Snak

Chile to battle Venezuela in crucial World Cup qualifier Friday

Head coach Jorge Sampaoli forced to make emergency changes days before a match both sides will view as essential to qualification for Brazil 2014.

“La Roja” will play Venezuela Friday in the Estadio Nacional at 20:30. A win nearly solidifies Chile’s spot in the 2014 World Cup. Photo by Photo by Evan Lang / The Santiago Times

A win in the World Cup qualifier against Venezuela on Friday would place Chile in strong contention for automatic passage to Brazil 2014. A resurgent “La Roja” has enjoyed decent form under coach Jorge Sampaoli and has a good record against Venezuela, though injuries have complicated the manager’s selection process.

Chile sits in an automatic qualifying spot in fourth place on 21 points with three games to play. Finishing fifth, a position currently occupied by Uruguay on 16 points with a game in hand, means a team must play in a play-off against fifth place from the Asian qualifiers to secure a berth in Brazil. Venezuela is sixth on 16 points having played a game more than Uruguay.

Sampaoli’s squad sheet initially included several changes from Chile’s 6-0 blowout against Iraq in August. Most notably, veteran striker Humberto “Chupete” Suazo was expected to make his first international appearance since February. But a surprise leg injury to Suazo forced Sampaoli to turn to Dinamo Zagreb striker Junior Fernández who once played under the manager at Universidad de Chile.

Question marks hang over both Gremio’s Eduardo Vargas and Matías Fernández. The Fiorentina midfielder left practice Tuesday because of problems with his foot, and Vargas arrived to Chile in preparation for Friday’s match with a sore ankle. Both players will be re-evaluated prior to the match.

Just four players from Chile’s Primera División feature in Sampaoli’s squad. “La U’s” Charles Aránguiz and José “Pepe” Rojas will be united with their former manager. In the absence of an injured Johnny Herrera, Universidad Católica’s Cristopher Toselli and O’Higgins’ Paulo Garcés will provide back up to first-choice keeper Claudio Bravo of Real Sociedad.

The Sampaoli era also sees playmakers David Pizarro and Jorge Valdivia return from long absences from “La Selección,” and promising forwards Ángelo Henríquez and Bryan Rabello add youth to an attack that features in-form superstar Alexis Sánchez.

Midfield marshal Arturo Vidal of Juventus will be sure to start, and Sampaoli may well call on Jean Beausejour, after the Wigan midfielder’s fine display against Iraq in which he scored two and created a third.

Defence is certainly the thinnest area in Chile’s squad. Against Iraq, Sampaoli played an attacking backline without a recognized center back — this system proved devastating to the opposition, though Venezuela’s aggressive attack is sure to pose more problems than the Middle Eastern side.

Meanwhile, trouble has hit Venezuela’s camp. El Nacional reported that 20 members of the national team recently suffered from food poisoning, causing a number of players to miss Monday night’s practice.

“La Roja” will play Venezuela at Estadio Nacional in Santiago this Friday at 8:30 p.m.

Vergara´s vague ´special message´

Jorge Vergara took much of the blame for Chivas´ failings.
Crammed into a small room at Chivas´ training center on Wednesday afternoon were the players, coaches, representatives of various fan groups and the media. It was a rare meeting of all the key stakeholders that make up a football club, capped off by the owner of the whole institution, Jorge Vergara, who had called the assembly to deliver a "special message", as it had been billed in the press release sent out Tuesday evening.

Contrary to rumors swirling on social networks about a possible sale and a plethora of other things "the message" could´ve been -- which Chivas obviously fueled with a lack of clarity in the press release -- it was another one of those publicity stunts that promised impact but fell well short.

Vergara apologized to fans and accepted that his leadership as Chivas owner has been far from ideal.

"I need to accept that, even if it was in good faith, I´ve been wrong more than once in not doing the precise, best or ideal thing," started Vergara from his seat at the head of the table alongside sporting president Dennis te Kloese. "I confused desires, impulses and emotion and even arrogance with the good sense and judgment that was required."

It felt like Vergara was trying to say that he wants a fresh start with the team and, somewhat bizarrely, cited last Sunday´s 0-0 tie with Toluca in the Omnilife as reinforcing his belief in the club and the project with Juan Carlos Ortega as coach and te Kloese as the sporting director.

"I wanted the team to witness this because the game on Sunday changed my perspective, eagerness, hope and will to be at Chivas," said the Guadalajara native. "This message goes out to all the true fans: We´re going to give everything possible to support the coaching staff and team so they achieve great things."

The message means rumors that Vergara may be considering selling the club appear to be wide of the mark and that he will be increasingly involved in the everyday running of Chivas. Vergara was repentant, with the caveat that he wants another shot at doing things right.

"It´s never late to correct, better and change the attitude, I´m going to try with everything (I´ve got)," stated Vergara.

But Chivas fans have been in a similar position before with Vergara, who has alternated between overly controlling the details in the running of the club, then backing off and leaving someone else to do it, only to dip his hand back into the water, find it is not to his liking and then jump right back in. It´s a circular pattern.

What is really required at Chivas right now is for Vergara not necessarily to get involved in the minor details, but to again pull his chequebook out of his pocket this winter and give whichever coach is in charge next season the kind of squad that can legitimately challenge for a title.

Vergara´s message was a refreshing change of tact, but all the talk is nothing but hot air until the teams -- Chivas USA must be included in this as well -- start to regularly win soccer matches.

Ja det bliver en klassiker den der fredag/lørdag - kan være NPATO kigger forbi med kaffe fra Hawaii - ellers cool at Dutchie kigger ind - så kan i få kørt noger Helenio Herrera af også...


Jeg er nok i hegnet i weekenden. Men jeg holder mig opdateret fra livescore. =)

Jeg regner også med jeg kommer til at se de fleste kampe. Noget er jeg i hvert fald nødt til at lave for at holde mig vågen. Jeg skal heldigvis ikke have en ret hård dag i morgen, så det kan være man skulle tage en lille lur i morgen eftermiddag.

Jeg er nok i hegnet i weekenden. Men jeg holder mig opdateret fra livescore. =)

Udemærket så satser jeg på du styrer Lambada´en og indtager min ration af Cachaça også :-)

@ Dibben

så det er...

VM Kampprogram for Fredag/Lørdag...

Colombia - Ecuador 22.30 (FAS, Dibben, Kayokay

Paraguay/Larissa FC - Bolivia 00.30 (FAS(?),Dibben, Kayokay

Chile - Venezuela 02.30 (FAS (?), Dibben, Kayokay

Mexico - Honduras 03.30 (Kayokay (?) Dibben, Kayokay

Panama - Jamaica 04.00 (FAS(?) Dibben

Costa Rica - Gringos 04.00 (Dibben,

Peru - Uruguay/Abreu FC 04.30 (FAS, Kayokay(?)




?

Ja sådan noget regner jeg med.

Jeg havde også planer om at hælde noget i hovedet fredag nat, men med den seneste tids sygdom bliver det nok fodboldnat i stedet :-)

Ja forestiller mig at Kayokay kigger forbi Honduras og Larissa´s drenge trækker nok , TR1986 har vel stadigvæk et eller andet med Uruguay og Cavani - FF17 er vel ikke kureret for sin mexicanske fetish heller - Valencia har stadigvæk Guardado i truppen og så er der jo også colombianske Pabón.....


EDIT...

Yups kan se Kayokay er på :-)

Confusion over Neymar fee continues

Another Brazilian investor who previously owned a share of Neymar’s rights has complained of being mostly cut out of the €57 million deal through which the player joined Barcelona last June.

Barca have repeatedly said they paid €17.1 million to Neymar’s former club Santos, with the remaining €40 million going to a number of other ´businesses´. The Catalan club’s vice-president Jose Maria Bartomeu said again this week that he could not name these companies for confidentiality reasons.

The player’s registration in Brazil had been owned by his former club as well as a number of other ‘stakeholders’, including investment funds Sonda and DIS Esporte. These third-parties expected to get a share of the €57 million figure, and are now up in arms over being expected just to receive part of the €17 million.

DIS Esporte executive director Roberto Moreno said in June that his company were furious at the attempt to cut them out of the deal, and Sonda president Jose Barral has now told Cadena Ser that his company was preparing to sue to get the €16 million they are entitled to.

"We are preparing the documents to take a case," Barral said. "Our group had 40% of Neymar’s rights but we have not got a share of the €57 million, but the €17 million. We received €6.8 million, and we are owed €16 million more. That is why we will sue them."

El Pais claimed again on Wednesday that the majority of this €40 million went to Neymar’s father.

Barral also said that he did not speak with Real Madrid about any potential move for Neymar this summer, but that talks with the Bernabeu club took place in 2011, when they offered more than Barca paid in the end.

"This year we have not spoken with Madrid, but we did in 2011," he said. "They offered €65 million for Neymar."

Madrid’s interest in the starlet was long standing, as revealed by AS on Thursday when it published a document showing Neymar signed for Madrid in 2006 as a youth teamer.

The 14-year-old was accompanied to Spain by his father and then agent Wagner Ribeiro, and registered with la Federacion Madrilena de Futbol. He spent two weeks training with Madrid’s Juvenil A youth team, which included current first team squad right back Dani Carvajal, as well as Alex Fernandez [who recently joined Espanyol] and Pablo Sarabia [who is now at Getafe].

The teenager did impress Madrid’s youth coaches, but not enough to persuade the club to pay the €60,000 being asked by Ribeiro, so he returned to Brazil and continued his development at Santos.