Football Dispatch

Monday Football
20 August 2007
Monday Football has returned, and with it, a complete re-cap of the weekend's headlines and match action. Rob Styles' controversial penalty and subsequent apology is clearly the topic of choice for most English football fans. Lyon's losing streak and Marseille's poor form are front-and-centre in the French press. And Bayern Munich's trouncing of Werder Bremen was just one of a handful of entertaining matches in the Bundesliga.

"Yesterday, in mistakenly awarding a penalty, I accept that I may have affected the result of the match -- and for that I apologize." And with that, the credibility of English match officials was all but destroyed. Referee Rob Styles made the apology after awarding Chelsea a questionable penalty in the second-half of a 1-1 draw with Liverpool at Anfield, yesterday. The hosts had bossed much of the match to that point and, despite Jose Mourinho's protestations to the otherwise, fully deserved all three points. In the aftermath of the edgy affair, pundits and commentators openly speculated that in addition to the penalty call, Styles had seemed to present two yellow-cards to Chelsea right-back Michael Essien. It was later explained that the second booking had, in fact, been shown to John Terry. Still, the level on on-field communication left something to be desired. For his part, Styles will not oversee a Premier League match next week.

Benfica have sacked manager Fernando Santos. Runners-up to Porto last season, the Portuguese giants parted ways with Santos after a 1-1 draw at newly-promoted Leixoes. Fernando Chalana, a former Benfica player and current member of the coaching staff, will assume the managerial duties on an interim basis.

A handful of players have already pulled out of this week's international friendly encounter between England and Germany at Wembley. Steve MacClaren is set to be without newly-recalled defender Sol Campbell and strikers Wayne Rooney and Darren Bent. Midfielder David Beckham is also an injury concern after re-aggravating his ankle, Saturday, in a 5-4 loss to New York Red Bulls. Germany also have their fair share of injury crocks. Captain Michael Ballack and top striking combo Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski will not feature for the visitors on Wednesday.

Sir Alex Ferguson has chided his squad over missed opportunities after their worst start to a season in 15-years. Manchester United, having drawn twice and lost once in their first three matches, will face Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend with hopes of turning their campaign around. "We have been very wasteful in front of goal," the United boss stated in his post-match comments after dropping a 1-0 decision to Manchester City, yesterday. "That's the nuts and bolts of it." After being held to a scoreless draw by Reading a week ago, Paul Scholes scored United's only goal of the season in Portsmouth on Wednesday. Benjani's brilliant header helped worthy Pompey to a split of the points, however. And Geovanni, who in a previous life ousted United from the Champions' League while with Benfica, beat Edwin Van der Sar to earn City a 1-0 win in the Manchester derby yesterday. Midfielder Owen Hargreaves, having made his Premier League debut at Eastlands, reiterated his manager's concerns, stating, "We have made (chances) but not utilized them. We could have scored one or two; and they are things we have got to work on."

Arsene Wenger and Mark Hughes traded barbs after Arsenal's 1-1 draw at Blackburn Rovers, yesterday. The Gunners manager was predictably upset with Blackburn's use of physical tactics against his squad. "At times there was a desire of violence rather than commitment in some challenges," stated Wenger after the draw. "We responded well to a team who were over-physical." Rovers manager Hughes, however, rebuffed his counterpart, stating that Wenger's criticism was a "cheap-shot." He continued, "(Wenger) was hiding behind these comments because his team was dominated."

After opening the season with three successive losses, there appears to be a mass exodus readying at the Reebok. Ed-Hadji Diouf is foremost amonth those looking for an exit from Bolton Wanderers. The Senegal international claims that each of Tottenham Hotspur, Celtic, Lyon, and two un-named teams have contacted his agent in regards to a switch. Diouf also claims that Trotters have placed an excessive 10M-pound value on his head -- intentionally over-pricing him to keep him at the club.

Italian football kicked-off on Sunday with the SuperCup between Serie-A champions Inter Milan and Copa Italia winners AS Roma. Inter carried much of the play during the annual show-piece; but a Nicolas Burdisso foul on Francesco Totti sent Roma's Daniele De Rossi to the spot. The resulting goal proved the match-winner as Roma claimed their first piece of silverware this term.

In the Bundesliga, last seasons runners-up Schalke 04 earned a decisive 4-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund. Nelson Valdez scored the only goal of the match for the visitors; but it was little consolation after Schalke had gone 3-0 up through Gerald Asamoah and defenders Christian Pander and Marcelo Bordon. Kevin Kuranyi rounded-out the scoring in the 78th-minute.

They share the lead with Bayern Munich. After a disappointing 4th-place finish last season, Bayern have scored seven goals and conceded none to open the 2007-2008 campaign. Four of those goals came in a 4-0 thrashing away to Werder Bremen. After a furious start in which both sides traded countless scoring opportunities, Bayern striker Luca Toni was brought down in the box by Petri Pasanen. Franck Ribery opened the scoring on the resulting penalty just after the half-hour. Toni, himself, doubled the scoreline just 6-minutes after the re-start. Former Bremen striker Miroslav Klose was substituted at the half after pulling up lame and his replacement, Hamit Altintop, scored Bayern's 3rd-goal of the afternoon in the 79th-minute. Andreas Ottl added the fourth 8-minutes later.

With 6-points from two matches, Bayern are joint leaders atop the Bundesliga ledger. They are currently level with Hamburg, who beat Bayer Leverkusen 1-0, yesterday, through a Rafael Van der Vaart penalty just after the hour-mark.

Olympique Lyonnais continued their stuttering start to the season on Saturday. The defending 6-time champions of Ligue-1 lost 2-1 at Lorient and saw their winless streak extend to three games. Karim Benzema leveled the scoreline in the 32nd-minute after Marama Vahirua had opened the scoring for Lorient. Vahirua also popped the match-winner on 67-minutes. The 27-year-old French-Polynesian-born striker also scored twice in Lorient's midweek defeat of Paris Saint-Germain. This is his first season at Lorient after a 3-year spell with Nice.

Elsewhere in Ligue-1, Jan Koller scored twice as AS Monaco defeated hosts Sochaux 3-0. And Marseille, after a 2-2 draw with Nancy, are winless to start the season.