“A team without football, without a goal and without fans,” that’s how Brazilian newspaper O Globo summarized the present state of Brazilian national team. After they beat Chile last Sunday by a score of 3-0 fans were hoping for a turnaround but what they got instead was a 0-0 draw against 10 men Bolivian team. Brazil’s coach Dunga found himself under increased pressure to resign after a string of mediocre performances. Brazil is in second place in CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying Standings with only three wins from eight matches.
Arsenal’s midfielder Tomas Rosicky won’t be available for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers with Poland and Slovenia in October. This is according to Czech Republic coach Petr Rada who said that Rosicky’s recovery from hamstring surgery suffered a set back. Rosicky who joined Arsenal in 2006 from Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund injured himself last January and has been out of action ever since. He made 44 starts for Arsenal, scoring nine goals.
Liverpool’s coach Rafa Benitez will have back his play makers Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard for the EPL “match of the week” against Manchester United on Saturday. According to the club both players made quick recoveries from their injuries and they will be in the squad. On the other side Manchester United is still without their striker Cristiano Ronaldo but will introduce their latest signing Dimitar Berbatov. The 27-year-old Berbatov moved from Tottenham early this month after Man Utd payed 58 million dollars for him.
Russian club Spartak Moscow ended their search for a new coach by signing Former Denmark international Michael Laudrup. Moscow club fired their coach Stanislav Cherchesov lost month after team’s poor showing in qualifying rounds of Champions League. Laudrup says his goal was to play in Champions League next year by finishing in the top two of the Russian League. His last coaching job was with Spanish Primera Liga club Getafe.
New England Revolution moved to the second place of MLS Eastern Conference after they destroyed Chivas USA by a score of 4-0. Revolution was the better team the first half, but had to wait till the 53rd minute for their first goal. It was Taylor Twellman who opened the scoring with Ralston, Larenowicz and Smith also scoring one each. New England coach Steve Nicol admits it’s a huge win but was a lot harder than what 4-0 looks like.
“All four matches played by Ethiopia to date in African zone Group Eight, as well as the results of these matches, are now canceled. This is the verdict by FIFA after they suspended Ethiopia from the qualifying competition for the 2010 World Cup. FIFA and Ethiopia are in a long dispute over the Ethiopian Soccer Federation leadership. The Group Eight will now by made up of only three teams: Rwanda, Morocco and Mauritania.
Free agent Ronaldo is in Brazil working on his comeback to soccer, while at the same time looking to find a new club for himself. “Flamengo and Manchester Cityare two options,” Ronaldo said . “But nothing more than that - there is nothing concrete. Man City, loaded with money could be the front runner, but the 31-year-old Ronaldo may decide is time to return to native Brazil and end his career there. He has been recovering since February from a severe season-ending knee injury, and it remains to be seen if he is fully fit to play again.
Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in a match for his native Ghana. He will undergo surgery as soon as the majority of the swelling has subsided; Chelsea posted on their website. Essien was already out of action in EPL because of knee problems, but Ghana’s coach decided to play him anyway and it backfired on him. Ghana was playing Libya in Tripoli and lost 1-0.
México boss Sven-Goran Eriksson was pleased with the 3-0 win over Jamaica for the World Cup 2010 CONCACAF qualifying, but warned about thinking it would be “a walk in the park” kind of qualifications. “It is not easy,” Eriksson said. “There is a lot of work to be done and we have to continue working.” Eriksson took over the Mexican national team last June after being let go by EPL club, Manchester City. This was his third win since arriving in Mexico.
A concrete replica of a soccer goal welcomes visitors to the newly opened cemetery that belongs to Bundesliga’s club Hamburger SV. The cemetery is a short distance from Hamburg’s stadium and graves there will be covered with original grass from the stadium. “We will have the first funeral here in the next few days,”said the club. Now you can be fan not only for life but also continue after you have gone to the other side.
Italian club Napoli was ordered to pay a fine of $14,000 dollars and will have part of their stadium closed for the next four matches. Also Napoli’s fans were banned by Italy’s interior ministry from traveling to away matches for the rest of the season. The whole thing is a result of Napoli’s fan violence during a match against AS Roma last month. Fans vandalised a train and injured several police officers and railroad workers. This is not the first time Napoli’s fans were banned from traveling to away matches.
The current coach of the Italian Under-21 side, Gianfranco Zola emerged as the prime candidate to take over the coaching job at West Ham United. His main opponent another Italian Roberto Donadoni pulled out of the race Tuesday. Zola is expected to be named West Ham’s new coach on Thursday and if he is, he would be the club’s first foreign born coach. Zola played in Premier League from 1996-2003 for Chelsea and is extremely popular among British fans.
Brazil routed Argentina 3-0 in last year’s Copa America but it was Argentina’s turn this time and they did it in style.
Sergio Aguero who hadn’t been heard from much so far this tournament, scored two second-half goals in seven minutes. His first goal in the 52nd minute was reminiscent of Maradona’s “hand of god” goal. I’m sure this will be highly debated by Brazilian fans, but to pointless abandon. Aguero’s second goal came seven minutes later from a 2 yard kick and to put the nail on the coffin, he also set up a 76th-minute penalty kick that was awarded to Argentina after a foul on him.
But it was Lionel Messi who stole the show. He created many scoring opportunities and set-up two of the goals.
Brazil looked a little disoriented throughout the match and lost two players at the end because of red cards. It didn’t help either the fact that Brazil’s star Ronaldhino wasn’t really a factor in the match. Pato came on the field as a substitute, but his goal was disallowed because of offside.
Argentina will once again face Nigeria in the final, a rematch of the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta.
Nigeria ran over Belgium 4-1 in the other semi-final match at Shanghai’s International Stadium. The 1996 Olympic champions reached the finals for the first time in 12 years.
Nigeria opened the score in the 17th minute by Adefemi who stroked a deflected ball in from 12 yards. Then striker Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi scored twice in the second half and Chibuzor Okonkwo added the final goal in the 78th minute.
Belgium kept pace with the Nigerians in the first hour or so but fell apart at the end. The seventy-fifth minute substitute Laurent Ciman scored the lonely goal for Belgium.
The surprise of the tournament will meet with Brazil for the bronze medal match.
Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson will have the services of striker Wayne Rooney for Sunday’s match with Newcastle. Rooney contracted a virus on the team’s trip to Africa last month, but is healthy and ready to play now. It was believed to be malaria according to some early reports, which was denied by the club. Ferguson now has at his disposal two strikers, but he will be without injured Cristiano Ronaldo.
There is a talk about Bruce Arena taking over LA Galaxy. He watched the match between Galaxy and Chivas and Thursday night with the club’s president and CEO Tim Leiweke. Galaxy parted early this week with coach Ruud Gullit and Cobi Jones filled in on an interim basis. Leiweke said, “I personally think he’s the best coach in the history of the league and we’d be lucky if we can get him here.” Arena’s last coaching job was with the NY Red Bulls were he resigned last November. The match ended in a 2-2 tie after Alan Gordon scored from a header in injury time.
The Olympic Soccer tournament continues Saturday with the quarter-finals and we should see a couple of interesting matches. 2004 Olympic champion Argentina will face a strong Dutch squad with names like Babel, Makaay or their leading scorer Gerald Sibon. Brazil against Cameroon will try to avenged their loss to this African team in the 2000 Sydney games. Cameroon knocked them out in the quarter-finals and went on to win the gold medal. In the other two matches Italy meets Belgium and Ivory Coast is facing Nigeria. Italy is a favorite in this match especially after Belgium’s biggest star Vincent Kompany left the Olympics for his Bundesliga team Hamburk SV.
Struggling Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro was on loan to Werder Bremen, where he played in from 1999 to 2001. He than moved to Bayern Munich and in 2007 signed with Chelsea. But the 29-year-old Peruvian didn’t live-up to his reputation and became mostly a substitute during the last season. He appeared in 21 matches, scoring only two goals.
Major League Soccer expansion team the Seattle Sounders made their first big signing by getting Kasey Keller from Fulham. Keller was born in Washington state and started his soccer career with the Portland Timbers back in 1989. He played in England, Spain and Germany. Keller said: ‘When I started my career in Europe, I always said that I wanted to finish playing back at home in the US.” He represented the US in four World Cups, appearing 102 times for the national team.
After a US men’s team disappointing knock-out by Nigeria, the US Women’s team lived-up their potential and reached the semi-finals by beating Canada 2-1. The winning goal came in the 11th minute from Natasha Kai into the extra time. The match was suspended for almost two hours because of lightning. The US team will now meet the underdog Japan who beat host country China. In the other semi-final match, tournament favorite Brazil will face Germany.
The Men’s Olympic soccer tournamentstarts on August 7, a day before Olympic games official opening. Sixteen teams from all continents will be competing for Olympic gold. Defending 2004 champion Argentina is once again the favorite to win the gold .
For the tournament, each country will nominate 18 players, four other players have been included as possible replacements. 15 players must be born on or after 1 January 1985, plus 3 can be over-age players.The official lists of teams squads were revealed on Thursday and with names like Messi, Pato, Babel, Adu, Riquelme and Ronaldhino there will be plenty of quality matches
Five cities will host the tournament with the final on August 23 in Beijing. The NBC Olympic Soccer Channel, CNBC, Telemundo and MSNBC will show complete coverage of all 58 Men’s and Women’s matches from China.
Make sure to keep visiting Socceroverload.com for updated results from Men’s and Women’s Olympic soccer tournament.
Winning the Euro 2008 propelled Spain to become the #1 ranking country in the world for the first time ever on FIFA rankings. Since the ranking started back in 1993, Spain is only the fifth country to reach the top spot in FIFA’s ranking. The others were Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Italy.
Russia made the biggest jump since the last rankings, up thirteen spots from #11 to #24. Croatia is up 8 spots, they went from the 15th spot to #7.
Greece and Honduras shared the biggest drops from within the top 50. Greece dropped ten spots down to #18 and Honduras dropped eleven spots down to #48.
The highest placed African team is Cameroon showing at #13, and Nigeria showed the biggest promise among the African Nations jumping eight points to #26.
Iran also showed an impressive jump in rankings up eleven spots, going from #48 to #37.
While the only top twenty team from CONCACAF is Mexico at #19, the United States continued its free fall, dropping nine spots to #30.
The South American powerhouses, Brazil and Argentina are both still in the top twenty but both lost ground in the rankings. Brazil dropped 2 spots from #2 to #4, and Argentina made an even bigger drop, going from the #1 spot to #6.
Czech club Sparta Prague is showing interest in signing their former player Jan Koller. The 35 year old Czech International is presently playing for German Nuremberg which was relegated to the second division this season. Koller joined Nuremberg in January from AC Monaco, but scored only two goals and spent the end of the season as a substitute.
The fight for the top spot in Copa Libertadores will continue today with the semifinal match between Mexican America and Liga de Quito from Ecuador. On Wednesday in the other semifinal Boca Juniors will take on Fluminense. America upset Brazilian team Santos and Liga de Quito overcame one of the favorites, San Lorenzo of Argentina to reach the semifinals.
England’s coach Faboi Capello named John Terry the captain for the friendly match with the USA on Wednesday at Wembley. There were some questions about how well Terry has recovered mentally after missing a penalty kick in the Champions League final last week. Capello said this about his decision to make Terry the captain “It is very important to be a leader and John Terry is a leader.”
The three nation Kirin Cup tournament was won by Japan after they played to a scoreless draw with Paraguay on Tuesday. Paraguay also tied with the Ivory Coast 1-1, but Japan beat them by a score of 1-0 and that gave them the overall victory. The teams used the Kirin Cup as preparation for their World Cup qualifiers next month.
“FC Barcelona and Manchester United have reached agreement for the transfer of Gerard Pique to the Catalan club. Gerard 21, will sign a four year contract with Barcelona,” said the message you could read on Barcelona’s Web site Tuesday. Pique joined Manchester United four years ago from Barcelona. He played only 23 matches and with players like Nemanja Vidic or Rio Ferdinand he found increasingly difficult to break into the first team.
EURO 2008 starts on June 7 and as a part of a campaign against racism in soccer, the tickets for the Euro 2008 will carry Unite Against Racism message. FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) and FIFA will promote race diversity in soccer during the tournament through different activities. An opening day reception by FARE will kick start all of these activities with the involvement of former soccer players, the European Commission and UEFA.
No more jam and butter, no more alcohol or coffee and only suit and tie in the dining room. That is one of many new rules of England’s coach Fabio Capello. His motto is “discipline” and who ever doesn’t obey, won’t have room on the team. Capello tells players what to wear, how to present themselves, no more personal phone calls while with the team and forget being late. No excuses.
Real Madrid turn the field into a shooting range practice, humiliating Valladolid with seven goals. Julio Baptista opened the score in 8th minute and from there on Real Madrid scored almost every ten minutes. This win puts Real 8 points ahead of Barcelona in the standings.
UEFA held their semi-annual meeting in Cyprus last week. Invited referees were told to get tougher with growing mass brawls and hard tackles. There is more and more group confrontations and UEFA is trying to contain the situation before things get out of control.
Cairo and the whole of Egypt have finally something to be happy about. Their national team won the African Nations Cup and people poured onto the streets to celebrate. Tens of thousands were dancing and singing, clearly overwhelmed with pride and joy.
In preparation for the World Cup qualifying the US national team will play exhibition games with Poland and Spain. The game with Poland will be in Krakow on March 26 and in Spain on June 4. USA will open the qualifying with either Dominica or Barbados on June 15th in Nevada.
There was another death on the soccer field, this time in Africa where many players died while playing soccer. The 21 year old Gabon international Guy Tchingoma collapsed and died after contact with another player. No medical staff was at the stadium and Tchingoma was taken to the local hospital on team’s bus.
Defending champions Egypt prevailed in the finals of the African Nations Cup and took home the coveted trophy for the sixth time. It is also the second time for them to do it back to back. First time Egypt achieved that was in the inaugural in 1957 and then again in the 1959 tournament.
Some said: Pharaohs beware, sleeping Lions are watching, but watching wasn’t enough to overcome Egypt’s determination to defended the Cup. Egypt had a better first half and created a few scoring chances for themselves. Cameroon besides Eto’o’s header in the opening minutes of the game was mostly held to long shot effort.
After the break Cameroon increased the tempo of the game but Egypt was firmly in the control. The Pharaoh’s first big chance came in the 61st minute from Abd-Rabou hitting the post with a header. Then 13 minutes later a badly cleared ball by Cameroon’s captain Rigobert Song was passed by Zidan on Aboutrika who scored the winning goal of the game. A moment, Song will probably remembered forever.
At the end, the more determined team won and the Lions can only roar in disbelief. Congratulations to the winners.
In the consolidation game on Saturday, host Ghana beat Ivory Coast by a hefty score of 4:2 and won the bronze medal. The Black Stars were trailing back with a goal deficit, but came back in the second half scoring three goals within 15 minutes.
After months of speculations it looks like Tomas Ujfalusi made up his mind and is heading for Atletico Madrid. He decided not to re-sign with Fiorentina and several European super clubs like Tottenham,Juventus or Sevilla were seriously interested in him.
Morocco fired their coach Henri Michel after not qualifying for the knock out stage in the ANC in Ghana. Michel also criticized the players for a lack of commitment which didn’t go well with Morocco’s Soccer Federation.
Japanese J-League team FC Tokio announced interest in signing Juventus star Pavel Nedved for a reportedly 10 million dollars. FC Tokio wants to be a serious contender for the J-League title and they believe Nedved would be the player to help them get there.
What do you think about going to see a Premiere League match between Manchester United and Chelsea in Yankee’s Stadium on Saturday evening? Perhaps, like the British like to say. There is a proposal on the table to extend EPL to 39 matches in 2010 and play the extra matches in different cities around the world.
Egypt would like to consider itself favored to win Sunday’s African Nations Cup finals in Ghana. They will face Cameroon who they beat in the group stage by a score of 4:2 and they also stunned the Ivory Coast on Thursday by huge victory of 4:1.
The entire team of Thai’s Kuiburi FC club beat up and injured the referee after sending off three of their players and losing the game. At stake was a promotion to the second division and the players accused the referee of being bias towards them.
Who says #8 is not a lucky number. Cameroon’s Nkong who was recalled after an 8 year absence, scored the winning goal with 8 minutes to go, giving Cameroon the victory. It was a tight game with several chances on both sides, but only one goal. Ghana who seems to be a tad better, had her best chance at the end of the game when Junior Agogo headed a ball over the crossbar. The Indomitable Lions lost their defender Andie Bikey in the 90th minute after he was sent off with a red card. In a bizarre incident, Bikey pushed over a medical staff member who was attending an injured player on the field. Bikey will miss Sunday’s ANC finals.
Cameroon is looking to win their record fifth title, winning the last one in 2002.
The Pharaohs became the second finalist after a surprise win over tournament favorite Ivory Coast by a huge score of 4:1. Maybe the third and fourth goal could be blamed on goalie Stephan Loboue, but this is not what we expected from the Ivory Coast team.
Egypt opened the scoring early with a kick from the penalty area. The Elephants tried to respond with Didier Drogba having two very good chances but couldn’t finish them. Drogba was all over the place but then in the 37th minute Ivory Coast lost their starting goalie, Barry to injury. Egypt took advantage of the inexperienced substitute Loboue and Zaki scored one in the 62nd minute. A minute later Ivory Coast answered by Keita making it 2:1 , but once again Zaki scored, adding his second goal of the game. Aboutriaka made it on final 4:1 in injury time.
Egypt gambled on playing physical game and also got excellent support from their goalie Al-Hadari who made a few superb saves.
In the finals Egypt will meet Cameroon whom they beat 4:2 in their group game earlier.
More bad news for the injury plagued AC Milan as their main stars are out. Kaka maybe out with a chronic knee injury up to four months and Pato who will be out with an ankle injury suffered in last weekend’s game against Fiorentina.
Manchester United held a ceremony at Old Trafford Wednesday in honor of the “8 Busby Babes”. Eight Man Utd players along s with 15 other victims were remembred at the stadium attended by many former and present Man Utd players.
Ghana will have to do without their captain John Mensah in the semifinals against Cameroon today. Mensah was suspended from African Nations Cup’s semifinals after getting a red card in Sunday’s game with Nigeria.
England played for the first time under their new coach Fabio Capello and they managed to beat Switzerland at Wembley by a score of 2:1. Victory yes, but same old problems seem to persist with their game and Capello has his work cut out for him.
MLS team, Chicago Fire re-signed their midfielder Diego Gutierrez for one more season. The 35 year old Colombian played 233 regular MLS games and has said that he will retire at the end of the 2008 season.
Malaysian national team coach B. Sathianathan will try to overcome the poor fitness of his players by giving them individual reports card about their fitness level. He was inspired by the German system , but he will develop his own, to monitor and keep record’s of individual players physical readiness.
Tunisia lost at extra time to Cameroon 3:2, but although Tunisia was consider by many an underdog, they played more than an equal role against Cameroon. Stephane Mbia opened the score in the 19th minute for Cameroon and Geremi doubled the lead in 27th minute. Tunisia responded by Saada scoring one in the 35th minute. In the second half each team has several chances but it wasn’t till the 91st minute when Cameroon’s Mbia scored his second and winning goal. Cameroon will meet Ghana in the first semi-finals on Thursday.
Egypt kept their hope of defending the African Nations Cup title alive with a lucky winning goal in the 38th minute from Zaki. Egypt opened the scoring in the 23rd minute from a penalty kick, but four minutes later Angola’s Manucho answered with his left foot goal tying the game on 1:1. The second half showed Egypt in better form with more chances but Angola’s goalie, Lama, made some fine saves denying Egypt more goals. At the end Egypt was the luckier team wining 2:1 and they advanced to the semi-finals on Thursday against Ivory Coast.
Ivory Coast buried Guinea by a score of 5:0 and became the first team to reach the semi-finals.The Elephants opened the scoring in the 25th minute but Guinea managed to keep up with the Ivorians in the first half of the match. But in the second half the Ivory Coast opened the “shooting range”, scoring four goals within 16 minutes. Two of them coming from Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba and Bakari Kone added one each.
Host Ghana playing with only 10 men after John Mensah received a red card in 60th minute, beat Nigeria by a score of 2:1. In a match called by many as a “game of the tournament”, we saw plenty of exciting moments. Nigeria opened the score from a penalty kick in 35th minute by Yakubu Aiyegbeni. Ten minutes later Michael Essien tied with a header. In the second half the Nigerians became somehow lethargic and Ghana with one man down managed to score the winning goal from striker Junior Agogo in the 80th minute. Next for the host Ghana is either Cameroon or Tunisia.
Today’s action in African Nations Cup continues with Champion Egypt facing Angola and Cameroon against underdog Tunisia.
In the final two group qualifying games for the African Nations Cup, South Africa came out with a draw with Senegal 1:1 and both teams are eliminated from the tournament. South Africa came with a young team to gain experience with the big game in preparation for the 2010 World Cup which they will host. Senegal is the more disappointing of the two since they reached the semi finals in the 2006 tournament only to lose to the tournament winner, Egypt.
Tunisia tied 1:1 against Angola and both advanced to the quarter finals. Knowing they have nothing to lose both sides were playing without much effort. They were few goal chances in the game where walking was preferred over running and both teams decided just showing was enough.
