November 2006 Archives

The Guus Hiddink magic is well and alive in Russia. They are now in second place in Group E with their 2-0 win over Macedonia, leaving England in the doldrums.

Hiddink is being courted by a number of countries including Russia, South Africa, and is being sounded out for another coaching stint with the Socceroos, for their World Cup aspirations in 2010. Nothing succeeds like success and with Hiddink this is true for all the countries he has coached. In fact, Roman Abramovich is determined to bring Hiddink to Stamford Bridge should Jose Mourinho fail in his bid to win a Premeirship or a Champions League title.

We all know Baichung Bhutia and his debut for Bury in 1999 but more than sixty years ago, Mohammed Abdul Salim landed up on the shores of Scotland to play for Celtic FC.

On his debut in 1937 Salim, in bare feet, proved exceptional helping Celtic win 5-1. In his second match against Galston, Celtic won 7-1 and his performance led the Scottish Daily Express to write: "Indian Juggler - New Style." Ten twinkling toes of Salim, Celtic FC's player from India, hypnotised the crowd at Parkhead. He balanced the ball on his big toe, lets it run down the scale to his little toe, twirls it, and hops on one foot around the defender."

Here is a poem celebrating Salim's incredible feet!

The Indian Juggler

Players from all nations
Have represented Celtic on the pitch,
Where their culture is glorified
In wearing a Celtic strip,
And a man from India,
Where traditions are steep,
Stepped onto Parkhead’s hallowed turf
Wearing only bandages on his feet.

Mohammed Salim, to Calcutta,
He was born,
At a time when Nationalist,
Fought the British Crown,
Independence was the cry
Against “The Colonial Rule”,
Where matters could have been settled
With a game of football.

Mohammed’s career started with the
Mohammedan Sporting Club,
Where his skills on the wing
Helped them to 5 consecutive championships,
Then he headed for Europe,
Where days were dark and cold
As he set sail on the ocean liner,
“The City Of Cairo.”

Life in London,
Didn’t warm to his soul,
As he took to the sights
Of industrial Glasgow,
Where his gifted skills
Would be put on display,
As he was offered a trial by
Celtic’s Willie Maley.

Then, he wore for the first time,
The famous green & white hoops,
But his feet were strapped with bandages,
Not, leather football boots,
He shone like a diamond
In his few Celtic games,
Where headlines and praise
Offered him a little piece of fame.

Homesick for India,
Overshadowed his play,
As his career with Celtic
Was just a short stay,
But a charity match
Was played in his honour,
And he donated the gate receipts,
To Glasgow’s needy orphans.

“The Indian Juggler
With the twinkling toes”
Took his skill and trickery
Away from Glasgow’s shores,
He’s still remembered in
Celtic’s history books,
As his son still possesses,
Mohammed Salim’s old green & white hoops.

Malcolm Glazer is extremely happy with the way his team, Man Utd is playing and he wants to share the wealth. There are reports that he is now trying to build his Manchester United soccer empire on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Glazer family has been discussing a joint venture with the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) the owners of the LA Galaxy, in which the Galaxy will become the flagship of a combined Manchester United and MLS association. Reports are that David Beckham will be the player that the franchise will be built around. Part of the deal is that the Galaxy will have to give up its name.

The move could boost the popularity of MLS games. Nielsen Media Research ratings show that MLS games this season averaged a 0.2 rating, unchanged over the past three years. However, the average number of households watching MLS games declined 4 percent over the past year, from 196,000 to 188,000.

The MLS Cup championship, which aired Nov. 12 on ABC, drew only a 0.8 rating against NFL games and a NASCAR race on other networks.

Beckham is being courted by MLS to come and play in the USA and they are relaxing the salary cap for designated players in the MLS franchises, in what is popularly known as the Beckham Rule.

So what will be the name of the new club? And do we look out for Posh Spice wardrobe malfunctions?

Baby Suri Coaching Academy
Scientologists love Soccer
10 Men who don't bond with Beckham
Beverly Hill Beckham and the Barrio Boyz
Manchester Divided

Get your thinking caps on and come up with some names!

That title should read Diamonds are forever.There is a reasonably good reason for the variation - this being that old Sepp was recently given an award called "The diamond of Asia "...(For services to Asian Football)
Hence he is now the proud possessor of a new title by which he is to be respectfully addressed - by all those inclined to do so.
Also at the same ceremony Qatari teenager Khalfan Ibrahim was named Asian Player of the Year .Australia were named the Team of the Year.

The NYT has an article on the PSG fan dying at the hands of a policeman, during a melee that broke out after a match between PSG and Hapoel Tel Aviv, in a humiliating loss for PSG, 2-4. The policeman shot one of the notorious PSG Ultras, when a group of them surrounded a French fan, who is Jewish. An incident that is shocking and highlights racism as an overt part of many football leagues around the world.

The Ultras in PSG have always had a terrible reputation of being racist and anti- Semitic, just as the thugs in Beitar Jerusalem have a equally horrible reputation of being racist and anti- Arab, even though there are a number of Israeli Arab players, playing for Israeli clubs like Abbas Suan who nearly got Israel qualified for this year's World Cup. This story will never see the light of day in the NYT.

France has the largest Muslim population in Europe, many from its former colonies, many who are unemployed, have never properly integrated, and are frequently at odds with a substantial minority Jewish population. A few years ago, a number of synagogues were burned down. And as the NYT in the article points out that France has far rightwing politicians like Jean Marie Le Pen, running for French president for almost a decade, who has frequently chastised the French football team for not being "French" enough. The NYT has always singled out France as a poster child for racism and anti- Semitism.

Before the 1998 World Cup, Mr. Le Pen called the French team “artificial” because of its ethnic and racial makeup. Last June, before the World Cup, he said France “doesn’t totally recognize itself in this team,” because there may be too many “players of color.”

So yes, in France there is a problem of racism and more relevantly for the NYT, one of anti-Semitism. I vehemently oppose the uniform civil code that Nikolas Sarkozy, the interior minister has put into place. Despite all of this, Le Pen has never been voted to power. As for anti-Semitism, prominent US politicians have indulged in it. And even now, a lot of Americans have a subliminal aversion to Jews.

However this is what Elaine Sciolino reporting for the NYT concludes in her article. Quote "Certainly, the message of Mr. Le Pen, who faced Mr. Chirac in a runoff in the 2002 election, resonates in France. In a poll published in Le Monde last week, 17 percent of the respondents said they intended to vote for the 78-year-old for president."

What???

Is France a single issue country? I guess Chirac's incumbency does not count, his spotty record on the economic front, or his government's support of labor laws that hire and fire at will. No, what matters is that Gaul is being replaced by hordes from Algeria.

Lets put this into perspective. Our favourite racist, Tom Tancredo calls Miami a `Third World country.' Tancredo, who has been mentioned as a potential presidential contender, criticized President Bush in the interview for Bush's push for comprehensive immigration reform.

''He is going to do what he can to create a place where the idea of America is just that -- it's an idea,'' Tancredo said. ``It's not an actual place defined by borders. I mean this is where this guy is really going.''

George Bush's approval ratings are in the early 30's. If I were to extrapolate Elaine Sciolino's conclusions, then I would say "Certainly, the message of Mr. Tancredo, a potential presidential candidate resonates in the USA. In a WSJ poll last week, 31 percent of the respondents approved the job that George W Bush was doing." Forget the war on Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the social security fiasco, or the economy.

The NYT's problems are not just Jayson Blair or Ricky Braggs!

Michele's post about Nicholas Burdisso scoring a hat trick of goals against Messina with Inter boasting an arsenal of goal snipers like Adriano, Crespo, and Ibrahamovic, recalls the last time Arsenal won a game, decimating Liverpool, 3-0. All the goals were scored by defenders. Flamini, Toure, and Gallas. That game had Thierry Henry and Robin Van Persie, who gave a clinic on how to defend! It was football at its best, unselfish and free flowing.

Sadly, Arsenal is now a team in disarray. Who knew the game against Liverpool would take so much from the Gunners? We cannot afford to lose games to West Ham and Fulham when Chelsea and Man Utd are clobbering these teams. Arsenal have lost to Bolton at the Reebok, the last four years, and with an injury depleted team this time around, it was going to be hard to reverse the trend. All the more reason, that they should have won against Fulham.

A plea to Wenger, don't just leave gas in the tank against teams like Man Utd, Liverpool, and Chelsea. There are 16 other teams you have to play in the Prem and they all count.

Robin van Persie's great free kick was not enough .Arsenal lost a man (defender Philippe Senderos ) and the game to Fulham.They have fallen even further behind Chelsea and Manchester United in the race for the premiership title.Man U are still ahead with their 3- 0 win over Everton (Goals).....and Chelsea are not far behind. Ballack headed home the winner for them against Bolton Wanderers.(Goal video)

You'd think that with a forward line up featuring the raw power of Slatan Ibrahimovic, the geniality of Hernan Crespo and the athletic prowess of Adriano, Inter Milan wouldn't need much extra help finding its way to goal. But that's exactly what just happened in today's Italian Cup game between Inter and Messina, comfortably won 4-0 by Inter with a hat-trick by ....defender Nicolas Burdisso (the other goal was score by fellow Argentine Mariano Gonzalez, a midfielder).
http://ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/calcio/calcio.html
Inter fans, hoping for Adriano's seemingly interminable dry streak to end today, won't lose any sleep tonight...

The FIFA player of the year has been shortlisted down to three names - Ronaldinho,Zidane or Cannavaro.
U.S. captain Kristine Lilly will vie with last year's runner-up, 20-year-old Marta of Brazil, and Renate Lingor of Germany for the women's award.Awards to be declared on December 18.Last years winner featured here.

特別一個......that's " The special one" in chinese.
Rumours are rife that Mourinho is brushing up on the language as Chelsea goes chinese !

Judging by Francesco Totti’s goals in Roma’s match against Sampdoria on November 26, his left extremity is doing just fine, hardware in his ankle notwithstanding. Any doubts were put to rest by the blistering left-footed volley that tore across Samp’s penalty area in the 74th minute, leaving Samp defenders bug-eyed and millions of soccer fans in blissful awe.

The odyssey of Totti’s left foot started against Empoli last February: on a tackle by Richard Vanigli the Roma captain’s ankle gets twisted like a corkscrew -- ligaments tear to shreds and fibula goes to pieces. A super-speedy recovery allows Totti to play a key role in Italy’s journey to World Cup victory with 10 screws in his left ankle. But throughout Germany 2006 there’s no getting over the feeling that to field Totti is like serving dinner to rowdy relatives on granma’s precious china: impressive on special occasions, but everyone’s just dreading a crash at any moment. And after the azzurri’s victory, the announcement that shocked Italy: Totti’s feet are no longer available to the world champion squad, at least till 2007.

It’s Totti’s decision, and it’s final. “I won’t play for the nazionale as long as there are screws in my ankle,” he’s been quoted as saying. “My mind is only on Roma,’ he says.

To the millions of Italians who support the big teams of the North, Totti’s refusal to play for the world champion national team has been seen as an affront to the nation. Never known as the sharpest knife in the drawer -- Totti joke-books based on the idea that he’s a dim-wit who only expresses himself in vulgar romanesco have been available at practically every newsstand in Italy for many years– Totti’s stance has confirmed his detractors’ view of him as a typical Roman ruffian: venal, cynical, and arrogant (Juve fans will contrast Totti’s arrogance in refusing play with la nazionale to Ale del Piero’s humility in accepting relegation to serie B). Even Michel Platini has weighed in on the controversy, from across the Alps, to say that Totti has no right to make such a decision. Totti’s feet, it seems, should be treated as a national treasure -- or at least as state property.

What’s interesting about all this is that in the globalized world of soccer superstars, Francesco Totti is what the ancient Romans would’ve called rara avis, a rare bird. He’s a homeboy playing for his home team in his hometown. Born in Rome, bred in Rome, trained by AS Roma youth squad, Totti, just like defensive midfielder Daniele De Rossi, has never played – or wanted to play – anywhere else than in Rome, for his people. So when he says his mind is only on Roma, that’s exactly what he means. And while detractors see him as cynically protecting his assets, his adoring Roman fans see him as the real deal in a world of fakes and mercenaries: he’s “the Kid” -- “Er Pupo”, as you’d only say in Rome.

In a curious twist of fate, northerners whose politics might lean toward support for federalism and separation from Rome , the capital of the nation, are now using the nationalist stick to beat up on Totti for declaring football independence from the national team. But Totti’s focus on Roma is obviously paying off for the giallorossi – that’s five victories in a row for his team, now second in Serie A. Can Romans count on their homegrown talent to topple international Inter and “Emperor” Adriano?

Sepp Blatter was in the news about the suspension of Iran from world Soccer recently .The ban has temporarily been removed for the duration of the Asian Games in Qatar.

Blatter however has said nothing about Somalia.

In Somalia the Islamic Courts Union militia, which has gradually extended its power from the capital, Mogadishu, has repeatedly forbidden children to play or to watch soccer.Those who disobey have to face severe penalties.
A most disturbing write up on the state of affairs in Somalia with regard to soccer here.

Attack of the Clones: Every goalkeeper's worst nightmare !
....the making.

The badly kept secret is out .Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro officially won the Golden Ball yesterday (video).He is the third defender to win it in 30 years - which makes it one defender every ten years !
Not quite actually because Matthias Sammer won it in 1996 and Franz Beckenbauer in 1976..
.....and voices other than those of Johan Cruyff and Arsene Wenger saying the award should have gone elsewhere..........

Alex De Souza of Fenerbache, Palmeiras, and Cruzeiro shows of his amazing skills. He is 29 years old and has never seen duty in a Brazilian World Cup squad despite the fervent hopes of his legions of fans.

Tive Razão is one of the songs in FIFA 2007. For Wes Anderson lovers, Seu Jorge arranged the music for The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou, all Portugese covers of David Bowie songs. He also played a character Pelé dos Santos in the movie, a reference to Pelé, who needs no introduction.

The latest Blatterspeak includes a provisional lifting of the ban on Iran so that they can participate in the Asian Games Football Competition,saying things that sound like 'over my dead body' when it comes to allowing video tech into soccer and finally expressing deep sorrow over the way in which some rich clubs had too many good players and the rest did not have any.

Ronaldinho - seen here with his FIFPro Player of the year trophies and the smile that launched a thousand goals !
On the magic goal that he scored against Villarreal "Since I was a child, I have been dreaming of scoring such a goal."
His next dream ? ...to score from the halfway line.
This one came close.

Totti scores through a magnificent volley against Sampdoria yesterday. He connected sweetly with a deep cross, sending the ball back across the face of goal and into the far corner .
The goal is being compared to Marco van Basten's wonder goal (video) at the 1988 European championships.
The other goals of the game and match report here.

Louis Saha and Ricardo Carvalho help Man U and Chelsea to share points yesterday.

Pini Zahavi, agent extra-ordinaire

Pini Zahavi is the super agent who has his hands in all the deals involving player transfers and club takeovers. He was pivotal in the deal that bought Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to West Ham. The two Argentinians are owned by a private company, Media Sports Investment (MSI), in which Kia Joorabchian, till recently was a partner. The company owns a 100% holding in Tevez while MSI and Globo (A Brazilian media company) split 50% each on Mascherano. Thus, West Ham did not have to pay for the transfer of both players except for £5m in agent fees.

The practice of players beholden to private companies rather than clubs is nothing new in South America, as Zahavi claims, it has been going on for more than 25 years and will become so here 'if English football is to survive'.

Why is this happening? According to Zahavi, "Supporters don't care who owns the club. They care only how the team is doing. This is the same in Japan, Korea, Argentina, Colombia, Africa, everywhere."

The practice of third party ownership is akin to body shopping, the practice whereby, scores of Indian software programmers were brought to the US, UK, and Germany, through private companies who contracted them out to tech companies like IBM and Hewlett Packard. These programmers were brought to IBM for a particular project, and when completed they would move on to another company. Some got bought out by companies they worked in. In the middle of the IT crash, many engineers found that they were out of jobs and in violation of their visa status. Many returned to India in the early 2000's. The demand for a ready supply of programmers was fueled by the shortage of tech personnel produced in US universities. At that time the USA was going through the IT boom many companies wanted to cash onto. Silicon Valley was Irrational Exuberance. The 2000 dot com crash saw the carcasses of many companies with basically no worthwhile product to sell, only fancy buzzwords. The ones that survived and are doing well are the ones who had solid products, invested heavily in R&D, and cut their dependence on bodyshopping.

The problem with the Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano type of third party transfers is that it further curtails the abbreviated period of time allotted to player development that clubs are already moving away from, in the peer pressure world of having to attain instant success. Implicit in all this, is that it further reduces the club's responsibility of evaluating whether the player is needed at all. In fact, Tevez and Mascherano were bargaining chips in Kia Joorabchian's renewed bid for the control of West Ham. There is a feeling that Kia Joorabchian was pinning his hopes that Alan Pardew would build the Hammers attack around them, conveniently forgetting that West Ham actually already has a perfectly respectable team and that Pardew was committed to them. It has Nigel Reo Coker, the Hammers captain at the tender age of 21, who should be a regular fixture in the England squad in a few seasons. The Hammers had a great 2005 season with this very team, and there was every reason that they could do better this season. When Pardew made clear that he was not in the business of placating players, it was obvious that Kia Joorbachian and his business partner, Eli Papouchado would have his head if they had succeeded in the takeover. A more pliant coach was already being sought out.

If Pini Zahavi was hoping for an audition extolling the virtues of third party transfers, he could not have chosen a worse one. As for supporters not caring who owns the club, maybe he should talk to the West Ham fans, who by approving of Eggert Magnusson's ownership showed that they were less than impressed by the haggling of the Kia Joorabchian- Eli Papouchado takeover bid, that would have left very little cash for future transfers and not enough for West Ham's proposed Olympic Stadium takeover after the 2012 Olympics.

Eggert Magnusson is the new chairman of West Ham and he celebrated with a winning start against Sheffield United, doing a little dance on the sideline. Magnusson's takeover has met with universal approval from fans, football pundits, and the media. He has been welcomed by Alan Pardew and his players. In fact, Magnusson's ownership is a poke in the eye for Sepp Blatter who had singled out the West Ham buyout as an example of his concern at foreign investors taking over with little interest in developing the game.

Moreover, Magnusson's relationship with Bjorgflur Gudmundsson, the Icelandic billionaire behind the takeover, seems perfectly transparent compared to the Media Sports Investment (MSI) bid. MSI's public face is Kia Joorbachian but MSI is owned by Badri Patarkatsishvili, a business partner of Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch in exile in the UK. Both Patarkatsishvili and Berezovsky are wanted criminals for charges ranging from tax evasion to murder. The transfer of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to West Ham seems to bear the imprint of Berezovsky who exerts a secretive control over MSI.

The death of former KGB spy, Alexander Litvininko, an associate of Boris Berezovsky, in a London hospital by polonium poisoning, and whose deathbed statement accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of ordering the poisoning has led to a very tense diplomatic dance between the British and Russian government. The Russian government has been quick to counter by issuing a statement “If you ask the question who had the most to gain from all this, the answer can only be Berezovsky, a man who by his own admission is out on a campaign to discredit Putin and the Kremlin.”

The matter is sensitive enough to suspend all dealings with MSI, till an investigation sheds light into who was responsible for the death of Litvininko. Of course, companies like MSI will just move to another turf where they can engage in their practice of third party ownership, the politically correct term for bodyshopping.

Man Utd was ascendant the first half. But it was Chelsea all the way in the second. If there was a storyline, it would be Ricardo Carvalho giveth the game away, and then taketh back for the Blues. Carvalho's atrocious defending led to Saha slotting the ball past Cudicini in the first half as Man Utd went up 1-0. In the second half Carvalho climbed over the defense and headed the ball past Van Der Saar to restore parity.

Mourinho's decision to substitute Geremi for Robben opened up Essien to roam on the right and cause all kinds of problems for Man Utd. Rooney disappeared in the second half, mostly trying to defend Essien. The problem with Rooney is that he is great against the lesser clubs scoring goals a plenty but against the tougher clubs he has been found lacking.

Michael Ballack and Andrei Shevchenko still haven't found their rhythm, especially Ballack whose awry passing in the first half led to a number of wasted opportunities for Chelsea. As much as I hate to say it, Ashley Cole played Ronaldo superbly. For Man Utd, Gabriel Heinze proved to be upto the task after months of an injury layoff.

Although the scoreline reads a draw, I have a sneaking suspicion that Man Utd was glad that it ended that way. They are still in first place.

Nicolas Anelka puts a nail in Arsenal's coffin. Actually, two of them.

A theme is being played out. Man Utd represents the past and Chelsea the future of English league football. Peter Kenyon, Chelsea's CEO lays out his plan for world domination by 2014. Man Utd fans will probably wet themselves laughing.

An incredible spectacular overhead goal from a genius.
Ronaldinho scored 2 out of the four goals in Barcelona's 4 - 0 victory over Villarreal .
Match report and the other goals of the match.

The Gunners have not won against Bolton at the Reebok Stadium in four years and they continued to struggle against Bolton's physical style. Wenger was not happy and complained about it. Allardyce did not take the guff lightly.

Allardyce said: “I don’t have to make my players aware of what he says because he makes disparaging comments about us all the time.

“It’s about time he ate a bit of humble pie and gave us some credit. They haven’t beaten us in the league since 2002 and I love big managers moaning."

And amongst those big managers Allardyce would love to hear moan is Jose Mourinho who surely must be feeling a bit queasy taking on Man Utd today and Bolton next week. Allardyce said “I just hope Jose Mourinho is moaning as much as Arsene does after Chelsea have been here on Wednesday.

“With Chelsea around the corner, this is a terrific win for us. We can now relax and get ready for that game and hopefully give a similar performance.”

It seems as if Japan has been playing football all its life. The reality is that organized football is barely more than a decade old in that country. Japan qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 1998 and then had a breakout year in 2002 when it co-hosted the World Cup with South Korea. They qualified again in 2006. Japan is also the present Asian Cup champion having two titles in a row in 2000 and 2004.

Japan's football revolution has been remarkable considering the only other honour they have had is a long forgotten bronze medal in the Mexico Olympics in 1968. Tied inextricably to their intenrational success is the development of their national league or the J-League. The league was started in 1996 and in these 10 years the J-league, is seeing record attendances averaging 20,000 and over. There are 18 teams with fun names like Kashima Antlers, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Kyoto Purple Sanga, and Kawasaki Frontale. International stars like Hidetoshi Nakata, Shinji Ono, Shunsuke Nakamura, and Koji Nakata who play for European clubs got their start in the J-League and form the backbone of a Japanese national team that is seeing so much success.

The J-League was the brainchild of a Saburo Kawabuchi, a player in the 1960's national team who never forgot a training tour to Germany. As Sebastian Moffet in a history on Japanese football called Japanese Rules, puts it, Kawabuchi was amazed at how deeply the game was entwined with German communities. Parents coached their children's team, played in adult league games after work, and on weekends, generation of families would head off to the stadium or the nearest TV to watch professional matches. In Germany, football was considered recreation, youth development, and entertainment and was steeped in the way of life. In Japan, sport was being part of being a corporate drone. In Germany, it was part of being a human being.

The years of effort by Saburo Kawabuchi and Kenji Mori, the then JFA president who first proposed the idea of a fully professional league in 1987, finally paid of. On May 15, 1993, the very first J League match in history kicked off in front of a crowd of 59,626 at Tokyo's National Stadium. The opening match was played between Verdy Kawasaki (formerly Yomiuri Verdy FC) and Yokohama Marinos (formerly Nissan Motor FC).

In a quintessentially Japanese endeavour, Kawabuchi with his special committees undertook quite an impressive tour of the world studying what made sports successful in other countries. Jim Frederick in his article on Japan (The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup, Harper Perennial, 2006) writes " From Europe and South America the basic league structure was incorporated. From the International Olympic Committee they learned how to develop corporate sponsorships. From the American football and basketball leagues they learned marketing, television licensing, clothing sales, and other team merchandizing. Following the fashions of the times, most people adopted either a Brazilian style of play or German one." And in what can be the model that the MLS is trying to follow with Youri Djorkaeff a decade ago and Beckham now, the J League also imported legendary players a few years past their peak, Brazil's Zico, Germany's Pierre Littbarski, and England's Gary Lineker.

The revolution that Saburo Kawabuchi brought to his country is eclipsing that of baseball, Japan's most popular sport. Nowadays, baseball is on the wane, with declining attendances. Football is providing Japan with an outlet to shake off its perception as a rigid, strait laced country with legions of excited football fans across the country who come to watch their clubs play, with their faces painted in club colours, singing and chanting, and beating drums.
Last year, the AFC awarded the Diamond of Asia to Saburo Kawabuchi for his yeoman service to the development of the game with the J League well on its way to being considered as one of the top ten football associations of the world.

The Reading vs Fulham game was interesting because it had a reunion of Yanks playing in the Premiership. However, Bobby Convey did not suit up for the Royals because of a hamstring injury. Reading came out on top, 1-0 due to some stellar goalkeeping by Marcus Hahnemann, especially denying fellow Yank, Brian McBride in the best chance for the Cottagers, parrying his header away from a curling cross by Liam Rosenior.

Carlos Bocanegra substituted Franck Queudrue after the defender sustained an injury. For more English League action involving US players >>

Who can understand this year's Arsenal? Are they sublime or utterly ridiculous? After tearing Liverpool's heart out, 3-0, they lose to West Ham, 0-1, and today, Nicolas Anelka scored a brace against his former club, as Arsenal crashed out to Bolton, 1-3.

It was more of the same, beautiful flowing football despite Bolton's physical approach to the game but yet again poor finishing let down the Gunners. Meanwhile, Bolton continues along in fine fashion in third position, 7 points behind Chelsea presently, with the monster game between the Blues and the Red Devils ahead. Sam Allardyce is making Jose Mourinho look like a clown.

An example of his technique......

Some of his reasons for choosing to dive......
“Every player dives, not just me,” Diouf said. “If you see Rooney, how many times does he dive to try and get a penalty? It’s just because it’s me that people talk about it. Sometimes when I need to dive to get a penalty it’s because the best footballer is a footballer who is very clever. I don’t leave my foot there so the guy can break my leg. I need to dive before the guy comes in."

More from that Diouf interview here and for those who want to compare technique here are Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo displaying similar skills....and then for the icing on the cake the best dives from World Cup 2006...!!

Celtic's rising Japanese star Shunsuke Nakamura - after his goal against Manchester United - is taking over from Beckham as the ultimate freekick expert.
Beckham meanwhile is being called a time bomb sitting on the Real Madrid bench- waiting to explode.

"Even if the circumstances remain unclear, the fact is that ... a man is dead. Football is not hate. Football should not mean war," said Frederic Thiriez, president of the French Professional Football League.
Words that follow the death of a Paris-Saint Germain football fan who was shot and killed by a french policeman in violence following PSG's humiliating 4-2 loss to the Israeli side Hapoel Tel-Aviv.

... no,not because of their nuclear weapons program- but because of Governmental interference in the way the game is run in the country and because Iran has violated Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes. Read more.
However in what looks suspiciously like a contradiction here is Blatter asking Governments to take a more active role in 'policing' club football in countries like England.

George Caulkin writing in Timesonline has this eco friendly angle on the longstanding feud between managers Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane finally coming to an end.........!

"It is an explanation that has gone unnoticed by most environmentalists, but Mick McCarthy suggested yesterday that his feud with Roy Keane had contributed to global warming. “I don’t know if me and Roy are responsible for the hole in the ozone layer,” he said, “but with the amount of trees used up, maybe we accounted for one of the rainforests.” "
....read the rest.

Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, the present Union Information and Broadcasting Minister is also the president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), a position he has kept control of since 1988. In these years his record of junkets abroad as a member of various AFC and FIFA congresses has been far more impressive than the Indian football team's record. Of course, it is only in India where we would find the minister of propaganda as the head of the football federation. It helps to spin the bad news of the perpetual state of despair that Indian football finds itself in.

So let us see what Mr Das Munshi's record is since taking over as AIFF chief in 1988. After all, 18 years is a significant time to effect a turnaround in a sport's fortunes. In these 18 years India has not qualified for the World Cup and five of them have gone by. So what? Many other countries have not qualified in the World Cup. It is a dream many have not achieved. The Asian Cup perhaps? India last qualified for the Asian Cup in 1984. It comes as a great relief that there is a South Asian Football Federation Cup (SAFF) established in 1997 that includes countries like Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Maldives. India has won 4 out of the last six titles. These wins merit two lines in the FIFA newsbriefs. The SAFF Cup has become the primary source of India's anemic movement in the FIFA rankings. Well, we are tigers in our backyard, aren't we?

Not so fast. India's place in South Asia is endangered as in the last South Asian Games (SAG), India lost to Nepal for the 3rd and 4th spot. The SAFF 2007 Cup is yet to be played. Meanwhile, India continues to slide down the world rankings from 99 in the November 1993 FIFA rankings to 148 this November. Even the bit of separation that India achieved between its neighbours a decade ago has gone with the South Asian countries tightly clustered around with Myanmar at 150, Sri Lanka 156, Bangladesh 158, Pakistan 165, and Nepal 172. Meanwhile our record of futility in the Asian Cup continues with the loss to Yemen, 1-2 finishing of our chances in the 2007 Asian Cup.

In the 18 years, the AIFF has changed 9 coaches with virtually no results. Das Munshi claims in a BBC interview in 2004 that the future is brighter. "So we have taken up the national youth development programme as priority for the last eight years. I'm very confident that we have launched a mission that India must appear in 2010." So does the AIFF actually do anything to tap Indian talent and to develop youth players? No, that onus falls on the Sports Authority of India (SAI), which gets no money from the AIFF.

Have things gotten better since the advent of the National Football League (NFL) the domestic football league in 1996. Das Munshi claims that he is unfairly criticized as a political hack and that he provides the vision. " If I am the president and I have a professional chief executive and coach we have only to decide policy but the execution should be done professionally." Fair enough but has his talk translated into any real gains.

In these 10 years there are only 12 teams in the NFL, the majority are from Calcutta and Goa. Attendances for matches barely average 6000. Meanwhile, no club has a stadium of its own, all matches are played in municipal stadiums that are leased out to the clubs. The lack of infrastructure is bewildering since the AIFF is flush with cash, The All India Football Federation (AIFF) signed a 10-year Rs.2.73 billion (66 million USD) television deal with Zee Sports last season and a seven-year deal with Nike to supply the national team with apparel, footwear and equipment. ONGC the title sponsors of the NFL pays the AIFF Rs.75 million per year (1.67 million USD). There are also annual grants from FIFA, for development of the game. The singular achievement in all of this time is the construction of the AIFF house at a cost of approximately a million USD.

The function of the AIFF remains to hire and fire coaches, maintain a moribund domestic league, and to keep political cronies in power. The constant these 18 years: Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, a career politician at the helm of India's footballing affairs. Under Das Munshi, the AIFF has become an enervated institution, sapped of all intrinsic energy and vision, and a tool for propaganda. In fact, the only vision the AIFF has, is being provided to them, courtesy Mohammed Bin Hamann, the AFC president, who seems far more interested in developing football in India than Das Munshi.

It has gotten so bad that the Indian sports ministry axed the football team to the Doha Asian Games stating that they have no chances at a medal. The Asian Games start December 1st. The sports ministry is more realistic than Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, who has been asleep on the wheel for 18 years as AIFF president. It is time to bring in a new president, an outsider, a full time professional, who has both time and passion for football, and is realistic in setting goals (pun fully intended).

The United States has gone and got itself out of the top 30 in soccer rankings for the first time in more than seven years.
Current rank -31.
The last time that happened - June 1999.
More on the current rankings here.

Growing up in India, where cricket was such a huge game, when we formed teams in our neighborhood park, everyone wanted to be the batsman. Very few wanted to be the bowler or fielder. Indeed the only reason that people would bowl or field would be to get the batsman out and get their turn to bat.

After all, a batsman could virtually stay in his crease, and punch a ball for four runs or better still a six. With a minimal of effort you were the center of attraction. The rest of the departments, bowling and fielding required a lot more legwork, or manual labour, should we say, and were less attractive and rewarding. That sums up a national, collective psyche of exploiting loopholes and choosing the easy way out.

When India played test cricket especially in the slow Indian grounds they achieved a modicum of success, mostly through the strength of their batsman and occasionally through their bowlers. Fielding was a virtual unknown, although there was some fines ones, like Eknath Solkar. It was all a very sedentary affair, with five days to play, and a ton of records (mostly batting) to look forward to. It was when the faster, intense, one day internationals (ODI) that came into existence, that Indian cricket's shortcomings were exposed. For those unfamiliar with ODIs, teams are given a limited number of overs to bat, and the team that bats second has to overtake the score in order to win. Instant gratification is guaranteed in an innings. Pretty simple. This is the shorthand version of test cricket. Fielding and bowling become central in stopping runs. Most wins are the result of these two aspects, although there have been exceptions when a batsman has taken over and single handedly, won the game.

The Indians were found grossly lacking in this version of cricket. Their inability to manufacture singles to keep the scoreboard ticking, their aversion to running hard between wickets, to convert singles into twos, their shoddy fielding of shots struck into the outfield, and their virtual surrender in the slog overs (last 10 overs) to keeping the score down through their poor bowling and fielding efforts victimized India for a long time and still does today. All these atrocities were on display when India crashed out to Australia in the World Cup finals in 2003. The Indians have become better but are still extremely inconsistent. We still eke out enough wins to keep the Indian public happy but that is because cricket is ultimately, a less physical game, than football.

If Bob Houghton or any coach that takes on the responsibility of coaching the Indian football team, he might want to look to cricket, as to what ails the Indian football team. When you see the Socceroos play, they are the mirror image of the Australian cricket team. No aspect of the game is left to chance. It is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. As it should be.

More awards to be given out - this time in the Nigerian capital Abuja on the 18th of January.
And the Confederation of African Football (Caf) nominees for its 2006 player of the year award are.............

Samuel Eto'o ( winner for the last three years) is surely going to get some competition from Drogba this time.

Crespo's crisp strike takes Inter Milan past Sporting Lisbon and into the last 16.
Elsewhere Steven Gerrard and Peter Crouch took Liverpool past Dutch side PSV Eindhoven in their Group C match.Goals.

Per Mertesacker heading in the winner for Werder Bremen last night .Chelsea and Bremen are even on 10 points each.Barcelona are only on 8 points after their 2 -0 win against Levski Sofia yesterday (highlights). They now have to play a must win match against Bremen on the 5th of December or they will end up being knocked out of the Champions League before the knockouts.

For Athens -Great goalkeeping from Stefano Sorrentino and a great free kick from Julio Cesar.Match report.

Blatter announced yesteday that Goal-line technology will be used in next year's World Club Championship.He also spoke about his plans to talk to Argentina's football chief Julio Grondona on the violence in and around stadiums in the South American country.

Rafael van der Vaarts stunning goal in the third minute gave Hamburg the lead yesterday.Arsenal equalised through Van Persie soon after half time and Eboue and Baptista completed the formalities.Arsenal will have to do without Thierry Henry for the next game .

John Carew and Florent Malouda score for Lyon.Ruud van Nistelrooy scored one and then missed a last gasp penalty. Mahamadou Diarra scored the equaliser for Real Madrid.Match report here.

See the sensational Free kick from Shunsuke Nakamura that helped Celtic defeat Manchester United 1 - 0.
Celtic keeper Artur Boruc was the other hero saving a Louis Saha penalty in the last minute of the game.Match report here.
Highlights here.

When none of the members of the Board of Directors of the Local 2010 World Cup Organising Committee had arrived 70 minutes after the stipulated "1 pm sharp" starting time the gathered mediapersons walked out.

Also - should a developing country pay huge sums of money to host the world's biggest and most expensive global event, the Soccer World Cup, while many of its citizens live in grinding poverty?
William M. Gumede ,associate Editor at Africa Confidential and author of the book Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC says yes.

Referees other than Graham Poll are making the news for all the wrong reasons of late.Blackburn and Tottenham are going to appeal against the red cards given out by ref Phil Dowd.The Tottenham manager Martin Jol was one of those who got a red card -the first red card of his managerial career.
Watford boss Adrian Boothroyd blames ref Chris Foy for not awarding them two penalties in their game against Portsmouth.Former leading English football ref David Elleray has warned the "game will die" if officials are not treated with more courtesy by players and managers.
The Premier League is moving to support its under-fire referees by submitting a paper to Fifa in January proposing the use of video technology.

Stuttgart's 21 year old striker Mario Gomez got high praise from Beckenbauer this week.He said that Gomez should be inducted into the German national team at once.
Video of Gomez's recent goal against Bayern Munich here.

Johan Cruyff on Barcelona's striker problem ......
"You can’t sign anybody decent until the first of January and soon after that Saviola will be back in business. When the second phase of the Champions League kicks in then Eto’o and Messi will be preparing their returns, so I don’t see the rush"

....and on Fabio Cannavaro and the European Footballer of the Year Award.

"I respect Cannavaro, but football is more than just defending”, he stressed before highlighting that defenders are apt for the prize: if they’re more complete. “Beckenbauer was an offensive player who played in defense whereas Cannavaro is a stopper: pure and simple.”
......from his weekly column for Barcelona broadsheet ‘La Vanguardia’.

Icelandic international Eidur Gudjohnsen scored 2 goals out of four .Barcelona went back to the top of the Spanish league with the 4-1 win at Real Mallorca.

C.E.C.R.A, the Anti Racist Organisation in Spain, have awarded FIFPro an International Award for 2006 for their outstanding work against racism in football.
The CECRA website has a spanish translation of the following quote by Nelson Mandela on their home page.

"I have fought against the white domination, I have fought against the black domination. I have venerated the ideal of a free and democratic society, in which all the people live together in harmony and equality on opportunities. It is an ideal to which I hope to consecrate my life and to obtain. But if it will be precise, it is an ideal by which I am arranged to die."

Roma hammered Catania 7-0 producing the biggest Serie A win in 23 years.Enjoy the goals.You will also have to listen to an excitable italian (portuguese ?)commentator howling "GOAL" seven times !

Eduardo Galeano has a delightful entry on Ferenc Puskas in his immensely readable book Soccer in Sun and Shadow (Verso, 2003)

It was 1961. Real Madrid was playing at home against Atletico of Madrid.

So Puskas shot again. He kicked the ball with his left foot, as before, and the ball traveled the same path: like a cannonball over the heads of the same players in the wall and just like the goal that had been disallowed, it landed in the upper left corner of the net tended by Madinabeytia, who leapt as before and, as before, was unable even to graze it.

It is the state of affairs in Indian sports that when you google 'What ails Indian football?' you not only come up with what ails Indian football, but what ails Indian hockey, what ails Indian basketball, and yes, and even the only team sport that we have achieved some success in recent years, what ails Indian cricket. Well, Indian sports is ailing. Period.

Our Asian Cup qualifiers took another sorry turn as we were beaten by Yemen, 1-2 on 15 November. The previous two results, 0-3 against Japan, 1-7 against Saudi Arabia. Were we better in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers? We lost to Japan, 0-7, 0-4; Oman 1-5, drew 0-0; beat Singapore 1-0, lost 0-2. We conceded 18 goals and scored 2. Our 2002 record was better and we won 3 games out of five, scoring 11 goals and conceding 5. Our FIFA ranking is 143, down from 117 a few years ago. We have declined from an already failed state of affairs in football.

But we are better in our own neighbourhood, aren't we? We usually plunder the gold medal tally and walk away with 87 gold medals, 45 silvers, 23 bronzes or some such ridiculous number in the South Asian Games (SAG). Well, in the 10th SAG, India lost to Sri Lanka in the semifinals, 5-6 and then lost to Nepal for the 3rd and 4th spot, 0-2.

There is one country we can come out swinging against, national pride at stake, our nemesis across the border, Pakistan . After all we always work ourselves into a lather when we have our test matches and one day internationals against them. Any loss is treated as a blow against our collective psyche and days of breast beating follow. Nope, there also our Indian football team performed shabbily. In three recent friendlies in Pakistan, the Indian team drew one, and lost two. It has come to the point where even beating Fiji in friendlies has become difficult.

Well, you might say, this is our senior side and we really should focus on the highlights our youth squads will provide in the future. In the recently concluded Asian Youth Football Championships, in Kolkata, India, we drew Krygyzstan, 0-0, lost to Jordan, 2-3 and to South Korea, 0-3. The four qualifiers, Jordan, DPR Korea, South Korea, and Japan will represent Asia in the World Cup U-20 in Canada next year. We were the hosts with home field advantage and we could not get a victory.

A look at the top rung executives of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the governing body that runs Indian football reveals that almost all come from four states, West Bengal, Goa, Kerala, and Manipur. Certainly, India's top two honchos Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, the President and Alberto Colaco, are from West Bengal and Goa, respectively. The traditional powerhouses in Indian football W. Bengal, Kerala, and Goa have always been well represented. This parochialism would not have been questioned if Indian football was alive and thriving and our national squads were doing well. However it is not, and one should question the composition of the executive committee.

In fact, India had her moments under the sun in the 40's, 50's, and the 60's when we won the inaugural New Delhi Asian Games in 1951 and then again in 1962, in Jakarta. In between India finished 4th in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. India were runners up in the Merdeka Cup (Asia's most prestigious tournament) in 1959 and 1964. We even qualified for the World Cup in 1950 by invitation but FIFA declined to accept our request to play barefeet. A golden opportunity went abegging. This all too brief interlude with success came to an end as a generation of Indian players like Chuni Goswami. PK Banerjee, Peter Thangaraj, Neville D'Souza, and Jarnail Singh hung up their boots.

These success stories have never been translated into other Indian players wanting to emulate Chuni Goswami. Unlike cricket where every aspiring batsman wanted to be the next Sunil Gavaskar or Sachin Tendulkar. The Indian football player's idol is Ronaldinho. No wonder we can't win. We don't want to because our dreams have become unattainable, socially distorted and culturally irrelevant. A generation of Indian role models was lost. A promising development came in 1999 when Baichung Bhutia, our present Indian captain was transfered to Bury, a second division English club. I remember that exhilarating moment, it was a portent that Indian football would again be relevant. A generation of new Indian players would find inspiration overseas and develop their skills playing for the more physical and faster paced leagues abroad whether in second or third tier French, German, or Portugese teams. Having an exposure to new coaching and techniques, the physicality, the different formations used, sliding tackles, and even being the lone Indian would enhance their performance in the national team.

The AIFF would push this phenomenon. As did the BCCI, in cricket encouraging Indian players to play English county cricket, to better themselves against pace and swing bowling. Selection into a county team was considered a honour for cricket players. A number of players from Dilip Vengsarkar to Zaheer Khan have played county cricket and benefited from the exposure.

But Bhutia's transfer remained the only singular achievement. He remained a one player wonder. Unlike Hidetoshi Nakata's selection to Bolton Wanderers that opened the floodgates for other Japanese players to go overseas like Junichi Inamoto, Koji Nakata, Shunsuke Nakamura, and Naohiro Takahara that has helped lead Japan to successfully qualify three World Cups in a row, 1998, 2002, and 2006, and in doing so has energized their own domestic J-League. Nowadays, Japan's success is self perpetuating. Fox Sports Channel in the US has a weekly update which keeps us abreast with Gamba Osaka, Kashima Antlers, and the Urawa Reds.

An often stated reason for Indian football lacking dynamism, is that it's national league has not caught on in popularity because it lacks savvy marketing. When we say national league in India it actually means the two cities of Kolkata, Mumbai, and the state of Goa. Out of the 10 clubs that play this year's season in National Football League (in existence since 1996), 3 belong to Kolkata, 4 are from Goa, 2 from Mumbai, and the only exception is JCT Mills in Phagwara. A whole nation's aspirations in football boils down to three regions. Even the relegation NFL-II, has mostly teams from these cities, including Tollygunge Agragami, Churchill Brothers, and Dempo SC. The status quo remains the same from the top in the AIFF flag bearers to the grassroots, as it has done so for nigh on half a century. This rigid hierarchy has to give for football to spread in India. In cricket, the days of Delhi and Maharashtra dominating the national team has gone because cricket has taken over the rest of the country. No amount of savvy marketing will do any good at all, if all it does is get more clubs from Goa and W. Bengal to play.

For Indian football to succeed, we have to start small. We have to care of our own backyard. Losing to Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan is not a way to start. You have to become the best in South Asia by a mile and then we can think of taking on Yemen, Oman, and the UAE, for the Asian Cup and the World Cup qualifiers.

It is the stated objective of the President of the All India Football Federation, Mr Priyaranjan Das Munshi, that India will be represented in the 2010 World Cup finals. I think Bob Houghton, India's coach should have a talk with this man but then again the AIFF is probably paying his wages and he will in most likelihood lose his job if he gave Mr Das Munshi a reality check. So dream on Mr Das Munshi because you can afford to, Indian football can't.

Real Madrid beat Racing Santander 3-1 in the Spanish league on Saturday as it paid tribute to its all-time great Ferenc Puskas.A minutes silence was held before the game started as a mark of respect.Goalscorers Sergio Ramos, Jose Antonio Reyes and Mahamadou Diarra were among those wore black armbands.Video here.

61-year-old Franz ( The Kaiser )Beckenbauer, was voted president of Bayern Munich for the 5th consecutive time. He has been president since 1994
"Thanks for the faith in me," he said .

Here is the rumour and here is the denial of the rumour.

Two great goals from free kicks - The first from Chelsea's Cameroon international Geremi against WestHam.The second - Thierry Henry comes off the bench to score the equaliser for the gunners against Newcastle after Kieron Dyer had scored .
Geremi for Chelsea.

Great goals by Kieron Dyer and Theirry Henry

Sheffield vs Manchester United.See Keith Gillespie put Sheffield ahead in the 14th minute .Rooney scores twice after that (using the other end of his boot this time ! ) . Later Cristiano Ronaldo hits the crossbar once and then incredibly misses an open goal .

El Pais has a beautiful little article on how Real team mates and opponents alike remember Puskas. Gento, Stefano, Pachín, and Pantaleón remember a player with a supernatural left foot and an imprudent generosity.

In fact, Puskas led La Liga in 4 out of the five seasons he played for Real Madrid. In his first season with Real he was tied with Stefano with 21 goals but in the last match against Granada, he knowingly did not score even though he had the opportunity, waiting to pass the ball to Stefano, who scored and became the league's top scorer.

Stefano had this to say, "He was a better person than a player. And as a player he was extraordinary." Puskas was also incredibly generous and as Stefano puts it, "he had a hole in his hand" and lost his fortune. In fact, Puskas returned to Hungary broke and lived a hand to mouth existence.

Gento, who was Puskas room mate remembers how he was constantly amazed at the speed of the Hungarian. He had the most agile of feet. He remembers throwing a wet bar of soap at Puskas who with stunning speed cushioned the soap with his foot and then dribbled tac-tac-tac...".

Beckham's days in Real are but over. He has only played in three games this season and is out with a knee injury. He is no longer part of the first team. To add insult to injury, Real has refused to allow Beckham to attend his pal Tom Cruise's wedding saying they expected him to train with the team for today's game against Santander.

Beckham's best bet is the MLS and the LA Galaxy is interested in making a bid for him. He also owns a soccer academy in LA. It will also allow him to be near his chums Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. We should soon see Beckham in a movie role alongside Cruise in Mission Impossible IV

The Mighty Magyars should have won this finals. An injured Puskas scored the first goal and was denied an equalizer 2 minutes before the match ended. The match in Germany is known as the Miracle at Bern.

Brilliant goal and footwork by Puskas. Loses Billy Wright completely.

Includes two goals from the 1960 European Cup final against Eintracht Frankfurt scored by Puskas (# 7) and Alfredo Di Stefano (# 2). Real beat Frankfurt 7-3. Di Stefano scored 3 and Puskas 4.

Puskas and the Mighty Magyars destroy the Three Lions again.

Billy Wright (L) Ferenc Puskas (R), Wembley 1953

A match that destroyed the aura of the invincibility and changed the way the English thought of football. Hungary led by Ferenc Puskas met England for the first time at Wembley Stadium. During the pre-match lineup, one English player nudged another and said: "Look at that little fat chap. We'll murder this lot." The fat chap, Puskas, ran rings round Billy Wright, then England's captain, scoring a famous goal.

How important was this match? For the first time England saw a team that played improvisational football not reliant on formalized coaching. For Bobby Charlton, Alan Ball, and George Cohen it changed the way that they approached football. Charlton on the death of Puskas had this to say, "He revolutionised the game in this country. From there English football started to think more professionally."

Ball was similarly awestruck. "Puskas was a total footballer with incredible ability on the ball," he said. "When I was a boy he was a thrill to watch." George Cohen, another of the class of 1966, learned much from the Hungarian's exhibition for Real Madrid in the 1960 European Cup final, a 7-3 demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt. "Puskas was amazing that day."

England lost to Hungary, 6-3. The first time a foreign team had beaten the English at Wembley. A year later, they were humiliated again, this time in Hungary and lost 7-1. The losses were devastating and the aura of invincibility forever destroyed. The English 13 years later took back football when they won the World Cup in 1966 at Wembley.They had learned their lesson well from that 'little fat chap.'

The death of Ferenc Puskás in Budapest today has been felt throughout the footballing world. uefa.com rounds up the tributes to one of the game's greatest practitioners.

We'd never seen the like of the Hungary side before. I was fortunate enough to witness the game in England when they won 6-3. My first impression of Puskás was he was a roly-poly sort of figure - but a wonderful left foot and a finisher. We went across to Hungary and lost 7-1. It remained with me for a long time. Puskás had a wonderful game. He is in the list of greats, a wonderful player and a wonderful person who really enjoyed his soccer.

Sir Tom Finney, former England player

Today I have lost a friend. Puskás was one of the best players of all time, but life comes to an end, and when you least expect it, it's over. There was only a few months' difference between us in age, he was born on 27 April [1926] and I was born on 26 July.

Alfredo Di Stéfano, former Real Madrid CF team-mate and club honorary president

There is not one Hungarian who would be left untouched by the death of Ferenc Puskás. The best-known Hungarian of the 20th century has departed. Ferenc Puskás has left us, but 'Puskás Öcsi' the legend will always stay.

Ferenc Gyurcsány, Hungarian prime minister

This is one of the saddest days for Real Madrid and I can say it's the saddest since my arrival at the club. He defined an era in a mythical forward line. He has left lots of friends behind because he was loved by everyone, admired as a professional and as a person. I remember his goals dearly, he was top scorer four times. The supporters in general and especially those of my age feel a great loss for one of our childhood idols.

Ramón Calderón, Real Madrid president

In my office at home, I have one football. That football was given to me and signed by Ferenc Puskás. I also have a gold medal to celebrate his 75th birthday. Puskás was my boyhood hero when I was growing up in Scotland. I read his autobiography, and in 1960, as a young Queen's Park FC player, I was given permission to be on the Hampden Park pitch for the Real Madrid training session on the day before the European Champion Clubs' Cup final against Eintracht Frankfurt. I wanted to be up close to see Ferenc Puskás at training. He was a very gracious and very humble person, as many great footballers are. He was very human, and a very humorous person, as well as a marvellous player.

Andy Roxburgh, UEFA technical director

With the passing away of Ferenc Puskás, the last of the Mighty Magyars is gone. There is only one way that Puskás, also affectionately called the Galloping Major could be described: Prolific. He scored 357 goals in 354 appearances for the Hungarian club Budapest Honved, and 156 goals in 180 appearances for Real Madrid. He was equally prolific for the Hungarian national team, scoring 84 goals in 85 caps.

Hungary. That is a name infrequently mentioned in the football world nowadays. Hungary has not qualified for the World Cup since 1986 and the European championship since 1972. It's FIFA ranking is 76. In Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic is ranked 8, Ukraine 13, and Croatia 19.

This was not always so. In the 1950's Hungary was the team to beat. It holds the record for the longest winning streak, 33. They won the gold medal in the 1952 Helsinki games and were the runners up to Germany in the 1954 World Cup. In between, they beat an English team that boasted Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen, Billy Wright and Alf Ramsey at Wembley, 6-3. They became the first non-UK team to beat them at Wembey.

The Hungarian team earned the sobriquet The Golden team, The Magical Magyars, The Magnificent Magyars, and The Mighty Magyars. Those days saw players of the caliber of Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor, Sándor Kocsis, Nándor Hidegkuti, József Bozsik and Gyula Grosics, many who played for the club Budapest Honved.

The Hungarian revolution in 1956 ended the era of the most successful team in football history. The revolution began as players from Honved were returning from a match against Atletico Bilbao. Players like Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor, Sándor Kocsis decided to stay on in Western Europe and never played for Hungary again.

Puskás joined Real Madrid in 1956 and played for legendary Real Madrid teams that included Alfredo Di Stefano, Raymond Kopa, and Jose Santamaria. He took up Spanish citizenship and played for the Spanish national team. Czibor and Kocsis joined CF Barcelona in 1958, Czibor played 4 years before moving to their rivals, RCD Espanol, Kocsis, stayed on and retired from football in 1965.

Hungary continued to achieve some success for another two decades by fielding good teams and brilliant players like Lajos Tichy, Ferenc Bene, Florian Albert, László Kiss, and László Fazekas. They reached the quarterfinals of the 1962 and 1966 World Cup and returned to the World Cup in 1978, 1982 and 1986 making first round exits.

It may be hard for some to believe this but another hat trick has been scored.Brazilian striker Vagner Love has joined the gang !
He scored three and thus the reigning champions CSKA Moscow were able to more than successfully defend their Russian Premier League title .A thumping 4-0 win over Luch-Energiya Vladivostok - on saturday.

A video compilation paying homage to Ferenc Puskas
"I will write my life as a footballer as if it were a love story, for who shall say it is not? It began with my great love of football and will end the same way"
"Gracias" ..for what he was for the game.

Legendary Hungarian footballer Ferenc Puskás died in Budapest today. He is considered one of the best footballers ever, having scored 84 goals in 89 career international matches.He was part of the extraordinary Hungarian national football team of the 1950s called The Mighty Magyars .Their record of remaining unbeaten for an incredible 32 consecutive games still stands today.
More on him and the glory days here.

Simao Sabrosa scored in each half to help Portugal beat Kazakhstan 3-0 in their Euro Championship qualifier.Cristiano Ronaldo was the other goal scorer.Alex Ferguson had wanted Ronaldo to be rested for the game but Scolari did not oblige.More on that simmering tension between him and Scolari here and here......and here.!

There seem to be a fierce amount of hat tricks being scored of late.
Here's another couple of hapless goalkeepers watching the same man putting the ball past them three times.In the Euro qualifiers on wednesday first Robbie Keane scored a hat trick in Republic of Ireland's 5 - 0 drubbing of San Marino.Then Croatia's Eduardo da Silva scored three also as Israel went down fighting to Croatia .Score 4 - 3.
Rebuplic of Ireland vs San Marino

Israel vs Croatia

Drogba is unstoppable these days...seen here scoring the winning goal in a friendly between Ivory Coast and Sweden on wednesday.Header ..brilliant .

The US soccer establishment has been agog with the news that we might finally see David Beckham land up on US shores to play for the LA Galaxy. The bigger news is that Freddy Adu is leaving soon for a two week training camp at Manchester United.

Adu hopes he can parlay this into a more permanent move to Old Trafford. The British media have caught on and are comparing him to Bobby Convey, who came across the pond 4 years ago and whose skills were not quite exploited till recently. Under Steve Coppell's tutelage, Convey has done wonders for Reading.

Adu's limitations have been the fodder for much discussion but as Ian Plenderleith puts it "Whether Adu remains the victim of media hyperbole, or whether he goes on to fulfil his undoubted potential, may depend on who coaches him next."

Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, and Martin Peters: Hammers all!

West Ham with all the ups and downs as a club, has recently pushed towards respectability in the Premiership. However, for all its worth, one must remember that the Hammer's best finish in the league was 5th in 1999. Their record is more, one of futility, than of success. And this by a wide margin. The Hammers were relegated in the 2003 season and were led back by Alan Pardew, in 2005 to a respectable 9th spot in the league. The Hammers last won the FA Cup in 1980.

However, there is one memory that Hammers can be justifiably proud of for all eternity and inextricably woven into England's finest moment as a sporting nation: The day England won the World Cup on 30th July, 1966. For the first time and never repeated hence, 40 years later.

That was the day Sir Bobby Moore, of West Ham and the captain of the Three Lions sent an inch perfect cross field pass, 60 yards out to Geoff Hurst, also of West Ham, who raced ahead beating all the German defenders, and buried the ball, into the top corner. England won 4-2, with Geoff Hurst scoring a hat trick, the only man to do so in a World Cup final. The other goal was scored by Martin Peters, who almost gave victory for England being 2-1 up 13 minutes before full time, before the Germans squeaked out a last minute equalizer that led to extra time. Peters too was from West Ham. A trio of Hammers had forever stamped themselves indelibly into English football history.

Of Bobby Moore:

“Of the hundreds of defenders who played against me during my career I pick Bobby Moore as the greatest of them all.”

Praise indeed when you consider the speaker is Pelé, who famously swapped shirts with the skipper after holders England were beaten by soon-to-be winners Brazil in the 1970 World Cup.

A flashback to the 1966 World Cup players >>

Rooney scores his first goal for England since last november with the back of his boot.Rafael van der Vaart scored the equaliser for Holland in the friendly yesterday.

Turkish delight as Materazzi scores a self goal in Italy's 1-1 draw in the friendly against Turkey yesterday.

This diving header in the friendly against Greece brings Theirry Henry's tally of goals scored for France to 39 - just two less than Platini's record of 41 goals.
France won this game 1 - 0.

Amongst all the brouhaha over West Ham's signings of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano signings that shook the football world, is the fact that they both have not found a regular spot on the West Ham team. Embarrassingly enough, Tevez has been substituted by Sheringham, who at the age of 40 is enjoying a renaissance of sorts.

The latest in the saga of the two Argentinians, is that they might actually be traded again, this time to Flamengo. The Brazilian club will propose a loan move in January that will have Tevez and Mascherano playing for them for the Copa Libertadores for 6 months. Flamengo has been struggling of late, and the ascendent days of the 80's when it had players like Zico, Dida, Adilio, Leandro, Nunes and Junior that brought them the league championships regularly are but a distant dream.

The rumours are stronger because the two Argentinians were bargaining chips in the Kia Joorbachian - Eli Papashadou takeover bid that has run into hot water because Eli Papashadou refuses to assume the debt incurred with the Dean Ashton transfer and other miscellaneous charges totalling over 22 million pounds. On the other hand, the bid by Eggert Magnusson, the head of the Icelandic Football Association and an UEFA vice president, which amounts to 75 million pounds accounts for all the outstanding debt. The biggest point however is that Alan Pardew, a fan favourite remains the first choice as coach for Magnusson, as his bid looks increasingly successful. The Kia Joorbachian- Eli Papashadou combine most likely would have seen Pardew's days as coach numbered as big time names like Big Phil Scolari and Sven Goran Erickson were being mentioned. Joorbachian was not very enchanted by Pardew's decision to keep Tevez and Mascherano on the bench.

Reports indicate that Magnusson's bid is likely to succeed and is in the due diligence stage. An announcement is likely in the next week or so. If Magnusson takes over West Ham then Tevez and Mascherano's position in West Ham becomes increasingly untenable. Pardew is a coach who leads the backlash on the number of overseas players taking over the Premiership, and his mantra is to look first, long and hard, at players within the nation. Rule Britannica!

Okay - new rumour. Fabio Cannavaro is going to be the one to win the Golden Ball and not Buffon as earlier rumoured. And Gianluca Zambrotta says that he is okay with anyone winning it as long as it is a player from Juventus who played in the World Cup Finals !

Argentine authorities are investigating allegations that Gimnasia-La Plata players received death threats from their own supporters, who demanded the team lose a key match.The Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata fans allegedly burst into the dressing room with guns and threatened to shoot their own players in the legs if they beat Boca (a Boca defeat would help Gimnasia's bitter rivals Estudiantes).Earlier examples of violence .......
On September 16 a game between Colon and Velez Sarsfield was suspended after 42 minutes after an assistant referee was hit by an object that was thrown from the stands.
On October 8 hooligans identified with Newell's and Belgrano staged violent clashes in the stadium and outside. On October 14 the second division game between Olimpo and Ferro was suspended after incidents on the stands.The Argentine daily La Nacion estimated that there are acts of vandalism every 2.65 days, and the most feared barrabravas [hooligans] are those of Boca Juniors, River Plate, Newell's Old Boys and Rosario Central.
Some commentators see Argentine football almost in a state of war.

Real Madrid have announced the signing of Brazilian side Fluminense's 18 year old left-back Marcelo.
He is the latest 18 year old or so to join Freddy Adu,Gonzalo Higuain and Micah Richards who are making news.

North Korea is in the news for disagreeable reasons, mostly to do with realpolitik and nuclear ambitions, a perennial thorn to the USA. It's dictator Kim Jong-il was the subject of Team America: World Police, an over the top movie on international terrorists and Hollywood limousine liberals.

When it comes to football, DPR Korea does quite well however, and its youth football team beat Japan, 5-3 on penalties in the U-20 Asian Championship. Not only that, they also won the fair play trophy.

There must be celebrations going on right now in Pyongyang with the Koreans having won against the Japanese. In the world of realpolitik, the Japanese are allied with the USA against DPR Korea, and very little love is lost between both sides.

Houston Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear was born in Glasgow. 35 miles away from Troon, the birthplace of Steve Nicol, the coach of the New England Revolution. The Scotsman explains why this Scottish connection is good for MLS.

King Kenny, Celtic and Liverpool legend son Paul played for the Dynamo in the MLS finals. Dalglish, Sr. is considered one of the best fox in the box players ever to grace the game. This video set to The Who's Pinball Wizard shows why.

Jay Heaps misses and its all over for the Revs, who remain winless in three championship games.

Twellman sends the Revolution ahead and a minute later Ching equalizes for the Dynamo. 1-1 at
the end of extra time.

Having ABC telecast the 2006 MLS finals maybe a big deal but that is about it. ESPN and PTI promoted the finals quite heavily in SportsCenter. The Houston Chronicle reports that it was the first major title brought to the city since the Comets won the WNBA in 2000. And the Boston Globe highlighted the fact that Jay Heaps had missed his last three penalty kicks, something that Steve Nicol should have taken seriously into consideration.The coverage was expected because the finalists were from these two cities.

How about the NYT's reportage, the newspaper that I subscribe to? The print edition devoted 10 lines ( < 100 words) on it, courtesy AP. It appeared under sports briefings. The NYT did not even bother sending a reporter to cover the finals.

Lets put this in context. The NY Giants- Chicago Bears game had two reporters, John Branch and Judy Battista writing two separate articles on the game. Dave Anderson, in Sports of the Times, wrote a column on Tom Coughlin's decision to go for a field goal that led to the longest return for a touchdown in NFL history. In total, 15 reporters wrote in the NYT Sports Monday section including NFL, NASCAR, NBA, MLB, College football, the Army Women's basketball team, and even Wladimir Klitschko's boxing title.

The NYT online edition was a bit better. It had a picture of the Dynamo and a more extensive AP report.

The world's most popular game is not popular in the USA because the domestic league gets a stepchild treatment in the media. They do not even bother to cover the biggest game in the MLS season.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored all four in Real Madrid's 4 -1 victory over Osasuna .Inspite of that incredible score he still hasn't been able to book a place in Van Basten's Holland squad that is to play a friendly against England tomorrow.

All the highlights of the fantastic Arsenal win over Liverpool including Flamini! Toure! Gallas! Worth every minute of the 9+ minutes.

Rooney missed two sitters and got a yellow card before Saha scored this.Details.

The MLS Board of Governors approved the designated player rule, which will allow teams to sign one player outside the salary cap
The “Beckham Rule” will allow each club to go above and beyond the league’s wage cap of £1.05 million per team to secure the services of one star player. Only £210,000 of the player’s annual wage will count towards the salary cap. More details here and another assessment of the same rule and of Freddy Adu’s two-week training session at Manchester United here.

The latest to be struck by the dreaded metartarsal injury is Lionel Messi who it seems will be will be out for 3 months.He picked up the injury in Barca's match against Real Zaragoza which they won 3-1 [ 2 more goals by Ronaldinho].
No discussion about metatarsals can be complete without mentioning Rooney and so here he is being hauled up by the cops,metatarsal and all, for a brawl outside a bar at 5:00 am.

Al Ahly lifted the African Champions League crown for the fifth time as they beat CS Sfaxien of Tunisia, tying the record by fellow Egyptian club Al Zamalek. The video recounts Al Ahly's fierce rivalry with Zamalek, their upper crust crosstown rivals.

Congratulations to the Houston Dynamo- 2006 MLS champions!

90 minutes of regular time, 30 minutes of extra time could not bring a result. And so the MLS finals went into penalty kicks. The Dynamo proved to be steadier than the New England Revolution beating them 4-3, as Jay Heaps missed his penalty. In doing so the Revs have lost all three finals that they have entered. They are in danger of becoming the Atlanta Braves of soccer.

A pity because Taylor Twellman did everything right with his goal in extra time. The Revs should have been winners but Brian Ching and the Dynamo did not waste much time as a minute later the Revs were caught napping, Brian Mullan crossed the ball and Ching headed it home for the equalizer. Ching was voted as the MVP of the finals as his penalty kick decided the fate of the game.

Clint Dempsey brought an edge to the Revs attack but at times looked pretty rusty too. The match itself looked slow and clumsy. There were plenty of fouls with players tackling each other without much reason.

A big problem with MLS is the drought of goals. DC United scored 52 goals in 32 games, the most of all the teams. The Revs scored only 39. The Dynamo had 44. In today's finals there were just 10 shots on goal in 120 minutes. We know that the story line in soccer is never the number of goals scored. But playing in the USA is different when most people equate success with the number of home runs scored or the number of hoops made. Through the MLS season it was striking to see so many players actually never making a shot at goal even though they had the chance to do so. They would prefer a pass and work the ball to the goal line.

Personally, I would like to see players lose their inhibition and indulge in more long passes and shots from the field. This opens up the game and makes it more attractive.

The MLS is also introducing the designated player rule in which one player does not come under the salary cap. This would mean that a player like David Beckham could find himself playing for the LA Galaxy next season, which insiders are saying is likely to happen.

More on the MLS finals including the video clip of the goals >>

Flamini! Toure! Gallas! The goalscorers for the Gunners!!! Henry the best defender!!! This was Gunners football at it's best, free flowing, one touch, and best of all putting away the chances that they got. Total football as practiced by the great Dutch teams of the '70's.

The best moment. Hleb breaks down the Pools defense on the right with some great footwork, passes to Fabregas whose cross into the box, a bit behind, saw a reacting Flamini catch up to the ball with his trailing right leg, and tap it past Reina. An elated Flamini races to a group of Arsenal fans, pumps his hands into the air, hugs them, turns around and is mobbed by his team mates. The result, a yellow card for Flamini, for over the top celebration. It could not get better than this.

The Gunners decimated a hapless Scousers side as Van Persie became provider for Kolo Toure's goal early in the second half. The drubbing was complete when Van Persie's cross was headed home by an unmarked Gallas. In between, Thierry Henry provided a clinic on how to defend the Liverpool strikers as Crouch, Gonzalez, and Alonso were stripped of the ball regularly.

Liverpool played listlessly and without any clear direction. Benitez again tinkered with Crouch's partner up front sending in Manuel Gonzalez, who played horribly. Gerrard was strangely missing and even more so his captaincy. Riise and Gerrard were caught on camera jawing at each other. Liverpool continued its futile streak away from home again failing to score. They have lost all their away games except for a draw against Sheffield Utd.

When Arsenal plays like this, it makes Chelsea and Manchester United who are presently ahead of them in the table, flatfooted and one-dimensional. This is a team that presently does not have Rosicky, Ljungberg, and Baptista, amongst the players who see significant minutes for the Gunners, lost due to injury.

Arsenal is the best team and Wenger is a wizard. I hope this game proved it to all the naysayers.

Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool and Scotland Paul Dalglish, Houston Dynamo

Today as the Houston Dynamo takes on the New England Revolution for the MLS title, a legend will be watching his son from the stands. Yes, Kenny Dalglish of Celtic, Liverpool, and Scotland fame will be in the stands witnessing his son Paul, a striker for the Dynamo take on the Revs defense.

In fact, his father will also be seeing a former Liverpool teammate, Steve Nicol pacing the sideline. Nicol is the coach of the Revolution. So this match up runs deep in football history.

What does Paul Dalglish think of playing in a league which is treated as a bit of a joke by Europeans?

"It's hard to compare the standard with that at home. It's a much more European style of play, partly because of the heat.

"It's more possession football, there are no long balls from front to back and the pace is slower until play gets into the final third. That's when it speeds up to score goals, which suits me."

Dalglish sees the MLS future as bright.

"But with the resources people are prepared to put in if it really takes off in 10-15 years' time all the American players will want to stay and play in their domestic league."

Paul Dalglish may not be in the class of his father but he appears to be a chip of the old block.

The BBC has more >>

Drogba ,Drogba,Shevchenko ,Drogba and the scoreline read 4- 0

Fantastic bicycle kick by Ching!

Drogba scored his second hat trick this year against Watford yesterday.The first one you will remember was against Levski Sofia around the end of September.
14 goals this season make him Mourinho's “ best striker in Europe at the moment”
One more hat trick will make it a hat trick!

New England Revolution meet Houston Dynamo tomorrow 12 November, at 2:30 PM.

The New England Revs marched to their second consecutive MLS finals beating their nemesis DC United with that much overlooked player Taylor Twellman scoring his 11th goal of the 2006 season and none bigger than this game, in the 4th minute and then staving off wave after wave of DC United attacks. Matt Reis was stout in goal fending of Jaime Moreno, Alecko Eskandrian, and Freddy Adu. The Revs finally prevailed, 1-0 in a game that should have easily gone DC's way.

The Houston Dynamo made it to their first MLS final beating the Colorado Rapids, 3-1 with Paul Dalglish scoring a pair for the winners. Dwayne De Rosario combined impressively with Dalglish for the Dynamo equalizer.

The Revs and the Dynamo have met twice and both ended in draws, 1-1 each.

What stands out between the two teams is that they are extremely tenacious and play all their matches close. The Revs have tied 12 times and the Dynamo have done so on 13 occasions. The Dynamo are a bit more aggressive on offense having scored 44 goals in comparison to the Revs 39 but the more significant number is that the Revs have conceded fewer goals.

New England defence of Avery John and Jay Heaps vs the Houston Dynamo midfield of Brian Mullan and Dwayne De Rosario.

New England's chances are predicated on whether Clint Dempsey, their best player can come back from his ankle injury. There are good chances that he will do so.

Khano Smith has looked great in his cameo appearances up front and Shalrie Joseph is his usual physical self in midfield. The Revs will look to limit the service to Brian Ching and Paul Dalglish. To do that the Revs defenders, Avery John and Jay Heaps have to take care of the Dynamo midfielder Brian Mullan's penchant for splitting wide and raining crosses from the flanks. Dwayne De Rosario is the Dynamo's most dangerous player and he creates as well scores. He has 11 goals and 5 assists this season.

X factor: Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, TX should see a lot of Orange.

My pick is the Revs will be third time lucky and the big difference will be Clint Dempsey.

Hooliganism is seeing a new outbreak in the lower division clubs and in the past few weekends, fans have invaded fields and targeted the referees. A number of matches have been called off in the Siegen- Wittgenstein area due to the increasing brutality of fans towards the referees. Last week, Jürgen Böcking, the association president called off all 70 matches on Sunday.

"The violence is constantly increasing in the lower leagues," complained Böcking, adding that his region is not an isolated case. "I hear this from other areas too. The fact is violence on the pitch and sidelines in getting worse."

The upper echelons of the Bundesliga in contrast see little hooliganism because of the strong police presence and the state of the art surveillance and security equipment. However in recent times even police officers have gotten hurt in fan reaction.

The problem has become so bad that a crisis meeting was convened between the Bundesliga president and the president of the German Football Association to come up with solutions to control this spiraling problem, including stiffer punishments and fan education.

Der Speigel reports that Sunil Gulati, president of US Soccer met with Jurgen Klinsmann, hoping that after taking a 3 month break from international soccer he would be ready to take on the mantle of the US team.

Klinsmann recently attended a leadership seminar in North Carolina run by Mike Krzyzewski, the Duke University basketball coach who has led the Blue Devils to many NCAA titles.

Can we read much into this? Is Klinsmann taking notes into the psyche of the American athlete who attend university, as seen in the US MNT? A phenomenon very different from European soccer where very few players actually go to college and mostly end up in club affiliated youth academies.

Gulati has said that he hopes to announce a new coach by the middle of November and that the person would have to be familiar with the game and the players in the United States, and to speak English and Spanish (or be willing to learn).

Klinsmann does not know Spanish but has expressed his willingness to learn. He lives in California, so he will get every opportunity to practice his Spanish.

FIFA bans Kenya from international football competition, it should have done the same with Italy.

Italy's league always seems to have an extra-curricular aspect to it. The Italian Football Federation and the Serie's top clubs seem to be more interested in retaining power by any means possible rather than playing football. Over the summer the Italian Serie went through an unseemly imbroglio that had Luciano Moggi, the Juventus chairman resigning over match fixing allegations. Juventus was relegated and three other clubs AC Milan, Fiorentina, and Lazio suffered point deductions. Italy's stock plummeted so deep that it had the Vatican wringing their hands and questioning the beautiful game.

In all that brouhaha the FIFA did not have much to say, let alone censure the Italian Football Federation. In fact, the FIFA has been instrumental in further reducing the sentences of the club to the point where it amounts to little more than a tokenism, a slap on the wrist.

The Italian government stepped in when politicians worried about their fate of their teams (Slivio Berlusconi owns AC Milan), targeted it as a scandal that was specific to Juventus with the other teams as innocent bystanders. The motivating factor seems less to do with cleaning house than actually trying to push their clubs ahead. The scandal had the NY Times and Washington Post reporting extensively on it, in a country where people consider football as defined by Mia Hamm and the women's national team. Or where macho sports writers denigrate it.

It seemed a threshold had been crossed that would have had FIFA ban Italy from international competition till they cleaned their house. However, this is Italy, a football powerhouse where politicos own clubs and influence FIFA elections that keep Sepp Blatter in power. The World Cup also came in at a serendipitious time for the Italian team that managed to do so well despite the players not knowing what their fate would be till the dust settled. Thirteen of the 23 man squad played for teams that were investigated. The Serie also has many players from other national teams including Zlatan Ibrahamovic, of Sweden, who were picked up for questioning for allegedly playing a part in the scandal. This was not just a domestic league scandal, it impacted many other countries.

Consider what the FIFA has done to Kenya: It has banned Kenya from participating in international football competition till the Kenya Football Federation stops its footdragging and implements one league with 18 teams. Kenyan football presently has two leagues, the KFF Premier League with 20 teams and the Kenya Premier League (KPL) that plays 18 teams. A farcical situation that calls for a remedy. The KFF's constitution provides for 20 teams and they have been trying to implement FIFA's directives. This means that two teams will be axed.

In the scheme of things, how does this affect FIFA, Sepp Blatter, or the status quo? Not one bit. Banning Kenya carries very little payback for Blatter. Kenya ranks 129th in the FIFA rankings and it's non-professional league attracts very little outside attention even within Africa. However for the Kenyans, the FIFA ban has produced a lot of anxiety, taken away their campaign in the CECAFA, and even worse, instilled little confidence that things will improve.

FIFA rules the football world just the way the pig in Animal Farm observes "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." In fact, this is true even for more high profile football playing countries like Greece, Portugal, and Poland.

As Robinson's foot meets air, the e-hoarding flashes Jagshemash and a grinning Borat comes on!

Graham Poll is back in the news.He was barely out and he's back in.
This time its for disallowing a goal that was headed in for Manchester City by Georgios Samaras .
Brian Reade writing in the mirror is saying that Poll has a batman complex !!
"WHEN a young Bruce Wayne saw his parents killed by some two-bit hood he changed his name to the Caped Crusader and dedicated his life to freeing Gotham City's streets of scum.
Little did he know the inspiration his exploits would offer to a would-be Batman in the small Hertfordshire town of Tring.
Because when Graham Poll saw his career prospects killed by handing out three yellow cards to a Croatian hatchet-man in the World Cup, he changed into the Card Crusader and dedicated his life to ridding football pitches of crimes against his ego. "......read more
Another fallout is of all this is that the people of Poll's sleepy market Town Tring are now embarassed to talk about where they live.
"Once upon a time if you told people you were from Tring, they'd say, 'Oh yeah, that's where (Walter] Rothschild is from.' Now they just say, 'Oh, that's where that bloody referee lives.' ..............!!!"

As humans we like to define everything in singularities. Personalities, concepts, countries. Some are flattering, others less so. Mahatma Gandhi: Non-violence. Martin Luther King: Civil rights. Michael Miliken: Junk bond king. Brazil: Football.

However, one cannot remember when a fictional character defines a country so definitively as Borat Sagdiyev does Kazakhstan. Or when a country's foreign policy is exclusively devoted to refuting his existence or the tasteless portrayal of their country. Mind you, Kazakhstan is not a blip on the map. It happens to be the 9th largest country in the world and an increasingly important country with its vast oil reserves.

Borat is emblematic of bigotry and prejudices that occur in every part of the world. Sasha Baron- Cohen unfortunately chose a Kazkahstani to bring these aspects to life.

Borat's opinions extend to the football world as in a TV outtake, he mocks the hapless Paul Robinson's swishing foot meeting empty air as Gary Neville scored an own goal against in England's humiliation against Croatia. Borat's satirical take on the match -"Your tackle is nice" and "I like your Wags" The clip earned 20th Century Fox unprecedented publicity for their movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The movie opened last week and has already beaten Fahrenheit 911, as the top selling documentary. However Kazakhstani's may rest easy, as Borat's journey through the USA makes a mockery out of our supposed open mindedness and embrace of different ethnic and religious groups.

There is only one antidote to this one sided portrayal of Kazakhstan. They must do well in Euro 2008 or qualify for the World Cup 2010. Nothing soothes the national conscience or produces a level of confidence as football does. We can see what the World Cup did to increase Germans belief in themselves or to soothe Italy's sour mood following the Serie scandal.

Kazakhstan's national coach is Arno Pijpers and the Kazakh's are still searching for their first win in their Euro campaign. They go up against Portugal in their next match.

Real Madrid vs Ecija.Ruben De la Red's great goal that made the score 5 - 1.
Beckham opened the scoring and Ruud and Ronaldo scored the other goals.

Steve McClaren has named 28 possible starters for the friendly against Holland on wednesday and will be going back to the 4,4,2 formation after the 3,5,2 disaster of unhappy memory.
He has taken a leaf out of Domenech's book and also called up an 18 year old .Micah Richards is to represent England in the game.Meanwhile,Gonzalo Higuain, the other 18 year old has turned down Domenech's invitation to play for France.
D C United's Freddy Adu at 17 is one year younger to these guys but he's making the news too regarding a trial period with Manchester United

All the historians reading this will be glad to know that the discrepancy regarding Bert Patenaude has been cleared up at last.He has now been officially declared the scorer of the first ever hat trick in World Cup History.The three goals were scored by him in USA's 3-0 win over Paraguay in Montevideo (Uruguay) on 17 July 1930.
The correction took 76 years to make.Someone owes somebody an apology.

The French Fooball Federation are putting up a special sound and light show in Paris to honour their heroes.
The special ceremony is a prelude to the friendly international against Greece on Wednesday.France coach Raymond Domenech is calling on 18 year old Gonzalo Higuain to play in the game.

Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira alias Anderson alias "The new Ronaldinho"
There was talk that both Chelsea and Barcelona were interested in him but a fractured leg at the end of October has put an end to that for now.

An update on the life and fortunes of Graham Poll.The FA have backed him up absolutely in the McFadden Red Card controversy.Interestingly now Everton are considering fining McFadden for his part in the row.
Poll himself says..
"It is our job now. The scrutiny on everyone in the game is relentless and that creates pressure. At one time you never recognised a referee at all. Now we are in the media and named if we are seen as having done something wrong. We have not asked for it. It has been thrust upon us. Some like it more than others."
His next match is Manchester City's home game with Newcastle United and whatever the outcome of that game one thing is certain - he won't shirk any big decision.

Gazza had to spend a night in jail.James Lawton writing in the Independent says " Paul Gascoigne's latest indiscretion will surprise few people. But, during the harrowing decline of a talent that once shone so brightly, more should have been done to protect a damaged genius from himself." Rest of the article here.

Freddy Eastwood's superb giant killing free kick that dumped Manchester United out of the Carling Cup on Tuesday.
And he's a "fan".
“I am a Manchester United fan and to play them was unbelievable. I wanted to take the free-kick. I fancied my chances and as soon as I hit it I knew it was in. It hasn't sunk in."
.......Now that's being a fan like Brutus was a fan of Julius Caesar!
And maybe Alex Ferguson is now wandering around muttering "et tu Brute" under his breath !

Hmmmmm...Yellow ? ...or Red ?...or both ..?
Choices , choices !!
Graham Poll is breaking news again.John Terry was sent off for the first time in 288 games the other day.
"Their discipline is out of order and they needed to be taught a lesson." is what the Chelsea players are saying they heard Poll say.
James McFadden has been the next to get a red card- sent off in the 19th minute of the Everton vs Arsenal Carling cup game yesterday - because Poll thought McFadden called him a cheat.
FA probe ?

Argentina vs Germany Quarter Final Penalty Shootout
Remember Lehmann's cheat sheet ?
Lehmann consulted it and dived in the right direction 4 times - bringing off 2 great saves.
Germany's goalkeeping coach Andreas Kopke wrote it on a piece of paper ripped from a hotel notepad. Details such as "[Julio] Cruz - stand tall, don't move, dive right".
For Argentina's second penalty-taker, Roberto Ayala, it said: "Ayala - look at shooting foot, left low." Sure enough, Ayala placed the ball low to Lehmann's left and it was advantage Germany.
Esteban Cambiasso had to score to keep Argentina in the tournament. Lehmann's notes said: "Wait, stand tall, left corner." He duly made an impressive stop to his left.
The cheat sheet is now up for sale.
Lehmann has revealed that he plans to sell his top secret penalty shootout note.The funds raised will go to a charity for sick children.The auction is due to take place in Berlin on the 16th of December.
Beats writing a book about a headbutt I guess !!

According to Italian newspaper Tuttosport, the Juventus goalkeeper has won the Ballon D'or as the European soccer player of the year.........?
If Buffon has won or does win , he would become only the second goalkeeper to win it after Soviet legend Lev Yashin in 1963

German soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer received the Golden Victoria Award from the German publishers association for his work as President of the 2006 World Cup Organising Committee. It was presented to him by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a ceremony in Berlin .
Beckenbauer has spoken in favour of FIFA's proposals for a restriction on foreigners in club football and believes forcing teams to field six homegrown players would get rid of foreign mercenaries.
"A lot of players have the mercenary mentality. If it does not work with one club then they go to the next one.I do not know how long clubs will allow that sort of attitude."
"Too many players of different nationalities, who can hardly understand one another, can lead to a team falling apart if there is not a strong core of homegrown players," Beckenbauer said.
So..inspite of whatever Wenger might think he has called for a minimum of at least 6 german players in each Bundelsliga team for a start.

The FIFPro world XI team.
Ronaldinho was once again voted player of the year 2005- 2006.
Lionel Messi won the ASPIRE Young FIFPro Player Player's Award
Cristiano Ronaldo the ASPIRE Young Player Fan Award.
The FIFPro Merit Award went to Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o [ For commitment to Africa and African football, and courageous and inspiring actions against racism in football. ]
FIFPro Players for Peace Award was given to Barcelona for its tie up with UNICEF.

Arsene Wenger and Alan Pardew having a bit of a scrap during Arsenal's loss to West Ham through a late goal.
Pardew has since apologised for his overzealous celebrations but the FA is talking about disciplinary action.

Jorge Burruchaga seals Argentina's win over Germany, in a footrace after a great little flick from that pibe Maradona put him through. With Burruchaga's commentary.

Eggert Magnusson, the head of the Icelandic Football Association seems to have bested the Kia Joorabchian - Eli Papoushado offer and agreed to take on the £22.5m West Ham debt for a total bid of £75m. Meanwhile Eli Papoushado's haggling over the West Ham debt especially the £4m outstanding on the transfer of Dean Ashton has irritated the West Ham management.

Another sticking point in the Joorabchian- Papoushado offer is that Joorabachian, if he takes over West Ham, wants Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano in the starting lineup of every match, a move that Pardew is not willing to accept, thus making his position less secure as West Ham's coach. In fact, Papoushado will probably scout for a big name coach like Sven Goran Erickson or Big Phil Scolari. This is likely to go down badly with West Ham players and fans who see Pardew as the man responsible for their club's revival.

The sentiment was expressed by Hayden Mullins when he said, "If he is under pressure, we will all fight for him and scrap for him. It was brilliant that we could pull out the two wins for him. Now we can start looking upwards. I feel we are going places. We have a good young squad and a good manager and it is a terrific place to be."

The aptly named Eggert Magnusson seems to have all the qualifications in place to become West Ham's new owner. It should be a no-brainer.

India plays host to the ongoing Asian Youth Football Championship from October 29th to November 12th. However as hosts they have fared miserably, being at the bottom of the table and crashing out of the tournament.

The first 4 countries book their place in the FIFA World Cup U-20 to be played next year in Canada. Jordan, South Korea, DPR Korea and Japan have qualified. Jordan was the big surprise
of the tournament upsetting China 2-1, considered to be favourites to qualify. The other pleasant surprise was the Iraq youth squad that qualified for the quarterfinals only to be beaten by the DPR Korean in a tough match., 2-0.

Arsenal FC lost to Boca Juniors, 1-2 in the Apertura 2006 but is overall an impressive 4th position in League standings. Ricardo La Volpe's Boca Juniors are in the top spot and Rodrigo Palacio is fast becoming South America's top player.

Gustavo Alfaro's club has never won anything of note since their formation in 1957. They reached the quarterfinals of the 2004 Copa Sudamericana and were 14th in the 2005 Apertura.

Their most famous alumni is Jorge Burruchaga who scored the winner in Argentina's 3-2 victory over Germany in the 1986 World Cup finals.

Real fall to Celta Vigo making their journey up the league even tougher.

Zinedine Zidane is in Bangladesh at the invitation of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, whose Grameen Bank specialises in giving small loans to the poor.Zidane will be playing a bit of football with the local lads and will also be involved in the opening ceremony of a factory project run by French food giant Danone and Grameen Bank.
The factory aims at producing nutritious food products at affordable prices - Bangladesh being among the poorest nations of the world.

Feast your eyes on that little beauty by Lennon!

Signed by all members of the Italian World Cup winning team this unique and very expensive football now belongs to Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani, 21. He bid all of $2.4 million ................................!!! for it.
The event took place on Saturday at the Reach Out To Asia gala dinner held at a glittering ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton Doha.
More details here.

Makélélé is a midfielder who is so effective in his role that the position he plays is occasionally referred to as "The Makélélé Role".
In practice, however, Makélélé is probably the world's only true practitioner of the Makélélé role, since other holding midfielders also get forward and take shots. Makélélé, on the other hand, takes the role to a defensive extreme by taking very few shots (he has attempted less than five shots on goal over the last three years), keeping his passes short and safe, and almost never moving into the attacking third of the pitch.
Clive Tyldesley is a British sport commentator who has said "I have seen one eclipse of the moon, but I've never seen a Claude Makélélé goal."Match report on that goal and Chelsea's historic defeat here.

For all the legally minded eagles out there- two court cases are making news.
Bayern Munich has threatened YouTube with legal action Thursday for showing privately shot footage of its games.......
.....and MasterCard and FIFA have gone to court over sponsorship of the World Cup tournament - a right enjoyed by them for 16 years but which has now been awarded to arch rival Visa .It says the move by FIFA was "a blatant and deceitful violation" of a written agreement.
In a further development a US appeals court has turned down an attempt from VISA to join the lawsuit.

Alex Ferguson could not have asked for a better 20 year anniversary gift from Man Utd in their win against Portsmouth, 3-0. A match that saw all his favourite players score, Saha, Ronaldo, and even Vidic. 9+ minutes of video.

This might be Frank Lampard's final season at Chelsea. If all is to believed Lamps is planning a move to Barca because his fiancee Elen Rives, a Barcelona native cannot bear living in London, where she will miss the tapas, sangria and boogying to separatist rock by Obrint Pas. Barca is playing her as a trump card in their recent offer to Lamps. The couple already have a one year old daughter.

In exchange Chelsea might get midfield maestro Deco. The season for rumours begins in real earnest as Inter Milan is thinking of spiriting away Jose Mourinho as their next coach. Milan is where all the fashionistas are, which must be a nice perk for the sartorially and correctly coiffed Mourinho.

Lampard is already making all the correct noises by refusing to write off Barca in the Champions Cup while his team mates are ready to take the axe to the present champions. Sounds like he is preparing for a soft landing at Camp Nou.

Teddy Sheringham seems to be having the time of his life. At 40 years he is leading West Ham with a revival after its celebrated Argentinian stars Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, a generation younger to him seem to have crashed and burned.

When he is not scoring for West Ham, he is shacking up with Danielle Lloyd, the 20 year old Miss Great Britain who had her title stripped following the disclosure of her relationship with Teddy Sheringham, two months before the Miss GB contest, a violation of the rules. In an interview with Eve magazine Lloyd, gushed that Sheringham had given her a pair of Jimmy Choo's on Xmas morning that set the midfielder back, about 7000 quid. Lloyd had previously claimed that the affair began in February, on the night of the beauty pageant.

Maybe she is leading Teddy's revival. At 7000 quid it is a small price to pay if it keeps West Ham in the hunt for respectability. George Best would have approved!

Here is a video clip of Danielle Lloyd >>

Aaron Lennon, best young player 19 years Teddy Sheringham, best old player 40 years

November 5, 2006

Tottenham 2 Chelsea 1
West Ham 1 Arsenal 0

Tottenham vs Chelsea was a beauty! I think Aaron Lennon showed why he is the best little player in England today. The second goal scored by Lennon was outstanding, a brilliant bit of ball control, that would have made Dennis the Menace proud. Chelsea went down 1-2, after a surprise first goal from Makelele. Dawson equalized through a great no look header and Spurs went up for good with Keane's well timed pass and Lennon's cool finish. This game saw plenty of action, with Ledley King robbing Robben of a sure goal with only the goalkeeper to beat. John Terry tangled with Pascal Chimbonda and was sent off.

On the other hand, Arsenal continued its dispiriting spell of ball control only to disappoint in its finishing, losing to West Ham 0-1. West Ham made the most of their chances and it was substitute Marlon Harewood who nailed Arsenal's coffin in the 89th minute. Teddy Sheringham again demonstrating that he is the best veteran in business, combining in a fine bit of skill with Etherington which led to the Harewood goal. Arsenal has not boosted its chances in their last two games with a draw against Everton and now failing against West Ham.

After the ill tempered match Wenger and Alan Pardew renewed their on and off friendship when Wenger was seen to push Pardew instead of a shaking hands. Pardew was guilty of excessive celebration.

Today FIFA and FIfPro proposed the implementation of a six plus five system, whereby six members of a side must be homegrown. The intended proposal can be looked on at many different levels. In fact, look no further than today's game between Arsenal and West Ham.

For a club like Arsenal this ruling is a blow, where 11 out of the 11 starting players this season have been from a foreign country. Ashley Cole, the only reliable English starter transferred to Chelsea and was replaced by William Gallas of France. Arsene Wenger's club faces a West Ham team that has no problems starting Nigel Reo-Coker, Anton Ferdinand, Marlon Harwood, Bobby Zamora, Carlton Cole, and Paul Konchesky, all John Bull players.

In fact Alan Pardew made no bones about his displeasure last March with Arsenal's polyglot team threatening "the soul of British football - the English player". To which Wenger accused Pardew of leveling statements that bordered on racism.

Pardew's statement was a bit of moral grandstanding considering he has no problems welcoming Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano this season to the West Ham side. In fact, the proposed West Ham takeover would have another Corinthian player, Carlos Alberto joining in the January transfer.

What one does not get is Pardew's "soul of British football" comment? Does Alan Pardew have words for Chelsea and Man Utd? The soul of English football is not just exclusive to the players, it is how the clubs are run. In fact, if we cared about an abstraction such as this then Pardew should question why a Russian oil oligarch runs Chelsea; a US real estate moghul controls Man Utd, or even why he is allowing a proposed takeover by an Israeli hotelier of his own club.

Sepp Blatter says that the proposal provides an incentive in developing players on the local level as clubs will be reassured that the players will remain with them, rather than transferring out. This is in turn will protect the national team.

Great words but hollow in portent. The fact that the Premiership is the only league that is attracting record breaking attendance as compared to other leagues, where numbers are stagnating or are in decline, is because it attracts the best players from the world. A league that was moribund a decade ago and was third fiddle to the La Liga and the Serie is now putting these Leagues in the shade. As for the national team, does a Steven Gerrard not look at a Thierry Henry, when the two club teams meet and improve his level of play knowing fully well that France could meet England in Euro 2008 or World Cup 2010? Having foreign players such as Henry and Drogba at club level enhances the English squad.

The best player in the English squad this World Cup, Owen Hargreaves of Bayern Munich has not even played Premiership football, so this talk of protecting national teams is empty rhetoric. From the way he played it seemed Hargreaves was the only one who cared about protecting the national team. When a player dons the colours of his country, he is in the business of national protection, no matter where else he might play the game. An artificial provision is not going to teach him that.

Crystal Palace has produced great players ... for other teams. Most recently, Andy Johnson of Everton. Should Crystal Palace feel aggrieved that they lost another player for the greener pastures of a Premiership club? Absolutely. Is there anyone at Palace thanking his stars that Johnson did not join Real? No. The loss of a player is the same whether he moves down the road or another continent away. Is Ashley Cole any less a mercenary for moving to Chelsea rather than AC Milan? If Roman Abramovich had not found Cole in the limited pool of English players available, he would have looked elsewhere. If a club invests in a player's development only to lose him, does it make it worse if he moved overseas rather than playing in the national league? Somehow FIFA's proposal does not make that distinction.

On a different level, the increased demand for foreign players, especially from Africa, in these leagues has led to their national teams becoming stronger leading to no free rides for the European and South American teams in international competitions. The unrestricted transfer of foreign players has enhanced the game and in doing so, given their national teams a real shot at the big international titles. Ghana the best team on display, did not even have a single player playing in the domestic league.

I seriously hope this proposal that FIFA is endorsing along with the FIfPro (the players association) that might be in effect by 2010 does not come to pass. It would be a reversal of the Bosman ruling, that has given so much to the game. On the other hand, FIFA should do more to stamp out racism, diving, betting, and corruption. Lets start with Blatter himself!

Here is a proposal: Having had a club invest so much in a player's development should also guarantee them a few years of service to the club before he can entertain offers. The club should make every opportunity available for him to play. A proposal that is worth considering. It applies to medical students who avail of government funding and then serve a few years in the NHS before they are eligible to join up a hospital of their choice or a practice.

Here is Wenger's angry rejoinder to the FIFA proposal >>

Remember Drogba's goal against Barcelona and Mourinho's antics on the sideline?
Well here's strong words about that from Uefa's president, Lennart Johansson.
"Managers and coaches have a duty to see that we keep respect for the game and not behave like kids, making statements like somebody who's been promised a candy but didn't get it," said Johansson. "They are the ones who represent football. Their behaviour and their statements are listened to and guide many people in the wrong direction.
If he was punished once, it can happen again, but he is not alone. It must be judged again. Excuse me using the word, but it's like crimes. The first time you are sometimes treated in a fairly decent way. But if you repeat it, it's much tougher."

Arsenal Manager Wenger has reacted angrily against FIFA and FIFPro - the international players’ union.
This is because the organisations reached an accord this week in which, by 2010, they hope to bring in a rule stating that clubs must field at least six home-grown players in their starting line-ups. Their agreement, which still has the tricky task of getting past the employment laws of the European Union, was a red rag to Wenger.
Rest of the Article here.
In another development FIFPro has announced that the FIFPro World XI Player Award Ceremony 2006 which was to have taken place Monday 6 November in Athens now stands cancelled.

The many African stars in football are now a staple in most leagues and this year is seeing a particularly good year with Nwankwo Kanu leading his club Portsmouth and the English League with 7 goals, and Frederic Kanoute for Sevilla, leads La Liga with 7 goals, Didier Drogba with 10 goals overall for present Premiership champions Chelsea.

In the increasingly crowded galaxy of African stars that include Jay Jay Okocha, Samuel Eto'o, Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Emmanuel Adebayor, Stephen Appiah, El Hadji Diouf, Momo Sissoko, Mido Hossam, Ayegbeni Yakubu, Kolo Toure, Didier Zokora and Benni McCarthy: Aruna Dindane is not a name that comes to mind immediately.

Dindane was part of the Cote D'Ivoirian team that impressed many in the group of death in this World Cup when playing Netherlands, Argentina, and Serbia and Montenegro. Ivory Coast won against Serbia and Montenegro, 3-2 in a come from behind victory and lost 1-2 to both Netherlands and Argentina in some of the more entertaining games in group play.

Aruna Dindane now leads the French league and his club Lens with 7 goals. He is a short but powerfully built striker, technically gifted, with good dribbling skills, a substitute to Bakari Kone, who usually pairs up in front with Drogba as the primary striker duo. Dindane's 7 goals have pushed Lens to the 5th position in the Ligue 1 standings. More importantly, he has made a strong claim to start with Drogba up front for the Ivoirians.

Dindane was also instrumental in Lens winning start to their UEFA Cup campaign beating Osasuna, 3-1. He scored a goal and was responsible for a penalty against Osasuna.

Andrew Jennings is in the forefront of exposing corruption in the sporting world. His most famous book translated into 13 languages is The Lord of the Rings, in which he reveals the fascist leanings of Juan Antonio Samaranch, an acolyte of Francisco Franco, the Spanish dictator and the IOC (International Olympic Committee). He has documented the machinations, the vested interests, the influence peddling that goes on that keeps bureaucrats like Blatter in power. Jenning's investigation revealed the International Sports and Leisure (ISL) management company's cosy relationship of kickbacks and bribes with FIFA.

Jennings has also fallen afoul of Jack Warner, the powerful vice-president of FIFA. Warner represents the North American and Caribbean council whose 37 votes kept Blatter in power in the 2002 FIFA elections. In exchange, Blatter awarded Warner with the TV rights, originally intended for Selby Brown's Caribbean Sports Network.

Jennings work on exposing Jack Warner's ties to the exclusive selling of tickets for the World Cup this year through a family owned business led them to a physical altercation earlier this year when Jennings approached the FIFA Vice President at Piarco International Airport. Warner repeatedly pushed Jennings and accosted the BBC cameraman accompanying him.

Read the first chapter of Andrew Jenning's book FOUL! It is a fascinating preview into a world that an ordinary football fan is not privy to. The world of holding onto power at all costs. And that should resonate with us over here in the US, as we head to the November 7th elections.

UEFA president Lennart Johansson and Michel Platini differ on their ideas regarding the future format of the Champions League .
He was also emphatic that behaviour on the pitch is a "crucial issue" for the game and has warned players to improve their on-field conduct.
Case in point- Chelsea vs Barcelona .
Barcelona players continually pressurised the referee during the match in the Nou Camp, while Chelsea picked up six of the 10 yellow cards .
."On the crucial issue of behaviour in the game I do think there were issues at the recent Barcelona v Chelsea match which will need to be looked at by the UEFA disciplinary bodies in relation to both clubs.",he said.

Midfielder Banel Nicolita scored a self goal called "one of the stupidest ever" by a Spanish Commentator .
Ruud van Nistelrooy misses a penalty in the 1- 0 win.

Kaka's three goals lead AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti to call him"the best player in the world "

Drogba's injury time equaliser against Barcelona at Nou Camp.Mourinho slides along the sideline !

A recent article in Nature Neuroscience (Nature Neuroscience - 9, 1083 - 1084 (2006)
doi:10.1038/nn0906-1083) discusses how we pay attention to a relevant visual stimuli in relation to its change in position in the environment. A skill that is particularly suited to playing football.

Playing football depends on knowing how everything else on the field is moving with respect to the ball.

To be successful at playing a high level of football, our eyes have to scan the specifics of the situation but also give us a general picture of what is happening in the environment so that we can place the situation in context. This phenomena happens in almost every situation that is fluid. With increasing and faster changes in the environment the attention of a person shifts from the information his eyes gives him, to a broader frame of attention. A particularly skilled football player can do that very quickly.

An attention-centered reference frame would make this kind of relative position information explicit and stable, even when the eyes move for a better look at specific parts of the image. Remember the fantabulous goal that Robin Van Persie scored, when Eboue dropped a pass, between two Charlton Athletic defenders. Persie made a quick visual scan of where the ball would drop. The general context was the distance he was away from the ball, where the defenders were in relation to the ball and him, and the goal and the goalkeeper in relation to him. Once his eyes fixed on where the ball would drop, he timed that full tilt run and volleyed the ball past the goalkeeper into the top of the net.

A simple analogy would be that in the early stages of learning to play tennis, you invariably pay attention to trying to get the ball across the net. There is no attention paid to your opponent and where he or she is located. It is only through practice that your attention shifts from the net to the general context of your opponents movements. This happens in a stepwise fashion. A brilliant player like Roger Federer can set up an opponent several shots in advance (probably more than 5 shots) and score a winner. This is because in highly skilled players the attentional system can shift seamlessly between the visual input to the eyes to the general context of the information.

Motion is represented in an area called MT (Middle Temporal), a part of the visual association area of the temporal lobe in the brain. The cells in the MT area have huge receptive fields (akin to radio transmission areas, as in we can hear WCKR from Manhattan all the way to southern New Jersey), i.e., they have big catchment areas that can pick up visual stimuli. MT cells code the speed and the direction of motion of visual targets. The information that these cells access are used to generate visual perception, maintaining visual scanning/ or tracking, and guiding bodily movements through the environment.

In this regard Diego Maradona is probably the best player in football to date. We can argue back and forth but Maradona was one player who never had to look at his feet while dribbling the ball upfield, with his eyes constantly scanning ahead looking at how players changed their positions in relation to the ball at his feet. This gave him so many options- he could go it alone or set up a pass to Caniggia or Batustita many plays in advance.

For the complete article >> (subscription needed)

Complete information on the article:

Nature Neuroscience - 9, 1083 - 1084 (2006)
doi:10.1038/nn0906-1083
Attention: beyond neural response increases

Charles E Connor

The author is in the Department of Neuroscience and at the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA. connor@jhu.edu

This man is for real. He is not some hack in the Jerry Springer show, paid to ham up some emotion. This is passion! I am in awe- can you sustain this sort of lung power year in, year out?

Crespo gets the first. Stankovic, Ibrahamovic, Seedorf, Kaka, Gilardino, and Materazzi get the others. Great match between these two fierce rivals.

The misquote is apparently more deadly than the quote.Here is an exhaustive analysis of what Blatter actually said and meant.

Didier Drogba is having a phenomenal year. If this was the USA, there would already been an investigation into whether he was taking steroids. It is not just politics and the morons that run our present government that need to be investigated, the rot has permeated to almost everything, including sports. The USA is going through a crisis in confidence in all their sports at present. Floyd Landis, Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, and Justin Gatlin. Is there anyone left untainted? Are we left with any heroes at all? We now have to look overseas to find one.

I have been critical of Drogba considering him as a diver and a cheat along with the fact that he is probably the best striker in football at present. This year has brought out his best. Whether it is the presence of Andrei Shevchenko breathing down his neck, or Salomon Kalou who might steal his thunder in the last 10 minutes of a game, one thing is certain, if it were not for Didier Drogba, Chelsea would have been muddling along.

Didier Drogba scored the winning goal after being set up by Ashley Cole in the first encounter between Barca and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, October 18th. Two weeks later in the return match at Camp Nou he scores the equalizer off John Terry in injury time. In between he pulverizes Blackburn, Liverpool, Charlton Athletic, Aston Villa, and scores a hat trick against Levski Sofia, in the European league. In all he has scored 10 goals. How does 40+ goals in a season sound? An exclamation point to a third Premiership, and possibly Chelsea's first European championship!!! All because of one player?? It is not just the Blackburn players that he dragged along (Andre Ooijer in his most forgettable debut), while scoring a goal, an indication of his physical prowess, but Drogba has been dragging along Shevchenko, Ballack, and Kalou, all the way to the finish line.

It is not easy to go to Camp Nou with its thousands of fans (~ 100,000), with the likes of Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi, Deco, Zambrotta, Puyol, and Marquez, and come away with a draw. You expect to be slaughtered. Drogba again proved to be the difference.

Hats off to Didier Drogba!

Remember Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Fernando Morientes, Eidur Gudjohnsen, and Hernan Crespo, till recently fixtures in a Premiership club? Great players who ran up against Abramovich's billions, Sir Alex's foul temper, and Rafa Benitez's lack of confidence.

Gudjohnsen and Crespo had no place in Jose Mourinho's high powered offense featuring Drogba, Essien, Mikel, Kalou, Shevchenko, and Ballack. RVN ran afoul of Sir Alex and had some nasty spats with wonderboy and Sir Alex favourite Cristiano Ronaldo, and Morientes could not cut the mustard at Anfield, remaining a scoreless wonder. Benitez ran out of patience.

So what have they been doing since being transfered to their new clubs? More of the same? Not really, they in fact, have been thriving, much more so then the transfer wonderkids Andrei Shevchenko, Michael Ballack, Salomon Kalou, and Dirk Kuyt, who were going to light a fire in the Premiership.

Morientes who could not buy himself him a goal while in Liverpool in the last season already has four for Valencia in UEFA Cup matches. Valencia is just behind Barca and Real in the La Liga standings and is on top of their UEFA table leading Roma. Morientes is just behind Drogba for top scorer in the European competition.

In the Serie, Crespo has gotten the ball rolling with friend and Inter Milan team mate Adriano, when they beat AC Milan with Crespo opening Inter's account. Crespo already has 3 goals in 5 matches for Inter, leading them to the top of the Serie.

RVN played a big part in Real's, 2-0 victory over Barcelona with his goal. He has scored 4 goals in 8 matches. Real is keeping it close with Barcelona in the La Liga standings.

Gudjohnsen has had some big moments scoring for Barcelona and today he made his former club, Chelsea pay with a goal following a great cross by Ronaldinho. It was left to Drogba in injury time to score the equalizer. Barcelona has had it tough this year in La Liga but Gudjohnsen has done his bit to see that they cling to the top.

Not bad for players, jettisoned from their clubs in some cases unceremoniously, as in RVN's instance with Sir Alex, who treated him very poorly. Or Gudjohnsen becoming sidelined with the introduction of Essien, Drogba, and Makelele.

Man Utd and Chelsea may not miss them as they are doing well in the Premiership as well as in European championships but these players have proven to be impact players for their new clubs. More importantly, they are in a position to play their former clubs in the future for possibly, the championship. For RVN, there may not be a sweeter moment, than slotting the ball past Van Der Saar to give Real victory over Man Utd and see Sir Alex's face turn purple.