When you hear the name Krancjar, you are most likely to think of Niko Krancjar, the Spurs and Croatia midfielder. He scored two goals in Croatia’s most recent victory over Israel, maintaining their position at the top of Group F, but there could be another Krancjar in the headlines tomorrow.
Zlatko Krancjar, Niko’s father, is the current boss of Montenegro. The ‘Brave Falcons’ have had a superb start to Euro 2012 qualifying under the former Croatia manager's tutelage. After solid home wins against Wales and Switzerland, in addition to a great away win in Sofia, the Montenegrins head to Wembley tonight to try and upset the odds and remain top of Group G.
One would expect this to be one of the sterner tests that the Montenegrins will face in their bid to reach Euro 2012, and ‘Cico’ Krancjar has played down his team chances of qualifying top of the group, claiming they are aiming for second place. However, after a great start to the campaign, the Montenegrins may well fancy their chances to get something from tonight’s game.
Fabio Capello will be forced to pick another completely different central defensive pairing to the last game and with Glen ‘I Want to Score an Own Goal’ Johnson at right back, England fans will be slightly concerned, especially with Mirko Vucinic in such good form at the moment.
This could be the day for the upsets, with the Faroe Islands claiming a point against Northern Ireland and Azerbaijan beating Turkey already today. Although England should and probably will win, I am going to predict a 1-1 draw for this one, leaving Mr. Capello feeling just a bit Krancy!
The spotlight of the beautiful game is currently focused on the topic of overzealous tackling, with a spate of unsavoury, unnecessary and downright dangerous challenges leaving players nursing some bad injuries.
Nigel de Jong is a midfield enforcer, sitting in front of the back four to break up the opposition’s developing attacks. However, on Saturday he was not only breaking up attacks, but also breaking Hatem Ben Arfa’s leg and potentially his career. His dangerous, almost two-footed tackle somehow went unpunished by the referee Mark Atkinson. He won the ball, but the nature of him winning the ball was dangerous and reckless. However, it did not go unnoticed by de Jong’s international boss, Bert van Marwijk, who has dropped the midfielder from the Dutch squad for pushing the limits too far. Some people are applauding van Marwijk for his actions; I for one am backing the move (although why he did not do it after de Jong’s chest high kung-fu kick on Spain’s Xabi Alonso in the World Cup final, where he had appeared to have told the players to try and kick Spain off the park seems perplexing). Also while he’s at it he could kick van Bommel out of the squad for the same reason. It is baffling how he was not sent off during the World Cup and in last year’s Champions League games against Man United!
In recent weeks, there seem to have been several wince-inducing challenges that were just so unnecessary and in some cases appeared malicious. When Stoke were cruising to victory against Fulham in last month’s Carling Cup clash with injury time trickling away, Stoke’s Andy Wilkinson put in one of the most unnecessary, scything challenges on Moussa Dembele, who up until that point had been one of Fulham’s players of the season; the striker has been out since with ankle ligament damage. This one particularly grates, simply because it was one of the most unnecessary tackles ever seen. There were seconds remaining in the game and Stoke were two goals to the good and almost certain to progress. The lack of respect for fellow professionals from certain players is crazy!
After going to see Spurs beat Wolves a few weeks ago and seeing Wolves’ match-long ‘anti-football’ tactics, I was overjoyed to hear of Karl Henry’s early exit from their clash with Wigan after another one of his overly-robust challenges. Throughout the game against Spurs, Wolves were cynical; Jelle van Damme’s disgraceful waist high lunge on Carlo Cudicini as he tried to take a quick goal-kick typifies Wolves’ over-aggressive approach. Henry has recently apologised to his colleagues and the Wolves fans for the tackle (or maybe assault is the more appropriate word), but somehow he forgot to apologise to Jordi Gomez, despite putting his career at risk. I did not like the guy before that much, but he’s certainly not on my Christmas card list now. At least Gomez was able to continue and ironically it was him who scored the first of Wigan’s goals with a quality free-kick.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good tackle as much as the next football supporter; I appreciate that a perfectly timed sliding tackle can be just as valuable as a goal, but somebody has go to start punishing these players for going too far.
Newcastle wrote to the FA to ask them to action against de Jong. However, because the referee saw the incident and deemed it fair, the odds of any punishment for de Jong are slim. I know refereeing is a tough job, but there is no reason why referees cannot have key decisions looked at and retrospective action taken. Referees would be more respected if they held their hands up and said that they had made a mistake after a game and if just justice was done.
I was shocked (but obviously pleased as a Spurs fan) to discover that Tommy Huddlestone did not receive a ban for the elbow on Marco Janko in last week’s Champions League game against FC Twente (retrospective action being possible because the referee did not see the incident). I cannot understand how they have not banned him. It was a clear elbow, he had two attempts at elbowing him and his facial expression suggested that was his intention. Inconsistencies! All the paying public asks for is consistency. Craig Gardner was sent off for a two-footed tackle, where he won the ball, surely the same should have happened to de Jong! James Collins should have been sent off for cynically taking out Aaron Lennon when he was quite clearly the last defender…I could go on all day, but I won’t do not worry.
Signing off for now, I will be back soon with my possibly useless opinion on another aspect of football. Thanks for reading.
Is anyone bored of Arsene Wenger persistent moaning about officials making mistakes which conspire to prevent Arsenal winning games? I for one am not remotely bored. I think it is hilarious! As a Spurs fan, I would be lying if I said that I did not enjoy his whingeing because it usually stems from an unsatisfactory result for Arsenal. But I also love to listen to Wenger complaining as a football fan in general, because quite often he’s completely wrong to be doing so.
The rules for the injury or stoppage time have been around for over a century. In 1891 in a match between Stoke and Aston Villa, Stoke were losing 1-0, but were awarded a late penalty. However, at this stage there were no laws about adding on additional time after the 90 minutes have elapsed. Unfortunately for Stoke the Villa keeper hoofed the ball out of the ground and by the time the ball was recovered, the 90 minutes was up and Villa had won the game 1. This blatant miscarriage of justice led to the development of the stoppage time rules. Injury time is nearly always added on nowadays and also if a penalty is awarded just before the half-time or full-time whistle, it is always allowed to be taken.
Unless you’ve been under a rock this weekend then you will have witnessed or at least heard about Darren Bent’s 95th minute equaliser for Sunderland, which secured them a useful point and prevented Arsenal going back to North London with all three. It was the timekeeping of the officials where Wenger focussed his post-match whinge; his gripe being that Bent’s goal came outside the four minutes of injury time that the referee Phil Dowd had added on.
Obviously, Wenger would have been frustrated with the lateness of the goal, but I cannot see any reason to complain about its legitimacy for any timekeeping reasons. Firstly, the referee is the timekeeper of the match and his decisions are final. Secondly, when the fourth official holds up his board with the number of additional minutes in the final minute of each half, the number shown is the minimum length of injury time to be added. Wenger claims that he understands that it was a minimum of four minutes, but states that during the four minutes he saw nothing which meant that play continued beyond the four minutes. Bent’s goal was timed at 94:14 mins by the BBC and at 94:11 mins by Sky Sports. So the match is supposed to have overrun by between 11-14 seconds.
But let us just have a think. If Dowd looked at his stopwatch near the end of the game to see how much time had been devoted to stoppages, who am I or anyone to know what it said on his watch? It could have said 4:30 minutes perhaps? Dowd would have then signalled to the fourth official to hold up the board with four minutes on. He should not have rounded it up to five minutes, because that would have been deemed excessive (especially by Wenger and co.). He could not have signalled five, intending to play just 4:30 mins, because the laws of the game state the additional time signalled can be increased but never reduced2. Therefore, to add on the 4:30 mins that had been lost, he would have signalled 4 minutes, fully intending to add on the further 30 seconds that were appropriate.
Alternatively, the referee may have intended to add exactly 4 minutes at the start of the additional stoppage time. If this is the case it is down to the referee’s discretion whether to add on any additional time to stoppage time to compensate for time lost during stoppage time. Dowd obviously thought that there had been at least 11-14 seconds of extra stoppage time to add on and allowed play to continue. This is very believable considering that Sunderland’s goal came after a corner and also during injury time Arsenal’s Denilson hit a shot wide of the post on the break. Both of these instances of the ball being out of play may have persuaded Phil Dowd to add on the extra time, which enabled the goal to be scored. In summary, the referee was within his rights to extend the game beyond 94 minutes. Arsenal only have themselves to blame for their lacklustre defensive clearances, their indiscipline leading to reduced defensive manpower and their inability to take the good chances (especially Tomas Rosicky’s penalty, which has probably just reached the moon), which would have ensured the three points.
Goals that are scored deep into stoppage time are often very crucial, and with the monetary rewards that are on offer in today’s game being so high will the powers that be intervene? Wenger is not the first manager to complain about timekeeping and I would be curious to see whether FIFA consider any new methods to place tighter controls on stoppage time. Although judging by the way they have dodged the issue of goal-line technology for aeons, I would be surprised if any intervention was made in the near future…we shall see.
Wenger was seen to confront the fourth official Martin Atkinson after Sunderland’s equaliser and has subsequently been charged by the FA for the incident. With a possible touchline ban and fine (albeit an insignificantly small fine, which in itself poses no deterrent) in the offing for Wenger, maybe the Frenchman will think twice before intimidating officials. I for one hope he does not change his ways, I find his outbursts hilarious. I’ll only say this once, but…long live Arsene Wenger!
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One other mention I would like to make is for the Spurs legend Bobby Smith who passed away on Saturday evening. Smith scored 33 goals in the double-winning side of 1961, in addition to a brilliant scoring record of 208 goals in 317 appearances for Spurs. An extended and fitting obituary can be found on the Spurs website. My thoughts are with his family and friends.
R.I.P Bobby Smith.
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Bibliography
1. The Sunday Times Illustrated History Of Football (1996). p.11
Last night England secured a crucial win against Switzerland to remain top of their Euro 2012 qualification group.
Despite unsavoury rumours surrounding Wayne Rooney’s personal life, Fabio Capello chose to play the striker and his loyalty was rewarded with Rooney’s early goal laying the foundations for victory in Basle.
Theo Walcott twisted his right ankle in the build-up to the first goal and his replacement Adam Johnson took full advantage to score his second goal in a week for his country.
A swerving piledriver from Xherdan Shaqiri, brought Switzerland back into the game, but they were always struggling after Stephan Lichtensteiner was sent off for two bookings and substitute Darren Bent blasted in England’s third to secure the three points with 2 minutes remaining.
After England’s disappointing display at this summer’s World Cup, a good start to this campaign was crucial and Fabio Capello will surely be pleased with England’s start.
England’s 4-0 romp over Bulgaria was overshadowed at the weekend by accusations of Wayne Rooney’s own alleged romp, but he silenced the critics with his early goal after good work down the right by Glen Johnson. Theo Walcott had started the game promisingly, but was stretchered off after the goal, having tangled with a Swiss defender in the build-up. His replacement Adam Johnson had impressed after coming on against Bulgaria last Friday and was again very sharp throughout. The hero from the Bulgaria game, Jermain Defoe, was again very lively, but will be disappointed after missing several good chances in the first half.
Despite England’s dominance they went in at half-time just one goal to the good and after the break they were lucky to remain that way. England again started the second half slowly and were fortunate on two occasions when dangerous crosses from the right almost lead to an equaliser. During this spell, Lichtensteiner was foolishly booked for dissent after flinging a torrent of abuse in the referee’s direction and his match was shortly over after a second yellow for needlessly scything down James Milner.
It did not take long for England to press home their numerical advantage; Adam Johnson coolly slotting into an empty net after rounding the stranded Swiss keeper. England seemed to relax and were punished by a spectacular, swerving shot from the substitute Shaqiri, which brought the Swiss back into contention. However, substitute Bent scored his first goal for England to confirm the win as time ticked away. England are sitting top of Group G and Capello will hope that this form continues to aid the recovery after a disappointing World Cup campaign.
Elsewhere, Scotland secured a last-gap win over Leichtenstein; Stephen McManus heading the winner in the 97th minute to claim a 2-1 victory and Ireland cruised to a comfortable 3-1 home win over Andorra with Kevin Kilbane, Kevin Doyle and Robbie Keane getting the goals.
Hi, I'm Chris. I love football and I thought why not try writing about it. I'll be discussing all things football, ranging from match reports to any current football stories that I want to discuss. I hope you enjoy my blog and if you do, please pass it on to friends.
