Best Show in town: Manchester United Training sessions

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/5190154.stm

Anyone who watched the World Cup remembers the bust up between Rooney and Ronaldo during the England-Portugal match. This came after Rooney decided to "push off" on Carvalho's privates. Many argue that Ronaldo lobbied for Rooney to get the Red Card, even "winking" at the Portugese bench after Rooney got sent off.

Of course once this happened, everyone started wondering if the two Manchester United players could ever coexist at Old Trafford. From what Fergunson is stating it would appear this will be the case. If ManU gets Vieira, and does not sell Van Nistelrooy, you might have an interesting training sessions, there might be harder tackles between ManU players than in real games!

I think that Ronaldo will end up leaving, Rooney is such a hot head, but clearly the future for ManU, that Ferguson will have no choice but to sell one of his talismatic youngsters. I think that the ManU fans will not accept seeing the Portugese star doning the Red Devils strip during the season.

Wonder if Big Phil will look to get a "friendly" with England any time soon.....

Post world cup hang over - now back to the club scene

The world cup final were over a week ago, I am still mourning the lose of Les Bleus, but I have started to recover. Now I am focused on the upcoming club seasons, as well as the Euro Qualifiers. But first the club scene.

With the demotion of Juventus, many players will flood the market - Trezeguet, Cannavaro, Camoranesi, Ibrahimovic, and Del Piero to mention a few. But the players I want to discuss are two that reinvented themselves during the world cup and showed everyone that they remain world class players:

Lilian Thuram - For the second half of the Serie A season he was relegated to bench duty. If the world cup is any indication it is clear that he still has something to bring to the pitch.

The latest rumor is to have Lilian play for 2 seasons at Barca where he would be added to an already strong central defense with Puyol and Marquez. The addition of Thuram would allow for Barca to rotate these players through the long domestic and cup season. Of course where I would really like to see him (other than PSG) would be at Emirates Stadium in North London. Arsenal could use such a defender. He would not be asked play every game, but he would be invaluable starting certain games, and coming in as a defensive replacement. His experience would give the young gunners someone to turn to and learn from, something Campbell was not able to provide recently. And even an older Thuram would be worlds better than Cygan!

Pat Vieira - The latest rumor has Vieira heading to Milan to play for Internazional. Which is a fine place for Patrick to ply his trade, what I could not stomach would be to see him head to Old Trafford. Rumor is that Sir Alex is looking to offer 8m pounds for the midfielder. That would ruin my day seeing him done the Red Devils kit. Having to see Arsenal face him twice a year would turn my stomach. Then again as long as Van Nistelrooy is there I cannot see Vieira agreeing to go.

Question is would Wenger welcome him back? Not sure Arsenal would explore this, with Fabergas firmly entrenched in the deep lying midfield role. But at times last season Arsenal were a bit soft, something that bringing back Vieira would remedy. Could be an interesting midfield of: Cesc, Vieira, Rosicky, and Hleb/Ljunberg. Players like Diaby would learn a tremendous amount on the training pitch from someone like Vieira.....could be interesting.

Another manager in the unemployement line

No surprise, Bruce Arena leaves the world of international football. He joins the likes of Lippi, Klinsman, Janas, Kranjcar, Hiddink, Ericksson, and Pekerman in the unemployed line. Such is the world of international football, for many of us (myself included) thought that Domenech would be joining these names had the French not reached the finals.

I think that in defeat, Arena gets too much blame just as he received too much credit for their 2002 world cup run.

The US was drawn in a very difficult group, and after the 2002 world cup, the expectations were irrational. Listening to talking heads like Balboa and Wynalda a few months ago, you would think that semi-finalists France and Germany were "frauds" while the USA was for "real." It was irrational expectations that put Arena square in the target. Had the US emerged from their group, they would have most likely faced Brazil (as bad as Brazil was, they probably would have still beaten the US), would the pundits still come down hard on Arena?

Granted, Arena must assume some of the blame. How could he leave Twellman at home but bring Ching? How can he not get his team motivated for a first round game of the World Cup? His over reliance on Donovan was also questionable. Playing with one striker, McBride, he placed too much pressure on Donovan, who has yet to show can produce on the highest stage (and no the MLS finals is not that stage). His playing of Beasley out of position was also questionable. But looking back, the US was one questionable PK away from maybe sneaking into the second round. They played Italy decently, surviving all the referee's questionable calls.

The US has a chance to infuse some new blood into its national team, question is who would really want to take the role? As long as the US plays in CONCACAF they will stand a good chance to qualify for the world cup, but going much further will always be a stretch.

Other Thoughts: I think Argentina need to grab a solid tactician as their next coach, Hiddink? They have a world of talent built around Tevez and Messi. I think if they had a coach that had the ability to take chances and make the right decision they could emerge as the World Cup Champion in 2010 (I am still baffled as to how Pekerman could leave Messi on the bench in the finals......). Brazil needs to bring in a hard nosed coach, one that is not in awe of the collection of superstars they have at their disposal, someone that will play the right system not just throw out a bunch of players (granted all world class) and hope something works. Klinsman leaving is not surprising, I think that Germany played over their heads this year, showing how valuable the home crowd can be.

Italian politicians cover themselves in World Cup "glory"

This blog focuses on sports and more importantly on the beautiful game: futball. But sometimes politics creeps into the discussion...well not really since this is related to Les Bleus and Zidane. I came across an interesting article, from Time Magazine. The part that stuck me was the comments by a member of former prime minister Berlusconi government -

"Italian soccer has long been a magnet for fascist nostalgia of the far right, and festivities following its triumph were marred by Swastikas spray-painted on the walls of Rome's historic Jewish quarter, as well as a comment by a former minister in the previous government of Silvio Berlusconi that Italy had triumphed over a team of "negroes, communists and Moslems."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1213502,00.html

Coupled with the idiotic comments from LePen that the France cannot see themselves in the French team, this shows that we have still not solved racism, ignorance and sheer stupidity in the world. Whatever Materazzi said to Zidane may never be found out, but any time you have leaders that show this level of ignorance and stupidity it should be of no surprise that this type of ignorance trickles down to the futball pitch.

Zidane apologizes

Today Zidane spoke publically and apologized for his actions on Sunday. While he did not state exactly what was said to him, we know that yes it had to do with his mother and sister. Knowing that his mother was hospitalized prior to the finals, and still not knowing if there were some racial adjectives included in the mother/sister comment one can better understand why Zidane reacted.

Again, I do not think what he did was appropriate, but it can be understood. I think that two pieces I read in CNNSI really gave the issue a proper light:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/dr_z/07/10/zidane/index.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/phil_taylor/07/12/zidane/index.html

Neither say that Zidane was right in doing what he did, but rather we need to becareful before we judge.

As stated in the Dr Z article, Zidane will have to live with his actions for the rest of his life a much greater burden than any fan or spectator will ever have to live with....but somewhere inside his soul Materazzi will have to live with his actions as well. Materazzi claims ignorance with regards to "international terrorists" and to take one's mother as sacred...ignorance and hyporcacy aside, he will have to live with his place in history.

The emotion of the beautiful game

Among all the "ugliness" that marred the end of the world cup finals, I think we need to remember what makes this tournament so special.

When I heard and saw the images of Trezeguet, obviously emotional during the celebration of the French run at the World Cup it captured what this means for the world (even for some in North America!).

I am sure there will be jokes about grown men crying over a kid's game, when they are all multi-millionaires. Or that the tears are for the endorsement potential unachieved, or for the fact that Trezeguet's club team might be dropped three divisions. But for those of us less cynical I think this exemplifies why billions of the world's citizens live the highs and lows ever 4 years. Unlike other sports, these players do not get payed by their national teams, their clubs pick up those tabs. Players put on their nation's kit to represent something bigger than their paychecks, shoe deals, endorsements, villas, cars etc. Football players wear the national team shirts with honor. I read somewhere that Adriano stated he would never think of turning his back on Brazil, in response to some US basketball players refusing to play for the US Basketball team at the Olympics. You hear players state that they dream of wearing their nation's jersey, many times they play hard in order to be fortunate enough to be selected for the national team, not to get their next big contract.

Trezeguet encapsulates the emotion that runs through players, fans and nations. Anyone who watched the English player's emotion after losing the shoot out to Portugal, Christiano Ronaldo's open tears after losing to France, Germany being crushed by two late Italian goals, the Argentinia players completely beside themselves after being mastered by Lehmann, and the list continues. This type of raw emotion is what makes the World Cup the greatest sporting event. 2 years of difficult qualifying which leads to a month of nail biting games. Only to see one team emerge with the trophy. Seeing Trezeguet's genuine emotion on the balcony of the Crillon truly encapsulates the meaning of the tournament. Only one nation gets to have crazy, joyous street celebrations, but all the others get to share in the emotion of the moment and pull together in the desire to return to the tournament and maybe be fortunate enough to also have the joyous street celebrations.

Trezegol will be back
Les Bleus will be back

Allez les Bleus

The drama continues

This might become the lasting image of the World Cup 2006. Unfortunate to say the least, but as more details come out it raises a greater question: is there a line that certain teams and players cross in the name of winning?

As every major new network (outside north america), tries to figure out exactly what the Italian said, the scope of the ugliness gets worse. Anyone who has played sports from the playgrounds, streets, fields, arenas, gyms, back yards, etc of the world knows, in competition emotions and the desire to win bring out tricks and words that otherwise we would not foresee ourselves leverageing. But that does not excuse crossing certain lines. I will try not to judge Materazzi since we do not know for a fact as to what he said. But if any of the rumors are true, that he insulted Zidane's mother and family by wishing them "an ugly death" and then calling him a "terrorist" or a son of a "terrorist whore." Then I can understand Zidane's reaction.

As it is well documented, Zidane was born in Marseille in one of the worst parts of the city to Algerian parents. He is proud of his Algerian heritage, and anyone who knows the history of France understands what a delicate place Algeria has in our past. Additionally, with all the current events, using any "humor" related to terrorism and Arabs has no place on the football pitch nor in every day lives. Finally, Zidane's mother was brought to the hospital prior to the World Cup finals, not an appropriate time to wish death upon her... (this might explain Zidane's stone cold look prior to the game, completely different than the smile he had prior to the Brazil match).

Burying your head into someone's chest is no way to act, but the more I learn about what happened the more I understand why Zidane reacted in the manner he did. For those pundits and fans that critize Zidane, saying he should have known better, he should be used to this treatment, he should have realized the situation, he cost his team....I will say to them to step back a minute and put yourself in Zizou's golden boots. How would you react to racil slurs coupled with insults to your ill mother?

While our atheletes are placed on a pedestile they remain humans with emotions that sometimes are pushed too far. This happens to all of us, we just don't have 1 billion people watching us, or the hopes of a nation riding on our shoulders when we react.

Thanks Zidane...

Glad to see the French getting the proper honor they deserved today in Paris. Thanks Zidane!