Asia
Telling A Player To Dive Is Not A Smart Idea, It Turns Out.
By: chris |
5 Comments
Whilst Australia is cracking down on diving, their Asian brethren Japan are reeling from a slightly stupid – or tremendously stupid, your choice – remark by Urawa Red Diamonds gaffer Volker Finke (who is not, in fact, Japanese) which derided a player for not going down in the box. This has, predictably, resulted in a [...]
The Goal of 2009.
By: chris | 4 Comments
This is, plain and simple, one of the best goals you will ever see. Not that every own-half goal isn’t brilliant, it’s just the pace, accuracy and trajectory with which this ball left from the boot of Kazumasa Uesato is beyond perfect. Floating with such harmless intent until landing casually in the goal, almost as [...]
China Sets The New Standard For Discipline
By: chris | No Comments
You may recall that referee rundown which took place in China over the week (see above for a refresher). It was actually a youth-type game, rather than a Super League game, as no one was reporting at the time, so it’s not as bad for the dwindling image of the sport in China – but [...]
Category: AsiaThe Chinese Tom Henning Øvrebø (That’s Ballack’s Buddy From Chelsea v Barca)
By: chris | 2 Comments
Just yesterday Richard Scudamore, head of the Prem, sat himself in front of a bevy of reporters, not at all influenced by the fact that he was on a block-building mission in Beijing, and touted the Chinese Super League as the new blossoming world power – the one which may come to rival Europe’s heavyweights [...]
Howler Files: The Gods Are Cruel.
By: chris | No Comments
We’ve seen this so often. Goalkeeper does the “smart” thing by aiming to prevent conceding a corner kick and in the process wind up conceding something so much worse. In this case, Yokohama Marinos keeper Hiroki Iikura is especially generous, ushering in Gamba Osaka’s goal with a free ball and the appropriate arm motion. Hashimoto [...]
Category: AsiaAnd We All Fall Down
By: Daryl | 5 Comments
Dirty Tackle beat us to this by about three days, but it’s too good not to post. It’s from the May 19th Asian Champions League game between China’s Tianjin Teda and Australia’s Central Coast Mariners. Very nice PDF match report here (maybe the future really is Asia?)
Tianjin are 1-0 up and CCM have a corner [...]
Category: AsiaBhaichung Bhutia Sparks Club vs Dancing Show Debate
By: Daryl | 1 Comment
Step aside club vs country. The new argument is club vs celebrity dancing show.
India’s most famous footballer Bhaichung Bhutia has fallen out with his I-League club Mohun Bagan over his appearances on celebrity dance show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa (think Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing With the Stars).
The 32 year old Bhutia (who’s also national team captain) received [...]
Category: AsiaA Name to Remember: Lee Keun-Ho
By: Daryl | 1 Comment
Take a look at this J-League goal from Jubilo Iwata’s South Korean attacker Lee Keun-Ho. Dribbling along the touchline Lee goes around the keeper and then back inside before slotting it home to make it six goals in six games for the 24 year old since he traded K-League for J-League.
Category: AsiaAnother Day, Another Assault In Chinese Football
By: chris | 1 Comment
You know, ever since China pulled its domestic competition from terrestrial television for too cozily resembling martial arts and bringing in a strict disciplinarian to clean up the league, the only thing Chinese football makes the news for is….resembling martial arts. Though I suppose that’s typically the case with second (or third…or fourth) tier quality [...]
Category: AsiaCui Peng: China’s Bad Boy. Sort Of.
By: chris | 1 Comment
The state of the game in China is pretty poor. The athletic standards are low and most games turn into impromptu martial arts tournament, forcing the decision makers to pull Chinese football from domestic TV. So the authorities brought in Nan Yong to shape up the game and one of his first moves was to [...]
Category: AsiaChina Pulls Its Own League From Television
By: chris | 3 Comments
China has decided to remove TV coverage of their top league due to excessive pitch violence which turns football matches into impromptu martial arts competitions. So CCTV, China’s gov’t television, will be showing more games from top European competitions – the English FA is already salivating – in lieu of their domestic league.
Let’s look [...]
Category: AsiaJapan’s Attempt to Curb Arsenal-itis
By: chris | 2 Comments
Some clubs bring the full cavalry to their cup matches because it’s the only competition they have a chance at making a decent showing. Other clubs have more important things to worry about. Like fatigue, injuries, other competitions, and how the owner’s going to feel about losing a superduperstar to injury for the year up [...]
Adelaide United Need to Look Before They Pass
By: Daryl | No Comments
Adelaide United are the first Australian team to make it to the Asian Champions League Final, where they faced Gamba Osaka in the first leg today. So you can imagine the weight of expectation. Unfortunately, the A-Leaguers pretty much threw away the trophy with two criminally slack passes.
Category: AsiaAsian Champions League Final Set; Wikipedia Predicts Winner.
By: chris | 1 Comment
Defending champs Urawa Red Diamonds had the upper hand as they hosted Gamba Osaka in the semifinal of the Asian CL semifinals today, having drawn in Osaka through The Almighty Away Goal. They made it 2-1 in the first half, but 45 minutes and some shoddy corner defending later, Gamba were through to their first [...]
Category: AsiaChinese Fan Gives Up on Football to Become a Monk
By: Daryl | 2 Comments
Have you ever been so frustrated with your team’s fortunes that you just want to give up watching football altogether? You know the feeling. One man in China certainly does.
Mei Nansheng – also known as “the iron trumpet” – was apparently a huge fan of his local team F.C. Wuhan. But Wuhan has had all [...]
Category: Asia
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