Real Madrid won 2-1 away to Real Sociedad, their second victory in three games at the start of the Primera Division season.

Winger Angel Di Maria  opened first blood with an awesome curling shot into the far top corner.

Real Madrid celebrate their win against Real Sociedad.

Raul Tamudo equalised for the home team with his thigh, from Antoine Griezmann’s free-kick.

However, Ronaldo’s deflected free-kick 16 minutes from time sealed the points for Real Madrid.

Mexico took a 12th-minute lead in the friendly through striker Javier Hernandez. Spain substitute David Silva equalized in stoppage-time to steal a draw.

Mexico played better than Spain and deserved their lead. Spain played in their trademark short pass fashion.
Casillas had to make a diving save from midfielder Rafael Marquez before ceding his place to Victor Valdes in the second half.

Spain became the latest world champions not to win their first match after lifting the FIFA trophy. Brazil in 1994 were the last team to win a match immediately after their World Cup success.

World Cup winner Fabregas was a youth player at Barca before moving to the English Premier League club in September 2003 and the player has made it clear he wants to return to the Catalan capital.
Local media reported on Monday that Barca’s new president, Sandro Rosell, would travel to London this week to try to strike a deal but Guardiola was downbeat about the chances of success.
“I think that getting Cesc will cost a lot,” Guardiola told a news conference at the club’s training ground on the outskirts of the city.
“He is an important player for Arsenal,” he added. “We want him to come but if Arsenal don’t want to negotiate he won’t.”
Barca, who have already added Spain striker David Villa and versatile Brazilian midfielder Adriano Correia to their squad, have about 40 million euros ($52 million) more to spend on players, club officials have indicated.
As well as Fabregas, who is more of a playmaker, they would probably need to buy a holding central midfielder to replace the Manchester City-bound Yaya Toure.
Asked about the possibility of Zlatan Ibrahimovic leaving, Guardiola said he wanted the Swedish striker to stay but it was up to the player to decide.
Mexico captain Rafael Marquez was in the same situation, the coach added.
Ten of Barca’s first-team squad began pre-season training on Monday, with internationals including Andres Iniesta, Villa, Xavi, Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique still on holiday.

Source: Reuters

It wasn’t a high skilled, free flowing match. The referee had to stop the game on more than a few occasions and had to dish out cards, including a red card to Johnny Heitinga after picking up a second yellow card.

Iniesta scores the winning goal

Spain started off well and dominated the possession, but the Dutch managed to hold on.

Robben missed a chance from a Wesley Sneijder pass, Casillas savied with his foot.

The substitutes Jesus Navas for Pedro and Fabregas on for Xabi Alonso seemed to have a positive impact on the game.

With a shootout looking ominous, Iniesta controlled a ball from Cesc Fabregas four minutes from extra time and found the back of the net. The Dutch were angry that an offside hadn’t been call and also questioned why a deflected free kick moments earlier had not resulted in a corner in their favour.

“Euphoria, joy, everything positive. The only thing that counts in finals is to win them.”

Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso told reporters.

Spain celebrate their first World Cup victory

This match brought an end to the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa.

The Closing Ceremony.

Reports are in that Jose Mourinho might  leave Inter Milan for the Spanish giants Real Madrid.

Mourinho helped Inter to the Serie A title last season and is preparing for a clash against ex-club Chelsea in the Champions League.

Current Real coach Manuel Pellegrini is under immense pressure to improve his side’s domestic performance.

Mourinho could be offered around €7m per season, to join the Galacticos. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport Mourinho could leave Inter following problems with Mario Balotelli. ]]> http://footballupdates.org/mourinho-off-to-real-madrid/feed 0 http://footballupdates.org/messi-or-ronaldo-who-is-worldclass http://footballupdates.org/messi-or-ronaldo-who-is-worldclass#comments Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:17:02 +0000 admin http://footballupdates.org/?p=587   [ Read More ]]]> Real Madrid paid a world record of 94 million euros for Cristiano Ronaldo, and the class was evident from the start.

Lionel Messi turned on a footballing masterclass last season and helped Barcelona win six out of six titles. The Argentine also scooped up quite a few awards, including the European Footballer of the Year and the FIFA World Player of the Year.

Nevertheless, according to a Spanish newspaper- Marca, Real Madrid ace Cristiano Ronaldo is a more complete player than Lionel Messi.

A statistical study has revealed that Ronaldo is, in fact, the better of the two. Marca declared that trying to separate the pair was as tough as “choosing between a mother or father”. However, they concluded that Messi’s woes with Argentina were key to him finishing behind Ronaldo.

Cristiano Ronaldo Vs Lionel Messi - Who is the Best?

Here’s the comparison of the two Spanish club players, according to Marca:Collective Game
Cristiano Ronaldo 7
Messi 8

Individual Technique
Cristiano Ronaldo 9
Messi 9

Physicality
Cristiano Ronaldo 10
Messi 7

Pace
Cristiano Ronaldo 9
Messi 8

Dribbling
Cristiano Ronaldo 8
Messi 10

Shooting
Cristiano Ronaldo 9
Messi 8

Passing
Cristiano Ronaldo 9
Messi 9

Heading
Cristiano Ronaldo 9
Messi 7

Leadership
Cristiano Ronaldo 9
Messi 7

Free-kicks and Penalties
Cristiano Ronaldo 9
Messi 7

Argentine and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi had won the FIFA World Player of the Year award. Earlier, he won the European Player of the Year. He has helped his club secure an unprecendented six titles this season.

The 22-year-old has picked up the award for the first time, beating last year’s winner- Cristiano Ronaldo and fellow Bracelona team-mates Xavi and Iniesta.

Messi was quoted saying:

“I’m extremely happy. We’ve just ended a historic year, a perfect year in which we’ve won every competition we’ve played in. We just needed to take this last step and everything has worked out how we wanted. It’s amazing.”

Other awards and honours won at the gala event held in Zurich were as follows :-

The Team of the Year

Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), John Terry (Chelsea), Nemanja Vidic (Man Utd), Patrice Evra (Man Utd), Daniel Alves (Barcelona), Xavi (Barcelona), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Fernando Torres (Liverpool).

Puskas, Best Goal

Ronaldo won the trophy for the best goal of the 2008/09 season – his long-range thunderbolt for Manchester United against Porto in the Champions League in April.

Women Player of the Year

Brazilian player Marta took the honours for the fourth year in a row!

Fair Play

The late Sir Bobby Robson won this trophy for his outstanding commitment to the values of fair play throughout his career and was collected by his wife Elsie.

Argentina Coach, Diego Maradona took complete blame for the defeat. Brazil joined South Africa, Japan, Australia, Korea Republic, Netherlands, Korea DPR and Ghana as  qualified teams for the Cup.

Portugal ended up with a 1 – 1 draw against Denmark.

With Portugal and Argentina both struggling to cement their place in the World Cup, the organizers are wary and hoping that these teams qualify since they house  star powers such as FIFA player of the year – Cristiano Ronaldo  and FIFA player of the year runner up – Lionnel Messi,  respectively.

Defending champions Italy played Georgia and must have surely included Georgia skipper Kakha Kalaze in their end-of-match celebrations as he scored both the Italian goals (own goals)!

Spain won convincingly against Belgium, the scoreline read 5-0.

Belgium Vs Spain FIFA 2010 World Cup Qualifier

England recorded a 2-1 win over Slovenia but not without controversy. Rooney allegedly dived to gain a penalty, which was later converted by Lampard.

Ghana 2-0 Sudan also qualified with Chelsea’s Michael Essien scoring the second goal.