Jeremie Aliadiere scored twice to give the Gunners a 2-0 League Cup victory over West Brom at the Hawthorns tonight. Along with the Frenchman, the squad was made up mostly of Arsenal reservists, inluding Manuel Almunia, Matthew Connolly, Johan Djourou, Mark Randall, Mathieu Flamini, Alex Song, Armand Traore, and Denilson. However, Philippe Senderos saw his first action since his return from injury, joining other first teamers Gael Clichy, Theo Walcott, and Emmanuel Adebayor.
Unfortunately, Adebayor suffered a knee injury halfway through the first half, and was forced to come off. Traore played in his stead, and by all accounts was quite impressive.
Highlights courtesy of Gooner Goals:
So, the Gunners are in the draw for Round Four, and now turn their attention back to the League. Everton visit the Grove this weekend, as does a very special guest. The Queen Herself will be marking the “official” opening of Ashburton Grove with a special ceremony before kickoff. As for kickoff, the match will be shown live on Setanta’s PPV channel at 10 AM ET, and delayed on Setanta USA at 3PM ET.
In an impressive road victory, the Giants came out guns-a-blazing to take an early 9-0 first quarter lead on the way to a 36-22 win over the Cowboys. The win moves the G-men to 4-2, and first place in the NFC East.
While the offense was clicking, the defense was swarming, forcing three interceptions, including a 95-yard return for a touchdown, and eight sacks.
In fact, Michael Strahan’s first half sack of Drew Bledsoe saw his career total go to 132.5, tieing Lawrence Taylor for the all-time Giants team lead.
The only downsides to last night’s win were the injuries to LaVar Arrington and Osi Umenyiora. Arrington tore his left Achilles tendon and will be out at least six months. Umenyiora’s injury was less specific. The latest word was that he strained his left hip and is questionable for week 8.
Let’s hope he returns, because it’s the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who visit Giants Stadium on Sunday. The Bucs are coming off an emotional high follwing their improbable victory over the Eagles on Sunday.
Kickoff is @ 1PM ET and will be shown regionally on FOX.
Thierry Henry’s goal just one minute into the match pretty much set the tone for today’s clash with Reading at the Madejski as the Gunners romped to a 4-0 away victory over the Royals.
Goals by Alex Hleb, Robin van Persie and a converted spot kick by the Captain rounded out the win.
On a frigid night in Russia, Arsenal played well enough for the draw, and almost pulled it out. However, they got jobbed by a particularly crap handball call by the ref three minutes from time, which has been disproved by every possible camera angle.
Can’t take anything away from CSKA, they played positive attacking football, making the most of the weather and pitch conditions. The atmosphere sounded incredible.
In stoppage time, Jens Lehmann came up during a corner, and almost connected with Cesc’s cross to direct it into the net.
After the match, Mad Jens and Titi ripped into the ref, and I’m sure that the Gunners will be looking for some revenge when the Russians visit the Grove in just over a fortnight.
BTW, if anyone is watching the replay later on Setanta, keep an eye out for the Arsenal America banner. Word is you can see it clearly sometime around the 67th minute!
Tiki Barber’s 185 yards and Jeremy Shockey’s two touchdown receptions paced the G-men to a great 27-14 away victory over the Atlanta Falcons. While the defense did a good job of containing Michael Vick, it took just one mistake to give Vick the window he needed to run for a 22-yard touchdown with two minutes to go in the first half.
Things looked bleak, when, on their first posession of the second half, Warrick Dunn busted a 90-yard touchdown run to put the Falcons up 14-3.
The offense responded. Eli Manning led the Giants to scoring plays on their next four posessions, including those two TD passes to Shockey, a Brandon Jacobs 2-yard TD run, and a 39-yard field goal by Jay Feely.
The win puts the Giants at 3-2, tied for second with Dallas, who coincedentally, are next on the schedule. The G-men travel to Texas Stadium for what promises to be a huge NFC East showdown on Monday Night Football. Kickoff is at 8:30 PM ET on ESPN.
I was actually at this game, thus the post. I have to say this was the first really exciting MLS match I’ve attended. The scenario certainly helped things. Both teams were fighting for their playoff lives. Anything less than a win, and the Red Bulls would be going home. A loss for Kansas City meant that their season would be done.
Kansas City took the lead mid-way through the first half, and momentum seemed to be in their favor, until New York earned a penalty kick just eight minutes later.
Amado Guevara stepped up and slotted the spot kick cooly to send the sides level at the interval.
Fifteen minutes into the second half, the Red Bulls were awarded their second penalty kick of the night. Guevara again answered the bell, and once again he converted his chance, giving New York their first lead of the night, 2-1.
Guevara ended the man of the match voting in the 75th minute when he completed his hat trick. His daisy cutter shot didn’t seem to have enough power on it to beat the KC keeper, but somehow it did just that.
The Wizards pulled one back seven minutes from time to make things a bit interesting, but after a four minutes of stoppage time, the final whistle was blown, and the Red Bulls were in the playoffs.
The Red Bulls playoff run may end up being short-lived however, as they’re going to face the runaway best team in the league this season, DC United. The home and home series kicks off at 2PM ET on Saturday at Giants Stadium.
