The Good, The Bad, The Phil Jones
Written by Matt ‘The Golden Child’ Lebo
Besides following Croatian footballers on a regular basis, I spend the rest of my time following the entire soccer world while creeping on girls on Facebook. I decided, since some of you guys love the game as much as I do, to share my wealth of weekly information with you. Instead of constantly berating the crap out of our players, we can make fun of and admire others as well.
R.I.P GARY SPEED
We start off on a sad note as one of the legendary EPL players, Gary Speed, passed away this week after committing suicide. Speed is the third highest capped player in the EPL, and was known for his impeccable fitness, gritty play, and ‘nice guy’ attitude. After his playing career, he had a short coaching spell at Sheffield United, and later went on to coach the Wales National squad in 2011. It’s always terrible to see someone take their own life, and I don’t much agree with it, but it’s slowly becoming a rising issue in the world of sports today.
Champions League
Champions League matches took place November 22-23rd, with some of it’s best games this season. The first notable mention goes to Napoli, who rode on the wings of Edinson Cavani, who absolutely crushed the dreams of new EPL powerhouse Manchester City. If you haven’t heard of Cavani, check out more of his highlights after you’re done watching the ones below. The guy has been carrying Napoli for awhile now, and it blows my mind that many soccer fans still don’t have him on their radar.
The other notable mention goes out to the game between AC Milan and Barcelona. Not only was it the most exciting game of the week, but it also brought about an absolutely disgusting goal from ‘The Prince’ Boateng. AC Milan did end up losing 3-2, but they showed that they could still hang with the big boys, even with the current decline in Serie A quality. If you haven’t seen the goal, it’s coming in the highlights later in this post, but I’d rather post another announcing the legend out of Italy.
Russian Money Train
The Russian tycoons have been up to some serious business recently, trying to pick up every big name player possible to try and improve their league. Drogba, Anelka and Tevez have all been linked with extravagant transfers to join Eto’o at Anzhi Makhachkala. The major thing stopping them is the fact that the hometown of Anzhi Makhachkala has been named one of the most dangerous places in the world. The Russians are waving bricks of money in front of these players, but if the situation doesn’t improve there, I don’t see any more big names heading over to Mother Russia.
THE NEXT BIG THING
Do you have any idea who the top 100 best young footballers are in the world right now? Yah, neither did I, until I saw this article. Hopefully Croatian teen phenom Mateo Kovačić ends up on this list in the upcoming years after he moves away from Dinamo Zagreb. Can you think of any other players that should be on this list that didn’t make the cut?
Top 20 Goals
This is why I love the internet. In the 90’s, all I could catch was the tail end of EPL & Champions League games. It was bullshit! My Dida (God bless him) would have to leave right after the second half started and pick me up from school. The car ride home was something out of ‘Fast & Furious’ or ‘The Italian Job’. Once we got home, I’d run in the house, turn on the game, and boom…..only 10 minutes left. It was like clockwork every other Tuesday; I ran into the house and turned on the TV, hoping the EPL officials found out my school schedule and postponed the match until I got home. Needless to say, it never happened, but I never really understood what I was missing out on. Anyways, thank you internet, and I hope you all appreciate this.
Bero
Pretty surprising not to see him in it. Not sure what their thoughts were on this one. I saw someone mention the exact same thing after posting it elsewhere. Other guys are pretty spot on though.
that list of 100 best young talents doesnt include neymar? did the people that made it just forget about him or do it on purpose? i dont see how you can miss a guy who has a chance to be the best player of the next generation
Also happy to know that even at your age, you still like to stalk girls.
@Mihovil & Ante
Ugh. I don’t know how I feel about this.
I really don’t want to see a former Yugo hosting of the Euros, but at the same time I don’t want Croatia bidding for a Euro unless they have a reasonable chance to win the bid.
A joint bid with Serbia would make those European judges salivate at the chance of marketing a Cro-Serb Euro hosting as some “reconciliation” and progress campaign, showing us how sport is borderless, blah, blah, blah. They’d probably fill the marketing with all kinds of revisionist history and we’d be hearing wordplay like “civil war” until we all felt sick.
But if Croatia wants to legitimately host a Euro, they’re only chance is to co-host it, and they’re not going to win the bid by co-hosting with a Slovenia or a Hungary. I would love to co-host it with Italy, but no way the Italians want to share that spotlight. They’ve been bidding on their own, and wouldn’t want a co-host.
Turkey almost won the 2016 Euro bid. I would do a co-host with them (if UEFA allowed it). Market it as the Ottoman Euros, with the co-hosts being the frontier of Christian Europe to the West (Croatia), and the Islamic Ottoman Empire to the East (Turkey).
🙂
GoldenChild getting his own weekly article. That’s it the name change is complete. I’m a very happy man to read this. Cavani is awesome, this guy is such a huge threat and will probably take Forlan’s spot in Uruguay with Suarez. That Italian guy is absolutely hilarious, I’ve heard of him for a while now. He’s the craziest old man fan I know. If only Scorpios had an old man in the corner that did something like this.
@Mihovil
After a failed Euro 2012 joint bid by Croatia and Hungary, there’s been whisperings around the water cooler that Croatia and Serbia will apply together for 2020. The rumor also states that BiH can jump in the bid as well. I personally don’t like a 3-team bid. That means every country will only get to update 3-4 stadiums instead of 5.
Croatia’s 2012 bid was for Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek if I’m not mistaken.
How legitimate is this? UEFA Euro 2020 bids
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2020_bids
The Italian dude doing the AC Milan games is a legend. My favorite Italiano of all time for sure. Ahead of da Vinci and Pinocchio (yes, he was Italian).
@TheGoldenChild
Thanks, i just cant get enough footage of napoli sticking it to man city. And Cavani has definitely been on my radar, i am a napoli fan from way back. Amazing talent!
Goal 2, kevin prince boateng 0:50, is my favourite from the first 10.
Goal 3, pablo granoche 1:07, best from next 10.