Celtic kick off the first match of 2010 against our cross-town anchor and league leaders, huns FC. The huns sit atop the league with 43 points from 18 matches while Celtic reside in second place with 36 points from 17 matches as our mid-week match was called off due to poor road and parking conditions. Celtic will be replaying the Kilmarnock match on January 20th.
The huns DID play their mid-week match against Dundee United, dismantling them 7-1, scoring 4 after Kenny Miller was sent off with a straight red that is 100% sure to be appealed, making him eligible for Sunday’s match. Celtic previously played last weekend, winning 2-0 over a very spry Hamilton with goals from Niall McGinn and Glenn Loovens.
The huns come in to the match with a clean bill of health while Celtic welcome back Koki Mizuno (yes, he does still play for us) from 3 months off due to knee surgery and welcome in Ki Sung-Yueng (wearing #18) and welcome back Darren O’Dea from his loan spell at Reading. Still out for another three weeks are Scott Brown and Shaun Maloney.
Yet another player who will NOT be joining Celtic is Dmitry Verkhovtsov, Belarussian defender who was in Glasgow for a tryout with Celtic.
Let us all come together at Fado to see if Celtic can grab all the points at Celtic Park and narrow that huns lead. And get 2010 off to a rousing start!
Celtic, after the B team faced down Vienna in an exciting 3-3 fightback draw now go to Tynecastle to face off against Hearts in an SPL match between 2nd placed Celtic and 8th placed Hearts.
Celtic come in to the match with a few new injuries picked up including Lee Naylor, Danny Fox, Georgios Samaras and possibly Niall McGinn (who had one heck of a match midweek).
Hearts will be without Christian Nade, Ian Black and Suso Santana.
Let us see if Celtic can continue their excellent run. It won’t be snowing, it’ll be a little chilly but why fight the Christmas crowds? Get to Fado and show your support for our club!
And our Europa League adventure comes to a close tomorrow at 12:45 P.M. Celtic face off against Rapid Vienna at the Austrian National Stadium in a match that has little bearing on the table outside of pride.
Celtic are bringing a less-than-full-strength squad to Austria with Lee Naylor and Paddy McCourt declared out, Zheng Zhi ineligible and our two long term injury Bhoys still being injured and not eligible for action. So will Celtic take the Wolves way out and run out an entire ‘B’ team? Will we see Willo Flood in his (most likely) Celtic swan song? Early team reports have Celtic resting many starting players for our trip to Tynecastle this Sunday to face off against the Jambos.
The match is broadcast on DirecTv in the United States as well as the usual internet outlets. If you have more than a passing interesting in watching some non-traditional (meaning not the guys who have run out a nice form recently) players, this could be your chance to watch people who will be moving on in January or possibly some players for tomorrow!
Celtic face off against 5th place Motherwell at Fir Park this Saturday at 7:45 A.M. Celtic are working on a 3 game winning streak and bring no new injuries to the match. Motherwell, however are somewhat injury plagued as Shaun Hutchinson, Chris Humphrey, Marc Fitzpatrick, Darren Smith and Paul Slane are all out. They are coming off of a 2-0 loss to Hibs last weekend.
Outside of the match, Celtic have been linked with everyone with a pulse, taken several teams worth of trialists on and the Motherwell manager, Jim Gannon, has risen amazingly high in my estimation via his mid-week rant against Hugh “The Golden Apron” Dallas and Scottish refereeing in general. His statement, “Dallas had to defend the referee because the result of the game might have been different if he’d got his decisions correct at Ibrox.
“Celtic might look back on that result at the end of the season and decide that Ibrox in October is when they lost the league championship.
“There’s a question mark over the standard of refereeing in Scotland and the mistakes that are being made are having an effect on the league table.” has made me quite proud. Well done, sir.
Yes, it is cold and it’ll be early, but I’d love to see everyone there for an entertaining match.
A reasonable hour kickoff versus a dangerous opponent? Certainly! Bring it on.
Celtic face off against Aberdeen tomorrow at 10:00 A.M. Celtic are coming off of a mid-week game where they defeated Hapoel Tel-Aviv 2-0 (and the scoreline should have been more in our favor if you have seen the match) and previously defeated St. Mirren 3-1. Aberdeen are, of course, coming off of a 1-0 win over the huns at Pittodrie after playing down a man for the last 30 minutes of the match. If you’ve seen any of that match you also know that scoreline deceives somewhat as Aberdeen had two more excellent chances that did not bounce their way.
Returning to the lineup will be Artur Boruc (who pushed to start midweek but did not) and Zheng Zhi who was ‘injured’ or better said ‘ineligible’ for the midweek match. Other long term injury concerns are not coming back for a while as of yet.
On the transfer front, even though Tony Mowbray says Osman Chavez, an actual center back, impressed he would not be signed and neither would Sander Puri, an Estonian winger. Nothing was mentioned of the four Hungarian players we have on trial, but those would be for the future anyway. Coming in on trial is Milos Lacny, a 21 year old Slovakian winger/striker who is capped by their U-21 team. Since 2007 he has scored 11 goals in 29 appearances. Yes, the January transfer window approaches, meaning everyone everywhere will be linked to Celtic and we will sign Willo Flood (again).
It’ll be cold tomorrow folks, so bundle up accordingly and I will see you at the Shed at 10!
And we’re off again for more Europa Cup adventures, this time a home match against Hapoel Tel-Aviv. Celtic played some decent looking football over the weekend when they beat St. Mirrin 3-1 to go back to the top of the table as the huns lost 1-0 to 10 man Aberdeen.
Celtic are petitioning UEFA to bring back Artur Boruc who wishes to play in this match. Still out are Scott Brown and Shaun Maloney, who will remain on the sideline until January while Zheng Zhi cannot play due to his signing not being in time for registration.
Celtic, to remain in the competition need to win their final two matches and Hamburg to lose both of theirs, so keep your eyes on the other score - it could be the difference.
As always, match is available on DirecTv and at your local (or not so local) watering hole, since it is free.
