Specials

3

Why English teams suffer in Europe?

Eight teams qualified from England this season with Manchester united, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal in Europe’s Elite Cup Competition and last year’s Quarter-finalists Tottenham Hotspur along with surprise Carling Cup winners Birmingham City, FA Cup Finalists Stoke City and Fulham making  up the numbers in the Europa League. It’s the Quarter Final stages this time around and England is survived by a lone member of the so called Big Four coming by the name of Chelsea.

Nothing much was expected from Birmingham City anyways as they were relegated from the BPL last season. Tottenham after finishing the first 3 matches on a high with two wins and a draw bowed out in the group stages after losing the following 2 matches against Rubin and a surprise defeat at home to PAOK who finished fourth in the Greek League last season. Fulham were also eliminated in the group stage behind FC Twente and Wisla Krakow. Stoke city on the other hand made it to the round of 32, a club labeled by Andy Gray as one that could give stiff competition for Messi & Co. were a mere pushover for Valencia currently lying 3^rd  28 points behind league leaders Real Madrid.

The Champions league Group stages saw just 2 out of the 4 teams qualifying for the round of 16. After being knocked out of the group stages of the Champions League by Benefica and Basel ( who later were thrashed 7-0 by Bayern Munich) Manchester United’s disastrous European Campaign came to a halt when they were dismantled by Athletic club de Bilbao who are currently languishing in 11^th place in La Liga over 2 legs (3-2 and 2-1). United’s cross town rivals suffered a similar fate after being humbled by Bayern Munich and Napoli in the group stages of the Champions League, the millions of City could not handle a meager  side from Portugal as they were knocked out on away goals in the Round of 16. Arsenal bowed out too from the Champions League though respectfully, the first leg 4-0 drubbing from the hands of Milan was too much to take. This leaves us with Chelsea who despite having the most horrible season in the post  Mourinho era showed tremendous character in coming back from a 3-1 deficit to overcome an in-experienced Napoli side and are now in the driving seat to qualify for the semi finals after a 1-0 away victory over Benefica.

What is going wrong? Why the so-called best league in the world has just 1 team left in Europe?

When the top dogs from England play in Europe they just do not have the tenacity, the technique or the composure to compete with the pressing and the skill of their European counterparts. Benefica, Basel, Bilbao (to a greater extent), Napoli, Bayern Munich, Milan have all taught painful lessons to the teams from London and Manchester. Nobody from the Premier League can be a Xavi or an Iniesta or a Pirlo. Even the young talents like Iker Muiain, Nicolas Gaitan seem to be ages ahead than their English counterparts. Taking all the top teams from England only Manchester city seem to have the personnel to compete to some extent with the Barcelona’s and the Real Madrid’s.

Number one concern for the English teams at the moment would be their personnel. The teams of Manchester United and Arsenal would be their worst under their current respective managers. The former have dropped just 2 points since the New Year defeat to Newcastle and currently lie 3 points clear of City at the Summit of the BPL table but lost 4 of the last 5 in Europe. In their last Premier League game against Fulham, United’s possession in the second half till the 80^th minute was around 75%, with the present team this stat is next to impossible in Europe. Arsenal seemed to have gone down in an even steeper slope since the time of the invincibles, to compete with the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid would be a clear mismatch. Chelsea too have some serious rebuilding to do, with players like Raul Meireles and Obi Mikel lacking neither the presence nor the skill to command the center of the field. Fielding a 4-3-3 requires pacy wingers down the wing which Chelsea are clearly lacking. Playing their only creative player in Mata down the wing does them more harm than good. City on the other hand have ample ammunition in attack, defence and the middle and just lack a bit of self belief and exposure on the European front.

Another cause of concern for the English would be their lack of technical ability. The FA cup tie between United and Liverpool on 28 January,2012 was being played in the most sad, torrid, boring, horrible ‘whatever you want to call it’ way and the English Commentator goes like ” This is English Football at its best ! This is what the crowd live for “. The English are more worried about the physicality of the game rather than the technique or the passing. One might even wonder that it is still 1966 in England because England are considered one of the favorites in every tournament that they seem to enter. There is a need for drastic change in the English youth system as well with the focus shifting to technique and tactics rather than how much you can throw the player out of the park. Jack Wilshere and Daniel Sturridge seem to be exceptions and have avoided the English mentality.

The general exodus of Premier League players to Spanish and Italian leagues has also harmed the Premier League to a great extent. When Manchester United won the Champions League in 2008 Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez spearheaded the attack, Scholes, Giggs and Ferdinand were 4 years younger. Have United changed since then- Well yes they have deteriorated Scholes, Giggs and Ferdinand are older, Ronaldo is scoring goals for fun at Madrid and Tevez has left. There is clear decline in the team’s strength since 2008 and after being outplayed by Barcelona twice in 2009 and 2011 Sir Alex still seems to think United are just behind Barcelona and Real Madrid. Except City none of the top teams in England have grown in terms of squad strength, players like Henry, Fabregas, Nasri and Clichy have left Arsenal since 2007, Chelsea still have not seem to overcome the departure of Mourinho.

Overconfidence can cover the remaining flaws in English Football. With a false sense of belief of playing in the best league in the World, they seem to think just making up the numbers is good enough to compete in Europe. While the premier league coaches and players seem to be swimming in their pride, Real Madrid and Barcelona are growing from strength to strength, Bayern Munich and Dortmund have tremendous technical players at their disposal and Milan, Juventus and Napoli seem to have taken huge strides to challenge for major honors in Europe.

Tactics and technicality seem to have eluded the English game. Therefore self-realization and coping with the tactics and the technique of Europe’s elite would seem to be the major challenge for English teams in the near future. Rebuilding too would be a major factor in the case of Manchester United , Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool if they want to be challenging for Europe’s premier competition in the foreseeable future. False hype and over expectation on mediocre players like Rodwell and Walcott also seems to be a barrier which England need to overcome. When strength, technique, pace and tactics ever more important in the modern game England seem to have major work ahead of them if they are to conquer Europe and the World as they did 46 years ago.

Aamer Aslam

CHIPOLOPOLO BOYS – ZAMBIA

12 Feb 2012  Stade d’Angondjé,Libreville, the atmosphere is tense in Gabon with the AFCON (African Cup of Nations) final in its latter stages,Sudden Death ,8-7 on penalties Zambia lead the Elephants from Cote’d Ivoire and Gervinho steps up hoping to level things up,heart beat rising and in a blink of an eye the boys from Zambia are celebrating, Gervinho kneels, the Elephants hunted down, history had been made and Zambia were crowned kings of Africa for the first time. Destiny, Zambia had won their first major trophy  in a stadium only a short distance from the crash site that had killed most of the national team in 1993. Ecstacy, tears of joy, this is what we live for, this is football in its purest form.

HISTORY

The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) was formed in 1929 but they had to wait till 1964 to get affiliated

Kalusha Bwalya at the graves of Zambian national team

to FIFA which also coincides with the year that Zambia won their Independence from Portuguese influence. KK11 they were known as from 1964 -1991 after their founder Dr Kenneth Kaunda.After the affiliation with FIFA  the Copper Bullets had to wait another 10 years for their first appearance in AFCON where the underdogs went all the way to the finals only to be beaten by a well know Zaire side in  a final replay after the first leg ended in a dramatic draw (2-2) after Zambia equalised in the 120′.  Expectations were high after finishing runners-up but the next 20 years were pretty hard on the country with politics,civil war from portuguese rebels grabbing all the major headlines despite Zambia finishing with a bronze medal in 1980 as well as 1992 AFCON. By the mid-1990s, despite limited debt relief, Zambia’s per capita foreign debt remained among the highest in the world and to cap it all off, the entire Zambian football team was wiped out in a plane crash in 1993 in Libreville, Zambia and its football had reached its lowest point since the amazing run in the 1974 AFCON.

RECENT PAST

The 1994 AFCON saw a rebuilt and rejuvenated Zambian side take to the field only to be beaten by favourites and eventual winners Nigeria in the final. Football was on the rise in Zambia and in Africa as a whole with Cameroon and Nigeria qualifying for the world cups and giving the top European and American countries a major scare. 2 years later Zambia finished with a bronze medal again in the AFCON rising to 15 in the FIFA rankings,their highest till date, there was a big buzz that they could make a debut in the 1998 FIFA WORLD CUP in France. But not only did they not qualify for the WC  but also were eliminated in the group stages of the AFCON. Even though African Football had reached soaring heights in the next decade this coincided with a huge decline in Zambian football, 5 Group stage exits from the AFCON, failing to qualify for the AFCON in 2004, World cup qualification still seemed to be a distant dream with the country even missing out on qualification for the first World Cup on African Soil in 2010.

THE TRUIMPH

2012 AFCON, Zambia again arrived to the scene as big underdogs with African Heavywights Nigeria and Cameroon failing to qualify for Africa’s elite competition. With a surprise 3-0 victory over Senegal, a draw

Zambian National Team Celebrating

with Libya and 1-0 victroy over the hosts Equatorial Guinea Zambia finished top of their group and beginning to prove their doubters wrong. Coach Herve Renard had done a brilliant job in giving this  team an abundance of self belief which was shown in the semi-final victory over AFCON favourites and World Cup quarter-finalists Ghana setting up a final with a defensive Ivory Coast who had not conceded a goal in the tournament so far. This record was to stay intact after the final as well after the match finished 0-0 in regular time and Zambia winning dramatically 8-7 on penalties. An emotional moment for the troubled nation as they were crowned Kings of Africa for the first time a few miles from the site where the tragic crash had occured almost 20 years ago. Zambia Captain Christopher Katongo finished the tournament joint top scorer with Dider Drogba with three goals to cap off a memorable tournament for the Nation.

With the Country’s financial,political and the football state better than ever , Qualifying for the 2014 World cup in Brazil does seem to be an achievable target for the Copper Bullets. Herve Renard has done a remarkable job in buliding a team with a mix of talent and self belief.  Expectations have only led to dissapointments for the Counrty in the past but lets all hope the first AFCON truimph is a firm step forward for the CHIPOLOPOLO BOYS (copper bullets) in the right direction.

Aamer Aslam.

LEGENDS OF THE FOOTBALL WORLD CUP

#15  Roger Mila (Cameroon)

Roger Milla celebrating

‘Old age is when you begin to say, I’ve never felt so young.’ The words of French writer Jules Renard could have been composed especially for Roger Milla, the Cameroon striker and African football icon, who exploded on to the international scene at the ripe old age of 38. A veteran blessed with enduring bursts of pace and an unerring eye for goal, Milla took Cameroon into uncharted territory for an African team as they reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup™ in Italy. Incredibly, he also played four years later in the United States.

Roger Milla (Born Albert Roger Mooh Miller , May 20, 1952) is a former cameroonian football forward. He was one of the first African players to be a major star on the international stage . He achieved international stardom at 38 years old, an age at which most footballers have retired, by scoring four goals at the 1990 FIFA World Cup™.

CLUB HISTORY

Born in the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde, he moved constantly as a child because of his father’s railroad job. He signed for his first club in Doula as a 13-year-old. At 18, he won his first league championship with another Douala club.

In 1976, by which time he had moved to Tonnerre Yaounde, he was awarded the African Footballer of the year award.

In 1977, he was lured to Europe by the French club Valenciennes. However, he was kept on the reserves for two years. In 1979, he joined AS Monaco, but shuttled between the reserves’ bench and the injury list. The next year, he joined Bastia, but still did not flourish. He finally found stardom at Saint Etienne in 1984; he then starred for Montpellier from 1986 to 1989, and became a member of the club’s coaching staff after retiring from French football.By the time he called time on his professional career in France, in May 1989, he had 152 goals to his name.

WORLD CUPS

He had already achieved plenty with Cameroon, making history as part of the team that qualified for the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain.Unfortunately, the inexperienced Cameroon drew all their games & failed to qualify. It was the Indomitable Lions’ first appearance on the world stage and despite a first-round exit they more than held their own, returning home unbeaten. After winning the CAF Africa Cup of Nations for a second time in 1988, Milla announced his retirement from international football and after memorable testimonials in Douala and Yaounde, attended by almost 100,000 spectators, he moved to Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean to live out what he thought would be a peaceful semi-retirement.

Roger Milla

Playing in the FIFA World Cup seemed nothing but a distant memory – until, that is, with the Italy 90 finals looming and with the national squad riven by conflict, the Cameroonian press began bidding for his return. The clamour grew until Milla received a phone call from the President of Cameroon himself, Paul Biya, pleading with him to come out of retirement and answer his country’s call. How could he refuse?

So it was that at the age of 38, Roger Milla enjoyed his finest hour as a footballer. He lit up the 1990 FIFA World Cup with his bursts of pace, his jinking runs, his clever passes and, of course, that hip-wiggling Makossa dance around the corner flag with which he celebrated each of his four goals. A late substitute in Cameroon’s stunning 1-0 victory over holders Argentina in the tournament’s opening game, it was in their second group fixture against Romania that he wrote his name into the FIFA World Cup record books. Coming off the bench after 58 minutes, he became the oldest goalscorer at the age of 38 in the tournament’s history when breaking clear of the Romanian defence to fire Cameroon in front with 13 minutes remaining. Ten minutes later he struck again.

That victory assured Cameroon a place in the second round where Milla proved the hero again, his two goals in extra time against Colombia sending the Indomitable Lions to the quarter-finals, the furthest an African nation had reached. The first was sublime, the old man carrying the ball past Perea and Escobar before driving it beyond Higuita with his left foot. The second a gift from the goalkeeper, whose attempt to dribble round Milla ended up with the Cameroonian finishing into an empty net. “He wanted to dribble past me. You don’t dribble past Milla,” said the hero of the hour.

Even in the subsequent 3-2 quarter-final loss to England, Milla shone, winning the penalty from which Emmanuel Kunde struck their first goal, then putting Eugene Ekeke through for their second. Milla, who had always craved recognition as a footballer, could be proud: not only would he be crowned African Footballer of the Year but the performances of his team, along with Egypt at Italy 90, led to the announcement that there would be a third African team at future FIFA World Cups.

Four years later, and incredibly Milla was back for USA 94. Although Cameroon were eliminated at the group stage, he still managed to grab a goal against Russia, thereby setting a new record as the oldest scorer at a FIFA World Cup, at the age of 42. It is not his only record; he is also the first African to have played in three finals tournaments.

LIFE AFTER FOOTBALL

A man of great generosity and humanity, he now devotes his time to African causes. An itinerant ambassador for Cameroon and UNAIDS, he is tireless in his globe-trotting work, but do not ever ask him how many goals or caps he has. “I don’t know. It never interested me. Football was all that mattered.” The quote sums up the man.

Well now lets all say

Ageless Milla the pride of the Indomitable Lions

Aamer Aslam

Note : Watch out for #14 within the next 2 days. goodbye, Adios

References –fifa.com, wikipedia,planetworldcup,worldcupbetting2006,google

PICHICHI WINNERS OF THE PAST DECADE

#10 (98-99) – Raul Gonzalez(Real Madrid) – 25 goals

The prolific goalscorer is at the latter part of his career now but is still considererd to be 1 of best in the business.

the 31 year old striker is still UCL’s top scorer with 65 goals and has scored a staggering 225 goals for Real Madrid

The Pichichi- awarded for the top scorer in the la liga;named after the famous Athletic Bilbao player, Rafael Moreno "Pichichi".

#9(99-00) – Salva Ballesta(Racing Santander) – 27 goals

He was late bloomer and had an amazin 99-00 season ; the only amazing 1 one should say.

Ballesta barely managed to make a name for himself and retired after 7 years after being in  5 different clubs during that time

#8(00-01) – Raul Gonzalez (Real Madrid) – 24 goals

#7(01-02) – Diego Tristan (Deportivo la Coruna) – 21 goals

The veteran plying his trade at West ham in recent days was one of the most feared strikers around at that time. He had an amzing 01-02 season after scoring 6 goals in the UCL and 5 in the Spanish cup making it a total 31 for the season.

#6 (02-03) – Roy Makaay (Deportivo la Coruna )- 29 goals

Makaay was the European Golden Boot winner for the 2002-03 season for being the top scorer in Europe.

He also led his club to the semi finals of that years UCL

#5 (03-04) – Ronaldo (Real Madrid ) – 24 goals

The guy needs no introduction and is 1 of the best strikers of all time. He is currently the Top goalscorer wit 15 goals beating Gerd Muller’s previous record of 14. His career has been battered with injuries and hasn had proper first team action for the past 2-3 seasons. Its very very unlikely that we see the very best of Ronaldo again.

#4 (04-05) –  Diego Forlan ( Villareal ) – 25 goals

The Uruguain proved a flop with English giants Manchester United but proved an instant hit with la liga side Villareal helping his side to gain their first Champions League Spot. He also held The EUROPEAN GOLDEN BOOT along with Henry .

#3 (05-06) – Samuel Eto’o (FC Barcalona )- 26 goals

He is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations, with sixteen goals, and is also the record holder in number of appearances by an African in La Liga. He is currently the 5th highest goalscorer in Barcelona’s history, 5 goals behind the fourth placed Rivaldo and the only member of the current squad to be in the top 10.

# 2 (06-07) –  Ruud Van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid) – 25 goals

One of the best poachers in the world. Also has arguably the best goal to match ratio and has scored

53 goals in 64 matches in the Champions League.

Van Nistelrooy signed with Spanish side Real Madrid on 28 July 2006, departing Manchester United after five seasons with a total of 150 goals in 220 appearances, as well as the club’s all-time European scoring record with 38 goals.

#1 (07-08) – Daniel Guiza (RCD Mallorca) – (27 goals)

The lad was a surprise package of the season and is a late bloomer. The pichichi helped him book a spot in the History making Euro 2008 side (SPAIN) with whom he netted 2 goals. He is currently playing for turkish side Fenerbache.