Cabeza de serie del Grupo 9 (único pentagonal) y ganador con puntaje ideal, 17 goles a favor y 2 en contra sobre las pálidas Escocia y Noruega y las modestas Macedonia e Islandia.
La clasificación comenzó el 10.09.08 con un sufrido y limitante triunfo (1-2) en su visita a Skopje, capital de Macedonia: Van der Vaart selló el triunfo después de que Heitinga lograra romper la resistencia local. Click to continue reading...

Jan Molby is a player that I have a lot of time for. The Danish footballer was a maestro in midfield. While he's best remembered as being a pivotal player for Liverpool during his time there between 1984 and 1996, he has a special place in my heart for being a pioneer with the club I support, Swansea City, where he introduced a beautiful style of play as player manager which laid the groundwork for Roberto Martinez's arrival, much later, in 2007.

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While Maradona is busy making a shamockery of the Argentinean national side, the man who typically lurks behind Diego & Pele whether prudent or not in the discussion for the world's greatest ever player has returned to football. Johan Cruijff, arguably the greatest ever player/coach combination in football history, has returned to the bench Catalonia and don't you call it Spain.

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Ora è ufficialmente sul mercato. Questa volta, però, non parliamo di calciatori ma di mister. Concluso il rapporto con l'Inter (con una buoniuscita finale di 11 milioni), Roberto Mancini torna sul mercato. Quale sarà , a questo punto, la sua destinazione? Lo jesino, "disoccupato di lusso", scalpita e ha voglia di rimettersi in gioco, tornando in panchina. Click to continue reading...

Real Madrid are lining up Rafa Benitez as their next manager after giving Manuel Pellegrini two games to save his job.
The Spanish giants have won just one of their last five games and suffered the humiliation of a 4-0 defeat by third division Alcorcon in the Cup on Tuesday night.
Madrid considered sacking Pellegrini straight after the latest debacle, but will give him a chance to turn things around against Getafe on Saturday and at AC Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday. Click to continue reading...

Seguimos con el análisis de los equipos que hicieron historia. Así, aprovechando la reciente visita del Milán a Madrid (con sorprendente victoria milanista) queremos recordar en Retrofootball el equipo que cambió la manera defender a finales de los años 80.

Un entrenador semi-desconocido por aquel entonces, llamado Arrigo Sacchi, logró formar una "squadra" temible que ahogaba desde la defensa a cualquier rival.

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Johan Derksen column: Marco van Basten is back in football. This time as tv analist. There's a remarkable small amount of ex-players who have the guts and vision to come forward with there opinions. Jan Mulder and Rene van der Gijp are comics. Characters. Johan Cruyff is an enigma, formulating in Click to continue reading...

The 17th FIFA Under-20 World Cup begins in Egypt on Thursday as 24 countries compete for the right to be named the best youth side on the planet. Hoping to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Diego Maradona, Marco van Basten and Luis Figo who all made an impression in previous tournaments, 504 young hopefuls have gathered in Egypt in an attempt to showcase their talent to the watching world, and no small amount of scouts. Click to continue reading...

FIFA's Under-20 World Cup starts on September 24th from Egypt, the third time the tournament's been held on African soil.
Can one of the African countries involved make their way into the final?
Today, friend and football expert Tom Legg dissects the African team's prospects. Click to continue reading...

In April 2009, Holland coach Marco Van Basten criticised Rafael Benitez's handling of Ryan Babel, noting that the player had taken a step backward since his arrival at Anfield. This week, Babel himself has publicly stated he wants to leave. Has Babel failed or is Rafa Benitez to blame for not giving the player a consistent chance? Click to continue reading...

via Gettyimages

So Leonardo's former Milan teammates have spoken up to defend him... and although Maldini went into hiding after making that "we must beat Inter" remark, good ol' Marco van Basten decided to speak up. He's been playing golf and enjoying the life of the I-Was-A-Former-Great-So-Just-Shut-Up-And-Let-Me-Through phase.

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It's the 9th of September, 2009. One of those rare days when both sides of the Atlantic can agree on how to write the date: 09/09/09. So what better day to celebrate the number nine jersey? The meaning of shirt numbers varies from culture to culture, but #9 is pretty universal. In any language it means [. Click to continue reading...

Ryan Babel had been touted as one of the most exciting prospects in Europe when he made a switch from Ajax to Liverpool but his career has since taken the wrong turn. The player himself has to take part of the blame for this because he never really repeat the performances from his time at Ajax, but in all fairness I have to say Rafa Benitez never really gave him a real chance to shine.

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Standing left to right: Joop Hiele, John van 't Schip, Frank Rijkaard, John Bosman, Wim Koevermans (?), Ruud Gullit Seated left to right: Marco van Basten, Wilbert Suvrijn, Hendrie Kruzen, Jan Wouters, Adrie van Tiggelen Hendrie Kruzen played five internationals for the Dutch team. The ex Heracles, Den Bosch and PSV player Click to continue reading...

Ajax is one of the most famous football clubs in the world but things haven't been going well for the Dutch giants lately. Five years without the league title is simply too much and now even Marco van Basten could help the team win anything last season. The club officials, however, managed to persuade Martin Jol to leave Hamburg and try to help Ajax return to glory days.

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(Qualche gol per ricordare Van Basten)
L'ha sparata grossa Fabio Capello. La voce del Ct inglese risuona nell'etere radio-televisivo internazionale con l'ultima battuta che ha del clamoroso. "Ibrahimovic arriverà a superare Marco Van Basten".
(Qualche gemma di Ibra)
Capello non si nasconde e senza paura rilascia una dichiarazione che sicuramente scatenerà reazioni e commenti in ogni angolo del globo. Click to continue reading...

This installment of the Annual Rankings brings us to 1987. In the final rankings for 1987, a European club returns to the top of the rankings, though it was not the European Cup champion. That title belonged to the runners up in the Portuguese Liga, Porto, who defeated Bayern Munich 2-1 in the finals in Vienna by scoring two late goals to overcome a 0-1 halftime deficit. Click to continue reading...

Alex Ferguson chose Denis Law and had the following to say
"Denis Law was my hero as a player. I idolized him. When I first met him I was so excited. It was at a game in Paris, he had played in the first half and we went for a cup of tea afterwards. I thought: 'This is it, I've made it, I'm having a cup of tea with Denis Law!

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Johan Cruyff was silent this year. The last time he was actually big news was when Marco van Basten told him he didn't want to follow JC's guidelines at Ajax. As a result, JC said: Fine. And walked away. He was also conspiciously absent from Champions League analysis on Dutch Click to continue reading...

Rik van den Boog, general manager at Ajax, presented Martin Jol as their new coach last week. "Most people are positive and enthusiastic about Jol. Some are even surprised...". These statements summarize the situation at Holland's biggest football club. Marco van Basten is the last "real Ajaxied" who got the opportunity Click to continue reading...

Martin Jol stepped up as Ajax manager following Marco Van Basten's resignation.

Jol's former club Hamburg started the season at a furious pace and was favoured to win either the Bundesliga, UEFA Cup or the German Cup but in the end Werder had their number and they lost three straight times to end up empty handed.

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Oh, what an eventful day! The merry-go-round is about to turn. First of all, the first big transfer for Bayern Munich this summer. Stuttgart's Mario Gomez will join the Bavarians for the new season in exchange for 30million Euro, which makes it the most expensive transfer in Bundesliga history. The 23-year-old striker is about to sign a contract for apparently four years.

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Marco van Basten did prove on thing in the dramatic Ajax season: coaching is a craft. A profession. It requires more than the clinical know how of a 4-3-3 system or the skill of a outside boot kick. Ernst Happel impressed his players by hitting the cross bar from 40 Click to continue reading...

Marco van Basten did prove on thing in the dramatic Ajax season: coaching is a craft. A profession. It requires more than the clinical know how of a 4-3-3 system or the skill of a outside boot kick. Ernst Happel impressed his players by hitting the cross bar from 40 Click to continue reading...

The young winger Eljero Elia is heading for the Twente exit this summer and has plenty of options. Highly rated youngster Eljero Elia has developed into one of the absolute key men at Twente this campaign and his outstanding performances haven't exactly gone unnoticed in the rest of Europe. The left winger was already being linked with [. Click to continue reading...

Some of Europe's biggest clubs will see coaching changes this summer - Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Ajax and now Juventus (with the dismissal of Claudio Ranieri).
With jobs like these now open, it leads you to believe if a major coaching carousel won't start to go round and round, with names like Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and Marco van Basten being mentioned at filling some of these posts. Click to continue reading...

Continuing Serie A's reign as the league where gaffers switch employment more frequently than temps, a coach swap has been discussed between Roma and Juventus which would see Luciano Spalletti head up to Torino for black and white scarves and Claudio Ranieri return back home to the Eternal City. Well phase one is in effect [. Click to continue reading...

This week in Chelsea football has been dominated by rumors involving Carlo Ancelotti.

The current AC Milan manager was strongly linked with the Blues' vacant managerial position in the summer and now it appears the 49-year-old is at the top of the list once again. Stories have varied, with some going as far as to say a pre-contract agreement has already been struck between the two parties.

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Here we go again: Nico Dijkshoorn on Marco van Basten: Coaches and their confrontations with fans. I love watching that. No where the gap between The Big Money and the Eternal Supporter is more evident. All those modest and polite talks during press conferences suddenly don't work in front of six Click to continue reading...

When Guus Hiddink stepped into the breach after a heartfelt plea from Roman Abrahamovich, the only definite thing we knew was that Hiddink would only be there until the end of the season. Hiddink has stuck to his line of response throughout his time at Stamford Bridge, politely but firmly dealing with the increasingly banal questions fired at him over his future plans.

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Jon Carter of ESPN Soccernet wrote an article recently that was in line with a previous column I had written about whether great players making great managers.
After seeing both Marco Van Basten (Ajax) and Jurgen Klinsmann (Bayern Munich) get fired early this month, it leads you to believe that a longer apprenticeship and coaching pedigree might be needed before thrusting our star players into management. Click to continue reading...

In a week where Silvio Berlusconi was served divorce papers by his wife and blamed very publicly for being a scoundrel for a dalliance or two the Patron of AC Milan must have been feeling prickly.Adhering to the philosophy that pooh pooh always flows down hill. The seventy two year old billionaire decided to pass his anger on to Carlo Ancelloti in a very public case of transference. Click to continue reading...

Marco van Basten told us Ryan Babel might just be the next Thierry Henry. And there have been some instances to suggest the 22-year-old could be on the path to greatness:

Babel's 40 yard blast against Chelsea to give Liverpool a breath of hope in last year's Champions League semi-final.

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As much as we may criticize making career decisions simply for the sake of money, it is refreshing when someone calls a spade a spade and says "yes, it was all about the money" whilst showering themselves in barrels of money and cackling uncontrollably. Enter Felix Magath, who will be joining Schalke 04 next season [. Click to continue reading...

After Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten is the third AC Milan crack failing as an Eredivisie coach. Like his Milan buddies, Van Basten will go down in history as the coach who got lost in the Dutch league. His two illustrious predecessors stumbled at Sparta and Feyenoord Click to continue reading...