While things are a little muddled in Groups A-D, the outlook in the other four groups in the UEFA Champions League is a little more defined, for the most part.
Written by Eddie Griffin. One comment
It has gone all horribly, horribly wrong. What was supposed to be a new and better era has turned out to be a farce and worse than its predecessor; what was expected to be the turnaround of fortune has translated into a deepening wound; what ought to have been the start of an Empire has eventually been proved a mirage.
Written by Subhankar Mondal. 3 comments
Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele as he would later be known around the world) was often rated as the best player in the world. Only he and fellow legend Diego Armando Maradona, have received the honours by FIFA with the awards of officially being dubbed the greatest players in the history of the game. An ongoing debate among football fans to this day remains, who was better?
Written by James Massoud. 17 comments
Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Lionel Messi are all up for the FIFA World Player of the year. The three players have been shortlisted for the award which is announced at FIFA’s world player gala in Zurich on December 17. It’s the first time any of the three have been up for the honour.
Written by James Massoud. 51 comments
So tomorrow is the 1st December meaning the January transfer window is exactly one month away from being opened to allow in the fresh deals for players during the mid-season re-boosting
Written by James Massoud. One comment
Sigmund Freud was nothing but a hairy quack. My cantankerous nature is not the result of a repressed Oedipus complex; I only feel hostility towards my father because he’s really annoying.
Before senility kicked in, the old fellow would try in vain to act cool around my friends. I genuinely sympathise with anyone who has had to endure a similar ordeal; so naturally I have plenty of time for Shaun Wright-Phillips.
I must defend Shaun after allegations that he left a female guest in tears at his recent birthday bash. It’s been reported that the young lady broke down when Wright-Phillips allegedly snatched her camera. All she had to do was hold it up in the air.
I can’t be as forgiving in regard to the disgraceful behaviour of John Terry. I have no problem with the England captain publicly urinating in a cup; but hitting the dance floor remains a strict social faux pas for any self-respecting male.
Written by Gerry McDonnell. 6 comments
Soccerlens is very pleased to welcome Mr. Ruben Olthuis, who is the creator of one of the largest football player databases in the world, Bestplayersdirectory.com, along with a site dedicated to Brazilian football. The player database, as of today, contains 899 players from 75 different countries. It has links to 1230 web sites, blogs, official player sites, and fan pages. The Brazilian project has fan web sites, club sites, links to Futsal (indoor football), and the National Team (Seleçao). Let us not forget that Mr. Olthuis is from the Netherlands, and not Samba land!
Bestplayersdirectory.com
The no. 1 directory on player websites.
http://footballplayers.mine.nu
Brazilian Football Websites
http://brazilianfootballplayers.50webs.com/brazilian-football-websites.htm
Written by Steve Amoia. Leave a response
With all of the recent sackings and hirings in the Premier League, it’s fun, especially for the oddsmakers, to predict who’ll be on their way out and on their way up next.
There have already been a half-dozen managerial changes (four sackings, two ‘resignations’) in the first three months of the season, the highest-profile one being at Chelsea, where José Mourinho, now the prohibitive favorite to take over the England job, left the hot seat weeks into the season, giving way to Avram Grant. Since, Bolton, Tottenham, Wigan, Birmingham, and Derby have all seen managers go and come. Two moves have taken place in the last few days, as Birmingham just introduced Alex McLeish as their new manager, and Derby let go of Billy Davies (now likely in the running to replace McLeish as Scotland boss) and brought in former Wigan manager Paul Jewell just as quickly.
So, who’s next out the door, after Mourinho, Jol, Lee, Hutchings, Bruce, and Davies? There are three prime candidates right now, but there could soon be more, if this fervent pace keeps up.
Written by Eddie Griffin. 6 comments
With just over a month to go until the January sales transfer speculation mounts every day. It seems like it’s going to be a busy month in the New Year.
In demand at the moment Nicolas Anelka has been linked with a move again to another Premiership club, this time Newcastle. With injury-prone England striker Michael Owen in the team the Magpies want dependable cover up front and see the Frenchman as the perfect target. The fee is reportedly going to be £8m + Nicky Butt. With Bolton performing below expectations this season new boss Gary Megson will have a fight on his hands to keep one of his side’s most effective players.
Apparently though Anelka has told Chelsea manager Avram Grant that should they come in with a £10m bid for him he would be joining them at Stamford Bridge. Several reports have claimed that Stelios Giannakopoulos could be heading out of the Reebok stadium too as he’s getting more frustrated at the lack of first-team football this season. Heading back to London with Chelsea’s update though and I’ve heard that they’ve offered Saudi Arabian captain Yasser Al Qahtani the chance to train with them. Depending on how he does there could be move for him in the transfer window.
Written by James Massoud. 2 comments
It’s all going Pete Tong behind the scenes at Anfield at the moment. Rafael Benitez has openly criticed his superiors in a blatant display of insubordination, with issues revolving around how much investment will be made into squad development: the Liverpool boss has clearly expressed his unhappiness about the perceived lack of a transfer activity at Anfield, as he chases targets in the January transfer window. Benitez complained that Liverpool owners Hicks and Gillet “do not understand’ the transfer system in Europe“. What’s happening to the Liverpool Buccaneers then!?
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Written by Shaun Daley. 11 comments
In football, nothing is more valuable than the wonderkid. Managers spent much of their time scouring the ends of the world for these rare gems. And that’s not the end of it, like a rare gem, the wonderkid needs to be polished and nurtured before it is ready for the world stage. In a sense then, he is the human equivalent of the Golden Chocobo.
In this month’s World Soccer magazine, they have compiled the ultimate manager’s buying guide featuring 50 of football’s brightest teenage stars. To make the ranking, a player must be under the age of 20.
Personally, I think it’ll be more interesting to see which one of these so-called “wonderkids” will end up being a majestic flop, like Denilson. I mean, you do remember Denilson, right?
Written by Kenny. 48 comments
After Matchday 5 of the UEFA Champions League, out of the 4 Italian Serie A teams in contention in Europe’s top-flight competition, only Inter Milan, AS Roma, and AC Milan have managed to qualify for the playoffs round. While Inter and Roma went on to produce convincing wins on Tuesday, AC Milan had a little more trouble against a resolute Benfica side on Wednesday, but grabbed a tie that sends the Rossoneri through to the next round. Meanwhile, Lazio went on to lose at home in the Stadio Olimpico vs. Greek side Olympiakos, and will now need a miracle to have any real hopes of remaining in the competition.
Written by Marco Pantanella. Leave a response
Football clubs are gearing up for more action in the transfer market as the season draws nearer to the opening of the January window.
Written by James Massoud. 10 comments
An agreement in principle has been made between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to take part in three series of “Celtic Cup” tournaments. While an agreement was signed on Monday to stage the tournament in a league format, England have not ruled themselves completely out yet.
Written by James Massoud. 3 comments
They’re a fickle sort, the Football Association. 18 games into a four-year contract, Steve McLaren was dismissed following his failure to qualify for Euro 2008.
While fickle, I have to say I totally agree with the FA’s decision. This time. The fact is that McLaren never should have been appointed in the first place. A fine number two he may be, but the amount of times he looked entirely out of his depth tactically and his total failure to control the immense egos of some of the side’s supposed superstars made England rather hilarious to watch at times.
Unless of course, you’re an England fan. As a Scot, I have to say I feel sorry for the Auld Enemy. Scotland’s last two managers have done such a good job that big club sides have came knocking and stolen them away. England’s last two managers have been terminated after a series of failures, or in Sven Goran Eriksson’s case, apparent failures. Personally I think three consecutive quarter-finals appearances is not a bad record - especially compared to McLaren’s.
Written by Alan Worrall. 4 comments
In the aftermath of yet another failed qualifying campaign, Scotland can at least take great heart in their gutsy and impressive performances over the past 14 months. Those performances have seen an unprecedented rise through the FIFA Rankings to the all-time high of 13th place. Putting that into perspective, Scotland are now ranked higher than the USA, a country with almost 60 times the population, and Greece, the current European champions.
Written by Alan Worrall. 7 comments
The odds have been set for next summer’s Euro 2008. The favourites out of the 16 nations to win the tournament are Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland and France. Co-hosts Austria and Switzerland have been seeded first along with defending champions Greece as the race for the final in Vienna on June 29th begins.
Written by James Massoud. 7 comments
In the Champions League games over the next two days, several talented players are going to be monitored. Manchester United will be keeping a close eye on Joao Moutinho, who has said this morning that he is ‘determined to put on a show’ when Sporting Lisbon face the Premier League champions at Old Trafford tonight. To gain a result for his current club or impress the home side and gain a move to them in January? Chelsea, meanwhile are going to be watching Yssouf Kone when they play against Rosenborg tomorrow.
Away from the Champions League though there has been other transfer news today.
Written by James Massoud. One comment
Well, if you had any hopes of making trips to see England’s World Cup 2010 qualifying away ties, you might want to reconsider. Along with England and their newest rival, Croatia, there will forays to Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Andorra. So, let’s hope there aren’t any players who are afraid of flying, or Eastern Europeans for that matter. However, it might be good preparation for the World Cup in South Africa.
Written by Eddie Griffin. Leave a response
The South Africa 2010 Preliminary Draw has paired England with their recent conquerers Croatia in the qualifying round. Responding to the draw, The Sun quoted:
Michael Owen has kick-started preparations for 2010 World Cup qualification in earnest by insisting none of the Croatian team would get into the England side.
Hold on a second. Has little Mickey unearthed the problem at the core of the England national side? That players deserving and capable of taking their team to the European Championships, wouldn’t even get into the team? A team over-flowing with overpaid, over-hyped, over-rated prima-donnas who for the most part are picked on reputation alone. Then it is no wonder that Owen and Co. will be enjoying a spot of Floridian sunshine next summer when Slavan Bilic takes his excellent Croatia side to the European Championship finals. You are judged on results in this game Michael - the results (and ability on display at Wembley last week) suggest that Croatia are far better than you.
Written by Stuart Frisby. 7 comments
There have been at least 8 people killed this week-end, towards the end of a league match after part of a Brazilian stadium collapsed. The accident, which took place at the Fonte Nova stadium in Salvador, occurred after some of the concrete stand fell away with 10 minutes remaining in the game between Bahia and Vila Nova, a team from the nearby state of Goias. Several fans fell through the large hole that was created from one of the highest stands, plummeting around 40 metres. The fans had been celebrating the side’s promotion to the second division. It’s been reported that around 60,000 fans were in the stadium at the time and many were unaware of the tragedy until after the final whistle.
Salvador is in contention to be one of the cities to stage the World Cup in 2014 after Brazil were confirmed as the hosts last month. Upon hearing this news I started wondering – is Brazil going to be safe enough to host the World Cup?
Written by James Massoud. 7 comments
Such a shame for Italy! The Azzurri Futsal team did all they could against current World and European Champions Spain, but in the end the Furia Roja proved to be too strong in the Euro 2007 Futsal UEFA Championship final game. For those of you who are wondering, FUTSAL is an indoor version of football (soccer) whose name is derived from the Portuguese futebol de salão and the Spanish fútbol sala/de salón, a.k.a. ‘indoor football’.
It is decidedly a Spanish curse the Azzurri are under: just like in the 2004 World Cup, the clash between Italy and Spain turned to the advantage of the Iberians. In the end a deserved result for a team which, perhaps, was better able to deal with difficult key moments of the match. Italy, contrary to their performance in the tournament so far, committed a few mistakes and was immediately punished by the Spaniards, who kept a tight lock on their own goal thanks to a near perfect performance of goalkeeper Luis Amado Carballo.
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Written by Marco Pantanella. 3 comments
Before Tottenham Hotspur star Dimitar Berbatov began to sing Juande Ramos’ praises, the speculation surrounding whether he would stay or go swirled with rumor, one of which was that Manchester United were top of Berbatov’s January transfer window wish list. It’s no contest that this season Manchester United is performing much stronger than Tottenham, and because Berbatov is widely known as their marquee player, a rumor surrounding his eventual transfer is, to some degree, to be expected.
The perception generally is that clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea are the big clubs in the EPL – and selective big club status necessitates rungs of smaller clubs. Because Berbatov’s form seems to be so strong (stronger than this season’s Spurs, in toto), the natural progression seemed to be well on its way: Berbatov was moving from the Spurs and up into the powerhouse of the North where he belongs. Whether this sets itself out of newsprint and into an actual contract has yet to be determined, but it is just the most recent example of what can look like a proverbial chicken or the egg question for football fans. Can a player ever be(come) bigger than their club? Or does the issue just boil down to dollars and cents?
Written by Cherie Getchell. 5 comments
The main headlines of English football remains to revolve around the thought of who the future national team coach will be. The return to club football this weekend however put forgotten smiles on some faces. The transfer window is creeping closer and the following clubs have all been in the news.
Written by James Massoud. Leave a response
Despite dropping points in a 1-1 draw at Murcia, Real Madrid stay top of La Liga for another week as Villarreal failed to win at home to Almeria. Barcelona move to within two points of the leaders after beating Recreativo at Camp Nou.
Summaries from all 10 week-end matches after the jump.
Written by Nic Aldam. Leave a response
According to Wikipedia, Steve Gibson, the chairman of Middlesbrough Football Club (or the ‘King of Teesside’ if you prefer), has never rowed with any of his managers.
And to me, that is totally believable. Another piece of trivia is that Steve Gibson is quite possibly the longest serving Chairman that has never brought himself to sack a manager. From the appointment of Bryan Robson, he has always supported his manager. Even when it all started to go wrong, he stuck by Robson, and it paid off. Sort of. A bit.
Written by Tom Sharp. One comment
While the qualification race for the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup has already started (in the region of South America), the build-up to the biggest football show on Earth is about to step up a gear, with the staging of the UEFA (Europe), CONCACAF (North-America), CAF (Africa), and AFC (Asia) regions Preliminary Draw in Durban this week-end. The whole ceremony will be broadcast live at FIFA.com who will also be providing live commentary of the event, including a special application showing the draw as it unfolds.
Update:
The European Groups have been drawn: England have been drawn in group 6 with Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra, and… get this: Croatia!! There will undoubtedly be an air of revenge at Wembley stadium…
Other interesting clashes include Portugal/Sweden/Denmark in Group 1, Czech Republic/Poland in Group 3, Germany/Russia in Group 4, Spain/Turkey/Belgium in Group 5, France/Romania/Serbia in Group 7, Netherlands/Scotland/Norway in Group 9.
Current World Champions Italy have been drawn in Group 8 with Bulgaria, Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, and Montenegro.
Full list of the groups after the jump.
Written by Marco Pantanella. 15 comments
Update: Fabio Capello approved as next England manager by the FA.
Last season when Fabio Capello landed in Madrid as the messiah for Los Merengues, I was quite excited - Beckham’s team would have a top-notch manager after a long time (with all due respect to Quieroz, he isn’t top notch) and finally we’ll see Real Madrid winning again.
For the first few months the dream was on hold but as the season wore on, slowly and surely the Real Madrid players put together an amazing string of performances to lead the club to the La Liga title. Like it or not, Capello had a role to play in Madrid’s revival.
Now that he’s expressed interest twice in the England job (once while commentating on an Italy game and then in his BBC Football Focus interview), let’s examine the possibility more closely.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 39 comments
The sacking of McLaren on Thursday came as no surprise. To be honest, even if England had qualified, McLaren would have been unemployed next summer. Another thing that was not surprising was Mourinho’s emergence as most fans’ favourite to take the England job. With an amazing record at Chelsea and Porto in the past several years, an attitude which makes him hated by all of his opponents and his ability to keep even the most pretentious player in check it sounds reasonable to think that he would really be the perfect man. But would he really be as good most think he will be? I think not.
Written by Andrei. 10 comments
The names tied to Steve McLaren’s succession as England manager are flocking, both in the British press as well as abroad. The job divides opinion: some consider it one of the top international posts, while others see it as a poisoned chalice, but either way the English FA should be making a decision within the next week. So meanwhile while we wait, let’s have a look at the potential candidates.
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Written by Marco Pantanella. 12 comments
