Ramsey injury was horrific but should not be used to outlaw tackling
March 3, 2010
Anybody who saw the pictures of Aaron Ramsey’s shattered shin will have winced in disgust but the hysterical reaction to Ryan Shawcross’s tackle that caused it has been based on emotion rather than cold analysis.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger muttered dark thoughts about how it was “no coincidence” that Ramsey, Eduardo and Abou Diaby had all suffered terrible injuries as teams tried to kick Arsenal off the pitch.
Shawcross was sent off for the tackle and, judging by his distraught face as his left the pitch, it was probably the best decision all round.
But though the consequences were appalling, all the more so for the victim being only 19, the tackle itself did not look too bad.
Modern TV enables us to view, in super slow motion, some of the studs-up impacts that leave shins, knees and ankles bending to near-breaking point.
Shawcross’s did not look like that and initially few would have even begun to guess what damage would result.
Analysts have been quick to jump on the tackle, suggesting that it, and the injuries caused, prevail only in the hurly-burly of the Premier League, where high-speed collisions are part of the game.
Suggestions that such tackles, and by association, such injuries, do not occur in other leagues are just wrong – as anyone who has watched some of the fruitier South American contests would readily concur.
It’s true that what is considered normal in the Premier League, or British football in general, would be frowned upon in many continental leagues but that doesn’t make it wrong.
Sepp Blatter’s campaign to rid the game of tackling is something that should be opposed on every level.
The heart of football remains the contest between one player trying to do something with the ball and another trying to stop him.
The balance is gradually shifting in favour of the creator but it’s much easier to deliver a delicate turn and lay-off or a mazy dribble against players who are only allowed to run alongside you than when they are kicking lumps out of you.
George Best, Diego Maradona and Pele all regularly endured appalling treatment from players who would have been sent off five times over in the modern game.
The days of defenders getting away with smashing through the Achilles and knees of ball players are generally gone, and rightly so, but a full-blooded contest for the ball must remain part of the game.
Sometimes it will lead to injuries, sometimes because of foul play and sometimes not.
Ramsey’s leg break was horrific but unlucky. That risk has always been part of football and must remain so.
PHOTO: Stoke City’s Shawcross and Faye challenge Arsenal’s Ramsey during their English Premier League soccer match in Stoke. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis.
Tags: abou, abou diaby, ankles, breaking point, british football, coincidence, dark thoughts, disgust, dribble, Faye, game suggestions, George Best, hurly, hysterical reaction, lumps, modern tv, premier league, ramsey, Ryan Shawcrossâ, Sepp Blatterâ, shins, slow motion, South American, speed collisions, tacklesRelated posts
´Looking for Eric´: the return of Cantona as actor
May 17, 2009
MANCHESTER, England (AFP) – Temperamental but lavishly talented French footballer Eric Cantona — about to play film-star at Cannes — is still worshipped in this part of northwest England 12 years after leaving Manchester United to retire abruptly at 31.
So strong is his abiding love for Manchester that Cantona has formed an unlikely alliance with gritty British director Ken Loach, putting himself and the city at the heart of Cannes film festival contender “Looking for Eric”, which screens there Monday.
Cantona, who has acted in a handful of films, plays himself, appearing like a vision to help a Manchester postman, also named Eric, a devoted United fan whose life is spinning out of control.
“I like the way it’s so real, like documentary. And I like how you don’t know if you have to laugh or cry,” Cantona told the Guardian newspaper this month.
While film critics have been lukewarm about Cantona’s acting career so far, in Manchester at least the mention of his name is still enough to stir emotion in United fans.
Twelve years after his sudden departure, red, white and blue French Tricolores still fly in the roads leading to United’s imposing Old Trafford stadium.
In fish and chip shops, Cantona’s photograph hangs alongside yellowing pictures of the club’s legendary players like George Best and Bobby Charlton.
T-shirts proclaim 1966 as a “great year for English football” — not because it was when England won their first and still their only World Cup, but because it was the year “Eric was born”.
“We still sell this T-shirt and we still sell the flags,” said souvenir seller Craig Ashton.
Cantona, with his trademark turned-up collar on his jersey and his willingness to defy referees and football’s London-based authorities, was different.
“He brought his arrogance to the game,” Ashton said.
Characteristically, Cantona moved to England after falling out with French football authorities.
He made his mark with Leeds United, another club in northern England, helping them to win the then First Division before a 1.2 million pound move to Manchester United in November 1992.
In his first season, United won their first league championship for 26 years as they triumphed in the inaugural Premier League.
The Frenchman helped them retain their title in 1994 but missed a chunk of the 1994-1995 season after infamously leaping in to the crowd during a match at London club Crystal Palace and launching a ‘kung fu’ kick at an abusive fan.
But rather than alienating his fans, Cantona’s moment of madness in 1995 endeared him to them — even after he was handed a lengthy suspension.
“We loved him even more,” recalls Steven Rose, who sells the “United We Stand” fanzine.
In his comeback game, Cantona scored a penalty and United’s fans broke into a chorus of: “We’ll drink a drink a drink/ to Eric the King the King the King.
“What a friend we have in Jesus/He’s a saviour from afar/What a friend we have in Jesus/And his name is Cantona/Ooh Aah Cantona”.
When Cantona chose to walk away at his peak in 1997, he won fresh respect by depriving any other club of his services.
“Even in the last days, he decided to retire. He just decided that was it. He walked away from the game. You have to admire him for that,” said Ashton.
Or, as Ivan Ponting, the author of a handful of books on Manchester United, put it, Cantona was “an uncontrollable free spirit, a capricious bird of passage who would never linger.”
Tags: acting career, bobby charlton, british director, cannes, cannes film festival, charlton, Craig Ashton, crystal palace, english football, English Premier League, Eric, eric cantona, film critics, fish and chip shops, footballer, french football, George Best, guardian newspaper, Ivan Ponting, Jesus, Ken Loach, LEEDS, leeds united, legendary players, london, Manchester, manchester england, manchester united, northern england, northwest england, old trafford stadium, postman, Steven Rose, sudden departure, worshippedRelated posts
Gerrard wins player of year award
May 13, 2009
LONDON (AFP) – Steven Gerrard’s leadership of Liverpool’s most sustained title challenge in years has won him the Football Writers’ Association (FWA)’s player of the year award for the first time.
The Reds captain saw off challenges from Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand to secure top spot in a poll of FWA members.
The 28-year-old has spent most of this season playing as a second striker, forging an exhilarating partnership with Fernando Torres. He has scored 23 goals in all competitions and become the club’s record scorer in European competition.
“We are delighted to honour Steven’s contribution this season with our prestigious award,” said FWA chairman Steve Bates.
“Steven has had a fantastic season and has so often been the driving force behind Liverpool’s forceful challenge for the Premier League title.
“Steven is viewed by the football writers who voted as the heartbeat of Liverpool’s team and a player who gives everything for the cause.”
Gerrard, who will receive his award at a dinner in London on May 29, succeeds Cristiano Ronaldo, who was honoured by the FWA in both 2007 and 2008.
The accolade means Gerrard joins a list of illustrious past winners that includes Sir Stanley Matthews, the first winner of the award in 1948, Sir Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore, George Best, Jurgen Klinsmann, Eric Cantona and Thierry Henry.
Liverpool’s talisman also joins an even more exclusive club of players to have won both the writers’ award and the Professional Footballers Association (PFA)’s player of the year award, which he collected in 2005-06.
This year’s player’s award was won by Giggs, who was recognised for his achievements over a long and exemplary career as much as his performances this season.
Tags: Bobby, bobby moore, charlton, English Premier League, eric cantona, Fernando Torres, football writers association, fwa, George Best, jurgen klinsmann, Liverpool, london, Manchester, nemanja vidic, prestigious award, professional footballers association, rio ferdinand, ronaldo, ryan giggs, Sir Bobby, sir bobby charlton, sir stanley matthews, steve bates, Steven, Steven Gerrard, thierry henry, title challenge, wayne rooney, writers awardRelated posts
Soul of soccer survives in Florida
April 22, 2009
One of the most appealing aspects of football is that, unlike with most sports, you can find the passion of the game in almost every corner of the world, often hidden away in the most unlikely places.
What separates football from, say Formula One or tennis, is that even at the lower levels of the game you can still get the buzz of being a fan even without the top stars or the fully-serviced facilities.
On Saturday, after a long wait, I got my fix again watching Miami FC.
Before I began reporting on games for Reuters, I had spent most of my life watching lower level football as part of small but committed crowds in my native England and later in Hungary.
Having never been a regular visitor to Old Trafford or Anfield, I never missed the absence of a big crowd, wasn’t put off by the shambles of organisation, the crumbling stadiums in Eastern Europe, the lack of mass media interest or the knowledge that the players I was watching weren’t a patch on those who turn out in the Champions League.
Living in Florida for the past two years, I’ve had no choice but to watch games on television and take my live fix from other sports –- mostly NFL at Dolphin Stadium. I like the domestic Major League Soccer and think it is a better league than many give it credit for, but, while it was encouraging to watch 35,000 turn out for Seattle Sounders’ first game in the league against New York Red Bulls last month, I was a passive observer in my living room.
As I wrote here last month, South Florida football fans had hoped that the ambitious plan of a Bolivian businessman and Spanish club Barcelona to launch a Major League Soccer team in Miami would come to fruition. In the end it come to nothing, leaving fans frustrated that a city that has such soccer potential remained without a top flight professional team. If anything the failed bid did more harm than good to the reputation of US soccer in this heavily Latin American populated area –- just more ‘hype’ that proved to be without real foundation.
I ended that post by noting that the region actually had a professional team, Miami FC, who play in the United Soccer Leagues Division One, the tier below MLS, and expressed the hope that fans would now rally behind that team, whose owners had threatened to pull the plug on the venture. On Saturday, Miami opened their USL1 campaign against the Cleveland City Stars and –- as I had promised myself — I went along.
As part of the attempt to kick some life into a team that has utterly failed to capture the imagination of all but the most hardcore soccer fans in Miami, the club’s owners chose to play at Lockhart Stadium in the adjacent city of Fort Lauderdale, nearly an hour’s drive from downtown Miami but a venue with strong significance and historical resonance for the area’s fans.
Lockhart is often called the first soccer specific stadium in the United States. In the days of the New York Cosmos and the heady but short-lived era of the North American Soccer League (NASL) most teams played in venues designed for gridiron American football or college athletics venues, but the Fort Lauderdale Strikers played in the compact Lockhart that feels like a proper football ground.
When Gordon Banks, the great English goalkeeper, was talking to American clubs about a move Stateside, he reportedly had offers from the Cosmos and other teams with big budgets but chose the Strikers because, according to fans, Lockhart “felt like home” to him.
Before kick-off on Saturday, hats were doffed to some of the favourites from Lockhart’s past who came on to the field before kick off.
We saw former Newcastle United player Ray Hudson, a fixture with the Strikers, later manager of the short-lived Miami Fusion MLS team that played in Lauderdale and currently commentator on Gol Tv, Teofilo Cubillas, the great Peruvian performer in the 1978 World Cup (no football loving Scotsman will ever forget his name) who near the end of his career played for a variety of ill-fated soccer clubs in South Florida and Colombian Diego Serna, the last and arguably only hero of the Fusion now back as a 35-year-old, making his debut for Miami FC.
Fort Lauderdale fans, known as ‘Striker Likers’ back in the day, were treated to plenty of top quality footballers over the years. As well as Banks and Cubillas, the Irishman George Best escaped the scrutiny of Manchester to enjoy the latter days of his career in the sunshine, and the magnificent German World Cup winner Gerd Mueller and the classy Polish midfielder Kazimierz Deyna also played for the Strikers.
The names on opposing teams were even more impressive. The Cosmos had Pele and Franz Beckenbauer; while Johann Cruyff was with the Los Angeles Aztecs and the Washington Diplomats. Consider those names for a moment when people snigger about the NASL. The club averaged crowds over 14,000 in 1980 which was pretty close to full and there was a Florida derby against the Tampa Bay Rowdies featuring the always-entertaining Rodney Marsh.
After the collapse of the NASL, Lockhart was home to the Miami Fusion with Colombian Carlos Valderrama the star attraction — before MLS’s decision to temporarily reduce the size of the league at the end of the 2001 season, cutting Miami and Tampa. Hudson’s Fusion were averaging a healthy average of over 11,000 –- not bad at all at the stage of the league’s development but still not enough to save them from the central committee’s ruling from above.
Miami FC have never got close to those sort of crowds. Playing their first three seasons in Miami itself, it was only the time when Brazilian Romario turned out for the club that brought in decent attendances. Last year a few hundred watched most games.
With the club’s future brought into doubt and with little promotion of the move to Fort Lauderdale, there was a worry that my Saturday night would be spent with a few football obsessives sat among the relatives of no-name players in an almost empty stadium.
My pessimism was misplaced.
For a start, I had to look for a parking place and there were queues to enter the stadium. The smell of fresh-grilled kebabs and arepas wafted into the North Stand. Having found a couple of friends in the crowd, we sat close by to the ‘Miami Ultras’, who were banging out rhythms on drums, waving flags and cheering on the Blues. There were around 2,000 of us in the only stand that was opened –- we stared out at empty seats but as one friend pointed out, it somehow felt like being in a crowd five times that size.
Serna was outstanding. In the seven years since the Fusion folded, he has wandered around the MLS and Central America, failing to make an impact at club after club but now he was back home and it showed.
The crowd cheered him from the outset and clearly bursting with emotion he belied his age by darting across the frontline, a constant threat, with a light touch, an intelligent eye and as he showed when he put Miami 2-1 up, a natural goalscorer’s finish. Every team needs a crowd favourite and it took just 45 minutes to confirm that whatever else they lack, Miami have a talisman.
The half-time sausage sandwich was of the Colombian spicy variety rather than the bland hotdog type found at the baseball or NFL stadium. The crowd was a remarkable mix –- young Latinos getting a taste of the kind of atmosphere their fathers from Argentina, Colombia or Brazil had told them about; older Lauderdale residents who had been at Lockhart when Best and Mueller produced their magic and there was a good smattering of Fusion shirts on display and a few expat Englishmen reliving the football experience they left behind when they moved to Florida.
It was noisy and fun. It was a proper football crowd and much as I enjoy the NFL and NBA experience I didn’t miss the loud musical interludes, the cheerleaders or the constant time-outs.
Miami won 3-1 and the players, looking somewhat startled by the response of the crowd, took a bow in front of the North Stand. It really didn’t matter that the other three stands were empty, or that the crowd was the lowest in the USL1 that weekend -– a few weeks ago, with Miami’s future in doubt, none of these players had contracts, now they were professional footballers and they were being applauded, their efforts appreciated.
The next Miami match will be played at the FIU college stadium in Miami, as the club is rotating fixtures to see if it can find fans in both cities, but I have a feeling that the heartbeat of South Florida football was found on Saturday at Lockhart. The history is there and on Saturday, Serna, like a ghost of that soccer past, brought it back to life.
That American soccer history, which seems of strangely little interest to the modern-day MLS’s marketing men, lives on in plenty of places in the States.
Next year, the Tampa Bay Rowdies will be reborn as a USL team, raising the prospect of the return of the Florida derby. You can bet every effort will be made to get Rodney Marsh on the pitch for the first kick-off.
The Seattle Sounders, another great name from the NASL days, are in MLS this year, officially an ‘expansion team’, in reality a rebirth of a club that had never lost its place in the affections of fans in the Pacific Northwest.
For all the obvious weaknesses of the NASL project, which ended with the collapse of the league, the glory years showed there is a place for soccer in the U.S. -– just as some of the better MLS teams prove that while the sport may never capture the same mass audience as the NFL or baseball, a healthy niche market exists.
One night at Lockhart Stadium was enough to show that even in South Florida, snubbed by MLS and ultimately let-down by Barcelona, passion for football has survived and there is the potential to become something much bigger.
Maybe Miami FC will follow the Strikers, the Fusion, The Toros, The Sharks, The Freedom and The Sun as yet another ultimately failed football venture in this region. Or perhaps USL will become an increasingly significant alternative to MLS in the large swathes of the country where there is no top-flight franchise present, helping produce greater interest in the Miami team. Then again, perhaps an MLS franchise will after all be created sometime in the future, despite league commissioner Don Garber’s view that South Florida is “a soccer market but not yet an MLS market”.
But an uncertain future, the acknowledgement that as a supporter you run the risk of great disappointment, of years of frustration but at the same time have the chance of being part of a wonderful journey, is the fate of being a football fan away from the highest level, anywhere.
Even in the fragile world of American soccer.
Go to Source
Tags: ambitious plan, Carlos Valderrama, Central America, CITY, club barcelona, dolphin stadium, first game, Florida, florida football, football fans, Fort, Fort Lauderdale, foun, franz beckenbauer, George Best, gerd mueller, Gordon Banks, Hudson, Johann Cruyff, Kazimierz Deyna, levels of the game, living in florida, Lockhart Stadium, Major League Soccer, media interest, Miami, MLS, native england, New York, new york red bulls, North Stand, old trafford, passive observer, professional team, Rodney Marsh, soccer team, spanish club, Tampa, Teofilo Cubillas, top stars, WashingtonRelated posts
Would a unified Britain have won more than one World Cup?
February 11, 2009
Resistance to plans for a unified British soccer team for the 2012 London Olympics means the idea may well be a one-off, if it gets off the ground at all.
The four home nations are wary of setting precedents that could harm their independent status, despite their lack of success as separate entities.
Indeed, all they would have to show in a collective trophy cabinet would be England’s 1966 triumph, which makes me wonder if they might have been better putting national pride aside all along and pooling their resources, as they do in most other sports.
Would a unified team have won more than one paltry World Cup?
As far as recent times are concerned, I think the simple answer has got to be no.
Wales and Scotland have produced some excellent players over the last 40 years, such as Ryan Giggs, Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish. But added to the core of English players I’m assuming would usually form the bulk of a unified side, I don’t think they would have transformed English also-rans into British world beaters.
Dig a bit further into the past though and some interesting scenarios emerge.
Northern Ireland’s George Best is widely regarded as the greatest footballer never to have played at a World Cup. At Mexico in 1970 he would have been part of a British team based on England’s victorious 1966 squad.
Would Best’s presence have prevented the 3-2 defeat England suffered against Germany in the quarter-finals after they blew a two-goal lead?
If so, would the Manchester United combination of Best and Bobby Charlton have outgunned Italy’s Gigi Riva and Gianni Rivera in the semis? And if they had beaten the Azzurri, would they have been a match for the great Brazil side of Pele, Jairzinho and Carlos Alberto in the final?
That’s a lot of ifs for one man but, then again, Best in his prime was exceptional.
A unified side would also have been quite something in the 1950s. In that decade it would have been possible to field England’s Tom Finney, Nat Lofthouse, Billy Wright and Stanley Matthews with the likes of Wales and Juventus forward John Charles and Tottenham Hotspurs’ Northern Ireland wing back Danny Blanchflower.
The 1958 World Cup in Sweden could have been their moment for glory. Matthews had stopped playing international football by that time, but a young Charlton was ready to step in.
1958 is the only World Cup all four home nations qualified for. While England and Scotland got no further than the group stage, Northern Ireland and Wales both reached the quarters, with Wales edged out 1-0 by eventual winners Brazil thanks to a second-half Pele goal.
Personally I don’t think it’s outrageous to suggest that Britain’s combined forces could have made the teenage Pele wait for his first world title. What do you think?
PHOTO: A photograph shows the order of service for George Best’s funeral at the Stormont parliamentary building, Belfast, Dec 3, 2005. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton/Pool
Go to Source
Tags: 2012 london olympics, Billy Wright, bobby charlton, brazil, Britain, british soccer, carlos alberto, Charles, charlton, Danny, England, footballer, George Best, Germany, Gianni Rivera, gigi riva, Ian Rush, independent status, Italy, jairzinho, John, juventus, kenny dalglish, london, Manchester, Mexico, nat lofthouse, national pride, Northern Ireland, quarter finals, rsquo, ryan giggs, scotland, simple answer, soccer team, tom finney, tottenham, trophy cabinet, World CupRelated posts
Ronaldo takes World Player award, Messi waits for next year
January 12, 2009
Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo was named FIFA World Player of the Year on Monday night, adding the award to the Ballon d’Or he picked up from France Football and the FIFPro World Player of the Year title voted for by his fellow professionals.
It was an inevitable choice after the season he had for United in 2007-08 but I’m pretty confident that next year the award will be going to the man who finished second this time. Lionel Messi is playing ridiculously well at the moment, just streets ahead of anyone else in Spain, and I don’t think too many people would disagree that on current form he is the world’s best player.
On the basis of what the two achieved in 2008, though, Ronaldo deserves the award, I think. Here’s how we described him:
The Portuguese winger is blessed with strength, pace, aerial ability and savage shooting power and he invariably delivers when it matters most — his magnificent header in last season’s Champions League final a prime example.
He arrived at Manchester United just as David Beckham was leaving but he was no straight replacement. While Beckham was all precision passing and energy, Ronaldo has more tricks up his sleeve than a circus magician.
His initial tendency to over-indulge his exhibitionist personality with endless stepovers has gradually receded over the years at Old Trafford and last season he turned into a ruthless scoring machine.
An extraordinary tally of 42 goals propelled United to the Champions League and Premier League double and earned him a place in United folklore alongside George Best.
Fair enough, I’d say.
PHOTO: Cristiano Ronaldo holds the FIFA World Player 2008 award in Zurich, Jan 12, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
Go to Source
Tags: ballon, best player, champions league final, Christian HartmannGo, cristiano ronaldo, David Beckham, fellow professionals, FIFA, fifpro world player of the year, folklore, France, france football, George Best, lionel messi, magician, Manchester, manchester united, old trafford, premier league, prime example, reuters, ronaldo, rsquo, Spain, winger, world player of the year, ZURICHRelated posts
Widow of Ace Ntsoelengoe looks to use his legacy to help disadvantaged children
January 8, 2009
Before the ceremony, she vowed to remain strong, but gradually tears began to well in Thato Ntsoelengoe’s eyes. Accepting South Africa’s highest award for sport and culture on behalf of her late husband who was known simply as "Ace" was overwhelming.
North American Soccer League and African football hero Patrick ‘Ace’ Ntsoelengoe, who died of a heart attack in 2006, was being honored with the “Order of Ikhamanga” during a ceremony in Johannesburg.
His wife Thato Ntsoelengoe, who is working to establish a charity in her late husband’s name to benefit disadvantaged children, said the tears really began to flow during the October 28 presentation when she was called to accept the award from South African president Kgalema Motlanthe.
"I went to the stage waving to the crowd and bubbly, but after the president gave me the award, I cried tears of joy when the audience started chanting ‘Ace’," said Thato Ntsoelengoe. "What came to my mind then was his smile and the wave he did after he received an award or trophy."
Thato attended the ceremony with her daughters Ofentse, 14, and Boipelo, 7.
"The ceremony was wonderful and very touching, and it was incredible to see the newly elected president as well as more than half of the cabinet members and deputy ministers [of Parliament] in attendance,” she said. “ I felt honored accepting the award on his behalf and being in the company of individual of this caliber. My kids were over the moon with excitement."
Ace Ntsoelengoe was a two time NASL All-Star and was busy coaching the youth team of his former South African club the Kaizer Chiefs when he was found dead in his car shortly after training on May 8, 2006, He was 54.
Thato is working to establish the Patrick Ace Ntsoelengoe Foundation (PANF) to help disadvantaged children in her homeland and is urging anyone interested to help as her nation gears up for the 2010 World Cup.
"I think the award will give more exposure to the PANF and I would like to encourage everyone to join us as the objectives and the mission of the foundation can be achieved," Thato Ntsoelengoe said.
Ace Ntsoelengoe, a gifted midfielder with blazing speed and ball skills, played 11 seasons in the NASL with the Toronto Blizzard, Minnesota Kicks and Miami Toros.
He approached legendary status and had it not been for the apartheid government that ruled his homeland during most of his career, many believe he would have become a major player in one of Europe’s top leagues.
"If he [Ace] had been born 20 years later he would have enjoyed the same status as Ronaldinho," said Eddie Lewis, a former coach at Kaizer Chiefs.
He was the No. 1 hero of the Toronto Blizzard faithful.
"When they introduced the starting lineups for the Blizzard at Old Exhibition Stadium or Varsity Stadium in Toronto, it wasn’t our famous high priced Italian striker Roberto Bettega who got the biggest cheers from the crowd; it was always Ace," recalled former Blizzard and New York Cosmos president Clive Toye.
Others like Alan Merrick, now a coach at the University of Minnesota, was Ntsoelengoe’s roommate during their time in Minnesota and Toronto, and placed him on the same level as NASL legends George Best and Pele.
"He had just unbelievable vision and finesse on the ball," said Merrick, who grew up in England and began his career with West Bromwich Albion before moving to the NASL. "He was also a gentle person in his demeanor but just had this amazing gentle touch on the ball, and was able to manipulate opponents with head fakes and shoulder fakes which would send entire defenses the wrong way. He just had such rhythm and grace in his motion. He was truly unforgettable."
This was the fifth award Ntsoelengoe has been honored with since his death. He has been inducted into the South African Sports Hall of Fame, received a government sports award, Life Time Achievement Award and was named in a list of the African Football Confederation top players of the 1970s and 1980s.
In 2003 Ntsoelengoe was inducted into the United States National Soccer Hall of Fame.
By Peter Mallett
For more information about the PANF contact Thato Ntsoelengoe at thatonts@iburst.co.za
Tags: Accepting, Ace, african football, Alan Merrick, american soccer, attendance, Blizzard, cabinet members, Clive Toye, CONCACAF Champions' Cup, deputy ministers, disadvantaged children, Eddie Lewis, excitement, Exhibition Stadium, football hero, gears, George Best, heart attack, johannesburg, kaizer chiefs, Kicks, Merrick, Miami, ministers of parliament, Minnesota, New York, North American, north american soccer league, patrick ace ntsoelengoe, Peter Mallett, Roberto Bettega, South Africa, south african president, tears of joy, Toronto, West Bromwich, Wife, World CupRelated posts
Calendar
Related Sites
- AFP
- e-soccertips
- Free Themes All - Blogger, Wordpress, Joomla themes
- Soccer Results
- soccerway
- WAGS
- WAGS Blog
Categories
- 1 League
- A PFG
- A-League
- African
- Argentina
- Belgium
- Brasil
- Bundesliga
- CAF Champions League
- Club Friendlies
- CONCACAF Champions' Cup
- Cup
- English Championship
- English Premier League
- Eredivisie
- European Championships
- FA Cup
- FIFA
- Franch
- Germany
- Italy
- Japan
- Jupiler League
- LA Liga
- LigaBwin
- Ligue 1
- MLS
- netherlands
- Olympics
- Olympics Women
- Photo
- portugal
- premier league
- Primera Division
- Rusia Premier League
- scotland
- Scottish Premier League
- Serie A
- Super Copa
- Super League
- Sweden
- Turkcell Süper Lig
- UEFA Champions League
- UEFA Cup
- Umaglesi Liga
- Uncategorized
- United States
- Video
- Vietnam
- Wag Watch
- WAGS
- WC Qualifying Asia
- WC Qualifying Concacaf
- WC Qualifying Europe
- WC Qualifying South-Africa
- WC Qualifying South-America
- World Cup
