Breaking the Molde

"And Solskjaer has won it!"

Five words, and other than a slightly complicated Norwegian surname, they are a very simple 5 words. And yet they invoke real emotion, sat here typing them has given me goosebumps- yes I'm a little weird like that.

But these 5 words, said by Clive Tyldesley back in 1999, create memories for so many- some good (like me) and some bad. And for me the 5 words, and the emotion that engulfs me following them, bring me back to the days when football first really mattered to me.

I had been a football fan, along with any sport, for as long as I could possibly remember and yet until the treble season I can't recall getting so emotionally attached. It was perhaps Dennis Irwin's sending off in the match against Liverpool in the same season that got me so riled first. I, along with my cousins, felt it necessary to call the F.A and complain about the Irishman's sending off- it may also suggest where my utter hatred for Liverpool comes from, that and being from Manchester.

Of course I digress, as usual. It was Tyldesley who said those words but it was of course United's baby faced assassin, their super sub, 20Legend and whatever else you want to call Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

The Norwegian was a brilliant player, a goalscorer of the highest regard, and someone who played the game smiling- which is not something we see too often these days. Of course Gunnar is best known for that goal in Barcelona on a night that the gods of football had clearly pre-written the script for and his second most well known attribute was to score late goals. I remember sitting at a friends house for his birthday watching Match of the Day as he scored 4 goals in the last 10 minutes of a match vs Nottingham Forest. It wasnt' important, as United already lead 4-1, but it's what Ole did- score goals!

It was a shame that Ole had to retire from injury in 2007 having been unable to recover from a knee injury, but by that point his place in the hearts of all Manchester United fans was obvious. Having joined in 1996 for a paultry £1.5 million pounds he scored within 6 minutes of his debut against Blackburn Rovers. You may be thinking that £1.5 million may have been a lot at this time but remember 'Alan Shearer is 10 times dearer', or words to that effect. It was befitting that his last league game came against Blackburn and just like old times, he scored.

But Solskjaer has now moved on from United, having spent a succesful term at the helm of the Red Devil's reserve team, to join his first team- Molde- as manager.. In his first 4 games as manager the team were truly playing in the image of their boss as they scored late goals in the games to either win or draw, a start to the season that ended with the reserves winning the Lancashire Senior Cup.

With Ole now becoming manager of a first team he will inevitably join the ever growing list of names to be Sir Alex's successor- many of these names are already ex-United players. And who of us would bet against Ole being the man to win the race, as either the next manager or the one after that. Solskjaer is a true United hero, he knows the club- as player and coach, and is a nice, media friendly guy. His reputation for goals also fits in with the Old Trafford ethos of football.

The big question surrounds wether or not he can handle the pressure of football management and the added pressure of possibly being lined up to replace the most succesful manager in United's history.

If Solskjaer winning the Champions League as manager of United is akin to his goal in that 99' final, then his first step into football management maybee the moment Peter Schmeichel joined his teammates for the first significant corner on that night.

"And Solskjaer has won it!"?...

Only time will tell!

Yid's Army

Football is a game, a game I want to win- or so a friend once told me, it was something along those lines anyway.

Being a game, though, football very rarely has anything to do with race; of course there is the incident involving England at the Bernabeu, or Mario Balotelli at Chievo and the underlying racism that surrounds black managers especially in the English game and many other stories of racism appearing in football but that doesn't make football about race. Football also rarely has anything to do with religion, of course there is the 4 times or more a season that Rangers play Celtic but that would be about it.

Being Jewish I can also, quite honestly, tell you that football rarely has anything to do with Jews. There is the odd famous professional Jewish footballer; Yossi Benayoun, Tal Ben Haim, Eyal Berkovic and Avram Grant to name but a few (yes they all happen to also be Israeli), there is the wonderful MJSL but that's about it for us Jews.... oh and Spurs!


The good old 'Yid Army' ey! Named so because lot's of Jews support them- so that'll be Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal as well then, and that's just for starters.

Oh, suddenly thought of what Jews are known for when it comes to football. It's not heading the ball. We close our eyes and shy away from the ball, we also can't tackle or play in particularly physical matches.

And so last night Sporting JLGB (remember them?) played their first pre-season friendly of the summer, against a non-Jewish team or just a team. This was no charity peace match or any rubbish, this was a competitive friendly between two sides getting ready for the excitement of a Sunday League campaign, and boy was it a match!

The match started with Britain's Protection on the offensive but Sporting's defence stood strong and gave as good as they got, new signing Blake Englander probably giving better. But Sporting, looking awesome in their new pink kits, struggled to get the ball under control in the opposition half and thus it kept coming back at a well organised Sporting defence. The defending was resolute and tough but it was eventually broken, a left foot shot from the edge of the area beating the keeper.

It was 2-0 before half time, another shot from the edge of the area, this time brilliantly saved, would fall inside the 6 yard box for the Protection's number 9 to slot home. At half time Sporting marched off anything but dejected, they were well in this game and playing well, and it got better.

The 2nd half was an even scrappier, more aggressive affair from both sides, and with plenty of subs being made it was now JLGB on top. Rafi Bloom was finding himself in more and more space upfront and was starting to show the kind of form that left defenders fearful of him in his Westdene days. The partnership upfront between Bloom and Uri Steinberg looked strong, and with Englander and Saul Davies forming a rock at the back, Sporting will go into their season with a solid base through the middle of the team.

Unusually in a friendly there was a red card brandished as the ref had enough of the foul and abusive language he was receiving from Protection's centre back. The away side were all getting fed up of the ref as they constantly thought they were wrongly being punished but the man in black didn't seem to be doing too much wrong. With time ticking away it seemed that Sporting would not get the goal that they deserved, until, with 10 minutes to go, Bloom got the ball just outside the area, danced his way past two defenders and into the 'box' only to be brought down, he brushed himself off and buried the ball in the top corner from the penalty spot.

The ref blew for full time and everyone had enjoyed the run out, from both sides. Hands were shook and pleasantries swapped as the two sides had taken part in a highly competitive match that had ended with a very fair scoreline, a real reflection of the match.

Religion very rarely comes into football, and as Sporting JLGB and Britain's Protection walked off the pitch, it still didn't.


P.S- Apparently Spurs got into the group stages of the Champions League tonight and I fooled you all into thinking that's what this post was about, oh well!

Weather or Not

Bloody Manchester!

Don't get me wrong, I do love this city (yes honestly), but it's the weather- it's all over the bleeding place.

I get up this morning at half 7 and the weather, though not great, was certainly not horrendous. Arrive at work at 10 with no sign of rain despite the odd cloud, by noon the rain was bouncing off the pavement with much aggression. Of course it wouldn't stop there, oh no, by half 1 the sun was out and it seemed to be heading towards a pleasant afternoon, that was of course before it started chucking it down with rain again at 3. It's just ridiculous.

But of course I digress, as usual, for this is not Sidler on Weather, as exciting a blog as that would be.

The weather in Manchester is such that they say you can get four seasons in just one day and that seems to mirror football in the region, it seems we've had at least two seasons in just one footballing weekend.

First up was the blue team of Manchester. City, who have spent upwards of 100 million pounds on players this season, took on their fourth place rivals of last year Spurs. City were absolutely rained upon. Tottenham's soon to be Champions League players were well onto of their much richer rivals and it seemed that the Mancunians multi-million pound squad were struggling to gel.

Out of the melee of shots that was being rained down on them City found a very useful umbrella. Of course it would be that out of all of the mass amounts the 'Citizens' have spent in the last two years it would be a man who cost them a maximum of £1.5 million before the 'Citeh' era who would prove to be their most valuable asset on the opening weekend of the season and most likely the rest of the season.

City of course are hoping to hail (get it) in a new era, and they will be doing so now without Craig Bellamy and Stephen Ireland, the latter seemingly on his way to Aston Villa as part of the deal to take James Milner to Eastlands. But, if their opening day fixture is anything to go by, City's main issue will be getting their team to gel quickly and with two more players coming in since the weekend Roberto Mancini has a big job on his hands.

Over at Old Trafford the sun was shining, despite the driving rain, especially on the evergreens in red. The United of Manchester took on their Newcastle counterparts as they began their quest to wrestle the league title back off the hands of Chelsea and they looked good in their match against the newly promoted Magpies. Chelsea had shone on their season debut against another promoted side, West Brom, putting 6 past the team from the Midlands and United needed to respond with an emphatic victory of their own, and they got it.

There was lots to talk about from the 3-0 win, from Joey Barton's 'moustache' to Dimitar Berbatov's impression of a player playing to his potential. But there was one man who stole the headlines and rightly so. There's snow way one could fail to mention Paul Scholes. He was brilliant. So good, in fact, that his Spanish midfield compatriots, Xavi and Iniesta, would have been watching in wonder and amazement. Near everything that came off Scholes' boot flew to its designated place on the pitch. His passing was immaculate and the most incredible thing was the sheer variety of passes; lofted, drilled, short, long, over the top, through the middle. The man was brilliant, no more so than when he set up Ryan Giggs, his forever partner in crime, for the 3rd goal, a goal which stretched Giggs' record of scoring in every season of the Premier League, a record which may well stop sooner rather than later.

Of course the season is only one week old and we cannot take too much from the first week of the season but we at least know that Chelsea look every bit the favourites they ought to be, City, despite their spending, cannot hope to achieve instant success and United will one day be much the worse for not being able to call on Scholes and Giggs. I guess we knew all this already, all which proves I really haven't the foggiest

Englishman Reaches World Cup Final

(The following blog appears on www.blog.kitbag.com, written by the Sidler)


And England have done it! They’ve made the World Cup final. What? Oh! It’s just our referee. Well at least we have the best something when it comes to football. Sorry, little bit of patriotism there and no doubt I’m clutching at straws.

But hang on, lets not take away the wonderful achievement of Howard Webb getting the honour of being the referee in the World Cup final and the first Englishman since Jack Taylor in 1974. Speaking of Jack, the great man has praised Webb and went as far to suggest that “he’s the best referee this country has ever produced”. Furthermore the man who awarded a penalty in the first minute of his world cup final added “He’s ready for this: he’s fit, his man-management is excellent.” Of course you’d find it difficult to argue with Jack, mainly because of his pedigree of refereeing, a little because you have to wonder why you’re arguing with an 80 year old man and lastly because Webb is clearly an excellent ref.

Ironically Webb had one of his worst seasons in the Premier League last year but so is life, he’s still taken charge of both the Champions League final and World Cup final, the first man ever to do so. Of the men he beat to officiate in the biggest game in world football the standard of officiating in the World Cup has generally been quite high. There has of course been the odd controversial moment, IT WAS OVER THE LINE (sorry), and the odd card happy ref, as in the Chile vs Switzerland match many moons ago, but we don’t expect our referees and linesmen to be perfect- well we do, but we know they’re not.


For me, two major issues come out of the tournament as far as refereeing is concerned. The first is obvious- video refereeing. I believe it is a must in some form, even if just for the goal-line, it would not undermine the referee – just help him make the right decision. If sports steeped in ridiculous amounts of old fashioned tradition like cricket and tennis can embrace video technology then so should football. The second issue is not so obvious but is just as important. The free movement of referees between leagues is very important to ensure that officiating is more consistent by allowing more referees to become professional, thus gaining more big match experience.


But here’s to Mr Webb and his team, make England proud by hardly being noticed in the World Cup final- after all, that’s what English football is all about.

As it ends so it begins

I wish people would listen to me. I've been saying all along that England would fail early on and crash out in the 2nd round having played average at best throughout. Now how do I delete all my old posts to cover my tracks.

Right so it wasn't great, in fact it was bloody awful. The only positive slants I can find is that fact that we conceded the decisive 3rd and 4th goals whilst attacking too much to get back in the game. And there was of course that incident for Frank Lampard, you know when he hit the cross bar from a free kick. Good job nothing controversial happened ey?

Ohhhh wait, yeah there was that moment the ball clearly crossed the line by a fucking mile, excuse the language but it's difficult not to swear. FIFA, and their master moron Sepp Blatter, decided in all their glory that people just love talking about controversial decisions so much that technology was a stupid idea. Mr Blatter is clearly a moron. People like discussing team selection, formations, transfer rumours and perhaps the odd should that or shouldn't have that been a penalty- not the ball crossed the line why wasn't it a goal? That's not a discussion that's the rules of the game.

Don't get me confused with blaming England's defeat solely on this one moment but it was definitely a game changer. Annoyingly you always knew at some point in this World Cup there would be controversy that highlighted the need for technology after FIFA completely ruled it out several months ago- just did it have to be in the England vs Germany match in such an ironic fashion. Just to soften the pain it wasn't the only moment that had us asking for replays yesterday but amusingly the Mexicans got to see a replay. I say amusingly it was only amusing in the sense it but egg on the faces of FIFA officials. Not amusing in the way ze Germans would have found Lampard's disallowed goal the highest form of schadenfreude (look it up) possible.

So England are out, and of course we look for someone to blame. It could be FIFA, it could be Capello, it could be Wayne Rooney. The truth is it is no one's outright fault. It was the collective. The players underperformed no end, especially Wayne Rooney. There were of course glimpses of good play but not enough at any time. The manager made mistakes, perhaps he was too strict in camp, he certainly got his tactics and team line ups wrong in the first two matches and right up until the end he got the substitutions wrong- Heskey for Defoe, really? And FIFA also got it wrong, months ago, possibly years ago, by refusing to even trial technology. Blatter should take a bow for organising such a wonderful tournament but should get an egg thrown at him whilst doing so.

And what next? For England, and hopefully Capello, we turn our attention to 2012 first. There will be new faces but some old will no doubt stay and at least try to fight for their place. But it is 4 years away and Brazil 2014 that interests me most. Firstly there will no doubt be a new manager, if there isn't already one for 2012, and there will definitely be new players. So after succesfully predicting that we'd win the World Cup this year, shush, I won't be doing the same right now. I beleive we have a chance, though I'd personally back the hosts. But I am going to try and predict the future. Who will be England's squad in 2014?

Joe Hart, Ben Foster, Scott Loach
Nednum Onuha, Micah Richards, Ryan Shawcross, Gary Cahill, Michael Dawson, Leighton Baines, Ashley Cole
Jack Rodwell, Jack Wilshire, James Milner, Adam Johnson, Aaron Lennon, Gareth Barry, Lee Cattermole, Fabian Delph, Theo Walcott
Wayne Rooney, Jermaine Defoe, Nathan Delfouneso, Gabriel Agbonlahor

Captain Rooney and I'm not quite sure who the manager will be but don't be surprised to see Mr Beckham somewhere near the squad, if he's not actually playing in it. The funny thing is I'll be miles away with my prediction. But either way between all the fall out from yesterday afternoon till June 2014 it's going to be one hell of a ride.

As it ends so it begins!

In Glory-you Basterds

The Italians waved arrivederci and the French exclaimed 'Sacre bleu' so it is time for the Sidler to once again take on football. Yes I know we've nearly come to the end of the group stages and not a peep from the man who's bored you all half to death about the World Cup for the last year. And for this I would like to apologise, but, the main reason for my silence is that I have been writing a blog over at . I haven't been covering all their matches but if you've missed it so far I shall be covering this afternoon's match between North Korea and Ivory Coast then Uruguay vs South Korea on Saturday afternoon and also Argentina vs Mexico on Sunday evening.

Of course that last blog, for this week at least, on Sunday may well be effected by my emotional over spill from Sunday afternoon's match- and any movie fan, or even Sidler on Football 'fan' will probably guess that I'm here to talk about Sunday afternoon.

First off England, we were dreadful, absolutely dreadful, in our first two games. You don't need me to tell you this but I have to reiterate just how shocking we were. It's a good job kitbag didn't assign me those two games as I'd have been hard pressed not to use swear words. We lacked the ability to out pass and out think sides we should be putting to the sword with ease. And it came down to one final game. Even me, the most passionately blind England fan, was starting to have some doubts. Not over Fabio, the media's reaction to his picking the team 'only' 2 hours before kick off has been a farce, but over the player's ability to overcome the fear.

And just as it looked like they would crumble under the pressure they put in one of the most convincing 90 minutes of football England produce. I'm not getting carried away but actually think of the last time they played so well for the whole 90 minutes, and not just 45 or 60 minutes, and it's difficult.

But now is the real task, ZE GERMANS ARE COMING! Germany started their World Cup campaign in a slightly different fashion to the English- they battered their first opponents, Australia, and had all pundits purring over their performance. Truth was though they were highly flattered by their highly disappointing opponents. This was proved when they lost to Serbia and only a 1-0 win over Ghana saw them progress as winners of Group D.

There will be many naysayers for England going into this 2nd round match, none more so than Franz Beckenbauer who believes that England can only play kick and rush football and that England messed things up by coming 2nd in their group to set up this match as 2nd round match and not a final. But of course I have faith, and ironically it is the Americans who have provided me with the belief that we can, no will, be victorious over the old enemy.

So why have the Americans given me the belief? Well firstly England have our own 'bear Jew', I may lose some of you here and if I have, GO AND WATCH 'Inglourious Basterds" it's an awesome film. But England's 'Bear Jew' is of course Wayne Rooney. Okay, so the boy Wayne hasn't come to life yet but what better place to do so than against Germany. He could really club them into the ground if he could just find form. He was of course looking a lot better in the match against Slovenia but an early piece of magic in the match on Sunday could reinvigorate the United striker and in turn the whole team.

England too have our own Apache in Steven Gerrard. He leads our band of real Englishmen into battle and helps leave a scar on the forehead of our opponents, well maybe not the foreheads but we really need Captain Gerrard to perform the way we know he can, at his marauding best.

Of course I'm not trying to say the German football team are Nazi's, or any Germans for that matter but the fact is you can't think of Germany without thinking that we've beaten them in 2 World Wars and one World Cup. Nor can you think of them without thinking of them dumping us out of the World Cup in 1970 or penalty defeats in 1990 and 1996. Football is war, and in England vs Germany it's a war with plenty of history.

Perhaps Fabio Capello should borrow a quote from Aldo the Apache for his team talk on Sunday;

We will be cruel to the Germans, and through our cruelty they will know who we are.
And they will find the evidence of our cruelty in the battered, bruised, and disfigured bodies of their brothers we leave behind us.
And the German won't not be able to help themselves but to imagine the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, and our football boots, and the class of our goals.
And the German will be sickened by us, and the German will talk about us, and the German will fear us.
And when the German closes their eyes at night and they're tortured by their subconscious for the evil they have done, it will be with thoughts of us they are tortured with.
Sooounds good?"

Okay so I changed the words slightly but we're not actually trying to kill them. Are we?

Nearly Here

Admit it! I had you going for a bit there didn't I?

You lot actually thought that I could resist commenting just two days from the World Cup? You realise I've been waiting this for four years. Bloody Steve McLaren stopped me truly enjoying the last European Championships, making this the first time I've been allowed to get ridiculously patriotically excited since the stamp, the winker and Jamie Carragher forgetting to wait for the whistle knocked us out of the last World Cup.

I wonder if you lot are as excited as me? How could you possibly not want to be sitting at home all day everyday watching football? Unless of course you're forced to be at home because you've just had knee surgery or something like that.

So the time for all the talking is done. I could have written about the sad absence of Rio Ferdinand, or for that matter many others. I could have written about the omission of Theo Walcott, or for that matter many. I could have written about the shock inclusion of well I can't think of any. But the point is I've said the time for talking is done so I will stick to it.

Instead I shall go for some predictions, which is still talking but it's just foolish talking that could make me look, well, foolish!

First up is the groups;

Group A: Based on past tournaments it is difficult to count out the hosts not progressing and it would be great for the tournament if they did. Sadly though I see France and Mexico being the teams to get through.

Group B: Though Diego Maradona will try his hardest to screw up Argentina's chances I'm pretty sure they'll have a simple passage through. 2nd place is pretty difficult to call in a group of average teams but I'm going for South Korea to just pip it.

Group C: England and U.S.A to progress, although I would fancy Algeria to give the Americans a run for their money. Saturday's evening game between England and America should be an interesting start for the three lions but I'm expecting a comfortable 3-1 win.

Group D: Don't count out the Germans! And I certainly won't be as, despite missing Michael Ballack, they should have enough discipline in their side to progress easily. Behind them I'll go for Australia, it'll be tight between them, Ghana and Serbia but I feel the Aussies, with Tim Cahill, have more fire-power.

Group E: Finally I'll back an African side to come through the Groups in beating Denmark to 2nd place in this group. I say 2nd place because I fully expect the Dutch to start strong before fading quickly in the quarters, just like they often do and just like the English.

Group F: Reigning champions Italy should progress with relative ease, despite the fact that their squad won't exude confidence to the nations fans. They'll take Paraguay with them into the 2nd round.

Group G: "The Group of Death" or so they say. Despite this apparent deathly group the Brazilians will come through very much alive and kicking and may go all the way once again. Who will go through with them though? First off it won't be North Korea. Last week I'd have said Ivory Coast, but it could be difficult if Drogba's unavailable. On the other hand I'll stick with my instinct and say The Elephants will progress.

Group H: The Spanish are coming, and they've got a bloody squad too. Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Puyol, Pique, Ramos, Villa, Torres- I'll stop! They're through, long gone are the days of Spanish chocking! With them will be Chile.

Surprise package: Chile and Paraguay both certainly have the chance to surprise teams way into the latter stages and hosts South Africa could climb out of a tricky group. Truth be told any African side could finally break the mould and reach a World Cup semi-final.

and the winner? Well do you expect me to change my mind now? good it's England- all the way it's England. It won't be easy but we can do it!