Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2015 i World Soccer

We have lots of great football stories this month. From the Euro 2016 qualifi ers, there has been the high of Albania (page 34) and the low of Holland (page 82). We’ve witnessed Mexico’s defeat of the USA (pages 76 and 78), and we have a terrifi c interview with Barcelona’s man of the moment, Ivan Rakitic (page 50). But once again we fi nd ourselves having to report on the ongoing meltdown at FIFA, where the increasingly delusional ramblings of Sepp Blatter (aged 79 and three-quarters) have provided yet another reason for us to welcome his departure in February. We have headlined our feature on the presidential contest (page 10) as “The impossible election” because whoever wins – and let’s be honest, none of the seven candidates truly convinces…

“I’m ready to take charge of a national team. I don’t want Dunga’s place yet, but if the phone rings I’ll come running” Former Brazil full-back Roberto Carlos EUROPE IN Ex-Italy coach ROBERTO DONADONI succeeded Delio Rossi after he was sacked by Serie A strugglers Bologna. Dutchman HUUB STEVENS replaced Markus Gisdol at Bundesliga strugglers Hoffenheim, who will appoint 28-year-old JULIAN NAGELSMANN at the end of the season. Currently in charge of the club’s under-19 side and studying for his senior licence, Nagelsmann will become the Bundesliga’s youngest ever coach. Liverpool turn to Klopp Former Borussia Dortmund boss JURGEN KLOPP replaced Brendan Rodgers as manager of Liverpool, while SAM ALLARDYCE took over from Dick Advocaat at Sunderland. QUIQUE SETIEN replaced Paco Herrera as coach of La Liga strugglers Las Palmas,…

THE VOICE OF FOOTBALL Mourinho: out of ideas and running out of time Some managers come and go. Even, it seems, may Jose Mourinho. Certainly it would cost Chelsea a fortune if he went so soon after signing a ￡30million, four-year contract, but then even such sums as this scarcely perturb Chelsea’s billionaire owner Roman Abramovich who, of course, has sacked Mourinho before. Against West Ham United, Mourinho’s “crime” was not only that Chelsea lost, but they lost playing dire, destructive football. And then there was the umpteenth clash with a referee, this one going on down the tunnel at half-time and involving a reported volley of abuse, followed by Mourinho’s banishment to the stands. Chelsea’s sudden catastrophic decline this season has reminded one that even last season, when they…

Heat, passion, tension and big money. Once upon a time, Turkish football was considered an also-ran on the European stage. The national team, infamously, could not cope with away-game pressure and never qualified for the big tournaments, while club sides had history but little else. Now, however, over the past two decades, everything has changed. There are no easy games against Turkish teams any more, with Galatasaray and Fenerbahce boasting training grounds that are the envy of many of western Europe’s bigger and more internationally successful clubs. These days, big-name players head for the Super Lig in expectation of far more than a lastcontract pay day. Absent from the finals of the World Cup and European Championship since reaching the last four at Euro 2008, the national side will be…

“You won the Europa League as captain of Sevilla and were named man of the match in the Final. You joined Barcelona, leaving Sevilla the right way, with the blessing of the club and the fans, who welcomed you back with a banner saying: “Captain, this will always be your home.” You won the treble with Barca, scoring the opening goal in the Champions League Final. Then came the UEFA Super Cup against your former club, which you won 5-4. Now you’re expecting your second child, which you announced in the week in which you scored twice in the Champions League. And there’s the Club World Cup to come. All of that in 18 months. Oh, and then there was your wedding too...to the girl you met on your first-ever…

“Istanbul is very different to London. How long did it take you to adapt? No time. I have always played in clubs in nice cities and Istanbul is certainly that. I’ve been here before, for holidays or to visit friends, and I have a lot of friends back in Germany who are from Turkey, so I know the mentality which has made it a little bit easier to come here. I have won the World Cup, I have a lot of caps, I’ve visited a lot of countries and played in great stadiums with great friends. But I haven’t come here for a holiday; I’m here to train well and play well and win more titles. Our season is going well so life is good. The football is different but…

Next summer’s European Championship fi nalists • OVERVIEW One of the most impressive and improved performers in the competition so far, Austria qualified for the finals for the first time after topping their group, ahead of Russia and Sweden. Their only previous finals appearance was in 2008, when they were co-hosts with Switzerland. • After drawing with Sweden in their opening game, Austria recorded nine straight victories, including two 1-0 wins over Russia. Only England, with 10 victories, had a better qualifying campaign. • Little enthusiasm greeted the appointment of Swiss coach Marcel Koller. He was not the big name fans wanted as a replacement for Dietmar Constantini, but he has overseen a remarkable transformation in the side. • The key players are spread around Europe, with only goalkeeper Robert…

• OVERVIEW Vladimir Petkovic is planning for the post-Ottmar Hitzfeld era with a young, multicultural side. • The Swiss qualified for the Euro 2016 finals after finishing second in their group, behind England. That was despite a poor start, losing to England in their opening match, and then going down away to closest rivals Slovenia. The turning point of the campaign was a recovery from 2-0 down in the return against the Slovenians to win 3-2 thanks to late goals from substitutes Josip Drmic and Valentin Stocker. • The Swiss will have one of the youngest squads at the Euros. Members of the 2009 world under-17 title-winning side, such as Haris Seferovic and Granit Xhaka, have made the step up to the senior side. Other key players, such as Drmic,…

With just one point and no goals from their opening two qualifiers on the road to Russia 2018, Argentina’s home game against Brazil in Buenos Aires on November 13 has become a must-win match – particularly as Gerardo Martino’s side face a long trip north to play Colombia four days later And with Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero facing battles to be fit in time, these are testing times for national coach Martino. During his successful spell in charge of Paraguay, Martino proved himself to be impressively versatile. He got off to an awkward start at the 2007 Copa America when his attempt to impose an attacking style came unstuck in a 6-0 quarter-final defeat to Mexico. It caused Martino to have a rethink, and in the build-up to the…

At a time when Bayern Munich completely dominate the German scene, Bundesliga watchers have to look elsewhere for their fi x of unpredictability. And where better to score than surprise-packet new boys Ingolstadt and Darmstadt. Widely tipped to spend the season breaking their backs on a relegation chain gang, the unfashionable pair have instead been running free, self-confi dent and defi ant, picking up scalps and points almost on a weekly basis and burrowing their way into the top 10. Neither team are sultans of style, relying on heart, discipline, uncompromising defence, swift counters and meticulously rehearsed set-pieces. But the formula is working, especially on the road. Using a catenaccio format which would not have looked out of place in 1960s Italy, Ingolstadt eked out 1-0 wins in their fi…

2018 WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS SOUTH AMERICA section 4.5 finals places available (the 10 confederation members are playing in a single group; each team will play 18 games, 9x2; games to be completed by Oct 2017) Oct 8 - Buenos Aires Argentina 0 Ecuador 2 (Erazo 81, Caicedo 82) HT: 0-0. Ref: Bascunan (Chl) Argentina: Romero - Roncaglia, Garay, Otamendi, Mas, Biglia, Mascherano, Pastore (Lavezzi 70), Di Maria, Aguero (Tevez 24), Correa. Ecuador: Dominguez - Paredes, Achilier, Erazo, W Ayovi, A Valencia, Noboa, Quinonez (Castillo 75), Montero (Martinez 77), Bolanos, Caicedo (Mena 84). Oct 8 - La Paz Bolivia 0 Uruguay 2 (Caceres 9, Godin 68) HT: 0-1. Ref: Loustau (Arg) Bolivia: D Vaca - Zampiery, Zenteno, Martelli, Torrico, Veizaga, Chumacero (Lizio 60), Castro (Diaz 46), Campos (Cardozo 68), Arce, Duk.…

No World Cup award this century has escaped the taint of deep suspicion and political connivance. ● South Korea’s securing of co-host rights with Japan for 2002 owed everything to a European-endorsed political ambush of then FIFA president Joao Havelange. ● South Africa’s 2010 success hedged about with bribery allegations concerning a $10million payment via FIFA to CONCACAF boss Jack Warner’s so-called “African diaspora” (cash he divvied up with CONCACAF’s two other voters). ● Brazil’s Ricardo Teixeira profiting in 2014 from staging matches in far more venues than was necessary. ● And as for 2018 and 2022, investigations will still be running when Russia stages its opening match. To this backdrop, further murky details have crawled out from beneath the German football federation’s stone about how it obtained 2006. Reputations…

THE WORLDWIDE VIEW Why MLS plays in the summer... and other American oddities We’re at that time of the year when Major League Soccer’s season climaxes and its critics enjoy themselves by picking it to pieces. Prominent among those are the Eurosnobs, a rather boring but quite loud subset of the larger “nerds and know-alls” group. The Eurosnobs don’t like MLS because it doesn’t do things the way they are done in Europe. Northern-hemisphere teams play in the autumn and winter and everyone knows it. But MLS plays in the summer and the Eurosnobs are greatly put out as they see this as an affront to the natural order. Even though these people live in the USA – and most are American – they seem unaware of the unique problems…

Alyosha Abrahamyan is a regular spectator at Ararat Yerevan games, but these days there is little left that one of Armenia’s greatest-ever goalkeepers can recognise. In 1973, Abrahamyan was in goal as Ararat won the Soviet league-and-cup double, and the following season they reached the European Cup quarter-finals. A 70,000 crowd saw them beat Bayern Munich 1-0, before the Germans edged through 2-1 on aggregate and went on to win the European Cup. Four decades on and independence from the Soviet Union has done little for football in Armenia. Abrahamyan is now Ararat’s goalkeeping coach but, after multiple changes of ownership and financial failures, the club is unrecognisable from the one he played for. The crowds have gone too. Abrahamyan is one of barely 100 people watching as Ararat fall…

A more categorical triumph was impossible to imagine. On October 25, Sporting made the short three-mile trip to neighbours Benfica and swept to victory in one of the most keenly anticipated Lisbon derbies in decades. The 3-0 winning margin was an accurate reflection of the difference between the two sides. It was Sporting’s first Primeira Liga win at their rival’s home since 2006 and their biggest margin of victory there since the 1947-48 season. For Benfica, the notion that history was being made in a negative sense only added to the sense of despair, and an increasing certainty on a rainy Sunday afternoon for the vast majority of the 65,000 crowd: the club’s decision to let coach Jorge Jesus go, and above all to their bitter local rivals, was a…

“After winning so many individual trophies, what does this award mean to you? The most important job for a forward is to score goals – and to be the best goalscorer four times is an honour for me and something special. I consider it very important. And I love it because it’s something you work for and at the end you reap the rewards. Let’s hope I can keep up this streak. Did you ever imagine, when you started out, that you would be a four-time Golden Shoe winner? No, of course not. I thought maybe I could win one or two, but not four. But sometimes there is a sequence of events that push you towards an objective. In this last one, for example, I began to score a…

Scottish club football featured prominently in the November 1967 edition of World Soccer, with 21-year-old Hibernian midfielder Peter Cormack, who was later to play a dominant role at Liverpool, on the cover. Inside, Roger Macdonald reported on Celtic’s surprise elimination from the European Cup – a competition they had won five months earlier by beating Internazionale in Lisbon. “Like a Guy Fawkes rocket, straight up to a dazzling peak and then disappearing with a few sparks, Celtic have been in and out of the European Cup,” wrote Macdonald. “They were beaten, and well beaten, by Dynamo Kiev in front of their own supporters – a situation which in this competition is the same as jumping into your own coffin and waiting for someone to nail down the lid.” In truth,…

• OVERVIEW After a poor World Cup and opening qualifying loss to Albania, the team reached France 2016 at a canter, with a number of exciting new players introduced. • After a disappointing 2014 World Cup campaign in Brazil, Portugal slumped to a surprise home defeat in their first Euro 2016 qualifier, prompting the sacking of coach Paulo Bento. • Under new coach Fernando Santos they reeled off a record seven consecutive victories in competitive games. They also claimed the notable friendly scalps of Argentina and Italy, neither of whom they had managed to beat in the previous 40 years. • The performances may not have been as impressive as the results, but a sense of optimism is noticeably sweeping through Portuguese fans and the local press, fuelled above all…

The expansion of the European Championship to a 24-team finals produced some notable qualifiers, with Albania, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Wales all through to their maiden Euro showpiece. The first-time qualifiers were among the 20 teams who booked their place in France next summer; the four remaining spots will be claimed by the winners of the play-offs. In particular, Albania, Iceland and Northern Ireland performed way above expectations, having all been drawn in the fifth pot of seeds at the beginning of the qualifying campaign. Albania benefitted from UEFA’s award of a walkover against group rivals Serbia after the match between the teams in October 2014 was abandoned amid chaotic scenes. Albania lost the return match in Serbia (see page 32), but won their final match, 3-0 in Armenia,…

On October 10, Mexico experienced one of its best football nights in recent years. In a dramatic match, defined by a stunning goal in extra time, El Tri beat arch-rivals USA to qualify for the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia. A few hours earlier, the nation’s under-23 side had beaten Canada in the Olympic qualifying semi-finals to book their place in Rio de Janeiro, where they will now defend the title they won in London. Those results were a balm for a country that is obsessed with its status in the region. Historically undisputed leaders for the past 20 years, Mexico supporters have seen their northern neighbours constantly challenge their supremacy in CONCACAF of late. Gold Cup winners in July and supported by a contingent of seven UEFA Champions League…

There is something about a European Championship held in France that gives Holland a terrible fright. Thirty years ago the Oranje’s entrance was blocked by Spain thrashing Malta 12-1; this time around the 2014 World Cup bronze medallists suffered the biggest Euro qualifying humiliation since November 1963, when they were eliminated after a 2-1 defeat by Luxembourg. For many abroad it was a shock. However, at home most people had seen it coming. Nearly everything went wrong – from Daryl Janmaat’s last-minute mistimed backheader against Czech Republic in September last year, which handed David Limbersky the perfect opportunity to score the winning goal, to Robin Van Persie heading into his own goal in Holland’s 3-2 home defeat by the same opponents 13 months later. Injuries to key players like Arjen…

THE INSIDER Blatter-Platini rift grows amid the rancour Any thought that the provisional suspensions of Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, plus the deadline for presidential nominations, would calm troubled waters at FIFA proved mistaken. If anything, the seas grew ever more turbulent with both Blatter and Platini going public with self-justifying, self-delusional interviews. The simple reaction was to say, with Mercutio in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: “A plague o’ both your houses.” But in this case the house – “the mother house” as Platini likes to call FIFA – is here to stay and the challenge is both how and through whom solutions can be found. Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah has commented that reform is more important than the identity of the next president, but this was being…

“Despite several attempts, it was not possible to get everyone back together in one line” Heerenveen put out a statement announcing the resignation of the Dutch club’s entire board of directors Johan Cruyff has been diagnosed with lung cancer, his former club Ajax have confirmed. Ajax director Edwin Van der Sar said on the club’s website: “We have had contact with his manager, Carole Thate, and she confirmed to us that Johan indeed has lung cancer. “It has just been discovered, so they could not yet provide much more information. On behalf of the club, I wish Johan and his family a lot of strength and a speedy recovery.” Cruyff, 68, was a heavy smoker prior to double heart bypass surgery in 1991, after which he took to sucking lollipops…

AT THE HEART OF THE GAME From 16 to 24: expanding the Euros has revitalised the competition Critics of the expansion of the European Championship into a 24-team tournament – and there have been many of us – argued that one of the problems of the new set-up was the certainty of qualifi cation that it would deliver to all the major nations. It would be impossible to fail, so it was said, thus depriving the qualifying groups of the tension and intrigue that is vital to the enjoyment of sport. Well, the demise of Holland has proved the sceptics wrong. They fi nished a meagre fourth in Group A and could not save themselves in the safety net of the play-offs. Their implosion has been an astonishing fall from…

It certainly looked and felt as if the greatest opportunity in the national team’s history had slipped through their fingers. The final whistle had just been blown at a drenched Elbasan Arena and Albania had been beaten 2-0 by Serbia in their penultimate Euro 2016 qualification game. Most of Albania’s players were laying on their backs, distraught, as Serbia celebrated victory in what had become a match dominated by international politics and history as much as football. On paper, Serbia had nothing to play for. Yet the manner of their failure to qualify for France next summer was tinged with a sense of injustice. They had effectively been eliminated following the reverse fixture last year, when violence broke out after a drone was flown into the Partizan Stadium carrying a…

“Belgium have had to wait while they built a new team. This is what Holland must do. But we have to understand it can take two, three or four years” “How have you found football in different countries – in Holland with Ajax, in Spain with Real Madrid, in Italy with Internazionale and now in Turkey with Galatasaray? In every country it’s been a completely different culture, a completely different sort of competition. In Spain, the competition is more technical. When, for example, you play even Betis or Levante you know they will have technical players, quality players. Italy was more like – I don’t want to say catenaccio – but all about strong defending and with solid strategy in defence. So I learned a different part of the job…

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• OVERVIEW The green-and-whites qualifi ed for their fi rst Euro fi nals, and their fi rst tournament since the 1986 World Cup, with a squad drawn from a limited pool of players but galvanised by manager Michael O’Neill. • Northern Ireland’s campaign got off to a fl ying start with a win in Hungary, thanks to a goal from Kyle Lafferty. Another Lafferty goal secured victory over Greece in Athens in their next trip. A 3-0 win over Greece, at a rebuilt Windsor Park in Belfast, secured qualifi cation. • O’Neill deserves huge credit for making the most of limited resources – made worse by the change in regulations which has allowed players such as James McClean and Darron Gibson, both born in the North, to represent the Republic.…

Since defeat by Mexico in the 2017 Confederations Cup play-off and an Olympic qualifying loss to Honduras – which came within hours of each other on Saturday, October 10 – the criticism of Jurgen Klinsmann has been growing, putting both his jobs at stake. National coach since July 2011, the 51-year-old German was given a four-year contract extension by US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati in December 2013 that upped his salary to an estimated $4million a year. He was also handed the additional responsibility of technical director. Part of Gulati’s reasoning was that Klinsmann was much sought after by other countries, so it was essential to secure him to a long-term contract. But there were those who felt results over the previous two years did not warrant such a…

Football suspensions handed out by FIFA are not new to Asia. Kuwait was hit with one in October, but it is expected to be short-lived. Indonesia, though, is different. It always is. After warnings, final warnings and last-minute reprieves, FIFA finally pulled the plug on the federation, known locally as PSSI, in May. The ban, still in place, is due to last until 2016. It was all down to the usual government interference, but FIFA bears some of the blame for the mess the country’s football scene has been in for much of the 21st century. Allowing PSSI president Nurdin Halid to hold his post while serving two prison sentences was a dereliction of duty. The subsequent breakaway league and national team should have brought more than sternly worded letters…