The Premiership's very own Superbowl
It might be a million miles away from the Dolphins Stadium in Miami and 24 hours before Indianapolis Colts v Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI but in another pocket of planet sport four Americans will be taking part in a game every bit as important.
Yes, Newcastle @ Fulham, as our American cousins would describe United's trip to Craven Cottage, has a distinctive American flavour to it.
The bad news is that United are already 3-1 down before a ball has been kicked!
Well that's if you quickly calculate the amount of Yanks on each side anyway.
Yes in the black and white corner will be the man nicknamed Gooch, standing at six foot four, and in the other black and white corner, are Brian McBride, Carlos Bocanegra and Clint Dempsey!
However, who will come out on top is yet to be decided.
If ever United needed a bit of a locker room advantage then the inclusion of Gooch has to be it.
Glenn Roeder will no doubt have gleaned some more information out of Gooch about his American team-mates long before the bus reaches Craven Cottage.
But how many Newcastle defenders need to hear it?
After all McBride and Bocanegra both netted against United at St James' Park in the 2-1 win in September, so please lads - just mark them!
Gooch has been getting to know his team-mates in the last couple of days and will be ready to bolster the Toon defence after it again showed some glaring holes against Aston Villa.
United managed to win the game 3-1 in the end and a repeat would be fantastic tomorrow.
Hopefully, it will be our man who settles down to enjoy the Superbowl on Sunday night with a smile on his face.
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Lee Ryder - Proudly born and bred on Tyneside, the Chronicle's chief sports writer has followed the fortunes of the club over the last three decades as a Toon fan and football writer.
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BRING IT ON FULHAM....WERE NOW HUNGRY FOR MORE....2-1 TO THE TOON.
Sorry I dont know much about Goochie but from what i have heard he seems ok.I've heard he's fairly dependable(even John Terry doesn't get it right every time) so lets do what we do with every new player who comes in,Give him a chance till he proves his worth.
Ian
yea gooch had a good game.. think he can sort the defence ok, however the point im going to make is: - solano had 5 mins at the end to set up oba for the goal whereas carr had 85 mins to continually give the ball away and be as provocative as a training cone, was at fault for the fulhams 2nd and i feel if solano had started we could have scored more and conceded less i.e. got sumething from the game. So whoever interviews Glenn tell him from the fans to drop carr pretty please with a cherry on top. thank you
The main problem is with Newcastle United is not about getting new player. Its about getting rid of some players.
Carr should not even play at right back much less at left back. Bramble should have been sold. I dont mind if Babayaro did not get fit at all.
With Huntington, Solano and even Edgar at defence, they wont win us any trophy but they will not concede any more than these three stooges...
i think Roeder should not put Carr in the left back,even in the right back Solano is the best choice now.just saw Solano did on the game against ManUtd and that is the reason why when Babayoro back to the team Carr should put him on the bench.and there's no reason Bramble back to the first team then Taylor go to the right back or the bench.Taylor and Onyewu are the better centre-back choice now.I really do not want to see Bramble come back to the team.....because of him, Newcastle lost a lot of "three points" !!!
Carr and Bramble are the worst Defender in the Newcastle United first team now....It's the truth and truly need someone tell Glenn Roeder about this.
what a load of garbage; a yr ago i stood in the same spot watching a souness managed bunch of clueless idiots. this yr, a different man in charge but the same mess.
what was duff and carr doing on the pitch when both looked like they were unfit? that is obviously the nice way to look at it -- the other being that they both didnt give a damn. carr is just plain awful.
and butt's non-performance wasnt helped by his backpass. pulling out of challenges wont adhere him to us any more niether.
simply not good enough and the small band that sang "you dont deserve us" towards the end were harsh, but probably right wiht that showing.
sort it out roeder.