BWFC 24

Chelsea 4 – 0 Bolton Wanderers

League Cup, Fourth Round

Chelsea Give Wanderers The Blues

• Tuesday, Ocotber 28, 2009
• Venue: Stamford Bridge
• Attendance: 41,538
• Referee: Andre Marriner

• Salomon Kalou [15]
• Florent Malouda [26]
• Deco [67]
• Didier Drogba [89]

It was never going to be easy for The Wanderers to get a result at Stamford Bridge but who would have known that it was going to so easy for Chelsea.

Bolton boss, Gary Megson, had made a few changes to the side that eventually beat Everton last Saturday. The most notable change was that Ali Al-Habsi was chosen over Jussi Jaaskelainen to face that could have been easily predicted as a barrage of shots. It is almost as Megson had already resigned to the fact that Bolton’s cup run would be halted.
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Midweek International Roundup

A roundup of news about Bolton Wanderers players who have been on international duty this week.

South Korea 2 – 0 Senegal

Bolton’s Lee Chong–yong assisted Ki Sung-yong in getting on the score sheet in the friendly against Senegal in Seoul. Celtic’s Sung–yong took South Korea ahead with a shot from 20 metres a few minutes before half–time. Oh Beom-seok scored the second goal in the 80th minute.

South Korea have already qualified for the 2010 World Cup and this friendly extends their unbeaten record to 26 games.

Australia 1 – 0 Oman

Oman failed to continue with their unbeaten qualification campaign for the 2011 Asian Cup. The Socceroos went ahead in the 75th courtesy of Everton’s Tim Cahill to give Australia their first win in the qualifying rounds of the Asian Cup.

Apart from the single goal Bolton’s Ali Al–Habsi and his defence fought well to put a stop to the Soccoroos’ advances and Oman ruled the first half which led to Oman’s coach, Claude Le Roy, to comment:

“I’m very disappointed, but this team of Oman, we know we aren’t the best team in the world, but this team has a fantastic spirit, with very loyal people.”

Oman and Australia meet again next month at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex on Muscat, Oman. It may be a crucial game as both teams are on 4 points in Group B of the Asian Cup qualification the finals of which are to be held in Qatar in 2011.
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Cahill not the Only One on International Duty

While Gary Cahill joins England for their World Cup qualifier against Ukraine we look at which other Bolton Wanderers team members are on international duty.

Jlloyd Samuel was meant to be playing for Trinidad and Tobago but once again he has had to miss out. There is a farce that surrounds Samuel’s non–involvement with the Soca Warriors. It starts with his flight details being emailed to him a few hours after the plane had taken off. The farce continued until Samuel picked up a groin injury during practise but not before his mother had made a complaint to the T&T manager.

Other Wanderers on International Duty

Welsh International Sam Ricketts will miss a trip to Helsinki due to an ankle injury. However, Bolton team–mate Jussi Jaaskelainen will be in Helsinki for the World Cup qualifier, in goal for Finland at the Olympiastadion. Jussi is also expected to travel to Hamburg on October 14, for Finland’s clash against Germany at the HSH Nordbank Arena.

While Jussi is in Germany his fellow BWFC goalkeeper, Ali Al Habsi will have travelled over 10,500 miles to Australia for a friendly. Ali will be between the sticks at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne when Oman take on Australia.

Bolton’s Chung Yong Lee is back in South Korea where Senegal will visit the Seoul World Cup Stadium for a friendly — that will be a round trip more or less equal to Al Habsi’s one–way journey to Victoria in Oz.

Ivan Klasnic does not have to travel to far for Croatia’s friendly again Qatar ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan in Astana, Kazakhstan’s captial city.

Tamir Cohen probably gets the second least amount of airmiles (after Jussi) with a trip to Isreal and back to Bolton via Basel midweek for World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Switzerland.

Danny Shittu (still a Trotter) travels to the capital of Nigeria, Abuja, to take part in the World Cup qualifier against Mozambique at the National Stadium. Nigeria are also set to play Kenya on Wednesday but this yet to be confirmed.

Sweden visit Copenhagen but it is not clear if Johan Elmander will be taking part in Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against group leaders Denmark or the midweek match against Albania.

Gary Cahill is not the only Wanderer to represent England at international level either. Fabrice Muamba will be playing for the England Under 21s tonight in and will be hoping to continue their unbeaten run in qualification for the 2011 UEFA Under-21 Championship against FYR Macedonia U21. Meanwhile Ricardo Vaz Te joins the Portugal U23s who take on Poland at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena.

Related Articles

• International Wanderers Weekend Roundup
• Midweek International Roundup
• Chelsea 4 – 0 Bolton Wanderers

TTFF manager takes Jlloyd for a joy ride
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Plenty of praise for Jussi Jaaskelainen

Jussi Jasskelainen has been with The Wanderers since 1997 when he was signed from Finnish club Vaasan Palloseura by Colin Todd for £100,000. Since then he has proved to be a great ball stopper and has made over 400 appearances for The Wanderers. This Saturday sees Bolton take on Hibs, this fixture is being billed as Jaaskelainenn’s testimonial match — a celebration of Jussi’s greatness. This in turn seems to have sparked a deluge of praise for the Bolton’s ‘utterly likeable fella‘.

Bolton’s goalkeeper coach, Fred Barber had plenty to say about Jussi in a recent interview with The Bolton News. Here’s what he had to say about the Finn when he first joined The Wanderers.
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