Omy,what Nani did was genius with respect to that.

Without a shadow of doubt thanks for sharing!

wow i dont think anyone has ever had a miss that close to the goal! unbelievable stuff

The miss is unbelievable, definitely the worst in football history, but what the goalkeeper did wasn't less moronic.

Even the best GKs have had their moments... hell, even Casillas made a similar (well, almost!) mistake last season when we played them in the Bernabeu.

Oh come on, even Dida's worst howler can't compare to what that goalie did there.

Of course, but there must be a difference between Dida or Casillas and some unknown Uzbek GK!

The miss by that striker though, is unexplainable. even the biggest footballing retard should be able to score from, what was it, 1 meter from the goal line!

Not long until the 2018 and 2022 World Cups are announced. I would be more confident, given that we have the best bud, but FIFA have already proven to be corrupt so I think it'll go to Russia.

2022 should undoubtedly go to Oz or Qatar, but it won't, because moneys involved.

Messi, Xavi & Iniesta for the FIFA Ballon d'Or. A sweetener for the Spanish not getting the WC perhaps? Surely Sneijder deserved to have a shout.

I would have voted Sneijder with Xavi second. To quote the great Didier Drogba, this is a f@cking disgrace.

I think Sneijder was the best but in any case he should be among the top 3. It's funny how it's become a standard though and we just don't give too much importance on the fact that Barcelona have 3 of the top 5 players in the world!

Why should I? I support Milan. I've been there done that with every single player on the Ballon d'Or roster being Milanista!! MvB won that year.

Wow, so I guess it's true you need to win the World Cup to win FIFA Ballon d'Or (edit: oh Messi of course is not Spanish, he just plays for that Spanish team). Sneijder deserved it most, if not, he should be runner up. Messi? Wtf did he do? Iniesta (oh I hate him) to win, I suppose...

Messi scored a sh!tload amount of goals.

I was thinking about the World Cup.

Not only Sneijder, but also Villa I miss.

I think people have forgotten that Barca didn't even win the CL last season, at least FIFA seem to have. Messi had a great season but in the WC he was as big of a flop as all the other superstars (and had a far superior team around him to appear good in).

Sneijder has to be up there, what with his domestic form. Inter winning the CL, and his WC performances.

Just another example of just how clueless FIFA have gotten in recent times.

this actually has nothing to do with FIFA, they do not have a say in this... but journalists are involved... and most of them are clueless anyway!

"In practical terms, the new FIFA Ballon d’Or award will represent a fusion in terms of voting procedure as well. Votes will now come from the coaches and captains of international teams – as was previously the case for the FIFA Player of the Year – and also from journalists, who used to nominate France Football's Ballon d’Or winner."

take from here

FIFA still overlook it, I wouldn't put anything past them after the debacle last week. Especially as they snubbed the World/European Champions bid.

Yusef Ahmed should have won it, no question. Either him or Pavlyuchenko. Giving it to players from Spain or Argentina just show they only care about football and not the money, what a joke.

Sneijder should have definitely been in the top 3, but seeing as he's been a walking dead from September onwards, I'd give the award to Iniesta.

xavi deserves to win it. Messi won it last year.

The thing is the players around Sneijder both for club and country are a lot lower quality than the ones around Iniesta. I'm not doubting Iniesta, he is clearly a class player but I do think the players around them should be taken into consideration within this instance and Sneijder hardly did too badly in winning the CL and getting to the final of the WC.

The fact that he didn't get in the top 3 is a farce. I'm 110% sure he would have been in it if he was in the Barca team.

Mazembe 2-0 Internacional

Now that's a surprise. Let's see how Inter do tomorrow.

I see you were all very interested in the Club World Cup.

little interest was gone after the first game

It is a pretty stupid competition, I have no idea why European sides even bother turning up.

It's a trophy.

So, anyone catch Benitez's postmatch comments/ultimatum?

Prestige. It's not the competition, it's the title that sounds important and big.

No, what did he say?


Yeah, I suppose. Just seems more of an inconvenience than anything.

clicky for english translation.

This fish suspects the ultimatum will go over like a lead balloon with Moratti.

The guy is simply unbelievable. His side, the strongest Inter side for half a century (which he is busy turning into a mid-table team), has just beaten a Congolese side and he has the nerve to set ultimatums... he demands, that's right, demands four-five new players asap, and threatens to leave if this ultimatum is not met.
It's basically Liverpool all over again: he makes a huge mess out of it, blames it on anyone but himself and the solution is always the same, he needs new players.

I can't imagine how anyone would want to hire him after this.

Indeed.

PS to Locke -- Chickens rule, donkeys drool.

Thanks.

I've no idea why Inter hired him, just a bad, bad coach.

Corrected. He's not even a coach, you'll believe this if you follow his pre-and-post match comments. The man is a stupid dud, and got really lucky winning the 2005 CL final and the world thinks he is a coach. Sure there may be worse coaches than him, but Rafa is at the very bottom of the pile when it comes to top flight football.

I think it's a decent competition, all the continental club winners clashing for a final global trophy. I see nothing stupid about it. Inter this season, and Milan in 2007, had quite high regards about it.

I just think it's a joke. For starters it affects the league schedule, it's not really a prestigious tournement, it's been going for, what, 5 years? It's not competitive and it's incredibly dull. It's just as pointless as any other similar thing like the community Sheild, Italian Super Cup, European Super Cup, etc. FIFA are just seemingly desperate to do anything to please the Eastern World lately.

I'd rather Milan not enter it or send the U18s team.

Part of it is Blatter's desier to make Fifa competitions as popular as UEFA competitions, I think. But the competition itself, in one form or another, has been around at least a couple of decades -- until a couple of years ago, it was played in Japan.

The competition has been going on for decades, Kurt, not five years. Only the format and name has changed. And teams aim at winning it more than any of the trophies you mentioned.

Yeah the Intercontinental Cup has been around for a while, between Europe and South America (which was still pointless anyway), but then to ake a new competition just to add more teams into it and try and make a big deal of it the way they're doing. Eh, I just don't see the point in it.

Not true, X-Off, it's a new competition. The Intercontinental Cup officially finished in 2004 the Club World Cup is a new competition. Which is why you will find that both the Club World Cup and Intercontinental Cup both happened in 2000 - because they aren't the same thing.

On the paper, yes. But generally speaking, the Club World Cup is simply a continuation of the Intercontinental Cup. I don't care of the differences, really, as long as the winner is crowned 'Champions of the World'.

The Donkeys did quite a job pegging back the Hunchback Zebra earlier today, I seem to recall...

They did and I awarded a cookie for their efforts! The chickens didn't exactly do badly, playing 10 men for most of the game and drawing against the men in pink.

(quoted here as to not go OT in the Leo thread)
I think Jose is right and this is why individual awards are both stupid and full of bias, always have been.

VDB getting Spain to win 7 games is better than Jose getting Inter to win 3 trophies spanning over 60 games? Yeah, okay. This isn't me being bias towards Jose, any coach that wins the treble has to get the award and this goes for any team in any league.

I agree and besides any current Spain NT coach has the best midfield in the world ready for him as a gift from Barcelona (the irony) while JM created his own team at Inter to win what he did.

I believe there is an importance in the world cup, not the least for being crowned world champions, it also presents the time to play against teams and in locations that is rare. I believe the purpose has always been the same with the cup, to crown a world champion, even back when only 2 continental teams participated.

about Mourinho, did he ever become allenatore dell'anno in Serie A? i know Allegri got the award two seasons. Mourinho is often mentioned, but he has not yet won the world cup (for club and national team) and he has yet to win the european super cup.


it is now official, the new manager of inter. is he "cazzo" now? on bright side, Real Madrid report that Kaká door to inter is closed.

http://www.milannews.it/?action=read&idnotizia=41607

http://www.milannews.it/?action=read&idnotizia=41581

Jose has never even managed in a WC or CWC, the latter and the ESC are glorified friendlies anyway. I'd rather win the domestic league cup or EUFA Cup.

Yeah you are right, he has not, but he has had the chance to do it twice, with Porto and with Inter, but he chose to leave. My point is that he has not won everything. Will he ever be manager of a country? I do not know, but he has never won that world cup yet either.

I heard that when Boca Juniors lose against us 2007, the players cry, why would do that if it is bad cup?

It certainly means more to South American clubs. In the same way that the UEFA Super Cup means more to the UEFA Cup winner than the European Cup winner. The lesser team wants to prove something.

I don't think it's as black and white as people here make it out to be. The Club World Cup is certainly not a trophy you plan your whole season around, but after traveling all the way to Japan/Dubai, you'll want to win the thing. I think it was Pirlo who said that before the 2003 CWC, the Milan squad were talking about how it was all for a Mickey Mouse cup that no-one cared about, but when they lost the final on penalties it hurt like hell.

When you're there, facing off against another world-famous team for a trophy you may only get one chance to compete for, I think every player will do his best.

Messi wins Ballon d'Or. Mourinho wins coach of the year. Altintop wins goal of the year.