Diego Maradona Dead at 60

 Argentine great Diego Maradona, who scored one of the most infamous goals in World Cup history, died of a heart attack at age 60 today in Tiegre, Argentina.  Jere  Longman has an extensive obituary in the New York Times.

Maradona ruled the 1986 World Cup in Mexico City, won by Argentina.  In the quarterfinal against England he broke a scoreless tie in the 51st minute by intercepting a pass in the air to British keep Peter Shilton and heading it - or so it seemed - into the net.  Turns out he fisted it into the net and somehow the referee did not see it.  

According to Longman, "Maradona later gave conflicting accounts of what had happened. At first he said he had never touched the ball with his fist; then he said he had done so accidentally; then he attributed the goal to divine intervention, to 'the hand of God.' " Four minutes later he dribbled some 70 yards and scored what proved to be the game winner.

In 2000 FIFA voted Maradona and Pele the two greatest players.  Unlike Pele, Maradona had a long history of drug addiction.  In 1991 he was given a 15-month suspension for a positive cocaine test.  His behavior became erratic, it was said.  In 1994 he was kicked out of the World Cup in the United States after testing positive for various stimulants. 

Health issues included alcohol abuse, treatment for a weakened heart and psychiatric treatment.  He was the father of eight children, including three while he was in Cuba treating for drug addiction.

Argentina has declared three days of mourning.

FIFA To The Rescue

The soccer world is not immune to the devastating economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.  One doesn't need an MBA to figure that when your source of revenue goes - in the case of soccer the games, televising of them and incidental income such as parking and concessions - your profits go as well.  

It turns out that FIFA has cash reserves of $2.74 billion and is considering using some of that money to  aid ailing clubs around the world.  As reported in the New York Times, there is talk of using some of the reserves and borrowing against future television revenue to create a "football relief fund."

Almost World Cup Time

With the dismal (U.S. not qualifying and Germany not advancing) 2018 World Cup far in the past, it's time to look to the Women's World Cup, where the Americans will begin defense of their title June 11 against Thailand in Reims, France.  We hope to see them in the final come July 7.

The bookies seem to like the red, white and blue, setting the odds for an American repeat at 2-1.  CBS Sports has a story on the odds for all the teams.

Follow all the results at the official FIFA site.

After the opener, the U.S. will face Chile on June 16 in Paris and wrap up group play against Sweden in LeHavre June 20.  Assuming U.S. advances out of Group F, they would play in the Round of 16 on June 24.

And finally, Jonathan Tannenwald had a piece in today's Inquirer about Team USA goalie, Alyssa Naeher, a Penn State graduate, Class of '09.  Fellow Nittany Lion Ali Krieger, Class of '06, is also on the roster and will be appearing in her third World Cup.

Argentinian Derby Turns Ugly

Yesterday the New York Times ran a story about the 2nd leg of South America's premier club competition, the Copa Libertadores between Buenos Aires' archrivals, River Plate and Boca Juniors, the first time the two teams have met in a cup final.  The first match ended in a 2-2 draw.  Noted radio announcer Leonardo Uranga called the game "the biggest game in Argentina history."

The game had been scheduled for tonight, Saturday, November 24, but was called off when the bus carrying Boca to the River Plate stadium  was attacked by River Plate fans who threw stones, sticks and bottles at the bus, shattering windows and causing the driver to faint.  Police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd and fumes drifted inside the bus where some players had been cut by flying glass and debris.  Rory Smith, who wrote the original Times article about the game, reported on the chaos and resulting postponement.

Although Boca said it could not play the game, Conmebol, the governing body of South American soccer, insisted that it go on.  Finally, at 7:45, the game was postponed to Sunday evening.

The whole affair was an embarrassment for Argentina, where a summit meeting of the G20 will take place in Buenos Aires this coming week.

Le jour de gloire est arrivé! France Wins!

Some thoughts on today's World Cup final:

As usual, the best stateside coverage came from the New York Times.

I'm still not sold on instant replay, known in soccer as VAR (video assistant referee), but I think it helped get one call right today.  I thought it was a hand ball on Croatia's Ivan Perisic (#4) but referee Nestor Pitana originally called a corner kick for France.  After reviewing the play he overruled himself and awarded the penalty kick, which Antoine Griezmann easily converted to put France up, 2-1, in the 38th minute.  The Times questioned whether the call  should have been overturned.

Overall I thought Pitana and his AR's called a good game although I did not think it was a foul on the play that gave France a free kick  that led to the first goal in the 18th minute.

I felt bad for Croatia's Mario Mandzukic, who headed the ball into his own net on that first French goal.  It really wasn't his fault - to me it looked as though he got up as high as he could and the ball deflected off his head.  He redeemed himself in the 69th minute when French keeper Hugo Lloris made a terrible mistake and played the ball to Mandzukic, allowing an easy goal.  Not sure if this is the first time a player has ever scored for both teams in a cup final.

French coach Didier Deschamps (is that a cool French name or what?) became only the third person to win a World Cup as a coach and as a player.  The others were Franz Beckenbauer of Germany and Mario Zagallo of Brazil.  I met Beckenbauer a few times when he played for the Cosmos and I covered them for the Trenton Times.

The French team showed class, forming an honor guard for the Croatians during the awards presentation, and the presidents of France (Emmanuel Macron)  and Croatia (Kolinda Grabar-Kitorovic) seemed pretty classy themselves during the ceremony, which took place in a downpour.  (No one from FIFA thought to have a portable canopy available for bad weather.)

Better Late Than Never: Germany Beats Sweden Seconds Before The End

Toni Kroos saved his best shot for last.

In what will surely go down as one of the great games of this and many other World Cups, Kroos drilled a curveball into the upper right corner moments before time expired to give the Germans a much-needed 2-1 victory over Sweden.

After a shocking 1-0 loss to Mexico in the opener, a loss would have eliminated Germany and a tie would have made advancement difficult in light of Sweden's defeat of South Korea.  

Although Germany dominated much of the play in the first half, they were down, 1-0 and it could have been worse.  Antonio Ruedinger got away with a foul in the box on Marcus Berg in the 12th minute.  The Swedes screamed - rightfully so in my opinion - but no call.  After Ola Toivonen put Sweden up 1-0 in the 32nd minute, Manuel Neuer made a spectacular save on a header by Berg just before halftime.  

Germany played with 10 men for about five minutes in the first half when Sebastien Rudy took an accidental boot in the nose and began bleeding profusely.  Finally Coach Löw decided to send in Ilkay Gundogan for Rudy. 

Germany scored its first goal of this World Cup when Marco Reuss caught a cross from Timo Werner with his knee and knocked it in.  

Although a draw would have kept German hopes of advancing alive, the three points obviously would have enhanced their chances and kept up the pressure after Reuss' goal and had several good chances.  Sweden, sitting on 3 points from its win over South Korea, was content to play everyone back on defense.  

Germany appeared to take a hit in the 82nd minute when Jerome Boateng was sent off with his second yellow.  But it did not seem to hurt.  Sweden needed a spectacular save by Robin Olsen on a header from Mario Gomez, to remain even.  

In stoppage time, Julian Brandt, who had just come on minutes earlier, hit the post with a shot, just as he had done against Mexico.  In the 5th minute, Werner came down the left as he had so many times before, and was fouled just outside the box.  Kroos touched the ball a yard or so to his right where Reuss put is foot on top of it and Kroos stepped up and drilled a curve ball into the upper right corner.  As brilliant as he had been, Olsen had no chance on this one.

Now Germany and Sweden are even with 3 points and a zero goal differential each.  Germany takes on South Korea Wednesday while  Sweden will face first place Mexico two hours later. 

VAR, er ... Instant Replay, Is here

More than eight years ago - on March 10, 2010 to be exact, I wrote here  that it was good that instant replay would not be used in soccer. Would slow down the game, I said.

Well, instant replay, known as VAR for video-assistant-referee, is here as reported in today's New York Times. Although the English Premier League and UEFA which runs the Champions League, have not used VAR, it is at the World Cup in Russia. And Christopher Clarey writes in the Times article, "There will be bumps, maybe even an occasional accident, but the use of replay in critical situations, which is what V.A.R. is to be limited to, is still the best chance to make the World Cup and the sport a fairer proposition."

Clarey says that a study by Italy's Serie A showed that compared to the previous season, referee errors dropped from 5.78 percent of decisions to less than 1 percent. Expulsions were down 7.1 percent. And on a particularly encouraging note, simulation, also known as diving, was down 35.3 percent.  Meanwhile, the amount of time when the ball was actually in play during a 90-minute game increased by an average of 43 seconds to just over 51 minutes. 

The article recognizes the argument against replay: that unlike sports such as baseball and American football, there are not natural stoppages and that to hold up a game for replay would disrupt the flow of play, one of the sport's attractions.  I agree.  The counter to that is that there are indeed stoppages for throw-ins, corner kicks, injuries, substitutions and arguing with referees.  Generally none of these take as long as the replay review.

What is interesting is that under VAR the referee on the field makes the replay call, that is has the right to overrule himself. as happened in yesterday's France-Australia match in the World Cup in which the referee aid he had missed a foul in the box and awarded France a penalty kick, which proved to be the decisive in a 2-1 win.

I'm still not convinced that VAR is good for the game, but as Clarey writes, There is no going back now. In a world where fans are already reviewing every big decision on their screens, referees deserve the best possible chance to get their decisions right."

Catching up

Since my last post, Hamburger S.V. was relegated to the 2md Division of the Bundesliga for the first time in history, the World Cup started, FIFA announced the 2026 Cup will be held in North America, the Union advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup, and Germany lost the Cup opener to Mexico today, 1-0.

Sports Illustrated  and ESPN: The Magazine both had World Cup issues, with SI doing stories about why U,S, fans should root for each of the countries that (unlike us) are playing in Russia.  First choice: Iceland, which has a population for less than Philadelphia.  How can you not like a national team coached by a dentist?

Iceland lived up to its billing as a team that can play rather than a novelty when it tied Argentina, 1-1 yesterday as the keeper saved a penalty kick by Lionel Messi.  Speaking of billing, Cristiano Ronaldo lived up to his as the greatest player in the world by registering a hat trick in Portugal's opener against Spain.

When the World Cup reaches North America there will be 48 teams - an increase over the current 32.  Most of the games will be in the United States with some in Canada and Mexico.  We'll have to wait and see if Philadelphia gets may games.  Surely New York (Met Life Stadium is actually in New Jersey) will but Boston and Atlanta are East Coast candidates with many other cities competing.

The last time the men's Cup was here was 1994.  I was lucky enough to score tickets to the quarterfinal and Scott and I watched Germany lose to Bulgaria at what then the Meadowlands and is now MetLife.

And speaking of Germany losing . . . it's not like they didn't have their chances.  But they let Mexico come down the left side once too many times and Hernandez passed the ball out to Hirving Lozano who beat Mesut Özil and fired it inside the near post.  Four minutes later Toni Kroos hit the crossbar with a free kick and in the closing minutes Germany had several good shots.

Next up for Germany is Sweden on the 23rd in Sochi . followed by South Korea on the 27th in Kazan.  Those two teams play each other tomorrow.

The Boston Derby - in Europe

As most fans know, Liverpool FC plays AS Roma tomorrow in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals at Anfield Stadium in Liverpool. What many may not realize is that both teams are owned by Boston businessmen, Liverpool by John Henry and a group of business executives and Roma by James Pallotta and a different team of executives.  Pallotta is a part owner of the Celtics and Henry the principal owner of the Red Sox.

The pre-game story is in today's Boston Globe.

“This is a great story line — the two Boston ownerships facing each other,” the Globe quotes Rich D’Amore, a local owner of AS Roma, as saying. “I’ll take this.”

World Cup Draw: Germany, Brazil the Favorites

So Iceland is in and the United States is not.  But then neither are the Netherlands, Chile or - to the greater shock of its citizens - Italy.  And now Iceland and the 31 other countries competing in the 2018 World Cup in Russia know who their opponents will be.

The New York Times provided live analysis of the draw from the Kremlin Friday and the day before a team-by-team analysis.

So with no U.S. in the Cup this year, my favorite is of course Germany, which is also the favorite of many bookies - along with Brazil.  Deutschland is in Group F with Mexico, Sweden and South Korea.

The first game is June 14, Russia vs. Saudi Arabia, 11 a.m. Eastern Time.  Germany begins June 17 at 11 a.m. against Mexico.  The final is Sunday, July 15 at 11 a.m.  I hope to be back at the German Society of Pennsylvania watching the finals as we did last World Cup.  Check out the schedule and other World Cup info at the FIFA World Cup site.

Progress: First Woman Referee In The Bundesliga

Saturday's New York Times carried the story of Bibiana Steinhaus, the first woman to referee in the German Bundesliga.   Good for her and good for the sport.  No reason a woman who is qualified cannot officiate in the Bundesliga or any other top league.  Are you listening MLS?

Steinhaus seems pretty cool - serious about the job, worked hard to get where she is but still a bit in awe.  “This is the freaking Bundesliga! This is cool!" she is quoted as saying.

Maybe in the not too distant future having a woman working top games in any sport will no longer be news.

How Cool Is This Kindergarten?

What kid wouldn't love to go to school in their favorite team's stadium?  Imagine a Little League baseball player having classes at Yankee Stadium.  Or a pee wee hockey player doing the same at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Kindergarten kids in Hamburg, Germany, get to do just that at the Pestalozzi Foundation kindergarten inside the 29,546-seat Millerntor-Stadion, home to the Second Division F.C. St. Pauli.  The article in today's New York Times describes how the school uses the stadium's roof, tunnels and field for group activities and how players stop in to read to the children.

Located in a working class but gentrifying area, the St. Pauli club's fans are known for left-leaning politics and campaigns against racism and homophobia.  On the field, the team is hanging on the Second Division, just two points above the relegation zoned with four matches to play.

Carli Lloyd Off to Manchester City

It's official: Carli Lloyd has signed with Manchester City in time for the F.A. Women's Super League season, the F.A. Cup and the UEFA Champions League.  In June she will return to her NWSL team, the Houston Dash for the second half of its season.

“I’ve always had the desire to play abroad,” Lloyd told Andrew Das of the New York Times today. “And this is pretty much the year to do it. There’s no World Cup. There’s no Olympics. So it just made sense.”

Lloyd's Double: FIFA Player of the Year Again

For the second straight year Carli Lloyd has been named FIFA Women's Player of the Year.  Cristiano Ronaldo was the men's winner.  The awards were handed out in Zurich tonight.  There is extensive coverage on the U.S. Soccer website.

Lloyd joins a rather elite group of just three other women who have won the award more than once: Mia Hamm of the U.S. (2001-2002); Birgit Prinz of Germany (2003, 2004 and 2005); and Marta of Brazil, 2006 - 2010.

Congratulations to Carli!

50% More World Cup

Don't look now, but FIFA appears likely to add to the number of teams in the World Cup finals by as much as 50 percent, going from the current 32-team format to 48.

As reported by the AP on ESPN FC, a FIFA study has said that while the current format produces the highest quality soccer, 16 groups of three would be more profitable. The 2026 World Cup is the earliest any change could be implemented.

The AP says that FIFA's ruling council will vote on the proposed changes next month, but quoted the organization as saying "it should not be a financial decision" and that "the goal of expanding the World Cup is to further advance the vision to promote the game of football, protect its integrity and bring the game to all."

I liked the comment posted on the website by a Mike Lee of UC Berkeley:  "Not a fan of expansion, but I don't hate it. But The 3 team group format is awful. I would love a 40 team cup with 8 5-team groups. and would be okay with a 48 team cup with 12 4 team groups, with half advancing. Then the top 8 group winners get a first round bye. 3 team groups are the worst: it becomes even more about the draw and arbitrary tie breakers will decide several groups."  Maybe FIFA will read it.

Wanderers Face Gunners on Isles of Scilly - Again and Again And Again

Today's New York Times reports on what it calls "the world's smallest soccer league," the Woolpack Wanderers and Garrison Gunners, who battle each other, and only each other, over a 20-game season on St. Mary's in the Isles of Scilly off the southwestern coast of England.  "No derby in world soccer is played quite as frequently as that between the Garrison Gunners and the Woolpack Wanderers," writes Rory Smith.

The five inhabited islands have a year round population of about 2,200, with St. Mary's the largest at about 1,650.  The league used to have four teams, two from St. Mary's and two from other islands, until the 1950s when a dwindling population forced it to shrink. 

Each summer the team captains meet at a local pub for choose sides for the coming year, a tradition that keeps the games competitive.

It turns out the league is not even officially the world's smallest.  To save costs, the two teams register as one with the English Football Association so in the eyes of English soccer the games are considered intramural matches,

Tragedy in Colombia

The soccer world is deeply saddened by the plane crash near Medellin, Colombia Monday night that wiped out the Brazilian Serie A (First Division) team, Chapecoense.  As reported in the New York Times, the team was traveling to Medellin to play Atlético Nacional in the finals of the Copa Sudamericana, when the plane experienced electrical problems and went down, killing 71 of 77 on board.

Based in Chapecó, a city of about 210,000 in southern Brazil, Chapecoense was mired in the fourth division as recently as 2009 and made it to the top tier in 2014 when it finished 15th.  This season it was in 9th place with a week to go.

Atletico has asked the tournament to declare Chapecoense the champion and the other teams in the Brazilian Serie A has said they will lend players to the club in the new season.

Arena Is back With A Different Outlook

As widely expected, Bruce Arena has returned as coach of the U.S. Men's National Team, replacing Jurgen Klinsmann, who was fired yesterday.  Jere Longman writes in today's New York Times that Arena is more receptive now than in the past to foreign-born players with dual citizenship playing for the U.S.  And George Vecsey says in his profile of Arena in the Times that the coach will keep it simple as he takes on the task of qualifying for the 2018 world Cup.

Arena, a member of the Soccer Hall of Fame and a successful MLS coach, begins his second stint as head of the men's team.  He also coached the squad from 1998 through 2006 when he was fired.  He is the winningest national team coach ever with 71 wins, 16 more than Klinsmann.

Soccer America quotes Arena as saying that while he did not expect the coaching job to come about as it did, he would have done it for free.

Arena has until March to get ready for the next World Cup qualifiers.

It's Harder Than It Looks, But . . .

I always told team parents that soccer can be harder to play than it seems and that controlling a rolling or flying ball while running or even standing still can be difficult.  Having said that, it boggles the mind that this Fourth Division Serbian player missed this shot on an open goal from about one yard away.  If the coach had him practice it he could not do that again. 

Thanks to Soccer America for posting the video.

Klinsmann Gets the Boot as MNT Coach

To the surprise of few - except maybe himself - Men's National Team coach Jurgen Klinsmann was fired today, after the team dropped its first two World Cup 2018 qualifying matches.  Sam Borden has a comprehensive article on the New York Times website.

Klinsmann, a former German international player and coach who saw time as a player and coach at Bayern München and as a player at Inter Milan and Tottenham Hotspurs, began his tenure in July 2011 and compiled a record of 55-27-16.  Perhaps his biggest achievement with the U.S. men came in 2014 when the team advanced out of the "Group of Death" into the Round of 16 where it lost in overtime to Belgium.

The official U.S. Soccer announcement sounded lie any other press release when a coach is fired: thanking him for a great job but we need to go in another direction.

According to Borden, former U.S. coach Bruce Arena is the top candidate to take over the team for the remainder of this World Cup cycle.