SoccerBlog.com

Michael Owen: A dud or Sir Alex's shrewdest move?

2009-07-04T06:25:35Z

Michael Owen becomes Sir Alex's special project. I think the signing needs to viewed in the context of a manager having won everything that needs to be won, setting up yet another challenge for himself.

On the day Sarah Palin shocked the US political establishment announcing her resignation as Alaska governor in typically rambling style, Sir Alex rocked the football world by signing a player who burst onto the scene like a supernova 13 years ago but injuries and loss of form have slowed his stellar trajectory. Michael Owen is now on his third big comeback if his Liverpool days are the yardstick to measure success by. The debate is heating up the forums: Is Owen a realistic choice or is Sir Alex whistling in the wind?

This move comes on the heels of some very big names leaving Man Utd and some equally big names touted as potential replacements snubbing the club. So what has changed all of a sudden that makes Man Utd, the epicenter of English football so unattractive to marquee players? Sir Alex did not want nor wait to find out.

In Owen's case a theme emerges. The effects of injury early in one's career are often times hidden by the resilience and remarkable recuperative powers of youth.

Owen's phenomenal productivity came despite early signs that he was less than durable. He began his Liverpool career with two great seasons but a hamstring injury bought his second season to an abrupt end. His third season was even more abbreviated as the same injury persisted. At 19 his youth proved a factor in his successful rehabilitation as he enjoyed his best year at Liverpool in 2001 as the Merseysiders won almost everything except the Premiership.

In effect we can compare the two seasons when he played injured for Liverpool and a similar number of matches when he played relatively injury free for Newcastle to find out the effect on productivity.

Liverpool Newcastle

1998-1999: 30 matches, 18 goals 2007-2008: 29 matches, 11 goals
1999-2000: 27 matches, 11 goals 2008-2009: 27 matches, 9 goals

The numbers indicate that Owen in his Liverpool days even while injured was likely to score more compared to his fuller seasons in Newcastle. With age, recuperative powers wane and it takes longer to rehabilitate. When you have the varied injuries that Owen has picked up in quick succession, these can have a cumulative effect on the speed and predatory instincts that make him such an effective striker. Owen also subjects his body to more wear and tear with his work rate. But supporters will also point out that the numbers still remain good.

Every time he is injured it becomes longer for him to achieve match fitness. A list of varied injuries and ailments that Owen has suffered: Hamstring injuries, a series of thigh injuries, metatarsal fracture, a torn anterior cruciate ligament, concussion, double hernia, mumps, and a calf strain. The ACL was particularly aggravating because Owen lost a year after the 2006 World Cup which is where he suffered the injury and the FA had to compensate Newcastle to the tune of £10 million.

It is left to Sir Alex to figure out the criteria for Owen's success. If he can score 5-10 goals in about 25+ appearances, then this would be hailed as a great move. Man Utd's speedier game might enable an instinctive player like him to flourish again. It will also be interesting to follow the dynamics between Rooney and Owen. The two players will be team mates but Owen could look at this as an opportunity to compete for the English squad which has been a shutout because Capello's first choice remains Rooney. Healthy competition could help goalscoring. A note here, this signing is being compared to Sir Alex's shrewd use of Teddy Sheringham. I think this is more a reflection of Sheringham who probably possessed one of the highest football IQs to remain relevant even while his heydays had bypassed him.

Salary cap talk gathers momentum

2009-07-03T12:22:42Z

Michel Platini again went on the record to air his disbelief at Real's profligate spending after the club signed Karim Benzema.

Then Arsenal's CEO, Ivan Gazidis channeling his MLS experience talked up the advantages of introducing the salary cap.

He referred admiringly to Germany's Bundesliga - "the only profitable league," he said- which has tight restrictions on the debts clubs can carry, and insists they live within their means.

Platini also revealed that salary cap restrictions were on the table. The details were yet to be worked out but it would still take two to three years to implement. With Real already forking out £180 million in transfer fees and showing no signs of letting up and City offering Samuel Eto'o £200,000 per week in wages there might be a new sense of urgency to establish some balance quickly in the football world.

It might soon be Liga 4 EPL 0: Ribery to Real

2009-07-03T12:14:28Z

Real is preparing an offer for Bayern that will pry away the twinkle toed French midfielder.

The man himself has said it is Real or no go. Chelsea and Man Utd are left by the wayside yet again.

Sir Alex's shock weapon: Owen to join Man Utd

2009-07-03T11:50:58Z

Michael Owen is getting ready to join Man Utd. Yes, did your jaw drop?

The perennially crocked striker's contract with Newcastle is set to expire this Tuesday and he will come to Old Trafford on a free transfer. It looks like Sir Alex responded after Karim Benzema spurned the Premier League champions to join Real.

Bryan Robson is a big believer in Owen:

"Michael is a natural goal-scorer and natural goalscorers who can do the business at the highest level are few and far between," Robson told Telegraph Sport in a recent interview."

"I definitely think that he is capable of being a Champions League striker because he's only 29 and he has still plenty of good years left in him yet."

Sir Alex seems to have become Sam Allardyce, a manager with a reputation of staffing his squads with older and injured players. I am a big fan of Owen but the man has never had an injury free season in years. Even if this is a free transfer, having Owen in the club might prove to be more of a media event then the ex-Liverpool player contributing anything more meaningful.

No wonder goalkeepers go crazy..

2009-07-03T08:39:42Z

A defender from Ham Kam ( a Norwegian club) clearly demonstrates why goalkeepers eventually end up going crazy.

>> SoccerBlog.com EXCLUSIVE ADIDAS offer: Step into Messi's Shoes!

Ronaldo takes Corinthians to another title..

2009-07-03T08:32:07Z

Ronaldo took some time off his busy Godzilla playing schedule to help Corinthians win the Copa do Brasil on aggregate after a 2-2 draw with Internacional in Porto Alegre on Wednesday. This is the second title won by them with Ronaldo on the squad, the first one being the Paulista State Championship.

>> SoccerBlog.com EXCLUSIVE ADIDAS offer: Step into Messi's Shoes!

In Florentino Perez's era the days of Quinta del Buitre are but quaint memories

2009-07-03T00:04:38Z

Emilio Butragueno and the legendary 80's teams that relied on homegrown talent

Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas might be excused if they feel a bit lonely nowadays when the national squad visits other countries. They are the only Real representation that the Spanish national team can count on to make regular appearances.

They can choose to join a bunch of Barca players like Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, and Pique to whoop it up. Or maybe they find more comfort with Joan Capdevila, Santi Cazorla, Diego Lopez, or Marcos Senna that comprise the Villareal contingent. Maybe Liverpool's duo Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso share jokes with them about Rafa Benitez's obsession with notepads and Sir Alex. Either way they are a vanishing breed as a Real squad adds on foreign players at such an alarming rate one wonders whether it is Madrid that is now the hotbed of Spanish anti-nationalism.

When Spain lost to the USA in the Confederations Cup and halted their unstoppable reign, there were visible undercurrents on the internet that the two players who made the most visible blunders were Iker Casillas who failed to stop Jozy Altidore and Sergio Ramos who flubbed a simple clearance and handed Clint Dempsey the second goal on a platter. The national media situated in Madrid played it down for good reasons. Damage control. Real is increasingly looked on as a club that understands only one language; to win a title by all means possible, and if it means buying their way to one, so be it.

Under Miguel Munoz, Real Madrid won their 6th European cup title in 1966 beating FC Partizan with an all Spanish cast as legendary captain Francisco Gento led a team whose only foreign inspiration seems to have been derived from the Beatles " She Loves You" as they were called the Ye- Ye's from the song's chorus. Other than that there was no doubting the lineage of Jose Araquistain, Manuel Sanchis, Pachin, Pedro De Felipe, Amancio Amaro, Pirri, Zoro, Serena, Velasquez, and Grosso. Most of them made the transition to national squad representation as they became part of the all conquering Real teams of the 60s.

Fast forward to the 80s, as Miguel Munoz promoted to the national squad manages the 1984 Euro squad which ended with Spain as runners up to France. Emilio Butragueno was on the squad but never saw any playing time. He however was part of a Real squad that saw Jose Antonio Camacho, Santillana, and Ricardo Gallego do duty for a Spanish side which for the first time in decades translated all that talent into any meaningful success.

However Butragueno's ordination was but a matter of time. He bursts onto the international scene in the 1986 World Cup with his four goals leading Spain to their best finish since their fourth place finish in the 1950 World Cup. Munoz's squad aside from Butragueno, boasts six other Madrid players with almost the entire defense sporting the Merengues label.

The 1986 World Cup proved to be a springboard for Butragueno to cement his place in Madrid history as the most dominant member of a group of five players: Quinta del Buitre; the staple of Real's homegrown football talent who first cut their teeth at Real Madrid Castilla and then transitioned to the senior squad. With that nucleus Real dominated club football and provided players for national squad duty. It was an era set in motion a few years earlier by legend Alfredo Di Stefano who debuted Manuel Sanchis and Martin Vasquez against Murcia on December 4th, 1983. It ended when Manuel Sanchis retired on July 31, 2001. By that time Butragueno had appeared 341 times for Real and scored 123 goals. He had earned 69 caps for Spain, scoring 26 times. Along with him, the other four were:

Michel, the right wing back with over 400 appearances, Manuel Sanchis, taking over the center back position and leadership role from his illustrious father to record the most appearances in Real history, Martin Vasquez an attacking understudy to Hugo Sanchez, Real's most influential import at that time, and Miguel Pardeza, the forward returning as sporting director of Real, who most reminds Florentino Perez of those heady days when a group of homegrown talent were ascendant winning five championships and two UEFA titles. Their total cost probably amounts to a fraction of a fraction of what the four biggest signings have already cost Real this season.

Quinta del Buitre also saw the rise of two players outside of that group, first Fernando Hierro and then Raul Gonzalez who became national talismans with their club and international contributions. Raul, the Adonis of Spanish football with the most goals for the national team and Hierro, the defensive midfielder who partnered Manuel Sanchis and became the captain once he retired. Between the two of them they managed close to 200 national squad appearances and 73 goals. Hierro left before Florentino Perez's Galactico era transformed Real, for the relative anonymity of Bolton where he became a fan favourite in a brief but stellar career. He retired in 2005 much against public opinion.

The Euro 2008 success which finally saw Spain make good on all that talent was built around Marcos Senna, Villareal's holding midfielder, Xavi and Andres Iniesta, Barca's midfield maestros, David Silva, Valencia's quick silver left winger, Mallorca's Dani Guiza as the super sub, and Fernando Torres, Liverpool's golden haired center forward who contemptuously flicked aside Phillip Lahm on his way to scoring the winning goal for Spain against Germany in the finals. Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas were solid without being newsworthy.

Real's decline in national squad contribution continues as reserve standouts like Esteban Granero, Ruben De La Red, Javi Garcia, and Alvaro Negredo have moved on to other clubs due to the lack of starting opportunities. Some like Garcia have returned only to be frozen out by the influx of high priced foreign talent that have taken over Real's roster. The situation only promises to get worse under Florentino Perez. It is ironical to see Raul Albiol being brought in as Real capitalizes on Valencia's financial difficulties while so many of its own players struggle for playing opportunities.

Adidas- So who needs a football anyway ?

2009-07-02T07:08:36Z

>> SoccerBlog.com EXCLUSIVE ADIDAS offer: Step into Messi's Shoes!

Liga 3 EPL 0: Benzema signs with Real

2009-07-02T03:52:59Z

The tectonic plates that underpin global football moved and moved precipitously towards Real Madrid one again.

Another 35 million euros shelled out, this time to Lyon for the services of Karim Benzema. The French striker becomes the fourth player to sign up in the Florentino Perez era joining Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Raul Albiol. As for Man Utd, they will have to look elsewhere. Its hard to say this, as a Gunners fan, I have developed a feeling of camarederie with our nemesis. Only in relation to Real. We all should.

A monstrous travesty is unfolding in the world. We ask a simple question. We ask for shame. When does going after a title cross the bounds?

This goes for the most dyed in the wool Madrid fan. Calciopoli type of illegal match fixing is excluded. We point a finger at Chelsea as a prime example of excess but the amounts that Florentino Perez has been forking out has rendered this quaint. Real unlike Chelsea was always in the forefront of Spanish football even before Perez's first cash stuffed venture attracted worldwide attention and skyrocketed the prices of footballers in a domino effect not just in the big European leagues but everywhere else.

Man City has been gearing up to do the same. There might be a modicum of sympathy there because Man City has struggled to maintain a foothold in the premier league whereas even in Real's relatively few dark moments, this was never the problem. But such grace is short lived if the club is looked on as a high priced poacher of talent elsewhere.

More than this untrammeled lust for a title what Perez is doing has far reaching consequences in his own country's footballing traditions. It can be argued that he just proved himself the worst enemy of the cantera, the storied Spanish practice of producing homegrown talent that has enriched club and country. A talented player like Esteban "El Pirata" Granero who is desirous of coming back to his club will think twice with Kaka, Ronaldo, and Benzema on this squad. With Ribery yet to be pried away, Granero knows whatever chances he had are slowly being snuffed out. Yes, Granero's presence benefits Getafe, his present club but that is not what the canteras were supposed to do. They act as bulwarks in this crazy lopsided world that has become football. That I think is the real tragedy. It calls for a fuller article which I will try and attempt but this is when real (pun partially intended) journalism should write about the actual consequences of Perez's motives.

Antonio Valencia to Man Utd: Very different from Ronaldo

2009-07-01T12:49:00Z

Sir Alex has to rebuild his Man Utd team. When players like Ronaldo and Tevez leave, rebuilding is probably an appropriate term to use.

He started that process when he signed Wigan's star Antonio Valencia. There have been immediate comparisons to Ronaldo which are natural given the circumstances but the two players have very intrinsic differences.

The Ecuadorian striker is very quick, possesses great ball control, works hard, and can lash a ball from distance. Like Ronaldo, he loves taking on defenders one to one although he lacks some of the Portugese pizazz.

Unlike Ronaldo who could cut in from either flank or operate as the sole striker, Valencia's role is more circumscribed. He operates more like a winger opening the game wide right which limits his versatility.

The greatest departure from Ronaldo however is that Valencia struggles to provide an exclamation point to all the ball possession. Seven goals in 83 Wigan appearances should put to rest Ronaldo like comparisons. At Wigan, Heskey and Amr Zaki as the centerforwards, scored far more goals than Valencia. So he is not going to give the 20+ goals that Sir Alex might be looking to per season. But that is not his strength.

Valencia's greatest gift, the amount of attention he draws when he is on the ball provides an opportunity for Sir Alex to give back Rooney his role as front line striker. Over the years the Everton prodigy who first attracted attention because of his goalscoring exploits has increasingly been marginalized to deeper areas with Ronaldo's output putting everyone else to shade. With Valencia peeling away defenders Rooney and Berbatov could be left open for goal scoring opportunities. This needs to be a tactical decision because Rooney's natural inclination seems to be where the ball is. Which is often times not the best place to be to score goals.

Match practice at Old Trafford will be very interesting this season as a new set of players join and roles get defined or in Rooney's case reclaimed. We should see a spike in his goal scoring tally.

Starting young...

2009-07-01T11:22:24Z

Some of us will remember that it was either Confucius or Lao Tzu who said ,"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".Here's Ronaldo during one of those those early steps of his journey.

>> SoccerBlog.com EXCLUSIVE ADIDAS offer: Step into Messi's Shoes!

Roadblock on the road to South Africa...

2009-07-01T01:52:25Z

Even as Blatter praised all and sundry and said that SA were 75% ready for World Cup 2010 a roadblock has reared it's ugly head....
South Africa's biggest union said on Tuesday 50,000 construction workers would launch a strike over pay from next Wednesday, halting work across the economy including on stadiums for the 2010 soccer World Cup. That doesn't sound like good news for the remaining 25%

>> SoccerBlog.com EXCLUSIVE ADIDAS offer: Step into Messi's Shoes!

Some pernicious themes that undermine the US team

2009-06-30T12:55:55Z

An international conspiracy:

John Harkes in the Brazil vs USA final said at one point that US defenders will have to be careful with their tackles given how the referees have been carding them. The Italy match got the ball rolling on that controversy. Thereafter, it was a cumulative process as the US picked up their share of yellows and reds generating a buzz that FIFA did not want to see the US succeed against the bigger teams. The Brazil match should bury that. The Seleccao were carded more often.

Here is a stat that the US should be most concerned about: It is a team with questionable ball control. Of the semi-finalists, the USA passed the ball the least and were least successful in holding onto it. The South Africans made 2389 passes completing them 76% of the times. Spain was even better with 3229 passes and an 81% success rate. Winners Brazil passed 2077 times with a 79% completion rate. The US was way below on the possession index with fewer passes, 1824 passes for a poor 60% completion rate.

In short, the passing was infrequent AND even more tellingly, ineffective. When you take a lead, you also have to hold onto the ball to make it possible to win. The US failed to do that even as they led the four teams in shot accuracy.

So before assigning any international conspiracy which has a nice emotive feel consider these stats. Bob Bradley and his training staff would be better off concentrating on this aspect of the game rather than getting distracted by some unproven plot.

The "we let one get away" theme:

This has been peddled not just by pundits but also by Bradley and Dempsey. Again it has a nice emotive tug. It gives the impression that the US team let the Brazilians back into the game when they had them on the ropes. If you take away the two scoring opportunities which the US did very well to capitalize on, Julio Cesar was otherwise work free. On the other hand Tim Howard had to deal with 31 goal attempts, 13 of them on target. Under such a torrid barrage, it was a matter of when the citadel would finally fall, not if. As mentioned above with the possession stats, the Brazilians swamped the US with superior ball control and the US coughed it up more quickly making it harder for them to maintain the lead.

The two themes muddy what clearly should be obvious. The passing game needs lots of work. You might be able to bury some teams with effective strikes but sooner or later this fundamental flaw will be exposed by superior and more resilient teams.

Godzilla was actually Ronaldo..

2009-06-30T12:00:53Z

Fat Ronaldo has a secret identity.Usually the superpowered version has an inconspicous human identity - like Superman is Clark Kent .In this case it's the other way around.The inconspicous Godzilla is actually the super powered Ronaldo...!
Incontestable proof attached......

and see what happens when he jumps after scoring a goal.We all know he has to lose weight- but this is taking things a bit too far...!

And while we are on the subject here's Xavi bashing the other Ronaldo - saying things like "I wouldn't want him here.At Barça, we do not have room for players who fill gossip magazines. We are hard workers and sportsmen but he, on the other hand, is uncontrollable. We have a lot of desire to continue winning."
Hmmm ..maybe if he knew that the thin Ronaldo was actually - but wait - that secret is not out yet.

>> SoccerBlog.com EXCLUSIVE ADIDAS offer: Step into Messi's Shoes!

Is Thierry Henry contemplating a MLS move?

2009-06-30T05:34:16Z

2011 could be an important year for the MLS. Thierry Henry says he sees spending two more years at Barca and then he would like to move to the USA to join the Red Bulls.

"Could I play for New York at some point? It could be possible in 2011."

"You never know but the truth is it is an option that could be likely."

Yes, those Red Bulls who are plumb in last position. Surely this is the best news they have received all season. C'mon, win some matches now for the next two years. Don't leave everything for Titi.