footballspectator

This evening I had the privilege/chance (depending on what you think of their style of play) to watch Chelsea play Werder Bremen at Stamford Bridge. I made my way across London during my lunch break to pick up the tickets. In the queue in front of me was a man, who politely asked the at the box office how much a ticket cost. The box office attendant told him the price and then asked where the man was from. “Germany” the man replied, to which the box office attendant said, “Sorry sir then I can’t sell you a ticket for security reasons“. The man clearly disappointed walked away.
Now to me this rule seems a joke. First, not all Germans support Werder Bremen, just like not all Englishmen support Chelsea. They might not mind sitting with Chelsea fans. They may actually be Chelsea fans who have come to support their fellow countryman, Michael Ballack, a Chelsea player. Second, if the man had said he was Swiss, Austrian, Dutch, or whatever else, he would have got his tickets. Why? because the man at the box office did not ask for proof - he just accepted whatever answer was given. He asked me my nationality and just bought my answer. So come on Chelsea, drop this stupid rule before your next home Champions League match and let people of all nationalities enjoy the spectacle. The irony is that there are “Kick racism out of football” ads displayed everywhere at Stamford Bridge…

We can probably all remember the joy of filling our Panini World Cup albums and collecting and trading cards with our friends as children. Well, British company Blighty Creations had a slightly different take on this childhood passtime. Rather than player cards, the company decided to launch a series of trading cards based on Britain’s most famous hooligans. For Thierry Henry, read Terrible Henry, Arsenal’s most famous hooligan. For Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney and Owen read Slap Head Nick, Dangerous Dirk, Cool Boy Christopher and ‘Ard Man Aaron.

Unfortunately for Blighty Collectables, the Premier League took a dim view of the Little Hooliganz collection, stating its opposition to anything which encouraged hooliganism. “The clubs and the League, with the support of the fans have worked hard to eliminate hooliganism from English stadia. In the event that the smooth running of the championship is threatened, we will consult our legal advisers”, said a representative.

Under the threat of legal action, the company decided to withdraw the collection. In a statement on its website (www.littlehooliganz.com), it said that it hopes to be up and running again following some alterations to the Little Hooliganz range…

What’s more surprising about Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s transfer? The fact that Manchester United let him go for £10.3m or the fact that Sir Alex Ferguson is going to reinvest that money and more in buying Tottenham’s Michael Carrick?

Let’s take the first part. Van Nistelrooy has scored 150 goals in 213 games for the Red Devils. He is United’s leading scorer in Europe with 38 goals. His international record is also impressive - 28 in 53. Conclusion - he is in the top echelon of forwards in the game. Now yes he is 30 years old but so is Shevchenko and Chelsea paid £30m for him. Allowing for Chelsea inflation let’s say a realistic fee for Sheva was £20m. Is Van the Man worth half that? If I had to choose between the two, I would favour Shevchenko. He contributes more to team build-up and is better at creating his own goals whereas Van Nistelrooy is more of a poacher. Still the difference is not £10m, more like £2m-£3m.

The problem is that by washing his dirty laundry in public, Ferguson shot himself in the foot. When Fergie falls out with a player, the world knows that the player will leave - see Stam, Beckham and Keane. As a result, it becomes very difficult to command a certain price. The player becomes a depreciating asset. Teams just have to wait to get him on the cheap. Sir Alex’s attempts at insinuating that he was close to patching up his differences with RvN were just a pathetic attempt to arrest the player’s declining value.

Turning to the second part - is Carrick the man Manchester United need? Their midfield has been a problem area since Keane’s demise and departure. Carrick is not going o change that. He is a good passer but he is lightweight. He cannot however take over the game when his team are struggling like Steven Gerrard can for Liverpool. He is not in that class and he is definitely not worth the £14m to £16m that United are rumoured to be paying for him. Marcos Senna of Villarreal is being targeted to provide the bite that Carrick lacks but he too is a “poor man’s” solution. Conclusion? United will continue to struggle in midfield.

The problem is that they will also struggle in attack where they now only have one truly outstanding player - Rooney. Saha, despite his prolific end of season form is not top class. Solskjaer has not played for two years. Rossi is an unknown quantity. Alan Smith, who will be re-converted into a forward is tough and a hard worker but hardly inspires fear. If a top-class forward is not added there is a risk that Rooney will become frustrated and we all saw in the World Cup how he reacts when that happens…

Many will say that United’s problems stem from the Glazer takeover, but is this true? Is money the reason Fergie can’t capture the star names? No - Carrick and Senna will cost a combined £24m. The problem is Ferguson himself. Unfortunately, the players he falls out with are the stars. Why? because they start to become more influential than him and his ego cannot accept that. The big names see this and decide to go elsewhere. How long before he falls out with Rooney? He may be United’s most successful manager, but it’s time for him to go.

Manchester United are apparently interested in 6 Juventus players: Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Patrick Vieira, Fabio Cannavaro, Emerson and Lilian Thuram. Alex Ferguson said, “We were waiting to see what the situation with Juventus was. Now we know in which direction to go in terms of inquiries and, possibly, definitive offers for one or two players“.

However, according to AS, Ferguson may be too late for at least three of these. Real Madrid’s Sporting Director Predrag Mijatovic is in Turin to finalise the signings of Cannavaro, Emerson and Zambrotta. He will meet with Juve officials tomorrow to negotiate the final price - Juve are asking for €40 million and Real’s current offer is €30 million for all three. Mijatovic may also pick up Cristiano Zanetti, a favourite of Capello. These players may be joined at Real by Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Kaka.
To add a further twist Zambrotta’s agent says that his client would rather stay in Italy with AC Milan his destination. He may be joined there by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who Carlo Ancelotti believes is the ideal partner for Alberto Gilardino.

Inter have had a €38 million bid for Fernando Torres rejected by Real Madrid. Torres is also wanted by Manchester United to replace the outgoing Van Nistelrooy. But new coach Javier Aguirre has insisted that Torres is not for sale. Marseille chairman Pape Diouf has issued similar statement regarding World Cup star Franck Ribery.

Javier Saviola’s agent has said that his client will either stay at Sevilla or move to Panathinaikos after Arsene Wenger declared yesterday that he was not interested in signing the player. Saviola spent last year on loan in Seville from Barcelona who are keen to offload the Argentine. Other players on the way are Jared Borgetti from Bolton to possibly Racing Santander and Liverpool duo Jan Kromkamp (a PSV target) and Djimi Traore who may go to Bolton or Charlton.

Finally tow players who completed moves today were Holland’s Denny Landzaat who joins Wigan from AZ Alkmaar and Croatian World Cup playmaker Niko Kranjcar who is moving to Celta Vigo from Hajduk Split.

Following, Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s announcement that he wants to leave Manchester United, speculation is mounting as to his next destination with Bayern Munich and Real Madrid leading the race for his signature. According to El Mundo, Real may offer partyman and part-time footballer Ronaldo in part-exchange for the prolific Dutch striker, as the Brazilian does not form part of Fabio Capello’s plans…

Rumour Rating: Unlikely! Ronnie is fat and injured. His knee operation will keep him out for at least a month, giving him plenty of time to work on his waistline by downing a few more burgers. The Premiership is fast and furious while Ronaldo is slow and immobile. The two don’t match! On top of this, we can’t really see Alex Ferguson, who sold David Beckham because he felt that his love of the celebrity lifestyle was getting in the way of his football, welcoming O Fenomeno, Brazil’s answer to Becks. Finally if it’s partying you’re after, you’d have to be crazy to swap Madrid for Manchester…

Following his resignation, Marcello Lippi has plenty of spare time on his hands and he is planning to use at least some of it to learn a new language. Apparently, he has enrolled with a foreign language school in Milan. His choice of course (English) may provide some clues as to his future destination - the English Premiership. A source close to Lippi revealed, “it is 70% certain that Lippi will work in the Premiership. If Manchester United offer him a contract he will accept. However, at the moment feels that his lack of English is a disadvantage so he is planning to start an intensive course to overcome this issue“.

Sir Alex Ferguson will be monitoring Lippi’s progress with interest as his the future may depend on Lippi’s aptitude for languages!

In a poor match, Portugal beat England in Gelsenkirchen yesterday to make the semi-finals for the first time since 1966. The match really came alive following the dismissal of Wayne Rooney on 62 minutes for stamping on Ricardo Carvalho’s delicate region. It is difficult to know whether Rooney’s actions were intentional. The replay seems to indicate not and there wasn’t much space for Rooney to plant his foot elsewhere. However, if it was intentional his red card was fully deserved.

From then on, for England it became a matter of holding out for penalties, which they did quite comfortably mainly because Portugal lacked a cutting edge but also because of big performances from Terry, Ferdinand and the much maligned Hargreaves. Portugal themselves also seemed to be looking for penalties, with Scolari strangely taking off Pauleta to leave Portugal without a recognised centre-forward for several minutes. Eriksson brought on Crouch who once again showed just how far off he is from being an international player - his touch was awful and he kept falling over.

In the shoot out it was obvious that England would lose - they always do. Ricardo saved from England’s supposed “big game” players Lampard and Gerrard as well as Carragher before Cristiano Ronaldo slotted home to send the Portuguese wild. So another overhyped England team goes crashing out. The team contributed nothing during the tournament and their heroic rearguard action and penalty exit will probably alter this impression and many will believe that England were unlucky - they weren’t, they just weren’t good enough.

It’s official – if you are a fan of boring matches watch England. Their matches against Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago and now Ecuador have been among the most boring of the World Cup. Their football is dire. They can only be among the favourites on paper because they have done nothing so far to hint that they can become World champions and if there is any justice they won’t. The team have made it through to the quarter-finals because they have been lucky. Their draw has almost been as kind as Germany’s was at Korea/Japan 2002.

There were really only a couple of incidents that were memorable in this match. The first game when John Terry almost gifted Ecuador the lead when his attempted back header fell into the path of Carlos Tenorio, who should have scored. Instead, he took too much time and allowed Ashley Cole to race back and crucially deflect Tenorio’s shot onto the bar.

The second was David Beckham’s trade-mark free kick which gave England victory. He sent the ball up and over the wall and while Mora got his finger tips to it he could do no more than push it onto the post and into the net – a better goalie might have been able to do more. From then on England tried to hang on to their lead, replacing their best player at this tournament, Joe Cole with Jamie Carragher.

While Ecuador made good progress in reaching the English penalty area they rarely troubled Robinson again. Lampard had a great chance when Rooney nutmegged a defender and set him up but much like the other 20+ shots he has had in Germany to date, his effort was wildly off-target. Eriksson’s men now face Portugal on Saturday for a place in the semis. Based on current form it should be their last match of the tournament.

Going into this match, England had not beaten Sweden since 1968. They still haven’t and had a very lucky escape. England’s much vaunted defence showed its weakness at set pieces, surprising given that this is the basis of Englsih football.
In the first half England were the slightly better team, but again lacked creativity. They suffered an early blow when Owen had to go off with what looked like a serious knee injury. He was replaced by Peter Crouch, that poor excuse for a footballer, who again did little but knock the ball down to other (usually Swedish) players. Rooney had a half chance, taking Beckham’s pass well but his shot was blocked by Lucic. Despite their possession, England created very little and it took a fantastic dipping volley by Joe Cole, England’s best player to give them the lead.

It was all change in the second half, as Sweden took control. Allback’s header, the 2,000th goal in World Cup finals, from Linderoth’s corner made it 1-1 and from then Sweden looked like scoring every time they had a corner. First, Robinson pulled off a great save to deflect Larsson’s header onto the bar from Kallstom’s corner. Then Gerrard cleared Kallstrom’s volley off the line and finally Mellberg hit the bar too - both these chances also coming from corners. Gerrard’s header gave England an undeserved lead in the 85th minute, before a throw-in from Edman caused confusion in the box and Larsson took advantage of Campbell’s failed attempt at a clearance to make it 2-2.

Sweden will now play Germany after Paraguay beat T&T 2-0 and should give them a good game. England face Ecuador. Their “40 years of hurt” look likely to continue.

Being over 2 metres tall, Peter Crouch should not really need any extra help to score from a header. However, as this picture shows, Crouch pulled T&T defender Sancho’s hair as he scored England’s opener in Thursday’s match in Nuremberg. Sancho complained after the match that he had been fouled but few listened. England can count themselves extremely lucky. For years we have heard complaints about Maradona’s “Hand of God”. How is this any different?

Best chance of winning the World Cup in 40 years? Give me a break! England were poor throughout today’s match and finally got out of jail courtesy of Peter Crouch’s 82nd minute goal. Steven Gerrard’s vicious drive in injury time only added to the sense of injustice.

The fact that Eriksson was forced to introduce an unfit Wayne Rooney in this game, sums up just how desperate England were - without him they are lost. They struggled to break down an organised but ultimately limited team. Bean pole striker Peter Crouch played as if he believed he was Maradona. Sadly for him, he has neither the touch nor the technique of Diegito. In the first half, Beckham’s cross picked him out unmarked in the 6 yard box. Rather than take his time to control the ball, Crouch attempted an acrobatic flying volley and put the ball 20 metres wide. Then, at the beginning of the second half, receiving the ball with his back to goal, he attempted to flick the ball up in the air and execute an overhead kick. The ball flew 15 metres above the goal. When he finally did score, through a header, it was mainly because he was about 40 cm taller than his marker.

So what of the other England players? Michael Owen must again be disappointed to be substituted. His confidence is clearly not improving. The normally clinical Lampard was also poor, missing several good chances. The only real pluses for England were the performances of substitute Aaron Lennon who made a substantial impact in taking on other players and Beckham’s precise delivery from set pieces.

T&T can take plenty of credit from their first appearance in a World Cup. They have run two of Europe’s football nations very close and owe a lot to the clever coaching of Beenhakker.

In footballing terms, the Spanish and English national teams have litle in common. English sides are famous for their fighting spirit, their workrate and, traditionally, their long-ball game. In contrast the Spanish are known for their flair, and trickery. However, there are two traits which both countries share. First, both only have one major title to their name. England (as we are constantly reminded) won the World Cup in 1966. Spain won the the European title in the 1950s. Second, despite having only ever won one national title, the press and public of each are notoriously good at overhyping their chances of success and, ultimately blaming someone else when defeat inevitably occurs. This type of attitude makes you will them to lose, everytime they play.
Many England fans, fuelled by the flames of the tabloids believe that their country has almost a divine right to win the World Cup. After all the English invented the game. Yet when England lose a crucial match, it’s rarely because the team or players are not as good as the public is lead to believe, no, no - it’s because there are dark forces conspiring against them. At France 1998 England the culprits were Diego Simeone “he got Beckham sent off!” and referee Kim Milton Nielsen “he fell for Simeone’s trick” and “disallowed Sol Campbell’s goal“. If England had superior players to the workmanlike David Batty they may have fared better. At Euro 2004 it was referee Urs Maier who disallowed a late “winner” again from Campbell. Most Englishmen who failed to spot John Terry’s foul on the Portuguese goalkeeper, Ricardo and forget that Portugal were far superior to an England team which contained Emile Heskey..(enough said).
When I went to work in Spain, I thought that the English superiority complex could not be surpassed. Much to my surprise, it was. A recent article in World Soccer, sums up the position:

“Spain’s superiority complex is matched only by their inferiority complex. They’re convinced they use the ball better than anyone else, that teams such as England lack subtlety, while teams such as Italy lack beauty. There is a sense that victory by any means other than neat passing football is illegitimate, but they are equally convinced that fate, or some dodgy plot,will conspire against them…whisper it quietly, maybe they just haven’t been good enough.”

So which of the two is the most hyped at Germany 2006? Without Wayne Rooney, England look ordinary up front - Crouch prowls the pitch with a speed that snails would be proud of and Owen has lost some of his sharpness through injury. In midfield, Gerrard rarely delivers in an England shirt. At the back, the error prone Rio Ferdinand believes his own hype.As for Spain, they struggled in hardly the toughest qualifying group. Fernando Torres is not, as Spaniards want us to believe, a world class forward. The midfield is also lightweight in the absence of Ruben Baraja and in defence Sergio Ramos has had a poor season with Real Madrid and looking nothing like an £18 million defender.

My prediction? Spain to go out in the second round and England to make the quarter-finals at best.