06.27.08
Some quickfire opinions
I was requested to write something up for the Euro 2008 final, well safe to say that I hope the best team wins. Of course, a few people will back Spain after having endured heartbreak due to underachieving for so long, and not having Raul in the team worked wonders in my opinion, but I must advise them on the sometimes scary German efficiency. If the game goes to penalties, we know how the Germans take them, they take them very well.
My take on the second semi was that the introduction of Cesc Fabregas won it for them. Hiddink prepared his team to be against a 4-4-2 but Villa’s injury meant that Spain’s new 4-5-1 gained an advantage in the middle, the vastly-experienced Marcos Senna shadowed Arshavin so well. Arshavin may still move to his boyhood club, Barca, though. Credit to that someone who had predicted him to shine in this tournament before it started.
In other news, Johan Elmander joins Bolton from Toulouse in a club record transfer deal, a very interesting signing. I’ll say good luck with playing in Bolton’s style of football.
06.20.08
McClaren’s Little Britain?
FC Twente has unveiled Steve McClaren as their new boss. That’s a very good appointment as it may persuade some Englishmen to move to the Dutch league in search for regular first-team football. And in Englishmen I don’t mean ex-Chelsea youngster Joe Keenan who recently played there, I mean better established ones. This could be reminiscent of Graeme Souness’ time in charge of Benfica when he brought a couple of British lads to the sunnier scenes in Lisbon.
Knowing that Twente are in the Champions League qualifiers next season (courtesy of the Eredivisie’s weird European playoff games), this is also an added incentive. As I have alluded in the last post, David Bentley could see himself playing in the Grolsch Veste in the near future. Among already familiar faces at Twente are Luke Wilkshire who was with McClaren at Boro before, and Everton youngster Vidarsson.
I hope Twente go through to the CL proper. The Eredivisie is an intriguing league, as the dominance of the two big sides Ajax and PSV has in recent years been shaken by the likes of Feyenoord, AZ and now Twente. My fave side is probably Feyenoord for some small reasons, like Shinji Ono played there, managed the team in one of those football management games (TCM 2002 if I’m not mistaken), and another ex-player in Paul Bosvelt who’s one of the players I model my own game to.
06.19.08
Englishmen on the move… and probably a certain Portuguese
So expect at least two more England players to go abroad this summer. I guess they’ve heeded what I’ve written about them – it’s time to learn more “real” football, at other top leagues in Europe. Especially in the technical (La Liga) or tactical (Serie A) area.
Frank Lampard is poised to join Inter on a free, to rejoin his old boss Jose Mourinho. The Inter president has outlined Lampard as their priority player to get this summer, sometime in the next two weeks we will have a decision from the player himself. There are many signs in the Chelsea camp that they are preparing life after Lampard – Deco is slated to leave Barcelona to join Big Phil, in a similar playing position. It is hard to accomodate Lampard if he stays, as Essien and the excellent and now-fit Ballack would do the job just as well.
David Bentley has reiterated his ambition to play Champions League football in the upcoming season, and the situation about Blackburn’s new manager would be of his advantage to make his agent do the dirty work. To this point I still don’t know where he could end up though. A side lacking in a creative right-midfielder is hard to find these days.
I want Fabio Capello to have a hand in this. He could be recommending Serie A to these players, or face bewilderment in the England setup (okay not as harsh as that might sound…), so that they could understand his tactics better, talk his talk and walk his walk, if anything. Football isn’t just pace anymore. English purists and the media need to take a good look at themselves and face the truth: as much as they’re importing top-quality players into their league, they need to export them too, and their national team is lacking the valuable knowledge they can only gain from playing abroad.
Look at Becks. When he gave up his captain’s armband, McClaren had already said “the door’s always closed”, you’d think his England career is doomed. He came back for the Euro qualifiers. When he moved to America, and his 99th cap against Croatia, a spectacular England failure, some had already billed him the “almost-centurion”. Capello still plays him now. That’s the benefits of playing abroad, even if Becks case playing in a league that’s often grouped in the same category as the J-League and the Middle East leagues – a retirement home with easy money and no petulence to play.
While the former Man United #7 is happily banging in goals for LA Galaxy (4 in the first 9 games), the incumbent will probably be moving after all. Ronaldo’s disappointing show last night in Basel looks a shadow of his club-side self, indicating he may have been troubled with the dilemma of moving to Madrid. Least of his problems is that Raul won’t give up his own Madrid #7… The sky’s the limit, and I still say Man United is that sky, but it is ultimately his decision. I don’t want to be billed a hypocrite about moving out from the English Premer League.
06.10.08
Another offside debacle people forgot
After watching the replay of the Netherlands’ first goal against Italy it came to the back of my mind that maybe Panucci, who was off the field of play, was playing van Nistelrooy onside, hence the goal stood.
But how could that be? The Laws of The Game have proven to be a very tough writeup to find any loopholes in the game of football. Imagine a player who is quite slow after a set piece to push forward, is playing every opponent player onside, but he quickly jumps off the field in hopes of catching them offside because he is not in the field of play. That is disadvantageous to the attacking team, and the Laws of the Game often side the team on the attack.
What about a player needing treatment and is off the pitch, is he playing everyone onside? No, because he is totally out of the game and could not reenter without the referee’s permission. Whereas a player who advertently walks off the pitch could walk back in.
I could see what the football laws are trying to catch with this rule. I don’t think many do, though. Some may argue that a player out of the field of play could not influence the game whatsoever, just like how an attacker who is offside but not attempting to take possession of the ball will not be flagged, but since they can reenter the game at will this may cause a few problems such as stationing two players just outside the posts, entering play and clearing from the line everytime the ball is shot goalwards.
Hence I quite agree with this ruling, the other way out is to have every player needing permission to reenter play after going out of bounds but that’s plain silly and tedious for the referee and players and the pace of the game.
06.05.08
Don’t go Ron, we’re no Arsenal
Truth about these Spanish teams is that their name is just too great, Real Madrid and Barcelona are truly legendary club sides who had won almost everything under the sun in their glory years, coveted by almost all footballers to be playing in their awesome stadia.
So it comes as no surprise that Cristiano Ronaldo wants to play for Madrid. As big a player as he is, he wants to be playing for arguably the best side in UEFA history.
This situation exactly mirrors Thierry Henry at Arsenal – the player Arsenal had deemed irreplaceable (and probably still is), after the defeat in the Champions League final he went up to Ludovic Giuly and said he’ll be moving – if only a year after – because it was too good an opportunity to pass up.
But let me tell you Cristiano, if you think Man United aren’t as big as Madrid you’re out of your mind. Had we lost to Chelsea a few weeks ago, I was certain Ronaldo would leave just because for a team to be considered one of the greats they have to win the big one – the European Cup – a few times.
Look at all the people going to AC Milan or Liverpool because of their “European pedigree”. Fact is, Liverpool haven’t won the league for nearly two decades, you just can’t say they’re really that awesome do you? The other “great European sides” have won the league one time or another in the same timeframe.
Of course, the danger for these players who’ve won it all is to seek new pastures, new challenges. I won’t stand in the way of Ronaldo if he decides to do so, as much as United #7s are so enigmatic they often exit Old Trafford in awkward fashion.
But I again stress other English players, if they get an offer from abroad, leap at it. Even Woodgate was loved by the Madrid fans despite his horror debut. He seized the chance to go to Madrid when it came.
You’d think Ronaldo would too, but he’ll be leaving a greater club.
06.04.08
Euro?
I don’t really have much of an opinion on the European Championships. A tournament with 16 teams is too close to call. The last tournament before this showed how even one of the least-fancied teams at the start of the tournament could win it.
I’ll just sit back and watch, and cast my eyes over hopefully some entertaining football. I hope most players out there won’t get burn-out from a long season.
