Man and Ball: Individual Piece

My piece: "No Club Left Behind - East German football since reunification" in Issue One of Man and Ball magazine is now available for free individual download - http://www.manandball.com/#/individual-pieces/4555936051

Brighton 0-1 West Ham – Tactics and Analysis

An entertaining match, and a fascinating tactical battle between two sides with contrasting styles, West Ham narrowly beat Brighton to go 2^nd in the Championship.

Hundert Pro: The story of Germany's perfect qualification for Euro 2012

Germany rounded off a 100% record in qualification for the European Championships in Poland and the Ukraine on Tuesday with a convincing 3-1 victory over Belgium. With ten wins out of ten, this side have built on their impressive showing at last summer’s World Cup to become one of the big favourites for next summer’s tournament.

To start recounting Germany’s journey into Euro 2012, we should cast our minds back to before qualification began, and the night of July 7^th 2010: the World Cup semi-final against Spain in Durban. Germany were second-best, and missed a creative spark in the absence of star-performer Thomas Müller, a gap which replacement Piotr Trochowski could not quite make up for. And there was also the hint that the game represented a step too far for other young star Mesut Özil. But by the end of the qualification campaign for Euro 2012, Germany would have one of the strongest and deepest squads in Europe.

US Open Preview: Top two fitness could open the door to a new winner

After Novak Djokovic retired during the second set of his Cincinnati final against Andy Murray last week, he was technically handed only his second defeat of the entire year, taking his 2011 record to a still superhuman 57 victories to just two losses. 

 

Before labelling Djokovic as almost unbeatable at present, we must remember that nobody can play at such a standard he has in every single match over a full season. After he finally lost his first match of the year to Roger Federer at Roland Garros, the Serb had commented that “you do feel a relief when you finish a tournament. If you finish victorious it’s much better than finishing with a loss”. In defeat, it seemed as though not only had a huge burden of pressure and expectation been lifted from his shoulders, after the intense media coverage of his record run; but also that he was in a way glad, due to fatigue, not to have to play another match, even if that match was a French Open final. After his rest, Djokovic went on to claim the Wimbledon trophy and has kept on winning since, making his defeat to Federer seem a mere anomaly. While he’s gotten more used to the pressure and expectation, the fatigue side of things may still come back to hinder his chances of US Open glory.

The Cahill offer: Is Wenger a victim of the rapidly changing English market?

The transfer talk of the day is Arsenal’s reported £6 million plus add-ons offer for Bolton defender Gary Cahill. The sum has been lambasted in media circles. “The word derisory doesn’t even cover it”, Bolton boss Owen Coyle has said of Arsenal’s proposal, “an insult to Bolton and Cahill” added BBC website chief sports writer Phil McNulty on Twitter. The offer is not an insult to Bolton and Cahill. 

Bolton’s valuation of the 25-year-old has little to do with the player’s ability. The only reason Cahill’s offer can be seen as insulting or derisory is when compared to some of the eye-watering fees circulating the English market.

Tell me what you've been doing, busy little bee

I've not posted for a couple of weeks, but here are links to a couple of articles I've written for other websites. With the new season around the corner, I've been doing a couple of previews:

Read my Premier League preview of Fulham for Back Page Football here

And one for Bundesliga Fanatic previewing Borussia Mönchengladbach here

See also:

Back Page Football

Bundesliga Fanatic

Some thoughts on Energie Cottbus vs Dynamo Dresden (Bundesliga II)

Just 53 days after winning promotion to the second tier of German football, eastern club Dynamo Dresden kicked off the new season in the Bundesliga II with a 2-1 away defeat against Energie Cottbus. But Dynamo will have every reason to be encouraged with their performance.

Tipped by many to struggle at the bottom of the table this season, the first match against fellow eastern outfit Cottbus, sixth last season, was always going to be tough. In particular, having lost three of the key-players in their promotion charge, with top-scorer from last term Alexander Esswein signing for Bundesliga side FC Nürnberg, Dani Schahin, who scored eight in twelve in the league during his loan spell, returning to parent club Greuther Fürth, and influential midfielder Timo Röttger signing for RB Leipzig; “Die SG”, not one of German football’s richer outfits, are expected to face a tough season. 

Is Federer finished?

After the six-time champion’s second quarter-final defeat in a row at Wimbledon, many are now claiming that Roger Federer’s time at the top is almost up. But the truth is the Swiss maestro has been a level below the sport’s best for the last 18 months. 

Roger Federer is still one of the best players in the game. Although he turns 30 next month, the 16-time grand slam champion and family man still lives for tennis. He appears more relaxed than he used to, perhaps down to his family life, which attitude played a big part in his remarkable run of form at the French Open this year, and, admirably, his love for the game and appetite for success has not waned. While his age and desire are not factors in speculation over his decline, it’s on the court where Federer has lost something.

Typically so ruthless when in a winning position, as possibly the greatest front-runner the game has ever seen, his loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Wimbedon was the Swiss’ first ever defeat from leading two sets to love. His record prior to that was an astonishing 178-0. One the one hand, that record surely had to end at some stage. On the other hand, it was a moment highly symbolic of Federer's past year and a half. 

The resurgence of the Davis Cup?

The competition is still important, just ask Novak Djokovic

The Davis Cup returns this Friday with two of the world’s top four players back in action, in a competition often shunned by tennis' biggest names. Both Roger Federer and Andy Murray, whose participation in the tournament has been something of a rarity over the past few years, will compete again for their respective countries.


With the men’s game so strong currently, winning a major singles title is now harder than ever. The Davis Cup has become increasingly sidelined, with calls to revamp the competition resurfacing each year. But given that new world number one Novak Djokovic has drawn so much confidence from, and attributed much of his astounding success in 2011 to winning the Davis Cup with Serbia last December, could it be that Federer and Murray’s return to action might represent a shifting trend in attitude towards the Davis Cup? Or is it merely a case of the two continuing their flippant, pick-and-choose attitude towards the competition, but just for the same matchday this time?

Football Magazine "Man and Ball" goes live

http://www.manandball.com/

Man & Ball is a new quarterly digital magazine appearing 28 June 2011. 

Issue One: Let Sleeping Gods Lie, will be FREE to download, blending fiction with some great football writing.  It chronicles Nigel's initial attempts to sort out the mess in which the game now finds itself.

Articles include:

My own attempt to discuss East German football since reunification.

Stefan Bienkowski on Pablo Emilio Escobar and drugs in Colombian football in the '80s.

A piece by Gary Al-Smith on Arsenal fans in Africa.

Mohamed Moallim on forgotten Dutch legend Ruud Krol.

A guide to the Copa America by Emelie Okeke.

Martin Palazzotto on the worrying trend of the increasing size of athletes.

Samuel Garuda lifts the veil on football's governing body and tells us what FIFA actually does.

Why fans love to hate sometimes, and why Andrew Thomas loves to hate Jack Wilshere.

Tomasz Mortimer looks at Hungarian football, at international and club level, from the fifties through to 1966 (mostly fictional).

And David Hartrick's "The Chairman Diaries"


GO DOWNLOAD

http://www.manandball.com/

Football Farrago

Two songs for summer

 Pumped up Kicks - Foster the People

Lorelai - Fleet Foxes

'King' Kenny's league table (since 12 Jan 2011)

The form of the league’s 'big six' since Dalglish took over from Roy Hodgson as Liverpool boss on January 12.

Team (as 11 September)	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
Man Utd	22	15	3	4	32	48
Chelsea	21	14	4	3	21	46
Man City	20	13	2	5	20	41
LIVERPOOL	22	12	4	6	21	40
Arsenal	21	8	8	5	2	32
Tottenham	20	7	8	5	-2	29

French Open Preview

With seven tournament victories out of seven, and 37 consecutive wins in the process, Novak Djokovic has not only utterly dominated tennis in 2011 so far, he has also won a great many admirers in the process. This supremacy has come in a generation many consider as the greatest of all time. Djokovic has improved his game to a level few considered possible: The Serb is now the game’s fiercest hitter and, added to that, he has become fitter and quicker even than Rafael Nadal. His relentless power, combined with his great energy, has been marvellous, and Nadal has been unable to cope over the last two tournaments. 

Perhaps the best part of the current generation of tennis stars, arguably the greatest the game has ever seen, is the humility of the current world’s best. On the court, they are machines. The spellbinding brilliance of Roger Federer during the 2000s raised the bar so high that, in order to compete, a player would have to reach super-human levels of quality, accuracy and consistency. Then the stunning year that Nadal had in 2010 left us wondering how the rest of the tennis world could possibly respond. In an era blessed with some great talent across the top ten, the reality was that when Nadal produced his best nobody could come close to him. But recent tennis history has taught us to expect another phenomenon just around the corner, and Novak Djokovic’s start to 2011, defying all expectation and reason, has delivered just that phenomenon. But, off the court, Djokovic is also extremely popular, demonstrating in his recent victories an admirable humility, humour and grounded passion for the game.

Premiership Table Since 1 January 2011

Pos	Team (As 21 May)	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man Utd	19	12	3	4	17	39
2	Chelsea	18	11	4	3	19	37
3	Liverpool	19	11	3	5	18	36
4	Arsenal	18	8	7	3	11	31
5	Man City	17	9	3	5	9	30
6	Fulham	18	8	4	6	10	29
7	Everton	18	7	5	6	6	26
8	Tottenham	18	6	8	4	2	26
9	Aston Villa	18	6	7	5	2	25
10	West Brom	18	6	6	6	10	24
11	Newcastle	18	5	8	5	2	23
12	Stoke	18	6	4	8	-1	22
13	Wolves	18	6	4	8	-7	22
14	Birmingham	19	5	5	9	-17	20
15	Wigan	18	4	7	7	-8	19
16	Bolton	17	5	2	10	-8	17
17	Sunderland	17	5	2	10	-13	17
18	West Ham	17	4	4	9	-10	16
19	Blackburn	17	3	6	8	-9	15
20	Blackpool	20	3	5	12	-18	14

Hollywood Haikus II

Best for Film are running a 'Hollywood Haikus' competition. Prizes are a blu-ray player, and the site publishes the best entries with a link to your own site. But this just looks like a bit of fun anyway... so here goes!

Here's a Haiku review of the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:

Ford and Connery
ride off into the distance.
Did we need a fourth?


http://bestforfilm.com/film-blog/competition-hollywood-haikus/

This is an entry for the Best For Film Hollywood Haikus blogging competition. Enter now.


back to work...

Hollywood Haikus

Best for Film are running a 'Hollywood Haikus' competition. Prizes are a blu-ray player, and the site publishes the best entries with a link to your own site. But this just looks like a bit of fun anyway... so here goes!

Here's a Haiku review of the film Black Swan:

Well-acted film, but
did Natalie do all that?
I doubt it somehow.


http://bestforfilm.com/film-blog/competition-hollywood-haikus/

This is an entry for the Best For Film Hollywood Haikus blogging competition. Enter now.

Bayern München vs Bayer Leverkusen preview: can Leverkusen still win the title?

Bayer Leverkusen have certainly done their best to keep this year’s title race open and exciting. Four weeks ago, Borussia Dortmund were looking dead-certs to clinch their first Bundesliga title since 2002. But the gap at the top has been closed from twelve points to five (with five to play), meaning that the final few weeks of the season will be edgier for Dortmund fans than they might have hoped, but looks set to provide some great excitement for the neutral. 

Jupp Heynckes' side have deservedly thrown themselves right into contention, taking 22 points out of a possible 24 in their last eight games, a remarkable run which leaves this superb BVB side suddenly looking nervously over their shoulders. But it seems probable that if Die Werkself still hold dreams of pipping Dortmund to the post, they will have to win at Bayern München on Sunday afternoon, which promises to be an exciting match for many reasons.

Hughton the man to take West Ham forward

A desperate plea from a Hammers fan

Let me start, as most misguided rants do, with a caveat. I am not an advocate of getting rid of a manager early into his tenure. With stakes so high these days, chairmen have become dangerously short-sighted when it comes to assessing the performance of the team boss.

Now we all know that the most successful clubs are the ones with long-term managers, and clubs have a growing tendency to sack the boss before he has the full opportunity to implement real change to his club. This is now more than just a worrying trend; it has pretty much become part-and-parcel of the modern game, both in England and abroad.

Yet in the case of my own West Ham, and their (how do I put this?) beleaguered boss Avram Grant, I found myself ignoring my own advice, my own moral high ground. I'll be honest, I wanted Grant out as early as the dismal 3-0 defeat against Liverpool way back in November.

Parenthood. Season 1: Review

A drama series about three generations within one family.  A serious version of Modern Family, you ask? Yes, but in more of an 'older brother' than 'unfortunate love-child' kind of way.

No club left behind?

East German football since reunification


It's been a difficult twenty years for the football clubs of the former East Germany.

Take FC Lokomotive Leipzig. A successful club in the years of the German Democratic Republic, they reached the Cup Winners Cup Final in 1986/87, losing out to opponents Ajax, with legendary striker Marco van Basten scoring the winner. In the 1993/4 season, Lokomotive, renamed VfB Leipzig, were competing in the Bundesliga. But by 2004 they were bankrupt, and the club was dissolved. Reformed again as Lokomotive Leipzig, they have since climbed back into Germany's fifth tier, but while the new club's name invokes the past heyday of the GDR time, and while the club has certainly retained a loyal fan base, they cannot escape the feeling that their team's glory days are not only over, but will never happen for them again.