Although the defense in front of him hasn't been all that great, I still think it's important for Big Brad to have an excellent match here. He's given up a lot of goals so far this season and I'd like to start seeing him in the form that one him GK of the Year in England. No, it's not imperative but I'd like to see him get a good shutout. Pressure's on.
Just found that out, too. It's bad enough that they ask for more info on that site, just short of asking for visitation rights for your first-born child. Oh, well, thanks anyway, Buff. Will have to rely on you, as well as text commentary from sportinglife.com (which is usually pretty excellent).
May have to listen to that one, then, as long as it's free. Text commentary: Go to http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/, then click on the Blackburn link under "Premiership Live!", and that'll work.
Lineups... PORTSMOUTH 1. Shaka Hislop 28. Sebastian Schemmel 6. Arjan De Zeeuw 3. Dejan Stefanovic 4. Boris Zivkovic 19. Steve Stone 8. Tim Sherwood 15. Amdy Faye 11. Nigel Quashie 10. Teddy Sheringham 20. Yakubu Ayegbini Subs: 25. Harald Wapenaar (GK) 5. Hayden Foxe 17. Vincent Pericard 30. Alexei Smertin 31. Jason Roberts BLACKBURN ROVERS 1. Brad Friedel 2. Lucas Neill 5. Lorenzo Amoruso 11. Markus Babbel 3. Vratislav Gresko 23. Brett Emerton 8. Kerimoglu Tugay 24. Barry Ferguson 20. David Thompson 9. Andy Cole 10. Matt Jansen Subs: 13. Alan Kelly (GK) 14. Nils-Eric Johansson 18. Corrado Grabbi 19. Dwight Yorke 21. Dino Baggio On first glance, Pompey doesn't look like a bad team on paper, with a few good name players there.
Portsmouth with the most of play so far--Gresko carded already, but the accompanying free went for nothing.
Hislop with saves on Tugay and Cole. Brad's been relatively quiet so far. babytiger, check your pm's.
Will do, Buff. Gresko booked on 13 minutes, as well as Pompey's Quashie on 23 minutes. Other than that, nuttin' else, according to my text updates.
From the sportinglife.com matchtracker (my text updates): 35 mins, Goal by Lucas Neill (Blackburn) left-footed (bottom-right of goal) from left side of penalty area (18 yards).Portsmouth 0-1 Blackburn.
And on Cole's goal... 43 mins, Goal by Andy Cole (Blackburn) right-footed (bottom-left of goal) from right side of penalty area (18 yards).Portsmouth 0-2 Blackburn.
Stats up to this point (55th minute, at this writing, and prior to the Pompey goal), and the shots tallies suggest that Friedel hasn't been tested one iota... Code: [size=3]Portsmouth ------------------------- Blackburn [b][i]0 Shots On Target 8 1 Shots Off Target 2 [/i][/b] 11 Fouls (Conceded) 7 3 Corners 4 1 Yellow Cards 1 0 Red Cards 0 [/size] Sorry if I couldn't get these numbers to line up properly, but time's a-wastin'. So suffice it to say, De Zeeuw's goal was really Portsmouth's first attempt at Friedel's goal so far.
Nearing full time, the soccernet matchtracker shows... 9 shots for Portsmouth with 6 on goal. Almost all of those shots (and the goal) came in the second half.
The win is great, especially against Portsmouth. No one else has been able to beat them yet this year, even Arsenal. Excellent 3 points Did anyone see the De Zeeuw (sp?) or hear anything more about it? Let's hope this is a sign of good things to come...a good rebound game for Neill especially, after last weeks debaucle (again, sp?).
Just wanted to point out that both starting keepers played college ball in the US. Friedel, of course, at UCLA, which he helped to the 1990 NCAA title. Hislop played at Howard and led them to the 1988 NCAA title game, where they lost to Indiana, which featured Juergen Sommer in goal. Incidentally, in the semifinals that year, Indiana beat Portland, which had Kasey Keller in goal. All four GKs I mentioned ended up playing at some point in the Premiership, which I think is pretty cool. College soccer ain't great, but every once in a while it produces a pretty good player or two... especially goalies!