Amauri words a sign of things to come:
On Wednesday morning in the Italian press hidden amongst the recriminations from Italy’s 3-0 European Championship opening loss to The Netherlands, was a short piece about Juventus’ new signing Amauri. In it the Brazilian-born attacker, who has recently left Palermo for Turin, stated his desire to play for Italy at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Now Amauri wouldn’t be the first South American-born player to turn out for the Azzurri, after all currently starring for Italy in Austria and Switzerland is Mauro Camoranesi, who was born and raised in Argentina but, like so many of his compatriots qualified for an Italian passport and having performed for Verona and Juventus was capped by then coach Giovanni Trappatoni.
What should be of more concern to FIFA is what it will do to player development in the wealthier nations.
Italy is a something of an exception when it comes to qualifying for a passport. You need to be resident for 10 years and whilst his wife holds a passport it makes no difference for Amauri. Currently he is at the eight-year mark and has admitted that if he could, he would have accepted a call from Italy coach Roberto Donadoni to play in Austria and Switzerland.
Of course in two years time he will be a fully paid-up member of the Italian passport holders club and if he continues his form for Juventus chances are he will be part of the Italy squad (qualification depending) who defend their trophy in South Africa. Had he made it to the Alpine countries this year he wouldn’t have been alone as a Brazilian naturalised and playing for another country.
Portugal’s Deco has long been a star for FC Porto and Barcelona and fellow Brazil-born player Pepe, who gained his passport in August 2007 and went straight into the team, now joins him in the Portugal line-up. Marco Senna has made his name for Villarreal and once he became a citizen was brought in to solidify a Spain midfield featuring Xavi and Cesc Fabregas. Roger Guerreiro scored Poland’s goal against Austria on Thursday night and Marco Aurelio became Mehmet Aurelio when he joined Turkey’s Fenerbache and whilst he too anchors the midfield his inclusion isn’t 100% popular.
Most European countries only require someone to be resident within their borders for five years to qualify for a passport. Now in most cases, such as Roberto Carlos when he was at Real Madrid, it is so that they no longer qualify as a non-EU player and thus are outside any quotas. However it is easy to see how it can be more cynically exploited thanks to the FIFA’s rules that insist that anyone playing for a national team must have be a passport holder from that country.
Argentina is one such country that is aware of the threat from the rich European clubs. Realising that there is little that can be done to stop their players running to Europe the first time an agent waves a fist full of Euros or Pounds in their faces, they tie them up in national training schemes, imbuing them with a sense of patriotism when they go overseas. It is one reason why Leonardo Messi will never turn his back on Argentina, despite his formative years in Spain and his Spanish passport.
But of course not every South American family is as blessed with such talent as Senor Messi's and therefore what is to stop, for instant, English clubs heading over to South America picking up a load of talented Brazilian lads and parking them in England until they qualify for UK passports and therefore the national teams. Sure there are FIFA rules against player movements before a certain age, but these can be circumnavigated if the whole family is moved, as happened to the 13 year-old Messi.
I realise it is a bit of an extreme scenario, but such is the English clubs’ apathy to player development, that it wouldn’t be too much of a shock. There has already been talk of Arsenal’s Spanish goalkeeper playing for England when he qualifies for a passport next season and it wouldn’t be the first time that such a policy has existed. New Zealand with their three year requirement for citizenship have been parking talented Pacific Island rugby players at schools and then putting into provincial and national teams as they did with wing Sitiveni Sivivatu.
We already have the situation whereby there is little compunction about a national team having a foreign coach and I realise that there can be little criticism of the players who are only taking advantage of passport laws for the betterment of their career. However, FIFA and the national associations need to get their heads round this issue if there is to any sense of national identity in international football in years to come.
Collingwood sounds note of caution:
Whilst the whole cricketing world seems to have gone bananas with the Twenty20 format, it took England one-day captain Paul Collingwood to remind everyone that there is more to the sport than a frantic two-hour (at most) session of bat thrashing and ball smashing and that test matches should not be forgotten as the highest form of the game.
The rise and rise of the short format of the sport continued this week when England announced they will play five Twenty 20 matches in the Caribbean this autumn, for a minor fee of £10million that will be shared between the winning players and staff.
Since Texas-born, Antigua-based multi-millionaire Sir Allen Stamford started bankrolling the modestly titled ‘Allen Stamford Series’ in the Caribbean, Twenty 20 cricket has snowballed.
We now have a credible tournament putting life back into cricket in the West Indies, something the International Cricket Council and the local organising committee failed to do with the 2007 Cricket World Cup and boy does it need it.
In recent years West Indian cricket has been hijacked by football, basketball and athletics, where once it was cricket that defined the region. Name a famous Jamaican sportsman and I would guarantee the first name that pops into your head is sprinter Asafa Powell rather than cricketer Chris Gayle. Likewise where are the heirs to Gary Sobers in Barbados or Brian Lara in Trinidad and Tobago?
It may only be a couple of years old, but Stamford recognised something when he created his series. That the islands are today truly independent nations and where they were once showcased to the world by their unified efforts as a cricket team, now they have their own individuals competing for an individual nation. Powell and new 100m world record holder Usain Bolt from Jamaica, fellow sprinters Obadele Thompson from Barbados and Ato Boldon from T and T, not to mention Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago making it to the World Cup finals in recent years.
India have now followed suit and their first year has been a resounding success of exciting action, full crowds and money through the tills. Watching this from afar has been the English and Welsh Cricket Board (ECB) whose original Twenty 20 concept now looks quaint by comparison.
Of course it is interesting that it is Collingwood who is trying to cool the frenzy. For years this was a player who was outstanding at one-day level, but who struggled to find a place in the test team. He could easily have sat back and enjoyed being a 50 over star and not fret too much about establishing himself in the longer form of the sport. But he wanted the credibility that comes from being a test cricketer and is now a key fixture of Michael Vaughan’s test side and what he says is true.
Twenty 20 is a valid form of the game and in terms of spreading the popularity of cricket is important (hell it is even shown on Italian TV), but it should be the first step in educating people about the sport as a whole, including the five-day format. After all the beauty of test cricket is that it lasts so long, but by being like that it gives the sport depth and substance. It is not something that can just be consigned to the bin on the whim of the man with the biggest cheque- book.
JI 16/06/08
domenica 15 giugno 2008
domenica 8 giugno 2008
Notes from a sporting week 09/06/08
Nadal confirms status as king of clay:
Watching the French Open’s men’s final on Eurosport wasn’t the easiest of viewing, mainly due to the ridiculously over the top artistic vision mixing of the channel’s directors. However, on the review programme that followed there were some interesting comments made by ex-world number one Mats Wilander.
The Swede said he cannot wait until next year’s French Open, as like most people who troop to Roland Garros, he will be desperate to see Roger Federer break his duck in Paris and win the one slam to elude him.
It is hard to disagree with Wilander; such is the way in which Federer has charmed the world with his magnanimity and multi-lingual charm. He is alone as an undisputed number one in that unlike the likes of Michael Schumacher or Tiger Woods, you feel little shame cheering him on.
That said, it is no bad thing that Nadal continues to be his nemesis on clay, this time demolishing him 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 to keep some kind of check and balance in men’s tennis. Furthermore with Novak Djokavic come up fast there is now a real threat to the Swiss in the other three slams. Imagine how truly dull men’s tennis would be if Federer cleared up every time?
Of course Federer will take no compensation from the fact that he lost to someone who has won the last four French Open titles and who has yet to lose at Roland Garros. That he lost in such an appallingly bad manner will probably haunt him until the start of the 2009 tournament. Sure he’s had health problems this year, but the way he mistimed shots, misjudged angles and length and gave away silly point after silly point mean that he has a lot of work to do between now and Wimbledon, be it physical or mental.
There have been many reports since the turn of the year questioning whether we will ever see the best of Federer again and we should have a clearer picture of his future once Wimbledon has finished. Of equal importance will be seeing how well Nadal does there and whether he can demonstrate that he is more than just a one-surface player. Wilander may be excited by what will happen down the Bois de Boulogne next year, but there are a lot of staging posts along the way that will be as equally significant for what shape men’s tennis will be in 12 months time.
New model Spurs taking shape:
It wasn’t a bad weekend to be a fan of Tottenham Hotspur. Firstly their team pulled off a major coup by taking Giovanni Dos Santos off Barcelona’s hands for an initial £4.7 million and then watched as their new signing Luca Modric opened the scoring in Croatia’s win over Austria at the European Championships.
In past summers, for supporters of other clubs, it has become a part of the summer to watch with amusement as Tottenham fans work themselves into a frenzy at news of their impending signing of one big name or another before those hopes are quickly dashed. Certainly the biggest name to have been linked with Spurs in recent summers was Rivaldo, before somewhat inevitably he turned them down in favour of AC Milan, a team who was playing in the Champions League.
There was a chance of a similar situation occurring this summer, with all the talk surrounding Samuel Eto’o joining the White Hart Lane outfit from Barcelona. With respect the lilywhites, such a move is highly unlikely given that the team will only be playing UEFA Cup football next season and has yet to feature in Europe’s premier club competition. However, the signings of Dos Santos and Modric should quieten such noises, yet give fans some hope that they can move forward in 2008-09.
Both signings should fit into the traditional Spurs tradition of good, intelligent footballers and whilst they aren’t household names now the powers that be are clearly optimistic that they can develop as players in north London and turn Tottenham into regular Champions League participants. Whilst Spurs fans wouldn’t appreciate anyone mentioning it, it is a policy that worked wonders for their bitter rivals down the road at Arsenal.
Dos Santos, whose transfer fee could rise to £8.6 million, will provide an attacking threat from the left, whilst hopes will be on Modric that he can pull the strings in midfield in the way that Glenn Hoddle and Ossie Ardilles once did. Great praise has to go to Tottenham manager Juande Ramos for pulling off the signings as there is little doubt that both will have received a number of significant offers, such is the level of their reputations. It also speaks volumes for the respect in which Ramos is held that he could persuade them to join him at White Hart Lane.
Having led Sevilla to two successive UEFA Cups, one of the reasons Tottenham were so keen to get him on board was because of the clout he would bring to the transfer market and transfer dealings. Whilst Martin Jol did extremely well to get Spurs into fifth place two years in a row and was highly popular, the decision to sack him, whilst hardly painting Spurs’ management in a good light, shows that they were willing to make tough, unpopular decisions for the sake of the club.
The signings may not be the most earth-shattering purchases in Tottenham’s history, but they do show the direction the club should be going in. Along with defenders Jonathon Woodgate and Alan Hutton they demonstrate that Ramos has a strategy when buying players. Good at their job and old enough to be of benefit to the club either on the field or in the transfer market they show that the club thinks that they won’t break into the top four by a sudden splurge of cash on one or two big names, but through a well though out policy towards players who will fit into the model and grow together.
Of course there remains a chronic need for the club to keep hold of striker Dimitar Berbatov. The Bulgarian has been at the heart of everything the team has down well over the last few years, but is famously temperamental and has an agent who has no compunction over making eyes to the Champions Leagues clubs elsewhere in the country. Holding onto to him will be the next big job for Ramos and whether he does or not is likely to define whether Spurs make the step up to the next level or keep living their deluded dreams for the foreseeable future.
JI 09/06/08
Watching the French Open’s men’s final on Eurosport wasn’t the easiest of viewing, mainly due to the ridiculously over the top artistic vision mixing of the channel’s directors. However, on the review programme that followed there were some interesting comments made by ex-world number one Mats Wilander.
The Swede said he cannot wait until next year’s French Open, as like most people who troop to Roland Garros, he will be desperate to see Roger Federer break his duck in Paris and win the one slam to elude him.
It is hard to disagree with Wilander; such is the way in which Federer has charmed the world with his magnanimity and multi-lingual charm. He is alone as an undisputed number one in that unlike the likes of Michael Schumacher or Tiger Woods, you feel little shame cheering him on.
That said, it is no bad thing that Nadal continues to be his nemesis on clay, this time demolishing him 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 to keep some kind of check and balance in men’s tennis. Furthermore with Novak Djokavic come up fast there is now a real threat to the Swiss in the other three slams. Imagine how truly dull men’s tennis would be if Federer cleared up every time?
Of course Federer will take no compensation from the fact that he lost to someone who has won the last four French Open titles and who has yet to lose at Roland Garros. That he lost in such an appallingly bad manner will probably haunt him until the start of the 2009 tournament. Sure he’s had health problems this year, but the way he mistimed shots, misjudged angles and length and gave away silly point after silly point mean that he has a lot of work to do between now and Wimbledon, be it physical or mental.
There have been many reports since the turn of the year questioning whether we will ever see the best of Federer again and we should have a clearer picture of his future once Wimbledon has finished. Of equal importance will be seeing how well Nadal does there and whether he can demonstrate that he is more than just a one-surface player. Wilander may be excited by what will happen down the Bois de Boulogne next year, but there are a lot of staging posts along the way that will be as equally significant for what shape men’s tennis will be in 12 months time.
New model Spurs taking shape:
It wasn’t a bad weekend to be a fan of Tottenham Hotspur. Firstly their team pulled off a major coup by taking Giovanni Dos Santos off Barcelona’s hands for an initial £4.7 million and then watched as their new signing Luca Modric opened the scoring in Croatia’s win over Austria at the European Championships.
In past summers, for supporters of other clubs, it has become a part of the summer to watch with amusement as Tottenham fans work themselves into a frenzy at news of their impending signing of one big name or another before those hopes are quickly dashed. Certainly the biggest name to have been linked with Spurs in recent summers was Rivaldo, before somewhat inevitably he turned them down in favour of AC Milan, a team who was playing in the Champions League.
There was a chance of a similar situation occurring this summer, with all the talk surrounding Samuel Eto’o joining the White Hart Lane outfit from Barcelona. With respect the lilywhites, such a move is highly unlikely given that the team will only be playing UEFA Cup football next season and has yet to feature in Europe’s premier club competition. However, the signings of Dos Santos and Modric should quieten such noises, yet give fans some hope that they can move forward in 2008-09.
Both signings should fit into the traditional Spurs tradition of good, intelligent footballers and whilst they aren’t household names now the powers that be are clearly optimistic that they can develop as players in north London and turn Tottenham into regular Champions League participants. Whilst Spurs fans wouldn’t appreciate anyone mentioning it, it is a policy that worked wonders for their bitter rivals down the road at Arsenal.
Dos Santos, whose transfer fee could rise to £8.6 million, will provide an attacking threat from the left, whilst hopes will be on Modric that he can pull the strings in midfield in the way that Glenn Hoddle and Ossie Ardilles once did. Great praise has to go to Tottenham manager Juande Ramos for pulling off the signings as there is little doubt that both will have received a number of significant offers, such is the level of their reputations. It also speaks volumes for the respect in which Ramos is held that he could persuade them to join him at White Hart Lane.
Having led Sevilla to two successive UEFA Cups, one of the reasons Tottenham were so keen to get him on board was because of the clout he would bring to the transfer market and transfer dealings. Whilst Martin Jol did extremely well to get Spurs into fifth place two years in a row and was highly popular, the decision to sack him, whilst hardly painting Spurs’ management in a good light, shows that they were willing to make tough, unpopular decisions for the sake of the club.
The signings may not be the most earth-shattering purchases in Tottenham’s history, but they do show the direction the club should be going in. Along with defenders Jonathon Woodgate and Alan Hutton they demonstrate that Ramos has a strategy when buying players. Good at their job and old enough to be of benefit to the club either on the field or in the transfer market they show that the club thinks that they won’t break into the top four by a sudden splurge of cash on one or two big names, but through a well though out policy towards players who will fit into the model and grow together.
Of course there remains a chronic need for the club to keep hold of striker Dimitar Berbatov. The Bulgarian has been at the heart of everything the team has down well over the last few years, but is famously temperamental and has an agent who has no compunction over making eyes to the Champions Leagues clubs elsewhere in the country. Holding onto to him will be the next big job for Ramos and whether he does or not is likely to define whether Spurs make the step up to the next level or keep living their deluded dreams for the foreseeable future.
JI 09/06/08
lunedì 19 maggio 2008
Notes from a sporting week – 19/05/08
Sad goodbye for Henin:
There were few out there who could say that they were not surprised by Justine Henin’s decision to retire from professional tennis at the ripe old age of 25 whilst atop the women’s world rankings, but happen it has and one can only applaud her for making a massive decision when she was at the peak of her powers.
Having played tennis since the age of five and having turned professional aged 16 in 1999 her reasons for retiring are not to dissimilar to those expressed by her compatriot Kim Clijsters when she retired last year; wanting to get away from the daily grind of training and travelling to tournaments in various parts of the world and having more of a normal life.
What comes as more of a shock is her timing. Having won the last three French Open titles one could have imagined that she would have been champing at the bit to make it four in a row. She also had an Olympic gold medal to defend in Beijing later in the year, but even sticking it out for a few more months is not something she could stomach after a 2008 in which she has won two titles but suffered some bad reverses along the way, not least to Dinara Safina in the third round of the German Open recently.
Over the last five years Henin has been the dominant figure on the women’s tour, wining seven grand slam titles and 47 tournaments in all. She has been top of the women’s rankings 117 times and in 2007 became the first female tennis player to earn more than US$5 million. The French Open was her favourite tournament and having won it in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 she was expected to add a fifth this year. She was also champion at the US Open in 2003 and 2007 and the Australian in 2004. The only slam to escape her was Wimbledon, where she finished runner up in 2001 and 2006.
2007 was undoubtedly the best year that she has enjoyed. As well as the French and US Opens and the $5 million, she added another eight titles to become the first women in 10 years to win 10 titles in a season, including the end of season championship. There was also the reconciliation with her father and brother from whom she had become estranged following the death of her mother when she was aged 12. Also in 2007 she announced that she was splitting from her husband and ex-coach Pierre-Yves Hardenne, though in both cases kept the reasons for them to herself.
Indeed there has been many this week speculating that with those chapters of her life closed she lacked the drive and desire to prove herself that had driven her to the heights she reached. The immediate and sudden announcement gives credence to this theory and the statement on her personal website talks of her having a bitter taste in her mouth were she to carry on until the season’s end.
Whatever the reasons the truth is that women’s tennis has lost one of its undoubted superstars, its best player in fact. Sure they still have the showbiz potential of Maria Sharapova or the Williams sisters, but she was a breath of fresh in the sport. Henin was not afraid to speak her mind and like Martina Hingis before her wasn’t worried about ruffling a few feathers with her comments in contrast to the usual self-centred banalities that most players come out with.
There has been the obvious talk of burnout and a comparison can be made to Hingis’ retirement after she was unable to compete with the power game of Sharapova, the Williams and Aurelie Mauresmo. The difference with Henin is that she could handle the power game and often overcame if. That she could is nothing short of miraculous considering her slight 5 feet 5 inch frame, especially in comparison to the aforementioned 6 feet tall Amazonian quartet. As well as having a deadly accurate forehand and backhand, she worked phenomenally hard on her serve and the fact that she reached two Wimbledon finals shows just how well she could negate the powerful serve and volley game.
There could be the worry that we may not see her like again, that we are far more likely to see more of the power hitters athletes who can adapt their game from the hard courts that dominate the season to the few weeks in which they have to venture onto clay or grass. Thankfully this week at the Rome Masters French women Alize Cornet reached the final where she lost in straight sets to defending champion Jelena Jankovic. Like Henin the Nice native is diminutive in stature, but has a delicate touch and good movement around the court. At 17 years of age she provides the hope that women’s tennis may have some variety in years to come. Should she reach the heights that Henin has reached though, it should be hoped that she doesn’t feel the need to turn her back on the sport when at the peak of her powers.
CAS makes common sense decision:
It has been a long road for Oscar Pistorius, the ‘blade runner’, but finally the South African Paralympic runner has got his wish of competing in able-bodied competitions, including of course this summers Olympic Games in Beijing.
Having been turned down by the International Association of Athletics Federations, Pistorius, the 2004 Paralympic gold medallist took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland and this Friday they confirmed that he can run alongside able-bodied runners, so long as it is on the prosthetic limbs, or cheetah blades as they are known, that he has been using thus far.
Originally the IAAF refused Pistorius his request, believing that the blades gave him an unfair advantage. What advantage existed was not obvious when he ran in a number of meetings in 2007 and finished well outside the top three. However, the man himself always argued that there was no advantage and he was able to prove it to the CAS.
Of course if technological developments mean that he starts using a new pair then they too will have to undergo a rigorous testing procedure before he can use them in non-paralympic competition and CAS was at pains to make clear that the ruling applied only to Pistorius and his cheetah blades. For now though all parties are happy, with IAAF President Lamine Diack welcoming him with open arms and wishing him well.
However, it is still highly unlikely that Pistorius will make it to Beijing for the Olympics. The ‘A’ qualifying time is 45.55 seconds, with a ‘B’ qualifying time of 45.95, which allows a country to enter one athlete if none has finished in the ‘A’ time. Currently his personal best for the 400m is 46.46, with a 2007 best of 46.56, though he did finish second in last year’s able-bodied 400m at the South African championships.
For now though that doesn’t matter, though the man himself believes that the ruling will spur him onto to better times. What is important is that he has been given the chance, whilst the IAAF can be satisfied with their stance because any rush to allow him would have opened a can of worms and left them open to accusations of tokenism. Moreover at a time when athletics is being kicked from pillar to post with stories of drug taking, Pistorius’ good news story provides a refreshing change.
JI 19/05/08
There were few out there who could say that they were not surprised by Justine Henin’s decision to retire from professional tennis at the ripe old age of 25 whilst atop the women’s world rankings, but happen it has and one can only applaud her for making a massive decision when she was at the peak of her powers.
Having played tennis since the age of five and having turned professional aged 16 in 1999 her reasons for retiring are not to dissimilar to those expressed by her compatriot Kim Clijsters when she retired last year; wanting to get away from the daily grind of training and travelling to tournaments in various parts of the world and having more of a normal life.
What comes as more of a shock is her timing. Having won the last three French Open titles one could have imagined that she would have been champing at the bit to make it four in a row. She also had an Olympic gold medal to defend in Beijing later in the year, but even sticking it out for a few more months is not something she could stomach after a 2008 in which she has won two titles but suffered some bad reverses along the way, not least to Dinara Safina in the third round of the German Open recently.
Over the last five years Henin has been the dominant figure on the women’s tour, wining seven grand slam titles and 47 tournaments in all. She has been top of the women’s rankings 117 times and in 2007 became the first female tennis player to earn more than US$5 million. The French Open was her favourite tournament and having won it in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 she was expected to add a fifth this year. She was also champion at the US Open in 2003 and 2007 and the Australian in 2004. The only slam to escape her was Wimbledon, where she finished runner up in 2001 and 2006.
2007 was undoubtedly the best year that she has enjoyed. As well as the French and US Opens and the $5 million, she added another eight titles to become the first women in 10 years to win 10 titles in a season, including the end of season championship. There was also the reconciliation with her father and brother from whom she had become estranged following the death of her mother when she was aged 12. Also in 2007 she announced that she was splitting from her husband and ex-coach Pierre-Yves Hardenne, though in both cases kept the reasons for them to herself.
Indeed there has been many this week speculating that with those chapters of her life closed she lacked the drive and desire to prove herself that had driven her to the heights she reached. The immediate and sudden announcement gives credence to this theory and the statement on her personal website talks of her having a bitter taste in her mouth were she to carry on until the season’s end.
Whatever the reasons the truth is that women’s tennis has lost one of its undoubted superstars, its best player in fact. Sure they still have the showbiz potential of Maria Sharapova or the Williams sisters, but she was a breath of fresh in the sport. Henin was not afraid to speak her mind and like Martina Hingis before her wasn’t worried about ruffling a few feathers with her comments in contrast to the usual self-centred banalities that most players come out with.
There has been the obvious talk of burnout and a comparison can be made to Hingis’ retirement after she was unable to compete with the power game of Sharapova, the Williams and Aurelie Mauresmo. The difference with Henin is that she could handle the power game and often overcame if. That she could is nothing short of miraculous considering her slight 5 feet 5 inch frame, especially in comparison to the aforementioned 6 feet tall Amazonian quartet. As well as having a deadly accurate forehand and backhand, she worked phenomenally hard on her serve and the fact that she reached two Wimbledon finals shows just how well she could negate the powerful serve and volley game.
There could be the worry that we may not see her like again, that we are far more likely to see more of the power hitters athletes who can adapt their game from the hard courts that dominate the season to the few weeks in which they have to venture onto clay or grass. Thankfully this week at the Rome Masters French women Alize Cornet reached the final where she lost in straight sets to defending champion Jelena Jankovic. Like Henin the Nice native is diminutive in stature, but has a delicate touch and good movement around the court. At 17 years of age she provides the hope that women’s tennis may have some variety in years to come. Should she reach the heights that Henin has reached though, it should be hoped that she doesn’t feel the need to turn her back on the sport when at the peak of her powers.
CAS makes common sense decision:
It has been a long road for Oscar Pistorius, the ‘blade runner’, but finally the South African Paralympic runner has got his wish of competing in able-bodied competitions, including of course this summers Olympic Games in Beijing.
Having been turned down by the International Association of Athletics Federations, Pistorius, the 2004 Paralympic gold medallist took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland and this Friday they confirmed that he can run alongside able-bodied runners, so long as it is on the prosthetic limbs, or cheetah blades as they are known, that he has been using thus far.
Originally the IAAF refused Pistorius his request, believing that the blades gave him an unfair advantage. What advantage existed was not obvious when he ran in a number of meetings in 2007 and finished well outside the top three. However, the man himself always argued that there was no advantage and he was able to prove it to the CAS.
Of course if technological developments mean that he starts using a new pair then they too will have to undergo a rigorous testing procedure before he can use them in non-paralympic competition and CAS was at pains to make clear that the ruling applied only to Pistorius and his cheetah blades. For now though all parties are happy, with IAAF President Lamine Diack welcoming him with open arms and wishing him well.
However, it is still highly unlikely that Pistorius will make it to Beijing for the Olympics. The ‘A’ qualifying time is 45.55 seconds, with a ‘B’ qualifying time of 45.95, which allows a country to enter one athlete if none has finished in the ‘A’ time. Currently his personal best for the 400m is 46.46, with a 2007 best of 46.56, though he did finish second in last year’s able-bodied 400m at the South African championships.
For now though that doesn’t matter, though the man himself believes that the ruling will spur him onto to better times. What is important is that he has been given the chance, whilst the IAAF can be satisfied with their stance because any rush to allow him would have opened a can of worms and left them open to accusations of tokenism. Moreover at a time when athletics is being kicked from pillar to post with stories of drug taking, Pistorius’ good news story provides a refreshing change.
JI 19/05/08
domenica 11 maggio 2008
Notes from a sporting week – 12/05/08
Manninger the unlikely hero:
It is not just the English Premier League that has come down to the final weekend to decide who will win the title. A week ago Italy’s Serie A should have been done and dusted. Season-long leaders Inter were ‘away’ to city rivals Milan at San Siro and a win would have sewn up the championship with two weeks to go. Despite Inter’s protestations before the match that they were the underdogs it was still some surprise that a Milan team that has long been off colour ran out 2-1 winners. It thus left Roma, who beat Sampdoria, three points behind, when it appeared they had thrown away their chance of overhauling Inter a couple of weeks ago with a 1-0 defeat away to Livorno.
So to this weekend when Inter were at home to Siena, whilst Roma hosted Atlanta at Stadio Olimpico knowing that all Inter had to do (again) was take maximum points to leave whatever Roma did as irrelevant. That said Siena have taken great delight in being a thorn in the bigger team’s ambitions, having defeated Roma and Juventus in previous weeks.
Things began as planned when Patrick Viera opened the scoring for Inter early on. Ten minutes later in the capital Christian Pannucci was popping up with yet another important goal for the giallorossi to keep up their part of the bargain. At the half hour mark things took a twist when one-time Middlesbrough striker Massimo Macaroni drew Siena level. It wasn’t to last till half time though, when Inter’s 17 year-old sensation Mario Balotelli put Inter back in the lead. With the goal coming just before half time and despite Danielle de Rossi putting Roma 2-0 ahead, few would have argued with that being that.
The Tuscans are made of sterner stuff though and two minutes after de Rossi’s freekick found the net, Houssine Kharja brought Siena back on level terms with a low shot past Inter keeper Julio Cesar. Having done well to draw level once, fantastically to do it twice most Roma fans would have been preying to their gods that they wouldn’t let it slip again.
For a while though it appeared that they would. As ever with most controversial incidents in Italian football it involved Marco Materazzi, Zinedine Zidane’s bete noire from the 2006 World Cup final. This time he was involved with a game of pushy-shovey with Christian Rigano in the Siena penalty area in the build up to a corner that resulted in both men falling to the ground and the referee inexplicably pointing to the penalty spot.
Having dusted himself down Materazzi could only watch in horror as poetic justice came round quicker than expected when Alex Manninger got down low to block the shot and then got to his feet in enough time to catch the resulting cross. The ex-Arsenal keeper has been off Anglo-Saxon radars for a number of years having left Highbury to join Fiorentina in 2001 and was an unlikely protagonist in shaping the title’s destiny. He will head home to Austria once the season ends for the European Championships and will be hoping to help his country end fears that they could be the worst tournament hosts ever.
And there it remained till fulltime, despite a late Atalanta goal giving Roma a few nervous moments before the final whistle and meant that one point is all that separates the two teams going into the final whistle.
At San Siro the TV cameras kept zooming onto Inter owner Massimo Moratti and with good reason. The Pirelli tyre tycoon has pumped millions upon millions of Euro into the nerazzurri and has precious few trophies to show for it. They may have won the last two scudetti, but the first was only after Juventus had it stripped from them following the calciopoli match-fixing scandal, then 2007 was tainted by Juve not being present in Serie A, whilst likely challengers Milan, had points docked from the start of the season after their involvement in calciopoli.
This year was the season in which Inter were to show the world that they hadn’t won the last two titles by default. At one point they led the table by 11 points, but Roma have stuck to their task doggedly. Even when they lost their talisman and captain, Francesco Totti through injury they have held on. Now though it is Inter that will be worried over one of their key players after Esteban Cambiasso, the tigerish Argentinian midfielder who has been talked of as a future captain was helped from the field at the final whistle. Nerves are taking hold in the Inter camp, but they know all they have to do is win their next match, away to Parma, to be crowned champions. If only it was a simple as that.
Sinbad leaving selectors few excuses:
There was one name that stood out during the Gloucester versus Bath match that decided who finished top of rugby union’s Premiership before the playoffs begin next weekend. That James Simpson-Daniel who finished as man of the match, scored the only try and made a number of important tackles.
With the summer tour to New Zealand approaching new England coach Martin Johnston will have to find a pretty good reason why Simpson-Daniel won’t be on the plane to Auckland such is the Gloucester man’s form not only this season, but over a number of years.
Having impressed in his international debut in 2002 he was injured and missed the 2003 World Cup. There has been a sprinkling of appearances in a white shirt since then, but further injury and selection policies have meant he has missed out more often than not.
Now though he is yet again showing what he is able to do and with the ability to impress on the wing and in the centres and bring speed and creativity to a side he should have earned more than just the 10 caps to his name.
By the time of the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand he will be 29 and around his peak. There is a lot of talk at the moment about England’s young starts: Toby Flood, Matthew Tait, Danny Cipriani and the like have been earning rave reviews week in week out. However, whilst they may keep learning and developing these next few years, most teams need a core of players around the 30 year-old mark to add the steadying hand to youthful exuberance.
Johnston should get him in his team now and allow him time to bed in because a player like him should not be allowed to miss out an opportunity to demonstrate his abilities to the world, yet alone miss out on a World Cup for a third time.
JI 12/05/08
It is not just the English Premier League that has come down to the final weekend to decide who will win the title. A week ago Italy’s Serie A should have been done and dusted. Season-long leaders Inter were ‘away’ to city rivals Milan at San Siro and a win would have sewn up the championship with two weeks to go. Despite Inter’s protestations before the match that they were the underdogs it was still some surprise that a Milan team that has long been off colour ran out 2-1 winners. It thus left Roma, who beat Sampdoria, three points behind, when it appeared they had thrown away their chance of overhauling Inter a couple of weeks ago with a 1-0 defeat away to Livorno.
So to this weekend when Inter were at home to Siena, whilst Roma hosted Atlanta at Stadio Olimpico knowing that all Inter had to do (again) was take maximum points to leave whatever Roma did as irrelevant. That said Siena have taken great delight in being a thorn in the bigger team’s ambitions, having defeated Roma and Juventus in previous weeks.
Things began as planned when Patrick Viera opened the scoring for Inter early on. Ten minutes later in the capital Christian Pannucci was popping up with yet another important goal for the giallorossi to keep up their part of the bargain. At the half hour mark things took a twist when one-time Middlesbrough striker Massimo Macaroni drew Siena level. It wasn’t to last till half time though, when Inter’s 17 year-old sensation Mario Balotelli put Inter back in the lead. With the goal coming just before half time and despite Danielle de Rossi putting Roma 2-0 ahead, few would have argued with that being that.
The Tuscans are made of sterner stuff though and two minutes after de Rossi’s freekick found the net, Houssine Kharja brought Siena back on level terms with a low shot past Inter keeper Julio Cesar. Having done well to draw level once, fantastically to do it twice most Roma fans would have been preying to their gods that they wouldn’t let it slip again.
For a while though it appeared that they would. As ever with most controversial incidents in Italian football it involved Marco Materazzi, Zinedine Zidane’s bete noire from the 2006 World Cup final. This time he was involved with a game of pushy-shovey with Christian Rigano in the Siena penalty area in the build up to a corner that resulted in both men falling to the ground and the referee inexplicably pointing to the penalty spot.
Having dusted himself down Materazzi could only watch in horror as poetic justice came round quicker than expected when Alex Manninger got down low to block the shot and then got to his feet in enough time to catch the resulting cross. The ex-Arsenal keeper has been off Anglo-Saxon radars for a number of years having left Highbury to join Fiorentina in 2001 and was an unlikely protagonist in shaping the title’s destiny. He will head home to Austria once the season ends for the European Championships and will be hoping to help his country end fears that they could be the worst tournament hosts ever.
And there it remained till fulltime, despite a late Atalanta goal giving Roma a few nervous moments before the final whistle and meant that one point is all that separates the two teams going into the final whistle.
At San Siro the TV cameras kept zooming onto Inter owner Massimo Moratti and with good reason. The Pirelli tyre tycoon has pumped millions upon millions of Euro into the nerazzurri and has precious few trophies to show for it. They may have won the last two scudetti, but the first was only after Juventus had it stripped from them following the calciopoli match-fixing scandal, then 2007 was tainted by Juve not being present in Serie A, whilst likely challengers Milan, had points docked from the start of the season after their involvement in calciopoli.
This year was the season in which Inter were to show the world that they hadn’t won the last two titles by default. At one point they led the table by 11 points, but Roma have stuck to their task doggedly. Even when they lost their talisman and captain, Francesco Totti through injury they have held on. Now though it is Inter that will be worried over one of their key players after Esteban Cambiasso, the tigerish Argentinian midfielder who has been talked of as a future captain was helped from the field at the final whistle. Nerves are taking hold in the Inter camp, but they know all they have to do is win their next match, away to Parma, to be crowned champions. If only it was a simple as that.
Sinbad leaving selectors few excuses:
There was one name that stood out during the Gloucester versus Bath match that decided who finished top of rugby union’s Premiership before the playoffs begin next weekend. That James Simpson-Daniel who finished as man of the match, scored the only try and made a number of important tackles.
With the summer tour to New Zealand approaching new England coach Martin Johnston will have to find a pretty good reason why Simpson-Daniel won’t be on the plane to Auckland such is the Gloucester man’s form not only this season, but over a number of years.
Having impressed in his international debut in 2002 he was injured and missed the 2003 World Cup. There has been a sprinkling of appearances in a white shirt since then, but further injury and selection policies have meant he has missed out more often than not.
Now though he is yet again showing what he is able to do and with the ability to impress on the wing and in the centres and bring speed and creativity to a side he should have earned more than just the 10 caps to his name.
By the time of the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand he will be 29 and around his peak. There is a lot of talk at the moment about England’s young starts: Toby Flood, Matthew Tait, Danny Cipriani and the like have been earning rave reviews week in week out. However, whilst they may keep learning and developing these next few years, most teams need a core of players around the 30 year-old mark to add the steadying hand to youthful exuberance.
Johnston should get him in his team now and allow him time to bed in because a player like him should not be allowed to miss out an opportunity to demonstrate his abilities to the world, yet alone miss out on a World Cup for a third time.
JI 12/05/08
lunedì 5 maggio 2008
Notes from a sporting week 05/05/08
Oars in for Beijing:
Rowing has been one of Britain’s best sources of medals at the Olympics Games and this week the team’s preparations were finalised and the various teams named for the World Cup that begins in Munich this week and who, barring a disaster, are expected to stay together all the way through to Beijing in August.
That expectations are high around rowing is largely thanks to the efforts of firstly Sir Steve Redgrave and then Sir Mathew Pinsent, who won five and four consecutive medals respectively. However, since their retirements there is now a realisation that the there is more to rowing than just those two.
At Sydney 2000 the team won three medals, including gold for Redgrave and Pinsent in the coxless fours and gold for the eights, as well as silver for the women’s quad sculls. Four years on in Athens the number of medals increased to four, with the men’s four retaining their gold medal. There are hopes that the number will increase in Beijing, having taken seven medals in Olympic class events at last years World Championships in Munich.
Once more the men’s fours has taken the majority of the attention, with a last minute change to the line-up. Just before Athens Alex Partridge was forced to withdraw from the four with a collapsed lung. This year he has been moved to the eight with the four made up of Steve Williams, who survives from 2004, Peter Reed, Andy Hodge and Tom James. Having won the 2005 and 2006 World Championships as part of 27 consecutive wins, there was a feeling that the team had gone stale, having finished seventh in Munich.
Of course such changes are nothing new. Between Sydney and Athens there was the expectation that Pinsent would go for his fourth consecutive gold alongside James Cracknell in the coxless pairs. Initially things went well for the duo and there was the famous day at the 2001 World Championships where 20 minutes after winning the coxless pair gold, they added the coxed pair gold. However, things went wrong in 2003 when they finished outside the medals, forcing coach Jurgen Grobler to act and put them into the coxless fours.
The change comes once again from the German and should silence any doubters. The East German has been winning rowing medals at Olympic Games since 1972 and was the inspiration behind three of Redgrave’s five Olympics golds.
This time there are high hopes for the eight, who along with Partridge have been joined by Colin Smith and Matt Langridge from the coxless pairs and in 2007 won a surprise bronze at the World Championships. The exact line-up has yet to be revealed, with 10 names selected for the Munich event being whittled down as Beijing draws nearer.
One thing that has stood out recently for the British squad is the success of the women’s team, with three of the four medals in Athens coming from the females. In Munich’s World Championships they won two gold medals, two bronze medals and will expect more of the same in Athens.
David Turner, the GB Rowing Performance Director has said that the squad would be pleased with four medals, though he is surely being mischievous with such sentiments. Having topped the table at the 2007 World Championships with eight medals the team will secretly be aiming much higher.
In 1996 it was Redgrave and Pinsent that saved the British Olympic team from utter obscurity by winning Britain’s only gold medal in Atlanta. That in 2008 there are no major names taking to the water shows what an excellent job GB Rowing has done in increasing the talent pool and that despite their attempts to keep a lid on expectations few people will be fooled by Tanners words.
Mixed start for Jamaica:
Another team hopeful of doing well in Beijing is the Jamaica sprint team and to that end they got off to a strong start to the season when Usain Bolt ran 9.76 seconds in Jamaica over the weekend. It gives the team a little fillip after the news that their big hope for 100m gold, Asafa Powell, will miss the meetings in Doha, Oslo and Eugene with a chest injury.
Bolt, the 2007 World 200m silver medallist, finished in a time two hundred’s of a second slower than Powell’s world record of 9.74 and lays down a marker to big rival and 100m world champion Tyson Gay, who ran 20.00 in his first 200m of the season.
There were high hopes for Powell and the Jamaica team going into the Athens Olympics, but they turned out to be one of the anticlimaxes of the Games. Powell disappointed in the 100m final, then failed to show up for the 200m final meaning the team were disqualified from the 4x100m relay. In the end it was the women that saved the day, with Veronica Crawford winning 200m gold, 100m silver and then anchoring the 4x100m team to victory.
Since then there have been strong showings from the Jamaicans in both the 2005 and 2007 World Championships. In Helsinki in 2005 Michael Frater took silver in the 100m, whilst Campbell took the 100m silver and helped the 4x100m team to second. Things improved in Osaka when Powell won the 100m bronze, with Bolt finishing third in the 200m and then they teamed up to win second in the 4x100m relay. Campbell also improved her standing with 100m gold, 200m silver and another 4x100m relay silver.
Of course at the same time the USA flexed its muscles and showed that it can still churn out champion runners. Whilst Justin Gatlin fell off his perch and was exposed as a drug cheat Tyson Gay went on and won double sprint gold in Osaka. There are also the likes of Wallace Spearman and Leroy Dixon who have proved themselves over the last Olympiad.
There should be little doubt that Jamaica is the USA’s main rivals in the sprints and there are few reasons why not. However, the same was true before Athens, but in the end they were unable to handle the pressure of the day and the less heralded ladies team showed them what was possible with a bit of belief. Bolt’s victory this weekend should give the team the belief that they need, they just need to build on it and keep it till Beijing if Powell and co are to truly fulfil their undoubted potential.
JI 05/05/08
Rowing has been one of Britain’s best sources of medals at the Olympics Games and this week the team’s preparations were finalised and the various teams named for the World Cup that begins in Munich this week and who, barring a disaster, are expected to stay together all the way through to Beijing in August.
That expectations are high around rowing is largely thanks to the efforts of firstly Sir Steve Redgrave and then Sir Mathew Pinsent, who won five and four consecutive medals respectively. However, since their retirements there is now a realisation that the there is more to rowing than just those two.
At Sydney 2000 the team won three medals, including gold for Redgrave and Pinsent in the coxless fours and gold for the eights, as well as silver for the women’s quad sculls. Four years on in Athens the number of medals increased to four, with the men’s four retaining their gold medal. There are hopes that the number will increase in Beijing, having taken seven medals in Olympic class events at last years World Championships in Munich.
Once more the men’s fours has taken the majority of the attention, with a last minute change to the line-up. Just before Athens Alex Partridge was forced to withdraw from the four with a collapsed lung. This year he has been moved to the eight with the four made up of Steve Williams, who survives from 2004, Peter Reed, Andy Hodge and Tom James. Having won the 2005 and 2006 World Championships as part of 27 consecutive wins, there was a feeling that the team had gone stale, having finished seventh in Munich.
Of course such changes are nothing new. Between Sydney and Athens there was the expectation that Pinsent would go for his fourth consecutive gold alongside James Cracknell in the coxless pairs. Initially things went well for the duo and there was the famous day at the 2001 World Championships where 20 minutes after winning the coxless pair gold, they added the coxed pair gold. However, things went wrong in 2003 when they finished outside the medals, forcing coach Jurgen Grobler to act and put them into the coxless fours.
The change comes once again from the German and should silence any doubters. The East German has been winning rowing medals at Olympic Games since 1972 and was the inspiration behind three of Redgrave’s five Olympics golds.
This time there are high hopes for the eight, who along with Partridge have been joined by Colin Smith and Matt Langridge from the coxless pairs and in 2007 won a surprise bronze at the World Championships. The exact line-up has yet to be revealed, with 10 names selected for the Munich event being whittled down as Beijing draws nearer.
One thing that has stood out recently for the British squad is the success of the women’s team, with three of the four medals in Athens coming from the females. In Munich’s World Championships they won two gold medals, two bronze medals and will expect more of the same in Athens.
David Turner, the GB Rowing Performance Director has said that the squad would be pleased with four medals, though he is surely being mischievous with such sentiments. Having topped the table at the 2007 World Championships with eight medals the team will secretly be aiming much higher.
In 1996 it was Redgrave and Pinsent that saved the British Olympic team from utter obscurity by winning Britain’s only gold medal in Atlanta. That in 2008 there are no major names taking to the water shows what an excellent job GB Rowing has done in increasing the talent pool and that despite their attempts to keep a lid on expectations few people will be fooled by Tanners words.
Mixed start for Jamaica:
Another team hopeful of doing well in Beijing is the Jamaica sprint team and to that end they got off to a strong start to the season when Usain Bolt ran 9.76 seconds in Jamaica over the weekend. It gives the team a little fillip after the news that their big hope for 100m gold, Asafa Powell, will miss the meetings in Doha, Oslo and Eugene with a chest injury.
Bolt, the 2007 World 200m silver medallist, finished in a time two hundred’s of a second slower than Powell’s world record of 9.74 and lays down a marker to big rival and 100m world champion Tyson Gay, who ran 20.00 in his first 200m of the season.
There were high hopes for Powell and the Jamaica team going into the Athens Olympics, but they turned out to be one of the anticlimaxes of the Games. Powell disappointed in the 100m final, then failed to show up for the 200m final meaning the team were disqualified from the 4x100m relay. In the end it was the women that saved the day, with Veronica Crawford winning 200m gold, 100m silver and then anchoring the 4x100m team to victory.
Since then there have been strong showings from the Jamaicans in both the 2005 and 2007 World Championships. In Helsinki in 2005 Michael Frater took silver in the 100m, whilst Campbell took the 100m silver and helped the 4x100m team to second. Things improved in Osaka when Powell won the 100m bronze, with Bolt finishing third in the 200m and then they teamed up to win second in the 4x100m relay. Campbell also improved her standing with 100m gold, 200m silver and another 4x100m relay silver.
Of course at the same time the USA flexed its muscles and showed that it can still churn out champion runners. Whilst Justin Gatlin fell off his perch and was exposed as a drug cheat Tyson Gay went on and won double sprint gold in Osaka. There are also the likes of Wallace Spearman and Leroy Dixon who have proved themselves over the last Olympiad.
There should be little doubt that Jamaica is the USA’s main rivals in the sprints and there are few reasons why not. However, the same was true before Athens, but in the end they were unable to handle the pressure of the day and the less heralded ladies team showed them what was possible with a bit of belief. Bolt’s victory this weekend should give the team the belief that they need, they just need to build on it and keep it till Beijing if Powell and co are to truly fulfil their undoubted potential.
JI 05/05/08
domenica 27 aprile 2008
Notes from a sporting week 28/04/08
Ballack demonstrates his class at the crucial moment:
Manchester United fans won’t appreciate it, but for the neutral football fan Chelsea’s 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, which draws them level at the top of the Premiership with United, is exactly what was wanted with two games to go. Had the northerners won it would have been all over bar the shouting as the six point lead plus better goal difference (+18 at the start of the day) would have made any west London comeback needing to be touched by God if they were to lift the trophy at the season’s end.
The architect of the win was German captain Michael Ballack, who scored the two goals and generally controlled the play from midfield in the absence of Frank Lampard. That he was demonstrates the progress made in his almost two seasons at Stamford Bridge since his transfer there in 2006.
Ballack arrived at the Bridge alongside Ukraine captain Andriy Shevchenko follwing the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Both had enjoyed successful tournaments, Ballack leading the host nation to a surprise third place, whilst Shevchenko had helped take Ukraine to the quarterfinals in their first ever World Cup. As such though both arrived on King’s Road desperately short of a proper pre-season and still suffering the aches and pains from their exertions in national team colours.
Worse than that though was that both were portrayed as Roman Abramovich signings, who were forced on then-manager Jose Mourinho against his will. The Portuguese made no secret of the fact that he wanted neither of them in his squad, with Ballack excluded from his 25 players for the 2006-07 Champions League.
Mourinho’s stance was given fuel because both had East European backgrounds. Ballack was born in Gorlitz in the old East Germany and admitted that one of the reason’s why he was moving to England was to improve his English, because having lived his early life behind the iron curtain Russian was his second language of choice. Thus when mischievous rumours went round that there was an Abramovich spy in the dressing room, Ballack and Shevchenko were quickly portrayed as the club owner’s pets.
Of course matters weren’t helped that neither made an explosive start to life in England thanks in no small part to their post-World Cup fatigue. By the end of the first season Ballack had all but been forgotten about, whilst the Shevchenko row appeared to feature a quick return to Milan for the Ukrainian, but he was still at the club when the team reported for pre-season training.
The turning point for Ballack came in September 2007 when the Abramovich-Mourinho spat reached its zenith and led to the ‘special one’ being shown the door in favour of Avram Grant. As well as being far closer to the owner, Grant also lacked the ties that Mourinho had enjoyed with certain players, most notably Lampard, John Terry and Didier Drogba and as such was less likely to look upon them with rose-tinted glasses, as the Portuguese did.
Little by little Ballack has worked his way back into the side and demonstrated to the British public, what should have been recognised when he first joined; that he is a fantastic player. Along with Shevchenko, Ballack suffered from the ‘Owen Hargreaves syndrome’ that is if you haven’t done it in England, then the local media don’t want to know. But having helped Germany to an unexpected second place at the 2002 World Cup and then their third place at home, not to mention being the heartbeat of the Bayer Leverkeusen team that reached the 2002 European Cup final, his quality should not have been in doubt and he would well be within his rights to feel aggrieved by the unfair press he received.
Since the turn of the year he has been in tremendous form for the Pensioners and appears to be back in health and displaying a far more relaxed demeanour. Moreover his East European background that once brought him suspicion is now bringing chants in his honour. As an ossi he was schooled in the days of the sports academy that drilled the youngsters in the need for technique and poise. As such the contrast to Lampard is there for all to see. He is happy to use his weaker left foot, is good in the air (as he showed for his first goal) and has a better level of movement across the midfield.
It has taken time, but finally Ballack’s worth is being felt in west London. Sadly it says a lot about the closed mind of most English football fans that he has had to work so hard to prove to them his undoubted ability. With two weeks to go and a Champions League semifinal second leg on Wednesday, there is now the very real possibility that Ballack will play a major role in whether those Chelsea fans will be celebrating some more come the season’s end.
Chambers presence takes undue prominence:
On a weekend of such importance for both codes of rugby in the UK, it was a pity that it was a reserve team rugby league match between Castleford Tigers and York City Knights that grabbed the headlines, when ordinarily the Super League fixture list and European Cup semifinals would be in the spotlight.
Of course the reason why most of the UK rugby league hacks and 3000 fans rolled up to north Yorkshire was the presence of one Dwain Chambers. Since announcing his decision to yet again defect from athletics, having tried his hand at American Football, there has been an air of anticipation about his taking to the field and finally this Sunday he took his first tentative steps in the 13-man code when he was brought on after 10 minutes.
Sadly there still remains an air of pantomime about the whole thing. When he was unveiled as a Castleford player the press conference was dominated by questions of how his legal bid to overturn the British Olympic Association’s lifetime ban would affect his playing future with Tigers and there still remains a big question about how seriously both parties are taking the whole thing and in this respect Chambers does himself no favours whenever he opens his mouth.
“It’s been a long time coming,” was one of his pre-match statements, though one can only wonder how ‘long time’ his desire to carry on will be if he does overturn the ban, which both he and the club announced they were confident of being successful.
The main aspect that has stuck in the craw since he returned to athletics is his amazing lack of humility. Had he taken his punishment and then got on with his job, few people would have had any complaints. Instead he has behaved like a spoiled brat and acted like athletics, a sport that he has sullied, owes him a living and his antics recently have done little to change that perception.
His career in rugby league has started well, having made one try-saving tackle, but now it might be time for him to find one sport and then stick to it and more importantly keep quiet about what he is doing, until he has something worth shouting about.
JI 28/04/08
Manchester United fans won’t appreciate it, but for the neutral football fan Chelsea’s 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, which draws them level at the top of the Premiership with United, is exactly what was wanted with two games to go. Had the northerners won it would have been all over bar the shouting as the six point lead plus better goal difference (+18 at the start of the day) would have made any west London comeback needing to be touched by God if they were to lift the trophy at the season’s end.
The architect of the win was German captain Michael Ballack, who scored the two goals and generally controlled the play from midfield in the absence of Frank Lampard. That he was demonstrates the progress made in his almost two seasons at Stamford Bridge since his transfer there in 2006.
Ballack arrived at the Bridge alongside Ukraine captain Andriy Shevchenko follwing the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Both had enjoyed successful tournaments, Ballack leading the host nation to a surprise third place, whilst Shevchenko had helped take Ukraine to the quarterfinals in their first ever World Cup. As such though both arrived on King’s Road desperately short of a proper pre-season and still suffering the aches and pains from their exertions in national team colours.
Worse than that though was that both were portrayed as Roman Abramovich signings, who were forced on then-manager Jose Mourinho against his will. The Portuguese made no secret of the fact that he wanted neither of them in his squad, with Ballack excluded from his 25 players for the 2006-07 Champions League.
Mourinho’s stance was given fuel because both had East European backgrounds. Ballack was born in Gorlitz in the old East Germany and admitted that one of the reason’s why he was moving to England was to improve his English, because having lived his early life behind the iron curtain Russian was his second language of choice. Thus when mischievous rumours went round that there was an Abramovich spy in the dressing room, Ballack and Shevchenko were quickly portrayed as the club owner’s pets.
Of course matters weren’t helped that neither made an explosive start to life in England thanks in no small part to their post-World Cup fatigue. By the end of the first season Ballack had all but been forgotten about, whilst the Shevchenko row appeared to feature a quick return to Milan for the Ukrainian, but he was still at the club when the team reported for pre-season training.
The turning point for Ballack came in September 2007 when the Abramovich-Mourinho spat reached its zenith and led to the ‘special one’ being shown the door in favour of Avram Grant. As well as being far closer to the owner, Grant also lacked the ties that Mourinho had enjoyed with certain players, most notably Lampard, John Terry and Didier Drogba and as such was less likely to look upon them with rose-tinted glasses, as the Portuguese did.
Little by little Ballack has worked his way back into the side and demonstrated to the British public, what should have been recognised when he first joined; that he is a fantastic player. Along with Shevchenko, Ballack suffered from the ‘Owen Hargreaves syndrome’ that is if you haven’t done it in England, then the local media don’t want to know. But having helped Germany to an unexpected second place at the 2002 World Cup and then their third place at home, not to mention being the heartbeat of the Bayer Leverkeusen team that reached the 2002 European Cup final, his quality should not have been in doubt and he would well be within his rights to feel aggrieved by the unfair press he received.
Since the turn of the year he has been in tremendous form for the Pensioners and appears to be back in health and displaying a far more relaxed demeanour. Moreover his East European background that once brought him suspicion is now bringing chants in his honour. As an ossi he was schooled in the days of the sports academy that drilled the youngsters in the need for technique and poise. As such the contrast to Lampard is there for all to see. He is happy to use his weaker left foot, is good in the air (as he showed for his first goal) and has a better level of movement across the midfield.
It has taken time, but finally Ballack’s worth is being felt in west London. Sadly it says a lot about the closed mind of most English football fans that he has had to work so hard to prove to them his undoubted ability. With two weeks to go and a Champions League semifinal second leg on Wednesday, there is now the very real possibility that Ballack will play a major role in whether those Chelsea fans will be celebrating some more come the season’s end.
Chambers presence takes undue prominence:
On a weekend of such importance for both codes of rugby in the UK, it was a pity that it was a reserve team rugby league match between Castleford Tigers and York City Knights that grabbed the headlines, when ordinarily the Super League fixture list and European Cup semifinals would be in the spotlight.
Of course the reason why most of the UK rugby league hacks and 3000 fans rolled up to north Yorkshire was the presence of one Dwain Chambers. Since announcing his decision to yet again defect from athletics, having tried his hand at American Football, there has been an air of anticipation about his taking to the field and finally this Sunday he took his first tentative steps in the 13-man code when he was brought on after 10 minutes.
Sadly there still remains an air of pantomime about the whole thing. When he was unveiled as a Castleford player the press conference was dominated by questions of how his legal bid to overturn the British Olympic Association’s lifetime ban would affect his playing future with Tigers and there still remains a big question about how seriously both parties are taking the whole thing and in this respect Chambers does himself no favours whenever he opens his mouth.
“It’s been a long time coming,” was one of his pre-match statements, though one can only wonder how ‘long time’ his desire to carry on will be if he does overturn the ban, which both he and the club announced they were confident of being successful.
The main aspect that has stuck in the craw since he returned to athletics is his amazing lack of humility. Had he taken his punishment and then got on with his job, few people would have had any complaints. Instead he has behaved like a spoiled brat and acted like athletics, a sport that he has sullied, owes him a living and his antics recently have done little to change that perception.
His career in rugby league has started well, having made one try-saving tackle, but now it might be time for him to find one sport and then stick to it and more importantly keep quiet about what he is doing, until he has something worth shouting about.
JI 28/04/08
domenica 13 aprile 2008
Notes from a sporting week 14/04/08
Arsenal tears becoming more and more hollow:
It was sad, yet not surprising that it needed Gael Clichy, one of the younger members of the Arsenal team, to look inward and take some responsibility for Arsenal’s inability to overcome Liverpool in the European Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday night.
Manager Arsene Wenger, who is fast becoming more and more like a four year old anytime the Gunners lose, and joint captain Kolo Toure blamed the referee for giving Liverpool a penalty when they had just made the score 2-2 and thus enough to reach the last four, despite it being a thoroughly clear cut foul by Toure on Ryan Babel.
Thus it was enormously refreshing to hear Clichy tell the Evening Standard; "We did well to score the first goal and to come back and get the game to 2-2. And at that point we were through. But what happened after that was really disappointing.
“To concede a goal like this, whether it is a penalty or not a penalty, may be disappointing but it is not unlucky. It is unreal to have had a chance like this, to score the equaliser and get to 2-2 and then to concede a goal only a few seconds after kick off. I can't find the words for it. It is just ridiculous."
In fact if anyone should be taking responsibility for Arsenal’s demise it is Wenger himself and some of his bizarre selections. Now I have said for a while that English football cannot complain about their young players are not given a chance in favour of foreign players, until they have a similar technical ability.
At Anfield there were glaring examples of Wenger’s bias against English players. For 70 minutes we had to watch as Ivory Coast’s Emmanuel Eboue thrashed around on the right of midfield, demonstrating to all watching that he was nothing more than a converted fullback.
Then with 20 minutes to go Wenger brought on Theo Walcott, an attacker who has played mush of his football on the wing and he showed that he has more than enough technical ability allied with pace, when he raced the length of the field and beat five players to set up Emmanuel Adebayor for the goal that looked like it would be taking Arsenal to the last four.
Quite why Wenger had preferred the round peg of fullback Eboue in the square hole of right wing is something of a mystery, especially when central defender Toure was playing fullback and the lumbering centre-half Philip Senderos was responsible for two of Liverpool’s goals.
His treatment of Walcott has been even more baffling. Having shelled out £12 million pounds for the then 16 year-old and not having played him in any senior matches, he recommends his for the 2006 World Cup in Germany and then a year or two on complains that he hasn’t been able to develop as he hoped. For someone so young to have all manner of messages from his manager and yet still come through relatively undamaged does Walcott massive credit.
There is little doubt that Wenger has done a tremendous job of developing young talent throughout his career, at Monaco, in Japan and now at Arsenal. He has also consistently sent out teams who are technically excellent and who produce wonderful football. Sadly he fails to see when his teams let themselves down and all too often blames the referee, as well as displaying phenomenal double standards when it comes to his players’ ill discipline or foul play.
With Walcott and the latest batch of young players to come through Arsenals academy (of which we are promised a bumper crop of domestic talent) it has to be hoped that as well as absorbing the lessons on the pitch, they don’t follow Wenger’s example off it too much.
Brown sending mixed messages:
So Prime Minister Gordon Brown won’t be at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. Was this a decision he took himself, or did he follow the lead of French President Nicolas Sarkozy in their recent Anglo-French love-in? Of course Brown will be at the closing ceremony, as should be expected from the head of state of the next host city.
It is hard to see what the fuss is all about as frankly the fewer politicians at any sports event the better. Who can forget the monstrosity of an outfit sported by Cherie Blair at the opening of the Athens Olympics or Australian PM’s sour-faced distribution of medals at the end of the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
With the current political climate being anti-Chinese, some have taken Brown’s stance as being a political one. If that was the case, then he should have the decency to say so and stay away from the closing ceremony as well, leaving political duties to London Mayor Ken Livingstone.
In truth though I would imagine that Brown’s decision not to attend the opening ceremony is far more straightforward. Athens is a four hour flight from London and in theory can be travelled to and from in a day. With Beijing an 11-hour flight and one that would induce jetlag, there isn’t the same possibility of travelling there and back twice in a two-week period.
It is also important to remember that four years ago there was an Olympic bid at stake. Tony Blair was the only head of state of any of the five bidding cities at the time and spent much of the opening weekend lobbying delegates alongside Lord Sebastian Coe and Princess Anne. Who is to say that that his presence in Athens wasn’t an important factor in London winning the 2012 Games, as it surely was in Singapore in the last few days before London were awarded the hosting rights.
Will we really miss Brown when the flame gets lit this August? Well of course we won’t. All the attention will be on the athletes, as it should be. Hats off to Sarkozy by standing by his convictions, but should sport really be the one to suffer? After all sporting boycotts have hardly had a massive impact down the years. Did the USA’s boycott of the Moscow 1980 Olympics force the Soviet Union to pull out of Afghanistan? Did the Balkan conflict come to an end when Yugoslavia were slung out of Euro 92, or did Robert Mugabe’s regime fall when cricket teams ran for cover rather than tour Zimbabwe?
We all know the answer to these questions is firmly in the negative, but still politicians go on taking the easier option of sporting boycott, which affects no one but hardworking and under appreciated athletes who will be forced to miss what could be their life’s definition.
JI 14/04/08
It was sad, yet not surprising that it needed Gael Clichy, one of the younger members of the Arsenal team, to look inward and take some responsibility for Arsenal’s inability to overcome Liverpool in the European Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday night.
Manager Arsene Wenger, who is fast becoming more and more like a four year old anytime the Gunners lose, and joint captain Kolo Toure blamed the referee for giving Liverpool a penalty when they had just made the score 2-2 and thus enough to reach the last four, despite it being a thoroughly clear cut foul by Toure on Ryan Babel.
Thus it was enormously refreshing to hear Clichy tell the Evening Standard; "We did well to score the first goal and to come back and get the game to 2-2. And at that point we were through. But what happened after that was really disappointing.
“To concede a goal like this, whether it is a penalty or not a penalty, may be disappointing but it is not unlucky. It is unreal to have had a chance like this, to score the equaliser and get to 2-2 and then to concede a goal only a few seconds after kick off. I can't find the words for it. It is just ridiculous."
In fact if anyone should be taking responsibility for Arsenal’s demise it is Wenger himself and some of his bizarre selections. Now I have said for a while that English football cannot complain about their young players are not given a chance in favour of foreign players, until they have a similar technical ability.
At Anfield there were glaring examples of Wenger’s bias against English players. For 70 minutes we had to watch as Ivory Coast’s Emmanuel Eboue thrashed around on the right of midfield, demonstrating to all watching that he was nothing more than a converted fullback.
Then with 20 minutes to go Wenger brought on Theo Walcott, an attacker who has played mush of his football on the wing and he showed that he has more than enough technical ability allied with pace, when he raced the length of the field and beat five players to set up Emmanuel Adebayor for the goal that looked like it would be taking Arsenal to the last four.
Quite why Wenger had preferred the round peg of fullback Eboue in the square hole of right wing is something of a mystery, especially when central defender Toure was playing fullback and the lumbering centre-half Philip Senderos was responsible for two of Liverpool’s goals.
His treatment of Walcott has been even more baffling. Having shelled out £12 million pounds for the then 16 year-old and not having played him in any senior matches, he recommends his for the 2006 World Cup in Germany and then a year or two on complains that he hasn’t been able to develop as he hoped. For someone so young to have all manner of messages from his manager and yet still come through relatively undamaged does Walcott massive credit.
There is little doubt that Wenger has done a tremendous job of developing young talent throughout his career, at Monaco, in Japan and now at Arsenal. He has also consistently sent out teams who are technically excellent and who produce wonderful football. Sadly he fails to see when his teams let themselves down and all too often blames the referee, as well as displaying phenomenal double standards when it comes to his players’ ill discipline or foul play.
With Walcott and the latest batch of young players to come through Arsenals academy (of which we are promised a bumper crop of domestic talent) it has to be hoped that as well as absorbing the lessons on the pitch, they don’t follow Wenger’s example off it too much.
Brown sending mixed messages:
So Prime Minister Gordon Brown won’t be at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. Was this a decision he took himself, or did he follow the lead of French President Nicolas Sarkozy in their recent Anglo-French love-in? Of course Brown will be at the closing ceremony, as should be expected from the head of state of the next host city.
It is hard to see what the fuss is all about as frankly the fewer politicians at any sports event the better. Who can forget the monstrosity of an outfit sported by Cherie Blair at the opening of the Athens Olympics or Australian PM’s sour-faced distribution of medals at the end of the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
With the current political climate being anti-Chinese, some have taken Brown’s stance as being a political one. If that was the case, then he should have the decency to say so and stay away from the closing ceremony as well, leaving political duties to London Mayor Ken Livingstone.
In truth though I would imagine that Brown’s decision not to attend the opening ceremony is far more straightforward. Athens is a four hour flight from London and in theory can be travelled to and from in a day. With Beijing an 11-hour flight and one that would induce jetlag, there isn’t the same possibility of travelling there and back twice in a two-week period.
It is also important to remember that four years ago there was an Olympic bid at stake. Tony Blair was the only head of state of any of the five bidding cities at the time and spent much of the opening weekend lobbying delegates alongside Lord Sebastian Coe and Princess Anne. Who is to say that that his presence in Athens wasn’t an important factor in London winning the 2012 Games, as it surely was in Singapore in the last few days before London were awarded the hosting rights.
Will we really miss Brown when the flame gets lit this August? Well of course we won’t. All the attention will be on the athletes, as it should be. Hats off to Sarkozy by standing by his convictions, but should sport really be the one to suffer? After all sporting boycotts have hardly had a massive impact down the years. Did the USA’s boycott of the Moscow 1980 Olympics force the Soviet Union to pull out of Afghanistan? Did the Balkan conflict come to an end when Yugoslavia were slung out of Euro 92, or did Robert Mugabe’s regime fall when cricket teams ran for cover rather than tour Zimbabwe?
We all know the answer to these questions is firmly in the negative, but still politicians go on taking the easier option of sporting boycott, which affects no one but hardworking and under appreciated athletes who will be forced to miss what could be their life’s definition.
JI 14/04/08
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