By Walter Broeckx
After having the fastest match report on an Arsenal blog this is now the slowest match report on an Arsenal blog I think.
Arsenal started with Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Alexis, Giroud. And on the cold beach in Manchester we had Szczesny, Gibbs, Chambers, Flamini, Rosicky, Ozil, Walcott. So Bellerin replaces the injured Debuchy and Ramsey comes in to the team in the place of Rosicky. His first start since his injury.
Koscielny gets his usual card when Dean is in charge but no complaints from me he came late on Fernandinho and good advantage from Dean at first. Arsenal tries to break but Bellerin cannot get his cross past the City defender, Giroud was on his own in the middle behind him.
Arsenal gives City a lot of the ball and they don’t seem to know what to do with it. All Arsenal players are doing a good job apart from Ospina who hasn’t touched a ball till now. Arsenal tries to keep a tight block all over the field. Defend with all players but when they got the ball the full backs join in the attack.
Alexis with a ball to the right hand side but Oxlade-Chamberlain didn’t see it coming on time and the ball goes out. 15 minutes gone and both teams are holding each other at arms length without creating anything. Coquelin intercepting a lot of balls and winning possession for Arsenal.
Finally a first chance of the match. Oxlade-Chamberlain escapes down the right and Giroud heads his cross just wide. Di Micheles tried to hack Oxlade down on the flank, ref could have given a yellow card like he did with Koscielny. Cazorla and Coquelin give a great cover in front of our defenders.
Arsenal now playing more forward and a long combination ends up when Kompany fouls Monreal in an off the ball foul. Monreal was going for the return ball from Giroud and Kompany blocks his run. Kompany pointing towards the ball is a clear attempt that he knew he made a foul, then pointing at the ball in an attempt to say that he played the ball. Well I got news for you Vincent, you never even looked at the ball or came within 3 meters of the ball.
But the most amazing part of it all was that Dean, yes you read it well, Dean pointed at the penalty spot to give Arsenal their first penalty of the century. Or something in that kind. As I remember him giving a penalty against Blackburn some 10 years ago. Cazorla behind the ball and 1-0 to the Arsenal.
City once again try to work something out up front but again Coquelin with a great interception. Ramsey running too long with the ball as he had options on the right flank and a possible chance goes begging. 28 minutes. Ooooooooospina can pick up a long ball from City that was over hit. The first time he had to do something as a keeper. A minute later a nice pirouette from a player that got called a rhinoceros by someone. So Per can’t play football… Mind you he did just kick it forward moments later when it was needed. Half an hour gone and City looks toothless in attack. Or should I say Arsenal completely dominates the City attack?
Both Oxlade and Alexis giving excellent cover whenever City gets the ball. They work their socks off. A first attempt on goal from City comes from a tame header from Aguero that goes wide. Ramsey makes a foul in the middle of the park and gets a yellow card. Very soft. 38 minutes: Coquelin loses the ball. A rarity. Kompany fouls Giroud also in the middle of the park and gets booked. Consistency? Is this Dean really? Must say that Kompany is on thin ice when he loudly protest the card and gets a lecture from Dean.
Without really getting in to any real trouble Arsenal ends the first half with a goal up against Manchester City. An amazingly team effort from 10 players who defended when needed and attacked when they could. Oooooospina the only one nicking a living.
City want to turn up the heat in the second half. Jovetic came on for Milner and so an extra force up front to defend. And now Ospina has to put an Aguero shot in to a corner. A good stop as the ball took a deflection. For the first time Arsenal committed themselves forward in the second half and City gets some space but the Arsenal defenders on top of their attackers. Oxlade-Chamberlina with an interception but he then waits too long and Di Michelis can make up for his error. Just go for it next time Oxlade.
On the other side Ospina has to make another stop and seconds later the ball bounces around in the Arsenal penalty area but Fernandinho shoots over. Ref gives a corner and this wasn’t the first wrongly awarded corner. Fernandinho gets booked for a handball. Alexis with a great movement but the ball goes wide of the goal.
Bellerin gives a little pull in minute 53, ref gives an advantage to City. Arsenal attack Alexis is brought down by Kompany just outside the penalty area with a two footed tackle, Dean gives an advantage and Ramsey shoots over. Then the ref goes back to book Bellerin for the little foul two minutes earlier and lets Kompany off the hook for his challenge on Alexis? Yes, this is Dean.
A big chance for City on the hour mark but Koscielny diverts the ball in corner. The two City players behind hem were in an offside position but it is better not to count on the assistants to call offsides at the Manchester City stadium as we found out last year. Vital interception from Koscielny.
Alexis with a fine move and brought down by Jovetic. Rosicky enters the field for Oxlade-chamberlain. Cazorla to take the free kick and Giroud heads it in!!! 2-0 to the Arsenal.
Alexis with a good shot but Hart can save the shot and Bellerin cannot make it completely to the rebound. On the side of the pitch a low shot from Navas is easily saved by Ospina. A bit later some confusion between Ospina and Monreal who gives away a corner after a wild kick. His only mistake of the match? Cazorla goes past 5 man is being fouled a few times but then loses the ball. But what an effort from the little giant.
A chance for Jovetic just off or onside but he shoots wide. Dean gives a corner but Ospina claims it simply. Ramsey looking a bit tired now certainly when going forward. Not really surprising after his injury. He then goes down with cramps but stays on to defend a corner. Rosicky shoots over after an Arsenal attack.
Alexis and Ramsey leave the field and Gibbs and Flamini enter the field. Alexis and Ramsey worked their socks off also when they needed to defend and weren’t as sharp attacking wise as a result. Some 6 minutes to go in normal time. Gibbs on a counter, dragged back by Aguero who gets a yellow card for his effort. Arsenal being very realistic with hardly any player forward when we have a corner. It would be wiser to play it short then maybe?
Dzeko with a shot but Ospina wants to keep a clean sheet. Arsenal is in control and Cazorla dances around the City players as if they were traffic cones. Giroud with a wonderful control, to Rosicky who plays in Flamini and only a big foot from Kompany prevents Giroud from scoring a third Arsenal goal.
We are entering extra time and Arsenal looks composed and City looks tired and without any ideas how to break down the stubborn Arsenal defensive line. Arsenal play out the remaining time without any problems as they did the whole match.
A great win after a master class in hard work!
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Thanks Walter.
As all I did was read about the game, I wonder if people would compare what Arsenal was doing, to “park the bus”.
http://www.espnfc.us/barclays-premier-league/23/blog/post/2254730/outrage-over-premier-league-officials-is-damaging-the-game-rory-smith
sorry to be off topic, but i thought this article was very….interesting. nothing to see here. i love this idea that the problem with the refs is that people are talking about it!? i never thought of putting my head in the sand as being a particularly good solution to a problem but hey, what do i know? im not a football journalist….
@ gord,
we did not park the bus, although we did alot of defending in our own half, our midfield did press.
i dont understand all this talk of how we played so different. this team over the past two years has had many games where we have ground out results playing deep and punishing teams on the break.
the biggest difference for me was having mert and kos playing alongside each other for a couple games on the trot.
john L
“i dont understand all this talk of how we played so different. this team over the past two years has had many games where we have ground out results playing deep and punishing teams on the break”
A lot of us have been saying that, but it doesn’t suit the media/aaa claim that this master Class in defending was in fact all down to a bunch of thugs abusing Wenger at a Railway Station.
“A stubborn Arsenal defensive line”.
When did we last hear those words?
I still recall the horror of last season when our “high line” was torn apart at OT, Anfield and Stamford Bridge.
At last the lesson has been learnt, confidence restored and the future looks bright indeed. 😉
nicky
I agree with you most of the time but not entirely this time.
For a start at OT last season United only had 5 shots, 2 on target. We had 10 shots, 2 on target.
You may of meant the Etihad but that was a unique match in any case. We was on the back of a tough European match. Went behind early. Conceded at least 2 very dubious goals and had 2 decent ones chalked off and played with 10 men when already shattered.
Liverpool:
Okay we where torn apart early and ended up chasing the game. Fair enough. But lest we forget Liverpool where flying at the time with there A team out. We, as usual where littered with injuries.
Chelsea:
We played awful. Again gave them a start and again ended up chasing the game.
So okay, 2 very poor performances, for whatever reason.
But to say:
““A stubborn Arsenal defensive line”.
When did we last hear those words?”
Is very misleading.
We had equal most clean sheets last year and have in recent times put up some amazing defensive performances against some very good sides in the CL.
This insinuation that Sundays performance was a million miles better than anything else we’ve done over the last few years is simply not true.
That ESPN article john L linked is a disgrace. It reads line fodder to fill space. He clearly didn’t think about what he was typing.
“…the Premier League, it appears, has finally contracted Serie A’s obsession over officials”.
Yes, because we all know everything was hunky-dory with Serie A refs.
He then goes on to site former referees Mark Halsey, Graham Poll and Keith Hackett who have said officiating is at its worst, and then goes on to dismiss their opinions as worthless, just to argue his point.
He then quotes Sky Sports’ figures of 99% accuracy in decisions to support his argument, without questioning those figures (which look suspiciously like the PGMO’s press release). Like all good sports journalists, he swallows what he’s told without question. And then he drags in Liverpool’s owner John W. Henry to give us a figure of 95% accuracy (which looks suspiciously like the old PGMO figures), again which he swallows hook, line and sinker.
So which is it, 99% or 95%?
The author’s solution? Stop talking about it! Seriously! I’d like him to direct me to the wild mushrooms he’s been picking! “There’s no problem here. Nothing to see, nothing to discuss”. The Ministry of Truth is upon us.
Every man and his dog knows the solution is to allow video replays to help the officials. It has done nothing to reduce the excitement of cricket, rugby or tennis, and nothing to reduce the respect for officials in those games. In fact, it has helped players to respect the officials, because they know most times they get something wrong it was an honest mistake.
Just compare that to the toxic situation we have now, with managers, players, fans, ex-refs all coming out with very angry words for refs precisely because of the silence, the lack of technology, refs not explaining there decisions, etc., all of which the author supports.
Then again, why did I expect logic or coherence from a sports journalist.
@Quincy
He should’ve done more research OR contacted Tony and Walter. Maybe then, he could’ve done a bit better with his article. The party line they won’t break, will they.
The accuracy of Untolds prediction of the referee performance is not a bluff. Its backed up by hard evidence placed right in front of our eyes.
Gord,
I am always amazed by the fact that you don’t see the games. I understand that your computer does not player video (strange?!) but dude, get a smartphone or a tablet. You are missing a lot and after games like Sunday’s, I feel nothing but pity for you.
If you are not seeing Arsenal play or at the very least, catching up on Arsenal Player, you are missing A LOT my friend. You might want to do something about. This is a friendly suggestion 🙂
Bootoomee, it is called no money. I am going to try and start a business in the summer (after I finish rebuilding the deck, once the ground unthaws), and if I am lucky maybe I can make a living. But there are no employers that I can find, who are interested in an autistic engineer.
My computer runs Linux, there are still lots of websites that don’t support Linux. I refuse to run WINE. I hate Flash and Javascript and Java for being security holes. And with all that and a dollar or so, I can buy a coffee. 🙂
Like others have said before, we have played like this many times without the same result. It would be interesting to hear what they’d go on to say next should we lose having played like this, no doubt the tune will change to something else. I think the main difference, like Fat Mike said on the other thread, is the first goal. City score it and we’d have been more open trying to chase the game, and mistakes could have crept into our game.
Scoring first allowed us to dictate the pace of the game nicely. And like apo armani said, I thought our attacks were very fluid and direct. In fact I would argue we posed more threat in City’s box than they did in ours. If anyone looked like scoring another goal in this match it was us, not City. This was not a smash and grab job by any stretch of imagination, we clinically and methodically dismantled City. City didn’t have any answer to what we threw at them, resulting in players like Aguerro uncharacteristically fouling Gibbs as if he was Vertonghen in disguise. No wonder the likes of caragher were left fuming about our boys taking selfies, they couldn’t find a single to criticise about our performance. Muppets.
A nice report Walter and worth waiting for!
The comment made by John L and jambug re the media erroneously picking up on our change of game plan is a valid one.
I agree that this is not the first time we have played deep, defended with determination and won the match. I further agree that the media euphoria about our new “Plan B” is misplaced.
I think AW has been striving for some time to get the correct balance between defense and attack, and there have been occasions when we have got it wrong – e.g. the home match against the Manures – we outplayed them for most of the match, but unfortunately left our defense over exposed – of course the PGMO had an influence on that result as well.
What was different this time was that our midfield worked in a very unified way, covering not only the back four, but each other as well – and in doing so they negated the much vaunted (and anticipated – Carragher) threat from Silva and Aguero. added to this was our speed on the break – we always looked dangerous going forward.
I don’t need to praise individuals again – they were all great – more of the same please!
@Jambug,
When was the last time we didn’t employ the high line in defence. Too many of the top clubs have now sussed this out and we have paid dearly.
I may have quoted the wrong venues of last season but the nightmare performances remain.
Gord,
I understand but it breaks my heart nonetheless that a committed Gooner like yourself doesn’t get to see the team play. this is one of the reasons why I get so mad when the privileged whiners amongst our ST holders start moaning about something that millions around the world would give their right arm to be able to enjoy.
I hope that your luck changes soon and I wish you success in all you do. For the moment, get a used tablet or a cheap smartphone if you can squeeze out the cash. It is worth it just for the sake of seeing Arsenal play alone. When I was still living in Nigeria, I would travel miles to pay to watch Arsenal play at “viewing centres”. That is how millions of Nigerian Gooners are still watching their darling team play. It was very inconvenient but convenience is not something that I think about when it is time to see Arsenal play.
Good luck pal and all the best in your planned endeavours.
I assumed you meant the Etihad and not OT, as well as Anfield and Stamford Bridge.
Because we have given 2, even 3 ‘Nightmare performances’ doesn’t mean that on other occasions we haven’t defended well. That’s my point.
I wasn’t really contesting the ‘high line’ either, however I was contesting:
““A stubborn Arsenal defensive line”.
When did we last hear those words?”
No mention of High or otherwise.
We have had plenty of ‘Stubborn defensive lines’ over the last few years.
Sunday was not some freak performance Suddenly appearing out of the blue, like yourself and others appear to be suggesting, at least not in my opinion anyway.
That’s all I’m saying.
To night Littlepool are playing chelski in the ‘little cup’ only tonight BBC Radio ‘wiseos’ have been informing everyone its ‘the ‘Big Cup.’ that every one wants to win especailly Maureen and wouldn’t it be great for Ger to finish with this trophy.
So we can forget winning the FA Cup because that’s the ‘Lttle cup’ after all!
What did we do to deserve the nonsense these ‘….’ dish out at us
Gord: If you have a laptop and Linux on it.. I’m guessing you should be able to run Chrome on it. YOu shouldn’t need to install Java or Flash but will still be able to play videos of Arsenal player without a problem. I’m guessing it’s because the Flash player is inbuilt into Chrome though or its doing some kind of conversion to HTML 5 at runtime. Maybe.
And Arsenal Player is free – just create an account. Hope that helps.
@Jambug,
All I’m saying is that Arsenal’s performance on Sunday was one that I (and I’m sure many others) had not seen for a long time.
We abandoned the high line, everyone complemented each other and IMO, there was only one team on the field likely to score and likely to win.
I want to specially credit Arsene Wenger for this win at Ethiad. A lot has been said on how disciplined our boys played but I haven’t heard much about how tactically sound Arsene’s approach to the game was. Apart from a few aaa who gave themselves credit for lending AW the tactical nous needed, although they didn’t forget to knock him as usual for being such a stubborn slow learner.
AW deserves as much credits as our boys not because he needs media endorsement but because for the media and ‘poodits’, that is the honourable thing to do. But when last did we see ‘media/pundits’ and ‘honourable’ together in the same sentence?
Sorry to learn of your probs. You might try this link if u have not already done so.
http://ifirstrow.eu/
Whatever you do don’t click any links while waiting for the 30 secs for the link to run.
You know its working Ok when you hear the sound, talking or ad music.
Also test it on an earlier game just to make sure it’s Ok.
Hope that helps.
Nice suggestions guys(colario, arvind) but Gord says he won’t run javascript for fear of the security holes it introduces(agree, if you ever heard of XSS & such other nasty stuff), so that wont work.
Thanks guys, I know you mean well. I still refuse to accept HTML email, because it is yet another vector to pick up viruses from. I am perfectly capable of picking out the human text from HTML markup, as I normally use markup languages (LaTeX or POD) on an almost daily basis.
Maybe I should buy advertising off Tony at some point if my busienss works? Among other things, I want to make TV trays in a manner similar to how aircraft wings are made (out of western red cedar), and there is a neat resonant chamber for Apple iPhones I built one of, to get a feel for that.
Oh well, let’s see if I can get some “work” in for a while. 🙂
AL: Yes, I agree XSS etc is all bad but that IMO is not a reason to stop using JS all together. Coz almost everything these days has JS on it. I tend to use a combination of NOScript, AdBlock and RequestPolicy on Firefox and whitelist on a need_to_know basis. Chrome I use primarily for videos because Flash isn’t great on Firefox.
Gord: That’s fine and I do understand the concern. Just saying, that if you’re reasonably careful – the chances of you getting infected are really low. And you do seem to be very good with computers and am sure you are careful. Maybe rethink your strategy a bit. Its Arsenal..after all 🙂
Arvind
I take the same precautions as you too 🙂 It’s all about striking a balance between usability and security. I hope Gord revises his security policy, it’d be a shame to never see this team in action 🙂
You know what they say the most secure computer is? It’s the one that doesn’t work 🙂
Sure everyone in the whole country knows by now that we registered our lowest possession stats in the demolition job at City, what with the media repeating it every five seconds. I hear Chelsea managed 38% tonight against Liverpool, and just one shot on target which was a penalty by hazard (how many penalties has this guy won BTW? Another Ronaldo in the making?). Doubt very much we will hear any more of this poor showing by Chelsea.
Second most secure? The one not connected to the Internet or wifi.
Arvind, are you familiar with Linux at all? Do you know the role of a maintainer in a distribution of Linux?
Debian forked because of a piece of software called systemd. The fork is called Devuan. I am probably going to try and become a maintainer of Perl software for Devuan. Because I am probably going to be making my own CNC (computer numerical control) hardware (from arduino, beagleboard, raspberry pi) and software, I am thinking of becoming the maintainer of LinuxCNC/EMC2 for Devuan as well. I am not going to have time for viruses.
But heck, I’ve only been using computers since 1977. 🙂 10 O/S and 60 languages.
AL
I was watching it and said the very same thing to Mrs Jambug.
It will probably go down as another Jose master class !!
Al
Even when we lost up there 5 – 1 we had:
57% possession
11 shots
6 on target
Yes jambug, they’ll still somehow find a way to describe that as genius by jose. Shocking.
That was some scary attacking play from Liverpool tonight. Chelsea were saved from a drubbing by their goalie and luck (Gerrard hitting the post with a fine effort).
Gord,
You kinda remind of Micro-biology freshers that I knew in the university. They were always paranoid about germs. At first I found them irritating but later, their paranoia soon become a great source of amusement. By the time they were in their 3rd years though, they usually come down back to earth and dwell with us unwashed heathens 🙂
Yes, there are risks involved in being online but unlike many who worship Edward Snowden for letting them know that the government can view any aspect of our lives they want to, a decade after it was apparent to those of us paying attention, online risks don’t scare me. Not one tiny bit. I always back up my important stuff in an offline drive and should my computer get infected, I just format and reinstall. End of.
Life is too short to be lived in fear of things that have remote chances of happening anyway. Virus attacks and identity theft are not as common as they are made to be and with SENSIBLE usage of our computers online, one has very little to worry about.
Bro, come join the rest of us in the risks ridden online cesspool. The water is fine!
Oh I understand Linux fairly well and use it fairly well Gord and can solve most of my own problems – but that’s about it. I’m sure you know much more than me :). I was just trying to help. Good luck with your efforts and I hope you find a way to watch Arsenal as much as you like.
Where I endeavor to be sophisticated, is in engineering. Materials Science and Engineering is where I call home, but for some reason I regard cooking as the same thing. So I will do sophisticated engineering stuff and sophisticated cooking. But, lots of other stuff I prefer a lower level, less problems. I prefer my HTML to be static. If it has to have CSS, just simple stuff. Don’t use javascript to do CSS. And so on. Boring.
I have wandered into lactofermentation a few times, I can appreciate your (Bootoomee) bio people. I have a friend who is learning how to make cheese and meat in Germany, to do in western Canada. I’ve sent him a few papers on things.
—-
There is the odd newspaper article saying we are being too hard on the poor officials. Please, tell Debuchy that you will pay his wages and his rehab, you stupid ref! You guys are responsible for the health of the players on the field, and that comes before calling offsides or fouls.
But, a week or so ago, I found an old thread that Tony and Walter were having a conversation in, and I have no idea if they read it. If you are an Ars Technica (AT) reader, you will get more out of this than many others.
But, a writer from AT for to ride in a USNavy F-18 simulator, and there is an article on that. There is also an article about simulators involving a treadmill I believe. I don’t think a person wants a treadmill, or not in the sense most people would assume.
These simulators have a seated pilot in something resembling a cockpit, and the interior has all the guages and switches needed, and the pilot can have just as real heads-up as in a real flight. There are many different projectors sorrounding the simulator, projecting images onto the screen in a way that is meant to be realistic to the person sitting in the pilot’s seat (not necessarily anyone else).
The pilot is in “radio” contact with a controller.
Enough background?
We have 3 simulator rooms: one for a referee and two for assistant referees. All the TV feeds have been digitized and fed into computers to produce a 4D (3D plus time) model of the game. You probably want 5D, with the 5th dimension being the ability to simulate an audio environment at any position iwth any particular orientation (of a human skull). The 3 officials come in for their debrief, and get shown to their respective simulator rooms. They each have a comfortable chair to sit in, they could be there a while. They have joysticks to rotate clockwise/counterclockwise or move left/right/forward/backward.
I would suggest that the first run or two, is just to have them “relive the game”. During the game, they are supposed to follow play at all times, in these first couple of runs, they don’t have to. They can look at the stands, the opposite side ofthe field or whatever. And full audio, if they are looking east, they get the simulated audio at that location for someone looking east.
But, maybe it is better to just do the game the same way they did it first? Maybe one of the people skilled in the psycho sciences could weigh in on that?
With enough TVs they can probably calculate the head position of each official accurately enough, so that the image “straight ahead” in the simulator is the image that was straight in front of their head at the time. And so, the officials and their evaluator(s) can go through what direction officials were facing, where they were looking (which can’t be calculated), and so on.
As the entire stadium is simulated, the evaluators can show an assistant referee or referee what things would look like if they were in a different position. If there was a serious injury, the evaluators and officials can go through the incident. How to take up positions which better show what is happening, how to help (if needed).
I think that kind of a debrief is going to be of far greater value to any set of 3 officials than the crap that Mike Riley 😈 is giving them now. But I wouldn’t start this at EPL.
Each game is going to have a huge amount of data once broken down for that. The initial object of that data, is to produce better officials. An official of the game, can coem back at any point in the future, and rerun the simulation. They can play out for themselves, different ways of doing things.
If there is a serious injury, the officials from the game and others (representing, teams, league and seriously injured person) can (and should) investigate the incident in the hope of this not happening again (if possible). The results of theat investigation should be public, and quickly available. As long as criminal charges are not being made. I think this level of detail combined with other information, may make it possible to determine deliberate injury, and jailtime may be relevent.
Researchers may want to use the system for doing research about football.
People doing games and gambling people may want to use the system (the ability to display games broken down and stored), charge them as much as possible. Keep increasing the price until the number of their requests starts to go down. Periodically start increasing prices again. The governing body can do what it wants with this money.
Make data on the game available to anyone, free of charge. What was the temperature? When were whistles blown during the game? When did the ball go from in-play to out-of-play? How did the ball go out of play? When was advantage indicated? What players were on the field at this time? What officials were on the field at this time? And so on.
The data from no game can be deleted once created. Unless of course everyone gives up playing football.
Where I would start, is FIFA/World Cup. FIFA has money far beyond what it knows what to do with. Which is why so many crooks are there. I would see them commission universities and colleges world wide to develop the hardware and software necessary, and FIFA would house a server to have all that software and hardware development under “free licenses” such as for Open Hardware, GPL, BSD, Apache, and so on. There is so much money in this, I would prefer licenses like BSD to not be used, but BSD is still preferable to contracting this to Blatter’s Buddies.
From FIFA/World Cup, this could filter down to the qualifying stages. Perhaps associations such as UEFA could take up the technology at that time. After a while, this could be taken up by organizations such as the EPL, and go as far as it can trickle down.
I doubt this trickle down is economically feasible much below the second level of professional football in any given country. I would suggest that the finals and semifinals of ALL amateur football in a country be done with this system. If your country has a U9 national champion game, it gets done. With the officials it would normally use. It gives a few lucky officials a chance to go through the simulators to learn about the system.
And I would suggest Walter (and others from Untold) administer the program beginning program for FIFA. Or maybe Walter might only want to train evaluators to use this system? Who knows?
I think that is how you get better officials.
Oh, but you first draw and quarter Mike Riley 😈 .
@ quincy,
excellent review of the article, and my thoughts exactly. i got the impression that this article wasnt thoughtless….but actually a journalist being paid to white wash the recent criticism.
oh orwell how much i wish you werent so f-cking accurate!
@ gord,
you can always watch the highlights the day of the game or the following and the whole game usually a few days later (here in california at any rate) through the arsenal player. its an official source so i wouldnt worry about viruses or such. i dont always get to see games live because of the time difference or work commitments, the arsenal player is a great source…
Bootoomee
For your biology freshers (freshmen? Sorry, Canada doesn’t do freshmen, or at least western Canada doesn’t: we have first year, second year, …).
Lacto-fermented radishes. I really don’t like adding salt to things (both sides of my family tree have heart disease histories), so if a person starts a lacto-ferment in the fall from salt, I would use the “liqour” of that to start other ferments, such as this one. Eventually, the salt gets diluted to nothing. But the fresh “liqour” should have a high concentration of 1 or 2 bacterial species.
In any event, on the initial ferment, you need to make the environment as unpleasant to most bacteria as possible. The two families of bacteria we may want to be involved are tolerant of salt (sodium chloride) and low pH. The typical starter just uses salt (sodium chloride). I use reduced salt and lime juice (I think lime juice has a lower pH than lemon). The source of the bacteria, is typically bacteria floating in the air, and lands on the skin of what you are fermenting. If your Mom has cleaned all the food with soap and water and there are no bacteria left, live culture yogurt works and rye flour should work (or anything to start sourdough bread). Most of the container is what you want to pickle (roughly sliced). Cucumbers work fine. If you have a friend that is hypotensive (too low of blood pressure), they may desire “excess” salt in their diet, so perhaps offer them the “pickles”. You want the left over juice.
You want all things you are fermenting, to be completely submerged. If you have roundish things and longish things, put the roundish things on the bottom of your container, and then fill the volume above with the long things, packed such that they are so tightly packed they can’t move and they don’t come close to filling the container. Pour in as much “liquor” as we can. If we need more liquid (we need to submerge the stuff to be fermented), you can add some lime juice. There is a maximum pH to be safe, but we don’t want the pH to go to the bottom just with lime juice. Add distilled (or boiled) water to top off.
Some people add spices to the pickling liquid. If those can go at the bottom with the round stuff, that is best. There are some plastic bowls made of polyethylene, you can cut a “disc” out of them (slightly bigger than the jar inside), and put that in the jar to hold down stuff like spices. But you want the liquid level above that “divider”. I like to keep the container airtight, and every day or so “burb” the container to let out excess pressure. The bacteria, will be producing a lot of carbon dioxide, which is denser than air. When you “burp” the container, most of what comes out is air (at first). After a while, there is very little air left. Keeping the container closed all the time can lead to overpressurization, and the container explodes and makes a mess.
Okay, radishes. Not just radishes, at a minimum garlic cloves as well. The red of the skins dissolves, and you end up with a pink liquor. Garlic and onions will have sulfur in them, and the offgassing will be aromatic.
But it is kind of neat having a pink “liquor” for further pickling.
Newcastle may not hire a new manager.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30908990
They want the “right” manager (one willing to work for nothing, with nothing for a budget).
They have 27 points, and if they can get a scoreless remainder of the season (all games 0-0), they would finish with 43 points, which is typically enough to avoid relegation.
It isn’t enough to annoy the fans, nor is 16 0-0 games.
Can I interest anyone in a bus? Yes, it’s a big bus.
Bootoomee
And I have always had a desire for PS2 connections for keyboard and mouse:
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/01/playing-nsa-hardware-hackers-build-usb-cable-that-can-attack/
The 5 eyes and others, just will not stop. But they are driving everyone to pursue all these backdoors into everything. And the above is Open Source just demonstrating how USB is toast.
Gord
Interesting recipe on lacto-fermented radishes. But I couldn’t quite follow unfortunately, maybe if you don’t mind you could re-post again with all the ingredients and their exact measurements and steps laid out in the traditional way, you know the how recipes are written. I’ve just started developing an interest in fermented and cultured foods, because of the health benefits, but have so far restricted myself to easy to prepare stuff like milk kefir.
Thanks for the report Walter! It was a great read and a great reminder of that divine match we played.
BTW you did not mention Sanchez intelligent run during Cazorla’s free kick – he was running in front of Kompany, which enabled Giroud the free header. It was such a great move – and unfortunately, no one gave him any credit for it (again preferring to blame City’s “lax” defense”).
Gord – I enjoy cooking but not to technical. Taste is more important than healthy.
I am a retired IT engineer. Worked in IT from 1969 to still learning!!
I love what you’ve written so am saving it as Gords Gospel
Thanks Al and Menace. I’ll find a proper lacto recipe for radishes.
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The March TV broadcasts are out, and how I know, is that in looking for news article about Arsenal, I found an article from the Stoke Sentinal complaining that Stoke City is one of 2 teams not featuring on TV by BT Sport or Sky Sport in March (Leicester is the other).
Leicester is last (20th), and they play ManC, Hull and the spuds in March. Stoke is 10th, and they play Everton, WBA and Palace in March.
I would guess the average TV fan must not want to see a goalfest, which is what I would think Leicester versus ManCity might be. I suspect Stoke’s games will be grind-em-out mid-table matches, just hoping to get over the 40 point barrier before April comes along. And who wants to watch games where both teams park the bus? But, if a person was mean, you might think that the average TV fan in the UK had no desire to see broken legs.
Yahoo was cherry picking a Sports Direct news piece, about where shirt sales are. And it seems that Sports Direct is only willing to show me the page once, so no URL.
The statistics like kind of odd to me, in that 10 locations in the UK comprise 100% of Arsenal shirt sales? Oh well, here they are.
London 61.5%
Sheffield 5.4%
Southend-on-Sea 5.4%
Dublin 5.4%
Edinburgh 4.9%
Birmingham 4.2%
Chelmsford 3.6%
Norwich 3.6%
Cambridge 3.0%
Maidenhead 3.0%
Out of all our favorite teams, what team is about equi-distant from both Sheffield and Birmingham (totalling 9.6% of Arsenal shirt sales)? Hint, nobody gets to watch them on TV in March.