ATLETICO LOSE AWAY TO SCHALKE 04 IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PRELIMINARY
August 13, 2008
It was always going to be a tough affair for ATLETICO DE MADRID
in the home leg of the Champions League Preliminary match
against German side SCHALKE 04. The optimistic levels were high
for the Spaniards, until they saw how hard the game really was: 8 yellow
cards & 1 Red (Antonio Lopez, Atletico), with a final result 1-0 in
favour of the Germans.
It now all goes down to the away match ( 2ºleg) at Madrid, were Atletico
MUST WIN if they are to participate in the dreamed Champions
League 2008/09. Let´s face it, if your an Atletico fan you must be
immune to the fact that you & Atletico will have to suffer until the
last minute to know if your objective will be achieved.
The only goal come in the 29th min from a direct free kick that
was scored by PANDER ( seen above celebrating). From then
on it was an even fight for the rest of the game, with Atletico
holding on with 10 men on the field for the latter part of the 2º
half.
The scenario is not good, but not a disaster, as Atletico has its
opportunity to re-group, attain the home advantage & go for the
qualifier in the 2ºleg. Lets wish them luck.
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DJALMINHA : THE "FORGOTTEN" BRAZILIAN MAGICIAN OF SPANISH & WORLD FOOTBALL
August 13, 2008
While the World marvels at the increible skills, plays & dribbling
of Brazilians like Ronaldinho, Kaka, Robinho…etc, we ( & perhaps
the youngsters) forget that before them was DJALMINHA
(pictured below) who played in DEPORTIVO DE A CORUÑA,
who helped take them to their first Liga title in the year 2000.
Why bring this up now? Because it seems most contempary Football
followers only talk about Ronaldinho & company, & SFS though it
maybe the moment to remember that Djalminha has a place in
Football history: as one of Brazil´s & World Football´s great
talents.
Their is no denying, Djalminha was difficult, controversial & some
may say a little crazy, but are´nt most Brazilian Stars? He is
best known for his time in Spanish Football were he was vital in
Deportivo winning: La Liga (2000), Spanish Cup (2002) & 2
Spanish Super Cups (2000-01 & 2002-03).
The odd piece in this story is that he was only 14 times International
for Brazil . His controversial character played a part here & halted
his progression in the Brazil National side, it also halted him from
performing on the World stage & grabbing more media attention.
However, its his Football that we are here for & wish to remember
him. Here is a GREAT video on the player - in Spanish - that
deserves to be watched in full. Highly recommended. You will soon
see that his skill was beyond words at times…making Ronaldinho
look like (stop)…well, they are all good really. Let you judge:
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REAL MADRID DRAWS AGAINST EINTRACHT FRANKFURT IN FRIENDLY (SEE VIDEO)
August 12, 2008
Last dress rehearsal for REAL MADRID before it´s Spanish Super
Cup match against Valencia CF. The Spanish Champions travelled
to EINTRACHT FRANKFURT to play a friendly game that ended
in a 1-1 draw.
Perfect stage to fine-tune the Real Madrid machine with all of its
players available to fine the touch needed to be 100% ready for the
kick off to the new season. Great game that saw an unlucky Real
Madrid being held out by an excellent Frankfurt goalkeeper
NIKOLOV who stopped it all. However, the Germans scored first
via BELLAID in the 6th min after Real defender Pepe failed to clear
the ball to see it hit the bar & place the sphere for the German to touch
in.
In was not until the 2ºhalf when Coach Schuster changed the team
around with De La Red, Baptista & Robinho that saw more spark
up front. It was the young Brazilian ROBINHO (above) that finally
got his teams equalizer in the 71st min - from a Saviola pass - after
numerous close goal calls up until then.
End result: a draw which was well received, as Real Madrid kept the
level & skill, while it changed & gave all its squad a run, illustrating
depth in the squad & good form in the pre-season.
MATCH SUMMARY:
EINTRACHT 1
Nikolov; Ochs, Russ, Bellaid, Spycher; Chris (Fink, m.46), Steinhöfer
(Galindo, m.61), Inamoto (Mahdavikia, m.61), Toski (Heller, m.79);
Liberopoulos (Fenin, m.46) & Amanatidis (Meier, m.61).
REAL MADRID 1
Casillas; Sergio Ramos (Salgado, m.65), Pepe (Javi García, m.79),
Heinze (Metzelder, m.46), Torres; Diarrá (De la Red, m.46), Guti
(Baptista, m.46), Van der Vaart (Higuaín, m.65); Robben, Raúl
(Saviola, m.65) & Van Nistelrooy (Robinho, m.46).
Goals: 1-0, m.6: Bellaid. 1-1, m.71: Robinho.
SEE VIDEO :
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Argentina to play Siberia as Batista gets lost in translation
August 12, 2008
Argentine journalists were startled to learn that their team would be playing a match against Siberia at the Olympic football tournament. At least, that is what the official translation said.
Coach Sergio Batista, speaking ahead of a game against Serbia, looked on it utter bewilderment as one interpreter attempted to translate his answers from Spanish into Chinese and another then tried to translate the Chinese version of his answer into English.
Unsurprisingly, the final version invariably bore no relation whatsoever to the original, rending the whole exercise a waste of time.
The procedure went like this:
Argentine journalist asks question. Batista answers. The first interpreter translates the question from Spanish into Chinese. The second translates from Chinese into English. Then the first interpreter translates the answer from Spanish to Chinese. Then the second translates from Chinese into English.
At one stage, the first translator had to ask Batista to explain his answer. Batista, his mind obviously elsewhere, forgot what he had said and had to ask the reporter to repeat the question.
It took more than 30 hair-pulling, excruciating minutes to extract no more than six answers from Batista.
And, like most coaches, he didn’t say anything interesting in any case.
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ROBINHO & REAL MADRID: A CHESS GAME
August 12, 2008
It´s normal, you to would be pissed off if you knew that your
Club was thinking of selling you to another Club for another
player. That´s the case of REAL MADRID & its Brazilian player
ROBINHO in its quest to sign Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, the Manchester United Portugues star is now not coming
& Robinho is in a strong bargaining position because he has a
serious offer from Chelsea FC that offers him 6M€/season wage.
With a “crafty” representative & a chance to “stick it up” Real
Madrid, Robinho now asks that his Club at least get close to the
Chelsea offer. The Brazilian now earns 2.1M€ & Real offer 3,5
M€…however Robinho wishes 5M€ at least & has put that
condition for him to stop courting with Chelsea.
SFS believes the following: that the Brazilian wishes to stay at Real
Madrid, that he will use the Chelsea FC offer to force Madrid to
greatly better his salary, using the lever of threats that he will leave.
Pure strategy & politics.
But be careful, a big offer may make Real Madrid think twice & take
him away from his “dream” & the “Biggest Club In History”. Money
vs Dream/Prestige…A credible Football Star vs A simple mercenary.
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