Edwin van der Sar: golf, cars and EURO 2008

The Manchester United goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar, is looking for the Premiership and the Champions League trophies. Sure, also he dreams about EURO 2008.

Although this fanatic of the AUDI and BMW cars has doubts in the handling of the ball with the feet, also is truth that he is living a good moment being very firm underneath three woods.

Great friend of Ruud van Nistelrooy, is the captain of the Holland Team and the player with more caps representing the Oranje. Winner of fifteen national and international titles with clubs, “The Jolly Green Giant” is 37 years olds and announced that he will retire from the Oranje after EURO 2008. So the tittle in Vienna could be perfect.

Perhaps from that moment he will have more time to play golf and playstation. At least if his son Joe allows him...

Kaka, Messi, Ballack and Vieira urge to "Dream Big"

Adidas is in the headlines one more time. The stars of this important company were doing the new campaign called “Dream Big”. They visited amateur teams in Andorra, San Marino and the Sicilian Isles with the idea to demonstrate to the children that don’t care how small is the team, they could dream with football because “Impossible is Nothing”.

It was acting Robin Van Persie, Philipp Lahm, “Mike” Ballack, Xabi Alonso, Daniele De Rossi, Lukas Podolski, David Villa and Patrick Vieira; all players that could be in the EURO 2008. Kaka, Lionel Messi, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Jose Mourinho, Yoann Gourcuff, Anderson, Andriy Voronin and Arjen Robben were showings their abilities in front of the camera too.

The campaign contains 12 chapters and will be able to be watched during summer and during EURO 2008, of course. Here we have a few minutes with them.

Samir Nasri: another Zinedine Zidane

Still who doesn’t follow French football too much already knows this player who will be representing France in the Group C answering for expectations of those who miss Zidane . Samir Nasri is son of Algerians too and was born in Marseille 20 years ago. He is playing in Olympique of Marseille team but the club couldn’t be able to get pleasure from him a lot of time.

His dribbling and his ambition to attack the rival area make him a different player, like the ones that do not proliferate. Their movements keep in mind players like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Zinedine Zidane…

If he improves the definition, he will be the best of the world in a short time. If you think that it is an exaggeration just watch him.

Cristian Chivu: the Carpathians captain

Cristian Eugen Chivu was born in Resita, Romania on October 26th, 1980 and grew up in Fotbal Club Municipal Resita, club that it had between his squads Dudu Georgescu - European Golden Boot to winner in 1975 and 1977 - and Dorinel Munteanu among others.

Today the actuality is another one: the FCM Resita is in the second Rumanian division whereas the central defender grew playing in Universitatea Craiova, in Ajax and in Roma before his move to Inter Milan.

While the Italian team is closely to win the Scudetto, Romania arrived at Group C of the EURO, the group of death. France, Italy and Netherlands also want the quarterfinals. But Romania, with Chivu as captain, will look for the surprise and they know how: it surpassed the classification of the EURO without problems in front of own single Netherlands and losing before Bulgaria.

His defensive solidity, the subtility in his depth passes, his free kicks near the penalty area and the Adrian Mutu´s powerful, will be essential in the Romania structure that it will look for to be the surprise in EURO 2008.

Why England won’t be in EURO 2008?

The EURO is more and more close. While the national leagues are being finishing in each angle of Europe, the trainers continue filing details to give the lists of the players who will represent their selections from the on 7th June.

But without doubts there will be a great absent in the competition: England. The factors of the absence of the English team in the competition need to be analyzed.

Players: Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, David Beckham… seem to be players with great quality and the sufficient experience like being in any EURO. It doesn’t seem to be the factor.

Coach: Fabio Capello is an italian guy customary to lead teams with great stars. He was, -more or less- successful in the Juventus, Roma and Real Madrid where always have great stars in each group but also with much ego in each person. Perhaps being a foreign man harmed in a national team that have had only one experience before (Sven Goran Eriksson).

The key matches: Russia and Croatia defeated England at home. And in the most important match, England fell in Wembley!!! suffering the forcefulness of the Croatian team.

Infrastructure: Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool which are in the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League. We know that England organized one of the most important leagues of the world. But the national team could’t appreciate it last year. It doesn’t seem to be the factor.

Good Luck: good luck always has a quota of importance in each sport. But it can’t be so outstanding in a classification with 12 dates and 36 points to win.

Francesco Totti resigns EURO 2008

What everyone scared finally was confirmed. The injury in the right knee that underwent Francesco Totti in the Roma draw against Livorno yesterday, caused that the A.S. Lodigiani pride must visit the operation room. After the intervention it was confirmed that the offensive midfielder will have to be outside of the fields at least four months reason why already EURO 2008 is history for him.

Main leader in Roma and maximum historical scorer of the Italian club, the single presence of Francesco Totti in the field imposes confidence in his partners and respect of his rivals, when he plays with the capital team and when he does with the azzurra.

People always said that their weakness was the women, attempting them with his performance. But the certain thing is that after marrying with the top model Ilari Blasi, he began to confirm a certain evolution at least in that aspect.

Last weekend, after supporting the electoral campaign of Walter Veltroni, against Silvio Berlusconi, returned to the first Roma team to play against Udinese and he scored the single goal in the Italia Cup semifinal vs. Catania but all was forgotten now.

This year Italy defeated Portugal in Zurich and fell against Spain in Elche. Nevertheless, the best results of Italy always appear in the most important tournaments. Disappointingly for all the fans in the peninsula, Totti will be absent. Now Alessandro Del Piero, Luca Toni and all the team will be conscientious to supplant the Italian symbol.