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Archive for the ‘Soccer’ Category
Thu, August 28, 2008 11:41 am By James Coolridge  Printer friendly version
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 BUCHAREST – The Romanian soccer coach Victor Piturca’s is under axe fr after the defeat against Lithuania in their World Cup qualifier. His job could be in danger after a “shameful” home defeat yesterday. He has been warned by officials and the media on Sunday.
“It was a shameful result but it’s not the time to discuss Piturca’s dismissal now,” Romanian Football Federation (FRF) president Mircea Sandu said the reporters here. “We’ll review the case after the match (against Faroe Islands) in Torshavn, for sure.”
Romania, who play the Faroes on Wednesday, had been expected to easily beat unheralded Lithuania in their World Cup Group Seven match on Saturday.
“Piturca’s main aim was to get at least seven points from the first three matches (in the 2010 World Cup campaign) but he has already failed to achieve that,” Sandu said.
Piturca was severely criticised by the local media after the team’s first defeat at home since 2005.
“The failure put Piturca’s job in great danger,” feels influential daily Evenimentul Zilei said. “He said he would quit in 2010 but his departure could happen much earlier.”
A crowd of 20,000 frustrated spectators at the game in the western city of Cluj whistled at the players and shouted slogans against Piturca, calling the sacking of him.
“Very few ideas in attack, huge errors in defence, a poor playing manner recalling the Euro 2008 finals’ disagreeable 2-0 defeat against the Netherlands,” Pro Sport daily wrote on its front page.
Romania’s last defeat at home was three years ago to the Netherlands won 2-0 in Constanta at Piturca’s first match in his second spell in charge of the team.
Piturca rejected Sunday’s criticism, saying Romanian soccer was not as strong as fans and the media believed.
Romania will host group favourites France in Constanta on Oct. 11.
Tags : World Cup, Soccer, Romania, Lithuania, Victor Pitruca, Cluj, Summary: The Romanian media along with football officia
Tue, August 26, 2008 11:35 am By James Coolridge
 LONDON- French pride took a fresh hammering on Saturday when the national team were smashed 3-1 in Austria as Europe’s big guns began their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaigns.
The day also witnessed Italy snatching a 2-1 stoppage-time win in Cyprus, European champions Spain edged Bosnia 1-0, Germany crushed Liechtenstein 6-0 and England were booed before beating Andorra 2-0.
France coach Raymond Domenech found it a hard time to justify the debacle Domenech, who is bound to come under renewed fire from the French media, had promised that France would come victorious in Vienna after the fiasco at Euro 2008.
However, goals from Marc Janko, Rene Aufhauser and Andreas Ivanschitz left them reeling in Group Seven as Austria marked the first competitive game of new coach Karel Brueckner with a magnificent victory.
“It’s never nice to lose,” Domenech told later to reporters. “I have my feelings about what happened but I need to watch the game on video to confirm my impressions.”
World champions Italy made a grand start as Marcello Lippi began a second term in charge of the Azzurri, having steered them to 2006 World Cup glory over France.
Two goals from Antonio Di Natale, the second a stoppage-time winner,helped them to grab a 2-1 victory over Cyprus in their Group Eight opener in Larnaca.
Former Real Madrid coach Vicente Del Bosque began his reign as coach of Spain with a home victory in Group Five against Bosnia, courtesy of David Villa’s second half strike.
Del Bosque took over from Luis Aragones after Spain’s Euro 2008 final victory over Germany.
The Germans were found more convincing on Saturday in their Group Four demolition of Liechtenstein, that helped by two goals from Lukas Podolski either side of halftime. England, with Italian coach Fabio Capello kicking off his first international qualifying campaign, garnered a victory against Andorra in Barcelona in Group Six, although the travelling England fans booed the team at halftime.
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Sun, August 24, 2008 10:47 am By James Coolridge
 BUENOS AIRES - Argentina’s indifferent World Cup qualifying campaign continued on Saturday when they were held 1-1 at home by Paraguay and had striker Carlos Tevez sent off early again. The point has helped Paraguay to stay top of the 10-team South American group on 14 from seven games with Argentina two points behind in second place. This is Argentina’s third draw in a row.
The last remaining winless and unbeaten records ended when Peru defeated Venezuela 1-0 to move off the bottom and Colombia lost 1-0 at home to Uruguay, who climbed to third.Brazil, away to Chile on Sunday, temporarily camr down to sixth and out of the qualifying places.The top four teams qualify for South Africa in 2010 and the fifth plays off against a side from the CONCACAF region. Tevez, sent off in the first half of the 2-1 defeat in Colombia in November for a petulant kick at an opponent, faces a ticking off from coach Alfio Basile after leaving his team in the lurch again.The Manchester United forward, wearing boots for his second international since then, was dismissed after two bad tackles in the first 31 minutes.”I have to speak to him in private about these dismissals,” said Basile.”Everything was difficult. We played nearly the whole game with 10 men, our goalkeeper was injured and we conceded an own goal. So you can’t really analyse this match in the normal way.”
HEINZE BLUNDER
Tevez’s red card came with Argentina trailing to a Gabriel Heinze own goal, the defender having headed past goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri as both tried to deal with a long ball into the area in the 13th minute.
Despite the setbacks, Argentina caught the rivals on a draw in the 61st minute when substitute Sergio Aguero provided the finishing touch after Lionel Messi burst through the Paraguay midfield. A 14th-minute header from Sebastian Eguren gave Uruguay their win in Bogota.
“I think we controlled the match. Colombia was repetitive and you couldn’t see them finding a way through,” said Uruguay coach Oscar Washington Tabarez after the match.
Peru was belittled 6-0 by Uruguay in June and this has brought just a few spectators into the stadium. Only a few thousand spectators bothered to watch them on Saturday.Bolivia had Alejandro Gomez sent off after only 18 minutes and coach Erwin Sanchez ordered from the touchline in the second half in a 3-1 defeat in Ecuador.
Tags : Soccer, Brazil, goal, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, South America, Colombia, red card, Chile
Sun, August 10, 2008 10:11 am By James Coolridge
 SHENYANG, China (AP) _ Germany has already made a big victory on Chinese soil by lifting the women’s football title on an impregnable defense, and is now right on track for another one at the Olympics. The Germans did a magical performance last year at World Cup title in China last year without allowing a single goal in six matches. And again defense has been the key again in the Beijing Games.
Goalkeeper Nadine Angerer and her defenders have kept Germany in contention for its first Olympic gold medal. “Last year, we scored 11 goals in the first game and then we had no goals against,” Germany coach Silvia Neid said. She feels as historical and unique, and definitely something that will be very difficult to repeat. The team’s current streak without conceding a goal is at eight matches.
Germany got Brazil on draw 0-0 in its Olympic debut and edged Nigeria 1-0 in its second game, with the winner scored by Kerstin Stegemann, a defender. Angerer was key in both matches, coming up with big saves.
The ace goal keeper was successful in denying FIFA Player of the Year Marta from scoring on Wednesday, and made two crucial stops on one-on-one breakaways against Nigeria on Saturday. “Nadine is one of the most important players in our team,” feels Neid.
Nadine had proved herself last year. She knows to control the ball and to work magically in the box. She is self-motivated and she knows how to encourage the other players. Angerer stopped Marta’s penalty kick in the World Cup final last year, when the Germans were up 1-0 before eventually winning 2-0.
Agerer says that she don’t care if goal comes or not. Her primary concern is winning the match. “My goal is to win the title, not just to not allow goals. I will be just as satisfied if they score four times but we win 5-4.”
Germany will take over North Korea on Tuesday in Tianjin needing a victory or draw to secure a quarterfinal berth. It is second in Group F with four points. Brazil too carries the same number of points but leads on the number of goals scored. North Korea has three points and Nigeria is virtually eliminated with none. The top two teams from each of the three groups plus the best two third-place finishers advance to the second round.
“It will keep us going in the tournament and give us a chance to win the gold medal,” feels Angerer. Germany is now in second place behind the United States in FIFA’s rankings and the defending European champion is yet to play in an Olympic final in women’s football. Since the tournament debut in 1996 in Atlanta, it has grabbed the bronze twice in Sydney in 2000 and in Athens four years ago, losing to Norway and the U.S. in the semifinals, respectively.
Tags : Football, US, Brazil, Germany, FIFA, Beijing Olympics, women's football, Nadine Angerer, Silvia Neid
Thu, July 10, 2008 11:29 am By James Coolridge
 SKELLEFTEA, Sweden: With the goal by Carli Lloyd in the 39th minute, the United Sates owned a win over Sweden in the women’s Olympic tune up on Saturday. The golden goal by Lloyd helped the United States in folding up the Swedish side by 1-0 giving an edge in the series.
Lloyd by dribbling past three defenders inside the box succeeded in firing a low left-footed shot which glanced off Sara Thunebro’s and past goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl.
With this win, the United States celebrated their 20th straight this year. It also includes one on penalty kicks over Canada in the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying final. Thanks this time to the good fortune of Carli Lloyd.
“Yeah, it was a deflection, but it’s always exciting to score a goal,” was the early comment by Lloyd, who had earlier taken the American side to a 4-0 victory over Norway three days back. With this first match America have managed to make their 16th win in 25 matches against Sweden. Sweden has grabbed five wins with four draws.
Sweden, ranked third by FIFA is a favourite among Olympic favourites. The two scoring chances late in the first half and another early in the second were thwarted by goalkeeper Hope Solo. This was the first match of Pia Sundhage as coach of the United States against her native country. She has booted for Sweden in two World Cups and one Olympics. She feels the victory against Sweden will pump energy and confidence to her side. “We will be working on some tactical stuff,” she said. “At halftime, it was nice to hear the players say they need to challenge themselves …” says Pia Sundhage.
The United States will enter the fields next time against Brazil on July 13 near Denver, and July 16 at San Diego before marching to China.
Tags : Soccer, Olympics, US, China, goal, FIFA, Sweden, women soccer, Carli Lloyd, Pia Sundhage
Thu, June 26, 2008 4:24 am By Matt Davis
 The Premier League is a British professional league for football clubs. The league is officially called as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons.
There are twenty clubs contest in Barclays Premier League. The season commences from August and continues till May. All the teams in the league play 38 games each.
The competition kick-started as FA Premier League on the 20th of February, 1992. The first game of the Premier League was played on 15th August in the same year. However, some of the clubs in the Football League First Division decided to break off from the Football League. The reason behind this was to take advantage of a profitable television right contract.
Barclays Premier League is the most well paid football league. The combined club revenue in 2005-2006 has been estimated as around $1.4 billion. Due to rising media revenues, the number reached $1.8 billion in 2007-2008.
It is, however, a head-to-head competition between the clubs. Only four out of the 40 clubs have won the Premier League title till date. The four clubs are the Arsenals, Blackburn rovers, Chelsea and Manchester United. Manchester United is the present champion. The club also won the ninth title in 2006-2007.
The English Premier League:
The English Premier League is a series of organized leagues for football clubs in England. There are around 140 leagues sub-divided into 480 divisions. The number of clubs varies every year. This is because the clubs join, leave or merge to form new teams.
It is estimated that there are 15 clubs per division. This comes to a huge total of 7000 clubs being the members of a league in the English Premier League.
Three points are given to the team for each win and one point for a draw. The ranks of the teams are decided according to the total points and the differences in the number of goals. If the teams have equal points, the goal difference and the number of goals scored are taken into consideration to decide the winner.
Tags : Football, EPL, English Premier League, Professional, Barclays, Premiership, Club
Wed, June 25, 2008 4:24 am By James Coolridge
 Juggle a soccer ball, like any other skill, requires skill and regular practice to produce better results. In this article, we give you hot tips on how to juggle a soccer ball like a pro.
Patience: You can’t come up as a good soccer player unless and until you have patience. Juggling is a skill which requires a lot of patience. It takes some time to master the skill.
Practice: Practice has no substitute. If you want to become a pro, practice regularly. Make it a point to include juggling in your practice sessions. Do it everyday, for at least thirty minutes. Continue this practice and after four to five weeks, you will find yourself juggling the soccer ball just like your favorite footballer!
Choose a small ball: Juggling with a small ball is much more difficult than juggling with a regular one. It will often irritate you to mess up with a tiny ball, but this practice will surely improve your juggling skill. It will be then easier for you to juggle with a regular soccer ball.
Keep focused: Don’t you ever loose your focus! Keep your eye hooked to your ball. Keep the ball in the air and close out everything else around you.
Relax: Focusing on the soccer ball doesn’t mean that you have to stand up with your muscles tight! Relax, keep your cool, and be in a cheerful mood while practicing. A relaxed mood will make it easier for you to keep the ball in the air for a longer time. Slowly, increase the juggling time.
Tags : Soccer, ball, Tips, Juggle, Professional, Practice, Relax, Record
Thu, June 19, 2008 11:06 am By James Coolridge
The video shows a quick recap of all the action in the first week of Major League Soccer, 2008.
Tags : Major Soccer League, first week
Mon, June 16, 2008 11:05 am By James Coolridge
 April is going to be a very special month for the Werder Bremen’s star player Diego. This is because on 30th of this month in 2003, the player was called for the first time to defend the Brazilian National Team.
Quotes from recent media reports:
“An unforgetable day in my life, I remember that the night before I could not sleep right, it seemed a dream, because I would find many of my idols and play with them. This was one of the best days of my career and of my life life too,” recalls Diego. “I remember that I was very anxious in the bench, when Parreira (Carlos Alberto Parreira was the coach of the Brazilian National Team at the time) asked me to warm up. I did not stop one minute, I got into the field and I ran the entire field, I enjoyed every minute in the field,” says Diego.
“It is always a pleasure to wear the shirt of the Brazilian National Team, either in a friendly match or in an official competition, but I keep in my memory the two Copa America wins and the friendly against England, when I scored the goal for Brazil,” notes Diego.
Tags : Diego, Brazilian soccer team, Werder Bremen
Sun, June 15, 2008 8:50 am By James Coolridge
 According to Spanish reports, Real Madrid has decided to offer Manchester United a world record for Christiano Ronaldo. Real told the United that they are ready to pay whopping 120million euros for Ronaldo.
The Red Devils made a clear statement that they are not ready to sell the Portuguese star. The wonderful player scored around 40 goals this season.
The news of the possible bid have emanated from Real officials. La Sexta - who have the rights to La Liga television coverage in Spain, are said to have close ties with high-ranking Real officials. However, Real are not sure whether the United will show a green signal to the deal.
It was reported in Spain that Real’s sporting director Predrag Mijatovic met with Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes in London and Rome in recent weeks.
Tags : Manchester United, Christiano Ronaldo, massive bid, Real
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