Hoping for Brøndby

Now that I was in Denmark for some days, I had hoped to be able to go to see Brøndby play their arch-rivals of FC Copenhagen. But it was not possible to go to a game where I have never seen Brøndby lose, and frankly, if I was there, I do not think they would have lost.

I have that effect :)

While the club undoubtedly has the best fans in the world, its players are not following suit. They played much better than they did in last week's 4-1 loss in a hapless and poor performance against FC Midtjylland, but Brøndby's weaknesses were nevertheless exposed against an FC Copenhagen side that also did not impress (the fact that they are leading the league is perhaps a testimony to the current lack of quality of the Danish league). Firstly, Brøndby's central defense has one huge aerial opening, where the central defender appear to leave everything open to tall guys. FC Copenhagen could and should have been ahead with two or three headers that their strikers shamefully missed when totally open. It was in fact a lucky header by the veteran Andreas Conrelius late in the second half that gave Copenhagen the victory in a match where the Brøndby Central defenders could not look beyond their haircuts. 

Brøndby's second weakness are their lack of goals; they have the ball a lot, combine really well at times, fight well, well-organised most of the time, but when it comes to the most important part of football - creating chances and scoring - , they are as dangerous as a blind chicken; imprecise, weak and even careless shooting. 

I truly hope that Brøndby can improve. They have a young talented side, but still need to improve a lot if the unrealised dreams of Denmark's best club is to be reality. I will still support them all the way!

The best sausage in the world of football

I have a fondness for Lyngby Boldklub. More than 30 ago when I was studying in Birkerød, I would occasionally go to watch a game in their tiny stadium that looks more like a high school training ground than a top league stadium. Despite that, it is a club with a proud history and talented academy, that ascended back to the top Danish league this season. I returned after many years to watch the league match between Lyngby and FC Sønderjylland, the bottom team in the Danish league. The match was full of small mistakes and ended 1-1, but it was still great to be back in Lyngby, and most of all, to try one of the legendary sausages from Lyngby stadium; without a doubt the best sausages in the world of football!

The fool and the superstar

Robert Lewandowski is a superstar. Rodrigo de Paul is not. The Argentine is, on the other hand, a good but highly overrated footballer. He is so immersed in his own insecurity that he completely lacks the respect that should be intrinsic in any sport. More than anything, it is just sad that manners and mutual respect are missing elements in this modern world, also in football.

Liverpool 2-Atletico Madrid 1

I will never again a support a team where that second-rate player Alexis MacAllister plays, so it was disappointing to see him score the winner for Liverpool against Atletico Madrid. Marcos Llorente, who is usually not a big goalscorer but always scores in Liverpool, brought Atletico Madrid ahead 0-1, but soon after after Dominik Szoboszlai equalised for the locals. It was otherwise a messy match, with plenty of mistakes, and particularly Liverpool looked disorganised in the first half, but came out strongly in the second half when that guy scored the winner.

A lot of the attention was on Julian Alvarez. The young Argentine has been in a storm at Atletico Madrid after he expressed he would rather go to Barcelona; Atletico Madrid rejected the Catalan offer for the player, and he appears stuck in Madrid. Atletico fans were booing him at their last home match, and it will take a lot from him if he is to regain respect at the club. Alvarez has handled the entire thing poorly, and is in my view jeopardizing a career that at one point seemed promising, and he will have to show much more than he did today.

Milanese gifts in Madrid

Mourinho's Real Madrid opened the Champions League with a narrow 2-1 victory at home against Inter Milan. But it was a very unimpressive performance where Inter dominated and had an easy time getting to 21 chances. Real Madrid was saved by another great performance by Thibaut Courtois, as well as two gifts by Inter Milan. At the first goal Curtis Jones and Yann Bissek fumbled in defense only to let Kylian Mbappe get through and score, while on the second goal the Spanish goalkeeper Josep Martinez tried to be smart in front of a quick Fede Valeverde who easily tackled the ball into goal. Carlos Augusto's goal for Inter only came late in the match, and despite a steady pressure, the Italians could not break Courtois.

So it was an important victory for Madrid in a strange match where the Italians can only be disappointed, while Mourinho must be thinking about how to strengthen the side, because they are unlikely to be as lucky if they are to win the Champions League. 

Visiting the tribe of the Arsenal

 When in London I found it appropriate to visit the Tribe of the Arsenal, at their strong home stadium of the Emirates. It happened that the defending English Champions were playing none other than their local rivals of Chelsea, a side that has disappointed last season but have their hopes up with their highly rated new manager, Xabi Alonso, who incidentally is a childhood friend of Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.

The two friends from San Sebastián facing one another as managers in a London derby is a beautiful football story.

And beautiful is also how I would describe the Arsenal tribe. I have been to many games in my life, in different countries, but never have I seen such variety in the fans. Fans of all ages, genders, nationalities, religiones and ethnicities converged at the Emirates, all with the common goal of seeing Arsenal win. It was refeshing to experience the religión of football bringing so many together, although I have no ilussion about football being peaceful.

Just more tribes.

Arsenal fans had barely sat down when Chelsea went ahead 0-1 by Morgan Rogers. The few Chelsea fans were jubilant but Arsenal fans did not stop their support, and in fact it was massive pressure on the Chelsea goal guarded by Dibu Martinez, another new signing, and very unpopular among English fans. Soon Arsenal had a goal cancelled by VAR for offside, but it was Kai Havertz who equalized on a sharp left footed kick at the near post out of Martinez’ range.

I think people expected more of Alonso’s Chelsea, who have started the season well. But despite the early goal and some good chances from the distance (one hitting the post), they were inferior to Arsenal, who nevertheless only took a narrow 2-1 victory. It was the popular Norwegian Martin Ødegaard who made it 2-1 on a beautiful combination that saw him through.

For Arsenal it is always great to defeat Chelsea, but they are also three wins out of three so far in the defense of their title, and look like a side with confidence and massive international support to defend their title.

It was a great experience to be at the Emirates. Whisky my cat will be jealous.

Gracias Leo

I have been a massive football fan since 1986, the year of Diego Armando Maradona, who still means the world to me. It has been forty years, but for half of that time, and for almost the entire lifetime of this very blog, there has been another Argentine who has dominated world football. '

I cannot deny that I have also been smitten by Lionel Messi. Although in my old nostalgic mind Diego remains the GOAT, I completely understand that young people who have grown up with Lionel Messi will always see him as the GOAT.

His statistics and trophies are undeniable, and he came to the fore at the exact same time as internet moved into the era of mass social media, thus creating a craze that has probably never been greater for any footballer. The narrative was perfect: the small shy kid from Argentina, taken in by one of the greatest teams in the world, where he became the legend amongst other superstars like Puyol, Iniesta and Xavi. Where his rivalry with another genius, Cristiano Ronaldo, became the stuff of epic battles, and where Messi contributed to making the Champions League the best in the world.

For a while success with Argentina eluded him, but in 2022 he carried Argentina to their first title since the one by the great Maradona. As Maradona, he made it to a final to defend the title, only to be defeated by his adopted country in an ugly match that seems not to have tainted his image.

Messi also took the craze to the USA, and Miami has strangely become one of the most popular teams in the world because of him alone. And for the last years of his career, he will only be seen there, as he announced his retirement from the national team.

It was expected, but still special. We are seeing the end of a legendary career.

I have seen Messi play twice: in Barcelona and in Miami. I have written a lot of posts about him on this blog; some very critical - some even angry. In his long career I have changed, just as he has changed. I do not feel I have a connection with Messi, but I cannot deny that I have followed his impressive career, and that he has also been part of my footballing life.

I guess that after all this reflection I just want to say thank you. I have been privileged to see you; privileged to live at the same time as you, one of the Greatest ever.

Gracias Leo. 

Deportivo is back

The Spanish league this season will be won by either Real Madrid or FC Barcelona, and that can barely be a surprise in a league where everything else than these two teams seems irrelevant. I still consider myself a Valencia fan despite their decades of chaos and lack of results and this season appears to be yet another where the Valencians will fight for survival. In the meantime, another old darling has returned to the top Spanish league, namely Deportivo La Coruña, a side that in the 1990s and 2000s won a lot of friends. Today Deportivo played Valencia and won 3-1, their first victory of the season, after two ties, so they continue undefeated and their new signing, the veteran Gabonese star, Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang, appears to be on fire, with three goals, to fight for the leading scorer award.

In the meantime, Valencia has only one point at the bottom.... 

The Champions League 2026-27 draw

There is not much point in writing about the Champions league draw when it is just oen big league with random matches. All this so UEFA, who continue to consider themselves better than FIFA, can make more money and not think of the fans.

So what remains to say is what will appear some of the matches to watch in the different stages (I have selected three matches from each phase).

Phase 1:

• Liverpool-Atletico Madrid
• Real Madrid-Inter 
• Napoli-Arsenal

Phase 2:

• Galatasaray-FC Barcelona
• Manchester City-PSG
• Roma-Real Madrid

Phase 3:

• PSG-Barcelona
• Bayern Munich-Arsenal
• Liverpool-Villarreal

Phase 4:

• FC Barcelona-Aston Villa
•  Fenerbahce-Liverpool
• Atletico Madrid-Bayern Munich

Phase 5:

• Arsenal-Borussia Dortmund
• Manchester City-Napoli
• Real Madrid-PSV Eindhoven

Phase 6 (specially this pahse has a number of great matches):

• Aston Villa-PSG
• Arsenal-Real Madrid 
• FC Barcelona-Manchester City

Phase 7:

• Manchester United-Bayern Munich
• Inter-Liverpool
• Bodø/Glimt-Atletico Madrid

Phase 8:

• PSG-Galatasaray
• Manchester City-Sporting Lisbon
• Shakhtar Donetsk-Real Madrid

Undoubtedly some great matches ahead, but also, because of the hapless way the CL is now structured, hard to make predictions besides the fact that the odds are stacked in favour of all the big teams progressing to the next round, with everyone hoping that some small teams can pull a surprise, like Bodø/Glimt, LASK, Sabah or Slovan Bratislava. 

LASK in the CL

 The second leg of the last qualifying round of the Champions League started today. 

It was perhaps unusual Scottish arrogance from Celtic after they had won 3-0 at home to Austrian champions from LASK, and after going ahead 0-1 in Linz, that they started to dream about their return to the Champions League, but truth is that LASK pulled an incredible comeback.

The first Austrian goal was a gift from Celtic's Swedish defender Benjamin Nygren, who chose to pass the ball to the unmarked Moses Usor, who equalized for the Austrians, and perhaps even the belief in a comeback. At least they came out with energy to the second half only fifteen minutes into the second half had taken a 3-1 lead on good goals by Robert Ljubicic and Samuel Adeniran. Massive pressure ensued but it was only in the last seconds of the match when Florian Flecker made it 4-1, forcing the match into extra time.  

LASK had all the energy against a Celtic side that defended poorly in the face of the odds, and it was the North American striker Samuel Adeniran who brought joy and Champions League to Linz, making it 5-1.

The defeat must have been bitter for the Celtic striker Kasper Høgh, who had just switched from Bodø/Glimt to Celtic. Bodø/Glimt qualified for the second CL in a row by destroying NEC Nijmegen 3-0, and may be this year's darlings again, alongside LASK! 

Premier League opening

Wow. August has flown by, so much that I barely noticed. I have been traveling yes, but after the awful World Cup and with Leagues just starting up, I have not followed much besides the big transfers, the Champions League qualifiers and the quiet start of the leagues. Maybe the fact that my local football bar closed down has contributed to the fact that I don't go down for a beer and watch the Mexican league....

But today the Premier League opened, and as every year, the best league in the world appears to be another exciting season. The opening match of the season was between the champions of Arsenal and the newly promoted Coventry City, and indeed, as expected, the mouthful was too big for Coventry. Arsenal dominated the first half with Kai Havertz scoring the opening goal of the season, and Bukayo Saka following up with an easy goal after a mistake by the Coventry goallie. Martin Ødegaard made it 3-0 early in the second half on what appeared another mistake by the goalkeeper, but to no avail, the match then slowed down as Arsenal cruised home the victory. The new Arsenal signing from Club Brugge, the Greek Christos Tzolis had a great debut and could have even scored, while the other high level signing from Aston Villa, Ezri Konsa, did not yet get his debut.

That said, Arsenal have opened their title defense.  

Bla bla bla

There is a certain amused confusion in listening to FIFAs critics, now that FIFA have proposed a new more commercial mode of managing the organization after a hugely succesful World Cup, not least commercially. 

UEFA, who came out vociferously as the defender of community football, is hardly a small, altruistic grassroots organization: It runs the most lucrative club competition in the world through the UEFA Champions League, negotiates billion-euro media rights contracts, and behaves as much like a commercial enterprise as FIFA does (and let us not forget that Gianni Infantino himself, as Secretary General of UEFA, oversaw big commercially successful expansion for UEFA as well). 

Many national associations and other FIFA critics appear to be themselves perfectly happy to benefit from the enormous revenues generated by football. "Commercialization is fine when we do it." 

Football may be a public good, but it is clear that UEFA and FIFA packages it to their benefit; they organize and sell tournaments that we all love to purchase and criticize (one of the most important things on their product). 

We buy the apple, happily eat it, and then complain about its price and quality, but we still buy the same apple day after day…

Now, I have not studied the proposal, but truth is that this NGO that manages football, huge income and commercial deals, with no public funding, probably needs to change something. Governments routinely work with private companies, sovereign wealth funds, investment funds, and corporations managing sums far larger than FIFA's revenues. The argument that "private capital is involved, therefore this is unacceptable" is not, by itself, very convincing. The more relevant question is whether the governance structure protects the interests of the sport and us supporters. 

And that is the only part where criticism is valid: FIFA is an NGO with regulatory powers over world football. It is simultaneously referee, legislator, organizer, and commercial actor. When such an organization proposes a model that brings in private investors or adopts corporate structures, we should worry that maximizing revenues could increasingly drive sporting decisions. This is a legitimate concern.

It is just a pity that FIFA reform is not part of the criticism from football associations and others who themselves lack credibility. 

The proposal from FIFA may not be good, the process may have lacked transparency, I don’t know. But I think that maybe this is the occasion to discuss what FIFA should become, and not continue like it does now. Gianni Infantino was brought in with the support of UEFA to make reforms, but now it seems UEFA does not even want to discuss reforms, if it threatens their own interests and European commercial control of global football.

Finally, let us not be fooled that anybody frankly cares about the fans. Why should they? We will still be buying the product!

Epic comeback

Last season AGF became Danish champions for the first time in 40 years, and as such, they entered the CL qualification second round. AGF does not have a very glorious trajectory in Europe over the last 30 years, so trying to qualify for the CL would be a true test for the side from Denmark´s second city. In the first match it appeared to be a quick exit when the lost 1-4 at home to the Polish champions Lech Poznan, so I guess expectations were not high as AGF went to Poland to reverse a three-goal home defeat, something that had never been done in Champions league qualification.

AGF did the impossible. They won 0-3, forcing the match into extra time (note that with the away-goal rule that existed before, AGF would in fact have been eliminated at full time). Both sides scored in extra time, forcing the match into penalties, where the Jutes emerged as victorious.

This was an epic comeback, but AGF will have to keep their heads cool if they want to make it to the Champions League. Next round they are facing the Azerbaijani champions Sabah FK, who eliminated the Finnish champions of KuPS, and are, as AGF, trying to enter their first Champions League group stage.

Good luck to both sides.

Afterthought

I did not care much about the final as I was traveling. That said, from what I have seen, it was war, just as I had predicted; a match for the times. Good Spain won, the best team, and it is always good that the best team wins. 

But I think that the final is a sad reflection of a tournament that has lost its magic, at least for me. I never found that magic; on the contrary, I became more and more disillusioned by the bickering, hate and media. That said, I admit I am probably an old nostalgic fart, since it is clear that the tournament was perfect for the society today, and FIFA are brilliant at creating the narrative, the atmosphere and excitement that the world needs in difficult times.

So let me congratulate the World Champions of Spain, but most of all, congratulate FIFA for the best World Cup in history. 

It is just not for me.

War!

I was happy to see Argentina win against England, despite the fact that I no longer live or enjoy football as I used to, and probably never will as I enter the winter of my life.

I have seen it all, been hurt and sad, especially in this tournament, so I was expecting nothing from the semifinal, except the hope of seeing a fair and good match between great sportsmen, and no references to history of politics (where I am frankly also much more knowledgeable than the idiotic rabble).

As expected it was dramatic nevertheless, more intense than pretty, but fair enough. 

As many say that the entire tournament is fixed, they should probably look towards England, who had everything to win the match after going ahead 0-1 by the new Barcelona player, Anthony Gordon. But instead of pressing for another goal, England decided to defend deep, giving away the entire match to the Argentinean World Champions, and notably Messi, who after a poor match, suddenly had space and time to create perfect passes into the English area; the little master (whose skills I do not know how FIFA has fixed) provided the assists for both Enzo Fernandez’ and Lauraro Martinez’ goals.

Spain-Argentina in the final; the two best amid the top four in the world who made it to the semifinals in a tournament that despite 48 teams lacked real surprises (frankly, Cape Verde and DR Congo were not surprises). Two sides that have much in common, whose players in many cases know one another, and specially Messi, who is facing many players he knew as kids in Barcelona. Two different sides, two different cultures, two different nations.

It would be a beautiful story if I believed in any of the beauty. Instead what I see is two sides, two countries, that hate one another. 

This is war by other means, nothing else, and as any war, it sells, the rabble loves it. I have one prediction: it will be ugly, it will be violent, and whoever loses, will not accept it, because what characterises the world of today, is accusing the others of cheating whenever you do not win.

I have been wrong all along

I have been wrong all along. I have mistakenly blamed FIFA for the wrongs of football, but truth is that the wrongs of football are the wrongs of our societies at large, and FIFA are the best guardians of the game in an imperfect world. 

Because contrary to what I have previously and wrongfully argued for, FIFA has been instrumental in keeping the game alive at a time when new generations are increasingly looking to other pass-times and the competition for dominance among various sports is vicious. 

The main problem with football is not FIFA.

In a world where borders are being redrawn and nationalism is surging amid dangerous geo-political and economic competition, FIFA has managed to exploit these interests to carve a significant space for a sport that real fans may love, but that also gets all the attention of a rabble of people who know nothing about the game - FIFA exploits their ignorance. 

It is frustrating for real football fans that every four years suddenly every idiot around us is an expert, and that expertise is based on their stereotypes, rather than the interest in the game in between years. 

We, the real football fans own the game, yes, but we need someone like FIFA to manage the game in a world of power politics and social media. Because what would otherwise be the alternative? A chaotic world of different small federations with different agendas and interests; the conflicts would be eternal and even dangerous if FIFA were not there to centralize the interests of the game at global level. 

Surely FIFA can do some things better, but if anything, this tournament has shown that they are willing to listen to criticism, learn and to adapt along the way, ultimately to the best interest of Global Football. FIFA is not the one bitching that everything is against them, but conveniently functions a scapegoat for all the rabble who frankly do not belong in a stadium and can in my view be charged millions for going to the stadium. Because let us face it: if prices were 1 dollar a ticket, then some fucking moron would buy all 1 dollar tickets before any real fan got hold of them. 

I have reservations on FIFA expanding the tournament to 64 teams. I am old-fashioned and believe quality would suffer. I find this already happened in this tournament, but I also admit that the vast majority of the world likes it and is willing to pay for it, as much as it annoys me that this vast rabble of a pitiful majority knows nothing but to cheer for their “imagined community”. But it is good for football, because it brings more money in to promote the game at global scale and give us real fans more experiences and joy. All of this despite our misgiving. 

FIFA has problems, like any other organisation, yes, but it is the best guardian of the game we could hope for, and must continue its great and challenging work and be better to resist the attacks by politicians, media and the rabble.

Spain u-19 champions!

 The u-19 European championship has been taking place over the last few weeks, and today an exciting final took place in Wrexham where two heavyweights of European youth football faced one another: Spain versus Germany. Spain won a well-deserved an impressive tenth title with a 2-0 victory with goals by Villarreal’s Hugo Lopez and Real Madrid’s Mario Rivas after a first half where Spain was in control. All in all Spain was the best team of the tournament and we may see more from some of these talented youngsters: Quim Junyent from Almeria was named player of the tournament and Betis’ winger José Antonio Morantes is one to watch. On the German side Francis Onyeka, newly signed by Bayer Leverkusen, is a player to watch.

Great and strong victory, with a view to the future, in a fair and balanced international tournament.

Champions League qualification 1st round

 Without much of relevance happening in the world of football these days, real football fans can celebrate the start of the best tournament in the world this week: the first qualification round for this season's UEFA Champions League started. This may not appear to the most glamorous round as it includes teams from smaller nations without much social media attention, but it still counts the champions from leagues with ambition to get as far as possible in the tournament. In the first leg we had some less surprising results like the Finnish champions KuPS defeating North Macedonia's Vardar and U. Craiova from Romania defeating Belarussian ML Vitebsk, but also saw the hope of teams like Faroese Kí, Iceland's Vikingur Reykyavik and Malta's Floriana to advance to the next round.

Although we will probably not see any of these sides in the CL, it is exciting that the tournament has started and that it engenders great excitement and fair competition between champions of the greatest football continent in the world.  

Boycott the World Cup

In a recent post I have stated how disappointed and sad I am about this World Cup. You can now add the FIFAs pandering to politicians to the list. 

Folarin Balogun was given a red card against Bosnia-Hercegovina. According to the rules, a red card means an automatic suspension in the next match, meaning that the US top-scorer would not play  Belgium when the USA faces them in the next match. The US Secretary of State called for FIFA to lift the suspension, and lo-and-behold, today they lifted the ban on Balogun, getting a big thanks from the US President along the way.

FIFAs possible favouritism had already been announced while lifting a suspension on the Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo when entering the tournament, but this is the first time it has been lifted during an ongoing tournament and with such obvious interference.

So much is wrong with this tournament, and I sadly see no other option than to boycott it. By just watching it I feel that am condoning all the bad things about this World Cup; we are as guilty as FIFA by following it. Criticism is not enough, but something must be done to end this systematic destruction of the game that real football fans love.

So this will be my last World Cup 2026 post, and I strongly urge everyone to stop watching the World Cup, no matter who you support or how your team is doing.

Would you not want them to compete in a fair competition anyway...? 

No Sweat

The match between Brazil and Norway was a bit of a disappointment in terms of quality, but certainly had the correct winner: Norway, with two great goals from Erling Haaland, who is surely one of the best strikers in the world, if not the very best.

The match was slow. At times it appeared as if the players did not want to sweat too much; Norway passed the ball around slowly, with little pressure from the Brazilians, while the Brazilians were indeed more dangerous in their attacks, but generally also slow to recover the ball from the Norwegians. 

That said, the match could have been entirely different were it not for the inefficiency of the Brazilian attack. Bruno Guimaraes did not shoot like a Brazilian when he missed the penalty in the first half. A young and overrated Endrick, who truly added nothing to the Brazilian team, made a huge miss in the second half. Perhaps it would have changed the match, but Brazil appears to have forgotten that to win you need a striker as efficient and unforgiving as the great Norwegian.

Why does Brazil not produce players like Erling Haaland any longer?

In the end Neymar, coming in as a failed saviour managed to score on a penalty against the excellent Norwegian goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland, who laughed off Neymar's frustration in the dying seconds.

Probably last kick of Neymar in a World Cup... 

Norway may not become World Champions; they still have weaknesses in defense and depend greatly on Haaland, but they are now surely the darlings of the tournament as they deserved a victory against another hugely disappointing Brazil side that is again eliminated in the knock-out phase against a European side (they have always been eliminated by European sides since 2006), and against a tiny but great Scandinavian nation that they have never defeated... 

Big Cheers to our Norwegian friends!