Tag: england

Paul Kennedy on the EPL’s U.S. owners
[ENGLAND WATCH] Less startling than the news that yet another American group is buying an English Premier League club is the club it’s buying. With only seven points in its first 23 games, Derby County is doomed to relegation, yet Detroit-based sports management firm General Sports Entertainment purchased the Rams in a deal reported to be in the range of $100 million. Why would anyone pay $100 million for a last-place team? The explanation says a lot about why English soccer clubs are attractive to foreign investors …

[ENGLAND] A day after its American owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, completed a re-financing deal that should allow them to remain as owners and go ahead with their plans to build of a new stadium, Liverpool avoided embarrassment in in the English FA Cup when the Reds twice rallied from one goal down and beat sixth-level Havant & Waterlooville at Anfield. Other Premier League teams weren’t so lucky. Only six EPL teams advanced to the final 16.

[OFF THE POST/VIDEO] Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson denied intentionally making an abusive gesture at Reading fans near the end of his team’s 2-0 win on Saturday. Of the gesture, known in Britain as an “up yours” sign, Ferguson said, “All I was doing was expressing my relief at winning one of our hardest games of the season.”

[ENGLAND] There was good news and bad news for struggling English club Luton. The bad news was that Liverpool ended the Hatters’ English FA Cup dream with a 5-0 demolition of the third division club on Tuesday. The good news, announced shortly before kickoff, was that a deal was concluded to save Luton, which has been in bankruptcy and unable to pay its players and staff.

[ENGLAND/VIDEO] Nothing in the first half indicated such brilliance, but star Cristiano Ronaldo put on a show in the second half to lead Manchester United to a 6-0 victory over manager-less Newcastle United on Saturday that took it back on top — on goal difference — in the English Premier League following Arsenal’s 1-1 tie with Birmingham City at home.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Heerenveen midfielder Michael Bradley scored a 27th minute goal to give his Dutch Eredivisie team a 2-0 lead over Utrecht, which bounced back to earn a 2-2 tie. It was 20-year-old’s seventh goal of the season for the seventh-place Heerenveen, which is nine points behind leader PSV. In England, Fulham’s battle against relegation took another blow while Everton continued its fight to break into the top four.

[U.S. ABROAD] Everton, which was eliminated from the FA Cup last weekend by third-tier Oldham in a game that American keeper Tim Howard sat out, fell in the first leg of its English League Cup semifinal series, 2-1, to Chelsea on Tuesday. Howard was beaten in the 26th minute by Shaun Wright-Phillips and on a headed own goal by Joleon Lescott in stoppage time.

[ENGLAND WATCH] The English FA Cup lived up to its reputation for high drama as four teams from the lower half of the third level of English soccer played Premier League teams over the weekend, and none of them lost. In the biggest surprise, Liverpool got what was coming to it when bankrupt Luton Town held the Reds to a 1-1 tie. The result followed the Reds’ refusal to donate their share of the game’s gate receipts to Luton, which has not paid its players in full in more than two months.

[AMERICANS IN ENGLAND] Goalkeeper Brad Friedel was shelled by the 17th-place team in England’s second-tier league when Blackburn fell, 4-1, to Coventry in the FA Cup third round. Fulham, with Carlos Bocanegra and Clint Dempsey, was also embarrassed, but not eliminated, when the EPL club tied, 2-2, with third-tier Bristol. Keeper Tim Howard won’t have regretted sitting out Everton’s 1-0 loss to third-tier Oldham. Bobby Convey took a head-butt in Reading’s tie at Tottenham.

The Leeds United coach Dennis Wise chased down a 13-year-old boy who threw stones at his family car at 1 a.m. New Year’s Day. The Yorkshire Evening Post reported that Wise made a citizen’s arrest on the boy before he escaped. The boy’s family reported the incident to the West Yorkshire police, which interviewed Wise.

[EPL AMERICANS] Brad Friedel, who in 2002 became the first goalkeeper to save two penalty kicks at a World Cup, saved a penalty kick for Blackburn on New Year’s Day in a 1-0 win over Sunderland to mark his second spot-kick save in two straight English Premier League games. On Dec. 30, Friedel stopped Steve Howard’s effort in a 2-1 win over Derby. Sixth-place Everton, with Tim Howard in goal, downed Middlesbrough, 2-0.

Friedel’s penalty-kick saving feats date back to his freshman year in college, when he helped UCLA win the NCAA Division I title by making saves in semifinal and final PK shootouts.

[EPL AMERICANS] Four days after giving up six goals in Reading’s 6-4 loss to Tottenham, Marcus Hahnemann committed a terrible blunder early in the Royals’ game against Portsmouth. In the 9th minute, with Reading already a man down, the 35-year-old American let Sulley Muntari’s free kick slip through his gloves and watched Sol Campbell put the ball away for the first goal in a 2-0 Pompey victory. It’s been a long season for Hahnemann.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Goalkeeper Brad Friedel and Blackburn Rovers were ousted from the English League Cup at the quarterfinal stage with a 3-2 loss overtime to Arsenal. Playing a man down during overtime, Arsenal got a 104th minute winner when Eduardo beat Friedel with a low shot from 16 yards.

[AMERICANS IN BRITAIN] Goalkeeper Tim Howard and Everton celebrated a 2-0 win at West Ham, for which Jonathan Spector stayed on the bench. Keeper Marcus Hahnemann made several crucial saves in Reading’s 1-1 tie with at Birmingham. Fulham, with Carlos Bocanegra and Clint Dempsey going the distance, fell, 1-0 to Newcastle on a Joey Barton penalty kick. Fulham, for which Dempsey came close to scoring on three occasions, is in 18th place, one point inside the relegation zone.

England has hired Fabio Capello to replace Steve McClaren as national team coach. The Italian aims to become the second England manager to win a major title. For a history of England’s national team coaches in the last half century …

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Yakubu Aiyegbeni scored a stoppage-time goal for Everton to give it a 2-1 over West Ham United in the English League Cup quarterfinals. Carlton Cole beat unrushing American goalkeeper Tim Howard to a long pass for West Ham’s goal. American defender Jonathan Spector stayed on the bench for the Hammers.

Steve McClaren, fired as England national team coach in November, did win something: the Foot in Mouth Award from the Plain English Campaign. Among the judges’ favorite McClaren quotes, “He [Wayne Rooney] is inexperienced, but he’s experienced in terms of what he’s been through.” During his failed effort to qualify England for Euro 2008, McClaren also said, “We’re not as good as we think we are. We need to go out there and prove that” and “It was a no-win situation for everyone. We knew we had to win, and we did.”

[AMERICANS IN BRITAIN] Bobby Convey made the most of his fourth start of the season for Reading, setting up the final goal in a 3-1 win over previously undefeated Liverpool while fellow American Marcus Hahnemann played solidly in goal for the Royals. In two other EPL games over the weekend, Americans faced off on opposing sides.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Clint Dempsey played the first 64 minutes for Fulham but teammate Carlos Bocanegra stayed on the bench as the Cottagers fell, 2-0, to Manchester United on two goals by Cristiano Ronaldo.

[AMERICANS IN ENGLAND] Fulham (with Americans Clint Dempsey and Carlos Bocanegra) faces Manchester United on Monday (TV: Setanta USA, 2 pm ET). Over the weekend, West Ham’s Jonathan Spector played the last 11 minutes in a 1-0 loss to Chelsea, which scored in the 76th minute through Joe Cole. Goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann and midfielder Bobby Convey started in Reading’s 1-1 tie with Middlesbrough. One of the EPL’s American keepers celebrated a win.