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The Soccer Source
Because soccer is like life, only more important.
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(Late) Soccer Source Saturday Summary: Several Top Teams Disappoint
2007-11-04 16:42:00
My apologies for the dearth of posts this weekend. It was one of those rare occasions when I was preoccupied with other stuff; an engagement party yesterday, a friend visiting and several other items surrounding the NYC marathon (no I'm not running in it but thanks for thinking I could).Anyway, the one unifying theme of yesterday's games was that several top teams turned in disappointing results. Chief among them Real Madrid, last week's #5 team in the Soccer Source Top 25 ranking of the world's best clubs. Real went down 2-0 to Sevilla, who I thought was supposed to be a team in disarray after their manager Juande Ramos jumped ship to Spurs. Maybe Real bought into that? Seville's Seydou Keita put his team up with a stunning strike 19 minutes in and Luis Fabiano doubled up two minutes later to win the game for the Rojiblancos.#4 Bayern Munich was another other top 10 club that disappointed, playing Eintracht Frankfurt to a scoreless tie at home. At mid-week, #6 Barcelona also tied a va ...
Soccer
Source
Teams
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Poll Update: Red Bulls Least Valuable Player Tally To Close
2007-11-04 04:45:00
With the Red Bulls season now officially over, I will turn attention back to the Least Valuable Player poll this site has been running. There is obviously no need to extend the vote, so I will close it Monday morning, Nov. 5. That leaves a little over 24 hours to vote if you haven't done so already.As discussed, the LVP is up to each voter to define him- or herself. You are encouraged to do so by commenting on this post.Last time we glanced at the vote tally, Claudio Reyna was leading by a wide margin. That remains the case, with Captain America receiving 79 votes in his (mis)favor, amounting to nearly one third of all votes cast (according to my calculations, which are probably wrong so you may want to do the math yourself). Markus Schopp is a distant second with 36 votes, followed by Chris Leitch (28) and Kevin Goldwaith (27). In other words, Reyna, who has more than twice the votes of his nearest contestant, appears a shoe-in. But there's still time! So please vote if you haven't d ...
Poll
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Season Over: Revs Run Bulls Out Of Playoffs
2007-11-04 04:03:00
As expected, the New York Red Bulls 2007 season came to an end tonight as Taylor Twellman notched a second-half goal that put the Red Bulls out of their misery. I didn't watch the game--was out of town attending an engagement party--but I read about the Angel concussion and Reyna injury. Not that the latter was difficult to predict. I can't remember the last time Claudio finished a game.The loss is disappointing, but not surprising. This team simply did not do enough the second half of the season to warrant expectations of any other sort. I thought--naively, it turns out--that Arena must have some cards up his sleeve that he was waiting to play at the right moment. Some kind of motivational ploy or...something. Outside of Angel, Jozy and maybe 1-2 others, there did not seem to be any passion at all. Too many guys just showing up and punching the clock. Granted, that is based on observations that were limited to the team's locker room after home games (I have a day job, remember?) thoug ...
Playoffs
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Soccer Quote Of The Day, Nov. 3, 2007
2007-11-03 06:32:00
"Jörg Berger is such a good coach, he could have even saved the Titanic."--Jan Aage FjortoftI'm pretty sure this one came during the 1998-99 Bundesliga season, when Berger came in to rescue Eintracht Frankfurt from relegation. But I could be wrong.
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Soccer
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No Pressure, But Red Bulls Would Host Conference Final
2007-11-03 05:03:00
With the Chicago Fire upsetting D.C. United--the team I foolishly predicted to win the MLS Cup--the New York Red Bulls would host the conference final IF (big, BIG IF) they win at New England later today. Just in case, the team is taking ticket orders on its Web site. The Revs appear to be in the driver's seat after the scoreless draw in the first leg of the series. Starting left back Dave van den Bergh might miss the game for New York, according to Ives. If that weren't bad enough, Bruce Arena is for some insane reason leaning toward starting Chris Leitch in VDB's place. Chris Leitch being a player who has proven time and again that he cannot cover anybody, much less a goal-getter of Taylor Twellman's caliber. Twellman has made a meal of Leitch before. Oh yeah, Arena is also said to be mulling a Ronald Waterreus start in goal. I hope Arena was just messing with Steve Nicol and the Revs when he made those comments. Like having them get their hopes up type of thing? Or maybe I ...
Conference
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Introducing The G-40
2007-11-02 19:07:00
As you may already know, the G-14, which actually has 18 members, is set to grow its numbers to 40 as part of a large-scale revamp. I had previously reported that 50 clubs from 23 countries--not all of them UEFA teams, either--would be invited. Apparently, that's inaccurate. The group will meet with representatives from all 40 clubs in Brussels, Belgium Nov. 13-14 "to explain the idea behind the organisation, as well as gauging the level of interest of the clubs [they] have invited," reports ESPNsoccernet.Who are these 40 clubs? The list:ArsenalLiverpoolManchester UnitedBarcelonaReal MadridValenciaAC MilanInternazionaleJuventusBayer LeverkusenBayern MunichBorussia DortmundLyonMarseilleParis St GermainAjaxPSV EindhovenPorto-------the above are current members. Below definite new members:SevillaChelseaRomaMonacoWerder BremenBenficaCeltic-------below the clubs who will also attend the meeting and may become members:AnderlechtFenerbahceOlympiacosBasleMaccabi HaifaRosenborgFC CopenhagenAust ...
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Soccer Quote of the Day: Nov. 2, 2007
2007-11-02 16:13:00
"I came to Nantes two years ago and it's much the same today, except that it's totally different."--Kevin Keegan, apparently doing his best Yogi Berra impression.I have found that while these quotes are in abundant supply, there don't seem to be many places (or any, really) where they are put into context. This leads me to be a bit skeptical about their authenticity. So if anybody knows the context of the above Kevin Keegan soundbyte, please let me and others know posting a comment reply.
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Soccer
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Friday Linkage, Soccer Style
2007-11-02 05:06:00
I'll figure out a better name for this weekly feature at some point. One thing I'm learning from this blogging business is that it's very karmic. Traffic you put out comes back to you tenfold. Or something. Better leave it to somebody else to pontificate that stuff. I'm just here about the footy, man!And there's lots of quality stuff out there. Start with pitchinvasion.net, which as the name suggests covers the culture of soccer supporters worldwide (they even had something about Switzerland a short time ago). PI yesterday tackled the question of potential hooliganism in Major League Soccer. I myself sounded off on this very issue a few weeks ago but they go at it far more extensively than I did.Throughball.com asks its readers if MLS contributed to Freddy Adu's poor form when he played over here. The theory is that Adu played out of position when he was in MLS and is now finally re-discovering his true ability--a process that started at the U20 world cup this summer. I'm not sure of t ...
Soccer
Style
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Barca Blows Another, Squanders Points At Valladolid
2007-11-02 03:22:00
Sad, sorry, 19th-placed Valladolid managed to split points with mighty Barcelona in the lone Thursday game featuring one of this week's top 25 squads. The home side went up after 17 minutes but Jar Jar equalized for the Catalans three minutes before half time. What can I tell you about Valladolid? Besides the fact that they suck? How bad do they suck, anyway? They're 19th out of 20 teams in the Spanish top flight and have won only one game (out of 10 played) this season. The lone victory game on opening day--Aug. 26--at Espanyol, so that makes it nine straight games without a victory. In the last six games, they have garnered two points. As for the makeup of the team, as far as I can tell only one of their starters from today has been capped: Daniel Ngom Kome, who played for Cameroon at the 2002 World Cup and 2004 Africa Nations Cup. He's been a Spanish citizen since 1999 though. Maybe that's why he has three names. The only name I recognized was Bartholomew Ogbeche who played for Pari ...
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Midweek Games Feature Another Goal By Freddy, Few Surprises
2007-11-01 03:05:00
With three exceptions, Soccer Source's Top 25 clubs all held serve today. Rather than regurgitate all the results (which you can do yourself) how about focusing on the surprises:#12 Benfica 1, Setubal 2Yes, Freddy Adu scored again for Benfica (but this time it was on a penalty. Still if Freddy is taking their penalties that must be a good sign!) to put the Lisbon club up right before the break, but Setubal came back with two goals in the second half to win the Carlsberg Cup quarterfinal. Here are your YouTube highlights of the match. You want Freddy's stats? Two goals in the last two games, three in the last five, and four in the last eight. I can almost spot a trend...#18 Besiktas 1, Rizespor 2This was a Turkish cup game of some sort. Sorry, that's all I got on this.#22 Celtic 0, Hearts 2These Scottish clubs are hard to pin down. One day they go neck-and-neck with the very best teams in Europe, then they turn around and lose to seemingly mediocre domestic competition. Last week it was ...
Games
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Bradley Scores In Heerenveen Cup Loss To Ajax
2007-11-01 02:14:00
Michael Bradley scored Heerenveen's consolation goal 20 minutes from time, as his team bowed out of the Dutch cup with a 3-1 loss at Amsterdam's ArenA earlier today. It was Bradley's fifth goal in 12 games for Heerenveen, including two each in Eredivisie and UEFA Cup competition. Not bad at all! I didn't watch the game (I have a day job, remember? And besides, it wasn't on TV in the U.S. anyway) but it sounds like a pretty one-sided affair: Ajax took the lead in the eighth minute and doubled up 20 minutes later. By the time Bradley scored, his team was down 3-0. By the way, you can watch Bradley's goal here. Don't say I never did anything for you. It was the second time Heerenveen played the Dutch juggernaut this year. They went down 4-1 the first time, also at ArenA on Aug. 26. If Bradley keeps this up, he might just land at a top flight European team soon. Which is not to slight Heerenveen and the experience he is getting there. But what's with those, uh, not-entirely-heterosexual he ...
Ajax
Bradley
Scores
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N.Y. Sun's Gardner Joins Arena Flagellation Brigade
2007-10-31 20:41:00
I told you yesterday to expect this. And if you think it's bad now, wait until Red Bulls lose Saturday and are ousted from the playoffs. Gardner summarizes the usual critiques of Arena, but does so in a more thorough and in-depth way than I have seen done elsewhere. If you're an Arena-hater (and even if you aren't) I suggest checking it out. Personally, I still think piling on Arena is a bit premature. The team still has a game to play and can still advance if they win on the field. Granted, things do not look very good, not with the franchise having won a game at Foxboro, Mass., since...2002? I don't even know. If and when the Red Bulls lose, we can safely expect people to call for Arena's head. But until the game is played I will reserve judgment. It looks like I'm in the minority though.
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Chivas USA's Guzan Scoops Up MLS Goalkeeper Award
2007-10-31 20:00:00
Major League Soccer today named Chivas USA's Brad Guzan as its goalkeeper of the year. The Illinois native and former South Carolina Gamecock anchored a defense that allowed just 28 goals this season, the second-best mark in MLS (Houston Dynamo was best, with 23 goals allowed). The choice of Guzan is consistent with Soccer Source readers' views, as reflected in the polls that have been running since yesterday (see right sidebar). I agree with this view as well. Guzan was for me the most impressive goalkeeper in the league this year. He's only 23 and could be on to great things. Unfortunately for him, there is a lot of competition at this position on the U.S. men's national team.Separately, the league also anointed New England Revolution defender Michael Parkhurst as its winner of the MLS Fair Play award. This one contradicts what Soccer Source readers were saying via the polls. Over 80% of you voted for Cobi Jones, perhaps wishing to send him into retirement with this well-deserved har ...
Award
Usa
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Soccer Source's Top 25 Clubs In Mid-Week Action
2007-10-31 13:54:00
With the Champions League and UEFA Cup taking a breather this week, domestic FAs have leapt into the void and scheduled a full slate of midweek games. A lot of it is cup competition but several big leagues--chief among them Serie A and La Liga--are on as well, with the Roma derby one major highlight. Not a bad day to call in sick if you're in the Americas or take a night in front of the telly if you're in Europe. Let's see what's on tap for this week's top 25 (TV listings for U.S. audience courtesy of soccerTV.com):1. Arsenal. Face Sheffield in Carling Cup. 3:30pm Eastern, Setanta Sports USA & Setanta Broadband.2. Inter Milan. At Genoa in Serie A. No live TV, but taped showing at 5:30pm Eastern, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports en Espanol.3. Manchester United.4. Bayern Munich. Home to Borussia Mönchengladbach in German cup tie.5. Real Madrid. At #22 Valencia. 4pm Eastern, GolTV.6. Barcelona.7. Chelsea. Home versus Leicester City in Carling Cup.8. FC Porto. Idle but won domestic leag ...
Action
Clubs
Soccer
Source
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Copa Sudamericana Semifinals Set
2007-10-31 04:31:00
River Plate became the fourth and last semifinalist to qualify today, thanks to their scoreless home draw with Defensor Sporting of Montevideo, Uruguay. The teams had previously played a 2-2 game in the first leg. I saw most of tonight's game and it wasn't exactly beautiful soccer. River dodged one bullet after another, most of which were caused by their own sloppy defending, but Defensor weren't able to put one past River goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo. The 23 year old, who was on Argentina's bench at the Copa America this summer, had one nearly fatal flaw of his own midway through the second half. After leaving his line (a questionable decision in its own right), he mishandled a deep ball and had to chase it outside his own area, where, instead of clearing it into touch he booted it up the field--right into the path of an opposing player, whose long-range shot was headed off the line by (I think) Fernando Belluschi. Other than that Carrizo actually played very well. One of very few Ri ...
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Quieres Futbal, Este Noche?
2007-10-31 00:41:00
Not sure if I spelled that right, but I was trying to be clever and ask if you "want soccer tonight?" in Spanish. (Sorry, besides probably butchering that phrase I also couldn't figure out how to insert the upside down question mark. Forgive me, amigos). But if you are in the mood for some footy and are in the U.S. and have cable television, I recommend turning on Fox Sports en Espanol to watch the second leg of the Copa Sudamericana quarterfinal between River Plate and Defensor Sporting of Montevideo, Uruguay. You don't even need to understand Espanol to comprende. Okay, I'll cut it out now. It's really annoying, I know.The two sides tied the first leg 2-2 in Montevideo last week and are now at El Monumental in Buenos Aires to settle matters. If River advance, they'll face Arsenal de Sarandi in the semis, due to a rule that prohibits teams from the same country facing each other in the finale. If Defensor win, they would face Millionarios of Bogota, Colombia. Millionarios scored a maj ...
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Arena's Problems May Just Be Beginning
2007-10-30 19:42:00
Bruce Arena's team (that would be the New York Red Bulls) faces a must-win situation at Foxboro, Mass. this weekend. With no UEFA-style away goal rule to fall back on, the team needs a victory against the New England Revolution if it is to advance past the first round of the MLS playoffs. But Arena himself may have the most to lose if Red Bull fails--again--to advance Saturday. His entire coaching reputation, a legacy 20-plus years in the making, could essentially be thrown under the bus if that happens.Don't believe me? Just look at the negative press Arena has received in the two days since the scoreless draw in the first leg of the series. There was Yahoo! Sport's critique of his (fictional, it turns out) calling-out of Juan Pablo Angel yesterday and today we have Goal.com doing a "look how far he's fallen" piece on Arena. And this is without Red Bulls having lost a game. Imagine what happens if and when they are dumped from the playoffs? Soccer is still not a mainstream sport in th ...
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MLS Player Awards: Your Votes Needed
2007-10-30 16:57:00
Earlier this week Major League Soccer announced their finalists for their individual player awards. There's a whole cornucopia of them, and they aren't all for players either (coach of the year and referee of the year are categories, for example). The finalists were chosen because they earned the most votes in polling of MLS players, general managers, coaches, referees and members of the media (no, I wasn't asked). I don't know how the winners will be decided. Presumably from the same sources? Or maybe the league will just make executive decisions.But what about the fans? Did anybody ask you how you feel? No, of course not! So I am stepping into the void and putting these up to a democratic vote, via the handy polls at the top right of this page. Each one will close the day the award winner in question is announced--the first two, goalkeeper of the year, and fairplay award winner, are out tomorrow. Vote in as many as you want, but please only vote once. One fan, one vote. That's how it ...
Awards
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Soccer Source Quote of the Day - Oct. 30, 2007
2007-10-30 06:10:00
Also known as the understatement of the day. Or, if you prefer, the Tottenham drama special:"Things could have been done different and better."--Daniel Levy, in letter to Tottenham Hotspur supporters, on the team's recent turmoil, particularly the sacking of Martin Jol.
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Soccer
Source
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Porto Powers On For Eighth Straight League Win
2007-10-30 05:57:00
FC Porto made quick work of Leixoes in Portugal's bwin liga today, winning 3-0 for its eighth win in as many games. The world's eighth-best club, as judged by Soccer Source's current rankings, has yet to play second-placed Benfica or fourth-placed Guimares, but earlier this season won at third-placed Sporting and against Maritomo, currently fifth in the bwin. In fact, the Dragons are unbeaten in all competition this year, though they have been tied twice in the UEFA Champions League, most recently at Olympique Marseille last week. They may face their toughest task Nov. 28 when they travel to Anfield.Porto is a storied club with a long history and definitely have one of the cooler shields I've seen (above). They were founded in the 1890s by a wine merchant (I'm not making this up, I got it from the club's official English-language Web site) and have won 22 Portuguese league championships, including four of the last five. In the 1990s, they only captured eight of 10 titles. Not a bad tal ...
League
Powers
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Did Bruce Arena Criticize Juan Pablo Angel? Not Exactly...
2007-10-30 04:10:00
New York Red Bulls Head Coach Bruce Arena is said to have called out the club's star striker Juan Pablo Angel over his play in the opening leg of the MLS Conference semifinals. After a scoreless draw against the New England Revolution, Arena apparently bitch-slapped the Colombian for "not doing a good job showing for the ball." Arena is already being castigated for this on Yahoo! Sports and on the Big Soccer sewing circle.Unfortunately, that's not exactly what happened. I was in the post game press conference as well and remember things a little differently. I hate to defer to flacks on anything, but the Red Bulls' official site does a good job of supplying a quote sheet from the press conference. Their quote of Arena is consistent with mine:"New England did a good job on them and Juan [Pablo Angel] didn't drop the ball. We told the team at halftime that we needed to drop more balls at the feet of our forwards. Juan could have done a better job making himself available as well as [Fran ...
Angel
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The World’s Top 25 Clubs, Oct. 29, 2007 Edition
2007-10-29 05:02:00
Here we go, folks. The list you've all been waiting for. This past week saw a full slate of club action, both domestic and continental. There were several upsets, but mostly this was about the planet's top teams staking their claims. Meanwhile, some of the pretenders (you know who you are, Man. City) were exposed. In other words: things are starting to take shape. The cream is rising to the top:1. (1) Arsenal. What kind of a Spurs fan am I to put the Arse first for the second week in a row?!? This makes them the first repeat #1 since I started the list. And the Gunners didn't even win this weekend! True, but neither did last week's #2, Inter. In fact the Milan side played Palermo to a scoreless tie. Last week's #3, Bayern Munich, did the same, at Dortmund. I couldn't reward that. Besides, Arsene Wenger's men were faced with a formidable task, playing at Anfield in a clash of the Premiership's last two unbeaten teams. A great game that probably could have gone either way, but no arguing ...
Clubs
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Club America Wins 199th Edition Of El Super Clasico
2007-10-29 04:59:00
Sunday's best game that didn't take place at Anfield may have just been the 199th edition of El Super Clasico, as the game between Mexico City's Club America and Guadelajara's Chivas is known South of the border. (I think they call it El Clasico as well, but I don't want people to confuse it with that other game they play in Spain). And no, I didn't watch every single professional soccer game that was played Sunday (I'll admit to having no life, but that's a bit excessive even for me) so I have no way of knowing this with 100% certainty. I'm just saying this was a good game. I've been singing the Mexican league's praises for some time and I do think you can make the point that it is the best soccer league that isn't English, Spanish, Italian or maybe German. (I'm not going to try and make that point, at least not now, I'm just saying it can be made).Anyway, the game took a little while to heat up. Little happened in the first half. The Aguillas (Club America's nickname, or one of them ...
America
Club
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New Feature: Soccer Source Soccer Quote Of The Day
2007-10-28 18:55:00
I thought it would be fun to do this, given all the hilarious things footballers have said (some intentionally, others not) over the years. I wonder how long I can keep this going. Feel free to contact me with your submissions. At some point (perhaps at year's end, or maybe it will have to take longer than that) we'll take nominations for best quotes of all time and put them up for a vote.So what's the inaugural quote of the day? I had to go with this one:"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered."--George BestYeah it's a bit clichéd at this point but it's still great in my opinion. Now does anybody know the context?
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Soccer
Source
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Scoreless Stalemate At The Swamp, As Revs Frustrate Red Bulls
2007-10-28 04:16:00
It was clear what Steve Nicol's game plan was tonight: sit back, let Bruce Arena's team control the tempo, take the counters if they come but more importantly keep the dangerous Red Bull attackers out of the Revs 18 yard box. Mission accomplished. Despite dominating the run of play, the Red Bulls had few legitimate goal chances outside of the game's first 20 minutes. They truly impressed me during that opening period, and I'm sure an early goal would have changed everything. Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough from the attacking midfield. How many times this season have I seen Dane Richards dribble down the flank to lose the ball into touch or turn it over? Too many to count. Altidore looked lost in left midfield. Arena said after the game that it was Jozy's preference to play there and that he was playing as a forward most of the time anyway. Well, great, but who was supposed to get him the ball? Altidore's presence was sorely needed in the Revs penalty box as well. Arena also sai ...
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(Early) Soccer Source Saturday Summary: Chagrin For City
2007-10-27 21:21:00
Heading over to the Swamp for the Red Bulls' playoff game, so I need to crank this out early. I'll have full reaction to that game later tonight. For now, let's focus on the continent: Manchester City had their arses handed to them at Stamford Bridge today. Not sure if the six goal margin is justified; Sven's men hung in there for large portions of the first half and it wasn't until the second that the floodgates opened. But I do know this: In last week's top 25 write-up, I mentioned this would be a major test for City, who are not playing in Europe this year. So consider having failed the test, Citizens. I can safely say this team does not belong amongst England's--let alone Europe's--elite. One that definitely does, however, is Manchester's other team, who put on a clinic of their own at Old Trafford today. The 4-1 dismantling of Middlesbrough was the first time in a century that the club scored four goals in four successive games. United are now top of the table, but they have playe ...
City
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