Confederations Cup 09: Curtains down

The Confederations Cup held in South Africa came to an end yesterday, with the final match opposing Brazil to USA, while earlier Spain faced hosts South Africa for the 3rd place.

Lucio raises Confed. Cup

Brazil had to fight back from being 2-0 down at half time to eventually win the Confederations Cup 3-2 against a battling USA team. Dempsey and Donovan had given USA a 2-0 lead at half time, but at the restart, Luis Fabiano scored 2 goals with Lucio heading one in the last minutes to secure the win and the cup for the Brazilians.

Mphela equaliser celebrations (S.Africa)

Earlier, Spain faced South Africa for the 3rd place. They also had to battle hard to win, Mphela had put S.Africa ahead on 73minutes, but Guiza scored twice, on 87th and 88th minute to give Spain the lead, before Mphela equalized on 90th minute, sending the match into extra-time. Xabi Alonso eventually managed to score the winner for Spain on 106th minute from a freekick.

Crisis at Old Trafford??

The English champions seem to be facing a “crisis” for the past weeks, first Ronaldo sold to R.Madrid since the sum offered was too good to be rejected, now Tevez on his way out after a loan spell of 2 years with the club, but recently refused a 5-year contract offered to him. And now he is giving the reason of his exit by stating it was the arrival of Berbatov to the team. For him, the arrival of Berbatov had made him a mere substitute to the team, and the manager just overlooked his talent. More info here. Tevez sure is a good player, but he runs more on the field rather than contribute in play-making, although he did score some important goals for the team to make United champions during his 2 years. Thank you Tevez, and good luck with any club you join, with Man City leading the chase, and Chelsea close behind to sign him.

Another issue which has kept the fans on the edge is who will replace Ronaldo in that iconic No.7 shirt. This shirt is usually reserved for those players who are given the status ‘legends‘ by the fans, Cantona has worn it, Beckham, and in a recent past Ronaldo (thou I don’t consider him a legend, unlike other fans ). Some fans want Frenchman Ribery to wear it if United were to buy him, thus walking in the steps of another Frenchman Cantona, but according to his current club Bayern Munich, he is not for sale, while Zidane says Ribery must join R.Madrid, something which the latter as well wants to do, he says he doesn’t like to play in England! Benzema, another Frenchman and Lyon player is being courted by Sir Alex, but R.Madrid are in the race as well, and Benzema yet to decide if he will leave France.

For me a solution to this would be to give the No.7 to Wayne Rooney, this guy works hard on the pitch and if currently there is someone who deserves this iconic shirt its him, no doubt on that. United could also work on the young players in the reserves and bring them to the 1st team; Giggs, Scholes, Neville brothers, Butt, Beckham all came from there, so why not build a team with our own players, who know how the football is played at OT instead of spending millions on players who will not give a damn about the club, except fight for huge wages.

New kit revealed: (I already commented about this on other blogs )

Rooney with new kit

The new kit for season 2009-2010 has been revealed this week, and if you are thinking what’s new about it, its the black V shape on the chest (pic below).

I find it rather bizarre to say the least, you can voice out your own opinions

Kits for other clubs can be seen on this website: WDKF.

Until next time, stay tuned guys and girls

Confederations Cup: Semi Finalists

Dossena scores an own goal, 3-0 Brazil wins

The names of the four semi-finalists for the Confederations Cup being currently held in South Africa were known last night. They are namely: Spain, South Africa, Brazil and the surprise-packet, USA.

This competition started with 2 groups:

Grp A: Irak- champions of Asia, Spain- European champions, South Africa- host country, and New Zealand- Oceania champions.

Grp B: Brazil- South American champions, Egypt- African champions, Italy- World champions and USA- North American champions.

Spain and Brazil were already qualified after playing only 2 games in their groups, and on Saturday by beating the host country, Spain made it 9pts out of 9, and broke the world record for unbeaten matches in a row (15: new record). South Africa managed to qualify despite losing due to the 0-0 match between Irak and N.Zealand.
Last night Brazil faced Italy, and this was a crucial match for the Italians, since Brazil had 6 pts and already qualified, while Italy and Egypt had 3pts each, with USA 0, and any of these 3 teams could qualify. Brazil were however ruthless to the world champions, beating them 3-0, all goals in the 1st half, and claiming all 9pts in the group, while USA beat Egypt 3-0 as well, obtaining 3pts and qualifying on better goal differences.

So the semis will oppose Spain to USA on Wednesday, while Brazil take on South Africa on Thursday, and may likely produce a final between Spain and Brazil, unless a major upset is produced by the 2 outsiders

EPL 2009/2010 fixtures

Theatre of Dreams: Old Trafford

The Premier League fixtures for season 2009-2010 have been announced today, even thou provisional for the time being. Manchester United will kick off this new season on August 15  by playing against newly promoted Birmingham City and then face Burnley in the second match on the 18th.

Some important dates to remember thou:

29 August: vs. Arsenal (Home)

19 September: vs. Man City (Home)

24 October: vs. Liverpool (Away)

7 November: vs. Chelsea (Away)

30 January(2010): vs. Arsenal (Away)

20 March : vs. Liverpool (Home)

3 April: vs. Chelsea (Home)

17 April: vs. Man City (Away)

Of course all other games will be as important as the ones listed above

Full fixture list for Man United here and all other fixtures for all teams and other leagues here.

Cristiano Ronaldo Madrid bound

Ronaldo & Paris night out

"Bad boy ronny- out you go"

It’s finally official, Cristiano Ronaldo will join Real Madrid for a sum of £80M after Sir Alex and the United board agreed on the bid by Real Madrid representatives. Sir Alex himself is on holidays in France, while Ronaldo is in LA, USA. Sir Alex earlier said that he would not sell a ‘virus’ to Madrid, but given Ronaldo’s recent attitude and behaviour, he had become more a ‘cancer’ in the team, mostly after his comments after losing the CL finals.

Ronaldo is said to be really thrilled for his dream to become true, and to celebrate the event he even had the chance to spend last night with none other than Paris Hilton in a nightclub before eventually moving to her sister’s house after the party … More about this story here. Lucky winker you could say!!

With Ronaldo only having to pass his medical and discuss personal terms with the spanish team, the deal can already be classified as closed. Following this transfer, the American owners of United have told Sir Alex that he will have around £100M to spend in new players, and again the names of Ribery, Benzema and Valencia have started to be linked with Man United, and new names like Yaya Touré from Barcelon as well.

Ricardo Kakà goes to Real Madrid

Kakà when playing at AC Milan

Finally it’s done, Ricardo Kakà, 27yrs, has been bought from AC Milan by Real Madrid for a fee about £59million (world record upto now in transfer fees, until Ronaldo signs may be ).

According to Kakà himself, he left AC Milan to help the team, and also revealed that former United and Real Madrid player, David Beckham, was the one who convinced him to join the Spanish team. His monthly salary is said to be around £200k per week, and his contract will end around 2014. He will be given No.5 shirt, the same Zidane wore when playing there.

Next on Real’s transfer list is Cristiano Ronaldo, and a bid of about £75million is thought to have been offered to the Red Devils, along with the coming of Huntelaar to United in the same deal, thou needs to be confirmed in the coming days.

More transfer news to come along, as Pato (AC-Milan) is ready to open talks with new Chelsea manager Ancelotti, while Wigan’s Antonio Valencia wants to join Man United…

Premier League: Transfers (1)

Only a few days after the season is over for the Premier League that the transfer market is busy once again.

First to come to the Premier League is Carlo Ancelotti, the former AC Milan manager who has signed with Chelsea on Monday, replacing Guus Hiddink. As soon as he arrived he has set his target, win the Champions League next season. Moreover, he is already actively searching for players to add to the squad, with the names of Pato, Kaka and Ribery being brought up. The prices being demanded by their respective clubs is somehow delaying their purchase, with Kaka being touted around 70million euros, Ribery more than 50 millions and Pato about 30millions. Still a long way to go before the window closes, and god knows who will join the Chelsea squad.

The most shocking transfer for the time being may be that of Gareth Barry. The former Aston Villa midfielder has just signed with Manchester City, for a deal worth 12 million pounds, with a pay check of about 100,000pounds/week . This same Barry was quoted last year as wanting to play Champions League football, and Liverpool were hot favorites to sign him, even this time, but it seems money does the talking these days, since City are neither in the CL nor in Europa League next season, and still got him easily.

More transfer news to come, with Tevez being linked to City as well, while Real Madrid are back on C.Ronaldo’s track, as well as Kaka’s, and Forlan to join City as well. Latest news is that manager Steve Bruce (ex-United player), has left Wigan for Sunderland…