Live Football

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/27461?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+Agbonlahor+gives+Capello+extra+forward+dimensionch=Sportc3=The+Guardianc4=Football%2CEngland+football+team%2CGermany+%28Football+team%29%2CSportc5=Football+World+Cup%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Richard+Williamsc7=2008_11_20c8=1120869c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=blogc13=c14=Sportblogh2=GU%2FSport%2Fblog%2FSportblog” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divp”Thank you for inventing the beautiful game,” said a large and almost unnervingly courteous banner strung out between the two vast tiers of seats and facing the dug-outs in Berlin’s showpiece stadium. The visitors, to whom it was so politely addressed, certainly started against the old enemy by playing the more progressive and entertaining football, even if accuracy was sometimes lacking in the early stages from a team containing, as a result of all those high-profile withdrawals, an unusually high number of players with reputations to make./ppNone of them began the match accompanied by a greater sense of anticipation than Gabriel Agbonlahor, 22 years old, a Premier League debutant only two and a half years ago and an integral part of Martin O’Neill’s new Aston Villa for the past couple of seasons. Called into Fabio Capello’s first squad last February, but forced to stand down with a last-minute hamstring injury, he was an unused substitute in the summer tour games against the United States and Trindad Tobago. Now, thanks to Theo Walcott’s misfortune, his chance had come./ppThe circumstances could hardly have been more helpful: a great stadium, almost full for the latest episode of this ancient rivalry, but in competitive terms a fairly relaxed occasion. And, in opposition, a Germany with plenty of problems of their own in terms of injuries and the sort of internal squabbles that plagued them in the early part of the decade, particularly under the ill-starred Erich Ribbeck./ppThe match was not 80 seconds old when Agbonlahor appeared to have created the perfect opening for Jermain Defoe. Taking a position to the left of his striking partner, he played a neat through pass that put the Portsmouth player in on Rene Adler. The lack of conviction in the finish was only partially obscured by a marginal offside decision against Defoe. Immediate ammunition there for fans of Michael Owen, the most accomplished English player since Jimmy Greaves at the art of timing a run off the last defender’s shoulder. And encouragement for those who see in Agbonlahor a combination of pace, awareness and confidence that could turn out to be just the ticket at international level. A minute later the Villa forward was leaping to meet a clearance, his accurate header redirecting the ball to Defoe./ppFor others, notably the wingers Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stewart Downing, this match represented an opportunity to resurrect international careers that have spluttered but consistently refused to catch fire. Downing, so abject against Albania in September, was a little more enterprising in last night’s opening stages, making the most of an early rebound off Arne Friedrich to loop a dangerous ball across the German penalty area and then chipping a fine reverse pass for Agbonlahor to chase, a pursuit that ended when the referee, Massimo Busacca of Switzerland, blew for a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge with the home goalkeeper that would surely have gone unnoticed had it not been committed on a member of a protected species./ppWright-Phillips was yet again suffering from the inaccuracy that has plagued his England performances, as well suggesting that it may the result of a form of stage fright. He was easily dispossessed, his two inswinging left-wing corners travelled no further than the first defender, and his shooting was woeful./ppBut there was enough before half-time to please Capello, even if it came against a horribly disjointed Germany who at times ground to a halt and went in at half-time to whistles and jeers as bad as anything England have endured in recent years. The goal itself was not a thing of beauty, Adler flapping uselessly at Downing’s right-wing corner and the ball rebounding off Agbonlahor before Matthew Upson prodded it home, but at least the England players were in the right positions and reacted before their adversaries./ppWhile not producing the sort of fireworks nowadays expected from Walcott, Agbonlahor, the latest graduate from what is looking like an unusually promising under-21 generation, did nothing that betrayed a sense of unease. His positioning off the main striker - Defoe in the first half, Darren Bent in the second - was sensible and his interventions always constructive./ppCapello’s reversion to a prosaic 4-4-2 did not particularly help his cause. Germany’s back line defended deep whenever danger threatened, and England lacked the kind of passing from midfield to embarrass the white-shirted centre backs. Despite the lack of opportunities to make use of his lacerating speed by running into the spaces behind the defence, Agbonlahor was at least using the opportunity to make himself look like a natural competitor at this level, and better should have come from the cute glancing header across the area with which he met Wayne Bridge’s low centre./ppThe same could not be said for poor Scott Carson, a half-time substitute for David James, who revived memories of his disastrous experience against Croatia last year when he and John Terry combined in a calamitous misunderstanding to set up the chance from which Patrick Helmes, another half-time substitute, gratefully snaffled the equaliser. It could be called undeserved, except that no side that presents the opposition with such a ludicrous goal could justifiably make such a claim./ppCapello must have been rendered incandescent by a moment of lunacy that cost the team their hard-earned advantage, but will have been mollified when the captain’s header with six minutes to go won the match for England./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/england”England/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/germany”Germany/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sportcountry=nldspacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227143638817112001163356847″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sportcountry=nldspacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227143638817112001163356847″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

Original post by Richard Williams

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/61306?ns=guardianpageName=Football%3A+Glasgow+hails+the+hand+of+Godch=Footballc3=The+Guardianc4=Diego+Maradona%2CScotland+football+team%2CFootball%2CScotland+%28News%29%2CUK+news%2CSportc5=Football+World+Cup%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Richard+Williamsc7=2008_11_19c8=1120042c9=articlec10=GUc11=Footballc12=Diego+Maradonac13=c14=h2=GU%2FFootball%2FDiego+Maradona” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpAt this stage in the proceedings, the most likely place to find Diego Armando Maradona ought to be in the pages of his compatriot Jorge Luis Borges’s Book of Imaginary Beings, alongside the stiff-bristled, mud-wallowing Catoblepas, the 100-mile-long Earthquake fish, the weeping, wart-covered Squonk and the Peryton of the ancient world - half-deer, half-bird, but casting the shadow of a man./ppThe people of Glasgow have been staring at the former golden boy of world football this week as though he were a mythical beast capable of changing shape at will./ppAnd yet, as he wandered the corridors of his hotel Maradona, now 48, looked far more like the sturdy, well-proportioned figure who so hurtfully removed England from the 1986 World Cup than either the sliver of a man who fought his way back into the Argentina team for the 1994 World Cup, only to fail a drugs test when traces of diuretics were found in his urine, or the terrifyingly obese creature who, 10 years later, suffered a heart attack while watching a match in Buenos Aires and was rushed to hospital, a tearful crowd clutching candles outside as nurses hooked him up to a life support system./ppApart from Buenos Aires, his home city, and Naples, where he performed miracles in the 1980s while falling under the influence of the Camorra and cocaine, there is possibly no city on earth that would give him a warmer welcome than Glasgow, where his hand-ball goal in Mexico 22 years ago was fervently acclaimed and where he will make his debut as Argentina’s head coach in tonight’s friendly match against Scotland./ppAsked at last night’s press conference about the comments of Terry Butcher, the assistant manager of the Scotland squad, who was a member of the England team that day in 1986 and made it clear this week that he will refuse to shake the Hand of God at Hampden Park, Maradona prefaced his reply with a pantomime “Oooh!” worthy of Kenneth Williams./pp”I don’t understand why he’s taking this attitude,” he said. “Let him get on with his life and I’ll get on with mine.” Pressed further by a television reporter on that most notorious of goals, he responded with a reference to an equally controversial incident from 20 years earlier. “I can reply to the lady that when England won the World Cup, it was with a goal that everybody could see never crossed the line,” he said./ppAs he held his hands two feet apart to indicate the distance between the bounce of Geoff Hurst’s shot and the goal line at Wembley in 1966, the Scottish and Argentinian media contingents convulsed with laughter./ppMore than 400 journalists from around the world have descended on Glasgow this week to watch the legend lead a 21-strong squad including the 20-year-old goalscoring prodigy Sergio Aguuml;ero, whose girlfriend, Maradona’s younger daughter Giannina, is due to give birth to Diego’s first grandchild - a boy - in February. So while the next New Maradona may be his son-in-law, the one after that could be his grandson./ppEven though Maradona captained Argentina to victory in 1986, his appointment represents a considerable risk. His coaching record amounts to just 23 matches, first with Mandiyu of Corrientes, a small club, in 1994, and then with Racing Club of Buenos Aires, a very large one, the following year. Only three of those matches ended in victories. An idol in his homeland he may be, and the object of a cult that has reached its bizarre apogee in the founding of a Church of Maradona (whose Scottish representatives have been keeping a vigil outside the hotel), but a recent poll found almost three-quarters of the Argentinian public believe the appointment to be a mistake./ppHis demise, however, has been inaccurately foretold on several occasions. As he lay in hospital back in April 2004, virtually every sportswriter in the world spent time composing his obituary. But, detoxed in Cuba and with his stomach stapled in Colombia, he defied predictions and returned to life. And now he is back on the biggest stage, as the coach responsible for reviving Argentina’s faltering qualification campaign for the World Cup in South Africa in 2010./ppHe strode through the throng gathered at the airport to greet his return to Scotland - where, as an 18-year-old in 1979, he scored his first international goal - with that familiar barrel-chested strut and the imperious 1,000-yard stare of a man who has spent all his life under the gaze of others and still has horizons to conquer./ppThe smiles were wider throughout his first training session, which began 15 minutes earlier than the scheduled 6.30pm start. Yesterday’s press conference, too, started and finished on time. A man notorious for his indifference to punctuality appears intent on demonstrating his professionalism./ppWearing a blue team tracksuit, black gloves and a beanie hat, Maradona stood aside at Celtic Park as the squad went through a brief sequence of warm-up sprints and stretches while their fitness instructor clapped out a rhythm that sounded more tarantella than tango. Before long, however, a game of football was in progress. The new head coach limped noticeably as he walked among his players in the guise of referee, restricting himself to a blast on his whistle when a goal was scored./ppThe session ended after an hour with the players retreating to the changing rooms, leaving the unusual sight of Maradona, his assistants and a dozen ball boys recruited from Celtic’s juniors intently searching the turf for a gold St Christopher medallion which had detached itself from the neck-chain of one of the players. The 13-year-old who found it was embraced and hoisted into the air by the head coach and presented with his hat and gloves. Instinctive and impulsive, it was a gesture typical of the dark-eyed, curly-haired, divinely talented kid who left a Buenos Aires slum to capture hearts around the world./ppSomeone asked yesterday if he would find it difficult to restrain his famously turbulent emotions while occupying his new vantage point on the touchline? /pp”It depends on how the team are playing,” he said. “If they’re making me feeling secure, I’ll be fine. If things are going badly, I’m going to behave as I’ve always done.”/ppAll being well, Maradona will have become a grandfather by the time Argentina play their next World Cup qualifying matches in March. If he is still wearing the coach’s tracksuit when they meet Venezuela at home and climb to 12,000ft above sea level to face Bolivia in La Paz, then Julio Grondona, the 77-year-old president of the Argentinian football association - who likened this evening’s game to “a wedding night - you really hope that it will be wonderful but you never actually know how it’s going to turn out” - may be giving himself a cautious pat on the back./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/diego-maradona”Diego Maradona/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/scotland”Scotland/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/scotland”Scotland/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Footballcountry=nldspacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227054414962111900270935413″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Footballcountry=nldspacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227054414962111900270935413″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

Original post by Richard Williams

Stephen McGinn produced a moment of brilliance to give St Mirren their first home victory over Rangers in 22 years

Original post by Ewan Murray