Brazilian World Cup legend Pele has spoken of his concern and potential embarrassment for Brazil if preparations to host the 2014 World Cup do not get up to speed. Brazil are the only side to have qualified for every World Cup tournament and will host the finals for the second time in their history – the last time was back in 1950, where they lost in the final group match to Uruguay.
And the ugly head of football rears itself once again. No, I’m not talking about Gennaro Gattuso, though players like him and tackles like Mathieu Flamini’s have no place in the game. Darlington FC have become the latest club who are facing an uncertain future.
Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, or should I say ‘Il Fenomeno’ has retired from the game of football aged 34 years old. The 2002 World Cup winner and former World player of year has decided to hang up his boots following elimination in the 2011 Copa Libertadores.
Ronaldo scored 62 goals in 97 games for Brazil, trailing Pele who scored 77 goals in 92 games, to become the countries second top goalscorer of all time. In 2006 Ronaldo became the leading scorer, with 15 goals, in World Cup history when he scored in the 3-0 victory over Ghana. We take a look back at the career or a true great and wonder what could have been if he hadn’t endured so many injuries.
It’s that time of year again. England win a friendly to rid the ghost of a humiliating defeat in their previous outing and all of a sudden they are world beaters again. While this is massively removed from the truth, there were plenty of positives to take from the 2-1 victory over an impressive Denmark.
The playmaker. Yeah, that guy. He’s the one who operates in behind the forwards or striker/s, pulling the strings and using an almost ethereal view of the football field in order to make himself available for a pass and in return, he then feeds the attack. Does it sound easy? Well, it isn’t. In fact this is the position that is so difficult to fill lots of teams don’t even bother to have a playmaker.
You can have attacking midfielders, you can have central midfielders, you can have defensive midfielders, you can have wide midfielders – which is different from a winger, wing-forward and a chicken wing thrown on the pitch by an aggrieved fan – but a playmaker is a genius, and a genius is hard to find.
A wave of black and blue. A counter-current of white. Yet more surge forward, demanding the heads of their foes, screaming and snarling and appearing as wild and as fast as a hoard of Vikings that smell blood. The scary thing is, they’re not animals, barbarians or those with a lust for the kill and they know what they’re doing. They’re working together, they’re plotting, planning and executing with a distinct, dispassionate ethic. In return those on enemy soil do not back down or falter but they roar back and lunge in hope to upset the seemingly predestined loss at the hands of their oppressors.
A record breaking weekend in the English Premier League again added to claims that the competition is the most exciting in European football.
Internazionale continued to show that Leonardo’s artistry in man-management translates into wonderful pictures on the pitch. A comprehensive 3-0 win away to Bari, which saw the return of play-maker Wesley Sneijder and the transfer-fresh form of January signing Giampaolo Pazzini, kept alive Massimo Moratti’s hopes of climbing the table and retaining the Scudetto for a startling sixth season in a row. The home loss has kept Bari at the bottom of the table with just 14 points and relegation is looking more and more likely.
This transfer window has seen some big changes in English football. Edin Dzeko to Manchester City, Fernando Torres to Chelsea, Andy Carroll and Luiz Suarez to Liverpool are amongst the headline grabbing switches, but what stands out away from the high-rolling money spending lunacy of the Barclay’s Premier League is what has happened in Italy, or to be more specific, what has happened at AC Milan.
Football fans around the world have been taken a stronger-than-usual interest in the King’s Cup in Spain this season as the first El Clasico final in 21 years has been a real possibility and thanks to Real Madrid’s defeat of Sevilla in the semi-final, Los Merengues will finally have a chance to exact revenge on their rivals for their 2-0 defeat back in 1990.
