Rubber Chicken’s Dojo

ex-liverpool player, neil mellor, struck a late equaliser as sheffield wednesday came back to draw away at colchester overnight. in front of just over 6000 fans, the game swayed back and forth in blustery conditions during the first half and only came to life in the second stanza.

five minutes after the restart, andy bond put the hosts in front with a thunderous 25 yarder that flew into the top corner of, owls keeper, nick weaver‘s goal. colchester pressed on but could find another goal.

mellor was brought on and with seven minutes remaining, the move proved decisive. he latched onto a knock back from mark beevers, controlling with his head, then firing home.

the draw puts the owls in 5th spot. hopefully, that will be a place they can improve on as the season progresses.

sheffield wednesday kicked off their league one campaign on a positive note with a 2 – 0 win over dagenham & redbridge at hillsborough. a crowd of over 23 000 had high hopes as dagenham opened the scoring on wednesday’s behalf thanks to an own goal.

two minutes later, clinton morrison scored his first goal of the season when he smashed home from six yards after a nod-down from chris sedgwick.

after the break, the daggers had a glut of possession but could not get passed keeper, nicky weaver (he’s no lee grant, yet). wednesday’s lack of penetration and creativity is worrying. hopefully someone will take the initiative in that department.

a win is a win!

copied and pasted from the bbc:

Burnley have signed Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Lee Grant on a three-year deal for an undisclosed fee.

The 27-year-old, who played under Clarets boss Brian Laws at Hillsborough, had a loan spell at Turf Moor in 2005/06 but played just once.

He started his career at Derby, making 79 appearances and playing for England Under-21s, as well as having a loan spell at Oldham.

He joined the Owls in 2007 on a free transfer and made 145 appearances.

dangit..

league one club, sheffield wednesday, received a “winding-up order” which usually precedes a business going into administration. while having money troubles for some time, this action comes after a debt (about $1.3mill) was not paid. a good article about it can be read here. in the mean time, i’m off to find some money behind the couch so i can send it over to them.

germany defeated australia 4 – 0

germany defeated argentina 4 – 0

ergo australia is as good as argentina

luis suarez took one for the team this morning, saving a goal and getting sent off for it as uruguay beat out ghana for a semi-final spot at the world cup. in what could be the defining moment of uruguay’s campaign, suarez handled the ball to keep out what would have been a winner in injury time of extra time. he got red carded. gyan MISSED the ensuing penalty. then the rest of his team stepped up and finished off the africans in the shoot out. ghana did well to get this far but just could not do the job when it was needed; 1 – 1 after 90 minutes and extra time, 5 – 3 after penalties with sebastian abreu scoring the winner.

earlier in the day, the netherlands defeated brasil 2 – 1 to book their own place in the semis. felipe melo did his team, brasil, no favours by not only scoring an own goal, but getting himself sent off for stamping on dutch star, arjen robben. melo later claimed he was hard done by.

“i have enough strength to break his leg,” were his exact words. yeah, well, your team is out now.

uruguay vs the netherlands in semi number one.

continuing with the best sports photos of 2010, this one where atlanta thrasher, evander kane (yes, named after the boxer) destroys matt cooke of the pittsburgh penguins. smack-oh!

lost in all the world cup hubbub, the stanley cup finals have been played and won. the chicago blackhawks defeated the philadelphia flyers in six games to claim their first title in 49 years. here’s a cool picture from one of the games. more neat hockey pics coming up.

the australian football team wrapped up its world cup preparation with a 3-1 loss to the united states overnight. the socceroos were slashed to pieces by a sharp american team. some lacklustre defending allowed multiple chances, goals coming from more than one of them. mistakes like this will cost the australians dearly in the tournament-proper.

the americans were younger, fitter and more energetic compared to  the oldies of australia. the defense was too slow, the midfield kept  giving the ball away and the strikers were barely worthy of being  called that. the socceroos were pretty much played off the park. if  that’s what is to come, then it’ll be an early flight home.

australia coach, pim verbeek, has announced his initial 30-man squad for the fifa world cup, starting june. the squad (actually, 31 players were named, with an extra goalie just in case) will be trimmed to 23 before the tournament begins. the squad has five weeks and a lead-up match with new zealand to impress. from sbs’ theworldgame.com.au :

Socceroos 31-man preliminary squad is:

Goalkeepers: Adam Federici, Eugene Galekovic, Brad Jones, Mark Schwarzer

Defenders: Michael Beauchamp, David Carney, Scott Chipperfield, Shane Lowry, Mark Milligan, Craig Moore, Lucas Neill, Jade North, Luke Wilkshire, Rhys Williams

Midfielders: Mark Bresciano, Tim Cahill, Nicky Carle, Jason Culina, Brett Emerton, Richard Garcia, Vincenzo Grella, James Holland, Brett Holman, Mile Jedinak, Tommy Oar, Carl Valeri, Dario Vidosic

Forwards: Joshua Kennedy, Harry Kewell, Scott McDonald, Nikita Rukavytsya

there is only one a-league player, jason culina. with the others playing in europe. verbeek has chosen some young players to get the world cup experience; oar, vidosic, valeri and rukavytsya. alarmingly, the only young defender to make the squad is rhys williams, who plies his trade with middlesborough. the depth of the defense corps will be a bit thin when moore and neill retire.

while harry kewell is reported to be injured, i would take him even if he only had one leg. he can make a difference, even off the bench. in 2006, kewell was only at about 20% fitness when he came on to score against croatia, ensuring the aussie’s passage to the next round. he’s got to go.

the next few weeks should be interesting.