Schumacher punished for ambitious final corner move

Six races into his comeback and Michael Schumacher has had to deal with the media’s claims that he is well past his sell by date.

Three years out of your day job will mean you are likely to take some serious time to get back up to speed, but saddled with a lack of testing and an underperforming car, Schumacher’s comeback continues to be ambling rather than racing towards success.

But Schumacher’s performance in this weekends Monaco Grand Prix proves there is still life in the seven times world champion..

For it was his wild lunge past Fernando Alonso on the last corner on the last lap that was to be the major talking point of the race.

After a stop start grand prix blighted by constant safety cars, Schumacher had every reason to be pleased with himself.

He’d beaten his teammate Nico Rosberg for the second race in succession and had performed one of the few on track overtaking manoeuvres on a half asleep Alonso, proving the wiley old fox has lost none of his cunning.

But unfortunately for Schumacher, and most of his adoring fans, the FIA saw fit to alter the results of the race a whole two hours later, citing a little known and quite frankly baffling rule to bump Schumacher 20 seconds down the finishing order, thus taking him out of the points.

It was another confusing end of the weekend for Formula 1, once again embroiled in controversy.

Race director Charlie Whiting quite rightly dispatched the safety car due to a frightening accident between Karun Chandhok and Jarno Trulli on lap 75.

And with just four laps left it appeared like the race would be ended behind the safety car.

Yet on the final lap the safety car pulled in leaving the remaining drivers to negotiate the final sequence of corners under green flag conditions.

And Schumacher took advantage of this to dive underneath Alonso, who appeared to be caught completely off guard.

But as it turns out, the safety car pulling in on the final lap, still means the race is over. Despite the green flags flying signifying race conditions, the race was effectively finished in yellow flag conditions.

Now in previous seasons the ruling would not have caused a problem. But since the start of the season the FIA adopted the rules of their American counterparts, allowing overtaking to happen after a designated line before the final corner, as opposed to previous seasons where the drivers were forced to wait until the start/finish line before making their moves.

This ruling has arguably spiced up the restarts a little more, making it more likely for a driver to be punished for not anticipating the jump.

Yet the ruling that caused Schumacher to lose his points appears to be linked to the former rules to restarts.

It’s madness to punish Schumacher for a fantastic piece of opportunistic driving, and his punishment certainly didn’t fit the crime. The most the stewards, led by former nemesis Damon Hill, should have done was to at least switch the two drivers positions on track.

But once again the FIA didn’t see it to be punishment enough, instead giving Schumacher a 20 second time penalty (effectively a drive through penalty) to add on to his final race time.

So what happened was Schumacher got given a drive through penalty, normally reserved for drivers punished for overtaking under waved yellow flags, for overtaking a driver whilst racing when it was legal.

Mercedes quite rightly appealed the ruling, but as McLaren found in Spa 2008, you cannot appeal a drive through penalty.

So the result will stand, but with any luck, common sense will prevail and at least make sure that an incident like this can never happen again.

But common sense is not a word in the FIA’s vocabulary, and it seems unlikely that the Monaco Grand Prix will be the last race to end under controversial circumstances.

It seems to me that this is their politically correct way to describe a game that is, in fact, boring.

Using last night’s Europa League final as a prime example we were constantly forced to listen to Five commentator Dave Woods tell us that the game was a thoroughly absorbing affair.

I guess that would be true to a Fulham fan, who like myself when Reading were agonisingly close to a trip to Wembley in this seasons FA Cup before submitting to Aston Villa in the quarter final, spent the game on the edge of their seat, shaking with nerves, and biting their nails dangerously close to the skin.

But to a casual observer the game overall was boring.

Atletico Madrid opting to sulk their way through most of the game in a typically lackluster performance that has defined their disappointing season, whilst Fulham whilst at times played some good attacking football and really should have won the game, opted instead to play for extra time and subsequently penalties.

Instead due to an ‘absorbing’ display by Fulham, they were eventually caught out by the superior class that Atletico had exerted on them once Fulham’s one true attacking playmaker in Damien Duff was replaced by Manchester United reject Erik Nevland.

Extra time was such a cagey affair with both teams seemingly too afraid to leave the centre circle, almost making me beg the question. Has their ever been an exciting game?

It was an interesting game, but thanks to the slow tempo, half hearted performance by Atletico and Fulham failing to capitalise on their opponents, absorbing it wasn’t.

Diego Forlan celebrates his dramatic extra time winner

The clock ticked six minutes past ten on a dark and miserable Wednesday night in Hamburg when Diego Forlan’s deflected shot trickled past the outstretched hand of Mark Schwarzer, handing Atletico Madrid the inaugural Europa League trophy.

This was also the time that Fulham joined the long list of heroic British losers.

We’ve been here time and time again and perhaps this tag better suits a football club like Fulham, after all to look back on history and see the name Fulham up there amongst Europe’s elite clubs as the first ever winner of the UEFA Europa League just doesn’t seem right does it?

Instead, many years from now, when people look back on the rebranded Europa League, they will see the name of Atletico Madrid engraved on the trophy as the inaugural champion.

It would hardly seem right having a club like Fulham up there, a team that wholly represents what UEFA and Michel Platini stand against.

For Fulham are broke, and Mohammed Al-Fayed is not going to be around forever to keep them afloat. In fact prior to this season the club was bleeding money left, right and centre. Saved only by the fairytale run in a competition that Platini et al are trying to stop clubs like Fulham entering.

They had their chances to win, Simon Davies came agonisingly close to doubling their lead during a dominant spell of possession, but ultimately fell to a superior Spanish counterpart.

But during this final, the stupidity of football emerged once again, with the inclusion of Bobby Zamora. Yes, he has had what is probably the finest season of his professional career, but his inclusion in the starting lineup only stood to dent Fulham’s chances, not carry them to victory.

For 55 minutes we were made to watch Zamora run gingerly round the field, unable to chase after the ball and was clearly nowhere near match fit. But whilst the media were too busy praising his ‘heroic’ effort, they were oblivious to the ineffectiveness of his play.

We all saw what happened with Wayne Rooney when Manchester United, in a fit of desperation, brought him back way too early when faced with a bunch of must win games.

He was a yard behind the games, performed at a level far below what he had been playing at prior to the injury, and spent most of the game strolling round the field, if they wanted someone like that they may as well have started Dimitar Berbatov, because at least he was fit.

Persisting with Rooney for so long meant it was almost like United were playing with ten and a half men, and that’s pretty much what Fulham looked like last night.

And with Zamora leading the line as the lone striker it was little wonder that they found chances so few and far between during the early stages of the game.

Fulham’s performance was the result of a catalogue in bad decisions. Every change seemed to weaken the team, instead of strengthen it.

Clint Dempsey did arguably a better job than the ailing Zamora when he came on, but once Damien Duff had departed for the ineffectual Erik Nevland, in his final game for the club, the tie looked all but up.

Whilst also unfit, Duff had looked like Fulham’s best chance for victory, covering so much ground and almost always being the heart of an attacking move.

However once Nevland came on, the pendulum swung slowly towards Madrid, with Fulham’s attacking threat gone, they could finally assert their authority on the game, whilst Fulham slipped further and further back before ultimately conceding.

All Fulham need to do was to keep attacking, Atletico’s players looked largely disinterested for much of the game and were there for the taking.

But to replace a winger with a striker who has the pace to make Teddy Sheringham look like Usain Bolt and the touch akin to someone with rubber boots, the chance for a quick counter attack was gone and eventually, Atletico’s quality paid off with Forlan’s clever flick cruelly richocheting off the unfortunate Brede Hangeland’s leg to send the adopted home teams fans into rapturous applause.

It would have been a great story for Fulham to win a competion that, due to the incredible double standards of the media, suddenly became important again, when only weeks before the Europa League was being written off as a mickey mouse tournament.

But ultimately, the final in Hamburg proved to be a bridge too far and once again we were saddled with the British sob story, went down heroically. So near and yet so far.

With just one of the ‘big four’ left in the competition it’s shaping up to be another unpredictable competition and we could see another unfancied team lifting the trophy at Wembley in May like Portsmouth did on their fairytale run to the cup in 2008.

In previous years it’s been generally accepted that the winner will come from one of four clubs, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal.

But with all but Chelsea having succumbed to defeat in previous rounds, the cup is anyone’s to win this year and with only four of the eight sides having lifted the famous trophy before, we could see a new team engraved on the base come May.

And the way the draw has worked out for this weekend’s quarter final we could quite conceivably see a few shocks.

Kicking off the weekend is Portsmouth vs. Birmingham City and what a story it would be for Portsmouth, dogged by off the field problems and inevitable relegation, to battle for a place at Wembley in the FA Cup semis.

No game, especially for Portsmouth, is ever easy and Birmingham are likely to put up a fight and will be keen themselves for a run at cup glory after an excellent season back in the Premier League.

And with an excellent defensive record compared to their opponents Birmingham will really fancy their chances of a place in the semi finals.

Later that evening eight time winner Tottenham Hotspur travel to Craven Cottage to face Roy Hodgson’s Fulham.

On paper Spurs should be favourites, but as everyone knows the game is not played on paper, and Fulham playing in their own back yard will be as difficult an opponent as anyone.

Fulham have only one final appearance to their credit, finishing runners up to West Ham in 1975, and now is as good a chance as any to go one better. They certainly have the ability and team, and Roy Hodgson has worked wonders since taking over in December 2007.

Sunday’s action sees Reading, the lowest ranked team and only Championship side remaining in the competition, try to continue their fairytale run by overcoming Aston Villa at the Madejski Stadium.

After seeing off Liverpool, Burnley and West Brom in previous rounds Reading know they face an extremely tough opponent in Aston Villa, who will be looking to FA Cup glory to make up for the disappointment of losing last weekend’s Carling Cup final.

But the Royals have home field advantage for this one and the Madejski Stadium is once again starting to look like the fortress it once was in seasons past after an horrific run of ten months without a win there.

One of their influential players, Jobi McAnuff, will be missing after picking up a red card in a bizarre incident following the Royals’ fifth round replay win at West Brom. But luckily for them Jimmy Kebe has chosen a great time to be in the form of his life and should cause problems for Villa down the flanks.

And with Gylfi Sigurdsson on the pitch the Royals will always pose a threat against their higher ranked opposition.

The last of the games on Sunday is also too close to call. Chelsea are understandably heavy favourites for the Cup but they will face a tough task when they entertain the much unfancied Stoke City.

And Stoke will be looking to bounce back after a difficult weekend losing at home to Arsenal and that tackle which saw Ryan Shawcross shatter Aaron Ramsey’s leg in an accidental challenge.

Chelsea haven’t been firing on all cylinders recently, and it’ll be interesting to see how last weekend’s mauling at home to Manchester City will affect them.

It’s possible that Carlo Ancelotti will have his eyes on the Champions League and Premier League battles ahead and this creates a bigger chance for Stoke to upset them.

All in all it’s going to be a great weekend of football and with the competition throwing up all kinds of upsets so far, don’t be too surprised to see one of the big guns fall.

Predictions:

Portsmouth 0 – 1 Birmingham City
Fulham 1 – 2 Tottenham Hotspur
Reading 2 – 1 Aston Villa
Chelsea 1 – 1 Stoke City

Should someone like Theo Walcott be in the England side ahead of more deserving players?

When he arrived in a blaze of glory following England’s embarrassing failure to qualify for Euro 2008, Fabio Capello made the claim that he would favour picking players on form rather than their reputation.

But time and time again this claim seems to have gone unnoticed and unchallenged and you only need to look at the England team the other night to see that Capello is just the same as every other England manager.

The most obvious example has to be England’s right hand side. All season the form players in the Premier League have been Tottenham Hotspur’s Aaron Lennon and Aston Villa’s James Milner.

And while unfortunately Lennon has been out with a groin injury since December, James Milner has been one of the best players in the league this season, just ask anyone playing Fantasy Football, but in the friendly against Egypt he was once again resigned to a role on the substitute’s bench, whilst his place was taken by Theo Walcott.

The same Theo Walcott who’s performances have been lighting up the Arsenal side all season, oh wait I think I’ve made a mistake right there. Walcott has only managed five starts for his side all season, and in only one of those games has he made the full 90 minutes.

Where’s the sense in playing a guy, who is clearly nowhere near match fitness and nowhere near the form that should make him a candidate to go to the World Cup.

Last night Walcott was once again disappointing, showing the country that all he is is a one trick pony, his only real asset being his pace.

Compare that to someone like Lennon who has not only pace, but trickery and his final ball is improving each time he plays, or David Beckham, who while lacking the pace and skill still has an outstanding final product.

Then look at the rest of the lineup from the Egypt game, John Terry is hardly a man in form, with the Wayne Bridge affair hanging over his head and a couple of really poor performances in the league.

Why should he merit a place in the starting lineup when you have Ryan Shawcross waiting in the wings after another superb run of games for Stoke. But once again it was the usual suspects, if Ferdinand or Terry can’t play, then it’s Matthew Upson who steps in.

England were a much better side once Michael Carrick had replaced Frank Lampard in the midfield, which allowed Gareth Barry, another man not in top form for his club, to push forward.

Even if Carrick, or another midfielder is on the form of his life down the stretch, the chances are he won’t get a look in, because even if Lampard is in the biggest slump in his life, everyone knows that Capello won’t bother to drop him.

Despite there still being three months until the World Cup, barring any major injuries and a few broken metatarsals here and there, everybody already knows what the World Cup squad is going to look like.

It won’t matter which player on the fringes has a fantastic run of form at the end of the season because the chances are Capello’s mind has already been made up.

Canada celebrate winning gold in Vancouver

So there we have it, a fortnight of great sporting drama is complete, the Olympic flame has been extinguished and the IOC flag taken down to be stored in the loft ahead of the London games in 2012.

And while the host nation won a record 14 gold medals, one gold medal in particular was as inevitable as the lack of snow in Vancouver.

The women’s ice hockey tournament once again came to the most predictable of conclusions in the most predictable of competitions, with the Canadian women’s team striking gold for the third time in a row.

Meanwhile their male counterparts contested an exciting tournament full of twists, turns and surprises, culminating in a dramatic battle for the gold between Canada and the United States.

And although both tournaments had the same match up and outcome in the gold medal games, it was the men’s game that captured the imagination because the all North American affair was unexpected, unlike the inevitable meeting that the women had.

Who really expected the Canadians to tear apart the pre tournament favourites Russia? Or the Americans who destroyed Finland, the Torino silver medallists, in the first period of their semi final, just days after scraping past the unfancied Switzerland team.

And what about the final result? The United States team were the ones everyone was talking about as favourites to take gold, having resoundingly beaten the Canadian team in their own backyard just a week earlier.

However in women’s ice hockey these two nations have swept all before them, taking gold and silver at every Olympic Games and World Championships they’ve participated, well with the exception of the Torino Olympics in 2006.

But it’s pretty much fair to say that the 2006 games were a fluke when their stranglehold on women’s hockey was somehow (and somewhat temporarily) broken by Sweden, who shocked a below par United States in the semi finals, riding the coattails of an inspired goaltending performance despite getting heavily out shot.

But when push came to shove in the gold medal game they were once again thoroughly outclassed by the Canadians, and this is a team ranked only three places above them in the world.

And this domination of the North American makes me pose the question, should women’s ice hockey be an Olympic sport?

You only have to use the example of ski jumping because in 2006 they made a proposal to include women’s ski jumping in the 2010 Winter Olympics; however this proposal was thrown out due to the ‘low number of athletes as well as few participating countries in the sport.’

That’s all well and good but the IOC said that ‘women’s ski jumping has yet to be fully established internationally.’

Perhaps that seems fair enough to keep it out of the Olympics for now, but a quick look at the standings from a World Cup event showed a decent amount of competition from five athletes from five different countries all within touching distance of each other, which is more than can be said about women’s ice hockey.

So if the criteria for getting into the Olympics are to be a sport that is fully established internationally, then surely you can’t include women’s ice hockey into that select group of Olympic sports because the only competitive nations hail from North America.

There is a huge gulf in quality in the women’s game and it almost makes you wonder why they even bothered to stage the preliminaries.

It would have been far more cost effective to just let the Canadians and Americans battle it out for gold and the Finns and Swedes scrap over bronze. No one else would have had to bother putting together a team.

Prior to the gold medal match up Canada had out shot their opponents in the tournament a combined 231-45 and outscored them 46-2.

Meanwhile the United States out shot their opponents 183-49 with an aggregate scoreline of 40-2. That’s hardly what I call ‘competitive’ and this is the most important and prestigious tournament for the sport at an international level.

The Olympic Games is supposed to be a pinnacle of individual and team sports and ice hockey is no exception, but the gulf is so large that it would be like staging a football World Cup containing Brazil, Italy and a handful of minnows such as San Marino and the Faroe Islands.

And more worryingly, the stats show the gulf is not decreasing, but in fact increasing.

Looking at the figures from the Nagano games, in the four games each nation played against the other teams resulted in an aggregate scoreline of 24-5 and 26-3 for Canada and the United States respectively, although they still managed to outshoot their opponents by around one in four, but this is still a far smaller margin to what has been seen at subsequent tournaments.

In fact the figures are a slight increase from the last Winter Olympics, despite having a relatively poor tournament the United States managed the same sort of numbers, but the Canadians increased performance over the Olympiad is astounding, averaging ten shots more a game in 2010.

Women’s ice hockey on an international stage is still a relatively new thing, so it is to be expected that the North Americans will dominate. However the fact that Russia, a superpower in the men’s game, are so uncompetitive is a worrying sign that the game still has a long way to go in it’s development.

The pecking order has remained completely stagnant over the last 20 years since the first IIHF Women’s World Championship, although recent figures do show that ice hockey is one of the fastest growing women’s sports in the world.

Participation levels in the sport have increased 350 percent in the last ten years and some of that can probably be credited to the exposure it receives during the Olympic Games.

But until the World Championships show any sign of improvement for the other teams in the world, then the Olympic tournament will continue to be a farcical two team race to gain another medal for the medal table and it should give its place up to a sport where there is healthy competition.