Week 34: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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Bayern exact some revenge, Lyon win all-French affair, Portsmouth suffer again and Boca Juniors continue to struggle. These and many other stories all feature in this week’s the good, the bad and the ugly section from our weekly podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

The Good

Wayne Rooney gets injured in the quarter final clash with German team Bayern Munich mid-week, and it looks like the England and United striker will be out for about four weeks with an ankle sprain. Rooney’s team lost 2-1 at Bayern and with his injury it may seem like bad news at first, but it will mean that the in-form forward will have a nice month break before the World Cup in June, which will surely be good news for England fans. He’ll come back rested, fit and hungry for more goals.

Bad for Rooney’s club Manchester United but good for Bayern Munich who came from behind to win 2-1 and in doing so have set up an exciting return leg next week. Good also for Lyon who won the all-French affair 3-1 against Bordeaux. It was a tale of domination not paying off in the other two games with Inter Milan outplaying CSKA Moscow but only scoring once while Barcelona gave Arsenal a lesson in how to keep the ball but failed to take full advantage and being pegged back to draw 2-2. Still all to play for in the second legs.

The Bad

Bad for Argentinian side Boca Juniors who return to losing ways and tumble down the table. After last week’s 2-0 win over River Plate everything seemed rosy for the Boca fans, until Chacarita Juniors, los funebreros (or the Undertakers), hammered them 4-1 to send them third from bottom. Chacarita Juniors, a newly promoted side, broke their four-game losing streak with this crushing win. That’s two wins in ten for Boca, a team far more used to dishing out hidings instead of being on the receiving end. Next up for the team from the east of Buenos Aires is Rosario Central from north of the capital, who are three points behind.

Things have gone from bad to worse for Premier League bottom club Portsmouth as they fell to yet another defeat – this time at Tottenham – to all but guarantee their relegation. To add to their woes, they lost two defenders to long-term injuries. Hreidarsson and Webber both face 6 months out of the game after the Icelandic international tore his achilles tendon, while Webber tore a cruciate ligament. Tough times indeed for Portsmouth.

The Ugly

Leeds striker, Tresor Kandol, received a straight red card after just 20 seconds in a Division 1 game in England.  That is the third fastest in league history but nowhere near as quick as the three second sending off of David Pratt in a non-league game in 2008. Norwich City midfielder Daryl Russell was the victim of Kandol’s angry attack and as it is Kandol’s second sending off this year he can expect a four match ban. An ugly incident which means that Leeds, for so long leaders of Division 1 may now lose an automatic promotion spot, especially if they continue their poor run of form, three defeats in the last three games.

Vocabulary

mid-week: the middle of the week, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday

sprain: an injury where a joint is twisted and the muscles or ligament is stretched

in-form: and adjective phrase meaning playing well

being pegged back: When the opposing side comes back to draw with you – ie winning 0-2 and then ending 2-2

tumble down the table: fall down the division, lose and drop down places in the league

rosy: happy, good, fine

losing streak: a run of loses, losing more than one match in a row (not getting good results)

fell to yet another defeat: To lose again