Spanish La Liga off to America
Team of Choice will have it tough
MADRID: La Liga’s organising body said yesterday it plans to hold regular-season Spanish top-flight matches in the US.
“La Liga and Relevent, a multinational media, sports and entertainment group, today announced a first-ofa-kind 15-year, equal joint venture to promote soccer in the US and Canada,” they said.
“As part of the agreement, La Liga plans to bring a regular season club match to the US, the first to be played outside of Europe.”
La Liga did not give any details on when the first game across the Atlantic was THE DISCERNING football fan will agree that Jabulani Maluleke is arguably the most consistent player in the Absa Premiership. At 36 and in his 13th year in the elite league, the Polokwane City captain continues to be one of the most brilliant playmakers on the local fields. Were he playing for one of the more glamorous sides, the Soweto-man would be one of the country’s most celebrated players – such is the quality of his game. Though he is slight of built, Maluleke has an incredible engine that sees him perform the role of fetcher, carrier and distributor for Rise and Shine with aplomb. As if that is not enough, he is also their set-piece specialist. Coach Josef Vukusic and the Polokwane faithful will once again look to him for their delight tomorrow when they host neighbours Baroka FC in the Polokwane derby at the Peter Mokaba Stadium. It is a match Polokwane need to win given their poor start to the season that sees them pointless after two outings. A man of high standards, Maluleke is eager to help his team get off the mark. “We’ve really had a bad start and it we’re all disappointed by it,” he said. “We have essentially lost six points at home and that cannot be good for our prospects for the season. But right now it is not time to wallow in the past but to rather lift ourselves up and bring back the club’s pride. We cannot take things as lightly as I felt we did in the first two matches. Those losses were a wake up call and we have to show against Baroka that we mean business.” Easier said than done though, especially with the history of this derby of the Limpopo capital seeming to suggest victory is but a pipedream. In their four league clashes since Baroka’s promotion to the elite league, the two teams have always played out stalemates. Maluleke would love to see that change. “We should have beaten them last season after we took the lead but we lost concentration late and we allowed them to score a free-kick in the last minute. We cannot afford to make those kind of mistakes on Saturday if we want to win. “It won’t be easy against Baroka because they got a point against Chiefs and will be very confident . But we need this win more and I will do my best to ensure we deliver. I need to help the team move up the table and do well this season.” At 36, is he nursing thoughts of retirement. “I still have two years on my contract. I am fully fit, I am enjoying my game and I have full support from my club and my parents and family motivate me, so retirement is not on my mind. All I am thinking of is to help the club do well.” Perhaps that attitude of considering the club’s goals first ahead of individual glory has helped Maluleke stand the test of time. set to take place and did not immediately respond to a request for information.
Real Madrid and Barcelona recently returned from preseason tours in the US. They played against top European sides such as AC Milan, AS Roma, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United in the International Champions Cup, organised by Relevent.
In July 2017, the two sides played each other in a friendly Clasico, selling out Miami’s Hard Rock stadium.
La Liga president Javier Tebas has spoken on many occasions about his desire to again. No doubt he has strung together a list of inspirational quotes, saying the right things at the right time, talking the talk that a weary Bok support base wants and needs to hear. No argument here that he has mostly made the right calls regarding player selection and has expressed a plan of action that looks towards building a foundation that could be beneficial to South African rugby in the future, even beyond next year’s Rugby World Cup.
And yet, there is still doubt that gnaws at the back of my consciousness.
Call me a pessimist, if you so wish, but I think we need much more evidence from him and his Boks before this angst will dissipate into first hopefulness and then confidence.
Luckily, the upcoming Rugby Championship play regular-season games outside Spain and mimic the NFL’s highly successful policy of playing official games in London since 2007.
“We’re devoted to growing the passion for soccer around the world. This groundbreaking agreement is certain to give a major impulse to the popularity of the beautiful game in the US and Canada,” Tebas said.
Earlier this month, the Spanish Super Cup was moved outside the country for the first time, Barcelona beating Sevilla 2-1 in Tangier, Morocco. – Reuters could go a long way in alleviating those fears and getting the smidgen of doubters that remain on board the Erasmus movement.
The Springboks’ recent record in the tournament has been nothing short of atrocious, and that is perhaps a kindness, one which cannot be afforded to Erasmus and Co, simply because the South African rugby public are tired of abject performances and losing more than winning.
Since the last World Cup in 2015, the Boks – then under Allister Coetzee, played 12 matches, winning only four. Last year they failed to beat an equally struggling Australia (the Boks drew both their games against the Wallabies) only overcoming a poor Argentina home and away. Their away match to the All Black was an utter disaster, a 57-0 thrashing, while their home THERE IS always an air of excitement when Baroka FC captain Letladi Madubanya talks about the beautiful game, as was the case ahead of the start of the Absa Premiership Polokwane Derby press conference yesterday afternoon.
For someone who has been in the game for so long, enjoyed trophy success and featured alongside some great players in the Absa Premiership, you would think there would be not much motivation to speak football all the time. Far from it. The tough-tackling, defensive midfielder from Alexandra township simply loves engaging on the sport.
“I may have seen it all in the game but one always learns something new from conversations around the game, especially nowadays as I also have the role of playing teacher to the younger ones at Baroka,” he says.
“I have no choice but to contribute in a different way now such as guiding our youngsters on how to improve their performances and also offer advice off the field, as they see me as their elder to call on ahead of making big decisions in their personal lives as well”.
The 34-year-old is indeed a player with a huge influence on the team having had the experience of winning the league title twice with SuperSport United nearly a decade ago, featuring for midtable teams and also playing a key role in saving Baroka from relegation in 2017.
As Baroka take on city rivals Polokwane City in the Woza Nazo Polokwane Derby tomorrow, he will be carrying the hopes of the entire village of Ga-Mphahlele to maintain Baroka’s unbeaten run against the hosts.
Polokwane are yet to taste victory against Baroka after five matches between the two teams since the 2015/16 season.
“I remember such derbies when I featured in the Tshwane Derby, they were intense. Both teams played to win from the outset. There’s no time to be cautious as you have to get the result to allow you to have bragging rights for at least a season in the city and tomorrow will be no different.” MARITZBURG United are desperate to break their hoodoo against Kaizer Chiefs and earn that elusive first victory in the new season. The Team of Choice and Amakhosi will meet tonight at 8pm in what promises to be a fascinating Absa Premiership clash at Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg.
Maritzburg are winless after having played three matches in all the competitions.
Not only are they searching for their first win in the new season but they are also gunning for their first victory against Amakhosi in three years.
Chiefs have dominated Maritzburg in the past seven matches. Last season they completed the double over the Team of Choice. They have beaten them six times in a row since 2015. The last time that the Midlands side got the better of Chiefs was back in 2015. Since that encounter, their best results against Chiefs was a 1-1 stalemate the same year.
Home side defender encounter against the world champions was a spirited 25-24 loss – hailed back then as the turning point in Coetzee’s reign.
It wasn’t, unless that turning point could be defined as a downward slope ending in a deadly precipice. This season has seen a similar buildup to the Championship as under Coetzee in 2016 and last year – if we ignore the once off Test loss against Wales earlier this year. Otherwise, like Erasmus, who beat England in his opening series, the former Bok coach also had Inbound Test Series victories against Ireland (2016) and France (2017).
Unlike Erasmus, Coetzee did not enjoy the backing and support that the current Bok mentor now enjoys, despite a similar trajectory.
This is what has me perhaps so uneasy Rushine De Reuck has vowed to help his team beat Chiefs and get that monkey off their back: “We are positive. We are well aware we haven’t won against Chiefs in a while but we are not panicking. We will give our all. We know that it is not going to be easy. Chiefs is one of the biggest teams in Africa. They have good quality players but we are up for the challenge. We want to kick-start our season by getting our first win. Our aim is to reward our supporters with what they deserve which is a positive result,” De Reuck said yesterday. and perplexed – the dichotomy between the level of favour both men have received despite their interchangeable results in their first few months in charge. To put it bluntly, we’ve been here before, we’ve experienced the same joy and relief of victory only for that feeling of goodwill to devolve into feelings of despair and hopelessness.
Admittedly, Erasmus deserves his chance and our support in the coming months but it must be weighted with tangible success on the field – irrespective of the brave and meaningful talk off of it. A good start, and an objective that would begin to put these fears to rest, is to at least win all our home games – whether handsomely or by the tiniest of margins. That means beating Argentina tomorrow in Durban and then Australia in PE at the end of the month, followed by another victory a week later against New Zealand at Loftus. At least if that happens, one can argue there has been progression, a facet absent during Coetzee’s tenure. Perhaps then, we can all get on-board with Erasmus.
United have struggled to keep clean sheets in their first three matches so far this season. They conceded two goals each against Lamontville Golden Arrows and Free State Stars in their opening league fixtures. De Reuck and his teammates also failed to keep Cape Town City at bay this past weekend as they lost 1-0 in the MTN8 quarter-finals.
“Teams have been catching us on the counter-attack because we have been going all out in our matches. We need to be cautious against Chiefs. We will strive to get a clean sheet and use our chances on the opposite end,” he added.
Chiefs have scored in all of their matches this season. They netted one when they shared the spoils against Mamelodi Sundowns. Leonard Castro scored the consolation goal in the humbling 3-1 defeat at the hands of Bidvest Wits.
Siphiwe Tshabalala then secured the point against Baroka on Tuesday at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. Against Free State Stars in a cup, Chiefs found the back of the net on three occasions.