The Good
Brian Clough, or Cloughie to most English football fans, is to get a statue put up in his honour in the centre of Nottingham. The outspoken and colourful coach (here are some great quotes), most famously of Derby and Nottingham Forest, won two European Cups with Forest and won the Championship with both clubs. He passed away in 2004. He played for England twice but was ignored for the England job, the statue is a fitting tribute to a great manager from the English game. Very good indeed.
It has been good for Alessandro Del Piero as the Juventus forward scored two great goals against Spanish giants Real Madrid in the Champions League. Having scored a wonder goal against the Spanish side two weeks ago it seems that Del Piero is on a roll. Much like his club team Juventus who have now won five on the trot. Good for them indeed.
The Bad
Talking of the Champions League it was not so good for Australian side Adelaide as they were thrashed 0-3 in the first leg of the Asian Champions League final against Gamba Osaka from Japan. They were completely outplayed and will have it all to do in the second leg next week if they wish to become the first ever Australian champions of Asia. You can see the highlights of the first leg here.
Well, it’s been pretty bad for Arsenal recently. Let’s just review what’s been going on. They threw away the game at home against derby rivals Tottenham, eventually drawing 4-4. That was followed by a loss at Stoke, Premier League newcomers. The Gunners went down limply 2-1. In that game Van Persie was sent off for a petulant shove on the Stoke goalie, Sorensen, and Adebayor and Walcott picked up injuries and were stretchered off. And at home in the Champions League they were toothless in a 0-0 draw with Turkish side Fernabache: this is the side they trounced 5-2 in Turkey. Next up, Manchester United! Bad for the Londoners.
The Ugly
Spitting happens on the football pitch a lot, but usually a player is spitting on the ground not at another player. Barcelona and Argentina’s Lionel Messi has been caught on camera spitting at Malaga’s Duda. Messi! We want to see your beautiful side, not this ugly one!
The Copa Sudamericana continues to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons as yet again a match involving Brazilian and Argentinian sides erupted into violence. This time it was Botafogo and Estudiantes in the quarter-final second leg match. Brazilian defender Andre Luis was then sent off for grabbing the referee’s yellow card from his pocket and waving it at him in clear dissent. He had to be pushed off the field by his own players. Crazy stuff from Andre Luis and the video can be seen here.