World Football Postulant

Contracts may not mean much in the footballing world, but the signing of them can send messages. When David Villa signed his contract with Valencia today, a deal with runs through 2014, the message was clear. Villa will not be moving before September 1.

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PSV Eindhoven unofficially began the defense of their four consecutive Eredivisie championships by downing Feyenoord for the Dutch Super Cup.  The match-up between the winner of the regular season and the winner of the league cup was scoreless at halftime before PSV found their edge in the second half, eventually winning the match 2-0.

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Raymond Domenech’s honeymoon period after being affirmed as manager of the France national team is over with a thud. One day after a 3-2 win over Sweden in which Les Blues finally started incorporating some of their younger talent, one of the players that should be a cornerstone of their next World Cup has quit over selection issues.

Whether Sebastien Frey should as upset about Steve Mandanda starting the Sweden match is questionable, but he is not the first French star to be done with the national team over Domenech. The goalkeeper that was so important to Fiorentina’s Serie A and UEFA Cup runs was not even selected, with Domenech electing to pick Lyon younger Hugo Lloris as Mandanda’s back-up. Frey, who had a strong claim to playing time over Gregory Coupet in Euro 2008, is now done with Domenech and France, telling the team that he will be devoting himself to Fiorentina full time.

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When I saw the score yesterday, I thought it a great result for Martin Jol.  For him to go to München and get a point from Bayern in his league debut with Hamburger SV was a great start, I thought.  It is an even better result considering the defending league championship were up two half way through the first, with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski having taken control of the match.

Bayern can be forgiven a bit if they let Hamburg back into the match.  The ended up playing without Franck Ribery, German Footballer of the Year, who is still recovering from an ankle injury suffered during the European Championships.  München were also without Luca Toni, the league’s leading scorer last term, who has been recovering from a hamstring injury for the last month.  Their starting lineup was also absent center back Martin Demichelis, a loss which have would have been big enough without his partner Lúcio picking up a knock in the fourth minute.  With Breno at the Olympics and Willy Sangol out, Bayern coach Jürgen Klinsmann was without any back-ups at center half.  München adjusted by having Daniel van Buyten do all the roaming while the Brazilian stayed at home.

In that context, Bayern’s 2-2 draw with Hamburger look less a capitulation and more survival.  It speaks to how deep and talented Bayern is compared to the rest of the league that they were still able to compete with the team that finished fourth in last year’s Bundesliga.

This is not to say Bayern had a completely incapable side.  They still had Podolski and Miroslav Klöse up top, with Schweinsteiger, Zé Roberto, Mark van Brommel in the midfield and Philip Lahm at the back.  Zé Roberto helped set-up Schweinsteiger’s opener, while Podolski scored his goal from a penalty kick.

Hamburg fought back and ended with a well deserved draw.  Peruvian José Guerrero pulled them within one with a great first-half goal that came amidst a very impressive performance.  A symmetry-building penalty kick got them even in the second.  The call that led to the penalty kick was not the kind of clear-cut, no-doubt circumstance that you hope for in a tying goal, but given how the visitors had played throughout the match, Piotr Trochowski’s goal did not yield an unjust result.

Hamburg continued the strong play they had exhibited throughout the preseason despite not playing Mohammad Zidan (presumably knowing he was to be dealt to Dortmund) and not getting the kind of dynamic play from newcomer Jonathan Pitroipa that led me to believe they would not be as hurt by Rafael van der Vaart’s sale as many believed.  With Mladen Petric coming in, some of van der Vaart’s goal scoring will be replaced, but this team will be fine regardless if they play with the creativity they showed on Friday.  Martin Jol has Hamburger playing with much more ambition than last season.  That may just be an appearance gathered from Ivica Olic running around Bayern’s back line for ninety minutes, but Jol seems to want Hamburg to open up an attack that finished tenth in goals in last season’s Bundesliga.

We will have to wait for Bayern to get healthy to know where they stand, though there is little doubt that they are the class of the league.  At least, they should be considered as such until they show otherwise.  Hamburg, however, may not be in for the downturn many are expecting.  Some see the sky falling without van der Vaart.  Jol seems to have his players believing otherwise.

Links
Jol happy with comeback draw against Bayern
Bayern held to 2-2 draw by Hamburg
Bayern held on Klinsmann’s debut
Bayern 2-2 Hamburg: Trochowski hits equaliser
Bayern held in opener
Klinsmann: Still Work to Do
Champions Bayern held in opener
Bayern Held By HSV In Bundesliga Opener
Bayern held by Hamburg in Klinsmann’s first game
Bayern held on Klinsmann’s debut

One day after salvaging a great draw at Munich, Hamburg moved to replace the twelve goals they lost in selling Rafael van der Vaart to Real Madrid when they acquired Mladen Petric (top right) from Borussia Dortmund.   The Croatian striker will now join up with national side teammate Ivica Olic, who has carried over this Euro 2008 form into the club season, forming the most potent striking combination north of Munich.  He is best known farther west as the player who scored the goal at Wembley which kept England out of the European Championships.  For Slavan Bilic and Croatia, he’s become a key to that country’s rising international profile.

Petric had only spent one season at Dortmund after coming over from FC Basel of the Swiss league, where he’s played almost his whole club career.  Although he helped lead Dortmund to the DFB Pokalfinal, it was a slightly disappointing season for the club.  Still, the 27-year-old Petric had thirteen goals in 29 league games and will be difficult to replace.

But in dealing Petric to Hamburg, Dortmund gets back cash and a player who could end up being just as good.  For his national team, Mohammad Zidan (right) has been in key in making Egypt the best team in Africa and one of the more dangerous sides beyond international football’s elite.  In Germany, however, he has infrequently gotten a firm foothold.  He has struggled with injuries and playing time in his stints with Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV, scoring only six goals in 36 matches between the two clubs.  He was, however, during a spell at Mainz (between stops with the other two teams) dominant, scoring 22 goals in 41 league appearances.

He can be better than Petric.  Perhaps there is a cultural adjustment issue here, or perhaps it’s a big fish, small pond issue.  Going to Dortmund, he is moving to a smaller pond - a club that is closer to the position the to-be-relegated Mainz was.  Based on his performances in preseason, I like Zidan to be a more than adequate replacement for Petric and, if everything clicks, be even better.

This was a very astute move for Dortmund.  From Hamburg’s point of view, they may have felt they needed to get the more-recently-proven commodity.  It’s a conservative, uninspiring move that hints at there maybe being more to the story.

Dortmund pulled off a great victory at Bayer Leverkusen today (without either Petric or Zidan), winning 3-2 against a side I picked for Europe.

Links
Petric to Hamburg, Zidan to Dortmund

Le Championnat, the French football championship, starts this Saturday, marking the beginning to the European club season.

Because of Euro 2008 and the Olympics, the off-season has been squeezed on both sides, making for a much shorter down period than many would have liked.  I, however, can not wait for the season to start, and if you remember the circumstances behind Lyon’s seventh consecutive championship, their quest for their eighth can not start soon enough.

Bordeaux, under new coach Laurent Blanc, transcended the gap between Lyonnais and the rest of the table.  They sat only two points back of the champions on the last weekend of the season.  In that 38th round, Lyon beat Paris St. Germain while Bordeaux tied Lens, giving the holders a four point gap.  It was a gap that near evaporated after Blanc’s side went undefeated in their last nine, with six wins.  Bordeaux had improved by eighteen points while Lyon only slipped by two, foreshadowing a 2008-09 rivalry that will define the season.

While the dominant summer story line has been Lyon’s quest for eight, it bears wondering why Bordeaux can not challenge for the title again.  Their goal differential last season was +27, indicative of a team that was getting by on talent over timing.  They bring back their team in tact, ready to shoot down Lyon, while having added young, star forward Yoan Gouffran from Caen.

My predictions for Ligue 1 will come later today, but if you are looking upon France football from a far and seeing a one team league, consider the first of ten reasons why you should follow this season’s Championnat.

1.  Lyon will be pushed for the title

Bordeaux is not going anywhere.  With a year’s experience chasing Lyon and a little more firepower, they will be as strong.  Blanc’s side took 0 of 6 possible points from Lyon last season.  If they can come up with one win (or draw both matches), the four point gap is closed.  They do not need to improve that much to take the title.

Lyon has responded to this threat be restructuring their team.  They let center back Sebastien Squillaci move to Sevilla, goalie Gregory Coupet go to Atlético Madrid, and famously sold Hatem Ben Arfa to Marseille.  All of these players have been replaced, and in the case of the first two, Lyon’s taken the opportunity to get younger.  How the new additions fit into the squad Claude Puel, in his first season managing Lyon, designs will determine whether Lyon can maintain the league while continuing to push for European success.

No matter if you are looking for continued Lyon excellence or toward Bordeaux to snap the string, it will be a story to follow into May.

2.  Karim Benzema

Karim Benzema (pictured) has been knocked this summer for a Euro 2008 performance that was perceived as disappointing.  I even saw a list that held his two games amongst the most disappointing aspects of the European Championships, a claim that made my jaw drop.  Benzema was playing out of position for a manager who did not favor him.  A classic lead striker, Benzema was lined-up to accomdate the legend Thierry Henry.  Watch Benzema this season and you will see a player who should be accomodating nobody.

Follow Lyon and you will see a player that deserves his reputation.  At 21, he is clearly the best player in the league and probably the best player at his age in the world.  While he has gotten by to this point in his career on his superior athletic ability, he has continued to develop his technical ability and is on the verge of being a player who is consistently considered for World Footballer of the Year.

Get in near the ground floor on Benzema so you will be able to put his career and the French national team’s impending rise into context.

3.  League of Young Stars

Le Championnat has developed Benzema and has readied Samir Nasri for Arsenal.  They are only two of a series of French stars that are coming through the ranks.  The France national team disappointed at Europe 2008 with a series of aged stars.  The squad will reload for South Africa off the prospects blooming in Ligue 1 - prospects who can match technical ability with the youth of any country in the world.

4.  Overall quality is right below the big three

There is this mild misconception that the Bundesliga is the fourth best league in Europe, and while there is no way to prove otherwise, I will argue this point with anybody:  France has the fourth best football league on the continent.  The success of their clubs in Europe can back up this claim, as can watching the games.  The technical ability on display in France can be compared (if not favorably, then closely) to that of Spain and Italy.  The league lacks the athletes present in La Liga and Serie A.  The league is nowhere near as fast and demanding as the Premiership,and it does not have the same drawing power as any of the big three.  But as far as quality of play technically, France is top shelf.

The league is ranked fourth in UEFA coefficients (and has been for a while), one spot above Germany; five above the Eredivisie.

I’m just saying.

5.  Looking for the next, non-big three Champions League winners

It’s been almost five years since Jose Mourinho led FC Porto to the Champions League title.  Since then, the big three have had a stranglehold on the Champions League, with teams from outside their leagues rarely showing well in the knock-out phases.  It has become a quest to identify which club from other leagues might break back through.  When you look around for candidates, Porto, the Bundesliga’s Bayern Munich, and Lyon jump out.

To a greater extent than even Munich, Lyon is turning their attention to Europe.  Winning seven titles in a row will tempt you to do that.  Last year, they lost 1-0 on aggregate in the Champions League Round of 16 to eventual champions Manchester United.  Because they were drawn against United and knocked out so early, fans forget how good their team was.

This season, they have brought in Puel with the mandate to make Lyon a player on the continent.   As the team adjusts its goals, maintains one of the strongest midfields on the continent, and continues to groom Benzema as a player that can steal matches, Lyon will grow as a threat to the continent’s mega-clubs.

6.  For a broader Europe

As the big three leagues have continued to grow in power, wealth, and influence, us fans have seen our exposure to the great leagues in Germany, Holland, and Portugal dwindle.  Russia’s performance in Euro 2008 with a team made-up exclusively of Russian Premier League players reminded the world:  There are many places around the world where good football is being played.

French football has not been overlooked like the leagues in Russia or Brazil, but their exposure is more like that of those leagues than the big three.  Supporting Le Championnat, the Bundesliga, the Eredivisie, and the Portuguese Liga helps broaden the game and, depending on how you view the implications of that, improves the sport by increasing its scope.

7.  African presence in Le Championnat

The benefits of increasing the exposure of these leagues:  diversity.  As fans, we get exposed to more players - different players, different styles.  It really excentuates the beauty of the game, to see how many different styles and forms can be employed to play the same, simple game.

In France, one product of diversification is the African influence.  France’s history in northern Africa has led to a pipeline of African talent being recruited into Le Championnat. Some teams within Ligue 1 will have more than half of their starting XI made up of players with African origins.

The same multi-cultural spirit that’s defined the French national team over the last decade is seen throughout the French league.

8.  The rebirth of Paris St. Germain

One of the interesting aspects of the French league is the lack of clubs in the country’s largest city.  Paris St. Germain is the capital’s club, yet lest season they were almost relegated, needing a run of play over the last rounds to finish in sixteenth.  They found themselves in this precarious position despite winning the Coupe de la Ligue and qualifying for this year’s UEFA Cup.

Their plight and their wont to recover has drawn the attention of a number of expatriate Frenchmen, including Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger and captain William Gallas.  While that Gunner duo will not be in Paris this season, the club was able to convince icon Claude Makélélé to trade Chelsea for PSG to close out his career.  Former Roma winger Ludovic Guily has also returned to try and reestablish the club, hoping to make last season look more anomaly than pattern.

9.  It is the first league out of the gate

If you are like me and do not need a summer break, then the club season can not start soon enough.  Le Championnat is the first of the big leagues to start.  The Bundesliga and Premiership start next weekend, which gives us a whole week to either love French football or over-scrutinize the big three league.

I vote for France.

10.  World Football Postulant will follow Le Championnat with you

Throughout the year, I plan to post match predictions and reviews on Le Championnat, even if time constraints have help me from watching as much as I would like.  It is always more fun following a league with somebody else, so let’s do this together.  Stay with WFP all season long as we follow these and all the other story lines which evolve from one of the best leagues in the world.

Together, we will either become experts on Le Championnat or be berated by an expert who finds us.  I’m looking forward to both possibilities.

Later today, I will be posting my season predictions, as well as may picks for the first weekend of the season.  Please post your own predictions and picks, and we can hold each other to them as the season progresses.

Welcome back, football.  Welcome back, football fans.

attacking midfielder Franck Ribery has won Germany’s Footballer of the Year award, becoming only the second foreign player to win the honor.

In his first season after moving from Marseille to the Bundesliga, Ribery was instrumental in Bayern’s resurgence to the top of the table, scoring 11 goals in 28 league games.  Ribery also led Bayern to the German Cup title.

Ribery decisively outpointed second-place Michael Ballack (three time winner) in the award’s voting, completing a meteoric rise to international football stardom for the Frenchman.  The 25-year-old did not receive his first international cap until two years ago.  Shortly after, he proved a key player in France’s 2006 World Cup run, where they would end the tournaments as runners-up to Italy.  One year later, Ribery jumped from Marseille, to whom he had just move a year earlier after contentiously leaving Galatasaray in a salary dispute, for a €25 million fee, identified by Bayern as a key player in their rebounding from a disappointing 2006-07 that saw the German powers finish fourth in their league.

Along with Luca Toni, brought in from Serie A’s Fiorentina, Ribery revitalized the Munich club and now has them ready to be a force in Champions League.

Ribery has now, in successive years, won French Footballer of the Year and German Footballer of the Year.  He inherits this award from Stuttgart’s Mario Gómez.

Ribery is currently recovering from an ankle injury suffered during Euro 2008 and is likely to miss München’s season opener against Hamburg SV next week.

German Footballer of the Year, 2004-2008

Quotes
“It’s good for a sportsman to be recognized for his performances. But I have to say that the titles won last year by the team are far more important.” -  Ribery

Links
Ribery voted German footballer of the year
France’s Ribery voted German footballer of the year

If I had to bet, I would put money on Tottenham being without David Villa come September 1.  Still, there is an awful lot of smoke around these rumors for there not to be fire.  But the sticking points in my mind:  the current club says they’re not selling, and the player and his representation are being coy about it all.  This seems more Juande Ramos trying provide a cash catalyst to the situation.

Perhaps Ramos and Ramon Calderon went to some seminar together in the spring?

Today, new rumors come from reliable sources.  Tottenham is set to offer £32 million for David Villa.  The sale of Dimitar Berbatov would fund the transaction, with the Bulgarian to be moved for £30 million.

That reported chain of events should raise doubts as to the veracity of the rumors.  Who is going to pay £30 million for Berbatov?  The reports make it seem like not only will somebody do it (Barça?), but they have confirmed this to Spurs, who are only waiting to find another striker to finalize the Bulgarian’s signing.  And yet Berbatov still plays in the preseason games, as he did this weekend.  So beyond the fact that Valencia seems ill-disposed to selling their striker, there are problems with this story.

If somebody has confirmed they want to buy Berbatov for £30 million, why wait?  Spurs didn’t wait to sell Robbie Keane to Liverpool, were willing to create a hole in their linep (which, thankfully, Darren Bent has filled nicely), and now Zenit St. Petersburg is holding Ramos over the coals on Andrei Arshavin’s price.

The same rumors that have Spurs making a new, record-setting bid for Villa have them staying in the picture with Arshavin.  It is all very fantastical, but I refuse to doubt anything Spurs-related after they improbably sold Robbie Keane and then decided David Bentley was a good fit.   Just as I may be proven wrong on Bentley, I may be proven wrong on Villa, and the Spain international could be in London by the end of the month.

The move makes sense if Valencia is you think the reports of their debt problems are accurate.  I never know what to trust with those stories because there are so many different ways clubs can elect to report their debt that I always feel like I’m on the end of a marketing campaign.  If Valencia were inclined to see Villa, though, wouldn’t they have done it a month ago, when Villa’s value was sky-high after Euro 2008 and they could spend the next month using the proceeds to procure a replacement?  With their UEFA Cup campaign about to start and a reasonable expectation they will compete for a UEFA Cup (or even Champions League) spot for next season (as well as wanting to defend the Copa del Rey), how does now doing an about face on Villa make sense?

As you can tell by my inane use of questions as writing devices, I don’t think it does.  All this smoke we’re seeing it just that: smoke.  That said, he would fit rather nicely in North London.

Quotes
“David likes London and likes how Spurs play under Ramos. If they present an offer, Valencia will seriously study the subject.” - Jose Luis Tamargo, agent, Villa
“Valencia CF has made no agreement nor are they involved in any negotiations to transfer David Villa and David Jimenez Silva to any club in Spain or abroad.” - Valencia
“It is completely untrue. I have informed both the players and their agents in an official and clear manner that the firm intention of the club is for both of the players to stay with us and see out their contracts.” - Valencia

Links
Tottenham eyeing £60million triple swoop?
Spurs reportedly prep $80M mega-bid for Villa
Spurs set for record breaking swoop
Valencia furious over Villa-Silva sale claims
Valencia determined to keep stars
Valencia want to keep Spanish stars Villa and Silva
Soriano vows to keep stars at Valencia

This season, there will be no more scrutinized goalie in the world than Chelsea’s Petr Cech.  After the goal he gave up at Euro 2008 to Nihat Kahveci that allowed Turkey to tie their final group stage match against the Czech Republic, Cech temporarily knocked himself out of the discussion for world’s best keeper, a debate which now leaves Juventus’s Gianluigi Buffon and Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas as its only candidates.   It was not just the Euro 2008-aberration.  Others remembered the howler Cech let in against Liverpool towards the end of Chelsea’s Champions League semifinal.

Yesterday in Moscow, Chelsea’s friendly against Lokomotiv in the Russian Railways Cup offered another reason to wonder if Cech will ascend back to the form that had him voted Europe’s best goalkeeper twice.

Chelsea had been protecting an early Michael Essien goal for most of the match when Loko was awarded a direct free kick from just outside the box.   There was less than ten minutes remaining in regular time.  Cech positioned his wall and looked like he had Ruslan Kambalov’s free kick covered.  As the ball came around the wall and towards the lower right-hand corner of Cech’s goal, the keeper curiously pulled his hands back slightly from the save, presumedly to let the ball would go wide.  The curving shot hit the inside of the post and went in to tie the match in a true “I can’t believe that just happened” moment.

Lokomotiv would go on to win the match on penalty kicks, with Cech failing to stop any of Loko’s attempts.

It was just a friendly, and of the three goals mentioned here, only one has been truly consequential, but in all three instances, Cech was trying to stop shots and did not do it (for what ever reason).  For people trying to assess Petr Cech, trying to determine what he is capable of, these instances matter.

Petr Cech is capable of some of the best goaltending in the world.  Last season, his return from injury to Chelsea’s lineup was one of the main reasons the Blues were able to push for both the Premiership and Champions League titles.  Still, his tendency to allow goals like these is troublesome, keeping him out of the conversation of best goaltender in the world.

Beyond Petr Cech’s performance, the Loko match exhibited one of Chelsea’s more worrisome tendencies from last season.  Chelsea had a knack for playing down to their opponents’ level - of either relaxing once they got a lead or not doing enough to get leads early.  Their Champions League loss in Istanbul to Fenerbahçe showed this, as did their final Premiership match against Bolton, to name two of the more obvious examples.

Similarly in this match, Chelsea controlled most of the match but showed an unwillingness to put forth the effort to get that critical second goal.   The one player who really stood out in his effort - a possibly rejuvenated Niclas Anelka, who beautifully trapped a cross onto Essien’s left foot for the goal - lacked teammates who matched his intensity.  They kept the lead at one, given Loko the opportunity to win in kicks should something like a Cech hiccup happen.

Loko is a very good team, possibly a title threat in the Russian Premier League, but they were clearly not in Chelsea’s league.  You do not want to take too much from a friendly, but if Chelsea goes through a second season of leaving points on the pitch like this, they can forget about winning a Premiership where Manchester United will be joined by improved Arsenal and Liverpool sides.

Luca Toni did not make Bayern Munich’s trip to Japan this week, leaving München to start Miroslav Klöse and Lukas Podolski up top.  That combination my have to persist for a while longer as Toni not only is expected to miss not only this week’s friendly against Inter Milan but also the team’s season opener in two weeks when the club hosts Hamburg.

Bayern’s general manager said today that the earliest Toni could be back looks like the season opener, leaving the total duration on the injury as close to one month.

For a club that has built up as much talent as Munich it should not be that big a deal of Toni is not ready.  Their two world class striker’s aside, it is better to have Toni healthy for when the schedule really picks up (when the Champions League group stage starts).  There is no reason to rush him back when rest will solve his injury problems.  Bayern continues to be wisely conservative with his calf problem.

While losing a player like Toni is always a blow, the news about Frank Ribery should help offset the Bayern fans’ disappointment.  News of the surgery Ribery was to have yesterday was overblown, with the procedure only done to remove a screw from his surgically repaired ankle.  Ribery can now concentrate on verifying his Euro 2008 injury has healed while rebuilding his fitness.  Bayern seems optimistic that his fitness will return quickly and are now leaving open the possibility that their French star will be available for the Hamburg match.

Quotes

“You cannot take muscular injuries lightly.” - Uli Hoeness, general manager, Bayern Munich
“I think the earliest [Toni] could possibly be back is for the opening game of the season against Hamburg.” - Hoeness
“Things are moving pretty quickly with Franck.” - Hoeness
“He (Ribery) is not a heavyweight after all - more like a flea.” - Hoeness
“The procedure took place without any complication and Ribery has already begun his physiotheraphy.” -  Bayern Munich

Links

Toni blow for Bayern Munich
Ribery undergoes surgery
Ribery to undergo second operation
Ribery undergoes surgery