Luis Medina Cantalejo

Tonight the UEFA Cup final will be played between FC Shakhtar Donetsk and Werder Bremen at the Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium. The referee is the very experienced Luis Medina Cantalejo from Spain. He was the fourth offical at the FIFA World Cup final 2006 who saw Zidane give Materazzi a head-butt. See here for my earlier post on this very interesting incident and he was involved in several other disputed decisions; see here and here. Lets see how he manages a real final.

Tuesday night we went to the mythical Camp Nou stadium to watch FC Barcelona play the current German champion Bayern Munchen for the Gamper Trophy. You can see some comments on the events of the night and the pictures we took in Alan’s blog. I’ll focus here on translating the comments I wrote in Portuguese at my brother’s blog:

I’ve been following Ronaldinho’s career since he arrived in Paris to play for Paris St Germain, a few years ago. It was a cold winter night and I was catching the metro in Paris – where I was accompanying Alan, who was attending a conference – when I saw him at the frontpage of a local newspaper. Living in Canada, I was a bit out of touch with what was going on in the football (soccer) world and wasn’t aware Ronaldinho had left Gremio, his home team in Brazil. And then we had the 2002 world cup, his fame reached new heights and he moved to FC Barcelona. Coincidently, I started studying Spanish history, particularly the Catalan part of the country. And my interest for Catalonia, football and Ronaldinho have merged into a passion for the local team, FC Barcelona – better known as Barça.

Barça reminds me a lot of Flamengo, my Brazilian team. It has a great history and very passionate supporters. The team proudly boasts homemade stars such as the capitain Puyol and the midfielder Xavi, as well as international players such as Ronaldinho, Eto’o, Deco and the recently-hired Gudjohnsen, Thuran & Zambrotta.

Yesterday was the final of the Gamper Trophy against Bayern Munchen, one of the very top European teams and current German champion. Since there were good prospects of a competitive game, tickets were cheaper than usual, and there would be a big party to celebrate the beginning of a new season, I decided to treat Alan to his first football game. As I said above, check his site for his impressions. The party was pretty cool, the environment very festive and full of families, and there were fireworks and light shows for the introduction of each of the players that form the 2006/07 team. Ronaldinho was the last one to be called into the field and the most applauded.

As for the game… Barça showed the kind of game I would like to see the Brazilian national team playing. Group spirit, almost perfect control of the ball, incredible passes, unrelenting pressure (I must say it annoys me to no end when Brazil and other good teams stop playing as soon as they have a favourable score), and a good defense. Bayern showed some battle spirit during the first 20 mins, but there was no way around it. It was a master class and Barcelona was giving it. Ronaldinho open the score board with a perfect free kick and Eto’o scored twice within the following 10 mins. The second half brought in an entire different team – literally, the coach replaced all 11 players to give a chance to the others and to preserve them for Friday’s game – showing that Barça has no B team. The team continued to pressure Bayern and Saviola scored another goal for Barça. Oliver Kahn – the famous German national team goalie – left the field looking pretty sad. And Barcelona showed that which we, Brazilians, respect in a football team: that one can win playing a beautiful and aggressive football.

Sunday they play Seville in Monaco for the Supercup. Visca Barça!!!!

One month of sheer tension and excitement has come to an end. We all wanted a dream fairytale ending for one fo these guys: David Beckham (England), Luis Figo (Portugal), Zinadine Zidane (France), Cafu (Brazil). But in the end it all ended with a spectacular Azzuri victory.

Italy : Yang (5 goals in penalty shootout)

France : Yin (Only 3 goals in penalty shootout)

 Zinadine Zidane is a national hero in Algeria, despite being born in France.

Many say that it is thanks to him that fans in Algeria cheer on the country that ruled Algeria for 132 years and fought eight bloody years to suppress its independence movement.

Fans went silent inside the Cafe de l’Union _ known locally as ”Cafe Zizou” after the midfielder’s nickname _ when Zidane was ordered off the field. But they said Zidane’s legacy as one of soccer’s greats was assured.

Zidane’s parents left for France shortly before Algeria’s brutal war of independence broke out in 1954, and Zidane grew up in a tough neighborhood outside Marseilles.

Zidane came to Aguemoune as a child during summer holidays, where he played soccer in the street with the other children.

”We were in a group of four or five children, he was on his own,” said cousin Rabah. ”But he beat us. All by himself he scored goals against us, he dribbled past us”, said one fan.

Meanwhile it is reported that Zidane’s World Cup final assault on Marco Materazzi was provoked by a “very serious” comment made by the Italian defender, according to the French playmaker’s agent.

His moment of madness in his last match before retiring may have been provoked by Materazzi calling his sister a prostitute, according to a report on Brazilian television channel Globo.

Although neither player has yet revealed the nature of their disagreement, Fantastico, a programme on Globo, employed lip-reading experts who said footage of the incident showed the Italian twice insulted Zidane’s sister.

Italy went on to win the match on penalties and Zidane’s agent Alain Migliaccio confirmed to the BBC on Monday that it had been verbal rather than physical abuse from the Italian defender which had triggered his violent reaction.

“He told me Materazzi said something very serious to him but he wouldn’t tell me what,” Zidane’s agent Alain Migliaccio said. “He was very disappointed and sad. He didn’t want it to end this way.” -Daily Mirror

The winners of third place has been declared after a well-faught match (which unfortunately I missed. What a shame). Here’s the Yin-Yang of it.

Germany : Yang (with 3 goals)

Portugal : Yin (with 1 goal)

[Photo Courtesy: Fifaworldcup.yahoo.com]

Honestly I’m surprised myself about the accuracy of my forecasts regarding the Squadra Azzurra so far. (The good thing is, that I started to bet on them from the very beginning.) So here is my last one.

Of course Italy will win on sunday, otherwise I would have chosen another heading. And I’m happy they will face France instead of Portugal. Although “Les Bleus” have got several brilliant players, there are also lots of weak points, like Fabien Barthez, who reminds me more of a clown than a solid number 1. And don’t forget, it’s now the 7th game in a row for “Les Vieux”, which had to invest 100% and even more every time, and many of them are getting more and more tired like other teams before. Without the ingenuity of Zizou the game of France is very uninspired, Henry and others will starve in the Italian penalty area. So playing fast and directly ahead by the Italians looks promising, because this will be too much for the old and slow French defense.

To win the final definitely looks easier than the task before to beat the Germans on their home ground. Furthermore there is a funny Italian championship-statistic: since 1970 they stood in the finals every 12 years, which they alternately won and lost. 1994 they lost …

24小时后就可以到家了，还是一个我从来没住过的新家。三四名的比赛要在飞机上看了，不过决赛就能在家看咯。

World Cup: Lippi salutes Zidane

Italy coach Marcello Lippi hails Zinedine Zidane’s influence on the French team.

One penalty is all it took to change the emotions of two nations at play. Here’s the final verdict…

France :

Portugal :

[Spell with Flickr did the Yin-Yang font jobs]

法国凭借亨利获得的点球由齐达内主罚1:0胜葡萄牙杀入了决赛。对我来说法国或葡萄牙谁入决赛都无所谓。倒是法国一比零领先时，希望葡萄牙进一个，打打加时。

The bloodbath has begun and the unexpected heroes of the host nation are out. What an unbelievable match. So here’s the final verdict…

Italy :

Germany :

[Yin-Yang fonts courtesy of 'Spell with Flickr']

我是法拉利和舒马赫的迷，这是意大利和德国的完美组合，而今天晚上两国是对手，胜利属于意大利，我喜欢了12年的球队。加油吧！

A tribute to the heroic fans of the final group – Group H.

[Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Spain fan photos courtesy of Fifaworldcup.yahoo.com]

Ok, this will be a tough game tonight, although I was dreaming of this fixture at the beginning. The real funny thing is, that Germany will start as favourite, which would have been unbelievable at least one month ago. Why is it? Ok, they played really well. But then against the strong Argentines they have been the weaker team. And it seems to me that many players feel drained and appear to be tired due to their powerful and intensive way to play. And now one of the strongest Germans, Frings, is missing. Any change of the German showpiece so far, the strong defensive midfield, will make life not easier for the defense. So I’m expecting lots of challenges for the German defensive players, which will lead to mistakes as it happened before the tournament.

And what about my Azzurri? They played as always, very efficient and tactically superb. They improved from game to game and still have lots of reserves. Nobody knows how strong they are actually. The whole Squadra is very balanced with lots of very good players and tactical innovations on the bench. One striker (Toni), two strikers (Toni together with Gilardino) or even three (Inzaghi)? With Totti or Del Piero? Or both together or nobody at all? Everything will work and is possible. Together with the strongest defense this team is very difficult to figure out and play against.

So as long as the Italians stay disciplined and do not accept emotions from outside, it should be a clear win for Italy again, as always against Germany during championships.
tbc

Now… this one I didn’t foresee:that no only would Brazil forget how to play football but that we would have to be reminded of it by the French. It serves the Brazilian team right for not taking the competition as seriously as they ought to… And that’s all I’m saying here.

The day after the night before. Germany celebrated last night as their team moved emphatically through to the semi-finals with a solid display of penalties. Heads may have been sore in the morning but we were all excited at the prospect of seeing England do the same to Portugal this afternoon…. after breakfast we headed out to the Gelsenkirchen stadium in plenty of time for the match… the spirit of the crowd was unbelievable! 90% English, 10% Portugese. An engrossing match followed – England just couldn’t sink the ball in the back of the net despite the myriad of chances.. Roony was clearly frustrated with the result of Ericsson’s formation for the game and played into Ronaldo’s hands to get sent off with a Red card – unbelievable.. I wouldn’t want to be Ronaldo returning to Manchester after the World Cup given his performance in this match – just disgraceful… Beckham left the field injured and broke down in the players box. Then it came down to penalties with a 0:0 result after extra time… at one stage during the penalties it looked as though England would get through, but then the inevitable happened – they once again lost in a major championship match to poor penalties. What a contrast to Germany the night before. Gutted, we all return to Dusseldorf to drink away the defeat.

We witnessed an historical match – the last for both Beckham and Ericsson at the helm of England.

The next day you could buy England flags for 99 cents at the local shop. That just about summed it up.

We’ve all just arrived in Dusseldorf for the England V Portugal World Cup Quarter-final… Expecting a glorious England win…. to kick off the weekend, we’ve dropped into the Rocking Chair to watch the Germany quarter-final… Germany won (v Argentina) on penalties (God they are rock solid taking penalties) and what a night of celebration followed!