Terry retiring from international duty could be good for everybody

I was going to review Sunday’s Premier League action in today’s editorial, but instead I’ve decided to focus on John Terry’s decision to retire from international duty with England. The decision has been taken because he feels he is being unfairly treated by the FA over the race row with Anton Ferdinand. Unfair Terry feels the FA have treated him unfairly. He released a statement stating his reasons. Here is an extract from that statement: “I am making this statement today in advance of the hearing of the FA disciplinary charge because I feel the FA, in pursuing charges against me where I have already been cleared in a court of law, have made my position with the national team untenable” True John Terry has already been already benn cleared by a court of law. How can the FA still pursue any action against the Chelsea defender? Do they have more power than the English court system? Do they have evidence that the court didn’t have? I don’t think so. The FA has dragged this matter out far too long. The British judicial system has dealt with the matter and found John Terry not guilty. Whether that verdict was correct or not is not for the FA to decide. The FA just want to make it look like they are actually capable of taking actions against somebody and John Terry just seems like an easy target. I’m not saying that John Terry is an angel, far from it. However, I believe the FA should have accepted the decision made by the British courts and let the case rest. By pursuing it they are continuing to keep the row alive. I’m sure everybody involved would like to move on. Older John Terry isn’t getting any younger and by retiring from international duty he may prolong his playing career. Paul Scholes was a good example of retiring from international duty to extend his club career. John Terry might be a rough and tough centre-back but his body is bound to start creaking as he gets older. All those block tackles and interventions are bound to have had an effect on his body. I think this is a good decision for Chelsea. They will now have a John Terry that isn’t traipsing all over the world and isn’t having the possibility of getting injured. He will be able to rest in international breaks instead of playing and that can only be good for the Blues. England Although John Terry’s still a good player, I don’t think he is the player he was three or four years ago. Last season he made some very uncharacteristic mistakes playing for Chelsea and it cost them at times. The racism row may have been playing on his mind and it seemed to effect his concentration. He has been a fine servant to English football, but this gives a chance to other English centre-backs to prove they are good enough to be England regulars. The likes of Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka and Joleon Lescott will now be more likely to play regular international football. All three have proved competent defenders in the past and will now be looking to cement their places as first choice centre-back for the Three Lions. England boss Roy Hodgson will now also have to look at other defensive options. Football John Terry has been a fantastic player for both Chelsea and England down the years. However, his off-field exploits and sometimes on-field behaviour has blighted his career. I hope that once the FA have had their hearing that John Terry can get back to what he does best, that’s playing football. Has John Terry made the right decision by retiring from international football?

The world's ultimate football player

 

MEET the best footballer you've never seen - he has the vision of Xavi, the explosive legs of Cristiano Ronaldo and the imposing height of Peter Crouch.

The world's ultimate player is a Castrol Edge creation - designed to capture all the attributes of the world's most dominant footballers.

The carbon fibre and wax model was sculpted over six months by two former Madame Tussaud's artists.

The 2m-tall Castrol Edge Ultimate Performing Player would have a transfer value of over $450 million based on the fees commanded by the real-life players that constitute him.

Castrol used data from its Castrol Rankings system to analyse the performance of over 2000 players in Europe's top 5 leagues and create a shortlist of 10, who were used to create the ultimate player.

Each player that features was selected based on a unique Castrol Rankings insight - for example, Crouch's height gives him unrivalled aerial supremacy, winning 241 aerial duels last season, over 100 more than his closest rival.

Ivory Coast manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who unveiled the model in London, said this would be a player who would dominate football like no other.

"Within this one player Castrol has included all the attributes, both physical and mental, that a manager looks for in his signings," Eriksson said.

THE ULTIMATE PERFORMING PLAYER

Hair - Carles Puyol (Spain/Barcelona)FC Barcelona's inspirational captain led his team to victory in more than 80 per cent of the games he played in during the 2008-2009 season, a feat unrivalled by any other captain in Europe's top five leagues. It is this shining example of leadership that gains him a place at the head of the Ultimate Performing Player.

Height - Peter Crouch (England/Tottenham Hotspur)Over the last two seasons the towering striker's aerial supremacy helped him to win 241 aerial duels, over 100 more than his closest rival. In the 2008-2009 season alone Crouch's combined jumps equalled the height of over 27 double-decker buses stacked on top of each other.

Eyes - Xavi (Spain/Barcelona)Xavi's ability to pick out an unmarked team-mate is well renowned, and no wonder when the Spaniard's eyes use a peripheral vision equal to that of a fighter pilot. Its this unsurpassed vision that led to 209 scoring opportunities in the past two seasons.

Chin - Paolo Maldini (Italy/AC Milan)A one-club man, Paolo Maldini spent his entire 24-year career at AC Milan, the club he made his debut for as a 16-year old apprentice. He retired at the end of the 2008-2009 season having played an incredible 647 games for Milan. His honours include seven Serie A championships and five Champions League winners medals.

Chest - Michael Ballack (Germany/Chelsea)Germany's powerhouse midfielder Michael Ballack is represented in the model by its chest. During the Euro 2008 campaign, Ballack ran the equivalent of 80 laps around the outside of the Allianz Arena Stadium (home of Bayern Munich) for Germany. Each lap is 854 metres, meaning he covered more than 68km during the competition.

Arms - Rory Delap (Republic of Ireland/Stoke City)Little-known outside of UK, Rory Delap has one of Europe's most powerful throw-ins. Each one has an initial velocity equivalent to that of an Olympic javelin. Delap's long throws are as effective as corners for his Stoke City side - in the last two seasons he's used them to create 21 scoring opportunities - four times more than his closest rival.

Hands - Julio Cesar (Brazil/Inter Milan)Brazilian Cesar's hand-eye reaction speed has enabled him to save 82 per cent of shots on target that he faced during the 2008/09 season, the best ratio for any goal keeper in the top five European leagues.

Legs - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Real Madrid)Dead-ball accuracy is just one of the reasons Ronaldo became the world's most expensive player; he scored eight direct free kicks in the past two seasons for former team Manchester United, helping them to back to back league titles. On average a free-kick from the Portugal star will accelerate as fast as a Formula 1 car!

Left Foot - Lionel Messi (Argentina/Barcelona)In an average game, Argentine forward Messi makes between 1000 and 1500 twists and turns. His ability to move into space and score spectacular goals is unsurpassed - hitting 28 left-footed goals in the past two seasons, more than any other left-footed player in La Liga.

Right Foot - Thierry Henry (France/Barcelona)
Not only is Henry blessed with unbelievable speed, he has most accurate right foot in European football. During the 2008/09 season he put 64.04 per cent of his shots on target.

Benfica 2 Liverpool 1: Telegraph Match Report

Read a full match report of the Europa League tie between Benfica and Liverpool at Estadio da Luz on Thursday April 1, 2010.


By Rory Smith in Lisbon

Published: 8:00AM BST 02 Apr 2010

Benfica 2 Liverpool 1: match report

Off in Lisbon: Ryan Babel of Liverpool is shown a red card and sent off by referee Jonas Eriksson Photo: GETTY IMAGES



As Vitoria, Benfica‘s eagle mascot, completed her traditional fly past and the smoke from the firecrackers and the flares drifted down the steeped stands of Estadio da Luz, a huge banner was unfurled. “Benfica: what else?” it read. 90 minutes later, Rafael Benitez and Liverpool knew the answer. On an evening of heightened emotion and the highest drama, there was everything else.



Liverpool enjoyed the start they would have prayed for, seizing the lead and the precious booty of an away goal inside 10 minutes, and then endured a controversial sending-off, two hotly-contested penalties and the nerve-shredding anxiety of watching wave after wave of Benfica attack crash down on their ragged backline. The prestige may not be the same, but the Europa League lacks nothing in theatre.

This was one of those nights when Liverpool needed all of the continental nous, all of the resilience, that Benitez drilled into his side as they stormed Camp Nou, San Siro and all of those other great temples of European football in the days when they sat among the game’s elite.

That they are no longer there, though, should not detract from the pride they should take that they returned to Merseyside last night nursing merely a sense of injustice, rather than a despair at the disappearance of their one last chance of silverware from this most disappointing of seasons.

Forget the notion that this was only the Europa League. Estadio da Luz is a Champions League arena, its deafening roar a Champions League atmosphere.

Benfica, proud owners of Europe’s most prolific attack, stand 11 points clear in the Portuguese league. They are a Champions League team, and few will relish facing Jorge Jesus’s side in the competition next season.

Particularly, of course, in the circumstances Liverpool found themselves forced to confront after Ryan Babel was dismissed by referee Jonas Eriksson after 29 minutes.

By that stage, Daniel Agger had already put the visitors ahead, his backheeled conversion of the outstanding Steven Gerrard’s ingenious low free kick leaving Julio Cesar and his defence flatfooted, and Benfica, responding with an immediate barrage of chances - Oscar Cardozo missed three clear-cut opportunities, Angel Di Maria menaced and tormented - had illustrated their refusal to wallow in self-pity.

But Liverpool’s hopes of adding this broiling, teeming cauldron to their list of conquests evaporated as Babel - to a chorus of disgraceful monkey noises from a handful among the 62,649 crowd - trudged from the field, condemned by his own foolishness and Eriksson’s haphazard officiating.

Luisao, the towering, brutal central defender who spent much of his evening engaged in the game’s darker arts in an attempt to quell Fernando Torres, clattered into the Spanish international with an old-fashioned reducer by the half-way line. Babel, needlessly, indulged in an argument with the Brazilian, raising his hand to his opponent’s face. Eriksson, with a flourish, produced a red card.

“I was surprised,” said Benitez after the game. “It was difficult to understand, but impossible to change. But it is normal that you do not like decisions against your team.”

The Liverpool manager was to have plenty of opportunity to reflect on his displeasure.

Almost immediately after Babel’s dismissal, for which the Dutchman apologised after the game, Eriksson ruled out a Torres strike, ostensibly for the most marginal of offsides against Dirk Kuyt, adding bafflement to the fury, consternation and exhilaration the rest of the game provided.

Worse was to come as Liverpool’s defiant resistance finally broke on the hour. Cardozo, guilty of a quite criminal miss from a Di Maria corner immediately after the break, won a soft free kick on the edge of the box, much to Agger’s chagrin. His fierce shot shuddered against Reina’s right-hand post.

As Emiliano Insua and Aimar tussled for the rebound, Eriksson blew his whistle, amid the din, and pointed to the spot. Emphatically, Cardozo converted the penalty. The flags were raised, the firecrackers exploded, the flares sparked into life. The red brigades swarmed forward.

Liverpool creaked and cracked. Torres might have won the game, against the run of play, exchanging passes with the industrious Dirk Kuyt and sprinting clean through, but the Spanish international, exhausted, dragged wide.

Cardozo, again, punished his profligacy. Eriksson again pointed to the spot, after taking advice from his additional assistant referee, when Di Maria’s cross seemed to strike a sliding Jamie Carragher on the arm and the Paraguayan, a man who appears little more than a towering bludgeon, delicately stroked home a soft, chipped finish.

Where there is Anfield, there is hope. So febrile was the atmosphere here that, as injury time approached, Benfica were forced to warn their jubilant fans they were one firecracker away from abandonment.

Benitez would never encourage such props, of course, but he would dearly like to see Liverpool’s fans follow the example set by the Portuguese.

“This game was an example of what the fans can do when they are pushing,” he said.

“We need to show everyone that Anfield is different.”

BBC Sport:: Man City 0 - 0 Liverpool

"Manchester City and Liverpool played out a miserable stalemate at Eastlands as they battled for fourth place in the Premier League.

Roberto Mancini and Rafael Benitez have their sights set on a place in next season's Champions League - but this was a wretched advert for their lofty ambitions in an encounter that plumbed the depths for long periods.
Emmanuel Adebayor had City's best opportunities with a shot that was well saved by Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina and a header just off target.

Martin Skrtel headed wide from Liverpool's clearest opening late in the first half, but both teams were so poor that it would have been a travesty had either claimed all three points.

Liverpool could at least point to the return of Fernando Torres, who made a 15-minute appearance as a substitute after knee surgery, but there was little else to provide any cheer amid an Eastlands downpour.
Yossi Benayoun, also back after injury, may have had a penalty had he gone down late on and Liverpool are likely to be the happier with a point.

But a DVD of this desperate encounter should be required viewing for the clubs chasing City and Liverpool for a top-four spot - because it would provide ample encouragement that they can be overhauled."

Read More

Giggs extends United stay

Ryan Giggs has signed a one-year contract extension with Manchester United.

At virtually the exact time Giggs was learning he must face old friend David Beckham for United against AC Milan in the first knock-out round of the Champions League, United confirmed the 36-year-old will remain at Old Trafford for another season.

Giggs has performed superbly over the last 18 months and his amazing achievements were recognised last Sunday when he was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year.