Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2019 i World Soccer

JILL ELLIS The Portsmouth-born coach became the first person to guide a team to back-to-back successes in the Women’s World Cup RAUL JIMENEZ The Wolves striker was named player of the tournament as Mexico beat USA to win the CONCACAF Gold Cup. DANI ALVES At the age of 36 and looking for a new club after leaving PSG, the Brazilian full-back was voted best player at the Copa America. QPR The Championship side donated their stadium naming rights to charity in a move that will see Loftus Road called the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium after a body that works to tackle knife crime in London. CAMEROON WOMEN’S TEAM Having twice looked set to walk off the pitch in protest at decisions not going their way in a 2-0 loss to…

Nowhere to hide for fairy-tale Sarri at Juventus The story of Maurizio Sarri has been one of football’s modern fairy tales: the banker in Tuscany who was an amateur player and then a local-leagues coach in his spare time who rose through 30 years of hard labour to the very peak of the professional game. Who could not thrill to this tale? Certainly, it captured the imagination of Pep Guardiola, who became a fervent admirer of the team Sarri created for three years at Napoli. This isn’t how sport is supposed to work. You must be an insider to reach the top. You can’t switch from the world’s oldest bank, the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, and climb the greasy pole of football by starting at a club in…

Restless Pogba highlights United’s problem with money Manchester United’s highly talented and hugely expensive Paul Pogba is demanding release from a club which paid £89million to make him their record signing. With his agent loudly proclaiming his client’s desire to leave, there were doubts whether Pogba would be on the plane taking the team to start its pre-season tour in Australia, but in the event he did turn up and flew with the squad. United have been overtaken by City. Losing a player of Pogba’s magnitude would put them even further behind Pogba wants to leave Old Trafford to join Real Madrid. Having spent such a vast sum on the player, you can imagine how reluctant United and their manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, are to lose him. And as their…

If Rafa Benitez thought that swapping the north east of England for the north east of China was going to make for an easier life, then he may soon be pining for Mike Ashley and Newcastle United. The situation at Dalian Yifang is, to say the least, in flux – which is par for the course at a club that has gone through close to 20 coaches in the past decade. On Monday, July 1, Choi Kang-hee, who took the job earlier this year, left the club due to “personal reasons”. It soon turned out that the biggest reason for his departure was that Benitez was being officially announced as his successor the very next day. “I’m just really pleased and really excited that someone was really keen to get…

GUADALCANAL Founded in 2010 by the provincial association from the main island of Guadalcanal, they joined the S-League after winning the Honiara league in 2015 but only managed one point last year after struggling for sponsorship. HENDERSON EELS Joined the league in 2017 and only missed out on the title last year on goal difference. Owned by Hudson Wakio, who is boss of local IT firm Advanced Technologies. KOSSA Formed by ex-students from King George VI School Association, they won the title in 2007 and were OFC Champions League finalists a year later. SIFF president William Lai is affiliated to the club. MALAITA KINGZ From the Malaita Province association, they have recruited players from Papua New Guinea in the past. The owner is former member of parliament, Jimmy “Rasta” Lusibaea.…

Europe’s under-21 joust has seemingly become a closed shop. Spain beat Germany 2-1 to win this year’s crown in a reversal of the 2017 Final, and there is no obvious reason why these two will not be contesting the continent’s age-group crown once again in Slovenia in two years time. Spain’s triumph, at a finals staged in Italy and San Marino, puts them level with Italy on five titles apiece and was ultimately well deserved, despite a poor start to the tournament. La Rojita were well beaten in their opening game, going down 3-1 in Bologna to hosts Italy, for whom Federico Chiesa scored twice. However, with only the top team in each of the three groups, plus the best second-placed team, going through to the semi-finals, Luigi Di Biagio’s…

It’s a measure of the progress made by women’s football in the past year that a summer programme featuring a host of tournaments – Copa America, AFCON, the Gold Cup, world under-20s and European under-21s – has been dominated by the Women’s World Cup. Events in France over the past few weeks have attracted more attention than games in Brazil, Egypt and elsewhere. It helps, of course, that the Women’s World Cup was on free-to-air TV in the UK and elsewhere. But the summer of 2019 may well come to be remembered as the tipping point for the status of women’s football. The summer of 2019 may well come to be remembered as the tipping point for the status of women’s football As with so much in football, money is…

UEFA club battle on the horizon A showdown is looming over the future of European club competitions. The major teams and leagues have been rattling their sabres in preparation with headline-grabbing jabs in the face of UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin. The Slovene is growing irritable at the demands for one change or another, all aimed at expansion to generate more money. Clubs want more money to feed the appetite for trophies while UEFA wants more cash for its development programmes. Expansion would also either favour the grandees of the club game (think more money for Barcelona, Real Madrid, etc) or the leagues (more money but nothing to upset their domestic schedules) or the middle and lower ranking clubs (more money to reward their foundation-laying). But the snag with this is…

To the surprise of many, Roma icon Francesco Totti has broken up with his beloved club. In mid June, the 42-year-old announced he was resigning his director’s role and severing all connections. When Totti ended his playing career two years ago on an emotional night in Rome, it had been presumed that he would continue to work with Roma in some sort of “management” role. Not so, it seems. In a press conference at the Italian Olympic Committee headquarters in Rome, Totti cut a remarkable figure as he answered questions for 90 minutes. Seated under the imposing mural The Apotheosis Of Fascism, a 1928 homage to Benito Mussolini, he might have passed for the last King of Rome, despondently announcing his abdication. After all, Roma has been his whole life,…

Amid the plod of a steady reggae beat and under a raging Caribbean sun, the mid-afternoon soporific air is suddenly disturbed. “Yeahhhh monnn!” booms the stadium announcer, as a broken Creole voice crackles from a nearby transistor radio. The teams creep from beneath the shade into the 38-degree heat. Overhead, a huge Saint Andrew’s flag wriggles across a sea of hands. Real San Andres, one of South America’s newest and most peculiar football clubs, are about to play their final game of the season. They haven’t won a league match at their Estadio Erwin O’Neil all year and today’s Colombian second-division game is a dead rubber. Yet the ground’s main stand still bustles with over a thousand people. “I didn’t even used to like football,” confesses 34-year-old car mechanic Orlando…

WILLIAM LAI Re-elected this year to serve another four-year term as SIFF president. WIM RIJSBERGEN Capped 28 times by Holland and played in the 1974 World Cup Final. Appointed Solomon Islands coach in April 2019. MOSES TOATA Former national coach who became technical director this year after the departure of Spaniard Felipe Vega-Arango. BENJAMIN TOTORI With the retirement of Henry Fa’arodo, he has taken over as captain of the national side and is their main source of goals, with 22 in 43 games. RAPHAEL LEA’I Top scorer and voted best player at the 2018 Under-16 OFC Championship, he has a scholarship with A-League side Wellington Phoenix.…

Ynys Mon’s victory in the 2019 Island Games football tournament drew the biggest-ever crowd for a game on the north Wales island, also known as Anglesey. The hosts beat three-times winners Jersey and two Scottish sides, Orkney and the Western Isles, to top their group, then edged out 2005 champions Shetland Isles 2-1 in the semi-finals. Holyhead’s New Stadium was packed for the Final against Guernsey, whose squad included half a dozen players from the Guernsey FC side that plays in the English Isthmian League. Guernsey right-back Keanu Marsh scored after just five minutes in the Final, but a red card 10 minutes later for team-mate Frank Tobin unsettled the visitors. Liam Fox levelled in the second half and, with seven minutes left, Mel McGinness scored the winner to send…

With Mexico and the USA having won 14 of the previous 15 Gold Cups between them, it was no surprise that CONCACAF’s big two contested the Final of this year’s confederation’s bi-annual championship. There were, however, some shocks early on in a tournament that was primarily staged in the United States, with Costa Rica and Jamaica each staging a double-header in the group phase. The decision of the region’’s Canadian president Victor Montagliani to expand the finals from 12 to 16 teams meant the appearance of Martinique, Curacao, Bermuda and Guyana – the last two making their debut – at the 2019 edition. And Curacao caused an early upset by finishing second behind Jamaica in Group C and consigning seeded Honduras to last place and elimination. Group B seeds Costa…

AFRICA BURKINA FASO CAMEROON DJIBOUTI GABON MOROCCO NIGERIA TOGO TUNISIA 13pts deducted SOUTH AMERICA COLOMBIA 2019 Apertura Final 1st leg - Jun 8; 2nd leg - Jun 12 Junior v Deportivo Pasto 1-0, 0-1 (agg 1-1, Junior 5-4 on pens) PERU As winners, Deportivo Binacional have qualified for the 2019 overall championship play-offs 11pt deducted ASIA GUAM SYRIA CONCACAF BARBADOS 2018-19 Championship Final 1st leg - May 16; 2nd leg - May 19; 3rd leg - May 26 BDF v Weymouth Wales 2-2, 2-0, 1-2 (aet) 4pts each; BDF are champions on goal difference DOMINICA 1Remaining fixture cancelled PUERTO RICO 2018-19 Championship Final May 11: Metropolitan 0 Bayamon 0 (aet, Metropolitan 4-1 on pens). ST VINCENT & THE GRENADINES OCEANIA PAPUA NEW GUINEA 2019 Championship Final Jun 1: Hekari United…

“Brazil do not have five stars [for World Cup wins] at random. None of them have been stolen. It was played on the pitch”Thiago Silva responds to claims from Lionel Messi that referees have favoured Brazil ARGENTINA Messi facing ban for Copa comments Lionel Messi faces a length ban for comments made after Argentina’s victory over Chile in the Copa America third-place play-off. After the Barcelona star was harshly sent off following a clash with Chile’s Gary Medel, the 32-year-old refused to collect his medal and told reporters: “There is no doubt, the whole thing is set up for Brazil. I did not want to be part of this corruption. We shouldn’t have to be part of this disrespect we suffered during the Copa America. “We could have gone further,…

“Cry in the beginning so you can smile in the end”Marta’s advice for her younger Brazil colleagues as they exited the World Cup EVERTON (Gremio & Brazil) The winger emerged as Brazil’s bright new star at the Copa America, scoring his first goals for the senior side as they triumphed on home soil. Nicknamed Cebolinha (“little onion”) because his haircut reminded teammates of a kids’ TV cartoon character, Everton put the smile back on Brazilian faces with his performances this summer. He scored in the opening game, against Bolivia, and in a 5-0 win over Peru, who recovered from that setback to make an unlikely appearance in the Final – in which he scored Brazil’s opener and was then fouled for the penalty converted by Gabriel Jesus as Brazil won…

“Ronaldo is Ronaldo but I am Joao Felix”Atletico Madrid’s new Portuguese signing plays down comparisons with his more famous compatriot “I’m no longer a youngster of 16 who has no idea what injuries can do to you”Arjen Robben announces his retirement at the age of 35 IN EUROPE Luis Enrique, who was absent for Spain’s last three games due to personal reasons, was replaced as coach by ROBERT MORENO, who had been his assistant at Roma, Celta Vigo and Barcelona, as well as with the national side. FRANK LAMPARD left Derby County to take charge of Chelsea, replacing MAURIZIO SARRI, who joined Juventus. PHILLIP COCU took over at Championship side Derby. Former Wales forward CRAIG BELLAMY, who stepped down from his job in charge of Cardiff City’s under-18s in January…

New frontiers are beckoning for the Freiburg ace, whose seven goals for Germany at this summer’s Euro Under-21s earned him the Golden Boot as the tournament’s leading marksman. Waldschmidt, so influential in his country’s silver medal campaign – scoring in four out of five games and only drawing a blank in the 2-1 loss to Spain in the Final – is suddenly hot property. Italian sources claim Lazio are desperate to bring him on board, so apparently are RB Leipzig, and it would be no surprise if Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund were to elbow their way to the front of the auction-room queue. Bayern need a back-up striker for Robert Lewandowski, while Dortmund could certainly use someone of the left-footer’s versatility who is equally effective as a leader of…

As someone who once had his wages paid from the proceeds of a bank robbery during his time playing in Corsica, Wim Rijsbergen appreciates the idea of one last job. The former Holland defender - who played at the 1974 and 1978 World Cup finals and alongside Pele during the rock’n’roll heyday of New York Cosmos – has taken on an unlikely last challenge: to win this year’s Pacific Games with the Solomon Islands. “I’m 67 and I was retired, but when I got offered this job, my kids said to me: ‘Dad, why not?’” says Rijsbergen while watching his new charges from the sidelines of a training session in the Dutch provincial town of Goirle. “It’s the only part of the world I’ve never worked in and I think…

When he tries hard to be the team spokesman, Lionel Messi runs the same risk that strikers do when they attempt to tackle. Not being part of his normal skill set, the task can be carried out with more enthusiasm than ability, and errors of judgement can have consequences. It was thus for Brazil’s Gabriel Jesus, who was sent off in the Final of the Copa America – unlucky with his second yellow card, but the bad tackle for his first probably counts as a yellow and a half. And Messi could have overstepped the mark with his comments on the tournament. “The Copa is fixed for Brazil,” he said. And he went further, unleashing the dreaded “c” word. If there is one topic on which CONMEBOL are especially sensitive,…

LEE Kang-in In a sentence Voted player of the Under-20 World Cup, the South Korea playmaker was the first 18-year-old to win the Golden Ball since Lionel Messi in 2005. What they say Valencia assistant coach Chema Sanz: “He is a player of much talent and potential. Apart from his qualities as a footballer, he has tremendous personality, which makes all the difference. He’s competitive, ambitious, believes in himself and is not affected by difficult circumstances.” Marcelino, Valencia’s coach: “He’s intelligent, mature, has clear ideas and is a worker. Everyone of us has their own destiny. He is on the right road.” The story so far At the age of just six, he was a reality TV star, featuring in the series Shoot Dori (Shooting Kid), in which young Korean…

Having trailed to Lee Kang-in’s fifth-minute penalty in Lodz Stadium, Ukraine came back to beat South Korea 3-1 in the Under-20 World Cup Final and leave coach Oleksandr Petrakov beaming: “I am the happiest person in the world. “I am 61 and I worked for this success all my life. I don’t think we need to add anything.” After the player of the tournament had beaten the competition’s best keeper, Andriy Lunin, from the spot, Korea dominated the early stages of the Final before the Ukrainians rallied with two goals from Vladyslav Supriaha and a last-minute clincher from Heorhiy Tsitaishvili to take the trophy back across the border from Poland. “It feels incredible to lift the trophy,” said Lunin. “Our country has won the title for the very first time…

COPA AMERICA Played in Brazil; Japan and Qatar were guest teams Group A Jun 14 - Sao Paulo Brazil 3 (Philippe Coutinho pen 50, 53, Everton 85) Bolivia 0 HT: 0-0. Att: 47,260. Ref: Pitana (Arg) Brazil: Alisson - Daniel Alves, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Filipe Luis, Fernandinho, Casemiro, Richarlison (Willian 84), Philippe Coutinho, David Neres (Everton 81), Roberto Firmino (Gabriel Jesus 65). Bolivia: Lampe - D Bejarano, Haquin, Jusino, M Bejarano, Saavedra (L Vaca 64), Justiniano, Saucedo (Wayar 59), Chumacero, Castro (R Vaca 75), Martins Moreno. Jun 15 - Porto Alegre Venezuela 0 Peru 0 Att: 13,370. Ref: Roldan (Col) Venezuela: Farinez - Rosales, Chancellor, Villanueva, Mago, Moreno (Hernandez 78), Savarino (Machis 69), Herrera, Rincon, Murillo (Soteldo 84), Rondon. Sent off: Mago 75. Peru: Gallese - Advincula, Zambrano, Abram, Trauco,…