=== Now We've Got a Contest ===
Bolton at Arsenal is what, a 15:1 bet on Arsenal to lose, but the first goal in soccer is important.
Now Bolton pulled all of its players back into its penalty box ... think in terms of an NCAA basketball team before the shot clock, up 15 points early, and refusing to attempt offensive rebounds. It lines four players up at the perimeter, gingerly shoots, and then sprints back to defend its goal.
Bolton literally had all 11 players "below the ball" -- Arsenal would have the ball at the 25- or 30-yard line of Bolton and there was a full football team of defenders packing every passing lane. Absent any motivation to score yourself, you simply crowd the defensive area with a locust-thick front.
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About 35 minutes in, holding midfielder Denilson committed an absurd foul, tripping a Wanderer in his own goal box, and the penalty shot put Bolton up 2-0.
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At this point, because of the pack-the-box principle, the Seattle Sounders :- ) would be favorites against any team on the planet. But Arsenal are one of the game's greatest recent attackers, an absolute scoring machine, so now we had the makings of a fascinating 45-minute seige on Theoden's Keep.
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=== Tomas Rosicky Swings the Momentum ===
With but a few minutes left in the first half, Fabregas scooted the ball up the middle on a Laker-style fast break, and dished out to little winger Tomas Rosicky on the right side.
Rosicky dribbled at 90 mph straight at his defender in space. As the defender backed up, Rosicky juked right, juked left, drifted wide and gave himself an angle to the right post of the goal.
From 25 yards, Rosicky smashed a ball as hard as you'll ever see, about 8 feet off the ground and a foot or two inside the right post. The ball nearly tore the back of the net out -- a spectacular power goal that seemed to stun the Wanderers, as though they shouldn't have angered Arsenal.
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Rosicky is part of Arsenal's embarrassment of riches in the midfield -- one of the players who could be argued for among the top 100 players in the world, but who often can't even crack Arsenal's starting lineup.
In order, the playing time probably goes about like this:
Cesc Fabregas, playmaker, Arsenal's #1 player
Alex Song, holding mid, the other "given" in the starting lineup
Abou Diaby, long-legged "Pele" type Total Soccer presence who can hold, strike, run the ball through the midfield, or do anything else
Samir Nasri, French midfielder who is probably Arsenal's best player after the Big Three, and certainly its best dribbler
Tomas Rosicky, star of the Czech Republic, technically a mid but plays more like a front winger
Denilson, Brazilian holding midfielder who is among the game's best free kick palyers
Aaron Ramsey, 19-year-old prodigy who may already be Wales' best player
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