Another result: Columbus 1 Aston Villa 3

Sorenson played

It might only be a friendly and all that but its a good work out and i consider the 2 teams weve just played stronger opposition than the swedish teams we hav come up against in recent years plus were the first team from europe to get a win against the crew so its not all pointless plus we were always going to go over to the U.S so Randy can promote his newist team no harm done two good results now get back here and get sum good results in tha transfer market plsssss ..

peace out

Who played right back???? Do we have a fit one and is Delaney match fit?

Isn't anyone else upset with MO'N?
I'm sittin here hearing that Blues are puttin in bid for Raul from Madrid, and all we've done is buy West Ham's rejects!!
O'N can't possibly think we're gonna do any good with the team we've got, which is MORE THIN than last year, and even then we had to dig deep into the youth to have enough players. I'm sick of this now...
O'NEILL OUT!!!

I've seen the highlights on villa world and Ashley Young's goal was quality.. run from the right and smashed in from 20 yards, i think we will see big things from him next year and hopefully Luke Moore!

damian, could you e mail me at bassuk2000@yahoo.co.uk as i can't read any of the comments on any of the topics? it has happened in the last 24 hours i just get the report and how many comments there are but can't read any of them! cheers bass2000

I know what you're trying to say Damian, but to say we were always going to win these matches is ignoring the likes of Everton and Celtic who've lost to MLS sides in the last couple of weeks, and Chelsea who only won 1-0.

Better to win than to lose anyway, eh? :)

sorry Damien but saying ur not a big fan of pre-season?? what do u mean by that?
Do u think we shouldnt play games to prepare for the season and that the players should just train? Because that would be ridiculous!
And to say that we were always going to win the games is also ridiculous!!
These matches are about the winning, of course it is good for confidence going into the season but it is more about getting the players fit, trying out different formations and giving fringe players a chance to shine.
Celtic Everton and Fulham have all lost to MLS sides which has been mentioned below but did it effect their campaigns?? no.

Aside form this, the trip to the US is very important to advertise the Villa brand, we could now have a couple more thousand Villa fans in the states because of this and it can only be a good thing.

Come to think of it Im delighted, Im one of Luke Moores biggest fans and these 2 games will give him the confidence to prove all the doubters wrong. He is the only natural goalscorer we have. Him and Carew would be a brilliant partnership! No need to worry about Gabby, he will be back in the team very soon, probably on the wing though?

Good to see a positive result over there. I agree and think this was a better tour than the usual Sweden one playing really poor sides, at least these guys are in the middle of there season and are as fit as they can be, well done lads.

Now MON said no more business would be done until Monday upon his return, lets hope he has the busiest week of his life starting tomorrow and get some players in.

Up the Villa

Villafan4life you're a total idiot it's clear you're not a Villa and if you are you're a sad excuse for one who needs to learn that papers talk shite! Blues can't sign mido so how in a month of sundays would they even get near Raul's boots christ even his sweat is too expensive for blues! So shh! Before you make yourself & whatever club you support evev more stupid looking. And as of the results i think it's a great start for the club, Lets just hope they keep it going over here! I Also expect the signings to start now we're back from America. I've read reports linking us with Alan Smith, Jose Bosingwa, Brede Hangeland, Lets hope these rumors are true 3 quality signings.

LINK

MON giving cascarino some stick nice quote at end "still not strong enough yet as we havent got all the players in yet "

keep the faith boys i agree now were bak in england new players are on the way KEEP THE FAITH

villafan i would like to know if your going to sack mon who would you replace him with fry francis jim smith maybe? mon has been amanager 4 20 yrs he knows what hes doing!!hes always bought late as he did in jan he tried 4 james milner aug last yr.now is not the time to comment september is wait til then!!

LINK

I especially loved Marlon Harewood showing his world class skill by missing an open goal by a golden mile! Utter Utter crap

Hey guys

For anyone who wants, we have the goals up on www.101greatgoals.com for your enjoyment.

Regards

we have just signed some young american

LINK

im completely with CHRISODON here!

Am i the only one that is really exciting about this coming season. I believe when MON took over he was planning to buy alot of players this summer, however was pleasantly surprised like all of us to see the likes of gabby coming through and being a big threat in the premiership. Marlon Harewood is a fantastic squad player for us and we have a small squad, are we forgetting how proliffic he has been in the premiership before last season?

Arthur Boruc looks a fantastic keeper and one i would love to see at villa park!

Bosingwa also looks very gifted!

More signings will come, MON is not stupid he knows this team may not be strong enough to challenge for Europe especially with our lack of defensive stability!

Keep the faith!

LINK

Bosingwa

[quote] VillaFan 4Life said:
Isn't anyone else upset with MO'N?
I'm sittin here hearing that Blues are puttin in bid for Raul from Madrid, and all we've done is buy West Ham's rejects!!
O'N can't possibly think we're gonna do any good with the team we've got, which is MORE THIN than last year, and even then we had to dig deep into the youth to have enough players. I'm sick of this now...
O'NEILL OUT!!![/quote]
Erm have any of you guys seen the highlights over the last week? We've looked really strong, we have a strikeforce to die for and our midfield holds up well, its just the defence on the right hand side and a new keeper that would be nice to obtain. O'Neill has worked greater miracles, so instead of chanting nonscence like 'O'NEILL OUT' or any other BS like that give it til the actual start of the season

at Rossac
when i say i'm not a fan of pre-season i'm not suggesting or saying anything about not playing games. i'm just saying i'm not a fan of it; the results dont bother me, who is played doesn't bother me - basically i'm not a fan of it

The team look really together and NRC seems to have fitted in well. Was nice to see all the players coming together after every goal. The defence looks abit tired and i think we need improvment in that department but the attack looks to be working nicely. Anyone who is saying MON out is odviously not a Villa fan and probably just a WUM.

I refuse to get on Harewoods back. I think he can do his job for Villa and was pretty cheap. I would rather have him for under £4M than Alan Smith who will cost us over £6M.

Hopefully we will see some nice new signings over the next few weeks. I still think next season is looking up but alot more teams are splashing the cash. Man City are spending big but on unproven players so we will see.

Up the Villa

P.S thanks for the people who posted highlights ;)

To taglor:

I hope you weren't commenting on the highlights for this game when you said Harewood missed an open goal...etc. Did you see the defender that actually cleared it off the line?! I don't mean to sound like I'm having a go at you, so apologies for that, but I think it's completely wrong to be looking to bash a player you don't like. Looking for negatives is never a good thing, we need to support the players as much as possible....

I'm getting excited that Luke Moore could be the goal machine that we've needed for some time. Like others have said previously, he looks composed and clinical and whilst it is only pre-season matches at the moment, he's still scoring the most goals. If the opposition is weak (and I for one don't think it's as weak as some are saying) why haven't the likes of Carew, Barry, Agbonlahor scored a hat full as well. It either means Luke is very good or the others are not and I really don't believe it's the latter. Keep up the good work Luke...please.

i was at the match (i live pretty close to columbus) and i know its just preseason but here are some of my thoughts on villa last night.

ashley young- was awesome. his goal was great and time and time again he was running at and beating the crew defenders off the dribble. one of the loudest cheers of the game from the crew section was late in the first half when he tried to take yet another defender off the dribble and got stuffed. he was the best player on the field.

cahill - was very good. had several quality tackles in the second half to stop crew runs. one of the few to play the whole game and performed admirably in stopping the crews attack.

nrc- created energy for the entire team. he was out the entire second half and the team seemed very lifeless at times. hes not as great technically as you might hope and he got caught out of postion a few times, but his constant energy and talking really was a spark for the team. anytime he came near the area of the field where i was sitting you could hear him clearly over anyone else. you could also see the crew getting very annoyed with the way he just played the game with a level of enthusiasm a notch aboce everyone else.

harewood- hoping hes just still trying to adjust to the new team. he seemed lost the whole time he was out there and didnt make very many runs.

gabby- didn't do as much as i would have hoped. created a couple chances but i thought his performance would have been a little better. lost the ball a few more times then i would have liked against their defenders.

carew- clearly a physical prensence up front. the crew defenders are not big and he was just moving them at will. his touch for barrys goal was quality.

in all, after we scored the first two goals we just sort of settled down and seemed content to play to a 2-0 result. ashley young was one of the few that kept running at the defenders in the first half. once halftime came (and half the starteers were subbed) the team seemed much more lifeless...not sure if that had to do with the lead, the rather small crowd, fatigue, the lack of an energy spark (like nrc) on the field or a combination of them all. moore goal was nice, but weak in the fact that there was less then 20 seconds to go and the crew had already resigned themselves to the loss. anyways, its all just my take on the game.

To TOMR, I'm sorry, I take it all back harewood was so unlucky to shoot at an open goal and hit the defender, and he looked immense and awesome the whole match, I think his value must have gone up 50 mill as I have never seen such vision, technical ability and natural raw talent in all my life and the scary thing is he will get even better over the season, but how do you get better when you are one of the worlds best players ever?

Sorry but sarcasm wasn't needed....

The point I was making is that purposefully looking for negatives about a player, rather than supporting them as they are part of the team, is not helpful, and especially seeing as the season hasn't even started yet.

So, Harewood may not be the sort of player we wanted to join, but that does not mean you should describe him as "utter utter crap" and make an exagerated statement by describing a chance that was blocked by a defender/cleared off the line as "missing an open goal by a golden mile"......

(Continued 1)......There are ways to support, and yet also be honest and constructively critical about a player's/team's performance. But looking for negative things to say and exagerating those points when you do so, is not helpful, nor is it showing support.

Like it or not, he is going to be wearing a Villa kit next season, which means he is part of Aston Villa, the team who we should be supporting the whole of. Support first, criticise second, but don't do so after purposefully looking for negative things to say or by exagerating whilst doing so........

(Continued 2)......I am not a Harewood "fan", but I am a Villa fan, and whilst he is with us and playing for us, we shouldn't be looking to criticise him or pick him apart, again, especially before the season has started.

Apologies for the rant.

i hope the people who are slating MON read the article in the mirror about him on saturday. The bloke is absolutely devoted to making the club a success, he puts football (and therefore villa) above everything else in his life, including his wife who is still battling cancer. i completely trust him, he has his ways and they dont seem to have failed him yet, and if that means he wants to buy late, or is happy with the squad of players we have, then so be it.

Right on Tom R,

Let's just wait until he's actually played a few effing games for us before we lay into the guy. I have a sneaking suspicion he will become a bit of a cult hero at VP.

Forever and ever, Amon

are people really slating MON?

i don't think so .. i think all new players will also get a proper run but if you're paid the money some of these players are and they miss some of the chances they miss then they deserve slating

In premiership football Harewood is he most proven striker we have. He has been imense for west han before last season. With a small squad and massive transfer fees nowadays he is a very good signing to help competition for places.

TAGLOR should either lower his expectations slightly or go and join the Chelsea bang-wagon. His comments are completely unjustified. He simply doesnt like the stature of the player and is eager to criticise. Lets give the team time shall we.

I am still extremely excited about the new season ahead and im sure more signings will come. Give the kids a chance before spending money on players for the name.

Just watched the highlights on 101greatgoals. Two comments:
Harewood's effort was stopped by a brilliant piece of defending and the resulting corner led to the goal. Secondly - look at the passion that Reocoker puts into the game. His celebrations with young and barry for each goal highlight the part of villas game that has been missing for so long.

Another thing about harewood he rolled that defender like he was nothing! i'm looking forward to see what he can do for villa. Not World class but Could be a Great squad player. i'll be cheering his name come the 11th Come on VILLA!!!! ;D

Villa really do need to sign a keeper now sorenson is missing the start of the season, i know we have Stuart Taylor but i'm not convinced he's premiership quality that we need. let's hope he moves for Jussi or Carson!

has any1 heard about the joke of the day??

luke moore to swansea-

According to today's News of the World, Aston Villa striker Luke Moore is Martinez's top target to replace Lee Trundle.

The newspaper also claims that John Hartson is NOT on a list of 4 possible replacements.

A Swans 'insider' said: 'Moore is his number one choice. Roberto knows it will be hard to lure him to Swansea but he has set his sights on bringing him in as soon as possible.'

It does seem like an ambitious attempt to sign a Premiership striker, who scored a hatrick on Villa's Canadian Tour which impressed boss Martin O'Neill.

lmao

hope its not true!!! he could actually be our main stirker this season

UP THE VILLA!!!!!!!!!!!!

just read that weve signed a new defender from america, Eric Lichaj, and 18 year old 6ft central defender from Chicago Magic SC.

this is to tagor if marlon harewood was so crap then why would martin oneil buy him. You slag him of for missing a open goal. When he scored a hat trick against us i didnt see him miss a open goal you need to sort out where you prioritites lie mate. Martin oneil has never signed major people in his manging career and i dont think he ever will foar at least another season. But thats fine because weve gt a good side who are capable of pulling together and get through ruff spells. All we need is a new right back and a goal keeper. jussi for £4 mill i cant see bolton rejecting that. and we will probley get a right back this weeek wither on loan or buy. Mon Claret& Blue army! AVFC

i havent seen any of the pre season games but what ive heard is all sounds good, we seem to be looking very threatening when goin forward. luke moore hes our new 20 goal a season man, he can b a villa legend!

Ye i heard that Sorensen is out for the first game. MON was keen on Boruc but he has a sholder injury and will miss the opening of the SPL. I think we need a goalkeeper and probably 4 others.

I trust MON in everything he does and i also think Harewood wasnt a bad signing for the money. The season before last he scored 16 goals which is more than any of our strikers have done for a long while. If he can recapture that form then i think alot of people will say this is one of the signings of the season.

Lets be honest we would have all rather had someone like Darren Bent but not at £16.5M. I dont think Darren Bent will score 4 times as many goals as Harewood (fingers crossed) and i dont think he is a 4 times better player.

The guy is at Villa now so lets not get on his back before he has even played a minute of PL football here. I wonder if he starts to score a few will those people who critized him back pedle and say what a good signing it was?

well if anyone ever needed proof that paper talk is rubbish, there you go!

To Ayersey and TOMR, I am so sorry, thanks for the tips on how to comment on players and teams, I shouldn't really express my opinion and if I follow your simple rules I am sure my comments will be much better in future. Sincerely sorry for expressing my opinion on a player and I shall not do so again if it differs from your opinion even slightly, you must lend me the handbook on how to comment on football and be right all of the time.
ps yes I must lower my expectations, I should never expect Villa to succeed, I mean why support them for that

TAGLOR, I have no problem with you voicing your opinion, i would just like to know where such negative comments come from? The bloke has only played 2 games and has shown a very strong presence, he came to Villa willing to fight for his place hoping to achieve so lets just cut him some slack. He scored 14 goals in the premiership 2 years ago and picked up some injuries last season. I just dont quite understand where your criticism is coming from.

Yes every villa would like more high profile signings no doubt but we also have to be realistic. We couldnt have a better man for the job that MON.

Back the boys!

Firstly, I admit I wasn't happy when we signed Harewood, but since then i've had a while to think about it and am quite excited about it, to those of you who think i've gone mad, look at Heskey, he can't hit a cows ass with a banjo, never been brilliant except when he played for MON!! Harewood is so simillar to Heskey that I have to believe tht MON feels he could turn him into the destructive force Heskey once was.

Secondly, MON will come good, he showed his resilliance in January when he signed Carew, Young and Maloney, we have to keep the faith in him, he knows we need another 5 players, but he isn't gonna waste money on people who he doesn't feel will do us proud.

Up MON, Randy and the Villa, we have never been in better hands and I believe we are two more first-teamers and a few more squadies away from something special.

At Ayeresy, I didn't say anything about MON, I think he is awesome and we are very lucky to have him, I also think Harewood will come good, It's just a bug bear that every time you leave an opinion people deem themselves of better opinion, or pick at things instead of just expressing theirs.

Ive been seing alot of reports stating villa will be lining up against liverpool with Stuart Taylor in goal. I dont no where these stories are coming from but i seriously hope we can bring in a keeper in time. Sadly the keeper i wanted to see at villa park Boruc has also sustained a bad injury ruling him out of the start of the season. Bosingwa looks a very good player and will fill a gap that desperately needs fillin at full back. our midfield and forward line is one that is only going to get better as the season progresses. The future is looking very bright for us.

Although maybe next season is going to be the season we really make our mark as oppossed to this season coming.

just got back from columbus, ohio. great time, team played well in general, fans were brilliant. the only thing that soured it was the players not coming over to the fans at the end of the game. now I can understand if it was walsall or stoke, but this was 3 thousand miles away, I spoke to people who had come from australia and all over the states. the whole villa end booed, then melberg turned and clapped, but I thought it was pretty disgusting, everybody was talking about it in the bars after the game, I can't believe mon didn't make them come over, after all when all said and done the fans are the only ones that stay with the club.its not a great way to promote the club to potential new fans.

I don't mean any disrespect but we play a friendly on wednesday, so they would have to fly back that night and it's normally a long wait in an airport so they would have been on a tight schedule, then they'd arrive monday for home & rest then back for light training & tactics on the tuesday, then it's the friendly on wednesday.

The money they are on, I would shake every fans hand for 12hrs straight saying thanks for paying for me and my family to live like kings and never have to worry about money or do a soul crushing job. This is when I have the right to think players like Harewood are crap compared to their wage, I was a fireman and now a nurse and they get more in a week than some of these amazing people in 2 years, that means to me they better damn well be worth it.

Taglor.... you are right but give the guy a chance to prove his worth before making an assesment that he is crap.

Being honest if MO'N was trying to sell Marlon Harewood to us as some brilliant world class player that's gonna make a huge difference to our club then I would be annoyed. The thing is, he's not, and he cost us £4m which by todays standards is cheap. Now he might not go on to bang in the goals for us but at £4m he's well worth taking the chance, especially given his previous form. It seems he might just be down on confidence and if he can change that he might get us 15 or so which would be alright by me. However, to stand any chance of regaining his confidence he needs time and support from then manager, his team mates and the supporters, in my opinion.

I'm sick of people pulling harewood down, Right fair enough he's not going to set the premiership alight but he'll do a job for us. But lets be honest here who were you all wanting and expecting? eto'o? kaka? maybe defoe? for the past 3 seasons we've finished outside the top 10 so no matter how much money you're willing to spend if players like defoe or SWP want to move they'll go to a team in europe or just outside of it. we're still setting up a team to challenge for europe so basically we're going to have to buy players like harewood who's proven in the premiership and can be a bargin buy rather than buy a player from abroad who's not played here or sign an unproven striker from the championship i.e chopra, nugent. i'm happy with harewood cause he's pissing off fickle villa fans like so many on here. So keep on doing it harewood and prove these fickle fans wrong.

We're being spilt in two here guys. DLS used the phrase on the forum today that we all need a "coffee time moment" sometimes where instead of insulting our own, we just silently agree to differ.
Theres a lot of anger being directed towards our own members and accusations of not being true Villa fans. I was accused of this today and it really riles unless you can sort it out (since vindicated...yay !)
Truth is, we all love Villa or we wouldn't be on here. We all know where the squad is weak and where we're strong and we all know that we have possibly the best management team we could have hoped for.
People are bound to be pissed that we've got to this stage and only signed NRC and Marlon weather they're great or not. Talks of Sneidjer and Lahm etc were rubbished weeks ago and since then i have been trying to comment on cheapish Euro players as the prices for English players are so over inflated.
We should all be a bit concerned though now, Sorensen can't make the first part of the season leaving only Taylor in goal (didn't Olejnik go elsewhere?), still no RB or CH cover?
You gotta admit guys, week and a half to go now and still not great on the transfer front?
I really do hope that we'll have enough to cope.(hope that wasn't too negative lads)
UP THE VILLA ;)

One more thing, out of the five players i've been banging on about the last few weeks Roque has gone to Blackburn and Wilhelmsson to Bolton.
That leaves Craig Gordon, Hangeland and Bosingwa.
I can't see Scott Carson leaving Pool and Boruc broke his shoulder so a bid for Gordon must be likely. I still can't think of any CB or RB's for that money better than those mentioned.
Any ideas ?? ;)

RB i'd say hoyte but arsenal won't sell because of the african cup and they'll lose eboue to that cup. CB other than Hangeland it would probably be Curtis davies but he'll cost more than he's really worth right now.

Yeah poor little Marlon needs his confidence, lucky I didn't need my confidence when I was in the fire service or now as a nurse and just use the skills I am paid for. Anyway enough of that, just good fun to see how easy people get wound up. Good luck Marlon and I also think he may turn out to be an excellent buy. PS I said we would be short of 2 players due to injury by kick off, I think Berger will be next.
PPS Blues have now signed 8 new players

I also think carson could leave liverpool because of always being behind reina and he could if he was too leave have a great season elsewhere i think it would be toss up between him & Robbo for euro 08. that also could stop alot players leaving there team and moving abroad, so that could be a stumbling block with bosingwa and other potential imports. 1 more thing did anyone else read on sky sports news that Mellberg is considering his future?

Lol if you're betting on injurys it'll probably be Laursen

how can you put defoe in the same region as eto and kaka

It was an example for what some fans expected i wasn't classing them as the top 3 in the world. it was meant to show the standards of players some fans wanted that villa can't attract yet.

Craig Gordan is hugely over priced, and Scott Carson seems pretty comitted to Liverpool. Why not bring him in on loan for a season?

Curtis Davies would be a fantastic signing however is attracting alot of suitors.

How about chchiellini the italian U21 captain that Man City are looking at very closely? he looks a terrific player, quoted as being the next cannavaro.