FOOTBALL ZONE
OK...to start this section off, below is my English-centred take on the football(or as the Yanks and Aussies call it, soccer) world in September 2005.
STATE OF PLAY
The 2005/06 football season underway in England and Scotland. Celtic getting off to a hopeless start against Slovakian bunch Artmedia Bratislava with a 5-0 away whumping the Champions League 2nd preliminary round. Following that with a 4-4 opening Premiership match with Motherwell and things aren't going too good for them generally, it's Hearts that are top of the league up there at the moment. As a result, I'm not dead cert Gordon Strachen will last out the season.
My personal loyalties north of the border go to Aberdeen - the local team when I used to live up there. Unfortunately the Dons have, since I moved south, never seemed to match the quality of the early 90s Pittodrie side of my memories, let alone the 80s side run by Alex Ferguson. I still keep an eye on them but generally, my football interests wandered south of the border with me.
The 05/06 season started even earlier if you were a Scouser, specifically a red-shirted one - due to the fact that Liverpool, though they won the 2005 Champions League in amazing style against AC Milan in Istanbul after going in at half time 3-0 down, then coming back to draw 3-3 to force the game into extra time, before holding on to win a penalty shootout, had to start the defence of their title as early as possible - in the 1st premilinary round(this is what happens when you only finish 5th in the Premiership).
And so the Scousers started their defence of the European title with a tie against Welsh bunch TNS. A 3-0 win over that side at Anfield was matched with a indentical scoreline in Wrexham which took them through to the next round. Here they faced Lithuanian side FBK Kaunas, toasting them with a 3-1 win out east before a dull as hell match at Anfield was eventually brightened up by the introduction of Steven Gerrard. They then scrabbled to beat CSKA Sofia 3-2 on aggregate in the third preliminary to make the main group stages(and took care of CSKA Moscow 3-1 in extra time to win the European Super Cup) More on that later.
Warning to Scousers: I know Stevie G is one of your own but the about of time he's had to wake your side up single handedly would make me nervous if I were you. I'd be very interested to see what would happen if Gerrard got injured over the coming season.
That's interested, not concerned - because Matt G is MUFC! Aka Man United aka a team that just oozes class...well they can do at least! As wicked a night as 26th May 1999 was, as wicked as United's apocylpse of '99 was as a whole(Premiership, Champions League AND FA Cup in one season?), six years is a pretty long time. And no I do not need reminding that we haven't won the Premiership since 02/03! I also do not need reminding that we had to compete in the Champions League preliminaries yet again - this time taking care of Hungarian bunch Debrecen in a 6-0 on aggregate cruise.
But so far, the Glazer's moneysucking efforts haven't hurt us on the pitch(though how long that'll last I haven't a clue). Ji-Sung Park has been added to our attack power for £4 million from PSV. Edwin van de Saar has been our latest goalie signing for £2 million from Fulham and Phil Neville getting sold to Everton for £5 million is no big loss. And up until the home darw against City on Saturday 10th we had a 100% Premiership record, nuff said. This may be a biased POV but I still think we're in the best shape of anyone to take the title away from Chelsea this year.
We are certainly looking in a lot better shape than Arsenal though. Patrick Viera's gone to Juventus and I'm not sure that Wenger has fully managed to replace him yet, particularly given the Highbury crew's results so far. Raise the white flag now Sunk Guns - the title's between us and Chelsea - who on the whole look like their 04/05 unit + Hernan Crespo + Shaun Wright-Philips. Though having as many class players as they do in one squad is bound to cause ego clashes. Maybe this is how United will win the Premiership this season, or maybe that's wishful thinking...the Blues admittedly having started on fire.
The big story in the English season so far however, has been Michael Owen's return to the Premiership with Newcastle. No surprises here whatsoever, the Geordies needed a long term replacement for retiring-next-season Alan Shearer and Owen needed regular first team football in a World Cup year. Both parties should be sorted with this deal, but not yet it seems. Owen didn't score on his debut against Fulham, and Newcastle have still yet to get a win this season. Still, bringing someone like Owen into the mixer has got to prove a major boost at some point for the Geordies this season - isn't it?
The only thing left that needs to be looked at on the club scene is European competition. Everton getting busted in the Champions League preliminaries 4-2 on aggregate by Villarreal while Rangers toasted Cyprus bunch Anothosis 4-1. First order of business of course is MUFC's task in the group stages: Villareal, Lille and Benefica. Both Villarreal and Benefica are certainly capable of giving us a game but we should be able to handle this relatively smoothly, the trick is going to be not going into cruise control late on so to allow us to top the group and get a smoother run in the knockout stages. Arsenal have to deal with Ajax, Sparta Prague and some Swiss bunch called Thun. Ajax are the toughest oppenonents out of that bunch, but no worries here either. And you have to have a laugh with Chelsea and Liverpool winding up in the same group due to the Scousers's wildcard status this year but neither English side should have problems dealing with Real Betis or Anderlecht. Rangers are not so lucky however, Inter, Porto and Artmedia Bratislava. I think Alex McLeish's crew will have to settle for a UEFA Cup spot here. Going down a step, I'm not really that interested in the UEFA Cup scene till late on but still, given that it's their first European competition I can remember, Bolton's first round tie against Bulgarian bunch Locomotiv Plodiv could be worth a look.
When I wrote the original version of this article, things were looking much better for the Three Lions than they now are. Coached by the Swede Sven Goran Erriccsson, England looked to be cruising into the 2006 World Cup in Germany despite a hit and miss record in friendlies despite starting with a draw in Vienna against Austria. Wins against Poland away, Azerbaijan(home and away), Wales(away) and Northern Ireland(at home) meant that we were cruising into automatic qualification...and then we came to Belfast. Cue noisy locals and Northern Ireland Maik Taylor certainly won't have to buy beer in that city again...because he kept a clean sheet and ex-MUFC man David Healy hit the winner. At which point I remember that Germany 1 England 5 was four years ago. Long story short, we have got to get our act together for the remaining games against Austria and Poland at Old Trafford. Win both of those and we have a ticket to Germany. Otherwise it's the playoffs and once there things could get very interesting indeed.
Returning north of the border for the end of this splurdge though, the precise oppisite can be said about the Scots. Walter Smith, coach of the Rangers side that dominated Scottish football in the early 90s is now at the helm after the disasterous reign of Berti Vogts and he's clearly having an effect, observe a draw at Hampden against the Italians and getting three points out of Oslo. Technically, the Scots are stil in fourth place in the group but they're only two points behind second place Norway(and the playoffs) and with two games to go...
...yes, it is an interesting time to be a football fan on either side of the border.
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