Weekend Sports Snippets with Negrito

Hey Sports Fans!

Just a quick round-up cos I go into fits of apoplexy if I don't talk about sport at least once every 12 hours!  So this is more of a medical emergency than a sports report....and perhaps you should read it as such!

So here we go!  Firstly, the Bosses team, ManU, who despite a 3-1 win at home over lowly Leicester, they just didn't look convincing to me.  Over 70% possession and it should have been converted to a lot more than 3 goals.  In the second half they were just going through the motions and in the end they almost let Leicester back into the game.  Under Fergie the peddle would have been firmly to the metal for the whole 90 minutes and at NN we are beginning to question whether LVG is the man to take the team back to the top.  But, time is of the essence and he needs that time to ensure that he can be judged fairly.  We shall see and reserve ours till the end of the season.

Down the road at Stamford Bridge Chelsea and ManCity drew 1 a-piece, though Mourinho's Chelsea would have been more happy with that result than ManCity who dominated the play with David Silva again pulling the strings in the absence of Yaya Toure.  Thus far this season, these two sides have been head and shoulders above everyone else in the PL and the title should be between them, though Arsene Wenger's Arsenal are now starting to come on strong (they kicked Villa's butt 5-0 this afternoon)  and may yet have a say.

The 4th and final Champions League spot should be between ManU, Southampton, Spurs and possibly Liverpool, with ManU perhaps being the slight favourites to grab the place because, despite their relatively under par performances, they do seem to have the knack of not losing matches unlike the others.

In Spain La Liga progresses as it does every year with a dogfight between the big three, Barca, Real and Athletico.  Real hold the edge at the moment and remain 4 points clear, though since winning the World Champs just after Christmas they have gone off the boil.  However, the real news here is the possible rift between Messi and Luis Enrique, the Barca manager, and where Messi will be playing next year.  Of course, the Boss would love him to come to United but realistically if he becomes available his most likely destination may well be Madrid.  Watch this space.

Valencia, our local side here at NN, are going well this year for the first time in a few years, perhaps due to the investment of Chinese businessman, Peter Lim, who has given the club liquidity once more, and now they look to be a reasonable bet for the 4th spot in La Liga and the final Spanish Champions League place next season.  

Moving onto Formula 1, this weekend has just seen the first practise session of the year in Jerez, Andalucia, with ex-Champion Sebastian Vettel posting the quickest time of the day, but it was Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, last years runner's up to Lewis Hamilton, who claimed most of the plaudits by completing a phenomenal 157 laps (opposed to just 60 by Vettel) to underline their massive reliability, such a key factor in their success last season.  Hamilton takes over the car on Monday to see what he can manage.

And finally, to Melbourne and an incredible fight for the Men's title between Andy Murray and the unstoppable Novak Djokovic, who ran out the winner in 4 uncompromising sets.  The first 2 sets both went to tie-breaks, Novak taking the opener and Andy the second set, with both players hitting the ball with an intensity and vigour I've rarely seen.  But such was the pace of the match it was inevitable that the standard would drop and sadly it was Murray who faltered first and longest, despite some early physical scares from Djokovic who appeared to injure the thumb on his racket hand, then his ankle and had entered the match (possibly) suffering from the effects of a virus.  But in the end he proved to be the tougher player mentally and eventually steamrollered Murray 6-0 in the 4th, a sad way for Murray to end what had a fantastic match. Huge congratulations to Novak, now an 8 time Grand Slam winner, and commiserations to Murray.  His time in Melbourne will surely come. 

And that's me for today!  Phew!

  

Tweet to @nn11pwb

Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain. Is this where we are headed? All this & mid week Sports as well...

Negrito here with a mid-week Sports Special from Melbourne.  I flew in last night after more than 24 hours in the air and boy! my arms are aching (boom boom!) but it was all worth it!  Whilst Andy Murray's semi-final at the Aussie Open wasn't the best contest I've ever seen just being here in the sunshine puts some extra sheen on his victory for me.  Tomas Berdych began strongly, looking imperious in his first 3 service games, not dropping a point and it seemed the odds against a Murray victory were widening.  At the same time Murray was struggling to retain serve with each of his service game going to at least one deuce.  To be fair I'm not overly familiar with Berdych other than being aware that he was perhaps a bit of bogey player for Murray on the circuit, and there was a bit of extra edge with Murray's school friend and ex-assistant coach, Daniel Vallevrdu, now being retained on team Berdych.  However, even as he fired himself into a first set lead it was Berdych for me, who looked the more precarious of the two players.  In the second set it was Murray who finally found his feet as he stormed through the est 6-0 to even the match up.  

As the match continued neither player seemed able to maintain any sort of consistency with unforced errors peppering the play of both Berdych and Murray.  But it was Murray who gradually applied the pressure as Berdych appeared to falter psychologically, his play and his demeanour seeming ever more fragile to me.  In the end Murray triumphed to put himself into a 4th Aussie Open Final.  As yet his opponent is unknown, the second semi taking place tomorrow morning between Stan Warwrinka, last years winner, and World No.1 Novak Djokovic.  Murray must be hoping for a repeat of their last two meeting here which both ended being marathon contests.  With an extra day's recovery Murray must be feeling pretty good about the final whoever he plays, but he will need to be much more consistent than he was today if he wants to come out on top on Sunday.

Make sure you don't miss it on BBC1 08.15am.  Be there or be ....absent.

Now over to my sissy, Lola, for something completely different!

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Here in Spain we are heading towrads elections this year in May, the same month as they happen in the UK, though in neither country have manimals achieved suffrage, something I would certainly put right if I gained power!!  In the meantime we shall express our opinions publicly and hope that in time things change for the better!

Our in depth knowledge of Spanish politics is, in truth, not in depth (not least because of the Boss's imperfect Spanish) but that doesn't stop us having an opinion and getting involved.  Since Franco died in 1975 Spanish party politics has been largely dominated by either the Popular Party (PP) or the Socialists (PSOE) with the PP currently in power with Mariano Rajoy (commonly known as 'the Tramp' in this household) as their party leader and Head of State.

When the PP swept to power almost 5 years ago Spain was in a horrible mess; high and rapidly rising unemployment, a massive budget deficit and an economy in deep depression.  Now, as the next elections draw close things are marginally better.  Last months unemployment figures showed the biggest drop since the current financial crisis began but remains high at just under 24%, whilst the World Bank have set a revised growth forecast for the Spanish economy next year at 2%, interestingly a fraction higher than that forecast for the UK.

However, from where we sit in the 'campo' (or countryside) things still look pretty glum.  In the UK profitability, jobs and prosperity return to London first after crises and from there filter down to the rest of the country. Eventually!  In Spain it seems things run a similar course.  Speaking last year with some monied Londoners over on holiday they were only too happy to tell us how their daughter and friends were 'doing so well' working in Madrid for a Spanish TV company and they seemed to be under the wholly mistaken misapprehension that Spain was booming!  I was laughing (ironically) because it amazes me sometimes how well money insulates those who have it from those who don't, but even so these were not what I would have said were stupid or unusually naive people.  They merely pull the blinds down, as they most likely do at home in London, to the suffering and poverty around them.  "Oh I say, but my daughter says everyone in Spain is doing terribly well!"  Yes, maybe, but your daughter goes to expensive bars and restaurants where the vast majority of us wouldn't even get over the threshold let alone be able to pay for a starter!  As hu-mans you mate and socialise assortatively (i.e. we marry and socialise within our own social and economic register) so your daughters chances of meeting an unemployed tractor driver in some fancy bistro in Madrid are practically zero.  So, if you have a job, you tend to mix with others who are similarly employed.  In the same way if you're unfortunate enough to be out of work, you tend to hang around with others in a similar predicament.

Here in the hinterlands of Valenciana I know only a hand full of people who actually have jobs.  Everyone else loiters around the village bars (God alone only knows how they can afford it, but they do!  But, in truth I can't ask God, cos I don't really think he exists, but if anyone knows then he would know....if he was real), drinking the occasional terceo (bottle of beer), carajillo (brandy & coffee) or just plain old coffee if funds don't run to the brandy!  And they are all hopelessly pessimistic about ever working again.  Something I touched on last week (see blog entry 18/1/15 'Children are our future, so blah blah blah') was high youth unemployment all over Europe and here in Spain the problem is no different.  The Spanish nuclear family, traditionally so strong, is collapsing because for the first time the U25's are leaving home, leaving their families to go abroad and find work.  And what's more, they won't come back, or if they do, they won't come back the same.  Discontent is rife and widespread, and to be honest, it's a shame!  Hopelessness is the new by-word for what the future holds.  But it's not just Spain.

In Greece they now have the newly elected Syriza, a coalition of ultra left-wing parties that have swung to power on the back of promises to end the severe austerity imposed by the country's huge to debt to the EEC and the IMF.  Now for me, as a political initiate and relative non-entity, it beggars belief that a nation can so publicly announce their intention to snub what they owe.  The Greeks wish a return to the good times.  They are not alone.  But when push comes shove someone's gotta pay, and it seems that Greece and Syriza are looking to all of you non-Greek hu-mans to pay for their excesses.  And it seems, not just for their excesses yesterday, but for todays, and for the future as well.  I just cannot understand how such things can even be contemplated let alone be enough to get Alexis Tsipras's feet into the slippers of power in Athens!

In the run up to Syriza's victory we saw Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemos in Spain, drumming up support (in Greek, which I must say, impressed me no end) for Tsipras.  Two years ago Podemos didn't exist. Iglesias is no doubt a visionary and a very capable, if not unusual politician (his ponytailed look is a bit of a departure I feel from the norm) and he is mobilising massive support from a disillusioned and lost populous. Podemos is the sister party of Syriza, an anti-austerity party winning much acclaim with the latest polls putting him 3rd behind the PP & PSOE, but only just.  And whilst I understand the appeal, especially from the disillusioned young and unemployed, I find it difficult to fall in line and swallow the message because I just cannot see how it can work.

Come the election in May we may well find Podemos winning out.  I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised. But why is it that Iglesias and his supporters, like those of Tsipras in Greece, feel that they, above everyone else, deserves to live the high-life, earn the money, avoid the taxes (because that's largely how the Greek and Spanish economies have got into this mess) and get everyone else to pay for their health care, pension funds and infrastructure?  Instead maybe they should be concentrating their energies on putting a stop to the Black economy and the innate corruption found in Mediterranean politics, because making a nation pay their own way, as they do everywhere else, is surely a much more profitable exercise than reneging on what you owe and giving those who have supported you the finger!

Lola Lush
Political Correspondent NN

Belated Weekend Sports Report with Negrito

Hi Folks!
Negrito here with all your Sports News.  And what a weekend it was!  Full of footy shocks, tennis tales and cycling woes, we've got a story for everyone!

We'll begin with Friday nights woeful performance by Manchester United in their 4th round FA Cup tie at Cambridge United's Abbey Road stadium.  The Boss, as you may know, is an MU fan and he was not a happy bunny, I can tell thee! United set their stall out from the first minute and a sparsely furnished affair it was, the ball being pushed impassionately along the midfield line, before it patiently came back the same way again a few minutes later, no forward ground having been made.  And so it continued, LVG going for the Squarest team award which he should win hands down with what seemed to be no more than handful of forward passes during the whole 90 minutes.  Appreciating that the big teams don't want to be embarrassed by getting their bums kicked by lower division sides, but United just looked paralysed with fear, giving Cambridge the impetus, much as West Ham did against Bristol City on Sunday afternoon.  The United players were static throughout, expecting maybe to pass their way through a well organised Cambridge side who pressed the big names hard from the outset.  Only late in the game when Ander Herrera replaced Fellaini was their any attempt at link-up play between the far-from united factions of defence, midfield and attack.  But even then, when Herrera made a run, either the player on the ball ignored the run, or, if the ball did come then it was invariably too late and too slow.  And who was running into space created by Herrera's run?  Nobody, that's who!  The whole team seemed to be wearing leaden boots.  No-one was prepared to make a run or bust-a-gut to win a 50/50 ball or to latch onto a quickly slipped through pass.  The movement from United was non-existent, their play too laboured, too slow and too predictable. Without wishing to take anything away from Cambridge, the MU players are plainly of better quality, but in terms of wanting the win the boot was firmly on the other foot!

And on to Saturday when the fairies obviously sprinkled some magic dust on the ties and we saw PL teams eating humble pie on numerous occasions.  It really was a whacky weekend when form counted for nothing and league positions were forgotten, then turned on their heads.  MOTD highlights don't really show enough of the match to be able make any in depth analysis, but even so I loved seeing Jose Mourinho's Chelsea get their gold-plated arses badly tarnished by League 1 Bradford City.  What a treat!  Bradford took their goals superbly and by all accounts took the game to Chelsea, in the end fully deserving their amazing win. Big congrats to them and Saturday's other giant killers Middlesbrough and Blackburn Rovers who all disposed of PL opposition.  Fantastic!

  

The weekends second live game on the BBC was the West Ham vs Bristol affair mentioned above, but it was once again the team from the lower division that took the game by the scruff of the neck.  The spell cast over the big names of Premier League football this weekend was finally broken when Sakho came off the bench to knock in yet another header this season to end brave Bristol City's cup run.  But the first half had hinted at yet another upset as once again the big names showed nothing and Steve Cotterill's bright looking Bristol set the early pace.  For us watching at home it seemed as if yet another PL side started the game with fear of losing at the forefront of their minds, rather than believing in themselves and playing their normal game. Luckily for Big Sam (Allerdyce) West Ham finally got their foots on the ball and managed to scrape past Bristol, much to their relief.

Weekends like this past one are what footy is all about for me.  The PL big names shot through with self-doubt as the underdogs came on, baring their fangs, drawing blood from their blue-blooded opponents as they subsequently staggered, stumbled and finally lost their footing completely.  I have no doubt that if MU or West Ham had been up against other PL opposition that they would have performed to their usual high standards, which inevitably leads to the question 'why do the big names struggle (year after year) to put the minnows to bed?'  And I can only think it is fear.  Fear of losing, but not just losing, it's losing to opposition so far beneath them that even the very thought of losing beforehand is just not an option, and yet year after year we see the tables turned.  You've gotta love it, but in truth it shouldn't happen....ever!

Watching the expensively assembled MU team hesitate, fumble and finally fail against a Cambridge side put together for less money than Wayne Rooney tips the waiters at The Ivy, I couldn't help thinking that they were so scared of humiliation and defeat that they became physically paralysed, unable to make even the shortest of passes effectively.  That fear seeped into their everyday play rendering each and every one of them impotent whenever they had the ball.  The lack of imagination and creative play was quite shocking.  This wasn't just a bad performance; it was truly horrible!  But it would be unfair to say that United, Chelsea, Man City and the PL's other FA Cup strugglers were poor solely because they were scared; I have no wish to take credit away from the so-called underdogs by undermining their achievements with excuses for the big knobs.  Without exception the lower division sides came out to play football and to try and win.  They were under no illusions but came out attacking nevertheless, hoping to win the game, and if not to win, then to put on a good show for their fans and followers.  It's just such a shame that the cream didn't float to the surface, preferring instead to languish and curdle the mix, leaving many fans wondering what happened.  I can tell them.......it was the 4th round of the best Cup competition there is!  Bring it on!

Moving onto tennis, Andy Murray and his aerodynamic Adam's apple (see blog entry 20 Jan 2015) have moved smoothly though all challengers to the Australian Open semis with the loss of just a single set.  With Federer (knocked out early on by Murray's defeated quarter final opponent, Nick Kyrgios) and Nadal out of the way (beaten by Murray's next opponent Tomas Berdych), and Djokovic and last years winner, Stan Warwrinka, in the top half of the draw, Murray must thinking he's in for a really good chance of taking this title.  At the end of 2014 Djokovic was peerless, but he hasn't started 2015 in anything like the same manner.  With both Stan's and Djokovic's quarters yet to begin, Murray must try to concentrate on his own game, but with yet more big names set to tumble out (Nishikori and Raonic are up against Warwrinka and Djokovic respectively) the urge to get carried away must be immense.  Murray is, however, an avid footy fan and he would no doubt be aware of the FA Cup giant killings this weekend and must be hoping that a similar fate doesn't await him.

And finally, Team Sky's Richie Porte secured 2nd place just 2 seconds behind BMC Racing's Rohan Dennis in the Tour Down Under, the UCI's first world tour event of the 2015 season.  In Argentina Cav also took his first win of the year in the Tour de San Luis, but for me at NN perhaps the biggest cycling news of the past few days is that Lance 'Lack of Charmstrong' reckons he's served his time and should be allowed to compete once again.  Mind you, he must be about 64 years old by now ("Hey, no problem man!  I got a drug for that!"), so I don't think Chris Froome will be losing any sleep at the possibility of Lack of Charmstrong's return.  Apparently Lack of Charmstrong trains on his own now!  Quelle surprise!  Wonder if he's figured out why that is.......we digress!

See you soon Sports Fans