Keep it ++++++++ve

Yeeeaaaaaaaaaa! Oh My god! I never thought I’d be so excited about an England game, which as I write this at half time is 0-0, but after being deprived of football for a fair while, and still being relatively new to this whole malarkey, it has been thrilling in my opinion! Leonardo agrees with me. It’s good to see the pundit Leonardo again, it’s been too long, he’s so sweet, I love his anAlySiS (hehe! But enough of that). Goal of the season is on!!! Love it, classics
Agger Liverpool. His first goal
Robin van Persie V Charlton
Barry Villa V Tottenham
Anleka Bolton V Arsenal smacked it
Paul Scholes Villa V United
Rooney United V Portsmouth rainbow floater
Landzaat Wigan V Arsenal
Rooney Bolton rooney + ronaldo
Mcfadden Everton
Gardener Villa V Bolton
Second half has started, better start watching! Although I wanted to do my write up of the first half! All in good time I guess!


After the match

I’d been planning on revising war poetry as I watched the match, “That there’s some corner of a foreign field, that is forever England”, the fact that I completely forgot about this shows how captivating the match was! It was a very bright start from England in the first half. After all my moaning and complaining about them, they actually played really well today and I’m willing to admit that. Leonardo even thought they deserved to win. Although there weren’t that many attempts on goal during the whole match it was still entertaining, just watching Brazil was great, especially Ronaldinho. I love all the little flicks and tricks and all that. After all the dismal England performances of the past, this almost looked a different team. Here are the notes I was taking as I watched the match, it would have been better if I’d written the minutes they’d occurred, creating a minute by minute analysis but I forgot. Just before the match, they were showing old footage of Wembley matches back in the day and the greatest goals etc. There was this one save by a goalkeeper where the ball went past him then he flipped like a fish or a dolphin or something and kicked the ball out with his legs, it was amazing! Does anyone know who that was and the match? I’ll give a prize to the person who gets it!

This is what was going through my head as I watched it. If it wasn’t revision time I’d do a proper write up!
Just before the match I was thinking: I would never pay to see an England match, even if the ticket was free I’d be a bit unsure, unless Craigy G was playing of course! But when I saw all the players, I decided to support them and started to feel a tiny bit patriotic.
Ate a pear flavoured biscuit – pear flavoured! That just isn’t right! Not a good omen!
Kaka has gelled his hair back
C’mon JC! I saw those stopovers ’av it!
Kaka! Left footed?
Am eating chocolate and raspberry flavoured biscuits – they taste better (we also have chocolate & orange flavoured biscuits and chocolate & lemon – bet you guys wish you were with me!)
Robinho – stopovers galore, if only Cristiano was with me now
Beckham takes a free kick – just like the old days
Controversy! Flagged offside but apparently it wasn’t.
The Italian Job theme tune sung by the fans.
Ooohh so close from Becks
This is deep dude, Ronaldinho had the number 10 shirt (legendary for the Brazilians) but then it was given to Kaka.
Ronaldinho nutmegged Gerrard and he fell over
I love Ronaldinho’s smile.
39 mins Ronaldinho spins around a player, I shall be trying that on the pitch, inspirational.
Beckham and Kaka have a little hug.
Half time – Innocent smoothies!
Michael Owen comes close with a header – just over
After Ronaldinho takes a short corner England get the ball and go on the counter attack, suddenly they come alive, lots of one touch fast paced footy!
68 minute wow! I had the faith in them, had been bigging them up throughout the match – the commentators went a bit quiet after this. John Terry’s header was some header – awesome. And it Beckham’s free kick that set it up.
They’re singing God Save the Queen, they should change “the Queen” with “John Terry” it still rhymes…sort of
Pure England style: We almost score an own goal. I got confused and was cheering because I thought it was the Brazilian goal.
“Rule Britannia!” go the fans
The Brazilians are going for it – it’s very tense.
Dyer my son, you should have gone for it!
3 minutes extra time – eek. Nooooo it’s sickening.
I knew it, I could feel it coming 1-1. It’s a shame, it would have been super cool to have beaten Brazil and it was a good match. Poor JT and Becks looked pretty upset. Bring on Estonia!
15 seconds away from a 1-0 win, but I’d been saying to Sue as we watched it, 1-0 isn’t safe!
Maybe if they’d left most of the team on rather than disrupting play and flow by using loads of subs we could have held on to the lead.
I guess it worked out fair in the end: We score, they score, it’s a 1-1 draw.
I want to watch the Copa America, Brazil V Argentina. Will it be on Sky?

Pre match ramble

England V Brazil: Pre match ramble

I’m feeling very excited about tonight’s match. Not because I expect England to play well or anything crazy like that, just as I’ve been football starved of late (and miss you guys a lot!) and holed up in my house revising – I can randomly quote Hamlet: “Thrift, thrift Horatio! The funeral bak’d meats did swiftly furnish forth the marriage tables”, know dandy little stats: President Johnson’s approval rating soared overnight from 42% to 72% after his handling of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and geographical facts such as 40% the Netherlands lies below present sea levels (if you’re reading this in the Netherlands, don’t panic – just find a hill…actually you probably don’t have that many hills…)We’ve gone all out again with the snacks, M&S biscuits – they even came in a tin! I wonder if Lampard is playing, I reckon he’ll be left out so Gerrard can play, maybe he’ll have another “wrist injury”. I’m hoping Kaka and Ronaldinho will be exciting to watch, they had a quiet World Cup, but maybe they’ve been saving themselves for this!

I was at WH Smith today buying some pens, oh the excitement – I also brought an alarm clock from Argos – rock n roll all the way! And I was standing there reading the football magazines for a bit and thought I’d share the information I learnt:
Heinze and Ronaldo are good friends – I bet they exchange hair tips, Gabriel has the most lush looking hair in the Premiership in my opinion, I love the way it buffs about when he runs.
Ronaldo DENIES EVERYTHING about dating the ex-Hollyoaks actress Gemma.
In the Arsenal magazine there was this section with the title “Tomas’ firsts…” which I thought was a bit weird and risky, especially as it was under the Junior Gunners bit, but it turned out to be stuff like: The first player I spoke to, my first memory, the first football team I supported. I can’t really remember any of the answers, but there was nothing amazing, no disrespect, it wasn’t Rosicky’s fault just the questions being a bit dry. But I have decided that I should try and work there and interview the players and write up match reports and stuff! How cool would that be!
Also, another interesting fact – in Man City, the rivalry between them and United is so deep that in the canteen/restaurant they have blue ketchup. The executive people are not allowed to have red cars either.

Lastly, before I go and make myself a toasted cheese sandwich, I have a question that even Anamul might not know the answer to:
When Cesc Fabregas plays for Spain, his shirt has “Cesc” on the back. However for Arsenal it has always been “Fabregas”. In an interview Cesc said he wanted “Cesc” on his Arsenal shirt but that “they wouldn’t let me. Unless you’re Brazilian, you can’t.” Indeed, Brazilian Gilberto Silva has “Gilberto” on his Arsenal shirt. Why is it different for non Brazilian players?

Watch this space for the match report!

The final footy awards

I’m not feeling well, so I was sitting here thinking about football – the England and Brazil friendly coming up next week – initially I thought Booorrriiinnggg, then my mum reminded me that Kaka would be playing so maybe it will be worth watching after all (don’t worry Ronaldo, you’re still my number one! Cristiano that it by the way). Anyway I thought to pass the time I’d work on the izzyfootyblog football awards. Now I just want to point out how tough it is to designate awards to people, especially best footballer of the season, and it makes me sort of uncomfortable because I don’t want to offend people or leave people out, and don’t want to be biased either. But I guess I’m just stressing over this because I’m a girl and you guys being guys are cool and laid back about it all so you probably wont mind at all. Just to show how hard it is and that all of you are brilliant with your different styles, take Ronaldo for example. He may have got best player award, but what about Rooney? He’s had a pretty great season, then there’s Giggs and Scholes the veterans who have been impressive, and Vidic is arguably the best centre back in the premiership, although Carvalho may want to challenge him for that. And who can forget Drogba -33 goals Chelsea would have been lost without him. Kaka – the fight for best player in the world between him and Ronaldo. And who can forget the legendary Dong? The point I’m trying to make is that it’s hard to pick out individual players, and football is all about the team, it doesn’t matter how many classy players you have, if they can’t play together you’ve got nothing – just look at the England team. So after that speech, here are the results of the much anticipated izzyfootyblog football awards for the 2006-07 season.

Footballer of the year award: I was thinking about this for a while and narrowed it down to Anamul and Teague. Since I’ve started playing with all you guys I realise even more so than before how good you are because it’s so hard to get the ball from you and then I have to watch you, particularly Teague, score countless goals. I’ve been playing against Teague a lot (hence he got most intimidating behaviour award for his poor treatment of me!) and he has been on fire of late, and was absolutely amazing in goal. Then there is Anamul who is the players’ favourite; Teague put him as his favourite player in his interview and me and Ads were chatting about how good he is. Anamul is so hardcore he even went off to buy a ball when we didn’t have one and everyone was standing around not knowing what to do! So for his skills and dedication and all round football knowledge and encyclopaedia I award best footballer of the season to Anamul.
Best move in a match: Jonathon did the Kaka roll back thing to the delight of me and Emma who screamed and cheered.
Most likely to be picked for the England team replacing both Lampard and Gerrard: Craigy G
Best tutor football fan: Mr Chaudhri
Romeo and Juliet award for star crossed lovers: Teague and who ever he happens to be behind when a corner is being taken.
Best smelling footballer: Aaron Dempster
Best celebration: Joe
Best match: You decide, which was your favourite?
Best stepovers: Anamul back in the day when he used to do them, but then he stopped? Why Anamul, why? Aaron does them too much, no disrespect!
Most intimidating footballer: Teague
Best cheerleader: Patricia
Player most like Rosicky with a work rate like Kuyt: Adam Jonas
Most impressive shots shot wide: Ashley Lowe
Player who would have received the most red cards and doesn’t understand the rules, but tries very hard: Izzy
Footyblog of the year: www.izzyfootyblog.blogspot.com
Liverpool’s Harry “Cool” award for coolest footballer: Please submit your nominations for this very prestigious award.

I’m going to make you certificates and everything! Actually I should probably be revising now!

Quick match report for Thursday 24th May periods 3+4.
We played this in the cage and as soon as I came on I put a sweet cross from Jonathon past Chris! I then scored again later on! This was a brilliant and fast paced match, with plenty of goals. My team (with Craigy G, Jonathon, Michael Gibbs and Yan with Simon in goal) were winning 19-18 and were about to reach 20 until Jonathon hit it over the fence and the match was abandoned. I was marking Anamul and was chasing him down whenever he got the ball and tried my very best but I don’t think I once dispossessed him which was infuriating! As Ashley Cole said about Ronaldo one match, he had me in his pocket. Actually I think I made him lose the ball when I remarked that “This is the reason Ronaldo gets hacked down”, and I think Anamul feared for his safety. Gibbsy and Jonathon were extremely skilled and did lots of good stuff and Yan tackled Anamul which was highly impressive! Lots of good play all round!

I feel sort of sad that we won’t have any matches at school anymore, but this summer we have to meet up and play and I will present the certificates I may have made by then! So make sure I have your contact details and you have mine so we can round everyone up! And keep checking the blog for updates! Much love to you all and it has been a pleasure and much much fun playing with you guys! Izzy
Don’t forget Arsenal fans to get tickets for the Emirates Cup in July – bargain price at £25-£30! (Arsenal should pay me for that advertising!)