The Moon of Liberty

FA Community Shield, Sunday 5th August 2007 - Kick off 3.00 pm

Venue - Wembley Stadium 

Manchester United V Chelsea

The traditional start to the season, the Community shield, took place this afternoon with Champions Manchester United stong favourites as Chelsea were struggling with major injury problems to the point they had to draft in youth players to the bench.

United manager Alex Ferguson has described this United squad as the best he has ever had, they certainly started the stronger of the two sides with Chelsea's depleted side offering little up front for most of the first half.

Ronaldo and Rooney both had chances for United, but it was another United hero who would open the scoring. After a deflected free kick from Ronaldo came to nothing, Patrice Evra set up a smart one two, he then pulled the ball back from the touchline for Ryan Giggs to guide the ball home with a wonderful finish, as he had little to aim at. This gave United a dserved lead

GOAL - 34 Minutes - Giggs - Manchester United 1 Chelsea 0

After this Chelsea got a degree more possession and hit back just before the break. A long ball over the top caught Ferdinand out of position, and Malouda ran on with it, brushing aside Ferdinand and moving into the penalty area. From a tough angle he smartly put the ball past Van Der Sar for an equaliser they had scarcely deserved.

GOAL - 44 Minutes - Malouda - Manchester United 1 Chelsea 1

There was little time left and they went in all square after at the break. The second half began pretty much the same way. Chelsea were trying long balls over the top towards Wright Phillips while united were playing the better football. Chech made a fine save from Ronaldo on 55 minutes. From there the game began to peter out towards a penalty shoot out.

Neither side looked like winning it in the last 20 minutes as substitution came and tiredness at this early point of the season began to hit. The game ended a draw accoridngly and after a short break we moved to penalities, both managers seemed pleased with what they had seen over the ninety minutes.

In the shoot out United keeper Van Der Sar was the hero saving all three Chelsea penalties. It was left to Wayne Rooney to score the winning penalty and seal the first bit of silverware for United. Overall they deserved to win the game, but given Chelsea's injury problems they will be pleased to have gone 90 minutes and come away with an equal scoreline.

RESULT

FA COMMUNITY SHIELD FROM WEMBLEY

Manchester United      (1) 1 (Giggs 34)

Chelsea                         (1) 1 (Malouda 44) 

Manchester United win 3-0 on pens 

Manchester United win the 2007 Community Shield                                                                                     

 

New Prime Minster Gordon Brown has had a pretty good first few weeks. His job has been made easier by many mistakes during that same period by his opponents, but still Gordon himslef has run a steady as she goes regime so far, and he has not frightened the horses in the way many thought he may.

He dealt with the Terrorist attacks with a calm, reassuring manner that impressed many. His brave decision to promote the MP for Redditch, Jackie Smith, has been welcomed by many, and vindicated in the way she has dealt with the position so far. His honeymoon period has allowed him to turn the polls around for Labour from a minor deficit to a lead of around 6%. There are signs however the these polls are stabalising and you would expect some edge to come off that lead in due course. So if the honeymoon is coming to an end, could things now begin to go wrong.

The answer is of course that this will depned on what events get thrown up. He has controversial decisions to make over new anti-terror laws. His support for ID cards and wanting to increase the detention period without charge could lead to opposition. His early release scheme for prisoners has come under fire, so has his decision to rule out a referendum on the new EU treaty. The ecomomy is also not as strong as it was, and if that continues, the man who has run it for the last 10 years, Mr Brown himself, could get the blame. So there are many pitfalls that could cause problems on the horision.

We do however live in an age where often perception and image are sometimes as important as reality. So for all the policy areas I have just mentioned, Brown's biggest danger maybe more of the sort covered by this article in the Mail on Sunday documenting what Gordon has had to deal with in his short time as Prime Minister. First a terrorist attack, then floods and now foot and mouth disease's return. None of these are issues that the opposition can make any capital out of directly, to try would actually damage them, but the image of Gordon Brown's regime following one crisis after another could become a big problem for the Government.

Gordon could be in danger of becoming a victim of circumstances through no fault of his own. If people begin to link his Governemnt with crisis after crisis, the view that something different may be needed to stop the rot may become subconciously prevelent in the minds of the public. There is only so long the media can begin with the words 'And Gordon Brown is facing another crisis today' before Gordon Brown and crisis become inextricably linked. If this happens, Gordon could find himself in danger dispite having done nothing worng personally. He must surely hope nothing else out of theordinary happens for a while, or he could become 'Crisis Man,' which will not help him fight a furture election anymore easily.

 

 4 August 2007, Kick off 4.00 pm

 England V Wales - Venue Twickenham

Sky Sports 2, Commentators Miles Harrison and Stuart Barnes

A few weeks of summer rugby for England began here with the first warm up game in the run up to defending the World Cup in France. Since winning the World Championship in Sydney 4 years ago England's form has been pachy, most recently they got well beaten on a tour of South Africa and were also well beaten earlier this year by todays opponenets Wales.

Wales themselves followed up by a strong performance in a narrow defeat against Australia. For their part today was about strangth in depth, particularly in the forwards where they left out a number of first team regulars to see if other players could step up. England put out a much stronger team today to try and take advantage of this, and they certainly did.

England's pack won the ball from Johnny Wilkinson's short kick off from the start, this set the tone of English dominence up front. Early pressure however did not lead to points as Wilkinson uncharacteristically missed two early penalties. The pressure was eased however when Nick Easter went over for the first try from short range after the English forwards battered the Welsh into submission.

From there on it was a prosession of one way traffic. The forwards dominated and by half time had added two further tries, both of a very similar close range fashion, one from Steve Borthwick and the other, a second for Easter. Wilkinson added a further penalty to give England a 22-0 lead at half time.

The only question was would the backs cut loose after the half. This did not quite happen as a couple of overlaps were wasted by the backs. It was left the the pack to continue to pile on the pressure, Easter got a hat trick from close range again, Shaun Perry added two more and the biggest cheer of the day was reserved for the ever popular Laurence Dallaglio who balsted over from five meters out from a close range scrum.

A couple of substitutions by Wales made a degree of difference for around 10 minutes when they did get some ball and Dafydd James went over in the corner after a smart Welsh move. That would be all for the Welsh however, as in the last two minutes the backs finally put a couple of moves together, Jason Robinson went over to show he is still a big threat, and Matthew Tait finished the game off with an easy try under the posts from a long kick with no Welsh defender in sight. This gave England 60 points, a miserable day for Wales weakened team proving they have little strength in depth.

As for England, tougher will be to come, the pack wont have it this easy against South Africa in the World cup group game, the backs wont be able to squander chances like they did today then either, but they showed today they can compete, especially in the forwards with fine performances from Easter, Perry and Borthwick and Regan. don't right off the World Champions just yet.

RESULT

England          62  Wales          5

England - Tries (Easter 3, Borthwick, Perry 2, Dallaglio, Robinson, Tait) Conversions (Wilkinson 7) Pens (Wilkinson 3)

Wales - Tries (D James)

MOON OF LIBERTY STAR MAN - Shaun Perry (England) - His breaks began the rout, two tries and directed the whole game from scrum half, a super performance.     

Transformers (2007)

Starring - Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Anthony Anderson, Megand Fox

Directed by - Michael Bay

So after the SImpson next on the big screen is Transformers (robots in disguise.) A former cartoon favourite, this however is no cartoon, it has real people plus spectacular robots the special effects people can be exceptionally proud of. I however, am not one of those who belives special effects alone can make a film (Take King Kong, great effect, terrible film.)

So does the wider film match the work of the effects guys. Well, yes it does. The film wastes no time as decpticons attack a US military base in Qutar from the off. Through the internet both the evil decepticons and the good autobots have traced the all powerful 'All Spark,' an all-powerful cube that can be used for good or evil, to Earth.

Meanwhile in a little school, a young man named Sam Witwicky tells a story about his Grandfathers treck to the Artic circle, he also has his grandfathers glasses salvaged from the trip. Little does he know that these glasses hold the key to the whereabouts of the all spark. He intends to sell the glasses and other artifacts on ebay, seeing robots checking ebay for the details is very amusing.

As a result a pursuading his teacher to gvie him an A he did not deserve, his father buys him his first car, the car however turns out to be Bumblebee, sent to also trace the All Spark. Later Sam and Mikaela, a girl he would like to date, then meets Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots. Sam's involvement in the serach fort eh All Spark is set, and takes him on a journey into the dark world of Government Alien survellence units, as well as into the heart of the Government defense department. The race for the cube like object is underway, and to get it before Megatron, the leader of the decepticons, does.

There are few pauses for breath in what is a rattling good story. It moves fast, and the slower parts are principally good humour to add to the drama. My only reservations were the fact we have the 'Is Bumblebee dead?' storyline twice when once would have done, this did drag out the ending a little. There was also much airtime given to two characters, one girl working in the defense department, the other caught with a CD the girl from the defense department had given him. These could have been replaced with standard analysts in the department, I have no idea what the point of these two characers were or what they added to the film.

All in all though, this delivered, good film, good story, good flow. Not great acting but enough to carry the battles between the robots, which afterall, is what this film is really there for. Well worth the hype, and a look if you have not seen it.

MOON OF LIBERTY VERDICT - RATING 'B+' - Lived up to the hype, a great story was put together and had me locked in from start to finish. These films often don't deliver, this did, well done to all involved.