Winter Weather XI Football Team

I was surfing to the Offside Island when I found this treasure.

This winter is quite dreadful, it made several football matches on Britain called off. I think it's the right time to think about a full team of players with winter weather themed names.

The Offside has really come up with a great idea. Check this one out:

In goal: Werner Friese, who was the backup East Germany goalkeeper at the 1974 World Cup. He didn’t get on the pitch, but he’s perfect for this team. Backup keeper is Man Utd’s Ben Froster.

Defence: Always a tough area when picking a themed XI, as defenders tend to be less well known than any other position. But we did eventually get four names. Ex Denmark defender Søren Colding can play right back. The pun-tastic Man Utd defender Snomenja Vidic is partnered by the sounds a bit like “chilly” Giorgio Chiellini in central defence. Left back duties go to former Everton defender midfielder Ian Snodin. Because some people in Hull actually were snowed in.

Midfield: Plenty of options in midfield so I’ll just get on with it and list them. We’ve got former Netherlands and Ajax midfielder Aron Winter, current Bristol Rovers defensive mid Dominic Blizzard, Ajax (but currently on loan at Bristol City) midfielder Evander Sno are all ideal. There’s also Steve Snow, who I’d never heard of until yesterday, but he was capped twice by the USA in 1988/89.

Attack: Lots of strikers to choose from too. There’s Lukas PodolSKI obviously, but then once you start punning it’s very hard to stop. Dimitar Brrrbatov started the whole thing, St. Nicklas Bendtner is a little out of season but still relevant, while Bobblehat Zamora is just plain hilarious (plus, he’s in form). But the icing on the cake, in terms of both quality of player and excellence of worldplay, has to be Den Iceberg Kamp.

Here’s my final Winter Weather XI, playing a sort of 4-3-1-2:

Werner Friese
Søren Colding – Snomenja Vidic – Giorgio Chiellini – Ian Snodin
Dominic Blizzard – Aron Winter – Evander Sno
Den Icerberg Kamp
Lukas Podolski – Bobblehat Zamora

Subs: Ben Froster, Steve Snow, Dimitar Brrrbatov, St. Nicklas Bendtner

Manager will obviously be either Millwall’s Kenny Jackett or Nigel Winterburn. All games to be refereed by Jeff Winter.

Another WTF Match, What a Comeback

Another WTF (what the f***) match. That's the comment of someone, which is posted on Valencia's Offside blog. This comment was related to African Cup of Nations' first match between Angola and Mali, that ended in a 4-4 draw.

There was something extraordinary, especially with the final whistle approaching. At first the host dominated the match, and cruising to a comfortable-looking 4-0 victory. By 78th minute, it looked like Angola had secured all three points, with 4-0 on the scoreboard. However, it wasn't to be, because Mali committed an epic comeback, or you can also say a wtf comeback, by smashing four goals in to equalize in the last 12 minutes + injury time, with last two goals being scored in the injury time. Logic had really been torn apart here. Mali showed that anything can happen and that it is not really over until it's over.

Suddenly, there were faces of disbelief from both teams and fans. How come the host slipped the four goals advantage away in the last 15 minutes, or more ironically, slipped three goals advantage away in the last 5 minutes.

Mali's goals were scrappy, as a result of poor defending. Anyway they're probably not concerned about it too much.

This is truly regarded as one of the most unbelievable comeback ever achieved in football.

Here is the highlight of the match:

Look Out, Robinho!

It is usually Robinho, who employs the element of surprise to bamboozle opponent's defenders, but Manchester City defender, Micah Richards did a counter-attack to him during the training. Richards ambushed his team-mate, Robinho, in a training ground snow ball fight.

Richards ghosts up on a heavily armed, smiling Robinho (above) before launching himself within shot of his totally unaware team-mate (below).

Freezy-peasy: Richards slams the snowball into Robinho's face

Insane Commentator

Inter Milan proved many people wrong by claiming three points in a hard-fought victory against Siena in Giuseppe Meazza stadium last weekend. They won 4-3, with still one goal down in 88th minute. Wesley Sneijder's two free-kicks in the dying minutes ensured the win for I Nerrazurri, first directly into the goal, and the second through Walter Samuel's final touch.

With both these goals, Jose Mourinho somehow managed to avoid his first league home loss in over 8 years, including during his spell at Porto and Chelsea.

This footage showed an insane commentator, who looked like an Interisti (wearing Inter scarf), shouted excitingly after both goals.

Why Should You Postpone?

Perhaps that title is what Estonians will say about the postponements in some English Premier League matches last weekend.

Seven Premier League matches, in addition to some previous FA Cup and Carling Cup matches, had been called off due to the heavy snowfall on England recently. This severe winter weather, has been dubbed as the heaviest snowfalls to hit Britain in three decades.

This footage below was taken from last year's international friendly match between Estonia and Canada in Talinn, 26th March 2008. You'll see and perhaps understand how Estonians can think that there is simply not enough reason to postpone some matches in Britain.

That match was played on a snow covered pitch, with the snow continuing to fall down and not so much as a fluorescent ball in sight. Slippery fun aplenty!

Indonesian Pitch Invader

I think it is true to call an award "the man of the match" instead of "the player of the match", for it is not always a player on the pitch who makes the most highlight, but it can sometimes be from other sources, for example is from the crowd.

This anomaly happened during Indonesia's 1-2 loss against Oman on 6th January 2010. It was an Asian Cup Qualifying games, the 5th match in the group stage. It was decisive enough to ensure Indonesia eliminated from Asian Cup 2011 in Qatar. In fact, the score is sometimes deceiving, like in this particular match. It could have easily been more goals for the visitor if not for their bad finishing. Indonesia really displayed a lackluster performance. Frustrations spread across all Indonesians in the stadium, the crowd is not an exception.

When Indonesia was trailing by one goal, in the second half injury time, comes the real 'man of the match' onto the pitch. His name is Hendri Mulyadi. He was so disappointed after seeing any Indonesia's hopes of qualifying dashed by their awful performance, and he couldn't bear it any longer. As a result, he deliberately jumped onto the pitch and dribbled the ball up about 40 metres on the pitch before firing a weak shot, which Oman goalkeeper, Ali Al-Habsi comfortably parried away.

During the process, the photographs showed that he ran past Indonesian coach, Benny Dollo, and player, Boas Solossa, along with some other players. He was arrested by the police soon after his shot.

Here is the footage of his heroic action:


After the match, he told Metro TV, "I know what I did was wrong, but I couldn’t stand it. Why is it so hard to them to win?"

"I hope my action will become a wake-up call for the Indonesian Football Association," he said.

Mulyadi’s stunt has earned him star status.

He has been interviewed by various local TV stations, and nearly 6,000 people joined a Facebook page lauding his action.

"Thank you, Hendri. I support you to become the chairman of PSSI," Rafis Wijaya wrote on the Facebook page, referring to the Indonesian Football Association.

A true man of the match for sure.

Iniesta to CR9: "SHUT UP!"

This footage was taken during the El Clasico match (Barcelona vs Real Madrid) on 29th November 2009.

Andres Iniesta was taken down by Lassana Diarra, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who was standing nearby, told Iniesta to stop diving. And then Iniesta was annoyed and told Ronaldo to shut up! Perhaps Iniesta was also saying, "Shut up, boy! Who do you think you are? Don't you realize that you are the king of dive (look at previous posts)?"

Indeed he did, but after the match, by telling the a radio station, "It annoyed me that Cristiano told me not to dive because he is not exactly the best person to tell anyone that."

Another Disgrace

Cristiano Ronaldo did another disgraceful activity. This time, the victim is his own Real Madrid mate, Marcelo.

Ronaldo, the 80-million-pounds man has obviously gone too far.

CR9 = King of Dive

Cristiano Ronaldo is an evil. Yes, he is.

The most expensive player on earth continued to surprise everyone with his diving ability.

In this footage, you'll see the deliberate diving committed by Cristiano Ronaldo (in the match against Osasuna). Nevertheless, the referee wasn't impressed, but for some inexplicable reason decided not to book him for diving. Perhaps Florentino Perez had told the referee before, "You'll have to pay much for booking the most expensive player on planet earth."

UEFA Champions League 2009/10 Drawing

The draw for the Round of 16 of UEFA Champions League 2009/10 was carried out in Nyon, Switzerland, on Friday, 18th December 2009.

This draw resulted in some intriguing battles, especially between Italian and English clubs.

The most interesting part of this draw, in my opinion, is the return of The Special One, Jose Mourinho, to Stamford Bridge, to face his former club, Chelsea. Yes, Chelsea vs Inter is the clash of the round. It is worth waiting to see how Carlo Ancelotti, who used to be Inter's arch rival's coach, will prepare The Blues to face the Nerazzurri.

Another Italian vs English battle is between AC Milan, 7 times European champion, against the 2008 winner and last year's runner-up, Manchester United. The Red Devils surely wants revenge for the defeat they suffered from in 2007, right on Milan's path to the eventual final and winner that season. There is also a possibility that United's legend, David Beckham will face his boyhood club, in a red-and-black shirt of Rossonerri.

FC Porto have to face another English club. This time, it's Arsenal. Whereas Fiorentina have a tough opponent in form of Bayern Munchen, who destroyed Juventus 4-1 in Turin back in December. French giant, Olympique Lyon will face a stern test, having European giant, Real Madrid as their opponent, while on the other hand, another French giant have a relatively easier draw, for having Olympiacos to fight against. Another draw is between the Sevilla against CSKA Moscow, a quite even battle.

The last is the defending champion, Barcelona, will take on German team, VfB Stuttgart, on their way to another final this year. Barcelona would gladly reach the final once again, since this year's final will be held in Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid's homeground.

For the first time this year, the fixtures in the last 16 will be held over four weeks with half the ties on 16/17 February and 9/10 March, and the others on 23/24 February and 16/17 March. On Friday, 19th March 2010, the draw for the remaining rounds will be held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, with the quarter-finals on 30/31 March and 6/7 April, the semis on 20/21 and 27/28 April and the final on Saturday 22 May 2010.

2009/10 UEFA Champions League first knockout round draw

Team named first at home in first leg

AC Milan (ITA) vs Manchester United (ENG): 16 February/10 March

Olympique Lyonnais (FRA) vs Real Madrid CF (ESP): 16 February/10 March

FC Bayern Munchen (GER) vs ACF Fiorentina (ITA): 17 February/9 March

FC Porto (POR) vs Arsenal FC (ENG): 17 February/9 March

Olympiacos FC (GRE) vs FC Girondins de Bordeaux (FRA): 23 February/17 March

VfB Stuttgart (GER) vs FC Barcelona (ESP): 23 February/17 March

FC Internazionale Milano (ITA) vs Chelsea FC (ENG): 24 February/16 March

PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS) vs Sevilla FC (ESP): 24 February/16 March

How to Waste Your Money?

This is truly the worst way to spend your money, which is equivalent with the best way to waste your money.

Recently Marco Materazzi, former Italian defender, has kicked-off his marketing action. There is now an iPhone app, called Marco Materazzi Official App. You can buy this app for $1,99 in iTunes store. For me, this is how you waste your money.

Matrix said, "Thanks to Reset Communication, in time for Christmas, you can download my application from the iTunes store, only for iPod Touch and iPhone.

Touch the display icon and you can have access to a world of knowledge about me."

Completely useless.

Utter Humiliation

This is one of the biggest headline in 2009. Real Madrid booked the papers' headlines when they signed Cristiano Ronaldo for 94 million euros and Kaka as well. A few months later, they did the same (made some headlines), but for different reason.

Third division team, Alcorcon, completely stunned Los Galacticos. They destroyed Real Madrid 4-0. This is truly one of the biggest giant-killing in this century.

I hadn't even heard the name of Alcorcon before this match. I thought it was a bird, yes, a bird. They played their trade in the third lier of Spanish league. It should be a miss-match on paper. Yet Alcorcon players have definitely swung our beliefs.

We will first look at the Real Madrid squad against Alcorcon. This was a star-studded line-up to be honest. International players are all here, Dudek, Arbeloa, Metzelder, Albiol, Drenthe, Diarra, Granero, Guti, van der Vaart, Benzema, Raul. Even van Nistelrooy would start from the bench. Then, there was actually no reason or excuse for that utter humiliation.

We are now in a world where a team whose value is less than 1,2 million euros can tear apart team which is valued at more than 400 million euros, more than 200 times of their size.

The second leg in Bernabeu ended 1-0 for Madrid, yet Madrid had to wait until 81st minute before Rafael van der Vaart grabbed the only goal of the game. Unfortunately, that goal looked like a consolation, because in the end Madrid were eliminated by 1-4 aggregate. 9 times European champion needed 181 minutes (plus injury times) to score against a team, whose highest position ever in the history is just the 3rd place in SEGUNDA DIVISION B.