Tough Call....

Sorry for a long delay in between blogs. Today promises a huge deal, Manchester United against Barcelona. It’s Probably harder to pick a looser than a winner and by that I mean, both teams have several strengths but, the team with the most weaknesses is probably the team who will loose and it is unbelievably difficult to find the weaknesses. It’s easy to point out their strengths.

We’ll start with Barcelona, Messi is the first thing that springs to mind, pace agility and an unbelievable eye for goal, arguably the world’s best player and with Xavi and Iniesta behind him United are going to have to play their hearts out.

Messi has got to make runs at the Manchester United defence, we saw Torres do the same in his Liverpool days and had Vidic in all sorts of trouble. Never the less Vidic has certainly improved and after getting journalists player of the year it backs up the defender’s recent form. Xavi and Iniesta will certainly try to play their usual game and look to pass and challenge their Manchester United counter parts. Dani Alves has been amongst the bad press recently for his tendency to go to ground and it will make for a better game if everybody tries to stay on their feet today. Alves needs to be fit and not get lazy because Ji-Sung-Park will certainly be energetic and look to run forward and take advantage of any tiredness Alves may have, If Alves does not put a shift in getting back then Manchester United may have more than a 50-50 chance, especially with the ability Javier Hernandez getting on the line of the last defender and popping up in behind him when he leasts expects him. Defensively Pique has been sound and will be much more confident than when he was at United. David Villa may end up playing slightly out of Position today bu we’ll have to wait until kick off to find out for sure. Villa has a great goal scoring ability for Spain and has not yet been able to quite match that for Barcelona but he will still be a massive threat. He has skill and a very good finishing ability which maybe can’t be said for park. Park is certainly a work force and is good at moving the ball and setting up goals and he certainly can score big goals but i don’t think he can quite match up to Villa. Bojan, Pedro, Villa whoever plays Barcelona will have no problems going forward and producing chances but can Vidic, Ferdinand and Veteran Vandersar stop Barca actually scoring.

If we look at Manchester United then we’ll struggle to find players who can match Barcelona man for man, but that’s not what United will worry about. United have bags of talent but their in different areas. Two very good centre backs will give the reds confidence in defence and with Edwin Vandersar even more so. In midfield there will certainly be a demand for the ball all of united’s midfielders love moving the ball about and the wide men love to run forwards. United have the full squad minus Hargreaves to choose from so selection is not an issue. It’s already been revealed by Sir alex that united will look to attack and that they are very well prepared for tonight’s game. Up front Rooney and Hernandez are in great form and for Rooney he will look to brush aside his former team mate and get some early shots on goal to give him early confidence.  Hernandez needs to play as he has been all year get on to the shoulder of the last man and use his phenomenal movement to get him a goal, he is not going to get goals by muscling off defenders although for his size he is quite tough. Nani will probably end up on the subs bench because Valencia’s recent form has been good and his crossing ability is superb, in a game that United may end up getting just 4 or 5 crosses in they will have to be put on a plate for united’s front men. It will be interesting to see who Sir Alex picks  to play in the RB role. Rafael has been replaced by twin Fabio in the recent games, both of them love to get forward and like an early challenge or slide tackle to et them gong.

My Possible United team: Vandersar, Rafael, Vidic(C), Ferdinand, Evra, Valencia, Giggs, Scholes, Park, Hernandez, Rooney.

My Possible Barcelona team: Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal, Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, Villa, Bojan.

My prediction is 2-2 and then 3-1 United in Penalties. I think United will take the lead early through Hernandez, Then just on Half Time go 2-0 up with a good finish from Park. Barcelona will naturally attack and then eventually score twice. Penalties well in the bast big players miss big penalties, Ronaldo in the Semi-Final agaist Barca, Ronaldo in the final against Chelsea, Terry against United so i think Messi and Villa will both miss their penalties and United will win.S

Apologies over the delay of this blog, but the focus point is quite simply the Modern day debacles of International Cricket.               

           All through the world cup people were saying players are showing signs of fatigue after a long, hard winter but surely now the ICC has learnt their lesson. The changes to the Schedule ahead of the next world cup means that 2 ashes series will be played in just 6 months. That may mean that the players will be less tired in the world cup and therefore increasing the quality but surely that will DECREASE the quality of the ashes. It was a fantastic ashes this year and it saw some brilliant performances but 10 tests and 14 ODI’s in 2013/14 will take a lot out of the players. Having said that this summer England host both India and Sri Lanka in 7 tests. Focusing on the next world cup a lot  of controversial decisions have been made. The ‘minor countries’ or the associate nations did not produce the most entertaining of games and in fact Ireland were the only team who caused any kind of upset. The ICC later went on to announce that the next wold cup will be slashed to just 10 teams. The fury produced in the Irish camp caused the ICC to have a rethink and as it stands now it looks likely for the Irish and a couple other nations to have a chance to take part, Brilliant news!!! It has not quite been 100 % confirmed as to how many teams.

             It is quite simply going to be an outstanding sumer in 2011. The fastest improving test nation in England playing two of the best teams in the world, who can’t be excited. The little master playing against England’s Hero Graeme Swann. England’s weakest point, well is their one? To split a hair i suppose it is the batting. There is still plenty of depth but possibly they rely too much on Johnny Trott. Trott always seems to be in form and constantly comes up with the goods. In terms of India, they certainly have the batting but in the bowling they are almost equal. A bit like England to be picky maybe India’s weakness is the lack of a quality second fast bowler to follow Zaheer Kahn, Ishant Shama is still a very good bowler. My prediction for the England team is: Strauss (c), Cook (vc), Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Morgan, Prior (wk), Broad, Swann, Anderson, Finn. Samit Patel has been in good nick recently and will be pushing for a place in the next few months.

Bresnan and Tremlett loose out to Finn in my opinion but i don’t think Finn will last the whole series. India will certainly Play Tendulkar, Yuvraj and Harbajan as well as Khan, Dhoni and Sharma. The rest of the team will consist of probably of Raina, Gambhir, Sreesanth, Dravid and the other spot is probably up for grabs. The Sri Lankan team will involve: Sangakarra, Dilshan (c), Samaraweera, Jayasuriya, Mendis, Welegedera, Tharanga, Herath, Randiv, Perera, Fernando. Certainly a weakened team but with the retirement of Maliga and with Matthews not being chosen Sri Lanka will have to fight hard to get their 1st win under new captain Dilshan. My prediction for the England series vs India is 1-2 in India’s favour. For the England and Sri Lanka encounter i predict a 2-0 victory for England.

           Around the world, Australian captain Ricky Ponting has retired and leaves the space open for Michael Clarke, it will certainly be an interesting year for them as they try to rebuild the great team of 2003-2007. Sri Lanka have their own problems as well, new captain and some fresh faces will make the team a bit more fresh. South Africa look strong and in my opinion one of the top 2 teams at the moment as the rankings suggest. Over to England, Andrew Strauss retires the ODI captaincy and Cook takes his place. Captaincy problems al round then but 2011 still promises an awful lot.

Please let me know what you think by writing a comment about the World Cup or Captaincy problems or just about Cricket in general........... Weekly Blog to follow very soon.......

            

It all Opens up.....

It’s been a massive week in all sports and it will be interesting to see what this weekend has in store.  The champions league saw a one sided first legs in both ties and Manchester United are going to have to combat the outstanding Messi. United are also closely trailed by Chelsea in the Premier league and thats where we shall start. 

         Manchester United will have to fight hard. A draw should seal the title for them but United never play for a draw. They will look for the win from the first whistle and will hope to bag an early goal. Chelsea will also hope to win and take over the league leaders, they're main threat, Kalou will try to beat Edwin Van Der Sar, and with his recent form is more than capable. United’s main threats are Hernandez and Rooney who have linked together well ever since Hernandez broke into the first team. I think Chelsea will play an attacking team to try and break through United’s strong defence. Possible team to play Man. United: Czech, Cole, Terry, Luiz, Ivanovic,  Malouda, Lampard, Essien, Mikel, Kalou, Drogba.

Possible United team to play Chelsea: Van der sar, Rafael, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Valencia, Carrick, Giggs, Park, Hernandez, Rooney. Prediction 3-1 Chelsea.

          Another big game is Wigan vs Aston Villa. Villa have never beat Wigan at home and will hope to do so today. Wigan need the points to keep fighting to stay in the league. Should wigan win and Blackpool fail to do so then Wolves will clamber out of the Relegation zone. It’s very tight down the bottom. Possible team: Habsi, Figueroa, Alcaraz, Gouhori, Boyce, Cleverly, Mc Arthur, McCarthy, N Zogbia, Watson, Rodallega.

Aston Villa: Friedel, Young, Dunne, Collins, Walker, Downing, Young, Petrov, Reo Coker, Heskey, Bent. Prediction: 1-1

         They are just the two biggest games of the day, One at the top and the other at the bottom. Chelsea are really closing the gap on the 18 time champions but United will fight hard. At the bottom West Ham, Wigan and Wolves are all fighting for survival.The race for the champions league places heats up as Liverpool enter contention, Tottenham play Blackpool in a game that could affect both ends of the table. The Champions league itself this year is heading for a grande Finale the best player in your against the best Manager in Europe. Barce beat United two years ago but united were the victors in the 2008 encounter. The Championship, well after QPR survive a point deduction possibility this morning they now have Premier League status, yet again Nottingham forest make the play offs and so do Swansea and i think it will be a Swansea-Forest encounter in the final. 

           Onto Cricket, the season is in full flow, the village cricket matches have started and summer is in the air. However what looks like 3 games heading for a draw in fourth day of the county championship. Middlesex look like drawing to Gloucestershire. Century for Taylor and Fifty for Marshall put Gloucestershire off to a good start and Middlesex replied with Fifty from Dexter and 87 from Rogers. A strong Gloucestershire reply saw a 93 from Gidman and a 72 from Cockbain. Surely heading for a Draw.

            The only positive result looks like its going to be for Northants, so far  2 Centuries altogether Stevens and Hall and several fifties all round keeping it poised. Unfortunately no one could bat well with Stevens in the first innings.

            The IPL hots up now. Valthathy is the under praised star so far doing brilliantly in the opening phases. Tendulkar looses his cap to Sehwag who now takes over as leading run scorer. Eoin Morgan is like a ball magnet always producing brilliant performances in the field and some good runs with the bat. Asked to play midweek at the top of the order and did well, interesting to see how the end of todays game goes. Lasith Malinga is brilliant and continues to wear the purple cap. I think the Mumbai Indians on the whole look set to win and thats the way it’s heading. 


Key Words: Malinga, Cricket, Ipl, IPL, Sports, Premier League, Mumbai, Wigan, Blackpool. County Championship.

          Special Blog on Cricket to follow Early next week..........