I’m sure you have heard about Coke Zero – Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker show. We also showed you the little stunt Rooney pulled where he’s dribbling (kind of) through a bunch of randomly rolled tires (if not, click here). We got hold of more of the clippings of the show.

Soccerlens now presents, behind the scenes of Coke Zero – Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker:

Make sure you listen to this week’s Soccerlens Podcast that discusses horse placenta treatment, Henry’s handball and a lot more.

Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie headed to Serbia earlier this week to get ’special’ treatment for the torn ligaments in his ankle.

We didn’t actually follow RVP all the way over, but our Eastern European correspondent (Croatian if you must ask) insists that this is exactly how Serbian witchdoctors administer placenta treatments to patients. What’s more, RVP insists that he is getting this treatment with Arsene Wenger’s blessing, and the Professor’s never wrong, is he?

Studs Up by Chris Toy

If it works for Robin…

The former Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o promised his fellow countrymen that he will buy each of his teammates a £30,000 watch should they qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Last weekend after their 2-0 win over Morocco, Eto’o made good on his promise and gifted the same watch to all of his teammates.

Considering the striker’s history of giving things away to other Cameroon players; four years ago he gave out a £60,000 offer, promising that he will pay £2,000 each should they beat Ivory Coast in the upcoming match.

That’s not it! Tales of his charity were told in the Football Italia:

Eto’o is not shy of making a bet, as long as the proceeds go to charity. Three years ago, he did a deal with Ford whereby they would send an ambulance to Cameroon for every goal he scored above a certain quota.

He is now in the process of recycling Europe’s unwanted shoes, installing special bins in Spanish department store El Corte Ingles where people can donate them to charity.

Source

Firstly I would like to explain the title, whilst this is a little inflammatory I am not here to discuss the merits of the Mike Newell School of sexual equality within the beautiful game but rather the unresolved conflict between two great loves of my life – women and football.

Firstly for some reason I feel I must clarify what you already know, the role of football for millions of men’s lives begins at an early age. I can remember that I have loved football long before spending time with the opposite sex became more desirable than contracting the bubonic plague.

Despite a lack of discernible talent I like countless others grew up playing, talking or watching football at every opportunity. From the schoolyard, park or back garden everywhere had the potential to be a football pitch, I read all the books (this was before the interweb) and Saturday afternoons were subservient to BBC Radio 5 live, train schedules and kick off times.

This continued as I reached puberty and beyond and despite one or two close encounters my head was never turned for a long enough period of time to loosen the grip football had on my life.

It must be remembered that as a boy grows up and bubonic fears are replaced with the desire to impress, neigh court a fair maiden the equilibrium is put in danger.

If successful in pursuit of a lady companion and a relationship between a man and a woman reaches a certain stage weird and confusing activities are suggested for Saturday afternoons insted of football. Such activities include (but are not limited to) decorating, Ikea, going shopping and other suitably stereotypical ideas that will doubtless endear me to a generation of feminists.

As the relationship grows Football is no longer guaranteed to be centre stage it can become subject to negotiation and argument as man is torn between his love for football and his love for the lady in his life.

So I have been debating recently how involved your significant other should be with your relationship with the beautiful game.

Some would argue that this is not as much of an issue as it used to be over recent years the demographics of English football stadia have shifted dramatically and it is now culturally acceptable to enter a football stadium with your other half in tow.

Technically this development presents a new potential middle ground between the two, introducing your girlfriend to the beautiful game could be a perfect formula( depending on your significant other of course). Gone are the stereotypes of condiment offside trap diagrams, ignorant questions and a new era featuring more and more women of all ages playing and revelling in the beautiful game.

With this in mind  I have recently took the decision to finally take the big step and reluctantly decide that after 4 years finally take my girlfriend to watch my team play live for the first time.

My girlfriend has known since about the second month of our relationship that she would always be competing with football for my free time and spare cash, to her credit she has taken steps to try and gain a rudimentary understanding of the game and learnt that my mood on an evening may be determined by the actions of 22 men on a football pitch often hundreds of miles from our present location.

Taking a woman to a football match may not sound like a big deal however for the last 4 years I have kept the two competing sections of my life separate. Juggling my weekends to ensure enough time was spent in the company of my lovely lady to ensure I was not shown the door, whilst still allowing sufficient time to travel to games or at the very least keep track of the action on television.

It was not that I didn’t want her to like football in fact the exact opposite I want her to understand my passion to not roll her eyes when I get excited about the cup draw or that Eric Von Winkle from FC Sponge has signed a new contract.

However I am not so sure that I want her to share the passion, I like that I can disappear for a few hours on a Saturday into my own world oblivious to all things that are truly important in life. For 90 minutes I can shout at the top of my voice, voice displeasure at random strangers and take out my frustrations with life.

Please do not misinterpret my ramblings though, I welcome the arrival of women onto the terraces it shows that many of the negative aspects of the game have been eroded and the game has entered the main stream. Also with my Mum, Sister and Grandmother (Nan) season ticket holders at one of two English clubs I am in no position to argue that women do not have a place on the terraces of England. 

After much internal debate I bought the tickets and took the plunge a 5pm game so that we could take in a few activities that were more to her taste and not just throw her in at the deep end. Arriving in plenty of time for the match (10 minutes before kick off rather than the usual 2) she seemed impressed by the sheer size, noise and theatre of the stadium.

Throughout the game you could slowly see her starting to realise what all the fuss was about, the banter, the singing the random swearing/shouting for no apparent reason, the excitement the passion.

The game was a great success she had a great time and was able to see OUR team romp to victory, although I am not sure what I will say when she asks when am I next taking her along.

I do not regret taking the plunge and introducing the most important person in my life to my sporting obsession, but i guess I wanted to see if my misgivings were normal?

How long would you wait to take a girl you like to a football match, is it now first date material or something special to be savoured.

Do you see football as separate from your romantic life or am I just out of date/touch with the modern world for dragging my feet for so long?

The lady at the top? Letizia Filippi.

What you’re going to see is something that I just can’t find the words to describe. Just watch it yourself:

Want more football videos? Check out the Soccerlens Youtube channel.

…but it’ll only be a fan, and that too if the lottery draw works in their favour.

Still, it’s better odds than what they have with current playing staff.

(via Republik of Mancunia)

In fact, you can’t really tell them apart anymore:

Studs Up, by Chris Toy

So how do you smuggle a Liverpool beach ball into Anfield when they’re specifically searching fans to ‘confiscate’ these types of items?

That’s the conundrum facing Manchester United fans as they prepare to travel to Anfield this weekend.

And it’s not just United fans. Liverpool are unlikely to be allowed to forget the beach-ball episode in a hurry with rival fans from other clubs also reportedly ’stocking’ up on the beach balls, which could mean a season long ’search’ at turnstiles for beach balls.

Talk about closing the door after the horse has bolted – bounced on the pitch, as the case may be.

In any case, Manchester United fans can be expected to bring much more than just beach balls to the party – balloons, inflatable animals, and maybe even a giant floating blimp that passes over Anfield during the game – all are valid options as fans gear up to milk the incident to the hilt.

But at the end of the day, it’s points on the board and the performance on the pitch that matters, and the fact remains that United lost both their games to Liverpool last season and on this season’s evidence need to turn things up a notch if they want a point or three from Anfield.

PS – kudos to Rafa Benitez for refusing to ‘replay’ the game, but if we were the cynics that we’re accused of being, there are two possible reasons for this – he wants to be the good guy in light of Ferguson’s tiff with the referees and he has an excuse handy with the fans (we were unlucky) when this season ends up without another league title.

But we’re not cynics, so kudos to Rafa for not criticising the referee.

There’s ridiculous, and then there is this.

A self-proclaimed ‘witch’ is enjoying his 15 minutes of fame after making the bold claim that he had placed a ‘hex’ on Cristiano Ronaldo at the request of a jaded ex-lover. Pepe (that’s the witch, not the ex-lover) is positively gloating after watching Ronaldo injure his ankle during the international break and is predicting that CR will be forced to stop playing football in four months.

For all the abuse Cristiano Ronaldo has received since the 2006 World Cup (when the blind lead the blind when the English press declared open season on him and the rest of the world followed), and there were plenty of kicks, shoves, shoulder barges and what not in between, this has got to be the worst of them all.

He now has to contend with every news report about him and his injuries accompanied by a mention of a non-existent curse put on him by a witch with a craft marketing plan.

Pepe is a smart one. He’s picked the Paris Hilton storyline, and he’s prefaced it by saying that he was also asked to put a curse on Lionel Messi but that he ‘refused’.

Of course you can’t claim to attack the baby-faced Argentine when your primary audience is superstitious mothers and jaded housewives. On the other hand, that’s the exact same audience that hates CR’s womanising and all that represents, so let’s put all our needles into him.

There’s no curse, there’s no spell, there’s nothing going on with Cristiano Ronaldo other than him getting a knock on his ankle that will keep him out of football till next month. The man will be back and will be scoring for fun all over again before the year is over.

As for Pepe – he’ll make some money out of it, for sure, and maybe resurface in 5 years going after yet another world-famous celebrity. He’s not the first hack trying to make a fast buck off a big name, and he won’t be the last.

Next.

Sara Mathew and Amber Allen spent over £9,000 to watch one Oldham Athletic game, despite know nothing about football or Oldham. And now they’re planning on doing it all again this winter. Gary Andrews speaks to the American students who take the definition of football fanatics to a new level.

Standing on an unfamiliar backstreet in one of the less pleasant areas in South East London trying desperately to get hold of their taxi driver, Sara Mathew, a 24-year-old medical student from California, and her friend Amber Allen stood wondering if they’d get back home without getting attacked or worse.

The pair had, on a whim, flown to England to stand in the away end at Millwall’s New Den to watch a sport they new nothing about in a City they knew even less. One thing they knew, though, was almost everybody they’d met had warned them the streets around Millwall’s ground were not the safest areas to be, especially for two foreign girls late at midnight.

Yet these newly-converted Oldham supporters had flown 11,000 miles to watch their new favourite team play, and they weren’t going to let the small matter of being stranded in Bermondsey dampen their enthusiasm for the Latics.

Happily the girls made it back alive after finding a bus stop to take them back to central London, much to the amazement of the people in their hotel. “They were, like, I can’t believe you didn’t get attacked,” giggles Amber as she recalls the August night from earlier this year. “We were at this bus stop, it was midnight, we couldn’t reach our driver, and we were just saying ‘Oh my God.’”

This slightly strange tale starts in May in the Cayman Islands, where the two medical students were (and still are) on placement and get chatting into a group of footballers on holiday. We’ve all been star struck by chance encounters with the architects of the beautiful game, but few of us would fly half way around the world to watch a League One team play away at Millwall. And then come back for more as a result.

A short while after meeting a group of Huddersfield Town footballers on the islands, the girls got involved in a construction deal that fell through, costing them somewhere in the region of $36m if the video of their exploits is to be believed.

“It was a bad time,” says 23-year-old Amber, who met Sara after moving from Florida to California to attend med school. “There was a lot of money lost.” But while most would drown their sorrows of a lost fortune at the bar, the girls decided the best way to deal with this setback was to fly to England and watch their first ever football game, involving one of the players they’d met on holiday.

“We didn’t tell them we were coming,” says Sara. “We just found out who they were and decided to go out there.”

“Our families were dead against the idea, they didn’t know what we were doing” says Amber. “We didn’t know anybody out there, we just decided to go for it.”

Such was their lack of planning that, 11,000 miles and £9,000 later, the girls arrived in London with nowhere to stay and no idea where they were going. “We were literally dragging our suitcases around London for two days, we had nowhere to stay” says Sara. “We got lost for four hours in a ten mile radius.

Undeterred, the girls pressed on and got their ticket for their first ever soccer game – Millwall versus Oldham Athletic. The New Den wouldn’t necessarily be first on the list for any football fan to visit, let alone as a first game as an away fan, not knowing anybody else in the ground. But that was the game the girls chose.

“People were like ‘You’re going to die’,” says Sara. “We were traveling around and telling people why we were here and what we were going to do, and everybody kept telling us we were crazy. We were staying in a hostel and people kept telling us not to go.”

If this seems like a strange choice of game, there was a rationale behind it. One of the players Sara had gotten to know in the Cayman Islands, Jon Worthington, had been transferred from Huddersfield to Oldham during the summer, so the Latics were adopted as the girls’ team. The Millwall game came from a fascination with English hooligan culture after watching Green Street and other similar films.

“That intrigued us,” said Amber. “We’d never seen anything quite like it before and didn’t know what to make of it. We’ve got NFL and that over here, but you never get anything like that. Do you guys have people attacking each other every game?” I assure the girls that, with the exception of Millwall against West Ham, that’s not the case.

But before the pair took their trip to South Bermondsey, they decided they had to stock up on Oldham merchandise. So, after flying into London for a game at Millwall they did what any self-respecting fanatic would do and took a trip to Oldham, to an empty Boundary Park to pick up the Oldham essentials.

Unfortunately, the girls arrived close to closing time and the staff refused to print Jon Worthington’s name on the back of a Latics shirt, although this part of the story has a happy ending. Once Oldham’s managing director, Simon Corney, heard of the girls’ exploits, he arranged for a named jersey, and other kit, to be sent out to the pair.

If the Oldham staff were a little surprised at the two girls turning up on a non-match day to load up with merchandise, Millwall fans and stewards were even more confused. “Nobody quite knew what to make of us,” says Sara. “Even the policeman thought we were insane.”

The match itself wasn’t the most memorable to Latics fans, who made the journey back to Manchester on the back of a 2-0 defeat, while Sara and Amber were left to ponder the finer nature of the game in the backstreets of Bermondsey while waiting for a non-existent taxi to turn up.

On returning to the states, the girlsposted a video of their exploits in Britain (below), which quickly become a minor internet sensation leading to an interview on Talksport and a piece in the Sun, much to Sara’s bemusement. “I went away for a few days and when I came back it had got all these views – I don’t know how, somebody must have posted it on their blog or something.”

But while Oldham fan took the girls to their hearts, the Millwall faithful were less impressed. “Millwall hate us,” giggles Amber. “There was their thread on their message board going on about how awful we are.” But the girls and Millwall may at least have one small thing in common. “We’re fine, they don’t like us, we don’t care. We’re just having fun.”

Having caught the footballing bug well and truly at the New Den – they now listen to commentary from every game online – the girls resolved to watch an Oldham home game at Boundary Park and will be flying over for the Latics game against Exeter City later this year.

“We’re really excited,” says Sara. “We’ve never been insider Boundary Park before. I don’t know what to expect. I think we might do the half-time draw or something, and go down the White Lion after the game.” She pauses. “I’m not really sure what that means.

“Everything’s been really bizarre, you know, from getting on the plane to getting lost and going to all these different places. People are now asking us to do all these interviews, we’re getting messages from the club’s owners. It’s really cool.”

Impressively, they’ve posted another video (below) detailing their research into the Exeter team, displaying a level of depth to their research skills that would put many journalists to shame. “We’ve done the same kind of research for some of Oldham opponents. We did it for Leicester, Leeds, and Millwall. We couldn’t find much information on Exeter though,” says Amber

Their Exeter City research video shows why the girls struggled with finding out information about the club. Other than Michael Jackson’s short-lived directorship, and the official club website, the most detail information they found was a YouTube video song comparing much-maligned former City striker Steve Flack to a giraffe.

Exeter fans were just as confused as the two girls were over the Grecians history when the pair signed up to the fan message board Exeweb, with many assuming it was a wind-up. But once the girls had proved their credentials, Exeter fans started warming to them and the feeling, it appears is mutual.

“Exeter fans are a lot friendlier than other fans, and we’re getting quite fond of them,” says Sara. “We’d definitely quite like to go to Exeter for a game as well.”

But Oldham is definitely where the girls’ hearts are and, after their flying visit in December, when they’ve already been approached to appear on Sky’s Soccer AM, the girls are planning to return for another game in January. Not that they’re any more prepared than their first visit.

“We still don’t really have anywhere to stay,” say Sara. “And we’ve been told Boundary Park’s the coldest ground in England. That might be a problem, as we don’t really have any winter clothes, living in the Cayman Islands.”

“I only have flip-flops,” says Amber. Somehow you suspect flip-flops or no flip-flops, Amber and Sara will be on the terraces whatever the weather. Boundary Park won’t know what’s hit it.

Editor: Sara Mathews is an avid video blogger as well – here’s her profile on Vimeo.