Feliz Futbolitinos! We kick off this weekend’s edition with Santos’ studs Ganso and Neymar who were the centerpiece of the selecao’s latest national team kit unveiling yesterday. You all know that Pele signed up to be on this but they couldn’t find the right goalkeeping outfit which said “O perfeito” (The Perfect One) for him. SNAP!!
Brazil’s new kit now sports a modified V-neck cut with the sentence “Born to Play Football” written on its sleeves. It has thankfully returned back to its minimalist roots and the blue version falls nicely on Ganso’s abs! In the last few years, the selecao have experimented with various designs including yellow strips and lines on their shirts but we all know what Brazil are really about – making futebol simple. So they must ensure that everything leading up to 2014 is about perfecting their techniques because the white strips are not going to help them win a World Cup. Get to the memo, caras!
The other scandal from the football fraternity yesterday was that of John Terry being stripped of his England captaincy. Terry will stand trial on July 9 to answer a charge that he racially abused QPR’s Anton Ferdinand.
This issue is not worth a debate and simply boils down to ethics. A captain leads by example and what Terry had said to Anton Ferdinand (regardless of the ‘context’) showed a lack of class and initiative. Also, the fact that there still remains a fair amount of friction between Terry and Rio Ferdinand isn’t going to help England’s Euro 2012 campaign either.
Given the circumstances mentioned above, one potentially awkward match to watch this weekend – albeit its quality – would be the Chelsea vs United fixture on Sunday. Thankfully, Alex Ferguson has apparently spoken to Rio Ferdinand about shaking John Terry’s hands as a show of solidarity prior to kickoff. He shouldn’t have bothered because Terry picked up a knee injury and didn’t turn up for training at all this week. Which reminds us – one of us saw Terry driving out of Chelsea’s training ground like a Formula 1 driver on the way to the supermarket a few weeks ago!
Chelsea is likely to field a probable 4-3-3 formation (AVB’s favourite) while United’s 4-4-2 looks to be a possibility. There’s a lot of banter surrounding the referee whose name is none other than your highness Howard Webb. Although Webb has been regularly called ‘United’s 12th player’, you’d be surprised to learn that Chelsea are favourites to nick a win at Stamford Bridge. We’d love to back De Gea up here, but it seems quite impossible…
Of course, there have been complains from you chicas that Ronaldo hasn’t made an appearance on this site this week. Ahhhh, what a life! Unfortunately, the weather has been freezing in Madrid and it has been impossible to do anything involving street swag and gold chains (footballer style) so Ronnie hasn’t been out much.
Instead, here’s a photo from Real Madrid’s training session yesterday afternoon. Madrid travel to Getafe later tonight for a La Liga fixture so good ol’ Ronaldo should have more time to go shoe shopping on Sunday.
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