Lionel Messi - Cristiano Ronaldo Head To Head

Lionel Messi (Barcelona 5-0 Real Sociedad)  
After making a rather subdued start to the game against the Basque outfit, Messi came to life as the contest wore on. He got on the scoresheet just two minutes after the restart when a series of dizzying one-two's with Dani Alves was finished off with aplomb by 'El Mesias'.

If his first was a fine collaboration, his second was a display of typical individual genius. Picking the ball up from Bojan Krkic on the right edge of the box, Messi waltzed into the middle past a line of four defenders before coolly slotting the ball home low into the opposite corner of the goal.

Goal.com Player Ratings Comment: Voted Top of the Match by Goal.com's editors and readers. Simply unplayable for the umpteenth time this year. Superbly taken first goal just after the break and a sublime solo effort for the second. Showed impeccable dribbling and interplay with his team mates, but in all honesty he did not meet much resistance from Real Sociedad's defense.

Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Zaragoza 1-3 Real Madrid)

CR7 maintained his goal-per-game average in La Liga this season after scoring from a free-kick against Zaragoza.

His effort came just a minute before half-time when he curled in a pile-driver of a shot from 25 yards out into the top corner, leaving opposition goalkeeper Leo Franco rooted to the ground.

Prior to that goal, Ronaldo had a hand in Madrid's opener when his audacious mid-air backheel flick sent Marcelo on his way to tee up Mesut Oezil to score.

Ronaldo and Messi are now tied at the top of La Liga's goalscoring charts.

Goal.com Player Ratings Comment: Voted Top of the Match by Goal.com's editors and readers. Terrific as ever. His footwork and link up play with his peers was absolutely fantastic. Once again he produced a stunning free-kick to tally another goal to his incredible goal-scoring record for Los Blancos

Why Siasia demanded jumbo pay

The new Super Eagles' Chief Coach, Samson Siasia, has stated why he demanded for what he called “a reasonable salary” from the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), while negotiating his contract to manage the national team.

It would be recalled that Siasia originally demanded the sum of $50,000 (about N15million) per month as salary for him to tinker the senior national team. That request was part of what delayed his appointment, as the football authorities cried aloud that they could not afford such a jumbo pay as salary for the coach if they engage him.

Meanwhile, the Bayelsa State-born tactician has explained that he demanded for that amount to enable him concentrate on his job. He said with such a salary every month, no player would be able to influence him, neither would he have any reason to ask for any form of financial gratification from any player.
Siasia made himself clear on DStv during the week while fielding questions from a team of sports analysts made up of Daniel Amokachi, Collin Udoh and veteran TV presenter, Charles Anazodo.

On the allegation that Nigerian coaches usually collect bribe from players, which force them to build their teams around unfit players, Siasia said: “It's that lure that made me to demand for that amount of salary from the NFF in the first place. “I made that demanded to avoid the distraction of bribery allegations because I believe that with a reasonable salary, such allegations would die a natural death.
“However, in all my previous assignments, I have never demanded or collected any form of bribe from any player, and I won't start doing it now.”

Manchester City Claim Carlos Tevez Is Demanding £300,000-A-Week To Remain At Eastlands

Carlos Tevez is believed to be wanting a pay hike that will take his wages to a mammoth £300,000-a-week if he is to remain at Manchester City.

The Argentine has been the center piece of the club's jigsaw in their rise to second place in the Premier League - level on points with leaders Arsenal.

But only recently, the 26-year-old handed his employers a written transfer request to make a move away from Eastlands, which was immediately rejected by the club.

Now The Times reports that City are claiming that the player made demands to have his wage upped to £300,000-a-week to remain at the club.

However, the former Boca Juniors man has publicly maintained that his decision to make a move away is not based on money, but on an irreparable working relationship with "certain executives and individuals at the club."

In the meantime, The Sun claims that the ex-Manchester United man will quit football if his current employers do not allow him to leave in January.

Tevez has played some part — either scoring or assisting — in 14 of City's 24 league goals this season

A Man that slaughters two of a nieces

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You might not believe this, but it’s true. In a desperate bid to become rich, a young man in Calabar, popularly known as Udo Mbakara, has sliced off the heads of two young girls who are his nieces.

Mbakara, 28, told police detectives in the Cross River State capital that he beheaded his two young nieces so that he could sell the heads. Each of the head, he said, was to be sold for one million naira.

The suspect lives with his mother, his younger brother and two nieces at 65, Edim Otop in Calabar. His elder sister and mother of his nieces is said to live in Lagos. The sister only comes from time to time to visit.

Narrating the incident at the police station where he is being detained pending his arraignment, Mbakara said: “On that fateful Saturday morning at about 9 am, Princess, aged nine and Rachel, aged six, were all at home when I offered to cook rice for them. But unknown to the children, I had drugged the food and did not allow my own younger brother to eat the food.

“After consuming the food, they fell asleep. Then I carried them to the inner room where I started hacking off their heads. I was offered the sum of one million naira for the head of a virgin. I was to be paid two million naira for the two heads.”
Investigations by Daily Sun revealed that Mbakara, who has since refused to disclose the proposed buyer of the sliced heads, might not be a first offender. Many people believe he has for long been in the business of selling human heads to ritualists within the Calabar metropolis.

“It is even rumoured that he’s behind the sudden disappearances of most of the missing children in the town, and that he has been fronting for those in the business. It was also gathered that his elder brother is serving a jail term in the Afokang Prison for rape,” a resident told Daily Sun. Police sources said that in the last three months, the command has received reports of missing children and has even gone on air to announce the particulars of some of them.

A family source confided in this newspaper that it was Udo Mbakara’s younger brother that raised the alarm on what the suspect was doing inside the room. According the source, who pleaded anonymity “due to family considerations,” the younger Udo claimed that he heard the children screaming inside. The source continued: “So he went and peeped and saw his elder brother mopping blood on the floor.

His entire body was also very bloody. At the gory sight, he rushed out and informed neighbours that there was something going on in the house and the girls were screaming. At that moment, some neighbours went in to see what was going on. They then alerted men of the Airport Police Station who responded promptly and arrested Udo Mbakara.”
The slaughtered kids were pupils of Holy Family Nursery and Primary School, 34, Otu Ansa Street in Calabar.

At the children’s school, the headmistress, Mrs. Rosa Samuel Edo, described them as very brilliant, saying it was a pity that the school has lost them. According to her, it was as if the unlucky children had known that something would go wrong, noting that they both developed fever on Thursday and Friday. Princess’ class teacher, who would not disclose his name, was crying profusely when Daily Sun sought to speak with him. He said he was close to the girl who he described as “very brilliant.”

Mbakara, who is presently being interrogated at the homicide department of the state police Command, Diamond Hill in Calabar, would soon be charged to court.

I won't lobby for Eagles' job - Rufai

Nigeria's first choice goalkeeper to the 1994 FIFA World Cup in USA, Peter Rufai, has declared that he's not desperate to join Samson Siasia's backroom staff in the Super Eagles as goalkeeper trainer, and would not lobby for the job.

Rufai, fondly called 'Dodo Mayana' by his admirers, insisted that nobody has contacted him on the job and wondered how his name came up in several media reports that he was in line for the job of becoming Siasia's assistant in the new Super Eagles' technical crew.

He said he found the talk making the rounds in the media amusing, as he had never indicated interest in the job, or has he been approached by anyone from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

“The way you heard my name in the media is the same way I heard it and I can tell you that no one has contacted me by any means. It is not in my place to give myself a job in the NFF as goalkeeper trainer and I would not go asking for it. If the authorities running football in Nigeria deem it fit that I join the technical crew, then I would be glad to work in the interest of Nigeria,” he stated.

Rufai, who captained the Super Eagles to the France'98 World Cup, noted that as much as he would love to give back to Nigeria all he had gained from the country, he would not go begging for the job to work with Siasia.

IBB replies Jonathan

Former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, has said that the attempted justification of the abandonment of zoning, as being done by supporters of President Goodluck, amounts to “crass opportunism, ‘long-throatism,’ gullibility, and bad-spiritedness.”

He said that moral burden and weight of history would come to bear on those concerned.
In a statement issued yesterday on his behalf by Prince Kassim Afegbua,
director, media and communications, IBB 2011 Presidential Campaign Organisation, Babangida said that President Jonathan and others in government are occupying public offices, at present, because of zoning. He said that if they choose to abandon zoning, after benefiting from it, “they have their conscience to battle with.”

The retired General, who is also a presidential aspirant, expressed disappointment that President Jonathan and his aides are only interested in justifying the abandonment of an established agreement instead of making effort to change the fortunes of the country.

He said that the Federal Government should have been worried about the poor state of the economy, as being reported by foreign agencies, adding: “It is not an accident of history that all foreign agencies are dishing out unpleasant statistics about Nigeria’s declining economic rating. For any patriot, it is enough food for thought than this display of unintelligence and crass ignorance by recruits in the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation.”
Babangida accused the spokesman of Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation, Mr. Sully Abu, of disrespecting elders over what he said about the letter he wrote to the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP), Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo requesting that the party kept faith with zoning.

He said that the attempt by Abu to interpret the judgment of the Abuja High Court on zoning stood logic on its head, adding: “The verdict and pronouncement of the learned judge is not only instructive but also one that opens new grounds in legal appreciation, but lickspittle of Sully Abu’s ilk can decide to give their unintelligent interpretation to suit their undeserving ambition against the run of time, logic, reason, common sense, fairness, and fair play.”
The former military president said he would not stop making efforts to ensure that Nigerians’ votes count in elections, while promising to continue offering his services, with the view to promoting stability and good governance.

The statement reads: “It is unfortunate and pathetically disturbing that in this era of flourishing democracy, which guarantees the right to free expression, some persons masquerading under the guise of spokespersons, could still exhibit such a pathological ignorance about issues that are factorising the polity of our dear country. In their bid to impress their paymasters and get some crumbs from our collective patrimony, they betray all senses of protocol to use languages that easily expose them as men of little minds. Otherwise, there would not have been any rationale for the misplaced anger of Sully Abu, trying effortlessly and disingenuously to misinterpret the letter written by His Excellency, General Ibrahim Babangida, to the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, clearly addressed to him and not to the campaign organisation of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

“His asymmetrical effusions underscored the very reason why the Babangida Campaign Organisation observed that the country is daily plunging into darkness, with decaying moral values, lack of respect for elders, and lack of positive and capacity-driven leadership that needs urgent attention of serious-minded persons. The failing economy with refurbished statistics, presents to Nigerians home and abroad, a very gloomy picture that requires strength of character, courage and vision on the part of the leader to help address these obvious misnomers that are

“We find it interesting that Sully Abu could attempt to interpret the judgment of the Abuja High Court, in isolation, to suit the bulbous ego of his paymasters, and in such a manner that tends to stand logic on its head. The verdict and pronouncement of the learned judge is not only instructive but also one that opens new grounds in legal appreciation, but lickspittle of Sully Abu’s ilk can decide to give their unintelligent interpretation to suit their undeserving ambition against the run of time, logic, reason, common sense, fairness, and fair play.

“If President Goodluck Jonathan truly wants to provide purposeful leadership, a recruit such as Sully Abu is surely a bad product. Individuals, who could not, in any stretch of imagination, offer creative and innovative leadership in a manner that would drive their enterprise to success, cannot, in similar fashion, be made to midwife leadership at a higher spectrum. With advice from Sully Abu, we can now understand why President Jonathan is generally being accused of lacking good and recreative advisers, reason why the country is presently undergoing stress and fluctuations.

“A serious minded campaign organisation would attempt to seek support from a wide array of individuals to get some level of mass endorsement and not recourse to raining abusive phrases and unintelligent innuendos to create panic in the system. Even though Nigerians are aware that leadership recruitment process in the country has become so baleful and ridiculous, to the extent that votes no longer count, we will not rest on our oars and allow this unimaginable recklessness to continue to permeate our body politic. We will, in the spirit of nationalistic patriotism, continue to offer services that would help to promote stability and sense in governance. All the persons and offices that Sully Abu now graciously work for today were and are products from the same zoning arrangement they now bitterly despise. From the office of the president to the smallest office in the land within the PDP, zoning was applied in order to encourage and promote sense of belongingness in every member.

“If they are now trying to remove the ladder with which they climbed to the leadership rostrum, they have their consciences to battle with. They alone carry the moral burden and the weight of history would come to bear on them. It amounts to crass opportunism, ‘long-throatism,’ gullibility, and bad-spiritedness for anyone to attempt to shift the goal post at the middle of the game. Rather than show desperation to upturn the logic of the judgment of the Abuja Court, the like of Sully Abu should show desperation to rescue the country from its present parlous state. It is not an accident of history that all foreign agencies are dishing out unpleasant statistics about Nigeria’s declining economic rating. For any patriot, it is enough food for thought than this display of unintelligence and crass ignorance by recruits in the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation.”

Tottenham war against chelseafc

Bosingwa is out with a hamstring injury while Van der Vaart is sidelined.

 

Knocking On The Top Four Door
Spurs as title contenders? Stop laughing at the back, it's a real possibility. Harry Redknapp's side are only six points off the summit and a win against a Chelsea side in disarray on Sunday would take them to within a point of their London rivals.

They are in-form too, unbeaten in seven matches, having secured progression to the Champions League knockout phase, impressively topping their group ahead of holders Inter. Redknapp's men go into this London derby the more confident and most likely to secure all three points. It's been a while since we said that.

I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues

It is not a good time to be associated with Chelsea at the moment; struggling for form, struggling with injuries, and struggling to understand why this season seems to be falling down around them. And there appears to be no sign of things improving.

Wednesday's limp defeat at Marseille showed how far the Blues have fallen, with an impotent attack and a lazy defense letting in Brandao for the winner. A trip to a bullish Spurs side isn't what the doctor ordered.

And with Frank Lampard still missing and John Terry not 100 per cent, Chelsea will be hoping Santa Claus brings them an upturn in fortunes, or a magic cure for injuries, or they could find themselves losing pace with the top pack.

TEAM NEWS

Tottenham

Spurs will have to do without the services of talisman of Rafael van der Vaart, who hasn't recovered in time from a hamstring injury. It was hoped the Dutchman would be able to make the starting line-up, but those hopes have been dashed.

However, in better news midfield maestro Luka Modric is back, along with Peter Crouch, Aaron Lennon and Alan Hutton, after being rested for the midweek Champions League draw with Twente.

Jermaine Jenas and Younes Kaboul are doubtful, but there could be a starting place for Michael Dawson, who is ready to make his first start since returning from a serious injury. The chances of Tom Huddlestone, Jamie O'Hara, Ledley King or Jonathan Woodgate playing are zero, though, as they all have long-term injury problems.
Probable lineup: Gomes; Hutton, Gallas, Bassong, Assout-Ekotto; Lennon, Palacios, Modric, Bale; Crouch, Defoe.
Chelsea

Sunday won't see the long awaited return of Frank Lampard for the Blues. The midfielder has been consigned to the sidelines since August after suffering two setbacks in his rehabilitation from a hernia operation and will continue to miss out.

Nicolas Anelka and Ashley Cole were rested for the trip to Marseille in midweek and should start at White Hart Lane, alongside John Terry who made it through 70 minutes in France.

Jose Bosingwa picked up a hamstring injury and will miss out - with Paulo Ferreira likely to deputize - joining long term injury victims Alex and Yossi Benayoun on the sidelines.

Probable lineup: Cech; Ferreira, Terry, Ivanovic, Cole; Essien, Ramires, Mikel; Kalou, Drogba, Anelka