After Germany's win against the Koreans, the second quarter final saw the USWNT face to the English ladies. US had won the group B while the English were second in group A behind the Germans (same points, better goal difference for Germany). Us were of course the favourite, but at half time the result was still 0-0.

A very bad first half, with a lot of mistakes by both teams, and just a chance at the end of the time for the US. A boring 45', consider that the total number of fouls was 5!

Everything changed at the very beginning of the second half. First of all, a corner kick and Abby Wambach scored a great goal with a powerful header, where the English keeper Rachel Brown could only touch the ball. After that, in 12 minutes the US hurricane knocked down the British.

First, a long distance kick from the defender Shannon Boxx, after
the English defense lost a bal, and it was the 2-0 goal. Then, Brown failed her intervention, lost the ball and Kirsten Lilly could score the US third goal. The 36 years old midfielder, with more than 300 caps, currently paying in Sweden for Orebro, had just to score one step from the goal line, after she beat Asante on the run.

3-0 on minu tes 60, after first half ended with a draw! England had a reaction, but Hope solo had just to make some easy saves and succeeded in keeping clean sheets until minute 92, when the English had their best chance to score. Fifteen minutes were enough to give the semifinal to the USA, and now the American ladies are waiting for the winners of the game between Brazil and Australia. Will there be a final between the Americans and the Germans? Let's wait and see.

Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium:

USA-ENGLAND 3-0 (0-0)

USA: Solo; Rampone, Whitehill, Boxx (82' Lloyd), O'Reilly; Osborne, Lilly, Lopez, Markgraf; Chalupny, Wambach (86' Kai). Coach: Greg Ryan.

ENGLAND: Brown; Scott, Steney, Chapman, White; Phillip (80' Sanderson), Carney, Aluko (46' Yankey), K. Smith; Asante, Scott. Coach: Hope Powell.

Goals: 48' Wamback, 57' Boxx, 60' Lilly.

Referee: Jenny Palmqvist (SWE)

Cards: none.

Ok, Robinho showed 10 minutes of his class, but this Brazil full of muscles and centimetres did not deserve such a score. Chile could draw with Humberto Suazo in the second half, but after six, seven dribbles his shot were stopped by Juan. If the player of Monterrey scored, it wouldn't have been easy for the Seleçao to get through but Brazil, good for Dunga, has Robinho.

The Brazilian coach has been criticized for being unexperienced, and maybe he is going against the tradition and the characteristics of the Verde-oro team: no fantasy, a lot of defensive midfielder, no stars (but here it's not Dunga's fault). The quarterfinals seem to be reached, but Brazil needs more if they want to win the Copa. Chile, on the contrary, played well until second Robinho's goal, but they were too nervous during the match, especially after the penalty kick assigne to the Brazilian at the end of first half.

Let's see what happens next Wednesday in Group B, anyway it's a good thing for Brazil that if they will be second at the end, they'll face (what a strange format!) the best third. For Chile it's going to be tough, but beforewe have to wait what happens between Mexico and Ecuador. 

I'm sorry for my US friends and for all US Soccer fan, but as an Italian and an Inter fan, I have to root for Argentina in this Copa America 2007. Half players of the Albiceleste has Italian origins, and the other half plays for Inter! But I also would like to tell you that the USMNT were really ok for one hour: the problem is that it's the last 30 minutes that make the difference between a good team and a top team. And Argentina is full of stars...

Anyway, I was not surprised that theafter US scored first, with a penalty kick by Eddie Johnson of Kansas City, but Argentina was lucky to equalize immediately: Crespo scored with the open goal after a free kick, and after a shot saved by Keller. Good chances for Argentina at the end of first half (especially a great shot by Veron saved by Keller and the crossbar) but at half time the score was still 1-1.

Crespo, assisted by Messi, scored on 63 minutes the 2-1 goal reaching Maradona (present in Maracaibo) on the top of Albiceleste scorers, but most of all Argentina takes the lead. The Inter Milan player's diagonal shot is perfect, nothing to do for Keller. On minutes 77, after one minute of ball possession of the Argentinean, a cross from the left side by Heinze is converted by Aimar's header. Basile made a good choice, by replacing Cambiasso with him. There's time for Argentina to score the fourth goal, after a counter attack: Tevez, Messi's substitute, had no opposition and Keller was beaten once again.

As I said, good for the US team to play the first hour at the same level of the Argentina giants, but ehn Crespo scored his second goal, ther's been no reaction. Anyway, US keeps same percentage to get through they had before the game. On the contrary, though for Argentina it took 63 minutes to take the lead, bit after that things became easier and, good for me, Argentina is still favourite for this Copa America edition in Venezuela.

Here you have the highlights of the game:

Copa America is the most important football event of this summer, except for the Brazilian. Anyway, though a lot of stars were on golden beaches to have -at least!- some rest, I think that the fans are really disappointed for their team's defeat.

Here in Italy -6 hours ahead of Venezuela- the game was really late at night, so I preferred to watch the earlier one, same group and same stadium. Ecuador and Chile, no Serie A players involved (not the Romanista Pizarro, neither Jimenez of Lazio), but a very interesting game. I root for Chile, because my neighbours are from Ecuador and always make a lot of noise when they have a party in the garden. Ok, I'm jocking.

I expected Ecuador to win easily, and in fact at the beginning the early goal of Antonio Valencia and the 2-1, a header of Benitez I thought I was right. In the middle, the great shot of Humberto Suazo. Anyway, Ecuador lead at half time, and I was quite sure that the game was over for Chile (former Serie A defender Vargas was so slow!)especially when Suazo missed a chance to equalize on 63 minute. But Suaro scored a goal on 80 minutes (a mistake of Ecuador's defense) and 3' before the end, a great free kick by Carlos Villanueva with his left foot, gave 3 points to Chile. Chile and Mexico 3, Ecuador and Brazil 0: really, really surprising!

 

Video of the goals:

Ecuador 1-0 Chile (Valencia)

Ecuador 1-1 Chile (Suazo)

Ecuador 2-1 Chile (Benitez)

Ecuador 2-2 Chile (Suazo)

Ecuador 2-3 Chile (Villanueva)

 

 

Canada-Guatemala, USA-Panama in Boston, Honduras-Guadeloupe and Mexico-Costa Rica in Houston are the Gold Cup Quarterfinals. Cuba, Haiti, El Salvador and surprisingly Trinidad and Tobago (last year at the World Cup in Germany) go home. As an Italian, I found some former Serie A players there, not only Angloma (we talked about him here), but also Carlos Pavon of Honduras. The striker scored four goals to Cuba, I don't know if someone remembers him at Udinese playing just 7 games in 2 years. The curiosity is that he scored at his very first game in Serie A, then he didn't score anymore.

 

It was August 26, 2001, Serie A day 1. Udinese vs Torino, the black and white are loosing 1-2, when Pieri shots and his shot is deflected, accidentally, by the Honduras striker, beating Bucci (in the picture, the celebration for Pavon's goal). Despite his unlucky stay in Italy, now Pavon is the Gold Cup top scorer and his team is favourite against Guadeloupe of Jocelyn Angloma, which is the tournament's most surprising team. Guadeloupe, being part of the French Republic, cannot even be a FIFA member, so they cannot play the World Cup. Gols Gup is the only chance they have to play football, and it seems they're doing quite well.

The US are favourite with Panama, Mexico can get through with Costa Rica but the Tricolor need to find their best football. I cannot predict how Canada-Guatemala could finish. Anyway, let's see these four games, at the stadim for Bostonians and the Space City inhabitants, maybe on TV for all of us, waiting for the semifinals next week in Chicago.

Jocelyn Angloma, former Marseille, Torino and Inter Milan right back, has scored an incredible goal for his new national team of Guadeloupe, in their 2-1 win against Canada at Miami Orange Bowl. With this historical goal, Guadeloupe conquers Concacaf Gold Cup quarterfinals. Angloma, that ended his European career at Valencia, is now playing for Etoile Morne a l’Eau, a small club of the French department of Guadeloupe, where Angloma was born and started playing football.

Watch Jocelyn Angloma's goal here:

US soccer team get through after the 2-0 win to Trinidad&Tobago at Home Depot in Carson City (CA). After dominating at the beginning of the game, with a goal scored by Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo) the US missed the knock-out but in the second half Eddie Johnson (Kansas City Wizards) scored the second goal. Now the US will play El Salvador, but we think coach Bob Bradley will change the formation.

Here you have Ching's goal:

and Johnson's one

Eight Inter players will take part to Copa America, in place from June 26 to July 15 in Venezuela. It's the Argentinean Burdisso, Cambiasso, Crespo e Zanetti ("El Tractor" is back after Peckerman did not call him for the World Cup), Colombian Cordoba, Brazilian Maicon, Recoba and Carini of Uruguay.

The sport commentators suddenly talked about possibile problems those players might have for the beginning of next season, as holidays will be shorter than usual. Everybody stated our World Champions of Italy had problems this year. We cannot say how much the Copa America participation will influence their performance (Inter is going to start their season the same day opf the Copa Final), but if you think that top players such as Kakà and Ronaldinho gave up, maybe they would prefer to have some vacation.

Anyways, apart from Italian Supercup (probably on August 18th), we don't think there will be problems for Inter. First of all, two of these eight players will leave or anyway normally do not play at all (Recoba e Carini), while three of them won't play the first Champions League games. We are talking of Burdisso, Cordoba and Maicon, sbanned for the boxe match in Valencia. Then, the Nerazzurri squad is so huge that Mancini can replace all of these players, letting them the right time to have rest and come back in August. Anyway, we hope that some of these eight players will be back to Appiano Gentile with the trophy, as it happened in 2004 with Adriano. 

Last weekend, almost at the same time, two presidents confessed their mistakes, by reinstating a coach they sent away before. "I made a mistake" says Torino President, Urbano Cairo, "maybe Zaccheroni could have done better with a squad built by him". The history of the Granata is really unbelievable: Gianni De Biasi, the coach that lead the team to promotion, was sent away before the beginning of the season. Cairo hired Zaccheroni, maybe he thought the Cesenatico coach was more experienced, as he coached Milan, Lazio and Inter.

Five consecutive defeats and a bad position in Serie A table (just a little bit above the relegation zone) put Zac's position in danger. Last Saturday Torino played away at ChievoVerona, and it was clear this was the last ditch for him. Just before the game the Rosina-gate made a noise: Torino striker in his personal website gave bad rankings to the whole team -except himself- and in Verona was sent to the stand. Torino lost 0-3 and the defeat was lethal to Zaccheroni. So, Cairo went back to the past, again with De Biasi.

In Cagliari, it happened almost the same. President Cellino called up Marco Giampaolo last summer after young coach did very well at Ascoli, but as usual it's not easy to work with that kind of Presdient. Cellino is a little bossy, and in Italy we say that executives like him are "Mangia-allenatori" (Coach-eaters), meaning they change coaches just like they change their shirt. That's why Cellino in December sent Giampaolo away, while Cagliari was playing badly but was just in a safe position.

Cagliari had a new coach, the experienced Franco Colomba. But the former Reggina trainer did not satisfy his chairman, who lives in Miami and manages the club from overseas. Last Sunday, after Cagliari's defeat against Lazio, Cellino decided to call Giampaolo again. In the meantime, Giampaolo had left Cagliari, his house and changed the school to his sons in another part of Italy. Unfortunately for him, the coach has still a contract in place; so, if he didn't accept to come back, he'd loose his salary from now until contract expiry.

Tomorrow the tricks of fate -and Serie A schedules, of course- will play off De Biasi against Giampaolo, for day 26. At least one of them won't loose, and a president will be, finally, happier than before.

Inter's 17th consecutive win isn't news, just like the umpteenth Totti's mistake from the penalty spot. Today we want to talk about three teams that have been punished after Calciopoli scandal, and now are trying to get into Europe by its main door: Champions League. Now it's Lazio seating on the fourth step, but Milan is just one point behind and Fiorentina is some distance from them but maybe is in very good shape and don't mind if they are six points under. Reasonably, they are fighting for just one place, but we see that Palermo is in a bad moment and there are still 14 games to play. Will the Sicilians resist in the Top Four? We'll see...

Another remark we should do is that all the people saying this year Serie A is not so good, are a little bit wrong. Take for example the table as it would be if all those teams weren't penalized. At least for the top 6, it should be: Inter 66, AS Roma 52, Fiorentina 46, Palermo 44, AC Milan 44, Lazio 40. Top teams are all there, except Juve that is still paying for its scandals, so it's not Inter's fault if they are too strong. We should talk anout no history for its strenght, but not that the level is lower than the past for the reason Juve is not there.

Anyway, yesterday night AC Milan won without deserving, for the second time three points came during the extra-time, once again Ambrosini's header has been decisive: without him now Milan would be sixth with 31 points, 35 less then Inter. Ronaldo played badly, but had to carry the weight of the attack as Oliveira has been replaced by Cafu after 10', due to Oddo's sending-off. Mach 11th is going to be the moment of truth for Ancelotti: that day his team will play against Inter for the derby. Anyway, choosing Ronaldo -that cannot play Champions League- Milan has shown how important is fourth place to them.

Lazio forward Tommaso Rocchi is the man of the day. His beautiful goal in Cagliari has been applauded by all the viewers, and he had a standing ovation by the opposite fans, and this doesn't happen every day, especially in Italy, where fair play is just a pipe-dream. Now Lazio on Wednesday is going to play Catania at the Stadio Olimpico, it won't be easy, though Catania is in deep crisis and needs some point after the unsuccessful match against Inter.

We think Fiorentina is Serie A third best team, after Inter and Roma (according to Mutu, they are second, after Inter). They have a good coach, a fantastic pair of forwards, Luca Toni and Adrian Mutu, a technical skilled player as Liverani and some good youngsters (Montolivo, Pazzini and Donadel). Sporting director Pantaleo Corvino confirms their interest to young players: today Fiorentina has signed Arturo Lupoli (Arsenal forward, now at Derby County on loan) for the next five years. So, Neapolitan forward will be back to Italy since July, as he left Parma some years ago, "stolen" by Arsenal.

So, as from now until the end of may, at least we'll see an exciting fight for Europe: giants are back!