Greetings, beautiful people. Wellington Silva here. Just kidding, its me, Luis. I just like the phrase, ”beautiful people”. It was a whirlwind weekend. Hope you’ve recovered. I have yet to. It started off with Arsenal taking on Hangzhou Greentown. While Chinese Gooners were putting the crowd that visits the Emirates on a weekly basis to shame, our boys played for a draw after Carlos Vela spared our blushes.
We were looking like our usual selves but I have to say that I have been impressed by a few of the lads and Chuck is certainly one of them. If this is any indication of what is in store for him this season, we can expect good things from our resident smiley Mexican.
Copa America also served up a few, ahem, surprises as the two favorites, Brazil and Argentina, were both knocked out on pelanties. Brazil’s performance being particularly disappointing. I don’t care if Menezes was ”experimenting.” I expected much better from Brazil. And despite that, I was impressed with many of their players. Lucas, Ramires and yes, Neymar impressed me very much.
Despite the crazy hair, I felt Neymar did well for a 19-year-old playing in his first international tournament for Brazil’s senior side. He has my attention, that’s for sure. No, I don’t feel he is ready to start on a premiership team. Will he be in a year or two? Probably. He has said he is willing to stay with Santos for another year so to me, it says he is gonna wait and be patient which is a good quality to have.
Ramires, who I have like since his Benfica days also, IMO had a good tournament. For Brazil he is playing a bit higher up the pitch than he does for Chelsea which didn’t feel like a good fit a first but he got settled after the 1st game and partnered with Lucas better. He’s a Chav, I know. Would I want him to play for Arsenal? Fuck yes. He makes Michael Essien look like a chump when he is on but has had trouble adjusting to the pace of the English game. His 2nd season in England will be telling.
For Liverpool, Lucas is very much a hit-or-miss player. He’s been widely criticized by their fans for his inconsistency in previous seasons. I saw him have many good games for them this season, and it seemed for the most part he is becoming a more consistent player for them. In this tournament, he was a beast. Good for him. I’m sure the scousers will be hoping he takes a good holiday and is ready for their season opener.
Staying with Liverpool players, Luis Suarez and his Uruguayan compadres knocked out hosts Argentina after Messi basically bent over backward, turned himself inside out. It was a pretty exciting game the only bad part was the fact that both teams waited until this point to show great form. It was end to end stuff but neither team could make the most of their chances with Higuain being particularly wasteful.
Peru knocked Colombia out earlier in the day with two fantastic strikes off counter attacks which means Uruguay will play Peru and, probably knock them out, today. With Paraguay and Venezuela playing for the other spot in the final.
This tournament has certainly picked up but over all, I still think these sides can be disappointed with the brand of football they showed. Southern American sides are renowned for their flavorful, attacking football which has really gone missing. It may be that club football is miles and miles ahead in quality of international football, and considering the players involved in this tournament maybe the expectations were a little higher than they should have been. I think most people will agree with me when I say, I will welcome the return of club football with open arms.
Quick thoughts on the Women’s World Cup final:
I’ve said it so many times, I feel like I’m copy-and-pasting it at this point but: if you don’t take your chances, you’ll end up paying for them. Missing chances in front of goal is just as bad as conceding goals and the US did that. Miss chances, that is. It slipped right through the ladies’ fingers but I think they all feel good about their performance in the tournament and will continue to hold their heads up high. As well they should. I am proud they are drawing so much attention, even if it is not everlasting, to the sport here in the US.
We have a long 25 days ahead of us but at least we have a friendly with FC Cologne, who’s players I suspect will smell gloriously, to keep us occupied this weekend. It will be interesting to see if Cesc does start this game after being the focus of, lets face it, a drama-filled summer.
Speaking to most gooners, it is widely viewed that we will keep our captain for the time being and that for the over-all quality of our team, it is for the best. Our style requires a player of his calibre to tie it all together, and give us, as Arsene says, that elusive ”final ball”.
His ability, unquestionable. His commitment, very much so. You can say our game very much revolves around him and when we play w/o him, we look a different side. With the exception of the United game, we did not look good when Cesc was not in the team. But many will say, it will just take time for Jack and Rambo to grow together and lead the team forward. I am not so quick to buy into that idea. Not because I am skeptical of either’s ability but I think it will be a step, sideways so to speak, for the team. Rambo, as talented as he may be, has yet to experience a full season in the starting line-up. Maybe Cesc leaving is what he would benefit from but, would we rather work Rambo into the role or throw him in the deep end and see if he can swim?
Personally, I don’t want to see another player go through what Denilson did. We have time to watch Rambo grow, especially if El Capitan sticks around this season so I think it will be better if Rambo is given the time to become our string-puller. It’s a heavy responsibility. One I feel he can grow into but is most certainly not ready to completely endure.
Cheers, blokes and blokettes, have a good one. I’ll leave you with a great couple of goals:
Chilangoonerblog 
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