The Confederations Cup drew to a close last night, with a fittingly exciting final between Brazil and the USA. Ever the fan of the underdog, I was rooting for the Americans, but sadly, their fine run of form deserted them in the second half, resulting in a 3-2 defeat, despite having led 2-0 at the break. I have to admit that I was fairly sceptical about this tournament, which looked like a glorified World Cup warm-up, but after suffering a few grim group games early on, things started to pick up, climaxing last night with Lucio's dramatic and emotional late headed winner.
So, in lieu of having anything else of interest to talk about in the close season, here's my Confederations Cup, team-by-team review.
USA
Team of the tournament for me. They were dismal in their first two matches, but came alive against Egypt and put on one of the greatest defensive displays I've seen in recent years against Spain. Tim Howard capped off an outstanding season for Everton with some superb performances and would probably have been the player of the tournament, if only they could have held on in the final. There still seems to be a lot of disenchantment from the fans with regards coach Bob Bradley, but you'd have to back him to hold on to his position after their great run, and it seems only fair to me that he be given the chance to take them to the World Cup.
In my last post, I mentioned the footballing faux-pas of bragging to your opponents. It was a little disappointing to see the USA subs running onto the pitch and congratulating their team mates at half time, just because they were 2-0 up. There's nothing wrong with doing this, but surely it would have been better to do so in the dressing room, rather than in front of the Brazilian players. I'm sure any Brazilian who saw it will have felt even more satisfied when they scored the winning goal.
Anyway, that complaint aside, they were great and I'll be interested to see what they can do when they return next year.
Brazil
One of the most underwhelming Brazilian sides I've ever seen, but they still won. They started with defensive concerns after conceding three against Egypt, but soon sorted that out, only to start having goal scoring issues, most noticeably in their somewhat fortuitous semi-final win against the hosts. There was roughly 45 minutes of Brazilian flair on show during the entire competition, and it all came in the second half of the final. Coach Dunga has got them functioning well from set-pieces, but seemingly at the expense of their trademark flair, which the fans will only tolerate as longas he is winning. Thankfull, they have a strong winning mentality and despite their shortcomings, they will be one of the most feared teams in SA 2010. Luis Fabiano finished as top scorer and looked very composed in front of goal. He'll be one of the danger men next year and I'd expect a bit more from the bigger names like Robinho and Kaka.
South Africa
There was so much negativity from the South African public prior to the tournament, almost as if they were making their excuses for their poor team early. It was all unfounded though as Bafana Bafana put on a great show, making the semi finals with some ease and holding Brazil to a goalless draw for 88 minutes of their semi-final. Steven Pienaar was instrumental and he'll have a lot of expectation on his shoulders when the hosts kick-off their campaign next year.
One of the other stars of the cup was the vuvuzela. This is the horn favoured by the locals and blown in a noisy, inharmonious drone throughout every game. Some online curmudgeons have put up a petition to get them banned from the World Cup, presumably because the noise disturbs their TV viewing experience. Now, I can't say that I'm a fan of these horns, but to try to ban them is shocking. I would imagine that the atmosphere at these games is fantastic and for some fool in their cosy apartment to try and ruin that for all those who turn up and pay their cash to watch the match in the stadium is symptomatic of the way that the live experience is being sanitized for the TV watching masses. Why have the contest in South Africa if their fans can't celebrate the game in their own way? Crazy. So if you see one of these anti Vuvuzela petitions, don't sign it.
Spain
They looked comfortable, if unspectacular in their group games, but were undone by a lack of clinical finishing, which was hinted at in their game against Iraq, before coming to a head against the USA. They equalled the record for consecutive games without a defeat, only to lose the game that would have given them the record outright. The rest of the world will have breathed a great sigh of relief when they finally lost and all of a sudden, Del Bosque's side look vulnerable. They've got a year to iron out the issues that arose in their five games and one suspects that they'll still be a big threat for the world Cup title. Or perhaps they've reverted to form and we can expect to see them bow out at the quarter or semi-final stage again.
Egypt
Probably the best team not to get through the group stages, Egypt, who face something of an uphill battle to qualify for next year’s competition, put in two outstanding efforts in their opening games, losing to a controversial last minute penalty to Brazil before stunning Italy 1-0. Their exertions clearly affected them in their final game where they were overwhelmed by the USA and unluckily bowed out. There were a few players in their squad who looked like they would be able to make an impression on the world stage, so I hope to see them make it through their qualifiers.
Iraq
The only team in the contest who had no hope of returning next year, Iraq failed to recapture the form that gave them the Asian crown. They were quite compact, conceding just the one goal, but lacked any bite up front and couldn't find a way past the hosts or New Zealand. It could well be that this team has now passed its peak.
Italy
The world champions were awful from start to finish. Having seen off 10 man USA in their opener, they then lost to Egypt and were thumped by Brazil to such an extent that the USA were able to get a six-goal swing in their favour in order to go through, and dump the Italians out, in dramatic circumstances. They've got massive improvements to make if they have designs on recapturing their title and their fans will be hoping that the players are getting their bad form out of the way a year early.
New Zealand
The underdogs of the competition and with good reason. After a 5-0 hammering in their opener, the team looked broken and failed to grab a goal in either of their other games. They will play Saudi Arabia or Bahrain for the chance to return to South Africa, but on this showing, they would be doing nothing more than making up the numbers.
So there we go. A nice way to fill the gap between the end of last season and the start of the pre-season friendlies. Roll-on the World Cup.
Monday, 29 June 2009
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Bragging Rights
When will footballers learn that mindless bragging and posturing will always come back to haunt them? The latest culprit is Spain's Joan Capdevila who decided to give a bit of pre-match needle to his Villarreal team mate Jozy Altidore ahead of Spain's Confederations Cup semi-final against Altidore's USA side. In blatant defiance of the perceived wisdom that taking the piss out of your opponents serves only to fire them up, rather than demoralise them, Capdevila said “Yesterday he [Altidore] sent me a message and told me that we had to be careful. But his Spanish is not so great, so I think he made a mistake.” I suppose Mr Capdevila had reason to feel confident. His side had managed a record equalling 35 match unbeaten run including 15 wins on the spin. The USA on the other hand had only managed to scrape through their group by virtue of Italy's collapse against Brazil and there wasn't a single pre-match pundit to be found who would back them.
But it seems that Spain, for so long a team that choked on the big stage, have reverted to type following their recent success at Euro 2008. 27 minutes into the game and our friend Jozy, no doubt fired up by the response to his text message, outfought and out-thought Capdevila on the edge of the area before powering a shot home via keeper and post. Fantastic! Just what all the neutrals wanted to see in the run up to the World Cup. Spain can be beaten. A Clint Dempsey goal in the second half wrapped up a famous victory and sent the States into the final, where they will play Brazil; last-gasp winners over a unlucky and much improved South African side last night.
To be honest, were it not for Capdevila's poor man marking, this whole tournament might well have passed by all but unnoticed. Great things seemed on the cards after the early 4-3 thriller between Brazil and Egypt, but that was something of a false dawn as most teams put in the sort of performances that screamed 'I want to be on holiday'. Italy, World Champions let's not forget, were dismal and this Brazil side has to be one of the dullest I've ever seen. Don't even get me started on the likes of New Zealand. But now the tournament has provided one of the biggest shocks of the past few years, it should be on a few more people's radars. If the USA can defend like they did against Spain, they'll have every chance of pulling off another shock in the final as well and they'll be marked out as dark horses for the World Cup finals next year.
Of course, with the USA being great at just about every sport going, it's somewhat galling to be cheering them towards success in the only one we could traditionally expect to beat them in. Even so, I'll be hoping that coach Bob Bradley can guide them to victory against the underwhelming Brazilians, if only to give Altidore the ultimate bragging rights in the Villarreal dressing room next season.
Elsewhere, England's under-21s will take on Sweden tonight in another semi-final clash. One player sadly no longer eligible for the squad is striker Matt Derbyshire, who bagged six goals in his fourteen appearances at this level. Derbyshire made his name at Blackburn Rovers and was a player I rated, so I was somewhat surprised to hear that his home town club had sold him to Greek Super League winners Olympiacos. It transpires that Derbyshire had enjoyed a successful spell there last season and was keen to make the move permanent. He had also taken part in an extraordinary Greek cup final, where he scored two goals, including an injury time equaliser to make it 3-3 and take the game into extra time. The match eventually finished 4-4 and moved into an epic penalty shoot-out which was finally won by Olympiacos after their keeper netted the final kick with the scores at 15-14. I'm not sure that all Greek games are quite so exciting, but his decision to leave perhaps reflects a lack of ambition inherent in so many mid-table Premier League teams, whose only goal is survival and maybe a revenue generating cup-run. Derbyshire will now get to play in front of packed crowds, rather than the half filled Ewood Park and can look forward to Champions League action and the defence of league and cup crowns (not to mention the improvement in weather). I hope he can further his career and maybe eventually challenge for an England squad place.
But it seems that Spain, for so long a team that choked on the big stage, have reverted to type following their recent success at Euro 2008. 27 minutes into the game and our friend Jozy, no doubt fired up by the response to his text message, outfought and out-thought Capdevila on the edge of the area before powering a shot home via keeper and post. Fantastic! Just what all the neutrals wanted to see in the run up to the World Cup. Spain can be beaten. A Clint Dempsey goal in the second half wrapped up a famous victory and sent the States into the final, where they will play Brazil; last-gasp winners over a unlucky and much improved South African side last night.
To be honest, were it not for Capdevila's poor man marking, this whole tournament might well have passed by all but unnoticed. Great things seemed on the cards after the early 4-3 thriller between Brazil and Egypt, but that was something of a false dawn as most teams put in the sort of performances that screamed 'I want to be on holiday'. Italy, World Champions let's not forget, were dismal and this Brazil side has to be one of the dullest I've ever seen. Don't even get me started on the likes of New Zealand. But now the tournament has provided one of the biggest shocks of the past few years, it should be on a few more people's radars. If the USA can defend like they did against Spain, they'll have every chance of pulling off another shock in the final as well and they'll be marked out as dark horses for the World Cup finals next year.
Of course, with the USA being great at just about every sport going, it's somewhat galling to be cheering them towards success in the only one we could traditionally expect to beat them in. Even so, I'll be hoping that coach Bob Bradley can guide them to victory against the underwhelming Brazilians, if only to give Altidore the ultimate bragging rights in the Villarreal dressing room next season.
Elsewhere, England's under-21s will take on Sweden tonight in another semi-final clash. One player sadly no longer eligible for the squad is striker Matt Derbyshire, who bagged six goals in his fourteen appearances at this level. Derbyshire made his name at Blackburn Rovers and was a player I rated, so I was somewhat surprised to hear that his home town club had sold him to Greek Super League winners Olympiacos. It transpires that Derbyshire had enjoyed a successful spell there last season and was keen to make the move permanent. He had also taken part in an extraordinary Greek cup final, where he scored two goals, including an injury time equaliser to make it 3-3 and take the game into extra time. The match eventually finished 4-4 and moved into an epic penalty shoot-out which was finally won by Olympiacos after their keeper netted the final kick with the scores at 15-14. I'm not sure that all Greek games are quite so exciting, but his decision to leave perhaps reflects a lack of ambition inherent in so many mid-table Premier League teams, whose only goal is survival and maybe a revenue generating cup-run. Derbyshire will now get to play in front of packed crowds, rather than the half filled Ewood Park and can look forward to Champions League action and the defence of league and cup crowns (not to mention the improvement in weather). I hope he can further his career and maybe eventually challenge for an England squad place.
Monday, 22 June 2009
The New Kit Lottery
Last week I was doing a bit of reading up on the Dutch Eredivisie, as you do, when I came across a picture of the new Ajax home shirt for the coming season. A fine effort, I'm sure you'll agree, although it's a bit of a shame to see them lose their quirky vertical 'ABN Amro' sponsor.
This chance encounter gave me the idea for today's post; a quick look at some of the kits set to grace fields of play across the continent this year.
Kit changes can be quite an emotive subject as fans tend to prefer sticking closely to a well worn colour scheme and will tolerate only minor design modifications. Kit manufacturers have recently been infatuated with the 'retro' style concept, which has thrown up efforts ranging from absolute class, to completely farcical, such is the nature of the 'new kit lottery'. There are quite a few websites dedicated to the glorious failures of yesteryear, and a little research has already thrown up quite a few contenders for future inclusions in these halls of shame.
My absolute favourite so far has to be this stunner, pitched at the already-close-to-breaking-point Newcastle United fan. Here's Steven Taylor, trying to maintain some dignity.
Stop sniggering at the back! Sadly for us neutrals, this is the away kit, so we're unlikely to see St James's Park awash in a sea of off-yellow. In fact, I doubt they'll sell any of these abominations. Maybe they've just given up trying to flog away kits, due to the popularity of the classic black and white stripes, and given the designers free reign to come up with whatever they fancy, which appears to be an unholy marriage of Northern Rock and a stick of rock. Good luck to them.
Grimsby Town fans can, in theory, have no complaints with their new kit, given that it was voted for by fans on their official website. They've gone for a modern revamp of their classic striped design and I have to say, it's turned out very nicely.
These fan votes are a way of engaging the supporters, but tend to be a bit of a con, as there is often only one decent design to choose. They are, of course, open to sabotage as well, which might well be what happened with their away kit, which is, quite frankly, crap.If you think Grimsby's home and away kits show a contrast between good and bad, then brace yourself for the latest offerings from French top-flight outfit Olympique Lyonnais (that's 'Lyon' to you and me).
Yes, these are both from the same team, despite being as different from each other as it is strictly possible to be. Even the club badge is different on each one. As you can see, the away kit has gone for some sort of 'sunrise/surface of Mars' effect, for reasons best known to themselves.I'd better make mention of one of the Premier League teams, so here is the truly shocking Sunderland away kit.
Those sleeves are something else. According to the marketing guff, they are 'carbon-coloured'. Eh? Just in case you were thinking things have gone completely to pot in the North East this summer, I can confirm that Middlesbrough have managed to avoid the 'tampering-trap', and have got something respectable to wear on their travels next year.
Finally, a quick word for my favourite kit so far. Here's Cambridge's new home shirt.
Quite original if you ask me, yet still in the classic sports kit mould. Good work from manufacturer Vandanel, who I will confess, I've never heard of.
The big (and indeed, only) football shirt story this week, concerned the official Liverpool website, who started to sell shirts with Glenn Johnson's name on the back, despite the fact that he hadn't even signed for the club. Thankfully for anyone who decided to get their purchase in early, Johnson finally agreed the move today. The same story was played out with much more amusing consequences on the Chelsea website last year. This time it was Robinho shirts being put up for grabs, only for the Brazilian to sign for Man City instead.Thursday, 18 June 2009
Big Name Bottlers
Yesterday, not even three weeks since the FA cup final brought our domestic competition to a close for another year, the fixtures for the upcoming season were published. This always gives the media something to get their teeth into during an otherwise fairly dull period for the sport, but for all of the coverage the event is given, the one thing that strikes me is how little there actually is to report. At the end of the day, it's just a list of who's playing who, where and when and as such, the whole thing seems to peter out as soon as the opening day fixtures have been over-analysed.
Much more fun for the individual supporter can be taken from ignoring the news-stories and plunging into the ins and outs of your own team's fate. I spent most of yesterday morning carefully plotting all of Bournemouth's away games onto my calendar, working out which ones I might be able to get to and which ones are already write-offs (Hereford on a Tuesday night. Gutted!). One thing that quickly became apparent was that this year's League 2 is just about the most boring division I can ever remember us playing in. There were very few fixtures that stood out as being 'must-see' games, although I'm hoping that will change as the season progresses.
If its exciting fixtures you're after this year, you need look no further than those that have been thrown up for the teams in League 1. The 'natural' League 1 sides such as Walsall, Carlisle and Huddersfield have suddenly found themselves surrounded by a throng of former Premier League outfits such as Charlton, Norwich, Leeds and Southampton. In fact there are seven ex-Premier league sides (if you include MK Dons) as well as some stiff competition from well organised teams such as Millwall, Tranmere and the newly minted Brighton. No doubt Charlton and Southampton fans will think their fixture lists are nothing short of disastrous, but if they want to get out of this division, it will be their attitude towards the smaller clubs that makes all the difference.
For the Saints, life will be even tougher, given that they'll be starting 10 points behind everyone else, and just when they thought things couldn't get any worse, it now appears that Kevin Keegan could be in line to take over the managerial role in their time of crisis. The so-called 'Messiah' would probably go down well with the Southampton faithful, who no doubt have fond memories of his period at the club as a player. But what exactly are Keegan's credentials?
His CV shows a blistering start with Newcastle, getting them promoted into the top flight and running Man Utd close to the title in the 1995-96 season. But after his career defining on screen breakdown that very same year, he only managed to hang on for another half a season, before packing it all in. Promotion with an Al-Fayed enhanced Fulham team followed before he quit again (I see a theme developing here), this time to inexplicably take charge of the national team. The pressures he so clearly showed he couldn't handle at Newcastle were obviously ten-fold on the international scene and before long Keegan bottled it again, quitting after a defeat to Germany in the last game at the old Wembley stadium. A quiet, ineffective stint at Man City and a farcical resurrection as Newcastle boss for five minutes both ended with a resignation rather than any determination to improve. Given Southampton's dire financial position right now, and Keegan's tendency to spend his way to the top (or middle) of the table, they hardly seem like a match made in heaven. Their season could well be defined by the manager they employ to get them out of their current plight, but even the most over-optimistic Saints fan might want to think about looking to managers with experience at this level, rather than big name bottlers like Keegan.
Everyone loves a rant, so fill your boots here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXpUdBlRZe8
Just to update on a couple of previous posts:
Asian world cup qualification became somewhat clearer this week. My prediction that Saudi Arabia would sneak the final automatic qualification spot went up the spout when they could only draw 0-0 with Korea DPR, handing them the place instead, and their first shot at the World Cup finals since their famous run in the 1966 competition. The Saudis will now have to fight it out with Bahrain in a play-off before the winner takes on New Zealand (who, I should mention, have been dreadful in the Confederations Cup and are surely not worthy of a World Cup berth) to determine the final team to make it. Uzbekistan and Iran will have to wait another four years for their next chance, with both having dropped out of the running yesterday.
Meanwhile, the £80 million spent on Ronaldo has all of a sudden become the norm. The Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy is reporting that Inter are prepared to sell Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but only if someone will stump up the now obligatory £80m. If I was a Saints fan, I'd be keeping Keegan well away from the club cheque book!
Much more fun for the individual supporter can be taken from ignoring the news-stories and plunging into the ins and outs of your own team's fate. I spent most of yesterday morning carefully plotting all of Bournemouth's away games onto my calendar, working out which ones I might be able to get to and which ones are already write-offs (Hereford on a Tuesday night. Gutted!). One thing that quickly became apparent was that this year's League 2 is just about the most boring division I can ever remember us playing in. There were very few fixtures that stood out as being 'must-see' games, although I'm hoping that will change as the season progresses.
If its exciting fixtures you're after this year, you need look no further than those that have been thrown up for the teams in League 1. The 'natural' League 1 sides such as Walsall, Carlisle and Huddersfield have suddenly found themselves surrounded by a throng of former Premier League outfits such as Charlton, Norwich, Leeds and Southampton. In fact there are seven ex-Premier league sides (if you include MK Dons) as well as some stiff competition from well organised teams such as Millwall, Tranmere and the newly minted Brighton. No doubt Charlton and Southampton fans will think their fixture lists are nothing short of disastrous, but if they want to get out of this division, it will be their attitude towards the smaller clubs that makes all the difference.
For the Saints, life will be even tougher, given that they'll be starting 10 points behind everyone else, and just when they thought things couldn't get any worse, it now appears that Kevin Keegan could be in line to take over the managerial role in their time of crisis. The so-called 'Messiah' would probably go down well with the Southampton faithful, who no doubt have fond memories of his period at the club as a player. But what exactly are Keegan's credentials?
His CV shows a blistering start with Newcastle, getting them promoted into the top flight and running Man Utd close to the title in the 1995-96 season. But after his career defining on screen breakdown that very same year, he only managed to hang on for another half a season, before packing it all in. Promotion with an Al-Fayed enhanced Fulham team followed before he quit again (I see a theme developing here), this time to inexplicably take charge of the national team. The pressures he so clearly showed he couldn't handle at Newcastle were obviously ten-fold on the international scene and before long Keegan bottled it again, quitting after a defeat to Germany in the last game at the old Wembley stadium. A quiet, ineffective stint at Man City and a farcical resurrection as Newcastle boss for five minutes both ended with a resignation rather than any determination to improve. Given Southampton's dire financial position right now, and Keegan's tendency to spend his way to the top (or middle) of the table, they hardly seem like a match made in heaven. Their season could well be defined by the manager they employ to get them out of their current plight, but even the most over-optimistic Saints fan might want to think about looking to managers with experience at this level, rather than big name bottlers like Keegan.
Everyone loves a rant, so fill your boots here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXpUdBlRZe8
Just to update on a couple of previous posts:
Asian world cup qualification became somewhat clearer this week. My prediction that Saudi Arabia would sneak the final automatic qualification spot went up the spout when they could only draw 0-0 with Korea DPR, handing them the place instead, and their first shot at the World Cup finals since their famous run in the 1966 competition. The Saudis will now have to fight it out with Bahrain in a play-off before the winner takes on New Zealand (who, I should mention, have been dreadful in the Confederations Cup and are surely not worthy of a World Cup berth) to determine the final team to make it. Uzbekistan and Iran will have to wait another four years for their next chance, with both having dropped out of the running yesterday.
Meanwhile, the £80 million spent on Ronaldo has all of a sudden become the norm. The Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy is reporting that Inter are prepared to sell Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but only if someone will stump up the now obligatory £80m. If I was a Saints fan, I'd be keeping Keegan well away from the club cheque book!
Sunday, 14 June 2009
A serious challange to the idea of fairplay
One of the things I hate about the close season is the endless media transfer speculation that seems to surround certain players. Still to this day, whenever I pick up a paper in June/July, I expect to see a back page headline about Patrick Viera's imminent departure from Arsenal, such was the craze for that particular story for about four seasons running. So it comes as something of a relief to see that the fates of Kaka (last season's transfer window 'will he, won't he' story) and ultimate want-away whinger Ronaldo, have been all but sewn up before the middle of June. Hoorah!
Of course, there is the small matter of the £136 million that has changed hands in order to bring these players to the stadium of purchased dreams. The game has long been on a path of self destruction, with the bigger clubs accumulating resources and power leaving the lower league teams facing a future as barren as a Bobby Zamora goal-drought. £136 million would pay-off most, if not all, of the debts owed by teams in the bottom two divisions of English football and with such a high profile shattering of the world transfer fee record, now may well be the time for the FA and FL to start thinking seriously about the distribution of wealth in the game.
After all, it's not like this story has suffered from a lack of media exposure. BBC news put it as their lead story, ahead of strong stories on the Iranian elections and swine-flu. Every newspaper has had pictures of Ronaldo stretched across their front and back pages and websites have been packed full of news, rumour and speculation about who else might be joining the Perez revolution in Madrid and who Man Utd might spend their new found wealth on. To be fair, there have been a few mentions of the ludicrous sums involved and a little flimsy debate on whether a player could ever be worth so much. UEFA chief Michel Platini has called such transfers 'a serious challenge to the idea of fairplay and the concept of financial balance in our competitions' and the Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe has apparently written to the Premier League and FA to voice his concerns on the sustainability of the game.
But the Premier League are unlikely to care one bit about the sustainability of the game. For them, as long as there are 20 solvent teams who can turn out in the top division each year, they'll be fine and will continue to have a license to print money, thanks to the expert marketing of their (flawed) product. Their concession to lower league football is a few cash hand-outs, but for them, the lower leagues go no further than the Championship, which is used to ensure that there is a decent standard of potential Premiership worthy teams to be promoted at the end of each year. Those unable to make the grade will drop, with no hint of remorse, as we've seen with former Premiership regulars such as Leeds, Nottingham Forest and more recently Charlton and Southampton.
I won't miss Ronaldo. Sure, he scored a few great goals and had a nice step-over, but his constant moaning and on-field tantrums are symbolic of a certain type of top-flight player that I just can't warm to. I'm sure he'll go down as one of the greatest players to grace the Premier League, but I feel that his legacy may well be felt further down the pyramid, as the cash injection at the top serves only to drain the life out of those clinging on at the bottom.
Whilst we're on the subject of money, it's always good to see a big corporation getting a good bashing, which is exactly what United Arab Emirates defender Saleh Obaid has done this week. Upset at his teams exit from the World Cup Qualifiers, he's blamed his teammate’s penchance for McDonalds meals for their poor on-field performance. In a dry state such as the UAE, maybe the flawed football prodigies have to turn to hamburgers, rather than booze, to get their kicks.
Fill your boots here:
http://english.aljazeera.net/sport/2009/06/2009611114844775351.html
Of course, there is the small matter of the £136 million that has changed hands in order to bring these players to the stadium of purchased dreams. The game has long been on a path of self destruction, with the bigger clubs accumulating resources and power leaving the lower league teams facing a future as barren as a Bobby Zamora goal-drought. £136 million would pay-off most, if not all, of the debts owed by teams in the bottom two divisions of English football and with such a high profile shattering of the world transfer fee record, now may well be the time for the FA and FL to start thinking seriously about the distribution of wealth in the game.
After all, it's not like this story has suffered from a lack of media exposure. BBC news put it as their lead story, ahead of strong stories on the Iranian elections and swine-flu. Every newspaper has had pictures of Ronaldo stretched across their front and back pages and websites have been packed full of news, rumour and speculation about who else might be joining the Perez revolution in Madrid and who Man Utd might spend their new found wealth on. To be fair, there have been a few mentions of the ludicrous sums involved and a little flimsy debate on whether a player could ever be worth so much. UEFA chief Michel Platini has called such transfers 'a serious challenge to the idea of fairplay and the concept of financial balance in our competitions' and the Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe has apparently written to the Premier League and FA to voice his concerns on the sustainability of the game.
But the Premier League are unlikely to care one bit about the sustainability of the game. For them, as long as there are 20 solvent teams who can turn out in the top division each year, they'll be fine and will continue to have a license to print money, thanks to the expert marketing of their (flawed) product. Their concession to lower league football is a few cash hand-outs, but for them, the lower leagues go no further than the Championship, which is used to ensure that there is a decent standard of potential Premiership worthy teams to be promoted at the end of each year. Those unable to make the grade will drop, with no hint of remorse, as we've seen with former Premiership regulars such as Leeds, Nottingham Forest and more recently Charlton and Southampton.
I won't miss Ronaldo. Sure, he scored a few great goals and had a nice step-over, but his constant moaning and on-field tantrums are symbolic of a certain type of top-flight player that I just can't warm to. I'm sure he'll go down as one of the greatest players to grace the Premier League, but I feel that his legacy may well be felt further down the pyramid, as the cash injection at the top serves only to drain the life out of those clinging on at the bottom.
Whilst we're on the subject of money, it's always good to see a big corporation getting a good bashing, which is exactly what United Arab Emirates defender Saleh Obaid has done this week. Upset at his teams exit from the World Cup Qualifiers, he's blamed his teammate’s penchance for McDonalds meals for their poor on-field performance. In a dry state such as the UAE, maybe the flawed football prodigies have to turn to hamburgers, rather than booze, to get their kicks.
Fill your boots here:
http://english.aljazeera.net/sport/2009/06/2009611114844775351.html
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
The long, long Silk Road to South Africa
Another night of thrilling (i.e. boring) World Cup qualification for England fans to endure. It seems that my post earlier in the week, about long complicated trips to away games might have been a bit hasty. Thanks to the strike by London's tube workers, whose union had the bare-faced cheek to demand a 5% pay rise slap-bang in the middle of a global recession, Wembley was only two-thirds full. Even the god-forsaken corporate tier of the stadium looked bare in places and now the FA will have to stump up refunds for those punters who decided to take the equally grim option of watching the game on ITV.
England's win tonight means that they are a mere three points away from ensuring participation in South Africa next year, but despite their perfect qualifying record thus far, other teams have beaten England to the first berths. In fact, the Asian qualifying pools appear, at first glance, to be all but sewn-up, with Japan, South Korea and everyone's favourite Asian team, Australia, successfully filling three of the four qualifying places.
But digging a little deeper, there is still plenty to play for. The final automatic qualification spot will be fought over between Korea DPR, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Iranians have recent World Cup pedigree on their side, but only a win against table topping South Korea and a draw between the other two sides would realistically see them through. That means it should be a straight shoot-out between Korea DPR and Saudi Arabia. The Koreans have a slight goal difference advantage and won the reverse fixture, but the Saudis will be playing on home soil, which I would expect will give them just enough advantage to sneak through.
Even then, it's not all over though. The team finishing third in this group will enter a two-legged play-off match against either Bahrain or Uzbekistan, who will be fighting it out for the third place spot in their group behind the Japanese and Aussies. Bahrain will be strong favourites and they'll be keen to secure their play-off spot so they can lay to rest the demons they'll still have about losing the 2006 play-off against Trinidad and Tobago.
And still it's not over, because the winner of the play-off between the two third place sides will still not have done enough to merit a place in the finals. They will then have to enter another two legged play-off, this time against Oceania group victors, New Zealand. The winners of that tie will then find themselves packing their bags for the summer tournament. Phew! And if one of Bahrain, Korea DPR or Uzbekistan makes it all the way to the finals via these play-offs, they will have played a massive 20 games in order to get there. New Zealand, on the other hand, could get there after just eight matches (including a 2-0 defeat to Fiji). Hardly seems fair.
By the way, it was great to see the likes of Greaves, Flowers, Springett and Armfield finally pick up World Cup winners medals today, having been non-playing squad members in the 1966 final. And it was great to see Greavsie back on the box, delivering a damning blow to the nation of Andorra, firstly by forgetting who England were playing against and then by declaring that the opposition were 'rubbish' and insisting that the team of '66 could step out for the second half and beat them. That kind of punditry is worthy of a medal of its own!
England's win tonight means that they are a mere three points away from ensuring participation in South Africa next year, but despite their perfect qualifying record thus far, other teams have beaten England to the first berths. In fact, the Asian qualifying pools appear, at first glance, to be all but sewn-up, with Japan, South Korea and everyone's favourite Asian team, Australia, successfully filling three of the four qualifying places.
But digging a little deeper, there is still plenty to play for. The final automatic qualification spot will be fought over between Korea DPR, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Iranians have recent World Cup pedigree on their side, but only a win against table topping South Korea and a draw between the other two sides would realistically see them through. That means it should be a straight shoot-out between Korea DPR and Saudi Arabia. The Koreans have a slight goal difference advantage and won the reverse fixture, but the Saudis will be playing on home soil, which I would expect will give them just enough advantage to sneak through.
Even then, it's not all over though. The team finishing third in this group will enter a two-legged play-off match against either Bahrain or Uzbekistan, who will be fighting it out for the third place spot in their group behind the Japanese and Aussies. Bahrain will be strong favourites and they'll be keen to secure their play-off spot so they can lay to rest the demons they'll still have about losing the 2006 play-off against Trinidad and Tobago.
And still it's not over, because the winner of the play-off between the two third place sides will still not have done enough to merit a place in the finals. They will then have to enter another two legged play-off, this time against Oceania group victors, New Zealand. The winners of that tie will then find themselves packing their bags for the summer tournament. Phew! And if one of Bahrain, Korea DPR or Uzbekistan makes it all the way to the finals via these play-offs, they will have played a massive 20 games in order to get there. New Zealand, on the other hand, could get there after just eight matches (including a 2-0 defeat to Fiji). Hardly seems fair.
By the way, it was great to see the likes of Greaves, Flowers, Springett and Armfield finally pick up World Cup winners medals today, having been non-playing squad members in the 1966 final. And it was great to see Greavsie back on the box, delivering a damning blow to the nation of Andorra, firstly by forgetting who England were playing against and then by declaring that the opposition were 'rubbish' and insisting that the team of '66 could step out for the second half and beat them. That kind of punditry is worthy of a medal of its own!
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Doing a Jiggins
Much of the press attention this week seems to have focused on managerial manoeuvrings and seldom has the appointment of a new club boss come under such anal levels of scrutiny as has been the case with Carlo Ancelotti's arrival at Chelsea. Considering the entire western world has known for months that he would be Hiddink's replacement, The Sun in particular, have gone to great lengths to keep the story running well beyond its natural life-span. This week we've been treated to the investigative brilliance of Paul Jiggins, who somehow managed to blag a trip from his employers to Ancelotti's home town of Reggiolo. From here he has treated us to numerous inconsequential insights into young Carlo's life including an interview with his father and a trawl through childhood photo albums. I bet Carlo's delighted.
Fill your boots here:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2467345/On-yer-bike-Carlo.html
Since when did we get so intimate with our domestic league managers? Did I miss the 8-page 'Roy Hodgson - the teenage years' pull-out? Did I forget to pick up my free 'At home with the Megsons' colour supplement? Or is the Sun just flying the flag for the 'big-four' and can't be bothered with anyone else? One wonders what sort of treatment the Premier League's other newest manager, Roberto Martinez, will get. Will The Sun get someone to 'do a Jiggins' in Catalonia or does the fact that he's only managing Wigan mean that it's not worth the effort?
Anyway, for me the biggest management story of the week was that of the sacking of Tranmere boss Ronnie Moore. He was given his P45 for failing to take Tranmere into the play-offs, despite being just two minutes away from doing exactly that before his team were edged into seventh place by conceding a late goal to rivals Scunthorpe in the final game of the season. Moore was also blamed for declining attendances at the Wirral club, despite the fact that attendances have been steadily falling year on year since Tranmere's relegation from the second tier of English football.
This seems harsh on Moore who has worked hard to build a squad worthy of promotion from an increasingly competitive league, all on a tight budget. Cut-throat chairmen like Tranmere's Peter Johnson seem trigger happy when they axe managers who have the backing of the fans and players. Johnson must now appoint a new boss to take charge of an ambitious team who will need to do battle with the likes of Charlton, Norwich, Leeds, Millwall and the MK Dons. Moore meanwhile can leave with his reputation intact and will hopefully find his way back into the game sooner rather than later. Carlo - watch your back.
Fill your boots here:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2467345/On-yer-bike-Carlo.html
Since when did we get so intimate with our domestic league managers? Did I miss the 8-page 'Roy Hodgson - the teenage years' pull-out? Did I forget to pick up my free 'At home with the Megsons' colour supplement? Or is the Sun just flying the flag for the 'big-four' and can't be bothered with anyone else? One wonders what sort of treatment the Premier League's other newest manager, Roberto Martinez, will get. Will The Sun get someone to 'do a Jiggins' in Catalonia or does the fact that he's only managing Wigan mean that it's not worth the effort?
Anyway, for me the biggest management story of the week was that of the sacking of Tranmere boss Ronnie Moore. He was given his P45 for failing to take Tranmere into the play-offs, despite being just two minutes away from doing exactly that before his team were edged into seventh place by conceding a late goal to rivals Scunthorpe in the final game of the season. Moore was also blamed for declining attendances at the Wirral club, despite the fact that attendances have been steadily falling year on year since Tranmere's relegation from the second tier of English football.
This seems harsh on Moore who has worked hard to build a squad worthy of promotion from an increasingly competitive league, all on a tight budget. Cut-throat chairmen like Tranmere's Peter Johnson seem trigger happy when they axe managers who have the backing of the fans and players. Johnson must now appoint a new boss to take charge of an ambitious team who will need to do battle with the likes of Charlton, Norwich, Leeds, Millwall and the MK Dons. Moore meanwhile can leave with his reputation intact and will hopefully find his way back into the game sooner rather than later. Carlo - watch your back.
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