Confederations Cup 2013 - Tahiti vs Nigeria

1st half

Tahiti has one professional football player, the rest of the team are teachers, couriers etc by profession. So it's fair to say that the team consists of amateurs. Nigeria may not be the very best football team in the world, but it's a team full of pros. Needless to say Tahiti really had no chance to begin with.

Uwa Elderson Echiejile scored Nigeria's first goal on the 5th minute. Teammate Nnamdi Oduamadi scored the second goal five minutes later. On the 26th minute Oduamadi scored again and the first half ended 3-0.

Confederations Cup 2013 - Spain vs Uruguay

1st half

The first half of Spain vs Uruguay showed an excellent Spain and a slightly desperate looking Uruguay. Spain, as always, was great and the team kept the ball almost 80 % of the time.

On the 20th minute after several close calls Pedro scored Spain's first goal. 15 minutes later Roberto Soldado scored a second goal for La Rojas. Uruguay was completely lost and of course it is difficult to score when you never touch the ball, but even when they did they weren't able to do anything with it. And what did they do to cover up the lack of talent in the team? Dived, whined and tackled the Spaniards. Especially Maxi Pereira and Diego Perez were incredibly violent, though apparently not violent enough since referee Yuichi Nishimura didn't bother to book either one.

Confederations Cup 2013 - Mexico vs Italy

1st half

Group A's second game at the legendary Maracana-stadium in Rio de Janeiro showed two teams both very eager to win the match. Often in Confederations Cup the player's lack of enthusiasm has been a problem, but so far that doesn't seem to be the case this year.

Both teams had chances at scoring, but Italy was definitely closer to getting a lead. Halfway through the first half Italy's hard work paid of when Andrea Pirlo (who was celebrating his
100th international cap) scored the first goal of the match from an amazing free kick.
A few minutes later Andrea Barzagli's clumsy attempt to get the ball from Mexico's Giovani dos Santos gave the referee no chance but to give the Mexicans a penalty. Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez got the ball easily behind Gianluigi Buffon.

Confederations Cup 2013 - Brazil vs Japan

1st half

Brazil didn't waste any time scoring the first goal of their home tournament - FC Barcelona's newest addition Neymar scored the first goal of Confederations Cup after only three minutes. And what a goal that was! If some of you missed it here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AdeVmYfehw

Japan didn't manage to do much on the field. Keisuke Honda's free kicks seemed to be the only way Japan got the ball anywhere near Brazil's goal.

Adios Mou!

I am very VERY happy to say that Jose Mourinho is no longer the coach of Real Madrid. During his spell at Santiago Bernabeu he has managed to do the impossible; make Real Madrid even more obnoxious, make me feel sorry for Pepe and make me realize that maybe Cristiano Ronaldo doesn't have the biggest ego in football. That was quite a challenge, but Mr Mourinho you made it, congrats!

Confederations Cup

Confederations cup starts tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. Summer and football are a match made in heaven and having 2 weeks of quality football makes me very happy. So for those of who aren't familiar with Confederations Cup; it's a kind of pre-tournament of World Cup. 8 countries, one from each continent + the host nation and world cup winners qualify for the tournament. So this year Spain, Italy, Uruguay, Tahiti, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria are fighting to win it.

As a Spain fan I of course root for them. Winning would be really special since they have never won it
before. The opening match Brazil - Japan kicks of the tournament tomorrow. Let the games begin!

Welcome Neymar!

So it is now official. The much hyped brazilian wonderkid Neymar is a player of FC Barcelona with a bargain price of 57 million euros. Rumors of the player's transfer to Camp Nou have been going on for a long time and for most of that time I hoped it wasn't true. Why would Barca want another big ego to their team I thought? Wasn't the incident with Zlatan Ibrahimovic enough to prove that certain type of players, regardless of their talent just simply aren't capable of adapting to the team on or off the field.

Barcelona: One week, 3 games.

In a week that I spent in the wonderful Barcelona I sure saw a lot of football, and what really is a better match than Barcelona and football?

On Saturday I went to see my first game at Camp Nou when FC Barcelona faced Levante. The game was super exciting and of course being there made it feel even more amazing. The sight of the beautiful stadium filled with people supporting the home team in their Blaugrana shirts and scarves, Xavi shooting a corner kick so close I could easily see him and the entire stadium singing Cant del Barca...  That's a night I'll never forget.