Thursday Backpasses: Toulon wrap up

Toulon's youth tournament wrapped up today. No more will I have to hear Max Bretos remind me of how these 21 year-olds are "just kids". That may apply to the U-17 World Cup, but not to all of these fellas working on professional contracts.



Third Place Match
Ivory Coast 2-2 Japan
Ivory Coast 4-3 on penalties

Like a Third Place match should be, this one was pretty entertaining. Ivory Coast were the early aggressors, and it paid off for them. In the 31st minute, Beko Fofana turned nicely on the top of the box and left-footed the ball home. Once again, though, it would appear that Ivory Coast does not have the best conditioned players. The Ivorians held the lead for most of the second half, but when the downpours came on 70 minutes, they let Japan back in the game. In the 72nd minute, the very-Japanese Sergio Escudero put home a Tadanari Lee cross. Japan continued to press their tiring opponent, and it paid off in the 82nd minute. Substitute Masato Morishige outleaped keeper Okoua and headed a corner kick home. Japan looked safe at that point, as Ivory Coast had pretty much given up the ghost as the pitch turned into a bog. However, in the third of four injury time minutes, a missed clearance on a scramble in front of Japan's net caromed off of Seko Cisse's knee and into the net.

Penalties followed. Japan took the early lead as Bofana put Ivory Coast's second chance over the bar. Japan never looked comfortable in their kicks, though, and gave away the advantage in the fourth round when Lee presupposed the keeper would dive. Okoua kept his feet and easily knocked out the weak effort. After Sekou Cisse put his shot home, Japan' captain, Hiroki Mizumoto, pulled his shot well wide to the left.

Final
Italy 1-0 Chile
In a much more dour affair, played on the same water-logged pitch, Italy bullied their way past Chile. This was a tough, tense battle, with a total of six yellow cards given out, five to Italy. Pablo Osvaldo got the only goal of the match, timing his run perfectly from a Daniele Dessena pass and hooking the ball past the planted Christopher Toselli. The goal came in the 70th minute. Chile had a couple of late chances, but nothing would go in today.

The tournament's top player was Italy's Sebastian Giovinco, and the top scorer was Ivory Coast's Sekou Cisse.

Today's links:
Chelsea fire again. Henk ten Cate out [Guardian]
DC United could get half of their funding for a new stadium from the government [Washington Business Journal]
Iraq soccer team quickly un-banned from international competition [New York Times]
American very close to buying AS Roma. Hey, George Soros, we want a club, too! [New York Post]
From Gawker's Blind Item Guessing Game. Which WAG is blind to her player's shenanigans? [UK Mirror]

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Tuesday Backpasses: Toulon Tournament Semifinals

The Toulon Tournament moved on to the semifinals today. Chile took on Ivory Coast in the first semifinal, while Italy and Japan met in the second. A quick recap as well as backpass links after the jump.

Chile 2-1 Ivory Coast
This game started off with a bang. Ivory Coast took control of the game from the kick, but it was Chile that drew first blood. In the 5th minute, Pedro Morales took control of the ball at midfield, channeled his inner Beckham, and launched a shot that soared in over the head of keeper Christian Okuoa. Ivory Coast continued to dominate the game and received their spoils in the 40th. On a free kick from the right side, the Ivorians scored by shielding the keeper. Constant Djakpa got the final touch. However, Chile stole the game on the 60th on a swift counterattack. Fabian Orellana headed the ball home. Ivory Coast continued to put shots on goal, but Chilean keeper Christopher Toselli kept them at bay.

Italy 0-0 Japan
Italy 5-4 on PKs
Can't really say too much about this game, as I did not watch it. I did, however, see the PKs. The difference was Italian goalkeeper Davide Bassi. He saved the fourth spot kick when, diving to his left, he reached up his trailing right hand to knock out the shot. Japanese keeper Shusaka Nishikawa got burned on his fourth attempt at a save when the ball was cheekily chipped down the middle. That may have had an effect on his attempt at the game-winning kick, when Nishikawa was hesitant to move on a savable ball to his right.

So, it's Italy-Chile in the Toulon final on Thursday. The game will kick off at 1430ish EDT. It is preceded by the third-place match, Ivory Coast-Japan, at 1200 EDT.


Today's Lesson: Be a Scottish football fan, riot in England, suffer no repercussions back home [Evening Times]
Internazionale fire their coach, Mourinho rumo(u)rs begin right here [Soccernet]
Thierry Henry seriously considered moving to Manchester United in the offseason [Mirosport]
Old Italian guy says today's football has no eternal heroes. Has he not seen Titus Bramble? [Goal.com]
Today's Lesson #2: Don't be a dick to off-duty referees. They will refuse en masse to ever ref your team's games again [The Press and Journal]
Jack Warner, now paid off for T&T-England friendly, still wants more money. Will personally fight England getting WC in 2018 [Guardian]

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Monday Backpasses: Toulon Days 5 & 6

The group stage of the Toulon Tournament wrapped up over the weekend, though only one game had any real significance. Inside, a really quick look at those games and the setup of the semifinals.

Group A

Netherlands 1-0 France
In the Group A game that meant absolutely nothing, Netherlands defeated France 1-0 off of Dominique Kivuvu's 53rd minute goal. France fell apart after a red card in their first game, giving up 7 goals and scoring only one after Faty's foul. Netherlands never really looked all that awesome in any of their matches, but did enough to beat France on Saturday. Tim Krul had a couple of fantastic saves to preserve the Dutch win.

Chile 2-0 Japan
Chile took the top of Group A with a strong performance against Japan. Japan produced some early chances, but Chile secured the win with a couple of second half scores. Carlos Carmona volleyed from 25 yards out in the 75th minute. He had luck on his side as the ball bounced off the post, onto keeper Kaito Yamamoto's outstretched hand, and into the net. Pedro Morales sealed the game in the 92nd minute with a simple back-post finish.

Group B

Italy 2-0 USA
The USA once again displayed its new youth offense--try to pass from the back, either clear the ball under pressure or give it away, pick the ball out of the net--against the eager Italians. Italy took full advantage of two first half giveaways to score goals from Ignazio Abate and Daniele Dessena. Quintin Westberg finally got some second half play in the net and pulled some fine saves despite looking lost on some crosses. The USA leaves pointless and hopefully embarrassed. This makeshift U-23 squad was played off the pitch be three U-21 teams.

Ivory Coast 4-0 Turkey
In the only game that meant qualification on the weekend, one player shone. Sekou Cisse, who missed a penalty in Ivory Coast's first match against Italy, had a hat trick. He was joined in the goal scoring parade by Moura-Komenan Anthony. Turkey, who did themselves no favors in getting two players sent off against Italy, had another red card early in the second half. It was already academic at that point as the short-handed team was down two first half goals.

Interestingly, the group stage had no draws, so the standings were pretty easy to figure out. Group A winner Chile will take on Ivory Coast tomorrow at 1200 EDT, while Group B winner Italy and Japan will follow at 1430 EDT.

And now, links. But first . . . the whores!


Chelsea keen on buying Torres. For $100 million [Daily Mail]
The Special One will come back to Chelsea, but only on his terms [The Sun]
Super Frankie Lampard decides it's not enough to lose his mom and the CL final. He decides to chase off his fiancée as well [Daily Mail]
Top 10 English team's websites as visited by US users. Some surprises [EPL Talk]
SGE to go to Mexico. Will lose important games 2-0 [The Press Association]
DaMarcus Beasley looks forward to England friendly, exciting new injuries [Daily Mail]
Harry Kewell to RBNY. Giants Stadium turf sure to be nice to those old joints [Herald Sun]
MLS never going back to Miami [Sun-Sentinel]

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Friday Backpasses: Toulon Day 4

Group B was back in action today. Toulon the town was given another break as La Seyne was the site of today's matches.

Ivory Coast 1-0 USA
All you need to know about this match can be summed up in one stat. Ivory Coast had 10 corner kicks, while the USA had one. Ivory Coast was always on the attack while the Americans struggled to pass out of their own half. Full credit must go to Chris Seitz in the net. He stopped wave after wave of Ivorian attacks, looking much better than Cervi in the first match. In fact, where it not for the converted penalty, I think this game could have easily finished 0-0. That penalty came in the 70th minute when Tony Beltran took down Nassa Niangbo. Seitz guessed correctly on the kick, but Constant Djakpa powered the ball into the side netting. With 0 points from two matches, the USA is eliminated.

Italy 2-1 Turkey
This game was a war in midfield with neither team creating clear-cut chances for most of the match. In fact, both of the first two goals came from defensive giveaways. Italy were the first to score with Davide Lanzafame going near post on keeper Onur Kirvak. Turkey equalized shortly into the second half when Aydin Yilmaz took advantage and went far post on Italian keeper Enrica Alfonso. The game continued to stay in the center of the pitch, and the real fun began in the 68th minute. Tiberio Guarante was moving the ball through midfield when Turkish player Eren Gungor threw a hip check on him. As the referee was showing Gungor his second yellow, Guarante gave Gungor a couple of pokes in the back of the head. That set off a bunch of shoving on the pitch and the ref gave Guarante a straight red. Behind the play, one of the assistant referees spotted something, and told the referee who then gave Turkish player Caner Erkin a straight red as well. Italy finally put their 10 on 9 advantage to use in the 89th minute when Claudio Marchisio laced a left-footed half-volley into the net from 22 yards. With the win, Italy advance to the semifinals, while Turkey face Ivory Coast on Sunday for the other semi spot.

Saturday's matches see the conclusion of Group A, where all advancement spots are already decided. France and Netherlands to decide third place in the group, and Japan-Chile for first spot.

Backpass links after the jump.

TIET figures out why Didier slapped Nemanja [This is Extra Time]
Shaka Hislop. Hard to understand on TV. Surprisingly competent MLS beat writer [Guardian Blogs]
Michael Bradley was set to go to EPL until Birmingham got relegated [Birmingham Mail]
Hey Gambia, it might not be a good idea to hire that manager currently suspended for match-fixing (last item) [Reuters]
CL final set US viewing records [Soccer America Daily]
C. Ronaldo waffling on his commitment to Man U [Guardian]
English fans were right to think he was evil. Glazer has saddled Man U with £666million of debt [Daily Mail]
It's awesome when cops get drunk and deny everything in court [Scotsman]

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Thursday Backpasses: Toulon Day 3

Today in Toulon (actually Hyeres), two teams kept up their winning ways in Group A and guaranteed passage to the semifinals. Those two may be a bit of a surprise.

France 1-2 Japan
If one thing can be taken away from Japan's first two matches, it is that this is a team that knows how to finish its limited chances. That would be is stark contrast to France which sprayed shots everywhere except at the goal for the first hour of the match. Japan went up within 20 minutes on a powerful wide-open header by Tsukasa Umesaki. France came out after the break determined to even the scoreline, but were consistently stymied by the play of keeper Shusaka Nishikawa. Japan doubled up in the 60th minute. At that point, France had given up 6 goals in 94 minutes since Faty's red card in their first game. France finally broke through in the 71st, but Nishikawa produced a couple of more wonder saves down the stretch to preserve the win.

Chile 2-0 Netherlands
Chile started out fast and ran the Netherlands off the field in today's second match. José Pedro Fuenzalida started the scoring in the 19th minute, dancing through the Dutch back line and finishing with ease. The second half saw two Dutch players shown red. In the 75th, Leroy George was adjudged to have spit on a Chilean defender. While Milano Koenders was sent off in the 88th for throwing an elbow. In between, Chile scored a PK after Fabian Orellana was taken down in the box. Orellana summarily converted the penalty, sending the keeper the wrong way.

Chile and Japan sit jointly on top of Group A at 6 points, with Chile having a two-goal advantage on Japan. France and Netherlands are eliminated from moving on.

Tomorrow's matches:
Ivory Coast (0 points)-USA (0)1230 EDT
Italy (3)-Turkey (3) 1430 EDT

Today's links after the jump.

Manchester United meet with Real Madrid. Definitely not talking about C. Ronaldo. [Sky Sports]
Manchester City beaten by virtual pick-up squad in Hong Kong [Soccerway]
Robin van Persie, injured? No way. [Soccerway]
Jack Warner does his best to get another payday. May cause cancellation of Trinidad & Tobago-England friendly [Soccernet]
In related news, T&T players finally get bonuses for WC2006 [Sporting Life]

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Wednesday Backpasses: Well, someone had to win

You know, by now, how the Champions League final ended. I'm proud of calling the 1-1 score line and the Ronaldo PK miss and was actually a little miffed when Brave John Terry missed his. Still, I had no dog in the fight, so, congratulations to Manchester United, champions of Europe. On to the links.

CL fans could have blown England's 2018 bid for the World Cup. Has anyone heard anything out of Moscow yet? [Guardian]
Ryan Giggs passed Bobby Charlton's all-time ManU appearances record, wore special boots [The Sun]
John Terry's boot bag. Is it the reason he missed the PK? [Daily Mail]

Non-CL links and a Toulon update after the jump.

Roberto Baggio was pretty good, despite taking Terry-like penalties [NYTimes Goal blog]
Torres finally got a haircut. It looks, well, not so good [This is Extra Time]
Looking at future MLS expansion [WV Hooligan]
New York Times discovers some NBA players also like soccer [NYTimes]


Toulon Update

Turkey 3-2 USA
USA looked about two steps behind today. Both first half goals could be attributed to ball watching. The Americans started off brightly in the second half, and gained a goal in the 58th minute. However, off the kickoff, keeper Dominic Cervi did not communicate with his center backs and allowed Turkey to score again. Ochoa notched a second for the US, but did not make up for his first half miss. Thankfully, given his rustiness, Cervi will miss the rest of the tournament. He spilled an early ball, and was clearly at fault on that last goal for not taking control of his box and instead assuming the defenders running with their back to the ball could make the play. Also, Feilhaber limped off injured in the 2nd half and will not be seen again at the tournament as he joins the full NT in training for England.

Italy 2-0 Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast dominated the first half of play, but could not translate the dominance into goals. They did have a golden chance after earning a PK, but Sekou Cisse's weak attempt was smothered by the Italian keeper. After the break, Italy started to come alive and took the game to the Ivorians. Sebastian Giovinco, who plays for Empoli, scored a brace, and the Ivorians just seemed worn out by the end of the game.

Tomorrow:
France - Japan 1200 EDT
Netherlands - Chile 1430 EDT

Oh, and if you read Spanish better than I do and want to keep up with Toulon, go here

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Toulon: Day 1

The Toulon Tournament started today. It's an eight country international under-23 tournament. The eight countries are divided into two groups which play a World Cup style round robin. The top two team of each group go to the semifinals with the winners playing in the finals two days later.

This year's Group A consists of hosts France, Chile, Japan and the Netherlands. Group B has USA, Italy, Ivory Coast and Turkey. Most nights the update will be folded into the Backpass section, but tonight I had to post this:

That's French player Vincent Muratori losing his shorts and revealing a somewhat see-through pair of black bikini briefs. Thanks to commenter kenny in the US Youth National Team blog for posting the video.

Writeups of today's action after the jump.

All Group A action to start today.

In the first match Japan took on the Netherlands. Japan seemed to counterattack a lackluster Dutch squad. The first half produced nothing of consequence. It was so dull that I decided to take my son for a walk rather than watch the last ten minutes before halftime. The second half really wasn't much better. The Dutch would try to build, then give the ball away or shoot off target. About 20 minutes in, one of Japan's hopeful long balls from the keeper was misplayed by multiple French Dutch defenders, allowing Tadamari Lee to poke home with his left foot. The Netherlands continued with their useless attack for the rest of the game, but Japan successfully parried all attacks. A slight upset for Japan, 1-0.

The second match was much more interesting with two spirited teams looking to attack. France struck fast, with two goals in the first 25 minutes. Though they seemed to have the game under control, Chile was able to sneak back in with a goal 10 minutes before the half. Two minutes after the break, France scored again to take a 3-1 lead. However, the home side lost the momentum soon after with what the English pundits call "a rush of blood to the head". Ricardo Faty was tracking back in the midfield when he attempted to make a tackle from behind, way behind. He missed the ball by about two feet and went studs up into the Chilean player's ankle. The referee was trailing the play and issued an immediate red card. Chile scored on the ensuing free kick, then throttled France down the stretch. The goal to draw level was scored of a French defender's face, and Chile got two more in the last four minutes. 5-3 to the Chileans.

Tomorrow:
USA-Turkey 9.30 A.M. EDT
Italy-Ivory Coast 12 noon EDT

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