So who are in the groups and which teams stand out?  Let’s take a look (match listing here).  The defending champions and hosts take up group A with Canada, Nigeria and France.  This is a tough group to call but you’d have to fancy Germany to top it, with the others fighting for second.

England are in group B and I will be cheering them on.  They are choc full of Arsenal links and I can’t wait to see the lady gooners show them how it is done.  It’s a tough enough group but I think if England fail to qualify it would amount to a fairly big upset.

The team to watch out for in group C has to be the USA who have won the competition on two previous occasions.  Not only that but they are the reigning Olympic champions and ranked one in the world.  They are not infallible, loosing to England, Mexico and group C opponents Sweden, in the not to distant past, but you’d have to put your house on them getting out of this group.

Group D sees the wonderful Brazil take on Australia, Norway and Equatorial Guinea.  This is the most interesting group in my opinion.  Norway are no walk over with great pedigree in the own game, and with Equatorial Guinea making their debut you can’t right them off.  Australia have a decent team too, so this could be interesting.  Brazil’s striker, Marta (pictured left), is the player to watch.  She has won FIFA Women’s Player of the Year no less then five times (in a row) and is something very special.  Top scorer in the last World Cup I am really excited to see her play this time around.

I am not alone, 700,000 tickets have already been sold for the competition, with half the games expecting 20,000 or more spectators.  The hosts first game has sold 74,000 tickets and why not, these women are at the very top of their sport and I’d love to be there.

The cup will comprise of 32 games and every single one will be broadcast live in Germany by the two public television channels.  All of England’s games will be live on the BBC Sport website (UK only) with highlights on BBC 2.  You can also catch the English games on BBC Radio 5 live.  You can read the views of some of the English experts here.

I will be back with some match reports as the competition goes on but right now I am really excited to see the group stages unfold.  Pride weekend and the Women’s World Cup starting with Wimbledon underway, what more could a lesbian ask for?

Here are some magic moments to get you in the mood (don’t ask me why it starts with them doing their hair!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmlUx6Z1APY

Related posts:

1. Drama continues as World Cup reaches semi-finals
2. Guinean sisters dropped from World Cup squad
3. Preview: X Factor Final 2011

This time round Equatorial Guinea will be making their debut in the competition as part of a tough group which includes Norway, Australia and last years runner’s up, Brazil.  So you’d think they would want all of their very best players available, right?  Wrong!

Star players and sisters, Salimata and Bilguisa Simpore, have both been dropped from the team because, wait for it, they have been accused of being men by members of the Ghana team after their game in the 2010 African Women’s Championship in South Africa.

The Ghanaian captain went as far as to say

It is not as if we are throwing sour grapes, just because we have lost. Rather, this is the fact and it is up to the organisers to do something about this. It is not good for African women’s football

For the love of God, what is wrong with people?  The CAF (Confederation of African Football) have not commented on the matter, but these women are out of the competition, which is a big deal, so why the silence?  Come on people, lets sort this out.  Nigeria are leading the calls to have the matter investigated once and for all.

Equatorial Guinea is not new to controversy. Australia has already questioned the validity of their team as apparently 13 of the 20 squad members were not born in the state.  This does not, however, impact on the accusations being made against the sisters and should not diminish the fact that two excellent players are going to miss out on the world’s largest competition for their sport.

Related posts:

1. Drama continues as World Cup reaches semi-finals
2. Preview – FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011
3. Ireland squad named for Algarve Cup

And bloody hell, didn’t Team Ireland do well? The unofficial roving reporter for the Cork contingent tells us that their medal haul alone was 27. Twenty-seven!!

Some Team Ireland highlights

Team Ireland’s first medal of the tournament was won by Nick Flanagan, who picked up silver in the 50m backstroke and who set a new personal best.  In the Triathlon event on the same day, competitors Eithne Ni Longphuirt and Yvonne Delaney picked up medals of gold and silver, respectively, in their classes.

Poolside, Ireland’s Vivenne picked up a gold, silver and a bronze. Celebrate diversity, what? Meanwhile, Ireland win a medal in the 10k road race through the forest near Cologne, with Louise Cavanagh taking the bronze.

Nick Flanagan strikes again in the 4x50m medley, winning the gold. And Ireland’s terrific women won bronze in the 200m relay. Eilis Burns went on to take gold in the 100m breaststroke and break the Irish record for her age group. Go girl!

By the evening of 4th August, there were at least 14 medals for Team Ireland’s Cork contingent. Within under three days of that, the total number of medals increased by 7. Still awaiting the full tally for Team Ireland. GO TEAM!

Injuries

Unfortunately the Team sustained a number of injuries, including goalie, Fi, with broken ribs after some dirty play. There were also torn ligaments for Ireland’s striker, who required treatment by ambulance staff.

Thievery!

Teammate, Eithne, had her three medals stolen! We certainly hope she was able to get them replaced.

• Derek Scally has a run-down of the week’s events and some words from Team Ireland’s participants in today’s Irish Times.

• For more same-sex sporting successes, keep your eyes peeled for the Eurogames in Rotterdam (2011) and the next Gay Games in Cleveland, Ohio (2014)!

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Who cares?!

While half of Dublin – and plenty of non-Dubs – might be attending today’s Pride march and festivities in the capital, that may not be the case for everyone.

With that in mind, you can cheer on the Irish under-17s team as they take on Spain for the UEFA Championship title in the grounds of the Colovray Stadium in Nyon, Switzerland.

We brought you news on this blog earlier in the week of their game against the previous champions, Germany – and their eventual win (get in!).  After that game, Ireland coach, Noel King commented on the effect the win had on the team:

King said, “As soon as the final whistle went in the semi-final, everybody’s mood changed. We spent 24 hours up in the air. It is a marvellous achievement and there’s no point trying to dampen the enthusiasm. However, after that semi-final victory, the whole squad have got straight back to work on the training ground as they are so hungry for this title. Every team that we meet at this level are going to be a different challenge and Spain are no different. They are a strong, technical and skillful outfit which is a feature that runs through a lot of Spanish national teams so I think that it will be a difficult game for us.”

The final is today being broadcast live on RTÉ online (web only, unfortunately). Coverage begins at 12:25pm, and kick-off is at 12:30pm.

CORRECTION: The match will also be televised live on Eurosport 1 (not Eurosport 2, as previously advised).

GO TEAM!

Update: Our young ladies did us proud with an excellent performance against the Spanish, but lost out on penalties (4-1). Damn you penos!  Huge congratulations to the team and their management, thanks for making us proud as punch.

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However, every other summer there is a saving grace, something to keep at least some of your focus off the papers.  Either the European Cup is on or the World Cup.  Thank the heavens, instead of worrying your favourite player will leave only to be replaced by a 12 year old with “potential”, you get to worry about your favourite player being injured playing for his country, only to be sent back to your club to be taken care of.  As well as that there is some wonderful football to feast your eyes on

Let’s be honest here people, the group stage is kind of rubbish.  So far the pick of the bunch has been Germany v Australia where we had a crazy red card for Tim Cahill and a few wonderful goals (I knew I should have bet on Klose for the golden boot, why oh why did I go for Van Persie, damn loyalty).  It was a good match but it wasn’t great was it?  We will have to wait for the last 16 or even the quarter finals before we get to see great.  However, that is what is so amazing about this competition, you know you will see great.

Even I am too young to remember Pele, I have seen him on video but I do remember Maradona playing in Mexico in 1986.  I was 10 years old and this little man from Argentina took the ball and ran and swerved and nutmegged and I saw for the first time that Pele was right, it really is the beautiful game, it really can be majestic and full of artistry and skill.

Who knows if anyone will ever light up a tournament like that again but they all dream of it, Messi, Rooney, Ronaldo, they all share that dream and they share it with all the kids who go to bed every night and dream of wearing their country’s jersey and scoring a goal that everyone remembers where they were and who they were with when it was scored.

The World Cup is a feast of football, you get to see players you don’t normally get to see and you get to see players play not for crazy amounts of money but for the love of the game.  Heroes are made, players like Packie Bonner may not be internationally renowned sportsmen but we all remember that penalty save and he will always be a legend in his home country as will Jeff Hurst and so many more.

Lets hope that this year we get to see more memories created, more moments of wonder and a deserving captain enter the list of those lucky enough to lift the most famous sporting trophy of them all.

Related posts:

1. Anton Hysen Comes Out

stay in the closet

I don’t know about you but when I hear the words “Australian Rules” I think of macho men pretending to play a ball game when really just wanting to kick the crap out of each other. I’m sure that is unfair but that is its image.  So I was really delighted to see that this Melbourne-based club took such action against a star player.  We can only hope that other teams around the world are watching.

In the column Mr Akermanis said

Imagine the publicity associated with a current player admitting he’s gay…It would be international news and could break the fabric of a club

His club have said they would not have approved of the column if they had seen it before it was published.

You have to ask yourself why they wouldn’t have allowed it; because what he said was homophobic or because he was right?

The sports world is not a place to come out unless you are mentally and emotionally strong and have the support of your family and club. There are innumerable professional sports-people in the world, but you can probably count on one hand how may of them are out. Can you blame them?

Look at what happened in South Africa. Eudy Simelane was a star of South Africa’s national women’s soccer team and was out about being gay. She was raped and murdered. Watch this moving piece from the BBC about her and the other women who risk murder for being out.

How about Justin Fashanu, the only English gay soccer player to come out; he couldn’t get a club to hire him and eventually killed himself.

There are out heroes, though, Donal Og Cusak the Cork hurling captain and Gareth Thomas, the former Welsh rugby international and Sheryl Swoopes, the basketball star to name just a few. It takes a special kind of lgbt person to face the music.

I don’t believe that any of this was on Jason Akermanis’ mind when he advised sport’s stars to stay in the closet, maybe he just doesn’t want to share the showers with a mo, under the impression that he is irresistible. As if any gay man would go for that facial hair.

The worry that, if someone came out, a club would fall apart is unforgivable. What sort of backroom team do the Bulldogs have if their team members’ sexualities are not supported. Can you imaging the locker room talk that must go on in there?

Yes, there is homophobia in sport but not coming out won’t fix it. Educating team members and, crucially, staff will ensure the “fabric of a club” remains intact, and it would make life so much easier for the closet cases in the team. Their lives are hard enough.

Come What May: The Autobiography

Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport

More than a Game: Authorised History of Australian Rules Football

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1. Giant Step Forward
2. Anton Hysen Comes Out
3. England cricketer Steve Davies comes out

As a football fan I have to admit that the game does take over a lot of my life.  If you look at the calendar on my phone you will see I have all of Arsenal’s televised games in there, just to make sure I don’t tell someone I can see them on those days, football comes first after all.  Everyday I go onto the news websites and worry about the next game.  Anyone who supports any team in any sport can relate to this.

I spend quiet a lot of my time defending football to those of you who follow GAA, rugby or other contact sports.  I defend the “simulations” in the box, I try to defend those pathetic players who crumble as though they have been shot simply because someone brushed against them, I defend it all.  However, I have now, for the first time in my life, come up against the indefensible and for the first time in my life I am ashamed of my sport.

The football association (FA) have been forced to cancel the release of a video aimed at eliminating homophobia from the game.  Why?  As they could not get any footballing stars to appear in it!  I have to say I am beyond disappointed.  For this reason the FA had to rethink their video, eventually coming up with this.

Homophobia at some football grounds is a real problem and it must be stamped out.  It’s not that long ago since arrests were made when Spurs played Portsmouth.  The FA have planned this video for two years and now this.  It’s heart breaking.

Graeme Le Saux, the former England and Chelsea defender, is hetrosexual, but he was never into the “laddish” side of the game.  In his autobiography he wrote,

I was like a bullied kid on his way to school to face his tormentors

What kind of a way is this for adults to behave? It happens in many work places but footballers are looked up to by children and as such must behave with some amount of respect and decorum.  There are around 4,000 professional footballers in England and Wales and not one is out.  That is just crazy in this day and age. Let’s hope that out stars like GAA player Donal Og Cusack and rugby legend Gareth Thomas can lead the way for some football players.

So what can clubs do about it?  I know that at Arsenal, if you hear any racist or homophobic chanting you can text the seat number and a steward will arrive on the spot, never acknowledging you in any way as the person who text.  I have no doubt that other stadiums have similar procedures. This kind of thing does seem more prevalent in certain clubs though and one can only hope that those clubs are doing something about it.

It appears that they won’t be getting any help from their stars.

UPDATE: I found this link of the BBC website, it’s about the campiagn and well worth a look

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With a solitary French away goal at Croke Park being the difference going into this evening’s game, all is not lost (despite the fact that, competitively, France are unbeaten at the Stade de France since 1999!). There is however, much to do and very little room for lapses in concentration. If we can score early on, that French goal will effectively be cancelled out by our own away goal. From there on, the pressure will be on France not to concede another while at the same time pressing for a win themselves. If the score tonight is 1-0 to us, then the game will be decided on penalties as both teams have the same number of “away” goals (goals scored at the opposition’s ground over a two-legged tie). If we do score first there is a chance Trappatoni will try to defend and hope for penalties which is entirely possible but makes no room for error. I’d like to see us push for a second in that case and get the second away goal which means France would need to score twice to get through at our expense!

Trappatoni has hinted that he will start with the same eleven that kicked off at Croke Park on Saturday night. This means no room for Hunt and McGeady in the starting line-up, two of our more direct attacking players. A lot will be expected of our defence and midfield who will have to work tirelessly to keep the French out and break up attacks respectively. If Damien Duff and Robbie Keane can link up like they have done in the past there is a chance of goals against an experienced French back line (Abidal will sit this leg out with a thigh injury). I do still feel that the lack of creative spark in midfield is holding us back in the games where we struggle to make an impact, a creative spark such as Stephen Ireland or dare I say it, Andy Reid!

Thierry Henry says he does not expect the Irish team to be out for revenge tonight after Lassana Diarra’s comments to Keith Andrews that the Irish dream was at an end. There were heated exchanges after the final whistle on Saturday night and frankly it can only be a good thing going into tonight’s game. If there’s anything the Irish don’t like, it’s being written off before they’ve had the chance to show what they are made of. Expect a passionate display that surprises the French and hopefully gives us the chance to play in South Africa next summer!

The other qualifiers tonight (first-leg score):
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Portugal (0-1)

Slovenia v Russia (1-2)

Ukraine v Greece (0-0)

Algeria v Egypt

Uruguay v Costa Rica (1-0)

Tonight’s game kicks off at 8pm Irish time and coverage begins on RTE 2 television at 7.20pm as well as being available on RTÉ Radio 1 FM, LW 252, DAB and RTÉ.ie from 7.30pm.

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So why is this the case?  Is the Football Association very backward, is football culture behind the times?  In my opinion at least part of the problem has to be due to the ignorance of some fans.  Anyone who has ever been to a match in a stadium, whether it’s GAA in Croke Park, Soccer in any stadium or whatever, wherever, the fans always sing and jeer the opposing players, especially the good ones.  In the vast majority of cases this is just fun banter and it ads to the atmosphere in the stadium.  However, on those rare occasions when it gets personal you can’t help but feel for the player or manager who has to listen to it.

I remember watching  Arsenal play an away game a few years back, it was in the League Cup and the fans were slagging each other off in a big way.  However, every time Arsene Wenger stood up from his seat the home fans started to sing “Sit down you paedophile”, it can’t be easy hearing tens of thousands of people singing that at you but he had to take it.  The line can be crossed, and is.

Last weekend Portsmouth paid a visit to White Hart Lane to play Spurs.  Their captain, Sol Campbell, is an ex spurs hero.  He played for them from the time he was a kid until controversially leaving them for close rivals Arsenal around 10 years later in 2001..  He graced our team until 2006 and was part of the “invincibles“, he was also voted 15th in our “Gunners’ Greatest 50 Players” poll.  When he left there were questions asked as to why!  He seemed to have some personal issues.  During one match, I think it was against West Ham, he was subsituted at half time after a poor performance, and we were told by the commentators that he had left the ground.  That was very odd, players usually stay to cheer on the team.  Then he seemed to be out of the team for long periods and newspapers were reporting he had some personal problems.  Some reports seemed to suggest that he was gay and was having some issues in his life around that.  So when he left for Portsmouth, a team less in the news, all of the Arsenal fans cheered him and wished him the very best. He is now captain of Portsmouth and doing well.  It seems, at least, that he is dealing with his personal demons well and I’m delighted to hear it.

As a result of this, all real football fans were horrified to hear that while playing a game against Spurs at the weekend he is reported as having suffered both racist and homobhobic abuse.  Both the FA and the police are looking into this allegation and taking it very seriously.  I know Spurs fans still hold a grudge against him for leaving them for Arsenal but this is totally unacceptable.

Something has to be done, it’s as simple as that.  I know if you do something like that at Arsenal you are thrown out and I assume it’s like that around the county but if Spurs are found guilty a fine is not enough, the FA need to stand up and put their money where their mouth is!!!  Sol does seem to have the backing of his manager who is quoted as saying

“This kind of thing has no place in football, no place in life. Someone has got to do something about it, somebody has got to make a stand and if Sol wants to do that we are right behind him”

Supporters organisations have to be involved too at every level.  Any kind of abuse, be it anti-semetic, homobhobic, racist or whatever, needs to be stamped out of the game from the grass routes up and we all have to take responsibility for it.

No related posts.

Last season my beloved Arsenal were beaten by Liverpool in the closing stages of the competition (*cough* we should have had a peno in the first leg *cough*), and that was it, my dream ended. Manchester United took the trophy when they beat Chelsea in the final on penalties. An all English affair was on the cards for some time and it didn’t disappoint.

This season sees a few interesting ties in the groups. Manchester United drew Celtic and Liverpool’s Fernando Torres will return to Atletico Madrid in group D. All of this adds to the overall build up with everyone thinking their team got the roughest draw.

As for this week, we see Liverpool travel to Marseille, somewhere they have been before having played them in 2007 and winning 4-0 if I remember correctly. Chelsea play Bordeaux and I don’t think many will be betting against them taking the points there.

Tomorrow Manchester United play Villarreal in a tough enough encounter but with reports that Ronaldo will be back in the squad I think United will be lifted and will go on to win that one. Arsenal go to Dynamo Kyiv to play a club who’s best days are possibly behind them, the days of Rebrov and Schevchenko are gone and I am hoping that despite the weather we can take the points. Celtic will take on Danish side Aalborg and will be desperate to get off to a win, Celtic are renound for not doing well on the road and they’ll need to end that voodoo if they are to become a force in Europe.

For more information visit the uefa site here

Here are the fixtures for Matchday One (all times are in CET):

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They have promised to make the club bigger than Real Madrid and the clubs biggest rivals Manchester United.  However, I fear what this means for the game.  It’s getting that if you don’t sell out you just have no chance of getting anywhere.  Last year the Arsenal board fought hard to keep a Russian millionaire called Usmanov from taking over the club.  They had the fans support and so far they have been successful.  I’m delighted we haven’t sold out but it’s getting to the point that everyone is and if you don’t you have no chance!

The signing of Robinho from Madrid is surely only the first step.  Who can blame the fans?  Let’s face it the City fans are great, they stuck by their team through many relegations and hard times and I have nothing but respect for them.  I can’t give out that they’re over the moon at the money coming in to the club – but where does it end?  Will it become a league with three or four teams with money so far ahead of the rest of us that there’s no chance?  Arsenal are only where we are because of Wenger’s amazing ability in the transfer market (not that he’s bought anyone of note for a while), other teams like Spurs are coming good due to good management too but will all this be undone by a millionaire’s signiture?

I think the FA have to look into all of these club sales and see if there’s anything they can do to save the game from becoming even more cheapened by clubs allowing the pound to rule.

So I have to ask the question – would you want your club to be bought out by such a group?

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So with the Euro championship over the transfer gossip hots up even more. Where will the likes of Arshavin, Helb and Ronaldo start next season? If I’ve to read one more story about Barry or Adebayor I’ll loose my mind! It seems like stories about certain players go on and on and on.

Transfers like that of Flamini to Milan and Crouch to Pompy happen behind closed doors and are then just announced, why oh why can’t they always be like that? I’m sick of hearing they said that and he said the other and as for agents…. don’t get me started!!! It’s so clear that they make money from transfers, they seem to be the instigators of alot of the so called stories, they seem to ad petrol to the flames of any transfer story in a selfish attempt to get the most out of their players.

It’s not just the players that seem to move from club to club as soon as some money is waved under their noses, managers too seem to move easily. Hughes, Scolari, Ince… the list goes on.

As an Arsenal fan I’m used to hearing loads of speculation and none of it being true, we seem to just buy players no one links us to. I still read it all though! I can’t wait for the transfer window to close and the football to begin… fingers crossed Wenger dusts off the cheque book by then!

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This evening’s Germany v Turkey semi-final of UEFA’s Euro 2008 marked the anti-racism theme of the tournament with speeches from the team captains on the subject.

Brandished about during the competition have been flags, banners and badges with the word “RESPECT” proudly displayed.

Yet, the organisers of Euro 2008 were entirely satisfied to stage a game of beach football prior to the recent Germany v Austria game, the teams of which comprised topless women [link, if I must]. Of course, they were surrounded by a hoarde of boozing, drooling, fat men.

Clearly, then, RESPECT only goes so far in this bastion of sexism.

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Unfortunately, however, this doesn’t happen many times for most of us. I can still remember when Denis Bergkamp signed for Arsenal (in 1995), we had never signed a famous player and we were all so chuffed we couldn’t believe it. I remember reading and interview with Ian Wright about it, he said that when he heard he ran down to Highbury to celebrate with the rest of the fans, he just couldn’t believe it.

Football has moved on a lot since then but we all still want to sign a Bergkamp or a Ronaldo.

However, we are all left at the mercy of the papers. We tell ourselves its crap when we read that our key players are leaving but it still puts the fear of God in us despite ourselves. As an Arsenal fan I know that the ”paper talk” is meaningless as Wenger never shows his hand. We never buy anyone we’re linked with and his signings always just happen suddenly, we buy someone we’ve never heard of but all the Arsenal fans whisper “Arsene knows” and have total confidence in his ability to spot talent. Who knew Toure could defend or Henry score before he took them under his wing?

So for me it’s just a waiting game, but I’ll still read every word about our transfer speculation, I’ll still torture myself for months on end dreading that more players are to follow Flamini out the exit gate. But there will always be that little ray of hope that another diamond in the rough will be uncovered and that we’ll have another hero to cheer on in the coming years.

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Steven Gerrard no longer bears the weight of expection on his shoulders. The Liverpool captain, leader and keeper of the “Get Out of Jail Free Cards” has found someone to share the burden in the shape of El Nino, The Kid. Fernando Torres has adapted to Premiership life at a canter (and a shimmy). His first goal for the club against Chelsea put him on a pedestal. Gerrard’s visionary and perfectly executed through ball sent him away on the left. It didn’t look too dangerous but within seconds, Ben Haim was on his backside and the ball was nestling in the back of the net. Even if Torres never scored another goal for Liverpool, that one was enough to make him a hero.

Luckily, the goals have kept coming. From everywhere, outside the box, headers, one-on-ones, volleys. What is all the more impressive is that the lad makes it look too easy. He doesn’t have to think about where the goal is or what the keeper is doing. For such a lightweight looking player his strength is incredible. (Just a trivial note, his height and weight are exactly the same as that of Cristiano Ronaldo). He is similar to Ronaldo in that he does go to ground fairly easily at times but not as often as the aforementioned.

He arrived from Atletico Madrid (the mattress makers*) where he had played since his childhood. He was a hero there even though his goal tally was relatively poor (the most goals he scored in one season was 19). He suffered from a lack of quality service and, as captain, he often took on many roles during a game to rescue his side. Free from the shackles of responsibility at Anfield and with the consistent supply from Gerrard, Torres is now being allowed to exploit his talent to the fullest.

The question is, will next season be the footballing equivalent of the “difficult second album syndrome” for Torres? It’ll be hard to repeat his achievements but unlike himself, I couldn’t put it past him.

* Atletico are known as the mattress makers due to the similarity between the colours of their kit (red and white stripes) and the cloth that mattresses are wrapped in (also red and white stripes).

(Image from www.liverpoolpies.tv /Getty)

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