XI, Football, Style, Design

MAR

2 014 Vol 2 No.1

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THE NEW NAPOLITANO

BY PAUL CAMPBELL

ITALY’S MISUNDERSTOOD SUPER STAR

BY ROGER BENNETT

UNBEATEN STREAK ENDED

BY BRENT WOJAHN

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STARTING LINE UP CONTENT FEATURES

March 2014 • vol 2 • No.1

resurrection embodied by FrancescoTotti &Company Having sold their leading scorers and finished last season way off the pace, nobody expected Roma to be quite this good

GENIUS REBEL ENGLAND’S LAST HOPE Wayne Rooney as the magisterial and talented footballer that tames opponents, but cant handle his big ego.

By Sam Wallace

BY Paolo Bandini

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The Major League Soccer is leading the way in restructuring the competition in order to accommodate the new teams that will be joining the league from coast to coast.

By Joe Prince-Wright PAGE

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Harry Kewell

Australia’s

the

ones

angry

Football brings out a lot of emotions to fans, players and managers a like.

RAGE its becoming predominant state amomong the manager making them a side show of the game.

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&

Fashion Icon He never reached his full potential, but Harry Kewell was a symbol of Australia's rise on the international stage

By Ian Holloway

By Bonita Mersiades

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5

Finest Football Export

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PELE

EL REY OF FOOTBALL MY HERO

A master of the game, the son of sanding beaches, Samba and beautiful football.

My hero Roger Bennett PAGE

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STARTING LINE UP CONTENT

March 2014 • vol 2 • No.1

ROSTER

SIDELINE PAGE

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THE NEW NAPOLITANO

BY PAUL CAMPBELL

PAGE

PAGE

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FREE BEER MOVEMENT AIMS TO SPREAD SOCCER A PINE AT A TIME

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10

OGUCHI ONYEWU

WORLD’S BEST BENCHED GOALKEEPER

BY SHAWN FRANCIS

BY SAMUEL MARSEN

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IT’S MLS TIME

BY EDUARDO ALVAREZ

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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKE

FIFTY-FIFTY BALL PAGE

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Q&A with Alex Morgan

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UNBEATEN STREAK ENDED

BY BRENT WOJAHN

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27 ABBY WAMBACH

BY LIZZIE HALDANE

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THE PLAYMAKERS OLD & NEW

ITALY’S MISUNDERSTOOD SUPER STAR

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BY DANIEL NYARI

BY ROGER BENNETT PAGE

19 ROAD TO BRAZIL 2014 GROUPS HOST CITIES DESIGN

BY CHRIS ATKINS

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EDITOR’S LETTER

JURGEN KLINSMANN

4-4-2 4-2-3-1

WHY HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED BY ?

The coming of 4-2-3-1 was a natural progression from 4-4-2, and in the last five years nearly all tactical innovations are developments of the formation

XI magazine The second edition hopes to establish itself as one of the most sophisticated and intelligent football magazines around. Distinguished by its emphasis on the aesthetics of the game, the cultural and off the field aspects the magazine explores the world of football through an eclectic range of personalities, cultures and perspectives. Yet the publication is far from superficial – past issues have included enlightening interviews with the Brazilian star Pato and the Italian goalkeeper Gigi Buffon, as well as an examination of club badges, subtly branded clothing shoots and a photographic essay behind the scenes at the French Football Academy, making the XI as rich editorially as it is distinctive visually.

Created by Jurgen Klinsmann and James Roper, each issue features a wealth of contributing creative talent, and passionate about the beautiful game.

Playing 4-4-2, with the wingers pushed high and one of the center-forward dropping deep, the team plays in blocks and the players cover a bigger area increasing their fatigue.

The triangle of two holders and the central creator in the 4-2-3-1 is similar in that it allows the tone of a side to be changed without a major tactical overhaul.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Eduardo Alvarez is a sports writer for the ESPN and you can read more of his articles on his Inside ESPNSport blog.

He is also the author of The Beautiful Game? Searching the Soul of Football

Marcotti is chief football writer for The Guardian and Observer. He was previously the Guardian's man in Manchester. He has written books on Manchester United and Nottingham Forest.

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I think Brazil will win the World Cup, but it wont be with their joggo bonito

The Tiki Taka will reign once again and Spani will be crown the new champions.

Eduardo Alvarez

WHO DO YOU GUYS THINK WILL WIN THE WORLD CUP IN BRAZIL? AND WHY?

Gab Marcotti

Miguel Delaney is the deputy sports editor of WorldSoccerMagazine.co.uk. He is a former staffer with Hot Press magazine in Ireland and has written for bad television programmes, reasonably good radio programmes, the Irish Sunday Independent, Men’s Health and several other publications he can’t remember off the top of his head

Roger has been the sports editor of eightbyeightmag. com since 2004. Before joining the Guardian in 2000, he worked for Motor Cycle News, Fore! and Total Sport.

In my opinion Spain are the favorates, but I think their could be a surprise winner just like in South Africa Four years ago.

Germany are the favorates because of their strengh, organization and control of the game.

Miguel Delaney

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Roger Bennett

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BARRY’S BRIEFS

MARCH

BARRY GLENDENNING Barry Glendenning is the deputy sports editor of guardian.co.uk. He is a former staffer with Hot Press magazine in Ireland and has written for bad television programmes, reasonably good radio programmes, the Irish Sunday Independent, Men's Health and several other publications he can't remember off the top of his head

ON THE PITCH

OFF THE PITCH RACIAL ABUSE

THIBAUT COURTOIS Thibaut Courtois’s father has denied reports that his son will join Real Madrid once his contract with Chelsea expires in 2016. Media speculation in Spain has strongly linked the Belgian goalkeeper, who is playing on loan at Atletico Madrid from Chelsea, with a move to the Bernabeu stadium. “This (rumour) is only an attempt to destabilise Atletico,” Thierry Courtois said. “But in any case, I don’t think Chelsea would let him leave in that way.”

CLATTENBURG Mark Clattenburg, from the English FA, will be referee for tomorrow’s Champions League last-16 second leg between Atletico Madrid and Milan in Spain. Atletico are leading the tie 1-0 following their narrow win at the San Siro in last month’s first leg. Clattenburg will officiate with linesmen Simon Beck and Stuart Burt.

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Wolves have made a complaint to Walsall and the Football Association after Carl Ikeme and George Elokobi reported racial abuse from home fans at Saturday’s League One match at the Banks’s Stadium.

Goalkeeper Ikeme and defender Elokobi reported the abuse, which allegedly occurred in two separate incidents, to Wolves’ management staff.

REFEREE KILLED

An assistant referee has died after Being beaten up by spectators during a second division match in Ghana, the Ghana FA said yesterday. Kwame Andoh Kyei suffered serious injuries after he was attacked while running the line during a match between Gold Stars and Naa Joe United in Bordie on March 2. He died on Friday as a result of the injuries. Media reports said yesterday that Kyei had not been hospitalised after the beating by supporters of Gold Stars.

ABANDONED League leaders Fenerbahce’s Match with Trabzonspor was abandoned late Monday after the Istanbul side’s players were pelted with objects thrown onto the pitch by home supporters of the Black Sea club. Supporters clashed with police in the streets of Trabzon following the match, which the referee halted in the 10th minute of added time at the end of the first half.

Fenerbahce, who were winning 1-0, top the league on 51 points.

LEAGUES AROUND THE WORLD A-LEAGUE RECAP The Sydney derby went the way of FC as they beat the Western Wanderers 3-1 yesterday. Defeat deals a serious blow to the Wanderers’ hopes of catching leaders Brisbane who remain seven points clear, having played a game less. The day’s other game saw Adam Taggart’s first-half strike give the Newcastle Jets a 1-0 win over Melbourne Heart.

FINAL TICKETS More than one-third of the 61,000 tickets for the Champions League final in Lisbon on May 24 will go to officials, sponsors and corporate hospitality. “A total of 37,000 tickets are available to fans,” UEFA said. UEFA added that the remaining 24,000 would be allocated to “the local organising committee, UEFA and national associations, commercial partners and broadcasters, and to serve the corporate hospitality programme”. The two finalists are to receive 17,000 tickets each.

AS MONACO

Monaco suffered their first defeat of they year when they lost 2-0 at European hopefuls St Etienne yesterday. Midfielder Fabien Lemoine opened the scoring on 17 minutes with a stunning half-volley and Romain Hamouma netted the second in the 67th for St Etienne.

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SIDELINE

COA CH STA N DS STY LE O F PL TEA AY MC OLO RS

COACH THE NEW NAPOLITANO 6

STANDS FREE BEER MOVEMENT 8 STYLE OF PLAY OGUCHI ONYEWU I MLS TIME 9 TEAM COLORS SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKE NEW BRAND 11

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COACH

SIDELINE

BENITEZ’S ACHIEVEMENTS Manager

Liverpool

Real Madrid

FA Cup (1):

U-19s

2005–06

Spain U-19

FA Community

League (1):

Shield (1): 2006

1992–93

UEFA Champi-

Spain U-19 Cup

ons League (1):

(2): 1990–91,

2004–05

1992–93

UEFA Super Cup

Extremadura Segunda División

Internazionale

promotion (1):

Supercoppa Itali-

1997–98 Valencia La Liga (2): 2001–

THE NEW

(1): 2005

ana (1): 2010 FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2010

02, 2003–04

Chelsea

UEFA Cup (1):

UEFA Europa

2003–04

League (1): 2012–13

NAPOLITANO

RAFAEL BENÍTEZ HAS BEEN CONFIRMED AS THE NEW MANAGER OF NAPOLI BY THE ITALIAN CLUB'S PRESIDENT, AURELIO DE LAURENTIIS.

BY PAUL CAMPBELL

G

of Castel Volturno, a golf course on the doorstep and Mount Vesuvius in the background, why should he?

“All through my career I felt I was really fortunate, because I kept very good relationships with my clubs – Tenerife, Estremadura, Valencia, Liverpool,” he explains. “Chelsea, though, brought a special set of circumstances.”

At face value, his spell in SW6 yielded success: the Europa League title, a winning record of 58 per cent across 48 matches, and a buttressing of his managerial reputation.

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azing out upon the coastline

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his past successes against the club with Liverpool, whom he twice steered to Champions League semi-final victories over Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea.

“I cannot change what we did or what we achieved in our results against them,” he says, during a break in preparations for his return to England on Tuesday, when his new team travel to Arsenal. “All I did was to be professional.”

As for Mourinho’s recent expressions of distaste for Chelsea’s style of play under Benítez, the Spaniard simply swats them aside.

“I was extremely pleased with the way that my Chelsea team were playing and winning at the

STEVEN GERRARD “Rafa is the type that when you finish a game as man of the match having scored three goals, he won’t even mention it. Instead, he’ll mention that you never used your left foot at a certain point!

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SIDELINE

COACH “HE ILLUSTRATED TO ME HIS IDEA, WHAT

HE WANTED TO DO. YOU CAN SEE BY COMING HERE, WATCHING THE PLAYERS WE HAVE, THAT EVERYTHING IS GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.” - RAFAEL BENITEZ

Rafael Benitez, orange.uk

Gonzalo Higuaín, the Argentine striker whom the canny De Laurentiis enticed to southern Italy from Real Madrid, directly from under Arsenal’s noses.

Napoli, just like their European rivals in north London, needed a world-class striker to help accelerate their ambitions and Tuesday’s confrontation promises to give the Emirates crowd a tantalising glimpse of what they are missing.

The Partenopei persuaded Higuaín that after the departure of Edison Cavani for Paris St-Germain, he would be their marquee figure, and the plan worked spectacularly.

“It was crucial,” Benítez says. “We had to convince him that he would be a star here, that he would be a crucial player for the whole team. We know that he is the type of player who can make the difference, if everything around him is set up exactly right. He was the extra ingredient we were looking for.”

Benítez could scarcely be more content with his Napoli squad, comprising as it does Slovakian playmaker Marek Hamsik – of whom he recently suggested Gareth Bale was a mere high-price imitation – and a reassuringly familiar face from his Liverpool days, in goalkeeper Pepe Reina.

Small wonder that the manager has earmarked his compatriot for the captaincy.

“When I found that we could bring Pepe here it was fantastic, because I was reuniting with someone who knows what I want, and who knows the way I work,” he says. “He is a great person, and a very good professional, too.”

It is useful that Benítez has discovered a friend in Reina, for otherwise his existence here could be conspicuously solitary.

Finding himself mobbed on his forays to the centre of Naples, he chooses instead to live in a small apartment beside the training ground gates on the Campania coast. It is a stretch of shoreline that has seen better days – the walls of the neighbouring Grand Hotel Pinetamare are peeling, while the town of Castel Volturno is notorious for its Nigerian mafia.

The distance from his home on the Wirral, where his two daughters Claudia and Agatha are still at school, is a strain, but Benítez regards it as a vast improvement on those fallow post-Inter Milan months

where he was reduced to updating his website and the occasional slot of TV punditry.

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Rafael Benitez and Insigne (above), Aurelio de Laurentiis (Bellow) orange.uk

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SIDELINE

STANDS

FREE BEER MOVEMENT AIMS TO SPREAD SOCCER A PINE AT A TIME At various points over the last century American soccer has struggled with selling the world’s game to the domestic market.

BY SHAWN FRANCIS

T

eams, leagues

and federations have tried everything from Kids-Eat-Free nights to signing Pele to the wholesale importation of foreign teams to American cities in hopes of reaching the unconverted. The results of these endeavors have been decidedly mixed, but one fan thinks he’s found the simplest solution to this 100-year-old problem: free suds.

Wisconsin native Dan Wiersema is the founder of The Free Beer Movement, a website/campaign whose mission is grow the ranks of stateside soccer fans by the only means necessary, the promise of a few no-strings-or-dollars-attached cold ones in the presence of friends and sport.

“For about a year I’ve been trying to push this idea that free beer is our thesis,” says Wiersama.

“Free beer is our mission statement.”

According to Wiersama the idea goes back to a single line in a 2005 post on the blog We Call It Soccer, suggesting that “what soccer needs is free beer.” The thought

stuck with him but was never acted upon until about a year ago when he launched TheFreeBeerMovement.com to help take the message to the masses.

The idea is that soccer fans bring non-soccer fans to a game with the promise that they'll buy them a beer. The hope is that upon experiencing an game, the unconverted become converted.

“We’re not asking fans who already love the sport to buy 30 season tickets—that’s not realistic," Wiersama said. "But if you have friends, family or coworkers that are underexposed to the sport, buy them a beer. And we all know people will do a lot of things for free beer.”

Although the Free Beer Movement is aimed mostly at individual fans on a grassroots level, you don’t need to be a business major to figure out that the economic investment of this type of proposition

“IF YOU CAN GET THEM TO COME TO A GAME FOR THE PRICE OF A FEW BEERS, HOPEFULLY, YOU’VE OPENED THE DOOR TO FUTURE FANDOM,”

- DAN WIERSEMAN

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SUPERDRAFT BEER AND MLS DRAFT

1. Philadelphia Union – GK: Andre Blake (CA) pair with New England Brewing Company’s “Ghandi-Bot” Double India Pale Ale (New Haven, CT) 2. D.C. United – Defender: Steve Birnbaum (CA) Paired with 21st Amendment Brewery’s “Sneak Attack” Saison (San Francisco, CA) 3. Vancouver Whitecaps – Defender: Christian Dean (California) Paired with Anchor Brewing Company’s “Anchor Steam” California Common (San Francisco, CA) 4. New England Revolution – Midfielder/Forward: Steve Neumann (Georgetown) Paired with 3 Stars Brewing Company’s “The Movement” Pale Ale (Washington, D.C.) 5. Impact Montreal – Defender: Eric Miller (Creighton) Paired with Lucky Bucket Brewing Company’s “Heartland” Wheat Ale (La Vista, NE)

isn’t so great as to be a deterrent for any business entity that were to take a stab at co-opting the idea from the Movement.

Sounding

like fútbol’s version of Jerry Fallwell, the Austin, Texas, based Wiersama preaches the “each one, teach one” style of support.

“If you can get them to come to a game for the price of a few beers, hopefully, you’ve opened the door to future fandom,” he said.

The Free Beer Movement is a novel approach for certain and may be a long, long way from making an appearance inside the concourses of your local stadium.

But if you check the parking lot, you just might find the Movement in full swing at a tailgate or two.

“It’s a somewhat silly idea, but that’s why it works,” Wiersama said, equating his group to missionaries that, in this case, spread soccer and beer. “It gets people talking about it, and at the end of the day, that’s what we want.”

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SIDELINE

STYLE OF PLAY

OGUCHI

SOCCER FASHION

ONYEWU

&

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY Squad No: 8 Position: Defender Age: 31 DOB: May 13, 1982 From: Olney, U. S. Height: 1.95m Weight: 98 kg

Dolce & Gabbana has designed the on-field attire for AC Milan since 2004.In addition to having their on-field uniforms designed by Dolce & Gabbana, the players of AC Milan also dress in team-issued Dolce & Gabbana attire when at official functions off the field.The duo also designed the off-field suits for the Italian National Football Team. In 2010 Dolce & Gabbana signed a three year deal with the Chelsea Football Club to design and provide the club’s on- and offfield uniforms and attire. The deal included the creation of clothing for female staff members in addition to male staff members and the players themselves. The off-field outfits designed for the club included a dark blue suit featuring the lion symbol on the breast pocket.

The designers also re-designed the club’s director’s lounge and main office reception area. Dolce & Gabbana are also the named sponsors of the Milano Thunder Italian Boxing Team.

VEST - $445 TANK TOP - $195 PANTS - $625 CAP - $275 DG

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STYLE OF PLAY

SIDELINE

IT’S MLS TIME

BY EDUARDO ALVAREZ

(LXW) 8.7IN X .7IN

MLS/USMNT WATCH $95 MODOFY

M

odify is a watch start-up

(LXW) 1.3IN X 1.2IN

STAINLESS STEEL AND SCRATCH-RESISTANT POLYCARBONATE

LIGHT-WEIGHT, AND DURABLE SILICONE STRAPS

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coming out of San Francisco that build a business on the idea of choice. Sure, we could all buy the same stuff, march like lemmings into the nearest brewpub, and impress no one by buying a pint of the pale ale while reading the New Yorker. Or, as Modify sees it, we could design our own unique time piece, something that is cool because we think its cool not because Hypebeast say so (no offense, Hypebeast). Modify even has a license for MLS and U.S. Soccer, making it possible to have the sweetest wrist candy your soccer friends have ever seen.

First, the nitty gritty of what Modify does: The business is build on the back of a set of faces and bands that allow for as many 3,000 different combinations. Check out the website to see what they’ve got, and to catch up on the open competition for designs they recently ran.

Now, Modify wants to really make all your watch dreams come true by launching a “mod-to-order” model. Mod-to-order would mean you could upload ANY IMAGE YOU WANT (provided it’s not trademarked or, if it is, you own the trademark) and they’ll print a watch face with that image, match with the band you wants, and ship it to you.

Awesome.

To get mod-to-order off the ground, Modify is currently running a Kickstarter campaign. As part of

that campaign, Modify is pushing out their MLS watches, which includes more than just the logo-onthe-face. We’ve got some images to share, and they’re fantastic.

And that’s just a taste. Note that at the $95 contribution level, you can get the MLS team watch of your choice and four bands, the better to coordinate with home and away strips. Yup. Oh, you want the U.S. National team look instead?

World Cup swag? Here you go.

Maybe the best part of the mod-to-order plan for soccer fans/ supporters is the ability to create custom watches for MLS Supporters Groups, American Outlaw chapters, and other groups within the soccer community. Even youth clubs, if that’s your thing. As long as you own the rights to the logo, Modify can put in on a watch.

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TEAM COLORS

SIDELINE

SAN JOSE

EARTHQUAKES

As the Quakes celebrate their 40th anniversary, we take a look at their new logo and their creative process.

BY SHAWN FRANCIS

T

San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California, that participate in Major League Soccer (MLS). The team is one of the ten charter members of MLS which he

competed in the league’s first season in 1996 (originally as the San Jose Clash) and took part in the first game in MLS history, defeating D.C. United 1–0 .

In January (2014) the club celebrated its 40th anniversary with a brand new San Jose Earthquake Logo.

The San Jose Earthqukes were founded in 1974 and fully embrace the club’s complete history, not just the MLS years.

The use of the name Quakes in the primary logo demonstrates the strength of our soccer community.

If you are part of the Earthquakes community, you often refer to the team as the Quakes. We are Unity.

The Blue and black impact pattern is a representation of the shifting of the Earth’s tectonic plates and the energy created within our club on and off the pitch. It also represents our community’s forward thinking approach and belief in innovation.

For 40 years, the Earthquakes primary badge has feature a soccer ball and our new identity also embraces this symbol of our devotion to the game.

The white and blue lines holding the ball connect us to our original logo from 1974 with the ball representing the globe.

The shield shape homors soccer tradition and heritage from around the world. We wanted a logo that showed our club’s strogn connection to the world’s game. The three sides of the shield represent the largest communities of the Bay Area.

SAN JOSE EARTHQUEAKES’ LOGO HISTORY

1974-1975

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1976-1988

1996-1999

2000-2013

2014

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ROSTER

BE NC H No. 1 FOR 0 WA R D WO RLD CU P

BENCH WORLD’S BEST BENCHED GOALKEEPER 6 NO.10 THE PLAYMAKERS OLD & NEW 8

FORWARD ITALY’S MISUNDERSTOOD SUPER STAR 9 WORLD CUP ROAD TO BRAZIL 11 30

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ROSTER

BENCH

Illustration by Jon Rogers

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WORLD’S BEST BENCHED GOALKEEPER Once held as the man who gave Spain the World Cup, Casillas is now warming Real Madrid’s bench.

A

BY SAMUEL MARSDEN

is a popular adage, and if it's true, the weekly photos of Iker Casillas parked in the Real Madrid bucket seats tell a peculiar story.

Casillas is the Madrid hero who, after being devoid of any notable competition for his spot for the best part of a decade, finds himself lim-

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picture is worth a thousand words

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ited to Champions League and Copa del Rey appearances.

A winner of Champions Leagues, European Championships and a World Cup, he's now reduced to watching Diego Lopez stand between the sticks in La Liga.

It started last December when Jose Mourinho felt Casillas had begun to underachieve in his role as Madrid's No. 1 and said dropping the goalkeeper was just a "technical decision," according to Nicklas Vinde.

After securing a return, though, an injury against Valencia led to the signing of Lopez from Sevilla.

Since then Lopez has been good. Very good. So good, in fact, that even Carlo Ancelotti decided against the easy route of restoring Casillas to the Madrid goal.

That would have been the easy route because, at the time, it would have appeased the Madrid press and the club's fans.

The 32-year-old ‘keeper has since been fighting hard to displace Lopez—his Champions League performance against Juventus was good—but, with it being a World Cup year, does he have bigger problems lying elsewhere?

Victor Valdes has been in phenomenal form for Barcelona— take this save from the weekend against Real Betis as an example—and has every right to feel he should now be considered as Spain’s No. 1 stopper.

“We have three fantastic goalkeepers and any one of them can play. It’s not a problem to decide between them. If there’s a problem, it’s the number of options we have.”

It was more vague than his “Iker is a singular and special name in the world of Spanish football” line from August, as reported by the AP.

Iker Casillas Squad No: 1 Position: Goalkeeper Age: 32 DOB: May 20, 1981 From: Mostoles, Spain Height: 6'1''(1.85m) Weight: 185 kg Club: Real Madrid Apps R. M.: 426 Apps Spain: 152 Trophies: 14 TItles

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No.10

ROSTER

b

e

a

d

THINK YOU KNOW THE BEST PLAYMAKES IN HISTORY?

Take a chance to tackle our challenge and match each No.10 their correspondent unique fact. c

Crowned World’s Best Player FIFA 2013 Plays for Borusia Dormount Youngest player to debut at Germany World Cup Holds the record for most goals scored for FC Barcelona

i

Broke the record for most assist during La Liga 12/13 He is currently England captain He is known as El Pibe Led Holland to the final of Argentina 76 Holds to the record for as France leading scorer Named after a famous scholar Socrates Single handily gave Argentina their second World Cup in Mexico 86

h

f

THE PLAYMAKERS

g

OLD & NEW

BY DANIEL NYARI

A

who leads attacks or brings other players on the same side into a position from which they could score. He often plays centrally between the opposition’s defence & attack. He has also been known as a trequartista, regista, enganche, meia-armadror, meia-de-ligação, fantasisti, rifinitore, or false nine depending on cultural origin and/or position. player in football

j

k

a.Cristiano Ronaldo b. Marco Reus c. Theo Walcot d.Leonel Messi e.Mesut Ozil f. Steven Gerrard g.

Carlos Valderrama h. Johan Cruff i. Zinedine Zidane j. Socrates k. Diego Maradona

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Answerers on pg 96

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ROSTER

FORWARDS

ITALY’S MISUNDERSTOOD SUPER STAR

BY ROGER BENNETT

Mario Balotelli had a golden chance to score against Spain but blew it. It's anyone's guess what he'll do next.

T

I met Mario Balotelli was in the summer of 2010, when he was part of an Inter Milan squad that had just won the Champions League. The team was on a preseason tour of the States, and Inter Milan was about to do an in-store appearance at Niketown in New York City. The majority of the players were loose and giddy, elated to be in a major city where they could roam the streets unnoticed. But not Mario. He stood apart, simmering in the corner of every room we entered. Sporting an enormous pair of headphones to cover his ears, he glared at anyone who had the temerity to catch his eye. he first time

Marco Materazzi, a player who in his own career knew a thing or two about controversy, caught me staring at the spectacle. He pointed at his teammate and proceeded to rotate his finger in a circular movement beside his temple, the international sign for crazy, before walking away laughing.

Balotelli has turned out to be a connoisseur of crazy. The world now knows Balotelli by his indoor firework experimentation, cryptic celebratory T-shirt messaging and grass allergy to football fields. And thanks to his shape-shifting Mohawk hairstyle, he's recognized as a man who treats his own head like an Etch-a-Sketch. So packed

with incident was the 21-year-old’s last season at Manchester City, journalists were compelled to rush through adjectives to describe him like designers shuffling shades of a Pantone color book. Balotelli was deemed charismatic, a maverick, quirky, volatile, vulnerable, unstable, destructive and enigmatic.

He is Italy’s enigma, as we saw in its opening Euro 2012 match against defending champion Spain. In the 53rd minute of a then-goalless game, Balotelli had the power to muscle Sergio Ramos off the ball and break the Spanish defensive line, leaving himself one-on-one with goalkeeper Iker Casillas, a scenario at which he has

ROBERTO MANCINI

"The problem is because of his age, he can make some mistakes. He's Mario.

He's crazy – but I love him because he's a good guy." © Christof Stache/AFP/GettyImages

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FORWARDS

ROSTER

MARIO BALOTELLI DOB: 12 August 1990 From: Palermo, Italy Height:1.89m (6 ft 2 1⁄2 in) Playing position: Striker Club information

Current club: Milan Number: 45 Senior career* Years

Team Apps†

(Gls)

06–07 Lumezzane

2

07–10 Inter Milan

59

10–13 Manc City

54

13–

31

Milan

National team 08–10 Italy U21

16

2010– Italy

29

club boss Roberto Mancini to admit, “Every day I fight against Mario, and sometimes I would like to give him a punch.”

The question, to echo Balotelli’s infamous “Why Always Me” statement, is why do his coaches back themselves into a position in which they are forced to rely on him? A player who, although physically gifted and blessed with power, pace and technique, insists on making the difficult appear routine and the routine appear too boring to bother about?

Every game in which he is imperious -- for example, the first two goals he netted to put title pretender Manchester City on the road to a legendary 6-1 win over archrival Manchester United -- can be matched with one in which he appears impotent. Few City fans will forget the late-season debacle against Arsenal in which Balotelli appeared to be on a mission to single-handedly sabotage City’s title hopes.

Balotelli's behavior that day, after he scythed through Arsenal

© Christof Stache/AFP/GettyImages

trained his whole adult life to excel.

As three Spanish defenders desperately scrambled to cover, Casillas braced himself on the goal line and Balotelli drove forward to deliver his coup de grace. It never came. Incomprehensibly, the Italian elected to slow down, taking three cumbersome steps as though inviting Ramos to recover. The grateful Spaniard, who had tracked back, extended his right foot, knocked the ball out of bounds and deposited the striker onto his hands and knees as a startled viewing audience sought to comprehend what it had just witnessed.

Three minutes later, Balotelli was substituted and forced to watch from the bench as his replacement, Antonio Di Natale, scored with his first touch. Balotelli’s agent later complained to UEFA about alleged monkey chants that rang out whenever his client touched the ball, a claim that Italy coach Cesare

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"I WILL REMEMBER MY BRILLIANT TEAM-MATES, THE MANAGER AND ALL THE SUPPORTERS. THEY ARE THE BEST, THEY WERE GREAT WITH ME AND I WILL ALWAYS HAVE A VERY SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART FOR CITY, IT'S A GREAT CLUB WITH A GREAT FUTURE." - Mario Balotelli Prandelli was forced to reject.

The Italians have a word for the kind of bewildering, destabilizing effect Balotelli has on a team: Cassanata -- literally meaning Cassano-ism. It's a term coined by Fabio Capello to honor Antonio Cassano's spectacular tantrums while at Roma. Like Cassano (who's embroiled in his own scandal after delivering a stream of homophobic comments at an Italian team news conference), Balotelli has an uncanny ability to unsettle a side by grabbing the spotlight for the worst reason at the most inopportune moment. That trait led former manager Jose Mourinho to label him “uncoachable” and current

midfielder Alex Song with a kneehigh tackle, then battered Bacary Sagna to earn a red card, caused his manager to say: "I saw in my life a lot of players like Mario that are fantastic, arrogant guys. But, after, they lose all their talent like this, and they finish in two or three years.

Mario is this way."

That kind of self-destructive display would earn them permanent exile to the reserves. But Balotelli is not most players. Just more than a month later on the last day of the season, when City was faced with disaster against Queens Park Rangers, Mancini turned to Mario in the 76th minute and was rewarded.

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WORLD CUP

ROSTER

GROUPS

Take a picture and visit our website to be part of one of the biggest events in the world of sports, by making your predictions and have a chance to be part of the celebration with a trip to Brazil

The world cup 2014 draw was made. See below to find out who your team will be playing.

BY CHRIS ATKINS • ILLUSTRATIONS BY JON ROGERS

GROUP A

Brazil I Croatia I Mexico I Cameroon

GROUP D

Uruguay I Costa Rica I England I Italy

GROUP G

Germany I Portugal IGhana I USA

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GROUP B

Spain I Holland I Chile I Australia

GROUP E

GROUP C

Colombia I Ivory Coast I Japan I Greece

GROUP F

Switzerland I France I Ecuador I Honduras Argentina I Bosnia & Herzegovina I Iran I Nigeria

GROUP H

Belgium I Algeria I South Korea I Russia

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2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th FIFA World Cup, an international men's football tournament, that is scheduled to take place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014.[1] It will be the second time that Brazil has hosted the competition, the previous being in 1950.

Brazil was elected unchallenged as host nation in 2007 after the international football federation, FIFA, decreed that the tournament would be staged in South America for the first time since 1978 in Argentina, and the fifth time overall. he

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WORLD CUP

ROSTER

HOST CITIES

HOST CITIES , FROM THE AMAZON BASIN IN THE NORTH TO THE BANKS OF THE RIVER GUAIBA IN THE SOUTH, 12 STADIUMS ACROSS BRAZIL WILL PLAY HOST TO MATCHES AT NEXT SUMMER’S WORLD CUP.

BY CHRIS ATKINS

BRASILIA MANAUS

NATAL CUIABA

FORTALEZA

NATALESTADIO DAS DUNAS Capacity: 42,086.

Where is it? Between Fortaleza and Recife on the north-east coastline, Natal is the state capital nearest to both Africa and Europe.

Fixtures: 13 June, Mexico v Cameroon, 17:00; 16 June, Ghana v United States, 23:00; 19 June, Japan v Greece, 23:00; 24 June, Italy v Uruguay, 17:00; Background: The original Machadao stadium was demolished in 2011 to make way for the new build, with work beginning on the Estadio Das Dunas a year later. Designed to replicate sand dunes, the new stadium is currently being constructed by teams 24 hours a day and is expected to be ready for Fifa’s end of December deadline.

BRASILIA ESTADIO NACIONAL Capacity: 68,009.

Where is it? The capital of Brazil sits in the central highlands.

Background: Construction of this project has been problematic and has gone at least half a billion reais over budget - the final cost is expected to be R$1.2bn (£385m), making it the most expensive of Brazil’s 12 World Cup venues. Work began in August 2010, and was only narrowly completed in time for the Confederations Cup. Heavy rainfall delayed the laying of the pitch until the last week in April 2013, meaning the stadium staged its first match (a game between local sides) on 18 May, after which officials admitted “some problems” remained.

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RECIFE

CUIABA ESTADIO PANTANAL Capacity: 42,968.

Where is it? Right in the centre of South America, close to the Bolivian border.

Fixtures: 13 June, Chile v Australia, 23:00; 17 June, Russia v South Korea, 23:00; 21 June, Nigeria v Bosnia-Hercegovina, 23:00; 24 June, Japan v Colombia, 21:00.

Background: The Estadio Pantanal will be scaled down and used for a variety of different uses once the World Cup is over, with business conventions and events hosted alongside sport.

Local clubs Mixto and Operario might be the football tenants.

The stadium has been designed to complement the biodiversity of the nearby Pantanal with certified wood used in its construction and building waste being recycled.

RIO DE JANEIRO ESTADIO BEIRA-RIO Capacity: 48,849.

Where is it? The furthest south of the host cities, Porto Alegre sits on a huge freshwater lagoon called Lagoa dos Patos (Lagoon of the Ducks), which is 174 miles long.

Fixtures: 15 June, France v Honduras, 20:00; 18 June, Australia v Netherlands, 17:00; 22 June, South Korea v Algeria, 20:00; 25 June, Nigeria v Argentina, 17:00; 30 June, Second-round, Winner Group G v Runner-up Group H, 21:00.

Background: The largest stadium in the south of Brazil was originally built in 1969 and is home to Internacional. It is in the middle of extensive refurbishment with a roof being added, more car parking spaces and the lower tier of seating being moved closer to the pitch.

BELO HORIZONTE

CURITIBA PORTO ALEGRE RIO DE JANEIRO SAO PABLO SALVADOR

RIO DE JANEIRO ESTADIO DO MARACANA Capacity: 76,804.

Where is it? On the Atlantic coast, close to the Tropic of Capricorn.

Background: Renovation of this iconic venue was completed just in time for the Confederations Cup last summer. Work only began in earnest in September 2010 - three years after Brazil was officially handed the World Cup. Construction was also delayed by several strikes, meaning the stadium missed Fifa’s initial handover date of December 2012 plus an extended deadline in February 2013.

However, with over 6,000 workers toiling around the clock, the finishing touches were hastily applied, allowing the first test event to take place on 27 April - a match between ‘friends of Ronaldo’ and ‘friends of Bebeto’.

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WORLD CUP

ROSTER

ADDITIONAL HOST CITIES

FORTALEZA ESTADIO CASTELAONIA Capacity: 64,846.

Where is it? A ‘fortress’ port on the north-east coast of Brazil, it has 16 miles of beaches.

Fixtures: 14 June, Uruguay v Costa Rica, 20:00; 17 June, Brazil v Mexico, 20:00; 21 June, Germany v Ghana, 20:00 24 June, Greece v Ivory Coast, 21:00; 29 June, Second-round, Winner Group B v Runner-up Group A, 17:00; 4 July, Quarter-final, Winner Second-round 1 v Winner Second-round 2, 21:00.

Background: The renovation of the Estadio Castelao was completed on time and within budget, making the stadium the first World Cup venue to be declared ready. Work began in March 2011, and cost R$518.6m (approximately £167m).

The city of Fortaleza sits on Brazil’s north-east coast, and is a popular tourist destination because of its beaches. The new Castelao aims to minimise the impact of the heat on players and spectators.

BELO HORIZONTE ESTADIO MINEIRAO Capacity: 62,547.

Where is it? Surrounded by mountains inland from Rio and Sao Paulo.

Fixtures: 14 June, Colombia v Greece, 17:00; 21 June, Argentina v Iran, 17:00; 24 June, Costa Rica v England, 17:00; 17 June, Belgium v Algeria, 17:00; 28 June, Second-round, Winner Group A v Runner-up Group B, 17:00; 8 July, Semi-final, Winner Quarter-final 1 v Winner Quarter-final 2, 21:00.

Background: It took three years and approximately 695 million Brazilian reais (£220m) to give the historic Estadio Mineirao a comprehensive facelift. The stadium is a listed national monument, so the facade and roof had to be preserved, but the pitch was lowered by 3.4m to allow the removal of a running track and construction of new seating nearer to the pitch.

Although it was delivered on time, teething problems when the venue reopened in February resulted in the stadium’s operators being fined. However, Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke described the stadium as “beautiful” earlier this year.

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MANAUS ESTADIO AMAZONIA Capacity: 42,374 Where is it? The capital of the state of Amazonas, Manaus is the furthest north of the host cities.

Fixtures: 14 June, England v Italy, 23:00; 18

June, Cameroon v Croatia, 23:00; 22 June, United States v Portugal, 23:00; 25 June, Honduras v Switzerland, 21:00.

Background: The arena has an elaborate steel structure, imported from Portugal, which envelops the playing area like an indigenous woven basket. Over 95% of the material from the old, demolished, stadium will be reused.

CURITIBA ESTADIO DA BAIXADA Capacity: 41,456.

Where is it? South of Sao Paulo, one of the cooler cities in Brazil which saw snow fall this year.

Fixtures: 16 June, Iran v Nigeria, 20:00; 20 June, Honduras v Ecuador, 23:00; 23 June, Australia v Spain, 17:00; 26 June, Algeria v Russia, 21:00.

Background: The home ground of Atletico Paranaense was originally constructed back in 1914 and will have extra rows of seats added on two sides as its capacity is increased to 40,000 for the tournament.

RECIFEARENA PERNAMBUCO Capacity: 44,248.

Where is it? On the Atlantic coast on the east of Brazil, close to the equator and among tropical forests.

Background: This brand new stadium was built in an economically deprived area on the outskirts of Recife, and will eventually form part of a leisure complex and residential development which it is hoped will act as a catalyst for local regeneration. Construction progress was slower than Fifa would have liked, but the stadium was eventually declared operationally ready on 20 May 2013, with a friendly between Nautico and Sporting Lisbon serving as a test event two days later.

SAO PABLO ARENA DE SAO PAULO Capacity: 65,807 Where is it? On a plateau in the south-east, on the Atlantic coast.

Fixtures: 12 June, Brazil v Croatia, 21:00; 19 June, Uruguay v England, 20:00; 23 June, Netherlands v Chile, 17:00; 26 June, South Korea v Belgium, 21:00; 1 July, Second-round, Winner Group F v Runner-up Group E, 17:00; 9 July , Semi-final, Winner Quarter-final 3 v Winner Quarter-final 4, 21:00.

Background: Corinthians, who currently play at the Estadio do Pacaembu, were granted permission to build a new stadium as long ago as 1978 but only announced construction of their new home in 2010. The Estadio do Morumbi, home of Sao Paulo FC, was originally chosen to represent the city of Sao Paulo in the World Cup but when funding fell through to renovate it, the opening game was moved to the new Arena in 2011. After the tournament 20,000 temporary seats will be removed.

SALVADORARENA FONTE NOVA Capacity: 48,747.

Where is it? The largest city on the north-east coast.

Background: The Arena Fonte Nova rose from the rubble of its predecessor, with 92% of the debris from demolition used to construct the brand new venue. The stadium, which took 32 months to construct, was the third World Cup venue to be completed and cost R$592m, just under £200m. Its most distinctive element is its unusual horse-shoe design. There is a large opening in the stands behind the southern goal, behind which lies an open paved area.

This space is called the Praca Sul (Southern Square) and can easily be converted into an amphitheatre to host concerts and shows.

The design also boosts air circulation within the stadium.

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ROSTER

WORLD CUP

Concern: Deadly violence on Rio de Janeiro has cast doubt over the safety at this summer's World Cup

A VIOLENT ROAD TO BRAZIL 2014 WORLD CUP

THE RECENT OUTBREAK OF DEADLY VIOLENCE IN THE HEART OF RIO DE JANEIRO WILL NOT COMPROMISE THE WORLD CUP SAYS FIFA, BUT THE WORLD AWAITS AND DOUBTS FOR THE SECURITY OF THE EVENT

BY JENNY BARCHFIELD

S

peaking at a news conference just days after the clashes, Jerome Valcke insisted there's not a country on Earth where the World Cup could be hosted without the specter of violence and insisted the June 12-July 13 tournament in Brazil would be safe.

'What has happened in Rio does not put at risk the organization of the World Cup for FIFA, at all,' he said. 'I'm sure that the safety of the World Cup . will be at the highest level for all people involved.'

The clashes at the Pavao-Pavaozinho slum broke out late Tuesday after the discovery of the body of a dancer on a popular television show. Many of the slum dwellers blamed the police for the man's death, and the ensuing confrontation between residents and police officers engulfed the hillside slum and spilled down into the high-rent Copacabana neighborhood.

Firefights rang out, and police detonated deafening stun grenades sprayed clouds of tear gas as residents hurled glass bottles and other projectiles. Another man was killed in the mayhem, apparently by a bullet to the head.

Sandwiched between two of Rio's most touristy and priciest neighborhoods, Pavao-Pavaozin-

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ho is also near the site of FIFA's Fan Fest, an outdoor screening area on Copacabana beach that will allow non-ticket holders to follow the World Cup matches.

While he called the incident 'sad,' Valcke suggested the media had exaggerated Tuesday's violence. He compared the coverage to news reports about riots a few years ago in the poor suburbs of Paris that made the situation there seem like a war.

Insistent: Jerome Valcke is adamant that the World Cup won't be affected by the recent violence in Rio 'There is not a single country where there are not problems

75%

52% Percent of people in favor of hosting the World Cup in 2008 Percent of people in favor of hosting the World Cup in 2014

“NOTICE TO FOREIGN TOURISTS – THERE WILL BE VIOLENT PROTESTS DURING THE WORLD CUP IN BRAZIL. #NAOVAITERCOPA”

on the day to day,' Valcke said, adding that if people are worried about violence during the Brazil World Cup, they should also be worried about possible problems in Russia, which is hosting the 2018 tournament.

Violence flared during a World Cup warm-up tournament in Brazil last year, after the largest public protests in a generation broke out at the start of the tournament.

In the six host cities, protests took place during most of the matches, with police firing stun grenades and clouds of tear gas as some of the demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails.

The clouds of tear gas were so thick outside the final at Rio's Maracana stadium that players complained it affected them on the pitch.

Brazil has more cities on the list of the world's 50 most dangerous metropolises than any other, with 16 entries, according to the Mexico-based Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice.

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ROSTER

WORLD CUP

A WORLD CUP IN DESIGN “IT’S DIFFERENT, BRAZILIAN, CREATIVE AND DARING. IT HAS OUR BOUNDLESS SIZE AND MANAGES TO CAPTURE OUR RHYTHM AND COLOURS. LET’S GO FOR VICTORY!” POSTER DESIGNED BY THE CRAMA AGENCY

The negative space created by the legs is the map of Brazil

Type face used is called Pagode

Bright colors and fluid patterns that evoke the tropical nation's rich flora and fauna

The design stems from an iconic photograph of three victorious hands together raising the world’s most famous trophy

T

he artwork depicts the beauty and diversity of Brazil through a colourful, emotional and vibrant design. The creative concept at the heart of the poster is “An entire country at football’s service – Brazil and football: one shared identity”, which inspired Crama to shape the winning design. This is evident throughout the poster, particularly where the players‘ legs challenging for the ball reveal the map of Brazil

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FIFTY-FIFTY BALL

Q&

A TH EM ATC LA DY H FO OT

Q&A ALEX MORGAN 6 THE MATCH UNBEATEN STREAK ENDED 8 LADY FOOT ABBY WAMBACH 9

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Q&A

FIFTY-FIFTY BALL

Alex Morgan I Want to Keep Improving and Continue to Make an Impact on this Team.

IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU THINK YOU GREW AS A PLAYER THE MOST THIS YEAR?

ALEX MORGAN: “On the field, I really grew more confident. For me, confidence is so important as a forward. As a competitor playing at the highest level of soccer, I think I became more confident and more composed and was able go on the field and know that everything was up to me.

My attitude, the way I affected others, the way I contributed to the team, it was up to me and whether I really wanted it.

There was something that clicked at the beginning of this year and continued on and hopefully it will keep continuing.”

HOW WELL DID THE TEAM COME TOGETHER THIS YEAR?

A. M.

“I think that confidence is a big part, but the one thing that really sticks out is Abby Wambach.

She’s been my inspiration. She’s been my partner up top and has helped me grow into my role comfortably. I think that being able to feel comfortable with her on the field and being on the same page for every minute of the 90 minutes for every game has really made the difference this year.”

A. M. [ FOOTBALL • STYLE • DESIGN ]

CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING CHOSEN AS THE U.S. SOCCER FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR. IT WAS TRULY A MEMORABLE YEAR. WHAT MEMORIES EVOKE THE MOST EMOTION FOR YOU?

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR NEXT YEAR AND THE COMING YEARS?

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A. M.

“I want to keep improving and continue to make an impact on this team. I want continue to put the team first, help the team grow and obviously the World Cup in 2015 is on our minds every day.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE FAN SUPPORT THE TEAM AND YOURSELF HAS RECEIVED THIS YEAR?

YOU HAVE SCORED 28 GOALS SO FAR, WHAT DO YOU THINK WAS THE MAIN FACTOR IN YOUR ABILITY TO PUT THE BALL IN THE NET THIS YEAR?

“There were definitely a lot of games and memories that all came together to make a difference for me and create this dream of a year. The first game I started up top with Abby against Canada at the Olympic qualifiers is sort of what started it all.

Scoring a couple of goals and winning 4-0 against them and being able to take advantage of the opportunities I was given is something I dreamt of, hoped for and imagined myself doing.

The second biggest memory is receiving that gold medal around my neck and being able to sing the national anthem as loud as I could when our flag rose. Those are the memories I will forever have about 2012 and the beginning of my career.”

A. M.

“The fan support this year has been absolutely tremendous.

They’ve really helped us want to play in front of them and want to step on the field, enjoy ourselves and give the fans a good show. Having that support at the Olympics and feeling it over there and back home really kept us motivated no matter how tired our legs were or how mentally drained we were. We wanted to bring it home for our fans and this country.”

A. M.

“I think that confidence is a big part, but the one thing that really sticks out is Abby Wambach.

She’s been my inspiration. She’s been my partner up top and has helped me grow into my role comfortably. I think that being able to feel comfortable with her on the field and being on the same page for every minute of the 90 minutes for every game has really made the difference this year.”

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FIFTY-FIFTY BALL

THE MATCH

UNBEATEN STREAK ENDED U.S. women’s soccer team loses to Sweden 1-0 ending their fantastic run of 43 games unbeaten at the Algarve cup, the architech behind the win was their former coach Pia Sundhage.

BY BRENT WOJAHN

Sweden players celebrate after scoring the opening goal against the US during their Algarve Cup women's soccer match Monday, March 11 2013, in Lagos, southern Portugal. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

A

Sweden's head coach Pia Sundhage applauds the teams before during Algarve Cup women's soccer match with the US Monday, March 11 2013, in Lagos, southern Portugal.

Sundhage previously coached the US team.

(AP Photo/Armando Franca)

LBUFEIRA, Portugal -- The U.S. women's soccer team's twoyear unbeaten streak ended at 43 games Friday with a 1-0 loss to Sweden and former coach Pia Sundhage at the Algarve Cup in Albufiera, Portugal.

Lotta Schelin beat goalkeeper Hope Solo with a header in the 26th minute. The U.S. had been 36-0-7 since a 1-0 loss to Japan at the Algarve Cup on March 5, 2012, and 16-0-4 under Tom Sermanni, who took over as coach after Sundhage left in 2012 to lead her native Sweden.

The U.S., which was eliminated, had a chance to take the lead in the 17th minute, but Abby Wambach's penalty kick was pushed past a post by goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl after American midfielder Amy Rodriguez was fouled.

"You're always going to lose games in football. That's how it works," Sermanni said. "Sometimes you win games that perhaps you should have lost. Sometimes you lose games that perhaps you

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should have won. But as I said, today we missed a penalty at nil-nil, and in the last 15 minutes we had four very good goal-scoring opportunities. And if you don't take those, that makes a difference."

Sweden (2-0) leads Group B with six points while the U.S. (0-11) has one point heading into its Group B finale against Denmark on Monday. The U.S. had won the tournament nine times in 18 previous trips.

Sisters Samantha and Kristie Mewis entered in the 68th minute, with Samantha making her

Abby Wambach, right, of the US, shakes hands with Sweden's head coach Pia Sundhage at the end of their Algarve Cup women's soccer match Monday, March 11 2013, in Lagos, southern Portugal. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. Sundhage previously coached the US team. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

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THE MATCH

"SOMETIMES YOU WIN GAMES THAT PERHAPS YOU SHOULD HAVE LOST. SOMETIMES YOU LOSE GAMES THAT PERHAPS YOU SHOULD HAVE WON.” - Tom Sermanni

Alex Morgan, right, of the US, celebrates after scoring a goal against Sweden during their Algarve Cup women's soccer match Monday, March 11, 2013, in Lagos, southern Portugal. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Megan Rapinoe, right, of the US, shakes hands with Sweden's head coach Pia Sundhage at the end of their Algarve Cup women's soccer match Monday, March 11 2013, in Lagos, southern Portugal. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. Sundhage previously coached the US team. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) 5

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national team debut. Sarah Hagen made her first international appearance in the 81st minute.

Kristie Mewis forced Lindahl into a leg save on a break in the 83rd minute, and five minutes later the goalkeeper came off her line to make a chest save on Hagen.

"It felt great to get in," said Hagen, a 24-year-old forward with Bayern Munich. "I had a few opportunities that I wish I would have been able to finish."

The Americans, who opened with a 1-1 tie against Japan, were without forward Alex Morgan, who is sidelined with an ankle injury.

Wambach was active at the start but the early opportunities were lost. Then Sofia Jakobsson blocked Ali Krieger's clearance attempt and sent in a cross that Schelin headed past Solo.

"This was a tough one," American defender Christie Rampone said. "We definitely had more of the ball, not necessarily the best possession we could have played with, but we definitely made Sweden defend a lot. And credit to them, they kept fighting and battling and cutting off the passing channels and blocking shots."

Sweden players celebrate after scoring the opening goal against the US during their Algarve Cup women's soccer match Monday, March 11 2013, in Lagos, southern Portugal. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

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FIFTY-FIFTY BALL

LADY FOOT

6

OTHER BODY PARTS

73

HEADER GOALS

38 GOAL

16

PENATIES

160 TOTAL GOALS SCORED

27 GOAL

W

ABBY WAMBACH A GOAL SCORER MACHINE, A LOOK AT HER CARRER AND BREAKING THE U. S. WOMEN SOCCER GOAL RECORD

Mia Hamm retired in 2004, she knew that her world record of 158 career international goals wouldn’t last forever. And she already sensed who would break it: teammate Abby Wambach. “I read that the only reason I had that record was that I played for 17 years,” said Hamm at the time. “[Wambach] won’t need to play for 17 years to get that many goals.”

And even though the world is catching up to the U.S. -- and the American talent pool is deeper than ever -- Hamm is about to be proved right.

Wambach, now in her 13th year, has 160 goals as the U.S. prepares to face Canada on June 2 -- her 33rd birthday -- in a rematch of last summer’s hen

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BY LIZZIE HALDANE

epic Olympic extra-time semifinal. That match will be followed by two friendlies with South Korea, on June 15 and June 20.

With an eye toward playing in her fourth Women’s World Cup in 2015, Wambach will likely put considerable distance between herself and Hamm by the time her career is done. But the next threat to the goal record could be waiting in (and on) the wings.

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Francesco Totti Daniele De Rossi Miralem Pjanic Alessandro Florenzi

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Having sold their leading scorers and finished last season way off the pace, nobody expected Roma to be quite this good

BY Paolo Bandini Photographs by Enrico Caputo 60

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C

hristmas always comes early for Roma supporters. Their messiah was born on 27 September, not in a Bethlehem stable but instead room 12 of the Fabia Mater clinic in Rome. Francesco Totti was sent to earth to distract them from their sins, and lead them into footballing glory.

As such, his birthday is a time of great celebration. This year many fans gathered outside Roma's training base in Trigoria to give thanks.

A plane flew overhead trailing the message "History speaks for you".

Inside, Totti was presented with a throne bearing his name and number, as well as a remarkable 37kg cake featuring a partial replica of the Colosseum.

At 37 years old, most players would have been plotting an imminent retirement; Totti instead toasted the two-year contract extension that he had signed a week previously. He might also have been reflecting on his role in a brand new footballing miracle: the resurrection of AS Roma.

The club had been pronounced dead just four months previously, by supporters of their city rivals Lazio.

Celebrating a 1-0 victory over Roma in the final of the Coppa Italia, fans of the Biancocelesti put together a grand funeral procession– complete with hearse and wailing widow.

The stunt itself did not hurt Roma fans as much as the fear that their team was indeed fading. For the second year running, the Giallorossi had failed to qualify for Europe. A season that begun amid great optimism, with Zdenek Zeman's reappointment as manager prompting a boom in season ticket sales, had ended with their

balance the books. On top of all that, they appointed a manager, Rudi Garcia, who many of their fans had never heard of.

The Frenchman failed to endear himself to his new public, suggesting that a group of Ultras who turned up to jeer the team during a preseason training session must actually be Lazio supporters. A poll by Corriere dello Sport found that less than half of readers believed he was the man to turn things round.

Totti, though, was impressed. Zeman had never shielded his team from public criticism, instead encouraging it when he openly criticised Daniele De Rossi's attitude in

"He always left me free to choose. He never gave me much pressure.

For me he was important proof of a man who is serene and happy at Roma. Francesco is untouchable." team 25 points adrift of champions Juventus.

Matters only got worse over the summer, as Roma sold off both of their two leading scorers from last season – Pablo Osvaldo and Erik Lamela – as well as the promising young centre-back Marquinhos, in a bid to

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training and accused other players of misinterpreting his tactical schemes. Garcia took the opposite approach, handing down stern admonishments behind closed doors but refusing to hear a bad word said by outsiders.

O

n the pitch, his team's performances left little room for criticism. By the time of Totti's birthday, Roma had already won all five games that they had played,

including a victory over Lazio. Two days later they made it six out of six, crushing Bologna 5-0.

A

lready they were into uncharted territory.

Never in the club's history had they won more than four consecutive games to start a season. But now the real challenge had arrived. Despite the victory over Lazio, there was still a perception that Roma had benefited from a relatively soft opening set of fixtures. Their seventh game would provide a real test, taking them to face Internzionale at San Siro.

The Nerazzurri had made an impressive start of their own, dropping just four points in six games under the new manager Walter Mazzarri. Even the champions, Juventus, had settled for a draw when they visited Inter a few weeks previously.

Garcia promised in the days leading up to the game that his team would seek nothing less than a win. Even he, though, cannot have envisaged quite what a win it would be.

Totti opened the scoring in the 18th minute, taking a pass from Gervinho on the edge of the D and crashing a first-time shot into the bottom corner. He added another goal in the 40th, blasting a penalty beyond Samir Handanovic.

The forward's most brilliant intervention, however, might be the one that he made another four minutes later, when he controlled a partial clearance on his chest and then the side of his boot, before swivelling away from Alvaro Pereira to release Kevin Strootman before the ball had even hit the ground . The Dutchman raced upfield before teeing up Alessandro Florenzi to score Roma's third and final goal.

The game finished 3-0 to the visitors. They had enjoyed some good fortune – Fredy Guarín hit a post for Inter when the score was still 1-0, while replays suggested that Gervinho had actually been just outside the area

Daniele de Rossi celebrating a goal by gervinio suring Romas vicotry over Internazionale

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for the foul that led to Totti's penalty. But Roma were good value for their win. They had taken the game to their opponents without ever threatening to leave themselves exposed.

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for man of the match, and indeed for Roma's man of the season so far. Playing as the central striker in Garcia's 4-3-3, he has seemed at times to be reprising the role that he played in Luciano Spalletti's 'strikerless' 4-6-0 – dropping deep and denying opponents their usual points of reference. He had only scored once before Sunday, but leads Serie A with six assists.

In recent games, though, Totti has also shared the stage with Gervinho – a player reborn following his summer switch from Arsenal. The Ivorian's speed and directness have been key assets for Roma, allowing them to switch rapidly from defence to attack. Before Saturday, he had also scored three goals in the last two games.

"Every day in Africa a gazelle wakes up and wishes it could be as fast as Gervinho," raved Sebastiano Vernazza in Sunday's Gazzetta Sportiva. Tonino Cagnucci took the hyperbole even further in the fan-produced publiotti was the consensus choice

"Roma have freed themselves from fears, nonsense and never-ending controversies," cation Il Romanista, declaring that: "Now Africa has its Messi".

Several other new signings have also excelled. Kevin Strootman's power and drive in the middle of the park have overwhelmed opponents, while Mehdi Benatia has been unflappable in central defence.

The real star, though, has not been any of those players but rather Garcia himself. Through seven games, his team have scored 20 goals and conceded just one.

Those numbers are remarkable enough before you consider the fact that Roma had one of the worst defensive records in the whole division last season, giving up 56 goals in 38 games.

Garcia's sister, Sandrine, told reporters in France last week that even at 10 years old Rudi would spend hours rearranging his Subbuteo teams into different formations to see which ones worked best. But if the manager's tactics are certainly functioning well, his most striking achievement has simply been to instil such confidence in his players so quickly.

Last year's Roma, after all, might have been capable of grabbing a three-goal lead away from home, but they could never have maintained it so serenely.

"What really matters is our heads," said Totti after the win. "With a clear head anything is possible." Corriere dello Sport's editor Paolo De Paola put it another way: "Roma have freed themselves from fears, nonsense and never-ending controversies," he wrote. "They stuck their

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Francesco Totti The Soul And Leader Of As Roma, as he helps his team reach it highest position in the last 4 years

inherited insecurities in the loft and became resolute." o much are Roma's players in awe of their new manager, that they are even reported to have given his half-time team-talk on Saturday a round of applause.

More importantly, they also took it to heart, heeding his warning not to leave room for complacency.

In fact, even those sceptical fans seem to have been won round. Roma returned to Fiumicino airport at around 2am on Sunday morning to find nearly 1,000 supporters waiting to greet them.

Garcia would prefer that they had not. He has repeatedly stressed the need for people not to get ahead of themselves, pointing out on Saturday that there were still 93 points left to play for. "It's better just to focus on our objective of getting back into Europe, rather than

S

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talking about the Scudetto and disappointing our supporters down the line," he said. "And please don't talk about a revolution. That's an important word in France."

Precise use of language is important to Garcia, who made a point of learning Italian as quickly as he could after taking the job. But no amount of word play can dissipate the excitement that his team is generating. Just seven teams in the history of Serie A have ever begun a season with seven consecutive wins, and only one of those (Inter in 1966-67) failed to win the scudetto.

Now the fans have a full two weeks to savour this result, and to look ahead to another key fixture against Napoli once the teams return from the international break. Roma has died and Roma is risen, but even Totti does not yet know quite what comes next.

@$#@!$% #$@$#@&@#

#$@$#@&@# @$#@!$% #$@$#@&@# @$#@!$% @$#@!$%@

BY IAN HOLLOWAY

FROM THE TOP JOSE MOURINHO STEVE BRUCE SAM ALLADYCE DAVID MOYES ALAN PARDEW ANRSEN WENGER

@$#@!

ILLSUTRATION BY MANUEL MOLANO

on angry @$#@!

the

@$#@!$% @$#@!$% ^%$#@@

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@! # $ @ $# #$@

FOOTBALL BRINGS OUT A LOT

nes

OF EMOTIONS TO FANS, PLAYERS AND MANAGERS A LIKE. RAGE ITS BECOMING PREDOMINANT STATE AMOMONG THE MANAGER MAKING THEM A SIDE SHOW OF THE GAME.

f

with a difference took place in Bristol recently. Instead of it being a deadening plug by a reluctant footballer and an embarrassed ghost writer overseen by a PR with blonde highlights, this was a genuine affair.

The star was delighted to be there and thrilled to be among so many good friends. He thanked his mother, 'aka Short One'.

'She takes more tablets than Moses climbing the mountain and I swear I can hear her rattle when she walks, but she's 74, and an absolute star - and she still works at a chemist in Bristol, which is quite handy because she's also their best customer!'

He apologised to his wife, Kim, for leaving her 25 years ago and promised never to do so again. He remembered his dad who died at 'just 59, which is no age at all, is it?' He thanked his ghost for producing a book that 'My wife says is like me without all the bullshit. If David [Clayton, the ghost] had kept that in, it would have been four times longer.' ootball book launch

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The book is Ollie: The Autobiography of Ian Holloway (Green Umbrella). Holloway is now manager at Plymouth after a journeyman career as a player. The book is refreshingly honest and pricks the pomposity and pretensions of footballers and those who employ them.

When he arrived as a midfield player at Queens Park Rangers in the 1990-91 season, he found it something of a culture shock after a decade more on than off at Bristol Rovers.

'One of the lads said, "Oh, I can remember the days when I used to buy my suits from Burton's," and I was thinking, "Christ! I've got one at home I got from Asda!' I hadn't progressed as far as Burton's yet.'

After an interview for the manager's job at Millwall in 2006 he recalled: 'If we couldn't agree on the basic issue of how good Barry Hayles was, then I doubted we'd be able to agree on a number of things.'

In 2005, when he was having difficulties with the chaotic Gianni Paladini regime at QPR, never more so than when guns were brandished in the boardroom, he issued the directors with a vote of confidence saying: 'They're inexperienced, but I'll give them time to get it right.' The board 'weren't too impressed'.

A

leitmotif of the book is Holloway's anger. As an adolescent he gouged holes in the walls behind the football posters that decorated his room. As a 40-year-old he trashed fruit stalls with supermarket trolleys. Between, he had a right go at Roy Wegerle after he failed to make much of an effort in the first half of a QPR game away to Manchester City.

'How dare you say that to Roy Wegerle?' said QPR captain Alan McDonald.

'Fuck off!' said Holloway.

'Sometimes it's just meant to be, Ollie,' said Wegerle.

Holloway, now 44, was in danger of moving from angry young man to grumpy old man without a moment's pause for relief. 'When I was 41 I had an anger-management feller help me be a better person,' he says as we have a coffee the morning after the launch. 'It was very enlightening. My

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wife only ever saw the angry side. I didn't want to keep giving her that.'

Shortish and slightish, he can appear spiky, but is more curious than combative.

'I could be sitting at home having a meal and I was thinking about what my striker Paul Furlong was doing in training,' he says. 'My anger was such that we could win 10 in a row but if we lost the eleventh I was not a happy person. The feller said to me, "Even Arsene Wenger has lost one this year. Do you think he would moan? You would." He proved to me that I didn't believe in free speech.

He proved I was a problem-causer, not solver. And all I needed to do was to talk to myself the way I did to the players because my self-talk had become very negative.

'So now every morning I look in the mirror, which ain't a nice thing to do, and remind myself that the world's a nicer place when you are all right on yourself.'

He seems calm, perhaps because he no longer has to cope with the pressure of managing Rovers. 'It was a great learning curve, but everything was just too important,' he says of his time with the club he supported as a child. 'It taught me how not to do the job.' The chairman who sacked him had queued to have five books signed the evening before. Holloway bears no grudge. 'Geoff Dunford gave me the chance to be a manager. Without him, I might never have got started.'

Now he is at Plymouth, which 'is a pleasure because there is only one club in the area and wherever I go I

“MY ANGER WAS SUCH THAT WE COULD WIN 10 IN A ROW BUT IF WE LOST THE ELEVENTH I WAS NOT A HAPPY PERSON.”

SIR ALEX FERGUSON

SIR ALEX FERGUSON RASING HIS FITS TO BENITEZ AFTER BOTH MANAGERS DISAGREE ON A 50 50 BALL CALL.

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asking Kim: 'Where's the nanny?'

'I wouldn't want to give responsibility of bringing up the children to someone else,' Holloway says. 'What else is there? We are here to carry on the species and educating our children is the biggest job we will ever do. My wife agrees.'

He may have chosen her, but initially he relied on best mate Gary Penrose - who has been at his side throughout most of his career - to relay the invitation, which Kim initially declined. Finally, Holloway plucked up the courage to speak for himself and they spent their first date watching All Creatures Great and Small on television at her parents' house.

Holloway was really nervous and that was before 'old James Herriot soaped up his arm and then, on my life, wham! Right up the cow's arse.

'All of a sudden Kim's younger sister pipes up, "Mum, do cows have a clitoris?" Her mum didn't bat an eyelid. Had I misheard her? Had she asked if cows like liquorice?' Later the 15-year-old Ollie returns home and asks his mum what a clitoris is. He still hasn't found out whether a cow has one.

K

im and he had some bad times.

When he was 18, while she cutting his hair, he boldly told her he was leaving her and: 'She shaved it up the back and left a big lump on the top and I looked like a member of Kajagoogoo - she did a right number on me. But good on her because I deserved nothing less.'

When Holloway was struggling at Wimbledon and Brentford in the mid 1980s, Kim developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and had to undergo chemotherapy. 'What's it like dating a baldy bird?' asked the ever-charm-

ARSENE WENGER REACTION TO HIS TEAM FAILURE TO CLOSE THE GAPS AND KEEP THE BALL

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don't have to look over my shoulder.'

He is fully aware of the absurdity that for the past 11 years football writers have been noting down everything he says. 'It's just ridiculous. There are only three outcomes - you win, you lose, you draw - and there is only so much you can say about football, really.

'I don't like it when they call me madcap. I'm not mad and I don't wear a cap.' He is surprised people take so seriously his attempts to break the routine with a little comedy. The best-known example was his explanation for a convincing victory for QPR: 'It's like when you meet a bird who's not the best-looking. You talk, things go well and she gets in a taxi with you, get her back home and lovely jubbly, let's have coffee.'

This caused a predicted furore, which is exactly what he intended because he wanted to cover up the fact that he was having problems with his defender Clarke Carlisle.

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'Behind some of my jokes there is a more serious me,' he says. But the jokes keep coming because the reporters expect him to write their copy for them and he, unlike more circumspect managers, cannot help himself.

His style of management is simple.

'I believe all of us can shine and I think we're all good at something and if I have one talent, it's that I think I can spot that shining within people and I can get to it and encourage it and take away some of the worries and concerns so that they can go away and shine.' The film Coach Carter, apparently, exemplifies this.

And it is one with which fans identify. At Plymouth, QPR and Bristol Rovers he has become a local hero. 'I won't tolerate anyone not trying their best,' he says, speaking like a true fan.

H

owever great his commitment, though, football has always come a distant second to family.

At QPR, the other players' wives would look around baffled before

STEVE BRUCE REACTION TO A TACKLE DURING HIS TEAM DEFEAT AT LIVERPOOL FC.

@$#@!

“I DON'T LIKE IT WHEN THEY CALL ME MADCAP. I'M NOT MAD AND I DON'T WEAR A CAP.”

SAM ALLYDICE ing Wally Downes, a team-mate at Wimbledon.

To their surprise and delight Kim recovered so well that she gave birth to a son, William. And shortly thereafter identical twins, Chloe and Eve. The twins - and a third daughter, Harriet, born later - are profoundly deaf. 'One of the things I got very wrong was thinking that deafness would mean quietness. It was quite the opposite. They can't hear a sound so they make the most awful noise.'

And nothing was funnier than an Ollie tantrum. If you cannot hear someone, watching them losing their temper is a hoot. They would wind him up and then settle back to enjoy the show.

T

he current bane of his life is the Bosman ruling and its unintended consequence that, with freedom of movement after the age of 24, players are being offered 'five- or six-year deals and we are creating a monster. The challenge of being a human being is playing a game and then trying to play it better. If you are promised a good salary for a long time it is easy to let standards slip.

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it's bloody stealing. It's only a loophole. Why not close it down?

'We have a right and duty to bring these young fellows up. I'm very concerned about them not being good human beings. I don't want to watch kids throwing stones at cop cars, for Christ's sake.'

Holloway's wife has also done some writing. 'She's written a children's book about a deaf girl, but someone said it was too similar to JK Rowling. Now she's started an adult-humour one, a bit like Shirley Valentine, called The Ring, The Bling and The Rabbit.' It is about two sisters - one married to a football manager, the other working in a sex shop, which is a promising premise.

Holloway, somewhat surprisingly, ends his book with: 'Now, as the great Robert Shaw once said when portraying Quint in Jaws, "Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies."'

Let's hope Kim doesn't end hers with 'Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...'

JOSE MOURINHO’S REACTION AS HE IS BEING SENT OFF TO THE STANDS FOR MISCONDUCT DURING CHELSEA’S DEFEAT AT VILLA PARK.

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Pele, New York during his time with NY Cosmos 1987

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PELE

EL REY OF FOOTBALL MY HERO

A master, humble, and craftsman of the game, is the son of sandy beaches, Samba and host of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. My hero

By Roger Bennett

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M

something along the lines of, “Most people think heroes can fly through the air and perform superhuman acts of strength and physical talent. Mine cannot, but he is still a hero.” My hero can fly through the air, and he does have superhuman physical talent. My hero is Pelé, the greatest footballer (soccer player) the world has ever known. Even the people who are unfamiliar with the sport know who he is when they hear his nickname. Pele was the complete midfielder and attacker, the complete humanitarian, the complete pioneer, and because of this, he is completely my hero.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born October 23rd, 1940 in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Born to João Ramos do Nascimento and Dona Celeste, his father was nicknamed Dondinho and was a famous footballer for the Fluminense Football Club. Interestingly enough, while the whole world knows him as Pelé, he did not receive the nickname until grade school. His parents named him Edson Arantes after Thomas Edison, the American who invented the light bulb. His friends in school called him Pelé and “Edson” did not like the name. In fact, he didn’t even know what the name meant or where it came from. He complained but as any story goes, the more he complained the more he was called it. In fact, he was suspended from school for 2 days for punching a schoolmate in the face who called him Pelé. However, even with all the bullying, he still managed to develop a passion for football. He loved it from a very young age, even though he grew up in a society that was filled with poverty. The society was more worried about surviving than enjoying sports.

While getting a public job and helping support the family, Pelé still managed to get out and play football.

He dreamed of playing for the Bauru Youth Team and would get out whenever he could to the nearest open area to kick around. At the age of eleven, he was scouted by legend Waldemar de Brito, and the rest is history. He joined the amateur team Clube Atlético Bauru and when he was 15, de Brito took him to São Paulo to try out for the professional team, Santos Futebol Clube. He signed the deal, and at 16 he was the league’s leading scorer and ost everyone will start this essay by saying

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1970 Brazil Clodoaldo, Rivelino, Pele,Tostao, Ze Maria and Piezza during a friendly game

“Pele was the only footballer who surpassed the boundaries of logic.”

Johan Cruyff

17-year-old Pele weeping with joy after the 1958 World Cup final.

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Pele celebrating his retirement from the Brazilian national team in Sao Pablo in 1971

a starter for Santos. Ten months later, he was called up to the Brazilian National Team. He won 3 World Cups and played in 4, including the 1970 World Cup in which the Brazilian team is widely considered to be the single greatest group of players to grace the field ever.

P

elé was not only a phenomenal player but an ambassador and pioneer for the sport. His signature move was the bicycle kick, where the player falls down and, like pedaling the wheels of a bicycle, kicks the ball from above his head while falling. You can see him performing it in the picture. Pelé is the highest-scoring professional player ever, and the third-highest international game point leader. He was so good, in fact, that in 1995 Brazilian president Cardoso made him the Minister of Sports, a great honor. While serving, he has proposed many laws that protect athletes in general. The Minister of Sports oversees most athletic programs in the area, including some programs that improve production of nets, balls, cleats, and more athletic products.

In addition to being one of the greatest players of all time, he is also a big humanitarian. He is a large contributor for the United Nations International Childrens

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Fund (UNICEF), a renowned organization for children’s rights. Also, he is a figurehead for erectile dysfunction. The most recent thing he has done is scouted for Premiership League team Fulham FC. Oh, and did I mention, Pelé could stop wars? In 1970, two groups engaged in a civil war in Nigeria agreed on a 48-hour ceasefire so they could watch Pelé compete in an exhibition game at Lagos. He was also one of the first black people to be featured on the cover of Life Magazine, and the first athlete to be featured on the front of a video game.

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o me, a hero is someone who has overcome difficulties, never given up, and been kind to others. Pelé perfectly fits this role, and that is why he is my hero. Superman never gave up, and he was always kind-hearted. In this way, he is Superman. Pelé is one of the rare athletes I’ve ever witnessed who transcends the simple athlete with the big house and Aston Martin and becomes a legend, someone who will certainly go down in history as one of the greatest footballers and humanitarians and role models to ever walk this Earth. That, my friends, is why this man is my hero and idol.

My name is Ronald Reagan, I’m the President of the United States of America. But you don’t need to introduce yourself, because everyone knows who Pele is.”

Ronald Reagan

Pele celebrating the 100th goal of Brazil in World Cups against Italy

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GE RE EN LA 79

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ENIUS EBEL NGLAND’S AST HOPE WAYNE ROONEY AS THE MAGISTERIAL AND TALENTED FOOTBALLER THAT TAMES OPPONENTS, BUT CANT HANDLE HIS BIG EGO

BY SAM WALLACE

ILLUSTRATION BY PRAYITNOWIDODO

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W

ayne M ark Rooney was born on October 24, 1985, in Croxteth, Liverpool, England, to Wayne and Jeanette Rooney. Rooney, who has two younger brothers, attended Our Lady & St. Swithin’s RC primary school and later De La Salle secondary school. From an early age, Rooney’s talent on the field was hard to miss. He scored 99 goals for a local junior league team at age 9, catching the attention of a scout with the Everton Football Club, a franchise in the English Premier League. Rooney signed with Everton and spent the next several years playing within the club’s youth ranks.

Professional Career Rooney made his professional debut with Everton in August 2002.

Two months later, he showed his penchant for scoring and coming up big in important games when he became the youngest-ever goal scorer in Premier League history. The goal put Rooney in the record books, and the last-minute score steered the team to a victory over Arsenal, which had come into the contest sporting a 30-game unbeaten streak. In 2002 Rooney captured the BBC Sports Young Personality of the Year award.

Despite his earlier affinity for his local pro club, in 2004 Rooney signed on with Manchester United after his new team paid Everton a transfer fee of roughly $48 million. The move was seen as treason by Everton fans, and when he later returned to play against his old club, he was roundly booed by his former supporters.

Rooney, however, expressed no regrets about the change, and neither did United. In the 2006 Football League Cup, the quick-tempered playmaker, whom the team would make captain that year, scored twice to lead his club to a 4-0 win over Wigan Athletic in the final. Over the next five seasons, Rooney steered United to four Premier League titles.

He also helped his club win the 2008 UEFA Champions League and scored the winning goal in the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup. In 2008, Rooney became the youngest player ever to play in 200 Premier League games. The following season he became just the 20th player in team history to score more than 100 goals for the franchise. Named

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2010 PFA Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year, Rooney needed only to help England achieve significant World Cup success to cement his status as an international icon.

Off the Field In 2006, Rooney landed an approximately $7 million book deal from HarperCollins to write his autobiography, Wayne Rooney: My Story So Far. The book put Rooney in a bit of hot water with his former manager at Everton, David Moyes, who sued his ex-player for libel. The two reached an undisclosed settlement before the case saw the courtroom.

I was there the night that Wayne Rooney’s first professional deal was announced, in the Joe Mercer suite at Goodison Park, on a Friday evening in January with Everton at home to Sunderland the following day. The most vivid memory of that occasion?

We could hardly hear Rooney speak.

At 17 and unprepared for the cameras and reporters, the words stuck

T LE AP LLEO A B 0P E 0 TH ,0 0 S ET , 4YES G K O E R M H PA VID EN N DA H SO ,” WDI P “O U O ND GA ST Illustration by Paul Thurlby

in his throat and he could not force them out above a whisper.

It took David Moyes, his manager then as now, to intervene and pick up the story. “When he gets the ball at Goodison Park, 40,000 people stand up,” Moyes said, “so that tells you what people think about Wayne Rooney.”

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here were so many Everton directors who wanted a place on the top table that they were packed together like builders on the front seat of a van. Rooney was in a suit and so anxious after his first few words that he reached for a glass bottle of water and was about to swig from it until Moyes told him in a stage whisper to “pour it in the glass, Wayne”.

He had been eligible to sign a professional deal since his 17th birthday in October and the delay had caused some anxiety at the club, with interest reported from Real Madrid. His first pro deal took him from a weekly scholar’s wage of £75 to £8,000, with bonuses meaning it exceeded, he later revealed in his first volume of memoirs, the £13,000 a week we reported at the time.

Even then, Rooney was nobody’s fool. He was the first teenager in British football to sign an image rights deal that gave him a percentage of

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the club’s commercial earnings on him, although it was a long way from the treasure chest that Manchester United laid before him last week.

Wayne Rooney and the highest wages in world football 1 of 11 Wayne Rooney Cristiano Ronaldo Gareth BaleLionel MessiRadamel FalcaoZlatan IbrahimovicSergio AgueroYaya ToureThiago SilvaDavid SilvaFernando Torres Next Wayne RooneyCristiano RonaldoGareth BaleLionel MessiRadamel FalcaoZlatan IbrahimovicSergio AgueroYaya ToureThiago SilvaDavid SilvaFernando Torres Now Rooney has the benefit of the most finely honed commercial organisation in English football – United’s – working on his behalf to top up his £250,000-a-week salary with commercial deals to take it beyond the £300,000 mark. The relentless deal-making unit set up to feed the Glazer debt is now also calibrated to make him money. No one player bigger than the club? On those terms, Rooney is practically a partner in the business.

At Selhurst Park on Saturday, homage was paid once again to the late Sir Tom Finney, a footballer who belonged to an era, we are reminded, when players were honourable, unpretentious and almost invariably exploited. Finney, we have been reminded over the last few weeks, worked as a plumber to supplement his wages. How absurd that he could not live by his talent for football alone.

This is a country that does not like its footballers too rich and comfortable.

Conversely, hands are wrung when former players find themselves at the other extreme, in poverty, when all has been squandered or given over

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Painting by Meen Choi

to addiction. Rooney will never trouble the PFA’s hardship fund, and he is worth millions to the Treasury, but that will not prevent the usual backlash against him.

To earn what he does, he has come through the most exacting meritocracy. Even the venture capitalism practised by the Glazers, as red in tooth and claw as it comes, is yet to figure out a way of getting him on the cheap.

C

an this kind of salary be justified in relation to those earned by nurses, doctors and teachers? Of course not. Had he refused to sign the deal, were United prepared to invest that £80m they may end up paying Rooney on nurses, doctors and teachers? Sadly not.

Wayne Rooney scores a sensational bicycle kick against Man City Photo: GETTY IMAGES 84

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Is he worth it? Rooney has been written off more times than one cares to remember. He has been accused of failing to deliver on his early promise – as if he could have played the same way for the rest of his life as he did at Euro 2004, when his barrelling, head-down style came as a surprise to opponents. No question, he has made mistakes. But they are fewer these days.

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ack he comes, time and again. His goalscoring, and occasionally his form, have ebbed and flowed. Yet this is a man who will, in all likelihood, break Sir Bobby Charlton’s goalscoring records for United and England which have stood for more than four decades.

Unlike Lionel Messi or Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Rooney has never had the benefit of a United team built around him. His career at the club has been defined, in many respects, by the kind of team-mates he has had to accommodate, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Robin van Persie.

One suspects that if Moyes cannot make Juan Mata work as right-sided player drifting in, it will be Rooney who is forced to take up the wide position at the expense of his own goalscoring.

It has always been a personal opinion that Rooney, for all his volatility, has done well. At Everton he was given the No 18 shirt, left vacant by Paul Gascoigne (no pressure there then). When Gascoigne was the age Rooney is now, he was at Rangers and not the elite player he had once been, although he went on to have a last hurrah at Euro 1996. Already ravaged by injury, he had 33 England caps at Rooney’s current age, 28 years and four months. Rooney has 88.

In his first autobiography, Rooney

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lists those peers he played with for the England Under-15s: Wayne Routledge, now at Swansea, who has had a good career, and Lee Croft, once of Manchester City, now at St Johnstone. They were the only ones to make it as professionals, alongside Rooney.

Like lots of boys in this country who show a talent for football, Rooney bought a ticket for that particular lottery, and committed to the training sessions, the matches and the precedence they take over school. It is no different to any elite-level sportsman.

The sacrifice is huge, the chances of success slim, the rewards enormous.

W

hen I left Selhurst Park on Saturday, an hour after the end of the game, Jason Puncheon was still in his kit and boots by the side of the pitch with his children.

They were waiting for Rooney, who arrived a few minutes later, to have their picture taken. It is noticeable that from his fellow professionals there has been very little resentment voiced to the size of his new deal.

They know better than anyone that Rooney has come through the most rigorous selection process in modern sport. Manchester United scout all over the world, in a sport played by more people than any other, and they still could not find anyone, certainly anyone available, they would sooner spend that money on than Rooney.

H C N I HI E R W FI E E IR THT F E A T SSI E S TH ES ME N ’S B L A C IT HE ONE . T LI U S O Y YE IM .” “ E H ST IS ES BE H K E A H M T OF

Wayne Rooney Photograph by Catalina Betancourt

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GOAL SCORED GAMES PLAYED ASSISTS SHOTS ON TARGET SHOTS OFF TARGET YELLOW CARDS RED CARDS MINUTED ON PITCH

17 77 8 62 81 17 1 4867

GOAL SCORED GAMES PLAYED ASSISTS SHOTS ON TARGET SHOTS OFF TARGET YELLOW CARDS RED CARDS MINUTED ON PITCH

Wayne Rooney Illustration by Steven Tan

212 438 112 726 637 80 2 35367

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GOAL SCORED GAMES PLAYED ASSISTS SHOTS ON TARGET SHOTS OFF TARGET YELLOW CARDS RED CARDS MINUTED ON PITCH

38 85 16 128 100 11 2 6471

ROONEY

WAYNE

Harry Kewell

Australia’s

Finest Football Export &

Fashion Icon

BY BONITA MERSIADES PHOTOGRAPH BY FADI AL-ASDAD

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He never reached his full potential, but Harry Kewell was a symbol of Australia's rise on the international stage

Harry Kewell During a photo shoot at his native town Smithfield, Sydney, Australia

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H

Kewell retires from football. An outstanding career, a great player, a true legend of the Australian game. But imagine what could have been.

The answer to ‘what could have been’ starts with the final World Cup qualifier between Australia and Iran in Melbourne in November 1997 when almost the entire MCG – and many more thousands watching at home – believed that this would be our time: after what was then a 24-year gap, Australia would finally make it to the World Cup once more in 1998. It didn’t happen, of course and that moment has become the Gallipoli of Australian football. Wasted effort.

A generation unfulfilled. A glorious defeat.

But it was the first-leg of that two-match qualifier that really set Australia up in the first place. The Socceroos had come away from an inhospitable environment in Teheran with an unexpected 1-1 draw that favoured them nicely at home under the away goals rule.

Who scored that goal? A 19-yearold called Harry Kewell.

Nineteen. This is when we began to love Harry. He became ‘Harry Kool’, and Australia watched him grow up. But he hasn’t always shown the same love for Socceroos fans. Between 1998 and 2005 he played 13 games for the national team. The Socceroos had 67 matches in this time.

His unavailability for internationals began in 1999 in what was nothing more than an exhibition match against a Brazilian ‘B’ side.

On the evening he was due to fly out of Manchester for the trip home, his club Leeds sent a fax (nothing official was done by email back then) saying: “Harry Kewell has succumbed to an injury and is unavailable to play for Australia”.

GEIR shirt Politix $ 49.00

arry

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Jeans Politix $ 90

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a friendly match or, if competitive, against a team from Oceania.

Joining the Asian Football Confederation has changed those dynamics for the better.

In 2003, Harry joined one of the most famous football clubs on the planet, Liverpool – the second Australian to do so after Craig Johnston. After a solid first season, he endured a second from hell culminating in being booed off the ground by Liverpool fans in the Champions League final in 2005.

Kewell, as it happens, really was injured: he had a torn adductor and a then undiagnosed condition known as ‘Gilmore’s Groin’. It was the start of an injury-plagued remainder of his career.

Only a few weeks after Kewell had limped off for Liverpool in the 2006 FA Cup final, we fell in love with him again – and certainly a new generation of Australian football fans did for the first time.

It was the 2006 World Cup. He was nursed through injury – and eventually could not continue after the group stages because of a bacterial infection – but he

was immense in that tournament, culminating in a man of the match performance for a 2-2 draw against Croatia that put Australia into the second stage.

When the ball came near Kewell, you felt the hope, excitement and anticipation within the stadium, and crackling through the TV screen. Something was going to happen. ewell had changed in other ways in his absent years. The reserved and wary teenager had matured into being a more outgoing, friendly and relaxed person. It was a combination of marriage, parenthood, an ambition realised and becoming his own man.

He went on to play another 37 games for Australia including the 2007 and 2011 Asian Cups as well as the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Some of those performances have shown us the ‘Harry Kool’ we first loved – none more so than when he captained the side in Dubai against Iraq in a World Cup qualifier in June 2008. Australia lost that game 1-0 in difficult conditions, but Kewell was immense.

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An English colleague recently remarked that, for him and his friends, it was Harry Kewell who made them take notice of Australian football. They realised that “Australians could play”.

O

thers thought so too.

When Australia was planning its 2018/2022 World Cup bid, international research showed that Harry – who was then playing for Galatasary in Turkey – was the best-known and most recognisable Australian player at the time.

By a long shot. It is why he became the centrepiece of this initial promotional film that launched the bid.

I worked with him on the bid and I can confirm he did not demand payment. There was no fuss,

White Suit Politix $ 429

I think they knew I was interested in clothes. When I first met with them, I walked in and the range was all there. It was like they'd taken all the clothes out of my own wardrobe it was all my style!

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58 caps with Australia 17 goals scored Midfield position

For me it was time to step aside and let young players stand up. I think they will surprise a lot of people. I always said, it was a privilege and honour to play for your country

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no hangers-on. He was patient and enthusiastic. This was something he did for Australia. Imagine what could have been had Kewell not been burdened by injury.

After a long and successful career Harry Kewell announced his retirement from football on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old has been troubled by injuries for a number of years, and has missed a number of games for his club, Melbourne Heart, this season. Heart confirmed his final appearance will be in the last game of the season, against Western Sydney Wanderers on 12 April.

“It’s been tough,” Kewell said of his retirement decision. “I’ve talked to a lot of people recently and it’s hard because it’s the only sport I’ve ever known. I started when I was four and started professionally when I was 17 and had a career of 18 years. It’s a life I’ve already lived and now I get a chance to live another one.”

the highest level to do that.

“I had a year out and, yes I played well for the Heart in games I played but I think it’s time to pass on and let youngsters step up and be counted for.” ewell arguably played his best football before the age of 25, during his time at Leeds United. He was named PFA Young Player of Year during his time at Elland Road before moving to Liverpool where he won the Champions League in 2004-05.

In 2012 fans, players and journalists voted Kewell Australia’s greatest ever footballer.

Well played ‘Harry Kool’. Thanks for the memories.

K

H

eart’s coach, John van ‘t Schip, praised Kewell’s contribution to the game. “Harry’s record as a footballer speaks for itself. To achieve what he has done as a European player would have been amazing but to do it as an Australian player who needed to leave home as a teenager makes it a very unique and special story.

“Having worked with Harry close up, I see what a great professional he is and how much he loves football. I hope that this rubs off on all the other players that we have at this club so that we can take it with us into future seasons.”

Kewell had hoped to represent Australia at this year’s World Cup but it has become clear he is not a serious consideration for the Socceroos coach, Ange Postecoglou – a factor that played a major part in his decision.

“For the World Cup I can sit back and enjoy it,” Kewell said.

“There’s obviously going to be questions asked about the World Cup but I haven’t been part of the Australian squad for a while.

“For me it was time to step aside and let young players stand up. I think they will surprise a lot of people. I always said, it was a privilege and honour to play for your country and you’ve got to be playing at

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Black Jacket Politix $ 259

Black Pants Politix $ 149

By Joe Prince-Wright 97

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The Major League Soccer is leading the way in restructuring the competition in order to accommodate the new teams that will be joining the league from coast to coast.

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A

Don Garber’s comments at half time of the MLS All-Star Game in Kansas City last night, the soccer landscape in North America will change drastically over the next five to seven years.Bring it on.

MLS’ Commissioner confirmed on Wednesday that Major League Soccer will expand to 24 teams by the year 2020. Giving hope to thousands of fans across North America that their city will be home to one of MLS’ new franchises.

Garber’s comments have been welcomed with open arms by the US soccer community. And speculation is rife, as always, as to where these next franchises will pop up.

According to the following comments from the MLS Commish, the teams will help spread MLS’ reach to the whole of the US. So expect more teams in the Midwest and Southeast regions.

“As MLS enters a period of accelerated growth, the addition of new teams will allow us to expand our geofter

graphic coverage, grow our fan base and help us achieve our vision of being among the best leagues in the world by 2022.”

So with that “geographic coverage” in mind, let’s split up potential MLS expansion cities into regions and analyze which city could come out on top.

SOUTHEAST

Miami: With David Beckham involved in a potential franchise in Miami, this deal should get pushed through and I expect MIA to be one of two new franchises in Florida. The infrastructure will be there, the soccer fans are there but getting them all to support one team proved difficult in the past. Can it succeed this time?

Orlando: Brett Lashbrook is on board for a reason, MLS will come to Orlando very soon. Two of the four new MLS franchises look set for Florida, but Orlando have some hurdles to jump in order to get their new stadium built in time. With local business and the mayor at loggerheads, will MLS arrive in Miami before Orlando? USL Pro outfit Orlando City are pretty confident though and after a great Open Cup run and big crowds, they should be.

Atlanta: A city that has long been earmarked for an expansion franchise, the Atlanta Silverbacks of NASL have a sparkling new soccer complex that can be expanded. Owner of the Atlanta Falcons, Arthur Blank, has proposed a soccer team coming to the newly developed Falcons stadium in downtown ATL. If it could be similar to the way BC Place is adapted for the Whitecaps, that would be pretty awesome.

Will MLS be head over heels for Orlando?

MIDWEST

Oklahoma City: In terms of soccer in the Midwest, OKC is embracing the world’s sport like no other. Over the past month, USL Pro and NASL have set up rival franchises in the city as they aim to bring MLS to town one day. The support for both teams will be analyzed

Sacramento CA Markets under consideration

Phoenix AZ Markets under consideration San Antonio TX Markets under consideration

AS MLS ENT ADDITION - Don Garber

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Minneapolis MN Markets under consideration

St. Louis MO Markets under consideration

NYC Football Club 2015

Atlanta GA 2017 *

Orlando City Soccer Club 2015

Miami franchise 2016-2017

over the coming years and Oklahoma would certainly be an interesting option for MLS expansion.

St. Louis: There is no professional soccer team in St. Louis, and there are no plans for one either. But that doesn’t mean there are no soccer fans in STL. Oh no.

We saw a huge crowd of over 48,000 pack Busch Stadium when Manchester City and Chelsea visited earlier this summer for a friendly and the sports mad town could definitely have some awesome rivalries with Chicago and Kansas City. Why not St. Louis?

Minneapolis: Minnesota United, Minnesota Stars and all the other name changes it has gone through, the Twin Cities have long been home to second and third-tier soccer teams. Can it make the jump up to MLS? A possible stadium link up with the Vikings has been mooted, but will there be enough fans to fill a 20,000 plus soccer-specific stadium week in, week out?

Indianapolis: Chelsea play Inter Milan at the Lucas Oil Stadium later today and the Indy Eleven franchise will start NASL play next season. Indy is definitely becoming a soccer obsessed city. The MLS SuperDraft was there in January and this town would also provide a great link between the East coast and the cities of Chicago and KC. Detroit: Plans for a new downtown soccer stadium are close to being submitted in Detroit, as soccer fans in the Motor City have been causing quite a stir for sometime. A NPSL side, Detroit City, regularly attracts over 5,000 fans and the atmosphere created for a minor-league soccer team is incredible. A dark horse for MLS expansion?

MLS

Cities that will be future franchises of the MLS

MLS

Cities that are negotiating MLS expansion

MLS

Cities under consideration for the final expansion candidate to join MLS before 2020

TERS A PERIOD OF ACCELERATED GROWTH, THE OF NEW TEAMS WILL ALLOW US TO EXPAND OUR GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE AND BE AMONG THE BEST LEAGUES IN THE WORLD BY 2022

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WEST

Sacramento: Preki is now in charge, and something tells me the former USMNT and MLS legend wouldn’t be involved with the Californian team unless something huge was on the horizon. Ambitious plans have already been unveiled for the Sacramento Republic.

Can they back that up in their USL Pro debut season next year?

San Antonio: The sparkling gem that is Toyota Field has become the jewel in NASL’s stadium crown. With a 8,000 capacity that can be expanded, soccer is a big deal in the Texas city. Rivalries with Dallas and Houston would be massive for the league and the Scorpions are one of NASL’s best run outfits. Potential.

Phoenix: At the moment the Arizona city has a USL Pro in its first season of play, but could it grow into an MLS franchise? Perhaps not. Although crowd numbers have been decent in its inaugural year, it is hard to see cities such as San Antonio ans Sacramento not jumping ahead of Phoenix out west.

Where else? Obviously there are plenty of other cities not on this list, (Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville and Las Vegas to name a few) so where should MLS look to expand?

After New York City FC was announced, Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber said the league planned on taking a break from expansion.

However long that break lasts, the league now plans on expanding by 20 percent by the beginning of the next decade, with 24 the new magic number the commissioner provided at half-time of Wednesday’s All-Star Game.

In what’s become an annual event, Garber spoke to ESPN at halftime of tonight’s game, this time answer questions from analysts and former U.S. Men’s National Team standouts Alexi Lalas and Kasey Keller.

There Garber spoke of the league’s plan to eclipse the FIFA standard 20-team league six, explaining the league plans to add four new franchises by 2020: “These expansion clubs have brought new ideas

THE STRENGTH, PASSION AND VISION OF THE MLS OWNERSHIP GROUP IS THE FOUNDATION

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that have contributed to our strategy for growing the league and the addition of new markets has expanded our geographic reach while increasing our fan base …”

“The strength, passion and vision of the MLS ownership group is the foundation behind the success of our league … We look forward to adding new partners with the same commitment to the sport and love of the game.

“As MLS enters a period of accelerated growth, the addition of new teams will allow us to expand our geographic coverage, grow our fan base and help us achieve our vision of being among the best leagues in the world by 2022.”

That geographic coverage will almost surely address one of the league’s current deficits: a lack of teams in the southeast. Orlando has made a major push of be the league’s next expansion destination, with the Orlando City Soccer Club group headed by Phil Rawlins hoping to play as early as 2015. A potential return to Miami has also been speculated, with former LA Galaxy star David Beckham’s name linked with a possible successor to the defunct Miami Fusion.

While the biggest message for fans in potential expansion markets will be the potential for MLS soccer in their home town, the broader implication from Garber’s Wednesday comments concerns the league’s ambition. Previously content to build to 20 teams, the league has set its sights higher before the 20th team has even taken the field.

Though some will quibble with the idea of a league being allowed to build beyond a 20th team, the U.S. has always been seen as a unique market, both in terms of is size and the challenges soccer has to take root. Announce plans for another stage of “accelerated growth,” Garber is signally not only an intent to grow into that unique market but also leverage the stability the league’s established over the last seven years to grow beyond previous expectations.

- Don Garber BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF OUR LEAGUE

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RED CARD

WISE WORDS FROM THE MANAGER

ILLUSTRATION BY PETER STRAIN, OF SIR ALEX FERGUSON 38 TROPHIES WITH MANCHER UNITED.

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