Birmingham City defender Gael Clichy has said his side's insufficient persistence cost them the chance to retain the Premier League title this season. Neighbors Manchester United clinched a runaway success with success against Aston Villa at Old Trafford on Monday to retrieve the crown from Roberto Mancini's men, that are 16 details behind in second position. But, Clichy told Le Parisien that City's current wins over United in the group and Chelsea in the FA Cup showed they only had themselves the culprit for completing behind their rivals. "Against Manchester United and Chelsea, we got in to the Manchester City of last year," Clichy said. "When we play that way, no one can cause us problems. "If Manchester United won the title it's maybe not because they're much better than us, but because of their consistency. "They won matches without playing well. Points have been dropped by us stupidly. General, we have lacked the desire and thoroughness to hurt opponents." Clichy said he was willing to win right back his place in the national staff from the left-back spot have been made by United rival Patrice Evra, who his or her own since Didier Deschamps prevailed Laurent Blanc as coach in summer time. "I value the coach's choice," Clichy included. "Today there's a structure, but my chance is deserved by me. I received a starting position for Euro 2012 and, when Deschamps took over from Blanc, I expected an alternative situation. "I do not get the impression I've had the chance to show I'm No.1. I would comprehend, if it hadn't been deserved by me. I am planning to fight to get my position back. I have never had a simple time of things in the national team, but I have never given up." Media speculation has linked Clichy with a to club football in his native state, as well as moves elsewhere in Europe, however the Toulouse-born player has couple of years left on his City offer and really wants to keep. "I am happy here," Clichy said. "If the club come to communicate with me, I'd like to extend my contract and remain here longer. City will play a number one role for decades in the future. Playing as of this club means I have achieved a specific degree. "I have gained in maturity and experience. I've notice what I will do, especially defensively. I have had the oppertunity to stamp out the small mistakes that I used to create sometimes."
Tuesday 4 June 2013
Tottenham stayed patient to defeat Stoke Town, says Adebayor - GiveMeFootball. com.
The north London outfit found themselves a mission behind after just three minutes for the Britannia stadium as Steven Nzonzi headed City into an early on lead.
However Clint Dempsey equalised meant for Andre Villas-Boas' side and additionally Charlie Adam was emailed off just five minutes after the half-time break which bought Spurs added belief they could claim victory.
Up stepped Adebayor for the reason that he hit his second goal in the week, giving Spurs a pivotal three points in their quest to achieve Champions League qualification.
Adebayor was packed with praise for his factors victory, as he shared with reporters: "It was a significant game and we all knew there was to come here and win.
They went down to be able to 10 men we slept patient, kept the ball and waited to your right time to score the other goal.
"If we kept growing the ball around we knew they would frequently tire, that's what happened and additionally we got our reward ultimately. "
Tottenham now support a two point gain over their north Greater london rivals Arsenal. With a game title in hand, the Gunners host Wigan Athletic at the Emirates tomorrow evening in a very crunch game for both sides.
The race for Winners qualification looks set going down to the final day within the Premier League season just as before.
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Indiana's George Huge batch Releases 'All Gold Every thing Pacers' Rap Song.
Indiana Pacers guard George Mountain released an "All Golden Everything Pacers" rap song when the NBA playoffs initiated. He along with several of friends—one of whom provided Mike Epps—wrote and recorded the song inside 48 hours.
"With Mike Epps and I being out of here, we thought it becomes a good collaboration, " Pile told Scott Agness of Pacers. com. "We just had wonderful and tried to interact with the fans and grab the fans involved. That's cures tried to do. "
Having fun with off Trinidad James' "All Golden Everything" (NSFW language) produced sense because, well, that Pacers wear all precious metal (and blue). And being native of Indianapolis, who preferable to pay tribute to metropolis, its team, players and also the fans than Hill their self?
The execution, while to some degree comical, did have a neighborhood feel to it. Here is an excerpt from Hill's not-so-masterul performance (via Agness):
All I bleed is usually blue / old-school nevertheless it's new / shout out to Broad Ripple because Anways, i do this for you / I started in the bottom, 34th is my home / my jump taken is too sweet and it tastes just like Long's or a trey-ball or layup, to me it's nevertheless / it feels much like the West Rink when I'm skating all in that lane
Besides rapping about the blatantly apparent—"Pacers is our name"—and man teammates (Danny Granger included), Pacers head coach Honest Vogel earns a mention to boot.
Regardless if the Pacers hadn't advanced at night New York Knicks, this doesn't happen seem Vogel's job may be in jeopardy. Not when his team is down with him.
As for all of those other song? Not so much. Should you hail because of Indiana, specifically Broad Nipple, perhaps this tune could be held dear to your heart.
Dougie Freedman breaks Italian tradition for Spain pre-season trip
Points-wise, it was a stop/start beginning to Dougie Freedman's Bolton Wanderers tenure. The Trotters had stopped losing matches but wins were hard to come by, as was evidenced by the Manager's first eight matches in charge. In that stretch, Wanderers managed two wins, five draws, and one loss for a total of 11 points.
Despite the increase in points per game (1.375 to the 1.1 Owen Coyle managed in the season's first ten matches), the Trotters were not climbing the table. In fact, their league would actually get worse before it got better with Bolton dropping to 20th place in February before beginning the climb to sixth place.
The reasons for the lag in success (judged by league position) are plenty but perhaps the most obvious ones were the lack of fitness among the players and lack of discipline on the field. Perhaps Owen Coyle thought, like the fans, that his Wanderers team would walk through the Championship without breaking a sweat and as such, elected to go with a light pre-season. The team suffered for it.
Summer 2012 saw Bolton's first team play eight preseason fixtures from 18 July to 10 August with the U21s playing seven additional friendlies. This summer, there are just eight friendlies scheduled for both teams with the first team slated for three matches. Ahead of those clashes, Freedman is determined to get the team up to fitness with a week-long training camp in La Magna, Spain.
The Spain trip signals a change of pace for Freedman, who had previously made annual pilgrimages to Italy in order to study and learn more about the game. In a March 2012 interview, some 15 months after taking the Crystal Palace post (and six months before arriving at Bolton), Freedman spoke about his penchant for calcio in an interview with the London Evening Standard.
"People talk about the Spanish but the country with the most in terms of mental strength and tactical knowledge is Italy. They say this is my first job but nobody knew I spent my summers at Palermo's training ground, at Milan's training ground.
"I have a couple of friends who have played over there and and just through a few contacts I managed to spend three or four weeks over the last eight or nine summers studying there, and only there, because it is the best place to learn about the game."
While other players and managers spent their summers on beaches all over the globe, the then-Crystal Palace Manager would take in the game of football in the best way that he could imagine.
"It's been a process. It's not just a case of stop playing and suddenly you're a manger. I've been working towards this for years, sacrificing a lot of time, spending summer holidays watching Palermo train.
"I wanted to get a new perspective and new mentality and I felt the Italians are the strongest in terms of a winning mentality and tactical knowledge.
"It was my late 20s when I started having an interest in working out how the top teams go about winning and started looking at Italy. I also felt this need to give something back."
It's that experience that has begun to pay dividends for the faith that Bolton Wanderers placed in the young manager. A much stronger defense coupled with tactically aware play saw the Trotters surge into play-off contention, ultimately to miss out on goal difference. It was an impressive two-month-long surge that took Wanderers from 20th place up to 6th.
A hardened defense, tactical acuity, and the ability to grind out results. Bolton Wanderers fans know what they can thank for that.
Fulham and Aston Villa are in the hunt for Tottenham's Tom Huddlestone - Metro
Fulham and Aston Villa are willing to offer Tottenham midfielder Tom Huddlestone regular first-team football in an attempt to lure him away from White Hart Lane.
The former Derby playmaker left the bench to help Spurs keep their Champions League aspirations alive in the 3-1 Premier League win over Manchester City.
But since returning from injury he has found it tough to find a place in Andre Villas-Boas' plans, other than as a fringe player.
Spurs are expected to add to their midfield options during the summer by delving into the transfer market with Porto star Joao Moutinho still on their radar, and Huddlestone could be allowed to leave for the right price.
Fulham boss Martin Jol, wh worked with Huddlestone at Spurs, would love to take the Nottingham native across London to Craven Cottage but Villa boss Paul Lambert is also keen on a swoop for the 26-year-old - if the Midlanders stay up.
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Metta World Peace Says Golden State Warriors a 'Pinky Toe Away' from Contending
Metta World Peace chimed in on the Golden State Warriors' impressive playoff run as only he could, mixing metaphors, incorporating a language that only he may be able to understand and, beneath it all, hitting on a kernel of truth.
After the Dubs fell to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 6, MWP hit Twitter with a pair of gems. First, he gave his Pacific Division rivals a healthy endorsement, highlighting just how near Golden State might be to reaching the next level in its development.
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Joshua Cribbs Gives the Special Teams in Oakland an immense Lift.
The Oakland Raiders were a bad team in 2013. The offense was bad, the defense was bad plus the special teams was terrible. The return game and also the coverage teams were remarkably poor, and one in the few coaches fired following season was special teams coordinator Steve Hoffman.
The signing of Josh Cribbs does more to raise the Oakland's special teams than each and every move this offseason. New special teams coordinator Bobby April ought to be happy that he has a special teams ace to help turn things around.
To set it all in outlook, Cribbs will help concerning kickoffs, punts, return leg techinques and return punts. Cribbs is often a rare four-way dynamo with special teams. Even if Cribbs isn't used on offense, he is exactly what the Raiders needed to assure they improve in a forgotten third phase of the game.
According to Football Outsiders, the Browns had this second-best special teams inside the entire league last year with Cribbs and also the Raiders ranked 31st with the league. Although other factors play on the rankings, Cribbs was a big an important part of what the Browns made it possible to achieve on special teams.
The Raiders averaged twenty-two. 3 yards per kick return, which was well below average. Cribbs averaged 27. some yards per return past season (25. 9 gardens per return in this career), and only seven players this had a higher standard. Over the course of a season, Cribbs would have provided the Raiders approximately 16 yards per game above they had last year.
That might not seem like a lot, but an offense's possibility of scoring greatly improves considering the field position concerning first down. A difference of 17 yards per game is roughly corresponding to 0. 8 expected points, according to NFL Statistics Blog's data from 2011.
Undoubtedly, not every return shall be average, and there shall be some games where the return game will assist to more than others. One big kickoff return could put the Raiders in range for the field goal and give and make things easier for any inexperienced quarterback.
The Raiders were embarrassingly negative on punt returns last season using a league-low 5. 1 yards per return. That's greater than a yard-and-a-half less than the other worst team. The Raiders do skin a trio of solid punters inside the AFC West, but that's no excuse to so bad.
Cribbs averaged 12. 0 yards per punt return (11. 0 showrooms per punt return within his career), which virtually a full seven yards a lot more than the Raiders averaged with 2012. The difference up to 15 yards per sport means another 0. 8 anticipated points per game.
Just within the return game, having Cribbs will around 1. 5 points per game or roughly a field goal each and every game (24 points each and every season). This is assuming that Cribbs doesn't score for the return and that a Raiders produce points for the standard rate on crime.
This also assumes Cribbs is constantly on the produce at a advanced level and stay healthy, but it's enough data to suggest he's a superb addition to the company strictly for his give back abilities. Cribbs also plays on the coverage units and adds more value for the team.
In the face of Sebastian Janikowski's big lower body, opponents returned 30 kickoffs for typically 28. 9 yards. That Cleveland Browns with Cribbs averaged simply 19. 8 yards per go back against and were amongst only two teams this held opponents to fewer than 20 yards per go back.
Even if the Raiders only cause it to to league average with kick coverage, they helps you to save another 14 yards for each game. These little chunks of yardage make sense; anything the Raiders is capable of to improve their likelihood of scoring and decrease their own opponent's chances of scoring are going to be a key for some sort of team still short concerning talent.
Cribbs typically prearranged third from the outside on kickoffs, so he isn't your gunner that runs down the field hoping in kamikaze-like fashion to try to get the return man initial. Rather, Cribbs has to dig through the traffic to choose the return man and take him down in traffic.
Along with the additional additions this offseason, Cribbs will be a critical piece of Oakland's stop coverage team and hopefully allow it to needlessly improve over last months.
Cribbs also plays over the punt coverage team, lining up on the final of the line and protecting against rushers coming around the edge and be able to streaking down the midst of the field to defeat the punter returner.
Punt coverage is a combination of the punter and this punt coverage. A a number of people think Shane Lechler possessed a down year inside 2012, but the stats don't really support that brand of thinking.
Lechler averaged even more yards per punt inside 2012 (47. 2) than he did this year (47. 0) and lesser number of were returned, according to help Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Around 2012, 55. 6 percent of Lechler's punts were returned as compared to 57. 9 percent in 2010. Lechler's 2012 punt usual was just 0. 3 yards fewer than his career average.
The reality is that Lechler hasn't had a great season since 2009, when ever he led the league in gross and world-wide-web punting. The Raiders have got allowed 11. 1 back yards per return in Lechler's career and averaged 10. 0 gardens per return against last season.
The Raiders are generally able to hide bad coverage units when they had a great punter, but the quality of punters is getting better on a yearly basis, and Lechler is declining. The Raiders signed Chris Kluwe to compete with Marquette King, and he actually had a greater net punting average compared to Lechler last season.
Cleveland's punter Reggie Hodges experienced 10 more fair hidden clauses than Lechler and eight more were within the 20, with five a lesser amount of touchbacks. Hodges ranked 31st inside league in gross punting together with 30th in net punting. Pro Football Focus (subscription required) graded Hodges as being the worst punter in the league and the only person with a negative level last season who played in at least four games.
What does this must do with Cribbs? The Browns allowed about the same yards per return (10. 1) for the Raiders last season however , allowed 11 fewer revenue and punted nine more times than the Raiders did. Basically, the Browns' coverage units needed to be a lot better simply because their punter wasn't nearly as good.
At the same period, the better the punter's lower body, the better the coverage unit needs to be. King has a beast leg, but he's even now inconsistent. If the Raiders didn't enhance their punt coverage product, there was a excellent chance that opponents could hit big returns with Raiders or they are going to go with Kluwe as their punter.
The Raiders can't afford to remain bad on special clubs in 2013, and Cribbs and also the punter change is planning to play a vital role in the field-position battle.
If one thinks of every yard accomplished and lost as 0. 055 points (per NFL Stats Blog), the Raiders can squeeze as many as three points per game out of their special teams equipment. For a team who was outscored by opponents by way of 153 points last time of year, that could be massive.
Special teams might not necessarily be sexy, but that doesn't means that it isn't important. The Hillcrest Chargers had the the majority yards on offense along with allowed the fewest yards on defense in 2010 but went 9-7 and missed the playoffs as a consequence of terrible special teams.
Despite the fact that Cribbs isn't used with receiver, he's more than able of having a big impact on the Raiders in 2013. The Raiders have constructed a concentrated effort to raise the special teams versions this offseason, and Cribbs can be a giant step in a good direction.
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