Tradition is against Europeans when it comes to Under 17 World Cup finals. It’s not Europe’s dish to do well at this age category. And the current final tournament, staged in Nigeria, seems to be the case, with Holland an early and unexpected casualty. At the hands of Iranians. Football in its globalised version gets even by the hour… Holland, shockingly hand in hand with Brazil. Where was the Copacabana flair?  

The group stage just finished and two out of six nations representing Europe at the 13th edition of  Under 17 FIFA World Cup finals came third, among the 6 teams looking for an “escape” ticket to the last 16, where the top two from each group automatically qualified. 

The Dutch, always great at nurturing young talent, were bruised by Colombia (1-2) and Iran (0-1), ending with a thin 2-1 win against Gambia. It was a culture shock for Holland, which struggled in Group C after playing the final at the UEFA Under 17 European Championship in Magdeburg.

In qualifiers and at Euro, Jong Oranges prospered due to Castaignos and Isoufi, a potent strike force, with 15 goals to their credit, while the classic number 10, captain Oguzhan Ozyakup, displayed the skills that caught Arsene Wenger’s eye. He is an Arsenal player, in a 21 man squad boosting 7 footballers from Ajax, 6 from Feyenoord and 3 from PSV Eindhoven, the big Dutch clubs. But for all their merits, the Dutch came surprisingly short in Nigeria, after a bronze medal 4 years ago, in Peru, at their first ever presence in this age category’s finals.

Holland going home is like parking a fine limousine in a dark garage after just a few miles. 

Their conquerors in Magdeburg, the Germans, came also third, in Group A, after drawing with hosts and current title holders Nigeria, 3-3 from 2-0 up at half time, losing 2-1 to Argentina, from 1-0 up at half time, and defeating Honduras 3-1, coming from behind. Uncharacteristic for Germany to squander an advantage… A bit of a culture shock for The Panzers as well, including one of two Liverpool based players, Christopher Buchtmann, a number 7 from the Red half of Merseyside. By the way, big Bayern Munchen doesn’t have at least a player in the squad, while TSV 1860, the lesser Munich team, has two!

Germany has a better record at this level, with a bronze medal two years ago, in Korea, added to a silver at the very first finals, in China, in 1985, when Nigeria opened its account of what was to become a grab of three World Cup titles on Asian soil. Of which the last was taken two years ago, in a 3-0 penalty shoot out final against Spain.

And mentioning Spain, it is to be said that the young guns with 6 representatives from Barcelona and three from Real fared much better in Group E, good sports for a nation finishing second in 2003 as well, then with a certain midfielder named Cesc Fabregas top scorer in the tournament for his 5 goals. Their undoing at that time was a 1-0 defeat to Brazil in the final, after qualifying past Portugal in the quarters and Argentina in the semifinals. Cesc’s road was from Nou Camp to The Emirates, in september 2003, a very few months after that successful tournament, and the rest is history. The young Gunner, now 22, is captain of his high flying team…

Alongside a 100% and 9 goals scoring Spain, there are Turkey, Switzerland and Italy, coming fine and dry from their respective groups, with a special mention for the Swiss, themselves boosting an Arsenal player, Sead Hajrovic, among three Premier League based young footballers, which got the better of Brazil: 1-0! Three wins out of three for the central European side.

Actually, Brazil came third, having an identical record with Holland, after being beaten as well by Mexic in a rematch of the 2005 final. Then the mexicans were the better, unveiling a brilliant Carlos Vela, a top goalscorer of the finals. Do we know the name? It’s in Arsene Wenger’s squad. Another rising star who made a name for himself at U-17 World Cup finals and ended up in North London.

While Holland and Brazil are heading home, surprise, surprise, New Zealand is the wonder unbeaten package, finishing second in an easy group and waiting for a game against Nigeria, in the last 16, stage which starts on wednesday.

It remains to be seen yet, as I mentioned, Europe is finding it difficult to impose its authority at U-17 World Cup finals. Just two titles, for Soviet Union and France respectively, in 1987 and 2001, while the likes of Nigeria and Brazil hold three wins each, with Ghana two times World Cup holder. And for the record, ten years ago, in New Zealand, it happened that Europe’s finest haven’t made at least the semifinals.

It’s in the grasp of Spain, twice finalist lately but with tradition against Europeans…

The emphasis is less on performing on a World Cup stage at this age category and more on scouting around Africa for example. It won’t be surprising to see other young stars ending up on this shores, as Fabregas and Vela made their way to Arsenal London after successful bursts at the finals.

It might be though that European nations will soon find it difficult to pass African representatives at World Cup finals. Last month, in Egypt, Ghana won the U-20 World Cup, defeating Brazil in the final after a 3-2 win in the penultimate stage against Hungary, the lonely European representative in the last four.

It’s a question already to be asked… When will come the day of a World Cup final with an African nation involved? May be not in South Africa but the clock is ticking.   

Although, on the other hand, it’s fair to say that these tournaments are not an indictment of things to come at senior level. The very fact that the Black Continent won 5 titles at U-17 level but haven’t made great strides at World Cups is a sign of the fine line between juniors and youth and the big business of senior professionals, a similar thing being worth mentioning about France. An Under 17 World Cup winner in 2001 yet with few names from that squad sparkling nowadays the professional scene. It was Florent Sinama Pongolle, a top scorer with 9 goals, half of his team total, at the 2001 Trinidadian finals, who find it hard making the grade at Liverpool FC.

And to emphasise the argument, let’s mention the 1989 final. It happened on Glasgow’s Hampden Park, in front of a 58.000 crowd. The 24th of june could have been the crowning day for Scottish football, be it at Under-17 level. It wasn’t to be, Saudi Arabia winning the world title with a 5-4 penalty shoot out although playing in 10 men from the 71st minute. The Scots squandered after the break a 2-0 lead taken by Ian Downie (7′) and Paul Dickov (25′). The latter made the step forward, with a journeyman’s career in Premier League. But how many names of that Scottish line-up are ending now a fulfilled life in football? Will – Beatie , Bain, Bollan, Lindsay , McGoldrick, Dickov , O’Neill , McMillan , Downie , Marshall.

Scottish football certainly didn’t benefit at senior level from that Craig Brown’s side, another proof that not many conclusions can be drawn from three week tournaments for 16 year olds… 

Still, a great footballing ocassion to keep an eye on. March on, to the 15th of november final… Here are the dates for the second stage. On wednesday, Argentina – Colombia , Turkey – United Arab Emirates , Switzerland – Germany , Italy – USA, while on thursday Spain – Burkina Fasso, Uruguay – Iran , Mexico – Korea and Nigeria – New Zealand.

(the original article…) The event that took place at Cisnadie, Romania, this year was a complete succes for the Italians both Team and Individual (Frattini Remo – individual category). Airsports.tv was there and as we promissed, we came up with a nice video for you! check it out here.

For the past year aeromodelling events, you can watch some more videos here or here.

Victoria Coren at the poker table. Photograph: Suki Dhanda

Victoria Coren

A guy once said to me that “the man in the street doesn’t know how to play six-seven off-suit when he’s under the gun.” And I thought: that makes two of you, Charlie.

Everything depends on time. Kinky Friedman says that there’s a time to live and a time to die and a time to stop listening to the Byrds. As in life, so also in poker. It’s not a question of what, but of when. For example:

Poker Stars’ Victoria Coren has written a book about winning one million dollars in the European Championship in 2006. It was extracted in a the Observer last Sunday, and made for interesting reading for students of time, space and cards like ourselves.

La Coren, for those who don’t know, is a writer and from a writing family in England. She’s written a regular column on poker for the Observer for years, and she’s unusual as a writer in that she’s really good at poker as well. Because you have to be good to win the European Championship. It’s kind of a must.

The extract in the paper was chiefly about her relationship with her dad, Alan Coren, a famous English journalist in his day. But the thing of interest to poker players is what she says about her winning hand at the final table.

Coren had got to the final table of the tournament in September 2006 in the Victoria Casino on the Edgeware Road in London. Third hand in the showdown against Emad Tahtou was when it all went off.

Coren writes that she looked down and saw the six of clubs and the seven of diamonds. She “felt like playing this hand,” and flopped a straight for the title. One million smackers.

A cool mill on a hand whose chances of winning are 43% in a game with two players. Seeing six-seven off-suit is not like seeing pocket aces.

But that’s not the point. Time and place is the point. Coren had a big stack of chips beside her at the point; she could afford to drop a few grand to give the six-seven a shot at the big time. If she were hanging on by her fingernails the six-seven was a sign from God that it was time to marry rich. Sitting pretty on a big stack, it’s a what-the-hey play.

Time and place. You can’t afford to factor them out.

the seson for the future is like a ball rolling on its own,the goal is endless draw unlike in the game of football it rolls forward every year marking the beginings of the gathering around the fields to watch a match that might for a moment give a respite to the everlasting search for the gain in life.

Framgångarna fortsätter – Cleo Mvp

GRATTIS, du har verkligen förtjänat utmärkelsen.

Matchen var inte välspelad även om Fogdemark inledde sylvasst och Binta avlöste glödhett samtidigt som Sveriges storstjärnor levererade sen stabil insats. Långt in i Q1 stod det 4-4 och matchen såg ut som ett sådant sömnpiller som en match om bronset kan göra med två slitna lag som känner sig som loosers. Frida Fogdemark vill annorlunda och med vasst skytte och bra returtagning såg hon till att koppla det grepp som Sverige kom att ha matchen genom. I Q2 kom sveriges egna Microwave, Binta in och expolderade rätt i nyllet på trötta Tjeckiskor som knappt hann se vad som susade förbi, hon var överallt. I rena chocktillståndet böt tjeckiskor till en zon som helt kom att ställa Sverige och vips så var det match ingen.

I tredje perioden visade Sverige att man var en klass bättre än motståndarna genom att komma ut och göra 8-0 på mindre än två minuter och från den stunden var det mer en transportsträcka, Tjeckien kom som närmast i ett 9 poängsunderläge. Visst sa man från den svenska bänken att man först var säkra med 44 sekunder kvar, men jag messade till mina girlsgoing4gold vänner “EM BRONS, FY FAN VA GÖTT!! med 7 minuter kvar.

Cleoo hade två blockar som går till historien som grymma och Abdi ett par drives där det kändes som om hon lyfte ut ur hallen, men det jag kommer att minnas från denna turnering är det fighter-hjärta och ödmjukhet som detta lag har visat omvärlden. Man har visat Basket Europa att Sverige kommer att vara en nation att räkna med på damsidan och jag hoppas innerligt att tidningar, Tv, Radio, ja all massmedia inser hur svårt det är att ta ett EM Brons.

Publiken skall också ha en sloge, aldrig i Sverige har jag sett en sådan fantastisk publik i landslagssammanhang. Jag hoppas att detta är inledningen på något stort och häftigt.

Jag vill också säga att jag håller med Jens Tillman, Cleo Forsman är MVP i mina ögon oavsett vem som får det. En ledare, kämpe, finlirare, scorer, atlet med en ödmjukhet så stor att man inte kan annat än att gilla tjejen..

Alla ni tjejer som varit med på denna resa skall njuta denna kväll oavsett  om ni kom med i laget eller inte, oavsett om ni fick spela mycket eller lite. Ni alla har tillsammans varit med om att skriva historia, EM BRONS!!

Note

Genom sin placering är laget också klart för U 19-VM i Bratislava nästa sommar

As another sad reflection of the Aquarian Age we are entering, a former international with 115 caps to his merit is once again put in a bad light and it’s not at all hard to detect the stabbings behind the curtain. To cut the story short, Gheorghe Popescu was a blessing for Romanian football, which achieved its heighest with the centre-back in the line-ups, and became a threat to the dubious establishment at the top of the national game once retired.

Popescu was just put forward as another high-profile example of informer to Securitate, the infamous secret police of Ceausescu’s regime, with all the hype and sensationalism that such an announcement brings. If it’s to ask any Romanian in the street, the folklore goes that one in three collaborated in one way or another with the oppresive regime. That’s what you’ll be told. Was Gica Popescu one of the “one in three”? It’s questionable, unproven and there is a realistic possibility, as many people sense, for all the hype to be just a false flag, a script writen by his enemies. It seems so, at least, just remembering the too many cases when opponents of beneficiaries of the previous regime and what was to follow were subjected to bad publicity and stinking lies. Popescu, the footballer, knows too well about the best way of defending, which is to attack, and it looks like his opponents ar employing exactly the same tactics…  

Some ruined others people’s lives. Others were just scared, pitiful informers. But extremely few out of the many who did lasting damage to their nation and its citizens have suffered the repercussions of their antics. In this context, to bring from the dead a very questionable dark but, if so, totally insignificant side of one of the most proeminent Romanian footballers ever, is not only another attack on his present reputation and credit with the public but a retroactive stain on an untarnished career, full of success, during which the well-travelled defender may have had a very few unharmful slips to the small benefit of his recruiters. Slips which, if this is the real truth, happened when the young man was in his very early 20es and when all that he wanted is to play football, to fly high in his career… His wrist was easy to be twisted. 

Soon after the collapse of Ceausescu’s regime, a small but well connected group with the inside knowledge of the Romanian game raised to power at the top of FRF, the Romanian Football Federation, with its later ramification in LPF, the Professional League, an umbrella to the first division, and banked in all possible ways thanks to the significant inroads of the national side, blessed with a couple of fine generations of talented players. Among them, “Gica” Popescu, a leader at the provincial club Universitatea Craiova in the late 80es, in a new wave of fine footballers emerged immediately after the club’s route to an away-goal rule defeat to Benfica in the UEFA Cup semifinals.

From Craiova, a magnet of footballing talent from the region of Oltenia, where Popescu was born in october ‘67, the tall defender ended more or less against his will and to the dismay of his followers at Steaua Bucharest, for the second part of the penultimate full season of football in Ceausescu’s times. Gheorghe played only 13 games for the Army team with connections to Ceausescu’s family and returned to his beloved Universitatea, from where, once Coppa del Mondo Italia Novanta ended, he started his European tour, first with four years in Eindhoven, then with a season at White Hart Lane, continued with the triumphs in both Cup Winners Cups and UEFA Cup while playing and even captaining Barcelona and Galatasaray respectively.

As the European football followers will remember the decisive penalty with which Popescu won UEFA Cup for the Istanbul based club, against Wenger’s Arsenal, in the 2000 final, as well the Romanian folk will cherish forever his appearances at three World Cup finals and two European Championships, an accollade which deservedly placed him 13 years in a row in the top four of the Romanian Player of the Year award, winning it six times. I’ll take this “Gica” anytime, as a great and passionate sportsman and footballer… That he is in love with football and fully appreciates its power to change lifes, Popescu proved by opening his own Football Academy, a finely run school in his native Calafat, a town in the county with the capital in Craiova. This is his legacy, and not what some backstabbers and their media lackeys are trying to throw like bombshells into the public domain.

Raising to such proeminence through talent and very hard work, Popescu became though a threat to the establishment once his career was over and, obvious for all, his ambitions to continue on the path of doing good for the game and country would have put him on a collision course with forces not so willing to give up on power, despite their reign on the game since early 90es. Firstly, Popescu was the only previously untarnished and remarkable figure to come out scathered of one of the too many scandals which are permanently engulfing the badly run Romanian football, in that case involving transfers, on which market the former player entered as a registered agent. A scapegoat in a world of lurking sharks.

And now this. An informer. Really!?! There are so many countless nasty informers or even more, servants of the former regime, who enjoy their lavish lifestyles and crazy pensions without the scrutiny of the once surveilled. But then there is one “Gica” Popescu, former excellent footballer and brother-in-law of Gheorghe “Maradona of Carpathians” Hagi, who can become the catalyst of the so much needed change for good. Now here we are. There are elections to be won, there are warm seats to be kept, there are incredible cases of relentless corruption undermining the game to be covered, so the best way to defend the establishment is to attack the opponents.

Popescu is clean and has the interests of game at heart, in a clear antithesis to the machinations of the clique. He was made to look unclean, to the benefit of the rulers who continued the policy which suffocated the Romanian game in Ceausescu’s years.

Why was his supposed collaboration with Securitate brought to light right now? Why about him and not about countless others? Actually, any other decent Romanian will only say that is interested in the slightest in this unsavoury detail about one of their heroes. This is not dirty laundry but just – if proven – a minuscule stain instigated decades ago by others’ persuasive powers. So why?

The answer is simple… To the benefit of the same, plus to defect attention from other lugrubious happenings in the Romanian society and for the mass-media to have another scalp and scandal to turn on all its sides. And the damage to be complete, the story spilled in the European media as well, with all the typical clichees and subjective insights from a long distance into a game with much too much to uncover but ruled in such a manner to endlessly perpetuate the spin of the dirty laundry.

If it’s to talk about Gica, let’s start by visiting his Football Academy in Calafat. That’s his legacy for the game, out of his hard earned money. I wonder where is to be seen the legacy of almost 20 years of uninterrupted ruling at FRF and where are the money which came into the coffers due to the same great dilligence and profound sweat of likes as Gica Popescu? Actually these are great questions to be raised and brought forward but it’s too big the undertaking while the easy-to-get sensationalist stories are plenty, isn’t it!? Poor “Gica”, what have you done to all us ramblers?

Or may be is just human nature. The selfishness, the ego, the bitter jealousy of some corrupt birocrats and their little lives, against a role model who by well passing a century of caps for his country outgrew from a football icon for many to a potential saviour Mesia. So it’s easy to detect from where popped up all these unnecessary first page titles.

And to draw a parallel, it’s neither a surprise or a coincidence that in the same july of 2009 the former great head coach of the Romanian gymnastics team, Octavian Bellu, threw the towel from his meaningless role as a Secretary of Department of Sport, disgusted with the inertia and involvement of politics in an arena assumingly governed by fair-play. Another fine example of how Romanian politics is nefarously controlling from behind all aspects of the society, interfering with its dirty hands, suffocating and bringing into disrepute the sport arena and its national heroes. At least “Gica” is in good company, in a strong line of good men who were made to look bad.

I’m not defetist but the claws are impossible to be crushed. And for the simple mind or uninformed folk, “Gica” will be from this july 2009 ongoing not only the great footballer that he really was but an informant as well, just because someone interested decided to feed the propaganda machine with another target. He is just another victim of the smear campaign… A high profile victim. And “the campaigners” seem as powerful as 20 years ago. Has anything changed? Is it the summer of ‘89 or 2009? By the looks of it, we are moving fast-forward to a dark past, suffocated by walls which fell only in our imagination.

Gica’s firm response is to be expected.

Sverige hade inte något svar på Spaniens tuffa försvar,  pick’n roll spel på toppen och offensiva returtagning. Man kan konstatera att det var en rättvis seger då Spanien var det bättre laget. Individuellt sätt var Svergie med, men våra stjärnor hamnade i för svåra lägen allt för ofta och när kraften i andra halvlek tröt, så rann det iväg.

GLÖM DET!!

Nu laddar vi om batterierna, både den rekordpublik som letat sig till Täljehallen och spelare så att bronset kan vinnas imorgon.. Det skulle innebära att Sverige befäster sin position som ett av de länderna som visar framfötterna i Basket Europa..

Girls Go 4 Brons!

http://lt.se/sport/1.505424

Lördagen den 11 juli kl. 18.15 spelar Sveriges U18-tjejer EM-semifinal. Säg det en gång till högt för dig själv. EM-SEMIFINAL. Visst låter det som ljuv musik. Det var dock allt annat än ljuv musik från storpubliken i Täljehallen (lätt över 1300 pers) som bar fram Sverige till seger i kvartsfinalen mot Litauen med 60-79. Det var snarare skitig och härlig rock´n roll. För jävlar vad vi lät. Det var fullt ös från uppkast till de stående ovationerna för detta fantastiska landslag de sista två minuterna. Precis som det brukar låta i svenska baskethallar…not!

Det här är något helt nytt. Det är ett svenskt ungdomslandslag som gör bragdfajt efter bragdfajt, det är ett svenskt flicklandslag som inte springer i raka led och vinner uppvärmningen, det är ett svenskt flicklandslag som ser för jävliga ut på uppvärmningen, men som vinner fajterna.

Sverige tog kommandot i matchen direkt. Anförda av Cleo Forsmans energiska spel över hela planen stormade Sverige till en otrolig 43-26-ledning i halvtid. Men i tredje kom de tuffa litauiskorna tillbaka som retade tigrar. De spelade grymt bra D och började hänga i O. De gjorde 18-6 på oss och plötsligt darrade hela Täjlehallen. Men inte Cleo, inte Farhiya, inte Frida och inte heller Binta Drammeh som var glödhet i crunchtime. Binta dundrade i alla sina 15 poäng i fjärde. Från down town, på vindsnabba drives och på breaks. Sverige drog ifrån och vann till slut med 19 pinnar. Plusbetyg även till Jennifer Kücükkaya som gjorde flera i det närmaste felfria inhopp.

Shit vad jag skulle vilja vara Cleo Forsmans agent. Vilken stjärna. Förbundskapten Lasse Johansson måste gotta sig åt det svenska damlandslag han håller på att bygga upp. Först WNBA-meriterade Nnamakas generation, sedan VM-silverlaget med Eldebrinkskorna och Moskvaproffset Halvarsson och nu girls going 4 gold med Cleo, Farhiya m fl. Någonting står jäkligt rätt till i svensk dambasket. Jäkligt rätt. Maznichenko, Malashenko och Niedola i all ära. Min MVP heter Cleo och spelar för Sverige. I EM-kvarten hade hon 25 poäng, 13 returer, 5 assists, 6 (!) steals och 2 blockar.

Nu väntar Spanien i morrn. Tufft? Javisst. Omöjlig? Med det här landslaget? Knappast. Vi ses i hallen!

Litauen-Sverige 60-79 (16-27, 10-16, 18-6, 16-30)
Poäng Sverige: Cleopatra Forsman 25, Fahriya Abdi 19, Binta Drammeh 15, Frida Fogdemark 14, Julia Vestin 3, Julia Tornberg 3

I den andra semifinalen möts Frankrike och Tjeckien kl. 20.30.

Cleo 25 /13/5, Abdi 19/11/5, Binta 15/3, Fogdemark 14/3/7, Vestin 3/4, Törnberg 3/0, Kabenago 0/3, Neffati 0/3, Kücükkaya 3 assist

Poäng/Returer/Assist

Det man kan säga är att Cleo var 5 assist från en tripple dubbel och att det var ett par spelare som klev fram vilket var det som Sverige behövde för att ta sig till semi. Om Svergige gör det imorgon finns det en liten chans att ta sig till final.

 Ikväll 20:30 spelar Sverige kvartsfinal mot Litauen i damernas U18-EM i Södertälje. Svensk Baskettelevision är med och WebbTV-sänder. Kommentatorer är Jakob Törnell och Jens Tillman.

http://lt.se/sport/1.504318