Real Madrid Champions League Performance Inept

Olympique Lyonnais 2 – 0 Real Madrid

Real Madrid started their Champions League campaign in less-than impressive fashion Wednesday night.

With all due respect to Lyon, who certainly took it to Los Galacticos, the Spanish side were busy setting new standards in ineptitude.

The Real Madrid defense were disheveled throughout and the French side took advantage in the 11th minute. When Lyon striker Fred got in behind the Real defense, Iker Casillas left his line rather than depend on World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro to recover, allowing for an easy chip from the Brazilian.

In all fairness to Casillas, Cannavaro was being beaten at a fairly good clip and Sergio Ramos and Mahamadou Diarra were caught watching Lyon’s second from Tiago on 31 minutes.

However, Casillas was back in trouble again just moments later as he inexplicably two-fisted a free kick from Juninho straight to Fred. The beleaguered keeper parried the Brazilians header wide and Cannavaro was fortunate not to concede a penalty as he pushed Florent Malouda to make the ensuing clearance.

Before the break, the French side would come close to scoring three or four times more and a 6 – 0 halftime score would have been justified.

The Real Madrid offense was nearly equally inept.

David Beckham looked threatening at first, but that quickly faded as the Real offense began giving the ball away on every possession.

Last weekend’s brilliant offensive display by Real was a distant memory and Antonio Cassano’s passing was so off the mark, he was subbed-off at the half. Beckham’s crosses began falling short, and every promising push forward was offside as Real appeared to be attempting to walk the ball all the way into the net.

So disorganized were the Spanish giants, that it seemed at times, that Beckham and Cicinho were taking up the same position on the touchline, neither committing forward or to the inside.

Still, Real was able to hang-in and on 78 minutes, when Van Nistelrooy had a gilt-edged chance to pull one back, the former Manchester United star fired into the side netting.

A fine performance was turned in by Gerard Houllier’s side and certainly showed they are capable of finally going beyond the Champions League Quarterfinal stages.

For Real Madrid, only more questioning of the “Galacticos” name.

Related:
Champions League Wrap 12.09.06
Barcelona Champions League Brilliance
Ronaldinho Champions League Goal v Levski Sofia – GOLAZO!
Chelsea Champions League Performance Lackluster
Setanta Sports Broadband Review

Ashley Cole’s Book

It is definitely starting to look as though Ashley Cole’s book wasn’t a very good idea.

“My Defence” is being serialized daily in “The Times,” which is making it seem as though Cole is holding a press conference daily to air his dirty laundry.

In context, maybe it’s not as bad, but each day brings a new complaint from the Chelsea and England defender, and it is not doing much for his likeability.

First, the Gunners treated him badly. Then Mourinho and Kenyon lied about him and his agent.

Now, in the latest whinging, Cole accuses the Arsenal squad of being lazy and unwilling to accept criticism, inevitably costing them a shot at the Premiership title.

Tomorrow’s Headline: Queen Costs Gunners Champions League Title

Amazon.co.uk – Ships Internationally

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Ashley Cole Turned Down Real Madrid
Chelsea Champions League Performance Lackluster
Ashley Cole Shoes – Boots
Chelsea Merchandise

Champions League Wrap 12.09.06

No sooner do I proclaim Inter Milan the team to beat in Italy, if not all of Europe, do they drop their Champions League opener in Group B to Sporting Lisbon, 1 – 0. Patrick Viera was sent off for Inter.

As expected, Bayern Munich blew-out Spartak Moscow 4 – 0 in the other Group B match.

Group C went low on excitement and goals as Galatasaray v Bordeaux and PSV v Liverpool both went 0 – 0.

Group D saw Fernando Morientes score three as Valencia won 4 – 2 at Olympiacos.

Roma scored four goals in the last 24 minutes to defeat Shakhtar Donetsk.

In Group A, Chelsea downed Werder Bremen 2 – 0, and Barcelona pounded Levski Sofia 5 – 0.

Chelsea v Werder Bremen – SoccerGolazo Match Report
Barcelona v Levski Sofia – SoccerGolazo Match Report

Related:
Champions League Fixtures 12.09.06 13.09.06
Ronaldinho Champions League Goal v Levski Sofia – GOLAZO!
Setanta Sports Broadband Review

Setanta Sports Broadband Review

When I first saw an ad for Setanta Broadband I thought “this is a long-overdue idea.”

I had watched games on Liverpool TV a few years back, but the picture was so small and pixelized, it was hardly more than a glorified radio.

But I was still optimistic that Setanta Broadband would be better since the quality of streaming video has shot up in recent years. And since there are pay-per-view matches available, I assumed they wouldn’t be able to charge if the picture was crap.

So I signed up immediately. Or I tried to.

Since I use a Mac, the page on which you sign-up, annoyingly kept telling me I did not have the Windows Media Player plug-in. Which of course, I did have.

After trying Firefox and Safari, I pondered adding Windows XP to my MacBook and just booting up in Windows to watch the games. But I took a stab at using Netscape 7 for Mac, and lo and behold, I got the sign-up form.

From there, everything went smoothly.

Within minutes I was watching a replay of this year’s Carling Cup and the picture was fabulous.

In all fairness, I have the fastest connection you can buy from my service provider, but I was on my back porch using a wireless connection, so let’s call it a wash.

The next afternoon, I logged in for England v Macedonia and was happy to find that even at a high-traffic time, that an England match surely creates, the picture was perfect.

I watched the first half with only a couple of screen freezes.

The second half was a little dodgy, with the screen freezing ten times or so. Each time I would click one of the four “settings” buttons and it would buffer and play again.

But in between the freezes, the picture was nearly perfect. The freezes were really only a minor nuisance, but had I missed a goal during one, I might have been much harsher in my assessment.

On my TV, I have Setanta Sports through DirecTV and I am very glad to have it. My initial experience with Setanta Broadband was definitely a good one as well.

I believe I paid 10 US dollars or so for the game itself, plus the 12 dollars a month it costs to have the service.

All told, that was less than the 25 dollars I usually pay for each Euro Qualifier when watching on my TV through the satellite, aka the “old-fashioned” way.

If you’re worried about how it will work with your computer set-up, I believe you can sign up month to month, so you would only be out the 12 dollars if it didn’t work out. But definitely DO NOT TRUST ME on this. I never read the fine print, so read carefully or contact them before joining if you are worried about it.

Having made my disclaimer. I loved it! More games, Setanta People!

And finally, unrelated to the review: What a great time we live in, that you can be at work or school, and maybe pop in some earbuds and take in some of the best football in the world, live on your desktop… from the other side of the planet, man!

Click here for full screenshot – I did not reduce this image, but I am still not sure if it is actual size on all screens.

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