sportyafrica: October 2013

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Tottenham 1-0 Hull City

A controversial Roberto Soldado penalty earned Tottenham a 1-0 Referee Michael Oliver pointed to the spot when Jan Vertonghen's cross smashed into the arm of Ahmed Elmohamady, though it looked unintentional, with Soldado stepping up to slot away the spot-kick and earn Spurs their first home win since September.

Andre Villas-Boas made one change to the Tottenham side that won at Aston Villa in their last Premier League outing, with Gylfi Sigurdsson dropping to the bench as Aaron Lennon started.in against Hull City on Sunday, though the north Londoners had been frustrated by the Tigers until the Spaniard's late winner.Goalkeeper Steve Harper made his first league start for a depleted Hull outfit, one of six alterations to the team beaten by Everton last weekend.

On-loan Hull midfielder Jake Livermore was ineligible to face his parent club, but Tom Huddlestone lined up against his former employers.

Brazilian midfielder Paulinho had the first clear-cut chance of a frantic first half after 10 minutes when he got on the end of Lewis Holtby's dangerous free kick but narrowly cleared Harper's bar from close range.

Harper was called into action five minutes later when in-form winger Andros Townsend tried his luck from 20 yards, but the Hull keeper got down to palm the ball away.

The visitors showed attacking intent of their own and striker Yannick Sagbo burst into the penalty area before forcing a save out of Hugo Lloris.

Hull appealed for a penalty when Paul McShane tangled with Kyle Walker 22 minutes in, but referee Oliver saw nothing untoward.

Huddlestone almost ended his long goal drought in spectacular fashion when volleying just over the bar from 20 yards, while Walker's venomous drive was palmed away by Harper at the other end.

Villas-Boas replaced Sandro with Mousa Dembele at the break and Soldado had his first sight of goal nine minutes into the second half when Towsend played him in, Harper making a fine save at full stretch to deny the former Valencia striker.

After further dogged resistance from Hull, Tottenham were then awarded a penalty when Vertonghen's cross struck Elmohamady's arm and Oliver pointed to the spot, much to the anger of Steve Bruce on the sidelines.

Soldado stepped up to casually send Harper the wrong way and lift the tension at White Hart Lane, his third goal from the penalty spot this season.

There was concern late on for Townsend, though, when he went over the advertising boards at full tilt, but he was able to return and Spurs survived a late scare when Huddlestone blasted a free kick wide in the closing seconds as Tottenham moved up to fourth place.

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini plan how to avoid mistakes

The Chilean refused to acknowledge his counterpart at the final whistle and also felt his side were in "complete control" of the game despite slumping to defeat

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed he did not shake Jose Mourinho's hand after watching his side lose 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, saying, "I didn't shake hands. I didn't want to".

The Chilean refused to acknowledge the Chelsea boss after the game, heading straight down the tunnel in west London after seeing Fernando Torres pounce on a defensive mix-up late on to secure victory for the Blues.

City had looked like grabbing a point after Sergio Aguero cancelled out Andre Schurrle's opener but Torres' 90th minute goal was enough for victory and moves Chelsea up to second in the table, just two points behind leaders Arsenal.

Pellegrini's men, meanwhile, drop to seventh after suffering their third Premier League defeat of the season already and the manager felt his side were unlucky to lose.

"We had complete control of the game. We repeat the story of our other two [league] defeats," he told reporters.

However, the City boss revealed little when asked about his reaction to Torres' winner, which occurred after a mix-up between Matija Nastasic and goalkeeper Joe Hart.

"I will keep it private. From tomorrow we will begin to arrange how to avoid the mistakes we have made," he added.

"We are losing stupid points. We have time to arrange and we will try to arrange. I am happy with how the team is playing."

Saturday, October 26, 2013

English Barclays Premier League | FIXTURE

All times CAT (SA, GMT+2)

Saturday 26 October 2013

Crystal Palace	v	Arsenal	Selhurst Park	13:45
Aston Villa	v	Everton	Villa Park	16:00
Liverpool	v	West Bromwich Albion	Anfield	16:00
Manchester United	v	Stoke City	Old Trafford	16:00
Norwich City	v	Cardiff City	Carrow Road	16:00
Southampton	v	Fulham	St. Mary's Stadium	18:30

Sunday 27 October 2013

Sunderland	v	Newcastle United	Stadium of Light	15:30
Swansea City	v	West Ham United	Liberty Stadium	18:00
Tottenham Hotspur	v	Hull City	White Hart Lane	18:00
Chelsea	v	Manchester City	Stamford Bridge	18:00

Neymar and Gareth Bale in Saturday's first El Clasico of the season

Neymar and Gareth Bale will get their first taste of a clash between Barcelona and Real Madrid since joining the Spanish giants in Saturday's first El Clasico of the season.
The Catalans currently hold a three point lead over Madrid at the top of the table, but it is Carlo Ancelotti's men who have enjoyed a significantly better week in the run up to the match.

Barca dropped their first points of the season with a 0-0 away at Osasuna last weekend and were then held 1-1 by AC Milan at the San Siro on Tuesday.
Madrid took advantage of that rare slip-up by their rivals with a 2-0 win over Malaga and just about sealed their place in the Champions League last-16 on Wednesday by beating Juventus 2-1.
The Malaga match in particular saw a marked improvement in Real's performance to those earlier in the campaign and Madrid haven't been beaten in their last five encounters against Barcelona.
However, Real defender Sergio Ramos doesn't "On Saturday we have an important game and it would be a notable step to win in the Camp Nou, but we know meetings there are always difficult and anything can happen.
"When evaluating a Clasico you don't have to look at the previous results, nor even the last one. These games are always of the highest level and intensity.
"There are things that we have to continue improving, but it is always nice to arrive at the Clasico after a victory."
Ancelotti has some selection dilemmas for his own first experience of a Clasico, particularly in the case of Bale.
The Welshman was introduced as a substitute with 25 minutes to go against Juventus as he continues his comeback from injury, but failed to make any significant impact on the tie.
Ancelotti blamed his mediocre showing on the overall failure of the team to maintain the intensity they showed in the opening period and insisted that Bale is now fit enough to start.
However, it seems more likely that Bale will again be used as an impact substitute with Ancelotti also keen to keep faith with the under fire Karim Benzema.
There is no doubt that Neymar will join world player of the year Lionel Messi in attack for the hosts and the Brazilian admitted that it is for this kind of game that he swapped Brazil for Barcelona in June.
"A Clasico is the most important game for any player," he told Barca TV.
"It is the game that every player wants to participate in and show their best football. This will be my first one and I want to make a great debut, preferably with a victory."
Gerardo Martino must decide whether to recall Pedro Rodriguez and Cesc Fabregas after they were both dropped to the bench at Milan.
However, the Argentine may be forced into a change at the back as Gerard Pique is struggling with a hamstring injury meaning Carles Puyol may continue his comeback alongside Javier Mascherano.
Should Barca's winless streak against Real continue, then Atletico Madrid will have the chance to move top of the table with a win over Real Betis on Sunday.
Diego Simeone's men continued their 100 percent record in the Champions League with a 3-0 midweek demolition of Austria Vienna and the Argentine even had the luxury of resting a few of his key stars.
The likes of David Villa, Diego Godin and Mario Suarez should return to join Diego Costa, who took his tally to 12 goals in 12 games this season with a double in the Austrian capital.
believe last season's meetings between the two will be a big factor come kick-off at the Camp Nou.

El clasico Martino not afraid in his first Clasico.

Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino says his side are not afraid of "violent play" from Real Madrid, claiming the referee will keep the game in check.

In the two league meetings between the teams last season, 16 yellow cards and one red card were handed out in two tightly-contested affairs.

Martino insists the violent play of los Blancos will not affect the outcome of the game, or help them slow down Blaugrana superstar Lionel Messi.

“Am I afraid of Madrid’s violent play? No, every team plays according to their possibilities and there’s a referee who should judge,” he told reporters.

“With Paraguay, I faced [Messi] three times and we could never stop him. It depends on him having his day.”

The former Newell’s Old Boys coach admits he has had his team picked for the game for a few days now, which will include Gerard Pique, whose slip up against Milan cost the team a win.

“I already had the line-up for tomorrow decided before the game against AC Milan. I would only have changed if something happened.

“[Andres] Iniesta, Cesc [Fabregas] and Xavi are all great and would play everywhere. By leaving players out I’m always close to committing an injustice.

“I’m at a club but sometimes feel like I’m coaching a national team because of all the quality players and the little time we get to prepare for games.”

Despite consecutive draws with Osasuna and Milan, Martino says he remains pleased with the efforts of his side, but admits their accuracy in front of goal needs some work.

“What Barcelona almost always do is play a good game, but we don’t always win," he explained.

“In the last two games we missed something I never thought we’d miss: capacity to finish chances."

And the 50-year-old concluded by revealing his excitement ahead of taking charge of Barca in his first Clasico.

“It’s the first time I’ll play such a big game in Europe. In that perspective, Ancelotti has more experience.

“You have ‘Clasicos’ everywhere, but this one is followed all around the world. I’m looking forward to it.

“I don’t think there's a favourite to win.”

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Racisal abuse hurled at Manchester City's Yaya Toure in Moscow

The world players' union has criticised European soccer's governing body Uefa for failing to enforce its own guidelines on racism following the abuse hurled at Manchester City's Yaya Toure in Moscow.
FIFPro said that Uefa's match officials failed to act after Toure was racially abused during the Champions League clash away to CSKA Moscow on Wednesday.

"We're very disappointed that a clear agreed protocol which is designed to deal with these situations was not implemented," said Bobby Barnes, head of FIFPro's Europe division.
Uefa issued guidelines in July 2009 giving match officials the power to stop and abandon games in case of serious incident.
They outlined a three-step procedure for abandoning games. It said that the referee should first stop the match and ask for announcements to be made over the public address system.
The second step would be to suspend the match for a given period of time and, finally, abandon it.
In March, Uefa issued a resolution calling on referees to follow those guidelines.
No match, however, has ever been abandoned in European club competition since the guidelines were introduced.
"The player, having done what was asked of him to notify the referee, quite rightly expected that the referee would go speak with the safety officer," said Barnes.
"The (Uefa) protocol agreed is that the safety officer should make a stadium announcement warning the fans that if the chants do not desist that the game will be stopped.
"Obviously it's difficult in a pressure situation, referees have lots to think about but there are a number of officials at games, notwithstanding the fact you've got additional referees behind the goals in Champions League matches."
He added: "The player is very upset as indeed are other players, not just black players but all players at the club.
"It's absolutely ridiculous in this day and age that the supporters of any football club feel that it is acceptable to do that."