We’ve been slaking our thirst for footy action with mostly meaningless international matches–the 4-0 hiding the USMNT suffered against Spain last Saturday afternoon in Foxborough, followed up by a lackluster 2-0 victory against Canada in their opening Gold Cup match Tuesday night; the Netherland’s scoreless draw against Brasil Saturday down in Goiânia, and then their 1-0 loss yesterday against Uruguay in Montevideo (apparently the Dutch gamely undertook this two-match South American tour to give the two South American powers both a chance to warm up for the upcoming Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América (July 1-24 in Argentina) as well as a chance to avenge their eliminations from WC2010
A rare full house at Citi Field
One that slipped under our radar was a friendly played a mere handful of miles from the CultFootball headquarters–Greece and Ecuador played to a 1-1 draw in front of a packed house of nearly 40,000 fans–at Citi Field, the 2-year old home of the Mets. That would be Major League Baseball’s hapless Mets.
Citi Field’s inaugural soccer game Tuesday night between Ecuador and Greece drew a boisterous crowd of 39,656, most of whom were cheering for Ecuador, and provided a festive atmosphere at a stadium that has been home to its share of bad news this spring.
Fans agonized at every scoring opportunity lost and voiced their displeasure with each tackle. In the end, the game ended 1-1, and featured six yellow cards.
The Greeks had the better scoring chances in the first half and drew first blood when forward Alexandros Tziolis, who plays for Racing Santander in La Liga in Spain, buried a cross past Ecuador goalkeeper Maximo Banguera in the 16th minute.
Ecuador dominated in the second half, and the crowd roared when the Ecuadorians, who are preparing for the upcoming South American championship, the Copa América, responded with a goal from center back Fricson Erazo in the 58th minute.
But obviously more interesting than the result was the fact that they played at Citi Field. More from the Goal blog’s writer:
The CONCACAF Gold Cup started on Sunday, with four games already in the books. The USMNT kicks off its campaign tonight, taking on Canada at Ford Field in downtown Detroit (8pmET on FSC). US Soccer has produced an infographic with just about everything you need to know about “the region’s most important international tournament” (click to view a larger version):
We took a few weeks off from our guide to the upcoming weekend’s televised matches. It’s perhaps an odd time to resurrect it, just after the climax of the European club season–but actually perhaps it’s more necessary now that we’re asking ourselves–what exactly are we supposed to watch, now that they’re done playing in Europe?
Well, for starters, they’re not done playing in Europe–there’s a full slate of Euro 2012 qualifiers this weekend. Though to be honest none of the matchups qualify as must-see. We’re more interested in a pair of international friendlies that will end up being a tasty doubleheader on Saturday: Brazil hosting the Netherlands in a rematch of last summer’s shock World Cup quarterfinal upset, and USA hosting the World Cup winners, Spain.
(TV listings below pulled from the Washington Post’s SoccerInsider post of comprehensive TV listings for the weekend.)
Saturday, June 4 (all times ET)
England-Switzerland 11:30 a.m. FSC: We thought we should pick at least one Euro qualifier–and although we did have the intention of listing today’s Germany-Austria and Belgium-Turkey matches (both of which turned out to be interesting), we didn’t get around to writing this up in time. So we’re left with Saturday’s slim pickings, and so we’ll go with the cliche: England hosting Switerland. Just check any of the English papers for too much coverage from an Anglocentric perspective. We don’t know too much about the Swiss squad–the two most recognizable names for us are defender Johann Djourou, who really came into his own with Arsenal this past season; and 26-year old Swiss captain Gökhan Inler, who starred in the midfield for the exciting Udinese squad that finished 4th in Serie A.
Brazil-Netherlands 3 p.m. Univision, ESPN3.com: Luckily our man in Sao Paulo has stepped in to our recent posting void with a nicely detailed preview of the Seleção going into this friendly with the Netherlands. No doubt the Brazilians will be looking for revenge after they were dumped out of the World Cup by the Dutch last July. On the other hand, the brilliant Oranje haven’t let up since their run to the final last summer–their currently undefeated in their Euro qualifying group. It seems like the Dutch will be without a number of their established players–Wesley Sneijder, Mark van Bommel, Rafael van der Vaart, Maarten Stekelenburg are all out of the squad, due to injury or just fatigue after the long club campaign. But Robin van Persie, Dirk Kuyt, Nigel de Jong, and Arjen Robben are all in the squad, and we’ll also be looking for exciting up and coming Dutchmen like Ibrahim Affelay (Barcelona), Gregory van der Wiel (Ajax), Eljero Elia (Hamburg), and Luuk de Jong (Twente).
United States-Spain 4:30 p.m. ESPN, Univision, ESPN3.com:
USA hosts world champions Spain in Foxborough, MA–apparently US Soccer is close to selling out the 68,000-seat Gillette Stadium!. For a full preview, we’ll point you over to the Shin Guardian. As they remind us, the last time these two met, in the 2009 Gold Cup, the US shocked with a 2-0 victory; in fact, they include a link to a column from May 2010 by tactical guru Jonathan Wilson praising Bob Bradley’s tactics against Spain in that match.
We’re wondering who Spain will play? Xavi, Puyol, Cesc aren’t in the squad, but the rest of the big names are. Though we can’t imagine Spain will field their top XI, at least not for all that long, or that they’ll be putting forth full effort–especially the Barcelona players that were playing Man U just a week ago in London.
Actually, it will be interesting to see some Spanish players not from Barcelona or Madrid play–we’re pretty sure Joan Capdevila the only such player who featured regularly in the WC last summer. Here is the squad that has travelled to Boston–there is certainly a bit of footballing talent in Spain:
The Brazilian national team will play two friendlies in Brazil over the next week. First, on Saturday in Goiânia, a rematch of the quarter-final game with Holland that ended Brazil’s campaign in last year’s World Cup. And then on the following Tuessday, Ronaldo’s farewell game, against Romania, held at the Pacaembu stadium in São Paulo.
This man really had quite a career. The Seleção has important business to do, but Ronaldo deserves his send-off
On the 19th of May, Brazil coach Mano Menezes announced the roster for those games and gave us a decent idea of the team he’ll use for the upcoming Copa América in Argentina. The list includes 28 players for the two friendlies, plus Ronaldo, who will only play for some part of the first half of the second friendly. The plan is for Ronaldo not to be a starter in that game, but to come on as a substitute some time before the first half ends. There will be some kind of celebration at halftime, and then Ronaldo’s time with the Seleção will be over. Another player will take his place in the second half of the Romania friendly, and the Seleção’s post-Ronaldo era will officially begin.
[Editors’ note: We welcome backAdam Novy for a preview of this Saturday’s little match in London–Manchester United versus FC Barcelona, meeting at Wembley for the 2011 UEFA Champions League final.]
Suicidal tendencies?
Manchester United is a cunning team who play a vintage 4-4-2 formation and, when focused, do well controlling games against big teams, as with their three recent wins against Chelsea, a side who always used to kill them. While Barcelona my be slightly overrated by a droolingly uncritical press who’ve made them poster kids for liberal self-congratulation despite their racist players, they play the best and most attractive football of any club in memory, and have five or six of the best position players in the world, including Leo Messi, who’s in a class by himself. To beat Barcelona, Utd will need a number of things to go their way, and, if any single one of them doesn’t, they will lose. (You should probably be told, gentle reader, that I’m a Man Utd fan.) It’s not impossible for Utd to pull this off, but it’s highly unlikely.
Here is a list of things Utd need to do to win:
Squeeze Out Service To Messi
Lionel Messi is almost impossible to stop, except when he plays for Argentina, when he never gets the ball in dangerous places and has almost no influence at all. Germany contained him without sweating, and, to do the same, Utd will need to keep the ball from getting to him in the box. Because he moves back and forth and side-to-side, Utd will cede possession if he’s far from the goal, but try to angle him away if he’s in the area. Also, once he gets the ball, he’ll need to be smothered. He cannot be allowed to pass to open teammates.
Following on from my end of the season thoughts, and given that posters and flyers all over NYC are declaring Doomsday this Saturday, around 6pm, I thought I should sum up the best and worst of the entire history of football, dating back to when I started watching and including only games that I have seen.
Doomsday comes 6 days too late to save West Ham
Best player (Spurs)
Has to be David Ginola. Far and away the most entertaining player I’ve ever seen in a Spurs shirt, every time he got the ball the whole crowd would hold their collective breath to see what would come next.
Best player (non-Spurs)
Has to go to Cristiano Ronaldo; he would torment defenders, infuriate the crowd with his playacting antics, but normally end up scoring or setting up goals and lead his side to victory. His showboating was fantastic, until you had to watch Gary Doherty be the last line of defence between Ronaldo and the Spurs goal.
Best Player I wish I’d seen live
Zinedine Zidane, just beating out Messi, and with the added wish that I had appreciated him while he was still playing. The best player in a France team I couldn’t support due to an unnervingly high number of Arsenal players in it, Zidane lead them to victory in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 tournaments. Skilled, majestic, arrogant, Zidane had it all – then ended his career by headbutting Materazzi. Brilliant.
Worst Player (Spurs)
Unfortunately, there is a lot of competition for this but, top of the heap, or bottom of the pile, is Grzegorz Rasiak. He was signed right as the transfer window closed in August of 2005, and left in February 2006, but not before Spurs fans got incredibly frustrated with his lack of ability and effort – culminating in us having to implore him just to “JUMP!” in a league game at Fulham. Absolutely rubbish.
Worst Player (non-Spurs)
This goes to nobody, as Tottenham always seem to bring out the best in opposition players. In a build up to a game, if a player is mentioned as not having scored in x number of matches, or the team is without a win in so long, you can guarantee Spurs will conspire to break that streak.
Best Stadium
I have been lucky enough to go to quite a few different stadiums and I’d rank them into three different categories:
The Good: Newcastle, Man City (City of Manchester Stadium), Arsenal (Highbury), Braga, Fulham, Bolton, Burnley, Leyton Orient, Old Wembley
The Average/Boring: Blackburn, Wigan, West Brom, Charlton, Oxford (Manor), Leicester, QPR, Swindon, Nottingham Forest, Oldham, Slavia Prague, NY Red Bulls
The Ugly: Cheltenham (Lower league granted, but so are Leyton Orient), Chelsea (How about a stadium where I can see from every seat?), Southampton (Bad infrastructure surrounding a boring new ground) and Portsmouth (How about a roof? You didn’t know it might rain?)
The winner: Well call me biased, but it has to go to White Hart Lane. Inconveniently located nowhere near an Underground station, bad food options and not a big enough capacity, but undoubtedly – home.
The view from my old seat at the Lane
Best Game
Remember, remember the 5th of November…2006, Spurs 2 Chelsea 1. Tottenham’s last league win over Chelsea had come a year before Harold Camping’s last prediction of when Judgement Day was to be (he claimed September 6th, 1994, followed by realising he’d failed to carry the 1 or something). The game was a close fought battle, saw John Terry sent off, and was won with a great Aaron Lennon goal. The only disappointment, no journalist asked the question of the Chelsea captain “So, what DID you say to Ledley King?”
Worst game
There’s a whole slew of 4-0 defeats to Manchester United or Blackburn that could take this, but I think it will have to go to the 1-0 loss at Southampton in 2004. As mentioned, the stadium was appalling, it took ages to get out of it afterwards, Spurs played terribly and then we still had a long drive home.
Most annoying aspect of Doomsday being day before end of the Premier League Season
Not being able to see Spurs beat Birmingham and send them and Stephen Carr down to the Championship…still have not forgiven him for saying he wanted to play for a “big club” when he moved to Newcastle.
Manager who is most likely to believe he will be Raptured
Arsene Wenger
Best International Tournament
I really enjoyed Italia ’90 until England’s penalty loss to Germany. I really enjoyed Euro ’96 until England’s penalty loss to Germany…etc and so forth. I think the best overall would be World Cup 2002, mainly because I got to watch it after I’d finished with University and before work began, but it was a really entertaining tournament also. Even watching the final on a small television in my cousins’ kitchen in the middle of nowhere, Northern California, at 4am, did not dampen my enjoyment of it. I really enjoyed World Cup 2010 too, something that was made much easier by my supporting of England ending in 2006 at the exact same moment that John Terry was made captain (for reason, see the aformentioned unasked question)
Best Goal (Spurs)
1. Ginola vs Barnsley (March 1999):
2. Kanoute vs Everton (October 2003)
3. Defoe vs Arsenal (November 2004, might have been top had we not lost the game)
Best Goal (Non-Spurs)
Way too many to choose from but this one from Argentina against Serbia in the 2006 World Cup stands out above all others:
Most Random place to watch an embarassing Spurs defeat
A second floor bar in Port El Kantaoui, Tunisia, for Spurs’ loss to Grimsby in the League Cup in September 2005.
My Favourite Spurs XI
Thorstvedt, Carr (before he left), Mabbutt, King, Tarricco, Anderton, Hoddle, Van der Vaart, Ginola, Defoe, Klinsmann
So that’s it, good luck with Doomsday and all that. One day next week, I’ll give my thoughts on Sunday’s games and the countdown to the next predicted End-of-the-World-Which-Won’t-Actually-Happen on December 21st 2012.
We lamented a bit last week over the close of the (European) club season, with most of the big leagues decided (and after the weekend, France (Lille) and the Netherlands (Ajax) also crowning champions). So what else is a CultFootball fan to look to, aside from the upcoming Champions League final (10 days away!)? Well, just today there are three tasty matches to watch.
First, there’s the Europa League final taking place in Dublin between two Liga Sagres sides–the nearly Invincible Porto against Sporting Braga. And later in the day, two Copa Libertadores quarterfinal 2nd leg matches– Brazilians Santos hosts Colombian Once Caldas (Santos having won the 1st leg 1-0 on the road), and Paraguayan side Libertad hosts Argentine Vélez Sársfield in Asunción (Vélez Sársfield won the 1st leg 3-0 in Buenos Aires).
(US TV coverage is as follows: the Europa League final is at 2:15pm ET live on DirectTV and rebroadcast on GolTV in the evening. The Copa Libertadores matches will be on Fox Deportes.)
Regarding the Europa League final, here is the Guardian’s Sachin Nakrani intra-Portuguese
The first European final to be played between two teams situated less than 50km apart is noticeable for the sporting chasm that exists between them. Porto, two-times winners of the European Cup and 25-times winners of their domestic championship, face a club whose proudest moment in their 90-year history came last season, when they finished second in the Primeira Liga.
That changes in Dublin on Wednesday evening, however, as Braga look to defy the odds again and win their first European trophy (second if anyone is counting the 2008 Intertoto Cup). Few give them a chance against André Villas Boas’s rampant champions, but within a squad whose home ground is built in a quarry there is a belief that they can unearth a golden moment for themselves.
Not sure where Porto and Braga are located? Neither were we:
Porto in particular is worth watching. They’ve had a remarkable season: they won the Liga Sagres going away, going undefeated in the process (27 wins, 3 draws, 0 losses). They were also undefeated in their Europa League group, and marched through the knockout phase, beating a couple Spanish and a couple Moscow clubs along the way: Sevilla, CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow, Villareal. (Braga dropped down from the Champions League after finishing third in their group behind Shakhtar Donetsk and Arsenal, although they did defeat Arsenal 2-1 at home in November. In the Europa knockout phase, they beat Polish Lech Poznan, before upsetting Liverpool, then Dynamo Kyiv and finally another Portuguese power, Benfica, in the semis.)
Another squad of Invincibles?
For today’s match, keep your eye on the handful of rising stars on their squad, quite a few of whom are South American: the Brazilians Fernando and Hulk (yes, the Hulk); Colombians Falcao and James Rodríguez; Argentine midfielders Fernando Belluschi and Nicolás Otamendi; Uruguayan defenders Fucile and Álvaro Pereira. They also have a few Portuguese internationals (midfielder João Moutinho, winger Silvestre Varela, the Cape Verdean-born defender Rolando).
"I'm a Special One!" "I'm Special Too!"
And of course there’s 33-year old first-year manager Andre Villas Boas–who everyone is hyping up as another Special One.
Here is the Guardian’s Dominic Fifield posting yesterday on Villas Boas:
His coaching career is not yet two years old but already his reputation precedes him. The domestic Primeira Liga title is his. This club’s first European trophy since 2004 and the Portuguese Cup could both have been hoisted by Sunday. These days he spends his time attempting to shrug off constant comparisons with Mourinho, the mentor under whom he cut his teeth but with whom he no longer speaks, and the links with Chelsea, Juventus and Roma which refuse to go away.
And here is Michael Cox (aka Mr ZonalMarking) contributing a column on Villas Boas to ESPN.com:
The similarities are clear — like Mourinho, Villas Boas is young, Portuguese, had no professional playing career to speak of, and is making his name at Porto. He is effectively Mourinho’s protégé, having worked under him at Porto, Chelsea and Inter.
Of course, Cox blesses us with detailed tactical notes on Villas Boas’s squad:
As we draw towards the close of another Premiership season, I wanted to offer a few random thoughts about how things have played out and, of course, a view on Tottenham Hotspur’s year.
Tottenham’s year
One of the things that has been creeping into conversations I have had recently with fellow Spurs fans, is the desire to avoid being in the Europa League next season, preferring to miss out on Europe all together. The idea is, without the distraction and tiredness that extra games in the Thursday Night Cup would bring, Tottenham would be more likely to challenge for a Champions League place next season. First time I heard this, I did not think it was an unreasonable position to take. However, a couple of issues have made me change my mind – mainly, the idea that qualifying for the
Braga's stadium, cut into a mountain in Northern Portugal
Champions League is in itself more preferable to being in a competition we could potentially win. Braga and Porto (Europa League finalists this season) are good teams but nothing for Spurs to fear given their wins this season over Milan and Inter. Merely being in the Champions League without a realistic shot at winning the trophy, is not better than triumphing in the Europa League. While you can attract better quality players once in the Champions League, a complete lack of European football next season, combined with highly lucrative contract offers being available at other clubs who have qualified like Manchester City and Chelsea, would result in Tottenham struggling to improve their squad enough to be in contention for a top four place next year anyway. Harry Redknapp has already stated that it will be very difficult for us to overtake Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City, and will be up against Liverpool who are attempting to do the same, so why is it assumed that less games will be the key. Admittedly, last season a lack of European football meant that Spurs were able to focus on the League and gain fourth place, but they benefitted mostly from the decline in form of Liverpool that year. The biggest step forward Tottenham have made in the last 10 years was in 2005/2006 when they qualified for the UEFA Cup through the League, the first time that had been achieved by Spurs in over 20 years. And that’s the other thing, I really enjoyed that campaign in the 2006/2007 season, everything about it: getting to sing “We’re all going on a European Tour”, the away trips to Prague, Germany and, best of all, Braga (photo above was our seats, adjacent to the mountainface), the home games and the atmosphere at the start of the second half against Sevilla when the fans willed the team back into the tie (unsuccessfully in the end, but it was still a great moment). I have the scarves, the photos and the memories from those trips I made with my sister (and 4,000 other Spurs fans) and it’s given me a real affinity for the competition. While this year might have been a letdown in the end for Tottenham, with too many draws and bad results against lower placed teams (2 points out of 12 from games against Blackpool and West Ham) costing us a place in next season’s Champions League, qualifying for the Europa League would be a satisfactory ending.
The Championship & FA Cup
Manchester United won their record 19th League title this weekend, the same day as their cross-city rivals won their first trophy in 35 years as City took the FA Cup. For the blue half of Manchester, it was a just reward for their fans who stuck with them even when they dropped to the third tier of English Football and still turned out in their numbers every week to support their team. Overall though, City are a boring side to watch and I am not going to be making any efforts to catch their Champions League games next year. There was a nice reminder of City’s recent struggles on Saturday, as they were facing Stoke City, managed by Tony Pulis who was the boss at Gillinhgam in 1999 when they played Man City in the League One (old Division Three) playoff final. In that game, City were 2-0 up with virtually no time left to go, only for Gillingham to somehow come back and score twice, going on to win on penalties. When the two sides met again in a later season, the Gillingham fans taunted their opposite number with “Two Nil, and you $%*#ed it up”, but the City fans reminded those who had given up and missed the ending with a retort of “Two Nil, and you all went home”. Congratulations Manchester City fans, Mancini and Mansour, not so excited for you.
Sir Alex Ferguson and United also finally reached a peak they had been desperate to reach on Saturday, when they overtook Liverpool for most amount of English League titles. Their dominance since 1993 has been incredible and they won the league this year thanks to incredible home form and by outlasting the other contenders at the end. But the biggest thing for me about this win, was it provided another example of fans carrying out practical jokes at the expense of their rivals. At the beginning of Sunday’s game between Liverpool and Spurs, some United fans went into the ground and unfurled a banner reading “M.U.F.C 19 Times” during the chorus of “You’ll never walk alone” at Anfield (plus some extra spies in their to get the photographic proof of it). This has come hot on the heels of Blackpool taunting Preston North End as the latter fell out of the Championship and into the third tier of the English Leagues. During their final home game, Preston fans were subjected to a plane flying over with a message saying “Poor Little Preston Enjoy League One” and then again “We are Superior Love Blackpool FC”. Fans looking to get away from it all by watching a game-show got another reminder, when a Blackpool supporting producer of the British show “Countdown” slipped this anagram into the final conundrum round – PNECRISIS (PNE = Preston North End, the answer is the end of this column!) I feel like I’m making this up…but then again on Sunday, within minutes of Wigan scoring an equaliser which meant West Ham would be relegated, a plane carrying a message of “Avram Grant – Millwall Legend” flew over the DW Stadium – the Hammers manager clearly only welcome in that part of London now, given that he was sacked moments after relegation was confirmed with the final whistle in that game. So long as it stays harmless fun-poking, I am all for this banter between fans of rival clubs.
The Relegation Battle
Although West Ham fans really dislike Tottenham, I have to admit I am sad to see them relegated again from the Premiership. They are a club with a lot of history and they really should be a top flight team, but once more they are going down with a squad with a vast amount of talent. I do not have any sympathy for the owners, Gold and Sullivan are certainly not a likeable pair, but the fans deserve better. When the fixture list comes out each year, Tottenham’s games against West Ham are definitely among those that I look for, and definitely are of more interest than games against Birmingham, Wolves or Wigan (unless we beat the latter 9-1 again). With an Olympic Stadium to fill in the near future, it is imperative for the club that this demotion is not a length one. While many Spurs fans will celebrate the Claret and Blue being knocked out of the Premiership, I have sympathy for the Hammers and their supporters and hope they make a speedy return, not least becase I want us to actually beat them next time.
The remaining two sides to go down will be from Wigan, Blackburn, Birmingham, Wolves and Blackpool. Since we are playing them and they are one of the most boring sides to watch, I will be happy to see Birmingham go down. There could be controversy at Old Trafford as already Champions United will rest players ahead of the Champions League final meaning Blackpool could have a good chance of staying up, Wigan will stay up if they can win at Stoke and that would leave it as a shootout between Wolves and Blackburn in the game at Molineux. My prediction, Blackpool lose to the kids of United and Birmingham go with them.
Arsenal & Chelsea
All season long, there was a debate about who would end up in fourth place, would it be the billionaires of Manchester City or would Tottenham repeat their feat from last season. In the end, the team who’s likely to finish in 4th looks like it could well be…Arsenal. Another under-achieving season for a Arsene Wenger’s team, who three months ago were looking to win four trophies, but ended up with 0. But, while the Emirates Trophy Cabinet can still be returned unused to the high-end furniture store in Islington it was procured from all those years ago, St. Totteringham’s day was on the 7th May this year, the day that Spurs can no longer finish above Arsenal in the league. This day has been celebrated at some point in every single season since 1994/95 when Tottenham last finished above their north-London rivals. So while I’m happy that they did not win anything, a trophyless season for Arsenal is not something I will be crowing about. Chelsea, deceptively brilliant at the start of the year due to an easy run of fixtures, ended up not quite knowing what kind of team they were and looked great at times, and played Torres at others. Another failure in the Champions League means that Ancelotti’s time is probably up there, but the constant turnover of managers and players means they will struggle to find the repeat success that Manchester United have enjoyed.
So football is nearly over for the summer (except of course, for the Copa America and MLS…okay well the Copa America) – not the best season for Spurs, not the worst one either though. Next season, it will probably more of the same – frustrating defeats and draws to teams at the foot of the table, a good European run (albeit in the lesser competition), but please, next year, how about a trophy. The FA Cup would be nice, we last won that in 1991. I remember it, but the older I get the fainter the memory…
But before I forget – the anagram – PNECRISIS = Priciness
