Soccer musings.
I do have soccer musings. Maybe I should post them here.
i am blogging about the world cup, but if you were to run across this, then you'd probably already know that.
Not a horrible day, but some MLS players like Robbie Findley and Brian Ching picked up injuries that make them significantly less likely to be on the World Cup team. Findley was unlikely to make the team, but Ching was pretty much a given until now because of his ability to be a target man.
"Algeria did well in the African Nations Cup and they're not going to be an easy team to beat, they've showed that. "We know we've got a tough group and we'll take each game one at a time, but advancing through the group has to be the goal and anything less than that will be a failure."
Labels: clint dempsey, us world cup, usmnt
As someone who grew up watching Every Goal of Italia '90, I always thought Toto Schillachi was a giant of the game. I never thought about how I'd never heard of him from other World Cups. And Americans at the time didn't have any way to watch European soccer, so I had no idea that he never made a mark in Serie A either.
Football's very own one-hit wonder, an unheralded Schillaci caught the football world unawares when topping the goalscoring charts at Italia '90, but his return to mediocrity was equally rapid, his legacy in the game remaining that miracle month in which the "notti magiche di Toto Schillaci" (magical nights of Toto Schillaci) enraptured a host nation and enthralled fans around the globe.
From Serie B to the World Cup semi-finals in 12 months: Schillaci's story is unique, and his success fleeting. But during that golden period in 1990 - in which he scored six of his seven career international goals, marking each one with scenes of unbridled celebration - the Sicilian striker did more than enough to ensure that his name will be forever associated with football's greatest competition. His is the very definition of an underdog story, and absolutely no one saw it coming.
Remarkably, Schillaci's introduction to top-flight football came just a year before his heroics at the World Cup. Born in Sicily, the striker started his professional career in the lower leagues with Messina and over a seven-year spell gradually carved out a reputation as a player of some abilitly, eventually earning a move to Juventus when, under the guidance of future Lazio and Roma coach Zdenek Zeman, he scored 23 Serie B goals for Messina in the 1988-89 campaign.
Labels: italia 90, italy, toto schillachi
A profile of Brazil v Portugal's matchup in the World Cup, subtitled: how to understand international politics through football.