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| december 2012 #10 |

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| december 2012 edition |

3 | golden finding of portoStory about striker of FC PortoJackson Martinez.

13 | This is goodbye?Article about Everton star Maruoane Fellaini and his future. Will he leave the team in January?

15Dilemma for Hugo Lloris...

article from our redactor Rolands juhnaabout the situation in tottenham hotspur

7

the french warrior

laurent koscielny

21 | #derbyReal Madrid faced Atletico Madrid in El Derbi madrileno. Real got important win against their rivals.

25 | another scandal in russia...Russians do it again. Another scandal in Russian football - this time it’s all about the fireworks...

27 | Spartak sacks unai emeryRussian club Spartak Moscow went through the managerial changes. Not the most pleasant story in Russia...

31 | Bayern 1 - Borussia 1Article from our Bundesliga expert Rolands Juhna about this important match.

39 | records and birthdaysSome of the most actual headlines in November.

35 | winter break in englandMark Thompson explains why there should be a winter break in English football.

3 | december 2012

4 |

Porto’s luckiest ticket? Jackson Martin-ez joined Porto at the age of 25. He is born 1986 and at this moment is already 26 years old. As it is known, on July 7, 2012, he signed a contract with Porto for 11 million dollars. Here comes the question about the confidence and perfect intui-tion of Porto. Buy not a cheap player, who is soon turning 26 and never played in Eu-rope before is a very brave step. Because it can be one of two – either he is worth that sum of money or... The other choice you know already. Of course, there are not so less occasions when player at 25 or over gets bought by fine money while not setting himself as a real star yet. For example, Olivier Giroud. Arsenal bought him for around 12 million euros and he is just few days younger Martinez. Only dif-ference that Giroud showed great season at Montpellier, scoring a lot of goals here, in Europe, in such way proving he can play also in England or any other coun-try. It was not a hard choice to buy him even more because of huge interest from other European high level clubs. Here in this case Porto were not completely sure about this transfer but they took a risk and it paid back – Jakson Martinez so far has scored quite many goals, if counting by average – almost goal in a match. Fan-tastic! One fact once again proves that Martinez is a big lottery ticket for Porto. He has won already a title with this team. On August 11 he played his first competi-tive match for the Portuguese team in the Portuguese Super Cup where he scored his first goal in the colors of the dragons. The only celebrations came in the 90th minute which gave Porto their 19th Por-tuguese Supercup win and for Martinez

Since we already discussed it in the pre-vious month number of this magazine. Now more about one guy, who is not a typical footballer and is quite unique in some way. He has a potential to become the future start of the football world. He is „Jackshow”. And he wants to start his show on a high note very soon. I guess you understand what this story will be about. The main char-acter this time is Porto striker Jackson Martinez. In a full name Jackson Arley Martínez Valencia, this 1,85 m tall striker from Quibdó, Colombia, has become a re-ally worthy finding for Portuguese cham-pions. He started his professional career at Independiente Medellín, Colombian football club in which from 2004 to 2009 got 102 appearances and scored 65 goals. In 2009, he became the all-time leading scorer in one season, with 18 goals in the Colombian league. He also led Independi-ente Medellín to its 5th title. Right after that he spent two seasons in Jaguares, a Mexican football club. He ended a good first season with a total of nine goals, placing him fourth in the top scorer’s table. Through the years he dominated in Mexico, and was even captain of Jag-uares at the beginning of the Apertura 2012 season. He did very well scoring over thirty goals with the team. And here came the moment of truth. Knowing how good scouting system in South America has Porto, it was clear that they will do everything to get Jackson to their squad. He brought attention to the club already when playing in Colombia. So, the im-pressive performance in the Mexico just convinced the bosses of F.C. Porto that this guy can be a really good scorer also in Europe. Where hides the unique here?

Golden finding of Porto let the show of

"Jackshow" begins! It is no secret any more for those who follow to the events happening in and out of the football world - one of the most smartest football clubs in the world comes from Portugal.

it is F.C. Porto. A club, which has always been popular with it's phenomenalscouting system and very often has shocked the whole football worldwith tremendous achievements. But this time not about this brilliant managing, scouting and tactical stuff of a whole team.

5 | december 2012

first title wearing the Porto shirt. He scored his first league goal on August 25th via penalty against Vitoria Guimaraes in the 80th minute with the game finishing 4–0 for Porto. The second league goal was on September 1st against Olhanense with the game finishing 2–3 for Porto. In a match against SC Beira Mar, he scored an amazing bicycle kick from a chipped pass by fellow countryman James Rodriguez. Martinez saved Porto from a 2–1 loss scoring in the 90th minute in a away game against Rio Ave. Against rivals Sporting CP, Jackson scored with a stunning back heel volley to a eventual 2–0 win. During the third round of the 2012–13 champions league group stage, Jackson scored his first European competition goal thanks to a assist by fellow countryman James Rodriguez. He scored again in the same match winning the game for Porto in a 3–2 victory. Martinez continued his goal streak in a 2–1 victory over Estoril both scoring one goal and assisting the other. With 11 goals in 12 matches, he beat the record of FC Porto former strikers Radamel Falcao, Lisandro López and Hulk. Martinez also plays for Colombia National team since 2009. In 15 appear-ances he has scored 6 goals so far which is good indicator for a player who just en-tered the team being 23 years old. And also according to the fact that Colombia is not Brazil or Argentina, where would be easier to score goals. It proves his level for sure. His nickname turned out to be «Jackshow Martínez» in Portugal, as the journalist João Ruela wrote in Diário de Notícias. In the same day, after he scored two more goals in a 5–0 victory against

Jackson Martinez was spotted by Porto while play-ing for Mexican club Jaguares. Martinez spent three seasons with Mexican club, appearing in 64 matches and scoring 36 goals. Porto paid $11 million for Co-lombian striker. As we know, Porto often get huge income from their signings.

goal, then he will not think twice before making a deci-sion. It is priceless feature for every player to see and under-stand the upcoming actions of the game. He is not worse also at positional play. How else then he would score so many goals in almost every match? Jackson is a player who can become a top scorer along with world class midfielders, who give him a lot of great passes. His abilities let him to be in the right place and right time. He has scored goals from all angles in such ways that not only spectators of the match but also defenders can’t expect that. It is natural gift for sure. Many players do hard to keep up this posi-tional play but even with hard trainings you can’t reach the highest level of this compo-nent. You have it from birth or not, there are not many things with help of those to change it.Of course, must mention also athleticism. Jackson perhaps is an ideal striker. Being above average in height, he is very strong considering it in foot-ball terms, he has good speed and coordination. With ability to change direction at a place as well. If we put up all these characteristics of the player,

Maritimo, he made the front page in every sports-related newspaper in Portugal. Playing style. As I think, nickname „Jackshow” suits for this Colombian In-ternational very well. Because he really makes show on the pitch. For example, his fantas-tic goal against Sporting (2:0), where in quite acrobatic man-ner he scored his team’s first goal. I think not many play-ers would dare to do such in that exact situation. Or pen-alty shot against Vitoria de Guimaraes (4:0). Of course, at the time when he had to shoot it, Porto were leading 3:0 but still it doesn’t change the fact that he was absolutely calm and confident when at-tempting to hit the ball into the net. He did it so brilliantly that even goalkeeper from the opponent team couldn’t guess in which way Martinez will shoot. But he hit the ball with a soft touch right into the mid-dle. Without any panicking or signs of stress. And such it has been and probably will be in almost every goal scoring sit-uation. It is big advantage for Jackson that he sees the pitch in a very wide range. If there is a better situation for his teammate – he won’t be self-ish but rather give him a pass. If he sees it is his way to the

jackson martinez celebrating anothergoal for porto. he hasbecame a leader ofportuguese side thisseason. no doubt, seasonor two and martinezwill move to one ofthe european top clubs.photo | tumblr.com

6 |

Rolands JuhnaFollow me on Twitter

@rolandsj

then becomes a really powerful scoring machine. Well, maybe too early to call him in such words but for now seems he is ready to shock everyone. Porto and Portuguese league is not the level of amateurs. It is very solid league with sev-eral strong teams. And if player can score against every team and make the game, then comments are needless. Jackson Martinez – the copy of Radamel Falcao? It would be strange, if noone compare Jackson to someone else. It happens with almost every footballer and in this case there was not needed to think twice. Many football experts and just fans immediately started to put Mar-tinez in a one line with former this team’s hero Radamel Falcao, who now plays for Atletico Madrid. Are they right or wrong? On the first view the only thing which seem to be common is age. Both Martinez and Falcao are 26 years old. But their playing style are not so similar. If Falcao is a player who clearly goes for goal and doesn’t like to do a lot of techni-cal stuff like going past many defenders or try some trick shot, then Martinez of-ten doesn’t hesitate to try some gamble. He has proved it in many games already that instead of how it would be the best to act by the best standards of football, he makes his own decision and not in vain. But with this I don’t want to say Falcao is worse. For moment there is still far way to go for Martinez to reach Falcao’s achievements. But if we continue to com-pare this two players, then finally comes one big similarity – they both have that special gift to feel the ball coming for the goal. In short and simple way to describe

same conditions as Falcao, I’m certain he’ll enjoy the same amount of success.” It means that for this moment we can say that Jack-son sooner is successor at least at Porto than not, which is very great to say the least. And hopefully this all story will end even better – Jackson will continue his enormous scoring and will be a very al-luring target for European TOP clubs (already now some of them would want to buy him). Just because it is not only story about Jackson but as well about sensational work from Porto. They deserve to get these talents and develop them. Only such teams can make football more interest-ing and bring to it many po-tential stars and talents. Very often it has happened that potential future star player gets lost because of being in the wrong place with wrong people. Martinez has been re-ally lucky in this case – Porto noticed him quickly, so now he can enjoy himself as a ris-ing star of European football. And I think he really deserves that.

they both score a lot of goals from different situations. They are sooner every game strikers, than emotional un-stable attackers who can get a hat-trick now but after week fail totally. This is the thing which makes every striker valuable. Falcao currently has scored over 30 goals for Atletico. And in every team he has been before – the same. For example, 34 goals in 90 games for River Plate. Same with Martinez – he has scored many goals in every team he has played for before. One question of course still re-mains. Martinez has to prove yet he is capable for scoring goals regularly and show fine stability. Beginning is prom-ising and very similar for the Falcao’s start of bright future. How will it be in future, will show games. Former Colombia coach in an interview de-scribed these both players simply: “Jackson and Falcao are two players with com-pletely different assets, but in one aspect they are exactly the same – they both score lots of goals. I believe Jackson will score as many goals as Falcao did at Porto. Of course it will depend on the players he has around him, but if he has the

jackson martinez figting for ball against

brazilian defender david luiz. martinez has become

an integral part of colombia national team.

falcao and martinez . . .many managers can only

dream about such duo.photo | tumblr.com

Jackson Martinez made his debut in Colombia national team in 2009. Till now, he has earned 15 caps and scored 6 goals. It’s clear that he will be one of the po-tential leaders for Colombia in upcoming 2014 World Cup, which will be held in Brazil. Maybe they will surprise us?

7 | december 2012

laurent koscielnyfrench warrior

may 2010, In quiet north-western french city there was a good reason for celebration. breton football club fc lorient finished season in 7th place in ligue 1 . that was one of the most memo-rable seasons for lorient fans. in that season 24 years old centre back laurent koscielny was one of the main heroes for lorient.

Even in lorient, koscielny was relatively unknown. his career developed slowly till his move to lorient. then things quickly changed... arsenalmanager arsene wenger saw the potencial of koscielny and broughthim to london. Now koscielny is one of the best defenders in epl.

In last few years, I’ve seen a lot of Arsenal matches. Before games we always see the players coming up. Captain, goalkeeper and all other footballers are stepping on pitch after those two. We’re used that cap-tains always bring the most energy and in-spiration into every game. Such happens in the most of cases, but not always... If we look at Arsenal, they have a solid squad and Thomas Vermaelen definitely has some good traits a captain should have. But you simply can’t compare him with Laurent Koscielny. In my opinion, French-man is simply from another planet. He’s a real football warrior. You will never see any signs of despair while Koscielny is on pitch. I’ve seen that some players love to skive and give some break for themselves in the middle of the game, but Frenchman never always work till the end in every episode. And you should take a look on him, when he steps on the pitch. You can see some tiny swirls of fire are curling in his eyes. For 90 minutes, character of Koscielny turns into completely different one. Outside pitch, he’s a calm and outgo-ing person, on pitch... Well, I already said. Warrior! Laurent Koscielny was born in relatively small town Tulle, in central France. As you can understand from his surname, he has some Polish roots. His grandfather emigrated from Poland to France. Career of Koscielny isn’t an ordi-nary one. We all know that many football stars has came to their glory step by step. Youth teams, then reserves and soon a knocking to doors of first team dressing room. That’s how it goes for the most of footballers. In case with our hero, there

was quite opposite situation. Career of Laurent Koscielny looks more like some kind of story or unbelievable journey. Or maybe we can compare him with a sprint-er, who has relatively slow start, but later he can show simply an amazing speed and run past all his opponents. Same goes here. Start was really slow and quiet... Tulle Corrèze, Brive, Limoges... You probably haven’t heard about exist-ence of such clubs. In these clubs, Ko-scielny slowly raised through youth ranks and later he was spotted by a Ligue 2 side Guingamp. This club has given a first im-pact in careers of such players, as Bakary Kone, Florent Malouda and even Ivorian football legend Didier Drogba has been a part of this club early in his career. With Guingamp, Koscielny spent three seasons. He wasn’t a regular starter and his first real opportunities came in 2006/2007 season, when he appeared in 21 Ligue 2 matches. Guingamp was showing relative-ly average performance and it was hard to attract an interest from stronger clubs, so Koscielny took move to third division club Tours. There he switched his posi-tion to centre back. Previously, he played as right back. Championnat National was a good place where to gain some playing time and confidence. Frenchman finally became a starter and his solid defensive performances helped Tours to win pro-motion to Ligue 2. In next season, Koscielny met his future Arsenal teammate Olivier Gi-roud. They helped Tours to reach sixth spot in Ligue 2 table at the end of season. Koscielny appeared in 34 matches and scored 5 goals, which is solid number for

defender. He was named in the best XI for Ligue 2 after the 2008–09 season. His performance was noticed by Ligue 1 side Lorient. Koscielny moved to Brittany and Lorient paid €1.7 million. This was probably the most im-portant move in career of Koscielny. Sure, later he was bought by Arsenal, but with-out brilliant season with Lorient, such move would never happen. Koscielny transformed into a solid defender in his debut season in Ligue 1. Sometimes it takes some time to impress the new man-ager and earn his trust, but Frechman managed to quickly establish himself as a starting centre-back in squad of Christian Gourcuff. Lorient didn’t had a lot of ambi-tions, but they still were able to create a lot of problems for their opponents. Ko-scielny had various pleasant and unpleas-ant moments throughout the season. After this season, his “favourite” team probably was Bordeaux. In both games against this club, Koscielny showed some really disappointing performances. If you’ve seen him in action, you probably

in recent years, laurent koscielny has became an important part of french national team. Euro 2012 was the first major tournament for the Frenchman.

photo | tumblr.com

8 |

have noticed that Koscielny sometimes love to go forward and help his team in attacks. There have been some positive moments, when he scores or gives away so needed pass, but sometimes that lead to problems. He had such daring man-ner of play in Lorient. Against Bordeaux, Koscielny played, probably, the worst matches of the season. In one of them, he even scored opening goal, but just a few minutes later Frenchman earned a red card against his future Arsenal teammate Marouane Chamakh, which led to penalty kick... Despite some of those unlucky moments, Christian Gourcuff kept faith in Koscielny and overall, Lorient had great season, finishing 7th! That’s the best achievement in history of this club. When season was coming to it’s end, Arsenal al-ready was interested to sign Koscielny. He caught attention of Arsene Wenger. Ar-senal needed some fresh blood, as their experienced defenders (Campbell, Gal-las, Silvestre) were departing in summer of 2010. But transfer talks didn’t went so easily. Lorient knew that Koscielny is a quality centre-back and they wanted to get a solid offer. Initially, Arsenal made €5 million offer to French club, but it was quickly turned down. Lorient president Loic Fery said: “Nothing is done, and about this transfer, it’s me and only me who deal with it. It’s true I received an offer from Arsenal. It’s been refused, and I guarantee you that Laurent is, at the moment, is a Lo-rient player. I stay open, I don’t close the door.” Koscielny really wanted to make his move to Ashburton Grove come true. Lucky for him, Wenger was ready to bring him to England and Arsenal raised their bid to £8.5 million. Finally, Lorient agreed and transfer was finalised. On 7 July 2010, Arsenal confirmed the signing of 24 years old Frenchman and he got the club’s num-ber 6 shirt. This was a huge move for Ko-scielny. Just imagine, few seasons ago he was playing in third division of French football, where it’s a very hard task to catch someone’s attention and then you start to live a dream and join one of the strongest clubs in England. No doubt that factor of Arsene Wenger was important one. Arsenal was just one of the clubs, interested in signing of Koscielny. But it’s hard to imagine that young and relatively unknown French footballer would refuse a chance to play under guidance of one of the best managers in the world. It’s a privilege and honour. Frenchman was delighted about his move. “My career has totally changed in three months. It is going pretty well even if my game is still not 100 per cent,” said Koscielny.

for Koscielny to quickly bring so needed confidence in Ar-senal backline. His debut in EPL can’t be called a success-ful one. Koscielny made his debut against Liverpool and he was sent-off at the end of match. Frenchman later com-mented his first competitive match for Arsenal: “Oh, that first game, against Liverpool, I remember it well! First, there is the Joe Cole tackle on me, which got him a red card. I was really scared – he could’ve broken my leg. But I came back into the game.... until I too re-ceived a red card towards the end! I really went through many emotions that day, but, all in all, playing my first game in England at Anfield, that was something huge for me.” If we look at overall performance of Koscielny in his first season with Arsenal, there’s some points where you could say that he’s not good enough for this level. Sure, we can’t forget his performance in Champions League play-off’s. Koscielny showed some brilliant performance against Spanish grand Barcelona and their leader Lionel Messi. Koscielny proved that he has no respect to anyone when it comes to the game and Messi faced real problems against Frenchman. He was simply locked. Sadly, that remained as the most positive moment

It took 12 months for Laurent Koscielny to make a break-through from Ligue 1 side Lori-ent to one of the leading clubs in English Premier League - Arse-nal. Koscielny also became an important part of French national team and he was named for France squad for the Euro 2012.

12

Arsene Wenger saw the qual-ity and potential of Laurent Koscielny, but for Arsenal and EPL fans, he was almost un-known guy. There were a lot of scepticism and negative com-ments around this move in beginning. First few months weren’t easy for Frenchman. If you so quickly climb up to the highest level, it’s hard to become an immediate impact. It takes some time. Koscielny has a fantastic pace and agil-ity, I think he’s one of the fast-est defenders in the world. But physically, he never was a well bulked and strong de-fender. First months took a lot of weight trainings for Ko-scielny. “It is much more physi-cal in the tackle, the attackers are rougher and the games are more intense. It is a big chal-lenge for me but I am getting better physically. I do a lot of weight training to strengthen me. It is much more physical in the tackle, the attackers are rougher and the games are more intense,” Frenchman commented English Premier League. Arsenal was also a good reason to hope on call-up from France national team manager. It would be hard to hope for that in Lori-ent, but Arsenal was another level, which also gave chance to play in UEFA Champions league. It wasn’t the easy task

together with france national team. photo | tumblr.com

for team. Arsenal managed to reach Car-ling Cup final and that was chance to finally win a trophy. Opponent was Bir-mingham City and it looked that Gunners will take this one! But everything turned into disaster. Arsenal got better posses-sion and some really good scoring op-portunities. Score was tied (1-1) till 89th minute... A long ball from Blues keeper Foster, flicked on by Žigić, appeared to be heading safely into the hands of the Arse

ball quite often. Especially, when you play in high-profile club which is under pres-sure all the time. First season could led Arsenal fans to thoughts that transfer of Koscielny was a mistake or even a fail. But despite some really poor performances, Wenger kept faith in Frenchman. Kosciel-ny had great motivation to learn from mistakes and show himself as a qual-ity defender. Even more, he was aiming to get into France squad for Euro 2012. There was some interest from Poland as Koscielny has some Polish roots, but he wanted to play for France. First call-up came on 3 February 2011, before match against Brazil. But his debut match for the French team came in a friendly match against the United States on 11 Novem-ber. Koscielny started 2011/2012 sea-son with Thomas Vermaelen. Two really aggressive and fearless defenders were playing together and this time, Koscielny was on the right track. Season turned to be much more successful individually. Frenchman still had some unlucky moments, for example, an own goal in a 4-3 loss to Blackburn and one of the most shameful matches in his-tory of club, 8-2 loss to Manchester Unit-ed. Koscielny featured in starting line-up on that match. But despite some painful moments, Koscielny slowly gained a good reputation. A lot of critics had to change their mind and admit, that Frenchman is a great finding by Arsene Wenger. No matter what opponent Arsenal had to face, Koscielny always had 100% motiva-tion and dedication. As season was com-ing to the end, there were some praising comments made by his teammates. For

nal keeper. But Koscielny attempted to play the ball,distracting Szczęsny and causing him to bobble the ball into the path of Martins,who tapped it into an empty net. That was probably one of the most painful losses in recent years for Arsenal... Such moments can change the course of career. In one moment it can turn from successful to a disas-trous... Such happens in foot-

example, Thomas Vermaelen said: “He has done amazingly this season and I don’t understand why a lot of criticism was there in the first season. He is great all round defender. He is quick, strong and good with the ball. There are just a lot of things about defending that he is really good at and that is why I like him.” You may say that Vermaelen says that only be-cause they’re teammates, but I think it’s hard to disagree with Belgian defender.

I think such comments aren’t just a “blah, blah, blah” type comments. Koscielny re-ally had some impressive performances and not only in defence. He scored some important goals too. One of the most im-portant came in final match of the season against West Bromvich Albion. Arsenal needed a win in this match to secure their place in Champions League next season’s edition. West Brom had 2-1 lead, Andre Santos equalised the game on 30th min-ute and Arsenal still needed a winning goal to be scored. And now guess, who scored it? Laurent Koscielny! He was in a right time and right place to score one of the most important Arsenal goals in that season. There’s no doubts that most praises for 2011/2012 season received captain of Arsenal Robin van Persie, who became a top scorer of Premier League. But Koscielny also was praised by many. For example, by Arsene Wenger: “We found him in France of course, from a smaller team. But you could see that there was something special there. I believe that last year you could already see the poten-tial, but he did not have that dominance in the duels that he has found this season. That makes him, I personally believe, one of the top-class central defenders in the Pre-mier League.” But best thing about this all was decision of Laurent Blanc to include Koscielny in France squad for Euro 2012. Blanc noticed performances of Koscielny and he was on the way to his first major tournament. “Laurent’s job is to make sure Rami and Mexès know he is there and ready to step in,” Blanc said. He didn’t got his chance in group stage matches

against England, Ukraine and Sweden. Ironically, he had to play all 90 minutes in the most important match for France, in quarter-final against mighty Spain... Philippe Mexes was suspended, so Ko-scielny had to take his place. I remember that match well. I was really hoping that France will show something extraordi-nary, because this generation of football-ers seems to be promising one. But my hopes were quickly ruined. Spain had no need to show it’s best performance, they got solid and quite easy 2-0 win. France just got unlucky draw, but that still the end of tournament for them. Koscielny commented on this match: “We defended quite well throughout the game. Of course, they had the ball most of the time, but they didn’t create that many chances. We had some chances on the counterattack, but we couldn’t score. That’s what happened. It is no use being consumed by regret now. I only want to look to the future. I think this tournament has helped us improve; let’s not forget that we are a young team. I think we will get better with time.” Despite loss, French media praised Koscielny and voted him as a Man of the Match. I think 2011/2012 season was a really memorable for Koscielny. He turned into more confident defender and one of the leaders of Arsenal. Now he’s an

9 | december 2012

it took me four yearsto go from the benchof ligue 2 to arsenalso this is a greatachievement.laurent koscielny, defender of arsenal fc

10 |

important part of France squad. He regu-larly gets called-up and everything seems to be okay. Koscielny also signed a new long term contract with Arsenal. I can’t say the correct number, but it’s rumoured that contract was extended to 5 more years. If so, then it’s fair. Arsenal has made a right choice, because Koscielny still has some space for improvements. Current season doesn’t look so bright. There were some injuries and in recent match against Everton, Koscielny once again got injured. He will be out of action for the next 2-3 weeks. Arsenal also can’t really find their rhythm and after good performance, there comes dis-appointment. As Per Mertesacker has im-proved a lot and became a leading centre-back in Arsenal, there’s a lot of headache for Arsene Wenger. After Vermaelen got captain’s armband, his performance has got only worse. Wenger needs to find a perfect chemistry in his defensive line once again. And it’s clear that Arsenal now really needs healthy Koscielny. Same Koscielny we saw last season. If he will overcome injuries and remain healthy, that will be a really important improve-ment for Arsenal. He may still make some silly mistakes, but we can only admire his character and will to help his team. Ko-scielny scored some own goals this sea-

like those legends. And there’s a simple reason for that. His career wasn’t easy. In some moments he was going forward so fast, that it could “kill” him as a player. But he handled everything quite well. He didn’t lost his head and always remem-bered about struggle he had to face in Guingamp, Tours and Lorient. I’m sure he will keep that spirit of warrior till the end of his career. Players who has slow and hard start of their careers, understand that you can’t stop. You always need to move forward. Simply give a credit and respect to such footballers as Koscielny. Arsenal is lucky in my opinion. There’s few more footballers who had to face a lot of difficulties in early period of their ca-reers. Look at Jenkinson, look at another Frenchman Olivier Giroud, who also had amazing journey. Those aren’t just a ca-reers, those are a real stories of dedica-tion and hard work. That inspires...

son against Manchester City and Read-ing. Later, he helped his team to equalise score. Against Reading there was simply a thriller scenario written by players of Ar-senal. Such a comeback. From 0-4 to 7-5... Amazing! And Koscielny was the impor-tant part of that match. I hope that Laurent Koscielny will have another contract extension af-ter five years. Maybe he will get another 5-year contract... We can just guess. I also hope that Koscielny will become a cap-tain of Arsenal one day. Defender with such fighter character simply deserves to get that armband with “captain” on it. It’s clear that it’s not easy to handle such hon-our. We can see that this season. Vermae-len has similar character as his French teammate, but he simply can’t handle the pressure. There have been a lot of silly mistakes and moments when captain makes situation for his team only worse. Such shouldn’t happen. Captain needs to be the person you can always count on. Even more responsibility captain has, if he’s a defender. Look at Maldini, look at Puyol... I believe that Koscielny could be

Laurent koscielny knows how to score important goals. he's not the tallestdefender, but his quickness and athleticism allows him to create a lot of headache to opponents. you can see how koscielny celebrated his goal against manchester city.

Cristian LiberumFollow me on Twitter

@Cristianliberum

photos | tumblr.com

www.fsmetta.lv

The most friendly football club in Latvia

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13 | december 2012

Goodbye?

Mark ThompsonFollow me on Twitter

@mrthompson9

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on, though probably (Everton fans hope) not until the end of the season. The sec-ond question, and one which may be of more importance to fans resigned to the Belgian’s departure already, is will they be able to cope without him? Everton are unlikely to have the funds, even from the sale of Fellaini, to buy a direct replacement to fill his role straight away. Instead, they will probably have to look to existing play-ers and a couple of bargain buys to step up to the plate, score the goals and make the impression that Fellaini makes now. Arguable, the biggest thing that Everton will miss about Fellaini will be his physicality. His presence and strong, 6 foot 4 inch frame allow the team to play a long ball game when they need to; Fellaini can both flick the ball on and hold it up su-perbly, allowing attacks to develop. With players such as Pienaar, Osman, Baines and Coleman offering a good outlet for slick attacking football on the ground, Fel-laini gives Everton a degree of flexibility. Steven Gerrard complained after the Mer-seyside derby that Everton who a ‘long-ball team who play like Stoke’. Without the big Belgian, Everton wouldn’t be able to trouble their neighbours with such a tactic as no-one up front would be able to play it – they do possess 6 foot-plus play-ers but none are as good in the air. Fellaini is also a powerhouse in central midfield. Many teams have strug-gled from not having such a player in the centre of the park and even top teams, notably Arsenal and Manchester United have been looking for such a player since Patrick Viera and Roy Keane retired. Fel-laini is capable of holding off opposing players while he looks for a pass, and equally capable of playing the pass once he’s spotted it. This quality may be what Everton truly miss most; the ability to ‘boss’ the midfield is key in football and having such a good central midfielder draws attention away from the quality that Everton have on the wings. It is dif-ficult to see how Everton could replace this side of Fellaini’s game, especially as clubs with the resources of Chelsea, Arse-nal and Manchester United have tried and failed to do so in recent years. However, I think that Everton will find a way. More specifically, I think that David Moyes will find a way. It will be a difficult task and one that won’t neces-sarily be one that will be resolved straight away but Moyes has a knack of finding gems that can pull his club towards the top of the table. Tim Cahill, Fellaini, Os-man, Baines, Pienaar, Jagielka, Jack Rod-well are all players who have been found and trained up by Everton and have either moved on for big money or have become

legends at the club. Spain experimented with playing no established strikers at the European Championships earlier this year but, as one football writer correctly pointed out, Moyes had been doing this several years ago, albeit out of necessity rather than curiosity. Spain’s experiment though, perhaps didn’t work as well as it could have done; Moyes’, with Tim Cahill playing in an advanced position instead of a striker, worked extremely well, keeping Everton a quality side despite their cir-cumstances. In the 2004/05 season, when Moyes steered Everton into the Champi-ons League, he did so with a far smaller budget than the other four teams who also qualified (Liverpool doing so from 5th after winning the trophy that sea-son). He has consistently kept the club within touching distance of European football throughout his tenure at the club and, though fans may call for Champions League football more regularly, it is a mir-acle that the most elite of competitions is even a possibility. With Moyes at the helm, I believe that Everton would be able to cope with-out Fellaini, certainly with the funds that they would gain from selling him. How-ever, if Fellaini stayed and Moyes chose to leave, tempted to a high profile job with money that he was actually allowed to spend, Everton would probably do much worse. There is a reason why David Moy-es has been repeatedly linked to posts such as the Chelsea or Tottenham job and has been touted as Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor when the United legend finally decides to retire from management. With players it is easy to see how much of an effect they have on the team as they can be rotated with other squad players and come and go more regularly than managers (usually). With manag-ers though, fans can often not know what they had until it has gone and this could be especially true with Moyes. Just be-cause he has not guided Everton to win-ning a trophy does not mean that he is not a fantastic manager – he is. Like Fellaini, he could also be tempted by higher wages and the chance of more regular Champi-ons League football elsewhere. However, for Everton Fellaini, while being a star, is replaceable; Moyes is not. Everton should not worry about Fellaini leaving (which he probably will at some point in the near future), it is their manager’s departure that they should fear most.

There was a time, not so long ago, when Marouane Fellaini was a novelty, known only for his larger than life afro. Now though, he is considered one of the best players in the Premier League, and the key man in Everton’s football team and thousands of fantasy football teams eve-rywhere. But, much to the annoyance, frustration or despair of Everton fans, it is rumoured that he will leave the club in January. The questions are 1) will he? and 2) can Everton survive without him? At the time of writing, Everton are 5th in the Premier League table, just behind Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and, surprisingly, West Bro-mwich Albion, with Fellaini scoring 6 of their 21 goals and setting up another 3. It is not just fans of the Toffees who sing the Belgians praises, pundits are lining up to explain to the masses just why the player is so good. To put it simply, Fellaini can pass the ball, defend well, read the game, hold off defenders, hold the ball up, head the ball and score goals as well. He adds a sense of physicality to Everton’s side which has been mostly lacking since Tim Cahill’s star started to fade. It is these skills which have made him such an obvious target to the big clubs. Chelsea, after recording a profit for the first time in 7 years, are reportedly lining up a £30m offer for Fellaini in the January transfer window and it would be surprising if other clubs were not con-sidering similar action as well. The twin draws of Champions League football and vastly increased wages are likely to tempt Fellaini but this by no means makes it cer-tain that he will move. After all, Fellaini will be earning a decent wage at Everton and the club is on track to finish in the Champions League places this season. However, the atmosphere on Everton fans’ forums are not convincingly positive. The majority seem to be hop-ing that the club can hang onto Fellaini for the remainder of the season and then sell him, for a high price, so that they have the funds to replace him. To the fans, it seems unlikely that the Belgian will leave in the mid-season window possibly more through supporters intuition than any solid reasoning. Certainly, Fellaini will feel a strong tie to Everton as they have given him his chance at the top level and he may feel he owes it to the fans to fin-ish off what he’s started this season. He may also bear in mind the pressure that he will have on his shoulders as a big money signing and a summer move, al-lowing him to integrate himself with his new club, will probably be preferable for this reason.So, it seems that Fellaini will be moving

15 | december 2012

photos | tumblr.com

dilemma for l loris

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dilemma for l loris

has a lot more than just a 11 football play-ers and each of them is eager to play more and wants more time for himself. Mostly it is because many young players overrate themselves and can’t see the whole situa-tion in general and analyze it. As we know then the best estimators can be people with some knowledge and a point of view from aside. But then there are such

footballer must get solid time on the pitch, time which is appropriatefor his real potentiality. simple ...

17 | december 2012

old brad vs.saint lloris

Playing time. Probably one of the most or the most important thing for every team sports player. Football isn't an exception. every

be the story about Hugo Lloris. About his role at his new team Tottenham Hotspur, his relation-ship with team’s head coach Andre Villas-Boas and his main competitor for the place in the net, American goalkeeper Brad Friedel. And of course, the main question which still remains – will Lloris gonna play for Hotspur very long or maybe opposite – he will be leaving the team already on January 2013, when winter transfer market opens? New club – new life. First thought about Lloris move from France – the land where more or less everything in football is at worri-less level to the country where football is some-thing more than just a team sport – England, was approx such. Of course, would be stupid to say Lloris didn’t enjoy his time when he was playing for Lyon. First of all, he is born in France and is clear patriot of this country. Secondly, four years spent at Lyon in a total of 144 appearances can’t be erased from memory so fast. Especially be-cause of one fact – it is Lyon and not any other football club that made Lloris to become such level goalkeeper he is right now. In Lyon he felt himself more comfortable than in any other club in the world I suppose. In the 2009–10 season, Lloris remained the club’s first-choice goalkeep-er and opened the new campaign by recording four clean sheets in the club’s first eight matches. For his performances in the month of Septem-ber, he was awarded the UNFP Player of the Month (trophy that is awarded to the best player in the French football championship Ligue 1 by the

occasions when you can’t under-stand much what is happening. For example, player gets bought by not a throw-money, his skills and level is very high and every-one expects him to be the one who will play a lot for his new team. But instead of it happens opposite stuff – the coach of his new team seems not very loyal to him at all and previous hopes of reaching new level start to transpire even more and more. Finally they go to such stage that there are no hopes left but comes just incomprehen-sion and desperation. Sounds fa-miliar? Yes, you were absolutely right if you thought that this will

if you get enough time to prove your-self on the pitch in games – it is a sign that coach trusts and hopes on you. But of course, not all can get this time for playing enough. Every team

photo | tumblr.com

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results which dropped and also overall hard situation has still one big reason – the club has stuck into uncertain finan-cial position. I already explained it how hard for Lyon boss Jean-Michel Aulas is to manage the team right now, when it has big debts because of unthankful tax sys-tem in France and so on. And Lloris move was not because he wanted to leave the team or Lyon didn’t want him. Clear lies. It was just such situation where pressure was so big that both sides had to agree with it and just accept the destiny. But Lloris didn’t whine. He went farther, hoping that in the new team he will find his place. At least he hoped so. But he didn’t understand at that time what is awaiting him in Tottenham. And more precisely – what are the plans of Andre Villas-Boas on him. When he just joined the team, he felt that for all 100 percents. Without any resistance his com-petitor, 41 years old American goalkeeper Brad Friedel took his place and Lloris re-ally didn’t get a chance to prove himself at his best. Head coach just didn’t let him to do that. Lloris joined the team on 31 Au-gust 2012, but made his debut for Spurs in a Europa League match against Lazio just on 20 September 2012, the result of the match was 0-0. After such match logi-cal would be that Lloris plays also in Pre-mier League. Otherwise comes question

photo | tumblr.com

UNFP, RTL and L’Équipe) becoming the first goalkeeper since Steve Mandanda in August 2008 to receive the award. Lloris earned media praise for his per-formances against Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League. In the first match, played at Anfield, Lloris made four saves holding Liverpool to only one goal. Lyon won the match 2–1. In the second match at the Stade Gerland, he produced stops from shots by Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt, and Andriy Voronin in the first half, then displayed reflexes to deny the Bra-zilian Lucas Leiva midway through the second period. Though Lyon conceded late, the team drew the match 1–1 with a goal from Lisandro López in injury time. On 8 November 2009, Lloris, alongside Marseille and France’s number two goal-keeper Steve Mandanda each conceded five goals in a thrilling 5–5 draw between Lyon and Marseille, though most of the goals conceded were attributed to “slack defending” displayed by both clubs as de-scribed by the media and both managers. On 20 December, Lloris finished third be-hind Nicolas Anelka and Yoann Gourcuff in voting for the France Football 2009 French Player of the Year award. Later things started to go not so good as before. Ahead of the 2010–11 season, Lloris was nominated for the UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year award

at the UEFA Club Football Awards, but lost out on the award to UEFA Champi-ons League-winning keeper Júlio César of Internazionale. In the season, Lloris per-formed well, despite conceding a career-high 40 goals in the league as Lyon failed to win the league for the third consecu-tive season. The frustrating season for the club and Lloris himself reached its zenith on 3 April 2011 following the club’s 2–2 away draw with Lloris’ former club Nice. Despite being up 2–0 heading into injury time, Lyon conceded two goals within two minutes of each other, an Eric Mou-loungui penalty and a goal at the death from Renato Civelli, allowing Nice to leave the match with a draw. Following the con-clusion of the match, a disappointed Llo-ris, who had previously saved a penalty shot in the match, delivered a surprising profanity-laced declaration in the team’s locker room, in which he questioned the team’s overall performance. Following the team’s 3–0 win over Lens the follow-ing week, in which Lloris earned his first clean sheet in over a month, the goal-keeper reflected on his comments after the Nice match stating “It was a human reaction. There was frustration and ac-cumulation and it had to come out. It was intolerable to draw 2–2 when leading 2–0”. Actually, all what happened to Lyon in the last year, I mean all the

19 | december 2012

what was the sense to spend money on him? But this time there was no logic. Next game again was for Friedel. And only on 7 October 2012 Lloris started his first Pre-mier League game. It was against Aston Villa in which Hugo kept clean sheet. But once again it was not enough – Boas was keen to rotate both goalkeepers almost game by game. And as most of football people knows – such tactic never works good. At least if the club doesn’t want to get a name „kindergarten” and head coach is not a clown. Every high level goalkeeper wants to play as much as pos-sible. It is only way to feel very important for the team and gain some confidence. Perfect example is Chelsea and their goal-keeper Petr Cech – he plays in all matches if he is healthy and full of energy to play. Right after the game came first loud statement from Lloris’s side, where he by indirection submits already his lit-tle frustration about things happening in the club and gives it clear for the Villas-Boas that he wants to play more. “I was used to playing every three days in Lyon. Necessarily, to progress, to be effective, it’s better to play every week with his team. I hope to play more and more to be at my best. When you sign at the last min-ute, it’s never easy. I still need a few games to find the rhythm. On the past month, I’ve played only three games. It takes a lit-tle more concentration, especially work-ing at training. I try to compensate but what matters is the game at the weekend.” But within time it looked more ridiculous than before. Right about the relationship between Lloris, Friedel and Villas-Boas. One day after day felt more and more not at his real place, other used his experience to play the boss role but third one started to feel (or already felt?) like a youngster, who must listen to the boss (no jokes in this case – Frie-del is 41, while his head coach Boas 6 years younger). It was simply a bad joke in relation to Lloris that he still had to prove a lot while being the goalkeeper No.1 for France and showed his master-piece every now and then. Officially all three has perfect relationship between as mass media claim. But if just officially... Lloris versus Friedel. This part seems clearly like a comedy. Let’s take a look from Villas-Boas side. At least I will try to imagine where he finds something where Friedel is better than Lloris. Age. Oh, you gotta be kidding me saying that 1971 born goalkeeper is more talented and perspective than 1986 born one. If Boas thinks so, then he must join circus right now. They will appreciate it. 1:0 for Lloris. Height. Lloris – 1,88 m, Friedel

– the same. Very important indicator for every goalkeeper but here we get a tie. Experience. Before you all bawl that Friedel is 15 years older and auto-matically more experienced, take a short look just in obvious facts. 42 caps for na-tional team and over 200 apperances in French Ligue 1. For Friedel more than 400 games in Premier League and 82 for United States national team from 1992 to 2005. Yes, in Premier League Friedel beats Lloris quite a lot, even if we count how many games Lloris has played in Ligue 1 for Nice and Lyon. But now if we take national teams – Lloris plays for France since 2008 and has already more than a half games than Friedel had with USA for 13 years. Coincidence? Or maybe you will say that USA has not so many games than France or any other Euro-pean team? Agree. But then I have coun-ter question – where is harder to play, where is bigger competition between in France or USA? There are several good French goalkeepers but just a few really good goalkeepers for USA that can stay in the net in big games. So like it or not but Friedel doesn’t have any clear advantage

also in this area. So it’s a tie once again. Let’s move on... Skills. Here just needs to be an objective look to the things – Lloris is younger and has proved several times that he has a lot more athleticism than Friedel. He perfectly reads the game and makes it safe for every team (if team is loyal to him of course). Friedel is not so stable. I can remember many good games for Friedel but in same time point out a lot of games where Friedel managed to fail. For Lloris such are just a few. Lloris wins 2:0. Such we can continue and con-tinue but I can’t see big sense of it. It is clear that main factor in this duo is age. And there can’t be many questions who is better, if one is going straight on the way up at his career but other must be looking already to pension side. Without irony – clear truth of life. Lloris in Spurs after 2 months. On November 8 an accurate commentary made French national team head coach Didier Deschamps. He revealed that his top goalkeeper Hugo Lloris is „find-ing life difficult” as he continues to play

only avb can keepbenched captain offrance nt...Photo | tumblr.com

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in different ways of squad selection, other thing – individual sufferings. You can be loyal and say that you do all for the club like Lloris is often saying. But it just com-mon kindness and Lloris is kind. He’s not a rude guy and doesn’t want any conflicts. He still awaits Boas to understand him. He has all hopes on that but everyone has own limit. And Lloris realizes he is not that bad and so old to be put in a such stressful wheel of rotation. He wants to play and be important for the team. It’s just naturally. Future for Lloris – bright like a sun or depressing as a hurricane? After all what Lloris has went through would be stupid to give up so early I think. There are not many chances left for him, surely just two if say it simple – leave the club and go for something better or stay and struggle... In the first case it sounds great and dangerous at a same time. If this club is, for example, Arsenal, then it would be great for sure. There Lloris would play first role surely, because head coach of Arsenal is Frenchman Arsene Wenger and some rumours went on already in summer that he would like to buy Lloris. But then there come a lot of questions – will Arsenal bosses agree to such move, how reacts Tottenham and does Lloris truly want to join Gunners? If take any other team, then I doubt it will be better. At least if we look up to England, then no teams from higher shelf would be in real need to get Lloris to their squad. But for average teams in the same time would be crucial question about money. So situa-tion is not that easy here. Staying at Tottenham sounds a variant bit more peaceful only in one case – Boas stops playing his stupid games and gives clear No.1 position for Lloris. Sounds impossible? Who knows. Friedel is not that young anyway and to be honest – for him every month going away means potential way to pension. At such age and such level there are no jokes anymore. In-juries will come very fast if he continues play long. Also. Boas is still very young for being coach. And also he can suddenly change his mind and become very loyal to Lloris. Maybe he finds some own mis-takes or something in that way. We never know. So at the end to say – I don’t know what awaits Lloris. I don’t know it even about myself. Noone of us can predict our future very clear. I can say only one thing – we must hope and wish Lloris to become stable number one goalkeeper at any club he will play. Because in that way he will be able to prove his masterhood and go upstairs to the big successes.

Rolands JuhnaFollow me on Twitter

@rolandsj

lection,” he said. “He is the French na-tional team manager, he can do what he wants. I respect other managers’ se-lections.” Such response, in my opinion, is kinda weird. All other commentaries which has made Boas, can be seen some hidden irony towards Lloris side. Here, in this case, it sounds like – you, Didier, do how you want but Lloris to be a captain – don’t be funny. He is just a young dude still. If such like Brad... Of course, I might be mistaken as well. Maybe it is one of Boas plans how to build up a superb team and he is only starting to go for it. At least in Premier League Tottenham has started to win some games and is in TOP 10, chances to get through the group stage still remain also in Europe League. But anyway, texts which lately came from Lloris’s mouth like “I need to keep playing to get more confidence and play to my best, I hope I play more games, It’s good to play in Eu-ropean games, but I need to keep playing and I hope that I will get to play more” ex-plain a lot about overall situation in the club. And seems it is not changing radi-cally. One thing is that club gets success

understudy to Tottenham teammate Brad Friedel and has only been used sporadi-cally under club manager Andre Villas-Boas. „He has had insufficient playing time (with his club) and is finding life difficult,” explained the former Monaco, Juventus and Marseille coach. „His situ-ation is difficult and weighing on him which is not ideal and something I un-derstand. To find himself on the bench after the match he played for us against Spain is not easy,” continued the former France captain in reference to the world class performance turned in by Lloris in the 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw in Oc-tober. „He plays one match a week, the Europa League and if he plays tonight (Thursday), it will be his third match since his last game for France. He can-not be happy to play one match every two or three,” emphasised Deschamps.Deschamps said the things which were completely right. But Villas-Boas found himself to make a response on Des-champs exposed Lloris’s „not ideal” situa-tion at Tottenham and even more – when Lloris was retained as a captain of France.“I can’t mess around with Didier’s se-

21 | december 2012

#derreal shines in de rby

“Land of Fire - Azerbaijan” - such logo was printed on jerseys of Atletico Madrid in match against Real Ma-drid. Atletico signed a sponsorship contract with Football Federation of Azerbaijan (AFFA). Club will have a friendly match against Azerbaijan national team and there will be few other extras for Azerbaijani side. For such advertising, AFFA paid €20 million. Quite impressive deal, which shows that Atletico knows how to at-tract sponsors. And that’s also a nice move from Azerbaijan, because such derbies are broadcasted all around the world and many people now will see that “Land of Fire” is rich enough to pay for such extras. Good job! Some countries could learn from such example...

Radamel Falcao did his best, but it wasn’t enough to get a victory in this derby. Columbian striker has simply sensational talent, but he still can’t climb to the heights of Cris-tiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. If Atletico wants to become a real grand of Spanish and European football, Falcao need to take one step further. Of course, if he will stay in Atletico. There’s a lot of rumours about his possible departure...

Cristiano Ronaldo once again showed some quality football. He was simply the best player in this derby. Ronaldo scored a goal, created mo-ments for his teammates and even made some good tackles. If he had just a bit more luck, he would score a hat-trick. Unfortunately, ball twice hit the bar and didn’t went into the goal... Maybe next time?

11goals

13goals

#der

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I think everyone will agree that Man of the Match was Cristiano Ronaldo. He did a lot to bring victory to Real. For me, it looks that he’s just unlucky in some mo-ments. He was close to score few more goals, but in both cases ball didn’t went into the net. I really like the way Ronaldo plays in last few years, he’s really became a footballer you should respect. Yesterday he worked well not only in attack, but also in defence, helping his teammates to clear the danger. That’s not really his job, but Ronaldo still moves a lot deeper. Also we should give a credit to Mesut Ozil, who scored goal and also provided some great passes to his teammates. When German plays like this, he’s a huge threat for any opponent. Such victory can give some extra motivation for Real. But still, I have some suspicions that Jose Mourinho is hold-ing his team “on brakes” and we will see simply another Real Madrid when the play-offs of Champions League will be-gin. It looks that Mourinho wants to win the Champions League title and... Maybe leave? There have been a lot of talks, ru-mours and comments about possible de-parture of Portuguese specialist. Maybe those are just another “mind games” of Mourinho, but maybe those are signs that he’s going to leave Madrid on a high note. Season still is long, but it’s hard to believe that Barcelona will let Real or Atletico Madrid much closer than it’s now. Messi is having simply phenomenal season, breaking one record after another and it looks that no one will be able to stop Argentine striker and his teammates this season. They are simply looking great!

Atletico can only try to give their best in Spanish league and hope that their grand opponents will lose some points. Midfield and attacking lines seems to look solid, but there are some problems in defence. Especially, in decisive moments. Derby proved that once again. If management will be able to keep Radamel Falcao in Madrid and maybe bring some good ad-ditions in January, I think Atletico could still create some problems for Real and Barcelona. Overall, I really enjoy the situa-tion we can see in La Liga standings. It’s great to see that there’s growing another solid Spanish club. Atletico could grow into solid brand, Madrid is big enough to have two great teams. There’s enough ex-amples for that. Manchester, London, Mi-lan, Roma... Champions League is the aim for Diego Simeone and his team and I’m really excited to see this ambitious squad in CL. I’m not really impressed by perfor-mances of Valencia this season, there’s once again a managerial changes and it looks that this season will turn into disas-ter. And that’s a “green light” for Atletico. Malaga is a solid team, but they don’t have so bright stars to create problems for the top 3 teams all season long. Betis is also a team that shines bright in the first half of season, but in later stages, it starts to lose it’s best qualities. So Atletico can be quite sure about their place in CL, but maybe we’ll see something more impressive?

rby RMAMAMRM

like a good chance for Atletico Madrid to beat one of their biggest rivals. “Los Ro-jiblancos” made a really impressive start this season in Spanish league. They still are placed second and it looks that only Atletico could be the team, which will shut up all those talks that La Liga is boring and only two teams fight for title there. For Atletico, this season looks like step forward. New grand rising in Spain? Maybe. When it was needed the most, Real showed a confident and really excit-ing football. 2-0 win was well deserved, especially if we look at second half, when Real really started to dominate, launch quick attacks and just a luck saved Atletico from conceding few more goals. I can’t say that I didn’t liked this match, but anyway, I was hoping to see more goal scoring opportunities from Atletico and their leader Radamel Falcao. Columbian striker tried to bring some efforts, but he was locked by defenders of “Los Blancos”. In the end, score was more than logical. Atletico couldn’t really find their rhythm and defence made too much mistakes.

real Madrid had some difficult period in last few weeks. It looked like Los Blancos have lost some inspiration and before “El Derbi madrileno”, it looked

rbyCristian LiberumFollow me on Twitter

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real shines in de rby . . .

23 | december 2012

Real madrid got deserved win in el derbi madrileno. josemourinho outplayed his colleague diego simeone.

Photos | tumblr.com

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cristiano ronaldo showed an impressiveperformance by scoring a goal and givingaway an assist to mesut ozil.

25 | december 2012

why youscandal in russian football

In football lately is happening a lot of neg-ative stuff and unfortunately such back-ground gets created from noone else than people outside of the football pitch – foot-ball fans. Several racism incidents, fights between two team fans, loud and vulgar expressions. It is just one part of all nega-tive what fans put out to football. Other part is more dangerous – when fans are clearly guilty for making endangerment to the field players, footballers who play this game for them. One such bad incident recently happened in Russian Premier League. Noone has it as a secret that this season in Russian football is not so good as any other would think it should be. Scandals, scandals and scandals. Every-thing seems so grey and hopeless. How-ever, now things started to go too far. If be-fore all the scandals were connected just with team’s inside stuff (Dynamo Moscow fan threats to the team is different story), then now happened something, what didn’t happen for long. It was in the game between Dynamo Moscow and Zenit from Saint Petersburg. Dynamo first scored a goal in the first half and showed quite good game which didn’t happen so often this season. Then in the 35th minute of the match goalkeeper of the host team Anton Shunin stood at his net as everyone goalkeeper does when his team is strug-gling with opponent team in the centre of the pitch. And then in one moment he got hit by petard from the fan sector of Zenit football club. Gas which came out of this

wonder that such incidents happen if tick-ets get sold to everyone randomly.” Excuse me! Had to say these words because this is nonsense just. I don’t want to say that such can happen only in Russia but it goes out of every limits. How guest team can insist on tech-nical loss to the host team, if it was host team goalkeeper, who got hurt from a petard throwed from the guest team fan sector? If it was clear already shortly after the incident that Zenit won’t take respon-sibility of this, then how they dared to say that it is home team’s fault that they sell tickets to everyone without checking per-sonality? Then I must ask – in England, Germany or Spain also before each match each of fans get checked out totally? Or maybe in No Camp stadium before each Barcelona’s game all 80 000 or even more people (if stadium is full) need to show their passports, then give some papers, quests for example about their non ex-isting criminal records and in such way? Isn’t it full nonsense to blame home team because of such situation? Surely after such statement Zenit’s image got even more obscured than before. Team should feel some more guilt on their own back than claim that other team is so stupid (in subtext). But here I want to point out the main thing of all what happened then. Commentaries come and go and as I said – they are 100 and one by variation. Al-ways one side will say it was not so bad from their point of view and will blame

petard made burn of Shunin’s eyes and match was suspended. But after little time main referee of the match made de-cision that this match won’t be continued. It was not a joke at all. Sometimes has happened that fans throw out petards just somewhere on the pitch to show some disaffection with referee’s job or with opponent team’s violent behaviour. But this was clearly throwed petard by purpose tended to make an injury of the goalkeeper of Dynamo Moscow. Agiotage after this came imme-diately. News and commentaries from different people came one after the other. At least that seemed to be good in this overall bad situation. But overall this situ-ation was not so clear, at least according to commentaries. One part of people said that Zenit must get a very big fine and even more – eliminated from league. Oth-er part had opposite reaction – why the team should be responsible of some crazy fan, who throwed petard to the goalkeep-er of the opponent team? Even more, if noone clearly knows which team’s fan it was. Apparently in such situation the only truth is somehwere in the middle. But the most shocking commentary came from Zenit side. Team proposed to give a tech-nical loss (0:3) to the hosts Dynamo, no matter their goalkeeper was hurt. Motiva-tion? The game was interrupted and later cancelled, which means home team didn’t think about all security events. And also from club’s side came such texts like „We don’t take responsibility of all this and no

when you think that there can't be anything worse than it was, there comes another scandal... it's getting annoying, isn't? Scandal is once again related with russian football... this time, the goalkeeper of dynamo moscow got injured with fireworks thrown from guest team (zenit) fan sector...

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do that?"fans" are going too far. . ."Something was dropped right in front of my eyes, I took a look down and petard exploded. I have problems with eyesight and hearing, now I am going to hospital for medical research," said dynamo goalkeeper anton shunin. fortunately, he's ok and hewill have chance to play football once again.

other. It is not good from one side, but log-ically from other because everyone wants to look more saint than in reality he is. And I don’t want to swear on some team as well. I could say that Zenit did bad and should get eliminated because of psycho fans they are having but should I? Neither me or any other clearly knows yet what fan it was. If one day I wear up policeman clothes and go bullying in the streets it doesn’t mean that in police work only bad people, if you know what I mean. So in this situation the best solution would be to take off some points to Zenit in league table, for example, minus 10 points and some fine as well. Just to give a sign to all the fans that such actions won’t stay without attention. And also to show some respect to Dynamo’s goalkeeper Shunin. He is not guilty that some idiot wanted to ruin this game and hurt him. But he needs to get some moral compensation from this – it would be just normal and usual practice in such cases. I think this incident could be solved in a such seem-ingly fair way. But about one thing which I wanted to point out. I would like to know for real – what makes such fans to go for such stu-pid actions? How such insane people ap-pertain to the football as a game? I doubt that such fans are real football fans and rise and fall for their team. If they are, then I really pity to Zenit (probably) be-cause such fan base is... weird. It sooner suits to some team from amateur league. And even then – for team loser, who can’t

by the level of football – it is very close to European TOP level. But more from all what is around football. And first thing is fans. And here comes only one conclu-sion – mentality of people. If in Germany fans can be loyal to the football game and adore it, then in Russia for some part of people, that called „fans”, it is more like showing off and pretending cool to some others than really going into the game. And it is very sad. With Shunin everything is OK now and he will start play soon again. But he won’t forget this accident so fast as his teammates and some other part of the people. And with all his heart he hopes that such will not happen once again. Like every other football player. But can they be so sure about it? I really doubt. I would like to believe things will change but I don’t. Because mentality can’t be changed. Mentality gets created halfly by genetics from your parents and you are out of power to do something to turn it to the right side. Even more, if such mental-ity has many people in country and even in one city. Then comes a question – what to do? Clear answer I can’t give. Only thing we can hope for – that accident with Shunin was the last one such kind of ac-cident that happened and might happen in future.

do anything on the pitch. But not in Rus-sian Premier League, and especially for Zenit Saint Petersburg, team with great history, big financial possibilities and loud goals. It is shame in such case. But the main thing – why mostly such inci-dents happen in Russia? If you check, for example, fans in Germany. I have not seen all TOP league all games of course, I just mostly try to watch by possibility the most interesting ones but still I will say my subjective opinion – one of the best football fans come from Germany. So, if you watch Bundesliga games, you never feel under some fear and endangerment. All games, no matter who is playing there and no matter if Bayern Munich crashes some other team with 5:0 or gets a loss against it, are provided with peace. Nev-er so far I have got a nearest feeling that there could happen something extra unu-sual. Yes, also in European TOP leagues has been such situations that some fan runs out to the pitch naked or with some poster. But it happens so rare and with-out any basis of some thoughts about to make violence to others. But mostly peo-ple go there and watch football. They are real fans who follow the game. They drink beer, a lot of beer but never get too drunk to start rage. But what in Russia? Almost in every game you have that unsafe feel-ing. From TV still it is not so clearly seen than when you are sitting there and watching football in live according to sev-eral sources. It is different world if com-paring with Western Europe but still not

Rolands JuhnaFollow me on Twitter

@rolandsj

27 | december 2012

spartaksack u nai e m e ry

Spartak Moscow has won most titles than any other Russian team. In Soviet period, Spartak won Soviet Top league title 12 times, then came 9 titles in Russian league. So total, Spartak has won 21 national titles. Impressive result. Club has a lot of fans all around the Russia and it had nickname of “The People’s Team”.Last time when Spartak won title was in 2001. Back then, club was managed by Oleg Romantsev. After he left club, performance and status of Spartak slowly changed. It’s still one of the leading clubs in Russia, but it can’t bring another title to fans. Seasons come and go, various managers have been working with Spartak, but noth-ing changes. Other clubs are improv-ing - Spartak remains the same.

Since the departure of legendary Spartak manager Oleg Romantsev, there have been nine managerial changes... Various Russian and for-eign managers were trying to reach heights what Romantsev achieved, but now it’s clear that no one will be able to come even close to him. Times now has changed and there’s a lot more harder to win a Russian league title. Some teams have even more impressive budgets, than Spartak,,,

Last title was won by Spartak Moscow in 2003, when team won Russian Cup for the third time in tournament’s his-tory. Spartak also managed to reach Russian Cup final in 2006, but then they lost to CSKA Moscow. Brazilians Jo and Wagner scored all three goals and CSKA got deserved 3-0 win. In recent seasons, best achievement in Cup was quarter-final in 2009. There Spartak faced 3-0 loss to Dynamo Moscow.

spartak9 2003

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popular character in Russian football. Media always were interested to get com-ments from him and also invite Karpin to various shows and interviews. Anyway, there were some points when Karpin was close to leaving managerial post, but fortunately, he had support from players and fans, so he stayed and Spartak fin-ished last season in 2nd place, qualifying to Champions League. And then Karpin resigned, remaining only as a director of club. And then he invited Unai Emery... For those who are familiar with Spanish league, Unai Emery is quite well known manager in last few years. He suc-cessfully worked with Valencia, leading it to Champions League and loosing only to Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga. He was described as a real workaholic and solid tactician. He agreed move to Spar-tak and now we can say that this wasn’t a good move. It’s Russia and it’s Spartak. As I said before, it’s not an easy task to han-dle ambitions of this club. Emery brought some new faces to Spartak. Kim Kallstrom, Jose Manuel Hurado, also Argentine defender Juan Insaurralde. I can say that only Hurado seems as a good addition. Others aren’t showing so consistent performance. Kall-strom is getting older, but for Argentine it’s a first experience in European football. Spartak began season with two hard wins against Alania and Volga, later there came important 4-0 win against rivals Dynamo Moscow. Fans expected a good football in another important meeting - against Ze-nit. But there came first real disappoint-ment. Spartak was simply trashed with 5-0. Zenit didn’t left any chances to them...

Later came Champions League, fails against Celtic and Benfica... Spartak slowly showed that they lack character. And honestly, I had a feeling that players simply gave away a victory to Dynamo (5-1). Spartak was once again ashamed and quickly after the final whistle, there came announcement that “Unai Emery is sacked”. That wasn’t surprise and for Spartak that’s nothing new. (well, in mid week management said that Emery will work till the end of his contract, but that’s just blah, blah, blah) But... Striker of Spartak Moscow, Artem Dzyuba was called by journalists to give a comment after match, but he only replied: “Better ask to our so-called coach...” Well, it’s hard to translate this phrase to Eng-lish, but it was really abusive against Em-ery. Few hours later, Dzyuba gave com-ments to journalists and criticised Emery and his work with Spartak. He probably hasn’t heard about such characteristic as professionalism... Next steps were easy to predict. Karpin announced that he will lead Spartak till the end of this year, so just a few matches left. He returned as a manager in a 2-4 loss to Zenit. Overall, it’s a sad story. Emery is a real fanatic of his job, he gives all his best, but in Russian teams that some-times doesn’t matter at all. I think eve-rything will be fine with Emery and he’ll find a new job soon. But I’m not sure that Spartak will improve after some of their players showed such an attitude... It’s sad.

Russian Premier League and UEFA Cham-pions League. Former Valencia manager came to Spartak with ambitions but eve-rything turned into real disappointment. It wasn’t surprise that he was sacked, but for me it was surprise to see Spartak in such a bad condition. Spartak always begin new sea-son with ambitions. Fans hope that at the end of season there will appear another golden star on top of club logo. 2 stars are equal to 10 Russian league titles. Spar-tak has 9 till now. But since 2003, they haven’t won even a single trophy. Team finished second for 5 times, but it wasn’t able to win the Russian title anymore. For fans, only title matters and every coach who comes to Spartak gets under pressure and huge media attention. On June 2012, Emery became a fourth non-Russian manager to lead Spartak. Previ-ously, “The Red-Whites” were managed by such managers, as Italian Nevio Scala, Latvian manager Aleksandrs Starkovs and current Swansea manager, legendary Michael Laudrup. None of them was able to win trophies and longest tenure with Spartak had Starkovs (2 years). After Laudrup was sacked, for-mer Celta and Real Sociedad star Valery Karpin took the managerial post. He was director&manager - two in one. Karpin also wasn’t able to bring a title for team, but he’s charismatic person and that helped him to become one of the most

another manager was sacked by the management of Spartak Moscow. This time, Unai Emery had to leave Moscow after some really disappointing results in

Cristian LiberumFollow me on Twitter

@Cristianliberum

spartakspartak

29 | december 2012

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I think that this departure of Unai Emery will once again decrease the reputation of Spartak Moscow in Eu-rope. That’s not a normal situation, when footballers start to dictate rules and tell that they don’t like to work with current manager. That’s unprofessional attitude, that’s simply not right. Especially, when you have to work with such manager, as Unai Emery is. He loves football and he loves to work. That’s his style. Spartak lost a good manager, but Unai Emery earned a valuable experience about working abroad. Let’s hope that his career will have more positive turns, as it was in last few months. Adios, Unai!

unai emery was a successful manager in spain, but in russia he wasn't able to provehimself and turn spartak into one of thechampionship contenders in the russianpremier league . . . photo | tumblr.com

football raised a lot of discussions and comments around the internet, but many will agree with me - match was simply good! We had a great chance to enjoy a 90 minutes of German quality. Both teams were well prepared for this match and no one wanted to lose points in this round. But still, 1-1 draw is better for Bayern, than for Borussia. Let me explain, why.

31 | december 2012

Reasons for that are quite simple. Re-member results of Borussia in previous Champions League editions? Right, they failed to impress Europe. Borussia simply don’t have so strong bench, as for exam-ple, Bayern has. So they need to choose - Bundesliga or Champions League? I think you can simply guess what they have chosen this season... I’m sure Borussia continue to impress everyone in Euro-pean competition, but in Bundesliga they will probably finish just second or maybe even third, depends how well their near-est opponents will play. So situations is

For those who regularly watch Bundes-liga, it’s not a secret that Bayern are more than impressive this season. They had just some unfortunate games in Bundesli-ga and one really unlucky game in Cham-pions League against BATE. But overall, they are on the way to Bundesliga title. Borussia won title two years in a row, but now their priorities have changed. We can see two different teams. In Champions League, Borussia is simply amazing and it looks that they are ready to make their way to the finals. In Bundesliga, Borussia isn’t so good, as it was in last few seasons.

bayern m 1f

inally we saw the most awaited mach of Bundesliga! Bayern Mu-nich was awaiting for guests from Dortmund - Borussia. Match be-tween two strongholds of German

Photo | tumblr.com

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very simple and you shouldn’t be very surprised, if you see Borussia loosing a match against weaker opponent in Bun-desliga. I don’t want to say that they sim-ply give easy wins for opponents, but there’s still a psychological moment. They are more focused on Champions League. And we can’t blame team for that. In such situation you just need to choose your priorities. About match. First half quite equal, as both teams launched some good attacks. In some moments, maybe there was a little initiative from Borussia, but

Bayern and that was reason, why I would say that they were better. I think they just needed some extra minutes and there would be a 2-1 win for them... They domi-nated the last 10 minutes of this match. Maybe race for the title won’t be so interesting in Bundesliga this season, but there’s still enough of interesting teams to follow. Bayer, Aintracht, Werder and many more! Stay tuned and follow Bundesliga!

Bayern still managed to keep better pos-session. First half didn’t brought any goals, but in second half we finally saw some nice and cold-blooded goals. On 64th minute, Toni Kroos outplayed Subotič and Hummels and scored brilliant goal with his left foot. Lucky for Dortmund, just seven minutes later, Błaszczykowski earned a corner-kick and this time it was Mario Götze, who scored equaliser after unlucky header from Mandžukič. 1-1! What I liked the most about this match - both teams wanted to win. After goal of Götze there were some good attacks from

borussia 1Rolands Juhna

Follow me on Twitter@rolandsj

33 | december 2012

match between bayern and borussiadortmund ended up with an injury forholger badstuber. he got injured andreplaced by jerome boateng on 37thminute...

toni kroos scored a beautiful goal . . . masterpiece!photos | tumblr.com

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mario gotze scored the only goal for borussia.it wasn't enough to geta victory against theirbiggest rivals .photos | tumblr.com

35 | december 2012

photo | footballstadiums.wordpress.com

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Mark ThompsonFollow me on Twitter

@mrthompson9

The first snow of the year has fallen here in England, the temperature is about as high as QPR’s points tally and Christmas adverts are ALREADY on the television, as sickeningly early as ever. Yes, Winter is upon us and, when the questions of league form and contentious decisions have died down, the conundrum of the winter break will arise once again. It’s the kind of issue that is discussed on a Champions/Europa League-less Thursday night when the weekend’s games have been thoroughly analysed and it’s too early to preview the upcoming fixtures of the week. It’s not the kind of thing that’s taken seriously here; after all, the tradition of Boxing Day fix-tures is too great to be discarded for yet another holiday for overpaid, overvalued ball-kickers. But why shouldn’t England seri-ously consider a winter break? Too often, when arguments in favour of it are pre-sented, after the discussion it’s bunched with matters such as video-assistance for referees or Sepp Blatter being replaced as head of FIFA - great ideas that are never, realistically, going to happen any time soon. It’s ludicrous to dismiss an idea that’s worked so well in countries like Germany and the Netherlands so quickly. Protestantism came over from Germany and that’s lasted ever since, why shouldn’t the winter break work out here as well? The benefits are plain to see. It gives players a (in most cases) well-earned rest after several months of physi-cally and mentally rigorous work. Part of the reason why the holiday season sched-ule is so important to clubs is that it is at the mid-point of the season, the point at which many teams may start to coast. A winter break would re-invigorate both the players and the league campaign, which can often seem lacklustre come February and March. It might be nice and unusually poetic to add some symme-

try to football - there’s a half-time break in matches, a winter break would give a (much needed) half-time break in the season as well. For many lower league teams, a winter break would provide a financial benefit as well. It might seem odd to say that a period of no business would be fi-nancially beneficial but, considering what happens at the moment, it would be. Countless games are called off in lower leagues sometimes when teams are al-ready making their way in the team coach to play. As we all know, fuel is not cheap these days; to set off for a match only to have it called off at the last minute, and to have this happen several times a month, is costly. Add into the mix the fact that the finances of a worryingly large percent-age of lower and non-league teams are precarious to say the least, it’s easy to see how clubs can’t afford to spend money for nothing. Maintaining the pitch, paying club staff (cookers, cleaners, stewards not just the players) also add up over this period. It would be a welcome relief for these clubs if it was announced that, in the months of our worst weather, games would be definitely off, meaning money would be saved and could be put to better use paying off debts. A winter break could be a symbol of a more self-aware, sensible game than we have today. Would we miss football during this period? Almost certainly not. Some-times, we need a break from things, even if we greatly enjoy and love it; it will give us chance to let other things into our lives - other sports, for example, or our families. It would also add another di-mension to the beautiful game, another layer of tactics to discuss and dissect. Far from being a bad thing, a thing the fans should fear, the fixture ‘congestion’ a win ter break would introduce should be em-

braced by fans on all the nationwide. A winter break would force clubs to get their priorities sorted - if you’re go-ing to try and challenge for every trophy possible, you will need a big squad with great strength in depth. If, as has been suggested, the break brings in a situa-tion where clubs will regularly be playing 6 or 7 games a month, teams will have to choose which competition they value most. What’s more, other teams will have to guess what their opponents priorities are - ‘If they’re not going all-out in this competition, they’ll be playing a weaker team; maybe we can get away with rest-ing a few players too’. The game will be akin to Formula 1 of old where not only did teams have to consider car strengths and tyre types but fuel loads and re-fill pit-stops as well. So many factors which can affect the overall outcome, so many factors which can go wrong make the sport more exciting. No longer will teams be able to coast through all competitions, through the FA Cup. If clubs have to organise their priorities they may decide that, actually, they do have a chance at the FA Cup and they will try their hardest to go for it. The compe-tition that was once great can be great again once teams take it seriously as a chance of glory, of silverware. If, because of the fixture congestion, the big teams decide that they will turn their attention away from the League Cup, other teams will be given a chance and may make this competition as well much more exciting. Overall then, the winter break seems perfect. Partners will get their loved ones back at week-ends; lower league clubs won’t be throwing their money down the sodden, frozen drain and domestic competitions will be in-jected with another level of sophistica-tion and excitement. It works in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands - far from being in the majority, England and Scotland are among the only European nations not to have a winter break. Most breaks are enforced because of weather, we have been lucky enough to be graced by an air current that gives us freakishly warm weather for our geographical posi-tion. If global warming continues at the rate it is said to be going at, that air cur-rent, and our mild winters, may vanish and a winter break may be a necessity in-stead of an option. The benefits are there already though, now all we need is the support.

English football needs winter break?let's say yes!mark thompson tells his opinion about possiblewinter breaks in english football.

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39 | december 2012

300th goalBarcelona and spain national team striker David villa scored 300th goal in his career. Milestone goal was scored in a match against deportivo alaves. villa scored most of his goals (128) while playing for valencia. inbarcelona, el guaje has scored 40 goals.

photos | tumbrl.com

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birthday!!!once the star of serie a, now the manager of manchester city. robertomancini celebrated his 48th birthday on november 27. he may have not theeasiest days in manchester, but he still deserves a credit for the titlethat city won last season. Good luck, Signore mancini!

photos | tumblr.com

41 | december 2012

a record!Argentine striker lionel messi is breaking all the possible records the game of football has... in match against athletic bilbao, messi scored two goals and became the barcelona leading goalscorer in la liga. he broke the record of Cesar rodriguez.

photos | tumblr.com

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birthday!!!some people simply never get too old to play football... ryan giggs is aperfect example for that. on november 29, he was celebrating his 39thbirthday! This man is playing since 1990... For 22 years! amazing, isn't?Let's hope that veteran will play a few more seasons with man united!

photos | tumblr.com

100th goal this milestone isn't the most impressive one, but it still deserves some credit. italian striker fabrizio miccoli scored his 100th goal in serie a. he scored his jubilee goal in a match against catania, helping palermo to get a 3-1 win. miccoli has spent most of his career in palermo.

photos | tumblr.com

43 | december 2012

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champion...legendary english midfielder david beckham once again won a champion's title in mls together with los angeles galaxy. it's already clear that this was the last match for beckham together with galaxy. but it's nice when you walk away as a champion.

photos | tumblr.com

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