Byron Moreno can add up to 63 months of time in federal prison to his already long-ish list of controversies in his career. Moreno, who was arrested at JFK in New York City in September, has admitted to smuggling heroin into the country from his flight home from Ecuador. While the charge means he can face up to 63 months in prison, a sentencing date has yet to be set. Until then, he will be watching games from prison while being held without bail.
I think Moreno already had the [heroin] in 2002, but not in his underwear, in his body. Joking aside, when sports people get involved in drug cases it means they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel.
It also means they’ve lost the real meaning of the sport, which is also to save kids from the street and various dangers, like drugs.
For the second time in three days, a path was created from the left-hand flank, or close to it, and the ball intended for the head of an attacker landed in the net without touching another soul. This little cross – even if Baha’a Abdulrahman would swear on his mother it was a shot – was the decisive goal which sent Saudi Arabia to their ultimate Asian Cup demise.
Meanwhile, in the ultimate no-no for keepers, Eiji Kawashima cleared it right to a Syrian attacker, earning himself a nice red card and warm shower in the process, despite the consequences to the offside rule.
As if you needed anything past reason number one to watch the Asian Cup.
The only thing that beats great football is good football married to defensive imperfection.
There are some months FIFA just has to punt their rankings. The cynics and wiseasses among us (aye) might say all of them, but it is at the very least the month of January, with December largely a barren thirty-one days.
Evidence? The only two moves worth mentioning were Burundi and Lebanon, which dropped to 140th and 168th in the world, respectively.
And then came a stumble into the abyss that is known as ‘Page 5′ on FIFA’s official rankings.
‘Page 5′ reads like more like a potential vacation listing than a list of nations with football relevance, which is precisely why they’re on Page 5.
And with a tip of the cap to the master of maps like such, The Best Eleven, these are the locations of the world’s most rubbish national football teams.
Qatar was in a precarious position heading into their match with China. With Uzbekistan already qualified, they needed a win, or else a draw would risk a ‘resting’ Uzbekistan side to fall to China with a draw, or simply leave the tournament as hosts in the groups.
Yusef Ahmed took care of matters by scoring a goal which was so good the Qatari federation would’ve requested it count for two at halftime had he not rendered the point moot by scoring a second just moments before the half. (And at this moment, halftime 2-0 is where we stand.)
See both of Ahmed’s goals and all of the goals from the tournament on our Asian Cup goals page.
Now that the first round of Asian Cup group matches are in the bag, the tournament is starting to come into focus a little. Some teams are already in a must-win (or at least must-not-lose) situation, and others are one win away from the knockouts. There have been 19 goals so far (see them all here), and luckily only one of those has been from the penalty spot, and we have a few goalscorers who have already racked up multiple goals. Here is the list, including all sixteen goalscorers so far.
Updated 11-Jan-2011
Each * indicates a penalty
1st (Tied three ways – 2 goals each) Abdelrazaq Al Hussain (Syria) Tim Cahill (Australia) Ja-Cheol Koo (South Korea)
4th (Tied thirteen ways – 1 goals each) Faouzi Aaish (Bahrain)* Hasan Abdel Fattah (Jordan) Odil Ahmedov (Uzbekistan) Taisir Al-Jassim (Saudi Arabia) Zhouxiang Deng (China) Server Djeparov (Uzbekistan) Brett Holman (Australia) Harry Kewell (Australia) Younis Mahmoud (Iraq) Eman Mobali (Iran) Gholamreza Rezaei (Iran) Maya Yoshida (Japan) Linpeng Zhang (China)
Harry Kewell has called the Asian Cup a ‘mini-World Cup’, which seems rather appropriate given the nature of the first round. There were the mildly colossal upsets (Uzbekistan over Qatar and Syria over Saudi Arabia), the big upset which will wind up a small upset (Jordan drawing with Japan) and the big boys takin’ care of business (Korea, Australia, Iran).
A grand chunk of the spectrum of football possibilities, really, with bonus these-two-were-in-a-war-not-too-long-ago derby between Iraq and Iran, in which the latter righted the natural order of things and return volleyed the champions back to firm underdog status.
Scenarios Group A: The group can be decided with wins by Uzbekistan and China, while the losers from the first round are both out with a loss. Home sweet home…not quite.
Group B: Saudi Arabia canned coach Jose Peseiro after they were upset by Syria, and will have years free for reflection should they lose to Jordan, while Syria, of all teams, can seal a spot in the kayos with victory. Group C: Winner of Australia v South Korea is in; loser of Bahrain v India is out.
Group D: Iran is in with a win, Iraq is out with a loss.
Twas something of a foregone conclusion that China would bring the fun to the Asian Cup, be it from the realm of the not quite legal or shit-I-hope-he-has-a-good-lawyer. They seem to be as critical as anyone about their inspired attempt to combine martial arts and football, which makes it okay to fire them firmly under the bus.
It wasn’t really expected that they would extract similar behavior from their opponents, like Kuwait’s Nada Masaed, who was so moved by Felipe Melo’s extracurriculars from a seated position, he booted his Chinese foe in the dumplings. Masaed was then sent off, and possibly cried.
Is there a conspiracy to be had that he was hired by the Chinese gov’t to serve as an agent abroad for population control? Probably.
My name is Mamudu Nurudeen popularly known as Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious born on 25 Feb. 1985, to Mr Mamudu and Hajia Safura at Bawku Central in the Upper East Region of Ghana.
I am currently a student of Sunyani Polytechnic offering HND General Agriculture.
I am also a freelance Journalist, a motivational speaker and the founder of PERSONALITY AND HUMAN RELATIONS (PHR)
PLEASE THIS WEBSITE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Now that the first round of 
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