Claudio likely to start as Man City look to advance into a top-five spot, and rebound from its disappointing UEFA Cup exit midweek in the process. England's Press Association-- through sportinglife.com, among other of its syndicated sources-- is reporting that Man City manager Kevin Keegan is pledging to make changes after the scoreless draw against Groclin away tumbled the Sky Blues out of Europe this season, and Reyna may well be among the changes. Kickoff's at 7 a.m. PT/10 p.m. ET (2 a.m. Melbourne time for me here), no TV available in the USA nor in Australia. Both City and Boro have live audio, but only via their annual pay subscription services; however, text updates are available from a variety of sources, such as from Soccernet, the BBC and sportinglife.com. News update forthcoming...
* * *I'm William, and here's the news* * * [*]Match preview -- 4thegame.com [*]Team news -- sportinglife.com [*]Match preview -- Soccernet [*]Keegan: We must bounce back -- sportinglife.com [*]Wright-Phillips rallies City -- sportinglife.com [*]Dunne answers City striking dilemma -- sportinglife.com [*]Beware Anelka backlash: Queudrue -- sportinglife.com [*]Keegan refuses to condemn City -- Soccernet [*]Match preview -- skysports.com [*]Dunne: We should be scoring more -- Yahoo's UK site, via TeamTalk [*]Belief the key for Wright-Phillips -- Yahoo's UK site, via TeamTalk [*]Preview -- The BBC (complete with facts and figures) [*]Match preview -- Manchester Evening News [*]Keegan: We must move on -- Manchester Evening News [*]McLaren's mean machine targets City -- Manchester Evening News [*]Gary Owen column -- Manchester Evening News [*]Macken: We'll bounce back -- Manchester Evening News I'll try and stay up and do the PbP, but no promises, since it's past my bedtime... depends if my wife lets me, as well.
Reyna starts. Lineups, from sportinglife.com: MANCHESTER CITY 32. Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard 17. Sun Jihai 22. Richard Dunne 5. Sylvain Distin 2. David Sommeil 29. Shaun Wright-Phillips 6. Claudio Reyna 24. Joey Barton 28. Trevor Sinclair 39. Nicolas Anelka 9. Paulo Wanchope Subs 33. Kasper Schmiechel (GK) 4. Gerard Wiekens 20. Steve McManaman 8. Robbie Fowler 10. Antoine Sibierski MIDDLESBROUGH 1. Mark Schwarzer 15. Danny Mills 6. Gareth Southgate 28. Colin Cooper 3. Franck Queudrue 20. Guidoni Junior Doriva 7. George Boateng 14. Gaizka Mendieta 27. Boudewijn Zenden 17. Michael Ricketts 10. Juninho Subs 25. Carlo Nash (GK) 12. Jonathan Greening 9. Massimo Maccarone 8. Szilard Nemeth 5. Chris Riggott
Claudio with a couple of early touches (from the BBC's updates)... 5:27 -- Foul by Michael Ricketts (Middlesbrough) on Claudio Reyna (Man City). Free kick taken right-footed by Richard Dunne (Man City) from own half, resulting in open play. 7:14 -- Cross by Claudio Reyna (Man City), save (punched) by Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough).
7:51 -- Foul by Colin Cooper (Middlesbrough) on Nicolas Anelka (Man City). Free kick taken right-footed by Claudio Reyna (Man City) from left channel, passed. Shot by Nicolas Anelka (Man City) right-footed from left channel (20 yards), blocked by Unknown Player (Middlesbrough). 11:46 -- Shot by Trevor Sinclair (Man City) drilled right-footed from left channel (35 yards), save (tipped round post) by Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough). Inswinging corner from left by-line taken right-footed by Claudio Reyna (Man City) to far post, save (caught) by Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough). City with virtually all the attacking play in the opening quarter-hour...
Boro strike first, apparently against the run of play... From The Beeb's updates... 29:15 Goal - Sun Jihai Man City 0-1 Middlesbrough. Own goal by Sun Jihai (Man City) left-footed (bottom-right of goal) from own half (18 yards).Man City 0-1 Middlesbrough. Created via a cross by the aforementioned Mendieta, upon further review of the sportinglife.com and Soccernet updates.
Reyna with a few moments, and touches... 39th min. -- Outswinging corner from right by-line taken right-footed by Claudio Reyna (Man City) to near post, clearance by Gaizka Mendieta (Middlesbrough). 39th min. -- Outswinging corner from right by-line taken right-footed by Claudio Reyna (Man City) to near post, header by Sylvain Distin (Man City) from centre of penalty area (20 yards), clearance by Gaizka Mendieta (Middlesbrough). 40th min. -- Foul by Claudio Reyna (Man City) on Michael Ricketts (Middlesbrough). Free kick taken right-footed by Gareth Southgate (Middlesbrough) from own half, resulting in open play. 43rd min. -- Foul by Claudio Reyna (Man City) on Osvaldo Juninho Paulista (Middlesbrough). Free kick taken right-footed by Danny Mills (Middlesbrough) from own half, resulting in open play.
god, he is still wasting away man city? i remember watching this guy last year and almost everytime i saw him play he had a horrendous game, he was great at passing to the opposing team and ruining breakaways with his 'wonderful' touch. looks like things have not changed much...
Aside from the scoreline, the stats suggest that it's all City... Code: [size=4] MAN CITY----------------------M'BRO 6 Shots On Target 0 3 Shots Off Target 0 8 Fouls (Conceded) 6 4 Corners 0 0 Yellow Cards 0 0 Red Cards 0[/size] I don't have the possession percentage numbers, but it doesn't seem to matter. Should be a majority to City.
Sounds mighty significant, to City. And freakish, to Boro. Would someone like to take over the PbP duties from me for the second half? It's going on 3 a.m. over here, and I'm getting quite sluggish... body needs sleep.
Boro records its first shot, three minutes into the second half... 47:29 -- Cross by Boudewijn Zenden (Middlesbrough), clearance by Trevor Sinclair (Man City). Shot by Franck Queudrue (Middlesbrough) right-footed from right channel (30 yards), missed right. Goal kick taken long by Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard (Man City). And a couple more moments of play from our man Claudio... 50:25 -- Cross by Nicolas Anelka (Man City), save (tipped round post) by Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough). Outswinging corner from right by-line taken right-footed by Claudio Reyna (Man City) to far post, header by Richard Dunne (Man City) from centre of penalty area (18 yards), over the bar. Goal kick taken long by Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough). 52:45 -- Foul by George Boateng (Middlesbrough) on Claudio Reyna (Man City). Free kick taken right-footed by David Sommeil (Man City) from own half, passed. Can't blame Claudio-- on that first instance, he's trying to get teammates in good positions to take their chances...
55:10 Inswinging corner from left by-line taken right-footed by Claudio Reyna (Man City) to near post, clearance by Franck Queudrue (Middlesbrough).
59:19 -- Outswinging corner from right by-line taken right-footed by Claudio Reyna (Man City) to near post, clearance by Danny Mills (Middlesbrough). Followed by City's best chance so far (Reyna not involved directly, however)... 59:59 -- Shot by Shaun Wright-Phillips (Man City) drilled right-footed from right channel (35 yards), save (tipped round post) by Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough). Inswinging corner from left by-line taken right-footed by Joey Barton (Man City) to far post, clearance by Franck Queudrue (Middlesbrough). Claudio again... 61:21 Cross by Claudio Reyna (Man City), foul by Nicolas Anelka (Man City) on Gareth Southgate (Middlesbrough). Free kick taken right-footed by Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough) from own half, resulting in open play.
And Fowler trying to impact his influence straightaway... 72:36 Shot by Robbie Fowler (Man City) right-footed from right side of penalty area (18 yards), missed right. Goal kick taken long by Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough). And Boro make another sub... 72:54 -- Middlesbrough substitution: George Boateng replaced by Szilard Nemeth (serious injury).