In defence of football's coolness

I had some more thoughts after reading F365 http://www.football365.com/faves/7440104/What-s-More-Important-Fans-Or-Trophies the other day. Specifically it was the letter about halfway down in which some guy is whining that he doesn't think football is 'cool' anymore. Please.
Ok I'll cut him some slack on the fact that yes, some footballers these days are way too interested in themselves, money and cars. And yes a lot of them do seem to think that they can do anything they want without consequences. But to say that he finds it hard to support Arsenal  because he doesn't like any of the players? What?! Where is he looking? In defence of this ridiculous statement, he cites Theo Walcott, Alex Song and Emmanuel Frimpong. Alright Theo Walcott is crazily uncool for a boy of his age. But Frimpong? He's so cool he has his own word for cool. And he's hardcore. And in what universe is Alex Song not cool? He is quite possibly the coolest man on the whole team. He's related to Rigobert Song for God's sake. The Arsenal team is a plethora of cool people. The boy Chesney is super cool and he knows it, he totally seems like a guy you would want to hang with, Tomas Rosicky is a secret badass (see the hotel Praha scandal) and therefore very cool, Bacary Sagna possesses the coolest hair in the league, Thomas Vermaelen is not just cool he's ice cold like a robot in the Antarctic. And of course our captain is very cool. He's cool in a slightly awkward way but he has that awesome Dutch accent and fighty, feisty edge that add up to serious cool points. And there are still other footballers out there who aren't all selfish and badly behaved and headline grabby who still allow the beautiful game to remain cool. People like Francesco Totti who has played for Roma his whole career because loyalty and living the dream playing for your hometown team are cool, people like Thierry Henry showing us that comebacks are very very cool, people like Pep Guardiola and Iker Casillas who clearly really love football and really love having football as a job. And above all people like Tim Cahill who seems like an all around nice guy, Gennaro Gattuso who is so down to earth that he fulfilled his boyhood dream not through his successful footy career but in buying a fish shop in his hometown, Pavel Nedved who used to donate his wages from the Czech national team to charity and Dider Drogba who despite his dreadful falling on the floor antics outside of football does a lot of stuff for charities in the Ivory Coast. Because nothing is cooler than nice people who do stuff for others. So in my opinion football has plenty of stuff still going for it, its still cool enough that despite the fact that I'm 22 (ie a grown up) and female I still pretended that I was Robin van Persie scoring for Arsenal in the FA cup  final when I was playing playground football with some kids from my school (that I work in) the other day. That is why football is still cool because it still has the power to make us dream big like that.

Football philosophy

http://www.football365.com/faves/7440104/What-s-More-Important-Fans-Or-Trophies-
I was reading the letters page on Football 365 the other day and came across two things that made me think. Firstly there was the Arsenal fan who claimed that for him trophies mattered more than fans or atmosphere, it was this little line about how he views his support for Arsenal that got me though "I see it as a desperate struggle to win every game we possibly can, because at the end of the season there might be something nice and shiny to boast about." I find that frankly despicable. And to be honest I would rather people like that didn't support my club. It's opinions like that that lead to all the impossible to please, buy a centre half, 'Wenger out' so called fans of  club freaking out every week at the slightest provocation. I just don't get it, if thatt's why you watch football then you aren't going to get any joy out of it. And if you're not getting any enjoyment out of it, what's the point? For me, that's the core of supporting not just a football team but football in general. Football for me is a passion, its demanding, its life-consuming, its a huge emotional attachment, it dictates my schedule (ask my friends, its true) and none  of these things would be true if I didn't love watching it. And no matter how many times I see my boys lose, no mattter how dispiriting it is, I'll still put all of my emotions and my heart back into it the next week. For me football is not trophies. Its more than that. I watch Arsenal because I love the game, I love to see football played properly and that's why I love the way they play it. I love the connection you build with your team, the investment into it. For me, its not trophies its that for those ninety minutes you're connected to your team and to the other fans of your team, you all want the same thing. Its that collective rush that is so special. That, to me, is the best reason to support football.

Aussie Rules baby

New Year means of course the Aussie open, and this year the drama and excitement have begun early. The other day I watched Lleyton Hewitt playing Cedrik-Marcel Stebe. In terms of intensity Lleyton never disappoints. It was a hard fought five setter with the momentum swinging between the two players. He's just fascinating to watch with the way he engages the crowd and the atmosphere was electric with all his aussie fans singing the roof off the arena. He came through battling and some of the shots were just great. Plus now he plays Andy Roddick which I think will be a hell of a match in terms of atmosphere with both of them no doubt yelling and glaring up a storm. Then today there was another dramatic five setter featuring the king of dramatic five setters David Nalbandian. I really have a soft spot for good old Dave, partially I think because he's been going quite a while and he's a player I've watched a lot so I've gotten quite attached to him. And he's a very stylish player to watch, he jsut comes up with stunning shots out of nowhere. I'm sure most of you are aware of what happened at the end of the match but to recap John Isner had a serve called as an ace and David wanted to challenge but the umpire decided he couldn't because he had signalled too late. Cue rage. Personally I felt like the poor guy got a raw deal because that essentially blew the rest of his game as it happened at 8-8 and pretty much directly caused him to lose focus and the match. Its kind of ridiculous that he wasn't allowed to challenge as I can't count the amount of times a tennis player has gone to inspect the ball mark on the court before challenging so to say he took too long is not really good enough. So I'm in camp Nalbandian on this one.
PS: (Desperately trying not to jinx it) Sports Wall favourite Feliciano 'Flic' Lopez has progressed to round three. Fingers crossed for tv coverage. Come on Eurosport do us a favour.

The Grand Prix Series- Fashion files

I decided that because its one of my favourite aspects of ice skating and because its been too long since its been on TV i'm going to do a sartorial review of the grand prix series.

Down the swansea...

Well that was a rather infuriating match. It was one of those days when you just keep screaming at the screen throughout the ninety minutes. It was a game that Arsenal totally should have won. I know many people will say that Swansea played really well today and for some periods of the game its true they did. BUT having said that, it was more a case of us losing that game than them winning it. For a start, that was not a penalty. Not in a million years. Aaron ramsey barely caught him and was then in fact fouled by Dyer in return. Watch it again, you'll see that Dyer clearly stands on Aaron's leg. And to compound Aaron's shocker of a day (seriously its like he was competing to see how many times he could give it away) the second goal was his fault too. He gave the ball away very poorly. Silly boy. While we're on the subject, poor old Yossi had a bit of a nightmare in a bubblecar too as did Andrei Arshavin (again, has he walked under a ladder or something?) So there I believe was the problem, we were carrying three people in midfield (four sometimes, I'm looking at you Theo.) But it wasn't all doom and gloom and forgetting the art of defending. There were some glimmers of goodness amongst the nonsense. Once again, after a great performance at Leeds the other night, Ignasi Miquel (or baby Bambi if you like) was once again brilliant. I've said it before and I'll say it again the calm and assurance he has for a nineteen year old is incredible. Laurent Koscielny was immense at the back throwing himself at everything. And I know I say this all the time and I know I'm slightly (!) biased but Tomas Rosicky was great when he came on, and he really made a difference to the team and the performance. We don't see him as much as I would like but I think today he showed that in terms of an eye for a pass he has TOTALLY still got it. I think most of the boys acquitted themselves well at the end of the game as they were really fighting for it and flinging everything at the Swansea goal but alas it was not to be. So all in all it was a weird inbetween good in some ways bad in others sort of day. Sums up supporting my team really.

The return of the King

On Monday night Thierry Henry returned to his home. And my what a return it was. I think my neighbours must have wondered what was going on in my house, I went a tiny little bit crazy celebrating. It was quite an emotional screaming and jumping around moment. It was such a special occasion that even my mum was moved to watch the match. It was beautiful, like a fairytale. Within ten minutes of coming into the game he scored the winning goal. It was a trademark Thierry goal too. Lovely movement and a neat, clever little finish. But it in was the moments afterwards, the celebrations that the real magic showed. To see him so inspired, so pumped up and in the moment was so beautiful, so moving, so poetic. My mum put it best I think when she said "Look, he's smiling right up to his eyes." A sight to warm the heart of every gooner watching but also warm the heart of any fan of football. I put it to you that no matter who you support, the story of not only a club legend but one of the best players to ever play in the Premier League returning to a club that represents his spiritual home and then scoring a wonder goal to roll back the years, is still enough to give you a fuzzy little warm feeling in your heart no matter how faint.
Another highlight of the match was my mum's assessment of Andrei Arshavin, "I think that boy needs glasses."

More musical madness

More of my 'songs that remind me of famous sports people.' First, Bacary Sagna is dressed as a member of Take That (Howard, as he had dreads at the time) in the video for 'Back for good.' Do you see what I did there? Bac for good. Ha ha. Then Mr Torres makes another appearance this time dressed as Agnetha from Abba. Because they sang 'Fernando.' Yeah I know, sophisticated humour. Then finally, the one and only Guti is dressed as Beyonce in the 'bootylicious' video. Because that song is known as 'gutilicious' in our house.

Wonderful World of Ruth gets musical

Just some little doodles I did based on some songs that make me think of sportspeople. In the top image, we have Fernando Torres dressed as Lady Gaga (circa the 'Poker Face' video) because whenever I hear THAT line in Alejandro I can't help but think of Fernando, plus the return of his blonde hair only adds to it. Then in the bottom image we have Morgan Parra. Coldplay's 'Paradise.' 'Para, para, para-dise' no more explanation needed. If anyone has anymore suggestions for songs that remind you of sports, comment or tweet me.

Some thoughts on the grand prix final

I had my two cents worth on Patrick Chan and the grand prix title a little while and I've finally managed to watch all the other stuff I tapped so now I'm going to have my two cents worth on the pairs and dance too. Let's start with the ice dance shall we.