Campeonato Brasileiro: Mid-Week Review

Before a new round takes place. Let’s remember what happened during the week.

-Gremio has been absolut. The victory against poor Ipatinga was slim and came through an offside goal. But the fans don’t care (as you will probably see below in the comments box). Their club has been a great surprise.

-Cruzeiro is not letting it go. 2-0 victory against the always unstabble Inter.

-Playing at home, Palmeiras is a giant. 3-0 victory over Vitoria in another key match for the top 4 spots.

-Washington from Fluminense loves Sao Paulo. Like in the Libertadores, the striker left a bad moment in his careers behind with a ton of goals against Sao Paulo. This time a hat-trick in the 3-1 victory.

-Flamengo is a joke. Another defeat. 7 matches without victory and the club from Rio fell from the first to the 7th spot. This time defeat came in final moments of the match against Goias. Iarley scored.

-Vasco is also a joke. 2-0 defeat at home against Coritiba of the good striker Keirrisson. He scored another one and put Vasco even closer to the relegation zone.

-Botafogo right now is the best club from Rio. Solid 2-1 victory over Figueirense, and the 8th spot has been reached.

-The clubs are in opposed atmospheres. Nautico is really bad. 2-0 defeat against Atletico-PR. Sport is recovering well. 2-0 victory over Portuguesa.

-Santos will finish the first half of the league in the relegation zone. Defeat at home against the weak side of Atletico-MG has no excuses. The club was winning 2-0 in the first-half and lost 3-2. Coach Cuca is gone. And if things don’t change, we may see in December another traditional club in second division.

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League Cup and Thursday Mashup

I find myself apologizing as often as anything else on these blogs lately, mostly for the fact that I’m so rarely here. Unfortunately, moving to a new city and starting a new job has taken its toll on my blogging schedule, but I’m setting a new rule for myself of at least one post a week, on Thursdays, to cover the biggest news in Scottish football each week. We’ll see if that rule lasts more than one week running.

Shame
I wrote on the main Offside page last season about the perplexing amount of Rangers games that Mike McCurry is still allowed to officiate. I have a lot of sympathy for Scottish refs, who don’t get paid a fraction of the amount they do down in England, but are of course held just as liable for mistakes. But when a ref is consistently wrong in favor of a certain team, even if that ref is still allowed to officiate, he certainly shouldn’t be allowed to run that team’s matches. Rangers start the season this weekend against Falkirk, and who’s in the center circle but Mike McCurry … for good and ill, very little ever changes in Scotland. At least they’ll see a friendly face after dropping out of Europe early, because that must have hurt, especially to Hearts junior.

The League Cup
It will still be some time before Rangers have to step in to defend their CIS Cup, but the lower leagues are already fighting it out for the chance to grab it. There were 14 matches in the first round of the cup on Tuesday, with some great ones mixed in. First, and I’m forced by virtue of being a Caley Thistle fan to mention this, Ross County was tossed out at home by Airdrie, by way of Paul di Giacomo’s 112th-minute winner. This was the only match with two First Division sides meeting up, and County is the only First Division side headed home early. For the most part, the matches went as expected, though the lucky 317 fans on hand to see Stranraer 3-6 Greenock Morton might disagree. The second round is played on August 26, with the field, now 28 strong, boiling down to the last 16.

Refs get their deal
With the start of the season only two days off, we at least know that we’ll have an opening day. For a while there, a looming referee strike put that very much in question. Like I said above, these guys aren’t paid nearly enough for a thankless job. The guys that oversee them, in my humble opinion, are overpaid if they make a single pound, because the regulation of refs has been a joke in Scotland as elsewhere in recent years. Still, I’m glad to see the officials making something closer to a decent sum for their job, and even more glad that the season kickoff won’t suffer for it. After all, it is Scotland, and we all know how fixtures tend to get behind in the winter.

Here’s to a great start to the SPL season, and, of course, MON THE CALEY.

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20 Players to Watch at the 2008 Men’s Olympic Soccer Tournament

The 2008 Men’s Olympic Football Tournament starts tomorrow, so here’s our World Cup Blog Players to Watch guide.

It’s 10 big names who you probably already know, and 10 guys you might not know yet but should look forward to seeing anyway.

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10 You Know

Ronaldinho (Brazil) - attacking mid
2008 could be the year R10 is reborn, following his move from Barca to AC Milan. If he brings out the skills in Beijing, then all the jokes about his weight and the suggestions that he’s past it will be forgotten.

Alexandre Pato (Brazil) - forward
Ronaldinho’s young Milan teammate lived up to (and maybe even surpassed) all expectations on both his Serie A and Seleção debuts last year. This will be Pato’s first tournament, so expect him to do the same again.

Diego (Brazil) - attacking mid
Regularly lights up the Bundesliga with Werder Bremen, but usually overshadowed by Kaka in a yellow shirt. With Kaka staying in Milan this August, there should finally be space in the spotlight for Diego.

Leo Messi (Argentina) attacking mid / forward
You don’t need me to tell you how good Leo Messi is. And the little Barcelona player is already the talk of the tournament, with Argentina and Barcelona at loggerheads over whether he should be there at all. But even if we don’t see Messi kick a ball in Beijing, his case is likely to cause a major rethink of exactly how Olympic football works.

Juan Roman Riquelme (Argentina) - attacking mid
Say what you like about him: he’s lazy, he’s selfish, he’s a bit of an oddball, but when on his game this man is a joy to watch. And he will see plenty of the ball in Beijing because - Leo Messi or not - Argentina’s gameplan will revolved around Riquelme

Sergio Aguero (Argentina) - forward

Doesn’t get the same headlines as Leo Messi, but the similarly statured (ie tiny) striker has been banging in goals for Atletico Madrid in La Liga.

Freddy Adu (USA) - left mid/attacking mid/forward
We’re pretty sure now that Freddy Adu is not, in fact, the new Pele. He’s never even threatened to a consistent run of form. But he’s still a talented young player with a whole career ahead of him and a lot to prove. Showed us a bit of what he can do at the U-20 World Championships last year, so this is his chance to play against adults.

Salomon Kalou (Cote d’Ivoire) - winger/forward
In and out of the Chelsea team and always overshadowed by Drogba on the national team. The Olympics will see Kalou front and center as the Elephants main man.

Taye Taiwo (Nigeria) - left back

There’s only one thing to say about the Marseille left back and his turbo-charged left foot: Don’t get in the way.

Giuseppe Rossi (Italy) - striker
Not the most popular striker in the USA right now, after shunning his birth country for the land of his parents. After rotting in the Man Utd reserves for a few years, 21 year old Rossi has just had a decent first season in La Liga where he scored 11 goals for Villarreal.

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10 You Might Not Know

Slobodan Rajkovi? (Serbia) - defender
As rich as Chelsea may be, they don’t splash out insane cash for the helluva it. So when Rajkovic was snapped up for a world record as a 16 year old for 5.2m, it made a bit of noise. Still only 19, he’s undoubtedly one of the defenders to keep an eye on for the tournament.

Takayuki Morimoto (Japan) - striker

Japan’s Ronaldo (fat one), as he’s been called, was the island nation’s greatest young hope when he moved to Catania in Serie A as a 17 year old. Five minutes into his Italian debut he scored a goal and a legend was born. Won’t be long before he’s the best player for Japan’s senior team, much less the Olympic edition.

Ángel Di María (Argentina) - winger

Caught the eye as one of the main men (or boys?) in Argentina’s U-20 triumph last summer. Benfica liked him so much they coughed up €6m. The above vid is what he did for Benfica in 2008.

Sebastian Giovinco (Italy) - attacking mid

The mighty midget looks like an alien, but plays like one as well. At only 21, he is already one of the most skilled, dynamic and dangerous players in the whole of Serie A. Essentially the point guard of whatever team he plays for because the ball is on his foot roughly half the game. One of the shining jewels of Italy.

Andrea Russotto (Italy) - attacking mid

Giovinco gets the pub, but experts seem to think Russotto is the heir to Totti’s throne as Italy’s true #10. Likened to Messi and Baggio, what sets Russotto apart is his otherwordly vision and skill on the ball.

Jozy Altidore (USA) - forward
The young American striker is basically having Freddy Adu’s career. Banged in MLS goals for New York Red Bulls and secured a recent move to La Liga with Villarreal. Skill, strength, pace and an eye for goal. But apparently not gelling well with Brian McBride.

Jonathan de Guzmán (Netherlands / Feyenoord) - winger
Canadian born, but never keen to wear a maple leaf. De Guzmán has been impressing in the Eredivisie with Feyenoord and recently became a Dutch citizen. This will be his first chance to impress on a big stage in Oranje.

Dong Fangzhou (China) striker
And not just because he has a hilarious first name, the Chinese striker is on the books at Man Utd. OK, so he’s only played one league game since arriving at Old Trafford, but did bang 18 goals in 28 games while on loan at Royal Antwerp. And if the host nation do well, then expect Fangzhou to be involved.

Royston Drenthe (Netherlands / Real Madrid) - left winger/left back
The dreadlocked one was the talk of the 2007 U-21 European Championships, where his performances secured a move to Real Madrid. Spent the back end of last season either on the bench or out of the squad altogether, so will be keen to remind everyone what he can do.

Vincent Kompany (Belgium)

Big (and we mean big - he’s 6′3″) Belgian centre back who currently plays in the Bundesliga for Hamburg. There was a bit of a tug of war over the 22 year old between Belgium and Hamburg but he’s now got clearance to eat opposition Olympic strikers for breakfast in Beijing. And not just a defender, he’s got some tricks too.

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ESPY Awards: Becks, Adu and Ronaldo

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Blatter has the Right Idea

Sepp Blatter, the big daddy of all football, is always the butt of everyone’s jokes. I had the misfortune of listening to him give a speech at a U-21 match in Toronto at BMO Field. To begin his speech he stepped up to the podium, raised his hands to the skies and declared with a bemusing grin, “Football supporters hate….SPEECHEEEES!!” To which everyone responded with guffaws and rolling of eyes. He then proceeded to drone for about ten minutes. I don’t remember what he spoke about.

He is on the right track about one thing though. Either that or one of his secretaries is. His idea to implement a minimum of domestic players in a starting line up is a good one. The problem he is trying to head off is the Premier League in England. If you take the time to look the only country that would be terribly affected by this ruling would be England. It would in fact make clubs and leagues fight harder to keep their locally acquired talent and to work harder in developing what talent they have.

Admittedly there are legel ranglings that don’t really fit with the idea. This could be a boon for the Eredivisie though. With the structures in place the KNVB would be spurred to reach the heights of former years when the youth academies churned out world beaters. Following that the clubs would fight hard to keep them at home thereby perpetuating the youth development. It would be easy to imagine that we would see flavours of football once again emerge. Is it a surprise that Italy plays the same type of football that they did a decade ago? Look at their starting line ups and you’ll see a tremendous influence of domestic players.

I know Blatter is a bit of a joke but he is on the right track here.

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