Arjen Robben - arguably one of the best players in the world when he is on form, and recently his performances have proved it. His illustrious career started at Dutch club Groningen before moving to PSV for a few seasons where he caught the eye of Chelsea and moved to the Premiership. He has also had a short spell at Real Madrid and now is at Bayern Munich. This season hes been prolific scoring 20 goals, which has helped his side in challenging for another Bundeliga and cementing a place in the last four of the Champions League, knocking out Fiorentina and Manchester United in the process with two stunning strikes. Tonight he continued his rich vein of form with a great performance against Lyon securing a comfortable 1-0 lead in the Champions League Semi -Final. The french side had obviously not been watching him closely enough as time and time again, they let him cut in on his strongest side - his left- and run in on goal, which inevitably led to Bayern's goal. He collected the ball on the right hand side and drove in on his left foot releasing a powerful strike which beat Lloris in goal with a hint of a deflection.
But for Lyon it could have been a lot worse, numerous times Robben ran at the Lyon defence his dribbling mesmerising to watch, leaving centre back Cris only a spectator at times before laying a chance off to the Bayern strikers or taking a shot himself. In fact Bayern could have and should have doubled their lead when Gomez was unmarked, Robben clipped a delightful ball onto the attackers head but he failed to get any purchase onto the header making it an easy save for the Lyon keeper.
However, there is a sort of Jekyll & Hyde character to Robben. Despite his effortless control, rapid speed and great finishing, the Dutchman is very prone to simulation or better known as diving or going down easily. Some would argue that this indeed is part of the game now - certainly in mainland Europe - where conning a referee into giving a player a decision has almost become second nature
But personally as a football fan, it is very frustrating to watch. There were times tonight where i was watching the game and thinking 'stay on your feet' or ' don't give up so easily!' But as usual he went down with the faintest of touches, moaning to the ref every time a decision went against him. He often if he was being challenged for the ball and felt that he was not going to end up with the ball, just stopped turned around facing the opposite way of play as to if insinuate he was body checked or the other player had fouled him - almost forcing the referee to give the decision to him and to be fair most of the time he did.
Nevertheless some people would say that this is good play by Robben manipulating the game into his hands and reaping the benefits and that other players dive and go down easily so why shouldn't he. And it is also true to say that there will be instances where his is actually fouled and not get the decision.
A certain argument to that is, well he is a gifted enough player he should not feel the need to go down so easily, however 2010 is an important year for Robben - his club looks almost certain to reach the Champions League Final, top of the Bundesliga by 2 points and his country - Holland should be challenging for the World Cup as well - hopefully from a footballing perspective we will see more of talent he has and less of the diving that comes with it.
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Sunday 4 April 2010
Falkirk to beat the drop?
Well i thought it was time to do something with my life and since i am doing a Journalism and Sports Degree in my 3rd Year at Stirling University, i figured what better way to start on the road to success than to start writing a blog. My blog will look at the main football events of the week and try to give a balanced take on games and issues currently circulating around the world of football.
The team i support is Falkirk- please don't laugh , coming to a very crucial stage in the season where every game is a 'must win' game. This starts with a visit from Paisley outfit St Mirren who recently demolished a hapless Celtic 4-0. It certainly brings back memories when they came to the Falkirk Stadium last season and beat us 2-0 but in reality, it could have been a lot worse and i would not have been exaggerating when i say the saints could have been 5-0 up at half time, which ironically happened to Burnley yesterday at the hands of Man City - yes, if only we had players like Tevez , Adebayor and the array of other talent to grace the pitch at the Falkirk Stadium but alas this just is not the case. However we do have our own towering black striker Enoch Showunmi or 'Big Show' - personally im just waiting for the show to start!
The big fella does try his hardest but he will start having to be more prolific infront of goal if the Bairns are to have a chance of staying up this season, which the manager Pressley thinks is definitely happening.
Wild optimism, or just trying to keep his players spirits high, it remains to be seen whether or not 'Elvis' is capable of keeping Falkirk in the SPL however what is not in doubt is his passion. determination and confidence in his ability as being a manager - this confidence which he has been reflected in players like Ryan Flynn- who scored against Motherwell at the weekend to gain all 3 points for the Bairns, and has came on leaps and bounds recently for the club.
With Kilmarnock beating Aberdeen 2-0 at Rugby Park today - a result which most people probably expected due to the circumstances of teams like Aberdeen having nothing really to play for because of the league's format at this time of season - a topic which i hope to cover in the future. It makes the task in hand all the more difficult for Pressley's side since now the gap at the bottom is 3 points to St Mirren and 4 to Kilmarnock. A win next week would make the last 5 games against the bottom 6 really really interesting, however if St Mirren turn up mimicking Barcelona like they did last season, then i really cannot see us stayin up. Falkirk were in this precarious position last season but managed to somehow stay up with a win against eventual relegated Club Inverness, can they accomplish this feat two years in a row - only time will tell.
The team i support is Falkirk- please don't laugh , coming to a very crucial stage in the season where every game is a 'must win' game. This starts with a visit from Paisley outfit St Mirren who recently demolished a hapless Celtic 4-0. It certainly brings back memories when they came to the Falkirk Stadium last season and beat us 2-0 but in reality, it could have been a lot worse and i would not have been exaggerating when i say the saints could have been 5-0 up at half time, which ironically happened to Burnley yesterday at the hands of Man City - yes, if only we had players like Tevez , Adebayor and the array of other talent to grace the pitch at the Falkirk Stadium but alas this just is not the case. However we do have our own towering black striker Enoch Showunmi or 'Big Show' - personally im just waiting for the show to start!
The big fella does try his hardest but he will start having to be more prolific infront of goal if the Bairns are to have a chance of staying up this season, which the manager Pressley thinks is definitely happening.
Wild optimism, or just trying to keep his players spirits high, it remains to be seen whether or not 'Elvis' is capable of keeping Falkirk in the SPL however what is not in doubt is his passion. determination and confidence in his ability as being a manager - this confidence which he has been reflected in players like Ryan Flynn- who scored against Motherwell at the weekend to gain all 3 points for the Bairns, and has came on leaps and bounds recently for the club.
With Kilmarnock beating Aberdeen 2-0 at Rugby Park today - a result which most people probably expected due to the circumstances of teams like Aberdeen having nothing really to play for because of the league's format at this time of season - a topic which i hope to cover in the future. It makes the task in hand all the more difficult for Pressley's side since now the gap at the bottom is 3 points to St Mirren and 4 to Kilmarnock. A win next week would make the last 5 games against the bottom 6 really really interesting, however if St Mirren turn up mimicking Barcelona like they did last season, then i really cannot see us stayin up. Falkirk were in this precarious position last season but managed to somehow stay up with a win against eventual relegated Club Inverness, can they accomplish this feat two years in a row - only time will tell.
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