Special, but Not in La Liga

With the apparent quinary of Clasicos, it is obvious that the single greatest managerial statistic is going to end this month. Since his relatively humble days in Portugal, sometime back in 03, the self-proclaimed Special One began a streak of records. Records that will never be replicated again. Undefeated at home for almost 8 years, Jose Mourinho did not lose at home in his last season with Porto, at all at Stamford Bridge, the San Siro, and for now, at the Santiago Bernabeu.

His streak of tactical genius might just end here with a sad halt in Madrid. His roster of high profile, head strong, fame-driven footballers might just be his downfall. Maybe a little optimism is needed, but what’s the point when you’ve got a roster of national team 7s, 9s, and 10s that just can’t cooperate? If only he had a pair of central midfielders that he could build a team around.

We all know the tactical prowess of The Special One, but what of the tactics themselves? Standard flat-back four with at least one reducer to move around, while the rest move up and down as 3-4 just sit back and clean up. He loves this, chess, and answering questions with questions, or at least ending sentences with interrogative tones. Makelele, Deco, Costinha, and the well-aged Cambiasso and Zanetti did it for him. Hung around and just cleaned up the mess that everyone else created. Why not? Can’t score if you can’t pass or even move. In Madrid, he has the fake German, Sami Khedira, and the folically well-endowed Xabi Alonso who hasn’t hit a signature long pass since leaving Anfield. What’s wrong? He has 8 other forwards to watch over, while Casillas sits and hopes a defender will remember to stay in a flat-back four. I hate watching them whine. It sucks. Why can’t professionals just be professional? If there is a new way to trim your sideburns, I am sure CR has already done it. I can’t watch another no look pass, I’ll die.

Being second to Barcelona isn’t really that bad, but at least allow a Special attempt at winning something. I don’t need another manager to tell me that he will bring home silverware and forget after 4 years that luster looks better in cabinets. It isn’t exactly Italy or England where tactics are easier to establish, but create your own ‘philosophy’ as the Catalonians call it and just win without flare.

 

R9 – Real Ronaldo retires today. Thank you

It will be decades before we find ourselves another player like Ronaldo. None better at carving through defenses for the sole purpose of scoring goals. Joga Bonito started with this man and today it has grown to another level because of him.

Thank you, with a smile on our faces -

FIFA’s World Cup 2022 – Qatar?.. Right

If you are like me and the rest of the sporting world, you are feeling an assortment of negative emotions. Of all four of those countries you decided on Qatar? If corruption was not the first thing that came to mind when you saw Sepp Blatter open that last envelope then you probably tried to figure out something about Qatar. Today, I bet I am just like the rest of the world (apart from any one with ties to the Middle East or the Islamic world) and learned their first trivia questions about this tiny country.

The entire nation - no need for panarama

The average temperature in Qatar is 115 degrees Fahrenheit. If I remember correctly, the players complained about the heat in the 1994 World Cup held here in the USA.  If they thought heat was unbearable back in 94′ then let us hope this oil hungry nation can air condition every square inch of their land.

If you are a tree hugging environmentalist you’ll hate this next thing. Qatar has the highest carbon-dioxide emissions per capita – 55.5 metric tons per person. That is higher than the USA and neighboring Kuwait. Want to know why? – Their #1 consumption of energy is due to AIR CONDITIONING. I really hope Sepp Blatter and the remaining 21 committee members plan on wearing bathing suits in this country. Oh and the nation is approximately 75% Islamic.. try getting away with wearing revealing clothing or doing anything that deviates from the strictly enforced rules of the religion.

Now let’s think about the size of this country. Compared to Connecticut, it has a population of around 1.5 million people. Yes, it is occupied by a 7 digit number. The USA held the World Cup in 9 different cities, does Qatar even have that many soccer fields? I’ll be honest, I have seen the potential fields and ideas that the people of Qatar are thinking of building and they look nice. Really nice:

Good, so they have fields. Can such a small nation hold the capacity of the massive numbers of tourists that plan on coming to Qatar? The World Cup in South Africa saw 400,000 tourists and if my math is correct, Qatar’s population will temporarily increase by over 26%. This means they will need to have enough hotels, restaurants, road ways, parking, food, workers, etc to hold at least 26% of their country at one time. I am sure Qatar gave it some thought before proposing to hold the World’s BIGGEST event.

They have listed their 6 highest populated cities and #1 – Doha holds just above 99,000 people. That alone will be a rude awakening when a potential 400,000 flood the streets. What might be a bit disturbing is their 6th most populated city Mesaieed. It has a population of just under 10,000.. wow. That is the size of a small town, but Welcome to Qatar.

The one thing Qatar has on the USA is history. Oh well.. like history is going to get you through the biggest event that country has and probably will ever see.

Lastly, and the most annoying thing to me – What are the real reasons for FIFA’s decision? The first thing that came to mind was the fact that we are having back-to-back Asian hosts. I also remembered that Russia is technically apart of UEFA. The idea of pure corruption was out of the picture, but then I continued reading into it. The Middle East region is an upcoming land and has the MONEY to hold such an important event. That’s all I will say, no implications, but they do have a lot of MONEY.

But at the end of the day, WC 2022 is still in Qatar and all I can do is wish them the best of luck. When the WC committee visits Qatar in mid-July I hope they realize they can’t just renege their decision when they are sweating in their expensive suits. I’ll be watching from my television in a normal climate.

Ann Arbor – The Big House to be World Cup 2022 Site

Today, the FIFA World Cup committee is going to announce the selections from the many candidates that applied and even bribed their way to this day. The USA with 9/2 odds is hopefully going to be selected as the host of the 2022 World Cup, while potentially England, Spain, and Russia could be the site for the 2018 World Cup.

For the sake of the country, I hope by 2022 we will all come to realize the importance of soccer in the world and have people enjoy it rather than embarrass themselves with a lack of understanding.
With that said, the Big House was selected as one of the final 27 locations for the 2022 World Cup. If the USA is chosen as the 2022 host nation, 18 of the 27 locations will be chosen to be the actual hosts of the World Cup Finals matches. At 10am today, if the USA is chosen, I will be ordering an entire booklet of tickets and wearing Maize and Blue underneath my USA jersey for all of July 2022.

The Big House seats 109,901 - Make It Happen

World Cup Bid: 2018 and 2022

Wonder why England is still a top choice ahead of the USA? Because we decided it was a good idea to send Drew Carey as our United States of America representative. We might has well have just told FIFA that we are clearly still incapable of hosting the world’s most prestigious sporting event because we sent a gimp to prove them otherwise. I would rather have sent Mimi than Drew Carey, at least she’s obnoxious. Nothing good has come out of the state of Ohio and certainly not a US Soccer representative that suddenly decided to become a figure in the domestic game.

nice glasses

I’ll be honest, Seattle has been the best city in the entire nation for soccer support, but that does not make it right to send their minority owner as the entire nation’s representative. He knows nothing about the game and is not a big enough celebrity to make anyone do a double take. I would at least say hello to Ryan Stiles.

Even after all the scandals and bribing, England still has the upperhand over the USA. Interest in the game still plays a big role, but we needed to send someone who could at least sell the idea to FIFA that the USA will quickly build a proper following. Looks like I will be waking up very early to watch the World Cup in 2018 and 2022 because Russia and Spain will both play host.

Les Bleus feeling Blue

Maybe it was Blanc’s decision to make his national team sing the anthem that threw them off. Or the fact that the France Football Federation is too arrogant to choose a proper squad. Les Bleus managed to lose their first match under new manager Laurent Blanc. This guy used a typical youth team excuse ‘we weren’t effective in front of goal’. You’re the France National Team. OK maybe you don’t have Anelka or Benzema, but when you have the ability to choose a from Govou, Cisse, Ben Arfa, or Bafetimbi Gomis,

Chelsea's next star

scoring should not be an issue. The FFF better hope Gourcuff is the ‘next Zizou’ because they need him badly. Every team could use a Zidane, but France relied on him for over a decade. Like Barca without Xavi, but Zizou was better… so much better. Tell me how you lose 0-1 to Belarus, actually when you have the French midfield, how do you not destroy Belarus?!

Make Zidane your coach, remove those ridiculous bans on your captain, and call up Gael Kakuta.

Tribute: Francisco Varallo

On August 30th, Francisco Antonio Varallo, the last surviving participant of the inaugural 1930 World Cup Tournament passed away. Varallo passed in his hometown of La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina at the age of 100.

Born on February 5th, 1910, Francisco Varallo grew up in a province of Buenos Aires and made his professional debut at the age of 14. By the age of 18, Varallo was given the nickname ‘cañoncito‘ having scored 11 goals in 3 games for Estudiantes de la Plata. Being denied a chance to join Estudiantes, the little canon joined Gimnasio and had a breakout season earning him a call-up by the Argentinian National Team. At age 20, he was the youngest in the squad and would later find that he was the youngest in the 1930 World Cup. For his work with the national side, Boca Juniors picked up Varallo for a record fee of about 10,000 pesos($8000 US at the time). During his time with Boca Juniors, Varallo amassed 180 goals in 210 games, a record which stood in the club until 2008 when it was broken by Martin Palermo.

For his country, Varallo played in two World Cups earning 16 caps and scoring 7 goals. Throughout his career Francisco Varallo was known as a goal hungry forward and in 1933 was the leading scorer in all of South America with 34 goals in the season. His career came to an end in 1940 when he was forced to retire due to several injuries to his left knee, but continued to be an ambassador for the sport til the day he died.

This week the South American Football Confederation announced that all matches would have a minute of silence in honor of him.

Tiki Taka vs Route One Football

One nil down in the 75th minute. Do you ask your forwards to shuffle along their backline and wait for your center backs to spray long balls or do you continue to ask your midfield to connect between the two? With Zigic up front, the question is easily answered, but most don’t have the luxury.

Barcelona have perfected the possession style, Arsenal have created their own version, and we all know the Brazilians love it. The problem with route one football is the counter attack. Pushing forward five or six players leaves you with only your backline behind the ball and a recipe for disaster. Teams with the ability to exploit gaps on the counter will do so quickly:

Teams that play the tiki taka possession game are always labeled as more skilled, but can you honestly say that Clichy and Diaby have more skill than the majority of England’s top flight? The style works well for Arsenal and if it helps, looks far better than scramble inside the 18 or a long throw-in from Delap. For 90 minutes, you can’t really rely on Tom Huddlestone to blast long balls and expect the half chances to go in. Just look at the Spurs consistency in the Premier League. There isn’t any.

If I put a label on route one football teams people will just get angry. It’s more likely to get countered than score a goal and it just seems so desperate and painful to watch. Nonetheless, it is exciting with 5 minutes remaining or if you have Xabi Alonso on your side:

I guess route one football is effective when you have the names David Beckham or Xabi Alonso on your roster. The only positives to route one is a quick change of pace in the game or having the opposing team’s backline running towards their own net. An average long ball is easy to defend and gets ridiculously boring after a while, not to mention tires out the front players. Even Barcelona have done it from time to time, but at least they do it with style and spray textured balls in from the flanks with Dani Alves. Chelsea on the other hand just plays the typical English route one. Lucky for them Essien loves his wonder strikes:

I don’t think I really need to explain tiki taka football. The majority of the movements are off the ball and is sometimes slow, but patient in looking for the breakdown of a defense. Only few Premiership teams are patient in the final third, but none are better at possessing in all quadrants of the field like Arsenal. Wengerball is easily the next best form of football behind the style perfected by FCB. No better example than this:

Proof is in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q_a_ehKnbA&feature=fvw

The Best Just Got Better – FCB

You’ll Never Walk Alone, unless you have no more teammates to walk with. As of today, Anfield has lost their two best defensive center mids ever. Last season Real Madrid took Xabi Alonso, which clearly is the reason why Liverpool is currently in the Europa League instead of the CL. Also, as of today, Javier Mascherano will be playing in Spain, but at the Nou Camp.

It’s going to be a long campaign for Hodgson. (or short, depends how quickly they fall through).

Ibrahimovic clearly didn’t fit in their system. Zlatan is too tall. Celebrations looked awkward because everyone else was below his shoulders. Zlatan isn’t a passing forward. Only wild individual efforts and tap-ins came from this guy. Throw in a free kick here and there. There really is no such thing as a passing forward, maybe Berbatov, but that is because he is too slow to get himself into a scoring position. I just didn’t think Zlatan was the right fit like his shorter, less crafty counterparts. Everyone knows Ibra for his abnormal skill that came with his height, something you can’t really say much about the traditional Spanish striker.

5’9 David Villa is a much better fit for the tiki taka Catalan style. Short and quick, he knows the entire team because of national team duties and had to struggle for a playoff spot and 3rd place in La Liga throughout his career up until now. One of the deadliest goal scorers at the international and club level, Villa averages over a goal in every other game he appears in for his club and 3:2 game to goal ratio for his country. Though Zlatan has the height advantage, Villa has better vision for the final pass. Usually leading in assists for his club, he finished his 06-07 season with the most assists in La Liga. Talking David Villa up is easy, but I guarantee he produces more than Ibrahimovic by February.

The addition of Javier Mascherano will be essential to playing against top level, equally skilled teams. As one of the better short passers with Liverpool, Mascherano will hardly be needed for that attribute, but rather his scary ability to break up play. Hacking at Lampard’s ankles was like a drug to him. He loves when his team doesn’t have the ball. This is a skill that Busquets and Keita couldn’t provide and I hope I don’t have to see that lanky fool Busquets in the startingXI this year. Maybe this pushes Keita into the center back role and Puyol to the wing or sends Xavi into a higher midfield spot. Either way, this adds depth to the roster and I don’t see how many teams will compete against them.

Hopefully, Fabregas learns Xavi’s ways and takes over for him in a few years. That or Xavi should age slower. I can only think of two men that could control 22 players like puppets and ZZ was the other guy’s initials.

Champions League Group Stages Set

Don’t know how they do it, but English teams always have it easy in the group stages. Manyoo don’t have a walk in the park, but Arsenal should come out of that group with all 25 players getting minutes. Who is Partizan anyways?

Group A:

Inter, Werder Bremen, Tottenham, FC Twente

Eredivisie Champs Twente have little chance. Serie A hasn’t started yet, but I don’t think Rafa will do very well this year. He won’t replicate what Mourinho did last season and I don’t even think he will win a real piece of silverware this season. However, bias aside, Inter will go through alongside either Werder Bremen or Tottenham. Bremen looked exceptional in their qualifying round regardless of the scorelines. Tottenham seem to perform poorly in hostile conditions, so I don’t expect another 4-0 showing, nor another possibility of a robot dance. Any chance you hear Crouch wanting to play Real Madrid? Idiot.

My call: Inter goes through on 13 points and Bremen with 11.

Group B:

Lyon, Benfica, Schalke, Hapoel Tel Aviv

The young Lyon team that made last season’s semifinal CL run loses nobody in my eyes and gains one of the better play-makers in the world with Yoann Gourcuff. A partially past-its-prime Benfica still looks to be a nuisance in European play. Paraguayan international, Oscar Cardozo, scored 38 goals in all competitions last season and at age 27, I expect a similar season. Addition of Raul really means nothing to me, but Schalke has the best goalkeeper in the Bundesliga along with a few German Internationals and if anyone cares, the first Chinese player than I’ve come across to be playing in a big European club. When I think of Tel Aviv, I think of the Israeli National TV Station. That’s all I have to say about them.

My call: Lyon come out with 14 points and Schalke squeezing through on some ridiculous comparisons with 9 or 10 points.

Group C:

Manchester United, Valencia, Rangers, Bursaspor

Expectations just point to Manchester United getting through with some ease. Valencia lost their entire team this summer when Villa went to the Catalan club and Silva being bought out by City. I will still take Valencia over Rangers any day of the week. Rangers have no one worth naming and have a schedule that is packed with absolutely nothing. Bursaspor somehow took the Super Lig in Turkey and I’ll be honest, I can not name a single player on that roster, let alone pronounce a proper noun on that thing.

My call: Manchester United 18pts, Valencia 12 pts. No arguments.

Group D:

Barcelona, Panathinaikos, Copenhagan, Rubin Kazan

The Nou Camp have the most complete team in the world. I won’t even give you room to argue that. Greek champions, Panathinaikos, actually have a formidable squad. With two French additions from Lyon, the roster only gets better with names like Djibril Cisse and Gilberto Silva in it. FC Copenhagan have no chance just like Rubin Kazan, but Copenhagan so have a decent #10 with the most expensive Danish international, Jesper Gronkjaer. Dare you to say his name in front of him. We always see Rubin Kazan in the Cl, but that’s about it. Just another name to skew the goal differential. They have a better chance than FC Copenhagan though. Not like it matters.

My call: Barcelona 18 pts with ease and Panathinaikos 12 pts because Barca will smack them around twice.

Group E:

Bayern Munich, Roma, Basel, CFR Cruj

Watching last year’s final, I wanted Van Gaal’s boys to do some much better. Robben was completely removed from his game, while Sneijder made Milito look unstoppable. Winners of the domestic double, Bayern Munich lose Luca Toni, who struggled to fit into the team. They’ll be fine and can replicated their last season. Roma’s lineup doesn’t change from their very close second place finish behind Inter. The team is all past it’s prime, but better off than Basel or CFR Cruj. Basel’s captain is Alexandre Frei, who just loves to score goals and stay out of the sun. CFR Cruj make their second appearance ever in the CL and will probably just try to win a game or two before falling out of these group stages.

My call: Bayern slip a bit and come out with 11 points, Roma leave with 10

Group F:

Chelsea, Marseille, Spartak Moscow, MSK Zilina

Chelsea is just going to be Chelsea and Avram Grant’s successor is going to just make sure of it. Drogba just seems to get better with age and with that ridiculous start to the newly opened EPL season, he will have great momentum going into the group stages. Marseille were champions of Ligue1, their first time since relegation nearly two decades ago. Marseille is led by former player and French icon, Didier Deschamps who led Marseille as a player to the only French CL win. Player to watch for them is Ben Arfa, who has been linked to nearly every big club in the world being a young talented winger. Spartak Moscow earned an auto bid to the group stages with a second place finish in the Russian Premier League. Zilina makes its first appearance in the group stages having won the Slovak first division.

My call: Chelsea doesn’t sweep, but comes close with 15 points and Marseille come out with 10pts.

Group G:

AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax, Auxerre

Already known as the CL group of death, we can expect many good games from this group. Auxerre is still a mystery to me and I don’t mind continuing to keep them that way in my head. A whole lot of transfer talk has been buzzing around the Rossoneri. Ibrahimovic, Kevin-Prince Boateng, and Ben Arfa have all been rumored to head to Milan. Ibrahimovic seems to be the closest deal, but Milan would lose Huntelaar. No big deal. No need to talk up The All-Whites. Great new coach, all-star players, and unlimited possibilities for Real Madrid. Ajax took second behind FC Twente, but that means nothing to me with captain Luis Suarez as their front runner. Suarez was named Dutch Footballer of the Year scoring an insane 49 goals in all competitions last season. Suarez is also now a Uruguayan treasure for the red card he received to keep Uruguay in the WC.

My call: Real Madrid 14pts, Ajax 9pts. Wild guesses are allowed.

Group H:

Arsenal, Shakhtar Donetsk, Braga, Partizan

I’ll be pissed if Arsenal don’t come out of this group with at least 14 pts. Shakhtar Donetsk is captained by the Croatian Nat’l Team captain Darijo Srna. Donetsk won the UEFA Cup two years ago and I don’t see why they won’t be a threat in this group. Braga have little history in their domestic league, let alone European play. They are a young team with no captain and too many Brazilians that don’t matter. Partizan made one group stage appearance in their history and have won the last three league titles in Serbia.

My call: Arsenal with 13 pts just because I don’t want to disappoint myself and I guess Shakhtar Donetsk with 10 pts.