The new faces of African Football

This year's African Nations Cup (ANC) qualifiers threw up some shockers as a few of the continent's "stronger" sides failed to qualify. Topping the list are former winners; Egypt, Cameroun, Nigeria and South Africa. It is difficult to tell if this is a temporary blip or a changing of the guard. The latter three countries also failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup but did return for the 2010 event (for Egypt the World Cup has been a bridge too far since their last appearance in 1990).

I like to think of this as the emergence of a new breed of countries ready to shake up the existing paradigm. With Botswana and Niger making their debuts the stage is set for new stars to be born and maybe, just maybe it could be the year of the "Underdog". Add to the debutants, returnees Libya and Sudan to complete the list of unlikely qualifiers. This promises to be an emotional tournament for Libya after the recent turmoil in the country. It is left to be seen if they can reenact Iraq's feat of winning their continental championship in 2007 on the wave of the country's emotions after their going through war and turmoil.

Co-host Equatorial Guinea make a first appearance as well but it is Gabon, the other co-host who excite me currently. They recently won the African U-23 Olympic qualifiers for the London Olympics and can boast of the Aubameyang brothers who bring a Milan influence with Pierre-Emerick currently on loan to St Etienne from Milan and Willy having played in the Milan youth teams.

So what is in the way of stopping a "fresh face" from lifting the cup? The tournament still has a few of the "old guard". Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tunisia and Morocco as past winners will be looking at some of the less fancied names and licking their lips. It all leads to an entertaining fiesta of continental football to look forward to. With no Nigeria, yours truly may be able to sit back and watch with no false expectations or disappointments.

Unlucky Lucas and the case for Jonjo..

Lucas is out for the season

The red's comeback kid - Lucas, the once derided but now celebrated midfielder has been ruled out for the rest of the season. It's an unlucky break for Lucas who has been having a break out season. Opta stats show he leads the Prem in "tackles attempted" and "tackles won". He's been the first name on KD's team sheet and has been a "monster" in the middle of the park this season. So how do you replace him? It's strange to think that his injury worries me more then Stevie G's (remember him?). Whoever comes in - Spearing or Henderson has big boots to fill.

So young Jonjo has scored more goals in the Championship this season than Suarez, Carroll (really all the 'Pool strikers) in the Prem. What does this tell us?    
The Championship is not as strong as the Prem, loans are good for young players, Blackpool are a good fit?
Maybe all of the above. All being said, I like the lad. He's 19 and already spots a bald look (Zidane-like) and seems to play with maturity. I think he could be a long term replacement for Stevie G when the Captain retires.
Rafa did well by bringing Jonjo in (don't you just love that name - Jon-jo). His loan has been cut short with Lucas' injury and maybe we will get a chance to see what he's made of. In my book any player who scores a hat-trick from midfield irrespective of the division has "quality". An earlier post had mentioned my preference for five in the midfield and Jonjo would be a good fit as the attacking/creative fulcrum of the three in the middle.

Shining on Loan

Incidentally the other central midfielders on loan; Joe Cole and Alberto Aquilani have looked good for Lille and Milan respectively. It's a puzzler to think "Aquaman" has got into Juve and Milan teams in the last two seasons but been deemed unworthy of being a Red. Go figure! Arguably on current form we probably could have done with one or both of these players. They could have provided the missing link especially with Stevie G being injured for so long.

I'm particularly happy for Cole as he's getting a run in in the Lille team, scoring goals and looking like a really decent player again. Maybe it's time to let him go, if we aren't going to get the best of him we should let him go to a team that isn't competing with us for the league.

The case for 5 in the middle

Andy Carroll is a decent player. He did well for Newcastle last season and is a full England international.
He doesn't do it for me as a Red's striker just yet. He did score in a dour Merseyside derby but that was ..erm.. last month.
Everyone's singing Suarez's praises (I'm giving him 5 more matches before I start bickering on how he doesn't score enough) and this makes Andy look even worse. KD has given Andy a run in a few games by playing both of them in a 4-4-2 and this has resulted in home draws against newly promoted sides. Normally I'm an advocate of two upfront at home then the lone striker away from home but it doesn't seem to be working for us at the moment. It's got to be time to play a lone striker at home and flood the midfield in a bid to dominate possession and create more chances. It also has to be said that without Andy the ball is played on the ground much more and the team looks more threatening and fluid (flash back to the game against Fulham last season and Chelsea this weekend)

Arsenal are a side who I think play the 4-5-1 with aplomb. Agreed they've got RVP who has been a monster goal scorer. RVP isn't your typical lone striker though and in some ways he reminds me of Suarez. He's skillful and also looks to play with those around him hence his healthy assist record.

The question then becomes which midfield five? It's got to be two wide players and three in the middle. It now depends on if you want to play two holding midfielders and one attacking/creative midfielder or three in the middle that can interchange. My ideal setup will be Kuyt and Bellamy out wide, Adam, Lucas and Gerrard in the middle. With Gerrard currently out, I'll probably need to have Henderson in (ouch). Hendo is not a terrible player I just don't think he's ready yet. Maybe the price tag doesn't help but he hasn't looked half as convincing for 'Pool  as he did for Sunderland.

Everyone keeps saying we've got a better squad than last season. It's surely a more expensive squad but I'm not convinced about the depth especially in the attacking midfield position. Aside from Stevie G and perhaps Hendo there's nobody else. It makes you wonder why we let so many guys go out on loan. We could have done with an Aquilani or even a Cole (don't laugh! he's doing swell @ Lille) at the moment.

Early surprises..and..Missing Amodu

A look at the top Euro leagues reveals the following unbeaten teams - Barcelona, Juventus, Man City and Newcastle. No typos there. Eleven games into the season and Newcastle Utd are unbeaten and sit third on the Premiership table. The Toon army also has the best defence in the league. Up front, Demba Ba has supplied the goals and already has two hattricks. I watched them this weekend thinking they might stumble against Everton but the fact that they held on to win impressed me. Their next three games are against the two Manchester teams and Chelsea and how they fare in those games will be an indicator of what their season may become.
Dropping down a division and Southampton have taken the Championship by storm. It's not very common for a newly promoted side to be this dominating but the Saints have come marching in. I like the way they've gone about winning games by scoring goals for fun.
Levante was my top surprise up until the last couple of games when they led La liga. Back to back defeats have however brought in a dose of reality and it will be interesting to see if they can bounce back.

Missing Amodu

Joni Mitchell couldn't have said it better - Don't know what you've gone till it's gone. Nigeria's failure to qualify for next year's Nations Cup must make the country regret letting Amodu go last year. Amodu qualified the country for two World cups - 2002 and 2010 but never had the privilege to take any of those teams to the actual tournaments. In both those years he took the team to third place at the respective ANCs which was deemed not good enough and he was subsequently sacked. Now we can't even make an ANC. Shocking!! It's a pity nobody "consulted" me before the NFA hired Keshi. I would have told them Amodu is "your man", he can get the job done.

All this ex-players-turned-coaches are gradually proving to be not good enough and only time will tell if Keshi can deliver. For me I'm going to hide my head somewhere and relive Amodu pulling off the great escape in Sudan. Here's a man who led the team to an unbelievable 4-nil away win. Now that's the kind of coach we need. We just don't get away wins these days. Oh well what's on the telly this weekend; International football ... Euro playoffs (palm rubbing)

Players I Hate to Love: Filippo Inzaghi

Is there a player in another club (especially a rival club) who you have a hidden "footie-love" for?  I  do, several actually and that's the inspiration for this piece. It's my take on players in clubs that I openly "beef" but deep down doff my hat to for the joy I get watching them.

Before I go on you have to understand that I've always wanted to be a striker; right from a young age playing kick about ("set" anybody) to this present day with my Sunday league team. I've always wanted to be the guy who puts the ball in the back of the net, the guy who won the match, stole the headlines ... you get the picture? The kicker is that I rarely ever get a chance to play upfront; as a kid I always got stuck in defence, either as a right back or in the center. As I got older  I seemed to "progress" and got to play in midfield - in the center or out wide. All this has resulted in my secret adoration for the No. 9, the scorer who delivers, those who got the chance I hardly get.

Anyway I digress, to kick off my list I chose no other than "Pippo". Now here's a man who knows how to score and how to celebrate. I first caught glimpses of Inzaghi when he was at Atalanta and scored goals for fun whether or not his side won. He finished the season as top scorer and moved on to Juve and then Milan.

There are three reasons why he's top of my list. First I enjoy how he celebrates. He has the look of someone who is truly passionate about the game. Secondly he's a real poacher who is always willing to have a go. Most of the time he looks as if he's just a shade off-side and only comes alive when a scoring chance presents itself. I still hold our defeat in the UCL final in 2007 against him though and that is another reason why he tops my list because he stopped us from winning No 6.

Pippo's a sneaky devil though and many a goal he's scored has been followed by a quick glance at the assistant referee to confirm it wasn't disallowed for offside. I like that there's a touch of laziness about him as well. He doesn't seem to be involved in the build up, just sticking the ball in the net off a tap in, a rebound or whatever.

I always figured I could model my game after his. Conserve my energy for the short busts to create a one on one, spot  an opportunity within a millisecond, the lazy retreating defender to play me onside, getting the maximum return for the most minimal effort. Don't get me wrong I'm not belittling his style or what he has achieved. It just doesn't look like he works hard even though I'm sure he does. His impeccable skill in timing his runs, in staying on the shoulder of the last defender and his ability to finish are purely world class. He doesn't get many games these days at Milan but if you ever get a chance, jump on YouTube, search for "Inzaghi" and learn a thing or two about how to score.

Club or Country?

The international break gives me a time to dissect the club v country discussion. How patriotic are you? Except you support ("are from") a football power house like Brazil, Italy, Germany or Argentina (no England please!) chances are you show more love for a Euro club side than your country. There's some logic to this; excluding friendlies countries play an average of five (only) competitive games in a year. Compare that to your favorite club that could play that many matches in a fortnight. In addition there is a sparsity of quality matches outside of tournaments or competitions and it is easy to see why hearts are won over by club footie.

Still there's pride in hearing the national anthem ringing out before matches and patriotic fervor gushing through veins as national heroes prepare to battle. If you are lucky (or support a power house country) there may be a chance of having a "fantasy league" array of stars from the top clubs to select from. On the other side there are those supporters who have only the odd star player on whose shoulders lie the weight of carrying their nation to the promised land. Nowadays a lot of players see the Champions league as their "World Cup" , with their nations many may never showcase their talents in that holy grail. A classic case is George Weah, a World footballer of the year who never got a chance to play in a World Cup.

There's a chicken-and-egg scenario though as many players will never have been signed by their club sides if not for their national team performances and likewise many a player would never have had a call up without starring for their clubs. The star names we expect to shine at tournaments are typically hyped due to their club form so maybe one cannot do without the other. Don't get me wrong I look forward to watching tournament football; continental or global I don't discriminate. It's the necessary evil of qualifiers for these competitions that task me. These qualifiers interrupt the league season, result in players travelling thousands of miles around the globe and occasionally result in the odd injury that deprives salary-paying clubs of their employees.

A novel idea that just struck me will be to have qualifiers played over a short period of time (4-6 weeks). The challenge will be when to have these qualifiers? perhaps during the summer break?. It could work, if you take away all the international "breaks" and instead adjust the season to start a month earlier or later and during that recovered month play all the needed qualifiers. It'll be great! now where is FIFA when you need them to be listening.

Another derby for the 'Pool this weekend - the Northwest derby against Man Utd. Last season's victory was one of the few highlights of last season and it'll be great to have a repeat this year.

Derby victories and playing on a losing side

So contrary to my last post there where three derbies in the EPL, the Fulham - QPR game while not a common fixture did feature two London sides. It was a tale of three different results: Fulham hammered QPR with Andy Johnson hitting a hattrick, Spurs beat Arsenal with a wonder strike by Walker and of course my main course; Liverpool claiming bragging rights with a 2-nil win over Everton.

I'll say this about the Merseyside derby though, that WAS NOT a red card. It took the spark out of the game and the result probably flattered the Reds as they didn't really look like a side with the numerical advantage. Yes, we had majority of the possession, but very few clear cut chances where created and it didn't look comfortable until the second goal. I'd still definitely take going into the game against Utd with a win (and a Carroll goal) than any other result. The other highlight was Kuyt missing a penalty; I think this is the first he's missed while on PK duty for us and it extends his wait for reaching the 50th goal mark (another hattrick against Man U perhaps).

It's midway into the season (my Sunday league season :-) ) and MFC have played five with one win and four defeats. I won't say the results don't matter as it's more fun playing on a winning side than a losing one but we have to remember why we do this; it's for the love (and maybe the exercise). It gives us an outlet to try and recreate what we see the pros do and be heroes for the day, also it truly is just plain fun. We've got the next three games at home so hopefully the happy days will be back with victories in the upcoming games.

I've got to close with how delightful watching Napoli is becoming. They've beaten both Milan sides albeit against Inter the goals didn't start flowing till Inter went a man down and conceded a penalty. It's more impressive when you think their win over Inter was done without Cavani who's out injured. I'm silently rooting for them this season and if they can pick up a head of steam maybe they can win a first title in decades.

Derby weekend and rich players who refuse to play

This weekend serves up a double dose of derby challenges with the Merseyside and North London derbies. As a "Red" the Everton game is always a fixture I look forward to as we try to prove our superiority over the blue side of Liverpool. I'm anxious about which team Kenny will select, will he be cautious or will he be adventurous. Personally I think this game calls out for a 4-5-1 with Kuyt and Bellamy out wide, Suarez up front and Spearing in the middle with Lucas and Adam. I think we could win this one and really hope we can start winning more games away from home.


Spurs v Arsenal should be interesting, the last couple of years have seen some high scoring draws and maybe this will be no different. It's a strange one as Spurs are probably favorites, not just because they are playing at home but due to their winning three on the trot. Arsenal are hard to predict this season but I think they'll be up for this game and it should be a good one to watch.


It's funny how this week's events turned out; Man City seemed to be assuring everyone they'll beat Bayern but failed to deliver. Mancini is probably thankful the focus is all on Tevez and not on how City fell short. Bayern are hot right now and with Gomez scoring for fun I expect them to reclaim the Bundesliga title. On the Tevez matter, my view is that he has no excuse refusing to play no matter how he felt. I wonder if in some novel way a club can sue a player for loss of revenue or for being the reason they lost a game (Now that's an idea). Think about it, if they could argue that by refusing to play he denied the club a chance to salvage something from the game ergo he lost them the game and any revenue associated with winning a UCL game.

Supporting the underdog

One of the things I truly love is an upset, I mean it's exciting to see the underdog triumph. I had joined the Real Madrid game with Rayo Vallecano 1-nil up and reveling in Real dropping more points and it got me thinking why do I fancy the unfancied? 


I guess it's the unexpected nature of their success. A classic example, Greece in Euro 2004. Nobody expected them to beat France but they did, then they beat the Czechs and finally Portugal. See what I mean? if they had lost to any of these teams it will have been just another day at the office, thankfully they didn't and we can say "look the underdog can have his day".It doesn't happen often but it does keep me watching games hoping for an upset.


The return of Ranieri
Gasperini was bound to go after failing to win in any of his five games leading to Ranieri's return to management. I quite like Claudio even though he's more often the bride than the groom. He started off with a win which bodes well and it'll be interesting to see how far he can take Inter.


No Home Comforts
I was excited to play in MFC's first home game of the season,even more so when at kickoff I noticed that the away team had no subs. It didn't quite go to plan as we got thumped 5-2, we just never seemed to get going and will need to pick it up for the upcoming games.

Fanhood

If you didn't already know it, I'm a Liverpool fan (A red of the non-mancunian breed). I kept up with our 4-nil thumping while returning from a road trip with my wife soberly passing on the scores as I drove (more on her Man U delight later). The result got me thinking about what fans go through, the office derision after your team's loss, the heartache, the pain and occasionally the sweet taste of victory or success. 
I've got a bit of practice, ask anyone who knows me. False dawns with Roy Evans, the French renaissance with Houllier that never was, the Rafalution that almost was, to the dark day's under Hodgson last season so I have some sympathies for Arsenal fans (Goners anyone).
This season they have had their worst start since the '50's with the worst goal difference in the division but they should take respite from knowing that next weekend at kickoff they'll start nil-nil against Bolton. I keep telling my missus who's a Man Utd fan (save this for another day hey!) that being a fan is more about keeping your head up when your team is losing and the chips are down than when you're beating everyone left right and center and top of the league. I've got a colleague in the office who's a Leeds fan and is in no hurry to see them in the Prem, a dawg who is a Fulham fan but I truly doff my hat to the lower league fans (the paying kind). I caught an NASL (US lower league game) the other day and was surprised at how there where no empty seats and then they're all those non-league travelling fans. So to all the suffering fans out there your "Istanbul" moment will come and trust me it's much sweeter when it's rarer.


Footie Seer
My wife's a bit of a seer when it comes to footie, she can watch 5 mins of a game and predict who'll win. She has a history of calling games I'm watching and rarely gets it wrong, she's also anti-Torres and keeps  telling me the best thing that happened to LFC was getting 50 mill for El Nino in January. Apparently her "hex" on him is  the reason why he had only 1 prem goal for Chelsea so imagine her horror when today she calls "Torres can never score against Utd" and he goes and does (his miss seems to be getting more attention than his goal though). So for all those willing punters or if you just need some help in picking your fantasy team, you can get in touch and I can consult her on your behalf so you can be a witness to the full force of her "footie zen" except you plan to pick/bet on Torres.


In Closing ...
So I caught up with the scores of my Sunday league team (MFC)and the lads got beaten away so we stand on 1W and 2L from out first 3 games. First home game is next week hopefully we'll get a home win and push on. 


I have to pick out my result/performance of the week - Napoli beating Milan 3-1 and Cavani's hat-trick (should give my Inter pals something to smile about)


For anyone who's looking for some footie to listen to (footie audio is a dying art form, I remember live audio commentaries growing up and that was raw tension, drama, adrenalin pumping stuff) I do have two recommendations.


BBC's 5 live Football Daily
Soccernet's podcast


The advantage of podcasts is you can subscribe to them via iTunes, stream online or download the MP3 file to listen to later. Happy listening.

The return of European football

It's been great to have the return of the Champions and Europa leagues. Finally some real competitive football and what an opener with the Barca v Milan game which was the pick of the ties for me. Both sides will expect to go through but you'll feel advantage Milan with the draw at the Nou camp. Across the UCL, it must be dark days for Inter; they've lost their opening two games of the season and you must feel the new coach is feeling the heat (to think we thought Rafa had it bad). Well done Trabzonspor though, they only got "promoted" because of Fenerbache's match-fixing issues . This was definitely the result of the round and it'll be interesting to see if this was a one-off or not. Also Real, Chelsea, Bayern, Marseille and Porto quietly did their business and you'll expect these sides to navigate to the knockout rounds with the usual customers ManU, It's tough to call for the other groups and Man City, Arsenal, Lyon and Ajax are in groups that look juicy and makes it hard to call if they'll make it through.


After my last rant on shocking scorelines it's good to have fiercely contested matches and see that the Real's, Manchester's and Bayern's of this world don't always rack up "video-game" scores. Speaking of games has anyone sampled PES 2011 or FIFA11? 


The Europa is always a mixed bag for me; first there are so many matches I can't keep track of the scores or the highlights (the roundup is on later this week) but then on the flip side they're always goals galore which every footy fan just loves (I'm not a hypocrite, the scorelines ain't that crazy they're of the 4-1, 5-1 variety you know just good enough to appreciate and not bad enough to be headline grabbers). I'll start to pay attention when the knockout stages come along but for now I'll just look forward to the "goalazos"


The journey so far


My Sunday league team got an away win last week, your's truly duked it out for a hard fought 1-nil win. We probably had enough chances to score more but to be fair the other side could have nicked 1 back as well. I'm out this weekend so no Futsal or league games this Sunday for me. Wishing the lads all the best, strangely our first 3 games of the season are all away games if we can end up 1-1-1 that'll be decent.

Are the top teams pulling further away?

8-2, 6-0 and 7-0; these are footie scores from the last few weeks in the top European leagues. Maybe it's no longer a joke that some of the top divisions have a virtual divide with a mini-league for those competing for the title and another for the rest. 


It can be hard on the eyes to see these results (or watch these games) and even harder to believe these leagues are competitive but fair play though no matter the opposition you still have to go out and score the goals.
Whisper it anyway though, I'll be watching Le Championnat and a little Italian league to see games where I can't easily predict who'll win before kickoff and actually watch the whole 90 without "BBing".



Futsal anyone!!

I recently got re-introduced to Futsal around my area and played a game this Friday night. It's an understatement to say I'm a bit off the pace but I'm hoping that the futsal exposure will polish my outdoor skills as my Sunday league kicks off this weekend (for me @ least). I'll try to keep you posted on my exploits on both Futsal and the Sunday league (exquisitely called the Over The Hill Soccer League (OTHSL))

My Deadline day review

I got home a little late but just in time to catch SSN's "Transfer Deadline Latest" with the smashing background colors and giant touch screen.
I was a little disappointed with the lack of a marquee signing but there were still some exciting transfers and surprises. Below I highlight a few of note in "buckets"


Big Signings
Raul Meireles: Reportedly moved for 12m Pounds from Liverpool to Chelsea. Puzzling why 'pool will sell one of their better performers to a rival but we heard the rumors during pre-season. Personally I hope he does a 'Torres' especially against Liverpool.
Mikel Arteta: A 10m pound buy from Everton. Could he make gunners everywhere forget about the other Spaniard (Fabregas)?
Bryan Ruiz: Fulham took advantage of Jol's Dutch connections to snap him from Twente. I watched him in the Gold cup earlier this year and he's got bags of skill packed in his left foot.


Great Expectations  
Per Mertesacker & Andre Santos: After letting in eight(8)last weekend, Arsenal fans will be hoping these additions tighten up their defence.
Royson Drenthe: With Arteta's loss he'll be expected to provide a creative spark and goals to supplement Everton's depleted attack


Interesting choices
Joe Cole: Brit's don't travel well so I wonder how Joe handles this. In a way it's a step up as Lille are in the champions league.
Owen Hargreaves: Aside from jumping to a city rival, he has fitness concerns... will he be able to break into the team?
Yossi Benayoun: Another puzzler, why will Chelsea loan a player to strengthen a rival team? 


And those who stayed..
Luka Modric: Not every club can say no to 40m. The question though is will he sulk till January or get on with it?
Gary Cahill: Priced out of a move by his club?


What about them champions? No late signings by Man Utd show the confidence they have in their current squad.
Elsewhere in Europe.. Forlan signed for Inter, Gago & Pjanic to Roma and Elia (surprised there where no prem takers) to Juventus.


In conclusion ...this is some "palm rubbing" stuff, signings are only judged at the end of the season and come next summer we'll be able to say who among these names delivered.

Deadline Day

Today is transfer deadline day in Europe. It's a lot of teams last chance to strengthen and/or trim their squads.
While it provides for some interesting wheeling and dealings, my opinion is that the timing is a bit off as it should be done before the season starts i.e. the deadline day should be a month earlier (July 31st). I don't think it'll lose any excitement and besides teams have a settled roster before the season kicks off.

Lot's of sites are giving this coverage but without a doubt Sky Sports News (SSN) will be the place to catch this.