Tag Archives: mikel arteta

the sort-of internationals

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The international game is back in focus now that the European club season has come to a close. It’s a special time, as rival fans put aside their differences in united support of their national teams. And luckily, there is no shortage or lack of variety in international fixtures to distract us from the summer heat.

xavi playing for catalonia against argentina

wait, why is xavi playing in a shirt that’s not from spain or barcelona?

Up first are the all-important world championships. FIFA, not content to keep itself busy with just bribery, corruption and racism, has a full slate of tournaments this summer to keep us thinking about on-field matters instead of off. The world’s next generation of superstars will be on display in both the u-17 (Mexico, June 18 – July 10) and u-20 (Columbia, July 29 – August 18) World Cups. The lesser followed but equally entertaining Beach Soccer World Cup is being held in Ravenna, Italy, in early September. And who isn’t looking forward to the Women’s World Cup being held in Germany from June 26th to July 17th?!?!

There are also a number of regional competitions on the agenda, with four of the six regional confederations hosting major competitions during the summer. CONCACAF and CONMEBOL will each host their final round regional championships: the Gold Cup and Copa America respectfully. And UEFA’s European Championship and CAF’s African Cup of Nations will have qualifiers ongoing throughout the summer, as they attempt to whittle down to their final fields of sixteen.

And of course there will also be a full serving of the third type of international matches, friendlies, as teams prepare for their upcoming priorities. So what if they’re normally drab affairs that lack the passion of a competitve match and primarily used to test youngsters? There’s no shortage of matches to keep happy both neutral and major fan alike.

But if for some odd reason you can’t find any of those options enticing — after getting your head checked — you do actually have one more type of international fixture left to keep you entertained. Though with world championships, regional tournaments and friendlies off the table, what other type of international matches does that leave you?

The kind that don’t really involve “countries” at all.

Yes, there are actually national teams for places that aren’t actually countries. And no, I’m not talking about places like the U.S. Virgin Islands, who aren’t technically countries but do have true, FIFA-approved squads. (That said, the USVINT are currently ranked 200th in the world rankings and haven’t played a match since 2008… maybe they shouldn’t be a real national team).

Instead, these are the places that FIFA have turned their backs on. Despite this, these far-flung locales still feel the need to field squads to compete in friendlies and play in predominantly unheard-of competitions. They come from regions, principalities, islands, and even “non-defined areas” and play against squads hailing from other lands, real and not real. It’s for this reason that I like to call them the Sort-of Internationals.

So who are these teams?

The most famous of the Sort-of’s is the Catalonia national team. The spiritual home of tiki taka, the Catalonia region of Spain has long been a separatists dreamland. Entrenched in their own “national” identity, culture and language, the region has long sought sovereignty from the Madrid-based Spanish crown. The famous Blaugrana of Barcelona have long been a flag bearer for this movement, and this feeds into the social-undercurrent that intensifies the Barça’s Clásico rivalry with capital club Real. The passion for the independence movement and culture itself is also shared with Espanyol, the region’s other major football club.

But with all of the talent that sprouts from within the state’s borders, it’s unsurprising that a majority of the players “capped” by Catalonia come from Barcelona and Espanyol’s squads. Barça is famous for developing local talent into world class talent, and Espnayol’s has provided some of the strong local contingent too. With players like Xavi, Carles Puyol, Sergio Busquets, Cesc Fàbregas, Gerard Pique, and Victor Valdés all having earned caps recently for the squad, you can easily fathom that they just might be a decent squad. (I also suspect that at least 79% of the reason why Spain won’t let Catalonia secede is that it would deprive the Spanish national team from a major contingent of the current world-dominating squad).

xabi alonso playing for the basque country, or euskadi xi

and what’s with xabi alonso? neither madrid nor spain wear green…

The star power doesn’t stop with the players either, as the squad is currently managed by Dutch legend Johann Cruyff. Such is the attraction of this Sort-of International squad that they have actually competed against “real” national teams such as Brazil, Nigeria, and even Argentina whom they beat 4-2 in the lead up to the 2010 World Cup.

Spain also partially houses another somewhat known “national team”, that of the Basque Country. Though not as well known as the Southern coast group from Catalonia, they also have capped a few illustrious players, including: Xabi Alonso, Fernando Llorente and Mikel Arteta. Many of the Basque players come from the region’s most prominent side, Athletic Bilbao. Bilbao’s unique cantera policy, which focuses entirely on both developing young players from the Basque region and recruiting top-level Basque players from other clubs, makes them the perfect feeder for the faux-national side.

The Euskadi XI, as the Basque Country side is known, not only plays publicized matches against Catalonia, but just like their most-frequent foe, they’ve also faced some prominent sides in friendlies. In fact, they’re currently on a three match winning streak against “real” national sides, which included wins over Estonia, Venezuela, and Serbia.

However, the quality tends to drop off pretty dramatically for the remaining 58 established sort-of international sides. But that’s not to say there aren’t some interesting “countries” to examine.

the guernsey national side kits

guernsey’s “national” side has some pretty sharp kits… and a sponsorship.

  • The Guernsey national football team, the British-owned islands in the English Channel, is well known for producing Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier. Le Tissier did manage to make a number of appearances for the Green Lions, both before and after playing for the better known Three Lions. The fellow channel islands of Jersey and Alderney also sport their own national teams, and the three “nations” regularly compete for their own cup, the Muratti Vase.
  • The Greenland national team, despite being a property of Denmark, appears on track to be elevanted to a FIFA-member status after the Sepp-asaurus approved their new field-turf pitch back in september of last year.
  • The Northern Cyprus national team is composed of Turkish-aligned Cypriots. But don’t you dare confuse them with FIFA-approved Cyprus national team that is mainly composed of ancestral-Greek players… that could get you killed. Officials on the Island aren’t dumb though: in order to spare the Mediterranean island any additional racial tensions, the two sides have never met.
  • The extravagant city of Monaco also has a national team, though they’re also easily confused with French Ligue 2 club side AS Monaco, which is composed entirely of players from outside of the principality. Like Greenland, Monaco have been eagerly been attempting to enter FIFA’s cool club for quite some time. Uniquely though, and unlike Greenland and many of the others on this list, the city state is actually a real country.
  • The Sápmi national team is comprised of players from the extreme northern reaches of Norway, Sweden, Russia and Finland. The most famous player ever to pull on the sápmi strip is Blackburn Rovers midfielder Morten Gamst Pedersen.
  • Sort-of national teams exist outside of the Europe, too. Some notable teams include: Easter Island (disappointingly not a team full of giant stone heads), the Faulkland Islands at the tip of Southern Argentina (who rarely can get a game, due to the pure lack of visitors), and Zanzibar in Africa (who, oddly enough, used to be a “real” national team).

For those of you wanting to take in a bit of the action of the sort-of international variety, you’re in luck! This year, the 14th edition of the Island Games will feature a football tournament that pits 15 teams from non-FIFA approved nations. More information about the tournament, which runs June 26 – July 1 on the Isle of Wight, can be found here.

So if anyone tells you that there won’t be any quality football to watch this summer due to the lack of club matches, be sure to smack them and tell them to open their eyes a bit wider… or maybe use a magnifying glass.

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round up #20

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so much to read. so many games to watch. not enough time to read, watch and post.

i organize the stories i find interesting on sticky notes on my desktop. in a typical week, i’ll collect fifteen which i whittle down to my top five (sometimes six). this week, there are at least 40. this list is overwhelming. i’ve got maybe ten links on my shortlist this week that are approaching a month old, and i’m adding two or three daily.

needless to say, it’s getting out of hand and my ADD is at full strength.

pep guardiola has had some minor success at barcelona, and pressing has a lot to do with it.

i’m not going to lie: i’m pretty curious to see how this round up turns out…

the question: why is pressing so crucial in the modern game – guardian.co.uk
as much as i would prefer to not speak about last saturday’s horrendous el clásico result, barcelona have certainly earned their praise this season. i mean, real madrid have spent the equivalent of building a space station, and they still can’t shut down barcelona’s homegrown, well tuned machine. arsenal are often considered the only team to play somewhat like the catalunyans, but barça clearly demonstrated why they’re still the masters at playing a truly beautiful game.

so how are they doing it? this link answers that question, as the author brilliantly breaks down why barcelona are destroying everyone’s hopes and dreams. this is the best article i’ve read this year. hands down.

are cska sofia the most dysfunctional team in europe? – thespoiler.co.uk
i know i’ve brought up the horrid british soap opera dreamteam on the blog before, and that i’ve said that liverpool were the closest thing to the show in real life. but i think i’m going to have to revoke the title from the merrysiders, as a bulgarian side clearly deserves it. i won’t spoil the article for you by giving away the list of drama that this club has gone through recently, bu i will tell you that it contains at least the following: their stadium has been condemned, their fans stormed the pitch and earned the club a stadium ban, and a kidnapping involving a celebrity. yep, a real life kidnapping. awesome. and just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, i’ll blow your mind a little more. all of the nonsense happened within a week. sorry liverpool, another title of yours is gone.

the firesale at chelsea must include drogba, ballack and deco – thetimes.co.uk
personally, this link comes off as a little crazy. one might think that just by looking at the title, and i wouldn’t fault them for that. why would anyone sell drogba or ballack? just like deco, the crazed east german and the oft-enraged ivorian are on the dark side of 30. their playing on borrowed time, and the future will be bleak if the blues don’t get any value out of them before they retire. since that’s obviously the reason why i feel like the title isn’t the crazy part, let me explain to you what it is.

it’s the author’s crazed replacement plans that have my head spinning. replace drogba with fernando torres (if he goes anywhere else in england, it’s either chelsea or city as they’re the only ones who will fork up the needed moneys). deco out, everton’s mikel arteta in (brilliant move that wouldn’t cost chelsea too much). and ballack can be replaced by another toffee, steven pienaar (a personal favorite, but there’s an impending bidding war for his services). could this newly constructed team, full of the arrival of fresh blood funded by the sales of chelsea stars of yesteryear, actually win them the league? i just don’t see that happening, mostly due to the nature of these arrivals making too much sense.

messi has few fans in argentina – guardian.co.uk
ok, my apologies for pulling out the crazy link card on the last story because this one should surely take that by title alone, right? in my opinion, no… not really.

messi, despite his obvious, jaw-dropping abilities, hasn’t played a bit of professional club football in his homeland. he left for greener pastures (and growth hormone therapy because he is a midget) at the age of 13, landing at barcelona’s youth academy. and to the typical argentinian fan, you have to prove your loyalty and worth before they will call you the next savior. tévez, riquelme, and that one dude maradona all earned their stripes at boca juniors. crespo, saviola, and aimar all at river plate.

my club's home pitch looks nothing like this. and suddenly, i'm depressed.

you can then couple messi’s unearned respect with his relatively tame performances with the national team (probably more due to coaching and deployment), and you can begin to understand why he may not be the average argentinian fan’s favorite player. but still, for a country that’s constantly looking for the next maradona to simply overlook the most similar player to maradona they will ever get because he hasn’t won their hearts yet… i will definitely call that crazy.

european fields: the landscape of lower league football – hansvandermeer.nl
i don’t know about you, but sometimes i’m a sucker for good works for art. combine football with art, and now you’ve really got me hooked. well this dutch photographer (hans van der meer) has done just that. but instead of traversing europe taking fancy pictures of big time clubs, hans decided he would capture scenes from sunday league and pub teams. and all i can say is, playing amateur men’s in ohio sucks when compared to most of the places my european counterparts get to play.

the missing

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it’s the game’s biggest stage, and that stage features the world’s biggest stars. well, most of them anyway.

every four year’s, hundreds of millions of adoring fans to watch the brightest stars of football shine during the world cup. unfortunately, some of those star names don’t get the final invite to the the big ball because their team suck, or their team is a little unlucky, or their coach simply won’t bring them along.

whatever the case may be, south africa 2010 will be devoid of some of the best players in the world. it’s kind of like kanye west not being at the grammy’s; you know he’s talented enough to be there, but he just hasn’t earned it.

ibrahimovic will have some excellent company with which to watch the world cup on the tube this summer.

in fact, we came really, really close to almost having the two best players in the world in messi and ronaldo due to their teams drastically underperforming in qualification. luckily, by some divine influence, both of them stumbled their way into the tournament, sparing fifa some major embarrassment.

but we’re not here to talk about who squeaked their way into the tournament. let’s talk about the best players who had the door slammed into their face.

zlatan ibrahimovic - sweden / barcelona
arguably the biggest name on this list, it’s really not that surprising that big swede isn’t booking his flight to south africa. despite zlatan’s obvious talent, can you name a single other player of true quality in the swedish ranks? i sure can’t. and considering that ibra can’t seem to decide if he actually wants to play for the national team, he’s not exactly going to be the one to lead the charge to the finals.

ryan giggs – wales / manchester united
while giggsy’s younger, speedier red devils teammate antonio valencia might be the better player at this point (debatable), i’m going to go with the wise, old welshman for this list. why? two reasons: 1) despite a glittering club career, giggs has never made an appearance at the world cup finals as wales are confined to minnow status, and 2) at the ripe age of 36 he is still one of the most dangerous and creative players in the EPL. i know my praise won’t mask his disappointment of never making it to the big dance, but he deserves the nod either way.

roman pavlyuchenko – russia / tottenham
even though he’s been buried on the bench for a majority of the season at white hart lane, pav’s recent form is hard to ignore. with five goals in his last three games, it’s no wonder former russia manager gus hiddink wanted pav in form for their qualification campaign… unfortunately for roman and russia, he wasn’t.

edin dzeko – bosnia / wolfsburg
so when you play for bosnia, qualifying for the world cup is about as likely as slobodan milošević not commiting genocide. despite making it to the finals in germany four years ago under the banner of serbia & montenegro, the newly independent serbian side is just not quite as solid. however, the future is bright for serbs. led by dzeko, who is one of the most sought-after strikers in the game, they should be considered a threat during the 2012 euro qualification process.

stephen ireland – ireland / manchester city
when the irish were knocked out of the world cup by thierry henryy’s infamous handball assist in the waning moments of their second leg qualification play-off with france, it plunged a country already renown for their heavy drinking into a drunken furor. so close but so far, as the saying goes. and the fact that they made it so far without the nations best player should be a testament to the team’s strength. the mercurial stephen ireland of manchester city has been in personal exile from the irish national team for some time now, and my guess is he would have continued it even if they had qualified.

antonio cassano – italy / sampdoria
what makes cassano different than everyone else on this list? his national team is qualified for south africa, yet he won’t be making the trip this summer with the azzuri. after tumultuous spells at roma and real madrid, the oft controversial cassano has found his form in sampdoria, prompting numerous calls from the media for his return to the national team. however, italy coach marcelo lippi has thus far refused due to his reputation as a team cancer.

luka modrić - croatia / tottenham

modric seems shocked that his croatia didn't qualify... i'm shocked too.

the croatians were a shock exclusion from south africa, being the highest ranked national side not qualified for the tournament (11th as of march 2010). the absence of the spurs playmaker during qualification, due to a broken leg, likely played a part in the team’s poor results. i could have easily put a couple of the croatians on this list (niko kranjčar, dario šimić, eduardo da silva, etc.), but modrić is the engine that drives his club and country, despite being the size of your average pet hamster.

goran pandev – macedonia / inter milan
the diminutive forward has had a rough go over the last few years for both club and country. despite a tremendous goalscoring record, he was frozen out at former club lazio due to a rocky relationship with management. however, his return to inter has been fruitful with the macedonian netting three times in nine appearances. in the national team shirt, pandev shouldn’t ever expect much success as the macedonians just don’t have the infrastructure or talent to compete at an elite level.

andrei arshavin – russia / arsenal
this gunner will be one of the more notable outcasts for this summer’s main event. his flashy style and creativity made him one of the most attractive transfer targets after russia’s deep run at euro 2008. the russians are stocked full of high level talent and had an excellent manager in gus hiddink, making their absence from south africa even more surprising.

emmanuel adebayor – togo / manchester city
adebayor drives me crazy, and i often say that i don’t intend to write about him on my blog if i can help it. but there’s doubting that the city striker is one of the best strikers not making his way to the world cup finals. probably all the better for togo, seeing as how the team were brutally attacked at the africa cup of nations in angola.

honorable mention
shay given – ireland / manchester city
mikel arteta – spain / everton
petr cech – czech republic / chelsea
hamit altintop – turkey / bayern munich
antonio valencia – ecuador / manchester united
josé bosingwa – portugal / chelsea

so in short, i apparently think strikers are the only good players out there. i’m sure i’m completely missing someone on this list, but then again, this is a list of people who are missing out. if you can think of anyone i left out, feel free to share.