Reuters Soccer Blog

New Juventus stadium unique in so many ways

Juventus are due to open their new stadium next month but so far there is no name and no big-name signing to grace it.

From the very start the stadium project was unique.

Juve will be the only Italian club to own their own stadium, something which English soccer fans in particular find very difficult to comprehend.

Inter and Milan only rent the San Siro from the city council while AS Roma and Lazio borrow the Stadio Olimpico from the Italian Olympic Committee.

Juve decided to break the trend and in turn ultimately boost revenue by knocking down the widely detested and council-owned Stadio Delle Alpi (then sharing with Torino for the past few years at the smaller Stadio Communale – also council-owned) and building a new stadium all their own where most of the income goes to the club and nowhere else.

More radical was the decision to only have around 40,000 seats despite being Italy’s most successful and best supported club (although admittedly many fans live in the south of Italy and never go to Turin).

A full arena has been deemed more atmospheric and helpful to the team than playing in a huge cavernous and souless half- full stadium which the Delle Alpi, which could hold more than 60,000, often was.  The San Siro and Rome’s Stadio Olimpico have capacities of around 80,00 but they are only ever full for derbies and big European nights.

Serie A is not as good as it thinks it is

Serie A leaders AC Milan visit Juventus this weekend in one of the showcase matches of the Serie A season but hardly anyone is expecting a “good game”.

I can count on one hand the number of top class matches in Italy this term where excitement, technical proficiency and flair have won the day.

The rest of the season has been largely turgid and although Milan look like snapping up their first scudetto since 2004, their struggles in the Champions League show they are not a patch on some of the remarkable Rossoneri sides of the past. 

Milan are shaky at fullback, currently have three ballwinners playing in midfield who struggle to find that defence-splitting past while upfront Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robinho, Alexandre Pato and Antonio Cassano are all very good but none are “great”.

Once mighty Juventus are enduring another horror season and look like finishing outside the Champions League places again. Their 1-0 win over champions Inter Milan last month should have reignited their campaign but they then went on to lose 2-0 to Lecce and Bologna.

That game against Inter underlined everything that is wrong with Serie A at the moment. Juve doggedly battled for a 1-0 home win but there was no guile on show at all from either side. It was attritional, like Serie A has always been, but the difference is that in the 1990s there was quality as well with the likes of George Weah and Roberto Baggio pulling the strings.

Last weekend’s top-of-the-table-clash between Milan and Napoli turned out to be a damp squib with the Rossoneri winning 3-0 and Napoli barely having a shot. The amount of misplaced passes especially in the first half was unreal. Yes it was raining but these are meant to be the very best players.

Thierry Henry interview

Former Arsenal, Barcelona and France striker Thierry Henry is loving life in the United States and wants to see New York Red Bulls develop identity as an attractive passing football team but he also hankers after an eventual return to Arsenal in some role in the future.

The following is the full transcript of interview by Simon Evans with Henry after pre-season training with the Red Bulls in Fort Lauderdale this weekend. Shortly before the interview began at the team’s hotel Henry was approached by an American guest who recognised him from a documentary film about racism in sport but who then asked the Frenchman for his name.

Q: It must be quite nice to be asked for your name like that. I can’t imagine too many people wouldn’t recognise you back home.

It’s nice…I really don’t mind, I mkind of like not being recognized. The other day I had a day off and had breakfast in the hotel and went later to see a movie just like any normal person and it was just great. It’s refreshing.

Q: The was a view when you decided to leave Barcelona for the Red Bulls that you had headed to the MLS ‘retirement home’ Do you get a bit of that from people?

Whenever I go back, people kind of like, as you say, put MLS down. But you see when the European teams come in for pre-season and I know it is only pre-season but maybe back in time they would have won easily and now you look at the results, quite often the European teams lose or struggle to win. I know they are in pre-season and they aren’t going to go (full out) but it speaks volumes.

Soccer Break – Monday edition

Hello and welcome to Reuters Soccer Blog’s new daily digest where we’ll recommend some of the best stories on the internet for you to read over morning coffee/afternoon tea/cocktails (depending on your time zone).

Where better to start with a look at Birmingham City’s last-gasp win over Arsenal in the England’s League Cup final, the drama of which is depicted in our photo of the 89th minute goal that left the north Londoners still yearning to end that trophy drought.

Here’s the Daily Telegraph’s Jonathan Liew’s verdict. Quite simply, the pressure told.

Arsenal are still on for a treble, of course, so it will be interesting to see how they rebound in the FA Cup, Premier League and the Champions League on March 8 when they face the slick and ruthless Barcelona.

Unlike Arsenal, Juventus really are struggling. 

“Played 14. Won 4. Drawn 6. Lost 4. An abysmal record belonging not to one of Serie A’s relegation threatened teams but to Juventus…” Read on here.

Another mystifying statistic this season is Real Madrid’s poor away form. Over to Marca to explain all.

Would Juve not be better off selling Buffon?

Juventus need a striker desperately but don’t want to bust their budget and yet have two top goalkeepers.

The answer? Why not sell one of the goalkeepers and use part of the proceeds to recruit a world-class forward?

The only problem is the most obvious and lucrative keeper to offload is Italy number one Gianluigi Buffon, widely recognised as one of the best if not best in the game.

Many Juve fans though would agree with the idea of letting Buffon go and entrusting the keeper jersey to the ever reliable Marco Storari if it meant the likes of Diego Forlan or Luis Fabiano could ease their injury and confidence crisis upfront.

Injury-prone Buffon has only just returned after over six months out with a back problem, during which time Storari has been superb.

The spectre of Buffon leaving Turin looked quite possible at the start of January with the likes of Manchester United linked in the media but he has now committed himself to Juve as the days run down in the transfer window.

Juve though still need that striker and having missed out on lesser lights like Antonio Floro Flores, who chose Genoa over the Old Lady, it’s all looking a bit desperate.

Would Gilardino really suit Juventus?

The January transfer window is up and running with Serie A appearing to be ahead of other leagues for early deals.

Sampdoria forward Antonio Cassano has joined AC Milan, meaning Ronaldinho is all set to leave, and Genoa’s Italy defender Andrea Ranocchia has headed to Inter Milan.

The other Italian giants Juventus are keen on a new striker given Amauri’s form and fitness problems and Alessandro Del Piero’s advancing years.

Media reports have continually linked the Turin club with Fiorentina’s Alberto Gilardino, despite both clubs playing the speculation down.

Juve seem to just be trying to collect every Italy striker they can. They already have Vincenzo Iaquinta (the latest of their players to suffer an injury) and Fabio Quagliarella, who arrived from Napoli in the close season after Juve’s bid for Udinese striker Antonio Di Natale broke down.

Lugi Del Neri’s side pondered a bid for Cassano but decided against it but have longed been linked with Samp’s Giampaolo Pazzini.

I know Juventus were close to appointing now Italy boss Cesare Prandelli when he was at Fiorentina but trying to copy his entire strike force is going a bit far, especially as Gilardino is so similar to Quagliarella and may be past his best.

Why can’t divers be punished immediately?

Juventus winger Milos Krasic dived to win a penalty in Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Bologna. We know this because his team mates have admitted it, even if the replay evidence was pretty clear anyway. No contact at all and no slip.

Justice was done for Bologna when Vincenzo Iaquinta fluffed the spotkick but if he had scored, the goal would have stood and there is nothing in soccer’s rules to reverse it.

Krasic could face a ban from Serie A in the next couple of days because of Italian federation rules allowing video evidence to be used to review referees’ decisions.

Several other leagues don’t permit the referee’s authority to be questioned in this way and only rule on cases of mistaken identity or on action the officials haven’t seen.

But if video evidence is going to be reveiwed a couple of days later, when it would have been no use to Bologna, why can’t the evidence be looked at immediately, therefore preventing the penalty?

Ian Holloway, boss of promoted English Premier League club Blackpool, reckons the fourth official could have a booth by the dugouts with a television feed where he could quickly check crucial decisions. 

The fourth official has slightly more power this season, he can alert the referee to incidents he might have missed, but other than controlling managers in the technical area and holding up the electronic board, his time could be used better.

What if Juventus or Liverpool never return to their best?

Form is temporary, class is permanent. The phrase is often used for top players experiencing a difficult spell, but does it refer to clubs as well?

Looking back at the European game, it appears the biggest clubs tend to stay at the pinnacle of the sport give or take a few dips.

Manchester United went awol in the 1970s and 1980s but their sheer size meant they were always likely to regain the glory of the 1950s and 60s. Real Madrid and Barcelona have had their ups and downs in Europe but domestically they have dominated massively and surely always will.

But what will happen to spluttering giants Juventus and Liverpool?

Juve are still suffering indirectly from their 2006 match-fixing demotion. They bounced straight back to Serie A with aplomb and quickly returned to the Champions League but damage had been done.

Last term the twice European champions limped home seventh in Serie A after a bungled transfer policy which could only bring good but not great players to Turin. The brand was no longer what it once was.

This term, their raft of new signings have again lacked the quality which Juve fans were spoiled with when the likes of Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane were recruited.

Are AC Milan now Serie A favourites?

As the dust settles after the end of the transfer window, Italian soccer fans are gradually coming to terms with a possible shift in power at the top.

No one is outwardly saying it, but whispers and hints abound. AC Milan may finally have a squad capable off wrestling the title off Inter Milan after five long years.

Owner Silvio Berlusconi decided to loosen the purse strings and recruiting Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho has seriously spiced up Milan’s front line, at a time when Inter decided not to invest at all and rely on last term’s treble winners minus Mario Balotelli.

It is easy to see former Inter man Ibra fitting straight into Milan’s system in the middle of a front three also containing Ronaldinho and Alexandre Pato. I reckon Robinho has been bought from Manchester City to be a reserve for either Ronaldinho or Pato, who’ve had their injury problems of late.

Besides Robinho’s troubles at City, the only downside to Milan’s transfer business which I can see is that the decision to let strikers Marco Borriello and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar leave for AS Roma and Schalke means there is only 37-year-old Filippo Inzaghi remaining as a substitute target man in case anything happens to Ibrahimovic. 

Inter are probably in a similar situation though with only Samuel Eto’o, Diego Milito and Goran Pandev recognised as established forwards in their squad and if they all start then what options are there for the bench?

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.