Saturday, August 11, 2007

Notes From The EPL (8/11)

Thanks to Fox Soccer channel (a soccer fan in the states best friend) I was able to catch 2 and a half games of soccer today. ( Derby County v Portsmouth, West Ham v Man City and the second half of Liverpool v Aston Villa) Some notes from the three games:

Derby County played much better than one would have thought. Unfortunately their goalkeeper should still be in the Coca Cola Championship because he let in a very savable goal. Derby was able still able to scratch out a much deserved tie. The most impressive player on either side was Tyrone Mears a right back for Derby, he made a fool of Hermann Hreidarsson on multiple occasions.

In what was mostly a dreadful game to watch, West Ham put in a poor performance against Manchester City, especially in the first half. Bobby Zamora did not look very good at all. Whether it was his poor first touches, bad passing or weak shots, he could have done much better. The Brazilian Geovanni come on as a second half sub and had a great finish for the second Man City goal. He nearly had a second goal but was unlucky to see his effort narrowly parried away. West Ham, while it's only one game, looked like a team that will have a lot of work to do this season to avoid relegation.

While I missed the first half of the game, Liverpool’s defense looked very shaky against Villa. Steven Gerrard is quite an interesting player to watch. Clearly world class for some reason every time I see him he’s running too fast for the ball and stumbling over it looking like a fool, and every time I see him he’s also doing something to help his team win. Today was no different as he converted a world class free kick to win the game, a free kick that was given on a controversial foul. You can’t hit a much better free kick then Gerrard did; there was less than an inch between the upper ninety and the ball leaving goalkeeper Stuart Taylor no chance at saving it.

No comments: