Italian has shown humility and commitment but the country is suffering as players in their prime choose to play abroadD aniele De Rossi came to Buenos Aires to follow a dream. He was 36 and had a fine career behind him. He could have retired. He could have opted for a sinecure in the Middle East or China. He could have gone into coaching or television punditry. But instead, having spent his entire senior career at Roma, he signed for Boca Juniors.Things haven’t gone according to plan, however. A persistent hamstring injury has restricted him to 334 minutes of football since arriving in July. De Rossi was on the bench for Tuesday’s Copa Libertadores semi-final against River Plate but he...
Talk before the Copa Libertadores final was of putting on a new face to the world but River Plate fans’ attack on Boca Juniors changed all thatAt around 6pm on Sunday evening, an hour after the second leg of the Copa Libertadores final had been due to kick off, four hours after the game had, yet again, been postponed, a group of River Plate fans on the Subte [Buenos Aires’ underground trains] started up a slow, melancholic song, talking of attacks and pepper spray. Already the events of Saturday, what the Conmebol president, Alejandro Domínguez, described as “a disgrace”, have passed into legend: the game that wasn’t and, depending on the outcome of a meeting in Asunción, Paraguay on Tuesday,...
This week’s roundup also features a Robbie Fowler dink, a memorable ODI between Australia and England and all of Boca Juniors’ goals from 20171) Farewell Ronaldinho, you were a lot of fun. Here are all his goals for Barcelona, some tricks and flicks, futsal magnificence, keepie-uppies with a crossbar, that goal against Chelsea, trick tackling and oh David! To show he’s human there’s also this.2) En route to winning the Tournament of Champions Dustin Johnson came within inches of a hole in one on a par four after a 430 yard drive. It would have been the longest in a professional tournament but there have been some par-four aces caught on camera: Andrew Magee, Richard Green, Minjee Lee, Rahil Gangjee,...