AND THAT MEXICO GAME FAIRLY SCREAMED FOR HIS INCLUSION:

Altidore nets two more goals in AZ win (Soccer by Ives, 8/19/12)

The U.S. Men's National Team forward scored two more goals today, both of the quality variety, in AZ Alkmaar's 3-1 win against Heracles. That gives him four in two matches, and gives him an outstanding start to the season.

THEY'D BE IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IF HE HADN'T BEEN HURT:

Rodgers ready to build new-look Liverpool around returning Brazilian midfielder Lucas  (DOMINIC KING, 21 July 2012, Daily Mail)

It was no surprise Liverpool's results dipped when he was out of the team last season and Rodgers is in no doubt how much the young man from Porto Alegre will offer. 


'I have only been at the club a short period of time and when I arrived, people told me how special he was as a player and how special a character he is,' said Rodgers. 


'But he is even better than that. When you meet him in real life, you see how hard he works. 


'The injury he had should have kept him out for nine months but he is back two months early. You can only do that through two things – determination and hard work. He is the ultimate professional and he is going to be a brilliant player in my career here. 


'I am just looking forward to seeing him back fully fit. But I know that every day he is fighting hard to get there. Not only is he a top footballer but he is a top guy as well. He is doing fantastic at this stage of his recuperation.' 




To hear Rodgers speak so endearingly made it impossible not to think about the journey Lucas has been on. 
Not so long ago, he was a figure derided by the Kop, one who was booed during a game against Fulham.  


It would have been easy to give in but, instead, he kept fighting. After winning the club's Young Player of the Year award in 2010, he was almost sold after Rafa Benitez was sacked but, again, he knuckled down to be name the club's Player of the Year in 2011 and last season he was playing the best football of his career before injury struck.

SURE THEY'RE YOUNG, BUT ROWE AND FAGUNDEZ HAVE TO BE STARTERS:

Revolution 2 - 2 Sounders: Diego Plays the Hero, Salvages a Point in Stoppage Time (Corey E. Major, Jun 30, 2012, Bent Musket)

Eddie Johnson would soon spoil the Revs' party, however, as he netted a brace-both headers-in the ensuing 20 or so minutes. Johnson was a nuisance to the Revolution back-line all night, and frustrations were clear by the end of the match, particularly after Stephen McCarthy's beautiful tackle in the box to stop the former US International from potentially tallying himself a hat-trick.


The Revs were forced to throw everything at Seattle by the end, subbing in playmakers Kelyn Rowe, Fernando Cardenas, and Diego Fagundez in the hopes that at least one would provide a spark (Fagundez was even subbed in for Florian Lechner, moving the Revs to a 3-man back-line). It did end up being Fagundez who provided that desired spark, scoring a goal off of a Cardenas cross into the box with the very last moment of action in the game. "When you're losing," Fagundez said, "the first thing you think is ‘let's go forward and let's try scoring.' So, going in in the 81st minute, I was thinking ‘we need to score.' So, I just gave it all I had."

THEY NEED THE LUDOVICO TREATMENT:

Oranje's Crippling Egotism : Can the Dutch Footballers Learn Teamwork? (Markus Feldenkirchen, 6/13/12, Der Spiegel)



Dutch football suffers greatly from the diva-like behavior of its protagonists. Holland, which plays the German national team in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Wednesday, should have won many major championships by now. In no other country is the ratio of talented footballers to the total population as high. But the Dutch players have repeatedly failed because of their collective Achilles' heel -- their massive egos.

Sometimes at the last minute individual stars have decided to stay home in a huff because something or other didn't suit them. Players have also sometimes rebelled against their coaches, and they've often quarreled with one another. This year, too, trouble surfaced just in time for pre-championship preparations when Schalke striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar refused to accept that van Persie is the top striker and be satisfied with the bench, at least for now. Holland's key problem is that ego usually trumps unity.

Hardly any other football-playing nation is blessed with as much genius and grace as the Netherlands. But what it lacks is discipline and team spirit.

THEY ALL SPEND ALL THAT MONEY ON STRIKERS...:

Robin van Persie (Henk Spaan, 6/02/12, Financial Times)

Van Persie expresses that great ambition in the accent of the Dutch street, a mix of Moroccan, Dutch-Caribbean and authentic Rotterdam. He talks with a generosity and concentration that makes him a joy to interview; always conveying the immense ambition of the top-class athlete. He simply has to win. When I interviewed him for the Dutch magazine Hard Gras, he told me: “I have a table-tennis table at home. Everyone who comes to visit has to play a set against me. I’ve resolved never to lose one. I just smack them away.”


And because he absolutely has to win, that will be Arsenal’s problem: convincing Van Persie that his enormous ambition coincides with that of his club. Do Arsenal really want to win the league? Do they really want to win the Champions League? Van Persie wants to, and if he doesn’t recognise his own drive in the club, he will look elsewhere, however much he and his family enjoy life in village-like Hampstead; however much he enjoys a meal in one of the neighbourhood restaurants with his Arsenal buddy Thomas Vermaelen.
Arsenal’s recent signings have not convinced. Andrey Arshavin was expensive, inefficient and unpopular in the dressing room, Marouane Chamakh a mistake, Gervinho inadequate for the Premier League. And manager Arsène Wenger’s protection of the young midfielder Aaron Ramsey, with his deficient view of the game and meagre statistics (only two goals and four assists all season), doesn’t help much either.
Feyenoord 2001–2004


On the positive side, Wenger did buy the playmaker Mikel Arteta, who within six months has become a true Arsenal player, the bedrock of their passing game. Incidentally, instead of Ramsey in midfield, Arsenal could have had Van Persie’s compatriot Rafael van der Vaart. “Would you like to come and play for us?” Van Persie had asked him. Van der Vaart, then out of favour at Real Madrid, had not believed his ears. With Van der Vaart on the left, Van Persie would know exactly when and where to expect the ball. Unfortunately, Wenger didn’t believe in Van der Vaart, even though he would have cost just £8m – peanuts when compared with Arshavin’s £15m. Van der Vaart joined Arsenal’s arch-rivals, Spurs, in 2010 and has since scored four goals against Arsenal. In one game at White Hart Lane, he put the ball through the legs of his opposite number at Arsenal, Jack Wilshere, twice in 10 seconds, then stuck out his tongue at him.
Van Persie has repeatedly expressed his admiration for teammates Arteta, Alex Song and Theo Walcott. But he still misses the team’s former playmaker, Cesc Fàbregas, who, since moving to Barcelona, has been unable to find his old form. Van Persie calls Fàbregas’s assists “art”. He speaks lyrically about the frequency with which Fàbregas could put a forward unmarked in front of the keeper. Usually that forward was Van Persie.


“Cesc is slow, you know,” he told me. “With us he was one of the slowest. And yet he was the fastest of us all. He always thinks two seconds ahead. I’d sometimes think, ‘Why doesn’t the opponent take the ball from him?’ Then, peep, he’d do a little feint. At training once I was running three, four metres behind him. I caught up and thought, ‘Now I’ll get you.’ But with the point of his boot he gives – peep! – a tiny little pass for a one-two. That gives him another metre and a half. I catch up with him again, but – peep! – he suddenly turns away with a body feint. So irritating! We strikers could always expect a deep ball from him. Most midfielders look sideways first, and then maybe forward. Cesc always looked forward first.”


Cesc is still missed. Arsenal fans cannot expect another season – such as this – of 30 goals without a playmaker to feed Van Persie. In March 2011, when I came to London to interview him again, for a Dutch TV documentary, he told me that a team’s playmaker has to form a two-in-one unit with the striker. And Arsenal realise that Van Persie believes this. Not for nothing did their scout Gilles Grimandi recently watch Montpellier’s Moroccan playmaker Younès Belhanda. Not for nothing are the names of playmakers Eden Hazard and Yoann Gourcuff so often linked with Arsenal. But can they fill the hole left by Fàbregas’ departure? The only way that Van Persie can find the playmaker he craves could be by following the little Spaniard to Barcelona.


...but it is the Fabregas's & Alonso's they have trouble replacing.

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• Cesc Fabregas urges Robin van Persie to stay at Arsenal

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ONLY KING KENNY COULD CONTAIN ANDY CARROLL:

England striker Andy Carroll impresses Roy Hodgson with his work in little and large act up front (Henry Winkler, 5/26/12, Telegraph)

Hodgson’s teams have always been built on partnerships and the Carroll-Young axis started promisingly. This was nothing radical from Hodgson, nothing that signalled much homage to the more fluid, possession-friendly modern systems. With a big man leading the line, feeding a smaller, nimbler accomplice, England were all 4-4-2.

Assuming Hodgson sticks with the same system in the Euros then the England manager faces an intriguing decision for the Ukraine game. On the basis that Wayne Rooney is expected to return straight away from suspension, does Hodgson omit the line-leading Carroll or the quicksilver Young against Ukraine? As Rooney prefers the No 10 scheming role Young may prove the loser.

Carroll seems cemented in Hodgson’s plans. He never stopped showing for the ball, helping out defensively as well in the attacking third, although he needs far better service. Barring one early delivery from Stewart Downing, Carroll was largely starved of enticing crosses.

While he mishandled the young striker all season, all you need to know about why the King was canned is that he didn't even start him in the Cup final.

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FOR WANT OF A CARROLL OR CROUCH THE CUP WAS LOST:

No plan B sees brainless Barcelona go down to courageous Chelsea: Barça, for all their possession and control, could not find a way around a Chelsea side who deserved to reach the final (David Pleat, 4/24/12, The Guardian)

Chelsea were brave. Barcelona lacked brains. Sometimes you have to be blockers, hackers and whackers to achieve your goal and Chelsea chased and harried to prevent the waves of Barcelona attacks overwhelming them. The Barça performance gave ammunition to opponents of tiki-taka, as they played overly patient football against a lion-hearted Chelsea, who were left a man short after John Terry's red card.


Having the ball for 70% of the game is a futile statistic if you lose sight of your purpose in the last 40 yards. Incredibly, for all their instant control and movement, Barcelona could not penetrate Chelsea and drag defenders away from the centre. If ever they needed a different approach, it was here.


Unable to hit diagonal balls due to not having a big striker, they also did not shoot enough from distance and dismally failed to hurt Chelsea in wide positions. Chelsea refused to budge from the centre and Barcelona lacked the cunning to get round the back. With no space behind Chelsea's defence, Pep Guardiola's side made few chances, particularly after Lionel Messi missed a penalty early in the second half.

What's the point of playing 8 midfielders?