3rd September

In this weeks sports news we havent had much to shout about but here is a roundup of whats going on....

Football
As soon as the transfer window slammed shut stopping Man City from adding anyone else to their 120 man, 45 striker's squad, did we start to hear from all the players who hadnt grabbed a single headline during the window about how many "big clubs" were interested in them... Nicolas Bentdner at Arsenal, Ryan Babel at Liverpool and Ryan Shawcross at Stoke.
All this belating from players is for one of 2 reasons....(both as likely as each other and is probably due to both reasons)
1... They need their ego massaging (and god know footballers have big ego's) they need to remind the world how great they are and that they could play for any tema in the world.
2... They want to try and get a better contract or more game time from their current club.

Lets translate some of these for you...
Shawcross " i was never really interested in moving i can see myself at stoke for a long time"
translates to.............. 'No one made an offer for me because although iv had a few good games they realise that outside the britania stadium i would look as truly evrage as i am'

Bentdner " Yes there were offers from Madrid and Milan but i have decided to stay with arsenal" translates to............. "Arsenal offered me a 5 year deal on better money than i am really worth or could get elsewhere"

Football is much better when there is actually somethins to talk about relating to the game rather than the players!!!

Cricket

Englands 2 game series eith the Auzzies ended in a washout draw. the 2nd days play called off amid dubious circumstances with many feeling there was no problem with wicket or weather.
This is the problem with cricket..... its far too civilized... they have Tea, Lunch and Drinks, they have to actually ask the umpire if they have got a player out (howwwwzaaattt does count as asking!) they sit on a balcony applauding each other and TTSB is yet to see the players surround the umpire like hyeenas when a LBW isnt given..... However the old tradition of not playing in the slightest bit of rain is holding the game back. TTSB thinks that there is no problem with playing a few overs of cricket in a bit of rain, whats the worst that could happen..... the ball skids off the surface under the batsmas bat and hits the stumps in a pea roller fashion?? The field drops a catch that his 3week old son would have made because he has wet hands?? this would add a bit of excitement to what can at times be a desperatley dull game!! We propose that every cricket match has at least 2 "sprinkler overs" from now on where for the next 6 balls 100 sprinklers across the ground come out and soak soak evryone whilst play continues! See Pieterson try and hit a reverse sweep 6 when he is drenched!!

Boxing
The upcomming Juan Manuel Marquez vs Floyd Mayweather Jnr match has failed to drum up much excitement amongst the boxing public for a few reasons...
1) it is at 144lbs (10stone 4) which isnt a real division and therefore no belt is awarded to the winner.
2) both fighters are notoriously cagey, back footed, counter punchers (so there will probably be less actual fighting than at the National pacifists association summer dance)
3) it is pretty much a forgone conclusion that the undefeated, younger, bigger, faster and generally much better fighter that is Floyd Mayeather will win it and win it fairly easily.
So promoter for the fight and former 6weight champ Oscar De La Hoya has spoken out to tell everyone how he thinks Marquez will be the 1st to hand Mayweather a defeat. This is the same man who picked Ricky Hatton to beat Mayweather, Roy Jones to beat Calzaghe and Hatton to beat Manny Paquiao when all were clear underdogs in fights that he had a hand in promoting (for the record Hatton and Jones lost convincingly in those fights as was expected by all except Dela Hoya)
So we learn from Oscars comment that a) Mayweather will win this very easily and b) the ticket sales arent going all that well!!
Personally we are going with the favorite on this one and cant see anything but an easy Mayweather win, although he has had 22 months out and is fighting a very in form fighter in Marquez we pick him to have too much guille, speed and power for the crafty vetran Marquez and will win a wide desicion.

Todays best Bet........... Golf
This weeksEuropean Masters gets underway today and Simon Dyson looks a good EachWay bet for this at 40/1 he has found some form of late and the course should suit the steady Dyson.
however it is hard to bet against lee Westwood and we will take him at 10/1 he has had a number of near misses in the majors this year but his putter seems to be working now and if he get going over the 1st couple of rounds he could be well clear come sunday.

Thanks for reading see you soon!!!

Fridays roundup

Welcome to the 2nd edition of TTSB.

Since our last post plenty has happened in the world of sport... well not really the world of sport but football mainly!

An apparently innocent millwall fan was stabbed outside Upton park where to the shock of everyone there were wars between rival fans! (that is everyone who hasn't seen one of the many football hooligan films or never heard of west ham and millwall)

Now TTSB being an avid Chelsea fan is aware of the fight culture that football was surrounded by in the 70s and 80s but those days are long gone and the most aggression we have seen at a football match in a decade is screaming "you dirty northern b*stard" over a row of stewards at Liverpool fans last season. (and to be fair they were dirty and northern and probably didn't know who there dads were) Luckily these football riots are things of the past and come around about as often as Spurs winning something so we wont dwell on this for another 2000 words!

Tennis Its the Annual Roger Federer Invitational this week (aka: the US open at flushing medows) Roger Federer is the huge favorite to retain his crown for something like the 38th year in a row............... (6th)

There is plenty of support for Andy Murray who was last years beaten finalist and he has shown in the past he has all the tools to beat federer and has a 6-3 career record against the Suisse legend. However he was taken apart in straight sets by Federer at Cincinnati last week and we cant see anything other than Roger retaining his crown.

Rafael Nadal returns to action for the 1st time since June and although many expect him to be rusty from the layoff we wouldnt be surprised if he finds himself in the latter stages of the tournament.

Football Man Utd take on Arsenal tomorrow in the first BIG4 clash of the season. (after this season we have a feeling it may be called the BIG5 as Man City look set to gatecrash the party)

Arsenal have started well this year (albeit against poor opposition) and whilst they aren't doing a lot different to past seasons they are taking more shots from further than the 6 yard box, and with the addition of vermaelen at the back they look a much more solid defensive unit. Vermaelen hails from the old school of centre halfs, he doesn't try Cruyff turns out of defense or clever passes, if there is a hint of danger he puts the ball in row Z!! TTSB like this approach as although its not pretty it is certainly a fact that if the ball is in row Z the opposition cant score!!

Man Utd have missed Ferdinand and Vidic of late and if they are not fit for Saturday afternoon then Ben Foster could have a very busy time. Ferguson's side haven't looked anything like the force they were last season and the 1-0 loss to burnley illustrates that... They had chances but the people on the end of them (owen, fletcher, nani) didn't finish them and you can bet your last £ that had a certain Perma tanned primadonna by the name of Ronaldo been on the end of any they would have been in the back of the net. Arsenal wont have a better chance to win at Old Trafford than Saturday and it should be a cracker!

Elsewhere Chelsea take on Burnley (a thrashing awaits!) and its hard to see anything other than another convincing blues win. Man City face the struggling Pompey on saturday and they look far too good to slip up at fratton park even with the new Dr Al Fahim in charge (we think he is as much a Dr as Dr.Fox and Dr.Evil) Liverpool have had a surprisingly poor start to the season and a trip to Bolton wont be easy. Gary Megson's side arent really much good but they make it nigh on impossible to play good football!

This weekends best bet....

Sheffield's 37 year old Clinton Woods takes on the unbeaten American Tavoris Cloud (19-0 with 18KOs) for the IBF light heavyweight title tonight and although woods has only lost to the best in Antonio Tarver, Roy Jones Junior and Glen Johnson he is looking slower and we fancy the big hitting Cloud to stop him somewhere between round 5-10

In the cruiserweight (200lbs) division Marco Huck takes on Victor Ramirez for the WBO belt, Huck is a quality operator and has only lost to former Champ Steve Cunningham (a fight in which he was leading until stopped with seconds to go) and will have too much for the un-tested Ramirez.

A double on Huck and Cloud will pay little more than Evs (for a reason - it will probably come in!)

We will take a chance on a Huck and Cloud to win by KO / TKO at 11/1

Thanks for reading!!

TheTotalSportsBlog 1st Entry!!

Welcome to thetotalsportsblog!!!!

Thetotalsportsblog is for people who love their sports! from football to tennis, boxers to bowlers we will have them all covered with weekly rundown of all the major stories from the world of sport!! We also give you our thoughts on whats going on in the sports world and all the changing room rumors!!

We will also have the weeks best sporting bets for you so check out thetotalsportsblog for your daily dose of sport!

TTSB (stands for thetotalsportsblog - you'll get used to it!!) Stories.....

Boxing: Paulie Maliganagi was involved in what is a candidate for the worst decision since General Custer decided he wanted to have a go at the Sioux!!

While the brash NewYorker hasn't endeared himself to most boxing fans with his motor mouthed, brash and brazen attitude TTSB cant help but feel sorry for him. He spent the best part of 12 rounds giving the strong but limited Juan Diaz a boxing lesson that at very worst should have been scored a 2 round win to Paulie. Instead he was the victim of an appalling home town decision. Juan Diaz being from Houston (like 2 of the judges) where the fight was held, was given the nod by all 3 judges one of them scoring it 10 rounds to 2!!

We are all for home advantage in sport but this was a blatant robbery! Whilst it can be argued that Diaz was more aggressive and Maliganagi did most of the clinching, it was clear that Maliganagi landed more shots, was more accurate and slipped many of Diaz's rather telegraphed hooks and straight rights!

Diaz is talking about facing the winner of Maywethear vs Marquez (he was KO'd in 9 rounds by the latter earlier this year) which quite frankly is about as likley as Mayweather offering to fight for free! For Paulie its not the end of the road, his 2 other losses have come against high quality opposition in Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto and he has shown he has still got the skills (if not the power) to mix it with the best in the 10stone division! (TTSB wouldnt be surprised if he fights Amir Khan in the near future as the feather fisted New Yorker would give china chinned Khan great US exposure without much risk)

Rugby: It appears that every time we switch on Sky Sports News (or any other reputable sporting news broadcaster) there is a new allegation in the Harlequins Bloodgate saga!

After the 3 year ban handed to former head coach Dean Richards last week for making Wing Tom Williams recreate a scene from a low budget slasher film in order to get their star goal kicker back on (who indecently missed the kick he took) we thought that would be it, done, finito! But a new accusation has been leveled at Harlequins today.
Tom Williams (the lad who was sent on to fake the blood injury) has told how Harlequins offered him what TTSB will describe as a "Golden Silence" package. In exchange for him not grassing the club up for this and taking the rap in the form of a 12 month playing ban Quins offered him a new 4 year contract, an grantee of employment with the club when his playing career was over, the mortgage on his house paid off and that he would be paid full salary throughout his suspension.

Personally TTSB feels this was a bloody good deal for a rugby player who can be described at best as "average" and who earns somewhere in the region of £40k. However we must commend Williams on turning this down in favor of getting a shorter ban himself so that he can be playing rugby again by November. In an era where we constantly see footballers moaning about their "slave like" working conditions and paltry £100k a week salaries and we commend Williams for showing love for his sport more than his bank balance.

Then again he grassed the club up and no one (especially TTSB) likes a grass!!

Athletics: Caster Semenya, the athlete involved in the he/she gender scandal made the worst choice of words since Gerald Ratner told us the reason the Jewellery he sold was so cheap was because it was shit!

On her return home to South Africa she was interviewed by the countrys sporting media and asked what plan her coach had given her she said.... ""I called my coach and my coach told me 'you can do it, man'," For someone whos gender is the subject of huge scrutiny she could have chosen her words a bit better!

TTSB is still referring to her as she as we are firm believers of the innocent until proven guilty theory (although we have to admit - she seems more masculine than a a 6'2 balding dock worker!)

Forgetting the controversy for 1 minute we have to say that she ran a fantastic race leading from start to finish and if it is proven she is of female origin and is allowed to continue running as a female athlete then there is no reason why she cant smash the existing world record of 1:53

The results of the gender tests will be revealed by the IAAF in the next 2 weeks. We like to think at TTSB we are not stupid we wonder how difficult it must be to check if an 18year old is or was at some point in her life a man...??

Lastly well done to GB's Jenny Medows for her 3rd placed finish in the 800m. The Lancashire lass has never won a significant medal of any color in her 11 year athletics career despite showing bags of potential but went like the clappers for the last 100m to snatch bronze, had the race been the 802 meters we are sure she would have got 2nd (or she could have just started sprinting 2m earlier!!!!)

Thats all your news for today folks more to come tommorrow! Hope you enjoyed the 1st edition of TheTotalSportsBlog and will tune in everyday for our take on the worlds sporting action!!!

Bet of the day........ has to be Arsenal to repeat last weeks 2-0 win over Celtic is 11/2 but TTSB has a senaky feeling they will go one better and win 3-0. With Celtic having to score early to get back into the tie this will play into the highflying gunners hands and will take this at 8/1