“Udinese currently occupy the fourth position in Serie A, leading challengers Roma, by two points. If they stay in this position, they’ll qualify for next season’s Champion’s League; albeit in the preliminary qualifying round. This would be a remarkable success for a team, who are not regular features on Europe’s grandest stage.” Serie A Weekly
“It is the most beautiful two minutes of football one could ever wish to see. Sometimes it even brings a tear to my eye. The 1974 World Cup Final kicks-off, the Netherlands have the ball and instantly drop into their familiar passing rhythm. A sporting hypnosis begins.” The Equaliser
“Over 62,000 crammed in at Goodison for this one. Brazil, counting Pelé and Jairzinho in their ranks, were well and truly outdone by the masterful Eusebio who notched twice. What’s really worth noting here, is that both starting XI’s played club football in their native country.” In Bed With Maradons
“Even though I spent November and December 2010 pushing for Kenny Dalglish to be given the caretaker’s role – using what little influence I may have had after meeting John W Henry – I didn’t think it would happen. And when it did happen, months later, I didn’t think it would turn out this well.” Tomkins Times
“Paul Visca on how the thorny issue of television rights has rumbled on in the background of what’s been an outstanding season in Serie A.” In Bed With Maradona
Diego Amaya
“Asuncion is currently the capital of South American football – and not just because the offices of the continent’s governing federation are situated on the outskirts of the Paraguayan capital. Eight teams are left standing in the Copa Libertadores, South America’s Champions League, and two of them are based in the Paraguayan capital; Cerro Porteno, who have blown hot, cold and lukewarm during the competition, and Libertad, who have been consistently excellent. No other country can boast more than one club in the last eight.” BBC – Tim Vickery
“With the 2010/11 season coming towards an end in England, attentions turn once again to the Nordics for my regular fix of football. Denmark still has a few rounds of matches left although in the Superliga there is only pride to play for after FCK wrapped up the league two weeks ago. That and second spot, which this season sees the Danes steal a Champions League qualifying place from the Scots. With five games to go three teams were still in with a shout including Brøndby, who if anyone could do with a slice of luck it was them.” The Ball Is Round
“We’ve reached 1994 in our 25 years of WSC retrospective. Many reasons were posed for England’s failure to qualify for the World Cup in America that summer. In WSC 93, Simon Kuper proposed that players in England would become more sophisticated – and more successful – if they were encouraged to express themselves more off the pitch” WSC
“Fernando Torres’ biggest impact on Chelsea’s title challenge this season? Scoring two goals against them in a Liverpool shirt back in November. The Spaniard’s £50million move has prompted more questions than answers, and even though he has broken his goalscoring duck, Chelsea would have been better off without the formation and selection problems Carlo Ancelotti has faced since Torres’ arrival.” Life A Pitch
Gervinho
“Although Lille’s faltering form in recent weeks has caused a few to doubt their ability to sustain their sparkling challenge in Ligue 1, this weekend’s victory over Nancy restored a four point lead at the top of the table. With just four games remaining until the end of the season, Les Dogues are well on course to win their first French title since 1954.” Swiss Ramble
“While nothing should ever detract from the amazing achievements of Jose Mourinho’s Inter, it is equally nonsensical to deny the advantages afforded to the Nerazzurri in the immediate aftermath of the original Calciopoli trials of 2006. Adam Digby on why Serie A may be beginning a new era.” In Bed With Maradona
“Lots of smart, even inspiring, extensions to and rebuttals of the rage piece. But writing on the internet is like Barry Bonds’s head—the more people talk about it, the more it turns into something else. So I want to take a second to tighten a couple of screws before we let the topic go.” Run of Play
“Non-league football is often described as a family, and one of its more recurring themes is that certain names have a tendency to turn up over and over again, like half-forgotten uncles at a reunion. Take, for example, Gary Calder. Calder was the chairman of Hornchurch FC when their money suddenly ran out towards the end of 2004 and he pitched up some time after this at Weymouth, as the Chief Executive of the club. Calder arrived at Rushden and Diamonds at the start of December with the father and son team of Steve and Liam Beasant in tow.” twohundredpercent
“In its early years the FA Cup led a nomadic life. From the first final of 1872 between the Wanderers and the Royal Engineers until 1893 the climax of the tournament was hosted at the Oval. However, Surrey Cricket Club, the owners of the Oval refused permission for the ground to be used as the venue of the 1893 Cup final for fear of damage to the cricket squares.” Ademir to Zizinho
“Liverpool may be about to be knocked off their perch by Manchester United but they showed they might just mount a serious challenge for a 19th league title of their own next season by destroying Fulham 5-2. The Reds made it 13 goals in their last three games and Maxi Rodriguez completed his second hat-trick over the same period, with Dirk Kuyt scoring his 12th in 13 matches for club and country and Luis Suarez wrapping up the rout.” ESPN
“It was fitting that it should be at the former home of the erstwhile excellent Fulham manager (and subsequently awful Liverpool manager) that Luis Suarez should encapsulate everything that was wrong about Roy Hodgson’s approach between August 2010 and January 2011.” Tomkins Times
Action Between the Will of Liverpool and a French Privateer, February 21, 1804 1823, Robert Salmon
“I have to admit that I wholeheartedly bought into the Spanish revolution at Liverpool; so much more than the French one that went before it. The big difference, of course, was that we got the best of Spanish: best manager, best players. By contrast, we had a second-rate French manager (by comparison with Arsene Wenger, at least). Given that Arsenal had not only got the better French manager, but got their first (two years earlier, in 1996), Liverpool was never going to be the primary destination for elite French talent.” Tomkins Times
“Perhaps the thing that Gabonese football has been mentioned for most in recent years is its national team’s respectable FIFA World Ranking although not for the reasons you might think. The upcoming African Cup of Nations could change all that…” In Bed With Maradona
“THERE are occasions in a gal’s life when she just can’t say no. Jose Mourinho, Ipad2, weekend in New York, In Bed With Maradona. Temptations were made of this. Sadly Jose has not yet been on the blower, and neither Apple nor the Big Apple look likely, so thank goodness for IBWM. The chat-up line went something like this: Write as much as you want on anything you want. Ah, sweet nothings; I’m such a sucker. (I’m also a sucker for a semi-colon, a grammatical hiccup widely regarded as a deadly sin in tabloid world. Which. Is. Why. I. Go. For. A. Full point. Usually.)” In Bed With Maradona
“In a match that superseded all expectations, Twente claimed the victory with a dramatic overtime winning header by Janko to win the Dutch Cup for the third time in the club’s history. In contrast to what might have been derived from both team’s managers pre-match, when they stressed the importance of next week’s fixture deciding the Eredivisie title, both teams did not hold back and a true football fest was the result.” 11 tegen 11
“A shimmy and shammy as purty as a Tennessee beauty queen saw Iniesta glide through a sluggish Espanyol defence to set Barcelona on their way in what was, considering the bust-ups of recent years, a somewhat boring Catalan derby. Barcelona just need a single point against Levante on Wednesday to win the title, providing Real Madrid dodge their local civic duty and beat Getafe the day before.” FourFourTwo
“Clever footballers seem destined to fail. When Craig Bellamy questioned Roberto Mancini’s tactics at Manchester City last season, he was punished – and rightly so, said the pundit mafia – but what if he was right? What if an eloquent, insightful player did know better than his consistently average manager?” surreal football
Pieter Brueghel the Elder
“In his earliest days at Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo would react to tackles on the training ground with a yelp and sometimes a quick roll on the ground. His new team-mates – Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs among them – took him aside and advised him to be less theatrical: not out of righteousness, but because they knew it was the wrong signal for him to send to opponents in the Premier League.” Guardian
“Below are MOTD video highlights for all the EPL matches on May 7, 2011. The full edition of MOTD can be viewed here.” The 90th Minute
“Every Monday I look at my email account with trepidation. Since the first week of the season around 3pm I get that ‘ping’ sound signifying the arrival of the latest excuse from the pen of Avram Grant. Although it is obviously not from Avram, but rather from someone employed in the club to make such trivial facts such as we are bottom of the Premier League with just three games to go seem inconsequential.” The Ball is Round
“Soccer fans, heave a collective sigh of relief – no pun intended. So much theater, so much wrestling, so much on the line, so much falling over coupled with ankle grabbing and head embracing — the four Clásicos are finally over. Now back to football. Is there so much on the line (millions of dollars aside) when Real Madrid and Barcelona meet that the players have to forsake playing the game for a bout (or four consecutive rounds) of shadowboxing? Do we even have anything close in MLS?” Yanks are coming
“Late drama saw both sides pick up a point at White Hart Lane. Harry Redknapp left out Aaron Lennon, using Rafael van der Vaart on the right, and two strikers. Danny Rose made a rare start at left-back. Ian Holloway played his usual 4-3-3 formation. Sergei Kornilenko started as part of a front three, probably as he’d done well against Spurs earlier in the season. This was an open game with plenty of goalscoring chances. A draw was probably an accurate reflection of the balance of play, though neither goal seemed to owe much to tactics.” Zonal Marking
Kévin Gameiro
“The quota controversy that has dominated the French media agenda this week means that Marseille’s 1-1 draw at home to Auxerre last Sunday did not yield the level of scrutiny you might expect from an unscheduled setback for the reigning league champions.” Football Further
“Are all obsessed sports fans miserable and obnoxious? Can we be a “hyperpartisan” fan without falling into those categories? Is every type of fan capable of being a total idiot? We explore all these aspect of fandom and more.” SB Nation
“In their third and fourth match up of this season, Twente and Ajax will meet in both the final of the Dutch Cup next Sunday and in what may be called the final of the Eredivisie on Sunday May 15. Both managers have already expressed themselves in clichés such as “the Cup is a very important prize” and “our next match is always the most important one”, but the general feeling is that this weekend’s Cup final is overshadowed by the importance of the Eredivisie title decider next week. And it’s not just the title that is decided, but both teams may even end up losing their Champions League ticket in the case of a loss next week, with PSV aiming to regain second place.” 11 tegen 11
“Sir Alex Ferguson has made some astute transfer decisions in his 24-year spell at Old Trafford. Signing the likes of Peter Schmeichel, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Cristiano Ronaldo has proved to be of huge benefit to Manchester United, while the manager has often released players at the right time, too — Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis were shocking departures, but none ever recreated the form he showed for the Red Devils.” ESPN
“I am here to save your life, and I’m not kidding. This isn’t about the state of discourse on the internet, or nostalgia for some imaginary pastoral of 1950s civility, or making sure I don’t get yelled at in blog comments. This is about you, and how you are going to live in the world. I mean how you’re going to live as a sports fan, but let there be no limit to the revelation: I mean how you’re going to live in every other way, too.” Run of Play
“Through the years many football managers have been known to put the fear of God into their players, but there has been only one who has terrified them by killing off God completely. I’m talking of course about the great European coach of the mid-1800s, Friedrich Nietzsche. The ‘God is dead’ story is the stuff of legend but first let us take a look at the, sadly neglected, early career of arguably the first great European manager.” Fisted Away
“Nice video of Barcelona’s off the ball movement here…” YouTube
“Even with an XI resembling a reserve side, Manchester United were extremely comfortable against Schalke, and will face Barcelona at Wembley later this month. Sir Alex Ferguson made numerous changes to his side, rotating hugely ahead of the weekend visit of Chelsea. Dimitar Berbatov made a rare European start upfront, whilst Nani and Anderson were other notable starters. Ralf Rangnick brought in Sergio Escudero and Benedikt Howedes, and started Julian Draxler in place of Edu, which meant that Raul moved further forward.” Zonal Marking
“IBWM’s man in Buenos Aires on why South America’s leading club competition is so much more than a Champions League equivalent.” In Bed with Maradona
“All they had was 20 minutes. It was February 10, 1999 and Italy were sparring in a friendly against Norway under the leaning tower of Pisa when Dino Zoff threw on a 22-year-old Francesco Totti to play alongside Roberto Baggio.” FourFourTwo
“El Diego and Michel Platini on the same pitch. And who do you think came out on top? Something was beginning to happen in Southern Italy.” In Bed With Madadona
Pedro, David Villa
“Barcelona rarely looked under real pressure and completed a 3-1 aggregate victory. Pep Guardiola named the expected XI – Andres Iniesta returned from injury to replace Seydou Keita. Javier Mascherano continued at centre-back, with Carles Puyol at left-back. Jose Mourinho switched to his 4-2-3-1 system but made two surprise selections. Kaka was in ahead of Mesut Ozil, whilst Gonzalo Higuain started upfront. Mourinho was not in attendance at the stadium (as far as is known at time of publishing) so assistant Aitor Karanka was in charge for the night.” Zonal Marking
Barcelona 1 – 1 Real Madrid
“Barcelona comfortably advanced to the Champions League final following a 1-1 draw at home to fierce rivals Real Madrid at Camp Nou. Following a completely one-sided first half in which Madrid keeper Iker Casillas kept his side in the game, Pedro gave Pep Guardiola’s team the lead nine minutes into the second period.” ESPN
Barcelona 1 Real Madrid 1: match report
“For those who came to the Nou Camp expecting a fight, a football match broke out, a decent one. After all the play-acting and name-calling, this was an El Clasico more worthy of the name, ending with the best player on the planet, Lionel Messi, a zephyr with the ball, heading towards Wembley. There were still noises off, squalls of complaints, particularly about the embarrassing Javier Mascherano, who again auditioned for panto, but this was a far less heated affair than earlier episodes of the Antics Road Show.” Telegraph – Henry Winter
Barcelona hold off Real Madrid threat to reach Champions League final
“The last instalment of a four-match, 18-day scorpion dance that became nastier by the hour was a proper contest in which Real Madrid recovered their attacking urges but Barcelona advanced to a probable meeting with Manchester United in the Champions League final at Wembley. ‘This has been one of the most beautiful nights I have ever lived,’ said Pep Guardiola, the Barça coach.” Guardian
FC Barcelona 1-1 Real Madrid (El Clasico) – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Champions League
The 90th Minute
“Already the vultures are hovering. Porto will be back in the Champions League next season, but the problem is that it is unlikely to be this Porto, the side that has dropped just four points in the league all season, and swept all before it in Europe.” SI – Jonathan Wilson
“Supporters of Vasco da Gama filed away sadly — some of them angrily — on Sunday after their team suffered a defeat on penalties in a Rio championship final against great local rivals Flamengo. But along with the sorrow, the last few days also brought the fans a reason to be cheerful. One of their favorite players is returning to the club, and the story has an uplifting twist.” SI – Tim Vickery
“On walking through the streets of Paris this spring, it was hard not to be confronted by Nike’s landmark agreement to sponsor the French national team. The glossy posters showing Florent Malouda, Yann M’vila, Abou Diaby and Alou Diarra standing, arms crossed with steely determination, gave off the sense that a changing of the guard had taken place. Fifty-seven years with Adidas had been consigned to history, the coveted rights prised away with the promise of an annual cheque worth €42.6m until 2018.” FourFourTwo
“It started deep inside the Brazilian half, the Seleção playing at walking pace, the orb in their thrall. The sun beats down on Mexico City’ s Azteca Stadium; the grass cowers from the incandescent barrage but Brazil’s golden shirts seem gloriously imbued with sunlight. Time moves slowly. The seconds that tick by are incidental.” The Equaliser
“Energie Cottbus’s hopes of promotion to the Bundesliga were ended for another season, but Augsburg now need just one win from their final two games to secure a place in the top flight. The final game of 2. Bundesliga’s Round 32 pitted 6th-placed Energie Cottbus against 2nd-placed FC Augsburg.” Defensive Midfielder
Sandro Botticelli
“Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona feature some of the best soccer players on earth, are the world’s two richest clubs, embody drastically opposed philosophies of the game, have combined to win more than 140 trophies, and share a complex, antagonistic history that ties their rivalry inescapably to the Spanish Civil War. (Fascists kidnapped and executed Barcelona’s club president in 1936; the Franco regime used Madrid as a symbol of Spanish nationalism.) Any game between these two clubs is a big deal. Four Clásicos in 18 days is, in the soccer universe, a quasar.” Slate – Brian Phillips
Barcelona v Real Madrid: tactical preview
“Amongst the squabbling, appealing and conspiracy theories, there’s a football match to play tonight at the Camp Nou. Now into the fourth part of a four-part Clasico series, there’s relatively little left to say about the potential tactics of both managers. We’ve had one win for Pep Guardiola, one win for Jose Mourinho (in extra time) and one draw. We’ve had different formations, different players and wildly different patterns to matches, and it’s difficult to predict what more can reasonably be expected tonight.” Zonal Marking
On Mind Games
“Listening to the most recent ESPN Soccernet Podcast seemed to confirm the notion that there is a persistent, perhaps all-too-British, unreconstructed lapdog approach to covering Jose Mourinho.” Run of Play
“The memories came flooding back last week when the draw was held for the Under-20 World Cup, which kicks off in Colombia at the end of July. Ten years ago I travelled up there for the Copa America. It was the first time that Colombia had staged a major tournament, and some doubted that they could do it. The political moment in the country was tense, with guerrilla forces offering a threat. In the build-up to the tournament there were car-bomb attacks in some of the major cities, and then the vice-president of the Colombian FA was kidnapped.” BBC – Tim Vickery
“The English FA’s website wonders plaintively how players such as Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Robinho and Roberto Carlos managed to ‘develop skills that set them apart… What did they do as youngsters that provided them with the basis to becoming some of the world’s best players?’ Reading this you might think that the FA are about to reveal new plans for youth development. But the article continues: ‘If you are interested in the answer then you need to learn more about a game called futsal.’” WSC
“Sami Hyypia called time on his outstanding career yesterday, retiring from Bayer Leverkusen at the age of 37. Even in the twilight of his career, Hyypia gave the Bundesliga club a glimpse of the consistent greatness he displayed throughout his ten years at Liverpool. Sami helped Leverkusen to a 4th place finish in 2009-10, his only full season at the club and was named to the Bundesliga Team of the Season.” Anfield On The Hudson
“On Thursday evening, as I sat clad in shorts basking in the warm spring sunshine and savouring a tipple in the company of good people, I began to shuffle nervously as conversation quickly turned to the previous nights activities at the Santiago Bernabeu. The reason for my sudden anxiousness was not down to any strong affiliation with Real Madrid, nor was it down to any kind of discomfort brought about by the searing heat (18 degrees – I’m British), but rather because I knew exactly what was coming. To be more specific, I knew exactly what was coming from one particular corner of the table.”
Five in Midfield
“The 1960s: skirts got shorter, and it seems that memories got shorter too. Larkin’s verse above exemplifies this. Written looking back on the ‘Annus Mirabilis’ from 1967, he conveniently ignores that his own sexual career started much earlier than this.” The Equaliser
“While writing this I’m still shaking. My dad just called me to ask what the final score was. With a smile from ear to ear I told him Ajax won. Goals from the Serbian, Miralem Sulejmani and wunderkid Christian Eriksen gave Ajax the three points. Once again it wasn’t a great performance but I couldn’t care less in this phase of the season. A win and only a win counts. The lads gave us that today.” World of Ajax
Heerenveen 1 – 2 Ajax: Eredivisie title race still open
“Ajax managed a narrow win in this must-win game away at Heerenveen. But with both sides putting in far better offensive than defensive performances, this match could easily have gone another way.” 11 tegen 11
“Goals continue to flow at Anfield under Kenny Dalglish as Liverpool strengthened their claim for European football next season with a 3-0 victory over Newcastle. The Reds, who have scored 14 in their last three home matches, moved above Tottenham into fifth place having rarely been troubled by the Magpies. Dirk Kuyt’s eighth in his last seven Premier League matches was sandwiched between another for Maxi Rodriguez, who hit a hat-trick in the 5-0 win over Birmingham last week, and one for the impressive Luis Suarez.” ESPN
Liverpool 3-0 Newcastle United – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – EPL
The 90th Minute
“Arsenal’s recent poor run against Manchester United came to an end, thanks to Aaron Ramsey’s cool finish. Ramsey was only playing because Arsenal were without Cesc Fabregas through injury. Otherwise, Arsene Wenger’s side was as expected. Sir Alex Ferguson brought Nani into the side in place of Antonio Valencia, whilst Anderson also played in the centre of midfield.” Zonal Marking
Wayne Rooney finds the Fountain of Youth
“As humans, agelessness is something we have always sought to attain. Be it in physical form or alive in intellect, the search for eternal youth is ever-ongoing. The most easiest way is to hold on to what you have thus aiming to prolong it’s existence but like a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, are almost certainly to be crushed by the ravages of success and it’s idealisms: the cut-glass age is better left to the hands of time. Yet, for some people, you will find that they are almost resistance to inevitably that engulfs us and watching, Wayne Rooney, it seems he is one such person.” The Arsenal Column
Arsenal 1-0 Manchester United – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – EPL
The 90th Minute
“Chelsea turned the game around after bringing on players more suited to their system. Carlo Ancelotti started with Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba, assisted by Florent Malouda. The natural shape with the XI that started seemed to be a diamond midfield, or possibly even a lopsided 4-4-2, but Ancelotti had other plans.” Zonal Marking
“When Real Madrid ran out to warm up before Hell Clásico last Wednesday, 10 of Jose Mourinho’s players strode en masse to the far side for some final drills, almost like soldiers filing at speed on to a parade ground.” Telegraph – Henry Winter
Scissors Kick 