Irelands Euro 2008 qualifier against Wales at Croke Park, the first soccer match at the epicentre of Gaelic sport, was a match I knew I had to attend.

Of course, during rugby’s Six Nations reams had already been written about the significance of the cathedral of Irish nationalist sport hosting soccer and oval ball previously described by Croke Park’s owners as “foreign sports” while Lansdowne Road is being redeveloped.
 
But this was a milestone for Irish soccer, which is dwarfed in terms of finance by the Gaelic Athletic Association, the owners of “Croker”, and the Irish Rugby Football Union who owned Lansdowne Road.

It was a privilege to be there. Thousands of the Green Army would not get to be part of the 75,000 crowd, with tickets becoming as scarce as Charlie’s golden one to the chocolate factory.

The icing on the cake for me was my dad and two brothers also securing their seats. It was my dad who first brought me and my brother to watch Ireland play Mexico in a friendly at a rain-soaked and dilapidated Dalymount Park in the early 80’s. It ended in a scoreless draw.

Better days came with the arrival of Jack Charlton in the late 80’s and Mick McCarthy during the next decade, but with success came bandwagon-jumping supporters and corporate hospitality, making it difficult for fans to get their hands on Irish tickets. But that’s soccer nowadays.

I awoke with butterflies, the sun splitting the trees. Three World Cups, Champions League games, even Rome for Ireland’s famous rugby encounter with the Italians the week before could not match the nervousness I felt.

Bus, then taxi to Croker and I was there three hours early. The days events started with a parade of Irish legends, and I knew this was going to be an occasion to remember. Then it was the Croke Park roar as the teams hit the pitch. I had to pinch myself this was an Irish soccer pitch with 75,000 fans on HOME soil.

But then the clouds started to gather above the monument to Irish folklore. A single goal from a star of the future, Stephen Ireland was the only glimmer of sunshine in what turned out to be a dull affair.
 
If only the Ireland under Steve Staunton could have matched the enthusiasm shown by the fans in the stadium and those screaming at television sets across the country, then it would have been a day certainly to remember.
 
Slovakia under lights at Croker on Wednesday will be their chance to prove themselves and repay the loyal fans who have followed them across three stadiums at home and hundreds more abroad.

Darren Ennis is a Reuters correspondent based in Brussels

Reuters soccer editor Mike Collett wrote this weekend about his first trip to the new Wembley Stadium and weve decided to make his feature the start of an occasional series.

Darren Ennis was also experiencing something new this weekend as he travelled to Dublin to see Ireland play the first soccer match at Croke Park on Saturday.

Simon Baskett was on more familiar territory when he watched Spain beat Denmark at the Bernabeu. Simon, who made his first visit to the stadium 15 years ago, takes a look at the atmosphere at a place that can feel more like a bullring than a soccer ground.

The two posts from Darren and Simon will go up on the blog today and over the coming weeks well bring you more of the same, with our network of Reuters reporters sharing their experiences of stadiums around the world.

If you were there at Wembley or Croke Park, if youve visited the Bernabeu, let us know if you think we’ve captured the atmosphere, or if we’ve missed the point. We’d really like your feedback.

Does Steve McClaren lack passion, an accusation levelled at the England coach’s team by the British press, and certain bloggers, after their dismal 0-0 draw in Israel on Saturday?

At the 2006 World Cup, Germany were led by the effervescent Juergen Klinsmann, winners Italy by the urbane, intelligent Marcello Lippi and finalists France had the mood swings of former actor Raymond Domenech.

Argentina were a well-behaved, impressive attacking unit under Jose Pekerman until discipline fell apart after the final penalty in the Berlin quarter-final when the coach cut his team adrift.

Brazil were under the dour Carlos Alberto Parreira, whose 1994 World Cup team were the least samba-imbued of the five Brazilian title-winning sides.

So could Guus Hiddink or Big Phil Scolari have given this England side the passion, the soul, that commentators saw as lacking in Tel Aviv?

Felipao’s World Cup successes with Brazil and Portugal and Hiddink’s with South Korea as well as Russian and Portuguese results in the Euro qualifiers could be a hint.

Rex Gowar is a Reuters sports correspondent based in London

It took less than half a minute for Italian striker Gianpaolo Pazzini to secure a place in soccer history on Saturday, as he scored the first goal at the new Wembley Stadium following its £800 million reconstruction.

Pazzini was on target just 29 seconds into Saturday’s Under-21 international between England and Italy and the youngster went on to score a hat-trick in a memorable 3-3 draw.

Reuters soccer editor Mike Collett has written a heartfelt piece about his first trip to see a match at the new stadium, after attending well over 100 games at the old one.

Mike, who was pelted by apple cores when he first went to old Wembley in 1962, managed to avoid the same fate on Saturday. I recommend you all read his story here.

A smart kid from a rough Marseille suburb, of Algerian descent, with amazing skills, set to make his France debut.
Zinedine Zidane, 1994?
Wrong. Samir Nasri, 2007.
The new Zidane, many thought, would be Franck Ribery, the energetic Olympique Marseille forward who was one of the revelations of last year’s World Cup.
In fact, Nasri, who also plays for Marseille and has just been called up by France coach Raymond Domenech for a Euro 2008 qualifier against Lithuania on Saturday and a friendly against Austria four days later, has far more in common with the great man they call Zizou.
He is just 19 and is the new generation. Zidane’s parents came from Algeria but it was Nasri’s grandparents who moved to France, where his parents were born.
Same background: La Gavotte-Peyret, where Nasri grew up, is a five-minute drive
from La Castellane, the grey Marseille area Zidane put on the map of world soccer.
On the pitch, Nasri’s zippy runs with the ball glued to his feet and his inspired reading of the game immediately draw comparisons with the balding maestro, who retired after using his feet, and unfortunately his head as well, one last time in the World Cup final.
With Ribery sidelined by injury, Nasri, your typical teenager-next-door, complete with the silly peroxide haircut, has become the boss in the Marseille midfield. When someone doesn’t know what to do with the ball, and some in the current Marseille squad are often short of ideas, he feeds the young prodigy, who finds a solution.
Not yet the finished article, he does waste a few balls, but his talent is obvious and he is improving fast.
“His intelligence of the game is extraordinary, considering his age. He’s fast, good with both feet and reads the game extremely well. He can still improve but he will amaze us.”
Who’s that talking about Nasri? Precisely, Zidane himself, as heard last week on French pay-TV channel Canal Plus, where the greatest artist of the past decade is now a consultant.
France needing points against Lithuania, Domenech is unlikely to experiment for that game and should go for seasoned warriors rather than delicate young soloists. But against Austria on Wednesday, with nothing at stake but pride, he might give Nasri a chance.
In his first match for France, against the Czechs in August 1994 in Bordeaux, Zidane came on as a substitute and scored twice.
Nasri, as softly spoken at the magician he reminds me of, realises what he is up against.
“There is only one Zidane”, Nasri told weekly France Football. “His career is over and mine is only just starting. I want to go my own way.”
Good idea. And please, please, no head butts.

Patrick Vignal is a Reuters sports correspondent in Paris

There is more confusion about whether Germany will be England’s opponents in the first full international at the gleaming new Wembley Stadium.

Germany team manager Oliver Bierhoff said again on Thursday that the two old rivals will meet on August 22, confirming what coach Joachim Loew let slip back in December.

But once again, England’s Football Association refused to confirm the date, with a spokesman saying on Thursday, “It’s news to us.” In fact, it was only last week that FA spokesman Adrian Bevington dropped a large hint that the first full international would be against Brazil or Argentina.

Germany certainly seem to think they will be first and there would be a nice symmetry about the match. Germany were also England’s opponents for the last international at the old Wembley on October 7, 2000, when a Dietmar Hamann goal gave the Germans a 1-0 win.

Our soccer editor Mike Collett was at that England-Germany game and he’ll be blogging from the new £800 million stadium on Saturday for the inaugural match, an Under-21 international between England and Italy.

Check back here on Saturday for Mike’s view of the new ground.

Sitting in a cold and rainy Allianz Arena and waiting for kick-off in the Bayern Munich v Real Madrid game I was leafing through the Champions magazine from UEFA.

It has a four-page spread on the UEFA team of the year, as voted for by fans on uefa.com. To remind you, the players chosen were: Gianluigi Buffon; Gianluca Zambrotta, Philipp Lahm, Fabio Cannavaro, Carles Puyol; Steven Gerrard, Cesc Fabregas, Kaka, Ronaldinho; Samuel Etoo, Thierry Henry.

These big votes always seem to hand the honours to the most famous names from the biggest clubs and every single one of these players is from a heavyweight team. Of course it’s fair enough that Ronaldinho, Etoo and all the the rest of them are on there considering their successes for club and country last year but it doesnt mean they are the only good players out there.

So who are the unsung heroes of the European game? Who are the players who never get the recognition they deserve in awards like this, and yet are seen as indispensable by the fans of their clubs?

Send us your nominations for the European games under-appreciated players, and well see if by the end of the season we can come up with a good alternative team of the year.

My nominations from Germany would be Pavel Pardo, the Mexican midfielder at VfB Stuttgart, Robert Enke, the faultless Hanover 96 goalkeeper, and Naldo, the Brazilian centre-back at Werder Bremen.

I also asked around at the lively Guardian discussion on the Bundesliga and got a few more nominations, including Jawhar Mnari, the Tunisian midfielder at Nuremberg, and Frank Baumann at Werder.

Ill probably add further views from Reuters correspondents at a later date but in the mean time Id be grateful for your suggestions.

Bill Shankly used to joke that the best two teams on Merseyside were Liverpool …. and Liverpool Reserves.

Now current coach Rafael Benitez is proposing that Liverpool Reserves actually start playing in the League in their own right.

Its not a new idea. Jose Mourinho said much the same in December and both men agree that the progress of young players is being stymied because they are playing what they see as meaningless, uninspiring matches in the reserve leagues.

The warning is that England will not develop international class players in future unless their reserves get greater competitive exposure in the lower divisions.

What Benitez would like to see is his reserve side play perhaps in the Championship, League One or League Two in proper competitive conditions based on the Spanish model. As in Spain, even if they won promotion to the top flight they wouldn’t actually go up.

The suggestion from Benitez is unlikely to be taken up in England, where there has already been negative reaction, but the idea is not without merits.

In France, reserve teams play in the amateur fourth division (CFA) where they gain good competitive experience. Nantes developed Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps and Christian Karembeu, all part of the 1998 World Cup winning squad, through their reserve team and have long been the best team in CFA.

Exciting young players from Germany like Mario Gomez, came up playing in the tough regional third division, in his case for VfB Stuttgart II, rather than in reserve games. The system means that when, say, Bayern Munich have injury problems they can call up players from the B team with regular match experience in a league where there is a great deal at stake.

So should the English league follow suit? Or do we meddle with the structure as it is at our peril? We’d like to hear your views.

Mike Collett is Reuters Soccer Editor

The night belonged to Andriy Shevchenko.

Chelsea’s much maligned Ukraine striker lit up Monday night’s FA Cup quarter-final replay against Tottenham Hotspur with a goal of sheer brilliance.

“What can you say if they score a great goal like Sheva’s?,” said Spurs manager Martin Jol after a bitter 2-1 defeat by their rivals from across London. “That’s what he’s there for.”

Local pride was at stake when Tottenham met the champions at White Hart Lane on Monday, 40 years after the first all-London final.

Spurs ran out 2-1 winners to lift the trophy that day at Wembley but Chelsea have had the upper hand in recent years and visiting fans packed into the Park Lane end anticipating victory.

The Chelsea players, many wearing an odd combination of short sleeved shirts and woollen gloves, stroked the ball around with metronomic precision, their rhythm occasionally upset by Tottenham’s harrying.

Goalless at halftime, the match came alive in the second half as the atmosphere built into a crescendo with attacks from both sides.

Then in a flash Shevchenko — the 30 million pound man — turned the ball on to his left foot near the right touchline and curled it majestically into the top corner.

“One of the goals of the season that is — top drawer,” said the radio commentator behind me in the overcrowded press box. “The Chelsea fans are in ecstasy.”

A mass of leaping, hugging, shouting Blues fans were dancing with delight and singing: “Que Sera, Sera, whatever will be, will be, we’re going to Wemberlee, Que Sera, Sera.”

“A special goal from Andriy Shevchenko,” said another radio analyst shivering in the cold night air. “It was always going to take something a bit special to decide this one,” he added.

Seven minutes later Chelsea’s Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba chested the ball down for Shaun Wright-Phillips to smash home a second goal for the visitors. Spurs hearts were broken.

Jol turned towards his bench and gave a wry smile. He knew class when he saw it — even if it was wearing royal blue rather than white.

At the end, a delighted Mourinho ran on to the pitch with his arms outstretched to celebrate victory with his players while a frustrated Spurs fan took a swing at captain Frank Lampard.

The England midfielder ducked and, like most of Tottenham’s efforts on the night, the fan missed.

“We don’t want that,” said Jol before adding, “You can understand the frustration.”

Ken Ferris is a chief sub-editor on the sports desk

For long periods of the season covering Serie A has seemed like just a lot of number crunching about Inter Milan.

Inter go five points clear, then 10 points, then 18 points… Inter do the league double over AC Milan for the first time in 25 years… Inter take 90 percent of league points on offer (hat tip to soccerphile for pointing out the latter).

So imagine this correspondents relief last week when for two whole days Juventus reclaimed the spotlight from their old enemies.

It happened first on Thursday with news of a cash injection of nearly 105 million euros via a capital increase.

On Friday, talk turned to how they planned to spend it.

A paparazzi photographer waiting for Roger Moore outside an Italian restaurant in London got an unexpected scoop, snapping Juves sporting director Alessio Secco, and former vice-president, now transfer market consultant, Roberto Bettega, meeting with Frank Lampards agent Steve Kutner.

La Gazzetta started speculating about how much Lampard would earn, how many goals he might score in Serie A, and how he would fit into a hypothetical team containing several other possible signings.

Lampard moving to Juventus looks unlikely, given that they will not be playing in the Champions League next season. The story was largely dismissed in England, with few sites giving it any credence at all and I assumed at first that this was just another way of filling a slow news day.

But then I got it. The story and photograph by themselves were enough to show that Juventus are back in business.

Top of Serie B, looking confidently towards a top-flight future, the club are rich again and ready to spend. Whether signing Lampard turns out to be more than fantasy or not, it shows Juve fans that the club intends to rebuild a squad shattered by last years match-fixing scandal.

The speculation might also help cool any wanderlust inside the Juventus dressing room.

Juve coach Didier Deschamps said last week the club needed to make at least three big signings to be competitive in Serie A and to prevent more players walking out.

Midfielder Pavel Nedved has also warned that promotion to Serie A might not be enough to persuade some of his team mates to stay.

“Lets not forget that Juventus will still be out of the Champions League, said the former European Footballer of the Year. How many players will accept that after this season?

In this context, the front-page reporting of real or imagined transfer moves is not just the usual gossip, but part of a battle by the club to hang on to the best players.

And its a lot more interesting than working out the latest stats on Inter.

James Eve reports for Reuters on Italian sport