Donadoni Lost: but not for ever

Shadow of ill fate continues with Roberto Donadoni. A successful footballer who achieved everything in club level but lost his foot in internationals. Now, he becomes a failure as a manager too. Is it his failure or Italy’s problem? In my last write up, I discussed about this same topic. Lippi, the smartest manager of Italian football visualized this collapse long ago. So he resigned at that time and now wants to make a come back.

When Italy lost their game against Holland, Donadoni’s days were numbered. The clumsy performance against a fine tuned team raised a number of questions in Italian football fans. The draw against Romania was not at all convincing but was a life line for next round. In the third match against France, somehow, the team produced a better show and sent the world cup runners back. Italy reached in the second round…but that was not enough to convince the football fanatics of Italy. They expected much more from them, at least a convincing performance against team like Romania.

The question is not about the result of Italy or performance of the team in group level matches. They played well in the quarter final against Spanish young blood and eventually lost out in penalty shootout. A team like Italy was not supposed to produce such result; they are expected to do much more than that. Question is whether it is Italian team’s problem or the manager Donadoni’s managerial problem? Now everyone is looking at Lippi, the manager who won the world cup.

Donadoni inherited a team which won the world cup. This argument shows he received a successful squad from Lippi. That is a half truth. The team which handed over by Lippi was a stationary wagon. The wagon lost its wheels in the beginning of the campaign and the new driver tried his best to move it on temporary wheels. The axis of the world cup winning team was built on three pillars –Francisco Totti, Alexandro Nesta, and Fabio Cannavaro. During world cup campaign, Nesta and Cannavaro kept the defence intact and Totti controlled the attack from midfield. Just after world cup, Totti and Nesta declared their retirement from international football and Donadoni lost Fabio Canavaro just before the start of Euro due to injury. In actual sense, Donadoni inherited a team sans its cream.

Donadoni got nearly two year time to rebuild the team and he picked up few good players to fill the gap of Totti and Nesta. But the talent pool in Italian football was not enough to support him. He couldn’t find replacement for their ageing legs but managed the team successful to the finals of Euro. Injury of Canavaro was the key turning point to the team. They lost one of the best defenders in the world as well as the most influential player in the squad. His experience and game reading ability made it an irreplaceable lose. Italian league so far hasn’t produced a proper alternative to this player and Donadoni couldn’t fill that gap properly.

Still, Donadoni made some positive changes in the team. In a short time, he managed to change the method of game. Earlier, Italy use to play the most defensive football which keeps the ball within the control of its defenders and try to win the game with a solitary goal. Donadoni tried to change this defensive mentality and produced an attacking football. Though they lost matches, the crucial role was carried out by their vibrant midfield. Of course, heroic performance of Gian Luigi Buffon under the bar is a different story. He was forced to produce such performance just because of the confusion of Italian defenders. They failed to read the game properly and make intervention in correct time. This attacking mentality is a new thing for Italy and produce better expectations in future.

Italian FA has the power to decide whether they want to continue with Donadoni or re-appoint Lippi or they can find more successful manager for the post. But, in the short time, Donadoni produced a better football and definitely deserve more time to produce better result. It is a pity to hear that he was sacked or Italian FA decided to see his contract get over. Compare with other successful Italian managers, Donadoni was fresh and new. His experience as a manager is not long but his contribution to Italian football as a player and as club manager is considerably successful and in national level also, he achieved a better result with an average team.

Time is on Donadoni’s side. He is in his 40s and gained enough experience in club, national, and international level. Though he lost out in the last campaign, he can definitely make a come back to Italian time. His experience will support him to gain more success.

Euro 2008: After League Round -Expectatoins and Realities

Knockout starts today and eight teams will try their best to kick their opponent out from the tournament. While taking the account of the first round, this edition of Euro shows that it has reached to up to the expectations. Media encouraged predictions of the successful teams much before the beginning of this tournament. It will be interesting if we take a stock of those expectations, predictions and the reality.

As usual like every Euro editions, the defending champions struggled and lost out in the first round. Greece lost to all three opponents in their group D and only managed to get one goal in the entire tournament. They lost to Sweden for 2 goals and give a life line to Russia by losing to them for a solitary goal and in the final match against Spain they found the net at least once against two goals. They couldn’t repeat the show of their tailor made attacking design which use to hit the opponents from well calculated free kicks and corner kicks.

If it was an expected Greek tragedy, the champions of 2000 edition –France exit was something more than a fantasy. They ended as the fourth team in the group C –which is also known as group of death. Manager Raymond Domenech failed to find a proper bridge between his ageing world cup heroes and emerging talents. They lost badly to Holland and also lost, but played well, to the world champions Italy and managed a single point through a goal less draw against Romania.

Managers have a big role in picking up the best team and taking the best out of them. In the last Euro, it was the manager the Greek team who successfully lead his mediocre team to success with well planned strategies and execution of best tactics. Otto Rehhagel, the German manager of Greek team knew the strength and limitations of his team and used the resources very well and won the championship. But he failed this time to reproduce the same show. Same to Domenech, who successfully took his ageing heroes to the final of World Cup in 2006 and eventually lost to Italy in shoot out, failed to get the best out of that team and lost out in the first round.

Portugal, the winner of Group A performed in expected manner and reached in the top of group. They defeated Czech Republic and Turkey in the first matches to ensure their position in the quarter finals and did an experiment with unused players of their squad against Switzerland in the final match and lost to the hosts. Interestingly, Portugal become the leaders of the group but Turkey become the heroes of the group through their performance in the last match against Czech Republic. Over confidence and may say arrogance made the exit way to Czech Republic who were leading with two goals against Turkey in the final match and lost to the never say die Turks, who made a come back with three goals. The hosts, Switzerland never made an impact in the league round and managed to win the final match against second fiddle team of Portugal.

At present the real hero of Euro 2008 edition is Croatian team. Slaven Bilic’s team killed English aspirations in Euro by defeating them in both legs and many pundits counted it just as a streak of fortune. They lost their key striker Eudardo, the Brazilian turned Coration striker who plays for English club Arsenal and badly injured in English League, before the Euro started. Bilic, one among the heroes of 1998 world cup dark horses, maintained a hundred percent success in the league round of championship against Germany, Austria and Poland. They defeated all three in a convincing manner and they kept their best performance against Germany. Most pundits expected Germany in the top position and in the first match against Poland they fulfilled those expectations. But, in the second match, Germany was a pale picture of their self and lost their rhythm and confidence against rampant Croatia. By defeating the co-hosts Austria, Germany managed to finish as runners of this group. While main hosts Switzerland managed a win in their last match, the co-host Austria could only manage a draw against Poland in the whole episode. Poland gained one point from the draw against Austria and ended up as the last in the group.

As I mentioned in the last blog, many pundits predicted Italy and France will move up the next level from group C –which is also known as group of death. The group consisted World champions Italy and world cup runners France along with Netherlands and Romania. Against all odds, the Oranges’ defeated all three in convincing manner and topped in the group. In the first match, they literally killed the world champions Italy for 3-0  margin and in the next match the Dutch steam roller crushed France with 4-1 margin and in the last they defeated Romania with their second fiddle team. Like Croatia, Dutch also kept a hundred percent result to reach in next round. Till the last round, it was difficult to pick up who will reach into next round as runners of the group. In the third round, Italy faced France and managed a 2-0 victory against the Les Blues. Sad part of this group is the exit of Romania who managed two points and standing ahead of winners and runners of the world cup. They had a hard fought goalless draw against France and another 1-1 draw against Italy but in the third round they lost out to Netherlands for 2-0.

The group D included Spain, Russia, Greece and Sweden. Many pundits counted Spain as one of the strongest contender in this tournament. Louis Aragonis, the manger of Spain had the problem of abundance of talent in his team. To pick up the first eleven is the most difficult task to him and his team won all three matches and kept a hundred percent success in the group level. They literally killed Russia in the first match with a 4-1 margin in which Spanish striker David Villa made his first hat-trick in Euro. They continued their rampant run against Sweden with a score line of 2-1 and kicked out the defending Champion Greece for 2-1 margin. So far, by performance, Spain have the most prolific striker in David Villa and he has the best support in Fernando Torres, who is considered as one of the best striker in the world. Apart from the saga of Spain, the real story of the group level competition lies with the next two teams –Sweden and Russia. In the first group match, Sweden defeated Greece with a 2-0 margin and managed a 1-1 draw against Spain till the dying minutes of the match when Villa found their second goal. With three point from first match, they faced Russia in the last round who also have 3 points from their 1-0 victory over Greece. In some places, the talent of manager will work much more than the players in the team. Guss Hiddink, the Dutch manager of Russia, who have such a great credentials in his profession introduced a revolutionised Russia in the third round against Sweden. Introduction of Anderi Arshavin in the Russian team made the right impact for them and they muted Swedish attach and gained 2 goal lead over fulltime. Thus, Russia managed runner position to reach quarter finals.

Now, the quarter finals starts and the winners of group A will face the runners of Group B and their winners will face the runners of group A. Same will done with group C and D. Group A winner Portugal will face Group B runner Germany and Group B winner Croatia will challenge Group A runner Turkey. Group C winner Netherlands will play against group D runner Russia and Group D winner Spain meet Group C runner Italy.

Now the match is not just between teams and players, it has much more to do with the managerial skills of each team. So far, Louis Philippe Scolari, the Brazilian manager of Portugal team did well with his team who faces Germany today. Scolari managed Brazil team in 2002 world cup and won the cup and took Portugal into the final of 2004 Euro and Semi final of World cup 2006 against France. He has a well balanced team under his disposal and Portugal has the best talented footballer in the world in Christiano Ronaldo. While meeting Germany in the quarter final, Scolari has to pick his best strategies and tactics and motivate his players to the optimum level.

Germany, who lost their World cup manager Jurgen Klinsmann will face Portugal in the quarter final without support of present manager Joachim Low. He saw red card from the referee in his match against Austria and will be forced to watch the match from the stands. Germany has experienced and well talented players and key player for them will be Michel Ballack. Many pundits consider this match is a repeat show of European Champions League where Christiano Ronaldo’s Manchester United defeated Ballack’s Chelsea.

In the match between Croatia and Turkey will be more interesting than the clash between Portugal and Germany. As per expectations, these two are dark horses and well managed by high talented and successful managers. Fatih Terim, who has a wonderful managerial career in club and national level, is known for aggressive and attacking football. Meanwhile, Bilic, the Croatian manager is much younger and ended his playing career recently but known as one of the most talented managers in the world. He played in the 1998 world cup team which reached in the semi final and also played in English League clubs. Many big clubs are closely watching his performance in Euro. Both Terim and Bilic have a well balanced young team with them. So, the match between Croatia and Turkey will be exiting.

Third match is a complete Dutch match. Both teams Netherlands and Russia were managed by Dutch managers. Van Basten was the key figure in the successful run of Holland in 1988 Euro and considered as one of the most lethal strikers in the world. He took the reign of the Dutch team in 2004 and managed them in an unsuccessful spell in the world cup 2006. Guss Hiddink, the Dutch coach of Russian team is known as the most successful soccer managers in the world. He was the manager of Netherlands in 1996 Euro in which his team lost out against France in the quarter finals. He took the same team to the semi finals of World Cup in 1998 and managed unknown Asian team South Korea to the Semi Finals of next world cup in 2002. He took over the control of Australian team and manages them to the quarterfinal round of 2006 world cup where they lost out to eventual Champion Italy. After the world cup, he moved to Moscow to manage Russian team and took them to the finals of the Euro and successfully managed them to the quarter finals. Van Basten faces the problem of abundance and Hiddink faces scarcity of talent. It will be a match between talent versus managerial skills and we can expect a wonderful match.

The last quarter final is between group D winners Spain and World champions Italy. This will be one of the most interesting matches where the young blood faces the experience. Italy got a life line in the group level from France and manager Roberto Donadoni is trying his best to motivate the aged team to perform in its optimum level. Louis Aragonis, the Spanish manager have a very good squad under his disposal and difficult task for him is to pick up the best combination against the experienced opponent. This will be a very tactical match rather than a free flowing football. Italians are known for their defensive approach and Spain is better in their counter attacks. The speed and striking power of Spanish forwards –David Villa and Fernando Torres- will create havoc in the Italian defence and am sure Italian goalkeeper Gian Lugi Buffon will have a much big role in coming match.

Destiny: The difference between France and Italy in Euro 2008

Before the start of Euro 2008, the Guardian predicted that Italy will lead the group with France in the second, Romania in third position and Holland will end up in misery with fourth position. But, the performance changed the position up side down and the predicted winners and runners are struggling to keep a foot on next round against predicted 3 positioned Romania.

In my last blog, I was discussing about Donadoni’s role in Italian team. After that blog, I saw his team losing to Holland and compromised with a draw against Romania. Interestingly, the group of death, for the time being, is an enigma. Very few predicted that Holland will end up as winners of the group. But they did it in a grand way. At present, all three teams in the death group still have a chance to make it to next round. I am not bothered about who will make it or not. But, interested to observe closely what happened to the World Cup winners and runners.

Donadoni achieved everything in the club level with AC Milan but never touched his peak in the international forums. He was a wonderful player in the midfield with never say die attitude, but luck was never on his side. In 2008 edition of Euro, Italy was under pressure of expectation but managed to reach convincingly in the final 16. But their first game against Holland was a disaster. They lost out to the Orange in all segments. Italian media started to call for the head of manager Donadoni. For me, it was the fate of Italian team, what ever they achieved was good and if they can manage little further, will be great.

If Italy’s failure on the pitch was fate, to France, it was height of stupidity. Both are in same boat and facing each other in the deciding day. Raymond Domenech is the same coach/manager who took the same team in the final of world cup against Italy in 2002. Apart from Zinedine Zidane, he had all other players who played in the world cup final were available to his disposal. Meanwhile, Donadoni, who was appointed as the manager after the world cup final, inherited an experienced and talented but aging team for Euro. His grave mistake was not finding new blood to refresh the team between the two year time and he paid heavy in the first game in Euro, where he used nine players who played in the world cup final.

Italy failed to find replacement for the aging team and they are reaping the result now. Italian football league is considered as one of the best in the world but for last few years, they failed to produce subsequent talent to replace the old players. Those players who won the world up started their career in mid 1990s and flourished and primed by 2006. But, between 2000 and 2008, one can see the talent pool is drying up very fast. We haven’t heard any promising Italian name like Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Fabregas, or a Fernando Torres. Instead of this, Italy produced Antonio Cassano, an only promising talent but ended up as the most misguided youth They failed to find a proper replacement for playmaker Francisco Totti and defending ace Alexandero Nesta. Donadoni cannot run away from this blame because he had two year to pick up alternatives and experiment them in the qualifying round and make them fit for the new challenge. His conservative approach doesn’t allowed him to do that and struck with the same team minus Totti, Nesta and Cannavaro. Yes, Cannavaro’s absence was accidental and it is difficult to prevent injury in football, but a manager’s ability is to foresee it and take precaution by keeping an alternative for him. Donadoni failed to find young strikers become crucial error for the team. Their dependence on ageing strikers Luca Toni and Alexander Del Piro proved that the team is not good enough to compete against young teams like Portugal and Dutch.

But, France –it was a real blend of stupidity and arrogance of Raymond Domenech. He was in charge of French team for more than 4 years and he managed to take them to the final of World cup against Italy. He managed to bring back the old glorified days of les blues in the world football in 2006. He had experienced players from the world cup winning team of 1998 and Euro winners of 2000 under his disposal and France produced a good number of talented players successfully playing in best clubs in Europe. Domenech had complete control over the team selection and he successfully managed to show his power to the players who challenged his credentials –Robert Pires etc. His major contribution –under question –is to reproduce the creativity with elegance of Zidane during the World Cup campaign. Apart from the performance of Zidane and Ribery, French team was absolute mediocre and they got a straight line of luck in the knock outs to reach final. They made proper blend of youthful players like Frank Ribery, Florent Maluda, Eric Abidal and M. Diarra with the experience of Henry, David Trezegue, Vierra, Turam etc of their world cup winning squad. But the brilliance of Zidane stood out in the world cup campaign and his contributions –experience and talent- took them to the final. Though, France introduced young blood in the campaign, they still relied more on the experience of players like Zidane, Henry, Vierra, Gallas, Turam and Makelele than the youngsters. But, the performance of Ribery and Maluda were outstanding and that helped them to create better chances reach in the final.

Domenech saw the ability and limitation of French team in World Cup campaign. He got another two years to prepare for the Euro 2008 and meanwhile, not like Italy, France turned out as a production house of more promising and outstanding young players. He could have used them in the qualifying rounds and make them sharp and effective for the finals of Euro. Instead of going for that, he struck with his stupid conservatism and used the ageing players in the key match against Romania and Holland. Against the young blood of Holland and Romania, the performance of the old legs of France was abysmal.  Dutch were best know for their attacking flair but have a very bad reputation on defense settings. France had quick wingers and fast strikers in Ben Arfa and Karim Benzema respectively who enjoyed a successful season in French league. Apart from Arfa and Benzema, France witnessed the emergence of talents in all segments with players like Samir Nasri, Partic Evra, Matheu Flamini, Lessana Diarra, Bacary Sagna, Jermey Toulalan, Philip Mexes, and Bafe Gomis. Instead of using them effectively against Romanian and Dutch defence, he decided to stick with the old squad which peaked in the world cup 2006. Interestingly, during the league season, everyone saw that the players like Florent Malouda and Eric Abidal started fading from their self and proved players like Vierra and Maklele were much far from their best. Instead of using fast and strong defenders to stop young attackers of Dutch and Romanians, he used Lilian Turam, the World cup winning hero of 1998 who is 36 now. Anelka, the Chelsea striker used in the first match was completely faded in the second half of the season and Henry, the most talented striker was struggling with injuries for last two years. Abundance of talent in the striking segment forced Domench not to select David Trezeguet, Djibril Cisse, Matheu Flamini and Gael Clichy in the last 23. There is no more explanation required for the failure of France. It is much larger than Italy. France had everything under their disposal but also had the stupidity and arrogance of Domenech.

France didn’t learn anything from their first match against Romania. They failed to create better scoring openings and their defense struggled to cope up against the fast Romanian strikers. If they changed the squad formation in the second match by using more young players in attack, of course –by removing ineffective players –they could have produced a better fight against Holland. France had everything to win the group but failed to utilize their own properties.

Still one among the three has equal chance to reach in the quarter finals and can’t predict who will be there. Nobody will write off Romania because they are enjoying a better position in the present table. If they manage a victory against Dutch –who will field a weakened side- can reach in the next 8 for quarter finals. I feel sorry for Italy but never feel sorry for France because it was stupidity and arrogance than ability of the team.

Just before Euro 2008, it is better to go through the profile of the managers than writing about the key players of Italy. Italy doesn’t have anything to prove. They did their best two years ago, won the World Cup in Germany. The team has everything which is required for a winning team. The squad will be almost same and their responsibilities are also…so what difference is there for this time?

It is Roberto Donadoni, the manager of the team. He succeeded Marcello Lippi –one of the most successful coaches of Italian club Juventus and Italy. Donadoni inherited a good squad from Lippi but expectation from the country is much higher than what Lippi had before winning world cup. Before World Cup, Italy was one among the good teams and very few expected that they will lift the cup. Now, they want to repeat what France did after 1998 world cup victory. They want to continue the run of success as long as then can. So, the pressure on Donadoni is also tremendous.

Credentials of Donadoni as a player won’t be challenged. For me, he was the most outstanding Italian player of Italia 90. Remember, that team had very big names like Gian Luka Viali, Franco Barezi, Roberto Bagio, Salvatore Schilachi etc but the best performance come out from Donadoni, who played in the midfield, who controlled the rhythm of the game. The wind of luck was not with Italy that time, and there was another great footballer controlling the crucial game against Italy in the Semi Finals –Diago Maradona. Donadoni hit the post once during normal time and failed to convert the spot kick during the shootout time. Italy lost the cup and Maradona lost his rich football life there…the rest is history. He appeared in 1994 world cup in which Italy finished in second position, but was not the same player of 1990. Donadoni had a luminous and long career with AC Milan and he was the cog in the wheel of Milan midfield which had the most successful period. He left Milan in 1996 and had a small stint with Metro Stars of MLS in US. He returned to Milan in 1997 and helped his club to win Serie A title and ended his career as a player with Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia.

Selecting a manager is not a joke in football. Before appointing a person as the manager of the national team, especially in a football nation like Italy, authorities has to think several times about the credentials of the person. Italy, not like England, produced a handful of successful managers and names like Arigo Saachi, Fabio Capello, Trapatoni etc. are good enough to impress any selection panel. Still the selection of Donadoni as the manager of Italian national team was a big surprise to football world. More surprise was the hesitation of the most successful and experienced managers like Cesare Maldini, Giovani Trapatoni, Carlos Anchalotti, Arrigo Saachi and Fabio Capello to that post. They were not ready to take up the challenge with the same Italian team who won the World Cup. So, Italian Football Federation decided to appoint a fresher who holds enough credentials to continue the achievements. Regarding this appointment, Italian Football Federation's then vice-president Demetrio Albertini commented that "we decided to gamble on a young man who could become truly great." They picked up Donadoni who successfully managed some middle level clubs in Serie A. He helped Livorno to reach in Serie A from lower league and Genoa to reach in upper half of the Serie A in 2003-04 season.  

The real litmus test for Donadoni was awaiting and he had a baptism in fire with the first match in the qualifying round of Euro 2008. On 2^nd September 2006, Italy faced Lithuania and compromised with a draw in the home match. Next match, just after few days, on 6^th September, Italy lost to France in the away leg and score was 3-1. It was a big blow for the world champions and media, fans and football pundits started crying for his removal. But, authorities stood with him at least for the time being and demanded a better performance of the team. Next month, Italy faced Ukraine at home and Georgia in the away match and the World Champions made a wonderful come back by defeating both teams with a comfortable margin. In the qualifying round, they expected tough opposition from former world champions France and Scotland and there was no question of finishing in the third position. Exactly after one year, on 8^th September 2007, Donadoni’s Italy faced France in the second leg at Milan, where he enjoyed his best days in career.  This was considered as the turning point of Italy’s easy walk to the Euro 2008. They couldn’t defeat France but managed a goalless draw and that was enough to take them to the top spot of the qualifying round. His team won 9 matches out of 12 and compromised with draw in two and lost one. Mean while, France struggled against Scotland and ended up in the second position by 8 win, 2 draw and 2 lost matches.

Achievement in the qualifying round helped Donadoni to keep his critics mouth shut. Euro is a different ball game for any team. In the qualifying round, they had only two tough opponents and other five were comparatively small teams who haven’t proved anything in football map. From frying pan to burning fire –proverb become absolutely right in the case of Donadoni and Italy when they drew with teams like France, Netherlands and Romania in Group C. Pundits consider this group as a death group where three teams were former champions in earlier editions of Euro. Third edition of Euro in 1968, Italy hosted the tournament and ended up as the champions by defeating Yugoslavia in a reply final.  Apart from 1968, Italy hosted another Euro in 1980, just before winning World Cup in 1982, but failed to reach in the final two. Italy managed to reach in the finals second time only in the Euro edition of 2000 hosted jointly by Belgium and Holland. There they lost of 1998 World Cup holders France in an extra time golden goal. Within six years from there, Italy achieved the top most position –world champion and looking to repeat the stride of France during 1998-2000.

Along with a heavy burden of expectation, Donadoni also inherited a high potential team from Marcello Lippi, which has a good composition of experience and youthfulness. Retirement of legendry Maldini, who played along with Donadoni in two world cups, and in Milan too, and playmaker Francisco Totti, who retired from international football just after their world cup victory, remains a huge gap in the team. Donadoni is expected to fill that gap with experience of Alessandro Del Piero, Fabio Cannavaro and Gennaro Guttoso. The performance of the team in the qualifying round provides enough to expect in the bigger stage. Performance of one late bloomer, Luca Toni Varchella Della Cave -30 year old striker currently playing for Bayern Munich, lifts confidence of Italian side and he is expected to be playing along with Alessandro Del Piro or Antonio De Natale. Donadoni has showed the public that he is willing to take risk by including Antonio Cassano in the team.

Azzurri was one of the first team reached in the finals of Euro 2008 through qualifying round. Apart from expectation factor, Donadoni require a huge amount of luck to win the tournament. Ability is not a question for Italian team, but getting the best performance out of the team is the key concern for a manager. This is a chance for Donadoni to achieve something with national team in his career. Twice his team became the victim of shootouts, and penalty shootout will be his last option this time. His experience in semifinals of 1990 and finals of 1994 world cup will definitely demand his players not to take the game to shootout and finish it in natural time.

Totti and Maldini were expected absence but injury to Cannavaro in the training session in Switzerland made a big blow to the blue shirts. He was the key player who drilled the Italian defense successfully in the world cup finals. He was the most influential player in the world cup squad and everyone expected same performance from him in Euro 2008. Still, fate is staring, not at Italian team, at Donadoni –the under achiever of Italy. If he can get the team back to the best …without any doubt, he will be the real legendry Azzurri.

Champions League: Chelsea is in pole position

If somebody say this few weeks back, the response will be either exclamatory or rejection. But last Saturday, the match between Chelsea and Manchester United changed all equations. Now the question is who will take the league title and who will reach in the final of Champions League. A couple of weeks back, United was in an amazing form and their players were doing very well. Injury crisis was considerably low to the squad and form of the squad was at peak. Suddenly, we saw the defensive partnership between Rio Ferdinand and Vidic were departed due to injury to the later. This affected their prospectus in the away match of Champions league Semi-finals against Barcelona. Then they lost to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last week and also lost two key players, Rooney and Vidic, for the next match, which is the second leg of Champions League.

Meanwhile, Chelsea slowly picked up their form in between started showing their abilities against big teams. Their lost to Spurs in the Carling Cup final was the low patch and after that they gained enough confidence to face strong opponents. They defeated Arsenal and Manchester United in the league and gained a 1-1 draw at Anfield against Liverpool. One away goal is certainly an advantage to a team like Chelsea. They have better chance to go further and grab the trophy this time.

Liverpool, who mastered in Champions League are facing a tough task. Rafael Benitez, the manager of Liverpool is known as the master of Champions League and he took his team to success three years ago and also took them to the finals of last year against AC Milan. Credentials of Benitez is much higher than his opponent Avram Grant of Chelsea. Still, the depth of the squad, advantage in the first leg, form of players etc. supports Chelsea. Against Arsenal, Liverpool had same advantage which is troubling him against Chelsea. Arsenal had better attacking unit but their defense was very poor. Though, Arsenal had a slight advantage in the first leg, they lost out to Liverpool in second leg, just because of their poor defense performance and inexperience of squad. While, Chelsea has all those things which was lacking with Arsenal. Their squad is experienced, mid field is good enough to attach any team and equally good to come down and support the defense. Defense unit of Chelsea is much stronger than Arsenal and they have few players who can play in any position and get result. Apart from these, Chelsea hasn’t lost any home match for quiet long time at Stamford Bridge.

So, the second leg semi-finals between Chelsea and Liverpool will be more comfortable to Chelsea. They will have a full strength squad which includes Frank Lampard and Michel Essien who were missing in the last match against United. Influence of in-form Ballack will add more woes to Liverpool. Within last three years, Liverpool and Chelsea faced each other in the semi-finals of Champions league twice and in both occasions, Liverpool was successful. This time, things are not going in favour to Liverpool and they lost their golden chance to keep an upper hand on the second leg by losing one goal advantage.

Pundits like Alen Hansen also started saying Chelsea have better chance in this year against Liverpool. But, he still believes that United is the best team and they will manage to defeat Barcelona in the second leg and reach in the finals in Moscow. Yes, they were stronger and favorites in the beginning of April. But, their two draws in the EPL and CL raising some question marks on the ability of the squad on big occasions. Sir Alex is a seasoned campaigner and shrewd manager with enough experience in top level. Still, the incidents occurred in the match against Chelsea and injury of Wayne Rooney and Vidic creates much worries for United. Their goalless draw at Nou Camp was not a great result for a team like United. It was Barca’s terrain but like Arsenal, Barcelona is also badly known for their fragile defense. There, Manchester United failed to gain a goal matters a lot in the second leg. Barcelona possess a very strong attacking unit and their players like Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto’o, and Therry Henry. Absence of Ronaldinho will be a big relief for United but Barca found another lethal weapon in Bojan, who is capable in getting goal from difficult positions.

In the second leg, Manchester has to face few unwanted things. One is dipping form of Christiano Ronaldo –the most influential players of United for long time. His penalty miss in the first leg of CL last week raises few questions about his ability to show up in big occasions. Injury of Wayne Rooney will be a big problem for their attack, but this lose will be much more for overall team performance. Rooney is known as an effective striker but his performance never ends with getting goals. He is the first person who retracts down to the pitch to support his defenders and also wins balls from the opposition midfielders. In his absence, United are losing one most influential players on pitch. If United makes any mistake in the match, I am sure they will badly punished by Barcelona. United are still in the fight of English league Championship and Barcelona is completely out from the race. Champions League will remain as the last hope for a silver ware for this season for Barcelona. So, they will do their best to gain it and most probably they will reach in Moscow against Chelsea.

If Chelsea wins Semi-Final against Liverpool, Avram Grant will achieve what his predecessor failed to reach. But he should be thankful to Jose Mourinho and Claudio Ranierri, from whom he received this existing squad. Michel Ballack will be key player to open up the game against Liverpool tomorrow and he will remain as the key player for upcoming games. Still, Chelsea can land up the double this time but it is better to focus on one, which especially eluded them for quiet long time. I still believe, Manchester United will remain in the top of Premier League and Chelsea will either lose a point of will lose out to United on goal average.

Chelsea against Manchester: Experience counts a lot, especially for gifted players

Until yesterday evening, nobody was raising any question about the ability of Manchester United in lifting league championship this season. The result made it wide open once again. Chelsea beat United for 2-1 and equalized the points in the top order. Arsenal lost out in the run few weeks back and Liverpool, who is in the fourth place, is no where near to challenge the title. Football is like this, something amazing… till the end, you have to wait for the proper result.

There is something to learn from this match. Which is applicable to the third positioned Arsenal too. From the beginning of the season, most of the pundits suggested that this time it will be a three horse race for the league title and the teams will be Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool. This was based on the strength of the existing teams and the talent and capabilities of new recruitments. But, beginning onwards, it was completely wrong and another team who were not in the picture during the projections, appeared in the first place and hold that position till January end. They achieved more than they expected… that was the common notion among the pundits.

When Arsenal had six points lead over second placed Manchester United in January and Chelsea were struggling in the third position, Sir Alex predicted that the raise is still on and biggest threat will be Chelsea than Arsenal. There are only two more match remaining for the title and his prediction comes true. What were the components forced Alex Ferguson to make such prediction at that time and how it becomes true? This article is looking into such facts.

In January 2008, when Manchester United closed their gap with Arsenal in the top, Ferguson said, they will definitely reach in the top spot and most probably the closest challenge will come not from Arsenal and it will be from Chelsea. But, next week, EPL saw, Arsenal gained few more points and gained a better margin. Ferguson was not shaken and he stood on his same opinion. He was waiting for the blip of Arsenal and in next couple of weeks, it occurred. When the crucial matches piled up on one side and injury list become long on other, Arsenal crumbled and by the end of March, they lost everything and started struggling for third place.

Now, it is the time for Manchester United, and Ferguson perhaps has to eat his own words. Couple of weeks back, United were in a comfortable position with a good margin of 4 points above Chelsea. But the draw against Blackburn Rovers and lose against Chelsea put them equal in point to Chelsea and still enjoying advantage in number of goals scored. Why this happened and how Chelsea got that advantage?

Answer was there in the wall. When Sir Alex predicted that the real fight will be between United and Chelsea, he also clarified why he thinks so. It was purely based on squad strength and experience of players in big matches. Both, United and Chelsea holds the best squads in the league, with most talented players who also have enough experience. They were very particular in strengthening their squad by acquiring the best from market every year. Liverpool did it this time but they lost their momentum in between and lost their sight from League title and started concentrating on Champions League.

Apart from Arsenal, Chelsea, United and Liverpool plays for winning the match and their priority it to get 3 points out of it rather than playing beautifully on pitch. United merged strength, practical approach and technique in their games but Chelsea were more pragmatic and tried to win the match without much flare. All clubs puts their priority in winning the matches, but when market intervenes in the game, they have to entertain their supporters too. United were successful in maintaining both but Chelsea found several times they were in the false end where supporters are not interested in their home matches. Roman Abrahamovich, the owner of Chelsea built the team on his millions but later realized it is difficult to keep the attention of viewers on the game without an attractive and impressive game format. This was one of the key reason forced him to chuck Jose Mourinho out from the club and replace him with Avaram Grant. He tried his best but result was not that promising.

Beyond the attractive passing football, Chelsea had everything which a team requires. They had the best talent from all over the world. Each position, they had back ups and most of them were good enough to play in any best team in any country. Only suspicion was about the experience of Grant in Premier League. He was new and was not known for his managerial capabilities and experience with big clubs. Sir Alex were watching two things, how Grant will recover the success touch of Chelsea and how he will handle the absence of African players who will be away when African Nations cup take place. There was a blip in the transition period but Grant stabilized the team on the path of success. He was not successful to produce the beautiful football but managed to overcome the absence of African players in January.

Meanwhile, Arsenal was flourishing with its young talent and keeping its control on first place from the beginning. Sir Alex was very much sure that Arsenal will do wonders with the team but it is not enough to keep up the fight till the end. Before the beginning of the season, when all pundits wrote off Arsenal from major challenges, Ferguson was adamant that they will come up and give good fight to United and Chelsea. He said, they have a very good young team and they gained enough experience in the last year and of course, they have a good manager to make them successful. Only fault Wenger, the manager of Arsenal did was his adamant position to not strengthening the team with new recruits. He sold off his best player Therry Henry to Barcelona and allowed key player like Lung Berg to leave the team. The fragile defense was a real question mark from the beginning of the season. They possessed a first team which was capable to defeat any best opponent but they failed to find back up in crucial places when injury and disciplinary actions created holes in the team. Defense was over stretched and Midfield replacements become a big issue during February. African cup added more vows to the team when they lost their key defensive players like Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue and Alexander Song.

Here comes the advantage of a big squad which Chelsea and United holds. African cup schedule was the time which Sir Alex was waiting as defining movement. He saw how Arsenal crumbled down from the first position and lost out in key matches. Absence of Toure, injuries of key players like Eduardo, Rosisky, Van Persie, Denilson, and Bacary Sagna proved that the squad strength of Arsneal was not enough keep up the fight.

On the other hand, United brought three for four players in the beginning of the season and strengthen its squad. They spend handsome amount to acquire Nani and Anderson from Portugal club along with Over Hargraves and Carlos Tavez, two most trusted and experienced talents. Injury of some players didn’t bother them at all during this season. Replacements performed better than their first team players and extremely brilliant form of Christiano Ronaldo helped them to compete in all big cups. They were never bothered about the injury of players like Gary Nevelle and Silvestor in defense and Louis Saha in attack. African cup didn’t bother them because they didn’t had any African national player in their team. So, Sir Alex was sure, when the time demands more from teams, his team will get advantage.

But, Sir Alex was not wrong in the assessment on Chelsea’s capability and its squad strength. Under the management of Avram Grant, they lost out in Carling cup final against Tottenham Hotspurs but they never lost in the premier league. They kept their team intact and performed well when they lost a good number of African players for Nations Cup. The expected blip didn’t happen and the team gained more experience in the absence of key players like John Obe Mickel, Michel Essien, Salomon Kolou and their key striker Dider Drogba. Instead of making lose in this time, they made advantage by bringing back the most experienced player like Michel Ballack in to form.

I may say, it was Chelsea, not Manchester United made the decisive blow to Arsenal in the league. They defeated them in the most crucial time and kicked them out from league and that forced them to move out from Champions League. Against Chelsea, Arsenal lost its best and most crucial player of the season Bacary Sagna to injury. Depletion of squad was the key reason of failure of Arsenal but advantage of Chelsea against Manchester is not only squad strength, it was experience of big players.

Decisive movement for Chelsea was the return of Michel Ballack from his long injury off. He has never won a Champions League but played in the final which lost to Real Madrid, especially to the wonder goal of Zineden Zidane. It was his heroic performance put Bayer Leverkusen in the finals of Champions League and he become German player of the year for three times. Apart from the experience of big players in big time, other elements were equal to both Chelsea and Manchester United. Both were still fighting in the Champions league to reach final and both team decided to keep their key players from the starting eleven.

English Premier League has two more matches to go to find its champion. If both, Manchester and Chelsea manage to win the remaining two matches, the title will be decided over goal average, where United enjoys a clear upper-hand. Both can’t afford any more blip of form in any circumstances. Champions League victory will be a bonus for both team but Liverpool and Barcelona have equal chance to reach in the final. One thing is sure, strength of squad is must but if it is with experience players, it is an added bonus.

Playing at the age of 42 is not a usual thing in football world. Very few people achieved that and Romario, who hanged his boots yesterday, reached that position. Thank you Romario...

We still remember 1992 World Cup in United States, your quick turn and attempt for a goal against powerful AC Milan in the European Cup final, in which your Barcelona - Johan Cryuff's dream team -lost. Romario achieved everything in his career. He was the key figure in the world cup winning team, he was in the league winning team in Spain, he played for the best teams in Europe and Brazil.

Yes, this pocket dynamo has the ability to attract all kinds of controversies along with him. He was kicked out of the team for different reasons, more to do nothing with football and his ability. Still his achievement is incredible.

In present football, it is very difficult to complete 10 successful years in top form. He surpassed 20 years. Remember, many fine footballers were forced to stop their career before the reached the age of 30. Reasons vary, but playing after 30 is more taxing in football, especially in top form and in top team. Romario was a striker, who generally finishes their career earlier than midfielders and defenders or will move to less known clubs to continue. Romario also has gone through that patch but the year 2005 was furitful and he scored 22 times for Vasco, the club where he started his career, and ended up as the top scorer of the season.

He was in the Brazilian World cup team of 1990 but failed to impress his manager. 1994, it was he who did the maximum for his team to achieve the ultimate glory in football. Injury forced him to move out from 1998 world cup team and tussle between manager (Scolari) and player put him out of the team from 2002 team. Interestingly, he was touching 40 during 2006 world cup, there were enough supports for Romario to include in the Brazil team. His top scoring form of 2005 made such an impact among the supporters.

There was a story about the talent hunt of Barcelona. Johan Cryuff was the manager and he was looking for two players who should have some special abilities. He was looking for a player who have incredible finishing ability and can terrorize the opponents in their penalty box. Another one, he was looking for, was a player who can hit from any angle with leather dead ball skills. He found Romario in the first category who can score goal from a half chance. Another player who proved his skills was Hristo Stoichkov, who proved it in 1998 world cup against Germany.

Very few players played in such form in late 30s and early 40s. Teddy Sheringham struggled to keep his form till 40 but he played in Premier League teams and i remember Roger Milla, who did a remarkable job at his late 30 and early 40s when he played in 1990 and 1994 world cups. But, in consistency, Romario stands miles ahead of them. Good bye Romario.

Arsenal: Season is melting down???

Draw in the last four league matches –especially against mid-table teams, growing injury list, lack of ideas, struggling defense, and drying strikers. Arsenal’s season is melting down from incredible expectations. Their victory against AC Milan was good enough to celebrate but league form made them to lose their five point advantage against Manchester United and after the last draw against Middle borough put them in the second position with equal point of third positioned Chelsea.

Arsenal’s position in the top was an unexpected result in the beginning. Pundits in media projected their position in between four to six for this season but from the beginning the stood in the lead role with a small gap in December. Why they reached in the top position and why and how they are losing that place in the league table..

Pre season preparations

Generally the two month –June & July –is considered as the preparation period for every clubs. For the last three years, Arsenal is finishing in the lower order of first four and the last two years they failed to achieve a single trophy too. In Arsene Wenger, they have an experienced manager who managed them for last 10 odd years and lifted a couple of trophies. Still they become an under achievers in the last four seasons. Financial burden due to their new stadium construction could be one of the reason but more things are to be addressed.

For nearly six years, Arsenal is one club in the top order who spent least money in the transfer market. The emergence of Chelsea and their spending power put all other clubs, except Manchester United, in trouble. To counter this high level spending, Arsenal adopted a different method by investing in very young talented players who comes for pretty cheap money. Stalwarts like Patrick Vierra, Denis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Edu, Sol Campbell, Freddie Lungberg, Jermine Alidiare, Antonio Reyes, Ashley Cole and Therry Henry left the club. Arsenal didn’t fill this gap by poaching best talents from the same league or other places. Investment during last five years were minimal, still they managed a team with their small but young talented players and kept position in the first four places.

Pundits make their predictions according to the spending power of the club, poaching of best talent, change of management in the clubs etc. With these parameters, it is difficult to place Arsenal in the first five teams in any list. In the beginning of current season, Manchester took the lead in spending for players followed by Liverpool and Chelsea. Interestingly Chelsea took a back seat this year because of some hostile relationship between the team manager and club management. On the other hand, Arsenal lost their best ever player-Therry Henry –to Barcelona and didn’t spend equal money to find another player in that position. They brought Brazil born Croatian striker Eduardo and young French full back Bakari Sagna and invested some money for a third choice goal keeper.

When Henry left, everyone expected that Wenger will enter into market to pick up the best established strikers from some clubs. But he went for Eduardo, who was little known to the Europe. When players like Vierra, Bergkamp, Pires, and Campbell left the club, it wa