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Soccer Scene: Carr drives home final nail in another defeat for United

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Dermot Clarke

Stephen Carr staked his claim to the right back slot in the Irish team on Saturday when he sealed a fine performance with a stunning 25-yard strike to give his side Tottenham Hotspur a 3-1 victory over Manchester United. It was the second dismal visit to London in as many weeks for United, who were hit for five by Chelsea two weeks earlier.

When Ryan Giggs put United 1-0 up, they looked in control, but a couple of gifts allowed Tottenham to go in 2-1 ahead at the break. David Silvestri almost put through his own goal when his headed back pass eluded Mark Bosnich and ran out for a corner. Stefan Iversen scrambled the ball home from the corner. Then from another, Paul Scholes managed to beat Bosnich and keep it on target to leave his side behind at the break. Carr’s goal was the only real highlight of the second half. But it alone — I’m sure every Spurs fan will agree — was worth braving the inclement London conditions to witness.

Apart from a 4-1 victory over Watford last week, United’s form has been pretty dismal. Alex Ferguson probably feels there is little cause for concern, but perhaps a few of last year’s stars are being found out. David Beckham is certainly no clutch player and time and again the magnitude of Peter Schmeichel’s loss is illustrated by lesser men making silly errors in his position.

Bad break for Larsson

Speaking of losses, Celtic will be without super Swede Henrik Larsson for some time, after an horrific leg break in France last week. The injury appears to be not as severe as first was thought, but the loss of the prolific striker will hurt the Celts as the laboring 2-1 victory at St. Johnstone showed on Sunday. Celtic lost the first leg tie, rather unfortunately, by 1-0. On Sunday, Larsson’s understudy, Mark Burchill, equalized in the 48th minute before Morten Wieghorst got them home in injury time with a header that many feel (including Celtic boss John Barnes) didn’t cross the line.

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Roundup

And speaking of teams losing prolific strikers, Michael Owen again limped off the Liverpool team with apparent hamstring trouble on Saturday. With Robbie Fowler already sidelined and Karl-Heinz Riedle gone to Fulham, the Reds are thin on strikers at the moment. The inability to put away the lesser side still haunts Gerard Houlliers side. Southampton held them at one on Saturday.

Leeds and Everton had them singing in the rain at Goodison on Sunday. David O’Leary’s boys stayed top after a 4-4 draw in a real end to end battle. Opposing strikers Michael Bridges and Kevin Campbell canceled each other out with two apiece. Harry Kewell and Jonathon Woodgate added to Bridges’s tally for Leeds. Don Hutchison and a late equalizer from David Weir completed the scoring on a day when neither side deserved to lose. O’Leary’s side showed championship qualities while Everton’s progress from being relegation candidates last season, was also apparent.

Kevin Phillips continues to rattle them home. The Sunderland striker took his tally to 13 when he put his side up 1-0 only to be denied late on when Trevor Sinclair equalized for the home side West Ham. Peter Reid’s newly promoted side are showing no signs of weakening though. A trip to Upton Park is always a difficult one, and the present West Ham side are a particularly stubborn lot when it comes to giving up points at home.

Middlesbrough took the third of the Sunday games with a 3-1 victory over Watford. Brazilian star Juninho was on target, as was former Liverpool and Manchester United stalwart Paul Ince.

London Derby

The game of the weekend had to be the London Derby between Arsenal and Chelsea. A packed Stamford Bridge crowd were witness to a game and a half. A second on the ball, was along time in, a first half of crunching tackles and exciting one touch play. As the rain fell and the surface slowed the pace of the game, Chelsea appeared to be taking control. The diminutive Dan Petrescu seemed likely to merge the hero as he set up Torre Andre Flo for the first and then headed home himself to put Chelsea two to the good. With 15 to go it looked like the Blues were home and well hosed. Enter Nwankwo Kanu. So often the late hero for the Gunners, the big man turned the game with three strikes, the third from a seemingly impossible angle, to give the Gunners victory. Arsenal now move six ahead of Chelsea in the pride of London stakes, the Blues have two games in hand, but their wounds of Saturday will take a while to heal.

Scandals, etc.

Fran Fields, former president of the FAI, is the latest to be linked to the many scandals that surround the Fianna Fail party at present. It was alleged, by a former colleague of Fields, that a party member had a large financial debt wiped out by the Bank of Ireland. Fields fell into bad health and almost financial ruin in 1989. He passed away in 1995.

Fiorentina, many people’s fancy for the Champions League at the beginning of the campaign, have lost, it appears, Coach Giovanni Trapattoni. Trapattoni resigned after the hapless Florence team went down 2-0 at Piacenza at the weekend. Piacenza had started the day in bottom position and Fiorentina now drop to eleventh place. They led the table for much of last season and many feel they would have won the title had they not lost star striker Gabriel Battistuta to injury late in the year. The addition of Enrico Chiesa and Pedrag Mijatovic looked like it might get them there this year, but the form of late has pushed the genial boss to the brink and the news can only augur well for Arsenal, who face the Italians in the Champions League this week. Trapattoni, a much respected coach in Serie A, is the man who signed our own Liam Brady to Juventus, his loss is sure to hurt Gabriel Battistuta’s team. The club have rejected his resignation, so, at time of going to press we don’t know whether Trapattoni will be plotting the Gunners demise or not.

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