Ruth's Sports Desk - Special Edition

Here's my super special London edition of my sports desk. A couple of weeks ago I won tickets to go and watch Arsenal play Standard Liege in the Champions League at the Emirates! I was super excited and somehow between screaming, dancing and nearly crying I managed to organise a return trip on a bus and I was soon on my way. Well it was an incredible night, a dream come true. When we (me and my dad) arrived we got the tube to Arsenal tube stadium which was exciting enough in itself then walked down the road to see the old Highbury. Then we went to the Emirates itself. The stadium is breathtaking, absolutely huge and looks just beautiful. Its lit up with big 'emirates' lights and has massive murals on the sides with pictures of four players in a row with their backs to you and the names of Arsenal legends like Rice, Brady, Bergkamp,etc on them. There's big, old cannons at the front (from when it was actually an Arsenal) and I got my photo taken next to them. The gift shop is unbelievable anything you can think of to put an Arsenal crest on, they have. Then we went inside the stadium and when we walked out to take our seats I nearly cried, its so incredible that I just filled up with emotion (I know that sounds OTT but seriously it was like nothing I'd ever seen before and I have been wanting to go for so long.) Our seats were fabulous, bang on the halfway line and with a perfect view. We saw the players warming up (with Pat Rice!!) which was beyond exciting and discovered that the Arsenal song is 'the Wonder of you.' The match itself was great, Arsenla totally dominated and with slick passing and very sharp play. Alex Song was absolutely immense, Bacary Sagna was tireless on the wing with Kieran Gibbs also very energetic. Andrey Arshavin was very impressive as was Samir Nasri. And Tomas Rosicky played for about 20 mins which made me absolutley delighted and over excited because I love him, he is one of my absolute favourite players ever. So all in all it was a magical night.

London Calling/ New York, New York.

Well I know its been a while but we've been pretty busy with our uni work of late. We're now on the home straight with only our review portfolios (the majority of which we have already written) and our essays to go. In other news, on Friday I received a phonecall telling me I've won tickets to go and see Arsenal play Standard Liege tomorrow night! So I'm currently bouncing off the walls with excitement preparing for my trip tomorrow.
Then at the end of the week I'm off to New York for a few days. So mega exciting stuff this week and frantic attempts to finish my uni work in time.
Spazibo and look out for my London updates!
Ruth

Ruth's Sports Desk - The return of sixy football and excitement in Estoril

Well that sure was a fun-filled weekend of sports. First up Moto GP. The boys rolled in to Estoril for the latest round of racing and this week was the return of Casey Stoner (yawn.) He seems to have recovered form the most boring mystery illness in the world and is now back in irritating form. Once again Dani Pedrosa started the race super fast but was soon overtaken by Jorge Lorenzo. Dani had a right old battle with Casey and although he was a couple of seconds behind it really seemed like he was going to catch him. Poor Valentino struggled in fourth with grip issues but despite being miles behind Dani he was also miles in front of enforcer Edwards, so had a lonely but useful race. Lovely Dovi had a cracking battle with toothpaste Toni that went right up to the line with almost nothing in it and toni taking sixth and Dovi seventh. So Jorge emerged victorious and promptly did his routine of sticking a 'Lorenzo Land' flag on the racetrack. That's spiced up the title fight a bit with Valentino's lead down to 18 points with three races left. Casey was second and Dani third which means there's only about three points between them. I was rather disappointed that Casey was back on the podium so soon as I was robbed of seeing Dani and Valentino indulge in their normal overly chummy lets make Jorge jealous speculation inducing podium love in.

Next up (and on the same day, I nearly combusted with excitement) was Arsenal vs Blackburn. It was an interesting game which started badly as we conceded an early goal then went behind again. But we fought hard and were absolutely majestic going forward. We scored 6 goals and each of them were wonderful, particularly the wonderful left foot volley from Thomas Vermaelen (who is now our top scorer and a centre half!) All of the players put it an amazing display with Cesc Fabregas in particular standing out, assiting on four of the goals and scoring one himself. It was a great game to mark Arsene Wenger's 13th year in charge (happy anniversary) and even Thierry Henry was there watching in the stands.

Enjoy a random photo of Andrea Dovi at a petrol station opening looking sweet just for kicks.

Ruth's Sports Desk - Closure

The transfer window is officially closed (cue the party) so the madness is done at least until january. Arsenal's moves were pretty low-key with the major outgoings being Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor and our major signing being Thomas Vermaelen. Well here's who I would have signed had I been in Arsene Wenger's position.

1. Anatoliy Tymoschuk. (he actually went to Bayern Munich) He's a formidable defensive midfielder and fast too. Plus check that early nineties Kurt Cobain look he's rocking, right on.

2. Danijel Pranjic (again Bayern Munich got him) He's a super fast, clever winger. Excellent at full back and amazing at bombing forward. And he has model standard cheekbones.

3. Dani Guiza (plays for Fenerbahce didn't move in the window.) Because he's the second coolest person named Dani in Espana. Oh Yes. Plus he's pretty damn good at scoring goals.

Ruth's Sport's Desk - Thrills and Spills

This weekend was all set to be fantastic one - Arsenal vs Manchester United and Moto Gp from Indianapolis but once again reality intervened to bring me crashing down.

Arsenal lost 2-1 to Man U in a an absolute travesty of a match. Arsenal played much, much better with flowing passing, commanding midfield and many many close shots on goal. But thanks to some absolutely diabolical refereeing and one very very bad header Man U scraped the win. They got a penalty that shouldn't have been and anyone saying I'm biased watch it again Wayne Rooney is already on his knees by the time Manuel Almunia gets to the ball, Darren Fletcher absolutely scythed through Andrei Arshavin in the box and got away with it and Arsenal had a goal incorrectly disallowed for offside. What a joke.

The race at Indianapolis was a bit better. Dani Pedrosa had absolutely dominated all weekend, storming to a magnificant pole position and in the beginning of the race he once again stormed to the front and was looking so strong until he lost the front end and came off on lap 4. He did however manage to get his bike back p and running ok and carriedon like the little hero that he is (more on that later.) Which left Valentino Rossi in the lead ahead of Jorge Lorenzo. Everything pointed to another epic battle but Valentino suffered an almost identical front end issue and fell in about lap 9, he also got his bike back but was not as lucky because shortly after finding Dani and being passed by him (very very sweet of him like Donnigton in reverse) he had to stop because his bike was no longer working. Which left Jorge ten seconds clear in front and cruising. The battle for the other podium positios was super close with Nicky Hayden, Alex de Angelis and lovely Andrea Dovizioso all working tremendously hard. Dani meanwhile was lapping at one second faster than the entire grid and manged to ride everyone down and with the help of Niccolo Canepa and Marco Melandri falling off managed to finish in a fantastically fought tenth place after overtaking one of the suzukis almost on the line. He was so brave and so clever and I was absolutely thrilled for him managing to save his day. Jorge won and celebrated by climbing the fence and throwing himself at his crew, De Angelis finished second- a timely podium for him as like Toni last week he has also lost his contract at Gresini Honda and Nicky Hayden came third with Andrea almost taking it on the last lap. So plenty of excitement as usual and in the immortal words of the bbc guy STONKING.

Oh and today marks the return of Grand Slam tennis with the US Open kicking off at flushing meadows. Vamos Rafa.

Ruth's Sports Desk - hit for six, sixy football, six appeal,etc.

Unbridled joy! The premier league season has returned and in some style too.

Yesterday Arsenal's premier league campaign got off to a flyin start. On paper an opening game against Everton at Goodison park was a tricky fixture. But Arsenal soon blasted away any suspicions of opening day nerves. The whole team was cohesive, fluid and sharp. The passing was superb, the attacking flow was nothing short of awesome and the defence was solid, yes you heard me solid. William Gallas and new boy Thomas Vermaelen were both commanding presences at the back and Vermaelen was hardcore and willing to fling himself in all day long. Gael 'on fiiiiiire' Clichy and Bacary Sagna were tireless in their running along the flanks once again. Alex 'superfly' Song has made super progress and is really becoming a solid and dependable player in midfield.

The first Arsenal goal was a wonderful curved, mid-distance shot from Denilson which really showed his progress. This was followed by two amazing TEXT BOOK headers from corners by Gallas and new boy Vermaelen sealing a wonderful debut from him, then an amazing combination of passes from Robin Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas, a wonderful run through from midfield to give Cesc a brace which he marked with a lovely gesture of respect for his late friend Daniel Jarque. The final goal was a tap in from Eduardo which made his return super lovely too!

Arsenal are now at this very moment- top of the league! It was a fantastic day and hopefully the start of a fruitful season. Come on you gooners. Oh and some select other results - Sunderland beat Bolton 1-0, Middlesbrough won 3-0, Newcastle also won 3-0, Liverpool lost 2-1 to Spurs.

Ruth's Sports Desk - Unbridled Joy

Its the moment I've been waiting for, my boys have finally gotten their sticky little hands on a trophy. Here is the glorious moment that Arsenal won the Emirates cup. They beat Rangers 3-0 today and these beautiful images are the result. I particularly like Emmanuel Eboue's choice of trophy as hat celebration technique. They should be very proud of themselves as this great little pre season display provides a handy confidence boost ahead of the new league campaign and a chance to evaluate the squad. I must say early signs seem good. Our forward line is firing, midfield are delivering and the defense looked generally ok. Its always excellent too to see the vitality, creativity and huge potential in our youth players.

Ruth's Sports Desk- A Welcome Return.

It is with great delight that I can finally say the words I have been waiting over a year to say "Tomas Rosicky is back." Oh yes. He has actually officially played football again. Hurrah!

He's been injured with an uber complicated knee complaint since January 2008. He returned to training at the end of the season and has been training intensively in Prague. He played the first half of Arsenal's first pre-season friendly against Barnet during which he was captain. I'm so pleased he's back, he's one of my favourite footballers ever and both myself and the Arsenal team have missed him badly (not that I know them or anything, its just obvious.) So I am now very very excited and hopeful for the new season. In other Arsenal related news our new signing Thomas Vermaelen played the entirety of the Barnet match and seemed to be looking good.

Now to Moto GP. Last week's race was at the Sachsenring (spelt right oh yes) in Germany. It was very exciting. Valentino and Jorge were once again fighting it out for the lead and exchanged positions several times, Valentino overtook Jorge with two laps left and came over the line 0.9 of a second ahead of him. Casey Stoner was third for a long time but begaan flagging towards the end which allowed Dani to reel him in and overtake him and even make up some ground on the leaders. It was great. Dani is now right back in the fight for a top three finish.

And finally some sports related news that I found out this very morning. Roger Federer's wife Mirka has had twins. Both girls, named Charlene and Myla. Aaah sweet. How very very nice. Congrats.

WAG Training- One step closer.

I am delighted to announce that my WAG Training has advanced. Oh yes. Now I'm not just a random weirdo in velour pants, I'm on the road. The road to Wagdom. hell yes.

I have officially been in the presence of a genuine footballer on an occasion that wasn't a football match.

I have shared a swimming pool and steam room with a real life footballer. Marvin Emnes of Middlesbrough FC. My mum is a member of the leisure club at the parkmore hotel and as luck would have so apparently is Marvin. So I trotted off on wednesday for a relaxing swim and who should be next to me in the pool but Marvin. My mum said "alright" to him as we passed and apparently he acknowleged her. We also sat in the steam room with him and looked at him in quiet (and subtle obviously) awe and appreciation. We then watched him leave and he is one stylish and swaggering dutch boy I assure you. In case anyone was wondering THIS (left) is Marvin Emnes.

So Spazibo Marv. I truly mean that.

Ruth.

Ruth's Sports Desk- STONKING

Wow. Just wow.

I had a day full of sports on sunday and it was wonderful. It started out in the best way possible with the best Moto GP race I've ever seen. Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi were a point apart in the championship standings and the race promised to be competitive. And boy did it deliver. Valentino took the lead early then was overtaken by Jorge and stuck close to him for a few laps seemingly studying him and planning his move. You could feel the tension building and as the last few laps approached things really got interesting. They swapped the lead several times, with several amazingly close passes. Both riders were flat out and did everything but knock each other off. Then on the final lap Jorge passes Valentino on the straight going into the pit lane in the process it seemed like he had the race won but Valentino being the legend that he is (seriously I think he has magic powers) passed Jorge on the final corner by the tiniest of margins then flew over the line for an emotional victory(his 99th). He dedicated it to Jerry Burgess his crew chief (a lovely man) saying 'a big kiss for jerry without you I wouldn't have survived to 99 victories' which was so wonderful. He also said 'mamma mia' confirming my suspicions that he's moonlighting as the Dolmio man. Little Dani managed to recuperate enough in time to race and came sixth after a decent battle with Loris Capirossi who apparently 'you can't kill with a stick' (thank you BBC man) I was so pleased for him considering how much pain he must have been in. He's an absolute hero.

I then watched Andy Murray become the first British Champion at Queen's since Bunny Austin in 1938. Which was great. Fab news for British tennis. I'm really looking forward to Wimbledon I think its going to be very very close this year.

I then watched the Confederations cup. Spain won 5-0 against New Zealand which was cracking. The two Davids (Villa and Silva) were fantastic, Cesc put in a solid display and Fernando Torres tried to disprove my theory that he can't play when he isn't the best player in the team by scoring a hat-trick. I'm still not convinced about him though. I watched Italy-USA yesterday which was quite good. USA had a man sent off and it ended 3-1 to Italy. With the goals scored by- get this- Rossi and De Rossi. Weird or what.

Oh and more gold from the BBC Moto GP man- "All the gear and no idea." Fabulous.

Spazibo everyone.

Ruth's Sports Desk - A void in my life.

The football season is over. Done. Finished. There is a massive gap in my life where it should be. sigh. Transfer madness has descended and I'm attempting to ignore the crazy rumours linking almost literally every player under the sun to a move elsewhere. I tend to just bury my head and sing 'lalalala' very loudly. I'm getting by watching world cup qualifiers which is ok.

The French Open has gone completely wrong the final is Federer v Soderling. Something which I believe is called a 'no win situation.' roll on wimbledon.

The Mugello GP was a disaster with Casey Stoner winning and ending Valentino Rossi's seven year victory run. Poor Dani Pedrosa injured himself on the saturday practice then crashed in the actual race and was stretchered off the track which was just awful. The only thing that saved it was Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo ending up on the podium. Poor Dani has cracked his thigh bone but is attempting to be fit for Catalunya, I was very very worried for him but I have faith he can do it. Get well soon Speedy.

Spazibo.

Ruth's Sports Desk - Nightmare in a bubblecar.

Well Well.
After seeming to go right Arsenal's season has finished a little flat. But let's not detract from our achievements- two semi-finals (lost to chelski in FA cup and lost to Man U in Champs league) is a good achievement and definitely a step in the right directio. Plus considering how dodgy it looked earlier (pre christmas) a solid fourth place is good, i guess. But I won't deny I was gutted, especially considering how well we'd played at certain stages. It was very depressing watching other teams lift trophies and reach stages that rightfully should be ours.
Tennis- Rafa lost in Madrid. To Roger Federer. *sigh* BUT he has won in Rome and Monte Carlo and looks in amazing form.
Moto GP. Finally some joy. Sunday's Le Mans GP heralded the first use of the word 'stonking' this season by the bbc man and the debut of the phrase 'nightmare in a bubblecar.' Genius. Plus Dani Pedrosa came third after a storming last lap. Vamos Speedy.

Ruth Sport's Desk- mixed bag

Lots of sports related things today.
1. I have been very slow on my Champions league updates. Arsenal won 4-1 on aggregate against Villareal (wonderful games as well, a real joy) and now play Man U. The other semi is Barcelona- Chelsea with Barcelona especially impressive winning 5-1 on aggregate against Bayern Munich.
2. Premier League. After being waaaay behind Aston Villa in a worrying fifth position. Arsenal are now on a wonderful unbeaten run of (I think at last count) 18 unbeaten games with a 7 point advantage in a solid fourth and catching on third with all the big teams to play.
3. Tennis. Rafael Nadal has JUST (almost literally) won a record breaking fifth title at Monte Carlo meaning a very very good start to clay season. Vamos!
4. FA Cup. whoops nearly forgot. Arsenal unfortunately lost out at the semi final stage to Chelsea yesterday. Both teams played badly. I nearly wept. Everton and man U are playing the second semi final as I speak.
5. Moto GP is back back back. Hurrah my Sundays now have more structure. First race in Quatar was won by Casey Stoner (not my favourite rider.) For those interested (ie no one) my favourite riders are Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo (in that order.) Dani because he is tiny and sounds like Speedy Gonzalez, Val because I love his accent and surreal life (he once gave a post race interview focussing entirely on his dog little Guido) and Jorge Lorenzo because of his strange penchant for Chupa Chups.
Phew. And goodniiiiight sports fans!

Ruth Sport's Desk- CL Review part two

Wednesday's matches again presented me with a viewing dilemma, namely that I couldn't watch my beloved Arsenal as their match was broadcast on Sky (boo, hiss) which I don't have. Instead I listened to the commentary on Radio Five Live Sport Extra which was frustrating and hilarious in equal measure- a particular highlight being the commentators' comparison of Julio Baptista to a random fan from the stands and their assertion that 'we're not overegging it he really is THAT bad.'
The game once again started badly with Arsenal conceding an entirely unnecessary goal due to a defensive mix-up between Kolo Toure and William Gallas. The game was exciting and tense- end to end stuff with both sets of midfielders and full backs working overtime. There was a case for a Roma penalty at the end of the first half with the referee controversially ignoring the entire Roma team's appeals and the collective howls of derision from over 60,000 angry Italians inside the Stadio Olympico when Roma full back Marco Motta was brought down by Gael Clichy.
The second half was full of missed chances with both teams coming very close to taking the tie. Into extra time the momentum was with the fresher legs of the young Arsenal team with the Roma team already struggling with residual injury issues beginning to tire. However they were unable to press this advantage leading to the most dramatic of endings- the penalty shootout!
Arsenal won the toss so first up was Eduardo. His penalty was saved by Roma's giant Brazilian keeper Doni putting every Arsenal fan into agony- I was so nervous I had to breathe into a brown paper bag. David Pizzaro scored Roma's first penalty, ramping up the tension further. Robin van Persie steadied Arsenal's nerves, cooly slotting home before Mirko Vucinic fluffed horribly sending the ball bobbling harmlessly into Manuel Almunia. The two teams matched each other with Arsenal's young team stepping up magnificently with Theo Walcott, Samir Nasri, Denilson, Kolo Toure and Bacary Sagna converting wonderfully. Roma held their nerve with Marco Motta, Francesco Totti, Julio Baptista, Vincenzo Montella and Alberto Aquilani on target. Abou Diaby made no mistake on Arsenal's eighth penalty but the pressure was too much for Max Tonetto who blazed his penalty over the bar. Cue wild (and adorable) celebrations from the Arsenal boys which included Robin van Persie in a vest, Nicklas Bendtner in leggings and not much else and a lot of jumping. So many, many congratulations to Arsenal's wonderful boys and to Arsene Wenger and his super cool amigo Pat Rice.
Oh and some team called Manchester United scored two goals.
Also through- Porto on away goals after a stalemate with Atletico Madrid and Barcelona in some style with a 5-2 win over Lyon.
In a random sports related snippet Nicola and I almost walked into/mowed down Dwain Chambers in Waterstones in Newcastle yesterday which was weird. He's the second sports person I've inconvenienced lately after getting my big head in the way of David Moyes reading the Liverpool team on TV at the the Riverside Stadium (Middlesbrough.)

Ruth's Sports Desk- CL review part one.

So once again it's that time: Champion's League week! We've reached the last 16 and the second-leg ties promised plenty of excitement and they definitely didn't disappoint. First up on Tuesday Liverpool took on Real Madrid and Chelsea travelled to Turin to face the 'Old Lady' of Italian football Juve.
I tuned in with high hopes expecting to be torn between the two games and flicking channels like a woman possessed. Things began to go wrong straight. i chose Juventus first due to my long-standing (seriously 10 years, since i was 9 years old) love for Pavel Nedved and the first five minutes were great, he was everywhere like a little Czech dynamo and I happily cooed over his miraculous blonde hair- honestly it's a real life miracle, he can play football for 90+ minutes and his hair will remain perfect and in place, if he brought out a hair care range I'm convinced it would fly off the shelves. Anyway everything looked great until he was tackled by (I think) Michael Essien hitting his head in the process, he was dazed but returned to the pitch like the hero that he is. Then five minutes later Nicolas Anelka carelessly elbowed him in the ribs leaving him barely able to stand and me screaming at the TV. So 13 minutes in and Pavel is gone so I try Realas I have a lot (ahem) admiration for their squad but things went from bad to worse when they conceded a goal and a ridiculous penalty- note to referee hands do NOT grow out of your shoulders.
Things picked up slightly on my return to Juve with a Vincenzo Iaquinta goal however Chelsea managed to find an equaliser (and all important away goal.) So I decided a large gin and tonic was in order for the second half. The Liverpool game descended into depression territory with shipping 4 by the end of the 90 leaving them 5-0 dowbn on aggregate. Juve and the supreme Alessandro Del Piero proved that age and a sending off (for Giorgio Chiellini) are no barrier to a heroic fightback, scoring a penalty but going down bravely 2-2 on the night and 3-2 overall.
Also through on Tuesday- Villareal and Bayern Munich with a truly breathtaking 7 goals on the night and 12 goals over two legs.