Friday, August 29, 2008

WHEN THE WORLD CUP NEARLY ENDED.

The F.I.F.A world cup , the most exiting and most watched game nearly came to a sudden and sad end around 1946 after the second world war. The reason for it was that both Europe and the U.S.A had suffered during the the world war from 1938 to 1945.Europe said they would not hoist any world cup as they said money would be used to rebuild their country first and not build football stadiums.
F.I.F.A. was in a fix and the world cup which started in 1930 in Uruguay nearly came to a sudden and very sad end.
But at that time Brazil came as a savior and said that F.I.F.A could very well hold the cup in Brazil even though it was not the chosen country to hold the world cup. So the world cup was held in Brazil in the year 1950, and the world cup got another chance to thrill and entertain the world all over again , after all this is the greatest game on earth.. And footballers are paid the most, amoung sportsmen.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

The 1974 WORLD CUP IN WEST GERMANY.

The host country for the 1974 world cup was West Germany.
It was held from 8 june to 8 july.
There were a total of 16 teams from 5 confedrations.
There were a total of 38 matches played.
The number of goals scored were 97 at 2.25 per match.
The attendance for the tournament were 1,774,22, at 46,685 per match.
The top scorer was Grzeogorz Loto ofPoland who scored 7 goals.
West Germany won the world cup.
Holland came second.
Poland came third.
And Brazil came fourth.
For this world cup had a new trophy called the world cup made of gold and designed by the Italian Silvio Gazzaniga , as the old one The Jules Rimmet trophy was given to Brazil for good for winning their third world cup in 1970. This one would be a rotating
trophy.
This world cup will be remembered for a few things,
Hati in their world cup lost all their matches and in their last match verses Italy which Italy won 3-1. But that was a goal which the Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff let in after a period of 1,142 minutes, one thousand one hundred and fourty two minutes.
This means that the goal was scored in the match number 13 in a row in which Zoff played.
In the match between the South American giants Brazil beat Argentina2-1.
The Netherlands then beat Brazil with goals from Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens
In the match between Poland and West Germany was goaless till the 76 minute when Gert Muller scored the winner.
In the third place match Poland beat Brazil 1-0.
And in the final West Germany beat Holland 2-1.
This was the first time that a country had won both the world cup and the Euro Cup West Germanyhad also won the Euro Cup in 1972, and the world cup in 1974. This was then repeated by the French.They won the world cup 1998 and the Euro cup in 2000.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

THE 1978 WORLD CUP HELD IN ARGENTINA..

The host country for the 1978 world cup was Argentina.
It was held from june 1 to june 25.
There were a total of 16 teams taking part in the final , from five confedrations.
The number of matches played were 38 games.
The attendance for the tournament were 1,546,151. At 40,688 per match.
The number of goals scored were 102 at2.68 per match.
The top scorer was Mario Kempes who scored a total of 6 goals.
Just before the world cup started the dirty head of ugly politics appeared and nearly spoilt the world cup. The point was Argentina had come under a army coup earlier , and some countries mainly Holland were keen to skip the world cup. But in the end all was settled. But it was not the end of controversies at the games.
Till then in the world cup the country that played the last game had a unfair advantage over the others

as they then knew by how many goals were needed to win their match. After this complaint F.I.F.A. made it a rule to be followed always that the last two games should start at the same time.
In the match between Mexico and Tunisia the game was won by Tunisia ,thus Tunisia became the first African country to win a match at the world cup finals.
West Germany were beaten by Poland 2-0.
The biggest suprise was Austria beating South America giants Brazil.
The Peruvian striker Tefeleo Cubilas scored two goals verses Scotland and a hattrick verses Iran.
Argentina then beat Poland 2-0.Brazil beat Peru 3-0.
The game between Argentina and Peru had its share of controversy as well. The Peruvian team just collapsed to the Argentinans to a score of 6-0.And that to in the second half.It was said that the Peruvian goalkeeper was born in Argentina.
The final was between Holland and Argentina, the Dutch refused to do the opening formality like the shaking of hands as they were the first to object to the world cup due to the coup.And the Argentinans objected to the plaster cast on the Dutch player
Rene Van Kerkhofs hand.
The game was won by Argentina A.E.T the score was 3-1.
So Holland lost their second world cup final as they also lost to West Germany in 1974.
Inthe third place match Brazil beat Italy 3-1.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

DIFERENCE BETWEEN MANU AND OTHERS.

From the end of the season to the end of august the buying and selling of footballers go on. Some clubs like Barcelona will even sell top stars for the right amount of money, and they will never hold them back. a few examples are.
1 The Brazilan Ronaldo wanted to leave Barcelona for Intermilan.Barcelona told him to then buy himself out , Ronaldo then paid a draft of 29 million dollars and then settled it with Intermilan.
2 The great Ronaldhino who was twice footballer of the year was sold to A.C.Milan
3 Deco the great playmaker of Brazilan origin was sold to Chelsea.
4 The young promising star of tomorrow Giovani Santos was sold to Tottenham Hotspurs, with a clause that beside the selling amount Spurs would also pay a certain amount for the goals he scores.
5 Liverpool sold Peter Crouch the six feet seven inch player to Porthsmouth for 16 million euros and added the rest to buy Robbee Keane from TotnemHotspurs for 20 million euros.
If all these top footballers can be traded for others players I fail to see why Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson are clinging to one player Cristiano Ronaldo.
It became so bad that Ronaldo even refused to return to Manchester United after his ankle operation.
Things became so bad at the club that Ferguson even threatened to walk out of the club if the Glazers sold him to Real Madrid for about 70 million euros or 100 million euros. Ferguson has forgotten that the Glazers have taken a loan to buy Manchester United shares .Even if they and Real Madrid are the only clubs to generate 300 million euros last year.
Ferguson is famous for his hairdryer treatment he gives his players and tantrums like a child in the dressing room .David Bechem was kicked on head with a footbalboot which tore his his skin abouve his eye and had stitches. This led to his departure to Real Madrid.Others who faced it were Sebastin Veron,Gabriel Heinze,Jap Stam, Ruud Van Nistelrooy,Tim Howard and many more.
If you look this year they have not purchased any player they were so involved with the Ronaldo saga.Ferguson says they bought players last year true Owen Hargraves for 17, million Euros and two goals Anderson has hardly scored only Nani and Tevez have done well.
The last player I would like to write o is the Dutch Midfielder come playmaker Rafael Vandar Vart who was as important to his club in Germany called Hamburg. Real Madrid also came calling and after tough talks they sold him for big money. Please kindly note he was a star at the EURO 2008 and Cristiano Ronaldo was a failure at the Euro2008
I do agree he is a good player but dives to get free kicks and scores from them.
Even Tevez said he should be allowed to leave if he is not happy.
Even the great Rivaldo who Ronaldo can never ever match as a player was allowed to leave Barcelona for A.C.Milan as he did not see eye to eye with coach Lois Van GAAL.
Ferguson must also remember Ronaldo was bought from Sporting Lisbonin Portugal for 12.8 million pounds, so where is 70,million eurosor even 80 million euros.
So I personaly feel he should leave for a club where he will be happy .

Monday, August 18, 2008

LUIZ FELIPE SCOLARI. OR BIG FIL.

Luiz Filipe Scolari is a famous Brazilan football coach.
He is a very strict coach and will not stand for any nonsense.He is vastly experienced
, and has been all over the world as a coach. the highlight ofhis career was when he led Brazil to the final in the 2002 world cup and Brazil won it.
Hee has as a coach coached a total of sixteen clubs from Brazil to Portugals natinol team, atpresent he is the coach of the English club Chelsea. He was called for an interview to take up the job as Englands coach after they sacked Sven Goran Ericson.
But he lost out as he was not good at English.
He has coached a total of sixteen clubs in six countries, which include clubs in Kuwait ,Saudi Arabia, Japan, Portugal and Qatar.
At Chelsea Deco and Ricardo Carvalho will have to be translaters for him. As Zola was a translater to Claudio Ranieri at Chelsea earlier.

THE WORLD CUP 1982 IN SPAIN.

The host country for the 1982 world cup was Spain.
The world cup was held from june 13 to july 11.
There were a total of 24 teams from 6 confedrations.
The total attendance for the entire tournament was a total of 2,109,732 at 40,572per match.
The number of goals scored was 146 goals. At2.81 per match.
There were a total of 52 matches played.
The top goal scorer was Paulo Rossi of Italy with 6 goals.
Italy were the new champions for the third time. They won the world cup earlier in 1934 and in 1938.
First came Italy.
The second place went to West Germany.
The third place went to Poland.
And France came fourth.
There were a few shocks on the way Holland the team that came second in1978 world cup failed to qualify.Holland was beaten by Belgium.Mexico was knocked out by El Salvador. Sweeden was knocked out by Scotland.
England and Belgium were back after a period of twelve years.Yugoslavia and Czechoslavakia were also back. The new teams were Cameroon, Kuwait,Algeria and honduras played in their first world cup.
The matches between Brazil and Argentina was an unforgetable game as was the game between France and West Germany.
The West Germans scored through Pierre Littberski but the French equaled through Michel Platini with a penalty.
TheFrench defender Patrick Battiston ran the entire field to the German goal, and the German goalkeeper Harold Schumacher, and knocked him down cold as well as his two teeth, he was knocked unconcious but strangely the dutch referee Charles Corver did not give a penalty.The match was held up for twenty odd minutes.The defender Amaros scored a thunderous drive from 25metre. Alan Giuesse made it 3-1. But Germans have habit of scoring late goals so Karl Heinze Rummenigge and the Klaus Fischer made it 3-3. But Germany won the penalty shootout.5-4.This was the first time in the world cup , the game was decided by pnalty shootout.
In the third place match Poland defeated France 3-2.
In the final between Italy and Germany , the goal score was 3-1.

Paulo Rossi won both The golden boot as the golden ball for the best player . Which was given for the first time that year.Dino Zoff the captain of Italy won the world cup , he as the oldest footballer to win the world cup at fourty years.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

THE DREAM TEAM OF 2006 WORLD CUP.

The dream team for 2006 world cup are as follows.
GOALKEEPRS
GIANLUIGI BUFFON.
JENS LEHMEN
DEFENDERS.
JOHN TERRY
PHILIPP LAHM.
LILIAN THURAM.
ROBERTO AYALA
FABIO CANAVERO.
RICARDO CARVALHO.
G. ZAMAROTTA.
MIDFIELDERS.
ZEE ROBERTO.
PATRICK VIEIRA.
ZINEDINE ZIDANE.
LUIS FIGO.
FRANSESCO TOTTI.
ANDREA PIRLO.
GENARO GATUSSO.
MICHEL BALLACK.
MANICHE.
FORWARDS.
HENRY.
CRESPO.
LUCA TONI.
MIRASLAV KLOSE..

The 2006 WORLD CUP IN GERMANY.

The 2006 world cup was hosted by Germany.
It was held from june 9 to to july 9 2006.
There were a total of 32 teams taking part.
Italy were the champions for the fourth time. Only Brazil have won the cup five times.
France were the runner ups.
Germany came third.
And Portugal came fourth.
There were a total of 64 games played.
There were a total of 147 goals scored at 2.34 per match.
The total attendance for the tournament was 3,353,655. At 52.401 per match.
The top scorer was the Miroslav Klose of Germany with a total of 5 goals.
The best Player was Zinedine Zidane of France.
The first goal and the last goal of the 2006 world cup were scored by defenders Philipp Lahm of Germany scored the first goal and the Italian Marco Matrezzi scored the last one against France.
This was a very poor world cup as the country who scored the most goals were Germany with 14 goals.The rest of the teams played more defensive football.
The Brazilian Ronaldo scored his goal number fifteen of his world cup career so breaking the German Gert Mullers record of fourteen goals.
This time both the south American giants Brazil and Argentina were knocked out in the quarter finals.And for the first time itwas an all Europen affair.This happened earlier in 1934,1966 and 1982.
There were a total of 345 yellow cards and 28 red cards.The highest amount of cards shown in a world cup.
The English referee Graham Poll showed the Croatian footballer Josep Simunic three yellow cards and then a red card. Graham Poll announced his retirement from internatinal games .
In the quarter final Wayne Rooney of England was sent off with a red card , after Cristiano Ronaldo spoke and convinced the referee to give a red card, Ronaldo then winked to the bench in triumph.England lost to Portugal A.E.T.in a penalty shootout
it ended 1-3 in Portugals favour.
Italy 3-Ukraine -0
Brazil 0 -France.1.
Germany 1 Argentina 1 A.E.T.4-2 on penalty shootout
In the semifinals.
Germany 0- Italy 2 A.E.T.
Portugal 0- France 1.
Third place Germany 3 Portugal 1.
Final Italy 1 France 1 A.E.T. 3-2 on penalty shootout.
It must be noted that Ukraine playing in its world cup, lost its first match verses Spain by a score of 4-0. But still reached the quarter finals . This is the first time a team loosing by such a big margin have played in the quarter final.
I

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

THE 2002 WORLD CUP IN JAPAN AND S.KOREA.

tHE 2002 WORLD CUP WAS HELD IN Asia for the first time. The two countries chosen were Japan and South Korea.
The date for the world cup were May 31 to june30.
There were a total of 32 teams from the five continents.
There were a total of 64 games played.
There were a total of161 goals scored at 2.52 per match.
The attendance for the world cup was 2,705,197. At42,269 a match.
Brazil came first.
Germany came second.
Turkey came third.
South Korea came fourth.
Top scorer was Ronoldo from Brazil with 8 goals.
Best player was Oliver Kahn.
The fastest goal was scored by Hasan Sukur verses South Korea in less then one minute.This is the fastest goal ever scored in world cup history.
France the world champions were knocked out in the first round without scoring a single goal. This has happened for the first time ever.
In the group of 16 teams Italy was beaten by South Korea 2-1. And the South Korean who scored the goal was told by the club president for which he played that he could no longer play in the club or for the matter any club in Italy. He later changed his view and allowed him to play.
Ronoldhino seeing Englands goalkeeper David Seaman of his line sent beautiful free kick over his his head and into the top of the net. This goal was considered by many as the goal of the tournament.
U.S.A was denied a penalty after the ball hit Frings in the hand on the line , as it was not behind the line the appeal fell on deff ears.
South Korea reached the semifinals the first asian country to do so North Korea reached the quarter finals in 1966 world cup in England.
The ugly head of accusations saying that South Korea as a host country had fixed the world cup results.But nothing at all could be proved.
In the semifinal Germany beat South Korea by a Ballack goal, but as he had received his sixth yellow card he missed the final with Brazil.
Brazil defeated Turkey 1-0. Ronaldo scored his sixth goal.
In the final Brazil defeated Germany 2-0. with both goals by Ronaldo.
The world cup was slightly spoilt by Rivaldos play acting after he got a slight push and
the South Korean referee gave a penalty which Rivaldo scored from.
But the Turkish coach angrily said ( During the Korean war Turkey sent thousands of troops to serve under N.A.T.O.But one stupid blind South Korean referee has undone all that and kindled anger in every Turkish heart.
Rivaldo was tried by a F.I.F.A panel and fined heavily.
THE GOALKEEPERS.
1 OLIVER KAHN.
2 RUSTU RECEBER
DEFENDERS.
1 ROBERTO CARLOS.
2 SOL CAMBELL.
3 FERNANDO HIERRO.
4ALPAY OZLAN.
5 HONG MYONG BO.
MIDFEILDERS.
1RIVALDO.
2 RONOLDHINO.
3 MICHEL BALLACK
4 CLAUDIO REYNA.
FORWARDS.
1 RONALDO.
2MIRASLAV KLOSE.
3 EL HADGI DIOUF.
4 Hasan SAAS.
Cafu the Brazilan football captain is the only footballer to play in three
world cup finals in a row.1994, 1998 and 2002 finals.
.


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THE 2002 WORLD CUP IN JAPAN AND S.KOREA.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

WORLD CUP 1998 IN FRANCE.

The host for the 1998 world cup was France. It was held from june10 to july 12.
There were a total of 32 countries taking partin the world cup from 5 confedrations
The champion for the 1998 cup was France. Brazil came second and Croatia came third. and Holland came fourth.
There were a total of 64 games played in all.
There were a totalmof 171 goals scored at 2.67 per match .
The Attendance was a total of 2,785,100 at 43, 517 per match.
The top scorer was Davor Suker of Croatia. With 6 goals.
The award for the best player went to Ronaldo of Brazil.
The Quater finals saw as usual some big countries getting knocked out.
1 France verses Italy 0-0 A.E.T.France won 4-2 on a penalty shootout.
2Brazil verses Denmark was 3-2.
3 Holland verses Argentina. 2-1
4Croatia verses Germany. 3-2.
The Semi Finals were as follows.
1 Brazil verses Holland. 1-1 A.E.T. 4-2 . on penaltyshootout.
2 France verses Croatia. 2-1.
Third place Croatia versesv Holland. 2-1
The Final was between France verses Brazil. 3-0.
The Golden shoe winner was Davor Suker of Croatia.
The golden ball winner was Ronaldo.
The Yashin award was won by Fabien Barthez.
The Fair play award went to France.
The most exciting team went to France.

THe 1998 world cup all star team was as followws.
Goalkeepers. Fabien Barthez and Jose luis Chilavert.
Defenders. Roberto Carlos. Marcel Desailly, Lilian Thuram,and Frank DeBoer.
Midfielders were Dunga, Rivaldo, Michel Ladrup,Zinedine Zidane, Edgar Davids andDavid Bechem.
forwards.
Ronaldo, Davor Suker,Brian Ladrup and Dennis Bergkamp.
In this world cup Croatia had just broke away from Yugoslavia , but still they won the bronze medal.
Most likely for the first time there were two pairs of twins playin in the world cup . They were the Dutch team playere Frank and Ronald De Boer.And Flo twins from Norway
Andre Flo and his twin brother Havard Flo

Monday, August 11, 2008

ZINEDINE YAZID ZIDANE . OR ZIZOU.

Zinedine Zidane the famous French footballer whoplayed as a midfielder for Cannes, Bordeaux, Juventus and the Spanish giants Real Madrid and France . He was born in Marseilleon 23/6/1972, of Algerian parents, as Algeria was once a French colony.
His first club was Cannes where he scored his first goal for the club , it was an important goal and he received a car as a gift.He then joined Bordeaux where he played from 1992 to 1996. It was whilehe was at bordeaux that Eric Cantona pleaded with his club Mancxhester Unitedto buy Zidane, and the scouts flew to Bordeaux to watch Zidane play. After the match Cantona asked them what they thought and they said he was not fit to wear the famous red shirt of the Red Devils.juventus then snaped him up
But in the year1995 the English club Blackburn Rovers coach Kenny Daglish expressed intrest in Zidane andDugarry. But the owner of Blackburn Rovers Jack Walker said why do you want Zidane and Dugarry, when you have Tim Sherwood?
Juventus tthen bought him for 3 million pounds. The Juventus coach Marceilo Lippi made the team around Zidane and they did well, in 1996/97 they won the scudetto and the intercontinentol cup beating Rive Plate. In the1997 champion league final they lost to Borussia Dortmund 3-1.
Inthe year 1997 -1998 Juventus lost to Real Madrid 1-0 in the champion league final and lost to A,S,Roma in the Siera A. for the scudetto .
In the 2000- 2001 champion league Zidane was sent of against Hamburg for head butting the player Jochen Kientz.
In 2001 Zidanewas sold by Juventus to Real Madrid fora record fee of 76 million euros the costliest transfer in football history. Juventus then filled the midfield vacant place by buying Pavel Nedved for 41 million euros.
In April 2006 Zidane anounced his club football retirement from Real Madrid and on the last game verses Villarreal played at the Bernabeau all the Madrid players wore
jerseys with Zidane printed below the logo. The match ended 3-3.
Zidane had dual citizenship of France and Algeria.His first game for france was in one against the Czech Republic in whic he came as a substitute and scored two goals. the game ended 2-2.
Amie Jacquet first wanted to build the team around Cantona and Ginola but as Cantona got a full years suspension for attacking a Crystal Palace fan in the E.P.L. He then made the team around Zidane and Patrick Vieira and how it worked. In the 1996 Euro France were elimenatd in the semifinals verses Czech Republic in a penalty shootout.\
France won the final in 1998 verses Brazil with Zidane scoring two headers and Petit scoring the third.
In the Euro 2000 France won with an etra time goal bt David Trezeguet. The second time acountry won the world cup and the Euro Cup.
The 2002 world cup was a disaster for France they failed to scorea single goal and were knocked out in the first round .
In the 2006 world cup Zidane scored a goal in the final against Italy, in so doing , he became the fourth footballer to score a goal inthe final equaling Pele, Vava, Beitner are the other players. He is also the second player along with Rigobut Song to be send of in two world cups. The 2006 final match also ssaw Zidane illfamous head butting of Italian defender Marco Matrezzi. It was reported Matrezzi said hurting and bad words to Zidane he along with Matrezzi got fines and bans from F.I.F.A.But as it was Zidane s last game it made no difference to him.
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Saturday, August 9, 2008

EDISON ARANTES do NASCIME.NTO. OR PELE.

Peles real name is Edison Arantes do Nascimento , he is named after the American inventor Thomas Alva Edison. But he gets his name PELE from his childhood days when hefailed to pronounce the name of the goalkeeper of the club VASCO da GAMA Bile, he always pronounced it as Pile and the name was changed to PELE in school and it has stuck for ever.
Pele was born on23/10/1940.
He was rejected as footballer by the club San Paolo. As thhey felt he would never have the standard and class for football. His father was a professinal footballer until a knee injury ended his career. And when Brazil lost the world cup , Peles father even cried. Pele had promised him that one day he would win the world cup for Brazil.
He started from very humble stage as a shoe shine boy at the club where he was born at Boru Athelatic. His father took him for a tst at SAntos, who selected him so he played for SANTOS from 1956 to 1974 , and played a total of 605 games and scored a total of587
goals. And at the end of his career he played in the U.S.A. For the The New York Cosmos and played 64 games and scored 37 goals.The Idea was to popularise the game in the U.S.A.
It might suprise many why Pele was not offered a contract with Europen clubs. The anwer was Brazil considered Pele a Naatinol treasure ans could only be sold to a club in Brazil and not outside it.
He is the only footballer ever to win the world cup thrice no other player has won three winner medals hedid it in 1958, 1962 and 1970. The 1962 medal was not given to him first as Pele had not played the number of games to win the medal. It was decided that the only way to beat Brazil was to injure Pele and the dirty game was played so he suffered a bad injury and missed the games. But F.I./F.A gave Pele his gold medal in november 2007.
Brazil never ever lost a game when Pele and Garrincha played together.
In the 1970 world cup in the game between Italy and Brazil the Italian defenderTarisco Burgnich was told to mark him . This is what he had to say ( Ithought he was made of skin and bones ,but it turned out he was made of something else.)
He scored his first club goal at 15 years.
He was the younges to score a goal in the world cup at 17 years and239 days. He also played for Brazil at the age of 16 years.
Pele was the first footballer ever to score a total of 1000 goals in his career. He did it on november 19 1969 against Vasco da GAMA. when he retired in 1973 he had scored a total of 1281 goals from 1957 to 1973, all these goals have been recognised by F.I.F.A.

Friday, August 8, 2008

ROMARIOS 1002 GOALS.

.. Romario has always scored a lot of goals in his career and also won both the F.I.F.A footballer of the year as well as the South American footballer of the year. His 1002 goals are disputed as F.I.F.A do not recoganise sum of them .

GOALS. CLUBS. GAMES. AVERAGE.
326. VASCO DA GAMA. 410. 0.79.
163. P.S.V. Eindhoven. 165. 0.98.
53 . F.C.BARCELONA. 84. 0.63.
204. FLAMENGO. 240. 0..85.
14. VALENCIA. 21. 0.67.
48. FLUMINENSE. 77. 0..62.
0. AL SADD. 3. 0000.
1. ADELAIDE UNITED . 4. 0. 25.
22. MIAMI.F.C. 29. 0.76.
56. BRAZIL. NATIONAL TEAM. 74. 0.76.
15. BRAZIL. OLYMPIC TEAM. 11. 0.36.
77. YOUTH TEAM. 127. 0.61.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

ROMARIO DE SOUZA FARIA.

Romario was born in Rio de JANEIRO.on 29/1/66. He was born in a humble family and like allother Brazilians learned his football on the streetsof Rio de Janeiro.
His first senior club was Vaco Da Gama.While he was here that he was chosen for the natinol team for the 1988 olympics in Seoul.Brazil won the gold medal for football.
The Dutch club P.S.V. Eindhoven was looking for a striker and wanted to buy Marc Degryse from the Belgium club F.C. Brugge. But P.S.V. were told that as soon as they get a replacement for Marc Degryse they could proceed. The coach of P.S.V got worried and asked his teenage son what to do . The son sugested that Brazil had a good striker called Romario and he had scored five goals, it would not be a bad idea to talk with his club . And the two clubs Vasco Da Gama and P.s.v. agreed to terms. and F.C.Brugge signed the Australian striker Frank Farina.
He did well at P.S.V, and was there from 1988 to1993. His move to P.S.V. Eindhoven was remarkable they broke the strang hold of Ajax , and won the Dutch title in the year 1989, 1991 and 1992.His goal scoring skill was noticed by the great Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff who was the coach of Barcelona. Romario joined Barcelona in the year 1993 to 1995. This was Barcelona golden period with Cruyffs dream team. It had such classy players Antonio Zubireta, Ronald Koeman, Nadal, Amor,Jose Bakero,Hristo Stoichkov,Romario , Jesop Guardiola and MichelLadrup. This team won the La Liga , the Copa del and Barcelonas first and only Chamin league cup, they then had to waite till 2006 to win their second cup a win over Arsenal.
Romario scored 30 goals for Barcelona in 33 games.
In the year 1994 R0mario won the F.I.F.A.footballer of the year.
He won the fourth world cup for Brazil in the U.S.A. But missed the 1998 world cup due to a leg injury.
He has played for many clubs such as Valencia, Flamengo,Flumienese,Al Sadd, Miami .F.C,Adelaide united.
On 20/5/2007 Romario claimed to have scored his goal number thousand 1000, but there is contreversy as some goals scored are in freindly matches not counte by F.I.F.A. But F.I.F.A did conrajulate Romario on this . As he is the only second person to score 1000 goals the other being the great Pele. The achivement is all the more admirable as he was fourtytwo years old and for a stiker to run so much is just wonderful . Dino Zoff was fourty years when he won the world cup but he was a goalkeeper and there was no need for him to run.
But sadly on 4/12/2007 romario tested positive for the drug finasenide (aka propecaine) Romario said he took it for baldness as his hair was falling .
He retired in 2008 from all forms of football including player come manager at his first club he played for Vaasco Da Gama. Thegreat striker retired at 42 years.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

THE 1986 WORLD CUP. IN MEXICO.

The 1986 World Cup was held in Mexico.It was held from may 31 to june29.
There were a total of 24 teams.The number of goals scored were 132 at 2.54 per match.The attendace was a total of 2,393331 or 46,026 per match.The golden boot went to Gary Lineker of England. And the best footballer of the world cup was the Argentinan Diego Maradona. The fair play award went to Brazil.
Argentinawon the world cup. Their second worldcup.
West Germany were the runner up team.
France came third and Belgium came fouth.
All went well till the quater finals where drama unfolded it was the match between Argentina verses Englandwas played , the two enemies clashed on the field again.
For those who came on late Argentina and England had fought a war recenly to the world cup .It was fought over the Falkland Islands near Argentina but British colony anaval and airwar was fought and Argentina conceeded defeat.Anger was still fresh in Argentina.
In the match the first goal was scored by Diego Maradona illegalywith thehelp of hand past the England goalkeeper Peter Shilton . Shilton and the others protested but the refree gave the goal. But Maradona later said it was scoredwith a little bit of his head and a little bit of of gods hand. This goal is even today refered as THE HAND OF GODS GOAL. But the second goal scored by Maradona was classic goal he took it from one end to the other end beating six english players before beating Shilton. This goal was later vote as the goal of the century. Gary Lineker scored a goal back . The Argentinans went crazy with joy because they had not forgotten the loss to England in the 1966 world cup in England where their captain Antonio Rattin was send of by the German refree who did not understand a word of Spanish Rattin had only said get me a translater for the refree.The Argentinans always called the 1966 world cup as an unfair cup.
In the other matches Brazil lost to France in the penalty shootout 3-4 after1-1 A.E.T.
Germany beat Mexico also onpenalty shootout 4-1 A.E.T 0-0
Belgium 1- Spain 1A.E.T.Belgium won 5-4 on penalty shootout.
In the Semifinal West Germany 2 France. 0. Rudi Voeller and Andrea Brehme scored a gol each.
Argentina 2 Belgium 0. Maradona scored both the goals.

The thirdplace was between France 4 and Belgium 2.
The final was between Argentina 3. West Germny2.
Brown, Valdano and Burruchaga scored the goals. and theGerman goal was scored by Karl Heinze Rummenigge and Rudi Voller.

Monday, August 4, 2008

MARCO VAN BASTEN THE GENIUS.

Marco Van Basten was born on 31/10/1964.In the city of Utrecht. Holland.He is considered by many as the greatest footballer Holland has ever produced after Johan Cruiff.His first senior club he played for was Ajax of Amsterdam, he played for the club from the year 1982 to the year 1987,he played 133 games and scored a total of 128 goals which is extremley good.
He then was sold to A.C.Milan in the year1987, and the following yearRuud Gullit along with Frank Raijkard came and along with Maldini, Baresi andPapin Milan was quite a different team altogether and they won their first Scudetto in eight years.And the three of them were called the flying Dutch men.
In the 1988 Euro cup he scored a hattrick verses England awonderous goal verses West Germany in the semifinal.And spectacular volley against tthe Soviet Union.Marco Van Basten scored a total of eight goals in the tournament and nobody scored more then two goals in the Euro 88. Holland went on to win the Euro 88 Cup. Even as they yearly prduce good footballers , but to this day they have won only one major trophy the Euro88 Cup.
The 1990 world cup in Italy was a poor one Holland lost to West Germany in the second round. In the year 1991 Marco Van Basten fell out with the then coach Argo Sachi, and to keep the flying Dutch men at Milan. The owner Beruslconi sacked Sachi.
In the 1992 Holland lost to Denmark the final winner in the semifinal penalty shootout.Denmark was a suprise team as they replaced Yugoslavia who were expelled due to the cival war and attrocaties comitted by politicians.
In November 1992 in a champion league match between A.C. Milan verses I.F.K. Gothenberg he scored a total of four goals, that record was equalled by Simone Inzaghi in the year 2000. And Dado Prso in the year 2004.
He been awarded the Europen footballer of the yearon three different times. Theonly other footballers to have won the Europen footballer of the year three times are Johan Cruiff and Michel Platini.
He was very badly hurt by a sliding tackle from the back . Even after a operation on the ankle failed to respond to treatment . Even after a second operation thyere was no improvement, so Marco Van Basten sat out for a period of over two years .But during these two years A.C.Milan payed his weekly salary. He then sadly admitted that he wold never ever play football again and sadly retired. It was after this incident that F.I.F.A brought the rule that any tackling from the back and sliding into a players leg will be a yellow card.So no other players career should be cut short like his career was cut short.
In march 2007 named Marco Van Basten as the number one player whose career was cut short.
As a manager he has coached both Holland and Ajax.