Six goals, two red cards and seven yellow cards made for a typical Old Firm clash. In this edition Rangers came out on top and the win buys manager Walter Smith a few #### points as he rebuilds the Rangers midfield…..well at least until the next time the two teams face each other.
San Jose Earthquakes continue on their great run of late that now extends to an unbeaten streak of seven games. Their 2-1 win over Kansas City Wizards also meant that they have finally moved off the bottom of the Western Conference.
Bologna had a fantastic return to Serie A beating Milan 2-1. Former Parma and Juventus striker Marco Di Vaio gave the newly promoted team a surprise 1-0 first half lead before Ambrosini equalized before half time. The second forty-five minutes was almost completely dominated by Milan but for Bologna it was a case of bending but refusing to break. A magnificent 79th drive for Francesco Valiani gave Bologna the go-ahead goal and the winner. The 27-year-old midfielder was playing in his first ever Serie A match.
Numancia maintained the excellent early season record of promoted teams by shocking Barcelona 1-0. Last season’s Segunda champions scored in the first half and held on for a noteworthy win.
Best forgotten…..
Hull lost their unbeaten record and were hammered 5-0 by Wigan. Despite taking four points from their first three games there is a sense that there are a few more lopsided results in Hull’s future.
Everton’s midfield and defence was shredded by Portsmouth in a 3-0 home loss. It was their worst home loss in the Premiership since losing 4-0 to Bolton just prior to Christmas 2005.
The teams that finished in the top five positions last season in Serie A all failed to collect full points on opening day. Champions Inter were held at Sampdoria (1-1), Roma draw at home against 10-man Napoli (1-1), Fiorentina and Juventus the points and Milan stumbled to a 2-1 home defeat at the hands of newly promoted Bologna.
Best goals….
Glen Johnson sliced through the Everton defence after an exchange of passes with Jermain Defoe and coolly slipped the ball past Tim Howard for Portsmouth second goal in a 3-0 rout of Everton.
Taylor Twellman may not have scored the best goal but arguably the bravest. Twellman was courageous enough to put his head where it was guaranteed to be thumped by LA Galaxy keeper Steve Cronin. Fortunately for the New England Revolution Twellman’s head also made contact with the ball and it landed in the net to give the Revolution a 1-0 lead in a game that finished 2-2. The Revolution’s Coach Steve Nicol was on camera and being interviewed in the seconds leading up to goal. The words “this isn’t working,” “we have to decide whether to make a change now or give it five minutes” were just out of the coach’s mouth when Twellman scored.
Antonio Di Natale’s second goal of the game for Udinese against Palermo was outstanding. One touch to kill a long pass into the penalty area; the second to lob the on-rushing goalkeeper - pure class.
A meandering solo run from Alexander Baumjohann that took him half the length of the field gave Borussia Mongengladbach a 3-0 lead and what turned out to be the winning goal in a 3-2 win over Werder Bremen.
Best Players….
In Portsmouth’s 3-0 away win at Everton David James pulled of a first half point-blank stop on Arteta and saved a Yakubu penalty – both efforts coming at key moments in the game.
Jermaine Defoe set about the Everton defence scoring the opening goal and helping to set up the two others in the same game.
Angelo Palombo was incredible in Sampdoria’s midfield against Inter. Whether it was making tackles, harrying the Inter players or pushing Sampdoria forward, Palombo was excellent.
Julian De Guzman was outstanding in Deportivo La Coruna’s win over Spanish champions Real Madrid - the best player on the park.
Goal feast……
There was no shortage of goals in the Bundesliga this weekend. Thirty-one goals in nine games including Bayer Leverkusen bringing Hoffenheim back down to earth (5-2), Hamburg winning 4-2 away to Arminia Bielefeld, newly promoted Borussia Monchengladbach beating winless Werder Bremen 3-2 and defending Champions Bayern Munich dispatching Hertha Berlin 4-1. These four game alone generated 23 of the goals.
North Americans in Europe….
Canadian Chris Pozniak scored his first goal for Dundee in the Scottish First Division but Queen of the South still won 3-1.
Biggest Howlers……
Penalty misses galore on Saturday in the Premiership with Yakubu (Everton), Roberts (Blackburn) and Downing (Middlesbrough) all failing to convert from 12 yards.
Toronto FC keeper Greg Sutton was heading towards a MLS Player of the Week nomination (from me anyway) after saving his team’s bacon on a number of occasions. That was until deep into added time when he allowed a tame effort from Atiba Harris trickle through his hands and it barely made it over the goal line. It gave Chivas a crucial 2-1 win and severely dented Toronto’s hope of making a play-off charge in MLS’s Eastern Conference.
Stat facts
Since beating Chelsea last spring to lift the Carling Cup Spurs have won just three Premiership games.
Wigan’s 5-0 win at Hull is the first time they have scored five goals away from home in a top flight match and only the second time that they have scored five goals in a top flight game. The other occasion came in a 5-3 win over Blackburn last December. The win is the largest margin of victory in Wigan’s 117 top flight matches.
All six matches in the Scottish Premier League this weekend were won by the away team.
Real Madrid has not beaten Deportivo La Coruna at the Riazor since 1991 and hasn’t earned a point there since 2002.
What was said….
Oliver Kay and how Serie A is now a home for Europe’s ageing players.
Liverpool’s stadium delay is blamed on credit crunch. The “credit crunch” has become a convenient excuse but the truth is that if you have a solid business plan, acceptable collateral and are well funded banks will fall over themselves to lend you money. Only organizations and individuals that are highly leveraged are having trouble getting credit facilities.
A Rod Liddle column that is sure to rile some readers.
Patrick Barclay looks at the impact of money on the predictability of the Champions League group stage.
James Lawton questions the credentials of many Arsenal “fans”.
Jonathan Wilson looks at the frustration of Rafa Benitez.
After sixteen straight days of football we have a two-day break before the semifinals get underway. A chance perhaps to indulge in some observations?
In terms of entertainment and quality this edition of the European Championships far exceeds what was on show four years ago. It’s on par with 2000 but the latter stages of the tournament in Netherlands and Belgium had two fantastic extra time games and one that was not unlike the Spain and Italy (except this time Italy supposedly played with 11 men for the full 120 minutes) game yesterday. The last three games of Euro 2008 will decide where it will ultimately sit in the list of great tournaments.
And that partially segues to the fallout from the last quarterfinal match. Contrasting the column inches and tone of blog posts emanating from North America dedicated to Russia versus Netherlands against Italy versus Spain makes interesting reading and may give an indication of how far the game still has to go in these parts.
It seems to me that more effort has been dedicated to trashing the Italy - Spain game than celebrating and reveling in the quality of the play and the spectacle that was Russia versus the Netherlands.
There are far too many posters and writers overly concerned about the reaction from non-soccer fans and sportswriters in North America. It is if a multitude of North American soccer fans/bloggers/posters decided after yesterday’s game to strap on the cilices and whip themselves bloody before the soccer-haters of North America even had a chance to mobilize.
It is a reaction of a bullied child that would opt to inflict self administered pain rather than allowing the bully the pleasure. It is also the reaction that does nothing to grow the game in North America. It was a poor game yesterday - you get them from time to time and not only in soccer. That’s just the way it is and self-flagellation isn’t going to change anything.
Celebrate the great, praise the beautiful, rejoice that on occasion we get to enjoy 120 minutes of footballing heaven the likes of which we were privileged to see on Saturday. No one every grew anything worthwhile by wallowing in the negative and when you respond to soccer-haters gripes all you are doing at best is reinforcing the darkside. At worst it runs the risk of becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.
As group winners Portugal, Croatia and Netherlands fell at the first knockout stage you could hear a rising crescendo of “it’s not fair.” Perhaps it’s not fair, but there is nothing that grants a right to go on and win a tournament just because a team starts well.
Tournament play is about pacing, peaking at the right time and taking advantage of the breaks when they come your way. You don’t get bonus points for artistic impression, going unbeaten in the group stage or even qualifying after only two games.
You only have to glance at the history of major tournaments such as the World Cup and the European Championships to see how difficult it is to lead from start to finish (as it is in any competition in any sport). Now and again a country will come along and be able to pull off such a remarkable achievement.
Performances by the likes of Brazil in 1958 and 1970, and France in 1984 are extremely unusual and it is easier to find examples of teams burning intensely in the early stages but flaming out spectacularly while failing to reach their overall goal.
Hungary (1954), Netherlands (1974), Italy (1978), Denmark (1986), Spain multiple times, and the daddy of them all Brazil in 1982 played memorable football in the early going only to fail in the later stages.
Comment(s) of the Day “Previously, Daneiele de Rossi and Alessandro Di Natale had failed for Italy, while Daniel Guiza, of Italy, also had his effort saved.” –Kevin McCarra in the Guardian.
Now that I have seen that it can happen to the best I don’t feel so bad about Fernando Cannavaro!
It was later corrected to read - “Previously Daniele de Rossi and Alessandro Di Natale had failed for Italy, while Daniel Güiza, of Spain, also had his effort saved,” but as of this morning Antonio was still being referred to as Alessandro.
“European football has been at a crossroads for some time but the dull, negative style that won the championship for Greece four years ago – and let's be honest propelled Rangers to the UEFA Cup Final and to a lesser extent served Scotland well in their qualifying group – has been found wanting in the face of a new dawn.
Manchester United showed the way at club level by winning in Moscow and at least four of the quarter-finalists in the current tournament have also seen the light. If ever a tournament has rekindled our enthusiasm for the beautiful game and provided a hopeful vision of the future, this has been it. If we are honest, we must also admit that this vision has been helped by the fact that the home nations were not there to cloud the view.” – Pat Nevin in the Scotsman on Sunday.
Prediction Update With three games to go here is a list of the top fifteen. *Indicates no countries left.
Netherlands Antilles 0-1 Haiti Haiti wins 1-0 on aggregate.
Cuba 4-0 Antigua and Barbuda Cuba wins 8-3 on aggregate.
Guyana 1-2 Suriname Suriname wins 3-1 on aggregate.
Barbados 0-1 United States United States win 9-0 on aggregate.
Costa Rica 3-0 Grenada Costa Rica wins 5-2 on aggregate.
Mexico 7-0 Belize Mexico wins 9-0 on aggregate.
St. Lucia 1-3 Guatemala Guatemala wins 9-1 on aggregate.
Canada 4-1 St Vincent & Grenadines Canada wins 7-1 on aggregate.
You can find the make-up of the groups for the next stage by following the link.
It is poorly laid out but it is supposed to indicate three groups of four with the the top two moving onto a final group round. The top three will qualify and the fourth place side finisher will play-off against the fifth team from South America.
Group C Only France and Germany have won the Henri Delaunay Trophy more than once. The French won as hosts in 1984 and again in 2000. There were a number of occasions when the 2000 win could have turned out very differently. Spain’s Raul could have sent the the quarter final into extra time but missed a last minute penalty for Spain and France won 2-1.
The semi final against Portugal was decided in favour of France by an extra time golden penalty kick from Zidane. And in final Italy was only seconds away from winning when Sylvain Wiltord equalized sending the game into extra time. David Trezeguet then scored a golden goal winner just before the break.
How they qualified France’s two losses to Scotland made the headlines but once all was said and done the French still scored more goals (25) and conceded fewer (5) in finishing second by three points to Italy in Group 8. Thierry Henry was France’s leading scorer with six goals.
The Coach Outspoken and eccentric Raymond Domenech continues to prove the old adage about never underestimating an over achiever. Domenech succeeded Jacques Santini after France lost in the last eight of Euro 2004 to the eventual winners Greece.
Although France made heavy weather of World Cup qualification and the first two games of the finals against Switzerland and South Korea they did reach the World Cup Final before losing on penalties to Italy.
His selections are rarely anything but controversial and he has done it again setting off a heated debate after leaving the likes of Djibril Cisse, Philippe Mexes, Mathieu Flamini (recalled later as cover for a Patrick Vieira) and Hatem Ben Arfa out of the final squad of twenty-three named last week.
Key Players Karim Benzema does not have the name recognition of some of his illustrious team mates but over the next decade this youngster could become one of the world’s best players. Don’t be surprised if Domenech uses him sparingly but given a chance the 20-year-old could turn a game or two France’s way.
Franck Ribery impressed everyone in Germany two summers ago and a move to Bayern Munich last year led to him being named Bundesliga Player of the Year. Ribery has skill, close control, pace and creativity in a package that makes even the best defenders fear him.
Great Euro Memory Two second half goals from Platini and Bellone gave France a 2-0 win over Spain in the 1984 final in Paris. The 90th minute clincher from Bruno Bellone was the fourteenth goal scored by France in the tournament finals and the only goal scored by a French striker.
Synopsis Every tournament has to have a GROUP OF DEATH and for Euro 2008 Group C is it. When you look at the players available to Domenech it is impossible to dismiss France as legitimate challengers for the trophy. They have talent in every area but a nagging feeling persists that they may find it difficult to breakdown a resolute defence – ala Scotland.
Coming Up in World Cup Qualifying Austria, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania and Faroe Islands will be the opposition in Group 7.
Italy has now made it to the last four finals and won the tournament in 1968.
How they qualified After an opening game home draw to Lithuania and a loss in Paris to France Italy then rattled off a sequence of nine wins and a draw to win Group 8 by three points over France and five points ahead of third place Scotland. With five goals Luca Toni led the scoring for Italy.
The Coach Roberto Donadoni has achieved something that Italy failed to do after winning the 1982 World Cup and that is reaching the following European Championships finals.
Key Players Luca Toni may have only scored twice in Germany in 2006 but he was pivotal to Italy’s success. A massive player -both in size and in temperament.
The reigning bad boy of Italian football Antonio Cassano is in Donadoni’s squad and all eyes will be on how both deal with a situation that may be inherently unstable. Cassano was the only bright spot for Italy four years ago in Portugal but missed out on the 2006 World Cup after falling out with everyone except the baker, the butcher and the pizza-maker.
There is a quality to the Italian squad that few can match.
Great Euro Memory The Championship win in 1968 against Yugoslavia after a replay takes pride of place. Down by one to a first half Dragan Dzajic goal with around ten minutes to play, Domenghini’s equalizer took the final to a replay. Goals from Luigi Riva and Pietro Anastasi saw Italy lift the trophy in the rematch.
Synopsis Enter the tournament as World Champions although they were not assured of qualification until they had faced Scotland in the last group game. A
A team that should probably be building for a title defence in two years in South Africa but Coach Roberto Donadoni has generally stuck to experience with a significant number of World Cup winners returning two years on.
The trio of Antonio Di Natale, Marco Borriello, and Fabio Quagliarella does however offer the coach some interesting options up front. No one would be surprised if Italy won the tournament but by the same token a traditionally slow start in the anointed GROUP OF DEATH could prove very costly.
Coming Up in World Cup Qualifying Drawn in Group 8 with Bulgaria, Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro.
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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