Author: Editor

Categories
Video

Football’s Michael Jackson?



Whether you like Cristiano Ronaldo or not, you can’t hate on the fact that about 80,000 people turned up for his “unveiling” (basically a news conference) at Real Madrid earlier today. Ronaldo may have his detractors against the claim that he is the world’s best player (he is certainly its most expensive), but he has now confirmed his status as a football pop star with all the attendant signs: the media circus, the screaming fans, the tabloid behavior.

On a related note: With Barcelona outplaying Manchester United in the European Champions League and now Kaka and a number of top players joining Ronaldo in Spain, is Ronaldo also right that the Spanish La Liga will displace the English Premier League as the most demanding football league in the world?

Share/Save
Categories
Players

The mind of Jose Mourinho

jose-mourinho-001

Reuters Football Blog reports on Inter Milan manager, Jose Mourinho (who has a gift for the soundbyte), discussing the ‘discipline” of footballers from various backgrounds:

“The Brazilians are the most difficult and ill-disciplined. If you organise a meeting for 10, they don’t care if you let them enter or not. The English arrive at 9.55, the Italian, even if he comes at 10.01, arrives in a hurry and is fed up.

The Portuguese are there at 10 or 9.59. A Frenchman, who is always right, comes at 10 but thinks there was no actual reason to be punctual. Russians arrive at 10, not a minute before and not a minute after. They need to be guided.”

Link to the original post

Share/Save
Categories
Hosting

The Economist: “South Africa and football’s World Cup”

vuvuzela_2730

The weekly news and business magazine, The Economistpublished a story this week on South Africa’s preparations for next year’s World Cup. The magazine, not known for singing South Africa’s praises, not only concluded that South Africa is on track and that “… the doubters are so far being proved wrong.”

When, in 2004, South Africa was chosen to be the first African country to host football’s World Cup many fans around the world were doubtful. South Africa would mismanage it, they said. It would be a commercial flop. They mooted Australia as an alternative should South Africa’s organisers fail to get their act together. Five years on, the doubts have diminished as new stadiums rise up across the country. Indeed, next year’s tournament may turn out to be the most profitable yet, thanks to the sale of broadcasting rights …

Continue reading “The Economist: “South Africa and football’s World Cup””

Share/Save
Categories
Video

Goal of the Week



English fans want to quickly forget the 4-0 loss to Germany in Monday’s UEFA European Under 21 Championship Final in Sweden. And Sandro Wagner, a 21-year old former Bayern Munich midfielder now at another German Bundesliga club, MSV Duisburg, played a big part in the unraveling of the England team. Wagner scored twice for Germany in that game. (It’s not clear whether the Bundestrainer, Joachim Löw, has plans to take him to South Africa next year). This was his second goal. The German commentator loses it.

[By the way, this is a new weekly Friday feature on this site. Send us your votes for Goal of the Week]

Share/Save
Categories
Players

David Beckham’s American misadventure

20_beckham_lg

In two weeks time the ageing David Beckham has to return to the United States and play for the Los Angeles Galaxy in the MLS (against the New York Red Bulls at Giant Stadium outside New York City). In January this year, Beckham left the MLS mid-season to go play for AC Milan in Italy’s Serie A. Blasphemous to the MLS. Not surprisingly, Beckham has not been very enthusiastic about returning to the US. In 2007 Beckham had arrived, with much fanfare, at the Galaxy. His salary about 10 times that of the average MLS player. Sports Illustrated’s football writer, Grant Wahl, has been following Beckham for the last two years and his book on Beckham’s time at the Galaxy is coming out this month in the US (on July 14). As part of the hype, SL today published a lengthy excerpt from the book on its website. (It’s also in the latest issue of the magazine.) Among other things, Wahl writes about the cold war between Beckham and the Galaxy’s Landon Donovan (over who was the bigger star, as there is any comparison here), describes Beckham’s time at the Galaxy as “an epic disaster” and a “soccer fiasco,” that Beckham was a “cheapskate” (he did not pick up the tab after a night out with his much poorer teammates), reveals the process behind who appointed disastrous coach Ruud Gullit, and Beckham’s deficient captaincy skills. This should be fun.

Read here.

Share/Save
Categories
Hosting Video

The Vuvuzela ‘Conspiracy’



South African defender Matthew Booth decided to film his teammates during the recent Confederations Cup competition. (Remember him? He’s the only white guy in the team who fans greet with a loud “Boooottthhh” whenever he touches the ball and who Spanish reporters, looking for black racism decided was booed by the fans.) Booth, who maintains quite an active Youtube channel, regularly films his teammates, and in the video, above, captured them (and their Brazilian coach Joel Santana) singing on camera in the dressing room before their game against Spain in the first round. Check it out. (Here‘s another example.) It also made me wonder again why South African fans don’t leave the vuvuzelas outside the stadium and do some actual singing? That would not sound only better, but would present an actual, not corporate-induced part of football culture in that country, to visiting fans.

Continue reading “The Vuvuzela ‘Conspiracy’”

Share/Save
Categories
Video

‘The United States is a still a developing nation in men’s soccer’



After shocking Brazil with their aggressive, physical style in the first half of the Confederations Cup final, the United States first gave up a two-goal halftime lead and then eventually lost 3-2 to Brazil. Brazilian defender Lucio scored the winning goal with 6 minutes of regular time remaining.

The way the US lost, left The New York Times’ correspondent (who up until the day of the final was announcing a new dawn for US soccer after the shock wins over Egypt and Spain), in a state of depression: “The United States is still a developing nation in men’s soccer,” he opined.

Share/Save