You might remember that Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic was given a straight red card for swinging at a Quito player at the Club World Cup final back in December. The problem for Man U is that the Club World Cup is a FIFA event, as is the UEFA Champion's League, and the rules say that any suspension at the Club World Cup would carry over to other FIFA competitions.
I was convinced that FIFA would find a way around suspending Vidic from the Champion's League. It's already difficult to convince European clubs to be all that enthused about schlepping to Japan (or Abu Dhabi) mid-season for a relatively pointless competition. Ah, but FIFA are nothing but sticklers for the rules: Vidic has been suspended one game, meaning he'll miss the first leg of Man U's Round of 16 against Inter.
That serves United right for winning the Champion's League last year.
photo: Sky Sports
Friday, January 30, 2009
So the Club World Cup Does Matter Afterall
Monday, December 22, 2008
UF Monday MarketPlace
Welcome to the Christmas Congestion edition of the UF Monday MarketPlace. We’re back from a week’s hiatus and hoping your portfolio has not suffered in our absence. In any case, let’s get straight down to it.
BUY! BUY ! BUY!
...until we freak out on national television and tell you to sell the kids for food.
Buy Arsenal— Ughh… this is painful to write. But let’s be fair, Arsenal are about the surest bet in English football these days. The relegation zone is like an off campus bar at midnight, one in, one out. Top of the league is a mess. No one wants it. For reliable returns, pick up stock in the Gunners. They’ve tied Liverpool and beat Chelsea, lost to Stoke and Fulham… they’ll beat Villa next week, then lose home to Pompey a couple days later. And you know what? They’ll still be in 4th/5th place. Deny this, you scum, I dare you.
Buy Fulham— Here’s one the MarketPlace got right a couple weeks ago. Number Eight with a bullet, some decent holiday results and the prospect of European football at the Cottage becomes entirely viable. If they can nab 2 or 3 points from their next two (at Spurs, home for Chelsea) and hold on to Bullard through January’s silly season, I’d say Seventh is theirs to lose.
Buy English teams with financial troubles and troubled assets— hold the line just another ten days lads, Juande Ramos is coming to bail you out. Lassana Diarra for £20 million and Portsmouth are considerably better off than a week ago. There’s still blood lingering in the water, but not like we thought. As for the other rumors—too many to list—let’s just say, for me at least, if they want to pay a cent for Roman Pavlyunchenko, Levy should cover the shipping costs.
Buy The New Manager Effect— Ricky Sbragia… Big Sam… Redknapp and Kinnear a bit earlier… It’s happy hunting for new EPL managers this year. So get ready for Man City to explode in late January. Hughes will be out. Three or four high priced international stars in. David Pleat’s postman could pull these guys out of the relegation zone.
Buy Spanish clubs in the Champs League— Villareal get Panathinaikos, Atletico get Porto, Barcelona get Lyon, and Juande gets Liverpool. At least three of the four go through, the latter being the most in doubt.
Sell! For Chrissakes, Sell it all! Light it on fire, just be done with it!!
...until next week, when everything bounces back but your checking account. Sawwrry.
Sell the Beckham-MLS marriage— The end is nigh. He’ll come back from Milan in the spring, but the next trip out will be the last. With all the talk of building the American game, Youth Academies, etc… it comes down to this: the decision to leave Europe was made in haste. About four years too early. Becks thought he was through for England and Madrid, and so he made his move. But a funny thing happened about five minutes after signing up with Alexi Lalas (Lalas!) McClaren couldn’t qualify for the Euros and Capello was forced to put him back in the lineup. Beckham was caught like Juliet standing over dead Romeo.
Sell Mark Hughes— Captain Obvious says: Unless you’re in this for the long haul, it’s time to make the move. Vote of confidence or not. Only a couple days left now…
Sell The Club World Cup— Not good for business when the highlight of your tournament is a split decision between a Fergie press conference and Carlos Tevez’s touchline tantrum. It’s nice for the Asian and South American clubs, but for our Anglo-centric purposes, a complete bummer.
Sell Leeds and Forest returning to the top flight anytime soon— Leeds may be due for some NME now that Gary Mac’s been told to pack, but automatic promotion is out of the question and who-fuckin-knows with a League 1 playoff. Forest are rooted to the near-bottom of the Colaship. Glory days are far off.
Sell English tabloid rumor-mongering / the January transfer window— Some rags are better than others, but there’s reason to expect this January will be any different than the last. No big players or teams make moves of real consequence as anyone of value is cup-tied. For entertainment’s sake, Citeh will do it’s best to nut money on anyone who’ll take it and Juande should be counted on to do some arse-backward stuff with his Real riches.
Sell Gareth Southgate— Nothing to do with this week. Middlesbrough haven’t been terrible. It goes back to the Woody Allen thing about dead sharks.
Sell yer (new) laptops, Ipswich!-- Norwich is just gonna send more Cubans to steal them anyway...
Wait! Hold Still! Do Nothing! Freeze Up! We're confounded...
Hold on Liverpool— The second half at the Emirates was an exercise in waste. Arsenal lose Cesc and Adebayor in ten minutes playing time and how do the league leaders respond? By playing on their heels and leaving Ryan Babel on the bench until the 87th minute, is how. This would be an easy Sell if not for the profligate Chelsea and stuck-in-the-mud United. For the Kop’s sake, Torres better get back soon.
Hold on QPR— Read this quickie from the Beebs: Experiencing boutique football at QPR… The set-up doesn’t seem as unhealthy as the headline might imply. The new manager seems to have an idea of what’s up. The dedication, and better, the cash seem to be there. And still, it all seems kind of sheisty. Or so it seems.
Hold on Djibril Cisse— Buy the form, sell the hair, Bigus says. I’d have to agree. Of course, neither is permanent, so take your chances.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Osaka scored in the midnight hour, that's when Rooney goes tumbling down
While you were tucked up in bed dreaming of all the transfers your team won't make in January, that FIFA Club World Cup Trophyship TourneyShield was taking place over in Japan, and with an almost full-strength Man United XI on display, one would expect the score to have been rather emphatic.
Instead, the final result had a touch of Benny Hill to it. But seriously, 6 goals in 17 minutes?
Of course, United still prevailed by the score of 5-3, but not before some late fun from both teams in the second half, giving the match more of an NBA All-Star Game feel thanks to its invisible defense.
Rooney's contribution was perhaps best of all, summing him up in his brief 17-minute appearance (yes - as soon as he came on, the goals began). Young Wayne managed 2 goals and 1 yellow card within 4 minutes. He's nothing if not efficient.
Hideo Yashimoto's injury-time strike was the pick of the litter. Anyone think Roman might buy him for 8 million? Meanwhile, Fergie's men will play LDU Quito in the final.
Friday, December 12, 2008
More Stuff to Watch Tonight If You Are an Insomniac: The FIFA Club World Cup
The Club World Cup is a weird competition. You’ve got top clubs fighting it out for the title, which should in theory lead to some fairly interesting matchups that are the football equivalent of a Marvel-DC Comics crossover. At the same time, the competition takes place in Japan, meaning players are jet-lagged and the games air at weird times for the rest of the world. Plus, the competition occurs in December, when clubs are either in the middle of domestic competitions, like Man U, or in the offseason, like Pachuca and LDU Quito. Oh, and the competition has only been around since 2000, meaning that there isn’t much built-up history. So, the Club World Cup has a certain bit of.... “eh.”
That said, we here at UF watched the Adelaide United versus Waitakere United in the play-in game this week, and we were actually quite entertained. It was a decent, scrappy little match between two sides we frankly know very little about. And that has whet our appetites for tonight’s Al-Ahly versus Pachuca match, which we believe should air at 11:30 pm EST on Fox Soccer Channel (full listings for FSC found here). Tomorrow it’s Adelaide United versus Gamba Osaka, with the winner of each match going on to play Man U and LDU Quito later in the week. Perhaps not the same appeal as last year’s Meeelan versus Boca Juniors final, but still some good stuff for those of us who appreciate the exoticism of an unusual competition and aren't afraid of mixing cultures.
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