18 yards - soccer news

Just a quick post to highlight a recently launched Canadian soccer site. It focuses on Serie A but also on the upcoming Euro 2008 competition, Toronto FC and the Canadian national side. I’m always glad to see sites that focus on Serie A as it’s my favourite league. There’s some good content already and I’d expect it to grow rapidly!

Check it out at www.serieasoccer.com.

I lost a huge amount of respect for Nani over this incident, although Neil should’ve done better too. They both honestly look like a pair of school girls. Seems like Nani has been spending a fair amount of time at the Christiano Ronaldo school of acting. Makes it hard to tell your friends that soccer is a man’s game when stuff like this happens in the premier leagues. Almost as bad as the Rivaldo effort, or the Dida one. Might be time for me to make a compilation of these, so if you can think of any others just add a comment!

Inter had a chance to win the Scudetto for the third time running as well as defeat their bitter rivals in the local derby but it seems that Milan’s hunger for the last Champion’s League spot was greater.

The first 60 minutes were pretty much all Milan, they attacked Inter furiously and Kaka’ was causing a lot of problems for the make-shift defensive. Milan put themselves ahead shortly after the restart as Inzaghi continued his great form of late with another goal. Five minutes later, who else but Kaka’ doubled the score. Inter finally woke up and turned the tables on their rivals. Now they were attacking with everything they had and even though Cruz managed to pull one back with a lovely curling free kick, 15 minutes from time. It wasn’t quite enough as Milan held on for all three points.

So Inter only has three points between themselves and Roma although I’m pretty sure they’re safe in the head-to-head result which would decide things if they were on equal points. Nonetheless, Inter can’t afford to lose the last two games!

Here are some extended highlights, enjoy!

Decided to find a bunch of soccer ads as there are some pretty cool ones out there.

First up is a new Nike one posted by ric-s on ballhype. Not all that particularly entertaining, just thought I’d add it cause it’s new.

Next is a really creative Umbro one. I won’t give too much away but it’s fairly well done.

An oldie but a goodie. This is a Nike ad from probably ten years ago. Funny to see some old faces that either haven’t been seen for a while or are still around but when they were young.

Then there’s the old pepsi ad where the Sumo’s play the pepsi all-stars (R.Carlos, Beckham, Raul, Davids, Buffon, etc.) for an esky full of cold pepsi’s.

This one below has Fabregas suited up to juggle a ball that’s on fire, while being alight himself. I have to question the point of this one but it did look pretty cool when he volleyed it into the net, haha. Found this one over at the beautiful game.

There’s another really good one that won’t let me embed so you’ll need to check it out here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqm5zavFlM0 to see it. It’s the Brazilian Selecao warming up before a game. Quality juggling and this is the long version, about 2.5 minutes.

Finally, last but not least is another new Nike one and all I can say is it’s simply awesome. Posted by MVNsoccer on ballhype. Enjoy!

So Inter hosted Cagliari tonight and saw them off with a 2-1 win. Although Roma can technically still catch them, Inter just need one more win to grab their third consecutive Scudetto. It won’t be an easy win next week though as the play out the Milan derby. I dare say Milan will be more hungry to win as they need every point they can to leapfrog Fiorentina and get some Champion’s league action next season. Kaka’ is back from injury and on fire much like the revitalised Inzaghi who bagged a hat-trick tonight against Livorno and also set up Seedorf for the last goal.

Balotelli seems to have secured a first team spot for the moment with inspired performances and Zlatan still injured. It was Cruz and Materazzi that scored the goals in tonight’s game but Super Mario was involved in most of the action early on. I think if he continues to get doses of regular football he will mature into a great striker for Inter. I found a video about him called “best of the next gen” and embedded it below. It’s a bit early for any predictions but I see him up there with Pato, Walcott, and the other young Milan striker I forget the name of at the moment. Paloschi was it? Oh well, enjoy.

It seems that finally Ronaldo’s site is back online after so long. It used to be at www.r9ronaldo.com but now it’s just www.ronaldo.com. It’s got a nice clean look and a pretty good flash video on the landing page (although it’s a bit long and could get tiresome each time). I’m glad to see he’s back online and you can get news on his recovery straight from the source.

Speaking of which, he’s apparently making really good progress. He’s in Rio at the moment and splits his time between the gym and his clinic. It’s a fairly strenuous regime, working out three times a day with Bruno Mazziotti, an AC Milan physio. He’s got 100% movement back in his knee and has started strength training already, well ahead of schedule. He may be back in action much sooner than expected (fingers crossed). In a month or two he should be able to start running and cycling, so yeah, all the signs are very positive.

Of course I can’t make a post without a video! Enjoy some Ronaldo goals!

So the first leg of the Barcelona vs Manchester United Champion’s League semi-final ended up a draw with no goals scored. It wasn’t the most exciting match I’ve seen but it had some moments of good action and controversy. Main one being Milito’s handball in the area that earnt Man U a penalty. Unfortunately C. Ronaldo smacked it into the crossbar and missed a golden opportunity to grab an away goal. There were quite a few other penalty appeals throughout the match but the game was mostly controlled by Barca, problem is, Eto’o was doing everything wrong. He wasted chance after chance after chance. Even worse than Eto’o was his coach who brain-farted twice to substitute the wrong people.

First he took off Messi at about the hour mark and although he had only recently been back from injury and will be needed in the return leg, he didn’t look tired and was the best player on the park. He brought in the youngster Bojan but he’s not quite ready for the big stage. Then Deco went for Henry. Deco was also playing well and it should’ve been Yaya that went to allow for another attacker.

Oh well, at least C. Ronaldo flopped again in a big match. He still doesn’t have what it takes when push comes to shove. So annoying how he complained about everything and looked up at the sky for answers. Very ugly traits for such a gifted player. The return leg should be excellent though. Enjoy the highlights below.

Most of the great forwards and creative mid-fielders started or developed their trade on a smaller field. Players like Ronaldo, Robinho and Ronaldinho all improved their great control and dribble by playing indoor or smaller 5 a-side games. It gives you more touches on the ball simply because there are less players and forces you to have better control in tighter spaces as the play area is much smaller. I feel that young players should spend a lot of time playing indoor in the early stages of their development as they will learn better skills quicker this way. Although it’s important to start playing and training for the 11 a-side outdoor game once the basic passing, controlling and shooting skills are there as players that are too used to the smaller game don’t always do well at the larger one. A good example is Falcao who is one of the best indoor players out there and has won countless tournaments with the Brazilian national team but never really got his outdoor career off the ground even trying with Sao Paulo FC.

Have a look at some of the amazing skills that indoor players can display, the ground moves are incredible to watch.

The two stand out games of matchday 34 were Milan vs Reggina and Atalanta vs Juventus. The first saw Kaka’ return to his usual blistering form by shaking off his niggling injuries to bag a hat-trick and complete a game that ended in a 5-1 drubbing of bottom-placed Reggina. While Del Piero impressed even more, grabbing his own hat-trick without the need for any penalties and leading his side to a 4-0 assault on Atalanta. Enjoy the highlights below.

Milan vs Reggina 5-1

Atalanta vs Juventus 0-4

Torino vs Inter 0-1

Roma were held at home by Livorno last night and hence dropped two vital points in the chase to beat Inter to another Scudetto. They’ll rue a lot of wasted chances as really they should’ve been a few in front by half-time. No goals in the first half but ten minutes after the restart, Vucinic scored a lovely looping header over Livorno keeper, Amelia. They took the foot off the gas and in the 83rd minute were punished by a well taken Diamanti free-kick, finding the top right corner. Amelia then kept Livorno in the game with a couple of nice saves and they can take home a share of the spoils.

Inter have a good chance to put 6 points between them and Roma tonight. Video highlights below.