That's the story coming out of The Scottish FA, "any future glamour games will be based on the fact that fans can afford the ticket levels." With eyes toward Argentina's visit to Hampden Park, there have been murmers about how much Scottish fans are willing to pay to see their side play host some of the world's best teams.Scottish soccer executives say that future games with Brazil and other high- profile teams may depend on fans' interest in the Argentina match.Diego Maradona's debut on November 19th will be quite telling: a packed house will let us know who'll be visiting Scotland in the years to come.
Scottish officials almost canceled the match after baulking at the South American team's pay demands, Banks said. A compromise was found with Scottish fans being charged the same prices as they would be for competitive internationals, higher than for previous exhibition matches. Scottish media reports said Argentina asked for 1 million pounds ($1.59 million) to play.
“He had some setbacks yesterday and was here today, but a professional needs to live a healthy lifestyle and above all train well. All the time. I don’t think Adriano is living in hardship, reading the interviews he has given. I repeat, he just needs to live the life of an athlete. If I do not consider him to be in good shape to play, then I do not leave him out because of spite. I don’t see him doing well at the moment, otherwise he would play. I hope now he understands and can do something different.”
Well, what is there really to say? If you saw the Copa America final, you know how and why things went down the way they did. While I was sad for Argentina, kudos to Brazil and it's head coach Dunga, I feel that he has his team on the right track for South Africa in 2010.
But then this takes me back to Dunga's tactics. Playing three defensive midfielders killed Argentina's rhythm and flow, especially Riquelme's. He had little time, let alone space, to turn and develop much of anything. Thus, neutralizing the No. 10 meant stopping most of the service to Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi. That's why I thought Juan Veron had a pretty decent spell after Brazil scored their first, he had the room to move that was being denied to Riquelme.
Reports out of Argentina's camp in Venezuela are that Carlos Tevez will replace Diego Milito in the starting XI tomorrow night. This is big news if you consider Alfio Basile's stern insistence (supposedly up until now) that his teams play with a big, traditional No. 9. Basile has always been in favor of fielding a forward who can play with his back to goal, hold and lay off the ball to on-rushing teammates. The team's second-half (after Tevez's insertion) against Peru seems to have changed the gaffer's mind.
Posing nude for Playboy does have a drawback, it can ruin your career. Ana Paula Oliveira has been left off the "elite list" of Brazilian match officials that the country turns over to FIFA for international consideration. With the commission that oversees referees in Sao Paulo coming out against Oliveira, the Brazilian FA has taken the decision to stop the ref's match-officiating career in it's tracks.
Milan vice president Adriano Galliani is getting it from both sides this week. His club's supporters are looking for reassurances that Kaka isn't on his way to Real Madrid. Though Galliani is making public statements claiming that the Brazilian is staying, Rossoneri fans are not ready to believe him after last summer's pronouncements.
In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Brazilian Ze Roberto sets the record straight about two issues that have been swirling around him recently. Concerning his reasons for coming back to Germany after a one-year spell at Santos:It would be a lie to not recognize that Brazil, like all of Latin America, has very grave social problems, but we never felt insecure or in danger, not my family and not me. The last year in my homeland was beautiful and I will return to Brazil, where I have left my loved ones, friends and my heart. I'm returning to Munich because it's good for my professional career, not because of fear.As to why he left Bayern Munich in the first place:
Yes, that's right. Felix Magath robbed me of the joy of playing soccer. The time I played under his direction was one of the saddest and most difficult of my career. I have been under the direction of some of the most important and successful coaches in the world and they have always talked to me about what things are good or bad. Felix Magath never talked with me, never came close to me and evaded my attempts to get close to him. He simply ignored me. I was very unhappy during this time.The 33-year-old's Bayern deal is through June of 2009.
Anyone want to take a crack at Mano, Pra Cima Deles?
That's all Boca Juniors has to get through tonight to lift it's 6th Copa Libertadores. But it won't be easy, this year's Libertadores has seen a ton of goals, and if Boca can win the first-leg 3-0 at home, you can bet that Gremio can return the favor in the second-leg. Marcela Mora y Araujo sends out a warning here.GREMIO: Sebastian Saja; Patricio, Teco, William, Lucio; Diego Gavilan, Lucas, Tcheco, Diego Souza; Tuta and Carlos Eduardo.The match will be kicking off in less than three hours. It's going to be shown Live on FOX Sports en Espanol, the broadcast begins at 8:30pm ET.
BOCA: Mauricio Caranta; Hugo Ibarra, Daniel Diaz, Morel Rodriguez, Clemente Rodriguez; Pablo Ledesma, Ever Banega, Neri Cardozo; Juan Roman Riquelme; Rodrigo Palacio and Martin Palermo.
Referee: Oscar Ruiz (Colombia)
I am perfectly happy blaming Argentina and Brazil for FIFA's ban on matches played over 8,200 feet. But if I'm wrong, and the two traditional South American powers have not pulled the strings on this, why is Argentina unwilling to pledge it's support to Bolivia's struggle to get the ban overturned?
In one of the most bizarre incidents I've ever come across, Cruz Azul were disqualified from the Mexican league playoff semi-finals after fielding an ineligible player. That player, Salvador Carmona, had tested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol in June of 2005, and was subsequently banned for a year by the Mexican FA. Despite a second positive test by Carmona for the same substance on January 31st of last year, the FA disciplinary committee decided to nullify the second result last summer because it mistakenly believed the B sample was destroyed.
Agreeing with the boss at Manchester United, the original samba king backs his compatriot, Kaka, to carry Milan to Champions League glory next Wednesday. Pele thinks that between the Kaka and Clarence Seedorf, the Rossoneri will be tough to beat. He had this to say about the two Milan players:The Dutchman gives a quiet balance, hides the ball from opponents and provides assists. Together those two equal a Champions League winning combination. [Kaka] is the best player in the world along with Ronaldinho. I hope he can bring the Champions League to Milan. He above all reminds me of Johann Cruyff with that progression, pace, eye for goal and when he starts from midfield he's unique. Kaka has improved so much – more than I thought possible – even if you could tell from a young age he would go far. When he is on form, Milan are devastating.
If I were to measure my goal tally by Romario's criteria, I've must of scored at least 500+ goals in my "career." And I'm not even counting all the balls I've rolled through my dog's legs.
One of Colombia's all-time greats, Freddy Rincon, has been arrested in Brazil under suspicion of laundering drug money. Panama is looking to extradite Rincon after his name came up in an investigation centered around international drug trafficking and money laundering. The money supposedly belongs to a narcotraficante from Colombia, Pablo Rayo Montano.
It be so my friends. The BBC's man in South America takes issue with one Brazilian's take on the 1966 World Cup winners. Money quote:Its incompetence [the refereeing in 1966] is matched by [Max] Gehringer's power of analysis. Blaming the officials is often a cop out for those unable or unwilling to analyse the game. His, though, is the standard Brazilian bar-room bore's version of what happened in 1966.Oh snap.
South Africa and Brazil will both want to show the world the best their countries have to offer, so it's only logical that we're getting stories like this one out of Johannesburg. Money quote:The country's Supreme Court of Appeal recently allowed Johannesburg City, which has two world-cup stadiums, to evict 300 squatters from inner-city buildings classified as unsafe by the Johannesburg municipality.This is just one of the many stories concerning the poor that we'll be hearing about as we get closer to both the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.
Johannesburg has evicted thousands of the country's poorest people from 125 buildings since the 2001 launch of its urban renewal plan for 235 buildings on its list of "bad buildings," mainly hotel and apartment block construction and refurbishment.
How ready is Brazil to start the arduous task of putting together a World Cup? Not so much, according to the BBC's South American correspondent Tim Vickery. No having any (that's right, any) stadium capable of hosting a match is the least of Brazil's problems:One of the most authoritative and fearless voices in the Brazilian sports press belongs to Marcelo Damato of the 'Lance!' newspaper.One's got to imagine that if South Africa can pull their shit together, surely Brazil can. Right?
He picked up on [Orlando] Silva's comments, writing that the sports minister "was talking as if Brazil did not have the highest tax burden in the world, some of the worst figures in education and criminality, and, worse, the tragic experience of the use of public money in the Pan-American Games."
These latter, to be staged in Rio de Janeiro in July, are proving highly controversial. Costs have spiralled, some venues are rushing to be ready in time and promises of transport legacies to the city have been quietly dropped.
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