Euro qualifiers

I am delighted to say that I have found a nice bar to watch football and drink beer in Caracas, with a great atmosphere, down-to-earth friendly crowd, and most important, beer. It was there I watched Spain's qualifier against the Czech Republic. After many years of success, the Czech have become a quite ordinary team, and Spain's world champions dominated completely. Still, in spite of the fact that David Villa with 2 goals became the most scoring player in the history of Spanish national teams, Spain seems to have an attacking problem! With a possession of 80% and numerable passes, it is surprising that the team does not kick on target more often, and their 2-1 victory seems way too small, also considering that the Czech's were ahead at halftime, after only shooting on target once!
The world champions play well, but one must also consider that they were the team in the history of World Cups that won with scoring the least goals! They are not defensive in the traditional sense of the word, but their defensiveness lies in their extraordinary amount of possession.
There is no doubt Spain will qualify from their easy group, but it will be interesting to watch them against some of the stronger opponents!

Denmark and Norway were playing in Oslo in their qualifying group in a clash of teams that is always bound to bring forth Scandinavian rivalry. I watched the match on Arab TV on my computer, and was happy to see a Danish side that played intelligently and held possession against a Norwegian team that as always, plays some of the most primitive and boring football in the world (if Norway had been the birthplace of football, it would never have become a world sport, but would rather be as popular as cross-country skiing), but are always dangerous. Denmark went ahead, and seemed in control, but in the end the match ended 1-1, a fine result for Denmark, although from watching the match, the Danes should have decided the match. Christian Eriksen, the young talented Danish playmaker is still too young, over-eager, and not cool enough when it counts.
Norway is leading the group with Portugal in second spot, but I do not believe they will hold on to that place. In the end, the battle for second spot after Portugal will take place in Copenhagen between these same Scandinavian rivals.

Holiday!

My holiday started this Friday, and now I can dedicate myself entirely to the World Cup: I watched all three matches on Friday, in particular the dramatic USA-Slovenia, where the North Americans were stolen by the victory, and the England-Algeria match, which I watched in the airport in Caracas before boarding a plane across the Atlantic.
Managed the first half ofthe Netherlands victory against Japan at the airport in Frankfurt, and got to Copenhagen for the second half of Ghana-Australia. Ghana was disappointing in the sense that they didn't take more advantage of their numerical advantage, but Go Black Stars anyway!
I am now in Copenhagen, and looking very much forward to watching tonight's Cameroon-Denmark with friends and beer!
And holiday has started!

Football life in Caracas

Notwithstanding that I am not normally able to watch Champions League, since it is in working hours, I was able to watch second half of Inter's splendid victory against Chelsea. It is not often that I support the Italian teams, but this time it was awesome to see them outplay a Chelsea side that with the years has lost its modesty. It is not often that I have supported Italian teams, but seeing Inter further in the tournament will surely be interesting. It is great to see that this season's CL has more variety across countries in the quarterfinal, with one Spanish team, one Italian team, one German team, one Russian team, and two English and (perhaps the surprise) French teams each.
In any case, I won't get to see much of CL quartefinals either. However, I went to my second Copa Libertadores match in Caracas, as Caracas FC hosted Universidad Católica de Chile. Both teams needed a victory, and in fact Caracas sought it more in the first half against a rather pathetic Chilean side. On the other hand, Caracas were slow in attack, and committed mistakes in defence. In the second half the teams were more equal, but both played poorly. The match ended 0-0, and had it not been for a great atmosphere, beer and songs it would have been a waste.
I have a ticket for the last first-round Libertadores match Caracas will play, on April 13th against Universidad de Chile, but I doubt I will use it: the match is bound to mean nothing as both teams are out.

Caracas FC versus Flamengo

After watching the second half of Real Madrid's 1-1 with Lyon, that efectively eliminated the Spaniards, I went to my first football match in Caracas: the home team of Caracas FC was playing the Brazilian champions of Flamengo in the UCV Stadium in Caracas, in the first round of the Copa Libertadores (this was also the first time I attended a match in this prestigious tournament).

Of course, I largely went to see the legendary Brazilian side, but Caracas is a team that I will surely go to watch again: the fans were excellent, creating a great atmosphere in the small stadium (and may I add that as everywhere in Caracas, there are also incredibly beautiful women at football matches!). It was endearing as the proud and somewhat arrogant Caracans really thought that they had a chance against mighty Flamengo...
Caracas played a good match; they had plenty of possession and did create some chances (the goal to 1-1 by Rafael Castellín was excellent, and they hit the post on an outstanding free kick), but their pace was simply too slow; every time they regained possession, they gave the Brazilians plenty of time to get into position. They simply did not run enough (a particular sinner being Jesús Gómez, who slowed down every attack and never ran back when he lost the ball in attack) and did not take enough advantage of the slow Brazilian fullbacks.
Flamengo did not play well, but were much more clever, playing an efficient and modern counter-attacking style where they were very quick to switch many players to attack.
Their first goal came on a penalty given after such a counter-attack (a handball on a shot by the veteran Serbian player Petkovic).
In the second half, shortly after Caracas equalizer, Flamengo had a man sent-off. This gave the home-team renewed energy, and this was when they had their best chances, and Flamengo seemed shaken.
Had it not been for a foolish fan that threw something at the linesman, Caracas might have continued this rhythm. Instead, the five minutes break gave the Brazilians time to calm down and reorganize, and in the last ten minutes, they had some outstanding chances on quick coutner-attacks where their striker Vagner Love completely caught the advanced Venezuelan defence off-guard. Vagner Love scored a second for Flamengo, while in the last second Rodrigo Alvim scored a third for Flamengo on another excellent counter-attack.

It was a pity for Caracas, indeed, but after seeing them, I would have considered it a great surprise if they had been able to win; they were simply up against a much more clever and experienced team. That said, I will return to watch them; I have to learn the song:

"Eso que dice la gente
Que somos borrachos
Vagos delincuentes
No le paro bolas
Yo soy del Caracas
Y al rojo lo quiero"

Disappointment

Last Friday Leones de Caracas won the Venezuelan baseball championship and there was a huge party in the city. But for a football fanatic by myself, I was more interested in the coming African Cup of Nations Final between Ghana and Egypt. However, I don't know Caracas well enough, and 11 in the morning local time on a Sunday in Caracas, nowhere is apparently showing a match in a faraway continent of a game that hardly interests them.
It was thus doubly disappointing that I could not support Ghana, and without my support the Black Stars lost 1-0 in a close match, where Egypt winning goal didn't come until the last minutes of the match.
Sad for the young Ghaneans who have had a great tournament, and who will surely be interesting to watch in South Africa this (southern) winter.
Egypt, the champions of Africa for the third consecutive time will not be in South Africa, and we can thank Algeria for that!
No matter what, I have learned from this that (1) I need to but my own TV with a cable subscription as soon as possible, and (2) that I will have to take my vacation and travel to a more favourable timezone for the World Cup!
A bad day, but nothing bad is not good for something.

Manchester City-Chelsea

I haven't watched much football for a while, and after a busy week, I found a pub to drink beer and relax in Caracas, Venezuela. The game to watch in the early afternoon (Venezuelan time) was Manchester City-Chelsea.
Chelsea are currently one, if not the, of the best teams in the world at the moment; leading the Premier League, they have seemed awesome under Carlo Ancelotti and were looking to cement their lead in this away match in Manchester. And it all looked to go as planned as Chelsea went ahead early on, by a clumsy own goal by Adebayor.
However, Manchester City has invested heavily in players, and has an excellent team, looking to threaten the hegemony of the "big four" in the Premier League, although this has so far eluded them. But this evening (afternoon in Caracas....) they rose to the challenge, and on goals by Adebayor and Carlos Tevez (on a direct free kick where Petr Cech was caught on the wrong leg) they deservedly took the lead, which could have been even larger. In the dying minutes, Frank Lampard missed a penalty chance to underservedly equalize for Chelsea, and the victory was City's.
It will be interesting to follow whether Manchester City can keep it up. And until then, I found a nice place to watch football in Caracas!