Reuters Soccer Blog
World Soccer views and news
Spreading out internationals makes sense
UEFA’s plan to spread out fixtures during international weeks makes perfect sense and should bring an end to those strange weekends during the season with no top class soccer, when I find myself watching rubbish old B-movies and darts.
The idea would see a national team play on Thursday for example and then Sunday, or Friday and Tuesday like now or Saturday and Tuesday.
The “week of football” as UEFA dubs it will also mean the big soccer fans can watch lots of live international football day after day rather than trying to catch the highlights of 20 games all played one one evening.
Clubs can’t moan either as they will still be getting their players back on a Wednesday before a club match as currently happens after the reasonably recent change to play second matches of international double headers on Tuesday.
The only downside to the plan I can see is that national coaches will get less preparation time following weekend club matches if their first game is on a Thursday.
UEFA also wants to harmonise kick off times for qualifiers which makes a lot of sense too.
Everyone knows that Champions League games in the club sphere start at 1845 GMT but looking at Friday’s Euro 2012 games, they start at 1600, 1700, 1715, 1800, 1900, 1915, 1930, 1945, 2000, 2030 and yes the obligatory Portugal at 2100 (when do they ever get to sleep?)
Soccer Break Thursday – Power to Portugal
It was no classic but Porto cemented themselves as one of Europe’s top sides on Wednesday with a 1-0 victory over compatriots Braga in the Europa League final in Dublin, surely the start of better days for the Portuguese game.
Key to this is that Porto’s coach Andre Villas-Boas and figurehead striker Radamel Falcao have agreed to stay at the club, a nice touch in the fast-paced football world where players and coaches come and go all too often.
Predictions for Porto next season? Can they repeat history and win the Champions League the year after winning Europe’s second-tier club competition? Why not.
At the very least, Portugal’s fine showing in Europe this season may bring a much needed economic lift to the country. Manchester is apparently set to profit immensely from having two clubs in the Champions League next term.
On that topic, there could be some big moves this summer. Didier Drogba to leave Chelsea? Brazilian Neymar to fill Drogba’s void? The youngster says compatriots David Luiz and Ramires have told him “London is a beautiful place.”
As the season winds down, it’s time for another Arsenal player to give their analysis on another failed season. Agree with Robin van Persie? And Arsenal fans, are you hopeful of success next year?
Finally, with the FIFA presidential election on June 1 fast approaching, the never-ending corruption allegations seem set to tarnish the whole event. Read here for the latest.
FIFA’s World Cup decision day — live
We’ll be following all the presentations and the vote itself as FIFA’s executive committee decides on the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Spain/Portugal, Russia, England and Netherlands/Belgium are the four rival bids for 2018, while Australia, South Korea, Qatar, United States and Japan battle it out for 2022, with the vote to come on Thursday.
Follow it all here live…
Euro 2012 qualifiers – live
We’re following all tonight’s Euro 2012 qualifiers live. Join us here for updates, comments and pix … and details of all the goals as they go in.
CR9 back in Real good books
Cristiano Ronaldo’s match-winning performance against Olympique Marseille on Tuesday has helped defuse the fierce criticism he attracted for his irresponsible sending off against Almeria at the weekend.
The Portuguese forward, a world record signing for the La Liga club in the close season, apologised for the two yellow cards he picked up — one for ripping off his shirt to celebrate a goal (which had the effect of showing off his bulging muscles to the cameras) and the second for recklessly kicking an opponent.
The Spanish press questioned his attitude the following day and noted that he will miss Saturday’s crucial La Liga clash at third-placed Valencia.
He was also slammed for sulking when he had a penalty saved and not celebrating with Karim Benzema after the Frenchman had driven home the rebound.
Almeria vice president Ricardo Martinez even called him a “chulo”, a cocky show-off.
But against Marseille the former Manchester United star wisely did his talking on the pitch, scoring two superb goals and generally running the French side ragged to fire Real into the last 16 of the Champions League.
“The Portuguese demonstrated that what you have to assess about him is his performance on the pitch — not so much his poses, his gestures or his kicks to opponents, something that all footballers have done at one time or another — and in this he has no equal,” purred Madrid-based sports sheet Marca.
If Real are to win everything they need to keep him fit then because when he isn’t there they struggle in big games. They lost at Sevilla, lost at home to AC Milan and drew away without him, and lost 1-0 away to Barca with him half-fit just over a week ago.
Also, it will be interesting to see whether Pellegrini can control Ronaldo’s rampant ego. His sulky refusal to celebrate with Karim Benzema, who put away his saved penalty against Almeria, was probably Ronaldo’s biggest crime last weekend.
France break Irish hearts to seal World Cup slot
France ensured the likes of Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema and Thierry Henry will be at the World Cup in South Africa next year after winning through with a goal that has left Irish fans seething.
There was nothing wrong with the finish from William Gallas, but Thierry Henry admitted using his hand to keep the ball in play and commentators and Irish supporters are already talking of “The Hand of God II” and “The Hand of Henry” in reference to Diego Maradona in 1986.
“Yes, there is handball but I am not the referee,” Henry told reporters. “I’m in the box, there are two defenders in front of me. The ball bounced off my hand, the referee did not see it and I played on.”
Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni called the goal a “great mistake” by Swedish referee Martin Hansson but he chose not to accuse Henry of cheating.
“I told the referee that it is possible to make great mistakes,” Trapattoni told a new conference after the game at Stade de France. “It is a bitter evening.”
Trapattoni said he felt the referee should have talked to his assistants and to Henry before awarding the goal.
Yes, it’s a shame, even I as a Premier League fan have to says I am sad to see the Irish beging kicked. It looks like the big bosses want The French National Team in the World Cup 2010 no matter what… I feel a bit for Henry though as I always liked him and if you look at what is going in the regular matches there are so many things that are not correct but are still tolerated
Lesser lights may yet shine at this World Cup
Depending on the results of the second legs of the UEFA World Cup playoffs on Wednesday, next year’s tournament in South Africa could contain rather too many of football’s lesser lights for some fans out there.
Portugal, France and Russia, could all perish and the tournament, which is supposed to be the pinnacle of the game, could have a cast list including Honduras, New Zealand, North Korea, Slovakia, Bosnia and Slovenia.
Some fear the absence of world stars like Portugal’s Real Madrid playmaker Cristiano Ronaldo, Russia’s magician Andrei Arshavin and France’s mercurial Frank Ribery would de-value the tournament.
But would it be such a bad thing?
Some would suggest that Europe’s top nations should be guaranteed entry into the World Cup finals with a few token places for the also-rans.
But where would that leave the likes of Bosnia? Who could deny them their place on the biggest stage for the first time if they overturn a 1-0 deficit against Portugal in Zenica.
While that would leave Ronaldo kicking his heels on some beach next year, it would open the way for new names. Bosnia striker Edin Dzeko may not have much of a profile yet outside his home country and the Bundesliga where he plays, but after scoring 10 times in qualifying few would begrudge him his chance.
Incidentally, we are live blogging the play-offs at http://live.reuters.com/Event/World_Cup_ decision_day
World Cup playoff draw – your views
Draw for the European World Cup playoffs:
Republic of Ireland v France Portugal v Bosnia-Herzegovina Greece v Ukraine Russia v Slovenia
Two-legged ties to be played on Nov 14 and 18.
Is that the sound of a World Cup playoff shock I hear? France, 2006 runners-up, will have to beat Giovanni Trapattoni’s Ireland over two legs to reach South Africa next year and that is no easy feat.
The Irish were unbeaten in qualifying and drew with world champions Italy twice while with Trapattoni as coach they have the wiliest of wily foxes, whatever you think of his English. We talked a lot on this blog about the controversy over seedings but it would be hard to separate Greece and Ukraine on paper let alone on the field.
Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo struggled in qualifying and just scraped the playoffs so let’s not discount proud Bosnia yet. Is Guus Hiddink destined for another World Cup with Russia? Let us know what you think in the comments.
The “seeding” of these playoffs are nothing short of unsportsmanlike. There’s something wrong with a system which requires a team that tied the reigning champions twice and is undefeated to have to play France twice to get in. I will be pulling my hair out for Ireland regardless if I’m in Croke Park or watching my plasma. But I can’t help but feel a great wrong has been done, regardless of the outcome. That being said, maybe playing a big country that’s under alot of pressure is better than fighting it out with a scrappy Bosnian side with nothing to lose. We’ll see. Up the Irish!
Usual suspects will be at the World Cup, but would we have missed them?
So now we know which European teams are in the World Cup playoffs and we have a pretty good idea of the seedings, though FIFA’s updated rankings out at the end of the week will provide confirmation ahead of Monday’s draw.
It looks like Russia, France, Greece and Portugal will be the seeded teams with Ukraine, Ireland, Bosnia and Slovenia playing them. After Argentina’s qualification in the final match against Uruguay, it looks increasingly likely that all the big teams will be there in South Africa.
But four days on from my blog on Sunday, the decision to seed the Euroepan teams in the qualifiers doesn’t look any fairer.
Doctor Mario, in a comment on that blog, said seeding was a reward for credits earned but it will take a long time for a new nation like Slovenia to earn enough credits to start a qualifying campaign on a level playing field.
That’s one of the reasons why it tends to be the same old faces making it to the finals. If you are Italy, France, Germany or Spain you know that in your qualifying group will have no other “elite team”, just a couple of second or third tier nations and some also-rans.
If you are someone like Wales, Israel or Finland you know you will have to pull off a series of upset wins even to finish second in your group. And if you do it your reward is to be seeded in the bottom half again in the playoffs.
SL Benfica
I’m sure the World Cup will cope just fine without Nani and Tiago!
I feel that this change in spreading out internationals is a great compromise. There is such a big issue between club and national team play, so if you can find a balance between the two, you would be a hero!
The club teams feel that they have the rights to the player considering that the pay them, so I feel that the national team coaches should respect this change.
http://www.soccerstop.com