Western Counties Soccer

Everton’s form appeared to be improving at just the right stage in the season, but it was brought to halt after a 0-0 draw with Swansea.

The former English defender Nigel Winterburn doesn’t think that Theo Walcott, when he gets match fit, would be slotted straight into the starting XI by the Gunners’ boss Wenger.
Winterburn, who himself spent more than a decade at Arsenal playing at the left back position, is of the view that Walcott will first have to get there rhythm wise before he become a starter for the Gunners again.

Tim Howad’s superb series of performances during the 2014 World Cup was certainly that not many people were expecting as the American goalkeeper was one of the standout players all through the tournament. The 35 year old shot-stopper made a number of 16 saves just during his squads’ match against Belgium. He went on showing the world that even at his age; he still has a lot to offer not only for his club Everton but for his country.

America’s qualification for the round of 16 in the FIFA World Cup 2014 is a bit of a surprise for most of the football fans, if not all. The Yanks managed to get through a group which had Germany, Ghana and Portugal in it. That’s remarkable considering the fact that even their own fans were not hopeful of them reaching this stage.

The underdog teams generally play out of their skins and create upsets when they have got an inspirational leader who makes them believe that they can get better of the top sides and the story of USA in the ongoing World Cup is no different.

Former Manchester United goalkeeper Tim Howard has given an insight into the daily life of Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo. He says that Ronaldo has not achieved greatness by being lazy, but it has come to him as a result of incredible hard work. Ronaldo is known as a player with a liking for attention and celebrity status. However, there is more to him than just good looks according to Howard. Currently regarded as the best player in the world, Ronaldo recently received his second FIFA Ballon d’Or award.

Federico Macheda reckons that his team Birmingham City needs to answer the critics with performances on the field and not with the words.

This season has been very poor for the Blues so far and they are in danger of being relegated to league one. So, quite obviously, there is anger among the fans and the players are being criticized big time.

According to Macheda, the only way his side can stop that criticism is by putting up some good shows in the near future.

The German coach of Malaga, Bernhard Schuster has revealed that his future in the Spanish club will depend on a clause that exists in his contract. Following Malaga’s triumph against Villareal a few days, Schuster went on talking about his future with Malaga and if whether or not he will be staying in charge of it.

There are some leagues in Europe that have already announced who are the champions, one of those cases is the German league with Bayern Munich running past everything and everyone in their path and even though there are more than 4 matches left to be played, the squad of Pep Guardiola have already won their league.

In the Italian League, Juventus has a healthy lead over everyone else and it is pretty safe to say that they will be winning the league title for another year but the Premier League is as tight as ever.

Wayne Rooney is the top candidate on becoming the next captain of Manchester United after Nemanja Vidic makes his way out of the Premier League club but the English forward has also revealed his desire of captaining England.

Steven Gerrard is the current captain of England but speculation of the Liverpool legend not being featured for the 2014 World Cup has risen ever since Roy Hodgson admitted that some big name players will be dropped and will not be travelling to Brazil.

Liverpool blasted 4 goals past Everton some weeks ago but despite this, the side of Roberto Martinez is still charging their way in the top 6 spots of the Premier League and the American goalkeeper Tim Howard praised the work that Martinez is doing ever since taking over the club and succeeding the former coach David Moyes.

"No matter what game we go into, the focus has not at any point this season been on the other team, it has always been about us. You have to do this 40 weeks of the year, it is nice not to come into work every day thinking 'Oh, that's looming ahead’’.