Hold that image. It is what sport is about
: technique meeting free expression inside one of soccer’s cathedrals, Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium. With Larsson’s goal, Sunderland held Liverpool, 1-1, on Saturday. The 26-year-old Swede has just begun his third major career move after being let go by Arsenal and then Birmingham City. He is too modest to go around boasting about his talents, but he may keep the video of <a href="www.bestnikeshoesforstore.com"><strong>the best limited edition nike shoes</strong></a> that goal to show any grandchildren. His quality is to be seen but not heard. That is why I suggest holding onto that image. Its beauty was buried beneath invective from another Premier League match that, unavoidably, filled television screens across the globe. Newcastle United versus Arsenal did not have a goal to compare to Larsson’s. It had no goals and few delights. What gave this match its worldwide attention was notoriety. ESPN broadcast it on a global scale after selecting it because, last February, Newcastle had provided one of the all-time comebacks to wipe out a four-goal Arsenal lead and finish all-square at 4-4. This time, alas, there was only caution, ineptitude and downright violence by the assembled multimillionaire players. Both teams ignored pleas from the game’s rulers and from their own players’ union, begging them to behave responsibly. Their game was allowed to go ahead despite the drain on police staffing after a week of mob violence, arson, looting and murder in England’s cities. The resumption of the Premier League, everyone said, was important to show the world that England was not a lawless state. It was vital that the players showed respect to one another, and to their “policemen,” the referees. Neither side at Newcastle was equal to that basic requirement. Newcastle is a one-club town, and its St James’s Park stadium produces a fevered atmosphere. That fever was extenuated after an hour of uneventful play when Arsenal’s Alex Song stamped on the calf of the grounded Joey Barton. Barton yelped in pain, leapt to his feet and ran to match officials calling for his opponent to be sent off. The arbiters had seen nothing. The television replays of Song’s stomp on Barton left little doubt that it was premeditated, spiteful and potentially injurious. That video evidence will probably persuade the soccer authorities to bar Song for three matches. He might claim provocation because Barton is the most provocative player in England. Barton has a talent <a href="www.bestnikeshoesforstore.com"><strong>nike shoes online</strong></a> for this game, but a vituperative, ugly character. A week before this season began, Newcastle said he was a free agent and anybody who would take him was welcome to him. No English club has yet done so, but there was reported interest from Zenit St. Petersburg. The Russians, apparently, would pay Barton 110,000 a week, tax free, to play there. England might say good riddance. For Barton has used up any amount of attempts to pardon his foul temper and his criminal violence. He was jailed for six months in 2008 for his part in a mob assault on a student outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Liverpool’s city center. That same year, he was convicted in another court for assaulting Ousmane Dabo — a teammate of his when they were Manchester City players — so badly that Dabo was taken to a hospital with severe eye damage. Barton has undergone anger management therapy, and been granted countless fresh starts after several events that include assaulting a 15-year-old Everton supporter in Thailand, stubbing a lit cigar into the face of a Manchester City reserve team player, punching a Blackburn opponent last November and two acts of obscenities toward spectators. He appeared the victim in that 60th-minute stomping by Song. The Arsenal player himself faces court action in Cameroon later this month after a nightclub brawl in his hometown of Douala, where he was charged with the malicious wounding of a student in June. We are still talking here of a sport, <a href="www.bestnikeshoesforstore.com"><strong>women nike heels </strong></a> right? Well, if only we could dwell on Larsson’s fine moment and leave the unsavory behind. We would be negligent to do so. Barton was not going to lie down and take what had happened to him quietly, and within 15 minutes he was the spark to a mass brawl on the field. He decided, almost certainly wrongly, that Arsenal’s new player, the Ivory Coast international Gervinho, had made a dive in the penalty box to try to cheat the referee. The ref, as it happened, refused the penalty and turned his back toward the prone figure of Gervinho. At that moment, Barton took the law, and Gervinho, into his own hands. Barton grabbed Gervinho with both hands near his neck. He hauled him up by the shirt, shouting abuse into the Arsenal player’s face. Players on both sides jostled around, and Gervinho, angered and possibly afraid, slapped out in Barton’s direction. His open hand lightly brushed Barton’s cheek, whereupon Barton collapsed to the ground, feigning injury. The referee Peter Walton, an experienced man who represents other Premier League match officials as a spokesman, listened to his linesmen. He then dismissed Gervinho with a red card, and cautioned Barton with a yellow. The managers of Arsenal and Newcastle took diametrically opposite views on everything. Arsenal’s Arsène Wenger saw it as a clear penalty, and at its worst a fight that should have resulted in two red cards, or none. Newcastle’s Alan Pardew viewed it as an attempt to cheat by Gervinho, an acceptable and “calm” reaction by his man Barton, and an outrageous overreaction by Gervinho. EPSN’s spin on it all was dominated by Robbie Savage, a recently retired player turned television pundit. “I was one of the dirtiest players there has ever been in the Premier League,” Savage said. “I smashed into players, but in a fair way.” Villainy on the field, judged on air by a soccer miscreant-turned-cult figure. Maybe we should all run and rerun Larsson’s goal, and switch off <a href="http://www.weightlossfree.net/user_blog.php"><strong>Minnesota Twins #22 Carlos Gomez Embroidered White MLB Jersey ...</strong></a> the other stuff.
Global Soccer: A Beautiful Goal Contrasted With So Much Ugliness
Linear Mode
