Mad Brit Diary

Bayern Munich makes history with trip to Israel.

(Friday, September 17, 2004) -- A little history was taking place in the Middle East this week. German giant Bayern Munich played Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv, winning 1-0 in Israel before 20,000 in the Champions League.

Tickets for the game sold out instantly even though it was played on the Jewish New Year holiday. It was the first time an Israeli team hosted a Champions League game. Maccabi Haifa, which played in the Champions League a few years ago, was forced to host its matches in Cyprus because European governing body UEFA banned games held in Israel because of security concerns. Kudos for Bayern for making the trip.

Sadly, Bayern's Iranian striker Vahid Hashemian was suspiciously left at home. The club said he had an injury, but some reports said he was warned by Iran not to travel to the Jewish state. If this is true, world governing body FIFA should investigate this right away.

Iran does not recognize the State of Israel. Isn't this reminiscent of the Iranian judo champion Arash Miresmaili, who, at the Olympics, refused to go up against an Israeli opponent because of his sympathy with the oppressed people of Palestine. In the end, the guy didn't make the weight.

On a brighter note, a day after the Bayern-Maccabi match, an even more historic event took place. Bnei Sakhnin, an a mostly Arab-supported team from the Galilee region of Israel, played in the UEFA Cup, losing 2-0 at England's Newcastle United. Sakhnin made history this year when it beat Hapoel Haifa FC to become the first Arab team to win the Israeli Cup. Sakhnin has a roster of players that includes Christians, Muslims and Jews. What a great example for the world. Go Sakhnin!

Les Ferdinand who scored in Bolton Wanderers' 2-2 draw with Manchester United has now scored for six different Premiership teams -- including Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Newcastle United and Queens Park Rangers.

Celtic was unbeaten at home in 19 European games, but lost to visiting Barcelona Tuesday at Parkhead 3-1 in Champions League group play. Henrik Larsson, who scored a bundle of goals in his seven years at Celtic, scored Barcelona's third goal, but barely celebrated it.

"Celtic was home for me for seven years, it has a big place in my heart," said the Swede.

In the same game, Brazilian ace Ronaldinho saw his penalty kick brilliantly saved by Celtic's young goalkeeper David Marshall. Celtic's star Chris Sutton executed a lovely strike to tie the game, but fellow Englishman Alan Thompson made a dreadful back-header late in the game, leading to Larsson's score.

In other news, Dutch star Clarence Seedorf scored a great goal as A.C. Milan downed Shakhtar 1-0. Chelsea crushed France's Paris-St. Germain 3-0 as Ivory Coast star Didier Drogba scored two lovely goals for new coach Jose Mourinho after England defender John Terry opened the scoring. Next up for Chelsea is a home game against Mourinho's former club, European champion Porto of Portugal.

Arsenal, which has scored 19 goals in five games in English Premier League play this season, had to rely on an Alex own goal in an unconvincing 1-0 home victory over PSV Eindhoven.

Inter Milan downed 10-man German champ Werder Bremen 2-0 on a pair of great goals from Adriano after Christian Viera had a penalty kick saved.

Lyon of France had never played England's powerful Manchester United, but it nearly beat United Wednesday at home.

Two goals by Dutchman Ruud van Nistelrooy earned the Red Devils the 2-2 tie, but the draw was only safe when Pernambucano Juninho's late shot for Lyon hit a post.

Crystal Palace's giant Australian Tony Popovic chipped in a beautiful goal in mid-air, with the back-heel of his right foot against Portsmouth. The only problem -- into was into his own goal.

David Beckham has won a $61 million, five-year deal with Gillette. He already brings in $30 million a year from sponsorship deals with adidas, Vodofone and Pepsi. He now collects more cash than Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan.

FIFA has decided that 12 women's' soccer teams will compete at the Beijing Olympics in 2004, an increase from 10. That's a great move. And, I bet you Brazil wins the next final.

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, who was banned from the game for eight months for missing a drug test, will be back at the club this week. The 26-year-old England team star, who is the world's most expensive defender, will play in a couple of reserve games for United before returning to the first team next month.

After five games, United is now 10th in the table, nine points behind leader Arsenal. The good news for the Red Devils is Ruud van Nistelrooy, the club's lethal striker last season, got in some decent playing time in the 2-2 tie at Bolton last week after missing four games out with a hernia injury.

Manchester United's Argentine star defender Gabriel Heinze, fresh from winning a gold medal in Athens, scored his first goal for United. Of course, everyone is waiting for the club's newest signing, striker Wayne Rooney to make his debut for United, once he recovers from a foot injury. Arsenal, unbeaten in 45 games, has scored 19 goals in its five games this season and Spanish star Jose Antonio Reyes has notched a goal in all five games.

After scoring his the game-winning goal to give Everton a 2-0 lead over Manchester City, Australian midfielder Tim Cahill was bizarrely sent off for celebrating by pulling his shirt over his head. It was Cahill's second yellow card of the game in his debut match for his new club.

According to the FIFA rules, a player should be cautioned for pulling the shirt over their head. Apparently, showing one's bare chest is upsetting to fans in certain cultures. "I'm going to go home and read the rule book," said a baffled Cahill.

All this comes after a bizarre refereeing decision on September 5 when referee Neil Brizan sent off El Salvador's Denis Alas with a second yellow card for wearing a gold chain around his neck in the team's 2-0 loss to the Americans at Gillette Stadium in Fixborough, Mass.

Who would have thought Spanish giant Real Madrid, known for its fine pedigree of stars, would be signing English players? Aren't those English always being accused of playing that long-ball, boring route-one soccer? After claiming David Beckham from Manchester United last year and Michael Owen (Liverpool) and center-back Jonathan Woodgate (Newcastle) this season, Madrid is now being connected to England and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard.

"Steven Gerrard is a player I really like, he is the type of player who would suit the famous shirt of Real Madrid," Real president Florentino Perez told the Sunday Mirror.

It appears all those rumors about Birmingham City forward Stern John heading back to Major League Soccer were really far-fetched. Coventry City this week signed John who scored an amazing 44 in 55 games for the Columbus Crew from 1998-1999.

And talking of Stern, what has happened to goal scoring in MLS? Where have all the talented goal- scorers gone? With just five games to go in the MLS 30-game season, Carlos Ruiz and Brain Ching are tied in the goal scoring table with just 11 goals.

Finally, in his third game as coach of the club, Steve Sampson (1-1-1) got his first win with the Los Angeles Galaxy. The former American national-team coach, who replaced Sigi Schmid last month, saw the Galaxy down the San Jose Earthquakes 2-1 at the Home Depot Center last week.

Meantime, L.A. acquired A-League "Rookie of the Year" Alan Gordan, 22, from the Portland Timbers, as a backup for the injured Ruiz.

Czech star Pavel Nedved has denied reports he is retiring from the national team.

Frank Strazzulla writes: "Your comments on Max (Bretos on Fox Sports World) reflect what I have noticed -- that this is indeed a special talent, a poet with a microphone reminiscent of the baseball commentator Vin Scully. . . Since Max is 50 years younger, may we look forward to him being the voice of American soccer for the next couple of generations.

Edward Lim writes: "Mad Brit, totally agree with you on Max Bretos. He has a goofy delivery, but if you listen to him often, you realize that despite that goofiness he knows his soccer thoroughly. He is tons better than the Irishman on ESPN Tommy Smyth. Smyth has what I call the "internet knowledge" of the game. In other words, what he has to offer is no more than a fan who watches a lot of games on TV and reads the soccer web sites on a daily basis. J.P. Dellacamera of ESPN is competent, but he announces the game like it's football or basketball which gets on my nerves. . . I think the best of the ESPN bunch is Seamus Malin."

Sanje writes: "Re: your article on the new breed of young national-team coaches, you sinfully omitted the most sensational of the young guns -- Zambia's Kalusha Bwalya. Here's a test of how well you follow the game -- he's a former PSV (Eeindhoven) star, ex-Club America, hat-trick hero in Zambia's stunning 4-0 demolition of Italy in the 1988 Olympics, former African "Footballer of the Year" and, rather tragically, standard bearer for Zambia after his teammates perished in the '93 Gabon air crash.

"Now 41, Kalusha is Zambia's coach and recently came on as sub, four years after he retired, to score the winner in a World Cup tie against Liberia. The Zambians are tied with Senegal and Togo for first place in Group 1 of the African qualifiers.

"Re: USA vs. Panama -- (Cobi) Jones was coming from an offside position when he equalized (for the Americans in stoppage time)."

Daniel Sullivan says: "Hey, MB, I'm wondering if we're ever going to learn the whole truth about what happened to Sigi Schmid in L.A. First-place teams (such as the Galaxy was then) rarely fire their coaches. Schmid has had as much success as any coach in MLS history, excluding (U.S. manager) Bruce Arena. Out of the blue, L.A. fires schmid midseason in favor of Steve Sampson. Now the team is bombing out of contention with Sampson at the helm, a coach that knows a thing or two about losing games and losing jobs.

"If this kind of firing took place in the (English) Premiership, the tabloids would be all over it, trying to discover the motivation. Did i miss something here or is there more to this story that we're not getting?"

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