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    Tuesday Night Sillies: Goalkeeping FAIL

    By Guest, in Euro File,

    While the UEFA Champions League is generally seen as the best soccer on the planet, even it is not immune to human error.
    Players make blunders all the time, but when a goalkeeper does it, it usually leads to a goal (and a whole lot of scorn/mockery towards the poor bugger who messed up).
    Today's UCL match between FC Twente and Tottenham Hotspur provided another example of just how crucial the keeper is, and the ramifications of one simple slip-up by the team's last line of defence.
    Poor Sander Boschker - 40 years old and making his Champions League debut - will never live this one down...
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
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    Watching the above debacle immediately brings to mind another famous miskick, by former Spurs keeper Paul Robinson while playing for England:


    While we're on the topic, here's a collection of some of the best keeper cock-ups on the Internet. Ignore the crappy music and enjoy the pure buffoonery of it all:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4b7flwMTwM&feature=related
    Guest
    Welcome to another edition of Long Balls: Canadians Abroad. It’s a service for those who want to keep tabs on Canadian footballers but lack time to wade through multi-page forum threads and obscure German-based betting websites.
    Sigh. Finally some holiday mirth here at Long Balls. After watching Simeon Jackson, Josh Simpson and yes, even Tomasz Radzinski bang in goal after goal earlier this season, we hit a bit of a dry spell on the scoresheet. Leave it to wayward defender and roving Turkish league ball winner Mike Klukowski to cure our ills.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    He wheedled into a local bank, filled out the requisite forms and opened his account for the season, scoring for Ankaragücü in a 1-1 draw with Sivasspor. The goal is great news, but even greater news is that Klukowski is getting regular minutes. He may not have suited up for Canada since May, but he's hardly drifting out of shape in the meantime.
    On the subject of the regular physical exercise that goes hand-in-hand with lining up for a top-level professional club in Europe, how about that Canadian mens' national team keeper situation?
    There's this friendly coming up against Greece in February, in Greece. You might remember this opponent from such tournaments as Euro 2004, which they won, and the World Cup last June, in which they were largely disappointing but nonetheless present.
    Canada's options in goal for this upcoming friendly include ostensible first-choice keeper Lars Hirschfeld, who will be just starting to stir from his winter slumber, considering that he plays his club football in Norway, whose league breaks from November to March. Haidar Al Shaibani is riding the pine in the French second division, although I assume that he's at least getting some form of rudimentary physical activity he could parlay into a start against the 11th ranked nation in the world.
    David Monsalve recently tweeted about how crowded it was at north Toronto's Yorkdale mall during the holidays, while Josh Wagenaar is writing economics papers at Graceland University in Iowa.
    But here's where I finally address the reference to newly minted Canada hopeful Milan Borjan in this post's title. Exactly how committed he is to our national program remains to be seen -- I'll remain nervous until I see him on a soccer field, wearing a Canada shirt, at least marginally involved in a Fifa-sanctioned match. After all, this is a guy who likes to move around. All that's left is for the theme from The Littlest Hobo to start playing in the background when you open his Wikipedia page.
    He's just your average Serbian kid who fled a civil war, settled in Hamilton for a time, moved to Uruguay, then back to Serbia, the whole while harbouring the pipe dream of playing for the national side of his native land before succumbing to a creeping sense of reality coupled with a strange letter in the mail from a gentleman called Stephen Hart. But the fact is, I'm not sure Canada has any better choice to start the match against Greece. Can you think of one?
    That's why I'm disturbed at not being able to figure out why he was subbed off after 60 minutes in a 2-1 loss to Javor Ivanjica on the weekend in Serbia. Managers don't generally pull the keeper two-thirds though a match unless he's injured. I punched in about all the relevant Google searches I could think of and then threw my hands up. God, please don't let him be injured.
    Other Concacaf players from outside the U.S.A.-Mexico Concacaf duopoly making an impact abroad this weekend include Honduran cat and mouse team Maynor Figueroa and Hendry Thomas. They start basically every match for Wigan in the Premier League, and now Wilson Palacios is getting minutes in Tottenham. He went 90 at the weekend against Birmingham and 90 again on Tuesday in the Champions League against Twente.
    So there you have it. While Canadian soccer fans frantically spin Serbian language match reports through Google Translate, desperate to sleep at night knowing they'll have a keeper for their side's next friendly, Honduran supporters kick back and watch 3/11ths of their starting eleven live it up in the Premier and Champions leagues. Happy Holidays!
    Guest
    In a move that could be far-reaching, or could amount to nothing at all, the British government says it plans to investigate the financial problems plaguing many professional clubs within the UK.
    The British department for culture, media and sport announced that it will be setting up an inquiry to look into the financial set-up of clubs throughout the country, from high profile, debt-heavy teams such as Liverpool and Manchester United, to several smaller clubs that are fighting (or have succumbed to) administration.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    The government's concerns include whether supporters of debt-riddled clubs are being well-served by such financial realities, and whether any changes to current regulations could alleviate the problem.
    For their part, the FA seemed to be open to the news.
    "It is a welcome opportunity to highlight the numerous governance developments in our rule book over recent years," an FA spokesperson told Reuters, "as well as enabling us to frame the challenges facing the game and how we might appropriately regulate them going forward."
    On the surface, observers of the game should be happy with this news, and many surely consider it to be well overdue.
    But when looking at the deeper issues, it becomes apparent that the British government may have bitten off a lot more than it can chew.
    English, Scottish and Welsh clubs are no longer simply competing against one another, but rather they are all competitors on a global stage that has upped the ante considerably over the past decade or so.
    While the FA appears to be playing nice with its statements in support of government investigation, one has to wonder how the individual clubs would feel should recommendations of curbed spending and stricter financial regulation be the result of this inquiry.
    Would Man United be okay submitting to a different set of rules than its real competitors - the Real Madrids and AC Milans of the world - whom have no such restrictions placed upon them?
    Would Man City willingly go along with a plan that would see them not be able to freely use the considerable financial resources at their disposal?
    A cynic would see this as nothing more than an exercise in futility, as the big clubs would not want to be hamstrung by domestic regulations hampering their ability to compete with fellow continental super-teams, while the smaller clubs will continue to happily spend in vain as they try to keep pace.
    I'm somewhere in the middle. Clearly, something needs to be done to save many of these free-spending super-clubs from themselves (and from harming the rest of their domestic leagues in the process), but if financial reform comes (and it'll happen at some point, whether the big clubs like it or not) it'll need to be a Europe-wide initiative.
    Guest
    The club that was once called the Vancouver 86ers continued its association with the past today when it announced that Carl Valentine has joined the club as a ambassador and coach.
    Valentine was a member of the 1986 Canadian team that played the role of lovable underdog at Mexico 86.
    He's also an alumnus of the Whitecaps and was a fan favourite during his playing days.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    His resume:
    The native of Manchester he was part of the last Canadian team to win a northern North American club championship, the 1979 NASL Soccer Bowl. He was also a key member of the Vancouver 86ers squad that claimed four-straight CSL championship titles between 1988 and 1991. Valentine was Vancouver's all-time leader in appearances with 409, while he sits third on the club's career points list with 65 goals and 69 assists for 199 points. Between 1994 and 1999, Valentine served as Whitecaps head coach.
    He made 31 international appearances for Canada between 1985 and 1993, and, as stated, actually played in the World Cup! The World Cup!!
    Oh yeah, he scored the most important goal in Canadian soccer history.


    (oh great, now I'm crying)
    Guest

    Business as usual in Serie A?

    By Guest, in Euro File,

    Football Italia is reporting that there will be an official announcement made tomorrow in regards to a temporary resolution in stalled CBA talks between Serie A clubs and its players association (AIC).
    AIC had announced that its members would strike this upcoming weekend after CBA negotiations broke down recently.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    According to the article, six of the eight discussion points of the new CBA had been reached, which was seemingly enough to satisfy both sides for the time being.
    Guest

    A Look At Russia, 2018

    By Guest, in Some Canadian Guys,

    Well, if anyone was wondering about what Russia had planned for their World Cup venues, wonder no more.
    I know these are only artist's impressions of the stadiums (stadia? stadio? stadiumses?), but they look pretty damn good to me. The question, of course, is what they'll look like when finished (or not finished, in an unlikely, worst-case scenario).[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Guest
    Earl Cochrane wasn't giving too much away when I spoke to him about the re-entry draft for MLSsoccer.com. However, if you look carefully you can find some things of note in the resulting article, which can be read here.
    As I expected, Cochrane seemed to suggest that he didn't expect much action in the first phase of the draft. He didn't say it this bluntly, but what is clear is that the players available are so for a reason -- they are overpaid. Although it's possible that some teams might seen value in other teams castoffs, the draft will likely play out as a bit of a chess match. If a team likes a player they might want to gamble on him still being available in the second phase when they can negotiate a new contract. If they are pickled up in phase one the clubs are obligated to take on the player's contract. The majority of players in the draft had the club decline an option year.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Cochrane also suggested that the big names -- Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Jeff Cunningham, Juan Pablo Angel, Jimmy Conrad, etc. -- are likely to be less appealing than some of the mid-level guys in the draft. Taking on a player that you think might be useful at a lower number (say $60-70,000) is far less risky.
    In practice it's likely that the player's agents are letting clubs know if they are interested in going there. Guys like Toronto's Nick Garcia could be attractive to teams, but only at a much lower salary. As fans we sometimes forget that we are talking about middle class guys here. Personal decisions are likely to dictate where a player facing a 50 per cent pay cut might end up. The re-entry draft makes it easier for those players to find their way to preferred destinations.
    It's possible that a lot of action could take place after the draft. Those players that aren't selected at all are free to negotiate with any team. MLS wanted to avoid a free agent bidding war, but it's possible that some forgotten veterans could create just that when a couple injuries or signing/draft busts in February suddenly makes them more attractive.
    It's difficult to know exactly what is going to happen since we haven't gone through the process just yet. However, you can reasonably expect that the real action will happen after tomorrow's first phase.
    In other words, don't expect a press conference at BMO Field with Juan Pablo Angel holding a red strip tomorrow.
    Guest
    The announcement that Canada will be bidding for the 2015 Women's World Cup has caused some in Halifax to wonder if this might not be the opportunity to finally get a decent stadium. Currently Huskies Stadium, which is said to hold 9,000, which might be true if you include the area around the porta-potties, is the only stadium of note in Nova Scotia.
    If you look beyond the celebrating (other) football players in this photo I took in 2005 you can get an idea of the quality of stadium that we are talking about.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    It's tiny and has grass growing on some of the outer steps. It's also turf, although they did switch from the old concrete stuff about 5-years ago (I covered the 2002 CIS soccer championships at Huskies Stadium when it still had old school Astroturf - if you thought BMO Field was bad in 2009...). Clearly there is no chance that Halifax is going to be part of the party in 2015 without a major stadium project.
    That's especially the case when you consider that Moncton built this place:

    It would need to be expanded (as it was for a CFL game earlier this year), but if the Maritimes are to play host to games in 2015 you would have to think that Moncton, not Halifax, would be the logical place to go. The problem with that is that the above stadium is in Moncton.
    Moncton, New Brunswick is roughly the size of Kingston, Ont. (or Red Deer, Alb., if you prefer). It's hard to get to and lacks the type of tourism infrastructure that you would like in a host city for a World Cup. It also lacks much to do if you are thinking that a WWC can be used to boost tourism. It's essentially the gateway to PEI and, well, Halifax. Like the province it's in, it's a place you go to to get somewhere else.
    Halifax, on the other hand, is a wonderful place that everyone in Canada should visit at least once. Vibrant, fun and beautiful, Hali truly is a gem (it's almost as nice as my second favourite city in Canada, St. John's). A Women's World Cup in Canada that does not include a stop in Halifax would be missing something.
    Based on the history of stadium debates in Halifax the 2015 Women's World Cup will likely be missing something. The Maritimes is an inherently small-c conservative place. Convincing the taxpayers of Nova Scotia and Halifax to take a risk on building a stadium will not be easy (read the comments below the linked article). In the past it has proven to be impossible. And that's why Huskies Stadium remains the only option to hold an event in Nova Scotia.
    There is little doubt that spending on sports infrastructure is something that needs to be examined carefully. There are things -- health care springs to mind -- that are more important. However, building a stadium that serves the region and would allow Halifax to take part in the Women's World Cup (and to bring the CFL and professional soccer to the region) is not without worth.
    Hopefully Haligonians will see that value while this debate plays out.
    Guest
    En bon partisan de la Premier League, je vous présente les meilleurs buts du mois de novembre, tel que présenté par l'émission Match of the Day.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Ce n'est pas tous les jours qu'on voit les noms de Fernando Torres et de Luke Varney dans la même séquence! Appréciez ces superbes buts.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRZ35GACFyI
    Les tirs de loin sont certainement beaux, notamment ceux de Varney et de Scott Parker. Mais cette fois-ci, je pense bien que je vais donner du love aux buts des Wanderers Johan Elmander et Mark Davies. Deux "classy finish" dans la surface de réparation.
    Alors, avez-vous choisi votre but préféré ?
    Guest
    It's the final matchday of the UEFA Champions League group stage, and while most groups are all but wrapped up, for some teams there is still a lot to play for.
    While the cream rose to the top in most cases, there was also the usual number of surprises and some ongoing stories that still need to be completed.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    One of those unfinished stories is in Group H, where favoured Arsenal has stumbled and left the table wide open. As a result, three teams still find themselves in contention on the final day of competition.
    The reality of the situation is that Shakhtar Donetsk and Arsenal are battling it out for top spot in the group, with Braga still in with a shout (albeit one that requires the other two sides to falter).
    With Shakhtar hosting third place Braga and Arsenal at home versus already-eliminated Partizan, Group H should see the current first and second-placed teams advance on to the next round, but - as the Gunners have learned in recent weeks - no team should count any chickens before they've hatched.

    Elsewhere, a couple of other groups are still undecided, at least where the second qualifiers are concerned.
    In Group D, Barcelona has easily taken top spot, leaving Copenhagen and Rubin Kazan (7 and 6 points, respectively) scrambling for the runner-up position. The final matchday sees Copenhagen hosting group bottom feeder Panathinaikos, while Rubin Kazan has to travel to Camp Nou to face Barcelona.
    While Barca is already qualified, it'll still be a daunting task for the visiting Russian side, reserve FCB team or not.
    Group E is topped by Bayern Munich, with AS Roma firmly is second on nine points, and FC Basel clinging on with six. It doesn't look good for the Swiss side, who need to win at Bayern and hope that minnow CFR Cluj - long ago eliminated from contention - put the boots to a motivated Roma side.

    The other groups have all but been decided, although some are still sorting out the positioning of the qualified teams.
    In Group A, defending champs Inter Milan and tournament darlings Tottenham Hotspur are both sitting on 10 points. Spurs travel to FC Twente while Inter visits Werder Bremen, with those results determining seeding for the next round.
    Group B has Schalke 04 on top with 10 points, while second place Lyon is only one point behind. Both teams are facing sides looking to get into the Europa League, so they will both have highly motivated opponents on the final day of group competition.
    Group C is almost all but set, with Manchester United needing only a draw from second-place Valencia at Old Trafford to top the table.
    Group F is even more straightforward, with all positions already having been decided. Chelsea first, Marseille second.
    Group G is the same, with Real Madrid and AC Milan already having locked up the first and second places. Also-rans Ajax and Auxerre are still playing for Europa spots.
    Guest

    Doing it their way (God help us)

    By Guest, in 24th Minute,

    FC Edmonton scares the hell out of me. Although I believe that the ownership group is sincere in its desire to bring a first class soccer operation to Northern Alberta, I'm not completely convinced that they know how to do that. Everything about Edmonton, from the Microsoft Paint-like logo to the oddly pieced together exhibition schedule they played in 2010, seems just a little off. It's incredibly hard to imagine that the club will be traveling to BMO Field in 2011 to take on the Reds in a competitive match.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Today's announcement that the club has found a new head coach just days after the last one escaped town does little to ease those concerns. It's not often that a departing coach hires his replacement, but that seems to be what happened in Edmonton.
    In the hours that followed head coach Dwight Lodeweges and assistant Hans Schrijver's move to Japan, Schrijver was on the phone to a buddy who was coaching in Jakarta, Indonesia. Hours later that man, Harry Sinkgraven, was booking flights to Alberta.
    Talk about nepotism.
    Hopefully this works out for Edmonton, but to say that the hiring is unconventional is a bit of an understatement.
    As I said on It's Called Football tonight, a positive thing about the Canadian soccer scene over the last few years is there hasn't been a spectacular failure (yes, I know that's not saying much, but you have to live here to understand). There hasn't been a major club go under. The exhibition season in Edmonton did not inspire too much confidence, but they are still here...hiring coaches without appearing to undertake proper searches.
    Here’s hoping Canada’s (very) modest streak of good fortune continues regardless
    Guest

    Dooley to Toronto?

    By Guest, in 24th Minute,

    MLS Rumors doesn't always get as much respect as it might like. It prints rumors, after all. By nature it's going to be wrong often.
    However, they never claim to be anything they aren't. The Web site isn't called MLS Confirmed Player Movements after all.
    And, sometimes they actually go out and report on record. Take today, where an interview with former USMNT captain Thomas Dooley indicated his desire to manage TFC.
    Why Toronto?
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

    You can read the rest here.
    Is he the right fit? You tell me...
    Guest
    Tonight, we're joined by Lee Haber, a member of the Winnipeg group seeking to bring a PDL team to the city. We'll talk about if soccer can work in Winnipeg, what his business model will be and his thoughts on the CSA's national league aspirations.
    We'll also get into Toronto and Vancouver's plans for the re-entry draft, Ottawa's continued march towards NASL, the World Cup news that has dominated headlines and the Robbie Keane rumour.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    <embed src="http://itscalledfootball.podhoster.com/FlowPlayerLight.swf?config={embedded:true,videoFile:%27http://itscalledfootball.podhoster.com/download/2540/21124/dec6.2010final.mp3%27,initialScale:%27scale%27,controlBarBackgroundColor:%270x778899%27,autoBuffering:false,loop:false,autoPlay:false}" width="400" height="25" scale="fit" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>
    Guest
    In this case, the North American isn't a member of a World Cup bid committee, or an ex-TFCer getting his foot on the end of a free kick against Slovenia. Nope, this time, it's the proud, dutiful captain of our women's national team, Christine Sinclair.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    The final super-shortlist of nominees for the 2010 Ballon d'Or awards was released today, and while Sinclair had been on the original shortlist, she was left out of the final three. Despite being the most recognizable figure in Canadian international soccer for years (and a winner of Canadian player of the year for five years running), Sinclair has never won the big prize, the FIFA World Player of the Year.
    In fact, she's never made the top three.
    Who made the cut this year? Pfft. Some nobodies. Marta, who's only won it, what, four years running? Where's she from, anyway? Brazil? What kind of soccer culture do they have? And where's her last name, anyway? Seems fishy to me.
    Then you've got the other two, Birgit Prinz and Fatmire Bajmaraj, who play for freakin' Germany. Germany? Seriously? What do they know about soccer? Sure, they're the two-time reigning World Cup champions and haven't been lower than #3 in the world in the entire time FIFA has kept women's world rankings, but... uh, I forgot where I was going with that.
    Oh yeah, right, Prinz! Prinz? She hasn't won World Player of the Year since 2005! How do you say "past her prime" in German?
    I mean, what happened, FIFA? I thought you were committed to exploring new territories. Isn't that why Russia and Qatar were awarded men's World Cups? Because England and the USA weren't daring enough? Well then, how do you explain this? Marta and Prinz? Cripes, if you're just gonna go with the same old, same old, why not nominate Mia Hamm?
    (For the purposes of my ironic argument, I'm pretending Bajmaraj isn't nominated, by the way.)
    Alright, my nonsense notwithstanding, this is not a post meant to demean Sinclair. The exact opposite, in fact. I'm trying to venerate her by reminding us not to get complacent about having her name in this discussion.
    Let's look at the nominees on the men's side: Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta. Three guys who'll never have to buy a drink in Barcelona (and many other places in the world) ever again. Players of true other-worldly quality, whose names, faces and highlight-reel performances are recognizable to millions of fans around the world.
    Now, imagine if Atiba Hutchinson's name was spoken in the same breath as those fellows. Or Simeon Jackson's. Or Dwayne DeRosario's. Or... you get the idea.
    We do have a situation like that in Canadian soccer. A player whose name is spoken in the same breath as the globe's elites, athletes who may go down in the books as among the greatest of all-time.
    That player's name is Christine Sinclair.
    True, the women's game isn't as developed, or as closely followed, as the men's game... not by a long shot. But it's growing all the time... and I'd venture to say that, globally, a hell of a lot more people (or, at the very least, a hell of a lot more countries) give a damn about women's soccer than about hockey.
    So rather than Canadians patting ourselves on the back for more success at a sport that few countries that don't end in "-anada" actually care about, it's time that we exult those performers of ours who manage to excel without massive support systems behind them.
    Christine Sinclair isn't going to win the Ballon d'Or for 2010. But she'll have been damn close. Canada's captain will have been closer to winning World Player of the Year, in soccer, than all but a tiny handful of all the players on earth. That, whichever way you slice it, is damned impressive.
    It also raises the question: What, after all these years, would Sinclair have to do to make that final shortlist for the award?
    June 26, 2011. Berlin. Sinclair leads the troops up against Prinz, Bajmaraj and the rest of the German powerhouse squad in the World Cup opener. With the game months away, no one seriously expects Canada to win the match. We're outliers, outsiders, underdogs.
    Then again, Qatar didn't get very good odds at first either. And yet, in 2022, the nation will make its indelible mark on world soccer history.
    In 2011, Sinclair will have the chance to do the same.
    (Photo by Jae C. Jong/The Associated Press)


    Guest
    Canadian Soccer News has learned that Dominic DiGironimo has stepped down as the Canadian Soccer League commissioner effective immediately.
    DiGironimo was not immediately available for comment but the news came as a shock to many within the CSL who considered him to have done an excellent job in the leadership role.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    During his tenure the league experienced what many considered to be a high water mark for CSL competition and he was the driving force behind the push for expansion in Ontario, B.C. and Quebec.
    The CSL has not announced a replacement.
    Canadian Soccer News will update as more information becomes available.
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