Left back - a football blog

Sorry it’s been so quiet around here the last week or so. It’s not like there hasn’t been stuff going on, I just haven’t had time to blog about it. So here’s a quick recap.

Alfonso Alves scored 7 goals in one game at the weekend when Heereveen beat Hercules (or something) 9-0. That’s incredibly impressive and it shows why such high profile teams as Middlesbrough were after him this summer. Seriously, 9-0. Is that Sunday league football?

Lots of players who have been out injured for a long time for their clubs are set to play for their countries. Step forward William Gallas and Michael Owen in particular. Do you think some players find the week in-week out club football a bit mundane and manage to motivate themselves more for the internationals?

Paul Robinson is still crap.

Barcelona look very good in Spain and tellingly they looked better against Atletico Madrid when Henry and Ronaldinho went off and Bojan and Giovanni dos Santos came on. Those two will keep the megastars on their toes because if they don’t perform these kids will. It’s a wonderful problem for Barcelona to have. Real Madrid are top of the league and grinding out results without playing well. The others all look vulnerable. Valencia and Villarreal both lost, Atletico obviously lost to Barcelona and Sevilla, now 13 points behind the leaders albeit with a game in hand, look out of the title race already. A big two battle again? Let’s hope not.

Inter have opened up a three point gap in Italy. Ominous. Can Juve stay the pace? Do Roma have what it takes to make a real challenge? Are AC Milan too old?

Real football stops this week for internationals. Stephen Ireland won’t play for Ireland because his head’s not right. He needs to get over the embarrassment of being exposed wearing a thong on his Bebo page. In the meantime England have games against Estonia and Russia with Paul Robinson in goal. England’s strikers had better have their shooting boots on.

Normal blogging will resume shortly, I’m sure some of the other contributors will get their quills out as well *cough cough*. It might be a good time to point anyone who would like to join the Left Back blogging team to this. Go on, you know you want to.