Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

Saturday Sundae: Bail out for Northampton, Bale's celebration is in
Atmosphere and fans' role in Premier League games becoming a concern
Eric Djemba-Djemba: 'I was happy at Manchester United – I've no regrets'
Said & Done – the week in football: Barcelona, Fifa and love
Wales 1-1 Finland
England's Gary Cahill on 0-2 defeat against Chile: 'We had an off day' - video
Leyton Orient lose top spot after defeat to Preston
Football league: your thoughts
Iceland holds on to dream of World Cup after 0-0 draw with Croatia - video
Notts County 0-1 Wolves
Nigeria and Ivory Coast qualify for World Cup finals in Brazil
Happy living in a very different world
Greece inch closer to 2014 World Cup qualification after 3-1 victory over Romania - video
Mark Bresciano banned for four months over illegal al-Gharafa transfer
Hogan-Howe's work with Hillsborough families was 'a shambles'
Szczesny signs new Arsenal contract
Cristiano Ronaldo keeps World Cup dream alive for Portugal after 1-0 victory over Sweden – video
Germany's Sami Khedira faces six months out and World Cup battle
Fantasy football has serious downsides, with every game becoming a torment | Tom Lamont
World Cup play-offs: 'There is still one more game left', says France's manager after losing to Ukraine – video
Goals allowed: Yeovil Town will launch own girl band to attract new fans
Pressure on for Germany's Joachim Löw before England international
The gifs that keep on giving: Bobsled, a one-hand dunk and a nutmeg own goal
Spurs blow as Eriksen ruled out for a month
Hodgson defends England after 'learning experience'

Saturday Sundae: Bail out for Northampton, Bale's celebration is in

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 02:28 PM PST

• Neil Ardley gets watered down while live on TV
• Alcohol ruled inappropriate for stand-in referee

MAN OF THE DAY

Northampton were bottom of the table, Fleetwood were top, so hats off to Luke Norris, who scored an injury-time winner for the Cobblers, and celebrated like Gareth Bale.

RUNNER-UP

Wimbledon manager Neil Ardley – led his side to a retro 4-0 thumping of Portsmouth, and manfully retained his cool while being interviewed by Sky when an errant water sprinkler soaked him.

FANS OF THE DAY

It's not often that a League Two game has to turn punters away, but so many Portsmouth fans wanted to see the game that the club arranged a beam back at Fratton Park.

VOLUNTEER OF THE DAY

When You are the Ref comes to life, part 55. After the referee in Altrincham's Skrill North game at Colwyn Bay was injured with no reserve ref available, an appeal was made over the PA for a replacement. One volunteer was rejected because he "smelt of alcohol". The game was abandoned.

BENEFACTORS OF THE DAY

Rotherham won 3-0 at Stevenage, and had a big hand in the day's games elsewhere via their loanees. Danny Hylton secured a valuable point for Bury, while Kayode Odejayi scored the second in Accrington's win over Scunthorpe.

BROKEN RUN OF THE DAY

Not only were Leyton Orient knocked off the top of League One, but their 1-0 defeat to Preston was the first time they haven't scored in a league game this season. They were the last team to draw a blank in England's top five divisions.

MANAGER OF THE DAY

Kenny Jackett – taking advantage of Orient's slip to ease Wolves to the top, extending their unbeaten run to 11, and restoring some of their missing self-respect.

MUST-HAVE GIFT

Unveiled in Spain in time for Christmas: Gareth Bale caganers – traditional Catalan statuettes which depict celebrities defecating as symbols of "fertilisation, hope and prosperity for the coming year".

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Championship minnows Yeovil, auditioning an official Yeovil girl band to attract a new generation of fans, after realising their football might not do the job. The band will release a charity single and will play at home games.

Atmosphere and fans' role in Premier League games becoming a concern

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 02:00 PM PST

• Recent managers' complaints at apathy of fans raises issue
• Fan groups look into ways to increase involvement at games

A creeping apathy spreading across Premier League grounds, long diagnosed and discussed by fans, seems to have reached the dugout and the boardroom. In recent weeks, a trio of London-based managers questioned their own supporters.

First, André Villas-Boas queried the atmosphere at White Hart Lane after a nervy, scrappy 1-0 victory over Hull City. "We didn't have the support we should have done. There was so much anxiety from the stands, the players had to do it alone," he said.

Last Saturday, it was José Mourinho's turn to wonder whether the "profile" of the Stamford Bridge crowd had contributed to a lethargy that matched his team's performance in scrambling a draw with West Bromwich Albion. "We know Stamford Bridge is not a very hot atmosphere, not a very strong atmosphere normally, and we accept that," he said.

Last month, at Arsenal's agm, Arsène Wenger told fans: "We will need your support and we had some moments where at the Emirates we did not always feel that, but I can understand that, because it is up to us to give you the belief and it is not for you to give us the belief."

The diagnosis is by no means universal. For big games and on heady European nights, the atmosphere at most grounds can still make the spine tingle. At others, such as Stoke City's Britannia Stadium, it crackles no matter the opposition. But elsewhere there is a definite feeling that something is being gradually lost from the matchday experience.

That could, ultimately, have a knock on effect on the soaring overseas television revenue that contributed to a £5.5bn windfall for clubs for the three seasons starting with 2012-13. One of the key factors that helps make the Premier League the most saleable commodity in world football is its noise, pageantry and atmosphere.

Whenever a new overseas owner buys a Premier League club it has become obligatory to say that the atmosphere is one of the things that has drawn them in.

On the eve of the new season, the Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, said fans were an integral part of the "show" being sold around the world for an ever higher price tag. "We can't be clearer. Unless the show is a good show, with the best talent and played in decent stadia with full crowds, then it isn't a show you can sell."

There is a danger discussion of the issue becomes an exercise in rose-tinted nostalgia, however. That those waxing lyrical about the passion of earlier decades have blocked out the more unsavoury, unsanitary flip side of watching football in the 70s and 80s.

But there is a groundswell of opinion, now recognised by many clubs and managers, that the pendulum has swung too far the other way and that one of the factors that has defined English football – its vocal, passionate crowds – is at risk of ebbing away if no action is taken.

A cocktail of factors have been at play for some time. The switch to all-seater stadiums, in many cases largely filled with season ticket holders, has had a clear effect in preventing more vocal fans from massing together as they did in the age of terracing.

The demographics of crowds has undoubtedly shifted. Whether or not they are getting steadily older is much disputed. The average age of an adult fan in the Premier League is 41, according to its surveys. But these also point out that 13% of season-ticket holders are children and almost a fifth of those who attended games in 2012-13 were aged between 18 and 24.

Whatever the stats say, one only has to look at a Premier League game to appreciate a shift. Just as the 17-24 range has been identified as the crucial age when homegrown talent is withering on the vine on the pitch, so there seems to be a growing vacuum among young adults in the stands. Children will sit in the family section, or are enticed by one of the growing number of offers introduced by Premier League clubs in recent years. But once young supporters no longer qualify for a concessionary ticket, watching in a pub among their friends seems to have replaced going to the match as a rite of passage.

As the age profile has risen, along with the price of admission, so has the mindset. "We'll never go back to where we were in the 70s and 80s. You could pay on the gate, it was much cheaper and you could congregate together," says Tim Rolls, chair of the Chelsea Supporters Trust.

"The atmosphere is still good at away matches. But at home, it's partly the demographic changes. Also, there are more tourists, it's an experience and they're there to capture it on their iPad rather than interact. Also, people have got older," he adds. "The people I go with I went with in the late 70s. Around me, there's so many people over 45. With the best will in the world, you're not going to get as much noise out of them."

Tim Payton, the Arsenal Supporters' Trust spokesman, said that some problems were peculiar to the Emirates, such as the firebreak created by the ring of 6,000 corporate seats around the stadium, which has turbocharged the club's matchday income but harmed the atmosphere.

"There is no doubt the pricing has led to a certain type of gentrification. In some ways it's probably better in that it's brought in more families, more children. But maybe you've not got a community of people that want to sing," he said. "It's the pricing, it's the new generation of fans, it's the seating. It's a bit of all of that."

At Tottenham, the 1882 collective originally started out as an internet flashmob that would turn up at youth matches and try to recapture the atmosphere of old. More recently, they have tried to do a similar thing for Europa League ties and others where tickets are easier to come by, and the club has begun to help out by moving like-minded season ticket holders into the same block.

That has sparked a debate on fan message boards. Some accuse the 1882 crowd of being too "cliquey" and suggesting the organised nature of the singing is "embarrassing", while others laud it for attempting to recapture a backdrop historically considered one of the best in London.

Most agree on the problem but solutions are harder to come by. Large-scale price cuts are unlikely, to say the least.

Those who advocate following the Bundesliga model of safe standing argue it would be a big step in the right direction. Many big clubs are privately softening their attitude but the long shadow of Hillsborough means that political will for change remains unlikely, while unreserved seating would face objections from the police.

Manchester United trialled a singing section at their Champions League tie with Real Sociedad and 6,000 fans applied to be seated in the 1,500-capacity section. A coalition of fanzines and fan groups distributed letters on each seat urging fans to get behind their team and the experiment was judged a success. Arsenal have introduced a "teenagers for a tenner" section, which offers up to 1,000 tickets for £10 at home matches.

The recent furore over high prices for away fans, which culminated in a march on the Premier League headquarters last summer, also feeds into the debate. Away fans are crucial to creating a vibrant mood and most clubs report that their away contingent – younger, committed and grouped together – often make more noise than at home.

The Football Supporters' Federation (FSF) has had an encouraging response to its Twenty's Plenty campaign, with the Premier League putting aside £12m over three seasons to encourage away support. Some are using it to subsidise travel for their own supporters, others to cut prices for visiting fans.

Kevin Miles, chief executive of the FSF, said that Premier League clubs had started to engage on away ticket pricing because they realised the impact it could have on the overall matchday experience and on television income if numbers fell. "The introduction of cheaper pricing and standing areas would go a long way to bringing back some of the atmosphere," he said.

Clearly there is no silver bullet to address the subdued mood on matchdays but clubs and fans' groups alike at least recognise there is a mutual benefit in looking for solutions to a long-gestating problem that has left Nirvana as the unlikely soundtrack to many matchdays. "There's a definitely now a big element of 'here we are now, entertain us' with many fans," Rolls said.

Owen Gibson

Eric Djemba-Djemba: 'I was happy at Manchester United – I've no regrets'

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 02:00 PM PST

The Cameroonian shared his Old Trafford debut with Cristiano Ronaldo 10 years ago – but there the similarities end

Two players made their Premier League debuts for Manchester United against Bolton Wanderers at Old Trafford on 10 August 2003, just over a decade ago. One was a precocious Portuguese winger who went on to win three league titles, one FA Cup, two League Cups and the Champions League during six glittering seasons at the club. The other was ... Eric Djemba-Djemba.

It is perhaps fair to say that the two players' paths went separate ways from there, but looking at Cristiano Ronaldo – often playing with a pained expression and saying he was sad at Real Madrid last season – and speaking to Djemba-Djemba, it is not immediately obvious who is the happier.

Djemba-Djemba was bought as a promising 22-year-old from Nantes for £3.5m by Sir Alex Ferguson that summer and still remembers his debut as if it were yesterday. "It was fantastic. It was with Cristiano Ronaldo and it was our first game in the league," he says of replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on 67 minutes. "We came on together against Bolton and it was fantastic because we won that game 4-0 and I was very happy in the dressing room afterwards."

While Ronaldo remained on the bench for United's next game, at Newcastle United, Djemba-Djemba made his first start in an XI that featured Paul Scholes, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane and Solskjaer. United won 2-1. Djemba-Djemba became a fixture in Ferguson's lineup during those early days, playing in 13 games before going off to the Africa Cup of Nations in January. Indeed, there were goals as well, one against Panathinaikos in the Champions League and another against Leeds United in the League Cup.

The 32-year-old, now playing for Partizan Belgrade, remembers the last one vividly. "Oh my God, you remember that time! It was so nice. In my house I have a picture from when I scored against Leeds in the Carling Cup. It was in extra time and I scored from a corner. And I still have a picture in my head from when I go into the dressing room after the game. There was Alex Ferguson. He was smiling. A big smile, with his glasses on. He was so happy."

Ferguson may have been happy on that day but in his recent autobiography he admitted that several of his signings during that era did not work out. Ferguson wrote: "Kléberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and David Bellion were among the new faces … You can't dodge the truth about those years. We rushed down the path of buying in proven players – who we thought would match our standards right away … Djemba-Djemba had been playing at a decent level in France. They were easy or obvious signings. I like having to fight for a player on the grounds that a battle to extricate him means you're acquiring something valuable."

But Ferguson could not deny that Djemba-Djemba was a wonderful character, even if things did not work out for him on the pitch. "Djemba-Djemba, another smashing lad, was hammered by the press for not being a signature signing. They always liked the marquee names and took a much dimmer view of players with a lower recognition rating. Eric struck us as potentially another top central midfielder. I went to see him playing in France and he did really well. He understood the game, nipped attacks in the bud very well and was available for €4m."

Djemba-Djemba, though, became synonymous with the only serious wobble of Ferguson's success-soaked years at Old Trafford. He was the Keane replacement signed on a five-year contract who would depart United before the Irishman, sold to Aston Villa in January 2005 for £1.35m, two years into a three-season barren spell for the club without a league title, the longest of Ferguson's reign after he secured a first championship.

The Cameroonian's CV shows only 13 league starts, in 35 United appearances. A nomadic eight years followed, with stops after Villa including Burnley (on loan), Qatar Sports Club, Denmark's Odense, and Hapoel Tel Aviv of Israel, before he arrived at Partizan this summer.

So what happened at United? "I was not being [selected] in many games and it was difficult," Djemba-Djemba says. "Roy Keane came back from injury, I wanted to play games and I had a talk with the gaffer. He said: 'No problem. If you have [another] team and you want to continue to play, that's not a problem.'"

As Djemba-Djemba says going from Douala, where the Cameroonian grew up, to the Theatre of Dreams can only be viewed as a success story. "It was a big achievement. Even if you are from an OK family in Africa, life can sometimes be difficult," he says. "I have 10 brothers and sisters, I was the No9 [and] we had a house with four bedrooms. My first training at Carrington, though … I had to pinch myself. I was training with Van Nistelrooy, Giggs – Ryan Giggs is an unbelievable player, fantastic – Keane, Paul Scholes. It was: Wow!" he says.

The first day of training at Carrington enthralled. Of his fellow debutant, Djemba-Djemba says there was clear signs of the path Ronaldo would take: "In training, with his pace at 17, he was like a car. He was so fast. I need to kick him to take the ball. He was running like he had stolen something, like a thief."

That first season ended with United winning the FA Cup, the last time they claimed the trophy. Djemba-Djemba featured once, as a substitute in the 2-1 quarter-final win over Fulham at Old Trafford. As an unused reserve for the 3-0 victory over Millwall in the final he received a medal, to go with his 2002 Africa Cup of Nations winners' gong. There is gratitude that Ferguson named him on the bench. "Oh not disappointed because I have the title. For me it is [about] a group," he says. "I didn't come on but I played before so was happy."

The move to Villa in January 2005, signed by David O'Leary was less enjoyable. "If you go from Manchester United to Aston Villa you go to play many games," he says. "After four games I got a hamstring injury [in a 3-1 defeat to Everton on 26 February 2005] and after that, it was difficult for him and me to understand each other. We didn't agree. I didn't have a good experience with David O'Leary – he didn't give me a chance again," he says.

Djemba-Djemba made only four league starts in 18 months, with his final appearance as a substitute against Arsenal on the opening day of the 2006-07 season in the first game at the new Emirates Stadium.

While this was under Martin O'Neill, who had replaced O'Leary, what ultimately burned bridges with the latter were comments made during the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations. "I say in an interview that I didn't understand David O'Leary, why I don't play. When I came back he didn't like it. He say to me he didn't like it, I say to him this is what I think, so I didn't play again."

There was a more enjoyable time on loan at Burnley, from January 2007 until the end of that season. "Steve Cotterill was manager, I was so happy to work with him because he was a great man. He say to me: 'If you work you will play.'"

This was only two years after leaving United. Yet Djemba-Djemba says there was no difficulty in motivating himself for a lower league. "Life is not complicated. Manchester is a great team and everyone wants to play for Manchester. But if they don't give you the chance and you have the opportunity to play for teams that want you, you should go and enjoy. It's football."

The philosophy took Djemba-Djemba to Qatar SC for the 2007-08 season, Odense. "I stayed four years and played more than 100 games. Oh my God, I enjoy," he says. "I enjoy playing every year the Europa League and three years in a row [though] we didn't take the championship, we were second."

In his opening campaign, many in Danish football believed him to be the player of the year, and though he finished second in the official vote, there was a special reunion at the awards ceremony.

"Ferguson came to give the trophy, he was invited by [Peter] Schmeichel, who was working for Danish TV. I saw him, I was happy, and we took a picture together. He was so happy and we laugh – he is a funny grandad, you know. "

After last term's stint at Hapoel, "I enjoyed," came the move to the Serbian capital. "Partizan is a very good level, you are playing normally Champions League and Europa League every year," he says of the Super Liga leaders.

Now the Cameroonian, who is divorced and has four children, hopes to play until he is 36. "After I will see if I have the power to continue," the midfielder says. "I have no regrets about anything in my career. You realise it is football and God decides everything. I was happy to be playing for Manchester, happy to be winning titles, happy the way they treat me. And I have no regrets about going to Aston Villa, it was the choice of God, that's it. When you are young you can do some mistakes: for me, I never regret my mistakes. I could have stayed longer if I wanted to. But it's not well to stay and to play one or two games in five years."

Joining had been the fantasy transfer for a boyhood United fanatic nicknamed Cantona who followed the club from his hometown, Doula. "It was my dream come true – Manchester United," he says. "My hero was Eric Cantona. Everybody called me it until now - when I go back in my country, they [still] call me Cantona."

Jamie Jackson

Said & Done – the week in football: Barcelona, Fifa and love

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 01:18 PM PST

The week in football: Barcelona's brand; Spain on tour; Romania's sad snake; and detonating a love bomb

Brand of the week

Barcelona – keeping their brand ethos intact with an extended Unicef shirt deal. Offsetting the €1.5m it costs them to keep the anti-exploitation, anti‑modern slavery "Unicef" logo on the back of the shirts: the €96m Qatar paid to sponsor the front.

• Also last week: Sepp Blatter reporting back on his meeting with Qatar's emir, having pledged to get to the truth behind the media's skewed "dong-dong" reporting. His findings: "Qatar is on the right track. I am sure they will host a wonderful World Cup."

Meanwhile

Jérôme Valcke on why anti-Fifa protesters in Brazil should think twice. "Look at what the World Cup brought to South Africa. It made a real difference." South Africa's verdict on what the World Cup brought: a £2bn public outlay, in return for "unquantifiable … intangible" gains.

United front

Also holding the line last week: Spain's squad, asked whether giving a PR lift to Equatorial Guinea's torture and economic-apartheid-led dictatorship by playing a friendly there was the right thing to do. Fernando Llorente: "I only want to talk about sport, everything else I don't want to talk about"; Raúl Albiol: "We focus on sport, not the rest"; FA head Angel María Villar: "I won't answer that. Ask anything else, but I won't answer that."

War on racism latest

• Israel: Beitar Jerusalem fans reacting to the jailing of fellow supporter Evyatar Yosef, who set the club's offices on fire in February to protest against the signing of two Muslim players. Beitar fans raised a "special banner" reading: "Evyatar Yosef, love and support."

• Last year: Russia's FA fine Zenit £2,000 over racist abuse aimed at Lokomotiv's black players. Last week: They fine Zenit's Roman Shirokov £3,000 for calling a referee a "clown" – plus a six-month suspended ban.

Modern football

Last week's PR news: Bulova, Manchester United's new Official Timekeeper, gifting the squad "co-branded and engraved Bulova timepieces", and allowing players to design their own. Wayne Rooney: "It's exciting to design a watch. I don't know what I'll do yet."

Sharpest rethink

Hull owner Assem Allam – updating his 6 November pledge to conduct "wide-ranging consultation" with fans before he rebrands the club. His new pledge: "Why the fuss? Nobody in the world will decide for me. No, no, no. Nobody questions my decisions in business."

Manager news: moving on

Brazil, 3 Nov: Fluminense president Peter Siemsem: "We're evolving, I'm confident we're evolving. The philosophy is simple: we're giving Vanderlei Luxemburgo security to continue his work." 12 Nov: Sacks him.

Italy, 30 Sep: Sampdoria president Edoardo Garrone on coach Delio Rossi: "We don't even think about change. Delio is the right coach. People are so quick to seek a scapegoat." 11 Nov: Finds one.

Coolest exit

Romania: Former League head Dumitru Dragomir, conceding defeat in his re-election bid. "I helped these bitches all my life, and they still didn't vote for me." Dragomir told the press he should have been tougher, and felt like "a sad snake … A big mouth, but no venom."

• Also new last week: Romanian press trail Gigi Becali's forthcoming autobiography, currently being penned in prison with chapters on religion and business: "The most eagerly awaited literary moment of 2014."

Respect campaign news

Brazil: Sport Recife president Luciano Bivar, ready to fight legal action after calling referee Marcelo de Lima Henrique's performance "bent" and demanding his bank statements be published "for clarity". Henrique, suing for moral damages, denies wrongdoing.

Best appraisal

Croatia: Dinamo owner Zdravko Mamic, using the international break to defy his critics again. "For years they talk of gangsters, thieving, so let's be clear. Dinamo is clean, and I am the initiator of everything that is beautiful in Croatian football."

Ruse of the week

Brazil: Serie B club ABC, fined £25,000 for padlocking their opponents inside their dressing room pre-match. São Caetano, unable to warm up, lost the game 2-0; ABC president Rubens Guilherme Dantas, banned for six months, said the lock was "sawn off in good time".

Love news

Argentinian press say Inter's Mauro Icardi "detonated a love bomb" after he reacted to model Wanda Nara leaving his ex-team-mate Maxi López by tweeting her: "I love you … simple words, but such emotion." Nara denies an affair. "Love tweets are one thing. Reality is quite another."

Plus: best sympathy

Argentina: Model Yanina Latorre, wife of ex-Boca player Diego Latorre, on why Nara deserves some space. "Being with footballers is not as easy as it looks in the magazines. The Ferrari, the Chanel, it's all just ephemera, a fleeting orgasm. Sometimes you just need a hug."

David Hills

Wales 1-1 Finland

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 12:33 PM PST

The Welsh were banking on Gareth Bale's return to their starting lineup for the first time this season to attract a decent crowd for Finland's visit, but the Wales rugby team had also been in action across town and there's only one winner when it comes to the public's hard earned these days.

The few who did turn out saw a disappointing draw against opponents who are 19 places below Wales in the world rankings. The Welsh thought they had won it with a goal after 58 minutes, when Andy King headed home a cross from the left by Hal Robson-Kanu, but Riku Riski broke away to equalise in added time.

Finland's manager, Mixu Paatelainen, of Bolton Wanderers fame, pointed out that Celtic's Teemu Pukki had struck a post with a shot in the first half and said: "Overall, the draw was a fair result." Chris Coleman was "gutted" and said: "We had to work hard to get our noses in front and we did that, but we slipped up at the end and it cost us what would have been a good win. In any game when you're in front with two minutes to go, you expect to win. We need to be a bit more streetwise, a bit nasty."

It was a poor match and the two principals involved in Wales's goal speak volumes for the composition and quality of their team. Robson-Kanu and King both ply their trade in the Championship.

There was a time, not too long ago, when football rivalled the oval-ball game for popularity in Wales. In March 2000, 66,000 turned out to watch Mark Hughes's team in the first football fixture at the Millennium Stadium. The opposition? Finland.

That halcyon interlude ended with the passing of the late, lamented Gary Speed, under whose uplifting management Wales climbed Fifa's world rankings, from 117th to 45th, on the back of four wins in five games, losing only to England, 1-0.

The new dawn was a false one. Speed died two years ago, almost to the day, since when his successor, Coleman, has presided over a return to mediocrity. The attempt to qualify for next year's World Cup was a dismal failure, in the context of which Coleman was widely expected to be sacked – but he signed a new two-year contract on Friday. One local columnist described this as a "marriage of convenience" and was presumably thinking of a place in Brazil going down the toilet.

Coleman and other incorrigible optimists, including Craig Bellamy, have been talking up this current Welsh squad as potentially the best since John Charles, Cliff Jones and company gave a young Pelé's Brazil a run for their money at the 1958 World Cup, but the appraisal does not stand up to serious scrutiny.

Coleman's class of 2013 does possess two world-class players in Aaron Ramsey, who was missing with flu on Saturday, and Bale, but the supporting cast is pretty ordinary. Of the 21 on duty for the Finland friendly, seven were from the Championship and six from League One.

Those who have been around long enough to address such things with a meaningful perspective are likely to conclude that Terry Yorath's team that was one game away from getting to the 1994 World Cup were clearly superior. What would Coleman give for Southall, Ratcliffe, Speed, Giggs, Saunders, Rush and Hughes in the same 11? Six of those seven were league champions at one time or another. None of the current squad has that honour.

Given its enlarged format, Wales may qualify for Euro 2016: at present, they are ranked 25th in Europe and 24 teams will go to the finals. But a "golden generation"? Are you sure?

Joe Lovejoy

England's Gary Cahill on 0-2 defeat against Chile: 'We had an off day' - video

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 10:40 AM PST

England suffers its first defeat in a year to Chile on Friday

Leyton Orient lose top spot after defeat to Preston

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 09:57 AM PST

• Orient suffer first home defeat since February
• Oxford lead League Two after win at Mansfield

Leyton Orient are off the top of League One for the first time since the start of the season after Preston condemned Russell Slade's side to their first home defeat since February. Orient also saw their record of scoring in every game this season end as Joe Garner's well-taken first-half goal was enough to give Simon Grayson's side a 1-0 win.

Garner struck just after the half-hour when he superbly converted Keith Keane's cross, and the victory at Brisbane Road cements Preston's own position in fifth place.

Fourth-placed Brentford won their fifth game in a row in some style, hammering struggling Crewe 5-0 at Griffin Park. Marcello Trotta opened the scoring two minutes before the break with Adam Forshaw (46) and George Saville (58) extending the Bees' lead before Clayton Donaldson hit two more goals, in the 63rd and 73rd minutes.

Swindon moved into the top six with victory at out-of-sorts Colchester. The Essex side have won only one of their last 14 games and they soon fell behind to Nicky Ajose's tap-in. The game was settled in the early stages of the second half when Dany N'Guessan struck from close range, leaving Magnus Okuonghae's late strike a mere consolation.

In League Two Oxford beat 10-man Mansfield 3-1 at Field Mill to move to the top of the table while the previous leaders Fleetwood slipped out of the top three after a surprise defeat at Northampton.

Sean Rigg opened the scoring for Oxford after 12 minutes and, after Mansfield's Jamie McGuire was sent off midway through the first half, Lee Stevenson and James Constable exchanged goals in stoppage time before the interval. Ryan Williams put Oxford two goals clear in the 66th minute and Chris Wilder's men now occupy first place by virtue of a superior goal difference to Chesterfield and Rochdale, who both won.

While Chesterfield beat Torquay 2-0 at Plainmoor thanks to first-half goals from Oliver Banks and Jay O'Shea, and Rochdale edged a 2-1 victory at Morecambe thanks to Mark Hughes's second-half own-goal – Scott Hogan and Pádraig Amond also scoring – Fleetwood were surprise 1-0 losers at bottom club Northampton, Luke Norris scoring a last-minute winner at Sixfields. Adrian Boothroyd's team, however, are still a point from safety.

Football league: your thoughts

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 09:38 AM PST

Leyton Orient were knocked off the top of League One for the first time this season by Wolves, while Oxford United went top of League Two as Fleetwood stumbled at bottom side Northampton

League One

Leyton Orient were knocked off the top of the table for the first time this season on Saturday, with Kenny Jackett's Wolves usurping them at the summit of League One.

Wolves grabbed a 1-0 win over Notts County, secured by Ethan Ebanks-Landell's first senior goal for the club, leap-frogging Orient after Russell Slade's men fell to just their second defeat of the season, 1-0 at home to Preston. Joe Garner scored the only goal of the game for Preston, ending both Orient's unbeaten home record and their run of scoring in every game this season, although they still have a six-point gap to third-place Peterborough, who weren't in action on Saturday.

Brentford gained ground on the top two, moving into fourth after hammering Crewe 5-0. Marcelo Trotta opened the scoring for the Bees with a spectacular header from the edge of the area, while Clayton Donaldson scored two against his former side. Those five goals put Brentford above Preston, despite their victory at Brisbane Road.

Swindon edged their way into the play-off spots with a 2-1 win at Colchester, while Rotherham moved to just two points outside the top six after their convincing 3-0 success away to Stevenage. Port Vale moved into ninth after beating Shrewsbury 3-1.

At the bottom of the table, Nigel Clough's Sheffield United suffered their second defeat in a row, going down 2-1 at home to Gillingham, but the Blades remain second-bottom because of Notts County's defeat. The other relegation spots remained the same, with Crewe smarting from their defeat at the hands of Brentford, while Tranmere came from behind to earn a 1-1 draw against Bristol City.

League Two

There are also new leaders of League Two - Fleetwood Town started the weekend at the top, but are now no longer even in the automatic promotion spots after an injury-time goal from Luke Norris gave bottom-side Northampton a surprise 1-0 win.

Oxford United took full advantage, and now sit top of the table following a 3-1 win over Mansfield, for whom Jamie McGuire was sent off in the first-half. They are only ahead of both Chesterfield and Rochdale on goal difference, who beat Torquay 2-0 and Morecambe 2-1 respectively, with all three sides level on 29 points.

Southend remain in the top six after they beat Exeter 2-0, edging ahead of Newport County who secured a 2-0 win over Hartlepool on Friday night.

There was a big crowd in the AFC Wimbledon v Portsmouth game, with so many visiting fans wishing to attend that the fixture was beamed back to Fratton Park, all 828 away tickets snapped up. Those fans would not have enjoyed the game however, with Wimbledon wrapping up a convincing 4-0 win through an Andy Frampton brace, with the other goals coming from Sammy Moore and Michael Smith.

At the bottom of the table, Northampton gained ground on Torquay, who slipped into the relegation zone after Accrington Stanley defeated Scunthorpe 2-0 and Bury drew 1-1 at Bristol Rovers.

Iceland holds on to dream of World Cup after 0-0 draw with Croatia - video

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 09:30 AM PST

Iceland's 0-0 draw with Croatia on Friday helps keep the dream of a World Cup ticket alive

Notts County 0-1 Wolves

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 09:27 AM PST

Ethan Ebanks-Landell proved an unlikely matchwinner on his full debut as Wolves overcame the absence of half a dozen internationals to go top of League One – thanks also to Leyton Orient's home defeat by Preston.

Ebanks-Landell, a 20-year-old defender who has been at Molineux since he was nine, turned in from a James Henry free-kick a quarter of an hour from time to maintain the Midlands club's momentum as they bid to make an immediate return to the Championship.

Wolves' heavy losses to national service would have justified this match being postponed but failure to lodge a request before the deadline could prove a blessing in disguise. Their return from two previous rearranged fixtures were a defeat and draw against Walsall and Carlisle respectively.

Kenny Jackett, the Wolves manager, cut a relieved figure at the final whistle but dismissed the significance of chasing down the division's pacesetters Orient. "Points total means a lot to me rather than league position at this stage and we have got 39 points which is an excellent return so far," Jackett said. "It's great for our supporters and us to be top of the league but we have to understand we are now there to be shot at. We had the better chances in the game and could have put it away, particularly in the second half. It was a very good performance, we were committed and if I can be critical it would only be of our finishing."

The late goal meant a different kind of debut experience for Shaun Derry. In his playing role as a truculent midfielder, Derry has been regularly parachuted into the kind of situation facing him in his maiden managerial appointment. County, the club where he began in the mid-90s, remain bottom after his first home match in charge.

Yet despite suspension robbing him of the captain, Dean Leacock, and striker Danny Haynes, there was a spirit not evident in leaking 11 goals in their three previous matches. "It was a good game, value for money and everyone will go home enjoy their curry tonight and say: 'We had a good day at Meadow Lane,'"Derry said.

"Let's try to create an atmosphere down here. The only way you are going to do that is by producing performances like that and for the supporters to go home saying that the 14 lads who have made their way on to the field have given everything. Hopefully they will bring their mates with them next time and their mates' girlfriends."

Only a woeful finish from the County centre-back Manny Smith, who headed straight at Richard Stearman with the goal at his mercy, and an inspired performance from Bartosz Bialkowski, their goalkeeper, at the other end kept the scoreline blank at the break. During the opening period the Pole repelled two fine strikes from distance to deny Jake Cassidy and Henry: the first a swerving yorker of a 25-yarder that he managed to thrust his mitts upon and turn away to his left and the second a diving effort high to his right.

Then, after Jackett reshaped the visitors for the resumption – Leigh Griffiths thrown on in place of Davis – Bialkowski triumphed in two one-on-ones created by Henry's precision passing. The substitute Griffiths and his strike partner Cassidy were both guilty of striking shots centrally when the corners were calling.

A second-half flashpoint between Jackett and Derry, sparked by opposing views on the colour of card Callum McGregor saw for felling Henry 25 yards out, livened up proceedings further and the substitute Bjorn Sigurdarson could have settled things sooner but struck the base of a post only seconds after coming on for a Wolves side looking increasingly too efficient for the present company that they keep.

Richard Gibson

Nigeria and Ivory Coast qualify for World Cup finals in Brazil

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 09:22 AM PST

• Nigeria defeat Ethiopia 2-0 (4-1 on aggregate) in play-off
• Ivory Coast drew 1-1 with Senegal (4-2 on aggregate)

Nigeria and Ivory Coast became the first African qualifiers for next year's World Cup in Brazil after winning their play-offs.

Nigeria secured their place with a 2-0 second-leg home win over Ethiopia in Calabar on Saturday, via a penalty from Victor Moses, the Chelsea forward on loan at Liverpool, and a late free-kick from Lokomotiv Moscow's Victor Obinna. The result meant a 4-1 aggregate victory, following last month's first encounter in Addis Ababa, which sends them to their fifth World Cup finals appearance.

Ivory Coast qualified by beating Senegal 4-2 on aggregate after a 1-1 second-leg draw. Moussa Sow's 77th-minute penalty in Casablanca set up a dramatic finish as Senegal tried to claw back a two-goal deficit from last month's 3-1 first leg defeat, but Salomon Kalou struck a late equaliser as the Ivorians went through.

In the three remaining African playoffs, Cameroon and Tunisia are level after a 0-0 draw in Tunisia ahead of their second-leg game on Sunday. Then, on Tuesday, Burkina Faso, leading Algeria 3-2, aim for their World Cup finals debut, while Egypt host Ghana needing a major upset if they are to reach the finals for the first time since 1990 – Ghana having won the first leg 6-1.

If Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Algeria and Ghana qualify, Africa will be represented by the same five teams that joined hosts South Africa in 2010.

Happy living in a very different world

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 07:17 AM PST

It is too easy to paint FC United as the Rebels. That was never a nickname they chose and it is a poor fit when the majority of their fans still have a strong affinity to the club they left behind

Sometimes, it is the little things that help to explain why, back in the era of Peter Kenyon, the words "football club" were lopped off the Manchester United badge and have not returned in the following 15 years.

In the past few days we have learned that Bulova, United's "global time-keeping partner", is planning its own monument to go with the Holy Trinity statue, of Best, Law and Charlton, on Sir Matt Busby Way. At the Arsenal game, the public announcer asked Old Trafford to show its appreciation for Saudi Telecom as "valued members of the Manchester United family". An American guy, from Aon, made the half-time presentation. On the front cover of the programme, where the traditional player-meets-fan handshake picture started in 1946, the player now has fluorescent green and orange boots. It is just a surprise there is no Nike swoosh. Or personal sponsor.

It can leave you cold sometimes. It is unshakeable, it will never change and the people who follow football at the elite level, not just at United, should all be aware by now that it forms part of the package. Everyone understands why it happens. It just does not necessarily mean we have to like it that way.

A few days ago I drove out to Moston, in north-east Manchester, to look round the site of FC United of Manchester's new stadium and learn a little more about a very different kind of football club. Building work has just started and, if everything goes to plan, the ground should be open in August, with a 5,000 capacity. First, though, there is a spade in the ground ceremony on Sunday and the chance to commemorate a story that, as my colleague David Conn once wrote, can feel like a "cleansing of the palate".

It is a complex, often divisive story, and the various arguments will probably polarise people in Manchester long after everyone has agreed to disagree whether it is a barm or muffin. Sir Alex Ferguson described them as "sad" once it became clear the people behind the breakaway were not willing to put up with Malcolm Glazer's 2005 takeover. Alan Gowling, a pundit on BBC Radio Manchester, predicted they would not last until Christmas, an Alan Hansen moment that is now commemorated on supporters' T-shirts, and there is a memorable scene in Ken Loach's film Looking For Eric when a supporter from each club get involved in a beery row about the rights and wrongs. "You can change your wife, your politics and your religion, but never your football team," the United fan says. "They left me," the guy in the non-sponsored FC shirt points out.

On another occasion, Ferguson was asked if he had any words for Karl Marginson, FC's manager, after the club's first promotion season. There were four. "Not interested! Not interested!"

Yet it is too easy to paint FC as the Rebels. That was never a nickname they chose for themselves and it is a poor fit when the majority of their supporters still have a strong affinity to the club they left behind. They are anti-Glazer, disillusioned by the rampant commercialism and gluttony of the sport, rather than anti-United. They want a better way of football and there are plenty of match-goers at Old Trafford who fully understand, and sympathise with, their reasons, even if they were not prepared to join en masse.

As for Marginson, a fruit and vegetables delivery man with a handshake that could shell a conker, his first United match was in 1978 and the irony is that ordinarily he would be precisely the kind of football man Ferguson would like and respect. Certainly the old Ferguson anyway, with his background in socialism and Govan shipyards, before it became apparent, as FC's general manager, Andy Walsh, recently put it, that people "don't always act in line with their stated beliefs".

At Gigg Lane – or the JD Stadium, as Bury now want us to call it – every home game for FC costs them around £5,000. Despite that, they have kept ticket prices low, at £8 an adult and £2 a junior. A season-ticket scheme has been running, a la Radiohead and In Rainbows, whereby fans can decide to pay whatever they want. They regularly get more than 2,000 in the Northern Premier League and those supporters have raised £2.5m for the new stadium, including £1.8m through a community share scheme. Altogether, it is costing £5.5m, with the rest made up by Sport England, the Football Foundation, Manchester City Council and Manchester College.

It has not, however, been straightforward. The club initially had planning permission in Newton Heath, where the original green-and-gold United were founded in 1878, only for the council to withdraw its backing at the last minute. At Moston, there was enough opposition about the idea of losing local playing fields to take it to a judicial review. Battery acid was used to spell out NO TO FC UTD in 10ft-high letters on the grass. Concrete was poured into holes for the goalposts. Graffiti told them they were not welcome.

Yet there is a pile of brochures in FC's offices, on the fifth floor of a renovated Ancoats mill, that explain why they were the 2012 Community Club of the Year. The new ground will include adjacent pitches for Moston Juniors and you just have to drop into the Miners Community Arts and Music Centre, directly across the road, to see plenty of evidence of the club's determination to remove any lingering friction and integrate with their new community. The venue already features framed photographs of their new neighbours, among the other pictures of George Best and the singer Ian Brown.

Further down the road, it is not a coincidence the Dean Brook Inn, currently boarded up, will soon be reopening. Cafe Supreme, on the corner of Lightbowne Road, can expect new trade. Other places will open, just as they have around the Etihad Stadium in another tough part of Manchester over the past few years. A drive past the old Maine Road ground, still a building site in some parts, tells its own story about the role a football club can have with its community. The pubs of the day – the Parkside, the Beehive, the Gardeners Arms, the Sherwood, the Clarence and at least four others – have just about all gone now. Many shops, too.

FC still have a long way to go in a city where two illustrious clubs are run by a sheikh from Abu Dhabi and investors from Florida. But then again there was always a sense of perspective about the breakaway. "Pies not Prawns", the banner states. Members not consumers. Supporters not customers. "Punk Football" – doing it their way.

At Old Trafford, meanwhile, the seats have been filled. Unilever has been announced as United's "first official personal care and laundry partner in south-east Asia" and journalists turning up for Bulova's press conference, many of them flown in from Japan, South Korea and other target-countries, were given a pair of his and her watches, worth £1,000, as a thank you.

David Gill, the former chief executive, cut off all contact with the main supporter groups after the takeover (Ed Woodward, to his credit, has reopened lines of communication). Ferguson told fans, on a trip to Budapest, that if they did not like Glazer, and the prospect of hiked prices, they could "go and watch Chelsea", and the mind goes back to another European excursion when some boisterous supporters passed by. A director, no longer at the club, watched them go, then turned to the nearby reporters. "Couldn't live with them, couldn't live without them," he said.

The beauty of FC, just like at Portsmouth, Wrexham and all the others, is that does not happen when a club is owned by their own supporters. At FC, people who were brought up on the Busby Babes, or who were in the Camp Nou to see Ole Gunnar Solskjaer score the goal that defined the Ferguson years, have maybe surprised themselves with how much they have enjoyed the experience.

They have already climbed three rungs of the non-league pyramid. Another three would take them into the Football League and a new stadium will bring so many advantages it is perfectly realistic to think they can make it in the next five to 10 years. That really is when their story should be made into a movie.

Daniel Taylor

Greece inch closer to 2014 World Cup qualification after 3-1 victory over Romania - video

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 06:44 AM PST

Greece manager looks ahead to grasp World Cup qualification after 3-1 win over Romania

Mark Bresciano banned for four months over illegal al-Gharafa transfer

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 05:50 AM PST

• Australia midfielder's World Cup hopes hit by ban
• Fifa also fine Bresciano $1.87m (£1.09m)

The Australia midfielder Mark Bresciano has been given a four-month ban by football's world governing body Fifa over an illegal international transfer issue.

Fifa also fined the 33-year-old A$1.87m (£1.09m) after ruling that his transfer from the Qatar club al-Nasr last year to the United Arab Emirates side al-Gharafa was illegal.

"Fifa is currently studying the judgment and considering the options," a Football Federation Australia (FFA) spokesman told local media on Saturday.

"We will do all we can to assist Bresciano and his representatives in having this issue resolved. The advice from Fifa is that the suspension doesn't apply to Tuesday night's match against Costa Rica."

The ban will hit Bresciano's hopes of appearing at the 2014 World Cup. Australia are to play Costa Rica, who have also qualified for Brazil, in a friendly.

Hogan-Howe's work with Hillsborough families was 'a shambles'

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 05:10 AM PST

Senior church figure criticises current Met chief's lack of organisation in dealing with bereaved families at time of disaster

The Metropolitan police commissioner headed an operation dealing with bereaved families at the Hillsborough disaster which was "utter chaos" and "a shambles," according to a senior church figure who was involved in ministering to the families.

Stephen Lowe, then the archdeacon of Sheffield, said "there was no organisation, no information, no sense of the police working in partnership," at the Hillsborough boys' club where anxious families were kept waiting for news, which was overseen by Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, then an inspector in the South Yorkshire police.

Lowe said one member of the clergy and one social worker were allocated to each family at the boys' club, but Hogan-Howe and his police officers kept themselves apart while providing no information about the many people missing.

"The inspector was not working as part of the team," said Lowe, who later became bishop of Hulme in Manchester. "There was no organisation – it was utter chaos, a shambles. The police were defensive; we could not get information; there was no sense of partnership or that they were there to help us do what was needed..."

Lowe said it was "incomprehensible" and "a genuine omission," that Hogan-Howe appears never to have made a statement about what happened. Hogan-Howe said last year that he had made a statement to the official Taylor inquiry and subsequently refused to change it, but as the Observer revealed last week, that appears not to be true.

Hogan-Howe said he had been confused when he said he made a statement to the Taylor inquiry. In fact, the account he referred to is a brief, six-line note of a telephone conversation in May 1990, when Taylor's inquiry was over.

On April 15 1989, Lowe said he had seen on television the unfolding disaster, in which 96 Liverpool football club supporters were killed at the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. He went to Hillsborough to offer the church's help, and was asked by South Yorkshire police to open the boys' club for families, because Hammerton Road police station could not cope with the numbers of distraught people seeking news.

Hogan-Howe, who was at the time seconded to studying at Oxford university and was in Sheffield for the weekend, answered a call for off- duty officers, and was put in charge of the boys' club. Lowe did make a statement to the Taylor inquiry, in which he said Hogan-Howe's arrival initially "did improve the situation." However Lowe believed Hogan-Howe himself was short of information about missing people, then while the priests and social workers were "getting the brunt of the emotions of relatives and friends," he said: "I felt that we were not being included in any of the decisions taken by the police. Communication at this stage with the police was not as good as it should have been."

Lowe said he did not know why communication was poor, but police radios may not have been working well. That was a factor in the policing chaos at the football ground which led to the disaster.

Of the revelation that Hogan-Howe never made a statement, Lowe said: "It is incomprehensible. The families had to wait for hours at the boys' club in very unsatisfactory circumstances, then those whose relatives had died were taken to the gymnasium at the football ground to identify the body. The screams I heard from the families that night will stay with me forever.

"The trauma of Hillsborough was not just the deaths, it was the aftermath as well. The boys club is an important part of what happened at Hillsborough and the lack of a statement from the officer in charge at the boys' club is a genuine omission."

Paul Spearritt, the younger brother of Adam, who died at Hillsborough aged 14, said Lowe's account added more questions the family have about what happened that night. A senior officer at the boys' club read out a list of names at 7:20pm who were "alive and well," and Adam's name was incorrectly on it, adding to the Spearritt family's distress.

The family has now complained to the Independent Police Complaints Commission's Hillsborough inquiry, asking it to investigate how Adam came to be on the list, why South Yorkshire police have never explained it, and why Hogan-Howe has never made a statement. The Spearritts also want an investigation into Hogan-Howe's comments last year, when he said incorrectly that he had made a statement to Taylor then declined to change it.

The Metropolitan Police said the IPCC should investigate the apparent lack of any statement by Hogan-Howe after the disaster. As for his role on the day, the Met said: "Since the IPCC has indicated that the events of 15 April 1989, including those at the Hillsborough boys' club, form part of the [IPCC-managed] Operation Resolve inquiry it would be inappropriate for the Commissioner to give further details about his role or recollections of the operation before those conducting the inquiry have had the opportunity to speak to him first.

"It is however, well documented in the Taylor Report and subsequent reviews and inquiries that communications and information flow posed major problems for the police response."

David Conn

Szczesny signs new Arsenal contract

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 05:07 AM PST

• Polish keeper commits future to Premier League leaders
• Arsène Wenger praises Szczesny's 'mental strength'

Wojciech Szczesny has committed his future to Arsenal by signing a new long-term contract at the club.

The Poland international has put pen to paper on the new deal, although as is customary for Arsenal they have not revealed the length of the contract.

Szczesny told the official Arsenal website: "I am very pleased to have signed a new contract. Arsenal is like my family and I'm so happy to be committing my long-term future here.

"I've been at this club for over seven years now and I'd just like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for their support towards me during my time here.

"Many people have given me amazing support since I arrived as a boy, people like Tony Roberts, who helped my development as a player from a young age. I'm so proud to be an Arsenal player and am looking forward to helping our club towards success in the years to come."

The Gunners manager Arsène Wenger welcomed the deal, saying: "We're very pleased Wojciech has signed a new long-term contract. I have always believed he is an extremely talented player, with excellent reflexes and good mental strength.

"He continues to grow and improve all the time too, so he has the potential to be even better. He can be an important part of Arsenal Football Club for many years to come."

Szczesny has re-established himself as Arsenal's first-choice goalkeeper this season, after being dropped by Wenger following a poor spell of form last term.

The keeper has been at Arsenal since 2006, when he signed from Legia Warsaw's youth side, and made his first-team debut in 2009. He has been capped 15 times by Poland.

Cristiano Ronaldo keeps World Cup dream alive for Portugal after 1-0 victory over Sweden – video

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 04:57 AM PST

Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo says his late goal helps Portugal stay in the race for the World Cup qualification, but admits it might not be enough

Germany's Sami Khedira faces six months out and World Cup battle

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 04:38 AM PST

• Midfielder tears cruciate ligament in friendly with Italy
• Löw optimistic player will be fit, despite needing surgery

The Germany and Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira's World Cup hopes hang in the balance after he was ruled out for about six months with a torn cruciate ligament suffered in Friday's 1-1 draw against Italy.

Khedira, who also tore another ligament in his right knee during the incident, will undergo surgery. "He will need to be operated on but we are hopeful he could be fit in time for the World Cup," the team doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müeller-Wohlfahrt said.

The 2014 World Cup starts in Brazil next June and Germany take on England at Wembley in another friendly international on Tuesday as part of their buildup to the tournament. "This is a bitter setback for Sami but he always thinks positively and that is why I am optimistic he will be ready and fit when the World Cup starts," coach Joachim Löw said.

Khedira had formed a superb holding midfield partnership with Bastian Schweinsteiger, who himself underwent surgery this week for a persistent ankle injury. Schweinsteiger is not expected to return before the end of the winter break in January.

Löw said he had decided to travel to London without captain Philipp Lahm, first-choice keeper Manuel Neuer and playmaker Mesut Özil in order to give other players a chance. "They are absolutely part of the main structure of this team and what is important for me now is to give other players in these key positions a chance to show what they can do against a big opponent like England," he said.

The central defender Per Mertesacker, however, will return after sitting out the game against Italy because of flu.

Fantasy football has serious downsides, with every game becoming a torment | Tom Lamont

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 04:19 AM PST

After five years in a fantasy football league, it's become clear that it was a mistake that's ruining my enjoyment of the sport

Every football fan of measurable loyalty knows they're bound to a contract. At any given moment your weekend may be ruined – abruptly, all at once, and probably by someone who until then didn't seem much capable of influencing your life, like Steve Sidwell. I'm a Spurs fan, so chalk up the blighting of otherwise happy times to Winston Reid, and Glenn Whelan, and that lino who missed the goal at Old Trafford that time. I had no great need for an enhanced way for this sport to upset me: and yet, about five years ago, I signed up for a fantasy football league. It has become clear this was a mistake.

Patjim Kasami scored a chest-and-volley for Fulham last month that was thrilling, unforgettable, as good as that bit in Apollo 13 where they don't burn up on re-entry – and I watched it miserably. Kasami was in my fantasy football team but I'd left him on the bench.

No points for a player on the bench and no points, obviously, for a player who's not in your team at all. While the friends I play fantasy football against had identified Romelu Lukaku as a reliable point-grabber, I clung stubbornly to my start-of-season selection, Roberto Soldado. And Soldado, towards the end of October, did score a few; but by then I'd ditched him to bring in the free-scoring Lukaku. Who immediately stopped scoring. Fantasy football, with its transfer budgets and formation dilemmas, is meant to make you feel like a manager. What it actually makes you feel like is a bungling, low-rung god, accidentally malevolent and only able to curse those you want to foster.

Listening to the radio on a Saturday afternoon, it used to be that updates had to be coming in from White Hart Lane, or wherever Spurs were playing, for me to tense up. But as a fantasy manager the bad news comes in from everywhere. Southampton have conceded! (So their goalkeeper won't earn me points for a clean sheet.) Everton have subbed Ross Barkley! (I knew I should've given the spot to Steven Naismith.)

Tony Blair, misunderstanding superbly, once talked up fantasy football as a good way to practise maths. This was in 2000 and the game was still played in print, managers asked to frown over lists in the newspaper, adding up the achievements of Muzzy Izzet and Alen Boksic. Since the game migrated online, that little bit of arithmetic has gone; software automatically digests the weekend's goals and assists, totalling your points and delivering a verdict that can be devastating. I still wince at the 17 points missed when Luis Suárez scored an October hat-trick.

By the way, Blair was right to judge there are life lessons to be learned from fantasy football. One: Fernando Torres isn't worth the money. Two: beware of tinkering. (I have, shamefully, completed entire seasons of intricate transfer dealing, noticing afterwards that I'd have won more points if I'd left my XI alone from the start.) Three: there's nothing so motivating as the fear of letting down a friend. Leighton Baines, having scored twice in one game for Everton in September, said afterwards he was spurred on by team‑mate Leon Osman, who'd "taken me out of his fantasy football team because I wasn't doing enough". Baines vowed to score a couple, and did.

I'm not sure which version of the game Osman prefers, but I like the one on Fantasy.PremierLeague.com. (Also favoured by Peter Crouch. And Crouch plays properly: last season he dropped himself because he just wasn't performing.) I'm loyal to "Fantasy Prem" because it's free; because you can design your own kit, for instance the teal-and-lemon combo I'm trying to popularise; and because after five seasons as an also-ran in my mini-league, I want to hang around and win the thing. Problematically, I play against a group of psychic Mourinhos who can take in a couple of Match of the Days and deduce that Loïc Rémy is on the verge of a scoring bonanza. How do they know?

Not everyone competes on a level plane. Andy Murray is a devoted fantasy football man. Last season, between winning the US Open and Wimbledon, the Scot topped a mini-league among friends and even awarded himself a little trophy. But he admitted he'd had outside help. Wondering whether to keep or drop the injured Michael Dawson, Murray had simply sent Dawson a text. "He said I should drop him."

Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia once telephoned George Gillett, then co-owner of Liverpool, to find out whether Steven Gerrard was due to start at the weekend, not wanting to waste the spot in his lineup otherwise. Explaining his passion for fantasy football, Prince Abdullah said: "When you've got a player from Norwich City in your team [it means that] every game matters." This was my thinking when I signed up. How exciting, I thought, to have something to root for while watching Norwich. I was foolish.

Like many Tottenham supporters, I believe myself unfairly prone to sorrow. And it used to be lovely to slump in front of a game from Carrow Road, nothing at stake. Now? Now I'll sit there chuntering at a well-meaning mediocrity like Steven Whittaker, hoping he'll bundle the ball in off a long throw, or play for a point-earning 60 minutes without getting a yellow. It's exhausting.

Last season, preparing for a match with Manchester United, West Brom goalie Ben Foster dropped Robin van Persie from his fantasy squad. Foster's reasoning, I guess, was that when a Van Persie shot came rifling at him during the match, he didn't want to be in two minds. Save it, or take the points? Fantasy football can be deranging like that.

The novelist Sebastian Faulks has noted its strange effects, having once watched his son fine-tune a fantasy team on his laptop while a live match played out on TV. Faulks observed: "The fantasy football game, which depended on the real result, was actually more important to my son than the real game. I became aware [of] our willingness to live our lives at one remove from reality." Faulks put the idea into a novel, A Week in December, creating a character called Finn who was a fantasy football obsessive. Poor Finn. He ended up in a psychiatric unit, wrecked, sedated, "unseeing".

Before this happens to me, I plan to give up. Not yet, though. I've climbed to sixth in my mini-league and I'm finally ready to make a concerted push on the top four.

Tom Lamont

World Cup play-offs: 'There is still one more game left', says France's manager after losing to Ukraine – video

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 03:25 AM PST

France manager Didier Deschamps looks at the chances of qualifying for the World Cup after losing 2-0 to Ukraine

Goals allowed: Yeovil Town will launch own girl band to attract new fans

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 02:54 AM PST

• Championship club join forces with record company
• Group will perform at home games and launch charity single

Yeovil Town may not be making a big impact in the Championship but they are joining forces with a record label to launch their own girl band in a bid to climb the pop charts and attract a new generation of supporters to the club.

They are bottom of English football's second tier but will be the first football club to have a girl group and the plan is for the band – to be based on the Pussycat Dolls – to perform at home matches for the rest of the 2013-14 season.

Auditions for females aged 18 and over will be held at Huish Park on 4 December and the successful girls, a lead singer and a group of south-west-based dancers, will work with the Famous Company to record a single that will be released on iTunes. The record will raise money for Prostate Cancer UK – the Football League's official charity.

The Famous Company has worked with – among others – Rita Ora, The Saturdays, Conor Maynard, Ed Sheeran, Professor Green and McFly.

A club spokesman Adrian Hopper said: "Yeovil Town are delighted to get involved in this new innovative project. We feel sure the unique chance to have a girl band linking with us as a club will not only launch the group but also help to spread the word of Yeovil Town Football Club to a whole new section of the community, whilst at the same time helping charity from sales of the record."

Pressure on for Germany's Joachim Löw before England international

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 02:49 AM PST

Germany are ranked second in the world and have a talented squad but the coach is now expected to win a major title

In Germany, the 2006 World Cup is still fondly referred to as a "Summer's Tale", after the title of Sönke Wortmann's documentary about a tournament that proved nothing less than transformative, in a political and a sporting sense. More than seven years and 100 games in charge as head coach later, Joachim Löw can be proud of having made youthfulness, excitement and attacking football permanent features of the national side.

But lately all the fluid, fast-passing combinations and the many, many goals – they scored a record 36 times in the World Cup qualifiers – have left Löw's compatriots noticeably a little cold. It is not so much a case of Germans having become blase about the brilliance of the football, it is just they are just not quite sure if it really matters. No longer are they merely content with the beauty and the magic. What they want is a happy ending: Germany's first trophy since Euro 1996.

Since the second world war, Germany have never had to wait more than 18 years for success in major tournament. Löw is acutely aware that patience is running out, which is why he has been at pains to tone down expectations over the past few days. "I know that the longing for a trophy is strong in [our] country but I also know there's no automatic right [to win] simply because we haven't won anything for 18 years," the 53-year-old told Süddeutsche Zeitung. "The other day, someone said: 'There's no choice but to win titles with this German team.' Whoever says that is a fairy [story] teller for me."

For good measure, Löw repeated that belief before Friday night's 1-1 friendly draw against Italy. "Do not believe the fairy tellers," he warned, after listing a myriad of reasons why it will be "insanely" difficult to win the World Cup in Brazil.

Löw's problem is that he is increasingly preaching to the converted, at least to an extent. Despite Germany's consistently strong showings in recent years – reaching three semi-finals and one final since Löw first became involved as Jürgen Klinsmann's assistant in 2004; only Spain are ahead of them in Fifa's ranking – unbridled optimism is hard to locate. Some of the manager's concerns – the weather, the travelling, Brazil's home advantage – are being shared but an increasing number of supporters are worried that Löw might have become an obstacle to success.

The dark mutterings started after the traumatic semi-final defeat at Euro 2012 at the hands of nemesis Italy. Löw disappointed even his staunchest loyalists with a capricious line-up, the blatant defects of which were ruthlessly exploited by the Azzurri. The "historic collapse" (as the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger called it) in the 4-4 draw with Sweden 13 months ago in Berlin – Germany were four goals up after 56 minutes before a series of mistakes and a pervading sense of fear enabled the Swedes to snatch the unlikeliest of World Cup qualifying points – was less relevant but even more embarrassing. The team's capitulation at the Olympic Stadium reinforced long-held doubts about Germany's defensive and mental resilience. Löw's team won all the other qualification games but the suspicion lingers that his side lacks balance and character.

Perception plays a key role in all of this. In the early years of his reign, the urbane, espresso-drinking thrill-seeker – Löw has climbed Kilimanjaro and paraglided in the Alps – was feted like a pop star. But his marked sense of style, and that of his team, became to be seen as partly responsible for Germany's failure to make the final step. Löw, the accusation went, was too concerned with producing aesthetically pleasing football to address the team's defensive deficits: his aversion to practicing dead-ball situations, say, citing "a lack of time" and the need to focus on more important things. That led some to suspect that he somehow saw ordinary goals from non-open play as less desirable than sharp, Barcelona-style possession play. (Maybe Löw is simply aware of the statistical futility of said exercise: Chris Anderson and David Sally, the authors of the The Numbers Game, have shown that the average Premier League team needs almost 50 corners to score a single goal).

"I don't think people say: 'We are playing too beautifully to win anything," he said. "I think they enjoy our playing style. They enjoy a 5-3 win more than a 1-0." That might be true. But while most of his compatriots revel in the international admiration of their team, German football is yet to warm to the concept of losing gallantly. Winning is everything.

Löw, to his credit, has admitted to past mistakes. "I get it wrong when we lose, but I also get it wrong when we win sometimes," he said last week. "I probably get something wrong every week; every day, even." He claimed with, some justification, that worries about the back-line have been prevalent before every big tournament and that intense practice in the weeks before Brazil would whip the defence into shape. The task has become slightly more difficult in view of the widely different ways that Bayern Munich (Philipp Lahm, Jérôme Boateng), Borussia Dortmund (Mats Hummels, Marcel Schmelzer) and Arsenal (Per Mertesacker) defend; most of the 13 goals Germany had conceded before Friday's Italy game in 2013 were the products of miscommunication.

Before Tuesday's visit to Wembley, it was noted that Löw seemed more focused and determined than usual. "Of course I care [about the view of others] but I am the manager of the national team," he said. This was aimed at Bundesliga club managers and officials, who worry about their players either featuring too much or too little. Löw has not only resisted demands to call-up the Bayer Leverkusen striker Stefan Kiessling but also adopted a slighter harsher tone towards his regulars. Team spirit was not great during the 2010 tournament, as some members of the squad have privately admitted. And it has not been perfect since, either. Contrary to perception, there is no real tension between the Bayern and Dortmund camps but one or two talented individuals who have reacted badly to finding themselves outside the starting XI have been reprimanded. Löw, who abhors open conflict, needs to show that he can enforce discipline at the World Cup. The depth in the squad is such that some big names will inevitably end up on the bench.

Despite a few misgivings, the former Freiburg striker still enjoys the overwhelming support of the German FA, the DFB, and last month extended his contract until 2016. "Team and manager are like a unit, it could hardly be better," said Franz Beckenbauer on Friday. "The world envies us for the football we play."

Löw is Germany's most successful manager ever in terms results, winning 68% of his matches. But his place in history – and the outcome of next summer's tale – will rest on one or two key matches in Brazil. He will either be the man who wins the fourth World Cup for Germany, or the one who will be blamed if they do not.

Raphael Honigstein

The gifs that keep on giving: Bobsled, a one-hand dunk and a nutmeg own goal

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 02:00 AM PST

Featuring a playful Usain Bolt, a fan who thinks he's a dinosaur and the greatest footballer who ever kicked a ball through a hoop

Thanks for all your suggestions on our last gifs blog.

A one-hand dunk

... so good you have to see it twice.

Jamaica has a bobsled team

And a nation of jokers.

Denied

Jurassic Park.

Follow the ball

On the rebound.

A nutmeg own goal

An offcourt own goal.

A new sport

And its new king.

Drop your favourites into the comments box below

Spurs blow as Eriksen ruled out for a month

Posted: 15 Nov 2013 05:26 PM PST

• Eriksen hurt joint during Denmark's 2-1 win against Norway
• Could be out for 'four or six weeks,' says Denmark manager

Tottenham Hotspur have been dealt a blow before next week's resumption of the Premier League with the news that Christian Eriksen could be out for over a month with an injury sustained in Denmark's 2-1 win against Norway on Friday.

Eriksen limped out of the friendly at the MCH Arena in Herning on 40 minutes after hurting his ankle and watched the remainder of the contest with an ice pack round the joint. The 21-year-old will return to London to have the injury assessed by Spurs' medical staff but Morten Olsen, the Denmark manager, confirmed that the playmaker is likely to be unavailable for some time.

"We don't know if he's out for four or six weeks or how long it will take," he said. "It's bad for him at a new club."

Eriksen joined Spurs from Ajax for £11m in August and impressed on his debut for the club – a 2-0 victory over Norwich at White Hart Lane on 14 September. He scored in the team's next match, a 3-0 Europa League triumph against FC Tromso, and while the Dane has lost his place since he remains very much part of André Villas-Boas's plans, with the manager deploying him from the start in Spurs' last two matches.

Their next fixture is a daunting trip to Manchester City on 24 November.

Sachin Nakrani

Hodgson defends England after 'learning experience'

Posted: 15 Nov 2013 04:27 PM PST

• Manager calls for 'perspective' after experimental side lose 2-0
• Frank Lampard demands better performance against Germany

Roy Hodgson was left calling for "a sense of perspective" after Chile delivered a reality check at the national stadium by subjecting England to their first defeat in a year. The hosts departed the pitch to a smattering of boos from the home support and the manager insisted they must do better against Germany next week.

A goal in either half from the outstanding Barcelona forward Alexis Sánchez deflated an experimental English line-up and checked momentum following last month's heartening qualification for next summer's World Cup finals. Hodgson had handed debuts to three players, and game-time to the likes of Phil Jones and Ross Barkley, only for Chile, ranked two places below England at 12th in the world, to prevail comfortably and curtail a 10-match unbeaten run. The defeat was England's heaviest at home since Australia won 3-1 at Upton Park in February 2003.

"There was almost an entire team of our players who didn't play, but the experimenting does not totally explain the result because we played against a very good team tonight," said Hodgson. "We learned a lot. It wasn't easy chasing that game. We are fully aware that the team needs work. We hope to learn from what went on tonight and we hope to learn again on Tuesday. We will try to do a better job and send our fans home happy. It's not all doom and gloom. It's how you deal with defeats and we'll retain a sense of perspective.

"There will be a lot of players on Tuesday who didn't play tonight, so should be fresh. Hopefully, having watched the game, they'll be aware of how important it will be to give a good performance. I took a chance, ran a risk with the debuts, in the hope it would go our way. It didn't. I have to accept that responsibility. As for the boos, that's part of the game today. Fans don't accept defeats or want them. Who does? We don't want them either.

"But there aren't many games I see played today where, if the home team has lost, there isn't some sort of booing. I'll not criticise our fans. They were disappointed tonight that we couldn't keep our momentum and performances going, so they're entitled to show their frustration. But they'll show a measure of perspective, I'm sure."

Southampton's Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez, together with Fraser Forster of Celtic, earned their first caps and, while the Saints' captain Lallana did show flashes of his quality, all three found the experience an eye-opener. "It's going to be harsh to make too many judgments on them," said Hodgson. "They did come into a team where a lot of the players around them weren't necessarily the most experienced, either. And we were playing a team where even our more experienced players, or those who had played more in the qualifiers, would have found it more difficult anyway. Chile were good and deserved to win.

"But we learned a lot about what it's like to play against South American opposition, how good they are at sucking you towards their goalkeeper who manages then to ping 40-50 yard balls on to people's toes. That was probably the best passing display from a goalkeeper I've ever seen. They had a lot of players with 40 to 70 caps, and they've been together a while and know how to play with each other. We need to keep a balance on the whole thing, even if taking positives from defeats is always difficult. I didn't expect to lose. I didn't think the team I selected would lose the game, but we did. All I can do is remedy areas of the team which we can improve with an eye on the Germany game on Tuesday."

Joe Hart will start that match, the Manchester City goalkeeper having missed his last four club games after a recent dip in form. Jones will miss the match with a groin injury that requires a scan on Saturday, while Rickie Lambert will be assessed when the players reconvene at their Hertfordshire hotel on Sunday evening. "We didn't need a reality check," said Frank Lampard, who captained the team and was presented with a golden cap before kick-off to mark his century of appearances. "We know that we are not on the moon, and we are not terrible. We are somewhere in the middle. But we've got another game against top-class opposition on Tuesday and we have to do better."

Germany will arrive having drawn 1-1 against Italy in Milan, despite hitting the woodwork three times en route, with England apparently seeking an immediate response to this setback. "The lads were very unhappy, sad that a good run has come to an end and to lose that run on home soil," added Hodgson. "But it's important that, having been knocked down, they pick themselves up again. It's a big game on Tuesday. We need to play better if we're going to beat top teams like Chile and Germany."

Dominic Fifield

Browse More Articles

Written by TBMU Admin

We are Manchester United Fan located around the World which provides user friendly, effective and easy to browse info regarding our Team. Each support/info is free. Support us by clicking the ads located in this site. Thanks

Sunday, 17 November 2013

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

07:30

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

MAN OF THE DAY

RUNNER-UP

FANS OF THE DAY

VOLUNTEER OF THE DAY

BENEFACTORS OF THE DAY

BROKEN RUN OF THE DAY

MANAGER OF THE DAY

MUST-HAVE GIFT

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Brand of the week

Meanwhile

United front

War on racism latest

Modern football

Sharpest rethink

Manager news: moving on

Coolest exit

Respect campaign news

Best appraisal

Ruse of the week

Love news

Plus: best sympathy

League One

League Two

A one-hand dunk

Jamaica has a bobsled team

Denied

Follow the ball

A nutmeg own goal

A new sport

Written by TBMU Admin

0 comments :

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Follow TBMU FBook/Twitter

Popular on TBMU

About TBMU

Subscribe TBMU