for kiki

i believe the word your looking for is mongolism.

i can't believe i'm dissing my favourite player...i'm so going to hell

all hail the doncaster rovers

after taking down aston villa and stuart pearce's mighty manchester city, doncaster rovers reached the quarter finals of the carling cup against a struggling arsenal side. and did they shrivel up, roll over and die? nope. they fought like a genuine premiership side and almost handed the arse their fourth straight loss.

lucky for all us gunners they fell short.

if you were lucky enough to see it, it was quite a game. doncaster opened the scoring in the fourth minute off a brilliant shot by michael mcidnoe. he took a perfect one touch pass that beat djorou and slipped his shot under the arms of manuel almunia (the only pseudo-mistake of almunia's brilliant night).

arsenal couldn't do a damn thing about the about the one - nil lead until deep into the second half. doncaster played brilliantly to hold off arsenal's teenagers (who are playing as well as the old guys right now), particularly their back four. it was a brave defensive display, and even the goal by owusu-abeyie, which deflected off of sean thornton's foot, wasn't a clean chance for the young gunners.

that put the teams all square and forced the game into extra time. but at the 104th minute phillipe senderos, one of arsenals only senior players, misplayed a cross from mcindoe and, rather than clearing the ball, he teed it up perfectly for paul green who just popped the ball into the back of the net. suddenly it was two - one for the hosts and the teenagers were in serious trouble.

but arsenal's man of the match (in my opinion), emmanuel eboue, led a charge down the right, shooting across a perfect cross for the sprawiling captain -- gilberto -- who put the ball in during the last minute of extra time. bam! onto the penalty shots.

and once we were there it was all over for brave doncaster. two saves by almunia and one shot off the post put doncaster out of the running.and now we face wigan over the next two legs. the arsenal boys are taking a lot of heat for their celebration at the end of the game, but i think that's totally unfair. sure they danced and celebrated: only gilberto, hleb and senderos are senior regulars. these kids were playing their hearts out against a determined and difficult doncaster side. some, like bendtner, gilbert and larsson had their first real shots at the big time, and they held it together enough to advance. and all this ignores the fact that the senior team has been taking a beating everywhere, which put incredible pressure on the youth team to perform. plus, they are reported to have done a lap of the grounds at clapping for the doncaster fans. that sounds pretty classy to me.

anyway, regardless of what happened for arsenal, i'm going to raise a pint tonight for the doncaster rangers. those boys can hold their heads high.

moaninho clause

in case you ever doubted the wingnut that is jose moaninho here's the biggest doozy of them all: football 365 has discovered that jose decided to snub wenger's handshake because arsene didn't thank him for his christmas card. to call these shenanigans childlike is to insult children. i really don't know how to descrive the silliness, but i can't wait to rad what y'all have to say.

'Fans would kill' soccer cheaters

I just found this too interesting not to post...

Herald News ServicesPublished: Monday, December 19, 2005

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he's confident there'll be no match-fixing at next year's soccer World Cup -- partly because fans would murder any players involved. Germany, Brazil and Italy have uncovered cases of match-fixing in the past year, raising fears the sport's showpiece in Germany may not be immune from corruption.
Blatter said all 64 games at the June 9 to July 9 tournament will be "monitored and controlled" with a view to detecting suspicious play. Some supporters couldn't cope with a player who cheated a national team, he said. "I would say fans would kill," Blatter said in Tokyo. "They would become so overwhelming against somebody in the field of play that such a thing would happen."Referee Robert Hoyzer was sentenced to 29 months in jail last month for fixing matches in Germany, while Brazil's supreme court declared 11 top division games void in October after a referee admitted wrongdoing.

Blatter, 69, said most instances of betting-related corruption involved clubs, not national teams. "I cannot imagine a player who is playing with the national anthem at the beginning and with the national emblem on his heart will go and do something against his country," he said. Police questioned four Vietnamese team members about alleged bribery at the SEA Games in the Philippines in November and December, Vietnam's Than Nien reported. Having FIFA-appointed referees reduces the possibility of foul play at the World Cup, Blatter said.

© The Calgary Herald 2005

Herald's World Soccer Top 10

Who's hot? Who's not? Here's this week's completely subjective ranking, of the world's top club soccer teams:

1. Bayern Munich, Germany: Shade Dortmund 2-1 (Last week: 1)

2. Chelsea, England: Expose Arsenal's championship 'challenge' 2-0, right at Highbury (Last week: 2)

3. Juventus, Italy: A 1-1 draw at Lazio allows pursuers some hope (Last week: 43)

4. Lyon, France: Suffer first domestic loss (Last week: 4)

5. Barcelona, Spain: Two strikes from Samuel Eto'o disposes of Cadiz (Last week: 5)

6. PSV Eindhoven, Holland: Thrash lowly Willem II Tilburg 4-1 to stay even atop Dutch league (Last week: 6)

7. Osasuna, Spain: Tie Real despite being down to 10 men for 75 minutes (Last week: 7)

8. Liverpool, England: Unlucky 1-0 losers to Sao Paolo in World Club Championship (Last week: 8)

9. Inter Milan, Italy: Crush Reggina 4-0 to move to within eight of Juve (Last week: NR)

10. Real Madrid, Spain: Held by 10-man Osasuna (Last week: 10)

not all is ill

this one's for you, gio.

Wenger Ref comments studied by FA

Excerpts taken from BBC Sports:

The Football Association is considering whether to ask Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger to explain comments made about referee Rob Styles. Wenger appeared to question the impartiality of officials in Arsenal's defeat against Chelsea on Sunday.

The Gunners boss was unhappy after Robin van Persie's goal was ruled out. He said: "We scored a regular goal but the referee made a very bad decision. I associate the referee and linesmen in the same team - the Chelsea team." Wenger also claimed Styles was not brave enough to send off Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien, who appeared to elbow Arsenal defender Lauren in the mouth in the first half.

He was also snubbed by Chelsea counterpart Mourinho, who walked down the tunnel at the final whistle without the traditional handshake.

Chelsea boss Mourinho defended Essien by accusing Arsenal of trying to capitalise on his recent disciplinary troubles. "It was like a strategy to use the image Essien has at the moment," said Mourinho. "He made his mistake and was punished for that and has a suspension for the Champions league.

The Portuguese coach then insisted that Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos should have been sent off for fouls on Didier Drogba and Arjen Robben.

Wenger denied Mourinho's claim that he instructed his players to target Essien. "We didn't even talk about Essien before the game so for a deliberate strategy we hid it very well because I don't know about it," he said.

good on liverpool

well liverpool lost the club world championship 1-0 to sao paolo today. good on them for making it this far.

i'm so proud of my boys.

three straight losses

the last three games have been emotional rides for me. all three games were losses and the feelings i came away with were different each time.

our loss against bolton left me hollow and disappointed. apart from a couple of our players (especially lauren) we didn't show up and were rightly dominated by a tough bolton side. even so, there was no feeling of despair. we lost, we deserved to lose and it seemed to be nothing more than a blip.

then last week we played our hearts out and got taken down by shabby reffing and shearer goonery (i do recognize the pun and accept it with good grace). my emotions after the game were fury and...well, fury. but at least my anger was not directed at the gunners.

today i am just sad. again i'm not mad at the gunners, but i saw something today that i haven't seen in years -- even when we've been playing badly -- today i saw a team who had given up. nobody on the pitch but lauren (and lauren's small mistake on cole should not even be rated. he is the only gunner who has given his all all season, and he's a hell of a lot better on the left than any of our other current options) and lehmann believe they can win. henry doesn't believe it, campbell doesn't believe it, pires doesn't and freddie doesn't. and if those four don't believe it the young guys sure as hell aren't going to believe it. still, chelsea played well, but not well enough. i think a more accurate view is that chelsea's back line played well (minus another dodgy performance by cech).

it's a sad day for arsenal and arsenal fans. our team has finally given up. where do we go from here? major changes became inevitable today. we're going to have to get ready for a rocky couple of years. i didn't believe until today that we were at this point, but we are. you know, though, in some ways this is a good thing. we can stop worrying about the title for a bit and start loving the boys again. i just hope we get into position for some european football next year. i'd even take the uefa cup at this point.

gunners: milos, brontë and i love you -- no matter how you're doing on the table.