Predictions league hails the power of Drogba

February 9, 2010

Didier Drogba’s second goal in Sunday’s 2-0 win over Arsenal was the epitome of the Chelsea striker’s immense power.

It’s hard to know how any defence can stop him, even Inter Milan’s…

Top Premier League strikers are certainly having the best of it at the moment with Manchester United talisman Wayne Rooney scoring another in the 5-0 thrashing of Portsmouth.

Constrast Drogba and Rooney with Barcelona’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has scored once in his last 10 matches, and misfiring Juventus forward Alessandro Del Piero. His side have slid all the way to seventh in Serie A.

Talking of who is in or out of form, our Premier League predictions competition had one standout performer at the weekend — leader Paul Radford, who was spot on with Chelsea’s 2-0 win. Paul racked up four correct scores in all, bagging a maximum five points for each, while he picked up three singles for guessing the right result in three other games.

A midweek fixtures programme awaits and as many of our panel are away at the Winter Olympics, here is a perfect chance to sneak up on them while their minds are focused on luge and freestyle skiing.

If that doesn’t tempt you, any new entrants get double points for the rest of the season. Oh, and we trust you to total up your own points too.

Here’s the panel scores and the fixtures. Please play along in the comments.

Reuters Soccer blog panel: Paul Radford 221, Patrick Johnston 204, Neil Maidment 190, Mitch Phillips 189, Simon Evans 165, Kevin Fylan 162, Mark Meadows 162, Julien Pretot 143, Mike Collett 140, Asia Sports Desk 131, Martyn Herman 118, Miles Evans 108, Sonia Oxley 84

Tuesday
Fulham v Burnley
Man City v Bolton
Portsmouth v Sunderland
Wigan v Stoke

Wednesday
Arsenal v Liverpool
Aston Villa v Man Utd
Blackburn v Hull
Everton v Chelsea
West Ham v Birmingham
Wolverhampton v Tottenham

Source

Tags: A. Talking, Alessandro, Alessandro Del Piero, Asia, asia sports, aston villa, Birmingham, Chelsea West, correct scores, Del Piero, didier drogba, fulham, Ham, HULL, inter milan, Kevin Fylan, league predictions, Liverpool, man city, Manchester, mark meadows, Mike Collett, Miles Evans, mitch phillips, Neil Maidment, patrick johnston, Paul, paul radford, premier league, simon evans, Sonia Oxley, Sunderland, top premier, wayne rooney, winter olympics, zlatan ibrahimovic

Blatter says Russian World Cup bid has ´good chance´

October 16, 2009

FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Thursday said he thought that Russia had “a good chance” of winning the right to host the 2018 World Cup.

“You have a good chance,” Blatter said in a meeting with Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin here, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

“Russia made a very attractive bid.”

Blatter said that the Eastern European country had never hosted the World Cup before adding that this fact may become an additional forcible argument in the favour of Russia’s bid.

“Competitions of such a high rank should be hosted by countries that have never staged a World Cup before,” Blatter added.

“I had a chance to become acquainted with your plan of preparations for the hosting of the World Cup,” Blatter told Putin. “All of the documents that I have seen looked very impressive.”

Putin, whose support was key to Sochi winning the right to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, replied: “I think that organising a tournament of such prestige would without doubt provide a catalyst for the development of football in the whole of Eastern Europe and particularly in the former Soviet Union.”

On October 9 Russia presented their candidature for the right to organise the World Cup in either 2018 or 2022.

The executive committee of world football’s governing body FIFA will announce the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups at the end of 2010.

England, Australia, the United States, Indonesia, Japan and joint bids from Spain and Portugal and Belgium and the Netherlands are the other candidates for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, while South Korea and Qatar have bid only for the 2022 edition.

The 2010 World Cup will take place in South Africa, with five-time world champions Brazil hosting the tournament four years later.

MOSCOW (AFP)

Tags: 2014 winter olympics, Australia, Belgium, body fifa, candidature, eastern Europe, eastern European, England, fifa president sepp blatter, former soviet union, good chance, governing body, Indonesia, Japan, Moscow, portugal, RIA Novosti, ria novosti russia, russia, russian news agency, russian prime minister, russian world, Sepp Blatter, sochi, South Africa, south korea, Spain, the Netherlands, time world champions, United States, vladimir putin, winter olympics, world champions brazil, World Cup, world cups, world football

Vancouver awarded MLS expansion team for 2011

March 19, 2009

NEW YORK (AFP) – Vancouver, the western Canada city which will play host to next year’s Winter Olympics, will be home to a Major League Soccer expansion team starting in 2011, the US-based league said on Wednesday.

The city was among four candidates for two new clubs set to open in two years for which MLS had been seeking 40 million dollars. St. Louis, Portland and Canadian capital Ottawa still chasing the other expansion club.

Vancouver’s approval as the 17th MLS club, the second in Canada after the 2007 debut of Toronto FC, comes on the eve of the debut of the 2009 season and the league’s 15th club, the Seattle Sounders.

A 16th MLS team, Philadelphia, is set to begin play next year.

Vancouver will play at BC Place Stadium, which is set to undergo about 365 million dollars (Cdn) in renovations to become a retractable-roof stadium before the new team debuts.

Canadian Steve Nash, a National Basketball Association star guard for the Phoenix Suns, is among the ownership group for the Vancouver team, as are Steve Luczo, a part owner of the NBA champion Boston Celtics, and Jeff Mallett, a part owner of Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants.

Also in the group is Greg Kerfoot, owner of Vancouver’s second-level football squad, the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Changes in the domed stadium, which will seat 20,000 spectators for the MLS team in its lower bowl, will be based along those found at the home venue of Eintracht Frankfurt of the German Bundesliga.

Written by: AFP