Tottenham Hotspur: Road To A Trophy?

By Lorenzo Barba

It has been 13 years since Tottenham (also known as Spurs) have last won a trophy. 13 years of disappointment, semi final upsets and supporters not wanting to go into work out of the fear of being socially outcast by their coworkers. However, this might be about to change. Spurs have recently made it into the Carabao Cup Final. It is here where they will play against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium on April 25th, 2021. 

Opening Round: A Win Without Playing?

Admittedly, their cup campaign started out with a helping of luck as Tottenham’s first opponent of five, Leyton Orient, pulled out of the game due to COVID related reasons. This meant that Tottenham were awarded a win automatically, and were therefore able to advance into the next tournament round immediately. This also meant that the team were far more rested for the next round against their arch rivals, Chelsea. While Tottenham had a very lucky break with this result, a win is a win as the saying goes.

Round Of 16: London Rivals Crumble Against Spurs

We move onto the next round! Chelsea were always going to be difficult opponents to face. They are notorious for dumping Spurs out of tournaments by beating them, admittedly, in a rather humiliating fashion. And with Chelsea scoring the opening goal in this tie, it was beginning to look like much of the same. However, this game was going to be very different indeed as a late equaliser from Argentinian player, Erik Lamela, saw Spurs level the tie and take it to penalty shootouts. It was at this stage of the competition, where Tottenham proved themselves as serious competitors, proceeding into the quarter finals.

Quarter Final: Tottenham Cruise Past Championship Opponents

On the surface Tottenham’s next opponents, championship side Stoke City, seemed like easy pickings. But if there’s one thing Tottenham will have learned from their loss against League 2 team Colchester United, it was that nobody can be underestimated in this tournament. Nerve wracking penalty shootouts were not a requirement in this tie as things went according to plan. Shots from Gareth Bale, Ben Davies and Harry Kane saw Spurs cruise past their opponents 3-1, leapfrogging them into the semi finals.

Semi Final: Easy Pickings To Advance To The Final

Onto the semi finals. Spurs were to face championship side Brentford FC. Spurs had somewhat lucked out in this cup run, facing just 1 Premier League team and receiving an automatic win in the opening round. Nonetheless, the team still had a job to do in this semi final tie and they were determined to do it to reach the final. A comfortable win with goals from Moussa Sissoko, Heung-Min Son and a goal taken away from Brentford due to Video Assistant referee (VAR) had Spurs leading 2-0 with just 20 minutes left to play. To add to Tottenham’s dominating performance Joshua Da Silva, midfielder for Brentford, received a straight red card for a serious foul (1:36). This made their job to see out their 2-0 lead all the more easy as Spurs cruised to the final with style. Tottenham, at this point, are now only one game away from winning the Carabao cup.

Heung-Min Son celebrates after scoring against Brentford

Final: First Trophy In 13 Years Or Much Of The Same?

The opponents for the tie are fellow Premier League side and current holders of the trophy, Manchester City. On paper, much like the game against Chelsea, Tottenham appear to be the underdogs in this competition. While Spurs have struggled to win silverware since winning their last trophy in 2008, Man City have done well to win a variety of trophies, including the domestic treble in 2018 consisting of the Carabao cup, FA Cup, and the Premier League. Just last season they took home the Carabao cup, defending their title as well as the Community Shield at the beginning of the season.

While this won’t be an easy task, the circumstances of a cup final on neutral territory (Wembley Stadium) means that anything could happen and Tottenham should not be underestimated in this tie.

Images: Ferdinand Stöhr on Unsplash and Getty Image piece via The Independent

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Project Restart: The Return of the Premier League

By Ryan Senior

Football is not just a sport, it can be both a passion and an outlet where fans can forget all about their worries and cheer on their favourite team for ninety long minutes. So, when the final whistle went at the King Power Stadium on the 9th March between Leicester City and Aston Villa, who would’ve thought that this would be the last kick off a ball on a football pitch for months.

The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted all areas of life, including the beautiful game itself. On March 13th, the English footballing pyramid seasons were halted due to an agreement between the FA, EFL, FA Women’s Super League, and FA Women’s Championship. Furthermore, on the 3rd April, the FA decided the leagues would be postponed indefinitely. 10 weeks later, the government and the FA have been working together to create a procedure, around the current Covid-19 guidelines, on how to run football training sessions in small groups leading to an eventual return to full squad training sessions.

With the first stage precautions put in place, Premiership clubs started to return to training on May 19th. The procedures for this included twice-a-week Covid-19 tests on the players and Club staff, with the first round of testing proceeded on May 17-18th. The players who returned to training were restricted to training in groups of 5 with no contact training capped at 75 minutes per session. And the second stage of precautions was introduced due to a unanimous vote between clubs on May 27th. The introduction of contact training included tackling and aerial duels while still minimizing unnecessary close contact between players

The premier league announced the league will return on the weekend of June 17-18th, with matches being played behind closed doors. The premier league returns with a mouth-watering tie with Arsenal travelling to the Etihad Stadium to face current EPL champions Manchester City, while Aston Villa play host to Dash Wilders Sheffield United. Whereas all of the remaining 92 Premier League fixtures will be broadcasted across 4 broadcasting networks including BT Sport, Sky Sports, BBC, and Amazon UK, with 29 of them broadcast on free-to-air TV.

But what can we expect from the returning games?

The Premier League isn’t the first league to return; there has already been football being played in Germany (Bundesliga) and in South Korea (K-League). Within these respective leagues, there have been different approaches to try to give a sense of normality by clubs. Football teams across Germany have been playing fan noises in the stadium and Borussia Monchengladbach has gone as far as to allow fans to pay to have a cardboard cut-out of themselves placed in the stands.

On the pitch, the quality of football has been good with hardly any players showing a lack of match fitness. Home advantage has been non-existent in the first 37 games of the Bundesliga season, as the away side has won 51% (19 Wins) of their matches compared to the home sides 19% (7 Wins) wins, with the rest of the games being draws 30% (11 Draws). Though the effects of playing behind closed doors have had a greater impact on the home teams and the fans watching at home.

With the upcoming fixtures for the Premier League season, there’s still been criticism from players, staff, and Football clubs regarding the eventual return of the game. Players such as Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante and Watford’s Troy Deeney have raised their concerns about returning to the pitch due to the health risks posed by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the impact of those risks on their families. Even so, both said players have returned to training this past week. There has been discussion about the possibility of scrapping relegation for this season due to up to 10 clubs have expressed their concerns around this issue.

There will be more on this story as it develops, especially as we get closer to this year’s Premier League season.

Image: Thomas Serer on Unsplash

Match Report: Team ARU versus Loughborough – Ultimate Frisbee

By Joshua Dowding

On Wednesday the 20^th of November, the university’s Ultimate Frisbee Team played an away match against Loughborough University. The 3rds game kicked-off at around 3:30 PM with Team ARU on the defence and Loughborough playing aggressively from the get-go.

For the first half, Charlie A., Tom R. and Xico remained in the cup to stop any quick throws coming their way – the majority of which they managed to shut down with ease. Though a few high throws slipped through their defence, these were caught by the combined force of Nick, Tom M. and Richard playing at the back.

With this formation, Team ARU managed to turn over the disc multiple times resulting in a few quick points early on. But Loughborough was quick to retaliate, keeping the scores even until both teams tied at four points each.

It was at this point that Team ARU decided to go on the offence. Their long runs quickly out-manoeuvred Loughborough’s defences, breaching the end zone and running short for quick passes across the field. And by the end of the first half, the points began to slide in Team ARU’s favour. Securing a lead of 8 – 4 by half-time.

The second half began with Team ARU sticking to their offensive strategy. An early fast point extended their lead to 9 – 4, though Loughborough wasn’t about to give in.

As the game continued, Team ARU put up a strong defence against Loughborough’s advances. The lead extended further to 10 – 4 with another fast point scored for Anglia, and over the course of the rest of the game Team ARU capitalized on an increasingly weary Loughborough by taking their score to the hard-cap of 15. Loughborough managed to score one more point before the end of the match, though the result was a triumphant 15 – 6 for Team ARU.

The team came away from the match feeling elated at their victory. It must have been a huge morale boost for Team ARU to win by such a wide margin, and we can only hope that their good fortunes carry on throughout the rest of the season.

For more information about the Ultimate Frisbee Team, check out their website.

Team ARU Ultimate Frisbee Team – winners!

Source: Charlie Alfandary – Team ARU, Ultimate Frisbee Team

V.A.R and It’s Fans

By Abhishek Majumdar

In the 2018/19 season, V.A.R was officially woven into the laws of the game and was used in the UEFA Champions League. V.A.R further saw its way into the famous F.A Cup in England and is seen as a tool to help the referees on the field.

But things haven’t been so rosy for V.A.R ever since. This season it finds itself in a bit of a pickle with people having debates about whether V.A.R improves the game at all, and should it still be used in the world’s most-watched football league – The Premier League.

So, what’s going wrong for V.A.R?

The football world seems to be speaking about V.A.R every week. The Video Assistant Referee, more famously known as V.A.R, has made quite an astounding impact on the English Premier League since its debut season.

V.A.R sets out to achieve certain specific objectives for football matches. The Premier League released an online statement before the 19/20 season commenced explaining these objectives of V.A.R for the league, for teams and for fans alike: “to correct clear and obvious errors in match-changing situations”. Match-changing situations would be goals, fouls committed, penalty decisions, overriding penalty decisions, and reviewing red card offences.

However, after only 12 games in the league, V.A.R is no longer the most popular technology in town. Several decisions that resulted in not giving handball penalties in recent games, because it did not seem like a “clear and obvious” error, have contributed to a growing negative sentiment towards the technology.

Some of the more controversial decisions include Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino’s goal being disallowed because of his armpit being in an offside position which disallowed his goal against Aston Villa. And Sheffield United had their goal denied by V.A.R because John Lundstrum had a toenail in an offside position when they equalized against Tottenham.

Sheffield United denied equalizer due to V.A.R decision

Liverpool’s manager Jurgen Klopp said to Sky Sports: “they scored a goal, which shows all the problems of V.A.R” when asked about the foul on Divock Origi which led to a goal for Manchester United.

In a post-match interview for Sky Sports, Pep Guardiola said: “ask Mike Riley and his people (V.A.R team), not me” when he was asked about the V.A.R decisions. He added: “we dropped points because of our faults and others” when asked how he felt about the V.A.R decisions against Liverpool which saw his City side lose 3-1.

Penalty denied for Man City after V.A.R check

Pep Guardiola was more than lively on the touchline against Liverpool. He was seen complaining to the assistant referee for not awarding the penalty twice in their favour. After the game, he was seen congratulating referee Michael Oliver and his team where he shook their hand and said: “thank you so much” in a strikingly sarcastic tone.

Pep Guardiola seen complaining and sarcastically thanking the Referees

A number of pundits have shared their opinions about V.A.R. Former Manchester United Manager Jose Mourinho when speaking about V.A.R on Sky Sports Super Sunday, said: “the main question is consistency. That’s what upsets me in this moment. One week it’s a penalty, other week it’s not a penalty”.

Danny Murphy said on BBC’s Match of the day: “V.A.R was not brought in for this” when speaking about toenail being given as an offside.

Jeff Stelling shared his opinion about V.A.R on Soccer Saturday: “scrap it, scrap V.A.R. Scrap it this weekend. Scrap it over the international break because it’s worthless, pointless, and a total waste of time”.

At the moment, V.A.R finds itself in a tricky situation with its continued usage in the Premier League being questioned more and more frequently. There are still more games left for V.A.R to prove it’s worth, but after an increasing volume of negative feedback coming from the managers, the players, and the pundits, even the fans V.A.R seems to be conceding to popular opinion.

Team ARU: Cambridge Half Marathon

Sunday 3rd March 2019 – Cambridge Half Marathon

Roughly 10,000 runners took part in the 13.1 mile race in its biggest ever year. This year was the 8th annual Saucony Cambridge Half Marathon and the 5th year we as a University have supported the race.

Sunday’s Cambridge Half Marathon took runners on a truly unforgettable journey through the beautiful city of Cambridge, passing countless historic landmarks such as the Round Church, King’s College and the Fitzwilliam Museum.

170 ARU Students, Staff, Alumni and family members/friends of ARU associates were entered into the marathon.

The wet weather conditions did not dampen our runner’s spirits. It was a brilliant day which saw many different reasons for racing to come together to drive our runners on and towards that all important finish line. Ruskin the Rhino was out in full force, motivating runners and keeping their spirits high at the half-way stage as well as our team of staff who were supporting the event and our runners throughout the day.

Joseph Hawes was the first male member of the Anglia Ruskin team to cross the line in an impressive 1 hour 20 minutes and 15 seconds, with Susie Chesher crossing the line first from our female runners in a time of 1 hour 25 minutes and 03 seconds. Another impressive result was from Phoebe Aldrich who finished as the 3rd best female junior runner with a time of 1 hour 43 minutes and 25 seconds. All our entries put on a fantastic display.

All ARU runners did everyone at Anglia Ruskin University proud and showed great effort not only on race day but putting in the hours of training beforehand.

The University also supported the event by hosting 2 training seminar evenings in early January 2019, these were open to all Cambridge half marathon runners who travelled from up and down the country to get an insight from experts into nutrition, pacing, injury rehabilitation and prevention. For the second time the university also hosted the Cambridge Half Marathon Expo event on Friday 1st March and Saturday 2nd March, which was a chance for all runners to collect their race packs and meet other fellow runners.

For the Cambridge Half Marathon official race results, please click here

To check out our coverage of the day, follow our social media activity here.

Team ARU: BUCS This Girl Can Week 2018

This Girl Can runs annually and is an opportunity for Higher Education to highlight the different opportunities available for women to get active and involved in sport during their time at University. The week aims to target gender equality – break down the barriers that stop females playing sport and empower women to become more active.

From inspirational female students, fancy dress tournaments, social media takeovers and our BUCS This Girl Can photo frame appearing in your newsfeed more often than Brexit. Check out our highlights from the week here.

We want BUCS This Girl Can Week to have a lasting legacy so please continue to use the hashtag #ARUGIRLSCAN. If you are unsure about how you can get active at Anglia Ruskin University please just email us on teamaru@anglia.ac.uk or just ask a member of the Team ARU staff, we are always happy to help.

We hope that BUCS This Girl Can Week has further demonstrated that there is plenty of enjoyable and safe environments for you to try a new activity or pick up a sport you have lost touch with.

Team ARU: Mens Hockey Match Report

By Tom Smith

Anglia Ruskin University vs University of Leicester 

Score:  4 – 2, WE WON!!

Goals:

• Callum Carter
• Hamish Leslie
• Tom Burrows
• Herbert Jrn Mudzamiri

The boys knew they had to win this game and that’s PRECISELY what happened. They started well with Hamish dribbling into the D and slotting the ball through the keepers legs. The team then scored a potential goal of the season, with Alex Johnson flinging an aerial and Callum taking it in the air and smashing it past the keeper. We pressed on, Callum scoring our third goal, which was then somehow bizarrely ruled out by the umpire who ‘didn’t see the ball go in the goal’. This caused a little bit of ‘discussion’ amongst the 2 coaches, but it didn’t affect the game and Burrows scored our third goal after a short corner. ARU got slightly complacent and Leicester scored from their first short. It could have been worse had goalie Ben not been sharp off his line to prevent another goal.

We came in at half time knowing the game was nowhere near won. Our boys nearly started the second half badly, Ben kicking a ball that had been hit from the Leicester half, straight back to their striker. Luckily this didn’t result into a goal. We did however concede a 2nd goal, after a mix up between Henry and Rolland. After they kept strong and kept moving the ball, and it paid off. Herbert securing all 3 points with 5 minutes to go after good work down the right hand side from Tom Burrows. The boys ran and gave everything for the team. A massive shout out to Miles Fiddes who in his first start, and second game had an absolute worldly. Playing all positions on the park, trapping aerials, slapping balls with quality into the D, and defensively class. Burrows a close second for MotM with 2 assists and a goal.

Man of the Match: Miles Fiddes

Next week ARU Men’s 1st will play Loughborough Men’s 5th at home on Wilberforce Road Sports Grounds. Come and support them from 3pm onwards.

Team ARU: Taekwondo Report

By Jessica Marie Baloso

BSTF Autumn Championships and LUSL 2018

Results: x4 Gold, x9 Silver, x5 Bronze

A very early start for the team driving to the Jean Brown Indoor Arena in Ilford. We eagerly waited for the weigh-ins to start. A number of universities had also started arriving and some students had been exercising to burn off any excess weight to ensure they met their weight requirement. Other competitors were also practicing for the first set of competitions known as Poomsae, which is a distinct pattern of attack and defence actions.

The world weights division for sparring began around noon and Team ARU athletes were warming up, stretching, and practicing kicks before their fights. There were some issues with more than one of the team members’ matches happening at the same time. Therefore, those who were not yet competing were split all over the place, supporting as many of the team members as possible. The coaches too were doing an incredible job of managing multiple members of the team, one after the other as everyone’s matches were close together.

Every single member of the club performed very well and scoring a number of points and all at advancing the semi-finals as a minimum. A valid kick to the trunk is two points but four if it is a turning kick, and a kick to the head is three, but five if it is a turning kick.

After a lunch break to rejuvenate the athletes, the rest of the matches for the first session continued and soon came to end, and the Olympic weights division followed. Despite losing some matches, the team had a 100% medal rate and were able to take home 18 medals. The full results were:

– Maria Michael: x2 Silver, Bronze
– Jessica Marie Baloso: x2 Silver
– Lidia Iazzolino: x2 Gold
– Piyush Dattatray Dixit: Bronze
– Miranda Ventrella: Bronze
– William Moore: Gold
– George Dennis: Bronze
– Abdul Khan: Silver
– Muhammad Shoaib Shahid: x2 Silver
– Alexina Oladipupo: Gold, Silver
– Neuza Nunes-Cossa: Silver, Bronze

The Taekwondo club has improved greatly over a short period of time, from the number of members signing up, down to the progression of the hard-working individuals. The new committee members have been actively involved with their members of the group and supporting one another through running Mondays’ training sessions, as well as promoting the club with a new Instagram page being set up. The club has also gained an extra training session at a new facility at North Cambridge Academy.

A massive thank you to Barbora Hodorova for volunteering as corner and Poomsae judge, Kian Ziari, Shoaib Shahid, and Piyush Dixit for doing a wonderful job of coaching the team! Next stop: Student Nationals!

Team ARU: Girls Hockey Match Report

Written for Team ARU by Jessica Richardson

Warwick University V Anglia Ruskin University 

Score: 0-2! WE WON!

After being cramped into a small minibus for 2 hours, we arrived at Warwick University wanting to win more than ever. Despite starting off the season a bit rough, the team has finally found their determination to win again.

The game started off with ARU staying strong and focused and having most of the possession however, Warwick had a good defence and our girls struggled to find a way in to the D and score goals. That didn’t stop them from giving up and Katheryn Soame on her debut game back found an opening and ran the ball into the D, hit it to the post for Neve Chacksfield to deflect it in!

Going back in to the game after half time is normally where ARU loses their heads a little but, the girls wanting to win so they can get a McDonald’s from the driver meant that they worked even harder to keep the win a good one. This half was all about possession as we watched Warwick struggle to get the ball. ARU’s second goal came from a short won by Merel van Schooten and scored by Phoebe Aldrich with an incredible straight strike! 9 minutes later and the whistle is blown allowing us to celebrate their first win of the season!

Girl of the Game:

Caitlin Dean as she showed how much she has grown as a player in this match!

Next week we see our cup game against Nottingham – let’s try get another win!

Reflections from the Cambridge Half Marathon

Half Marathon? Why not! 

Over a week ago, the 7^th edition of the Cambridge half marathon started at 9:30am. Over 9000 people descended to Midsummer Common to run in the cold March weather, which is more than double the number of runners from when it started in 2012. Not being the most athletic I decided to join this group, getting to midsummer around nine am and the grass was already replaced with mud, luckily the organisation had provided tin foil blankets to keep us all warm. Which apparently are donated to the homeless shelters around Cambridge after the marathon. The organisation had done an amazing job organising all the stalls and tents around the common to accommodate the amount of bags and bikes brought along.

The route of the marathon led us from Midsummer common to Chesterton road past King’s College and Fitzwilliam museum all the way through Trumpington and the toughest bit around Grandchester which is where you run past the halfway point to go back into town and past the backs to make it back to the common where lots of family and friends have gathered to cheer you on.

Sketch of a runner by our new illustration artist: Maisy Ruffels 

When signing up for a half marathon non-runners declare you for crazy and experienced runners will tell you about how rewarding it is when you finish. This is the second time I’ve participated and I can tell you, while that might be the feeling for some – it was not in my case. When you finish there was nothing of the feeling of reward, I regretted starting in the first place. In fact; this is the second time I’ve ran and despite it – I’m pretty sure I will do it again. Why? To prove that I can do it, but also so I can get that medal and a great Instagram post!

So do join us next year at the 8^th edition of the Saucony Half Marathon that is currently up for a favourite award for half marathon with 5000+ entries at the Running Awards at https://therunningawards.com/vote/179/183#vote

Well done again to everyone who took part!

By Merel van Schooten 

18 March 2018

Illustrations by Maisy Ruffels.

Team ARU: Bumps Riverbank Carnage

By Elle Haywood

Bumping happened up and down the River Cam on Saturday as the colleges of Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University fought to become Head of the River, by attempting to over-take or “bump” the boats in front of them.

There was chaos in the Men’s 2nd division, as a huge crash occurred on Grassy Corner. The 1^st Year Downing boat Cox, Pranay Bose, said: “The Selwyn boat crashed into the bank which left a hole in our own boat and demolished one of our blades, just unbelievable.”

The ladies from the Jesus-W1 boat maintained their title – but there were unprecedented results in the Men’s 1st Division. The Lady Margaret-M1 boat was crowned Head of the River as they gained Blades from moving up from 4^th to 1^st.

Colleges that were bumped down the divisions, were given Spoon Awards and colleges that bumped up every race were given Blade Awards. They were given to Clare-M1 and W1, Downing-W2, Jesus-W1, Lady Margaret-M1, Newham-W2, Robinson-M2, St Catherine-W2, Trinity Hall-M2 and Wolfson-W1. ARU missed this award after a crash on Day 1 – but rumoured they will be the ones to watch in the following months.

All five days were filled with foliage crowns and muddy towpaths. The May Bumps will occur in June, post-examinations. Rory Bradshaw, 22, who is an Engineering student for the Newnham-M3 boat said: “Few experiences compare to the exhilaration of getting the bump whilst being bumped. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to it.” It is expected that over a thousand will attend the summer races.

ARU Men’s & Women’s Teams from Lent Bumps 2017 down on the River Cam:

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Image Credit: Angus Parker from Cam FM 97.2