Women's Football is Real football

Fantastic article (in Spanish), by Miguel Angel Castillo, on all the hipocrisies and lack of fair play and lack of manners we did not see in the Women's World Cup:
https://es-us.deportes.yahoo.com/noticias/no-las-mujeres-no-saben-jugar-futbol-y-el-mundial-lo-demostro-024919786.html

Give them Bread and Circuses and they will never revolt

"Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt." pic.twitter.com/XFBBZY1RVW

— Panh Rithy (@RPanh) May 26, 2018

Finally....

Valencia finally won a game, 0-1 against Racing the Santander, and although it held hard (Santander missed a penalty in the last minute) it gives hope for at least some satisfactory position for a team in deep crisis. But FC Barcelona remains the ones to beat in Spain: their attacking machine trashed Málaga by 6-0!
In the Premier League the title race drew even closer with Manchester United losing to Fulham, and Liverpool continuing riding on a wave by defeating the top-team Aston Villa with 5-0. As Chelsea lost, the title increasingly seems to be ending in either Liverpool or Manchester.
In Denmark Brøndby kept the pressure on FC Copenhagen by winning against Randers.

Back online

Without the problems of a bad provider hosting my previous page and with the irrelevance of tons of statistical information on my previous "fodbold-fanatic" (as well as poorly designed) I am now back with my football blog only, without the statistics and information.
Cheers and go Brøndby.

Being a Brøndby fan....

I am a Brøndby supporter, and I consider Brøndby the best team in Denmark. That said, there are some bad things about supporting Brøndby, primarily the "fans"/hooligans who give the rest of us Brøndby supporters the following reputation:

• We have never read anything but the label of a beer
  
• Our diet is composed of pizza, burgers and cheap beer
• We have never talked to any woman besides our mothers and the woman selling beer at Aldi
  
• If we ever have children, we will name them all Kim Vilfort, even the girls
  
• Our geographical abilities are limited to knowing the bus number to the stadium
  
• We cut each others hair, and that is why we're all bald skinheads
  
• None of us have ever held a job for any longer than until the next match
• More than a Brøndby victory, we like beating up people
• Burp, fart, shit, puke...
  
• None of us actually know the rules in football...

Sadly for the real Brøndby fans, the vast majority of supporters who dearly love the blue-yellow team, who love football and who know how to behave, there is a small group of Brøndby supporters who for some reason keeps following our team, giving us the above reputation and making trouble like they did yesterday in Århus, after Brøndby lost 2-1 to AGF. Therefore the loss is doubly sad.

Go Brøndby!

Top 10 bummers of Euro 2008

It is not because I feel it was a bad tournament, quite on the contrary, but I can unfortunately think of a number of things that were a bit of bummers in this tournament – on the other hand, some of these things are also what made the tournament memorable!
So here comes the top then bummers of Euro 2008:

10) Boring teams: It has been a great tournament, with great matches and good football. And although the winning team, Spain, swore for the beautiful and attacking football, a few teams seem to be stuck with their defensive style.
9) Austrian football association: An Austrian brewery promised free beer for life to any Austrian player who scored. But when Vastic scored for Austria against Poland, the Austrian FA said no to the price…
No to free beer!!?? Please…!
8) UEFA referee rules: Inconsistency in the implementation of rules seems the most consistent thing in international football. This Euro 2008 was no exception, mostly during Ruud Van Nistelrooi’s first goal against Italy: everyone thought it should have been off-side, since the last Italian player was outside the pitch. However, rules say that he was still “in play” – shattering what everybody else thought.
Now, why should such a rule be kept secret…?
7) David Villa’s injury: David Villa became the top-scorer of the tournament with four goals in only two matches. He could have gotten many more.
6) Gomes: The German striker was a complete flop. I think nobody even got scared when he was put in in the final against Spain, and his missed goal against Austria was one of the biggest misses I have ever seen.
5) Czech Republic: The ageing Czechs were not so much a disappointment because of their mistakes (like Peter Cech’s against Turkey – he still is a great goalkeeper), but more because of the lacking capacity in closing off a match. The Czech team seems to be arrogant: we saw some of the same in the 2006 World Cup, and think a game is finished before the 90th minute.
Fortunately the Turks proved them wrong.
4) Portuguese spirit: While the Turks showed incredible fighting spirit, the Portuguese super stars were completely opposite. While rightfully hailed as favourites when the tournament started, it took only an organised and efficient German side to take away their arrogant confidence. In the last half hour of the quarterfinal the Portuguese players seemed like tired and defeated old ladies.
Portugal didn’t win because they lacked winner-mentality.
3) Greece: The defending champions of 2004 were poor to say the least.
2) France & Domeneqc: France was a huge disappointment. With the players they have their performance bordered the pathetic in spite of good moments against the Netherlands. And here, I must blame a coach which seemed too arrogant, superstitious and disrespected to lead a top-rate team of super-stars to anything.
France was hugely disappointing and that is a pity for football.
1) Swiss TV: It was completely unproper when Swiss TV used a text from the old Nazi lyrics to the German national song for the Germany-Austria game. Not only unproper I guess, but also disgusting and an insult to the great German team and people (and please, this does not mean I will support them!)

Littla Kaffistofan in Iceland

I have been in the Faroe Islands and Iceland for some time now (In fact, I watched the Euro 2008 final in a small café/restaurant in Borgarnes). And well, have just had underlined the fact that there are football fanatics in every corner of the world:
We had been driving for some one hundred km, when we decided to have a cup of coffee in a small non-descript road-cafeteria in a very desolate place: Littla Kaffistofan.
When we got inside the little café, we could see we were in a football-fanatic home: every inch of the walls were covered by flags, pictures, posters, shirts of teams from all over the world, as well as pictures of players and autographs. One small side-room was dedicated exclusevily to Icelandic players, of which, I am ashamed to say, I only know Eidur Gudjohnsen.
I believe we were somewhere between Hveragerdi and Reykyavik, and I would recommend anyone who likes football to check it out, since it was one of the nicest football places I have ever visited.
The following pictures are courtesy of Stig Nygaard:

A trip

I am off on a long trip that will take me from one side of the world to another. I do hope, however, that I will be able to watch football: I am hoping that we will be able to watch football in desolate places, to repeat our 2006 World Cup road-trip.
In any case, I am expecting that updates will be difficult over the coming period. But I shall try.
Cheers!

Germany in the semifinal

I guess it was somewhat to be expected: the Portuguese were unable to stop the efficient Germans who, like in the good ole' days, just become better and better as the tournament goes on.
How far can they go? They will be facing Croatia or Turkey in the semifinal, and neither looks that intimidating after Germany's good game today against an also well-playing Portuguese side. Still, the Portuguese were unable to stop some German players who really excelled: Ballack was incredible (well, he did make a small foul in his third goal, but I am sorry to say, these things happen often, and mostly to the advantage of the defender... I can only blame the referee!), but was closely followed in great performance by many other Germans: Hitzlsperger, Podolski, Lahm and the returning Schweinsteiger.
This team can go far. But how far...?
It is a pity however, to see the Portuguese out again. They play good and positive football, and have some amazing players: Deco was stunning today, and Bosingwa an eternal threat on the right side.
But as a team, they simply were not as good as the Germans, and one is left with the impression that the Portuguese again lost to the cleverer team, just like when losing to Greece in 2004...
Sorry to Portugal, congratulations to Germany!

God doesn't watch football

I have a friend called Søren. We met up last night at a pub in Copenhagen to watch Italy play France. None of us were supporting Italy, and prior to the start of the match, Søren said: "If Italy is eliminated today, it will be God's punishment because the elected Berlusconi!"

As it turns out, and it has been confirmed again, God doesn't watch football.

Auf Wiedersehen

Tonight Germany defeated Austria 1-0 in Vienna. The Austrians are out, while the Germans have made it to the quarterfinals, where they will be facing Portugal.

The current German national team started the tournament with the same charm and offensive play we remember them for in the last World Cup. After what we saw tonight, that seems ages away: we saw a German team play for the result, boringly, against a spirited but inefficient and insufficient Austria side. This German team reminds one more of the 1986 team, and one had some flashbacks to another memorable game in 1982, between the same two teams, where the result was the main thing...

Besides Ballack's amazing free-kick, which gave the Germans the victory, there was nothing really noteworthy in the German side. On the contrary: they were slow, inefficient and at times the defense looked very shaky; if the Portuguese are given the space the Austrians at times had (and wasted), they are in for a bad defeat, and Austria will not be the only Auf Wiedersehen we'll see this week!

I do hope the Germans give us some of the nice playing of what we have seen them do before, because that could make an extraordinary match against Portugal!

In the meantime, thank you and farewell to Austria.

Football fanatic blog 4-years birthday

It is today 4 years ago I started this little football blog here, and I will celebrate by having a beer. The site itself is older: although I do not know the exact date I started to set up this web-site, I know it must be around 10 years ago these days, since it was up to the 1998 World Cup, when I decided to post all my information on the World Cups to share with the whole world.
Since starting the blog 4 years ago, it has been up and down with football and being unable to update the site.
I am no computer expert and I am deeply aware of the many technical faults on my site; but it is my little darling, where I can get my outlet for my football passion.
Cheers to everyone who reads this site: beer is on me.

Viva España

Admittedly, I have not often supported Spain. But yesterday I gave one of my greatest shouts of celebration of the latest years, when Valencia's David Villa scored the winner for Spain against Sweden.
While it makes it so the better that a Valencia player is the most scoring in the tournament so far, I like this young Spanish team, who may be poised to exorcise the ghost of bad tournaments that has always hunted Spain. They entertain and they have shown they fight well in the face of boring defensive teams, like the Swedes, who - alwys difficult to play against - are mostly in the tournament to make us all sleep.
My support for Spain was enhanced from seeing so many obnoxious drunk Swedes who are blind to the fact of their team's boring and overly tactical display. While I am never blind to credit its merits in times when they win, it is boring and bad for football, when a team like Sweden can pull a good result from a team like Spain.

Although I think the Netherlands is the best national team I have seen in years, my support in this Euro 2008 is with Spain (for now...).

Euro 2008 in Brussels

Brussels is a great place to watch football, simply because there are Europeans of every nationality around, unconditionally supporting their teams in the good old fashioned nationalistic manner.
On Place Luxembourg, people come out from their oh-so-important jobs in shiny offices to join crowds watching the games on many of the bars on big screens. I was there the day before yesterday, as Spanish flags were everywhere, together with goofy-looking Russians. Yesterday, Portuguese crowds led the way, but many charming Czech ladies were also around, more discreet, but certainly cathcing more attention.
There were even Swiss we could make fun of after Arda Turan scored the winner for the Turks.
Plenty of beer, friends, and football!

EURO All-time most scoring players

With one goal against Italy (albeit in a clear off-side position), Ruud Van Nistelroij has equalized the legendary Marco Van Basten with five goals, in the number of goals scored in the UEFA Euro finals of all time.
In fact, the table of all time scoring players in the UEFA Euro finals is probably going to go through some changes soon:

1. Michel Platini, France, 1984, 9 goals
2. Alan Shearer, England, 1996 and 2000, 7 goals
3. Patrick Kluivert, Netherlands, 1996 and 2000, 6 goals
4. Marco Van Basten, Netherlands, 1988, 5 goals
5. Savo Milosevic, Yugoslavia, 2000, 5 goals
6. Milan Baros, Czech Republic, 2004, 5 goals
7. Nuno Gomes, Portugal, 2000 and 2004, 5 goals
8. Thierry Henry, France, 2000 and 2004, 5 goals
9. Zinedine Zidane, France, 2000 and 2004, 5 goals
10. Ruud Van Nisterooij, Netherlands, 2004 and 2008, 5 goals
    
11. Jurgen Klinsmann, Germany, 1988, 1992 and 1996, 5 goals
    

Michel Platini's achievement of 9 goals in 5 matches, as the tournament was much smaller then, is probably never going to be beaten. Nevertheless, as can be seen from the table, there are some players in this year's tournament which are contenders to the second and third spots, of Alan Shearer and Patrick Kluivert respectively: Milan Baros, Nuno Gomes, Thierry Henry and Ruud Van Nistelrooij are all in the current tournament with 5 goals.
Of these however, only Van Nistelrooij and Nuno Gomes seem with good possibilities, since
Milan Baros has had a poor season and barely starts in for the Czechs, while Thierry Henry is still dangerous but playing on a French team that seems more and more tired and demotivated.
And well, then there are other marginal players who may enter the list after this Euro: David Villa, or Cristiano Ronaldo or Lukas Podolski, depending on how their teams do in the tournament the coming weeks!

The Empty Chairs

I was just going through some old pictures and came by an old picture of "The Empty Chairs", a 7-side team I played on at the European Commission while doing the so-called "Stage" there in 2001-2002:

It was great fun, we were a great an charming side, but didn't make it beyond the first round, because the games were usually on a Sunday, after massive amounts of beer warmed us up on Satruday evening.
Still, I believe we are the best team not to win a tournament since Hungary in 1954 or Brazil in 1982.

Cheers for the old days!!

Michael Laudrup to Panathinaikos?

Michael Laudrup has always been one of my favourite players, and as coach, first in Brøndby and then in Getafe, he has also proved a highly qualified football personality.
Since announcing his leaving of Getafe a few weeks ago, there has been widespread speculation of where he would be coaching, and he has on-off been connected to Benfica, Sevilla and FC Barcelona. I have no idea how serious these rumours have been, but now it seems confirmed that Mr. Laudrup will be going to the Greek club, Panathinaikos, replacing the Portuguese José Peseiro.
While I think many fans would have liked to see Mr. Laudrup in one of the bigger clubs in Spain or England, Panathinaikos will no doubt be a challenge: the Greek fans are passionate, and there is great competition in the league which for the last four seasons have been won by Olympiacos (must be mentioned that the Greek league has been a pretty one-sided affair since 1997: Olympiacos has won every year, with the exception of 2004, when Panathinaikos won their last title).
There is no doubt that Mr. Laudrup will be under pressure to bring Panathinaikos back to the title, and that will be a challenge I wish him the best of luck with!

"Foreigners" in football clubs

FIFA has decided to set a limit on the number of foreign players in national club sides. The proposed rule is a so-called 6+5 rule, where national club sides will be obliged to line up at least 6 players eligible to play on the national team of the said country (the rule is to start by the year 2012).
With this, FIFA and Mr. Sepp Blatter have shown an extraordinary disregard of the forces of globalisation and the free movement of labour in the EU (no matter how one views the EU, the free movement of labour is one of its great achievements). But more worryingly, as a football fan, they show disregard for the quality of football which they say they are there to protect.

It is comforting that policy makers, in particular in the European Parliament, are already saying that FIFA should not expect any special treatment: citizens with the correct work permit should not be hindered from working in another member state. And this touches upon the fundamental rights of people, and football should have no exemption!
Also, the clubs are also echoing their worries to the new FIFA rule, not only in terms of its obvious illegality, but also in terms of footballing: it is obvious that many clubs, like Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, FC Barcelona, etc. - all big teams in the Champions League (as well as many teams in countries not even participating in the CL!), will have to completely re-set their teams.
And will this be good for football quality...?
With the advent of the Champions League we have seen some of the best and most competitive football ever. It is sad indeed, often, that clubs/teams/players are dominated by the desire to make money, instead of fighting for their clubs (notable examples abound though; note Mr. John Terry, a classical example of a Chelsea player by heart), but perhaps we should consider that the good old-fashioned days are gone, and that we cannot legislate ourselves back in time.
The many foreigners (be they Europeans, outsiders with European citizenship, or African/South American/Asians) in European clubs have greatly improved the quality of the game and the teams. I also believe it has pushed local players to be better, to improve themselves, because of the improved competitiveness.
And if the youth-training in some countries has not followed on this, that is where the problem lies, and not in the number of foreigners in the big teams!

As in many other things, globalisation is here to stay, and FIFA seems set on fighting it, with the consequence that football quality will deteriorate.

South Africa as World Cup host

I have said it before, but here I am going to underline it: am not looking forward to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and I believe FIFA made a great mistake by giving the World Cup to South Africa in its eagerness to give it to some African country.
While I think South Africans current attitude to foreigners is a popular disgrace from a country that should know better (how about some of the neighboring countries having to play there?), I do not believe the South Africans have what it takes to organize a pleasant, world class tournament which welcomes the world, like we have seen in Germany, Japan/Corea, France, USA, etc. The country is gorgeous, yes, but suffering by violence, poverty and corruption. I am afraid that with prices of tickets and organizational issues, we will see as many empty stadiums as we saw during the African Nations Cup in Ghana in January.
And Ghana is a footballing nation, with a talent and passion for the game which is unheard of in South Africa!

It is often mentioned how important it is for a tournament that the host nation does well (that is one of the reasons the hosts don't have to qualify, as well as get an automatically easier draw by being seeded highest), but would South Africa do well...? Although it is hard if not impossible to predict, I think we may be looking at an elimination in the first round: South Africa didn't participate in the 2006 World Cup, they were plainly bad in the African Nations Cup, and talented South Africans players are notably absent from big European clubs where other African players are superstars (a notable example perhaps being the ageing Benny McCarthy in Blackburn?). And while there have been rumours about Carlos Alberto Parreira's resignation as South African coach, the new and relatively unknown Joel Santana does not bode well for the organization of the South African team...

South African sport has always been dominated by rugby (where they are great world champions) and cricket; South Africa is simply not a footballing nation. With a world cup on its door, one can already see the large commercials and promotional posters, but the "fever" which grips other countries is unexistant; it is hard even to find a pub to watch a Champions League game in Johannesburg, and when finding it, one finds that nobody watches it nor cares.

If the world cup must be held in Africa, it should be in one of the many great African footballing nations: Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Egypt, Senegal, Cameroun... However, as is true, these countries do not seem to have what is called the "organizational infrastructure".
Apparently South Africa does (just don't walk out at night, specially if you are from a neighboring African country).

Such a great event belongs to real footballing nations and although I have been wrong before, I have very low expectations to a World Cup in South Africa.

and one more thing - more subjective...

I ended up supporting Manchester United....
(I am not proud...)
But I want history to be repeated: Manchester United won their third trophy, 50 years after the plane accident in Munich. And well, history is on their side, and sorry to say to Chelsea, it is not on their side: Manchester United will continue to be a great team in 100 years, but will Chelsea...?
I doubt it.