Archive
Reuters blog archive
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Why Mourinho is raging at Lippi
Jose Mourinho is no stranger to run-ins with rival club managers, but this week the Portuguese raised his aim and had a swipe at Italian national team boss Marcello Lippi.
The Inter Milan coach had taken exception to Lippi tipping Juventus for this year's Serie A title.
He accused him of lacking respect, arguing a national team coach should be seen to be impartial even if deep down he wants Juve to win (Lippi had two glorious stints at the Turin club split by a dismal, short one at Inter).
Mourinho even added mysteriously that "this makes me think a great deal".
Lippi responded by saying it was just a prediction: "Mourinho seemed an intelligent person to me, I'm sorry he's interpreted things differently. You can't say half a word".
The Inter boss's reaction struck me as a little thin skinned too. It's not as if Lippi said he was rooting for Juve or would be lending a hand to their new boss Ciro Ferrara, his former assistant in the Italy backroom staff.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Premier League season needs a grand finale
The English Premier League has always reminded me of eating out at McDonalds. I always hope for something new but then end up getting the same as last time.
The new season hasn't even kicked off yet, but if the experts are right, it's already as good as over for nearly all the teams.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Argentine fans cry foul over season delay
In Argentina, where footballing great Diego Maradona is worshipped in his own church, everyone is asking the same question: What will it take to get the ball rolling again?
Fans are angst-ridden over the delay of the season as bad management and the global slowdown leave the country's world-famous clubs unable to pay players and heavily in debt.
from Your View:
Thierry Henri
Barcelona's Thierry Henry dribbles past Seattle Sounders' James Riley during their friendly match game in Seattle, Washington. Your View/Sergio Jr.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Argentina without football starts to worry Maradona
Diego Maradona is a worried man, with no football in Argentina and less than a month to go before their critical World Cup qualifier against a strong Brazilian side.
A debt crisis has put an indefinite hold on the 2009/10 season which was scheduled to start at the end of next week.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Don Garber Q & A
The following is the transcript of an interview with Don Garber, commissioner of Major League Soccer. Simon Evans talked to Garber as he marked his 10th year in charge of the league.
Commissioner, are you where you expected to be after ten years in the job?
from FaithWorld:
Muslims angry at German soccer club over song
German Muslims have inundated one of the country's top soccer teams, Schalke 04, with complaints about a verse in the club's anthem which, they say, is disparaging towards the Prophet Mohammad.
The club has its home in Gelsenkirchen in Germany's industrial heartland and immigrants make up about a third of the town's population. Most of them have a Turkish background. Germany's biggest mosque was opened in nearby Duisburg last year and many Schalke supporters are Muslims, as chat rooms like this one point out.
from Left field:
Why do golf fans cheer tap-ins? And when is a fine not a fine?
A few thoughts from two weeks following the PGA Tour:
Just wondering why people clap like mad every time a golfer taps in a two-inch putt? Are these the same people who break out in applause when a plane lands? Aren't both these things suppose to happen?
- - - -
Best thing I heard on the golf course this week: "Instead of reading the greens you have to read the currents out there," joked former U.S. Masters champion Mike Weir at the rain-hit Canadian Open.
Second best I heard on the golf course this week: "Let's go watch someone who wants to play." -- A disgruntled spectator to a friend at the Buick Open after watching Rocco Mediate miss twice from three-feet at the par four 12th at Warwick.
- - - -
You have to love a tournament like the Buick Open where the trophy looks like a hood ornament.
- - - -
Best joke I heard: England midfielder David Beckham was fined $1,000 by Major League Soccer for confronting unhappy fans following his return to the LA Galaxy during AC Milan. That works out to 1/250,000th of Beckham's reported five-year $250 million deal that brought him to the United States to spread the soccer gospel.
from Changing China:
China’s infertile ground for (some) Western sports
Soccer is in a tight spot in China -- literally. Huge crowds roar for Manchester United but the national team is a laughing stock at 108th in FIFA world rankings. Poor coaching, lack of grassroots development, even corruption and violence are variously cited as reasons for the sport's demise. But the real reason may be more basic: the fact of physical space, or the lack thereof, in China.
If geography is a determinant of economic development, then it is fair to extrapolate that urban geography underpins the development of sports. And here's the rub for soccer, not to mention American football and baseball. With few parks, small concrete schoolyards and a dearth of quiet streets, urban China offers little of the space needed for the sprawling play that defines those sports. Soccer has deep roots in China, but playing space has been squeezed as cities sprawl and swallow land in big gulps.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Nakamura’s Japan snub a no-brainer
Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura's decision to snub a return to Yokohama and join Spain's Espanyol left his boyhood club devastated.
Yokohama's club president slapped himself with a 50 percent pay cut by way of apology to furious F-Marinos fans, but arguably the most surprising aspect of the protracted saga was Yokohama's "shock" that Nakamura opted for Espanyol instead of them after leaving Celtic, where he won three Scottish Premier League titles.
