European Football

[Joe King]

French First Division
Teams P GD Pts
1 Lyon 18 10 35
2 Marseille 18 12 32
3 Bordeaux 18 11 32
4 Paris SG 18 7 32
5 Rennes 18 10 31
6 Toulouse 18 4 30
7 Lille 18 7 29
8 Nice 18 4 29
9 Lorient 18 3 26
10 Le Mans 18 -2 24
11 Caen 18 3 23
12 AS Monaco 18 0 23
13 Nancy 18 -2 22
14 Grenoble 18 -5 22
15 Auxerre 18 -3 20
16 Nantes 18 -10 19
17 St Etienne 18 -15 16
18 Valenciennes 18 -9 14
19 Sochaux 18 -7 13
20 Le Havre 18 -18 12

[Joe King]

Italian Serie A
Teams P GD Pts
1 Inter Milan 16 19 39
2 Juventus 16 15 33
3 Napoli 16 10 30
4 AC Milan 16 6 30
5 Fiorentina 16 10 29
6 Genoa 16 6 26
7 Atalanta 16 4 24
8 Lazio 16 3 24
9 Roma 15 -1 23
10 Palermo 16 1 23
11 Udinese 16 3 22
12 Catania 16 -3 22
13 Cagliari 16 -2 20
14 Sampdoria 15 -2 19
15 Siena 16 -4 19
16 Bologna 16 -8 14
17 Lecce 16 -10 13
18 Torino 16 -12 12
19 Reggina 16 -18 12
20 Chievo 16 -17 9

[Joe King]

Spanish First Division
Teams P GD Pts
1 Barcelona 15 37 38
2 Valencia 15 11 30
3 Sevilla 15 9 30
4 Villarreal 15 7 29
5 Atl Madrid 15 14 27
6 Real Madrid 15 7 26
7 Deportivo 15 -1 24
8 Valladolid 15 2 23
9 Malaga 15 -2 21
10 Getafe 15 1 21
11 Real Betis 15 0 18
12 Sporting Gijon 15 -12 18
13 R Santander 15 -4 17
14 Almeria 15 -8 16
15 Athl Bilbao 15 -5 16
16 Numancia 15 -13 14
17 Mallorca 15 -12 13
18 Recreativo Huelva 15 -12 13
19 Espanyol 15 -10 13
20 Osasuna 15 -9 9

[Joe King]

German Bundesliga
Teams P GD Pts
1 TSG Hoffenheim 17 19 35
2 Bayern Munich 17 15 35
3 Hertha Berlin 17 7 33
4 Hamburg 17 2 33
5 B Leverkusen 17 15 32
6 B Dortmund 17 8 29
7 Schalke 17 8 27
8 W Bremen 17 11 26
9 Wolfsburg 17 10 26
10 Stuttgart 17 3 25
11 Cologne 17 -6 22
12 Eintr Frankfurt 17 -6 19
13 Hannover 96 17 -12 17
14 Arminia B 17 -12 14
15 Karlsruhe 17 -17 13
16 Cottbus 17 -17 13
17 Bochum 17 -11 11
18 B M'gladbach 17 -17 11

[Joe King]

Dutch Premier Division
Teams P GD Pts
1 AZ Alkmaar 15 23 35
2 Ajax 15 15 32
3 Twente 15 15 30
4 PSV Eindhoven 15 12 26
5 Heerenveen 15 1 26
6 NAC Breda 15 1 26
7 NEC Nijmegen 15 8 25
8 Groningen 15 10 23
9 Utrecht 15 2 22
10 Willem II Tilb 15 -1 21
11 Heracles 15 -7 19
12 Feyenoord 15 3 16
13 S Rotterdam 15 -13 15
14 Den Haag 15 -4 14
15 Roda JC Kerk 15 -8 14
16 Vitesse Arnhem 15 -15 12
17 De Graafschap 15 -16 12
18 Volendam 15 -26 8

[Joe King]

Barcelona a class above as Juande Ramos begins the impossible job at Real Madrid

From The Times
December 15, 2008

The little Dutch boy who put his chubby eight-year-old finger in a dyke and saved the city of Haarlem, and possibly the rest of the Netherlands, from ending up under water is a fictional character. Juande Ramos, the new coach of Real Madrid, is a real person, which may explain why, against Barcelona on Saturday night, his finger-in-the-dyke routine came up short. Real were overmatched and eventually capitulated eight minutes from time.

The task facing the former Tottenham Hotspur manager was always going to be monumental, which is why his predecessor, Bernd Schuster, described it as “impossible”, an opinion that helped to precipitate his departure. With eight players unavailable – including Ruud van Nistelrooy, Pepe, Mahamadou Diarra and Arjen Robben - plus another two who were present but clearly in no condition to play - Wesley Sneijder, who had to come off in the first half, and Rafael van der Vaart, who featured in the last 15 minutes - Ramos had to invent a starting XI from scratch at the Nou Camp.

In this age of mega-squads and rotation, it was surreal to see him forced to play Sergio Ramos out of position at left back, with the injury-prone Christoph Metzelder, making only his second start of the season, in central defence and Michel Salgado, the forgotten man, on the right. Roysten Drenthe, something of an enigma in his first 18 months at the Bernabéu — he made more headlines for driving the wrong way up a one-way street than anything he did on the pitch — was deployed in midfield for only the fourth time this year. Facing them were Barcelona, a side who had been averaging nearly three goals a game this season and were close to full strength.

It was always going to be one-way traffic, but the match was entertaining nonetheless. Barcelona are one of the few sides in Europe whose 4-3-3 is not a 4-5-1 in disguise. Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi rarely track back and, while this means that the midfield is sometimes undermanned, it also means that the opposing full backs cannot really join the attack. It is a prototypical case of defending by attacking.

On Saturday night this was compounded by Fernando Gago, Ramos’s holding midfield player, effectively acting as a third central defender, which, given the makeshift back four, made sense. This negated any man-advantage Real might have had in midfield, as did the fact that Daniel Alves, the Barcelona right back, pushed right up the pitch.

Indeed, the game provided a fascinating tactical battle. Much of Barcelona’s initiative in the first half came down the right, Alves combining with Messi to wreak havoc on Real’s left and forcing their opponents to hack down repeatedly the little Argentinian. Real countered at times, by swapping Metzelder — who is left-footed but, after umpteen knee operations, has the build and mobility of a Golem — and Ramos around and turning Drenthe into an adjunct left back. Later, Josep Guardiola made his own switch, regularly sending Thierry Henry down the middle and shifting Samuel Eto’o to the left, where he could take on Salgado.

There is often the impression that Barcelona v Real turns into a series of one-on-one battles and that is largely what happened. This obviously tends to suit the more talented side, which is why Ramos tried his best to turn it into a more traditional contest. And, for much of the game, he succeeded, thanks to the tight defensive triangle of Gago, Fabio Cannavaro and Metzelder, whose intelligence and anticipation more than made up for his lack of mobility.

Real were also helped by Iker Casillas, who had been going through a rough patch for a month or so, reminding everyone why he is one of the top three goalkeepers in the world, if not No 1, at least until Gianluigi Buffon returns from injury and Petr Cech regains his mojo. Casillas saved a penalty from Eto’o and, later, pulled off a miraculous close-range save to deny Messi.

Eto’o would have been the villain of the piece — he was not Barcelona’s designated penalty-taker but grabbed the ball from Messi and insisted on taking it — but he found redemption eight minutes from time, pouncing on a loose ball and poking it past Casillas. Messi added a second in injury time, which was probably fair.

Barcelona confirmed that, right now, they are the best side in Europe and, probably, the only one firing on all cylinders. Guardiola’s scheme may be based on his “dream team” experience under Johan Cruyff in the 1990s, but it is an upgraded and updated version. That half his team is made up of home-grown players is a credit to the Barcelona way and underscores just how important a well-run academy can be. At the same time, however, there are clear chinks in the armour — Alves is vulnerable defensively, there is no real aerial threat in midfield and attack. If opponents can keep possession, Barcelona struggle to get it back — which will make the rest of the season rather interesting.

Ramos did what he was paid to do: maximise what few resources he has right now and avoid calamity. Just how long he can keep his finger in the dyke remains to be seen.

[Joe King]

Youth trumps experience as rampant Juve expose Milan's creaks

Paolo Bandini Monday 15 December 2008 13.18 GMT The Guardian

"Out with the truth," demanded the headline in yesterday's Gazzetta dello Sport. "Who is the anti-Inter?"

If the obsession with anointing one team as Internazionale's "official" title rivals seems more than a little arbitrary, then the response last night was nevertheless emphatic. Under pouring rain at Turin's Stadio Olimpico, Juventus battered Milan 4–2 to stay within six points of Inter at the top of Serie A. Milan, who had started the day level with Juventus, are now nine points adrift with one game to play before the winter break.

"We want to be the anti-everybody," said the Juventus manager, Claudio Ranieri, afterwards and in that regard his team have acquitted themselves rather well over the past two months. Since losing 2–1 away to Napoli on October 18, the Bianconeri have collected 24 points from nine league games. Even Inter, the one team to beat Juventus during that run, have managed only 23 in the same spell.

But if such form had suggested Juventus might be Inter's most likely title rivals then even Ranieri was quick to point out during the week that his team were "yet to win a game against a big team" in Serie A. As well as losing to Inter and Napoli, Juventus had drawn with Fiorentina, while their 2–0 home win over Roma had been downplayed due to the Giallorossi's miserable form at the time. Milan, meanwhile, are still the only team to beat Inter in the league so far this season.

Juventus, though, had already beaten Real Madrid home and away in the Champions League, and there was no sense of the home side being daunted by the occasion. Ranieri has moulded Juventus into a physical, high-tempo outfit who like to press their opponents high up the pitch and human wrecking-ball Momo Sissoko wasted no time getting stuck into a Milan midfield that lacked bite in the absence of the injured Gennaro Gattuso and Mathieu Flamini.

Milan might consider themselves unfortunate to have also lost Kaka to a thigh problem during the week but Juventus, too, were without such starters as Mauro Camoranesi, Tiago Mendes, Gigi Buffon and the suspended Nicola Legrottaglie. The difference was that where the Rossoneri turned to old hands such as Clarence Seedorf and Emerson to fill in, Juve introduced the 22-year-old Claudio Marchisio in central midfield and, when Pavel Nedved also limped off with less than half an hour played, his fellow youth-team product Paolo De Ceglie on the left.

Nedved's wife Ivana told Tuttosport on Saturday that he was reconsidering his planned retirement for the end of this season, but on *yesterday's evidence he may find his place in the first team under threat before then. In his stead De Ceglie, whose current €100,000-a-year (£90,000) salary is roughly what Nedved makes in a fortnight, was relentless, bombing up and down the left wing and supplying a string of crosses, one of which was headed in by Amauri for Juve's third. His constant incursions eventually drew Gianluca Zambrotta into an ill-advised lunge that earned the Milan defender a second yellow card.

Marchisio, meanwhile, constructed play as effectively and elegantly as any of his better-known opponents in the Milan midfield. Amauri may have grabbed the headlines with a decisive and well-taken brace, and he too had chased and harried doggedly throughout, but he would not have had such opportunities to shine without the platform provided by a midfield in which Sissoko was the only first-choice starter to feature for more than 30 minutes.

For all the positive notes for Juventus, however, there were also worrying signs for Milan, who have now picked up only four points in their past four games. Without Gattuso shielding them, Milan's defence went to pieces, centre-backs Kakha Kaladze and Marek Jankulovski losing first their composure, then the opponents they were supposed to be tracking for both Juve's second and third goals. Jankulovski, in particular, never seemed to recover after scything down Alessandro Del Piero — who may, to be fair, have been in an offside position — to give away a penalty only 15 minutes in.

For all that injuries have been especially cruel in this department — Daniele Bonera had surgery on a hernia this week, while Alessandro Nesta has spent the entire season so far in Miami undergoing rehab on a back problem — it is also true that Milan have consistently failed to address concerns over their ageing defence over a number of years now. Healthy or not, no one who saw Philippe Senderos at Arsenal can have truly believed he represented a suitable alternative to Nesta.

Milan are expected to complete the signing of Brazilian defender Thiago Silva, a player who had also been coveted by Inter and Villarreal, from Fluminense in the next day or two, but eligibility rules mean he won't be able to play until next season. In the meantime, Milan may have to leave Inter-challenging duties to somebody else.
Round 16 talking points

• It was a topsy-turvy weekend in Serie A, with 41 goals scored across the 10 games and 28 of those coming in the second half. Roma were 1–0 up, then 2–1 down at home to Cagliari before recovering to win 3–2, while Chievo recovered from 2–0 down against Inter to pull level at 2–2 midway through the second half but still went on to lose 4–2. More dramatic still, however, were events at Stadio Friuli, where Lazio trailed Udinese 3–0 with just over half an hour to play, yet somehow managed to snatch a 3–3 draw.

• As well as opening the scoring for Roma yesterday, Francesco Totti set tongues wagging earlier in the week by suggesting he may be ready to turn out for the national side again. "I wouldn't say no right away," Totti told Corriere dello Sport on Friday, when asked how he would respond to a call up for the 2010 World Cup. "I would think about it over and over, but only because [Marcello] Lippi [is Italy manager]. He has always been incredible to me."

• Mirko Vucinic just couldn't contain himself after scoring the winner for Roma, ripping off his shirt — only to reveal another one underneath — and shorts as he sprinted past the advertising hoards and over to the home support. "I felt almost sick with joy when I scored and I will remember it forever," Vucinic later explained to Sky Sports Italia. "I had wasted four or five decent chances, so I was so happy to have decided the game." Nevertheless he was surprised to be booked for his exuberance, adding: "I told the referee that I had another shirt on so he shouldn't book me for taking it off, but he told me that the yellow card was for taking my shorts off, which annoyed me."

• Adriano is expected to return to Brazil in the next two days after a week in which Inter were forced to deny reports the striker had been sent home from training for showing up in poor condition after a night out. Jose Mourinho insisted once again yesterday that he hoped Adriano would stay at Inter and was expecting him back with the team when training resumes on January 2, but also added: "If he asked to leave in January and a solution arose that worked well for both him and us, then I wouldn't stop him. But if he does go, I expect someone to be brought in to replace him." The common assumption is that Jose's ideal "someone" would be Didier Drogba, though Inter may have to cough up a fair bit of money, as well as Adriano, to convince Phil Scolari to sanction such a move.

• Napoli manager Edy Reja dismissed talk of his team winning the title after they thumped Lecce 3–0 at the San Paolo on Saturday. "The title is nothing to do with us," he insisted and with good reason. Napoli now sit third, nine points behind Inter, and have wins against Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio under their belts. But they have also picked up just eight points in as many games away from home. Their home form alone could carry them to a top-four finish, but they are not ready for a sustained title challenge.

• While we're on the subject of Napoli, here's how team president Aurelio De Laurentiis reacted to reports that various English clubs were lining up bids for Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marek Hamsik, Walter Gargano and Fabiano Santacroce in January. "We made these players — two years ago nobody knew who they were," insisted De Laurentiis. "If they want to go to England then in the end they're going to go, but they need to understand this: the English live badly, eat badly and their women do not wash their genitalia. To them, a bidet is a mystery."

• Even before they signed Diego Milito this summer, Genoa had deemed Marco Di Vaio surplus to requirements. At 32, the striker was coming off a season in which he had scored three goals in 22 appearances and the Grifone were more than happy to send him on loan to newly promoted Bologna. After scoring a hat-trick in Bologna's 5–2 rout of Torino on Saturday, however, Di Vaio now sits joint-top of the scorers' charts on 12 goals — alongside Milito and Fiorentina's Alberto Gilardino.

Results: Bologna 5–2 Torino, Fiorentina 2–0 Catania, Genoa 1–1 Atalanta, Inter 4–2 Chievo, Juventus 4–2 Milan, Napoli 3–0 Lecce, Palermo 2–0 Siena, Reggina 0–2 Siena, Roma 3–2 Cagliari, Udinese 3–3 Lazio

[The_weatherman]

• While we're on the subject of Napoli, here's how team president Aurelio De Laurentiis reacted to reports that various English clubs were lining up bids for Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marek Hamsik, Walter Gargano and Fabiano Santacroce in January. "We made these players — two years ago nobody knew who they were," insisted De Laurentiis. "If they want to go to England then in the end they're going to go, but they need to understand this: the English live badly, eat badly and their women do not wash their genitalia. To them, a bidet is a mystery."

[Slim]

Good piece on Barca v Madrid here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/b...-sid-lowe-blog


Surely this cannot be Real as Madrid revel in el clásico defeat
For the first time in the club's proud history La Liga champions Real Madrid appear to be celebrating a loss to their great rivals Barcelona

The plane touched down in the freezing darkness of Barajas at 4.30 in the morning. Fabio Cannavaro flipped himself upright for the first time in an hour, the blood rushing down his neck and back towards the leg that lost a fight with the Camp Nou goalpost. The final cigarette was extinguished and the sporting director Pedja Mijatovic peeled his head off the headrest with a loud slurp. As the Real Madrid squad filed down the stairs, one remarked with tired satisfaction: "We've shown that we can win the league tonight." The coach Juande Ramos agreed. "Tonight," he said, "our players were perfect." "That's the way!" ran the text circulated by a Madrid supporters' club. "We're proud of our team."

Inside the terminal, there were handshakes and pats on the back. Across the city, vans were setting off with the first edition of the morning's papers, the cover of AS emblazoned with the triumphant title: "Madrid are back." Marca's Roberto Gómez eulogised about "Madrid's dignity", Tomás Roncero's column lauded the "pride of champions" and Realmadrid.com awarded the team a "perfect ten". Five hours sleep later and Ramos arrived at Valdebebas to watch Castilla. As he took his seat, he was given a standing ovation. Two lads with loudhailers began to chant his name.

You would think Madrid had beaten Barcelona and were definitely back in the title race. You would think they were the best team in the country. You would think Ramos had proven Bernd Schuster wrong. You would not think that Madrid had lost el clásico 2-0, that they had lost their third successive league game, their fourth in five, or that they sat 12 points adrift — a gap no side has ever overturned to win the competition. You would not think Barça's fans had ended their night chanting: "¡Madrid, cabrón, saluda al campeón!" (Madrid, you *******s, bow down before the champions!) And you certainly wouldn't think that Madrid were sixth.

But that is exactly what happened and exactly where they are. The best team in the country? Madrid aren't even the best team in the city after Atlético overtook them last night. And far from proving Schuster wrong, Ramos had proven Schuster dead right.

Perhaps the reaction shouldn't surprise. After all, Roncero is the loony that wrote "Raúl, I love you!" (and probably meant it), who described how a tear trickled down his cheek when Iker Casillas saved Samuel Eto'o's penalty. As for Gómez, he couldn't be less dignified if he donned stockings and suspenders and spent the night throwing lewd suggestions Ramón Calderón's way. From the door of the Almudena Cathedral. But, oddly, they were not alone; almost everywhere you looked in Madrid there was celebration rather than commiseration.

Perhaps it is a necessary counterweight to the crowing Catalan comics who are already planning the ultimate humiliation — Madrid being forced to return the guard of honour from last season when they meet on May 3. Perhaps it is a timely corrective for those scoffing at Míchel Salgado's reasonable claim that with 23 games remaining a comeback is not impossible — especially with old players returning from injury and new players joining from abroad. Perhaps it is the natural act of vindication after a week in which Barcelona seemed destined to score five but only managed two.

Perhaps it is even justified. After all, Madrid did keep Barcelona at bay until the 83rd minute. They did force them into losing the ball more often than in any game this season. And they could have won it, with Royston Drenthe living up to his "Accidentrenthe" nickname by missing a wonderful opportunity. There was a system at last, with Schuster's lopsided 4-3-3 binned, and hint of hope. There was plenty of sacrifice, discipline and spirit. Fernando Gago was superb; Raúl, as clever as he was committed, was everywhere; and Casillas successfully reapplied for beatification. Drenthe stopped Dani Alves, Cannavaro was fast, and even Christoph Metzelder looked good.

Perhaps. But there is no escaping the blunt and stunning truth: that, surely for the first time, Madrid are celebrating a defeat. A dignified defeat, maybe, but a defeat. Last weekend, Schuster declared it "impossible" to win at the Camp Nou and insisted that "all you can ask for is a decent display"; this weekend his replacement backed him up. After Saturday's clásico, Raúl said: "Considering the situation, we're satisfied." He had said it all. Considering the situation. Considering the crippling injuries, the suspensions and the disastrous squad, considering the institutional crisis in Madrid and Barcelona's brilliance, a decent display is as good as we can hope for. Exactly as Schuster insisted. The difference was that Schuster only said it; Ramos did it. Yet Schuster got sacked and Ramos has been hailed a hero.

Because while every coach is entitled to prepare his team as he sees fit, while moral judgments are as empty as they are unfair, Madrid played in the hope they might hang on to a draw or snatch a shock victory, not in the belief that they might earn one. Which is probably fair enough for a team with no Pepe, Mahamadou Diarra, Ruud van Nistelrooy, or Arjen Robben, no left-back and only half a Wesley Sneijder. After all, as El País's Diego Torres put it: "When Ramos looked at his squad all he saw was a band of scrappers whose only chance to survive was to chew on [Barcelona's] bones for as long as the ref would let them." But it doesn't exactly fit the identity of the continent's most successful club; or the past seven days in its tumultuous history. Schuster was sacked because Madrid demand the best, only against Barcelona they did not.

"Catenaccio. Man marking. Hacking the other team's star. Defensive changes. Accepting a 2-0 defeat. Is this really Madrid?" asked one publication this morning. Maybe not for long, but right now the answer, as Schuster suggested, is yes. Casillas wasted time, Madrid's most creative midfielder was played as a man-marker, their strikers lined up as midfielders and the whole team took it in turns to boot Leo Messi in the air. Madrid went to the Camp Nou the way that a small team goes to the Camp Nou. The way Racing went there. The way Getafe did. In search of a draw. There is just one difference: Racing and Getafe got it.

Results: Valencia 2-1 Espanyol, Barcelona 2–0 Madrid, Getafe 4–1 Mallorca, Recreativo 1–0 Osasuna, Valladolid 3–0 Deportivo [Two Pedros, two awesome goals], Málaga 2-0 Numancia, Almería 1–1 Racing, Athletic 3–0 Sporting, Sevilla 1–0 Villarreal, Atlético 2–0 Betis [14 games unbeaten now for Atlético].

[Neil Young]

[Slim]

[The Erectile Banana]

After much deliberation, I have decided not to. You need to speak to Silverfox

Bah.

This thread is dead to me.

[Joe King]

If my memory serves me correctly, you are a fan of Italian football

[-V-]

Ramos did what he was paid to do: maximise what few resources he has right now and avoid calamity. Just how long he can keep his finger in the dyke remains to be seen.

[Joe King]

Real Madrid coach Juande Ramos is set to complete a swoop for Portsmouth midfielder Lassana Diarra, according to reports in Spain.

The former Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder was set to be the subject of a tug-of-war between Tottenham and Manchester City in January but Real looked to have jumped to the front of the queue for the 23-year-old.

It is claimed that Real will pay £9million for Diarra and they hope to announce his signing in the next 48 hours.

Ramos is quoted as saying: "He is a player I know well, and I would like a player like Diarra here.

"The big players are already in the Champions League and cannot be signed.

"If the players do not have the quality, then we will miss them - the players have to be worth it."

Diarra is being brought in after Mahamadou Diarra was ruled out for the rest of the season.