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February 08, 2005
West Ham it is then...
| Well, you've had your say and by a three-to-one margin you'd prefer to face West Ham rather than Sheffield United in the FA Cup's Fifth Round. Personally, they'd be my preference too...
Anyone who's interested in the result could always catch the replay on FOX Sports World (and in Nevada's) on tape-delay at 1pm this Sunday (February 13th). Don't forget to check out the new poll where you can select the NY Gooners' Player of the Month for January. Voting will continue until next Monday. | poll_process(14);?> |
Posted by gcurtis at 10:59 AM | Comments (5)
February 04, 2005
London Calling, February 4th
As Teabag notes at the end of his column this week, this will be the last regular London Calling for a while since he has to deal with a family crisis. I'm sure you will all join me in wishing him and his family well and hope that things take a turn for the better.
I would also like to take just a moment to thank Teabag for his contributions over the last few months - his writing in the London Calling column has added immeasurably to this web site and provided us all with many a laugh and several revealing insights. Thanks again man! -- NY Gooner
Dear NY Gooners,
A Night to Forget
For those who still clung onto small shreds of hope that we had an outside chance of retaining our Premiership must now that it's well and truly OVER!
The atmosphere before the game was electric and it got even hotter as mobile phones started ringing as the players made their way onto the pitch, with friends back home saying that our Captain decided to take the manager's words literally by showing fighting spirit, in the tunnel. This just added more spice to an already tense match.
By kick-off the place was buzzing both on and off the pitch and we came out of the blocks like a sprinter on speed. First blood to us from the most unexpected of things, a header from a corner. Vieira was bossing the midfield and Bergkamp was on fire, rolling back the years and reminding us of what we will miss when he finally hangs up his boots. Giggs got his yearly goal at Highbury; is it me or does he always seem to score one at our place? We should have had a penalty when Bobby had his legs put into row W, but the only two people who didn't see it were Graham Poll and the linesman.
A great move was ended by Bergkamp who fired the ball under Carroll's legs to put us 2-1 up. During the interval the crowd was still on a high feeling that this was going to be a great victory, it was - but not for us.
The second half was a master class of defending and counter attacking football by the Mancs and I don't believe I am going to say this... but we have to give them credit. We never looked like we were ever going to win this game the minute young spotty-faced buck tooth scored his first goal, and what the f*ck was Almunia doing for the third goal.
You would have thought the sending off would have sparked a come back but they stayed solid, keeping two lines of four and still looking like they had eleven players on the pitch, in fact in some cases we looked like the team with a player short. We had no idea how to break down an organized defence, and there could also lie our European problem. We just seemed to always keep running into players and, the more moves broke down, the more we started reverting to the long high ball into the box.
I hope this does not do what previous defeats have done and knock our confidence for the rest of the season because we are in the same position that we were before kick off and that is that we had more chance of winning the Champions League and FA Cup than we did winning the Premiership.
Hands Off!!
So Chels' claim that Peter Kenyon & manager Jose Mourinho have not tried to tap-up Ashley Cole, I'm not so sure. My theory is that they are trying to corner the market on players called Cole. They currently have Joe and Carlton, if they succeed in getting our Ashley they will then go for Andy Cole, Nat King Cole and Old King Cole was merry old soul.
Toothless Wolves
The FA Cup has turned into a bit of respite from the stress and strain of trying to catch Chels' in the Premiership. Saturday saw hordes of nasally afflicted Midlanders (ask a Brit about regional accents) converge on North London with their 80's fashion and Vic's nasal spray (again, ask a Brit).
They battled hard but they were not in our class and gave us little if any trouble at the back. We had chances from the first minute to the last and our good mate Mike Riley gave us reason to give him even more stick when he followed the letter of the law by disallowing a Henry goal on the stroke of half time. As Oakes went to drop kick the ball up field Thierry waited till he released the ball, flicked it past him and scored. TH made no contact with the keeper but it is deemed a foul for ungentlemanly conduct. Oakes had an outstanding game in goal for Wolves and kept the score down for as long as he could but the inevitable finally came when Riley tried as hard as he could not to give us a penalty but seeing as there were two fouls in the box in less than a second, even he had to give it. Up stepped Vieira, 1-0.
The second came after fine play down the left, Pires passed to Henry who ran into the box, spun and rolled the ball to Freddie who smacked it into the roof of the net. Game set and match.
It was a battle and a special word goes to Emboobie who looked good, he loves a step-over by the way and he had a shot in the first half that cannoned off the bar, another fine find by AW.
I Heard It Through The Grape Vine
Almunia & Lens had a face-off at training.
Life After Arsenal
After leaving Arsenal Charlie George played for Derby, Forest and Southampton to name but a few, plus he also had the distinction of playing in 3 other continents, St George Budapest (Australia), Minnesota Kicks (USA) and Bulova (Hong Kong). He now works at Arsenal on corporate hospitality and stadium tours.
Spotted out and about
Cygan and his Mrs. driving through Whetstone with baby Cygan in the back.
Players We Have Been Linked With This Week
Emilio Nsue (Mallorca) 14-year-old wonder kid but cannot play mid-week as it's a school night.
Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) Yeah right.
Fabio Rochemback (Sporting Lisbon/Barcelona) What sort of player is loaned out by Barcelona for 3 years?
Raffaele De Martino (Roma) 18-year-old midfielder who has gone AWOL and turned up in North London.
Useless Arsenal Trivia
The first Arsenal Supporters Club player of the year was Frank McLintock in1967. Liam Brady & Tony Adams have won the award three times and Thierry Henry has currently won it twice.
Celebrity Gooner
Former King of Tonga, Taufa'ahau Tupou IV. Don't ask me how I know that as I cannot divulge my source.
This weeks 'Totally Irrelevant' link to Arsenal
In the film Coyote Ugly a part of the film features a scene in a music shop, where Joe Strummer's musical tribute to our Tony Adams is playing loudly in the background.
I am sorry to say that this will be my last column for while as I have some serious family problems that need my full attention.
All the best,
Teabag
Posted by gcurtis at 09:30 AM | Comments (1)
February 03, 2005
FA Cup Fifth Round Fixture Details...
| Arsenal's Fixture News Service has confirmed that our Fifth Round fixture against West Ham or Sheffield United will kick off at 7.30am (NY time) on Saturday February 19th. The Beeb is covering this game right now so we should get it televised in the US. |  | |
Posted by gcurtis at 09:59 AM | Comments (1)