Blackburn, D'Alessandro and the dumb abuse of a Southampton fan

Blackburn Match Previews

This might be out of date by now- and I'm sure it's a syndicated article from elsewhere- but it's speculating on Pompey's team tonight
...and here's a preview from Scottish Fitba.

From a Lancashire Paper (and obviously from a Blackburn perspective)
From A Blackburn website and is hopefully a bit optimistic.
...and this is also from a Blackburn point of view. I did not know that Blackburn were playing Liverpool and Man. Utd in their next two games after tonight. Hopefully tonight we will knock the stuffing out them and they will struggle to get back to the form they have shown in their last couple of games.

Other Stuff

Someone else is miffed at our recruitment policy. The whole deal looks messy-if indeed it is true.
Here Andy O' Brien says that he has no regrets about leaving Pompey. Which is far enough because neither do I.
LuaLua seems to be quite happy having moved on. Despite what he did for us in one game in particular I never had that much time for him.
This is a long article about Harry- from the Telegraph.
Here is a really daft- and quite funny Myspace video of a Southampton fan being abused.

Finally- a short essay.

During the 2002/3 season (I think) I found myself watching the Copa Liberdatores (South America's Champion League) on the telly. It was a brilliant competition that year- the final being fought out between Boca Juniors (featuring Tevez) and Santos (featuring Robiniho) with Boca winning.
On the way to the final I saw one of the most entertaining and daft games of football I had ever seen-it was America de Cali (from Colombia) against River Plate in the quarter final - I think 5 or 6 players were sent off -as was one of the managers but the thing I remembered most about the game was towards the end of the match. There was loads of space all over the pitch- because so many players had been sent off and a young River Plate player-one Andres D'Alessandro picked up the ball in the left back position and ran the length of the pitch and as he tore down the pitch the Columbian fans hurled down a barrage of rocks, flares, stones, coins and mobile phones at the young player. I'm a big fan of a tricky winger-(I know that he really likes playing in the number 10 position) but watching him run the length of the pitch under a hail of debris from the terrace was about as brave a thing I've seen on a football pitch. I'd never have believed he would ever play for Pompey and was delighted when he did and pretty depressed when he left.
...and now there are vague rumours about him coming back.
This YouTube Video does not really give full justice to how bonkers the match was and does not show the moment that I remember with D'Ale



But this video does do him justice: