Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
Sweden hope Ibrahimovic can sparkle now Milan are out
Phil O’Connor
There was one soccer coach just as happy as Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola on Tuesday when his side knocked AC Milan out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage.
That man is Sweden coach Erik Hamren.
With Euro 2012 approaching fast, Hamren will be quietly pleased that top striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic won’t be involved in the final in Munich on May 19 and can instead avoid injury and stay fresh.
Zlatan may not be as pleased. Having won a slew of titles with Juventus, Inter, Barcelona and Milan, “that damn Champions League” (as he once referred to it) remains beyond his grasp.
In a recent interview with a UEFA magazine he changed his tune somewhat, saying he is happy with his career regardless of whether or not he wins Europe’s premier club competition.
This sent me flicking through my notebooks and I came across an entry from a Sweden press conference in 2009, just after he had secured yet another Serie A title with Inter. Ibra finished the season as Italy’s capocannoniere (top scorer) on 25 goals – typically, the goal that put him on top was an outrageous backheel on the last day of the season against Atalanta.
Bad boy coming of age as Bendtner buries Liverpool
By Phil O’Connor
A contract running out, in trouble over drunken behaviour and a country qualified for Euro 2012 – whatever one thinks of Sunderland’s on-loan Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner, his life is far from boring.
With the clock ticking down on an Arsenal deal that is highly unlikely to be renewed, Bendtner hit the headlines this weekend as he struck his second goal in two games to all but end Liverpool’s hopes of a shot at next year’s Champions League.
His success, while wearing a face mask, in the 1-0 win makes something of a pleasant change. Signed by Arsenal at 17, Bendtner has too often wound up in the newspapers for all the wrong reasons.
But things might be changing – after a recent arrest for damaging cars whilst on a night out with team mates, he issued an apology to fans via a Danish newspaper and promised to concentrate “only on football” in future.
When Bendtner spoke to Reuters recently as he joined the Denmark squad for the friendly against Russia, he was philosophical about his future.
He said he was looking forward to seeing his friend Andrei Arshavin – who had also recently left Arsenal to rejoin Zenit St Petersburg on loan – and that he could consider continuing his career in Russia.
What can England achieve at Euro 2012?
Whoever takes over from Fabio Capello either as a caretaker manager or a long-term replacement faces the dauting task of living up to somewhat unrealistic hopes that England will land their first major trophy since the 1966 World Cup.
Let’s face it, the Three Lions have entered every tournament since, bar Euro 1996 on home soil, as one of the dark horses to bring the silverware back home but never as the top contenders among a plethora of more talented if not more resourceful nations taking centre stage either in European Championships or World Cups.
The Capello experiment failed for two reasons. One, as my colleague Mitch Phillips pointed out, was his inability to warm up to the English mindset and language. The other, in my humble opinion as an outsider, is that for all his impressive achievements with Real Madrid, Milan, Juventus and Roma, the 66-year old had never coached a national team during his illustrious career and lacked a certain verve.
There is precious little margin for error in international football and even more so for those who take the unforgiving job of coaching England. Many of Capello’s predecessors found the ever so thin line between success and failure too tough to navigate, amid cries from glory-hunting fans to bring the trophy “back home” to the birthplace of the game.
From the vast lands of eastern Europe, a region as alien to the English mentality as Capello’s largely incomprehensible attempts to address the players in an adopted language, an England triumph looks as unlikely as did in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, especially with Wayne Rooney out of their opening two games with suspension and John Terry’s involvement hanging in the balance all together after he was stripped of captaincy.
Then again, will one-game caretaker Stuart Pearce, whose penalty miss in the shootout against Germany in their epic 1990 World Cup semi-final denied England a chance of rekindling past glory, be given the opportunity for what would be a spectacular reprieve?
Is he the right man for the job on a long-term basis or should the FA roll out the red carpet for favourite Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, at the end of the season?
Interesting site about What to do in Ukraine during Euro 2012 :
http://nlru.blogspot.com/
Mumbling Capello never at home in England
Fabio Capello arrived in London four years ago with a sparkling CV but for all his club success he departed still barely able to speak English and with his adopted country frought with division and long shots for success at Euro 2012.
It is ironic that his tenure was effectively ended by an interview given in his native Italian, when he said he disagreed completely with the FA’s decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy.
Capello, rich beyond dreams, with trophies and titles galore and looking forward to retirement as he turns 66 this year, felt undermined and betrayed. The FA seemingly felt the same way and England fans, unanimously if the phone-ins and social media are any indication, were left pleading for an English manager who they, and the players, can understand.
In these days of multinational Premier League players and managers it seems a petty point, and one that would no doubt have been conveniently overlooked if he had found success at the 2010 World Cup.
But Capello’s inability to master even the most basic vocabulary required for a manager’s post-match press conference eventually came to symbolise his failure to get to grips with the English game and mentality.
Vastly experienced in the political machinations of Serie A and La Liga, he nevertheless seemed out on a limb when forced to deal with the vast baggage that comes with the job of England manager and was regularly left completely bemused by questions from journalists with a multitude of agendas.
Should Terry go to Euro 2012 at all?
So now we know. John Terry has been stripped of the England captaincy (again) but is available for selection for Euro 2012, which ends days before the start of his trial for alleged racist abuse.
Of course, Terry is innocent until found guilty and most fans would agree he should not be dropped from the team because of a so far unproven allegation, which he denies.
Related issues must come into coach Fabio Capello’s thinking though when selecting his Euro squad.
Firstly, will worries over the court case affect Terry’s form? Let’s face it, the centre back is not the player he once was. The likes of Joleon Lescott, Phil Jagielka and Chelsea team mate Gary Cahill are champing at the bit to take his place assuming Rio Ferdinand will recover full fitness and be the other main centre back. Which leads me onto the second point.
How will Rio react to playing with Terry, a man accused of racially abusing his brother Anton?
How will other black players in the England squad react to Terry and could it upset the team’s hopes in Ukraine and Poland? Stripping him of the captaincy alleviates some of the issues but bigger ones may remain.
Capello has a massive decision to make.
Let’s take a look at what has happened: A. The hearing at the Crown Court was a fiasco. If the court had stop to think and not listened to Chelsea, The FA and JT’s Agent the case would haves gone on and this debockle would have been avoided. Why did the court listen to men with financial interests? If JT was injured for a long streach The robber Barons would have lost their investments just the same.
I say treat JT as any regular citisen have the trial and get it over with. Would the Crown Court give you or I this approch to delaying the case because we had an important engagement that we needed to prepare for, I don’t thing so.
Sweden boosted by Guidetti and Ibra displays
Under normal circumstances Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s dipping first-half free kick in AC Milan’s 3-0 win over Cagliari on Sunday would have been enough to give Sweden coach Erik Hamren a pleasant end to the weekend.
But if Hamren had been watching Feyenoord beat Ajax in in Holland’s Eredivisie on Saturday he would have seen another Swede, John Guidetti, net a hat-trick as Feyenoord won 4-2, giving him a mouthwatering selection problem ahead of Euro 2012.
On loan from Manchester City, Guidetti is widely considered to be one of Sweden’s most promising talents in the post-Zlatan generation, but until his move to Rotterdam he hadn’t done much at the top level of the game.
Starved of opportunities at mega-rich Manchester City, he had a successful spell on loan back in Sweden with Brommapojkarna and a short stay at Burnley. These two stints have given a glimpse of his precocious talent, but it is in Holland that he is finally starting to deliver.
Fourteen goals so far this term for Feyenoord have made him a fan favourite, with his hat-tricks against Twente and Ajax going a long way to establishing his reputation. He broke into the Swedish Under-21 side in May 2010, and with Alexander Gerndt – recently convicted on a domestic violence charge – unlikely to be picked for the foreseeable future, Guidetti may be fast-tracked into Hamren’s senior setup in time for Euro 2012.
If Hamren is considering bringing him to face France, England and Ukraine at the finals it is likely that he wil be in the next squad to face Croatia in a February friendly.
Swedish football family suffering Christmas unrest
By Philip O’Connor, Scandinavia sports correspondent
Sweden’s soccer year officially came to an end last week with Wednesday’s traditional press conference and Christmas lunch at the football association’s Rasunda headquarters.
The normally sedate affair was given extra spice by Alexander Gerndt’s conviction the previous day for domestic violence and the FA’s reaction to it.
The Utrecht striker’s hearing in a Helsingborg court appeared to catch the Swedish game’s governing body by surprise.
Chairman Lars-Ake Lagrell, soon to retire after 21 years at the helm, first appeared to suggest that the suspended sentence and fine was punishment enough and that the Gerndt would be given no further sanction.
National team coach Erik Hamren said on Wednesday he had not been aware of any impending verdict in the case.
In a land as conscious of equality and respect as Sweden, that was never going to be enough.
Both teams got the Euro 2012 playoff draw they wanted
By Philip O’Connor in Stockholm
It wasn’t just Irish eyes that were smiling when the Euro 2012 playoff draw was made in Polish city of Krakow – some of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) delegation appeared to be laughing out loud when they were drawn to face Estonia, with the winner heading to next year’s finals.
But despite the protestations of coach Tarmo Ruutli, Ireland probably represents the best possible draw for the Estonians, given that the other alternatives were Portugal, Croatia or the Czech Republic.
“I don’t think the Republic of Ireland were the easiest of our potential opponents,” Ruutli said in a statement after the draw. “All the teams at this stage are strong and they proved it during the group stage. However, I won’t deny the fact that we wanted to face Ireland more than the others.”
Former Ireland captain Kenny Cunningham didn’t mince his words, telling RTE TV that “everyone would have been leaning towards Estonia. They are the weakest of the teams we could have faced.”
But Ireland’s problem may be that, despite a plethora of players playing in the English Premiership, they don’t tend to do well against “weak” teams.
They struggled to beat lowly Andorra in their two qualifiers, and suffered the ignominy of conceding a goal to them at home.
Euro 2012 playoffs renew recent rivalries
The Euro 2012 two-legged playoffs should offer plenty of action and eight entertaining matches, with the last four berths in next year’s finals up for grabs.
While Ireland will start as strong favourites against Estonia, the other three ties appear set to be nerve-jangling affairs in which two former Yugoslav repubics will be eager to avenge painful defeats against their respective opponents, while another is aiming to make history in only their second tournament as an independent nation.
Revenge will be the only thing on Croatia’s mind when they clash with Turkey, who knocked them out in an epic Euro 2008 quarter-final. Having taken the lead in the final minute of extra time to go 1-0 up, Croatia were almost already celebrating when Turkey equalised with the last kick of the game and then won the penalty shootout to send their fans in Vienna into raptures, leaving Croatian coach Slaven Bilic and his players shattered.
The defeat had far-reaching consequences for Croatia, as they struggled throughout their 2010 World Cup campaign and failed to reach the finals, while Bilic repeatedly came under fire from the media after tepid performances from a team which had clearly not recovered from the shell-shocking loss to the Turks.
They showed precious little improvement in the Euro 2012 qualifiers, as a 2-0 defeat by Greece which consigned them to the playoffs exposed chinks in the armour of a squad expected to qualify for next year’s finals as the group winners.
But Croatian fans, several of whom had told me they were so busy celebrating Ivan Klasnic’s goal in Vienna against Turkey they missed Semih Senturk’s deft equaliser, will forget the ordeals they have endured over the past three years if the team lay their gosts to rest in what promises to be a cracking tie, with the return leg in Croatia’s capital Zagreb.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Swedes show Dutch courage
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.
