tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55470257612894489002024-03-06T02:28:15.539+00:00Dave's TV Sports ReviewMy name's Dave and I love TV Sports. For this reason I decided that I'd write about some sport I've watched on TV and let you all read about it.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-58744912959499334692012-12-31T13:10:00.002+00:002012-12-31T13:10:26.975+00:00That day<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>I wrote this at the time and after trying (and failing) to
get it published in a magazine (WSC now you ask, optimistic I know, but I did expect a reply at least) did nothing with it. Reading through it now I find it a little cringey if I'm honest, but having been contemplating 'putting it out there' for a while decided that now was the time to bite the bullet. So here it is:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Writing this over a week later, and despite all the euphoria
that’s still eminent, I can still distinctly remember just how bad I felt for
those last 20 minutes at Manchester City’s title winning match against Queens
Park Rangers. As a friend said when we were having a pint following the victory
parade the next day, it was complete disbelief that the current club could make
you feel worse than they had at the lowest points of the last 20-30 years but
somehow, they had done that. A thing that compounded it personally was having
been a nervous wreck all week, Pablo Zabaleta’s goal just before half-time, had
allowed me to drop my guard and make some post-match plans which I’d previously
refused to do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I was looking out of the window at the club shop/car park at
the back of the stand when Edin Dzeko equalised but still couldn’t really face
going back to my seat. I just turned and looked at the gangway/stairs and can’t
remember anything of that minute or so until Sergio Aguero’s winner. The noise
of just before a goal/chance happens is pretty unmistakeable and I think this
had prompted me to move towards the stairs. Then the goal miraculously arrived,
and in the predictable mayhem, I was back with my Dad, eldest brother and
nephew within seconds and saw the players in a heap on the floor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I’d left my seat on around 70 minutes. Unable to bear to
watch what was (or, more accurately, wasn’t) going on in front of me, I went to
the concourse at the back of the stand and paced around for a while. I’ve no
idea when, or if it was prompted by a particular crowd noise, but I found
myself at one of the bars that had closed. Then in a moment, uncontrollably, I
broke down in tears. I was trying to tell myself that as a 32 year-old man who
lives a happy life, I should be above crying because the football team I
support is getting beat. I’d been through far worse in my personal life (it
was, after all, a football match.) Who hasn’t? I’d been through far, far, worse
in my City supporting life. But there I was unable to move, sobbing away,
hidden in a corner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A couple of days later I was discussing these feelings, in
comparison to those at our relegation to the third level away at Stoke 14 years
ago, with a colleague. While it’s undeniable that fateful day in the Potteries
was horrible, and a more damaging moment for the club than Sunday ever could
have been, it didn’t have the intense pain that throwing away a league title in
a game where we were 1/8 favourites to win did. I’ve attempted to make some
kind of analogy since and the best I can come up with is that whilst being made
redundant should be a far more serious matter for a person, would it feel as
painful as that immediate moment of realising you’ve lost a winning lottery
ticket?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A few minutes later I’d got myself together a little but
still couldn’t face the fact that we were going to throw away our first league
in my, and only the second in my Dad’s, lifetime. What was I going to do after
the match? How would I get home? What would I do when I got home? What would I
do over the summer? All these thoughts ran through my head with very few
answers. Strangely a moment of clarity, and even comedy, popped into my head.
At least having cried out of view of the pitch, I’d ruled out being captured by
a TV cameraman or photographer which would make me a ‘celebrity’ in newspapers,
clog up facebook feeds and see me on t-shirts sold outside of Old Trafford I
thought.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As much as I had played this down, and told people it was
entirely about us winning the league, rather than beating them, the fact
Manchester United would win were we to fail, did I’m sure, have an effect on
me. I was thinking how I could expect to hear many of the things I’d regularly
dismissed as bollocks. “United know how to win at this time of the season”
“don’t ever take Fergie on at mind games” and so frustratingly, as I find it
the most annoying of cliché’s, “typical City.” All these things would be
stuffed down my throat and I’d have very little in the way of comeback. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As the majority of the match had been, much of this is a
blur, but the moments after I’d re-joined my family in the stand: full-time and
the pitch invasion, the trophy, the singing. Were all things I fortunately
could, and did, enjoy. We hugged, there were more tears and the feeling of
elation, but more so the relief, was something I’d never experienced at a
match. A picture was taken of the four of us and when my girlfriend saw it she
commented that she’d never seen my Dad show such emotion about anything
before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The car on the way back to my parents was a bit subdued,
undoubtedly due to exhaustion, and when we got there the two of us just sat and
a had a beer in near silence watching Sky Sports News. Later I laughed with my
parents that eating spaghetti bolognese in their front-room two hours after we’d
done a thing I’d spent my twenties telling friends I’d never see happen (it
wasn’t approaching a viable conversation topic in my teens), wasn’t really the
way I’d imagined celebrating City winning the league. And although spending the
evening in a relatively quiet pub didn’t have the exuberance the celebrations
in central Manchester would have, having that time with my Dad, who was
responsible for, and had accompanied me to watch the football club I love for
the last 26 years, was exactly how I wanted it to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Despite the previous night’s beers and the fatigue of not
having slept properly for much of the previous few weeks I was wide awake quite
early on the Monday morning and, still unable to relax, spent a couple of hours
pacing around my parents' house. I made my way back to my flat near the city
centre where I continued the pacing around for another few hours, interspersed
with crying a bit (lot) more watching various youtube clips, before making my
way into town ahead of the parade. Getting to the pub and seeing a lot of my
friends, many looking as exhausted as me, was oddly, the best I’d felt for a
while and everyone was pretty much telling the same story about the anguish of
the second-half although they’d all seemingly managed to stay in view of the
pitch. After a few pints and joining in a few songs, we went out to watch the
parade and without wanting to sound over-dramatic (again), I can honestly say
it was the happiest I’ve ever felt. I’d lost my friends who I was with but, in
a way, was happier being on my own. Talking to strangers, the odd person I
recognised, parents with their kids and so on. Just the full spectrum of people
who were there, all so happy, had me beaming when I walked back across town
after seen the bus go past and having showed the players and management my
gratitude for what (I’ll let them off for the second-half) they’d given me, my
family and friends.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It wasn’t until later in the week that I began to feel
normal again, my voice had stopped shaking when talking to people about it and
I was having the best, settled, sleep since before the derby two weeks before.
In all honesty I hadn’t been myself in the period since we’d dragged ourselves
back in contention around a month earlier. With each game and week that passed,
the traits of broken sleep, always being pre-occupied, unable to concentrate in
the office, became worse and worse before it peaked in the days before the QPR
game. I specifically remember that it was the Wednesday morning when I woke up
and decided winning this fixture was now the most improbable result ever. It
was a feeling that seemingly swept across Manchester as someone on the City
message board I frequent asked later that day: ”How have QPR become Real Madrid
in my head all of a sudden?”</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Another aspect that told me I was regaining some normality
in daily life was that I began to feel regret that I hadn’t actually seen
Aguero’s goal (I have done since by the way, it’s out there if you look hard
enough) as in the immediate days after, with the adrenaline still pumping
around me, I really hadn’t been that bothered. As you may have gathered from my
reluctance to make any post-match plans though (which having done that at
half-time, I then began to hate myself for,) I am something of a superstitious
fan. So if not seeing it was the little part I played in Manchester City
becoming the champions of England, it was worth it. A billion times over.</span></div>
Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-2040734901203947122012-01-02T19:01:00.005+00:002012-02-26T10:09:03.469+00:00Shirtspotting: #theSpots 2011<div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Well the red-carpet was rolled out on New Years Eve as familiar faces and dignitaries from the worlds of professional sport, show business and politics made their way to Dukinfield Town Hall for the first annual, The Spots. The event, held to celebrate achievements in the world of football shirtspotting, was the brainchild of shirtspotter founder <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter" target="_blank">@shirtspotter</a> when he thought it might be a bit of a laugh after a few days on the ale over Christmas. Despite being hastily arranged, it was an immaculately delivered evening and a celebration of all that’s great about having an interest, bordering on obsession, with obscure and retro football merchandise.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The event was hosted by the actor Joe Thomas, who many of you will know as Simon in the Inbetweeners and from Fresh Meat, where he played the character, that one out of the Inbetweeners. Wearing the unconventional, but fitting, event attire of the Holland Euro 88 shirt, Thomas threw us straight into the first award of the evening, the best shirt to be spotted.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNQgCljhK5eEMzoh4HKsTUwv4p94tP-vE9GYYWRpk7FBLPRTHBk4kkumnrSQ6KzgltHombBJuRpFDS_nLO38JzEMPQjOVkcuud0twIW6xjVvdKkvvaomSjk1z9osYiMoGgoE7qJap-gE0/s1600/Duki+Town+hall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNQgCljhK5eEMzoh4HKsTUwv4p94tP-vE9GYYWRpk7FBLPRTHBk4kkumnrSQ6KzgltHombBJuRpFDS_nLO38JzEMPQjOVkcuud0twIW6xjVvdKkvvaomSjk1z9osYiMoGgoE7qJap-gE0/s1600/Duki+Town+hall.jpg" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As would be the case throughout the evening we got to see a short montage of clips highlighting events that had taken part in this field in the previous 12 months before the shortlist of three was presented. These would be: </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>FC Barcelona from the “El Tel era,” spotted at the Great Yorkshire Run by <a href="http://twitter.com/%23%21/tinfoilcup%20%20">@tinfoilcup</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>UC Sampdoria away (1992-1994), spotted at the Newcastle Free Trade Hall by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/DolphinHotel"><s>@</s>DolphinHotel</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Aston Villa (1987-1989), picture spot, on Slovan Bratislava fans away in Prague in 1991 by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/RalphDavies1"><s>@</s>RalphDavies1</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Winner: <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/DolphinHotel"><s>@</s>DolphinHotel</a> with this tweet on 31<sup>st</sup> January:</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter" target="_blank">@shirtspotter</a> There was a barman in Newcastle's Free Trade Inn wearing a Sampdoria 92-94 away top on Saturday night.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnYOZodz110mEVilXGrqGSSkoQLSsoxvvtTxvpjI8uJnJFdVpnZrNNepwkwhEFmCKWXp9RNI5VK6VfLJqpFTujVB2vQFNycwTZgS1nZQ8d8t1EVCqr1Qbx-LJvuDJTrwoyGEec7cybjTs/s1600/Samp+away.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnYOZodz110mEVilXGrqGSSkoQLSsoxvvtTxvpjI8uJnJFdVpnZrNNepwkwhEFmCKWXp9RNI5VK6VfLJqpFTujVB2vQFNycwTZgS1nZQ8d8t1EVCqr1Qbx-LJvuDJTrwoyGEec7cybjTs/s1600/Samp+away.jpg" /></a>Naturally the room rose as one to applaud the winner. Unfortunately <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/DolphinHotel"><s>@</s>DolphinHotel</a> wasn’t able to make it to the evening to collect his award but, fittingly, a regular wearer of the fantastic garment, Atilio Lombardo, did so on his behalf. Predictably the awards organisers played the Lambada which lead to Lombardo, to his credit, performing the iconic dance with master of ceremonies Thomas (Simon out of the Inbetweeners.) </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The next award was for the best fake shirt spotted for which the nominees were:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Werder Bremen (inc sponsor WeWin rather than Bwin), spotted in Asda, Hulme, by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter"><s>@</s>shirtspotter</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Schalke 04 with SAND on the back, spotted in Droylsden, by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/WillU87"><s>@</s>WillU87</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Manchester City including the crest, which used the name TEAM, in Covent Garden, London, by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/house78"><s>@</s>house78</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Winner: <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter"><s>@</s>shirtspotter</a> with this tweet on May 10<sup>th</sup>:</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Last night in Asda, Hulme, Mcr. A fake Bremen shirt that had the sponsor "WeWin" rather than "BWin." Caused a wry smile, so it did</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To generous applause and good-natured shouts of ‘fix’ from the gallery, <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter"><s>@</s>shirtspotter</a> went up to collect his award and struggling to keep his emotions in check, spoke passionately about the strides that had been made in shirtspotting in 2011 and how he hoped for more of the same in 2011.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Next up was best photo taken of spot. The nominees were:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Cardiff City with Fortune-West on the back (location not given) by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/LauraMcAllister"><s>@</s>LauraMcAllister</a> RT by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Chrissy_Pike"><s>@</s>Chrissy_Pike</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Independiente in Negombo, Sri Lanka by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/therealstoffers"><s>@</s>therealstoffers</a></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: black;">Aston Villa (1987-1989), on Slovan Bratislava fans away in Prague in 1991 by </span><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/RalphDavies1"><s>@</s>RalphDavies1</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3kYzqoc_zpmD2YpHuiESl_ov1vYSzlU6DZakVYxxg0QxG8JGl016ZozdMIpUbi_5aGXkuw1yXkEWtrF_CgxjL5R67ap1_xMujkqF0OOYc6dmvOWpzlM3ofsw7BZGRakMwfEh46xlpsc/s1600/Best+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3kYzqoc_zpmD2YpHuiESl_ov1vYSzlU6DZakVYxxg0QxG8JGl016ZozdMIpUbi_5aGXkuw1yXkEWtrF_CgxjL5R67ap1_xMujkqF0OOYc6dmvOWpzlM3ofsw7BZGRakMwfEh46xlpsc/s640/Best+photo.jpg" width="640px" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Winner: <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/LauraMcAllister"><s>@</s>LauraMcAllister</a> RT by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Chrissy_Pike"><s>@</s>Chrissy_Pike</a> with this tweet on April 25<sup>th</sup>:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter"><s>@</s>shirtspotter</a><span class="MsoHyperlink">:</span> Spotted-this Leo Fortune West Cardiff shirt -fair play ... <a href="http://yfrog.com/gzup9foj" target="_blank">http://yfrog.com/gzup9foj</a></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Unfortunately, neither <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/LauraMcAllister"><s>@</s>LauraMcAllister</a> RT by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Chrissy_Pike"><s>@</s>Chrissy_Pike</a> was available to pick up the award, but stepping up on their behalf was, a slightly bemused looking, Leo Fortune-West. Fortune-West thanked all involved and when asked by Thomas, revealed that yes, the custom of accumulating bookings in order that you could be suspended and therefore drink your way through the Christmas period was still rife amongst lower league footballers.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After the half-time break, Thomas returned to the stage and announced that the next award would be for most unlikely location of spot. Nominated were:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Newcastle Jets in Gorton, Manchester by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/WillU87"><s>@</s>WillU87</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Anorthosis Famagusta (merchandise) at Salford Crescent Train Station by </span></span><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter"><s>@</s>shirtspotter</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Sporting </span></span>Gijón (fake) at Macys, New York City by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/jrjohnno"><s>@</s>jrjohnno</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Winner: <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/jrjohnno"><s>@</s>jrjohnno</a> with this tweet on 18<sup>th</sup> July:</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter"><s>@</s>shirtspotter</a> (fake) Sporting Gijón home 10-11 in Macy's, NYC.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Due to transport problems <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/jrjohnno"><s>@</s>jrjohnno</a> was unfortunately unable to be at the event and pick up the award. Another competitor shortlisted in the category, <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter"><s>@</s>shirtspotter</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> ,</span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> had already agreed to collect the award on the behalf of the absent winner. After congratulating </span></span><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/jrjohnno"><s>@</s>jrjohnno</a> on the triumph, the mood turned a little sour as <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter"><s>@</s>shirtspotter</a> proceeded to go into a tirade of how much better his spot of two Anorthosis Famagusta tracksuit tops was and went on to offer out the members of the awarding committee ‘one at a time or all at once.’</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Fortunately the host’s professionalism rescued this ugly situation and as the disgruntled, unsucessful, nominee was ushered off stage, Thomas quickly announced that the next and penultimate category would be best German shirt spotted. Nominees were:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>West Germany home (1990) in Natwest, Spring Gardens, Manchester by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/robmcfc"><s>@</s>robmcfc</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Alemania Aachen home at Manchester Airport by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/AllisterWhite"><s>@</s>AllisterWhite</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Dynamo Dresden 08/09 in Stalybridge by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/robmcfc"><s>@</s>robmcfc</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
<b>Winner: <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/robmcfc"><s>@</s>robmcfc</a> with this tweet on September 23<sup>rd</sup>:</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter"><s>@</s>shirtspotter</a> West Germany home shirt from 1990 on show in Natwest Spring Gardens, Manchester this afternoon.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Disappointingly <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/robmcfc"><s>@</s>robmcfc</a> couldn’t make the short journey to the awards ceremony but on-hand to pick up the award was, taking her responsibilties with the appropriate seriousness, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPB9hiRfFSbuJ2x7uIpAEoEQRxmdgeJwqKwsPNzPqNHDn1OC19dVpK51vCGygggsWz3e9xAf7dufQqLJ17uDUh5dP6w6igE4pPmuofRdiDUSBnPpRQ092DHJu2kFYlZpd08qnWc1HRbw/s1600/Angela+Merkel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPB9hiRfFSbuJ2x7uIpAEoEQRxmdgeJwqKwsPNzPqNHDn1OC19dVpK51vCGygggsWz3e9xAf7dufQqLJ17uDUh5dP6w6igE4pPmuofRdiDUSBnPpRQ092DHJu2kFYlZpd08qnWc1HRbw/s1600/Angela+Merkel.jpg" /></a>Chancellor Merkel spoke of her delight that such a committed shirtspotter as <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/robmcfc"><s>@</s>robmcfc</a> had picked up the award. She then went on to give her memories of this specific, fantastic, Die Nationalelf shirt but said that the late equaliser conceded in the dying moments of the final group game against Columbia still rankles with her despite the team’s ultimately successful World Cup campaign. She couldn’t let the moment pass without praising Guido Buchwald’s masterful performance at the heart of the defence in the final against Argentina but, when asked, declined to comment on the Eurozone crisis as it is “beginning to do my head in.”<br />
<br />
The anticipation in the room was reaching fever pitch as the showpiece award lingered on the horizon. Up for best spot of 2011 were the following:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Wellington phoenix at Sheffield Food Festival by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/coops1889"><s>@</s>coops1889</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Maldives national shirt, including shorts on Oundle Road, Peterborough by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/208fifashirts"><s>@</s>208fifashirts</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Cardiff City with Fortune-West on the back (location not given) by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/LauraMcAllister"><s>@</s>LauraMcAllister</a> RT by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Chrissy_Pike"><s>@</s>Chrissy_Pike</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Winner: <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/208fifashirts"><s>@</s>208fifashirts</a> with this tweet on 23<sup>rd</sup> August:</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/shirtspotter"><s>@</s>shirtspotter</a> Maldives national shirt, including shorts! Jogging down Oundle Road in Peterborough last night.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Despite the healthy competition, it was an obvious and thoroughly deserved winner and has set the bar at which all other shirtspots should be judged. Regrettably, <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/208fifashirts"><s>@</s>208fifashirts</a> , was unable to make the awards ceremony to pick up the award but with confusion growing as to who would collect it on his behalf, up stepped man of the moment and BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the bike-rider, Mark Cavendish.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cavendish told the audience that this really was the ’icing on the cake’ as far as 2011 was concerned for him. Then, with the look of the determined and focused competitor we all know Cav to be, he said that for all the challenges 2012 poses: another Green Jersey at the Tour de France, World Cycling Championship and an Olympic Gold, taking <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/208fifashirts"><s>@</s>208fifashirts</a> best spot title was the biggest and most sort after for any sportsmen, and that he'd be doing his utmost to do so. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">With many of the audience tired and emotional, Thomas (that’s Simon from the Inbetweeners remember) brought the evening to a close. He thanked all the guests for attending, the organisers for putting it all together but most of all, the shirtspotters across the globe without whom, none of this could have gone ahead.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It had been a magnificent and illustrious, if sometimes controversial evening, but if ever there was a reason to get your spotting glasses on in 2012, it’s surely the prospect of a bigger and better #theSpots in 12 months’ time. </div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-83480186796994631312011-11-04T12:58:00.000+00:002011-11-04T12:58:09.330+00:00ESPN & Dave's TV Sports Review: An explanation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRPMlk1vDDNihD6WaC1_GpE9ZMgovWwDt5kUNNxWPDVB4dKm9OypTejlN9FmVvPDDii94un-OQtZhwas2yaPbEcNzqYKCHqwGTbl6xKxMwXP_tfpiodq3_ay3OboNgalm3yzjyPFXx8WI/s1600/ESPNDTVSr.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="134px" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRPMlk1vDDNihD6WaC1_GpE9ZMgovWwDt5kUNNxWPDVB4dKm9OypTejlN9FmVvPDDii94un-OQtZhwas2yaPbEcNzqYKCHqwGTbl6xKxMwXP_tfpiodq3_ay3OboNgalm3yzjyPFXx8WI/s320/ESPNDTVSr.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can’t have failed to notice the rumours flying around with regard the lack of blogging and tweeting activity from Dave’s TV Sports in recent months and now’s the time to set the record straight. Yes, myself, Dave of Dave’s TV Sports, and ESPN have split. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The separation was made official when last Friday, the 28th October, I arrived home from work and casually flicked ESPN on in the hope of finding out which Bundesliga game would be shown that night to be met by the message:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Access to this service is denied by your viewing card.</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s hard to explain the emotions felt at this point. Having rang up TopUpTV approximately a month before to inform them that I wished to end my subscription I cannot have been surprised by this. I wasn’t surprised by this. But the realisation was hard to take as an important chapter of my TV sports watching life had come to an end.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We’d been together a while before the first ever DTVSr was, fittingly enough, an ESPN shown fixture between 1FC.Köln and Borussia Dortmund and to read back through it many could be forgiven had they believed this was an unbreakable connection between two kindred spirits. Things were clearly going well in those days. I was enjoying their coverage of European leagues, I was enjoying their coverage of Aussie Rules and they’d started showing the truly excellent 30 for 30 series of documentaries.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a relationship that appeared to be growing stronger by the week and we shared some unforgettable moments.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the most memorable came last December during the Anderlecht v Hajduk Split Europa League game. On DTVSr’s sister twitter account, <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/shirtspotter" target="_blank">@shirtspotter</a>, I tweeted that Hajduk’s kit was giving me an “almighty Oldham 96/97 vibe.” This led to a discussion with <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/DolphinHotel" target="_blank">@DolphinHotel</a> which resulted in him divulging the information that former Latics striker, Ian Olney, now works as a financial advisor. It’s hard to describe the joy felt at such a moment and just typing my memories of that night brings a smile to my face.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And even in these last few months when the relationship was becoming noticeably fractured we could still share in beautiful moments. Just a couple of weeks ago I found myself doing a little jig in delight when I got to watch Miroslav Klose’s injury time winner for Lazio in the Rome derby. It was occasions like that caused a few to question whether the split was as ominous as I believed it to be. Certainly, the people at TopUpTV’s customer retainer department made a series of phone-calls suggesting a reconciliation but my decision was made. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where did it all go wrong then? Obviously some things should remain unblogged and I have too much respect for the channel I paid £10 a month to for over two years to badmouth it in public but to look back on DTVSr’s tweets in the past few months it was obvious cracks in the relationship were beginning to show. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The choice of a round of live Premiership Rugby Sevens rather than the Bundesliga opener between Dortmund and SV Hamburg on the evening of August the 5th hurt. It still hurts. And the fact that I couldn’t view the channel until 13.00 (11.00 at weekends) was a constant source of friction, none more so than when it caused me to miss the first hour of Collinwood v St.Kilda a couple of months earlier. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still, I’m not saying I was faultless in the break down. I know my enjoyment of canned lager and bottled ale while watching the channel often made it feel like it was secondary in providing me with entertainment. As is the case with all forms of experiencing sport, I felt the two could run harmoniously (successfully in fact) in tandem but ESPN did not feel the same, and who am I to tell the UK version of an International sports network how to feel?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing it wouldn’t be right for me to comment on here are the, quite frankly, vicious suggestions that another format for watching live sport was fundamental to the split. Those close to us knew we were open in our relationship and I often watched sports on alternative channels while ESPN allowed other TV Sports enthusiasts to view its offerings. It wasn’t and still isn’t, certainly from my point of view, a problem. What’s happened has happened and maybe they’ll be a time to absolutely put the record straight in public but for both our wellbeing, it’s still too early.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so it is so, we go our separate ways. It hurts but right now I feel it’s for the best. As I said previously we will always have the memories. That tiny graphic they use to indicate a red card has been shown in a game. The bizarre motor racing competition where cars represent European clubs. Their two-hour long review of the seasons French Cup including game commentaries in the native language. The list could be endless.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As for the future I’d say it’s inevitable our paths will cross (possibly as early as this Saturday at 17.30) as we both mix in the same circles and I hope we can still get on. I’m sure we can. We still share so much in common but some things in life just don’t work out. My heart, however, will always skip a beat whenever I hear the words “Eredivise Highlights Show.” </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy Viewing fellow enthusiasts. Dave</span>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-70119883262511476332011-03-16T11:39:00.003+00:002011-05-27T15:57:14.052+01:00Manchester United v Arsenal<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Manchester United v Arsenal</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">12/03/11</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ITV1 16.45</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Prologue</b></div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;">I've not hidden, or conversely, screamed and shouted about it on these pages but for those of you who don't know, I'm a Manchester City fan. As a bitter (when other fans want their most obvious rivals to lose it's rivalry, when Manchester City fans do it's bitterness. You know the rules.), in 99.9% of the games Manchester United have played since I've been six years old I've wanted the opposition to win. This one was to be no different but my willingness for Arsenal to progress this quarter-final was, by my own rough estimates, about 800 times of that I wanted Liverpool to beat them last week. This, some of you may have gathered wasn't to do with any dislike of Liverpool (not that that doesn't exist neither.) The fact that City were, at this point still in the competition, and looked to have a good chance of progressing to the semi-final themselves made my willingness for United to go out far, far greater.</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The fact that they are top of the league at the moment is reason enough to want an opposition team out of a cup competition you are in. That I might have to share the first time I get to see the team I support play at Wembley with them overshadows that immeasurably (two things here: I don't think semi's should be played at Wembley neither. My brother got married the day of the 1999 Division 2 Play-Off Final. OK a third: yes it still bothers me). I hate games against them. In times gone by I've not felt able to eat anything on the morning of them. There's enjoyment in winning them, pretty ridiculous enjoyment, but my overriding emotion throughout is to get through it without getting beat. You wouldn't have to have an encyclopedic knowledge of English football to know that in the last 25 years or so to know City have failed in that task more often than not.</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;">So, it was with slight trepidation I sat down to watch this tie but it was with hope 'The' Arsenal would save me this worst case scenario.</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Programme</b></div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">After the usual ITV FA Cup opening credits of some bloke and his son in an East-End (there's no proof it is East-End, I'm just saying it is) greasy spoon wearing indecipherable club colours followed by some Sin City-esque (?) great mate and non-sport liking brother Ian would put me right on this if he'd ever seen it)) graphics we saw clips of the fans of both teams arriving at the Theatre of Dreams. It's hardly new news but, yes, there was inevitably someone wearing a half United half Arsenal 'friendship' scarf. Probably wouldn't be the top of everyone's list but of all of modern football's ills it is the every match frequency and ludicrousness of 'friendship' scarves I have probably moaned about the most.</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Former Middlesbrough managers Gareth Southgate and Gordon Strachan joined Jonathan Chiles in the studio and discussed which team needed the win more after recent disappointing results and the longevity of Sir Alex Ferguson's and Arsene Wenger's 'desire.' It shouldn't come as much surprise that I wasn't paying a great deal of attention at this point as it's the kind of cliché-ridden chat we hear on a daily basis but in my defence I was also trying to write the prologue up there ^^^.</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">After highlights from the days earlier quarter-final in which I admired the travelling Bolton fans level of 'going-up' for their late winner at St.Andrews we saw the teams come out. We were then treated to the bizarre sight of United's </span>Javier Hernández on his knees on the half-way line having a good old pray. For all I know he may do this every game he starts but not having been fortunate to see many of their games this season it was a first view I got of this behaviour.</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Now I don't seem to have all the notes I made at the time and (possibly in a bit of a strop) I deleted the game of the TV planner on Saturday night so my description of the match and coverage action isn't quite as comprehensive as it could be. What I have got though is that after about 15 minutes one of them twins headed over from the other one's cross. Clive Tyldesley then proceeded to tell us for the remainder of the half that they were twins, they're very close and often try and confuse their team-mates and staff at United's training base by answering to the other one's name.</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Despite, to this neutral's eye, Arsenal's possessional and territorial superiority their reluctance to get a ball in the box or threaten Edwin Van der Sar's goal was causing me to use swearwords in the sanctity of my own front room. The swearing upped it's intensity when United took the lead just before the half-hour when twin no.2, Fabio, put them in front from a few yards out after Hernadez's header had been parried by Manuel Almunia. While at half-time Southgate praised the original header from Hernandez I personally felt the stand-out quality was Wayne Rooney's cross that led to it.</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Arsenal again seemed to get in strong positions for the remainder of the first half, and the opening of the second, but due to some indecision from their players and some great keeping from Van der Sar were unable to find the equaliser. The contest and my viewing of the game was effectively ended when Rooney made it 2-0 five minutes into the second half. Having minutes earlier made the well-ballanced statement “there's no f****** way Arsenal are gonna f******* score here” I then astutely added “there's no f****** way we're not gonna get those c**** if we win tomorrow.” Mrs DTVSr, who was lovingly preparing the evening meal in the adjacent kitchen, gave me a resigned 'seen it all before' look. I'm quite sure that was in relation to me swearing at some some unfolding TV sporting action rather than Manchester United progression to the semi-finals.</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;">I tried to take my mind of the prospect of a Wembley meeting with United at times on Saturday night but was unable to. My thought process generally went in this order: </div><div class="western" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><ol style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Tomorrow is now a lose/lose scenario: We either have our most embarassing Cup Quarter final defeat in living memory (which would be some achievement) against Reading, or we could go through and have the horrible prospect of playing United at Wembley.</div></li>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">In the ridiculously unlikely scenario we beat Reading and haven't drawn United who do I want us to get?</div></li>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Would playing them in the semi be preferable as a potential final meeting would top it in terms of 'worst-case sceanrioness'?</div></li>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Why am I presuming we'll beat the Biscuitmen having watched them deservedly win at Everton and with our recent performances in the week before.</div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
Those thoughts ran on repeat for the remainder of Saturday night.</div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
It was a more optimistic Dave who woke up on Sunday. Yes we would beat Reading, and there was a two in three possibility we wouldn't draw them. Watching the start of the Stoke v West Ham quarter the missus asked me who I wanted to win. My response of “West Ham if we draw the winners, Stoke if United do” highlighted my new found optimism that this might not actually lead to this most dreaded of ties at the famous twin-tow...ahem arch thing.</div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
Then it happened. Having shared a cab to the ground with four blokes I'd had a chat with while enjoying a few pre-match ales in the city-centre, we heard on the radio that Bolton had drawn Stoke. If there was a passenger in that cab who didn't mutter the immortal words 'for f**** s***' then I'm...scrap that. We all said it.</div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
In the 15 minutes or so before the match I made the decision on behalf of the crowd that we had to be defiant about this now. A comfortable win and we could all sing about winning cups and so on. And a couple of hours later? Following a nervy win, we were all singing about winning cups and so on. It was brilliant as well. For all that I've been asked if it feels different going to City in the last couple of years, the elation after a win in a big game (and this was a big, big game) is exactly the same and it was fantastic.</div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
To the semi then. Blimey. I've already had enough stomach-churning moments thinking about it and we've got a month to go. I wouldn't say I'm confident about the game, but I'm not dreading it as much as I previously would have. Can't say the same about the day, I am dreading that, but the match should see two well matched teams both with a chance of getting through. And if thing's go as disastrously wrong as we all fear they could? Well, I'll always have my half City half United 'friendship' scarf to comfort me.</div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Watch</b></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Bolton v Stoke</div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Manchester City v Manchester United </div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Weekend of 16<sup>th</sup>/17<sup>th</sup> April on ITV and ESPN</div></li>
</ol>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-43279390269723389682011-02-21T11:06:00.010+00:002011-02-21T20:27:39.368+00:00Shirtspotting<span style="font-family:arial;">Not only do I utilise the interweb to enthuse lyrically about the pure excellence of watching live action on TV, I also use it to report on another great sporting passion of mine. </span> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Who here, doesn't enjoy seeing an obscure football shirt eh? <scans the="" room=""> Exactly, I can't see one rai</scans><scans the="" room="">sed hand. Now as this is such a joy to behold I thought I'd set-up a twitter account devoted to such activity. Yes, that's correct, along with the inconsistently updated DTVSr blog and twitter feed, I am also responsible for everyone favourite shirtspotting social networking update, <a href="http://twitter.com/shirtspotter">@shirtspotter</a></scans><scans the="" room="">.</scans></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">The Bio of the account is as follows: <i>Classic, obscure or unusual football shirts sp</i><i>otted on my travels/TV. Send me yours inc. where/when spotted and I'll RT if deemed goo</i><i>d enough </i> </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">As a service I will now provide you with a three-point-plan to the criteria which constitute “good enough” and how you'll get that most sort after RT.</p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;"> </p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">1) Club/Team</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">My biggest fear (truly a huge fear this, sleepless nights and all) when I began shirtspotter was that people would contact me to say they'd seen a Barcelona shirt as if that in some way constituted obscure. I figure that I see a Barcelona shirt on my travels around two-and-a-half times a day. Similarly a current shirt of the majority of Premier League clubs, a Rangers or Celtic shirt, Italy, Brazil, Real Madrid, Milan etc. cannot be considered obscure. If you're contemplating whether the team of the shirt could qualify it as such, ask yourself this question:</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Is it a shirt you'd expect to see at your local five-a-side complex of an evening? </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">If the answer is yes then I'm sorry, this isn't a worthy spot. If it is no, then we may be onto something. There are, I should point out, exceptions to this rule though. Let me take Barcelona as an example again: </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">You see someone wearing the current home shirt with “MESSI 10' on the back. Is this a 'spot'? No. Don't be ridiculous. You're wasting my time and your own by telling me about th<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ5RxawhJtt-toV2AzVzetSau8MXIAKQxCv2yuJ-OgNna5r689JshkYaoOPAdEE8rSSQ1KgzcS2SW0GwtwRisGPrIl1hmV84QXnT3q4GRMCEs_J12wmquXuQUta8DuUGpXOfrmIwkjHQM/s1600/Messi.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 207px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ5RxawhJtt-toV2AzVzetSau8MXIAKQxCv2yuJ-OgNna5r689JshkYaoOPAdEE8rSSQ1KgzcS2SW0GwtwRisGPrIl1hmV84QXnT3q4GRMCEs_J12wmquXuQUta8DuUGpXOfrmIwkjHQM/s320/Messi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576098625376532994" border="0" /></a>is. </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">On the other hand you see someone wearing that gold/yellow mid 80's away number made popular by Terry 'El Tel' Venables at that meet the squad day at Nou Camp when they introduced Gary Lineker/Steve Archibald etc. Grab yourself a beer and pull-up a seat at the shirtspotter table my friend.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">2) Location</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">“Is that lad wearing an Arsenal shirt? No it's not an Arsenal shirt. Is it? No it's definitely not. I'll take a closer look.” You're now within five yards of said lad. “Yes. It's a Braga shirt! Let me tell that shirtspotter feller, he'll be proper giddy” you might think. Let me stop you there one moment. </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Where are you at the time of this spot? Are you taking your daily dinnertime stroll to Greggs to fill-up on competitively priced savoury treats? If so, fine, let me know, I'll be delighted to re-tweet it. If on the other hand you happen to be stood outside SC Braga's AXA Estadio prior to their match against bitter local rivals Guimaraes then sorry, this naturally makes the spot null and void.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">In the last six months I've been fortunate enough to feast my eyes upon Bury, Lech Poz<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOb8wkZzU1mLkumuK0br5WwC7BP8oVAESfcOZs6o1y88AAwaY8bDeYAE0oFeF9ZmCvxc7Tpv8K8Uu-NW0tvf8jyERSvwlAT9XPPW5KQBmVhjirw9agA1SsZ2wMKMVWuvsXNLKA-R6V39E/s1600/Bury+Rotherham.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOb8wkZzU1mLkumuK0br5WwC7BP8oVAESfcOZs6o1y88AAwaY8bDeYAE0oFeF9ZmCvxc7Tpv8K8Uu-NW0tvf8jyERSvwlAT9XPPW5KQBmVhjirw9agA1SsZ2wMKMVWuvsXNLKA-R6V39E/s320/Bury+Rotherham.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576099272849289970" border="0" /></a>nan and Lancaster City shirts. Unfortunately these teams were playing at the arena's at which they were spotted so consequently weren't reported and you won't have read about these otherwise glorious moments.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">3) Original/re-issued shirts</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">My favourite football shirts, and therefore ones most likely to be mentioned on shirtspotter are generally from the 1980's. “What's the problem with that?” you may wonder. Well you'd have to be pretty disinterested in the world of retro sporting merchandise to not have noticed nearly every (especially British) club have re-produced some of their classic shirts from this era in recent times.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">In many cases these are easy to distinguish from their far more illustrious, and in many cases, less comfortable, originals as they don't contain the manufacturers logo. Some however (I'm looking at you Adidas/Umbro) do contain the manufacturers logo and open up a world of confusion for the less skilled eye. </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">How do you do approach the difficult task of distinguishing then? I'll be honest, there's no foolproof formulae for this but here's a couple of little tips that could help you out. </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">As with all spots I'd advise getting close-up to your subject. Signs of well-wornness are good. If, for example, someone's got a 1986 Liverpool shirt on and part of the W of CROWN PAINTS is peeling off it's a positive sign the shirt was bought from an allsports in 1986. If it's really bright and shiny and has a number on the back (numbers are quite often a giveaway in this situation) then it's more likely a re-issue. Similarly, a long-sleever, for me, means that the RRP was more likely to have been £49.99 rather than £17.99.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">I've not actually stated that a re-issue doesn't count as a 'spot' and won't say unequivocally that it doesn't, however it's less likely to be considered one. Example time again: A 1990 England World Cup shirt with 19 on the back wouldn't be one. A <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW20pinHbty5OPWAzA7etC4KbHEPHFEdd-_mvduZ9Il4JtQyxGInDrPLN6KJswqOCAgZnBG9m2BYg4u7cFnPaF38iuGnPd9Noal08WTZZg1Fc513aZLedrTamas6lHCqxQ6yECwZnXEiI/s1600/Re-issue.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 110px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW20pinHbty5OPWAzA7etC4KbHEPHFEdd-_mvduZ9Il4JtQyxGInDrPLN6KJswqOCAgZnBG9m2BYg4u7cFnPaF38iuGnPd9Noal08WTZZg1Fc513aZLedrTamas6lHCqxQ6yECwZnXEiI/s320/Re-issue.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576099613395059858" border="0" /></a>1987 West Ham shirt may be one. A 1991 Fiorentina shirt would be one. I don't think I can be any clearer than that.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">Points to Note</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Those of you who already follow me will have noticed that spotting isn't solely confined to that of shirts. Indeed, one of my favourite spots of recent times was a middle-aged woman in Albert Square Manchester wearing a Gremio tracksuit top. Any football-related garment that fits the criteria spelt out above is worthy.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Similarly it doesn't have to be football-based. A spot can be made if someone is wearing a noteworthy item of clothing associated with any sport. You're doing the Inca Trail as part of your holiday of a lifetime and see someone in a Hull KR shirt. Let me know. Bloke in the next office had got an Alberto Contador t-shirt on dress-down Friday. Let me know. Someone gets on the bus in an Edmonton Oilers beanie...etc.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family:arial;">So that's it kids. Keep your eyes peeled when you're out and about and try and follow the guidelines set-out above. May you see a man in a Brondby shirt on your walk to the station</span>.</p>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-51654112440228967302011-02-08T19:06:00.020+00:002011-02-10T11:36:32.834+00:00Rangers v Celtic<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;font-family:arial;">Rangers v Celtic<br />06/02/11<br />Sky Sports 2 12.00</p><p class="western" face="arial" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Prologue</span><br /></p><p class="western" face="arial" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">DTVSr is back, DTVSr is back Hello, Helloooo! That's right fellow TV sports enthusiasts. After a self-imposed exile of about six months, I've decided to watch some TV sports again! I jest of course. I've been watching TV sports throughout those six months (watching it a bit too much some would probably argue...she'd obviously be wrong though) but have only now had the time and inclination to write about it again. “Why's that Dave” you may enquire? Well if you're one of this blog's three readers who doesn't know me personally I've been on a journalism course and don't let the quality of anything your are about to read doubt me on that. </p> <p class="western" face="arial" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Indeed, those of you who are regular readers of the Huddersfield Examiner's weekly nostalgic Blast from the Past page or buyers of the Non-League and Football League Papers may have recognised my stuff that has been published as part of my work experience. And there cant be many of you that didn't pick up Wales on Sunday around a month ago to read a particularly tasty report on the titanic Southport v Newport clash eh? Anyway, enough of me living on past glories, what you want to read is my account of this season's 17<sup>th</sup> meeting between Rangers and Celtic right? Right? Want no further my friends. </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">Programme</p> <p class="western" face="arial" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">The programme began with some actor being an old Glaswegian man saying things about the depth of the the Old Firm rivalry with a predictably arty montage of clips. We then went to our presenter, Jim White, who was joined in the studio by ex-Ranger Neil McCann and ex-Celt Chris Sutton who would no doubt provide expert and excellent analysis. </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">I was trying to make a joke about the frequency with which the two age-old rivals meet when I said it was the 17<sup>th</sup> meeting between Rangers and Celtic this season. It was in fact the third, of the scheduled six meetings at this point of the afternoon, between the teams with two league games having taken place and this being a fifth-round cup game. I read in a recent When Saturday Comes that overkill is creeping in and the fixture is becoming, the one thing no-one ever thought it could be, boring. I can see where that article's coming from but it's still one out the multitude of live games available to me that I make an effort to watch.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">If I was honest, which I am, I'd have to say that my interest in the game stems from a lot of the things many would say is wrong with the fixture. I enjoy watching the out and out hatred from the stands unfold in front of me, I enjoy that the players often get caught up in it far too much and I enjoy, dare I say it, that they sing some pretty nasty things about each other. I'm sure many would disagree (or possibly agree, quite a broad church my readers) but I think all these contribute to make it such entertaining viewing.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Following short interviews with Bursaspor's Kenny Miller (formerly of both clubs of course), Ally McCoist and Neil Lennon, there was a short break before we went to the action. White informed us our commentators were Andy Walker and Bill Leslie if we were taking the first ever opportunity to watch an Old-Firm game in 3D but for those of us content with good old erm 2D, we were stuck with Davie Provan and Ian Crocker.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">As the teams came out it was the sea of noise and colour we'd come to expect as the PA played out Tina Turner's Simply the Best which I don't really like then “Follow Follow” for three sides of Ibrox to heartily sing along with which I did (like, rather than sing along with.) The game kicked off at “breakneck speed” and after just two minutes, Rangers took the lead after a real howitzer of a long-range effort from Jamie Ness. His shot flew past Fraser Forster into the top corner of the net to understandably send the afore mentioned three sides of Ibrox into raptures.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">With 'the volume now turned up a notch' Rangers nearly doubled their lead in the moments after as Steven Davis' shot rattled the crossbar. With such a cracking start to the game I at no point really contemplated what those lucky enough to be watching in 3D made of it all until typing this up. I think I've been told the 3D camera is on the opposite side of the stadium, or a different camera angle or something. Why would anyone specifically want to watch it in 3D, and what does it look like? Do you have to wear them cardboard glasses with one red and one green lens? These are all things I've since pondered but am actively uninterested in finding the answers out to. </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Celtic quickly got back into the contest and around the quarter-of-an-hour mark, their recent acquisition from Derby County, Kris Commons hit home the equaliser. It was the kind of goal that I enjoy in the moment of anticipation when the ball's played across the box and you know someone's on-hand to bang it in. This then prompted the Broomloan Road end to take it's opportunity to erupt.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">The Celtic fans, who for me sang the best couple of songs of the day, broke into one of these with their currently popular version of Depeche Mode's (or maybe the Saturday's cover version...or maybe they just like the DFS advert) Just can't get Enough. I'm a big fan of different terrace songs and as Celtic are, as yet, the only group of fans I've heard sing this they win a virtua<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP7wx8J4x3waoSULzR2_SCroGWJx54-N0X3j7_OsdfSzLU6iBn8h5QvJnQmn3f1YJvHjFJTuHhkdm7OLCK2qMmZDl7ogZetJqOTJlHbu2qbBLe9AoYSGUwcJFGpsZmEq2rITjSCHvAtDs/s1600/Bonnie+Tyler.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 249px; height: 239px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP7wx8J4x3waoSULzR2_SCroGWJx54-N0X3j7_OsdfSzLU6iBn8h5QvJnQmn3f1YJvHjFJTuHhkdm7OLCK2qMmZDl7ogZetJqOTJlHbu2qbBLe9AoYSGUwcJFGpsZmEq2rITjSCHvAtDs/s320/Bonnie+Tyler.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571401759096540850" border="0" /></a>l rosette I've decided to start handing out. They didn't stop at one virtual rosette though. Oh no. Just minutes later they were going at it with their version of Bonnie Tyler's 70's classic, It's a Heartache. As with the above it matched the same criteria so after 20 minutes Celtic were on-top by the most unlikely of margins: 2 DTVSr virtual rosettes.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Despite Celtic, to my technically expert knowledge, looking the better team for the remainder of the first half it was Rangers who re-took the lead when Steven Whittaker hit home a 40<sup>th</sup> minute penalty after Forster had brought down Steven Naismith. This again demonstrated the level of noise in the stadium as even through my not even HD, and certainly not 3D, TV, I could sort of feel Ibrox shake at this point.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Over half-time McCann and Sutton both felt the sending off of Celtic keeper Forster, which came in the penalty incident, was “contentious.” I felt it was the correct decision and having already gone well-past my loosely-set word guidelines won't elaborate any further on why I'm correct.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">The game re-started and we got to see Iain Durrant share a joke with Sir Alex Ferguson (as I always refer to him) in the directors box which if my lip-reading skills served me correctly ended with SAF saying “nooooo hahaha f#ck%ng 'ell.” Celtic again, as they did in the first half, looked the stronger when trailing and it came as no great surprise when captain Scott Brown equalised with another fantastic long-range strike with about 25 left.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Brown celebrated by standing in-front of his fellow pantomime villain and nemesis for the afternoon, El Hadj Diouf, raising his arms while eye-balling him from about a yard away. Now to be fair to Brown, if he happens to read this, which lets face it is highly likely, he may accuse me of hypocrisy for criticising his provocative gesture considering my reasons stated above for watching these games. But my gut-feeling was that he looked a bit of top-hat more than anything and he was booked for this action.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">Despite the best efforts of Davis and substitute Georgios Samaras, neither side could find a winner in the remaining time but Naismith made it ten-a-side when he was correctly sent-off with a second booking having dived on the edge of the box. As it had struck me in the first-half and was now being mentioned by the commentary team, this was shaping up for a replay and an unprecedented seventh meeting this season with their two league games and a League Cup final still left to play. </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">In the post-match analysis (which was double the length of the pre-match preview for any budding statto's out there) our panel re-iterated that they disagreed with me over the first sending off but we were all singing from the same hymn sheet in our opinion that it had been a thoroughly entertaining game. A bizarre glitch in Sky's production department then gave us a minute or so silent clip of what looked like a sound man stood in front of the interview boards for the Championship rugby coverage later. </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">We jumped back to White in the studio who told us Sutton then had to leave and join Alex Rae and SFA president, George Peat, downstairs to carry out the quarter-final draw in which some teams got drawn against some other teams or some different teams depending on the outcome of their yet to be settled ties. This isn't meant to be derogatory to the Scottish game of which I am genuinely interested, I just cant be bothered repeating it.</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;"> </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;">So a seventh Old Firm game of the season which will no doubt please the Sky execs and both clubs accountants (do they share gate money in the “Scottish”? I'm sure they do) but probably not the players and fans of both clubs. But what will the keen, and not so keen, TV sports fans feel about it? Well it's very likely I'll watch it. I may even <strike>have absolutely no intention of</strike> find a place that's showing it in 3D. </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">Watch</p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Scottish Cup 5th Round replay<br />Wednesday 16th February<br />19.30 Sky Sports 3</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">(subject to change)</span><br /></span></p>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-54641919087258113612010-08-20T14:28:00.013+01:002010-08-20T14:53:20.072+01:00International Wednesday<span style="font-family:arial;">Wednesday 12th August<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Sweden v Scotland 19.00 ESPN<br />England v Hungary 19.30 ITV1<br />Republic of Ireland v Argentina 19.30 Sky Sports 1<br />Wales v Luxembourg 19.30 Sky Sports 2<br /><br /><strong>Prologue</strong></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Have you ever tried to watch more than one football match on tele at once? Of course you have. I have on untold occasions which generally has the same outcome that I don’t end up seeing very much of any of them. With this in mind I decided to try and 'watch' not one but all of the four ‘home’ nations friendlies available to me last Wednesday. If we have any sensitive readers from Northern Ireland please be assured that had I been able to access Setanta Ireland then your game in Montenegro would also have been featured.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><strong>Programme(‘s)</strong><br /><br />In textbook ESPN fashion the first of the nights featured programmes opened with the players already lining up on the pitch ahead of the national anthems and commentators Derek Rae and Craig Burley introduced themselves. As Rae pointed out on no few occasions, the colours each team were wearing would’ve confused the less-skilled eye (which I know none of you are) as both teams wore their away kit which looked vaguely (in Sweden’s case) or frighteningly (in Scotland’s case) similar to the oppositions home kits. Anyway, immediately after kick off Scotl..sorry Sweden took control and returning superstar Zlatan Ibrahimivoic finished off an aesthetically pleasing but surprisingly easy move by side-footing past Scotland’s (similarly returning from international exile) goalkeeper Alan McGreggor.<br /><br />The game continued like this for majority of the opening half-hour but the most noteworthy moment came when Scotland’s Kirk Broadfoot attempted what could only be described as a ‘De-Jong’ on Sweden Keeper Andreas Isaksson. After half a minute of lying on the ground Isaksson then remonstrated with the offending full-back which looked fair enough to this onlooker. However the impressive number of Scotland fans behind Isakson’s goal largely seemed to disagree with Isaksson, me and the referee and when Broadfoot was booked they booed vociferously and as a result of some advice they surely must give at TV Editors college, we saw a close up of a handful of fans handing out 18-certified abuse to the ref.<br /><br />At this point we were approaching half-seven and decided I couldn’t let miss the opportunity to see the opening to England’s potential booing against Hungary so immediately switched to ITV1. After what felt-like a lengthy opening credits, Adrian Chiles set the scene and welcomed us to Wembley: ‘the player’s didn’t particularly want it, the clubs definitely didn’t…and the fans didn’t seem too interested.’ This was followed by a predictable montage of clips highlighting England's World Cup campaign.<br /><br />Almost immediately we went to Gabriel Clarke at pitch-side to find out what kind of reaction the England players received when they came out for their warm ups (‘mixed’ apparently) and what struck me most at this point was that I don’t think I’d actually recognise Gabriel Clarke if for instance, I was stood next to him at a bar. As soon as he started waxing lyrically about having ‘caught up’ with Janet behind the bar to gauge the ‘mood in the camp amongst the girls’ I’m sure I’d have no problem, but on looks alone I’d fall short.<br /><br />As we went back to the studio to get the thoughts of Gareth Southgate and Sir Les Ferdinand I thought I’d have a gander at the coverage of the Ireland v Argentina and Wales v Luxembourg games that were shortly to begin. I got to see a graphic of the Argentina line-up and veteran Welsh ‘supremo’ John Toshack being interviewed so took the sharp decision to go back to the only live action taking place at that point from the Rasunda Stadium. This then provided me with a disappointing moment no.2 in as many paragraphs. I’ve always believed I can tell the score of a football match on TV/radio by hearing the first few seconds of crowd noise upon turning it on. As the time/score display had disappeared I sat watching a couple of eventless minutes of this comfortable in the belief Sweden were still 1-0 up. Then to my disgust I saw a replay of a 2nd Sweden goal. First the realisation I don't know what Gabriel Clarke looks like then this! If I was to tell a blatant fib I'd say I had a good mind to give up this whole TV Sports watching gig as my head and heart are clearly not in it any more.<br /><br />Flicking onto the Wales v Luxembourg game which had now started at the flamboyantly sounding Parc Y Llanelli I could hear the players shouting to each other which is always a barometer that is used to highlight what a low crowd is at a match and I can safely report that in this case it was a truly accurate barometer. A quick move to the Aviva stadium Dublin alerted me to how ridiculous one of the stands of this new, much celebrated ground looks. If you haven't seen it think three sides of the Emirates with one end about the size of the away section at Roots Hall but with the roof still at the height of the Emirates (stick with it) and you're on the right lines.<br /><br />Another possibly arthritis inducing movement of the fingers took me back to Wembley for the most hyped sporting event in recent memory: the England players entrance onto the pitch for a overwhelmingly meaningless friendly game. You won't be surprised to hear (regardless of the fact many of you will have heard it yourself) Clive Tyldesley absolutely lapped this moment up. As we saw the players in the tunnel and edge towards the pitch Tyldesley paused before describing that 'the reception is.......forgiving, loyal and fairly warm.' He then proceeded in doing what comes most naturally and annoyed me with a standardly nonsensical comment with deliberate pause for emphasis 'it's a night I think for the players to sing...<em>their</em> national anthem.'<br /><br />A further flick through the games saw me back in Llanelli and just as Joe Ledley shot wide with the game still goalless the perils of attempting to view multi-game were painfully brought home. A scores update appeared at the bottom of the screen and alerted me to the fact Sweden had further extended their lead. Naturally I turned to this game only to see play had re-started and a replay of the goal wouldn't be forthcoming for a while. During this time I then missed David Cotterill's opener against Luxembourg and Angel de Maria's goal for Argentina. As a veteran multi-viewer I should use my wealth of experience to tell you that this occasionally happens quite regularly.<br /><br />My self-discipline in deciding I'd stick with one game for five minutes was rewarded when Luxembourg equalised in Llanelli. This prompted one of the more enthusiastic celebrations I've seen in what appeared such a low-key game as the jubilant Joel Kitenge and his team-mates sprinted towards the management and subs in the dug-out to share in the giddiness. As I'd now seen a goal I allowed myself to re-visit Wembley and see how the game had settled down now all the Brouhaha about people shouting 'boooooo' or not should have died down.<br /><br />Not a lot happened for the ten minutes I persevered with this bar Joe Hart comfortably saving a Zolton Gera effort and maybe I'd managed to block out Tyldesley as I don't have any quotes from him during this period. The advertising boards around the uncharacteristically good Wembley surface did catch my eye as in bright lights I read 'REF ASSAULTS DOWN 13%' which I took to be in relation to the FA's respect campaign rather than some reduced rates being offered by hired goons.<br /><br />I caught the final whistle of Scotland's dismal showing in Sweden and immediately turned back to England v Hungary and the only game that was at this point in-play. I imagine there was a stoppage at this time as the camera's were focussing on England's subs warming up. Tyldesley then mused that Fabio Capello would be asking Stuart Pearce 'which one's Frankie Fielding and which one's Scott Loach...he'll know he's the under-21s coach...not sure I would.' Now pretty much all that I write relating to the England v Hungary game could've been viewed if you follow all the great football bloggers I do on twitter. One (the identity of which I can't remember) asked at this point 'why is a lack of knowledge found so amusing at the ITV?'<br /><br />I'm quite confident that for all his faults Tyldesley would be able to tell me which one was Frankie Fielding and which one was Scott Loach if they were stood together but chooses not to for the purposes of what he perceives as 'banter.' This is obviously absolute bollocks. For one it's not a bad thing to know the subject you're paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to talk about and secondly you won't lose any 'street-cred' if you tell us such information. I won’t carry on in this light as there have been plenty of writers out there who have highlighted these shortcomings better than I am now but strongly support the criticism of this seemingly intentional dumbing-down of football coverage.<br /><br />While I was getting more annoyed watching the England game I missed Wales re-take the lead against Luxembourg but to their credit they added a third goal soon after which was nice of them. This was a simple Andy King header from Craig Bellamy’s corner with the keeper providing a near-perfect example of being at ‘sixes and sevens.’ Sticking with events in South Wales the commentator who I think was Allan Parry told us that Luxembourg ‘once went 11 years without winning an international friendly’ and just as he was doing so one of their midfielders ‘ballooned’ a long-range effort a long-range over the bar so he added ‘…and with shooting like that, you’d have to say they’re in for another long wait.’<br /><br />Off to Dublin again and Lionel Messi picked up the ball slightly in his own half to beat three or four Ireland players before having a pass intercepted by Richard Dunne. This prompted the big Irish, long-time hero of mine to try and replicate the skills just shown by arguably the greatest footballer in the world. He started well beating one of his Argentine opponents before a heavy touch saw him stumble in his desperation to keep the ball around the half-way line which was undeniably the footballing highlight of the evening thus far.<br /><br />Back at Wembley the crowd noise (not to mention the display in the top left hand corner) told me it was still 0-0. As the very commendable crowd of over 72,000 began to show their frustration we were shown a group of fans (two grown men, two children) holding up a banner which read ‘WE STILL LOVE U’ which I’m sure was the kind of worthy ‘talking point’ Tyldesley, tabloid hacks and ‘the lads at Talk Sport’ were enjoying getting their teeth into.<br /><br />My attentions were once again back at the Aviva stadium where I heard that Andy Keogh ‘has a point to prove’ saw Carlos Tevez eating a lolly and decided that Ireland Assistant Coach Marco Tardelli does still bare a decent resemblance to himself in that iconic picture from the 1982 World Cup Final.<br /><br />Back at Wembley and I turned on just in time to see Wayne Rooney being substituted after Hungary had just taken the lead. I was fortunate in that I enjoy witnessing a footballing ‘state of crisis’ which is what this undoubtedly now was so stayed here and as a result, shortly got to see a couple of moments of brilliance in the form of Steven Gerrard’s two goals. I’m not a huge fan of Gerrard to be honest and if you’ve read this blog before you may know I’m even less of a fan of his nickname but for all the hype that surrounds him and the England team/players I believe these two goals were ‘World-class.’<br /><br />More rubbish from Tyldesley followed and a stand-out included the bemoaning of Capello for not having stood up: ‘It wouldn’t hurt.’ It also wouldn’t make any difference to anything with the possible exception of the longevity of the seats in the Wembley dug-out Clive.<br /><br />Back in the studio Chiles continued in a similar vein and made sure we were back focussing on the over-riding issue of the evening: ‘you’ve got to feel sorry for the boo-boys, they paid £20 and couldn’t do any such thing.’ Did they really? Did ‘the boo-boys’ pay £20 to ‘boo their heads off’ or did they go hoping that the team they support that represents them would win a game of football? I’m not unfamiliar with people who seem to get a level of enjoyment at criticising players they’re supposedly at a football match to support but what proportion of that ridiculously large crowd went there to do that? Personally I don’t think it was large.<br /><br />To finish off we had interviews with Joe Hart (more articulate than I remember though still reminds me a bit of Jedward lookswise) and Fabio himself. The first question he was asked by Gabriel Clarke was if he enjoyed it as he sat down? Over a week after seeing this I’m now running out of ways to get annoyed that such minor irrelevant issues are made into issues worth quetioning. Capello was dignified in his responses saying he was surprised by the positive reaction from the crowd and thanked them for it. I didn’t really pay much attention to the remainder of the interview as it was about something as insignificant like how he felt his team had played or something.<br /><br />With the climax of this final game of the evening and Wales having finished their game 5-1 against Luxembourg it falls on me to report that the games featured 13 goals in total of which I’d seen five hit the net ‘in real-time.’ This really isn’t good enough for a self styled ‘TV Sports Enthusiast’ and if any of you feel inclined to boo after giving up your time to read about this disappointing performance I won’t hold it against you. God knows, in your shoes I’d probably do so myself!<br /><br />Happy Viewing Guys and Girls, Dave<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Watch<br /></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Friday 3rd September<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Armenia v Republic of Ireland – Sky Sports 1 16.30<br />Montenegro v Wales – Sky Sports 3 18.30<br />Slovenia v Northern Ireland - Sky Sports 1 19.00<br />Lithuania v Scotland BBC1 - Scotland 19.15<br />England v Bulgaria - ITV1 19.30</span>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-27165290325599834552010-07-13T14:57:00.007+01:002010-07-13T18:39:44.603+01:00CSKA Moscow v Saturn<span style="font-family:arial;">CSKA Moscow v Saturn<br />Saturday 10th July<br />ESPN 13.00<br /><br /><strong>Prologue</strong><br /><br />'Eyebrows were raised' when ESPN announced they would be showing the Russian Premier League when the channel hit our screens replacing the collapsed Setanta. When I say 'eyebrows were raised' I mean a series of txt messages were exchanged between myself and great mate Shoegl about the possibility of 'bloke in the pub' enthusiastically adopting Spartak Nalchik as his team, kids running around in Amkar Perm kits and a street being named after legendary Rubin Kazan manager Kurban Berdyev. To my knowledge the screening of these games hasn’t quite had this effect on the British sporting public as yet so with that in mind we that thought that a bit of DTVSr exposure might give it a push in the right direction.<br /><br /><strong>Programme</strong><br /><br />As often happens with ESPN's foreign games the coverage started with the players lining up in the tunnel and commentator Martin Hyndley welcomed us to the afternoon's action from the Khimki Stadium. Immediately confusion set-in as I recognised this as Dinamo Moscow's stadium. Further research indicated that I was sort of correct in that Dinamo play there but it isn't their stadium neither as both they and this afternoon's hosts are temporary residents, CSKA having recently moved from the vast Luzhniki arena (of which they were also tenants.) Now I know what you’re thinking here, you’re thinking: ‘Dave, if I’d have wanted the lowdown on stadiums in Moscow I would’ve clicked onto ‘Dave’sStadiumsofRussiaReview’ so just get on with bloody action will you?’ And if you were thinking that the answer is ‘yes, yes I will.’<br /><br />Before this first game following the summer break the players lined up on the pitch for what I'm sure was the Russian national anthem. Many of the crowd sang along with the players largely taking the ‘Spanish approach' (that was a three-week old dig at Clive Tyldesley by the way...you already knew that though.) With the formalities over the action was about to begin and commentator Hyndley told us that Saturn, who sat bottom of the table had only won one game prior to the break (against Lokomotiv Moscow.) CSKA (pronounced 'seska' rather than C S K A) in second spot were expected to win this sort-of derby and make up ground on top of the table Zenit St.Petersburg.<br /><br />The main team news centred around the omission of CSKA's World Cup players in the form of Japan winger Keisuke Honda, Chilean winger Mark González and Serbian striker Miloš Krasić although the latter two did feature on the bench. The game kicked of and as I often seem to do was just noting that nothing had happened when 7 minutes in Saturn (or 'Saturn Moscow Region' as a graphic often referred to them) took a surprise lead with an absolute belter. Lone striker Dmitri Kirichenko volleyed on the turn into the keeper’s top left-hand corner from the edge of the box. Kirichenko naturally celebrated this fantastic strike but to my dismay they're didn't appear to be any visiting fans for him to celebrate with. "Do we have a shock on our hands here?" Asked Hyndley. Read on (or alternatively consult the interweb) and find out!<br /><br />A short while after this I required my umpteenth visit to the toilet for the day following the previous night's ale-consumption and asked Mrs.DTVSr to “let me know if owt happens?” As a result it brings me great pleasure to inform you that on approximately 16 minutes 'the red and blues had a shot on goal but he saved it.' The very same 'red and blues' (CSKA) were now posing more of a threat than they had at any point previously and equalised on 27 minutes. The goal came from an overwhelmingly weak and badly executed shot from midfielder Alan Dzagoev which despite being low somehow went over Antonin Kinsky in the Saturn net. In fairness to the keeper the ball did appear to 'move' a bit and would have undoubtedly been placed in the category marked 'Jabulani' had it been at the World Cup.<br /><br />As had happened throughout the opening 30 minutes, the commentator's knowledge and enthusiasm for the Russian game continued to impress me no-end. Naturally I drew the comparison with the appalling levels we were subject to in the World Cup whereby Lee Dixon famously admitted to 'not knowing too much' about two teams he was being paid to offer 'expert' analysis on. Not only did Hyndley seemingly know the background to every player on the pitch he even went so far as to mention bits of trivia such as the scorers in the previous day’s youth-team fixture between the two clubs. Is it really considered a better option to employ Alan Green who'll give the impression he's suffering some hardship by being made to watch Brazil v Portugal (at the World Cup Finals FFS!) than someone who not only can give insight to a players form, career history and strengths but actually gives the impression they want us to enjoy it as well?<br /><br />Anyway, after 36 minutes Saturn re-took a shock lead with<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSAjW7h7RUgqfbM7PuVN8WzO7vd2iTaPZoF379XPwIxA-tJEadbl0XflGgDfi-8ThNKy4vQ7wJs6REIODsyN00SM3eesY3NLlKWeIaz74h0MhXedwb9_HeXt_4vPBRYTklPYKQjuGga7w/s1600/Russian+coaches.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493391196303735250" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 221px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSAjW7h7RUgqfbM7PuVN8WzO7vd2iTaPZoF379XPwIxA-tJEadbl0XflGgDfi-8ThNKy4vQ7wJs6REIODsyN00SM3eesY3NLlKWeIaz74h0MhXedwb9_HeXt_4vPBRYTklPYKQjuGga7w/s320/Russian+coaches.bmp" border="0" /></a> a header from their previous scorer Kirichenko. Well they would've re-took their shock lead had it not incorrectly been ruled out for offside. This prompted angry gesticulations from their manager Andrei Gordeev who if he added a few pounds would look exactly like a stereotypical Eastern European Gymnastics coach. He carried on his tirade of displeasure directed at the referee and officials all the way up to half time of which little of note happened bar a text-book modern case of “handbags.” Lyndley then told us that this was nothing in comparison to the brawl that marred the 2004 meeting between the two clubs and having discovered the x-rated film I can confirm that predictably he was correct (Disclaimer: Anyone under the age of 18 must get permission before watching this) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=CSKA+Saturn&aq=f">CSKA V Saturn 2004 Scrap</a></span><span style="font-family:arial;"> .<br /><br />The ‘steadily improving Armyestas’ put pressure on the ‘Aliens’ (I’ll leave it up to you to deduce which nickname belongs to whom) from the beginning of the second half which resulted in one of those all too often occurrences of a shot hitting the advertising hoardings and re-bounding into the netting leading to many in the stadium believing a goal has been scored. Fortunately as this wasn’t an English game (and of equal relevance, there didn’t appear to be any there….although I’ve since seen a picture that shows me there were some and numbered around 100) the opposition fans didn’t break into a collective ‘aaarrrrrrgghhh’ then start chanting ‘Who are ya? Who are ya?’ at the mistakenly celebratory CSKA masses.<br /><br />A disappointing crowd development at this point was the noticeable racist abuse Saturn’s Benois Angbwa received on a couple of occasions from the previously excellent CSKA fans. Credit again should go to Hyndley who rightfully deemed it worthy of a mention but didn’t go into an all-out righteous rant about Eastern Europe’s racism in football problem that the likes of Green or Jonathon Pearce undoubtedly would.<br /><br />Around an hour in and the home side brought on their returning World Cup ‘stars’ González and Krasić and continued to take the game to Saturn, forcing a goal line clearance from a close-range header at a corner. The two subs were in the thick of the action and Krasić had a very optimistic penalty shout where upon the replay, Hyndley diplomatically informed us he’s ‘no stranger to the theatrical side of the game.’ As CSKA pushed forward to get the anticipated three points, they naturally left gaps at the back and on a couple of occasions Saturn broke and save for some poor execution and indecision would’ve had a couple of clear chances in which to nick the game themselves.<br /><br />Despite both teams efforts and an entertaining end to the game neither side could find the illusive second goal much to the displeasure of the CSKA fans and coach, Leonid Slutsky who I’d describe as looking like a more extreme version of David Platt.<br /><br />An enjoyable return to national rather than international football viewing for me, helped in no small part by the intrigue factor of a league I’ve not watched much of and a commentator who accurately describes the action and informs me of interesting things I didn’t know. I’ll be watching the Russian action on ESPN again and may even find myself enthusiastically discussing the fortunes of Spartak Nalchik over a pint with one of their legions of British followers my fantasy world created a year or so ago.<br /><br /><strong>Watch</strong><br /><br />Russian Premier League Review - ESPN<br />Tuesday 13th July 20.00<br />Thursday 15th July 19.00</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Weekend fixtures TBC</span>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-64792468607430918262010-07-01T14:57:00.023+01:002010-07-14T09:41:03.616+01:00Interview - Our Man on the Inside<span style="font-family:arial;">As a blog that concentrates specifically on watching sport on TV (not that we don’t watch it live fellow enthusiasts. We do, and berluddy enjoy it as well) we thought we’d try and approach our subject from a different angle. Influenced by our blog hero and inspiration Danny at </span><a href="http://europeanfootballweekends.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family:arial;">European Football Weekends</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> we decided we’d seek out an interview with someone involved in the old TV Sports game and are pretty happy with the scoop we’ve pulled off here. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">We tried to get Adrian Chiles, Alan Hansen and even Gabriel Clarke but to no avail and just when all hope was looking lost we pulled this gem out of the bag!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Yes, it’s EVS operator for ITV’s coverage of the World Cup: <strong>Steven ‘Cheets’ Cheetham!</strong> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">A marginally easier interview to get from the TV Sports World due to him being my old housemate, Cheets took time the time to answer a few questions all the way from Sarf Afreeka.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>So Cheets, first things first, what are you doing for ITV out in SA?</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Well Dave, first of all I'm not actually working for ITV I'm actually working for HBS - Host Broadcasting Services <span style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)">(DTVSr: sincere apologies to HBS.<begins><pens>)</pens></begins></span> Basically they show all the games, but they get companies from different countries to provide the crews to work on them. ITV have two English crews out here, the team I'm in do any games that are at Ellis Park in Johannesburg and <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_IqPI1sWwrFZGc3uvD9xwggA9OSqGtb219H3jtcqkFiBLEb0S43w8mglVhNGWtkLUWiLfKByKgRb_N_qXqGPcReJlzPTIFW7rUFi09mxYpIjX9v_wQ9DR1UsrrPtYBT9h_SvyTGIrOA/s1600/Cheets+Work.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488949839227863762" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 314px; HEIGHT: 235px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_IqPI1sWwrFZGc3uvD9xwggA9OSqGtb219H3jtcqkFiBLEb0S43w8mglVhNGWtkLUWiLfKByKgRb_N_qXqGPcReJlzPTIFW7rUFi09mxYpIjX9v_wQ9DR1UsrrPtYBT9h_SvyTGIrOA/s320/Cheets+Work.jpg" border="0" /></a>Pretoria.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />We do all the match coverage from games at those two stadiums and have done 12 games so far with one quarter final to go (Spain v Paraguay). We basically show all the slow motion replays during the games and build players wraps, closers etc. <span style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)">(DTVSr: oh aye, player wraps and closers.)</span> My job is a bit different from what I usually do as I have to build a 3 and a half minute highlights edit of the game for half time and full time. It gets played out at the end of each half and the commentator voices it as it’s played out. This goes round the world to any broadcasters who can use it as they like.<br /><br /><strong>So do you get to go to any games while you’re there?</strong><br />We've not been to any games while we're out here so far as they have all been sold out<span style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)"> </span><span style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)">(DTVSr: that’s just the two stadiums Cheets works at readers.)</span> We could have gone to the first Holland game as tickets were still on sale but it was early in the trip and after a heavy night out and no-one actually realised this until just after kick off. Its difficult to go as most games that are local we work on, we could go to games at Soccer city as this is also in Johannesburg but they have all been sold out and I'm told it's a dodgy area to go flashing your money around trying to get tickets outside. We are looking to go to the quarter final between Uruguay and Ghana on Friday though which would be good.<br /><br /><strong>What do you get up to in your spare time then?</strong><br />We haven't had much time off to be honest. We got here a few days before the tournament started but had to go to the grounds and make sure that everything was set up and working properly and sort out accreditation etc. Then most days since the games started, we generally work two or three days in a row and then get a day off. When we work on the early games we get back in time to go to the hotel bar and watch the later kick off.<br /><br />Then we have been out into town a fair bit, where we are based there is a big mall right outside with lots of bars and restaurants. It seems like quite a safe area where we are and there are a lot of people with loads from different countries about. I've basically been doing a lot of drinking and eating steaks. When we have had a day off we've tried to do a few different things.<br /><br />The first day-off we went to a fan park and watched Argentina v South Korea. That was good as<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1-HIW7ZF1Jic0LI85PI8PE6jmSPNq19r_4kU81wdh9W0qhpe-szqwaAu-MIVds6MzPtBAt_JsK4Yi0XEpLtl-FodQRXExowrcswf5ipXCOw22zCuSXEV7bJmFGvhblyuu56oeb-_dAc/s1600/Cheets+Cub.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488950010318661938" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 314px; HEIGHT: 209px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1-HIW7ZF1Jic0LI85PI8PE6jmSPNq19r_4kU81wdh9W0qhpe-szqwaAu-MIVds6MzPtBAt_JsK4Yi0XEpLtl-FodQRXExowrcswf5ipXCOw22zCuSXEV7bJmFGvhblyuu56oeb-_dAc/s320/Cheets+Cub.JPG" border="0" /></a> although its winter over here its still boiling in the day and it’s not until the sun goes in that it gets pretty cold. We had a good drink, took a ball with us and had a kick about with some South Africans. One of the lads we’re working with used to live out here as well and one of his old friends had a BBQ one night that we all went to.<br /><br />Another day we went to a safari park and had a look at some lions and stuff <span style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)">(DTVSr: Good in-depth stuff this mate.)</span> It was amazing as we actually got to go in with some lion cubs.<br /><br />Today we went on a bike ride through Soweto which was real eye-opener to see how some people have to live over here. The kids were all really happy though, we played football with them and they were jumping all over us.<br /><br /><strong>Have you had any other contact with many of the locals?</strong><br />We have had a bit in bars and at the fan fest we played football with some who also had a few drinks with us afterwards. They have been very friendly on the whole and just happy to be hosting it.<br />That first day was awesome when they had their first game. People were out on the streets dressed up everywhere. It took us hours to get to the ground as the traffic was just backed up but was a really good atmosphere. It was good when they beat France too and a shame when they went out as it was fun having them in the tournament.<br /><br />Today in Soweto everyone was very friendly and waving and posing for pictures. The kids would run and try and high five us as we rode past and then when we walked round the houses they walked with us and were holding hands and jumping on everyone.<br /><br /><strong>Great stuff, you had much/any contact with many travelling fans from the various teams?</strong><br />We’ve had a fair bit of contact with travelling fans when we go out at night. There have been a lot of South Americans staying round here, first it was mainly Argentina fans about and then a lot of Mexicans. There’s even been some New Zealand fans <span style="COLOR: rgb(255,0,0)"><span style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)">(DTVSr: To be fair they were in the tournament Cheets)</span></span> and we generally just get talking to people after a few beers.<br /><br />I've also had to go out with a camera man as he films all the crowds arriving at the games to get fan shots and colour which has been good seeing the different fans and how they act. The Chile fans at their game v Spain game were awesome, best I’ve seen so far<br /><br /><strong>Back to your work then, do you get to do much hob-nobbing with the celebs of the ITV sports team? How do they react to you lads on the technical side?</strong><br />To be honest we don't really see that side of things. We are just at the games doing actual match coverage. All the presentation for ITV is in a building called the IBC that is near Soccer City so they are all in a studio there rather than at the ground. I saw Adrian Chiles, Southgate and Townsend in a bar that we go in quite a lot. Kevin Keegan was in a restaurant we went in one night and when we watched England v Algeria Danny Mills and Robbie Savage walked into our hotel bar and watched it in there.<br /><br /><strong>Any funny stories from that side of things?<br /></strong>No.<br /><br /><strong>A refreshingly brisk answer Cheets. Do you have to deal with foreign TV crews as well? Is there a power struggle (ala sun loungers around the pool) for equipment use/good spots?</strong><br />The foreign crews are mainly doing games in other areas of the country so we don’t really see them. There is a French crew that we see about but don’t really have much to do with them. There is a rivalry as when you watch the other crew's games you look for how they are doing it to see if it’s any better or worse than how we do things.<br /><br />This is the first one I’ve been on so am new to it all but from what people say the English crews are generally regarded as doing the best match coverage. Then again there could be a French team also saying that so who knows? There’s no battling for sun loungers moments as such but if there was I think there’s more of us so we’d have them.<br /><br /><strong>That's the spirit! To the action then, who’s impressed you so far? What did you make of England?</strong><br />England were awful. Can’t believe how bad we were, thought winning the group and avoiding Germany would be massive and we couldn’t even do that although not sure we’d have done any better against Ghana. I actually watched the game in the fan park and there were a lot of Germans about. The disallowed goal was a big moment but they carved us open so many times that I don’t think it made much difference.<br /><br />I’ve been impressed with the usual lot. Argentina have looked good. Brazil have looked decent. The Germans have been good and I think they might win it if they can beat Argentina. Also Chile and Uruguay have all looked pretty decent. As for players Messi has looked good even though he’s not scored. I thought Veron was awesome in the last group game and he’s still one of my favourite players. Ozil for Germany looks very good and I want United<span style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)"> </span>to sign him</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> but I think that’s very unlikely <span style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)">(DTVSr: Fortunately it is Cheets.)</span> David Villa looks awesome, David Silva can f*** off <span style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)">(DTVSr: bit harsh.)</span> Sneijder is quality too.<br /><br /><strong>What are you missing about home (other than the Dave’sTVSports team obviously?)</strong><br />Just Dave of Dave’sTVSports. That’s it! I don’t know really, it’s gone really quick and been pretty busy so I haven’t really had that much time to think about home that much. It’s been a bit weird living in a hotel for a month though, I feel like Partridge.<br /><br />I kind of miss being home to watch all the matches. It’s weird that I’m over here working on the World Cup and I don’t think I’ve ever seen less games in a tournament. We generally miss the other games being played the same days we work so I only see the ones we work on and then some on our days off. If I was at home I reckon I’d have seen pretty much every game.<br /><br />What I am going to miss about being here is being fed and given beer every time I finish a shift. As we are at the ground all day we get a meal when we get there and then when we finish we have our dinner <span style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)">(DTVSr: It’s ‘tea’ Cheets, we’re Northern)</span> and there is beer in a cool box and wine on the table. I don’t think I’ll get that when I get back home.<br /><br /><strong>Have you been able to keep up with the comings and goings of the last ever Big Brother?<br /></strong>I’ve not seen a single thing from Big Brother, I’m gutted. I haven’t even seen pictures of anyone that’s in it. Think that’s probably a good thing but it’ll be the first one I haven’t watched from start to finish.<br /><br /><strong>Did you know a match at Wimbledon went to 70-68 in the last set?</strong><br />I did see that about the tennis and the guy got knocked out a couple of days later because he was exhausted. I also hear Murray is playing well. Not seen any of it and if he gets to the final it’s the day we travel home so not sure if we will even get to see that...but tennis is gay so who cares. I’ve seen a bit of the cricket as well. Nice to hear us having a bit of success in that at least.<br /><br /><strong>Well I’m sure if Novak Djokovic, Sue Barker or Jeremy Bates were reading this they’re not anymore. To finish, aren’t Vuvuzelas great?</strong><br />Vuvuzelas are f****** loud! The first few days everyone had one. In the streets, shops, bars, restaurants…everywhere. That was quite annoying if you were trying to eat a meal and someone’s blowing one of them down your ear hole. It calmed down a bit after a few days though. I don’t mind them at the grounds and I’ve not really noticed it that much when I watch on TV or am working on the game. I’m definitely bringing one back if I can cram it in my suitcase.<br /><br /><strong>Well we look forward to a genuine South African Vuvuzela arriving at DTVSr towers early next week. Many thanks for the interview Cheets.</strong><br />No probs.<br /><br />Steve will have worked on ITV1's highlights programme featuring Spain v Paraguay this Saturday at 22:30.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"></span>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-10284045502576218422010-06-15T14:21:00.009+01:002010-06-16T08:45:00.593+01:00Dave’s TV Sports Review: World Cup. Days 1-4<span style="font-family:arial;">2010 Fifa World Cup. Days 1-4</span>
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<br />We’re hiding behind a stag-doo as an excuse for a lack of blogging during this 2010 FIFA World Cup (not quite sure what I can come up with for the last couple of months…oh alright then, drinking) so far as it took up days 1,2 and 3 (and 4 in a recovery stage) but as we settle down during day 5 it’s time to get this show on the road as it were.
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<br />So far then Mark ‘Lawro’ Lawrenson has been my most annoying TV 'personality.' Watched bits of Japan v Cameroon yesterday and he just proceeded to moan about everything in the style of a 60 year old man who hadn’t watched a game since the 86 FA Cup Final (‘now that Lawrenson feller for Liverpool, he was a player’ is what I would’ve loved him to have said in my fantasy extension of his old bloke miserable-sodness yesterday) combined with a moody teenager.
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<br />*Guy Mowbray: So Cameroon have a chance to test Kawashima in the Japan goal with this free-kick.
<br />Lawro: Yeah that’s gonna happen.
<br />Balls sails 10 yards over bar.
<br />Lawro: Told yer.
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<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">*I actually made this transcript up but like to think it gives a flavour of what we were subjected to.</span>
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<br />Would go along with the startlingly obvious consensus that Germany have been the best team so far. England and Italy both respected tradition by being ‘disappointing’ in their opening game. Too much is being made about the ball, the vuvuzela’s (‘What are those I hear you ask?’…No I already tried that gag yesterday on twitter) and the fact there’s a few empty seats in some stadiums. It’s appears a modern phenomenon that a stadium always has to be full and if it isn’t then ‘questions have to be asked’ of someone and something.
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<br />Whilst on the issue of stadiums and crowds I am somewhat disappointed we don’t seem to see as much of the choreographed group dancing that ‘lit-up’ last years Confederation’s Cup. You know the type, about 50 locals turning around, moving back and forward to a tune of ‘der der-der der-der HEY’ that always ends with them giving the guy next to them the high-tens. Then again </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ5FaOWG4daUv6gH3MxliINDSXqplPe85TGIzf57oYwIFTSK_gLf5P-Zr5zXjO22IlyAuzGMdJCrdvbsIfOtoEHY_6PgIvQmajXcgC-Say5HFlWWVpqkdq0y-JhqMFv3qbmNWv8QxpvpY/s1600/South+African+fans.JPG"><span style="font-family:arial;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482990726313307906" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 202px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ5FaOWG4daUv6gH3MxliINDSXqplPe85TGIzf57oYwIFTSK_gLf5P-Zr5zXjO22IlyAuzGMdJCrdvbsIfOtoEHY_6PgIvQmajXcgC-Say5HFlWWVpqkdq0y-JhqMFv3qbmNWv8QxpvpY/s320/South+African+fans.JPG" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">maybe they did form part of that booze fuelled first few days and if so I apologise.
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<br />Quite liked Mick McCarthy’s summarising during Italy Paraguay yesterday. This may cause some derision but I think he is genuinely good at offering some insight despite his broad Yorkshire tones. I’m not denying he will offer predictable opinions on tactics though but these raise a smile for yours truly. Not to the same extent as after 20 minutes of Portugal v Denmark in Euro 96, with the Danes seemingly not having touched the ball and Portugal cutting through at ease, great mate and eldest brother Jon laughed at Jack Charlton saying ‘he’d like to see a big lad up front' but I grin nonetheless.
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<br />Will hopefully provide more in-depth analysis on the in-depth analysis as the tournament goes on which should benefit from me being actually sat in front of a screen where I can hear our expert commentators, panellists and summariser.
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<br />Happy Viewing folks. Dave
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<br /><strong>Watch</strong>
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<br />World Cup games are shown daily on BBC1 and ITV1 kicking of at 12.30, 15.30 and 19.30 throughout the group stages.</span>
<br /></span>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-88103939001045423372010-04-27T17:19:00.008+01:002010-06-16T08:52:43.592+01:00Vintage DTVSr: Gazzetta Football Italia<span style="font-family:arial;">Gazzetta Football Italia<br />Saturday Mornings Early 90’s – Early 00’s<br />Channel 4<br /><br /><strong>Prologue</strong><br /><br />I once heard that this was the most watched programme ever….on a Saturday morning…on Channel 4. Mock all you want but when Kabaddi forms part of the competition for this title, it should by no means be taken lightly and oh how I looked forward to it as the inspiration to get up on a Saturday morning during my teenage years. A brew, bacon buttie and to be greeted by James Richardson sat in some grand Piazza accompanied by an elaborate Tiramisu and Espresso. Bellissimo!<br /><br /><strong>The Programme</strong><br /><br />Once Richardson had introduced the show we’d get to see highlights of the main game from the previous week which we had almost certainly seen live the previous Sunday. The man himself would carry out post match interviews in Italian with your Beppe Signori’s, Gianluca Pagliuca’s and Giuseppi Gianini’s and then of course in the queens with your Gazza’s, Des Walker’s’s and Platty’s. After another couple of highlights from the bigger games of the previous week it came to what went onto be the signature feature of the show and Richardson’s review of the papers while sat in said grand piazza.<br /><br />He’d sit there reading out the headlines from the huge multi coloured sports papers and immediately deliver the English translation with brilliantly dry timing and expressions. “‘Bergkamp: Inter – Basta’ Bergkamp, Inter <pause>Enough!” before going onto explain the story. This was interesting enough for many enthusiasts such as ourselves but what I personally remember and relish were the more obscure stories such as Genoa’s Czech striker Tomas Skuhravy writing off his car in the early hours while returning home from a brothel (I've done extensive internet research since starting this piece and cant find any records of it but swear it did happen....possibly) which he clearly enjoyed telling himself.<br /><br />There were more serious moments where Richardson would adopt the appropriate tone describing for example the killing of the Genoa fan that had lead to the abandonment of the previous weeks live game against Milan and the subsequent suspension of a weeks full sporting fixtures across Italy. While it’s not a news item anyone wants to hear, that I still remember so much about this, which was a national crisis at the time is probably down to the brilliance with which he and the programme came across to their audience.<br /><br />The following feature and a staple of any highlights programme worth its salt was the remainder of the goals from the previous week’s matches. I’m sure many of you can associate with my predicament here as having correctly anticipated that buying a Torino season-review might prove difficult in the (in my case) Tameside area I sat patiently with remote in hand, keen to capture Ruggiero Rizzitelli's brace at Brescia the previous week to add to the collection of the other season's action. I still have this skilfully edited 93/94 season review on VCR that details a respectable 11th placed campaign and politely ask that those of you wish to borrow it form an orderly queue.<br /><br />The final section of the programme tended to be an interview by Richardson, or focus on a particular player, club, referee, journalist well just about anyone with some connection to the world of calcio. I was going to provide an example of a memorable moment from one of these but having just googled the subject came across this: ‘once famously, he got Attilio Lombardo to do the lambada' that demonstrates the man's brilliance and whit far better than anything in this blog ever could.<br /><br />Unfortunately in 2002, Channel 4 pulled the plug on their Serie A coverage and since then Italian football has popped up on various channels with little if any success. A few of them have employed Richardson to front the live matches and also attempt to re-create the brilliance that was Gazzetta Football Italia but for this viewer the magic was gone. My hero was still his funny and knowledgeable self but the programmes and product didn't have the same lure the original did. There are many possible reasons for this and it was touched upon in a small piece in the current WSC.<br /><br />In the early 90's, coverage of any European League was pretty thin on the ground so it had novelty value. Not many people had Sky and even then you were limited to Eurosport's imaginatively titled 'Eurogoals' which was a pretty bland selection of match highlights/goals round-ups and whatever you came across while perusing some of the many German channels (inclination of smut fully intentional.) This was a completely different scenario to ten years later when the amount of people with Sky was much higher and the volume of domestic and continental coverage was incomparable.<br /><br />The product was also seen as the best in the world at the time. Well, the league had the best players in the world although many (wrongly IMHO) bemoaned the 'dull' football that was played but the talents of Gullit, Baggio and Batistuta were an obvious draw. Compare this to now where its pretty unanimously agreed the crown of 'best league in the world' is a straight fight between the Premier League and La Liga with Serie A on a similar level to the Bundesliga and maybe Ligue 1.<br /><br />To be honest this was never my main attraction to it as Italian football had and still has an unmistakable lure. The team names and colours, the stadiums and probably more so the fans. Always misrepresented by British press, I was absolutely fascinated by the Ultras. The huge group banners behind the goals, the end-covering tifo as the teams come out, what are they singing and why is that lad with such a huge voice always there (I hope most of you understand this attempt at a gag)? The Rome derby when Roma as the away team went 3-0 up before half time and the absolute pandemonium that we got to witness on their curva after each goal. Utterly awesome stuff that lead to a brief obsession with not only the football and fans but country for me.<br /><br />Other than on the Football Weekly Guardian podcast, we don't get to hear the voice of James Richardson any more. Apparently there was a recent campaign to get him the role of Match of the Day 2 presenter following Adrian Chiles sudden departure this month but I was glad he didn't get this gig, as I said to great mate Phil 'house' Bridgehouse, I'd hate to see a watered down Richardson that there’d undoubtedly be pressure on him to become for such a programme. There are surely enough people with some level of intellect interested in the game for someone to give him a go again though. The height of football related humour isn’t seeing a replay of Martin O’Neill running up and down a touch line for the eight-billionth time in the last ten years. There’s so much better, more interesting stuff they could feature on that would enhance our enjoyment of their coverage and getting a bald man to do a popular dance that sounds a bit like his name would be a good start.<br /><br /><strong>Watch</strong><br /><br />Live Serie A coverage and a magazine highlights show are on ESPN throughout the week<br /><br />The Football Weekly podcast with James Richardson from the Guardian can be found here: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/series/footballweekly">http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/series/footballweekly</a><br /></span>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-17534239688475644222010-04-13T20:55:00.007+01:002010-04-27T10:54:15.531+01:00The Grand National<span style="font-family:arial;">The Grand National </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Saturday 10th April</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">BBC1 13:00</span><br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-family:arial;" >Prologue</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Red Rum, Garrison Savannah, the whole family gathering in front of the telly, Grandma putting 50p e/w on, queues down the road outside the bookies. Party Politics on the eve of the 1992 General Election, the ‘National that never was’ the following year, who did you get in the sweep? 100/1 winners, the bookies will be laughing, Paul Nicholls, Jenny Pittman…and they’re off!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">‘Why is the nation so transfixed with the Grand National?’ I pondered upon deciding to blog this a week or so ago. I haven’t really got the answer to this so I hope you are content with my Paul Whitehouse-esque reminiscing of previous years races.</span><br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-family:arial;" >Programme</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In a change to the norm of a DTVSr I didn’t watch the whole four hours of coverage of the programme. As it was centred around a race that lasts around 10 minutes I couldn’t really devote all that time to it or more honestly, be bothered to. This did lead to the odd situation of walking around ASDA and making a bee-line for the their sound and vision section as I could make out a virtual run of the Aintree Course on their many TV sets. ‘Them porcine mushrooms will still be there in 5 minutes’ was the blunt decision I (correctly) made as I parked myself in front of the assembled mass of wide screen/HD teleboxes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The programme had began with a textbook slightly arty BBC opening sequence that had the horses racing through various streets, city</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">centres and past landmarks that then merged into the course. Claire Balding introduced the programme and we were quickly shown a montage of clips featuring Champion Jockey Tony McCoy who was yet to win a National as well as the winning rider from last years race, Liam Tredwell who won on 100/1 outsider Mon Mome.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The build up was largely made up of plenty of interviews and features on Jockeys, Trainers and Owners taking part in the race and those who’d had involvement in the past. As I say, I’m not hugely knowledgeable about the old Racing game but its hard not to be impressed by the time, effort and emotion invested by people that came across in some of these clips. Other than those involved in the business the other main interviewees seemed to be celebrities and the stand out for me was Peter Kay who we then found out would be presenting the trophy. I’m ashamed to say that it’s only as I’m typing this now that I’ve realised it’s due to Kay’s association with the race sponsors John Smith’s that presented us with this mildly ludicrous scenario.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The other races from the meeting were also covered but the only one I got to see was the 2.50 which produced high drama that would have an effect on the main attraction. Ruby Walsh who was due to be on the ante-post favourite Big Fella Thanks suffered a bad fall while riding Celestial Halo that resulted in a broken arm. Again, even to the less knowledgeable racing observer this was obviously a huge bit of news (especially as I know who he is) as every couple of minutes updates on the state of Walsh’s injury were given. Paddy Brennan, the winning jockey of this race in the immediate post-race interview (which takes place as the rider is still on the horse) asked ‘is Ruby ok’ as we were informed that ‘all jockeys know when someone’s had a bad fall, and that was a bad fall.’</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">John Parrott and Gary Wiltshire who were out amongst the bookies talked of how this could effect the betting but both seemed more concerned that Walsh would miss the race and Wiltshire, who was otherwise my hero of the coverage perhaps exaggerated when he commented ‘it’s a tragedy Ruby wont race in the National.’ I’ve seen Wiltshire on gambling related programmes before and enjoy his big loud cockney enthusiasm when announcing for example: 'the ‘panntarrs(punters) are snapping it appp(up) at dabble(double) carrrrrpitt(carpet.)’ </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Just before the race we got the full list of runners and riders to a funky electro-dance backdrop that didn’t feel quite right as the veteran commentator Jim McGrath announced them. We were also treated to a section I was equally amused by before this year’s Gold Cup as one of the reporters ‘on the ground’ asks a row of punters who they’ve backed. This inevitably results in a row of people with different levels of on-screen confidence: </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Reporter: ‘So Madam who do you think will win today?’</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Smirking Lady: ‘….Tricky Trickster’</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Smirking Ladies Husband: ‘Big Fella Thanks’</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Nervous Looking Lady: ‘Clou…Cloudy Lane’</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Giggling possibly Drunk Lady: ‘Beat the Boys whoooooo’</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Shyer friend of Giggling possibly Drunk Lady: ‘yeah Beat the Boys’</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">‘Likely looking’ Lad with arm around his mate: ‘Don’t Push it…Come on AP lad bring it home’ </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Young boy: Mon Mone</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Reporter: As you can see everyone’s backed what they hope will be the winner.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Collective Crowd: ‘Whayyy’</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I’m not entirely sure what the journalistic merit is in this but this now appears to be the norm across the sporting spectrum.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Parrott and Wiltshire were whipping themselves up into a right frenzy as they reported many of the prices on the horses being slashed. Wiltshire then waved a betting slip around for 'five bags of sand' that one punter had placed on Bring it Home and that had contributed to bringing it in to 10-1 Joint favourite.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">As they lined up to begin the two most noteworthy sights was the volume of unsightly white sweat coming from now joint favourite Bring it Home and that one of the other riders was unseated from his Nag and struggling to get on as a seemingly difficult attempt to start the race was in progress. The race began at a second attempt but King Johns Castle didn’t and both the clearly uncomfortable horse and the frustrated, albeit now seated jockey looked forlorn figure’s as the rest of the field galloped off into the distance.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Conna Castle made the early running and lead until fence 21 of 30. There was the usual large volume of falls but very few of them seemed to be of the stomach-churning variety you often see in this race and fortunately none of the horses had to be put down as a result of injuries caused over this most celebrated 4 miles and 4 furlongs. On approaching Beecher’s Brook, Black Apalachi was now leading a group of 5 who were a considerable distance ahead of the rest of the field with Don't Push It on his tail. Having cleared the last it was now between these two but Don't Push It appeared to have a lot more left in the engine and ended up winning reasonably comfortably by five lengths. </span><br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-family:arial;" >Result:</span><br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-family:arial;" >1.Don't Push It (Tony McCoy) 10-1jf</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-family:arial;" >2.Black Apalachi (Denis O'Regan) 14-1</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-family:arial;" >3.State of Play (Paul Moloney) 16-1</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-family:arial;" >4.Big Fella Thanks (Barry Geraghty) 10-1jf</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">As well as the weigh in, various interviews and trophy presentation we were told the bookies had took a hammering as not only had a favourite won, but they'd took plenty of bets on the other 3 placed horses as well. My newly crowned 'voice of the people' Gary Wiltshire gleefully waved the £5000 stake winning betting slip and expressed delighted that it had been a day for the punters.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I approached this particular entry with a passing but no great enthusiasm for Racing, however as with Cheltenham earlier in the year was genuinely impressed at quality of the event. Its the people who are the best at what they do, doing on the biggest stage and that deserves the respect and coverage it attracts. As for the horses, as I once said to great mate Steve 'Steveo' Garner: 'they look like a good set of lads' as well. </span><br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-family:arial;" >Watch</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">2011 Grand National</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Saturday 11th April 2011</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">BBC1</span>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-90338844991749680022010-03-11T12:45:00.010+00:002010-03-12T08:38:59.424+00:00Late Kick Off<span style="font-family:arial;">Late Kick Off
<br />Monday 8th March
<br />BBC1 (North West) 23:25
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<br /><strong>Prologue
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<br />One of the earliest football ‘magazine’ shows I can remember was Kick Off, hosted by Elton Welsby (or ‘Everton Wellbiased’ as an 11 year old future DTVSr scribbler found it hilarious to call him) on Granada (that’s ITV in the North West of England if there’s possibly anyone reading this who doesn’t know that or isn’t from there.) Broadcast early on a Friday evening you’d see goals from the previous week, a preview of the weekend games and features from North-West clubs from any of the 4 divisions. This would typically involve Clive Tyldesley interviewing Joe Royle about how much of a role the plastic pitch at Boundary Park is playing in Oldham’s promotion push or Rob McCafrey taking part in a penalty shoot-out after a Tranmere training session.
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<br />In the days when the only regular football coverage was Saint’n’Greavsie and a televised live 1st Division (that’s what you kids call the Premier League erm kids) match every fortnight or so I remember being excited when the programme hit our screens and rightfully so as it was un-missable for the young TV sports enthusiast. I can’t say I envisaged this current programme of a similar format would prove so captivating for a 30 year and present DTVSr scribbler, but this Monday I gave it a go to find out.
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<br /><strong>Programme</strong>
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<br />Face of BBC North West Sport and former editor in chief of the Daily Sport, Tony Livesey welcomed us in ‘an unprecedented week for North West football, to a special addition of Late Kick Off.’ Livesey was of course referring to the tragic death of Macclesfield Town manager Keith Alexander last week that has understandably had a huge effect on lower league football in the region.
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<br />We went immediately to Macc’s match at Hereford and saw the players coming out of the tunnel and the team with t-shirts baring a picture of their former manager. The brief match action showed Macc get an impressive 2-0 win and afterwards the players saluted the travelling fans who sang about Alexander. We then saw an interview with Chairman Andy Scott who understandably told that he was ‘glad to get the game out of the way now.’ Another interview followed with current player Matt Butler and then Alexander’s ‘friend and assistant’ Gary Simpson. Simpson wore the ‘trademark orange socks’ as his friend superstitiously had for every game and talked emotionally about how pleased he was ’that we managed to get a result for him today.’
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<br />Back in the studio Livesey asked guest and former Lincoln (one of Alexander’s former clubs) and Macc player Simon Yeo how Alexander would react to all the tributes being directed towards him. Yeo said that he would be baffled (my words not his) by all the ‘fuss’ (his) surrounding it.
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<br />On such a sad story to begin the programme Yeo did brighten it up in DTVSr’s eyes by regurgitating two of the most none-anecdotal anecdotes imaginable about his former manager. One centred around Alexander nipping off for a cup of tea and some biscuits as he was prone to. He would wind Yeo up by saying they were bourbon biscuits because Yeo loved bourbon biscuits but get this, they weren’t, they were ‘probably custard creams.’ The second was that he let them<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWBBDL7YBG2REsM2Cjt42ns6X-_Gx-NLM11ei6_-Ny0jPbCx255M-p7oGzT1EZhgpKJSx7wL7-WQmfSoF8kNaHqI7zSue56JgoDcYURV-dVXYLHnbPPufSZnXFEiiLbYTLA1nON4JzmDk/s1600-h/custard+creams.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447389662555191650" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 292px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 292px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWBBDL7YBG2REsM2Cjt42ns6X-_Gx-NLM11ei6_-Ny0jPbCx255M-p7oGzT1EZhgpKJSx7wL7-WQmfSoF8kNaHqI7zSue56JgoDcYURV-dVXYLHnbPPufSZnXFEiiLbYTLA1nON4JzmDk/s320/custard+creams.bmp" border="0" /></a> train in treacherous conditions at Lincoln once and chose to sat in his car and watch rather than join them. I understand its wrong to speak ill of the dead and I’m not, I’m speaking ill of Simon Yeo’s anecdote recital skills that I don’t imagine were befitting of the man.
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<br />The next feature was Bury’s centre forward Ryan Lowe reporting on his own teams’ game against Dagenham and Redbridge. As Lowe has scored 14 goals thus far this season he’s clearly quite good at being a centre forward. This is fortunate as based entirely on this, I don’t think he’ll make it as a TV reporter. Despite having a strong scouse accent Lowe spoke with very little tone or enthusiasm. When describing a missed chance, his timing was comical in a kind of primary school assembly type way: ‘a lighter first touch from me………would’ve improved my chance……….of an early goal.’ Unfortunately for Lowe he was denied a perfectly good goal not long after that as the linesman unexplainably flagged when he was clearly two yards on-side and unfortunately for us we had to listen to his account of it. The game finished 0-0 and Lowe then interviewed his manager Alan Knott, and the BBC Radio Manchester reporter for Bury, Bill Rice where oddly enough Lowe spoke more comfortably than at any other point during the report.
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<br />We saw a round up of the other League 2 games from the regions teams and when asked, the other studio guest, Blackpool’s Keith Southern said that he thought Accrington and Morecambe both still had a chance of getting in the play-offs. It seemed to me that Livesey had asked him this just to include him in the programme and I wondered if Southern actually had an opinion on this subject. ‘Not given it any thought and don’t really intend on doing so thanks Tony’ would I imagine have been a more fitting response.
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<br />League 1 goals then followed and a great irrelevant cliché opportunity didn’t go unmissed by Southern who upon seeing Tranmere’s debateable winning penalty said that he’d ‘take it at this stage of the season.’ Not to be outdone in the pointlessness stakes Yeo, when questioned whether Oldham’s draw at Exeter was a point gained or two dropped enthusiastically answered ‘oh a point gained, I’ve been down to Exeter loads of times and we’ve not come away with anything.’ So there you have it, the relative difficulty of all games will now be judged on how Simon Yeo has gone on when he’s played at that ground.
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<br />It was now time for ‘focus on,’ a section of the programme where one of the regions footballers is asked a series of short snappy questions and in turn provides short snappy answers. This week, Jim Bentley of Morecambe was the subject and the one answer I can remember him giving was that his favourite player as a child was ‘probably Kevin Ratcliffe or Graeme Sharp’. ‘My favourite part of the programme that’ Livesey then lied. I will happily stand up in court and argue that this man who provided a grateful nation with a near endless stream of hot naked chicks in a daily newspaper gets a suitable degree of enjoyment out of seeing a footballer telling us his main dislike is ‘smoking…people who smoke.’
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<br />If nothing else the following Championship goals review reminded me that Jason Euell now plays for Blackpool (he scored their winner against Ipswich) and when asked about his teams play-off chances Southern again played with a straight bat in saying they’ve been ‘written off all season and just see the aim as getting the 51 points and then we’ll go from there.’ After a quick look at this weeks fixtures Livesey told us ‘we end the programme where we began’ and a relatively lengthy interview with Bury’s Ben Futcher (who’d also played under Keith Alexander) followed. Again it was understandably an emotive issue for Futcher and he looked as if he was struggling to hold it together but as with those he’d followed he managed to do it.
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<br />Maybe an odd week to judge late kick-off as the programme was overshadowed by last week’s tragedy but with its unsociable scheduling and pretty limited content (the more interesting bits (goals) can easily be found elsewhere) I can’t really see it lasting and unlike the late 80’s/early 90’s Kick Off, I doubt it will be missed.</span></span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"><strong>Watch</strong></span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Kick Off</span>
<br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Monday Nights </span>
<br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">BBC1 23.25</span>
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<br />Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-44658440501440017882010-02-23T16:38:00.009+00:002010-02-26T08:49:01.355+00:00Liverpool v Unirea Urziceni<span style="font-family:arial;">Liverpool v Unirea Urziceni<br />Thursday 18th February<br />Five 19:30<br /><br /><strong>Prologue<br /></strong><br />If Dave’s could take a rare moment to get serious readers, he’d like to tell you that he picked this game as it highlights his biggest bugbear with the modern game. The UEFA Cup (and FA and League Cup’s) was once seen as a hugely important competition that could define whether a club ‘at the top table’ had enjoyed a successful season or not. Now it’s seen as hindrance to the bigger priority of getting into a qualifying stage for another competition. Everyone knows the reason for this is the much sort after ‘Champions League Revenue’ that comes with qualification for the group stages but one of the many things that disappoints is that lots of fans as well as directors of clubs seem to give this priority over their team winning a pot.<br /><br />Maybe it’s me here at Dave’s. Maybe I’m living with nostalgic and romantic ideas that are no longer relevant. Maybe I’m putting short term glory ahead of perceived long-term stability (such as that enjoyed after Champions League appearances at Elland Road and sportsdirect.com@St.James’Park.) And maybe kids don’t now grow up dreaming of scoring the winning goal in the cup final, instead its the goal that means their team finishes 4th and in turn, they get a mention in the boardroom when the club announces a record turnover at the yearly accounts.<br /><br /><strong>Programme</strong><br /><br />The face of Five’s Europa League coverage and Liverpool fan Colin Murray told us that a ‘sold-out Anfield expects tonight’ (which I suspected was an early porky from the chirpy Ulsterman (the ‘sold-out’ rather than ‘expects’ bit obviously)) and immediately we saw Rafa Benitez and his Liverpool team arrive at the stadium amidst the news he was fielding a strong team for the game. We were then treated to a montage of clips highlighting Liverpool’s poor season so far with snippets of radio commentary focussing on defeats and exit from the Champions League. Just as the full depressing reality of a team being 4th in the Premier League and still in European competition in mid-February was hitting home we were thankfully uplifted as the camera slowly walked under the iconic ‘THIS IS ANFIELD’ tunnel entrance, the music picked up and we got to hear radio clips of more successful moments from the season so far. Phew!<br /><br />Unlikely popular pundit Stan Collymore was in the studio with Murray, while at <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw-k8wdeEdUaODoObaAdQrDoHeVl6wtav6qnhW5_RnKd4Gk2XVv_JTnMzDeK-WIxdlJu2HPVgf3sJvEMaiCwGJBOjHYUH4wOlyaOMPq0_1aDK4LjZz_Nh372SXRTA3HWNvra6HhX7nzOo/s1600-h/Nevin.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441481030338316994" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 278px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw-k8wdeEdUaODoObaAdQrDoHeVl6wtav6qnhW5_RnKd4Gk2XVv_JTnMzDeK-WIxdlJu2HPVgf3sJvEMaiCwGJBOjHYUH4wOlyaOMPq0_1aDK4LjZz_Nh372SXRTA3HWNvra6HhX7nzOo/s320/Nevin.jpg" border="0" /></a>pitch side we had the thinking-mans pundit (pun semi-intentional) and softly spoken Scot, Pat Nevin. Nevin then let me down after that favourable introduction by rolling out one of the traditional Liverpool in Europe sound bites that ‘these fans love European Nights.’ A graphic appeared showing us the current odds for this year’s tournament and unsurprisingly Liverpool were sillily underpriced favourites at 13/2. Nevin opined that current holders Shakhtar Donetsk were the value at 14/1 whereas if DTVSr was asked to delve into its substantial gambling knowledge he would advise you to take a chance on ’The Peoples Club’ from across Stanley Park at 20/1.<br /><br />As the build up continued we were given snippets of info on Unirea which included that the town of Urziceni could fit into Anfield twice over and there’d still be 10,000 empty seats, the club ‘fell out of’ the Champions League group stages despite beating Rangers and Sevilla and that former Sheffield Wednesday and Chelsea player Dan Petrescu was their previous manager. All the kind of stuff DTVSr (mostly knows but still) likes to be told to be fair. Benitez was then interviewed and I don’t think anybody could’ve faulted the basic logic in stating that he’s ‘playing a strong team as they want to win.’<br /><br />Straight from another advert (we were now onto number 4 with the programme 25 minutes old) we saw shots of the crowd and Murray enthusiastically told us that a familiar song could be heard and true to his word a surprisingly full Anfield was scarves aloft singing You’ll Never Walk Alone. Is anything more comforting of a European night at Anfield than commentators going over the top about this spectacle that more often than not is followed by average at best support for 90 minutes? So we could all reflect on just how magical this is, Five thoughtfully went to another add break and on coming back Murray informed us that ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone had just gone on for ‘3 or 4 full choruses…It’s a European night all right!’ You said it Muzzer!<br /><br />Liverpool started the game well and after just 35 seconds Steven Gerrard had quite a decent chance and his volley was saved by the Unirea keeper Giedrius Arlauskis. It would not be unfair to say this was the highlight of the play for the 1st 45 minutes as despite controlling possession, Liverpool created very little in the way of chances. The stand out aspect for DTVSr was the prominence of one of the referee’s assistants. For those of you unaware, UEFA are trialling the introduction of 2 additional referee’s assistants behind each goal during this years Europa League games meaning there are 5 ‘officials’ on or around the pitch during the match. Despite having watched a good handful of matches in the competition already this season I hadn’t noticed that they walk onto the field during play so seeing this assistant 10 yards into the pitch at the Kop end looked bizarre to say the least. Wearing navy blue trackies to accompany his bright blue ref’s shirt one would be forgiven for thinking we were witnessing sporadic but laboured one-man pitch invasions from a Danish league keeper.<br /><br />With a trackie bottomed official walking on and off the pitch being the most noteworthy moment of the opening half hour, commentator Dave Webb remarked that ‘it’s a quiet night at Anfield isn’t it.’ Surely this broke the journalistic code of conduct that can only describe European nights (why are they never referred to as ‘European Games?’) at Anfield as ‘passionate’, ‘electric’ and ‘typical.’ As the whistle went to signal the end of the first half Webb continued to write his own death warrant by telling us ‘the lack of noise around Anfield tells its own story.’ Shame on you Dave Webb, Clive Tyldesley would be turning in his grave (were he dead.)<br /><br />Murray welcomed us back to the studio after the adverts by telling us he’s ‘not a big fan of stats on a night like this so here’s the one maters, Liverpool 0 Unirea Urziceni 0.’ We went to Nevin who was now in one of them control room type analysis vans (popularised by Channel 4’s Test Match coverage a few years back) and he showed us clips and graphics to indicate the shape of Unirea’s defence. After a few words from Nevin and Collymore regarding Liverpool’s poor attacking play, Murray made a gag at the expense of their pronunciation of Liverpool centre forward David Ngog. “I’m a big fan of David ‘N-go’, its David Ngog I’m not so keen on.’ This made a change from him telling us how big a game this could turn out to be in ‘Leverpurl’s’ season.<br /><br />No changes to either side as the second half began but the Leverpurl fans got behind their team with a chorus of ‘oh when the reds go marching in’ At this point I should state how surprised and impressed I was that Anfield had sold out for this. Those of you who keep up with my tweets will know that I put this down to reduced ticket prices and offered to ‘eat my hat’ if this wasn’t the case. Well I can say that having done a little research on the topic, tickets were their usual price and that last night, true to my word, I ate my ‘hat’ (in the form of tasty ham and salami pizza.) I would like to add to my unlikely praise of the Liverpool fans by saying that I don’t think any other club in Europe would have done so for this game (yes, I am more than aware that there are stadiums twice the size of Anfield amongst some of the clubs of Europe.) However I would like to finish on this attendances note by adding that should Liverpool play in the Europa League again next season, expect to see a few thousand empty seats at number of games and if I’m wrong, well I’ll eat my hat again.<br /><br />After an unprecedented second commentary mention of the night for Northwich Victoria (Unirea played them in a friendly on Monday) we saw Anfield legends Kenny Dalglish and Phil Thomson sat together. ‘Nine hundred and ninety two Liverpool appearances between them’ Webb very matter of factly pointed out, which I’m guessing he didn’t just remember of the top of his head. Thankfully the game livened up around the hour mark as Unirea had a half chance with a shot from the edge of the box, shortly followed by a decent long range effort from Liverpool full back Fabio Aurelio. Ryan Babel then replaced the ineffective Albert Riera and Gerrard had a very half-hearted penalty appeal turned down which on replay didn’t even seem worthy of that adjective. ‘It’s like appealing for an LBW and then realising its going well down leg-side’ Webb commented.<br /><br />The urgency of the situation seemed to becoming more apparent to Liverpool now who built pressure and after a scramble in the Unirea box, Ngog’s shot was deflected wide for a corner. ‘They’re no mugs’ said Webb who chose this moment to read out Unirea’s Champions League record and co-commentator Graham Taylor added that he was ‘impressed they’ve stuck to their game plan so well.’ In another positive move Benitez brought off midfielder Alberto Aquilani for young Spanish forward Daniel Pacheco. After a pretty standard applause/cheer for this substitute Webb told us ‘If nothing else that has really lifted the mood here’ in an obvious attempt to get back on track to the guidelines given in the ‘How to commentate on European nights at Anfield’ manual.<br /><br />Just a minute after a promising looking situation for Unirea, Liverpool scored after Pacheco headed Babel’s deep cross back across goal for Ngog to nod in from close range. ‘Well that’s what we’ve been asking Liverpool to do isn’t it’ Taylor stated. This understandably perked the Kop up and ‘Fields of Anfield Road’ briefly reverberated around the stadium. Gerrard then teed himself up for a great effort from outside the box which was ‘so Steven Gerrard wasn’t it.’<br /><br />Taylor when asked what mark out of 10 Liverpool’s performance merited, said that he ‘wouldn’t give higher than a six’ which was pretty much the number I was expecting and as the game came to an end it was hard to argue with the veteran ex-England Manager. Even in the 10 minutes or so after they’d made the breakthrough and with the crowd relatively lively they hadn’t put any great strain on the opposition. Still, it’s hard to imagine them not progressing through the 2nd leg and as Gerrard said in the after match interview ‘they’ll get more joy against them next week, when they have to come at us in their home ground.’ Disappointingly Gerrard had ignorantly overlooked the fact they are playing the game in Steaua Bucharest’s, rather than their own home ground the following week but fortunately at no point of the broadcast had one member of the Five ‘team’ referred to him as ‘Stevie G.’ The use of which is my 2nd biggest issue with the modern game.<br /><br /><strong>Watch<br /></strong><br />Benfica v Hertha Berlin<br />Tuesday 23rd February<br />ESPN 17:00<br /><br />Unirea Urziceni v Liverpool & Werder Bremen v FC Twente<br />Thursday 25th February<br />ESPN 17:00<br /><br />Shakhtar Donetsk v Fulham & Juventus v Ajax<br />Thursday 25th February<br />ITV4 17:30<br /><br />Sporting Lisbon v Everton<br />Thursday 25th February<br />Five 19:30<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"></span>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-5528334882633465382010-02-16T15:04:00.008+00:002010-07-20T09:48:10.548+01:00Italy V England<span style="font-family:arial;">Italy v England<br />Sunday 14th February<br />BBC1 14:00<br /><br /><strong>Prologue</strong><br /><br />Welcome to the first non-soccerball based blog of Dave’s TV Sports Review folks. As this is such a momentous (the more cynical readers might say me actually publishing a new blog is momentous these days) occasion I’ve decided I’d like to share with you my hopes and aims for this piece of work. First and foremost I’m hoping you enjoy it, secondly I hope my inherent lack of knowledge on the oval balled game doesn’t jump out of the screen at you and thirdly I hope the constant interruptions to my viewing by checking the scores of FA Cup 5th round games that were taking place at the same time didn’t mean I missed any vital action.<br /><br /><strong>Programme</strong><br /><br />The programme predictably began with a montage of clips showing people in England and Italy Rugby clobber in various touristy spots around Rome relating to the fact that it was Valentines Day in the Eternal City (and everywhere else I hasten to add.) Presenter John Inverdale was then stood on the Stadio Flaminio pitch with regular 6 Nations summarisers Jeremy Guscott and Jonathan Davies who enthused about the previous days incredible Wales v Scotland game and France’s impressive win against Ireland.<br /><br />We were then shown a section dedicated to Lawrence Dallaglio’s cycling challenge for sports relief which is taking him to each of the 6-nations stadiums (three of which I’ve been past but not in fact fans) and a review of England’s win against Wales the previous week. Back on the pitch, Inverdale told us he’d been watching Jonny Wilkinson practicing his kicking for half an hour, which was ‘totally metronomic.’<br /><br />The build up continued with an interview with Italy coach Nick Mallett who largely took the opportunity to defend his teams’ widely criticised negative tactics against Ireland last week. The interview was cut short in bizarre fashion as the director decided that we’d seen enough of Mallett’s musings and that a shot of an Italian girl in the crowd holding up a sign with the legend “WILKO WILL YOU MARRY ME’ adorned across it was more important. Being a sucker for a bit of romance I hoped Jonny would accept this proposal but the beeb chose to ignore this potentially life-changing moment for England’s most recognisable player but instead concentrated on the impending but now largely irrelevant game of rugby.<br /><br />Pitchside reporter Sonia McLaughlin Spoke to Kiwi legend Justin Marshall who commented on the amount of England fans who’d made the trip and suggested many of them would’ve used the ‘I’ll take you to Rome for valentines weekend love’ followed by ‘you’ll never guess but England are playing Italy that weekend’ tactic. I was surprised this ‘theory’ had took the best part of 20 minutes to come up but personally think the likelihood many used it is slim at best. If you’re into following international Rugby its pretty likely the other half is aware when the 6 nations is on and will soon put two and two together. Bit of advice for you readers but if you are going to attempt to pull such a stunt be a bit savvier and choose something like a Segunda Division game (and put the words ‘hastily rearranged’ before it) rather than something that’s likely to be advertised before Eastenders. Some of you will thank me for this in the future.<br /><br />We get to see the players come out through the tunnel and line up for the national anthems. The England players as always put a lot more passion into their singing of God Save the Queen than their footballing counterparts and watching the Italians belt out Fratelli D’Italia is as entertaining as ever with the emotion getting too much for Mirco Bergamasco who couldn’t halt the waterworks.<br /><br />England kicked off and immediately won posession back and attacked with the ball being tossed about the backs and Delon Armitage was very close to scoring after chasing his own chip that was scrambled away by the Italians. A great response followed by the Italians who regained their composure after the early scare and created some pressure of their own in England’s 22 with commentator Nick Mullins and summariser Brian Moore enthusing that they were re-cycling the ball far quicker than they had in the previous week’s game in Dublin. After 5 minutes we’d seen both teams looking to ‘play rugby’ which unfortunately raised expectations that this was to be an entertaining game to compliment the two the tournament had produced the day earlier.<br /><br />The game ‘settled down’ after this which is a term that implies some form of benefit but in reality it just meant it became a bit of battle between both packs and England’s backs kicking the ball poorly whenever they received it in their own half. With the score at 3-3 England won a penalty just inside the Italy half and Wilkinson stepped up to inevitably put it over the posts as Commentator Mullins told us ‘he hasn’t missed one when starting a game for England since 2003.’ Well just as I’m making the note ’18 – Jonny 3-6’ (how much does that look like a bible reference btw?) the ball falls short and we’re told that ‘it’s maybe because they're using the different Mitre ball.’<br /><br />Just a couple of minutes later England win another penalty just outside the 22 and slightly to the side of the posts. ‘Jonny doesn’t tend to miss 2 in a row’ announces Mullins and then quite remarkably Wilkinson puts the seemingly easy kick wide. “I blame you” Moore tells Mullins. At this point DTVSr has to hold its hands up as for the second time in a few minutes I had presumptuously recorded that England had taken a 3-6 lead before the kick had been taken which as everyone knows definitely puts the ‘kiss of death’ on world class sportsmen.<br /><br />Not to be outdone, teary national anthem singer Bergamasco then missed his 2nd penalty attempt for the Azzuri. ‘He slaps it like a set of bagpipes doesn’t he’ Mullins tells us of his unique kicking style which never having witnessed a set of bagpipes ‘slapped’ I’ll have to take his word for. For the next ten minutes or so, my most stand out moment was one of the Italian players getting injured as it highlighted to us that the Italian word for ‘physio’ is ‘fisio’ which is one for all you ‘language fans’ (© great mate, Richard Salguero) out there. Bergamasco made no mistake with his next effort and with the half coming to a close Italy were leading their more fancied visitors when Riki Flutey made a break from midway inside his own half leading to a penalty and ‘with a huge sigh of relief, Wilkinson puts England level at the break.’<br /><br />Half time was mainly took up by the perennially grumpy Guscott and traditionally more-chirpy Davies agreeing that England’s kicking game isn’t getting them anywhere and they need to utilise the pace and skill of their backs a lot more. We were then told the fantastically entertaining news that Wales Flanker Andy Powell was arrested for drink driving a golf-buggy down the motorway after celebrating his teams win over Scotland the previous night. As Inverdale concluded this news item he impressively suppressed a grin that was itching to make an appearance but Davies and Guscott were unable to replicate this and both broke into a schoolboy-esque giggle.<br /><br />The second half kicked off and for the first couple of minutes the England players carried on where they’d left off and continued to accurately kick the ball directly into the arms of Italy full back Luke McLean. Moore then enthusiastically linked Italian fly-half Craig Gower to buggy-gate and Mullins added that he was nearly the 1st international ever to be denied a spot due to the coach reading his Wikipedia entry and if we didn’t know what he was talking about we should check it out. I for one am grateful Mullins brought this to our attention as I can now report that one of Gower’s misdemeanours was at a charity golf event back in Australia where he ‘argued with several guests, groped the teenage daughter of former league player Wayne Pearce, chased Pearce’s son with a bottle before vomiting on him, streaked around the resort, wrecked a golf cart, held a butter knife to the throat of a Sydney radio personality and threw the knife at guests before being kicked out of the resort by security.’ In fairness we’ve all been there haven’t we lads?<br /><br />Back to the game and a moment our half-time summarisers had been crying out for as a break from Ugo Monye from inside his own half and a couple of passes later Matthew Tait is touching down for the games first and ultimately only try. Again Wilkinson misses a seemingly easy conversion and again Moore has a pop at his commentary partner for ‘putting the mockers on him.’ 6-11. Another break from Monye leads to another penalty and with 3 more points and the sin binning of Mauro Castrogiovanni, England looked to be setting up to kill the game off easily.<br /><br />Mullins then pointed out that sin binnings have had a massive effect on earlier games in the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghb1EeccgJDZ5etq5_CNmU2XguWdEjRnk7CUPtB83N25b4NRzwawUKCY3pJUQFD68lyI4ez0xeryvlyB30hVHm7JXK0RULo2pZRo9KjwF28By8SLukLi89JOrxEBDAP_44zOtFZH06yY0/s1600-h/Italy+fans.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438858807736076226" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghb1EeccgJDZ5etq5_CNmU2XguWdEjRnk7CUPtB83N25b4NRzwawUKCY3pJUQFD68lyI4ez0xeryvlyB30hVHm7JXK0RULo2pZRo9KjwF28By8SLukLi89JOrxEBDAP_44zOtFZH06yY0/s320/Italy+fans.jpg" border="0" /></a>tournament with teams decisively taking advantage with the extra man and as if to further prove the ‘kiss of death’ nonsense correct, Italy took control of the following period and by the time their man returns to the field have clawed the score back to 9-14 and England are firmly on the back foot. The crowd sensing an upset are now getting behind their team with the familiar chant of ‘EE-TAL-YA, EE-TAL-YA.’<br /><br />With nine minutes to go Bergamasco put another pen over to make the score 12-14 and with a full 15 players back on the field Italy are in sight of what would be their most famous victory in the competition and Brian Moore’s ‘never heard the crowd here so loud.’ Just when it looked like the upset was possible though England produce their best phase of play for a good 20 minutes and Wilkinson executes a relatively simple but nonetheless vital drop goal to give England the winning scoreline of 12-17.<br /><br />In the couple of minutes after the final whistle McLaughlin interviewed an out of breath England Captain Steve Borthwick who was stubbornly defiant about his teams underwhelming performance. This did the relatively simple task of aggrieving Guscott who then described Borthwick as ‘brainwashed. His heads played a game his body hasn’t produced.’ Inverdale then seemingly hesitantly brought up the subject of Wilkinson’s poor performance, for whom ‘its hard to be objective about as he’s such a national treasure.’ Hard to be objective about a national treasure John? Nonsense! I’m objective about them all. The Queen Mum(God rest Her Soul), David ‘Del Boy’ Jason, HP Sauce…they’re all blinking marvellous!<br /><br /><strong>Watch</strong><br /><br />Wales v France<br />Friday 26th February<br />BBC1 19:50<br /><br />Italy v Scotland and England v Ireland<br />Saturday 27th of February<br />BBC1 13:00</span>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-47781392198097761732010-02-05T16:09:00.006+00:002010-02-08T13:52:19.078+00:00Afternoon Report - Transfer Deadline Day<span style="font-family:arial;">Afternoon Report<br />Monday 1st February<br />Sky Sports News 16:00<br /><br /><strong>Prologue</strong><br /><br />Now you may find this hard to believe but I watch Sky Sports News quite a lot. With only council telly (freeview) its my default channel if there’s nothing on or more than likely, something’s happened in the sporting world that I want to see the action and of course, reaction from. I know its faults. I know they provide umpteen stories a week that in no way constitute a story, I know it gives over-proportionate coverage to certain teams and players, and I know they choose many of the female presenters for nothing more than their aesthetic quality (phwoarrr eh lads…sorry, got carried away then. Sincere apologies to my legions of female readers.) With this tendency to broadcast hours of absolutely nothing, no event in the sporting calendar is more suited to SSN than the transfer window but despite this description I and I’m sure many of you find it compelling viewing.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><strong>Programme</strong><br /><br />Mainstay presenters Jim White (the Scottish one who looks exactly how you’d expect a ‘Jim White’ to look…unless you were thinking of the snookerer Jimmy White, then in that case he doesn’t) and Simon Thomas (young, catalogue-boy, Jamie Redknapp type) welcomed us to this decisive hour of the January transfer window. The graphic that has appeared on this channel throughout the month of January popped us to tell us there was “0 Hours 59 Minutes and 42 Seconds” left of the transfer window now and Thomas confirmed “clubs up and down the land have less than one hour to get their business done.” Then we were transported to various reporters introducing themselves with a Eurovision-esque feel about it except they looked to be very cold outside training grounds of various Premiership clubs rather than sat above the beautifully lit up skylines of Helsinki, Brussels or Minsk.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY117liGnC4H1zOvfsZl5msoEq-uG0Vn8BuRV_EAOJpHbL26780WQHMVWmKxyvqKa6fNeUrlvCWzZGWLHYtDURaxfAbDLTJHUnL0FLeikH904RMwRbs_YUSeDrAuqa-Kxqz6UDJfRNELU/s1600-h/Deadline+day.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434792586713696050" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 176px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY117liGnC4H1zOvfsZl5msoEq-uG0Vn8BuRV_EAOJpHbL26780WQHMVWmKxyvqKa6fNeUrlvCWzZGWLHYtDURaxfAbDLTJHUnL0FLeikH904RMwRbs_YUSeDrAuqa-Kxqz6UDJfRNELU/s320/Deadline+day.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />White then enthusiastically took over and wanted to ‘get straight on with the transfer news and James Cooper outside Manchester City’s training ground.’ Cooper told of a ‘day of mixed fortunes’ as City were denied a work permit in very odd circumstances for fantastically named Kenyan McDonald Maninga but expected to complete the signing of run-of-the-mill named Middlesbrough winger Adam Johnson. Cooper then kept us ‘up to speed’ with any movement from the other North West clubs and I realised that each reporter across the country would do this as well as the one whose training ground they were outside.<br /><br />White, equally as enthusiastically then introduced David Craig from Sunderland’s training ground. Craig told us that Sunderland had signed Alan Hutton on loan and let Nyron Nosworty go to Sheffield United, also on loan. I have to confess at this point I was already quite bored by SSN’s coverage of deadline day and not even the news that Newcastle had signed Coventry’s Leon Best for an undisclosed fee could re-ignite my interest. The hype and excitement was becoming too much and I just wanted ‘facts.’ What’s happened, what hasn’t happened (a very big chunk of deadline day ‘news’) and what is likely to happen. You know facts! Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of hype and you don’t need me to tell you Sky Sports’ brand of hype is the best in the business but I found the World Cup Finalesque build up to seeing a middle-aged man with a microphone stood in the cold outside a training ground a bit tiresome.<br /><br />Much of the same was repeated for the remainder of Afternoon Report with different reporters looking largely bored outside different training grounds and not a great deal of breaking news to report. We got to see an interview with agent and ex City player Barry Silkman outside Upton Park. He tells us that while ‘today is very exciting for fans and press its very frustrating for players and agents who have to work within these deadlines.’ I was going to comment on the buckets of sympathy I hold for players, him and his colleagues suffering this plight of deadlines but instead decided that I should tell you I think Russell Brand would do a great impression of his high cockney tones if he hasn’t already given it a shot.<br /><br />One of my favourite aspects of Sky Sports News is the 3 different sections of information on the screen that you can choose to pay attention to if the main news ‘story’ at that time isn’t capturing your imagination. I bring this up as around this time, the ticker (yellow bar, dead bottom of the screen) caught my attention with news that Hull’s Peter Halmosi had moved to Szombathelyi Haladas on loan until the end of the season. Now not much excites me more than a foreign football team whom I’ve never heard of before and after 1 extensive minute of googling I can confirm ‘Hali’ play in green and white in the Hungarian first division and last season was their best ever, finishing 3rd. I’m sure you’re as intrigued as I am as to whether this shrewd acquisition will be the final piece in the jigsaw to capture that first illusive Hungarian League Title.<br /><br />Next we were told the English transfer window closes at 5:00 pm. We knew that, that was why I was watching with a view to blogging it. But..ahh, a graphic pops up that shows us the different times the transfer window closes in selected countries finishing with midnight in Scotland. ‘Its always good at midnight in Scotland’ White tells us’….its always good anytime’ he finishes. ‘Hahahaha’ adds Thomas. Adverts.<br /><br />After the break we go to Pete Calley outside Birmingham’s training ground who gives us a round-up of in and out-going transfer news for the west midlands club that I cant be bothered repeating here. We go back to the studio and Taylor now tells us about some players ‘who definitely wont be coming to the premiership.’ Fortunately he stopped after Klaas Jan Huntellar and Mattieu Flamini as I expected this could’ve turned into quite a long feature.<br /><br />Amazingly with such a host of nothing to report SSN diverted its attention away from deadline day action to give us some other sports stories from the day. Being news this caught my attention and I found out Peterborough had sacked their second manager in a few months and that Nigel Clough (allegedly) kicked Billy Davies in the ‘fracas that marred’ the end of the weekends East-Midlands derby.<br /><br />The highlight of the remainder of the hour was Gary Cotterill’s bitchy ‘If Mido can show the kind of form and keep to the kind of waistline he was showing today’ while stood outside Upton Park and then we got to see Big Ben at 5:00 pm to signal the end of the transfer window. The introduction of the transfer windows and creation of SSN must’ve done wonders for Big Bens profile as they’ve allowed him to treble his live TV appearances each year. We were now past 5:00 pm and technically the blog should end here as this is firmly ‘Evening Report’ territory. However I think I should tell you much the same happened in this hour expect for the confirmation of Adam Johnson’s transfer to City and news broke of Robbie Keane’s impending loan move to ‘boyhood heroes’ Celtic, much to the bafflement of great mate and father Big Dave.<br /><br />At 5:17 we had the breaking and non-transfer ‘news’ that England Manager Fabio Capello would take the decision over whether John Terry would remain as England Captain ‘in light of allegations regarding his private life.’ This obviously required a 5 minute interview with Sky’s chief football reporter Nick Collins who ‘wasn’t surprised’ as Capello is ‘his own man.’ I’ve got a few pages of notes to account for the next 45 minutes of Evening Report but I’d just be repeating the same anecdotes you’ve just read.<br /><br />As I conclude this latest review I don’t like the picture I’ve painted of my relationship with Sky Sports News, we’re largely very happy together and I hope the feelings of love are mutual but as in all relations we have our ups and downs. This wasn’t our best day together but it is my duty to you to review TV Sports as I find them.<br /><br />Happy Viewing fellow enthusiasts. Dave<br /><br /><strong>Watch</strong> </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Afternoon Report<br />Sky Sports News<br />Weekday Afternoons at 3pm. </span>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-84924618190042316292010-01-27T12:14:00.012+00:002010-01-31T12:17:16.169+00:00Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United<span style="font-family:arial;">Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United<br />FA Cup 4th Round<br />Saturday 23rd January<br />ITV 17:00<br /><br /><strong>Prologue<br /></strong><br />The Cup is dead! Long Live the Cup! The cup was dead after the Saturday of the 3rd round (traditionally one of the highlights in the calendar of course), poorly attended fixtures with no giant killing left us longing for the days of Ronnie Radford, Sutton United and Tim Buzaglo to re-ignite the flailing passions in the grand old competition. The romantic British sporting public needed a hero of a similar ilk and just when it seemed all hope was lost we were blessed with 2! Step forward Jermaine Beckford and Rafael Benitez who were the stars of the subsequent 3rd round upsets and breathed new life into this year’s competition much to the delight of neutrals everywhere and relief of ITV sport executives.<br /><br /><strong>Programme<br /></strong><br />Steve Ryder welcomed us and introduced the panel of ex Spurs and Leeds Goalkeeper Paul Robinson and familiar ITV face Andy Townsend. He immediately fell into the common trap of asking a footballer a question while giving him the answer at the same time by putting to Robbo that he must have split loyalties tonight. Robbo didn’t let us down: ‘Yep, split loyalties. Just hoping for a good game of football.’ Townsend then told us that since Leeds win at Old Trafford they hadn’t won another game since, all of which they’ve been favourites in but tonight, being underdogs ‘makes them dangerous again.’ More gibberish followed when ‘Appy Arry’ was interviewed and asked if it was going to be pretty straightforward for Spurs tonight. ‘Straightforward?’ he responded while half-laughing in bemusement. ‘I’ve never seen a cup tie that’s straight forward yet.’ This prompted me to wonder what he was doing for his teams 3rd round tie against Peterborough and if he wasn’t there why didn’t someone tape the 4-0 win for him?<br /><br />Commentator Peter Drury gave us the team news and seemed most excited that Spurs included ‘a delicious full 1st team debut for Leeds United Academy product, Yorkshire’s own Danny Rose.’ In the few minutes before kick-off we got shown a few crowd shots and the camera focussed on a bare-chested Leeds fan before finding three more just a few moments later. At this point I decided that for your benefit I’d do a running total of shirtless Leeds fans we were ‘treated’ to but after numbers 2, 3 & 4 there was a resounding drought so unfortunately here’s where this ‘fun’ feature begins and ends readers!<br /><br />A whirlwind start to the game where other than an opportunistic effort from round 3 hero and all-around livewire Jermaine Beckford, the famous Tottenham Hotspurs are absolutely battering their League 1 opponents. It’s not long before Spurs pressure looked to have paid off as Rose was clearly caught in the box and Allan Wiley, stood just yards away inevitably pointed to the spot. Defoe stepped up but put a decently struck penalty far too close to Casper Ankergren who made a good save. This predictably got the travelling four and a half thousand travelling support giddy but Drury was going somewhat OTT when he described them as ‘celebrating like they’d won the cup.’<br /><br />Spurs continued to create chances and you could tell the home fans clearly thought they weren't in any danger of not winning as there wasn’t the discontent crowds get when their teams missed a pen with a game still at 0-0. I’m not saying this is particularly wrong as they’d fancy their chances at home to anyone and that obviously includes a team two divisions lower. I do have to be honest though, at this point (and all points since the draw was made) I found myself hoping Leeds United would win through this particular round of the Football Association Challenge Cup.<br /><br />After another run and shot from Defoe, Drury tells us ‘Tottenham could be over the hills and far away’ and Spurs fans can clearly be heard singing their elongated version of ‘oh when the Spurs go marching in’ which (if you’re interested) I think is one of the best versions of a traditional classic heard in our stadiums folks. How Spurs aren’t in front at this point really is a mystery as Ankergren’s goal is being peppered from all angles. Great mate Shoegl, shamelessly pimping himself for a mention in this blog txt me at this point with ‘If this was a boxing match…’ which in fairness is a great cliché and subsequently he’s achieved his aim.<br /><br />22 minutes in and Defoe is put clear through and when appearing to hesitate, gets tackled from behind by Leeds defender, Jason Crowe. Co-commentator and former Leeds fullback Jim Beglin didn’t think Crowe ‘got a huge amount of the ball.’ At this point I disagreed with him as on first viewing it appeared he’d cleanly taken the ball. The replay then proved why Jim Beglin is paid to give his opinions about football and I’m not paid to write mine down and publish them on a sparsely-read blog as it clearly should’ve been a 2nd pen to the lilywhites. Leeds best spell of the game so far then followed with chances for Robert Snodgrass and Beckford who were clearly their most dangerous players. </span><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />The Leeds fans then thoughtfully start singing ‘are you blogging Manchester?’ Which I thought was some nice recognition of my work although Drury seems to mistakenly think they’re singing ‘are you watching Manchester?’ In either case the answer is yes and it’s nice that they thought to enquire about my activities during such a big match for the fallen giants. Then, just as I begin to think they’re looking good to repeat the previous round heroics, Peter Crouch easily hits in a rebound after Nico Krankjar has a shot saved and dispels these thoughts.<br /><br />The Spurs fans predictably break into their famous FA Cup Chas’n’Dave penned classic as half time approaches. No, not 1991’s ‘It's lucky for Spurs when the year ends in 1’(or to give the accent effect ‘Its Laaaaaarckey for Spurs when the year ends in wann!’) But ‘Ossie’s dream’ and ‘Spurs are on their way to Wembley’ reverberates around ‘the Lane.’ Jermaine Jenas leans back and sky’s what would’ve been a belting 2nd goal and that’s it. Half Time, Tottenham Hotspurs 1 Leeds United 0.<br /><br />Leeds start the second half with real purpose and are gifted an opportunity almost immediately as Beckford intercepts a poor Jenas backpass but his touch is too heavy and it rolls out for a goal kick. Leeds manager Simon Grayson has clearly put something in his players’ half-time cup of tea as pressure leads to another corner, from which the ensuing scramble sees Beckford skilfully put the ball under Mario Gomez to equalise. ‘Rockingham Road, Old Trafford, White Hart Lane’ Peter Drury decides to shout out the grounds Beckford’s bagged at on the road in this years competition.<br /><br />Leeds who really could’ve been beaten in the 1st 20 minutes are now on-top and<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WOnZTRFsnU6Z63lFJkCCaDwAyOtvnko_KqXq57QvcCRyiNfzoV11al_T5T7BSWLaH1A7CTThn7cmYPXDvgMjIXcZSqKUgvr79rQdEyHuVIOKWFzrX8F6hTfmbWFgWiYAxDeOojTofJY/s1600-h/itv_jim.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431393271339361858" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 269px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WOnZTRFsnU6Z63lFJkCCaDwAyOtvnko_KqXq57QvcCRyiNfzoV11al_T5T7BSWLaH1A7CTThn7cmYPXDvgMjIXcZSqKUgvr79rQdEyHuVIOKWFzrX8F6hTfmbWFgWiYAxDeOojTofJY/s320/itv_jim.jpg" border="0" /></a> seemed to be flowing with confidence. ‘By the way’ Beglin begins his point as if he’s going tell us he’s going for a pint after the game and ask if anyone fancies it ‘are Leeds up for this now!’ which was a rather disappointingly bland ending to his sentence/statement/question. It also seems the home crowd are becoming somewhat agitated which is welcome viewing as each misplaced pass or lost tackle is met with the not unfamiliar White Hart Lane groan. Beglin does however seem worried that his former club wont want a replay as another game could upset their promotion hopes. Fortunately for him a moment or so later Roman Pavlyuchenko produces a moment of quality as he dummies a pass which takes a defender out of the game allowing Defoe to put him though easily and he places past Ankergren to make it 2-1. In quite a unique celebration the goalscorer runs to the fans behind the goal, takes off his gloves and throws them into the crowd. I’m surprised that some 4 days after the FA haven’t yet issued a directive to referees that all glove chucking celebrations will now result in a booking.<br /><br />In the same way ‘do-gooders’ watch programmes they know will outrage them so they can clog-up the switchboards and write to points of view, I watch Spurs cup ties (well any cup ties as it gets shown regardless) to get irked at mentions or clips of Ricky Villa and would you adam’n’eve it, on 78 minutes Peter Drury refers to ‘that’ goal. If your reading this Peter, I can do without the constant (once in 90 minutes) reference to a goal that still haunts me to this day (I should point out was only 1 year old at the time.)<br /><br />Everyone appears content with Spurs seemingly progressing to the 5th round and Leeds on their way out but ‘having given a good account of themselves’ which appears to be the only thing you have to do as a lower-league underdog in a cup tie. Chances come to both Bale and Jenas to get the 3rd goal and put the tie out of sight and despite a lot of effort Leeds don’t look like creating the chance to get a second equaliser. Extremely deep into injury time Beckford gets the ball in the Spurs box in a one on one situation with Michael Dawson. Just as I’m urging him to shoot he runs at Dawson and lures him into a challenge that sees Beckford going to ground and appealing for a penalty. Wiley delays his decision and dramatically points to the spot which prompts me to shout ‘he’s give it!’ despite the fact I was in the flat on my own.<br /><br />After a seemingly huge wait Beckford stepped up to take the dubious pen he’d just earned. This was a pressure kick yet Beckford showed composure ahead of his years to hit a perfect and unstoppable pen into the roof of the net. Predictably this sent the travelling Leeds fans into raptures and the game could only re-start for a few seconds more before Wiley brought it to a close and the Leeds players celebrated their unlikely draw and impending Elland Road replay. What a game! Its 2 in 2 for dramatic late goals on this blog’s featured games so far and lets hope this is a sign of things to come eh TV sports fans!<br /><br /><strong>Watch</strong><br /><br />Crystal Palace v Wolverhampton Wanderers<br />FA Cup 4th Round Replay<br />Tuesday 2nd February<br />ITV4 19:30<br /><br />Leeds United v Tottenham Hotspur<br />FA Cup 4th Round Replay<br />Wednesday 3rd February<br />ITV 19:30</span></div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-78451908662183622492010-01-18T16:49:00.004+00:002010-01-19T09:07:00.784+00:001.FC Köln v Borrusia Dortmund<span style="font-family:arial;">1.FC Köln v Borrusia Dortmund<br />Sunday 17th January<br />ESPN 16:30<br /><br /><strong>Prologue<br /></strong><br />Why cant British press and media types get their collective head around foreign football teams calling themselves after the town or city they come from in their mother tongue? Really, ESPN advertised this game as ‘Cologne v Dortmund.’ Why? Were they afraid that viewing figures would be affected as British TV sports fans (which I presume you all are) wouldn’t tune in as they were confused as to which city ‘1.FC Köln’ represent? Why does it only affect certain teams as well? Later on that evening the same channel showed Napoli v Palermo. Surely if the insistence of using ‘Cologne’ were to set a precedent then our fellow euro-soccer enthusiasts would be treated to Naples v Palermo later that evening. Unfortunately it annoys me significantly enough to influence me to waste the 1st paragraph of my first posting. Just be grateful they weren’t showing Bayern Munich v Inter Milan loyal readers as this whole blogging nonsense could well have been over before it even started.<br /><br /><strong>Programme</strong><br /><br />Commentator Steve Bower with whom I have a tenuous link (great mate Cheets worked with and speaks highly of the feller) welcomed us to this ‘battle of the west’ in ‘Germany’s fourth largest city’. It was the expected packed Bundesliga stadium with the usual smattering of away fans all around the ground bar Cologn..sorry Köln’s ‘end.’ I’m surprised how common this scenario is in Germany as I cant think of another country where there seems to be this complete non-requirement for mass segregation. Its not like they don’t have a hooligan problem, big supports or like a good drink beforehand but the average German seems more than content to sit next to a fellow sausage muncher wearing a different coloured scarf.<br /><br />The home team started the better but didn’t really create any chances and were limited to a couple of long-range efforts. Dortmund’s keeper was the stand out player of the 1st 20 minutes, firstly in his attempt to appear on a future own goals and gaffs video by fumbling a weak shot and then by diving at the feet of Köln’s big centre forward in the way ‘goalkeepers don’t do anymore’ (© Old Bury fan at work). This act of old-skool bravery leading to him getting injured and being taken off. To be fair he clearly took a knock but you have to think Bert Trautmann would’ve continued.<br /><br />It had been all Köln up to this point when out of nothing Dortmund get a corner and score with their first notable effort. The technical term is I believe ‘a clanger’ from the keeper who came for a cross and completely missed it leaving Dortmund’s centre half Mats Hummels to head into the unguarded onion bag. Almost immediately after Köln had a very good penalty shout (i.e. it should’ve been a penalty) turned down. ‘I’ve seen them given’ comments Bower which as a recent writer to WSC commented, is a ridiculous thing to say as we’ve all seen the most implausible decisions awarded. I have however seen them given.<br /><br />Köln again are doing most of the attacking but the game calms down as we reach the 45 minute stage with the most noteworthy incident being Dortmund fans singing a song that sounded to my ears like a Deutsch equivalent of ‘my garden shed’ that Villa fans seem so keen on. Köln’s Lucas Podolski now seems to be in a right strop and gets booked for what would commentator worth his salt would call (I can’t remember if Bower said this or not…he probably did) a ‘cynical foul.’ The resulting free kick is lofted into the box where Hummels gets on the end to bag his 2nd after another week effort from the Köln ‘stopper.’<br /><br />At this point I realise the major handicap this keeper is placing upon himself. He’s wearing trackie <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB5_gopHGtDvbYAmg4hZdZ1T2uy385EyBMPTCxB1HVA74RCyHaDO0cdu8R05wQDu-EGYzWm3gmd8PF9VoMa5y4UzEVbeh0rHKtOXJmaKXrp1MLrlfxA1E85j4uPKzQJKFjZStS8guvbKA/s1600-h/Kiraly.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428127582829227714" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 134px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 234px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB5_gopHGtDvbYAmg4hZdZ1T2uy385EyBMPTCxB1HVA74RCyHaDO0cdu8R05wQDu-EGYzWm3gmd8PF9VoMa5y4UzEVbeh0rHKtOXJmaKXrp1MLrlfxA1E85j4uPKzQJKFjZStS8guvbKA/s320/Kiraly.jpg" border="0" /></a>bottoms! When will our friends on the continent realise that wearing trackies automatically decreases your ability as a goalkeeper? There’s been overwhelming evidence over the years to highlight this yet many still ignore it and for this I’ve no sympathy for the hapless scally lookalike. </span><br /><br /><p><span style="font-family:arial;">While on the subject of playing attire I should inform you that Dortmund are wearing the brightest possible yellow that does not cross the barrier into the category marked as luminous. Köln’s shirt is from the same Reebok template as Bolton’s but in red with red shorts and socks. I’m sure that back in the Toni Polster’s day Koln’s home shirt was white with red trim but Bower has already told us that they are ‘wearing the traditional all red colours’ so maybe I’m wrong, and more importantly maybe its not that crucial you know this.<br /><br />As the game went on I got a bit more aggrieved by Bower’s commentary mainly due to him repeating the facts that Cologne is Germanys 4th largest city and that Kevin McKenna their large Canadian central defender had a spell at Hearts.<br /><br />The game went into something of a lull after Dortmund had doubled their advantage with the only highlights being Podolski’s textbook petulant reaction to being subbed (chucks trackie top on floor, sulks off down tunnel) and the travelling Dortmund fans (actually Bower went on a few times about what a large fan base Dortmund have which didn’t need repeating and everyone knows that anyway) singing and bouncing away. Then with the visitors seemingly easing to a routine 3 points the team from the 4th largest German City got back in the game through a header form their tall Canadian former Hearts centre half, Kevin McKenna.<br /><br />This re-ignited both the home team and crowd and the proverbial kitchen sink was now being launched at the Dortmund goal. Then with just 2 minutes left Köln’s Lebanese skipper Youssef Mohamad beat Dortmund’s keeper to a 50-50 and poked the ball into the net to send the locals into delirium. As it went in I was just scribbling ‘equaliser…brave’ down when Bower out-articulated me (and not many do that) with a passionate ‘what courage..what spirit!’ This caused another immense display of passion as Dortmund coach Juergen Flopp got in a right hissy-fit and was sent to the stand. He proceeded to climb into the stand and looked like he was offering all the home fans outside. Unfortunately no one took up the challenge as I would’ve loved to have seen someone stick one on him.<br /><br />What drama for the 1st game of the 1st blog, bit of a local derby, dramatic comeback and child like petulance from players and management but it wasn’t over yet. Just into injury time after something of a scrappy build up, Dortmund’s Kevin Grosskeutz hit a speculative effort from outside the box that hit Kevin McKenna (he played for Hearts yer know) and left the newly nicknamed ‘Trackies’ stranded as it trickled into the net, sending what seemed like most of the ‘home’ stand behind into raptures. Dummy out of the pram specialist and Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp ran along the main stand in celebration in a manner that can only be described as ‘giving it large.’ How no one chinned him I’ll really never know.<br /><br />The game finished shortly after and Köln will feel hard done by at the 3-2 scoreline and stay perilously just a point above the relegation zone. Dortmund are well in the hunt for a champions league spot after this result and have a huge game against fellow champs league pretenders Hamburg next Saturday in what looks like the most open of Europe’s major leagues. This a game you can watch on the same channel and I’d imagine Mr Bower will do another half-decent job of talking you through it although I’m sure he’ll repeatedly tell you what big clubs these two are and that Hamburg were of course managed by former Tottenham boss Martin Jol last season.<br /><br /><strong>Watch</strong><br /><br />Next live Bundesliga coverage (both on ESPN):<br />Freiburg v Stuttgart<br />Friday 22nd January at 19:30<br /><br />Borrusia Dortmund v Hamburg<br />Saturday 23rd January at 17:30</span></p>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5547025761289448900.post-8613078593915794452010-01-18T12:33:00.005+00:002010-01-18T16:48:45.039+00:00Intro<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTP-KNNMmmjWejgz3ZR1fdOupkYZ4r1QADpDuDE_KpPvmIpZmBirrmolZA5dZ6Z7joAJ-jtKH0i2ruc-U6invPl3n9CSiHtOMD7ummmCJ4BmLfsO0MP3iiJOZ1Rk6LYgPMKIpc1UqamyQ/s1600-h/lOGO.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428063984919306562" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 279px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTP-KNNMmmjWejgz3ZR1fdOupkYZ4r1QADpDuDE_KpPvmIpZmBirrmolZA5dZ6Z7joAJ-jtKH0i2ruc-U6invPl3n9CSiHtOMD7ummmCJ4BmLfsO0MP3iiJOZ1Rk6LYgPMKIpc1UqamyQ/s320/lOGO.bmp" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">Hello and welcome to my blog that reviews sports programmes I have watched on the good old telebox recently. Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking ‘why have you decided to do a blog reviewing sports programmes you’ve watched recently Dave?’ Well the answer is this, I felt if there’s one thing the world needs its another blog! This is of course a lie, there are gazillions of blogs on the old interweb the majority of which no bugger reads and the creator has long since given up on. The real reason is that I love TV sports. I do, really. I love live sports as well (probably more than TV sports in all fairness) but I only get to see them a few times a month whereas I get to watch sport on TV nearly every day…and that’s just awesome and therefore deserves a right good blogging!<br /><br />Anyroad, from now on I aim to update this blog with at least one review a week. This will largely take the form of football matches and football related programmes. There are a few reasons for this that are as follows:<br /><br />1) Football is my favourite sport.<br />2) There’s more football on tele than other sports.<br />3) I only have freeview and ESPN (and not the TV sports enthusiasts eutopia that is SKY)and the latter shows getting on for 10 games a week along with some wonderfully bizarre ‘magazine’ progs.<br /><br />That’s not to say it will be exclusively football centred, I hope to include amongst others Rugby (both codes), Cricket (although this may be difficult as Sky have all the live stuff obv), Darts, Aussie rules (if ESPN show it again this season), NFL and pretty much anything else I happen to bump into on my televisual travels.<br /><br />The form of the reviews will be this. I’ll tell you what I've watched (who’s playing who etc), when and what channel it was on, comment on the actual contest, the coverage of it and anything else I feel it vaguely relates to. I hope it will provide you with the odd giggle, titbits of information and despite being a passionate follower of various teams in different sports, sincerely hope that all sense of neutrality is avoided and my preferences and prejudices come across clearly.<br /><br />Happy viewing fellow enthusiasts, Dave.</span></div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09822000135509165429noreply@blogger.com2