Innehållsförteckning för February 2020 från World Soccer

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“I liked how they spoke to me then and that’s what triggered me. That’s when I felt that me and Dortmund was a good match” BEN FOSTER Watford’s goalkeeper pulled an 80-year-old fan suffering from dementia out of a roadside ditch after a game. He also invited the supporter to his home for Christmas dinner and offered to pay for his next season ticket. THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION Praised for their mental health campaign as all the FA Cup third-round kick-off times were delayed by a minute in order to show a campaign message. JOKIN APERRIBAY After his side beat fourth-tier Becerril 8-0 in the Copa del Rey, Real Sociedad’s president invited the entire population of the northern Spanish village to a future match. The 754 villagers, along with Becerril’s players…

2010-19: football’s last golden decade The past decade may be viewed, in time, as the game’s last golden era. From 2010 to 2019 it scaled the highest peaks of worldwide popularity. No other sport approached even the foothills. No other TV competition, not even the Olympic Games, administered such global hypnosis. The reverse face of the coin was the tarnishing of that gold by criminal skulduggery in the corridors of power. However, the greed which scarred the game would not have been possible without the zillion-dollar temptations generated by the game’s acceleration into financial overdrive. Out on the pitch the dominant force was Spanish. The national team launched the decade by triumphing in both the World Cup in 2010 and the European Championship in 2012, while Real Madrid and Barcelona…

SPAIN Barcelona botch Valverde departure “It feels a bit strange, but here we are,” said Ernesto Valverde, the only one of the four coaches travelling to Saudi Arabia for the Spanish Super Cup to publicly say that there was something not quite right about it. He might not have launched a furious attack on the format or the choice of location, and nor did he engage in a deep discussion of human rights, but on the eve of his side’s first game – which turned out to be his last – Barcelona’s boss raised doubts. “It’s not the same as playing at home,” he commented. Perhaps he could feel it; maybe some part of him suspected that something was wrong. Yet even he, long since tired of what was happening…

The popular youth tournament La Copinha is held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, every year, but this January the competition stood out for one curiosity. Among the players from Cruzeiro, Fortaleza, Vasco da Gama and other clubs were11 young men named after one of South American football’s legends. But what was curious was that the legend in question was not Brazilian, he was Argentinian. And his name was Riquelme. Official statistics show that over 15,000 Riquelmes, with many creative spelling variations, have been born in Brazil sinceJuan Roman Riquelme’s playing career took off. But although he is admired across South America and the world, it is at Boca Juniors where he is most revered. He retired in 2015 but helped sway the presidential elections at Boca in December in favour of…

At the age of 37, and after a qualifying campaign that saw Gibraltar finish bottom of their Euro 2020 group, you might expect captain Roy Chipolina to be calling it quits. “No way,” says the customs officer who was born in England but has spent most of his life on the Rock. “I want to keep going as long as I can; as long as they will have me in the team. I still get an immense amount of joy and pleasure out of it.” Chipolina is one of a trio of players from Gibraltar’s first competitive game – against Poland at the start of Euro 2016 qualifying – who is still in the team. Fast approaching 50 caps, he adds: “I went from being a Sunday league footballer to…

SEP 26, 2012 Makes his first-team debut for Arsenal, coming on as a sub in a 6-1 League Cup win against Coventry City. OCT 20, 2012 Plays in the Premier League for the first time, as a sub, as Arsenal lose1-0 at Norwich City. OCT 24, 2012 Appears as a sub for a first Champions League appearance as Arsenal lose 2-0 at home to Schalke. SEP 22, 2013 Starts a Premier League game for the first time as Arsenal beat Stoke City 3-1. SEP 28, 2013 Scores his first goal for Arsenal, in a 2-1 win at Swansea City that puts his side top of the Premier League. AUG 7, 2015 Joins West Bromwich Albion on a season-long loan – but is recalled inJanuary after a lack of first-team action.…

1 JOAQUIN REAL BETIS The more arduous the route, the greater the satisfaction at journey’s end. Just ask the Betis winger and captain who, at the age of 38, struck his first hat-trick; a quick-fire treble in the opening 20 minutes of a 3-2 victory over Athletic Bilbao. The green-and-white-striped veteran is now the oldest player to have notched three goals in a Liga fixture, breaking a record set in 1964 by Real Madrid maestro Alfredo Di Stefano. For a beaming Joaquin, capped 51 times for Spain, it was certainly worth the wait – 553 Spanish league games in fact. “I don’t know how I did it,” he said afterwards. “I’m not a goleador. I don’t think I’ll manage it again.” The reaction of the Betis board to his exploits? A…

A mid the glitz of the glass skyscrapers and rising World Cup venues of Qatar’s capital, European champions Liverpool won their first global crown with a1-0 victory in Doha over Flamengo in a thrilling and dramatic Club World Cup Final. Flamengo’s industry and quality led to extra time, but Liverpool’s Brazilian striker Roberto Firmino broke his compatriots’ hearts with a winning goal to hand Liverpool a title that had eluded them previously in1981, 1984 and 2005. The Final was a marvellous box-to-box game that delivered on its promise of a fascinating intercontinental encounter. Buttressed by the return of defender Virgil Van Dijk and his commanding presence, Liverpool had three chances inside the first six minutes, exploiting Flamengo’s high defensive line. However, Roberto Firmino after 30 seconds, Naby Keita and Trent…

A dopted from Europe, the Nations League idea has proved popular in the Caribbean in getting inactive national teams playing regularly and providing winnable games, with the Cayman Islands a shining example of how this has succeeded. Placed in League C, Ben Pugh’s side won their opening game 2-0 in the US Virgin Islands and then shocked favourites Barbados, winning 3-2 on home soil in George Town. A 3-0 loss away to Saint Martin followed, but after wining their next two games they went into the final game in Barbados top of the table and in with a shot at promotion. “I think they underestimated us in the first game,” says Pugh, who only took charge in May. And despite losing that final game 3-0 in Bridgetown, he can only…

Mark Van Bommel seemed to have a bright future as coach of PSV, the club he served so successfully as a player. And who knows what might have been? But after a year and a half in Eindhoven his career ran ashore as he was sacked unceremoniously. The Eindhoven club isn’t known as a coaches’ graveyard, with the last boss to get his marching orders being Fred Rutten in 2012. However, general director Toon Gerbrands eventually felt he had no other option, explaining: “The decline is too large and unworthy of PSV.” When Van Bommel was sacked PSV had won only two of their previous12 games in all competitions and had slumped to fourth place in the Eredivisie, 10 points adrift of leaders AZ and Ajax. The Eindhoven side had…

WORLD CLUB WORLD CUP Played in Doha, Qatar 1st round Dec 11 Al Sadd (Qat) 3 (Bounedjah 26, Hassan100, Pedro Miguel114) Hienghene Sport (NwC) 1 (Roine 46) Aet. HT: 1-0. 90mins: 1-1. Att: 7,047. Ref: Ghorbal (Alg) 2nd round Dec 14 Al Hilal (Sau) 1 (Gomis 73) Esperance Tunis (Tun) 0 HT: 0-0. Att: 7,726. Ref: Tobar (Chl) Sent off: Kanno (Al Hilal) 85 Dec 14 Monterrey (Mex) 3 (Vangioni 23, Funes Mori 45+1, Rodriguez 77) Al Sadd 2 (Bounedjah 66, Hassan 89) HT: 2-0. Att: 4,878. Ref: Hategan (Rom) l The losing teams went into the 5th-place match 5th-place match Dec 17 Al Sadd 2 (Bounedjah pen 32, Al Haidos pen 49) Esperance Tunis 6 (Elhouni 6, 42, 74, Badri13, pen 25, Derbali 87) HT: 1-4. Att: 15,037. Ref: Zitouni…

GOALKEEPERS Marc-Andre TER STEGEN (Barcelona) 15 Samir HANDANOVIC (Internazionale) 6 Jan OBLAK (Atletico Madrid) 5 Kasper SCHMEICHEL (Leicester City) 5 Thibaut COURTOIS (Real Madrid) 4 ALISSON (Liverpool) 3 Manuel NEUER (Bayern Munich) 2 Andre ONANA (Ajax) 2 Wojciech SZCZESNY (Juventus) 2 ADRIAN (Liverpool) 1 David DE GEA (Manchester United) 1 EDERSON (Manchester City) 1 Lukas HRADECKY (Bayer Leverkusen) 1 Benjamin LECOMTE (Monaco) 1 Rui SILVA (Granada) 1 Tomas VACLIK (Sevilla) 1 DEFENDERS Virgil VAN DIJK (Liverpool) 29 Trent ALEXANDER-ARNOLD (Liverpool) 23 Andrew ROBERTSON (Liverpool) 14 Stefan DE VRIJ (Internazionale) 7 Ben CHILWELL (Leicester City) 6 Sergio RAMOS (Real Madrid) 6 Caglar SOYUNCU (Leicester City) 6 Mats HUMMELS (Borussia Dortmund) 5 Milan SKRINIAR (Internazionale) 5 Leonardo BONUCCI (Juventus) 4 Diego GODIN (Internazionale) 4 Achraf HAKIMI (Borussia Dortmund) 4 Benjamin PAVARD (Bayern…

Two of the main stories that we cover this month have a common theme. The Club World Cup (page 62) and the Spanish Super Cup (page 20) were both played in the Middle East, in Qatar and Saudi Arabia respectively. As we enter a new decade, football clubs and administrators continue to have no qualms about following the money around the globe, even if that means dragging supporters to matches thousands of miles away from home and playing in countries with dubious human-rights records. The growing global consensus on the need to tackle climate change should be a catalyst forcing football to change tack. But it doesn’t appear that much will change in the near future. This summer’s European Championship, the second time the finals have been expanded to 24…

“Watching United play now is a bit like an old man who is trying to make love. You are trying with all your might but, at the end of the day, everyone’s a little disappointed” Exequiel PALACIOS (Bayer Leverkusen) Leverkusen has long been a destination for ambitious South Americans looking to make a name for themselves in the European game and, following his €22m January transfer from River Plate, Palacios is the latest starlet to demonstrate that ambition. Linked with a move ever since his starring role in River’s 2018 Libertadores triumph, Real Madrid, Internazionale and Arsenal were among the interested teams, but the central midfielder – who made his Argentina debut in August 2018 – has opted for a club with a track record of signing and developing talent.…

RB LEIPZIG Became the first club from the old East Germany to top the Bundesliga at the winter halfway stage, as well as the first side in Bundesliga history to score three goals in eight consecutive games. VISSEL KOBE Inspired by Andres Iniesta, they won the first silverware of their 54-year history by beating Kashima Antlers in the Emperor’s Cup Final. LIVERPOOL Won the Club World Cup for the first time, beating Flamengo1-0 in the Final thanks to a goal from Roberto Firmino. MILAN Suffered their heaviest defeat for more than 21 years in Serie A when they were beaten 5-0 by Atalanta. DANIEL STENDEL A defeat in the Edinburgh derby at home to Hibernian meant that Hearts boss Stendel became the club’s first manager in 82 years to lose…

“I’m finally here. I will make San Siro jump for joy again” EUROPE Manchester City assistant manager MIKEL ARTETA joined Arsenal and became the Premier League’s youngest manager at 37. CARLO ANCELOTTI took charge of Everton, while DAVID MOYES returned as West Ham United boss after they dismissed Manuel Pellegrini. Barcelona dismissed Ernesto Valverde and replaced him with former Real Betis coach QUIQUE SETIEN. Eredivisie strugglers ADO Den Haag appointed ALAN PARDEW as coach, with CHRIS POWELL as his assistant. Monaco appointed former Spain boss ROBERT MORENO as coach after sacking Leonardo Jardim. GIUSEPPE IACHINI was appointed coach of Fiorentina, who sacked Vincenzo Montella. Genoa made DAVIDE NICOLA their third coach of the season. Former Italy under-21 chief DEVIS MANGIA was appointed coach of Malta. Forlan takes charge of Penarol…

Half-a-dozen clubs with origins that reflect the island’s cultural and political make-up dominate Cypriot football, but a new challenge is emerging. Following in the footsteps of the Greeks, Turks and British, Russians are flocking to the Mediterranean island seeking security and sun. The Russians initially brought money and colonised the banks in Cyprus, only to pull out billions six years ago when the island’s economy went into meltdown and the European Union imposed a financial “haircut”. To stem the departures, the Cypriot government created a “golden visa” scheme that offered residency rights in return for investment in property development. As a result, there are now so many Russians with a Cypriot passport that two years ago they formed their own political party. And their influence has now spilled onto the…

Who was the world’s leading scorer in club football in 2019? Not Lionel Messi (54 for Barcelona), or Robert Lewandowski (50 for Bayern Munich), or Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain. Instead, it was Morocco’s Abderrazak Hamdallah, who recorded 57 goals for Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr. Aside from a season at Norway’s Aalesund, who signed him in 2013 from his hometown club Olympic Safi, the 29-year-old Moroccan has pursued a nomadic career outside of Europe. His 19 goals in 30 games for Aalesund earned a move to China, where he started well enough for Guangzhou R&F before injuries and a falling-out with coach Cosmin Contra led to his departure after18 months, to Qatari side El Jaish. In five years in the Middle East – first at El Jaish, then another…

The appointment of Li Tie as China’s coach marks a major change in direction for the national side. His appointment follows Marcello Lippi’s period in charge, which ended at the end of last year when a World Cup qualifying loss to Syria placed China’s chances of reaching the 2022 finals in serious doubt. A 2-1 defeat in Dubai left China in second place in Group A in the second phase of Asia’s qualifying campaign. Only the winners of each of the eight groups is guaranteed to advance to the next round, with slots also being allocated to the four best runners-up. China are eight points behind Syria, having played one game less before facing Maldives in late March in what will be Li’s first competitive game in charge. “In the…

In the vast Barcelona Museum at Camp Nou there is a solitary case devoted to futbol femení with photographs, trophies and a brief outline of the club’s history. If it seems an afterthought, until recently so did the team. Though founded in1970 and an inaugural member of the Spanish league in 1988, the women’s team was not fully incorporated into the club until 2002, at which time they were in the second tier. Promotion, relegation and a further promotion followed until, in 2012, they finally won the league. While that was the first of four successive titles, Athletic Bilbao and then Atletico Madrid usurped their crown, and it is only in the last few years that the Catalans have really decided to push their women’s team. It is only in…

It wouldn’t be a new year without some new rules introduced by the Chinese Football Association (CFA) – although this time there is more support for the changes than has been the case in the past. The big one is the introduction of a salary cap, but the number of foreign players allowed to sign and play for clubs has also been tweaked again, this time in an upwards direction. For the 2020 season, clubs can have six overseas players on their books, five in the matchday squad and four on the pitch at any given time – which is up from three last year. This puts the Chinese Super League in line with much of Asia, though one of the spots is not reserved exclusively for an Asian player.…

The two teams mostly likely to end the North African hegemony in the CAF Champions League were the first two teams to qualify for the quarter-finals, as TP Mazembe Englebert of DR Congo and South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns led the way in the group phase of the 2019-20 competition. Mazembe were guaranteed a top-two finish in Group A after collecting10 points from their opening four group games, with Zamalek of Egypt looking odds-on to join them. Sundowns have10 points in Group C and are likely to be joined by Wydad of Morocco, their perennial rivals who they have played against in each of the last four tournaments. Mazembe, who last won the Champions League in 2015, were watched by their new Serbian technical director Dragan Cvetkovic as they came from…

EAST ASIAN CUP Played in Busan, South Korea Dec 10 China 1 (Dong Xuesheng 90) Japan 2 (Suzuki 29, Miura 70) HT: 0-1. Att: 800. Ref: Tantashev (Uzb) China: Liu Dianzuo - Ming Tian, Mei Fang, Li Ang (Yu Dabao 70), Jiang Zhipeng, JinJingdao, Wang Shangyuan (Li Hang 67), Tan Long, Zhang Xizhe, FengJin (Cao Yunding 59), Dong Xuesheng. Japan: Nakamura - Hatanaka, Miura, Sasaki, Hashioka (Soma 84), Ideguchi, Hashimoto, Endo, Suzuki (Tagawa 72), A Ueda, Morishima. Dec 11 South Korea 2 (Hwang In-beom 45+1, Na Sang-ho 82) Hong Kong 0 HT: 1-0. Att: 1,070. Ref: Evans (Aus) South Korea: Gu Sung-yun - Kim Tae-hwan, Kim Min-jae, Kwon Kyung-won, ParkJoo-ho, Hwang In-beom, SonJun-ho, Moon Seon-min (Yun Il-lok 62), Kim Bo-kyung (Lee Yeong-jae 84), Na Sang-ho, Kim Seung-dae (LeeJeong-hyeop 42). Hong…

Named after the main lighthouse in the city of Genoa’s port, the clash between Italy’s oldest side and the country’s newest continuously operating club will celebrate its100th game in May. Founded in1893, Genoa won nine league titles and one Coppa Italia before Sampdoria had even seen the light of day. But those golden days are long gone and the Rossoblu have won nothing of note since. Meanwhile Samp – who emerged in1946 from the merger of Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria – were Serie A champions in1991, have four Italian Cups to their credit, won the European Cup-winners Cup in1990 and were European Cup runners-up two years later. With Genoa drawing support mostly from the city centre, they like to remind their Sampdoria counterparts from the outlying areas of their place,…

Solskjaer is part of United’s problem, not the solution The angry chants began when Manchester United were 3-0 up in their recent Premier League game against Norwich City and the team looked certain of victory. Only then did the crowd unleash vitriol and disdain towards the club’s owners, the reclusive Glazer family, and their man who runs the club, executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward. It was deliberate timing. Regular supporters at Old Trafford did not want negative vibes to affect player performances. They did not want to impact on manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Clever thinking? Well, only up to a point. United’s fans are right to make the Glazers a prime target of fury. For several years the unwelcome Americans were shielded from scrutiny by the majestic success of manager Alex…

VAR: from the subliminal to the ridiculous A young Jimmy Greaves once made the observation that football was getting more complicated. That was back in the1960s and he was commenting, unfavourably, on the licensed coaches who were bringing a new and highly technical approach to the English game. The quote survives in different forms, of which my favourite version goes like this: “The way those guys talk, you’d think scoring a goal is more difficult than splitting the atom.” Now, here we are in 2020, and VAR has plunged us back 60 years, back into the impossibly complicated world of atomic physics – which is a world where football does not belong. There can be no arguing against the birth of VAR. Technology, advancing by leaps and bounds, gave us…

“I am happy with my life. I played on two teams that I really love. One meant everything and the other got me inside as I expected” MARTIN PETERS (1943-2019) Had it not been for Wolfgang Weber, Martin Peters would have gone down in English football history as not only one of the1966 World Cup winners but the1966 World Cup winner. Then a 22-year-old half-back with West Ham United, he had been drafted into the England team by Alf Ramsey midway through the finals after the attack misfired at the start of the group stage. In the Final against West Germany, at Wembley, it was Peters who stretched a leg forward in the 78th minute to jab England into a 2-1 lead. But as history beckoned both team and individual,…

Sadio Mane’s achievements over the past12 months have been recognised by the Confederation of African Football, who named the Liverpool forward as the 2019 African Footballer of the Year at a star-studded gala in Egypt. Mane is the first Senegalese to win the award since another Liverpool player, El Hadji Diouf, in 2002, having twice been runner-up to his Liverpool team-mate Mohamed Salah, in 2017 and 2018. Salah and the other short-listed candidate, Riyad Mahrez of Manchester “It is not the only wrong decision I have made, but this one I could correct some years later”Jurgen Klopp on not signing Mane when at Dortmund City and Algeria, did not attend the ceremony in Hurghada. The award was in recognition of the 27-year-old’s impressive achievements last year. He was runner-up at…

Controversy is never far away where Zlatan Ibrahimovic is concerned, and it is a measure of the size of his ego that, even at 38, he still believes he has something to offer Italian football, and in particular Milan. The Swede re-joined Milan in January on a six-month deal, having been a free agent since leaving LA Galaxy after the MLS play-offs. Ibrahimovic had announced his intention to leave Los Angeles in suitably dramatic style with a social media post that read: “I came, I saw, I conquered. Thank you LA Galaxy, making me feel alive again. To the Galaxy fans – you wanted Zlatan, I gave you Zlatan. You are welcome. The story continues…now go back to watch baseball.” He scored 52 goals in 56 games in two seasons…