Manchester in the mid 1980s, the mecca of the rave scene and Factory Records. Impresario Tony Wilson brought to life through Steve Coogan in Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People walks us through The Haçienda, ground zero for the Madchester scene which saw Ian Brown, Shaun Ryder, Mark "Bez" Berry, Martin Hannett and many other names. Fac 51's history was tightly linked to New Order who financed most of the club when it opened in 1982 till it folded in 1997. Two years later Man Utd won its first CL title.
Cantona's self aggrandizing announcement that he would like to coach his former club was met by a collective loss of bodily functions of acolytes all over the world.
The man is an attention seeking gadfly. At the moment when the world watches the CL final between Man Utd and Barca, Cantona will be attending the premiere of his film in which he utters, " I am Cantona " Great line but that's the problem. It works because those words define his legend. Everything will fall into place when he says that. Man Utd's opponents will be caught in Magneto like force fields in which they mutate into spineless jelly fishes. His players will be set free of doubt and self loathing. Its a bit like the Flying Spaghetti Monster. A parody. Why believe in evolution and its complexity when there is a simple design. Its unthinking and fallacious. Just like when it comes to football, that a fetish for a cult of personality, will work.
Do you think Sir Alex in a million years would hobnob with the Cannes crowd? Good managers are for a lack of a better word, nerds. Even Jose Mourinho who looks a bit like a botoxed telenovela star was ill at ease when dragged into a studio in front of a live TV audience and forced to watch some scantily clad nymphet commit a sideline foul on him. Marcelo Lippi, Guus Hiddink, Arsene Wenger, Rafa Benitez, Felix Magath, every good coach shuns attention. Except Phil Brown who could have single handedly revived Chrysler's used car division. They can ill afford being egotistic. Or launch some half career. Or kick sand. Or launch some half career in kicking sand.
It means paying attention to details. From transfer budgets to fouls committed. It means remaining focused doing grunt work. Sounds like an accountant but that is what managers are deep down inside. Wenger's thoughts don't turn to love when spring comes around, he is already calculating the transfer market. Sir Alex is worried that Ronaldo might leave, he wants Ribery. Think Cantona can handle all that. Bollocks.
Anyway, his next movie is called "The Pelvis moves". Seems like the right move.
Martin Jol stepped up as Ajax manager following Marco Van Basten's resignation.
Jol's former club Hamburg started the season at a furious pace and was favoured to win either the Bundesliga, UEFA Cup or the German Cup but in the end Werder had their number and they lost three straight times to end up empty handed. They managed 5th position, good enough to get a Europa spot but the season ended disappointingly for many fans who believed the club should have done better.
It was not Cesc who used Brian Horton as a spittoon. Who was it then? A llama or a paan chewing Indian or mere projection on the part of Hull's assistant manager at losing a bitter match.
Six days to the CL Final and adidas gives us a peek at the next gen of TUNiT boot technology called the F50i which Lionel Messi will debut on Wednesday in Rome.
Do shoes make such a difference? Any player will tell you they do. Nano-seconds count, when it's all about performance.
Plus there's always the psychological factor. Not to mention protecting the metatarsals - just ask Wayne Rooney!
Let's look at shoe architecture for a second. I'd say adidas' philosophy of modular design is pretty impressive. It's like, er, what's the phrase I'm looking for? ... German engineering. Performance and aesthetics.
So what's Messi's shoe going to look like? The previous model of the F50 was pretty cool: players customize the boot according to personal preferences and weather conditions. This includes choosing the color of the upper. Prevailing weather conditions on the day of play also affect the choice of upper. There are five colors and three different materials to choose from. The first material is an easy-care, durable and non-absorbent synthetic. The second is a soft leather and the third the ultralight and breathable material.
As a next step, the player chooses between two different chassis. The chassis forms the interior of the shoe and holds the studs. The tuning options are a lightweight standard chassis for perfect stability and optimal distribution of stud pressure as well as an ultralight competition chassis for maximum flexibility in the forefoot and optimum breathability in combination with the breathable upper.
The selected chassis is then inserted into the upper and the studs can be screwed in from the outside. Three stud systems ensure a perfect hold and a good grip, whatever the conditions on the pitch. The patented adidas studs ensure optimum contact on all kinds of hard and artificial turf, as well as on various hard and soft natural turfs.
Finally, the player selects the insole to determine the boot’s degree of comfort and breathability. The premolded, soft and slightly cushioned insole as well as the somewhat thinner, perforated and thus extremely lightweight, breathable sock liner offer real comfort.
Heck, if they made a modular street-sole I'd clip it on and wear it to work! Cleats 2.0 - we've come a long way from this! Don't get me wrong, I spent half my life in those... and loved 'em!
Until Wednesday, then!
The CL Final could become the Battle of the Boots! Personally, I think CR has already lost that one.
FC Twente's ascent up the Eredivisie has gone a some ways in rehabilitating the image of the much maligned ex-England manager. Steve McLaren's resume now includes a Dutch accent picked up at beer nights. He does a passable impression of Guus Hiddink, which might make him attractive to Boro, his former club who might be walking out Gareth Southgate.
Meanwhile Richard Williams can barely contain himself at the prospect of that rarest of species: A winning English coach. What next, peace in the Middle East?
McBride's sixth goal of the season in nine games gave visiting Chicago a 2-0 win over Toronto. The Fire are on top of the Eastern division standings and McBride and Josh Wolff lead in league goal scoring.
Real Madrid has come knocking and part of Florentino Perez's rebuilding of the club not only includes the potential signing of high powered stars like Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Cesc Fabregas but also getting a quality manager. Real has been linked with Wenger for a number of years but it is usually in the fevered imaginations of publications like Marca. The Frenchman usually dismisses them.
However, he met up Perez in Paris last week in which he was informed about Real's plans. In an interview with a French media outlet, Wenger reportedly said that the Perez's vision would sound attractive to any coach. When it came to the question of commitment to Arsenal he offered a bit more ambiguity saying ""In general I usually stay until the end of my contract." His contract runs till 2011.
I think Wenger has been hurt by the negative feelings of many supporters who see the present club's performance as hitting an impasse.
Frustration bubbled over in recent shareholder meeting where Wenger was put on the spot and reacted with some feeling stating that "You sit here, you are in the last four in Europe, and every day you feel you have killed someone," he said. "It is unbelievable."
The less than unequivocal commitment to the club maybe a bit of a shot across the bow to the fans but it also feels like a warning to the board that they need to open up the purse strings to get some quality players. So far Wenger has been very careful, tightly controlling transfer money so as not to add onto existing stadium debt. What works in the clubs favour is Wenger's mantra that the club needs just a couple of quality additions to the defense and midfield to start winning titles. He will need to honour his contract to prove this theory true.
However you might want to interpret this, a line has been crossed with this meeting.
"Zeru tituli" is a code word in both Inter and AC Milan's history.
It refers to Massimo Ambrosini's two year old Inter taunt when AC won the 2007 CL finals.
On March 3rd, Mourinho threw the taunt back as he said the Rossoneri would win no titles more than two months before the end of the season. The infuriated Ambrosini went on air to ask for an apology. Which set off Mourinho.
The two words have become viral with legions of Inter fans sporting banners. Zero titles has become Dante's inferno for Ancelotti, Ranieri, and Spaletti. None of them might return next season. It has become a verdict without trial. Split rivals, sown dissension, and vitiated club atmosphere.
Yesterday, Milan lost to Udinese, 1-2 gifting Inter their fourth Serie title in succession. It gave the Special One his first scudetto making today's 3-0 win over Siena moot.
"If you play tennis tomorrow, you lose against Nadal, you can still say you are a good player."
Roger Federer might be comforted by Wenger's words but the fact is that he still lost and lost not because he played badly, he just came up against a more relentless player.
We would have no problems if Arsenal had done what Federer did, play a good game, and still lost. It was the abjectness of their defeats which have been so disquieting.
Wenger knows this. It has been a bitter end to the season and fans have reacted strongly. It is a bit fallacious to say that Man Utd's resources cannot be matched. This is not a David vs Goliath situation. Arsenal has the money but the conscious game plan has been to spend it on young and relatively inexperienced talent. It has worked superbly to a level just below the best but the last few matches have proved that it is not enough.
Werder had Hamburg's number this season. Make it three of three. Baumann's goal ended their UEFA aspirations. They also lost the German Cup. And this weekend Martin Jol's squad crashed out of title contention after being beaten by Hugo Almeida's brace.
Looks like a steady procession of injured and suspended players is complicating Pep Guardiola's preparation for the Cl final. He has a depleted back four with Abidal and Alves out through suspension. Rafa Marquez is injured.
However the bitterest blow could be Andres Iniesta who suffered a suspected muscle tear in his right thigh. Further investigations will be done Monday to ascertain the extent of the tear.
Not sure why Guardiola wanted to expose his best player to the rigours of the Liga. The title win is a just a matter of time. Iniesta will definitely miss the Copa Del Rey final against Atletico Bilbao but he is also doubtful for the CL final.
These players are central to their clubs fortunes but they always manage to live in the twilight zone with their questionable commitment and/ or their behavioral issues. In between they throw up tantalizing glimpses of their undoubted potential.
Emmanuel Adebayor:
On one of the biggest encounters in club history, the Togolese striker was AWOL against Man Utd in both legs of the CL semi-final, enhancing long held suspicions that his commitment to his club is skin deep. Milan should take note. One of the most infuriating thing about Adebayor: For all his size and strength, the striker plays like the incredible shrinking man. He is terrible at playing with his back to goal and is easily dispossessed of the ball. Unless this improves he is not one of the best strikers in the world, as he likes to brag. He still remains Arsenal's most productive goal scorer because RVP can't buy himself an injury free season.
Didier Drogba:
It remains a coin toss as to what keeps the Cote D'Ivoirian prima donna purring. The right manager? But even that may not be enough as Guus Hiddink found out in the CL semi-final against Barca as Drogba went Ovreboard. Drogba's form has been one of the keys to Chelsea's late season revival but his temperament is more tightly wound than one of Roger Federer's racquet strings. Drogba could have won them the game but his affinity for remaining parallel more than perpendicular robbed Chelsea of a much needed second goal. As it turned out it was Iniesta who cornered all the glory and Barca that goes to the CL final.
Robinho:
Greed lured the Brazilian to a club he probably did not know existed after Chelsea failed in its bid. The most expensive signing in club history was heralded as a player that City could build around and yet in the months past, Mark Hughes finally had to resort to benching him to get a pulse on the field. He has shown a bit more ambition in the last few games after a huge gap from scoring his last goal in December. In between he became more well known for his off field behaviour including charges of statutory rape. Robinho's commitment on the field remains a huge concern. His up and down performance have Hughes squarely in the management's firing squad.
Amr Zaki:
What can you say about the granite faced Egyptian? He had the Wigan fans salivating and the rest of the Premiership on tenterhooks every time he took the field. Wigan began its season as if a mule had kicked its behind and the mule was Zaki. Virtually unstoppable with treadmills for legs, Zaki was on a tear when he suddenly disappeared after national team duty in late March. Was it a hamstring injury, a lack of quality shisha cafes, or the miserable winter? It was all a mystery. Steve Bruce had had enough. He resurfaced again working his way back into Bruce's favour only for his season to be cut short with a knee injury.
Dimitar Berbatov:
The target of Man Utd's unrequited love finally made it to Old Trafford after what appears to be an Italian Job on Spurs. When not on his game, even a cardboard cutout shows more alacrity. The nadir came when Berbs did some fancy exaggerated footwork before lazily slugging it straight to Tim Howard in the FA Cup semi-final. The quintessential Berbs conundrum: He makes goal scoring effortless, if he can be bothered to show up at all. Man Utd fans work themselves into a frenzy in wonderment. That he has not been a target of sustained wrath is because, despite him, the club remains on target to win the Premiership.
Sepp Blatter sent his legal team to ensure that the elections to the FIFA executive committee went off smoothly in one of the most bitter and acrimonious campaigns that pitted incumbent Mohammed Bin Hammam, AFC president from Qatar against Bahrain's challenger Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa.
Today, Bin Hammam retained his seat in a close vote 23-21 on his 60th birthday.
India, Australia, Indonesia, amongst others voted for the AFC president while South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and the Gulf coast countries voted against him.
There is enormous amount of work to be done including the future of the AFC as the true representative of Asian football or whether it needs to be restructured into smaller, independent entities that manage regional aspirations much more effectively. There seems to be a groundswell of support for such a split.
In the Turkish league crossbars can be a goalkeeper's deadliest foe.Kayserispor goalkeeper Souleymanou Hamidou learned this bitter lesson in the game between his team and Trabzonspor.The crossbar which normally causes the ball to bounce off harmlessly in other leagues redirected the ricochet onto Hamidou's head and into the goal.
It seems like aeons ago, that Real won the title but it was just last season and the coach was Bernd Schuster. It of course has become de rigueur at Real to fire coaches who win them titles. Schuster was shown the door.
Ryan Giggs should get his 800th cap. A special moment for a special player. We can dispute his PFA award but Sir Alex will be looking to him to provide some special moments.
The Ronaldo Rooney combination is looking mighty dangerous and leaves Wenger with a bit of a problem of trading off Gibbs speed for Silvestre's match experience to contain that left to right link up. With Silvestre the chances of dead ball opportunities for Man U skyrocket. Ronaldo will relish those chances.
I think Wenger should start Gibbs for his work rate as well as for his Clichy like propensity for counterattacks. Song's toughness at the back will help in clogging the middle.
Adebayor starts as the lone striker on top but the question is who plays behind him. Fabregas seems to have found his scoring touch, however his best work begins downfield, and if it is a choice then Nasri should fill that space.
Many of Walcott's crosses have gone begging without the Gunners getting a boot or head on them. The troops need to come up and Walcott needs to wait a wee bit for the best chance at conversion.
Yes, all that and no need to micromanage the ball into goal. Snap shots. The kind we saw at Liverpool and Boro.
Chelsea sure knows how to spoil a good party. Hiddink outcoached Guardiola with his tactic of dropping Ballack deep. The German midfielder broke down lots of plays. Their consensus by committee approach on dealing with Messi and Iniesta paid dividends. 20 fouls is a lot of scrappiness.
In between Drogba tested Rafa Marquez and Victor Valdes with the best chance for the Blues.
That and Barca were off their finishing touch throughout the match. Bojan Krkic had a glorious chance to put the match away in the dying minutes but misdirected his header.
Now it goes to Stamford Bridge where Barca will have to prove that they are indeed the best team in the world.
The man is on fire since joining the Fire and his 5 goals in 6 games have kept the club at the top of the East. His 86th minute header against his old club brought the Fire back to life after they had surrendered two early goals to the Crew. Two minutes later Gonzalo Segares scored the equalizer in a dramatic end that left the Crew still searching for their first win.
Spurs travel to Old Trafford to take on Man U. They have been in good form against the top four remaining unbeaten, which is what the Reds are hoping will happen by match end. The Reds face Hull, and unless their defense decides to make this interesting, this should be three easy points.
Rafael starts at right back in place of the injured Gary Neville, an advantage that Assou-Ekotto and Luka Modric should try and exploit. Darren Bent has had a good streak. Pavlyuchenko is injured but Defoe should be ready.
Redknapp could make this more interesting by introducing Frazier Campbell, the Man Utd striker on loan, who could use his talent to embarrass his old club.
Video:Sir Alex Ferguson with red nose chases balloon
A video clip of Alex Ferguson reacting to the ref's decision not to award Man U a penalty against Everton has been very cleverly reworked to look as if he is chasing after after a pink balloon.He also for some reason has a red nose.
Good times. The man with a mouth is back in the saddle again at Ipswich City. And he starts off with a flourish mud wrestling former Man U team mates Steve Bruce, Mark Hughes, Paul Ince, and Bryan Robson. He even managed to singe a few nose hairs of Republic of Ireland compatriot Steve Cascarino.
Not bad for the first day.
At least Keane fights his own battles. So refreshingly different from the thin skinned crap flying around in the Premiership where Big Sam's paranoia involves analyzing Rafa's body language which is then channeled by Sir Alex to launch his own vendetta against the Spaniard.
Now he has to put his money where his mouth is and actually do something constructive at Ipswich. Niall Quinn will wish the Suffolk team well because he has had to clean up twice after Keane.
A good indicator would be to see if he is growing a beard.
Adriano 8 year association with Inter came to an end this Friday by mutual consent.
He failed to show up in Italy following the Brazil World Cup qualifier played at the beginning of this month stating that he no longer enjoyed playing soccer and wanted to remain in Brazil to think things through. Adriano's career took a nosedive battling depression after he broke up with fiancee Joana Machado.
Well we know now why he wants to remain in Brazil. He is now dating Brazilian singer-dancer Ellen Cardoso aka Mulher Moranguinho or Strawberry Woman. Can you blame him? She looks like the perfect antidote to a broken heart. Here is more of her >>
For all you relegation bound clubs. Know this. We love you. Because you might not get there but we recognize your talent and more importantly, your courage. Its hidden like Susan Boyle, under a disheveled look, bushy eyebrows and all. She unlike Beckham, has made the big crossover.
And if you get there, we too will be gobsmacked. So fight on Baggies.
The mind boggles at what the tally of red cards might have been if it hadn't been a peace match...!Three players and both coaches were sent off on Sunday in a Brazilian derby which had been preceded by a campaign to promote peace between the supporters of Juventude and Caxias.
Gilmar Iser, coach of Juventude,ran on to the pitch to protest a decision and he got sent off.Then the Caxias coach who has a rather unfortunate and mind boggling kind of name also got dismissed after an angry exchange with the fourth official.Things got worse and three more players got their marching orders.Details here...
This time in Ken Loach's movie about a depressed postman called Eric, a fan of Cantona who turns to the former Man U forward for advice and friendship. It has characters called Spleen and Meatballs. And a priceless line, "I am not a man, I am Cantona."
The song is 'Pass it on' by The Coral.
Looking for Eric is set for release June 12.
My experience with Loach's films comes from his movie Bread and Roses which starred Adrien Brody and was based on the Justice for Janitors campaign in LA. He also directed a short called Tickets which hilariously captures perceptions to social and economic changes in an integrated EU, through accidental encounters on a train. It follows three Celtic fans on their way to a CL match in Italy who befriend an Albanian boy, a refugee of the Kosovo war.
This should be worth a watch. It could prove to be the sleeper hit of the year. Loach also said of Cantona "He had no ego at all."
My favourite Cesc photo- he looks like he wants to tear another!
Yeay! Gunner fans will see the little Catalunyan maestro back in action against Man City this weekend. He will obviously play limited minutes before he works his way to being fully match it.
Also starting will be Adebayor and Walcott returning from injuries. Arsenal will be missing RVP and Eduardo who were injured in recent World Cup qualifiers.
Ivan Gazidis also reassures the fans that they are working out contracts which extends Fabregas, RVP, and Walcott's future at Arsenal.
On the subject of team uniforms and fashion statements
Here is Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat. Umm sorry it is ....... Cesare Prandelli and his Purple People Eater uniform. The only difference, one eye less and a cheesy song. Thanks to Soccer Tricks.
The US won easily 3-0 as Altidore scored a hat trick against the Soca Warriors.
But I have to ask John Harkes what he meant when he said "weak side"? I am almost certain he said it. I have heard a lot of soccer commentary around the world but I have never heard this term being used. It stopped me short. It came when the US team reacted to a move by Kenwyne Jones.
The weak side is almost exclusively used in American football to describe the defense lining up on the side where the offense places the tight end. In basketball it describes the side of the court away from the ball. It is never used in soccer because there is no such specific circumscribed space or deployment of players.
I see matches here as much as to see how lingua franca is used to sort of inveigle soccer into the sports mainstream. Some day extra base hit will be used.
Bolivia vs Argentina: Players of Brazilian origin contribute to Argentina's humiliation
Maradona looking very, very disturbed
Oye! Maradona crashes to earth.
Literally from the heady climes of La Paz. From the easy toying of Venezuela on Saturday to a disastrous show where Messi and Tevez were rendered useless. The Bolivians inflicted a 6-1 punishment on the Albiceleste, the likes which they had not seen in more than half a century.
Leading the way was Marcelo Martins who has both Brazilian and Bolivian nationality scoring the first goal. Lucho Gonzalez equalized with a long range shot which bounced awkwardly in front of the Bolivian goalie and flew in. But Bolivia kept up the pressure and Alex da Rosa, a naturalized Bolivian of Brazilian extraction added another one.
By half time the Bolivians were up by three goals and they did not rest in the second half either, scoring three more. Joaquin Botero scored a hat trick. Lucho Gonzalez pirouetted like a dervish but to no avail. Angel Di Maria substituted Maxi Rodriguez and was ejected for a foul on Ronald Garcia.
Argentina's defense was found brittle and slow footed. It remains questionable and so does the goal keeping quality. This is a blip in their World Cup qualification but for the big dance they better find someone better than Gabriel Heinze and Emiliano Papa in defense otherwise it will be another premature exit.
Update: The FIFA website backs up this score. This definitely is not an April Fools joke.
This could be the new logo on Man Utd's jerseys after AIG's sponsorship ran into trouble with the US government proof of yet more wasteful expenditure. Yes, its Tata which was recently in the news for introducing Nano, the cheapest car in the world.
Can't wait for Cristiano Ronaldo to model for the Nano when they introduce it in the UK. Well, he might be gone to Real by then.
"He let the tortoise get away with some of the things he said about me, he let it get away badly, very badly. That's why it's now an issue with no solutions." (From Maradona: The Autobiography of Soccer's Greatest and Most Controversial Soccer Star).
Maradona does not hold back when asked his personal opinion of Juan Sebastian Veron. However, he has also been an long standing admirer and champion of the former Lazio player who was named South American player last season for his standout role in Estudiantes revitalization.
Maradona's first meaningful match was an outstanding success. Argentina thoroughly outclassed Argentina and kept pace with rivals Brazil and Paraguay in the World Cup qualifiers. Once the match was in the bag, Maradona trotted out Veron in the 70th minute eschewing any bitter feelings that he might have and showing a pragmatism that Argentina will need if they have to get back to the heady days of the 1986 World Cup.
In Riquelme's absence the attacking midfield lacks a deep threat which relies on plays mostly developed by Messi around the 30 meter mark. Veron's vision opens up the game and his experience in set pieces gives the Argentine attack another dimension.
Whether Veron can shoulder this responsibility on a national level is questionable. He is a veteran of two World Cups and his insipid performance was singled out in Argentina's shocking early exit in 2002. He has a long history of untimely injuries and problems dealing with a more physical style of soccer. English fans know him as a highly paid clunker from his days at Chelsea and Man Utd.
Soccer video of the week:Ref fails to spot Cahill's dive
As Everton sent Middlesbrough crashing out of the FA Cup on Sunday the ref failed to spot this dive.Cahill - wearing his number 17 shirt caught on camera doing a blatant dive.......!
Watch.
Video:The maddest two minutes in the history of soccer...
You have to see this to believe it.The game is between Mazara and Villabate in the Sicilian League of Excellence [This wonderfully exalted title for the league adds even more drama to the story].Mario Erbini scores for Mazara - brillantly connecting with a free kick and guiding the ball in.Erbini's goal celebration involved running towards the halfway line, with the majority of his teammates chasing after him wanting to show their appreciation for his effort.The next part is the the tragi - comic bit.The referee,quietly,and for no apparent reason - disallowed the goal and allowed Villabate allowed to restart play immediately.
The Mazara team were still celebrating when Villabate striker Tummarello beat the the Mazara goalie from 35-yards out.Goal allowed this time.
The excellent Sicilian tempers boiled over and the ref got chased around the field and needed police protection to avoid being lynched.This needs to go into the record books as the maddest two minutes in the history of soccer..
Gaston Aguirre said sorry when he whacked a pigeon with a football the other day - causing it grievous injury.Michael Ballack is the latest player to join this growing band of soccer players who are taking pot shots at pigeons that dare to cross their path.The video shows a pigeon flying away - so it probably lived to tell the tale.The video evidence is inconclusive because the picture - like the pigeon after the incident - is a bit unsteady.
PS: If you like to watch videos of people hitting pigeons with footballs here's another one.This one is an effort by aussie player Lucas Neill.The bird in question may or may not have been a pigeon.It is also not known whether Lucas apologised.So far the only chap who said sorry was Gaston - though it is debatable whether saying sorry to a dead pigeon helps..!
French goalie demonstrates the best way not to clear a ball..
French keeper Julien Lachuer demonstrated in the Coupe de France this week the correct technique to use if you wanted a player from the opposition to score a freak goal. He raced out of his goal and somehow managed to get his clearance to bounce of Guingamp’s Badara Sene into the goal.Wonderful technique.He will remember the goal for a long time saying to himself [ in french obviously ] "How did I manage to do that?"
Referee, Gary Bailey was forced to make the extraordinary decision recently. He had to give a parrot a red card...! A parrot called 'Me-Tu' - who often watches matches from the confines of his cage - insisted on making an ass of itself during a tense cup tie between Hatfield Town and Hertford Heath.The ill mannered bird refused to stop imitating his whistle.!
The bird's whistling continually forced players from both sides to stop play.The red card was inevitable.
"I’ve never known anything like it in my career," Bailey said. "It was a big game and there were quiet a lot of people there. "Every time I blew my whistle, the bird made the same sound. The players all stopped so I had to ask to move the parrot to the stands. I’ve sent a few people off in my time but never a parrot.".......................!!!
More on that story here..
In what surely must be a first of its kind story an Argentine soccer player Gaston Aguirre killed a pigeon with a football.The pigeon was on the field getting a very low birds eye view of the proceedings between San Lorenzo and Tigre.It unfortunately did not manage to get out of the way of a pass by Gaston.Why Gaston passed the ball to the pigeon has probably got something to do with the fact that the pigeon had wings and his team also had wings.He seems to be pretty mortified by the casualty and is not looking forward to being remembered as "Gaston - The pigeon killer"
This movie could easily have been titled, Little Zizou: A Gratuitous Reference To or the Incredible Vanishing Zidane. Apart from some TV clips and some newspaper articles of him visiting Bangladesh there was nothing else on Zidane.
I happened to see it in a recent NY festival.
The protagonist is a little boy who misses his dead mother and is supposedly a devout fan of the French superstar. His father is preoccupied with a Hitlerian mission of instilling pure bloodlines in the Parsi community. I thought the springboard would be the boy's reaction to the headbutt that rocked the world. Surely, heroes don't do these things. It could have been a great story of a little boy reconciling with his neglectful father rather than trying to arrange a metaphorical seance with his mother's spirit. It is supposed to be a madcap adventure but only 12 days devoted to writing the script gives you deranged. A waste of fine acting talent in Boman Irani and Shernaz Patel who manfully try and bail out much water from a sinking boat with a thousand leaks.
Terry Butcher has to now live with the fact that Maradona will be the topic du jour of the soccer world and the subject of pundit chatter everywhere.
What can he do to exact revenge for that goal?
He can hire a fat man wearing a Maradona mask to run onto the field after the match, drop him with a sliding tackle, and then administer an enema all the while looking at El Diego. P.S: Terry should first time himself and the fat man on a 5 foot run before hiring him.
He can hire Tonya Harding to whack Maradona on the hand after the match. Rumours are that she is looking for a job.
He can sneak up to Maradona's hotel in the night and after overpowering security proceed to glue Maradona's hand to a ball. No not down there.
He can erect a hundred foot statue of Maradona in Trafalgar Square and pay a thousand people to pull it down. He can then payoff a breathless CNN commentator and a cameraman to record it for posterity.
He can photoshop Maradona's head on Titus Bramble's body and send those doctored video clips onto the internets. Then he photoshops Bramble's head onto Maradona's body (don't forget to photoshop the jersey too, Terry) and make it like own goals in the 1986 match which should make everyone feel better. After it generates 95 million hits on You Tube, the official match report will be consigned to cyberspace.
Anyone else got any more suggestions to make Terry feel warm and cuddly inside?
Bayern was poised to take three points as they were coasting to a 2-0 victory over lowly Borussia Moenchengladbach before Rob Friend got one back from a header in the 79th minute. Two minutes later Bradley made it level when he placed a header perfectly off a cross by Roberto Colautti.
Jurgen Klinsmann was livid."It's very, very annoying that we let in two goals and are going home with just a point." Bayern had just picked up steam after a terrible start and were on track to make it a three way horse race with Bayer Leverkusen and 1899 Hoffenheim also on top of the table.
Meanwhile Landon Donovan appears to be auditioning for a spot in Bayern as a potential replacement to Lukas Podolksi who is unhappy with his limited appearances and has asked for a transfer.
Anytime you talk about Arsenal, you have to qualify it with the paeans that Arsene Wenger so richly deserves. We did not see this sort of soccer in England as a system till he came on the scene. But Jason Burt clearly lays out the head in the sand mentality that seems to have taken hold of Wenger.
"Not really, we had no player we really wanted and for now we have no regrets," he said. "You cannot explain the own goal of [Gaël] Clichy by the fact we haven't an experienced player in midfield."
That Clichy's goal was not crucial to the scoreline seems to have eluded Wenger.
All these issues have been around for some time – the need for an experienced centre-half, for more power in midfield, for greater strength in attack – and they all came back to haunt Wenger on Saturday. Quite why he feels so strongly that recruiting would inhibit the development of his young players is only something he can explain. Buying one or two surely wouldn't stop the cream from rising?
My sentiments exactly. In fact, having a mix of experienced players can be beneficial in maturing young players more quickly. What we have right now at Arsenal is a stochastic process.
Diego Maradona landed in Scotland just before Wednesday's game and with a curt "I don't speak English" blew by TV crews, hundreds of reporters, and throngs of adoring fans hoping to catch a glimpse of the most famous name in soccer. (Video here)
He was protected by a dozen police officers and private security guards who escorted him to a waiting bus. A few lucky fans got jerseys and posters signed sending them into raptures.
All this Scottish adoration is thanks due to the "Hand of God" goal that shattered England's 1986 World Cup hopes. Maradona had made an earlier stop in England to Liverpool and Man Utd's training facilities which had players lining up to pay unabashed homage. His trip included tapping Mascherano for the captaincy and some career counseling for Tevez who appears to be anxious about his place on the Man U squad.
But there were others not so forgiving including Terry Butcher, the Tartans assistant manager. "I'll never forgive him. It's not nice to lose a World Cup quarter-final under those circumstances, but that was 22 years ago and this isn't about that game." Butcher has not resolved the trauma of his flailing legs fruitlessly chasing Maradona on his way to his second goal. You Tube preserves Butcher's agony.
In the midst of all this Maradona has filed a court case against Google to stop links to pornographic websites that appear to contain images of him.
The match is of secondary importance. Scotland might lose which would make Butcher very unhappy but for many fans it will be a small price to pay to catch a first glimpse of the man who provided them fond memories of England eating humble pie.
Arsenal vs Villa was supposed to showcase the best and brightest talent. But only one team showed up to play and it was not Arsenal. Yet again.
Arsene Wenger deservedly receives many plaudits for encouraging youthful talent but on Saturday we were reminded that Martin O' Neill has been no slouch in that department either. In fact, Arsenal seemed dissipated and overcome with ennui. This after an energetic display against Man Utd the previous weekend which saw the squad beating the champions and raised our hopes.
Villa should have won by more. Ashley Young and Gabby Agbanlahor put on a clinic in speed and high desire. Apart from Gallas racing in to save a putback from Almunia's PK stop, he and Silvestre were left backpedaling all day. Even that PK miss did not dampen the Villa attack as they continued to push and probe the embattled defense.
Bakary Sagna impaired by a bad ankle drifted by the sidelines seemingly a spectator. Clichy's highlight moment was the own goal. And in a perfect summation of the match, Agbanlahor latched onto a Laursen long ball from the Villa end then blew by Gallas in a show of muscle for the second goal. On attack we were equally pathetic with no real chances except for a Fabregas shot which Friedel spilled but there were no opportunists to take advantage of it. Lots of lateral passing but no real forward progress.
Our defensive woes continue to mount. Sagna did not recover enough putting more pressure on Gallas and Silvestre to defend. Wenger's choice of Silvestre continues to boggle. The man has no foot speed and was caught out of position time and time again. Toure has been subpar but he is better than Silvestre. And even Djourou deserves a chance. In addition, he brings some height into the mix. With Sagna out for three weeks, Djourou will be pressed into service.
Fabregas has been having a less than stellar season. He appears lost. Flamini's departure seems to have taken the drive out of the midfield. Denilson has been inadequate as a replacement. Up front, Bendtner provides a physical presence but lacks the timing to finish. Walcott disappointed with another enigmatic absence of contribution.
We are presently rudderless, vulnerable, and bleeding respect. Wenger can do little more than exhort his players from the sidelines but we need an on field presence to provide leadership. Gallas is reactive and with Fabregas struggling with form, it will be premature to put this burden on him. Arsenal was at their best when they had a mix of creativity and workman like players. We lack the roll up the sleeves sort like Tony Adams or Martin Keown who kept other teams honest.
Maradona wants the former Boca defender and 1986 team mate as his assistant. Ruggeri, an outstanding defender for his country has a poor record in managerial positions. It has led to a standoff between Julio Grondona and Maradona, with threats that he will resign if Ruggeri is not included. Grondona does not like Ruggeri's face and says its a personal thing.
I have a feeling that the Albiceleste themselves have suspended match practice and are watching these episodes slack jawed. How could you not? Maradona's selection is the next biggest idiotic thing since John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate but it does not make it any less fascinating.
A flurry of articles examining Obama's relationship with soccer.
David James believes Obama's transformational presidency will be good for the game.
Obama's club of choice, West Ham sends this "We are delighted that Barack Obama has an association with West Ham and are sending him our congratulations and an invitation to attend a match whenever he is in Britain."
Jonathan Spector from Illinois added "From a personal perspective it certainly would be something special to welcome him to West Ham."
From what I have gathered they would also love to be part of the $700 billion bailout.
Obama's daughter Malia plays soccer and he shows up for her matches. He did win the soccer mom demographic convincingly.
Remember Alexi Lalas and his grandiose pronouncements on how Becks would single handed turn the MLS into a world beater. It seems like eons ago. Well, he isn't too happy at the way his man has inveigled his way to Milan (Sports Business Daily, Nov 7, subscription needed).
“Hello, a courtesy telephone call, a little bit of respect to call the coach so that head coach Bruce Arena knows what’s going on, knows that you’re being shopped around.”
Look, its not as if we did not tell you so. For Becks it was always going to be the national squad that was the priority. If it meant walking all over the MLS to do so. Arena can be easily mollified considering you have lived through a manager reportedly kicking a shoe into your face in anger for showing loyalty to country and not club.
Here is the rub. Beckham can walk out of the Galaxy a full two years before his 5 year multi million dollar contract with the club is up. Bet you did not know that. A clause in the contract says that the man can walk out without any penalties. I would have never ever thought I would feel sympathetically towards Alex Rodriguez and his ball and chain gig at the Yankees but I do. The worst is when people talk about Becks staying as contingent on the club finding its winning ways. Isn't that what he was hired for?
Whether he states that he want to come back for the 2009 season and ends up looking munificent for doing so is immaterial. He has this clause in the contract which so loads it against the MLS it makes your head spin. That should be the story. Informing Bruce Arena about your plans to move to Milan. Pshhhhttttt. Fuggedaboutit.
The Wizards went ahead with a 53rd minute goal by Arnaud and then played the last 15 minutes a man down when Hercules Gomes was sent off with a red card. They stemmed the tide of chances till the very last minute when Steven Lenhart scored of a Moreno pass in the 92nd minute.
KC travels to Columbus for the second leg to play the team with the best home record. Gomes will be missing for this match through suspension.
It was a good result for KC considering the Crew have the best attack in the MLS amongst the playoff teams, although they might rightly feel that they were robbed of a win. The match stats were all in favour of Crew but KC created the closer chances. Arnaud's goal was the end result of great hustle after a nice give and go between the midfielder and striker, Claudio Lopez.
The hottest team in the MLS is without Josh Wolff but Claudio Lopez is peaking at the right time. Lopez is vying for newcomer of the year with Darren Huckerby and Andre Rocha. He has scored six goals and assisted in seven more. They meet Columbus Crew and Guillermo Barros Schelotto in one of the marquee playoff matches.
Schelotto was singled out for praise by Diego Maradona, Argentina's new manager.
"Guille is a real footballer. He has the cunning so characteristic of Argentinian football. When everone else gets nervous, he remains unfazed."
KC will have to keep Schelotto quiet while pushing forward with Davy Arnaud and Claudio Lopez. Jack Jewsbury has been very effective in his new attacking role just behind Arnaud, having provided some valuable goals and even more valuable assists.
The defense led by captain Jimmy Conrad, nominee for Visa defender of the year has bottled up explosive attacks like LA and the Crew. Conrad also adds an attacking flair which has led to six goals, the most by a central defender since Lubos Kubik in 1998. Conrad will have to be prepared for some blistering counter-attacks from Robbie Rogers and Eddie Gaven. Kevin Hartmann will have to be sharp under the bar against Alejandro Moreno, who is deadly accurate.
KC have come away with two losses and drawn one while conceding 8 goals and scoring 4 of their own in the matches they have played with Crew this year. But that was the old KC before Kurt Onalfo made all those midfield changes with his squad and Claudio Lopez really heated up. This will be a great match and a win for KC is within the realm of possibilities.
The words exchanged between Sir Alex and Ramon Calderon might escalate into a diplomatic fracas between the Spanish and British government. It re-opens wounds.
With Spain electing one of the most progressive governments even by Western European standards, it has since actively embarked on distancing itself from Franco's totalitarian legacy. The Spanish parliament recently passed a landmark bill that condemns the Franco years and demands compensations for its victims, the exact number remains unknown but could well be over 500,000 dead. Sir Alex's invoking of the dictator might constitute a fourth rail word.
Real Madrid's icon Alfredo di Stefano was not amused by Sir Alex's dig at the club and in a press conference tried to humorously pass it off as saying that Franco played as an "inside left" for Deportivo and played well in that position. He also said that at that time what were they supposed to do, govern the Franco government? As players they could do little except play good soccer, win titles, and make people happy. All of which made the Bernabeu a special place.
Sir Alex maybe guilty of inflammatory comments but isn't it strange that Cristiano Ronaldo who has been called a modern day slave, is in the center of the storm over a debate on Spain's less savoury history. This is definitely above his pay grade. We truly are at the crossroads of civilization. I think it was better when Ronaldo was cavorting around with hooker girl friends. Happy days. Better pictures.
Marca's cover morphs Sir Alex into the Franco of Manchester
Man Utd boss Sir Alex Ferguson came off the sidelines accusing Sepp Blatter, FIFA's president for acting like an African despot and then lambasting Ramon Calderon, Real Madrid's president for behaving as if the club were still run by Generalissimo Francisco Franco.
On Blatter:
“I think Sepp Blatter is in danger or has reached a point now where he is being mocked within the game,” Ferguson said of the 72-year-old Blatter. “Whether he is getting too old I don’t know but these things can happen to people in power. Look at some of the despots in Africa.
On Calderon:
"The endgame was to get Ronaldo. What made it really obscene was that Madrid, as General Franco’s club, had a history of being able to get whomever and whatever they wanted before democracy came to Spain.”
Today Calderon fired back at Sir Alex calling him "a bit senile"
Calderon has since claimed Madrid's pursuit of the winger is over "forever", and in response to Ferguson's comments, told Marca: "I won't waste time answering him. I admire his history but recently he has gone a bit senile."
We have a war of words swirling in soccer and politics in these last days invoking fear and besmirching character.
Talk about smear tactics. John McCain should have hired Sir Alex and Ramon Calderon to run his campaign. Steve Schmidt has nothing on these two gentlemen.
Deep thought: Will Russell Brand tar Obama by association
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.
If Maradona can take Boca out of their current neurosis and put them on top of the table, I will be one step closer to believing that he can guide Argentina back to the days of the 1986 World Cup.
After all there should be no shortage of inspiration since La Bombanera is Maradona's stomping grounds. Anytime Martin Palermo feels the sting of his 34 year old legs, all he has to to do is look at the stands for a glimpse of the maestro to get his second wind. However, the club's success and failure falls squarely on the shoulders of Carlos Ischia, Boca's present manager who has to find his way without his front line striker and not even the benediction of a transformational figure can heal Palermo's torn ACL soon enough.
Maradona has never had any substantial managerial experience on any level and inspiration does not pad this thin resume. If it were, he should be Argentina's mascot and travel with them every World Cup to lift them to better results than the ones they have become used to. So far there is nothing to compare him to Carlos Bianchi who as Boca's manager led them to nine titles and should have been a clear favourite for the coaching job. Maradona had this to say about Bianchi, " I shake hands for what he has done with Boca as manager." This is not the full quotation because Maradona also offered something less flattering about Bianchi's personality.
It is quite like Maradona to have an opinion of anyone and everyone that has played the game. Part of this oracle like routine is to weigh in on his legacy and successor. Which has led him to make pronouncements on a bevy of players like Veron, Ardiles, Aimar, Saviola, Tevez, and finally Messi. And these are just the Argentinian nominees. It makes for perfectly good breaking news. Without any official capacity he remains very influential having offered Boca's coaching job to Bernd Schuster and instrumental in luring Martin Palermo from the Serie. He also hosts one of Argentina's most popular TV program that has him pitting his opinionated views against guests like Pele. He has had to fight his demons from his days at Napoli which have taken a toll on his health and personal life.
Maradona has championed mirror images of him everywhere, every underdog fueled by familiar chords of resentment and paranoia, shafted by an unfair system. It also clouds any objective assessment both on Maradona's part and the public who follow him. His idols are Carlos Monzon and Ayrton Senna, outsized personalities who excelled at their sports, lived full throttle, ended their lives destructively, and 'never took the cats milk'. This euphemism runs recurrent in Maradona's palpable dislike of players whom he thinks sold him out or turned against. His well publicized feud with Passarella has led Maradona to divide players into opposing camps on the basis of their support. Maradona also dislikes players who appear dispassionate on the field. He singles out Redondo, Zidane and Platini. On that note alone it would be hard to find Riquelme a spot on Maradona's XI.
I love Maradona as a player. He is incomparable. No one has fought harder for the rights of players. He has bloodied Sepp Blatter and the FIFA establishment time and time again. But he is an ideologue. All of the above suggests a view that brooks no shades of gray. If you want a telenovela that all Argentinians follow avidly, by all means go for Maradona. Yet, it is the Marcelo Lippi's of the world who win World Cups. Cool, pragmatic, and versatile in their thinking. They dip into their persona as and when the need arises to supplement inspiration or encouragement, all the while laying the onus on team performance. Carlos Bianchi would have been a far better choice.
Charlton Athletic: Dubai faces financial woes of its own
The reasons Zabeel Investments gave for not pursuing the Addicks were concerns regarding foreign ownership and the economic downturn in the UK. However, the financial crisis has also left Dubai vulnerable.
The booming real estate market that has changed its landscape has been fueled by a ballooning debt which tops $47 billion and is expected to grow further leaving Dubai exposed to the vagaries of the financial crisis. Yesterday, the stock index dropped to its lowest point in 3-1/2 years.
Although Zabeel Investments prides itself a diversified company, it rapidly made its mark as a big time player in the booming UAE real estate market before moving onto investing in other sectors. It continues to invest heavily in commercial real estate development and management which have been hard hit in this downturn. They have ambitious projects in the pipeline developing hotels and luxury apartments both nationally and internationally.
Zabeel Investments also has a close relationship financially with Dubai International Capital, with big stakes in a multi-billion dollar fund run by DICAM which is its asset management arm. DIC is the entity that was the front runner buying out Liverpool before David Moores sold out to the present US ownership.
The move away from buying the Addicks reflects the fragile state of the global economy which threatens Zabeel in its own backyard. An ambitious company like Zabeel probably has more pressing priorities now. The financial implosion also has repercussions on DIC's pursuit of Liverpool which might now be dead on arrival.
Remember that huge flap about Arsenal defenders being short of height after their loss to Hull City. Well, we discover that Gallas in addition, is short of breath.
Last Saturday afternoon FIFA president Sepp Blatter, 72, roared out of an Alpine mountain tunnel in his £100,000 luxurious 6.2 litre Mercedes sports car, smashed into a slower-moving car he was trying to overtake, lost control and cannoned across double white lines, hitting an oncoming VW Golf.
This sounds so much like the opening of a pulp novel complete with a moll but every word is true and like all Blatter's previous dealings it involves a cover up. It just adds to the already cavalier image of the man in charge of the global game. It's time for change.
It was a goal fest as Adebayor, Walcott, Diaby, Song, and Ramsey scored for Arsenal while Silvestre (own goal) and Guiza put Fenerbahce on the board. The Gunners gave Wenger something to cheer about on his 59th birthday. Fabregas was all laser like precision and his passes led to Adebayor and Walcott's goals. Roberto Carlos looked a day late and a tackle short. Aaron Ramsey picked up his first goal at age 17, the third youngest player to score in the CL. It was Arsenal's free flowing style at its finest. Even the Sukru Saracoglu faithful were magnanimous in their appreciation.
Evincing a genuine concern about mounting debt in the EPL unleashes an unhinged rant from Martin Samuel on Lord Triesman. I wonder why he even bothers to call him Lord PleasedMan. Lets just call him Lord Treason since Samuel keeps playing up his former Communist Party ties. Sure, the EPL is the cynosure of the soccer world but so was the US in the global economy. And that's gone swimmingly well, hasn't it?
The connection to the EPL is not hard to make. Banks lend money to clubs and insurance companies underwrite those loans. When there is a credit crisis it affects clubs which are already deep in debt. The one who keep their head afloat in a crisis are the one who manage their debt not add on to it. Simple. Its amazing that liberals bring up the issue of fiscal prudence while right wingers want to keep on spending like drunken sailors. Even a trogdolyte recognizes the need for reform.
I think I will take Brian Glanville's word on Brian Barwick over Martin Samuel who bemoaned Barwick's departure. Triesman was right to boot out Barwick, a good friend of the EPL, not so much of the national squad. Barwick would be well known for his short shrift of the national squad, his timorous coaching selections, and his bottom line on TV deals.
Samuel praises Bill Miller, Texas lobbyist. The appellation should raise a red flag, especially on how money influences politics. It is the old boys network. This Bill Miller. Samuel's argument against Triesman is thoroughly undercut.
Brian McBride never ceases to amaze. He is a warrior. His second goal against his former team tied the game 11 minutes before close. The Fire now join the Crew and the Revs in the playoffs.
Read McBride's interview. Its got some funny bits to do with a 'cup size.'
Shakespeare says refs have feelings too you know..
Shakespeare might have put it this way .." Hath not a ref eyes? Hath not a ref hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as everyone else is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
But its not Shakespeare but Howard Webb who is saying that Ref's actually do feel bad after making blunders....!
There is however quite a lot of evidence in "Julius Caesar" that Shakespeare's quotations can be used to describe happenings on the soccer field.
Examples: "'Tis very like: he hath the falling-sickness" - spoken by Brutus to Cassius in Act 1,Sc 2 and also by refs to linesmen every time they see Cristiano Ronaldo fall over in the penalty area.
"You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! " - said by Marullus to the crowd in Act 1 ,Sc 1 and also said by Sporting Gijon's coach the other day (to his players after they had been beaten 7 -1 by Real Madrid). " Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste" - said by Casca to the conspirators in Act 1,Sc III and also by all goalkeepers to their defenders when they see Lionel Messi heading towards them.
...and of course "Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?" was exactly what Drogba said when Mourinho got booted out of Chelsea.
Spurs lost to Hull City, 0-1 after a Geovanni free kick struck from 30 yards lodged the ball in the top corner reducing Heurelho Gomes to a bystander. With rumours linking Mark Hughes and Terry Venables to Spurs, Juande Ramos is in hot soup. An easy target for the fans when everyone in the front office from Damien Comolli to Daniel Levy's job should be on the line. It is a collective failure.
Martin Jol will be forgiven for thinking that there is justice in the world.
Hull City is in third place in the standings. Amazing considering their GD is -1, reflected in their 0-5 thrashing against Wigan as their only major embarrassment. They have played tight defense since then and their offense has provided some spectacular goals.
Alecko Eskandarian, the ex DC United player has been Preki's go to guy
Chivas vs DC United's encounter boiled down to which team would rally better from missing key personnel.
Injuries and suspensions have crippled DC United's bright start to the season when Luciano Emilio was virtually unstoppable. Jaime Moreno's suspension meant that the potent one-two strike force was missing. Ben Olsen's injury also left a hole in midfield. Marcel Gallardo just recovering from an adductor strain was pressed into midfield service. Thabiso Kumalo and Santino Quaranta replaced Moreno and Emilio.
As DC United's hopes took a dive, Chivas hopes for a playoff berth rose with three straight wins after their inglorious drubbing at the hands of the Revs. They too were missing Zach Thornton, Ante Razov, Paulo Nagamura, Raphael Wicky, Maykel Galindo, and Jonathan Bornstein amongst others. Preki had to rejigger his defense introducing Shavar Thomas and Claudio Suarez. Dan Kennedy took over goal keeping duties from Zach Thornton.
They were also going up against their poor record at RFK.
But Alecko Eskandarian, the former DC United player, and a fan favourite in their 4 seasons for them, was Chivas answer to these concerns.
Preki's acquisition of Sasha Victorine and Dejair also proved crucial. Crayton's bewildering giveaway had Dejair's setting up Eskandarian's strike against his former club. Eskandarian had a part in the second goal as his cracking shot was spilled by Crayton which a prowling Victorine gratefully accepted. And in the 68th minute Dejair put the ball away after Peralta and Crayton's lack of communication failed to deal with Eskandarian's probing long ball. Thereafter it was some fine keeping from Dan Kennedy to keep the expected United surge at bay. It did not get better for Tim Soehn's club as Gallardo and Fred went off the field after aggravating their injuries. It was left to Quaranta and Peralta who tried everything at their disposal but failed to get their team on the board.
A piece of poor defending lets Arsenal down: Not height
Was it the lack of height that got Ledbitter the goal or the abject abandonment of good defending and tackling? This was atrocious. Song actually put up his hands in apology for the incidental bump on Ledbitter instead of tackling him on the spot. This after Richardson poached the ball right back from the clueless Song.
I just saw Wenger's post match reaction to the Sunderland game and I got the distinct impression that he was delighted with the point. It has come to this. Games we are supposed to win are slipping away because of crucial lapses in defense.
And its not just set pieces that Arsenal has trouble defending. It has become the depository for spectacular open field goals that make the goals of the week category.
“They congest the middle of the park and we wanted to use a bit more of the flanks. We finished with a 4-4-2 in the last 25 minutes and we looked more dangerus because it suits us a bit more. But it is always difficult to rate whether it was because we were a bit tired or because of the shape. It's difficult to know.”
So is this surprising? Haven't other clubs done that before to us successfully. Crowd out the middle. Last season it was Birmingham and then Newcastle. You widen the game, introduce unpredictability by the occasional long ball, take snap shots from the open field. Why does it all have to narrow down to the area in the box for the final tap in?
Asked about the economy, Palin suggested talking to a parent at a soccer game. "I'll betcha you're going to hear some fear in that parent's voice," she said. Asked who was to blame for the subprime lending crisis, she said, "Darn right it was the predator lenders."
But Palin was totally at sea when she was asked why the LA Galaxy despite having Beckham and Donovan are struggling to make the play offs. When pressed on the reasons, she punted, “I’ll try to find you some, and I’ll bring ‘em to ya.”
Well, its hard for a hockey mom in five weeks to bone up on why the Galaxy suck. But she did manage a wink and a nod.
Players from opposing teams who exceed this height and weight need not enter the Emirates because Arsenal has a size problem. This message approved by Arsene Wenger and Kolo Toure.
P.S. We are also working on away games too.
Newcastle to be Bill Gates latest philanthropic endeavour
If he buys it will be under the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to improve the fans health in the toxic environs of St James Park. An environmental impact statement on how Mike Ashley and Dennis Wise are affecting the physical and mental well being of the locals is being prepared. Bill and Melinda will use that to talk down the price.
Highlights of a B&M takeover:
1) Access to mental health practitioners to combat MADS (Mike Ashley Depressive Syndrome), a crippling and infectious disease previously thought to be caused by bad credit.
2) An infusion of free beer and prawn sandwiches to improve nutritional standards and girth.
3) Kevin Keegan back and Dennis Wise out to end the conflict in war torn Newcastle. Some fans now support Sunderland.
4) Unlimited cash for high priced transfers to improve the GDP of the area (rich players live in ritzy houses, blow up cash in night clubs, and smoke some expensive s**t)
5) Bionic knees for Michael Owen to free up medical emergency personnel to handle real emergencies.
6) Joey Barton neighbourhood crime watches to prevent attacks on shins and other anatomical parts that have plagued the area. See above highlight.
Bramble shows why he is a menace in his own half. Another game, another display by the player whose name should now be synonymous with a feeling of impending disaster. "Was there a time more fraught with bramble?" or " I had a bramble when my father discovered his empty liquor bottles."
Arsenal made the return up north to face a team that has posed so many problems in the past. But this was an Arsenal team that had an ascendant Theo Walcott brimming with confidence and newly found decision making skills. You could see it in the way he asserted himself in the match.
Blackburn was at the receiving end with Walcott laying down a crisp pass to the flying Dutchman who had the honour of notching up Arsenal's first strike. Denilson gets into the act as he floats a cross towards Adebayor and the Togolese striker guides the ball with his head. Then it was Walcott launching himself in a display of blistering speed and guile leaving the Rovers defenders flat footed, having a go himself, an effort parried out by Friedel. Eboue is brought down and Adebayor converts the PK for his second goal. A hat trick is complete as Aaron Ramsey isolates Adebayor who side steps Friedel and taps the ball into goal.
We always damn Arsenal with faint praise when transfer season ends with "but it could be much worse" yet Wenger takes such untrammeled delight in contrasting our club with the rest. On a day when a complement of overpaid superstars played each other in the Chelsea vs Man City encounter, it was refreshing to see someone like Jack Wilshere make his debut at 16 year and 256 days. 'I bring them out slowly, these English players,' smiled Wenger. 'He's another one who will soon play for you.' Yes, the heart and soul of English soccer does lie in Arsenal from its ownership down to the young talent unfolding under Wenger's tutelage. England has been the beneficiary. Who can deny that at the present moment?
France vs Serbia: Domenech still lives in a bubble
I have no idea why the French federation continues to repose its confidence in a manager that his team has stopped responding to.
Raymond Domenech might be relieved that Maximilian Robespierre and the Jacobins are not around. But it is hard to to avoid bad puns. The embattled France manager finds his neck on the line and against a good Serbian side, he is minus Samir Nasri.
Domenech also probably suffers from a finely tuned sense of persecution that the media is out to get him. After all the team's shoddy showing at the Euro 2008 and the defeat against Austria did not really happen. This really takes living in a bubble to the extreme.
At last.Not a very elevating or inspiring title - but a title nonetheless.They have won the title "Biggest waste of Space" in a poll carried out by a storage products firm called BiGDUG.Other lesser winners include the mayor of London Boris Johnson and prime minister Gordon Brown.
The complete list...
Top 10 Wastes of Space
1 The England team
2 Pete Doherty
3 Gordon Brown
4 Toilet roll covers
5 Kerry Katona
6 Eurovision Song Contest
7 Jodie Marsh
8 Boris Johnson
9 Paris Hilton
10 McDonald's salads
The headline might have misled you into thinking that this post was about a large spherical object made of porcelain - visible from the moon.No it's not.It's about this football which apparently is going to be the official football of the Beijing Olympics.If so it is going to be kicked around by Messi and others shortly.There is also a rumour circulating that the symbols you can see on the ball are either the Nike logo or the Adidas logo - in chinese - or both logos one on top of each other.
And while we are talking about the great ball of china take a look at this video.I'm not sure if it's in China - but that football certainly comes under the great ball category too....!
Mirror,mirror on the wall
Who are the fattest footballers of them all?
Here's what the mirror said : Andy Reid,Mark Bosnich,John Hartson,Kevin Pressman,Ronaldo,Razor Ruddock,Neil Shipperley,Rooney,Maradona and Neville Southall
Pictures here.
Great free kicks huh? All the because the wall stayed put.Not possible if the wall had crept closer before the ball was kicked and the ref didn't object.
A solution to this moving wall problem been found in Argentina.
Referees will pace the regulatory 9.15 metres between the ball and the nearest defender and then spray a vanishing white line on the pitch to mark the correct position of the wall.Any bit of the wall crossing the line before the shot will be penalised.
The vanishing line then vanishes from the pitch within a minute.More here..
The japanese are having a great laugh at all this.They already figured out how to put the defenders on a line.Take a look at their technique here...
This weekend we saw Sepp Blatter clutch the Emancipation Proclamation to his breast as he impassionately spoke about the need to free slaves. He dispatched Ramon Calderon who swept through Manchester and set the slaves in United free.
Chief amongst them was Cristiano Ronaldo who living on a paltry £120,000 a week had suffered the horrors of once passing through council houses. Ronaldo would have kissed the earth but he was wearing an ankle cast having been beaten severly by his slave master, Sir Alex Ferguson with a sealed contract.
The nightmare for Ronaldo began when he approached Sir Alex with "Please Sir, can I have some more?" As Sir Alex looked at him disbelievingly, Ronaldo fell to the ground, writhing and moaning, pawing his gonads. A man wearing shorts and a whistle ran out of nowhere and showed Ronaldo a yellow card as a faint smell of porridge wafted through the air.
Sepp Blatter, a portly but kindly man had seen enough. Holy Schnitzles! There is too much inequity in the world. That is why he had filched every vote through bribes and scams. Slaves finish last. It was time for not just Ronaldo but Adebayor, Hleb, and Lampard, good men all to get their 40 yachts and a country. But this would never happen under their present slave masters. If pigs could fly, David Coverdale would be Ian Gillan or Snoop Doggy Dogg.
We have to feel for these schlubs. Hleb lives a miserable life quarantined in Hempstead's claustrophobic silence and stomach turning leafy foliage. Look up chaos. It's west of Vietnam. Lampard's visit to Abramovich's yacht unhappily remindshim of life in Darfur. Ronaldo's slave wages only allows for a £835,000 Bugatti Veyron but because of his grinding poverty he never will get to see an asteroid. That is left to Sergei Brin who can afford to spend £3m on a space flight. Brin is the co-founder of Google which many slaves use to find the address of Ramon Calderon. Surreptitiously.
But here is Sepp Blatter aka Abe Lincoln clear as a bell "I think there's too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there. If a player wants to leave, let him leave." Immortalized, July 10th, 2008. Wunderbar.
Hleb's thumb down to London life does not seem to have discouraged Samir Nasri who arrives in the Emirates. He is all gung ho about playing for Arsenal which he said played the best soccer in Europe. Well, we concur and add that he has already gotten off to a good start.
Nasri cautions against comparing him to Zidane. He has not headbutted anyone yet, so such convenient comparisons should be put on hold. He should not do so but if he decides to try, we suggest the twilight of his career and against Man U, a slave club located in NW England.
Jokes aside. Nasri brings some impressive stats which bear well. He is ahead of the Arsenal midfield in shooting accuracy and crosses completed; level in pass completion. He is behind the curve in dribbling skills but that might be because of Hleb's exceptionality in that department.
However all this is for nought if it does not help Arsenal score and score consistently. Nasri will not be a triggerman. For that to happen we need an out and out scorer, someone with a direct connection between the limbic brain and the neuromuscular junctions of the leg muscles.
Aliaksandr Hleb's departure seems imminent. Well, mentally at least. The man has been complaining for months of living in Oliver Twist's London on thin gruel and fear. Dodging defenders on the field is exhausting enough but he has to do this every day on the chaotic streets of Hempstead with its millions of artful dodgers. Give the poor sod a break. Its not the money, its his mind that might go to pieces.
Here in commiseration for Hleb is Bob Marley's classic >>
Transfer season is kind of boring with not much in the way of action.One can hardly blame a ref in Belarus if he tried to enliven the monotony by taking a swig or two from a hipflask hidden between his red and yellow cards.The players only realised something was amiss towards the end of the game when the ref started doing all his refereeing from the centre circle.He swayed with every passing breeze and blew the whistle every now and then to encourage the players to keep playing - pointing in all directions while he did so.He had to be helped off the field eventually.A more accurate rendition of the facts can be found here...
Deep thought: If Nadal wins Wimbledon it will be because of Spain's Euro success
Not as far fetched as it appears. Rafael Nadal is a soccer freak whose friend is Iker Casillas, Spain and Real Madrid goalie. The two have a common purpose in sport, how best to keep the ball out of the net.
Update: Federer and Nadal, tied at two sets apiece. This is turning into a classic.
Update 2: Nadal wins and he can finally break open that champagne that he has kept on ice since last weekend. Another great day for Spain. The last Spaniard to win Wimbledon was Manuel Santana in 1966.
Real Madrid and Man U figure out how to solve the Ronaldo problem
Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon and Manchester United chief executive David Gill will be holding talks in Switzerland about the Cristiano Ronaldo problem.If the talks break down they are going to solve things using plan B - shown above.
Video:The Spanish team needs to work on its singing
Schweinsteiger will agree with this absolutely.Here he is trying to give an interview and you have most of the Spanish team horsing around in the background - making an atrocious attempt at singing "Viva Espana"...without knowing any more lyrics than those two words....!
There's no need to panic - Blatter has another plan
If South Africa ultimately prove unable to stage the World Cup 2010 Blatter is not worried.He has another plan - ingeniously code named "Plan B" stashed in a drawer somewhere.So there is absolutely no need to panic.
Another new football - Nike will succeed where Adidas failed.
The fabled new Europass ball was perhaps much ado about nothing.77 goals were scored in the tournament.This was exactly the same as the number of goals scored in Euro 2004 The all time record of 85 goals was scored in the euro 2000 championships.So Adidas' tall claims that the ball was the most incredible piece of technical wizardry since Harry Potter's broom were exactly that - tall claims. Lehmann's fears that the ball would float like a butterfly and sting like a bee proved pretty unfounded.In fact the ball didn't seem to move around much.Only 2 goals came off free kicks and in both cases the wicked swerve predicted by Adidas and anticipated by Lehmann did not occur.Ballack scored one - and his free kick powered its way into the goal through a gap in the wall.There was a swerve in the second one from the France Italy game. But that swerve came from a deflection off poor Thierry Henry's farewell boot.
However for the next PL season Nike are going to succeed where Adidas failed.They too have invented a new football - This one is designed to take it to the next level - constructed with engineered hexagons and pentagons, with a 360-degree sweet-spot. It's advanced technology ensures that all the pieces of the ball are stitched evenly together to make an as-close-to-perfect sphere as possible.It is a ball that is going to push the boundaries for consistency, accuracy and visibility.On top all that it also has red stripe on it to help players make split second judgements The Star Trek fans will say " It's a ball that is going to boldly go where no ball has gone before"...............!
Lehmann is maintaining a dignified silence on this one - so far.!
Tommy Smyth is an execrable piece of humanity. After the Turkey - Germany match, he condescendingly dismissed Turkey's performance as "No one will remember who played the semi-finals, it only matters who won, and Germany won." He then went into a paean on how Lahm scored a goal which strikers would be well advised to watch. There was no praise for Turkey and their effort.
Kudos to Julie Foudy who smacked him down by saying that there would be many who would remember Turkey and their never say die spirit. Smyth looked like he had swallowed an "auld onion bag."
Why ESPN continues to tolerate Smyth is beyond me. Keith Olbermann should do a Worst Person segment on this buffoon.
Samir Nasri's arrival at the Emirates does not enthrall
We need a striker. Period. Someone who puts the exclamation point to all the artful text that we scribe on the field. Waiting for Godot is exquisite but we need some culmination. Get Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
We lost Mathieu Flamini who I thought Wenger should have done his utmost to retain. We are in danger of losing Hleb and his masturbatory exploits with the ball, sans goals. We had Lassana Diarra for two seconds.
But we still have Cesc Fabregas to steady the ship. Spain's maestro should lead a midfield, a combination of youthful talent and experience, into the next season. Aaron Ramsey has signed up. Fran Merida is assured of Wenger's green signal. Nacer Barazite is ready for the big transition. Denilson will be a year more experienced. Walcott is coming into his own. Diaby and Song have signed new contracts. On the other end of the spectrum, Tomas Rosicky is healing from his injuries. Gilberto will still be there for cameos when called for experience or a leadership role. And Hleb with all of his smoke and mirrors, will remain a Gunner. Midfield congestion abounds.
What is not known is Eduardo's return to top flight, Van Persie's durability, Bendtner's equation with the rest of the team, in particular Adebayor. In a nutshell, up front we have many questions, few solutions. It would be reassuring if Wenger seemed to be as serious filling a real void in the striker corps, as a perceived one down field.
Its a pretty empty studio at halftime for the last round of matches. Rece Davis with Julie Foudy. Its a relief not to hear or look at that gnome Tommy Smyth who pound for pound is the most obnoxious and annoying sports pundit. His buffoonish attempts at humour are usually swatted away by Derek Rae with , "I won't go there." Rae is a decent bloke and his commentary is usually on the mark. Nothing spectacular but he takes the edge having to listen to Smyth and his “bulges the corner of the auld onion bag”.
Andy Gray is a bit more palatable, but by not much. He comes across as judgmental. He has this penchant of saying "Italian nation" as if it is some metaphysical place. He belittled Austria's effort against Germany saying that they did not have any quality. Well, apart from Ballack's free kick, I saw very little quality from the three time Euro and World Cup champions. Austria would have loved to have the chance that Mario Gomez so execrably missed. A colicky baby kicking his legs could have gotten that ball across. Adrian Healey, the commentator, provides a soothing balm.
Julie Foudy does sum up the game nicely in broad strokes but she knows very little about tactics and even less about the teams and its players. I am surprised that ESPN with access to so many ex-players and coaches does not try and get some aboard. Juergen Klinsmann may have turned down the US coaching job but he could be courted as an analyst. He lives here. Ever thought about that, ESPN?? And does the halftime show have to become the news source for other sports like Willy Randolph's firing or peddling the NBA finals on ABC. Did we get to hear Stan Van Gundy or Mark Jackson reminding us to turn to ESPN Classics for the Sweden vs Russia game?
John Terry will take some getting over his missed penalty at the Champion's League Final but at least this did not happen to him.
..a series of 9 more such bloomers and slip ups here..
The dreadful Drogba's extra-time act of stupidity - the slap on Nemanja Vidic that ushered John Terry into the firing line - may be turn out to be the point of no return for him.
John Terry takes the penalty as his feet give out on the slick Luzhniki Stadium turf. The ball flies wide of the left upright. The Man U faithful who had turned blue with a world record in bottled up breath after the Cristiano Ronaldo miss some centuries ago, breathe a collective sigh of relief that could be heard around the world. As it turned out the better team lost but the team that wanted it more, won. We could certainly say that of Ryan Giggs whose age has not dimmed his competitive ardour. Bobby Charlton well past his bed time was at hand to see his protege and present all time leader slot the ball past Petr Cech. Seconds later, Anelka misses his chance. Man U win.
There can be no crueler game than soccer. Its not theory as much as axiom.
I followed the 2004 ALCS game between the Red Sox and the Yankees as George Steinbrenner's boys crested 3-0 in the series. Cruel as it was, the demise was gradual as the Sox exerted their will and the Yankees crumbled under the pressure of finding that elusive last win. The Sox's stirring comeback was taken by John Kerry as a harbinger for the presidential elections. But as it turned out, Dubya had the "mandate."
The Pats were overwhelming favourites in Super Bowl 2008 against the Giants till Eli Manning's throw threaded into traffic found an off kilter David Tyree whose wondrous grab sealed their win. Bill Belichik's sour face was a visage for the ages.
But these deflating moments in other sports are far fewer compared to the number of times that soccer has proved to break hearts.
Time and time again, soccer shootouts prove that there is very little correlation between the way the game is played in regulation time. Chelsea was head and shoulders, the better team. And when Ronaldo missed his penalty, it appeared to be a fitting culmination of how the game was played. We would have applauded the outcome.
Soccer is fickle. Fickleness is another form of cruelty. Ronaldo spread eagled on the field prone, relieved after Anelka's miss, as eons earlier he was consecrated to eternal damnation for his miss. Before that Terry's team mates high five him as his timely header glanced off a sureshot Man U goal moments before the end of extra time. After the game ends, Grant could barely console the weeping Terry. One moment we are up; the next, down. And the cycle goes on.
I am back. I have missed my passion as my dissertation kept me away but I will be back to dissect soccer in its every shape and form this summer. Arsenal, keep your chin up!!
Goalias is a robot goalkeeper invented by the Stuttgart University automation institute (IAS).Lehmann and Kahn now have some serious competition.
Players from first-division side VfB Stuttgart, including Germany team player Mario Gomez, tried last week to outwit Goalias, shooting indoors at a full-size goal mouth from 11 metres out. Scientists have since fine-tuned Goalias and it can hold every second kick from Mario Gomez.
The robot uses three video cameras to calculate the ball's trajectory and move a plastic keeper figure on a rail left or right to block it, all within 400 milliseconds.
Goalias' weak point: it could still be fooled by some hard curving shots with plenty of spin.More on that story here...
No its not.Its Adolfo Cambiaso - an Argentine polo player, considered the best in the world and one of the few players with a 10-goal handicap, which he reached at the record age of 17.Here he showing us an equestrian version of Cristiano Ronaldo's fiendish ball jugglery. Incredible!!.All he needs to do now is to teach his horse to do stepovers and the resemblance will be uncanny...!
..and then here's the real Capello at the Maseru Club Field in the remote country of Lesotho, Southern Africa - at a program which aims to use the popularity of football to tackle HIV in Africa by combining tournaments with testing.
Man City will be viable if Shinawatra returns to politics
Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand today and was taken into custody, released on bail, and will stand trial before the country's Supreme Court on March 8th on corruption charges which include tax evasion and nepotism. He returned because the country's political environment changed in his favour.
Some immediate questions. If Thaksin is found guilty, does this mean that Man City will lose out on the some £800m frozen by the military junta? Even if his assets are released, would it benefit the club in time?
An encouraging sign is the agency responsible for freezing his millions is coming under increased scrutiny and it appears that the present government will close it down. That could lead to his assets being released.
Precious money that could keep a club afloat. Thaksin has been a low profile but unmistakable presence at Eastlands since he took up ownership; instrumental in hiring Sven Goran Erickson and getting the players that make a difference. City's chances of achieving an UEFA spot have never been better. In February they beat rivals Man Utd twice for the first time since 1968.
I think the answer becomes more clearcut if he decides to stay on and re-enter politics. He has denied an interest but he and his party, the PPP represent the interests of the millions of working class Thais, in opposition to the military junta and conservative forces which have been in a battle for ascendancy since Shinawatra came to power in 2001. They took advantage of his absence at a UN General Assembly meeting in 2006 to stage a coup.
The PPP came back as the majority partner in the coalition government last December but their fortunes could evaporate because of increasing disarray. The Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej faces charges for a cover up in the assault of pro-democracy activists in 1976 that led to a number of deaths. Another leader faces charges of electoral fraud which has been upheld by the Election Commission and the election result could hinge on a Supreme Court verdict.
Most importantly, the populist agenda that Thaksin built around his party appears to have come unglued since his absence. His re-entry on the ground should rally his party under his leadership and keep the public pressure focused on dismantling the roadblocks that the military junta installed.
His presence is important because the media which has never been kind to him on his human rights violations will try and sway public opinion currently siding with him. There are a number of court cases including the Supreme Court's corruption and conflict of interest charges against a land deal involving him and his wife. The Attorney General's office has filed another charge of concealment of shares in a real estate holding company. Most previous charges filed by the military junta have proven unfounded.
Thaksin's millions of supporters and his acolytes in the present government are asking him to take up the political reins once more. His comeback will put pressure on the Supreme Court to acquit him, since in the court of public opinion, he has already been exonerated. If successful, it should put the nail in the agency's coffin. The money could be released quickly enough to reassure anxious Man City fans. Their owner will be now free to come and go as he pleases. Which is more than I can say about Tom Hicks who probably requires a security detail to come to Anfield.
Video:Getafe score while Real Madrid celebrate offside goal
Real Madrid's players made asses of themselves by gifting a goal to Getafe at the Bernabeu . Arjen Robben thought he had scored for Real midway through the second half.None of them noticed that the linesman's flag was up and the referee had not awarded a goal.In the middle of the celebrations David Belenguer took a quick free kick and launched a swift counter-attack against a depleted defence that was mostly upfield celebrating.Ikechukwu Uche beat Iker Casillas. Then it was the turn of the Getafe players to turn somersaults and break into celebrations.And this time it was the genuine article.It was Real's first home defeat in the league this season."They have scored a goal against us like in a match for four-year-olds," Real midfielder Guti told reporters afterwards. "We can't afford to lose games in this way." Barcelona is now breathing down their necks and the title race is wide open.
The new US women's team prepares for the 2008 Algarve Cup
After a week of intense training with 35 players at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Pia Sundhage has released 11 players, re-assigned one to the U-23 Women’s National Team, and called up three additional players, making for a group of 26 players that will train from Feb. 9-17 at The HDC. Following the completion of training camp, Sundhage will choose a 20-player roster for the 2008 Algarve Cup, which will be held March 5-12 in southern Portugal. The four matches at Algarve Cup are the next international games for the USA and the final official matches before the USA enters the CONCACAF Final Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament being held April 2-13 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
I am going to break Soccerblog's New Year's resolution of not mocking David Beckham. Sigh. It took a little over three weeks but it beat out my vow to not call my apartment building super a piece of human excrement by two days. But Becks is a gold mine.
Becks and Posh were judged to be the worst polluters having won that dubious distinction a second time in a row. They have the biggest carbon footprint amongst humans. The couple have 15 gas guzzlers; Becks' flights in the last year for soccer football matches logged more than 250,000 miles, advertising commitments, and Spice Girl support were more than equivalent to a trip to the moon, Carbon Trust calculated.
"His hectic travel schedule has notched up a staggering 163 tons of CO2, compared with the 9.4 tons of the average Brit."
And now environmentalists are calling on Becks to give up the gas.
Peter Cranie of England's Green Party remarked, “A celeb like Becks, who claims the need to travel on such a massive scale, should be making an effort to counteract the damage he is doing.”
Arsenal: A team full of funny sounding names. Routinely pilloried for being anti-English. Emirates. Small budget. Inexperienced and young. A bunch of no names. Beautiful and flowing soccer. The usurpers. The agents of change.
Man Utd: Wayne Rooney, Darren Fletcher. Fish n' chips. Old Trafford. Money no objection. Savvy and street smart. Mega stars. Powerful and muscular soccer. Salt of the earth. The status quo.
Barack Hussain Obama: Man with a funny sounding name rhyming with Osama. Exotic. Kenyan father, white mother. Small money donors. Inexperienced and young. Articulate and poetic.The usurper. The agent of change.
Hillary Clinton: WASP. The quintessential Washington insider. Mega donors. Experienced and battle tested. Hawkish and trenchant. Electable and establishment. The status quo.
As Arsenal and Man Utd duke it out, we are privy to two teams that are disparate in their character and composition as are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in their political constellations. At stake, the Premiership and the Presidency, respectively.
Hillary was initially supposed to have run away with the Democratic nomination as polls anointed her. Obama was touted as an also ran. The pundits in the beginning of this season pegged Arsenal as sliding to fifth below Spurs hastening their inevitable demise with Man Utd as an overwhelming favourite to retain the title. But Arsenal stiffened their spine and came up fighting forcing Sir Alex to splutter about foreign players destroying English soccer. Obama laid siege to the status quo and promised a change in DC prompting voters to desert Hillary. She responded with an emotional breakdown replete with tears. We now have a fight. Even Obama and Wenger's insinuations that Hillary and Sir Alex are playing the ethnic card is uncannily similar.
Anyway, its fun to make a glib connection between US politics and soccer even though in the end it seems as goofy as a dog following its own tail. I bet you the Guardian gurus never quite thought about it this way. We hope to keep you hugely entertained. I am back to share my motley insights into the soccer world and its nether parts.
Video: Stephen Hunt's controversial goal sinks Sunderland
Dean Whitehead beats up on the Reading mascot but Reading has the last laugh as Stephen Hunt's volley is judged to have crossed the goal line before Craig Gordon palms it away. It looked dubious and no doubt the FA will replay this a number of times.
Djorou's stay at Birmingham comes to a close as Wenger needs him to replace Kolo Toure who will be on ACN duty for the Ivory Coast. Archie McLeish is sorry to see Djorou go.
Alright then, who will Wenger get to fill Eboue's shoes?
Kaka won the FIFA best player award as he beat out Ronaldo and Leo Messi. Maybe he deserved it but it is no secret that Sepp Blatter and FIFA heavily weight CL and the Club World Championship titles above domestic and regional titles. The CWC is a championship that one rarely watches but the current edition is Sepp Blatter's brainchild, restarted after five years with 7 teams representing their respective conferences. In some warped way it represents his ambition to see lightweight conferences achieve some sort of parity with the heavyweight conferences. So far the David Goliath feel good factor has been missing.
Go to the website where glowing recommendations like "Kaka does the honours", "Kaka soars above the competition", "Milan lights up Yokohama", "Dominant Milan rule the world" and you realize that the FIFA best player award is a foregone conclusion. It does not make a difference that the player who actually led Boca to the CWC, single handedly winning the Copa Libertadores title was not even there. He is in the midst of a contract dispute with Villareal.
Ronaldo might be responsible for winning the Premiership for Man Utd but the Red Devils did not win the CL and if they had then we would have seen Ronaldo's name substituted for Kaka's and he would have been crowned king on the basis of two matches. Leo Messi might have actually played for Argentina in the Copa America, the competition that Kaka cried off citing fatigue and led them to the final. They did not win. End of story.
Its a simple formula really - win CL, win CWC, win best player award. The website really does that best.
"I believe that English people and footballers have a will to win and a love for their country. It's just a question of getting it out of them. I really hope to be the man who can do that."
There are very interesting and obvious parallels between England and Russia, ironically the country that beat them out to a spot to Euro 2008. Guus Hiddink saw the same self defeating mechanism at work with the Russians whose national team always faltered when on the verge of success. A culmination played out when Russian fans went on the rampage after their team was beaten by Japan in the 2002 World Cup ending their run. Their failure to advance led to a widespread mood of despondency with fans staying away from national fixtures. They turned to supporting their local club. With private ownership, increased TV revenues, and a booming economy, playing for the Russian league become attractive to a number of international stars who in turn attracted an ever increasing domestic audience. Supporting CSKA Moscow and Lokomotiv was infinitely preferable in the new economy. The result was that the national game was in the doldrums with players going through the motions of playing matches.
When he became Russia's manager Guus Hiddink first order of business was to get the national squad believing that they could win and bring back the fans. In this he was helped by Roman Abramovich, the owner of CSKA Moscow and the man underwriting Russian soccer.
There are similar parallels to English fans who are much more heavily invested in seeing their clubs win rather than in some sort of abstract expression of nationalism. There are no obvious dividends when a national team wins other than a warm feeling and a lump in the throat. A club on the other hand gets more TV revenue, better players, a new stadium, and a family day. It has led to the most financially successful league. But other countries have learned to balance this better. A lot of it has to do with England not winning a major title since 1966, whereas Italy, Germany, and France have had regular success, with fans suspending their club allegiance when their national team is on display. Nothing succeeds like success.
Capello is on the right track with the essential trope of self belief and nationalism. His journey is much more complex than Guus Hiddink's though, whose managing has been simplified by the more unitary nature of Russia's soccer where success is fueled by private investment. In the English league these relationships have been traditionally more inimical and fragmented with many competing interests. He has to make friends with the PFA whose control over players can be quite suffocating. He also has to allow for English representation in his coaching staff otherwise it does in its present form sound like a tightly contained cabal and a future cudgel to be used for those who believe his hiring went against English tradition.
Here is some sage advice for Capello from a former England manager:
"To be England manager you must win every game, not do anything in your private life and hopefully not earn too much money" - Sven-Goran Eriksson offers some advice to Fabio Capello
Svennie has a long memory. Stay away from TV announcers, eat your Weetabix, live in Tooting, win against Croatia, and you will be right as rain, Fabio.
Barca drubs Valencia 3-0 with Eto'o scoring two goals and Eidur Gudjohnsen getting the third. Watch out for here comes Eto'o sidelined for so long with injury looking determined in making up for lost time. Excellent for Barca, very bad for the rest of the league. The first goal was a beauty. Valencia goalie Sebastian Canizares looked like he had swallowed a bitter pill.
The national game received a comprehensive indictment leaving its reputation in tatters. The Mitchell report has fingered almost 80 players many of them All Stars like Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Miguel Tejada, and Eric Gagne for taking steroids knowingly or as an inadvertent victim. They have joined Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi. A few years ago in congressional hearings Mark McGuire and Rafael Palmeiro pleaded guilty. But it is clear that the few known steroid absusers were just the tip of the iceberg as alluded to in Jose Canseco's tell all book. The Mitchell report represents a body blow to the MLB. Suddenly Pete Rose's dastardly act of betting against his own team, the Cincinnati Reds, appears quaint and outmoded. Who is clean in MLB? The system is broken from top to bottom.
Mitchell said the problems didn't develop overnight and there was plenty of blame to go around.
"Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades _ commissioners, club officials, the players' association and players _ shares to some extent the responsibility for the Steroids Era," Mitchell said. "There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on.
There has always been some suspicion with naysayers in the US, that soccer players are cheaters. Sure, some soccer players are prevaricating creatures too, diving and flopping. Is there a systemic abuse? Not really, as these are crimes that can be caught on tape and penalized. There are corrupt soccer establishments like some in the Serie like Juventus with its match fixing under Luciano Moggi. Measures were taken as Calciopoli sickened even the Vatican. But by and large individual soccer records are clean as steroids and growth hormones don't benefit players. This is not true for sports like MLB and NFL where there is a premium on explosive speed and strength for certain player positions. Having bulked up players helps with bat speed and blocking. The NBA would not benefit either as girth is not much appreciated but ball handling skills and spatial awareness is.
There is also a perceived lack of interest in soccer because the magnitude of its records do not match up to that of the US sports. I would like to see which MLB player can truly hit more than 25 home runs without being juiced. With a audience hooked on seeing the record of home runs tumble (remember the addicted public following the Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire slugfest), next year is going to be very interesting in terms of MLB viewership. The die hards will not give up. But soccer might benefit from a new generation dismayed and turned off by the cynicism afflicting the national game.
Video: Jose Mourinho auditions for the England job
Jose Mourinho showing why he might put some pizazz into the somnolent English team. Here he gets his point across to an opposing player and in this clip Jose shows why he'll stand up to the FA honchos and to whiners like Sir Alex.
Part 2: From Dubrovnik to Bucharest: This is the year of Eastern European soccer
Romania.
There is a Hindi word called Romanchak that means entertaining and the Romanian squad has been playing that sort of soccer in their 2008 Euro qualifiers. Not since Gheorghe Haji, Florin Raducioiu, Marius Lacatus, Ilie Dumitrescu, Dan Petrescu, and Adrian Ilie in the 90's, have the Romanians looked so good. Of course, they have their established stars in Adrian Mutu, Paul Codrea, and Christian Chivu but they also have a group of rising talent in VfB Stuttagrt's Ciprian Marica and AJ Auxerre's Daniel Niculae who have scored a number of goals in the 2008 Euro qualifiers.
Their midfield is anchored by two Steaua Bucuresti standouts Nicolae Dica and Banel Nicolita. Dica has been impressive with his dead ball skills and has already scored four. Veteran midfielders CSKA Sofia's Florentin Petre and Siena's Paul Codrea's impeccable service has provided Mutu and Marica with many opportunities for goals and the Fiorentina man and his Vfb Stuttgart strike partner have been on target with 11 goals. Mutu has been prolific with 22 goal attempts. Dorian Goian, the 6' 5" central defender has been a force with his defending and his propensity for scoring goals in the box with his aerial ability. His opportunistic goal against Netherlands gave them a vital three points He is now the target of Man Utd transfer rumours.
In fact, the Romanian defence has contributed six goals in the campaign with AJ Auxerre's Gabriel Tamas and veteran Getafe defender Cosmin Contra amongst the goals. Christian Chivu continues to be a threat with his swerving free kicks. Razvan Rats anchors the left back position. Victor Piturca has at times employed five backs in a modified defensive formation with Goian and Tamas going up front.
Romania is in Group C, the group of death along with France, Italy, and Netherlands. You could not have asked for tougher opposition. But the Romanians have already had the measure of Netherlands in the qualifying rounds and the way they are playing they should really be able to push the Italians and the French, and with a little bit of luck thrown in, look capable of getting past them.
Johnny Wilkinson teaches Beckham how to kick the ball in an old Adidas ad.This was released after Becks had famously missed a penalty against Portugal in Euro 2004.
He's got better since then.See him scoring a penalty here in Galaxy's 4 -1 victory over Wellington Phoenix a couple of days ago.
No, it wasn't the Scott Carson mistake, Steve McLaren's insipid coaching, the incessant Wayne Bridge long balls to Crouch's noggin, or even the torn up Wembley pitch that undid England, it was Tory Henry's rendition of the Croatian national team that got them all fired up.
He should have sung 'Mila kuda si planina' (which roughly means 'You know my dear how we love your mountains').
But he instead sang 'Mila kura si planina' which can be interpreted as 'My dear, my penis is a mountain'.
Now which soccer player would not love that, you tell me. Anyways, it appears the correct word for penis in Croatian is kurac (kooratz) but Tory Henry's effort was much appreciated by the Croatian fans in attendance.
His agent Douglas Gillespie had this to say:
"He did sing it very well and made a very, very small mistake for someone doing his best and singing in a language that is alien to him. If you've ever tried to speak Croatian, it's very difficult.
"The Croatians think it's great, and they've invited him to come over and sing at Euro 2008, and asked if he will be their mascot."
India starts a new professional league with an eye on emulating the J league, the most successful soccer start up masterminded by Saburo Kawabuchi, the man responsible for Japan's renaissance as a soccer power.
True to form, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) chief, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi delays the inaugural match by a day as he is too busy fulfilling his duties as India's Information, Broadcasting, and Parliamentary Affairs (IBPA) minister inaugurating the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
Between the number of acronyms that this very important bureaucrat has to juggle and the number of junkets that this man undertakes, India has slipped to 145th in the FIFA rankings. That's right folks, we still play in the subterranean depths where the spotlight is diffuse and accomplishments are fuzzy and hard to find. Its been a long time and just like success, failure is a habit forming creature.
In its period of mourning, if English soccer ever needs to feel good, it only has to look to India which has not qualified for the Asian Cup since 1984. Its only recent highpoint to date is winning the Nehru Cup this year, the first time in tournament history since its resumption after a decade. Its a beginning but don't look to the new professional league for the answers to India's problems. Its only fitting that we have the minister of propaganda as our soccer chief to put the very best spin on bad news.
Nice. I think the NY Giants vs Miami Dolphins game played at Wembley should be singled out for the sorry state of English soccer. How can you allow 300 lb linebackers to trample the turf into trenches such that only Peter Crouch's head is visible?
"Let's not just blame the weather for the outcome, though. Let's also blame the NFL. It hardly helped that the Wembley pitch had recently been churned to a puree by a bunch of American heavies in helmets. The more it rained, the more the gridiron lines began to emerge beneath the grass. Suddenly it was second and down at the Croatia 20-yard line. Say what you like about the wisdom of playing Peter Crouch on his own up front, but he rushed an impressive 45 yards in that first quarter, bringing his career total in Wednesday night football to 126 yards." _ Times of London writer Giles Smith.
McLaren impressed by Becks form against Hollywood stars
McLaren recently paid a visit to Becks and Posh's lavish Hollywood estate. No words were exchanged as McLaren observed Becks playing a game of Twister with Posh. His ankle looked fine. In the afternoon McLaren watched Posh's cocker spaniels getting a manicure and then enjoyed a wine cooler basking on their sun deck.
In the evening he drove Becks SUV to O'Conell's and watched the LA Galaxy play a charity match against Hollywood United. A cam monitored Becks ankle constantly. It looked fine. McLaren had three flagons of Newcastle ale and chicken wings. It cost him 10 quid.
How about that ankle injury?
"I checked on hish injury, the injury ish fine" said McClaren.
More on the match. Beckham's performance was very encouraging as he scored two goals and assisted in three others. In between he took a hefty swipe at 38 year old Frank Lebouef and argued vehemently with the referee against a penalty call. He played 80 minutes which was 67 minutes above average for him against a team whose average age approached 40 years. He showed he was match ready against the likes of Anthony La Paglia who looked very hard nosed in goal. A hawk eyed make up man checked constantly for nose hairs and beads of sweat. Cobi Jones and Landon Donovan played too and Becks gamboled with them looking like a dewy eyed school kid.
His vigorous display impressed Steve McLaren who decided to choose Becks for the England squad against Croatia which puts him closer to the century mark in international caps. As per McLaren this has little to do with sentiment and more to do with form.
"David Beckham is an important player for England, always has been, and he will be again."
How about David Bentley's form?
"Yeah, I think he plays for Blackburn. Its in the north. You know its hard to keep up with young talent when you don't have Setanta or an Oyster Pass. Its a pity but the pound goes a long way across the pond.That's the way the cookie crumbles. He! He!"
17 year old Toni Kroos hit this last gasp winner for Bayern Munich against Red Star Belgrade.You've got to see it to believe it.Even Beckham couldn't do this.No camera tricks ..!
Some of the howlers seen on this DVD can be viewed here.
Includes this incredibly goofy self goal by Chris Brass (Darlington vs Bury, 2006) - where he more or less uses his nose to score a self goal....!
Birgit Prinz and Sandra Smisek scored hat tricks in an 11-0 smashing of Argentina. Vanina Correa had a nightmare debut in the Argentine goal and scored two own goals.
The Germans have lost a few key players from the 2003 campaign as Maren Meinert their playmaker retired but they have Renate Lingor and Kirstin Garefrekes.
The greatest contribution of the US to soccer aka football is the bowdlerization of 'association football' to soccer. The US being the prime arbiter of popular culture soccer is now universally recognized as an interchangeable term for football. To sticklers across the pond, it signifies ignorance of the global game. But soccer serves a practical purpose of nomenclature distinguishing it from American football.
However, there is an even more insidious word creep taking place in soccer and this is assist. It got thrust into the international stage when David Beckham provided three assists in the LA Galaxy vs NY Red Bulls game. There it was flashing on FSC as Becks was being interviewed.
As far as I can see assist is purely a statistical term that is bandied about in the US but seems to be picking up steam through newswire agencies that keep match reports brief. It cuts short descriptions such as "Beckham's lovely swerving freekick curled up and across the human wall, that moved nary a muscle, as the ball moved from right to left, and settled gently on the forehead of Pavon who flicked it in effortlessly. Vintage Beckham " Or some such thing that the Guardian columnists can do better.
The word was highlighted in the LA Galaxy vs Red Bulls match but it has been in existence for a while in this country. Do you know that Landon Donovan is the all time assist leader in the national team with 23 breaking Cobi Jones record in April 2006? I have my doubts whether Beckham's statistics were recorded that closely when playing in England or Spain. But that is all about to change.
Is the term assist a measure of a meritocratic society or a national obsession with individual statistics? After all, it does make a difference as to who set up the goal and why their contributions shouldn't be recognized more fully. Or is it an effort to make a game more palatable to a larger audience?
A trip to the statistics zone at www.ussoccer.com is a revealing one. Compare that to the FA website, the world's oldest archive of player records, which is downright threadbare. The same set is used to describe greats like Stanley Matthews and contemporaries like Ashley Cole. It pretty much amounts to caps and goals scored. The entry on Landon Donovan is a veritable excel spreadsheet of numbers with categories on assists. There is a interestingly enough, a category on points scored which is an aggregate of goals and assists made.
Donovan leads with 21 (9 goals, 3 assists). Statistics like assists and points scored highlight how invaluable a player is to the national squad but it also suggests the ethos of an underlying individuality in US team sports, even one as soccer, with its unparalleled global connections. These categories are not anomalies. I think they are part of the US rubric. I can almost hear myself saying "Donovan is a good player" in a conversation and another person shooting back with " Do you have the numbers to back you up?"
The downside to descriptives like assists and points scored is that they make for convenient record keeping and newswire reports but they do not necessarily make for good soccer journalism. Which is why I think a Yank's commentary on a match is received with much more skepticism. After all what exactly is an assist in soccer? Its jargon.
Hitting the crossbar as a target. Really nice to see the Arsenal spirit come through and Gallas seems to be enjoying his captaincy. Song and Senderos were terrible and Walcott made a mess of his shot. Surprisingly, it was Almunia who was on target. Maybe he can open with RVP up front! H/t to Arseblog who provided the link.
So Marco Materazzi decided to reveal in his yet to be released autobiography what he actually said to Zidane. He after all has to sell his book which probably is a pop up book with graphic pictures of him mowing down players. After all this is Materazzi!
...he took the shot about a metre or two from the half line.The game was a european champion's league qualifier between Levadia Tallinn and Red Star Belgrade .
And if that hapless goalkeeper was left reeling from what came as a bolt from the blue here's another even more hapless goalkeeper.Marco of Belenenses managed to keep Real Madrid out of his goal for 89 minutes and then went and let one go through his legs. Video and match report.
You really can't teach penalty shootouts because it all comes to mental edge and this part of the game seems to be Chelsea's achilles heel. Man Utd won the Community Shield as they won on penalty shootout, 3-0. Van Der Saar showed his class while Chelsea just continued where it left off in the CL semifinal against Liverpool. Florent Malouda scored his first goal hustling pass Rio and poking the ball past VDS.
Man, these Chelsea Man Utd games just stink don't they? These two managers just hate to lose to each other and the matches become a drag.
Video: Rhain Davis: The first viral marketing soccer signing
Reports are that Man U and You Tube have merged to create a soccer video jockey behemoth, Tube Man U, that has largely eliminated the use of talent scouts on the ground. Instead, fathers who are proud of their sons soccer prowess will now post their videos on Tube Man U which will be viewed by experts like SAF and Man Utd's estimated fan base of 75 million. Labeling them as the next Rooney or Owen will be an essential feature. Videos will be considered by Man U with rights to a first offer before being turned to other clubs. Man Utd hopes to corner 90% of the world talent this way. Rhain Davis is just the first of many.
According to Sepp Blatter, the best players in the Copa America are Leo Messi and Vagner Love. Vagner Love?? Blatter says Love is better than Robinho and is one of the finds of the tournament.
Let me say this. I am glad that Sepp Blatter was never a manager of a club and he can practice his ineptitude at FIFA. He would never recognize talent if it came up and wrapped its arms around him and tongued his ear.
Bakari Sagna of AJ Auxerre, the only club never to be relegated in Ligue 1 history is set to join Arsenal except that his club seems to be holding out a wee bit longer probably for another half a mil. Arsenal will most likely sign him for 7 million pounds. His choice is a bit puzzling because even though he is a highly rated right back, we are fairly well endowed in that department having Emmanuel Eboue and Justin Hoyte.
A few factors that might have influenced Wenger's choice. Fiorentina is likely to announce Freddie Ljungberg's signing in a few days so that leaves us thin on the right flank even though Ljungberg was clearly not firing on all cylinders in the last two seasons. Wenger would like to develop Eboue's right wing play as Sagna sits back. Eboue will also see Africa Cup duty along with Toure for Cote D'Ivoire leaving Arsenal hollow at the back for three weeks (depending on how far Cote D'Ivoire goes). Concerns about the goals conceded on the right side also may have prompted Wenger to sign Sagna.
Sagna has seen plenty of U21 action and has already earned his first cap for Les Bleus. He is eventually slated to replace Willy Sagnol.
Amongst the razzle dazzle of Henry, Torres, Bent, Hargreaves, Pizarro, Bale, as transfers, the signing of Arsenal's more low key acquisitions, seems to be but a footnote. There is plenty of talk of Obafemi Martins on target as our next signing but his undoubted talent and direct, powerful style reminiscent of Drogba should be tempered by the fact that Martins seems to be a bit of a loose cannon. Personally, I would prefer Anelka because he would love to be back in Arsenal with the requisite attitude correction. However, the baggage he brings seems to be something the Arsenal board does not want to deal with.
Asian Cup: Unsexy Socceroos practise Live Earth tactics
"and the prize for team energy conservation goes to.... the Socceroos"
Maybe it was the Sydney Live Earth concert that set the theme for the Socceroos Asian Cup opener against Oman because Lucas Neill and his boys looked like they were all for practicing energy conservation on the field. Energy offsets anyone? Al Gore would have been impressed by the Socceroos embracing his message but their fans were left quite blue by their low wattage performance.
I think the problem is that the attack with luminaries like Harry Kewell, Timmy Cahill, Mark Viduka, and Mark Bresciano, have been consuming all the media space, leaving the defense largely ignored. Yesterday, the Socceroos found out that they also have to play good defense against a determined and opportunistic Omani attack, which caught veterans Emerton, Neill, and newbie Patrick Kisnorbo frequently flatfooted. It was left to Mark Schwarzer to make the goal score look respectable. The Boro man produced another outstanding set of saves to keep the ball from the net. Full points to Oman as they kept the Socceroos in their shell.
Veterans Emerton, Neill, Viduka have made a living skating away in the cool and dim pastures of England as it were. The heat index in SE Asia is beyond that familiar climate control. This has become a frequently cited issue and a potential stumbling block on their way to the finals. Their caution in playing such conditions might be a continued problem against Iraq and Thailand, who have no doubt taken note of the ginger Socceroos. The next matches call for young guns who motor and I feel strongly that Archie Thompson and Nicky Carle should get the start. Graham Arnold should not expect Tim Cahill to pull one out of the hat all the time. Thailand and Iraq's match pulled to a draw, 1-1 leaving no one in Group A out in front. So this group is wide open.
Thailand, one of the hosts and with some of the most passionate fans, could pull off an upset with a hard running performance. Iraq's coach Jovan Vieira has mentioned his team's unimaginable difficulties preparing for the Asian Cup which leaves one with nothing but admiration for the Iraq team's grit. Anything that gives a psychological edge might be important since the Socceroos seem to have made their psyche an issue.
With Carlos Tevez in Man Utd as proclaimed, every other club might just as well throw in the towel. Tevez is on his way to Old Trafford on a two year loan with an option to extend it to three years. This is a complicated arrangement as MSI the third party and officially the retainer of Tevez's rights wants to negotiate the transfer.
Except that the Premier League believes that West Ham tore up that contract and rendered it null and void, in effect, giving the Hammers control over Tevez. However, MSI does not believe that is the case and that the Hammers did this to expedite Tevez's participation against Wigan in a relegation showdown. Just when MSI believes it has the bargaining rights the PL steps in and says that West Ham should get a fat fee from everything that MSI makes off the transfer. This could be up to 6million pounds which means that West Ham can break even with the fine that they have had to pay. But the Blades are now in High Court saying that the 5.5 m pounds is a slap on the wrist and that Tevez should be back in a Corinthian shirt.
So the long and the short of it, Tevez would be back with the Corinthians but those guys hate his guts for splitting to the English shores, and anyways his family was getting death threats for playing lousy last season, so he will go back to Boca. Only that Boca has Rodrigo Palacio and Riquelme and between the two of them they have won every title there is this year in South American soccer, so they don't need him. Man U, Inter, and Real would love to have him but since they have invited every soccer player with legs to audition as striker including Evo Morales, he will be 2567th on the roster. But Tevez sees himself having a role in European soccer, which would mean that being the above mentioned number is inimical to his goals, he would then decide to stay on with West Ham.
Great! But West Ham maybe relegated to the championship after the High Court decides that seeing Neil Warnock throwing a fit is a heavy price to pay, especially after he threatens to commute their lives, in many interesting ways, all to be found on YouTube under the exploding judges tag. Tevez then might be traded to the newly promoted Blades because the Hammers have spent 512m pounds on Jermaine Defoe and are now -1056m pounds in liquidation with the maintenance man screaming for his back pay. Since Neil Warnock and Blades throw up every time they see that highlight reel of Tevez scoring The Goal That Spelled Doom, they would want very little to do with him. Plus, they now have Billy Sharp to lead them out of the Premier League.
Tevez to Scunthorpe Utd for the maintenance man's wages of 12,000 quid!
On July 13th, David Beckham will finally show up at the LA Galaxy and begin his career as the MLS most expensive signing. Five giveaways which show Becks misses Real:
5) He starts his speech by saying, " I am very happy to have become a LA Galacticos."
4) His cellphone call log shows 20 calls a day to a certain Ramon Calderon.
3) His lunch takeouts include paella and tapas.
2) He remains on the bench even as Frank Yallop announces his starting squad.
1) His crosses find no one in the middle.
Conventional wisdom is out the door in this Copa. It is passe, decrepit, and dead on arrival. Support the underdogs because they will win. And if it involves the Andean countries and Copa invitees then give them your unadulterated and unabashed love. They are breathing life into Latin American soccer beyond Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Torpor is out, torrid in.
Whoo! Boy. You are way beyond the curve if you said Elano or Forlan. It is not far fetched to say Farfan. A bit of Humberto. You do like pizazz? Pizarro.Yes, I thought so. Some Roque n' Roll. How about Nery? Nary a thought, its all action. Willy nilly, it might be Macnelly.
Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, and Chile have been the barbarians at the gates and they have shown that they are ready to crash the party. Colombia and even the US maybe next. The Albiceleste might fall from their mighty perch. Sepp Blatter will have to institute a ban on global warming if all the sea level countries sink further.
The battle of the managers with bad shirts. Dunga vs Hugo Sanchez.
Brazil meets Mexico. This should be an easy win but the Seleccao are coming in with a number of players on attack having dropped out citing fatigue or not been included. Dunga is still looking for the squad with the ideal balance of aggression and defense. The other point is that El Tri have had a modicum of success against Brazil and in the Copa America in general.
El Tri has had success in the Copa having been runners up in 1993 and 2001. Against Brazil, in the 2001 Copa they beat Brazil, 1-0 in the group stages. El Tri also beat Brazil, 4-3 in the finals of the 1999 Confederations Cup. They still have Borgetti and Blanco who scored the goals that beat Brazil on those two occasions. El Tri has never disgraced itself in its defeat to the Brazilians which have been quite tightly contested.
If history is an indicator then this will again be a well contested affair. The absence of Andres Guardado, Ricardo Osorio, Pavel Pardo, and Carlos Salcido will hurt El Tri as should the speedy presence of Kaka for the Brazilians. If there is an Achilles heel it well could be Helton at goal for the Brazilians who can flub the simplest of chances. The Seleccao also have questions on attack with Vagner Love and Fred although Dunga can push up Robinho who should inject life. Nery Castillo and Juan Carlos Cacho who has had a outstanding Clausura for Pachuca will be the main go to players for the Mexican attack. El Tri can come all fired up or flat with their loss against the US in the Gold Cup a few days ago with Hugo Sanchez's future in doubt.
X-factor: Both managers love wearing outlandish shirts. And they are 0-2 combined with their choices.
Group B: Brazil v. Mexico
Time: 20:50 (local) / 00:50 (GMT), June 27, 2007
Venue: Polideportivo Cachamay, Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela
For your Copa America fix, go check out The Onion Bag. They have loads of stuff on the Copa including a competition featuring beauteous babes from each of the participating countries like Aida Yespica, Adriana Lima, Jessica Alba. Yespica is my choice. Muy caliente! Viva Venezuela!
For more Aida Yespica and the accompanying physiological changes (errr..... not workplace safe) >>
That's the one benefit of coming to the USA. Any thing and everything can become a reality show including people with halitosis. So it is with Posh who has a one hour NBC special airing in July. Victoria Beckham: Coming to America (mercifully pruned down from a 6 part serial). For that we have to thank Beckham's recall to the England squad.
NBC's one hour gushfest will show Posh's sunnier alter ego and not her handbag swinging one. Posh stalkers can check out her website and see how these simple folk live.
Franco Foda thankfully did not play in Portugal or Brazil
The Guardian's Knowledge has an entry on soccer players with unusual names like Norman Conquest and Bongo Christ but a German player with the name Franco Foda raised a good deal of mirth when he debuted away to Brazil in 1987.
Franco foda in Portugese carries a pretty risque meaning >>
Video: Copa Libertadores: Boca Juniors 3 Cucuta Deportivo 0
Heartbreaking loss for Cucuta whose magical run to the Copa Libertadores final ended with a classy Riquelme fueling the high powered Boca attack to three unanswered goals. Nothing prepares you for the passion of South American soccer as the announcers go into a frenzy, the fans climb up the chain fences, and the smoky haze that envelops the field. The Bombanera was rocking.
The thing from Tring: Graham Poll hangs up his hat
Herbert Fandel was not the only referee making the news. Josip Simunic will be sorry to hear that Graham Poll is retiring from international soccer next week. The Croatia vs Australia match in the 2006 World Cup was definitely Poll's defining moment. He was sent back home after that match.
Poll officiated the Championship playoff between Derby and West Brom which was his last domestic match. His decision to retire early was influenced by his perception that he was not supported by the FA in the John Terry dismissal.
However Poll is not going quietly into the night. He has a tell all book called Seeing Red coming out in summer which will probably have harsh words for Jose Mourinho, the FA, and overpaid players who disrespect referees. Poll's book probably has some good points to be made about how thankless a referee's job is. And seeing what took place in the Denmark vs Sweden game, dangerous too.
! Don't get me wrong, I spent half my life in those... and loved 'em!
