index – Page 4 – AZ Olympia Soccer

July 26, 2015 by index

Franco Di Santo reckons the top tier Football in Germany

Franco Di Santo reckons the top tier Football in Germany is quite intense, probably a little more than that in England.

If Di Santo had made this statement some time back, it would have been considered ridiculous, but, the way the English teams have performed in the Champions League over the last couple of years, it seems the Argentina international is not off the mark.

There were only a couple of English teams in the Round of 16 in the previous season’s Champions League and neither of them managed to advance to the quarters.

When asked to compare the leagues in Germany and England in an interview, Di Santo said, “Frankly speaking, I had not expected Bundesliga to be that intense, but, having played in it for a full season now, I would say it’s more intense in comparison to any other league I have played in my career so far. As a player; you are under pressure all the time.”

“The training regimes are also quite different in the two countries. They have a different philosophy back there in UK. They don’t put that much pressure on the body of the players. There is more emphasis on rest. In Germany, it’s not like that. We have to train quite a bit and I have realized it’s beneficial in terms of stamina.”

April 20, 2015 by index

Many stadiums in Brazil are fast turning out into a major financial disaster

Some of the stadiums built for the World Cup 2014 in Brazil are fast turning out into a major financial disaster. Unable to bear the huge operational and maintenance costs of the World Cup stadiums, a few have already come into the market on sale. Natal’s Dunas arena is one of the stadiums available for purchase. The stadium hosted four games during the World Cup tournament. Since then, however, it has struggled to attract crowds due to the lack of high-profile matches with a lot of attendances. Despite Brazil exporting a lot of players the rest of the world, it does not necessarily have a league with high attendance figures.

Even the top matches involving the likes of Corinthians and São Paulo struggled to fill up the massive stadiums built during the World Cup. The stadiums were constructed at a cost of huge expenses with most of the funding coming from the taxes. Brazil are reported to have spent around $ 3.6 billion in constructing the stadiums. They total 12 in number but only a handful are running close to breakeven. Some of the stadiums – like in Brasilia – have not hosted five events since the World Cup came to a close. This led to widespread protests even during the tournament, but Brazilian public have not been able to prevent Fifa running away with record profits as a result of this tournament.

March 4, 2015 by index

Sergio Markarian Manager Position Accepted by Greece

Greece are mulling at the possibility of offering Sergio Markarian a role as the national team manager. The 70-year-old recently left his job as the national team manager of Peru. He has been appointed after the recommendation from former Fulham midfielderGiorgosKaragounis, who is now the current technical director of the Greek national team.

Claudio Ranieri recently departed the Greek team after a run of poor results since his appointment just after the World Cup. The Greek FA were aware that the next appointment was going to be extremely important. Hence, the task of finding a suitable replacement was given toKaragounis.

Karagounis played underMarkarian when the latter was the manager at Panathinaikos FC. Despite being a South American,Markarian is expected to lead the Greece national team with a lot of passion.

January 16, 2015 by index

Giorgios Karagounis will start as Coach soon

Giorgios Karagounis has been a free agent since he was released by Fulham at the end of the previous season and a few months ago reports began emerging claiming that the former midfielder was thinking about making a return to the playing field but those rumors did not last very long as Karagounis is starting a career as a coach instead of a player.

The playing career of Karagounis has seen him performing with Inter Milan, Benfica and Fulham just to name a few of his clubs but it has been with his country where Karagounis has really managed to make an impact as Karagounis was the captain of Greece for over 2 years.