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Manchester City dumped Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a historic win. This was my pick of the weekend for games and it did not disappoint.
The first half was all Chelsea against a deep defending City and they looked well on their way to a victory. Frank Lampard broke the ice late in the first half to give Chelsea the lead.
Carlos Tevez would tie things for Manchester City after a comedy of errors from Chelsea three minutes later on the stroke of halftime.
Craig Bellamy would get two more in the second half for City while Tevez would hit from the penalty spot. Lampard would get a late penalty to make the final 4-2.
Thoughts:
*This whole off field incident ( Married Terry affair with former girlfriend of Wayne Bridge) is in the head of John Terry currently who looked poor and was run ragged by Tevez and Bellamy. Real poor week from Terry who sported a semi-mohawk haircut….not sure what the message was. Wayne Bridge refused to shake the hand of John Terry at the start of the match. Who can really blame him ?
Terry struggled against Inter and was turned by Diego Milito for a goal in the 3rd minute and looked poor today and less influential. Is he losing a step, is this all in his head?
At the end of both the Inter Milan champions league match and today’s loss to City, Terry could be seen arguing with the referee.
* Hilario as I mentioned in a prior post is a liability in goal for the Blues in the abscence of Peter Cech. He could very well cost them a title. The first two City goals were clearly savable and his positioning was poor. Keep an eye on the goalkeeping situation at Chelsea.
*Tevez and Bellamy were mobile and dangerous especially in the second half for City.
* Michael Ballack and Belletti were both sent off for Chelsea who suffer two losses this week including the 2-1 Champions League match at Inter. Ballack’s challenge was a scissors on Carlos Tevez and looked foolish.
HOLDEN SHINES IN FIRST EVER PREMIERSHIP MATCH
Bolton got a 1-0 win over Wolves on a goal by Zat Knight despite two heat posts from Wolves. The win in a huge one for Bolton which carries them out of the relegation zone for the moment anyway.
Now I caught this game on Setanta for one reason only….to catch local Stuart Holden in action.
Respectfully, there was not alot of extended possession in midfield and alot of the play was early and often into forwards.
This match resembled a Coca Cola League match despite it’s importance and was not full of quality. IT was more about passion and willingness as opposed to quality football.
Also a clear reminder of the differences in teams at the top and bottom of the EPL . That doesn’t mean it was an easy game to play in. Quite the contrary.
On to Holden………he played in a central midfield role and in the first half and was pushing hard to get in front of the ball making alot of solid runs yet his teammates never found him.
He took a number of excellent set pieces including the corner that ultimately led to the game winning goal from Knight.
He did have one chance from about 20 yards out that flew off the outside of his foot and wide.
Holden handled the physical side of this game with no problem, made some timely tackles and simple passes that calmed down the game. As the game wore on Holden sat deeper to help defend the important 1-0 lead. I was impressed with his contributions based on a game that was not as conducive to the way he plays the game . A great start for the former area youth player and former Dynamo !
MANCHESTER UNITED DEFEND CARLING CUP TITLE
Manchester United bouyed by a game winning header from Wayne Rooney became the first time since 1990 to defend the Carling Cup trophy defeating Aston Villa 2-1.
Aston Villa was brave and had U.S. international Brad Friedel in goal but Martin O’Neill’s squad fell at the final hurdle.
Rooney again did the damage, this time off the bench and produced another aerial finish in the 74th minute for the game winner.
Scoring summary:
Aston Villa- James Milner 3rd
Manchester United -Michael Owen 12th
Manchester United-Wayne Rooney 74th
Did you catch this game on Setanta?
RANGERS DEFEAT CELTIC AIDED BY EDU
U.S. international Maurice Edu scored a 90th minute game winning goal in Scotland as Rangers edged out Celtic 1-0.
The victory virtually assures Rangers of winning the SPL title as they hold a ten point lead over the ‘hoops’.
The news is good for Edu who also was called up to this Wednesday’s U.S. squad who will take on the Netherlands at the Amsterdam Arena.
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Glenn, I’m wondering what excuse Coach will make today? What was Tevez too rested from his tran-Atlantic flight from Argentina after his daughter was battling a premature birth?
Tevez is a beast!
Stuart Holden getting 2nd start in a row after playing in one game before starting to look pretty good! He wouldn’t of even started playing in MLS by now and with the current CBA situation, heavens forbig he would of regreted not going to England?
Ricardo Clark is also on the bench for Eintracht and Frank Simek didn’t start for Sheffield Wednesday in the Coca Cola Championship, not too bad for our guys so far! Hope Ricardo can debut today!
Holden will be under the microscope on Wednesday along with Edu. We will see how they fare against the Dutch. This will be a very interesting match-up in the fact that there are a bunch of key players out for the US and subs (like Holden and Adu) will be able to see if they can step into some big roles.
This will be a true test to see how much depth has been built up for the US.
Take a flying leap Edwin. City dominated my Blues Saturday in the second half. What you saw was clinical counter attacking from City.
My points:
1. JT needs to take a couple of weeks off and get his head right. I hear Cheryl Cole is not happy with her man Ashley, so a chance encounter should be arranged! I would put Alex and Carvalho in the center back together, or put Ivanovic there to help out. Remember that Chelsea is missing both of their outside backs in Cole and Bosingwa, and Cole’s back up, Zhirkov is out injured too. I remember United struggling with their defensive injuries a while back.
2. Bellamy was a beast on the wing, but running past Mikel is not that tough. I ran by him twice myself the other day. What happened was the fact that Chelsea got caught attacking and were beaten with a superb counter attack. I give credit to Bellamy because that was a cool finish.
3. Our goalkeeping is atrocious. With Cech injured, we are going to struggle. Hilario is not that great and is a liability. This is not the best time to have 3 defenders and a keeper injured, especially with a JT is who mentally unfit.
4. Beletti’s sending off was a joke. There was no contact and Barry was looking to go down quickly, and the referee bought it. He also bought the Anelka dive for the last Chelsea goal. Questionable officiating on those two calls. The Ballack tackle was stupid and he was just looking to get sent off. I think he should be suspended for 3 matches for that tackle. It was that bad.
We did not deserve to win, but if I look at the standings, I still see Chelsea top of the table. As long as that stays the same, we will be ok.
Coach,
Some fair points but you just told us that the depth defensively is not good and you want Terry to take three weeks off? Kiss the EPL title goodbye.
Part of Terry’s problem is it is in his head, his pace is a question mark as he defends deeper and deeper. He recently went to Dubai to get away from the press and try to patch up issues with his wife. All are attributing to his poor form of late.
Man City was a mess at the back and was not taken advantage.
Chelsea is frustrated, not unbeatable like United. They have real serious issues to solve and I clearly saw a whole team rally around Wayne Bridge….I did not get that feeling with Terry and his teammates. In fact many could be questioning his integrity etc.
Much like Bellamy after the game.
This will be interesting to see how this develops….we talk about it tonight if you dare….
Craig Bellamy talking about integrity is like John Terry talking about a monotony.
Chelsea can get by with a back line of:
Ivanovic–Alex–Carvalho–Malouda
There is sterngth, speed and touch. Zhirkov should be back soon and can play left back. There is also the youngster, Jeffrey Bruma, who can fill in at the center back until we get JT’s head right.
I would talk to you tonight if my boys didn’t have a crucial district match tonight.
Coach H
Good luck in your match coach……yeah Bellamy has had his off field problems but again Terry should stay focused on himself.
His reaction shows he is a mess currently and deep down some of his own teammates may harbor not the best for the guy based on what he has done off the field, rest assured they have their opinions internally whether they share them or not.
At some point Glenn et al will have to stop swooning over Stuart Holden, and he will go ceremoniusly into the sunset like the countless MLS’ers that went before him – DM Beasely, Eddie Johnson, Freddie Adu, Rico, etc.
Ok, I was wrong and way to quick to call stu out so soon, looking good my bad stu. After US v. EL Sal. in my mind Ching has to have earned priority over Casey and all other MLS forwards, BC brings so much more to the table so much more than just scoring goals or maybe I am just looking through my orange colored glasses. Why cant Bobby B. get a call up? To slow in the back or what?
Did you see the game Christopher? For a 24 year old kid from Houston it was a good debut.
I agree, a good debut, but nothing was presented to make it/him stand out over the other 10 EPL or La Liga games played this past weekend. He’s playing on a team that’s in 15 place out of 20 teams – at some point Houston media will [have to] stop running stories about Joseph Ngwenya not coming back to Houston or Stuart Holden not returning Dynamo FO calls. Props to Stuart, and more importantly to his agent, for positioning himself where he can seemingly call his own shots, but for goodness sake, let’s end the schoolgirl crush and write his Houston epitaph. Is there nothing else to write about ?
Howabout: http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2010/03/01/west_university_examiner/news/wu_stadium_progress.txt
Christopher,
I get that it goes over the top with Holden on occasion but he is also a local story. For any American to get to the EPL is pretty amazing.
I agree it is time to move on but the big question still remaining around the Dynamo that will be brought up in every game broadcasted this year will be how the Dynamo overcome the loss of two young Americans in midfield in Stuart Holden and Rico Clark.
Lets hope whoever plays there makes us forget about them.
I watched and covered his debut at Bolton because alot of locals remained interested in the player.
Brought the question up with Brad Davis on the radio last night and he had a great answer.
I only brought Ngwenya up because I received information that he was talking to the Dynamo, I just wanted to confirm and it came out to be a false rumor.
I appreciate the updates on Holden as I want to see if he is coming into form prior to the World Cup. Also Coach, I think that the word you were looking for is “monogamy”.