1. Michael Owen should never have signed for Manchester United:
Look at the company he was keeping last night; Obertan, Macaheda, Wellbeck - all clearly reserve players. And this is the category Owen now falls into at United. Ignored when the big games come around, his chances to impress now only arrive in insignificant matches, so the clamour for Capello to pick him is no less ludicrous than expecting Marcello Lippi to give Macheda a call.
Had Owen swallowed his pride and signed for a lesser club, he might be seeing some action in the Premier League, in the process testing himself against international-calibre defenders. When he fails to make Fabio’s 23 in June, he has his own pride to blame.
2. Goalkeepers should stop guessing in shoot-outs:
Following his heroics in the Peace Cup Final penalty shoot-out in the summer, a friend of thespoiler went to interview Brad Guzan to suss out his penalty-saving secrets. Guzan revealed that he has never understood why many keepers merely guess where the penalty is going, and hurl themselves in that direction before the kicker makes contact with the ball. His own preference was to wait, and rely on natural reaction to make it in time.
This worked to extraordinary effect, saving four penalties, bringing to mind Mark Bosnich’s awesome performance against Sunderland in the same competition 16 years ago. So is Guzan right? Are keepers bottling it at shoot-outs?
3. Michael Laudrup is spending today sitting by the phone:
For those who didn’t get their copy of Marca delivered this morning, Real Madrid got soaked 4-0 by 3rd division Alcorcon in the Copa del Rey last night. Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini described himself as, “very embarrassed”, although “very sacked” may soon prove more appropriate.
So if there is one space on the plane to South Africa in eight months time, what should we fill it with? One-goal beachball or two-goal Michael James Owen? You decide…
Small boys? In the park? Jumpers for goalposts? Marvellous
When Michael Owen sat in the posh seats last night, cutting a sad figure sending text messages to himself, his mind may have gone back to his 15 year-old self, scoring one of the all-time great England goals in the Victory Shield against Scotland. Owen himself has often described it as the greatest goal of his career, most recently in this interview with 4-4-2.
Cast your eye over England’s next sullen and ultimately disappointing hero in the Victory Shield match between England Wales, tonight from 7:30 on Sky Sports 1.
Its not just Manchester United who score late, by Danny Harris
Republic of Ireland were robbed of a credible draw at the weekend, after scoring late only to see their opponents Italy equalise with stunning impertinence.
After the jump, we choose our six favourite similarly chaotic upside-down closing stages:
FIFA are killing football, says Giovanni Trapattoni
[Goal.com]
Arsenal track a pair of Bari defenders
[Daily Mail]
There is plenty more to life if I’m not picked in the England squad,” says Michael Owen, who is desperately trying to get into the England squad
[The Mirror]
Are Manchester Utd looking to sign Inter’s Maicon?
[Betfair Football]
Fit & Healthy striker knew he was second best from the outset
Until now, The Spoiler had assumed that Michael Owen fell off his horse/ out of his helicopter in paralysed shock when he first learned that Manchester Utd were interested in his signature.
The tiny striker, however, has now revealed details of the phone call from Sir Alex Ferguson, in which the red-faced Scot made it perfectly clear that in an ideal world he would be phoning a young Frenchman instead:
“The manager’s voice is pretty distinctive, so I knew it wasn’t a wind-up. He said, ‘We are looking for a striker. I’m going to be up front, we went for Benzema and once that was a no-go we looked around for players who are going to score goals. Obviously the big question is if you are fit, but if you are and we can get plenty of games, then words to the effect that it’s a no-brainer. Anyway, there’s no point in talking on the phone, we’ll chat about it tomorrow if you are free and fancy coming round.’
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