WorldCupBlog 16 November @ 04:10 PM EST
Be honest, you'd forgotten entirely about the Under 17 World Cup and that's if you were aware of
its running in the first place. We'll also accept admissions from those who confused it with the
Under-20 World Cup (Lite) in Egypt won late last month by Ghana.
But it happened, and Switzerland yes, Switzerland took home the trophy, their first of any kind
in FIFA territory, from Lagos against what had to be the heavily favored and exceedingly overaged
hometown Nigerians.
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TORONTO - Soccer, Futbol, Football - whatever you'd like to call it - is a global game that bridges
gaps between people, and unifies them around something so passionate, that they can forget their
troubles or quarrels if only for 90 minutes. It is 'the world's sport' and its reach reigns through
every country, in every continent.
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Jogaram pelo Mundial Sub-17, na cidade de Lagos, no Teslim Balogun Stadium, com uma temperatura de
32º C, as seleções do Brasil (1º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção do México (18º no ranking
da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
Copa do Mundo: 3 jogos, 3 vitórias do Brasil, 11 gols do Brasil e 00 gols do
México
Copa das Confederações: 3 jogos, 1 vitória do Brasil, 2 vitórias do México,
06 gols do Brasil e 07 gols do México.
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I love a World Cup (any World Cup) for the rare opportunity of putting whole imagined nations on
public display. Though the main event in South Africa is still eight months away, one junior
version (U-20) just finished in Egypt and another (U-17) is just about to begin in Nigeria.
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AEK Archives 12 August @ 04:10 PM EST
One final friendly loss for our team before our first Europa League match against Vaslui.
Below is the video of our goal, scored by Leonardo although it deflected of a number of
players.
A 3-1 loss at this point really isn't the most encouraging result but it must be pointed out
that the squad playing today was largely a B-Team.
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The big finale of the 2009 Torneo Clausura has seen its first act played out with a late winner for
visitors Lanús in Tucumán and a victory for the hosts in La Plata which see Gimnasia La Plata
secure a relegation playoff spot ahead of San MartÃn de Tucumán, who go straight down to B [...]
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I thought I would higlight an interview done recently by my friend Kartik Krishnaiyer over at
Major League Soccer Talk. Kartik interivewed Misha Sher, a name I really wasn't very familiar with
but some Minnesotan's who have been involved with the game for a while may know.
Misha moved from the Ukraine to Minnesota back in the early 90's playing youth soccer here and
spending time on Minneosta ODP teams.
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I thought I would highlight an interview done recently by my friend Kartik Krishnaiyer over at
Major League Soccer Talk. Kartik interviewed Misha Sher, a name some Minnesotan's may be familiar
with. Misha moved from the Ukraine to Minnesota back in the early 90's playing youth soccer here
and spending time on Minnesota ODP teams.
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AEK Archives 01 December @ 12:21 PM EST
AEK's poor away form, as many fans feared, has continued with little improvement. AEK drew away
with Levadeiakos who currently sit in 11th position with 13 points. Despite hitting the post three
times throughout the match neither Djebbour or Blanco could score. AEK were handed a chance to
salvage the three points in extra time after [.
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AEK Archives 08 September @ 04:54 AM EST
AEK ended their second friendly of the weekend with a 3-0 win. Panagiotis Lagos, Ismael Blanco, and
Panagiotis Zorbas scored. AEK next weekend play PAOK in Thessaloniki.
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AEK Archives 31 August @ 05:14 PM EST
We lined up like this: Blanco Edinho -Scocco Rikka Pilatsikas Basinas Juanfran -Ramos-Silva
Krygiakos Majstorovisc Saja Lagos went in for Edinho in the 65th, Kafes went in for Pilatsikas in
the 87th, and Alexopolous went in for Scocco in the 90th. Donis knows what he is doing. The 4-3-3
worked well for us.
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AEK Archives 21 August @ 05:02 PM EST
AEK finished their final friendly with a victory after going down 0-1 in the first half. The
starting lineupfor AEK's final game before the critical match against Omonia included Jurgen Macho
and Edinho, both of whom have not played with team for quite a while now. The game overall was a
definate imprpovement over past games, [.
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One of Newcastle fans' favorite players Obafemi Martins has thanked the Toon Army for their support
following the death of his mother last month. Oba Martins - Newcastle fans make him happy The 23
year-old Nigerian striker returned home after his mother, Alhaja Martins, tragically passed away in
Lagos on July 23rd, which was a terrible shock [.
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AEK ended their second friendly of the preseason against German Second Division team Greuther
Furth in a 2-2 draw. AEK went down early on in the first minute and by the end of the scond half
they were down 0-2. Two goals however, in the 83rd and 85th minutes of the game allowed AEK to
catch [...]
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PAO is currently tied 0-0 with Aris in the 38th minute. A draw for Aris against PAO and a win for
AEK against PAO this wednesday at home for AEK will be enough to ensure that AEK finish first in
the Playoffs and can therefore qualify for Champions League. The squad for AEK's away match against
[...]
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It was painful to watch this game earlier tonight. A month ago, if I saw 4-0 it would bring a smile
to my face but now it forces me to turn my back. We played a very pathetic game today. Our offence
was much better than it was when we played PAO however, our defence [...]
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The squad the Nikos Kostenoglou will be taking with him is rather similar to the usual.
Lyberopoulos, Rivaldo, Edinho, Kone, Macho, Lagos, Kafes, Morretto, Arruabarena, Blanco, Geraldo
Alves, Pavlis, Toszer, Pappas, Julio Cesar, Bourbos, Kallon, Pliatsikas, Dellas, Ensaliwa, Edson
Silva Ramos. I am pleased to also see Kapetanos included in the squad for the game tonight.
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How many days late with this am I? I guess just two. We played Xanthi Wednesday, lined up like
this: Kallon Blanco Rivaldo Lagos Edinho Kafes Bourbos Pliatsikas Papastathopoulos Dellas Macho And
though we didn't completely dominate the entire match, we played a better brand of football
overall.
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AEK Archives 21 February @ 03:14 PM EST
Well, the game is underway and we lined up like this: Moreto Nsaliwa Dellas Papastathopoulos
Arruabarrena Zikos Kafes Ramos -Rivaldo Lagos Kallon Which is pretty close to what I predicted in
my preview piece yesterday except Kostenoglou has gone with two defensive mids and one striker
where I would have put one defensive mid and two strikers.
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AEK Archives 20 February @ 02:03 PM EST
After a weekend off due to a freak snow storm, AEK travels to Spain tomorrow to play the second
leg of our UEFA Cup fixture against Getafe. Getafe's Cosmin Contra is predicting a win for his
side. AEK, for their part, will be playing just their second match under caretaker manager Nikos
Kostenoglou, a former AEK player and, until [.
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AEK Archives 19 February @ 01:12 PM EST
Well, we are a full week into AEK Athens FC A.F. (After Ferrer) and still no replacement in sight.Â
Persistent rumors link us to Angelos Anastasiadis and, even less believably, Didier Deschamps. It
looks to me though that Nikos Kostenoglou, former AEK player, former Ferrer assistant, will
continue in the capacity of caretaker manager for the [.
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AEK Archives 07 February @ 02:13 PM EST
Greece beat Finland2-1. UEFA has the report. AEK's new call-ups, Lagos and Papastathopoulos,
played both friendlies this week, which is a good sign for them. They are also being credited as
two of the best players on the pitch in yesterday's game. Also, the USA drew 2-2with Mexico. I
watched the game, but I'm not going [.
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AEK Archives 05 February @ 10:30 AM EST
The Greek National Team plays today in a friendly against Czech Republic to be played in Cyprus.Â
King Otto's squad includes five new call-ups from the U-21 team, including AEK's own Sokratis
Papastathopoulos: Rehhagel has promoted five rookies from the under-21 squad (Sokratis
Papastathopoulos, Lazaros Christodoulopoulos, Christos Melissis, Avraam Papadopoulos and Grigorios
Makos) but he will [.
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AEK Archives 03 February @ 05:30 PM EST
We dropped three more points, this time against Panionios. Â First, let's get the discussion of the
refereeing out of the way. Â Was the referee crap? Â You betcha. Â Was he paid off? Â He must have
been. Â In the first half, Rivaldo was unmistakenly fouled inisde the box. Â In teh second half,
Lyberopoulos was clearly tripped right [.
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AEK Archives 19 January @ 03:09 PM EST
Remember that ball-winning, holding midfielder I said we needed to pick up this transfer window?Â
Well, we already have him. Nice to meet you Mr. Nsaliwa. Where ya been? Nsaliwa was in rare
form today. He read plays well, anticipated where the ball was going, dispossessed Atromitos in
the midfield repeatedly, and broke free of tackles [.
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