Portsmouth v. Arsenal

[HL]

I like Portsmouth a lot!

Portsmouth is a haven for good tyiad-leg footballaZ.

Arsenal should beat them on Boxing day. Portsmouth plays at home so don't expect a 4-1 thrashing--like they got from Liverfool.

It's very important that Arsenal gets full point. Girl U plays 18th rank Sunderland and Liverfool plays 20th ranked Derby county. Both teams (girl U and Liverfool) should get full points.

Chelsea plays Aston villa....................hmmmmmmmm! (no comment).

In closing, just a short prayer to the football gods: 'Please let Girl-U lose or at best draw with Sunderland. (i wudda laugh... )

Boxing day should be fun !!

[OJ]

tough bame they were unlucky against pool..

[Tilla]

Saw where they held Arsenal.

[Karl]

Saw where they held Arsenal.

A game where our players were a step slow and where the technical quality to which we are accustomed was missing. Draw was fair result.

Looking towards a rebound to pretty near very best form!

[Mosiah]

Speed is an important element of your game, no?

[Karl]

Speed is an important element of your game, no?

*Extremely!
...but, you may have noticed I have always spoken about speed across ground along with - speed of thought (playing intelligently), great technical skills, high tactical awareness - TEAM !...is what the game is about i.e. possession and 'taking to the ball' and having it obey!

Benjani and company upfront nearly killed us! One our two times we could have been a goal down!

Speed -Benjani in particular - whether on the wing or the few times he was in the middle upfront tore our defense to shreads. His crosses created problems and his one-on-one..pushing and chasing the ball at/around/behind our defense was stopped more by his being off-side than our players being able to keep up.

The particularly glaring instance where he out-ran our defense, got around Almunia... but, lost stride as they made contact...

...his final touch was just not good enough to keep the ball within distance to steer into our then empty goal. Fortunately for us his touch was poor enough to take the ball sufficiently wide for Clichy to get to it before he could. If his touch was better - speed across ground would have won the game for Pompey!

...on the other side -for Pompey: Kanu's lack of speed prevented him using the very many 'looks at the ball' time to set up Benjani and his other teammates.

*You need all in the package in today's football to make the extremely good player.

Messi!
Eto!
Ferdinand!


...Yes, Fabregas is great! ...and, he lacks TOP OF THE WORLD speed...but, he is not that slow by, say a comparison with Fuller who may be our 2nd fastest runner on our Reggae Boyz team...and, his level of technical skill, tactical awareness, speed of thought/intelligence...TEAM play 'makes up'/makes on balance...when the whole (total player package) is taken into consideration...great player!

[Mosiah]

No wonder you like Tappa so!

[Karl]

No wonder you like Tappa so!

Tappa has the extremely high technical ability, excellent tactical awareness, excellent speed of thought...but, pace across ground is ordinary at best! That one missing ingredient prevents him from being extremely good!

He is good! Possibly the best we have ever had...TOP OF THE WORLD as total package? No way! His speed across ground is just too poor. That is not to say he could not, say perform very well in say the very bet Brazilian team...but, he would be the/a weak link as he would bring the pace of TEAM play back to his ability to at moving quickly...ability to cover ground rapidly too often during games would be at his pace!

...but, look?
In selecting a team you must choose the best fit of players...and, that must mean in each player a trade-off on parts of the total package.

Put it another way which player is extremely fast, has greatest technical and tactical skills and thinks at the speed of light as he plays TEAM...and not just TEAM, but always making best TEAM decisions?! NO ONE!

...but, as coach/selector you look for the player/players who best match up against the ideal! ...Hey, the only sensible aiom must be to have your TEAM be TOP OF THE WORLD! Right?

So why hide/run away from the ideal...and, claim your players great by comparing them to 2nd rate CONCACAF? In my mind doing so is a waste! The aim for the REGGAE BOYZ...creating a REGGAE BOYZ TEAM to be TOP OF THE WORLD! The second best aim - as a matter of speaking - is making the quality you have the very best TEAM it can be!