Die Anpflanzler [DA] » Bruce Bochy said.

“I can tell you here now: He will go right to the top, right to the very top. Hes got everything thats needed to be a top midfield player. His attitude is first class, hes got strength, he can play, he can pass it and he can score goals,” prophesized Harry Redknapp. Its fall 1996, a West Ham supporters summit and a clearly agitated Redknapp had just been taken to task for selecting then-18-year old Frank Lampard ahead of other more experienced players. Lampard had made his debut in West Hams starting XI away to Arsenal just a few months earlier. Substituted in a losing cause, Lampard would feature in only 13 matches during that 1996-97 campaign. It was a season in which he picked up more yellow cards than he scored goals. Redknapp knew full well even back then West Ham had unearthed a gem. So likely did his assistant coach and ex-teammate at West Ham, Frank Lampard Sr. Playing in an era of outrageously inflated transfer prices Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri was astute back in the summer of 2001 to pay West Ham £11m [$20m CAD] to acquire Lampards services. "Hopefully I can test myself against the best players in Europe and we can contest for trophies,” Lampard was quoted as saying at the time. Three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, a Europa League and Champions League crown later, Lampard has decided his Chelsea playing days are now behind him and on his own terms. Although still under contract until June 30, the clubs all-time leading scorer (211 goals) made the announcement to coincide with Englands arrival into Miami. Lampard wants to be fully focused on what will be his third World Cup Finals. Amassing close to 600 appearances, only two players have ever appeared more times in a Chelsea shirt. over the course of his 13 seasons Lampard is without exception one of Chelseas greatest ever players. Not wanting to name him their best ever, the tribute on the clubs web site strongly implied Lampard was their best ever midfield player. It was Lampard who scored both goals in the game against Bolton in April 2005 which handed Chelsea their first title in exactly 50 years. Breaking the club scoring record which had stood for over four decades towards the very end of the 2012-13 season Lampards most important goal for the club occurred in the second leg of the 2008 Champions League semi-final in a game against arch-rivals Liverpool, which I was very privileged to attend. Lampard was not even expected to play that day. He had recently missed a pair of Premier League games to be at the bedside of his gravely ill mother, who sadly passed away a few days after the first leg. Play though he did, the Chelsea players wore black arm bands in memory of Lampards mother. The tie was very delicately poised after the first leg at Anfield had finished 1-1. Chelsea with the away goal were slight favourites going in, but Liverpool had got the better of Chelsea twice at this stage in 2005 and 2007. Didier Drogba opened the scoring, for Fernando Torres to level it just after the hour mark. Extra time loomed, it was a very highly charged Stamford Bridge. Less than 10 minutes into extra time after Michael Ballack was bought down in the area Chelsea were awarded a penalty. Up stood Frank Lampard. Hands on his hips, he stood at the edge of the box and waited for what must have seemed like an eternity as Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina did his best to delay and distract. Lampard was having none of it. The ref blew the whistle, and with that trademarked run up to the ball he sent Reina the wrong way as he slotted the ball into the far right corner. Lampard took off for the opposite corner flag, and took with him the hearts of the 40,000 plus Chelsea supporters inside Stamford Bridge. As he got close to the corner flag he slowed down to remove his black arm band, then with his hands covering his face Lampard slumped to his knees. Joined by his teammates, there was no celebration when Lampard emerged with all emotion completely drained from his face. On running back to the halfway line Lampard looked up in the direction of where his dad and other members of his family were gathered. He waved and blew a kiss to them. The match finished 3-2 and Chelsea were off to their first Champions League Final. Away from the pitch Lampard is an all-too-rare breed when it comes to English footballers. Intelligent, staunchly working class, he attended a private high school where he was one of the more promising students. Not everyone aced Latin, Lampard did. In 2009 Chelsea conducted IQ tests on the playing squad. Although the club did not officially reveal the results it was reported Lampard scored over 150. That places him in Bill Gates territory. In March this year Lampard launched the BPLs annual childrens reading challenge held each season in conjunction with the National Literary Trust. Lampard disclosed his favorite book was a biography on U.S. President Abraham Lincoln... All 900 pages of it. Lampard the family man was also to surface shortly after 2009s highly published break-up with his fiancée, Elen Rives the mother of his two children. A London radio station talk show host openly criticized Lampard on the basis of a newspaper article which had quoted Rives. So incensed by the inaccuracy of the hosts comments Lampard called in live to the show and put the record straight in a conversation which lasted 10 minutes. I cant imagine there would be too many other BPL players who would take such initiative. Petra Cech referred to Lampard as one of the most influential players of all time in the Premier League. Make that on and off the pitch. Hell be dearly missed at Chelsea. When he met the press ahead of Englands World Cup tune-up on Wednesday he said he would return to Stamford Bridge to attend matches. Lampard lives within walking distance to the ground. Abramovich has offered to keep a job open for him. On June 20 Lampard will turn 36. Having already played Italy and Uruguay by then, Englands fate in the group stage may already have been decided. Lampard will walk away from the international arena at the conclusion of Englands World Cup. Chelsea, and Englands loss will be MLS gain. Noel Butler can be reached at: Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca Twitter: @TheSoccerNoel TSN Radio is an official licensed radio broadcaster of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. Action gets underway Thursday, June 12 with Brazil vs. Croatia. Kick Off is at 4pm et /1pm pt. 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New York City FC introduced Frank Lampard in Brooklyn on Thursday after signing the 36-year-old former Chelsea midfielder to a two-year contract.LOS ANGELES -- Once they got Matt Cain out of the game, Yasiel Puig and the Los Angeles Dodgers roughed up the San Francisco Giants stellar bullpen. Dee Gordon and Puig broke open a tie game with consecutive RBI doubles in the seventh, Matt Kemp homered in the eighth and the Dodgers beat the NL West-leading Giants 6-2 on Saturday. "Cain pitched a good game and pounded the zone," Kemp said. "He threw strikes, mixed his pitches up well and got them over the plate. We couldnt really get anything off of him. But we waited him out, got him out of there, got to their bullpen and scored some runs at the end for the W." Zack Greinke (6-1) allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings, striking out eight and walking three. The right-hander extended his streak to 20 consecutive starts in which hes allowed fewer than three runs -- the longest by any pitcher since the "dead ball" era. "Its always a luxury to have two Cy Young winners at the top of your rotation like Zack and Clayton Kershaw. Thats a plus for our team," Kemp said. "Hopefully theyll continue to stay healthy and keep doing what theyre doing. But we have to do our job as hitters and drive in runs for those guys." The Dodgers took the lead in the seventh against reliever Jeremy Affeldt (0-1) when Drew Butera doubled and scored on Gordons hit inside third base with Pablo Sandoval playing in on the grass with the Dodgers speedy leadoff hitter at bat. Puig then greeted Jean Machi with a ground-rule double into the left field corner. "Thats a bad break," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "Pablo had to cover the bunt with two outs. Gordon hit it in a good spot, and the ball just bounced by him." The four runs charged to the Giants bullpen was in sharp contracts to the major league-best 1.75 ERA they brought into the game. Affeldt had pitched 10 2-3 scoreless innings in his 10 previous appearances since coming off the DL on April 16. "They got nicked up a little, but they had been so good and really solid all year," Bochy said. "Its going to happen." Former Giants closer Brian Wilson escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth, retiring Hunter Pence on a foul pop to Butera behind the plate after a visit from pitching coach Rick Honeycutt. The Dodggers tacked on two more runs in the bottom half on Kemps leadoff homer against Juan Gutierrez and Buteras sacrifice fly.dddddddddddd Cain was charged with two runs, three hits and four walks over five-plus innings in his first start off the disabled list. The three-time All-Star hadnt pitched since April 23 and missed two turns in the rotation because of a cut on the tip of his index finger. He was hurt in the clubhouse kitchen at AT&T Park when he tried to catch a knife that fell out of his hand. Affeldt came on in the sixth with the bases loaded and none out after Cain gave up two walks around a towering single by Puig. Gordon scored on a double-play grounder by Adrian Gonzalez and Kemp followed with an RBI single that tied it 2-all. "It kind of got out of hand in the sixth," Cain said. "I let that inning get away from us and that ended up being a turning point." Greinke escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first by fanning Sandoval, who hasnt driven home a run in 20 games and 68 at-bats since his RBI single against the Dodgers on April 16. He has only two hits in his last 26 at-bats with men in scoring position. The Giants loaded the bases again in the second with none out, and managed to scratch out two runs. Hunter Pence drove in Angel Pagan with a sacrifice fly to centre and Brandon Hicks scored on Buster Poseys single. Less than 24 hours after Dodgers left-hander Paul Maholm broke the left thumb of Giants first baseman Brandon Belt with a pitch, Cain plunked Hanley Ramirez above the left elbow on a 1-2 pitch after Gordon led off the first inning with a single and stole two bases. But Cain escaped the jam, striking out Gonzalez and retiring Kemp on a flyball. NOTES: Dodgers 3B Juan Uribe missed his second straight game with a sore right hamstring -- and for the second straight game his replacement committed a throwing error. Friday it was Justin Turner, and this time it was Chone Figgins. ... Gonzalez is 2 for 31 over his last eight games following a 16-game hitting streak. ... The Dodgers lead the majors with 44 stolen bases, including 24 by Gordon in 27 attempts -- also the most in both leagues. The last time a Dodgers player led the NL in steals was 1976, when current first base coach Davey Lopes won his second straight stolen base crown. 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