Tag: football

CHINA DRAWS WITH SYRIA, WORLD CUP DREAMS ALMOST SHATTERED

An injury time goal scored by Ahmed Al Saleh saw Syria hold the China team coached by Marcello Lippi’s team to a 2-2 draw on Tuesday evening.


As a result, China’s hope of qualifying for next year’s World Cup finals is hanging by the thinnest of threads.

China’s Gao Lin and Wu Xi scored in the second half thus putting China in the lead after Mahmoud Al Mawas had scored first for the Syrians from the penalty spot in the 12th minute.

However, it was not to be a win for China as a curling free kick from Al Saleh put the teams on the same level thus ensuring that they shared the points between themselves.

With this result, China now sits six points behindUzbekistan who are third placed. Two games are yet to be played and these two will be getting ready for a showdown sometime in August.

From each of Asia’s two groups, the top two teams will qualify automatically. Following their 2-0 win over Uzbekistan in Tehran on Monday night, Iran has now booked their place in the finals.Read More

GERMANY WIN PENALTY SHOOTOUT USING NEW SYSTEM

The German under-17 side became the first team to win a match using the new penalty shootout system. Germany defeated their counterparts Norway 3-2 to make the final of the Euro Under-17 tournament in the Czech Rep.


The new system is more of a replica of the tie breaker in tennis. Referred to as the ABBA system, it seeks to help the team that takes the kick second in the shootout. The team that kicks after the other side in the shootout usually battle a psychological disadvantage as they have to play catch up.

The new system prescribes that the shootout follows the tennis tie-break method. Germany lost their first three chances, yet they won the shootout.

Germany played the first kick. The Norway keeper Karen Sneve saved it. Norway played theirs, which they lost. According to new rule, Norway played first in the second round of kicks – the third kick of the shootout as against Germany in the popular method. Norway scored so the scoreline was 1-0.Read More

Klose joins Germany coaching staff

Former Germany international striker Miroslav Klose has confirmed that he has retired from football and that he will be joining the Germany coaching staff.


It is believed that he will be joining Joachim Low’s backroom staff as he continues to study towards his Pro coaching license.

The player who was playing for Lazio last season has announced his retirement at the start of this season and said that he is keen to embark on this new stage of his career. The player already retired from international football in 2014 after having won the World Cup with Germany. He is currently the highest goal scorer in World Cup history.

Miroslav Klose said that he was won different trophies during his career, but there is nothing compared to winning the World Cup. The player has played for Germany 137 times in his career and said that he would cherish the 2014 World Cup memories all his life.
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German public seems not Panicking

There is no rush in the German public to buy tickets of the coming Finland fixture which is going to be the final hurrah for one of their favourite sons, Bastian Schweinsteiger.


More than forty thousand seats are available in the stadium the match has been designated to, but, not even 50% of the total seats have been reserved up to this point and Joachim Low reckons it will really be a sorrowful situation if the seats happen to be empty on the evening of the match.

As stated by Low, what may happen to be the reason for a poor turn-out is that it’s not the best of the timings for a match like this as people have had a full dose of Football with a couple of big competitions taking place in the recent times in the form of Euro and Olympics and the domestic season has got off to a start too.

Low revealed that he got a call from Schweinsteiger earlier this month and as soon as he heard from him about his decision, he right away made the promise to the playmaker that the farewell match was surely going to be organized for him.
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