So surfing the wonderful World Wide Web I happened upon a phone case that would change my life. If you've never hear the song Banana Phone click that link and it will most likely change your life. Well I saw a phone case that is a giant plastic banana. There are two major problems with it: It is bigger than a real banana so fitting in your pocket would be a problem, and the bigger problem is, you can only find it in knock off stores in China, so the case probably wont be in my hands, and definitely my pocket anytime soon. Gareth Bale might have a better chance of securing the case (implying that he doesn't already have a whole stash hidden in Ozil's old locker at the Bernabeu). Anyways while I'm typing this wonderful masterpiece USA is getting beat by Costa Rica and a few European World Cup Qualifiers were played earlier today.
England had looked shaky in their past friendlies against FA foes, so a good win against Moldova should put them right back on track. They got the win at Wembley, and from what I've heard it was pretty impressive. Don't get me wrong though, it is Moldova, but an England team that's had trouble with Scotland and Ireland definitely needs any good result they can get. England's skipper, Steven Gerrard got England on the board with a goal in the 12th minute. Talks about Gerrard and Lampard getting old are true, but their play still makes you think they are young and in their prime. My good friend Rickie Lambert got another goal for his home nation in the 26th minute. Lambert has been on excellent form lately and the world better watch out for him. That Southhampton relegation prediction I had might not happen...oops. Then the Man U man, Danny Welbeck added 2 goals later in the game. England pretty much dominated the game having 68% of the ball and 25 shots compared to Moldova's 5 shots. Seeing England in person this summer made me like them more, although they're not my favorite national team in Europe, I still hope they do good and qualify for the World Cup. A few of their players play for Arsenal, and of course I wish them well.
Ukraine won their game 9-0. No that was not a typo. Yes you read it right. Even though their match was against a nation whose footballers are just part timers and are firefighters and sandwich makers, they still beat San Marino 9-0!!! If I'm not mistaken, England only beat San Marino 6-1 last time the two teams met, which was not long ago. Ukraine happens to play England in their next WCQ and it should be an interesting game. England will be the favorites, but I don't think it will be anywhere near an easy win.
Right now as I type this blog there are a couple of North American WCQ's going on and they are pretty good matches. The biggest upset is probably the United States losing 2-1 at the moment. But if you smart people remember, I stated that it would be very hard playing Costa Rica in conditions other than a blizzard. Clearly the USMNT did not read my blog like they should have! The Honduras vs Mexico is kind of an upset at the moment, but after all, Mexico's been sucking lately, so the 2-1 score line is not super surprising.
P.S. in case you didn't notice, Arsenal actually signed a big name player!
Yes this is the next new feature of Just Plain Football....our weekly player special! We've had occasional player special's through out my Just Plain Football career and usually they are pretty popular so why not bring them back? If you haven't, go check out Oh Arjen Robben. Probably my most famous player special ever composed and the fifth most popular post of all time.
Borussia Dortmund and the German National team is where Marco Reus shows off his amazing skill on the ball and his wonderful vision. Reus is one of my favorite non-arsenal players and one day I hope he plays for Arsenal, but with Arsenal's buying record we all know that wont happen.....even when he's 55. At the moment Reus is only 24 being born in Dortmund, Germany in 1989. So I guess he's Dortmund grown. That's pretty cool because not many players can say they play for their hometown team. I don't know if Carl Jenkinson was from North London, but he supported Arsenal all his life and ended up playing for them. Reus still has a big career infront of him and has already played in a Champions League Final. He did not join Borussia Dortmund till the 2012/13 season having played at Borussia Mochengladbach before then. Rues has many good qualities and plays kind of like Santi Cazorla for Arsenal. They both know how to pass, and pass very well, but if they have to they can take on members of the opposing team. He has the speed and quickness to play in the Premier League but he might get "Brek Shea-ed" a little. Not only are the guys in the Premier League quick, but they are very strong too. The Bundesliga is a good league and all, but at the moment nothing competes with the Premier League (in overall talent, not certain teams).
Between the start of the 2010/2011 season and the end of the 2012/13 season he has racked up 26 assists which is about 8-9 assists a season for 3 seasons. That's just in the Bundesliga games and not counting other competions. So you can see that he has the vision. In that same time period he has 42 goals which is not a bad tally for a player in his role. His best season was probably the 2011/2012 season when he scored 18 goals and had 9 assists at B. Mochengladbach. In that same time Santi Cazorla has only achieved 26 goals. But he has the same amount of assists as Rues at 26. You do have to remember though that Cazorla plays a true midfielder rule while Rues plays an attacking wing position, which could explain the bigger goal tally. How about we compare his stats to Arjen Robben (2010-2013). Robben has played at Bayern that whole time period and has not switched teams unlike Rues. Robben totaled 29 goals and ONLY 18 assists. A person would have to note that in the season that Robben got the best combination of goals/assists (12/8) when he only started 13 games and came off the bench once, so he did a lot for when he played.
Still the main focus of this post is Rues and he is truly exciting. Being one of the younger players that I will do a special on, he still has a lot to improve. I expect that if he keeps starting and has at least okay players around him, he will score even more goals and make more assists. A Bundesliga title may be hard for him to achieve, but a Champions League title will be even harder. He will probably have to move clubs, although Dortmund did travel to Wembley last season for the Finals of the Champions League!
Well yes, I promised a plethora of exciting blogs this month and for many months to come. As we can all see this did not happen. Unfortunately if was because of my school work that kept me up to 11 or midnight 2 or 3 nights in a row. Others nights in kept me up late enough, with soccer practice, that I couldn't write or research. So I speak to my wonderful readers with this statement:
I don't know how much writing will be done in the coming weeks. I will try to write as much as I can. Keep checking in every 3 or 4 days just in case a blog post comes out. It may just be 1 a week, but I am trying. So no need to fear, Just Plain Football will be here. Although, I could say I've put in as much effort to this blog the past two weeks as Arsenal have put into buying players for their shallow squad.
So come back every now and then and hopefully a blog will be posted that's fresh and fantastic.
Well everybody today is the day. After a year and a month or so of Just Plain Football we finally get to a new and improved look. I hope all my readers that started out with me last summer are still here and that my new readers and new readers to come enjoy the new look. Yes today we start the series of National Team Specials. We have one National team special every month. During the third or fourth week of every month! The very first edition will about my home team's country! The good ole United States of America. The United States, a superpower and a country used to dominating the sports world. But in soccer, they have definalty not been near the top..... AT ALL! When people think of the United States soccer team they usually think of a team that's not really good. A team that needs to improve a lot. But how much have they improved over the past few years? Are more of their players actually getting better? The USA has gotten better. The question really is, how much better have they gotten.
"expert"
Firstly a team is made up of players (insert captain obvious blurt here). So without good players and even a great coach a team can only be so good. More and more 'Merican players are moving to Europe to showcase their skills. In my book, not near enough. Clint Dempseys recent move back to the US makes me really mad. I mean it was hard for me to root for him at Tottenham but when he was at Fulham it was cool cheering on a fellow American. Maybe his skills will stay the same but usually the players that stay in Europe and more specifically England, are better. Jozy Altidore, who of course I hate, transferred to Sunderland this summer. So even though he is Altidore, he should improve a lot in England's highest division. In terms of European play, our goalies are in good shape. Timmy Howard and Brad Guzan both have starting spots in their EPL team. Guzan just held Arsenal to 1 goal on his Aston Villa first match of the season on Saturday. More and more so called experts (some of these experts have the knowledge of a potato, and dumb potato at that) have said that the MLS is starting to create more players with National Team quality. Eddie Johnson and Brek Shea are two of my favorite examples. Oh and who could forget Landon Donovan. Eddie Johnson plays for the Seattle Sounders and is one of my favorite USA players. Brek Shea started off at Dallas and had a pretty good career there before moving to Stoke last season. Even though Shea is not the best physical presence on the National Squad, he knows were the good passes are. I would call him the David Beckham of the USA squad. But what about players like Graham Zusi and Kyle Beckerman. They have basically been created in the USA's MLS and Zusi has look very good of late. Unfortunately both of these guys would have a tough time in the Premier League. Especially Beckerman.... his play is just not quick enough. Bradley plays for AS Roma which is not the worst spot for any USA player. Plus in the Gold Cup we saw the United State's manager Jurgen Klinsman bring in some new young guys who have promising talent. Jose Torres really impressed me when I saw him play at Dallas against Honduras in the Gold Cup Semifinals! The final verdict on the players of the National team is: We have some good young players emerging and our older experienced players add a lot to the team. Its the guys in the middle that the United States need to worry about. We need to ship more players to Europe and let them gain experience. Also, we need to try to bring more old European players (like Cahill, Henry, and Keane) to the MLS so they can pass on their experience to MLS players trying out for the USA squad.
Lately the US National Squad have been on a very impressive streak and had a pretty wonderful summer. Firstly, the match where they beat Germany did not impress me at all!!!! The only good players Germany brought to the US were Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker. It was like Germanys E team. No not B,C, or D, but E. All the fans were like "WOOHOO we beat those Germans.... They suck so bad". This is just not true. Germany probably has one of the best A-team squads in the world. Maybe even better than Spain. I see Germany as a giant favorite in the coming World Cup in Brazil. I would even bet all the Wiener Schnitzel I could eat on them. So that match means nothing to me and it really shouldn't to the National team squad. Let's take a look at the Gold Cup. We took our b-team to the Gold Cup and came out of the tournament with the trophy. So it shows 2 things: Our b-team is pretty good, but also that most other countries brought their b-team too. We are still probably better than all those teams if our A-Team's met up. Even though in our past World Cup qualifiers we only beat Costa Rica 1-0 in blizzard conditions. It may have just been because they were all distracted at the mounds of snow in Jermine Jone's hair. Then we actually lost to Honduras 2-1. But I am still pretty condfident in the chances of the United States boarding on a plane to Brazil for the World Cup. Lets face it, Mexico just isn't the North American super power in soccer than they used to be.
The USA starts World Cup qualifiers again in September. The USA has to travel to Costa Rica on September 6th in a match that might be difficult. We beat them just 1-0 in snowy conditions. I'm sure it will not be snowing in Costa Rica when the US comes into town to visit. But the biggest match is on September 10th. When Mexico travels North of the border to Columbus. The United States team has always played good at Columbus and if they beat Mexico there, they should have lots of momentum. We cant forget that the Mexico squad will be better than the one they brought to the
Gold Cup!
I hope you enjoyed one of the newest special editions of Just Plain Football! Come back and read more!
This is going to be a blog post about Arsenal! After all I am an Arsenal fan and all you people out there should be happy that more of these don't find a place in the blog lineup! The Arsenal took a hard loss today. I mean it's opening day at the Emirates in North London and we welcome a team that was fighting relegation last year, Aston Villa. I don't like to blame games on the ref, but this game I think the referee did terrible. I hope the FA saw his performance today. I know I'm a fan of the losing team, but I think his acts were enough to get him suspended or something like that. The SEC hand-egg ball conference has put ref's out of a job a couple of times, so why cant the Premier League do it?
Arsenal got off to a confident start. The Arsenal that wins titles showed up in the first 10-15 minutes. And the Frenchman Olivier Giroud put one in the back of the net in the 5th minute. Jack Wilshere started it all, then Rosicky made a nice pass to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who put a ball in with the outside of his foot. Giroud is definitely off to a better start than last season. Then Antho
So called referee
ny Taylor, the referee (if he even deserves that title) started playing for Aston Villa. Through out the game when Villa had a good advantage he let them keep playing. When Arsenal had a good advantage he let the ball come back and made us take the free kick. Rosicky and Cazorla complained a couple of times each about this. The two penalties called in the match were controversial. The first was more likely a penalty than the second. On the first penalty the quick and speedy Agbonlahor got past our defense and the Polish keeper Wojciech Szczesny came out and fouled him. It could be said that the Villa man did not have control of the ball. The second penalty was much worse. Laurent Koscienly clearly got the ball on his challenge. Both announcers of the game thought the challenge was top quality and so did I. But Villa scored again and Koscienly got a yellow card for a perfect tackle. Many yellow cards that were handed to Arsenal players could have easily not been a yellow card. Later Koscienly went in for another challenge that should have not been a foul, then he got sent off with a second yellow. The referee just seemed to be for Villa and every call he could he gave the ball to them. After Villa's third goal the fans starting chanting at Arsene Wenger about spending money.
I really think Arsenal needs to buy players. Through out my past blogs I have said this over and over. This game though, was not because we didn't buy any players. That might have been 10% of the deal. Most of it was because of Anthony Taylor. The ref that needs to be booted from the EPL. The EPL needs to bring in more refs like Howard Webb.
Today has been a good first day for many other teams and some good football has been played! Manchester United and Swansea are battling it out in Wales right now in a game that should be fantastic!
Don't forget to check in on Monday for the first ever National team special!
Well England just played Scotland in the stadium I was at during the beginning of the summer. Good ole Wembley Stadium in London. Since its the 150th Anniversary of the FA, they are trying to bring these great British rivalries back. So even though they are called friendlies, they are really not that friendly! The game was actually a very good game. It was full of exciting action and a bag full of good goals. England started out looking very bad. Rooney was a little too pass happy when he should of shot and dribbled and all of England just looked tired. Scotland finally scored the first goal and got up 1-0. Then the Arsenal man Theodore P. Walcott tied England up. But once again Scotland looked much better and on a nice turn an shoot they scored again (I love the turn and shoots. The Mario Gomez turn and shoot in Euro 2012 was amazing)! I told Gerrard he needed to start sending in better balls because his crosses were rubbish. That's when Welback headed one in on a ball served in by Gerrard. Lampard came in and sent some wicked shots at the goalie but none went in! I love Ricky Lambert at Southhampton and it was cool to see him get some playing time for the National squad. I'm pretty sure the corner was sent in by Baines and who else but LAMBERT to put it in and give England the win over Scotland. Lambert had more chances and I wished he would have finished them because he deserved the goals. But England got a much needed win at home against one of their rivals Scotland, 3-2!
Yes ladies and gentleman its time for what we've all been waiting for. No, not a video of Gareth Bale buying bananas at the local grocery store in North London (I know sorry to disappoint you). Nor real footage of Mario Ballotelli setting off fireworks in his own bathroom, but instead its time for English Premier League Predictions! The EPL is my favorite league around the whole world and at the moment probably the league that plays the best football around the world! The English teams usually attract players from all around the world. As more and more teams get rich around Europe, more players will be exiting the Premier League though!
Relegation in the EPL always seems to be an intense battle. Unfortunately I had to watch my 2nd favorite team QPR exit the highest division in England last year. This year three more teams fans will have to experience that same fate. As much as I hate to say it, I see South Hampton leaving the EPL. I love Ricky Lambert and Adam Lallana but their team is just so boring. I cant stand watching South Hampton play most of the time. So yes, relegation for South Hampton. Hull City didn't really impress me any times I've watched them. They are not a bad team just not Premier League quality. But hey, Norwich surprised a bunch of people in their first season up. Now its a tough decision. I don't know whether to pick a team that's been in the Premier League for more than a season or a team that just got promoted. Since I don't live in England, watching lower league games is hard, so I don't know as much about the lower league teams! I will say that........Newcastle will get relegated. I thought about Sunderland, but their new coach seems fantastic. Newcastle lost Demba Ba and towards the end of the season they just looked bad. So out of the top flight for the North East England club!
*Drum role please* Its now time for the top 5 teams in England! The battle for the top 4 is always an interesting one in the EPL. The top 4 gives you a chance in the UEFA Champions League and of course if you come in first, the Premier League title. Arsenal's neighbors Tottenham looked really good last season, but I think they will not touch the top four once again, not even the top 5. Liverpool got off to a slow start last season. But towards the end, unlike Newcastle, they looked really good. Even with a chance of losing Suarez, I see them taking the 5th spot. That means Spurs drop down to 6th and Everton to 7th. Arsenal, as much as I would like you to come in higher than fourth, that's where you will end up again! If y'all will not buy any "big name" players you just cant break out of the spot. As I've said before, you can still produce players, but you have to buy a few too. Some people will see this as a surprise, but Manchester City will drop to third! Even though they buy all their players and buy good ones too, I just don't think their new coach knows whats up. Going against the likes of Moyes and Mourinho I just don't think he has the experience. In second are the Blue's of Chelsea. Chelsea usually has an outstanding defense and Jose Mourinho has been itching to get back to the EPL. He will try his hardest to win the title, but will fall one place short! Manchester United is a risky option for the title with their new manager and all. But Moyes really moved Everton to new levels and he has sort of the same style ole Alex had. So with Van Persie and the rest of Manchester United, they will make it 21 titles for the red side of Manchester!
Tune in to the first game of the EPL season on Saturday! It should be another exciting year of English football!
Germany was one of my favorite places on my European Journey this summer and I also love the countries football. Even though the league can be a one team league at times, I still think they play attractive football in Deutschland. Germany has even threatened Spain as dominating football power. I actually think the German team is better than Spain at the moment and both club teams in the champions league final last season were both from Germany! So not just the wiener schnitzel is good in Germany!
The top 3 were separated from the rest of the league by 10 points last season. Leverkusen were ahead of the fourth place team Schalke 65-55 on points, while Dortmund was just 1 point of ahead of Leverkusen. Then Bayern Munich, getting a little carried away with winning, had 91 points. This year I expect the race for third to be a little closer. The 4-7th place teams last year all had the talent to take third but couldn't do it. I know this might sound crazy to a few, but I think Eintracht Frankfurt will take third. Yes, they just finished 6th last season. Yes, they were just promoted the season before last. Yes, they got thrashed 6-1 in their first Bundesliga game. But I've always liked their style of play the few times I have seen their high lights and they are good on FIFA 13 so yeah. That means E. Frankfurt to third, Bayern Leverkusen to 4th and Schalke all the way to 5th. In second I have to go with the black yellows, Borussia Dortmund. I like Dortmund a lot (which is weird when Bayern Munich is your second favorite team in the world). Last year they didn't even come close to Bayern and they almost fell to third. I don't think they'll get close at all this year either. The reason is that Mario Gotze went to Bayern and Lewandowski is soon probably about to leave the club. If the Polish star leaves the club it would be horrible for all Dortmund fans. He was the soul of the team. So yes, second for Dortmund. Of course, FC Bayern Munchen will win the league title. Their domination last year was outstanding and they won the treble. Champions League, Bundesliga title, and some German Cup (the one equal to the FA Cup I think). Their domination will not last forever but another season is likely. If their new coach infects the ticky-tacky style of play that he used at Barca, I will not be happy, happy, happy. I wont even be one happy.
My next blog will be Premier League Predictions and it will probably be on Wednesday or Thursday. Thursday being the more likely day.
England had looked shaky in their past friendlies against FA foes, so a good win against Moldova should put them right back on track. They got the win at Wembley, and from what I've heard it was pretty impressive. Don't get me wrong though, it is Moldova, but an England team that's had trouble with Scotland and Ireland definitely needs any good result they can get. England's skipper, Steven Gerrard got England on the board with a goal in the 12th minute. Talks about Gerrard and Lampard getting old are true, but their play still makes you think they are young and in their prime. My good friend Rickie Lambert got another goal for his home nation in the 26th minute. Lambert has been on excellent form lately and the world better watch out for him. That Southhampton relegation prediction I had might not happen...oops. Then the Man U man, Danny Welbeck added 2 goals later in the game. England pretty much dominated the game having 68% of the ball and 25 shots compared to Moldova's 5 shots. Seeing England in person this summer made me like them more, although they're not my favorite national team in Europe, I still hope they do good and qualify for the World Cup. A few of their players play for Arsenal, and of course I wish them well. 
Ukraine won their game 9-0. No that was not a typo. Yes you read it right. Even though their match was against a nation whose footballers are just part timers and are firefighters and sandwich makers, they still beat San Marino 9-0!!! If I'm not mistaken, England only beat San Marino 6-1 last time the two teams met, which was not long ago. Ukraine happens to play England in their next WCQ and it should be an interesting game. England will be the favorites, but I don't think it will be anywhere near an easy win. 
