Reuters Soccer Blog

Soccer Break Wednesday

A fine Wednesday to you all, and a few statistics to begin with. Attendance at the Nou Camp: 95,486. Estimated crowd noise (in decibels): 121.8. Estimated noise of a referee’s whistle (in decibels): 121.8.

The operative word above is estimated, because of course we have no idea, but a quick dig around on the internet shows some debate about whether Robin van Persie could have heard Massimo Busacca’s whistle despite the defeaning noise at the Nou Camp.

Sending-off or no sending-off, here’s another statistic for you from the Champions League thriller. Completed passes: Barcelona – 738 ; Arsenal – 199. The Londoners did mighty well to hang in there and can be proud of their efforts, but the Catalan team’s superiority told in the end. Few teams could touch them in that mood.

Do you think 11 against 11 would have seen Arsenal through? Or was the red card just a mere sideshow?

In Tuesday’s other action, Shakhtar Donetsk eased past AS Roma 3-0 to book their quarter-final place to become the first Ukrainian side to reach the last eight since Dynamo Kiev in 1999.

So now all eyes will be on another north London team hoping to reach the quarters. Tottenham Hotspur take a one-goal advantage into their clash with AC Milan at White Hart Lane.

Schalke 04, whose manager Felix Magath could leave at the end of the season according to German media, host La Liga side Valencia after former Real Madrid striker Raul salvaged a 1-1 draw for the Bundesliga club in the first leg in Spain.

Everton and Moyes running out of options

By James Illingworth

Sympathy for the plight of their rivals may be kept to an absolute minimum by the red and blue halves of Liverpool but even the staunchest of Kopites should spare a thought for David Moyes.

Having seen his side claim partial revenge for their 2009 FA Cup final defeat by knocking Chelsea out on penalties last month, Moyes could not prevent first division Reading ending Everton’s cup run in the fifth round on Tuesday.

Forced to operate a sell-before-you-buy policy and with the club failing to attract investment, the 47-year-old Scot is beginning to cut an increasingly frustrated figure.

“We let the supporters down tonight, we didn’t play well enough and we got what we deserved,” Moyes told Everton’s website. “We didn’t have enough, enough craft, enough guile to break them down. I thought we did try to take the initiative but we weren’t good enough.”

Without star performers Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellani, whose ankle injury will keep him out for the rest of the season, the Blues’ limited squad was exposed against Reading.

They remain a team capable of matching any side on their day, but without significant investment, Everton will surely stay on the fringes of the Premier League’s top teams.

Ferguson spares Rooney but opens the door to more abuse

Wayne Rooney has been taking, and largely ignoring, abuse from Everton supporters for six years but Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson decided on Saturday that a garnish of tabloid tittle-tattle on top the traditional “Judas” fare was too much.

“He gets terrible abuse here and I’m not going to subject him to that,” Ferguson said when explaining his decision to leave the England striker out of the remarkable 3-3 draw. 

His assistant Mike Phelan played the issue down after the match, saying it was “no real big decision”.

 ”Wayne was not ready to play so we didn’t play him,” he said. 

United fans seemed unimpressed with the decision, with the majority on the forums and phone-ins saying Rooney should have played.

Rooney, who famously wore a T-shirt reading “once a blue, always a blue,” was hugely popular at Everton after two stellar years as a teenager.

Predictions league foresees more doom for Arsenal

Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat at home to Manchester United last weekend has led many of our panel to predict similar gloom for Arsene Wenger’s men at Chelsea this Sunday.

It’s been a tough run of fixtures for the Gunners but for most of our “experts” here at Reuters Soccer blog, it’s been painful throughout the season. Do you think you would be better than our panel at predicting the Premier League scores each weekend? Believe me, it’s not hard to beat us.

Five points for a correct score and one point for the right result. If you are joining now for the first time you can have double points until the end of the season, plus innumerable bonus points for way-out guesses on goalscorers, red cards, streakers etc. The best part is you total up the scores yourself and we trust you!

It really is all to play for, especially as long-time pacesetter Patrick lost his lead by gaining just three points last weekend and woefully predicting a 3-0 win for Arsenal over United. 

Please post your guesses in the comments below. Here are this weekend’s fixtures and our panel’s current table. I’ll add in more of our panel predictions as they land. It’s the Merseyside derby this weekend too, by the way… 

Reuters Soccer blog panel: Paul Radford 198, Patrick Johnston 197, Mitch Phillips 182, Neil Maidment 177, Kevin Fylan 162, Mark Meadows 149, Simon Evans 151, Julien Pretot 143, Mike Collett 137, Asia Sports Desk 128, Martyn Herman 109, Miles Evans 108, Sonia Oxley 71

Donovan must think hard about Everton move

Everton hope to complete the signing of Landon Donovan on loan from Major League Soccer’s L.A Galaxy, a move which has generated plenty of excitement among North American soccer fans.

The move makes a lot of sense for Everton manager David Moyes – it gives him no-risk attacking cover, particularly useful while Nigerian Yakubu Aiyegbeni is away throughout January at the African Nations Cup. What is less obvious is why a short term loan spell is a good move for Donovan.

The move is being reported as similar to Donovan’s L.A team mate David Beckham’s temporary switch to AC Milan but there is a major difference in the circumstances facing the two players.

Beckham is pushing himself through a gruelling 16 month non-stop season with no real rest because he has been forced into that situation by England manager Fabio Capello. The Italian has told the midfielder that he must be playing in Europe and be able to prove his form and fitness if he wants to make the World Cup squad.

Donovan is in an entirely different position and it is odd that he would consider copying Beckham. Donovan’s place in the U.S squad is absolutely secure and his coach Bob Bradley would be the last person urging him to go and play in Europe during a period of the year when MLS players are supposed to be recovering ahead of the new season.

What is driving Donovan’s possible move is not the World Cup or any thoughts about the U.S national team but his own lack of satisfaction with his club career.

Despite being the U.S’s all-time scorer and the winner of countless domestic awards, Donovan has yet to prove himself on the international scene. He has had three attempts at breaking into the Bundesliga (twice with Bayer Leverkusen and last year’s loan with Bayern Munich) and on three occasions he has been sent packing back to America having failed to make the grade.

UPDATE: Derby fever hits the predictions league

Monday update: You would think 14 games into the season we would have learnt who was likely to beat who in the Premier League. Sadly not. I did OK for a change but only Martyn Herman really covered himself in glory with two five pointers for Villa 1-1 Spurs and Manchester City collecting yet another draw against Hull City.

But I wouldn’t celebrate like Jimmy Bullard just yet, Martyn, you’re still third bottom.

So how did you do? Let us know in the comments. If you predicted at least one Drogba goal you can have a bonus point but I doubt anybody thought Rooney would get a hat-trick. As for Liverpool actually winning, well they had to get a flukey deflection sometime…

Updated Reuters Soccer Blog panel scores: Patrick Johnston 134, Mitch Phillips 118, Paul Radford 113, Mike Collett 105, Mark Meadows 99, Simon Evans 95, Kevin Fylan 91, Miles Evans 89, Neil Maidment 88, Asia Sports Desk 75, Julien Pretot 74, Martyn Herman 61, Justin Palmer 41, Sonia Oxley 31 (bonus point for getting predictions in early)

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Friday post: Some bumper Premier League matches this weekend but will that mean we’ll be seeing bumper points totals in our predictions competition?

Panel predictions: how low can you go?

The best and brightest here at Reuters Soccer Blog continue to show they’d struggle to tip their own hats in a stiff breeze, let alone a correct score in the Premier League.

Our leader, Paul Radford, managed an unhappy three points this week … and look, who’s that chap who has sneaked through to replace him at the top? That was not the most impressive display of the week, however … for that look at one Julien Pretot, our new signing from the Paris bureau who leapt in with a 14 in his first week!

I expect to see him racing down the entire length of the Channel Tunnel, sliding to his knees and celebrating in front of Reuters Soccer Blog in Canary Wharf.

Remember, you get one point for predicting the right result, and make that five if you hit the nail exactly on the head. This week, I’m giving an extra point to Mike Collett for cheekily predicting Adebayor to score against Arsenal, even if he was a way off on the score. No other points for style as yet, but I expect there’ll be some pleas coming in.

Here are the latest standings:

Reuters Soccer Blog: Kevin Fylan 35, Paul Radford 34, Patrick Johnston 34, Simon Evans 32, Miles Evans 30, Mitch Phillips 24, Mike Collett 18, Neil Maidment 14, Julien Pretot 14, Asia Sports Desk 10,  Mark Meadows 8

The Rest of the World: Insert your score in the comments, please. We’ll believe you. Thousands wouldn’t.

Everton win saves panel from being banished to the stands

Very few of our panel should be enjoying their English Bank Holiday Monday. Most must hang their heads in shame.

Manchester United 2-1 Arsenal was an eventful game to say the least, with a penalty, bizarre own goal, a late strike disallowed for offside and Arsene Wenger harshly being sent to the stands where he didn’t have a seat.

Nevertheless, 2-1 to the champions was a pretty predictable score but only our Kevin had his wits about him to forecast it.

Three of our panel (the flying Justin Palmer, Simon Evans and Neil Maidment) correctly guessed Everton would end an early slump and beat Wigan 2-1 but in truth it was only thanks to a penalty deep into injury time from former Wigan man Leighton Baines.

Justin got another bumper five points for predicting Chelsea’s 3-0 victory over Burnley to gain the top score of the weekend with 15. Simon was close behind after bagging a second maximum for Manchester City’s attacking riches grinding out a 1-0 win at Portsmouth, who have finally starting buying rather than selling players.

So here’s the run down overall (with a few sunbathing absentees last week): Paul Radford 31, Justin Palmer 28, Patrick Johnston 25, Simon Evans 25, Miles Evans 24, Kevin Fylan 23, Mitch Phillips 16, Mike Collett 14, Neil Maidment 11, Asia Sports Desk 5, Mark Meadows 5 (last three on debut)

City’s spending spree makes sense in battle for fourth place

There’s been a fair bit of speculation, here and elsewhere, about whether Manchester City could actually win the Premier League title but a more realistic goal is a top four finish. That being the case, the summer spending spree seen by some as being brash and uncoordinated is actually very shrewd.

Look carefully, and what City have managed to do, with the recruitment of Gareth Barry from Aston Villa and Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure from Arsenal, is to weaken two of their rivals for fourth place.

Last season Villa and Arsenal fought tooth and nail for that position and with his transfer policy Mark Hughes has struck an early couple of blows in this season’s fight.

Note that City also have their sights on defender Joleon Lescott from Everton, another team with Champions League aspirations.

Add to that the hugely satisfying signing of former Manchester United forward Carlos Tevez and there would seem to be a pattern to their spending spree — even if results are not yet going their way.

Football’s heart still beating strong at FA Cup final time

Football nostalgia is not what it used to be but there were times on Saturday when the Champions League, 120,000 pounds-a-week contracts and “the business of the game” were forgotten in a return to the days when the FA Cup was the only thing that mattered.

As I walked down Wembley Way towards the stadium, the massed Everton fans out to squeeze every last drop from the day brought back memories of countless other sunny Saturdays in May, when everything stopped for the Cup final.

For generations of fans, players and managers, getting to the final was often the pinnacle of their season if not their lives.

For those not lucky enough or too young to attend there was the consolation of hours of build-up and the rarity of a live TV match, followed by hours of re-enacting it all outside with friends.

The stadium has changed since then but that walk from Wembley central underground station, now shadowed by the arch, rather than the twin towers, remains one that every fan should experience at least once.

It was a well-trodden one for Everton fans in the 1980s as they reached four FA Cup finals and also a League Cup decider but things have been lean since then, with their 1995 victory over Manchester United a rare taste of the big time.