Same Old Spain

Tell me if this sounds familiar? Spain go undefeated in the group stage, not even conceding a goal, and then lose in the knockout stage.

Hitherto-unbeaten Spain suffered their first and now only defeat in the FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Egypt as Italy booked their quarter-final place with a hard-fought 3-1 win over their ten-man antagonists, who missed a penalty late on.

Chokers as usual.

Mess with the Bulls you get the Horns

While the defending champions University of Maryland are off to a solid start this year (including a late goal on Friday for a 1-0 win over UNC), their little brother is starting to put together a solid season. University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) raised their record to a perfect 9-0-0 last night with a 3-0 win at La Salle. Two more goals were scored by sophomore Andrew Bulls. Bulls is the nation's leading scorer with 12 goals this season.

Bulls, who manged to confuse Soccer By Ives (thought the team nickname was Bulls not Retrievers), is helping Pete Caringi's team gather some attention. As a Freshman, Bulls was the Team's MVP (started all 17 games, 8 goals, 2 assists) and has not let up in 2009.

So how does a kid like this end up at UMBC? He was a member of the 2006 and 2008 national club championship with the Casa Mia Bays (a top club team in the US that has a relationship with Chelsea). and a 2007 Adidas High School All American at McDonogh. He was recruited by ACC, Big 10, and Big East schools but I guess it help

s to get a kid to come your school when your brother was a 4 year member of the program.

Here is hoping the success continues for the past president of the McDonogh's cricket, scrabble and table tennis clubs, Andrew Bulls.

Juventus/Livorno Serie A Matchday 4

I am really curious about the Livorno players’ high jersey numbers. They started with only Nico Pulzetti sporting a single digit number. It reminded me of a spring training baseball team loaded with minor leaguers trying to make the big squad. The game featured lots of end to end action in this game, and the teams were relatively evenly matched, save for two players: Gianlugi Buffon and Mauro Camoranesi. Without these two, this game surely ends in a draw or Livorno win.

Buffon’s value to Juventus cannot be understated. A la Cech and Van der Sar, he has the stereotypical, tall, lanky keeper’s body. His imposing frame is matched by his ability to always get into the right position, and his quickness to react. My game notes show 6 different times where I made a point to write down that he made an excellent save. The thing that kills me about him is he seems so cool about everything as well. It really must drive opposition strikers mad. Livorno played well throughout the match, but when their own finishing didn’t fail them, Buffon was always there to protect his goal.

The scoring began when Juve struck first in the 8th minute when Vincenzo Iaquinta neatly headed home Camoranesi’s cross from outside the box. The bianconeri added a second goal in the 30th minute when Claudio Marchisio chipped a shot over Alfonso de Lucia. Mauro Camoranesi assisted both goals and was all over the pitch all night. He tracked back to strip Livorno players of the ball. He pressed forward to feed his own strikers. His work rate was excellent. His positioning reminded me a bit of Andrea Pirlo, but with perhaps a little bit more ambition forward. Last week I wrote that I thought that perhaps Mauro was a bit overconfident. This week his play supported all of his self-assurance.

On a night when stars Fabio Cannavaro and Alessandro del Piero were unavailable due to injury, both Buffon and Camoranesi imposed their will on the game to ensure a Juve win.

FIFA U-20 World Cup Egypt 2009

The FIFA U-20 World Cup Egypt 2009 gets underway on Thursday.

The biggest news coming out of qualifying is that two-time defending champion (and 5 of the last 7) Argentina didn't not qualify out of South America. They had a disasterous tournament and were beatn out by Venezuela! It hasn't been a good year for Argentine football.

Here are the groups. Top 2 teams plus top 4 3rd place team advance to the knockout stage.

Group A - Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Paraguay, Italy
Group B - Nigeria, Venezuela, Spain, Tahiti
Group C - USA, Germany, Cameroon, South Korea
Group D - Ghana, Uzbekistan, England, Uruguay
Group E - Brazil, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Australia
Group F - UAE, South Africa, Honduras, Hungary

Players to watch:

Giuliano - Brazil
Abel Hernandez - Uruguay
Gavin Hoyte - England
Fran Merida - Spain
Hernan Perez - Paraguay
Brian Perk - United States
Roger Rojas - Honduras
Ransford Osei - Ghana
Cho Young-Cheol - South Korea
Richard Sukuta-Pasu - Germany

A Few Questions Come To Mind:

Will Brazil win? Brazil are always favourites but have only won twice win 1993.
How many goals will Tahiti concede? I'll say 12.
Can Czech Republic take that extra step and improve on the 2007 Silver Medal.
How far can a CONCACAF team go? If the US gets far, perhaps they should play more games in Africa.

What is your prediction? I'll take Ghana to win it all.

Matchday 1 Marseille/Milan

Fox Soccer's coverage of the Champions League games is something to behold. No longer are we tied to ESPN's choice of which game we are allowed to watch. 10 of this week's 16 matches are available either live or on a delay. That is unbelievable, and a massive step forward.

It poured rain throughout the game in Marseille on Tuesday, and Milan's white Champions League kits do not have a sponsor. It's a good thing this isn't the women's champions league. Or maybe it isn't. Pato, Pirlo and Flamini all play an attractive style of football and I was excited to see what they could do against Marseille. Early on, the cameras caught Ronaldinho chewing gum on the bench. That certainly won't help him in his losing battle to appear less ugly.

The two man announcing booth did a good job calling the game. They were never overbearing, but they added comments and descriptions when needed. The Marseille crowd was consistently into the game, singing in full voice throughout the downpour. Milan is an excellent passing team. If they only had the youth to take advantage of such gilded opportunities, they could be a force in both the scudetto race and Europe. Clarence Seedorf had a nice dribble towards goal, then set up Pipo Inzaghi for his 67th European goal in the 28th minute. Marco Storari had a massive save in added time on a shot from Cheyrou.

Gabriel Heinze leveled the home side in the 49th minute with a nice header off a free kick that ultimately nutmegged the keeper. The crowd remained fully involved after the goal. Champions league group stage crowds are great. Manuel Flamini earned a yellow in the 61st minute for a two footed tackle that probably should have been a straight red. Marseille had more gas in the tank at this point in the gam, but their inability to advance offensively ultimately let them down. Seedorf fed Inzaghi again in the 74th minute for Milan's second goal.

Even though the rain never let up, the pitch stayed in perfect condition. nice work groundskeepers. Milan has to be happy with the away win against a plucky Marseille side. Marseille's problem after this game is that they're one match down against their main rivals to finish second in Group C behind Real Madrid.

Who throws a shoe? Honestly?

Besiktas/Manchester United - CL Matchday 1

The lineups were introduced and Besiktas’ consisted of a bunch of guys I’ve never heard of with a lot of accent marks and umlauts in their name. Man U started with Neville, Vidic, Evans and Evra in the back, two English speakers playing center midfield (Scholes and Carrick), two Portuguese speakers on the wings (Anderson and Nani), and Rooney and Valencia up front. New man, Antonio Valencia ended up playing a little behind and a little wider than Rooney, but 4-4-2 it is.

FSC’s coverage was not so good. Only one man in the booth? No crowd noise? C’mon Fox, you’re better than that. While they fixed the lack of crowd noise problem around 10 minutes into the match, they never get around to fixing the announcer problem. Tim White grew more frustrating as the game went on, announcing all of the scores for the other CL games being played. I understand that the game was not aired on television in the states until 10 pm EDT, but I imagine lots of viewers recorded a few of the Matchday 1 games and planned to watch them on delay. If you spent all day avoiding updates, it’s no good to have the announcer ruin it for you. Also, at one point in the second half he referred to Besiktas as “Fenerbahce”.

United controlled the play during the first half, but had nothing to show for their efforts. Valencia, while talented, seemed just a bit off throughout the opening half.

The Red Devils came out of halftime buzzing around the pitch, looking even more dangerous than before. Patrice Evra continued to make bombing raids down the left side. He really has quite a motor. Besiktas were dangerous in spurts, but both the defense and keeper Ben Foster continued to deny them a goal. Sir Alex removed Carrick for Berbatov in the 63rd minute, and shortly thereafter he called off Rooney for Owen. Rooney was none too happy to be replaced, shaking his head the whole way off the pitch. The camera caught Wayne gesturing to the crowd just above the visitor’s bench, and throwing his boots down in disgust.

United finally got their well deserved goal in the 77th minute after a nice set up by Nani and Valencia led to a Scholes header into the upper right corner. The Ginger Ninja was left without a marker, and buried the chance. Park came on for Valencia in the 84th, and helped close out the 1-0 win.

Denizli’s men will certainly rue losing at home, especially after keeping the game scoreless for over an hour. However, United proved to be too much last night, and the Turkish club’s Champions League chances are bleak considering Wolfsburg’s thrashing of the Muscovites.

Chelsea's First Loss of the Season

Chelsea FC's chief executive Peter Kenyon has resigned from the club effective October 31st. He'll remain as a non-executive director and ambassador. This is an unexpected move by the club since it was Kenyon's move to Chelsea in 2003 from Manchester United that some say sparked the London club's revival. During his time at Chelsea, Kenyon oversaw the signings of huge stars (Shevchenko), up and coming stars (Drogba, Robben, Essien) and a few busts (Shevchenko, Maoluda, Alex). But he also oversaw the running of a team that won the EPL title twice, two FA and League Cups and a UEFA Champions League Final in 2008 that they eventually lost to Manchester United.

Now, is this a move by someone that has done as much as he could for the club and wants a new challenge or is it a move by the club in response to the Big Phil Scolari hiring by Kenyon? Hard to know for sure but after a period of undeniable success, the failures of the past couple of seasons - UCL Final loss, a one year FIFA transfer ban, a revolving door of managers, the debacle that is Frank Arnesen - may have finally caught up to Kenyon. It will be interesting to see the fallout from this over the course of the season as well as who Chelsea bring in to replace Kenyon. I hear Rick Perry is still looking for work.

ETA: Tom Adams at Soccernet has a good write up about the Kenyon reign at Stamford Bridge.

Serie A Matchday 3 Lazio/Juve

Looking at the Serie A table going into last weekend, the Lazio/Juventus matchup presented the most promise. Each team had won its first two games. Would this game produce beautiful, flowing football that might serve to entice a Serie A neophyte? In a word, no.

The first half was almost completely forgettable. Other than Aleksandar Kolarov’s exceptional run past two Juve defenders, which ultimately led to a fine save by Buffon, there was little to keep a mind from wandering until Lazio had a goal disallowed in stoppage time. Referee Andrea Gervasoni made the correct call to disallow the goal as Julio Cruz clearly impeded a Juve man in the box to free up room for Sebastiani Siviglia’s shot. Maybe the players were distracted by the magenta kits worn by the referees. Words cannot describe their hideousness, and I cannot find a picture anywhere on the intertubes. You’ll have to take my word for it. Speaking of uniforms, Lazio appears to be following Man U and Everton in their attempt to be outfitted as ugly as possible this year. When you have such a great blue as your color, why would you screw it up by adding a vee-neck stripe thingy?

Watching Serie A on FSC is perplexing. The match announcer added almost nothing to my experience. When watching sports, I don’t normally appreciate a color man in the booth. However, in a game where I know very little about either team’s backstory, it would have been helpful. As it was, the announcer was Captain Obvious, adding nothing helpful to any viewer with two working eyes.

The game started to finally pick up as each team began to get stuck in around the 64th minute. Juve had an excellent display of passing, and began to look threatening, only for David Trezeguet to meekly roll the ball towards Fernando Muslera. Tiago replaced Mauro Camaronesi in the 69th minute. I can’t determine what I think of the Oriundi. He certainly has talent, but I get the feeling he thinks he is better than he truly is. That overconfidence leads to him wasting opportunities.

Juve new boy Martin Caceres opened the scoresheet in his first game for the bianconeri in the 72nd minute, pouncing on a ball in the box and slotting his shot past the Lazio keeper. As Lazio pressed for the tying goal, Juve got their second goal in the 4th minute of added time as David Trezeguet scored his first goal of the campaign.

The teams were pretty evenly matched on the day, but Juventus finished where Lazio could not. As it were, Juve completed the “away to Rome” double by week three.