Chelsea got their names into the record books by conceding the fastest goal in FA Cup final history and then went on to beat Everton 2-1 to give Guus Hiddink his farewell present.
FA Cup Final Chelsea Vs Everton 2-1 Highlights 30.05.2009. - Free videos are just a click away
Juve shows it means business. Today, it went some distance in filling its creative lacuna.
Diego, the Brazilian playmaker joins the squad from Werder on a five year contract worth €24.5m.
The midfielder who began his career at Santos, made his way to FC Porto as a replacement for Deco, and finally found his goalscoring abilities at Werder. He made 84 appearances and scored 38 goals.
Werder has some cash leftover for a quality playmaker. Paging Misimovic.
El Pais has a fascinating article (it is in Spanish) about Barca's manager.
He is obsessive, intelligent, passionate, a legend in a legendary city.
His impeccable sartorial style comes from his companion, Cristina Serra, whose family runs a well known boutique. She has cultivated the couple's interest in photography, travel, and reading.
His mother shows a photo of a small boy who was declared the best player in a football tournament but cried when he received his trophy because he had missed a penalty.
That was in 1986. Guardiola went onto win 18 honours with Barcelona as a player, including 6 La Liga titles and a CL championship. By that time he established himself as one of the most important players in Johan Cruyff's dream team. A legend in Camp Nou. Injuries cut his Barca days short and he left in 2001 for a brief stint with Brecia and AS Roma.
By all accounts it was a disaster, with very few appearances because of injuries, and worse still, testing positive for nandrolone. It led to a four month ban. In a measure of his obsessive personality, Guardiola fought to clear his name with a single mindedness for 6 years till the charges were finally dropped in 2007.
Xavi, a Barca product talks about how Guardiola's playing style influenced his own: He was the most mentally agile player in the Barca team. He would see the play before it had developed. "It seemed he had an eye on back of the neck, all the while turning the head, as if it had mirrors."
As a manager, Xavi says that Guardiola has little idea of how intensely he lives and breathes the game. "Es un enfermo del fútbol." Yet strangely, this intensity does not make him a despot as he remains first and foremost a friend to all his players. Football is a fast game and it needs clarity of communication. Guardiola has proved himself a very effective communicator. His success with Barca's B team leading them out of the third tier to the second within a year of joining up convinced Txiki Beguiristain, the sports director and Joan Laporta, the club president to appoint him as successor to Frank Rijkaard in 2008. He now lies at the gates of attaining a treble.
He has Barca in his marrow. A product of La Masia, Barca's youth training facility that shaped the careers of Carlos Puyol, Victor Valdez, Leo Messi and Andres Iniesta, who form the fulcrum of the club's success. An iconic figure to all the children from his neighborhood of Santpedor, who aspire to be the next number four. Guardiola's number.
Guardiola, Celades, Milla: All quality holding midfielders, a unique Barcelona tradition passed down to the present team; to Xavi, Iniesta (who started as one), and Busquets.
Link: 
Man Utd once again crested the pinnacle. Arsenal played a much improved game and at moments looked threatening but Utd was far too strong defensively to let this game go. The draw was enough for the Premiership title.
RVP had Arsenal's best chance of the match. It should have been a sure goal but he mistimed the header and the ball went sailing harmlessly over the crossbar. Its been a frustrating season for him with injuries and a loss of form. Fabianski was solid, snuffing out Ronaldo and Tevez's dangerous moves in the box. At the opposite end, Rooney could have put Man Utd ahead but his header missed the near post by inches. The Gunners piled on the pressure in the last quarter of the match with Fabregas coming close as his shot hit the woodwork but finally time ran out.
Tevez was substituted and the Argentinian walked off with Old Trafford chanting his name calling Sir Alex to keep him in the club. He could not have asked for a better vote of confidence.
It was Man Utd's 18th title, 11 of them Premiership, and they now equal Liverpool's record. Rafa Benitez can live in a world of denial but the fact is that their challenge came to an end today.
Congratulations to Man Utd. Once again the club as its wont, overcame moments of doubt, pulling themselves up, through sheer force of character and desire, to win. I have to say as integral as Ronaldo is to the club's success, it is Wayne Rooney who is the fiercest spirit of them all.
The match was held held in memory of the 96 people who died as a result of the Hillsborough disaster.The Liverpool Legends, comprising ex-Liverpool footballers, beat the All Stars, captained by actor Ricky Tomlinson 3 -1.
Ian Rush, John Aldridge and Kenny Dalglish scored, with Teddy Sheringham hitting one for the All Stars.
Even George Steinbrenner in his heydays could never match Ramon Calderon in his contemptuous disregard of managers. Exhibit A is Fabio Capello who actually won them the Liga in 2007 after Fiorentina Perez's expensive set of superstars went three seasons without a title. The Italian with his unimaginative style but effective style of soccer was fired even as Juande Ramos, the present coach emulates his approach.
Bernd Schuster became Capello's replacement largely because of his heroics in getting Getafe, a perpetually under rated team to the 2007- 2008 UEFA Cup after humiliating Barcelona, 4-0 in the second leg of the Copa Del Rey semi-final. He joined Calderon's Real paying out of pocket to break his contract. Under him Real got back on track playing attractive and attacking soccer after Capello's defensive dourness and they won the 2007 Liga. This set up the off season conflagration with Man Utd over Cristiano Ronaldo. The 2008 season began with Robinho, a prime mover in the Liga success making his dramatic move to the Premiership.
In the end, for all his Kaa like efforts, Calderon was unable to beguile Ronaldo to Real. The one track mission proved dear as the club did not land any other notable players like Villa, Fabregas, or Cazorla. Schuster in essence was shafted. A bad loss to Valencia at the Bernabeu had the media chattering. Then came his fifth column moment when he went public stating in essence Real would never beat Barcelona in the Clasico. That was the end. He was terminated last December. He left the club quietly until now.
He calls Ramon Calderon "Gomina" which is hair gel in Spanish. I think he means a slick shyster. He defends his so called traitorous moment by saying that he wanted to motivate his players against Barcelona. He was never given the players he was promised because of Calderon's all consuming pursuit of Cristiano Ronaldo.
It is easy to see why Schuster became a favourite of Maradona. They are larger than life personalities who never hold their tongue when going up against authority. Real might be running a steadier ship under Juande Ramos last seen struggling with self esteem issues under Daniel Levy at Tottenham but with Barca running away with the Liga title and Real crashing out of the CL, there is talk that his days are numbered. Now we have Senna imploring Wenger not to join Real.
Ramon Calderon should be exiled in the Island of Elba.
The last time Robert Pires played for the Gunners was in the 2006 CL semi-final against Villareal.
He was substituted by Wenger following Lehmann's red card. It was a defining moment in his career. Now he faces fans that remember him fondly from those wonderful seasons of sublime football that he gave to the club that he still loves.
Pires says that if he scores a goal, he will not celebrate in deference to the club and its fans, who have meant so much to him.
A bit of a jaunt down memory lane. It reminds us of Pires amazing finishing abilities, of an Arsenal that provided an exclamation point to all that intricate play.
Something to restore your faith in the human race.A magnificent piece of fair play from debutant midfielder Costin Lazar of Romania.He did the unbelievable.When awarded a penalty in last week’s win over Otelul Galati in the 63rd minute he refused and told the ref that the challenge by the defender was fair.
Rare moments like these make me wonder where we lost this - the ability to just play a game fairly.Something very precious is lost and Costin Lazar just reminded us about it.
It is almost certain that Maradona will not be taking part in a gay pride parade anytime soon and Pele will not be in the forefront asking for a repeal of Rockefeller era drug laws.
The latest edition of Celebrity deathmatch features Maradona vs Pele as each outdo the other for the title of the most consequential sportsperson of the world. Pele's aspirations included running for president of Brazil when Maradona's was keeping his mind from getting addled through booze and drugs in sun drenched Napoli. An effort he had as much success at as Titus Bramble from scoring an own goal. Maradona's road to recovery is a well documented hell with near death situations and many hospitalizations. It is a story with many endings. Unfortunately, it has also left Maradona vulnerable to moral adjudication, the type Pele just engaged in.
Comparisons are odious. It was a cheap shot on Pele's part bringing up Maradona's drug history and then name Beckenbauer, Kaka, and Platini as ideal role models. Pele might have been projecting as his son Edinho faces charges of drug trafficking and addiction.
It must stick Pele in his craw that he remains largely (pun unintended) in the news peddling erectile dysfunction drugs. His rival revels in the attention and adulation of millions who look to him to carry Argentina to a place they have not been in for more than two decades. Maradona responded with an old debunked bath house slur.
Pele needs to take a chill pill.
Enzo Zidane having lived for 8 out of the 14 years of his young life in Madrid is going to play for the Spain under 15 team.
Give France a chance or be Spain's gain ?
That's a tough choice to make at 14.
On 5 September 2008, Senegal met Algeria at the Mustapha Tchaker Stadium in a World Cup qualifier. In the 81st minute, Cheikh Gueye scored an own goal which leveled the game for Algeria. 7 minutes later, Rafik Saiki stuck a dagger into Senegal by scoring the winner. Algeria won the match.
The own goal proved fateful as Senegal drew Gambia a month later and were eliminated from the World Cup running. If they had drawn Algeria they would have been at the top of the table with 10 points and would have gone to the next round.
Rewind six years ago. The 2002 World Cup was set ablaze as Senegal in its first appearance in the World Cup shocked the reigning World Champions France, 1-0. It then captivated the world with some flowing soccer as it drew Denmark, then withstood a furious onslaught by the Uruguayans to draw again and qualify for the knockout phase. The match against Sweden went into overtime and Henry Camara delivered the golden goal that sent Senegal to the quarterfinals. The first African country after Cameroun in the 1982 World Cup to do so. The momentum built by their great run in the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal finishing runners up to Cameroun seemingly had carried over to the World Cup.
By that time El Hadji Diouf, Henri Camara, Pape Bouba Diop, and Pape Thiaw had captivated the world with their dynamic and exhilarating display. Diouf was named to the All Star team. They had a look of invincibility. Encomiums from all around the world flowed in and Dakar's streets teamed with revelers. When Metsu's team went up against Turkey, all of Africa's prayers were with the Lions of Teranga. Surely, they would get through. But it was not to be. The game was played without the customary verve by the Senegalese and they lost on a golden goal scored by Ilhan Mansiz.
It was anti climactic. Bruno Metsu was criticized by the press and fans for not substituting his tired players even as he stoutly defended his decisions. Some ex-players like Babacar Louis Camara were exceedingly harsh on him "It is horrible to say it, but we were beaten because of bad coaching."
It appears that they have not recovered from that loss. Senegal failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. Unlike their West African neighbours who have invested robustly in quality infrastructure for their soccer players and proved to be incubators of world class talent, Senegal has been stuck in an apathetic rut. Despite boasting a stable government which sees very little ethnic strife and enjoying more affluence than its neighbors, the neglect in improving conditions is quite remarkable.
Senegal's youth leagues are very poorly organized and there are no dedicated soccer academies like ASEC Mimosas. The country's largest facility, the Leopold Senghor is little more than a dust bowl with no floodlights and broken down dressing rooms. The football federation was little more than a cash cow for its officials and famous for having a testy relationship with the media charged with exposing its corruption. One of its former presidents is under investigation for embezzlement of 66m francs. The Orwellian sounding Committee for the Normalization of Soccer (CNF), the newer version, set up earlier this year after Senegal's dismal 2008 ACN campaign appears to be little interested in anything but more politics.
The early exit of the Senegalese team resulted in rioting fans attacking the CNF headquarters and torching vehicles. The CNF terminated the services of the Lamine Ndiaye, the coach and promptly launched an investigation into the team's failure. The 2002 World Cup success has resulted in an obsession with recycling players like El Hadji Diouf and Henry Camara even as they approach their fading years.
Senegal's shambolic 2008 Africa Cup venture seems to have left a bitter taste as a number of quality players have rejected national squad duty. The list includes Mamadou Niang, L'OM's sharpshooter and Souleymane Diawara, Bordeaux's right back refusing the call up. Demba Ba, one of the brighter sparks partnering Vedad Ibisevic in 1899 Hoffenheim's blistering run has been virtually overlooked.
Aliou Cisse, the captain of the 2002 World Cup team could not have been more prophetic.
"If we do not sort out the problems of Senegalese football and prepare a generation of talented footballers to follow us, I am very scared for the future," Cisse told BBC Sport Online.
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FYI, SoccerBlog endorsed Obama a while back...
Brand resigned today from his BBC radio show following obscene calls left on the phone of Andrew Sachs that spurred outrage. The 78 year old Sachs played Manuel in Fawlty Towers. Russell Brand and Barack Obama are both West Ham fans. Inquiring minds want to know if Obama wants to continue to associate with a known perv who supports the same club.
While serving overseas with the U.S. Army, PFC Mardaras recognized the Iraqi children’s love of soccer, even though they were playing with tin cans and rocks. Madaras asked his family to send him a few balls so he could distribute them to the children in Baqubah; however, he never got the chance to do this.He was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq on Sept. 3, 2006.He was only nineteen years old.
Kick for Nick is a 501 (c) 3 organization developed to keep Nick Madaras’ dream alive by allowing people to donate soccer balls to the children of Iraq.The University of Connecticut men's soccer team brought in a sold out crowd of 4,407 for its BIG EAST Conference game against West Virginia as fans donated over 1,000 used and new soccer balls for Kick for NickTM.
Read more...
Man City's new paymasters live here
In the match that shall be known as the filthy rich clubs with the GDP of a small country derby, Chelsea schooled Man City. But there were some moments of beauty like Robinho's free kick and some great interlinking play that was evocative of a Brazilian heritage which might lead Mark Hughes to don a tie and a thong and make a beeline for the carnaval. Their finishing was a let down though.
So I would be careful in reading too much into the Chelsea win. Round 2 will be very interesting as a number of newly minted players in City's squad would have had more time getting on the same page. I can even imagine some skittish Man fans wondering what is in store for them in their derby. A triumvirate of Brazilian players on the open field against Wes Brown and Van Der Saar. Should be quite a delectable spectacle.
What is the football (soccer) equivalent of Michael Phelps historic 8 medal haul?He has joined the pantheon of sporting legends all right but who in the history of football has done something similar?I wish I could hazard a guess but my knowledge of the history of football just about extends to the fact that I have a vague memory that the last post I posted on this blog was about Fernando Torres scoring a goal for Liverpool.So maybe some pundit will ponder on this query and come up with a satisfactory answer.In the meantime here's a post in the Telegraph that is raising a good few hackles.
Of all the players missing from the Turkish squad, Tuncay Sanli's absence hurts more than others. The Middlesbrough striker has been the catalyst and the motivator par excellence for all the Turkish comebacks.
Against a German side ready to exploit their physical play against the more diminutive Turkish side, Tuncay would have brought his strength and pace to cause problems down the flanks and up the middle. But more than that Tuncay has given 110% to the game, running back all the way to tackle, racing upfield to chase a ball, test the goalie with a sizzling shot, crunch heads with defenders to get to a ball, take corners and free kicks, send in crosses, and even play goalie.
I am not discounting the immense efforts of Adhar Turan, Nihat, Semih, Hamit Altintop, Hakan Balta, and others but Tuncay's impact has been as important as Andrei Arshavin's to the Russian success. Personally, I think he would run Per Mertesacker and Christoph Metzelder ragged. Torsten Frings would probably have to soften him up with fouls to break his rhythm and Philip Lahm would have to chase him down.
All eyes are on Basel in Switzerland as Euro 2008 gets underway in a few hours.Venezuela took the opportunity to slip two goals past Brazil while they were thus distracted.It was the first time that they have ever managed to do anything of that nature - never having won in any of their 17 previous encounters.Giancarlo Maldonado and Ronald Vargas scored the goals and will get their names written into the history books.
Well, Man U should be up 3-0.
Instead, we have them tied at 1-1.
Ronaldo and Rooney looked great on a field-long combination, but blow the chance at goal. Tevez also misses a sitter. Ouch.
Lampard's junk-yard goal at the end keeps Chelsea in the game. Ugly, but effective.
Are these missed opportunities going to come back and haunt Sir Alex in the second half?
The Beeb is liveblogging this rather well >>
51 year old Tommy Burns lost his battle against cancer. Burns spent 15 years as a player at Parkhead, making 352 appearances for the Hoops between 1975 and 1989, scoring 52 goals.
He managed the club for three seasons between 1994 and 1997, winning the 1995 Scottish FA Cup.
Burns played eight times for Scotland between 1981 and 1988.Gordon Strachan leads tributes to Burns..
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.
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....
Corinthians greatest striker will be part of the celebrations
Corinthians, relegated to Division B, play their 5000th game against Braga at the Morumbi today. The club was founded in 1910.
In a special celebration the club will honour its stars. Biro-Biro, Neto, Sócrates, Zé Maria, Tião, Marcelinho Carioca, Geraldão, Basílio, Mauro, Vaguinho, Wilson Mano, Ronaldo, Zenon and Wladimir. Corinthians has the largest following of supporters in Brazil with an estimated 35m fanbase.
Soccerblog writes how Corinthians, the people's club, was the revolutionary vanguard leading the charge against the corruptive influence of the cartelos in Brazilian soccer finally succumbing to the very culture that it previously fought against.
A minute silence was observed by 76,000 fans at Old Trafford before the start of the Manchester derby to honour those killed on Flight 609. It went of without incident, as traveling City fans once feared as spoilers, paid their respects without fuss. They had come to pay homage to one of their own heroes.
Frank Swift, a News of the World reporter was also Man City's goalkeeper from 1933 to 1949 making 376 appearances, winning a FA Cup title in 1934 and a league championship in 1937. He is considered as one of England's finest goalkeepers alongside legends Gordon Banks, Peter Shilton, and David Seaman. He made 19 appearances for England, twice as captain and was the sentinel in a great pre-war team that boasted luminaries like Stanley Matthews, Joe Mercer, Tommy Lawton, Raich Carter, and Jimmy Hagan. His exploits in goal earned him a spot in the 100 League Legends list along with fellow City players Bert Trautmann, Billy Meredith, and Colin Bell.
James Mossop in his tribute to Frank Swift writes:
"Frank Swift was a huge, athletic goalkeeper with a dry, clown's outlook on life, gloveless hands that spread as wide as a tennis racket and who, history tells us, was the best in the world at his job. The huge mitts became custodians of a deft pen as he turned to journalism before dying with seven other writers who had become friends and rivals."
The gentle giant stood 6' tall, weighing 200 lbs, and with a 12'' handspan he easily enveloped the ball with one hand. His looming presence and quick reflexes made life difficult for opposing strikers to score goals.
It was Swift who became the innovator of the long throw out to start an attack rather than the more conventional hoof up the pitch that most keepers of the day used. A technique that dramatically improved possession and jump started quick counter attacks. We now see goalies use it all the time but it was first put to use more than 60 years ago by a Man City legend.
Update: Man Utd lost to City, 1-2.
Well done City fans! They did the right thing by holding their peace and honouring the twenty three, including one of their legends. Maybe Joe Hart imbibed Swift's spirit because he made some great saves. City walked off deserving victors as an enervated and dispirited Utd team left their charge a bit too late, 1-2.
With this penalty, Cameroon's Samuel Eto’o Fils, three-time African Footballer of the Year, scored his 14th cup of nations goal to match the record set by Laurent Pokou of the Ivory Coast back in 1968.
Eto’o has competed at the Cup of Nations for eight years now for Cameroon, his home country, and has won the competition twice. Unfortunately, he missed out on the 2006 World Cup, when Cameroon failed to qualify.
Eto'o has thrilled fans at Barcelona, although he's had to put up with the racism in La Liga...
The great news is that he's 26. Eto'o can score quite a few more goals in the days and years ahead, putting this ANC record out of reach for good perhaps.
And maybe, just maybe, we'll see Eto'o in SA 2010?
Great game. Theatrical and nail biting. Chelsea is down through two early Shaun Maloney goals. Phil Dowd very harshly red cards Zat Knight as Villa are reduced to ten men. Chelsea claw their way back with Sheva's double and then finally take the lead through Alex's goal. But Martin Laursen guides a beautifully swinging Ashley Young free kick past Petr Cech and parity is restored. Carvalho is red carded for a two footed lunge on Agbonlahor and both teams are even. Ballack again puts Chelsea up through a cracking free kick. Surely its all over for Martin O' Neill and his brave men. Not yet. A goal mouth melee ends with Ashley Cole batting the ball away with his hand. Dowd awards a penalty and red cards Cole. Barry steps in and coolly slots the ball past Cech who dives the other way.
Horrible refereeing decisions have marked the beginning of the Premiership and it does not seem as if mere suspensions will rectify this situation. The game has quickened beyond the human eye to make timely adjustments and the stakes have gotten much higher.
A decision that can cost a club threading a fine line between relegation and staying afloat in the Premiership or a CL position or the ultimate goal of a Premiership. A retina retains an image for 1/16th of a second before a new image can be imposed on it. In that time a foul leading to a penalty could have taken place and the referee would have no inkling save for a linesman who would have to see the same visual. You are talking of constant human error and not the skills of an English referee which is second to none.
Lets look at this fledgling Premiership season.
Already Fulham has been at the receiving end of some truly horrible refereeing decisions including a sure shot goal by David Healy that crossed the line before Schwarzer scooped the ball. It should have been a draw, instead Boro eked out an ill deserved win.
Liverpool was robbed of a victory as Malouda faked a foul and Lampard converted the penalty kick. Replays showed that Malouda was untouched by Carragher.
Fulham was again at the receiving end of a poor refereeing decision as Chris Baird gets sent off on a red card which replays showed as a legitimate challenge. Fulham are reduced to ten men as they lose to Aston Villa.
Spurs were denied two penalty kicks as Berbatov was bumped by Vidic in a goal scoring situation and then Wes Brown handled the ball again as Berbatov tried shooting home. The glaring errors resulted in a Spurs team that grew frustrated and distracted enough for Nani to shoot home the Man Utd winner.
At stake is Fulham's aspirations to remain in the Premiership and in Spurs case, Martin Jol's job that unfairly is on the line. All resting on the case that the referee gets it right which of course is increasingly limited by our physiological constraints as the game gets faster.
The Premiership is unmatched in its global reach. It is the most watched league and the amount it generates in viewership and merchandising is close to 2.5 billion pounds every year which easily dwarfs second place La Liga that receives about half. If there is any technology that will going to impact the global game in a meaningful then the best vehicle for its introduction and acceptance is the Premiership.
I think the time has come to think about refereeing as bound by human physiological limitations just as running a 100 meters in 5 seconds is an impossibility given the human musculo-sekeletal plant. It is too much of a task. For those naysayers who think it will slow down the game. How much time do players waste arguing a call or a non-call? In that time having the luxury of a TV replay means that players secure in the knowledge that a refereeing decision can be second guessed leads to less time wasted. You can limit the number of TV replays and impose a penalty for over eager managers hoping to force a call.
Oh! No. Fabregas gets a finely threaded pass by Hleb, instinctively thinks about passing, but then decides to have a go. His angled shot beat a Schmeichel who till then looked like he was going to go another game without conceding a goal.
It was the best decision for goal in a long time for Arsenal who should have gone up a goal with RVP's penalty kick. I think if Cesc had decided to go for another extra pass the ball would have wound up on Richard Dunne's foot.
The return of Gilberto was key as he was the catalyst for Arsenal's moves from deep within as well as his defensive flair in denying Elano and Petrov from building up steam. I think Wenger did the right thing by starting Almunia. The Spanish goalie made sure that he did all the small things right and came up with two great saves, one against Mpenza and the other one against Kasper Schmeichel's header, to keep a clean sheet. He looks much steadier controlling and clearing balls unlike Lehmann who always causes some hearts to stop. Adebayor with his height and length caused all sorts of problems round the goalmouth but to be fair Richard Dunne also stuck out an opportune foot to deny him on a number of occasions.
I think there is nothing more satisfying than seeing Arsenal score after creating chance after chance. But this was very sweet seeing Fabregas taking matters into his own hands and score. As I have said Arsenal's goals will have to come from different players as Eduardo da Silva comes to terms with the vagaries of Premiership soccer. So far Hleb and Fabregas have produced.
This Arsenal side took the ball away from the Man City players and won the 50-50 chances. I think it was the closest you can come to seeing total football as even RVP and Adebayor drifted in deep to deny the Man City players.
The one thing that Arsenal can do better is to get more effective positioning of players up front to take advantage of the chanced near goalmouth. There were at least three chances with Adebayor angling the ball and RVP arriving a fraction late and then RVP doing the same with Adebayor pulling up. That is where we miss Henry. I think Hleb's patience operating on the right side paid off with the Fabregas goal but the Belarus midfielder was also guilty of wasting chances pulling the ball to his left foot giving Dunne and Richards more time to close out.
Sven Goran has some questions to answer. His side did not have much possession even with Elano who always looked a step quicker than the rest of his players. Their best player today was Kasper Schmeichel who looks like a chip of the old block. I think giving up that goal infuriated him so much that he almost got one back in Man City's last gasp approach.
Benfica breaks the Liga stranglehold on the CL and launches its golden period with great players like Eusebio and Mario Coluna. This was a very entertaining final with great soccer played by both sides.
Amazing footage from the Beeb which shows the rituals of the Kop tribe. A great moment as they go onto crush Arsenal, 5-0. This was the year that Phil Chisnall made his Anfield debut also against Arsenal. It was also the first MOTD.
Apparently, he did not do much in the three seasons at Liverpool making just 9 appearances and scoring two goals before being traded to Southend.
Other 1964 highlights. Spain won the 1964 Euro title (video), the Rolling Stones went on their Around and Around Tour (video), The Daisy girl ad catapulted LBJ to his presidency (video)
Quick feet.
Boca Juniors reached the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores beating Paraguay's Libertad, 2-0. Juan Roman Riquelme was instrumental in Boca's win scoring a brilliant goal after leaving defenders in his wake. He left his stamp on Boca's scintillating attack which had Libertad scrambling. Rodrigo Palacio found the net with his header as Boca put away their tough opponents.
Boca meet Colombian giant killers Cucuta Deportivo and Gremio meets Santos in an all Brazil semi-finals.
What more can be said about this truly great player? Durability under duress. As he enters his fourth decade, Maldini maybe a bit slower but the fact that he can or cannot play for Milan makes the news. Milan is Maldini and Maldini is Milan. The name Maldini is an anagram of Di Milan ("of Milan"). One club, 23 years, 800+ games, 7 Serie titles, and 4 CL titles. Repeat after me.
Maldini has been struggling with a knee injury but coach Carlo Ancelotti has not ruled him out for the finals. It would be a sweet swansong for Maldini if Milan wins the CL title as he has indicated that this might be his final season.
If Maldini was a stock, then there would be no recession.
Liverpool's tradition of winning crucial CL games decided by penalties and penalty shootouts goes back to the time they won their first title in 1977.
Phil Neal was the full back who scored the game winning penalty that gave Liverpool their first title in 1977 beating Borussia Moenchengladbach, 3-1. He reminisces about that penalty kick.
That was a fantastic kind of night for our club. We were under a lot of pressure from Moenchengladbach. It´s Kevin's swansong night. He's going to Hamburg. We all wanted him to have a good send-off. When he gets brought down and points to the spot I thought 'bloody hell.' I got a long walk from right-back to pick the ball up. Ian Callaghan rarely says a thing but even he said: 'Nealy, put this in.' You got someone like Tommy Smith who said: 'Nealy, if you miss this I going to fucking break your back.' They were all under pressure. I hadn't even walked ten yards. Now I've got to pick the ball up. Wolfgang Knieb incidentally absolutely towered over Ray Clemence. He was big lanky boy so I thought I'll keep it low. My favourite side was the keeper's left. It's ironic how adrenaline can get to you. Thank goodness it went in off the post.
Liverpool won their fourth title in 1984 beating AS Roma in a penalty shootout. And Phil Neal was called on to make the PK as Steve Nicol missed the first one.
The other one is when Stevie Nicol jumped ahead in the European Cup final in 84. He jumped the gun and Souness said: 'Let him go. He's nervous, it's his first final. Le him go.' Other than me taking the first one as I was ordered to do by Joe. He misses it and they score their first. So I am taking our second. If this one doesn't go in, we are two down. I am conscious of that. It's even more important than the one against Moenchengladbach because we're going to be back in it or be way down the line. Conte and Graziani missed theirs. Isn't it ironic that Graziani in failing to score went into a mental institution? Pearcy misses for England and gets a contract with McDonalds for hundred grand. Graziani misses one and gets into a loony home.
Bob Paisley's and Joe Fagan's teams in the 70's and 80's won four CL titles and Phil Neal was a part of every single one of them. Neal's favourite player on the Liverpool squad is Steve Finnan. He sees a little bit of him in Finnan. And he obviously backs Liverpool to win the match against AC Milan .
Phil Neal made a career out of taking penalties and was very successful. And oddly enough, he seems to have enjoyed taking them. He is also an oil painter and a gourmand. Phil Neal unplugged.
You could not ask for a better stage entrance than the one David Beckham will get when he finally arrives to play for the LA Galaxy. If you are asking how could one player impact a team's fortunes and turn around a season that is appearing more like a 'quagmire' then Beckham could not have asked for a better opportunity to silence his skeptics.
The Galaxy's season may be on life support and only Landon Donovan's performance seems to give it a pulse. One goal and 5 assists in a team lacking firepower and whose defense is porous against set pieces and crosses from the flanks. They lost to the Revs, 3-2 with all three Rev goals originating from crosses into the box. Today's match against Chivas fizzled out, a dreary 1-1 draw with not many scoring opportunities. The Galaxy occupy the cellar along with RSL in the Western conference.
The best player in Germany never to play for the national team in the World Cup took his bow after 15 illustrous seasons with Bayern Munich. Mehmet Scholl won a record 8 titles with Bayern playing 392 matches and scoring 88 goals. Scholl on the strength of his performances would have been a shoo-in for the World cup squads in 1994, 1998, and 2002 but was overlooked and also suffered a number of injuries that limited his chances. In 2006, an online petition for Scholl's inclusion to the squad gathered thousands of signatures but ultimately Klinsmann went in for youth. Scholl played his last match today against FSV Mainz and scored a vintage goal in a 5-2 Bayern win.
Scholl does not have any concrete plans for the future. There is some talk of him joining the Bayern staff. However he says "'I'm going - and I'm going happily."
OLYMPOS Xylofagou FC striker Panagiotis Pontikos scored sixteen goals to help his side beat SEK Ayios Athanasios FC 24-3 on the final day of the season.
A write up in the Guardian confirms that his feat is indeed a world record.Unfortunately he has not broken the record but merely equalled it. Stephan Staniso also scored 16 goals for his side Racing Club in a French Cup match against Aubry Asturies in December 1942.
There is also an interesting reference to a game in which 149 goals were scored because the players were angry with the referee and so kept kicking the ball into their own goal...!
Cristiano Ronaldo vs Kaka. Round 2.
If the Liverpool vs Chelsea match was as a number of commentators put it, an advert for stifling and boring soccer and yet a true index of the battling English soul, here comes the real test of soccer supremacy, the English version vs the European one. Silky smooth Kaka vs human dynamo Cristiano Ronaldo.
Paolo Maldini will be out but in his absence Kakhabar Kaladze is likely to start. Kaladze has stepped in before for Maldini and performed admirably. For Man Utd, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic's return will bolster the defense, providing options for Sir Alex to fill in the central defenders, which Heinze was out of depth last week, relocating in this match to his usual left back position.
Pirlo will hold the midfield letting Kaka roam and outrun the opposition with his acceleration or put the ball to lone striker, Fillipo Inzaghi, who can turn things around with his opportunism. The best news for Ancelotti is that Gattuso is match ready. Gattuso's strength is playing from the back and he and Massimo Oddo will have to be very active in cutting off the supply lanes to Rooney, who showed how lightning quick he can be in front of the ball. Ronaldo and Giggs will move outside to stretch the Milan defense rather than go through the center. The Man Utd attack is many headed.
Look for a fast moving match with plenty of attacks and counter attacks as both teams go on the offensive. I think Man Utd starts off red hot to put Milan on the defensive and score that all important first goal. Dida will have to be at his acrobatic best. But Milan should get back in the game and dictate the pace with its superior midfield. Kaka will be the difference. My theory is do all the spadework but also test Van Der Saar with some well struck shots. VDS tends to parry the ball ineffectively at times against piledrivers and both Roma and Portsmouth have scored goals off weak rebounds.
The San Siro will be rocking.
Prediction: AC Milan 2 Manchester United 1 (Milan enters the CL final on the away goal advantage)
Head-to-heads
AC Milan and Manchester United have met seven times before in European competition, United winning three and AC Milan the other four. Milan have won all three matches played in Italy, all without conceding a goal. The Italians have knocked United out each time they have met in Europe.
AC Milan have hosted English clubs on 11 previous occasions and are yet to lose, winning six and drawing five. Manchester United have visited Italy 12 times, winning just twice and losing nine times.
Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea have all knocked AC Milan out of European competition. The last to do so over two legs was Manchester City in the 1978-79 Uefa Cup.
" For all his long, successful career as player and manager with Arsenal, Everton, Blackpool and Southampton, as manager of Portsmouth, Southampton and Manchester City, Alan Ball, who died today of a suspected heart attack, will surely be remembered above all for his superb display for England in the World Cup Final of 1966 at Wembley against West Germany."
Here is the rest of Glanville's fine tribute to Alan Ball >>
1966 World Cup final. Alan Ball, Everton and Arsenal midfielder, was the scrappy, motoring midfielder with his socks down to his ankles, who set up Geoff Hurst's controversial third goal with a low cross. Alan Ball reminds me of Paul Scholes, red haired, pint sized, and under rated but blessed with great ball skills and tenacity.
Many who paid tribute believe that if it was not for Ball's unflagging performance, England would not have won the match against W.Germany.
Sir Bobby Charlton, his midfield partner in 1966, said: "He was probably the best player that day and if it had not been for his impact the result could have been totally different.
Sir Geoff Hurst, said "He was the youngest member of the team and man of the match in the 1966 World Cup final.
Alan Ball >>
Alan Ball's autobiography >>
Is the MLS ready for the Cuauhtémoc?
MLS is underway and the biggest news is Beckham's debut for the LA Galaxy. But the Chicago Fire are awaiting their own legend, Cuauhtémoc Blanco. The Beckham hype has overshadowed why this maybe the most significant signing because this makes the Chicago Fire real contenders for the MLS title despite the loss of their best striker Nate Jacqua to the LA Galaxy.
Blanco is considered one of the best strikers in Mexican soccer history right up there with Jared Borgetti, Luis Hernandez, and the present coach of the Tricolores, Hugo Sanchez. Blanco fans missed him this World Cup because of his bitter feud with coach Ricardo La Volpe who left him off the roster. The bad blood with La Volpe began when he was the coach for Club America. Blanco has always been controversial and has instigated many an incident on and off the pitch.
But there is no doubt about Blanco's talent, technically sound and very innovative. He has his own move called the Cuahtemina (Bunny Hop) where he scoops the ball between his feet and hops over tackling defenders. This was unveiled in the 1998 World Cup against S.Korea. Blanco has scored 138 goals in 355 appearances in the Mexican league. He has also won the MVP twice in a row in 2004 and 2005. He has been in fine form for Club America in the Clausura after making a full recovery from foot surgery.
The Fire will be boosted by the presence of the Mexican community coming out to cheer one of their heroes. This well maybe the X factor that will give Chicago an added edge towards the title.
The MLS also needs players like Blanco to give the league much needed oomph. Clint Mathis should not have to shoulder that responsibility alone. Blanco comes off as a simple man unfazed by money and with no pretensions. In his words he is a 'mesero', a street cleaner who is in the services of his club.
Cuauhtémoc Blanco stats >>
That's what I think when I see this:
Is it time to think past Dunga yet?
And now Ronaldinho joins Ronaldo in the "too fat to play well" camp...
How good is Man Utd's midfield? Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher, and Michael Carrick have combined for 20 goals. This is more than Manchester City, Sheffield Utd, West Ham, Charlton, and Watford. Ronaldo alone has scored 12 goals which is the entire scoring output of Watford.
The rest of the big four, Chelsea midfielders led by Frank Lampard have 14 goals, Liverpool have 12 with a strangely subdued Steven Gerrard contributing four, and Arsenal's midfield also has 12 with Gilberto's 7 goals.
A very tongue in cheek art piece on Zidane and Materazzi, compliments of the Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar. This high end piece of Photoshopping is part of the best of the galleries 2006 at the Guardian. It is worth a look as there are some beauties!
1967 was a magical year for Celtic as they beat Inter Milan in the European Cup final, 2-1 to become the first British club to win the title. The players are now immortalized as the Lisbon Lions in club history.
Thanks Celtic fans for pointing out it was Inter and not AC. Apologies for getting the team all wrong. My bad! However, it did cap a fanstastic year as Celtic won every title that they entered in 1967
Marc Overmars, Patrick Kluiwert, Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids, Frank De Boer, Clarence Seedorf, Edwin Van Der Saar, Danny Blind, Jari Litmanen, Nwankwo Kanu in probably the best Ajax side in history.
It is the time of the season to be jolly. Too bad US soccer lovers were not given their holiday cheer when Juergen Klinsmann turned down the US job. He would have been a fantastic stocking stuffer. "Ello, my name is Juergen. And I am going to win the World Cup for the USA."
Nope. Not about to happen. But there are some goodies that you can give to your long suffering soccer compatriots. In the US, the choices are somewhat limited unless you are a Mia Hamm fan.
I highly recommend "Once in a Lifetime" by Gavin Newsham. Great story about the only US soccer club that mattered, the NY Cosmos. Pele, Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto, Giorgio Chinaglia, Jomo Sono, Shep Messing, Werner Roth, Keith Eddy, Julio Cesar Romero, Johann Neeskens. A fascinating bit is how Henry Kissinger was involved in bringing Pele over. The Cosmos attracted crowds of over 70,000 at the height of its popularity. When Pele played his last game against Santos at Giants Stadium, on October 1, 1977, an over capacity Giants Stadium of 100,000 fans bade him goodbye. He was joined on the pitch by Muhammad Ali, who said, " Now there are two of the greatest."
In a legendary story, Newsham recounts the way the Cosmos made money. They were supposed to play the Haitian team who was jetlagged and disappeared before the match. So, the Cosmos found a bunch of guys who looked like them and had them play against the team.
The NY Cosmos was not just football, it was a slice of Americana in the 70's with Warner Brothers, Ahmet Ertegun, Steve Ross, Atari, Studio 54, the Cosmos Girls. The players were rock stars meeting Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger and fans included Robert Redford, Barbara Streisand, and Mick Jagger. The NY Cosmos was the hottest ticket in town.
Once in a Lifetime is also a great documentary with interviews with everyone except strangely enough Pele, who reportedly demanded a fee of $100,000 for the interview at which the producers balked. Has a fantastic soundtrack with James Brown, Diana Ross, and Paul Weller and The Jam.
You can get the book at Barnes and Noble and the DVD at Amazon.
Paulino Alcantara, of Phillipino heritage, born in Iloilo City, Phillipines debuted for Barcelona FC in 1912 going onto score 356 goals in 357 games making him Barca's all time goal scoring leader. He also played for Spain, Phillipines, as well as the Catalan XI.
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..........
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.
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.
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.
No sooner had the game begun when Ferenc Puskas scored a double goal, just as Zizinho had in the '50 World Cup. The Hungarian striker for Real Madrid executed a free kick at the edge of the box and the ball went in. But as Puskas celebrated with his arms in the air the referee went up to him. "I'm sorry," he said, "but I didn't whistle."
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.
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...".
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.
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.
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.
The sad part of it was that Holland never won a World Cup despite his genius. Instead it was Germany (w/ Beckenbauer) who proved too much in the Finals.
How did he get started? His mom worked as a cleaner for Ajax Amsterdam. She had them sign him to the youth squad at age 12. Brilliant!
West Ham lies at the bottom of the Premiership - a scenario hardly contemplated by the likes of Alan Pardew and Kia Joorbachian when they signed on Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. West Ham should have been challenging Bolton Wanderers for the top four spots in the League.
West Ham was the brightest of the clubs, with a nucleus of potential players, the future of the English squad, with Nigel Reo-Coker, captain of the U-21 team, Dean Ashton, Marlon Harewood, Paul Konchesky, Anton Ferdinand, Bobby Zamora, and Carlton Cole. The season started with the terrible news that Ashton was going to be out for a good part of the season with an ankle fracture. But Bobby Zamora and Marlon Harewood took up the challenge with Zamora an absolute beast, starting the season with a flurry of goals. The signing Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano threw the English football world into a tizzy. It had all the football pundits anointing West Ham as the upstart Chelsea, with a smaller budget, sure to finish in the rarified echelons of the Premiership.
Two months down the line, West Ham finds its season in ruins. They are in the 19th spot, one spot removed from bottom dwelling Watford. They have not won a single match since the first match they played in the season.
Alan Pardew has failed to convince his players to play football. There was a lot of expectancy that with Tevez and Mascherano, West Ham would stroll through their matches. A perfectly understandable feeling. You have signed on players, that have been singled out for praise by Diego Maradona and Luis Pekerman. We saw glimpses of the wonderful stuff that Tevez and Mascherano are capable of the World Cup. But Nigel Reo-Coker, Anton Ferdinand, Marlon Harewood, and Danny Gabbidon have all but disappeared. The nucleus that understood how the Premiership is played that got them to the 9th spot and the FA Cup final last season has dissolved.
There is an element of complacency and even surliness, that has crept into the West Ham team, with the team's elevation because of the two Argentinians, without them playing a single match in the Premiership. It is as if the rest of the team wants to see how far West Ham goes with Tevez and Mascherano, without them playing. That question has been answered, not too far!
The present situation benefits no one, least of all Tevez and Mascherano, who have obviously set their hearts on another Premiership or a La Liga club and look at West Ham as a springboard. Alan Pardew has to be more astute with getting his players to play and assure his players, especially Reo-Coker that he is invaluable to West Ham. Especially with the news that Reo- Coker is understandably aggrieved that he was the target of transfer talks in the last days, wooed by Man Utd and Arsenal, news that he was ignorant of, and now reflected in his lacklustre play.
To most West Ham fans and supporters, it has been frustrating. In the beginning Tevez and Mascherano, were a wonderful distraction. They might just become the millstone that sinks West Ham. In the end it is the XI players that win matches.
West Ham lies at the bottom of the Premiership - a scenario hardly contemplated by the likes of Alan Pardew and Kia Joorbachian when they signed on Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. West Ham should have been challenging Bolton Wanderers for the top four spots in the League.
West Ham was the brightest of the clubs, with a nucleus of potential players, the future of the English squad, with Nigel Reo-Coker, captain of the U-21 team, Dean Ashton, Marlon Harewood, Paul Konchesky, Anton Ferdinand, Bobby Zamora, and Carlton Cole. The season started with the terrible news that Ashton was going to be out for a good part of the season with an ankle fracture. But Bobby Zamora and Marlon Harewood took up the challenge with Zamora an absolute beast, starting the season with a flurry of goals. The signing Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano threw the English football world into a tizzy. It had all the football pundits anointing West Ham as the upstart Chelsea, with a smaller budget, sure to finish in the rarified echelons of the Premiership.
Two months down the line, West Ham finds its season in ruins. They are in the 19th spot, one spot removed from bottom dwelling Watford. They have not won a single match since the first match they played in the season.
Alan Pardew has failed to convince his players to play football. There was a lot of expectancy that with Tevez and Mascherano, West Ham would stroll through their matches. A perfectly understandable feeling. You have signed on players, that have been singled out for praise by Diego Maradona and Luis Pekerman. We saw glimpses of the wonderful stuff that Tevez and Mascherano are capable of the World Cup. But Nigel Reo-Coker, Anton Ferdinand, Marlon Harewood, and Danny Gabbidon have all but disappeared. The nucleus that understood how the Premiership is played that got them to the 9th spot and the FA Cup final last season has dissolved.
There is an element of complacency and even surliness, that has crept into the West Ham team, with the team's elevation because of the two Argentinians, without them playing a single match in the Premiership. It is as if the rest of the team wants to see how far West Ham goes with Tevez and Mascherano, without them playing. That question has been answered, not too far!
The present situation benefits no one, least of all Tevez and Mascherano, who have obviously set their hearts on another Premiership or a La Liga club and look at West Ham as a springboard. Alan Pardew has to be more astute with getting his players to play and assure his players, especially Reo-Coker that he is invaluable to West Ham. Especially with the news that Reo- Coker is understandably aggrieved that he was the target of transfer talks in the last days, wooed by Man Utd and Arsenal, news that he was ignorant of, and now reflected in his lacklustre play.
To most West Ham fans and supporters, it has been frustrating. In the beginning Tevez and Mascherano, were a wonderful distraction. They might just become the millstone that sinks West Ham. In the end it is the XI players that win matches.
West Ham lies at the bottom of the Premiership - a scenario hardly contemplated by the likes of Alan Pardew and Kia Joorbachian when they signed on Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. West Ham should have been challenging Bolton Wanderers for the top four spots in the League.
West Ham was the brightest of the clubs, with a nucleus of potential players, the future of the English squad, with Nigel Reo-Coker, captain of the U-21 team, Dean Ashton, Marlon Harewood, Paul Konchesky, Anton Ferdinand, Bobby Zamora, and Carlton Cole. The season started with the terrible news that Ashton was going to be out for a good part of the season with an ankle fracture. But Bobby Zamora and Marlon Harewood took up the challenge with Zamora an absolute beast, starting the season with a flurry of goals. The signing Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano threw the English football world into a tizzy. It had all the football pundits anointing West Ham as the upstart Chelsea, with a smaller budget, sure to finish in the rarified echelons of the Premiership.
Two months down the line, West Ham finds its season in ruins. They are in the 19th spot, one spot removed from bottom dwelling Watford. They have not won a single match since the first match they played in the season.
Alan Pardew has failed to convince his players to play football. There was a lot of expectancy that with Tevez and Mascherano, West Ham would stroll through their matches. A perfectly understandable feeling. You have signed on players, that have been singled out for praise by Diego Maradona and Luis Pekerman. We saw glimpses of the wonderful stuff that Tevez and Mascherano are capable of the World Cup. But Nigel Reo-Coker, Anton Ferdinand, Marlon Harewood, and Danny Gabbidon have all but disappeared. The nucleus that understood how the Premiership is played that got them to the 9th spot and the FA Cup final last season has dissolved.
There is an element of complacency and even surliness, that has crept into the West Ham team, with the team's elevation because of the two Argentinians, without them playing a single match in the Premiership. It is as if the rest of the team wants to see how far West Ham goes with Tevez and Mascherano, without them playing. That question has been answered, not too far!
The present situation benefits no one, least of all Tevez and Mascherano, who have obviously set their hearts on another Premiership or a La Liga club and look at West Ham as a springboard. Alan Pardew has to be more astute with getting his players to play and assure his players, especially Reo-Coker that he is invaluable to West Ham. Especially with the news that Reo- Coker is understandably aggrieved that he was the target of transfer talks in the last days, wooed by Man Utd and Arsenal, news that he was ignorant of, and now reflected in his lacklustre play.
To most West Ham fans and supporters, it has been frustrating. In the beginning Tevez and Mascherano, were a wonderful distraction. They might just become the millstone that sinks West Ham. In the end it is the XI players that win matches.
Miroslav Klose - leading scorer with 25 goals last season and Golden Boot winner at the World Cup - probably did one of his trademark aerial somersaults when he discovered that he was voted German Player of the Year.
Klose won by a landslide, polling 64 percent of the vote, organised by the German Professional Players' Union, to beat runner-up Ballack (4.5%).
Meanwhile repeated incidents of racism are also bringing German football into the news but for the wrong reasons.
And a German magazine (Deutsche Sprachwelt) has declared war on English-language terms that have infiltrated the country's soccer in recent years .They are encouraging all Germans to use proper German terms like"Torschuetzenkoenig" instead of "shootout" and "Schiedsrichter" instead of "referee".....etc, etc, etc.
Their battlecry - " Ve haff vays of making you talk (properly!!) "
More correct German terms here.
Zinedine Zidane,Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard are among those nominated for this year's FIFA World Player of the Year award.
There are 6 Chelsea players in the longish shortlist and some of the World Cup finalists featured are Italians Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Gennaro Gattuso, Alessandro Nesta and Andrea Pirlo , French players Thierry Henry, Franck Ribery, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira and Zinedine Zidane and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo .
Soccer's world governing body will announce the three male and three female players with the most votes in early December. The winners then will be chosen from those finalists and presented with the awards at the 16th FIFA World Player Gala on Dec. 18, at the Zurich Opera House.
FIFA will also present the Presidential Award and the Fair Play Award for 2006 at the gala.
Funny, but we still miss this guy and his antics!
Leyton Orient put it past Chelsea. I still remember reading about legends like Peter 'Cat' Bonetti (probably the best goalkeeper after Gordon Banks), Ray Wilkins, Peter Osgood, Clive Walker, David Webb. Great players in Chelsea's glory years in the 1970's. Somehow, they always found a way not to win the big ones.
A glimpse at the genius of Di Stefano. He scored 428 goals for Real Madrid in 510 appearances- 49 of them in 58 European Cup games. He won 5 European Cups, one World Club championship, and eight Spanish League medals.
Curiously, he played internationally for both Argentina and Spain (his adopted country).
I remember someone telling me that he was complete jerk. Isn't that the way it is with so many brilliant players? One wonders where he'd rank today if he'd been a nice guy...
Timo Hildebrand: vfB Stuttgart's goalie and Germany's future
Joachim Low our new national coach will not have the services of stalwart, Oliver Kahn who retired recently from international soccer. However he still has Jens Lehmann and the young hearthrob, Timo Hildebrand to work with. Hildebrand is most likely to take over as the no 1 goalie once Lehmann retires.
Olli Kahn was an establishment favorite who Klinsi used, to position himself, as an independent operator, not kowtowing to Der Kaiser and Uli Hoeness's diktat. Kahn saw his role decreased during Klinsi's time. He was stripped of captaincy and then he lost his starting position to Jens Lehmann for this World Cup. To Kahn's credit he swallowed these painful insults and during the PK shootout with Argentina was seen encouraging Lehmann.
We will miss him because not only was he a great goalkeeper, he was also an entertaining fellow. Olli Kahn will continue playing for Bayern for another two years till the end of his contract.
Lamar Hunt, Columbus Crew owner(L), Philip Anschutz, DC United owner ( R)
Much has been written about US billionaires looking overseas for investments in soccer clubs. Across the pond, English League clubs are being eagerly sought after. Randy Lerner, the chairman of MBNA and owner of the Cleveland Browns was recently in the news with his offer to buy out financially troubled EPL team Aston Villa. And of course, we have Malcolm Glazer, the real estate merchant and owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who owns Manchester United and is the source of much angst amongst Mancs.
However, closer to home, the efforts to keep the domestic league, the MLS afloat since the league began 1996, is entirely the story of two soccer mad billionaires, Lamar Hunt, the oilman and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and Philip Anschutz, the chairman of the Anschutz group, an oil and technology entrepreneur. These two have pumped more than $100 million of their own money to keep the MLS going.
Their efforts have paid off and now MLS is being flooded by more than a billion dollars in investments in new stadium construction, sponsorships, and new franchises. The Red Bulls are building a 25, 000 soccer only stadium, at Harrison, NJ. Seven other new MLS stadiums are being built, including the Home Depot Center, Pizza Hut Park in Dallas and the $100 million, publicly funded Bridgeview Stadium near Chicago, that are purpose-built for MLS teams. A new franchise in Toronto is in the works. By 2010, the MLS believes that there will be 16 teams up from the present 12. Adidas kicked in $150 million to become the league's sole uniform supplier, in part to hold off Nike. MLS is close to a new television-rights deal with ABC/ESPN, one in which it will actually get money for its games, instead of having to buy the time from the networks and hope to sell it.
Lamar Hunt owns the Kansas City Wizards, Columbus Crew, and he recently bought Dallas FC. He was also one of the founders of the old North American Soccer League (NASL), and owned the Dallas Tornado. The Tornados won the NASL title in 1971. Philip Anschutz is the owner of the LA Galaxy, Houston Dynamos, Chicago Fire, and the the league leading DC United. Between the two of them, they own seven out of the 12 teams. Recently, the Anshutz Entertainment Group sold the NY Metrostars (now called the Red Bull NY) to the Red Bull group for more than $100 million. The Anschutz group also owns Swedish soccer club Hammarby. Ironically, Hammarby is often regarded as, in a historical sense, being the 'team of the workers' of the poorer southern parts of early 20th century Stockholm.
But the beginnings of the new MLS league were fraught with uncertainties of the future of soccer in the US. Bob Cohn in 1999, questioned Lamar Hunt's wisdom in buying the Columbus Crew and the Kansas City Rapids. MLS games were averaging less than 15,000 fans per game. ABC, ESPN, and Univision paid just $5 million to telecast MLS games, a pittance in the tens of billions sports media market. However, Lamar Hunt was famous for taking risks, like he did when he started American Football League, a little known football league nearly 50 years ago. It changed the face of American football when it merged with the National Football League. Nowadays football franchises are worth almost a billion dollars.
Hunt invested $28 million on constructing a state of the art soccer stadium, the first of its kind, in the US. It is a 22, 500 seater, much more fan friendly than the huge 75,000 football stadiums that soccer is usually played in. It also had a million dollar jumbo scoreboard, a "Wreck Room" for kids, a 8000 sq foot video arcade, and a plaza for local bands. At that time Hunt said, " Soccer has succeeded. What we've got to do now is make sure a professional league succeeds.... One stadium is not going to make a sport. But I think the result we will produce will have an impact."
Lamar Hunt's service to developing the sport of soccer in the US was acknowledged in 1999 when , the US Open Club competition, the oldest and most prestigious soccer competition in US soccer was renamed the Lamar Hunt US Open Club competition. The Lamar Hunt US Open competition is much like the British FA Cup, in that it is open to all clubs registered with the USSF, from amateur adult club teams to the professional MLS teams.
US Soccer is indebted to these two soccer mad businessmen and keen sports enthusiasts.
Arsenal's first match in it's new home the Emirates stadium could not have been a better testimonial to Bergkamp, as they won 2-1 over Ajax. The two teams saw a galaxy of stars like Johan Cruyff, Marco Van Basten, Edgar David, Patrick Kluiwert, Frank Rijkaard, Ronald de Boer, Ian Wright, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, David Seaman, Edwin Van Der Saar., Marc Overmaars, and
A crowd of 54,000 flocked to the Gunners’ impressive new residence to pay tribute to Bergkamp, to sing, "Dennis, Dennis, Dennis, " for the last time.
Bergkamp created the best chance for Arsenal in the first half by sending Hleb clear down the right, receiving the return pass on the edge of the area and sending a trademark chip over the bar, showing he had not lost his touch.
An emotional Bergkamp addressed the crowd after the final whistle before embarking on a triumphant lap of honour.
“It’s an amazing stadium. I thought the pitch couldn’t be better than Highbury but it is,” he said. “A club like Arsenal deserves a stadium like this.
“If ever I was going to have a testimonial it was always going to be against Ajax, so thank you to them for coming.
“In 11 years I have had a fantastic, successful time and a big part of that has been the fans, so thank you.”
Player and coach tributes:
Marco Van Basten: "If Ryan Giggs is worth 20 million, Dennis Bergkamp is worth 100 million."
Guus Hiddink: " Bergkamp. He had the finest technique [of all Dutch players]."
Arsene Wenger: "Intelligence and class. Class is of course, most of the time linked to what you can do with the ball, but the intelligence makes you use the technique in an efficient way. It's like somebody who has a big vocabulary but he doesn't say intelligent words, and somebody who has a big vocabulary but he can talk intelligently, and that's what Dennis is all about. What he does, there's always a head and always a brain. And his technique allows him to do what he sees, and what he decides to do."
Ian Wright: "He's the messiah. We told him to get us into Europe when he joined and that's exactly what he did."
Thierry Henry:" Dennis is the best player I have ever played with as a partner. It is a dream for a striker to have him in the team with you."
Bruce Rioch: "He was perfect for the club - a good team man, great for spirit, popular in the dressing room and he just integrated well into the club."
Lee Dixon: "During my time at Arsenal I was lucky to play alongside fantastic players like Tony Adams, Thierry Henry and Ian Wright. But Dennis Bergkamp topped the lot."
One cannot but wonder about the impact that Bergkamp would have had on away games for Arsenal that he missed because of his crippling fear of flying. Lee Dixon adds, "Looking back, the only thing that counts against him was not being in the team for overseas games. We really suffered when he wasn't in the side for those European away matches. No-one else could play like he did, because Dennis is a one-off, and we had to change the way we approached those matches."
Dennis Bergkamp changed the way Arsenal played football from the horribly dreary days of the 80's and early 90's when Arsenal endlessly grinded out 1-0 wins and ho-hum draws, to the fast attacking style that Arsenal is now associated with.
Grace thy name is Bergkamp.
Dennis Bergkamp is undoubtedly the best foreign player to set foot on English soil and play for the English league. We can talk of Thierry Henry, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben, Robin Van Persie, and countless others who have come to find fame in the English league but Bergkamp set the trend, when he moved from Inter to Arsenal on Bruce Rioch's signing on for £7.5m. And what a career he had. We can all appreciate his greatness as a player but for many, he was also the epitome of a ceaseless work ethic, and a player who spoke through his feet, and not through personal exploits off the field.
Here is Martin Keown's tribute to a fellow great >>
It's not just about the skills- you've gotta score as well!
It's always nice to leave on a high note.
Apparently Lippi is tired of hearing his name mentioned in connection with the match-fixing scandal involving four top Serie A clubs, including champions Juventus, with whom he won five Serie A titles and the 1996 Champions League in two stints as coach between 1994 and 2004.
Is there going to be a Juventus? That's the question!
Gotta hand it to the Germans. Their use of business intelligence in the World Cup should make companies sit up and think twice about competitive intelligence.
So Zizou bowed out and his epitaph will read, "He was the greatest soccer player of his time except....... ". There should be no second guessing at all, he is still the greatest soccer player this generation has seen and we should count ourselves fortunate to see him at his best. He did what no other player did for France, win them them the World Cup and came close to winning them another. Platini, as great as he was could not manage it. Zidane was also at the vanguard of what we see as a transformational moment in French soccer with it's now taken for granted mutli-ethnic hue. His play in the 1998 final when he dismantled the Brazilians by his two stunning headers is what I remember him by. The PK that he took in this final against Italy where he beat a lunging Buffon with a delicately placed chip was as good as the goal by Esteban Cambiasso after the concerto by the Argentinians against the Serb- Montenegro team.
Zidane is a low key and private person. I do not know much about his personal life and I am sure a lot of us are equally clueless. I would like to think that he let his game define him unlike many of his other peers who seem to revel in the limelight off the field too. His retirement from soccer when he was worn out and injured, responding to Domenech's call for this World Cup, and then laeading the Les Bleus to the brink of success is by itself the story of this World Cup. We can count these type of extraordinary accomplishments in any field on our fingers.
Zizou was human and he showed that in the match against Italy. Yes, given his experience, maturity, and his level of play, it was a mindless foul. Yes, it was a foul that probably cost France the game. But can you say that Zizou gave it his all everytime he played for France. All 90 minutes and more. Absolutely. When I think of the players who were supposed to have made this World Cup theirs, Ronaldinho, Kaka, David Beckham, Juan Roman Riquelme, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Steven Gerrard, they are the ones that people should be shaking their heads at and wondering if they were wrong all along. For Ronaldinho, this World Cup was his coming out party, where he would finally vindicate all those comparisons to Pele and Maradona. Certainly, Beckham, whose World Cup career is over must be wondering about the legacy he has left behind. On the world's greatest stage he has always managed to come up short.
For a long time we felt that Maradona had tarnished his image fatally by mainlining cocaine and taking ephedrine which got him booted out of the 1994 US World Cup. But here we are still debating as to who was the greatest, Pele or Maradona? His two goals against England in the 1986 World Cup is still what we remember Maradona by. He is his country's most loved ambassador and the host of one of it's most popular TV talk shows. He was a fixture in this World Cup cheering on the Albiceleste, like Platini, like Beckenbauer, for their countries, and I am sure in the World Cups to come, we will also see Zizou proudly coming forth in support of the Les Bleus. He will not go gentle into that good night.
This is the signature image of the World Cup. Hat tip to Dimitar Vesselinov for telling us about the "French version..."
Tellez did a superb job refeering the Germany- Italy semifinal
Kudos to Tellez, who was more than willing to let the players play, was not afraid to talk to them when they fouled excessively or dived to the ground. He was like a father figure coaxing the players to get on with the game. He booked the players to make a point and not to mete out punishment. The result of this understated refeering were two teams who played soccer the way it is supposed to be played. The Italians stopped selling their dives because Tellez bought none of it. The Germans were probably thrown off by the Italians underperforming in the histrionics department.
Tellez should be complimented on his performance as he brought the best out in Italian soccer. A talented team marred by their penchant for gamesmanship. His refeering brings to mind the way boxing referees go about their business. Separating boxers aside, keeping the low blows to a minimum, and reminding them to go on with the game, exactly like a Mills Lane would do.
Germany has never beaten Italy at the World Cup, and this memory is the one we all have as a nation. Who will be our Rossi?
The way he played in France's victory over the overrated Samba-boys tells me he's not going to leave the game quietly.
Ronaldo Luíz Nazário de Lima - the greatest goalscorer in World Cup history:
Eat your heart out, Pele!
I must admit, I was doubting his abilities after the first game. But Ronaldo proves everyone wrong, much to the delight of all us cynical fans.
It seems appropriate to play this now. He really was spectacular. If he lost 10 kilos, he'd score 10 goals this World Cup.
Ronaldo gets his place in history!
The old guard for France came through, Zizou and Viera, Makele and Thuram, and Barthez. Zidane was absolutely on top of his game. Brilliant touch. The goal scored was vintage Zizou, holding back, letting every else make their move, Puyol and Casillas and firing the ball across Casillas.
In Franck Ribery, I think France has its next superstar.
Spain did not play badly and Joaquin brought a lot of energy on the left flank but they did not play 90 minutes of soccer, they faded in and out.
After a long time we saw good refeering, not perfect, but good. Yellow cards to a minimum. And on top of fouls except maybe the Puyol foul that Thierry Henry sold which led to Zizou's free kick, and the Viera goal.
Zinedine Zidane: 1 goal, 1 assist
Patrick Viera: 1 goal, 1 assist.
The two stalwarts put together the game of their lives. It's taken a long time but France can call themselves a contender. They will have to go past Brazil.
For Spain, the question continues, their performance never matches the depth of talent they have. But it is a young team and they will be back for the 2010 WC, with most of this squad. Maybe not Luis Aragones.
Remember Kempes? The Dutch were unlucky that day...
Back in high school, I still remember Platini's France loss to Germany... what a crazy game that was!
Zidane was lucky to win the Cup, but Platini was incredible. Zizou looks old this time around...
I was talking to my father about this (these days all we talk about is football) and he gives me three reasons (I call them excuses) why England won that game:
1) Geoff Hurst's goal never crossed the line. This is the traditional German excuse. The referee becomes the scapegoat. Even Beckenbauer uses this excuse. To this day, he goes around saying something like this: "Bobby Charlton knows the truth - the ball did not go in."
2) England should never have been in the finals. They took care of Pele and the Brazilians by hurting them physically. This was the worst display of hatchet jobs in the history of the World Cup. Everyone from Portugal to England made sure Brazil did not play their game.
3) Franz Beckenbauer was playing Bobby Charlton. By assigning Beckenbauer to Charlton, we focused on our opponents strength, not ours. In some ways we shot ourselves in the foot. Because Beckenbauer was playing to stop Charlton, he never truly played his own game. And that, says my father, is the real reason we lost in 1966.
Crouch has studied his Maradona...
In case you missed the party, see the previous post >>
What an inspiration! A injured Cahill comes on in the second half and saves the Socceroos!
Australia 3, Japan 1.
A quick summary:
The Wikipedia entry on Wanchope is uptodate- including his two goals today! I'm impressed!!
If for some reason Ronaldo does not get to break Muller's record, then we will have to regale ourselves with Ronaldo's hairdo.
We'll find out if Coach Zico knows his business...
Will the Soca Warriors take out England? or Paraguay?
The Socceroos may surprise us, and themselves!
Without Cisse, they're in trouble...
Cover designed by Peter Blake
Albert Stubbins- 1930's Liverpool player
The cover of the Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band depicts about 70 celebrities, all of them heroes to the Beatles and who they imagined would come to their concert. Amongst the athletes pictured are Johnny Weismulller of Tarzan fame and Sonny Liston, the heavyweight boxing champion of the early 60's.
There is one soccer player that makes the cover, Liverpool's Albert Stubbins who played in the 1930's and 1940's and scored 83 goals in 178 appearances for the club. Unfortunately for Stubbins he played only one international for England and that too was against Wales.
The cover was designed by Robert Fraser and Peter Blake. Albert Stubbins was #50 and he was surrounded by Karl Marx, Oliver Hardy, Marlene Dietrich, HC Westermann, Bobby Breen, Sri Lahiri Mahasya, and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (whose picture was painted out at the request of EMI after Lennon's controversial remarks about Christianity being a dying religion).
They'll be playing in the shadow of corruption. But you can never count them out...
Shourin - here's your video:
See Shourin's analysis here >>
Michael Owen has been far too hurt for far too long. And because of that we mortals don't see him enough. But I was reminded of his scintillating brilliance last night watching the Liverpool- Arsenal FC final in 2001 on Fox Classics. Arsenal coasting along to a win through Freddie Ljungberg's goal and the constant forays of Thierry Henry through the left (who missed a sitter that should have sealed the deal). And then comes the last 10 minutes of the match.
Owen takes over and in a fraction of a second, smashes the ball into the net through a sliver of space between Arsenal defenders, stunning David Seaman and the entire Arsenal defense. Arsenal 1 Liverpool 1.
And then comes The Goal. Owen pounces on the ball beyond the Arsenal half line. Martin Keown is about 10 yards ahead of him. Owen accelerates spinning Keown around, the footrace is over in a flash, he is gone to the left and the next thing you know the ball is in the far right corner of the net past a diving David Seaman's outstretched fingertips. The whole thing was over in a blink of an eye. Liverpool 2 Arsenal 1.
Arsene Wenger looked physically sick. Thierry Henry crumbled onto the ground. Freddie Ljungberg's orange highlights turned green. And the rest of the Arsenal players stood around with their mouth agape and their hands on their hips. The Arsenal fans went frozen. A chill descended on them. A sick feeling that comes in the pit of the stomach, that the game was thrown away. But more than that, the game was taken away by a sheer force of nature in an instant. The final 3 minutes were played by Arsenal in a daze. Arsenal had all the answers that day except that they could not have won. It was not meant to be.
For anyone with little to no knowledge of soccer or for that matter sport, would not have been left untouched by Owen's brilliance that day, on a purely instinctual level . As for me, I want to watch that footage over and over again to try to understand how Owen did what he did.
UPDATE: Shourin, here's the video clip of the game - Christian>>
Times correspondent Owen Slot flies down to Brazil to chat with Dr. Sócrates- the Dean of Jogo Bonito.
The article speaks for itself, as does this video:
How did Brazil lose? Was it the careless defense? Or did they just not score enough?
That was Paolo Rossi's World Cup - he'd made a pact with someone in Hades.
We have talismans for every country for each World Cup in soccer and then you have Pele, the most talismanic player of the soccer world. Nay! the most talismanic sportsperson in the world. Period.
But no player has ever meant more to their country's history in soccer than Lev Yashin to USSR. And this is strange for a Russian federation that produced icons numerous times to other sports. Olga Korbut, Larissa Latynina, Alexei Nemov, Alexander Popov, Valeriy Borzoi, Sergei Bubka, and so many others.
I do not profess to know much about Russian soccer because they have not been around too long since the break up of the former USSR. Only that they qualified for the 1994 and 2002 World Cup, each time failing to get out of the first round. But the USSR produced some fine players like Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov.
But it is left to Lev Yashin, the goalkeeper known as the Black Panther to define soccer in the Soviet era. He was known for his imposing stature standing at 6' 3'', black team outfit, superb athleticism, and stunning saves to earn FIFA's title of the Best Goalkeeper of the century.
Lev Yashin is the only goalkeeper ever to win the European Footballer of the Year Award (1963). He is also believed to have blocked around 150 penalty kicks during his career; far more than any other goalkeeper in history. When asked for his secret, he would say the trick was "to have a smoke to calm your nerves, then toss back a strong drink to tone your muscles." He played for Dynamo Moscow and in four World Cups for the USSR (1958, 1962, 1966, and 1970). Yashin is credited for four clean sheets out of 13 games played in WC finals. The USSR finished fourth in the 1966 World Cup, their best showing. For his career he had 480 clean sheets out of 812 matches played. He also won a USSR Ice hockey championship as a goalkeeper.
Lev Yashin's FIFA testimonial match in 1971 was held at the Lenin Stadium in Moscow with 100,000 fans attending, and a host of stars and superstars, including Pelé, Eusebio and Franz Beckenbauer.
More on Lev Yashin
Johan Neeskens, The Socceroos assistant coach
Gus Hiddink is the coach of the Socceroos and his assistant coach is none other than Johan Neeskens, one of Holland's famed players from the 1974 and 1978 WC squad that came close to winning it all twice in a row. Along with namesake and fellow legends Johan Cruyff, Arie Haan, Robert Rensenbrink, Johny Rep, and Ruud Krol that formed the best team that never won the World Cup.
Neeskens is amongst the many ex-Holland players who are shaping the world of soccer with their coaching skills. Soccerblog has made a point that Dutch coaching should be trademarked.
As for Neeskens, he enjoys coaching the Socceroos and seems to be living vicariously through them, the glory days of his past. The next friendly that the Socceroos play is against Holland, his old team. Any divided loyalties?
"No, it's going to feel great," he said. "For me it is a great opportunity. I was with Holland twice (as a coach), at the European championships and the world championships.But now I only look forward to playing against them. And of course we want to beat them."
Asked whether he believed the Dutch would treat the game seriously, he responded: "They'd better."
In some ways, the brutal honesty of Kevin Keegan was responsible for both success and failure. He did things by sheer will power.
The video makes clear why England went with Sven. You've got to hand it to Sven for handling the pressure!
Van Basten and his boys are ready
Remember Jaap Staam. One of the best defenders in the world. Now injury riddled and at half the pace.
But the the Dutch defence has surprised with its resiliency. They conceded only three goals in the 12 qualifiers and they played against the likes of marksmen Jan Koller and Milan Baros. And this defence is extremely mobile and capable of moving ahead into opposing terrritory. Khalid Bouhlarouz of SV Hamburg, Joris Mathijsen of AZ Alkmaar, and Giovanni Bronckhorst of Barcelona have built a solid defence. Kew Jaliens and Tim De Cler will come off the bench.
Veteran Philip Cocu leads the midfield and with Mark Van Bommel provides the conduit to strikers Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Robin Van Persie, and Arjen Robben. Edwin Van Der Saar should be his usual dependable self at goal. This Dutch team is so strong that they left out Roy Makaay, Clarence Seedorf, and Edgar Davids.
The Dutch are in Group C with Argentina, Serbia and Montenegro, and Ivory Coast.
Tons of good stuff from the soccer nerds at National Geographic:
"Introduction" by Sean Wilsey
"IVORY COAST—The Way to Win Juju on the Field," by Paul Laity
"ENGLAND—Faded Glory: Taming the Hooligans," by Nick Hornby (see the "extended" version as well)
"BRAZIL—Ballet with Ball: A Love Story," by John Lanchester
"COSTA RICA—Soccer Inc: Marketing Fanaticism," by Matthew Yeomans
"SPAIN—Morality Play: Soccer as Theater," by Robert Coover
"ANGOLA—A Greater Goal: Healing a War-Torn Land," by Henning Mankell
"ARGENTINA—Ode to Maradona: Falklands' Revenge," by Thomas Jones
"CROATIA—Group Therapy: A Nation is Born," by Courtney Angela Brkic
Here's an excerpt On 2002:
The best match of the tournament was the quarterfinal between England and Brazil, which contained equal quantities of intensity, beauty and luck. Michael Owen scored with characteristic elegance on a blistering run after a Brazilian gaffe in the 22nd minute, and England led until first half injury time, when Rivaldo equalized on a Ronaldinho assist. A minute into the restart Ronaldinho delivered an incredible, foot-of-God-like goal from a free kick from midfield. Despite three substitutions, and another forty-seven minutes, England couldn't get through Roberto Carlos and the Brazilian defense.
After the game David Beckham visited the winners' locker room, and (according to Sports Illustrated) this exchange ensued:
BECKHAM: Hi, sorry. I just wanted to know if Ronaldo wanted to swap shirts with me.
ROBERTO CARLOS (listening): I already traded shirts with him.
RONALDO (returning with a jersey): Beckham just gave me his.
The game was so good, Beckham traded shirts twice.
There's more >>
Hakan Sukur against S.Korea WC 2002. 10 seconds. The celebration took longer.
The video is over 4 minutes long, but if you are a Suker fan or want to become one all over again, its worth it. The first 30 seconds is stills. The track is "Sympathy for the Devil." Dunno! I don't think that was the first thing in the minds of those opposing goalkeepers.
The free kick that stamped Stoichkov's genius!
Hristo Stoichkov- Bulgaria, 1994
Davor Suker- Croatia, 1998
Hasan Sas- Turkey, 2002
The last three World Cups has seen teams from nowhere entering the semi-finals and bagging the third spot. Hristo Stoichkov's Bulgaria in 1994, Davor Suker's Croatia in 1998, and Hasan Sas's Turkey in 2002.
So who will surprise in this World Cup? Could we finally see the African countries breaking into the last four. Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Tunisia, or Angola. Maybe Paraguay will emerge from the shadows of Brazil and Argentina. Or Mexico. And even Iran. But this trend is what makes the WC so intriguing to watch. And Brazil.
My admiration for Thierry Henry went up an octave or more. Just when I thought it could get no higher. Arsenal spurned two £50m offers from the La Liga clubs, once Henry made up his mind to stay. The man did not want more money, he wants a legacy and that is far better. Imagine a Frenchman throwing his lot in with the EPL and ending his career in England. It should be enough to convince the hardheads in England to give up the pound and take up the euro. If not, then the least they could do is knight the guy and give him a small kingdom. Me thinks Thierrywich sounds better than Thierryshire or Thierrysex. What do you think?
I think Arsenal will be the club, with new talents Theo Walcott, Cesc Fabregas, and Johann Djourou. Go Gunners. I am wearing my Arsenal jersey today
Soccerblog called it by stating that Thierry Henry would stay with Arsenal and that getting to the League final was key. Today, Henry indicated that he would sign a new contract with Arsenal. One of the reasons:
"I love Barcelona, but on Wednesday Arsenal showed they had heart. I hope to finalise details today."
From the Beeb
Patrick Ace Ntsoelengoe
A few days ago I had written about the role that soccer played in the struggle against apartheid. But it was more an academic discourse and the article did not give it a face or a soul that makes such a struggle visceral or even personal. From Tony Karon's blog we learn that one of South Africa's legendary soccer players passed away last weekend, Ace Ntsolelengoe of the Minnesota Kicks and Kaizer Chiefs. Here is Tony's moving tribute to Ace.
As Chiefs boss Kaizer Motaung said this week, the skills of the back-to-back world footballer of the year, Ronaldinho, come closest to describing Ace’s style of play. Fans across the bridge at the Orlando West’s shanty ground, almost a kilometre from Ace’s stomping ground of Orlando stadium, would know when Ace was in possession, as the loud cries of “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace” carried out of the stadium. A trademark of his game was his sudden decision to simply walk with the ball at his feet while the game was being played at furious pace
In the course of perusing Peter Alegi's article on soccer and apartheid in South Africa, a few other names cropped up. Dharam Mohan, Conrad Stuurman, Scara Sono, and Difference Mbanya.
Being from India, the name Dharam Mohan immediately caught my attention. A South African soccer player of Indian extraction!! He was the captain of Avalon Athletic, a racially integrated soccer club in Durban. From the little I could glean, he was also a player of extra-ordinary ability. As this letter from a former referee attests. I am curious to know about Indian soccer players in South Africa and their contribution to the struggle against apartheid. There seems to have been a number of Indian players in the South African soccer league like Bob Pillay, Sugar Singh, and Thiri Rampath. Curious is the virtual absence of a mention in the Indian press which is quick to trumpet every achievement of the Indian diaspora in sports. From Alexei Grewal to Vikash Dhorasoo to Mohini Bharadwaj.
So please write to Soccerblog if you have any more information about Dharam Mohan and other Indian soccer players in South Africa.
The Barca- Arsenal final was a less than fitting end to Thierry Henry's career with Arsenal if that is what he indeed chooses to do. Henry has been extremely tight lipped about his future plans. With Barcelona as one of the clubs that is willing to pay an outrageous amount for his transfer and the chance to play with Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o where he'll get a chance to shine with the big boys, who can fault him for being tempted?
But will he do it. And that is what Arsenal and Arsene Wenger are asking right now. No other player has been tied to the ascendence of Arsenal in recent years as much as Thierry Henry. He was a part of the glory days of Patrick Viera, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Viera, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole and Emmanuel Petit that are all but gone. But he was a goal scorer then. Thierry Henry's role is different now.
The 2005-2006 season showed that Arsenal can do really well with the talent that they have and a bit more consistency. Thierry Henry through his leadership skills and experience has led the younger players to be Arsenal's gut in the future. Emmanuel Adebayor, Emmanuel Eboue, Kolo Toure, Frank Ljungberg, Matthieu Flamini, Phillipe Senderos, Theo Walcott and others. His contribution to Arsenal cannot be measured in terms of goals but just as invaluable as captain, as spokesperson, and as an overall intelligent player and scholar of the game. He has borne the vissicitudes of top flight football with impeccable grace and forged a relationship with Arsene Wenger that Alex Ferguson can only dream about with his players.
Soccerblog thinks that he will be back with Arsenal. The European champiosnhip showed that he does not have to be in the company of Ronaldinho or Samuel Eto'o to come close to the ultimate prize. There are a number of top flight players leaving La Liga and the Bundesliga joining the EPL. And if all goes according to plan then he will be locking horns with the likes of Michael Ballack, Andrei Shevchenko, and overseeing the rise of young Theo Walcott in his club. And then there is the new stadium to create another history, another era. In many ways, this phase of Thierry Henry's soccer career will be far more challenging. As player and and leader of a team that can beat the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid. And join the ranks of the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, and Eusebio.
Ronaldinho will show us how to play today!
Simon and Schuster, UK has just published Pele's autobiography. We all know Pele, the legend, the player. But in this autobiography, Pele talks about the man, the son, the husband, the parent, and the humanitarian.
A quintessential quandary of any legend is how are his or her children going to react to living with a legend. And that is true for sports too. The primacy is the issue and its balance: Does the game take over or does parenting? With excess the relationship is fraught. Or can you strike a balance? Or in some exceptions ala Richard Dawkins, do we get children who show far more empathy and understanding of the peculiar problems that confront famous parents?
Do they take the fame and talent of their parent in stride and eke out their own niche and identity with their own talent and interest in the same or a different sport (Archie Manning and Peyton Manning in American football or Yannick Noah in tennis and Joaquin Noah, his son with basketball) or do they do something completely different and learn to take their parents fame as a peripheral issue in their lives but try and emulate their parents high standard to their chosen interest (Floyd Patterson in boxing and his son, Floyd Patterson II in music) or do they fall apart with the pressure and expectations put on them. By themselves and their peers. A dysfunctional relationship as seen in Ted Williams, baseball legend and his son, John Henry Williams.
Or in the case of Edson Arantes Do Nascimento aka Pele, and his son Edinho, who became a goalkeeper for Santos (the irony was not lost on Pele). But injuries forced out Edinho and he soon turned his interests onto other things, including an unsuccesful stint in Brazilian motocross which led infamously to a death of a motorcyclist. Soon he was taking drugs and involved in drug trafficking. He was arrested and spent time in jail. Pele went through the most difficult time in his life. After Edinho's release, he joined a drug rehab center and was on his way to recovery. Pele was ecstatic at his son's turnaround. But Edinho again fell foul of the law and was re-arrested. This as late as February 2006. Which means that Pele is still dealing with his son's drug problems.
It should be a fascinating read into the life of a legend that defines the yardstick of an entire sport. Like Donald Bradman, Michael Jordan, or Nadia Comaneci.
Simon and Schuster, UK. Pele: The Autobiography, published by Simon & Schuster on May 15, priced £18.99. Copyright (c) 2006 Edson Arantes do Nascimento
The two spectacular piledrivers from Steven Gerrard and some fantastic goal keeping from Jose Reina. The 2006 FA Cup final was an instant classic.
I have to hand it to Steven Gerrard. He's ready for the Cup, the World Cup that is.
Proving himself in today's FA Cup final, Gerrard makes me believe that we can still go all the way this summer - without Rooney.
Poor West Ham. They played a great game, only to watch it slip away in the 90th minute. Here's the blow by blow account of the game.
Video to follow soon...
Ahn Jung Hwan celebrating his golden goal (S.Korea- Italy QF, WC 2002)
Italians are poor losers when it comes to football and their teams tend to play the most unattractive type of football. The World Cups they have won in the past have been done so playing defensive and soporific football. Their success in scoring goals have been through a group of opportunistic strikers, Paolo Rossi, Roberto Bettega, and Salvatore Schillaci.
So lets go back down memory lane and revisit what I thought was WC 2002's most hysterical moment. The Ahn Jung Hwan moment. The Italy vs South Korea quarterfinal.
The Italians had a number of chances to put away the game. But the Koreans equalized in time through Seol Ki-Hyeon with just two minutes left to play. Then Christian Vieri flubbed an open chance from 6 feet away to win the game for Italy a minute before the game was over. And the game went to extra time with the sudden death rule. There were a couple of questionable calls that umpire Byron Moreno made. Suddenly, the Italians found a scapegoat for their failure to score. An offside decision overruled a goal and Totti's dramatic dive and histrionic Italian appeals did not lead to a penalty kick. In fact, Totti's gamesmanship earned him the red card and he was off the field. Moments before the game was going to be decided on penalty kicks, Korean striker Ahn Jung Hwan headed in the match deciding goal. Italy was eliminated. Ciao!
Francesco Totti being sent off
The fall out was immense. And the Italians went berserk. FIFA was beseiged by hundred of thousands of irate callers demanding the head of Byron Moreno. Kickbacks were alleged. Death threats issued. The minister of public affairs called the umpire a disgrace. The Rome prosecutors office opened up an investigation into the umpire's conduct. Moreno further enraged the Italians by firing back stating the allegations of financial impropriety was a bit rich coming from the country that invented the concept of the backhander.
Christian has more on Italian style corruption in football
As Nick Hornsby writes, "at one stage it seemed only a matter of time before a small flotilla of Italian gunships would set sail across the Atlantic, to prepare the way for a full-scale invasion of Ecuador."
But the laughathon did not stop there. Luciano Gaucci, president of Perugia FC, the Italian club that Ahn Jung Hwan played for decided to sack him for his unacceptable goal. Quote. 'That gentleman will never set foot in Perugia again,' Gaucci said. 'I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian soccer.' Close quote.
(Excerpted from Nick Hornsby article in the 07-15- 2002 edition of the New Yorker. (Subscription needed))
So the question is who will be Italy's Ahn Jung Hwan in this World Cup? Italy meets the US, Ghana, and the Czech Republic in their group.
Ghana has defender Samuel Osei Kuffour of AS Roma, midfielder Sulley Ali Muntari of Udinese and striker Asamoah Gyan of Modena. And the Czech Republic have star Pavel Nedved playing for Juventus. Anyone of them can ruin Italian soccer again. But me thinks the fascist Ultras of Udinese, AS Roma, or Modena will get their shorts in a twist if anyone of the Ghanian players score against Italy. And I would think that the Ghanians playing for the Italian Serie should be careful before returning to their clubs knowing Ultras behavior.
The US has no player in the Italian Serie A.
In the May 11th edition of MSNBC's , Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Arsenal's owners were mentioned in the Worst Person segment of the programme. Curious?? Since when has the MSM mentioned English soccer or soccer for that matter. I thought it was going to be on the move from Highbury to the new stadium at Ashburton Grove and the ridiculously priced tickets that are going to pay for the stadium.
But as it turns out Olbermann's broadside was aimed at something more sinister. Here is his nomination for Arsenal.
"The runner-up, the owners of the venerable British soccer team Arsenal and the stadium at which it has played for nearly a century, Highbury. As it moves to a new stadium, Arsenal had been selling off the seats from Highbury until it was discovered that the paint on those seats contained traces of cadmium. It is a toxic medical -- metal that, among other things, can reduce men's fertility."
An extreme form of birth control? But there is nothing to worry. As Arsenal fans don't park their arses on these seats all that much, at least not when the match is in progress. They prefer standing and singing as Thierry Henry scores goals galore. At least we hope so. Although it must be a darned problem getting through those metal detectors at airports.
But it is disturbing to note that the Arsenal owners stack up against such luminaries as Neal Boortz, Michael Savage, and Bill O' Reilly for the worst person award. The winner of the 11th May edition of Countdown- Neal Boortz. Here is what he had to say on the Columbine tragedy.
But the winner, radio commentator Neal Boortz, who said that offering counseling to kids traumatized by shootings in schools was just an attempt to sell them on the idea that government is, quote, "responsible for everything." He said there should not have been counseling offered to the students at Columbine. "I had a friend," Boortz said, "that died of leukemia. Never once did they run a bunch of damned counselors into the school the next day assist me in getting my feeling out about this issue." Yeah, Neal, and look how good you turned out.
Alan Shearer will be missed. A gutsy forward who played through repeated injuries to his knees and England's ups and downs through two World Cup in '94 and '98. He was Newcastle's record striker scoring 206 goals and also captain of the WC '98 English squad. His retirement came in the wake of another knee injury sustained three weeks ago that sidelined him from future matches.
In his testimonial match against Celtic attended by over 55,000 fans and an old boy squad of Les Ferdinand, Gary Speed, Steve Watson, and Robert Lee; Shearer kicked off the match and came on to score the penalty that gave Newcastle victory over Celtic 3-2.
Alan Shearer factoid: The youngest player in English first dvision soccer to score a hat trick. He was 17 years and 8 months when he scored for Chelsea against Arsenal in 1988.
And what of the future: He is the qunitessential Geordie, so there is speculation that he might take over in a managerial/coaching capacity with Newcastle on a permanent basis. Or an ambassadorial role. For now he wants to bring his six golf handicap down.
Nick Hornby describes Highbury and the first match that he went for with his dad. An excerpt from Fever Pitch his autobiographical novel of growing up in a dysfunctional, Arsenal loving family.
"The Arsenal pitch was to be our lawn (and, being an
English lawn, we would usually peer at it mournfully
through driving rain); the Gunners' Fish Bar on
Blackstock Road our kitchen; and the West Stand
our home. It was a wonderful set-up, and changed
our lives just when they needed changing most, but
it was also exclusive"
On his first match
"I don't recall much about the football that first
afternoon. One of those tricks of memory enables me
160 to see the only goal clearly: the referee awards a
penalty (he runs into the area, points a dramatic
finger, there's a roar); a hush as Terry Neill takes it,
and a groan as Gordon Banks dives and pushes the
ball out; it falls conveniently at Neill's feet and this
time he scores. But I am sure this picture has been
built up from what I have long known about similar
incidents, and actually I was aware of none of this. All
I really saw on the day was a bewildering chain of
incomprehensible incidents, at the end of which
everyone around me stood and shouted. If I did the
same, it must have been an embarrassing ten
seconds after the rest of the crowd."
Here is Roger Daltrey's tribute to Highbury. Thierry Henry gets a mention.
Highbury Highs - written by Roger Daltrey
I've seen children grow
On this field of green
On this field of dreams
The years have passed away
I've stood side by side With London's Pride
We laughed and we cried
We lived another day
To those Highbury Highs under North London skies
Yes we will remember those Highbury Highs
Those Highbury Days and those Highbury ways
Yes we will remember those Highbury Days
From Rocky,Ray and Raddy
To Dennis,Chippy,Paddy
The Rock of Tony Adams
The Joy of Charlie George
Chapman, Graham, Wenger
Yes we will remember
Henry,Bastin,Wright
And those record breaking scores
All those Highbury Highs under North London skies
Yes we will remember those Highbury Highs
Those Highbury Days and those Highbury ways
Yes we will remember those Highbury Days
May those Highbury Highs be with you all your days
May your Highbury Highs last forever
There’s one thing that's certain when they drop the final curtain
Something you can bet your shirt on The Arsenal's here to stay
All those Highbury Highs under North London skies
Yes we will remember those Highbury Highs
Those Highbury Days and those Highbury ways
We will always remember those Highbury..HIGHBURY..Highbury
Highbury..HIGHBURY
Highbury Highs say your final goodbyes
We will always remember those Highbury Highs
Say your final goodbyes to those Highbury Days
WE will always remember those Highbury Days
WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER THOSE HIGHBURY DAYS
RPT CHORUS
I prefer My Generation, Summertime Blues, Pin Ball Wizard, Who are you, and a whole bunch of Who's songs but somehow these goofy lyrics are quite alright in the context of Highbury closing. It must have taken Daltrey exactly 10 minutes to write this song.
Arsenal beat Wigan 4-2 and Tottenham went down to West Ham 1-2. Thierry Henry scored a brilliant hat trick.
Arsenal go onto the European championships while Spurs will have to contend for the UEFA Cup. On the bragging rights, this is the 12th season in a row that Arsenal has claimed the North London derby over the Spurs.
Looks like Arsene Wenger's pre- match words had their requisite effect on Alan Pardew and the Hammers. That and a strange incident of food poisoning that made half the Spurs team ill before their match. Gunpowder??
Fabien Barthez, the ever peripatetic French goalkeeper who was rarely to be found in goal but mostly charged out to tackle opposing strikers. He proved to be quite successful.
Rene Higuita, flamboyance is thy name. Here is his famous scorpion kick.
Goalkeeping can be a lonely experience. Your team's attack is doing really great and the action is going on in the other half of the field for interminable periods of time. The goalstrikers get all the attention, the endorsements, the money, the girls, and the fast cars. The TV focuses on them everytime they twitch. While the goalie is lucky if he gets a mugshot.
Well, here are the goalies who said enough is enough. We are going to be flamboyant and venture out of the D, dribbling past opposing players and showing of our passing and shooting skills.
Jose Luis Chilavert, Paraguay's extra-ordinary talent was one of them. He was regularly called onto take free kicks and penalties for his team. In all he scored 62 goals and eight of them were in international matches, four of them coming in Paraguay's qualifiers to the 2002 World Cup.
This article echoes the thoughts of millions of Brasilians around the world.
Ronaldo is not finished. He is getting ready to become the greatest player of all time:
- In 97 matches with Ronaldo on the field, Brazil has lost only eight times.
- He is the nation's greatest scorer in World Cups with 12 goals, tied with Pele.
- Three goals in Germany would make Ronaldo the tournament's leading scorer. He has two goals fewer than Gerd Muller of Germany and one fewer than Just Fontaine of France.
- Ronaldo also could equal Pele's feat as a three-time World Cup winner. Despite being only 17, he was a member of Brazil's team that, led by Romario, won the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
And don't forget the video I showed you last time.
Your mouth is open! Don't forget to breathe...
Almost six minutes long:
Amongst the jubilation at Highbury and the financial windfall following Arsenal's entry to the Champions League final, reportedly a cool £19.9m. That figure may reach £21.7m if they beat Barcelona or Milan in Paris on May 17, is a note of worry and real concern.
That match might be the last time Thierry Henry plays for Highbury. His future plans are something of an enigma but what is certain is that Barcelona and Real Madrid are duking it out to get him to their ball clubs. And we are talking serious money, the likes that Arsenal cannot afford.
Madrid are reportedly willing to offer the Premiership's top scorer £154,000 a week, £4,000 a week less than Ronaldinho earns at Camp Nou. And Barca has made a commitment of £30 m for his services.
With both these clubs he enters the rarified world of Brazilian samba and African makossa soccer. With Barca he will have Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o and Real will give him Ronaldo and Kaka. Not to trivialize EPL soccer but these are really the big boys. And what striker worth his salt will spurn this chance.
Look for the Queen's birthday honors that might bestow Thierry Henry with the coveted OBE or KCMG. Or at least a street or square in London named after him. C'mon! Sir Thierry Henry sounds pretty damn good. It is a small price to pay for keeping a player that has taken the first London club to a Championship final.
Ronaldinho, April 24th 2006
"A decisive week is beginning for Barcelona. In fact, it’s another decisive week because each game has been a decision for us both in La Liga and the Champions League.
It will start on Sunday in the game against Sevilla away from home. Our aim is to try to get a good result to keep the point difference on the league table and then, on Wednesday, it’s the return game against Milan. What a game."
For more Ronaldinho's diary
Christian's concern was well founded but we will get to see the maestro in action during this World Cup one last time. Zenedine Zidane had announced his retirement previously in August 2004. His retirement at the time came in the wake of unsubstantiated reports that several of his teammates on the French squad had protested against his captaincy of the team. Thierry Henry, Patrick Viera and Robert Pires are alleged to have said Zidane should leave the captaincy to somebody more deserving.
But he was persuaded by Raymond Domenech, the French coach to play for France in this World Cup. Zizou's announcement in August 2005, that he was returning spurred Claude Makélélé and Liliam Thuram to also give up their retirement and return to the field. The trio played their first game against the Faroe Islands. Zidane's return helped inspire the team to World Cup qualification.
Zizou's family comes from the same Berber village in Algeria as one of my neighbors and though he plays for France, he is held in great pride in the Berber community, a minority in Algeria. They have fought a long and hard war to make Tamazghit, their language equal in status to Arabic, the official language.
In the 1998 World Cup, angered by a challenge during the 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia, Zizou lost his cool completely and stamped on Saudi skipper Fuad Amin. He was red-carded and banned for two matches, including the last-16 win over Paraguay.
France went on to win the World Cup of course. But for a Berber woman living in a Marseilles tenement the defining moment of that match, and perhaps of the Cup, was the one in which Zinedine's studded boot smashed down on to an Arab leg. ``That was Zinedine's revenge against the Arabs,'' she was to tell a reporter.
In 2001 Zidane moved to the world's richest club, Real Madrid, becoming the most expensive player in the game's history. The Spanish club signed him for $64.45 million, a record that still stands. In 2002, he helped the Spanish team to the European Champions League after beating Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 in the final. Few can forget the historic left-foot volley he delivered from the edge of the area to seal his team's victory. The goal was selected by experts as one of the best 10 in history.
Hopefully, Zizou will go out in style in this World Cup. He heads a strong French midfield with Claude Makelele, Patrick Viera, Robert Pires, and Vikash Dhorasoo.
I just thought our readers would enjoy this video. Romario's effortlessness is what this is all about. You never see him sprinting!
In this video, the 1993-94 Barcelona Dream Team (coached by Johan Cruyff) beats Real Madrid 5-0, with a hat-trick from Romario:
Alan Shearer played his last game against Sunderland and went out in style scoring a goal in Sunderland's defeat 4-1. The former England captain spurned Manchester United to sign up with Newcastle in 1996 and gave his all to his new club for the next decade.
Suffering through numerous knee injuries including an anterior cruciate ligament tear that would have surely wrecked his career, Shearer soldiered on and became Newcastle's leading scorer with 206 goals.
Dave Crossan describes the moment that earned Shearer a permanent place in the hearts of Newcastle fans.
The impossible dream appeared set to become reality when Shearer, playing with the likes of Ferdinand, Beardsley, Ginola and Lee, scored the 4th in a 5-0 rout of Manchester United at St. James' in October 1996.
It was a goal Shearer rather enjoyed as he eschewed his typical goalscoring celebration for a fist-pumping stomp down the touchline in front of the Manchester United supporters; the perfect retort to taunts from the fans that he had moved to Newcastle to pad his wallet rather than to win football matches.
His actions that day sealed his place in Geordie affections.
We at Soccerblog, think that amongst other ways of honoring the man who best exemplified The Beautiful Game, soccer lovers all over the world should observe a two minute silence before kick off in the inaugural match of the 2006 World Cup.
We encourage soccer lovers to write to FIFA making this observance official.
Email: contact@fifa.org
Brasil and the world will miss you, Telê Santana.
We are thankful that you were here to guide Brasil through the dark ages. You kept the light of the game burning when everyone was ready to give up. Without you there would be no chance for the Hexa! Thank you Telê Santana.
Zico said that of all the coaches he played under Santana was the only one who banned his players from committing fouls. You can read the real story here.
Before he became the fat boy in the Nike Joga Bonito ads and a third-rate actor, Eric Cantona had real talent.
He was far better than Beckham. Exhibit A:
Sit tight and watch keenly:
Some of the best goals in the history of the game. Viel spass:
If you liked Part 1, you'll love this.
Helpful hint: It is 20 minutes long, so make sure your boss isn't around.
I'm not too worried about VISA or MASTERCARD...
Goals by Ronaldinho, Romario, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Cruyyf, Maradona, Puyol,Geovanni, Luis Enrique, Guardiola, Koeman, Luis Figo, Nadal, Eto, Stoichkov, Puskas, Laudrup, De La Pena, Kluivert, Denilson and many more...
If Barça was a British club, they would beat Man U in their business valuation... So would Real Madrid!
Well, maybe this should decide the debate - Pele makes Eusebio look bad in this video...
Pretty impressive, Shourin! And he would have been a good PM too...
So what does Pele say?
The World Cup in 1966. Portugal was with their backs against the wall in their match with North Korea, 3-0 facing one of their most embarassing defeats. Enter: Eusebio Ferrieira Da Silva. In an extraordinary explosion of soccer wizardry the world would see, Eusebio scored four goals. With his lightning fast acceleration, dribbling skills, and a lethal right foot he stunned the Koreans.
Portugal went on to win the match 5-3. A star was born. Eusebio scored nine goals, the most in WC 1966. Portugal finished third, the best finish that they have had to date in WC, losing to England in the semi-final to a brace scored by Bobby Charlton, 1-2.
Eusebio finished his career leading Benfica to 10 championship leagues and 5 cups. He sored a phenomenal 727 goals in 715 matches for Benfica. The most ever for a Portugese player. He scored twice in the European Cup final in 1962 against Alfred De Stefano's Real Madrid side to help Benfica win 5-3.
And in his first match for Benfica, a friendly against Santos played in Paris in 1960, Eusebio scored a goal within minutes. He went on to score three. One of his opponents was none other than Pele.
Not bad for a lad born in Maputo, Mozambique.
Eusebio paved the way for a generation of future African superstars like Didier Drogba, Kolo Toure, Henri Camara, El Hadji Diouf, and Mohamed Sissoko .
Happy now, Humberto? :-)
It's a pity George Best never got to the World Cup. Here's a BBC clip you're sure to like:
Rob Hughes writes about the ailing Telê Santana in the International Herald Tribune today.
Is this the man who saved the beautiful game? It is a very important one for all football fans everywhere. It is true that Brazil almost lost its way, but thanks to Santana, we are still playing the game the way God planned it.
Here is Hughes' version of Santana's story:
Sometimes it takes a jolt of disquieting news from far away to remind us that Europe is not the be-all and end-all of global soccer.
It can seem that way because the Champions League dominates the club game, and the World Cup will be with us in Germany come June. But while it is the money that brings the best players of the world to Europe, it is still Brazil whose ability to elevate soccer to art provides the beauty in so many teams now playing there.
The two men I think of whenever I hear the phrase "O Jogo Bonito" (effectively, "The Beautiful Game" in Portuguese) are Pelé and Telê Santana.
Pelé, who played it and is associated with saying it, is thriving as he has for almost half a century of World Cups.
Santana is not so well. He is in intensive care in Felício Rocho Hospital in Belo Horizonte, where three years ago he had a leg amputated because of a blood disorder and where he now struggles for breath because of an intestinal infection.
Santana, 74, is a fighter and always has been. As a player, a winger, he was nicknamed Thread of Hope because his stamina and heart seemed to defy the slenderest of builds.
As a coach, which is when I met him, his determination to champion the beautiful game gave a whole generation of Brazilians - and the rest of us who are merely attracted to the principles of jogo bonito - the chance to believe talent would be liberated in spite of the concerted efforts of Brazilians themselves to make the game tougher and more consistent with European organization.
The fight, like Santana's personal battle with illness, which started with smoking, goes back a long way. It involves the struggle between pragmatism and play, and it comes from men who also called themselves coaches.
Way back in 1966, Pelé and his colleagues were brutally kicked and inadequately protected during the World Cup in England. The Europeans booted the Brazilians literally off the ball and snuffed out their inspiration through applied organization and with the help of compliant refereeing.
A school of Brazilian coaches, led by Cláudio Coutinho, an army captain, came to Europe, studied the methods particularly in West Germany and went home to try to "Europeanize" the methods there.
One of Coutinho's young aides, Carlos Alberto Parreira, has become the coach today. Parreira, a physical educationalist and a thoroughly pleasant man, succeeded in training the 1994 Brazil team that won the 1994 World Cup and, with his assistant Mário Zagalo, is back now guiding the team that goes to Germany as tournament favorite.
Parreira's style is intelligent. He seeks order, but he knows that with God-given talents like Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Robinho, his team needs a measure of liberty going forward. They can, given the platform, simply outscore the rest.
With deference to the three R's, the consistent thread through the past five World Cups has been Marcos Evangelista de Moraes, simply known as Cafu. Nominally the right back, and now just coming back after a right knee operation, Cafu is too adventurous to be a dedicated fullback.
He will turn 36 by the time the World Cup kicks off, but he has never lost that irrepressible spirit that was encouraged in his youth, encouraged by Telê Santana.
As with Zico, Sócrates, Falcão, Júnior and Éder, some of the most thrilling of Brazilians over the past 30 years, Santana has been their mentor, their liberator, their strength to believe that even when Brazil's own league took a brutal swing toward coarse defensiveness, skill was the way forward.
The balance has to be held, even for Brazil, which is the only Latin American country to win the World Cup on European soil - in Pelé's fledgling year, 1958. Even Luiz Felipe Scolari, who coached the 2002 World Cup winning team in Korea-Japan, seemed to undergo a conversion along the road; he was a renowned pragmatist, a coach whose team played dirty until it reached the finals, and then he allowed it to blossom.
Bless him for that.
All the while, when his health allowed it, Santana was defending the cause of jogo bonito.
He suffered for his beliefs when at two World Cups, in 1982 and 1986, he led the nation but returned home defeated and insulted and pelted with rotting fruit at the airports.
Particularly in 1982, where Brazil pursued the beautiful game and came unstuck in a sensational game of attack and counterattack against Italy, this was the bravest of defiance. Brazil lacked a finisher of anything like the quality it has today, and it lacked a reliable goalie, but it was Paolo Rossi's hat trick, in a 3-2 Italian victory, that was the undoing.
Santana acknowledged Rossi's brilliance. Other Brazilians blamed the coach. He went back eventually to coach São Paulo to capture the Copa Libertadores twice, and each time to win the World Club Cup.
Vindicated, but never to give up his Beautiful Game, and never to concede to the brutes and the intellectuals who said Brazil had to become like all the rest, Santana was forced to retire in 1996. He suffered a stroke, he had diabetes, and though he had long ago abandoned cigarettes, he suffered consequences of smoking, too.
His son Renê Santana said Monday that, though his father was breathing through a ventilator, he was responding to treatment. "It gives us hope," said the son, "that he will recover, though it would take a long time."
The long fight to restore beauty to the game has put Brazil's national side back on the road to health. Kaka, Robinho, Adriano and Cicinho, the young prospects, possibly barely know how much Santana fought to liberate the game.
A bit on the long side, but worth every second.
It's in the mist of forgetten times, at the advent of the Great Depression that the US made the trip to Uruguay for the inaugural World Cup in 1930. And the last time the US soccer team would ever make the semi finals of the World Cup. Their success lay single footedly at the feat of Bertram Patenaude who scored four goals in the tournament including the first ever hat trick in World Cup history. Patenaude scored three goals in the 10th, 15th, and the 50th minute against Paraguay on July 17, 1930. But it was not without controversy, as there was some dispute as to the second goal being an own goal. If that was indeed the case then Guillermo Stabile of Argentina would have been the first to claim the distinction and the US would have slid into greater depression. But FIFA upheld the Patenaude goal and his title to the first hat trick.
A bit of perspective. Bertram Patenaude played just 4 international matches for the US, scoring six goals. He was the last US player to score against Brazil when they lost 4-3. He scored twice. The next time a US player would get a goal against Brazil was in 1998.
From his days at Napoli... a young Maradona shows us how hungry he was for goals. It was this hunger combined with his talent that made him El Pibe!
Right Humberto? (Humberto is our shy Argentinian "correspondent" - he has not posted on the blog yet!) :-)
