The Footy Blog

Equatorial Guinea started the competition with an emotional win over Libya last Saturday. Seven other games followed, after which the first round of games ended. One Zambian fan, not much in tune with the football, was surprised his team were to play again so soon.

“Why we playing today? Yesterday was group D, right? When’s group E??” he tweeted.

Someone picked it up and responded with the joke of the moment: “Group E is the Group of Death”: Nigeria, SA, Egypt, Cameroon – so dead they never made it!”
As funny as it was, it mirrors the general feeling that perhaps the games would have been more exciting had those four been in the mix.

I disagree.
Read the rest of this entry »

Geovanny Caicedo

The Lead

Toronto FC hosted their Media Day yesterday, in which grown men are forced to wear full-kits in front of a slew of reporters asking rote questions. However, TFC one-upped Bayern Munich by using the occasion to unveil a new signing (not an app). Meet Geovanny Caicedo! Here’s a Wiki entry. And here’s a horribly grainy YouTube video. Outside of that, as Duane Rollins points out, we don’t know much:

So, don’t shoot the messenger (that would be me) for telling everyone to take a deep breath. There have been promising signings before. We simply don’t know enough about Caicedo to judge whether he’s the guy to finally plug the hole in TFC’s back-line. We will at least need to see him play against MLS competition first.

Fair. What else did we learn from #TFCMediaDay? A good update on the Jonathan De Guzman to Canada news. Apparently he’s meeting with Canadian national team coach Stephen Hart this week to discuss coming aboard. Hoilett schmoilett for now!

As for the rest, TFC are close to signing Chilean full-back Miguel Aceval. And overall, everyone left feeling the warm-and-fuzzies about the team’s prospects this season. As Molinaro writes, Aron Winter is doubling down this season with no ready-at-hand excuses this year:

“Last season was a false start, because the moment we arrived … we didn’t have a very strong roster. This season was very good start. We have done a great job in the off-season (of signing and scouting players),” Winter said.

Which means now of course Toronto expects. And if Winter doesn’t deliver, we’re right back to where we started from…

Canada

Another lengthy Media Day wrap here.

Ben Rycroft wonders if Christine Sinclair is Canada’s best player, ever.

Residency prospect Ben Fisk impresses in training for Vancouver Whitecaps.

Do-or-die tonight for Canada. But honestly if we can’t win this one we don’t deserve to go, and other redundant sentences.
Read the rest of this entry »

Follow @rwhittall

Some quick hits late in the day.

DTotD: Vincent Kompany and the perils of running backwards (via Dirty Tackle) Vincent Kompany falls over a bag during training. Perhaps City could have used this vid in defense of Balotelli falling backward over Scott Parker.

The worst ever pretend injury (via FitbaThatba) This is…amazing. Equatorial Guinea’s very aptly named Narcisse Ekanga flops around like a git to get the refs attention. This is why the non-soccer people hate us.

Has the transfer market become self-aware? (via TheFCF) Have I said Andi Thomas is a genius? Well he is. Thomas Dobby, this one’s for you…

Follow @rwhittall

Based on his interview with City police.

Football Association Representative: Well Mr. Redknapp, it’s a delight to meet you in person and discuss what must represent for you a wonderful cornerstone to your storied managerial career.

Harry Redknapp: My accountant runs my life. My wage slips go straight to him.

FA Rep: Ha ha, now Harry—can I call you Harry?—let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Between you and I it’s likely a formality, but we need to go through the motions at least. For the record. So what would be your primary goal as England manager?

HR: I can’t spell.

FA Rep: Right. I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll mark that down here in your file. Spelling of course never won a European Championship! Although it did win Qatar their World Cup bid. Should have written a ‘b’ there instead of an ‘m’ on that cheque.

HR: I am completely and utterly disorganised.

FA Rep: Ahem, um…well of course, that’s part of what makes watching Tottenham so enjoyable! Won’t matter at all. Hmm. Do you mind if I make a quick phone call?

HR: I’m the most disorganised person in the world.

FA Rep: Well then, the whole world! Do they keep records of that sort of thing? Only joking. Listen I feel I really must make an urgent phone call. Do you happen to have Martin O’Neill’s cellphone on that cracked Nokia you’ve taped to the outside of your coat?

HR: I write like a two-year-old.

FA Rep: Well even a two-year-old can sign this disclaimer form that swears we never spoke. The secretary will see you out.

HR: I pay my accountant a fortune to look after me.

FA Rep: Is that him in that car there pointing to his watch? Ta ta Harry!

Follow @rwhittall

Walter Mazzarri has been slapped with a two-match ban by UEFA, meaning Napoli will be without their 1980′s jacket rockin’ Tinkerman for both legs against Chelsea. Well that’s not good for the Italian side, now is it.

Mazzarri was sent off during his side’s 2-0 win at Villarreal for that shove on Nilmar on the touchline, as he got frustrated with the Brazilian’s time-wasting tactics.

Mazzarri later said he hoped he would spark a reaction from his squad, who were on the verge of crashing out had they settled for a scoreless draw.

Napoli plan to appeal the decision. It would be a shame if his absence really plays a deciding role in the tie. Most fans would guess that Napoli should be the favourites, given Chelsea’s recent form.

The first leg is in Naples on February 21st, while Chelsea have the group winner’s advantage of having the last leg at Stamford Bridge on March 14th.

Follow @brendan_dunlop

This photo’s making the rounds on Twitter, along with outrage over the fact the Time didn’t put one of the greatest players of the world’s most popular game on the cover of their US edition.

I know soccer fans in North America often have a persecution complex, and I agree that it’s toothless for Time to put a lead article on “shyness” on the cover of the mag instead of a story on one of the greatest athletes of his generation. But what would it mean for soccer’s growth in North America to have Lionel Messi’s picture on the cover with an accompanying story?

Nothing.

In the last few years Time has already trimmed down the feature length and the number of features to make space for more ads and splashier headlines. It’s middle brow commuter fare. A large picture of a relative nobody in the US along with several thousand words isn’t going to do much to win soccer converts in the US.

So yes, it’s unfortunate editors no longer have the balls to tell readers something they don’t know. But expecting a magazine that sells copies with headlines wondering “Who was the real Jesus of Nazareth?” to do so is pie-in-the-sky, and even if they did, it would do little to raise soccer’s profile in America.

Follow @rwhittall

Why is Jonny Evans frowning? He must have heard your phone calls today.

It’s Thursday, which means this was YOUR podcast. Every Thursday is ‘Ave Your Say Thursday on THE FOOTY SHOW Podcast. With James & KJ down at TFC Media Day, Thomas Dobby, Richard Whittall and Brendan Dunlop took YOUR calls and tweets.

There were a lot of questions asked about Manchester United and Tottenham, we talk a bit more about El Clasico, pray the Carlos Tevez saga will end soon and get our first f-bomb in a voicemail.

Subscribe to the show on iTunes I Download the .mp3 directly

If you haven’t already, become a fan of our facebook page

THE FOOTY SHOW Podcast is available Monday-Thursday here on The Footy Blog & on iTunes

Follow @brendan_dunlop

James Sharman + Kristian Jack discuss the fallout from the latest El Clasico & KJ’s black book serves up a tasty Serie A stat.

And if you want to subscribe to theScoreTV YouTube channel, click here!

Follow @rwhittall

So Carlos Tevez is not joining Paris Saint-Germain this month, despite the French club briefing reporters that an agreement had been reached for the player with his club, Manchester City; David Beckham is not coming too, again after leaks within PSG suggested a deal had been done; and nor is Alex Pato, who on the day PSG were all set announce his arrival, committed his future to AC Milan.

And yet this January has still gone rather well for PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi, who last week gave a job to Laurent Platini, son of Uefa president Michel, as an in-house lawyer to manage ownership vehicle Qatar Sports Investment’s European business interests. The reason is not so much new coach Carlo Ancelotti’s back-to-back wins, or the arrival of Maxwell, the only new face so far, to boost the defence.

No, it concerns Al-Khelaifi’s other major role, as president of Al-Jazeera Sport, which this week landed the last of the TV rights up for grabs from the French football league. The Doha-based channel bought a package of six simultaneous Ligue 1 games to be shown on pay-per-view, leaving Canal Plus with just two Ligue 1 games to show per week between 2012 and 2016. The league rejected Canal Plus’s revenue-share scheme and instead preferred Al-Jazeera’s straight-cash deal, for an as-yet unknown amount, for the final package.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s official! The TFC press release:

Toronto FC announced Thursday that the club has signed defender Richard Eckersley. As per team and league policies, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Signing Richard was a very high offseason priority, our team has worked tirelessly to ensure he would be returning,” said Toronto FC Head Coach and Technical Director, Aron Winter. “This signing represents another successful step in our off season progress as a club. Richard is an important player for our club. We know our fans will be excited to see Richard on the pitch.”

Eckersley, 22, came to Toronto FC on loan from Burnley on April 15, 2011. In his first season with Toronto FC, Eckersley started in 22 of the 23 league matches he feautred in. Eckersley was part of the club’s third straight Voyageurs Cup win during the 2011 Nutrilite Canadian Championship; where he appeared in all four matches for Toronto. The defender also made six appearances for the club during CONCACAF Champions League.

So, what we knew was almost certainly going to happen just happened. Ta da!

Follow @rwhittall