Football Invitational in Support of Mandela Day 2013

Based in my city - Durban, Manchester City's visit wasn't just about the Football Invitational in support of Mandela Day, they did more than just play SuperSport United and Amazulu FC.


Members of City's coaching staff involved in the School of Football arrived in Johannesburg to launch a three-year coaching partnership with Mpumalanga Black Aces Football Club. This means City coaching staff will visit South Africa three times a year to conduct coaching clinics.

Matija Nastasic, James Milner, Joleon Lescott and Micah Richards arrived at the Nike Football Training Centre in Soweto for a bit of a question and answer session and did some football drills with the young footballers at the Training Centre.

In Clermont, North West of Durban, City's coaching staff had a soccer clinic for young soccer stars at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium.

At SunCoast Casino in Durban, City held a signing session before their third and final session of the day. In the evening, five of the footballers alongside Pellegrini were invited for a gala dinner at the Durban Convention Centre.

MATCHES
SuperSport United 2-0 Manchester City
I doubt I was the only one who thought City would beat United. Not just beat them, but beat them with a large score. This was not the case.

Instead, United got 2 past City with goals from Niang and Erasmus. You could say United is a standard club, pretty average, and City is a top club who finished second last season in the English Premier League. What an upset for Manuel Pellegrini on his first match. If Pellegrini had not changed the entire starting XI in the second half, the match could've been a stalemate, especially since the goals were scored in the second half.

United pressed hard at City and got a good result. The likes of Yaya Toure, Nasri, Zabaleta and Kompany couldn't keep United at bay.



Amazulu 1-1 Manchester City
Coming from a 2-0 defeat, City were prepared. They had about 8 defenders at the back to keep Amazulu from scoring. That didn't last long since Amazulu opened the scoring after Hart alongside his defense let Ndulula through to score the opening goal. However, minutes later Milner made no mistake and equalised for the Citizens.

In the dying minutes of the game, a controversial decision gave Amazulu a penalty which was converted by Nyadombo and gave Amazulu victory against City.

The king of the Zulu's, King Goodwill Zwelithini, former Bafana Bafana player Mark Fish, and former Springbok rugby captain John Smit, Olympic Gold Medalist Chad le Clos also attended the match.

Pellegrini was not at the stadium, let alone in the country, he had to fly back home for personal reasons.

For a full report on what City got up to in South Africa go to: http://www.mcfc.co.uk/News/Tour-2013



What's upsetting is that the stadiums were not filled to the brim. This is understandable depending on which way you look at it. On the one hand, people cannot afford R150, R250 or R350 seats. On the other hand, people are very selective. If you can recall, 90% if not 100% of the seats were filled when Manchester United came to South Africa. The point is, it depends on the teams that are playing.

However, South African clubs are used to empty seats, Europeans aren't. South Africa is working on the issue though. We're trying to fill all stadiums.

It doesn't matter who won or who lost, even though City lost both their matches, it was about Nelson Mandela. Anyway, it was lovely to have City in my country for charitable reasons. However, I'm a Red Devil and the noisy neighbours were just getting too loud and comfortable. Cheerio!

UEFA Best Player in Europe Award 2012/13 Shortlist

UEFA has announced the 10 player shortlist of the second round of voting for the 2012/13 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award.

This year will be the third edition of the award, which was created out of an initiative by UEFA President Michel Platini, in partnership with the European Sports Media (ESM) group. Lionel Messi and Andrés Iniesta won the first two editions of the award.

The players are nominated by a jury of journalists representing each of UEFA's member national associations.
The first round of voting produced a long list of 26 players, which was chopped down to 10, later 3 and finally, the winner.

FIRST ROUND OF VOTING
Gareth Bale
Edinson Cavani
Cristiano Ronaldo
Dante
Edin Džeko
Falcao
Mario Götze
İlkay Gündoğan
Zlatan Ibrahimović
Andrés Iniesta
Branislav Ivanović
Javi Martínez
Philipp Lahm
Robert Lewandowski
Mario Mandžukić
Lionel Messi
Thomas Müller
Manuel Neuer
Óscar Cardozo
Andrea Pirlo
Franck Ribéry
Arjen Robben
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Robin van Persie
Arturo Vidal
Xavi Hernández

I'm so ashamed ... I don't know İlkay Gündoğan. I should know him, especially since he is on this list.

10 PLAYER SHORTLIST
Gareth Bale
Cristiano Ronaldo
Zlatan Ibrahimović
Robert Lewandowski
Lionel Messi
Thomas Müller
Franck Ribéry
Arjen Robben
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Robin van Persie


If it were up to me, 5 footballers would receive this award - Gareth Bale, Robert Lewandowski, Franck Ribéry, Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie - an award for each footballer.

I watched each and every one of them play during the season and they were incredible. Bale got Spurs so close to the UEFA Champions League with his goal-scoring talent, that it hurt not to see them through. Lewandowski led Dortmund to the UEFA Champions League Final. Together, Ribéry and Robben led Bayern to a historic treble (Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League & German Cup). In his first season at Old Trafford, van Persie scored a memorable hat-trick against Villa to lead Manchester United to their historic 20th Premier League title and finished the season as the top goal-scorer in the Premier League.

The interesting part of these lists is that they are dominated by Bundesliga footballers. So, if you don't watch the Bundesliga, you are missing out on some mind-blowing football.

The award will be presented in Monaco on Thursday 29 August 2013 during the 2013/14 UEFA Champions League group stage draw.
The jury, including the same journalists, will cast their live votes using an electronic system to determine the winner from the final 3 candidates.


May the best footballer win.

FIFA Confederations Cup 2013 Review

WINNERS
Brazil

2nd PLACE
Spain


3rd PLACE
Italy


4th PLACE
Uruguay

GOLDEN BALL
Neymar

SILVER BALL
Andres Iniesta

BRONZE BALL
Paulinho

GOLDEN BOOT
Fernando Torres - 5

SILVER BOOT
Fred - 5

BRONZE BOOT

Neymar - 4

GOLDEN GLOVE
Julio Cesar

FAIR PLAY AWARD
Spain


YELLOW CARDS
52

RED CARDS
Scotti - Uruguay
Ludivion - Tahiti
Riccardo Montolivo - Italy
Gerard Piqué - Spain


GOALS
65 (3 own goals)


GOALS OF THE TOURNAMENT
Neymar v Japan
Andrea Pirlo v Mexico
Neymar v Mexico
Diego Forlan v Nigeria
Neymar v Italy
Hernandez v Tahiti
Diamanti v Uruguay
Fred v Spain
Neymar v Spain

Wow, Neymar scored 4 incredible goals. In fact, all of his goals were incredible.


HAT-TRICKS
Nnamdi Oduamadi
Fernando Torres
David Villa
Abel Hernandez


MOST GOALS IN A MATCH
Tahiti 1-6 Nigeria
Italy 4-3 Japan
Spain 10-0 Tahiti
Uruguay 8-0 Tahiti

The penalties in the Spain v Italy and Uruguay v Italy matches don't count.

WHAT WENT DOWN
Highest ranked team - Spain (1)

Lowest ranked team - Tahiti (138)

All the other teams, except Tahiti, are in the top 50 of the FIFA Rankings.

Tahiti looked afraid to take shots from long distance and failed to time their passes accurately.

Mario Balotelli looked like a regular guy without his eccentric haircuts.

Andrea Pirlo became the first midfielder to make 100 appearances for Italy.

Nnamadi Oduamadi first hat-trick since Fernando Torres against South Africa in 2009.

Italy came from 2 goals down to beat Japan and advance to the semi-finals.

Torres missed a penalty (v Tahiti).

10 goals scored, and not one of them a screamer or contender for goal of the tournament (Spain v Tahiti).

Diego Forlan 100th cap for Uruguay.

Japan's Endo had a good goal but it was disallowed due to 'offside' ( v Mexico).

Javier Hernandez missed a penalty which would have been his hat-trick (v Japan).

Japan played 3 games, 0 draws and 3 losses - 0 points.
Dante goal should've been offside (v Italy).

Balotelli was brought down in the box, before Chiellini scored the referee had blown the whistle for a penalty, instead, the goal stood (v Brazil). The same thing happened to Kuwait years ago.

Spain & Tahiti rotated all 3 of their goalkeepers.

Ramos played in all 3 of the group stage matches for Spain.

Neymar is the 4th player in Confederation Cup history to score in all three group games (after Ronaldinho, Riquelme & Villa).

Luis Suarez brace (v Tahiti), made him Uruguay’s all-time leading goal scorer.

4 hat-tricks were scored against Tahiti.
Nigeria couldn't finish, they missed clear chances, had poor ball control and were defensively weak.

Scotti became the fourth oldest player to participate at a FIFA Confederations Cup following Tunisia’s Ali Boumnijel (39 years, two months), Germany’s Lothar Matthaeus (38 years, four months) and Japan’s Ruy Ramos (37 years, ten months).

Scotti missed a penalty (v Tahiti).

Tahiti left Brazil with $1.7 million.

Brazil, Italy, Spain and Uruguay advanced to the semi-finals.

Spain & Italy’s conversion of 12 consecutive penalties is a record in World Cups and Confederation Cups.

Forlan, the smiling man had his penalty saved by Cesar, and went on to get his penalty shootout shot blocked by Buffon in the 3rd/4th playoff.

Uruguay missed two penalties in the tournament (excluding penalty shootouts).

Cavani finally got on the scoresheet (v Brazil).

Gonzalez and Neymar exchanged words (I think Gonzalez called Neymar a diver).

Cavani made an amazing tackle on Marcelo – he got the ball and pulled his foot away.

Spain fielded their EURO2012 squad (v Italy).

Spain v Italy first match in the tournament to go to extra time and decided by a penalty shootout. Italy v Uruguay was the other match.

Bonucci missed his penalty shot in the penalty shootout (v Spain).

Spain won 6-5 on penalties against Italy in the semi-final.

A stupendous double save by Buffon from the attack of Forlan.

Italy won 3-2 on penalties to be 3rd.


I didn't take my allergic asthma medication because of the final. It kicked off at midnight in South Africa and I didn't want to fall asleep during the beautiful game. Besides, a little sneezing and wheezing never hurt anybody. And with a 3-0 thrashing of Spain, it was definately worth it.


Sergio Ramos played in every match for Spain.

Wow, Brazil led in a minute and a half.

First time in the tournament Spain have trailed.

Ramos missed a penalty, his shot went wide – Xavi didn’t even look at the penalty being taken, I guess he knew Ramos would miss.

Pique was shown a straight red card for his
challenge on Neymar.


I don't understand why Scolari substituted Fred when he was on a hat-trick, but then again, who am I to question his methods.

Spain had 29 competitive wins since their World Cup 2010 loss against Switzerland came to an end after losing to Brazil.
Brazil won their 12th successive match and 4th Confederations Cup title with a 3-0 defeat of Spain.

No team has ever won the FIFA Confederations Cup and gone on to win the FIFA World Cup. But, could this be Brazilians chance?

The 3-0 loss was only the third Spain has suffered under Vicente del Bosque and followed a 2-0 loss to the USA at the 2009 Confederations Cup and a 1-0 defeat by Switzerland in group play at the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa. The loss also leaves Spain without the FIFA Confederations Cup

Italy’s win in the penalty shootout over Uruguay meant they avoided becoming the first country ever to lose seven shoot outs in major competitions. Their record is now 4-6.

Probably no surprise that no country made more tackles in the tournament than Uruguay – 55.

In three matches, Mexico only had 6 shots on goal from inside the area – just one more than Tahiti.

Japan allowed 9 goals over three games and only Tahiti conceded more.

Nigeria scored 7 goals but two came from own goals from Tahiti players.

No shortage of goals in Tahiti’s matches but of the 25, 24 were conceded. The 10-0 thumping from Spain was the largest defeat ever suffered by a country at a FIFA international tournament.


So I finally saw the fuss behind goal-line technology. I must say, I'm disappointed. The so-called technology is just a black and white review. Even hawk-eye in cricket looks better than what I saw last night. I'm really disappointed. I thought it would be graphic, with motion lines, graphic lines to show the movement of the ball. I just didn't get it.