If anyone has not yet seen United, the 2011 BBC TV drama about the Munich Air Disaster of 1958, please go do it now. It will turn you into a Manchester United fan.
Put together by a number of Doctor Who (one of my favourite TV shows. Yes, I know I'm a huge nerd) producers (James Strong, Chris Chibnall, and starring the amazingly talented 10th Doctor himself, David Tennant), this is undoubtedly one of the best movies I have ever seen. Incredibly moving performances by the entire cast provide a thoroughly enjoyable, yet extremely depressing, experience.
Based off of true events, the plot revolves around the "Busby Babes," the extremely young (and talented) group of footballers who won Manchester United the league championship in the 1955-1956 (average age: 21) and 19566-1957 (average age: 22) seasons, and the Munich Air Disaster that claimed the lives of 8 of these players, and left many others with career-ending injuries. The movie documents the events of the crash, as well as how the surviving players/managers cope emotionally with the loss. David Tennant stars as Assistant Manager Jimmy Murphy, and Jack O'Connell plays United legend Bobby Charlton, and both performances are impeccable. Extremely well-shot, well-acted, and well-written, this movie is a must-see for all football fans (or those who are fans of amazing movies) around the world.
Assistant Manager Jimmy Murphy (David Tennant) leads the Busby Babes out of the tunnel at Old Trafford.
While United hasn't converted me from a Chelsea fan to a Man Utd fan, I have infinitely more respect for the the Red Devils than I did prior to watching. The club is absolutely drenched in history, and has overcome adversity time and time again. Success in ingrained in the club, and for that I have to respect them.
Anyway, sorry about the movie review, but I just finished watching this about 20 minutes ago, and I pretty much felt that I had to get as many people to watch it as possible (it was just that amazing).
Cheers,
~Matt
P.S. Champions League analysis coming soon!
P.P.S. Another amazing football movie: The Damned United, with Michael Sheen as Brian Clough, "the greatest manager England never had." Look it up, it's absolutely brilliant.
These past few weeks have not been good for soccer.
First, we have the cancellation of the 2012-2013 season of the Women's Professional Soccer League, which I think was very unnecessary and left a ton of extremely talented players scrambling for teams and regular jobs. The entire season was cancelled due to a seemingly trivial dispute between the league and one of it's EX-managers (!). As a result, hundreds of excellent youth prospects are not receiving the match experience that would be beneficial to their future careers (i.e. Alex Morgan, who I believe is going to become the best player in women's soccer in a few years).
Alex Morgan
Secondly, we have the John Terry saga.
JT and Anton Ferdinand butting heads in the Chelsea-QPR match in October.
If you're not up to date on the situation, on October 23rd, 2011, John Terry, captain of Chelsea and the England squad, was accused of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand (Rio Ferdinand's little brother) in a match between QPR and Chelsea (that game was memorable for all the wrong reasons, if you remember: we had the chance to overtake Manchester United in the table, and instead lost 1-0 to low-ranked QPR, with our squad getting fined for receiving 7 yellows, and with both Drogba and Bosingwa getting sent off. Definitely one of the more depressing/frustrating games of the season (and believe me, there have been quite a few – don't even get me started on the Chelsea-Arsenal game, or both Chelsea-Manchester Utd games, for that matter)). For about 3 months, there wasn't too much news about Terry and Ferdinand, just the odd article in the back pages. But just recently there has been an explosion of coverage on the saga, with new rumours and gossip erupting everyday. Since then, Terry has been stripped of his England captaincy, been shrouded in rumours, and been abandoned by quite a few of his many sponsors. His trial date is July 9, and will face up to a £2,500 fine if found guilty. Not a huge sum for someone with a £150,000/week wage, but the real punishment would be the soiling of his reputation (more than it has already been soiled, of course, by all these allegations). Joey Barton, the controversial, Nietzsche-tweeting QPR skipper (who, incidentally, hasn't yet responded to our request to join the Football Manager 2012 league that a few friends and I are running) actually made sense a few days ago when he tweeted that the "FA should of dealt with it instantly and saved the public the expense of the drawn out legal proceedings." While a bit grammatically incorrect, he does have a point that I do agree with: this should not have been allowed to turn into "the John Terry saga" to begin with. It was unnecessary, and just unleashes bad press on everyone, especially John Terry and the FA (by the way, after tweeting those "controversial" views, Barton almost got fined by the FA, although I have no idea why. He seems to be making sense, and I thought that the concept of "free speech" still existed. Maybe that doesn't apply when football is concerned...).
Thirdly, the Chelsea-Manchester United game. That was absolutely devastating. Questionable decisions were made on both sides (AVB and referee Howard Webb), and I have a few issues with both of them. If you didn't know, Chelsea tied Manchester United 3-3 on Sunday. It may sound good (-ish) on paper, but we were actually up 3-nil after 50 minutes (courtesy of Daniel Sturridge, David Luiz, and a stunner from Mata). We gave up two penalty shots (Rooney scored them both), and allowed the unmarked Chicharito to net the equalizer in the 84th minute. I think this has been the first time that AVB has gone with a formation that isn't 4-3-3 in his entire managerial career at Chelsea, instead deciding on the 4-2-3-1, which actually worked pretty well. This formation allowed Mata to play in his favoured role behind the striker, and of course it payed off. He was absolutely the best player on the pitch that night, and had a role to play in almost every attack. Gary Cahill finally made his debut in the absence of John Terry (injured) and Ashley Cole (injured); however, he looked a tad shaky in defense. He was extremely lucky not to receive a straight red card and a penalty for Man Utd with his tackle from behind early on in the game. Bosingwa took Cole's place at LB, and played well. Branislav Ivanovic played at a similar level on the other side of the pitch. David Luiz teamed up with Cahill in the centre of the defensive line, and provided the rare experience of being the best defender in the Chelsea side. He sometimes went a bit too far forward (as he does), but definitely showed increased self-awareness and retreated as needed. However, he did leave Chicharito unmarked in the 84th minute, which tied up the game, so minus points for that. Essien was an absolute rock in midfield, and without him the scoreline would have definitely looked much worse for us. The two penalties were the main focal point of the match, and 50% of them were definitely controversial. The first was completely deserved – AVB told Sturridge that he hadn't been helping out in defense enough, so Sturridge did as he was told, and unfortunately gave a free penalty to Wayne Rooney with a badly-timed challenge. The 2nd penalty, however, I do not believe was justified (although I guess it depends on the angle). Ivanovic looked to trip Welbeck in the penalty box, but at a second glance, it actually looked like Welbeck ran right into Ivanovic's foot and fell over. Chelsea fans all over were absolutely furious at Howard Webb (enough so that they began to post cartoons and edited pictures such as this):
That explains it.
However, Howard Webb was not the only one with the controversial decisions. AVB made quite a few of his own. First of all, loaning newly acquired left winger Kevin de Bruyne back to Genk (when we so desperately need a left winger!) was, I believe, the wrong decision. Malouda does not seem to warrant a place in the starting XI anymore (especially after this game, where he seemed extremely quiet on the wings and provided little support for the attack), and we need someone to take that spot. AVB took off Sturridge in the 70th minute for Oriol Romeu, leaving nobody on the right wing (Romeu dropped back to his usual CDM position). Side-note: Sturridge refused to acknowledge AVB when coming off. That was the only substitution of the game, and it proved costly with the tired Blues losing out on the full three points, and losing more of their point-edge in the race for the final Champions League spot.
Chelsea-Manchester United Highlights
Anyway, that's the (depressing) round-up for the past few weeks. Sorry if I made you sad. Go drink some tea to recover (it helps).
