Some confusion over the centenary celebrations of the RFEF (Real Federación Española de Fútbol, or Royal Spanish Football Federation) has arisen.
The governing body celebrated has anounced it will celebrate its centenary on November 14th with a friendly between Spain and Argentina at the Vicente Calderón stadium in Madrid. This is a little odd, as the RFEF celebrated its 75th anniversary in October 1988, with a friendly against an Argentina side featuring Diego Maradona (pictured above). Mathematicians will note that this was 21 years ago, not 25.
“It seems obvious that someone has been guilty of impatience,” says Marca of the hasty celebration.
Mark Hughes’ side get a massive confidence boost in Spain
Barcelona 0/ Manchester City 1
Despite the support of 90,000 supporters and some keerrazzee limited edition shirts, European champions Barcelona lost the annual Juan Gamper Tournament to Manchester City last night.
Bulgarian Martin Petrov proved he is still alive with a first half strike that punished some terrible goalkeeping from a goalkeeper who nobody has ever heard of. Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s immeasurable talents were out in force, but in the end, the overrated Swede was simply too rubbish to put one past Shay Given.
Spoiler bonus: Elsewhere in friendly action, Real Madrid spanked Borussia Dortmund in front of 75,000 fans, but C-Ron failed to get on the scoresheet. Highlights after the jump…
Brazil are all set to face European powerhouse Estonia in a friendly this afternoon, as part of a celebration of a centenary of Estonian football (a centenary in which they have qualified for the square root of nothing). However, concerns spread throughout the capital city of Tallinn yesterday, as Kaka went missing.
The Real Madrid star took a walk through Tallinn’s historic Old Town (a World Heritage Site that dates back to medieval times), but it seems he got a little bit lost and had no idea how to return to the team’s hotel.
Eventually, a police patrol tracked him down and safely returned him to the Radisson hotel. He was easily identifiable, as he was wearing his Brazil training tracksuit.
In how many other countries in the world could someone like Kaka roam the streets anonymously wearing his full training kit?
Will you be watching the Three Lions go Dutch tomorrow?
With the exception of “injured” self defence expert Steven Gerrard, Fabio Capello’s England squad travelled to Amsterdam today to prepare for tomorrow night’s friendly with The Netherlands.
Understandably, several Premier League managers are less than delighted that a full programme of international fixtures has been scheduled just three days before the start of the Premier League season: Roy Hodgson and Martin O’Neill have vented their fears, and brand new Black Cat Steve Bruce has gone as far as saying there shouldn’t be any international friendlies at all:
“I’ve never known anything like it before. I don’t know why there are internationals scheduled this week.
“I’m baffled and it really is total nonsense. International friendlies should be banned anyway.”
The managers clearly aren’t impressed by this friendly, and it’s unlikely that the players are savouring a pan-European trip for a meaningless game just hours before the start of a new season. But is the game actually of any interest to fans? Are you keen to see the Three Lions get some vital practise before September’s crunch tie with Croatia, or would you rather be watching Coronation Street/ Midsomer Murders/ whatever crap ITV show on a Wednesday?
Let us know your thoughts below…
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Brazilian pastor livens up the Barclays Asia Trophy
While West Ham’s Barcalays Asia Trophy tie with Tottenham was more boring than watching paint dry on the side of Al Gore’s house, Geovanni brought some much-needed excitement to Hull’s clash with Beijing Guoan.
After the Brazilian capitalised on a woeful error from the Chinese centre-back, Beijing brought the score back to 1-1. Hull prevailed in the end, winning 5-4 on penalties.
Spoiler bonus: Hull have brought plenty of fans over to China, many of whom delighted locals with some wonderfully offensive chants…
The Championship’s biggest club ain’t such a big draw no more
The Workers Stadium in Beijing looked set to claim yesterday’s highly un-coveted “Embarrassingly Low Attendance” award, as approximately one man and his dog turned up to see West Ham’s utterly useless performance against Tottenham.
However, the St James’ Park faithful pipped our Eastern friends to the post last night, as just 16,000 people turned up to see the Toon Army face Leeds. When you consider that 5,000 of those were Leeds fans and Newcastle usually fill their 52,000 seater stadium, this is pretty shocking stuff.
The crowd - whose fercious support was augmented by cheering noises played over the tannoy system - was rewarded for their efforts with a dull 0-0 draw. We were going to post a highlights video, but it’s probably best that we all just get on with the rest of our lives instead.
Spurs star wrongfully accused of driving violation
Yesterday, the Tottenham squad flew off to Beijing for a pointless money-spinner pre-season friendly with West Ham, but Darren Bent was hauled off the plane at the eleventh hour as his switch to Sunderland finally went through. The underperforming hitman, however, wasn’t the only one to miss the flight, as Jermain Defoe found himself in a spot of bother with the law.
Defoe was pulled over by traffic police yesterday, who believed he was banned from driving. The striker explained that a six month penalty imposed earlier this month was suspended pending appeal, but the fuzz were having none of it, and threw him in a cell at the station in Harlow, Essex for five hours. Unlike a certain member of the Tottenham squad, it is believed the 26-year-old did not cry or wet himself while in police custody.
He was eventually freed at 9am yesterday, after it was revealed the ‘Police National Computer’ [the what?] had not been updated.
After losing five hours in which he could have been boffing ladies he met in Movida, it is understood Defoe may sue for his wrongful imprisonment.
Can the North East side bounce back from utter rubbishness?
“It’s disappointing and embarrassing,” said Newcastle caretaker manager Chris Hughton following Newcastle Utd’s humiliating defeat at the hands of Leyton Orient on Saturday.
Around 1,500 Geordies made the long journey to Brisbane Road (and Derek Llambias made the relatively short journey from his Essex country pile), where they witnessed their beloved side lose to a League One side in highly lethargic fashion. A poor result considering the fact that the team was extremely similar to the one that played in the Premiership last season.
Despite getting knocked for six on Saturday, most bookies are putting Newcastle as favourites to win the Championship next season. On the basis of this kind of performance, however, Leyton Orient fans can probably look forward to taking six points from Mike Ashley’s woeful bunch in League One in 2010/11.
So, will Newcastle make it back to the promised land, or are they about to start a lengthy period in the Football League wilderness? Let us know your thoughts below…
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