Tottenham Finds Reason To Believe After Four Goal Victory
The recent four goal victory over Burnley has given Tottenham reason to believe that they will be back at Wembley defending the League Cup. The first leg semifinal took place at White Hart Lane on Tuesday ended with Tottenham on four and Burnley managing to score only one goal.
All of Tottenham’s four goals came in the second half as Burnley’s goal keeper Brian Jenson failed to stop the shots from a fired up Tottenham side. The ? 15 million signing of Jermain Defoe was being celebrated well before the kick off. With Martin Paterson scoring the only goal for Burnley in the first 15 minutes of the game Tottenham fans were quieted in an instant.
Burnley’s previous performances have been spectacular with the team managing to eliminate top teams like Chelsea, Arsenal and Fulham. The Spurs managed to make a spectacular come back in the second half ruining Burnley’s dream to add another super team to their defeated list.
David Bentley was replaced by Jamie O’Hara after being ineffective during the game. Within two minutes of getting on Jamie supplied Michael Dawson the ball from a corner, who posted it through for the team’s first goal. Hardly five minutes had passed that the midfielder scored Tottenham’s second goal through the legs of Brain Jensen. Roman Pavlyuchenko maintained his record of scoring in every round by securing the third goal for Tottenham.
Three minutes later Burnley defender Micheal duff managed to score an own goal by heading the ball shot through by O’Hara into his own goal post. This unfortunate event completed the misery for Burnley who could hardly believe what was going on.
The final score was not something that Burnley would have expected after ending the first half one up on the winning team. The former Manchester United forward Chris Eagles had made one attempt shot wide of the post before supplying the ball for Paterson to score the only goal for Burnley.
Another cross was headed by Robbie Blake right past Tottenham’s goal keeper in just nine minutes after the goal. Despite making a few good attempts in the first half Burnley failed to capitalize on their position. The Spurs came back as a totally different team in the second half managing to secure the win and becoming the favorites to meet Manchester United or Derby at Wembley.
Accused Gerard gets the full support of his manager
Steven Gerard was accused last week of initiating a bar brawl. He is now being backed by the Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez who said in defense of the Liverpool captain “Steven is our captain and a key player for us, but more than this, I know him as a nice person.”
The manager told the club’s official website “I sat down with him this morning and had a very good talk with him about the situation and I was also able to speak at length with our club lawyer,”
“Steven explained to me what had happened and I told him he has my full support and backing, along with everyone else at the football club,”
The manager continued to say “He’s trained with the other lads this (Wednesday) morning after a couple of days off for the squad and is keen now to focus solely on his football. We’ve worked very hard to get into the position we’re in going through to the New Year and all of us are determined to keep that progress going.”
Gerard feels confident after being freed from police custody on bail and being allowed to play the upcoming game. Benitez pledged his support to the captain of the team saying “We’ll do whatever we can to support Steven in the weeks ahead, but we’re now concentrating on our preparation for the FA Cup game at Preston this weekend.”
28 year old Gerard was amongst the three men that were arrested by the police at 2:30 am in the Lounge Inn restaurant at Southport where the incident took place. The disc jockey that was employed at the venue had to be taken to the hospital after suffering from facial injuries during the brawl.
Apparently the dispute began when Gerard insisted the DJ to play a song of his choice. From amongst the eyewitness reports one stated the DJ “pushed Gerard in the chest, and almost instinctively Gerard hit back with his elbow”.
The Liverpool captain along with the two others arrested with him are set to appear before the North Sefton Magistrate’s Court on January 23rd 2009. The unlikely incident took place on the night when Liverpool managed to crush New Castle in a 5-1 victory. Gerard had scored two goals during the match. The other two individuals charged along with the captain are fellow team mates Ian Smith and John Doran.
Yankees Defy Recession to Reel in Another Star
While the economic recession has affected the sports industry in many ways the Yankees have managed to defy the unfavorable trend by spending money on recruiting yet another superstar player. With the way the Yankees have been spending money it seems they have been printing it for themselves.
The latest buy is in the form of the baseman Mark Teixeira. He has been inducted into the side for a price of $180 million for eight years. The team has spent almost half a billion dollars building itself up as a power house during the off season.
The economic might of the Yankees remains stronger than ever as they defy the economic downturn. The team has also been moved to a new stadium which has been built with the help of public financing. The team is adamant on bringing its economic might into play despite the recession that has gripped America.
Although the signing has been confirmed by a Yankee spokesman it will not be officially declared until Teixeira undergoes a physical. The addition of the baseman will be the fourth of the season with the other three newly inducted members being Alex Rodriguez, C.C Sabathia and Derek Jester. This has made the total expenditure made by the team the largest expenditure in the sports industry with the overall amount totaling to more than $800 million.
The signing has also marked a change in the payroll for the Yankees. While the payroll for the team totaled $209 million in 2008 it is likely to increase by another $50 million in 2009.
The expenditure by itself does not guarantee that the Yankees will be back in the World Series. While the team continues to spend freely it still managed to miss the postseason in 2008 after fourteen years. The Yankees is no longer the model baseball team out there. That position, which was previously held by the Yankees has now been taken up by the Red Sox. The Yankees have however stolen Teixeira from the Red Sox who looked all set to buy him off before the Yankees settled the deal with the player.
Rooney’s goal secures the Championship for Manchester United
The legendary soccer player Wayne Rooney helped Manchester United win the Club World Cup title against Liga de Quito of Ecuador. The final score ended with Manchester United securing the only goal of the match.
Manchester United was frustrated as it saw Nemanja Vidic being sent off the field a couple of minutes into the second half. The goal by Wayne Rooney however put an end to the team’s misery which had been reduced to a ten member squad.
Rooney scored his third goal of the season off a pass from Cristiano Ronaldo in the 73rd minute of the match. After the match he said during an interview “It’s fantastic. It’s a great achievement by us. We are really delighted and proud that we are the world champions. And to score the winning goal is a great feeling.”
Captain Rio Ferdinand proudly claimed to be the Captain of the best team of the world. He admitted that the opponents were tough but by securing the win Manchester United has proved its worth to the world.
The victory of Manchester United has been the first ever title victory for an English team in the expanded form of the tournament. Rooney’s goal was preceded by two powerful efforts on target that were defended by Jose Cevallos. Park Ji sung also managed to angle a shot towards the goal but straight at the keeper. He shot another ball that went just over the bar. Carlos Tevez also made an attempt but was denied by the keeper.
Manchester faced a set back when Vidic was sent off due to his own mistake. Manchester could have paid a heavy price because of being reduced to a ten member squad but managed to survive the scare. Vidic is most likely to miss the upcoming match due to suspension.
Quito however failed to take advantage of the reduced opponents although they did make some sporadic attacks at the United post. United kept a perseverant attitude and finally managed to make a breakthrough with Carrick supplying the ball for Ronaldo who fed it to Rooney who managed to beat Cevallos to secure the win for his team.
Sri Lanka accepts Pakistan’s invitation in place of India
The Sri Lankan Cricket Board Chief announced that it was ready and willing to send their team to Pakistan instead of India next month. India cancelled their preplanned tour of Pakistan in the wake of the recent terror attacks in Mumbai.
The cancellation of the five week series has cost the PCB a loss of $40m. Pakistan had made all the necessary preparations to host the five week series against the Indian team in January. But BCCI President Shashank Manohar informed the PCB Chairman via email that the Indian team was no longer wiling to make their way to Pakistan and have thus decided to cancel the tour.
The E-mail message addressed to PCB Chairman reads as “I regret to inform you that the Indian Government has refused permission to the Indian team to tour Pakistan. We were waiting to hear from the Government and today they have officially communicated their inability to grant permission at this juncture. I am sure that cricket will resume between the two countries in due course when the situation changes”.
This saddening news was however set aside when Sri Lanka accepted the invitation proposed by Pakistan. Salim Altaf, the Chief operating Officer of PCB informed the press saying “We had invited Sri Lanka to play a series of three Tests, three one-day internationals and a Twenty20 cricket match and they have confirmed the tour to go ahead and would reach Pakistan in third week of January next year.”
The Sri Lankan team is all set to reach Pakistan in the last week of January. The exact date of the team’s arrival has not been received as yet. The series will kick off with a Twenty20 match to warm things up in the city of Karachi. This will be followed up by an ODI in the National Stadium of Karachi after which the teams will make their way to Lahore for two ODIs at the Gaddafi Stadium. The test series would start off with the first match being played at Lahore, the second at Multan and the third at Karachi.