Of Brazilians, brains and brawls
Bolshy Brazilian strikers grabbed the Bundesliga headlines this weekend, but for wildly varying reasons.
First up Marcio Amoroso got his share of the limelight when he refused to substituted by Borussia Dortmund coach Mattias Sammer during the 3-0 win over Energie Cottbus.
Amoroso is the Bundesliga’s leading scorer with 15 goals this season and he felt that Sammer was robbing him of the chance to build on the record. He stropped for fully two minutes before finally allowing Miroslav Stevic to replace him.
The former Parma player, canada goose coat 1000 calorie who moved for £16m in the summer, had missed four clean-cut chances during the game and had a goal disallowed for offside.
“It was pretty obvious that I had a big problem with him as he didn’t want to leave the field,” explained Sammer. “I was fuming and he was fuming, too.”
“He is a very emotional player and generally I like players who always want to play the full 90 minutes,” Sammer said. “But he has to accept my decision as I am responsible for all the team and not just an individual player.”
Tomas Rosicky and Ewerthon succeeded where Amoroso buy canada goose jacket uk failed and sent BVB two-up at the break. Substitute Billy Reina added a third late on to bring Dortmund within a point of Liverpool’s buy canada goose jacket toronto Champions League opponents Bayer Leverkusen at the top – themselves convincing winners, 4-0, at 1860 Munich.
Stroppy South American #2: Giovane Elber announced his return to the Bayern Munich side, his first since ranting about being buy canada goose jacket online cheap dropped by coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, by bagging a brace in the defending champions’ 3-0 win over Cologne.
In doing so, the hot-headed Brazilian broke Stephane Chapuisat’s record buy canada goose jacket uk for the most goals scored by a foreign player in the Bundesliga bringing his total to 108 goals since arriving at Stuttgart in 1994.
“I was fuming about being dropped for the games against Manchester and Nantes and my motivation was still down when I was told to start today,” said Elber after the game.
“The first half was no fun at all, but during half-time I really got my act together and I went out to score,” he told onefootball.com.
The hosts struggled to break down the Bundesliga’s bottom club for over an hour, until a moment of genius by Elber. He showed perfect best canada goose jacket womens control on the left edge of the box and made Cameroon defender Rigobert Song look like a fool – no, really – before pinging the ball into the top-right corner.
Bayern doubled the lead through a debatable penalty awarded when Roque Santa Cruz went down under Moses Sichone’s challenge, before Elber headed in English Owen Hargreaves’ cross in best canada goose jacket style the dying seconds.
Bayern-bound midfielder Sebastian Diesler returned for Hertha Berlin to a resounding boo after a six-month lay-off with a knee injury.
The gifted international midfielder helped his side to a sixth win in seven games with a 2-0 victory over FC Nuremberg, but was the target for a barrage of abuse from the stands as supporters made the most of their first opportunity to express displeasure at Diesler’s defection.
“I had somehow expected the crowd’s reaction, but I can’t help it,” canada goose coat $5000 no credit check signature loans said Deisler. “I will continue to give my best for Hertha for the last six games and hope that we can qualify for Europe again.”
Hertha captain Michael Preetz condemned the jeering, saying: “Sebastian has always given his best for the club and deserves to be treated with respect.”
Another Brazilian, Alex Alves, scored both Berlin goals. However the 27-year-old striker limped off after 53 minutes and will be out for at least the next two weeks.
Dutch score draw
Dutch leaders Ajax were held to a 1-1 draw at title rivals PSV Eindhoven, but canny manager Ronald Koeman said it was a point gained rather than two lost.
“We are not unhappy with this result, because I believe that PSV were the better side most of the time,” he said, making sure no-one could point an accusatory finger at him.
Ajax took the lead against the run of play through Tomas Galasek in the 24th minute before Andre Ooijer levelled for PSV 10 minutes later. The hosts then dominated for most of the rest of the match and Koeman was grateful to have escaped with a draw which maintained his side’s three-point cushion at the top of the league.
“PSV didn’t narrow the gap,” he pointed out. “We are still in the running and we have everything in our own hands.
“PSV obviously still have a chance as long as the title chase isn’t sealed and Feyenoord could still draw level buy canada goose jacket australia if they win their game in hand so it will certainly be exciting until the very end of the season.”
Athens derby in ruins
As a referee the last thing you want to have to do is award an all-important injury-time penalty to the away side in a highly charged derby. For referee Ioakim Efthymiadis, it nearly was the last thing he did.
Efthymiadis was escorted from the pitch with head wounds at the end of Panathinaikos’ 1-1 draw with Olympiakos at the Leoforos stadium after an almighty melee involving home fans our web page, players and officials.
With just moments of injury-time left to play and Panathinaikos leading 1-0, Efthymiadis awarded the Piraeus club a spot kick after adjudging that Michalis Konstantinou had fouled Olympiakos full-back Stelios Venetidis inside the area.
Panathinaikos players responded furiously to the decision, but Predrag Djordjevic duly converted the spot kick to draw his side level before the referee blew the final whistle.
The Panathinaikos president Angelos Phillipides and coach Sergio Markarian led the surge towards Efthymiadis, but the duo were quickly joined on the pitch by a host of Panathinaikos officials and supporters as mayhem erupted.
The referee was engulfed in a sea of bodies and was eventually helped from the pitch by police with blood streaming from his head as blows rained down on him from all angles.
Phillipides was still seething an hour after the match had finished and, accusing Olympiakos of using underhand tactics to secure the result, he called for the Greek government to cancel the league season.
“This is a crisis day for Greek football,” he fumed. “It’s enough, I call on the government to stop the championship. The prime minister should intervene.
“The current situation brings shame on the country that will host the Olympics. The championship is a farce, the penalty was a penalty but he favoured Olympiakos throughout the game to an obvious degree.
“Panathinaikos are among the best eight teams in Europe but in Greece we haven’t won the league for five years and after tonight probably six,” added Phillipides
The late penalty ensured that defending champions Olympiakos stay three points ahead of their arch-rivals Panathinaikos in the race for the title. AEK are still top, one point ahead of Olympiakos.
Going cold Turkey
The strain is beginning to tell on Besiktas coach Christophe Daum. Not because the heat is turning up in Istanbul, but because of the ongoing court case in his native Germany where he is fighting allegations that he purchased large amounts of cocaine.
“It makes me sick. From time to time I do not know what to do,” said the man who was canada goose coat 1000 bulbs lamps ruled out of the Germany national job after failing a drugs test.
Daum has to travel regularly from Istanbul to the court hearings in Koblenz, in western Germany, and he believes it is taking its toll on his job.
“I am coach of one of the best teams in Turkey and I want to make Besiktas one of the best teams in Europe,” he said. “We play critical games in the league and the cup and then suddenly I have to go to Germany for hearings. I have to concentrate on my team, then the following day I am in the court. It is unbelievable.
“First I thought to clear my name was the best thing to do, I had to. I had no other choice. But I did not think that it would take this much out of me.”
Prosecutors have claimed that Daum bought sizeable quantities of the drug 24 times in 1999 and on 39 occasions in 2000. He denies the charges.
The 47-year-old, who admits he considered suicide when the scandal broke, was dismissed as Bayer Leverkusen boss and ruled out as the next Germany manager after failing a drugs test in October 2000.
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