September 30, 2006 at 9:48 am
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Mr. Adolf Ogi, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace sent his special congratulations to the organizers and the hosts of the Homeless Streetsoccer World Cup in Cape Town.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu was also there to welcome the players from the different nations.
'All over the world, I want to say, we've got to end homelessness. Everyone should have a home; it's a right and not a privilege,' he said.
'People treat the homeless as if they're sub-human. In order to overcome this discrimination, we have to unite against homelessness as we did when we fought apartheid,".
Tutu also said that although he wished he could be nicer and tell all the teams he hoped they would win, he could not.
'I want South Africa to win. I like you Nigeria. I like you Zambia. But the cup must stay here in South Africa. I wish I could be nice, but no,' Tutu told the teams.
Unfortunately his support was not enough to keep the South African team from getting knocked out somewhere along the way.The finals are due to be played between Russia and Kazakhstan at 5:30 pm Saturday
September 30, 2006 at 12:23 am
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Blatter's latest idea about scrapping penalty shootouts may be considered to be one of his better ideas.He has made some loony suggestions in the past - notable among them was a suggestion to make the goals bigger to make life more difficult for goalkeepers. Nick Miller writing in Sporting Life has a collection of some other possible creative innovations Blatter may have come up with to make football more interesting and entertaining !
Some of the innovations.....
* As we all know, Sepp is always trying to make football more inclusive and more representative of the world. Therefore, because the world is in fact 70% ocean, logic states that a World Cup must soon be held on the high seas. Before awarding the 2010 tournament to South Africa, Sepp was entertaining secret bids from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Persian Gulf and the North Sea. The idea was only shelved after concerns that advertising boards would get soggy.
* Sepp came to the realisation that if football was to be considered a truly global game, it must represent all the world's inhabitants, not just humans. Therefore, a different animal would be allocated to each team qualifying for the World Cup, based on a handicap system. So, while Brazil would get a chicken for the midfield holding role, minnows like Saudi Arabia would be given a giant octopus to play in goal. If the rule had been enforced in Germany Sven would have been gifted a whale to "park the bus" after we'd gone 1-0 up.
September 29, 2006 at 1:18 pm
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Real Madrid's Spanish international captain Raul has been left out of the squad chosen by national boss Luis Aragones for next week's Euro 2008 qualifier against Sweden.
Ruud van Nistelrooy too has faced a similar fate and he too has again been left out of the Dutch squad for their Euro 2008 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Albania.
And while those two [along with Beckham] ponder the reasons for not being chosen Scott Parker's tenacious displays for Newcastle this season have won him a recall to the England squad for the qualifiers against Macedonia and Croatia.
September 28, 2006 at 3:18 pm
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Without saying that Brazil has been officially awarded the World Cup in 2014, His Seppness effectively said today that the South American country is going to get the tournament if it can get busy building some stadiums. “The ball is Brazil’s court and we can say that the demands are very great,” FIFA President [...]
September 28, 2006 at 12:32 pm
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The official mascots for Euro 2008 were unveiled in Vienna recently.
The mascots are a kind of double barrelled affair having the appearance of twins wearing red and white - colours which represent the host countries Austria and Switzerland.
They are currently nameless but fans of both countries will eventually get a chance to name them either Zagi and Zigi or Flitz and Bitz or possibly Trix and Flix Take a look
September 27, 2006 at 8:17 pm
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Didier Drogba scores a hat-trick for Chelsea in Sofia. Barcelona need a late goal from Messi to avoid defeat at Bremen. Peter Crouch scores a fabulous goal in Liverpool's edgy 3-2 victory over Galatasaray. Valencia beat Roma 2-1 thanks to goals from Angulo and Villa and Bayern complete a miserable week for Italian clubs with a rare victory at the San Siro over 9 man Inter.
September 27, 2006 at 8:17 pm
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BREMEN 1 (Puyol 56 og)
BARCELONA 1 (Messi 89)
Bam Bam Puyol, under pressure from Borowski, turned a cross from Aaron HUNT, yes that is his name and how I wish he has a brother named Mike, past a helpless Valdes. Eto'o was stretchered off with looked like a bad knee injury, possibly kneecap related. Deco destroyed the Bremen defence with an exquisite disguised pass into the box and Messi fired into the bottom right corner to give the Champions what was, on the balance of play, a deserved equaliser.
Attendance : 41,256
Assists : n/a, Deco
LEVSKI SOFIA 1 (Ognyanov 89)
CHELSEA 3 (Drogba 39, 52, 69)
Mourinho played an orthodox 4-4-2 with Mikel on the right and Lampard on the left, and Essien and Ballack in the middle, is it any wonder Shevchenko never scores or gets any chances? Drogba lashed in his first goal on the rebound after Mikel forced Petkov into making a great save. Drogba controlled a Bridge longball on his chest before turning and thumping a left foot shot at goal, Petkov got a touch, and really should have put the ball out for a corner, but it rolled into the back of the net. Drogba completed his hat-trick when he messed up a back heel but his luck was in tonight. An outrageous back-heel sent Ognyanov clear of the Chelsea defence and he hammered a lot shot into the corner finally beating Cech who was actually the difference between the two teams given they had an equal number of genuine chances.
Ibrahimovic was sent off for two 'bookable' offences, I was playing X-Box 360 live so missed the first yellow but the second was ridiculous. He went in for a 50-50 ball with Schweinsteiger, the German midfielder got there first so Ibrahimovic ended up clipping his ankle, Schweinsteiger did a Klinsmann - rolling around in agony, bye bye Ibrahimovic. That wretched old man Scholl should have been sent off for an absolutely disgraceful two footed lunge on Grosso. Makaay chipped a ball into Pizarro (according to UEFA it was Scholl, because it's really hard to tell those two apart, idiots), Grosso got a block on his shot but Julio Cesar had rushed off his line, the three players crashed into each other and the ball bounced into the net. Sagnol ran into Grosso's elbow, it caught the top of his chin so he clutched his face, earning Grosso a straight red. Cordoba, who had a miserable game at the weekend, under-hit a back-pass, Podolski raced onto the ball, took out Julio Cesar with a superb dummy then blasted the ball into an empty net.
LIVERPOOL 3 (Crouch 9, Luis Garcia 14, Crouch 52)
GALATASARAY 2 (Umit 60, 65)
Crouch volleyed Liverpool into the lead from a quite excellent cross from left back Aurelio. Pennant stole the ball off a defender as he tried to clear after a team-mate put him in danger with an atrocious pass, Mondragon came off his line to close down the angle for a shot so Pennant chipped the ball over his head and Luis Garcia butted in Liverpool's second. Crouch scored a magnificent third. Pennant, who was proving to be a real nuisance on the right forced a mistake from Sukur, Finnan intercepted, nutmegged a defender then fired an arcing cross towards the centre circle where it was met by a sensational overhead kick and crashed into the back of the net. Shades of Van Basten. Umit, on as a second half substitute, scored with two fantastic headers from crosses from either flank and were it not for that useless old wretch Sukur Galatasaray may have been stolen a point.
Castillo managed to skip over a ludicrous two footed challenge from Tymoschuk, turned on the breaks then hit a low centre into the box and Konstantinou go in front of his marker to put the visitors ahead. According to UEFA Matuzalem scored Shakhtar's equaliser direct from a free kick, Hubschman celebrated as if he got the last touch. Who knows? The erratic Nikopolidis made two World Class saves before his team regained their lead in controversial circumstances when Castillo appeared to use his hand to score after Maric drew a save from Shust. Marica equalised after the Greeks made a mess of
defending a free kick.
VALENCIA 2 (Angulo 13, Villa 29)
ROMA 1 (Totti 18 Pen)
Vicente hit a deep cross towards the back post. Morientes attempted a volley but completely miss-hit the ball, it bounced right, Angulo leapt in the air and struck a volley which flew in off Doni's right hand post, marvellous goal, similar to the one McManaman scored in the 2000 European Cup final ironically against Valencia. Totti despatched a penalty awarded for Moretti's rugby tackle on audio Cassetti. Moretti made up for his earlier mistake by laying on the winning goal for Villa.
Both Mancini and Taddei are out injured but playing Perrotta behind Totti was a ridiculous decision. The giant child Okaka would have been more effective.
Jiranek headed a ball into the box, Bystov pulled it down and as he turned team-mate Boyarintsev took it off his feet and thundered a right foot shot into the top corner. Ricardo made a phenomenal save to deny Pavlyuchenko a certain second. Yannick laid a pass into Nani and headed for the box, Nani ignored him and instead played and one-two with Liedson, pushed the ball wide of Kowalewski, who flew off his line at great speed, and chipped into an empty net.
September 27, 2006 at 11:18 am
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FIFA president Sepp Blatter believes future World Cup finals should not be decided by penalties .
Penalty shoot-outs were introduced into the World Cup in 1982
Blatter said changes could be in place in time for the next world cup in South Africa in four years.
"When it comes to the World Cup final it is passion, and when it goes to extra time it is a drama," the head of world football's governing body said . "But when it comes to penalty kicks it is a tragedy.
Stating that penalties took away from the fact that football was a team sport he also suggested that the match could be replayed it were a final or some variation could be introduced into the golden goal rule.
"We have four years or so, so I think we have time," he said.
September 27, 2006 at 10:00 am
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FIFA head honcho Sepp Blatter has come out today with public statements in favor of getting rid of penalty shootouts in the World Cup final. Blatter said that decidinf final matches by penalties is a “tragedy”.
“Maybe to replay the match if it’s the final, you can’t do that through the tournament because of lack [...]
September 26, 2006 at 9:39 pm
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A lone goal by Louis Saha helped Manchester United beat Benfica .
Sir Alex Ferguson got the "bloody different result" he had promised but the game was not one that could be compared to the one played 40 years ago down memory lane when George Best destroyed the Benfica of Eusebio.
"Benfica against Manchester United is very special for me. Benfica is my real club but Manchester United is my English club. We are together in history. The glory of our clubs is like this" - said Eusebio as he laced his gnarled fingers together.
Rest of that pre match interview with Eusebio here
Juninho slammed a free kick against the back of midfielder Paraschiv prompting Fernandes off his line but having grabbed the ball he dropped it leaving Fred with a tap-in. The excellent Tiago, who ironically since leaving Chelsea has developed into, arguably, a World Class midfielder, doubled the five time, five time, five time, five time, five time French champions lead with a thumping header. Lyon made a mess of a short corner but regained possession due to Benzema's persistence and Juninho played him in with a firm back heel and the youngster rolled the ball into the bottom corner.
Either Benzema has grew since I saw him last season or I'm confusing him with Benarfa.
REAL MADRID 5 (Van Nistelrooy 20, Raul 27, Reyes 45, Raul 61, Van Nistelrooy 70 Pen)
DYNAMO KYIV 1 (Milevski 47)
Shovkovskiy, Dynamo Kyiv's eternal weak link, fumbled a low centre from Bobby Carlos into the path of RVN, 1-0. Raul punished abysmal marking from a free kick to make it 2-0 with an excellent header. In first half injury time Reyes smashed in a left foot volley.
Milevski tapped in a rebound after Casillas failed to hold Correa's stinging drive. Gavrancic under-hit a back-pass but didn't notice Raul lurking and he intercepted, danced around Shovkovskiy and tapped into an empty net. The incompetent Graham Poll sent off Shovkovskiy after RVN made the most of a clumsy challenge to win a penalty. He was substituted, for Ronaldo, shortly after converting and there was little danger of tubby adding to his abysmal tally in this competition. Ramos should have been sent off for blasting an elbow into the reserve 'keepers face but Poll, predictably, only showed a yellow.
In a new stadium, with a significantly larger pitch, Arsenal struggled in the opening weeks of the season. Last week Henry scored with his head from a deep cross, an absolute rarity. Based on the opening goal in this match Wenger has finally got over his long held aversion to playing an air game. The brilliant Eboue broke from defence to give Hleb support on the right, collected a pass, teased left back Cech before accelerating away and whipped a cross towards the back post which Henry emphatically head into the bottom corner. Gallas, now playing more like Vieira and supporting the attack, ran from the half-way line and dribbled past four players, no really, centred to Henry, he passed out wide to Hleb and he in turn drilled a low shot past Helton. Impressive.
Attendance : 59,861
Assist : n/a, Henry
AEK ATHENS 1 (Julio Cesar 28)
ANDERLECHT 1 (Frutos 25)
Frutos, who is named after a children's yoghurt drink (probably), volleyed Boussoufa's clever pass wide of Sorrentino. Julio Cesar (this one is a midfielder) scored a fortuitous equaliser when he managed to intercept and then control a long range shot from team-mate Hatemaj and as the Anderlecht defence were busy appealing for offside he put the ball into the back of the net.