Today, we'll take a break from the series looking at each position within the team. Instead,
we've got a match concentrate on. While it's only a friendly, it does bring a lot of talking points
that merits discussions. The last of the known pre season friendly and it was a repeat of the same
visit to Cologne as we did in the previous pre season.
Bayern Munich welcomed back Franck Ribery for a second-half stint in yesterday's 3-2 exhibition
win over the Netherlands international team merely three days after the Frenchman had to leave the
UEFA Champions League final in extra-time due to a tackle on the ankle from Chelsea's Didier
Drogba.
Not only did Ribery come off the bench to participate in the farewell match for some of his
departing Bayern teammates, but the Frenchman was also quick on the ball as he entertained the
33,000 attendees throughout the last 20 minutes of the match.
Liverpool 4Essien (og) 19′, Henderson 25′, Agger 28′, Shelvey 61′ Chelsea 1Ramires 50′
Liverpool breeze past a lifeless Chelsea, scoring three first half goals and four for the first
time in a league match all season. Chelsea's performance left little doubt as to the outcome, doing
more than their share to help Liverpool along the way to one of their only dominant home displays
of the season.
Julio Cesar terminated his contract with Inter by mutual consent and signed a deal with QPR,
bringing an end to his very successful seven years in Milan. Prior to the second leg of Inter's
Europa League qualifier against Vaslui at the San Siro, he stepped out on the pitch and said
goodbye and, as he's known to do, he got a bit emotional.
No, we do not get Kaka's sudden change in style either just when did the Brazilian midfielder
morph into the clan leader of the "Soho Hipsters"?! Come back to football and bad
fashion Ricardo, maybe AC Milan still cares enough to give you a fantastic
farewell before they ship you to your final destination : The MLS.
Thursday afternoon, it was announced that Italian club AC Milan will face off against Brazilian
powerhouse Cruziero as part of a special doubleheader being held at Gillette Stadium.
The match will take place on August 4th, with the clubs kicking off at 4:30 EST. Following this
match will be the previously-scheduled game between the New England Revolution and Sporting KC.
Tears were shed from grown men on the weekend as we bid farewell to some fantastic players who have
graced Serie A. Alessandro Del Piero, Marco Di Vaio, Kaka Kaladze, Clarence Seedorf, Alessandro
Nesta, Pippo Inzaghi, Rino Gattuso and Gianluca Zambrotta played their last games for Juventus,
Bologna, Genoa and AC Milan.
On a weekend that saw several venerable insitutions of Italian football moving on (AC Milan
waved off Pippo Inzaghi, Clarence Seedorf, Alessandro Nesta, Gennaro Gattuso, Gianluca Zambrotta
and Mark van Bommel), one man's final game for his club was just that little bit more grandiose
than the rest with Alessandro Del Piero laying down his sword at Juventus after 19 years of
service, signing off with a goal (his 289th for the club) on his last appearance for the Old Lady
against Atalanta before being subbed off in the 58th-minute to a rapturous ovation.
Gennaro Gattuso and Filippo Inzaghi two very iconic players for AC Milan will be leaving the club
this summer and today the Milanchannel have released farewell video interviews with the players for
fans. We wish you well and play this Sunday, a 300th appearance for club in football is outstanding
and for you well deserved, ciao ciao Pipo!
Just a few photos of Arsenal going through their paces at London Colney ahead of their Champions
League  - Oh sweet, sweet Champions League, how I've missed thee so last 16 tie against AC Milan
at the San Siro on Wednesday night.
The training session will likely be Thierry Henry's last with the club (barring a future third
stint, of course) before he's due to scuttle back to New York on February 16th after nabbing three
goals in something like 96 minutes during his second spell up the Arse though, of course, there's
always the prospect of a possible fourth in Milano tomorrow evening.
Arsenal striker Thierry Henry has admitted that being a part of the Arsenal family is always an
emotional experience for him but despite riding high with a goal in each of his last Premier League
outings for the Gunners, the Frenchman is focused on taking the success a step further.
Henry left Arsenal for Barcelona in the summer of 2007 in pursuit of Champions League glory,
which he claimed two years later with the Catalans.
Yes, a new day awaits us all. By now you are well aware of the latest development in the brief
but cracking existence of Chelsea Offside. In short, this space, in just a few hours, will be no
more. A redirect and a lovely archive at our new home, We Ain't Got No History will be all that's
left of this small slice of the web I called home for a good long time.
TweetPart III of why Jose Mourinho is overrated will look at the Special One's spell in charge of
Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid and more importantly what can be learnt from them. ‘Soldiers
of my old guard, I bid you farewell.' Those were the exact words of Napoleon Bonaparte as he said
goodbye to [.
TweetPart III of why Jose Mourinho is overrated will look at the Special One's spell in charge of
Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid and more importantly what can be learnt from them. ‘Soldiers
of my old guard, I bid you farewell.' Those were the exact words of Napoleon Bonaparte as he said
goodbye to [.
With France having just wibbled out of Euro 2012 after failing to locate their collective testes
amid 90 minutes of tawdry Spanish attrition, Samir Nasri bid bidded bade the tournament farewell by
sounding off on a French journalist who had the temerity to ask the midfielder for his opinions on
the Gallic merde-fest he had just been part of.
Allow us to ply you with four wonderful ways to enjoy Zlatan's farewell scissorstonker against
France last night, starting with 'good old-fashioned photo'...
Plenty of questions answered in our Euro 2012 Group D preview. What is England's best ever
export? (FOOTBALL!) Who is Sweden's most important player? (NOT ZLATAN!) Who is France's best ever
player? (ZIZOU!) and is Ukrainian the same as Russian? (NO!) Also on this show, we bid Albert a
heartfelt farewell (sob!
Home: Farewell, trusty blue. It's red and white all the way for England's home kit this time. The
most recent batch of Umbro home kits have been quite interesting: fairly stylish in the detail,
pretty simple in the broader picture. This one's no exception. Away: OTP said when this kit was
released that it reminded [.
As we wave goodbye to another season of Serie A, Juventus can reminisce a wonderful campaign in
which they claimed Scudetto glory and lost just once in all competitions. It may have ended on a
sad note with the farewell of Alessandro Del Piero and the Coppa Italia final defeat to Napoli, but
the work of Antonio Conte and all involved is to be commended.
This well maybe Edinson Cavani's last match for Napoli. If it is, he made sure the fans remember
him fondly. He made that penalty happen heading on a long throw into the path of the cutting
Ezeqiel Lavezzi who was upended by Marco Storari. The Uruguayan striker was on the mark with the
spot kick.
Bayern Munich have responded to Wesley Sneijder's accusations that the club has not been
supportive of Arjen Robben following his penalty miss in the Champions League final defeat to
Chelsea, particularly since the winger was jeered by some fans in a home friendly against
Netherlands.
Tuesday night's exhibition match saw Bayern's Robben don his national team colors and every time
he touched the ball, sections of the crowd voiced their disapproval by whistling at him.
The German Bundesliga this Saturday saw the table open up amongst the top four after Borussia
Mochengladbach thrashed Schalke 3-0 at Borussia-Park Saturday to keep them in the running for the
title while giving a huge dent to Schalke's title hopes.
Leaders Dortmund were 1-0 winners over Leverkusen to maintain their 2 point lead over Bayern
Munich who were also winners after they beat Kaiserslauten 2-0 at the Allianz Arena.
Weird scenes inside the goldmine RheinEnergieStadion, where the Cologne fans didn't take their
relegation down to the 2.Bundesliga yesterday afternoon particularly gracefully throwing smoke
bombs, lighting fires and charging the pitch after their side's 1-4 defeat to Bayern Munich.
Lukas Podolski joins Arsenal, Marko Marin joins Chelsea, Shinji Kagawa doesn't yet join
Manchester United and Lucas Barrios ends up in China. There's quite a bit more movement on the
transfer market already, than in the Bundesliga table. But here is what happened anyway.
It's always a shame to say farewell to an old friend, but we find it so much harder when they're
buff as hell and brandishing babies. Raul's cheery send off from Schalke on Saturday s thoroughly
traumatic.
A very standard situation today: with a player's contract running out at the end of the season
and with the club's positional placement assured, he announces he's moving on. This happens all the
time. Most of the time it doesn't even require a press conference, rather a smashing of letters
into the Tweeter box.
On August 24th, 1963, 17 minutes into the first matchday of the inaugural Bundesliga season,
1860 Munich striker Rudolf Brunnenmeier nutmegged Eintracht Braunschweig keeper Hans Jäcker to
give his side a 1-0 lead. It was 1860 Munich's first ever Bundesliga goal. It was the first
Bundesliga goal that was caught on camera.
And so, 26 years, 6 months and 7 days after his appointment, Sir Alex Ferguson arrived at Old Trafford looking to oversee his final encounter in the stadium he has made home. A capacity crowd of 75,572 were in attendance to show their appreciation for the work of the greatest club manager the football world has ever seen.
There's something about saying goodbye in football they're a lot more bittersweet than one could
ever expect. On Saturday night, when it was all said and done, Pep Guardiola
stayed behind with his entire family to take in the incredible atmosphere of the Nou
Camp as Barca coach for the last time.
You've read Serie A Sister's tribute to Livorno's Permario
Morosini, where we told you how the family, friends and fans of the player have been
coming to terms with his passing after he collapsed during a Serie B game on Sunday. His funeral
took place in Bergamo this morning and more than 5,000 fans from his former teams, Atlanta and
Udinese, gathered last night to bid farewell to their beloved player.
Yesterday, when I posted my "Five Takeaways From San Jose" I was in the quiet, cozy, suburban
confines of TheIndirectKick.com. It was comparable to a quiet cul-de-sac where mail delivery could
be considered the highlight of the day second only to the neighbor's cat rustling through the
garbage.
But after a whirlwind day of faux press releases and phony transactions I feel like I'm in the
"big city" here at the offices of The Bent Musket.
Legend. Arsenal true blue. Competitor. Finisher extraordinaire.
You couldn't write a better script for Thierry Henry to end his England return. An added time
goal for the winner against Sunderland. A bookend to the bookend he installed with his instant
winner against Leeds. Both Wenger's subs made massive contributions to the victory as Aaron Ramsey
scored the equalizer and Andrey Arshavin sent in a pinpoint cross to Henry lurking in front of goal
to elevate his leg and guide the ball past Simon Mignolet.
