David Beckham is almost 33 years old. (The same alleged age of Jesus Christ when he died). He's playing at AC Milan right now but has a contract that will end in the end of March and he gave his word to MLS team Los Angeles Galaxy that he would return to fulfill his commitment with the North-American team. 

  Not many people (including myself) thought that Becks would fit well with the Rossonero midfield filled with stars like Ronaldinho, Kaká, Pirlo and Seedorf. However the former England's National Team captain adapted really well and managed to force Milan's Carlo Ancelotti to bench Ronaldinho a give Becks more playing time. And it's been working.

 Beckham's ultimate goal is to secure a spot in the England squad in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and with Fabio Capello  praising his performance in the Serie A it might be tempting to reject the millions of dollars from the Galaxy and stay with AC Milan. 

Will he be killing his chances of another shot at the World Cup if he goes back to the USA? 

ESPN's analyst Allen Hopkins on an interview to the podcast Goalmouth Scramble shares his view on the Million dollar question: Will Beckham stay or go. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE INTERVIEW.

Go check it out and leave your vote on their poll: Is Beckham staying at AC Milan? 

Now I leave you with my favourite The Clash song that fits properly with this blog post:

Finally. This is the moment I've been personally been waiting for. The election of the BEST BRAZILIAN FOOTBALLER OF ALL TIMES. And your vote will decide it.

In a quick recap, last time I posted I gave you 8 names to choose the Best Dutch Footballer.  Marco Van Vasten took an early lead but Arsenal fans soon started sending some votes for Denis Bergkamp but in the end, when more Dutch fans started voting, Johann Cruijff came from third place to sweep the title leaving Van Basten in second place. So here are all the results so far:

ARGENTINA: Alfredo DiStefano + Diego Maradona

FRANCE: Michel Platini + Zinedine Zidane

UNITED KINGDOM: George Best

GERMANY: Franz Beckenbauer + Oliver Kahn

ITALY: Paolo Maldini + Alessandro Del Piero

HOLLAND: Johan Cruijff + Marco Van Basten

Now for the BEST BRAZILIAN FOOTBALLER I expect more than 100 votes. To help you guys decide I added some information and in some cases a video showing a little bit of that player.

Ademir da Guia - O Divino [The Divine] . The son of great Brazilian defender Domingos da Guia, Ademir is the biggest idol of SE Palmeiras history. A player of extreme class. He was part of the starting line-up for 16 straight years. Didn't get capped for the National team as much as he deserved.

Carlos Alberto Torres - O Capitão do Tri [The Captain]. If nowadays we have right and left backs that move up to the attack - the so-called wings - Carlos Alberto was the pioneer. And he did the task with extreme efficiency when playing for Botafogo FR and the amazing 1970 Brazilian National Team.

Didi - O Príncipe Etíope [The Ethiopian Prince]. Two-time World Champion with the Brazilian National Team in 58 and 62 and the creator of the Folha Seca [the Dry Leaf kick] , a free kick in which he would hit the ball with the outside of the foot and in a way that the ball would take an effect and suddenly drop as if it was a dry leaf falling from a tree. Talented midfielder that played with Di Stefano and Puskas at Real Madrid but achieved glory wearing the Botafogo strip.

Falcão - O Rei de Roma [The King of Rome] . Falcão never looked like a defensive midfielder. Tall, too skiny, extremely talented, calm and didn not make many fouls. Every time I watched Falcão playing he reminded me of Franz Beckenbauer. He was definetily the Brazilian version of the Kaiser.

                                              Garrincha - The Bow-Legged Angel [Anjo das Pernas Tortas in Portuguese] does not need any introductions. Ronaldinho, Robinho, Cristiano Ronaldo and all the other tricksters of football owe Garrincha for creating entertaining football. To close my case I'll just say that to some Garrincha was even better than Pelé.

Leonidas - O Diamante Negro [The Black Diamond]. He invented (or improved) the bicycle kick. He was a star playing for Botafogo, Flamengo, São Paulo and for the National Team. He was the top scorer of the 1938 FIFA World Cup with 7 gols.

Pelé - O Rei do Futebol [The King] . Unquestionably one of the greatest athletes of the history of any sport. Pelé participated in four world Cups, I mean, three and a half, because in 66 he was hunted on the pitch by the Portuguese defenders and ended up out of the competition with an injury. But Pelé is unique and I'm still to see another one like him being born. Just like Garrincha, Pelé's talent is still a huge influence in the football stars we see all over the world.

Reinaldo - O Rei do Galo [The King of Galo]. He could have been the best striker of Brazilian football of all times if it weren't for the violence of the unpunished defenders in the 1980's. Reinaldo scored 28 goals in 18 matches in the 1977 Brazilian Championship, a record that lasted in numbers until 1997 but his goal average of 1.55 is still unbeaten.

 
Romario - O Baixinho [Shorty]. Romário played until the age of 41 in pursuit of his goal number 1,000. To reach that number he played for small clubs such as Miami FC (in the second tier of football in the USA) and Adelaide United (from the Australian League). But what is in the history of football is that Romario scored 71 goals for the National Team and led the team to the fourth World Cup title in 1994. He also shone and humiliated defenders in Europe playing in Holland for PSV and in Spain for Barcelona.

Ronaldinho - In 1997 Ronaldinho as still called Ronaldinho Gaucho when he scored an incredible goal for the Brazilian National Team against Venezuela. Not to mention that he also humilliated the now Brazilian coach Dunga during a Gre-Nal derby (Gremio v. Internacional is the biggest club rivalry in ronaldinho home state Rio Grande do Sul). just by seeing that weird looking buck-toothed kid playing one could alreay tell that he would become one of the best footballers of the planet.

Ronaldo - O Fenômeno [The Phenomenon]. He's the player I had the chance to watch from the begining of his carreer when he arrived to play for Cruzeiro of Belo Horizonte and since then he scored (many) incredible goals for all teams he played for: PSV, Barcelona, Inter milan, Real Madrid, AC Milan and National Team. Ronaldo had and has many problems on his knees but when healthy and in shape I don't believe there is a striker at the same level as Ronaldo.

Zico -  Fantastic. A showman. Zico is the greatest idol of the history of Flamengo. Directly reponsible for making the team from Rio de Janeiro one of the most famous in the world. In 1981 Zico proved the superiority of Brazilian football when he led Flamengo to beat Liverpool in the Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo. He is also the player that most influenced my short carreer in football. A refined touch, perfect free kicks and extreme intelligence. Zico is with no doubts one of the best players in the world to wear a number 10 shirt.

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LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A RETRO FOOTBALL REPLICA SHIRT

 

 

 

CONTEST RULES:

"I separated the best players (the ones that people most argue about) into countries or categories. Some countries like Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany, England ... will be a category on their own and some countries with less entries will form a group category. You will have 2 weeks to submit your votes for each category and after that the 2 top voted players will move to a next round. In the end of the whole process we will be able to find out who are the top 10 best players of all times. And if you also decide to leave a comment on the my blog posts revealing your opinion about the players in that category your name will be on a raffle for a chance to win a Retro Football Strip Replica... It will be a prize from me for your participation."

 Get your orange paraphernalia out and vote for the BEST DUTCH FOOTBALLER EVER! 

On the previous episode of the long contest we saw a very tough competition between Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Del Piero for the Best italian Footballer and both qualified for the final round. After 73 votes here are the final results:

1 -> Paolo Maldini: 30 votes

2 -> Alessandro Del Piero: 26 votes

3 -> Roberto Baggio: 5 votes

4 -> Gianfranco Zola: 4 votes

5-> Giuseppe Meazza: 2 votes

6 -> Luigi Riva

       Dino Zoff

       Fabio Cannavaro

       Franco Baresi

       Francesco Totti

       Gianluigi Buffon: 1 vote

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Now for the DUTCH NOMINEES

 

Dennis Bergkamp

 

Frank Rijkaard

 

Johan Cruijff

 

Johan Neeskens

 

Marco van Basten

 

Rob Rensenbrink

 

Ruud Gullit

 

Robin van Persie

 

 

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A RETRO FOOTBALL REPLICA SHIRT

* IF YOU'RE NOT DUTCH OR IF YOU SIMPLY DON'T KNOW SOME OF THE NOMINEES ABOVE JUST SEARCH FOR INFO ABOUT THEM ON THE INTERNET AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO JUDGE BETTER... 

 

You can vote on the POLL WIDGET on top left side of this post. And don't forget to leave your comments if you want to enter the draw for a REPLICA RETRO FOOTBALL STRIP!

 

 

 

CONTEST RULES:

"I separated the best players (the ones that people most argue about) into countries or categories. Some countries like Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany, England ... will be a category on their own and some countries with less entries will form a group category. You will have 2 weeks to submit your votes for each category and after that the 2 top voted players will move to a next round. In the end of the whole process we will be able to find out who are the top 10 best players of all times. And if you also decide to leave a comment on the my blog posts revealing your opinion about the players in that category your name will be on a raffle for a chance to win a Retro Football Strip Replica... It will be a prize from me for your participation."

Football.

Football is not only a game. It became over the years much more important than religion or one could say that it became a religion itself.

This series of videos, promoted by Carlsberg (because beer is the Holy Water of this religion), show different aspects that make this sport the most incredible in the world.

VIDEO 1 is pure ADRENALINE. It shows the emotions that we feel during a football match. It's going from crying to celebrating, from deep frustration to anxiety to intense bliss and words are just not necessary in this one.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT IN THE OLEOLE VIDEO SECTION

But so many emotions can only bring the worst in us. And that's PURE PASSION. Fans forget social rules and politeness in a desperate attempt to control thing on and off the pitch. They go to extremes to show their disgust, their dissatisfaction. Frequently we see acts of violence and racism which are stains in the beautiful game and serve as a reminder of the things we still need to improve as a society.

VIDEO 2 tells you about this EXTREME (sometimes evil) PASSION

CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT IN THE OLEOLE VIDEO SECTION

 

 

Here is what she said:

"There's no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves," Solo said. "And the fact of the matter is, it's not 2004 anymore. … It's 2007, and I think you have to live in the present. And you can't live by big names. You can't live in the past. It doesn't matter what somebody did in an Olympic gold-medal game in the Olympics three years ago."

I just wrote a comment on her myspace page in which she apologizes for saying this. I believe Hope Solo is a fantastic goalkeeper. She has talent, she is solid and she wants to win. The only thing is: you should not do your laundry outdoors. I undersatand her being upset with coach Ryan. His decision was the most retarded decision I've seen in a long time. The reasons he gave were ver amateur. He said Brianna Scurry stopped Brazil during the 2004 Olympic Games and she could do it again. Of course she could!!! If she had been playing during the tournament!!! But Hope Solo was playing extremely well, she was confident and if he couldn't trust her agaist Brazil he should have at least given Brianna some playing time in the other games.

But nothing of that is an excuse for a profesional player to use a microphone to say what Hope Solo said. Not that what she said didn't make sense but it doesn't make things better either. The game was over, Brazil would have won anyways because they played beautifully. Marta was unstoppable. So why say something that is not gonna help anything?

She caused a very uncomfortable situation just like Greg Ryan created when he benched her. And as my grandma used to say: Don't try to fix a mistake with another one.

What do you guys think????

PS.: You can read Solo's apologies on her myspace blog:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=119877178&blogID=314148328

Let me start this one with some facts and a question, a serious question:

 If your team has a solid goalkeeper who played all the previous games in the International competition you're in and hasn't allowed a single goal in 300 minutes would you bench this person even though there isn't any injury or technical deficiency or relationship problems?????

If you answered NO you're a sane intelligent person but if you said YES you and Coach Greg Ryan from the USA Women's Team can start writing a book on new crazy game strategies.

The only problem is that I don't think anyone will buy that idea after what happened in the BRAZIL vs. USA in the World Cup Semifinal.

I was not going to post until the competition was over. I've been waking up at around 4am to watch some great games and this one was not just great. IT WAS FANTASTIC. So I had to write and avoid being influenced by any result that will come in the Championship Game.

The USA is by far the number one team in the women's rank of soccer. Since their first World Cup Tittle in 1991 and with the golden generation of Michelle Akers, Kristine Lilly, Julie Fouldy and the amazing Mia Hamm, the United States has always excelled in showing the best female soccer in the world. 

They won 2 World Cups and 2 Olympic Gold Medals. Until today they had been unbeaten for 50 straight games. They have a very good mix of experience (Kristine Lilly still playing) and youth (Abby Wambach) but it all changed this morning.

Womens Soccer in Brazil is not badly structure, it is simply NON-EXISTENT. There is no profesional league, no sponsors, no media coverage, no audience. Most of the players, just like the men's team, come from very poor background but they have to suffer with a lot of prejudice. Many families would rather see their daughters working as maids than playing soccer.

But there is still room for magic.

Have you ever heard of Marta??? Well, I have. I haven't paid a lot of attention on her until the last Olympic Games when she was only 18 years old and was already INCREDIBLE.

Well, if you didn't watch Marta play yet you have no idea what you're missing. I mean, maybe I can help you. Get the skills of Ronaldinho, the speed of Robinho, the pass quality of Beckham, along the quality of being a great team player and you have MARTA.

When Marta plays her game (and she often does) Brazil is a very dangerous team but when Aline controls the defense flawlessly, Elaine and Maicon run up and down the wings, Formiga and Daniela block any attempt of play making in midfield and create themselves a lot of plays, and Cristiane decides that's it's time for a revenge then BRAZIL BECOMES UNBEATABLE!!!

Please... Brazil Soccer Federeation (aka CBF) INVEST IN THOSE GIRLS... Regardless of the result in the Final Game the world would be happier watching more Martas, Cristianes, Danielas, Formigas....

As for the USA, the investment continues. That is a growing experience. The roots of the Women's Soccer Team are very strong here. A strong wind can blow some leaves and bend the branches but the tree will always stand.

Brazil won this one with no questions ... (We just need some really logical answers from Mr. Greg Ryan for the first question of this post)

Brazil was the best team... 4-0 is unquestionable and the numbers are there!

GO BRAZIL!!!

I hope they take this one!!!