Back in the 1980s there was a Spanish player from Atlético Bilbao known as "the Butcher from Bilbao" for his uncompromising and outright violent tackles that injured many players, among them Gary Lineker and Diego Maradona.
Harder refeereing has all but eliminated these kind of players, but once in a while some new "butchers" emerge, and one such is surely the Dutch Manchester City defender Nigel De Jong.
De Jong became world famous for a karate kick he gave Xabi Alonso in the world cup final. This kick became a symbol of a Dutch side that was no longer playing the beautiful style they were usually famous for.
But De Jong's sins are many: known as an uncompromising player, he managed to fracture the US player Stuart Holden's leg in a "friendly" match between the USA and Netherlands in March 2010, and this last weekend he repeated the feat of fracturing a player's leg when Newcastle's Hatem Ben Arfa was carried off the pitch in the Premier League match between their two sides.
This last tackle has fortunately been widely condemned, and the Dutch national coach, Bert van Marwijck, has decided to exclude de Jong from the Dutch national team that will play two Euro 2012 qualifiers this week.
This is surely a just punishment, but in fact, one of the worse things about de Jong has been the permissivenes of the referees; the situations with Alonso and Holden cost meager yellow cards, and for the Ben Arfa tackle, he wasn't even booked. Interestingly, the only one that has come out to defend De Jong is the Dutch captain Mark Van Bommel, another player whose tackles are not booked enough (and who should have had a couple of red cards in the World Cup).
Are the referees becoming more permissive, or are the Dutch now creating a new generation of defenders who can mask their violence? No matter what, they don't belong in football.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
The presidential kick
President Evo Morales of Bolivia plays on a football team, and a couple of days ago he came on the world media when he did something that was not so fair-play:
A lot of people would perhaps think this is a bad example to set by a president, but on the other hand, football is about passion, and if he has to lose his head, surely better he does it on the football pitch!
The referee didn't give him a red card - of course, it is the president!
A lot of people would perhaps think this is a bad example to set by a president, but on the other hand, football is about passion, and if he has to lose his head, surely better he does it on the football pitch!
The referee didn't give him a red card - of course, it is the president!
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Benfica-Braga
I have been travelling a lot the last two weeks, but not missed out on football! I was in Lisbon this weekend, and Sunday evening, decided to go to the legendary Estadio da Luz to watch the home side Benfica against Braga. These two teams ended first and second respectively in last season's Portuguese league, and are currently the Portuguese representatives in the Champions League. Braga has done badly in the first two matches in the CL, first getting destroyed by Arsenal and this last week they lost 0-3 at home to Shakhtar Donetsks.
Benfica has a victory in the CL, but losing 0-2 to Schalke 04 still makes it a challenge for them to go through in a season that has started badly for them: before the Braga match they were only seventh in the league with 9 points for six matches, while Braga was fourth with 11, both trailing FC Porto, who started the season with six straight victories. It was therefore crucial for both teams to get a good result, and pressure was particularly on Benfica, whose play has been meagre this season.
For me, it was also special to go to the legendary stadium, and atmosphere was truly extraordinary in spite of it not being sold out (there were 44,000 spectators). I was specially impressed by the start of the match where a real eagle (the eagle is the symbol of the team) is let loose to fly in the stadium, to the cheers of the spectators, and to land by the Benfica captain.
Benfica were clearly the most motivated team, and played much better in the first half, where Braga was nevertheless disciplined in defence, including some splendid saves by the Braga goalkeeper Artur Moraes. Still, in spite of the dominance, Benfica, it seemed to me, lost too many balls, and is not entirely funcitoning as a team. In particular the elder Argentinean, Javier Saviola, worked hard as always, but lost many balls and missed some big chances (he was also taken out eventually). In the second half Benfica continued attacking, but for a while it seemed the air had gotten off the balloon, and both the fans and the team seemed more and more nervous as time advanced.
But finally, in the 77th minute, Carlos Martins scored a beautiful goal where he took the ball down very well and kicked precisely behind the goalkeeper. It could have been 2-0, as Braga, in spite of clear Benfica nerves (and some nasty nervous tackles towards the end), couldn't really answer back.
Benfica won 1-0, and because of the other results of this round, suddenly jumped to second spot (things are pretty close as there are three teams with 12 points and three with 11), but still 7 points behind the leaders of Oporto. However, this match may well mean that Benfica gets back the belief that they can again win the trophy this season!
And I was there!
Benfica has a victory in the CL, but losing 0-2 to Schalke 04 still makes it a challenge for them to go through in a season that has started badly for them: before the Braga match they were only seventh in the league with 9 points for six matches, while Braga was fourth with 11, both trailing FC Porto, who started the season with six straight victories. It was therefore crucial for both teams to get a good result, and pressure was particularly on Benfica, whose play has been meagre this season.
For me, it was also special to go to the legendary stadium, and atmosphere was truly extraordinary in spite of it not being sold out (there were 44,000 spectators). I was specially impressed by the start of the match where a real eagle (the eagle is the symbol of the team) is let loose to fly in the stadium, to the cheers of the spectators, and to land by the Benfica captain.
Benfica were clearly the most motivated team, and played much better in the first half, where Braga was nevertheless disciplined in defence, including some splendid saves by the Braga goalkeeper Artur Moraes. Still, in spite of the dominance, Benfica, it seemed to me, lost too many balls, and is not entirely funcitoning as a team. In particular the elder Argentinean, Javier Saviola, worked hard as always, but lost many balls and missed some big chances (he was also taken out eventually). In the second half Benfica continued attacking, but for a while it seemed the air had gotten off the balloon, and both the fans and the team seemed more and more nervous as time advanced.
But finally, in the 77th minute, Carlos Martins scored a beautiful goal where he took the ball down very well and kicked precisely behind the goalkeeper. It could have been 2-0, as Braga, in spite of clear Benfica nerves (and some nasty nervous tackles towards the end), couldn't really answer back.
Benfica won 1-0, and because of the other results of this round, suddenly jumped to second spot (things are pretty close as there are three teams with 12 points and three with 11), but still 7 points behind the leaders of Oporto. However, this match may well mean that Benfica gets back the belief that they can again win the trophy this season!
And I was there!
Monday, September 20, 2010
FCK-Brøndby
And Brøndby lost 0-2 to FC Copenhagen in the Danish derby. I think it was to be expected, although my Brøndby heart always keeps a tinge of hope - the Danish league is effectively a one-team league, and Brøndby has not been able to win in Copenhagen for six seasons.
Sadly, Brøndby fans behaved ungracefully again, so only thing that remains is to congratulate FCK fans, and hope again: "next season...."
Sadly, Brøndby fans behaved ungracefully again, so only thing that remains is to congratulate FCK fans, and hope again: "next season...."
The artist and the beast
Ever since Lionel Messi I have been waiting for him to get injured by some cynical player who would rather destroy him and let the little magician pass by him. With his small size, I really feared that Lionel Messi's career would end there. Fortunately, Messi has proven more robust than I thought, but also, referees are much more protective against wild tackles than they were in the 1980s for instance, when Maradona often was slaughtered in match after match.
That has not prevented some players from trying, and in this weekend's la liga match between Barcelona and Atlético Madrid (that Barcelona won 1-2 on goals by Messi and Piqué) another player came close to destroying Messi: Atlético Madrid's Czech defender Tomás Ujfalusi decided to end the match (it happened in the dying seconds of the match) by doing a vicious tackle on Messi, who for now will apparently be out for a couple of weeks. Ujfalusi was correctly given a red card, but this does not take away that these day's football magician will be sorely missed for a couple of weeks.
That has not prevented some players from trying, and in this weekend's la liga match between Barcelona and Atlético Madrid (that Barcelona won 1-2 on goals by Messi and Piqué) another player came close to destroying Messi: Atlético Madrid's Czech defender Tomás Ujfalusi decided to end the match (it happened in the dying seconds of the match) by doing a vicious tackle on Messi, who for now will apparently be out for a couple of weeks. Ujfalusi was correctly given a red card, but this does not take away that these day's football magician will be sorely missed for a couple of weeks.
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