Can France cope with 30,000 Irish fans humming La Marseillaise? That’s the prospect facing them again after yesterday’s draw. Of course boss Giovanni Trapattoni has weightier strategic issues on his mind after admitting his team must raised their game once more to overcome the 2006 finalists.
You have to take your hat off to the people at Football Rankings. They spend ages working out complicated formulas which mere mortals such as you and I might pretend to understand but actually don’t. Here they are on the possibilities for the World Cup finals draw in December.
And there is some confusion over the manner of Joel Santana’s departure as South African coach. Africa Times News says he was sacked, as does bloomberg.com, the AFP news agency and Reuters. The blog world says Santana jumped before he was pushed, knowing he was on borrowed time. In all likelihood, both sides agreed enough was enough, but “amicable split” isn’t much of a headline. Hence the sacked and fired stories. Former coach Carlos Alberto Parreira heads the list of candidates to take over.
1 comment:
Santana was standing on the edge of a cliff. In a way I don't believe it was all his fault, but South African national team is at the lowest ranking ever and the fans are baying for someone's blood.
Santana was very authoritarian, spoke little English - wouldn't work with the local coaches and didn't endear himself to anyone in a country where soccer it a religion.
Parreira has been talking big for a week or two about being available. But he just left us and foisted Santana on us, so I would rather go with one of the local guys - also Santana earned more than even the national rugby coach in South Africa earns - the world cup coach.
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