footballspectator

Brazilian teams Santacruzense and Atletico Soracaba were playing in the Coppa FPF. Away team Soracaba was leading 1-0 win the 89th minute, when sneaky ball boy José Carlos Vieira, decided to take matters into his own hands. Amazingly, linesman Marco Antonio de Andrade Motta Jr, signalled that the goal had been scored by Santacruzense’s number 9, Carvalho Almeida and female referee Silvia Regina de Oliveira (who has a FIFA badge no less), gave the goal.

Unsurprisingly, all hell broke loose as the referee and the linesman were both attacked by irrate home players and fans. Oliveira was suspended immediately by the federation, while the linesman will face disciplinary action once he is released from hospital.

Meanwhile Santacruzense have been fined R$50,000 and suspended form the competition as a result of “unsportsmanlike conduct” of their  ballboy. As for the cheeky culprit? “I saw they were not looking and kicked the ball softly into the goal“, he said cheerfully. Rumours are that a number of teams were impressed by his “skills” and that offers will soon come flooding in for his services…..

You get home wanting to watch the big game but your girlfriend is there in front of the TV watching a romantic movie. One solution is to buy a second TV. A second, cheaper option is to do this…

Through his skills and trickery, Ronaldinho has become a hero to millions. Many of his youngest admirers practise daily to try and emulate their idol. Few will succeed but here are a couple who look like they have a better chance than most: 13 year old Nikon Jevtic from Serbia and 10 year old Mohammed Demirci from Turkey.

Nikon left war-torn Serbia with his parents and moved to England to escape. His footballing talent was quickly spotted and he was approached by clubs such as Austria Vienna and Valencia before ending up at Schalke where he is contracted until 2009. With skills like these it is likely he will be there for longer unless Abramovich and his millions find him:

Meanwhile 10 year old Mohammed is Turkey’s big hope. He currently plays for Besiktas’ junior team with the nickname “the eagle” (don’t ask me why). The Turks are already banking on him for the 2014 World Cup. Like Nikon his finishing needs work but it’s hard to be critical when you see this and then realise his age..

The BBC has just launched its “goal of the tournament” competition. Like every “[ ] of the tournament” competition, it has been launched sometime before the end of the tournament, to capitalise on viewer interest. The risk of course is that the best goal of them all may be scored in the final. So we have chosen to call it “goal of the tournament (so far)“. Our favourites are: Esteban Cambiasso’s as best “team” goal, Maxi Rodriguez’s because of its importance, and Torsten Frings‘ goal against Costa Rica. I would also replace Steven Gerrard’s goal with Fabio Grosso’s semi-final strike.

Germany will have to do without influential Torsten Frings in tomorrow’s semi-final against Italy in Dortmund. FIFA suspended Frings for one match for “violent conduct” for his part in the mass brawl which started after Germany’s penalty shoot out win over Argentina. Frings was caught on camera directing a couple of “punches” at Julio Cruz.

If the following is deemed violent conduct, Maxi Rodriguez and Leandro Cufre should probably expect jail sentences for launching a flying punch at Schweinsteiger and karate kicking Mertesacker respectively..

Researchers at Liverpool’s John Moore University claim to have discovered the components that make up the perfect penalty kick. These include: waiting less than 3 seconds to start the run-up which must be between 4-6 steps, during the run-up waiting less than 0.41 milliseconds for the goalkeeper to move and then hitting the ball with a velocity of between 25m/s and 29m/s. The researchers analysed penalty kicks taken by England players in their most crucial matches since 1962. Alan Shearer’s penalty in the second round match with Argentina at France ‘98 was a perfect penalty according to the research. The researchers have sent their findings to Sven Goran Eriksson in the hope that it will help England overcome their penalty blues.

Interesting as the results may be we question the basis of the research. If you want to examine successful penalty taking, why look at England penalties? Most of those have been missed! Instead they should have focused on Germany’s penalty taking efforts.

It would be intersting to see what the researchers made of Artem Milevskiy’s cool “Panenka” effort against Switzerland. Not text book, but much more entertaining, unless your name is Pascal Zuberbuhler!

Italy deserved to beat Australia - they had more chances despite playing the majority of the game with ten-men. However, the goal that secured their victory owed much to a skill that Italians have perfected over the years - diving. As Fabio Grosso cut in from the left, Lucas Neill slid in to block his path, a good two metres from Grosso. Grosso simply advanced towards him and fell over Neill’s prostrate body. Luis Medina Cantalejo pointed to the spot and Totti scored to give Italy victory in the last minute - a cruel blow.

In truth the Australians never really looked like scoring despite their numerical advantage. In contrast, Italy even seemed to benefit from Materazzi’s sending off. It allowed them to revert to the catenaccio that they know and love and move away from the more expansive game they showed during most of the first half. Italy now face the Ukraine and must be strong favourites for a semi-final place.

Here’s the dive, in all it’s glory….

Coaches, better make sure you have an ice bucket by the subs bench, just in case a player gets injured…

Were they too arrogant or dismissive? Probably. Italy should have beaten the USA last night in Kaiserslautern. Instead their numerical advantage made them complacent. They assumed they would win as a goal was just a matter of time. Then time ran out and oops, they only had a draw.
Gilardino’s early header gave the Azzurri the lead which they hardly deserved as the USA had made the better start and looked a different proposition to the team that had been demolished by the Czechs. They got the equalizer their play deserved through an unexpected gift from Cristiano Zaccardo who sliced his attempted clearance badly and saw it end up in his own net. Then came the sendings off which changed the game. De Rossi stupidly elbowed McBride and then almost out of instinct displayed the classic Italian hand signal - palms together waving backwards and forwards as if to say, “Who? me? You’ve got it all wrong“. The numerical advantage was short-lived as Mastroeni was sent off for a bad foul on Pirlo. Eddy Pope was the next to go for a second yellow card.

That almost seemed to be Italy’s undoing. Yes Kasey Keller made a couple of great saves but ultimately Italy seemed content to pass the ball in front of the American area without taking a shot. Indeed the Italians were lucky that DaMarcus Beasley’s shot  was contentiously ruled off side - Brian McBride was in an offside position but arguably not interfering with play.
The long suffering Italian fans had been full of hope coming to Germany. This team was meant to be different to the previous teams - more attacking. The first match gave them hope. But in this match they reverted to type. Come 9th July, Italy will still be 3 times champions.

Here are the goals with a Brazilian touch of commentary class. We have never heard so much jubilation over an own goal.

As they did against Angola, Portugal struggled to impose themselves on supposedly inferior opponents. In the first half for all their possession they created few chances. Their best chance came coming from a smart Deco turn which was brilliantly saved by Mirzapour. Ronaldo was once again frustrating, focusing too much on crowd pleasing tricks rather than delivering end product. If he continues playing this way it won’t be long before an opponent takes offence and kicks him.

It was a similar story in the second half until Deco’s 63rd minute right footed screamer which gave the excellent Mirzapour no chance. Iran tried to respond but their players always seemed to need an extra touch by which time they had been closed down and could not get shots off. Cristiano Ronaldo’s late penalty, for a trip by Golmohammadi on Figo, killed them off.

Portugal are frustrating. They have so much talent in their team but at the moment they are not producing anywhere near the kind of football that their talent demands. It almost seems as they are still smarting from their defeat in the final of Euro 2004. Despite having qualified for the last 16, it may be a good idea for Big Phil to give his first choice team another run out against Mexico otherwise they will be playing Argentina and taking the next flight home.

Here are the “highlights”

This gives new meaning to the term man-marking….

The Dutch beat the Ivory Coast in Stuttgart 2-1 to ensure qualification to the last 16. Holland now play Argentina to decide who tops the group and must be glad that they do not have to win to progress given the form that Argentina have displayed.

Robin van Persie opened the scoring with a great free kick which he powered into the top left hand corner. Ruud van Nistelrooy doubled the lead shortly afterwards. But the Ivorians never give up. Didier Zokora’s long range effort cannoned off the bar before Bakari Kone, an impressive substitute in the first game, scored an excellent solo goal to reduce the deficit at half-time. The Ivorians pushed the Dutch hard in the second half and needed Van Persie’s clearance on the line to keep out Drogba’s header.
Holland looked good going forward, but with Robben once again way too selfish could not increase their lead. However their defence struggled to cope with the direct running and ability of the Ivorians. The Ivory Coast must be the unluckiest side in the tournament. They have played extremely well in their first two matches but the draw did them no favours. Hopefully, they will get the win they deserve against S&M.