The champion, Spain did not dare to announce his team will be easily passing the qualifying round of Euro 2012. One of their rivals, Scotland, aimed at least for the runner-up position.

According to the drawing result in Group I, Spain will compete with the Czech Republic, Scotland, Lithuania and Liechtenstein to fight for a ticket to the final round in Poland, Austria.

With its quality, especially since two years ago – by winning Euro 2008 and is currently the number one team in the world in FIFA rankings – of course Spain’s the most hoped to win the group.

Yet the coach, Vicente del Bosque was not thinking that his troops could easily overcome his opponents.

“We are facing a tough test and we should be in the best condition in every game,” said the coach after the drawing ceremony in Warsaw, Sunday (7/2/2010). “So we do not want to make many mistakes. We do not have any insurance.”

“The teams actually did not qualify for the World Cup (2010), but we should not be sure because there is a difference in football right now. Liechtenstein seems easy, but we must be careful with the three other teams.”

Meanwhile, Scotland manager Craig Brown realized that the “Matador” team is the most favorite. But he remained optimistic that his children have enough chance to be qualified for the final round.

“Spain’s is the favorite of course. But Lithuania and Liechtenstein should not be a problem,” he told Sky Sports News. “Scotland should be optimistic that they coul finish at least in the second place in this group.”

Group A qualifying round of Euro 2012 has very strong German scent. In other than Der Panzer, four out of five other teams have a connection with one of the giant countries in the European region.
Germany, Euro 2008 runner-up, is one group with Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, the result of the tournament drawing in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday (7/2/2010).

Turkey has something to do with Germany because the population of citizens of Turkish descendants in the country is the second largest after the ‘original’ residents. Many players with Turkish passport has career in Bundesliga.

Even now the Turkish-born player who has been wearing Germany costume, the midfielder of Werder Bremen, Mesut Özil.

Austria is one country that directly borders with Germany. The state’s official language was German. In football aspect, the last time these two teams were dueling in the group round of the European Cup in 2008, when Germany defeated the home team with a score of 1-0.

As for Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, both national teams were coached by a figure from Germany. Kazakhstan coached by Bernd Storck and Azerbaijan handled by Verti Vogts, which is actually a coach who brought German to win the Euro Cup in 1996.

“I am not surprised or pleased. Logically, this is not simple,” said Germany coach Joachim Loew about his team’s group. “This German-speaking group with a lot of German coach.”

England coach Fabio Capello does not feel his team was in the easy group in the qualifying round of Euro 2012. He also will face national team derby match because his squad is in the same team with Wales.

In the tournament drawings in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday (7/2/2010), England was in Group G along with Switzerland, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Wales.

Nine group winners plus the best runner up will automatically be qualified to the finals along with the hosts Poland and Ukraine. Eight other runner-up teams will be joining playoff in November 2011, to fight for the four remaining places in the 16 competitions.

“This is my first derby as a manager of a national team. It would be interesting. They (Wales) are a good young team,” said Capello after the drawing, as quoted by Reuters..

English is included in the group which is consisting of five teams, and they are only three groups. Meanwhile, six other groups consist of six teams.

“If I can, I want a smaller group because it plays fewer. But this group is very tight. The four teams we were very dangerous opponent. There is great confidence in my team.”

Like John Terry, Rio Ferdinand actually is not a scandal-free figure. However, he admitted that he has been becoming more mature and is ready to lead England.
One of the scandals that have tarnished Ferdinand’s career is his carelessness for a drugs test. As a result he had to undergo a suspension for eight months and did not come to defend England in Euro 2004.
His mistake is still quite memorable for many people. Lucky for him, a case which was arising because of his carelessness didn’t become bigger as Terry’s cases.

Ferdinand is pointed to be the captain of England, considering his status as the first vice captain in the Three Lions. That position actually is not officially given to him, but he himself is willing to accept that if Fabio Capello choose him.

“I knew I have to change people’s perception about me. I might be making mistakes in the future, but would it be as big as the one in the past? I hope it won’t,” he said as reported by Canadian Press.
“As a young man from West Ham, I need several years to be mature and realize the responsibility of being a football player.”

“I thought I am able to obtain it now. Maturity has become a part of me. I now have a young family, and everyone has up and down in their careers, as well as in life,” he said.

Being a captain actually is not a new thing for him. In the club level he often became the Manchester United captain when Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs were absent. Thus, the leadership skill of a player who was born in Peckham, London, is no need to be doubted.

England’s boss Fabio Capello admitted that he is waiting for the British derby against Wales. DonFabio’s enthusiasm greeted with the same spirit from the boss of Wales, John Toshack.

From the qualification drawing of Euro 2012, Sunday (7/2/2010), Group G will be consisting of England, Wales, Switzerland, Bulgaria, and Montenegro.
The emotional league that will be drawing attention is the “derby of the United Kingdom ‘involving England versus Wales.

The Boss of The Three Lions Fabio Capello said that he has been waiting for the derby.

What is the response of Don Fabio’s opponent candidate? “From our view, this group is the tough one. But with a big derby against England, then all of our supporters will look forward to the game,” said the architect of Wales, Toshack as quoted by AFP.

When compared to England, it’s obvious that Wales is not as brilliant as England. But Toshack is optimistic that his comrades will be able to serve his neighbor country well. “We are strengthened by the players that are young and they are keep growing,” complete the former trainer of Real Madrid.

Since it is considered as far from ready for the comeback from a long injury, Manchester United finally crossed out the name of Owen Hargreaves from their squad for the Champions League in the second half of 2009/10 season.

In fact, MU has not been using Hargreaves since September 2008. The player who came from Bayern Munich in 2007 has continued to be struggling with his Tendinitis injury which forced him to rest long.

Previously, manager Sir Alex Ferguson was still including Hargreaves into the Champions League squad despite of the player is still in his early stages of recovery. It was not separated from the diagnose that the 29-year-old midfielder will able to recover in November.

But until now, Hargreaves’ condition has not been showing the signs of improving. As a result, Fergie must think effectively with the 25 players who will be registered in the second half of the season left the player who was born in January 20, 1981.

Based on some news, Hargreaves’s condition was reported to be improving. But he was still troubled by his mental condition because he has not been playing for a long time.

Hargreaves’ comeback itself is also quite waited by the England coach, Fabio Capello.The coach was questioning through the media several times to give support to the Canadian player.

Leonardo finally said something about Ronaldinho who was reported to be involved a party. According to him, the news that comes because of Italian local media did not respect the life of Dinho well.

Previously, it was reported that AC Milan have given a penalty to Dinho because of norms violation. The Brazilian player was reported to have a party in a hotel with his colleagues before Milan facing Inter. And the player himself denied this.

Now is Leonardo’s turn who is Dinho’s superior in Milan commented sarcastically towards the reporters in the country of pizza. He thinks that the journalist did not respect the Dinho’s privacy and made false reports to their own needs.

“This week’s incident as I see it is the journalists showed low respect to Ronaldinho,” regrets Leonardo as quoted by Football-Italia.

Leonardo even seems happy to hear the bad news that will become a pump for enthusiasm towards Dinho and his colleagues to prove they are not like the reports.

Leonardo recognized fact, it’s the journalists who have the burden to prove the story was not just a bullshit.

“I think the team will be stronger for it. When you create a story, there is pressure on you to prove it. I myself have not seen the tape of the party, so I believe what the players say,” Leonardo said further.

For him even if anything was proved clearly that Dinho involved in the party, the club must have known even earlier because in Milan always they always conduct alcohol and drugs tests before the match.

“I do not need to be a detective in my spare time. I saw him exercising every day and I know his progress,” said the former Milandan Brazilian national team player in 90’s era.

“We knew if he was in a state of have been drinking, doing tests every day and he talked to me about what he had been doing, so I believe him. I have been evaluating all this week,” added Carlo Ancelotti’s successor.”The club has talked to the players and we know what happened.”

After being success with Castrol Index since the Euro Cup 2008, Castrol lengthen their contract with UEFA in Euro 2012. A ‘prediction’ system called Castrol Predictor is being prepared.

Castrol and UEFA announced the continuity of the partnership in London several days ago. That’s the content of publish received by detiksport.

When they started to be a sponsor for the Euro Cup two years ago, Castrol introduced Castrol Performance Index which then changed into Castrol Index to measure the performance of the players and the team.

By using a sophisticated recording camera, every player’s movements are recorded and with the statistic collection, the performance of each player and team can be measured objectively.

The cooperation between Castrol and UEFA for Euro 2012 will be marked by the launching of Castrol Predictor during Euro 2012 qualification drawing on February 7 next.

Castrol Predictor is a tool that measures the performance of teams and players to ‘predict’ which teams are qualified to pass the big16 round, the tournament which will be held in Poland and Ukraine’s.

Castrol Index’s success and the introduction of Castrol Predictor make the Castrol ambassador, Arsene Wenger, could hardly wait.
“For the first time, football fans can objectively observe and compare how the players work and give them a new interesting perspective. I can not wait to see the development of Castrol Index in Euro 2012,” said Wenger.

Alberto Zaccheroni started to change Juventus’ formation into his favourite formation, 3-4-3. But, this Mr. Zac’s strategy wasn’t working perfectly and the Bianconeri failed to get a victory.

This was the first time since he has been taking care of Juve replacing Ciro Ferrara last January, Zaccheroni used the formation 3-4-3. In his premiere league versus Lazio last week, Juve was still playing in 4-3-1-2 formation.

But the change of tactics became the only one change of Juve this time. If we look at the result, Alessandro Del Piero and his team were still not able to get victory because Livorno held them with 1-1.

“We made too many mistakes, we didn’t get used to the formation and the new tactic doesn’t work properly,” Zaccheroni said after the league as quoted by Football Italia.

By placing 3 backs in the center and 2 backs on the wing, Juve’s back line became weak and their opponent got the score first by Antonio Filippini’s heading. Zaccheroni was lucky because of the appropriate reaction, could make the score even through Nicola Legrottaglie’s heading.

“However, that was a rare event which Juventus was succeeded to make the score even after being left behind first. We’ve showed a good reaction,” Zaccheroni said.

“The big worry is we have giant players in the defense line but it was broken by short players with free headings. We can’t let this thing continually happen and we should put more attention into it,” he said.

I this coming World Cup England will no longer be led by John Terry. The dismissal of Terry as the captain is believed by Jose Mourinho as the beginning of difficulties for the ‘Three Lions’ to make achievements in South Africa.

Terry was dismissed as captain by Fabio Capello after the players and the England team manager had spoken at Wembley, Friday (5/2/2010). His affair with Vanessa Perroncel Terry, Wayne Bridge ex-girlfriend, became the trigger.

And according to the Italian guy, what he is doing is the best way to resolve the polemic which is arising from the case against Chelsea’s center back.

It is expected that with the presence of Rio Ferdinand as the new captain, the harmony and hope of the team to win the world champion title since 1966 will be maintained.

It’s okay if the people of the Land of Queen Elizabeth are thinking like that, but it’s not the same with Mourinho who is ever taking care of Terry during three years of his existence at Stamford Bridge (2004-2007).

According to him, Terry is a qualified person who is capable to have the position of the 10 other members on the field. And it was the first thing that he met the first time he set foot in England, where in the previous season terry was the deputy of Marcel Desailly.

“I gave the band of Chelsea captain to JT, and there were no figures that are not touched like Javier Zanetti of Inter,” said Mourinho.

“I came, talked to the players and found two people who is deserved to be captain. The one is Terry and Frank Lampard as the vice captain. I always thought that it was the right decision,” he continued.

There’s nothing wrong with the performance of Terry during leading the Three Lions according to Capello. To be able to perform well almost in every party which he played, Terry became one of the main pillars that brought the team to the 2010 World Cup.

And that is the thing which is believed by Mourinho to be difficult for England when have the match there without Terry as their captain

“I’ve always been very lucky with my captain, my captain, and it’s very difficult for the teams to be successful without the presence of a great captain,” said the Inter Milan’s manager as reported by Football-Italy.