Short Stories: Referees fails pt 1

Okay, as I promised it is the start of really random stories in football. Today I'm targetting the referees fails, and, well, I hope you enjoy reading. :)

In the year 1995 in July Paul Gascoigne arrived to Glasgow Rangers and almost automatically he has shown his skills in the fifth league game of the season in the match with Celtic Glasgow (their biggest rival) he scored a memorable goal running almost the whole length of the pitch. Anyway, it was not why he isn't forgotten (besides of his great skills, he was a really good player!).

It was December 30th. Glasgow Rangers were countering the Hibernian FC. Paul Gascoigne finds a yellow card of referee - Dougie Smith - on the pitch and takes is from the ground to return it. Paul "Gazza" Gascoigne raises the yellow card to make the referee see it. Well, he did it in really comical way. As the card passes to Smith's hand he stops Gazza and books him with the card he just took. Well, referees were always to be pedantic in their job, but this was really not needed. Even Hibernian's fans were not happy with this decision. Gascoigne was handed a two-match ban and even Rangers manager Walter Smith could not find a way to save him. 15 years later Doug Smith finds himself in Hall of Shame. You can see the whole situation here:

Next post in Thursday, I hope you enjoyed it. :)

Stay tuned!

Okay my dear followers, I'm working on some kind of longer series of really random posts that will include some old football histories, either funny and sad ones. I'm talking about histories you will not find on first better football news website or even google, so be prepared and stay tuned, first post of the series - tomorrow! Have a nice day!

Alex moves to PSG

Last time I've reminisced Paris Saint Germain when writing about David Beckham. This time sheiks of french club finalized a great transfer. Official website of Paris St. Germain announced that a new player of PSG is brazilian defender of Chelsea London - Alex (Alex Rodrigo Dias da Costa).  

 photo by TomekBlaszczyk

29-year-old Brazilian was not well respected by the new Chelsea coach, Andre Villas - Boas. Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti knows the defenders skills and decided to bring him to the French capital. The amount of 5 million budget is not too much for the new staff of PSG, and Carlo Ancelotti has gained another great player. I must say that Jallet - Alex - Sakho - Maxwell defense looks really promising.

What do you think about this transfer?

Gran Derbi 2

In the second match played at Camp Nou. Real and Barcelona finished with a 2:2 draw. Because FC Barcelona ended the first match with the score of 2:1 it will be them who will face the winner of a pair of Levante - Valencia in semi final.


It was definitely a good match, but surprisingly the man of the match was not in any of these two clubs. It was surely the referee. I don't think I've seen worse job since like 2 years. After the first match winning 2-1 in Madrid, Barcelona was in a comfortable position. However, since the beginning of the game Real Madrid was much more dangerous than the hosts. The first situation for Blancos was already at 10 seconds after a misunderstanding of Alves and Pique. In the 43rd minute, Messi showed his skills and after dribbling through 3 defenders performed a great pass to Pedro, who scored a goal. 2 minutes later it was Dani Alves who scored a beatiful goal which who dedicated later to his father. 

Action Images

The second half started calmer than the first one. In the 55th minute there was a controversial situation in the penalty area of ​​Barcelona, ​​when the main referee did not consider the goal scored by Ramos. Arbiter discovered in this situation foul on Alves. Strongly debatable decision. 68th minute and Ronaldo runs past Pinto and scores a goal on 2:1. Just four minutes later Benzema tricked Puyol and his goal led to a draw 2:2. At this point, Real lacked only one goal for a promotion. Finally in 87th minute Ramos has earned the red card that he should've got in the first half. Referee didn't send off Diarra even after a irregular foul on L. Messi, and established two offsides that Barcelona could take advantage of and score. Well, it was a good match but the game could be different after the right decisions of main referee. 


Have you watched the match?

Balotelli charged by Football Association

Another unnecessary show of violence in football. Mario Balotelli after Manchester City - Tottenham match played at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday (3:2) is punished with a suspension lasting for four matches. He will not be able to play versus Liverpool FC in a Carling Cup semi-final. Why? He stepped on Scott Parker's head, yet he didn't got any punishment in the time of match. It was not the first time Mario Balotelli did something like that, as a really talented and young player he should avoid situations like this but, well - maybe he wants to become a second Pepe? ;) Watch the whole accident here:

Totti breaks a record!

Yesterday was a really great day for Francesco Totti. His club - AS Roma - won the match with Cesena on their own stadium (5:1). Yeah, they can be happy about it, but it's not what's the best. After 2 goals of Totti, he set a new single club scoring record in Serie A with 211 goals! Before this match, the record was set by Swedish player Gunnar Nordahl - AC Milan legend, who scored 210 goals in one club.
 

photo by Presidenza della Repubblica

As Totti himself said - "It's what I've always wanted, to wear this shirt and beat one record after another" and as many fans say he has become a "King of Rome". It was his 486th match in Roma since the year 1993. What can I say, great job "Il Capitano"!

Didier Drogba moves to China?

Wow, that's not something you hear often. A star of a great format moves (or at least is going to) to the chinese club of Super League - Shanghai Shenhua! 33 year old Didier Drogba rejected a new contract from Chelsea and he's going to move to China. Fascinating is also the fact his club mate Nicolas Anelka moved to this club last month and they'll reunite there and try to create the best attack in the chinese Super League.

photo by Lynchg

Drogba's agent said that Didier "has nothing to prove as a player so he will go where he's offered the most money." He's going to be in China for 3 years (as said in contract) and will earn £267,000 per week. (Really, wow!)

Do you think these are just speculations? Or maybe you'd like to see him rock the China with Anelka? Comment below! 

David Beckham News

Today's post is going to be about one of the football's real legends.
David Beckham!

Most of you should remember times when he played in Manchester United and has been considered as one of the best football players of that time, especially when he scored a goal versus Wimbledon from the kick off line! It has been voted (in 2002) as an 18th most spectacular goal in football's history.
During the 96/97 season he has been voted as the Young Player of the Year.
In the year 2003 he changed his club to Real Madrid to then play with best of the bests like Zinedine Zidane, Raul, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Iker Casillas. Finally in 2007 he moved to LA Galaxy team that's keeping him until today.

 photo by Paul Blank

And that's the first of the two news:
Some people speculated he's going to finally change his club and possibly finish his career in Paris Saint-Germain which is now under the wings of Carlo Ancelotti and is going to be one of the black horses of the Champion's League as it has finally won the League 1 after 15 years. Finally he didn't make it to PSG even after being seduced by 800 thousands per month (sic!) and he signed a new contract for LA Galaxy.

The newest information is that David Beckham declared that he wants to become a captain of the national team of England for the time of Olympics which happen to be hosted in London in 2012.

Do you think his dream will come true? What do you think about Beckham?

The day after Gran Derbi

Good day to you followers! Yesterday was the day of violence. Especially by Pepe. If you watched the match you should feel mad (at least a tiny, very tiny part of you) because of Pepe.

Barcelona won 2:1, Cristiano Ronaldo scored for Real Madrid in 11th minute, but after pretty good first half he couldn't do anything versus Dani Alves. Second half was for Barcelona only. Puyol scored after a corner kick by a flying header, it was a great goal for not so young captain of catalonian team. But it only made the match worse. Why?

I could write about Pepe's brutality and violence for hours because he's one of the biggest madmans in football history. But yesterday he surely was an anti-hero of this match. Violent attacks on Azulgranas legs, stepping on Messi's hand to eliminate him (Pepe is trying to eliminate Messi since the day of his birth, huh), and finally the worst acting ever. He got slapped in his chest and he dived like he has been almost killed. He was on the ground for 5 minutes holding his head and players even had to stop the game to see if he's not hurt. But I think he forgot one thing. On every match there are thousands of cameras. You can't just run away from cameras, they see everything! Finally, Abidal scored the last goal of the match and even if Barcelona had few chances before the last whistle they couldn't score any goal then.

How did you like el Clasico?

Team of the Year 2011 by UEFA

While waiting for Gran Derbi I decided to write this post because UEFA has chosen the Team of the Year 2011. There were over 4,5 million votes (it was users who voted for players) and its highly dominated by La Liga players. Here it is:

1. GK: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid)
2. Right Def: Daniel Alves (FC Barcelona)
3. Centre Def: Gerard Pique (FC Barcelona)
4. Centre Def: Thiago Silva (AC Milan)
5. Left Def: Marcelo (Real Madrid)
6. Right Midfielder: Arjen Robben (FC Bayern Munchen)
7. Centre Midfielder: Xavi Hernandez (FC Barcelona)
8. Attacking Midfielder: Andres Iniesta (FC Barcelona)
9. Left Midfielder: Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur)
10. Forward #1: Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona)
11. Forward #2: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
12. Coach: Josep Guardiola (FC Barcelona)

Personally, I wouldn't let Cristiano be in the Team of the Year because of his lack of form in more important matches, and I would replace Iker Casillas with Wojciech Szczesny because he's really young and talented (skillful too!) goalkeeper. He had many chances to prove that, if you don't believe me check him on youtube.

What do you think about the final result of voting?

Gran Derbi

So, today is a big day (once again)!

4th time in this season we will watch Barcelona play against Real Madrid in Copa del Rey. It is the blancos that want to protect trophy they earned last year.
Gran Derbi, or el Clasico how some people name it will forever be one of the most interesting matches, because we have a chance to watch two great teams counter themselves with two different styles of playing. Last Gran Derbi was won by FC Barcelona by the result of 3:1. It will be the 217th Clasico in the history.

It is worth to remind that Real has won 86 times, Barcelona 85 times and there were 45 draws. Barca will surely want to win this and next one and finally change the history having more wins in Gran Derbi than Real Madrid.

As a fan of Blaugrana I hope catalonian boys will win this one, but I hope also it will be a good and nice to watch match. 
Who will win? Are you going to watch this match? Comment below!

2002

2002 FIFA WORLD CUP

Every fan of football should remember this World Cup. It was one of the best (if not really the best) World Cups in Earth's history. The days when football was not corrupted that much like today, when it spreaded like mad in the whole Earth, when Brazil was dominating over every country in the world because of their grace and style of playing called "joga bonito". It was the era of legendary football of the greatest players in the history, like Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Raul and much more that I could type in here. In the final match of the Cup Brazil has met Germany and they have beaten them 2:0 and this way they happened to acquire their fifth trophy of World Cup.

2002 World Cup was first world tournament to be hosted in Asia (Korea and Japan). This was also the first World Cup that has been played in two countries in the same time. Many of you shall also remember the controversial rule of the Golden Goal which has been later removed from rules of football.

What do you think about the Golden Goal rule? Should it stay for longer or you are satisfied with removing it? Comment below!

The Beggining of Football

There's one thing which makes more than billion of men happy. It was in our lifes since our childhood, it was in our history since many years ago, and it is still one of the most important things ever, not like your childhood toys or everything what you have learned in school. It's one of few sports that can connect people, that can make people find their senses of life or just make their hormones jump. 

FOOTBALL

Since the beginning of time a man tired of hunting and trying to survive had to do something in his free time. The Ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games, some of which involved the use of the feet. Many of eastern countries like China had invented their own games where they used feet to kick the ball, however, the main sources of modern football codes appear to lie in western Europe, especially England. First matches were played in the XIXth century by students of the private schools. There were also clubs like Sheffield FC that tried to create their own rules of the football. FIFA was created in 1904.

Why do we love football? Is it because of the dynamics of the game? Is it because of feeling you feel when your favourite football club wins an important match? What do you think? Why do YOU love football? Comment below!