Football Dispatch

Summer Football
28 June 2007
Real Madrid have sacked manager Fabio Capello. Sporting director Predrag Mijatovic announced the decision this morning, stating, "We don't think Fabio Capello is the right person to lead Real Madrid into the future given what we want this club to achieve." This, despite the fact that the 61-year-old Italian bossed the Merengues to a first league title since 2003. The 2006-2007 campaign was Capello's second stint at the Spanish giants. During his first single-season spell at Madrid, Capello managed to club to a 92-point season and a league title -- Madrid's best domestic showing in nearly two decades.

The future of Leeds United was plunged into further uncertainty, yesterday. The ill-run football club -- destined to play the 2007-2008 campaign in the third tier of English football -- owes 7.5M-pounds in back-taxes and faces legal action from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. On 04 May, with a single match to play in the last domestic season, owner Ken Bates placed the club in administration with debts of 35M-pounds before buying it back at a re-financed rate of 1p-to-the-pound. Leeds' creditors were already reluctant to agree the buy-back -- although the Revenue and Customs agency claims to have received little or no consultation regarding the transaction. It will now launch its own appeal; and, if successful, could run the football club into the ground. The court proceedings are sure to carry on for several months; and given that the club is already on tenuous financial ground, Bates may decide that the situation is too unstable to commit to a full campaign in the Football League.

As previously speculated on Rodblog, Roy Makaay has bolted Bayern Munich. The 32-year-old Dutchman will join Giovanni Van Bronckhorst at Feyenoord, next term. The former Holland international striker tallied 78-goals in 127-appearances for the Bundesliga giants following a move from Deportivo la Coruna in 2003. Bayern are flush with talent at the forward positions ahead of next season. Joining incumbent Lucas Podolski are Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose -- both having joined the club in the past two weeks.

Arsene Wenger is plotting a raid on St. James' Park. The Arsenal manager is poised to spend the bulk of the revenue earned from Thierry Henry's transfer to Barcelona on the acquisition of Obafemi Martins. The 22-year-old striker scored 17-goals for Newcastle last season and has a 13M-pound buy-out clause in his contract. With Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, and Shola Ameobi already competing for two forward spots, new Toon boss Sam Allardyce may be tempted to cash-in on the Nigerian international.

Mexico delivered the Copa America's second upset in as many days, last night. Nery Castillo and Ramon Morales struck within a 5-minute spell in the 1st-half to give Hugo Sanchez' Mexican side a surprising 2-0 win over Brazil. A tentative start to the contest was blown wide open when Castillo creatively scooped the ball over the challenging defender before converting past Brazilian goalkeeper Doni for the first goal of the match. Morales doubled the lead shortly thereafter with a lovely free-kick. Brazil manager Dunga brought new Manchester United signing Anderson into the action for the 2nd-half. And while both he and Real Madrid striker Robinho repeatedly pelted the Mexican goal, they were constantly repelled by the goaltending heroics of Guillermo Ochoa. Brazil will next play on 01 July against Chile while Mexico face Ecuador.

The other Group-B encounter on Wednesday had Ecuador against Chile. Antonio Valencia paced Luis Suarez' Ecuador side to the early lead after 16-minutes before both teams exchanged goals in a 2-minute spell just after the 20-minute mark. The furious attacking football waned slightly after Christian Rogelio Benitez gave Ecuador a 2-1 in the 23rd-minute -- cancelling Hamberto Suazo's equalizer. The Ecuadorians had several chances to put the game out of reach in the second interval. Claudio Bravo, however, was sensational in the Chilean goal. His performance kept Chile in the game; and when Suazo scored his second goal on the night in the 80th-minute, there was no looking back. Carlos Villanueva struck the match-winner 3-minute from time as Chile joined Mexico atop Group-D.