billing. The USL Quarterfinals also feature on the weekend with Charleston-Rochester, Minnesota-Vancouver and Montreal-Seattle competing for berths in the semifinals.
The regular season USL-1 champion Islanders lead their group in the CONCACAF Champions League with two victories from two and the Impact are on top of their group by goal difference and 4 points from two games. Ocean City fans should note that former Baron MVP Tony Donatelli now makes his substantive contributions from the midfield for the Impact after his mid season switch from Vancouver. Their success so far has been interesting to note because the two MLS teams still in it (DC United and Houston) are not likely to progress to the knockout round. DC is last in their group with 0 points while Houston has only 1 point from its two games thus far.
Speaking of interesting results the Carling Cup has provided some delicious ones for fans of the lesser lights with Queen's Park Rangers dumping out Aston Villa 1-0 at Villa Park, League One Brighton doing the same to Manchester City on penalties and Spurs keeping the heat on Newcastle with their 2-1 win at St James' Park.
In the Villa-QPR match Brad Guzan made his debut appearance for Villa against the team many say is the world's richest club and surrendered a 58th minute header as his side went down to defeat. Villa fielded a starting 11 that reflected 5 changes from the side that played their last EPL match which is typical for the early round contests in this least respected of the cup competitions in England.
Likewise for City but despite the changes Mark Hughes was hugely disappointed with what he termed an unprofessional effort as he watched his team get bounced by Brighton, the 13th placed team in League One, 5-3 on penalties after the 2-2 draw. And he should be as Brighton is currently ranked some 50 places lower than Man City in the hierarchy of English football.
The Merseyside Derby kicked off the weekend action in the EPL at Goodison Park with a less than stellar opening 45 for both sides. Oh there was the expected physical battles but little in the way of attractive football from either side. Plenty of screaming and hand waving at the match officials that I'd like to see penalized more often with Liverpool's Carragher a leading candidate for showing the least respect. Then Liverpool's midfield took over with a determined spell of about 15 minutes in the 2nd half that led to Torres benefiting from the interplay of Gerrard and Keane. Keane's centering ball off the endline from Gerrard's nicely weighted thru ball crossing it to the back post found Torres unmarked who made no mistake with his powerful first-time volley for the lead. Keane, yet to score his first goal in a Liverpool shirt certainly made this one. Four minutes later Torres, again unmarked, found the ball at his feet on the opposite side of goal off the head of Kujt and drilled it home past the harried Tim Howard for his brace and the final 2-0 scoreline. Tim Cahill was shown a straight red in the 80th for his very aggressive studs up tackle on Alonso but by then the match was all but over.
Then came the BIG BLAST from Hull City defeating Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates if you can believe that! The Tigers were resilient and disciplined and more than just a bit lucky too it must be said but they became only the 2nd team to defeat Arsenal at home since their move to the new digs (West Ham is the other). A McShane OG provided Arsenal's lead before a wonder strike from Geovanni leveled and then the headed winner from Daniel Cousin off a free kick (the 3rd goal conceded by the Gunners from a set play this season).
The Magpies week was another roller coaster ride. Still manager less for the Carling Cup match they fell to their 4th consecutive defeat to Spurs, 2-1. The latest is that Terry Venables may take the helm on an interim basis which means with owner Ashley shopping his club a 'permanent' manager selection would be a decision for any new ownership group. Recent history has shown that calling any manager 'permanent' at Newcastle is a sort of bad joke. Oops! Check that. Venables has said 'thanks but no thanks' and reports suggest their now looking to David O'Leary. Then the punchline; on Friday Newcastle makes a choice naming Irishman Joe Kinnear, former boss at Wimbeldon as their interim manager. If you think this is all too confusing imagine being a member of the Toon Army. Truth is no self-respecting top flight class manager would want this job right now at least until the ownership mess is settled.
You would think that it really is past time for these folks to realize the lesson that Big Sam tried to pass on to them that started this slide into fantasy land; their team simply isn't good enough and making it so will take some time, patience and most of all players. All this money, time and effort being wasted on switching managers is only giving everyone headaches as the fans seem to think that some 'magic' manager exists somewhere that will twitch his nose and suddenly the Magpies will become a challenger. Such things may happen in fables but they should have at least learned something from their supposed savior Kevin Keegan's failure to instantly transform this team; even if KK really can walk on water he isn't Harry Potter.
As if to emphasize reality the Magpies went out and lost again at home to Blackburn 2-1. The bright spot had to be Michael Owen as his 50th minute penalty was his 4th goal in the last six games.
Back to real life West Ham's Dean Ashton can't seem to catch a break. Having proven his quality and ability to score goals at EPL level Ashton will undergo surgery on his ankle and is likely to miss the entire month of October. Since moving to the Hammers in January '06 Ashton has missed 60 games due to injury. Still, even being bossed around by Fulham for much of the opening half Zola watched his Hammers recover and decide the contest in the final 3 minutes of the half on a strike from Carrolton Cole (43'), then two minutes later Etherington doubled the lead just before Andy Johnson was shown his 2nd yellow. Danny Murphy pulled one back for the ten man Cottagers on a 59th minute penalty.
Man United were gifted a penalty which Ronaldo put away in the 60th followed by Rooney's first of the season in the 78th for a 2-0 victory over Bolton. Samuel truly was hard done by the Rob Styles penalty award and Megson's Wanderers have every right to feel aggrieved.
At Villa Park Sunderland took the early lead via Djibril Cisse's 10th minute strike before Ashley Young responded in the 18th ahead of Carew's 33rd minute match winner and a 2-1 victory for the Villains. West Brom stung Boro at the Riverside 1-0 and Chelsea made a tough time of it but eventually closed with another win on the road with a 2-0 victory over Stoke at the Britannia Stadium to go top of the table. The visit of the new billionaire's of Man City to the JJB proved to be one Mark Hughes and City fans would like to forget as they went down to a 2-1 defeat on a questionable penalty and goal from Amr Zaki (his 5th goal of the season).
With both managers needing to produce a positive and quality performance from their sides Spurs visit to Fratton Park had to be an intriguing match even for neutrals. Would Jermaine DeFoe be the man to lead Pompey over his former team or would Juande Ramos finally manage to get Spurs out of first gear? DeFoe would punish Spurs with a penalty kick goal (handball) and another former Hotspur player, Peter Crouch, got the 2nd for the 2-0 final score. Ramos will soon be hearing the very same criticism that bedeviled Jol regarding player selection and tactics that had Tottenham's best offensive players on the wood with Darren Bent not appearing until the 72nd minute. One thing is absolutely certain about this Spurs team; they are indeed in a great deal of trouble. Without Berbatov, without Keane and the aforementioned DeFoe they simply may not have what it takes to score goals in the EPL especially since their big summer signing Pavlyucenko has been a terrible disappointment in the early going.
The midweek action in Serie A saw league leading Inter and AC Milan ground out victories as they tune up ahead of their big derby confrontation on the weekend. Inter squeaked by new boys Lecce 1-0 while Milan beat Reggina 2-1 on a late goal from Pato. Juventus, tied with Inter for the top spot before the midweek games, fell to 4th with their 1-1 draw to Catania and Lazio goes to 2nd with their 3-0 victory over Fiorentina.
The big Milan Derby turned out to be a bit of a nightmare for Inter and the "special one" as a Ronaldinho goal, his first for AC Milan, determined the winner on the night 1-0. There was more action and highlights on the sideline and the stands than on the pitch which reminded me of why I don't watch the Serie A very often. Inter's loss puts Lazio on top of Serie A.
In the MLS Chad Marshall's 3rd match winning goal of the season, a headed goal from a Robbie Rogers corner, led the Crew to a 1-0 victory over the Revs on the road. Conor Casey's hat trick was the difference for the Rapids in their 5-4 win over the Red Bulls and Chivas defeated Kansas City 2-1 behind first half goals from Eskandarian and Victorine for their 4th win from the last 5 games. Toronto and Houston played to a 1-1 draw and Real Salt Lake earned another win on the road 3-2 at San Jose despite the heroics of Darren Huckerby. The loss was San Jose's first in their last 10 games. In case you missed it the Chicago Fire beat the LA Galaxy 3-1 on Thursday behind a brace from Chris Rolfe. Dallas drubbed DC United 3-1 with three different players providing the goals as DC seem be losing their grip on a playoff spot.
The USL-1 Quarterfinals saw Rochester and Vancouver losing their 2nd leg matches but advance to the semi's on aggregate and Montreal winning outright. Rochester, which features former long-time Ocean City Baron Ryan Heins, will face regular season title winner Puerto Rico while Donatelli will face his old club when the Impact meet Vancouver in the other semifinal.
Reading came back from the controversial "goal that never was" match and ran off to a resounding 4-0 win over Swansea. The Royals, now 3rd in the Championship, face a key early season visit to top of the table and unbeaten Wolves (7-1-0) on Tuesday. With Wolves threatening to run away from the rest of the league (Reading are 8pts behind at this stage and 5pts adrift of the second automatic promotion spot) the match could prove to be a pivotal one not only for Reading but for the rest of the Championship too. Second place is currently held by Birmingham City who visit 17th placed Derby County.
