Thursday Titbits

Not much arsenal related news though today...

More soon...

Try, try try but all in vain! Only Pain for Spain

Patrick Vieira scores a neat header. Ribery too and then Zidane makes it fabulous.
Henry passes into the area. Ribery & Pat miss it.France made to pay for miss. Spain earns penalty. David Villa puts it in. 1-0.Zidane passes. Henry passes. Ribery takes it. Ribery scores. 1-1. Possible target Ribery. Scored by now how many goals/ hw many assists. Evaluation!
Puyol hurts / fouls Henry. Henry earns a free kick from a vital position. Zidane takes it. Pat heads it. 2-0.
Henry is called off. Wiltord comes in.
In 92+’ , Zidane wraps it up.Its pain fr spain. They head home. Bow out. Crash out. But the odds r reduced now fr france. And they take on brazil now in the quarters.
Another game Brazil Vs Ghana. 3-0.
Gilberto plays for ? mins.

Ghana played well. Came close. Second goal offside fr brazil. Poor refereeing throughout. Gana debutants. Africa proud. Essien doesn’t plays.

2 days off in the Wcup

Arsenal at the World Cup - Day18

Big Phil is out injured for 2 months with a dislocated shoulder but the Swiss couldnt help much to avoid to add disappointment to his injury as they lost out 3-0 on penalties to the Ukrainians yetserday and consequently bow out. The swiss conceded their first goal since the start of the tournament when that first penalty went in after either side failed to score for as long as 120 minutes. The swiss ended poorly as they couldnt drive in even one penalty.

The other match where there wasn't any Arsenal interest was the one between Italy and Australia. The Italians won 1-0.

Now for today.

Today we have Gilberto, Henry, Reyes and Fabregas involved amongst the few arsenal players left now in the tournament apart from Jens, Sol, Cole and Theo.

Gilbertos Brazil take on Ghana and Henry & Co take on Spain wherein we have Reyes and Farbregas in todays knock-outs. The match between Spain and France is of particular interest to me as Spain have been scoring goals after goals right from the begining of the tournament and France just got into their grove by beating Togo 2-0. Spain seem to have an edge but you never know if the game goes to extra time or even to penalties.

Arsenal at the World Cup - Day17.

After Adebayor, Freddie, Van Persie exit.
A game with 4 red cards and 8 yellows...
Reyes gets a game.. finally. And puts in a free kick to be headed home.
Today Swiss Vs Ukraine.. Senderos out injured. Johan Djourou in...

Rosicky Czechs Out!

Rosicky joins the list of arsenal players who have had to face the disappointment of an early World Cup exit as the Czechs lost 2-0 to the Italians yesterday. Rosicky played his part well for a full 90 minutes but couldn’t do much for his team which played with 10 men after Jan Polok was red carded.

Even with 10 men the Czechs looked like scoring but in the end the Italians made their extra man count. The dismissal of the Czechs is highlighted more from the fact that the Czechs have a FIFA ranking of 2 just after Brazil who are No.1. The arsenal player is obviously sad heading home and his disappointment is clearly reflected in his words – Tomas Rosicky

I am very sad and very disappointed to be going home. The Italians were not that
good, they didn’t have too many chances. We still were in this game even through
we only had ten players for a long time. I don't want to think any more about
the World Cup right now, for me it's finished.

Materazzi and Inzaghi scored for the Italians to top Group E and will now play Australia who drew 2-2 with the Croats in an another fixture. And Ghana who after having won 2-1 in another group E fixture yesterday finished second to Italy in the group E to clash with Brazil in the knock-outs.

Gilberto Silva played a full 90 minutes in the 4-1 spanking of Japan by Brazil who finished their group F with maximum points.

Whats for today?

Courtesy of the fact that France has not won a game yet in this World Cup - in fact not any since their last World Cup triumph in 1998 – they now face a must win fixture against Togo, losing which will see them out of the tournament. Speaking of Togo we have another arsenal player there in Adebayor who is not worried to face France or the club skipper Henry and ready to swap his jersey with Henry after a Togo win. Joking, but here are Adebayors’ true words –

This match against France is very important for me, the team and the whole country. There's a lot of pressure on us, so we have to stay calm. I'm not worried. We have a good team and we can win.

We'll both play the way we can and we'll see what happens. I'll even try and swap shirts with him at the end of the game!

Another match where there is arsenal interest is the match between Spain and Saudi Arabia wherein we have our very own arsenal wonderkid Cesc Fabregas. After his brilliant and undisputed contribution in Spain’s win against Tunisia its time that the lad is given a start for Spain.

Also the Swiss take on the South Koreans today. Therein we have Senderos involved.
The Swiss will do with a draw but the Koreans need a win here. Also lot depends on this one for France who failing to beat Togo today will finish third and the Swiss and Koreans will go through.

Hoping that the Swiss beat the Koreans 5-0 and Senderos gets 3 out of them while France wins 5-2 with 3 for Henry and 2 for Adebayor!!

A for Arsenal, A for Aston Villa, E for Emirates

3 arsenal players were involved yesterday at the World Cup as Holland took on Argentina and the Ivorians played their last match of this World Cup against Serbia and Montenegro.

The match between the dutch and the argentines was expected to be the more interesting one out of the two but it turned out to be otherwise. Instead Ivory coast came from two goals behind to defeat S & M 3 - 2 and recorded their first victory in the tournament with a gripping performance. Emanuel Eboue played a full 90 minutes but Kolo Toure was an unused sub. Both the teams had crashed out already. So Toure and Eboue now head home. They played well their part and Toure felt that it was a difficult group to be in for the Ivorians:

It was a great match, a really exciting one, and we proved that we’ve got some great players. We found ourselves in a really tough group with some big teams, which is why we’re not that disappointed – not that we’re totally happy either. In any case, this win was a good one for our fans.

In the other match RVP played for 67 minutes and was then substituted. Neither sides manged to scoe and it was a stalemate.

Arsenal is involved today too.. as Rosicky's Czechs are to clas with the Italians today. It would be a thrilling game as both the sides need a win to assure some sort of safety to move to the next round. Hoping that Rosicky gets some tonight to make the Czechs and us gooners pround.

Jens wins the game, Sol gets a game !

Five arsenal players involved in yesterdays happenings at the World Cup.

England who have not beaten Sweden since the last 37 years failed for one more time yesterday as the match between the two ended with two goals a side each. It was an interesting game to watch especially as England finally put up an inspired display and took the lead twice but all in vain as the Swedes attacking play paid off and they twice they came from behind to level the scores. They particluarly made England panic with their set-pieces. In fact both their goals came through set-pieces.

Freddie played his part well but couldnt get on the score sheet himself as Allback and Larsson were the scorers for Sweden.Ashley Cole played the full 90 minutes but couldnt help get himself a clean sheet as Sweden struck twice. Sol atlast got a game when he came on as a sub for the injured Rio Ferdinand in the second half to make it 50 caps to his credit now. Sadly Theo couldnt get a break again inspite of an injured Owen been led off the pitch as early as the 4th minute as he was replaced by Crouch.

As a result of the match both the teams advance to the knock-out stages with England as the leaders of group B and the Swedes the runner-up. Hence, England shall now face Ecuador while the Swedes are pitted against the mighty Germans.

Another gunner involved was Jens for Germany who got a clean sheet for the second time in a row as the Germans defeated Ecuador 3-0.

Now for today...

Toure and Eboue shall pay their last match in this tournament as they take on Serbia and Montenegro having had already crashed out of the Cup after the defeat to Holland.

The most interesting fixture today is the one between Holland and Argentina.

Its got to be an exciting match as both the teams are tough to break and are scoring goals. There is the Arsenal interest in the dutch side as Robin Van Persie is certain to be included in the first 11. He scored a brilliant goal against Ivory Coast and Van basten is confident of his capabilities. Let him score 3 past the Argentines today!

Cesc & Senderos advance! Adebayor ...

No less than five Arsenal players involved yesterday. Let’s begin!

Cesc Fabregas came on for Spain yesterday in the match against Tunisia as a sub along with Raul in the 45 minute and demonstrated exactly why he is such an important asset for the club. The Spaniards were trailing to a goal by Tunisia from as early as the 8th minute and were like that the entire half. Then our super boy Cesc appeared and made an impact soon. As soon as he came on he struck a 20 yard kick only to be fisted by the Tunisian goalkeeper Ali Boumnijel. Then Cesc played his part. In the 71st minute Joaquin Sanchez made a cross from the right of the box which was dummied well by Torres for the ball to be received by Cesc who took a first time shot on the goal but the goalkeeper Ali Boumnijel parried the ball which fell in the path of the onrushing Raul who actually did well to slot the ball home on the rebound and make Cesc’ s effort count. Spain had equalized now.

Both the substitutions had paid off but there was more to come from the arsenal player. Soon he got into the box again and his effort was blocked by the goalkeeper. Soon Spain took a lead in the 76th minute. And Cesc was to be involved in that too. This time Cesc delivered an exquisite pass from his own half to coincide with Torres excellent run and Torres rounded off the goalkeeper before he put the ball in the net to make it 2-1 for Spain. Spain eventually won the match 3-1 after Torres slotted another one through a penalty late in the game. A nice game for Fabregas but not so for Reyes as he was an unused sub in the match. Fabregas played his part very well and if only he could have scored one for himself. No worries. He will get scoring himself soon!

Later, after the game, Cesc stressed the importance of the win for Spain by saying:

We had belief and it’s always important to come back in the game like that because we knew that a win would put us into the next round.

The significance of the contribution made by Cesc wasn’t lost on the Spanish coach Luis Aragones when amongst other things he said:

We dealt with it after the break though, with Xavi improving and Cesc (Fabregas) coming on and doing a good job. In the second half, we played our quick, technical game and created danger. We don't have huge, physical players, so we have to rely on our strengths. Raul is fast and has great technique, and that paid dividends. Bringing him and Cesc on worked out very well.

There were 2 matches that involved Arsenal players yesterday. One was the one wrote of above i.e. Spain Vs Tunisia and the other one Togo Vs Switzerland. I have finished off with the first one wherein we had Cesc and Reyes involved, now the second one. In the second we had three arsenal players taking part and they were Senderos and Johan Djourou for Switzerland and Adebayor for Togo.

Senderos played a full 90 minutes as the Swiss won the match 2-0 with a goal in each half. That gives Senderos a second clean sheet to his name in two matches until now in the World Cup. Johan Djourou was an unused substitute here. With the win the Swiss have made their qualification foe the knock-out rounds a good possibility and with that comes for Senderos more chances to play for his country.
But, as I said earlier, another arsenal player Adebayor was involved in the game. The defeat was a blow for Togo who were making their debut in the World Cup and have now crashed out on account of two back to back defeats. Adebayor himself played well but couldn’t conjure up a goal. Later Adebayor said:

The Swiss were strong on the counter-attack. We had problems with our build-up play. I was always asking for the ball but unfortunately I didn’t always receive the support. We’re not disappointed because we gave our best and could have won
the game.

It would have been fantastic to see him score some goals in the World Cup but it’s not so the case as he and Togo now head home.

Lots of news to come in tomorrow as a few more arsenal players involved in todays fixtures as Germany(Jens) takes on Ecuador and Sweden (Freddie) will fight it out with England (Ashely Cole, Sol and Theo).

Lets hope Theo gets a break today.

Robin and Henry score, Toure & Eboue ...

Henry socred an elusive goal yesterday for France against the South Koreans which was also the first goal scored by France after their World Cup victopry in 1998 as 2002 saw them head home in the very first round with the humiliation of not even scoring a goal. SO henry ends that drought thats the good news but also there is bad news atleast for me that goal couldnt gather much success for France as after taking the lead through Henry's 9 minute goal a sit-back-and-defend-approach backfired for the French and the Koreans much to the disappointment of Thierry Henry scored through ManU's Park Ji Sung late in the second half.

Later Henry felt it to be a shame to let go a goal so late and he has words to express the disappointment.

It’s a shame we conceded a goal right at the end because we were very calm and
were defending well.

Thats for Henry but theres more in terms of Arsenal players today...

Sadly enough Toure and Eboue had to face the disappointment of an early exit after all their hopes were dented by the defeat to a resilient Dutch side scoring two goals one thry RVP and other trhu ManU's RVNistelrooy. But luckily RVP is still there and have actually confirmed a place for Holand in the second round. Wat a scorcher of a free kick he scored and theres still more to come they way he is playing.. So sorry to Toure and Eboue but Best of Luck for RVP as he advances to the next round.

Also Rosicky and the Czechs face an uphill task in facing Italy after the Czechs incredibly lost to Ghana 2-0 though the Czechs played with 10 men for a large part of the match.

Freddie header makes Paraguay head for home

An 88th minute rare but brilliant header from Ljungberg sent the 50,000 Swedish fans present in Olympiastadion into rapturous celebrations and Paraguay back to home. The Swedes won the match 1-0 courtesy of Freddie's late goal and are now favourites to end second in the Group B table behind England. Freddie's goal also meant that now Paraguay will have to bear the disppointment of an early exit.

The win was very crucial for the swedes to harbour any hopes of qualification for the knock-out rounds after having been held to a goalless draw to Trinidad and Tobago in their World Cup opener. The point I want to make here is that a Gunner, an arsenal player scored THAT important goal and that makes me feel say Hhhhhuuuuurrrrrrrrrraaaahhhhhhh! And he was the Man of the Match too! Huuurrrrraaahhh!!

After seeing Rosicky drilling two past USA, Fabregas helping Torres for Spain and now Freddie scoring the all important one for Sweden its Henrys' turn now to get on the score sheet. And if only he could hammer 3 past the South Koreans on Sunday then it would start to look a perfect Arsenal up there at the World Cup.

Won't it?

Jens keeps the poles, Cesc creates history!

Jens started for Germany and kept a clean sheet yesterday as the germans finished 1-0 against Poland with a winner in extra time through Neuville as the Poles finished goallles and with ten men.

Other Arsenal players involved yesterday in the World Cup were spaniards Reyes and Fabregas against Shevchenko's Ukraine. While Reyes was an unused substitute, Cesc Fabregas created history when he came on in place of Luis Garcia in the 76' minute and became the youngest Spanish to ever play in World Cup. He played well and had a hand in the goal scored by Fernando Torres in the match that Spain eventually outplayed 10 men Ukraine 4-0 .

More arsenal players shall be involved todays as the following fixtures take place

England Vs Trinidad and Tobago AND Sweden Vs Paraguay

For the Sweden match we have our dear Freddie Ljungberg rearing to play his part.

Ashley Cole is certain to start for England while Sol may continue to be an unused sub as he was in the match against Paraguay. The significant thing here is that whether or not Thoe can get a share of the match today. Though Sven has been syaing that Rooney if fit for the match but personally I dont think that would be able to play any part in todays game as Sven wont risk to play Rooney unless he is 100% match-fit which I dont think he is now. So that sets up a nice opportunity for Theo to come on at a later stage of the match and score one in the dying moments when England would be desperately searching for a goal and become a hero overnight.

Best of Luck for Theo, and all other Gunners too !!

French unable to scale the Swiss mountains !

The match between France and Switzerland turned out to be a stale draw though either side could have atleast scored one goal each. A shot from Henry which seem to be goalbound was handed by Muller in the box and the ref didnt gave it Henry's way. Senderos played for a full 90 minutes while Johan Djourou got a good 15 minutes as he came on a sub and could have even scored in the dying moments of the match.

Gilberto, on the other hand couldnt play a part as he wasnt even used as a sub in an another boring match that Brazil won 1-0 against Croatia.

Rosicky scores double, Robin and Robben !

What a terrific match yesterday for Rosicky who blasted not one but two past the Americans and helped the Czechs cruise past with a 3-0 victory over USA.

When the Czechs were already leading 1-0, Rosicky made it 2-0 in the 36’ minute when he let go a swerving kick from a whole 30 yards that the American keeper Kasey Keller couldn’t do anything about but only dive in despair. Spectacular!!

There was more to come from him. Midway in the second half his right footed shot struck the crossbar. And then in the 76’ minute, after receiving a through pass from Nedved, the Czech raced through the centre and when in the area he very composedly clipped the ball into the net to seal the match in style and beauty.

Both the goals were executed wonderfully and were a joy to watch and deservingly Rosicky was declared the Man of the Match . Whoa!! What a Gunner! What a signing! Way to go, Way to go Arsenal!

What a start he has got for himself in the World Cup and this should go a long way to boost his confidence further, not that he wasn’t confident but now when he has already struck two in the opener Tomas must be rearing to go. It’s worthwhile to mention here that the Czechs own their qualification to Rosicky as had it not been for Rosicky’s goal against Norway in the playoffs the Czechs wouldn’t have been able to make it to Germany in the first place.In Tomas, Wenger surely has signed a ‘high calibre’ player as he had promised and there is more to come as we know that Rosicky will only get better and more lethal under Wenger’s management.

It’s a delight that Wenger got his hands on him before the world cup and I can’t wait to watch him in action for Arsenal.

Robin Van Persie has a point here for Robben!

Next action involving Arsenal players if the fixture Between Brazil Vs Croatia wherein Gilberto Silva can play and theres the match between France and Switzerland where Senderos will have to try to defend none other than his club captain Thierry Henry. Thats got to be interesting as well.

Gunners at the World Cup !

Some action for our gunners yesterday and tomorrow too as France is scheduled to take on Switzerland and Czechs to face USA. Also Brazil have a match with Ghana. So the list of Arsenal players to be involved today and tomorrow includes Henry, Senderos, Gilberto and Rosicky too..

The World Cup begins ...

Not much to write again today...

Cygan has a chance of moving back to France by way of a move to St. Etienne who seem to be assuring him of first team appearances. Thats news about players leaving the club but no sight of another signing.

So, finally the World cup begins today and with that the wait for a new Arsenal signing is now extended by another month, up until the World Cup ends. But now when all the top players will be fighting it to give their best throughout the tournament, Wenger has a wonderful opportunity to keep an eye on all those classs players and then (if he thinks) go for the best ones really suited for Arsenal.

That doesnt means that I am saying that Wenger needs big occassions like these to spot a new face. Wenger has such an astute and sharp eye for talent - Fabregas is whom I try to bring your attention to - that by any means he doesnt needs a tournament to spot his man but who knows if the cup may throw some surprises and someone MAY catch the eye of Wenger.

But most probably (if at all) Wenger signs a new arsenal player I think he has already marked him or them and is only waiting for the perfect time to arrive like say after the World Cup ends or just before the new season begins. Time will tell !!

Thats it until tomorrow but before that a best of luck for all the Gunners involved in this World Cup tournament and I wish that they all play their very best and make their countries proud and us gooners too!

Henry breaks the Great Wall of China !

France played their last friendly before the World Cup against China and Henry was able to score one and assist in one. He first provided David Trezeguet in the first half a cross with which Trezeguet scored the opener and then in the closing stages Henry himself scored one from 30 yards after combining in play with Franck Ribery. China eventually lost 3-1.

Though France were not their usual self in this match as they were held for a long period to China but this is not a blog to stress about France OR China but this is a blog about Arsenal and arsenal players and as such its nice to see Henry doing all the good things.

Talking about arsenal players we have another one to talk about.

Jens has a take on England.

"We are ahead of them with our World Cup experience because we know how to do
the job better than England. That is something they don't have"

According to Jens the germans know how to get the job done and the english dont. He says that the germans have the "ability to perform when it counts most" and the brits dont. I wish that Jens would keep his mouth shut but he wont.

As far as this World Cup is concerned, it remains to be seen whether or not the germans have the capability to perform when it counts most but from his Champions League heroics we do know that Jens for one surely has it.

Sol set to leave!

The probability of Sol joining Fenerbahce next season is more than the probability of Sol staying at Arsenal. So Sol seems more likely to go than stay.

Apart from that Henry is poised to play alongside Djibril Cisse in a friendly against China before the World Cup and ex-gunner Alan smith who is along with the English squad in Germany sends a nice report back to Arsenal about the form and progress of the three Gunners involved in the english squad for the World Cup i.e. Cole, Campbell and Theo.

Thats it for today!!

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