Funkerstation » tumps for Imran to strike, Raval jabbing away

LONDON -- When 84,000 fans pack into Wembley Stadium to see the Washington Redskins face the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, they wont just be representing the NFLs burgeoning British following.Fans from across the continent will be making the trip to the showpiece soccer venue; theyll be hopping on flights and trains to take in the live experience of a sport they have only ever seen on television.One of the most striking features of the NFLs International Series: the sheer range of fans who show up to the London games. While the Jacksonville Jaguars have become Wembleys team in residence, committing to play there once a year until 2020, jerseys from around the league can be seen no matter who is playing on the field.For all the British accents heard in the official tailgate party outside Wembley -- or across town at Twickenham Stadium, which hosted its first NFL match last Sunday -- there are also French, German and Spanish voices busily gossiping about the sport.Akin Cetin is a 20-year-old engineer from Mainz, Germany, who made the trip to Twickenham for the game between the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams. He said the atmosphere at English rugbys headquarters was unlike anything he had experienced.The Giants game was the first live one Ive seen and my first time in London, said Cetin, a Baltimore Ravens fan. The atmosphere was brilliant. In soccer, you have two fan bases, one for the home team and one for the away, and they fight and shout. At this NFL game, there werent just fans of two teams, there were fans of all 32 teams there.It was such a good feeling to be there. At that point, I thought, Hey, I can do this every year. The people I met there were all interested in [American] football like me; we made jokes about our teams and their records. It was one of the best experiences of my life.That camaraderie among fans was clear to see during the tailgates at Wembley and Twickenham earlier this month, when Arizona Cardinals fans from Austria and Tennessee Titans supporters from Switzerland could be found mingling over beer and hot dogs. Cetin said the appetite for the game was only growing in his home country.Football is becoming bigger and bigger in Germany, he said. Youre hearing people say, Sorry I cant come out on Sunday because Im watching football. As a real football fan and not one just jumping on the bandwagon, its beautiful to see more and more people enjoy the sport I love.I hope that the NFL will one day have one or two games per season in Germany. That would be so great.League officials said 94 percent of ticket holders at International Series games have come from the UK, with the rest evenly split between Americans and Europeans.With Wembley hosting around 84,000 fans, it can be estimated that approximately 2,500 of them will be dropping in from continental Europe. That number could be big business for London and some of the travel companies that serve the city, with many fans willing to pay a pretty price for a taste of live NFL.Cyrille Gohier, a 43-year-old Parisian who has been following the league since 1985, is just one example. The nuclear planning engineer -- and New England Patriots fan -- attends a London game each year and estimated he spends ￡500 ($610) or more each time.For the train, its perhaps ￡150 ($183), then the ticket is ￡120 ($147) because I like to go in the best seats, Gohier said before his trip to London for the Redskins-Bengals game. Then another ￡150 ($183) if I stay in a hotel, and inside the stadium, I spend maybe ￡50 ($61). But if I purchase some merchandise at the tailgate, then it can go up very fast!Gohier says the atmosphere is unrivaled at the London games because they are the only chance for European NFL fans to gather in one place.If you follow rugby, you can support your team maybe two times per month in the stadium, but London is a meeting for fans of all [NFL] teams, he said. You see all the jerseys. Some from 20 years ago, some from now. Theres a kind of U.S. atmosphere too, but its a mix of the American and the European. You cant compare it to any other game in any sport in Europe.As the NFL grows in the UK, the mighty Premier League has demonstrated the riches that could be on offer from foreign fans venturing over for live matches. The tourist authority VisitBritain said the average spent per trip for soccer spectators in the country is ￡855 ($1,044), and 800,000 tourists attended at least one game in 2014.Jeremy Jolicart lives in Bordeaux, France, and traveled to London with his wife for the game at Twickenham. He estimated he spent about ￡900 ($1,099) in the city during his five-day trip, and he said it was worth every cent for the chance to see the American football stars in action.Im a big Giants fan, so it was obvious that Id travel to London for the game, the 31-year-old IT worker said. The thing I enjoy most is seeing the players in real life, because its not just an image on your TV screen.I love the NFL because of the show it puts on. Every game is spectacular. No professional leagues in France do the same thing.For Jolicart, fandom has no borders.I travel to London because its cheaper and closer than going to the U.S. to see games, but if they staged a game in another country in Europe, Id go there too just to discover a new place, he said. Ive been in Dublin for the Notre Dame-Navy game [in 2012], and last year, I was in San Francisco for the 49ers-Vikings game. My wife and I just really love football.Sundays game at Wembley will be the last one in London this year, but its not the end of this seasons International Series; the Houston Texans and Oakland Raiders?are set to meet in Mexico City next month.Rumors are swirling, too, that the NFL is eyeing a match in Germany as the league seeks to grow the game internationally. The European fans would certainly welcome that move. Next stop, Berlin? Discount Air Jordan 6 Sale .ca! Hi Kerry, Its another day and here we are looking at another dubious hit to the head. In this case Blue Jackets forward Brandon Dubinsky elbowed Saku Koivu in the head about a second after he dished off the puck to a teammate, knocking him unconscious. Air Jordan 6 Uk . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. http://www.airjordan6uk.com/ . Haas said he "felt a lot of pain" in his right shoulder when he slammed his racket to the ground in frustration after losing his serve at 3-3 in the first set. Air Jordan 6 Uk Sale . The Islanders dealt Thomas Vanek to the Montreal Canadiens after less than a year on Long Island. Meanwhile, the Oilers dealt long-time sniper Ales hemsky to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday for a fifth-round pick in 2014 and a third-rounder in 2015. Cheap Air Jordan 6 . Ashley Youngs cross was inadvertently headed by Chester into his own net in the 66th minute, allowing United to claim a third straight league win. "We had to dig deep with our fighting spirit and weve done that," United striker Wayne Rooney said. Pakistan 76 for 5 (Babar 34*, Southee 3-26) trail New Zealand 271 (Raval 55, Watling 49*, Henry 15*, Sohail 4-99, Imran 3-52) by 195 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA devastating new-ball burst from Tim Southee followed by two wickets in two balls from Neil Wagner left Pakistan gasping for breath at the end of the second day in Hamilton. New Zealand began the day badly, slipping to 119 for 5 before their lower order hauled them to 271, and ended it in a commanding position, with Pakistan five down and trailing by 195.Seddon Park is Southees home ground in domestic cricket, and he showed exactly how to bowl at this venue, hitting a much fuller length than any of the Pakistan seamers - including Sohail Khan, who took four wickets - had managed. He slanted one across Sami Aslam, who played for swing when there was none, and nicked to second slip. He brought Azhar Ali half-forward and made him follow the deceitful curve of his outswinger. Then he floated up a full, wide tempter that Younis Khan chased fatally, leaving Pakistan 12 for 3 in 8.5 overs.Babar Azam, seeming to read length quicker than any of his team-mates, got right behind the line of the ball in defence, and punished anything loose, particularly anything cuttable or on his pads, while moving to an unbeaten 34. For a while it seemed as if Asad Shafiq would stay with him till stumps, as he counterattacked his way to 23, hitting four fours including three in one over from Colin de Grandhomme.But he went after a full, wide one from Wagner, playing with an angled bat, and dragged the ball onto his stumps. Next ball, the debutant Mohammad Rizwan hooked straight to long leg, leaving Pakistan 51 for 5. Babar and Sarfraz Ahmed saw them through to stumps, putting on an unbroken 25 for the sixth wicket. A huge responsibility will rest on their shoulders at the start of day three, with one of the longer tails in world cricket to follow them.New Zealand, on the other hand, boast a more-than-useful lower order, which rallied around the adhesive BJ Watling to rescue them after Pakistans seamers had taken three wickets for 42 runs at the start of the days play.De Grandhomme began the turnaround with a 55-ball 37 that dominated a sixth-wicket stand of 51 with Watling. Never really moving his feet too much, de Grandhomme showed a pair of quick hands to play some sensational shots, including a shovel-pull off Imran Khan and a pair of back-foot punches between mid-off and extra-cover off Mohammad Amir. He moved to 37 off 54 balls before falling to the first ball after lunch, nicking Imran to the wicketkeeper.When Sohail slanted one across Mitchell Santner to have him caught at second slip by the feline Younis, New Zealand were 203 for 7, but their resistance was by no means extinguished, as the next two wickets added 67.For perhaps the first time in the match, Pakistan seemed to miss the legspin of Yasir Shah, with their all-seam attack looking a little one-dimensional as the green Seddon Park pitch seemed to ease out under a largely cloudless sky. Southee, backing away from his stumps against Wahab Riaazs short balls, made a mess of Azhars field placements - which at one point included a third man so fine he could ostensibly be called a long stop - before Sohail foxed him with a back-of-the-hand slower ball that spun like a googly.ddddddddddddMatt Henry, trusting his eye and flat-batting three fours in 11 balls, added 31 with Watling before spooning Amir to mid-off in the second over after tea. Imran then had Neil Wagner caught at second slip to finish with three wickets, leaving Watling stranded one short of a half-century. Compact in defence as always, Watling punished any width, whether off the front or back foot, picking up five of his six fours with either the cover-drive or the cut. With the sky blue rather than the dark grey of day one, there was less swing available to Pakistans quicks on the second morning. Perhaps as a result of this, all of them sought to hit the deck harder, in an effort to maximise seam movement.The days first strike came at a vital moment for Pakistan. Ross Taylor, continuing to profit from a switch to a more side-on, upright stance, was scoring at comfortably over a run a ball, and he had just stroked Amir to the cover boundary to bring up his fifty partnership with Jeet Raval. Three balls later, at the start of the fifth over of the morning, Sohail got one to nip back into him from just short of a good length and clip his inside edge through to the wicketkeeper as he looked to force the ball into the covers.At the other end, the left-handed Raval seemed utterly sure of his off stump when the ball was angled across him, but less so against Amirs left-arm over angle. He had survived one uncertain poke in the first over of the match, when Sami Aslam put him down at first slip off Amir. The same bowler endured the agony of a near-replay in the ninth over of the second morning, when a near-identical poke from Raval ended up with Aslam, diving to his right this time, shelling another straightforward chance at first slip. This time, Raval was batting on 40.Replacing Sohail, Imran went for two early boundaries in his spell, Raval bringing up fifty with the first one, a drive to the left of mid-off. Then he moved around the wicket, looking to emulate Amirs angle. It only took three balls from that side of the stumps for Imran to strike, Raval jabbing away from his body, uncharacteristically, and nicking to first slip, where Aslam had given way to the debutant Mohammad Rizwan, who pouched the chance safely by his hip.Henry Nicholls, stuck on 8 for 18 balls, including a maiden from Imran bending the ball back into him from around the wicket and severely testing his judgment of off stump, seemed to release a bit of pressure when he pulled Wahab for four. That ball, however, would eventually play a part in his dismissal. Having pushed him back with a succession of short balls, Wahab bowled one full, outside off stump, inviting the drive, and got it to straighten off the seam to find Nicholls edge. ' ' '