I talked about the squad list when it was announced. There's been a few changes since then.
Unfortunately, Carrizo has had to pull out due to complications over his transfer to Lazio. He hasn't been able to play because his attempt to get an Italian passport has failed, and isn't match fit. His future is uncertain right now, which is quite sad for someone so clearly talented. Excitingly, though, this does hand a first senior start to Getafe's young Oscar Ustari (good friend of Leo Messi) who I'm very fond of.
I've heard good things about how Sosa is settling in at Bayern, but apparently he's injured, so we won't see any of him. Also doubtful is Daniel 'Cata' Diaz of Getafe, who is apparently carrying a knock.
Also on the fitness front, I'm not terribly sure about the Serie A guys, other than that Zanetti at least seems to be alright, but of those who play in Spain, Garay has played a couple of pre-season games, as has Coloccini. The same goes for Maxi and Saviola. As for Lucho, the Portuguese league has already started, so he should be match fit.
On the other hand, Diego Milito hasn't really played for Zaragoza in this pre-season, so he's probably some way from match fitness. His brother Gabi has only played 30 minutes for Barca, so there are doubts over him too, although he's suspended for the first La Liga game anyway, so the match practise might be good for him. Club team mate Messi has played only about 15 minutes more than Milito, but it has to be said that he looks pretty close to match fitness, and could probably stand to play at least half of the game.
Young striker Lavezzi played well for Napoli in the Coppa Italia last week, and given the state of fitness (or lack of) of the rest of the forward line, may get some minutes.
This is apparently going to be the starting line-up:
Ustari; Zanetti, Garay, Burdisso, G Milito; Lucho, Mascherano, Maxi; Messi; D Milito and Lavezzi
Looks good to me, except for the fitness concerns cited above and the fact that poor Gabi Milito will have to fill in at left-back due to Pinola being injured and Heinze being stuck.
Update: according to a new Basile interview, the 11 above are going to be playing 4-3-3, with Messi operating in his no.10 role from the wing (and higher up the field than your average midfield playmaker) like Ronaldinho does at Barca, except of course his domain is the right instead of the left. So I guess that leaves Lavezzi for the left wing. I'm quite intrigued by the prospect of this experiment in formations, actually.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
a few conclusions from the Spanish Super Cup
Sevilla 6-3 Real (agg.)
Second leg: Real 3 (Drenthe, Cannavaro, Ramos) : 5 (Renato (2), Kanoute (3)) Sevilla
I really hope those rumours about Spurs coming in for Juando Ramos come to nothing. (This is a really terrible time to sack a manager from the London club's point of view, anyway.) As they have demonstrated in their Champions League qualifier against AEK Athens, they're enough of a team that even losing a great player like Dani Alves won't be too much of a problem. Remember the people who predicted doom and gloom when Reyes was sold to Arsenal for 10 million pounds, not to mention Sergio Ramos (27 million euros) and Julio Baptista (24 million euros) to Real. Ramos has done such good work at Sevilla, and I'd like to see how they do with him at the helm in the Champions League proper.
So Sevilla begin the season as they ended it: by winning a trophy at the Bernabeu. Fully deserved, and congratulations to them. With apologies to Milan, I hope they go on to successfully defend their European Super Cup title.
Real Madrid
"...then today people talked about my decision concerning Guti. I simply don't understand why I shouldn't be allowed to do what I've been working on all week."News flash, Bernd: this is Real Madrid. People will never stop talking about every single one of your decisions, from whether or not you play Guti to whether you shout enough in training. (Also, your attempt to include the decisions of the referee in the list of reasons for your defeat was pitiful. This could become tiresome really fast.)
For a Madridista perspective, see Gonzalo's take. As I said in the comments there, I do find it hard to fault Schuster for the lack of coherence and tactical clarity in the team at this moment in time, because whoever's in charge of transfers at Real has left him in a very difficult position. They're now only 5 days from the start of the league, and a big first game against city rivals Atletico Madrid at that, and they still haven't finished bringing players in.
How is Schuster supposed to plan his tactics with a squad missing crucial members? Sneijder, who is supposed to be the attacking midfielder the coach has been asking for since he signed on, only arrived a few days ago from an entirely different league. Expecting him to fit into the team straight away is lunacy. Just to take an example closer to home for me, after playing 5 halves and one full friendly with Barca, I still think Henry hasn't quite fully clicked into our tactical system. That's 300 more minutes of game time with the team than Sneijder (and Drenthe) have had.
But given all of that, who do you think will be blamed for any trip ups that do occur? Sadly, I think it would probably be Schuster. I don't expect to be defending him on a regular basis throughout the season, as I do find some of his behaviour annoying, but it's easy to appreciate just how difficult his position is at this point.
a few words for Mr Mourinho and Sir Alex
Expect a lot more posts over the next few weeks as my workload lessens. First, the rare Premier League-related comment from yours truly.
Re: Mourinho's latest comments
Oh, Jose. How I have not missed your delusional, barely coherent and occasionally entertaining ramblings and no doubt superb skills of motivation during the off season.
(Also, stop banging on about the goal Luis Garcia scored in the Champions League semi-finals of 2005. The referee was right, and you sound like a conspiracy theorist everytime you bring it up.)
Dear Sir Alex:
I do not presume to tell a man as successful as you have been in the world of football what to do. But surely you - along with every other pundit around - have noticed that your team currently lacks a cutting edge up front?
Whatever the answer is, it's definitely not playing Carlos Tevez at center forward. Carlitos is many things, but a number 9 he is not. Give him a strike partner to play off and he'll perform for you.
By the way, it simply boggles my mind that within United's collossal squad there's not one fit recognised center forward you can play. That can't be right. Frankly, this is getting a little painful to watch, even for this neutral.
Sincerely,
Linda
Next, a few words on the Spanish Super Cup.
Re: Mourinho's latest comments
"My players? I think I have a naive team," he said. "They are naive because they are pure and they are clean. We don't have divers, we don't have violent people, we don't have people with nasty tackles or people diving into the swimming pool. Chelsea are a pure and naive team."(It almost stands on its own, doesn't it? Just stand back and marvel.)
Oh, Jose. How I have not missed your delusional, barely coherent and occasionally entertaining ramblings and no doubt superb skills of motivation during the off season.
(Also, stop banging on about the goal Luis Garcia scored in the Champions League semi-finals of 2005. The referee was right, and you sound like a conspiracy theorist everytime you bring it up.)
Dear Sir Alex:
I do not presume to tell a man as successful as you have been in the world of football what to do. But surely you - along with every other pundit around - have noticed that your team currently lacks a cutting edge up front?
Whatever the answer is, it's definitely not playing Carlos Tevez at center forward. Carlitos is many things, but a number 9 he is not. Give him a strike partner to play off and he'll perform for you.
By the way, it simply boggles my mind that within United's collossal squad there's not one fit recognised center forward you can play. That can't be right. Frankly, this is getting a little painful to watch, even for this neutral.
Sincerely,
Linda
Next, a few words on the Spanish Super Cup.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Barca news round-up: from the sublime to the slightly ridiculous
It has gotten to a certain point in both my study semester and the season that my workload means I'm no longer able to keep up with all that goes on in La Liga. So no more general news round-up posts until I get the time again. There will be a couple of posts about transfers in general before the season starts, but I'm reverting to mostly talking about Barca, Argentina and sometimes Villarreal. Well, and Real. It is an interesting season from their perspective. So, onto the Barca news.
The first item is unfortunately an unhappy one, as a good man central to the history and development of Barca for many, many years has died. Honorary Vice President Nicolau Casaus, who was vice president of the club in the time of Nunez's long reign at the club, led an extraordinary life, much of it dedicated to the club he loved. He worked tirelessly to expand the network of supporters clubs exponentially in his time, and was the man who bought one Diego Maradona to the Camp Nou. His life story is well worth reading if you're at all interested in Barca. His time at the club was before I became a supporter and I was amazed and very impressed at the kind of life he'd led.
A great man by all accounts, and (as the Spanish King wrote in his telegram) a great ambassandor for the club, since he was a 'gentleman' who aptyl demonstrated the ideal face of the relationship Barca would like to have with wider society.
a few words on the tour
The positives and negatives of touring have been discussed to death by now, and I won't rehash all the arguments here. My own position is that I broadly agree with Lilian Thuram: commerical tours - let's not mince words here, that's their major function - are a necessary evil. They also serve a more positive function, with the charity work done by the club while on tour (yes, all the song and dance is a bit much, but at least it's doing some good) and the Catalunya tourism board apparently making use of the occasions to promote the region.
(Sidenote: I understand when people say that our conceit and self-righteous posturing annoys them. That's fair enough. But is it actually better to do nothing at all or to at least try to do something good, even if it's done in an obnoxious way, and perhaps not always with the purest of intentions? Reasonable people can disagree on this one. Sure, sometimes it can go too far, especially when Laporta opens his mouth, and seem like a parody of itself, but I personally find it difficult to cope with the idea that it's somehow bad to aspire to something. Anyway, rant over.)
Now, let me detach that chip from my shoulder. Ahem. Back to the original point: I can tolerate the idea of a tour this time around, because only a few of our players had an international tournament during the summer, but what I hear about next season does not make me happy, given that Euro 08 will affect almost as many of our players as the World Cup did. We'll see what happens, but my patience with the board is quickly running out over this issue, and I'm not the only one.
By the way, the Chinese press reports that none of the boys were caught out clubbing in Hong Kong, even with the extra time granted to them by the rescheduling of the game. If true, good for them.
Further positives, this time relating to the mini-tour of Scotland: according to at least 2 articles I read, our PR staff are excellent, and our players (Zambrotta and Thuram in this case) were courteous interviewees. These may seem trivial to you, but as I've said before, these things are important to clubs like Barca and Real, and it's always reassuring when I read that the club is run in an organised and sane manner, which is the memory of the chaos of the Gaspart years haunting me as much as anything else.
On the football front, the most widely-reported aspect of the tour has to be the emergence of Gio Dos Santos, who is so far top scorer of the pre-season with 4 and has impressed everytime he came on. He's undoubtedly talented, and I for one have been convinced that he's ready for rationed appearances in La Liga and perhaps starting roles in Cup games. It's funny how having Gio and the even younger Krkic on the first team has changed the role of Messi, who was used to being the youngest. He's now a role model and something to aspire to at the age of 20, which is a bit bizarre. About as bizarre as every up and coming young Argentinian player being labelled the 'next Messi', in fact. By the way, I hear that Gio's younger brother Jonathan is a pretty promising midfielder himself.
Besides the fact that the new legislation UEFA have bought in will increasingly force clubs to use more home-grown players (not a regulation Barca will have trouble with, given the number of canteranos in our current squad), it's nice to see players come through the system and succeed at the club. Barca has long been a proven source of midfield talent of a particular type - in fact, we produce so many that we end up 'exporting' some of our best, and we've had a few excellent defenders come through, but only now has La Masia really started producing world-class forwards.
Speaking of youth, our new 3rd choice goalkeeper Oier Olazabal was handed his debut in Beijing. The 17-year-old Basque player, who will spend the season with the B team, was surprised to be told that he would be playing against Guoan, and giving instructions to veteran defender Lilian Thuram, who is twice his age, which apparently prompted some good-natured teasing of the venerable Frenchman by the other players.
squad news
First, a quick tour-related comment: I feel quite bad for Henry, who is still coming back from injury and hasn't really hit form. The press have already started criticising him for not being sharp enough - no amount of reputation is going to protect him here. But guess who's coming to his defence and talking up his contributions so far? That's right, his longtime friend Sammy Eto'o. Not quite what the more cynical amongst us expected when the transfer went through.
With the conclusion of the tour, Rijkaard finally has all his players in the same place, including the 3 Ms (Messi, Marquez and Milito) who were in the Copa America and therefore came back from holiday later, and Deco, who has returned from the extra holiday the club gave him to go to Brazil and see his newborn son.
This is the squad of 25 that Rijkaard has at his disposal right now:
For interests' sake, this was the line-up for the 11-a-side game in training:
Valdes; Zambrotta, Oleguer, Thuram, Abidal; Toure, Xavi, Iniesta; Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Henry
vs
Jorquera; Belletti, Marquez, Milito, Crosas; Motta, Deco, Ezquerro; Messi, Maxi, Gio.
The hilarious thing is that the second rag-tag side with no leftback and some players played completely out of position won the game 1-0, via a penalty converted by Messi from Oleguer - who else, bless him - tripping Gio.
transfers
Given Txiki's previous statements, this week is vital in terms of the 4 aftementioned players who the club are trying to usher out the door. The Spanish press reckons that deals for Motta (with AC Milan) and Gudjohnsen (with West Ham) aren't too far off, and Ezquerro has a couple of suitors himself, but although Maxi's agent assures us he is actually trying to find a team for his client, that is seen as the most difficult transfer.
This might be illustrative of the limbo the 3 forwards find themselves in.
Current list of forwards: Henry, Eto'o, Gudjohnsen, Maxi, Ronaldinho, Ezquerro, Messi, Dos Santos, Krkic
Current order of preference for center forward (1): Henry --> Eto'o --> Ronaldinho --> Gudjohnsen --> Messi --> Krkic --> Dos Santos --> Ezquerro --> Maxi
Current order of preference for wing forward (2): Ronaldinho --> Messi --> Eto'o --> Dos Santos --> Henry --> Ezquerro --> Krkic --> Gudjohnsen --> Maxi
The reason Henry is so high on that first list and so low on the second is that he's proven to be - how shall I put this - not very good when played as a wing forward. His performances as center forward have been much more convincing. On the other hand, Eto'o is pretty good on the wing, even if I personally prefer him in a more central position.
Gudjohnsen might not be too far down the pecking order when Rijkaard needs a big target man, but he's really not suited to the wing positions. Krkic is more of a center forward than Dos Santos, who is more suited to the wing. Ezquerro is also better played on the wing, although he can play in the center. Maxi just had an unimpressive season on loan and is unbelievably out of favour.
(I once saw someone on a Barca forum do a list like the above during our double-winning season in order to (jokingly) demonstrate how far down the pecking order Maxi was. It had Valdes and Jorquera (our two 'keepers, for those who don't know) ahead of him in the 'wing-forward' list. Says it all, really.)
Krkic is 16, and Dos Santos is 18. Understandably, nobody likes being stuck behind kids ten years younger. Just ask Ludovic Giuly, who spoke out about the 'unhealthy competition' at Barca from the safety of Rome. (I sympathized with your plight, Ludo, I really did, but did you expect any coach in the world to play you ahead of Messi when he was on the sort of form he had in the last couple of months of last season?)
Lastly, I'd like to draw your attention to this photo. That's Rijkaard's son Michele in the Abidal shirt. As El Mundo Deportivo wrote jokingly, we're not too sure what kind of line-up Frankie will put out, but we know who his son would have starting at left-back.
Posts forthcoming within the next week or so: a word about Barca's new boys, and more about how we're going to line up this season. My full squad preview for the season ahead is still in the works.
Edited: for starting line-up of the practise game and a photo.
The first item is unfortunately an unhappy one, as a good man central to the history and development of Barca for many, many years has died. Honorary Vice President Nicolau Casaus, who was vice president of the club in the time of Nunez's long reign at the club, led an extraordinary life, much of it dedicated to the club he loved. He worked tirelessly to expand the network of supporters clubs exponentially in his time, and was the man who bought one Diego Maradona to the Camp Nou. His life story is well worth reading if you're at all interested in Barca. His time at the club was before I became a supporter and I was amazed and very impressed at the kind of life he'd led.
A great man by all accounts, and (as the Spanish King wrote in his telegram) a great ambassandor for the club, since he was a 'gentleman' who aptyl demonstrated the ideal face of the relationship Barca would like to have with wider society.
a few words on the tour
The positives and negatives of touring have been discussed to death by now, and I won't rehash all the arguments here. My own position is that I broadly agree with Lilian Thuram: commerical tours - let's not mince words here, that's their major function - are a necessary evil. They also serve a more positive function, with the charity work done by the club while on tour (yes, all the song and dance is a bit much, but at least it's doing some good) and the Catalunya tourism board apparently making use of the occasions to promote the region.
(Sidenote: I understand when people say that our conceit and self-righteous posturing annoys them. That's fair enough. But is it actually better to do nothing at all or to at least try to do something good, even if it's done in an obnoxious way, and perhaps not always with the purest of intentions? Reasonable people can disagree on this one. Sure, sometimes it can go too far, especially when Laporta opens his mouth, and seem like a parody of itself, but I personally find it difficult to cope with the idea that it's somehow bad to aspire to something. Anyway, rant over.)
Now, let me detach that chip from my shoulder. Ahem. Back to the original point: I can tolerate the idea of a tour this time around, because only a few of our players had an international tournament during the summer, but what I hear about next season does not make me happy, given that Euro 08 will affect almost as many of our players as the World Cup did. We'll see what happens, but my patience with the board is quickly running out over this issue, and I'm not the only one.
By the way, the Chinese press reports that none of the boys were caught out clubbing in Hong Kong, even with the extra time granted to them by the rescheduling of the game. If true, good for them.
Further positives, this time relating to the mini-tour of Scotland: according to at least 2 articles I read, our PR staff are excellent, and our players (Zambrotta and Thuram in this case) were courteous interviewees. These may seem trivial to you, but as I've said before, these things are important to clubs like Barca and Real, and it's always reassuring when I read that the club is run in an organised and sane manner, which is the memory of the chaos of the Gaspart years haunting me as much as anything else.
On the football front, the most widely-reported aspect of the tour has to be the emergence of Gio Dos Santos, who is so far top scorer of the pre-season with 4 and has impressed everytime he came on. He's undoubtedly talented, and I for one have been convinced that he's ready for rationed appearances in La Liga and perhaps starting roles in Cup games. It's funny how having Gio and the even younger Krkic on the first team has changed the role of Messi, who was used to being the youngest. He's now a role model and something to aspire to at the age of 20, which is a bit bizarre. About as bizarre as every up and coming young Argentinian player being labelled the 'next Messi', in fact. By the way, I hear that Gio's younger brother Jonathan is a pretty promising midfielder himself.
Besides the fact that the new legislation UEFA have bought in will increasingly force clubs to use more home-grown players (not a regulation Barca will have trouble with, given the number of canteranos in our current squad), it's nice to see players come through the system and succeed at the club. Barca has long been a proven source of midfield talent of a particular type - in fact, we produce so many that we end up 'exporting' some of our best, and we've had a few excellent defenders come through, but only now has La Masia really started producing world-class forwards.
Speaking of youth, our new 3rd choice goalkeeper Oier Olazabal was handed his debut in Beijing. The 17-year-old Basque player, who will spend the season with the B team, was surprised to be told that he would be playing against Guoan, and giving instructions to veteran defender Lilian Thuram, who is twice his age, which apparently prompted some good-natured teasing of the venerable Frenchman by the other players.
squad news
First, a quick tour-related comment: I feel quite bad for Henry, who is still coming back from injury and hasn't really hit form. The press have already started criticising him for not being sharp enough - no amount of reputation is going to protect him here. But guess who's coming to his defence and talking up his contributions so far? That's right, his longtime friend Sammy Eto'o. Not quite what the more cynical amongst us expected when the transfer went through.
With the conclusion of the tour, Rijkaard finally has all his players in the same place, including the 3 Ms (Messi, Marquez and Milito) who were in the Copa America and therefore came back from holiday later, and Deco, who has returned from the extra holiday the club gave him to go to Brazil and see his newborn son.
This is the squad of 25 that Rijkaard has at his disposal right now:
Valdes, Jorquera, Belletti, Zambrotta, Oleguer, Milito, Marquez, Olmo, Thuram, Sylvinho, Abidal, Motta, Toure, Xavi, Deco, Iniesta, Crosas, Dos Santos, Messi, Gudjohnsen, Ezquerro, Maxi, Henry, Eto'o and Ronaldinho.That list excludes long-term injury victims Edmilson and Puyol, not to mention Bojan Krkic, off on international duty for the Spanish U17s, and includes short-term injury victims Sylvinho and Gudjohnsen. It also includes two youth team players who will go back to Pep Guardiola's B side when the season starts in Marc Crosas (reportedly a target for Liverpool) and frequent backup defender Jesus Olmo. The club are trying to offload 4 of the players on the list (Gudjohnsen, Maxi, Ezquerro and Motta), 3 of which are forwards, which is perhaps understandable given that we currently have 9 of them. That's a ridiculous number, even for a team that plays 4-3-3, especially given the fact that Rijkaard doesn't like big squads.
For interests' sake, this was the line-up for the 11-a-side game in training:
Valdes; Zambrotta, Oleguer, Thuram, Abidal; Toure, Xavi, Iniesta; Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Henry
vs
Jorquera; Belletti, Marquez, Milito, Crosas; Motta, Deco, Ezquerro; Messi, Maxi, Gio.
The hilarious thing is that the second rag-tag side with no leftback and some players played completely out of position won the game 1-0, via a penalty converted by Messi from Oleguer - who else, bless him - tripping Gio.
transfers
Given Txiki's previous statements, this week is vital in terms of the 4 aftementioned players who the club are trying to usher out the door. The Spanish press reckons that deals for Motta (with AC Milan) and Gudjohnsen (with West Ham) aren't too far off, and Ezquerro has a couple of suitors himself, but although Maxi's agent assures us he is actually trying to find a team for his client, that is seen as the most difficult transfer.
This might be illustrative of the limbo the 3 forwards find themselves in.
Current list of forwards: Henry, Eto'o, Gudjohnsen, Maxi, Ronaldinho, Ezquerro, Messi, Dos Santos, Krkic
Current order of preference for center forward (1): Henry --> Eto'o --> Ronaldinho --> Gudjohnsen --> Messi --> Krkic --> Dos Santos --> Ezquerro --> Maxi
Current order of preference for wing forward (2): Ronaldinho --> Messi --> Eto'o --> Dos Santos --> Henry --> Ezquerro --> Krkic --> Gudjohnsen --> Maxi
The reason Henry is so high on that first list and so low on the second is that he's proven to be - how shall I put this - not very good when played as a wing forward. His performances as center forward have been much more convincing. On the other hand, Eto'o is pretty good on the wing, even if I personally prefer him in a more central position.
Gudjohnsen might not be too far down the pecking order when Rijkaard needs a big target man, but he's really not suited to the wing positions. Krkic is more of a center forward than Dos Santos, who is more suited to the wing. Ezquerro is also better played on the wing, although he can play in the center. Maxi just had an unimpressive season on loan and is unbelievably out of favour.
(I once saw someone on a Barca forum do a list like the above during our double-winning season in order to (jokingly) demonstrate how far down the pecking order Maxi was. It had Valdes and Jorquera (our two 'keepers, for those who don't know) ahead of him in the 'wing-forward' list. Says it all, really.)
Krkic is 16, and Dos Santos is 18. Understandably, nobody likes being stuck behind kids ten years younger. Just ask Ludovic Giuly, who spoke out about the 'unhealthy competition' at Barca from the safety of Rome. (I sympathized with your plight, Ludo, I really did, but did you expect any coach in the world to play you ahead of Messi when he was on the sort of form he had in the last couple of months of last season?)
Lastly, I'd like to draw your attention to this photo. That's Rijkaard's son Michele in the Abidal shirt. As El Mundo Deportivo wrote jokingly, we're not too sure what kind of line-up Frankie will put out, but we know who his son would have starting at left-back.
Posts forthcoming within the next week or so: a word about Barca's new boys, and more about how we're going to line up this season. My full squad preview for the season ahead is still in the works.
Edited: for starting line-up of the practise game and a photo.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Argentina squad against Norway
Ah, yes, yet another meaningless international exhibition match mandated by a shady deal done by the Argentinian FA. Only these friendlies will become increasingly meaningful as coach Alfio Basile seeks to work out the future of a squad in transition, and decide on a formation, let alone the team for the World Cup qualifiers starting very soon. Comments on the squad first, then a note on the glaring omissions.
Goalkeepers:
Juan Pablo Carrizo (Lazio, Italy)
Oscar Ustari (Getafe, Spain)
Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar, Holland)
The big surprise here is the omission of previous no.1 Roberto Abbondazieri, which I'll discuss later. Carrizo has been threatening to break into the team for some time now, although I would question the timing of this promotion for him, given that he's just gone to Lazio and may need time to settle in there. Ustari is in a strange situation himself, having gone to Getafe to be backup for Abbondazieri, or at least that's the assumption given El Pato's form for the Madrid club last season. Hopefully he won't just warm the bench there, as he's an excellent prospect. Congratulations are due to Romero, who just won the U20 World Cup for Argentina. Also a big prospect, and it's good to see so many young 'keepers coming through.
Defenders:
Gabriel Milito (Barcelona, Spain)
Fabricio Coloccini (Deportivo La Coruna, Spain)
Nicolas Burdisso (Inter, Italy)
Ezequiel Garay (Racing, Spain)
Daniel Diaz (Getafe, Spain)
Javier Zanetti (Inter, Italy)
Oh dear, does that mean we might see Coloccini at rightback again? To be fair, he had a good second half of last season playing for Depor in that position, so maybe he could also be redeemed at international level. Zanetti is a no-brainer, other than the fact that I'm worried about the fitness levels of him and Burdisso, who have just returned to training for Inter after the Copa America.
Good to see Garay finally get his chance. An important member of the 2005 U20 World Cup winning side, he's become a vital player for Racing as well. Very reliable, and definitely one for the future.
I'm not sure about 'Cata' Diaz quite yet, having only seen him play one game for Argentina in the Copa America. I've heard good things, though, and hopefully Getafe will suit him.
Midfielders:
Luis 'Lucho' Gonzalez (Porto, Portugal)
Maxi Rodriguez (Atletico Madrid, Spain)
Jose Sosa (Bayern Munich, Germany)
Javier Mascherano (Liverpool, England)
Fernando Gago (Real Madrid, Spain)
Cristian Ledesma (Olympiakos, Greece)
Federico Insua (America, Mexico)
The return of Maxi Rodriguez is extremely welcome. I think we missed him at the Copa America, especially since Lucho was a bit off-colour.
I'm quite surprised by this part of the list, to be honest. No Riquelme (more on that later), no Aimar, 3 defensive/holding midfielders. Very strange. I haven't been too impressed by Insua's previous performances for Argentina, and young Sosa, who was so good playing in Argentina, has just moved to Bayern. Perhaps Basile will abandon his commitment to a single playmaker who can be stifled by heavy defending, although I don't see him playing anything else other than the diamond 4-4-2.
Forwards:
Javier Saviola (Real Madrid, Spain)
Diego Milito (Zaragoza, Spain)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Spain)
Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli, Italy)
22 year old Lavezzi is yet another player on this list who has just made a move, in his case from San Lorenzo to Napoli. I have to confess, my knowledge of him is limited, but I'm excited to see what he can do.
Messi was asking to be included in this squad right after the Copa America ended, and not surprisingly he's got his wish. He has the same fitness concerns as everyone else who was in the Copa squad and hasn't been training for too long, though. Saviola has earned himself a recall by some good performances in pre-season for Real Madrid. It remains to be seen if he will remain in contention, given the competition for a place on the forward line at Real, but he's looked good for Argentina before, especially alongside Crespo. So welcome back. Good to see Diego Milito get another chance, too. He was much maligned in the Copa, but I've always been convinced of his quality.
the omissions
It's a young squad, almost half of whom have just been involved in a transfer, quite a few of them making the jump from Argentina to Europe, which is probably a fair reflection of what happens to any young talents who shine in the domestic league these days.
On the other hand, giving a chance to all these young players means the omission of a few surprising names. The retirement of Ayala and the probably retirement of Veron we all know about, but what about the likes of Abbondanzieri, Heinze, Riquelme, Aimar, Cambiasso, Tevez, Aguero and Crespo?
I suspect the omission of Riquelme and Heinze has a lot to with their uncertain future, and the lack of Tevez can also be explained by his long, drawn-out transfer saga, which has just been resolved. As for Abbondanzieri and Cambiasso, perhaps Basile already knows what they can bring to the table and wants to see what others can do in their place. Crespo still has fitness concerns, (I certainly hope his Argentina career isn't done yet) and so does Aguero, although for him it's more a product of a strange pre-season that included being called back to help Atletico qualify for the UEFA Cup straight after winning the U20 World Cup. When he's fit properly again, I hope Aguero gets more chances at senior level. He's certainly proven his devotion to the cause. As an aside, I'd like to see Pablo Zabaleta of Espanyol back in contention too, but he's young and I'm sure the chances will come. A fit Gonzalo Rodriguez would also be nice to see sometime soon. Such a great young centerback, so unlucky with injuries.
The likes of Aimar and D'Alessandro have been figures on the sidelines for a while now, and I can't really see any of those players ever fully breaking through, given the incredible rate with which Argentina turns up the Next Big Thing, leaving the former prospects behind. Just look at the way attention has turned to the stars of the side who won the U20 World Cup.
Hmm, that was a rather cynical note to strike. It will be good to see how this group of players shape up, and to get some indication of Basile's thinking ahead of the qualifiers.
Goalkeepers:
Juan Pablo Carrizo (Lazio, Italy)
Oscar Ustari (Getafe, Spain)
Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar, Holland)
The big surprise here is the omission of previous no.1 Roberto Abbondazieri, which I'll discuss later. Carrizo has been threatening to break into the team for some time now, although I would question the timing of this promotion for him, given that he's just gone to Lazio and may need time to settle in there. Ustari is in a strange situation himself, having gone to Getafe to be backup for Abbondazieri, or at least that's the assumption given El Pato's form for the Madrid club last season. Hopefully he won't just warm the bench there, as he's an excellent prospect. Congratulations are due to Romero, who just won the U20 World Cup for Argentina. Also a big prospect, and it's good to see so many young 'keepers coming through.
Defenders:
Gabriel Milito (Barcelona, Spain)
Fabricio Coloccini (Deportivo La Coruna, Spain)
Nicolas Burdisso (Inter, Italy)
Ezequiel Garay (Racing, Spain)
Daniel Diaz (Getafe, Spain)
Javier Zanetti (Inter, Italy)
Oh dear, does that mean we might see Coloccini at rightback again? To be fair, he had a good second half of last season playing for Depor in that position, so maybe he could also be redeemed at international level. Zanetti is a no-brainer, other than the fact that I'm worried about the fitness levels of him and Burdisso, who have just returned to training for Inter after the Copa America.
Good to see Garay finally get his chance. An important member of the 2005 U20 World Cup winning side, he's become a vital player for Racing as well. Very reliable, and definitely one for the future.
I'm not sure about 'Cata' Diaz quite yet, having only seen him play one game for Argentina in the Copa America. I've heard good things, though, and hopefully Getafe will suit him.
Midfielders:
Luis 'Lucho' Gonzalez (Porto, Portugal)
Maxi Rodriguez (Atletico Madrid, Spain)
Jose Sosa (Bayern Munich, Germany)
Javier Mascherano (Liverpool, England)
Fernando Gago (Real Madrid, Spain)
Cristian Ledesma (Olympiakos, Greece)
Federico Insua (America, Mexico)
The return of Maxi Rodriguez is extremely welcome. I think we missed him at the Copa America, especially since Lucho was a bit off-colour.
I'm quite surprised by this part of the list, to be honest. No Riquelme (more on that later), no Aimar, 3 defensive/holding midfielders. Very strange. I haven't been too impressed by Insua's previous performances for Argentina, and young Sosa, who was so good playing in Argentina, has just moved to Bayern. Perhaps Basile will abandon his commitment to a single playmaker who can be stifled by heavy defending, although I don't see him playing anything else other than the diamond 4-4-2.
Forwards:
Javier Saviola (Real Madrid, Spain)
Diego Milito (Zaragoza, Spain)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Spain)
Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli, Italy)
22 year old Lavezzi is yet another player on this list who has just made a move, in his case from San Lorenzo to Napoli. I have to confess, my knowledge of him is limited, but I'm excited to see what he can do.
Messi was asking to be included in this squad right after the Copa America ended, and not surprisingly he's got his wish. He has the same fitness concerns as everyone else who was in the Copa squad and hasn't been training for too long, though. Saviola has earned himself a recall by some good performances in pre-season for Real Madrid. It remains to be seen if he will remain in contention, given the competition for a place on the forward line at Real, but he's looked good for Argentina before, especially alongside Crespo. So welcome back. Good to see Diego Milito get another chance, too. He was much maligned in the Copa, but I've always been convinced of his quality.
the omissions
It's a young squad, almost half of whom have just been involved in a transfer, quite a few of them making the jump from Argentina to Europe, which is probably a fair reflection of what happens to any young talents who shine in the domestic league these days.
On the other hand, giving a chance to all these young players means the omission of a few surprising names. The retirement of Ayala and the probably retirement of Veron we all know about, but what about the likes of Abbondanzieri, Heinze, Riquelme, Aimar, Cambiasso, Tevez, Aguero and Crespo?
I suspect the omission of Riquelme and Heinze has a lot to with their uncertain future, and the lack of Tevez can also be explained by his long, drawn-out transfer saga, which has just been resolved. As for Abbondanzieri and Cambiasso, perhaps Basile already knows what they can bring to the table and wants to see what others can do in their place. Crespo still has fitness concerns, (I certainly hope his Argentina career isn't done yet) and so does Aguero, although for him it's more a product of a strange pre-season that included being called back to help Atletico qualify for the UEFA Cup straight after winning the U20 World Cup. When he's fit properly again, I hope Aguero gets more chances at senior level. He's certainly proven his devotion to the cause. As an aside, I'd like to see Pablo Zabaleta of Espanyol back in contention too, but he's young and I'm sure the chances will come. A fit Gonzalo Rodriguez would also be nice to see sometime soon. Such a great young centerback, so unlucky with injuries.
The likes of Aimar and D'Alessandro have been figures on the sidelines for a while now, and I can't really see any of those players ever fully breaking through, given the incredible rate with which Argentina turns up the Next Big Thing, leaving the former prospects behind. Just look at the way attention has turned to the stars of the side who won the U20 World Cup.
Hmm, that was a rather cynical note to strike. It will be good to see how this group of players shape up, and to get some indication of Basile's thinking ahead of the qualifiers.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
La Liga news round-up: friendlies galore
For many of the big European leagues, the sweet relief of proper competitive football is just a week or so away. Unfortunately, La Liga (and Serie A) are taking longer holidays, with almost all the teams jetting around the world, playing friendlies. Yawn. Thank God, then, for the diverting prospect of European club competition, with the early rounds of the Champions League, the UEFA Cup and the Intertoto already under way.
European Football
The third qualifying round draw for the Champions League has now been made, with the two Spanish clubs involved having had mixed fortunes. Valencia have been handed a relatively good draw against the winners of Debreceni of Hungary and Elfsborg of Sweden. Sevilla on the other hand were lumbered with the unappealing prospect of a tricky trip to Greece (never fun for Spanish teams), having been drawn against AEK Athens, coached - ironically enough - by former Betis manager Lorenzo Serra Ferrer.
I really want both clubs to make it through. As has been pointed out on numerous columns by various La Liga experts, too many people still see La Liga as a duopoly. I've cringed far too many times at the assertions of the ignorant that the likes of Valencia or Sevilla aren't big clubs. At least Valencia, having been regular European contenders for some time, now have a fairly good reputation abroad. Sevilla on the other hand have been hugely underrated. I want them in the Champions League proper so that they can show just how good they are and surprise a few people.
The draw for the second qualifying round of the poor man's Champions League, the UEFA Cup, has also been made. Having made it through their Intertoto adventure, Atletico Madrid have been rewarded with a tie against Vojvodina of Serbia, who beat Hibernians FC - no, not that one - of Malta convincingly in the last round. Here's hoping that Atletico's travelling mishaps do not continue to dog them.
Lastly, this isn't exactly La Liga-related, except for perhaps being of passing interest to Barca supporters, but I couldn't resist mentioning that Helsingborgs of Sweden are also in this round (they're going to play Drogheda United of Ireland), having overcome Trans Narva of Estonia 9-0 on aggregate with a brace in the first game from - rather inevitably - Henrik Larsson.
Yes, my favourite Swede is back in European competition with his hometown club. Helsingborgs qualified for the UEFA Cup by winning the Swedish Cup during Larsson's first season with them. What a career the man's had, and it really makes me glad (and a little sad that he left us so soon) to know that he's still out there, and still occasionally banging them in.
Barca
Despite having pretty much finished shopping for the season and laid out a list of the players we're looking to ship out (Maxi, Ezquerro and Motta, if you're wondering), Barca are still plagued with transfer stories, from the ridiculous to the frustrating.
The prime example - and the only one stupid enough that I feel the need to point and laugh at it - is Deco giving an interview to the Sun in which he very politely says that he'd like to work with Mourinho again someday. How this got spun into headlines of Deco's imminent exit, Lord only knows. Anyhow, Deco says he wants to stay, and Laporta says he's definitely not for sale. Besides, does Chelsea even need another midfielder?
On the subject of players leaving the club, it's going to be difficult to find a home for Maxi for obvious reasons (i.e. him not being any good for the past season), and Ezquerro will hopefully have his case resolved before 15 August, with Athletic, Celtic and various Premiership clubs all likely destinations. If he goes to the former, then Barca are likely to let him leave on a free transfer, but otherwise we'll be looking to get a token amount for the player. Considering we signed him for free, it won't be a lot.
The matter of Thiago Motta has only gotten increasingly complicated and contentious. Motta himself is hurt that the club have made it so clear that he's not wanted, weakening his negotiating position with potential suitors. Fair enough, but Thiago, man, everyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish football already knows that you aren't exactly in huge demand at the club. He wants a free transfer, and we want some money (5 million euros is the figure they're hoping for) for him. This could get messy.
Vice-president in charge of finance and transfer talks (that's not his official title, by the way) Soriano is very pleased with himself. To be fair, he has done a good job with all the negotiations.
On to some tour-related news. Barca landed in Beijing (only a two-hour drive from where I was born, incidentally) yesterday, jetlagged and disorientated from the long flight. They'll play Beijing Guo'an - who used to be a decent team but are now rubbish - in a few days time.
There has been much artificial "controversy" over the tour, which stemmed from these very reasonable comments by Lilian Thuram when asked about pre-season tours:
(Incidentally, if you want pre-season drama, I quite liked the story that Ronaldinho, suffering under the new training regime, shouted "life shouldn't be like this!" - jokingly or not, depends on which source you listen to - at Rijkaard when he demanded more intensity from the sweating players, wilting under the sun.)
There's good news and bad news on the injury and personal front. First, the good news. Carles Puyol is moving forward with his recovery and should be back for us at the end of September. By the way, I re-watched the 04-05 Clasico in the Camp Nou a couple of days back, and God, Puyol played almost perfectly in that game. Nothing got past him. Injuries robbed him of that kind of form last season, but hopefully we'll see that Puyol again.
The other piece of good news is that the three players absent from the squad due to their participation in the Copa America are due back early next week. Messi, Marquez and new signing Gabi Milito will fly into Barcelona and begin their pre-season programme. Hopefully we'll see them in the friendlies against Bayern and Inter before the start of the season. Personally, I can't want for Marquez and Milito to get back to full fitness - that centerback pairing of Thuram (class) and Oleguer (occasionally class) really worries me. Plus, I really want to see Messi and Henry playing together.
Now the bad news. The drama related to Bojan Krkic's call-up for the Spanish U17 side has finally been resolved in favour of the Spanish federation, and he'll miss the pre-season (and probably the start of the season). Normally, I'm in full support of players being released by clubs to go play international matches, but in the case of Krkic, I can kind of see the club's point. Krkic has already played quite a bit for the U21s, so I'm not sure what he's doing with the U17s. I think he's proven that he's got skill some way above that age level. Just to be clear, I'm totally in favour of him playing for Spain when he's needed, but surely he's entitled to stay at at least U20 level? Hopefully this won't prevent him playing a part in the first team this season.
Lastly, and apologies for the Spanish link, but I haven't found any English sources reporting this yet. Poor injury-dogged Juliano Belletti is going to be out for 7 to 10 days, having hurt himself in training in China. This means that he'll probably play no part in any of the games on tour. You know, he's probably thinking that he would have done better to get injured back in Barcelona and stayed behind with Gudjohnsen. Now he's done all this travelling for nothing.
Real
Unlike Barca, Real's South Americans who were at international tournaments (that's Marcelo, Gago, Baptista, and Robinho) have already gone back to work with the squad.
In related news, Julio Baptista has stated his desire to stay at Real and fight for a place this season. I do hear rumours that the club might sell him if their price is met, which is a little sad for him, but at least all the clubs he's been linked to are big ones.
Real played their second friendly against Bundesliga side Hannover 96 and lost 3-0, thanks to 1) the German club being further along in their pre-season, 2) missing and/or injured players, 3) terrible finishing from Higuain in particular and 4) chaos in defence, Cannavaro in particular showing that he still hasn't shed the problems of last season.
It was only a pre-season friendly, though. And hey, they won their third one 5-2, beating Lokomotiv Moscow to advance in the Russian Railways Cup (other participants AC Milan and PSV). The game started in a similar fashion to the loss against Hannover, with errors in defence. Real staged a great comeback from 2-0 down at half-time to win with goals from Guti, Saviola (pen.), Higuain and Balboa. They'll play PSV in the final after the Dutch club beat Milan on penalties.
Sevilla
I have to say, I was surprised by Dani Alves' outburst. (Basically, he wants to be allowed to leave for a 'bigger' club. Read: Chelsea.) I felt that it was somewhat disrespectful of Sevilla, who are after all very ambitious, and who have improved every season in the past few years. If the move to Chelsea doesn't come off, I'm not sure what's going to happen to him. I'd be very sorry to see him go, to be honest. Sevilla are the kind of team who don't depend on any one player, and have sold their star players to good effect before (Reyes, Sergio Ramos, Baptista), but they won't be the same without Alves, at least in the short term.
On the other hand, the club have landed the Colombian defender Aquivaldo Mosquera from Pachuca of Mexico. I hear that he's quite an excellent player, so good work by Sevilla.
They've also been participating in a pre-season Trophy, in this case the Chicago Trophy, starring Toluca of Mexcio, Reggina of Italy and Wisla Krakow of Poland. Sevilla beat Toluca 1-0 and needed a draw against Wisla to claim the trophy. Unfortunately they lost, but as Juande Ramos pointed out, having only trained for five days prior to the games, it's not been a bad workout for the team.
(Speaking of Ramos, did you know that he used to coach Barca B? Although, so did Jose Mourinho.)
Valencia
Valencia started their pre-season tournament brightly, beating an Argentine-less Inter in the Emirates Cup. Unfortunately a re-shuffled Valencia side then lost 3-0 to Paris Saint-Germain. I don't think anything should be read into their defeat, other than maybe that PSG are going to have a better season in France this time around.
In my opinion, Valencia are the Spanish club with the greatest strength in depth. They have some of the best young talent, and commendably regularly field 7 or 8 Spanish players in their starting 11, which is not something the other three top sides from last season can say. They've done some smart business on the transfer market, too, although nothing big and splashy - which is no bad thing. What it does mean is that I've not been able to write as much about them as I have about some of the smaller sides in La Liga.
However, there is some news. The most surprising is that Asier del Horno has been allowed to train with the rest of the squad again, with a view to perhaps keeping the defender at the club.
Valencia have also sent Fabian Estoyanoff, who was on loan at Depor last season, back out on loan, this time to newly promoted Real Valladolid.
Atletico
Firstly, two pieces of news, both well-covered by our friendly neighbourhood Atletico blogger, so I'll just link to his comments: Costinha gets into a training ground dust-up, and Atletico are set to leave the Vicente Calderon for the Olympic stadium, when it's actually built.
I thought Atletico were done with their summer shopping - except maybe a couple of defenders, which they seem to need - but then they went out and bought Jose Antonio Reyes. Go figure. They've certainly got enough quality wingers (Simao, Maxi Rodriguez, Reyes, Luis Garcia) to be going on with now.
Atletico minus Aguero and Forlan (both on vacation due to their international exertions) went down 2-0 to the hosts Ajax at the Amsterdam Tournament, with goals by former Barca player Gabri and Wesley Sneijder. Simao apparently played quite well, though. And Ajax manager Henk ten Cate (also known as the much-missed former Barca assistant coach, the bad cop to Rijkaard's good cop) certainly thinks Atletico will have a good season.
Villarreal
The club have conducted their business in the usual efficient manner, snapping up Giuseppe Rossi from Manchester United, thus fulfilling their need for a striker to go with the likes of Nihat, Guillermo Franco, Jose Mari and Jon Dahl Tomasson. Now that I look at that list, actually, that's a lot of strikers. Yeah, Franco couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo, but the others are all useful in their own way.
I really hope they're still in the market for some defenders, because they've let Jose Enrique go to Newcastle, making him the 347th defender to leave the club in the close season. Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit, but they really need some reinforcements.
Lastly, some news on the Juan Roman Riquelme front. Yeah, he still belongs to Villarreal, much as the club and the player might wish otherwise. The latest (very sad) news is that Boca have all but given up hope of landing him on another loan spell, because of Villarreal's asking price. I'm a neutral when it comes to Argentinian domestic football, but I've become convinced that Roman belongs at Boca, and it would be great to see them go to the World Club Cup with him. It's now looking like that scenario will remain a pipe dream, and the flogging of Roman to various clubs around Europe will commence.
Depor
The club have put a deadline on any suitors for Argentinian defender Fabricio Coloccini coming forward.
Coach Miguel Angel Lotina has told Iago, Momo, Jairo and Antonio Tomas that they can go, with loan deals looking likely.
Betis
The club have lost their first two pre-season friendlies, both against lower league opposition, to leave coach Hector Cuper frustrated and demanding more from his players.
Aside from demanding more, he's also identified the ones he wants out of the squad, including Assuncao, who had insisted that he wanted to say with the club. The others are Lembo, Maldonado, Xisco, Alberto Rivera and Fernando Fernandez.
Others
A badly-timed injury to Racing Santander striker Nikola Zigic may delay plans to cash in on the player. I don't think selling him is necessarily a wise move, given their dependence on him in the previous season, but I can completely understand the need for the funds generated to strengthen in other positions.
Zaragoza won a friendly against SD Huesca with on loan striker Ricardo Oliveira scoring a brace and Barca product Sergio Garcia chipping in with two of his own. I really hope Zaragoza do well in the UEFA Cup - they've certainly got the squad for it.
Espanyol lost 3-0 in their game at the Reebok to Bolton. I'd write more, but the reports aren't very detailed. In general, Espanyol have done pretty good business in the transfer window, and their manager is a good guy who knows what he's doing, so they should be set for the season ahead.
Newly promoted Murcia have broken their transfer record to sign Fernando Baiano from relegated Celta Vigo for 5 million euros, which tells you something about the state of things at the bottom of the Spanish league as opposed to the amount of money even the bottom Premiership sides have. I've always thought that Baiano was a decent player despite his lack of consistency, and the club did need a goalscorer. Hopefully he'll repay their faith in him. Murcia have also got Curro Torres on loan from Valencia.
Getafe have let grumpy striker Daniel Guiza go to Mallorca. Guiza isn't too happy about the move, but has no one to blame given his own unwise statements to the press regarding the relative status of Getafe and Mallorca. Once again, Angel Torres comes out on top. He really is one of the more sane and canny chairmen in the Spanish league.
European Football
The third qualifying round draw for the Champions League has now been made, with the two Spanish clubs involved having had mixed fortunes. Valencia have been handed a relatively good draw against the winners of Debreceni of Hungary and Elfsborg of Sweden. Sevilla on the other hand were lumbered with the unappealing prospect of a tricky trip to Greece (never fun for Spanish teams), having been drawn against AEK Athens, coached - ironically enough - by former Betis manager Lorenzo Serra Ferrer.
I really want both clubs to make it through. As has been pointed out on numerous columns by various La Liga experts, too many people still see La Liga as a duopoly. I've cringed far too many times at the assertions of the ignorant that the likes of Valencia or Sevilla aren't big clubs. At least Valencia, having been regular European contenders for some time, now have a fairly good reputation abroad. Sevilla on the other hand have been hugely underrated. I want them in the Champions League proper so that they can show just how good they are and surprise a few people.
The draw for the second qualifying round of the poor man's Champions League, the UEFA Cup, has also been made. Having made it through their Intertoto adventure, Atletico Madrid have been rewarded with a tie against Vojvodina of Serbia, who beat Hibernians FC - no, not that one - of Malta convincingly in the last round. Here's hoping that Atletico's travelling mishaps do not continue to dog them.
Lastly, this isn't exactly La Liga-related, except for perhaps being of passing interest to Barca supporters, but I couldn't resist mentioning that Helsingborgs of Sweden are also in this round (they're going to play Drogheda United of Ireland), having overcome Trans Narva of Estonia 9-0 on aggregate with a brace in the first game from - rather inevitably - Henrik Larsson.
Yes, my favourite Swede is back in European competition with his hometown club. Helsingborgs qualified for the UEFA Cup by winning the Swedish Cup during Larsson's first season with them. What a career the man's had, and it really makes me glad (and a little sad that he left us so soon) to know that he's still out there, and still occasionally banging them in.
Barca
Despite having pretty much finished shopping for the season and laid out a list of the players we're looking to ship out (Maxi, Ezquerro and Motta, if you're wondering), Barca are still plagued with transfer stories, from the ridiculous to the frustrating.
The prime example - and the only one stupid enough that I feel the need to point and laugh at it - is Deco giving an interview to the Sun in which he very politely says that he'd like to work with Mourinho again someday. How this got spun into headlines of Deco's imminent exit, Lord only knows. Anyhow, Deco says he wants to stay, and Laporta says he's definitely not for sale. Besides, does Chelsea even need another midfielder?
On the subject of players leaving the club, it's going to be difficult to find a home for Maxi for obvious reasons (i.e. him not being any good for the past season), and Ezquerro will hopefully have his case resolved before 15 August, with Athletic, Celtic and various Premiership clubs all likely destinations. If he goes to the former, then Barca are likely to let him leave on a free transfer, but otherwise we'll be looking to get a token amount for the player. Considering we signed him for free, it won't be a lot.
The matter of Thiago Motta has only gotten increasingly complicated and contentious. Motta himself is hurt that the club have made it so clear that he's not wanted, weakening his negotiating position with potential suitors. Fair enough, but Thiago, man, everyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish football already knows that you aren't exactly in huge demand at the club. He wants a free transfer, and we want some money (5 million euros is the figure they're hoping for) for him. This could get messy.
Vice-president in charge of finance and transfer talks (that's not his official title, by the way) Soriano is very pleased with himself. To be fair, he has done a good job with all the negotiations.
On to some tour-related news. Barca landed in Beijing (only a two-hour drive from where I was born, incidentally) yesterday, jetlagged and disorientated from the long flight. They'll play Beijing Guo'an - who used to be a decent team but are now rubbish - in a few days time.
There has been much artificial "controversy" over the tour, which stemmed from these very reasonable comments by Lilian Thuram when asked about pre-season tours:
"I do not think it is possibly the best way for the team to prepare," he continued. "But that is how football is and all the big clubs do it nowadays."Sounds about right. But of course his words (and similar remarks from Zambrotta and Oleguer) have been blown out of proportion by a press gleeful for some pre-season drama.
(Incidentally, if you want pre-season drama, I quite liked the story that Ronaldinho, suffering under the new training regime, shouted "life shouldn't be like this!" - jokingly or not, depends on which source you listen to - at Rijkaard when he demanded more intensity from the sweating players, wilting under the sun.)
There's good news and bad news on the injury and personal front. First, the good news. Carles Puyol is moving forward with his recovery and should be back for us at the end of September. By the way, I re-watched the 04-05 Clasico in the Camp Nou a couple of days back, and God, Puyol played almost perfectly in that game. Nothing got past him. Injuries robbed him of that kind of form last season, but hopefully we'll see that Puyol again.
The other piece of good news is that the three players absent from the squad due to their participation in the Copa America are due back early next week. Messi, Marquez and new signing Gabi Milito will fly into Barcelona and begin their pre-season programme. Hopefully we'll see them in the friendlies against Bayern and Inter before the start of the season. Personally, I can't want for Marquez and Milito to get back to full fitness - that centerback pairing of Thuram (class) and Oleguer (occasionally class) really worries me. Plus, I really want to see Messi and Henry playing together.
Now the bad news. The drama related to Bojan Krkic's call-up for the Spanish U17 side has finally been resolved in favour of the Spanish federation, and he'll miss the pre-season (and probably the start of the season). Normally, I'm in full support of players being released by clubs to go play international matches, but in the case of Krkic, I can kind of see the club's point. Krkic has already played quite a bit for the U21s, so I'm not sure what he's doing with the U17s. I think he's proven that he's got skill some way above that age level. Just to be clear, I'm totally in favour of him playing for Spain when he's needed, but surely he's entitled to stay at at least U20 level? Hopefully this won't prevent him playing a part in the first team this season.
Lastly, and apologies for the Spanish link, but I haven't found any English sources reporting this yet. Poor injury-dogged Juliano Belletti is going to be out for 7 to 10 days, having hurt himself in training in China. This means that he'll probably play no part in any of the games on tour. You know, he's probably thinking that he would have done better to get injured back in Barcelona and stayed behind with Gudjohnsen. Now he's done all this travelling for nothing.
Real
Unlike Barca, Real's South Americans who were at international tournaments (that's Marcelo, Gago, Baptista, and Robinho) have already gone back to work with the squad.
In related news, Julio Baptista has stated his desire to stay at Real and fight for a place this season. I do hear rumours that the club might sell him if their price is met, which is a little sad for him, but at least all the clubs he's been linked to are big ones.
Real played their second friendly against Bundesliga side Hannover 96 and lost 3-0, thanks to 1) the German club being further along in their pre-season, 2) missing and/or injured players, 3) terrible finishing from Higuain in particular and 4) chaos in defence, Cannavaro in particular showing that he still hasn't shed the problems of last season.
It was only a pre-season friendly, though. And hey, they won their third one 5-2, beating Lokomotiv Moscow to advance in the Russian Railways Cup (other participants AC Milan and PSV). The game started in a similar fashion to the loss against Hannover, with errors in defence. Real staged a great comeback from 2-0 down at half-time to win with goals from Guti, Saviola (pen.), Higuain and Balboa. They'll play PSV in the final after the Dutch club beat Milan on penalties.
Sevilla
I have to say, I was surprised by Dani Alves' outburst. (Basically, he wants to be allowed to leave for a 'bigger' club. Read: Chelsea.) I felt that it was somewhat disrespectful of Sevilla, who are after all very ambitious, and who have improved every season in the past few years. If the move to Chelsea doesn't come off, I'm not sure what's going to happen to him. I'd be very sorry to see him go, to be honest. Sevilla are the kind of team who don't depend on any one player, and have sold their star players to good effect before (Reyes, Sergio Ramos, Baptista), but they won't be the same without Alves, at least in the short term.
On the other hand, the club have landed the Colombian defender Aquivaldo Mosquera from Pachuca of Mexico. I hear that he's quite an excellent player, so good work by Sevilla.
They've also been participating in a pre-season Trophy, in this case the Chicago Trophy, starring Toluca of Mexcio, Reggina of Italy and Wisla Krakow of Poland. Sevilla beat Toluca 1-0 and needed a draw against Wisla to claim the trophy. Unfortunately they lost, but as Juande Ramos pointed out, having only trained for five days prior to the games, it's not been a bad workout for the team.
(Speaking of Ramos, did you know that he used to coach Barca B? Although, so did Jose Mourinho.)
Valencia
Valencia started their pre-season tournament brightly, beating an Argentine-less Inter in the Emirates Cup. Unfortunately a re-shuffled Valencia side then lost 3-0 to Paris Saint-Germain. I don't think anything should be read into their defeat, other than maybe that PSG are going to have a better season in France this time around.
In my opinion, Valencia are the Spanish club with the greatest strength in depth. They have some of the best young talent, and commendably regularly field 7 or 8 Spanish players in their starting 11, which is not something the other three top sides from last season can say. They've done some smart business on the transfer market, too, although nothing big and splashy - which is no bad thing. What it does mean is that I've not been able to write as much about them as I have about some of the smaller sides in La Liga.
However, there is some news. The most surprising is that Asier del Horno has been allowed to train with the rest of the squad again, with a view to perhaps keeping the defender at the club.
Valencia have also sent Fabian Estoyanoff, who was on loan at Depor last season, back out on loan, this time to newly promoted Real Valladolid.
Atletico
Firstly, two pieces of news, both well-covered by our friendly neighbourhood Atletico blogger, so I'll just link to his comments: Costinha gets into a training ground dust-up, and Atletico are set to leave the Vicente Calderon for the Olympic stadium, when it's actually built.
I thought Atletico were done with their summer shopping - except maybe a couple of defenders, which they seem to need - but then they went out and bought Jose Antonio Reyes. Go figure. They've certainly got enough quality wingers (Simao, Maxi Rodriguez, Reyes, Luis Garcia) to be going on with now.
Atletico minus Aguero and Forlan (both on vacation due to their international exertions) went down 2-0 to the hosts Ajax at the Amsterdam Tournament, with goals by former Barca player Gabri and Wesley Sneijder. Simao apparently played quite well, though. And Ajax manager Henk ten Cate (also known as the much-missed former Barca assistant coach, the bad cop to Rijkaard's good cop) certainly thinks Atletico will have a good season.
Villarreal
The club have conducted their business in the usual efficient manner, snapping up Giuseppe Rossi from Manchester United, thus fulfilling their need for a striker to go with the likes of Nihat, Guillermo Franco, Jose Mari and Jon Dahl Tomasson. Now that I look at that list, actually, that's a lot of strikers. Yeah, Franco couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo, but the others are all useful in their own way.
I really hope they're still in the market for some defenders, because they've let Jose Enrique go to Newcastle, making him the 347th defender to leave the club in the close season. Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit, but they really need some reinforcements.
Lastly, some news on the Juan Roman Riquelme front. Yeah, he still belongs to Villarreal, much as the club and the player might wish otherwise. The latest (very sad) news is that Boca have all but given up hope of landing him on another loan spell, because of Villarreal's asking price. I'm a neutral when it comes to Argentinian domestic football, but I've become convinced that Roman belongs at Boca, and it would be great to see them go to the World Club Cup with him. It's now looking like that scenario will remain a pipe dream, and the flogging of Roman to various clubs around Europe will commence.
Depor
The club have put a deadline on any suitors for Argentinian defender Fabricio Coloccini coming forward.
Coach Miguel Angel Lotina has told Iago, Momo, Jairo and Antonio Tomas that they can go, with loan deals looking likely.
Betis
The club have lost their first two pre-season friendlies, both against lower league opposition, to leave coach Hector Cuper frustrated and demanding more from his players.
Aside from demanding more, he's also identified the ones he wants out of the squad, including Assuncao, who had insisted that he wanted to say with the club. The others are Lembo, Maldonado, Xisco, Alberto Rivera and Fernando Fernandez.
Others
A badly-timed injury to Racing Santander striker Nikola Zigic may delay plans to cash in on the player. I don't think selling him is necessarily a wise move, given their dependence on him in the previous season, but I can completely understand the need for the funds generated to strengthen in other positions.
Zaragoza won a friendly against SD Huesca with on loan striker Ricardo Oliveira scoring a brace and Barca product Sergio Garcia chipping in with two of his own. I really hope Zaragoza do well in the UEFA Cup - they've certainly got the squad for it.
Espanyol lost 3-0 in their game at the Reebok to Bolton. I'd write more, but the reports aren't very detailed. In general, Espanyol have done pretty good business in the transfer window, and their manager is a good guy who knows what he's doing, so they should be set for the season ahead.
Newly promoted Murcia have broken their transfer record to sign Fernando Baiano from relegated Celta Vigo for 5 million euros, which tells you something about the state of things at the bottom of the Spanish league as opposed to the amount of money even the bottom Premiership sides have. I've always thought that Baiano was a decent player despite his lack of consistency, and the club did need a goalscorer. Hopefully he'll repay their faith in him. Murcia have also got Curro Torres on loan from Valencia.
Getafe have let grumpy striker Daniel Guiza go to Mallorca. Guiza isn't too happy about the move, but has no one to blame given his own unwise statements to the press regarding the relative status of Getafe and Mallorca. Once again, Angel Torres comes out on top. He really is one of the more sane and canny chairmen in the Spanish league.
On the Asian Cup
I have one positive comment to make, and one rant to deliver.
the Lions of Mesopotamia
Indomitable is one of my favourite words in the English language, and it's a fitting one to describe both the Iraqi team and the ancient people they represented with such distinction. What they face on their own soil is the type of danger and deprivation no human being should have to live in, and it's nice to see them having something to cheer about.
The Saudi coach said afterwards that the whole world wanted Iraq to win - a statement not made, I hasten to add, with any bitterness - well, I certainly did. This isn't the best place to cover the sociological and political angles of Iraq's historic victory (James Lawton does a good job on the power of the game around the world in his column), but I did want to say something about the team itself.
Despite the conditions they face, the Iraqi team have achieved some great results in the last 4 years. They were excellent in the qualifiers for both the 2004 Asian Cup and the Athens Olympics back in 2003. They sent their Olympic team to that Asian Cup and still managed to make it out of a very tough group containing the Saudis, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. At the Olympics the team made headlines in defeating the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal and Australia, and eventually finished a very credible fourth. In the qualifiers for this edition of the Asian Cup, they again performed very well, before a great run to the final of the football tournament at the Asian Games last year.
Iraq have seemingly hit upon a golden generation of players, who all played their hearts out at this tournament, and all credit to them. Their Brazilian coach has also done a great job making a team out of players of different backgrounds, many of whom had lost friends or family recently to the violence back home. A job well done all around, and I hope to see them at the next World Cup.
Edit: Jon Stewart reports on Iraq's win. Stewart is of course a proper football fan who was apparently a handy winger for his university team back in the day. My favourite part? "I'm a soccer fan first, and a person second." It's funny because it's true, and sadly in this case I think it is easy to lose perspective sometimes.
Vince Grella: making friends for Australia all around the world
First, a few background details. My special interest in the Asian Cup stems from the fact that I was in fact born in China, and if one day they manage to get together a football team - instead of a bunch of players of middling talent who all think they're God's gift to the nation and have no idea what a 'team sport' is, or what the meaning of 'passion' and 'effort' are - I may think about supporting them alongside my true love. But until then, there's no team to speak of, so I haven't got anything to support. (In contrast, the All Whites may be hopeless, but at least they're a team.)
With that in mind, take my comments on the Australians how you will. As usual, I try to be as objective as possible, but I'm only human.
I may be a Kiwi, but I cheered the Socceroos on at the World Cup for their admirable spirit and sheer nerve, which are to me (great) traits very typical of Australia in competitive sport. I felt saddened on their behalf when they were knocked out in such a horrible manner. So it was with some regret that I became increasingly uncomfortable with their attitude and their conduct both leading up to the Asian Cup and in the tournament itself.
Vince Grella's rant is reproduced here for your pleasure. What he said about 'respect' especially struck a cord with me. So, let's talk about respect, shall we?
Respect is not declaring that your team, the newcomers (invited guests, if you will) to the region, were going to win all your games and the tournament, especially if (as Grella admits) you know next to nothing about the region and the teams participating.
Respect is not declaring that ignorance as if you're proud of it.
Respect is not turning up expecting for the opposition to fall at your feet.
Respect is not voicing a disturbing level of paranoia and taking personal offence at the same old wind-up tactics employed all around the world, as if you've never played a day of competitive football in your life.
The Chinese have a saying, and it roughly means do onto others as you would want others to do onto you. (See, some things are universal.) Grella would do well to think about that.
Save your indignation for when you deserve it. It was fine after the World Cup. It's plain embarrassing now.
Referees make mistakes all the time. Sometimes the results are unfair. I completely understand feeling wronged by decisions taken against you. I've certainly been in that place before. But given Australia's (probably fair) self-image as a major power in Asian football, shouldn't they act like a major power?
I support a big club team and an acknowledged world power at nation level, and I hate it when blame is laid on everything under the sun, but no one can say 'the team just didn't play well enough'. As my Chelsea-supporting friend likes to say, if you're the bigger team, then you should overcome crappy refereeing, teams that defend with 10 men and everything else and still win. Because that proves that you're the bigger, better team. I don't agree with him over a lot, but I think he's spot on about that.
(As an aside, that goes for the people who still think there's a referee's conspiracy in La Liga in the present day for - or for that matter against - Real Madrid as well. If Barca fans really believe that we are the dominant power in Spain, can we please act like it and do something about that massive chip on our shoulder?)
I'm certain that the Socceroos will bounce back and prove to be the major power that everyone predicted they would be. Maybe they'll even play well again - as they proved in Germany (in the face of many, many nay-sayers, some in their own country), the quality is there. Hopefully this episode of gracelessness will only be a distant memory soon enough.
My sincere apologies if I've caused offence - that was certainly not my intention, and as I said above, I do genuinely like the Socceroos and want them to succeed. Perhaps more action, less talk?
the Lions of Mesopotamia
Indomitable is one of my favourite words in the English language, and it's a fitting one to describe both the Iraqi team and the ancient people they represented with such distinction. What they face on their own soil is the type of danger and deprivation no human being should have to live in, and it's nice to see them having something to cheer about.
The Saudi coach said afterwards that the whole world wanted Iraq to win - a statement not made, I hasten to add, with any bitterness - well, I certainly did. This isn't the best place to cover the sociological and political angles of Iraq's historic victory (James Lawton does a good job on the power of the game around the world in his column), but I did want to say something about the team itself.
Despite the conditions they face, the Iraqi team have achieved some great results in the last 4 years. They were excellent in the qualifiers for both the 2004 Asian Cup and the Athens Olympics back in 2003. They sent their Olympic team to that Asian Cup and still managed to make it out of a very tough group containing the Saudis, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. At the Olympics the team made headlines in defeating the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal and Australia, and eventually finished a very credible fourth. In the qualifiers for this edition of the Asian Cup, they again performed very well, before a great run to the final of the football tournament at the Asian Games last year.
Iraq have seemingly hit upon a golden generation of players, who all played their hearts out at this tournament, and all credit to them. Their Brazilian coach has also done a great job making a team out of players of different backgrounds, many of whom had lost friends or family recently to the violence back home. A job well done all around, and I hope to see them at the next World Cup.
Edit: Jon Stewart reports on Iraq's win. Stewart is of course a proper football fan who was apparently a handy winger for his university team back in the day. My favourite part? "I'm a soccer fan first, and a person second." It's funny because it's true, and sadly in this case I think it is easy to lose perspective sometimes.
Vince Grella: making friends for Australia all around the world
First, a few background details. My special interest in the Asian Cup stems from the fact that I was in fact born in China, and if one day they manage to get together a football team - instead of a bunch of players of middling talent who all think they're God's gift to the nation and have no idea what a 'team sport' is, or what the meaning of 'passion' and 'effort' are - I may think about supporting them alongside my true love. But until then, there's no team to speak of, so I haven't got anything to support. (In contrast, the All Whites may be hopeless, but at least they're a team.)
With that in mind, take my comments on the Australians how you will. As usual, I try to be as objective as possible, but I'm only human.
I may be a Kiwi, but I cheered the Socceroos on at the World Cup for their admirable spirit and sheer nerve, which are to me (great) traits very typical of Australia in competitive sport. I felt saddened on their behalf when they were knocked out in such a horrible manner. So it was with some regret that I became increasingly uncomfortable with their attitude and their conduct both leading up to the Asian Cup and in the tournament itself.
Vince Grella's rant is reproduced here for your pleasure. What he said about 'respect' especially struck a cord with me. So, let's talk about respect, shall we?
Respect is not declaring that your team, the newcomers (invited guests, if you will) to the region, were going to win all your games and the tournament, especially if (as Grella admits) you know next to nothing about the region and the teams participating.
Respect is not declaring that ignorance as if you're proud of it.
Respect is not turning up expecting for the opposition to fall at your feet.
Respect is not voicing a disturbing level of paranoia and taking personal offence at the same old wind-up tactics employed all around the world, as if you've never played a day of competitive football in your life.
The Chinese have a saying, and it roughly means do onto others as you would want others to do onto you. (See, some things are universal.) Grella would do well to think about that.
Save your indignation for when you deserve it. It was fine after the World Cup. It's plain embarrassing now.
Referees make mistakes all the time. Sometimes the results are unfair. I completely understand feeling wronged by decisions taken against you. I've certainly been in that place before. But given Australia's (probably fair) self-image as a major power in Asian football, shouldn't they act like a major power?
I support a big club team and an acknowledged world power at nation level, and I hate it when blame is laid on everything under the sun, but no one can say 'the team just didn't play well enough'. As my Chelsea-supporting friend likes to say, if you're the bigger team, then you should overcome crappy refereeing, teams that defend with 10 men and everything else and still win. Because that proves that you're the bigger, better team. I don't agree with him over a lot, but I think he's spot on about that.
(As an aside, that goes for the people who still think there's a referee's conspiracy in La Liga in the present day for - or for that matter against - Real Madrid as well. If Barca fans really believe that we are the dominant power in Spain, can we please act like it and do something about that massive chip on our shoulder?)
I'm certain that the Socceroos will bounce back and prove to be the major power that everyone predicted they would be. Maybe they'll even play well again - as they proved in Germany (in the face of many, many nay-sayers, some in their own country), the quality is there. Hopefully this episode of gracelessness will only be a distant memory soon enough.
My sincere apologies if I've caused offence - that was certainly not my intention, and as I said above, I do genuinely like the Socceroos and want them to succeed. Perhaps more action, less talk?
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