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.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
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.
(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.
Sweat, blood and tears
1-1, and Manchester United winning after a nail-biting drama which Turgenjev could not have described better.
It was a dramatic final in Moscow between Manchester United and Chelsea. We saw beautiful details, great defending, tactical choices, and each team had one half: Manchester was completely dominating first half while Chelsea was the best in the second.
(and may I add one comment here: was the linesman blind!?)
At the same time, in this epic final, we saw players sweat and fight until cramps started biting their expensive legs; they all wanted to win the trophy!
And as in many dramas, there was blood: Paul Scholes' nose as well as an almost war-like intensity between the players, such as the duel between Vidic and Drogba, in the end leading to the headless send-off of the Ivorian (no doubt he deserved it - he lost his head, and that is it).
And in the end, there were tears as well: John Terry's missed penalty, when all Chelsea fans and players could almost touch the trophy, is sure to be remembered as one of the moments of the final: Mr. Chelsea, a great player, the captain, missing the penalty. At the same time, the best player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty before that (and he shot pathetically: I am certain every football fan thought "He'll miss", when he stopped shortly before kicking), which led him to cry of relief when Van der Saar made the winning save against Anelka.
Tears of joy and of grief were lost amid the heavy rain in Moscow.
Manchester United deserved to win, but Chelsea didn't deserve to lose.
It was a dramatic final in Moscow between Manchester United and Chelsea. We saw beautiful details, great defending, tactical choices, and each team had one half: Manchester was completely dominating first half while Chelsea was the best in the second.
(and may I add one comment here: was the linesman blind!?)
At the same time, in this epic final, we saw players sweat and fight until cramps started biting their expensive legs; they all wanted to win the trophy!
And as in many dramas, there was blood: Paul Scholes' nose as well as an almost war-like intensity between the players, such as the duel between Vidic and Drogba, in the end leading to the headless send-off of the Ivorian (no doubt he deserved it - he lost his head, and that is it).
And in the end, there were tears as well: John Terry's missed penalty, when all Chelsea fans and players could almost touch the trophy, is sure to be remembered as one of the moments of the final: Mr. Chelsea, a great player, the captain, missing the penalty. At the same time, the best player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty before that (and he shot pathetically: I am certain every football fan thought "He'll miss", when he stopped shortly before kicking), which led him to cry of relief when Van der Saar made the winning save against Anelka.
Tears of joy and of grief were lost amid the heavy rain in Moscow.
Manchester United deserved to win, but Chelsea didn't deserve to lose.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid
Manchester United's concentration for tonight's Champions League final cannot be the best as the rumours of Cristiano Ronaldo's exit for Real Madrid are getting out of hand: Alex Ferguson called a Spanish journalist "idiot" for asking about it, and apparently, Manchester United are adamant about letting their super-star (who has a 5 year contract) go.
But Cristiano Ronaldo apparently wants to go - will he want to leave the possible Champions League champions?
In any case, the rumours cannot be good for Manchester United, as Chelsea gets its time to fully concentrate on the match.
But Cristiano Ronaldo apparently wants to go - will he want to leave the possible Champions League champions?
In any case, the rumours cannot be good for Manchester United, as Chelsea gets its time to fully concentrate on the match.
Monday, May 19, 2008
EURO 2008
The European Championship for national teams is starting soon, on June 7th. As all leagues have pretty much finished, and thus, the EURO 2008 in Switzerland/Austria will be a good afterthought/hangover, full of exciting matches for all football fans.
I must admit that I have far higher expectations to the EURO 2008 by now than I would have to the World Cup, where too many teams mean too many boring matches between lousy teams. But with more of the better teams and a more compact format, the EURO 2008 should not suffer from this (nevertheless, I do predict some incredibly boring matches between some of the more tactically-minded teams).
Although some people say that the EURO 2004 in Portugal was a bore with the wrong winner, I do not agree: Greece was not an exciting team, but were deserved winners. In fact, another beauty of the European championships is that you actually have the realistic possibility of seeing surprises by "small" teams winning: Greece is only one example, but Denmark in 1992 is another (This also makes it very difficult to predict the tournament!)
Greece will undboubtfully have a hard time defending their title, although their group D does not look impossible; they have been paired with Spain, Sweden and Russia.
Sweden is as always unpredictable, and could both win and lose, while Spain again goes to a big tournament with a super-team, but without winning it. Russia is another interesting team: they qualified at the last moment because of England's exit, but were otherwise not overly impressive in the qualifiers.
What I would call the "group of Death" is group C, where the world champions and number two, France and Italy, face each other in a repeat of the 2006 World Cup final. The other teams in the group are the ever-talented Dutch, and a young talented Romanian side, who actually qualified ahead of the Netherlands in their group. Watch out for them!
Group B will see some interesting clashes, where Germany will try to wash away their huge disappointments from the EURO 2004 and the EURO 2000, where they didn't qualify from the initial stages. But it won't be easy, as they will be facing teams who are sure to want to defeat the Germans: Poland has qualified strongly (ahead of Portugal), and after a dramatic match in Berlin at the 2006 World Cup, will be sure to want to upset their big neighbor.
For Croatia any game against Germany is special: in the EURO 1996 they lost in the quarterfinals, but in the 1998 World Cup quarterfinals they destroyed Germany 3-0 in a legendary match which brought Croatia to the forefront of world football. Croatia-Germany is a match I would never want to miss!
The last team in the group are the Austrian hosts; a team that has not showed great results in the last years, their possibilities as hosts are difficult to estimate.
Group A will see the Swiss co-hosts in some interesting matches, although the group otherwise doesn't personally excite me very much: the Swiss are good, but in the 2006 World Cup were very defensive and boring. The group could see a tense match between Turkey and Switzerland, who played last time for the 2006 World Cup play-offs, when Turkey proved disgraceful. Nevertheless, Turkey is still an interesting team, that anyone should watch out for.
The other two teams in the group, Portugal and the Czech Republic, are powerful outsiders: the Czech had a good EURO 2004, but a lousy 2008 World Cup. They still have a powerful team, and won their qualifying group ahead of Germany.
Finally, Portugal still has a super team, and with the world's currently best player, Cristiano Ronaldo. However, it remains to be seen whether they can go all the way after their disappointing loss at home to Greece in the EURO 2004. But I would certainly call them the favourites in group A!
I shall soon make my predictions for the tournament, but be sure that it will be fun, as European nations again face each other for the title of the best team of the continent!
I must admit that I have far higher expectations to the EURO 2008 by now than I would have to the World Cup, where too many teams mean too many boring matches between lousy teams. But with more of the better teams and a more compact format, the EURO 2008 should not suffer from this (nevertheless, I do predict some incredibly boring matches between some of the more tactically-minded teams).
Although some people say that the EURO 2004 in Portugal was a bore with the wrong winner, I do not agree: Greece was not an exciting team, but were deserved winners. In fact, another beauty of the European championships is that you actually have the realistic possibility of seeing surprises by "small" teams winning: Greece is only one example, but Denmark in 1992 is another (This also makes it very difficult to predict the tournament!)
Greece will undboubtfully have a hard time defending their title, although their group D does not look impossible; they have been paired with Spain, Sweden and Russia.
Sweden is as always unpredictable, and could both win and lose, while Spain again goes to a big tournament with a super-team, but without winning it. Russia is another interesting team: they qualified at the last moment because of England's exit, but were otherwise not overly impressive in the qualifiers.
What I would call the "group of Death" is group C, where the world champions and number two, France and Italy, face each other in a repeat of the 2006 World Cup final. The other teams in the group are the ever-talented Dutch, and a young talented Romanian side, who actually qualified ahead of the Netherlands in their group. Watch out for them!
Group B will see some interesting clashes, where Germany will try to wash away their huge disappointments from the EURO 2004 and the EURO 2000, where they didn't qualify from the initial stages. But it won't be easy, as they will be facing teams who are sure to want to defeat the Germans: Poland has qualified strongly (ahead of Portugal), and after a dramatic match in Berlin at the 2006 World Cup, will be sure to want to upset their big neighbor.
For Croatia any game against Germany is special: in the EURO 1996 they lost in the quarterfinals, but in the 1998 World Cup quarterfinals they destroyed Germany 3-0 in a legendary match which brought Croatia to the forefront of world football. Croatia-Germany is a match I would never want to miss!
The last team in the group are the Austrian hosts; a team that has not showed great results in the last years, their possibilities as hosts are difficult to estimate.
Group A will see the Swiss co-hosts in some interesting matches, although the group otherwise doesn't personally excite me very much: the Swiss are good, but in the 2006 World Cup were very defensive and boring. The group could see a tense match between Turkey and Switzerland, who played last time for the 2006 World Cup play-offs, when Turkey proved disgraceful. Nevertheless, Turkey is still an interesting team, that anyone should watch out for.
The other two teams in the group, Portugal and the Czech Republic, are powerful outsiders: the Czech had a good EURO 2004, but a lousy 2008 World Cup. They still have a powerful team, and won their qualifying group ahead of Germany.
Finally, Portugal still has a super team, and with the world's currently best player, Cristiano Ronaldo. However, it remains to be seen whether they can go all the way after their disappointing loss at home to Greece in the EURO 2004. But I would certainly call them the favourites in group A!
I shall soon make my predictions for the tournament, but be sure that it will be fun, as European nations again face each other for the title of the best team of the continent!
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