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.