As I touched on in my article last week: with Robin van Persie surely set to leave Arsenal this
summer, the club is about to face yet another change in captaincy, with the Dutch striker having
only replaced Cesc Fabregas as skipper a year ago.
I suggested Bacary Sagna as a replacement in my last piece (that will not be the focus today),
but whoever gets the armband next will be the fifth different captain we've had since we last won a
trophy.
I can't believe I came on here yesterday writing with optimism about our new defensive tactics.
I really should have known better to expect Wenger to be able to pull it off, however a good idea
it may be.
The guy can't coach defence. Time and time again we see decent players come to the club and
immediately look like clowns.
Whenever these two countries lock horns on the football field, it is always has an extra level
of importance no matter what the circumstances are, and tomorrow, in Olympic Stadium in Kiev,
Ukraine, they meet in the Quarter Final of Euro 2012. I can hardly believe that it is eleven years
since they last played each other, and historically, the series is close with Italy winning nine,
England seven with seven draws.
Nicklas Bendtner in a Danish interview was asked to name his all time favourite eleven, In a
4-3-3 he went with a offensive team. In his younger Arsenal reserve's days N.B-52 on a few
occasions played alongside Ashley Cole and rates the Left-Back very highly, also includes ex
Premier League wing wizard Cristiano Ronaldo.
Vediamo ora qualche numero che riguarda la nostra nazionale. Gli azzurri hanno giocato
77 partite nelle fasi finali dei mondiali. Le vittorie conquistate
dall'Italia sono 44, cioè il 57%. Il record è quello del 1990:
6 successi su 7 partite, ma l'unico pareggio costò l'eliminazione ai rigori, in
semifinale, contro l'Argentina.
I was reading about Marcelo (current awful Real Madrid left back) and how his career started to
rise with Fluminese and how he ended up at Real Madrid. To say the least, I was shocked to hear
people like Maldini and Maradonna praising Marcelo and calling him Roberto Carlos's (a former great
Real Madrid [.
Maradona, Maldini, Riva, Moore and Cruyff are just some of the great names in football who,
after having a monumental effect on their respective clubs, were given the ultimate honour of
having their shirt number retired by those teams.
Raúl González Blanco eligió el Schalke 04 porque buscaba batir el récord de goles de
Müller y el de partidos jugados que ostentaba el milanista Maldini. Raúl ha
conseguido elevar el listón en ambos apartados gracias a los cinco goles anotados en los diez
partidos en esta edición con la camiseta del Schalke alemán.
Nothing pleases us more than seeing a group of grown men get together to discuss hot
footballers, as inspired by our mancandy lust lists of objectification. We're like, so legit.
Wait, we take that back. Seeing Chris Cohen hold up a tonguetastic photo of Fabio Cannavaro was
the cherry on top of our post V-day sundaes.
It was back on May 28th, 2003, at Manchester United's Old Trafford. A Milan side consisting of
Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo and Clarence Seedorf took to the
field. It had been eight years since the club reached the final showpiece of the Champions League.
For a club that had defined itself [.
AC Milan recently launched their new kits for the 2013 season with a campaign
featuring Ibrahimovic, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Antonio Nocerino and Thiago Silva.
Let's not forget Ambrosini, who was strategically positioned at the front because
well, you all know how much Milan love their veterans!
By "The Other 87 Minutes" / Senior Unemployed English Major Correspondents
We get in the spirit of one of the most glamorous nights in Hollywood....ah, who are we kidding, we
were bored as sin too. Here are the last ten UCL Champions and the ten Best Picture winners that
most closely represent them (note: owing to my spotty knowledge of pre-1990s Oscar winners, forgive
the bias towards more recent movies.
As Signore Maldini proved on the sidelines of this past weekend's AC Milan v Juventus match, it's
never too late to work a daily dollop of sunscreen into one's grooming regime. And in our bedroom
eyes, he will forever have "it" whether his skin colouring is sourced from nature or nurture.
Image: Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images Europe.
When Ryan Giggs scored Manchester United's last penalty in Moscow, moments before Nicolas
Anelka's penalty was saved by Edwin Van der Sar, there was speculation over whether that would be
last game for the club. He had broken Sir Bobby Charlton's all time appearance record when coming
off the bench to replace Paul Scholes.
Ever since Paolo Maldini retired in 2009 to the completely undeserving jeers of a certain few
ultras – inexplicable this happened to such legend of the club – the left full back position
has been a problem area for Milan. The club's attempts to find the solution have seen one failure
after the next, to [.
Will the baton ever be passed from Robbie Keane to Aiden McGeady?
Editor's Note: It was an odd, intermixing week for American and British Isle footie.
Midweek, the historic club Glasgow Rangers of the beleaguered Scottish Premiere League made
successful for two Americans, Alejandro Bedoya and Carlos Bocanegra.
Last week that fine gent and upstanding journo, Martin Samuel, claimed that Arsenal can no
longer attract genuine world stars, is this right?
For a start lets be honest have we actually ever signed someone at the top of their game?
Bergkamp was a truly world class player, but when we signed him, he was in a massive dip, the
top teams at the time AC Milan, Madrid just were not interested.
As my readers know, I am more of an AC Milan fan than an Inter one. Lately however, the
Rossoneri seem to be on a parallel path to their owner, Berlusconi. AC Milan is synonymous amongst
football fans with fuoriclasse. The most titled club in the past 20 years has always had
an image of style, class, elegance, think Maldini, Van Basten, Sacchi, Baresi, Shevchenko, etc
here.
En la década de los 60 hubo un equipo importante que logró una Copa de Europa en el 63 y otra
en el 69. En las dos hubo un denominador común, Gianni Rivera. El equipo fue el Milán A.C.
Tras perder su hegemonía el Real Madrid y los dos triunfos de un Benfica que marcó un bienio
contra los equipos españoles (F.
Gone are the days when Milan was home to some of the football's most liked and cherished
professionals. The likes of Paolo Maldini, Kaka, Cafu, Andriy Shevchenko and Manuel Rui Costa were
all highly respected and talented stars of the game when they plied their trade for the red and
black of Milan. These players [.
Whenever someone thinks about the Champion League they almost immediately think about either the
1999 Champions League final between Manchester United and Bayern Munich in Barcelona, or the 2005
final between Liverpool and AC Milan in Istanbul.
They are without doubt two of the most memorable finals in recent years, and often have fans
bickering about which final was the best.
A few years back Leandro Grimi was snapped up by Milan and promptly declared that he "will
become the new Maldini". Not smart. To be fair, the rest of the quote makes it seem more hopeful
than declaration, but allowing papers to excerpt "I will become the new Maldini" was never going to
end well.
Once again I'm proud to be among the contributors to the latest edition of Calcio Italia.
There's been some great feedback so far and I can see why because there are pieces by
Giancarlo Rinaldi and Adam Digby - two of the finest writers about Italian football as well as a
feature on Giuseppe Rossi by Spanish football expert Sid Lowe.
Miami continues to attract Soccer stars to its beaches. This time its frequent Miami visitor Paolo
Maldini and Italy reject Giuseppe Rossi. The truth is any soccer player in the world would love to
live in South Florida. If you don't believe me this is what U.S. Soccer star Alejandro Bedoya had
to say on twitter about Miami when asked about a possible MLS team coming back to this area.
In honour of the FA Umbro Fives national 5-a-side competition happening in England (with a final
played at Wembley, no less) I've had a go at selecting the greatest 5-a-side team of all time,
using players past or present. So one goalkeeper, four outfield players, two subs, one manager, all
combining to make one unbeatable team.
Italy managed to draw 1-1 against both Paraguay and New Zealand while failing to impress despite
having seen a lot in terms of ball possession, in particular against the Kiwis when the Italians
had just over 70% in terms of ball possession. Pundits and fans alike are debating what has gone
wrong for the Azzurri in South Africa 2010 with some attributing it to the Italian tendency to
start slow referencing Spain 1982, USA 1994 and even Germany 2006.
Despite a huge loss of form and increasing years, Ghana captain Stephen Appiah stressed that he
has no plans to retire any time soon. The statement comes after a large group of fans back in Ghana
criticized the midfielder for recent poor performances, and it has even led some people to ask him
to retire sooner rather than later.
He may be 37 years of age and perhaps past his prime, but with 133 caps for the Azzurri, he is a
legend. This will be his last international tournament. Next season, he will play for Al-Ahli in
Dubai. He has featured at the following senior level tournaments: World Cup 1998, Euro 2000, World
Cup 2002, Euro 2004, World Cup 2006, Euro 2008.
Whether you're a die hard fan who calls in sick to work just to watch your team play, or
you're a casual fan who happens to be in little Italy during an Italy match and gets caught up in
the excitement, there's this little thing called the World Cup of football that you will be unable
to avoid wherever you are on this planet in the upcoming month.
It is happy news that the genes of Lionel Messi, the greatest contemporary footballer, have been passed on another generation.
A baby boy, Thiago Messi was born on the 2nd of November 2012 to his girlfriend and childhood sweetheart Antonella Roccuzzo.
'Mini-Messi' is barely out of his mother's womb but has already been presented with membership of Newell's Old Boys, his dad's first club, and a blaugrana jersey from his current one.
Those of you who've been wise to this site since the early days, or who just really like reading
mastheads, will be aware that for lo these many years I've been running RoP in conjunction with two
colleagues, Dr. Chesapeake Marchpane and Vandal-prone. And sure, they may not have been around too
consistently, or seemed to have anything to do with the daily operations of the enterprise, but one
thing's for sure: They definitely do exist.
Ecco le ultime pagelle, quelle preparate dal nostro esperto, Marco, sulla gara che ha coinciso
con la deludente e amarissima eliminazione dell'Italia dal
Mondiale Sudafricano. Spazio dunque a Marco e ai suoi voti.
