Reuters Soccer Blog

Soccer Break Monday

Real Madrid 1 Barcelona 1. Pictures of the teams suggest they were both pleased with the result but you would imagine Barcelona came away the happier side. Though Real were down to ten men for almost the entire second half so must be relieved not to have lost.

Who gained the upper hand then from the first of four clasicos between last Saturday and May 3? Wednesday will be an interesting affair in the King’s Cup final, a one off match as opposed to the two-legged Champions League semi-final.

Another fierce rivalry that was played out over the weekend was the Manchester derby, where the blue half of the city emerged victorious to ease the pressure on Roberto Mancini who must surely fancy his chances of beating Stoke City in the FA Cup final to hand City their first piece of silverware since 1976.

Ugly scenes marred the end of the match in which Rio Ferdinand and Mario Balotelli clashed but the United captain was quick to play down the spat. Balotelli in the news again though, will he stay at City?

At Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium a quite extraordinary end to the match provided two penalties and a managerial dispute after the final whistle following Liverpool’s 102nd-minute penalty to snatch a 1-1 draw with the Londoners, whose chances of the title are diminishing rapidly.

Thankfully Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who suffered a sickening but accidental blow to the head in the second half and was stretchered off holding up play for eight minutes, is well.

In Europe several teams moved closer to winning their respective leagues, and back in England Tottenham Hotspur’s Gareth Bale was given the player of the year award. If the price on his head wasn’t already big enough, surely now he will be a major target for European clubs this summer. Will he stay or will he go?

Does anybody actually care who captains England?

Last week, when Chelsea held a news conference to preview their Champions League match against FC Copenhagen, manager Carlo Ancelotti spent the first 20 minutes fielding questions about John Terry’s re-instatement as England captain.

The Chelsea press officer finally stepped in in an attempt to steer the subject back to club football by asking if there were any questions about the forthcoming match or for fellow guest, defender Branislav Ivanovic.

“Yes,” came the first reply. “Branislav, what do you think of John Terry as a captain?”

The feeding frenzy continued through the weekend and into England’s preparations for Saturday’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Wales. Rio Ferdinand was “understood” to be furious. “Sources” said he had considered retiring from international football. Capello was widely attacked, ironically, for releasing the news through the media and then for not acting quickly enough to “clarify” the situation when that self-same media cut loose on the matter.

Finally, on Tuesday, Terry was wheeled out by England to face the press.

The defender duly said all the right things. He was “very delighted” of course and yes, Rio had been in contact to say congratulations, proving “what a great man” he was.

Terry decided that the players saying nothing when Capello asked them if they had any questions on the issue was proof that they were all behind him, though he did admit that he was probably “not everybody’s cup of tea”.

Soccer Break Tuesday

The pain for Arsenal fans just rolls on it would seem, as a trip to my office’s kitchen confirmed on Monday when I heard two voices grumbling about “Van Persie” and “not enough shots”.

The North London club’s woes of the last two weeks or so have been much publicised, but perhaps at last there is some news to cheer Gunners fans up in the return of former keeper Jens Lehmann? Who would you prefer in goal? Lehmann, or Arsenal’s only currently available goalie Manuel Almunia, in good form in the last two matches against Barcelona and Manchester United?

Keep a close eye out as the signing could be confirmed on Tuesday after Arsenal moved to sign the German late on Monday.

Some very recent news on the earthquake repercussions is that Japan’s J. League has been postponed indefinitely, while news on the international friendlies is due on Wednesday.

Now onto Tuesday’s Champions League matches, including four former winners. Do you agree with these predictions?

Inter Milan must become only the second team in Champions League knockout phase history to overturn a first-leg home defeat with a second leg away win. Some task.

Worth a bet given Bayern’s turbulent last week in which coach Louis van Gaal said he would leave at the end of the season? Bear in mind however that Van Gaal, while at Ajax Amsterdam in the 1995/96 season, was the only coach to achieve this feat according to UEFA statistics.

Drogba, Ferdinand…who next for the World Cup curse?

A top player seems to get injured on the eve of every major tournament and this year it looks like Didier Drogba and Rio Ferdinand have suffered the World Cup curse.

Ivory Coast captain Drogba is seriously doubtful for the extravaganza after injuring his elbow in a friendly against Japan on Friday.

England captain Ferdinand is out of the tournament after he hobbled out of hospital on crutches following a scan on his injured left knee.

The 31-year-old defender suffered the injury in the final minutes of England’s first major training session in South Africa after he went into a tackle and fell badly.

Italy’s Andrea Pirlo has also suffered a calf strain and could also miss the whole World Cup.

It’s still seven days before the big kick off and there could be yet more injuries in the runup.

UPDATE: Predicting the scores — round 12

TUESDAY UPDATE: Whatever you think about the penalty which gave Liverpool a 2-2 draw with Birmingham, it certainly made a difference to our prediction league.

Miles Evans got a full five points for correctly predicting that score while he was even more pleased that John Terry ignored some newspaper headlines and secured a 1-0 win for Chelsea over Manchester United.

That game was our double pointer for the weekend so Miles received 10 points and finished as our top scorer for the weekend with 16 overall to jump into fifth place.

One of our contributors, Sean, did even better because he even specified that Terry would grab the only goal with a header. Where’s your crystal ball, Sean? I desperately need it! Have an extra five points.

Here are the updated scores for the Reuters Soccer Blog panel. Please let us know how you did in the comments.

Reuters Soccer Blog panel: Patrick Johnston 117, Paul Radford 102, Mitch Phillips 93, Mike Collett 88, Miles Evans 86, Simon Evans 85, Kevin Fylan 78, Mark Meadows 77, Julien Pretot 74, Neil Maidment 67, Asia Sports Desk 55, Justin Palmer 38, Martyn Herman 28, Sonia Oxley 26    

Is Ferdinand past his peak?

Manchester United’s 2-0 defeat at Liverpool has again exposed the chinks in the Premier League champions’ armour, notably their defensive frailties against top level opposition.

While United overcame Rio Ferdinand’s howler in a 4-3 win over City in the Manchester derby, the England centre back’s lack of pace and cutting edge cost Alex Ferguson’s side dearly against Liverpool.

The ease with which a half-fit Fernando Torres got away from Ferdinand to score Liverpool’s opening goal will have raised not only Ferguson’s eyebrows, but also given Fabio Capello a headache.

Is Ferdinand, who has looked completely at sea in the heart of United’s defence this season and had a nightmare of a game in England’s 1-0 defeat by Ukraine, going through just a temporary loss of form or are his best days behind him?

Ferguson has no world class cover for Ferdinand in his squad and his decision to let Gerard Pique return to Barcelona after United’s 2008 Champions League triumph might come back to haunt him. That is if it hasn’t already…Pique stopped United from taking the lead in the 2009 final while Ferdinand was at fault for Barcelona’s second goal in the 2-0 defeat by the Spanish champions.

England’s potential rivals in the 2010 World Cup will also be rubbing their hands over Ferdinand becoming a liability and while Capello must hope he rediscovers his form, the Italian might also want to consider an alternative partner to John Terry in the centre of England’s defence.

Does the captaincy really matter in football?

Here’s a question for you: Who is Manchester United’s official club captain?

The hullabaloo surrounding the England cricket skipper has shown how different the role is in the two sports.

I think Gary Neville is actually the club captain at United, but to be honest I’m not sure. He has been injured for most of the last two years so Ryan Giggs took over.

The Welshman is in and out of the team, though, so Rio Ferdinand has donned the armband the most recently. (The pair lifted the Champions League trophy in May, see right, with poor Gary left on the sidelines).

Let’s face it, it doesn’t really matter who the captain is on the football field. Technical areas are so large now that coaches can bark the orders and leave centre backs, traditionally the obvious skippers, to the defending.

In Spain, clubs often have several club captains and in Italy it generally goes to the most-experienced player.

Paolo Maldini, 40, is club captain at AC Milan but plays once every three games. If the captain was that important, wouldn’t they appoint one who played every game?

A little humility goes a long way for England

England have made their best start to a World Cup qualifying campaign and Wayne Rooney thinks he’s playing at his best, so why haven’t Fabio Capello’s men been bragging about how they’re going to bring home the trophy in 2010?

What has been striking about the Capello era is a new sense of humility and realism that England players had long lacked.

Frank Lampard finally admitted last week that he and Steven Gerrard had failed to reproduce their club form when playing for England.

Rio Ferdinand said this week that the national team set-up had been like a circus until Capello’s arrival and that players had been obsessed by their celebrity lifestyles. (more…)

Should fans be criticised for booing their own team?

Supporters are in the firing line after incidents at this weekend’s World Cup qualifiers.

England fans were criticised by coach Fabio Capello and stand-in captain Rio Ferdinand for booing Ashley Cole after his mistake led to a goal in the 5-1 win over Kazakhstan. 

Wembley supporters have a habit of booing their own team in recent times and Capello was at least grateful they gave his side a reasonably easy ride in a goalless first half.

But with tickets costing a lot in these troubled financial times, do fans have the right to boo if the standard is not up to scratch? (more…)

Vlog on the Pitch — who’d be your England captain?

Fabio Capello has named John Terry as captain for England’s friendly against the United States on Wednesday, which may be some slim consolation for that penalty miss in the Champions League final.

Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard have previously held the captaincy under Capello. who will presumably make a decision on who gets the job on a long-term basis before England start their qualifying campaign for the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

Owen Wyatt was at Capello’s news conference this morning and he’d like your views on who the Italian should go for. Personally, I’m beginning to think Owen Hargreaves might be the man for the job — he can take a mean penalty, at least — but I’m sure you’ll have plenty of other ideas. Let us know in the comments, or with a video blog of your own.