Editor's note: This is Part 1 of a four-part imaginary tournament between 16 of the all-time greatest club teams in soccer history. You can find Part 2 here.
Ruud Gullit has been sacked as coach of struggling Russian Premier League side Terek Grozny, after the Dutch legend lost a match he was ordered to win by the club's president.
Ask anybody who's done it, and they'll tell you that sustaining success is much harder than achieving it in the first place. The great Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann refused ever to spend longer than three years at a club because he felt that after that he could no longer motivate players. It may be that in the modern world of soccer in which money begets money, success is easier to sustain than previously, at least on a domestic level. On a European scale what that means is a cluster of perhaps eight or so super powers constantly battling for the Champions League, which is surely the main reason no side has successfully defended the title since the AC Milan of Arrigo Sacchi in 1990.
The appointment of legendary Dutch midfielder and former Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit as the manager of a team in the once-war-torn Russia republic of Chechnya has left football experts and Caucasus watchers stunned.
Former Manchester United and France international forward Eric Cantona is back in the sport after being named as director of football for the newly-reformed New York Cosmos.
As well as upping weekend revenue for DIY stores everywhere, the international break produced two hat-tricks -- one each for Jermain Defoe (England) and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Netherlands). Variety, technique, a dollop of selfishness, they all go into the mix to score a treble at this level, and competitive international hat tricks are getting harder to come by -- the last three World Cups have produced about a quarter of the total produced by the first three. Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain bagged one this summer with the same cool exterior as his predecessor Gabriel Batistuta, but an international hat trick of tournament-changing magnitude, of tear-jerking quality or just of eyebrow-raising novelty is a rare thing indeed. Here's a list of memorable ones:
Countries hoping to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups formally launched their bids in a series of presentations at FIFA's headquarters in Zurich on Friday.
The failures of foreign coaches litter the annals of Major League Soccer like cigarette butts on the sidewalk outside a bar. Such luminaries as Carlos Alberto Parreira, Bora Milutinovic, Ruud Gullit, Frank Stapleton and Bobby Houghton have all come to America, struggled to find a groove within MLS' arcane rules and gotten out of Dodge as quickly as possible, leaving behind a club in turmoil and a chorus of tsk-tsking pundits.
Would you be offended if your boss got your name wrong? Maybe. Would you want to leave your job? Maybe not.
The man who brought the "Beckham Rule" to Major League Soccer now wants to change it in a dramatic fashion. And if Tim Leiweke gets his way, David Beckham and MLS' other marquee players wouldn't count a dime against the league's salary cap.
Former United States national soccer coach Bruce Arena has been appointed head coach and general manager of the Los Angeles Galaxy. He fills the gaps after last week's resignation of coach Ruud Gullit and the sacking of general manager Alexei Lalas.
There's no other soccer city in the United States quite like Los Angeles.
Dutch legend Ruud Gullit has resigned as coach of struggling MLS side Los Angeles Galaxy for personal reasons, while general manager Alexi Lalas has been sacked by the club.
OAKLAND, Calif. -- The soap opera that is the Los Angeles Galaxy just gets weirder and weirder.
There are more pounds around the middle and less hair up top these days as perhaps the most powerful yet graceful player ever produced in Europe slides toward his 46th birthday, his playing days long past and an oft-aborted coaching career in its fourth phase.
CNN's Phil Black reports on David Beckham's 100-match milestone for England and what may be up next.
Question: When is a fiasco not a fiasco? Well, the answer has to be, "when it's David Beckham." His much-ballyhooed, incredibly hyped arrival in the U.S. to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy managed to take in, simultaneously, both ends of Kipling's equation: both triumph and disaster.
Fabio Capello appears on the brink of being named England's new coach after "extremely positive" talks with Football Association hierarchy in London on Wednesday.
David Beckham is accused of snubbing a group of young cancer survivors in Australia. CNN's Rob Marciano reports.
The Los Angeles Galaxy have confirmed the appointment of former Dutch international Ruud Gullit as their new head coach.
China have sacked Zhu Guanghu as national coach in the wake of last month's Asian Cup debacle and are looking for a foreigner to replace him, local newspapers reported.
Coach Ruud Gullit has blamed Feyenoord's own fans for contributing to the UEFA Cup defeat against Sporting Lisbon
Feyenoord kept their hopes of silverware this season alive with a 3-1 win over nine-man AZ Alkmaar in the fourth round of the Dutch Cup on Wednesday.
Roda JC Kerkrade coach Wiljan Vloet will leave at the end of the season when his current contract expires, the Dutch club have confirmed.
Dutch club Feyenoord beat Germans Schalke 2-1 to make the last 32 of the UEFA Cup and ease the pressure on under-fire boss Ruud Gullit.
Dutch champions Ajax were held to a 1-1 draw by arch-rivals Feyenoord on Sunday, both sides losing further ground on leaders PSV Eindhoven.
Dutch international Dirk Kuijt scored twice as Feyenoord Rotterdam beat Hearts 3-0 in a UEFA Cup Group A encounter.
Feyenoord topped the early pacesetters in the Dutch Premier League after an easy 4-0 away win over Willem II Tilburg.
Feyenoord's Robin van Persie looks set to move to Arsenal after the Rotterdam club admitted they had received an offer from the English side.
Former Dutch star Ruud Gullit is set to take charge of Feyenoord next season, the Rotterdam club have announced.
© 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|