Top 10 Sporting Moments 2011

Hello all and welcome to my final post of 2011 (Or first of 2012 if you're in Australia or somewhere). The title says it all really. What are my top 10 sporting moments of 2011? First of all I shall list some honourable mentions who just missed the cut;

Spurs 4-0 Liverpool: The game that started Spurs amazing run of form, but we shall have to wait and see until May 2012 to analyse its true significance.

Darren Clarke and Rory Mcilroy: Both winning a golf major each this year is impressive but not enough to make the top 10

New Zealand Wins Rugby World Cup: The All Blacks ended a 24 year drought by winning the tournament but that was overshadowed over here in England as we were too busy ripping apart our shambles of a team and coaching set up!

Steven Gerrard's Return: Now I know he only returned last night but in the half hour he was on the pitch he showed he is still one of the best players in the Premier League if not the world. This could prove to be extremely significant for Liverpool if he can stay fit and help them reach the top 4.

And now for the Main List. I would ask for a drum roll but since I haven't got any drums I'll just crack on!

10: Christian Wins World Heavyweight Championship at Extreme Rules: Now I don't care whether you're in the WWE or any other sport, to work for 17 years to reach your ultimate goal is something that is worth celebrating. And that's what Christian did at Extreme Rules by beating Alberto Del Rio in a ladder match. All of the crowd in attendence went nuts and celebrated what was a worthy win and the crowning moment in a fine career which shall continue for a few more years for sure.

9: The Summer of Punk: What a year Phil Brooks (aka CM Punk) has had. At the beginning of the year he was in a company dominated by John Cena who was becoming the Hulk Hogan of his generation. Single-handedly Punk changed all this and after his now infamous shoot promo he beat Cena in the match of the year at Money in the Bank to win the WWE Championship and then won the title again at Survivor Series. Long live the reign of CM Punk!

8: Liverpool 3-1 Man Utd, March 2011: Hey I had to get my team in somewhere! In all seriousness though this game reminded everyone how dangerous Liverpool can be. It was a brilliant performance which blew United away. With more performances like this and with a bit of luck (Like not hitting the woodwork 18 more times this season!) Liverpool can make top 4 and get back into the Champions League.

7: Novak Djokovic wins Wimbledon: This was the match that finally ended the reign of Federer and Nadal and the age of Djokovic began. He blitzed Nadal in the Wimbledon final becoming the World Number One in the process. In terms of the rest of the year he won the other Grand Slams apart from the French Open and his total losses for the 12 months were in single figures. Incredible!

6: Mark Cavendish win Tour de France Green Jersey: The recently crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year became the first Brit to win the Green Jersey in the Tour de France and moved into fourth in the all time list of Stage wins. In addition, he won the Road Race World Championships Gold Medal in Copenhagen, which has raised expectations immensely that he can grab gold at London 2012. All I can say is good luck, although being the fastest man in the world on two wheels he probably won't need it!

5: Sebastian Vettel becoming Double F1 Champion: Well he might be extremely annoying by being so bloody quick and winning all the time giving none of the others a chance, but there is no denying how good a driver Vettel is. The greatest thing about it though is that he is a throughly nice bloke. He seems the sort of guy you would love to go to the pub and have pint with. You can also tell he is humbled and honoured to be amongst the names of the greats of the sport like Senna, Prost, Schumacher and others. Whether he can be the greatest remains to be seen, but he has time on his side.

4: Manchester United's 19th League Title: Typical United. Can't celebrate quietly ;) You have to admit though that they are now the undisputed football kings of England. The work Sir Ferguson has done in his 25 years at Old Trafford is nothing short of extraordinory. And with a new breed of young players coming through their domination may continue for years to come. There is another team wishing to stop them though.

3: Man Utd 1-6 Man City: The 'Other' team in Manchester fancy a few Premier League titles of their own and who can blame them. The quality of their squad is brilliant and the strength in depth is something to behold. Of course the sceptics shall say it's all down to the money and partly it is. But money does not win you games and does not create the atmosphere within a squad to challenge for trophies. This day at Old Trafford proved City are a force to be reckoned with and that they can easily take the bragging rights to the blue side of the City.  

2: Barcelona win the Champions League: What happened at Wembley back in May was sheer footballing perfection. It was just incredible to see Barcelona pick apart Manchester United to show that Barca are in a league by themselves. Of course Lionel Messi was star man with a beautiful curling finish, but everybody contributed and the passing was just a pure joy to behold. Best Team ever? Maybe. Just Maybe!

1: Jenson Button wins Canadian GP: This was without doubt, the best Formula 1 race in over a decade perhaps more. It had everything. Heavy rain, delays, crashes magnificent overtaking and overall pure motor racing. When the Safety Car came in at the end of lap 40 of 70 Sebastian Vettel was comfortably leading and Jenson was last after colliding with his team mate Lewis Hamilton which forced him out of the race, struggled on his tyres, had to cope with the almost 2 hour rain delay, and then collided with Fernado Alonso which got himself a puncture thus dropping down to last. What happened next was the best driving I have ever seen in my lifetime. He showed bravery and huge amounts of race craft by passing all of the pack including Michael Schumacher who was having his best race since his comeback and then hunting down Vettel. The most incredible thing was that on the last lap he basically crushed Vettel mentally and he made an rare unforced error which gifted Button the win. An incredible race, an incredible win and no doubt my top sporting moment of 2011.

Thanks alot for reading and I hope that you have a very happy New Year. 2011 has been a great year for me and I hope it has been for you too, whilst I'm sure you'll join me in saying: Bring on 2012!

So until next time, The Outsider is Out! :)

The Curious Case of Chelsea FC

Welcome all to my first blog post in almost a month. The last time I posted Chelsea was in the midst of a mini-crisis. Now, even with that out of the way doubts still remain.

As I speak, they are six points behind Man City who have a game in hand. Yet all respectable pundits seem to be writing them off for the title. At first you might think this is truly ridiculous, but if you further you can see why.

One of the main reasons is that their squad overall is too old. I know people bang on about this but it's true. Their average age is roughly 28 and that includes players like Terry, Drogba and Ivanovic all not known for their blistering pace. This in turn limits there tactical options. They can't play the high line that Andre Villas Boas would prefer to play, because they're picked off almost every single time. Now they have reverted back to the old ways things have got better but problems still remain.

When you think about it, who really so far has had a good season for Chelsea? Apart from Daniel Sturridge, who has been outstanding, everyone else has been extremely average, if not worse. Chelsea fans are probably screaming Juan Mata right now, but what has he really done? We have seen glimpses of brilliance but nothing in the really big games. And please don't anybody mention the Man City game. Granted Chelsea played much better, but got lucky in the process. There was no way Chelsea or Mata was breaking down that City defence for the second time that night, even when they were down to ten men. Chelsea couldn't find the answer until they were gifted a penalty, which was a bit harsh in my opinion. But I suppose you make your own luck sometimes right? Drogba is coming slowing back to form, but in the game against Wigan last night; he seemed thoroughly disinterested and extremely ineffective. Heck, Fernando Torres could've done better (Actually forget I just said that)!

Don't forget it's the African Cup of Nations next month, so Drogba and Kalou will be away for a few weeks, which will leave the manager with a huge decision to make. Does he give Sturridge a go as the main centre forward, without really knowing if he's more effective there than his current wide position in the 4-3-3 formation, or does he go back to Torres and we all know the problems he has got at the moment! Mainly not being able to kick a ball properly, let alone score!

On a quick side note, an interesting fact for you. Currently, Fernando Torres has scored more league goals for Liverpool (four) this calendar year than for Chelsea (three). Torres was at Liverpool for a month and has been at Chelsea for 11 months. Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Back to business and the final problem with Chelsea is that notion that all the purists of the game shiver at the prospect: Player Power. It's well known that Jose Mourinho had his favourites during his time at Chelsea mainly being Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Cech etc. Ever since he left, ever single managerial reign since bar Carlo Ancellotti has been dubbed with infighting and battle for control of the club. Leaks from many sources have been frequent recently which has led to the banning of Academy players from the main training. I wouldn't be too disheartened by this as an academy player. It means there's no chance of Ashley Cole "accidently" shooting you with a rifle. Unfortunately the bigger and more influential players can't seem to take no for an answer and they will have their way and play their way even if it can be completely ineffective. It has to be the mangers fault in some of the player’s eyes, although to be fair that's probably the same at any football club these days if things are going badly.

None of the younger players have the guts to stand up to them especially John Terry. I'm sorry but Terry should've been replaced ages ago. He's got no pace, less and less movement every game and looks like he's going to f**k up every tackle he goes into. The England game against Spain in which he didn't play in showed that he's no longer needed either as 1st choice defender for his country or for his leadership either. There are new young leaders coming through like Phil Jones Jack Rodwell and others, which is what we will need at the Euros. Also soon enough, Terry might be a convicted racist but that remains to be seen. One we do know is, although the fans have that banner: JT, Captain Leader Legend, I think everyone outside Chelsea can see that he is nasty piece of work, thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread and certainly not a legend.

And no those huddles he seems to conduct at the end of every game Chelsea scrape through to win is not leading. That's acting to try and show a united club. The fact is that Chelsea has been a divided club for a long time and it might finally be starting to cost them.

Thanks for reading. If I don't post again before, I hope you all have a very merry christmas and that it is prosperous and happy for all (I hope especially you get all the presents you want and that your favourite team gets three points!) Stay tuned because before the end of the year I shall be compiling my list of the Top Ten Sporting Moments of the Year

So until next time, The Outsider is Out!