Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2017 i World Soccer

Lionel Messi has graced the cover of World Soccer more times than I care to remember, but usually in the colours of Barcelona. Had he and Argentina not beaten Ecuador to rescue their place at next year’s World Cup, it is likely that he would have announced his retirement from international football. Instead, Messi’s brilliant performance in Quito means we can look forward to the finals in Russia with added enthusiasm. Although England laboured through their qualifying campaign, the rest of the world has produced some exciting stories. Panama, Iceland and Egypt are eye-catching qualifiers, either as novices or those returning after decades away. The nature of football is that there will always be more losers than winners, so we cannot review the qualifiers without paying attention to those who…

The World Cup remains the ultimate prize – thanks to Ronaldo and Messi Remember, remember the 10th of October – the night the World Cup was rescued from doom. Across two continents, two of the alltime greatest players of the world’s favourite game were in perilous danger of being crushed in the mediocrity of qualifiers. Whether you believe Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi is the finest footballer it would have been mortally wounding to next year’s finals for these two to be absent from Russia. The tournament is already battling to maintain its position of ultimate prestige against the growing financial and sporting weight of club football. Without the diamond brilliance of Messi and Ronaldo, next summer’s event would have been grievously diminished at the worst possible moment. Messi and…

IFAB is racing towards VAR disaster To VAR or not to VAR? That is the thorny question to be considered at the general meeting of the International Football Association Board in December. This is not the meeting which is charged with deciding whether the video referee system should be used at the World Cup finals in Russia next year – that decision is scheduled to be made by the annual meeting next spring. But it is inevitable that – if only behind the scenes and beyond reach of the formal meeting minutes – the British associations, FIFA and the myriad of hangers-on, advisers, committee members and selfpublicists will kick the issue around. Laws made in haste tend to be bad laws and football’s strength down the years has been the…

A former high-ranking KGB officer in Riga before the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, Guntis Indriksons is one of Europe’s longest-serving national association heads. But as he prepares to step down next year, things are getting messy. With Latvia’s FIFA ranking currently at a record low of 148, Indriksons pledged to stand aside in March following a 5-0 thrashing by Georgia in Tbilisi that ended with the resignation of national coach Marians Pahars. Then, ahead of their next fixture, at home to Portugal in June, bailiffs moved into the Skonto Stadium in Riga and removed all the seats. The stadium debacle can be traced back to the heady days of Latvian football, when Indriksons first took charge. In 1990, six years before he was elected president of Latvian…

Pietro PELLEGRI Striker, age 16 (17.03.01), Genoa & Italy In a sentence Millennial marvel already making waves in the Italian top flight. What they say Genoa coach Ivan Juric: “There’s no problem looking after a youngster like him. He’s keen to learn and has unbelievable scope for improvement. He can have an important career.” Genoa president Enrico Preziosi, way back in 2015: “The next Messi? We have him here.” Alex Bazzigalupi, his first football coach at Pegliese, a neighbourhood club in the youngster’s hometown of Genoa: “Even as a kid he had the physical presence and the character.” The story so far The son of Marco Pellegri – who has been on Genoa’s payroll for many years and is currently their administrative manager – he was hailed as a footballing…

• The club was founded by Basque students in 1903 as the Madrid branch of Athletic Bilbao. The source of the club’s kit colours has been a matter of debate. A widely reported theory is that a Bilbao student, Juan Elorduy, picked up 50 red and white shirts in Southampton when catching a ship home to Spain. The colours were the same as the City of Bilbao’s flag. Both clubs had originally played in blue, and Madrid kept the blue shorts when adopting red and white striped shirts. • In the late 1930s, after the Spanish Civil War, the club merged with the Spanish air force club, Aviacion Nacional, in order to stay in business. The new club was named Atletico Aviacion de Madrid. They won the Liga title in…

Messi to the rescue on thrilling final day ROAD TO RUSSIA SOUTH AMERICA South America’s qualification campaign is usually a tight affair that comes to a tense conclusion. This time, though, the drama was more intense than ever, with most of the continent clutching a calculator to work out the permutations. Of the 10 sides, only four went into the last round with nothing to play for: Bolivia and Venezuela, who had never been in contention; Ecuador, who had fallen away after winning their opening four matches; and Brazil, 10 points ahead of the rest of the field and already in Russia. Going into the final round it was all but mathematically certain that Uruguay would be joining Brazil. The wheels had threatened to fall off the Uruguayan campaign over…

HOLLAND Struggled behind France and Sweden despite replacing Danny Blind with veteran Dick Advocaat. CHILE The end of an era for a golden generation of Chilean footballers. ECUADOR The early leaders in South American qualifying lost ground and sacked coach Gustavo Quinteros. CAMEROON The African champions lost out to Nigeria in their qualifying group. GHANA After three successive qualifications, the Black Stars complained about poor refereeing decisions but lost out to Egypt. ALGERIA After reaching the knockout stages in Brazil, the north Africans were drawn in a tough group with Nigeria, Cameroon and Zambia. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA In a group containing Belgium and Greece, Edin Dzeko and co could not repeat their heroics of 2014.…

ROAD TO RUSSIA EUROPE Eight years ago, Iceland finished bottom of their qualifying group for the 2010 World Cup, winning just once, at home to Macedonia. Fast forward to 2017 and the country’s extraordinary progress in the international game was confirmed when a win over Kosovo in Reykjavik sealed a first World Cup appearance. Between now and next summer, several numbers will be presented to demonstrate the incredible nature of Iceland’s qualification. With a population of 334,000 they are the smallest nation to reach the finals. Some 10 per cent of the population were reported to have travelled to support the team at the Euros in France last year, while one in every 7,000 Icelandic men will travel to Russia next summer…as a member of the Iceland squad. The only…

Germany Brought out of retirement to steady the Bayern Munich ship in the wake of Carlo Ancelotti’s sacking, veteran coach Jupp Heynckes is relishing the chance to return to work, energised by the challenge of restoring momentum to a becalmed team. Now in his fourth spell at the Bayern helm, the 72-year-old Heynckes might technically be a pensioner, yet he remains the most competitive of leadership animals, obsessed with detail, intolerant of mediocrity and brimming over with will-to-win. “Some are old at 45; others are young at 70,” declared Heynckes at his re-introductory press conference. “I fall into the second category. I understand there will be sceptics who point out that I’ve been out of the business for four years and that football has moved on. My reply is that…

5min Holland’s Wim Jonk hits the post with a volley. 12min Ronald De Boer crosses to Dennis Bergkamp at the far post, who cushions a header into the path of Patrick Kluivert to score. 1-0 17min Claudio Lopez beats the offside trap to meet a through ball from Juan Veron and nutmegs Edwin Van der Sar for the equaliser. 1-1 37min A fierce curling shot from Ariel Ortega rebounds off the bottom of Van Der Sar’s left-hand post. 63min Gabriel Batistuta turns inside Frank De Boer but his shot then hits the inside of the post. 64min Marc Overmars crosses to Kluivert whose header is tipped over by Carlos Roa. 72min Arthur Numan, already on a booking, is sent off following a late tackle on Diego Simeone. 87min Ortega head-butts…

A massive spike in betting activity during the first half of last year’s World Cup qualifier between South Africa and Senegal alerted FIFA to match fixing and led to the match being replayed in November in an unprecedented decision by world football’s governing body, World Soccer can exclusively reveal. Referee Joseph Lamptey was found guilty by FIFA of match manipulation and banned for life, with the result of the game nullified and South Africa stripped of the points after their 2-1 victory. A flurry of bets placed in Hong Kong and Singapore just before Lamptey awarded a dubious penalty for a nonexistent handball was picked up by FIFA’s Early Warning System (EWS), a 10-year-old Zurichbased subsidiary that monitors betting on all FIFA matches. Officials have told World Soccer they are…

PSG’s Qatari owner insists he is innocent Qatar continues to be a thorn in the flesh of international football, with the latest round of controversy focusing on the purchase of World Cup television rights by beIN, the acquisitive sports media subsidiary of Al Jazeera. The saga began on May 14, 2010 when leaders of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid committees presented their dossiers to FIFA in front of the world’s media in Zurich. In the November, Michel Platini, who was then a FIFA vice-president and head of UEFA, switched his 2022 vote from the USA to Qatar after a lunch hosted by French state president Nicolas Sarkozy and attended by the crown prince of Qatar, Tamin bin Haman Al Thani. On December 2, 2010, FIFA’s executive committee duly…

Is Messi’s genius part of Argentina’s problem? Argentina’s problems are not Messi’s fault but, as Paulo Dybala noted before the draw against Peru, playing with a genius can be difficult There was something paradoxical about Lionel Messi’s hat-trick away to Ecuador that secured Argentina’s place at the World Cup. On the one hand he was a player, through a combination of ability and will, dragging his country out of its crisis. It was a brilliant performance that will be talked about as long as Messi is talked about; the time when, at last, he rose to the occasion when his country really needed him. And yet it is hard to avoid the thought that maybe it’s his genius that has been part of the problem for Argentina all along. To…

Football has found itself caught up in the violent exacerbation of Catalonia’s always-uneasy relationship with the central Spanish establishment. Going right back to the first half of the last century, Barcelona has appreciated its status as defender of the Catalan flag and capitalised on it. Now the dawning of a sombre new reality after the independence referendum of October 1 has thrown the club onto the back foot. The Spanish Civil War brought a viciously sinister edge to the Barcelona/ Madrid rivalry which has never vanished, even during good economic times. If anything, Spain’s increasing financial health since its European Union accession in 1986 has widened the industrial and political chasm. Catalonia generates around 20 per cent of Spanish wealth and its noisiest political parties have capitalised on increasingly protectionist…

Choirul Huda, a goalkeeper with Indonesian top-flight side Persela Lamongan, died after a collision with a team-mate during a league fixture. The 38-year-old collided with defender Ramon Rodrigues and an opponent as he came off his line to challenge for the ball during a game against Semen Padang. He was rushed to hospital where he died. A statement from a doctor at the Dr Soegiri Lamongan Hospital said Huda suffered a “traumatic collision” which led to a cardiac arrest. Huda had played for Persela since 1999, making more than 500 appearances, and the club described him as “the Real Legend of Persela”.…

JELGAVA Cup winners last year, they have one of the league’s bigger budgets (between €700,000 and €800,000) but were knocked out of this season’s Europa League without scoring a goal. Club president is Latvian construction magnate Maris Peilans. LIEPAJA Ex-international Maris Verpakovskis is president but they are mostly financed by the city council. Got through one round of Europa League qualifiers this term before losing to Lithuania’s Suduva. Won the Latvian Cup in October. METTA Founded in 2006 as a youth side by Girts Mihelsons and Andris Riherts, they offer a dozen University of Latvia scholarships each season to students, who make up most of the first XI. All coaches must speak Latvian. RFS Finished third in the secondtier First League in 2015 but went up after Skonto were denied…

It may have been staged at the home of Walt Disney World but there was little fantasy about the championship match of the National Women’s Soccer League. Not that it will have bothered Portland Thorns, who went to Orlando to do a job and achieved a 1-0 win over North Carolina Courage that their coach Mark Parsons called “maybe the most beautiful ugly game I’ve ever been part of”. Beautiful for the winners, ugly for the viewers. Unprotected by an overly lenient referee in Danielle Chesky, two Courage players were forced off with injuries before half-time. And they subsequently retaliated in kind, making for a staccato game of few chances. Played while the pain of the men’s failure to reach the 2018 World Cup finals was still raw, the game…

ROAD TO RUSSIA PANAMA A national holiday was declared in Panama for the day after the country’s historic first World Cup qualification, which was achieved by a dramatic 2-1 victory over neighbours Costa Rica. “It is a victory for all generations of Panamanian football,” said forward Blas Perez, who went on to name check players from the country’s past. “This victory is for Cascarita Tapia, Roberto Hansell, the brothers Dely Valdes, Percival Piggot, Rommel Fernandez ...all of them have driven us to achieve this historic moment.” Panama, where baseball has long been the national sport, had come close to reaching the World Cup before. Four years ago they lost 3-2 to USA on the final day of qualifying to hand a play-off place to Mexico. But there has been progress…

ROAD TO RUSSIA SYRIA In the end, Syria’s World Cup dream ended in heartbreak, after they came within an inch – literally – of qualifying for their first-ever World Cup finals. When Omar Al Somah’s 120th-minute free-kick struck a post with Australia goalkeeper Mat Ryan beaten, their remarkable qualifying campaign was over. Coach Fajr Ibrahim’s collection of civil-war exiles played 20 games in a marathon campaign, with every one of those played outside of their homeland as the unrest that has ravaged the country continues to claim thousands of lives and displace millions more. Al Somah had been the hero of the final group game, scoring a 93rd-minute equaliser against Iran to ensure that Syria finished third in the group, behind South Korea and runaway leaders Iran, to reach an…

ROAD TO RUSSIA AFRICA It has been the proverbial quest for the Holy Grail, as for decades Egypt failed to turn their dominance of the African game into World Cup qualification. However, a last-gasp penalty and a horror refereeing decision meant The Pharaohs will be at next summer’s finals after an absence of 28 years. That Egypt have had to wait so long to return to the World Cup is all the more surprising when it is taken into account that they won three African Nations Cup titles in succession, from 2006 to 2010, and Al Ahly have been one of the African game’s most successful club sides. Egypt were the second country from Africa to reach Russia, booking their spot a day after Nigeria, who in June looked to…

JAN VERTONGHEN The 30-year-old Tottenham Hotspur defender became Belgium’s most-capped player of all time, making a 97th appearance for his country in a 4-0 victory over Cyprus. CRISTIAN PALACIO Scored 20 goals in 18 Uruguayan league games for Wanderers and Penarol throughout 2017 MOHAMED SALAH The Liverpool striker scored the penalty that ensured Egypt qualified for their first World Cup for 28 years. MANCHESTER CITY KEEPERS When Ederson saved Dries Mertens’ penalty in City’s Champions League win against Napoli, it was the sixth successive penalty save in a Champions League game for a Manchester City goalkeeper. Others to have saved spot-kicks during that run are Joe Hart (three times) and Willy Caballero (twice). Napoli’s Amadou Diawara did score from the spot later in the same game for Napoli. JULIAN SCHUSTER…

Goncalo GUEDES (Valencia) Valencia have been transformed this season by Marcelino, who steered them to second place in La Liga by October. The former Villarreal boss became the club’s sixth coach in two years when he was appointed at the end of last season, and a hallmark of his entertaining and competitive side has been the deployment of two players with something to prove: striker Simone Zaza and midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia, who disappointed at West Ham United and Internazioinale respectively last season. However, the biggest revelation has been Portuguese winger Guedes, who is on loan from Paris Saint-Germain. Turning 21 in November, he has revelled in providing goals and assists. Most significantly, he scored both goals in his side’s most significant result so far, a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Sevilla.…

1 TEEN STAR BANNED FROM TV Perugia’s North Korean striker Han Kwang-song has been barred from appearing on Italian TV – by the authorities in his own country. After scoring five goals in his first six Serie B games this season, the 19-year-old has been in demand with the media. But he could be forced to return home if he defies orders. “[North Korea’s] footballers have been prohibited from appearing on TV,” says Perugia’s president Massimiliano Santopadre. “Otherwise they would repatriate them. Han is scared.” 2 MATCH FIXERS CRY FOUL Prior to their Malawian Cup game against Chitipa United, Nchalo United bribed the officials to secure a match-winning outcome. Yet despite their attempts to buy a result, Nchalo lost on penalties after a 1-1 draw and were knocked out. Seething…

IN EUROPE JUPP HEYNCKES returned to coach Bayern Munich until the end of the season following the sacking of Carlo Ancelotti. More, page 70. DIEGO COSTA completed a €66m move back to Atletico Madrid from Chelsea but cannot play until January 1, when the club’s transfer ban comes to an end. Newcastle United completed a permanent deal for loanee midfielder MIKEL MERINO of Borussia Dortmund. Croatia turn to Dalic ZLATKO DALIC replaced Ante Cacic as coach of Croatia after a 1-1 draw at home to Finland in their penultimate World Cup qualifier. A 2-0 victory in Ukraine in his first game ensured a place in the play-offs, where they now face Greece. [[pg21]Dalic had been coaching Al Ain in the UAE and guided them to the 2016 Asian Champions League…

Same old deadbeats at the Football Association “He’s the fool of the family, make him a parson!” was an old Victorian jibe. For parson, read sports minister. The present incumbent is one Tracey Crouch who, when faced with the deplorable behaviour of the two FA executives, Martin Glenn and Greg Clarke, over the torrid Eniola Aluko affair, could do no better than declare: “I hope that the FA learns lessons from this whole sorry saga, to ensure that all in the sport and the wider public have faith in their processes and procedures. We have been clear that we expect world leading standards of governance from all our national sports governing bodies.” That told ’em! At least the shadow minister, Rosena Allin-Khan, was far more assertive, trumpeting: “It is clear…

TRANSFER FEES ¤1.5m Istres to Salzburg (2014) ¤15m Salzburg to Leipzig (2016) ¤65m Leipzig to Liverpool (2018) LIVERPOOL’S RECORD SIGNINGS £55m Naby Keita (2018) £35m Andy Carroll (2011) £35m Alex Oxlade Chamberlain (2017) £34m Sadio Mane (2016) £34m Mohamed Salah (2017) GUINEA 28 CAPS 5 GOALS HONOURS 2015 Austrian Bundesliga winner; Austrian Cup winner 2016 Austrian Bundesliga winner; Austrian Cup winner 2017 German Bundesliga runner-up RED CARDS He was sent off twice in three games earlier this season, getting his marching order for RB Leipzig against Borussia Monchengladbach in September and then being dismissed for Guinea against Tunisia in October. SIMPLY THE BEST 2015 Guinean player of the Year 2015-16 Austrian Bundesliga player of the year…

DIEGO SIMEONE Atletico’s long-serving coach has been a crucial figure in the club’s recent successes. His contract extension, up to 2020, gave the club a huge boost ahead of the opening of the new stadium. MIGUEL ANGEL GIL MARIN Long-serving chief executive and majority shareholder. Son of the club’s former owner and hugely controversial figure, Jesus Gil. ENRIQUE CEREZO Film producer and club president who received a suspended sentence, along with Jesus Gil and Gil Marin, for financial mismanagement in 2003. ANDREA BERTA Italian talent-spotter and deal-maker who is responsible for some of Atletico’s best transfers of recent times. Now the club’s technical director. OSCAR “PROFE” ORTEGA Fitness coach who has worked with Simeone at all his clubs. Enforces the coach’s philosophy on the training pitch. WANG JIANLIN Chinese billionaire…

FA TOP BRASS GRILLED AS MARLEY STEPS UP Senior Football Association officials endured an embarrassing afternoon’s cross-examination by members of a UK Parliamentary Committee investigating their handling of allegations of bullying and racism made by Eniola Aluko against England boss Mark Sampson. Martin Glenn, the FA chief executive and chairman Greg Clarke faced calls for their resignation, with the former also accused of attempting to “near blackmail” Aluko. An inquiry had decided Sampson did use racially discriminatory language, but cleared him of “a course of bullying” and said he was not “a racist”. Sampson, who was fired after the FA decided allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards female players predating his England tenure was conduct unbecoming of the role, is considering suing for wrongful dismissal. Mo Marley, coach of England under-…

ROAD TO RUSSIA USA To say that things went badly wrong for the USA on October 10 would be one of football’s greatest understatements. On the final day of World Cup qualifying for the CONCACAF region, the United States were away to Trinidad & Tobago, who were by far the worst side in the six-team group. T&T’s record up until then was just one win in nine games, with five goals scored and 18 given up. The USA needed to win, but even a draw would probably have seen them through. In fact, depending on the results from other games, even a defeat may have sufficed. Yet the US produced the unthinkable, losing 2-1 in Trinidad while Panama beat Costa Rica 2-1 and Mexico were surprisingly beaten 3-2 by Honduras.…

ROAD TO RUSSIA AUSTRALIA World Cup play-offs bring back lots of unhappy memories for football fans in Australia. Every four years the storyline used to be the same: high expectations, nerve-wracking tension, gallant failure. The nadir was Iran in 1997, when the Socceroos let slip a two-goal lead in the second leg to crash out on away goals. But the curse was finally broken in 2005, when Uruguay were beaten on penalties in Sydney. Since then, qualification has become regular and routine through the AFC after the continental switch from Oceania in 2006. Until now. A seemingly smooth ride through the final round was derailed by too many draws, a controversial switch in tactics by coach Ange Postecoglou and, ultimately, a mystifying night against Thailand, when the team racked up…

The cover of World Soccer’s November 1968 issue featured stand-in Chelsea captain Eddie McCreadie leading his side out for a league game. Inside, Roger MacDonald reported on how European football had been affected by the Eastern bloc invasion of Czechoslovakia. “Panic spreads like the plague, and it was fear and stupidity that stirred the European Football Union to turn its international competitions upside down, just as it was fear and stupidity that sent Russian tanks rumbling into the streets of Prague,” he wrote. A UEFA emergency committee met to re-draw the first round of the European Cup and European Cupwinners Cup, with all the Eastern European clubs pitted against one another. However, the Eastern Europeans then pulled out, so the first and second rounds were packed with a number of…

St Kitts & Nevis CONCACAF’s decision to expand the Gold Cup to 16 teams is a great opportunity for sides such as St Kitts & Nevis, whose coach Jacques Passy believes that qualifying for the 2019 finals is not beyond the tiny islands’ rapidly improving team. “We have that as a short-term objective,” says Passy. “Per capita, this is the most talented team in the world.” That is some claim, but one Passy can back up. In March, St Kitts & Nevis – a pair of Caribbean islands with a population of just 50,000 – reached 73 in the FIFA rankings. Many small countries have no games other than qualifiers for major tournaments and their ranking is low as much through inactivity as bad results. Passy recognised this before taking…

Asia Step aside South Korea and China: the 2017 AFC Champions League trophy will either make a debut trip to Saudi Arabia or head to Japan for the first time since 2008, as Al Hilal and Urawa Reds meet in November’s Final. Despite their recent lack of success in this competition, which started in 2003, these are seriously big clubs. Al Hilal are known as “The Boss” back in Saudi Arabia and see themselves as the primary West Asian outfit. They have won 14 national titles and lifted the forerunner to the Champions League in 1991 and 2000. The Riyadh powerhouse are desperate to get their hands on this new version of the continental title after reaching the 2014 Final. Somehow, however, they managed to lose over two legs to…

JULY 4, 1998, MARSEILLE: WORLD CUP QUARTER-FINAL In the first World Cup meeting between these two teams since the 1978 Final, Gavin Hamilton wrote: “In an era when international football is increasingly dependent on playing systems that stifle rather than promote creative talent, Dennis Bergkamp provided a powerfully refreshing reminder of how matches can be won by moments of individual brilliance.” In an incident-packed game, Holland took the lead through Patrick Kluivert after Matias Almeyda was beaten by Ronald De Boer – just as he had been five days earlier in Saint-Etienne by England’s Michael Owen. Argentina equalised and then hit the woodwork twice, but the game hinged on a moment of madness from Ariel Ortega. When the referee ignored what looked like a trip by Jaap Stam and punished…