The Suzuka Washout

       Last night I pondered if I should stay up for a couple more hours to watch the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying or go to sleep and watch the qualifying later.  I chose to go to sleep and it seems it was a good choice.  Heavy rain forced its postponement in the early hours of this Saturday Morning, the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying will take place on Sunday.  Qualifying will start at 0200 BST with the race start time unchanged at 0700 BST.  The other big news is that Lewis Hamilton has been penalised five places on the grid for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix for changing his gearbox.

The Home Nations Continue the Journey

Earlier on today, Friday, at 1600 BST the qualifying journey to Poland and Ukraine continued with Armenia hosting Slovakia, the current main opposition for the top spot in the Republic of Ireland's group.  Tonight Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have key home games against Italy and Russia respectively.  Scotland have a tough journey to Prague to face a Czech Republic side which need to bounce back from a poor home defeat to Lithuania.  England don't play during this set of games but will on Tuesday, the games from their group which are going on today are Wales v Bulgaria and Montenegro v Switzerland.  There aren't many other key games out their but Portugal desperately needing a win host Denmark and a interesting tie between Germany and Turkey which only contains one player, Nuri Sahin, in both squads that is playing for a club currently ranked in the Top 3 of the Bundesliga.

Team News and Predictions

Northern Ireland v Italy
After coming back from injury Manchester United defender Jonny Evans is likely to return to replace former United defender Craig Cathcart.  Other changes appear unlikely with Maribor goal hero Corry Evans again likely to start on the bench.  The captaincy will return to Aaron Hughes for the Windsor Park game.  Northern Ireland will be happy to get a draw front his match but I think Italy will be too much for them, 2-0 Italy.

Republic of Ireland v Russia
Richard Dunne has been passed fit and with Damien Duff ruled out by injury, manager Giovanni Trapattoni has named an unchanged team.  Aiden McGeady and Liam Lawrence stay in the wide midfield roles with Paul Green also retained in the side.  Russia are missing a few key players including Tottenham Hotspur striker Roman Pavlyuchenko.  I see Rep. of Ireland continuing their 100% record with a 2-1 win.

Czech Republic v Scotland
Scotland manager Craig Levein has already released the starting eleven for this match with him handing a debut to QPR striker Jamie Mackie. The untested 25-year-old is preferred to in-form Kenny Miller up front, while fit-again Gary Caldwell starts despite not having played for Wigan this term.  Scotland really need to pick up all three points today before they face World Cup winners Spain on Tuesday.  Czech Republic looked poorer than Scotland against but I can see this being a draw, 1-1.

Wales v Bulgaria
Ashley Williams will lead Wales in Brian Flynn's first game in temporary charge.  Strikers Rob Earnshaw and Ched Evans, along with Swansea City midfielder Joe Allen are among the other absentees.  Stoke City defender Danny Collins has been recalled after a three-year exile.  Wales need to win this or their hopes of going to Ukraine and Poland will be gone.  Bulgaria will win this 2-0.

The other key game is Montenegro v Switzerland, this will determine which one of these sides will challenge England for qualification, Montenegro will win this one 2-0.

The Return of Something Nasty

      This morning I read an article on the BBC news website that Senior police are warning over the possible emergence of a new generation of football hooligans after incidents involving young people almost trebled.  This is not a good sign English football has had is bad patched in the past and football hooliganism was one of the worst.  In May 1985 the Heysel Stadium disaster occurred and England football teams where banned from European football.  After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when 96 fans died, football hooliganism slowly dissipated, the firms started to disappear.  But recently a new generation of hooligans has come to the fore front but even though overall levels of hooliganism remain low but the trend has sparked concern.

Greatest Footballing Movie Star

      Last night I watched a 2006 documentary called Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos.  In it Carlos Alberto Torres, whoose goal against Italy in the final of World Cup 1970 is considered one of the greatest goals ever scored in the history of the tournament, appears advocating the party lifstyle of the modern football star saying "Every Monday night, they had a party at studio 54... this was part of the development of football in the United States."  Watching this documentary mad me ask the question which footballer has had the best cameos and key permorfances in film history.  Also who are the worst offender in this category.

Two Great Reds Coming Together

       There is currently a story that is making the front and back pages of newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic.  Liverpool, who are in trouble on and off the pitch, are to be sold to the owners of the Boston Red Sox baseball team.  But the takeover by the New England Sports Ventures requires resolution of a legal dispute with the Reds' American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.  The majority of the board of directors at Anfield have agreed in principle to the sale of Liverpool Football Club but the owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are unhappy with the bid, they are adamant that they have added commercial value to the club.   In an attempt to block the bid Hicks and Gillett tried to sack managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre in a last-ditch bid to keep control of the club.

Sporting Professionalism

       There have been a couple of moments recently in sport when sporting professionalism has been thrown out of the window.  On Sunday as most of you know Nigel de Jong made a tackle on Ben Afra and Ben Afra ended up with a broken tibia and fibula.  In the match the referee Martin Atkinsson saw the offence and did not punish it.  I have watched it a few times to get a good opinion on it and my opinion is that it was strong late tackle, it wasn't reckless, it was premeditated and Ben Arfa was very unlucky to get his leg caught between the legs of Nigel de Jong.  The thing that has actually annoyed me is the fact that Newcastle have wrote to the FA to ask for ". . the appropriate action to be taken against De Jong for the tackle which, in the club's, opinion was unnecessary and used excessive force."  This is a very unprofessional thing for Newcastle to do.

NFL Week Four Review

       Week 4 was another extremely interesting week in NFL.  Week 4 is the start of the bye period where teams get a week off at some point.  The Kansas City Chiefs thanks to their bye are the only team left with 100% record after the Steelers and Bears both lost in low scoring games.  No exciting overtime games this week but there was a 59 yard time expiring winning field goal for the Jaguars against the Colts.  Seattle and Chicago didn't manage touchdowns in their defensive matches against St Louis and New York Giants respectively.  On Monday Night Football special teams helped Tom Brady, on an off day, to his 100 win as he fastest quarterback ever to 100 wins in the Super Bowl era.  And even more amazingly my team the Browns won a game after losing the all first three games by less than 7 points.

Plenty to see in India

       There is plenty of sport to see in India at the moment the Commonwealth games got under way yesterday with the first gold going to a 17 year old Nigerian weight lifter.  But away from Delhi there was also a another sport trying to steal the limelight.  In Mohali, there was an absolutely thrilling game of cricket being played.  It came down to the 5th day of play with India requiring 216 to win on a pitch which was turning into a batters nightmare after it was kept perfectly by the ground staff so it just faded away on the final days of play.  VVS Laxman struck a superb unbeaten 73 as India fought back from the brink of defeat to beat Australia by one wicket in this thrilling first Test.

True Love of Sport

       Yesterday I was in the pub watching the Arsenal and Chelsea but the pub was also showing the Ryder Cup golf and the rugby union match between Saracens and Leicester.  There was three distinctive groups of people watch the three sports.  Watching the football was young adults and student, watching the rugby was the middle age men and watching the golf was the over 50's.  The final few holes of saturdays play in the golf came during the second half of the football and whenever a big put went in for Europe there was a large cheer.  What was interesting was the students infront of me looked very puzzled whenever they cheered, then one of them said 'I don't know how they can get that excited over golf.'  It made me think, can you truly love a sport if you haven't played it?

Making the Stadium of Light a Fortress

       This season Sunderland have had a brilliant start against the top sides of the Premiership.  With winning against Man City and drawing with Arsenal and Manchester, Sunderland have picked up 5 points against sides in the top 4 at the Stadium of Light this season.  Sunderland are one of the side that are stuck in the middle of the table, they are not going to get relegated and they can't compete with the top sides for money so won't get to Europe at the moment.  But despite saying all this Sunderland are a side moving in the right directions by doing what you need to do, turn you home stadium into a fortress where teams find it hard to pick up points.