Indholdsfortegnelse for Oct-2018 i World Soccer

We may still be in the early stages of the season but already two important developments have taken place: the launch of UEFA’s Nations League and the plans by Spain’s Liga to stage matches in the USA. The early signs are that the Nations League will provide a useful shake-up of the international calendar. It remains to be seen whether Europe’s wealthiest clubs will be happy to make players available at more difficult stages of the season, but so far, so good. The early signs are that the Nations League will provide a useful shakeup of the international calendar The likes of Spain, Germany and France will always be big stories. But the format throws up lots of interesting new lines – not least Luxembourg (page 34), a country so…

CRAIG GORDON Responding to a recent tweet regarding a reckless challenge by Gordon that left him injured in 2016, Alloa Athletic striker Greig Spence revealed that the Celtic goalkeeper had “covered wages I lost” after the part-time plumber was “off work for three months”. JULIAN NAGELSMANN At 31years and 58 days, he became the youngest coach in UEFA Champions League history when he took charge of Hoffenheim’s 2-2 draw with Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine. IKER CASILLAS At the age of 37, Porto’s former Real Madrid goalkeeper became the first player to appear in 20 Champions League seasons. SHIN HWA-YONG The Suwon Bluewings goalkeeper saved three penalties against Jeonbuk Motors to earn the South Korean club a place in the AFC Champions League semi-finals. He saved Adriano’s spot-kick in the final…

Nations League: a qualified success UEFA was delighted with the positive start to the Nations League. Fans, coaches and players quickly grasped the concept of leagues within leagues, while the competitive element ensured a significant upgrade from a catalogue of meaningless friendlies. The creation of the Nations League also laid an added team-building significance across those friendlies which completed the international-break calendar in September. Crowds were good, with a capacity 67,000 watching Germany share a goalless draw with France and 81,392 witnessing England lose 2-1 to a revitalised Spain. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay all fear a drop in income from the loss of lucrative friendly matches in Europe UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says: “The World Cup showed that there is a huge appetite for nationalteam football. UEFA has always been…

African keepers are a rare commodity in the European game and even more so in the Champions League. But if Ajax are to make an impact on their return to the group phase of the competition then Cameroon’s Andre Onana could be key. The Dutch club’s decision to turn down an approach from Marseille came as a huge relief to their supporters as Onana is a cult hero in the Amsterdam Arena; not only for his performances but also his sprints across the pitch to join in goal celebrations, his antics in the box and an easy charm off the field with the fans. Even though the 22-year-old is not first choice for his country and has turned down recent call-ups, he is bearing a bright torch for his continent.…

Winners of the past five Austrian league titles and nine in total this century, Red Bull Salzburg have a constant and unremitting tendency to trip themselves up when it comes to making the Champions League group phase. Since the soft-drink conglomerate began its association with the club in 2005, Salzburg have failed in all 11 of their attempts to qualify for the group stage, losing to teams such as Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv of Israel, Luxembourg’s Dudelange and Rijeka from Croatia. This season there was a widespread belief at the Red Bull Arena that their elite-level duck was finally about to be broken. Their march to the semi-finals of last season’s Europa League – during which they claimed the scalps of Borussia Dortmund and Lazio – had raised…

LUC HOLTZ Stepped up to lead the national team in 2010 after two years as under-21 coach, having made 55 appearances for Luxembourg between 1991 and 2002. He played all his club football in the Grand Duchy. PAUL PHILIPP Played professionally in Belgium in the 1970s and early 1980s and won 54 caps for Luxembourg. Was in charge of the national team from 1985 until 2001 before taking over as president of the Luxembourg Football Federation in 2004. MARIO MUTSCH Played professionally for a decade in Germany, Switzerland and France before joining Progres Niederkorn in 2017. National captain and record appearance holder, he won his 100th cap against San Marino in September. LEANDRO BARREIRO Tipped as a future star, he has both the ability and the mentality to succeed. Only…

Arebellion by clubs in Guinea-Bissau is threatening to prevent the new season kicking off in November, with a swathe of sides, led by last term’s double winners Sport Bissau e Benfica (SBB), refusing to take part in the domestic league over what they perceive to be a misuse of funds by the Football Federation of Guinea-Bissau (FFGB). “All the federation do is eat the money,” fumes SBB director general Serifo Sow. “We have 40 clubs that are not in agreement with the administration of the federation. FIFA are sending a lot of money to the federation. They send them money for futsal, but the federation never organised this, and competitions in schools, but this modality has not been organised in Guinea-Bissau either.” Federation accounts show that $178,182 was spent on…

“I had an Aston Martin, the big house, anything a person could want – but you can’t help what’s in the brain”Former Wales midfielder David Cotterill on his battle against depression Nicolo BARELLA (Cagliari) In need of all the young talent he can lay his hands on after the Azzuri’s failure to qualify for this summer’s World Cup, new Italy coach Roberto Mancini has singled out the box-to-box midfielder as one of his building blocks for the future. Sardinian born and bred, the 21-year-old was called up for the recent national squad and has looked the part in the last couple of Serie A seasons, winning admiring glances with his ferocious tackling, excellent range of pass and powerful shot from distance. Last season he became Cagliari’s youngest-ever captain – at…

Forget Villa, England could use Grealish Interesting to see that the talented midfielder Jack Grealish, still only 23, has signed a new contract with Aston Villa, till now his only club, with the proviso that if he wants to leave, then he can. With natural inside-forwards, which he undoubtedly is, in such pitifully short supply for England it would surely be good for the player to move to the Premier League, where his talents would be recognised and a place in the international team well within his grasp, as arguably it might even be now. Villa are most unlikely to be promoted this season and it would surely make sense to see him make the step up, however lucrative the contract he has with Villa. In the Premier League, Grealish’s…

A second-tier club based in Sinaloa, home to one of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels, may not be the most obvious place for Diego Maradona to relaunch his coaching career. But the 57-year-old Argentinian insists he can bring success to Dorados de Sinaloa while restoring his own tarnished reputation at the same time. Dorados play in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state in north-west Mexico that is home to the Sinaloa Cartel, who are described by American intelligence as “Mexico’s most powerful organisedcrime group”. During his playing career, Maradona was dogged by allegations of cocaine addiction and links to the mafia, notably in Italy when he was with Napoli. “I made a lot of mistakes in my life,” Maradona admitted at his first press conference in Mexico. “I want to…

It’s been quite a year for Luka Modric. After winning a third successive Champions League title with Real Madrid and playing a crucial role in Croatia’s passage to the World Cup Final, the midfielder was voted UEFA’s Player of the Year, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah. Modric received 313 points in a poll of journalists and coaches – 90 more than Ronaldo and 199 ahead of Salah. Surprisingly, Lionel Messi was not among the final three, despite Spanish Liga success with Barcelona. But Modric’s performances at the World Cup, where he was voted the tournament’s best player, proved to be critical. “It’s been the best year of my career. I’m just enjoying the moment. It’s all a bit of a blur” Modric’s victory broke the stranglehold on individual…

Some might see it as a step down to leave Mexico in order to take charge of Paraguay, but Juan Carlos Osorio does not agree. True, he might have been waiting for a vacancy with his native Colombia, only to grow impatient at the indecision surrounding Jose Pekerman, who left the job in August. But the fact remains that the coach who engineered Germany’s shock first-roung defeat at this summer’s World Cup is now the man behind Paraguay’s challenge to make it to Qatar. Trading in a nation with a population in excess of 127 million for a relatively poor one with more than 120 million fewer people is a bold move – but not an incomprehensible one. There is one obvious attraction – and it is that Paraguay is…

DIFFERDANGE 03 Formed from a merger of Red Boys and AS in 2003 and regular competitors in Europe. Signed ex-France winger Florent Malouda in January before the 38-year-old retired this summer. ETZELLA ETTELBRUCK Won the second-tier Division of Honneur last season to return to the top flight, where they were runnersup in 2007. F91 DUDELANGE Reigning champions and the Duchy’s richest club, they have won 11 league titles in the last 14 seasons. FOLA ESCH Won their first title for 83 years in 2013 and repeated the feat in 2015. Mauro Mariani replaced Gerard Lopez as president last year after the latter bought French side Lille, and Jeff Strasser returned as coach this August. HOSTERT Promoted to the National Division in 2011 and known as “the team from the forest”.…

OCT 24, 2009 Makes his debut as a half-time sub for Figueirense in a 2-1 home loss to Ponte Preta in the Brazilian second tier. MAY 8, 2010 Scores his first goal as Figueirense win 1-0 away to Sao Caetano. JAN 1, 2011 Officially joins Hoffenheim, agreeing a contract with the German club until June 2015. FEB 26, 2011 Makes his Bundesliga debut as a 75thminute substitute in a 2-1 loss at home to Mainz. APR 16, 2011 Gets his first goal for Hoffenheim as they beat Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0. MAR 27, 2014 Signs a three-year contract extension with Hoffenheim. NOV 12, 2014 Makes his Brazil debut in a 4–0 win over Turkey, coming off the bench for the last 17 minutes. NOV 18, 2014 Gets his first international goal…

1 Ethan AMPADU WALES After featuring in cup games for Chelsea latest season, the 18-year-old has yet to even make the bench under new boss Maurizio Sarri this term. But Wales’ Ryan Giggs has no such reservations, handing him a competitive debut in central midfield in September’s Nations League games. He impressed in a 4-1 win against the Republic of Ireland and earned praise for his performance in the 2-0 loss to Denmark. “He’s a talented player. So balanced, so mature for such a young player,” says Giggs. “He’s going to be a magnificent player.” The son of a Ghanaian father and Welsh mother, he left Exeter City for Chelsea at 16, having represented England at under-16 level. A broken ankle in March set him back and he now faces the…

When the going get tough, the tough must get going. And embattled employees of Australian football’s governing body, the FFA, have certainly had it tough over the last few months. The battle for control of the game – the FFA has been at loggerheads with A-League clubs for the best part of three years – has had a big impact on public interest in the game, so reviving its fortunes is of the utmost importance. The signs, however, are promising, and a reworked central marquee fund had its first major success, with Keisuke Honda arriving at defending champions Melbourne Victory. Honda will double up his playing role with a coaching position with Cambodia’s national team and the arrival of the Japanese star is probably the A-League’s biggest coup since Alessandro…

Mostly, journalists know how to see through the two-way mirror. The communications man or woman should never become “the story”. His/her role is to serve the client but keep journalists onside and sufficiently “in the know” to develop a level of mutual respect which will also serve the next campaign, somewhere else in sport, somewhere else in the world. That rare gift was one possessed to a remarkable degree by Mike Lee, the London-based communications specialist who has died after a heart attack at only 61. Sunderland fan Lee was chairman of Vero Communications, which he founded in 2006 after helping London land the 2012 Olympic Games. His cv of success included further Olympic awards to Rio de Janeiro (2016), Pyeongchang (2018) and Paris (2024) as well as the 2022…

Dual nationality should be celebrated, not shunned The bitterness of Mesut Ozil as he departed international football was summed up by one sentence in a strong statement of his discontent. “I am German when the team wins and an immigrant when it loses,” said the midfielder who helped the country to victory in the 2014 World Cup. Ozil was born and raised in Gelsenkirchen, and has always played with pride and honour for Germany. His family is of Turkish descent and he is fiercely proud of that, too. He is a man, in his own words, of “two hearts”. Many people have dual allegiance or dual nationality and it is a reality of modern life that football must confront this with reason and sensitivity, not brutal disdain. The treatment of…

Front twos are back in vogue For years it seemed that the strike-partnership was dead. Nobody played two up front any more, and there were increasingly few instances where it was impossible to think of one player without immediately imagining his partner: Keegan-Toshack, Rush-Dalglish, Cole-Yorke… But while many teams these days prefer to play with a lone front man, there has been some attempts of late to find a second figure to add to the point of the attack. And, increasingly, that player is one who is normally employed out wide rather than through the centre. Strike pairings were always a very British way of looking at the game; due, perhaps, to a distrust of midfield playmakers. In a country that for 30 years saw 4-4-2 as the one true…

“They are starting to run football. They are certainly sucking tons of money out of football”West Ham United co-chairman David Gold is no fan of agents IN EUROPE Ivorian midfielder YAYA TOURE, who left Olympiakos in 2006, returned to the Greek side after being released by Manchester City in the summer. ORAN KEARNEY quit Northern Irish club Coleraine to take over from Alan Stubbs as boss of Scottish side St Mirren. Kearney was replaced by Dungannon Swifts manager RODNEY MCAREE, whose job went to KRIS LINDSAY. JAROSLAV SILHAVY was named Czech Republic coach. He replaced Karel Jarolim, who left his position after a 5-1 loss to Russia in a friendly. ZORAN VULIC returned to Hajduk Split for a fifth spell as coach. SOUTH AMERICA Argentinian World Cup winner DIEGO MARADONA…

Keisuke Honda wears two watches. One tells Tokyo time and the other wherever he happens to be. Always capable of doing things differently on the pitch, he is even more unpredictable off it. Honda announced his retirement from international football this summer after his third World Cup and there was plenty of speculation that the attacker would do the same with his club career as his contract with Pachuca of Mexico was expiring. After all, the 32-year-old has always suggested that he thinks there is more to life than football, what with his venture-capital fund with actor Will Smith and ambassador positions with the United Nations. However, the man who surprised everyone in 2009 by joining CSKA Moscow – when there was plenty of interest from far bigger clubs thanks…

Eighteen months after selling his stake in Milan, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his trusted aide Adriano Galliani are set to return to Italian football, having agreed to buy a shareholding in Serie C side Monza. “Talking together [with Berlusconi] about this and that, not long after we had sold Milan and we were missing football, we came up with the idea of buying another club,” Galliani told the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. “In these last months, President Berlusconi has declined a number of potential club purchases that have been offered to him, just as I have declined a number of club appointments.” Galliani pointed out that Monza was an obvious choice as Berlusconi lives just three kilometres up the road from their Stadio Brianteo and there has…

The crowd at Stade Josy Barthel – which is named after the 1,500m Luxembourg runner who won gold at the 1952 Olympics – was bigger than would normally be expected for a game against Moldova. And it was also far more nervous than usual. No country has competed in more qualifying campaigns for the World Cup and European Championship without ever making the finals, but with League D of the UEFA Nations League offering the winners a place at Euro 2020, the current Luxembourg side is facing a complete unknown: expectation from local fans and media. Luc Holtz’s team have been improving gradually and picked up six points in the qualifiers for this summer’s World Cup, even managing an epic 0-0 draw in France. But as Luxembourg Football Federation (LFF)…

At 83 years of age, Vladimir Popovic can’t get up and down the stairs of his Belgrade apartment like he used to, but his memory of the time he met Chairman Mao is as clear as glass. “There, behind him,” he says scanning a black-and-white photo hanging on the wall of his hallway. It is of the Yugoslav national team standing in front of a huge Chinese flag. He points to a young man, just a few inches behind Mao, over his left shoulder. “I remember, they gave us all jackets to wear just like his!” The walls of Popovic’s home tell a story of an incredible life but also of an era, and a country, that no longer exists. There’s the pictures of Popovic lining up with his team-mates…

Jovane CABRAL Age 20 (14.06.98), Sporting & Portugal In a sentence The latest in a long line of classy wingers to emerge from the youth system at Sporting, he is the heir apparent to such stars as Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ricardo Quaresma and Nani. What they say Sporting coach Jose Peseiro: “Here’s a youngster with the sort of character we want. Whether he’s used for 10 or 20 minutes as a substitute or is not called upon at all, he’s happy to be one of us. He doesn’t run away if he doesn’t start. He waits for his chance and when he comes on, he gives everything.” Former Sporting B coach Joao De Deus: “He has tremendous potential. He’s so well developed physically. You could say he’s a bodybuilder…

North Carolina Courage shook off the “curse” that has afflicted the winners of the National Women’s Soccer League Shield to double up with the Championship title following victory over defending champions Portland Thorns. Courage did not just become the first regular-season winners to successfully negotiate the play-off series. They did so with a 3-0 win on their opponents’ own ground, Providence Park, which had been chosen to host the championship game well in advance. Jess McDonald, traded by Portland three years ago, was named MVP after scoring twice in the Final after Brazil’s Debinha opened the scoring for Paul Riley’s team, who were beaten by Thorns in last season’s finale. Portland staged all three play-off matches as the impact of Hurricane Florence forced Courage to give up their home semi-final.…

Spain got back to winning ways under new coach Luis Enrique by beating England 2-1 at Wembley and then thrashing World Cup finalists Croatia 6-0 in Elche. Those victories put La Roja in a commanding position in Group A4 of UEFA’s new Nations League, the competition launched to beef up the international calendar and deter the continent’s big nations from taking part in high-profile friendlies. Luis Enrique wasted no time in making his mark on the Spanish squad. With David Silva, Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique having retired, there was no place for Koke or Jordi Alba, so youngsters were prominent – with Saul Niguez, Marco Asensio, Dani Ceballos, Jose Luis Gaya and Rodri all under 23 years of age. Without Diego Costa, who withdrew from the squad though injury,…

In more than half a century of competition, only two clubs have managed to win African club football’s biggest prize back-to-back. And it will stay that way after last year’s Champions League winners Wydad of Morocco were eliminated in the quarter-finals by ES Setif from neighbouring Algeria. Winners in 2014, Setif now take on Egyptian giants Al Ahly, who are one of the two sides to have managed a successful defence of the title. In fact, Ahly have done it twice – in 2005 and 2006, and 2012 and 2013 – but of their record eight titles none have been in the last five years. The other semi-final tie pits Esperance of Tunisia against the Angolan army club Primeiro Agosto, who have exceeded expectations with their performance this year. “I…