Sunday June 29 2014


Zapata thanks Colombia after Seedorf

By Football Italia staff

Colombia defender Cristian Zapata blamed Clarence Seedorf for his lack of playing time at Milan recently.

The centre-back is one of numerous Serie A-based players in the Colombia squad at this World Cup, who face Brazil in the quarter-finals.

“Could we win the World Cup? We’ll see. It’s not impossible,” grinned Zapata on TuttoMercatoWeb.

“We are a very young squad, apart from Mario Yepes, who is playing like a kid anyway. We are united, joyful and very happy with all this.

“Players like James Rodriguez and Juan Cuadrado can change a game and tip the balance, so for the rest of us it’s different with them on the field.

“There is more joy in the Colombia squad than in Serie A, where there is so much tension. After Seedorf arrived at Milan, I didn’t play consistently. It was his decision and that’s football.

“I was first choice under Massimiliano Allegri, but then this new Coach arrived and made different choices. I’m happy to be here at the World Cup proving myself anyway.”

Apart from the opening day V HV Zapata did little to be dropped, yet found himself totally frozen out under Seedorf.

Another player I have to say Clarence did not manage well.

While I think Seedorf was harshly treated, it's quite amazing how many players have came out and criticised him.

I'm beginning to wonder if the treatment was indeed harsh after all. Just too many players and staff have been critical of him.

Seedorf is an arrogant, headstrong man, and it's starting to look like the club may have got this one right after all.

We'll see.

It's an odd one. While Seedorf is clearly a stubborn guy which could bother some players, he comes across as a very likeable person working with the BBC for the World Cup.

Pundit Seedorf is a completely different animal to manager Seedorf.

As a comparison, if you watched Boris Becker as a pundit for BBC he was this light-hearted fun, quirky guy - slightly idiotic in fact.

Now he's Djokovic's coach and he is truly a completely different person - BBC interviewed him AS Djokovic's coach and the timbre in his voice was totally different and he was sensible and not light-hearted at all.

The role you're in defines how you will behave.

Well, it's more then just evident that Milan by definition nowadays means trouble and various problems. Not one person is responsible for our bad situation and the created mess: it was obvious even with a charlatan coach like Allegri that all the blame cannot be directed to one person.

The same applies on Seedorf. He sure is stubborn and arrogant, and he may have stepped on quite a few toes during his reign. But then again, I trust his judgement, and I'm sure the Milan of today has much more rotten apples then sapphires and diamonds.

That being said, I think the club realized how low they've treated a club legend and are now trying to spin the whole story with as much as possible Seedorf bashing via stories and players.

On Zapata: I think he's been overly optimistic. Fact remains, he played the first half of the season poorly under Allegri. Reading his comments one would think Milan was - during the first half of the season - better under Allegri, while in fact we put up one after another horrible performance. And who has he faced by now? Japan, a sterile Greece and Uruguay, then Ivory Coast, then only true attacking menace. Like all the Colombian players, he's getting cocky, while some real tests are still to come.

tbh you could probably dismiss ALL teams as having come through real 'tests' in this world cup.

The only team that's really come up against a tough side and come through it (at a major cost, admittedly) is Brazil, oddly enough V Zaps' Colombia.

Otherwise Argies saw off an abysmal Belgian display, Germany swept aside an amateur France and Holland were so so lucky V Costa Rica.

And Chile. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif) Brazil against Chile was a tough one, man!

True, a very good team indeed.

I don't know. I wouldn't exactly agree France played amateurish, and Algeria was a strong opponent, that I'm sure of. Plus having a group with USA, Portugal and Ghana wasn't easy at all, so I've gotta say - Germany got tested pretty decently.

Algeria are by no means a strong opponent, they just exploited Germany's lack of pace.

Nah, I wouldn't reduce it to one attribute. Sure, they did exploit some tactical weaknesses, but overall they're a very disciplined and good prepared opponent. Just like Costa Rica. Strong is maybe not the right word.

Exactly, and a completely different beast that Colombia is. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) They play a different brand of football. Sure, it was a mistake that gifted them the goal, but no wonder they kept coming at Brazil every single minute. And speaking as a fan, I know Mexico also came at them hard, these guys have always troubled Brazil.

As opposed to say Argentina, where Mexico chicken out. But against Brazil, they bring their A game. So overall some hard fought battles for Brazil, which they have seen through one way or another. This next one is the hardest.

Bumped. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)