Playing Catch Up

By: Matt | August 3rd, 2009

Apologies for going MIA the last few days, but apparently a laptop falling off a desk and landing screen first is detrimental for the screen. Who knew? There’s been some news, a match, and some instances of fooling a Rangers midfielder. Sounds like I missed a lot, eh? Let’s go over it together!

After struggling in their first competitive match against Dinamo Moscow, the odds look long for Celtic to advance as they travel to Moscow this week. Yet interim captain Gary Caldwell is still optimistic. Caldwell said, “I think we can score twice over there. We could have scored three or four in the first game. I’m sure we have enough in our team to hurt them and break them down and I’m pretty sure we can go through.” While having a jet-setting off-season might have lead to some tired legs, Heid was not allowing that excuse to play, saying “”We have played a lot of games and done a lot of travelling and last Wednesday night was a tough game. The intensity of that game and having it so early makes it more difficult to recover from. But we have to be better than that and rise above the challenge of being tired.”

Scott Brown was missing from that first match against Dinamo. The thought was that Brown would be available for the return leg, being fully recovered from a off-season ankle injury. That prognosis apparently was optimistic, as it is not assured that Brown will be ready by Wednesday. The Celtic training staff will put Brown through a fitness test on Wednesday before a decision is made. Brown played an hour in Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Sunderland, and the coaching staff were cautiously optimistic about Brown’s ankle. Even if Brown is healthy, it might be for not, as rumors grow louder about Brown moving on from Celtic and being sold to the EPL for a big money transfer.

Celtic sent out another 2nd team against EPL opposition, but were not able to match their result against Spurs, losing to Sunderland 2-1. Marc Crosas got the only Celtic goal of the match in the 68th minute. Danny Fox also got another run out, but that is worrying as it seems to mean Lee Naylor will be starting again on Wednesday. If the team on Saturday is any indication, then expect to see a similar line up Wednesday as we saw the week before.

Finally, Rangers midfielder and United States international Maurice Edu had a webcam chat this past week for his fans. Fans could ask the midfielder any question they want. Only, a Celtic message board got wind of this chat and decided to ask Edu a few questions themselves. Strangely, Glenn Loovens, Gerry Adams, Bobby Sands (RIP), and Erin Go Bragh all got questions answered or shout outs such as “Happy Birthday Bobby Sands” and “Erin Go Bragh, get well soon!” Needless to say, the plug was quickly pulled after these statements and the S*n had to run a scandalous article about Timothy on the Wind-up. Check out the video here: