Euro 2009 for the ladies, a mouthwatering clash in the World Cup qualifiers to look forward to, and controversial decisions from footballs governing bodies all feature on this week’s Good, bad and Ugly.
Good
While most eyes are on the World Cup qualifiers, followers of the women’s game are enjoying a great Euro 2009 tournament taking place in Finland. In this competition, England’s women put in a strong performance against the hosts beating them 2-3 to reach a semi-final game against the Netherlands. Eniola Aluko scored two for England, including a fantastic strike after a mazy dribble. Check out the goals here. Good for England and good for women’s football. Italy play Germany and Norway play Sweden in the other two quarter finals.
It has not happened yet but a match between Brazil and Argentina is always a good thing in world football. Dunga’s Brazil are in a fairly comfortable positon at the top of the South American World Cup qualifying group while Argentina need some points to get back into contention. The match takes place in Rosario as Maradona wants maximum atmosphere for his players. And of course we get a chance to see Kaka, Robinho, Messi, Aguero among others. Can’t wait.
Bad
Chelsea have been left reeling after FIFA banned them from signing players for two transfer windows. The sanction came after it was found that in 2007 Chelsea had signed Gaël Kakuta, then aged 16, despite the fact that he was under contract for Lens at the time. The player has also been The London side will have to hope that the ban is overturned or reduced after appeal, as if they pick up injuries to their squad over the coming months they will be unable to sign any replacements. They may also find it hard to find replacements when many of their squad leave for the African Cup of Nations in January. Bad for the London team, but perhaps good that money doesn’t always get you what you want.
It was a bad week for London rivals Arsenal as not only did they lose to Manchester United in bizarre circumstances they also had manager Arsene Wenger sent to the stand after he kicked a bottle in disgust at a referee’s decison. Wenger then complained that Manchester United’s tactics were ruining football which suggests that he has a short memory or simply is a bad loser.
Stupid
UEFA’s two match suspension of Eduardo has opened a can of worms. He was found guilty of simulation – or trying to deceive the refree into making a decision: in this case the award of a penalty. Usually the referee’s word is final and UEFA steps in when the referee misses something on the pitch, such as an off the ball incident, but here they decided to look at an incident that had already been dealt with. So now can we expect UEFA to ban players for appealing for a foul when none occurred, accusing someone of diving when they didn’t, asking for a penalty when there was no case for one… the list goes on. A very stupid decision.
Ugly
After last week’s trouble between West Ham and Millwall fans, this week saw tempers flare between players from local rivals Derby and Nottinghm Forest in the Championship. Forest won the game and the striker, Nathan Tyson, celebrated by waving a corner flag in front of the losing-side support causing the Derby players to react angrily. Not so much ugly as stupid.
That situation with Chelsea is really going to be bad for the club if the appeal does not help. Players are getting old and also with the African Nations Cup situation, they really need to get more young players in. That requires time to allow any new players to develop an understanding. Guess it’s a real test now to determine if they have enough young talent coming through the academy.
True but does anyone really have any sympathy for Chelsea? Or Man Utd? Or Arsenal?
I think we may to learn to live with these controversial decisions – this is just a start I think.