Ighalo được ca ngợi bởi fan MU sau khi tỏa sáng ở FA cup | CATHERINE IVILL/Getty Images
Ighalo đang được ca tụng hết lời bởi fan MU sau màn trình diễn vừa qua trước Norwich ở tứ kết FA Cup khuya 27/6. Tiền đạo tân binh của Quỷ Đỏ ghi bàn mở tỉ số trong trận cầu mà phải chờ đến hiệp phụ mới có thể định đoạt chiến thắng.
Maguire hóa người hùng, MU hạ Norwich ở tứ kết FA Cup
Sau trận đấu, trên MXH Twitter tràn ngập những lời khen dành cho cầu thủ được MU mượn từ Thân Hoa Thượng Hải. Đây rõ ràng là một chữ ký quan trọng và đã được BLĐ đội bóng giữ chân cho đến hết năm 2020, đầu 2021.
Một con số thống kê cho thấy, Ighalo đã ghi bàn ở mọi trận đấu mà anh được xuất phát chính trong đội hình của MU. Cho đến lúc này, Ighalo đã có năm bàn thắng trong màu áo đội chủ sân Old Trafford.
Nhà báo nổi tiếng Samuel Luckhurst ghi trên Twitter: “Ighalo đã ghi bàn cho United nhiều hơn Radamel Falcao và Angel di Maria. 5 bàn trong bốn trận đá chính”.
‘Một chữ ký tuyệt vời’. Một fan MU nhận định.
‘Bàn thắng cuối tuần này, Ighalo: 1, Messi: 0’
‘Ví dụ điển hình cho việc đam mê đôi khi quan trọng hơn cả chất lượng.’
‘Thật tình mà nói, chẳng ai trong chúng ta trông chờ Ighalo ghi bàn đều đặn như vậy. Tôi chẳng bận tâm đến mấy người từng cười nhạo khi chúng ta chiêu mộ cậu ấy. Quá vui cho Ighalo. Cậu ấy là một fan Quỷ Đỏ và là một cầu thủ hàng đầu.’
SETIAUSAHA Agung Persatuan Bolasepak Malaysia (FAM), Stuart Ramalingam, mengakui dana bantuan Covid-19 berjumlah AS$1.5 juta (RM4.29 juta) daripada Persekutuan Bolasepak Antarabangsa (FIFA) mampu untuk membantu menangani kemelut kewangan.
Pada Khamis, FIFA sebulat suara meluluskan pelan bantuan Covid-19 itu selepas mengambil kira pelbagai faktor yang melumpuhkan industri bola sepak dunia.
“Keputusan yang dibuat FIFA adalah adil, pengagihannya dilakukan secara sama. Ia bukan bermakna untuk menyelesaikan masalah bola sepak dunia atau negara tetapi bagi membantu persatuan selepas berdepan pandemik Covid-19. FAM juga terjejas disebabkan Covid-19,” katanya.
Dalam perkembangan lain, Stuart turut menegaskan kepentingan untuk menyambung saingan liga tempatan tatkala ia bakal memberi impak kepada tahap prestasi skuad kebangsaan bagi menghadapi saingan kelayakan Piala Dunia 2022/Piala Asia 2023.
“Ia akan menjejaskan persiapan pasukan kebangsaan termasuk kecergasan pemain. Jadi, saya rasa perjalanan liga tempatan akan membolehkan pemain meraih permainan konsisten sebelum saingan penting, Oktober nanti,” tambah Stuart.
Walaupun akan ada aksi persahabatan pada September nanti, namun saingan liga tempatan tetap yang terbaik untuk skuad kebangsaan.”
LIVERPOOL – Liverpool memastikan diri sebagai juara Liga Inggris 2019-2020, setelah sang rival, Manchester City, kalah 1-2 dari Chelsea. Trofi Liga Inggris adalah gelar juara keempat yang sang Pelatih, Jurgen Klopp, berikan kepada Liverpool, sejak menukangi tim pada 8 Oktober 2015.
Klopp pun senang dengan pencapaian Liverpool. Yang membuat Klopp senang bukan hanya pencapaian Liverpool, melainkan juga penampilannya. Menurut Klopp, Liverpool tampil begitu bagus dalam dua musim terakhir. Klopp tidak melihat Liverpool memiliki masalah seperti mantan timnya, Borussia Dortmund.
Sebelum ke Liverpool, Klopp menukangi Dortmund selama tujuh musim. Klopp mempersembahkan lima trofi untuk Dortmund. Sayangnya perjalanan Klopp bersama Dortmund tidak berakhir manis pada musim 2014-2015. Klopp gagal membangkitkan Dortmund yang secara mengejutkan terpuruk di Bundesliga (Liga Jerman).
Klopp menyatakan Dortmund waktu itu berantakan. Hal itu mungkin karena banyak para pemain andalan Dortmund, yang hengkang ke rival. Sementara itu, Klopp tidak mengalami hal serupa di Liverpool. Liverpool mampu mempertahankan para pemain kuncinya sehingga bisa mengukir prestasi.
“Penting juga bahwa kami terus berkembang. Masalah di Dortmund adalah tim kami berantakan. Itu tidak terjadi di sini dan sekarang tim telah sangat konstan selama dua setengah tahun,” ujar Klopp, menyadur dari Sportskeeda, Minggu (28/6/2020).
“Kami memainkan setiap pertandingan seolah-olah itu yang terakhir. Sebab, kami tidak memiliki hal lain untuk dilakukan pada akhir pekan,” pungkasnya.
Claudio Villa Archive | Claudio Villa/Getty Images
There’s a reason that football is widely monikered ‘the beautiful game’, and it’s due to mavericks like Francesco Totti. To many, Totti is remembered as a one-club man, a legend of the sport who gave his entire career to his beloved hometown side, AS Roma.
For others (mainly found in the darkest corners of social media), he is an overrated, overhyped wannabe who either wasn’t good enough to land a move to a bigger team, or didn’t have the bottle to venture outside of the Italian capital to taste success elsewhere.
Totti is an example of what every young boy and girl who loves football dreams of becoming: the most celebrated hero in their city. It helped Francesco then, that his city was little old Roma. In a career that spanned over 25 years, amassing more than 300 goals and almost 800 appearances, Totti managed to lift the Serie A title only once.
But the superstar has always proudly declared that one title success with Roma was worth more than 10 trophies with any other club – and if his celebrations upon scoring in the final day victory over Parma in 2001 were anything to go by, then the boy was telling the truth.
Through thick and thin, alongside star-studded squads in the early 2000s and some pretty poorly-assembled sides in the later years, he stayed loyal to the team he had supported as a child, each year aiming to deliver one final success to his followers. Luckily for Totti, just pulling on the Giallorossi shirt each week was enough to bring tears of joy to Romanista eyes.
But before all of this, before the goals, the fame, the glory, the pain, the idolisation, Francesco Totti was just a boy, who closed his eyes every night and dreamt of setting foot on the Stadio Olimpico turf.
This infinite love story almost came to an end before it had even started though, when giants Milan attempted to lure an up-and-coming Totti away from Rome and to the economic capital. But luckily for the starlet, Fiorella Totti, the protagonist of this particular story, and mother of Francesco,
politely declined their advances for her boy.
He was to become the King of Rome, after all, and she had foreseen the destiny of her young prince. And on 28 March 1993, her premonitions began to take shape. In the 87th minute of a routine 2-0 victory away at Brescia, a wiry, precocious 16-year-old took to the field for the very first time in his professional career.
Little did anyone know, but they had just witnessed the first steps of Er Bimbo de Oro. The Golden Boy.
Totti showed from an early age that technically, he was able to mix it with the very best. There was an aura that followed him around the pitch, an intelligence that others struggled to comprehend, and the dainty, majestic touch of a boy born to dazzle.
The exciting teen was only a young boy however, trying to compete with the physical and defensive expertise of a man’s game. So for the time being, we had to make do with only one more appearance during the 1992/93 campaign.
His first year in professional football wasn’t quite finished there, though. Totti was flying through the youth ranks with Italy, and he featured in both the Under-16s European Championships, and the Under-17 World Cup in the same summer of 1993.
Totti helped Gli Azzurri finish top of a group that consisted of France, Portugal and Russia, and the Italians went on to reach the final, where they would face Poland. Unfortunately, the young forward was suspended for the big match, and he was sorely missed, with their rivals picking up a 1-0 victory to lift the trophy.
But as mentioned, the forward wasn’t finished there. Totti was part of the Italy side which crashed out of the Under-17 World Cup at the group stages, although he did score an absolute screamer in a 2-1 defeat to Mexico.
Picking the ball up in the centre of the park, the magician looked up to see two opponents blocking his path to goal. In the blink of an eye, Totti had chipped a delightful pass between the hapless adversaries, and then breezed past them without hesitation.
His teammate was on the same wavelength, and clearly remembering the game plan – which probably consisted of ‘give the ball to Totti’ – he laid a pass back into the path of the number 11. Now standing bang centre of the goal, about 30 yards from the posts, Totti released a thunderbolt of a strike without even breaking stride, which curved and swerved to the keeper’s left and into the top corner.
It was the goal of a champion.
My father always told me, ‘If you find that you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.’ Luckily, that specific situation has rarely befallen this particular writer, but on that day in 1993, it was clear that young Totti had an IQ superior to everyone around him.
He was destined for bigger and better things, and there was no limit to what he could achieve in Rome and with his nation. One league title, a handful of domestic trophies, a World Cup, and the most breathtaking of careers later, a living legend now walks in our midst.
Pep Guardiola saw his side concede the Premier League title on Thursday night | Pool/Getty Images
Pep Guardiola has admitted that his Manchester City side are ‘so far behind’ Liverpool and their lack of ‘passion’ contributed to a meagre defence of the Premier League title.
A 2-1 defeat away to Chelsea on Thursday night confirmed the inevitable, with the Reds securing a maiden Premier League crown with a record-breaking seven matches left to play.
Sitting 23 points adrift following their Stamford Bridge loss, Guardiola’s side inability to keep up with Liverpool has provoked some insightful admissions from the Spaniard, who applauded Liverpool’s brilliance but bemoaned his side’s failings.
“Liverpool were fantastic in consistency throughout the whole season,” he said, as quoted by the Daily Mail. “We dropped points at the beginning of the season, and Liverpool didn’t drop points.
“We’ll have to recover for next season, to be more consistent, and recover the points we missed this season. That’s the reality. Two years ago we were 25 points ahead of Liverpool, and now they are this distance ahead.
“We cannot forget that we won two titles. This is incredible success for us, for the club; the last six, seven, eight years.”
In terms of why his side were so far behind Jurgen Klopp’s men, Guardiola’s stark admission that a lack of passion from his City players could have contributed to their season, before confessing the gap between the two sides is bigger than ever.
“Maybe we didn’t arrive with the same passion; Liverpool played every single game like it was the last chance they have,”, he said.
“And maybe we didn’t get that moment, especially the key moments in the first part of the season. That is the reality, that we are so far behind.”
LIVERPOOL – Liverpool meraih trofi Liga Inggris ke-19 pada musim 2019-2020. Liverpool memastikan diri sebagai juara, setelah rivalnya, Manchester City, kalah 1-2 dari Chelsea. Keberhasilan Liverpool mengalahkan Man City di Liga Inggris, sekaligus membayar kegagalan The Reds –julukan Liverpool– pada musim lalu.
Namun, kegagalan musim lalu juga punya andil besar untuk kebehasilan Liverpool pada musim ini. Kapten Liverpool, Jordan Henderson, menyatakan timnya semakin termotivasi agar tidak lagi menjadi yang kedua setelah Man City.
Kegagalan The Reds menjuarai Liga Inggris musim lalu karena selisih satu poin dari Man City, begitu menyakitkan bagi para pemain maupun penggemar. Bagaimana tidak, Liverpool sudah tampil amat bagus hingga bisa mengoleksi 97 poin. Akan tetapi, itu ternyata belum cukup untuk mengakhiri 30 tahun puasa gelar juara Liga Inggris Liverpool.
Liverpool pun belajar memperbaiki kekurangannya, agar bisa menyelesaikan tugas yang tertunda pada musim ini. The Reds tampil apik dan konsisten sepanjang musim ini, sehingga menjadi juara dengan selisih poin yang begitu jauh dari Man City di posisi kedua.
“Saya pikir Anda dapat menggunakannya sebagai motivasi dan energi ekstra untuk terus berjalan dan ingin benar-benar melakukannya, ingin melewati batas dan menyelesaikan pekerjaan. Musim lalu kami bermain dengan sangat baik dan sangat sial, tetapi Man City luar biasa dan mereka berhasil melewati kami pada akhirnya,” ujar Henderson, menyadur dari laman resmi Liverpool Indonesia, Sabtu (27/6/2020).
Liverpool bisa mengukir prestasi lain di Liga Inggris, setelah menjadi juara. Prestasi yang dimaksud adalah pemecahan rekor Man City, sebagai sebagai klub dengan koleksi poin terbanyak dalam satu musim Liga Inggris. Man City mencatatkan rekor tersebut saat menjuarai Liga Inggris 2017-2018 dengan koleksi 100 poin.
Jika Liverpool bisa menyapu bersih tujuh pertandingan tersisa dengan kemenangan, total poin The Reds adalah 107. Pemecahan rekor akan menyempurkan perjalanan Liverpool pada musim ini.
