Striker Marc-Antoine Fortune is happy to be back at West Bromwich Albion, but insists that he does not regret trying his luck at Celtic.
The 29-year-old spent the second half of the 2008-09 season on loan at The Hawthorns, before opting to join the Bhoys just over a year ago.
However, Fortune returned south of the border before the transfer window slammed shut at the end of last month and is looking forward to a second chance to impress with the Baggies.
He told the Birmingham Mail:"Was I close to staying? We talked at the time but we couldn't find a solution and there were some Premier League clubs and also Celtic, who came in for me.
"I'm a footballer, I like a challenge and went to Celtic, but I never regretted it.
"Celtic were a big club and I played well up there, though I'm glad to come to West Brom.
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"It's good to be back. I had a good time here, with some good memories."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Srdjan Lakic netted a hat-trick in Kaiserslautern’s 4-1 win over Koblenz in their DFB Pokal round-of-16 affair on Wednesday.Thomas Klasen got Koblenz off to a dream start in the cup tie in front of their home fans at Stadion Oberwerth with a goal on 17 minutes, and they maintained their lead to the main break after Lakic failed to convert from the penalty spot in the 37th minute.
But in the space of 11 second-half minutes, Lakic scored thrice around Adam Nemec’s goal to not only wrench the ascendancy from the hosts, but seal the victory.
It was the Croatian striker’s second hat-trick in the German cup this campaign, in addition to his treble against Arminia Bielefeld in Kaiserslautern’s 3-0 win in October.
Kaiserslautern will face MSV Duisburg in their quarter-final clash later this month.
Nuremberg booked their place in the final eight of the DFB Pokal with a 2-0 triumph over Kickers Offenbach.
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A Timmy Simons brace was all the visitors needed at Stadion am Bieberer Berg to set up a meeting with Schalke 04 in the next round.
Tottenham have put their poor March Premier League form behind them, and recorded a 3-1 win over Swansea at White Hart Lane on Sunday.
The north London side were under pressure to get a result after results of late, but went into the lead early on through a Rafael van der Vaart strike.
Gylfi Sigurdsson levelled things up after the break, before a brace from Emmanuel Adebayor ensured the three points went the way of the home side.
Harry Redknapp praised his team after the victory, especially Gareth Bale, and was pleased with his team’s performance.
“He’s (Bale) just an amazing talent. He’s an amazing player,” the head coach told Sky Sports.
“He’s got the ability to run all day, to beat people, to dribble, to shoot, to head it – he can do everything. He’s a unique player really, he’s a special talent.
“But everybody was on their game today. I thought we defended well. We got good blocks in, the two centre halves. I thought the midfield people all closed down and pressed well.
“Obviously Manny (Adebayor) getting two goals as well was great for him.
“I thought we were fantastic. (In the) first half we did everything that we asked of them; we pressed them, closed them, had all the chances.
“They started well for the first maybe eight, nine, 10 minutes then we really got after them all over the park and broke their game up.
“They’re a good side, they play fantastic football, but I don’t think we ever let them play in that first half. They came back into it and got the goal but then we came back strong again,” he concluded.
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The win takes Spurs equal on points with Arsenal, after the Gunners were beaten 2-1 by QPR on Saturday.
Sir Alex Ferguson wants his Manchester United side to concentrate solely on their Champions League semi-final against Schalke.United hold a 2-0 aggregate lead over the German side heading into the second leg of their semi final on Wednesday, and will no doubt have their crucial Premier League clash against Chelsea in the back of their minds.
And despite calling for focus on their next game, Ferguson recognised how big the next week will prove to be in United’s season with their game against Chelsea following just four days after Wednesday’s match.
“If you look at the experience of last year when we lost in the league it came after a Wednesday game against Bayern,” Ferguson said.
“The team were very tired against Chelsea in that next game. That has to have a bearing on my team selection. Two massive games both as important as the other.”
One concern for Ferguson is the fitness of striker Wayne Rooney, who failed to train on Wednesday.
Rooney is in doubt for Wednesday’s match, but midfielder Darren Fletcher will be available.
“(Rooney) didn’t train this (Tuesday) morning, he’s got a tight hamstring so we’ll see what he’s like (on Wednesday),” Ferguson said.
“Darren will play part in the game – he is involved. He has shown great improvement from his reserve game last week. He has done a lot of good work.”
United are coming off the back of a defeat away to Arsenal that has blown the Premier League title race wide open, and Ferguson recognises the need to get back to winning ways as quickly as possible.
“That’s the great beauty of football; at least you always have the next game to do something, and we’ve only had to wait three days really,” he said.
He also backed his players to respond against the Germans and added: “I think they’ve been through many tests like this and (the one they will face on) Sunday. So I trust that.”
Ferguson also firmly rejected the idea that the tie against Schalke is already settled given their healthy lead.
“I hope Manchester United don’t regard it as a formality, I certainly will not be,” he said. “I think you’ll find they will have a real go.”
Ferguson also used his pre-match press conference to back goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar’s decision to retire at the end of the season, stating the Dutch goalkeeper’s career had reached its ‘absolute pinnacle’.
He said: “All of a sudden age comes on you very suddenly, and I wouldn’t want to see Edwin van der Sar in that situation. He deserves to go out at the very, very top.”
Brazilian champions Fluminense have edged towards qualification for the Copa Libertadores quarter-finals, while holders Internacional drew.Two late goals have guided Rio-based club Fluminense to a 3-1 against Paraguayan Clausura winners Libertad, who will host the Brazilians in the second leg next Wednesday.
Striker Rafael Moura headed the Tricolor into the lead in the fourth minute after connecting with Edinho’s flick-on.
Rodolfo Gamarra responded for the away side in the 61st minute, heading past Ricardo Berna after the Fluminense goalkeeper misjudged his attempt to claim a cross.
Fluminense then moved in front in the 73rd minute through midfielder Marquinho, who fired home a shot from outside the penalty area.
Argentine Dario Conca then doubled his side’s lead two minutes later from a free-kick.
Elsewhere, Copa Libertadores holders Internacional of Brazil recorded a 1-1 stalemate at Uruguayan champions Penarol.
Winger Matias Corujo opened the scoring for five-time winners Penarol in the 36th minute after collecting a pass from Argentine Alejandro Martinuccio.
The Uruguayans were lucky not have had Carlos Valdez sent off after the defender brought down Inter striker Leandro Damiao in the box.
The defender received a booking for his troubles instead of an early shower.
The Brazilians pulled a goal back in the 65th minute through fringe Brazil striker Damiao, whose lobbed effort – with the help of a deflection – sailed past stranded Penarol goalkeeper Sebastian Sosa to hand Internacional a valuable away goal.
Internacional host the reverse leg in Brazil next Wednesday.
Premiership new boys Swansea look set to make an audacious move for Spanish midfielder Marcos Senna, according to The Sun.
The 34-year old is available on a free transfer as his contract with Villarreal expires next month and will not be renewed. The tough-tackling midfielder would be a great addition to Swansea’s side but would have to accept a significant pay cut to move to the Welsh side.
Senna was born in Brazil has represented Spain 28 times and was a key part of the Euro 2008-winning side. However, he was unfortunate to miss out on the triumphant World Cup squad last Summer at the expense of Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets.
Senna first moved to Spain with Villarreal in 2002 and went on to make 228 league appearances. The former club captain also scored 15 times for the club, including a strike from inside the centre circle in 2008.
Senna had been linked with Manchester United in previous summers and Scottish side Rangers look set to also make a move for the veteran midfielder. However, Swansea appear to be in pole position to move for the player as he has stated his desire to play Premiership football before he retires.
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Steve Bruce will be breathing a huge sigh of relief tonight after his Sunderland side came from two goals down to snatch a point against West Brom at the Stadium of Light.
The Black Cats looked shell shocked after James Morrison and Shane Long scored within a minute of each other to give the Baggies a two nil lead with only five minutes on the clock. Chants from supporters requesting Bruce’s dismissal quickly evaporated after Nicklas Bendtner and Ahmed Elmohamady struck to bring the home side level and give both sides a valuable point in an entertaining affair on Wearside. It will have been a satisfying end to a torrid week for the red and whites after defeat to Norwich on Monday and Titus Brambles arrest and subsequent suspension. Both clubs have started the season in dreadful form and it was clear from the off that they were determined to give their fans something to shout about. The travelling Albion supporters were certainly singing after four minutes when Morrison put them into the lead. Some woeful marking from Wes Brown allowed the Scotland midfielder to nip in and nod Chris Brunts free kick past Simon Mignolet.
With the hosts still reeling from the opener Long gave them a huge mountain to climb just a minute later outpacing the lumbering Michael Turner before cooly slotting the ball home. Baggies boss Roy Hodgson would have been delighted by his sides rapid start considering they’ve only managed to score three goals in their six games so far this season. That joy quickly ebbed away and he will have been unhappy that his players failed to build on their early dominance allowing Sunderland to slowly but surely get back into the game. The home side responded well to the two goal sucker punch and the roof was lifted when Nicklas Bendtner struck his first goal in a red and white shirt. The on loan Arsenal hit man was a tad fortunate to see his strike deflect off Gareth McAuley after being teed up by Sebastian Larsson’s back heel. The big Dane then turned provider crossing for Elmohamody to head home his first goal since joining the club at the start of last season.
The action didn’t stop there with Sunderland having keeper Mignolet to thank as he twice denied Morrison with opposite number Ben Foster also having to be alert to keep out Larsson’s effort. The Swedish midfielder also had a good disallowed for offside as the first half ended at a frenetic pace. It was a shame the same intensity wasn’t displayed during the second period with both teams seemingly happy to settle for a point with the only notable chance going to the hosts as Brown’s flicked header bounced narrowly wide.
Get over to Goaldash and check your numbers to see what you might have won!
Everton manager David Moyes was critical of his side's second-half performance after the 1-1 Premier League draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Tim Cahill opened the scoring for the Toffees in the opening period, but Sylvain Ebanks-Blake's effort ensured the points were shared at Goodison Park and it was a result that Moyes was less than happy with.
"First half we were very good, second half not so good," Moyes said.
"Wolves put us under a lot of pressure in the second half, but I think we had a lot more opportunities to score in the second half."
Moyes refused to criticise referee Lee Mason after Adlene Guedioura's crunching tackle on Johnny Heitinga led to Wolves' equaliser.
Guedioura played Kevin Doyle in down the wing, leaving the Irishman to tee up Ebanks-Blake to slot home and Moyes admitted the decision could have gone either way.
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"Some referees give it, some wouldn't," he added. "I don't want to get rid of tackles, I'm happy with tackles in football."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Sepp Blatter is wrong. Hardly a revelatory sentence. In fact I could blindly announce said statement every time the FIFA supremo made a public utterance and be fairly confident (by at least a margin of 90%) that I’d be bang on the money every time. This time however, the former president of the World Society of Friends of Suspenders and current and seemingly everlasting FIFA head honcho has tempered his wrongness with a rightness. All be it a rightness that should’ve been a given 5 long years ago.
Blatter’s announcement that he and his illuminati brethren will “look into” goal line technology, but not consider video replays is kind of like the announcement that President Obama will “look into” human rights, but not even consider the prospect of universal health care. Video replays are exactly what should be being looked into now, goal line technology should’ve been implemented years ago.
In 2005, after the infamous Pedro Mendes winner that never was for Spurs at Old Trafford, FIFA started “looking into” goal line technology seriously, and as a result, the famed “ball and chip” thingy was developed. This monumental step forward was heralded the world over and Blatter himself claimed then that FIFA would trial the device at various junior competitions in 2007. Did they? No of course they didn’t. They did nothing and shelved the idea, as they more than likely will do this time.
Back in March when the IFAB ruled to permanently ditch the idea of technology in football, I registered my disapproval on this site, (which you can read here – https://www.footballfancast.com/football-blogs/fifa-living-fear-irobots) writing; “I’d expect more howls of consternation in the coming months as more errors are made, and I’d dread to think what would happen if anything dodgy were to occur at the World Cup. In fact no, I don’t dread it, I’d welcome it in fact, because it’s quite frankly getting absolutely ludicrous now and maybe only such a high profile and dramatic balls up (or across) would shake the arrogance out of these people”
Whilst it’s never nice to have your words come back and bite you so viciously on the back side, the fact the finality of the decision has now been reversed is somewhat of a comfort (well that, and the fact that England would almost certainly have gone on to lose anyway had Lampard’s goal actually counted.)
But the fact that the man who waged war on pantyhose back in the 70s has transferred this finality to the prospect of video replays has brought said disapproval bubbling back to the surface again. Sepp Blatter is wrong. As always.
Of the 473 bad refereeing decisions at the 2010 World Cup so far, only the one has had anything to do with whether a ball crossed a line or not. What makes this statistic even worse is that of these 473 (a possibly erroneous number) the overwhelming majority of them have occurred a split second before the play was stopped. FIFA has three default arguments it wheels out in a cart marked “archaic” when pestered for the umpteenth time with a plea for technology in football, and the first one is always that it would “break up the natural fluidity of the game.”
I don’t know how many football games Sepp and co watch, but your average football match runs unbroken for about 5 minutes. In fact when you add up all the stoppages in a game of football, you usually arrive at a sum of about half an hour. Not that this means football should be broken up more of course, or that the idea of constant enforced stoppages are at all a good thing to contemplate, but when you’re in a position where the game has already stopped, and the players on the field are actually increasing the length of said stoppage by arguing futilely with the officials, what harm can there possibly be in using said time a tad more productively.
Of the two occurrences on the 27th of June 2010 that forced Blatter to apologize to both the English and Mexican FAs, the English one was clearly the more scandalous. A ball actually crossing a line unseen is a far more unusual and unfair occurrence than your common or garden offside error, of which you’ll see up and down the world of football on a weekly basis. But of the decisions made that day by on the pitch – and pitch side – officials, the one made in the Mexico-Argentina game was unquestionably the most ridiculous.
We can be completely sure that despite it being incredibly obvious to even a blind agoraphobic badger, neither the linesman nor the referee in the England – Germany encounter knew if the ball had actually crossed the line. We cannot however, say the same thing in the other game. Because as the Mexican players encircled the linesman causing – wait for it – a prolonged stoppage in play, the incident was replayed on the in stadium big screen, prompting the lino to question, nay review his decision and consequently inform the referee. Whether he knew his error concretely or not, only he can say, but there was unquestionably doubt cast on the decision, and the reaction of the players, fans and officials in that instant all implied they were at least in some way aware an error had been made. Yet nothing was done. The referee, in full awareness of the contentiousness of such a ruling, ruled anyway, more in fear of his job and the arcane rules of the football illuminati than the principles of right, wrong, and justice.
Imagine, if you will, an extreme comparison. Say a judge was just about to announce a guilty verdict, but at the last minute was approached by the clerk of the court and informed that a video had come to light that exonerated the defendant completely. What if he was then shown this video instantly on an iPad? (Which would be a momentous occasion in itself – a useful application of the iPad.) What would you expect this imaginary judge to do in this instance? That’s right, ignore it completely and send the man down anyway. Of course. Pukka! According to Sepp and co evidentially. While the decision may not have spared the Mexicans the eventual Argentinean goal fest, it was never the less scandalous to award a goal in full, or even partial knowledge of it’s illegitimacy.
Almost every other bad decision you can instantly recall from this World Cup has similarly occurred with such a stoppage forthcoming anyway. Luis Fabiano’s lovely juggling display against the Ivorians. Kaka’s vicious act of standing still into someone’s face that same game. Fernando Torres’ Charlie Chaplain impression against Chile, itself an homage to the sterling earlier work of Daniel De Rossi. All of these have caused the play to stop. Quickly viewing any of these incidents on a pitch side monitor would all have taken no more time, and in most cases likely less, than the ensuing break in play they entailed anyway. If the officials had earpieces it could be done even quicker of course. Sorry what? They already have them you say? Oh right. Lovely.
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The two other default arguments FIFA use are just as pathetic for the record. The game doesn’t need to be equal at all levels, and isn’t as it is anyway. I’ve so far failed to spot the under pitch heating, professional quality grounds staff, officials, floodlighting and footwear on Hackney Marshes. In fact I’ve failed to notice it at many professional lower league games too. Nor have I yet been aware of anyone’s job or livelihood riding on a Monday night kick about on Clapham Common. Maybe Blatter should try and make sure that’s all sorted out before he claims it would disrupt the utopian ideal of football to use tech at the very highest, stake crammed level. But it’d probably be too expensive. That’s another sub-argument proposed against technology too though isn’t it? Damn.
The thin end of the wedge excuse relies on the idea that once it’s in, there’d be no limiting its usage. This of course depends entirely on who is in charge and control of bringing it in and implementing it. Essentially FIFA are saying they don’t trust these people to not go mad. Except that these people would be them. Duh! So if they can’t trust themselves, why on earth should we? I don’t for the record, and I wouldn’t with a rubber spoon, let alone a multi million pound organization.
If, how and when to use video replays is admittedly a much longer discussion than I’ve relayed here. But it is never the less precisely something FIFA should be “looking into” at this juncture. Instead, they’re looking into something that should already be a mainstay by now. Thank god Blatter and co weren’t in charge of football at its beginnings, or we’d still be debating whether nets were a good idea or not.
You can follow Oscar on Twitter here; http://twitter.com/oscarpyejeary, where you can, like, you know…follow him and…stuff.
Sao Paolo and Corinthians continued their battle for supremacy in the Campeonato Paulista table with victories on Sunday.Sao Paolo improved to three straight victories with a 3-0 defeat of visiting Santo Andre, with Dagoberto (9), Lucas (59) and Casimiro (67) all troubling the scorers.Corinthians rebounded from their midweek loss to Ponte Preta to edge Mirassol 3-2, despite going down to 10 men with the loss of Jorge Henrique to a second caution in the 50th minute.Serginho put Mirassol ahead 1-0 with a goal in the 26th minute, but a Willian brace after the break put the visitors in a strong position.Esley looked to have stolen a point for Mirassol when he equalised in the 89th minute, but Bruno Cesar nabbed a thrilling goal late in injury time to deny them.Sao Paolo and Corinthians join Santos on 28 points at the top of the table, separated only by goal difference.Santo Andre remain one point clear of escaping the relegation zone, while Mirassol fall to sixth following back-to-back losses.Elsewhere, Paulista rose to seventh on the table with a 2-0 win at struggling Americana, who have lost four games in a row, following goals to Hernane (65) and Fabio Gomes (74).Oeste recovered from back-to-back losses to defeat visiting Bragatino 2-0, with Jose Fabio (39) and Anselmo Ramon (71) ensuring Oeste’s slide down the table stops at eighth.Finally, Ituano and Portuguesa fought out a goal-less draw at the Estadio Romildo Vitor Gomes Ferreira.