Monthly Archives: February 2010

The perils of judging a football club by its size

Leave a reply

“Despite the disappointment for the player and Man City fans, loaning Robinho back to Santos seems a good fit for all the parties involved. The player has been given a chance to resurrect his season in time to make the Brazil World Cup squad, Santos have picked up one of the world’s most expensive players without paying a transfer fee and City have saved a reported £160,000 on their weekly wage bill. Robinho’s loan deal was also thought to be a way for City to secure the first refusal on two of Santos’ most promising players: Neymar and Paulo Henrique Ganso.” (WSC)

A Final Word On John Terry

Leave a reply

“In some respects, the furore surround the John Terry affair (for the want of a better phrase) says as much about the British and their attitudes as it does about Terry himself. The Guardian reported this morning on the mild amusement that the issue has caused in Italy, a country in which attitudes towards such matters are somewhat different to those currently on display in this country. The hypocrisy of the press in salaciously reporting their outrage at what has been going on whilst making absolutely certain that their readers know as much as they possibly can without overstepping the self-imposed line – and wafer thin – that separates their “exposés” from, say, a reader’s letter in “Razzle” causes roughly equal amounts amusement on the continent, where such matters are usually treated as, well, private.” (twohundredpercent)

Kuyt goal wins feisty derby

Leave a reply

“Dirk Kuyt’s 50th Liverpool goal gave his side a 1-0 victory in a fiery 213th Merseyside derby at Anfield which saw both teams reduced to ten men. Liverpool played the last 55 minutes at a numerical disadvantage after Sotirios Kyrgiakos was dismissed for a two-footed challenge on Marouane Fellaini, while Steven Pienaar was shown a second yellow in second-half injury time.” (ESPN)

Battling Benitez believes in fourth place
“You’ve got to hand it to Rafa Benitez and Liverpool. In such a season of misery and self assessment, their ten-men heroics in putting bitter rivals Everton to the sword was full of raw commitment to the cause. They may have lost their way in so many other ways, but Liverpool have certainly retained their passion, although even that aspect of their game has been questioned at times.” (ESPN)

Interactive Chalkboards: this week’s Premier League action
“Dirk Kuyt may not be the Premier League’s most prolific striker, but his goals-per-shots ratio against Liverpool’s Merseyside rivals Everton this season is impressive. The Dutchman has had five shots on goal in two matches against the Toffees and scored twice.” (Guardian)

Last Taboo in English Football: Playing Footsie With Mate’s Mate

Leave a reply


Winter, Giuseppe Arcimboldo
“Tiger Woods kept his saucy private life under wraps for years, but the flaws of English soccer superstar John Terry, one of the country’s most prominent athletes, have always been on very public display. In 2001, Mr. Terry drunkenly taunted American tourists in a Heathrow Airport hotel in the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks. A year later, he was caught on camera urinating in a beer glass, which he then dropped on the floor. In 2008, Mr. Terry was fined for parking his Bentley in a spot for the disabled. Last December, he was secretly filmed by undercover reporters giving unauthorized tours of his team’s training ground to journalists posing as businessmen, allegedly in return for £10,000 (or $15,900) cash. Mr. Terry has denied accepting money for the tour.” (WSJ)

Terry Loses England Captaincy
“It would be naïve to say the drama is over, but the John Terry affair has taken a turn toward a conclusion, of sorts. After almost four years as captain of the England team, Terry was stripped of the armband Friday after a meeting with Manager Fabio Capello in London.” (NYT)

Terry stripped of England captaincy
“Terry’s future as skipper of his country has been the subject of intense speculation ever since allegations emerged that he had an affair with England team-mate Wayne Bridge’s ex-girlfriend. The Chelsea defender met with England coach Capello at Wembley on Friday to discuss his future as captain in the wake of the allegations. There had been calls for Terry to lose the captaincy from sections of the media as it has been claimed more revelations are set to be exposed at the weekend.” (World Soccer)

Top 10 Merseyside Derbies

Leave a reply

“It might not live up to the halcyon days of the 1980s but the Merseyside derby still has the ability captivate a wider audience. The recent triple bill ending with Everton�s dramatic, late victory in the cup demonstrated this despite the efforts of ITV technicians. The sides first met in the League in 1894 with Liverpool triumphing 3-0 at Goodison Park. There have been 206 matches between the sides with Liverpool leading 79-65 in victories. The derby also holds the record as the most played FA Cup tie (22). The derby was at its greatest during the 1980s.” (midfielddynamo)

The ten best Merseyside derbies
“Liverpool and Everton come together at Anfield this Saturday to contest the 213th Merseyside derby. When the two sides met earlier in the season they were both struggling for results. Both have seen their fortunes take an up turn since then and will be desperate to continue that this weekend.” (Independent)

Sergio Canales – Spain’s hottest prospect

Leave a reply


“On January 9, Racing Santander’s 18-year-old attacking midfielder Sergio Canales scored two goals to defeat Sevilla and become seemingly the most desired young player on the planet. It has been reported that Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Barcelona and Real Madrid are all interested in him, while Vicente del Bosque reportedly hasn’t ruled out his inclusion in the Spanish squad for the World Cup.” (WSC)

World Cup Moments: When Harald Schumacher Met Patrick Battiston. In Mid-Air.

Leave a reply

“The 1982 World Cup semifinal in Seville between France and West Germany was a stunning game of football. It finished 3-3 after extra time, and then West Germany won (as usual) on penalties. Despite those six goals, the semifinal is mostly remembered for just one thing. Germany goalkeeper Harald Schumacher’s horror foul on French defender Patrick Battiston. I say horror foul.. the ref actually gave a goal kick to West Germany. Which you’ll probably find hard to believe after watching video of the Schumacher crushing his victim below…” (World Cup Blog)

A Week Is A Long Time In Serie A: Feb 3rd 2010

Leave a reply


“Another eventful week in Italian football, both on and off the pitch. Following the possibly season-defining Milan derby, both Milan teams faced midweek Coppa Italia quarterfinals at San Siro. Milan were humiliated by Udinese in a 1-0 loss, while Inter bounced back from a Francesco Toldo error to defeat Juventus 2-1, courtesy of goals by Lucio and Juve-killer Mario Balotelli. Juventus’ exit from the Coppa was the last game in charge for Ciro Ferrara, who was replaced by former Udinese, Milan, Inter and Torino manager Alberto Zaccheroni, after Juventus’ public courting of Guus Hiddink and Rafael Benitez proved fruitless.” (First Touch Online)

The Monday Miscellany – Africa Cup of Nations Special

Leave a reply

“In the history of stupid decisions made by sport’s governing bodies, it is difficult to find one which compares, for sheer crassness, with that of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to ban Togo for the next two Africa Cups of Nations. Togo, you will surely not need reminding, were attacked by terrorists in Cabinda on the eve of the tournament. Three men died and others were seriously injured. Everybody, it is safe to imagine, would have been seriously traumatized by the assault.” (Footballing World)

Football Weekly Extra: Portsmouth taken over yet again

Leave a reply

“James Richardson invites Barry Glendenning, Kevin McCarra and John Ashdown to round up all the big football stories, some of which don’t involve takeovers, administration and bedroom shenanigans. FA Cup replays are on the agenda, after Spurs ended Leeds’s spirited run and Palace knocked out Wolves with a perfect hat-trick from Danny Butterfield, of all people.” (Guardian – James Richardson)

Haiti’s devastated football community begin the rebuilding mission

Leave a reply


Kim Peterson
“The name Roselord Bordella probably doesn’t ring any bells, but her footballing achievements are worth recording. During an international Under-17 match last November, at just 15, she scored eight goals. Four of them came in a four-minute spell just before half-time. Can you imagine the dizzying thrill she must have felt?” (Guardian)

Egypt’s Three-peat – The Latter Stages Of The African Cup Of Nations

Leave a reply


“The climax to Group C summed up this Cup of Nations, a curate’s egg of a tournament which ran out of good football from the second week onwards. A tournament during which the look of delight on the face of one CAF official when Algeria beat Cote D’Ivoire turned to horror when he remembered that Algeria played Egypt next. A tournament during which the players from the English Premier League, the “best” league in the world, were almost uniformally rubbish. And a tournament which ended with the unfeasibly fierce-looking Egyptian coach Hassan Shehata managing a smile at the end which made him look even more fierce. I’ll be having the nightmares for a while.” (twohundredpercent)

Africa Cup of Nations 2010: A Tournament Best Forgotten?
“The 2010 Africa Cup of Nations is over. Though I usually love the tournament, I won’t be remembering this edition fondly. For several reasons.” (World Cup Blog)

Four things I learned from the Africa Cup of Nations
“1) There is no one at the CAF fit to manage football. The choice of Angola to host the tournament in the first place was bizarre, given that it’s a quasi-Communist autocracy in the midst of a long and bloody civil war (which stipulated that, as a nation-building exercise, many of the games in this tournament would be held in the home of the hopeful secessionists). How the tournament actually panned out made the rejected bids of places like Zimbabwe and Mozambique look sweet by comparison.” (The 90th Minute)

Questions and Representations in the Year of African Soccer
“Finally, after an eventful January, I’ve got some answers to the big questions for this year of African soccer. Was Angola 2010 a success or a failure? Yes. Will the World Cup in South Africa be a success or a failure? Yes. Let me try to explain.” (Pitch Invasion)

Video Of The Week: Every Goal Of Italia ‘90

Leave a reply

“Continuing our series of World Cup compilation videos, this week we have every goal from the 1990 World Cup, which was, of course, held in Italy. Time has a tendency to soften our viewpoint of previous World Cup tournaments – particularly when, as with this one, England surpass everyone’s expectations and scramble as far as the semi-finals – but the truth of the matter is that the 1990 World Cup finals were probably the worst that have been held in recent years.” (twohundredpercent)

A Way for the Future?

Leave a reply

“With the January transfer window closed and Boro having cut various deals to expel some players and recruit others, what have we learned? Let’s start with a look at the Outgoing column. The most significant of these was of course the transfer of Adam Johnson, a deal that should benefit both Manchester City and ourselves, let alone giving the player an opportunity to thrive on the biggest of stages. In letting him go, we have effectively jettisoned the last of the crown jewels, albeit one that caught us a bit by surprise as we didn’t know until his loan spell at Watford quite what a star we had on our hands.” (Smog Blog)

Henry Winter: Fabio Capello has been let down by his employers as well as John Terry

Leave a reply

“Much of the rhetoric flowing through the FA’s Vision 2008-2012 argues that football can be a force for social change, for bettering the lives of millions through every action from tackling obesity to encouraging literacy. The FA runs a highly successful community programme, often using England internationals to promote important initiatives.” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)

John Terry set for Fabio Capello showdown after day of of confusion and misinformation
“Following a day of confusion and misinformation over Terry’s intentions — and Capello’s thoughts — the England manager has told the Football Association and his advisers that he will try and reach a decision before he boards a plane to Warsaw on Saturday morning ahead of the Euro 2012 draw the following day.” (Telegraph)

Carlo Ancelotti clears way for John Terry to visit his wife in Dubai
“Carlo Ancelotti has cleared the way for John Terry to take a break from playing for Chelsea by saying that if ‘he needs to have a holiday I will give him holiday’, following allegations about his captain’s private life.” (Guardian)

Capello puts back Terry call for fear of further scandal
“Fabio Capello and his advisers are concerned that further revelations about John Terry this weekend could undermine any decision on him continuing as England captain made before then and are considering delaying an announcement until Sunday at the very least.” (Independent)

Media Freedom at 2010 World Cup Under Question in South Africa

Leave a reply


“FIFA are under fire for their press accreditation rules at the 2010 World Cup, with the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) at loggerheads over numerous restrictions the governing body is putting in place, most of which follow on similar tight controls from previous World Cups, which have been criticised before.” (Pitch Invasion)

Video: Egypt 1 – Ghana 0 (Africa Cup of Nations 2010 Final Highlights)

Leave a reply

“Egypt successfully defended their Africa Cup of Nations title earlier today courtesy of substitute Mohamed Nagui’s strike five minutes from time. The victory sees for Egypt become the first team to win the Africa Nations Cup three times in succession and seven times overall.” (Football Fashion)

Colombia: Categoria Primera A, 2010 season, with a chart of the Colombian all-time champions list, from the professional era, spanning 1948 to 2009-II; and an overview of the El Dorado era (1949-1953)

Leave a reply

“Football first came to Colombia via British sailors in the Caribbean Sea port city of Barranquilla. Football remained an amateur affair with no national league for decades, and with the game having little presence in the interior of the country. This was primarily because of the lack of transportation infrastructure in a nation which had some formidable barriers, namely steep mountain ranges and wide rivers. Coffee growing as an industry changed that, providing the wealth that allowed for transportation improvements, and by the 1930s and 1940s, football had spread throughout Colombia. The wealth also brought into focus the economic disparity between the privileged few and the teeming masses of the underclass. In 1948, at the same time that a professional league was about to begin play in Colombia, there was widespread civil unrest following the still-unsolved assassination of the presedential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, who was mayor of Bogatá. Gaitán was a threat to the entrenched oligarchy…his most famous pronouncement was ‘The people are superior to their leaders’.” (billsportsmaps)

The legacy of Rene Higuita

Leave a reply

“Rene has walked away. And like the empty sidewalks in the old Four Tops hit, football is not the same. The game will miss Rene Higuita. The eccentric Colombian keeper bid farewell with an exhibition match last week. Of course, he had to produce the famous ‘scorpion’ save one last time. But for all its novelty value, the ‘scorpion’ is not the reason for Higuita’s importance. Nor, in the final analysis, are the goals he scored. His free-kicks and penalties were no circus act, and they inspired a line of goalscoring South American goalkeepers.” (BBC – Tim Vickery)

Big Drop in Transfer Market

Leave a reply


“If soccer agents had powerful lobbyists working for them in the halls of government, you can be fairly confident they would be asking for a generous stimulus package right around now. Just as fears of an enduring economic slump can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy in the real world, as consumers “feel poor” and hunker down to save, slowing or even negating growth, so too can the perception of imminent doom affect soccer clubs’ spending. And, when teams stop spending, the first to be affected are the agents and middlemen who grease the wheels of the transfer market.”
(WSJ)

Sergio Aquero interviewed

Leave a reply

“World Soccer: What do Argentina need to do to improve ahead of the World Cup? Sergio Aquero: I think the main problem is that we’ve had very few days training together. Normally we’d get together on a Tuesday and play on the Saturday, which doesn’t give us time to do very much. Now, ahead of the World Cup, we will have plenty of time and we can work on various aspects, like combinations and how we use the ball.” (World Soccer)

South Africa and FIFA Try to Ease Concerns About Power Problems

Leave a reply

“Last month, as dozens of people out for the evening scrolled along the boardwalk, a popular area along the Indian Ocean with restaurants, specialty shops and bars here, the city was suddenly enveloped in darkness. Generators kicked in providing some power, but the shutdown brought most activity to a standstill for several hours.” (NYT)

The John Terry Moral Conundrum

Leave a reply


“There isn’t much about the recent “tabloid revelations” concerning John Terry that don’t sink the heart somewhat. The allegations, the fact that it was his best friend, the coercion into an abortion, the money; all of it leaves the reader with the pronounced sense that truly we are living in the last days of Rome. It’s difficult to read more than a couple of paragraphs on the subject without starting to feel a little bit grubby and wishing that you were doing something a little bit more worthwhile with your time.” (twohundredpercent)

Sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe calls John Terry’s England captaincy into question
“Any hopes Terry might have had that the storm would abate appear misplaced. ‘On the field John Terry is a fantastic player and a good England captain,’ said the Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, ‘but to be the captain of England you have got to have wider responsibilities for the country. If these allegations are proven it does call into question his role as England captain’.” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)

No one likes a bully, John Terry
“The man in charge of Burnley FC’s public address system clearly has a sense of humour. On Saturday, just before the teams arrived on the pitch for the Premier League game between the local team and Chelsea, he played Bryan Ferry’s version of Let’s Stick Together. As the visiting team were led out by their captain John Terry, the opening line crooned out around the stadium: ‘The marriage vow is very sacred’.” (Telegraph)

The Iniesta Generation

Leave a reply

“Soccer players are reputed to do it for 90 minutes and some fans of Barcelona, inspired by their favorite team, did it … and did it … and did it. It has been nine months since Barcelona, within the span of only a few days, trounced its arch rival Real Madrid, 6-2, in the country’s capital and ran away with the title in Spain’s La Liga.” (NYT)

Argentina A 3 – 2 Costa Rica: the goals

Leave a reply

“On Tuesday night a home-based Argentina squad took on Costa Rica’s national team in a friendly which saw Diego Maradona’s return to footballing involvement following his two month touchline ban (who noticed?). The match was won 3-2 by Argentina, with goals from José Sosa, Guillermo Burdisso and Franco Jara for the hosts. Michael Barrantes and Diego Madrigal got the visitors’ efforts, and you can watch all of them right here. You can also find out the score of Newell’s Old Boys’ Copa Libertadores qualifier on Wednesday night. Go on. You know you want to.” (Hasta el gol siempre)