By Simone Poliandri
Argentinian striker Maxi Biancucchi, F.C. Barcelona Leo Messi’s cousin, gets on the scoreboard for Olimpia against Rubio Ñu in the last matchday of the Paraguayan Torneo de Clausura 2011. Maxi’s chest control and no-look finish are further proof, if needed, of the football skills running in the family. Olimpia went on to win the game 2-1, which also gave them the league title 3 points ahead of major rival team Cerro Porteño. Dec. 18, 2011.
By Simone Poliandri
Although three weeks old, this spectacular shot by Hannover 96 striker Jan Schlaudraff against Hamburger SV in matchday 14 of the German Bundesliga deserves a spot in the series. Scored in the 79th minute, this marvel of coordination and power equalized the game at 1-1, which remained as the final score. Nov, 26, 2011.
Bayern Munich’s Daniel van Buyten lines up to take a free kick against Cologne in this weekend’s Bundesliga. He blasts the ball into a defender sliding studs up . . . and the ball bursts its bladder!
By Simone Poliandri
Dutch striker Robin van Persie finishes Alex Song’s perfect assist with a spectacular left-footed volley in Arsenal’s 1-0 victory against Everton. English Premier League, Dec. 10, 2011.
Stryker-Indigo New York, a private multi-media film and print production company, has announced the acquisition of a major collection of 1950s-1960s 8mm and 16mm soccer films.
The film footage, featuring both university and international teams playing in American cities, contains rare home movie images of the history of the game in the United States. For example, there is footage of the first leg of the 1961 U.S. Open Cup Final between United Scots of Los Angeles and Ukrainian Nationals of Philadelphia at Rancho La Cienega Stadium in LA (now Jackie Robinson Stadium).
According to the Stryker-Indigo web site, its Futbol Heritage Archive houses nearly 9,000 historic photographs, slides, newspaper clippings, postcards, trophies, jerseys and artifacts. Following the closure of the US Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, NY, researchers have lost access to an archive of more than 80,000 items, including the North American Soccer League archive and the 1994 World Cup archive. It is hoped that private collections such as Stryker-Indigo’s film footage will be made accessible to soccer researchers and aficionados so that the history and culture of the game can be properly recorded and disseminated.
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Thanks to David Wallace for inspiring me to write this post.
By Simone Poliandri
Gualberto Mojica, midfielder of the Bolivian Primera Division team Club Deportivo Oriente Petrolero, duets with teammate Roberto Galindo and finishes with an aerobatic half-bicycle kick.
Goal of the Week is a new series by Italian anthropologist footballer (or footballer anthropologist) Simone Poliandri.
Editor’s Note: This post begins a multi-part series on African coaches.
Continuing with Pitso is Regressing
Guest Post by Mohlomi Maubane
SOWETO, SOUTH AFRICA — In a recent issue of Kick Off, South Africa’s leading soccer magazine, Editor Richard Maguire argued against firing Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane (in photo above). Pitso, of course, is singularly responsible for South Africa’s embarrassing failure to qualify for the 2012 African Nations Cup finals (aka The Comedy in Nelspruit). I have been collecting Kickoff since high school. As a magazine, it expects vision, competence and innovation from every member of the South African football fraternity; hence the editorial vouching for Pitso to stay on as Bafana Bafana coach was surprising.
The crux of Maguire’s argument is that Mosimane should remain in charge for the sake of continuity. I say there should not have even been a beginning. Mosimane’s coaching success has been overblown. At club level, he led well-endowed Supersport United to five cup finals, losing three, and at national team level he was an assistant coach during a mediocre run from 2006 to 2010, when Bafana sunk to 90th in the FIFA World Rankings.
The ridiculous manner in which South Africa failed to qualify for the 2012 African Nations Cup finals showed Mosimane to be as unprofessional as his employers. How can a national coach fail to read or grasp competition rules? This is a man who thinks of himself as a “modern” coach always in step with the latest developments in the world game. Perhaps common sense is not part of the curriculum of the courses Mosimane often brags of attending. And for all his supposed keeping abreast with the latest trends in the game, Mosimane’s idea of “global football” is confined to the English Premier League and La Liga.
SAFA appointed Pitso Mosimane as Bafana Bafana coach soon after the 2010 World Cup. At the time, there was talk of the dawn of a new era in South African football. In truth, there was the usual lack of specific detail on how to make this new epoch come about. Instead, SAFA officials spoke at length about Vision 2014, Bafana Bafana’s campaign to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil. The seven other national teams under SAFA’s auspices were left unmentioned. Now, a year after the Vision 2014 was unveiled, we are a joke in the football world.
More than anyone else, it was Mosimane’s job to ensure Bafana qualified for 2012. He was entrusted with the troops and should have known the rules of engagement. When he was introduced as the new Bafana coach after the World Cup, Mosimane was his typical pompous self, saying he did not expect favors from anyone, he knew his mandate, and that he wanted to be judged by the results. Here are the Nations Cup results: 2 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss, 4 goals scored, 2 against. Having failed to qualify, his story has now changed. In his first press conference after the Comedy in Nelspruit, Mosimane had the audacity to say he did not fail because South Africa finished top of their group! That Bafana actually failed to qualify was in the past; it was time to move on, he said.
Indeed it is time to move on, and perhaps it is best to do so with a coach who reads and understands the rule book; one whose trophies and coaching acumen supersede his chest-thumping bravado. Pitso Mosimane has been in the national structures for more than five years and South African football would not be served well by a continuation of his underachievement.
If Mosimane were a football journalist and wanted to write for Kick Off, I suspect Maguire would send him away with the disdain he probably feels when the magazine has to document yet another SAFA cock-up.
