Reuters Soccer Blog

from Left field:

Post-Christmas cheer in Oslo for out-of-contract players

By Philip O'Connor, Scandinavia sports correspondent

For many football fans, the post-Christmas blues will be banished by the prospect of their club buying big when the transfer window opens in January.

But the out-of-contract players taking part in the FIFPro Winter Tournament in Oslo are hoping to get their futures sorted out before the window opens again.

On a full-size indoor pitch, players affiliated to Norwegians, Swedish, Finnish and Irish unions got together to play a tournament in front of invited scouts and club representatives from across the region.

All the players are out of contract, and many are desperate for a chance to stay in the game.

“We had 120 players looking for places in the squad,” Irish players’ union boss Steephen McGuinness told Reuters. “Last week we took the decision to bump the kitman, just so we could bring another player on the plane”.

For McGuinness and some of his players, it’s their second visit; some of them got short-term deals at the first tournament here in January, but with many clubs in Ireland and elsewhere only offering short-term, 40 week contracts, several have come back to try their luck again.

Swedes show Dutch courage

By Philip O’Connor

Sweden’s 3-2 victory over the Netherlands to qualify for Euro 2012 may have surprised many observers, but Swedish footballers have a long history of success against Dutch opposition.

The home of “Total Football” has for many years been something of a finishing school for Swedish footballers, and five of the players in the victorious Sweden squad play their club football in the Netherlands.

Many others have passed through Holland on their way to better things.

“Holland is not unlike Sweden. When they get there, Swedish players are well-schooled and it’s a good country to go to, especially as a first stop (in their career),” Henrik Larsson told the Reuters Sports Blog the day after the Swedes handed the Dutch their only defeat of the qualifying campaign.

“They play good football and most people there speak English, so you can make yourself understood much easier than in a league that has a more difficult language,” Larsson said.

It’s an atmosphere that Swedes seem to thrive in.

The strange case of Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the ultimate soccer enigma.

He scores goals for fun when playing Bologna, Chievo and Palermo but often goes missing against AC Milan, Manchester United or Liverpool (which is why he is never in the running for the top awards despite the incredulity of Inter fans).

The tall-yet-skilful attacker has been racking up Serie A titles but the Champions League seems a distant prospect and with all due respect to Sweden, he is not likely to win any honours in international football.

If you want someone to outrageously chip the keeper, Ibra is your man, but don’t expect him to always score that tap-in.

Judging how much these sorts of players (Antonio Cassano? Dimitar Berbatov?) are worth is very tricky, especially after he admitted at the end of last season that he fancied a new challenge.

Inter president Massimo Moratti slapped a 70 million euro price on his head which scared off Barcelona and Real Madrid. If Kaka cost 67, can Ibra really be worth more?

from Left field:

Eriksson sacked as Mexico coach (Update)

Eight years ago, Mexico lost 3-1 away to Honduras in a World Cup qualifier, sunk by a Carlos Pavon hat-trick, and the defeat cost Enrique Meza his job.

Already under enormous pressure, Meza quit in the dressing room afterwards and has gone on to become a highly successful coach with Pachuca, a friendly club founded by Cornish miners whose modern-day facilities would put many of their European counterparts to shame.

On Wednesday, Mexico lost by the same score against the same opponents in the same stadium in another World Cup qualifier. By a strange coincidence Pavon was on target again, the mercurial striker having been brought back at the age of 35 to replace the injured David Suazo.

The result cost Sven-Goran Eriksson his job.

"This morning we talked to Mr Eriksson and announced his departure," Mexican Football Federation (FMF) president Justino Compean told a news conference. "It's a fact results have not been what we expected."

Eriksson's future seems to have been in doubt almost since the day he was appointed last June.

Ibrahimovic – Europe’s biggest enigma

During a typical football discussion at a Milan pub recently, a friend made a comment which really stayed with me.

“Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the closest there is to Van Basten.”

After thinking about it, I realised he was probably right. Ibrahimovic’s touch for a big man and his ability to score wonderful goals really do mark him out as special. It is right to talk of him in the same breath as one of Holland’s finest.

He scored two more, including a free kick, in Inter Milan’s 2-0 win over Fiorentina on Sunday. Inter are heading for a fourth straight Serie A title solely because of the Swede. Jose Mourinho knows it. Without Ibra, Inter would be fourth at best.

Yet in Europe, the former Ajax forward just can’t make an impression. He hit the bar in Wednesday’s Champions League elimination by Manchester United but he really should have scored. Two more excellent chances went begging.

Maybe it’s nerves, too much expectation. Maybe Serie A defences make him look better than he is.

David Villa is the best striker at Euro 2008

When the Spain squad for Euro 2008 was announced all the talk in the Madrid media was about the absence of “El siete de España” — Raul. Luis Aragones, they said, would regret leaving out the former national team captain and all-time top scorer.

But David Villa has made light of the supposed burden of inheriting the number seven shirt and laid the debate to rest in the space of four days with his hat-trick against Russia and superb stoppage time winner against Sweden.

The chants from Spain fans calling for the return of Raul have faded away and been replaced by a chorus of “Villa maravilla“.

Born in the Asturian town of Tuilla, “El Guaje” (“the kid” in the Asturian language Bable) is the son of coal miner, but instead of following the family tradition and heading down the pits he decided to try his luck at football.

Spain must be thanking their lucky stars that he made that career choice for Villa has become a synonym for goalscoring since breaking into the Spanish national side.

His winner against Sweden brought his tally to 18 in just 33 games, a far better strike rate than either Fernando Torres or Raul who scored 44 in 102 appearances for the national side.