Melchiot must think Albanian's are poor sports...

Two minutes after a controversial red-card Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored in the 91st minute to give the Dutch a one nil victory. An Albanian hooligan promptly takes out his frustration on Wigan defender Mario Melchiot:

Google Mario Melchiot and you'll see the highlight. Netherlands was beating Albania 1-nil as they say, and someone in the stands decided this would be a good time to throw a firework right at one of the Dutch players.

Mr. Melchiot ended up the target, and it, whatever it was, exploded about two and a half feet above his head.

To the credit of the head official, he stopped the game right away. But that doesn't prevent the possible hearing loss Melchiot may very well suffer.

I've done the googling for you:


To be fair to the Albanians it was a maddeningly brilliant goal by Ruud:
More Euro 2008 Update:

Scot James McFadden scores a goal to stun the Frogs, already being declared one of Scotlands best goals ever, rightfully so:Michael Owen joins Jimmy Greaves, Sir Bobby Charlton and Gary Lineker as the only players to score 40 times for the Three Lions:
Well done Michael.

Borat must be proud.

Throwing off-topic and mega-post caution to the wind... For the benefit of The Back Four's foreign audience here is the greatest advert ever, from Hollywood director Michael Mann:

Music from The Last of the Mohicans:

Who will Fabio Capello manage next?

Could he replace Steve McLaren as the Three Lions' manager or perhaps take the over the USMNT duties from Bob Bradley. Or maybe even take over at Chelsea should Jose not bring home the Champions League hardware this year. Sportingo examines the possibilities:

But I want to dig even deeper into the possibilities here. What about England? What if trophies fail to arrive at Chelsea and Liverpool this season? If Liverpool do not win the Premier League it is not out of the question that Rafael Benitez will be fired. Jose Mourinho is not guaranteed to be at Chelsea next season if multiple trophies (and I don't mean of the FA Cup and Carling Cup variety) make their way to Stamford Bridge.

Thus, two big clubs with big budgets and lots of talent could have manager openings. Thinking even bigger for a second, England national team manager Steve McClaren will be gone either before Euro 2008 because England fail to qualify or immediately after the competition when they crash out in dismal fashion again. Managing England is one of the highest profile jobs in the world. Signore Capello - your ego is landing.

And let me throw this out: Would Capello consider managing in the United States?

Consider the total lack of pressure on the US national team manager, and I would have to believe Capello could balance managing an MLS club with the national team job. He could settle in at LA Galaxy, Chivas USA or Chicago Fire all while guiding the Americans to respectability at the international level. If we've learned anything over the summer it is that current manager Bob Bradley hasn't done much to raise the competitiveness of the US national team. They look pretty ordinary outside of CONCACAF and if David Beckham is getting MLS on front pages and prime-time television shouldn't the national team strive for the same?

Capello, of course, would be a great hire for the USMNT and coincidentally was in the UK yesterday and met with Bob Bradley to share technical advice:

Capello met with U.S. coach Bob Bradley and U.S. soccer federation president Sunil Gulati in London on Thursday.

"They wanted my views for a series of technical questions," Capello was quoted as saying in Friday's Gazzetta dello Sport.

The meeting lasted three hours, according to the Gazzetta.

The United States was beaten 1-0 by Sweden in a friendly Wednesday to extend its losing streak to four games — the worst such stretch for the Americans in a decade.

Capello met with U.S. coach Bob Bradley and U.S. soccer federation president Sunil Gulati in London on Thursday.

"They wanted my views for a series of technical questions," Capello was quoted as saying in Friday's Gazzetta dello Sport.

The meeting lasted three hours, according to the Gazzetta.

The United States was beaten 1-0 by Sweden in a friendly Wednesday to extend its losing streak to four games — the worst such stretch for the Americans in a decade.

If Bradley needs advice from Capello he should just switch the interim manager tag to assistant manager or former Manager - especially considering the aforementioned four game losing streak.

Yanks and Three Lions fall

A pretty weak effort from the Yanks tonight in Sweden. A few players such as Kamani Hill and Jay DeMerit had decent form but overall "a mediocre performance" as Donovan Beasley stated.

A strike by Kim Kallstrom in the 56th minute gave Sweden a 1-0 result over the US Men's National Team in a friendly at Ullevi Stadium in Goteborg, Sweden on Wednesday.

The score marked the end of what had been a first-half power struggle on a clear Scandinavian night.

In the first half, things got off to a shaky start for the predominantly European-based squad when a Michael Bradley mishap gave Sweden's Kennedy Bakircioglu space and options in the second minute. Bakircioglu found Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a centering ball but the Inter Milan striker went wide with it.

The Americans quickly returned the favor on a great chance for DaMarcus Beasley in the third minute. Landon Donovan took a creative pass from Clint Dempsey and played it flat to Beasley who, alone, went wide left.

"The contact was there but it was just the wrong side of the post," Beasley told reporters after the match. "I should have scored. I thought it was going in."

Beasley's miss seemed to leave him a bit shell-shocked in the following moments.

DeMerit looked to be the best Yank when he came on late; it's about time for him to get more minutes. Most supporter seems to be curious to have seen how Jozy Altidore might have fared against Sweden; hopefully that day will come soon. Also worth noting was the debut of Sal Zizzo.

Struggling with their fitness England looked like and fared as well as their 1998 World Cup team, with Owen & Beckham playing together. Kevin Kuranyi and the Germans got a gift equalizer from the shaky Paul Robison. Cristian Pander put the Germans ahead with a marvelous blast that Robinson was helpless to stop.

Frank Lampard's early goal was not enough as Germany came from behind to beat England 2-1 at Wembley and heap more pressure on Steve McClaren. There was not a penalty in sight but Paul Robinson's howler ensured England still experienced that familiar sinking feeling against their old rivals.

Lampard's first international goal for 12 months had raised hopes of a rare home win against the old enemy.

Unfortunately, on a night of experimentation and preparation, the positives gained from an encouraging performance which deserved better than the eventual result, will be overshadowed by Robinson's woes.

The Tottenham man gifted Kevin Kuranyi Germany's equaliser with a miserable mistake and nothing during his 45-minute appearance suggested anything other than that his replacement, veteran David James, should be installed when Israel head to Wembley on September 8 for a game coach Steve McClaren has already described as "must-win" if England are to reach Euro 2008.

The goalkeeping conundrum will occupy McClaren's mind for most of the next 17 days, although there was little Robinson could have done to keep out the sweet strike from Christian Pander which ultimately gave Germany their win.

The aforementioned Pander goal: