I don’t have much to say about the game itself, I just wanted the season to end on a positive note and it’s looking more and more like it’s not going to happen. Having a lead at the half was nice but after that things went downhill so fast that the 1-0 scoreline is nothing but a distant memory. Improvements have to made in all aspects of the game for Toronto FC, from top to bottom, from goalie to striker from east to west, from….you get the point. There’s no point in mentioning how individual players are coming up short on their responsibilities and in some cases, effort. The first season was one big tryout and at least at the end of it we’ll know who to take with us next year and who to waive goodbye to.

So let’s get to some of them:

• Kenny Stamatopoulos: He’s shown that he can be a good goalie in stretches, he doesn’t make too many fatal mistakes and tends to be in good position most of the time. His reaction time leaves something to be desired and his footing could be better. We need to find a better starting goalie but Kenny’s shown enough to warrant a fight for the backup spot.
  Andrew Boyens: He’s gone from good to bad to pathetic to decent to bad to ok to something nobody quite understands. Playing at the heart of the defense requires an awareness that Boyens doesn’t possess. He has the height but lacks the physical strength to match up with strikers with that low center of gravity. If Boyens is starting for Toronto FC next season, our defense will have issues.
• Adam Braz: He’s slow, he doesn’t have skill and gets caught trailing the play too often. You can respect his effort but don’t confuse that with talent, especially at a defensive position where he was caught trailing the play too many times. I don’t feel comfortable with him at the back and there are plenty of reasons and examples why.
• Maurice Edu: He’s probably our most skilled player but that hasn’t translated into goal scoring which I can live with. Edu’s dribbling skills have gotten better over the season and the improvement in him is evident. A talented player who can become the heart of this franchise if he’s not swept up by some European side.
• Jim Brennan: The captain was playing out of position for most of the season and despite that was a stellar part of the defense.
• Todd Dunivant: When he was acquired for Goldthwaite many questioned the move but his vision on the left is something to take into next season. He’s not a goal scorer but can supply the crosses, either we find him some real strikers or find a goal scoring right midfielder because he just isn’t one.
• Chris Pozniak: The most anonymous player on the team. Never contributed anything on offense and was a part of more than a few goals given up. You can’t pick one aspect of his game and say it’ll be something we could use.
• Tyrone Marshall: Great acquisition who plays with his heart on the sleeve, his skill is good and so is his emotion. An ideal player for us.
• Marvell Wynne: The experiment of him on the wing was a failure but he’s shown he can be a relialbe back who can occasionaly burst forward. His physical presence is much needed, he just needs to stay healthy.
• Collin Samuel: Has shown nothing except great effort, unfortunately for him that’s not enough to be on an MLS roster, especially as a striker.
• Carl Robinson: His performance tailed off considerably as the season went on, when we were playing well he was playing exceptionally well. Him and O’Brien are the engine of this team.

Grab the feed.

This was supposed be where we might’ve dropped some points in September but an un-Arsenal goal courtesy of Hleb’s pinpoint pass to RVP’s head put us up 1-0 in the 13th and that was enough. I was also following this game on the Arses of Arseblog and CruEL had this to say about Adebayor which made me laugh:

“Adebayors 3rd sitter. Another 7 more and he’ll score. Wait for it Gooners! Wait for it!”

Not to rip too much on Ade but he does miss some chances where you just know Thierry Henry would’ve just buried. Freddie Ljunberg thought he had scored and looked to celebrate but it was called offside. It was almost like the goal went in and the football Gods saw that he was about to celebrate against us and said, “Naaaah, We’re taking this one back.” Bendtner was brought into the game for Adebayor (the magic spray didn’t do it’s job) and looked like the Energizer bunny on crack (please tell me you get this reference) and was chasing everything but to little avail, I think he’s just pumped about getting some first team minutes, I say give him a start and if he stutters take him out at the half-hour mark.

Mark Noble’s assault on Hleb (download here) caused Hleb’s knee to bend in ways knees shouldn’t bend, according to Wenger (interview) nothing’s broken but he’ll be missing a couple games. Noble needs to get suspended at the very least, this was a red card tackle. The announcer for Star Sports hated Arsenal, he played down every bad call against Arsenal including the Noble attack and was ripping on Bendtner, Adebayor, RVP and anyone he could find any fault with, the man looked like he grew up a West Ham supporter, he debated every single offside call against West Ham.

What are we going to do about Senderos? Ashton was giving him serious problems all game long and this isn’t the first time Senderos has been made to twist around opposing center forwards. If there is one person that makes me very nervous every time he touches the ball, it’s him. He’s definitely a component that stands to be upgraded.

Anyways, 1-0 to the Gunners. Here’s match report. Grab the feed. Links and video below:

Robin van Persie 1-0 ‘13 Download

Match of The Day Highlights Download

Star Sports Analysis/Highlights Download

Arsene Wenger and Alan Curbishley Interviews from BBC

2-0 to The Arsenal, Bendtner (’83) and Denilson (’89) the scorers.

Match Report

BBC has Arsene Wenger’s post-match interview

Arsenal Starting XI

Sky Sports Report

10-minute Highlight Pack + Wenger Interview Download

Thanks, Arsenal Clips

Grab the feed.

I really don’t know what kind of quality to expect of the MLS. There were times where both teams looked so horrible, it was almost unwatchable. Unbelievably bad passing, attempts to make plays that are completely uncalled for, weak clearances, fractured skill, untimely runs, you name it, it was there. The difference between the two teams was that Columbus had the resolve of overcoming the one goal deficit while Toronto FC for the most part wanted to sit on it, absorb the pressure and wait for time to run out. There are few things in this world more pathetic than Miguel Canizalez’s corner which ended up about 15 yards off the far post when we were desperate for a game-tying chance. The only other thing that might be more gruesome to watch might have been Collin Samuel’s attempted back-heel pass to Chris Pozniak which was stopped short by the ground. These are just two of many such plays Toronto FC made in their 2-1 defeat to the deserving Columbus Crew at BMO Field last night. But hey, we at least scored, that should count for something, right? Something? Anything?

Read the rest of this entry »

This game was on Canadian TV so no need to watch it on Sopcast so no highlights. Arsenal Clips however uploaded all you need. Another great blog that has Arsenal highlights is Arsenal Goals Clips, check them out.

10′ [1 - 0] A. Diaby View
25′ [2 - 0] E.S. Adebayor View
50′ [3 - 0] E.S. Adebayor (pen.) View
70′ [4 - 0] C. Fabregas View
79′ [5 - 0] E.S. Adebayor View

Also check out the 4+ minute highlight pack.

Last year this match might’ve had a chance of ending up in a 1-1 draw but this year we’ve shown we can put away teams that deserve putting away. A 5-0 manslaughter of Derby County where the class of Fabregas was front and center and Abou Diaby showed why he’s on his way to replace Vieira and Adebayor, well Adebayor deserve a new sentence. He can score goals, nobody’s doubted that, it’s just the goals that he misses really stick with you. After today’s hatrick where he scored from the penalty spot, on a breakaway and made something out of a completely harmless Denilson pass, even the staunchest of Adebayor critics must concede that he looked very close to replacing Thierry Henry. Then again, this is Derby County. But that takes little away from Adebayor’s dazzling performance where it wasn’t just that he scored goals, his dribbling was pristine and his control perfect.

The lineup wasn’t our strongest with RVP, Gallas, Hleb, Rosicky and Eboue all resting or injured:

You saw all that is good and bad about Walcott today, his pace is unstoppable and the defender is always at his mercy when he’s streaming down the right side but once he’s in the box either his shot is either lacking quality or the final pass lets the original run down. In his two chances to score today, he was first overpowered by a defender after outpacing two others and then his shot was blocked. He does create half-chances when he’s in the game, by the end of this year he should create real ones.

Watching Fabregas operate in the midfield is like watching John Stockton play the point guard. Now everybody who reads this blog will completely miss that reference but for those who get it they know it speaks of high praise for Arsenal’s general. When he laced in the fourth goal - another blistering long-range strike - I was just thinking, “Man, is this guy in the zone”. His sense of when to pick off Eduardo and Adebayor and when to lay it off on the right for Sagna or Walcott never seems to be wrong. Billy Davies, the Derby County boss alluded to him being the best midfielder in Europe, he might not be wrong.

Looking at Eduardo’s play you get the sense that he’s still finding his place on the team. The glimpses of skill that he displays are right now being offset by him getting tangled in the box and not finding the space he needs (and was used to in Zagreb) but he’s already looking more comfortable than he did earlier in the season and as things progress, so will he. Like Walcott, he has no problem beating the defender on the wing, it’s just when you get past that he’s still figuring out what his options are. Perfectly natural. Time will fix that.

Liverpool was frustrated into a scoreless draw by Birmingham and Chelsea/Man Utd play tomorrow at Old Trafford. On a completely different note, I thought it was somewhat classless of Benitez to not even say a word or two about Mourinho. I’m pretty sure I hate Benitez more than I ever did Mourinho.

Thanks for reading. Grab the feed.

I think I’ve watched the highlights about 25 times. It’s good to be a Gooner right now. A 3-0 win over Sevilla who are supposed to be the other team to beat in the group. This isn’t the UEFA Cup now is it boys? We had our way with them, I’m sure they’ll be tougher in Spain but there’s little doubt that we have nothing to worry about in the group stages this year, unlike last. One of the commentators summed it up best by saying they should make a DVD out of this match and show people how to play football.

Read the rest of this entry »

Emmanuel Adebayor’s thinking of taking it one game at a time and not targeting silverware carries a lot of merit. Better be to be focused on what’s next then worry about what might happen months from now. Make sense. But I can’t help look at our upcoming Premiership schedule and think that we have a good chance of grabbing the next 12 points and creating a bit of a buffer against wannabe contenders like Man City and even create a 4-5 point gap between us and Man Utd/Liverpool/Chelsea.

Read the rest of this entry »

A man advantage for an hour against one of the worst teams in the league and we still can’t score. There’s no excuses to be made really, the moral victory of creating half-chances isn’t really cutting it anymore. Let’s get straight to the point: Collin Samuel is a disgrace for strikers everywhere. There’s no point analyzing all his mistakes, if we start doing that this post would reach the 10,000 word mark in no time. Suffice to say he doesn’t nearly test the goalie enough on any of the chances Dunivant or anyone else creates for him. If he thinks he can score from more than than 7 yards out he’s out of his mind because any shot he takes outside the area is either a) lacking velocity b) lacking accuracy c) lacking velocity and accuracy or d) isn’t even a shooting chance. Cunningham was half-healthy today and I’d rather see a one-legged polio-infested Cunningham than a healthy Collin Samuel any day.

Read the rest of this entry »

This one had that oh so familiar 3-1 feel from the start and the chance of us losing here for the first time in 8 years was pretty much zero. The scum were giving our midfield too space to work with and despite our early missed opportunities it was always a matter of when rather than if we’re going to score. Almunia finally made a mistake and was completely out of position on the Gareth Bale freekick, he sneaked one in on a bounce, nothing spectacular, it just stunk of bad positioning. But it wouldn’t matter because there was no way Paul Robinson was going to shut us out (see, he’s a goalie who has good stretches but bad games).

Read the rest of this entry »

I had always thought so but in the last week I’ve concluded with dynamite determination that logging abstraction is completely pointless. No. Benefit. Whatsoever. Could I be mistaken? No, if anything you’re probably still hanging on to Commons Logging because somebody told you how great it was, I don’t think anyone in their right mind would, after taking a step back and looking at the circumstances say, Hmmm, I really need to be careful and not commit myself to Log4J because God knows when Mark Womack and his team might pack it in and leave me hangin’. The same people who name their first born after Commons Logging classes commit themselves to products like IText, JFreeChart and GodKnowsWhat without ever thinking about abstraction. Raise your hand if you’re ever used IText and considered what happens if you want to switch your PDF generation tool? Nobody? So why the hell do we care so much about logging?

Luckily the answer is as simple as it is stupid: making a logging tool is so freaking easy that everybody’s got a homegrown one which they swear by and would never ditch even if they were offered ass in return (this just in, Logger just won the most used classname ever, it beat out Tester). So instead they use Commons Logging which gives them the feeling of not being such a big idiot with the added bonus of sleeping well at night knowing that they could eaaaasily switch to Log4J if they wanted to. What these poor saps don’t know is that switching between logging tools isn’t even that easy regardless of the abstraction, you still have to worry about configuring your tool which is a major pain in the ass if you want to actually stick to the proper log levels. Besides, nobody’s switching to anything, once you pick a logging framework you stick with it until the application is dead. Period. No exceptions. And if you happen to be switching your logging implementation so frequently that you need abstraction you suck at design and product evaluation.

Do you really care which of the two following imports you’d rather have shit on your code: org.apache.commons.logging or org.apache.log4j. Unless you have a thing for using commons packages (and some people do) you probably don’t give a rats ass. So with that in mind why don’t we save ourselves some trouble and just use Log4J, and as a bonus I’ll throw in the pro of Tomcat not barfing every time it sees two commons logging jars in its classpath, God forbid if they’re two different versions because then it starts giving you errors that make you regret ever even getting into Java.

The only way to beat Log4J is to have something out of the ever so trustworthy java.* packages do the logging for you. Luckily there’s JULI which is really great but unfortunately it’s documented about as poorly as Guice and isn’t marketed nearly as aggressively as that retard Duke (I really hate that son of a bitch, looks like a tooth with a big cavity). Besides, anytime anyone asks you to modify something in the JAVA_HOME directory to configure something red flags go up. Somebody please document how to load a config file from your classpath without specifying a -D option in JAVA_OPTS. I mean I’m configuring logging, not optimizing my garbage collection, yeeeesh.

This post has moved to here.