Deadline Day: CLOSED
Posted by: H on: September 1, 2011
Transfer season is always an exciting and maybe even stressful time for club supporters as everyone looks forward to the new signings, numerous rumours, but maybe not so much the old players leaving. The worst waiting period though happens during the transfer deadline day itself. For most fans whose teams have sealed the deal on players they’ve been looking to sign, they eagerly count down the hours till the window slams shut, but for those who are still making negotiations, every second is precious.
Since the transfer window just closed yesterday (in where I live, at least), let me link you to an interesting read about football players, transfers, and their wildly huge salaries and fees. “Players, Salaries…and Bosman 16 years on!!” is an educational blog post about how, in our times, it is the players who actually control the transfer market while the clubs (and subsequently the fans) try to fulfill and negotiate with their demands.
I never thought about transfers that way. I always considered it in a very narrow viewpoint, only noticing which players were being brought in, if it looked like good business for the team financially, and which players needed to be sold ASAP. The post served as an eye-opener. 
Anyway, the transfer that quite surprised me (aside from the Owen Hargreaves one, of course) was the one of Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen to Arsenal. Yes, Arsenal is Mertesacker’s favourite Premier League team, but I wasn’t expecting Werder to let go of one of its international stars so soon after Mesut Özil went to Real Madrid. It’s unusual to have a German international playing in the PL – the last one I can think of was Jens Lehmann who coincidentally played for Arsenal as well.
I’m looking forward to the new signings of Liverpool! Sebastian Coates looks highly promising if he develops the right way. Here’s to a new and exciting Premier League season!
It’s the Women’s Turn!
Posted by: H on: June 7, 2011
So footie season is over, but never fear! We still have European Cup qualifiers, knock-out stages, and (don’t forget!) Women’s World Cup! Current champions Germany are going to host this year’s World Cup. To not “dilute the quality of play” (FIFA’s words), only 16 teams are participating. Which is a shame, really. But you know what’s more shameful?
THIS:
Iran's female football team weeps at FIFA's unfairness
Apparently, FIFA have disqualified Iran’s female football team from participating in the 2012 Olympics due to their Muslim-style kits. The only difference I can spot between their kits and the more common ones worn by other countries are the headscarves or makeshift hijabs. According to FIFA, “Players and officials shall not display political, religious, commercial or personal messages or slogans in any language or form on their playing or team kits.” But Iran’s new kit was pre-approved by FIFA before, and they had even played a game with the new kit. However, they found themselves disqualified after a 3-0 victory was awarded to Jordan due to their kits.
Unsurprisingly, Iran protested the decision and FIFA said the team were warned before the match. I personally think it’s a shame though. Imagine, the Olympics! How much that must mean to a professional athlete, right? You can see their faces in the photo.
Oh well. FIFA will always be FIFA, until we get another administration. Until then, we’ll have to put up with this nonsense. (Remember snoods etc.)
Photo Source: MSN
Dame Vida!
Posted by: H on: June 3, 2011
Dame Vida is an organization promoting clean energy. Musician Huecco has released a music video for the cause. It features the Soccket, a football which generates electricity through mechanical energy. Play with the ball for 15 minutes and then you can use it for hours of electricity. A couple of famous faces in sports are featured. Germany and Spain fans in particular will be very interested. Scroll on.
So who wins funniest, most into it, and most amusing? For me, Thomas Müller wins it all. It’s a great song, it looks like a great cause – share the song to your friends!
Campeones, Campeones, Oe Oe Oe!
Posted by: H on: May 29, 2011
FC Barcelona are the champions of Europe for the fourth time! Watch out Liverpool you better qualify for CL next year.
Messi and Big Ears: Reunited (and it feels so good)
We culés would like to thank the Mancs for being classy and having sportmanship. Also, Manchester United played really well. It’s just that they couldn’t break the tiki-taka down properly. Wayne Rooney’s goal showed that. Great vision to create the goal, and great confidence to finish it off. I wouldn’t know if Ryan Giggs was offside though. My stream failed to give an elevated view.
Actually, the first 9 minutes were really nerve-wracking. United had the ball, had several shots, etc. etc. but once Barça fell into the passing groove, it was only a matter of time before they scored. I was quite surprised at the quick retaliation by United but kudos to them.
I missed the second goal due to my failed stream again, but I saw the replay and ooh, that was a beautiful shot. The best one though, in my opinion, was David Villa’s, because it was a curler. For those of you learning how to play football, curling balls are pretty hard to learn. Okay scratch that, they’re really hard to learn.
That one definitely sealed the deal.
The CL final this year was highly entertaining, and I’m sure neutrals must’ve enjoyed as much as the Utd or Barça fans have. It was starkly in contrast with the controversial Clásico semifinal, which was full of mind games, tensions, and overplayed political rivalries. And that was only the pre-match. There was bad diving, obvious fouling all around. Embarrassing and definitely not entertaining. This final had beautiful passing and confident team play from both sides and, save for Valencia’s oddly-uncarded fouls, wasn’t tarnished by bad decisions and bad feelings from both sides.
So the celebrations ensued, and even if many paid attention to and found Piqué’s net-stealing antics amusing/weird/offensive, my favourite part of the celebrations was this.
The Barça Family: Abidal lifts the trophy first.
Yes, the Sergio Busquets racism case wasn’t resolved satisfactorily, but the gesture of making Eric Abidal (who recently had an operation to remove a cancerous tumour on his liver) wear the captain’s armband and lift the the trophy first showed the strong family values of the team. Have more ‘family album photos’!
Legendary coach Pep teamsurfing!
Campeones!!
I won’t bore you with ‘Messi is great’, ‘Magnificent Messi!’ etc. because as a general rule, everyone has already heard that, so if that’s your thing, better head over to the Guardian who has two versions of it: an analytical one, and a trying-to-be-poetic one (complete with titles ‘Messi carves ManUtd open’ and ‘Messi + Barça humble ManUtd’).
Have a beautiful quote from analyst Martí Perarnau:
“Ser lo que somos, pedía anoche Guardiola. Ser más Barça que nunca. Fidelidad al estilo para acceder al penúltimo compartimiento de la gloria, para volver a hacer historia. Para ser historia, estar en ella y ser recordados por siempre. Por sus triunfos y por su forma de jugar. Que todos hablen de vosotros cuando hayamos muerto, les dijo Pep en Octubre. Ha llegado el día. La ambición, el orgullo y el deseo enfrentado a la venganza. Un pulso por ser el monarca del tiempo.”
“Be what we are, Guardiola asked tonight. Be more Barça than Ever. Be faithful to the style to get to the all but last compartment of glory, to make history again. To be history, be in it and be remembered forever. For their victories and their way of playing. May everybody talk about us when we’re dead, Pep said in October. The day has come. The ambition, the pride and the wish facing revenge. A challenge to be the monarch of time.”
Visca Barça y visca Catalunya!
Photo source: Tumblr
We Won It Five Times
Posted by: H on: May 26, 2011
Aaaand happy Istanbul day to everyone (although I’m a day late)! 6 years ago Liverpool FC won the Champions League for the fifth time in Istanbul. Definitely the best Champions League final and one of the most defining moments of Liverpool as a club.
To commemorate this special day/yesterday, LFC.tv posted interviews of Vladimir Smicer and an excerpt of an “exclusive” Xabi Alonso interview which will soon be released (members-only, unfortunately, I think) on LFC.tv online. It’s a full-length interview and possibly the most in-depth Reds interview by Xabi where he discusses points such as why he really left Liverpool (gasp) and would he play again for the Reds if given the chance (double gasp).
Some fans are having mixed feelings toward this: aka 1) XABI COME BACK or 2) Ugh Xabi get over Liverpool, you’re a Madridista already. Personally, I like Xabi a lot, as a midfielder and as a person, and of course I love Liverpool. I’m glad they can finally put these over-discussed issues to rest in this interview.
So go on, celebrate if you haven’t already, because in three to four days (depending where you live) this season’s Champions League final is going to take place between Premiership winners Manchester United and La Liga winners FC Barcelona. Visca Barcelona!!
P.S. Watch ’15 Minutes that Shook the Kop’. It’s hilarious. And very Merseyside. Here’s Rafa’s half-time talk. Scroll on for the trailer:
LFC Video: Perfect
Posted by: H on: May 23, 2011
The whole season of ’10-’11 encapsulated in one great video.
It made me cry, to be honest.
Kudos to Suárez and Dudek.
Posted by: H on: May 22, 2011
Today, Jerzy Dudek (who many Kopites remember as the penalty-saving extraordinaire of the legendary Champions League final of ’05) retires from football and played his last game with Real Madrid yesterday (8-1).
He once gave an interview to LiverpoolFC.tv in 2007 and it’s absolutely, purely class. You can read it in full on LiverpoolFC.tv.
Another good read from the LFC website is from James Carroll, LFC staff, about why Luis Suárez should win Liverpool Player of the Season. Read it on the Kop. It seems that Luisito is already regularly using the phrase ‘ta, mate’. Hahaha!
Kudos to two of these great players, and looking forward to the Aston Villa game later!
Kitting Out in Style
Posted by: H on: May 22, 2011
While a lot of supporters couldn’t care less about the appearance of his or her team’s kit, companies should still think about the designs they will release for the next season as these will affect finances (jersey sales, duh).
I think this post is in order as two of my favourite teams have recently released designs of their kits for the next season.
Liverpool FC have a new design of their away kit, which currently looks like this:
LFC Away Kit 10-11 - yes, on sale now!
Now compare it to the 11-12 away kit.
LFC Away Kit 11-12...can you say 'sexy'?
I don’t know about you guys, but I absolutely love the new away kit. It’s not black, it’s ‘charcoal’ (…who cares?), has silver stripes, and a v-neck lined with red. It’s gorgeous and feels like silk, so it’s no wonder sales for this little beauty has beaten all other LFC away kit sales. (OT: My mum’s going to buy me one for my next birthday! It’ll be my first jersey.)
Thumbs up!
Now, moving on to something less exciting…
FC Barcelona Home Kit 10-11
All you culés out there know this. Now look at THIS:
FC Barcelona Home Kit 11-12
Barf barf barf.
For those who don’t follow this team, Barça’s kits have been proudly sponsor-free. In 2005, for the first time in Barça’s whole history, they finally succumbed to sponsorship…it was the other way around. The club paid UNICEF to appear on the front of the blaugrana kits, thereby supporting the organization and its efforts to help children all over the world.
Sadly, Barça had to pay the price for keeping their finances-destabilizing star players in the club by agreeing to a commercial sponsorship deal with Qatar Foundation (!!!…???). Aside from the ‘vulgarity‘ of the aforementioned deal (Johan Cruyff), the font of QF’s logo is slightly vomit-inducing. Or maybe that’s just me. Plus, the weird stripes don’t help much.
Thumbs down.
As with all superficial things, the new kits are sure to grow on the supporters and with fantastic performances from both clubs we might still see increasing shirt sales next season.
Anyway, to make you less depressed if your team got an ugly new kit, scroll on.
Mexico's 1994 Goalkeeper Kit
Punch me, but it’s cute.
Designed by the guy in the picture himself – Jorge Campos, great Mexico goalkeeper. Cheers!!
Photo Source: LFC Away Kit 10-11, LFC Away Kit 11-12, Barça Home Kit 10-11, Barça Home Kit 11-12, Mexico 1994 GK kit
LFC: Final Home Game
Posted by: H on: May 16, 2011
Hey bros and sisters. This is gonna be pretty short. So last night’s final home game at Anfield was between the two teams fighting for a spot in the Europa League – Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool. The first half was dismal. Spurs took the lead with a great (or so they said – my Internet died) shot by Rafael van der Vaart. The first half ended with a 1-0. Flanno then proceeded to give away an easy penalty which Modric converted. The last home game ended with a 2-0.
Cons: the scoreline (obviously), Europa League uncertainty (debatable), slacking performance from some players. Meireles out. Carroll not match fit. Frustration. Weird streaker who had to be stopped by machos Lucas and Skrtel.
Lucas (and Skrtel and Pepe) is Not Amused
Pros: NO HOOFING: still pass-and-move despite the pressure to deliver in the second half, Europa League uncertainty (debatable), good work ethic from Kuyt, seasonal lap of honour
So after the game, the players and staff went around Anfield for the seasonal lap of honour (because it IS after every season, right?). The whole team + injured Agger, Stevie, etc. were there with their babies which was a total cuteness explosion. As is this:
LFC: South American Family Day Invasion
Ahaha, this is precious.
Oh well. I was all for going to the Europa League and I still think we’ve got a chance, but a relatively smaller one now from the time I posted that Europa League analysis post. Spurs’ last game is against near-relegation-zone Birmingham and ours is against 13th-place Aston Villa. Unless Birmingham go wild, Spurs is a favourite to win that match. To get to Europe, we have to win big and they have to lose. So…
I guess it’s fine without Europe next season. We can finally focus on the Premiership, and then CL next next season and with Kenny and NESV new players can finally reshape the team properly. YNWA!!
Photo Source: I got the streaker photo from Tumblr from Twitter, but it’s from a news site, I’m pretty sure. Also, the other one’s from Leiva’s Twitter.
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