Categoría: Futbol: Últimas noticias de Hoy

Take the most successful team of the world, ever, the strongest team of Africa, and one of the most competitive European squads, put them all together, and what do you get? The group of death!

Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal cannot afford to take any match in group G lightly, including the one against  the relatively weak North Korea, the 4th squad in the group.

Tuesday’s match between Portugal and Ivory Coast promises to be one of the hardest fought group matches and perhaps the most intriguing of all.

Ivory Coast  coasted through their qualifiers with Drogba scoring six goals. In contrast, Portugal barely qualified having to  engage in a play off with Bosnia.

Ivory Coast have suffered misfortune ahead of their opening match at the World Cup, with their star Didier Drogba fracturing his arm in a warm up against Japan.

Though he is said to be recovering after an operation, Drogba could sit the first match out.

Drogba is among the world’s best goal scorers, and his absence will hurt Ivory Coast who will look to  another Chelsea star Salomon Kalou to keep the scoreboard ticking.

Ivory Coast manager Eriksson will rely on his strong midfield comprising Yaya Toure and Zakora, and speedy winger Eboue, apart from the in form Tiote who plays for Dutch champions FC Twente.  If Drogba plays, they are likely to concentrate on feeding him.

Kolo leading the defence are other reliable players who have distinguished themselves for Ivory Coast, in the past, as is Arsenal full back, Emmanuel Eboue, who is coming off a successful club season.

Portugal have had their share of injury woes, their Manchester United winger Nani the latest casualty with a collarbone injury sustained in training. Benfica midfielder Ruben

Amorim has replaced Nani. This adds up to an additional load on Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, the captain of the side. Ronaldo has not scored for Portugal since Euro 2008, and he will be desperate to end the goal drought.

Before his current goal drought began, Cristiano Ronaldo was considered by many  as the world’s best player, with great dribbling skills, speed, and a happy penchant for scoring especially from set play situations.

 

Portugal will depend on Atletico Madrid winger Simao to reduce the pressure on his captain. Chelsea’s Ricardo Carvalho along with Pepe and Bruno Alves comprise a reliably strong defence.

Apart from an experienced midfield comprising Meireles, Deco and Mendes, Portugal has a solid defence, which will be bolstered further if Pepe is fully fit.

With a cloud over Drogba’s participation, Portugal enjoy a marginal advantage that is in turn offset by Ronaldo’s indifferent form. It’s hard to see a result in this match. Both teams might actually be happy to share points.

If you ever got picked last for softball, soccer or any other team sport you did your best to conceal your hurt and disappointment. Sometimes your best wasn’t very convincing, but it was still your best at the time. If getting picked last happened a few times you probably started making judgments about yourself and your abilities or you made judgments about the people doing the choosing.

If you began to expect it to happen you decided you didn’t like team sports. Heck, you even concluded you’d much rather spend your time doing something else, something those other kids couldn’t do. Either way, the pain was still hidden.

Today’s disappointments might look more like this.

You have a flat tire making you late for an appointment. The client is visibly upset regardless of your apology and explanation. You take it in stride knowing you did your best and some things are simply beyond your control.

The order that was surely meant to be yours, after all the work you did, is given to a competitor. You’re upset for a minute, but hey, tomorrow’s another day.

Your boss announces that sales quotas are increasing by 10%, effective immediately. You think out loud, ‘Whadda you gotta do to catch a break?’

Your spouse calls and asks you to stop and pick up Chinese for dinner, it’s been a tough day, no time to cook. You hang up mumbling, ‘Why the hell do I have to do everything?’

You sit down to dinner with your family and your four-year-old accidentally knocks over her glass of milk and you explode, yelling at the top of your voice as you banish her to her room for a time out.

The Proverbial Straw

We all recognize this pattern. One thing after another happens to or around us, but it’s not okay to share how we really feel about them.

Besides, isn’t it better to brush aside our frustrations and disappointments? Otherwise we could find a million things to be upset about, couldn’t we?

I’m sure we could, but here’s the question: Do we really brush them aside or do we bury them until there is no more space in the grave we have created for them and they burst forth like some kind of B movie zombie attacking some unsuspecting and usually innocent victim who is a weak, easy and safe target?

Regardless of how good we think we are about managing our painful or uncomfortable feelings, eventually they ooze out and sometimes explode. This seepage and its more volatile kin, shrapnel, is usually directed to where we feel we have the most security or the most power. For too many of us, that means family and friends.

We stuff all the feelings we cannot deal with outside our safety zone and bring them home to our unaware and unsuspecting fans not knowing when or where they will emerge.

Why Do We Hide Our Feelings?

We hide our feelings because we perceive that it’s not safe to express them. We dismiss, minimize and deny them to protect ourselves.

We want to make sure we’re not viewed in an unflattering, negative or potentially harmful way. The ‘what will they think of me?’ question arises to ensure that we behave according to what we think they think and consequently expect.

Any time we feel threatened we default to primal instinct, the drive to survive, which tells us prepare to fight or flee. In this case the perceived danger is in showing our emotions. If we do, we might get hurt.

So, we fight them in all the ways we have to manage them; we can suppress, negate, control, deny, minimize, etc. Managing our emotional state is not only beneficial but can also be essential at times. Somehow it doesn’t seem smart to unleash your anger on your best client or your employer.

We flee from our emotions through any form of distraction we can conjure; we can eat, smoke, drink, watch TV, sleep, etc. We can use healthy forms of distraction as well. There’s exercise, creating things, learning and lots of hobbies that are good for the body, mind, spirit or all three.

A New Paradigm

Surely, there is benefit to hiding and burying our feelings, and there are clearly times when it’s in our best interest to do so. But there is risk too.

Suppressing any painful feelings for too long can lead to destructive behavior patterns and/or illness. What if every single feeling/emotion we have, including the unpleasant or painful, is meant to serve us in some positive way and if we figured out how, the discomfort could go as quickly as it came?

The good news is we have an internal sensory system, a 7th Sense, with access to the entire range of human emotion, which is designed with one goal in mind, to ensure our survival and growth. The intention of our so-called negative feelings is to protect, warn, motivate, drive and even inspire.

When we are able to recognize the true intention behind any of our feelings we can accept their lesson or guidance and release them without having to hide or bury them any longer. This means constructive action instead of explosive destructive behavior. We don’t have to let things pile up until the ‘last straw’ crushes us under its weight.

Liverpool are known to be a great force when it comes to matches against other Big 4 teams, Statistically speaking Chelsea have the edge in every aspect whether it’s the points or goals scores but Kenny Daglish could have something else in mind when he comes to Stamford. Here is a list of players that could serve to be decisive depending on how they perform in the match.

Fernando Torres – El-Nino failed to score last season against his former club with Ancelotti in charge and this will be his second chance to face former team-mates. Torres has shown signs of his possible return and will need to work his magic if he is wants to ensure his place as Chelsea’s first striker when Didier Drogba returns.

Jose Bosingwa will have a tough match as he will be required to attack against a performing right back like Jose Enrique and defend from Liverpool’s most versatile and fastest forward Luis Suarez. Unfortunately for Bosingwa he is known to lack defensively and this might cause him to be replaced by Ivanovic in the case that Andre Villas Boas decides to play it safe.

David Luiz – the Brazilian international is a possible candidate alongside John Terry and will be required to partner successfully with the Blues captain against a duo of Suarez and Carroll. Luiz is known for his decisive moments but can also prove to be disastrous and this can be seen in the last few matches where he gave away two penalties.

Daniel Sturridge – the young English forward is one of the latest Chelsea starts and will definitely be used by Boas if he plans on matching Liverpool’s pace. Kenny Daglish will surely aim for a win and this means that Chelsea need to be quick to counter-attack and this is where Daniel comes in.

John Terry – The Blues captain needs to get his priorities straight if he plans to stay captain for long, John was recently dismissed from England’s match against Spain and could possibly lose a spot if he doesn’t prepare himself mentally and physically against Liverpool. Although that is nearly impossible with the English media harassing him at every instance due to the QPR incident he needs to get it done.

Juan Mata – Chelsea’s best deal this season has stolen veteran Malouda’s spot and earned it well, the Spaniard showed his value by successfully scoring several decisive goals for Chelsea and creating many others. His speed and creativity will be needed against Liverpool’s defenders especially the likes of Jamie Carragher and Glenn Johnson.

Frank Lampard – Nominated «man of the match» four times so far Super frank will need to control the midfield alongside Ramires and contribute with his long and through passes to assist the strikers. Lampard has been under the spot light recently and he is not ready to be benched yet.

Arsenal midfielder Gilberto Silva has revealed Arsene Wenger was so furious after Sunday’s row at West Ham that even the players were scared of him!

Gilberto is the first Gunners’ star to shed light on exactly what happened in the dressing room after the touchline clash that stunned football last Sunday.

The Brazilian World Cup star revealed he and his team-mates gave the normally mild-mannered Wenger a wide berth after the 1-0 defeat which left them 10 points behind Premiership leaders Manchester United with their title challenge in tatters.

Speaking to the Brazilian media, Gilberto said: «There were no problems between Mr Wenger and the players because the problem didn’t involved the players. But the situation left us scared. We know the manager and we know that he is very polite and calm. Something very bad had happened to make him react like he did.

«After the game, Mr Wenger didn’t talk to anyone. As it wasn’t a problem involving the players, he decided not to discuss it with us.»

On the behaviour of West Ham manager Alan Pardew, Gilberto was scathing: «I have seen it on TV many times and when West Ham scored, Pardew came to our bench to celebrate, but in a offensive way.

«That made Wenger react like he did, and that is why he had to talk to Pardew about that celebration.

«He was p****d off about the way Pardew celebrated and, as I said, that was the reason he reacted that way. As I saw it on TV, Pardew said some words that he, as a manager, should have thought about before saying.

«He should have showed a little more respect. Of course, he could celebrate the goal, but not in the offensive way he did.

«That is what made Wenger react.»

Chelsea pride themselves in being global entertainers more than anything else.

And more than anything else, the Premier League champions would like the tag of European champions, in keeping with their multi-national self-image. Especially the European Cup title that has eluded them.

In the last four years, Chelsea have entered one Champions League final and two semi-finals, and have returned empty handed.

This year could be the last opportunity for the core members of the team that made this possible.

Chelsea’s European ambitions have restricted the club, in that the UEFA insists on «financial fair play».

The club is not short of money, by any stretch of imagination, but this has meant that Chelsea boss Roman Abramovich has had to trim his budget.

This has meant the departure of a big-name signing such as Joe Cole. Another player, Tomas Kalas, who came in from Sigma Olomuc for a reported 5.2 mn, will be loaned out.

In the upcoming season, the team will also not have the services of Miroslav Stoch, who will be sold to Fenerbahce for an undisclosed amount. Michael Ballack will leave for Bayer Leverkusen, Joe Cole for Liverpool, and Danny Philiskik for Oxford United, all as free agents.

Players out on loan will include Rhys Taylor to Crewe, Ryan Bertrand to Nottingham Forest, and Ben Gordon to Kilmarnock.

Carlo Ancelotti has been the club’s most successful coach. Chelsea became only the seventh team in history to win the ‘double’, comprising the Premier League and FA Cup titles, under Ancelotti’s watch, last season.

They failed to achieve this under Jose Mourinho, arguably Chelsea’s most successful coach ever.

In fact, Chelsea were so dominant in 2009/10 that they became the first team to top 100 goals, in an English season after Tottenham Hotspurs achievement of 111 goals in 1962-63.

Ancelotti owes his legendary patience to his rural upbringing. The ex-Milan midfielder won the Champions League twice each as a player and as a coach for the Italian side.

A potential weakness for Chelsea in the upcoming season could be in defence. Jose Mourinho the coach of the 2005 Premier League winning side built the team on a defensive platform.

John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira and Wayne Bridge were the defensive wall rival teams had to contend with before they could dream of beating Chelsea, five years ago.

Terry and Carvalho who remain are clearly aging, although Ashley Cole from Arsenal and Brazilian are great new options for Chelsea. Alex is not only solid in defence, but can also hunt with the hounds, and is a particular asset in free kick situations.

This is a team of big personalities, in John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech and Didier Drogba. On the flip side, this could mean a potential clash between, say, Didier Drogba and the team’s bad boy, Nicolas Anelka.

John Terry, in particular, is the club’s most successful captain ever. With Liverpool’s Yossi Benayoun replacing Joe Cole this season, they have one more potential captain.

England Frank Lampard was the driving force of the side in the last season, and his 30 club and international goals is an act that he could find hard to replicate, this time around.

Michael Essien, whom injury kept from doing World Cup duty for Ghana is the club’s most popular player, while the star of the future is 19 year old French teenager, Gael Kakuta.

Chelsea remain the team to beat this season.

With the start of the new Barclays Premier Season only forty-nine days away, supporters across the globe have already begun marking the days off their calendars. Ever since the completion of last season on May 24th, several of the proverbial ‘bigs’ team have made additions to their squads. So the looming question is; Who will lift the Premier League Trophy next season? Of course, Chelsea are the favorites having won last year, but they will have to overcome several difficult opponents if they hope to retain their trophy.

One of the teams who will push them close is Manchester United. In Louis Van Gaal’s first season in charge, the Red Devils finished fourth and gave Chelsea a scare both times they played. That being said, a lot of pundits still believe that United will not have the quality to push for the title. So far this summer, they have signed young Memphis Depay from PSV Eindhoven for an estimated £25 million. Having played under Van Gaal in the 2014 World Cup, Depay will fit into his new team with ease. Another team that will compete with Chelsea is Arsenal. The Gunners finished in third place last season and retained the famous FA Cup.

However, the season ended up being a disappointed one due to the team being unable to close out matches. So far the team from London have not confirmed any signings. In previous years this has been the unraveling of the team. Rather than sign top quality players, they would resort to only buying when there is value in the market. The number one position on Arsenal’s wish list is that of a striker. With Olivier Giroud scoring only 19 goals last season, Arsenal supporters have been crying out for a new striker since the opening day of the transfer market. All in all, unless Arsenal sign a world class striker to support Giroud, they won’t come close to winning the league. The third and final team that will challenge Chelsea is Manchester City. They had a dreadful season last year, in which they finished second and won no major honors. Among the disappointing results, there was also several reports of players falling out with manager; Manuel Pellegrini. This lead to the Chilean only barely holding onto his job. However, a team as rich as City will have no trouble selling the bad eggs and replacing them with phenomenal players. So to the dismay of millions, it seems as though Chelsea are the favorites. Manchester United, Arsenal, and Manchester City will fight, but do not be surprised if you see Chelsea’s captain John Terry lifting the trophy yet again.

Didier Drogba’s goal for Chelsea against Arsenal on Sunday was his sixth of the ongoing Premier League season, and the strike helped the Ivorian draw level with teammate Florent Malouda and United’s Dimitar Berbatov as joint top-scorer in the competition.

Drogba got the first hat-trick of the Premiership season on its opening day playing at home against West Brom. Chelsea won that match 6-0. Thereafter, the Ivorian has had three goals in six matches, in all of which he started for the Stamford Bridge squad.

Interestingly, all of Drogba’s goals have come in home matches, one each against Stoke City, Blackpool and Arsenal, games that Ancelotti’s squad won 2-0, 4-0 and 2-0, respectively.

Like Drogba, Malouda opened his scoring account in Chelsea’s season opener against Albion, in which he found the back of the rival net twice.

But unlike Drogba, Malouda has not restricted his scoring to home matches. His third goal came in Chelsea’s 6-0 away win against Wigan, his fourth came in the home match against Stoke City, his fifth and sixth in the home game with Blackpool on September 19.

Also, unlike Drogba, Malouda has not been in the starting eleven in every match. In fact, in the West Ham match on September 11, the Frenchman came on as a late second half substitute in the 84th minute.

Berbatov has been Manchester United’s saviour this season, with Wayne Rooney’s truancy giving the Bulgarian an opportunity to prove that the Old Trafford squad are not a one-man outfit, centred around Rooney.

Berbatov began his scoring, with a strike in United’s opener at Old Trafford against Newcastle on August 15. He did not add to his tally, in the next game with Fulham, played away at Craven Cottage. The Bulgarian striker’s second goal of the season came in his team’s 3-0 win at home against West Ham, on August 28.

Berbatov’s next goal came in the away game against Everton, that ended in a 3-3 draw, followed by a hat-trick against Liverpool. His third goal came in injury time, ensuring that United banked full points from that match.

Berbatov’s exclusion from the starting eleven in the away match against Sunderland has raised more than a few eyebrows. But following Sir Alex’s refusal to talk to the media after the Liverpool match where the media went to town over the United manager’s comment on Torres, nobody is able to discuss the rationale of Fergie’s team selection, with the big man.

Sunderland’s Darren Bent and Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez have both scored five goals each this season, and are hot on the heels of the top three, in contention for the Golden Boot.

The formal name of the club is Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, or Tottenham Hotspur FC. They are also referred to as the Spurs, or the Lilywhites. Founded in 1882 as Hotspur FC, the squad train at their home venue, at White Hart Lane, with its capacity of about 36,000. ENIC International Ltd. owns the squad whose chairman is Daniel Levy. Spurs are managed by Harry Redknapp, popularly known as just ‘Arry. The club enjoyed their best period in top flight English football between the 60’s and the 80’s, and became the first in the 20th century to win both the League and FA Cup, but they are yet to win the Premier League.

They finished fourth in the Premier League standings, last season, their best ever performance in the Premiership. In the three matches played so far in the ongoing season, Spurs have recorded a draw against Manchester City, and a win against Stoke city, both creditable efforts. However, they let themselves down, somewhat, losing 1-0 to relegation favourites Wigan.

Early Season Preview:

The last season saw Tottenham hit a high their fans had been predicting they would, for a long time. Although a top four finish seemed always on the cards, it still caused surprise when Spurs actually got there. The club went into a period of decline under the stewardship of Juande Ramos. So credit should justifiably go to Harry Redknapp for getting the squad back on the rails. The squad that played in the third match of the season against Wigan Athletic comprised: Cudicini, Kaboul, Bale, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto, King, Lennon, Huddlestone, Crouch, Palacios, Defoe, Bassong, Kranjcar, Alnwick, Keane, Giovani, Jenas, and Pavlyuchenko.

In Jermaine Defoe, Spurs have a prolific scorer of goals, the most important ingredient in winning matches. Tottenham have never been short of big name players but have been outclassed where it matters most — in scoring goals. And Defoe is capable of changing that perception, as he proved last season. Last season was the first for winger Danny Rose and he made an immediate impact, with a early goal against Arsenal in the only match he played. This season, Rose should be in the news for Spurs more often than not.

Redknapp has been a little slow working the transfer market. A possible reason for that could be his preoccupation with James Milner’s impending departure for Manchester City. But that hasn’t stopped ‘Arry from acquiring Internacional’s Sandro for £6 mn. There is also talk about a late bid for Real Madrid’s Rafael van der Vaart, apart from a shock move for Arsenal striker Adebayor.

Things should become clearer in the coming days about the final composition of the squad, as the transfer window has shut, finally. In spite of their great 2009-10 season and the undoubted calibre of their squad, they could be trumped by the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool, in their bid for a top four spot. Redknapp may also be hoping he has beaten the transfer window deadline with his late offers, as those players could have a bearing on how far Spurs can go the season.

Any reasonable and reputable PCTV satellite program will generally offer you around or over 3000 channels. These channels are made up from free to air stations from all over the world. There are stations from as Algeria, Australia, Argentina, United Kingdom, Europe, USA, Pakistan, India and Asia. Plenty of channels to choose from and plenty of languages to choose form. So if you have the desire to learn another language you can use the PCTV to help you learn, not to mention if you or a loved one has immigrated from another country and would love to remember home through news, sports, sit coms, movies or drama.

The best part about PCTV satellite is the fact that you don’t have to worry about the costly monthly cable fees. After you have paid to start up there is no continuing costs. So basically you pay for you one off download your done. This fee is normally the cost of a couple of movie tickets or a meal for the family at McDonalds. So from that point on you just have to keep your Internet connection going and you will in for free entertainment. Many software brands will also offer free upgraded to early switchers. So unlike most technological upgrades you won’t be punished for getting in early.

Browse over this list to see just how many channels you will be getting.

More than 70 major sports channels across the world, like ESPN, Euro-sports, Fox Network, Sport star, etc. you will also get access to dedicated sports channels for sports like cricket, soccer, martial arts, wrestling, etc.

It is absolutely possible to watch popular sports like NFL, NBA, Soccer, and more.

Variety channels like, such as Discovery, Game Network, Rapture TV, Show TV and even National Geographic.

Religious channels like, Vatican TV, the Church Channel, Word of God and Islam.

Also don’t forget channels that house the major television shows in the US, like ABC and NBC.

Stamford Bridge is set to play host to Stoke City, on Saturday, even as Chelsea look ahead to their third win in as many matches in the Premier League.

The champions are on a roll, with a half dozen goals scored, while conceding none, in each of the two matches they have played against West Brom Albion and Wigan Athletic, respectively.

While Chelsea are the only team to have registered victories in both their matches, Stoke City have lost both theirs, by an identical score-line of 2-1, to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur.

But against Spurs, Stoke were unlucky not to have drawn the match, after being denied a goal by referee Chris Foy.

A win in the Carling Cup against Shrewsbury should ensure that Stoke enter Saturday’s match in a positive mood.

Carlo Ancelotti would be wary of complacency setting in, after huge wins against weak rivals, and Chelsea would do well not to lose focus, as consecutive matches against Manchester City, Aston Villa and Arsenal loom in September.

Chelsea’s defence has been boosted with the return to match fitness of Alex and Cech, somewhat offsetting the team’s loss of Ricardo Carvalho.

Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda and Michael Essien will be key to Chelsea’s fortunes, this season.

Drogba’s four assists in the last game compensated for his not scoring any goals, himself.

While Kalou, Malouda and Anelka play a great supporting role, Drogba’s ball skills and goal scoring ability remain the icing on Chelsea’s Premiership cake in the baking.

Lampard has been effective, as ever, in midfield, without quite setting the stands on fire.

While Chelsea are unlikely to be tested unduly by their rivals in the next three games, they will be looking to maintain their slender lead, given that Manchester United have dropped a point.

Though, it is early days, yet.

Stoke City must be justifiably disappointed with the dismal start to their Premier League campaign.

Last week’s loss to Spurs will rankle, particularly. A goal denied, after it had crossed the line, brought back memories of Lampard’s denied goal against Germany in the World Cup, in South Africa.

While defence is Stoke’s strong suit, with plenty of choices, in Abdoulaye Faye, Ryan Shawcross, Robert Huth, Danny Collins and Danny Higginbotham, attack isn’t quite their forte.

And that was the reason, all of Stoke’s industry in the Spurs game did not quite convert into scoring opportunities.

Getting back to defence, thanks to their strength in this area, Stoke have managed to salvage draws in many away matches.

Matthew Etherington is a talented midfielder whose passing is crucial to Stoke’s effectiveness, upfield.

Rory Delap, Dean Whitehead and Glen Whelan are all midfielders who can be relied on to tackle hard.

In some bad news for Stoke, Mamaday Sidibie picked up an Achilles tendon injury, in the Spurs game, and that will keep him from turning up against Chelsea.

There’s consolation in the form of Kenwyne Jones and Jon Walters coming in to bolster the attack, alongside Ricardo Fueller.

The burly Jones is just what the doctor ordered for Stoke who were low in the away-goals department, last season, and the striker’s form could determine whether Stoke move up the table, this season.

As for Saturday’s match against Chelsea, Stoke are likely to have their plates too full, in defence, to worry a great deal about any other aspect of their game.