Category Archives: Inter Milan

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Serie A: 2012/13 Team of the Season

  By O-Posts Team | June 15, 2013 - 00:51 | , , , , , , ,
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Blighted by controversy, coloured by innovative formations and blessed with emerging talent, it couldn’t be anything else but a season in Serie A. We count down the campaign’s best XI with the help of, what else but a back 3?

 

Goalkeeper- Federico Marchetti (Lazio)

Marchetti saw himself on the fringes of the Cagliari squad upon his return from the 2010 World Cup with Italy, though his move to Rome has seen him return to the Azzurri such has been his form. 13 clean sheets in the league, as well as some solid performances as the Biancocelesti won the Coppa Italia.

Lazio also took points off the all conquering Juventus in Turin thanks to a fine performance from Marchetti, a superb flying save from Arturo Vidal being the highlight.

 
Centre-back- Hugo Campagnaro (Napoli)

The 32 year old Argentine has let his contract run out after four years in Naples and could be set to follow coach Walter Mazzarri to Inter Milan, though few Napoli fans can begrudge him his move after a superb season. Campagnaro made 29 appearances as the Partenopei finished runners-up in Serie A with just 36 goals conceded.

The no-nonsense defender made over 300 clearances at the back, as well as winning 61 of his 87 tackles.

 
Centre-back- Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus)

The 6 ft 1 inch defender is an imposing force at the back for the old lady, possessing overwhelming strength to shrug attackers off the ball and the height to win the majority of his headers, shown by a 68% success rate in the air.

As well as being formidable in defence, he also showed an elegant side of his game as he offered a good attacking outlet down Juve’s left and a 90% pass success rate indicates his prowess in helping Conte’s men build from the back.

 
Centre-back- Andrea Barzagli (Juventus)

If Chiellini’s great form wasn’t enough, he was partnered by Barzagli, the experienced 32 year old who made 34 appearances as Juventus steamed to the Serie A title with just 24 goals conceded.

Barzagli compensated for declining pace with supreme positional sense as Juve’s back-line remained firm throughout the campaign.

 
Left Winger- Alessio Cerci (Torino)

After signing for Torino from Fiorentina for a cut-price deal last August, the 25 year old left-midfielder looked to be on the scrap-heap, though Cerci’s season has been one of rejuvenation as he terrorised numerous defences to help Torino escape relegation.

He scored 8 goals and created a total of 60 chances in his 35 appearances, earning him a call-up to the Italian national team.

 
Right winger- Arturo Vidal (Juventus)

Vidal’s 50 successful tackles shows how effective he was in protecting Andrea Pirlo but the Chilean midfielder was far more than that as he joined Juve’s attacks with energy and dynamism, scoring 10 goals (as he finished joint-top scorer) and creating 35 chances from the right side.

A fine mover of the ball, Vidal completed 84% of his attempted passes, as his versatility was vital to Andrea Conte’s ability to shift his side’s system.

 
Centre-midfield- Borja Valero (Fiorentina)

Similar to Cerci, Valero’s first season at his new club has been a revelation. The Spaniard showed assured technique in the heart of La Viola’s midfield, assisting 11 goals, creating a mammoth 74 chances and dictating play with around 1,800 passes in total.

His quality was essential to Vincenzo Montella’s free-flowing side, making 37 appearances as Fiorentina qualified for the Champions League.

 
Centre-midfield- Marek Hamsik (Napoli)

The Slovakian playmaker is blessed with superb vision and his ability to drop deep to pick the ball up from the midfield and spray passes around in attack was vital to Napoli’s return to the Champions League.

He scored 11 goals as well as assisting 14 from his slightly altered position on the left side of attack, as well as creating 100 chances for his teammates.

 
Attacking midfielder- Francesco Totti (AS Roma)

It is impossible to leave the evergreen Italian attacking-midfielder out as he shows no sign of slowing down with age. His 12 goals moved him up to second on the all-time Serie A goal-scoring list with 227, while his 12 assists helped Roma salvage a disruptive season to finish a respectable sixth in the league, as well as runners up in the Coppa Italia.

Despite reaching the ripe old age of 36, Totti still managed 33 starts for the Giallorossi and remains integral to their fortunes.

 
Attacking midfielder- Stephan El Shaarawy (AC Milan)

The Egyptian-born youngster celebrated breaking into the Italian squad at the start of the season with a brilliant campaign where he hit 16 goals and assisted 4 to help the Rossoneri into third place.

From his position on the left side of Max Allegri’s 3-pronged attack, the 20 year old demonstrated electric pace, confidence to take men on and assured finishing throughout, striking up a potent partnership with fellow youthful frontman Mario Balotelli.

 
Centre-Forward- Edinson Cavani (Napoli)

The 26 year old Uruguayan hit-man is courting interest from right across Europe this summer and rightly so after a season in which he struck 29 goals to fire Napoli back to the Champions League after a year’s absence.

Full of pace, power and unerring finishing, Cavani is arguably the best central-forward in Europe and Rafael Benitez has a fight on his hands to keep the league’s top scorer at the San Paulo with his ambition to win trophies consistently outweighing just last year’s Coppa Italia.

 
Manager- Vincenzo Montella (Fiorentina)

Antonio Conte saw his team march to a successive title by a margin of nine points whilst Walter Mazzarri and Max Allegri both negotiated choppy waters at their clubs to finish in the Champions League qualification spots. Though it’s the manager who claimed the fourth who wins this gong, Vincenzo Montella for forging a cohesive, fluent Fiorentina.

His midfield of David Pizarro, Borja Valero and Alberto Aquilani were all transformed from stalling careers to providing the elegant backbone to La Viola, providing some of the most entertaining football in the division.

Stevan Jovetic and Adem Ljajic were excellent in attack, spearheading Montella’s 3-5-2 to a higher finish than the richer, more illustrious Inter Milan, Roma and Lazio.

 

Written by Adam Gray

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Inter Milan: Why Mazzarri could have been a wise man moving to the Nerazzurri

  By O-Posts Team | June 1, 2013 - 21:29 | , , ,
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On the 25th March last year, Claudio Ranieri was leading Inter Milan to a run of 2 wins in 13 matches and a 2-0 defeat to Juventus proved the final straw for club president Massimo Moratti. The day before Ranieri’s dismissal, Andrea Stramaccioni was leading Inter’s young crop to the championship of the inaugural Next Gen series, convincing Moratti that he was the man to oversee the transition from a tired squad still influenced heavily by the hangover from the treble-winning year of 2010, to a fresher, hungrier generation.

A season later and Moratti has sacked Stramaccioni after another year of frustration in which Inter finished ninth, 33 points behind Serie A champions Juventus. An injury crisis of bizarre proportions, hitting 17 players in total, saw the Nerazzuri fall from Champions League contention in January to the ignominy of mid-table in the second-half of the season.

Moratti, in his endless search for the revival of success, wasn’t buying the excuses and decided to make Stramaccioni his fifth managerial casualty since Jose Mourinho departed three years ago. The Italian oil tycoon has turned to Walter Mazzarri, having just called time on his successful four year reign at Napoli, in the hope he can turn Inter back on an upward curve. In Naples, he inherited a bottom-half Serie A side and transformed them into Champions League qualifiers, perhaps it is this record of turning mediocrity into sustained success that has appealed to Moratti.

But what has appealed to Mazzarri? Napoli had finished second and had just posted a financial profit for the sixth straight year. Aurelio De Laurentiis, Napoli’s owner, was unmoving in his support for the coach, yet Mazzarri has found a declining Inter, with a hire-and-fire regime in full effect and without the promise of European football for next term, a more attractive prospect.

Maybe it is because Inter are better placed to fight for trophies than Napoli and casting aside their respective league finishes of last season, it is not such an outlandish claim. Last November, it was Inter who ended Juve’s long-standing unbeaten Serie A run under Antonio Conte with a 1-3 win in Turin which moved them within a point of the Old Lady.

From that moment, disaster struck as Stramaccioni won only 7 of his remaining 27 matches as the dramatic injury curse set-in. Possibly, Mazzarri has seen the gross medical misfortune as more damaging to Inter’s challenge than any underlying squad malaise. He has already insisted on bringing the players back from their summer break two days earlier so they can work on their fitness with his conditioning coach Giuseppe Prondelli, whom he has brought with him from Napoli.

Tactics will also be an issue, with Stramaccioni failing to settle on one particular system and causing confusion as he shuffled between 3-4-3, 4-3-3 and 4-3-1-2, Mazzarri will likely to install the consistency of his 3-5-1-1 which served him so well at the San Paolo. It is no coincidence that his first transfer target as he arrives at the San Siro is rumoured to be Colombian wing-back Camilo Zuniga who served him so well at Napoli, opposite the right-sided Christian Maggio.

The spine of Mazzarri’s side is already in place with Andrea Ranocchia having started to show his potential at the back, behind a solid, experienced midfield duo of Esteban Cambiasso and Walter Gargano, with whom Inter have a “gentleman’s agreement” to sign permanently after a one-year loan spell.

A blow will surely come in the form of the evergreen captain Javier Zanetti finally having to call it a day at the age of 39 following a long-term leg injury, though Joel Obi, Samuele Longo, Marco Benassi and Ibrahma Mbaye have all suggested there is much promise in Inter’s next generation. Keeping hold of Freddy Guarin should be a priority of Mazzarri’s, having been a rare shining light in Inter’s disappointing season in attacking midfield, he will fit into a similar role in which Mazzarri produced excellent form from Marek Hamsik at Napoli.

The 51 year old manager seems well-placed to deliver continuity and possible success to Inter, though it remains to be seen just how patient Moratti will be with his new coach. The move from Napoli to Inter, at this moment in time, seems like regression but for Mazzarri it may be a very astute decision.

Injuries were the flaw of Strammacioni, find a solution to that and Mazzarri may finally give Moratti just what he is looking for.

 

Written by Adam Gray

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Should “Blizzard Soccer” Be Part of the Sport?

  By O-Posts Team | May 18, 2013 - 21:58 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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The World Cup playoff game between the United States and Costa Rica on March 22, 2013 was especially memorable. Played in the middle of a storm in Colorado, the game was the closest thing to blizzard soccer fans had seen in awhile.

For 90 minutes, players had to contend with an increasingly torrential downpour of wet, white flakes. Afterwards, the severity of the conditions had millions of soccer enthusiasts wondering: should play in such treacherous conditions really be allowed?

 

Why Continue?

World Cup games are obviously the most important in the sport and can be difficult to reschedule. When a team and its fans have already traveled thousands of miles for the game, canceling is something to avoid at all costs. In addition, postponing the game may mean players won’t get enough rest before their next round.

In this particular game, it didn’t look like the weather would cooperate any time soon. If the game hadn’t been played that night, it wouldn’t have been for quite awhile.

 

Is It Safe?

In spite of tight tournament schedules and pending forecasts, the safety of the players should be the number one consideration when choosing to continue a game. Looking back, was it really safe to continue a game in the middle of a blizzard?

In defending their decision to continue play, refs saidthe players hadn’t been sliding on the snow very much. While this may be true, any soccer player will tell you injuries don’t necessarily happen during slides.

These players were cold, wet, and covered in so much snow that they could run it through an EDI water purification system and use it to hydrate themselves. In these conditions, even the slightest misstep can cause an injury. If nothing else, the players’ immune systems were lowered by the weather.

 

Who Should Make the Call?

If the game has already started, refs make the final call as to whether it will continue. However, is this fair? Shouldn’t the league, coaches and players have more of a say in whether conditions are safe?

 

Written by Michael Deaven

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Infographic: The Top Paid Football Players Throughout History

  By O-Posts Team | May 18, 2013 - 21:40 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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The argument over how much footballers are paid in the modern era has been going on for years now and shows no sign of stopping. Some of the world’s biggest names are now playing with wage packets that let them take home more in a week than many of us will make in our lifetimes, and all for kicking a ball around – if they even get on the pitch of course!

It hasn’t always been the case that players earned hundreds of thousands each week, however. In actual fact, some players were earning the equivalent of £228 each week back in the 1900s, the same as what many full-time workers in the “real world” earn today.

This infographic, created by equipment retailer The Soccer Store, shows just how times have changed, from the early days of £4 per week right up to the £200,000-a-week contract signed by Carlos Tevez in 2009.

 

 

 

Written and created by Matt Rawlings

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Javier Zanetti: Is it the end for ‘Il Trattore’, football’s endless narrative?

  By O-Posts Team | May 2, 2013 - 15:04 | , , ,
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Playing until 39 years of age would be an achievement for most ordinary football players, let alone suffering a serious injury at that archaic age and still expecting to make a comeback. Then again, Javier Zanetti is no ordinary footballer. Or at least according to former Argentina defender Roberto Ayala, who reacted to his former teammate’s injury by allaying fears it may force a premature conclusion, “no doubt he will come back and continue his career normally” he said.

It says something of the resilience of the man that a possible return from a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, suffered in the 14th minute of Inter’s 1-0 loss to Palermo on Sunday night, is even being mooted. “I had to change tyres after so many miles” said Zanetti upon leaving a hospital in Pavia on Monday evening, using the pit-stop metaphor like it was nothing to an indestructible midfielder who had ticked the dial over to 1,101 professional appearances before injury struck.

It was at the very same ground two years earlier in which Zanetti had suffered breathing problems, only to insist on playing on before fainting in the dressing room after the final whistle. It looked like he may have needed an operation, but the Argentinean soldiered on, leading Inter to a “mini-treble” that year of the Italian Super Cup, the Club World Cup and Coppa Italia.

They were just three medals of an illustrious career that has yielded 16 trophies with Inter during a spell  that has now meandered into an eighteenth year since moving from Banfield in 1995. His honour roll includes 5 Serie A titles, 4 Coppa Italias, 1 Champions League and 1 UEFA Cup amongst a series of minor trophies. Zanetti may not be the most decorated player in the game but few can match his longevity and remarkable loyalty, traits that saw him win the ‘Loyalty and Critics’ choice award in 2013.

It is an astounding record of personal achievement and endurance that he has featured in 845 of the 938 matches Inter have played since Zanetti joined them in the mid-90s, registering an appearance record of 90%. Between October 2006 and April 2010, Zanetti, known endearingly as “Pupi” in his native Argentina, made a record 137 consecutive appearances, only to have the remarkable stopped by reaching the yellow card limit.

During Zanetti’s time in Milan, Inter have passed through 20 managers and each one has found the Argentinean’s unrelenting professionalism and continual devotion impossible to ignore. Every supposed new dawn at Internazionale over the past two decades has been characterised by Zanetti’s diligence on the right, using his experience to defend solidly as well as use his relentless energy and evergreen legs to launch lung-busting runs from his usual withdrawn positioning on the right-side. It was slightly ironic to see Zanetti’s downfall on Sunday originate from one such run, he was shaping up to deliver a cross before his leg gave way and he was forced to signal to the bench, pain etched on his face.

Andrea Stramaccioni’s reaction was suggestive of the standing and reputation his Argentine midfielder still demands at the club. Stramaccioni, winner of the 2011 Next-Gen series as Inter’s youth coach has tried to usher in a younger generation with the likes of Ricardo Alvarez, Mateo Kovacic and Ezequiel Schelotto, yet Zanetti has played 40 times this season as the manager has found his wisdom and experience too important to ignore.

“To lose someone like him is an awful blow” he said, “because in such a difficult moment the value of someone like Zanetti to the team is incredible.”

Stramaccioni was in no disillusion about the seriousness of Zanetti’s injury and what it meant to his side but neither was the player when it came to the prospect of making a recovery. “My career isn’t over” said the midfielder, “my goal is to come back stronger than before and I believe I’ll overcome this too”. It was an unequivocal response to the most legitimate of doubts that this injury, ruling Zanetti out for six to eight months, just four short of his 40th birthday, just maybe, could finish him off.

That is not according him or even Ayala, who went on to say “this injury is not going to affect anything” when pressed on his fellow Argentine international. It maybe an outrageous claim, but there are few who would dispute the possibility of Zanetti making a return to try and overhaul Paolo Maldini’s Serie A appearance record of 647, which the Inter man stands just 45 games shy of.

It is his permanence and strength that has almost become mythological in Italian football, that concedes there will be little doubt Pupi will make the most illogical of returns.

 

Written by Adam Gray

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The Upcoming Football Video Game That Plunges you Into the Seedy World of Match Fixing

  By O-Posts Team | April 26, 2013 - 19:33 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Video games and football have gone hand in hand for decades, with games like FIFA 13, Pro Evolution Soccer and Football Manager hitting the bestseller lists year on year, giving players the chance to play at managing or playing as their favourite teams.

A new game that is currently under development aims to turn the football management game on its head, taking players deep into the sinister underworld of football corruption and allowing them to play as a shady match fixer.

Game Changer – The Football Match Fixing Game is being made for iOS and Android mobile and tablet devices, and will be made available in early 2014 if the developers successfully gain funding with their upcoming campaign on popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter.

In Game Changer, you can bribe players, pay off police and officials, blackmail referees and do all kinds of other interesting and immoral things to try and ensure the results you want, and then make a fortune by betting on your fixed outcomes.

As you grow in influence in the criminal underworld, you can fix games in bigger and more prestigious leagues around the world to gain higher profits, as well as being able to team up with crime boss characters and even your real life friends (thanks to social media integration) to get better results.

The game promises to blend elements of conventional football games and sims with the kind of stories and gameplay you normally see in crime games and RPGs, as well as featuring a sophisticated gambling system that allows you to implement all kinds of interesting strategies to make your fortune.

The developers, Game Changer Games, are also keen to make sure the game contains plenty of dark humour, because match fixing is, after all, a pretty horrible thing.

If you are interested in finding out more about the plans for Game Changer and the Kickstarter campaign that will hopefully make the game possible, you can check out the official website at www.gamechangergame.com or follow the developers’ official Twitter account @gamechangergame.

 

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Top 10 Most Poker-Passionate Football Players

  By O-Posts Team | March 31, 2013 - 17:31 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Anyone who plays some kind of sport knows that to succeed takes burning passion and enthusiasm. Applying these elements into a game, and also having the mental determination to succeed is a vital factor in coming out top.

Poker can also be seen as somewhat of a sport so it’s not surprising that many football players are regular visitors of well-known poker rooms like Fulltiltpoker. Let’s take a look at the top football players who have decided to inject some of that passion into becoming credible and successful names and faces in the world that is Poker.

 

1. Teddy Sheringham

Teddy Sheringham, a former England, Tottenham and West Ham player decided to take his hand a poker a few years before ending his 25 years career as a well-respected player. However, Unlike many football players who take interest in a managing or training position in the football world, Teddy decided to take a different route.

He has made a name for himself in the poker world and has played in various tournaments around the world including one of the biggest, the World Series Of Poker Main Event where he managed to finish 14th out of around 3000.

Teddy’s winnings over the past years have amounted to around $298,000.

 

2. Jan Van Soresen

One of the most successful football players to have made an impact in the Poker world is Scandinavian player Jan Van Soresen, who has won a range of tournaments including the WSOP (twice) and the Masters Classics of Poker tournament in 2008.

He is expected to have won himself around $2 million, making him one of the most successful football players to have come out of Poker.

 

3. Tony Cascarino

Former international football star Tony Cascarino who spent a large amount of his career with the Republic of Ireland, has always had a gambling passion and put his eagerness and passion into place when he first started playing in around 2006.

Tony went on to win his first major tournament 3 years later in the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, scooping himself a nice $283,000. Overall within his six years of playing in tournaments, Cascarino has expected to have won around $589,000.

 

4. Christian Vieri

Christan Vieri is a former Inter Milan forward who has never hidden his passion for card games especially Texa’s Hold’Em. In 2009 and without a club after quitting with Atalanta, Vieri went on to play in two tournaments in LA.

Whilst Vieri is not set to leave his football career just yet, he has hinted that he could be looking at a profession poker career after his retirement.

 

5. Tomas Brolin

Former Swedish football player and manager Brolin is another example of how passion can weave its way through football and poker. Brolin decided to first try his luck at Poker in 2006 and has made himself credible at many various poker tables.

In 2006 he fluttered in the Football and Poker Legends club which was organised by the well know and very popular site Party Poker.

In 2007 he then went on to play at the World Series of Poker, whilst not having won 1st place in the tournaments, he has however scooped a nice slice of the pot.

 

6. Gianluigi Buffon

Whilst if not being the greatest goalkeeper to have come out of football, it also seems that Buffon is adding a touch of his football passion into his Poker passion. Buffon learned of his passion whilst playing for a charity event a good few years back and is said to have completely fell in love with the game.

From then, Buffon continued to enhance his skills and played in numerous online tournaments, finally being noticed by online giant Poker Stars after successfully scooping the pot numerous times.

He went on to act as an ambassador for the site and hopes that one day, when his football career ends, he can work on becoming a professional player.

 

7. Poli Rincon

Spanish player Poli Rincon is well loved amongst the Spanish, with a successful career in football including stints with Real Madrid and Real Betis, he went on to win the Spanish league and cup in the 70’s and 80’s.

Rincon also has a burning passion for poker and is also said to regularly play with online giant Poker Stars favouring tournaments such as Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure and others such as Estrellas Poker Tour.

 

8. Vikash Dhorasoo

French player Vikash Dhorasoo is again another example of a budding Poker star. In 2007, Dhorasoo found his path and began playing in major poker tournaments, mainly in France. One of his most successful stories is taking the pot at the No Limit Hold’em $2.200 Barrier Poker Tour in 2010 scooping the main prize of $187,887.

This however is not his only cash in. He has also managed to come out top in two European Poker tournament events and also fluttered in several other tournaments.

 

9. Francesco Totti

Italian football star Francesco Totti who has spent his career dedicated to the Series A club Roma, is a top goal scorer and most capped player in the clubs history. Francesco has maintained a steady career with the club for the past 20 years, however football is not the only game he is passionate about.

Totti has recently been knighted as Poker Ambassador for Party Poker. Francesco Totti states that he has a real passion for poker and being a successful player requires the same abilities of that of playing football.

 

10. David Levi

Last, but by no means least, David Levi has had a major impact in the Poker world. Not only has his passion for football seen him excel in his years but when after a crippling knee injury Levi decided to take his chances by dabbling in Poker and he certainly knows how to play a hand.

He has said to have one over a huge total of $2,600,000 as of 2009. One of his favourite and most successful events has seen him scoop $360,229 from the WOSP tournaments.

 

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Jose Mourinho: The Special One’s arrogant unrest becoming a tiresome sideshow

  By O-Posts Team | March 30, 2013 - 18:20 | , , , , , ,
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It was a quiet week for domestic football as the World Cup qualifiers took centre stage and Jose Mourinho took advantage of his week off to return to Chelsea, where he took in Russia vs Brazil at Stamford Bridge. The next day, in an interview with Sky Sports News full with a backdrop of the humdrum London weather, he reiterated his well-known desire to return to England, even hinting that he could indeed return to Chelsea as soon as this summer.

The lull of the international break was soon disturbed as speculation over Mourinho’s future became rife as he covered the fact he still owns a property in the capital and how his daughter will start at Camberwell Art College in the next academic year. The Portuguese coach has previously made no secret of his desire to return to the Premier League and his affection to London, “we love it here” he said, has sparked inevitable links with the side he left in 2007.

“Every time I come (to London), people start immediately to make the connections that I will return. I fuel it a little bit. I say every day I love it here, I had a fantastic time here, I will return one day”, said the Real Madrid coach who is reportedly set to leave the Bernabeau in the summer after a turbulent season. “To be fair, I contribute to that speculation,” said Mourinho.

The last utterance is suggestive that Mourinho is fully aware of what he is trying to do. Having achieved his first remit as Madrid boss, to overcome the Barcelona juggernaut of Pep Guardiola, and with the second, to win the European Cup with a third club, still perfectly possible, the Portuguese is weighing up his next move. Perhaps Mourinho thinks that, having fought the attritional war of player power with both Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos this year, the second aim of his reign, if he does not achieve it this year, may be too far out of reach and he will pack his bags regardless.

His publicised fall-outs with Casillas and Ramos, as well as apparent arguments with defender Pepe and Cristiano Ronaldo, has hinted at mutiny in the squad which has compounded Barcelona’s procession to the La Liga title with Madrid trailing their bitter Catalan rivals by thirteen points. Marca, the Madrid-based newspaper, reported that both Casillas and Ramos approached club president Florentino Perez to warn him that some players would leave the club if Mourinho continued past the summer.

Yet, against the setting of conflict and revolt, Madrid have been guided to the final of the Copa Del Rey and past Manchester United to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League. As the instability of a club riddled with massive egos and powerful influences threatened to engulf him, Mourinho has managed to salvage a season that now raises the prospect of success, quite possibly in the form of a tenth European Cup which would provide the perfect parting gift.

Mourinho.... public fall-out with both Casillas and Ramos derailed Madrid's season.

Mourinho…. public fall-out with both Casillas and Ramos derailed Madrid’s season.

Many classed his recent duel with Manchester United as an audition for the possible inheritance of Sir Alex Ferguson’s managerial spot as he ages towards retirement, but it was the killer instinct he displayed upon seizing the sending off of Nani that will provide the Portuguese with the greatest reassurance of his standing in the game.

He ruthlessly dispatched of United, just as he did Barcelona a week previously in the Copa Del Rey with a display of unerring counter-attack and imperious tactics. With everything contriving to go against him, Mourinho possesses the armoury to prove, time and time again, that he is still the “Special One”. With Guardiola now Munich-bound, there is nobody in the game more in demand than an unsettled Mourinho and the coach is fully aware of that, it explains why he finds fuelling the fire of speculation so inviting.

Even Massimo Moratti, his ex-employer at Inter Milan, has this week been forced to deny that he has been in touch with the coach regarding a return to the San Siro but given Mourinho’s current stock, these stories are unavoidable. Mourinho, such is his proven excellence, can demand nearly any job at an any salary on any terms and should, as is appearing evermore likely, he leave Madrid this summer, he will rely on a confident belief that another offer won’t be to far off.

His constant courting of English football maybe tiresome but it is indicative of the clamour the manager now carries, he can now pick where he wants to head next in anticipation that interested clubs will form an orderly queue. He hints at Chelsea and the media goes into overdrive with Chelsea.

That is the effect Mourinho now has and no less than his enigmatic brilliance deserves.

 

Written by Adam Gray

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Rising Greek Star Banned For Life For Nazi Salute

  By O-Posts Team | March 18, 2013 - 20:08 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Professional football players celebrate their goals in a lot of unusual and sometimes distasteful ways. For Giorgos Katidis, who plays with the Greek club AEK Athens, his celebration included a Nazi salute.

This proved to be so distasteful for those who witnessed it that the midfielder was immediately banned for life from playing for the national team. Katidis made the salute after scoring the game-winning goal for AEK against Veria on March 16.

The incident took place in a Super League game at the famous Olympic Stadium in Athens and a video of it quickly went viral and spread around the world. While Katidis is just 20 years old, he’s a star with the national junior team and was expected to break into the senior national side in the near future. In his defense, Katidis said he didn’t know what the gesture meant and it was just done at the spur of the moment in celebration of his goal.

Katidis claimed that he hates fascism and didn’t realize what the salute meant and what he was doing. The football federation in Greece said that the player’s actions deeply insulted the millions of people who were affected by the brutality of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime in the 20th Century.

Ironically the day that Katidis made the unfortunate gesture was the very same day that Greece was marking the 70th anniversary of the start of deportation of Greek Jews to extermination camps which were operated by the Nazis during the Second World War.

Katidis changed his story slightly, or simply forget to mention it, but later on he said he made the salute because he was actually pointing to one of his injured AEK teammates who was sitting in the stadium’s stands. He claimed that he’s certainly not a racist and doesn’t have any strong political views.

He said if he knew the salute had any deep historical meaning that he never would have done it in a million years. Ewald Lienen, the manager of AEK Athens, stuck up for his players by saying that the youngster is guilty of being ignorant of the past and nothing more.

Lienen, who hails from Germany, said Katidis is just a young man who is out of his teenage years and doesn’t have any political ties or beliefs. He added that the player probably saw a Nazi salute on television or the internet and didn’t know that it symbolized hatred or anything else.

However, fans of the soccer club don’t necessarily the manager’s views and many of them are insisting that AEK gets rid of Katidis from the roster. It’s expected that officials of the club will get together in the next few days to decide what to do with Katidis.

Due to his age, it’s certainly possible that Katidis didn’t have a clue what the salute meant. The Nazi regime was decades ago now. If youngsters don’t learn about such things in school it’s entirely possible they could live their lives without knowing the historical meaning of certain things.

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Special Feature: The 5 Most Shocking Football Disasters Ever

  By O-Posts Team | March 14, 2013 - 18:18 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Live football is enjoyed all around the world, and as much is done as possible to keep these events safe. Unfortunately, disaster can strike, and over the years there have been a few tragic disasters that have led to fans being seriously injured or even killed.

These events and the people lost are still strongly remembered by everyone in the football world. In no particular order, here is a countdown of 5 of the most shocking disasters to have struck.

 

1.            Hillsborough, Sheffield, 1989

Memorial

The match was a semi final cup tie against Nottingham Forest. Perhaps the most high profile disaster, this saw 96 Liverpool fans die in a horrific crush at the start of the game. This notorious disaster is thought to have occurred due to poor crowd management with too many fans entering in the same pens.

 

2.            Burnden Park, Bolton, 1946

After a football game

This disaster is another crowd management issue which saw roughly 85,000 fans try to get into the stadium to see Bolton v Stoke in the FA Cup. This was over capacity and the resulting crush caused two metal barriers to break, subsequently killing 33 fans and injuring a further 400 people.

 

3.            Valley Parade, Bradford, 1985

Flag in a stadium

A wooden stand structure in the Bradford Stadium was set alight when a fan supposedly dropped a match or lit cigarette. A fire started below the stand when the rubbish beneath caught fire. Extinguishers could not be found and the fire brigade was called but, terribly, 56 fans were killed and a further 265 suffered wounds.

 

4.            Estadio Nacional, Lima, 1964


After a football game

This may be the worst recorded stadium disaster in history. A disallowed goal saw an angered fan chase the referee and take him down, which is said to have upset other supporters that then retaliated. It caused 300 people to die amongst stampedes, crushes and an ensuing battle between police and football supporters.

 

5.            Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow, 1971

Black and white photo

When a fan tried to leave towards the end of an Old Firm match and accidentally fell down a stand, there was a domino effect. This caused multiple fans to fall as a result, causing a crush and build up of bodies. 66 people were killed and 200 more were injured.

These tragic events are still remembered strongly by everyone in the football community as well as in history. Now as much is done as possible to ensure that similar tragedies do not happen again and full support is given to those left behind.

 

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John Greenberg has been writing about sport since his interest started when he was 15 years old. He likes to write about current affairs but also like to go back to the past and write about various things, including the safety of the football crowds.

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