Monday Fuzz

Will Benitez be in Liverpool on Monday?

Well, my bet is that if he fails to beat Man.Utd a couple of hours from now, we will wave goodbye to 2005 CL winners. And this is the biggest problem, with a poor start on 09/10 season; the Spanish coach is letting everyone reminisce about what he failed to win in the last four years, no Premier League championship and a single CL in his debut year that is making the reds fans think more of a strike of luck than real talent.
So, why does a team with players like Gerrard, Torres, Mascherano or Reina as so many problems to produce a consistent football and consecutive wins? Well, that’s the one million dollar question.
But in my view, while the constant rotation of the squad is probably good to keep players fresh for a long season, it produce a very weak eleven every one out of three Liverpool’s matches. Well, while everyone at Anfield says Rafa Benitez his ‘crucial’, ‘central’ and so on, I truly believe he will say goodbye to England if he fails to win today’s game against Alex Ferguson’s Man.Utd.

Normality (almost) back to CL (Day3/Part2)

So after Tuesday madness things looked pretty predictable yesterday, with no real surprises except that one (Real), Milan won at the Bernabeu. In the field of normality, the hot favorites claimed the three points, and with half way thru the English sides are on their way to secure a qualifying spot.

In Group A French champions dominated easily the German giants from München. Nine man Bayern saw their GK Butt safe two penalties. On the other game, finally Italian side Juventus took their maiden win but things could be different if Haifa’s last minutes effort produced.

Group A
Bordeaux 2 – 1 Bayern
Juventus 1 – 0 Maccabi Haifa

Standings
1 Bordeaux 7pts
2 Juventus 5pts
3 Bayern 4pts
4 Maccabi Haifa 0

At B, the red devils keep their winning pace in a very cold and hard grass field at Moscow, the late goal from Valencia opens the gates of the knockout stage. Unfortunately for Wolfsburg they missed the chance to get the three points from weaker side Besiktas.

Group B
CSKA 0 – 1 Man.Utd
Wolfsburg 0 – 0 Besikstas

Standings
1 Man.United 9pts
2 Wolfsburg 4pts
3 CSKA 3pts
4 Besiktas 1pt

Well, well, depressed Milan went to Madrid a made a comeback to secure a win. On the other match French side Marseille won and seems to be shouting we want to go thru, will Madrid or Milan fail?

Group C
Real Madrid 2 – 3 AC Milan
Zürich 0 – 1 Marseille

Standings
1 Milan 6pts
2 Real Madrid 6pts
3 Marseille 3pts
4 Zürich 3pts

If normality as a place to stay is at group D. The top spot favorites Chelsea and Porto seem eager to quickly secure the qualifying. If things go their way they can both assure the knock-out stage at day 4.

Group D
Porto 2 – 1 APOEL
Chelsea 4 – 0 Atl.Madrid

Standings
1 Chelsea 9pts
2 Porto 6pts
3 Atl.Madrid 1pt
4 APOEL 1pt

Spooky times on the CL (Day 3/Part 1)

Maybe the craziest day ever in the CL happened last night. I don’t recall ever seeing the majority of the hot favorites losing their winning pace in such a strong fashion. Maybe it’s magic from badabim-Kazan or ‘vampirean’ things from dark side Urziceni, whatever happened what a great night for football.
Barcelona’s lost their first game of the season against a pretty much unknown Russian champions Rubin Kazan at the Nou Camp. None off the English side’s were able to beat their opponents, with Liverpool being shocked at Anfield with a comeback victory 2-1 of Lyon, while the gunners achieved a not so bad 1-1 draw at AZ Alkmaar.

At Group E, Liverpool lost at home and to make things even odder, Italian side Fiorentina played a cool fashion football and scored four goals against three of home side Debreceni.

Group E:
Debreceni 3 – 4 Fiorentina
Liverpool 1 – 2 Lyon

Standings:
1 Lyon 9pts
2 Fiorentina 6pts
3 Liverpool 3pts
4 Debreceni 0pts

At Group F, if you think Barcelona’s lost is all the surprises you can get, well you’re wrong. Jose’s Mourinho Inter Milan was reduced to a two goal draw against Ukrainian side Dyn.Kiev.

Group F:
Barcelona 1 – 2 Rubin Kazan
Inter 2 – 2 Dyn.Kiev

Standings:
1 Barcelona 4pts
2 Dyn.Kiev 4pts
3 Rubin 4pts
4 Inter 3pts

In G, while Rangers were being brutalized at Ibrox, German side Stuttgart was receiving the same kind of treatment at the feet’s of unbeatable CL side Sevilla.

Group G:
Rangers 1 – 4 Unirea Urziceni
Stuttgart 1 – 3 Sevilla

Standings:
1 Sevilla 9pts
2 Unirea 4pts
3 Stuttgart 2pts
4 Rangers 1pt

At H, well Arsenal was stopped in their winning ways in the CL, but they are still in front of the group. On the other game a late goal from Stoltidis give the Greeks from Olympiacos the second spot at half way thru.

Group H:
AZ Alkmaar 1 – 1 Arsenal
Olympiacos 2 – 1 Standard Liege

Standings:
1 Arsenal 7pts
2 Olympiacos 6pts
3 AZ 2pts
4 Standard 1pt

Why do we have top seeds for South Africa?

Well before CL Day3 this is probably not the best talk, but I can’t control myself, why the hell FIFA did change the rules of the game half way thru? Talking to some friend’s major reasons emerged.

First: Platini’s influence as UEFA’s president to try and find an easier path for the ‘bleus’.
With a below average campaign France is facing a possible earlier football vacations on 2010, what will make the self proclaimed football cleaner lost his temper. The one’s that have seen football in the eighties will probably remember how things were done when Platini’s awesome Juventus couldn’t win the games.

Second: FIFA’s and Real Madrid income brake if former CR7 fails to appear.
According to newspaper Marca, that would mean a loss of 80 million pounds. With Portugal’s lack of ability to win games on the pitch, this is probably the only way to make the football star land in South Africa.

Well, this is one vision, and maybe this none of them will go thru, if somehow you don’t know the fixtures, here they are:

Rep.Ireland vs France
Portugal vs Bosnia-Herzegovina
Greece vs Ukraine
Russia vs Slovenia

Who do you think will go thru?

Monday Fuzz

The unbeatable European side

After Barcelona’s draw at Valencia there’s only one European team from the UEFA’s top ranking countries to win all matches in the awakening of the championship season. It comes from Portugal and, somehow, I truly doubt you can guess the name of the team.
No, it´s not Champions League most appeared club Porto, and it’s not the other two more or less known side’s Sporting Lisbon and Benfica. No, try to guess?? You can’t?? It’s Braga usual regular in the former UEFA Cup that failed the playoff for the new Europa League.
With a more effective than attractive style of play, Braga can proudly call themselves the only domestic league team with seven back-to-back wins in 2009, with 12 scored goals but only three conceded. There are few things to say, but it’s nice to see ‘little clubs’ with high hopes, Braga’s coach is former Porto’s star-striker Domingos that leads a bunch of Portuguese football veterans on the field, such as international’s Meyong, Eduardo or Alberto Rodriguez and top form Brazilians Alan, Mossoró and Moisés. They play on a hybrid 4x3x3/4x2x3x1 that gives good defensive protection and have as preferred score a 1-0 win.
Well, another good thing from Braga his the city itself, on the northwest of the country, the town as an awesome cultural aspect, especially related to the country’s obsessive religious past. By these days they’ll probably praise to the God of football…

Looking the wrong way, have you seen Brazil vs Ghana?

Sadly the world as decided to watch Maradona’s last ‘flying high’ rather than the breathtaking final of the U20 World Cup. The quality of the game made the 120m plus penalties a joy to watch. Brazil made quite an impression in the first quarter – with 72 per cent of possession thru that period, Ghana then responded and started to put their offensive moves on the right way.
Unfortunately for them (and for referee De Bleeckere because it was a mistake, he should have showed a yellow card) a 37 minute sent off to Daniel Addo would change the spirit of the game. For almost an hour, Ghana defended their heart out and has been rewarded with a penalties shootout (4:3) victory after a goalless draw.
To everyone that missed try to watch the full 14 penalties, what a cracker! If you can’t, not a problem, most of these young talents will soon or late arrive in Europe’s finest championships. For history the first World Championship won by an African side and an unbelievable battle between four times champions/seven time’s finalists Brazil and two times second and now champions Ghana. See also my Best eleven for this World Cup, which I wrote a couple of days before the final.

TIP: I have nothing against Diego Maradona, his one of my all time favorites, but do we really need to give him all this kind of attention! Come on Armando, grow up, you’ve putted Argentina in a World Cup, that’s almost as difficult as miss the lottery.

So the group stage as came to an end, joining the rest of the pack we’ve seen Switzerland and Slovakia raising for the occasion.

Switzerland
Co-hosts on the last European, the Swiss’s were hardly a tipped country to go thru the World Cup but they managed to win the group against 2004 continental champions Greece and lost only once.

Best: A lot of players spread around Europe’s top championships, good offensive ability with players on the sidelines like Barnetta and in the middle Vonlanthen or Yakin.
Worst: The defensive line – although some well known players like Senderos – seems too permissive, the lack of international experience will probably be decisive.

Slovakia
Win a group against their former and highly most potential country part Czech Republic, the new generation of players seems eager to please the Slovakians and will give the first taste on a World Cup grand stage.

Best: Won one of the most competitive groups – with Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Poland in theory being pretty even – and some confidence-booster rumors saying the second lost was to keep their neighbors out.
Worst: The most permissive defense of all group stage winners with ten conceded goals, lack of experience due to their premier on a final phase of a World Cup.

Slovakia and Switzerland join Denmark, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy and Netherlands.

On the playoff are the top seeds: Portugal, Greece, Russia and France.
And: Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and Republic of Ireland.

Congratulations also to Honduras that join USA and Mexico on the bus to South Africa from the North, Central America and Caribbean while Costa Rica will play the playoff against South America fifth Uruguay. On that area Argentina finally joins Brazil, Paraguay and Chile.

The final playoffs will be played on 14 and 18 November, the European matches will be known next Monday.

Best Eleven on the Under20 World Cup in Egypt

Before the Great final between Brazil and Ghana (next Friday) I pick my favorite eleven from the Under20 World Cup in Egypt. Like always there are also some great youngsters that I leave out, but like a manager we need to make tough choices.

GK – Esteban Alvarado (Costa Rica, 20 years, club: Saprissa)
With 193cm tall and an awesome presence on the line, Alvarado is also a powerful goalkeeper when it comes to save crosses and dominate the air and is quick on commanding is defense line. When desperation comes he can also go to the opponent’s side and try to score a header.

RB – Cesar Azpilicueta (Spain, 20 years, club: Osasuna)
Already a regular in the ‘la liga’ club, Cesar is a commanding force thru the right. Great stamina what allows him to be also a good support on the offense. But, without a doubt, is the ability to close all doors on the right that makes him a great right-back.

CB – Matteo Gentili (Italy, 20 years, club: Varese)
Typical Italian defender, good pressing capability, tactically perfect, always on the right spot. His major down is the many cards he tend to see. Besides that this Varese on-loan player should soon enough be recalled to Atlanta.

CB – Andras Debreceni (Hungary, 20 years, club: Honved Budapest)
Maybe the player that impressed me the most thru the tournament – I didn’t know him before. It’s mandatory that a top European club gives this man a chance in the next market season. A commanding voice to his teammates, as an awesome ability to mark one-on-one.

LB – Diogo (Brazil, 19 years, club: São Paulo)
Already pointed as a regular on the brazilian giant São Paulo, Diogo is that kind of south American left-back that loves to push the team forward, to that he adds a good defensive ability that makes him show great maturity.

DM – Souza (Brazil, 20 years, club: Vasco da Gama)
He already plays like a European defensive midfielder, highly effective, is always on the ball trajectory. Besides that he adds that typical box-to-box talent of Brazilian players. On the attacking end he’s also a good - in force – free-kick taker.

M – David Guzman (Costa Rica, 19 years, club: Saprissa)
This is the prototype of a great midfielder, ready to defend and to start charging on the same moment. Always on the right spot, Guzman covers a lot of miles per game and adds a good passing capability and an outstanding shoot ability.

OM – Andre Ayew (Ghana, 19 years, club: O.Marseille)
Well, his got the perfect DNA to became a major star. Son of African legend Abedi Pele, this France born talent adds a lot of quality to any midfield. An old-school offensive midfielder, can pushes the right chords to make his team achieve the opponents net.

RW – Abeiku Quansah (Ghana, 18 years, club: Nice)
He’s a modern Speedy Gonzalez; such a frantic pace is always going to damage the opponent’s defense. Adds to that a superb technique and a good scoring capability, like lot a couple of his teammates is probably on his way to play for Ghana in the big boys World Cup.

LW – Giuliano (Brazil, 19 years, club: Internacional)
Hard pick for left winger. The Brazilian captain his more of an offensive midfielder but it would be to unfair to leave him out. The real soul of the South America team can play on any midfield position and as already a couple of clubs from Europe after him.

ST – Dominic Adiyiah (Ghana, 19 years, club: Fredrikstad)
He and Brazil’s Alan Kardec are ex aequo on top striker, with the number of scored goals breaking the tie – 8 vs 4. A great finishing ability, although being a short player – only 170cm – Adiyiah seems to have a great future ahead.

Bus half full to South Africa

Cool weekend, when almost all the European qualifying groups crowned a winner on the pursuit of a World Cup spot. Denmark, Germany, Serbia and Italy have secured a place in the 2010 World Cup and join previous stage winners England, Spain and Netherlands.

Denmark
Underdogs against Portugal and Sweden, the Danish have adopted a nice style of play, with the midfield always working hard and the offense on the feet of their biggest talents.

Best: The offense line, with Bendtner, and veterans Tomasson and Rommedhal on constant pursuit of the ball and with eyes on the opponents net.
Worst: On the other side of the pitch, the defense seems too permissive – remember the game against Portugal? It ended as a draw, but the Portuguese side had more than 15 scoring opportunities. The unbelievable amount of injuries on the last months as to end.

Germany
The European vice-champions have cruised in a tough group. They’re doing an awesome job with youngsters and winning a lot of trophies, now is probably the time of the big boys.

Best: Pragmatic like always, Germany as found a way to use their traditional good strikers, after England they have the best attack of the qualifying round.
Worst: While their full-backs give the right consistency, the centre-backs are too ‘German’, Metzelder, Mertesacker or Westermann have a lot of difficulties on their opponents play the ball thru the grass.

Serbia
The young country as inherited the former-Yugoslavia style of play. Short pass, all ready to aim at the opponents defense. They’ve contributed to France actual crisis.

Best: Very compact and always cohere on the defensive side. A lot of stars like Vidic, Ivanovic, Zigic or Stankovic in the main European championships.
Worst: They tend to have moments when concentration disappear, giving them a lot to work if they want to perform well against the best national sides in the world.

Italy
There’s no passion when the azzurri are playing, it’s all about the score, but they are world champions.

Best: The pragmatism of a score-oriented team that usually delivers. Marcello Lippi back at the helm is a crucial asset.
Worst: Like the Serie A top teams, the oldness of most of his players will probably show when it’s time to make four/five games in two weeks.

Congratulations also: on South America to Chile, that joins Brazil and Paraguay. On Africa to the Ivory Coast, that joins Ghana. On North, Central America and Caribbean to Mexico and USA.

On the playoffs Bahrain drawn 0-0 at home with New Zealand, the All Blacks have home advantage on South Africa road.

Heads or tails? England or Spain?

On the road to South Africa two European squads join Netherlands and put their hands on the qualification.
100 per cent victorious, they both produce an exquisite football, but with same important differences, England influenced by the coach Fabio Capello and Spain by the crushing style of Barcelona.

England
More pragmatic, always with high concentration on defense, uses a direct style of play to win matches.

Best: The midfield duo-Gerrard/Lampard, once called unmatchable by fans all over the world they are now essential to the only midfield that rivals with… Spain.
Worst: The fullbacks, neither Ashley Cole – that seems to have long lost is sparkle – neither Glen Johnson are truly what the doctor orders.

Spain
With a more passing style, they have on ball possession the first weapon to win games. The European champions are once again with high hopes.

Best: Like England, the dynamic duo on the center, Xavi the brain, Iniesta the pace. They bring all the show they give at Barcelona to the national squad.
Worst: The defense, I can’t name one Spanish defender without frowning my eyes. Obviously when you have the ball that’s not much of a trouble...

Also congrets to Ghana and Paraguay. They’re booth with assured presence in South Africa 2010.

On the other side what to say about self-proclaimed giants from Portugal… and France… and Argentina.

Tic-Tac… one week till Champions League

So the time is here, CL is kicking off in a week! If from this point on you’ll be spending 24/7 of your time thinking whose better… who will win… who will fall and who shall rise to the occasion, then you’re a true fan of football.

If not… get the hell out of here!!!

Now that we have the room full of real fans, who do you think will be better?? And worst??
Entering as champions, Barcelona still seems pretty comfortable on their offensive football, but with Inter performing better they shall face a real test in the group stage. For the big four things appear to be pretty easy on the first phase, even Man.Utd and Liverpool lack of form shouldn’t be a problem. Juventus, Porto and Lyon are also hot favorites to go thru.

But on the other side, giants like AC Milan, Real Madrid and B.Munich need to raise their respective games. From the Italian squad the real question is to know how much time will Leonardo get before being sacked, on R.Madrid we still need to understand if Kaka, CR9, Raul, Benzema and the rest of the guys can play like a team, German side Munich is trying to find a new identity under van Gaal guidance, Ribery and Toni are not happy, but Robben and Gomez are making good starts, so let’s wait and see.

Tip: Whatever you bet, one thing is sure, fun is back from one week forward, clock’s ticking starting on 19:45 today.

Why Kaka is different from Messi and Ronaldo

Funny thing about the so called best three in the world, while Kaka put’s consistent and awesome performances both in the club and on the national squad, the two wingers are in very commonly criticized by their displays when playing for caps and extremely attacked by their countryman’s.
Obviously, we can’t point their lack of will or suddenly loss of talent – because nobody wants more a win then the players that step up to field. So, what make the difference?

1 - Kaka plays with a bunch of players that are also world top stars – Júlio César, Maicon, Lúcio, Robinho or Luís Fabiano are in the elite of their respective positions – and while Messi and Ronaldo have some teammates that are also on top – Kun Agüero, Javier Mascherano, Ricardo Carvalho or Deco – all eyes are on this two stars. For media and opponent defenses when playing against Portugal or Argentina will basically try to stop CR9 and Messi – if you’re well succeed, you’ll secure at least one point.

2 – The position on field, Kaka is an old fashion playmaker, always on center field and all the players are eager to give him the ball, they now he’ll push the right cord to put the team in play. On the other end as wingers that usually go to the box, passing the ball to the Portuguese or Argentinean means the end of the road, they rarely pass the ball – or they score or they’ll put it thru the end line – adding more drama to Diego Maradona and Carlos Queiroz, because they’re both on a no-goal streak.

3 – A different mentality an approach to the game that makes Kaka a leader on the pitch and that tends to make Messi and Ronaldo a split factor. When things go poorly the Brazilian his the first to star on defending and trying to serve the other players with scoring opportunities, the two prima donnas never defend and all they’ll do when the team is in trouble is to try and solve everything on a sole way, marking direct free kicks from the center field, aiming for direct corners and other lame moves like that.

Tip: Without a doubt three of the best in the world but what can really explain Kaka’s high performance in Brazil, and Messi’s and Ronaldo’s poor ones on theirs national squads? We’ve heard Deco becoming offended on the Portuguese football chairman said they’ve increased the prize money, but we can’t stop from wondering…

Kaka seals the deal

The importance of the Argentina 1 – Brazil 3 victory:

1 – This is the first Brazilian victory against the pampas side on Argentinean soil of the XXI century. The last one was in 1976.

2 – This allows Brazil to bookmark their flight to South Africa. Now they can use the rest of the games to show the world some new talents.

3 – They put Argentina in a fragile spot to qualify for the World Cup, the alvi-celeste are in fourth the last spot for direct access to the World Cup. They’ll face away Paraguay and Uruguay, receive Peru, hard times for Maradona.

4 – For the second time on their history Argentina loses a home game on a World Cup qualifying match. The first was in 1993 against Colombia (trashed by 5-0).

5 – As players Dunga and Maradona faced each other nine times, with the Brazilian losing sixth and only winning one. New story beginning here…

What an unbelievable performance from the best playmaker in the world, against a packed stadium in Rosario (Santa Fé), Kaka leaded is side to an unforgettable victory against long time rivals Argentina.
Although the center-back Luisão (the so called basketball player by Maradona), one-of-the-most-wanted striker’s Luís Fabiano 2x made the goals, it´s the number 8 from Real Madrid that played all the cords, every time he touched the ball he’d carry the game to the opposite half, produce a score opportunity or win a foul.
With Messi and Ronaldo struggling to go to South Africa maybe the Brazilian as gained points in the fight for best of the world.

The gentle art of making enemies by R.Madrid

Maybe inspired by Faith No More, the ‘merengues’ seem eager to make enemies a little bit all over Europe.
Every times Florentino Perez takes over the transfers of the Spanish side tend to dominate newspapers all over the world, but the real story is not the money he spent on players like Figo or Zidane or in second galactic generation Ronaldo and Kaka but the man’s that are being put away.
This weekend we saw funny things from some of those players.
Arjen Robben scored two goals in his debut for B.Munich and against German Champions Wolfsburgo. The winger then said: “I hope we find R.Madrid in the Champions League and I can score a double again”.
Wesley Sneijder – sharing team with Samuel Eto’o, Walter Samuel or Esteban Cambiasso – made is premier on Inters starting eleven and according to José Mourinho will be a cornerstone on the ‘nerazurri’ side for Serie A and CL’s campaign. After a cracking performance on AC Milan’s trashing said: “Real as treated me like a little boy, they don’t know how to treat the players and even the coach doesn’t seem to have any influence”.
On the other side of the San Siro battle was Klaas-Jan Huntelaar a young striker that also seems eager to face Madrid and score, on France we have Gabriel Heinze, on Portugal Javier Saviola and Javier Garcia, in England Michel Salgado – the one that seems to have parted way in mutual accordance. That’s the truth wherever they look, the ‘merengues’ will find a swear enemy. Well, they can always look to Barcelona… nowadays there’s no former R.Madrid in the ‘blaugrana’. Well but they don’t need that to hate Real Madrid.

Try to stop me from laughing Chelsea out of market

I’me not a blues fan, so it’s easier for me to get some fun out of the fact that no new man will be arriving to Stamford Bridge before January 2011. Rules are for everyone, not just for suckers Mr. Abramovich.
Obviously I sympathize with Chelsea’s fans – I would be extremely annoyed if that happened to my club – still this is a lesson they won’t soon forget. And everything because of a unknown 18 years old Gael Kukuta. The young man as parted away from French side Lens due to Chelsea’s pressure.
Besides the punishment to club and player (682.000 pounds fine) there are some aspects we need to consider and that might get Chelsea out of trouble. French laws doesn’t allow under 18 years old to celebrate pro contracts with French teams, what opens space to think that Chelsea simple took an amateur player with no monetary obligations to Lens and shipped him to England.
Tip: Well let’s see what lawyers can do and on the other side stay calm blues fans: if Zhirkov is your only real buy do you really want new players?

Who made the best last day buy in the Premier?

Few things pop into my mind after today [lack of] action. Defenses truly on top while only a couple of good strikers made their way into the Premier. Besides the ones I talked earlier, I single out Ivan Klasnic, loaned to Bolton and quick response from Tottenham on snatching Kranjcar from Portsmouth and replacing long-term injury Modric. Nice welcomes to the British fields are posted to Lovenkrands, signed with championship side Newcastle and new Scottish League add Jérome Rothen, from PSG to Rangers, both experienced but very capable players. Look out for young Sno on loan from Ajax.
Unfortunately, rumors of Gignac and Ribéry to Man.Utd are over, Liverpool still seems needy, while the madness stops at Man.City. Everton made a good trade from a relatively good centre back to a firm eleven man from Dutch national. So, trades are over, let’s talk again at the beginning of the year.

Complete list of last day transfers in Great Britain according to BBC Sports:
Radanfah Abu Bakr [unattached - Swansea]
Obi Anoruo [Wrexham - Newtown] Loan
Mickael Antoine-Curier [Dundee - Hamilton Academicals]
Adam Barton [Preston - Crawley] Loan
Tal Ben Haim [Manchester City - Portsmouth] Undisclosed
Hameur Bouazza [unattached - Blackpool} Free
Leigh Bromby [Sheffield United - Leeds] Undisclosed
David Button [Tottenham - Crewe]
Mark Brown [Celtic - Kilmarnock] Loan
Sean Canham [Notts County - Hayes & Yeading]
David Carney [Sheffield United - FC Twente] Undisclosed
Danny Collins [Sunderland - Stoke] £2.75m
Dominic Collins [Preston - Crawley] Loan
James Collins [West Ham - Aston Villa] Undisclosed
Jamie Cook [Crawley - Oxford] Undisclosed
Sam Cox [Tottenham - Cheltenham] Loan
Aaron Davies [Nottingham Forest - Brighton] Loan
Claude Davis [unattached - Crystal Palace]
Carlos Edwards [Sunderland - Ipswich] Undisclosed
Abdou El-Kholti [unattached - Hayes & Yeading] Free
Alain Emerson [Crusaders - Dungannon Swifts] Free
Stuart Fleetwood [Charlton - Exeter] Loan
Lewis Haldane [Bristol Rovers - Port Vale] Loan
Johnny Heitinga [Atletico Madrid - Everton] £6m
Luke Holden [Rhyl - Charlton] Loan
Oscar Jansson [Tottenham - Exeter] Loan
Joe Lamplough [unattached - Mansfield] Non-contract
Grant Leadbitter [Sunderland - Ipswich] Undisclosed
Ivan Klasnic [Nantes - Bolton] Loan
Nico Kranjcar [Portsmouth - Tottenham] Undisclosed
Tom Lees [Leeds - Accrington] Loan
Peter Lovenkrands [unattached - Newcastle] Free
Sean Mackle [unattached - Portadown]
John Martin [Linfield - Crusaders] Free
Clayton McDonald [Manchester City - Walsall] Loan
Leon McKenzie [unattached - Charlton] Free
Yassin Moutaouakil [Charlton - Motherwell] Loan
David Nugent [Portsmouth - Burnley] Loan
Darren O'Dea [Celtic - Reading] Loan
Michael Poke [Southampton - Torquay] Free
Kris Renton [Norwich - Brechin] Loan
Jerome Rothen [Paris St Germain - Rangers] Loan
Alvaro Saborio [FC Sion - Bristol City] Loan
Danny Schofield [Yeovil - Millwall] Loan
Ibrahima Sonko [Stoke - Hull City] Loan
Davide Somma [unattached - Leeds] Free
Evander Sno [Ajax - Bristol City] Loan
Blair Sturrock [unattached - Mansfield]
Teemu Tanio [Sunderland - Birmingham] Loan
Borja Valero [West Brom - Real Mallorca] Loan
Ben Watson [Wigan - QPR] Loan
Mike Williamson [Watford - Portsmouth] Undisc
Hassan Yebda [Benfica - Portsmouth] Loan

Defense on top on market closure… or just wait and see?

With Heitinga coming to the toffees, Da Costa on his way to the hammers, it seems only Stoke is getting some real offensive solutions on the late transfers. I pick up those three names, because they are assured wins for the Premier.
The Dutch defender still needs to fix some problems on the contract, but Everton’s board shouldn’t fail on getting a good centre-back, that adds quality on offensive air balls and that’s got a powerful outside the box kick. Heitinga is looking for a new place to settle and this seems to be between the toffees and Wolfsburg. He can also play as defensive midfielder or right back.
From the Portuguese the best thing to say is that when he appeared he was tipped as ‘the next Ricardo Carvalho’. But, still young, Da Costa as lost a lot on his move from PSV to Fiorentina, he rarely played and stop being called up to national team. Although that, with the right amount of work he can became a solid centre-back to a mid-table side like Zola’s team.
Of these three highlights, I’ve let my favorite to the end, Uruguayan Diego Arismendi come from unknown side Club Nacional. This 2.6million pounds loan deal will see one of the most talented offensive midfielder of the year to come from South America to the Premier. The one’s that have watched this year’s Libertadores have probably noticed the awesome talent of this 21 old player. Already an international, already with the title of player of the year on Uruguay, already on the Premier League.
Well, but there’s still time to buy some more. Who do you think will appear before 17:00??

My tips for the group stage (from E to H)

Nice way to relax and start a new work-week. Here is the second half of the group stage prediction.

Group E:
1º Liverpool
2º Lyon
3º Fiorentina
4º Debreceni

Reason: Although an inconsistent start, Benitez’s side is always a powerful force on the CL, besides that Gerrard and Torres we’ll have another month of work; Lyon seems pretty better than last season, new signings Bastos, Lisandro and Gomis really add quality; the Italian side seems quite weaker than last year, they struggled a lot to overcame poorly form Sporting Lisbon on the qualifying and Mutu rumors about ending career cant ‘help, still against a pretty unknown Hungarian side Debreceni, they shouldn’t have problems to third place.

Group F:
1º Barcelona
2º Inter
3º Rubin Kazan
4º D.Kiev

Reason: What to say about Barcelona continuously awesome form? They defend like few and attack like none, shouldn’t have no problem winning the group; Inter last Sunday dominance against Milan makes us believe that leaving Ibrahimovic fly to the azulgrana was a good idea; doing a cool start in the Russian league Rubin Kazan is tipped to do a good campaign, but they’re not good enough to cope with Europe’s finest; athis remodeled D.Kiev should wave goodbye soon enough.

Group G:
1º Stuttgart
2º Rangers
3º Sevilla
4º Unirea Urziceni

Reason: This is probably the best balanced of the entire group stage, with the first three very close. Looking to the games played so far, Stuttgart is the most consistent to pass, good defense and new-add Pogrebniak eager to shine on front; Rangers will probably struggle a lot away, but can recover from that at home games; Sevilla doesn’t look so compact as last season, which will probably mean third spot; to Romanian side Unirea Urziceni the first participation on the group stage is more of an social experience than a competitive one.

Group H:
1º Arsenal
2º Olympiacos
3º AZ Alkmaar
4º S.Liège

Reason: The gunners have the easiest of the groups, they will probably win five games if they keep their current form; Greek fanatic fans from Olympiacos will carry their good balanced team towards the knock-out rounds; AZ Alkmaar plays a beautiful game, but the lack of experience on UEFA’s main stage will prove costly to the Dutch champions; S.Liège is a nice team, but just that – to nice to put out any real threat.

My tips for the group stage (from A to D)

Cool exercise to try and guess the final line up on each of the groups.
Here is my tip:

Group A:
1º Juventus
2º Bordeaux
3º B.Munich
4º M.Haifa

Reason: Juventus new signings Diego and Felipe Melo are the adds they needed to produce consistent and top form football; Bordeaux with Gourcuff and Chamack on cool form and good defensive ability is a force to fear; Munich needs a couple of months to really connect with Van Gaal tactics (let’s hope they’ll give him the time); and Haifa, well they come from no football threat Israel.

Group B:
1ª Man.United
2º Wolfsburg
3º CSKA Moscow
4º Besiktas

Reason: Obviously as a Premier League side the red devils are super-favorites to win this phase; Wolfsburg are German champions and produce an awesome offensive football, with Misimovic, Dzeko, Grafite and sub Martins really connecting; CSKA as a couple of Brazilian offensive players that can help them to beat de Turkish side Besiktas on trying to get to the Europa League.

Group C:
1ª AC Milan
2º Marseille
3º R.Madrid
4º Zürich

Reason: Milan a stable and top of the world club, with Pato achieving maturity and Ronaldinho truly back on the pitch; Marseille keep their key figures and bought experienced Argentineans Lucho and Heinze; Madrid will probably struggle in the first ‘new galactic’ year, and locker room problems are in order; what to say about Zürich, is nice to reach this stage, enjoy!

Group D:
1º Chelsea
2º Porto
3º Atl. Madrid
4º APOEL

Reason: Stability on the first eleven and new added Carlo Ancelloti to the bench are blues real achievement’s for 09/10; alongside with Man.Utd, Porto is the club with most presences on the group stage, experience counts and watch out for Hulk; Madrid kept Agüero and Forlán, but defense keeps on looking pretty unstable; Cyprus continues is emerge on CL scene, for second year in a row they’ve got a team, well done.

Champions in the CL

Well, Platini’s ‘A game’ is back! The frantic UEFA’s leader as got his way and we see all kind of exotic clubs roaming towards the group stage. From Cyprus to Hungary, passing thru Switzerland or Israel, Platini’s dream to enlarge the influence of the Champions League is at the moment a success. The champion’s path assures that there is at least one National Champion in each group.
Three things pop into one’s mind. First the 7.5 million Euros for entering the group stages will do miracles for teams like Maccabi Haifa or Debreceni, but this might mean that national competition will be extremely unbalanced – like the difference from the big four BBC’s agreements and all the others Premier League teams – on the other side we might see national interest towards football increasing. What a dream for Hungarian’s to welcome Liverpool or for Cyprus fans to do the same with the blues.
Second, will any of those teams produce real performances? Can they mount a real threat or dream about reaching the knock-out stage? Or even get to the new found Europa League? Frankly? NO! But that’s why this is the beautiful game. On any day, any team can win!!
Third, it makes me think about the times when the Champions League were the right place for Champions, when winning was everything and teams across Europe wouldn’t compromise to became champions. Nowadays we hear the boards saying the most important thing is to assure a CL presence. At least in countries like Hungary, Israel, Romania… this is no longer so.
Well, I know, things would look quite gray with only one English, Italian or Spanish. But to have four or five from the stronger nations, shouldn’t we just create a European Premier League?

Notts County big boost?

Well, first of all I’m happy to be writing again to my beloved blog, but somehow sad that beach and Sun are over for me this year.
Let’s play some football. Talking to some friends, we were analyzing Notts County effort to get back on the mainstream Premier League. How can a League Two club have the ambition to sign players like Figo or Zidane? Simple put: history and a lot of nerve!
The oldest club in the world is still living in the idea of those powerful early years and is with that feeling and passion that Sven-Goran Eriksson is trying to get some of the most talented players of the late XX century. Some cynical might say Figo or the confirmed Sol Campbell are as old as the club himself, but on the other side experienced and talented players are the real base of any major win, simple put that’s why we see Giggs or Scholes rising trophies every season and Fabregas or Van Persie just weaving goodbye to them.
But, the team that once gave Juventus their bianconeri equipment needs more than a couple of old timers to get back, or technically have their debut, on the Premier. Stronger sides need good players, awesome supporters, extreme rivalries and lot’s, lot’s of stability. With Eriksson at the helm they at least assure a lot of media exposure, what by the XXI century is almost the same as playing in the major fields… just not quite the same. Well go luck to them, at least it’s an ambitious project.

What about R.Madrid off list

While the world look astonished about Kaká, CR7 and a couple of more buys, the clubs managers from several leagues gaze upon the list of players the merengues are letting go. Enormous talents such as Sneijder, Van der Vaart, Huntelaar or Nistelrooy can be bought out this summer at – probably – very interesting prices. When we look at the names referred in the newspapers we could easily do one of the world’s strongest elevens – so managers all over the world get to business.
Without any closed terms, there’s a lot of space to speculation. Believing in the newspapers, Huntelaar and Nistelrooy are almost certain in the Premier League. The younger of the strikers is set to play for the red devils, while the former devil will land at White Hart Line. All star players, the talks continue, with Van der Vaart betting in a return to Hamburg. But, besides that, what’s going to happen to Saviola, Sneijder, Heinze, Drenthe, Diarra or Robben.
Saviola seems to be in talks with Benfica and River Plate, with the Portuguese side trying to copy the Los Millionarios former duo Aimar-Saviola. Drenthe and Heinze are aiming their destiny to Italy and Diarra has been tipped by older club Lyon. That leaves us with the two most talented players of this awesome bunch Sneijder and Robben. Wanted by half of the teams in Europe, the two Dutch players need to find a suitable club that, somehow, can afford their massive salaries. In the end, it’s possible for them to stay at the Bernabeu, but with Real Madrid eager to make some money it´s probable they will part away. I’d bet Robben will return to England and that the powerful kicks of Sneijder will be used in a part exchange deal for ‘untransferable’ Ribéry.

Tip: With no deals closed, the list of players that Real Madrid will release this summer can make a bigger fuse around the European club managers than the astronomic buys of Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaká. There’s still time for any club to try and reach for the meringues sell out - Saviola, Sneijder, Heinze, Drenthe, Diarra, Robben, Huntelaar or Nistelrooy. It’s hard to pick, right?

About Drogba and Bosingwa’s punishment

Sorry about the words, but it sickens me that a player can be punished on the field for expressing his emotions. Chelsea was robbed against Barcelona on the second leg of the semi of the Champions League. So, shouldn’t the referee be the one that get’s suspended?
Well, sadly I don’t think so. That would be the easy way out; Tom Ovrebo is a victim of Platini’s crazy politics, so much as football fans or the sports spirit of truth. The Norwegian referee was elected to the game to give the CL final stages a more continental look. But getting character’s from football most poor nations is not a way to get the game open to more countries but a simple mockery to what football is all about – The best side wins.
I’m too young to remember Platini as a player, but what he’s doing as UEFA's president can only be labeled as pretty sad. I don’t remember any other time in the last 20 years referee’s where so poorly chosen to the main matches. And that includes the final stages of the CL but also the European Championship for nations.

Tip: The best referees in the most important games, as simple as this. The wheel is there, just use it.

Can Giovinco step into Del Piero’s shoes?

Now with 22 years, Sebastian Giovinco is on his way to prove himself to the world of football. This highly gifted player as on ball control and speed his main arguments to trash the opponents defensive lines. Good with the ball, his also capable of good moves off-ball, giving his teammates passing lines in front of goal. A cornerstone in the Azzurra younger categories Giovinco his facing this season the ultimate test at Juventus. Del Piero’s recent decision to leave la vecchia signora in the end of the 09/10 season gives this forward a new responsibility - is he ready to be the new ‘10’?
Back to Juventus from loan in the last couple of seasons, Giovinco has been a good sub, rarely on the starting eleven, as been used like a shake-up factor, when things look nasty they send him to the field. That’s a good credential, but my main worry is the lack of pace, he seems to get always with a cool start, but after 15/20 minutes he tends to disappear from the game. Luckily in this summer we can see him play on the Italy Under 21 squad, and my biggest worries are being put to sleep as he played the whole game with good pace.

Tip: A real shake up factor, Giovinco is a highly gifted player with the ability to crack up any defense. With Del Piero ending his Juventus reign the young Sebastian need to prove himself within the team. From what I’ve seen he’s up for it.

Mario Balotelli vs Bojan Krkic or show off vs work rate

Few players are able to play in the Euro Under 21 with only 18 years old, this year, Balotelli and Bojan have the highest profile from the ones with such a tender age. But although both participate with spectacular regularity on their clubs games – and Inter and Barcelona are two of Europe’s best sides, both being tipped as hot stars of tomorrow and both are forwards (Balotelli more a winger and Bojan a striker with high capacity to move) there are spectacular differences between them, that at this point send the Spanish to a route of success and the Italian to be a star in rose pages (and I’m not talking about Gazzetta Dello Sport).
With the world looking at this two players in the Under 21 tournament the personality of them as shown the real truth behind the youngster’s behavior on the field. Bojan is looking sharp as always, not a star, trying to score himself and his National squad a good result, appearing on the pitch when he’s needed and, although being a popular name, with an excellent work rate for the team. Balotelli seems to think he’s CR7 without winning anything, with incredible physical arguments, the Inter’s winger doesn’t look ready to play at the highest level in terms of mentality. Walking on the field like a Prima Donna (Casiraghi as put him out with 60 minutes on the first game and he get sent off on the second), trying to dribble and shoot whenever he gets the ball or assaulting his opponents when things don’t seem to go your way is not the course to become a champion. Obviously the goal before the red card shows the magic on Balotelli’s feet’s but there’s still a long work to be done.

Tip: Main question: Will Mourinho’s clever management help Balotelli to become a real football player or should we invite him to play show matches in the summer? Will Guardiola get enough space on the team to let Bojan develop into a world class striker? There’s a lot of potential here, now it’s the coach’s call and we all know they are the best we can get.

Marcus Berg lethal in front of goal

The 21 years old make a perfect debut in the Euro under 21 Championship. Playing with the support of home fans, the Swede scored a brilliant hat-trick in a game that saw him shooting only five times. This 1.86m and slick striker deserves a closer look from major European league clubs. Currently playing for Dutch side Groningen (where he get a superior 0.5 goals per match), Berg preferable uses his right foot and seems to be an extreme lethal forward in front of goal, he basically needs one touch on the ball to get on the score sheet.
In the Byelorussian trash 5-1 by the Swedes, he played a major and for my delight, this was the first time I saw him play. For a couple of years I’ve been trying to watch a player that some friends we´re referring to me, but this was my first try. Strong alongside the opponent defenders, he has expert moves inside and on the outskirts of the box, he’s also clever when choosing the right moment to kick the ball – we can see that good timing in his second goal, when he dribbles three Byelorussian defenders inside the box and with a light touch puts the goalkeeper Chesnovski out of contention.
On the down factor we have his poor skills when passing the ball, although he’s got a 77 percent rate passing, he failed almost all he tried on the third quarter of the field.

Tip: Quick on the pitch and on the trigger, Marcus Berg he’s another offensive product of the Swede school. Actually playing in Holland, he needs to came to a ‘less open’ championship and learn how to play against more tough defenses. He’s amazing 0.5 goals per match should put him in route of collision with an Italian, English or Spanish team. He just needs to learn how to get off the ball in a more consistent fashion, apart that his already a fearful striker. His favorite club his Lazio, so let’s see.

Coentrão’s big redemption

The Portuguese left winger waves goodbye to Toulon 09 in high fashion. With an impressive left foot, the young Portuguese had fingers pointed throughout the season do to his lack of character and competitive spirit, but talent as never been an issue. Introduced to football by modest Rio Ave, has been brought by Benfica in an early time, but soon was loaned – he spent 08/09 in breading team Rio Ave (helped them to secure a spot in the main championship) and gained new dimensions to his game.
After watching him score a hat-trick in an honor match against Qatar (deciding who was going to the last in the group – Portugal won 6-0) his ability to capitalize on opponents mistakes was the obvious to pop into one’s mind. But a more close analyses, show a new kind of player (probably juts motivated by the awesome showdown in front of the goal-keeper), Coentrão’s offensive play – besides three goals, he made some pretty decent passes to his team-mates – walked alongside a good tactical mentality, always helping his left back on the defensive tasks and recovering a couple of possessions.

Tip: If Fábio Coentrão keep’s the pace and concentration he showed on the last Portuguese game at Toulon 09, then the Portuguese left winger will became a good comeback to Benfica. But, while the talent is truly there, if he continues with the poor mentality he showed on his first couple of years as a pro, then he’s on his way to became just another flop from Portugal.

Alejandro Gomez another Argentinean talent

It seems like I’m getting some source of payment to talk about the Pampas youth talent, but the truth is simpler: they just keep on making new and excitant players. Alejandro Gomez is a recent addition to the San Lorenzo squad and was formed on Arsenal de Sarandí. Another amazing dribbler from Argentina, this 21 year old is another man to keep an eye on. Like a lot of his countrymen’s, he’s quick and light making it difficult to steal him the ball. Typically he likes to play on the offensive midfield and to appear on the box from the lines. He’s quick and talented when in possession, and pretty sleek on movements off-ball.
Brought in the beginning of the year to San Lorenzo for +/- 2 millions it will be difficult to European clubs to buy him this off-season. But, when you look to the money you’ll need to spend to buy names like Palacio or Buonanotte, you’ll get pretty happy with the quality/price ratio Alejandro Gomez as to offer. Besides his obvious talent, he’s still very young, which will give him a lot of chances to evolve as a player if he comes to Europe and became a regular choice in the National squad.

Tip: Not fit (yet) to be a regular in a high profile club, Gomez’s talent should award him with a presence in a mid-class European club, a mid-table from the Premier or an emergent force from the east (Ukraine or Russia). My guess is you’ll need to spend 5/7 millions to count with him in your team.

Who will catch Buonanotte?

After an amazing campaign in Beijing 08, Diego Bounanotte as made a high impact in European clubs, but he still remains at River Plate. This 21 year old, is a ‘Messi like’ player, with an awesome ability to dribble in the middle of opposition defense and an increased appetence to score goals. Obviously, with River’s poor international career and without being a National A regular, this young Argentinean as come to my attention in the Toulon Youth Festival that is going won.
He has grown up as a player and seems now ready to come to Europe. Last year we’ve read rumors about Villarreal, Aston Villa and Porto. This year, the Portuguese side seems to be the only referred in the newspapers, but we firmly believe some more teams will appear to try and snatch this Los Millonarios raw diamond. Short and light (1.60m/56kgs), Buonanotte uses his left foot in dazzling fashion, being able to crack any defense, although he’s got a slightly more ‘large’ touch then Messi, it’s also almost impossible to deprive him of the ball without conceding a foul. Besides that, he also adds a good direct free-kick form, especially in short range kicks.

Tip: Tactically he’s like a wonderer on the field, he still needs to learn when to help his teammates on defensive moves and the right time to pass the ball. Bottom-line, a new awesome product from Las Pampas that we can watch on display through this year’s Toulon tournament. Rumors tell will be blessed with his presence in European football in the upcoming season. Who will snatch Buonanotte? Nobody knows, but you can count on him to produce some impressive offensive moves.

Barcelona got the crown

So, while I was predicting a one-sided final for Man.Utd, Barcelona trashed the red devils hopes of a back-to-back CL title. Funny thing football, the same aspects we’d thought were going to favor Manchester ended to help the team from Catalonia. The spirit of a young and highly collective team paid off, even with them playing with a complete new defensive line-up.
In the end, the score of 2-0 to the blaugranas is pretty good to the English team. The scheme of Pep Guardiola made him lift the trophy in incredible fashion, becoming the six man to do it as a player and coach (Munoz, Ancelotti, Trapatonni, Cruijff and Rijkaard have done it before) and the first to conquer the triplete (Spanish word for the championship, cup and CL).
In the field and beside being the first team to shoot at goal, Man.Utd never really seemed on the game, the amount of loosed balls on the midfield and the lack of attitude when trying to recover the ball on the defense have destroyed the English side. On the other hand, Barcelona keep an aggressive football, with lots of possession and with Puyol, Toure, Sylvinho and Busquets proving themselves to the fans and shouting ‘we are not second choices’.
Bottom line, any team that suffers a header from Messi can’t win really anything. Poor fair-play from the reds in the end, with the referee letting Scholes and Ronaldo to stay on the field the entire match.

Tip: Beside Guardiola’s achievement, two new factors, Spain is now single top club in the CL with 12 wins and Gerard Piqué became the second player in football history to win back-to-back titles in different clubs, equalizing Paulo Sousa in the mid 90’s with Juventus and Dortmund.

CL Prediction – Man.Utd 3 – 1 Barcelona

So the time is here. The entire season points to Rome and the Olimpico, Man.Utd and Barcelona will give us a traditional battle for the most important trophy in clubs world. Almost 24 hours before the showdown, I start making predictions and looking to the CL final to make an evaluation of what we can expect. I’m sorry, but I think the 90 minutes will be pretty one sided with the red devils taking the honors.
It’s never easy to assume such a radical prediction. But first the background, even if I’m not a real fan of Man.Utd or Barcelona, I’ve always feel more related to the blaugrana rather than the devils. The Spanish side as always had a philosophy of offensive and beautiful game, while United is – probably – the first team to leave definitively the English style of play and to use a more pragmatic, Continental away with the ball.
So, why predict a United win? Looking back, Barcelona’s offensive game as always find trouble against world class defenses, they got trashed by Milan in the mid 90’s, got a fortunate win against Sampdoria – with a free-kick from Koeman in E/T and record the only victory against a ten man Arsenal and with a late goal. But, obviously, past games with different coaches and players are not the best away to predict a match (well that’s just one aspect of it).
Maybe the cruelest aspect in modern football is that ‘offenses win fans, defenses titles’. And if the forward line of each team is very similar (Henry, Etoo and Messi vs Berbatov, Rooney and Ronaldo) and the midfields are also equivalent, with Barcelona in a shorter pass style and Man.Utd in a direct pass way, there is no comparison between the defensive lines. To talk about the goalkeepers is to compare one of the world’s top five – Edwin van der Saar – against an opponent that for a lot of year as been his side weakest point and that doesn’t even get the honor to be called for the national team – Victor Valdés is always a risk, we never know what he is going to do next.
Then, the four man’s in front of them. Man.Utd has three of the world’s top defenders, the CB Ferdinand/Vidic seems like twins and play in perfect harmony, Evra is without a doubt the best Left Back of the world – giving his team defensive security and offensive capability. On the right side Ferguson has to chose for a couple of solutions, but that shouldn’t be a major prob.
When we talk about Barcelona we put our hands in our head, with the two side backs suspended (Alves and Abidal) and Rafa Marquez still injured, there are few things to say about a defense that – I’m afraid – will be under constant fire throughout the final. Puyol with all he’s goodwill will have a bad time in speed and air balls, and Pique is to slow to keep up with the devils forwards.

Tip: We tend to say all finals are unpredictable, but this year’s CL as a clear favorite. Man.Utd as the obligation to conquer the CL. Without three of their regulars on the defense, the Spanish side will find it impossible to stop the devils offensive speed. In the end I think will see a one-sided match with honors going to the English side. Final score prediction: Man.Utd 3 – 1 Barcelona.

Magath a miracle maker

Maybe the biggest surprises in European football of the year as come from Germany. Wolfsburgo clinched the Bundesliga on the last game of the season and assuring the first title on the clubs history. Throughout the championship – but less on the UEFA Cup – ‘The Wolves’ produced a high quality football, with a strong defense and an offensive trio that will probably say goodbye – Grafite and Dzecko as strikers and Misimovic as playmaker – and guaranteed an excellent goal scoring. (They are by far the best goal scoring team in Germany with 80 goals only in the championship, Bayern is second with 71). Not the biggest contender in the beginning of the season, Wolfsburgo is a proud work Felix Magath, the German coach as once again put a mid table team on the top of the Bundesliga. He’s done it with Stuttgart, not winning the championship but recovering the team to the mains spots. The recipe is quite simple and that’s why he’s a true genius. Magath’s picks for the team are crucial, he’s chosen players that fit he’s hard-working, winning-driven mentality and that – by no means – are star-players. With a bunch of middle-class players he made a strong team, strong enough to win the league.
But let’s go a little bit deeper, known for his physical and highly tight tactical schemes, Magath need’s players that are in a urge to prove themselves to the world and that need titles. Tactically speaking, he play’s in a 4x4x2 – classic in Germany. With a line of four defenses, a defensive midfielder, to centre with the ability to go to the lines, in the front with a good nr.10 and two strikers – both with impressive physical presence which allows them to give a constant battle to opponent’s defense.

Tip: The tactic seems pretty simple on paper, but to find the right players for each spot his Magath’s biggest achievement. From a strong defensive line, that includes the young talent Diego Benaglio has a goalkeeper, and experienced defenses like Italians Zaccardo and Barzagli or Portuguese Ricardo Costa – three veterans used to play in very important matches either in the National Teams either in their former clubs, to the offense with the Bosnian international Misimovic, Dzeko and the Brazilian Grafite. In this group of players we have former World Champions and CL winners, but none has ever been a first figure, which gives them the urges to prove themselves. This year they’ve done it. Next year, Magath’s will be heading Schalke 04.

Pepe’s Dream became a Team

The ‘Dream Team II’ as been on the entire season at Nou Camp. In his first season as a coach, Josep ‘Pepe’ Guardiola recovered the spirit of Johan’s Cruijff style of play. A lot of us still remember Stoichkov, Bakero, Romário, Koeman, M.Laudrup or… Guardiola giving the planet some of the most offensive displays football can offer. This year – while this kind of comparison is not perfect – the mix between perfect tactics and offensive mentality is back. The only team in a major European championship to score more than one hundred goals, so close to a three goal average per match, secured the title in undisputed fashion and marveled the entire world with an unbelievable short-pass style of play lays in Barcelona.
But comparison’s stop here, while Guardiola has worked with the master in his playing times, he gained a special taste for offensive football but graduated has a real manager by bringing a different tactic. In the paper, Barcelona uses a very typical 4x3x3. But simplicity ends at this point. When in possession - in the defense, the right back (Dani Alves) usually plays more as a winger than back, providing the defensive midfielder (Yaya Toure) to cover the right side, while the left back (Abidal) comes to the centre to make a stronger barrier alongside the two CB (Rafael Marquez, Puyol or Pique). Strangely, this is the place to start building the offense – especially when Marquez is fit, the Mexican his the best CB with the ball and tries to pass it to the two centre midfielders (Iniesta and Xavi) that together make, probably, the best creative midfield in Europe. In the end, the attack line, responsible for more than 90 goals this season Henry stays in the left and goes to the box, Etoo is the striker but usually changes position with Messi that charges from the right to the middle.

Tip: Guardiola’s side has been in incredible offensive form all year long, in line with Barcelona’s fans hopes and desires. To win the league and the Spanish cup in such a young age (his only 38 years old) is a remarkable achievement. But now that he’s in the CL final everything depends on him winning or not the important trophy. If he does it, then his name echoes’ throughout eternity, if he fails no one will remember the amazing shape the blaugrana have displayed. Well its football…

Mourinho’s typical start: win, win, win

In the champion’s class of 09, we see Mourinho coming back to the honours, the Portuguese coach as made what he always make in his first full season ahead of a club – win the title. He has done it with Porto, Chelsea and now Inter. But looking back and besides his own words, this has been the most simple (if this is a word we can use to describe a national title) victory on his career, Inter fourth title in a row smells like a continuation of Roberto’s Mancini work rather than Mourinho’s ability.
After all, Inter’s lack of football continuous, with a poor campaign in the Champions League (beaten by Man.Utd in the last 16), an early elimination from the Italian cup and a vey unattractive football across all the pitches of the Serie A – they don’t even get the most scoring team in the league, beaten at the time by AC Milan, theres still one game to correct that. So, why point out Mourinho in the team’s success, when we could talk about the only established talent of the nerazurri Ibrahimovic or the image of an experienced and pre-retired team like the all-positions captain Zanetti?
Because, the challenge for ‘le speciallisimo’ his not to win in the first year, but to renew Inter’s squad and make them a force to fear across European football. But, to do so, he needs to gains stability and confidence from the fans and that means to keep the championship winning pace shown by Mancini (in different conditions, with some of the mains rivals relegated to Serie B and others starting with negative points). The first phase of a three years plan is complete, the next one is to start building a new and powerful team, capable of coping against the titans of Serie A but also teams like Man.Utd, Liverpool, Barcelona or Bayern Munich.
And this is the place where we can see Mourinho’s magic fingers doing his thing, although being defeated in the last 16 of the CL, few of us where seeing Inter with the ability to do such a strong performance at Old Trafford and the Portuguese has already begun a new team.

Tip: Balotelli and Santon are the biggest examples of a renewed team, with strong foundations on team proud – it’s always like this in Mourinho’s teams in all the sectors of the field we can find strongly related players to the club. But now comes the tricky part, he still needs to find one or two star players to play alongside the Swedish Ibrahimovic, Lampard said no, Deco his probably not fit to be a regular member of the starting eleven, so where will Mourinho find the next world star?

Ferguson still reigns over England

It’s not easy to find the correct words to refer what Sir Alex Ferguson has done to make Man.Utd the biggest brand in modern football. This weekend we saw the club win – probably –one of the most emblematic titles Sir Alex’s ever won: Man.Utd 18th championship means they catch Liverpool on the top of most successful clubs. Most important, the scotch’s ability to renew the squad opens a good perspective to keep on winning on the next four/five years – this without needing to spend millions over millions to buy new stars.
While having probably the most impressive offensive line on European soccer, the main reason and future problem, of the devils success is the strong defense – Evra his without a doubt the best left back in the world, Ferdinand and Vidic make an almost perfect pair in the centre and the continuous problems on the right seem to disappear game after game (does anyone really know how many right backs Man.Utd uses over a season?) – and last but not least, the awesome goalkeeper Edwin Van der Saar is displaying some of his most perfect performances, while quickly going to the end of his career, the Dutch is a cornerstone on Ferguson’s recent wins and will be very difficult to find a fit replacement – they’ve probably still remember the hiatus between Schmeichel and Van der Saar.
Besides this, they got an excellent mixture of young and older players – Ronaldo, Rooney, Anderson, Rafael, Evans, Macheda – assure the future and present of a team that seems comfortable with winning in a consecutive way. And that seems to be Ferguson’s biggest magic trick – we all know tactics doesn’t have any secret to him, he’s simply a master in that way – but how can he keep on maintaining all this multi-title players still pretty focus on conquering more and more titles (we can observe how he seems truly happy every team his team scores, other coaches appear to don’t even see their goals, while the scotch still acts like a little child/or simply full of ambitious)? Whatever he do, that’s the big reason for him to be such a successful manager and a name that will last a many, many decades on football history.

Tip: The change between a 4x2x4 at home and more weak opponents and the 4x3x3 on less easygoing games gives Man.Utd two perfect solutions. You can look a lot of places – in the majority of European championships – and you won’t find any other team that feels so confident with two different forms of play.

Rodrigo Palacio coming to Europe?

Probably the next in line to gain a one way ticket to Europe, Rodrigo Palacio’s ability to play in the offensive box should gain him a harm place in the heart of his next fans. Year after year, his pointed to a big European club (Man.Utd, Liverpool, Barcelona and AC Milan are some examples) but he always seems to fail on leaving Boca Juniores. Now 27 years old, the high profile striker is getting in a turning point: or he leaves now the South America competitions or he’ll be there forever.
He’s not a typical, which gives him the ability to play on other positions of Boca’s offensive start-up. Usually he plays as a second striker alongside Martin Palermo in a 4-4-2 formation. But not being keen of a physical style of play, Palacio’s technique and speed allows him to come outside the box and be a set-up player – usually from the sides. But, while in the box his know to find space where nobody else can see it. He doesn’t have the heart of most his countryman’s, we won’t see him trying to recover a lost ball all the way back to the defense, but he’s still a team player, besides being a goal scorer his know for an impressive number of assists to his teammates.
As a professional player, his played for Argentineans’ sides Hurácan, Arroyos, Banfield and is in Boca since 2005 – here he as own all the major titles in South America competitions, such as the Copa Libertadores – the local CL. And has became an irregular called player to the national squad (well, is not easy when you need to compete with Messi, Aguero, Tevez, Crespo, Lisandro…).

Tip: With 1.76m/68kg is a lightweight striker with greater technique which allows him to pair up in a very effective way with a more physical striker. Last year Boca refused a 25 million euro offer from Barcelona. The real question is: will any major European club dispose more than this for a 27 year old? By the way things are going; I’m starting to think he’ll be number 14 in Boca the rest of his professional career – but I’d love to see him in Europe.

CL final Cool Stats 2 – England and Spain 50/50 in CL's finals

Although being two of the three most successful countries in the CL, clubs from Spain and England have only faced each other in the final on two occasions, with which country retaining one title. This opens doors to a new duel at the Olimpico at Rome; the most powerful championships in the world will want to get the upper-hand and to end this 1-1 draw.
Besides all this, Barcelona and Man.Utd have played the Cup Winners Cup final in 1991, with the red devils winning the trophy 2-1, at de Kuip in Rotterdam, two from Mark Hughes against one from Ronald Koeman.
But let’s get back to the CL and do a rewind to the first clash between England and Spain in the final.

Year: 1981
Venue: Paris – Parc des Princes (48.360)
Referee: Károly Palotai (Hungary)
Teams:
Liverpool – Clemence; Neal, Thompson, Hansen, A.Kennedy; Lee, McDermott, Souness, R.Kennedy; Dalglish (Case), Johnson
Coach: Paisley
Real Madrid – Agustin; Cortes (Pineda), Navajas, Sabido; Del Bosque, Angel, Camacho, Stielike; Juanito, Santillana, Cunningham
Coach: Boskov
Score: Liverpool 1-0 Real Madrid: A.Kennedy (82’)

Short summary: For the fifth year in a row an English side got their hands on the European Champions Clubs Cup. A battle between giants, two of the most successful sides on European football went on to a classic tactical game, while everybody was aiming for extra-time Alan Kennedy (left back) went ahead and break the deadlock, becoming one of history’s most unlikely heroes. Still today the Merseysider’s pay respect to his name.

Year: 2006
Venue: Paris – Stade de France (80.000)
Referee: Terje Hauge (Norway)
Teams:
Barcelona – Víctor Valdés; Oleguer Presas (Juliano Belletti 71), Carles Puyol, Rafael Márquez, Giovanni van Bronckhorst; José Gomes de Moraes “Edmílson” (Andrés Iniesta 46), Anderson Luis de Souza “Deco”, Mark van Bommel (Henrik Larsson 61); Ludovic Giuly, Ronaldo de Assis Moreira “Ronaldinho”, Samuel Eto'o;
Coach: Frank Rijkaard
Arsenal – Jens Lehmann; Emmanuel Eboué, Kolo Abib Touré, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole; Gilberto Aparecido da Silva, Cesc Fábregas (Mathieu Flamini 74); Robert Pirès (Manuel Almunia 19), Aleksandr Hleb (José Antonio Reyes 85), Fredrik Ljungberg, Thierry Henry;
Coach: Arséne Wenger
Score: Barcelona 2 – 1 Arsenal (Eto’o 76’, Belletti 81’; Campbell 37’)

Short summary: Seen as underdogs from London, the gunners produced an impressive final, playing with only ten mans (Lehman sent off 18’) for most of the time they scored first and created a couple of chances to end the game. In the second half they got too tired and where force to defend with all they’ve got, it almost last, but a late goal from Belletti gave the blaugranas the cup.

CL Final Cool Stats 1 – England and Spain fighting over Italy’s tears

We start today a series of cool stats about the Champions League final, we hope you like us much as we’d love to find it. First, this final is the ultimate extra-time for England and Spain. Since the first Champions League – in 1955/56 – England, Spain and Italy are tied with 11 wins each.
Looking at the board of past winners we see great differences within the most winning countries, only two Spanish Clubs have won it (Real Madrid and Barcelona), three Italian sides (Inter, AC Milan and Juventus), while there have been four English squads to do it (Man.Utd, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa).
Since the beginning, Spain has been on the top of the winning countries – benefiting from Real’s five titles in a row in the first editions, which means 2009 can mark a new leader in European football. With Italy looking from the sideline the Man.Utd-Barcelona clash, the two nations in contest aim to become European leaders.
On another perspective, if we count only the change of competition to UEFA Champions League (occurred in the season 1992/93), Spain his leading with four titles, against three from England and Italy. If we look at the 21 first century, the three countries are tied with two wins.
Bottom-line, at the Olimpico in Rome Europe will crown a new king – will it be England or Spain. And how ironic is that the new hierarchy will be find at Italy?

English titles:
1968 – Manchester United (4-1 Benfica a/ET)
1977 – Liverpool (3-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach)
1978 – Liverpool (1-0 Club Brugge)
1979 – Nottingham Forest (1-0 Malmö)
1980 – Nottingham Forest (1-0 Hamburger)
1981 – Liverpool (1-0 Real Madrid)
1982 – Aston Villa (1-0 Bayern Munich)
1984 – Liverpool (1-1 Roma a/P 4-2)
1999 – Manchester United (2-1 Bayern Munich)
2005 – Liverpool (3-3 AC Milan a/P 3-2)
2008 – Manchester United (1-1 Chelsea a/P 6-5)

Spanish titles:
1956 – Real Madrid (4-3 Stade de Reims)
1957 – Real Madrid (2-0 Fiorentina)
1958 – Real Madrid (3-2 AC Milan a/ET)
1959 – Real Madrid (2-0 Stade de Reims)
1960 – Real Madrid (7-3 Eintracht Frankfurt)
1966 – Real Madrid (2-1 Partizan Belgrade)
1992 – Barcelona (1-0 Sampdoria a/ET)
1998 – Real Madrid (1-0 Juventus)
2000 – Real Madrid (3-0 Valencia)
2002 – Real Madrid (2-1 Bayer Leverkusen)
2006 – Barcelona (2-1 Arsenal)

Jesualdo’s hat-trick at Dragão

As the season come to an end, all the European leagues come to closure, this weekend was the Portuguese League that’s got a new champion. Once again FC Porto as did it. For the fourth time in a row, in the last three years with Jesualdo Ferreira at the helm, ‘Dragões’ have conquered the first spot. The soon to be 63 years old, is living his best professional period in a long, hardworking but always very competent career. With only three championships under his belt, he’s seen as the keystone of this year’s title.
Personally I’m not fond of Jesualdo’s counter attack style of play – but becoming the only Portuguese coach to win three in a row most mean something. But let’s talk about the team he command, last summer Porto lost two of the three most influential players, the man that carries the team from the right went to Chelsea (Jose Bosingwa), the most creative one – usually used has a left winger parted to Inter (Ricardo Quaresma) and Lucho Gonzales stayed for another season. The cerebral Argentinean had to cope with the fans expectations in the first couple of months.
These changes meant Jesualdo had to build a more collective team, without the brilliance of Quaresma or Bosingwa continuous runs, Porto became a new team. The basic scheme remains the same, Portos’s favorite figurine his the 4x3x3, with a typical defensive line, one defensive midfielder, two in the center, with the one on the right side with orders to attack trough the line – usually Lucho’s mission – and three players on attack – all of the them used to start offensive moves on the middle line. The one in the center (Hulk or Lisandro) tends to get outside the box to open space for quick entries (usually Hulk or Lisandro, once again) from any flank, the other forward is usually a pure winger (Cristian Rodriguez) – the three make constant changes confusing their opponent positions.
The team prefers to play in constant counter attack, they don’t fell comfortable with the ball and have a lot of difficulties to crack tide defenses – which is shown by their impressive away records, but fragile home performances. They are a purely collective team, a squad that don’t depend on any star players and besides Hulk or Rodriguez run’s doesn’t have any man capable of individually solve a game – they have more than six players with five or more goals, and base the success on a high pressure system, direct style of play and frantic pace on the offensive.

Tip: The only team to make Man Utd go to the limit to overcome a leg in the Champions League deserves a mention. I point out the coach Jesualdo Ferreira because he has build an extraordinary team without star players – they’ve won four titles in a row and went out of the CL for just a goal against the actual champions. I don’t like the style they use, but I can’t argue with the results.

Champagne is still in the freezer

Barcelona has not yet celebrated his 19th victory as champion in the Spanish League. Unexpectedly, Villarreal postponed the Catalans’ climax, forcing them to save during a week (at least) the champagne’s bottles in the freezer.
In the time out, 98 thousand spectators in Nou Camp threw the rockets and take the pole. The victory was enough to secure the championship and with a quiet edge of 3-1. Who could imagine that the outcome could be different? Only the players of Villarreal, which, with huge enthusiasm and even greater shot of luck managed to reach the same draw.
The highlight of the game was at 77 ', when Abidal committed penalty and was thrown out by the referee. Matías Fernandez did not forgive and reduced to 3-2. In the discounts, Paco Llorente silent the Catalan’s cathedral.
Still missing three games, Barça has eight points of advantage over Real Madrid. Only a miracle can take the title to blaugrana, who have new opportunity to celebrate next weekend in Mallorca.

Gourcuff coming back to AC Milan

Know in France by the name of ‘petit Zidane’ – yes, I now there are a lot of players seen as the next Zizou – and at age 22, Yoann Gourcuff is on his way to became one of France’s finest. Early spotted by the rossoneri scouts, he's a product of the well reputed Rennes academy and was bought by the Milanese side in 2006. After a couple of seasons in the main squad, with a low average games – less than 20 per season – but with a lot of potential show, especially on the champions league – that he won in 2007, where he’d performed good games and managed to score a couple of goals, Ancelotti has decided to loan him to French side Girondins Bordeaux and Gourcuff has seize the opportunity to became even a better and more influential player – witch lead him to became a ‘bleu’ regular and assured a return to San Siro.
He’s the playmaker in Bordeaux’s football, the ‘number 10’ – although he’s playing with the 8 – and has a major role in he’s side title bid (Marseille and Bordeaux are fighting to end Lyon’s run) and took part in 45 games (43 in the starting eleven), scoring 13 goals – at the moment. Technically gifted, he’s still very powerful in the physical aspects, with 1.85m/79kg uses his stature to win a lot of balls in the midfield and to become his team’s primary defense line. He’s not a runner and to stretch the game he prefers to use short or long passes and to appear alongside the strikes in the shooting range. Capable also scoring headers, he’s trademarks move’s include powerful kicks with his right foot and movements from the center to the right or directly to the net.

Tip: Coming back to the rossoneri is a big challenge, but Gourcuff seems apt to the extremely aged Ancelotti’s side. Altought he’s a number ten – witch in the 4-3-2-1 of Milan means to play in Kaka’s or Seedorf’s place, he’s physical and combative attributes will let him be competitive on one of the defensive midfield side’s. Knowing how Milan works, we’d expect him to be a regular used replacement in the next couple of season (besides Pirlo's unusual nr.6, he’s capable of stepping up into any man shoes in Ancelotti’s eleven), being forced to replace Kaka or Seedorf in a regular basis in 2011/12.