The city of goals

The city of Manchester has two of the best teams in the world, and with a spectacular start of the Premier League (surely the best league in the world), both teams have become candidates for the title.
On one side, Manchester City has invested heavily into building its new team, and that seems to be bearing fruits: today they played Tottenham, and with spectacular four goals by Edin Dzeko, as well as one great goal by Kun Agüero, the 5-1 victory should be a warning to everyone that Manchester City is going for the top.
The defending champions of Manchester United today had their big derby against the rivals of Arsenal. Arsenal is bound to be struggling this season, considering the many players that they have lost, but today's absolute destruction of the London side was not to be expected. Manchester United were simply spectacular, and won 8-2. Wayne Rooney scored three goals, two of them on direct free kicks, while the new player Ashley Young, scored two spectacular goals in the rout on the Arsenal team, whose defense looked shaky to say the least.
14 goals for Manchester! I know in which city I would place my bets!

The first three points

Valencia has again gone into a new season apparently weakened after the sale of Juan Mata to Valencia. And in a league which will only be about Real Madrid and Barcelona, Valencia must fight to be "the best of the rest" just as last season, and thus qualify for the Champions League.
So after the ended strike, Valencia started the season at home to Racing de Santander. It started well for Valencia who went up 1-0 in the first minute on a goal by Roberto Soldado. However, it all seemed to be heading the wrong way as Racing went up 1-3 in second half. Valencia managed a second, but was still down by one in the last minutes when Roberto Soldado scored two late goals to give Valencia all three points in a dramatic season opener.
I do hope Valencia does well this season!

Thank you Mourinho

I have always been anti-Madridista, and wished that the team would lose. However, this has not always been easy, as I have had to recognize a team with enormous merits, not only winning titles, but also putting pride in being fair. It has always been a team characterized by many gentlemen who have been involved in the club for whom I can only have the greatest respect: Jorge Valdano, Vicente del Bosque, Raul, Fernando Hierro, Zinedine Zidane, and more recently, Iker Casillas himself, the greatest goalkeeper in the world and a true sporting gentleman.
So with this in mind, I can only be delighted that Real Madrid has decided to lower its standards on fair play and manners to the lowest levels, namely that of José Mourinho. While I have before thought that Mr. Mourinho´s provocative behaviour was part of his competitive mindset and overall strategy, the damage he is currently causing Real Madrid makes one put this into question. This is simply low life idiocy, and incredibly, Real Madrid, a club that should be proud of its traditions, choses to ignore it. If Mr. Mourinho does not win a title, he may leave Real Madrid leaving greater scars to the club than any of the former coaches that have been fired more easily, but were far greater men that Mr. Mourinho.
That said, I am happy that Mr. Mourinho is there, because it makes it so much easier to hate Real Madrid!

Brazil champions

Brazil is the greatest footballing country in the world, and tonight they won the U-20 World Cup in Colombia, after defeating Portugal 3-2 after extra time. The credit for the Brazilians is all the greater considering that Portugal had not conceded a goal the entire tournament, and were 2-1 up. Oscar, the Brazilian youngster from Internazionale scored all three Brazilian goals, and he will surely be on the list for many possible clubs.
Brazil last won the tournament in 2003, and two years ago lost the final to Ghana. They are now back at the top after a tournament in Colombia that has been outstanding, and that surely has seen the emergence on new stars.
Congratulations to the Brazilian youngsters.

The preview

The Spanish Super Cup is a preview of things to come for the Spanish League this season, namely the only thing worth watching: intense and dramatic matches between Real Madrid and Barcelona, fighting for some title, while the remaining teams remain front row spectators.

Never did anyone care so little about a strike in football! Come on, everyone just follows the Spanish league to watch the two giants!

In any case, the match was a drama, and Lionel Messi, who only plays with stamina and heart when he plays for his adopted home of Barcelona, was incredible with two goals and a magnificent assist to Andrés Iniesta in the Catalonian 3-2 victory. Real Madrid were not bad, but could do little to contain the little Catalonian. And while one may be impressed of FC Barcelona's magicians, any football fan should be equally unimpressed about the animals playing in Real Madrid. Pepe has proven before that he belongs in a cage rather than on a football pitch, while he should be joined by Marcelo, whose hairstyle clearly indicates that he belongs in a cave. At the same time, Mourinho may be the best coach in the world, but his provocations are simply tasteless.

Oh well, this is what all this season will be about. I might as well copy and paste this posting for the rest of the season.

Advice to Mr. "Bolillo"

The Colombian national coach, Hernán Darío Gómez, has come into controversy in his country after he was caught beating up a lady in a nightclub in Bogotá last week. He has offered to step down after the scandal, but incredibly as it may sound, many people want him to stay on as coach.

Before I want to give my suggestions for what excuses this guy could use to get away with such a crime, I must say that I have never found him a very good coach - Colombia has the talent to do much better than they have done under him, shown by their recent disappointment in the Copa América against Perú, who in Sergio Markarian have a REAL football brain behind them.

But here are my suggestions of excuses to the woman beater:

5. "This is how I would make discipline if I were coach of Colombia´s feminine side"

4. "She threatened to make it obvious that she knew more about football than me!"

3. "If I beat a man he might hit back! Uh!"

2. "Isn't this what you normally do...?"

1. "I am called "Bolillo" because of the size of my balls"

Colombian nightmare?

I was recently in the most wonderful country in the world, Colombia, where the U-20 World Cup is currently taking place. The atmosphere is great as Colombians greet the world with their usual smiles, hospitality and friendliness.

Except if you are Argentine...

I had made nothing of an incident between the Argentinean team during a match against Egypt and the fans in Medellín until, last Saturday, I was sitting in a bar ("The Eight Bells", in Usaquén) waiting for Colombia-Mexico to start, and was surely wanting to support Colombia. I arrived early, waiting for some friends and family, and the match showing was Argentina-Portugal. Although u-20 football fails to excite me as much as other football, I was surely (quietly) cheering for Argentina as the match went into penalty kicks. It started well for Argentina, when Portugal missed two, but Portugal managed to pull up, and won.

I looked around in astonishment as the entire pub in rose in a loud scream of joy. I had to ask one of my recently arrived friends: "Are there many Portuguese in this bar?"

"No, we just do not like Argentineans"

In the match that followed, I wanted to support my dear Colombia, but couldn't help but have a strong sense of spiteful revenge as a far more efficient Mexican side defeated the hosts 3-1, to the enormous disappointment of the fans who had been so delighted for Argentina's defeat.

I am not going to dwell into the 2000 lousy reasons that Colombians have given me for not liking Argentines, but it baffles me. The continental solidarity that makes Africa so wonderful is all but unexistant in a continent of "brothers and sisters".

I do hope that all these Colombians will have nightmares where Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar castigate them with verbally eloquent insults, while Carlos Gardel, Fito Paez, Andrés Calamaro and Gustavo Cerati threaten to beat them up with their guitars, while a giant Mafalda chews them up and spits them out onto a football pitch with Alfredo di Stefano, Diego Maradona, Mario Kempes, and Lionel Messi to polish the other other guys shoes.

Well, at least we all now know that Argentina's and Colombia's u-20 sides are the same shit. The semifinals of the u-20 World Cup will be as follows:

• France-Portugal
• Brazil-Mexico

USA and Jurgen Klinsmann

Already old news that Jurgen Klinsmann has become national coach of the USA after the ending of the Bob Bradley era.
As a player, Mr. Klinsmann was unconventional, a brilliant striker, completely his own, but still a team player, and indeed, a great guy. These are qualities he took with him as national team coach, where he completely revived German football with the great performance of the 2006 World Cup, which Germany should have won (instead of those Italians...). Since then, Germany has been a different side than what one usually connects with the national team, and in the 2010 World Cup, under Joachim Löw (who was Mr. Klinsmann's assistant in 2006), is a different side, more adapted to a nation that has changed.
Mr. Klinsmann is a personification of the modern German: friendly, openminded, hardworking, individualistic, yet a team player, and willing to try new things.
These are qualities that I believe will serve him well in the USA: he already knows the country and the people well, and he will be given resources and liberty to try new things with the vast amount of talent that indeed exists in the US. Looking forward to the World Cup in 2014 is perhaps too soon, but if he is given time and the resources for the development of young players, I believe he can take the US to the next level, that is, at least a semifinal spot in the World Cup.
It will be interesting to watch!

Another Brøndby flop

Last year Brøndby was eliminated from the Europa League in the most pathetic way, after being up, and then fucking it all up when it counted.
Now, this bunch of useless idiots have done it again, and this time against an even worse opponent than last season, the unknown Austrian side SV Ried. Brøndby had lost the first match 2-0 in Austria, but midway through the second half they were 4-0 up, and one step from the Europa league. But with two goals against the most useless group of talent-less pieces of shit, SV Ried managed to get 4-2, and qualify for this season's Europa League.
Brøndby used to be a flagship of Danish football. Now, it is a club run by incompetents, and a team without talent, spirit or discipline. Worthless