Tottenham Hotspur employ several people whose sole purpose is to score goals. They are called ’strikers’, and they were distinctly absent from the Carling Cup penalty shoot-out, an occasion when the skill of scoring goals is extremely useful.
According to talkSPORT’s breakfast show, the reason for Spurs’ unlikely penalty-taker line-up (and subsequent underwhelming performance) was a general reticence to step up to the spot. When Harry Redknapp asked “who wants to take a penalty?” not a single player raised his hand.
Luka Modric is the first player to speak out about his penalty-taking anxiety, which stems from his failure to convert against Turkey during Euro 2008:
“I need to get over the fear. I do not want taking penalties to become a continuous problem for me.”
Messrs bent and Pavlyuchenko, we await your excuses. [Actually Mr Pavlyuchenko, you had been substituted by that point so your excuse is valid - Ed.]
Tottenham players don’t like to complain, but Luka Modric felt the need to get a burning issue off of his chest when speaking to Croatian publication Sportske Novosti this week. The midfielder thinks the current World Player of the Year needs to spend less time rolling around on the floor, and more time, er, standing up:
“Ronaldo is a fantastic player and I do not have anything against him, but I cannot stand his theatrics.
“In England, it is a man’s game and his continuous complaints and dives have a negative effect. I do not know why he needs to do it all the time.”
Ronaldo paid the price for crying wolf one too many times when he was booked for diving in Sunday’s Carling Cup final, after what appeared to be a legitimate penalty claim.
The team line-up balloons
Of all the naff gimmicks on display at Wembley yesterday, the black balloons that displayed the team line-ups were the classiest.
Harry Redknapp’s giant flower
While Alex Ferguson took the dignified approach of wearing a Mourinho-style jacket, Harry Redknapp offset his outfit with a comically huge flower. He must’ve struggled to stay standing upright with that thing weighing down his lapel.
The Fan-o-meter
In their attempt to make the fans feel more like they were at Disney World, Sky and Carling concocted the ‘Fan-o-meter’. Using a mixture of microphones and pseudo-science, we were given constant reminders of the decibel levels in the stadium, and therefore whose fans were the loudest. Alas, the fan volume was virtually even throughout the entire game, rendering the exercise as inconclusive as the football after 120 minutes.
David Bentley’s rubbishness
He can put a football in a skip from the top of a building, but putting a penalty on target is too much for DB. How long until ‘Arry kicks him into a skip?
Manchester Utd 0/ Tottenham 0 (Manchester Utd win 4-1 on penalties)
Congratulations are due to the person who edited the video above, as we wouldn’t have been able to squeeze 5 minutes and sixteen seconds of highlights out of yesterday’s Carling Cup match. In a game where the brilliantly pointless ‘fan-o-meter’ kept us up to date with decibel noises around Wembley, neither keeper had much work to do until the shoot-out.
Rather than put strikers up for penalties first - the guys who are paid to score goals - ‘Arry decided to go with Jamie O’Hara, Vedran Corluka and David Bentley. Presumably, Heurelho Gomes and Sandra Redknapp were due to take penalties four and five, but were denied the chance when O’Hara and Bentley failed to convert.
Probable line-ups, statistics and the latest betting odds
The nation’s least favourite cup competition will reach it’s heady conclusion on Sunday afternoon, when Tottenham will try not to lose their Carling Cup title to Manchester Utd.
If you’re betting on the game, you’re interested in statistics or you just like bright colours and fancy flash graphics, then please check out the Carling Cup Final Wizard we produced with Betfair.
Man Utd/Spurs, Sunday, 3pm, Sky Sports 1, Free £10 bet
We’re not suggesting for a second that you spend your whole month’s wages betting on a Tottenham triumph at Wembley on Sunday, but here are five reasons why a Manchester United victory isn’t inevitable, thanks to our friends at chickendinner:
1. Tottenham have a brilliant record against the Big Four and have only lost one of their seven meetings with them this season - the 2-1 FA Cup loss to Manchester United when they played their “mish-mash” side.
2. And Spurs have already got past the other three Big Four sides in this competition over the last fourteen months - beating Arsenal in last season’s semi-finals, Chelsea in the final and Liverpool in this year’s fourth round.
The BBC’s most bitter pundit reckons Birmingham are going to have their way with Arsenal. Agree?
The BBC’s very own Nostradamus of football, mystic Mark Lawrenson, has had his palms crossed with silver again, and after placing his enormous jewelled turban squarely on his head, has issued his weekly vision of the Premier League results. To his credit, he has broken with the pundits’ code of utter conformity, and has dared suggest Birmingham will turn Arsenal over. Most audacious, your All-Seeingness!
If you’d like to have a go at outwitting the sour one, here are his “visions.” Leave your thoughts in the comments box.
In a bid to cling on to the sports they still have the rights to show, the BBC’s premier channel will be showing nearly six-and-a-half hours of Six Nations action on Saturday. The Beeb are trying their best to make us all take in some rugger, but if egg chasing isn’t your thang, there’s plenty of other sports on offer. Check out the programming below, and find the best odds on all of it on our oddschicken.
Super League
Bradford/ St Helens (Sky Sports 1, 7.30pm)
SATURDAY
Premier League
Birmingham City/ Arsenal (Sky Sports 1, 12.45pm) - betting preview here
Newcastle Utd/ Manchester Utd (Setanta Sports 1, 5.15pm) - betting preview here
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