Daily Archives: November 18, 2010

Portugal 4 – 0 Spain

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Cornelis Van Poelenburgh – View of the Campo Vaccino
“Portugal gained a measure of revenge for their World Cup exit at the hands of Spain by inflicting a heavy defeat on their Iberian neighbours in tonight’s friendly in Lisbon. Goals from Jorge Carlos Martins, visiting defender Sergio Ramos, who put into his own net, Helder Postiga and Hugo Almeida sealed a deserved win for the Portuguese, who were knocked out at the last-16 stage in South Africa as Spain went onto win their maiden World Cup crown.” (ESPN)

Portugal 4-0 Spain – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Friendly
(The 90th Minute)

England 1 – 2 France

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“Fabio Capello opened a door on the future for England – and the fans did not like what they saw as the Three Lions were jeered off after defeat to France at Wembley. Aside from Andy Carroll, who did as well as he could with such little service, and the ever-dependable Steven Gerrard, there were few straws for England to grasp until substitute Peter Crouch did what he does best within seconds of his arrival.” (ESPN)

France offer brighter future after Wembley win
“It is a curiosity of modern British football that the concept of a ‘friendly’ international inspires such apathy and resentment among players, coaches, fans and media alike. England versus France would seemingly possess the standing of a game between rivals with shared history between them but such traditions are not respected by the managers of England’s elite football clubs. Unlike in rugby, where the international match is king, and the club game subjugated, and games between countries are regarded as ‘tests’, a weekend of Premier League action will remain the focus. It barely helped that these two nations had revolted – in both senses of the word – during the summer’s World Cup.” (ESPN)

England 1-2 France – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Friendly
(The 90th Minute)

Argentina 1-0 Brazil: Messi with superb winner

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“This game started well, faded in the second half, before being won with a brilliant Lionel Messi goal. International friendlies are, as much as anything, an opportunity to experiment – to try a new shape or new players in a pressure-free environment. That is the main concern for managers (rather than necessarily trying to win the game with a tactical shift to exploit the opposition’s weaknesses) so rather than the usual analysis of how the two sides faced each other, here we’ll take the sides individually.” (Zonal Marking)

Leo Messi scores like Leo Messi, beats Brazil
“Picking up where he left off with Barcelona against Villarreal over the weekend, Lionel Messi did what he didn’t do at the World Cup and scored a fabulous late winner for Argentina against Brazil on Wednesday. The unfriendly friendly in Qatar wasn’t exactly at a World Cup level, but Messi’s goal should at least temporarily shut up his critics who say he doesn’t score for Argentina the way he does for Barcelona. A one man show in injury time to beat Brazil, of all opponents, usually does that.” (Yahoo)

Argentina 1-0 Brazil – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Friendly
(The 90th Minute)

French make toast of woeful England

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“James Richardson has Kevin McCarra, Owen Gibson and Barry Glendenning on board for this edition of Football Weekly Extra to look back on England’s soufflé-like collapse against Laurent Blanc’s France. We wrap up the best (and worst) of the rest of the international friendlies – including Sid Lowe’s account of Spain’s 4-0 defeat to Portugal, Italy’s controversial draw with Romania, and Scotland’s demolition of, er, the Faroe Islands – and get up to speed with the latest shenanigans at Fifa.” (Guardian – James Richardson)

Flickin’ Hell

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“In March 1947 in the small Kent village of Langton Green a game was invented that literally changed the past times of millions of children around the world. A chap there called Peter Adolph created a set of plastic footballers that he wanted to market in a game called ‘Hobby’. Unfortunately he could not get a trademark on such a generic name so he settled for the slightly similar Falco Subbuteo which was a bird of prey also known as the Eurasian Hobby (see what he did there…).” (The Ball Is Round)

United States 1, South Africa 0: Some Negative In A Good Result

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“Just before kickoff Neil sent an email to the TYAC staff that said ‘BORNSTEIN is your captain gentlemen. Try not to kill yourselves.’ I wrote back ‘I hate to tell you I told you so…..’ because Neil and I had a talk about this last weekend and I was convinced that this was going to happen. Levy countered with a couple jokes about his tribe. I thought the TYAC e-mail string would end there, but it was not to be. Apparently, today was the day where collectively as a unit, all major players at TYAC decided, at least for a little while, that we were going to e-mail bomb one another for the day in celebration of the last USMNT game of the year.” (Yanks are coming)

South Africa 0-1 USA – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Friendly
(The 90th Minute)

KC Barcelona

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“I have a new piece in Slate on the MLS Cup and why the league doesn’t do more to connect fans with American soccer history. MLS has had a lot of success marketing stars, but for various reasons—largely because it’s been so keen to distance itself from the failure of the NASL—it’s done very little to foster the kinds of traditions that could give the American game an identity beyond the latest branding campaign. American soccer history is a lot deeper and more interesting than most people realize; it’s full of great stories that fans have never been told.” (Run of Play)