football !!

Steve McClaren has revealed his admiration for Jose Mourinho and admits he will use Chelsea as the model for his 'Club England'.

Oh no...(??)

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And maybe Becks cannot get back to the national team ever again although I´m surprised as Mclaren was in Manutd when David played there his best games. Well, just happy that Heskey ( Svennis´favourite ) does not get to play. He did score yesterday so who knows as managers seem to have some really odd favourites...

 

Kai, I see reports that some unrest has alreay started in the Inter camp. Apparently Adriano has thrown a wobler about getting subbed in the last game . I'm sure you're right about Ibra - just a question of time .

BTW, that Swedish punch may not have had much force, but it looks nicely in the plexus .

No.9

 

A couple of recommendations: Buy Mido and Nicholas Anelka as well to Inter ( or any team in the world ). Watch your team explode...

Oops!

[ 29. August 2006, 07:38 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

SURPRISE!

West Ham have completed the sensational double signing of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano from Corinthians on permanent contracts.

 

WHO’SA STILL DA PAPPA, EH


What a couple of days for AC. Tonight they won the 6th annual ‘friendly’ TIM Trophy tournament, a three ring event between AC, Inter and Juventus. Act 1. Milan beat Inter 2-1; Act 2. Juve beat Inter 4-3 on penalties after the match ended 1-1; Act 3. Milan beat Juve 3-1. Extra joy because the AC-Inter goals came from new boys defender Favalli and striker Borriello.

And, Paolo Maldini made a welcomed return in the match after 4 months on the injury bench.

And, Milan completed the signing of Ricardo Oliveira before the FIFA 31 August transfer deadline.

He didn’t play for Brazil in the World Cup and Milan must be satisfied he is fully over his knee injury. Aged 26 he potentially has mileage, just trust they know what they’re doing Nothing further published about Iaquinta and Oddo?

And, Nesta announced he expects to be fit for the start of the season.

And, new Italy coach Roberto Donadoni announced he expects to spearhead the Azzuri’s next International against Lithuania with AC’s Inzaghi and Gilardino, and with AC’s Pirlo and Gattuso anchoring the midfield. Lippi’s deadwood bumchums don’t appear to be on the list .

And, after Madrid trying to play AC and Inter off against each other in bidding for Ronaldo, both clubs have told Madrid to keep the little fatman .

Lastly, loony Vieri has now signed for Atlanta – whether he turns up or not..........

No.9

 

Stev, saw an Italian article today that suggest Ajax might get back into the Champions League? Apparently FIFA may yet suspend Portugal from the tournament as punishment for an unresolved issue. The club at the centre is Gil Vicente who ”fielded Angolan player Mateus last season despite not being eligible to do so. Gil Vicente then opted to take their fight to the civil courts to lodge an appeal, subsequently violating FIFA rules.”

If this happened, Benfica, Porto and Sporting Lisbon could be out, and Ajax, Chievo and Osasuna in

No.9

 

Euro 2008 started badly for Italy, drawing 1-1 with Lithuania

Early days yes after one game, but it drops them down in their group below France, Scotland and Georgia – Group B: France, Italy, Ukraine, Scotland, Lithuania, Georgia and Faroe Islands.

By all accounts the Lithuanian goal came about though a marking error when the scorer was left uncovered. Again you’ve got to look at the Italian set-up. Playing in the back four were Oddo, Cannavaro, Barzagli and Grosso. I’m sure Barzagli will establish himself as time goes on, but it was telling with Materazzi not available due to suspension and Nesta still not 100%. What I can’t fathom at all is why no Zambrotta?

Donadoni elected to play 4-3-3. Not unreasonable with the estimated strengths of Lithuania I suppose, but, the front three were Cassano, Inzaghi and…..Perrotta? I like Perrotta but I just can’t see him in a first choice striker’s role? Many people have great expectations of Cassano with full justification. Even though he shares a lot in the way of style with Gilardino, I would still have played them both up front with Inzaghi rather than pull in Perrotta. However, given a less than perfect back four, I would have played 4-4-2 and happily used Perrotta in a midfield four. Position wise, with Pirlo and Gattuso I would have at least Gattuso in the centre of the line . A blow to midfield selection came in the training session before the match where Ambrosini picked-up a thigh strain

Overall a more balanced line-up than Lippi usually used, and several new ‘main men’ have probably got to come to terms with being ‘main men’ without their piers being on the pitch.

And yes, Italy’s goal was scored by Inzaghi………hope you were watching Lippi

Italy (4-3-3):
Buffon
Oddo, Cannavaro, Barzagli, Grosso
Pirlo, De Rossi (Marchionni 61), Gattuso
Perrotta (Gilardino 71), Inzaghi (Di Michele 86), Cassano

No.9

 

Finland beat Poland 3-1 with Jari Litmanen being the best player on the field (again!) and scoring twice!





Roy Hodgson´s work as the Finnish team´s coach has started well!

 

Kai, congrats on that victory....and who else but Jari!?????

Excellent to see him back in top form like that!

No.9, I am hoping, but am sure Fifa won't act with such draconic measures. usually to threaten is enough. And besides, Ajax does not deserve to play CL this year. We don't belong if we can't maintain a 2-1 away win over Kopenhagen...with all respect...

 

Yes Stev, it would be a bit extreme to penalise all Portugal over one club. I just hope the whole Ajax/Holland issue turns around and we can get back to the main sides providing the main games.

Great result for Finland Kai, we're due another showing from someone in the Nordic circle . I think we've missed Russia for a long time.

I still think coming out of the World Cup, the coutry most likely to do really well in the next few years will be Germany. I was then going with Holland, but, till we see them settle I think they may have been edged out by England . Appreciate England have it all to do, but I have great faith in Tel-boy. Italy are not out of it of course, but they have to find themselves again and become hungry.

No.9

[ 04. September 2006, 01:05 AM: Message edited by: No.9 ]

 

Gianluca Pessotto - out at last!


In bocca al lupo, Gianluca

Recovering against severe odds from a 10 metre fall over two months ago, Gianluca Pessotto was deemed well enough to leave hospital today.

A hospital bulletin stated: “The patient’s general condition is excellent and he is also in very good spirits. Sig. Pessotto will be transferred to a private clinic to continue his rehabilitation programme.”

Doctor Marcello De Poli added he was impressed with his patient’s attitude. “He has an extraordinary will, everyone will have a wonderful memory of this man, who proved to be very amiable and friendly.”

No time-scale has been announced for full recovery, though there is optimism it will be before Christmas.


Meanwhile, ahead of this Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier against France, Azzurri coach Donadoni is believed to be dropping his 4-3-3 formation in favour of their World Cup 4-4-1-1. This gives scope to return Gattuso and Pirlo to the centre of the midfield, while candidates for the front are Inzaghi, Gilardino and Cassano. Good news is that Zambrotta will play in defence, though I’ve yet to discover why he was left out against Lithuania?

The authorities are doing everything possible to ward off trouble at this game in France, pledged by the French to be something of a ‘revenge’ match following the Zidane-Materazzi incident at the World Cup. Materazzi was handed a two match International ban, essentially to remove him from being a catalyst. Materazzi has now gone on record in an interview revealing the exchange on the pitch with Zidane. "I was tugging his shirt, he said to me 'if you want my shirt so much I'll give it to you afterwards.' I answered that I'd prefer to have his sister. Perhaps not a particularly nice thing to say, I recognise that, but loads of players say far worse things. I didn't even know he had a sister before all this happened."

The French will have an opportunity to show some civility however. Before the kick-off there is to be a minute’s silence in honour of Giacinto Facchetti. The Azzurri will wear black armbands.


On World Cup qualifiers, Sweden have sent three players home prior to their game against Liechtenstein, one player being Ibrahimovic – no surprise for Kai then. The squad were given the day off after lunch and told to be back in the hotel by 23:00. Ibrahimovic, Mellberg and Wilhelmsson elected to stay out on the p*ss and returned after 1am.

No.9

 

Great news on Gianluca! Thanx No 9 !

Going to see the Finland-Portugal game tonight. If nothing else the atmosphere should be great as the stadium will be full. Also lots of diving by Mr Ro I presume. And Jari Litmanen showing his talent. We´ll see if that´s enough. The Finnish forwards seem rather weak these days so it´s up to Litmanen-Tainio-Väyrynen-Eremenko jr in the midfield to do the scoring.

Anyway it´s always a pleasure to see Jari play. I know Stevin agrees!

 

Good luck tonight Kai , have a great evening and keep making with the positive waves.



No.9

 

that ought to be good

 

Absolutely!! He is one of my all time favorite players. In fact, I think I'd rather see Finland beat Portugal than Holland make a fool of themsleves (again) against Belarus...

 

Well, quite a night, especially for those able to see the games they wanted to like Kai. I’m sure we’ll get a pitch-side report about the 1-1 Finland–Portugal draw when he sobers up . Holland beat Belarus 3-0 so I don’t suppose Stev will be up to see the sunrise – or remember it if he is .

Italy slumped 3-1 to France in Paris, and from the ensuing press accounts, deserved nothing less after an uninspiring performance. Even coach Donadoni stated there was little ‘go’ in the team. He had the players, but, given he was using 4-4-1-1, he pushed Gilardino up front as the poacher with Cassano floating behind him? The team didn’t perform so I’m not suggesting for a moment the odd change here or there would have made any great difference, but the world and his wife knows Gilardino is not a natural poacher whereas Inzaghi is. The overwhelming logical start was Inzaghi up front with Gilardino floating behind him . Even worse, Cassano did bugger-all and was not subbed till 73 minutes had gone! Anyway, Italy are well down the table now and unless they turn things around starting the next game in October, they won’t be playing in the 2008 Europe Cup – as simple as that.

Couple of surprise results, minnows Northern Ireland decked Spain 3-2 - exactly, go the orange boys. Germany set a new goal record for this championship by beating San Marino - yes the baker, the policeman, the postman etc – by 13-0 . Meanwhile, mighty England scraped a 1-0 win over Macedonia – who - a little place near Greece. Most amusing was probably the British reporters struggling to summarise the match. "Err……it was a professional game…….err.....Crouch did well when he scored", but probably the funniest remark about this non-event was; ”err.....there are no easy games in this competition” . Then again, England got the 3 points and therefore look really good – on paper.

No.9

 

It´s funny that some games if you could choose a tie beforehand ( 1-1 ) you´d be happy but afterwards rather disappointed (?)....Anyway, the crowd was going crazy and I felt I was watching a game somewhere else than Finland, really. Usually people just watch the game and keep silent over here.

Finland started well but after 15 minutes the Portuguese started putting pressure and through excellent short passes almost cracked the Finnish defence. Ronaldo this time did not keep falling to the ground but I was rather angry as most of his colleagues did, there was one man down every third minute. Then a great pass by Litmanen to the left side and Kolkka got through and passed it in front of the goal and Johansson scored with the goalie totally wrongfooted. It came a bit unexpectedly so actually it took a second before the crow realized what had happened, then huge celebrations!

The game got quite slow and towards the end of the first period the Portuguese got to keep the ball and finally a great ball through by Deco and a masterful finish by Nuno Gomes : 1-1.

The second period was mostly a battle in the midfield until Costa got his second card and had to leave the field. After that Finland dominated the midfield and got several places through Litmanen to try to score. Hyypiä headed the ball three or four times just past the post. Ricardo also had some excellent saves. the Finnish attackers were again rather lame and like mentioned, the midfield created the dangerous situations and also scored the only goal for us.

During extra time Portugal had a very dangerous free kick from some 25 meters and usually "they score". Well, not this time, and we were happy to see that we could get the point from Portugal! Time for a beer or two...

 

Sounds like an exciting game, Kai! Glad to see Finland at the top of the table! I watched a reasonably well playing Holland. They played better than against Luxembourg but still need a lot of inprovement. The lack of experience and the youth of the team is cause for concern. We should be able to cruise to the EC in 2008 in this group, but all is less than certain, with Bulgaria and Romania coming up.

In any case, Holland came away with 6 points while other teams clearly let points lie where they shouldn't. What about Poland with 1 point out of 2 games? Of course, the Northern ireland game was the most suprising to me and I wonder about the Azurri. I have no doubt however they will be in Austria and Suisse in 2008. They are too professional not too. This was their toughest game anyway, away against France, so the rest should be a breeze, right No.9!?

 

I don’t believe so Stev, as a current TV insurance advert keeps saying ”It doesn’t work that way.” Italy have won the World Cup, that’s not winning the battle, it’s winning the war. The hunger’s gone.

The Italian papers were writing off the squad before the tournament started and more so after the first game. There has been some slagging after the France game, not that much as it was expected. When Italy last won the World Cup in 1982, they were nowhere in the following Europe Cup. In fact they only beat Cyprus in the qualifiers group, and drew or lost all other games against Romania, Czecho and Sweden. That tournament incidentally, was won by France playing in France.

Maybe if the qualifiers started next year, they might have been able to raise another head of steam. Starting barely a month after the main event was/is too soon. Then again, I have always believed that the top 4 in the World Cup should automatically get seeded through to at least the second round of their respective following continental tournaments.

However, it’s not all gloom and despondency, AC announced today that Pirlo has signed a new 5 year contract – oh deep, deep joy .


No.9

 

Tea-break over, back on your ‘eds

In the wake of an incredible summer for Italian football in which, contrary to the sentiment of a popular maxim, the sh*t did not hit the fan but instead hit senior decision-making officials, and a quite unprecedented shuffle of players produced dramatic Serie A line-up changes, and an injury and incident riddled less than optimum and oddly managed team won the World Cup, we return to the mundane of league football.

Now is the time to validate all the claims, counter-claims and assured predictions of the men who own and/or run the clubs. On the whole things ran to popular expectations, but...... Without doubt the main talking point has been Juventus in their first Serie B game against Rimini. Rimini may be first Italy choice among German beach-bums, but low, low down the scale in football might. Even after sales and desertions, Juve still boasts Buffon, Del Piero, Nedved, Kovac, Tudor, Camoranesi and Trezeguet, but, playing at Rimini the Old Lady only managed a 1-1 draw . Juve director, Claude Blanc, thinks it will take them 5 years to return to where they were .

Meanwhile, the team spending all the money recently, Inter, pulled a 3-2 win at home to a formidable Fiorentina. Racked by financial ruin 4 or 5 years ago (and now starting the season with a -19 point Calciopoli penalty), Fiorentina have always been and remain a very good side. Main men for Fiorentina are Mutu and Luca Toni, while the new Inter can draw upon Toldo, Materazzi, Zanetti; Vieira, Stankovic, Cambiasso, Grosso, Dacourt; Figo, Adriano, Ibrahimovic and Crespo. But, can these men play as a team? In their first Champions league game away to Sporting Lisbon tonight, an apparent lacklustre Inter lost 1-0 .

On Champions League, Rome thumped Shakhtar 4-0 at home and Milan play Athens tonight .

Re AC, at home on the weekend they beat Lazio 2-1 fielding an almost perfect first side. Deep joy because Maldini and Nesta returned to full active duty - sad becuase Gattuso had to sit out the statutory one match suspension following two accumulated Yellow Cards, but, he'll play against Athens. Personally sad as I wasn’t there to see it as I always am for the first several games of the season. Still, win or lose, the family are back together, greased and ready to kick a***. There are still three changes to make in the squad, Kalac, Jankulovski and Simic, which just have to be left in the hands of the powers that be The new main men signings, Gourcuff and Oliveira, are apparently slotting in really well and Oliveira scored on his first appearance. BTW, it transpires that Oddo (who plays for Lazio) wanted to move to AC, and AC would meet any bill, but Lazio wouldn’t sell him . For the game against Athens, yes, I do feel confident. I wouldn’t care who they were playing as the expected line-up is Dida, Cafu, Nesta, Maldini, Serginho, Kaka, Pirlo, Gattuso, Seedorf; Gilardino and Inzaghi, with Ambrosini, Gourcuff, Oliveira and Costacurta waiting in the wings. Hardly worth the Zorba's turning up really

No.9