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Weekend Action, pt 1

August 29th, 2009 | By: Jan | 18 Comments »

I was able to see some action this weekend, so a quick “The World According to Jan” post here.

First off, Liverpool is vulnerable when Gerrard is played out of the game. If I were Benitez, I’d demand the money to sign Van der Vaart. Lucas and Mascherano on one midfield when you have hard working Gerrard and Kuyt as well? Come on, Raffa! Bench Lucas, drop Gerrard and bring Vaart close to Torres!

Nice little chest assist by Kuyt by the way….

Man United stole their win, in my opinion. Arsenal deserved a penalty (the Arshavin tackle. Yes, Carragher played the ball, after sliding straight through Arse. I think his distance strike was pure frustration). The Rooney penalty wasn’t a penalty, not by a mile.

I think the UEFA is being foolish penalizing Eduardo for that dive against Celtic. It’s a ref’s decision. Where will this stop? Anyone can now and claim stuff. I saw Madrid playing Deportivo and Raul dived to get that penalty as well. If you see how horribly dramatic players go down on a touch by outstretched hands by a goalie, who is on the ground and won’t be able really to trip a strong player on his feet!! It’s ridiculous. I don’t like where this is going. I saw one penalty denied and two non-penalties given in crucial stages of games. Shit!

Haven’t seen Wes play (I will tonight) but he looked good apparently.

Van Gaal can be his pompous self again, with Robben scoring two nice goals. The man is on fire.

In Holland, AZ won against Willem II 2-1 and FC Utrecht keeps winning as well, this time versus Sparta. Keep an eye on the Utrecht boys! ADO Den Haag did well too…

Tomorrow – today for me – is Feyenoord – Twente. The winner will lead the standings.

Tags: AZ, Feyenoord, Group C, Kuyt, Robben, Sneijder, Torres, van Persie

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Comments

By Bart | August 29th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

It was definitely a penalty in the Arsenal game. There is no rule stating Rooney has to jump over Almunia’s outstretched arms. Almunia didn’t even touch the ball anyway. The Arshavin penalty claim doesn’t even really matter because he smashed it in seconds later anyway. Plus it was Fletcher, not Carraghar. :p Btw I am an Arsenal fan and I do feel we were robbed of just the one point. A tie would have been a fair result. Diaby is an idiot, but we all make mistakes I suppose. I agree with finnster (I believe) though when he commented on the previous thread about van Persie playing in the playmaker role. Robin is just not made for the deep striker position.

Posted from Canada

By Mohamed | August 29th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

Agree with both of u ( jan and bart ) , arsenal was better than man u , though diaby’s own goal , he really did a great game . Persie is unlucky at all , and his goal wasn’t an offside .
Robben and sneijder sent a nice small message to perez by their performance today ( you will regret ) .

Come on liverpool , vdv is waiting .. He will be your best player if you sign him .

huntelaar still needs more time to adabt with calcio..

By Firezen | August 29th, 2009 at 9:49 pm

Been closely following Arsenal instead of PSV because of inability to access Eredivisie outside of Holland, and man I feel for van Persie. Top goalscorer for Arsenal last season is currently on a goal drought. It seems to me all the goalkeepers know how to save van Persie’s beauty shots and let in the other people’s tame shots.

van Persie does look a bit uncomfortable in the deep striker position, but I personally think he’s rather unlucky more than unfamiliar in the hole.

And man, Abou Diaby… almost scored a goal after his own goal, but he screwed it up with his chocolate leg. And he’s not well known for goal striking anyways.

Funny fact, Arshavin scored the stunner 24 seconds after his penalty appeal, that’s how long it took him to forget about the penalty, haha. We totally need more “Arshavin”s in the game, just focused on the game and not diving to get penalties. He even tells referees that he doesn’t deserve the penalties when he trips.

And yes, I am so happy PSV got a rather easy group draw. And we have a new signing, Vukovic i think his name is, a 20 year old CB. Think that should solve out our CB shortage problem, cause before the transfer, we had 3 dedicated experienced CBs (not counting Funsu Ojo, too young). That’s a bit short when the formations play 2 CBs and there’s Euro and league football to play.

Posted from Australia

By David | August 29th, 2009 at 11:44 pm

I watched the first half of the arsenal game, and i thought that van persie did not look to bad as a lone striker. Hes dangerous because he makes very clever runs behind the defense, and hes very tricky in the box so it is tough for defenders to mark him. one example was when he made a brilliant run and i think diaby played him in. Then VP took it on his right cut back to his left skinned Vidic (probably the best defender in the world) easily and then had a shot but it deflected off evra. I think for Holland VP could play as a center striker. Another thing is that he is good at holding the ball up and making dangerous passes. 3 assists already in 4 games, he could really benefit from the runs of kuyt, robben, and wes, and he would be provided with great service from the likes of wes, vaart, and van bommel. I think Van Persie is looking like a fine center forward. I dont know about everyone else but the front four of
Van Persie
Robben Sneijder Kuyt
is looking more and more promising by the day

Posted from United States

By Van Basten | August 30th, 2009 at 12:42 am

I think this picture of Mourinho and Sneijder http://www.daylife.com/photo/08HHb4Gbyv9Fv
summarizes Sneijder’s start at Inter. Let’s hope for the entire season.
“A newly wed couple” Serifblack

Posted from United States

By Peter vdL | August 30th, 2009 at 2:37 am

watched the inter, ac game. sneijder did look very good considering he had only been with the team 48 hours. His free kicks were not up to his usual standard but I liked how Mourinho first of all let him start and take up the dead ball duties (the likes of chivu and Stankovic are far from the worst of freekick takers) That inter team looked so good too, maicon, milito, etoo, chivu, zanetti.. amazing.
Sneijder’s will have a great year there, he fits in so well.
Robben is the man.
Just need to hear some good news regarding mr vdV over the next 48 hours…

By Peter vdL | August 30th, 2009 at 2:40 am

oh and huntelaar had a couple of small chances but was unable to take advantage. I am a little worried that he wont be getting very much good ball from his midfielders this season.

By Jan | August 30th, 2009 at 2:42 am

Gee, lots to comment on.

@Bart: you don’t agree with what I say but the thng you do agree with, you credit to Finn???
I think I started the Van Persie as a striker debate, but only for the Gunners. In Oranje ( @David) I think it works well because we have midfielders (Sneijder, Schaars, Van der Vaart) who can make the play. At Arsenal, without Cesc it was a bit poor. At least against ManU.

@Bart, I know it was a penalty according to the rules, although as a player – you know this if you ever played – you don’t fall like that when the keeper stretches his hands in front of your feet. Rooney actually went through his knees to ground BEFORE he hit Almounia’s hands… It was a dive. But a smart one. Also, the ball was basically lready out of play and not reachable for Rooney anymore… I think it was theft, personally, no matter what the rules say.

@Firezen, William Gallas was miles off side when the cross came in. Van Persie scored as a result of Gallas challenge coming from off side.

And, I don’t think Arshavin forgot the penalty. I think he scored with that venom because of that penalty. And saying that it doesn’t matter because he scores anyway is silly (sorry). A penalty is a penalty (and most likely yellow for Fletcher).

But hey….that’s me….

By Carlos | August 30th, 2009 at 3:27 am

Today was one of the best blogging days yet…so much good news about our players. As an Arsenal fan was not happy with the result, however to think that away to ManU we were actualy pulling the strings bodes well for remaining matches. Agree that Bendtner should play up front and vP Arshavin and Diaby (or Eduardo or Rosicky/Eboue etc) then Fab + 1 more behind them.
Inter look awesome…..told you they had a great line up – Milito/Maicon etc etc WOW ! Oh yes and Sneijder .

Posted from Singapore

By Firezen | August 30th, 2009 at 6:07 am

@Jan
Was talking about all his strikes in the EPL so far, cause every goalkeeper seems to step up a grade when van Persie is shooting, like James’ constant saves and that dude in Everton (which they should anyways). I mean man, Foster leg save was magnificent when the English goalkeeper wasn’t even that good the rest of the game, and that was van Persie’s shot.

Wasn’t thinking about van Persie’s offside shot when I wrote that though, but you do have a point. 3 goals in 4 games, definitely distracts people when he shows up from his own half into the other half.

Posted from Australia

By Jan | August 30th, 2009 at 6:16 am

I read that Van Gaal was grilled already on the number of Dutch people at Bayern (Braafheid, Bommel, Van Gaal, his assistant Jonker, this video analyst guy and now Robben). I don’t think Vaart will move to Bayern.

Raf wants to move to the EPL.

By Peter vdL | August 30th, 2009 at 6:21 am

a mate of mine was at the inter, ac milan game. he said as he was leaving the stadium hundreds of inter fans were chanting sneijders name. feel so happy for him.

By Jan | August 30th, 2009 at 7:12 am

Modric broke a leg…. Vaart to Spurs?

By Michel-Olivier | August 30th, 2009 at 7:17 am

de jong is bench again

Posted from United States

By finnster01 | August 30th, 2009 at 9:22 am

De Jong just came on for a slightly injured Stephen Ireland.

What is getting a bit disturbing at Man City is clearly that De Jong is clearly not in Mark Hughes starting 11 anymore.

By Alex | August 30th, 2009 at 9:32 am

Matter of competition, De Jong will have to grab what chances he gets to prove he should play.

Posted from Netherlands

By Bart | August 30th, 2009 at 10:51 am

@Jan – I wasn’t sure who started it I guessed it was Finnster who said it. Which he did. About the penalty thing, I agree. It was blatantly obvious he could have stayed on his feet. But how many people actually would, that’s the question. Oh and I do play, right wing. Not as good as Robben though.

Posted from Canada

By Caleb | August 31st, 2009 at 1:34 am

“@Bart, I know it was a penalty according to the rules, although as a player – you know this if you ever played – you don’t fall like that when the keeper stretches his hands in front of your feet. Rooney actually went through his knees to ground BEFORE he hit Almounia’s hands… It was a dive. But a smart one. Also, the ball was basically lready out of play and not reachable for Rooney anymore… I think it was theft, personally, no matter what the rules say.

@Firezen, William Gallas was miles off side when the cross came in. Van Persie scored as a result of Gallas challenge coming from off side.”

Exactly what I was going to say. Rooney was already on his way down way before there was any contact, so it was a dive. Had he stayed up and waited for the contact, it would have become a legitimate foul (although the ref still shouldn’t have called it because the ball was long gone so therefore it wasn’t a goal scoring situation). Rooney DOVE, and cheated Arsenal, but maybe it’s karma for Eduardo’s dive mid-week?

And yeah, Gallas was offside, so the goal was offside… unfortunately! I was so excited when Van Persie scored it, only to be crushed when it was called offside… too bad!

Posted from Japan