This Week in Soccer

Welcome to another cracking installment of This Week In Soccer. My Site Lets Go Buffalo is now retired until the start of the Sabres season and will solely become a Sabres blog. But don’t fear, I am now writing about soccer full time at a multi-pundit site called Center Holds It. and also write about FC Sevilla at The Offside.

This week I’ll be giving the Premiership Week in Review and whats going on with the US vs Mexico game.

Premiership Week in Review

Here are The Up’s and The Down’s in the premiership right now.

The Up’s

• Everton are currently on top of the table after beating Tottenham 3-1 on Tuesday night. Granted they have 1 game in hand on Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle and are tied with Chelsea and Man City, but wow, Everton is on the move this season.
• Obafemi Martens netted 2 goals for Newcastle in his first game Martins was highly touted coming into this season, but the Nigerian surpassed everyone’s expectations in his first game at Bolton. Look for Big Sam to keep the Magpies ship sailing right this season.
• Steven Gerrard had an absolute world class goal to give them the victory against Aston Villa. His free kick in the 87th minute dipped over the wall and into the right hand corner of the net. It was simply unstoppable for Stuart Taylor, who gave it a great effort. It’s reported that he has a broken toe, but will play for Liverpool against Chelsea this weekend. He’ll sit out for England in their midweek qualifier.
• Shaun Wright-Phillips has actually played a few decent games for Chelsea. This comes as a surprise as I never expected him to ever start fulfilling his role at Stamford Bridge.

The Down’s

• Manchester United currently site 12th in the table. No that is not a misprint. I bet NO ONE picked that after the first 2 games of the season, Manchester Yoo would only have 2 points. Wayne Rooney is out 2 months with a fractured foot. If that wasn’t bad enough , Cristano Ronaldo got sent off on Weds night with a Red Card after apparently head butting Portsmouth substitute Richard Hughes. This will garner Ronaldo a three game ban, and with Rooney and now Ronaldo both out, things don’t look good going into the Derby with Man City this weekend. The only highlight of today’s match was seeing Carlos Tevez take the pitch as a Red Devil.
• Tottenham Hotsupr have only scored 1 goal in 2 games and have 0 points. Martin Jol is confident his team can come back from this dismal start, but will do it without Dimatar Berbatov, who is now sidelined with a groin injury. If Jol doesn’t get the Hotspur kickstarted, he will find himself out on the street soon. If they don’t win this weekend against Derby…well…I don’t know whats going to happen.
• Darren Bent–13.5 Million–2 games, 0 goals. I said when it happened that he wouldn’t score 20 goals this season and I stick by my prediction.
• Fernando Torres didn’t impress me in his debut for Liverpool, and it pains me to put him here, but until he starts putting in goals and with Voronin scoring against Toulouse, Torres might find himself on the bench. And thats an expensive benchwarmer.

Game of the upcoming week: Man City vs. Man United–The Manchester derby has new implications as a City win would put Manchester United in a terrible place and put Man City undefeated in their first 3 games.

US game against Mexico City cancelled

The US vs Mexico game scheduled in Mexico City was canceled and replaced with the US MNT playing Sept 9th at Soldier Field against Brazil. There are conflicting reports as to why the game was canceled.

Don’t get too excited to see Ronaldinho, Kaka and Robhino as I would be completely surprised if they made the trip to Chicago. The Spanish La Liga will be in full swing, along with Serie A, the three Brazilian’s clubs will be hesitant to let their players go for one friendly game, let alone against the US.

It was a mistake to have yet another game on US soil. Going to the Azteca in Mexico City would have given the MNT the experience that they need to make their club better. Instead we will be playing Brazil’s 3rd team in the confines of Soldier Field.

At least we are going to Sweeden on Aug 22 to gain some European experience. Hopefully Bob Bradley will have a bit more courage then Bruce Arena and take the team to foreign countries to play.

News and Notes from the Past Week

Dani Alves was going to Chelsea, then the offer was rejected, now we get the waiting game…Freddy Adu played in Benfica’s Champions League qualifier and even attempted a Bicycle Kick…Philly is getting closer to getting an MLS team…Beckham scored his first goal for Galaxy on a free kick no less, yes he can still bend it in case you were wondering…

And Finally

This is the goal of the week in the Premiership in my opinion as Stevie Gerrard puts in the game winner for Liverpool against Aston Villa.

Now this is a world class strike.

See you all next week with the Spanish La Liga preview. Cheers.