Pro Eleven Headline News
Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho expecting an improvement vs Roma
Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho is expecting an improved performance from his players when they face AS Roma on Wednesday in the Italian Cup quarter-finals.
Mourinho was furious Sunday after Inter lost at Atalanta 3-1, even though the team stayed in first place in Serie A, leading Juventus by four points.
"It is clear that after a match like this we have to talk about what happened and work out why we didn't play well," Mourinho said. "Afterwards, there are more specific situations. The coach (will work) with individual players and in such cases my message is always very direct."
Also, Sampdoria hosts Udinese on Wednesday and Lazio hosts Torino on Thursday. The final Italian Cup quarterfinal match between Napoli and Juventus is scheduled for Feb. 14.
Inter and Roma have met in the last four Italian Cup finals, with both sides winning two each. However, Inter will play a Roma team in good form, having taken seven points from its three matches since the holiday break finished.
"Roma are a quality side," Mourinho said. "When they were in difficulties in the championship and the Champions League, I was one of the few to say they could win something important even if it would be better later on. They have quality players and tomorrow night it will be a great match."
Despite the tough game at San Siro, Mourinho downplayed the idea that he would change his usual preparations just because Inter was taking on a team in form.
"For me a match is always a match," he said. "Who we are playing doesn't interest me because I always respect and prepare my team with the same intensity, to win. Never in my career have I worked in a different manner depending on whether the opponent is more or less important."
Mourinho also defended the physical condition of his players, and he denied that his team is unfit following the three-week break.
"If it is a physical problem it isn't my responsibility," Mourinho said. "My squad trains very well, following a scientific method. My team has to always be in top physical condition to be able to play three matches a week. At our level you must always be prepared." Canadian Press
Guardiola wary of dangerous Espanyol
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola admits Espanyol's decision to change managers has hampered his side's preparations for their Copa del Rey tie.
Espanyol on Tuesday morning confirmed they had parted company with Jose Manuel Esnal 'Mane' after just eight league and cup games in charge and named former defender Mauricio Pochettino as his replacement.
Under Mane, Espanyol had won just one match and lost four, leaving the club 18th in the Primera Liga standings, five points adrift of safety and a massive 35 points behind runaway leaders Barca.
With that in mind, few would have given Espanyol much hope of overturning in-form Barca in the cup, but with a new coach now in the hotseat, the situation may be a little different.
Guardiola admitted: "We don't know anything about him (Pochettino). I would have liked Mane to have been there a week more, as we had already studied the way they play.
"Now their players will go out and give it everything, be more aggressive, hoping to please their supports and their new coach.
"I expect to see a determined Espanyol side who are very aggressive and much more dangerous."
Although Guardiola admits he knows nothing about Pochettino the coach, he remembers the former Argentina international as a player, with the 36-year-old defender having spent two spells at Espanyol - 1994-2000 and 2004-06.
"I wish him the best. He was a very good centre-back and I'm sure that he will do very well on the Espanyol bench," added Guardiola, who is hoping to lead Barca to their first Copa del Rey crown since 1998.
Aside from the local derby between Espanyol and Barca, the other Copa del Rey quarter-final first leg taking place tomorrow pits holders Valencia against 2007 winners Sevilla in another mouthwatering encounter.
Sevilla coach Manolo Jimenez said ahead of his side's trip to the Mestalla: "It is an even and difficult tie. To lift the cup would be great, it is a dream but we are not the only team going for it."
Valencia boss Unai Emery, whose side will have home advantage if they manage to make the final, has called on his club's supporters to roar the team to a first-leg lead tomorrow.
"Against Sevilla I'm sure we will play better with the support of the public. The added motivation is that we are the holders and the final will be at the Mestalla," Emery said.
"A win tomorrow is a good result, as well as keeping a clean sheet. We are two very similar teams, with a lot of potential. It is a very important game, although it is not decisive because there is a return leg."
The other two quarter-final first legs will take place on Thursday night, when Athletic Bilbao host Sporting Gijon and Real Betis go to Real Mallorca. Teamtalk.com
Kaká stays in Milan, where his lifestyle is
The Middle Eastern gravy train has departed Milan, and Kaká is not on it. Late Monday night - after AC Milan had agreed to the richest fee in soccer history to trade its Brazilian star to the sheiks who bankroll the English club Manchester City - came the announcement that the deal was off.
Kaká said no, and Milan's owner, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, immediately went on his own television station to tell Italy: "Kaká is staying at Milan."
"Both he and I have intervened," Berlusconi said on the 7 Gold channel. "When I heard Kaká say that he prefers to stay, that he doesn't mind that he will lose the opportunity to earn a higher salary, and that he feels privileged to wear the shirt, that he values the closeness and friendships and the affection the fans have shown him, I said: 'Hallelujah! Come here.' And we hugged."
By Tuesday morning, even Adriano Galliani, Berlusconi's right-hand man, who had negotiated the sale, was saying on the Milan Channel: "Kaká's heart has prevailed over reason, and for that, the club and I are very thankful. The fans must once again thank President Berlusconi for this economic effort, which he did only because he loves" the team.
Stripped of the posturing, this is a decisive and possibly unique display of player power for good in the modern game. Kaká, whose real name is Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, is no pauper. At €7.5 million, or $10 million, a season, he is the highest paid player in Italy.
He enjoys the Milan lifestyle; the prestige of the club far outweighs the new and possibly transient wealth pouring into the English club; and the opportunity to compete in the Champions League is more immediate with Milan than Manchester City.
Even so, Kaká's father and mentor had flown to Milan from Brazil on Monday to listen to his son and then, if need be, to tie up the contract with Manchester City. It was that close because, whatever spin was put on it, the reported $150 million fee to Milan was accepted. So, it seemed, were the millions promised to five middlemen, the agents who allegedly could smooth this deal.
They could fix everything except Kaká's own desire not to be moved.
When Berlusconi made his TV appearance Monday night, he looked as tired and drained as a 72-year-old is entitled to look. In the 24 hours that preceded this, he had shuttled between Egypt and Jerusalem as a peacemaker in the Middle East.
Even by Berlusconi's standards, this was not something he had encountered in more than 20 years as the owner and benefactor of AC Milan. It is beyond dispute that the club is more than business to him. He has used it to gain popularity for his political party, Forza Italia, but unquestionably lavished great riches on the team and lifted it to genuine grandeur.
He loves the game, he understands players, he has never lightly let go of truly star performers like Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini or Marco van Basten. And now there is one called Kaká who shows the president the power of belonging and of clinging to the club that gave him his place in European soccer.
That much is deeper than any sheik's ransom, or any amount of maneuvering by Manchester City's chief executive or the so-called deal makers in South America. Garry Cook, the chief executive who was until a year ago a brand manager for Nike in the United States, must now tell Abu Dhabi that its money is insufficient to tempt the one player it wanted to put the club on the global map.
Sheik Mansour bin Zayed will already have seen the TV pictures of Kaká appearing at the balcony window of his Milan apartment, showing his red and black shirt to the fans massed below on Monday night. He will, if he believes what he heard, now be convinced that there is at least one performer in this mercenary sport who cares more for where he plays than for how much.
And the sheik might be concerned by reports that Robinho, Kaká's countryman, had gone missing on Monday from Manchester City's team camp. The speculation was that Robinho, who moved to City from Real Madrid for one-third of the proposed Kaká fee last September, feels isolated in a team that is not recruiting the playmates he was promised.
Robinho, however, went to Manchester City for the money. And during this January trading window, so have left back Wayne Bridge from Chelsea and forward Craig Bellamy from West Ham United. Others are under negotiation, but none has the vision, the skill, the proven reliability of Kaká.
He would have been the reference point, the jewel by which the Arabic conversion of a team in the shade of Manchester United would become world class.
But on Sunday came a warning, from Mohammed al-Fayed, the Egyptian who 11 years ago started the era of foreign investment into English clubs. Fayed, the owner of Fulham, said on the BBC: "What is happening at Manchester City is madness.
"The player is fantastic, but it is crazy to pay so much to put him into a team without others who can play in the same rhythm. If I did such a thing, you would have to put me in the hospital."
Back in Milan, Berlusconi continued his own TV show. "I give my word on things that depend on me," he said. "At the end of this affair, I don't know if I will be president of Milan, as much as I am not any more.
"But he has taken himself off the market with this decision to stay loyal to the contract he has with Milan, a contract signed on a piece of paper with a stamp, but now we can say with certitude that it was signed with the heart. Kaká is a great champion and a great man.
"He said he is staying because money isn't everything in his life."
There are calls now throughout soccer for FIFA, the rulers of the sport worldwide, to grasp this example and to bring some sanity to the buying and selling of soccer flesh. It could only happen if Kakás abounded, but the reality is he remains one of a kind. Herald Tribune
Messi, Ronaldo On FIFA’s Team Of 2008
World football governing body, FIFA, yesterday revealed their 2008 Team of the Year based on a worldwide survey conducted on their website.
Over 46 per cent of the voters selected Iker Casillas as their number one goalkeeper, with only 15 per cent for Gianluigi Buffon, while Edwin van der Sar came third with only 9 per cent.
The defenae also had a distinctly Spanish feel to it. Sergio Ramos beat Dani Alves to the right-back slot by just 366 votes, while the twin centrerback slots were equally close fought. John Terry (28 per cent) and Carles Puyol (25 per cent) were the two preferred stoppers, ahead of Rio Ferdinand (22 per cent) and Fabio Cannavaro (15 per cent). Philipp Lahm just edged out Patrice Evra at left-back, winning by a mere 2 per cent.
In midfield, the internet voters went for a highly attacking line-up consisting of Xavi, Steven Gerrard, Franck Ribéry and Kaká, who made up for the lack of Italian players in the team by being the only Serie A representative.
Up front, the two best players in the world were predictably chosen to lead the offence. Newly crowned FIFA World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo garnered 52 per cent of the votes to partner runner-up Lionel Messi in what is a dream attacking duo for any fantasy football fan.
FIFA.com Team Of 2008
Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid – Spain)
Defenders: Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid – Spain), John Terry (Chelsea – England), Carles Puyol (Barcelona – Spain), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich – Germany)
Midfielders: Xavi (Barcelona – Spain), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool – England), Kaká (AC Milan – Brazil), Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich – France)
Forwards: Lionel Messi (Barcelona – Argentina), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United – Portugal) Goal
