Celtic 0-Cardiff City 0: Pre-season Finishing

By: Matt | July 22nd, 2009

Celtic and Cardiff City finished today’s match with a scoreless draw. Celtic put forth a strong starting XI for the first half, though with some obvious Italian midfielder exceptions, and were able to create some attractive football and some good chances. Unfortunately, Celtic were not able to capitalize on this pressure in the first half. Artur Boruc also seemed like the Holy Goalie of old, making a few great saves, keeping the Bluebirds of the score sheet. With two friendlies this weekend and a huge Champions League qualifier next week, much of the expected first team was removed for the second half, and much of the attacking prowess that was seen in the first half was lost. Chris Killen, Lee Naylor, Massimo Donati, and Georgios Samaras took the air out of the ball unintentionally, and the game slugged to a 0-0 draw. Continue with me after the break and I’ll give you my thoughts about this friendly!

-Both new signings seemed to have good games. Marc Antoine Fortune had a few chances he should have finished better, but he’s quick and strong and can beat defenders. Landry N’Guemo also played well in almost 80 minutes of play. He controlled the midfield for Celtic and seemed very strong for his size, shoeing off defenders in the midfield. The combination of his strength and passing ability will be a good fit in the SPL
-Early in the first half, Lee Naylor played a pretty good cross into the box that led to a scoring chance and I thought, “Could we really be seeing a new and improved Lee Naylor?” My question was answered with a resounding “no!” Crosses straight to defenders, into touch, and “shots” that are insulting to the word “shot” seemed to come with ease from the left peg of Naylor, ending any dreams of an improved Lee Naylor. Ironically, rumors were abound after the match that Celtic have already signed a replacement for Naylor and this replacement was at the match as a guest of the club. These rumors say that he is Brazilian and was playing left back on the winning side of the Champions League final last year. Potential signing boner!
-Georgios Samaras has the first touch of a clumsy elephant. On the other end, I thought Shaun Maloney played a wonderful game, setting up much of the Celtic attack and was one of the fastest players out there. If Mowbray goes with a 4-3-3 domestically, I would not mind seeing Maloney on the wing with Fortune and McDonald.
-Speaking of Skippy, he did not have one of his better games. Seemingly a step behind and giving away possession easily, he was just off. Hopefully it was just one game.
-Get Massimo Donati on a taxi…NOW! Not good enough. ToMo was nice enough to give him a chance, but 90 minutes of shite passing, poor tackling, and surprise surprise, running his mouth to get a yellow card…IN A FRIENDLY! I hope that Marc Crosas did not get in today just to give Donati a chance and ToMo will be using him the rest of the way.

Celtic take on Egyptian side Al-Ahly this Friday at the Wembley Cup and then Spurs on Sunday. I’ll be talking to Spurs Offside blogger Drew soon, so look for that. Of course, next week brings the Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Moscow.