DELIGHTED Queensland coach Mal Meninga tipped veteran skipper Darren Lockyer to be the "shining light" of the Maroons' bid for a fifth straight State of Origin title.
Meninga said 33-year-old Lockyer would only have to worry about his own job in the Queensland team and the experience could revitalise him for the battling Broncos.
Lockyer yesterday announced he would be available for all representative commitments this year because he still had the passion for Test and Maroons Origin jersey football and did not want to leave the game with any regrets.
In a best-case scenario, Lockyer would farewell his record-breaking career by captaining Australia in the Four Nations final at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on November 13.
His first commitment will be the trans-Tasman Test in Melbourne on May 7 with Australian coach Tim Sheens and Meninga instrumental in giving Lockyer the final impetus to stick with representative football.
"A lot of people close to me wanted me to play another year," Lockyer said.
"I guess a lot of them never had a chance to say goodbye last year (with the Australian team in England).
"Obviously talking to Mal, he was keen to have me around and I also spoke to Tim a couple of times and they were both very positive."
Meninga admitted he would have been disappointed if Lockyer had retired from representative football when veteran props Steve Price and Petero Civoniceva had committed to another campaign.
"Darren, Steve and Petero have been the three cornerstones of the team in recent times and it would be a fantastic way for all of them to go out if we could win another title," Meninga said.
"It certainly will be a motivating force and their experience in camp will be invaluable.
"You're a long time retired and I'm delighted with Locky's decision. It's good in a way that he has been a little bit selfish and I hope he goes out a winner."
Meninga conceded Lockyer had not been at his best for the Broncos.
"He's trying hard, but it's difficult for him given the way the team is going," he said.
"I don't think Darren has been in this situation before with the club in a rebuilding stage, and he would be trying to maintain the club's culture of success.
"Because of that he's probably not getting the recognition he deserves on the field.
"But in rep footy he will be a shining light because he will only have to worry about his own job. It will take the burden from his shoulders for a little while and he will go back to the Broncos revitalised."
With assistant coach Neil Henry having stood down to concentrate on his duties with the Cowboys, Lockyer's experience and tactical nous will be a bonus.
Henry said yesterday that there was no better person to have in an Origin environment.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Martinez charged with improper conduct
Roberto Martinez, the Wigan Athletic shirts manager, has been charged with improper conduct after he accused referee Stuart Attwell of 'lying'.
The FA have confirmed the Spaniard will face punishment for comments made in the wake of the 3-0 defeat by Manchester City as the game turned on the second-half dismissal of Gary Caldwell.
The Scotland international defender was sent off in the 56th minute, while the score was 0-0, for a challenge on Carlos Tevez. The Argentina international then went on to score a 12-minute hat-trick as City eased to victory against ten men.
Martinez lambasted Attwell, the Premier League's youngest referee, for making the decision despite not being able to see the tackle properly. "I cannot understand how you can give something you can't see," he said after the match. "To give a red card you have to be certain.
"Gary said he went in really strong and got the ball. Carlos Tevez saw it and jumped off the ground, he is the one who left both feet in.
"We are all human beings and we all make mistakes but to give a decision after something you don't see, that is lying. You are making it up. That is hard to take. He [the referee] said he saw Gary Caldwell with both feet off the ground. That's why he gave the red card. But Gary Caldwell only went with one foot. That is a real injustice."
The FA wrote to Martinez asking him to explain his comments and have now issued an improper conduct charge.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Schalke move top
Kevin Kuranyi scored twice as Schalke beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 to move past Bayern Munich to the top of the Bundesliga on Saturday and get on course for its first championship in 52 years.
Earlier, Stuttgart sent Bayern Munich to its second straight Bundesliga loss -- and first home defeat in 11 months -- with a come-from-behind 2-1 win.
Kuranyi's strikes brought his total to a league-high 17 goals, with both goals coming off passes from Jefferson Farfan.
Schalke now has a two-point lead over Bayern with six matches remaining -- and can all but clinch the championship if its beats Bayern next week at home.
"If we beat them next week, we have a good chance of winning the title, but we won't be home dry," said Schalke's coach Felix Magath, who won the title with Wolfsburg last season.
Schalke now has 58 points, two more than Bayern and five ahead of Bayer Leverkusen shirt.
"It hurts a lot," Bayern coach Louis van Gaal said of his team's defeat.
Leverkusen went a record 24 games undefeated but has lost three of its last four. It sorely missed injured top striker Stefan Kiessling, who has 16 goals.
Kuranyi pulled even when he picked up Farfan's pass and curled the ball inside the left post and then pulled ahead with a header in the 27th.
"We got well into the game and the early goals helped." Magath said. "It was a big win after a strong performance."
Leverkusen's coach Jupp Heynckes said Schalke had a good chance of winning the title.
"They were superior in all aspects, especially in the first half," Heynckes said.
After taking the early two-goal lead, Schalke rarely allowed Leverkusen to get close. With 22 goals allowed, Schalke has the stingiest defence.
In other games, Werder Bremen beat Nuremberg 4-2, Cologne won 4-1 in Hannover, Wolfsburg was a 2-0 winner in Mainz and Borussia Dortmund drew 0-0 at Hertha Berlin.
In Munich, Ivica Olic put Bayern ahead but Christian Traesch and Ciprian Marica scored for Stuttgart to hand Bayern its first loss in 17 home games. Bayern's afternoon got worse when Dutch international Arjen Robben pulled up with a left-calf injury, an injury that could prove costly ahead of Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final against Manchester United.
Van Gaal started with Robben and France playmaker Franck Ribery on the bench after Wednesday's extra-time 1-0 win over Schalke in their German Cup semifinal. Both came on after the break but neither made much of an impact.
Stuttgart started brightly against the Bundesliga leaders, Sami Khedira forcing goalkeeper Joerg Butt into a save in the 24th minute. At the other end, Daniel van Buyten came close for Bayern.
Olic opened the scoring for Bayern in the 32nd, connecting with a low cross from Croatia teammate Danijel Pranjic to bury the ball into the roof of the net.
But Stuttgart was uncowed and Traesch equalized in the 41st when his shot from 20 metres was deflected past Butt and into the net.
Stuttgart kept pressing. Timo Gebhart tested Butt, who barely managed to turn away his shot, before Marica scored the winner in the 50th.
Bayern's defence failed to clear a corner and Cacau floated a cross to the far post, where the unmarked Marica nodded the ball home.
Bayern should have tied it when Miroslav Klose's header off a cross from Philipp Lahm hit Stuttgart goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, but was also fortunate when Zdravko Kuzmanovic narrowly missed the target in the 78th after shaking off Bayern defender Diego Contento.
"Stuttgart is a good team and it created chances," van Gaal said. "We conceded an unlucky goal on a deflected shot and we were unlucky in front of Stuttgart's goal."
Bayern faces a series of decisive games, with another trip to Schalke on April 3, the return leg at Manchester United, and a visit to third-place Leverkusen in the Bundesliga.
Lehmann, the Stuttgart goalkeeper, said Bayern, which lost 2-1 at Eintracht Frankfurt last week, could be feeling the burden of playing in three competitions.
"We have only one game a week and maybe we were the fresher team," said Lehmann, whose team won in Munich for the first time since September 1999.
"It was time to win here again," Stuttgart's coach Christian Gross said.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Street kids topple Brazil
Never – until a spunky group of street kids from Metro Manila, who flew to Durban, South Africa on the wings of several generous souls, beat the Brazilian team, 6-2, in a heart-tugging match last Thursday.
After Wednesday’s tearful 0-2 loss to Tanzania, the team, dubbed the Philippine Street Child “Miracle” team, came back with a vengeance to beat world football superpower Brazil shirt in their final group A match of the Deloitte Street Child World Cup in Durban, an indoor international football tournament for street children. The Miracle team led 4-1 at the break.
As RP Women’s football team captain Marielle Benitez put it after hearing the news of the Pinoy streetkids’ victory, “Tinikling footwork beat Samba footwork.” Benitez, a member of Bayanihan, was one of those who gave the kids tinikling lessons for a dance presentation they did at the opening of the Deloitte Street Child World Cup last Tuesday.
Although the victory will not be enough to bring home the Deloitte-Street Child World Cup trophy, the Pinoy street kids, whose inspiring campaign is sponsored by British charity Angus Lawson Memorial Trust under the auspices of The Henry V. Moran Foundation, will now vie for the Street Child World Shield, a secondary trophy to the Street Child World Cup.
“We are a football team from a ‘basketball’ country that’s participating in a football tournament made up of teams from ‘football’ countries,” says Ed Formoso, manager of the team. “So how much of a chance do we really have in this event? It’s a question asked of me by so, so many. But when you believe so much in a project, and especially when you pray, you learn to believe that miracles might-can-will happen. So, will winning games in South Africa be a miracle? This is a team built on prayer and it has already won by getting as far as this. This far, these kids - it’s a miracle team already.”
Formoso and co-manager Craig Burrows recruited these street children from different shelters in Metro Manila. Jess Landagan, the head coach of the team, is a former street child himself. Soft spoken and humble, he knows his football and has lived the kind of life some of his players are living.
For the Deloitte-SCWC tournament in South Africa, Jess’ assistants and trainers were all former street kids and homeless players who represented the country in the 2008 Melbourne and 2009 Milan Homeless World Cup teams, two projects that were supported by The Henry V. Moran Foundation in partnership with the UOFC Foundation of American social entrepreneur Bill Shaw.
Before the kids left for South Africa, weekend football camps were held at the Tuloy sa Don Bosco Street Children Village under the supervision of Tuloy president and founder Salesian priest Rocky Evangelista.
Father Rocky played a lot of football in his youth and is a familiar footballer with many of the Filipino national players of his day. Father Rocky’s role was to turn this team into a football family. Several donors from the private sector pitched in to buy clothes, food and vitamins for the children. Practice games were sponsored at the International School and Brent School, to familiarize the street kids with taller opponents.
The Pinoys finished third in Group A, dubbed the group of death, with qualifiers UK and Tanzania ahead of them in this indoor international football tournament for street children. They were unlucky in their match against Tanzania and were thus eliminated from the main event, which is the Street Child World Cup.
Observers predict that the UK and Tanzania will meet in the finals on Sunday; both teams beat the Philippine team, 2-4 and 0-2 respectively.
The secondary semi-final crossover stage begins with the RP kids playing Ukraine in the SCW Shield while the Brazilians take on the South Africans. The winners of both games will play in the finals.
After Wednesday’s tearful 0-2 loss to Tanzania, the team, dubbed the Philippine Street Child “Miracle” team, came back with a vengeance to beat world football superpower Brazil shirt in their final group A match of the Deloitte Street Child World Cup in Durban, an indoor international football tournament for street children. The Miracle team led 4-1 at the break.
As RP Women’s football team captain Marielle Benitez put it after hearing the news of the Pinoy streetkids’ victory, “Tinikling footwork beat Samba footwork.” Benitez, a member of Bayanihan, was one of those who gave the kids tinikling lessons for a dance presentation they did at the opening of the Deloitte Street Child World Cup last Tuesday.
Although the victory will not be enough to bring home the Deloitte-Street Child World Cup trophy, the Pinoy street kids, whose inspiring campaign is sponsored by British charity Angus Lawson Memorial Trust under the auspices of The Henry V. Moran Foundation, will now vie for the Street Child World Shield, a secondary trophy to the Street Child World Cup.
“We are a football team from a ‘basketball’ country that’s participating in a football tournament made up of teams from ‘football’ countries,” says Ed Formoso, manager of the team. “So how much of a chance do we really have in this event? It’s a question asked of me by so, so many. But when you believe so much in a project, and especially when you pray, you learn to believe that miracles might-can-will happen. So, will winning games in South Africa be a miracle? This is a team built on prayer and it has already won by getting as far as this. This far, these kids - it’s a miracle team already.”
Formoso and co-manager Craig Burrows recruited these street children from different shelters in Metro Manila. Jess Landagan, the head coach of the team, is a former street child himself. Soft spoken and humble, he knows his football and has lived the kind of life some of his players are living.
For the Deloitte-SCWC tournament in South Africa, Jess’ assistants and trainers were all former street kids and homeless players who represented the country in the 2008 Melbourne and 2009 Milan Homeless World Cup teams, two projects that were supported by The Henry V. Moran Foundation in partnership with the UOFC Foundation of American social entrepreneur Bill Shaw.
Before the kids left for South Africa, weekend football camps were held at the Tuloy sa Don Bosco Street Children Village under the supervision of Tuloy president and founder Salesian priest Rocky Evangelista.
Father Rocky played a lot of football in his youth and is a familiar footballer with many of the Filipino national players of his day. Father Rocky’s role was to turn this team into a football family. Several donors from the private sector pitched in to buy clothes, food and vitamins for the children. Practice games were sponsored at the International School and Brent School, to familiarize the street kids with taller opponents.
The Pinoys finished third in Group A, dubbed the group of death, with qualifiers UK and Tanzania ahead of them in this indoor international football tournament for street children. They were unlucky in their match against Tanzania and were thus eliminated from the main event, which is the Street Child World Cup.
Observers predict that the UK and Tanzania will meet in the finals on Sunday; both teams beat the Philippine team, 2-4 and 0-2 respectively.
The secondary semi-final crossover stage begins with the RP kids playing Ukraine in the SCW Shield while the Brazilians take on the South Africans. The winners of both games will play in the finals.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
AC Milan chase Misimovic
According to reports in Italy, AC Milan shirt have set their sights on Wolfsburg playmaker Zvjezdan Misimovic and hope to tempt both him and club-mate Edin Dzeko to San Siro in the summer.
Tuttomercatoweb reports that Milan are ready to dish out €14 million for the 27-year-old midfielder this summer.
The Italians have been heavily linked with Dzeko all season with reports suggesting that they have long been planning a summer swoop for the Bosnian international and hope to finally agree a fee with the German club after the World Cup.
However, Rossoneri vice-president Adriano Galliani may now be heading to Germany to seal a double signing as Milan look to refresh an ageing squad that saw them crash out of the Champions League to Manchester United last week.
With Misimovic’s current contract set to run until 2013 and considering Wolfsburg’s reluctance to part with Dzeko, sealing a double-swoop this summer will not be an easy task.
Tuttomercatoweb reports that Milan are ready to dish out €14 million for the 27-year-old midfielder this summer.
The Italians have been heavily linked with Dzeko all season with reports suggesting that they have long been planning a summer swoop for the Bosnian international and hope to finally agree a fee with the German club after the World Cup.
However, Rossoneri vice-president Adriano Galliani may now be heading to Germany to seal a double signing as Milan look to refresh an ageing squad that saw them crash out of the Champions League to Manchester United last week.
With Misimovic’s current contract set to run until 2013 and considering Wolfsburg’s reluctance to part with Dzeko, sealing a double-swoop this summer will not be an easy task.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Roosters come out of trials unscathed
The Sydney Roosters posted two positives results on Sunday at the Sydney Football Stadium and importantly had no casualties out of either encounter.
The Sydney Roosters Jersey Toyota Cup side defeated last year’s grand finalists Wests Tigers 30-16, despite the visitors fielding a fresh team in either half.
It was a boost for NYC coach Scott Murray as his side was without several impressive youngsters who played in other matches over the weekend.
The under 20 Roosters side led the Tigers first team at the break 18-12 before keeping the second team scoreless until the final minutes of the game.
In first grade the Roosters claimed early silverware after they beat a strong Wests Tigers outfit to claim their fourth consecutive Foundation Cup.
Todd Carney escaped injury after he copped some late treatment from former Rooster Jason Cayless who was put on report for the late contact.
The Roosters team saw several youngsters take their place for some first grade experience, with Braith Anasta and Jason Ryles being rested.
The Sydney Roosters Jersey Toyota Cup side defeated last year’s grand finalists Wests Tigers 30-16, despite the visitors fielding a fresh team in either half.
It was a boost for NYC coach Scott Murray as his side was without several impressive youngsters who played in other matches over the weekend.
The under 20 Roosters side led the Tigers first team at the break 18-12 before keeping the second team scoreless until the final minutes of the game.
In first grade the Roosters claimed early silverware after they beat a strong Wests Tigers outfit to claim their fourth consecutive Foundation Cup.
Todd Carney escaped injury after he copped some late treatment from former Rooster Jason Cayless who was put on report for the late contact.
The Roosters team saw several youngsters take their place for some first grade experience, with Braith Anasta and Jason Ryles being rested.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Bilbao ready for Barca challenge
Athletic Bilbao captain Joseba Etxeberria has declared that a draw against Barcelona in the Primera Liga this weekend would be a good result for his side.
The two teams meet at the San Mames on Saturday night and Etxeberria says that while a draw would be a favourable outcome, Athletic Bilbao shirt will be doing all the can to beat the treble champions.
"The truth is that this game is very difficult, but the timing may be ideal for us because the team is doing well in the league and we also have had time to prepare well, which they have not because they have many internationals, and that gives us a small advantage," he told AS.
"We must go after them from the first move and everything will be difficult. But if we keep waiting and see what they do with the ball, then there is nothing to be gained.
"Against Barcelona, a draw can be a good result but you cannot take to the field thinking about a draw. Barcelona is the favourite in every game they play.
"We're talking about a great team, one of the best teams in history."
Etxeberria is also hoping that the home support give a hostile Barca a reception at San Mames because he fears that if Barca feel at home, they will win.
The two teams meet at the San Mames on Saturday night and Etxeberria says that while a draw would be a favourable outcome, Athletic Bilbao shirt will be doing all the can to beat the treble champions.
"The truth is that this game is very difficult, but the timing may be ideal for us because the team is doing well in the league and we also have had time to prepare well, which they have not because they have many internationals, and that gives us a small advantage," he told AS.
"We must go after them from the first move and everything will be difficult. But if we keep waiting and see what they do with the ball, then there is nothing to be gained.
"Against Barcelona, a draw can be a good result but you cannot take to the field thinking about a draw. Barcelona is the favourite in every game they play.
"We're talking about a great team, one of the best teams in history."
Etxeberria is also hoping that the home support give a hostile Barca a reception at San Mames because he fears that if Barca feel at home, they will win.
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