Mad Brit Diary

Crystal Palace's wild ride ends with berth in Premier League.

(Sunday, June 6, 2004) -- Crystal Palace looked done, gone and cooked just five months ago in the England's First Division. Then, new coach Iain Dowie appeared on the scene.

Now the club, which is named after the great Exhibition Hall Prince Albert built for Queen Victoria, is back in the big time. After beating West Ham United, a team filled with international stars, on a Neil Shipperley goal in the playoff game at Cardiff, Wales, Palace will be $35 million and more richer as it takes its seat in the Premier League. One paper called it the "most lucrative match that British football has known."

Congratulations Crystal Palace on the promotion, a team with the best name in soccer.

When Dowie, a former West Ham player, arrived at Selhurst Park before Christmas, the club was in 19th place struggling to stay alive. Saving the team from the dreaded drop to Division Two would have been enough, but Dowie took the south London club on a brilliant meteoric run of 17 wins and three draws from 26 games to lead the Eagles back to the Premiership after a six-year absence.

The resurgence was remarkable. The team became resilient as Dowie, who has a masters degree in aeronautics, put the Eagles through an intensive training regime which included boxing lessons and early-morning hikes. He read up on books on conditioning, taking a page or two from American Football training manuals. The sign at the training ground read: "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity."

This training gave the players more endurance through the long season. Palace looked the fittest team in the league and made the playoffs on the skin of its teeth.

It will be tough going in the Premier League for Palace and the team could be bounced right back down like Wolverhampton this season. "Bring on Manchester United," roared Dowie as Palace celebrated its win over West Ham.

They are coming, Iain, as well as Arsenal and Chelsea. Enjoy the good times while they last, lads. It's going to get rough very soon.

Chelsea, London's glamour club, made it official this week and gave the boot to Italian coach Claudio Ranieri who led the team to second place in the Premier League and to the semifinals of the Champions League. Ranieri's departure from a club, bolstered by Russian oil billionaire Roman Abromovich, will be softened by an estimated $8-12 million payoff.

Ranieri, whose contract ran through 2007, will be replaced by former Porto boss Jose Mourinho, who led Porto to win the Champions League Cup last week.

Carlos Querioz, who just got the boot from Real Madrid in Spain, looks certain to return as an assistant coach at Manchester United.

Brazilian ace Ronaldo scored three goals from three penalty kicks he earned to down Argentina 3-1 in a World Cup qualifier this week in Brazil.

Brazilian star Rivaldo looks to have turned down the $55,000-per-week salary Bolton Wanderers were offering him and seems to be headed to play in oil-rich Qatar. . . Argentine midfielder Juan Pablo Veron has been loaned from Chelsea to Inter Milan. . . Leicester City star Muzzy Izzet has been loaned to Birmingham City, which also renewed Stern John's contract for another year.

Officials from Bayer Leverkusen visited American Landon Donovan at the U.S. 4-0 victory over Honduras in the Boston suburbs. The German club, which owns Donovan's primary rights, exercised an option to maintain rights over where he would play should he return to Europe. Donovan could be headed overseas after this Major League Soccer season. Barcelona is looking to shore up its midfield and could be on the take for Bayern Munich's Michael Ballack. Bayern's English striker Qwen Hargreaves could be on his way to the Premier League. There are rumors that he doesn't get on with certain Bayern players. Meantime, Bayern is looking at Porto's Deco, a consummate playmaker who just help the Portugal club win the Champions League.

American female soccer star Mia Hamm will retire soccer after the 2004 Summer Olympics. This is the former Washington Freedom star's third and final Olympics. "I think you want to savor it more," Hamm said in a press conference this week. "I want to enjoy every single minute from the flight over to meeting players in the Olympic village."

American striker Conor Casey has been signed by newly -promoted FSV Mainz 05 in the Germany's Bundesliga. Casey moves to Mainz from Karlsruhe of the Second Bundesliga where he led the club with 14 goals this season. One of those goals in the season finale, a 1-0 victory over Aachen that saved Karslruhe from relegation.

J. Martin Morgado III writes: "Mad Brit, I respectfully have to totally disagree with your assessment of Queiroz and his days at Real Madrid. Whether he has done anything before is another subject. Queiroz was, in my humble opinion (and generally agreed to be the case around Europe), 'hung out to dry' by a failed business plan put together by (club president) Florentino Pérez. . . Even the players have admitted this to be the case.

"I assume you know much about Spansih football, but your article reflects very little of this knowledge. Perhaps sticking with English football for the American soccer audience would be better. The truth is, outside side of the money issue, and the top three or four sides, very few rate English football highly on the Continent. However, it sells in the States and so that is the product you have to give them.

"I have had the fortune of living in Spain and following closely the Spanish league this year. It was a fantastic experience. In fact, one of my personal goals is to get American players more interested in Spanish football. . . .I ust wanted to let you know that is wasn't all Queiroz's fault. Pérez will likely lose the election this year for his business plan. Queiroz, however, will have many more opportunities to show what he can do."

Mark DeBlois writes: "Dear, Mad Brit. I understand what you are saying in regards to Carlos Queiroz not being a winner at many places when left on his own, but wasn't he very successful with Manchester United when he was able to team up with someone who is a winner, but relies on competent guys to take care of the technical and tactical details of the game? His relationship with (United manager) Alex Ferguson makes me think that Carlos Queiroz could be successful with United States national-team coach Bruce Arena, who also relies heavily on others to take care of the details of the game. Unfortunately, I can't see U.S. Soccer shelling out the kind of paycheck needed to sign Queiroz, who's technical report on U.S. Soccer was, in my opinion, of very high quality. It's a shame, because I think the U.S. could really benefit from a high quality foreign coach right now to help it move up to the next level.

"Sometimes, a hired gun is just what you need. Say what you like about Bora (Milutinovic), but I doubt that there was an American coach at the time that would have been able to get us to the second round of the World Cup in 1994 like he did. I'm glad that he was let go afterwards, but his hiring for the 1994 World Cup was definitely a success. I would like for us to continue to use American head coaches, as they know the American player better than anybody, but I also think we still have much to learn from others that have been doing this for much longer than we have. It is time to start looking for national-team assistants with international experience."

Edward Lim writes: "Mad Brit, now that Euro 2004 is around the corner, I can't help but think back to Euro 2000. Remember Phil Neville's reckless tackle against Romania? There were less than 10 minutes left when that penalty cost England a spot in the quarterfinals. To be honest, I still haven't forgiven him. That's back when (coach) Kevin Keegan was on the hot seat, the English media had predicted doom, yet an over-the-hill Paul Ince scored a first-half goal and England looked like it was going to surprise everyone.

"I still can't believe that foolish penalty. Also, I never understood how David Beckham was virtually excommunicated for getting tossed versus Argentina in (the 1998 World Cup) for an incident which occurred in the second half of a game that ended in penalties, yet Neville got a free pass from the media for a tackle which directly led to elimination from the tournament. (In Europe, the European Championships are held in almost as high regard as the World Cup.) Having said all that, I will be rooting for England again wondering what crazy incident will let me down this time. [I forgot (David) Seaman on Ronaldinho's free kick! Seaman never had quick feet although his judgment was always sound.] Go England!"

Tom Ponsford writes: "Hey, Mad Brit! We've heard from the various pundits that FIFA rankings are crock, they include friendlies, that they don't mean a thing, etc, etc. But remember this: the FIFA rankings do count in the seedings for the World Cup. And as the defending World Cup Champion is not given an automatic berth, the only given seed is to the home country (Germany).

"As FIFA does not weigh the standings from the previous World Cup as much as they used to, the FIFA ranking will more important in this upcoming World Cup. Should the U.S. keep its eighth place even move up, and it qualifies, it could get a high seed in Germany in 2006. This means that the U.S. will hopefully not meet Brazil, Argentina, France or Spain (until) the knockout rounds. If you think the FIFA rankings are not important, wait until 2006."

Heard a rumor, have a gripe or a tip? Feeling lonely? E-mail the Mad Brit at themadbrit3@aol.com.