Monday last week Germany grieved for Timo Konietzka, who died aged 73 of cancer. Friedhelm as was his real name was the first ever goalscorer of the newly established Bundesliga in 1963 when his team Borussia Dortmund lost away at SV Werder Bremen 2:3. He opened the scoring after just 58 seconds. He finished the…
There are few words in English that are better suited to describe a title race with only two serious contenders. Two horse race describes the situation in many European top footballing divisions at this stage of the season. For obvious reasons, Scotland and Spain will be excluded in this little summary of Europe’s best football…
In the top spots of Ligue 1 OSC Lille have been eliminated from the title race after being defeated by a Lyon side which had to make amends for their Champions League embarrassment during the week against Nicosia, where they lost on penalties. Paris St. Germain (58) and Montpellier (57) are now engaged in a…
Paris St. Germain are top of Ligue 1 again after beating AC Ajaccio 4-1 at Parc des Princes Sunday night while Montpellier could only draw their match with Dijon 1-1. This round of play saw the big guns of French football suffering serious setbacks in the pursuit of the European places. Man of the hour…
The writing has been on the wall for a good few weeks for Andre Villas-Boas. Yet, he did not react to appease certain powers at Chelsea, namely player power. At least, this is how the papers saw it this morning. For the memory: Villas-Boas was the eigth manager at Stamford Bridge since Roman Abramovich has…
Last night’s friendly between Germany and France saw the latter beating one of the best teams in the world and one German team considered to be one of the best ever, only behind the great team of the early 1970s that beat England 3-1 a Wembley in April 1972. What can be drawn from this…
US Creteil – US Quevilly Saturday night saw an entertaining match just on the outskirts of Paris where US Creteil met the team from Normandy, Queville for a Championat de Football National encounter. In an frustrtingly empty ground (350 paying spectators according to the club’s website) a fluid game of football developed which saw the…
Stuart ‘Psycho’ Pearce has been named caretaker manager of the England football team after Fabio Capello left earlier this month. While the speculations almost boiled over in the immediate aftermath, there has been time for all involved and the media as well as the football loving English public, to think and to reflect. Everybody’s favourite:…
When comparing the size of London and Paris, there are many similarities. Both are mega cities with more than 8 million inhabitants. There are flamboyant shopping streets on both sides of the channel. The biggest disparity between the two however, is number of football clubs in the top divisions of French and English football. London…
Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack…the list could be continued and will be in the future. But what these players have in common is a successful playing career with their club sides and defeat on the international stage. Sometimes bitter defeats, sometimes truly deserved. This piece will highlight both players’ highs and lows and near misses. Ballack…