Sunday, October 9th, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
By Walter Broeckx
Sometimes the international games bring us good news. And this time some of the good news came from Africa.
A lot of people have been predicting the end of the world in January as we would be without almost half of the team because of the African Nations Cup. And yes we will be missing a few players probably. Gervinho will be away. Chamakh probably will be away. Maybe Frimpong will be away if he chooses to play for Ghana and not for England.
But the best thing will be that Song will not be away during that period. Because Cameroon has not qualified for the ANC this winter. A bit surprising that a country with so many famous international players like Song of course but also with the likes of Eto’o and, Essou-Ekoto.
In a group with Senegal, DR Congo and Mauritius the Cameroon team only managed to finish second in their group. Senegal was the strongest team of the 4 and it will play in the final tournament.
So sorry Alex but a big cheer from over here because of Song staying in London and just playing for Arsenal in January. And even if Frimpong will go we still will have Coquelin as a backup defensive midfielder at our disposal. So well done Cameroon for not qualifying and letting Song stay with us.
Other Arsenal players that have been playing the past days made some headlines. Park scored goals for South Korea against Poland. And in goal for Poland was Fabianski. I have seen the goals and not much he could do about them. In fact twice a good finish from Park. I really wonder when we will see the South Korean captain play in the first team. He surely seems capable of scoring a few goals these days. And despite the fact that most people are talking about our defence I really think it is the low number of putting chances in to goals that is costing us most. On average we have something around 15 to 25 shots on goal and only 1 or 2 goals on the score board.
Other teams have 5 shots against us but score 2 goals. So you can blame the defence for letting in those goals but I think if we would score at the same rate as the opponents we would win each game by a large score line.
I have seen Mertesacker play for Germany. And he had a very solid defensive Per-formance. Now must say that the German team was all over the Turkish team. They took a few of their chances and really looked very strong. If you want to put your money on a team that will get far in the Euro’s in 2012 I would put money on Germany. Well that is not something new for people who have seen the Germans play the last years. I think Holland, German and Spain will be the teams to look for in the next European championship next summer. Or will the Greeks upset the football world once again with their counter attack football?
Van Persie was rather mediocre for Holland but he played the whole game so probably no injury there. A big sigh of relief is what you hear amongst many Gooners I think. In fact only a 1-0 win for Holland feels almost like a defeat. The Dutch have had such an outstanding campaign so far that this really is looking very thin.
Rosicky couldn’t stop the Spanish team. But that also is not a big surprise. Would they have beaten Spain, now that would have been a headline.
Ramsey captained Wales and scored from the penalty spot. I’m glad for Aaron that he could lead his team to victory. And the fact that he looks cool enough to take a penalty for his country is sure good news whenever we have a penalty to take. I know Van Persie will be the first one (if he still takes them after his miss at Old Trafford) and Arteta was also a regular penalty taker for Everton. So we should be able to convert a penalty. That is of course if we ever get a penalty from our friends the refs.
Walcott gave an assist for England and Young put it in the net. So that is good. But I really don’t know how he played for the rest so I really cannot comment on his performance. But I think for the rest father Rooney will be glad with the win he has taken from the bookmakers after the sending off of his son. I bet the people who didn’t look at the tip on this site in one of the comments will be pissed off nor taking the gamble.
We can also talk about Oxlade-Chamberlain and his hattrick for the U21 in Iceland. And then we can dream of the bright future he should have at Arsenal in the next seasons. I think and hope that Arsène will bring him slowly and not put too much weight and expectance on his still very young shoulders. Let us not make the mistake to want him to play each game yet. Let us be patient with the boy and give him time to develop and when he really is ready Arsène will bring him on the big stage and he will be another big star in our future.
The other players didn’t play and so couldn’t get injured. But even that is not sure when you are an Arsenal player.
Still another game to play for most of them. So let us just hope that we don’t suffer any injuries in those games.
PS: Can I claim this word “injurnationals”?
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