Another Portuguese Ronaldo & C. Tevez

There's a lot of catching up to do before the start of the new season in Europe this year and unfortunately, that means some stale news. The first is the Manchester United purchase of Nani, the brilliant midfielder from Sporting Lisbon. Nani was stunning over the summer in the U-21 World Cup for Portugal, despite their failure to reach the final.

Below is his goal in the World Cup against Israel.


After his 3 goals scored in the U-21 World Cup Nani began to make a deal with Manchester United and I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Ferguson made his mind up on the spot after seeing this singular effort. Whether or not Man. U. needed another strong, flare-centric midfielder was something of a question. They already have Ronaldo. Not only Ronaldo, but also the likes of Giggs, Scholes, Carrick, O'Shea, and Ji-Sing Park holding the midfield tightly in Manchester's favor. Now, with the addition of Nani, Mr. Ferguson has added another strong, influential player to their line-up in the mold of Ronaldo. He has also found someone who can move in the same way as Ronaldo; helping to alleviate the gap between his first Portuguese acquisition's flavorful passes and jukes that have sometimes left his teammates guessing--causing constant misques and turnovers.

Below are the goals that Nani scored in Manchester's pre-season travels in Asia. The first is an example of Nani's vision and deftness at positioning the ball exactly where he chooses. The other, based on a pass from Ronaldo, is what has begun to convince me that these two talented Portuguese players will prove to be an effective combination.





As for the debate about Carlos Tevez, he has shown he can deal with the physical play of the Premiership and single-handedly saved West Ham from relegation in the final game of the season...away from home...at Manchester United. Of course the fight over who exactly owns the rights to Carlos Tevez have mucked up the process of his move to Old Trafford. This past week he was allowed to move to Manchester and he's just had his first trainging session with the Red Devils. On the whole I'm impressed with what he's capable of, but I'm not sure he has the ability to impress on that scale. This being said, I'm not Alex Ferguson and I don't have 12 million Euros laying around. Kudos.

Here's the goal Tevez scored against Manchester United, handing them only their third loss of the season.

A New Face For Arsenal

There has been much debate about the potential of Arsenal now that Thierry Henry has signed to Barcelona. Sceptics point to the assured 20 goals Henry scored a season and optomists show the 06/07 season--largely played without their guiding light--as the beginning of a great new squad. Players such as Fabregas, Adebayor, Hleb, Rosicky, Kolo Toure, Gilberto, and a blossoming Clichy all showed their willingness to improve while Henry was on the bench with injury for most of the season.

In this video, look for a brilliant run and goal by Alexander Hleb at the 2:10 mark and a beautiful shot and goal by Van Persie at the 4 minute mark. That goal in particaulr is worth checking out in the reverse angle just to watch the movement of his feet around the ball.

It is, of course, to early to speculate on the possibilties for the Arsenal campaign, but with a renewed Van Persie, a more confident Fabregas and a young squad that improves every day, this team is showing that they may be putting up a fight for the title this year.

Lionel Messi in 2007

As a warm-up to the new soccer season, I've decided to begin posting short videos of those players and goals that make this new season something to look forward to.

Today is a video of Lionel Messi and his goal again Getafe in La Liga last year that made him the leading heir to replace Maradona in the minds of Argentines.

Also posted is the 1986 goal by Diego Maradona (below) that is considered legendary. Watch them back to back and you see why Lionel Messi has so many people behind him even though he's only 20 years old.

Maradona in the 1986 World Cup

Uh-Oh

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