Archive for the ‘Kick Off’ Category

Its being reported (in the Sun all be it) that their was a feud between Steven Gerrard and John Terry during the world cup that could have been to blame for the teams uneasy time in South Africa.

It has been said that David Beckham played the intermediate to calm the situation down. After England won their only game of the world cup, John Terry gathered all the players in a huddle. A very captain like thing to do!!

Gerrard didn’t like this as he saw Terry as someone trying to play a role he didn’t have.

Now ive read a couple of blogs about this and the consensus mainly is that it’s a non story, they fell out, so what. I however don’t feel it is a non story (if in fact it is true)

The captain of a football team should lead from the front, they should be strong, they should be seen, they should be heard and most of all they should be respected by all other players and England did not have that figure in the camp. Gerrard for all his footballing skills is not a great captain for his country. I didn’t see him much in the media and on the pitch he blended in too much.

There was always potential for friction in the team a John Terry has had his captaincy revoked, yet he wont for one second think he should have done as he didn’t get it taken away at Chelsea.

John Terry in the world cup acted like a captain would. If it wasn’t for Rio, then i think this would continue in the England camp until one of the players were dropped. Rio as a captain would be everything you need him to be, he has the respect of all the players and i don’t believe JT would try to undermine him like he obviously has done with Gerrard. The sooner Rio gets back to being captain, the better it will be for the England team.

Basically, it’s all Hesky’s fault!

Source: The Sun

This is a public announcement direct from Algeria.

If you have just lost a game of football and would like to vent anger, then slap a woman.

Thats what Algeria player Rafik Saifi did after his side lost to USA yesterday and got dumped out of the World Cup. After the USA V Algeria game yesterday Saifi was walking through the interview area when he slapped reporter Asma Halimi across the face with an open hand in front of everyone in the room. Reacting to being slapped the reporter punched him in the face.

The spat happened because of bad blood between the reporter (who works for Algeria’s largest newspaper) and Saifi. The sun is reporting it was comments she made about his wife, other sources say it’s a long standing hatred, either way she must have upset him to make him slap her in front of everyone!!

The reporter now wants to report it to Fifa and the police.

Source: Yahoo