football rambles

'The thing about the Arsenal is they try to walk the ball into the back of the net', says Moz in 'The IT Crowd' when he's trying to get in with some football fans and never was a truer word said in jest. Arsenal murdered the Red Bulls, but their lack of direct play and short passing game which often has commentators purring was their undoing. It really must be frustrating being an Arsenal fan as their lack of striking and sometimes suspect defending was infuriating. Arsenal did finally get a goal when Van Persie connected with a header on 41 minutes, but it could and should have been more. The second was more of the same with Arsenal running the ball down to the by-line and then trying to walk the ball in and it just wouldn't go in for them. Ex-Gunner and now New York Red Bull's striker Thierry Henry had wanted to play the last 10 minutes for Arsenal, but the referee wouldn't allow it. It might have worked out because Arsenal needed a striker who wasn...

On the previous day PSG had lost 1-0 to New York Redbulls and Boca had drawn 2-2 with Arsenal. Arsenal had been criticised in the media for poor defending, judging by their performance in this match the Gunners defending must have been very suspect and how Red Bulls beat PSG is a mystery. PSG played some really impressive stuff and new signing Kevin Gameiro looked worth every penny they paid Lorient and 19 year old Neeskens Kebano, who had only played three times before for PSG definitely has a big future ahead of him. Jean-Eudes Maurice was first to get on the score sheet after meeting a cross from Kebano on 8 minutes and it was surprising that they weren't ahead even earlier on. PSG dominated for long periods of the first half and on 38 minutes Guillaume Horau headed them into a 2-0 lead. Boca also had their chances but were quite wasteful in front of goal. In the second half an Arsenal fan behind me commented that Boca played like Arsenal, which I think he thought was a complime...

Arsenal take a corner agins New York Red Bulls in the second half of their games. Like most of their corners it didn't amount to a decent chance.

Thierry Henry takes a free kick for the Red Bulls in the first half of the game between Arsenal and New York Red Bulls.

Arsenal and New York Red Bulls line up before their game.

Paris Saint-Germain put the pressure on the Boca Junior's defence.

Some Boca fans outside the Emirates.

I think that they actually call it the South Stand, but it has the clock from the Clock End at Highbury ....

A couple of snaps outside the Arsenal stadium.

Top - The entrance to the bridge that leads to the North Bank at the Emirates. Bottom - The bridge itself.

On Sunday I was at the Emirates Cup at Arsenal and saw Boca Juniors take on Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal play New York Red Bulls. On the previous day Arsenal had drawn 2-2 with Boca and the Red Bulls had beaten PSG 1-0. Anyway, as I probably won't get a chance to go to the Emirates again I took plenty, which will follow before a couple of brief match reports.

New York Red Bulls, who play at Harrison Park in New Jersey were one of the ten clubs who formed the MLS in 1996. They also hold the unpleasent record of being the only MLS club not to have won a major trophy, all this despite boasting some big name players over the years of the calibre of Donadoni, Matthaus, Djorkaeff and er, Juan Pablo Angel. At the moment their star player is Thierry Henry, which is probably one of the reasons that they have been included in the Emirates Cup. As well as some famous old players they have also had some famous foreign coaches, such as Carlos Quieroz, Carlos Alberto Parreira and the controversial ex-Rangers and Celtic player Mo Johnston. They have also been coached by two of the biggest names in US 'soccer', Bob Bradley and Bruce Arena, both of whom have had more success with the national team. Their current coach is Sven Goran Erikkson's ex-right hand man, Hans Backe. New York Red Bull haven't always been New York Red Bulls, in fact the...

Arsenal were formed as Dial Square in 1886 and the first crest the club adopted were when they were still Woolwich Arsenal was based on the coat of arms of Woolwich, with the three 'posts' in the middle representing the cannons of the artillery based in Woolwich. It was a motif that would remain apart of the crest up until the present day. In 1922-23 Arsenal started to use a crest that was similar to today's after first introducing the single cannon as the emblem in 1922. It was a west facing cannon, which appeared to be based on the Royal Arsenal Gatehouse in Woolwich even though the Gunners had left Woolwich in 1913. The next change to the badge came in 1949 with the marksman's motto being included on the badge. This was the badge that Arsenal more or less stuck with until 2001 when it was tidied up a bit and then again in 2002 when they had to change it due to copyright problems. The only one occasion when Arsenal used a different badge was the 'Art Deco' bad...

PSG are one of the richest, most prestigious and well supported teams in France despite only being formed in 1970. They were formed from a merger between Paris FC and Stade Saint Germain with the original idea being for Paris to once again have a top team that could challenge at the top of French football. The idea certainly worked as PSG reached League 1 in 1974 and have been there ever since. They are now the second most supported team in France after Marseilles and like L'OM have unlike any other French club won a European trophy - the Cup Winner's Cup in 1996. Over the years the dislike between Marseilles and PSG has grown and grown and now the fixture between the two clubs is French Classic. PSG's golden era was the 1990s when they had a massive cash injection from television company Canal+. This coincided with success after success at home and in Europe including two appearances in the Cup Winner's Cup Final and a semi-final appearance in the Champions League. How...

The first game that I will be at on Sunday sees Boca Juniors take on Paris Saint Germain. I have always wanted to go and see Boca Juniors and I can't see me getting over to Argentina any time in the near future, so I am going to have to make do with seeing them in North London. On my travels I have met plenty of Boca fans, but funnily enough they have all been Russian or Ukrainian. I am a bit disappointed that Martin Palermo has now retired, but I am still looking forward to it. Obviously to do justice to the club history of Boca Juniors I'd probably have to write a book, so here's a quick history of their kit and colours instead. When Boca were formed in 1905 they originally played in pink, but obviously came round to thinking that this was a bad idea and changed to a light blue colour later in the year. They didn't stick with this shirt for very long either and for the 3rd time in a year decided to change the shirt colour, this time to black and white stripes. The fol...

It doesn't look like I will get the chance to go to a match until next week, but it should be a good one or two next Sunday, as I have tickets for the Emirates Cup where I'll see Boca Juniors v Paris Saint Germain and Arsenal v Red Bulls New York. It was the subbuteo style advertisement that made me notice this event and with tickets only a few more quid than what I paid for Cambridge v Mansfield last season it was pretty good value for money. I have wanted to go to the Emirates for a while, but the tickets usually do cost a fortune. One question though is why is Martin Palermo shown as the Boca representative in the advert? He mighy be a Boca goal scoring legend, but he has already hung up his boots.