"Estoy loco como el infierno y yo no voy a soportarlo más!"
I must admit, I am falling for the yet-nascent psychodrama that is Mourinho in Madrid (“MiM” from now on). So I eagerly clicked thru when online footy mag fourfourtwo.com‘s La Liga Loca blog led with the headline “Mourinho Finally Gets Mad“, and kicked off the post with some purple prose:
For months now, the Spanish press have been performing their solemn duty of trying to make José Mourinho go completely postal, but sadly with little success.
However, on Monday evening, it was joy to the world and ding dong merrily on high as, after a trying period of four press conferences a week for the Bernabeu boss, hours and hours of provoking, probing and pressing finally brought some decent results – not only did Mourinho completely lose his rag, he also found it again and then set it on fire…
Will Real Marid be able to score away from home? Will all the talk and camera time get monopolized by Mourinho, or will Marseilles manager Didier Deschamps also get a bit of attention?
Will Arsenal rebound from their debacle Saturday? Will Lukasz Fabianski prove any more capable than the injured Almunia?
Will Martin Stekelenburg do as well (or even better) against AC Milan’s, compared with his stellar albeit losing performance against Ronaldo, Higauin, Ozil et al two weeks ago? Will he get any help from Luis Suarez if the need arises?
It was an interesting weekend in Europe, filled with unexpected results–the big dogs all across the continent came up short. Chelsea, Arsenal, Inter Milan, and Bayern Munich all suffered ignominious defeats, while Manchester United and Real Madrid could only manage disappointing draws. The only power that didn’t disappoint their supporters was Barcelona, which won convincingly. (Question: Are there other European club sides that rank with these six?)
In England, previously perfect Chelsea lost to Manchester City 1-0, the lone goal coming off a tremendous individual effort by Man City’s dogged and talented Argentine captain, Carlos Tevez. (Keep scrolling down for video of Tevez’s goal, among others.)
But the two sides chasing Chelsea in the standings failed to capitalize: Man U had to come from behind twice to salvage a 2-2 draw against Bolton. That was far better than Arsenal, who were shockingly down 3-0 against unheralded West Brom late in the 2nd half. Two late strikes by the young Frenchman Samir Nasri (a replay of one of which is included below) made the score a more respectable-looking 3-2, but Arsenal came off their home pitch with many more questions than points.
Meanwhile, on the Continent, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich, last season’s Champions League finalists, and the clear favorites to win their respective domestic leagues, both lost as well. Bayern lost 2-1 to minnows Mainz, while Inter went down 1-0 to AS Roma–a club with a rich history, but this year’s edition had struggled at the start of this season.
But last year’s Champions League finalists and their respective pursuits of finishing atop Serie A or the Bundes Liga are secondary compared to the annual epic struggle between Barcelona and Real Madrid for the La Liga title. The drama d’Espana is especially intense this year, as Real Madrid have of course brought in The Special One, whose tasks are to win the Champions League and La Liga–any less will be considered a failure by the demanding Madridistas–and by Mourinho himself. But Mourinho’s Madrid failed to bring the flair, being held to a very surprising scoreless draw against Levante. Meanwhile, Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao 3-1, slipping ahead of Real Madrid in the table, though still second to surprising Valencia.
For more on these matches, check the links below–and the videos.
From our man beneath the Southern Cross comes the skinny on the impetuous Brazilian phenom Neymar and the storm he’s kick up around him. Plus, World Cup 2014 plans with a sinister undercurrent? Big thanks to Mark Gannon for keeping us all in the loop.
Step back, for I am Neymar.
In the game against Atlético Goianiense in Goiás on Wednesday of last week, the coach of Santos, Dorival Júnior, wanted a different player to take a PK. Neymar had a fit, cursed out the coach, and supposedly continued his tantrum in the locker room.
Dorival did not put Neymar on the list of players for Santos’s next game, against Guarani over the weekend. But then when he refused to put Neymar on the list for yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) game against Corinthians, he was fired.
Mano decided to leave Neymar off the seleção for the two upcoming as-yet-unspecified friendlies in Europe, but made it clear that when Neymar starts getting attention for the way he plays instead of other things, he’ll be back. Mano said Neymar’s return depends only on Neymar.
It was reported that Neymar didn’t speak during a Santos practice today (after Mano’s latest list was released), and was consoled by a teammate after the other players had left.
Just to add a little extra spice, Andres Sanches, the president of Corinthians, suggested that São Paulo FC was somehow involved in Dorival’s removal, because SPFC wanted to hire Dorival. I’m not sure what SPFC could do to force the ouster of a coach at Santos, but this should generate some interesting talk. It’s a shame I missed the lunchtime soccer discussion show on TV BAND and the late-lunchtime sports show on Globo today.
It’s interesting to me that Andres dislikes SPFC so much. The traditional arch-rival of Corinthians has been Palmeiras, but Andres seems to have some kind of “thing” with São Paulo. He was involved in making sure SPFC’s stadium wouldn’t be used for the World Cup, especially the opening ceremonies. The last I heard is that Palmeiras’s new stadium, on which construction has just begun, will be one World Cup venue and Corinthians’s new stadium, on which construction has not yet even started, will be another.
There has been talk about changing the Corinthians stadium (“o Fielzão”) to give it enough seats to host the opening ceremony. I’m not sure where the CBF currently says it intends to have the opening ceremony. It might end up being somewhere other than São Paulo, which would be a shame. I’m still not in favor of holding the final in the Maracanã, but I don’t think any other stadium was even really considered. I’ll be willing to let it slide if one condition is met: if Brazil is not champ in 2014 with the final in Rio, no carioca can ever again be in the CBF.
The Carling Cup is traditionally a time when managers run out a few reserve players they feel might just be on the cusp of first-team action. This week was no different, and of the limited amount of games we saw, there were a few significant standouts. Jack Wilshere for Arsenal should be no surprise, as the 18 yr-old has played more than a few minutes of league action this season already. And admittedly, we were psyched to see Man United’s Portuguese signing Bebe sent on with 16 minutes left in the match. The 20 yr-old mostly ran around chasing the ball all over the pitch at first, then seemed to settle a little. He’s big, fast, and not shy about uncorking a shot from the corner of the box.
Now lets focus on the most exciting game of the round, without actually talking about the game. Chelsea sent out 20 yr-old Patrick van Aanholt in left back against Newcastle, and the pacy Dutchman quickly got on the scoresheet. More impressively, he set up Anelka’s first goal as Chelsea pressed late in the second half. Van Aanholt simply passed to himself up the wing, then ran forward with some impressive speed to send a really smart cross to Anelka arriving in the box.
The Blues also put 17 yr-old, Oxford-born Joshua McEachran into the center midfield position in the second half. Either by way of composure beyond his years, or the impetuousness of youth, the kid was consistently on the ball, making defenders miss and sending intelligent balls forward. 17 years old! He is very slight though, and I can’t imagine him being thrown on in a serious match until he gains some muscle on that tiny frame.
Chelsea fans may say, well what about this Daniel Sturridge everyone is talking about? He looked greedy, and not in an “I’m a striker and I shoot” sort of fashion. He had a couple of opportunities to send a ball across the box to well-positioned teammates, but decided instead to fire at goal from a tight angle. Unimpressive. Granted, I only watched him while Chelsea were playing with 10 men, so I shouldn’t judge him harshly on his movement, but he didn’t seem to be finding the space he needed to make anything happen.
At the very end of a pretty entertaining match between Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona, Czech defender Tomáš Ujfaluši came in late on everyone’s favorite player Lionel Messi, and stomped on his ankle something awful. Messi went down in agony and held his hands over his face, crying as he was stretchered off the field. Fortunately for fans of the beautiful game, there is no break or dislocation, and the little peanut should be back in about 10 days.
From the live-action shot it looked intentional. Ujfaluši came in very late and from the angle it seemed as if he came down on Messi’s foot. Upon further inspection it looks like a real ankle breaker. The big man did issue an apology:
“I’m sorry. I would like to publicly apologize, because, honestly, it wasn’t my intention. I tried to go for the ball, but naturally, with the speed he had, he also could not stop and I was unlucky as my foot stepped on his ankle.”
Messi had, of course, been running around the pitch as he pleased before this. The first half was standard Barça—they controlled the ball 70% of the time (actual stat!), and whenever they lost it they seemed to win it back immediately.
The second half was more even, with Atletico clearly trying to wedge themselves back into the flow. They’d never wrest control though, not with Forlan gone missing, and Simão and Kun similarly nonexistent up front. Mainly they played more aggressively (ahem) and pulled off a number of dangerous set pieces before the crushing tackle on la pulga put them to ten men.
It ended 2-1 in favor of the away side, but it really could’ve been more with the chances Barça manufactured. Pep thinks so too, and more:
We are happy with the Atletico win and it could have finished 5-1 with the number of chances we had,” said Guardiola. “However, we are sad about the Messi incident. It is not only Cristiano Ronaldo (of Real Madrid) who needs protecting. The referees should protect all the players.
You know you like saying the name Dimitar Berbatov. Say it out loud and experience that staccato sing-song quality of Eastern Bloc phonetics. Like his name, the man is deceptively smooth, though his subtlety of movement and quality on the pitch haven’t quite shone through since his transfer from north London side Spurs. The Manchester fans haven’t exactly been the most supportive of his play, but the one man who matters, his manager, has kept the faith and now everyone is feeling the payoff.
The Bulgarian hit-man netted not once, not twice, but thrice in United’s 3-2 victory over Liverpool, scoring three quality goals with his second bound to be in the top goals of the season (a bicycle kick that nestled into the corner of the net as Reina stood and watched).
The game itself was mostly boring until the second half (only because United were so dominant in the first 45 mins), when it did look like Liverpool might walk away with at least a draw. The Reds picked up the pace and Torres seemed to be finding his so-far-missing stride. Play opened up and the game became stretched. It was gripping for a good 30 minutes there. Then Berbatov headed home his third, and set himself up for a standing ovation for scoring the first hat trick in the tie in some 60-odd years.
Berbatov is often described by commentators as laconic. He does indeed create much though seemingly doing very little. He’s an athlete who makes it look easy, the sort of player who seems like he has more time to work with the ball than the other players around him. Sir Alex has described the man as having a “touch of genius“, and it’s nice to see him finally putting all the pieces together in his new home.
If you haven’t heard, the gunners haven’t won a cup for a few years now and the team and its supporters are restless. Their lack of hardware has been generally chalked up to their youth and inexperience – they may be fun to watch, but in the grind-it-out fixtures they’ve been beaten into submission. Beyond their lack of physicality, I’ve always though they’ve missed that key bit of luck that sees top sides through to championships.
I honestly thought Fabregas’ opening goal was a sign that their fortune was about to change. His goal, which rebounded off his foot and into the net from a preposterous distance, seemed like just the thing that would break the back of a stubborn Sunderland side. Of course, Fabregas would soon go off with a hamstring injury aggravated by his goal-scoring motion, Alex Song would pick up a soft first yellow and was later ejected from the game, Rosický would miss a PK, and Darren Bent would score in the 95th minute to undo what would’ve been a great win against a Sunderland team that has caused Arsenal to drop points in their last few campaigns.
What has last weekend brought them then? Their injury list expands, they miss out on two points while Chelsea and United plowed through with the full haul, and they start playing twice a week what with the Carling Cup and the Champions League. It’s still early in the season of course, but have they already bled their shallow pool of luck?
