Kaka winning the FIFA world player of year is the latest in a string of successes for AC Milan in 2007…if you ignore Serie A. 
 
May’s European Cup triumph and victory in the Club World Cup final on Sunday contrast markedly with Milan finishing fourth in the league last season after a points deduction and languishing in 11th spot this term.
 
Milan face injury-hit Serie A leaders Inter in the city derby on Sunday, but are at least glad they are designated as the away team at the San Siro, which they share with their rivals.
 
Carlo Ancelotti’s men have failed to win at home in the league this season, drawing five and losing two. Attendances have started to dwindle and the groans have got louder from those that have remained. A full house is guaranteed for Sunday though.
 
After beating Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to the FIFA prize on Monday, Kaka was in no doubt about the key battle of the week.
 
“Now the most important challenge is the derby with Inter. We have to win.”
 
Defeat would leave Milan 25 points behind Inter and almost certainly out of the championship race before Christmas.
 
The Milan derby is not the only big European match this weekend. Barcelona host Real Madrid in Spain following England’s ‘Super Sunday’ last weekend when Arsenal won 1-0 at home to Chelsea and Manchester United beat Liverpool 1-0 away.
 
AC Milan also crave an ‘away’ win, but can they make the San Siro feel like home again?

Mark Meadows, Milan

PHOTO: AC Milan’s players celebrate their victory over Argentine club Boca Juniors at the FIFA Club World Cup final in Japan Dec 16 REUTERS/Toru Hanai

“They’ll be really happy about this in Madrid,” Barcelona sporting director Txiki Begiristain said after news Lionel Messi would miss this weekend’s “clasico” against Real because of a torn thigh muscle.

But I’ve got a suspicion that Real, although pleased Messi is out, would have been more thrilled if Samuel Eto’o had been missing for this Sunday’s Nou Camp clash.

Alongside new FIFA world player of the year Kaka, Messi is probably the most individually talented player in the European top flight and he single-handedly saved Barca from defeat against Real last season with a hat-trick. For many though, Eto’o is far more important to Barcelona as a team.

Without Eto’o, Barcelona are a really skilful side but lack that bite, that determination, that frightening electric pace that the former Mallorca and Real Madrid striker so often brings to their attacking play when he is not injured.

You only have to look at the way he races around pressuring the opposition back four, never letting them play the ball cleanly out of defence, to see the effect he has on the players around him. Rivals are immediately put on the back foot and Barca find it much easier to gain the upper hand in the battle for the control of midfield.

The team’s options in attack multiply exponentially as he stretches defenders across the pitch with his angled runs, lurks on the edge of the offside line and never turns down a chance to shoot at goal.

Messi will leave you open-mouthed with his magical close control and dribbling skills but he still tends to over-elaborate and is often so tied up in tying opponents in knots that he doesn’t always deliver the best pass.

Eto’o has scored three goals in three games since his return from injury, he looks really sharp considering he has been on the treatment table for over three months and added a new dimension to Barca when they dismantled Valencia at the weekend.

Given the form they are in this season, Real will fancy their chances on Sunday, but with Eto’o around Barca will be a much harder nut to crack.

Between Eto’o and Messi, who would you rather have?

Simon Baskett, Madrid

PHOTO: Barcelona’s Messi attends a training session at the Nou Camp, Dec 5  REUTERS/Albert Gea

Fabio Capello’s opening press conference with more than 200 media representatives was a relatively downbeat affair. Speaking through an interpreter, his answers were direct. There was little wild speculation about anything. He was considered, polite and to the point.

Watching the man in London on Monday, what struck me was this: With Capello’s appointment as the new England manager, coach, visionary, restorer of national pride or whatever else you may call him, English football has reached a point of no return.

By setting out to get one of the best managers in the world, and actually getting him, no-one can fault the English FA for failing in their promise to deliver a proven winner.

And what this has done, at a stroke, is actually return the responsibility of winning back to the players. Under Capello there can be no return to blaming the coach if things start going wrong. Capello has coached the best players in the world over the last two decades — and won things with almost all of them.

Of course, no-one expects England to win every game they play, but they will at least be expected to qualify for the World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010 and to start playing with the authority, confidence and style that has been lacking from the team for years.

Whereas England’s first overseas coach Sven Goran-Eriksson spoke excellent English and his immediate predecessor Steve McClaren could flash an international level toothy grin, Capello’s facial expression at today’s news conference reflected that of a winner.

Even when he smiled he looked like he was made out of steel.

It’s going to be interesting.

Mike Collett, Reuters Football Correspondent

PHOTO: Fabio Capello listens to a question during a news conference at a hotel in London December 17, 2007. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

Back in Liverpool’s all-conquering days of the 1970s and 80s anyone I knew who suggested they would soon be going almost 20 years without winning the English League title would have been laughed out of the playground – and I lived in Hampshire.

From 1973 to 1991 Liverpool won the title no fewer than 11 times and were runners-up on a further seven occasions. The only time in 19 seasons they finished outside the top two was in 1981 — when they won the European Cup and League Cup.

Since then it has been a painful domestic struggle with just one runners-up position in 16 years and Sunday’s home defeat by Manchester United looks to have ensured the wait for a first title since 1990 will go on for at least one more season.

In that time, of course, Liverpool have won trophies, not least the Champions League, but their continual failure at home is a difficult pill to swallow for the fans.

What has made it all the more painful has been the fact that it is United who have replaced them.

Their Lancashire neighbours were almost an irrelevance to Liverpool fans as they were relegated in 1974 and had to endure 26 barren years before finally getting their hands back on the League Championship in 1993.

Since then the power has shifted eastwards and Sunday’s Anfield result drove home the message as Carlos Tevez’s goal made it a remarkable five wins and a draw for United in their last five league games there. It leaves Liverpool nine points behind United and 10 adrift of Arsenal.

When Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez spoke to the club’s American owners this weekend he would no doubt have stressed how well his team had done to resurrect their European campaign and perhaps the franchisers will have their eye only on the wider picture.

For the fans who had to endure, yet again, the taunts of the joyous United fans on Sunday, however, this situation must be painful to say the least.

Benitez has paid lip service to the importance of the Premier League but his selections have indicated otherwise. My colleague Padraic Halpin asked this time last week if Liverpool would be better off out of the Champions League, in order to concentrate fully on a bid for the league title. I suppose now we could say at least they can concentrate on Europe…

PHOTO: Fernando Torres holds his head in his hands during Liverpool’s defeat by Manchester United, December 16, 2007. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

POLL: Are Liverpool out of the title race for another year? Vote in the poll at the main Reuters soccer Web site.

SLIDESHOW: Follow the link for the pick of Reuters photos from the two ‘Super Sunday’ matches.

Rarely can a simple tap-in have meant so much to a player. The picture here on the right is of Ivan Klasnic, his head bowed in joy and disbelief, after scoring his first goal since undergoing two kidney transplant operations early this year.

The 27-year-old Croatian started his first home game in 12 months when Werder Bremen met Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday, and he scored twice in Werder’s 5-2 victory.

His return to health, and the morale-boosting ”doppelpack” against Bayer, could yet see him return for Croatia in time to play at Euro 2008. The player himself sounds optimistic, although he obviously has different priorities now.

“My health comes first,” he told reporters after Werder’s final match of 2007. “Whatever comes now, so be it. I spoke with (national team coach) Slaven Bilic by telephone even before I returned to action. I’m sure if things continue going well we’ll be seeing each other soon.”

You can read the full story over at our main Web site here.

PHOTO: Werder Bremen’s Ivan Klasnic (L) and Jurica Vranjes celebrate Klasnic’s goal against Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga match, December 15, 2007. REUTERS/Christian Charisius

England have confirmed Fabio Capello as the country’s new national team coach, the second foreigner to take the reins having had no experience in English football.

Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson led England to three quarter-finals between 2002 and 2006 but his tenure ended in failure and farce.

However, the 61-year-old Capello is unlikely to be caught out by tabloid stings like Eriksson and has a stunning managerial record. The Italian has won league titles with all four of the clubs he has managed - AC Milan, Real Madrid, AS Roma and Juventus - while he led Milan to the 1994 European Cup.

We have the full story over at our main soccer site, with background, reaction and all the details. Here at the blog we’d like your views on the appointment and whether you think the Football Association has made the right choice.

Will tough guy Capello, with limited English and an emphasis on defence, lead the Three Lions to World Cup glory? Or do you share the caution of our former Italy correspondent Simon Evans (see his piece below). Give us your thoughts in the comments below.

PHOTO: Friends reunited? Real Madrid’s David Beckham leaves the pitch injured next to coach Fabio Capello during their Spanish first division soccer match against Getafe at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, March 4, 2007. REUTERS/Victor Fraile

UPDATE: This post was updated on Dec. 14 at 1735 GMT after Capello’s appointment was announced by the F.A.

The media reaction to the impending arrival of Fabio Capello seems rather familiar to the wave of enthusiasm that greeted Sven-Goran Eriksson’s appointment as England manager – a man in a smart suit with a record of success in Italian and European football and someone with a different style to his predecessors (Eriksson was ‘tactically astute’ while Capello is a ‘disciplinarian’).

When Eriksson was appointed I bored friends and colleagues with my rather pessimistic take on the Swede’s likelihood of success at England and I’m afraid I’m going to do the same with Capello. So, as a balance to the euphoria, here are 10 reasons to be sceptical of Don Fabio’s chances with England:

1. The best reason for appointing Capello is his record. Yes, Capello has won league titles with AC Milan, Juventus, Roma and Real Madrid and if he were now the coach of Brazil I would put my money on them winning the next World Cup. Likewise I am sure that he would perform well in England with Chelsea or Manchester United. But Capello has never been in the position of having to win with a mediocre team and no transfer budget which is exactly what the FA are asking him to do. In this respect he is in uncharted waters.

2. I’ve said it before – and I’ll say it again: there is a huge risk in appointing an England manager who doesn’t speak English. As well as dealing with a totally different football culture to England and Spain, Capello will have the handicap of not being able to communicate directly with anyone on the team. Think about it.

3. Not being able to communicate directly with any of the Premier League managers will be a major drawback when it comes to those necessary chats about availability for friendly matches. “Buongiorno Signor Ferguson…”

4. … which is hardly going to be helped by him appointing Italian coaching staff. If the reports are true, this is a move which will surely alienate some potential sources of solid advice and help from, say, the likes of current goalkeeping coach Ray Clemence. Wouldn’t someone like David Platt (an Italian speaker who has been part of the FA coaching set-up) or Italophile ex-England player like Ray Wilkins be more use than a Serie A functionary such as Franco Baldini? (By the way, what on earth is Baldini going to do at the FA? He was a ‘Direttore Sportivo’ at Roma which meant he was in charge of player contracts and transfer dealings along with the various ‘political’ tasks that are considered indispensable at Italian clubs. He has zero coaching experience).

5. Temper, temper. When Capello loses it, he really loses it. England have never had a manager like that and it will be fascinating (and amusing) to see how the players and media react to Capello when he goes all ‘furibondo’ on them. The phrase “hairdryer treatment” doesn’t come close…

6. Tactics. Apart from the spectacular Milan team he inherited from Arrigo Sacchi, Capello’s success has been built around tight defending, a solid and patient midfield and a reliance on sparks of genius up-front. English players grow up bursting to get forward and attack – Capello, like Eriksson, will have to try and restrain that instinct. His teams have always played Italian style football – it will be fascinating (but probably not amusing) to see if this current crop of England players can adapt to Capello’s way of playing. It is another question entirely if the best way to bring success to English footballers is to try to make them play like Italians…

7. Italian coaches don’t travel well. Apart from Giovanni Trapattoni’s brief moment at Bayern Munich can you name an Italian coach who has been truly successful outside of southern Europe?

8. Does he rate English players? Capello has signed players from all over the world in his career – guess how many English players he has signed? That’s right – nulla.

9. There is probably a good reason for the above — He’s not daft, how many English players enjoyed success playing under Italian coaches?

10. The call of ‘Mamma Italia’. Here is a scenario – the patriotic and conservative Italian Capello finds it hard to settle in England. Next summer Italy go out in the first round of Euro 2008 and sack Roberto Donadoni. The favourite for the Azzurri job is…?

Simon Evans was Reuters sports correspondent in Milan from 1999 to February this year, when he moved to Miami

FILE PHOTO: Capello, then at Juventus, looks at his watch during the Italian serie A soccer match against Palermo at the Delle Alpi stadium in Turin, May 7, 2006. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

The Olympic soccer tournament holds far more prestige in Latin America than Europe and Brazil regard it at the only major championship which has eluded them. The closest they came was in 1984 and 1988 when they lost in the final to France and the Soviet Union respectively.

With every Olympic Games that comes along, the anxiety and the pressure goes, and every failure invariably claims a high-profile casualty.

In 1996, the victim was Rivaldo. Included as one of the three permitted overage players, Rivaldo was made the scapegoat after an astonishing 4-3 semi-final defeat by Nigeria and lost his place in the senior side for more than one year.

Four years later, senior national team coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo volunteered to double up as Olympic team coach and lost both jobs after a quarter-final loss to Cameroon.

Meanwhile, the once promising career of Ricardo Gomes came to an abrupt end after his team failed to even qualify four years ago.

This time around, Dunga, coach of the senior team, has, like Luxemburgo before him, offered to look after the Olympic team as well.

With many of his Olympic hopefuls based in Europe and with European clubs not obliged to release them for under-23 games, Dunga’s time for preparation is minimal.

But, after his side were thumped 3-0 by a Brazilian championship select XI in a friendly last Sunday, indications are that he will need all the time he can get.

Dunga, who knows that Olympic failure will offset last year’s success at the Copa America, stood on the touchline with the forlorn expression of a man wondering what he had let himself in for.

PHOTO: Dunga gestures during a training session at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, November 16, 2007, ahead of the senior side’s match against Peru. REUTERS/Bruno Domingos

* This post was edited at 1432 GMT to correct a typo in the lead. 

And people tell me writing about Italian soccer is glamorous…

Last night I spent five hours at Milan’s Linate airport hoping for a chance to ask Fabio Capello whether he had held talks with the FA about the England job.

I had been tipped off that Capello was flying in from Madrid and was landing at 1800 so my photographer and I raced off in the hope of securing a scoop. Only then did we realise there was no plane from Spain due to land at that time. We looked out for private jets while making calls to airlines, police and sources and came to the conclusion he was most likely to be arriving after 2200.

After several hours, and a couple of beers and espressos to keep us awake in what is a very dull airport, we were still standing outside the arrivals gate waiting for the trademark spectacles to appear.

Hundreds of passengers came and went but there was no Capello. It was a calculated gamble that didn’t pay off — a bit like the FA’s attempts to woo Jose Mourinho before he turned down the chance to manage a beleaguered England.

Our five hours though were nothing compared to the wait Capello has endured in order to have a shot at coaching the Three Lions.

The 61-year-old, who has won titles at AC Milan, Real Madrid, AS Roma and Juventus, has often spoken of his desire to take on “the biggest job in the world” and was in the frame in 2000 before Sven-Goran Eriksson was appointed.

When Eriksson’s departure was announced in 2006, Capello was busy winning scudettos with Juventus and was unaware that only months later the club would be relegated in a match-fixing scandal and he would be available again.

Having been sacked by Real in June despite winning another championship, the man the Italians call ‘Don Fabio’  is still waiting for a call and this time it looks as if he might just get it.

Good things come to those who wait, but not at Milan airport.
  
Mark Meadows, Reuters Sports Correspondent in Milan

England’s football woes are many and varied but Jose Mourinho’s decision to say “thanks but no thanks” might give the beleaguered Football Association at least one good reason for pre-Christmas cheer.

Mourinho is a great club manager, an original personality and thinker among a largely grey bunch, but whether at this stage of his career you could say he’s the man to lead England to a brighter international future is open to question.

During his time at Porto and Chelsea he seemed to thrive on the relentless nature of the job, immersing himself in tactical minutiae as he prepared for one vital game after another. Can you imagine him putting up with the months of inactivity followed by the storm of media unrest when England, inevitably, faltered from time to time during his stewardship?

I suspect that Mourinho, a man with a delicious sense of the ridiculous, enjoyed his week or so back in the British media limelight before rightly calling time on the speculation by announcing that the England job was not for him. Was he ever really seriously considering it?

Brian Barwick, the FA chief exec charged with his own mission impossible in finding a man who suits all tastes of the England media and fan base, will not have had his heart broken at the news either.

He is after a coach capable of looking at the long term, an habitual winner and a man cussed enough to ignore the British media.

Fabio Capello would fit that description pretty well, as many have noted. He has a clutch of national titles from Italy and Spain, not to mention a Champions League win. At 61, he has more than served his time and would now be contemplating another Primera Liga title challenge with Real Madrid had he not been extraordinarily relieved of his duties after winning it last season.

Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson have given their backing to Capello and if Barwick agrees he should move to close the deal before the Italian has more time to think over the myriad drawbacks of the post. As Ollie Irish notes at Who Ate All The Pies, “The gutter press will (now) refocus their unrelenting spotlight on Fabio Capello and no doubt put him off the job in the same way they did with Felipe Scolari.”

Barwick should bear that excellent point in mind and realise the need for speed. He’s not exactly knee deep in other options, after all.

Jon Bramley, London

PHOTO: Fabio Capello gestures before a peace match in Ramat Gan stadium near Tel Aviv June 19, 2007. REUTERS/Yonathan Weitzman