Spanish Football | Soccer

FRANCE PROPOSES A "4 NATIONS" EUROPEAN TOURNAMENT

The French Football Federation has put on the table the idea to
celebrate a yearly European 4 NATIONS Tournament, following in
the style of European Rugby´s 6 Nations Tournament.

The French have put up France, Germany, Italy & Spain as the incial
sides with the possibilty of inviting England.The tournament would be
held straight after the end of the Spanish League & in France.

The idea is born from the fact that the mentioned National sides play
relatively little between themselves & this option would be good for the
European Fans. The only "difficulties" would be:

1. The tight Football Calendar already in place - World Cup, Euro &
FIFA Confederation Cup games
2. Players local Clubs adversity to having their stars play more & risk
injury
3. Economic compensations.
4. Non participating Nations "jealously"

Point 2 & 3 maybe overcome by TV rights cash flows which would be
significant. While the 4th point maybe solve be a system of rotating
invitations.

It´s an idea & it will be thought out, no doubt the fans & European
Football wins, but it´s the Calendar that needs solving. Stay tuned!

Whats your view?

SFS knows that a "large sector" of it´s readership ( specially from the
Asian Zone) are REAL MADRID fans & await eagerly to see & collect
images of their team.

With this in mind, & aiming to please, SFS has come across this official
Real Madrid team photo for 2008/2009 season courtesy of daily "AS".

The paper titles : "The 24 men of Real Madrid". The picture angle many
have been a mistake, better front on, but this is what we have guys.

The question is: will Real Madrid stay all season with the chosen 24 above?
Will it add a new member in December?
Stay tuned!

Hope the Real fans enjoyed this.

*Thanks to "Mundo Deportivo" for the team header.

UEFA CUP 2008/09 QUALIFIERS: 4 SPANISH TEAMS BEGIN THE LONG ROAD

The long road of the UEFA Cup kicked off tonight with 4 Spanish
teams in action. Many consider the Uefa Cup more difficult & much
more unpredictable than the Champions League. The 1ºpart set up of
the Uefa Cup is a home & away knock out leg which then turns
into a Group ( Champions League format) stage to see the top teams
of each group later fight it out till the final. It is basically a tooth-grinder
of a competition which takes the punch out of most teams.

The first team to feel the true nature of Uefa is DEPORTIVO who went
down away 2-0 to Norweign side BRANN BERGEN. The goals come
in the 20th min via a penalty that BJARNASSON converted & in the
36th min via SOLLI.

Bergen deserved the win as they were superior & will make the return
leg a must win game ( & with 3 goals) affair for Deportivo who face an
uphill battle.

SEVILLA FC did the job as was expected with a 2-0 victory at
home against SALZBURG. Young CAPEL ( above) scored the first
goal for Sevilla in the 6th min. From here Salzburg stood firm until
the 90th min when CHEVANTON scored Sevilla FC second goal.

In theory, Sevilla should´nt have problems for the return leg.

RACING with all the illusion in the world won an even affair against
HONKA ESPOO by the narrow margen of 1-0. The goal come in a
moment of a lapse of concentration from Honka as the 2º half had
just started. In fact, in the 46th min PEREIRA got in & scored Racing
only & winning goal.

Racing has the advantage for the return leg, but needs to be cautious
as it is not at all in the bag.

VALENCIA flew to the Portugues Islands of Madeira to meet
MARITIMO, a good Portugues side with class. Valencia won 0-1
thanks to then 12th min fabulous goal from MORIENTES (above).
However, Maritimo was not daunted & put Valencia at times against
the ropes. So much so, that in the 2º half they hit the post twice & nearly
equalized in the last minute, but Valencia too missed their chances
( Villa missed a beauty) throughout the game to have the game turn to
a seesaw affair for most of the time.

Good win for Valencia, they escape from a tough ground & from a very
good Maritimo team. The 2º leg is going to be a grand game.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUALIFIERS 2008/09: REAL MADRID WINS (SEE VIDEO) & VILLAREAL DRAWS

It was Real Madrid & Villareal´s turn tonight to start their unique roads
towards the European Cup Final in Rome, with both sides not
disappointing & maintaining the positive results of the Group game
debuts.

REAL MADRID played a professional match, that is, it did the job &
grabbed the 3º points by defeating BATE BORISOV 2-0. It was
SERGIO RAMOS who opened the scoring in the 10th min to settle
his team & part the traditional opening nerves. The rest of the 1º half
was an even affair of attacks & counter-attacks without result.

The 2ºhalf saw a more aggressive Real Madrid & it was rewarded
with it´s 2º goal when VAN NISTELROOY scored in the 57th min.
From here it was clear that Real had the game wrapped up &
played to maintain the scoreline causing the ocassional extra danger.

The bad news was the injury to Real Madrid midfielder GAGO who
was back in the line-up to see now how he recovers from injury in the
following weeks. See video of goals (excuse the "bad" image):

VILLAREAL came out of the "Old Trafford" hell with a valuable
& praise worthy 0-0 draw against the current European Champions
MANCHESTER UNITED. The English team fell to the "IRON LAW"
of Football: if you don´t take your chances you either lose or draw with
luck (Villareal hit post in 2ºhalf). That is precisely what happened
tonight, with Man Utd not converting its multiple chances (post included
in the 2ºhalf), specially all the 1ºst half.

It was frustrating for Man Utd all night as Villareal bravely withheld &
grind down the English to grab a just result & an excellent away point
for them to take back to Spain.

The other news was the return to the field from injury of Cristiano
Ronaldo in the 62ºth min, but even he could not turn the result
around.

An excellent night for both Spanish teams overall!