A for Effort

With four games now gone, it's starting to become clearer what we can expect from Iain Dowie's Charlton team. Total commitment for sure, and unexpectedly perhaps a willingness to throw caution to the wind.

When we conceded a soft goal after just five minutes, I was expecting a rout but we dug in, rode our luck a couple of times, and then began to look like a proper football team. The last observation may sound tautological but at times over the past couple of seasons the teammates have looked like drinkers at a cocktail party waiting to be introduced.

I knew I was becoming increasingly bullish on Dowie when he replaced the injured Reid with Rommedahl, a player often seen as at best a luxury. Had the score been goalless, perhaps it would have been Kishishev but a goal down after the half-hour mark, Dowie correctly realised we had nothing to lose and it was a decision that paid off in the second half.

It's hard enough to play Chelsea with a fit squad let alone one that has begun to resemble the residents of Holby City on fireworks night. Conceding the winner with Diawara off the pitch was cruel of course but the space Carvalho was afforded (in common with Drogba for the first goal) was unprofessional, period. Frustratingly I had even begun to think we might pull off a famous win after Hasselbaink's classy finish brought us level.

The story of the remainder of the game revolved around Marcus Bent's correctly disallowed goal and the ridiculous penalty that Scott Carson expertly saved. If you're looking for more reasons why England lost in the World Cup, perhaps add 'not substituting Robinson for Carson in the final minute against Portugal' to that list.

It would be easy to view our first four games as '3 points from 6' instead of '3 points from 12' given that we would have expected to take zero from the Man Utd/Chelsea games, but this argument doesn't entirely wash given the points already lost by both today's opponents, and especially Arsenal.

Away from football I enjoyed a sunny day at Flushing Meadow watching one excellent semi-final (Roddick's) and one procession (Federer's). Federer has taken tennis onto a new level and his brilliance really needs to be appreciated live at least once, because talent like his only comes along once in a generation if you are lucky. Although football, like other team sports, produces far greater emotional swings for aficionados, the efficient majesty of the finest individual performers like Federer do far more to emphasise the gap between them and us mere mortals. I can honestly say I've never witnessed another sportsperson who leaves me shaking my head more in sheer wonder.