SAMUEL'S RANTS

External hard drive dies on me taking quite a lot of photos and music with it. And to think I switched it on yesterday to copy the photos to another external drive. Damn! The hard drive was making clicking noises, noises I assumed were coming from my Wii.

I was busy googling wii noises all the time while my hard drive was gurgling. Makes it even worse. Should have gotten a clue when the hd was so slow last night. I attributed it to Windows acting up again. What a waste!

On a happier note, Spain won on penalties. Justice done, for the game should have been Spain's. I thought they deserved a penalty and two free kicks from the edge of the box, which leads me to the refereeing. What the hell was the referee doing there at this important a game? Does UEFA have it in for Spain? Not just the penalty and free kicks, the ref had a uniformly horrid game.

Each time Spain made a break, the Italian who lost the challenge would go down in 'pain' and the referee just stops the play and negates Spain's advantage. I am positive that the referee does not have the authority to take the ball out of play unless there is a foul and to see the power go to the ref's head was maddening. As if this were not enough, David Villa gets a Yellow for slipping in the box. He did not ask for a penalty and neither die he 'dive' to make the ref give a penalty. What a shocker of a game from the ref. I hope this is his last game in the tournament.

This is my Arsenal fanboy coming to the fore, but I thought bringing Fabregas in made the game just a bit more open and pacier, and talking of pace Daniel Guiza looked all out of sorts there and Aragones must be so relieved his miss did not come back to haunt Spain. Daniel Guiza is the leading scorer in the Spanish league as is Toni in the German league.How, just how is that possible, both guys have just ambled along never looking like they would score in this tournament.

This sets up one mouth watering semi-final between Russia and Spain and I am pretty sure that we are not going to see a repeat of the 4-1 scoreline in favor of Spain. I hope Russia stay true to their attacking ethos they have shown so far and I am looking forward to Arshavin having a good game. Both teams are suspect to dead ball situations, so this should be a fascinating game.

The other semi though, with Turkey missing so many from suspensions and injury looks to be Germany's for the taking. So who do I support to win it all? Is it Germany cos Ballack has never won a big final always losing at the final hurdle, Spain because they have never won anything or Russia because they are just so exciting, or Turkey because they are not expected to even make the finals. I am a neutral and for a change, it is not going to hurt who loses or wins. What a relief.

Never have I seen a top tier team so brittle as my beloved soccer club Arsenal, the question not being if they would fuck up, but when they would, and man oh man what a way to end the season.

 No win in five games and well on their way to a flameout today, already down to ten men and going by the track record of these petulant whiners, surely one more red card is in the waiting. Who would have thought that it would be a Manyoo - Chelsea race again, I thought this was Liverpool's season with Torre's addition, but they are out to prove that they are no less chokers than Arsenal.

 I am not waking up early for anymore of these paper tigers' games.

PS: I never saw great worth in Diaby certainly not to merit the comparisons with Viera, what a horror tackle, I do hope he gets the three match suspension. 

And to think Arsenal couldn't make use of Manyoo slipping. Not a very good beginning to the day seeing Arsenal down 1-0 and a very frustrated team.

 The dumb linesman declaring a valid Arsenal goal offside, denying another valid penalty claim and giving Middlesborough a dubious goal is not making things any better.

Sigh! 

au·dac·i·ty (ô-dăs'ĭ-tē) -

1.Bold or insolent heedlessness of restraints, as of those imposed by prudence, propriety, or convention.

2.Aiming for goal with a free kick a whole 45 yards from goal.

And he succeeded! Yeah it's fluky, but he couldn't have pulled it off if he hadn't tried and he sure as hell must have done it in the practice sessions. Again hats off  to Jose Manuel Rey of Venezuela for the sheer audacity in pulling off such an attempt.

As far as it being fluky, almost all long range efforts have an element of chance about them especially volleys which only makes the successful attempts more special.  Its not just one's skill in thumping the ball, but the vision in spotting an opening that plays a more important role in goals like these. One could say the goal keeper had no right to let this goal in, but then the goal keeper wouldn't have expected to see the ball dipping in  from such distance and might very well have been in a daze the moment the ball reached the goal mouth. After all this isn't;t so common in football, a free kick from such distance. As is common in goals like this, you can always see the goalie scrambling around as his bad positioning or the wall's structure has been exploited. A combination of skill and cunning at it's very best.

Via The Guardian 

A really good collection of dives, feigned injuries and miscellaneous skullduggery.

Good Acting

Most valuable dive - The dive that won the World Cup?

Worst Acting

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You really ought to listen to the commentary on the last clip. Posthumously indeed. lol On a serious note, diving is a big blight on the sport regardless of who does it, A player from Arsenal could do it and it still would be a most shameful act. I wonder how the more passionate fans feel about this, Do they take an all's fair in live and football attitude or think this does not belong in football. Thanks to these assholes, we have people claiming that flopping in NBA has increased because of an influx of European players who are bringing in their soccer influence here.