October 2007 Archives

Fans celebrate the awarding of the 2014 World Cup to Brazil.
"Much of the History of the World Cups can be told by telling the History of Brazil in the World Cups. Brazil has been five times champion (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002), vice-champion in two editions (1950 and 1998) and semi-finalist in other three (1938, 1974 and 1978). Several of the best players in History of football were Brazilian, and most of them left their register in the World Cups" The above quote is taken from this website that shows the trail blazed by the Brazil team in World Cup tournaments down the years - starting from 1930.

These guys might as well be in a swimming pool.Uruguayan international striker Marcelo Zalayeta was given a two-match suspension for fooling the ref into awarding him a penaly in Napoli's 3 -1 win over Juventus last week.The ref was fooled into awarding a second penalty too.

Here's the video clip of the second dive..

...says Johan Cruyff.He scored his first goal in five games against Almería and is taking his time getting used to the different style of play.

Cesc Fabregas' 80th minute goal secured the unbeaten Gunners a point at Anfield to maintain their position at the top of the Premier League.Highlights below.

Earlier in September when Ferguson was asked how Chelsea would manage without The Special One he said that they would still have the same players. In other words, Drogba and Lampard wouldn’t stop scoring goals; Carvalho, Terry and Cech wouldn’t stop saving them.
They more than proved him right as they demolished Manchester City by six goals to nothing yesterday.Even Shevchenko [ who came on as a late substitute] scored .As the players trooped off at the end, each shook the hand of Grant. . As Shevchenko came past, he stopped and hugged him. It was an interesting end to an interesting and entertaining game.Life goes on and it looks like The Special One is gradually being replaced by The Unlikely One.An Avram Grant quote for the Chelsea fans afterwards “It is not easy to sing my name. Try it, it’s Israeli.”

Rooney and Tevez combined to produce this contender for the goal of the season.One touch play -a backheel from Rooney stroked into the net by Tevez.The theory that they cannot play together can be buried and laid to rest now.

All the goals from the 4 -1 victory over Middlesbrough can be seen here .

This is the cheeky back-heeled winner from striker Braulio Nobrega which gave Getafe the 2 - 1 victory over Tottenham which ultimately led to the dismissal of Martin Jol .

.....and here's a pretty funny video on youtube covering some of the things that Martin Jol had to say.

17 year old Toni Kroos hit this last gasp winner for Bayern Munich against Red Star Belgrade.You've got to see it to believe it.Even Beckham couldn't do this.No camera tricks ..!

12 wins in a row.39 goals scored in all competitions [which include the incredible 7 - 0 beating of Savio seen below] and only six conceded. Games number 13 and 14 are going to against Liverpool and Manchester United.If they win those they will equal the club record of 14 consecutive wins set in 1934.

Former chairman of the Scottish FA, John McBeth, said Jack Warner asked him to make the match fee cheque payable to him personally following a Trinidad and Tobago friendly against Scotland in May 2004.
McBeth said: 'I later found out he had approached other Scottish FA staff to do the same thing.'
The accusation was made on Monday night's BBC Panorama programme.
FIFA's comment "'We are absolutely unconcerned about this programme."
Warner said: 'It's lies issued by someone whom I got removed from the FIFA executive committee and whose memory has suddenly come to life.' More on that story here....

Asian champions Iraq gave Pakistan a 7-0 soccer lesson in their opening 2010 World Cup qualifier in Lahore on Monday.Mahdi Karim scored four goals and more than made up for the absence of injured captain Younis Mahmoud.
Iraq are hoping to reach the finals for the first time in 24 years and we wish them luck.Four of the seven goals have arrived on youtube and you can see them here and here and here and here.
The rest will turn up eventually I suppose.The first goal was by Nashat Akram and the other three by Karim.Match report here.

Nolberto Solano's shot got past the diving Sunderland goalkeeper Craig Gordon and hit the goalpost.The ball was on its way out when it bounced off the goalkeeper and went back in - much to his dismay.West Ham went on to win the game 3 -1. Video here...

Leaders Real Madrid and rivals Barcelona had to face up to their first Primera Liga defeats this season on Saturday at Espanyol and Villarreal respectively.Real were beaten 2 -1 and Villarreal gave Barcelona a 3-1 hiding.
Videos of the goals here and here.Espanyol are turning out to be real giantkillers- having beaten both Sevilla and Valencia earlier this season.

One of the aftereffects of Didier Drogba's outspoken comments about Chelsea was that he was banned by the club from attending the launch of 'Skin' - an anti-racism single- which ironically features backup vocals by Drogba himself (along with Michael Essien).The song is posted below.

And Drogba in the meantime is letting his feats do the talking.He scored for Chelsea again - the first goal in their 2 - 0 victory against Middlesbrough . Video here...

Rooney recovered from the Russian madness was in unstoppable form again.He scored twice and missed a third [penalty].Manchester United were victorious against a nine-man Aston Villa.( Nigel Reo-Coker and Scott Carson got themselves sent off)

Maybe it's all that smog in Switzerland that gave the US team the advantage.

A goal is a goal is a goal. Watch Adu's miss at the end...

Is Steve McClaren ready for a "John the Baptist" moment? The crowds are calling for his head... especially if Hiddink's Russia beat Israel.

In my mind, McClaren has gotten in over his head (no pun intended) but I blame the incompetent bureacracy of the FA.

So who will replace the unlucky man?

Here are our "out of the box" suggestions:

- "Big Phil" Scolari
- Jurgen Klinsmann
- Fabio Capello
- Jose Mourinho
- Guus Hiddink
- Arsene Wenger

I'll admit I'm going overboard; but the FA is going to appoint another ham-and-egger unless we make some noise.

Any suggestions?

A defender bamboozled.Take a look at Robinho squeezing past an Ecuador defender with a fabulous display of stepover skills.The move led to the fourth goal in Brazil's recent 5 - 0 win over Ecuador.

Another video of Robinho driving some other defenders crazy can be viewed here....

How long shall they kill our prophets?

I have to say that this makes the World Cup in SA look dangerous. What a blow!

A thumbs down is what Drogba is giving the Mourinho less Chelsea.The dreaded Drogba - the first chelsea player to score 30 goals in a season after Kerry Dixon way way back in 1985 has this to say about the way things are these days...
“The problem is that something has been broken with Chelsea.The damage has been big in the dressing-room because we know now what happened and who caused Mourinho’s departure. Nothing can stop me from leaving now.I need a club with whom I’d be ready to break my leg to win. I want to get back to playing with butterflies in my stomach for a club who make me dream. For me, there aren’t 50 clubs who could stimulate this sort of passion, just four: AC Milan, Inter, Barça and Real. Plus Marseilles. They have to sparkle.

I will make everything clear to them.I know that Ronaldinho and Kaká are said to be coming here next season, but it will not change my desire to move. My dream is to win the Calcio, the Italian Cup or the Copa del Rey. I need new challenges, new horizons and these two countries really appeal to me."
So Didier Drogba wants to play his heart out.He's doing it for his country - you can see him here - scoring both the goals for Ivory Coast in their 3 -2 loss to Austria in a friendly on Wednesday.

Brazil made up for that last long boring goalless draw they played out against Colombia with a thumping win over Ecuador.As for the World Cup qualifying status - they now share share second place in the standings with Paraguay with four points each.Argentina is on top with on six points. Uruguay, Chile and Venezuela have three points each, Colombia has two, Bolivia and Peru have one and Ecuador is yet to earn a point. The top four teams advance to the World Cup, while the fifth placed finisher enters a playoff with the fourth-placed CONCACAF qualifier.
Goals of the 5 - 0 bashing of Ecuador should be visible below...

Thierry Henry scored twice against Lithuania to break Michel Platini's record of 41 international goals.France now lead in Group B ahead of Italy and Scotland.

Elsewhere Greece, Czech Republic and Romania will join Germany in the Euro finals next year after qualifying on Wednesday.Greece beat Turkey 1-0 and Romania beat Luxemborg by 2 goals.It was the Czech Republic that came up with the biggest win - handing out a 3 - 0 drubbing to the Germans.Goals here..

A kind of Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde story.Rooney plays both the hero and the villain.He scored a magnificient goal at one end and then went and fouled Konstantin Zyryanov at the other end and conceded a penalty.Another Paul Robinson blunder resulted in the final score reading England 1 Russia 2.
Qualification for Euro 2008 now becomes very doubtful for England.

Another stunning goal.Argentina beat Venezuela by two goals in their world cup qualifier.Gabriel Milito gave Argentina the first goal - which incidentally is also the first goal he scored for his country .Argentina have beaten Venezuela 15 times - every time they have played actually.

Some of the howlers seen on this DVD can be viewed here.
Includes this incredibly goofy self goal by Chris Brass (Darlington vs Bury, 2006) - where he more or less uses his nose to score a self goal....!

Manuel Rey of Venezuela giving us more evidence of why penalty kicks are not required if you can beat a goalkeeper like this.This goal too came in a world cup qualifier - this time between Venezuela and Ecuador.

.....if Juan Roman Riquelme keeps taking free kicks like these.FIFA will have to declare penalty kicks obsolete and unnecessary...!Both goals scored against Chile in their 2010 world cup qualifier on saturday.Goalkeeper left rooted to the spot (and no doubt wishing he were somewhere else.)

The massacre got off to a delayed start because thick fog at the Faroe Islands' only airport caused the French team's plane to be diverted to Bergen, Norway, where the players had to wait out one night.They got there eventually and then massacred the opposition by 6 goals to nothing.
Nicolas Anelka, Henry,Karim Benzema,Jerome Rothen and Hatem Ben Arfa were the scorers.Video here..
Benzema scored two actually and Henry equalled Platini's 41 international goal record.

The Scots scored these two goals .....

...before Shevchenko pulled one back.(video) .McFadden scored the third for Scotland.The strange thing is that Scotland may not qualify for the Euro even if they go on to beat Italy as well.
Elsewhere Rooney scored his first competitive goal for England in more than three years in England's 3 - 0 cakewalk victory over Estonia.Those goals can be seen here..

....what would your name be?Log in to this site and type your name in.It will tell you what name you could get as a player in the Brazil soccer team.You also get a T shirt with your name on it...!
However if you type in your name as Edson Arantes Do Nascimento it doesn't give you the name Pele...so there's some bugs in the thing that need to be ironed out...!

Oliver Kahn says that for the first time in the history of german football a goal keeper is playing for the national team while not being allowed to play for his club.This in reference to the current status of his old rival Lehmann.
"Perhaps rather than talk about former colleagues, he should be grateful he has the chance to play in the national team while he doesn't play for his club," Kahn told football magazine Kicker.That has never happened before in the history of German football."
His comments were in reply to Lehmann telling another German mag - Der Speigel sometime back that Kahn "takes himself far too seriously and thinks he is very important".
And while the debate about the relative merits of the two goalkeepers rages here's a look at why Lehmann is warming the bench at Arsenal.He is not exactly covering himself with glory.

Top three players to be revealed at Fifa's world player gala in Zurich on December 17.
The longish shortlist....
Buffon (Juventus, Italy), Cannavaro (Real Madrid, Italy), Cech (Chelsea, Czech Rep), Ronaldo (Man Utd, Portugal), Deco (Barcelona, Portugal), Drogba (Chelsea, Ivory Coast), Essien (Chelsea, Ghana), Eto'o (Barcelona, Cameroon), Gattuso (Milan, Italy), Gerrard (Liverpool, England), Henry (Barcelona, France), Juninho (Lyon, Brazil), Kaka (Milan, Brazil), Klose (Bayern Munich, Germany), Lahm (Bayern Munich, Germany), Lampard (Chelsea, England), Marquez (Barcelona, Mexico), Messi (Barcelona, Argentina), Nesta (Milan, Italy), Pirlo (AC Milan, Italy), Ribéry (Bayern Munich, France), Riquelme (Villarreal, Argentina), Ronaldinho (Barcelona, Brazil), Rooney (Man Utd, England), Terry (Chelsea, England), Tevez (Man Utd, Argentina), Thuram (Barcelona, France), Torres (Liverpool, Spain), Van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid, Holland), Vieira (Internazionale, France).

Rafael Benitez's rotation policy is not the problem says the man himself. Benítez declared yesterday that Liverpool are still equipped to mount a credible title challenge but lamented the lack of self belief.
"This isn't a time for being negative, it's a time for being positive," he said. This in the light of the fact that Liverpool have two wins in seven matches since the last international break.They almost lost to Tottenham on Sunday.Fernando Torres saved the day with a header in the 90th minute.Goals below..

A new brainwave from Blatter.He is plotting on working out a law which would limit the foreign players allowed in a club’s starting XI to five.Having too many "foreigners" in a team according to him is bad for the identity of the club -whatever that's supposed to mean.He said..
"This is a matter of principle. We need to protect the national identity of the football clubs. The EU say that this is not possible based on free circulation of workers but in football principles are different – footballers are not workers and you must be 11 players not one."
Eight reasons here why this latest brainwave is not one of the better ideas he's had.

Messi combines with Henry and Ronaldinho to score for the sixth game in a row in Barcelona's 3-0 win over Atletico Madrid .More on that story here..

.....their first premier league goal since August.Avram Grant can breathe a bit easier after their 1 - 0 win over Bolton yesterday.

Arsenal were two goals ahead and looking like they were going to run away with the game but Sunderland had other plans.Van Persie had to wait for the last ten minutes before he could score the winner.He truck the opening goal too - a fierce free-kick that went in off the underside of the crossbar in the seventh minute.Philippe Senderos scored the second.Ross Wallace and Jones equalised for Sunderland. Sunderland had defender Paul McShane sent off towards the end for an ugly tackle on Alexander Hleb .Arsenal are now on their 10th consecutive win and on top of the table again.Match report here..

It was the first time this season that United has scored more than two goals in any competition.
Carlos Tevez opened the account with an absolutely brilliant goal - going around two Wigan defenders and dribbling around the goalkeeper before scoring between another two defenders.Video here...Cristiano Ronaldo then scored two more and Wayne Rooney finished things off by heading in the fourth goal of the game. Report here.

The video footage shows Dida going down in a heap after what looks like minimum contact with a Celtic fan .He had to be carried off on a stretcher.History repeats itself for Celtic.22 years ago in another famous AC Milan vs Celtic clash the player that went down was one Rudolf Weinhofer. He collapsed after a beer bottle was thrown at him.The bottle landed several feet from him - but he collapsed nonetheless..! The matter went to the UEFA and a rematch was played which Celtic lost.More on that entertaining historical episode here..
The current episode is also up for a UEFA probe and decisions are pending.

The goals of the game can be seen here..

The video shows the scrap with Serbian defender Ivica Dragutinovic at the end of Portugal's 1-1 draw with Serbia on Sept 12 which led to Scolari getting a four match ban from UEFA's Control and Disciplinary Board.That's been reduced a bit after he appealed.

Real Madrid were pegged back twice by Lazio in their Champions League Group C clash which ended at 2 goals each. Ruud van Nistelrooy put Madrid ahead twice only to find Goran Pandev reply in kind for the home side.Cannavaro's worried about the defence.

Chelsea shook off the blues to win after all.Drogba gave them this winning goal against Valencia after the score was tied at a goal a piece.The other goals by Joe Cole and Villa can be seen here..

A series of brilliant saves from keeper Victor Valdes followed by second-half goals from Carles Puyol and Lionel Messi took Barcelona to a closely fought 2-0 win over VfB Stuttgart. Some of the action below.

If a journey of a thousand miles can begin with a single step then 9 games is a pretty good bit covered in a journey of 49 games. Arsenal chalked up their 9th victory in a row by beating Steaua Bucharest by a solitary second half Van Persie goal.Another 40 wins in a row required to equal the record of the "Invincibles" of 2003 - 04.The comparision may be premature but they seem to be headed in the right direction.

Rooney put his metatarsal behind him and scored his first of the season. United are three points clear at the top of Group F.Ronaldo had to leave the field towards the end after getting an elbow in the face.He had to get four stitches later on.Maybe these comments he was passing before the game had something to do with that.More on the match here..

Thousands of fans waving Germany's black-red-and-gold flag packed Frankfurt's main square Monday to welcome home the women's World Cup soccer champions.The team did not concede a single goal throughout the tournament and the goals that were scored and missed in the last game against Brazil can be viewed below.

John Terry's cheekbone isn't the only thing that's depressed at Chelsea.As they head for a Champion's league match against Valencia on wednesday another defeat will almost certainly spark a full-blown crisis at the club.
Chelsea have had a protective mask made for Terry, who underwent surgery on Sunday for a depressed fracture of the cheekbone, and say he will travel with his team mates to Valencia for the game.Video of the now infamous Clint Dempsey elbow incident can be seen here.
And while Chelsea stagger along Valencia on the other hand come to the game fresh from their fifth consecutive La Liga win of the season - a 1- 0 win against Recreativo.The video of the goal from David Villa can be seen here.

Pete Jensen writing in the Independent says" Last week it was Ronaldinho's nocturnal activities that were under the Barcelona spotlight. This weekend after Thierry Henry's hat-trick, the whole team were out on the town and it was the manager, Frank Rijkaard, buying the drinks." Rest of that story here... and goals below.

A serious injury to Alexander Hleb took some of the joy from Arsenal's 1-0 victory at West Ham.Both Van Persie's goal and the foul on Alexander by Mark Noble can be seen in the video.