Ian McGeechan plotting a Lions comeback

Right then. Crunch time. Do or Die. Must Win. Whatever you want to call it.

This is the situation that the Lions face now. Having lost the first test (I’ll come to that in a minute) the Lions know that a loss in the second test will mean that everything they have worked towards for the last few months will be for nothing. All the promise shown and the undefeated mid-week record will count for nothing. It’s all about this game. And I genuinely believe we have a real chance to snatch this. And indeed the series. First, lets begin with last week.

It’s really disappointing that we lost. And we lost it in 2 key areas. Firstly, the forwards. In the build up to this series, it was always believed that the South African threat would be at it’s greatest in the front line. It is for this exact reason that certain selections were made. It’s part of the reason why O’Connell was selected as captain. Yet, in the first test, our forwards were utterly dominated by the SA pack, and that ultimately laid the foundation for the SA win. We can argue until we’re blue in the face about the referring in the scrum, and I don’t know enough about scrummaging to tell you what is right or wrong. But I do know that we were ‘owned’ in that area. In my view, Vickery was pulled off a little late. By the time Adam Jones appeared, the damage had been done. It’s a shame Sheridan wasn’t available. I think the changes that have been made for the second test are right on the money. The inclusion of Shaw, will add some of the weight and grunt to the pack that was missing last week. And hopefully, Jones will fair better against The Beast. As the Saffers have the best line out in the world, you know that they will always steal a couple of line outs from you anyway, so at hooker, Rees’ scrummaging ability was a better bet then Mears’ line out accuracy.
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The Windies beat England via the D/L Method

First off a few apologies for my tardiness, I haven’t managed to write in a week or so, and as a result, I seem to have missed out on a few developments in the sporting world. So I thought I’d take the opportunity to give my thoughts on a few of them.

Cricket: T20 World Cup

The world’s fascination with cricket’s most explosive format has been underway in England for about a week now and has certainly thrown up some surprises. I was less than amused to be awoken last Saturday morning by a friend of mine (who is really Australian, but likes to be Dutch when it suits) who tried to goad me about the fact that England lost a World Cup game to Holland. Naturally, I assumed he was talking about football, and found myself correcting him, England didn’t play till Saturday night, and we were playing Kazakhstan.

Oh but yeah….the cricket. That embarrassing result aside, I thought England did well to go on and beat Pakistan and qualify for the Super-8’s. A fact that seemed to escape a few of my other Australian colleagues who tried to remind me that England lost to Holland.

Hang on! Did Australia qualify for the Super 8?

Shut up then.
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Gareth Barry has completed his £12 million move to Man City

So we come to the end of another football season (thats soccer to any Aussies reading this), and with no World Cup or European Championship, we must occupy ourselves with the merry-go-round that are transfer rumours. Being a Man City fan means that this short period (before the season starts up again in August) is now a little bit more interesting then it used to be. I still remember the days of rumours circulating around City of the arrival of Darius Vassell for a mere £1.2 million. The sad thing now, is that as City have more money then C. Montgomery Burns, rumours linking us with literally any player in the world is just not that exciting anymore.

£140 million for Messi? Sure, why not.

What interests me more, is speculating on which players City will actually manage to sign. Sure, we can afford to spend any amount on any player, but the fact of the matter is, none of them will want to come while City are not yet in Europe. Instead, we must concentrate on getting the players that can get us there, and the signing of Gareth Barry this week is an indication that that is exactly what Mark Hughes and the City board are planning. Barry is just the sort of experienced Premiership player we need, and will be a great addition to the City midfield. Barry also possesses a large amount of versatility (having played left back and centre back before), which is always a bonus when you have to change tactic mid game.
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Barcelona win the Champions League

So I was half right. I did manage to predict 2 goals from Barcelona. It’s just that Man Utd let me down and didn’t score the 3 they were meant to.

First of all, hats off to Barca. They were majestic. Although, Pep Guardiola has surely been playing Football Manager. He employs the exact same formation that I have used to guide Newcastle Utd to multiple League and European titles. The whole tactic revolves around your midfield 3 (in this case, Iniesta, Xavi and Busquets) controlling 80/90% of the possession combining with 2 attacking midfielders/wingers (Messi and Henry) and a strong forward (Eto’o). So, congratulations to the Football Manager community. This victory is yours.

It was however, one of the poorest United performances I have seen for a while. And I must start my analysis with questioning Sir Alex’s team selection. He must have had an idea that Barca would have fielded this tactic, as they have done in almost all of the games this season, so one thing you will want to avoid, is being out numbered in midfield. Yet that is exactly what happened. Giggs and Anderson were often far too far away from Carrick, leaving him isolated, and as a result, he ended up giving the ball away almost as soon as he got it. Surely Scholes would have been a better bet.

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Champions League Trophy

So we come to it at last, the Great Game of Our Time.

Or something like that. The Champions League final marks the finale and the pinnacle of European (and World) Football. And what a game it’s shaping up to be this year!

Whilst I felt sympathy for Chelsea when they were knocked out by Barcelona a couple of weeks ago, I’ve always felt that this fixture would offer the better proposition for the neutral fan.

Sadly time dictates that I can’t offer a full preview of the game (you can get one here) as my dinner is imminent, but suffice to say I can’t wait to see it, even though it requires me to be up at 4am!

My prediction: Man Utd. 3-2 in an enthralling game.

Alan Shearer

So, after 740 games, 66600 frenetic minutes and 919 goals (not to mention 10 managerial changes) the Premiership will finally reach it’s thrilling conclusion on Sunday. Much has been made over the last few years of the apparent lack of excitement of the Premiership as the Big Four fight an exclusive battle for supremacy, but this season has shown why England can be proud of the Greatest League in the World.

While Liverpool ultimately failed, they pushed Manchester United all the way this season and will be confident of making that extra step next season.

But although the race for the title has been wonderfully entertaining, the final day is all about the bottom of the table in what has become a most extraordinary scrap.

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Andrew Symonds

Chapter 1.

I’ve been “behind enemy lines” for 2 years now, but only now is it starting to get dangerous. If I had followed my original life plan, I would have timed it nicely to return to England in time for the 2009 Ashes. But then when I made that plan, I didn’t envisage Australia being this much fun! So instead I must prepare myself for the constant banter and ribbing that will no doubt come my way should Australia win this Ashes series. But I’m not complaining, it didn’t rain today.

To business then. You’ve probably all read that Australia have selected their Ashes squad for the trip to England, and there were certainly some surprises. The biggest shock was no doubt the omission of big-hitting all-rounder Andrew Symonds. It seems that the Australian selectors have had enough of his errant ways and lack of commitment and it is now difficult to see a way back for him. I have always been of the opinion that he is slightly over-rated anyway (with Shane Watson being the better player in my book) so, in a twisted kind of way, I thought it was a shame that he wasn’t selected.

The Australian public seem divided on the topic, with most merely questioning the selection of all-rounder Andrew McDonald. I think the fact that the selectors didn’t pick Roy is more about making a statement then anything else.

So what do the Aussies have in store for us?

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Bopara and Cook rack up the runs

So England continue their build up to the Ashes series with an excellent start against a very lackluster West Indies. It is encouraging that we are scoring runs again, and although the Windies are among the weaker sides in Test Cricket these days, you can only beat the opposition put in front of you.

It appears England have finally found a solution to the problematic number 3 batting position. I’ve blogged before about the options available at number 3, but I must admit I got this one wrong. I never saw Bopara as a potential number 3, more an alternative Collingwood if anything, but you can’t argue with 3 successive hundreds in that position. True, he doesn’t have the air of a world class number 3, but he certainly has the potential to grow into one. His future in that role will no doubt be decided by his performance in this year’s Ashes series. With his place now cemented, he will be keen to test himself against the best. Read More

Mike Blair

Scotland captain Mike Blair has been added to the Lions squad today to replace the injured Tomas O’Leary. It was an obvious choice really (and one I predicted earlier, ahem ahem), and he will provide excellent competition to Phillips and Ellis for the test number 9 shirt. He is certainly a standout player for Scotland, and I was surprised when he wasn’t included in the original party.

A replacement is also soon to be announced for the injured Tom Shanklin, with Gordon D’Arcy and Mike Tindall among the favorites to be named. As I’ve said before, with Lions squads you always have to think about the teams within a team, and for this reason I would favour Gordon D’Arcy (to partner Brian O’Driscoll).

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Didier Drogba rages at the referee.

It’s been a night of high emotions at Stamford Bridge, where Bracelona scraped through to the Champions League Final on away goals.

I really feel for the Chelsea players and fans, because it is such a frustrating way to go out of the competition. Despite dominating the tie they failed to kill the game off, and Barcelona scored with their only shot on goal (albeit a pretty spectacular one).

Rather then the two exceptional goals that were scored, what will be remembered from this game, are the ugly scenes that followed the final whistle, with Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack leading the Chelsea players in a verbal attack on referee Tom Ovrebo. Whilst such behavior is unprofessional and will warrant deserved punishment from UEFA, you can’t help but feel for them.

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