Reuters Soccer Blog

Forlan’s fond memories of Leeds

It was a surreal experience to sit at Atletico Madrid´s training ground talking to a Uruguayan former Manchester United player about the Leeds United team circa 2002.

That´s what happened to me on Monday after interviewing Diego Forlan, whose face lit up when I told him I was from Leeds.

“I used to love playing there. I remember they had a really strong team,” he said thinking back to his spell with Manchester United between 2002 and 2004.

The Atletico frontman had been a bit stilted while the television camera had been on him, talking about his team, La Liga, Uruguay and his future, but he relaxed as we shaped to go.

“Mark Viduka, Rio Ferdinand, Jonathan Woodgate, they had strong players,” he said, “and who was the left back?”

“Ian Harte,” I replied.

“Yes, he had a great shot on him. I remember him scoring a fantastic freekick against us once when we won 4-3 there. He ended up playing for a year with (Spanish La Liga side) Levante, didn´t he?”.

Should Europa League winners qualify for the Champions League?

Rules and competition formats which apply to other sports can rarely be implemented in soccer but UEFA may want to have a look at the benefits of a European club basketball formula if it is to further improve the Europa League.

The winners of Eurocup, the continent’s second-tier club basketball competition, win a berth in the Euroleague — the equivalent of football’s Champions League — and the move has had only a positive effect in attendances and the overall quality of teams.

My colleague Brian Homewood has duly noted that the Europa League has produced plenty of drama and full grounds across Europe in its first season after replacing the old UEFA Cup.

But would Liverpool have fielded their best XI in the knockout stages if they hadn’t lost a realistic chance of finishing in the Premier League top four well before the closing stages of the season?

And could Fulham, for all their exploits on the road to the Europa League final, ever hope to play in the money-spinning Champions League given the current balance of power in English club football?

Giving the Europa League winners a Champions League berth would force the top teams in Europe’s lesser club competition to take it seriously from start to finish while it would also present unheralded clubs with a chance of moving up the ladder.

Does Hodgson deserve a crack at top job?

I was chatting to a bunch of Fulham fans after last night’s Europa League final defeat and the question they all asked was, “What did Roy Hodgson say about his future?”

You can tell why they would be anxious. The man who saved them from relegation after coming in midway through the 2007-08 season, guided them to seventh at the end of the next campaign and then on into their first major European final will not be short of job offers, you wouldn’t think.

But could he be a candidate for the top job in the country? It depends, obviously, on what Fabio Capello does after the current World Cup but certainly the fans I spoke to seem to think he might be in line for promotion.

Is that a case of fearing the worst or a real option?

It would be a big step up but the obvious similarities with Steve McClaren ignore the long international experience on Hodgson’s CV.

Watching Fulham last night I got the feeling that Hodgson was squeezing the best out of his players by getting them doing the simple things consistently right.

Could he step up and get an exceptional group of players playing beyond themselves for England?

Europa League final — live

We’ll be providing updates direct from the Hamburg Arena, where Atletico Madrid look to land the first leg of a possible Cup double in the final of the Europa League against Fulham.

The English side have upset the odds all season, knocking out the likes of Juventus and Hamburg on their way to the final. Join us for all the details from a couple of hours before kick-off.

First Europa League final has a familiar feel

The first Europa League season, following its rebranding from UEFA Cup, draws to a close with a final line-up no-one would have expected here in Hamburg, but still, there is a familiar feel heading into this match.

Fulham’s roller coaster ride is reminiscent of the journey made by Spain’s Alaves, when they made it all the way to the final in 2000-01.

The final that year was in Dortmund, a three-hour drive down the A1 from Hamburg, and ultimately the underdogs came up short, losing in sudden-death extra-time to Liverpool.

You could make a case for Atletico Madrid being the rough equivalent of that Liverpool team nine years ago. Liverpool’s European glories looked a little faded back then: they had never so much as qualified for the Champions League at that stage and were being thoroughly overshadowed by Manchester United.

Atletico don’t quite have the same European pedigree but they have always regarded themselves as big stage players, having won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1962 and lost three other European finals.

These days they remain in the shadow of their richer neighbours, having won their last piece of silverware when they completed a league and cup double in 1996. This could be the first part of another double, with a Copa del Rey final to come, and they are determined to enjoy their return to the spotlight. As Liverpool discovered in the semi-finals, they are a streetwise team, with skillful players who have been around a long time and know a thing or two about killing off a game when they hold a lead.

As for Fulham,  who knows how they will deal with the pressure of their first major European final? They have upset expectations so often that they will feel anything is possible. When Alaves played Liverpool in that 2001 final the Spaniards looked like being overwhelmed but they recovered from a 2-0 deficit early in the game to give the English side a real fright.

Europa League semi-finals — live

The Champions League has brought little joy to English clubs this season but the Europa League has been a different story, with Liverpool and Fulham both in with a chance of making the final.

Join us for live chat and on-the-spot details from our reporters as Liverpool take on Atletico Madrid and Fulham face Hamburg in the semi-final second legs.

Liverpool miss Torres more than Atletico

We were treated to the all too rare sight of rival fans standing and sportingly applauding each other at the end of the Europa League semi-final first-leg between Atletico Madrid and Liverpool at the Calderon on Thursday.

The Spanish club’s 1-0 victory had not poisoned the atmosphere, as so often happens, and both sets of supporters sang out the name of former Atletico striker Fernando Torres, now at Liverpool, to the tune of “I love you, Baby.”

Torres still holds a special place in the hearts of the followers of his hometown club, but the sense of loss appeared to be stronger among the English travelling fans.

Liverpool were toothless and had little idea of how to break down a side who have hardly set La Liga alight this season. Quique Sanchez Flores’s team lie mid-table after three consecutive league defeats.

Before the match, Atletico’s players said the suspension of their Argentine striker Sergio “Kun” Aguero was a greater loss than Torres’s knee injury was to Liverpool. The evidence of Thursday night would suggest otherwise.

Torres, who came up through the Atletico youth ranks, gave up on the club to transfer to Merseyside in 2007, but fans didn’t begrudge him the move. They wished him all the best in his quest to improve himself and win titles, which looked to be a long way out of reach for an inconsistent Atletico.

Three years on and Torres is a better player. He scored the only goal in Spain’s triumph over Germany in the final of Euro 2008 but club success continues to elude him under Rafael Benitez.

20 long years for Liverpool faithful

Madrid-based correspondent Martin Roberts writes:

One anniversary Liverpool fans will not be celebrating this summer will be the 20 years since their side last won a league title, a long wait that not only frustrates supporters but must dent any team’s claim to be more than also-rans.

It must be humiliating for those supporters who can remember when Liverpool had the League trophy ready and waiting if a home win sealed the title – all they had to do was fetch it down from the trophy room and give it a quick polish.

Until last season, Liverpool fans could always proudly remind rivals that they still held the record of 18 league titles, but as the years passed without success, it was only a matter of time before that would be matched or even overhauled by Manchester United.

Rafael Benitez’s line has been that Liverpool are simply having an off season, that they are nearly there, that the last step is always the hardest and it just need perseverance.

But the fact remains that a whole generation of supporters have now grown up on Merseyside without knowing what it is like to join in the chant of “champions!” at the end of a season.

For the formidable team led by Alan Hansen in the 1980s, a trophyless season was a brief aberration. If success somehow eluded Liverpool, with Ian Rush, John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Ronnie Whelan and Bruce Grobelaar in the side, to name only a few, supporters could always put down taunts by replying: “Wait till next season!”

Bravo for the unpredictable King’s Cup!

Spain’s much-maligned King’s Cup struggles to make an impression these days with La Liga and the Champions League squeezing it into a distant third in terms of prestige and matches poorly attended.

But this week’s Cup action served up a veritable feast of drama that more than matched what is generally served up in the other two competitions.

Atletico Madrid’s madcap victory over Recreativo Huelva earned them the last quarter-final berth on Thursday, with a thriller at the Calderon.

Having lost 3-0 in the first leg, to a team in the wrong half of the second division, Atletico stormed into a 4-0 lead.

But true to their tradition of making life complicated for themselves they gifted Recre an away goal and then had a player sent off, before Simao Sabrosa curled in a wonderful freekick to put them through 5-4 on aggregate.

The other second legs were no less enjoyable. Holders Barcelona were dumped out by Sevilla after just failing to turnaround a 2-1 first-leg defeat, thanks in no small part to the heroics of Sevilla goalkeeper Andres Palop.

Real Mallorca grabbed a 92nd-minute goal to see off second-division Rayo Vallecano 4-3 on aggregate, and second-tier Celta Vigo netted a 91st-minute penalty to humble Villarreal.

Chelsea target Aguero impresses his suitors

******The prospect of seeing Sergio “Kun” Aguero pulling on a blue shirt next season instead of the red and white stripes of Atletico Madrid must be a mouthwatering one for any Chelsea fan.******The 21-year-old Argentina striker, nicknamed “Kun” after a Japanese cartoon character with a similar hairstyle, showed why he remains a target for top clubs when he came off the bench and scored two superb goals in the 2-2 draw at the Calderon on Tuesday.******Cash-strapped Atletico turned down offers for him over the close season including, reportedly, one of around 35 million euros from Chelsea. His contract includes a buyout clause worth 60 million.******The London club are waiting to hear the result of their appeal against FIFA’s transfer ban and could make another move for Aguero either in the January transfer window or next summer.******Coach Carlo Ancelotti said this week he could see Aguero playing alongside Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba but added that he thought it would be hard for Chelsea to snare the Argentine.******The contrasting playing styles of the pair were evident on Tuesday.******Aguero, with his low centre of gravity, is hard to shake off the ball and is at his best running at defenders. On his day he is a deadly finisher, as Barcelona found out to their cost last season.******Drogba is all about muscle, which he used to good effect on Tuesday when he outjumped the Atletico defence to score a header and then bulldozed his way through to net a second.******Aguero fathered a son, Benjamin, with Diego Maradona’s daughter Giannina in February and Maradona, who is also Aguero’s boss as Argentina coach, advised him last year to seek a move to Inter Milan.******Atletico, 18th in La Liga after nine matches with just one win, are almost certain to miss out on a Champions League spot for next season, making it much more likely Aguero will move on from the Spanish capital.******PHOTO: Atletico Madrid’s Sergio “Kun” Aguero (L) scores with a free kick against Chelsea, Nov 3, 2009. REUTERS/Juan Medina