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What To Watch Today, the Final Day of the Interlull (Pt 1 of 2)

March 29, 2011 — by Suman

Today is the final day of the Interlull matces which began last Friday, and we pick out a handful of matches in Europe that may be of interest. We’ll be back later today with previews of a couple Americas-based matches with later starting times.

France-Croatia in Saint-Denis; Lithuania-Spain in Kaunas; Netherlands-Hungary in Amsterdam (all on ESPN3.com starting at 2:30pmET): A choice of three intra-European matchups for you.

Lithuania-Spain and Netherlands-Hungary are both Euro2012 qualifiers, featuring the two finalists of WC2010 and probable favorites for next summer’s tournament in Poland/Ukraine. Spain is coming off a closer-than-expected 2-1 home win over the Czech Republic on Friday, and have had to travel far north and east to Lithuania. On the other hand, the Netherlands won convincingly 4-0 on the road in Hungary on Friday, and return home to take on the Hungarians in Amsterdam.

France-Croatia is a friendly match (un match amical); here is France24 reporting with some comments by French manager Laurent Blanc (“Mardi soir, les Bleus retrouvent le Stade de France à l’occasion d’un match amical face à la Croatie. Après une victoire sans éclat au Luxembourg dans le cadre des éliminatoires de l’Euro-2012, Laurent Blanc pourrait enfin dessiner son équipe type”):

 

But the one we’re more looking forward to is England against one of its former colonies–with the latter having surpassed the former in terms of recent footballing success:

England-Ghana at Wembley in London (FSC, 3pm): Although this is a friendly (read: meaningless) match (made even less compelling by the fact that England manager Fabio Capello let John Terry, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney released back to their clubs), the Ghanaians may be up for coming to Wembley. For a comprehensive set of pre-match material, see ITV’s match page, which includes a match preview by African football expert @GaryAlSmith; a look by Opta at England’s unbeaten record versus African opponents; and Michael Cox (aka Mr @ZonalMarking) profiling “England new boy” winger Mike Jarvis (Wolves)

In fact, @ZonalMarking and @GaryAlSmith were having a bit of back&forth about this match on Twitter over the past couple days. E.g., here is Mr Al-Smith @-msg’ing Ghana’s likely starting XI to Mr Cox:

@garyalsmith: “@Zonal_Marking Kingson – J Pantsil, D Addy, John Mensah, Vorsah – Annan, Agyemang-Badu, A Ayew, K Asamoah – D Adiyiah, P Tagoe”

Here is an excerpt from Al-Smith’s ITV match preview:

Asamoah is the hub – his dribbling ability, off-the-ball movement and distribution will be key while Ayew covers and provides crosses for the forwards.

Capello may employ the thriving Jack Wilshere to thwart such flowing moves and that is where Stevanovic may place Annan to keep tabs on the young Gunner. Wilshere’s vision and range of passing, coupled with his excellent ball retention, makes him very similar to Annan. The potential to cancel each other out is high. Annan’s experience in the climes of Africa, Scandinavia, the World Cup and now Germany should counter any talk that Wilshere is technically the better player.

Note that it doesn’t look like Ghana will start it’s Premier League stars Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, or Asamoah Gyan–although Panstil and John Mensah will start in defense. We’ll be watching for our favorite French-based Ghanaian, Andre Ayew. The Ghana squad had to travel to London all the way from Brazzaville and will be playing on only one day of rest, after they crushed Congo 4-0 in Brazzaville on Sunday. Scoring for Ghana in that game: Prince Tagoe, Dominic Adiyiah and Sulley Muntari (who came on as a sub in that match). Tagoe and Adiyiah both play for Partizan Belgrade.


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Part 3 of What To Watch Over the Interlull (Sunday March 27)

March 27, 2011 — by Suman

We’re past the halfway point of the Interlull.  We saw some interesting matches Friday and Saturday.  There’s less to watch today–then no games tomorrow, but a whole slate of interesting ones on Tuesday.  Here are the two we choose for today,

Sunday, March 27:

The one getting all the attention is Scotland hosting A Seleção..in London (?):

Scotland-Brazil at Emirates in London (ESPN2, 9amET): See our Sao Paulo-based correspondent’s rundown of the newish Seleção here.  We don’t much about the Scottish side.  If you really want a preview of them, listen to the segment on this week’s Guardian Football Weekly Extra pod, wherein they get Scotsman Ewan Murray on the phone in order to discuss the match.

But we’re equally intrigued by this match in Brazzaville–we’re just not sure if we’ll get to watch it:

It's not often you get to see this national team play--and you probably won't today

 

Congo-Ghana in Brazzaville (no US TV): An interesting Cup of African Nation qualifier. Ghana may be looking past the Congo to Tuesday’s match against England at Wembley.

Note that this match is being hosted by the Republic of Congo in the capital city of Brazzaville.  As Wikipedia points out the Republic of Congo is “Not to be confused with the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.”  Which is exactly what we did at first, thinking we’d refer you this post we did on TP Mazembe back in December, when they surprised the footballing world by advancing to the finals of the Club World Cup.  But TP Mazembe is of course in the DR Congo.  So all we can do on Congo is excerpt Goal.com’s match preview:

Congo are a team under construction hence a lot of young players with few experience faces. Captain Christopher Samba of Blackburn Rovers would have a lot on his shoulders as they meet the ever popular Black Stars. They are just a point adrift the west Africans and a little effort from his troops coupled with the home support could do the trick for them.

Coach Camille Ngakosso would also rely heavily on striker Ibara Franchel, the 2007 CAF Young Player of the Year award winner and Switzerland-based Matt Moussilou to frustrate the current Africa best team at the Alphonse Massamba Debat Stadium.

For info on Ghana see our copious coverge of the Black Stars: here (for the Ghana starting XI vs Uruguay in the World Cup last July); here (for video of the Asamoah Gyan Dance); and here (for background about young up-&-coming striker Andre Ayew–son of the greatest Ghanaian player of all time, Abedi (Ayew) Pele).  We may see Gyan and Ayew partner up front in an exciting Ghanaian strikeforce (if not in Brazzaville, then maybe in London on Tuesday).

Ghana is clearly the highest profile side on the continent, after their inspiring showing in South Africa last summer.  They boast a squad filled with players playing club ball at the highest levels: Michael Essien, Asamoah Gyan, Sulley Muntari John Painstil, John Mensah, Richard Kingson (all Premier League); youngsters Kevin-Prince Boateng, Kwadwo Asamoah and Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu (all Serie A, the latter two at Udinese); ; Isaac Vorsah and Anthony Annan in the Bundesliga (Hoffenheim and Schalke 04, respectively); and Derek Boateng in La Liga (Getafe). See here for a list of the full squad.

Since there doesn’t appear to be any US television coverage (not sure about Europe?), one way to follow the match is via @GaryAlSmith’s Twitter stream–he is all about African football, and it appears he’s actually in Ghana.  Here is his Twitter bio:

garyalsmith: AFRICA = African Football Remains In Corrupt Administration….but…All Football Remains In Correspondence Always.

 

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What to Watch This Weekend – Interlull Edition, Pt 2 (Saturday March 26)

March 26, 2011 — by Suman

Part 2 of our 4-part guide to the Interlull.  We choose three fixtures taking place today: one intra-British Euro2012 qualifier and two international friendlies–including one taking place this evening in New Jersey, featuring the best player in the world:

Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey: Arsenal mates on opposing sides today

Saturday, March 26

Wales-England in Cardiff (11amET, ESPN3.com): This game got less interesting once Gareth Bale went down with an injury in the Welsh training camp.  We’re not too familiar with the rest of Wales’ current squad–a few Premier League players, but mostly guys playing at the Championship level (including striker Craig Bellamy).  We will be looking for young Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey, likely facing off against his club teammate Jack Wilshere.

The latter’s stock has risen to new heights after Arsenal’s battles with Barcelona in the Champions League–one even heard the phrase “the English Xavi” being tossed about.  Capello did a wonderful job managing expectations before England’s last match in December–after telling the press he would essentially be building the English side around Wilshere, Capello compared him to a few other midfielders he’s managed–Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, and Raul! Nice job Fabio..

Capello’s come under increasing criticism for the way he’s handling the England squad–the latest kerfuffle involved who will wear that all-important piece of cloth on their arm today.  Listen to this past week’s Guardian Football Weekly (Extraaah!) pod for a discussion of whether Capello is “hopefully inept and phoning it in for the money”, including some mention of a north-south/Terry vs Ferdinand divide in the English squad which Capello has failed to address.

Portugal-Chile in Leiria (5pmET, ESPN Deportes): Chile was one of the more exciting teams in South Africa last summer; unfortunately they recently parted ways with the brilliant enigmatic Argentinian Marcelo Bielsa who had managed them since 2007 (interestingly, Bielsa and the USSF are now talking about bring him to the US as technical director for the USMNT.  On Chile’s squad, look for Udinese’s starlet striker Alexis Sánchez.  Portugal will be without their supernova CR7, but will still boast a high-profile lineup: Carvalho and Pepe of Real Madrid, Raul Meireles (Liverpool), Nani (Man U).

USA-Argentina in the Meadowlands, NJ (7pmET, ESPN2 & Univision): see our senior USMNT analyst’s preview of the USA squad.  For La Albiceleste, quite a few the stars have flown in to Jersey: Messi and Mascherano from Barcelona, di Maria from Madrid, Zanetti and Cambiasso from Milan.  Watch also for youngster Javier Pastore who has been starring for Palermo in Serie A, but may be sold off to the highest bidder this summer, with the usual suspects interested–though he has said he’s in no rush to leave Palermo.

CommentaryPreview

USA vs Argentina Preview

March 26, 2011 — by Sean1

The US play those guys in baby blue and white stripes tonight, so we thought it’d be a good time to pour the mind juices over Bradley’s picks (is that guy still the coach?). Having been to the last meeting between these squads at the old Meadowlands, we can say with some surety that most of the fans there will be cheering for Argentina.

But let’s not forget that there’s a team in red out there too. Most importantly the next round of young’ins. Juan Agudelo is a favorite (as you know), and maybe be America’s next great hope up top. There’s also this kid Tim Chandler, a defender who plays in Germany, who has all of 20 years. Also in defense is Eric Lichaj, who sounds to be pretty foreign, but unlike these last two guys was actually born in America. He’s been bouncing around England on loans, but has still managed more playing time at Aston Villa than the US coach’s son.

Who else is there…Tim Ream, another defender who plays in NY. Good potential there but his teammate Agudelo is the shining light. Finally there’s Mixx Diskerud. Mixx, sure. He’s a midfielder playing in Norway, and that’s all we know.

Let’s hope Big Bob lets the kids play. Especially up top. Have we not seen that Altidore doesn’t have what it takes? But that’s for the another post…

Position…. ….Hgt…. …Wght… …Birthdate.. Hometown Club Caps/Goals
Agudelo, Juan F 6-0 180 11/23/92 Barnegat, N.J. New York Red Bulls 2/1
Altidore, Jozy F 6-1 175 11/06/89 Boca Raton, Fla. Bursaspor (Turkey) 32/10
Bocanegra, Carlos D 6-0 170 05/25/79 Alta Loma, Calif. Saint-Étienne (France) 85/12
Bornstein, Jonathan D 5-9 145 11/07/84 Los Alamitos, Calif. UANL Tigres (Mexico) 36/2
Bradley, Michael M 6-2 175 07/31/87 Manhattan Beach, Calif. Aston Villa (Germany) 50/8
Buddle, Edson F 6-1 185 05/21/81 New Rochelle, N.Y. Ingolstadt (Germany) 6/2
Chandler, Timothy D 6-1 180 03/29/90 Frankfurt, Germany FC Nürnberg (Germany) 0/0
DeMerit, Jay D 6-0 185 12/04/79 Green Bay, Wis. Vancouver Whitecaps FC 23/0
Dempsey, Clint F 6-1 170 03/09/83 Nacogdoches, Texas Fulham FC (England) 68/19
Diskerud, Mixx M 6-0 150 10/02/90 Oslo, Norway Stabaek (Norway) 2/0
Donovan, Landon M 5-8 158 03/04/82 Redlands, Calif. Los Angeles Galaxy 128/45
Edu, Maurice M 6-0 170 04/18/86 Fontana, Calif. Rangers (Scotland) 19/1
Feilhaber, Benny M 5-9 150 01/19/85 Irvine, Calif. Aarhus (Denmark) 38/2
Hahnemann, Marcus GK 6-3 220 06/15/72 Seattle, Wash. Wolverhampton Wanderers (England) 8/0
Howard, Tim GK 6-3 210 03/06/79 North Brunswick, N.J. Everton (England) 57/0
Jones, Jermaine M 6-1 172 11/03/81 Chicago, Ill. Blackburn Rovers (England) 2/0
Kljestan, Sacha M 6-1 150 09/09/85 Huntington Beach, Calif. Anderlecht (Belgium) 25/4
Lichaj, Eric D 5-11 160 11/17/88 Downers Grove, Ill. Aston Villa (England) 2/0
Onyewu, Oguchi D 6-4 210 05/13/82 Olney, Md. FC Twente (Netherlands) 58/6
Ream, Tim D 6-1 165 10/05/87 St. Louis, Mo. New York Red Bulls 1/0
Spector, Jonathan D 6-0 180 03/01/86 Arlington Heights, Ill. West Ham United (England) 28/0
Yelldell, David GK 6-4 185 10/01/81 Stuttgart, Germany MSV Duisburg (Germany) 0/0

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What to Watch This Weekend – Interlull Edition, Pt 1 (Friday March 25)

March 24, 2011 — by Suman2

The Interlull is upon us.  Just when the domestic and Champions leagues are hurtling towards their conclusions, getting us all hot and bothered…they take a break so the best players can fly all over the world to risk injury playing for their respective national teams in largely meaningless international games.  (Full disclosure: we picked up the “Interlull” terminology from the indispensable Arseblog.)

That said, some of these games aren’t completely meaningless–included on this weekend’s are a handful of Euro 2012 and African Cup qualifiers featuring some nations/players we like to watch. And some of the meaningless international friendlies shouldn’t be completely uninteresting–particularly USA hosting Argentina at the (New) Meadowlands (Saturday), Brazil playing Scotland at the Emirates (Sunday), and Ghana playing England at Wembley (Tuesday).

But you’ll have to come back for our previews of the latter matches.  There are so many fixtures (over 100) spread out over so many days (Friday thru Tuesday) that we’ve been forced to split up this weekend’s viewing guide into a multi-installment day-by-day affair.   As in the past, we’ve relied upon WaPo’s Soccer Insider for a complete listing of matches, times, and US television options.  Here our choices for…

Friday, March 25

Hungary-Netherlands in Budapest (3:30pmET, ESPN3.com; 7pm on ESPND): A Euro 2012 qualifier between the two teams at the top of the Group E standings.

For the Dutch, no Arjen Robben nor Huntelaar due to injuries.  But still plenty of talent to watch in midfield, on the wings, and up front: Schneijder, van der Vaart, van Persie, Kuyt, Elia, Affelay.  Plus watch for up-and-coming right wingback Gregory van der Wiel. Barcelona was said to be keeping an eye on him in case they were unable to resign Dani Alves.  Now that Alves has turned his back on a potential big money transfer to Man City and signed on for a few more seasons in Catalonia, Man City has apparently shifted their focus to van der Wiel.

We’re really not sure who to watch for on the current Hungarian squad–but after watching this match we should know for the return fixture in Amsterdam on Tuesday (see below).

HistoryVideo

Gelukkige Verjaardag Ruud Krol!

March 24, 2011 — by Suman1

Ruud Krol at the 1978 World Cup - captaining the Dutch team with his lucky necklace

Ruud Krol, one of the original Dutch masters, was born in Amsterdam on this day in 1949. So: Gelukkige Verjaardag Ruud Krol!

Krol was part of the great Dutch generation of the 1970s: he played on the great Ajax side that was managed by Rinus Michels and led on the field by Johan Cruijff, Johan NeeskensPiet Keizer and Krol.  Together they famously won three consecutive UEFA European Cups (the precursor to today’s Champions League), and in doing so introduced totaalvoetbal to the world.

Indeed, Krol stayed at Ajax throughout the ’70s, after Cruiff and Neeskens had left for Barcelona and Keizer had also left the squad (for retirement?), leaving only in 1980 to spend a year with the Vancouver Whitecaps of NASL, followed by four seasons in Serie A with Napoli and a couple seasons in France with Cannes.

Krol was also a featured member of the great Dutch national teams of that era–the legendary 1974 team that was probably the best side to not win the World Cup, and he captained the 1978 team that returned to the championship game only to lose to the host nation yet again.

PS: A hat-tip to @retro_mbm for re-tweeting @barafundler‘s message that noted today is Krol’s brirthday and included the link this video. Follow @retro_mbm if you’re interested in the history of the game (“Modern football? No thanks! Classic matches, as they happened. www.retrombm.com”).

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Newish Look Brazil Meet Scotland on Sunday

March 23, 2011 — by Mark1

International qualifiers and friendlies upon us, we look to the wit and wisdom of our Brazilian correspondent Mark Gannon to sort through the samba boys selection vs Scotland for this Sunday, and answer the question, why no Robinho?

Yet another chance to display gratuitous bare torso/boobage.

FWIW, Mano says he’s letting Robinho rest now, but that he’ll be counting on Robinho for Copa América. And he made a point of reminding everyone that Robinho has been on every one of Mano’s previous lists.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Mano go wild testing players for a few games, but I also wouldn’t mind if he started to settle on a group of starters. Either way. I don’t see what he sees in André Santos, but finally Marcelo is getting some love, even if in Mano’s mind he’s just André’s backup. If I were Marcelo, I probably would have gone postal early last year when people were talking about Roberto Carlos (ferchrissakes) on the squad for the World Cup, and they weren’t joking.

I was just saying yesterday that Maicon is somebody who could still help the team. It’s really too bad there’s no way to have two right wingbacks. Call it the US journalism formation or something. I don’t care. It would put Dani Alves and Maicon on the field at the same time for the same team. Dani is versatile enough to play either wingback position or a midfield position, but his natural and best position is the same as Maicon’s. This is a good kind of problem to have.

It’s kind of entertaining that there are two players called Lucas on this list. There’s the young attacking middie from São Paulo (DAMN HIM) who played really well in the U20 South American championship and there’s the volante Lucas y’all prob’ly know from Liverpool. I don’t know much about the Liverpool Lucas. I’ve seen him play for the seleção a few times, and I caught part of a Tottenham game once. I was never overwhelmed, but I assumed there was a reason he was getting paid well to play in England and why he was on the seleção several times.

Video

Football as Art: Gareth Bale Animated

March 23, 2011 — by Suman

This fantastic video was making the rounds of the footy interwebs last week–animator Richard Swarbrick (@RikkiLeaks) with an dreamlike impressionistic rendering of Gareth Bale’s Champions League performances vs Inter Milan:

This blew up especially after it was listed at #1 among “Our Favourite Things This Week” by Guardian Football–they specifically linked to the Run of Play’s post of it, titled “Bones Like Ghost” (“If there were a channel that showed live matches in this style, I might forget what living people looked like”).

For those of you that somehow haven’t seen the “IRL” version of Bale v Inter, see here. Though that video clip, like most of the hundreds of soccer highlight videos on YouTube, has a jarring soundtrack–which is a regrettable phenomenon that Run of Play addressed in an earlier post: “On Soundtracks“:

It’s a universal in football that the only people who take the time to find every single Dennis Bergkamp goal on film and then edit them together into an attractive looking YouTube-length clip listen to either emocore, pop schlock, or trance/house music.

Finally, whenever we revisit Bale v Inter, we’re reminded of Gazzetta dello Sport’s line–still the best of 2010 by our estimation.  Translated from the Italian by the Daily Mail: “‘He is devastating. How else can you describe him ? He doesn’t have one extra gear but three. This time he didn’t score but he assisted. He is a force of nature.”

"L'Inter crolla col Tottenham. Bale scatenato. Benitez: "Troppo veloci"