Reuters Soccer Blog
World Soccer views and news
Bojan, Canales suggest La Liga no longer a teenage wasteland
Lionel Messi hogged most of the headlines thanks to his wonderful hat-trick at Tenerife, but it was the performances of a pair of teenagers who had pundits, coaches and team mates purring following the weekend’s La Liga action.
Barcelona’s Spanish forward Bojan Krkic has been around for a while –- he made his first-team debut in a friendly in Egypt in 2007 -– but all three of Messi’s goals came from passes supplied by the 19-year-old and coach Pep Guardiola was effusive in his praise.
“He constantly demonstrates his quality, but the problem is his coach doesn’t let him play very much,” Guardiola joked at a news conference.
“He didn’t manage to score (against Tenerife) but he has to see that the team doesn’t just survive on goals but on assists too.”
Racing Santander midfielder Sergio Canales is a newer phenomenon.
The 18-year-old had already earned himself the nickname “Peter Pan” with some polished performances that belied his relative youth.
But two outstanding goals in a 2-1 win at Sevilla on Saturday, in which he made experienced goalkeeper Andres Palop look rather foolish, have put him firmly in the spotlight as one of La Liga’s hottest young talents.
How did Argentine football get in such a state?
Lionel Messi walks off the pitch in Asuncion his head bowed after Argentina’s 1-0 defeat to Paraguay. A few days later he scores for Barcelona and the dimpled grin is back on his face.
Diego Maradona says that on the compact Rosario central pitch Argentina will pin Brazil against their goal. They do up to a point, with masses of possession, but Dunga’s men demolish them in lethal counter-attacks with Maradona watching in glum silence and Argentina return to River Plate for next month’s key World Cup qualifier against Peru.
“Coco” Basile is all grins, throaty one-liners and “I know the dressing room inside out” at his official presentation as Boca Juniors coach on July 1. Last weekend it was his empty look the cameras caught as he walked off the Bombonera pitch after another defeat.
Nestor Gorosito welcomes the three musketeers Ariel Ortega, Marcelo Gallardo and Matias Almeyda at the start of a new campaign last month. Last week he went sprawling in the mud on the side of the pitch when a Lanus player slid into him in pouring rain during a 1-0 defeat that put River Plate out of the Copa Sudamericana, and the crowd cheered.
Argentina’s big teams, the national side that have won two World Cups and the multi-decorated Boca Juniors and River Plate, are not well and fans and media are struggling to understand why.
Former Argentina captain Roberto Ayala said recently in Spain he saw a “surprising lack of rebellion” in Argentina’s players against their situation as Maradona’s side hovered dangerously close to World Cup elimination.
The coaches may not have the answers but players who week in, week out make the European headlines for their clubs, the likes of Messi, Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero and Diego Milito, are failing to deliver for Argentina.
They will Make it through, common, its Argentina!http://www.soccerfanatic.com
Barcelona beat Manchester United — your views
Barcelona deposed Manchester United as European champions with an outstanding 2-0 victory in the Champions League final at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday.
Samuel Eto’o struck the opener after 10 minutes when he cut in from the right past Nemanja Vidic with surprising ease and his low shot beat United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar at his near post. Xavi cracked a free kick against a United post at the start of the second half before Lionel Messi sealed the win after 70 minutes when he scored with a beautifully timed header from Xavi’s cross.
It was a curiously subdued performance from United, while Barcelona got full value for a performance that was thoroughly professional but hardly brilliant.
Alex Ferguson was content to say the best team won. Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.
PHOTO: Barcelona’s Xavi (R) and Victor Valdes celebrate victory over Manchester United. REUTERS/Albert Gea
The 2011 Champions League finals had a rematch between the two giants of football. And again, it was Barcelona that was victorious, clearly, the better team won. Though Manchester had their revenge in the pre season games, I’d say Barcelona still has an edge in terms of attacking football.
Real poised for election fever
Potential Real Madrid presidential candidates will be trying to decide whether Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi is the player most likely to deliver them the majority of votes in this summer’s election campaign.
Ramon Calderon was forced out of the presidency earlier this month, setting the wheels in motion for another six months of rumours and speculation as rival candidates manoeuvre behind the scenes to take power at the Bernabeu.
The nine-times European champions are ‘owned’ by the thousands of club members rather than a small group of shareholders, and they get to chose their president every four years.
As a result, candidates need to splash the cash with full blown election campaigns complete with manifestos, lists of promises, advertising campaigns, and rallies to win over the voters and the local media. (more…)
Real Madrid would do well to concentrate on building a balanced side rather than throw money away on big-name signings, but given that it’s election time and the sheep-like mentality of most of the socios, it’s likely to be a forlorn hope.
Ronaldo takes World Player award, Messi waits for next year
Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo was named FIFA World Player of the Year on Monday night, adding the award to the Ballon d’Or he picked up from France Football and the FIFPro World Player of the Year title voted for by his fellow professionals.
It was an inevitable choice after the season he had for United in 2007-08 but I’m pretty confident that next year the award will be going to the man who finished second this time. Lionel Messi is playing ridiculously well at the moment, just streets ahead of anyone else in Spain, and I don’t think too many people would disagree that on current form he is the world’s best player.
On the basis of what the two achieved in 2008, though, Ronaldo deserves the award, I think. Here’s how we described him:
The Portuguese winger is blessed with strength, pace, aerial ability and savage shooting power and he invariably delivers when it matters most — his magnificent header in last season’s Champions League final a prime example.
He arrived at Manchester United just as David Beckham was leaving but he was no straight replacement. While Beckham was all precision passing and energy, Ronaldo has more tricks up his sleeve than a circus magician.
His initial tendency to over-indulge his exhibitionist personality with endless stepovers has gradually receded over the years at Old Trafford and last season he turned into a ruthless scoring machine.
An extraordinary tally of 42 goals propelled United to the Champions League and Premier League double and earned him a place in United folklore alongside George Best.
Fair enough, I’d say.
PHOTO: Cristiano Ronaldo holds the FIFA World Player 2008 award in Zurich, Jan 12, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
On current form Messi should win this year’s accolades and Barcelona would probably take apart anyone over two legs in the Champions League. But I hope Benzema can produce one last piece of magic for Lyon before he joins us next summer.
Vlog on the pitch – what do you make of Rafa’s mind games?
Rafa Benitez was on the attack ahead of Liverpool’s game against Stoke City but then decided to leave Robbie Keane and Fernando Torres on the bench.
The game ended in a goalless draw and on Sunday Manchester United put three past Chelsea to close the gap at the top.
Owen Wyatt and Jon Bramley discuss Liverpool’s team selection and look ahead to Monday’s FIFA World Player of the Year Awards Gala. Should Messi or Ronaldo take home the title?
What Messi thinks of Ronaldo
UEFA’s teams of the year feature is irresistible reading for lovers of footballing gossip, particularly in Spain and Argentina.
Javier Zanetti, Leo Messi and Kun Aguero have all published their best XIs of 2008 on uefa.com and there are a couple of conspicious absentees…
Aguero could find no place for his countryman Messi, despite his brilliant form over the year, while Messi himself left out… Cristiano Ronaldo.
Here’s Aguero’s team: Cech; Sagna, Ferdinand, Carvalho, Evra; Ronaldo, Xavi, Fabregas, Ribery; Del Piero, Ibrahimovic.
There’s a little comment on each and here’s what he says about Ibrahimovic: “He has the ability to destabilise opponents. Next to Ronaldo he is the best player in the world at the moment. He is the complete striker.”
Ouch! Isn’t he forgetting someone?
i think that messi is better then ronaldo and kaka messi is faster then kaka and ronaldo
this year he wil win THE PLAYER OF YEAR award
messi wonder kid fast man on the ball
MESSI THE BESt
Mascherano is captain, but Messi must play the Maradona role
When Carlos Bilardo began his job as Argentina coach in January 1983, the first thing he did was to visit Maradona in Spain where he was playing for Barcelona.
Bilardo told Maradona he wanted him as Argentina’s captain, that he was the only player sure of his place and that he would build a team around him to win the World Cup.
Maradona, who had had an unhappy first World Cup in Spain six months earlier, reacted by promising himself nothing would stand in their way.
“The first thing I resolved in that moment was to create something, a conscience: to play for the national team had to be the most important thing in the world,” he said many years later in his autobiography.
“If we had to travel thousands and thousands of kilometres, do it; if we had four matches in a week, play them; if we had to stay in little hotels that were falling apart, accept it…Everything, everything for the national team, for the blue and white.
Farid
seems like u dont have any footballing sense. I guess you dont even know how to differentiat between Narrative Intelligence and Footballing Intelligence
Mascherano is the best and plays for the best club in da world
Time to revamp player awards
This week we had the nominations for FIFA world player of the year, discovered the winner of the FIFPro world player of the year and mulled the contenders for the Ballon d’Or.
Exactly how many gongs do we need? In the recent past the situation was a bit clearer.
The Ballon d’Or was originally just for Europeans (hence the foreign language-challenged English calling it the European player of the year). In 1995 magazine France Football, which runs the award, decided any player playing in Europe could win it and since 2007 any footballer in the world is eligible (although it will surely be rare for a player not playing with a European side to win). (more…)
Yep, Cristiano Ronaldo, 40+ goals as a midfielder on a club with Rooney and Tevez is no small feat. He was clearly the best.
King Kun? Messi shows him who’s boss
It was the battle between the young pretender and the crown prince but there was to be no revolution, just wonderful football.
Atletico Madrid’s hot-shot striker Sergio Aguero has stolen all the headlines in recent months and has quickly been compared to Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. A match-winning display in March’s 4-2 win over Barca further boosted Aguero’s profile. (more…)
messi is obviously not the the heir to marodona… in fact why are they even comparing the two. messi is in a differnt class of his own way above maradona. maradona was a freaking drug addict and he was not even that good.
I hope Canales stays a little longer at Racing to develop as a player, amongst the people who have raised him to this level so far.
A new contract giving Racing the chance to earn a decent pay day when he goes, which he inevitably will, is the least he can do for his hometown club.
The way he took those two goals against Sevilla suggest he has a great future in front of him.