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Morning Ticker: Brazil and Argentina scoreless, Barca bids for Adebayor and Mourinho plots Chelsea raid

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Good morning all. It was a pretty entertaining day of soccer on Wednesday, with quality games galore and plenty of transfer talk to go around. Today promises to be action-packed as well, with the Portugal-Germany Euro quarterfinal taking center stage.

Let’s start the morning off with some stories from last night and this morning to get your day started:

Brazil and Argentina tie

It was one of the most highly-anticipated matches of the summer, but it wound up being one of the most boring as Argentina and Brazil finished in a scoreless tie in their World Cup qualifying match in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Playing without Kaka and Ronaldinho, Brazil found few quality scoring chances against an Argentina side that had the better of the scoring opportunities.

Is this a sign of things to come for Brazil? It just might be if Kaka doesn’t return from knee surgery in a hurry and if Ronaldinho has lost his best form forever.

Argentina moves into second place in CONMEBOL qualifying, two points behind leaders Paraguay, which suffered a shocking 4-2 upset loss to Bolivia on Wednesday night. Brazil moved into fourth place with the draw.

In other CONMEBOL action, Colombia remained unbeaten with a 0-0 tie vs. Ecuador in Quito.

Barcelona bid for Adebayor

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A day after stating that Samuel Eto’o career with Barcelona is over comes word that Barca has made a big offer for Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor. If the reports from Spain are to be believed, Arsenal and Barcelona are between one and five million pounds apart in the price, which means Adebayor could very well join Thierry Henry at Barcelona.

Count me as a bit shocked that Arsenal would even entertain the offer. Yes, money talks in the world of big-time transfers but losing Adebayor would leave Arsenal with a pretty depleted forward stable that would include injury-prone Robin Van Persie and still-mending-a-broken-leg Eduardo. Might the sale of Adebayor clear the way for Arsene Wenger to buy Ajax striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar? Stay tuned.

Mourinho to bid for Lampard, Drogba

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To the surprise of nobody in particular, Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho has outlined his plan to make transfer bids for Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard and forward Didier Drogba, as well as Barcelona midfielder Deco. All three are former players of Mourinho’s and all three could force their way into the starting lineup at Inter.

Will Chelsea really let Lampard walk? It’s already known that Drogba is on his way out but Lampard would be a much tougher player to replace. Perhaps a more intriguing question is which Inter Milan players would be shown the door to make room for all these new Mourinho soldiers?

Share your thoughts on these stories, and any other stories from the morning, in the comments section below.

Comments

  1. mig22- i stand corrected… perhaps i just happen to glance at those games, b/c it seemed more then that….

    either way, there are 5 teams more then capable of topping next season… its going to be a rough season to say the least…

    Reply
  2. And the answer to how many games Inter won 1-0 is 3 out of 38. 18th, 30th, and 34th minute. So, actually they didn’t win any games 1-0 with a late score. 🙂

    69 goals for…26 against. Tight.

    Cheers,

    Reply
  3. @harman – Arsenal almost exclusively played a 4-5-1 when Adebayor was in this season, with Hleb playing the point of the midfield.

    I don’t think he goes personally. His transfer will be just as high next season, assuming he maintains his form, and he’s been quoted in more reputable papers as saying he wants to stay.

    Reply
  4. If the dropped 40 yard chip caught your attention Andy in Atlanta, then you must have been going nuts over Cech dropping the “easy ball” against Turkey on Sunday.

    Things happen, which is why games are played versus wins being awarded off of stats on paper.

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  5. Drogba does ham up his injuries, usually to get a rest, quite a bit. He does not really dive though. His physical style of play and back-to-the-goal positioning in Chelsea’s offense mean that he gets hammered quite a bit. He has become rather…flamboyant…with pointing out fouls but I watch this guy very closely and he does NOT go down easily and I never see him fake being fouled.

    And Inter walks the Italian League again, they took their foot off the gas at the end with the Mancini exit hanging over the team…but it’s tough to see them losing. Just MHO.

    Regards,

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  6. Andy in Atlanta,

    your conspiracy theory is laughable…

    goes to show that on any day any team no matter how good they are can lose and vice versa

    Reply
  7. Nordy- honestly speaking, while ITALY may be deemed divers by alot of the world, i wouldnt say Serie A is huge on it… i would say Serie A “milks” their fouls more then diving…. Think Blanco, but every foul….

    Reply
  8. CapeCudFutbol – Mourinho’s got his hands full just winning Serie A this coming season….

    -Roma will continue to contentd…

    -Juventus will be as strong as ever

    -AC Milan will do much better this season with a couple of pickups, not to mention Pato getting the nod..

    i dont know how many of Inter’s wins came from 1-0 games where they got a goal late in the game… while its still a win, they far from dominated the whole season… in fact they fizzled off at the end of it, and nearly lost it

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  9. Nice, Adam. Glenn Hubbard, Bruce Benedict, and myself are so nuts over this Euro 2008 thing that we’ve been playing pick-up games with the cab drivers at Piedmont Park.

    Reply
  10. Rediculous altitude or not… I still think there is something awfully fishy about the Bolivia v Paraguay match… both starting strikers out until the 62nd minute… the back-up goalkeeper drops a 40 yard chip shot right into his chest that allowed a tap in follow up goal… I watched Bolivia play against Chile and they looked like they would have struggled to beat Belize let alone come back and outscore Paraguay… something is not right about this result…

    Reply
  11. It will be curious to see how Chelsea deal with Lampard. I can see them selling him as they are STILL loaded at midfield without him and they will replace him with a quality MF anyways.

    With Drogba, it is very difficult to say. Drogba is an athelete in the modern style…that is rather mercenary (compliment) but rather dramatic (not a compliment).

    Essien goes nowhere this year.

    Arsenal also has the kid Walcott who is still a baby and shows improvement every year. They might just sell Adebayor.

    Mourinho will have his transfer fund but it will not be as large as at Chelsea. It doesn’t need to be, really. They are already the strongest side in Serie A. No chance whatsoever that Sheva goes to Inter…CapeCud rightly pointed out that he was an Abramovich pick.

    Cheers,

    Reply
  12. Ives stop hyping this DP garbage and do it already…there’s one thing to peak intrest, but don’t leave people hangin…two thumbs down…

    Reply
  13. OK, sorry if I missed your humor Ryan. Kpugs, I don’t think Mourinho’s mandate is to win Serie A, I think he’s there to win the Champions League (obv in addition to Serie A).

    Reply
  14. No offense to Mourinho, but the day he was hired his chairman literally said there would be no transfers. So either Mourinho has charmed his pants off, or he’ll be splashing out tens of millions out of his own pocket. Sorry Jose, this isn’t Abramovitch, you aren’t going to buy the 2008 Serie A trophy.

    Arsenal…hahaha. I love all the hopes and dreams that pop up in the comments here about Arsenal. You guys are awesome.

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  15. if they can get that much for adebayor…take it!!!! worked out just fine selling Henry. i’ve been an arsenal fan since 98, and i can easily say that i’ve never seen a striker miss so many sitters as adebayor. when you have a midfield that provides like arsenal’s, you should be in the golden boot chase each year! even though he seems to be full of himself, i feel bendter deserves one season to prove himself. he just seems to make things happen when he’s on the pitch. and with the attacking midfielders at his disposal (theo/vela/rosicky/nasri/cesc) i’m surprised the professor’s never tried a 4-5-1

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  16. Don’t forget that Wenger said Carlos Vela will be a striker, not a winger, at Arsenal. So that’s another attacking threat.

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  17. Why would Mourinho want Shevchenko, when Sheva was clearly an Abrahamovic choice (or imposition) at Chelsea?

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  18. Wow – Paraguay blew a huge opportunity. I kind of figured they might…La Paz is 12,000 feet above sea level…that can’t be easy to play in!

    Reply
  19. DP.

    DP.

    DP.

    Ives, was that a coordinated hack or is there something new on the horizon?

    Hate to see Adebayor leave the Emirates but if Huntelaar were to come…

    Reply

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