By Walter Broeckx
The world looks an awful place these days with all the wars, violence and hatred to other human beings. If only every individual human being would make sure that he would bring no harm to any other human being then the world would look like a different place. It’s up to each and every one of us to do this or not. My thoughts not only go to the civilians of Paris but to each and every civilian who has become the victim of terrible acts of violence in this world. No matter where they lived, the colour of their skin or their religion. Can we please stop this nonsense?
Ultimately there is only so much that our minds can take in about the actions of those who want to blow us up. And so to find distraction, we turn to our hobby, of following Arsenal. Not because we are insensitive to the losses others have suffered, but simply because much of the time there doesn’t seem to be much we, as individuals, can do.
And yet even there I can find no relief, for the football world from my personal perspective is rather dull for the moment. As I don’t care who will play in France next summer in the European Championship I don’t even know who plays in the knock out phase of this tournament. I think no Arsenal player is really involved in these games so I really don’t have to keep an eye on them.
But we have had a few players on the pitch in the friendlies or qualifying matches for their countries in the last days.
So my biggest Arsenal related worry is: did they all remain injury free? I do admit I typed survive at first but that seems not really appropriate for the moment to use that word.
A few players did rather well. Olivier Giroud just to name one. He scored another goal agains Neuer, the German and Bayern keeper when Franc beat Germany with 2-0. A rather weak German side one could say as Özil luckily was left out for these friendly matches. A time that has been well used by Özil if I can believe the pictures he posted on Instagram during the last days. Let us hope his rekindled feelings of love in private will make him even better on the field.
But still Giroud is getting a bit of an impressive run against Neuer one of the better keepers in the world.
Koscielny also played for France and he completed the whole match. Giroud came off after 68 minutes.
Another player that scored a goals was Santi Cazorla. But I think most English people will have noticed it. I’ve seen a video of the cool finish itself but was there an offside situation just before he scored? Well I don’t know to be honest as I only saw the shot itself in a short video clip.
Not that I would analyse it too much as well… wouldn’t it be nice to see England suffer from the fact that no video referee can be used when they could have used it to prove a wrong referee decision? A few more of these and who knows the FA would give the PGMO permission to use video refereeing????
But good to see Santi back to scoring and to have completely recovered from his dizziness against Tottenham. The only bad thing I notice was that he has played more than expected as he already came on after 27 minutes. Can’t have it all…
Looking at the stats of this match it sure seems to have been a rather dull event by the way. But this could be wrong of course as stats don’t say everything but not much shots in total. Well not to what we get from Arsenal most of the time.
In South America Alexis played the whole 90 minutes and that is of course no surprise as it is what they always do with him. Another match coming up tomorrow for Alexis and let us keep our fingers crossed he will not get injured or bitten (can Suarez already play for Uruguay – is his ban over?)
Another player playing 90 minutes was Ospina for Colombia against Chile and Alexis. Both Arsenal players being kind to each other in the way that Alexis didn’t score against Ospina.
Apart from Joel Campbell who played 74 minutes for Costa Rica the rest of the Arsenal players were most of the time on the bench. I wouldn’t mind them being there for another 90 minutes for the next round of matches that are played tomorrow.
Because there are still a few players out there. And I’m afraid that Giroud will certainly play for France against England in Wembley. What with that fool Benzema allegedly trying to get involved in some blackmailing of a team mate…. Get him out of jail for this match please and play him Monsieur… whoever is the manager of France…
Other players who had some time on the beach in the first useless matches are Gibbs, Gabriel and Cech. So some of them might get involved in the next round of friendlies….
We can only hope that the managers of the national teams see these matches as matches to test a few things but certainly not as career deciding matches.
The way the German manager LÖw has done with Özil this time is really great. LÖw knows that it is not today that the European Championship will be won in the meaningless friendlies. But it might be lost if one of his key players suffers an injury today. So being careful with his star performers is the smart way to go. Even at the cost of some lost matches. But I think that at the end of June next year they might look at it differently.
So another 48 hours before we can completely relax and see who came back in fine health after this round of annoying matches.
And then we can look forward and try to find out who of the injured is fit again. The Ox should be ready if all goes right. About Ramsey I get mixed signals. Some saying he should be back, others saying not completely.
But with a very important week coming up in which we must try to take as many points as possible I sure hope that both will be ready and be in full training again this week.
More anniversaries
- 16 November 1996: Man U 1 Arsenal 0. Arsène Wenger’s first defeat at the end of a ten match unbeaten run. After the game he said, “Obviously, the way we lost was difficult to accept, but I’m happy with the way we played. Our organisation was excellent, we kept fighting and I am very optimistic for the future.” The following season he won the Double.
- 16 November 2013: Having signed a five year contract Wojciech Szczesny signed a new long term-contract with Arsenal. However some poor performances in 2014/15 and allegations that he had been smoking led to him being replaced first by David Ospina and then by Petr Cech.
Lionel Messi planning a move to Arsenal this summer.
I posted it on today’s other thread a few minutes before this came up Walter. It appears Alexis picked up a calf injury in that first game, and may not play the other game of this “break”. I think it was IBTimes where I seen this.
No practice for 2 days, and an ice bag strapped on.
Bleech!
If Alexis is out…ugh.
I’ve just read Wilshere’s interview on the official page. Now, he admitted he had cut his holiday short for two weeks to prepare for the season. Could it be that his decision to do so caused the injury? I mean, body needs some rest. A phone battery needs to be fully charged in order to work properly. Maybe it’s Jack who made a wrong call.
With respect to the violence in the world, there was a blurb in the medja about having games like the England-France game proceed so that we don’t play the terrorist’s game.
This is nonsense. The reason the game continues, is because the groups who have to spend money to be part of this have probably spent the money already, and in the cae of the FA they already have sold tickets. What is important to them, is that they get your money. They don’t care if you die because someone bombs the place.
The decision to play was announced rather quickly after the tragic events ( too quickly in my opinion. I wonder whether the players were consulted or just treated like chattels as the international committees usually do.
And, the FA will not have to pay for the extra security.
Gord,
Even if ‘the groups who have spent money’ and the FA who have sold tickets want the match to go ahead, the match absolutely has to go ahead. The terrorists must be shown that they cannot win, we carry on with our way of life and put our values on display. People playing in a game like this and people enjoying it could never happen in the world the terrorists want. The terrorists want their hideous actions to have an effect. The game, especially as it is against France, will show how the free world will stand together. Football, with it’s all inclusive ethos, is one of the strongest vehicles to demonstrate that the terrorists will not win. They will not like the message the match will send out.
Life must not be impacted by those that have no self respect. They are not able to live anywhere with an evil creed. They use the kindness of humanity to destroy the innocent.
I am totally in support of all those who have lost loved ones in Paris & elsewhere in the world, that have to suffer the evil of violence & guns. Guns are not creative but totally destructive. I did not get my son toy guns & do not like my grandchildren to play shooting games. The reality of death is not learnt from the destructive games that our children are exposed to.
It’s bad enough when internationals are scheduled for part way in a season in order to qualify for World Cup or European Cup Championships.
The friendly fixtures for England to play Spain and then France 4 days later is, to my mind, foolhardy in the extreme.
Is the reason the never-ending search for funds by the respective football associations? 😉
For the grief the French players were in after the brutal killings of their fellow people in Paris, I thought the England vs France match to hold at Wembley tomorrow will be postpone to allow the French players some time to sober on the bereavement for the lost of lives of their fellow country men and women. But since both the French football authorities, the FA, the French players, the fans in both countries and the national authorities in both France and England want the match to go ahead as planned for a superior reason than to bow to cowardice brutal deeds of the terrorists. I concur.
It was tragic that people who take themselves to be knowing GOD more in the entire world are the ones terrorising the world.The French people were right to say that they are going to take the war to who ever was behind this. For me i think these terrorists buy guns, they buy brand new cars and i think we all know where they come from,inst it going to be tough for our beloved friends as those who need money don’t care of other peoples lives??Rest in peace brothers and sisters who lost their lives to such heartless shit heads who do it in the name of GOD,its unbelievable.
I still find it hard to concentrate on football after the horrific attack in Paris – unfortunately only the latest outrage committed by terrorists of one type or another. Over the last couple of years in particular too many peoples have suffered terribly as a result of others who do not value life.
What makes the whole Paris situation so much worse in my view is that a Nato country which purports to be anti terrorism, secretly supports it, has been an open conduit to the terrorists who committed the attack; while embarking on a thinly disguised war of genocide on some of its own people – all of this largely ignored by the international press – in an even more sinister way than the manner in which the press ignores the obvious shortcomings of the PGMO.
Let us pray for the victims in Paris – and their loved ones – and hope the the world leaders grow the balls to tackle and finally eradicate terrorism.
Of late, I seen a note about some wonder goal that Crowley scored. For England? Today, I guess Akpom scored in extra time, in an England win. Chambers played the 90 in that game.
Well Santi cannot get injured playing today as the match Belgium – Spain has just been cancelled because of the fear for a terrorist attack.
According to one of our newspapers one of the escaped terrorists has been seen around the stadium in Brussels…
Hugo Lloris made it quite clear in his interview last night that neither he nor the rest of the French team want the gamee to go ahead tonight. He said that they wanted to spend time with their families which they have not been able to do.
The only reason it is going ahead is becuase of the greed of the FA and UEFA. By cancelling the game in my view, does not let the terrorist win but puts first the value of human life.
Once again the FA and UEFA should be ashamed of themselves.
OT, but some day we might thank Matt Flamini for more than just being a (former) Arsenal player. This from an interesting post on Fox Soccer Blog. During this time, Messi and Ronaldo fight tax evasion or buy airplanes for fun.
The link is http://blog.foxsoccer.com/post/133368455887/flamini-owns-biochemical-energy-company-that – the HTML tag doesn’t seem to work properly.
@ Florian November 17, 2015 at 8:44 am – The newer Arsenal players are a breed apart . Well done The Flam-miester !
I really do not understand why we pretend to “stop” the life we all created for ourselves. We already bow down to “terrorists” in every way. Some of them were suits and ties, some of them carry weapons. They are there and seems that they are always going to be there.
We never seem to get at a problem at it’s root cause, i.e prevention, but end up trying to fix the problems after it has happened.
I have long since realised that nothing is ever as it is described in our media, and for truth, i do not read or watch news. If it was not for the comments here, i would not have even known of any problems in France.
I just hate pretense for PC purposes, this is the game media plays really. Arghhhh.
Glad football is back soon.
bjtgooner
Glad you see some of the happenings. Of course we all have empathy for the victims and fam.
I do not usually comment on world affairs anymore, especially here, but sometimes people have to be given a clue as to the real happenings in the world. What they choose to do with it is then their decision.
But this i just cannot agree with anymore:
“and hope the the world leaders grow the balls to tackle and finally eradicate terrorism.”
The spineless world leaders are the causes of the problems we face. They just are not doing it, probably never had. They can and will never be the solution until they man/woman up and challenge the elite rich who dictates policy in ALL countries(countries that resist the agenda are destroyed economically or physically) of the world because of their power in wealth. They bow to the power of the elite rich.
Genocide is being carried out all over the world(Eugenics) and melanated peoples(this also includes lightly melanated people, like darker white peoples) are being killed and processed for medicine(melanin) and food.