Congratulations Rafael van der Vaart!
Rafael van der Vaart became the first Madridista to reach this year’s World Cup Final with the Netherlands. His Oranje side would face either Spain or Germany in the final on Sunday. And that means he has the chance to fight it out for the mother of all trophies against his Real Madrid team mates Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa and Raul Albiol. The latter, by the way, is undergoing speedy recovery in order to be fit for the semi-final game against Germany.
Anyhoo, congrats Rafa! You deserve it!
Para Siempre Blanco!
Hala Madrid!!
Sergio Canales to be Raul’s replacement for next season?
Awaiting his homecoming
First some good news, Real Madrid have told Racing Santander they will be keeping Sergio Canales at the Bernabeu next season, dashing the Cantabrians’ hopes of taking their former player back on loan.
Canales was originally expected to spend at least another year on loan there. However, Racing president Francisco Pernia says he has always been resigned to the player moving to Madrid for the coming season. And at the launch of a campaign for season ticket holders on Tuesday he said:
In the written terms of the agreement between the three parties it says they wanted him for next season – we knew it was going to be like that.
Canales, meanwhile, is looking forward to starting life at the Bernabeu and linking up with new coach Jose Mourinho. The 19-year-old believes playing alongside our star players will help him settle in. He told Marca:
I will have to work hard and I know it will be difficult to get in the team, but I am excited and I can’t wait to get started. Mourinho has won everything and he will be great for Madrid. I don’t normally have difficulties adapting. I’m on open-minded person and I’m sure having so many great players alongside me will make things easier.
And now some bad news, well not really. Christoph Metzelder has come out and said that he wants Raul to join him at Schalke, and believes the striker would be a superb signing. I say so because it really doesn’t matter what Metzelder thinks. Until its Raul who is doing the talking I am not ready to believe this story.
Metzelder left Real earlier this summer after failing to make an impression in La Liga. Raul, at one time the club’s talisman, has also fallen out of favour and started just eight league games last term, scoring five goals. And now Metzelder wants to be reunited with a player once thought of as the most deadly finisher in Europe. Metzelder told Bild:
I understand him, I used to sit next to him on the Madrid team bus. Raul has the ambition to continue playing in the Champions League and is thinking seriously about Schalke. He has even been told which teams his sons will play in. He is in top shape. He was injured only once in my three years at Madrid. He has a great personality and his presence would be a huge boost for this young team.
Meanwhile, Real have been told by Bayern Munich to forget about signing Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger. Bayern sporting director Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said in quotes published by Sportinformationsdienst that:
Whoever is thinking of Schweinsteiger, (Philipp) Lahm or (Thomas) Muller can forget about calling us. We already said after the final of the Champions League that we weren’t going to let anybody leave, and we have shown that with (Franck) Ribery.
This comes following rumors that linked us with a bid for several of the German stars. I should have known that it was false especially after it came just ahead of Spain’s clash tonight against Germany.
Someone who would be arriving is Angel Di Maria. The Argentine is expected to be presented to the World as a Madridista this Wednesday or Thursday. Finally some Real Madrid action!
Para Siempre Blanco!
Hala Madrid!!
Germany vs Spain
There will be at least one European representative in the Final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™, after Germany and Spain go head-to-head in the second semi-final on Wednesday evening. The match gives the Germans the opportunity to avenge their defeat to a Fernando Torres goal in the final of UEFA EURO 2008. No less than 19 survivors from that game – eight Germans and 11 Spaniards – will be on show in Durban, yet much has changed since that night in Vienna.
Can Miroslav Klose and/or David Villa make history in Durban?
La Roja have struggled at times to produce the same majestic football that swept them to the European title, while Joachim Low’s revamped unit are unquestionably the form side of the competition. Die Nationalmannschaft have been winning new fans with their adventurous approach and earning praise from even the most seasoned of observers, Franz Beckenbauer among them. “Germany have never played like this before,” said an admiring Kaiser after his compatriots had seen off Argentina in the last eight.
The match
Germany-Spain, Semi-Final, Durban, Wednesday, 7 July, 20.30 (local time).
While no side has scored more goals in the tournament than Germany’s 13, the statistics show that Spain have done more attacking than anyone. If those two pieces of information are anything to go by, this should be quite a match. The Germans have been nothing short of spectacular in South Africa. After putting four past Australia in the group phase, they clicked into top gear in the Round of 16, overwhelming England 4-1 with their rapid counter-attacking style and then put another four past Argentina in the quarters.
Though Spain have reached a semi-final for the first time ever, they have been unable to match the exacting standards they have set for themselves in recent times, reproducing their eye-catching possession football only sporadically. Victors by a single goal in their last three games, the European champions can justifiably point to some massed defences as the reason for their reduced creativity, but there will be no excuses for a lack of spark come kick-off time on Wednesday.
All the indications are that Vicente del Bosque will keep faith with the XI that started against Paraguay, which means a reprieve for the misfiring Torres, who has yet to score. As for opposite number Low, his most pressing problem is to find a replacement for the suspended Thomas Muller, with Piotr Trochowski, Toni Kroos and Cacau all in the frame.
Players to watch
Miroslav Klose v David Villa
The leading marksman at South Africa 2010 with five of his country’s six goals, the Spanish striker is just one away from joining Raul as La Roja’s top scorer of all time. No less important to his team than the in-form Villa, Klose is closing on another record. The German forward needs to find the back of the net one more time to draw level with Brazil’s Ronaldo as the leading goalscorer in FIFA World Cup finals history with 15 goals. One behind the Spaniard in the South Africa 2010 charts, Klose has not given up hope of making off with the adidas Golden Boot as well.
The stat
3 - The number of times the two sides have faced each other in FIFA World Cup matches. Germany have yet to lose, winning 2-1 at England 1966 and Spain 1982 and forcing a 1-1 draw at USA 1994.
What they said
Joachim Low, Germany coach:
Spain are the favourites to my mind and their team play is just amazing. They don’t have one Messi, they have several, and they don’t make many mistakes either, unlike England and Argentina. We need to force them to make errors.
Iker Casillas, Spain goalkeeper and captain:
We haven’t come this far to finish fourth. We are going to fight hard against Germany to reach the Final, which is our one and only objective. We’ve reached a landmark for Spanish football by getting past the quarter-finals, but we know the Germany match is the most important in our history, even more so than the EURO 2008 final in Austria.
Have your say
Can Miroslav Klose and/or David Villa make history in Durban?
Netherlands 3-2 Uruguay
The Netherlands will face either Spain or Germany in the Final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ after beating Uruguay by the odd goal in five in the first of the tournament’s semi-finals at Cape Town’s Green Point Stadium. Bert van Marwijk’s side were worthy of their victory but were made to work hard for it in an eventful last four encounter punctuated by excellent goals from Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Diego Forlan, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben and Maximiliano Pereira.
Oranje edge five-goal thriller
Having gone into this match on a record 24-match unbeaten streak, the Dutch started as favourites, and it was a tag they would justify during an entertaining first half. Van Marwijk’s side certainly began in positive fashion, with Robben darting beyond his marker at the first opportunity inside four minutes. Sneijder profited from his former Real Madrid team-mate’s dynamism, curling in a right-foot cross that, following an unconvincing punch from Fernando Muslera, was hurriedly controlled and volleyed just over by the lively Dirk Kuyt.
It was an early moment of concern for La Celeste, but they recovered admirably and, with the pace of the game dropping, looked to be comfortably holding the Oranje at bay. With the Dutch threat minimal, the Uruguayan defenders would have been forgiven for not sensing any immediate danger when Van Bronckhorst picked up the ball over 30 yards from goal, close to the left touchline. Yet it was from this seemingly unthreatening position that the Dutch captain unleashed a stunning left-foot shot that Muslera, despite applying a despairing touch, could only divert into the top corner via the inside of the post.
It was a magnificent strike, a cast-iron contender for goal of the tournament, and it gave the Netherlands an advantage they continued to prove worthy of as the half progressed. However, the Dutch were not the only team capable of conjuring a goal out of nothing, with Forlan providing an equally unexpected equaliser four minutes before the break.
Uruguay’s captain for the night had hitherto been relatively subdued, but the Dutch defence made the mistake of affording him too much space 25 yards from goal – and were ruthlessly punished. Shaping to spread the ball wide, Forlan instead turned inside on his left foot and curled in a superb left-foot shot that, thanks partly to a slight deflection off the head of John Heitinga, deceived the wrong-footed Maarten Stekelenburg.
Uruguay started the second half with something to build on, therefore, and they looked the more threatening of the two sides early on, with Van Bronckhorst forced to head off the line from a Pereira effort and Stekelenburg parrying clear a goal-bound Forlan free-kick.
The Dutch were unruffled, however, and their patient probing at the other end almost paid dividends when Robin van Persie’s intelligent reverse pass teed up substitute Rafael van der Vaart for a shot from the left-hand edge of the box. With the strike accurate and firmly struck, Muslera could only parry clear, but Robben proved unable to gobble up the rebound, blazing over from an acute angle.
Denied on this occasion, the Dutch moved in front a couple of minutes later, as Sneijder scored his fifth goal of the tournament, again benefiting from a telling deflection, this time off the thigh of Pereira, that sent his 20-yard shot spinning past Muslera. Uruguay needed a response, and quickly, but with 17 minutes remaining their hopes were all but ended when Robben doubled the Netherlands’ advantage.
A terrific goal it was too, with the Dutch winger sneaking in unnoticed to bullet a textbook header in off the base of the left-hand post from a measured Kuyt cross. Pereira did score an equally excellent consolation, converting expertly with a curling left-foot shot from a quickly-taken free-kick, but this injury-time effort was to prove too little, too late for the last of the non-European representatives.
Just another Madridista
Junta speak