Emery praises Valencia energy

Valencia coach Unai Emery praised his team after their 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao at the Mestalla on Sunday.
After Iker Muniain opened the scoring in the second half, it took a Roberto Soldado goal in the 89th minute to prevent the home team from slipping to consecutive defeats after falling to Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday in the Champions League.
And although they did not take all three point, Emery was proud of the way his side fought back to earn a share of the spoils.
“In some phases, they dominated us, but we were better at counterattacking, and the second half was ours,” Emery said.
“In the second half, the momentum was on our side. When we were at our best they scored, and in the end, we salvaged a point. That gives us energy to continue working.”
“The positive part of today was the reaction of the team and the supporters. I congratulate the players and the fans, who pushed the team towards victory.”
Each side had their chances to put the game away, but neither managed to do so with both teams hitting the post.
The draw now leaves Valencia in fifth place ahead of Wednesday’s game with Real Zaragoza.

La Liga wrap: Surprise-packets Levante win again

Levante’s dynamic start to the season continued on Sunday, as they defeated Villarreal 3-0 to replace Real Madrid at the top of La Liga.
One of only three teams yet to lose in 2011/12, Levante recorded their fifth victory in succession at El Madrigal.
A first-half brace from Juanlu and Arouna Kone’s 57th-minute strike sealed all three points for the high-flying visitors.
The contrast with Villarreal’s form could not be sharper; Juan Carlos Garrido’s side are now without a victory from their last five outings in all competitions, and sit 16th in the La Liga table, two points outside the relegation zone.
In other matches, Valencia needed an 89th-minute equaliser from Roberto Soldado to salvage a 1-1 draw at home to Athletic Bilbao, who had led through Muniain’s second-half strike.
Raul Garcia, Juan Francisco Martinez and Javad Nekounam all netted in the first 30 minutes as Osasuna cruised to a 3-0 win over Real Zaragoza.
Mallorca led from the second minute of their match away to Atletico Madrid courtesy of Tomer Hemed’s penalty.
But Atletico ensured the match would finish 1-1 after Colombia striker Radamel Falcao Garcia levelled, also with a spot-kick, two minutes before half-time.
Rayo Vallecano left it late away to fellow promoted club Real Betis, with a goal from Lass and Sergio Koke’s penalty coming in the last 10 minutes to seal a 2-0 win.
Finally, Getafe earned a point with a 0-0 draw away to fellow strugglers Real Sociedad.

MLS: Houston Dynamo 3 LA Galaxy 1

Houston Dynamo defeated the LA Galaxy 3-1 on Sunday to guarantee a place in the MLS Eastern Conference semi-finals.
Dynamo needed to win to avoid slipping into the wild-card places and got the job done against a weakened Galaxy team at Robertson Stadium.
Adam Moffat opened the scoring in spectacular fashion 27 minutes into the match, beating Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts from long-range after picking up a loose ball in midfield.
Bobby Boswell doubled the lead three minutes into the second half, striking from distance after Moffat deflected Brad Davis’ free-kick.
And Davis was involved again for the third, providing the cross that substitute Carlo Costly headed home from close range with 14 minutes remaining.
Striker Jack McBean bagged a consolation for Galaxy with his first MLS goal on 88 minutes.
Dynamo’s victory sees them secure second place in the Eastern Conference, setting up a two-leg semi-final against the Philadelphia Union.
LA were already guaranteed a home match in the first two rounds of the post-season after topping the Western Conference with the best record across the competition.
They could afford to rest David Beckham, Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane against Dynamo, but the star trio will return for their finals opener, with Galaxy’s first opponent to be decided in the wildcard round.

World Soccer Daily: 10 stories you need to read, October 19th, 2011

Coach commits suicide

The former coach of South Korean club Sangmu Phoenix has been found dead in an apparent suicide, three months after being charged as part of an investigation into a match-fixing.

Lee Su-chul was found guilty of blackmailing a player in the K-League match-fixing scandal.

Military side Sangmu had nine players charged with various offences connected to the match fixing allegations.

Lee’s death follows an apparent suicide in May of a player for the military side who was allegedly involved in the scandal.

Blazer on fire

FIFA official Chuck Blazer has dismissed allegations of impropriety made by former colleague Jack Warner, as “an amazing work of fiction”.

Warner, who resigned from all football activities after being charged with bribery, has hinted, none-too-subtly, that Blazer has a number of skeletons in his closet. As a longstanding member of FIFA’s executive committee, that is surely a given.

“The role of Blazer in CONCACAF will be exposed,” wrote Warner. ”His addiction to the stock market and how this impacted on the CONCACAF’s finances will all be revealed.

“You will also be told why for some seven years I refused to sign Blazer’s contract and even today as I write to you he has none.

“You will learn why Blazer became vice-president of CONCACAF ahead of Sunil Gulati, the present President of the USSF (United States Soccer Federation).

“His wheeling and dealing will stymie the international football community; it is no wonder he has signalled his intentions to leave his CONCACAF post.”

Blazer seemed unconcerned by Warner’s claims, saying that Warner is not a man to be taken seriously.

“It is an amazing work of fiction,” Blazer told insideworldfootball. ”If Jack has demonstrated anything during this process, it is that he says whatever he wants and then subsequently the facts prove he was lying.

“Regarding the other garbage from Warner’s mouth, since 1990 he had his personal accountant do the review of our books in New York.

“If there was anything wrong, he would have had it reported to him and it would have been addressed.”

Therein lies the problem with Warner’s much-talked about tsunami of revelations: he is implicated in so much wrongdoing that no one believes a word he says.

Goal of the day

Pablo Gabas thunderous strike opened the scoring for Alajuelense in their CONCACAF Champions League game against Morelia.

Four more years, four more years…

FIFA’s senior vice-president Julio Grondona, a key ally of Sepp Blatter, has won a record ninth four-year term as Argentine Football Association (AFA) chief.

Despite fraud and money-laundering allegations tarring his name, Grondona was the only candidate and was re-elected in a Kim Jong-ilesque 46-0 landslide by Argentinian clubs.

Grondona was elected to the AFA chair in 1979, a year after Argentina won the World Cup for the first time.

“In 32 years here we have done our job and I hope that in the future nothing changes,” said Grondona.

Whatever his faults, the 80-year-old can’t be accused of lacking a sense of humour: he famously wears a ring with the words “Everything changes” engraved on it.

Football haunted by ‘ghost’ matches

It’s hard enough monitoring matches that took place and were fixed, but imagine trying to investigate matches that didn’t actually take place. That is the surreal situation facing FIFA, according to a report in today’s Daily Telegraph.

FIFA investigators have been alerted to several potential “ghost internationals” claimed to have been staged last week that did not happen.

On the subject of these ‘ghost’ internationals, FIFA’s match fixing expert, Chris Eaton, was unavailable for comment. With Halloween approaching, this is a busy time of the year for him.

Storm in a tunnel

Sergio Aguero has denied claims that he taunted Villarreal players in the aftermath of Manchester City’s last gasp Champions League victory on Tuesday.

Villarreal vice-president Jose Manuel Llaneza said the Argentine mocked his players after the final whistle, as a row over Aguero’s injury-time winner continued into the tunnel.

Llaneza said: ”What he has done doesn’t say much about the guy. I think it’s a lack of respect, ethics and team spirit. I thought he had learned better. I don’t understand why he would mock fellow players for losing. I’m not saying it because of the result. We lost and we lost, and that’s it. Aguero is a player who should thank Spain very much.”

Villarreal defender Carlos Marchena added: ”In football you have to have class, especially in times like this. What Aguero did is not acceptable. These situations are a shame and are a mark of the man who does it.”

Which goes to show that money can buy you a lot of things, but it cant buy you class.

Aguero has denied that he insulted anyone, writing on his official Twitter feed: ”I have no interest in getting involved in controversies, but I have to deny having mocked a Villarreal  player. Everyone can attest to my discipline and professionalism, I wouldn’t do something like that.”

Ban the banners

Lazio striker Miroslav Klose has asked the club’s supporters to refrain from making nazi-style banners.

Lazio supporters held up a banner that said “Klose mit uns” – “Klose with us” – during Sunday’s derby with Roma, with the S’s written in old German script in the style of the SS.

The phrase is taken from an old military slogan, “Gott mit uns” – “God with us” – that was also used by the Nazis.

The ANSA news agency reports Klose saying, “Football cannot be mixed with politics. Politics should remain outside the stadium.”

Klose’s remarks come in stark contrast to the response of the club’s hierarchy when it comes to dealing with the extremists within their midst, a response which can be best summed up as the three wise monkey approach.

Daylight robbery

Sevilla President Jose Maria del Nido has renewed his attack on Barcelona and Real Madrid, accusing the duo of “robbing the rest of the league”.

Del Nido was giving an interview with Canal Plus Norway when he spoke out.

“Madrid and Barca are robbing us and the rest of the league,” he said. ”They are taking what is not theirs, and they know it.”

The big two have negotiated their own TV deals since 1996 and at present receive around £140million each per season. This is over three times more than the next biggest earners, Valencia and Atletico Madrid, who each receive around £40million.

The impact of this financial disparity is there for all to see.

“Barcelona and Madrid are the only clubs in the league that can keep their best players,” del Nido said. ”The rest of us have to sell our superstars just to stay within our budgets.

“Atletico Madrid have had to sell Aguero, Valencia had to sell Villa, Mata and Silva. Villarreal sold Cazorla, and Sevilla have had to sell Baptista, Alves, Ramos and Keita. They (Barcelona and Madrid) keep their stars and take away ours.”

“The German, Italian, English and French league are ahead of us,” he added, a touch melodramatically.

See Naples and die…

Napoli entertained Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday night, prompting their president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, to eulogise about the passions stirred by the competition.

“We have seen  beautiful evenings  in recent years, but the Champions League is an event that you live and you feel in great way. And then I saw that our fans have lived an intense night of passion like never before”

De Laurentiis was keen to pay tribute to the Napoli fans.

“This evening was the culmination of the maturity of our fans, they deserve to be in the Champions League and I’ve never had any doubts on internationalism of the Neapolitans,” he said.

Meanwhile their supporters offered a traditional Italian welcome to travelling Bayern fans. They stabbed two of them as they approached the stadium. Two more were stabbed the previous night, attacked as they walked towards the city’s Piazza Garibaldi, by thugs riding motorbikes.

Finally…

Franz Beckenbauer wants FIFA’s task force to change the offside law and make it simpler for referees to interpret.

Beckenbauer is chairman of the FIFA panel that suggests law changes to the board of the world governing body. The panel meets next week.

“I’ve put it on the agenda,” Beckenbauer told yesterday’s edition of Bild newspaper. “All members of the commission should think about it, so that we can discuss it.”

“Offside has become too complicated. We don’t have to go back to the stone age of football but to return to a simpler interpretation. The referee should, for example, disallow a goal only when the goalkeeper is clearly hindered by the offside player,” Beckenbauer said.

At present, the offside rule, Law 11 of FIFA’s Laws of the Game, states that offside must be penalised for “interfering with an opponent”.

Which brings to mind the famous quote by former Tottenham manager Bill Nicholson, who when asked about the vagaries of the offside law, quipped: “If he’s not interfering with play, what’s he doing on the pitch?”

The football professor: a profile of Dettmar Cramer

“I do not believe that there has been a single other person to have made as great an impact in the long history of Japanese soccer,” sports journalist and fellow Japanese Football Hall of Fame inductee Hiroshi Kagawa says of Dettmar Cramer, born in the German city of Dortmund in April 1925 but to this day renowned as the father of the modern game in Japan.

A seldom-heralded midfielder for Germania Wiesbaden and Viktoria Dortmund, Cramer served as an officer in a parachute division during World War Two and later coached several minor club sides in his native North Rhine-Westphalia region before his appointment as a talent scout and coach for the DFB in 1948, where he worked under the tutelage of Sepp Herberger, the future architect of ‘The Miracle of Bern’.

In the early 1960s, after a brief spell in journalism and with the floundering Japanese national side preparing for the showpiece Tokyo Summer Olympics, the man Franz Beckenbauer would later nickname ‘The Football Professor’ was invited to coach the squad as part of an agreement between the West German authorities and then JFA President Yuzuru Nozu.

Drawn in a group alongside Argentina, Ghana and Italy, who withdrew when FIFA questioned the amateur credentials of some of their squad, Japan recovered from a goal down with ten minutes to play to beat Argentina 3-2 in their opening game, future JFA president Saburo Kawabuchi and Aritatsu Ogi scoring twice in two minutes.

Leading twice against Ghana through Shigeo Yaehashi and Ryuichi Sugiyama’s second goal of the tournament, Japan eventually lost by the same scoreline but still made it through to the quarter finals – a notable achievement for a country that had never played in a World or Asian Cup and hadn’t even qualified for the previous games.

Once there, not even Cramer could counter a Czechoslovakia side who had already eliminated Brazil, a 4-0 defeat sending Japan into an unofficial play off for fifth place which they lost 6-1 to Yugoslavia, future Japan coach Ivan Osim scoring twice in Osaka.

“Football is a game of space and time,” Cramer once said. In Mexico City four years later – with the German now a technical adviser to the squad – Japan set about proving him right, picking up the bronze medal after wins over France, Nigeria and the host nation, draws with Spain and Brazil and a loss to eventual gold medallists Hungary in the semi-final.

Nobody doubted that the improvement was largely a result of their foreign coach. The national Japan Soccer League, precursor of today’s two-division professional J-League, had been set up at Cramer’s instigation in 1965 with an initial eight clubs.

One year after Mexico, and with Olympic medallist Shigeo Yaehashi among his assistants, Cramer started classes at the first FIFA coaching school in Chiba Prefecture,  the legacy of which can be seen in the number of Japanese players now turning out in major European leagues.

Japan taught Cramer, too. “After three months in Japan, I wrote articles about the country and its people. Two years later I threw them all away and corrected my mistakes, because Japan, its history and people knew better,” he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine. “I have a nasty character, an ugly temper and no patience,” he once admitted. “From the Japanese I learned to be patient.”

An assistant coach as West Germany reached the final of the 1966 World Cup, Cramer was centrally contracted by FIFA from 1967 to 1974,  a period in which he led Egypt to a bronze medal in the All Africa Games and assisted Helmut Schön as the Germans defeated the Netherlands to lift the World Cup on home soil.

Following a two-week spell in charge at Hertha Berlin, Cramer was given the job of coaching the US national team – though crucially not a contract – on a reputed $100,000 a year salary in July 1974, leaving after only two games to replace Udo Lattek as coach at European Cup holders Bayern Munich.

“I told the president ‘We need some changes,’” Lattek describes the moment he learnt of his dismissal. “’That’s right, you’re sacked’ he replied”.  Furious, the USSF threatened to sue for breach of contract, only to be forced into a humiliating climbdown when it was revealed they and Cramer had never formally signed an agreement.

Openly ridiculed by some of the Bayern squad and directors – club president Wilhelm Neudecker disparagingly referred to him as “the little fart” – Cramer crucially retained the backing of Franz Beckenbauer. In 1963, the 18-year-old Bayern player had not only got his girlfriend pregnant but, to the outrage of the DFB, also refused to marry her. Banned from his country’s youth side, Beckenbauer’s international career was salvaged when Cramer intervened on his behalf. The two men remained close.

“When Franz and I are together, we send and receive on the same wavelength,” Cramer told the official Bayern site in an interview to mark his 85^th birthday.

The Professor led Bayern to back-to-back victories in the European Cup, including the still highly contentious 2-0 defeat of Leeds United in Paris which saw the Yorkshire club banned from European competition after pitched battles between their supporters and the French police.

“In the end we were the winners but we were very, very lucky,” Beckenbauer admitted, after referee Michel Kitabdjian waved away two clear penalties and disallowed a Peter Lorimer goal when Billy Bremner allegedly strayed offside.

An Intercontinental Cup followed in 1976, but despite guiding his team to one of the greatest comeback victories of all-time – overturning a 4-0 deficit at VFL Bochum to eventually win 6-5 – domestic success eluded Cramer, and when a run of five successive Bundesliga defeats left Bayern in the relegation places he was forced to trade jobs with Eintracht Frankfurt’s Hungarian coach Gyula Lóránt.

He would go on to manage Saudi club Al-Ittihad, the South Korean Under 23 squad, Aris Salonika, the national sides of Malaysia and Thailand and Bayer Leverkusen, who he took to their first ever top nine finish in the Bundesliga.

In 1997, after coaching in more than ninety countries in every corner of the globe, Cramer finally retired from management, remaining a FIFA inspector and technical adviser to both the Japanese and South Korean FA. “I am a multi-millionaire, but in air miles not euros,” he once joked.

Awarded the 3^rd Class Order of the Sacred Treasure by a grateful Japan in 1971, Cramer was later among the first inductees into the Asian country’s Football Hall of Fame, then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi naming the German among the ten reasons why he loved football ahead of the 2002 World Cup.

A recipient of the German Federal Order of Merit, two honorary professorships and, less predictably, a chief of the Mohawk and Sioux tribes, the German’s influence still endures.

As Hiroshi Kagawa puts it: “There is simply nobody else whose greatness…and unerring confidence in making strategic moves for the future fills me with such awe”.

World Soccer Daily: 10 stories you need to read, October 21st, 2011

Fit for purpose?

Alleged criminality in the past business dealings of Rangers FC’s new owner has been uncovered by a BBC Scotland investigation.

Rangers: The Inside Story tells an intriguing tale about the club’s owner Craig Whyte and his labyrinthine business interests. The programme is only available to viewers in the UK, but you can read a fairly comprehensive summary in this report.

Rangers responded to the programme by withdrawing all co-operation with the BBC. That’s the grown-up equivalent of storming off the pitch and taking your ball with you.

In a statement, Craig Whyte and Rangers FC said: “As a result of the BBC’s approach, Mr Whyte and Rangers FC believe there is a strong risk that the programme will mislead and misinform viewers about matters concerning the club, and has suspended the BBC’s access to the club.

“Mr Whyte and Rangers wish to reassure viewers – and those of the club’s valued fans who may be watching – that the best interests and secure future of the club are and will remain their priority.”

Platini backs Blatter

Giving credence to Jack Warner’s claim that UEFA chief, Michel Platini, is being groomed to become the next president of FIFA, the Frenchman has offered his support to beleaguered incumbent, Sepp Blatter.

The former CONCACAF chief, who until his resignation was one of football’s kingmakers, claims that Platini’s election to the top FIFA role will be more of a coronation than an contest.

FIFA boss Blatter has vowed to reform an organisation which has become mired in allegations of corruption over the past 12 months. Many are sceptical of his ability to do so, but not Platini.

“We hope that what Mr Blatter promised us this time becomes fact, and not just ideas,” said Platini. “We hope we can bring transparency to FIFA but there will be a proposal and we will have a discussion.

“FIFA has to have a better image and perhaps after a lot of years of a certain way of how to manage FIFA perhaps it would be nice to have the new things promised by Mr Blatter. I get the impression that Mr Blatter is really motivated to change something – we will see.”

In bad taste

Mexican side Guadalajara have fined two players for a goal celebration in which one pretended to shoot the other in the head, sparking anger in the country where drugs-related violence has claimed 44,000 lives and where a top flight match was recently abandoned after a shootout involving police and gang members.

Marco Fabian de la Mora, who scored a hat-trick, and Alberto Medina were each fined 50,000 Mexican pesos for the incident during the Chivas’ 5-2 league victory over city rivals Estudiantes UAG.

“I greatly regret what happened. When I saw the video I was filled with anger and regret for playing around with something as sacred as the life of a human being,” a contrite De la Mora told reporters on Thursday.

“It’s good to celebrate in football but never like that. My respects to Mexico, for a Mexico free of violence, for the mothers and siblings of the victims,” added De la Mora, who also donated a million pesos to an orphanage in the northern border town of Ciudad Juarez.

Goal of the day

Tottenham striker Roma Pavyluchenko smashed home a free-kick against Russian outfit Rubin Kazan.

Own goal of the day

Even the perpetrator, Celtic’s Du-Ri Cha, could see the funny side of this misjudged backpass that gifted Udinese the lead in Thursday’s Europa League encounter.

Red card of the day

Trailing 3-0 to Stoke City but with a man advantage for the whole of the second half, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Yoav Ziv thought it would be a good idea to stake a claim for this year’s Darwin awards by kicking his boot at a referee’s assistant.

Faus makes a pact with the devil

Barcelona and Real Madrid are not prepared to cede to demands for a more equitable distribution of television income, according to Barca vice president Javier Faus.

Spain’s big two have come under scrutiny in recent months as rival clubs fear they are no longer competitive due to the huge gulf in income caused by the current distribution of TV revenue. In Spain, Barcelona and Real Madrid earn 19 x more than the smaller top flight clubs. This contrasts with the situation in England where the champions earn just 1.7 times more than the bottom club.

However, although Faus conceded that there could be more money for the other clubs in future, this would not come at the expense of Real Madrid and Barcelona.

“There is an agreement in principle that the percentage needs to be restructured but not in the way that they (Sevilla and other clubs) want,” Faus told Reuters.

“The difference is that in the last 50 years Barcelona and Real Madrid have always been the reference point for Spanish football … global powers in the world of soccer,” he added.

“This will be very difficult to change and we do not want to change it.

“Yes to a better distribution of the money from rights but also maintaining the status of Barcelona and Real Madrid, who are the trailblazers of Spanish and world soccer.”

They really do take that ‘more than a club‘ slogan far too literally.

“The current deal is inferior to England, to France and to Italy,” Faus continued. “What we are saying is that we are going to work together, Barcelona and Real Madrid first because we are the strongest, so that the cake is bigger.”

One of the principal reasons the pie isn’t bigger is because La Liga, beautiful product though it man be, is no longer regarded as competitive.

Oh Dani boy…

One of the downsides of turning the Spanish league into a two-horse race, as became all too apparent last season, is that overfamiliarity really does breed contempt. This season looks set to be no different. We’ve already had the eye gouging incident in the Supercopa and now the feud continues off the pitch.

Earlier this week Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said he had to look on the  internet to learn about the teams Barcelona were playing in Europe – implying that Pep Guardiola’s side has enjoyed an easy ride in the Champions League this season. More of an insult to their opponents than Barcelona, it has to be said.

Now, Barcelona defender Dani Alves has responded by saying that while Mourinho talks a good game, the Catalan side do their talking on the pitch. It was an attempt by the Brazilian to take the moral high ground, although that would have been better achieved if he’d simply kept his mouth shut and let Mourinho’s remarks fade into the ether.

“We know what he is like. He is always trying to take merit away from others,” Alves told Spanish media, according to Goal.com Spain.

“We will just get on with our work and don’t want to get involved with any of that. We’re inferior in that respect and we like to do our talking where we do it best – on the pitch.

“Journalists love it because it sells a lot of newspapers, but we are focused on performing on the pitch.”

How to make friends…

Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has dismissed Jurgen Klinsmann’s time as coach of the Bundesliga side as an expensive mistake.

Klinsmann, who took over as coach of the United States national team in July, coached Bayern from July 2008 to April 2009, when he was fired.

Never one to mince his words, Hoeness told Donaukurier newspaper that the club “bought computers for thousands of (dollars)” because Klinsmann used powerpoint presentations to explain game plans to the players.

Bayern’s current coach, Jupp Heynckes, needs five color markers and a flip chart to do the same, the chairman added.

“With Heynckes, we win games for €12.50, while we spent a lot of money under Klinsmann and had little success,” Hoeness said.

If you’re a treasurer at the United States Soccer Federation, it’s not too late to cancel the iPad orders.

Heynckes was appointed to take over in the summer after the club decided to part ways with Dutchman Louis van Gaal, whose coaching abilities were exemplary, if not his people skills.

“That he (Van Gaal) was a catastrophe in human relations is another story,” Hoeness said. “As expert, he was top. That’s why he wasn’t a mistake. Klinsmann was.”

Finally…

Fans of English football can sleep easier now. The suggestion that some of the foreign owners of Premier League clubs were keen to scrap promotion to and relegation from the division, have been roundly condemned.

Liverpool owner John Henry called the idea “complete nonsense,” telling The Associated Press “hasn’t been discussed.”

The Aston Villa board headed by American Randy Lerner was “confused and surprised” by Bevan’s remarks.

Meanwhile, Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has labelled the suggestion “nonsensical”.

Scudamore also inferred that the man responsible for the original allegation, League Managers Association chief executive, Richard Bevan, was making it up.

“My reaction was to ask him precisely who they were and what they were saying and he was unable to substantiate it in any meaningful way – as I knew he wouldn’t be able to,” he added.