Nightmares in Nice

Just when we thought it was safe to back on the ice rink, World Championships came along and brought us a whole load of drama. And when I say a whole load, I mean a whole load. A drama fest, drama a go go, drama-rama.  It all kicked off in the pairs short program.

The sidekick

Inspired by Tomas Rosicky's recent form. I made sure his super hero outfit has the same colour scheme as Robin's (as in Batman) usually does.

RvP Cake

Carrying on the sport's related bakery products theme from last year's Dani Pedrosa victory cookie. Here is the RvP cake that I made on Sunday. Its made with Nutella (because Europe loves nutella) and has the number 11 made with stars in the colours of the Dutch flag. Also it was delicious.

Happy International Women's day

Once again its International Women's Day so here at Sports Wall we'd once again like to fly the flag for feminism and salute all the wonderful women making sports great.Firstly Hope Solo- She's beautiful, she's badass and she's absolutley brilliant at what she does. The ultimate women's day girl crush.
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva - She's a World Junior Champion, Youth Olympics Gold medallist and she won two Grand Prix titles on her debut. And she's only 15. Phenomenal.
Eva Carneiro - You may not know they name but you would certainly recognise her if you saw her. She's the lovley lady who sits next to the manager on the Chelsea bench. She's their first team doctor you see. Again she's gorgeous but more importantly she strikes a blow for girls in a male dominated industry and is so inspirational that we all just wish we were her.
Kim Clijsters - She retired for two years then when she came back she became the first wildcard and unseeded player to win the US open. Then she defended her title the next year. Then she won the Australian Open in 2011 to become world number one. And she's the (joint) most successful mummy in tennis history.
Caster Semenya - She won the 800m gold medal at the World Athletics Championships at aged 18. But the reason that we love her and the reason she is the perfect inspirational woman for women's day is the grace and dignity with she handled what must be every girl's worst nightmare. And for coming back and proving them all wrong and winning a silver medal at the 2011 Worlds. She's a wonderful example of courage and strength and I can't think of better slogan for Women everywhere than her very own "God made me the way I am and I accept myself." Right on Caster.
Happy Women's Day to all the kick ass ladies worldwide.

So close yet so far

Well what a situation we nearly had on our hands there. Arsenal came within literally touching distance of the biggest comeback in Champion's League history. Seriously, the fingertips of Christian Abbiati are all that kept us from a fourth goal, history and extra time. Having said that, even though ultimately we still fell short I'm still very very proud of all the boys. I know there are many, many different reactions to this game but for me they really managed to restore a sense of dignity and hope following the first leg. I know we still lost but the boys put in such a courageous, determined performance that its impossible not to be pleased with them. Tomas Rosicky in particular carried on his fine recent form and scored a lovely little goal (much like his lovely little self.) Once again, as you all know, I could not be happier about this, there is nothing I want more than to see my (beautiful and talented) little dumpling doing well. It wasn't just Tomas though, everyone played their part. Robin was (as always) excellent, Koscielny and Vermaelen were super hardcore at the back, Bacary Sagna was flying up the wing like nobody's business, Song was a total beast in midfield. The list goes on. The first half was an absolute revelation, they totally owned both Milan and the whole pitch. Alas the colossal effort they put in was their undoing as the pace of the game and the weight of the deficit took its toll and by the end they were all just too tired. Also we had a lack of options on the bench to change the game but to be fair to Le Prof its not really his fault as we have a lot of midfielders out injured and he can't just pull players out of thin air (I wish.) But as hard as it is to take that even though they were so good, even though we got so close, we're still out, its good to know that the team can fight that hard for each other and dig that deep for a performance. I really, really hope we can keep up this brilliant spirit we've found.
Oh and I never ever thought I would be saying this but well done Gary Neville. It is 'bingo time' my friend, it certainly is.

High Five

There was unbridled joy unleashed all around HQ on Sunday. I'll set the scene, Arsenal were coming off a mini-slump a disastrous four nil loss to Milan, a dispiriting two nil defeat to Sunderland in the cup, then we have possibly one of the biggest games of our season looming, and its the derby against our fiercest rivals who are currently-whisper it- above us in the league.