footballspectator

So Nostradamus’ prophecy was wrong. Spain (as usual) flattered to deceive. Their early promise now seems to have more to do with the weakness of the opposition rather than their own quality. France were the first quality team they had had to face and unfortunately for the Spaniards, the former champions played their best match of their campaign to continue their tradition of never having lost to Spain in a competitive match. In a tight first half, Spain took the lead through Villa’s penalty converted after a silly foul by Thuram on Pablo Ibanez.

Spain deserved their lead but France looked dangerous on the break and they equalised shortly before half-time through the impressive Franck Ribery. In the second half France grew in confidence and began to play some of the best football they have played since Euro 2000. Raul must probably have regretted stating publicly that he hoped this would be ZZ’s last match - it only seemed to inspire the legend. ZZ delivered the cross from which Vieira made it 2-1 with 7 minutes to go and delivered the knockout blow in the 90th minute as Spain pressed forward for an equaliser.
France look confident and seem to have put their differences behind them. The Vieira - Ribery - Zidane - Henry axis is starting to work and in contrast to their next opponents Brazil they are improving with every match. What a match-up on Saturday night!

At the 2002 World Cup Azzurri squad members were heavily criticised for not singing the Italian national anthem. As a result the authorities decided to act to ensure that for this World Cup the players knew the words of the anthem and sang them.

At the first match against Ghana, the coaching seemed to have paid off. All players sang the anthem, with one notable exception - Mauro Camoranesi. Camoranesi is an Argentinean by birth. He liked many other players in this tournament took up citizenship of his adopted country for “professional” reasons. When asked why he did not sing the anthem, Camoranesi left Italians in no doubt where his loyalty lies. He replied that he did not know the words of the Italian anthem and went on to add that “to be honest, I don’t even know the words of my own country’s anthem“.

At footballspectator we have decided to help Camoranesi out and provide him with the words and music (click on the country name) of both the Italian anthem (for when he is playing) and the Argentinean anthem (for when he is watching)…

Italy

Fratelli d’Italia
L’Italia s’è desta,
Dell’elmo di Scipio
S’è cinta la testa.
Dov’è la Vittoria?
Le porga la chioma,
Ché schiava di Roma
Iddio la creò.

Stringiamci a coorte
Siam pronti alla morte
L’Italia chiamò.

Noi siamo da secoli
Calpesti, derisi,
Perché non siam popolo,
Perché siam divisi.
Raccolgaci un’unica
Bandiera, una speme:
Di fonderci insieme
Già l’ora suonò.

Stringiamci a coorte
Siam pronti alla morte
L’Italia chiamò.

Uniamoci, amiamoci,
l’Unione, e l’amore
Rivelano ai Popoli
Le vie del Signore;
Giuriamo far libero
Il suolo natìo:
Uniti per Dio
Chi vincer ci può?

Stringiamci a coorte
Siam pronti alla morte
L’Italia chiamò.

Dall’Alpi a Sicilia
Dovunque è Legnano,
Ogn’uom di Ferruccio
Ha il core, ha la mano,
I bimbi d’Italia
Si chiaman Balilla,
Il suon d’ogni squilla
I Vespri suonò.

Stringiamci a coorte
Siam pronti alla morte
L’Italia chiamò.

Son giunchi che piegano
Le spade vendute:
Già l’Aquila d’Austria
Le penne ha perdute.
Il sangue d’Italia,
Il sangue Polacco,
Bevé, col cosacco,
Ma il cor le bruciò.

Stringiamci a coorte
Siam pronti alla morte
L’Italia chiamò

Argentina

¡Oid mortales! el grito sagrado:
¡Libertad, Libertad, Libertad!
Oid el ruido de rotas cadenas:
Ved en trono a la noble Igualdad.
¡Ya su trono dignísimo abrieron
Las provincias unidas del Sud!
Y los libres del mundo responden:
¡Al Gran Pueblo Argentino Salud!
¡Al Gran Pueblo Argentino Salud!
Y los libres del mundo responden:
¡Al Gran Pueblo Argentino Salud!
Y los libres del mundo responden:
¡Al Gran Pueblo Argentino Salud!

CHORUS (three times)

Sean eternos los laureles
Que supimos conseguir.
Coronados de gloria vivamos
O juremos con gloria morir.

The opening match of this year’s World Cup set a new benchmark for the number of goals scored in the official opening game of a World Cup Finals tournament. Germany’s 4-2 victory finally put an end to the tradition which has seen low scoring matches, shock results (e.g. Argentina’s defeat to Belgium in 1982) and nervy wins for the favourites (e.g. Brazil’s 2-1 victory over Scotland at France 1998).

Opening matches

1966 (England): England v Uruguay 0-0

1970 (Mexico): Mexico v Soviet Union 0-0

1974 (Germany): Brazil v Yugoslavia 0-0

1978 (Argentina): West Germany v Poland 0-0

1982 (Spain): Argentina v Belgium 0-1

1986 (Mexico): Italy v Bulgaria 1-1

1990 (Italy): Argentina v Cameroon 0-1

1994 (USA): Germany v Bolivia 1-0

1998 (France): Brazil v Scotland 2-1

2002 (Japan/Korea): France v Senegal 0-1

2006 (Germany) Germany v Costa Rica 4-2

A quick summary of today’s transfer stories:

Spain: Atlético Madrid completed a triple swoop today with the signing of Argentine teen sensation Sergio Agüero from Independiente and Giourkas Seitaridis and Costinha from Dynamo Moscow. The three new signings follow hot on the heals of the signings of naturalised Spaniard Mariano Pernía from Getafe and new coach Javier Aguirre who miraculously guided Osasuna Pamplona into next season’s Champions’ League. The long suffering fans will be looking for a significant improvement from their team in the new season - Atléti was Madrid’s third best team this year even finishing behind minnows Getafe. A lot will depend on whether talismanic forward Fernando Torres stays and how much time Aguirre is given to stamp his mark; Atlético’s board has a notoriously itchy trigger finger..

England: Champions Chelsea announced the signing of Salomon Kalou from Feyenoord. Kalou who hails from the Ivory Coast was one of the hottest properties in Dutch football. Van Basten was desperate for him to gain Dutch citizenship so that he could take him to the World Cup. This would have lead to the curious situation of two brothers playing for opposing countries (elder Bonaventure stars for the Ivory Coast). Whether Kalou can be successful in the Premiership remains to be seen. Mateja Kezman joined Chelsea from PSV with a great goalscoring reputation but barely registered in the Premiership and is now rebuilding his career at Atletico Madrid where he still misses more than he scores.
With Shevchenko expected to join shortly and rumours about Carlos Tevez, there must surely be doubts over the future of both Hernan Crespo and Didier Drogba who are unlikely to want to spend too much time on the bench.

Andrew Johnson joined Everton from Crystal Palace in an inflated £8.6 million deal. Johnson features regularly as a non-playing member of the England squad. His reputation is largely built on one good Premiership season a couple of years ago when he finished with 21 goals, many of which were penalties. Boss David Moyes will be hoping that Johnson can reproduce this form rather than mirror that of new strike partner James Beattie, who was signed on the back of a prolific season with Southampton but has since struggled to find the net.

Throughout southern Europe, specialist sports newspapers consistently feature among the most widely read newspapers in the country. Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport, with its distinctive pink pages has a readership of 3.4 million. Marca and L’Equipe are the mostly widely sold papers in Spain and France respectively and in Greece there are at least 7(!) national sports dailies.

In the UK, sports newspapers have not met with the same success. In the late 1990s, Sport First was launched in a fanfare of publicity but poor readership meant that it went from being a daily to a weekly in a short space of time. It can now be found in few outlets and goes under the title of Football First. The latest attempt is The Sportsman which aims to tap into the growing sports betting market.

Many argue that the reason for the failure of sports newspapers in the UK is that there is now such widespread sports coverage in other newspapers and with such competition it is difficult to penetrate the market. To some extent this is a valid argument, however there is significant sports coverage in the national pages in Spain, Italy and Greece and yet sports papers still flourish.

How do they achieve this? By strongly aligning themselves with one of the major football clubs, much in the way that national papers align themselves with political parties. In Spain, Marca and AS are strongly aligned with Real Madrid; El Mundo Deportivo and Sport are aligned with Barcelona. In Greece, Panathinaikos supporters read Athlitiki Icho or Derby; Olympiakos supporters read Protathlitis, or Fos. By doing so they are able to diffentiate themselves from the mainstream press and meet the specific needs of a particular set of fans, hungry for a daily diet of news, outrageous rumour and biased opinion and as fans rarely change teams, the readership is loyal. If UK attempts followed this model, rather than remaining unbiased, they might be more successful.

Over the next few weeks we are going to take a closer look at some of the main sports newspapers in Europe and some of their most unlikely rumours.

Brazil and Argentina have always been sworn enemies. So imagine the shock it would cause Argentineans to see their favourite son in a Brazil shirt. Almost as large as the shock England fans might feel seeing Bobby Charlton playing for Germany!

[click on image to open video]