Fernando Torres "El Nino" – The Perfect Striker?
Fernando Torres has become one of the most respected of the foreign players earning their living in the English Premier League. Ever since his transfer from Atletico de Madrid in the summer of 2007, El Nino, as he was dubbed early on his career, has impressed English football fans not only with his goalscoring abilities, but by his total attitude towards life in his adopted liverpool.
It couldn’t have been easy for Torres when he joined the Merseyside giants. He was, after all, the undoubted ‘king’ of Atlético; he’d been their youngest ever first team player, youngest ever captain and the talisman of both the team and its supporters almost since his debut in May, 2001. With a following of pop star like proportions, and playing for the team he loved, it was little surprise that he resisted a money-making move abroad for as long as he did.
The time was right, though, in July, 2007, for Fernando to move on. Atlético were in desperate need of money and Torres was beginning to look tired after carrying the burdens of responsibility for so long. July 4th, however, was a highly emotional day when he said his tearful goodbyes to the club he’d loved as a child and for whom he’d scored 91 goals.
It wasn’t straightforward, either, joining a club like liverpool. With a history of great strikers, and a desperation to re-establish themselves as credible championship contenders, Torres would have known that a ’settling in ‘ period would have been out of the question. He had to hit the ground running – and flat out, at that.
To his great credit, that was just what happened. Torres took to the pace of the Premier League game straight away – claiming that it suited his style of play much more than that of La Liga. After opening his league account against chelsea in August, he went on to find the net 24 times in his first season and, despite some niggling injuries, has kept on scoring ever since. At the time of writing, Torres has found the net 60 times for Liverpool in only 96 games – an incredible goals per game ratio that equals anything his illustrious predecessors managed.
Liverpool supporters, of course, think the world of their ‘kid’ – and not just because of the way he brushed Rio Ferdinand aside to score Liverpool’s first goal against manchester united recently. He clearly loves playing at Anfield and has developed a remarkable rapport with the fans, akin to that he had at Atlético. Not that he’s forgotten his former club, or its fans. After scoring the first Liverpool goal in a four nil Champions’ League demolition of Real Madrid last season, Fernando expressed the hope that the Atléti fans had enjoyed watching that match as much as he had enjoyed playing in it!
Let me finish with a little illustration of one reason why, perhaps, Fernando Torres is such a popular figure. In the summer of 2009, he married his long-term girlfriend Olalla in El Escorial, Madrid. This was no elaborate ‘Hello’ celebrity wedding, though. Rather, it was a quiet, dignified, family affair, held without fuss and extravagance. There was only one press photographer there – a local, who was then told by the groom to sell on whatever photographs he wanted to magazines and newspapers.
Apart from being fast, strong, brave and unselfish on the football pitch, Fernando Torres is one of football’s gentlemen off it! He also scored the winning goal for Spain in the final of the European Championships. What more could you want?
Written by Steve Yates. If you want tickets for Liverpool fixtures visit our website. As well as Liverpool you’ll find Premier League tickets for all the top clubs. This article may be reproduced in full providing that the author is acknowledged and the links in the resource box remain intact.
Fernando Torres – Striker’s Liverpool
Fernando Torres – Striker’s Liverpool F.C. – English Premier League Football Club
Fernando José Torres Sanz (born 20 March 1984) is a Spanish footballer who plays for Premier League club Liverpool and the Spanish national team as a striker.
Torres started his career with Atlético Madrid, progressing through their youth ranks. He made his professional debut in 2001 and finished his career with the club having scored 75 goals in 174 La Liga appearances, earning the nickname El Niño (“The Kid”). Prior to his La Liga debut, Torres played two seasons in the Segunda División, making 40 appearances and scoring seven goals. He joined Liverpool in 2007, after signing for a club record transfer fee. He marked his first season at Anfield by being Liverpool’s first player, since Robbie Fowler in 1995–96, to score more than 20 league goals in a season.
Personal information
Full name : Fernando José Torres Sanz[1]
Date of birth : 20 March 1984 (1984-03-20) (age 25)[2]
Place of birth : Madrid, Spain
Height : 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[3]
Playing position : Striker
Club information : Liverpool
He is also a Spanish international and made his debut for the country against Portugal in 2003. He has since participated in three major tournaments, UEFA Euro 2004, 2006 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2008. He did not score a goal at Euro 2004, but he scored three at World Cup 2006. Torres scored the winning goal for Spain in their 1–0 win over Germany in the UEFA Euro 2008 Final.
Source: English Premier League Football Clubs, Liverpool F.C., Fernando Torres, Strikers information at wikipedia.org
Freak goal was ‘wrongly allowed’
English Premier League News : Freak goal was ‘wrongly allowed’A former FA Premier League referee says he is “amazed” Sunderland’s winner against Liverpool, which deflected off a beach ball, was allowed to stand.
Jeff Winter told BBC Radio 5 live: “Everyone’s going to have a field day but nobody’s getting upset about it.
“But the laws of the game clearly state that if there’s an outside interference the game has to be stopped.
“The referee and his assistant knew something was wrong, and it should have been a dropped ball.”
The incident occurred when Darren Bent took a first-time shot from just inside the penalty area in one of Sunderland’s first attacks during Saturday’s Premier League match at the Stadium of Light.
The ball evaded Glen Johnson’s attempted block and, at almost the same time, deflected off a large red beach ball at the edge of the six-year box.
Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina found his eyes initially drawn to the path of the beachball and was wrong-footed, in no position to make the save.
Winter said: “Sunderland fans would say it would have probably gone in anyway and that it was a Liverpool fan who threw it [the beach ball] on the pitch.
“But I’m absolutely amazed. It is a basic law in football and the goal should just not have stood.
“I am absolutely amazed that a referee at that level of football, that between him, his assistant and the fourth official they didn’t see what had happened and give the correct decision.
“There would have been absolute ructions at the Stadium of Light because the fans wouldn’t have understood what had happened but I was watching yesterday afternoon and I was thinking ‘hang on this can’t be right’.
“I try to defend referees whenever possible but on this occasion everyone is having a laugh and a joke but this, in terms of interpreting the laws of the game, is far more serous than when a ball crosses a line and somebody doesn’t see it.”
After the incident, Reina was furious and rushed to remonstrate with a referee’s assistant – but the goal stood despite a Fifa law which states: “The referee stops, suspends or terminates the match because of outside interference of any kind.”
Rafael Benitez, Liverpool’s manager, refused to focus his anger on the fifth-minute incident calling it a “a very technical question”.
“It was a special situation but we didn’t play well,” he said.
“The goal changed the game but we made some mistakes and gave the ball away. When we had our chances, we didn’t take them. These things can happen. It’s a bad situation for us that the [beach] ball was in the middle and was influential but again I will say we didn’t play well – that’s the main thing for me.”
His counterpart, Steve Bruce, said he initially thought the strike might have taken a deflection off Johnson rather than the beach ball.
Having found out what had actually happened, he said: “If you really know that rule then you are a little bit sad. I didn’t know the rule that if a ball hit an object it should be a dropped ball, I always thought it’s Sod’s Law and you carry on, but there we are.
“We’ve had a bit of luck there way, it’s one of those things but it’s obviously helped our cause.
Chelsea, Liverpool win Champions openers; first-timers off to good start
Premier League News : Chelsea, Liverpool win Champions openers; first-timers off to good start By DB Peters
Hamburg (dpa) – Cypriot Champions League first-timers Anorthosis Famagusta and Romanian club CFR Cluj, who were also making their Champions League debut, both got their campaign off to a successful start on Tuesday.
Cluj came from behind to stun Serie A club AS Roma 2-1 in Italy, while Famagusta held fancied Bundesliga side Werder Bremen to a goalless draw in Germany.
There were excellent victories for both Premier League sides in action on the night as Chelsea beat Bordeaux 4-0 and Liverpool managed a 2-1 victory at Olympique Marseille.
In London, captain Frank Lampard gave Chelsea the lead in the 14th minute in their Group A game against Bordeaux when he headed in a cross from the right from Jose Bosingwa.
Chelsea doubled their advantage on the half hour as Lampard swung in a corner which Joe Cole, who stands no taller than 1.75 metres, managed to head past goalkeeper Ulrich Rame.
Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka added two late goals in the second half.
The other game in the group saw Serie A side AS Roma take an early lead against the Romanian first-timers CFR Cluj, when Christian Panucci got his head to a ball from Daniele De Rossi.
The rookies responded though with two goals from Argentine midfielder Juan Culio, one either side of the break, to give the visitors a historic victory.
In Athens Alessandro Mancini scored the first goal of the game midway through the first half as he was beautifully set up by Swedish international Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who had beat three opponents before pushing the ball across the area for Mancini.
Adriano added a second five minutes from the end to give Serie A club Inter Milan a 1-0 victory at Panathinaikos Athens.
The other game in Group B saw Famagusta hold the more-fancied Werder Bremen to a goalless draw in Germany.
Liverpool managed to score a 2-1 victory at Olympique Marseille, in Group D, with captain Steve Gerard score both goals for the Premier League club.
Albanian Lorik Cana gave the home side the lead in France in the 23rd minute, but just three minutes later Gerrard equalized for Liverpool.
The team from Merseyside were awarded a penalty just on the half hour and Gerrard stepped up and scored. Referee Konrad Plautz, however, ordered the kick to be retaken after one of the Liverpool players went into the area too soon.
Gerrard made no mistake the second time around again – scoring in the same right hand corner.
The other group game saw Atletico Madrid, who were playing their 50th game in the European Champions League (formerly European Cup), trounce PSV Eindhoven 3-0 in the Netherlands.
Argentinean striker Sergio Aguero scored twice in the first half (9th and 36th minute) before Maniche added a second in the 55th minute.
In Group C Shakhtar Donetsk also managed a good away win, winning 2-1 at Basel, with Brazilians Fernandinho and Jadson scoring the goals in the first half for the visitors, while Basel goalkeeper David Abraham pulled one back for the home side in the last minute.
La Liga club Barcelona struggled at home against Sporting Lisbon, but won 3-1 in the end through goals by Mexican Rafael Marquez and Samuel Eto’o. Tonel pulled one back for the visitors in the 72nd minute, but it was too little – too late to come back into the game as Xavi added a third three minutes from the end.
Source: English Barclays Premier League Football Club news at Bangkokpost.com
Diego Cavalieri – Liverpool Goalkeeper
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Diego Cavalieri – Liverpool Goalkeeper
Diego Cavalieri (born 1 December 1982 in São Paulo), is a Brazillian football goalkeeper who currently plays for English club Liverpool. He wears the Squad Number 1 for the team.[1] As his surname suggests, he has Italian ancestry and he holds both an Italian and Brazilian passport
Personal information
Full name : Diego Cavalieri
Date of birth : 1 December 1982 (1982-12-01) (age 25)
Place of birth : São Paulo, Brazil
Height : 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Playing position : Goalkeeper
2008 Current club : Liverpool
League : English Barclays Premier League
Career
Cavalieri made his professional debut for Palmeiras in a 4–0 away win at Rio Claro in the Campeonato Paulista on 24 June 2002. In the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Cavalieri played 33 League games for Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras, conceding 47 goals.[3]
On 11 July 2008 he signed for a deal until 2012 with Liverpool for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £3 million[4] The player made his first-team debut in a friendly against Tranmere Rovers on 12 July 2008.[5]
He became the third Brazilian at Liverpool after Fabio Aurelio and Lucas Leiva. On his arrival Cavalieri stated that it had been his dream to move to Europe and targeted a first team place and vowed to improve through hard work.[6]upon his arrival Cavalieri was handed the number 64 shirt but was later changed to the vacated number one which was last worn by Jerzy Dudek.
Source: Diego Cavalieri – Liverpool Goalkeeper, English Barclays Premier League Football Club information at wikipedia.org