Football Folly

There is some voodoo working on football. People are losing that really should not lose. In the Carling Cup Spurs, Everton, Chelsea, Bolton, Man City and Liverpool all went out within a couple of days of each other. Spurs lost to Arsenal (thank you very much) which is understandable and nothing to be downhearted about, but Chelsea lost to Newcastle, Everton lost to Brentford, Northampton beat Liverpool, West Brom beat Man City and Burnley beat Bolton. That's a lot of crazy results. I was really thinking Man U would go out to Scunthorpe (what a story that would be) but no such luck.

Onto the weekend and the madness continues into the Premiership. West Brom beat Arsenal 3-2 (nooooooo!) and Man City beat the so-far unbeatable Chelsea 1-0. Man U need to be beaten by Bolton today and I'll be convinced there's a hex afoot.

Just watched the Singapore F1 and once again, for the second week in a row, Hamilton crashed out due to over-zealous driving. He needs to go for it, obviously, and I actually like the fact that he pushes things and goes for what he wants seemingly no matter the consequences, but obviously consequences catch up with you eventually and he's finding that out the hard way. He needs to take a lesson from his driving partner, Jenson Button, and exercise a little caution. Who knows who's going to win now.

I'll keep you blogged...

Cricket news

So I went to see the cricket and... we lost. This should be depressing news, and it kind of is, but a number of things make me feel otherwise:

1. All the drama off the cricket field. The day before the match Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Butt was reported to have told India's NDTV channel: "There is loud and clear talk in bookie circles that some English players were paid enormous amounts of money to lose. No wonder there was total collapse of the English side." He said that about the previous ODI match on Friday, where England lost a dramatic match to some great bowling, namely by Umar Gul who spun his way to victory. The allegations had the England team hurt, outraged and completely jaded about playing cricket with Pakistan. I think they'll be very glad when this series is over.

2. Due to the drama, the match was very close to not going ahead at all. I was checking the BBC sport homepage every fifteen minutes just waiting for the report to come up that the match had been cancelled. When I got to Lord's and the teams came out, the sun was shining and the cheers were ringing, that was enough for me to feel happy. Despite the loss, just being there and enjoying the game in its purity (please no more match fixing - who are these people? What gives them the right? Who do they think they are?) was enough for me. Plus Stuart Broad was fielding for a long time right in front of me. Yum yum.

3. Ok, Stuart Broad can be a reason all of his own. I say again, Yum. Check out the picture ^^^ (I like to think he was waving only at me :-D)

4. I had a dream the night before that the guy I ended up sitting next to (it was bound to be a guy) spilt a full pint in my lap and was generally a complete idiot. I feared he'd be an awful boat shoe wearing preppy rah rah idiot. Sure enough when I got to my seat I was on the isle (a good thing - I am not a window seat person. When they give the choice on the plane I'm everyone's dream companion because I want that isle seat. I like to have the freedom to jump up and down. I like to get up and walk.) and next to me were two big burly looking guys. They didn't look preppy but I was still wary. Nothing was said for the first twenty minutes or so until I took a sandwich out of my bag and the guy closest to me said 'I hope you've got enough in that bag for all three of us' and smiled a great big smile at me. From there on in I knew it was going to be a good day. Chris and Matt turned out to be golf pros, which is pretty cool in itself, and good good guys, which is very cool. They were offering to buy me drinks, said they'd streak with me to get Broad's attention, all in all they were excellently pleasant company. If you ever want a golf lesson with a good guy go to the Golf Pro shop/course in Richmond and ask for Matt. (Sorry Chris but I can't remember where you work...)

5. England lost the toss and Pakistan chose to bat first. This afforded them a huge advantage as the sun was shining and visibility was perfect on a batters field. When England came to bat the sun was going down and those pesky twilight hours proved to be England's downfall as Bell, Collingwood, Strauss, Yardy and Bresnan all found it very hard to even see the ball, let alone read it. What had been a batters pitch soon turned into a bowlers as Pakistan got the ball moving notably more than England had been able to, despite Swann's magnificent 4-37, and were bowled out for 227 in 46.1 overs, 38 runs short. That means the series is level at 2-2 and tomorrow's match at The Rose Bowl in Southampton will be the decider. That's kind of exciting.

6. My Dad came along after work and watched England's innings with me, which was lovely. He was a bit peeved at how much he still had to pay considering he'd missed half the game but I think he had a good time anyway. I hope he did. And we saw one of the oldest tracks in London at Baker Street tube station which was exciting (for an architect and an architect's daughter).

So yes, we lost, but was it still worth going? Most definitely. There's nothing like live sport. I looked up at the press centre (you know, the big alien bubble - cool looking pod thing) and got chills at the thought that one day I might be in there. Very very cool.

I'll keep you blogged...

Cricket Ticket!

Just bought a ticket for tomorrow's T20 against Pakistan at Lord's. Come on England! Hopefully I'll see you there.

Oh yes, and Arsenal threw their chance to go top of the table by drawing with Sunderland, 1-1. Blurgh. Now Chelsea are going to beat Blackpool and Man U will beat Liverpool and The Arse's good start will begin to falter. Come on the Pool's!!

(For some reason blogland has stopped posting my pretty colours and interesting font choices. Does anyone know why? I am at a loss.)

I'll keep you blogged...

WINNERS!!

The US Open is officially over. How very sad. Mats Wallander put it best when he said 'the Monday after a Slam is finished is always the worst day of the year for me' (perhaps not exactly a direct quote but that was the gist of it). How true. And now we have the longest wait until the next one - not until the end of January 2011! Terrible thought. Although I am thinking of going to Melbourne for a little holiday and taking in a day at the Open (always been my dream to go to all of the Slams. Only ever made it to Wimbledon... this needs to change. Melbourne here I come! Just got to save up a couple of thousand pounds...) which would be amazing. Also the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 are coming up at the end of the year which I've already got tickets for. Looking forward to that immensely.

But the results, I hear you cry. Who won??

Clijsters the Ladies and GoNads the Mens.

Shocked? I am and I'm not. Not so much by the results, but by who they played in the finals. Clijsters played Zvo and completely wiped the floor with her. She won 6-2 6-1 in just 59 minutes to claim her third US Open title and second in a row. She was brilliantly clinical with her powerful groundstrokes and mixed it up beautifully whenever it seemed Zvo was getting a handle on the rallies. What I like most about Clijsters is her ability to think clearly on the tennis court and vary her shots so effectively. She has, as they say, a great tennis mind. She also has an incredibly cute kid. I like Kim Clijsters. Well done her.

I'm watching the highlights of the Men's final now. It's a noisy one. Djoko's grunting from the get go and GoNads is now joining in as the rallies get more intense. It's rallies galore. Djoko looks like he can't breathe and it's only the fifth game of the match. Not a good sign. I know he loses but I'm still far too excited. He looks absolutely dead on his feet. I can't believe he even managed to get a set off GoNads (which, by the way, is the only set GoNads lost all Open). Djoko's such an emotional being. I kind of like it. Unlike Ray-ray, he manages to be obviously angry but use it to his advantage to get back into the match. I still think he's too heart-on-his-sleeve but as long as he can keep winning... He'll be number 2 in the world when the new rankings come out. Fed, 3rd. Things are a-shiftin' in the world of Men's tennis.

GoNads beat Djoko 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-2. For the first two and a half sets it was a fine competition between the two men. Long, punishing rallies (that eventually took their toll on Djoko), brilliant backhands from the pair of them (I love Djoko's backhand - whoever says a double-handed backhand can't be graceful needs to take a look at his), and lots of tense magical moments. Tis a shame Djoko fades at the end but it's definitely not a let-down of a final. GoNads's win gives him his career Grand Slam. He's only the seventh man in tennis history to do it, and the second youngest (after Don Budge).

1. Fred Perry (GB) 1933 - 1935

2. Don Budge (US) 1937 - 1938

3. Rod Laver (Aus) 1960 - 1962

4. Row Emerson (Aus) 1961 - 1964

5. Andre Agassi (US) 1992 - 1999

6. Roger Federer (Swiss) 2003 - 2009

7. Rafael Nadal (Spain) 2005 - 2010

What a list that is. What a list to belong to. GoNads also becomes the first man since since Laver in 1969 to win the French, Wimbledon and the US Opens in the same year. Can he go one better and win the World Tour finals now? It's also his ninth Slam in all at the tender age of 24. What do you think? Can he beat The Fed? Can he win more Slams? Will Fed add to his tally of 16 with a couple more before his time's up? I think so.

Ok, other sports. The English cricketers has been happily romping away at grounds all over Britain beating Pakistan every time. The last match was a little closer - they needed five runs off of five balls - and the fielding was a little dodgier - TWO dropped catches - but all in all the sun is shining, the standard is high, and the children are laughing. Or something. Oh yes, and Broad is still magnificent.

The Premiership is onto the fifth game of the season and Arsenal are gunning (arf arf) along nicely. Three wins and a draw would look even better if Chelsea would stop winning. Grr Chelsea; someone needs to hurry up and beat them already. Come on Blackpool!!

Snooker and Ali Carter beats Jamie Burnett 10-7 to win the 2010 Shanghai Masters. John Higgins is cleared of all match fixing charges but is banned for six months for not reporting the 'incident'. Tis sad. I love John Higgins but even one as loyal as me finds it hard not to doubt him just a little.

I think that's all I can manage for now.

I'll keep you blogged...

Make a fool out of me

Ah tennis, how you mock me. How you make me look silly. What did I predict? Fed winning, beating GoNads in four and Clijsters overcoming Woz. Well, half of those people won't even feature in the finals. How wrong can one be?

In the Men's the match I predicted to be the better of the two semi finals was a GoNads drubbing of Youz. Wrong wrong wrong. He won and won with ease. Classy man that GoNads. He reaches his first ever US Open final and has the potential to win his fourth and last Slam to join the greats at the tender age of 24. Wow, that would be something.

And his opponent? The Fed played Djoko for the other final spot. This was going to be the dull game; the never-as-good-as-they-should-be game. It was a complete epic. Five sets. Ebb and flow. Stunning shots, rallies. Everything you could ask for from the 2nd and 3rd players in the world. A brilliant game that DJOKO finally won. He ends Fed's run of six consecutive finals at Flushing meadows. He beats Fed at US Open for the first time in four consecutive years. He is in the final of the US Open again. Yay for Djoko! Sad for The Fed but such is life. I definitely think there's a Slam or two left in that beautiful man. (Has anyone ever noticed the delectable colour of his skin? It's like caramel. I adore his skin. Is that weird?)

Ok, so GoNads is playing Djoko in the final. I got it half right, right? Although now I have to pick a different winner... I'm going to go with Djoko. Why not? In five. Bring on an epic final.

The Ladies was full of drama. Although, again, not only in the way I predicted. The Williams/Clijsters battle was immense and brilliant as I suspected it would be. Clijsters eventually battled past Venus and made her way into the final but not without a lot of difficulty. Venus was awesome in the first set and powered Kim off the court. They were both a little topsy turvy in the second set and Kim eventually won it on the tie break. (Venus did not enjoy that tie break. She forgot how to serve.) The third set was up and down, with the balance shifting all the time. Kim eventually made the decisive break and then held her final serve with nerves of steel. Love that woman.

And she will be playing... Zvonareva. She completely dominated an out-of-sorts Woz and cooly served out a 6-4 6-3 win. Domination. She reached the final of Wimbledon and now this. Could she beat the defending champion? I certainly wouldn't count her out. Still, my heart lies with Kim and I predict she'll do it in three.

I'll keep you blogged...

Semi-finals

So we now know who all the semi finalists are.

MENS:

GoNads v. Youzhny

The Fed v. Djoko

The line-up we expected? Yes, pretty much, apart from the Youzhny factor. Maybe Ray-ray should have been there too but it wasn't to be. Which one will be better? I always go with the lesser ranked player because the higher ranked players playing each other always seems to be an anticlimax. So my money's on GoNads/Youzhny for the better match. But still a GoNads/Fed final and Fed to win in four.

Hah. Famous last words. It'll be Djoko/Youz now.

LADIES:

Wozza (trying a new nickname) v. Zvonareva

V. Williams v. Clijsters

Now now now... both of those matches should be great. The better one? I really don't know. Wozza (don't think I like it) and Zvo are both playing really great tennis at the moment but Williams/Clijsters - that's a battle of old. I'm going to have to go with the old timers although I think the other match will be great as well. Should be anyway.

I, for one, cannot wait.

I'll keep you blogged...

US Updates

Juicy!! The players are whittling down (well, the players aren't whittling down, obviously, that would be weird, but the number of players... oh, you know what I mean) and it's fast approaching the nitty gritty end of a Slam. I love this time. Only the elite left; the players on form; could be anyone's.

Wawrinka has carried on his impressive form to beat Sam Querrey in five tense sets. He's looking good although he had to have his thigh strapped during the match. It didn't seem to hamper him too badly, here's hoping that it's nothing that'll effect his next match (against Youzhny who beat Robredo in four).

That's one quarter final, another is GoNads, who comfortably saw off Lopez in straight sets, against Verdasco, who not-so-comfortably eventually defeated a red-hot Ferrer. Another five setter. This tournament has been full of them. So GoNads v. Tobasco... fancy a 2009 Aussie Open semi-final repeat? Yes please!

The other two quarters are even better - The Fed vs. The Sod (again again!) and Djoko vs. Majestic Monfils. I can't decide which one of those I'm looking forward to more.

You have to admit those are four juicy matches. Can't wait!

And over to the ladies. Semi finals: Clijsters v. Venus and Zvonareva/Kanepi vs. Wozniacki/Cibulkova. I predict Zvonareva v. Wozniacki.

Ok, so I'm going to make my predictions now. They're never right so what do I have to lose. Ok... Fed and Woz. There you go. I have a feeling Fed is more hopeful than anything but I wanted to say Clijsters for the ladies so I've got one heart prediction and one head prediction. That seems sensible.

What do I want? Fed and Clijsters.

What do I really think will happen? GoNads and Woz.

I'll keep you blogged...

Bye-bye Ray-ray

Well. He lost. Very weird. I don't know what to think about it really. On the one hand it was just one match out of hundreds. He had a bad day at the office, y'know? It happens to all of us. Yes it was unfortunate to fall during a Slam but such is life. But... the way he went down. The way he just gave up. The way his shoulders slumped and his head hung; his foot-faulting and terrible attitude. It was so disappointing. So lacking in any kind of fighting spirit. Lacking in a champions spirit - a Slam winners spirit. I have never been sure about Ray-ray - never sure whether I really admire him or not, or whether I think he's going to win a Slam. I'm still not. I probably won't be until (if) he does and then it'll be too late for predictions won't it? I hope he does. I really do.

I'll keep you blogged...

Hey there sports fans!

England won a game of football! Hooray hurrah! They comprehensively beat Bulgaria 4-0. It was all looking pretty good I have to say. After the World Cup debacle they needed to put on a good game and they did. But does one drubbing of a not-very-good team constitute a revival? Should we be reassured? I, for one, am not. I have no idea why England never really cut it, no idea why they choke at big events, or just aren't quite good enough - if I did I'd be a lot richer than I am - but it's a definite pattern. We have some of the best players in the world - Rooney, Gerrard, Ferdinand, Terry, etc - but when they come together on a football pitch they might as well be a bunch of plumbers on a Sunday afternoon in the field behind Asda.

Cricket. Yay! We just can't stop beating those cheating blaggards Pakistan. A comfortable victory by five wickets. I was through with my tennis match (which I lost horribly, by the way) in lovely Alfold in time for tea and Sky Sports live cricket in the bar. Excellent afternoon in the sunshine. England fielding is a beautiful thing. It's got to that comfortable stage where even when they make a mistake (two dropped catches today) you just chuckle and say 'Oh England!' in an I'm-not-bothered-because-they'll-get-him-next-time way. The fact that I no longer worry when they're fielding is the best compliment I could give. It's just classy. The bowling is consistently effective, the catching is usually fabulous, their timing and instincts are second to none... I just love to watch them field. When it comes to batting, however, it's a different story. Sweaty palms. Sickly feelings in the stomach. Luckily today the bowling was such that the batting could afford to be a little basic and England did what they had to do. Lovely lovely cricket.

Tennis... I'm listening to the Ray-ray/Wawrinka match as we speak. Very very weird. Jonathan Overend is actually shouting. He's completely enraged by Ray-ray's bizarre behaviour and Wawri's multiple injury madness. The third set has descended into near anarchy when Wawri finally takes it to give him a two sets to one lead over Ray-ray. He had better get over whatever the hell is wrong with him because he's looking like limping pathetically out of this years US Open. Just so odd. Ray-ray has been foot-faulted four times in this match. Four. Never have I seen or heard of Ray-ray foot-faulting in all his years of pro tennis. I wish I could be watching this match. It sounds completely mad. The drama.

What else? GoNads beat Simon in straight sets, Fed has eased through, Fish played an epic match to beat an inspired Clement (really loving Fish this year), Djoko ended Blake's impressive run and Melzer set up a fourth round match against the Fed. In the ladies Clijsters demolished Ivanovic, Venus plowed on, Wozni seems to be destroying everyone she meets, scary Schia is plugging on with another comfortable win, and fourth seed Jelena Jankovic is out out out having lost in three sets to Kaia Kenepi.

Ray-ray is about to lose...

I'll keep you blogged...

US Open

Oh my. The seeds are dropping like flies.

Berdy, a man tipped for the title, fell to a sublime Llodra yesterday. That man made so many half volleys you wouldn't even believe. He was in some kind of form. Berdy didn't look too shabby but Llodra was something else. There weren't too many amazing groundstrokes that Berdy usually makes, or has been making this last year. No clinging to the lines, no blistering forehands. He looked a little wooden the last couple of sets and was missing shots he made to beat the likes of the Fed and reach a semi and a final of Grand Slams this year.

So Berdy, seeded 7th, is out.

Who else? Baggy fell to Clement in five tense sets on the first day. Ljubicic (15th seed) lost to American teenage qualifier Ryan Harrison. Ljubi had his excuses: 'Throughout my career I struggled with the heat. I sweat a lot and feel really bad. I can't move. It gets to me really quick. We saw some players struggling big time. It's just brutal.' So there you go, he got hot.

On the ladies side, Azarenka had quite the dramatic collapse on court. She apparently fell in a sprint long before the match and had hit her head, and this is what caused her to collapse on court. It all sounds a bit dubious to me but I'm glad she's ok. Djocko, Monfils and the Sod were all pushed to five setters in their opening matches. Djocko especially did not look too good. He barely scraped through. Janko and screaming Shara had pretty tough matches as well. It's all looking a little crumbly and exciting.

But the saddest of them all? Oh my Roddy. I had a bad feeling when I saw he was up against Tipsy in his second round match, remembering that defeat at Wimbledon. But I went to bed happy in the knowledge last night that he'd won the first set easily 6-3. Woke up this morning and it was a different story. Tipsy won it in four. Very sad. I just watched the highlights and Tipsy played a really great match. He's just the kind of opponent Roddy hates - likes the long rallies from the baseline, is happy to just keep it going, isn't afraid to come up to the net, a good returner of serve... a bit of a grinder basically. A bally good grinder on his day. Roddy tried his dead-level best, got pretty angry at a foot fault call (I hate when he gets angry. It's so useless. It happens rarely but when it does you remember. Although I have to say even though I hate the petulance, I do find him even more attractive when he's mad...), regained his composure for the final set and took that to a tie-break but couldn't find a way through Tipsy's shot making. He redeemed his childishness at the end when they shook hands. He said something, I don't know what, but you could tell from Tipsy's reaction (a rather tender dipped head to Roddy's chest) that it was sweet and charming and humble as we know Roddy can be and usually is.

So Roddy loses 6-3 5-7 3-6 6-7.

In happier news Ray-ray breezed through his first round match against Wacko Lacko (he doesn't seem too Wacky but it rhymes...) 6-3 6-2 6-2. Ray-ray admitted he'd been a little apprehensive to play Lacko because he'd never played him before but he soon found his rhythm against the Slovakian.

Bring on GoNads and the Fed today.

Commentary comment of the week (is that two in one week? Oh well): 'He's always been a strange mix of class-act and teenage jerk.'

Talking about Roddick after the foot fault outburst.

I'll keep you blogged...