The sanitised concrete bowl which is the home of English football can be a vicious bullring if you get on the wrong side of 90,000 supporters.
Just ask Frank Lampard, John Terry and Ashley Cole how it feels to be booed and jeered by the home fans.
Carragher, 32, insists his international comeback did not faze him on the pitch - but he was nervous about his reception from the terraces.
The versatile Liverpool defender ended a self-imposed three-year exile in Monday's 3-1 win over Mexico, having been coaxed out of retirement by England boss Fabio Capello.
Carragher turned his back on his country in 2007, frustrated at travelling the world with the national team, only to sit on the bench.
The decision triggered controversy, with his peers in the game and many fans believing England should 'retire' the player and not the other way round.
But now he is back in Austria with the squad preparing for Sunday's final World Cup warm-up against Japan having overcome the toughest hurdle of all - the England fans.
Carragher said: "I'd like to say a big thank-you to the supporters. I could understand if the reception wasn't great because I've been out of it for three years of my own accord.
"But I've always been excited about England ever since I started. I captained the Under-21s, I broke the record for the most caps for the Under-21s.
"It was just towards the end of my time, the last couple of games, I'd come off the back of a couple of Champions League final appearances, we'd won it once, and I just felt I deserved a bit more of a go.
"That was no criticism of the manager at the time or the players. Maybe the players who played ahead of me might have felt the same if I'd played.
"We've got another game and another week's training, so there is all to play for.
"But I'm pleased I came on and hopefully that can give me a good chance of getting in the 23.
"Every player wants to play in big games and playing in front of nearly 90,000 is always a massive occasion.
"I'm fortunate that I play for Liverpool and every game is like a cup final really, so I'm used to that intensity and pressure.
"But playing and coming on was big for me and everyone wants to play at that level."
Carragher's ability to play at right-back as well as in central defence caught Capello's eye as he can provide natural cover for Glen Johnson at the World Cup.
An old-fashioned one-club man, he put Liverpool ahead of England, after falling behind Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell and Jonathan Woodgate in the pecking order under Capello's predecessor Steve McClaren.
England came to him, not the other way round, as the nation gears itself up for the biggest football tournament in the world battling a run of injuries.
Carragher had not played for England since June 2007 against Brazil but slotted in comfortably for the second half on Monday.
Now his focus is on making the final cut on June 1 to ensure his comeback lasts longer than a fortnight.
He added: "The set-up is different because it is a different manager and every manager has their own ideas and way of doing things.
"But in terms of the squad, the players, the backroom people, it is all the same and has always been run very well.
"Capello is a very focused manager. I've only been here a week and don't think it is right to say one manager does this and it is right.
"But if you win, you are always right. This manager has his own style and it has proved successful over the years."
The national teams of The United States and Turkey will play against each other on Sunday in a friendly match. The two squads are very strong and we should expect a great match between them. In a recent match that Turkey participated, they won with 2-1 against the Czech Republic and now will be on a winning strike if they manage to win against the Home-playing team. On th eother hand the americans have surprizingly lost their first game against the Czech Republic with 2-4 and spreculations are rising whether they will fail to qualify for the1/8-finals or not. One thing is sure-they will play much better against Turkey than the Czech Republic so that they won't disappoint their fans and would finish with a win their preparation for the World Cup in South Africa. There the americans will be in a group with Slovenia, England and Algeria which mean the have a great chance of qualifying for the next round. Anyway I expect turkey to show good game and at least come up with deuce as Arda Turan is in great form.Expectation-X2
This friendly match will be played on 29.05.2010. Germany have gather strength and there is a huge possibility that they will reach the final stages of the World Cup. Their players are very experienced and some of them were also participating in the final of the Champions League where Bayern Munich played against an opponent from Italy - Inter. The match was 2:0 for the Italians. Both teams played well, but the better one finaly won the trophy. Hungary will have to prove themselves, because they have to be physically and mentaly prepared for the world cup, but this match will probably be a win for Germany who are right now the 6th best team in the world. We will hopefuly watch an interesting game and I will suggest that the winner will be Germany (2:1 or 1:0).
One against other in a friendly match will play the national teams of Turkey anf Czech Republic. Both teams have some very good players that play in one of the best leagues in Europe so the match would be extremely interesting to watch. Even though now it's the time when all the seasons have finished and players are tired and they hadn't had the chance of playing together in their national teams for a long time, they would give the maximum of their strength to win. I the Czech Republic team there are some very famous names like Jaroslav Plasil(Bordo-France), Tomas Rosicky(Arsenal-England), Marek Jankulovski(Milan-Italy), Chech(Chelsea-England) and many others. On the other hand Turkey's most famous players are Tuncay Şanlı(Stoke City-England),Rüştü Reçber(Besiktas-Turkey), Hamit Altintop(Bayer Munich),Arda Turan(Galatasaray) and many others. With football players like these ones both teams had a great chace of winning the game even though it is not as important as the upcoming matches form the World Cup in South Africa. Desipe the history of the Czech Repulbic they did very bad in the group stage for qualifying for the tournament and that is the reason I think their level of football is not the same as their opponents. That's why I think that Turkey will defeat them and win at least partial glory for their national teams after they haven't qualified for the World Cup.
The most unexpected final of the Champions League will be played this Saturday. After some unexpected games both teams managed to reach the finals eliminating ex-champions such as Manchester United and Barcelona. Bayern won the league and the cup of Germany (in a post below). Inter also won both cups after some unexpected games that pulled them in front of their opponents. This Saturday we will be witnesses of a very dramatic game that will determine the next champion of the most elite league in Europe. Bayern have a very offensive style of game and this helped them a lot during this season of the Champions League. Inter showed a lot of fear that was shown in their last game against Barcelona when Valdes who is Barcelona's goalkeeper had more successful passes than the best one in Inter - Zanetti. I guess that they will play once again in deffence hoping not to lose their precious points. After the request from Bayern to UEFA about Frank Ribery's red card in the match against Manchester, UEFA didn't agree to let him play on Saturday and Bayern will once again play without one of their bes players.
The two players from Netherlands that make miracles in Bayern will once again play together to win a cup. Arjen Robben was the author of some magnificent goals that were responsible for the wins of Bayern this season. Mark van Bommel is not only the captain of the team, but he is also the heart of the team. With these two men Bayern have a great chance for winning the Champions league, but still - they have to be careful, because Barcelona also thought that they will be the ones who will continue to the finals, but the careful playing of Inter managed to stop them.
I personally hope that Bayern will win the Champions League. Do you think that after such a statistic in a semi-final Inter should win the cup?
Demolition derby originared in America as a way of entertainment during country fairs. In a demolition derby five or more cars ram each other in an attempt to wreck the other cars. The last man standing wins. The competitors are usally local people with heavily modified cars. While some 'racers' ram other cars with both the front and rear end, other try only to use the later in order to protect their engines. If a player doesn't hit another car in a two minutes it is disqualified for "sandbagging". The track is full of dirt in order to slow down the speed of the crashing cars. Also, all glass from the cars is removed and drivers are forbidden from deliberately ramming the driver door. For the door to be easily recognisible, it is painted in a contrasting color. There is a car banned from from Demolition Derby for being too durable, the 1964-1966 Chrysler Imperial. Demolition Derbies has also elvolved into another dicipline - rollover competitions. In such competitions drivers take multiple runs at a ramp that makes thei car roll over until their vehicle dies. The driver who completes the most rollovers before their vehicle ceases to function is declared the winner.
After Rafael Nadal's win over Roger Federer at the final of Madrid Open with 6-4 and 7-6 the Spanish made a record and he is the first tenissist that won 19 Masters. Till now the record was 18 which Andre Agassi held. Roger Federer has 17 till now. Another interesting question rising is that will Nadal be strong enough to keep his play through the whole season. Rolan Garos comes soon and after that Wimbledon and with this two Grand Slam tournaments maybe the battle for first place could be solved
Rafael Nadal won Madrid Masters with a win over Roger Federer with 6-4 7-6 and after the win he returned to the second place of ATP rankings. The match started with aggressive play by Fedderer and Nadal played more deffensive style. After exchanging some breaks the resukt was 3-3 bur Nadal broke and toke the another game which made the result 5-3. Federer tried to return the break bt Nadal defence and strong various counter attacks closed the first set to 6-4. The next set was even more interesting and aggressive than the first. Nadal lead with the breaks but Federer was always there to equalize the games and suddenly he lead with 6-5 with a break. however Nadal returned the break and the set was to be decided into a tie-break. In the tie-break Federer started well with some minibreaks but when the result was 4-2 there for Federer Nadal rose from the ashes and made the result 6-5 and there with silly mistake Federer lost the match. Nadal made his revenge because the previous year Federer won here and gave end to Nadal successful period.
Voleyball is a sport which develops all parts of your body. It develops all parts of your body and you rise high becuase you need to jump when you hit the ball. Every volleyball player develops the strnght with which he hits the ball and the high on which he jumps. There are four major teams which compare for winning the world cup Brazilia, Rusia, Bulgaria and now Polsha which won the Europrean cup. USA is also from the great volleyball teams and i would probably get fifth place. Brazilia as on football better in volleyball they every year take first or second place. In Brazilia there are a lot of talanted people probably because of the big population. From the beginning of the children childhood they began playing sports. Then there are investitors which pay money later children to develop and in that way they develop as world stars. They play in other world great teams but also for the nation team of their country. In that way they rise the popularity of their country. Rusia also is great country and invests a lot in sports as Rusia and USA. The problem of USA is that they don't have big stars in this sport but they are good in basketball and hokey. A small country as Bulgaria doesn't have a lot of money to offer to train its players but there are big talnts which grow because of stubborn and shance to go in other Europe teams which have better trainners. For a competitor the most important part when he begins his proffecional career is a good trainer. The strongest team in volleyball is when it has players with strong service and to not give the chance to other team to attack them. Very important is the strategy of the treiner to make fake passes and attacks which to confuse other team players and they to get wrong their attack. All this team use very good tactics and in that way have chances to win the world cup.
Ray Allen will turn 35 in July. On Sunday, he played his 92nd game of the season just three days after he shared the defensive responsibility against LeBron James. He scored 25 points on 16 shots to continue the Celtics' run of postseason upsets with a 92-88 win over the Magic in Game 1 of the Eastern finals. When the Celtics traded for Allen in 2007, they predicted he would be unlike the great lost majority of shooting guards who lose their legs in their early 30s. They hoped he would be his generation's Reggie Miller, and that he is. On Sunday, he routinely outraced defenders Matt Barnes and J.J. Redick around the corner like a pinball on a roulette wheel. But, he added another destructive element by putting the ball on the floor and driving it inside. The No. 2 seeded-Magic had spent the previous two days preparing for the Celtics to play through Rajon Rondo. Instead, the Celtics turned Allen into a primary ballhandler and played Rondo off the ball. It went well because Allen's 14 NBA years have left him with the wisdom to know when to shoot or upfake, when to take it down the throat of the lane for a left-handed finish or when to pull up for a mid-range jumper or when to create for others. He has earned that insight without sacrificing his legs, but then that's what summers of hard work and day after day of running on the treadmill or showing up early for pregame workouts have done for him. He is old above the neck and young from the shoulders on down. Boston's defense held Orlando to 20 percent shooting (4-of-20) to grab a 22-14 first-quarter lead that expanded to 31-16 after Orlando managed three shots and five turnovers over the opening five minutes of the second. As much as they succeeded in stifling Howard (3-of-10 for 13 points and seven turnovers) with the man-to-man defense of Kendrick Perkins or Rasheed Wallace, it was Allen who stuck them with the knives to punish them at the other end of the floor. Just as Orlando was threatening a fourth-quarter comeback, Allen responded with a silencing mid-range jumper off the dribble. After the Magic had trimmed the deficit to 10 points, Allen caught a Kevin Garnett pass and connected on a three-pointer with 5:34 to go. When Vince Carter cleverly missed a free throw with 8.4 seconds remaining -- which was tipped in by Jameer Nelson sprinting in from the arc like a wing man recovering an onside kick -- it was Allen who sought the ball, was fouled and doubtlessly swished both free throws to finish the scoring and reclaim home-court advantage for the No. 4 seeded Celtics. The Magic hadn't lost in 14 games since April 2, but their fluid offense congealed and forced Carter to go one-on-one for many of his 23 points. In the meantime, Allen was scoring smoothly in the flow, which should come as no surprise. Amid the injuries to Garnett and Pierce this season, he has been the most reliable of the Big Three all year.
Messi won the Goldenboot as the best attacker in Europe. The attacker of Barcelona had 34 goals in Premier Division and Didier Drogba was second with 29 goals in the Premier League in the UK. Antonio di Natele from Uldinese was third with the same amount of goals as Drogba. In this season Messi managed to score 47 goals in all tournaments which is a new record. The last record was made by C.Ronaldo who scored 42 goals in the season '07/'08. Manchester United had also a player who is in the history of the team - Denis Lou who scored 46 goals in 1963/1964 season.
The formula started this year is very different from the one before as new devices were allowed to be used by the cars, but then again not everyone used the new speeding devices becouse they make the cars havier which makes the car slower in long term. Still, one of the leading for now team in Formula 1 is Red Bull. Their cars have been improved with fast rate at the begining of the last championship and now they are heading to take the gold cup. In the third race we saw their real progress. Brown Mercedes the team which showed big progress during the last year didn't have enough speed to race for the first place. Ex champion teams, the team of Ferrari and mclaren, show their ability to compete for the first place but didn't show the same capacite as the red bull team. Everyone saw that Ferrari won in the first race and have not finished up to now after the first five players. This shows the result from the hard work to make their new and fast cars. Mclaren also get a gold medal and Hamilton showed real posibilities of their cars when they tries to leave behind the players of Ferrari and they won more than 2 seconds every lap. The progress which Reno showed should be mentioned because they got silver medal and were fast as the cars of Ferrari.
For the first time in his United career, Patrice Evra has played a full campaign without winning the league - and he doesn't like the feeling one bit.
The Frenchman's honours list at Old Trafford is now book-ended by two Carling Cups - the victory in Cardiff just weeks after he joined the club during the January 2006 transfer window and this year's triumph over Aston Villa at Wembley. Naturally he'd much prefer to be looking at a fourth consecutive league title as his latest success.
"It was very painful at half-time when I knew that Chelsea were winning 3-0. It’s hard {to take], it’s a sad day today," Evra told MUTV.
"I can say congratulations to all my team-mates because it was not easy this year and to finish second is good.
"But it’s not my mentality. I’ve always said that if I don’t finish first in the league, I will feel like I didn’t do my job very well for Man United. When you play for Man United, you must always win. I’ve been here four years and this is my first [full] year when I haven’t won the league. I feel strange. Today is a very, very sad day for me."
When asked why United had fallen short of a fourth
“Five or six of them came after me. But I did quite well, I wasn’t completely soaked,” said Louis van Gaal after escaping his first beer shower relatively unscathed. “But I dropped my guard a little, and they came back at me.” During the lap of honour, Van Bommel caught the coach from behind with the entire contents of a three-litre beer glass. Van Gaal took it in good part: “It’s wonderful!”
Van Gaal's national championship titles: Four times in the Netherlands: 1994, 1995 & 1996 with Ajax, 2009 with Alkmaar Twice in Spain: 1998 and 1999 with Barcelona Once in Germany: 2010 with Bayern Munich
Louis van Gaal has managed to win the title again. After he won it in his homeland (Nederland) and Spain now he won it in Central Europe in Germany. He has 7 championship titles and this makes him one of the most successful coaches. The coach was asked some question about the soccer season so far:
Q: How does your first title in Munich rank among your successes over the years?
Van Gaal: “Every championship is fantastic, of course – especially in your first season. I achieved that at Barcelona, and again here. And I’m also proud that I am the first Dutch coach to win the German championship. But as you well know, I haven’t done this alone, but at the head of a large staff.”
Q: What differences have their been from previous titles?
Van Gaal: “I have been champion with four different clubs in three countries, and each title has been special in its own way. With Ajax I won three in a row, there I built things up. That was a different experience from what happened here. In Barcelona I was fortunate that the club management very much believed in me, because I had many challenges to overcome in that first year. And with AZ Alkmaar, a small club with young players that had never won anything before, the championship was a really great achievement.”
Q: What is your success with Bayern down to?
Van Gaal: “The players believed in me from day one. That is the best thing that can happen to a coach. Together we always believed that we could do it, and success followed.”
Q: Have you changed during your year in Germany?
Van Gaal: “I already said in my first press conference that my personality was well suited to this job. I am still the same person that I was 20 years ago, but I have learned over the time, I can recognize and evaluate situations better.
Q: How has Dutch football influenced the new champions?
Van Gaal: “We have become champions in a way that not many others have done previously. We play very attractive football, we’re always looking to go on the attack and we always put the opposition under a lot of pressure. Most important is that we were on top in all areas of the game – we scored the most goals in the Bundesliga and conceded the fewest.”
Q: Why did you not rest your stars in Berlin?
Van Gaal: “Because I want to stay in top gear, that’s important. We have won everything in the key months of April and May. For example, I let Ribéry play for 60 minutes and rested him for 30. And I gave Altintop 30 minutes because he will probably have to play in the Champions League final.
Q: How do you now view the two finals coming up?
Van Gaal: “Every player wants to play in the game against Bremen and to win it, and even more the Champions League final. The challenge is to choose the ideal tactics that enable everyone to play at their best.”
Chelsea are the new champions of England after the last 38th round of the Barclays Premier League. With an amazing win of 8-0 against Wigan Atletic they managed to reach the 1st position in the table with a 1 point lead in front of Manchester United-the three-in-a-row winner of the same title before Chelsea. Chelsea proved their position and deserved the trophy that hasn;t been won since 2005. After maximum points won against the 3 major Enlgand clubs- Liverpool(2-0 and 0-2); Arsenal(3-1 and 0-3) and Manchester United(1-0 and 1-2), they got what they came for-the most precious title in Enlgand. Of course Chelsea set a new record in the tournament-103 goals scored in a sinlge season(2009-2010). Second, Didier Drogba became a goalscorer of the league with 29 goals(3 in the last match).Even though the team form London didn't advanced to the quarter-finals of the Champoins League that gave them more strength to win their matches and get the title. Now they have the chance of winning a second title(Enlgand league cup) against the team of Portsmouth which have finance problems and most probably will look to win at least 1 title recently. Roman Abramovich(manager of Chelsea) is finally proud of his team and will look after for many more titles.
The Reds ended 2009-10 in seventh position following their final day goalless draw at Hull City.
Though European football is secure for next term, Kuyt accepts mistakes will have to be rectified if the newspaper headlines are to make happier reading in 2010-11.
"It has been a hard season and we did everything to change things," said Kuyt.
"Up until 10 days ago, we were fighting for a trophy but it didn't happen. You can say we have to forget what has happened but, really, we have to learn from the mistakes we made.
"We've got to push next season and be bouncing from the start."
Kuyt also refused to blame uncertainty regarding the ownership of the club for what has happened on the pitch.
"Every player is interested in what is going on but, if I am honest, I can't blame that side of things for some of our performances," he said.
"We tried to stay focused with things on the pitch - that's what I did, as did everyone else. We just couldn't make good things happen for the club."
Fulham FC are progressing in a unbelievable way in the last 5 years. The team is on the final of Europa League and has great chances winning it. Even though that their performance in the Premier League is not that impressive (12th place), the end of the season will not be dissapoining in any way. The team is making history because this is their first Europe final and the team's expectation has changed a lot for the last 5 years. From a team near the bottom Fulham transformed into a team on a European tournament final. Fulham will try to reach up to the European places and unite to battle with teams like Aston Villa, Manchester City, Tottenham and Everton. Will Fulham take Europa League and will they continue to forge successes? It's about time we understand.
The two best teams in Scottlant will meet for another huge derby in Glasgow where Celtic will play against Glasgow Rangers. Right now Glasgow are leading with 11 points and this game will not deceide anything. This local derby exists from the foundation of the 2 teams and was a reason even for relligious arguing, because one of the teams is a catholic team and the other one is protestant. Celtic's last trophy was in 2008 and their main opponent was Glasgow Rangers. In Scotland there are only 2 teams that could win the league and this is one of the main reasons to have a huge local derby like this one that could be compared as the one in Manchester (Manchester United vs. Manchester City). When Celtic meets Glasgow Rangers in the capital of Scotland there are always many fans that are here to support their teams. This derby could be between teams that aren't the best in the UK, but it is still one of the most important ones, because a derby is made not only by the players on the stadium, but also from the fans who support their teams.
Incredible football, amazing goals, lot of emotions-this was the describtion of the atmosphere in the semi-finals of the Europa league Thursday night. One against other were the teams of Hamburger and Fulham and on the other hand Liverpool and Atletico Madrid. Before coming to the second leg Atletico had the lead of 1 goal against 0 for Liverpool in Spain. Meanwhile Hamburger and Fulham didn't score any goal in Germany which lowered host's chances of home final in the tournament. In the second leg both the results were dramatic-Liverpool didn't had the chance of advancing to the final after extra time and late goal for Atletico. In the first 90 minutes Liverpool managed to score only 1 goal and extra time was needed. There Yossi Benayoun scored and Liverpool was 20 away form the final. But it wasn't over yet and in the 104th minute Diego Forlan qualified his team for the final. The second match emotions were ahead even before the half of the match with a great goal of Mladen Petric. In the second half Fulham managed to score a goal but still that wasn't enough for the host who had to win in order to reach the match for the title. The a goal of their most important player-Zolton Gera advanced the team for the first time in Fulham's history fot the title match.
Now everything depends on these two teams for the fans to see a great show and lots of goals in the first final of this new created tornament.
Rafael Nadal won the Roman masters after a win over David Ferrer with 7/5, 6/2. The match started and the one who had more problems taking his games was Nadal. When the result was 5/5 at the first set, Nadal managed to make a break and take advantage of Ferrer's little distraction. After taking the break Nadal managed to win his own game and finish the set at a result 7/5. The second set started withtotal domination by Nadal and he made a brake at the first game and he was leading 2/1 with a brake. However, the rain started to fall and the match was delayed. When the match was renewed Nadal took 4 of the next 5 games and took the title. This is his second title this year and many people say that he has returned his form and will try to win Rolan Garros.
The world's number one snooker player was suspended yesterday, hours before the sport's annual showpiece, in the wake of match-fixing allegations that threaten to fatally undermine the sport. John Higgins, a three-time world champion, was suspended by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and his manager, Pat Mooney, resigned from its board as the governing body launched an immediate inquiry. Higgins and his manager, Pat Mooney, were alleged by the News of the World to have agreed to accept €300,000 (£261,000) in return for arranging the outcome of four frames in matches to be played later this year. The deal was allegedly made at a meeting with the paper's undercover reporters in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Higgins was one of a handful of top players seen as central to plans recently unveiled by the WPBSA chairman, Barry Hearn, to revive a sport that has suffered a decline in popularity among television viewers and sponsors in recent years. Higgins and Mooney were alleged by the newspaper to have agreed to lose a specific frame in four matches later this year. There was no suggestion that Higgins had previously deliberately lost a frame or match. In a statement read out on the BBC before its live coverage of the world snooker final, between Neil Robertson and Graeme Dott, Higgins insisted he had "never deliberately missed a shot, never mind intentionally lost a frame or a match" and said his conscience was "100% clear". Mooney said that the pair could be "accused of being idiots and possibly naïve in hindsight" but had been the victims of intimidation by what they believed to be "serious Russian crime figures" and clever editing. "However, to have been so deliberately set up in a foreign country when doing nothing other than working on behalf of snooker is malicious in the extreme," said Mooney. Snooker is seen as particularly at risk because of the vast number of matches around the world and the difficulty in telling whether a player has deliberately lost a frame.
