Claudio Ranieri on England’s demise and the issue of three central midfield players.
Michael Grant takes a look at the life and times of Sven Goran Eriksson’s time in charge of England.
Martin Jol has a look at the art of World Cup man management and he also provides some insight on the Ruud van Nistelrooy – Marco van Basten bust-up.
and a bit of fun...it might not be the best day to become a Brazilian but this website translates your name into “Brazilian”. I came out as # 5 - McMahisco. By using a couple of variables for my first name such as Bob I also got McMahildo and Robbiisco.
I will be watching the Good, the Bad and the Ugly tonight. The Clint Eastwood classic not today’s highlights.
Again thanks to all of you who take the time to visit the blog and to those of you who share your thoughts and opinions.
I can see it now, Bobby..
ESPN
"
And in a surprise move, the Brazilian manager has elected to bring in McMahisco on the right and Timbundo on the left...
We're going to have one hell of a show with these two youngsters on the park. Talent in the making, this is the future of Brazil!
"
Meanwhile Balboa needs to talk aimlessly for an hour, so back to the studios, after this commercial break!
I was always left side midfield, even though I'm right footed... More defensive. Never made it.
Last edited by ibroxloyal1 on July 1st at 9:15 PM.
Wow. Some names are just not meant to be translated. I have to say that the Brazilian McMahon version is palatable. That brings up a couple of questions.
When were first names allowed on the backs of shirts? Were the Brazilians the first?
Zidane and Henry seem like a good pair. Also watched Portugal beat England - with the help of Wayne Rooney. If he hadn't taken one of his pattened cheap shots, then he wouldn't have gotten tossed. He's got skill, but his temperment and lack of sportsmanship make him a risk.
HAHAHA HOW I WISH
"ALEXANDISCO OR ALEXANDESCO"
#10
With a name like that i was bound to shine hahaha...Jol IMO is close to the mark. VB should have left his personal feeling aside and done the best for Holland....
Wow nice..great find Bobby..i got lallosa and eto lol. Usually play right mid for fun but for team was the goalkeeper..so either #10 right mid or #1 GK on foxsoccerbobbymcmahonblogteam! LOL!
Seriously Bobby, the blog has been great, and I think you should keep it going during the EPL season. I never miss Monday or Friday nights on FSW Canada!
Nice to see Beckham step down this morning -- now if we can just get him safely into retirement from the England team... The contrast after Lennon came on was once again startling.
That Martin Jol article is fascinating. I've always had a lot of respect for the Tottenham manager, but given the intelligence he showed in his writing, I now have even more.
Bobby, at the end of last night's 'Ticket To Germany' on FSC, you addressed an email regarding the plethora of yellow cards + the failure of this policy as far trying to increase goals.
I agree with your point that some nil-nils are exciting, quality matches. I personally don't like high-scoring games in any team sport. But it's always healthy to avoid extremes + I think football would be strengthened if the scoring averages could be raised somewhat without radically changing the rules.
We've seen the effect of too many yellow cards, + it isn't pretty. One idea would be to make the penalty for fouling more commensurate with the offense. The key is that you want immediacy of
effect without the destructive carry-over of having players miss crucial matches because of questionable yellow card accumulation.
Here football can, believe it or not, take a lesson from basketball. Why not have a cumulative
team-foul system, whereby if a team racks up a certain number of fouls in a match, they incur--give away-- a penalty kick?
This might be a way to kill two birds with one stone: open up the game, increase scoring, while avoiding the travesty of star player missing semi-final + final matches.
Terry63 - I've been thinking about a couple of ways to get a blog going on the yellow cards and appropriate punishments. With a couple of mornings off coming up I will try to get a discussion going. Your idea from basketball is an interesting one because it accepts as natural a certain amount of foul play an then no more. I have had the impression during this WC that FIFA has taken things to such an extreme that they are trying to eradicate foul play when you have to accept that a certain amount of foul play is part of playing a physical and competitive game.
Last edited by BobbyMcMahon on July 2nd at 8:36 AM.
I am wondering something?? when will soccer become its own sport within America.. This is not Basketball or baseball or eveb the NFL.. it is soccer. Where there too many yellows and Reds yes there were but most of the blame for that can be laid with the players and coached for after the first couple of games they should have known to cut back on the fouls. They didnt and got penalised. why is it that when someones star gets taken out o####ame for committing fouls there is an uproar about the refereing. Tell the players to stop diving and play the game and the problem would be solved. Did some of the Refs take it too far yes... inexperieicne was to blame for that.
Terry63-nice comment about cards and possible solutions, but football is very different from basketball or any other american sport, especially in the fact that it is continuous, worldwide and played among people of all classes, races etc etc.
It would be very difficult for a referee in say a college game to tally up the number of fouls per player or team. Not only this, but as i said in another blog, football is a continuous game...no timeouts and what not, so the solution has to be incorporated in the nature of the game (quick action)...i dont think the basis of the rules themselves are bad; FIFA just needs a better way to enforce them and bring this across to the refs rather than wave a card at every chance. They also need to use technology to their advantage and enforce rules, such as suspensions for head butts and dives missed by the ref within the game. How else are they supposed to get their point across? Looking forward to discussion on this topic bobby.
Bobby and Terry63, i'll be looking forward to that discussion ... Joe Cole is correct to point out that there are too many mixed-messages in this big tournaments in regard to discipline (even if he was whining a bit - i feel he is one of the few England players that earned that right on the pitch!)
One simply has to ask the question why there have to be points of emphasis for the referees in big tournaments at all ... its because the system is broken and just like War, the players (offensive) are always looking for an edge over the refs (defensive) except for some of the refs who are just down right OFENSIVE!
I second the idea for the EPL season whether here or with you doing it part-time for another blogger ... as for Jol, in typical coach fashion he stated that Lennon was a good penalty taker.
You can take that two ways ... 1) Jol believes in his players like Robbie Keane, Mido (?) even the form-less DeFoe so you would expect him to leave Lennon in the game and 2) Sven shows that he viewed perhaps his player with the most positive IMPACT at the cup (except for Beckhams infrequent shots/crosses/goals) as limited - up until the end, Sven just didn't comprehend that Lampard's form was shot (25+times) and Lennon was on song and may have slotted home if called upon.
Great Blog & neat link!
Introducing #1 Jorginho...keeper for the Bobbyblog team!
In the cup to date...I think the worst coaching error was keeping Ruud out of the game. Reading the further details of the pettiness just reinforces the idiocy of that move. Keep him out for a half if you need to make a point...but put him in when you need a proven closer!
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
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