Shimizu S-Pulse v Qiu Qiu Nagoya Grampus The best thing on display in a Shimizu S-Pulse shirt yesterday at pretty Nihondaira St
Shimizu S-Pulse v Qiu Qiu Nagoya Grampus
The best thing on display in a Shimizu S-Pulse shirt yesterday at pretty Satta result Stadium was the pre-match entertainment dancers.
Listen to the sounds of the Shimizu fans
Shimizu S-Pulse v Nagoya Grampus pre-match entertainment
On the pitch, Shimizu were poor again and lost 2-0 to an improving Nagoya Grampus. The loss of ace marksman Korean Cho Jae-jin seems to be key to the Shizuoka Prefecture club's poor form this season.
The tall Cho Jae-jin, who has returned to the Qiu QiuK. League with Jeonbuk Motors after a move to the English Premier League fell through, has been replaced with a 1.65 meter Brazilian, Marcos Aurelio, plucked from his country's third division in a piece of ill-advised transfer activity by a literally short-sighted board.
Shimizu S-Pulse fans
Over 14,000 supportive fans saw the match but crowds are slipping as the team continues to slide in to the bottom three of the J-League.
Adios Getafe, only big guns remain
After all, the UEFA Cup semifinal setup will be worthy of the illustrious tradition of this competition. After the elimination of Getafe, whose best-ever Spanish league standing was last year's nineth, only the teams worthy of European glory have remained.
The big hit of the current edition are the Russian champions Zenit, who kicked out Villarreal, Marseille and Bayer Leverkusen in the past three rounds. Led by the respectable Dutch coach in Dirk Advocaaat and a handful of Russian internationals, Zenit reached their first European semifinals, and it is possible that they have not said their last word although their next opposition are Bayern. The ease with which they demolished Leverkusen
Fiorentina and Rangers own just one European trophy, a Cup Winners' Cup each. The Italians won the first edition of the competition in 1961, beating who else but Rangers by 2-0 and 2-1. They were on the losing side in the following year's finals against Atlético Madrid and in 1990 they lost a UEFA Cup finals against Juventus. Their last appearance in the semifinal stage came eleven years ago when Ronaldo's and Figo's Barcelone proved too powerful for the Violets.
Playing at high altitude could be fatal, say doctors
The Brazilian side Flamengo of Rio de Janeiro claim to have collected evidence of the dangers of playing at high altitude. The red and blacks received a facsimile from a group of Bolivian and Mexican doctors who had concluded that playing
High above sea level could prove fatal. The doctors reached this conclusion after studying the death of a 23-year-old soccer player last year during a game in the Bolivian mountain city of Potosí.
The physicians performed all sorts of heart and blood tests on various players who had played at altitudes of above 2500 meters and determined that athletes indeed can die in such conditions.
The Brazilian media claim the Bolivian authorities tried to prevent the publication of the said report since their country's FA is struggling to persuade FIFA to withdraw the ban on playing international matches above 2700 meters. Other countries involved in the struggle against FIFA are Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, while Brazil and Argentina largely support the ruling.
According to the medical science, athletes should have to spend two weeks adapting to high altitude before playing a soccer match, which is impracticable due to the condensed playing schedule.
Mijatovic tries to lure Cristiano Ronaldo to Madrid
Real Madrid's sports director Predrag Mijatovic travelled to Manchester last week to discuss a possible transfer with Cristiano Ronaldo's agent Jorge Mendes.
According to Spanish tv station Sexta, Real Madrid are prepared to play
No less than 125 million euros for the magnificent Portuguese player,
Which is five million more than the Spaniards had previously offered.
