A Football Report

By Anthony Lopopolo

No matter what, they always returned to one another. The quarrels, the disbelief, the losses in composure never once compromised this enduring relationship, ruined it beyond repair. Roberto Mancini, the coach of Manchester City, couldn’t stop loving Mario Balotelli. And even though the two will part again, for the second time in five years, they do so only in person, not in spirit, not forever.

Mancini, before watching his side draw with lowly Queens Park Rangers, met with his 22-year-old pupil in a London hotel and most likely cried with him. “It was emotional,” Mancini later said. Like a parent, Mancini did what was best for Mario: he let him go. You could hear in the manager’s voice and in his words, as he tried to rationalize the player’s move to AC Milan with reporters after the match on Tuesday, a sense of regret, perhaps even a little disappointment in himself that he couldn’t raise his student any more.

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It all happened so quickly.  Less than a month ago the collective eyes of the worlds of football and opening ceremony enthusiasts were on Warsaw to watch a Hungarian pianist’s failed attempt to juggle a ball; and now it’s over, and we are left to contemplate the rewards of a striker-less formation, and worship Zlatan Ibrahimovic in his multiple forms: printed, digital, imagined, and fleshy.

The last of its kind, with expansion to come in four years, Euro 2012 has been a glorious spectacle, full of the upsets, forgone conclusions, characters and subplots that we have come to expect from such intense festivals of the boot and ball. Here, a selection of first-class football writers and bloggers from across the treacherous internet seas have come together to share their thoughts on Euro 2012 with you. Who has Dermot Corrigan chosen as his man of the tournament? Which match did Miriti Murungi deem to be the best? And just what was Luke Moore’s favourite moment from Poland and Ukraine? Wonder no longer: it’s all here.

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By Darshan Joshi

One week, two alleged stamps. Both assailants bad-boys of their clubs’ cities, further apart in distance than footballing heritage and seemingly now closer yet in terms of notoriety. One incident exponentially more temerarious than the other, and thus rightly so – relatively speaking –, one man went unpunished, and the other supplied with a four-match decapitation. Only, if just one of the two crime scenes were to be punished retrospectively, it was the wrong one left exonerated.

Mario Balotelli may cast more than an envious gaze at the Spanish footballing authorities, much as the English do those shores with an understandable predilection for sunnier days on a golden beach. The decision to deplete Pepe of a suspension for an ostentatious trampling on the hand of Lionel Messi was absurd. Perhaps the powers-that-be took into account, unfairly, Messi’s status as The Second Coming of Diego Maradona – karmic law suggests an equal and opposite reaction to every action – and Pepe was thus the purveyor of retrospective punishment too, of a sort. Only, Messi isn’t Maradona, and so his Hand isn’t exactly His Hand.

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By Zara B. and A. Cortez

Alex Ferguson

This past 6th of November marked Sir Alex Ferguson’s 25th anniversary since taking charge of Manchester United. While many managers are fads at other clubs (Chelsea, Real Madrid), Manchester United have been fortunate enough to have a single manager lead the club to 12 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, and two Champions League trophies. For his service and all his accomplishments, the Old Trafford stand has been renamed “Sir Alex Ferguson Stand”. A high point in Ferguson’s career came in May of 2011 when he led the Red Devils to their 19th league title making the Manchester side the most successful team in the history of English football. In October, Ferguson’s men got thrashed 6-1 by “noisy neighbors” Manchester City at Old Trafford—a low point the Scotsman would sooner like to forget. He was left even more red-faced than usual after crashing out of two competitions within a week of one another—first, a defeat in extra time to Crystal Palace in the Carling Cup, and second, a defeat to FC Basel in the Champions League. The defeat to Basel sent Manchester United crashing into the Europa League—the only trophy Sir Alex has never won. While Sir Alex may never forget those painful defeats in the first half of the 2011-2012 season, he can look forward to the possibility of adding new championships to his CV in 2012: a maiden Europa League trophy, a sixth FA Cup and that record 20th league title.

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Mario Balotelli is a talented player. Maybe the most talented one Italian football has produced since Totti, or Cassano. The truth is that it seems there is no more room for him in Serie A. The young Inter striker is now facing a crucial point of his career. At the age of 19, he already won 3 Italian titles, 1 Italian Supercup, 1 Italian Cup, and, last but not least, 1 Champions League. Impressive, even more if you consider he had an important role in most of the victories (the most important one in sealing his first Scudetto during Mancini’s last campaing at Inter). Last season he had some tough problems tough with the team by showing a lack of respect for his teammates. When AC Milan came closer to Inter in the table in April, he sang Milan’s song in the dressing room. With the manager, he almost began physcially fighting on the training pitch with José Mourinho. And with the fans, he put on an AC Milan shirt in a TV interview and then threw Inter’s shirt on the ground at the final whistle in the San Siro match against Barcelona. All of this led up to the point in which we now are looking at.

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By Mirko Corli, writing from Torino

As I told you all during the past few weeks, Italy’s main problem was the coach. Now, thanks to him we are out of the World Cup, but we are relieved thinking that he left the job: no more arrogance on the bench, we can now start thinking about football. So, how to rebuild a national team after what just happened?

The key move is to get in young talented players and leave out the players that already served the nation but now are only chained-balls to the development of the team.

Here’s a possible list with the birth year of the players between parenthesis:

Keepers: Buffon (78), Sirigu (87), Marchetti (83)

Defenders: Chiellini (84), Bonucci (87), Bocchetti (86), Ranocchia (88), Cassani (83), Maggio (82), Criscito (86), Santon (90)

Midfielders: De rossi (82), Marchisio (86), Montolivo (84), Palombo (81), Poli (88) Strikers: Rossi (87), Pazzini (84), Gilardino (82), Quagliarella (83), Balotelli (90), Cassano (82)

With these players, we will have the ability to play in a few different ways.

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