Category: What They’re Saying

“If we played like that every week we wouldn’t be so inconsistent.”

— Middlesbrough coach Gareth Southgate on his team’s 2-1 win over Arsenal Dec. 9. (BBC)

“With hindsight, I consider that my choice of words does not fit with the character of the Royal Netherlands Football Association.”

— Henk Kesler, director of the Dutch soccer association, apologizes for calling police officers “spoiled brats” for forcing the postponement of two top league matches. Police unions had said they would demonstrate at Dutch league matches to draw attention to their demand for a salary increase. (Sapa)

“Now, I feel really satisfied with what I’ve achieved.”

— AC Milan’s Paolo Maldini, 39, confirming, after helping AC Milan win the World Club Cup with a 4-2 win over Boca Juniors, that he will end his 24-year career at the end of this season. With Milan, Maldini has also won the Champions League five times, seven Serie A titles, one Italian Cup and the World Club Cup’s predecessor, the Intercontinental Cup, three times. (AFP)

“It’s a shame to go looking for a Swede or an Italian. It is as if you are saying to the English coaches: ‘You are in England, you are all rubbish and we are going to look elsewhere.'”

— France coach Raymond Domenech weighs in on England’s hiring of Italian Fabio Capello as national team coach. Capello replaces Steve McClaren, whose predecessor was Sven-Goran Eriksson. (AFP)

“I had to set an example so everyone at Bayern knows how they’re expected to behave. Players criticizing their teammates must stop. Otherwise we become a madhouse. [Oliver] Kahn must know he has to set an example to the younger players and at the Christmas party he did not behave well. The captain can’t leave early.”

— Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld explains why he suspended goalkeeper Oliver Kahn from Saturday’s game against Hertha Berlin. Kahn criticized the performances of teammates Luca Toni and Franck Ribery. (Reuters)

“I thought the lads looked lively and confident before the first goal went in.”

— Sheffield United coach Bryan Robson after his team’s 3-0 loss to Stoke City, which scored its first goal 90 seconds into the game. (BBC)

“After reflecting at length, I took the decision to exclude myself from the possibility of becoming the England manager even though I regard it as a wonderful job.”

— Jose Mourinho rules himself out of England national team coaching job. The Portuguese former Chelsea coach said he discussed the position with the English FA, whose leading candidates to replace Steve McClaren, fired after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, are believed to be Italians Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi and Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill. (AP)

“We’ve been working with these kids and concentrating on these players and these games for weeks. It was nice to have something to play for, and it’s always good to beat Brazil.”

— U.S. U-17 men’s national team head coach Wilmer Cabrera, who celebrated a 2-0 win over Brazil in his second game at the helm.

“It is a little difficult to relive that. Mentally, I was full of all sorts of emotions. The World Cup was the only thing that kept me together after the death of my father [in June], kept me fighting and together and dedicated to the game. More so, the moment I realized we didn’t have the opportunity to win the gold medal, my world came tumbling down. I had nothing to immediately give back to my father. I was wound so tight emotionally, and the moment after the loss I broke.”

— U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper Hope Solo, who was controversially benched during last summer’s Women’s World Cup and then kicked off the team for criticizing the decision. Solo made her first public comments on the incident to the Associated Press on Thursday.

“What happened in the game?”

— The first words from outgoing Japan coach Ivica Osim when the Bosnian came out of a two-week coma. Osim suffered a stroke at his suburban Tokyo home while watching an English Premier League game on TV. (Guardian)

“Ribery can do what he wants after he has scored a goal, everything is perfectly correct.”

— Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld says he had no problem with his French striker Franck Ribery making a shut-up gesture to Arminia Bielefeld fans, who had been taunting him with an offensive chant before his winning goal last weekend. (AFP)

“I’ve got it signed, I want to frame it and keep it for my kids. Every kid in the world knows who David Beckham is and my kids are just the same.”

— Ross Aloisi, captain of New Zealand’s Wellington Phoenix, in a good mood after his team’s 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy because he swapped jerseys with David Beckham. (The Dominion Post)

“We would have the best team if we could go into every household and throw away every PlayStation, Xbox and video game.”

— West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green offers another explanation for England’s national team’s plight. (The Age)

“My dear, my penis is a mountain.”

— Rough translation of what English opera singer Tony Henry sang while performing the Croatian national anthem before last weekend’s England-Croatia game when he botched the line, “You know my dear how we love your mountains.” Croatian players giggled during the performance, prompting suggestions that the gaffe loosened them up before their 3-2 win and an online campaign has been started to recruit Henry for Croatia’s European Championship games next summer. (The Times of London)

“I don’t think I will live long enough to see our country crack it at international level — and, oh, how depressing is that?”

— Former England national team coach Graham Taylor, 63, making his point on England’s decline at the international level.

“What is the real story of 2007 for MLS? The actual story has been looking to South America and importing players from South America who are very significant performers in our league.”

— MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis, speaking Monday at Soccerex in Johannesburg, insisting that David Beckham‘s arrival to big crowds and increased television ratings wasn’t the biggest event of the year in MLS.

“It could happen anywhere. South Africa is trying very hard — I hope nothing else happens — but we won’t be able to move so freely as we are used to at World Cups.”

— German national team general manager Oliver Bierhoff after Friday’s shooting death of former Austrian pro Pieter Burgstaller on a golf course near Durban South Africa. Like Burgstaller, whom he met on the flight from Germany to South Africa, Bierhoff was in South Africa for soccer activities related to Sunday’s World Cup 2010 Qualifying Draw. He had his briefcase stolen from his hotel room on Sunday. (Guardian)

“I’ll still be available. Hopefully, I’ll still be playing, and playing well enough to be in the England squad in 2010. But who knows? Everything can change, and I have seen that in the last 12 months.”

— David Beckham, whose hopes of playing in Euro 2008 ended Wednesday when England was eliminated but who hopes to play in the 2010 World Cup. Beckham was at first discarded from the England team for Euro 2008, then recalled late in the campaign. With his appearance in England’s 3-2 loss to Croatia, Beckham has 99 caps.

“The pitch is no good and not in the condition that Wembley used to be known for.”

— Croatia coach Slaven Bilic, criticizing the Wembley Stadium grass field before his team’s match against England in Euro ’08 qualifying. The field took a beating recently because of an NFL game between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins and heavy rains. (BBC)

“We all feel the same, that we don’t feel respected. Players had to take unpaid leave and some are now not able to sustain training because they don’t have the time because of the money lost in China. We are all grateful that we went to the World Cup but realistically we can’t sustain the level of progress because of employment issues.”

— Forward Eniola Aluko on the travails of players on the England national team that reached the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup in September. Since returning home, players say they have been unable to train properly since they have to work overtime to make up for lost wages while representing England in China, where they were paid only 40 pounds ($80) a day. (BBC Sport)

“It was a tale of two halves. In the first half, we outplayed them. We had quality chances. In the second half, we bunkered in and just didn’t get the job done.”

— New England star Taylor Twellman, bemoaning the Revs’ approach after they blew a 1-0 halftime lead and lost to the Houston Dynamo, 2-1, in the MLS Cup final.

“I’m not overly superstitious, but I can be when I need to be and perhaps this is one of these occasions. I understand that, for the Italians, the 17th of the month is our equivalent of the 13th. You should also bear in mind the game kicks off at 17:00 hours!”

— Scotland assistant coach Andy Watson believes luck might be on his team’s side in its potentially decisive Euro 2008 qualifying game against Italy on Saturday. (Telegraph)

“We’re the English Premier League, yet the majority of the teams at the top of the Premiership have very few English players.”

— Reading coach Steve Coppell, who is advocating a limit on foreign players in the English Premier League, a sentiment seconded by England captain Steven Gerrard, who said, “Something has got to happen otherwise there will be more and more foreigners and they will take over.” (Reuters)

“I can’t remember being involved in a search and selection process where we’ve had such universal support and acclaim for a candidate. That’s from players, coaches, FIFA staff, FIFA elected officials and people at the technical level. So, I’m not going to say it was easy because we had some excellent candidates, but Pia comes with extraordinary credentials and I think the message is that we want to win the gold in Beijing and get the program to higher levels.”

— U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati on hiring Pia Sundhage as the new U.S. women’s national team coach. (USsoccer.com)