Friendlies are a waste of time.
No seriousness attached to them.
Players try to protect themselves from any serious injury.
You cant read much into the performances of a friendly, good or bad.
But this is España. They are strong favorites to win the Euro 2008. Although, none of their past record gives any indication of that. They have the talent and quality players. Allover the pitch.
So when Spain has a bad friendly, a 1-1 draw against a woeful Peru (they are still playing as i write this but i dont think there will be any more goals) it is big news. All the nightmares of the past flash past you.
NEWS FLASH ::: Capdevila scores for España! va a ganar España 2-1!!! vaya golazo de Capdevila!
Continuing on, that goal doesnt hide the lame goal given up by the spanish defence. All the nightmarish underachievement of the past make you feel like the history will repeat again.
After tonight's game, I am still unconvinced by the Spainish team. Their best formation with 2 strikers Villa and Torres means they will play a lot of passing and the moves take a while to build up. Which is trouble in a group with Russia, Greece and Sweden.
And to play just a lone Torres up front, is not in their comfort zone as they are not long-ball team. The long-ball suits Torres perfectly as he demonstrated in Liverpool but in Spainish national team he may have to work a bit and adapt to playing on the ground and linking with the impressive David Villa.
Capdevila, like a few times before, saved the blushes for Spain. Wednesday's game against United States, who will provide a tougher opposition than what Peru offered will be a good indicator of what people can expect from Spain in their first game against Russia 10 days from today.
Ou la la!!! Less than a week left for the kick-off. :)
31.5.08
25.5.08
Counting down to the Big Cup
The title of this blog and the stuff published so far have had no direct relation.
Not anymore.
All the 16 teams have been announced. Some surprises like the sudden withdrawal of Clarence Seedorf from the Dutch national team for 'personal reasons' is quite a blow for their plans.
Others like Pavel Nedved stayed retired. No Francesco Totti. No Trezeguet. No Raúl. But Materazzi is coming..so opponents beware.
Austria is a total unknown to me. I am only slightly better with Switzerland thanks to their exploits in World Cup 2006. Greece is coming back. Quite a few of the all conquering (albeit in a boring way) 04 team are back.
Czech Republic is another team with a lot of new faces compared to the 2006 World Cup. Germany is bringing bank more or less the same team that played so well in 06.
Portugal - as usual are overloaded with midfielders and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Spain - Has talent strewn all over the pitch starting from Torres/Villa upfront to Pepé Reina, the backup goalkeeper. But that doesnt meant much as they rarely live upto expectations. There is no reason why the script cant be different this time but if history is any indicator of things to come, the usual script will repeat.
Italy - Alessandro Del Piero is in the best form of his life. Although he presents a challenge to coach Donadoni as to the position he fits in his system, its still a sensible move to have someone on a goal scoring streak over the past few months in the team.
France - A very strong team in a very strong group that includes the Netherlands, Italy and Romania. Trezeguet is the biggest omission from the squad. I think if were playing for any of the otther 15 teams in the finals, he would be selected based on his form and ability to score goals.
Russia - Russian football is riding high on the phenomenal success of Zenit St. Petersburg in the UEFA Cup.
Sweden - Always a tough team to beat. Could be the swansong of the great Henrik Larsson. If Ibrahimovic is fully fit, they can cause a suprise.
Croatia - Their best striker Eduardo is out due to that huge injury he sustained playing for Arsenal a few months ago.
Turkey - Turkey is one of those teams with a lot of good players most of whom dont get the publicity as they play in the Turkish League. They are very capable of an upset or two.
Poland and Romania complete the 16 with a couple of solid yet unspectacular teams. Look out for Chivu, Contra and Mutu from Romania.
And I realized a few days ago that Leo Beenhakker is coaching Poland :). I know that he coached Real Madrid, Club ámerica in México and more recently Trinidad and Tobago to the world cup. But I am sure the old man has coached many more teams in his long career.
Not anymore.
All the 16 teams have been announced. Some surprises like the sudden withdrawal of Clarence Seedorf from the Dutch national team for 'personal reasons' is quite a blow for their plans.
Others like Pavel Nedved stayed retired. No Francesco Totti. No Trezeguet. No Raúl. But Materazzi is coming..so opponents beware.
Austria is a total unknown to me. I am only slightly better with Switzerland thanks to their exploits in World Cup 2006. Greece is coming back. Quite a few of the all conquering (albeit in a boring way) 04 team are back.
Czech Republic is another team with a lot of new faces compared to the 2006 World Cup. Germany is bringing bank more or less the same team that played so well in 06.
Portugal - as usual are overloaded with midfielders and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Spain - Has talent strewn all over the pitch starting from Torres/Villa upfront to Pepé Reina, the backup goalkeeper. But that doesnt meant much as they rarely live upto expectations. There is no reason why the script cant be different this time but if history is any indicator of things to come, the usual script will repeat.
Italy - Alessandro Del Piero is in the best form of his life. Although he presents a challenge to coach Donadoni as to the position he fits in his system, its still a sensible move to have someone on a goal scoring streak over the past few months in the team.
France - A very strong team in a very strong group that includes the Netherlands, Italy and Romania. Trezeguet is the biggest omission from the squad. I think if were playing for any of the otther 15 teams in the finals, he would be selected based on his form and ability to score goals.
Russia - Russian football is riding high on the phenomenal success of Zenit St. Petersburg in the UEFA Cup.
Sweden - Always a tough team to beat. Could be the swansong of the great Henrik Larsson. If Ibrahimovic is fully fit, they can cause a suprise.
Croatia - Their best striker Eduardo is out due to that huge injury he sustained playing for Arsenal a few months ago.
Turkey - Turkey is one of those teams with a lot of good players most of whom dont get the publicity as they play in the Turkish League. They are very capable of an upset or two.
Poland and Romania complete the 16 with a couple of solid yet unspectacular teams. Look out for Chivu, Contra and Mutu from Romania.
And I realized a few days ago that Leo Beenhakker is coaching Poland :). I know that he coached Real Madrid, Club ámerica in México and more recently Trinidad and Tobago to the world cup. But I am sure the old man has coached many more teams in his long career.
23.5.08
16.5.08
Dag Frank!
Frank Rijkaard has coached the final game for Barcelona on saturday.
Shame on the management of Barcelona for the way they handled the whole affair of him being replaced. But Frank never complained. Took all the blame for the wrongs of some of his extravagant squad.. most notably Ronaldinho.
Last year around February, Barcelona was cruising in the league. Had a huge lead over Madrid although their Champions League campaign didnt go as far, they were still expected to win La Liga. Madrid was in all sorts of chaos. The whole beckham saga of signing with MLS Soccerball LA Galaxy, the crowd's distaste for the practical and unstylish means of Fabio Capello. Suddenly something happened. Madrid caught fire. Ruud Van Nistelrooj carried this team and then when Beckham came back for the last 10 odd games they kept pulling win after win. That amazing run coincided with a funk of Barcelona and to this day they havent shaken off of that funk.
Frank is not blemishless. He is criticised for his lenient ways towards his players notably their training habits. He has always been that way. Its just that folks like Ronaldinho couldnt handle the huge success of winning 2 Ligas and 1 Champions League in 2 years. Rijkaard put Barcelona back on the map of European greats after the mess left by Luis Van Gaal.
One of the problems not very well publicised is the departure of his hardman assistant Henk Ten Cate at the end of last season. Henk was the guy who used to do the 'dirty job' of a task master in the coaching set up of Frank. Although it is well documented in Barcelona that Ronaldinho and bunch of other stars were never known for their affinity to training and practice.
Apart from the obvious contributions in trophies Frank overlooked the maturing of exciting youngsters like Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Giovani dos Santos and Bojan Krkic, who no doubt will be his legacy.
The famous 4-3-3, the committment to attack and play attractive football, he never wavered from any of that. A case in point is that inspite of the wretched season Barcelona had, Manchester United barely got past them in the CL semis.
Thank you Frank for everything. Wish you all the best in your new job. I am sure you will find a great one. The people in Barcelona, Madrid and the Spanish league will miss you greatly. I was never a Barça fan, and I am still not one, but would love to see you back in Spain.
Adiós Frank. May be you are a good fit in Milan to coach Kaka, Pato & Co!
ps: Dag = Adiós = Bye in Dutch :)
14.5.08
Zenit Glory
Zenit St. Petersburgh lift the UEFA Cup for the first time in their history. Deservedly so against a Rangers team who were playing for the penalties from minute 0.
Its a great run by the Rangers team scoring just 5 goals in 8 games! to progress to the final. Zenit had more enterprise and in the end they won it deservedly. Eventhough the first goal took all of 70 minutes to come, it was inevitable the way Rangers approached this game. As it is the case often, teams that come to defend cant switch gears after they get behind. And usually they stay behind till the end.
Congratulations Zenit! Well deserved win after beating some tough teams along the way including Bayern Munich, Villareal and Bayer Leverkusen among others.
That leaves us with the final of Champions League next week in Moscow between Chelsea and Manchester United.
La Liga is done and dusted. Relagation drama set to reign the last gameday of the season this weekend.
Premier League concluded.
Serie A is still alive thanks to the big-egohead Materazzi for refusing to let more accomplished players take the penalty. Now they travel to play against Parma who are fighting for their Serie A lives. Interesting stuff.
Gotta go home. Tiring day.
Aupa Submarino
Its a great run by the Rangers team scoring just 5 goals in 8 games! to progress to the final. Zenit had more enterprise and in the end they won it deservedly. Eventhough the first goal took all of 70 minutes to come, it was inevitable the way Rangers approached this game. As it is the case often, teams that come to defend cant switch gears after they get behind. And usually they stay behind till the end.
Congratulations Zenit! Well deserved win after beating some tough teams along the way including Bayern Munich, Villareal and Bayer Leverkusen among others.
That leaves us with the final of Champions League next week in Moscow between Chelsea and Manchester United.
La Liga is done and dusted. Relagation drama set to reign the last gameday of the season this weekend.
Premier League concluded.
Serie A is still alive thanks to the big-egohead Materazzi for refusing to let more accomplished players take the penalty. Now they travel to play against Parma who are fighting for their Serie A lives. Interesting stuff.
Gotta go home. Tiring day.
Aupa Submarino
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)