The Brazilian clubs Guaranay, green, and Sergpipe, red, aside from the excellent names, join the
many legions of clubs in lower tiers who will gain infamy through something other than their
football. The former, down 1-0 in the dying moments, threw caution and the goalkeeper into the
latter's box, leaving open the net down the other end, where the attacker would find.
The game between Brazilian clubs Gremio and Santa Cruz featured 6,734 people not rooting for
Santa Cruz, and one waving the flag of black and white (it appears). The curly haired gentleman
loving life is named Tiago Rech, and he held up Santa Cruz's away stand all by himself last week.
Which could have been an excellent prank, if that's how it was designed.
All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award-winning Dirty
Tackle...
Sheffield Wednesday mascots Barney and Ozzy shamelessly assault FA Cup mascot Buddy.
[YouTube]
Man City's 88-year-old mascot. [Kickette]
Classic goalkeeper shirts as art.
The diminutive Argentinian striker has accepted the fine of two weeks wages imposed on him by
Manchester City. Carlos Tevez had recourse to appeal the fine but opted not to. Might it be that
the striker has accepted his punishment, which totals close to half a million pounds (or
approximately three quarters of a million dollars), with a hope of forcing his way back into his
managers reckoning?
Kaká finding form with Real Madrid and now back with Brazil
Mano Menezes has announced his squad for the international friendlies versus Gabon on 10th
November and Egypt four days later.
With the Campeonato Brasileiro in the run in to the end of the championship, Menezes has listened
to the Brazilian clubs calls to leave their players out of the Brazil's games.
Since there is an international break in club action this weekend, we are going to take advantage
of the break to bring the next entry in our series of Annual Club Rankings.
For the second time in three years, Juventus headed the top of the Annual Rankings despite
finishing as runner-up in the European Champions Cup.
Armeio Neto, the Marketing Director for Santos FC, has pitched the idea of Pelé making an
appearance in the FIFA Club World Cup this December in a potential final versus Barcelona. Pelé,
who netted over 600 goals for his former club, will be a sprightly 71 years old when the tournament
begins.
Aaah, meninos do Brasil... we haven't forgotten you! The U-20 Selecao
got their World Cup campaign to a perfect start last night with a 3-0 victory over
Austria (same result for the Argentinians). Unfortunately, three of their players
had to leave the field after suffering bad injuries including Alex Sandro, Henrique and Casemiro
(who actually left the pitch in tears!
Lucas Piazon at São Paulo's youth sides training centre in Cotia
The interview with Lucas Piazon took place in São Paulo on May 28th the day of the Champions
League final between Manchester United and Barcelona and just 48 hours before he was due to join
Brazil's U-17s at their training centre in Granja Comary.
By FRANCO PANIZO
If Jose Mourinho didn't receive enough punishment by seeing Real Madrid bounced out of the
Champions League by arch-rival Barcelona, he surely has now.
Mourinho was handed a five-match suspension and fined about $81,000 by UEFA for his sending
off during the first leg of the Champions League semifinal against Barcelona.
The New England Revolution today announced the team has traded the rights to Fred, acquired in
the 2010 postseason Re-Entry Draft process, to D.C. for United's natural second round selection in
the 2013 MLS SuperDraft. Fred was previously with D.C. United from 2007 to 2009 before being traded
to the Philadelphia Union prior to the 2010 season.
Call it a Winter Cup Weekend, with the FA Cup and Asian Cup grabbing the headlines and
dominating the weekend TV schedule.
Australia and Japan will face off on Saturday in an Asian Cup Final in the best match of the
weekend. The match isn't being shown on the traditional American soccer channels, but there are
cable networks and internet options for fans eager to see what should be an exciting final.
For anyone who watches the Brazilian leagues, you know about the great deal of growth the league
(and country) has gone through in the past few years. Perhaps most shocking over the past few years
has been the return of players like Ronaldo, Robinho, Adriano, Ronaldhino, Fred, Elano etc etc.
Yea yea you might say that the only reason these players came back was because there was no
space for them in Europe.
The boy from Brazil is out of Italy: Ronaldinho is heading home, he announced today at a
news conference (AP Photo).
*Sounds like the Galaxy's interest in Ronaldinho is pretty much done at least for the forseeable
future:
SAO PAULO (AP) -- Ronaldinho reached an agreement with AC Milan on Thursday to end his
contract, clearing the way to return to Brazil soccer.
SAO PAULO, Brazil — Ronaldinho reached an agreement with AC Milan to officially end his contract
with the Italian club on Thursday, clearing the way for his to return to Brazil. Ronaldinho did not
announce his new club, however, and three Brazilian clubs remain in contention to sign the two-time
FIFA player of the year [.
