Baltimore World Cup Soccer @ Slainte Pub

It is no secret that Liverpool’s record signing, Andy Carroll, is a bust.  Rumors of hitting the bottle a little much and questionable of fitness aside, the Englishman has not produced to the level that was expected of a Red’s star striker.  Carroll was a star at Newcastle, and rumor has it that his old club will not mind having him back despite Andy stating that he is staying at Anfield. That being said, the transfer window closes tomorrow, and if King Kenny’s merry men are going to make a run at fourth place in the league they need to make a move.  Here are some players that a clueless Baltimorean thinks the Reds should and should not sign to wear the number 9 jersey.

For The Love Of All Things Holy DO NOT Sign Tevez
The rumor has already been quickly stamped out by Liverpool, but sources reported that the Reds approached Manchester City for a straight loser-for-loser swap.  Lets just hope this passes and we never hear of Tevez playing for Kenny Dalglish ever again.

Napoli Wont Let Go Of Cavani…
…because they know they need him if they have a chance of knocking Chelsea out of the Champions League.  As cool as it would be to see two Uruguayans playing up front, if the Reds sign him they will end up spending a fortune and possibly breaking Carroll’s own record deal.  It could work, but would the cost be worth it?  Carroll is not the only need that the Reds should address, so back-to-back record signings might not be the smartest business decision.

Stick It To Newcastle And Get Ba On The Cheap
Reports are in that Tottenham and Liverpool (as well as a few other clubs) are interested in what could be the best deal of the window.  Demba Ba will not be playing for Newcastle next season but is expected to stay in England where he can be picked up on the relatively affordable side of things and then practically double his salary.  Despite his knees being an issue, the Reds will make out like bandits if they make this deal happen and may even find themselves with a team willing to take Carroll back.

Wishing for Wesley Sneijder…
…is the only thing a fan can really do.  Wesley has not had the best season at Inter, and rumors temporarily surfaced that he was being looked at by Fergie.  With his value lower than ever it would be a risk a fan-boy like me would love to take, but an unlikely move from the Reds.  Even after Sneijder himself ruled out the Manchester United rumors I still hope for a surprise like this. Any reputable attacking player would suffice.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
With an appearance at Wembley for the Carling Cup Final secured and the huge win over United in the FA Cup, the Reds might actually accomplish some of their goals set for this season.  Trophies and a Champions League berth are what fans were told to look forward to, and the Reds might actually deliver the silverware with Andy on the team.  Bellamy has stepped up when he has been needed, Gerard is looking better every week, Suarez will be back on the pitch tomorrow, and Kuyt has finally broken his goal drought.  Despite fan and media disgust for Carroll, Dalglish has continuously praised his forward and has made it clear that they plan on keeping him around.  It is quite possible that Liverpool does not see the same problem fans see with Carroll which would mean a quiet January transfer window for Reds supporters.

Stay tuned!

Friday,  January 27th

FA Cup:
2:30pm Watford v Tottenham
2:45pm Everton v Fulham

———

Saturday, January 28th

FA Cup:
6:50am QPR vs Chelsea
7:30am Liverpool v Manchester United
12pm Brighton & Hove Albion or Wrexham v Newcastle United

Bundesliga:
9:30am Bayern Munich vs. VfL Wolfsburg

Serie A:
12pm Catania v Parma
2:30pm Juventus v Udinese

Liga:
12pm Rayo Vallecano vs Ath. Bilbao
2pm Real Madrid vs Zaragoza
4pm Villarreal vs. Barcelona

———

Sunday, January 29th

FA Cup:
8:30am Sunderland v Middlesbrough
11am Arsenal v Aston Villa

Serie A:
6:30am Fiorentina v Siena
9am AC Milan v Cagliari

Bundesliga:
11:30am Stuttgart vs Borussia M’gladbach

Liga:
4pm Malaga vs Sevilla

Ligue 1:
3pm Stade Rennais FC v Olympique de Marseille

Chelsea play Wigan and United play Stoke.

All-in-all I would say Man U have the much tougher game. Having seen City play Stoke 4 times this year – I can honestly say that these 6 finger knuckle draggers don’t like to lose and that your team will feel it after the game is over. But – - none-the-less – I think most of England is just hoping the spongebob comes out unharmed.

Chelsea are the team I want to see win it – but really how much do I want to see them win it? Not much… just a little bit more than I want to see Man U lose it – or – vice versa.

World Cup is coming up – so is my City year in review – as well as your first glimpse at the fan’s guide to Baltimore — stay tuned and if there are any National fans out there – French, German, Italy, England, or the USA please chime in and contact us bretholmes[at]gmail.com about writing a post or two referencing your game. We would love to post it -

Cheers all – and another great season in the books — well — after tom.

The perfect storm was created for the fans of Man City and Chelsea this weekend. The perfect storm of pain – Chelsea needed us to win – and even if we didn’t they needed to hang on – we obviously want to beat United already riding our 14-2 cumulative over our last 3 and were counting on Chelsea knocking Tottenham further out of 4th.

City, with the highest hopes in years, were brought down from their inflated pedestol by a 93rd header from ginger face. Neither team played exceptionally well – and I feel City deserved at least a point – but United played 9 men behind the ball all day – and shut down Bellamy and managed to neutralize Tevez. A shame there weren’t too many goals in the game – the pub itself was charged for a nice 3-2 game – in the end – the 93rder was just devastating to the boys in blue. It was great to see the pub -for the first time ever – 50/50 between blues and reds – testament to the plights of both teams I guess – -

So how better to drown your sorrows after a 93rd minute Derby Day defeat than to root for Chelsea? (ranks right up there with getting slapped in the nards) “No way they’ll lose.” – ugh -

Chelsea swiss missing the mattress wasn’t really on my radar. And for my day not to be completely shot they had to take it Tottenham – White Hart Lane is usually a lukewarm place to play at worst. Spurs fans aren’t exactly known for their tenacity or support – but – that team has some sick talent. I can’t wait to watch Modric playing for City next year and would love to have Corluka back at right back any time he wants – - lol – I’ll let a Chelsea boy or Tottenham – whatever they are – talk about their game I just wanted to extend a giant – pfffftttffftttt to you for laying an egg yesterday when I needed you most.

On to next week- Arsenal this weekend – don’t really know what more I can say about that game right now. I’m just on board for the ride.

On all the MCFC boards they are heralding this game as the next coming of the Lord. And apparently they are also saying that it will be a walk for City – I tend to disagree. Nothing is ever a walk – nor will it ever be – on derby day.

The cake walk the last 2 weeks against Burnley (expected) and then Birmingham (surprise) have set us up for this inflated sense of confidence just before a Derby… that usually equals trouble.

The big questions are going to be does Rooney play? If he plays how fit will he be? If he gets hurt – how long until someone from Leeds burns down Bacon Face’s house? Also Rio was hurt in the Blackburn game and may not be fit – - all of these things point to good news – but – City – as has been all year – has 1 glaring weakness – Left Back -

With Wayne Bridge out for most of the year and the other times – Wayne thinking he’s a left half instead of a left back – it’s been quite dicey. Any talent on the right side for the oncoming team and we automatically do two things 1) give him 20 yards to play with 2) don’t stand to stop until we are at the edge of the 18  – and by then – the momentum accrued by the oncoming player can either knock us back another 3 yards with a fake or blow by us because we look like a fence post in concrete. I personally think Wayne will get the start – which is an improvement over Garrido, Sylvinho, or Zabaletta back there – but with a 11-1 tally the last 2 weeks old Mancini may choose to stick with Garrido -  with that said – this is my call for the lineup

Onuoha – Kolo – Kompany – Bridge
DeJong – Barry
A Johsnon        Tevez          Bellamy
Ade

Don’t see them changing anything – the bench will have RSC, SWP, Ibrahim, Viera, Richards.

I love a derby – and with Tottenham upsetting Arsenal yesterday – this becomes a blood bath for City – at home – most important game since the 81 FA cup final -

With that said – 3-1 final – Tevez with the legend – See you at Baltimore’s Best Soccer Pub

To be honest – I wrote a completely different piece on why I “hate” Man U or even worse why I hate some “Man U” fans (not the normal lot – you guys are just fine) -  but then I read back over it and said… meh… there’s no need for that. I enjoy the Manchester United fans as much I enjoy fellow City fans – without each other – it’s just not the same… and that’s what makes the place we all go to watch the games special.

At some point I have to get over this sort of “soccer racism” – this ideological approach to fandom. It’s boring. It’s a community out there – and especially in the world of soccer it’s a community that – in this early stage of U.S. growth – should be overwhelmingly welcoming.

It’s always great to root. And believe me ….at the pub – that happens. And it’s also acceptable and very tongue in cheek to root against the other people in the pub rooting for the other teams. But at some point – and we talk about this sometimes – as the morning drags onto the afternoon and the beers turn to whiskey – that the pub that the owners and staff have created…along with the fans has always been a place where all fans of all teams have gathered (unlike some other pubs that only one particular team). Now… if they don’t have a sense of humor or some sort of thick skin – they may want to rethink their desire to get up at 7 am and head down 0nly to be chanted against — but… I think for the most part… we do as good a job as rooting for each other as we do for our own teams.

Like I mentioned — I was going to write a different kind of piece. But instead I’ll just wait to preview the game later in the week – hopefully someone can knock down a preview of Arsenal v Spurs for tom. especially with Van Persie coming back. Until later in the week – when I’ll give my breakdown of the City sides preperation and lineup for this game… and looking forward to a Man U rebuttal.

Til later this week -
BaC

BTW – it’ll be even more fun to see team alliances break this summer for the World Cup – as the once lovable English fans will run into the U.S. fans. I doubt the Sheffield United tune will be sung that day.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=767352&sec=england&cc=5901

This dude should probably go down – but me thinks it has to do with ole’ bacon face crying at the top of his lungs.

Rule 17.3 – If thouest upset the Manchester United Gods – thouest shall be relegated. All hail the great Red Devils.

I would have to say that this weekend(Saturday for me) at the pub was pretty legend.

Aside from the show the Chelsea boys put on – there was a last minute goal to get the Gooners hopping,  Sunderland beating Tottenham to give Liverpool a better chance and move City to it’s rightful place in the top 4. And then there was the City slaughter of Burnley at Turf Moor. All this happened in one day and lead to lots of laughs and a general great time for all.

I think one of the best things were the times when we were all outside at half – and people walk by to read the breakfast menu – and sometimes we lure them into the pub – and EVERY TIME those people say along the lines of the same thing: “I can’t believe a place like this exists. It’s awesome.”

I have recently been bringing my friend Chris down to the pub. He’s new to the entire Soccer world – but if there’s one thing I know about Chris – when he likes something he gets pretty wrapped up in it. And to see his face there this weekend for a good ole’ classic Slainte Row between 2 power houses at 7:45 AM – I think he became an official convert. As a matter of fact I know he did – we’ve been going to sporting events since we were teenagers and I know now – he’s been converted as an official evangelist of Baltimore’s best kept sports secret – Soccer at Slainte -

It is the ONLY place in Baltimore where you show up at 7:45 AM, have a pint, and see truly knowledgeable and excited fans that represent every team (not just one team in particular *wink at that other place). The chants, the food, the regulars, and just the entire atmosphere were really on point this weekend.

As a matter of fact – we had two happenstance moments:

1. A Chelsea fan got up at 6 AM to drive to Baltimore because he “would never ever find a place like this in Harrisburg.” and it is “completely worth it.” -

2. A friend of mine who is a United fan – had his friends enjoying breakfast at Koopers run over to see if a short, fat guy in blue with a paper boy hat on was making a fool of himself – and of course I was – and of course it was predictable that they would find me.

All of the things above make the pub that we all adore that much more inviting to return to over and over again. Cheers to all the lads and ladies! Top time as always.

Later this week - look forward and I mean – REALLY LOOK FORWARD to my review of the upcoming City v Birmingham game and… I would love to see some of you fans out there that can string 3 words together- get on here and really round out the field for opinions and entertaining stories. Contact Willy or myself so we can sort you out.

Onwards and upwards – especially in the table – B

Oh and cheers to Frenchy II (Seb) for coming in and taking photos -

Be part of our team, Join us at Slainte Irish Pub where Soccer is Religion ™ in Historic Fells Point, MD for every soccer matches!
More photos here !