There Will Be Live Blogs - The EPL Title

It all comes down to this. On the final day of the season, with the English Premier League title on the line , Chelsea will host Wigan Athletic at Stamford Bridge. They sit top of the table with 83 points, so three points from a victory will clinch it for them. If they draw or lose, however, Manchester United could sneak by them. The Red Devils host Stoke at Old Trafford, and are only one point back of Chelsea. A draw does them no good thanks to Chelsea's superior goal differential, but if they win and the Blues drop points, it will be United who are champions of England. Adding to the drama, all of Sunday's games take place at the same time, 11 a.m. Eastern/8 a.m. Pacific. I'll be live-blogging both the Manchester United and Chelsea games and throwing in updates from other ones from time to time. Come join me here then to see how the EPL title is decided!

There Will Be Live Blogs: Manchester United - Sunderland

Thanks to Chelsea's 2-0 thumping of Liverpool earlier this morning, Manchester United head to the Stadium of Light with their backs against the wall. They must beat Sunderland to have any hope of remaining in the title race. Kickoff is at 11 a.m. Eastern/8 a.m. Pacific. Join me in the live blog below!

There Will Be Live Blogs: Liverpool - Chelsea

The English Premier League title race continues towards its exciting conclusion, and this second-to-last week features two matches that might just decide it all. First, Liverpool host league-leaders Chelsea at Anfield, and then Manchester United travel to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland. Chelsea have 80 points from 36 matches, one more than United, and are also well ahead on goal difference. In the last week of the season, they'll host Wigan, which should be a relatively easy win; thus, their performance today will be crucial. United have a bit of an easier schedule, on the road against Sunderland today and then at home against Stoke next week, but they could win out and still lose if Chelsea take both of their games. I'm planning to live blog both of today's clashes, so stop by here for that. The first one, Liverpool and Chelsea, will kick off at 8:30 Eastern (5:30 Pacific) and will be live-blogged in this post; the second one, United and Sunderland, kicks off at 11 a.m. Eastern (8 a.m. Pacific) and will be live-blogged in a separate post. All are welcome to drop by; hope to see you then!

The Return of the Keane?

[Photo from BSketti]

The Guardian is reporting that Roy Keane may return to English football as the manager of Championship side Ipswich Town. This is a terrific move in my view. As I wrote back when he left Sunderland, Keane has shown his managerial chops before, especially in the Championship; he took a mediocre side up to the Premiership and then held them there. I speculated back then that backroom intrigue involving owner Ellis Short may have been involved in his exit from Sunderland, and it appears that that may have been the case. Keane was far from perfect as a Premier League manager, especially in the transfer market, but he was learning and there's a good chance he'll be able to do well there in the future.

This looks like a good situation for Keane as well. Jim Magilton was just fired, but the team isn't actually in bad shape. They're ninth out of 24 Championship squads at the moment and have some decent talent, including 22-year-old Argentine winger Luciano Civelli, veteran goalkeeper Richard Wright, 20-year-old Canadian star midfielder Jaime Peters and former England U21 international striker Jonathan Stead. They have the foundation of a good club and should be in a decent position to challenge for promotion next season.

Regardless of your view of Keane as a manager though, most would concede that his return will be good for the sport. Keane was always one of the most interesting personalities in soccer as a player, and the same remains true as a manager; he's probably the best character in English football now that Jose Mourinho has gone to Italy. I'm already looking forward to following Ipswich Town under him, as it will certainly be entertaining, no matter what the eventual outcome is.

Update: 5:39 A.M. April 23: Keane has been confirmed as the new Ipswich Town manager [CNN].

The return of Premier League Punditry!

After a couple of weeks off thanks to the interlull and some scheduling issues, Premier League Punditry will make its triumphant return today. We'll kick things off at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Join us in the live blog below then!

Premier League Punditry 03-01-09

Plenty to talk about in this week's instalment of Premier League Punditry, including the Carling Cup and the slipups of Liverpool and Aston Villa. Join us in the live blog below!

Delayed Premier League Punditry

Just a quick note that today's edition of Premier League Punditry will be at 6 p.m. Eastern instead of the usual 1:30 p.m. due to work commitments. I'll be hosting, and Amrit and Phil from There Is No Original Name For This Sports Blog will be joining me. Come talk all things soccer with us!

Farewell for now, Roy

Photo: Former Sunderland manager Roy Keane [Getty Images via The Independent]

It was rather surprising to see Manchester United legend Roy Keane step down [ESPN Soccernet] from managing Sunderland last week. Keane achieved some outstanding success with the Black Cats, even though many don't seem to acknowledge that at the moment. When he took the team over in August 2006, they were sitting in the relegation zone of the Championship (for non-English football fans, that's the level below the Premier League). In that season, he took them from the bottom to the top, and earned not only promotion to the Premiership, but also the Championship title. He was named Manager of the Year at the Championship level, and deservingly so.

Keane also had success with Sunderland in the Premier League last season and managed to keep them out of the relegation zone for much of the year. They pulled off a 15th-place finish, which is rather good for a just-promoted side (see County, Derby for an example of how a poor team does when promoted). The other two promoted sides were the aforementioned Derby County FC and Birmingham City, and both went right back to the Championship. Sunderland also finished ahead of Reading (18th, also relegated), Fulham and Bolton, all established clubs with a good deal of Premier League experience. That's impressive in my books.

This season didn't start as well for Keane and the Black Cats, and they were 18th in the standings when he left. Keane's decision to leave is still surprising, though, as there was and is still plenty of hope for the survival of Sunderland. With 15 points going into this weekend's match against Manchester United, they were tied with Tottenham Hotspur (also undergoing a wretched run of form) and always-struggling Newcastle United, three points back of West Ham and Manchester City and four points behind Stoke, Wigan and Middlesbrough. There's a lot of football left to be played, and Sunderland have the quality players to compete with many of those clubs. I would not be surprised at all to see them stay up, even without Keane.

The question has to be asked as to if Keane left on his own, or if he was pushed out by backroom intrigue. The statements and such that have come out have described the parting as "amicable", but the same Soccernet story that used that term mentioned that Keane was "locked in talks with chairman Niall Quinn". There have also been suggestions raised that new Sunderland majority investor Ellis Short, an American businessman, was not happy with Keane [Kevin Palmer, ESPN Soccernet].It's tough to tell from the outside, but that suggests that there might have been a bit of a push.

That's not to say that Keane was perfect. Assuredly, he made mistakes and errors in his managerial career, much as he did during his playing career (Alf-Inge Haland, anyone?). There were poor transfer market decisions and curious squad rotation moves. There was perhaps even a sense that he couldn't get through to today's players, as they didn't meet the incredible standards he set for himself (read his excellent autobiography with Eamon Dunphy if you want some insight on his character). Those are errors common to any manager learning on the job, though, especially in a league of the calibre of the Premier League. Keane showed a lot of potential during his brief stay at Sunderland, and he will be remembered for bringing the Black Cats back to the top. He left with class and dignity and took the blame himself rather than throwing the organization under the bus. Today, he announced that he does want to return to management [The Independent at some point in the future; hopefully, he'll be given another chance and learn from his mistakes.

Related:
- Norman Hubbard has a good column comparing Keane and former teammate Paul Ince, now an embattled manager at Blackburn (who are 19th in the Premier League) [ESPN Soccernet]
- Rob Shepherd has a nice piece on how Keane's failure was his inability to connect with today's players and his lack of subtlety. [News of the World (yes, it's a rubbish paper, but the sports section's all right)]
- Ian O'Doherty has an interesting analysis of Keane [The Belfast Telegraph]
- Paul Ince tells James Ducker that the critics are out to get him and Keane thanks to their successful playing careers at Manchester United. That's perhaps not as far-fetched as it sounds, especially with Keane: he's such a controversial figure thanks to the Haland debacle and the 2002 World Cup controversy that he's made a lot of enemies in the media over the years. [The Times of London]
- Scott Wilson has an interesting Dickensian twist on the situation, with the ghosts of Sunderland past, present and future paying Keane a visit. [The Northern Echo]

Great Moments in Sports: One-athlete teams

Most of the time, an athlete being called a one-man or a one-woman team is pure hyperbole; a compliment to the superstar player, but an insult to their teammates and an exaggeration of their role. It's extremely rare to actually see one person win a game in a team sport by themselves. Even some of the best athletic performances of all time that come close to this status eventually fall short: the example that comes to mind is Diego Maradona's performance against England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup, where he scored possibly the greatest goal of all time (slo-mo version with classical musichere) as well as the most controversial one (consider yourself lucky if the words "Hand of God" don't evoke sporting memories). Maradona needed very little help on either goal, as it was a mishit clearing attempt from England's Steve Hodge that produced his "divine intervention" rather than a pass from a teammate, and he dribbled through most of the England team on his second and greatest goal (which, unfortunately, has been overshadowed by the Hand of God). However, even though Argentina won 2-1 over a great England side on the strength of Maradona's play, it wasn't a true one-man performance: the rest of the team turned in a solid defensive effort and created their own chances, and it took an 87th minute save from Julio Olarticoechea to put Argentina through.

In the last couple weeks, however, two performances worthy of the one-athlete team label were recorded. Jobi Wall of Faith Christian High School pitched a perfect game (over five innings) and hit for the cycle (in only four innings) in the same game, an 18-0 victory over Coal Ridge. Wall's performance literally was enough on its own to win, as his home run supplied the only run his team would have needed with his pitching. Neate also found an amazing story about Bonnie Richardson, a Texas high-school track and field athlete who was the only member of her school's team to qualify for the state championships, but yet wound up taking home the team title.

Sure, both only happened at the high school level, but those are incredible feats. Even Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game wasn't enough to beat the Knicks: the Philadelphia Warriors won that one 169-147 (aside: wouldn't it be something to see an NBA game like that again!). Are there any athletes I haven't thought of who really have singlehandedly won a match for their teams?

Don Fabio takes charge

Fabio Capello held his first press conference as the manager of the English national soccer team Monday, and there were some unexpected results. Capello declined to give any players assurances of a spot, which seems to be a good decision: they don't play a friendly until Feb. 6 and don't have a competitive game until World Cup qualifying starts in September, and the landscape of who's available and qualified could alter dramatically in that time. This is one of the advantages of bringing in an outsider, as he can evaluate the players and the program on their own merits without legacies and reputations clouding the picture.

Capello certainly has the credentials to make an impact. He won 14 titles with his previous four clubs (Milan, Roma, Juventus, and Real Madrid), and took Milan to an unexpected 4-0 Champions League triumph over Barcelona back in 1994. He won the Spanish league title with Madrid last season, but was then sacked after a fallout with management, likely over his favoured defensive mode of play. This may not win him many fans among the England ranks either, as one of his predecessors, Sven-Goran Eriksson (currently taking Manchester City to new heights) was routinely criticized for favouring defensive soccer tactics. Offense may draw fans, but defense wins titles: just look at Greece's run to the European Championship in 2004. Fortunately, Capello seems to also have the guts to stand up to the footballing establishment and the countless members of the media who are assured that they'd do a better job as the manager. His authoritarian style should suit him well in a job where a firm hand is desperately needed. As ESPN Soccernet's Norman Hubbard writes, "This is a manager unlikely to be distracted by critical articles, whingeing superstars or FA pressure to conform." Players who have served under Capello also speak highly of him, such as famed Dutch striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy who played for Capello in Madrid. As Van Nistelrooy said, Capello seems well-suited to the English game. "He is definitely the right manager for England," Van Nistelrooy said. "He fits the English game. He always talked about England It was his wish to be England manager one day. He likes the way the English players are, the way they play with their hearts, the way they give everything."

Some English papers, such as the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror, have come out in support of Capello's appointment. Others, such as the Daily Mail, have criticized it on rather xenophobic grounds. Des Kelly of the Mail called it "a hideous embarrassment, a farce that demonstrated how pathetic England and its Football Association have become." Martin Samuel of the Times wrote "The nature of the surrender was unequivocal. The appointment made by Brian Barwick, the FA chief executive, was not a victory after all, not the triumph it had been painted, but a terrible, hollow defeat. England lost, Italy won — again. Lost the way, lost the plot, lost all knowledge of what had been invented within these shores, with no clue how to get it back."

These sorts of comments are foolish: what makes England look more pathetic, hiring a man with proven success regardless of his cultural identity, or promoting another English manager like McClaren who has achieved little to nothing so far? Admitting that a candidate from your ideal background isn't the best man for the job may be tough to do, but it shows a broadmindedness that Samuel is clearly lacking. I'm against affirmative action in sports, as to me, it seems that it's ideal to get the best people for the job, regardless of race, colour, religion, or nationality. Soccer has progressed beyond its English beginnings, and is now truly a global game. As such, the best people for managerial jobs are not always English. Capello wasn't my first choice, but after Jose Mourinho withdrew from the race, he seemed to be one of the strongest remaining candidates. Some can complain now about Capello not being English, but they should consider if they'd rather achieve some success on the national level or throw that away in favour of maintaining an archaic hometown quota. As Chris Murphy of Soccernet wrote about a potential World Cup victory for England, success dispels all controversy. "Who cares that the manager is Italian?" he asked. "Who cares if his philosophy is built on a sturdy back-line? Who cares if England only managed to score more than one goal twice in the competition? A fanciful notion it all may be but if Fabio Capello can instil order, discipline and structure into an England side that unquestionably has talent who knows how far they can go?"

Links of the Day:
- Norman Hubbard's column on Capello's reputation
- Chris Murphy's take on Capello's style
- Richard Starnes on the clash between clubs and country Capello is likely to bring
- Cathal Breathnach at Football Corner offers his take on Capello

A sad day for England

According to a Reuters story today, Jose Mourinho has ruled himself out of contention for the England national soccer team manager's job. As I laid out in an earlier post on my Journal blog, Mourinho was far and away the best candidate for the job: he had enjoyed fantastic success with both minnows (FC Porto) and giants (Chelsea), and had also proven himself capable of both managing superstar egos and getting the most out of limited talent. He is also perhaps the only person adequately prepared to survive the storm of scrutiny that goes with the England job, which is unparalled in professional sports. In fact, Richard Starnes muses that it may have been the prospect of this scrutiny itself that led Mourinho to decline. If the self-anointed "Special One" who played the media like a fiddle during his time at Chelsea can't handle the prospect of even more invasive media coverage, who possibly can?
Of the remaining candidates, Martin O'Neill and Jurgen Klinsmann stand out as good choices: neither is too likely to get the job, though, as O'Neill has already said he doesn't want it and Klinsmann would probably want to stay in California, which would not sit well with the English FA. Fabio Capello has said he's interested, but I'm not sure that he'd be the best fit: he speaks little English, seems uncomfortable with the media, and had difficulty managing egos during his time at Real Madrid. He's had considerable club success, but I don't know if he has the personality required to translate that into national success. Marcello Lippi's proven that he can succeed on the national stage, but again, language and personality are issues. It will be interesting to see how the situation develops: will O'Neill change his mind, will the FA be willing to bend and accomodate Klinsmann, will they take a chance on Capello or Lippi, or will they go with some dredged-up Englishman like Sam Allardyce, Steve Coppell, or Harry Redknapp? My hope is for one of the former possibilities, but the latter has a strong chance of happening due to the "We need an Englishman" sentiment. As Ben Knight remarked a while ago, England needs to accept that the best managers are no longer homegrown.

Links of the Day:

- A great interview with Sir Alex Ferguson by the Telegraph's Tim Rich
- The Guardian's sport blog list of the top six soccer books of all time
(thanks to Bobby for the links)
- Jozy Altidore on the NY Times Soccer Blog about his training with the U.S. Olympic team
- James Mirtle's list of the NHL's best penalty killers: some interesting names, including ex-Canucks defenceman Brent Sopel
- James Duthie on oversized goalie equipment (and Marty Turco's suprising thoughts on it)
- Alanah's top ten reasons why hockey's better than other sports
- The Province's Gord McIntyre previews tonight's Canucks-Kings clash
- Neate Sager on the state of the Kingston Frontenacs.