Pelé
“Very few players become legends of the game without making an impact at the World Cup. Injuries and limited team-mates can be restrictive given the nature of the tournament, with perhaps only George Best and Alfredo Di Stefano considered among the all-time greats despite failing to appear at football’s biggest tournament, so Soccernet takes a look at the top XI players who have made their mark on the biggest stage.” (ESPN)
“BBC’s South American football expert Tim Vickery chats to Adrian Clarke & Iain Spragg on the latest episode of the world famous Soccerlens podcast, giving us a fascinating insight into the Copa Libertadores and the best prospects involved in the competition.” (Soccer Lens)
“The coincidences during Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League games were simply too delicious to go without notice. At Porto’s Dragão Stadium in Portugal, the referee from the game that featured Thierry Henry’s infamous Hand of Gaul goal, Martin Hansson, was excoriated by Arsenal Manager Arsène Wenger for a call that led directly to Porto’s game-winning goal. Henry, of course, is a former star at Arsenal. Hansson’s vapor lock during France’s playoff victory over Ireland last year sent the French to South Africa and the Irish into conniptions.” (NYT)
“A streetfighter, a product of the terraces, the antithesis of David Beckham, earthy, real, unmanufactured: branding Wayne Rooney has been profitable business. Just how lucrative is up for debate, as the agency Proactive – who produced that description of the Manchester United striker – is claiming he owes them £4.3 million. An alternative viewpoint is to wonder about the necessity of spin to deliver an accurate image of Rooney.” (ESPN)
“Few people would confuse Wayne Rooney with a rocket scientist, but the increasingly deadly and dangerous Manchester United striker used his head not once, but twice, as the Red Devils nearly crushed A.C. Milan’s hopes of advancing in the UEFA Champions League with a 3-2 win in the first leg of their home-and-home, total-goals series at the San Siro on Tuesday.” (NYT)
AC Milan 2-3 Manchester United: 8 Key Observations
“Classic European nights. When we complain about the stifling dominance of the Big Four; when we curse every transfer that sends a promising young player from a lesser club to the Big Four; when we ponder proposals such as debt-to-revenue restrictions, foreign player quotas, and playoffs for European places; when we talk about all these things, we are talking about the promise of classic European nights like Tuesday night at a raucous and roaring San Siro. Some observations…” (EPL Talk)
“Watching European football has always had an exotic element for us in Britain. In the 60s and 70s, abroad was a long way away. The world seemed much bigger and the visit of a team from Italy, Germany or Albania was like a visit from another football planet. We hadn’t heard of most of the players, we didn’t know much about the teams. How could we? They were not on TV and rarely covered in the press. Our only exposure to non-British players was at World Cups and on European nights. Hardly any played in the UK.” (EPL Talk)
“After the success of his first post, we’ve welcomed back Scarf with open arms. Here, he considers Swansea City and the factors that have led to them holding such an enviable position today. On Monday 21 April 2003, Swansea City hosted Exeter at the Vetch Field. Sitting 90th of the 92 teams in the Football League, they lost 1-0 to the team directly below, putting them in grave danger of relegation. Both clubs were in a horrible mess; deeply in debt, neither owned their grounds and both were experiencing serious off-the-field disruption.” (thetwounfortunates)
“Pep Guardiola said it, Joan Laporta said it, and Carles Puyol said it. Cristiano Ronaldo said it, Kaká said it, and Karim Benzema said it. The Madrid press said it. Over and over and over again. Everybody said it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but sooner or later FC Barcelona will lose in La Liga. The occasional lone voice dared whisper the words ‘whole’, ‘season’ and ‘unbeaten’ in the same sentence but most didn’t. Most wouldn’t. Everyone knew the day would come; many even knew when it would come. In Madrid they were counting on it. The maths had been done: -5+3+3=1, Real Madrid = champions. Twenty-one matches and almost six months later, the day had come.” (Guardian)
“The John Terry scandal has engendered a flood of obloquy on English football. Columnists of many kinds have fervently joined in the abuse, some with a knowledge of the realities of the game, however bleak, some, like the right wing political columnist Simon Geffer, who “hate soccer” with almost comical outrage. He seems for example to believe that today’s wealthy footballers — the average annual wage in the Premier League is a massive £1.2 mill ion — swan around in Rolls Royces, when the young plutocrats would favour nothing so square. For them, the costliest Ferraris and their luxurious like.” (TSS On Net – BRAIN GLANVILLE)
“Small wonder that Ian Watmore’s brain-child of ‘reforming’ the FA Cup senseless was leaked to the press at the weekend. No more than forty-eight hours after the story broke in the press (with more or less no fanfare anywhere other than in The Times, which broke the story), the Premier League comes up with its proposal to jazz up the end of the season. Their answer, a play-off for the fourth Champions League place, is an act of evil genius so simple that one is almost tempted to stand and give grudging applause. And let’s make this absolutely clear, this idea has nothing to do with evening things out or redistribution of money. It’s about the Premier League snatching the end of the season away from everybody else.” (twohundredpercent)
“The state and importance of Scottish football both fascinates and repels large parts of Scotland – but there can be little doubt that the condition of the game and how we see it throws light on Scottish culture and society. In the last week, I have watched Motherwell v Rangers and Aberdeen v Celtic live on TV, and went to the St. Johnstone v Dundee United cup tie. Taking all three of these together gives a number of pointers about the health of the game.” (Gerry Hassan)
“Brazilian football lost one of its all-time greats last week when Orlando Peçanha died at the age of 74. If he had to go, then maybe the forces of destiny and the gods of soccer thought it appropriate to take him on the eve of Carnaval. Perhaps they were trying to make a point, juxtaposing his loss with the start of the country’s great party. Because as revelers fill the streets from Rio to Recife, there are many who like to see Brazilian soccer as one giant Carnaval, everyone more concerned with having fun than with the result, in a fabulous land full of skilled strikers and inept defenders.” (SI – Tim Vickery)
“While the Champions League takes centre stage this week with the ever enticing first knockout round, arguably the biggest fixture of all is scheduled in the backwaters of Thursday night’s Europa League. Ajax vs. Juventus has been played out as a European Cup final as well as a Champions League final, and the sound of the fixture may well have the same effect on the ears of lovers of football history as the Madeleine cake in the mouth of Marcel Proust.” (ESPN)
“You may not have heard of Teófilo Cubillas, also known as ‘El Nene’ or ‘The Kid’. I was only vaguely aware of him until reading up a little (and watching a lot of YouTube) this weekend. But Teófilo Cubillas is arguably the greatest player in Peru’s history, and a player who more than made his mark at two World Cups – Mexico 1970, and Argentina 1978 – with a mix of dribbling, playmaking and long range shooting.” (World Cup Blog)
“AC Milan’s press conference on the eve of their UEFA Champions League first knockout round first-leg tie against Manchester United FC was even more animated than usual as the massed ranks of the media jostled for positions at Milanello.” (UEFA)
Panini stickers of the ill-fated 1974 Zaire squad (from the blog ‘Zaire 1974’)
“‘Feet of the Chameleon’, the title phrase of Ian Hawkey’s excellent recent book on African football, comes from a coinage of South African commentator Zama Masondo—who was trying to familiarize and localize slow motion television replays for Zulu-speaking rural audiences. For members of that audience who were new to television of any sort, the replays were confusing. They thought ‘something had gone wrong with their TV sets at first.’ So, Masondo explained to Hawkey, rather than just saying ‘Now for the replay’ the commentator used the phrase ‘Ngonyawo lo nwabu’ which means ‘Now let’s see it again with the feet of the chameleon.’” (Pitch Invasion)
“This week’s Video Of The Week is ‘Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’, a 2006 film that was featured at that year’s Edinburgh Festival. The film follows a simple concept: follow Zinedine Zidane with a bank of cameras (seventeen, to be precise) during a Liga match between Real Madrid and Villareal. The film drew comparison with the 1970 film “Football As Never Before”, during which a camera followed George Best for the duration of a match between Manchester United and Coventry City. With a soundtrack provided by the Scottish band, Mogwai, this is a hypnotic piece of filmwork.” (twohundredpercent)
“Hardly a season goes by in Belgium without one club or another encountering a severe financial crisis and plunging down the divisions as a harsh consequence. Will they never learn? This time it was the turn of little Excelsior Mouscron – a club that had punched above its weight for years – to follow the likes of Aalst, Lommel and La Louviere in suffering the punishment of failing to pay the tax authorities.” (World Soccer)
La Délivrance d’Andromède, Pierre Mignard
“Rafa Benitez’s unlikely recent defence of the one eyed tendency among managers has only served to remind us of the prevailing habit among Premier League bosses to see things only from their own point of view. The humble Championship, by contrast, is mercifully bereft of this selfism.” (thetwounfortunates)
“They are also intensifying discussions with the Red Knights, businessmen considering forming a consortium to buy out the Glazers. United fans are even joining forces with their ancient rivals, Liverpool, to make club ownership a topic of debate on the campaign trail along with more usual Newsnight subjects like the economy, the environment and the war in Afghanistan. Football’s hitting the hustings. Lobbying is already under way.” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)
“The news of the week was the death of Luis Molowny, not exactly the last of his breed, but certainly a significant figure in its diminishing ranks. Signed by Real Madrid back in 1946, the midfielder went on to play for 11 seasons, was a major spoke in the wheel of the great European side that went on to dominate Europe so imperiously after his retirement (1958), and then managed the team on four separate occasions between 1974 and 1986 winning three leagues, two King’s Cups and two UEFA Cup titles. He finished his time with the club as Director of Football in the late 1980s, finally retiring and returning to live in Las Palmas. He was originally from Tenerife.” (ESPN)
“Recently in the news again for criticising FIFA’s decision to stage the forthcoming World Cup finals in South Africa, Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has acquired a reputation for making outspoken comments. Viewed by some as a loud-mouthed oaf, the former West Germany and Bayern midfielder is extolled by others for his championing of football’s traditional values and his distaste for some of the game’s biggest egos. Here are some of his most quotable observations…” (WSC)
“Note : This post was written after the defeat to Fiorentina in the Champions league. With me still lost for words over the loss at Emirates, I’d like to make a re-visit to continue my support for the man who cares for the club the most. So some of the readers who are new to this blog kindly have a look. (For the old ones, yeah the ‘Psycho’ part was re-edited for obvious reasons.” (All Four One..)
“Twenty minutes into the second half of Hamburg’s match at Stuttgart on Saturday in the German Bundesliga and the score deadlocked at 1-1, visiting coach Bruno Labbadia called in the cavalry. The lanky figure of Ruud Van Nistelrooy trotted on to the pitch for what was only his sixth appearance in the last 15 months. Within twelve minutes, he had turned the game, striking twice from close range, first with a left-footed pounce and then with a cool right-footed diagonal finish. Hamburg went on to win 3-1, rising to fourth in the league standings and keeping its hopes of a Champions’ League spot next season intact.” (WSJ)
“Milan looms large in Liverpool’s recent past. There was the unforgettable, immortal triumph against AC in Istanbul in 2005 and the rather less fondly remembered rematch in Athens two years later. In 2008, a typically clinical display of high-class finishing from Fernando Torres defeated Internazionale in the San Siro.” (ESPN)
“The last time José Mourinho went to watch Chelsea, he noticed something curious. Though he had been sacked as coach in 2007, hardly anything had changed in his absence. ‘Even the warm-up is the warm-up they did in our time,’ he remarked. He still knew almost all the players. This was still his Chelsea. The Champions League this month will provide us with two reunions: Mourinho and his new club Inter Milan will meet Chelsea, while David Beckham and AC Milan play Beckham’s old team Manchester United.” (FI – Simon Kuper)
“Hello all, and my apologies for a quiet week. Work commitments took over in the last few days before half-term, unfortunately, leaving your writer a broken husk, a shadow of his former self as he staggered home to Smog Towers each evening. Not that I failed to celebrate our win over Barnsley in midweek. Hardly a classic, but the first half really was excellent, appearing to enforce all the hard working ethic and pressing play that Gordon is trying to instil. A goal from Chris Killen too!” (Smog Blog)
“The subject was Wayne Rooney. ‘Please, rest him sometimes,’ the England manager said to his Manchester United counterpart. ‘He plays every game. I need him more fresh to play in the World Cup.’ Capello’s request carried heightened poignancy after the depressing bulletin from Chelsea earlier on Thursday about Ashley Cole’s injury.” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)
“AC Milan hosted Udinese on Friday, February 12, 2010 in the Italian Serie A with a chance to close the gap on leaders Inter Milan (Internazionale). Inter Milan led by eight points before the match but a win from AC Milan would move that down to five. Udinese is just above the relegation zone and in need of points to ensure they stay up in the Serie A. AC Milan 3-2 Udinese – Video Highlights” (The 90th Minute)
“Interesting piece over at the Beeb. It is good news for Scottish football that Driver has decided to play for Scotland. He’s a decent enough winger and one that will add some much needed verve to the Scottish squad. Of course, some of the Tartan Army are annoyed with this.” (Left Back In The Changing Room)
“With World Cup qualification confirmed, U.S. coach Bob Bradley continues to evaluate players. ESPNsoccernet projects whom we think Bradley will choose as his 23-man U.S. roster for the 2010 World Cup. Players are ranked from top to bottom in terms of how certain a lock they appear to be for the roster and their current perceived pecking order. As befitting standard squad composition, we’ve chosen three goalkeepers, eight defenders, eight midfielders and four forwards.” (ESPN)
“I have barely been in Zarafa, Botswana’s newest exclusive safari camp, five minutes when I have my first encounter with a wild animal. I am halfway along the pathway that leads to my tented room when a bull elephant emerges out of the bush and stands, stock still, just 20 yards up the path, directly in front of me. I hold my ground, as the guides instruct you to do, but I can hear my heart beating, partly out of excitement and partly out of fear. For a moment there is complete stillness as two tons of bull elephant stares down on 190 pounds of puny homo sapiens.” (Telegraph)
“Long-distance goals should intrinsically have a reduced element of surprise, but tell that to Ronaldinho. Just because you are outside the box doesn’t mean you can’t think outside the box in the way that you shoot for goal. Ronaldinho’s incomparable imagination manifested itself in under-the-wall free-kicks and strikes with scarcely any backlift.” (Guardian)
“Yet the backdrop to the Premier League’s breathless, wildly popular game of snakes and ladders is one of seething supporters, controversial owners and angry tax men as well as bewitched viewers. The Premier League is a story of two halves, of rich entertainment and unbridled debt, of clubs reaching for the stars and risking overreaching themselves. So is the sport heading towards Shangri La or Armageddon?” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)
“Professional footballers have refused to appear in a campaign video against homophobia because they fear being ridiculed for taking a stand against one of the sport’s most stubborn taboos, The Independent has learnt. Both players and agents declined a request by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) to take part in a video which was to use high- profile players as figureheads in the association’s drive against anti-gay prejudice.” (Independent)
The tribute money: Peter finding the silver coin in the mouth of the fish, Jacobs Jordaens
“Arsenal breathed new life into their diminishing Premier League title hopes with a narrow win over Liverpool at Emirates Stadium. Abou Diaby finally got the breakthrough on 72 minutes, when he headed in Tomas Rosicky’s cross as the Gunners bounced back from successive defeats to Manchester United and Chelsea. Liverpool, who are just ahead of Manchester City in fourth place, almost grabbed a late equaliser when substitute Ryan Babel saw his shot tipped onto the bar.” (ESPN)
Steven Gerrard criticises ‘crazy’ Howard Webb for not giving Liverpool penalty
“Steven Gerrard has described referee Howard Webb’s decision not to award Liverpool a penalty during their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal last night as ‘crazy’. Arsenal captain Cesc Fábregas admitted after the match that he handled Gerrard’s stoppage-time free-kick and although television replays suggested the incident was outside the area, Gerrard was left fuming at missing out on a chance to salvage a point and maintain the club’s unbeaten run.” (Guardian)
Arsenal 1-0 Liverpool – Recap and Video Highlights – English Premier League – Wednesday, February 10, 2010
“Arsenal hosted Liverpool on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 in the English Premier League needing a win to keep their title hopes alive. Liverpool were looking to close the gap between the two sides and move remain in 4th place in the league table. A win for Arsenal would keep their chances still alive with Man U and Chelsea having tough matches on the same day. Arsenal 1-0 Liverpool – Video Highlights” (The 90th Minute)
“James is back with another top-banana podcast featuring John Ashdown, Barry Glendenning and Paul Doyle. Midweek Premier League matches mean plenty of talking points: including Louis Saha increasing John Terry’s woe, Arsenal back to winning ways, and Aston Villa’s limited ambition against Manchester United. Sid Lowe is on the phone from Madrid with the truth about those Cesc Fábregas to Barcelona rumours, while James’s Italian round-up includes news of Ultras storming Lazio’s training ground.” (Guardian – James Richardson)
“11 February ~ Arsenal target Marouane Chamakh, currently at Bordeaux, will be standing for the centrist MoDem party in French regional elections. In WSC 63 (May 1992) Mitchell Sandler traced the history of footballers’ involvement in politics” (WSC)
“If one game on Tuesday night is any indication, the 51st edition of the Copa Libertadores — South America’s Champions League — will continue to provide drama and excitement fitting of a premier continental tournament. In one of the most dramatic matchups in recent memory, Universidad Católica ensured its place in the group stage of the competition after a penalty-shootout victory over Colón de Santa Fe in Santiago, Chile.” (SI)
“Unlike their neighbours in Manchester, who seem to think social media is the work of Satan himself, Manchester City have made an extremely impressive marketing push via their official accounts on Twitter and Facebook — at least by Premier League standards. They have 11,758 in the former and 78,549 fans on the latter.” (Pitch Invasion)
“Egypt coach Hassan Shehata may find he’s exceptionally popular over the next few months – not so much because he’ll be permanently swimming in a sea of congratulations, more because the world’s leading coaches may want to pick his brain. For the wily 60-year-old beat no less than four – Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria and Ghana – of Africa’s six World Cup finalists en route to winning January’s Nations Cup in Angola. And Nigeria, who have since sacked coach Shaibu Amodu, are pursuing the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ route, with Shehata now wanted for one of football’s hottest jobs. Though it does appear that approach has been blocked by the Egypt Football Association.” (BBC – Piers Edwards)
“The German Bundesliga wants the world to know that even in these trying economic times, it is solvent and competitive — a soccer island in Central Europe that exudes diligence, steady growth and smart management.” (NYT)
The Sweeper: The Bundesliga Model
“The Bundesliga is really getting some attention this week in the English-language press. Yesterday, as we mentioned, it was Patrick Barclay in London’s Daily Telegraph commenting on the German league’s financially sane model, with clubs less in debt and ticket prices affordable. Old news, but in these turbulent times in England, finally making some waves.” (Pitch Invasion)
“The pod squad analyse Chelsea’s demolition of Arsenal, Liverpool’s bruising battle with Everton, and Tottenham Hotspur’s snoozefest with Aston Villa and ask: why are we getting another dose of the same old same old? Also in the show – and lest we be accussed of Big Four-centricity – we discuss Hull City’s recent revival now that Phil Brown ditched the earpiece and the goatee. Plus, we ponder whether Fabio Capello’s done the right thing in stripping John Terry of the England captaincy. And we get dewy-eyed about those Brat Pack movies of the 1980s. Finally, our favourite Teuton Raphael Honigstein brings us news of a rift in the German national team and the latest from the Bundesliga; Sid Lowe brings us up to date with Spain’s La Liga; and Jimbo tells us about Lazio’s mounting woes in Serie A.” (Guardian – James Richardson)
“”Successful football is about good habits,” quoth Brian Clough, more or less in those words. Maybe so. What he meant was that you inculcate good habits into a player on the training ground to the extent that the player then reproduces them automatically on match-days, usually without the manager’s further intervention. Clough, for one, was famous for not turning up for training sessions, preferring to take his dog for a walk, which was his implicit way of acknowledging that the habits had been taken on. Vicente Del Bosque is another one from this school of management, preferring not to change the well-oiled Luis Aragonés machine, and only applying fine-tuning when necessary.” (ESPN)
“Despite the current financial crisis in English football, it’s not down to a lack of television revenue for the Premier League. Indeed, that revenue is the envy of the world, with the £1.782 billion deal signed last year for domestic live game rights alone. The Premier League’s deals are negotiated collectively; the threat of, say, Manchester United going it alone has long bubbled under the surface, but the overall size of the deals the League have managed to negotiate, and the long-term benefits of it for the Premier League as a whole, have kept even the biggest clubs behind the collective agreements.” (Pitch Invasion)
“The great musician Gil Scott-Heron is touring with an album (I’m New Here). He’s stirring up all sorts of excitement in fans of ‘the godfather of rap,’ who are thrilled to hear new music from the genre-defining/bending artist who has struggled in recent years with addiction.” (From A Left Wing)
“This week’s Video of The Week continues the World Cup theme of the last few weeks, with all the goals from the 1998 World Cup, which was, of course, held in France. The optimism that may have existed after England’s decent performance at the 1996 European Championships evaporated over the weeks of the tournament. Tabloid exclusives about the behaviour of the players, rioting in Marseille and a defeat at the hands of Romania were just the build up to a penalty shoot-out defeat at the hands of Argentina. Meanwhile, France and Brazil made the final of a tournament that was the first to feature thirty-two nations. Iran beat the United States of America in the first round but both teams went out,but Jamaica and Japan, who were both arguably beneficiaries of the expansion, brought colour to the tournament off the pitch but offered little resistance on it.” (twohundredpercent)
“If ever anyone had any doubts about the current domination of Internazionale in Serie A, they were definitively dispelled by their emphatic 2-0 win over Milan in a thrilling city derby at the end of January. For much of this season, Inter have looked as if they will soon run far and away with another scudetto and, after this latest triumph, their escape to final victory has already begun.” (World Soccer)
“Football’s transfer system has always been a murky business. Unlike the National Football League or the National Basketball Association in America, where players enter the professional ranks amid the glitz and razzmatazz of the college draft, the movement of players in football is an altogether more furtive operation. Players are effectively the property of their employers, bought and sold by professional clubs without oversight or regulation from the sport’s authorities. Since every player has a price attached, recruitment is a cloak and dagger process.” (WSJ)
“As football sinks further and further into the financial mire, the official statements made by clubs themselves are becoming more and more odd, and more and more telling. Mark Murphy has been looking at some of these statements, and is less than convinced by them.” (twohundredpercent)
“Lionel Messi is probably the top sportsman in the world right now: unless you ask fans in Argentina where the soccer star was born and grew up in a town called Rosario, roughly 180 miles (290 kilometers) north-west of Buenos Aires. After helping his club, Spain’s FC Barcelona, win most of the top awards in 2009, Mr. Messi was named World Player of the Year by FIFA, world football’s governing body. He received the 2009 Ballon d’Or, given to Europe’s top player— winning the honor by the widest margin since it was first awarded in 1956. He even won the Latino Athlete of the Year 2009.” (WSJ)
“A manager on the brink of quitting would typically walk head-down along the touchline after the defeat which seals their fate, ignoring abuse from fans nearby. But as Bradford’s 1-0 loss to Bury on Saturday spelt the end for Stuart McCall – his resignation was confirmed on Monday – he embarked on a lap around the pitch at the final whistle to applaud supporters. Putting aside two and a half years of frustrating League Two failure, almost everyone inside the stadium applauded him back.” (WSC)
“Sorry this is a bit late, I’ve been otherwise engaged. That generally involves eating biscuits and pretending to do DIY, but don’t tell the mrs. Anyway, to the football. I’ll admit it. I was stunned to see Robbie Keane at Celtic Park on the transfer deadline day. It was a real coup for the club, and one which has certainly captured the imagination of the Celtic support, myself included.” (The Great Footballing Circus)
“We’ve done it, at last, haven’t we: taken the silent and unanimous decision that Brian Clough matters… Brian Clough has made the step up: he’s cultural now, gone from the close, sweaty barracks of football because he stands for England like Elgar and Dickens. The news about Clough isn’t in the tabloids anymore. It’s strictly broadsheet, review and monthly: it’s been to the London Film Festival and must by now be under Granta’s walls, in strength. All that whilst never being out of place: all that, whilst never abandoning Derby, all that without losing the common touch. Clough, more than Ramsey, or Revie, more even than Shankly, his only possible rival, is a cornerstone and comment upon the zeitgeist, and post War Britain is impossible without him.” (More Than Mind Games)
“One of the less orthodox after effects of swine flu is the headache it gives the administrators of South America’s premier club competition. In last year’s version of the Copa Libertadores, two Mexican sides, Chivas Guadalajara and San Luis, made it out of the group phase. But how could they stage the home leg of their second round ties? It was at the height of the swine flu epidemic, with Mexico at its epicentre. The South American Federation unsuccessfully tried to find an alternate venue, gave up and announced that the fate of the Mexican clubs would be decided on a single match, the away leg.” (BBC – Tim Vickery)
“Ajax Amsterdam’s general director recently tallied his club’s transfers, and came up with this estimate: only 8.3 per cent of the footballers Ajax had bought in the past decade had succeeded. Ajax’s Dutch rivals, he said, had done even worse. This January European clubs spent barely anything during the “transfer window”. English clubs forked out about £30m ($48m, €34m) on new players, their lowest for any January since 2003. German, Spanish and French clubs spent even less. The credit crunch has bitten soccer in the leg.” (Simon Kuper)
“Harry Redknapp is known as a bit of a wheeler dealer, scouring the football bargain bins for days. He is so good at finding bargains he takes half of January off to play the Wii with son Jamie. It is also reported Redknapp once sold ice to Eskimos, but this hasn’t been confirmed but Mr. Redknapp’s representatives. But after a plethora of successful transfer coups, who are the top 5 Harry Redknapp transfer dealings?” (EPL Talk)
“A Boro side compensating for its lack of numbers in midfield with two defenders in advanced roles fought back to clutch a point against Ipswich Town. Gordon rotated his pack for this one considerably. With Adam Johnson gone and Barry Robson suspended, it later emerged that Julio Arca was similarly unavailable, so there was little choice but to put together a scratch midfield. Justin Hoyte partnered Gary O’Neil in the centre while Andrew Taylor played on the left wing.” (Smog Blog)
“Barcelona maintained their impressive home record in the Primera Division with a 2-1 victory over Getafe – despite finishing the game with nine men following the dismissals of Gerard Pique and Rafael Marquez. Pique was sent off for a cynical lunge on Rafa Lopez after 24 minutes, although Barca were already a goal to the good by then, thanks to Lionel Messi’s brilliant early strike.” (ESPN)
Barca win despite two red cards, Real keep pace
“Leaders Barcelona survived red cards for Gerard Pique and Rafael Marquez to complete a 2-1 victory over Getafe in La Liga on Saturday while Real Madrid kept pace with a 3-0 win at home to Espanyol. Pique was sent off in the 25th minute for a wild challenge on Rafa Lopez. Marquez walked at the end after bundling over Kepa for a last-minute penalty scored by Roberto Soldado but the game was effectively over by then. Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the seventh minute and Xavi netted in the 67th as Barca continued to create the clearer chances despite their numerical disadvantage.” (Guardian)
Lionel Messi vs Getafe
(All About FC Barcelona), (1), (2)
“Egypt provided the fairy-tale finish to an African Nations Cup that had a nightmare start and will, ultimately, go down as a completely forgettable event. The death of two members of the Togo delegation, plus the bus driver, in an attack in the disputed Cabinda region threw the tournament into turmoil before it had even kicked off, and the vagaries of competing in a country blessed with oil riches but scant people-resources seemed to take a toll on the playing standards.” (World Soccer), (1)
Scissors Kick 