From Cork to Toronto

The webmasters at the Duckworth School of Journalism have an annoying habit of not putting writers names on copy published on line, so I don't know who wrote this open letter to FAI Commandante John Delaney , but it is reflective of the state Irish international soccer finds itself. Here's some excerpts to give you the idea. there can be no greater indictment of both the current manager and his predecessor than the oft-repeated statistic about Kilbane's remarkable run of starts in the Irish jersey. It would take a very creative film editor indeed to produce a memorable collection of highlights from the million or so caps the Wigan midfielder appears to have amassed. We'd have him doing the thing where he pushes the ball between a couple of defenders and falls over, the one where he puts his head down and runs the ball out over the line, the one where he kicks the ball too far ahead of himself and loses possession. The crowning glory could be the moment on Wednesday nig...

If you were a lad growing up in Argentina you might not have fully appreciated the hatred between Liverpool and Manchester United. You become a decent player and get picked up by United after Valladolid and PSG and show some promise at full back - Old Trafford being partial to an "Argentina!" chant since 1998 - and voted fan player of the year in your first season but have awful luck with injury since... but apparently you never noticed how the fans felt about the bin-dippers, how loudly they sang "Gary Neville is a red, he hates Scousers". You might have remarked on how Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is now 20LEGEND but there's always the niggle that he used to support the dippers as a kid. Sure we took Rooney but Everton were never as much of an irritant as the other shower. Then there was "big time Charlie" Ince who went from United to Liverpool, but via Inter Milan and a two year gap - and nobody's forgotten Charlie's goal at Anfield in 1999, or...

I was out of town over the weekend and while I had heard of the violent incident between Toronto Police and Chilean Under 20 soccer players and the subsequent diplomatic kerfuffle, I expected an investigation to closely query what happened to put our city's international reputation in the spotlight (drawing far more overseas media coverage than the tournament was getting I suspect) and the decision making of the police officers on the scene - this is not the first allegation of police overreaction at BMO Field. However, on the way back into town, 680 News brought us their top story - a bunch of whiners protesting outside the 3rd place playoff game. Heads up boys and girls - Sepp Blatter refused to link this to any future Canadian bid for a FIFA tournament and if FIFA won't pick Chile over Canada we can't have been that far offside. But the infuriating bit was when protesters linked the incident with the policies of Augusto Pinochet : "For many people, even for m...

The CBC's sports department is a rapidly shrinking animal given the loss of the Olympics, curling and CFL football so it is interesting that the Blue Jays are in talks with CBC to either have them replace TSN as secondary carrier of Jay games or to do so in addition to TSN, the current contract holder. Due to the mutual parentage of the Jays and Sportsnet under the Rogers corporate tent, the primary contract is not up for grabs. In NBA news - when Toronto got its 27th win last year it was April 15 and they had lost 55 games. This year they have lost 23 and are 9-1 in the last ten after their defeat of Kobe Bryant and the rest of the Lakers . As for the Leafs - after last night Nashville is still the only NHL team never to lose to Toronto, albeit over the short history of the franchise. This is a big sporting weekend for me, tomorrow morning will be spent watching United and Sunday morning (10am EST) the historic first international rugby game at Croke Park against France - an...

That David Beckham's move to LA is more about money and a possible film career for Victoria is one thing. Real Madrid's reaction in its childishness , with Capello's public decision not to select him for the remainder of the season essentially constructively dismissing Beckham and then the club criticising him for wanting to join LA Galaxy early rather than sit in the stands is shocking and I hope true Madrid supporters are ashamed. This is a club that has had no compunction about raiding clubs for their players by declaring their interest (especially when Presidential elections are afoot) but for once are confronted by a deal they can't match even with the historic assistance they have had from various levels of government. This behaviour is making the Americans look like the classy ones - how did that happen?

Toronto cares only about (fully grown not baby) Leafs in hockey terms, and a team doesn't have a European name, they aren't interested in soccer either. I mean, they hired SuperMo/Judas as coach which spiked interest for 10 seconds but still, we're not in the New York Cosmos days of Pele and Beckenbauer right? Hang on - maybe this guy will attract some interest . His best years are behind him and he would attract an enormous salary. Sounds just right for a Toronto team, especially one owned by MLSE. ( Fr o m Cork to Toront o , November 12 ). Right League, right player... wrong suckers . RTE Sport, on the other hand, had the suckers spot on. Though having done a little digging, it seems ESPN were even more on the ball . Toronto FC may have sold 100 more season tickets today on the strength of the announcement of Goldenballs' impending visit with his La-La-land teammates, bringing their total sold to 7,000, but can they really assure us that the minion in charg...

Updated to fix some dead links . For a Celtic and Manchester United supporter, this is a dream combo - "Larsson (Solskjaer 78 mins)" "Goals: Larsson 55, Solskjaer 90" The players who share a song shared the 2-1 win in the FA Cup Third Round - I trust Ole has no problems sharing with a Swede. Pity Martin O'Neill, who managed Larsson for Celtic in the glory days of the Seville UEFA Cup final , who must have feared the worst seeing him in a United shirt to face his new Aston Villa charges. Larsson is due to leave United at the end of his loan period on March 12 when Helsingborg's season begins but the buzz to keep him is merely a reflection of the desperation that sets in when you cut loose a world-class striker and have to deal with being without him. Sadly they did "take my Larsson away" from Celtic and I think it might be best that Henrik has a brief but stellar stay and leaves for Sweden with everyone getting what they originally wanted from...

Tommy Lee has done many things in his life - musician , participant in a world famous sex video , college student (sort of), reality show judge . Now he tries to help Macclesfield Town throw Chelsea out of the FA Cup . John Murphy's equaliser had briefly raised Town's hopes of causing a shock. But Macclesfield's dreams were cruelly shattered seconds after the re-start when goalkeeper Tommy Lee* was harshly adjudged to have felled Andriy Shevchenko in the penalty area and was sent-off. snip... Macclesfield's dreams of a cup upset disappeared when goalkeeper Lee was harshly sent-off for colliding with Shevchenko a minute after the re-start. The Ukrainian forward had been put through by Wright-Phillips but lost his footing and was already falling when he fell over the onrushing Lee. Poor Tommy. He's so misunderstood. * Yes, I know it's not the same one . Work with me people.

United Position 1/Played 17/Points 44 Chelski 2/16/38 Liverpool 4/17/28 Arsenal 6/16/26 city 12/17/20 God knows how we're doing it . Fergie is still considering 4-5-1 the SAFE option even though we keep conceding goals! At any other time (well, any time before he left Celtic say) Henrik Larsson would have been hailed as the solution to the fragility of United's front line but we already have Giggs and Solskjaer so we don't need any more aging legends. His reluctance to use 4-4-2 stinks of a threadbare squad and a tightfisted board than tactical nous given the success it generally brings when he is forced into it by another lone striker fiasco. The Ginger Prince's vision was reported to be a lot less than 100% and Giggs is having that kind of great season which usually builds up to a climax of a debilitating injury. Big tests await in 2007, including Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea away. That said, I have generally respected Arsenal as opposed to the reflexive disgust...

I fear that Toronto FC may go the way of the Marlies and before them the Roadrunners. Just like the AHL teams, Toronto cares only about (fully grown not baby) Leafs in hockey terms, and a team doesn't have a European name, they aren't interested in soccer either. I mean, they hired SuperMo/Judas as coach which spiked interest for 10 seconds but still, we're not in the New York Cosmos days of Pele and Beckenbauer right? Hang on - maybe this guy will attract some interest . His best years are behind him and he would attract an enormous salary. Sounds just right for a Toronto team, especially one owned by MLSE.

for the time being anyway . God knows how we're managing it considering the farce of United's summer transfer dealings. 1 Manchester United 12pts 4 Chelski 9pts 9 Liverpool 4pts 10 city 4pts 17 Arsenal 2pts Not everyone is happy , mind. Meanwhile Roy starts his official career with a win , although his Vader-esque presence in the stands produced a win just before he signed the contract. I wonder whether his half-time chat was of the Ferguson Hairdryer (TM) variety. A good hiding of Leeds on Wednesday will make Old Trafford devotees smile all the wider.

a classy move by Shelbourne . Big congrats to Cork City for their win in the European Cup preliminaries and let's hope for good things against Red Star Belgrade.

United Rant has a round up of possible transfer targets if the big names in Italian football face demotion due to the alleged match fixing. Sadly under the Glazer regime we are only likely to be disappointed but it's nice to dream.

Just a quick follow up on a previous post . Remember Rooney's "accidental stamp" which "only got a red card because Ronaldo stuck his interfering head in"? FIFA have taken a different view , and now Rooney will miss the first two England qualifying games for Euro2008.

No, not that "city" , the City of Toronto (though it's equally true of the former). The Star reports that the City's Budget Advisory Committee wants to make the Toronto Zoo charge more for visitors who can't produce ID verifying that they live in the City , so visitors from other parts of the GTA as well as tourists from other parts of Canada or internationally would pay a surcharge of $2 ($21 instead of $19). This wheeze was proposed by Joe Mihevc, who will face former Mayor John Sewell in the upcoming ward election. The City is always moaning that tourist numbers are down but now they come up with this notion which will discourage tourists from visiting once, as will inevitably happen, other City owned attractions are told to do likewise. $12 million dollars is not small change to keep the Zoo going but there's a lot of fat that could be trimmed from City disbursements before you got that far. $2 is not much more to pay but it's the principle - it mak...

Another Manchester United player sent off for kicking during an England match - but then eight years ago Rooney was 12 years old so maybe the lesson was lost on him. At any rate, at least he will start the season fit which is after all what United supporters (even English ones) tend to value over England's needs. One wonders if he will be booed as Beckham was, and receive the same loyalty from the United support (who sang "Argentina" to the rage of the In-gur-land chavs at various away grounds). One can only hope that Cristiano Ronaldo, who with his agent is appears to be playing games with a candidate for the presidency of Real Madrid , does actually leave - although I have to admit I thought the initial reports were just the usual throwing names around . Unlike Beckham, four years remain on Ronaldo's contract so financially United are less likely to get as comprehensive outwitted as they were with the Beckham deal. Nonetheless even if the report in Marca blows ov...

When checking out the Non-Partisan Canadian aggregator I've occasionally seen references to the new 15,000 seater soccer stadium in Vancouver for the Whitecaps , who play in a 5,700 seat stadium in Burnaby at present. One part of the plan is to build it over existing train tracks , which is interesting from an engineering standpoint. While some in Vancouver are opposed to it as it seems to be linked to condo development, it seems far superior to the MLSE Toronto Exhibition Place publicly assisted one from a taxpayer point of view never mind a far more attractive land use than just train tracks. Think of the amount of linear park/walking/cycling track/playing field stretches that could be created in Toronto above the Lakeshore GO tracks just for starters. Here's some blog posts/web sites to get you started: Whitecaps Stadium Proposal Darren Barefoot Beyond Robson Republic of East Vancouver - Stadium spells ethnic cleansing Stadium NOW! Metroblogging Vancouver Georgia Straig...

Not content with pushing Roy Keane out of Old Trafford, Ferguson seems to be pushing Ruud out too . Time for the Wizard to retire because between this and the Glazer-love he is rapidly losing the respect he built up over all those glory years. And to think of how long and hard Fergie waited to get RVN with his knee troubles and is now criticising him while carrying passengers like Fortune and Silvestre for years. With Saha and Rooney and RVN United were starting to look like a championship winning front line with little behind - it seems the Glazers are evening things out by making the front crap too.

Dunner is celebrating the Liverpool victory which takes them to the FA Cup final. The Scouse horde in the final always brings me back to fond memories of white suits and Eric the King . Old Trafford is not celebrating, and not just because United won't have a chance to Scousebust them this year (the plastic Cup doesn't count, obviously), but because of the damage caused in the ground during the semi-final against ChelsKGB. Toilets smashed, graffiti mocking the tragedy of Munich only days after the usual remembrance of Hillsborough and 24 arrests . To move back to this side of the Atlantic - I agree wholeheartedly with Dunner's take on the media reaction to the Quinn sacking .

This post used to say "Try ul rather than li - might be a bullet point?" which is a lesson to me not to post on comments and post to my blog simultaneously. And it's not like they look similar either... oh well! Bit of a symptom of the weekend really - back to back losses for the Canadian men's hockey team against Switzerland (Tobler0wned?) and Finland, the dawning realisation that unlike a large chunk of "Dallas" I'm not going to suddenly be in a shower and realise that Steve Staunton as Irish soccer manager is all a dream and lastly the crushing defeat at Anfield - not the scale of the result but the significance of it for United's season, for the disaster that is United's playing staff and for Alan Smith's future . I missed it on telly and I'm glad I did because h earing about it was depressing enough . Nice to see that the workshy scouse plague left us with the moral high ground with their "serenade" of Smith though - a...