A friendly competition

Warning: Not directly football related!

I admit to being more competitive than your average Joe the plumber. I like to compete and I always try to win. Most of the time, it’s a spoken, agreed competition, but on occasion you have a situation such as the one below, when the competition is never mentioned by either party and no winner is officially crowned.

I was at Hoppeloppeland with my kids the other week, a great play area with lots of climbing areas, bouncy castles and games. They have a small room there with a pool table, air hockey table, one of those pub basketball hoops and a football machine. The football machine is similar to the boxing machines they have at fairs, where the purpose is to punch as hard as you can and the machine measures how hard you do it. The football machine measures how hard you kick the ball.

I had been in this room when we first arrived, and while the kids played air hockey, I had a quick go and set the high score for the day with a mediocre kick. This was early in the day, so it was no great accomplishment, to say the least. We returned to the room about an hour later. Two nine or ten year olds were playing on the football machine, while a young dad, whose daughter was playing on the air hockey table, was standing by. I could see him eyeballing the machine.

After seeing the two kids getting scores of about 4-500 on this machine (my high score had been 664), I asked them how high they thought I could kick it. I never exchanged a look with the other dad, but the challenge was on. I stepped back and gave it one of those “I know I’m risking pulling a muscle, but I don’t care”-kicks. The kickmeter climbed steadily to just over 730. The kids were very impressed and my kids were proud that these big kids had gone “wow” to my limited football skills.

We left the room a few minutes later, but the toilets are just outside that room, so i was waiting there while the kids went. I glanced into the room and I saw the other dad setting up the machine and giving it his best.

The meter counted up: 400-500-600-650-680-690-”696″.

I smiled to myself. Result.

It’s over, Åge

When your girlfriend (or boyfriend) dumps you, the first instinct will always be to try to win her back. It doesn’t matter if you know it’s not working out, you don’t want to be dumped, so you’ll say anything and do anything to win her back. Then maybe you can end it on your terms.

Åge Hareide knows he’s about to get dumped and he’s clinging on to any last hope of retaining his employment status as Head Coach of the Norwegian national team.

Åge, I’ve defended you. I’ve argued that we need to stay together because being in a relationship is better than being single. I’ve wanted to wait until we find someone better to replace you with.

However, enough is enough. As other commentators are saying today, the last two games are not the reason. We played ok in Glasgow and we played ok against Holland yesterday. But we didn’t get the points and afterwards, we were making excuses. There have been too many excuses. In the grand scheme of things you’re either lucky, and things bounce your way, or you’re not. If you’re not lucky significantly more than lucky, it’s because you’re inadequatly prepared. Åge’s teams have not been well prepared, they have resorted to excuses on too many occasions and now our relationship is finished. No more excuses.

What’s next? I don’t know. I would love to get a Karel Brückner type of coach, who has proven his worth at different levels, but I don’t see that happening. Maybe Solskjær can do his best Slaven Bilic/Mark Hughes impersonation and start off his management career as a national team coach, but I’m not convinced that’s a great solution either. I don’t see any great candidates among the Tippeliga coaches either, perhaps with the exception of Jan Jönsson, the Stabæk coach.

I hope we can find someone with a clearly defined strategy and a great ability to motivate. Semb was a decent strategist, but he was never a motivator. I saw far too many uninspired performances during his tenure. Hareide is a decent motivator, but a below average strategist and a lazy talent evaluator. We need someone who can inspire the players to perform at their best level, in a system that exploits the limited talent we have available. This was the key to success during the 90s and it will be the key to success again. We may not need the same system, but we need an innovative approach to the game to camouflage our talent disadvantage.

Thanks for your effort, Åge, I’m sure you did your best. However, we’ve decided to move on. It’s not you, it’s us. We don’t love you anymore.

The joy of football

I take great joy from watching the best football teams in the world play. I enjoy their great individual skills, spectacular passing and solid defending. Watching football is great, but more than anything, I love playing football.

I play in a lower league team filled with players who are past our prime, though some of us have not really ever had a “prime.” My own footballing, for example, is very limited. I used to have pace, but at the age of 34 most of it is gone. I’ve never had much skill, so that part of my game hasn’t changed much over the years. I can compensate for my lack of skill and pace through a good understanding of the game, so I’m pencilled in as the left back where I can’t do too much damage. My defensive positioning means I normally stop the right winger so he’s not doing much damage, either.

Last night our team put together one of the more inspired performances I have been part of for a long time. We haven’t practiced much this season, which has led to a string of bad results. We came into last night’s game against promotion chasing Ullern 2 having lost 0-2, 2-7, 3-4, 2-5 and 3-5 in our last five games, the last three of which against fellow bottom-dwellers. Many of these games have been lost by conceding very cheap goals (to my defense, I have not been guilty of gifting away any of them).

The game last night started out pretty much where we left off the week before. I had been shifted into the middle as our defensive general Nico H was unable to play. Manning the left back spot was Faddy, and he and I probably carry an extra 20 kilos between us. This turned out to be a challenge when the opposing right wing stormed through our left side three times within the first 20 minutes. However, in spite of creating some wonderful chances, Ullern never found the back of the net. Not even when our other central defender, Thomas, gifted them a goal scoring opportunity when the pass he had intended to reach me with was well out of my limited range.

Then we had somewhat of a transformation. Our youngest player, Torkel, who was still in his nappys when most of the rest of the team were out getting drunk for the first time (I think he’s 24), was introduced at Faddy’s expense and I was moved out to my more familiar left back spot. Up front, Tom, who does not belong at this level, was harassing the Ullern defense with his superior skills and pace. Unfortunately, he was unable to capitalise on the opportunities presented to him through his hard work and excellent combinations with Ståle, our right winger. Ståle had his best game as a Bærumsløkka player before being substituted through injury late in the first half.

Though Tom couldn’t find the back of the net, we still managed to find a very scrappy goal when their goalie dropped a floating free kick that bounced right in front of him. I have always been a big proponent of storming in on the goalie on free kicks from distance, as the movement will always disturb him and he may let it go, drop it or you may get a deflection on it to guide it into the net. Pål Sverre found the right movement on this occasion and was in the right place at the right time to run the ball into the net.

Pål Sverre is one of those players who is a great guy off the pitch and turns into the devil’s incarnate when he gets his boots on and makes a few runs. Last night he was a beast, tackles flying left and right and he made sure the referee’s whistle wasn’t rotting away in his pocket. Most of his tackles won the ball, though – his was one of several great performances.

Nico S was thrown into the action at the last minute as our best attacking player from the last few seasons, Larsa, had to throw in the towel after the warm ups with a bum knee. Nico went on to put in one of those truly underrated performances. He beat much taller Ullern players to the ball on two key corner kicks late in the game and fought and scrapped with their wide midfielders and right back all game, helping me shore up the left side.

Nico played well, Pål played well, Torkel played well after coming on, Tom was a terror up front and the rest of the guys worked very hard too. It was a truly great team performance. However, there was no doubt who was the man of the match.

Our manager doubles as our 3^rd choice goalie and in the four seasons I’ve played with Bærumsløkka he has only played when there was an absolute emergency. He is a better leader and organiser than a footballer. This fall we’ve had a few emergencies and he has been forced into action on several occasions. He’ll be the first to admit that he’s given away a goal or two.

Against Ullern, though, he more than held his own in the first half, helping us go into the break 1-0 up. In the second half, the referee awarded a dubious penalty when he judged Jokke to have hand balled in the area. It was a very questionable decision, the ball was headed at him from two meters away and his arm was tucked along his body, slightly in front of him – if it hadn’t hit his arm it would’ve hit his body. The penalty gift hurt us especially as we’ve had two very questionable penalty calls lose us both the biggest game of the season (2-1 at home against Fossum) and a non-call cost us two points when our attacker was clearly chopped down in the area in a key bottom table game that ended in a draw.

On this occasion, though, the well struck penalty was brilliantly saved. Øivind’s cat like dive will go into Bærumsløkka lore, especially if we can get a result next week against the already promoted Oldenborg and save our place in the division. We managed to ride out the intense pressure in the last 15 minutes, including the relief when the linesman disallowed a goal for an offside I have no clue whether was right or wrong.

I want to extend a thank you to all the guys who were involved in the game for their effort and enthusiasm. You can say it was just a 1-0 win in a meaningless 4^th division game an autumn evening in Norway. But for me it was a thrilling win. Two teams of true amateurs battling it out with nothing but pride and the ambition to play in the highest division possible next season at stake. This is the truest form of sport for those of us who love to play the game. This is the pure joy of football.

Referees force players to dive

I’ve just watched Manchester United fight their way to a point in a typical early season battle at Stamford Bridge. The best player on each team, Ronaldo and Drogba, are both far from their best and both started on the bench. The football was average, so to me, the biggest story from this team was the terrible refereeing. It is a strange thing to say in a game with very few controvercial incidents and where no single decision made by the referee decided the outcome of the game.

However, Mike Riley’s performance in this game was absolutely terrible in my view. He did as much to ruin the flow of the game as was possible within the powers delegated to him through his black shirt, whistle and two cards. There was one area in particular where he showed a lack of understanding of the game: In his view, if you stay on your feet it’s not a foul, if you fall down, the referee has a decision to make.

There was a two minute stretch in the second half where two incidents in Manchester United’s right back area illustrated this point perfectly:

• First, Christiano Ronaldo got the ball from a team mate along the sideline about half way down his own half. Frank Lampard approached him fast, and Ronaldo turned quickly and went down, as he anticipated the contact from Lampard. The contact never came, but Riley blew his whistle and awarded a free kick. Lampard was robbed of a decent goal scoring opportunity.
• Shortly thereafter, Michael Ballack chased a ball down toward the corner flag. He nudged it along the sideline and Gary Neville’s sliding tackle came in too late to catch the ball. Ballack avoided the tackle – had he not, he might have been facing a few weeks on the sidelines and Neville would’ve certainly received his second yellow card and been sent off – but his progress toward the corner flag was impeded and the ball went out for a goal kick. Since there was no contact and Ballack stayed on his feet, Riley didn’t blow his whistle, in spite of the obvious foul committed by Neville.

Referees rarely award free kicks or penalties when players stay on their feet. Hence, players are forced to make a decision when they feel contact. They have to judge if the contact has been forceful enough that it’s better for the team to get a dead ball situation than to try to continue their movement. If they continue their movement they can still try to win the ball and score a goal, but they’re almost definitely losing the opportunity to win a free kick, since the referees only award free kicks to players who go down.

The worst consequence of this is that players sometimes decide before the contact occurs that they will go down. This is when you see diving. For most players, diving isn’t a way to try to cheat your way to a free kick or penalty, it’s a way to communicate to the referee that you think you have been fouled or expect to get fouled. Yes, there are many players who will dive to try to cheat when they are not fouled, but in most situations, the player is exaggerating the result of the contact in order to convince the referee to blow the whistle.

TV commentators also get this horribly wrong. They consider the merits of a penalty or free kick claim on whether or not there was contact. Any footballer knows that you do not lose your balance just because there was contact with another player. Conversely, any footballer knows that a forceful sliding tackle doesn’t have to make contact with you to make you lose your balance or stop you on your progress with the ball.

If I kick the ball past you and you come at me at full pace and try to slide tackle me, I refuse to stay put and let you break my leg. I’m going to jump out of your way and that jump may cause me to fall or slow me down to where I lose the ball. When your slide tackle doesn’t break my leg, that doesn’t mean you didn’t foul me, so I may choose not to stay on my feet when I land to force the referee to make a decision. The referee will not blow his whistle if I stay on my feet, so he is in effect forcing me to dive.

Michael Ballack chose to stay on his feet and try to catch up with the ball, but Gary Neville’s sliding tackle was enough to cause him to lose possession. The commentators commended him on his honesty, but it caused his team to lose a goal scoring opportunity.

Christiano Ronaldo chose to go down because he expected Lampard to stick his foot out and he didn’t want that contact. The foot never came, so there was no foul, but you can understand why Ronaldo wanted to avoid a potential crunching tackle. However, as it stood it was a horrible dive, one that probably should’ve earned him a yellow card. Instead it earned him a free kick. (As an aside, Ronaldo’s yellow card came later, when he stayed on his feet when Salomon Kalou came at him with a two footed tackle that hit all ball. Had Mike Riley followed the rules of the game, that should’ve been a yellow card, as – ball or no ball – a two footed, studs first tackle is a yellow card. Ronaldo pointed this out and was booked for it.)

Riley kept rewarding players for going down in this game, interrupting play at any opportunity and awarding plenty of yellow cards – two to United players for pointing out mistakes he and his assistants had made. Rio Ferdinand got a yellow for complaining about Anelka being allowed a big goal scoring opportunity even though he was clearly off side and the other to Ronaldo for the above mentioned incident.

Diving is annoying and it needs to be cracked down upon. It starts with the referees and with weak referees like Mike Riley, diving will continue to sully the beautiful game.

Perhaps

…Hareide’s biggest problem isn’t his team selection. It could be that he’s not using all possible tools at his disposal to win football matches.

In Congo, they choose to go further – beyond zonal marking or step over dribbles.

At least 11 people were killed in a stadium riot in eastern Congo after a soccer player tried to use witchcraft to win a local match.

Full story here: Link to ESPNsoccernet story.

Scouting report – Macedonia vs Scotland

As my children are half Scottish, I have a family obligation to cheer for any team or sporting hero from Scotland. Trust me, it doesn’t take up much of my time. Well done Chris Hoy for getting 3 golds in Beijing and go on, Andy Murray, take out Nadal in the semis of the US Open tonight. There, that’s me done, pretty much, unless you want to count their successful golfers. Unfortunately that’s out the window in two weeks, when Europe will play the Ryder Cup without a Scottish player for the first time since before 1950.

I do love Scotland. The people are great, the weather rubbish, the golf courses lovely. However, it’s World Cup qualification time, and this time around, as they were in the qualifying group for the 2006 WC, they are the enemy.

The weather may be rubbish in Scotland, but it’s lovely in Macedonia. 1-0 Macedonia, in other words, which coincidentally is also our half time score. Since I missed the first half, I won’t comment on this beyond linking to the Guardian’s live commentary. Apparently the Scots haven’t threatened much.

This didn’t change much in the second half, as Scotland created some half chances, but never really looked like scoring. Their biggest chance was a strong penalty claim that the referee wouldn’t listen to. 1-0 Macedonia and Scotland have some catching up to do if they are to deny us and Macedonia (or Iceland) 2nd place in the group behind expected group winner, Holland.

Some notes on both teams:

Scotland (we know them pretty well)

• Conclusions: This game was there for the taking for them, but they were lacking firepower up front. This was a game for a strong striker like Boyd. Miller and McFadden lacked the strength to break through a defense that gave away the flanks, but crowded the middle. Scotland had a very strong penalty claim denied, so they will feel like they were robbed here, but Macedonia had the better chances. Gordon made several excellent saves. They will need to be less patient in their passing to beat Norway, but they can certainly give us a strong game both home and away.
• Notes taken during the game:
• Their best player is an injured right back (Alan Hutton).
• Scott Brown has been impressive with some surging runs.
• For being a fairly limited team when it comes to skills, they are very methodical in their passing. If they pass it around like this against us, we will beat them (or it will be a drab 0-0 draw).
• Gordon is brilliant in goal. Scotland’s greatest strength is our biggest weakness. He makes a stunning save on a great half volley by Macedonia’s number 8 – Veliče Šumulikoski (Ipswich).
• Scotland should have a pentalty after 70 minutes, when first Miller, then McFadden are both fouled inside the area. The referee feels the goalie got a piece of the ball when he cut down McFadden. McFadden is booked for arguing the decision.
• The aptly named Kris Commons-cotland (from Derby) makes a great two footed dummy down the right hand side and whips a cross in, but the goalie does well to block it. Scotland have looked capable, but not dangerous. Kris Boyd comes on after 80 mins. His only skill is he can score goals.

Macedonia

• Conclusions: Macedonia are dangerous at home. I think they are definitely a better team than the Bosnian team we lost to at Ullevaal (and beat away). However, I think it’s an ideal game for Iversen and Carew up front, especially if Riise and Gamst can supply some crosses from the left. I’ve given up on getting anything from our right back or right wing, since we have no players there. Going forward, Macedonia relies on individual skill and explosiveness, so we will have to be diciplined. I think we should be able to take at least 4 points from this team if we can play up to our potential. Macedonia were much better matched up defensively against Scotland, which relies on passing and pace around the wings (Maloney, Commons, McFadden, etc) without a true target man, than they are against Norway with Carew and Iversen – with Helstad lurking around.
• Notes taken during the game:
• Their goalie looks vulnerable on set pieces.
• They do not defend well. The Scots are allowed too much time on the ball so they rely on winning 1 on 1 when the ball comes into the area.
• Very skillful going forward. Football is the biggest sport in Macedonia and my Macedonian friends (2 guys on my football team are 2nd generation Macedonian immigrants to Norway) report that the skill level is excellent down there. Macedonia has a population of 2 million, so there is no reason to expect Norway or Scotland to produce significantly better talent than this relatively new nation.
• Their biggest star is Goran Pandev (Lazio). He’s booked for diving after about 60 mins, but it’s a dodgy card. There was no contact when he jumped over the defender, I’ll concede that, but he had a legitimate claim for a free kick as he was obstructed.

Deadline madness

I happen to think that the transfer deadline is  good thing. One positive is that you avoid players like Berbatov continually being linked with other clubs while still having to perform for the club they’re under contract with. Another positive is you get days of complete mayhem just before the transfer deadline expires. Last night, three massive transfers were finalised in the hour between 11 pm and midnight UK time:

• Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United for about 31 million pounds
• Robinho to Manchester City for about 32 million pounds
• Marouane Fellaini to Everton for 15 million pounds (who? his wikipedia article is the most incomplete I’ve seen for a “major” player this side of Jack Wilshere)

The Berbatov transfer was expected and the Fellaini transfer – while surprising – was more surprising for the price/name recongition ratio than for the fact that the transfer actually took place. Other deals such as Hull picking up a striker, Spurs loaning a striker back from Man United, Newcastle buying a striker, Liverpool buying more rubbish etc made it a day filled with action. If you want an entertaining account of yesterday’s madness, check out the Guardian’s transfer day live blog.

The big story of the day was, of course, Manchester City.

City started the day by being sold by a Thai bastard who has sucked funds from his people to use them for his own gain to an Abu Dhabi investment group who has sucked funds from their people to use them for their own gain. The upside for City fans is that this Abu Dhabi group has more money than God (which really isn’t that impressive, since God, much like Father Christmas, doesn’t exist). They have money and they can actually spend them, too, without having to unfreeze them from some dodgy Swiss bank accounts.

Yesterday they set out to spend them in a big way. Their first attempt was a sneaky bid to steal Berbatov from their cross-city rivals. If anything, they managed to cause some trouble and probably forced United to pay an extra million pounds or two for him after Spurs accepted City’s 34 million pound bid. Next, they set out to ruin Chelsea’s pursuit of Robinho, and in the process trying to show that Abramovich is no longer the biggest arrogant money fish in the pond. This attempt was successful and Robinho will play along side his Brazilian compatriots Jo and Elano at the City of Manchester Stadium.

It was fun to follow City’s exploits yesterday, almost as fun as two years ago, when West Ham shocked the football world when they captured two of the world’s most exciting talents in Mascherano and Tevez. Hopefully for them, City will have more League success than West Ham had – Tevez finally figured out the Premier League and his magic saved their PL status when he had a couple of good months toward the end of that season. They sacked their manager and shipped off Mascherano to Liverpool before any of that happened, so what seemed like good news for West Ham supporters when it happened turned out to be a terrible disappointment.

Ketsbaia, my lord… – Anorthosis Famagusta in the Champions League

Temuri Ketsbaia of the newly recognized (by Russia only) independent nation Abkhazia or, if you believe the rest of the world, from Georgia, has led a minion of European football into the CL.

Anorthosis Famagusta are champions of Cyprus, a title they have won twice under Ketsbaia’s leadership. Ketsbaia first joined them as a player in 1992, before he moved on to AEK Athens and most famously Newcastle. He returned to them in 2002 after brief spells with Wolves and Dundee. The last anyone heard from him and his club was probably when they got past Trabzonspor to get to the last round of qualifications for the CL in 2005, falling to Rangers 4-1 on aggregate.

Some interesting facts about Anorthosis Famagusta:

Famagusta on the East coast, Lacarna on the south

• They are actually not currently located in Famagusta, which is in the Turkish part on the East coast of Cyprus, but in Larnaca, on the South coast. They relocated there in 1974 after the Turkish invasion (forgive me if this is not the politically correct term for the conflict). They still have a home stadium in Famagusta, but it is abandoned and is “in a bad condition.”
• They play their home games in Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, which holds about 10 000 supporters.
• The Cypriot League is called the Marfin Laiki League (sponsored by the Marfin Popular bank). There are 14 teams in the league. APOEL and Omonia are the biggest clubs with 19 league titles each, Anorthosis Famagusta has 13 titles, including five titles in six seasons between 1994 and 2000.
• The population of Cyprus is about 800 000. It’s a fairly rich nation with a GDP per capita of about 27 thousand dollars, which is slightly more than South Korea, Israel and New Zealand, but slightly less than Italy, Greece and Spain (source: World Bank).
• The Turkish invasion of Cyprus, launched on July 20, 1974, was a Turkish military operation against a coup which had been staged by the Cypriot National Guard against president Makarios III with the intention of annexing the island to Greece, but the invasion ended up with Turkey occupying a considerable area on the north part of it and establishing a government on it that only Turkey recognizes (copy/paste from Wikipedia).

Anorthosis Famagusta knocked out Rapid Wien (4-3 on aggregate, 3-0 at home and 1-3 away) and Olympiacos (3-1 on aggregate, 3-0 at home and 0-1 away) in the qualification rounds, so they thorougly deserve their place. It’s the first time a Cypriot team has qualified for the group stages, so congratulations to them! Here’s a video clip from their 3-0 win at home, complete with some ridiculously bad local music.

Who are ya?

Tore Reginiussen, Tom Høgli, Morten M. Skjønsberg and Atle Roar Haaland. You’ll be forgiven if you can’t put a face to any of these names, but these are apparently four of Norway’s six best defenders, if we are to believe Åge Hareide, our coach.

Monday night Vålerenga played Strømsgodset in a clash of the 7th (SIF) and 10th (VIF) placed teams in the Norwegian league. Strømsgodset won 2-1, but the game could’ve easily gone either way. What is undoubtedly the case is that the game will never be remembered as a classic.

Why is this game relevant? It involved 4/7 players selected to play midfield for Norway in our next game. That’s 57.1 % of our midfield playing in a dreary midtable clash in what is arguably not one of the best 15 leagues in Europe. As an aside, I would say England, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Holland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Denmark and Greece are definitely better, and Belgium, Scotland, Sweden, Serbia and Austria and probably Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland are of similar quality to the Norwegian league, though some of these I know very little about.

Up front, Hareide has preferred party-boy Steffen Iversen to our recent export to Dutch football Tarek Elyounoussi. This has made the headlines, which is understandable, as Tarek is viewed as the future of the Norwegian front line. However, the bigger story should be the lack of quality players throughout the squad, and the preferrence given to some big city players (Daniel Fredheim Holm particularly, but recently Kristoffer Hæstad as well) who have not shown the attitude or consistent quality necessary to play with the flag on their chests.

I have argued in the past that Åge Hareide remains our national team coach because of a dire lack of quality options. Unfortunately the same can be said for a lot of our national team players.

We’re off! Arsenal – WBA live blog.

The Premier League is kicking off in a few minutes, with Arsenal playing West Bromwich Albion. I enjoy watching Arsenal, so I’m excited about this one. I’m going to be making some notes throughout the match.

The Eliminator competition is OFF, unfortunately, as there were only three of us that showed any interest. Lars announced he would’ve taken Hull this round. Without having done extensive research myself, I would go with Arsenal in this one.

Arsenal are starting Denilson(20) in central midfield. He’s a bit on the small side, but has been good when I’ve seen him in cup competitions. Walcott (19), Nasri (21) and Eboue (25) are the other midfielders, a young group. Bendtner (20) is starting up front with Adebayor (24), making this front six one of the youngest ever to start the season for a title contender.

Not 4 minutes have gone by and Arsenal are already ahead, after Denilson set up Nasri to score on his Premier League debut. I think the kids will be ok – in this one, at least.

The veteran William Gallas is shoring up the defense for Arsenal, alongside Swiss youngster Johan Djorou. Gallas shows after 12 minutes that he can be a threat going forward as well, firing a cracking shot from 30 yards out that, in fairness, Scott Carson (formerly of Leeds, Liverpool and Aston Villa) seemed to control fairly well.

West Bromwich are not excactly a thrilling side. Their captain is Jonathan Greening, who played for Manchester United as a youngster, but never managed to do much for their first team. WBA have a young English striker called Ishmael Miller (21) who might be interesting to follow this season. He came to WBA from Manchester City last season and is their lone striker this game. After 20 minutes he’s yet to touch the ball in any sort of a threatening position, but he will have to hope for a breakaway at some point in this match. He is unlikely to have many opportunities. He looks strong, but his goal scoring record in the Championship last season wasn’t overly impressive (9 in 32 games).

After a half hour, Miller wins a header over Gallas and nudges it through to Korean midfielder Kim Do-Heon, who wins a corner kick, WBA’s first threat going forward. Miller is giving the Arsenal defense a little bit of trouble in the air and could develop into a useful target man in the mould of Emile Heskey. He also shows a bit of skill getting past Eboue down the left hand side to win a corner kick.

At half time, Arsenal are winning 1-0, without impressing too much. Miller’s been the main threat against them, but the best WBA have been able to do is win a few corner kicks, which they’ve wasted with poor service. Gael Clichy has been strong coming down the left flank for Arsenal. They look a bit light in midfield, with Eboue looking out of place as a defensive midfielder and Denilson perhaps not quite ready to be a midfield general at this level. Walcott has shown some of his talent as well, but hasn’t quite been able to link up with Sagna on the right hand side to the extent that Nasri and Clichy have on the left.

The second half has started and two of the stars of the first half, Nasri and Miller have already showed their class. Miller slipped through the Arsenal defense, but showed that his finishing still leaves a bit to be desired when Almunia saved quite easily with his legs. Nasri sent Adebayor through on goal – a chance he probably converts mid-season, but today he was just a bit wide. Delightful pass from Nasri and an excellent run from Adebayor.

I wrote earlier this week about the Brazil left back Marcelo. He scored a very good goal for Brazil against Cameroon today and did nothing to put to shame my proclamation that he is the best left back in the world. In this game, Gael Clichy, who was not found worthy of a place in the French squad for Euro 2008 behind Barcelona’s Abigal and Man United’s Evra, has shown that he belongs in any such discussion as well. He is constantly coming forward with timely runs. As his predecessor, Ashley Cole, Clichy is one of Arsenal’s most dangerous offensive weapons. Opposing defenses are outnumbered when defenders push forward as aggressively as Arsenal’s left back.

Bendtner is replaced by Van Persie after 70 minutes. Bendtner hasn’t done much this game, but the big Dane will have better games than this. Another substitution two minutes later was less of a like for like. Walcott was replaced by Kolo Toure. Toure’s been struggling with an injury and they seem to be playing him on the right side of midfield to give him a run out. Ishmael Miller is replaced by former Hearts striker Roman Bednar after an impressive 73 minutes for WBA. He’ll be interesting to follow this season, I won’t be surprised if he’s mentioned in the England team discussion within a season or two if he can keep fit.

Clichy again shows his class defensively, twice breaking up WBA attacks and on one occasion carrying the ball from his own box across midfield setting up Van Persie for a chance he squanders when Paul Robinson dispossesses him with a strong tackle from behind.

Arsenal won fairly comfortably 1-0, a few thoughts after the game:

• Arsenal are young. Very young. Ramsey, Wilshere, Vela and Randall on the bench are 17, 16, 19 and 18.
• Arsenal’s midfield needs help. Eboue isn’t a central midfielder and Denilson lacks pace and strength. Fabregas will play every minute when he’s healthy, but they need better options than Ramsey, Eboue, Denilson and Diaby behind the young Spaniard and Tomas Rosicky, who has spent a lot of time on the excercise bike recently.
• WBA has very few players who would challenge for a place even for the Blackburns or the Middlesboroughs of the EPL. Paul Robinson is a tough defender, Miller showed some promise up front but overall they need to compensate for the lack of class players with disciplined defending and opportunistic attacking.
• Somehow Jamie Redknapp has picked out Denilson as the Man of the Match. Ok. I disagree, but he did set up the first goal. To me Clichy was Arsenal’s best player by quite a long way today.

The season is underway. This game will never be remembered as a classic, but any proper football will do me at the moment. I’m looking forward to a fun season!