It`s for the second consecutive time that Pandurii Lignitul Târgu Jiu is reinstated in Romanian “Liga 1″ after the World Cup finals, weeks after being relegated at the end of the competitive season. Not at all renowned for its footballing tradition, the small sub-Carpathian town is though powerful due to its “black gold” of the mining industry, coal. Or what remained of it.

Pandurii was relegated from the Second Division in 1990-1991, the first full season after the collapse of the socialist regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu, and that was more or less a true reflection of its football power. Yet Pandurii grew in influence and confidence through its club president, Marian Condescu, a local profiteer who in exchange for his favourable votes for the Romanian Football Federation clique pushed his side through the ranks. Or managed to stage Romanian Cup finals on his own turf.

It was scandalous in 2006, at the end of the season, when the small Bucharest outfit Sportul Studenţesc, which just narrowly missed on an UEFA Cup spot from the 4th position due to a negative aggregate result against local rival Dinamo, was excluded from next season`s competition due to an unpaid 300.000 euros amount to the taxman. Almost in Europe but thrown out alltogether from “Liga 1″. Qui bono?

Well, well, Pandurii Lignitul Târgu Jiu. The miners` team from the town of “Brâncuşi Column” was reinstated in “Liga 1″, in Sportul Studenţesc`s place, despite of its relegation. “The Students” from Bucharest fought their case at the Arbitrary Tribunal for Sport in Lausanne, which rejected the evidence on the basis of overnight drawn regulation and papers filed by Romanian Football Federation after Sportul`s contestation.

Romanian Football Federation hammered Sportul all right and Pandurii continued to play in “Liga 1″. It is worth mentioning that Sportul had the second most wins in that season 2005-2006, being the second best scoring team. What a farce, to throw out of competition a decent team, pushing for an European place!

Four years later, in this july of 2010, a few days after another World Cup finals, the same Pandurii Târgu Jiu was once again reinstated through the back door in “Liga 1″. This time at the expense of International Curtea de Argeş, another small town sub-Carpathian club, not far away from Târgu Jiu, which went bankrupt. One week thinking of the August schedules in Second Division, the next week playing in the curtain raiser of “Liga 1″, in front of TV cameras, against vicechampion Unirea Urziceni, on friday the 23rd. What a backbounceability for Pandurii and Mr. Condescu.

But then this is almost common practice. The lower the Romanian league, the more swaps of places, selling and buying of divisional positions, withdrawals and other bizzare stuff. All under the corrupt eyes of Romanian Football Federation and LPF, Liga de Fotbal Profesionist.

In 2009, FC Piteşti was excluded from “Liga 1″ due to corruption charges against its president and the 15th placed Gaz Metan Mediaş was reinstated in the elite division. Another 15th placed lucky outfit in 2008, Ceahlăul Piatra Neamţ, which was reinstated despite relegation due to Delta Tulcea`s licence non-acceptance by the federals. Another season, another scandal. 2007. Liberty Salonta got promoted but sold its place to UTA Arad.

There wasn`t though a more scandalous case than the one of Poli Timişoara, relegated from the Second Division in 2002, with 15 - 105 goal difference, but ending up in … “Liga 1″ in the same summer, due to Fulgerul AEK Bucharest promotion to the elite and its relocation to Timişoara. Can it get more hilarious that this? Not to mention that funnily named Fulgerul, The Lightning Thunder, bought its place in “Liga 1″ in 2000, with 1.200.000 dollars, from the aptly named Rocar Bucharest. If anybody understands anything anymore.

Well, this can be an explanation for those of you who wonder why isn`t Romania anymore at the World Cup finals. Since that 1998 with all those Cloned Blondes… Some people have better ideas by staying put at home, in front of TVs, and swaping or buying with impunity undeserved places. Roll on Brazil 2014, it can be a third time lucky for Pandurii.

It is just shortsighted, simplistic and crass to pinpoint England´s repeated failure to defeat U.S.A. in the World Cup finals on Robert Green and his blunder in South Africa. On a wider picture, it´s worth mentioning among other examples that an U.S. goalie who finished sixth in Premier League and played twice at Wembley, in february and april, in the Carling Cup final and F.A. Cup semifinal, haven´t made it in Bob Bradley`s squad for the finals.

Brad Friedel, Aston Villa`s goalkeeper, was omitted from selection, in a consistent line of foreign top of the table in Premier League goalies who are watching the finals on TV, while England is relying on a relegated 40 year old something, a deputy who came in to the frame in the qualifiers but who just avoided relegation with his own club and with a 20 year old. England`s problem is an overall lack of valuable goalkeepers, with a wealth of international experience under their belt. Green`s error is just a proof of their inability to cope with pressure in such circumstances. In a catalogue of mistakes, Robinson in Zagreb, Carson at Wembley and now this one, the overwhelming feeling is that Capello haven`t had too much room for option, that some trustworthy pair of hands are too few and far between…

Why U.S.A. was able to pick three choices in front of the sixth placed in Premier League, with Howard, Guzan from Villa and Hahnemann from Championship side Reading going to South Africa but not Brad Friedel, while mighty England agonized over taking Hart rather than Robinson at the finals!? Capello had a very poor field of selection at his disposal yet is worth mentioning that experienced Robinson has kept 13 clean sheets last season with Blackburn Rovers. May be only on this basis and on James` catalogue of errors over the years, at club and national level, the italian should have kept it simpler.

Otherwise, Green is not to be made a scapegoat as he is just an average Premier League goalkeeper pushed in front and victimized for wearing a larger hat than his West Ham one. May be get them naturalised, all the lot of absentees, the Petr Cechs, the Shay Givens of this top of the table league from European Union. This while Paul Hart will get four more years of experience…

Yet with a second game versus Reading added to an already congested schedule, the february home leg tie on the European front seems looming faster into Liverpool’s side mirror. One piece of news is that a manager who had almost turned upside down Liverpool’s sleek passage in august 2006 to the lucrative UEFA Champions League group stage, just took over Unirea Urziceni.

Do you remember Mark Gonzalez? He was on for the last five minutes, replacing Steven Gerrard, and took advantage of an uncleared Alonso cross by ”The Greens” to score a last gasp winner on the 9th of august 2006 against Maccabi Haifa, in a UEFA Champions League third qualifying round first leg tie at Anfield. Only Reina and Carragher have finished that game from the current Liverpool crop, a testimony of the revolving door policy at Melwood, but Ronny Levy was the more contended manager for the away goal scored by Boccoli, which opened the account.

It’s fair to say that Liverpool preserved its thin 2-1 advantage in the return leg, staged on the 22nd of august in Ukraine’s Kiew, far away from Israel’s troubled soil, yet the same Reina and Agger, then the only first choices from the current squad, to whom Benitez added Aurelio and Gerrard later in the game, would remember with some trepidation the last 27 minutes, once Colautti have equalised at 1-1 after Crouch’s opener.

That campaign will be mostly remembered for the restaged final against AC Milan but some might point out that Ronny Levy gave Liverpool a scare with Maccabi Haifa. Fast forward three and a half years and The Reds will face once again the Israeli manager, now 43, who’ll meet for the first time his new team Unirea on monday the 11th of january.

Levy just took over from Dan Petrescu, who left the Romanian champions for a fresh start in Russia’s second tier, with Kuban Krasnodar. The question is if Unirea Urziceni will be as “United” with Levy at the helm as it was with ambitious Petrescu. Insiders are saying that the Romanian outfit have made a type for type replacement, Levy being as much a disciplinarian and astute tactician as Petrescu.

The new manager will have though to face a potential miniexodus, with the likes of striker Bilasco tipped to follow Petrescu at the newly relegated Russian club, and a winter break which will abruptly finish with an outing under Anfield’s floodlights, in late february.

Petrescu did well by managing an unexpected third place in UEFA Champions League group A, ahead of Rangers, by doing so Unirea being rerouted as a seeded team in UEFA Europa League last 32 phase, and remained level on points in top three of Romanian league with a 2-0 home win on the 14th of december, on its last competitive outing. Unirea’s executives have stressed head on that by employing Levy even on half of Petrescu’s wages the level of competitiveness will be mantained, the Israeli manager having an even larger continental experience than the departed Romanian.

One thing will heavily weight against Unirea at the time of its visit to Anfield. By tradition, the recently crowned champions of Romania have restarted poorly their spring campaigns, struggling to score in the few late february games played since getting promoted in 2006. Last year, Unirea drew blank with FC Brasov on the 28th of february and in Pitesti, on the 8th of march. The same story in 2008, with points a piece without a goal scored against Otelul, on the 23rd of february, and in Timisoara on the 3rd of march, one bright spot coming in between with a 1-0 win against Rapid Bucuresti in the Romanian cup quarter finals, on neutral ground. Unirea have faired even worse in 2007, losing 2-3 at Galati on the 23rd of february and 0-1 with Farul Constanta on the 3rd of march.

Needless to mention that at the time of the Anfield game, the 18th of february, ”United” Urziceni has no recent record of a competitive game played at that stage of the season. The tie in Liverpool will come too early and find Unirea cold, while on the other side Liverpool has dispatched of Real, 1-0 in Madrid, Internazionale, 2-0 at Anfield, and Barcelona, 2-1 on Camp Nou, in the last three late february outings…

More than that, Liverpool has the experience of a similar opponent at its last february outing in UEFA Cup. It happened in 2004, against Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia, of which The Reds disposed with 2-0 at Anfield and 4-2 in the return leg.

Yet what it seems quite straight forward and dead easy on paper tends to be more complicated in reality. Reading gave Liverpool a wake up call and it’s only lowly Debreceni who lost at Anfield, narrowly, in UEFA Champions League group stage. One thing is for sure, that Levy can’t wait to have another go at old foes Rafael Benitez and Yossi Benayoun, while Gerrard will surely remember the heavy muddy pitch where Liverpool drew 1-1 with Steaua in Bucharest in the same last UEFA Cup campaign, a Ghencea ground which will stage the return leg in early march.

The 114 martyrs' names on a memorial in Timisoara's central square, where many were killed and injured on the 17th of December 1989. It was the very beginning of the Romanian revolution which ended with Ceausescu's execution on Christmas Day

Mothers with babies in their lap were imploring soldiers not to shoot. “You could have been our sons” was the voice of reason. Yet the uprising was brutally crushed, with tanks and bullets. Over one hundred protesters have been killed, many more were injured, unidentified or have disapeared from hospital beds. Sunday the 17th of December ’89 was the bloodiest day in former Soviet block system collapse.

And it sounds like a legend yet an oddly unnatural midnight torrential rain washed the blood away from Timisoara’s streets. Sporadic shootings reminded the tragical sunday in the next couple of bitterly cold and silent days. Timisoara was already wiping its tears and awaiting the full wrath of Elena Ceausescu’s mighty power. “Today in Timisoara / Tomorrow in the whole country” was the desperate plea verse which was fortunately picked up in Bucharest, on Thursday evening, the 21st. The following events were to become history, a televised one all around the globe.

Some heroes were shoot even on Orthodox Cathedral's steps. Many more crosses have sprung up, encircled by flowers, candles and tears

There was though only one beginning, Timisoara’s sparkle on the seventeenth. Exactly twenty years on, on a Thursday of mourning when survivors and relatives of the dead were still questioning the unaccountability of heartbreaking events, the local football club have won its first ever European cup tie away from home.

On a bitterly frozen Maksimir pitch, where Theo Walcott dazzled Bilic’s Croatia with a hat-trick that have sent England to FIFA 2010 World Cup, Politehnica Timisoara honoured the memory of 114 martyrs and many other unidentified heroes. It was just an academic success for the Romanian “Violets”, who finished with the wooden spoon in UEFA Europa League’s group A, as Dinamo Zagreb would have missed anyway on qualification due to Anderlecht’s fine 3-1 win in Amsterdam’s ArenA, yet it brought a surreal change of fortune.

Politehnica Timisoara, a less known quantity on the European stage, boosted though its own little record in the past on the Continent, which felt only at the eighth hurdle, at the hands of Real Madrid. Whichever club visited Timisoara in either UEFA Cup or Cup Winners’ Cup, almost all among them accustomed to the heighty airs of Continental finals, left with a loss without scoring. MTK and Kispesti Honved, both from Budapest, in 1978, Celtic Glasgow and West Ham two years later, and Lokomotive Leipzig after another year, have succumbed without reply to Timisoara’s spirit. The norm was 1-0 or two – nil. 

“Poli”, an abbreviation from Politehnica, knocked out Celtic with 1-0 in the return leg, Dan Paltinisanu‘s late goal pushing more than 40.000 souls into delerium on “1 May” stadium. Latchford was beaten, Charlie Nicholas was emerging on the losing side.

[ Ultra Viola Curva Sud, the passionate Poli Timisoara's fans, are always making a fine point with a well rehearsed coreography... "Who is jumping? / Who's jumping? / Hei, hei..."]    

Timisoara have started in december ’89 the Romanian revolution and Politehnica continued some months later its fine exploits on home soil in European encounters. Even more famously, “Poli” have set the foundations for claiming another scalp with a 2-0 win against Paolo Futre’s Atletico Madrid in september 1990, which brought Sporting Lisbon to western Romania in the next round. And another 2-0…

There were 7 straight wins, with a 12-0 aggregate score, in three cases qualification being achieved, before Real Madrid came around in september ’92 and Timisoara conceded its first home goal in a 1-1 draw. Many years later, in october 2008, in the very next Continental tie, Partizan Belgrade inflicted Poli’s first ever home defeat.

All is now history. This season, as Romania’s vicechampions behind Petrescu’s surprise package Unirea Urziceni, temporarily renamed FC Timisoara carved an all together different story in Europe, starting with its first ever away point, a mesmerising 2-2 in Donetk against current UEFA Cup holder Shakhtar. From a home tie expert turned blue one year ago versus Partizan, Timisoara was snatching points on Continental winners turf.

As the “Violets” somehow hold the Ukrainians to a 0-0 in the renamed “Dan Paltinisanu” arena, reminding of the fine late defender and scoring captain against Celtic, the next qualifying round of UEFA Champions League once again proved them right away from home, in Stuttgart. Another 0-0, setting Markus Babbel managerial downfall.

Being though rerouted to UEFA Europa League, Timisoara hold its own even on Amsterdam ArenA, 0-0 with Ajax, but lost its fine art of winning at home. Not only Hleb scored for VfB Stuttgart on “Dan Paltinisanu” but Dinamo Zagreb and aforementioned Ajax managed at least two goals winning cushions in Timisoara.

Yet Timisoara have had its last word on a day of mourning. An unexpected win in a meaningless tie, played behind closed doors due to Croats’ fans antics when visiting Timisoara. The atmosphere was subjued not only by the bitter cold and frozen pitch yet the “Violets” gave a lot of meaning on a day of remembrance.

Too many have been killed by the oppresive regime on that bloody sunday of 17th. Twenty years on, too many years of waiting, of hope and hurt, were wiped out with a first away win on the Continent. The plaudits are going to new manager Ioan Ovidiu Sabau, at his first season in charge of the “Violets” with too many later on the bench in a dazzling merry-go-round. For how long will Sabau hold to his role, remains to be seen. And it’s not that much up to him but to newlish owners who had the audacity to swiftly part company including with Gheorghe Hagi.

Sabau, a former Duch Cup winner with Feyenoord as a hard-working midfielder, has his own memories from Ceausescu’s late days in power. It happened in mid-November ’89, in a decisive World Cup Italia Novanta qualifier, that Sabau have opened the gate for Romania’s fine hours in 1990, with one of his 8 goals scored along a 52 caps career for the national side in a 3-1 versus Denmark.

Yet Sabau will place Maksimir academical triumph among his finest moments as he rallied the “Violets” to a first ever away win in Europe twenty years on from a tragic day for Timisoara’s inhabitants. Just a few days before this climax, during a home game in the Romanian league, the famous “Ultra Viola Curva Sud” section of “Poli” fans have shown to the stadium and a national audience the largely written names, on huge placards, of the city’s brave martyrs. Long live their memory was their motto and the players have responded in the end: a hard fought 2-1 in Croatia, carved after the break… 

Ironically indeed, there were foreign players as Taborda, a Portuguese goal-keeper previously on Porto’s books and who was beaten in Zagreb only by young defender Scutaru’s own goal, the Togolese tall international defender Nibombe and once World Cup finals goalscorer Winston Parks, a Costarican, who have pulled together to adjust their pride on a day of mourning.

NK Dinamo – FC Timisoara 1-2 will stay as a significant result in the troubled history of the club and as an incentive for another final push domestically, where the vicechampions and Romanian Cup finalists, already eliminated though this time around, are chasing for honours 3 points adrift of Petrescu’s Unirea, a rerouted club to UEFA Europa League as the only representative of a terribly corrupt and sinking Romanian league.

The current 2009-2010 UEFA Europa League final will be staged by Hamburg, on the 12th of May and, indeed, local HSV is still marching on. Here is the draw for the 16 games of the next knock-out round (matches to be played on the 18th and 25th of february):  Rubin Kazan v Hapoel Tel Aviv; Athletic Bilbao v Anderlecht; FC Copenhagen v Marseille; Panathinaikos v AS Roma; Atletico Madrid v Galatasaray; Ajax v Juventus; FC Bruges v Valencia CF; Fulham v Shakhtar Donetk; Liverpool FC v Unirea Urziceni; Hamburger SV v PSV Eindhoven; Villarreal v VfL Wolfsburg; Standard Liege v Red Bull Salzburg; Twente Enschede v Werder Bremen; Lille v Fenerbahce; Sporting CP v Everton; Hertha Berlin v Benfica SL. 

For a start, England conceded just an only goal in four out of its last six group stage appearances at the World Cup, in the other two instances leaking a couple and those in one game, which means that caution was the main foundation of going through. Mission accomplished. Even further, those second goals were conceded in the final minute of the encounters with Romania, in Toulouse, and Sweden, in 2006.

It’s fair though to say that England failed to keep a one hundred percent record in the group games, always being charitable with a few points here and there, which came at a cost by losing at times the top spot. It happened only in 1982, in Spain, when Ron Greenwood’s team came back on the world stage with a big bang after two 70es tournaments in the wilderness, to win all its 3 group games: 3-1 against France, 2-0 versus Czechoslovakia and 1-0 against Kuwait. That was a real treat which England never repeated since.     

On the plus side though England lost only twice in the group games since ’82, firstly in the Mexico ’86 opener, when a late Carlos Manuel goal secured Portugal a 1-0 win, and then at Coupe du Monde ’98, when Chelsea’s Dan Petrescu put it past Seaman in the last seconds: 2-1 for Romania. Just two defeats, at the hands of fellow Europeans, out of 18 matches, that’s not bad at all, using Capello’s words following the draw .

By the contrary, England won without reply all its 4 clashes with American teams, 2-0 with Colombia in France, 1-0 with Argentina due to that now famous David Beckham penalty, and 1-0 with Paraguay and a late shaped 2-0 against Trinidad & Tobago, both at FIFA 2006 World Cup. This impressive record is giving way to healthy optimism before England’s opener with USA.

On the same note, England stood firm against African opposition, 0-0 with Morocco in Mexico, 1-0 with Egypt at Italia Novanta, 2-0 against Tunisia at Coupe du Monde ’98 and another no score draw against Nigeria in 2002, in Asia. That’s another encouraging aspect in the light of England’s second game, with Algeria, although it’s worth mentioning that the north Africans have started their previous campaigns by defeating 2-1 the West Germans, which were to become losing finalists in Spain, in ’82, and by equalising Northern Ireland through Zidane, in Mexico. That was Madjer’s Algeria, which by the time of the second group game was starting to fade away.

Who’s to be feared then? Slovenia!? England’s results against Europeans in the last 5 World Cup group stages were average indeed, consisting of an array of four draws with Anglo-Saxon opposition trading a similar style of play and just a win, 3-0 versus Poland, with Gary Lineker grabbing a hat-trick, plus the two aforementioned defeats at the hands of Latin teams. Not too much is to be drawn out of these results and as England pressed the right buttons in the last game, if needing to do so, while Slovenia boosts a population less than say inner south London, it’s to be expected the favourite to safeguard its passage even in a worst case scenario with USA proving what an underdog can be. 

At this moment in time, a few days after the group stage draw in South Africa, such statistical anecdotes are worth mentioning. At a later stage, when the squads will get their shape and we’ll know who’s in and who’ll miss part of the tournament or squander it altogether due to unfortunate injuries or lack of form, more tachnical and tactical issues can be assesed.

If England will be religious about losing some points but still respect tradition and come stronger against American and African opposition, then a top place in Group C will confirm its status and bring in the last sixteen an encounter with the second placed Group D national side. It can be Ghana, Serbia or, why not, even Germany, out of a much open group. Once again, tradition is telling us that England conceded only once in all the knock-out games immediatelly following the group stages in the last 3 decades, which is a great record.

3-0 versus Paraguay in ’86, then 1-0 after extra time against Belgium at Coppa del Mondo in Italy, followed by that hard to forget 2-2 with Argentina in Saint Etienne, while in Eriksson’s era a 3-0 with Denmark in Asia and a Beckham’s goal settling it against Ecuador in Germany. England can optimistically look forward to achieving at least Sven’s performances to get into the quarter-finals stage.

Many can happen and reality in the shape of team squads will replace speculations based on probabilities induced by tradition and statistics. Torres, the spanish torreador, is giving a clue on how hard is to keep fit in Premier League. Some might even end up like Robin Van Persie, counting the days of recuperation and training to get fit – but what about match fit? – before the 11th of june start. The battle has in a way already started, once Switzerland came out last from the draw, and it’s up to Capello to find the perfect blend for South Africa.

Yet as the italian mentioned, the draw was not bad at all for England, which might place The Three Lions in a stronger position giving its recent pedigree in the group stages. It’s not an advantage to be derided, as some top seeds will discover on their own skin how important is to get a kind draw. I guess that Germany, Brasil and even Argentina  are already sleeping a bit tighter than Don Fabio.

On sunday evening, most of Europe’s footballing eyes were set on Camp Nou, for the Barcelona – Real Madrid game. At the same time, in another Mediteranean port city, a local derby as intense as the La Liga top of the table clash was taking place.

Barcelona prevailed and leapfrogged Real on the summit in Spain, with 30 points. In Pireus, Olympiakos dispatched of Panathinaikos Athens with 2-0 and leapfrogged as well the green and whites in front, with… 30 points. Football’s strange little ways.

Based only on this defeat and its rivalry with the red and whites, Panathinaikos might feel very dissapointed, as it travelled well at late to Georgios Karaiskakis ground, snatching draws in the previous two campaigns: 0-0 on the 1st of march this year and 1-1 in the first round of the second half of the season, on the 13th of january 2008. It was a perfect balanced encounter, with blank draws on Panathinaikos’ ground in the first legs of the famous Greek derby game in these last two seasons. Yet the balance was broken at the weekend…

What’s then to be read behind the lines and the result itself? It seems that there’s a wider and more optimistic picture for Panathinaikos to look at. But first, the technical data.

Olympiacos – Panathinaikos 2-0 (1-0): Mitroglou (45, 54). OCFP: Nikopolidis – Zewlakow (28, Papadopoulos), Raul Bravo (63, Domi), Mellberg, Galitsios, Dudu, Maresca, Zairi, Oscar, Leonardo (69, Pantos), Mitroglou.  /  PAO: Tzorvas – Sarriegi, Vintra, Seitaridis, Spiropoulos, Simao (63, Ninis), Gilberto, Katsouranis, Gabriel (55, Leto), Salpingidis (75, Christodouloupulos), Cisse.  

Panathinaikos should better look though at the wider picture and not let slip the good feeling about 2009, arguably its best since achieving the title – cup double in 2004, just at the expense of Mitroglou’s goals on sunday. At the end of the day, it was the first league defeat of the season for the now dethroned leaders.

A play-off winner, Pana returned to Champions League…

For a start, Panathinaikos had a fabolous month of may, winning comfortably – with 5 wins and a draw – the play-off minileague having the second Champions League place at stake. One step forward, from third at the end of the regular season, to second at the very final whistle, behind champions Olympiacos.

It’s true that it is hard to take Olympiacos dominance of the Greek league, with an astonishing sequence of national titles since 1997, interrupted only in 2004, yet Panathinaikos showed this year signs of revival, with Henk ten Cate at the helm. Mind you, the last decade made the difference in Olympiacos’ favour when it comes to the trophy cabinet: the red and whites claimed 22 national titles since the modern format of the Greek Championship was launched in 1959, with Panathinaikos on 16, AEK on 9 and the two Thessaloniki clubs, PAOK and Aris, combined on three.

The play-off burst provided the green and whites with a fine distraction in the qualifying stages of Champions League, Salpingidis making sure about its club progress with a third goal in a clear win over Sparta Prague, on the back of a 3-1 defeat in the Czech capital. Tougher opponents were to come in Champions League play-off, Atletico Madrid winning 3-2 in Irini and then never looking back after Vintra scored an own goal in the 4th minute of the return leg on Vicente Calderon.

Panathinaikos is on a revival route of those fine European nights. Here against Phil Neal's Liverpool, in the 80es...

Panathinaikos was subsequently rerouted to the group stages of the newly designed UEFA Europa League but only after enjoying again the lofty heights of Europe’s biggest competition, a reminder of the better times at the beggining of this decade. The Greens were playing in 2002 in quarter-finals, losing to Barcelona, the current holders. One year later, Panathinaikos was in another European quarter-final, that time in UEFA Cup, against Jose Mourinho’s Porto, and the external consolidation was replicated domestically, with the national title and Greek Cup double in 2004.

The momentum was unfortunately lost soon after, manager Itzhak Shum being sacked and Nikopolidis transferred to Olympiakos in 2005.  Managers were then dispatched with incredible largesse, Surinamese-born Dutchman ten Cate becoming in june ’08 the eighth foreigner in charge from 8 different countries in just a few years. 

ten Cate bringing back the fine European nights to Athens

Due to new structured ownership and with a new chairman in Pateras, it seemed that Henk ten Cate was to enjoy a full second season with Panathinaikos and his 55th birthday, on December the 9th, will find him in charge. That was in itself a change for the better at the giant Greek club.

All ten Cate needed was much more time in order to challenge Olympiakos hegemony, one which started in ’97 after ten years of total dissatisfaction, with no Greek championships won by the Pireus outfit. Confidence is paramount in derailing Olympiakos’ attempt at a sixth title win in a row, especially considering that Panathinaikos is lacking at late in this department, with triumphs in 1995, ’96 and 2004. Henk ten Cate was surely less fussed about numbers yet concentrated on performance consistency, thinking that good results will follow sooner or later.

The 9th of December has a nice conotation for ten Cate, as he won UEFA Champions League Group B in 2008 with a 1-0 home win against Anorthosis Famagusta, coming on the back of surprising away wins in Bremen, 3-0 with Werder, who was to become UEFA Cup finalist, and on San Siro, 1-0 with Internazionale Milano. Nine points out of nine in a group which was approached by the Green Greeks with two defeats.

Panathinaikos had an impressive start to its league campaign, 3-0 at Ergotelis, and it was only in the seventh round that The Greens have lost the first points, drawing 2-2 in Kavala. A first home blip occured in the 11th round, Cisse carving though a 1-1 draw against Asteras Tripolis due to Rukavina’s dilligence, the croat coming on after an hour, with the guests in advantage. It came after the international break, when Rehhagel’s Greece qualified to FIFA World Cup 2010 due to a one and only goal in the two legged tie against Ukraine, scored by Salpingidis, a… Panathinaikos player.

On the international front, Panathinaikos has just came empty handed from an away game with the magnitude of a derby day at Olympiacos, travelling on thursday to Istanbul for a top of the group clash with Galatasaray. If The Greens were to be judged by the home tie result against the 2000 UEFA Cup winners, then not too much could have been expected on the Bosphorus.

Frank Rijkaard’s Galata came and conquered the Olympic Stadium in Athens, with Elano, scoring a double, and Milan Baros making it 3-0 before Salpingidis found a reply. The master defeated his former assistant manager at the time of Barcelona’s 2006 Champions League triumph in Paris yet older ten Cate hoped to have the last word in the group.

Panathinaikos did wonderfully since that unquestionable defeat in the first round of group games, winning constantly with 1-0, firstly in Bucharest, due to Karagounis’ 79th minute strike against Dinamo, who missed a penalty late in the game, then in Athens with Sturm Graz, when Salpingidis converted a penalty, and finally in Austria, where Katsouranis made it sure about 3 points.

It was Galatasaray – Panathinaikos 1-0, Mustafa Sarf scoring for the Turks in the 51st minute, yet the nine points in group F meant that the Athenians are only one point short of a European spring campaign. Isn’t it beautiful? The undone of The Greens can be only a home defeat by 2-1 or worse in front of Dinamo Bucharest, in one of last 4 games to be played by Panathinaikos this year. Any other result will do for an European story in spring… 

There is something magic walking around Apostolos Nikolaidis stadium in downtown Athens. It’s Panathinaikos old ground, a spiritual home for the club, where its real heart beats. You can meet fans discussing football, enter the club shop or the basketball hall from underneath the east stand and generally sense the history and tradition spreading their aura in green and white. For the football follower, it’s like a pilgrimage to any soulful old ground, with all the mistery and charm of previous encounters.

The symbolism permeates the stadium. The Glory Days are a reminder of the great European Cup final from may 1971, when Panathinaikos played at Wembley against Ajax. Ferenc Puskas, a giant of world football in charge of The Greens, sent on the London turf the following eleven… Ikonomopoulos – Tomaras, Kapsis, Sourpis, Vlahos – Grammos, Kamaras, Eleftherakis – Domazos, Antoniadis, Filakouris.

Panathinaikos is coming on at Wembley in its finest ever hour. A huge billboard depicting Puskas' team, on the stadium's stand facing Leoforos Alexandras Avenue

It was a great team, graced by local lad Dimitris “The General” Domazos, a diminutive yet inspirational midfielder and for 15 years captain of The Greens, or by Antoniadis, a fine forward with 10 goals to his credit in that campaign, being the main goalscorer of the competition and the second ever in Panathinaikos hierarchy, after Polish born Warzycha.

It wasn’t to be in London, as Ajax triumphed with 2-0 , the winners playing with A. Stuy – Neeskens, Hulshoff, Vasovic, Suurbier – Cruyff, Rijnders, Muhren – Swart, van Dijk, Keizer, yet Panathinaikos remained forever on the golden page of European Cup. Those were the Glory Days…

Graffitti on Leoforos stand... Glory days

The Glory Days were replicated in mid eighties, when Polish Gmoch’s Panathinaikos met Liverpool in European Cup semifinals, with the British side winning 4-0 at Anfield and 1-0 in Athens, just a couple of years after The Greens have left their spiritual home Apostolos Nikolaidis for a bigger Olympic Stadium. Their home for sixty years! 

Another semifinal in the nineties, this time in UEFA Champions League, with a famous win in Amsterdam, against old foes Ajax, 1-0. The return leg brought though Rocha’s men to their knees, 0-3, and the Dutchmen went all the way to reclaim the trophy.

Panathinaikos and Ajax before another great European night in UEFA Champions League. Another billboard at Leoforos... So much rich history!

In typical fashion, Panathinaikos released its manager just days before his birthday, Henk ten Cate missing the opportunity to add another point to those nine gathered in the UEFA Europa League campaign. One year and a half is a bit better than the short-lived average time for the managers in charge of The Greens yet is not at all ideal.

There were many worried voices, asking themselves if ten Cate survive will two full seasons at the helm. There are others wondering if Cisse will settle and become a full transfer with the coveted number 9 on his shirt.

One answer was provided and as Panathinaikos was chasing that second qualifying place in UEFA Europa League, the club have opted for the shock-therapy in replacing ten Cate with a couple with pedigree in green.

Nikos Nioplias and Krzysztof Warzycha replaced the dutchman on the 8th of december with an immediate target in securing a more than achievable draw against Dinamo Bucharest. Spring campaign was beckoning! Which means that The Greens have to spread on two fronts, chaing champions Olympiacos all the way to the title, with the club from Pireus qualified for UEFA Champions League last 16…

Nioplias and Warzycha, two times Greek national title winners with Panathinaikos in mid 90es, were among the fine Greens winning in Amsterdam that UEFA Champions League semifinal tie, 1-0 against Ajax. Nioplias was for three years with Panathinaikos, the Polish attacking maestro many more and both are looking for a longer time in charge then ten Cate and its predecessors. Nioplias has 44 caps for Greece and an excellent managerial pedigree at the heml of under-19 and under-21 Greek national squads.

And Nioplias provided, as Panathinaikos have won comfortably in the end against Dinamo, 3-0 with Djibril Cisse adding a brace to Ninis’ opener. The new manager will now chase Olympiacos on the domestic front and awaits a favourable draw in the last 32 of UEFA Europa League, after Panathinaikos has qualified with a decent record: 6 matches  4  0  2  7-4  12 points. Defence was in its prime!

The question is if his 46th birthday, on the 17th of January 2011, will find him in charge of the club. Its a reasonable one to ponder about as ten Cate has been offered a shocking gift as his birthday present… 

While the long term future plans are involving a proposed move to Marfin Stadium in western based Votanikos area, a 46.000 for a start brand new arena part of a sport complex to be built for Panathinaikos use. Yet the heart and soul of the club are at Leoforos, where the team returned briefly, from 2000 to 2004, to a reduced capacity arena which is now just a place for legends on its painted walls and for all the kindheartedly symbolism of their passionate fans.

Panathinaikos, a very much loved club in downtown Athens, is at a crucial point in regaining its stability and strength to challenge Olympiacos internally and some loftier European hights. The club will though move forward only keeping close at heart its best treasured moments, the Wembley final, the 2008 centenary, the memory of exceptional multisports hero Apostolos Nikolaidis, the fine memories from the old stadium with its legendary Gate 13 from Panathinaikou street, all these wrapped in the green Trifili – its lucky shamrock. 

A much treasured symbol celebrating a club century

Gate 13 welcomed over the years on Leoforos some of the most passionate fans not only in Greece but in Europe...

The famous green shirt worn by Pana in the Wembley final, hold on display in the amazing "museum" of Mad Boys Gate 13 branch of Panathinaikos supporters

The famous Mad Boys coreography at Panathinaikos games

Olympic Stadium in Irini is a bigger arena but far away from the heart and soul of the real home, Apostolos Nikolaidis

History was written on wednesday evening, when Salpigidis’ goal for Greece, in Ukraine, left the hosts at home during next summer’s World Cup, which means that for the first time both home nations for an European Championship final tournament won’t have any official games to play for more than two and a half years. That’s a lot of waiting…

Inside Oporowska ground, in the city of Wroclaw, which started building its new stadium for EURO 2012, the local club Slask displays the symbolic ball of next European Championship tournament

Poland and Ukraine are co-hosting UEFA 2012 EURO yet both of them missed on representing Europe in South Africa. While Shevchenko and company were denied by Samaras’ through pass and Salpigidis cool finish, after an encouraging 0-0 in Athens, Poland experienced a shocking autumn, ended in tears and with Leo Beenhakker sent packing.

None of them have the opportunity to play in South Africa, where many other Europeans will know by then who will they face in the group stage preliminaries to get to Poland and Ukraine. The draw will take place on the 7th of February, in Warszawa, and then we can only make predictions, who will reach the 8 cities hosting the 2012 event. Where will Capello’s men play? In Ukraine’s Lvov, Kharkow, Kiew or Donetk, or across the border, in EU’s Poland?

Poland is an amazingly rich country in history and magnificent buildings, as famous Rynek square, in central Wroclaw, compared by locals with the cream of central piazzas of Europe. And truly so!

When Belgium and Holland co-hosted the European Championship in 2000, a premiere in terms of joint bids, both came after a World Cup presence in ’98, in France, where they draw blank in the group stage. In 2008, when a second joint organising was accepted by UEFA, although Austria lined up after a free summer during the 2006 World Cup, Switzerland at least marched without defeat and goal conceded through its group in Germany.

So Poland and Ukraine can be perceived as lucky wild-card opportunists which otherwise would have find it very difficult to qualify for EURO. They can pick up the phone and ask England how it coped in the long wait for staging EURO 1996, after a US World Cup ’94 campaign on the sidelines.

If Wroclaw was capable of hosting at roughly the same time both the volleyball and basketball EURO Championships, as depicted on this advertising board, than surely it can put a jolly good show for 2012...

The pressure of picking at the right time, in those crucial summer weeks, after more than 30 months of friendlies, just adds to the bigger expectations building up on the shoulders of the hosts nations. And with tradition against the organisers, Poland and Ukraine can’t think of a better outcome than to replenish their coffers after years of investing in infrastructure. It’s a long time since France managed to win the European Championship on home soil, in 1984, the only happy host after Spain’s and Italy’s triumphs in the 60es.

England and Holland found it harder in ’96 and 2000, going out on penalty shootouts in the semifinal, Portugal lost to Greece not only in the group stage but also in the final, in 2004, and Switzerland finished last in its group while Austria with only one point, last time round. What more to expect then from two countries who comiserate each other for missing the chance to have at least 3 official games until 2012?

I found Poland shellshocked after a 3-0 defeat in Maribor, in early September, which indicated that its presence both at the World Cup, in 2006, and last year, in Austria, won’t be followed by one on African soil. That humiliation in Slovenia was taken very hard, the sixth biggest nation in European Union feeling that it should have fared much better against a 2 million alpine state renowned especially for its skiers.

Slask - Legia was the name of the game at a time when Poland was shocked by Beenhakker's men humiliation in Slovenia: 3-0.

Beenhakker was castigated and 90 minutes of pain in Maribor wiped out in many Polish eyes his excellent track record both in club football and international football, including the fine qualifying campaign taking the red and whites to another alpine nation, Austria. It was the very first presence for The White Eagles at EURO finals, campaign which helped the Poles climbing on its highest position in FIFA ranking, a lofty 16th. 

The defeat in Maribor came after another dissapointing result, a 1-1 home draw, in Chorzow, against Northern Ireland, at the beggining of autumn. But october was even worse, Poland losing 2-0 in Prague, with their eternal rivals, Czech Republic, and then again in Chorzow, 0-1 with Slovakia, which progressed to Africa due to that result. A second minute own goal on the shoulders of Gancarczyk. Could have been worse than that?

Another rivalry is among the south-western counties of Lesser Poland, boosting champion Wisla Krakow, and Lower Silesia, with WSK Slask Wroclaw

Scrutinizing the table, some might say that Poland scored more goals even then Slovenia, which ended at the World Cup. Prolific indeed but let’s not been fooled by the 12 punches administred to San Marino. The other only seven might tell the real story. More shockingly, the Poles ended with only 11 points from 10 games, a bitter pill after a previous campaign in which Beenhakker’s men outmuscled Ronaldo’s Portugal on top of group one, by one point: 28 in total out of 14 games.

So what went wrong in the space of just two years? Has the complacency of reaching Austria caught up with the squad? Nowadays, Poland is back on 56th position, almost as bad as its worst ever, some eleven years ago.

The second stand, displaying the huge tram, symbol of the city and Slask, saved the spectacle. Some fans, some lungs and a platable beer Piast!

And a glimpse of reality I encountered while watching from the stands a first division game in Polish league. At that time, three days after being poleaxed in Slovenia, Poland was still debating on to be or not to be with Dutchman Beenhakker at the helm. Oppinions were split but one thing was certain. Polish football was going in the wrong direction, exactly at a time of regeneration and build-up for a probably once in a lifetime event. The European caravan coming to town, precisely to Gdansk, the Baltic port, Warszawa, the capital city, Poznan, the multicultural location boosting the renowned local club Lech, with a record 14 national titles to its name, as Gornik Zabrze, and Wroclaw, the Lower Silesian regional capital.

Sorry to say though that the teams seemed confused by the wednesday result in WC qualifiers...

It was there, on Oporowska stadium, in the south west of Wroclaw, where hosts WKS Slask played Legia, the vicechampions from Warszawa, in the sixth round of Zdobywca Pucharu Ekstraklasy 2009-2010. Floodlights, very tight security measures, rock music blearing loud in anticipation of the saturday evening game, an empty improvised terrace stand behind a goal, due to an absolute absence of visiting fans and a whole second stand dancing to one tune. For Slask. Due to the nicely priced tickets, no more than 20 zloty for the aficionados, some 30 more for the better places. Still, as much as around 10 euros.

Functional, reliable, clean, cheap and not at all crowded, Tram 4 out of the some dozens crossing Wroclaw, takes you fast to Oporowska, while sightseeing imposing buildings on large boulevards

The atmosphere was promising, the media was in full batallion, including the 3 games per weekend broadcaster Canal Cyfra+, local dignitaries were taking there seats either in the covered first stand or in a concrete and glass building serving as dressing rooms as well, placed in one corner of the ground, and everything was gearing up to an evening of redemption. Of better football.

Hope seemed in the air. A huge electronic screen was projecting a multimedia production including a virtual tour of the to be build 40,000 arena on the outskirts of town, a bit further west, close to the airport. A sign of the times to come. Project Wroclaw 2012. The place looked sleek, the typical modern stadium with a certain design and distinguishing green chairs, the defining colour for Slask. A world away from this local stadium, a 8,300 seater with not so perfect transport links, anchored in a suburbia suffocated with block of flats but saved by a green and pleasant community local garden.

Advertising is the heartbeat of trading. For all the glitz of the huge board on the stadium's building facade, Seb Mila couldn't turn things around when coming on as a sub

Some years to build and hope, to pray and wait. Some years then to get to the next level. But what about the football? Will poleaxed Poland move forward, keeping pace with the construction of a whole infrastructure project? One answer was offered in the next 90 minutes.

It was a dreadful affair, a sedated game, without rythm, spark and fluency. Not even Sebastian Mila, coming on late into the game after an injury kept him on the sidelines, could help the state of affairs. Mila was, after all, a Polish international from the same squad lowering its standards while losing in the group stage.

Oporowska is a charming enough little ground but Wroclaw and Slask will clearly grow in stature when moving in the new EURO ground. The green will be preserved...

0-0 was at least a fair result. A perfect description of a top half of the table sour affair in the Polish league. You couldn’t ask for more from a forward player for host Slask, who decided very late in the game to roll and play dead in the penalty area, just after realised that he might get booked for clumsily bursting second in a challenge to the outcoming Legia goalie. The seconds weren’t apparently that precious for the forward. It was 0-0, in a true reflection of the game. Slask didn’t look at ease with its display, showing why has just one national title to its name, in the 70es, while Legia, managed by another former international, Jan Urban, looked a lesser team than the two times champion in this decade.

The soul of the evening party was that second stand sea of green, red and white, a big army of followers, dancing and chanting in one voice, a great chorus and coreography, displaying a huge banner with a bigger than natural size tram, Wroclaw’s symbol among many other fine ones. The tram was in the club’s and city’s colours but took Slask nowhere.

The locals are warm, lovely hosts, but just remember to pronounce its name Wroclaw and not Breslau, as German tourists identify the former Prussian and Habsburg fortress town

The banner run on top of the stand, from one end to another, in a fine procession, a ritual to cherish. Slask fans saved the evening, Slask fans promised that at least in terms of game excitement EURO 2012 is on good hands, now firmly building a fine arena which will be populated by enthusiasts like them.

It’s an absolutely new ball game, from the not so far ago dark days of bloody hooliganism and knife edged battles. Many were banned for years or even life from attending games and nobody else gets inside the grounds without ID identification and anything harmful in the pockets. That’s the new stance, that’s the policy, that’s the step forward. An Project 2012 can’t wait for its visitors. It will be a summer of football party but will Poland oblige?

Trouble is that Beenhakker was unceremoniously dispatched in october and former international Smuda was brought in, but will he revive the days when Poland was playing World Cup semifinals? The answer will be supplied with an ironic smile and with a reminder that his campaign got to a stuttering start, in Warszawa, against another sufferer finishing fifth in its group, Romania: 0-1. The friendly of the bulldozed ones. Poland 3-0 in Slovenia, Romania 5-0 in Serbia. Four days later was better, 1-0 against Canada but then, who’s Canada, will ask the pessimists.

Satisfaction guaranteed... The carnival atmosphere, with quality time, food and local drinks, was emphasised during the EURO Voleyball, when the games were screened live in the main square, from various Polish locations

May be Polish football needs indeed these free of official games years, to find again its feet, after a decade of terrible struggles against corruption, seeing the national football federation, PZPN, up to its throat in unsavoury cases involving many arrests. The tempest seems to have passed, the stands were cleaned of so called supporters, some simply knife carriers, and by Christmas time PZPN can only hope for better, at its 90th anniversary.  

Smuda will be challenged to find quality recruits in Ekstraklasy, by the look of Slask and Legia scratching football in a 0-0 bore, especially now, when the league is flooded with more or less cheap imports from countries as far as Brazil. Smuda might rely on the foreign legion, with ramifications in England and generally in Anglo-Saxon leagues.   

With three rounds to go before winter break, the six times winner in this decade, Wisla Krakow, current back to back title holder, is once again up there, planning may be already for a better UEFA Champions League second qualifying round, after the nightmare of losing straightaway to lowly Levadia Tallin in late summer. But this is a problem in itself, the vacuum of quality in the present, just praying for better in the future. Be it 2010 or 12.

The Polish eagle has its place on Slask's crest. A proud history.

Wisla has 31 points with a game in hand and one win worth in front of aforementioned visitors Legia and multiple champions Ruch Chorzow, after 14 rounds, the “silver” and “bronze” places being tickets in earnest for UEFA Europa League. Not that there can be expected lenghtier campaigns.

There are 16 teams in the league, playing two of the second stage of the season rounds later this december. Slask is languishing in seventh, two places behind Lech Poznan, representing another host city in 2012 and boosting in Robert Lewandowski the top goalscorer in the league, with 9 to his credit, but one place in front of Gdynia Gdansk, the port city club awaiting its regeneration in the build up to a summer tournament.   

Next in line, Bulgaria to visit Poland, on the 3rd of March. It’s a new beggining for Smuda and his men, on the road to 2012. We are talking here of a national side with a wonderful pedigree some 30 years ago, when the red and whites were finishing third at World Cup, with the bronze medals shining proud, both in Federal Germany ”74 and Spain ’82, achievements never grabbed for example by England since its ’66 win. It’s the side graced by formidable Lato, with his record of 100 caps, and record goalscorer Lubanski, with 48 into his acount. But is the national side of actual capitan, Michal Zewlakow, with 93 caps, which has the difficult task of emulating somehow those glory days…

Wroclaw Catholic Cathedral, another symbol of the city with 112 bridges connecting the 12 islands formed by river Odra

Finally, as a notice, here are the call-ups for the latest squad, which played in november a 0-1 against Romania and 1-0 versus Canada… Kuszczak (Man Utd), Szczesny (Brentford) – GK; Brozek (Wisla), Gancarzyk (Lech), Glik (Piast), Kokoszka (Empoli – IT), Kowalkzyk (Dinamo Moscow – RUS), Rzezniczak (Legia), Sadlok (Ruch), Zewlakow (Olimpiacos – GRE; cpt) – DF; Blaszczykowski (Dortmund - GER), Dudka (Auxerre – FR), Gancarczyk (Slask), Guerreiro (AEK – GR), Kosowski (Apoel – CPR), Majewski (Nott’m Forest), Obraniak (Lille – FR), Peszko (Lech) , Rybus (Legia) – MF; Jelen (Auxerre – FR), Lewandowski (Lech), Malecki (Wisla). Among other seasoned internationals on stand by are goalie Boruc (Celtic), defenders Glowacki and Wasilewski (Anderlecht), midfielders Mariusz Lewandowski (Shakhtar) and Smolarek, plus forward Brozek.

Who will bring back the smiles to a rejuvenated Polish football stand?

EURO 2012 seems so unbearably far for Poland and Wroclaw. But may be it's a blessing in disguise, a chance to regroup and reemerge. The country will be 100% hospitable. What about its national squad?

[ It happened in just 12 seconds, on the 17th of November '93... It was 1-1 in Paris, in the last minute of the qualifiers for US World Cup, with France needing just that draw. But from Ginola's boot to Kostadinov's shot the history was rewriten: 2-1 for Bulgaria, who ended up playing a World Cup semifinal against Italy in United States. Please notice that the visitors wore white shirts and green shorts, as was Ireland's choice on wednesday. So what stopped than Ireland from making it 2-1 even in the 120th minute? ] 

Against Italy, on Croke Park, Ireland was so close to a famous victory yet Gilardino cancelled in the dying moments Sean St. Ledger’s 87th minute strike. The sense of a lost opportunity beamed in the otherwise smiling Irish eyes. A few days later, in what Ireland imagined to be a final push for the first place and automatic qualification if that St. Ledger goal would have been the last in the top of the table game in Dublin, Montenegro frustrated the Croke Park faithful even further: 0-0. It was Ireland’s third consecutive home draw in World Cup qualifiers and another build up to that sense of near miss. In other words, even if Italy would have failed to beat Cyprus in the peninsula, Ireland wouldn’t have made it to South Africa due to its draw against the ex-Yugoslav minnows…

What not many envisaged at the start of the campaign, was though achieved. Ireland was still in it, with a chance to make it to the FIFA 2010 World Cup. A performance in itself, judging by the poor results in the previous qualifiers, miserably wasted on the desired way to Austria and Switzerland. 

Between Ireland and a winter trip to Africa came across the hand of destiny. France, 1998 Coupe du Monde winner and 2006 World Cup finalist, was drawn in the play-offs as a seeded team versus the Irish. And Croke Park was once again the venue of a spirited but once again short changed Irish display. St. Ledger’s body and the post have deflected Anelka’s shot into Given’s net: 0-1.

The Saturday first leg was another Irish missed opportunity to impose its authority, to take a shaky Goliath of the game by the scruff of the neck. The frustration spilled over in the media, about alleged loose words sneaked by Lassana Diarra towards Keith Andrews at the final whistle. The game was over, the talk was done in the grass with a 1-0 for the favourites and the scrumage at the end of 90 minutes just poised the return leg even further.

In Paris, it was captain’s Robbie Keane honour to put the record straight: the French were superior in Dublin but the tie wasn’t over yet… 1-1 on aggregate. Without Abidal and Escude, his substitute who was unfortunately injured by fellow defender Evra in the opening minutes, the World Cup finalist was more vulnerable by the minute.

Yet Ireland didn’t capitalize on this advantage. Ireland didn’t sent the tie to sleep with a second goal and it’s an unwritten football law that missed chances are coming back to haunt you. O’Shea, Duff and Keane, who have passed even the brave goalkeeper Lloris but apparently wanted to majestically enter with the ball in the net, couldn’t find the target after nicely crafted attacks and the boumerang mercilessly stroke in extra-time.

It was all about an offside. As it happened many times in football, in more or less poised encounters, with a lot or less at stake, the offside rule and its interpretation complicated the affair and sparked controversy. It’s what happened on wednesday evening in Paris, after 11 o’clock. Two French players were offside in a deadball situation but the Swedish assistant referee failed to signal the irregularity and the rest became big time history.

It’s the assistant linesman and his glued flag that failed the Swedish referee in charge of the affairs. Once the offside promptly signaled, the following motion would have became irrelevant. In this light has to be perceived the human error that let Henry’s handballs and Gallas equalizer stand. Without this goal, France and Ireland would have probably gone neck in neck to the purgatory of penalty shoot outs, having to eradicate their demons and worst nightmares.

The French have lost a World Cup final on penalty shootouts, in Berlin, in 2006, while the Irish came off the stage at their last World Cup presence by being beaten from the spot by Spain, in Asia, in 2002. Who would have won? Guess what… There is a 50% chance for France to have won it from the penalty spot.

Fact of the matter is that with or without assistant referee’s error to fail to spot the offside that lead to Henry’s infamous two handball and the undeserved French equaliser, Ireland was always only one goal away from qualifying to South Africa. Let’s remember that a 1-0 for Ireland just cancelled the fine French win in Dublin and only a second goal would have insured the islanders’ passage.

And from Robbie Keane’s leisurely miss in an one on one with the goalkeeper stems all the real frustration of the night that should have been but never unfolded. Created opportunities are to be converted. Narrow misses end in bitter failure. A 2-0 for Ireland in the 76th minute would have been fully deserved for the visitors and appropriate to the balance of forces in Paris yet the captain delayed the outcome and let the qualification at the hand of destiny.

It was one Swedish’s inert hand and one Frenchman’s cheeky opportunism which decided it. The Irish were too dejected to react with a second goal which was earlier in many’s boots. But from one of many unspotted offsides which altered results to a character assasination of a well passed captain and a public outcry on the supposed injustice of the game, there’s a long way. Life is unfair and football remains just a game, at times cruel in the extreme but predicating the very essence of human imperfection.

Do we really want video evidence? Can’t we wait for the pilot scheme tested in UEFA Europa League involving penalty area assistant referees, the brain child of a… Frenchman, to see its worth, benefits and real merits? The push for some rule changes seems near yet until then there are times when graciously and dignifyingly accepting any kind of defeat will draw more plaudits than any seemingly righteous but frustrated outcry. The goal that should have not stand was for all to see and the very implacability of referee’s refusal to ask his assistant was more than enough evidence. 

There’s always another morning… France was announced today as top seed for UEFA 2012 European Championship qualifiers, while Ireland is in the third tier of nine nations, with the draw to be made on the 7th of February 2010 in Warsaw. With a bit of change of fortune, the Irish luck might send back Trapattoni to Paris and the French to Lansdowne Road. That wished replay can wait for a potential proper plotted revenge…

Slovenia, whose Nejc Peknic scored late in the first leg game in Moscow, qualified on the same day, the 14th of November, in 2001, for the World Cup staged for the first time ever in Asia. On Wednesday, back in the Alpine country, Matjaz Kek’s men need a 1-0 win to overcome mighty Russia on the way to South Africa. The away goal scored by Pecnik, a young addition to the squad who came on as a substitute in the 83rd minute in Moscow’s Luzhniki, may prove decisive for the aggregate result.

So close but so far. Hiddink’s Russia, a semifinalist at Euro 2008, was cruising towards the African tournament, when Peknic’s thunderbolt reminded us all that Slovenia did it the hard way before. In november 2001, the Slovenians came from 0-1 down in the first home leg, to win 2-1 through Acimovic and Osterc against Romania, and held their line four days later, in the return away leg, where Portsmouth’s Rudonja opened the acount in the 55th minute and the minnows survived: 1-1. Slovenia qualified then for the first time in its short history for the World Cup. A 2 million people nation split in 1991 from former Yugoslavia was gracing the world stage just one decade later.

Not that Slovenia caught people’s imagination in South Korea, in 2002, when Spain, South Africa and Paraguay dispatched them with 3-1, 1-0 and another 3-1, but the tiny nation was there, among the great footballing countries. Slovenia is now 90 minutes away from another surprising appearance and being in such a good position is great credit for a representative which bounced back from a previous poor qualifying campaign. It happened in the group stage prior to Euro 2008 that Slovenia finished sixth, lower even than Albania, against which didn’t scored, with only 9 goals to its credit in 12 games.

It was actually a poor show from a team which qualified for Euro 2000, as a premiere in its history, when got the better of another former Soviet nation, Ukraine, in a play-off fought in terrible conditions and which offered Europe a great duo manager – playmaker. Srecko Katanec navigated through the qualifiers with the talismanic Zlatko Zahovic adding to his overall record of 35 goals in 80 appearances for Slovenia, a record. In play-offs, as it happened two years later against Romania, Slovenia overcame a Shevchenko goal scored in the first half of the home leg in Ljubljana, with strikes of aforementioned Zahovic and Acimovic, to make it 2-1, and equalized four days later in the 78th minute, in Kiew, for a 1-1 draw which sent “The Skiers” to Belgium and Netherlands. Where the same Zahovic equalized in Amsterdam ArenA against Spain, in which was to be Slovenia’s only defeat of the campaign: 1-2. Apart from it, draws with Norway and, more significantly, Yugoslavia, which came from 3-0 down in another game to be remembered for a Zahovic brace…

Kek revived Slovenia and the current qualifiers finished with amazing wins, a 3-0 in september against Beenhakker’s Poland, a team which went through to Euro 2008 from top of its group, and a 2-0 in Slovakia, which scrapped somehow to South Africa. Testament to its progress, tiny Slovenia left the Czechs behind and now is awaiting the Russians.

On another remarkable note, Slovenia boosted in Moscow a young team, with three recruits each from not highly profile German and French clubs, as another proof on this matter the captain, Robert Koren, being a Championship player with West Bromwich Albion. But for all its supposedly lower profile, Slovenia has the great attribute of a tight unit, functional and hard to break down, with only 4 goals conceded in the qualifiers, while the all important away goal came from an evergreen sub trading his skills on the island of Madeira.

In front of 80.000 Russians, “The Skiers” kept themselves in the tie in a formula including its oldest player from a… Russian club with a very Tom and Jerry name: 1. Handanovic (age 25, Udinese), 2. Brecko (25, Koln), 4. Suler (26, Gent), 5. Cesar (27, Grenoble), 8. Koren (29, West Brom), 10. Birsa / 23, Auxerre (77, Stevanovic / 24, Vitesse Arnhem), 11. Novakovic (30, Koln), 13. Jokic (23, Sochaux), 14. Dedic / 25, Bochum (67, Ljubiankic / 25, Gent), 17. Kirm / 25, Wisla Krakow (82, Peknic / 23, Nacional da Madeira), 18. Radosavljevic (30, Tom Tomsk). All of Kek’s recruits, playing in foreign leagues…

If Serbia qualified for FIFA 2010 World Cup ahead of France and Slovenia are for the third time in 10 years in play-offs, another former Yugoslav nation is tasting this stage for the first time ever. Bosnia and Hercegovina , a country with only 4,6 million inhabitants, has done herself proud by ending face to face with Portugal for a World Cup ticket. It’s enough to mention that BIH, the abbreviation for the Balkan nation, came second in a group with Spain and Turkey, leaving the Turks at home after their amazing semifinal appearances at World Cup 2002 and Euro 2008.

It seemed that the Bosnians will find it harder to punch above their lowly status once the remarkable Hasan Salihamidzic, a symbol with an amazing life story in the newly recognized team, has retired from the national squad in 2006, along with Elvir Bolic, the most capped player (55) and Sergej Barbarez, in the wake of the elimination for the World Cup staged in Germany. It was just the third campaign played by the Bosnians in World Cup qualifiers, the same tally being achieved on the European circuit.

Yet Miroslav Blazevic’s takeover at the beggining of this campaign brought a more cultured approach and having in Zvjezdan Misimovic a link with the previous generation, Bosnia and Hercegovina managed to leave Turkey behind, a great performance in itself. Greater footballing nations, with good pedigrees in qualifying campaigns and in final tournaments, are watching from their sofas as BIH is fighting these days its way to the World Cup. Will the miracle happen?

On the evidence of Saturday’s display in Lisbon, where Dzeko and Mislimovic hit the woodwork in the same attack, consumed in the 89th minute, Bosnia and Hercegovina showed that has plenty left in the tank. The trouble is that three players picked bookings and aren’t in Blazevic’s plans for Wednesday return leg. Bruno Alves’ only goal might prove enough and the favourites, without Cristiano Ronaldo, might get through to Africa. Yet surprising 1-0′s happened before…

Which organisers, sponsors and organisations around the World Cup final stage would like though to see a newly born footballing country with a small tribe of followers in place of an European great boosting the most valuable player in the world? Any discussion about the return leg should start from these premises. We live after all in a real world…

The Swiss did it the hard way, in 10 men, after their captain Frederic Veseli, a Manchester City player, was sent off in the second half. Goalie Benjamin Siegrist, an Aston Villa junior, prevented the italians from scoring after the break, while Ben Khalifa (24′) and Buff (62′) netted the all important goals in a 2-1 win.

The Colombians qualified on penalty shoot outs, against Turkey, as did Spain versus Uruguay, in another spirited quarterfinal. Nigeria, host nation and title holder as well, got the better of South Korea, with Ramon Azeez, from Future Pro Academy, opening the account in a 3-1 win.

The Nigerians are displaying youths from 5 different club Academies, of which one is owned by former international Emmanuel Amunike. Nigeria beat Spain in the Korean final, two years ago, and the odds seem to be on the africans. Isco, from Valencia, and Borja, the taller Atletico Mardid forward, scored for the Spaniards in the 3-3 draw with Uruguay, so at least there will be… goals and thrills.