Impressions of Pre-Season

Pre-season is in full swing as we speak. And thank God for that. I've really been missing my football. I've been watching Arsenal's prep with interest. Mostly its been pretty good. It hit a slight snag today when we didn't win the Emirates Cup. Which is our own trophy. But we've won it every other year and won nothing else so maybe its a good thing. Who knows. Regardless of results, they've played pretty damn well during the whole tournament. Our dear little Tomas Rosicky played extremely well today and his free kick that set up Robin's goal was outstanding. Gervinho too is looking very exciting, even at this early stage. He looks like a good edition to the team and seems like he has a good turn of pace and certainly in the games I've seen so far he makes some excellent runs and gets into very good positions. The babies are looking pretty sharp too particularly Benik Afobe. Their play in midfield was lovely and the passing moves seem to be running together very well. However, one of the best and most heartwarming moments of the tournament was the fantastic reception Thierry Henry got from the fans. He did a lap round the pitch and they all sang his name, it was beautiful. So good to see our very own prodigal son return home.
On another pre-season note, I've joined my friend's fantasy football league for the coming season. My team can be generously described as 'Arsenal plus optional extras.' Introducing 'Team Leopard Trek' :
The boy Chesney, Gael Clichy, Chris Samba, Phil Jagielka, Bacary Sagna, Tim Cahill, Charles N'Zogbia, Aaron Ramsey, Gervinho, Robin van Persie, Fernando Torres.    I feel pretty optimistic about their chances, really.

Carry on up the Alpe

Wow this year's tour is one hell of a race. Utterly, totally mad but one hell of a race. Yesterday's stage was one of the most brilliant breakaways i've ever seen and was greeted with mass rejoicing in HQ. We love the Schlecks you see. And we loved how brave Andy was yesterday, pinging off into the distance with sixty kilometres to go. Speaking of bravery, what a job Thomas Voeckler has been doing in the yellow jersey. It doesn't really get much more hardcore than that. We love how much everyone has taken to the little guy, in particular the eurosport commentary team who've all developed misty-eyed man crushes and have straight up abandoned impartiality in favour of actually cheering him on now. He seems to have become a sort of endearing French Charlie Chaplin figure. Today's stage is unsurprisingly mental with all the riders having to climb up the insanely intimidating Alpe d'Huez. It's gotten off to a pretty exciting start with Cheaty Alberto shooting off persued closely by our Andy and a couple of others. Thomas Voeckler was once again redefining heroics by somehow managing to keep within thirty seconds of them and providing us with a seriously heartwarming moment as he rode with Jerome Pineau. He just leant over and gave him a friendly, comforting pat on the shoulder. It was brief but really great to see a moment of camaraderie in such a fiercely competitive spport. We know have a pretty exciting chase between the leading group and a pursuit led by Cadel Evans and including brother Frank. I can't wait to see how this pans out.....

All set to get wet in Shanghai

Managed to catch the men's 3m synchronised diving final this morning. Hot damn what a contest. I like watching diving when I can, its very entertaining and as you all know I have a bit of a thing for aesthetics and diving is a VERY aesthetic sport. Particularly pleasing are the super slow mo replay cameras, now they don't just use the super slow mo on the actual dives. Ooooh no. They use that camera on everything. Its brilliant. Madly, surreally, hilariously brilliant. You have never seen someone picking up a towel, taking a shower or shaking someone's hand in quite such a dramatic fashion before. But seriously I do enjoy the gymnastic type aspect of diving and I particularly enjoy the synchronicity aspect of it. I find synchronicity fascinating. Fascinating in its weirdness. But anyway, it was a cracking contest. China maintained a pretty high level throughout with mind blowing technical precision. The rest of the field kept it really exciting though with a few teams swapping places in the medal places, it was in the final round that it really kicked off with Russia nailing an absolutely stunning last dive to leapfrog Mexico into silver medal position and leave USA in fourth. I also enjoyed the performance of the Ukranian team and while the Norwegians didn't finish very highly I liked them a lot too largely because they're brothers and both named E. Valheim. Erik and Espen Valheim. What a beautiful sounding set of names. I'm quite fond of sets of sporting brothers, which gives me an idea.....Till next time kids...
Oh and the name of the post comes from Eurosport's brilliiant slogan for the championships!

Dani day at Sachsenring!

There was absolute pandemonium in HQ today at the end of the Moto GP race. This was because Dani's marvellous comeback finally kicked into top gear today as he marked it with a win. Yes you read that right, in only his second race back our gorgeous boy won. Not just won, won in style too. He played it perfectly with a dynamite start, then some kick ass passing moves on stinky and Jorge. It was a stunning race all round with lovely Dovi and Marco engaging in a pretty livley scrap for fourth place which was later joined by Ben Spies. Valentino had his fair share of the action too, showing us he can still get it done in an almighty scrap with Alvaro Bautista and Fratboy Hayden. One of the particular highlights of the race was Alberto the happiest man on earth hanging right off the pit wall, waving like a madman at Dani to go faster. Also good was Dovi blowing kisses at the camera at the end, he's always a very charming boy. But by far the best moment for me today was eating my moto GP winning cookie at the end of the race. I made my moto gp cookie at the beginning of the day to eat with the race in honour of Dani and it ended up a victory cookie! And it was delicious.

Back with a bang

Let us all rejoice Arsenal's pre-season campaign has officially begun! The first match of the Asian tour happened yesterday with the boys taking on a Malaysian national eleven. I was so excited to see all the boys in action again and to gauge where the team is at. And all in all it was a great match. I know that pre season obviously isn't the same level as the actual football season and you can't place too much significance on its results. BUT having said all that, it was really nice to see them playing that well, this early on. We won four nil and dominated in possession against spirited opposition which is always good to see. One of our newer, younger team members really made an impression, Ryo Miyaichi playing on the wing. He looked really sharp, constantly getting into good positions and he looked comfortable on the ball. He looks like a really exciting prospect and I'm looking forward to seeing him develop this season. Aaron Ramsey had a good game too and its really heartening to see him getting back to the player we know and love. Our defenders had a good game which is very good for their confidence and another newbie Carl 'Jenkins' Jenkinson looking lively at full back. Even Carlos Vela put in a shift. And towards the end of the match something very special happened. Something that HQ has been waiting for for quite a while. Our dear little Tomas scored a goal. A neat little header as well. I was absolutley bursting with pride, nothing could have made me happier. He also got to wear the captain's armband for the second half. Perhaps all our campaigning is finally paying off. Well Done little Dumpling.

Cycling Carnage and Boxing Brothers

I managed to catch some of the Tour de France on sunday and apparently I dropped in on an eventful day. The main talking point was of course the TV car incident. A TV car actually swerved right in to Juan Antonio Flecha  which caused him to hit Johnny Hoogerland. Flecha hit the ground and Hoogerland flew into a barbed wire fence. It looked as painful as it sounds. Both riders were in an absolute state but somehow managed to remount and finish the stage which frankly is nothing short of heroic. Apparently Hoogerland's leg wound needed 33 stitches afterwaards and he still raced today. Surely the definition of hardcore. Luis Leon Sanchez won the stage with a neat bit of tactics sprinting off the second Thomas Voeckler approached behind him. Our Andy Schleck watch total was one sighting. Today we indulged another of our traditional Tour de France pass times was looking out for sculptures of bikes in local fields made from agricultural stuff like tractors and hay bales. Unfortunatley there was onlly one sighting on this front too although it was a cool one with two people made of hay.
Yesterday morning I was rudely awoken at an outrageous hour as the neighbours are doing some kind of loud kitchen remodelling however this did allow me to catch an interview with Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko on BBC breakfast. I'd seen part of Wladimir's fight against David Haye the day before and I was really impressed with him as I'd never seen him box before. I always thought that he seemed like a really decent guy and both he and his brother more than proved me right duing the interview. They both came across really really well with the particular highlights being anytime their family relationship was brought up. Wladimir's story about his elder brother teaching him how to box when they were young was adorable, revealing that he "saw stars" the first time Vitali hit him, equally charming was his slightly lost in translation reaction that it "didn't taste well." Also the fact that his brother calls him 'Wladi' is just too sweet for words. The brotherly love was evident the whole way through with their answer to the question of who was the better fighter being to simultaneously point to the other one. Similarly when asked if they'd ever fight each other, they said no on the basis that it would upset their mother. Now there is a pairof well brought up boys.

A Fond Farewell for Fabio

Sad neews reaches us at HQ. Five years to the day since he heroically led Italy to world cup glory, Fabio Cannavaro has announced he is retiring due to a serious knee injury. Sigh, there goes another one of our favourite veterans. He's a player I've grown up watching and I sincerely hope he will go into management as he still has so much he can offer to the game. His towering performances at the 2006 world cup were one of my highlights of the entire tournament and seeing him on the verge of tears after Italy's elimination at last year's World Cup was absolutley shattering but also a testament to how much he cares and what a true captain he is. So Sports Wall would like to say a massive thank you to Fabio for all the wonderful years of wonderful football. We'll miss you Fabio!

Transfers and the Tour

Its summer so the transfer window shenanigans go on. This week Gael Clichy left for man City. I was really sad to see Gael go, he's been a great player for us and he's been with us a long time. Also he's half of one of my favourite football bromances in his sweet beyond belief friendship with Bacary Sagna. Seriously Bacary wears his gloves and I've seen the Emirates dressing room they sit right next to each other, slightly apart from the others. What's Bac going to do now?
I've been watching the transfer rumours and I have been very very nervous at times. Butt thinggs appear to be moving along, Gervinho is apparently close to signing and while I would prefer a certain Columbian striker instead, this is a step in the right direction. Also I hear that Almunia and Nicky Bendtner are 'negotiating' moves. This is very good progress; to make way for new signings some people must move on, this is inevitable. And finallly it seems like the right players are being linked with moves away.
This time of the year also means the return of the annual "Where's Andy Schleck?" game to our household. Its a fun game. The game consists of my dad watching the tour de france while I periodically ask him "where's Andy Schleck?" Simple but immensely fun. Andy schleck is my favourite cyclist for a few reasons. One, he has a cool name. Two, he's from Luxembourg. Three, the lovely relationship he has with his brother, a couple of years ago one of them made a break away and the other got stuck behind so he went back for him. Mrs Schleck must have been bursting with pride that day. So along with playing the Andy game, I'll be cheering for him all the way in the tour.

The long awaited return

It's been a long wait but finally this weekend Dani returned to the Moto GP paddock. And of course there was a rather tall Italian waiting to greet him on his return. Unfortunatley it wasn't Valentino Rossi but Marco Simoncelli the cause of his absence. Poor Marco attempted to do the decent thing and shake Dani's hand in an attempt to put all the animosty behind them but Dani was having none of it. I was a little disappointed in Dani and his refusal of the handshake. I just didn't think he was that kind of person, he always seemed more mature than that to me. Don't get me wrong I understand why he would feel angry at Marco but I don't think continuing to blame him helps anyone. Maybe Valentino can have a word with him and help the situation since he's apparently friends with both of them. Having said that, I did enjoy Dani's deadpan declaration that "there's nothing in his [Marco's] head but hair." The race itself was pretty good with some exciting battles the whole way through the field. Dani foughtt his way from fourteenth up to seventh, which on his return from injury is pretty damn good. Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso put in sterling performances pipping Casey at the end of the race and throwing the chammpionship right back open. Also little baby Marc (Marquez) won again! Yay. We're quite fond of little baby Marc at HQ largely because he looks like the love child of Bojan Krkic and Justin Bieber.