Happy Boss, Mad Boss. Benitez had a Moody Week

What a difference a few days make in the wild world of English Premier soccer. On Saturday Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was all smiles after his team pulverized Hull City 6-1. He was full of praise for his side, especially Fernando Torres, who scored a hattrick in the game.

Today it was a very different sounding Benitez who addressed the media after Liverpool’s crushing 2-0 loss to Fiorentina last night. This time he said his team made too many mistakes, failed to focus in the first half and that the team was “bad all over the pitch.”

He finished his mini tirade by assuring the press that his Reds would never play like that again. "I cannot really recall a performance like that. We certainly will never be as bad again."he said.

Liverpool have a chance to impress their moody manager again on Saturday when they face Chelsea, who should be hungry for a win after their surprise 3-1 defaet at the hands of Wigan Athletic last week.

Random Funny Soccer Clip

A prime example of why a goalkeeper should stay in his area.

Long, Strange Trip for Clarets Fan to Follow his Team

Sometimes you do what you have to do to follow your favorite soccer team. But the lengths that Burnley FC fan Jason Taylor will be going to to watch his team in action against northern rivals Blackburn next month.

The match is a local derby, but to avoid the kind of trouble that erupted at the Millwall/West Ham game in August the officials at Burnley aren’t taking any chances, and have laid down some very strict conditions for their fans who want to travel to watch the Clarets in action.

Fans will need to gather at their home Turf Moor stadium four hours before kickoff and travel the 13 miles to Blackburn via chartered coach.

The problem for Jason is that he lives just around the corner from Ewood Park, the home of the Blackburn Rovers. But, in order to attend the game, as a Burnley fan he will have to get in his car, drive to Burnley, park, and then get on the coach to go back to ground that is a minute’s walk from his front door. Then do the whole thing again after the final whistle blows.

When he spoke to the British newspaper The Sun about his long strange trip he wasn’t happy. "I'll be getting up at 7.30am for a game four minutes away. I'm very frustrated at these measures which are totally over the top.

"I'll spend the day in the car, the coach and on the motorway."he told them.

But, despite all that, like the true soccer fan he is, he’s going to take one for the team and grin and bear it.

Top 10 World Cup Goals?

For those of you who just cannot wait for the FIFA World Cup in 2010, reliving the past competitions might make you feel better. these are the the Top 10 World Cup goals ever, as picked by the BBC? Watch it and see if you agree.

FA Aims To Hit West Ham and Millwall Hard after Upton Park Riot

If the English FA has their way both Millwall and West Ham United will be paying dearly for the actions of their fans on August 25th, 2009.

That night millions of British, and indeed soccer fans worldwide, saw images of hooliganism and match day violence that haven’t been seen since the bad old days of the 1980s when bands of rowdy English soccer fans were considered the scourge of Europe.

Today the FA issued a multitude of charges they want both clubs to answer, and the penalties could include forcing the clubs to play matches behind closed doors, and their supporters being banned from attending live soccer games for life.
According to an official statement the FA has issued the same set of charges to both clubs. These are:

• Failure to ensure their supporters refrained from violent, threatening, obscene and provocative behavior.
• Failure to ensure their supporters refrained from racist behavior.
• Failure to ensure their supporters did not throw missiles, harmful or dangerous objects onto the pitch.

In addition, as they were the home side, West Ham have been charged with failure to ensure that their supporters did not gain access to the field of play – a result of two different pitch invasions by Hammers fans during the game.

During the course of the evening in question both Hammers striker Carlton Cole and Millwall's Jason Price were subjected to racial taunts and the targets of flying objects hurled at the pitch. 200 seats in the Upton park ground were damaged and an entire block of toilet facilities was badly damaged.

Outside the ground, one man was stabbed and taken to hospital and several others received minor injuries in a number of different scuffles.

Both clubs have 14 days to respond in writing to the charges.

Soccer pundits say that the FA has no choice but to come down hard on both clubs, as any signs that the bad old days of soccer hooliganism might be creeping back into English soccer will seriously damage the country’s high profile bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018.

EPL Weekend Round Up 9/26-9/27/2009

This weekend provided some great goalscoring and a few upsets in the English Premier League

On Saturday, after losing to Arsenal last week Wigan Athletic managed to upset a lackluster Chelsea side with a 3-1 win at home at the DW Stadium. Only Didier Drogba managed to net for the Blues, and Wigan may have been helped by the fact that goalkeeper Peter Cech was sent off, after fouling Hugo Rodallega in the box.
Rivals Liverpool had a much happier afternoon, pounding Hull City by a score of 6-1, three of the goals being provided by Fernando Torres.

Over in Stoke, Manchester United put themselves at the top of the table for the first time this season with a 2-0 win, while Robbie Keane scored an amazing for goals to lift his Tottenham side to a 5-0 win over the struggling Burnley.
For Arsenal it was a hard fought 1-0 victory over Fulham, courtesy of a Van Persie goal, and Portsmouth remain pointless, losing 1-0 to Everton.

Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn Rovers pulled back an improbable win over Aston Villa. Conceding a goal in the third minute and being reduced to ten men in the second half did not stop them from coming away the 2-1 victory, scoring in the 89th minute to win.

Another late winner came in the match between Birmingham City and Bolton, with a fairly equal game being decided by a goal by substitute Chung-Yong Lee, his first for the Wanderers giving Bolton the 2-1 win.

Sunday was a nightmare for Mick McCarthy and his Wolves side. Two early penalties gave Sunderland the lead at half time, only for Wolves to roar back to a draw. Unfortunately Sunderland managed to add three more of their own handing Wolves a 5-2 defeat, especially sad since the score did not eventually reflect the level of play the Wolves offence put in.

Will Cristiano Ronaldo Be Staying Home Next Summer?

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is traditionally the stage where the best soccer players in the world showcase their talent. But some of the biggest names in soccer lore never did make it to the big show. George Best, Alfredo Distefano and Eric Cantona to name just a couple off the top of my head. In 2010 at least you may have to add the world’s most expensive soccer player – Cristiano Ronaldo – to the list.

He may have just broken a Real Madrid record by scoring in all four of his first games for the club but his showing in international competition has been poor, and he and Portugal, just like Lionel Messi and Argentina, are in serious danger of missing out on the festivities in Johannesburg next June.

But unlike Messi, who seems to be trying to carry his team on his shoulders, Ronaldo is just as guilty as any of his national side team mates of putting in less than stellar performances in the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign. In the last 23 months Ronaldo has scored just 2 goals for his country and none at all in the eight World Cup qualifiers so far. While in his last season in the Premiership with Manchester United he netted 26 overall and his tally at Real Madrid is already 7 in 5 appearances. So obviously there is nothing wrong with his game.

So what is going wrong? No one really seems to know. There are other great players on the side apart from CR9. Nani, from Manchester United, Deco from Chelsea and Simao from Athletico Madrid, to name but a few. But still, in the recent game against Denmark the side was only able to hit the back of the net once in 35 shots at goal.

Time is running out fast for Portugal. The two remaining qualifying games, which they will get to play at home, against Hungary and Malta will have to yield maximum points and even then Portugal would have to rely on a Swedish slip up to qualify. Unless something changes very quickly it looks like Ronaldo will be spending the summer next year working on his tan, rather than joining fellow new Real Madrid superstar Kaka in South Africa.

Diego Maradona and the Case of the Confiscated Earrings

Diego Maradona – soccer legend, Argentinean national team manager and now enemy of the state in Italy?

As if he didn’t have enough to contend with trying to get his underperforming team through to the FIFA 2010 World Cup, he now has to deal once again with the ghosts of misdeeds that allegedly took place during his time at Italian soccer club Napoli back in the eighties.

According to Italian authorities Maradona still owes the government 37 million Euros – about $54 million – in back taxes. Whenever he spotted in the country police officers are allowed to act upon a court ruling that decreed that they could seize any valuables carried or worn by the soccer legend that are “in plain sight”.

So why he went to an Italian health club last week sporting a pair of his trademark diamond earrings is anyone’s guess. Perhaps because he says they are only worth about 4000 euros, he thought that authorities might overlook them. But no, two officers entered the facility and promptly took them away. Less of a loss though than he suffered in 2002, when Italian policemen confiscated two pricey Rolex watches from him while he was watching a charity soccer match.

Maradona has always challenged the assertion that he owes the taxes, saying that his former Serie A club should have been paying them for him.

U-20 World Cup Gets Underway in Cairo

There is of course a building excitement about the 2010 FIFA World Cup that will be played in Johannesburg next June. But right now there is another World Cup underway that is showcasing the talent of a new generation of soccer stars, the 2009 Under 20 World Cup which is being played in Egypt.

The home side got the tournament off to a flying start on Thursday with a 4-1 win over the team from Trinidad and Tobago.

The schedule below details the rest of the upcoming matches in a tournament while lesser known than its senior counterpart was the starting place for the international careers of many of the current superstars of the soccer world including Kaka and Lionel Messi.

Thursday, Sep. 23

#1 12:55 p.m. Egypt vs. Trinidad & Tobago (Group A, Alexandria)

Friday, Sep. 24

#2 9:55 a.m. Paraguay vs. Italy (Group A, Cairo)

#3 12:40 p.m. Nigeria vs. Venezuela (Group B, Cairo)

#4 3:25 p.m. Spain vs. Tahiti (Group B, Cairo)

Saturday, Sep. 25

#5 9:55 a.m. USA vs. Germany (Group C, Suez)

#6 12:40 p.m. Cameroon vs. Korea Republic (Group C, Suez)

#7 12:40 p.m. Ghana vs. Uzbekistan (Group D, Ismailia)

#8 3:25 p.m. England vs. Uruguay (Group D, Ismailia)

Sunday, Sep 26

#9 9:55 a.m. Brazil vs. Costa Rica (Group E, Port Said)

#10 12:40 p.m. Czech Republic vs. Australia (Group E, Port Said)

#11 12:40 p.m. United Arab Emirates vs. South Africa (Group F, Alexandria)

#12 3:25 p.m. Honduras vs. Hungary (Group F, Alexandria)

Mon., Sept 28

#13 9:55 a.m. Nigeria vs. Spain (Group B, Cairo)

#14 12:40 p.m. Italy vs. Trinidad & Tobago (Group A, Cairo)

#15 12:40 p.m. Tahiti vs. Venezuela (Group B, Cairo)

#16 3:25 p.m. Egypt vs. Paraguay (Group A, Cairo)

Tues., Sept.29

#17 9:55 a.m. Korea Republic vs. Germany (Group C, Suez)

#18 12:40 p.m. USA vs. Cameroon (Group C, Suez)

#19 12:40 p.m. Uruguay vs. Uzbekistan (Group D, Ismailia)

#20 3:25 p.m. Ghana vs. England (Group D, Ismailia)

Wed., Sept. 30

#21 9:55 a.m. Australia vs. Costa Rica (Group E, Port Said)

#22 12:40 p.m. Brazil vs. Czech Republic (Group E, Port Said)

#23 12:40 p.m. Hungary vs. South Africa (Group F, 23 Alexandria)

#24 3:35p.m. United Arab Emirates vs. Hungary (Group F, Alexandria)

Thurs., Oct. 1

#25 12:40 p.m. Tahiti vs. Nigeria (Group B, Cairo)

#26 12:40 p.m. Venezuela vs. Spain (Group B, Cairo)

#27 3:25 p.m. Trinidad & Tobago vs. Paraguay (Group A, Cairo)

#28 3:25 p.m. Italy vs. Egypt (Group A, Cairo)

Fri., Oct. 2

#29 12:40 p.m. Korea Republic vs. USA (Group C, Suez)

#30 12:40 Germany vs. Cameroon (Group C, Ismailia)

#31 3:25 p.m. Uruguay vs. Ghana (Group D, Ismailia)

#32 3:25 p.m. Uzbekistan vs. England (Group D, Suez)

Sat., Oct. 3

#33 12:40 p.m. Hungary vs. United Arab Emirates F – 33 Alexandria)

#34 12:40 p.m. South Africa vs. Honduras (Group F, Port Said)

#35 3:25 p.m. Costa Rica vs. Czech Republic (Group E, Alexandria)

#36 3:25 p.m. Australia vs. Brazil (Group E, Port Said)

SECOND ROUND (knockout with 16 teams)

Mon., Oct. 5

#37 10:25 a.m. 1st B vs. 3rd A/C/D (Cairo)

#38 1:55 p.m. 2nd A vs. 2nd C (Cairo)

Tues, Oct. 6

#39 10:25 a.m. 1st D vs. 3rd B/E/F (Ismailia)

#40 1:55 p.m. 1st A vs. 3rd C/D/E (Cairo)

#41 1:55 p.m. 1st F vs. 2nd E (Alexandria)

Wed., Oct. 7

#42 10:25 a.m. 1st E vs. 2nd D (Port Said)

#43 10:25 a.m. 2nd B vs. 2nd F (Suez)

#44 1:55 p.m. 1st C vs. 3rd A/B/F (Suez)

QUARTERFINALS

Fri., Oct. 9

#45 10:25 a.m. Winner 38 vs. Winner 39 (Suez)

#46 1:50 p.m. Winner 37 vs. Winner 41 (Suez)

Sat., Oct. 10

#47 10:25 Winner 42 vs. Winner 44 (Cairo)

#48 1:55 p.m. Winner 43 vs. Winner 40 (Cairo)

SEMIFINALS

Tues., Oct.13

#49 10:20 a.m. Winner 45 vs. Winner 46 (Cairo)

#50 1:50 p.m. Winner 47 vs. Winner 48 (Cairo)

THIRD PLACE PLAYOFF

Fri., Oct.16

#51 10:55 a.m. Loser 49 vs Loser 50 (Cairo)

FINAL

Fri., Oct. 16

#52 1:50 p.m. Winner 49 vs Winner 50 (Cairo)

US soccer fans can follow all of the matches on ESPN 360.com

Sol Campbell Walks Out on Sven

Pundits and soccer fans were a little surprised when former England and Manchester City manager Sven Goran Eriksson decide not to pursue another top flight soccer management career after leaving his position as the head coach of Mexico’s national team last year.

Despite being linked to offers from several Premiership clubs he made the surprising move of taking a position as the Director of Football at Notts County, the oldest soccer team in England but one that has fallen to the very depths of English Professional football Football Division Two (the former Fourth Division)

Not so surprising was the signing of Sol Campbell at the start of this season. Although once an England player and a part of the Arsenal team known as the “Invincibles” (they went undefeated in the 2002/2003 season) he is now 35 and well past his best. His contract with first Division Portsmouth expired and he was about to have no team to call his own, until his old England boss arranged a free transfer to Notts County.

But apparently Sol couldn’t handle life at the bottom of the heap, and unexpectedly packed up his soccer cleats and walked out this week, immediately following a team photo shoot during which he had been all smiles.

So what went wrong? Sven Goran Eriksson, speaking on behalf of the club says he really doesn’t know. But if the rumors that Campbell was telling people he was disillusioned by the clubs progress (after just one game) are true , Erikkson says Campbell was being grossly unfair.

He told the BBC "I really don't know the real reason. He didn't like the training pitch and the dressing room and things like that but he knew that before because we showed him around before he signed. Since the new owners came in, the club has signed seven or eight new players - and you can't build a new training ground in four or five weeks. We are all sorry that he has gone but the project goes on without Sol Campbell, nothing has changed."

For many, this seems to put an end to Campbell’s long career, especially since he made such a dramatic move that is rather out of character with his normally very pleasant demeanor.

Then again, maybe he was right to want more after all. Another former boss, Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger thinks Campbell could still be useful to a top flight team.

"It depends how much he wants it," said the Arsenal boss. "He still has enough in the locker to play in the Premier League. If he wants to play in the Premier League, he can still play in the Premier League."

Rio Ferdinand's Newest Role

Most of you probably know Rio Ferdinand as the cornerstone of the Manchester United defense. But in 2009 he also became a magazine publisher, or rather an Ezine. The 2nd edition of #5 is just out and included a peek into the soccer equipment in Cristiano Ronaldo's locker and at his rather impressive freestyle soccer tricks.

Check out the latest edition of #5 here

The New Ronaldo?

Many in the soccer world think this kid, Eden Hazard, is the next Cristiano Ronaldo. Real Madrid, Manchester United and Arsenal are all chasing him. See what you think.

Are David Beckham's World Cup Hopes Really just a Pipe Dream?

David Beckham wants to go to Johannesburg next June. Even before England clinched a spot in the final 32 last month he had made it clear to the MLS, to England manager Fabio Capello, and indeed to the entire world that that is one and only priority right now. Will he be back at the LA Galaxy next season? Who knows, and if the Becks himself has made any kind of decision he’s not talking and neither are the team. Will he go back to Italy for the winter, or is a return to the EPL on the cards? Again Beckham will only drop veiled hints. But he will tell you he wants one more shot at the World Cup, and he’ll do anything to get it.

But does he really have a chance? He’s been named by Capello to qualifying squads throughout the campaign, but when he has appeared he has not contributed in any big way. And with a wealth of younger talent in midfield it may not seem likely. But some of his closest rivals for the spots are more injury prone than he is, meaning that taking him as sub may indeed be in Fabio Cappello’s best interests.

For instance, last week Capello admitted he has pretty much ruled out former England stalwart Ledley King because of his ongoing knee problems, and he is not so sure about Manchester United’s Owen Hargreaves either, as according to his club physios he will be out of action until after Christmas at least.

"The problem with King is his knee, Manchester United's doctor said Hargreaves he will be back in two months. Joe Cole told me he would be ready in the next five weeks. He is one more important player for us and I hope he will be ready quickly." Capello told the press. And while this may all not be the best news for these guys, it makes Beckham’s chances of boarding that team plane next June all the better

Messi Says Argentina Must Qualify for World Cup 2010

Argentina have given World Cup fans some of the most memorable soccer moments in history over the years and are used to being a force to be reckoned with at every World Cup competition. But on the road to South Africa 2010 things are not going very well.

The team coach is Argentinean and World Cup legend Diego Maradona. Their star player is the man many consider to be the best soccer player anywhere in the world right now, Lionel Messi . But this has just not been enough so far. The team has lost their last two qualifying games, a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Paraguay and a 3-1 loss to Brazil.

Brazil and Paraguay’s wins over Argentina qualified both teams for South Africa 2010. In addition, Argentina is still lagging behind other teams in their group in the quest for the last automatic qualifying place. Chile are well ahead with 27 points to Argentina’s 22, and Ecuador have a one point advantage over Diego’s boys as well.

However, Lionel Messi told reporters yesterday that he is not that worried, that he and his countrymen and teammates will indeed by jetting off to Johannesburg next June. "We have to get together and go forward because Argentina can't stay out of the World Cup," the Barcelona forward said. But he also admitted he can’t do it alone “I alone won't win a match...this is down to all of us who are in the team,"

He also took the opportunity to dispel rumors that he and Maradona, to whom he is often likened, just do not get along. "The relationship with Diego is great. There are no fights (in the squad), on the contrary.”

Despite Messi’s confidence, he is right, he can’t get the team to the World Cup by himself, and the play of his teammates has been lackluster to say the least of late.
Only time will tell if Argentina will be among the final 32 but one thing is for sure, it’ll be a real loss for World Cup soccer if they don’t make it.

Soccer Goalie Blunders

Even the best soccer goalkeepers in the world make terrible mistakes, these are some of the worst (or best)Funny stuff. The main message here? Stay on your line guys, stay on your line


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