April 2008 Archives

Gordon Bradley, who coached Pele and Johan Cruyff in the North American Soccer League died on tuesday in Manassas He was 74.
Signed for New York Generals in 1968 as a player and assistant coach to Freddie Goodwin, Bradley went on to become one of the best known and most popular coaches in the NASL.He coached the New York Cosmos when they were at their peak in the late 1970s when Pele played for the team.He also coached the Washington Diplomats, where he worked with Dutch superstar Cruyff.

The complete ad can be seen on the nike website here..
I like the Adidas one better.

Gianluca Zambrotta in an attempt to clear played the ball into Scholes's path.The game was 14 minutes old and Scholes was 25 yards from goal.The shot went in like a bolt from the blue into the top corner of the net.And that was it.It's going to be an all english Champion's League Final.

Muslim groups have urged the Malaysian government to stop Chelsea's two Israelis - Avram Grant and midfielder Tal Ben Haim from entering the country when the team visits in July, warning the tour could face protests if they are allowed in.
At the moment the government seems to be standing its ground on the issue.

Los Angeles Galaxy beat Chivas USA 5-2 on Saturday and Beckham's happy....

....but that hat trick is old hat.That was saturday and its almost wednesday already.Emmanuel Adebayor scored the most recent hat trick when Arsenal gave Derby a 6 -2 lesson in soccer.Most of those goals - if not all - can be seen here...

Franck Ribery scored two incredible goals in less than 60 seconds to all but take Bayern Munich to the Bundesliga title.The final score was Bayern Munich 4 , Stuttgart 1.You may have to turn down the volume.The commentator on the video is a bit hysterical.

And the Professional Footballers' Association player of the year for the second successive season is Cristiano Ronaldo.The young player of the year award went to Cesc Fabregas.A look at the PFA winners from 1974 to 2008 here....

The turtle has caught up with the hare.Ballack scored two for the turtles and the hares managed only one.Avram Grant was heard saying at the end"I think we can win the title. In sport, you need to be optimistic. The spirit and courage of the players was great."That sounds like a coach who is surprised by how good his turtles have done.It remains to be seen if the rest of the story plays out like the fable.

Oliver Kahn will say goodbye at the City of Joy. He will play his last professional match for Bayern Munich before an expected 1.25 lakh spectators against Mohan Bagan Club on 27th May, 2008 at Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata. Mohun Bagan would confer honorary life membership on Kahn to mark the day.More on that story here..

Photo of Blatter grimacing as he is rapped on the knuckles of his left hand by the European Commission for being sneaky.He has apparently been making devious attempts at bypassing EU labour laws by trying to reach deals with national associations at FIFA's annual congress next month to limit teams to five foreign nationals on the pitch.
The European Commission has warned FIFA not to seek "gentleman's agreements" to limit foreign players at soccer clubs, which risk costly court cases like the Bosman ruling.
"EU laws are superior to any such gentleman's agreements," an official at the EU executive familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday - shortly after he had finished whacking Blatter on the knuckles..!.More here..

An own goal on the hour from Lucio cancelled out Franck Ribery's first-half opener and Zenit St Petersburgh (the "dark horses" of the tournament) held favourites Bayern Munich to a 1 -1 draw at the first leg of the UEFA Cup semifinal.

If this is real it's unreal

Inspite of all those legendary sharpshooting skills he missed the proverbial sitting duck - a stationary target that was about eleven paces away.And after that Manchester had to be united in defence for most of the game.

Adidas's new global ad campaign features personalities like David Beckham, Steven Gerrard and José Mourinho, visiting some of the world's smallest footballing nations, including the Isle of Scilly's two-team league.Mourinho does the speaking in the video basically telling youngsters to dream big and follow their dream.Can't argue with that.

John Arne Riise scored an own goal in the 95th minute - seconds before the whistle was blown to end the match - and so Chelsea escaped at Anfield with a 1-1 tie in the first leg of their series.

There's a competition of sorts called the Carlsberg Goal of the Day poll, euro2008.com going on over here....The last round involved voting for the best volleyed goal from the following three.
1. Marco van Basten's spectacular effort for the Netherlands against the USSR in the final of Euro 1988 .See video
2. Marc Overmars' volley for the Netherlands against Yugoslavia at EURO 2000. See video
3. Ronnie Whelan's goal for the Republic of Ireland against the Soviet Union in Euro 1988.See video
And the winner - Marco Van Basten.
The next leg of the competition will involve choosing between these three brilliant goals.
1. Johan Cruyff's solo effort for the Netherlands against Belgium in the 1976 UEFA European Championship quarter-finals.
2.Karel Poborský against Portugal at EURO '96 and
3. Kim Vilfort in the EURO '92 final defeat of Germany. The goals can be viewed here..

Ashley Young helped Aston Villa give Birmingham a 5-1 hammering at Villa Park.He scored two goals and had a significant part to play in two others.

The world record for the worst self goal ever scored in a game also goes to a game between the same two teams.Take a look at that here..

No its not.Its Adolfo Cambiaso - an Argentine polo player, considered the best in the world and one of the few players with a 10-goal handicap, which he reached at the record age of 17.Here he showing us an equestrian version of Cristiano Ronaldo's fiendish ball jugglery. Incredible!!.All he needs to do now is to teach his horse to do stepovers and the resemblance will be uncanny...!

They have managed just one win in their last eight games after being Champions in 2005 and 2006.Here's what the Guardian is saying...
"Two years ago, the most beautiful team on the planet. Champions of Europe, champions of Spain. Blessed with the world's finest footballer. More adventurous, more skilful, more exciting and more successful than anyone else. Remember them? Well, visit a few moments of Barça's recent history and prepare to be shocked."
And to add to the gloom and doom their most recent game against Espanyol hasn't done much to improve things.It ended in a goaless draw.

...two minutes from the final whistle.Chelsea's dream is slip sliding away.Man U - three points ahead of them now will be the champions on April 26th if they win that game.Grant needs to look in his hat to see if there's anything there he can pull out.

..and then here's the real Capello at the Maseru Club Field in the remote country of Lesotho, Southern Africa - at a program which aims to use the popularity of football to tackle HIV in Africa by combining tournaments with testing.

Chelsea climbed to within two points of Manchester United, but Avram Grant delivered a bizarre press conference at which he was tongue tied most of the time.

Nakamura set the stage for a high voltage game with this bit of swerving devilry.

Juan Manuel Mata and Alexis Ruano helped Valencia go 2 -0 up in 12 minutes.Getafe were beaten 3-1 in the Copa del Rey final at the Vicente Calderon Stadium in Madrid on Wednesday.Esteban Granero scored for Getafe with a penalty at the end of the first half.Substitute Fernando Morientes headed home Valencia's third and decisive goal with six minutes left.

The EUROSCHOOLS 2008 involves schools across Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein learning about all 53 UEFA member associations. Each school participating must adopt a nation, find out about it during the academic year and then represent it in a series of special football tournaments, played with an accent on Fair Play and culminating in a final in Innsbruck in June. Ganz, whose school is in Bern, wrote: "Football is not only a game, an art and a battle on the grass. The EUROSCHOOLS 2008 project gives our school a platform to get to know football better in all its different facets. EURO cannot and will not just go by without leaving a mark on us."

All the goals from a see saw 4 -3 encounter between Chivas USA and Columbus Crew.The second goal from Sasha Kljestan was a beaut- scored from all of 25 yards or more.The game ended with the Crew winning 4-3, but only after first losing a 3-1 advantage.Crew coach Sigi Schmid said "I don't know if my heart can take all of them like this.Everybody should be made to watch this on TV and then say soccer is not exciting." MLS updates here and here

That is the nickname of a Harrogate wine merchant - Ian Skinner.He is part of the english team participating in the Seniors World Cup (SWC). Others in the amateur team of middle-aged Yorkshiremen, include a bank manager, two builders, and a driver for a sausage-making firm.The combined age of the team is more than 500 years !
Paul Bell - a chocolate company executive and the team's manager says "We haven't got Beckham or Rooney but we're tough and can go the distance."The series takes place in Bangkok .It is the third SWC but the first England have entered.They play Iran next week and Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates later.
The void created by the absence of the English team at Euro 2008 has been filled at the last minute by the Harrogate Veterans FC.Go veterans go.....!

There's an article in the independent comparing Chelsea's dogged pursuit of Manchester United to the fable of the hare and the tortoise.The tortoise won that race primarily because the hare took a nap in the middle of the race.Man U look highly unlikely of doing anything of that kind in this race and what's more - our tortoise has gone and drawn its game against Wigan - something no self respecting tortoise should do if it is seriously interested in winning the premier league this season.Video highlights of the tortoise vs Wigan game here....
Poor Avram Grant..The fans gave him a hard time and now no one can remember when he was last seen looking happy about anything.

Hargreaves administering the coup de grâce.Arsenal season is dead and buried.

AC Milan's hopes of claiming a Champions League spot got knocked on the head after Juventus beat them 3-2 in what is being called a spectacular classic.

Marco Ruben scored with two headers against Barcelona.The second one went in but the first did not cross the goalline.The ref however gave both as goals.The game ended in a two all draw and Barcelona - alas - are all but out of the title race.Hawkeye technology supporters have a good reason now to get back to baying for blood.

The Swiss Army are sending a team for EURO 2008.The team is made up of about 15,000 troops who will provide assistance to police and security services in the host cities.
Military personnel at the finals will help out with tasks such as logistics, constructing and dismantling structures, security work and aerial surveillance.
Other preparations include fan friendly road signs for those who can't read the local language,a new snazzy red Euro Tram to get you from point A to point B and a lift on restrictions on night flying.

Getafe played all but six minutes of the game with 10 men.Cosmin Contra had put them ahead with a fanatastic solo goal just before half-time, but Bayern midfielder Franck Ribery equalised in the 88th minute.
Goals from Francisco Casquero and substitute Braulio put Getafe back on top to 3-1 up within three minutes of the extra time.But can you believe this?For the second time in a week 2 goals (both by Luca Toni ) were scored in the last 5 minutes of the game to see the scores levelled and Bayern scrape through on the away goals rule.Well who said life has to be fair ...

Daniele De Rossi sending the ball into orbit in Roma's most recent loss to Man .

Here are 5 more youtube videos of similar disasters in the past.

Manchester United played like champions to go through to the semifinals 3 - 0 on aggregate.

Barcelona scraped a 1-0 win against Schalke .Goal video here..

Liverpool scored two late goals in the six-goal thriller.Theo Walcott produced a bit of magic and helped Adeyabor make it 2-2 with only five minutes to go.But two goals from Steven Gerrard and Ryan Babel after that took the game away from them.Take a look...

Remember the Euro balloon?Well it won the race - the 4th International Balloon race in Geneva that is.Now that that's over we can get back to other important things - like who is going to get into the Champion's league semis.Barcelona and Man U should get there but the other side of the equation is anybodys guess.Arsenal - third time lucky?Why Liverpool will win.Chelsea without Petr Cech gives Fenerbahce an edge.

Porto secured their third successive Portuguese Liga title on Saturday with a 6-0 thrashing of Amadora.Porto broke a club record by claiming the Portuguese Liga title with five matches to spare.No Porto side had ever taken the title with five games to spare before.

Wayne Rooney would be the hero of the day because he scored the late equaliser that ended the game at 2 goals each but Ronaldo started things off with his 37th goal of the season.Enough of Ronaldo bashing then.

Nicklas Bendtner leveled for Arsenal in the 54th minute after Peter Crouch put Liverpool ahead in the 42nd.

This diving header from João Pinto's against England in EURO 2000 was the overwhelming winner in the vote for the best headed goals of past finals by euro2008.com users.This effort from Henrik Larsson against Bulgaria in 2004 got second place.

Did you know that UEFA EURO 2008 has an official balloon shaped in the form of the Henri Delaunay trophy ?Well its true and the trophy shaped balloon is flying over the international Hot Air Balloon Festival in Geneva between 3 and 6 April.
The balloon is accompanying the EURO Experience Tour, which is visiting 13 cities in Switzerland and Austria from late January to the end of June in order to get fans and residents in the mood for UEFA EURO 2008. By the end of its journey, the 34.5 metre-tall hot air balloon will have travelled a total of 30,000km. Pretty good for a balloon I guess.You can follow that story here..

Deivid went from zero to hero after scoring self goal and then a truly spectacular winner (video) in that order.Fenerbahce came from behind to stun Chelsea with a 2-1 victory in the first leg of their Champions League quarter final.For those like me who did not know this before -Fenerbahce Spor Kulubu is situated on the Asian side of the Bosphorus and is the only club in the competition from outside Europe
Turkish Delight turned to total despair for Avram Grant and now Chelsea are hanging on to their Champions League ambitions by a thread."I don't know what to say," he said.That more or less sums it up.
Highlights below..

Match report...

Ronaldo (fantastic header) and Rooney left Roma in ruins.Only the goals below.Longer highlights here...