News out of Colombia that the mascot of Atlético Junior, an owl that lived in the rafters of the Estadio Metropolitano, has died of trauma after being kicked off the field by Pereira’s Luis Moreno.
Moreno, a defender with the Panamanian national side, went to remove the bird off the pitch after it had been struck by a clearance, but perhaps he shouldn’t have done it with his foot. Vets say the combination of being stuck by the ball and the rough handling from Moreno were direct causes of its death.
Fans are particularly peeved seeing as they’d adopted the bird as their mascot, and the defender has received numerous death threats against himself and his family back in Panama. He’s attempted to make good by visiting a zoo for an owl lecture, and has promised to return to volunteer with the animals on a monthly basis.
Luiz was lucky to have not picked up a second yellow
You’d have never known Chelsea were having a rough run of form with the way they turned around what looked to be a losing outing today. Statistics suggest they were producing more chances and even controlling the game, but the reality was that they were lucky to get out of the first half only a goal down.
United looked bright up top, and Chicarito, preferred to Berbatov at the start, was linking well with Rooney and Nani up the left (Fletcher on the right saw almost none of the ball in the opening period). On fifteen minutes United created a wonderful chance. The little Mexican pea turned well with the ball before sliding through Chelsea’s center and feeding an overlapping Evra, only for the Frenchman to play a ball just slightly in front of an onrushing Rooney unmarked inside the six.
Manchester continued to work up their left, while Chelsea were hampered in attack by their narrow formation. Ramires was working well enough on the right, but was locked in battle with Nani and Evra, and only when Anelka would move into the corner ahead of him did Chelsea find a way to get the ball into a crossing position. Malouda was constantly drifting inside and receiving the ball where Lampard might have been better placed. Though he had plenty of space to his left, and surely has a step on O’Shea sat in United’s right back, the French Guinean continuously tried to force the ball through the center of the defense.
Ferguson’s charges were first to strike, a revitalized Rooney working in tight space with Nani again from the left. David Luiz, the big Brazilian centerback who looks to be Chelsea’s best signing in some time, had been managing Rooney very well up to that point, but on the goal he was separated from his mark when Nani went past Ibramovic, forcing the Brazilian to readjust. Ibramovic, who had been holding his own against Nani, simply didn’t step quickly enough to his new assignment, leaving Rooney time to line up his shot and blast home from just outside the box. 1-0 to United and Chelsea didn’t look like they had a way back.
Arsenal caught a serious case of the Blues on Sunday, for sure.
I wasn’t terribly surprised by the 2-1 defeat to the old boys from the second city in the Carling Cup final. Birmingham can hold down the fort when they need to. The defense is often well-organized, stubborn, and capable of scoring on set pieces; the midfield is scrappy and confident; the forward line, while less than imaginative, can obviously take advantage of the odd bounce of the ball.
I’m not the first, nor the last, to praise Blues’ keeper Ben Foster. He was everywhere and anywhere on Sunday, playing as if it were his last match on earth. Quite a superb solo effort by England’s future number two!
As for the Gunners: With Cesc and Walcott nursing minor injuries, I had hoped against hope that Rosicky would remain on the bench, that Nasri would move to the attacking, central midfield role, and (gasp?) that Bendter would start on the right wing. Alas, it was as I predicted: Rosicky in the middle, Nasri on the right…
Despite Rosicky’s lack of ambition, and Van Persie’s yet-to-be disclosed injury–which forced him to exit the match prematurely–the loss nestled itself quite comfortably on the shoulders of Arsenal’s goalkeeper and left-center back. (I can’t even mention them by name. Not that I’m ashamed, I just don’t have the energy to look up Eastern-European vowel and consonant combinations…)
I can’t help but wonder if Arsene Wenger might share a bit of the blame for Sunday’s loss. For three years, Gooners have clamored for solid, experienced, goalkeepers and center halves/backs. The signing of Vermaelen was a wonderstroke, but a niggling, mysterious, Achilles injury has rendered him unavailable until hell freezes over. William Gallas was a delicate genius, but now he cries for the Spurs. Sol Campbell had a brief spell of nostalgic leadership for the Gunners late last year, but now he warms the cheap seats at St. James’ Park.
Lukasz Piszczek shut down Ribery for large portions of the match.
As far as google translate is concerned, the post title says Dortmund have now proven their badassedness. The team came into Bayern’s Allianz Arena today 13 points ahead of the Bavarians but as 4-to-1 underdogs who hadn’t won a match there since 1991. After early-week comments out of the Bayern Munich’s front office that defending champions would win by a minimum two goals, Dortmund’s manager Jürgen Klopp told the press, “Well we’ve all had a long talk about it, and we’ve decided to travel to Bayern anyway.” They more than just showed up, they took their game to Die Roten and jammed a 3-1 victory down their throats.
The game started brightly with both sides looking to establish their attack. From the outset Munich worked up their wings (as they do), with Robben on the right, Ribery on the left, and Gustavo in support as an overlapping left back. The Brazilian started off well after being relieved of his centerback duties, and Bayern looked like they’d be using him quite a bit on the day. But that was early on. Within minutes of kickoff Shmelzer came attacking up Dotmund’s left (leaving a non-marking Robben behind him) and lifted a ball onto the foot of Dortmund’s second striker, Robert Lewandowski. He slightly mistimed his volley or it would’ve been 1-0 to the visitors on 4 minutes. The big Pole had escaped the tracking Schweinsteiger to find himself clear to no avail.
We wouldn’t have to wait much longer for a goal though, as Schweinsteiger (who had a terrible day) turned a bobbled pass into the onrushing Großkreutz who collected and laid a well measured ball into the path of Argentine-born, Paraguay international Lucas Barrios. The striker crossed up Munich keeper Kraft (who had done so well on weds against Inter), sliding the ball easily into the far corner. 1-0 to Dortmund within 10 minutes.
The side in yellow didn’t sit back and continued to press. It was at times difficult to tell where their attacks were coming from, as their top four or five players were constantly interchanging positions, and through the half any number of players would find a run behind the line or step up to take a pop from distance (holding midfielder Sven Bender producing some of the best far-range rips). But Bayern would never give up, and they continued pushing up their wings, if only to win corners and set-pieces. It was enough, within five minutes of Dortmund’s goal the score was leveled when Ribery sent in a corner to the foot of Gustavo. 1-1 and all to play for in one of the most open matches of the season.
Born in Germany, plays for Turkey, Nuri Sahin will be key to breaking down the Bayern defense.
Standard fare with mostly mid-level clashes across the leagues this weekend, though there are a few standouts for which you should ignore all other matches and plans. We’ll keep it short and sweet (click the teams for channel info by country):
Saturday, Feb 26th
12:30 pm (2pm replay on Gol TV) Bayern München vs Borussia Dortmund Bundesliga This promises to be a wide-open match. After their complete domination of Inter mid-week, and with a squad that’s essentially full strength (yes first choice strikers Olic and Klose are out, but Gómez has something along the lines of 27 goals for his club this season…they’re just fine as-is), Bayern will be looking to earn back a few points against the league leaders. It’s unlikely they’ll actually catch them, as Die Schwarzgelben are a full 10 points clear at the top of the table, and 13 points past third place Bayern. But Dortmund are a pretty attractive attacking side themselves, and have performed better on the road this season than they have at home.
Saturday, Feb 26th
9 am (replay at 5pm on ESPND)PSV vs Ajax Eredivisie Two of the consistently best teams in the Netherlands meet, with the home side five points ahead of third place Ajax (Gooch’s Twente sits in between the pair). While this match doesn’t have the city rivalry background that makes a meeting with Feyenoord such a powderkeg of violence, the two Dutch powerhouses promise to put on an enjoyable show. Ajax need all three points, as they currently sit outside a Champions League berth.
11 am Arsenal vs Birmingham City Carling Cup Final Arsenal are without Cesc and Theo, but are still favorites to raise their first cup in five years. Of course, their manager has famously stated: “If you win the League Cup, can you honestly say you have won a trophy?” Sounds like the answer this season is, yes, yes you can. See our previous post about the history between Arsenal and Birmingham (including some not-so-awful footage of Eduardo’s hideous leg break) in our archive here! A dip in reveals: a quick historical assessment of Birmingham City vs Arsenal. The teams have met 116 times in all competitions, the first time being back in 1905. Aside for a spell in in the 1950s, Arsenal have dominated the meetings, and own a record of 54 wins and 34 draws to their 28 losses. Mostly known as a tough-tackling, defense-first side, the West Midlands club have been improving their football the past couple of seasons though they find themselves currently on the cusp of relegation.
Danijel Pranjić — It would've been worse for Inter if he hadn't gone off early with an injury.
Bayern Munich were in the Lombardy region this evening, where they met last year’s Champions League winners Inter Milan at the San Siro. By chance you ask? Well certainly not. This was the first 90 minutes of their knockout round tie, and the Bavarians certainly weren’t playing for a draw.
Inter were without Milito—the man who scored the winner in last year’s final—though he’s only just back in form after taking the first half of the season off for various knocks to body and mind. The Italians came out in a 4-3-2-1 (the Christmas tree, if you like) to face the German’s 4-2-3-1, Eto’o up top for Inter and Gomez the man at the point for Bayern.
It all started off cagedly as you’d expect from this phase of the cup, especially when there’s an Italian side in the mix. There was an early chance off a set piece sent in by Sneijder that then went sailing into the stands off the foot of the center back Ranocchai (the man had a generally awful game, sending dangerous loose passes about the back before being subbed with ten minutes remaining). And another opportunity in the 22nd minute when the lively Eto’o worked up the right wing and placed an opportunity on the foot of Cambiasso, but his blast was stifled by newly-chosen first choice keeper Thomas Kraft. But that was it for the champions, the rest of the half saw them compressing the center and turning away crosses from the quick-footed Bayern wingers.
Immediately following the Cambiasso chance Bayern were up the field, and from this point on they bossed the match. Die Roten were having success up the left flank with Ribéry and the Croatian Danijel Pranjić overlapping and creating a general nuisance for Maicon. Robben looked sure on Bayern’s right, and his cross at twenty-two minutes found Ribéry’s disfigured head, before making its way onto the crossbar. Ten minutes later Panjić had to come off with an injury, but the attacking movement simply worked more up the right through Robben then, with Thomas Müller dropping back from an attacking midfield roll to collect and help the ball from right to left.
The second half was more of the same, with Bayern even more intent to bring a lead back to the Fatherland. Müller had a chance right at the start, finding space in the box before sending an open header well wide. As they settled into the second half and looked for openings, Munich were stroking the ball around for such long periods that the home fans had the chance to build up quite a whistling dislike. They were struck silent in the 55th minute when Robben sent in a strike that hit the post after some clever movement between the attacking four.
Inter were quick to counter after that chance. It was in fact a very punch, counter-punch affair, though the Germans threw many punches that the Italians simply avoided without attempting a counter-strike. Attack seemed reliant on getting the ball to Sneijder and then to Eto’o (who remained dangerous throughout). And in the 57th minute Eto’o created a great opening for himself and fired a wicked shot in at Kraft, who could only turn it onto an onrushing Cambiasso. This time the spear-bald Italian sent the ball into the upper deck—crisis averted.
Gustavo stiffles Stanković
In the last ten minutes with the score still level at zeros, Inter began to push up. They caused a number of corners and forced the Bayern defense to scramble to keep the ball out (Thiago Motta forced a sturdy save at the end with a fierce header). This, though, was when Bayern’s Brazilian center back Luiz Gustavo showed his true class. Calm in possession, the part defensive mid /part center back twice took the ball from a dangerous position and simply ran up the field away from danger, leaving the Inter attackers helpless behind him.
Just when it seemed like the game would run out without a goal being put through, Bayern manufactured one final surge up the pitch. Robben collected the ball on the right, dipped inside and sent a blast at Júlio César. The Brazilian keeper couldn’t hold onto the ball, but the Inter defenders had let go of their marks, allowing the great poacher Gomez to lope in unhindered and slide the ball into the net. Bayern with a death blow in the 90th minute, and well deserved after they’d very much dominated the game.
Does this guy get a chance in front of the old home crowd?
First knockout round matches continue on Tuesday with Real Madrid visiting the very well run french side Olympique Lyonnais (richest club in the country, ‘natch), while the slumping Blues from London head to Denmark to meet FC København (the first Danish side to play in this phase of the cup).
Under normal conditions Chelsea would be heavy favorites, but their recent run of form makes every match a toss-up. The Løverne haven’t played a match in two months, though they currently sit 19 points clear at the top of the Danish Super League. You’d think rust could play a problem, but that wasn’t the case for Shaktar when they visited Rome last week on the same time off.
Chelsea has most recently, well, sucked. They are a strong side with fantastic players, but they haven’t had that killer edge of late—and this from the team who started the season so strongly it seemed they were a lock for the title. Maybe this is the match Torres and co. need to settle back into a good run of form.
The real match to watch will be Lyon v Madrid. Madrid have been the losing side in the team’s last three trips to France’s second city, though up until now it wasn’t Mr Mourinho holding the reins. Les Gones are a side to be admired. A selling side, they won’t hold onto young talent when the big boys of Europe crack open their checkbooks, and they certainly won’t buy expensive older players, preferring to scout young talent and develop it before moving them on for a big payday.
The system works: the team has been getting further in the Champions League every year, while managing to win seven consecutive Ligue 1 titles between 2001 and 2008. Some players you may have heard of who moved on from the french side? Michael Essien, Florent Malouda, Karim Benzema, and Éric Abidal to name a few.
Ligue 1’s player of the year Lisandro Lopez is likely to miss the match due to injury, though attacking midfielder Yoann Gourcuff, and preferred right wing Clément Grenier are back in for the Frenchmen. Though that may not be enough to hold back the flow of Madrid’s attack. Franco’s choice hasn’t been piling in goals at their early season rate, and they had a few stumbles before the new year, but this is just about the time Jose has his teams hitting their fullest stride. With Adebayor, Kaka, Ronaldo, Ozil, and Di Maria pushing forward, fed by Alonso from deep and Marcelo and Ramos on the wings, it’s surely only a matter of time before the special one’s system clicks into full-gear.
Lyon could play a deep lying game and seek a counter-attacking chance when it materializes, but let’s hope it’s an open game and we get to see some of the French side’s class on display too.
A bit belatedly, we’re bringing you the conclusion of our “Ronaldo retires” discussion—a conversation that had been stewing for long before the official announcement came last week. Who could ignore his battle with fitness? Still, no one could deny that he was one of the most effective strikers to ever play the game.
While we dwell a bit on his ignominious end, let’s also remember some of his early greatness—check out the footage from his time at PSV and Barça below. And as always, obrigado to our man in Brasil, Mark Gannon for the incisive input!
Ronaldo has definitely gotten fat. Not “heavy for a player” or “a little overweight” or anything like that. He’s fat. When he was first signed, I joked that I couldn’t imagine where Corinthians managed to find a team shirt big enough for him. This year, I have actually wondered where they got his shirts. But here’s the thing: even fat, Ronaldo could actually be effective.
Corinthians, much to the delight of fans of the other major teams in São Paulo, failed to get past Tolima, a Colombian club of which most Brazilians were unaware before this matchup, to get to the group phase of Libertadores. In the São Paulo leg of the home-and-home “pre-Libertadores” matches between Corinthians and Tolima, Tolima played much better than I ever would have expected and completely deserved at least the 0-0 tie it got. In the second game, in Colombia, Tolima played slightly worse than it had in the first game, and Corinthians continued not playing well. Tolima ended up winning 2-0, and even though I thought the Colombian team had played better in the first leg, the 2-0 result was not unfair at all. Anyway, in those matches, the moments when I thought Corinthians was closest to actually scoring were when somebody managed to get the ball to Ronaldo. Yes, he’s fat and slow, but he has not forgotten what he knew about positioning, and he didn’t forget how to shoot either.
Given how much Ronaldo talked about Libertadores when he announced that he would come back to play one more year, as soon as it was clear Corinthians was going to be eliminated before even making the group phase of Libertadores, I wondered whether he might retire sooner than the end of the year. By Saturday night there were rumors all over that he would retire on Monday. On Sunday, everyone was reporting that he would retire and even saying it had been confirmed, even though Ronaldo’s press conference remained scheduled for Monday.
One more little tidbit. They tell me that in his press conference, Ronaldo claimed that his weight problem is the result of a thyroid condition. I’m not sure if it’s true, but it wouldn’t surprise me. When Ronaldo had to have surgery on an injured hand, he had some liposuction too, and when I saw him afterward, I wondered if the liposuction stories had been just unconfirmed (and false) rumors. He’s had big problems with his weight, and I don’t buy that he “isn’t trying” to lose weight, as many self-appointed amateur nutritionist-trainer-psychologist-endocrinologists have asserted. I’ll be interested to see if he does lose weight now.
News out of Colombia that the mascot of Atlético Junior, an owl that lived in the rafters of the Estadio Metropolitano, has died of trauma after being kicked off the field by Pereira’s Luis Moreno.
Arsenal caught a serious case of the Blues on Sunday, for sure.
