Sunday, December 27, 2009

Hull City vs. Arsenal and Manchester United

Hull City can take plenty of positives from the Christmas period, despite conceding six goals in two games as they lost to Arsenal and Manchester United.

The latest loss, 3-1 at the hands of United at the KC stadium today, came after an impressive display from the East Yorkshire side.

Wayne Rooney scored the first goal for the visitors right at the end of the first half, and Craig Fagan levelled from the penalty spot on 60 minutes.

Hull then pushed forward hoping for a winner, but this opened up the game and led to Manchester United scoring twice on the break in the closing stages. United now close the gap to league leaders Chelsea to just two points.

In the first half Hull were galvanised by an impressive display from key players, notably Stephen Hunt, and had by far the better of the play with three clear chances.

Richard Garcia had a penalty appeal turned down, whereas Hunt went should have scored from close-range.

Had United defender Patrice Evra been sent off for a second bookable offence in the second half, which by rights he should have been, the result may have been very different.

Hull lost 3-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates on 19 December in part due to an ineffective formation.

Hull manager Phil Brown played a 4-5-1, no doubt hoping for a 0-0 draw away from home, but it proved largely ineffective at stifling Arsenal’s potent attack.

Once Hull gained possession of the ball, Fagan on his own up-front was the only outlet for an attack as the defensively-minded midfield struggled to move the ball quick enough to create space amongst themselves.

Despite the best efforts of Fagan haranguing the Arsenal defence, Hull could not retain possession in the middle of the park and gave Arsenal countless opportunities to mount an attack of their own.

In my opinion, they missed Jimmy Bullard.

His ability to thread passes in a compact midfield would have made the game a battle for the middle of the park rather than for the goalmouth.

In the game against Manchester United, Olofinjana and George Boateng again struggled to move the ball quickly in midfield, but with Jozy Altidore joining Fagan up-front this was less critical.

I believe that having two strikers up-front and a less crowded midfield might have given Hull a better chance against Arsenal in the same way - a view shared by pundit David Pleat.

Regardless of past performances however, should Hull manage to repeat their first half performance against Manchester United for the rest of the season, surviving relegation will certainly be possible.

I made the schoolboy error of forgetting my camera, so unfortunately I only have the following (unzoomed and rather poor) videos taken on my phone to show for it.

The KC stadium from the northwest corner:

A stereotypically quiet Emirates:


Here is a slightly better one, showing all the highlights:


Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Cities chosen for England's 2018 bid

The FA team in charge of England's 2018 Football World Cup bid have revealed the shortlist of venues that could hold games during the tournament should England be chosen as the host nation.

The biggest surprises were the inclusion of Stadium MK in Milton Keynes and Home Park in Plymouth.

Plymouth's inclusion is likely to be due to FIFA's rules over geographical spread, whereas Milton Keynes was noted by the bid team as being an important signal of Britain's modernity.

Lord Mahwinney, the selection panel Chairman, said: "We always made it clear we aspired to having a wider geographical spread. We have some world famous stadia and the world would not understand if we didn't put them in the bid. We felt we should have a sprinkling of tomorrow as well."

The list in full is as follows...

Wembley Stadium (London):

Emirates Stadium (London):


New White Hart Lane or the Olympic Stadium (London):


Villa Park (Birmingham):


Bristol City's New Ground (Bristol):


Elland Road (Leeds):


Anfield or New Anfield (Liverpool):



City of Manchester Stadium (Manchester):


Old Trafford (Manchester):


Stadium MK (Milton Keynes):


St James's Park (Newcastle):


Nottingham Forest's New Ground (Nottingham):

Home Park (Plymouth):

Hillsborough (Sheffield):


Sunderland (Stadium of Light):


The instances where an either/or option is given are as a result of the committee deciding to leave the decision open and to allow for future events. It is still unclear whether Tottenham and Liverpool's new grounds will be built in time for 2018, and the final decision on the use of the 2012 Olympic Stadium is not likely to be made until after the games.

Lord Mahwinney said the instances were due to differences between the World Cup bid team's timescale and the timescale set-out by the clubs and the London Olympic's officials.

Monday, December 7, 2009

World Football on Express Radio

Joe Curtis, Vinny Forrester and I present a show called World Football on Cardiff University's student radio station, Xpress Radio.

Click below to listen to the show that aired on Thursday 2 December:

World football 02.12 by andrewpapworth

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Hull 3 - 3 West Ham

A good result for my team Hull City yesterday. According to my two West Ham supporting friends, Hull were quite lucky to get anything from the game.

My dad was at the game supporting Hull and he was not particularly happy with the referee either.

I'm off to see Hull play Arsenal at the Emirates on 19 Dec so I'll be sure to post up lots of photos and videos on here.

Monday, November 9, 2009

2018 World Cup bid videos...

...make your own mind up:

Hull


Birmingham


Bristol



London


Leeds


Leicester


Liverpool


Manchester


Milton Keynes


Newcastle


Nottingham


Sheffield (clubs in alphabetical order)


Sunday, November 8, 2009

F1 Review 2009 - The Top 5s

Top 5 drivers:

5. Rubens Barrichello: A good year overall for Barrichello who showed that he can still win. His early season slip-ups however, notably his heavy-handed tactics in Australia, confine him to 5th.

4. Lewis Hamilton: A great comeback in the second half of the year, after a testing time (partly of his own making). Could have been right there at the end despite the car's early performance. Needs to stop silly errors such as those in China, Monaco, Germany and Italy.

3. Mark Webber: Had a number of storming drives and fully deserved his first and second F1 victories. Ironically, given his previous history, it was his qualifying that let him down.

2. Sebastian Vettel: After a brilliant breakthrough season last year, we knew Vettel was going to be a contender. If he can cut-out silly errors like the ones he made in Australia, Monaco and Turkey, he will be a champion.

1. Jenson Button: It has to be Jenson. Undoubtedly a deserving champion after his commanding early season performances and that stunning drive in Brazil. Its great to finally see him achieve the potential that was so clear. He has clearly learnt a lot from the 2004 season when he was the only driver to push the Ferraris, and was just waiting for a car deserving of his talent.


Notable mentions: Felipe Massa for regularly beating Raikkonen; Alonso for struggling away; Fisichella (when in the Force India).

Top 5 races:

5. Silverstone: Not an especially interesting race in itself, but it showed that Brawn and Button would not run away with the titles.

4. Belgium: The battles at the front were framed by the story of Force India finally coming to the fore.

3. Germany: A dramatic start and a crushing first victory for Webber - one of the most popular drivers in the championship.

2. Australia: Barrichello's antics, Kubica and Vettel crashing, Lewis-gate controversy and the beginning of the Brawn story.

1. Brazil: A fitting climax to the season. Nothing was going to beat last season's dramatics, but Jenson's stirring drive showed he deserved the championship. It's just a shame that, despite the intrigue of this season, the individual races were not the best.


Notable mentions: Not really... Singapore?

Top 5 stories:

5. Diffuser: Difficult for the layman to understand, but made for plenty of column inches.

4. Lewis-gate: Just the beginning of a bizarre series of scandals.

3. Brawn GP: A fairytale story that would have been unbelievable in Hollywood.

2. Breakaway Threat: It was worrying times for the sport at one stage this season, fortunately the teams' threat was averted as with the GPWC.

1. Race-fixing: Renault and Piquet's actions will no doubt go down in both F1's history and the history of all sport as one of the most blatant attempts to manipulate a result of a sporting event.



Notable mentions: Schumacher's abortive return; McLaren's return to form; Massa's recovery;

Top 5 overtaking moves:

5. Raikkonen on Fisichella in Belgium: I'm struggling to remember any other significant overtakes than the ones here. Bring back Montoya anyone?

4. Button on Hamilton in Bahrain: A great pass on a KERs car early on in the race which was critical to Button's victory.

3. Kovalainen on Fisichella in Japan: Completely took the Italian by surprise on the exit of the pit lane. A brilliantly instinctive move.

2. Any of the moves in Malaysia: Poor conditions = brave

1. Button on Grosjean in Brazil: Perhaps Grojean has not been the best driver on the grid this year, and for this reason you could argue that the pass was easy. But it is because of just that that makes it my number one. Jenson after Spa that Grojean was not to be trusted, and yet when fighting for the championship he dared to drive all around the outside of the Renault driver in one of the quickest corners at Interlagos.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Radio Xpress American Sport Show

For most weeks during term-time I will be giving my opinion on the NBA for the American Sports Show on Xpress Radio here in Cardiff. You can listen on Sunday nights at 22.30 to 23.30 by going to the Xpress Radio website.

Two weeks ago I did my season preview and I'm hoping to have it up on here as soon as possible.

Until then, take a peek at NBA TV's (slightly better and more comprehensive) coverage: