Posts Tagged ‘Practice Session’

Brazil avoid tug of war with Man City over Robinho

The Brazil coach is likely to keep his Manchester City forward out of the firing line against Oman

Even if Dunga wakes up today to read more warnings from Manchester City and Mark Hughes, Robinho should be just a spectator when Brazil help celebrate the 69th birthday of Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said by facing Oman and collecting a cheque for US$3m (£1.8m).

Although the striker, who has been on the sidelines since September, took part in the quick kickabout organised at Brazil’s practice session at the stadium named after the monarch, he has said again that he needs at least another week to be ready for action.

Sources at seleção speculated that Dunga might send Robinho on for five minutes just to make a point to City, whom the Brazilian manager has accused of disrespect for sending their team doctor Jamie Butler to Doha ahead of Saturday’s friendly against England to try to obtain the player’s release. However, Dunga is trying to avoid a tug of war between club and country, which he made clear by thanking Milan and Lyon for releasing their defenders Thiago Silva and Cris to replace the injured Luisão and Juan for the games against England and Oman.

Another factor pointing towards moderation is that Dunga could certainly do without another problem upfront at a time when Brazil are suffering from a striker scarcity. Although Luís Fabiano has been scoring goals galore, despite his penalty miss against England, the second spot in the attack is still open.

Nilmar, who headed past the England goalkeeper Ben Foster for his fifth goal in three matches for Brazil, is gaining ground, but Adriano and Porto’s Hulk are struggling to make a stronger point for inclusion in the squad. Besides, Robinho is the most capped player under Dunga, who has never ceased to praise the Eastklands striker’s commitment to his country.

Yesterday, Robinho zoomed past a frantic media scrum at the entrance of the Sultan Qaboos stadium and, like last week, trained separately by jogging and doing stretching exercises while the rest of his Brazil team-mates sweated it out on drills and dead-ball simulations.

Dunne bullish ahead of France play-off

• Wednesday’s second leg could be key, says defender
• Trapattoni’s squad began practising penalties on Tuesday

Richard Dunne believes that the Republic of Ireland could exploit the volatile nature of France’s home crowd in Paris next Wednesday, in the second leg of the World Cup play-off, as he articulated the confidence within Giovanni Trapattoni’s squad.

Trapattoni and his assistant manager, Marco Tardelli, pragmatic Italians, have stressed the importance of keeping a clean sheet in the first leg at Croke Park on Saturday and Dunne claimed that if the French could be frustrated, their supporters would be more likely to turn on them.

“They will probably be thinking that if they can come to Dublin and keep the ball for long spells it will frustrate our crowd, but if we go over there in front and keep them quiet, they are more likely [to turn]” Dunne said, “because I think their fans just expect them to qualify and that’s it. If we go there and our crowd is singing and their crowd is booing, it’s not going to help them at all.”

Dunne and Ireland are playing the long game. The defender talked of taking qualification however it came, on away goals or even a successful penalty shoot-out. The Irish have practised their penalties since they joined up on Tuesday.

“I’d probably take one,” Dunne volunteered, “although I wouldn’t be first up and I hit the post with my effort in our first practice session. It’s worthwhile practising them because if it comes down to that and we’ve not practised, it would be wrong. You need to cover every eventuality. In Shay Given we’ve got the best goalkeeper in the world and we’ve got enough experienced players not to let it worry us.”

It is a measure of Irish confidence, though, that Dunne insisted they would not sign up in advance for a shoot-out. “We’ve got enough in us to win the games,” he said. “We have to believe that. We can’t settle for a shoot-out now, we’ll settle to qualify now. I feel that over the two games, we have different tactics and different things that can win the games for us.

“The draw with France was not the best we could have got, but the way I look at it is that if they were as good as everyone seems to think, they would have won their group. Instead, they’re in the same position as us and they have to go through the play-offs.”

Ireland were one of only five European nations to come through the group phase of qualification without defeat and they take further heart from their home and away draws against the world champions, Italy, matches that, on either occasion, might have yielded victory for them. Ireland’s collective spirit has been the bedrock for their success under Trapattoni. It ought to be noted, though, that France found their form in their final four group fixtures. Dunne admitted that they looked to have “clicked”.

“We know it’s going to be really difficult,” he added, “and it’s down to everyone to work as a team. There will be times when France players are going to skip past ours and we need to make sure that a team-mate is always there to back them up. You have to fight for each other.”

There are fears, meanwhile, that the second leg of the tie will not be screened live in Ireland and the United Kingdom because of a stand-off between the French Football Federation and its television partners TF1 on one side, and the broadcasters RTE and Sky Sports on the other. The FFF and TF1 were unhappy that the Football Association of Ireland sold the overseas rights for the Dublin game to the highest bidder, which proved to be the French terrestrial channel M6, who paid around €5m (£4.5m). The FFF is now demanding that RTE and Sky Sports pay €1.5m to secure the tie in Paris; the broadcasters have indicated that they value the rights at only €600,000. It is, however, common practice for such negotiations to enter into the final days.

Real land their €65m man as Kaka swaps Milan for Madrid

• Midfielder leaves Milan for €65m on six-year deal
• Club say the man will be harder to replace than the player

Real Madrid have signed the Brazilian midfielder Kaka from Milan, the La Liga club confirmed today. The 27-year-old international has agreed a six-year contract to become the first player to join Real since Florentino Pérez returned to the presidency this month.

Reports said the transfer fee was around €65m (£56m). Pérez has vowed to recreate the policy of signing the world’s best in his second spell in charge – he brought Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and David Beckham to the Bernabéu in his first term – and snaring the Brazil playmaker is another statement of intent.

The official unveiling in Madrid is likely to take place at the end of the month, after the Confederations Cup in South Africa.

Kaka, who is in Brazil on international duty, called Pérez’s strategy “an interesting sports project.” He said: “He’s trying to buy other players, and I think he can make a very offensive team. That’s behind my decision to go to this team.”

Kaka said he talked with his former Milan team-mate David Beckham about the transfer, and the England midfielder, who played for Real, said it would be the best step for his career. “I hope to be part of this new project and help to win titles, both European and Spanish,” Kaka said.

“Now the soap opera is over,” he added after a practice session in the build-up to Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier against Paraguay qualifier in Recife. “The only leftover details were the medical exams, and I’ve done them. The negotiations are closed and I have sealed my transfer to Real Madrid.

“Everything I’ve always done for Milan has been by mutual agreement, from the moment I arrived until my departure today. I’m leaving by the front door. “I’ve won everything that I wanted as a player and this is a new motivation for me.”

Milan thanked Kaka for his contribution. “AC Milan thanks the man Kaka and the champion Kaka for his decisive contributions to so many victories obtained in the last six years,” the Serie A club said.

“His loss on the field, though serious, can be filled. It will, however, be very difficult to fill the void left by Kaka the man.”

Pérez confirmed that Kaka would be just the first of several summer signings. His targets also include Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso. “Kaka is one of the players that every team would like to have and Madrid had the chance to get him,” Pérez said. “We are working on building a good team, an important team, and this has only just begun.”