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Erviti: "En Boca es más fácil conseguir cosas haciendo lobby que jugando"

BUENOS AIRES -- El mediocampista del Atlante mexicano Walter Erviti aseguró que en Boca Juniors, su ex club, "es más fácil conseguir cosas haciendo lobby que jugando al fútbol".

"En Boca es más fácil conseguir cosas haciendo lobby que jugando al fútbol", afirmó el marplatense, que además adelantó que "en Argentina solo jugaría en Banfield".
Y agregó: "Acá (en México) encontré un ritmo de vida que mi familia disfruta. Sé que esto no es eterno y se termina. Mi deseo es terminar en Banfield".

Volviendo a Boca, Erviti dijo que allí "hay jugadores que no quieren escuchar y que no les gusta que le digan cosas".

"A mí lo único que me ponía feliz era jugar los domingos, la semana la sufría. Es muy complicado ganar algo con un vestuario partido", resaltó el mediocampista.

Y continuó: "Muchos creen que Román (Riquelme) maneja Boca. Si él lo maneja es porque hay dirigentes que se lo permiten".

"A mi lo único que me ponía felíz era jugar los domingos, la semana la sufría. Se sufre por lo que se habla en el vestuario, a los diez minutos sale en todos lados", admitió el volante.

Erviti estuvo en Boca en las temporadas 2011-2013 y ganó el Torneo Apertura 2011 y la Copa Argentina 2012, de la mano del entrenador Julio César Falcioni.

Juan Forlín: "Sueño todos los días con la vuelta"

BUENOS AIRES -- El zaguero Juan Forlín, uno de los dos refuerzos confirmados para la próxima temporada en Boca Juniors, dijo que "el mundo" de ese club "es muy especial y siempre se extraña".

"Sueño todos los días con la vuelta. Como hincha, nada mejor que jugar en el club que te criaste. La Bombonera está siempre llena, el mundo Boca es muy especial y siempre se extraña", le dijo Forlín al programa radial ´Boca Para Todos´, que emite la agencia Télam.

Procedente del club Al Rayyan de Qatar, tras haber jugado en el Espanyol de Barcelona, el jugador estará para el 3 de enero en Buenos Aires, en donde Boca hará la pretemporada, a diferencia de otros años cuando ese trabajo lo realizaba en Tandil.

"Voy con la misma ilusión que la primera vez. Al plantel lo sigo desde que me fui, es muy competitivo y si tenemos más suerte con las lesiones, podemos andar bien. Me veo ayudando al grupo y después el técnico decidirá quién juega", agregó.

El zaguero central, de 25 años, regresa así al club en el cual se formó y se consagró campeón en el torneo Apertura 2008, con la dirección técnica de Carlos Ischia, tras haber emigrado al fútbol europeo en 2009.

"Yo subí a primera con (Carlos) Ischia, pero con Carlos (Bianchi) a los 14 años había practicado una vez con el primer equipo. Es un privilegio que me pueda entrenar. En España y Qatar jugué de dos y de cinco. No tengo problemas, lo haré donde el técnico lo necesite", concluyó.

Forlín será uno de los refuerzos del equipo xeneize, junto con el lateral derecho Hernán Grana, procedente de All Boys.

Anderson Silva skal kæmpe i morgen.

Andrés D´Alessandro very happy at Internacional

Andrés D´Alessandro has reassured Internacional fans that he will be at the club for next season and will not be rejoining River Plate.

Recent speculation has linked the Colorado captain with a move back to Argentina where he would reunite with his former club.

D’Alessandro came through the youth ranks at River Plate and played with them for three years.

He told Argentina website Pasion Clasica that he is very settled with Internacional and does not think about his old club.

“I have a contract. I do not think about anything else. Today I do not think about River.

“I have been here for six years… and everything is fine. The family is fine. I’m fine and the club is also. I can not complain about anything, the club has treated me fantastically.”

Internacional Head coach Abel Braga praised D’Alessandro’s performances last season in the Brasileirão where the captain led from the front.

Colorado endured a disappointing season but the 32-year-old enjoyed a good personal campaign. D’Alessandro was one of the best performers in the Brasileirão scoring 11 goals and contributing nine assists in 35 appearances.

The recent remarks from the Internacional captain adds to the positivity surrounding the club after they signed Wellington Paulista and Dida.

Vitória’s Maxi Biancucchi offered to Vasco da Gama

Maxi Biancucchi’s manager Regis Marques has offered the Vitória forward to recently relegated Vasco da Gama after admitting he has good links with the club.

Marques helped transfer Martin Silva and Aranda to the Rio de Janeiro club and now Biancucchi could follow them after it was revealed that he wouldn’t be renewing his contract with his current side.

Marques confirmed that Biancucchi has been offered to Vasco da Gama.

“We announced yesterday (Thursday) that Maxi would not renew his contract with the Victory and I am offering the player to clubs that I have a good relationship with and one of them is Vasco. I just negotiated two players for them.”

Biancucchi, Lionel Messi’s cousin, had a successful season in the Brasileirão scoring 11 goals in just 23 appearances but may favour a move back to Rio de Janeiro as he played for Flamengo between 2007 and 2009.

His manager Marques has admitted though that he has only offered the Argentine forward to Vasco and hasn’t had any serious conversations with their hierarchy.

“There was no direct dealings on Maxi. I just offered him to Vasco but I have a conversation with Rodrigo Caetano planned and you will see if there is interest from the club for the athlete then.”

In Bolivia´s top division, expect the unexpected

According to a song from the mid-´80s, you can´t get a boat to Bolivia. But you might be able to get David Beckham there.

That is the idea of Marcelo Claure, a U.S.-based entrepreneur who is a friend and business partner of Beckham. Claure is also the moneyman behind Bolivar, one of the most important and traditional clubs in the land of his birth. He is apparently trying to lure Beckham out of retirement, hoping that he will be tempted to make a comeback for a couple of games in next year´s Copa Libertadores, South America´s equivalent of the Champions League.

It would mean a trip to Rio de Janeiro to face Flamengo, and a chance for another run out at the famous Maracana Stadium, where Beckham was clearly thrilled to play for Manchester United some 14 years ago. Or he may feel that the home games are interesting; Bolivar are from La Paz, 3,600 metres above sea level.

For the unacclimatised, this can be torture. Lungs gasp out for oxygen. But given a few weeks to get used to the conditions, it need not be a problem. In Beckham´s case, it may even be an advantage; at altitude the rarefied air provides less resistance, allowing the ball to really fly. Someone who strikes free kicks as well as Beckham would even be a threat with shots from the halfway line.

The chance exists, then, of a brief comeback, a quirky little postscript to an illustrious career. But something else has happened in Bolivia that future generations may see as far more significant -- a pointer to the future rather than a doff of the cap to the past -- a first division club appointed a female coach.

Sport Boys of Warnes, a little town on the outskirts of the lowland city of Santa Cruz, are playing their first season in the Bolivian top flight. A small club who have come a long way in a short time, they have found it tough. With three games to go in the Apertura, the first of two tournaments played over the 2013-14 season, the club parted company with coach Edgardo Malvestiti. His replacement caused something of a surprise.

It was Hilda Ordonez, a 40-year-old woman who had been the club´s general secretary. And now she was in charge of a playing staff that includes the veteran Joaquin Botero, the all-time top scorer of the Bolivian national team.

Needless to say, her appointment sparked a reaction. The country´s coaches association were not pleased; the problem, as they saw it, was that Ordonez did not have the necessary qualifications. They indeed have a point, though Ordonez has not been completely parachuted in.

She has years of experience as a physical education teacher, and her time with the club included a spell when she took charge of the Under-17s. It could be that, for some, attacking her lack of formal qualifications was a convenient way of masking macho prejudice.

This may well have been the case in her second game in charge. She made an inauspicious debut with a 4-0 defeat to local giants Oriente Petrolero. The next game, a visit to the intimidating altitude of Real Potosi, was a much tighter affair. Sport Boys lost only 2-1. Ordonez accused the rival coach, former national team goalkeeper Mauricio Soria, of ordering her to go back home to do the washing up. Her players were not amused and came to her defence. And to continue the upward trend, the season ended with a 0-0 draw at home to Universitario de Sucre.

That, for the time being, is the end of the experiment. In the next tournament, the Clausura, Sport Boys will be battling for every point in a bid to avoid relegation. Club president Mario Cronembold believes that more experience is called for and has appointed Nestor Clausen, a World Cup winner as a player with Argentina in 1986 and a coach with considerable knowledge of the Bolivian scene, to take charge in the coming campaign.

Nevertheless, something important has taken place. There have, of late, been a number of female club presidents in South American football. The idea of a female coach, however, seemed harder to contemplate. But now it has happened.

Hilda Ordonez may have been in charge of Sport Boys Warnes for only three games and may have added only a single point to the club´s total. But she showed that it can be done. A woman can be the boss of a first-division men’s team without the football world sliding off its axis. An opportunity like that presented to Ordonez might once have seemed impossible. But no longer.

Lucas Moura motivated by recent omissions from Brazil

January 2013 was a funny month for Brazilian football.

Having recently lost manager Mano Menezes and waiting to play the first match under Luiz Felipe Scolari, the national team was rattled. Many fingers were being pointed at Neymar; at the time, he´d yet to choose between financial gains in Brazil and the leap of faith of a move to European football, a clear acid test for the Santos wonder boy.

In fact, Lucas Moura was pretty much stealing Neymar´s thunder thanks to his 43 million euro move from Sao Paulo FC to Paris Saint-Germain. He was the one perceived to be accepting a challenge, albeit being six months younger than his national team colleague.

Yet, the two players couldn’t be in more different situations as the calendar year comes to an end. While Neymar has settled down reasonably well at Barcelona, sending a massive "shush" to a lot of critics by stepping up big time at the international level, Moura has gone the other direction.

Not only has the 21-year-old failed to establish himself in the Selecao first XI, but he´s been gradually fading away from Felipao´s plans to the point of being left out of the team´s last two friendlies. On the club front, the arrival of Edinson Cavani has threatened his starting spot there, too.

While Neymar hasn´t completely set Europe on fire, he looks much more comfortable abroad than Moura. The PSG forward might indeed be getting more playing time than many expected this season, but nine starts in 19 Ligue 1 matches so far would hardly make one jump with joy.

Anyone who briefly bumped into the boy the last time he showed up for national duty back in October could see that he was worried. "I have to remember what brought me to the Selecao and to PSG. I need to believe in my quality," Moura told the Brazilian media in a very deflated pitchside news conference at the Bird´s Nest in Beijing.

In fairness, he has shown signs of improvement in France, with a couple of useful goals and crucial assists during a tense game of title-chasing cat and mouse with Monaco. But Lucas´ chances of making it to the World Cup have still decreased all the while. After falling down the pecking order courtesy of Scolari´s preference of using Hulk on the right side, along with Bernard´s blooming, Moura now faces fresher competition in the form of Chelsea´s Willian and a resurgent Robinho.

This decline has unsurprisingly sparked a festival of rumors about a transfer in January, including a possible interest from Manchester United, who were previously linked to the winger before PSG came and flexed their financial biceps. Some stories even linked him to a possible return to Brazil -- on loan to Sao Paulo -- as a tactic to reignite his career and earn some attention from Big Phil.

Yet Lucas is showing no signs of giving up so easy. "I have no intention to go back to Brazil. I have my career goals in Europe and will work hard to achieve them," he explained in a recent interview with ESPN in Brazil. "As for PSG, it’s my first full season at the club and I need to be patient and soldier on to get more opportunities."

PSG and Brazil teammate Marquinhos believes Lucas might actually have been spurred on by his latest omission from the Brazilian squad -- curiously enough, the defender was present at the North American tour Moura missed last November. "The great thing about Lucas is that he never really moaned about being dropped. Of course you could see he was a bit sad but instead of sulking Lucas has been working his socks off. He´s a gifted guy and no one should doubt his quality," Marquinhos said.

Time, however, is not on Lucas´ side and it could take a very special second half of the season to get Scolari convinced that the PSG man deserves another shot. And so far, a reunion with his former Brazil U-20 teammate Neymar is looking quite unlikely.

After ending 2012 as an "it boy" in Brazilian football, Moura finds himself a bit lonely in Paris, a crucial winter for his career.

Anderson Silva skal kæmpe i morgen.

Hvad tid ? - mon ikke the Spider for revanche.......

4-5 i nat tror jeg.

Report: Jose Villarreal, Rafael Baca and Michael Farfan presented by Cruz Azul

There has been no word yet north of the border, but it is looking all but certain that MLS players Jose Villarreal, Rafael Baca and Michael Farfan will play for Liga MX outfit Cruz Azul after the three players were among six presented by the Mexico City giants as reinforcements for the Clausura 2014 tournament at a press conference on Saturday.

Reports emerged this week that the MLS-based trio had signed for Cruz Azul, and the team listed the three players on their roster on its official website.

Villarreal´s club, the LA Galaxy, declined to comment when reached by MLSsoccer.com, though LA Galaxy Insider Adam Serrano reported that the deal was a year-long loan with an option to buy:

A San Jose Earthquakes spokesperson told MLSsoccer.com that Baca was still under contract with the team in 2014, while a Philadelphia Union spokesperson said the club had no comment at this time.

Villarreal, 20, signed as a Homegrown player with the Galaxy in December 2011 and has totaled three goals and two assists in 32 MLS appearances. He has featured for the US at various youth international levels and also boasts Mexican heritage.

Baca, 24, was born in Mexico and signed as an undrafted free agent by the Earthquakes in July 2011 before locking down a starting spot in the 2012 season. He totaled 79 regular season apperances for the Quakes, registering two goals and nine assists.

Farfan, 25, also has Mexican heritage and recently completed his third year in MLS after being selected No. 23 overall in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft. He has totaled four goals and nine assists in 82 appearances for the Union.