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Beckenbauer Claims Only Germany Could Stop Brazil

German legend Franz Beckenbauer has claimed that only his German national team will be capable of stopping the Brazilians at the upcoming World Cup 2014. Brazil are regarded as the favourites to win the title due to the home support behind them. However, there are also other teams capable of achieving this glory and this includes the likes of Germany and Spain. Spain come into the World Cup as the defending champions while Germany have come under criticism for the repeated failures in major tournaments.

As a result, there is a lot of pressure on the young German team and manager Joachim Loew. Despite this, Beckenbauer claims that Germany will be able to lift the World Cup title, which would join them in the elite rank. Currently, Brazil have the world record when it comes to most number of World Cup titles won – five. Despite facing a tough says that includes the likes of Portugal and the USA, Beckenbauer says that Germany cannot only progress from the group, but also win the tournament itself.

The first major tournament for the Germans will be against Portugal, who have the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani in their ranks. If Germany win this match, then they would straightaway be considered as favourites for the knockout stages.

“I have seen Brazil play devastatingly well during the Confederations Cup. And they will be doing the same during the World Cup as well. Brazil can truly be challenged only by the Germans. However, I know that the teams that have won the Confederations Cup have never won the World Cup in the same year. So, in that respect, they have some problems. Otherwise, they will start as clear favourites. We have really a good side with (Bastian) Schweinsteiger and (Manuel) Neuer,” said the honorary president of Bayern.

Courtois Has Rivalry With Cech

Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has stated that he cannot be in the same team along with goalkeeper Petr Cech since it would be unhealthy for both of them. Courtois has come on leaps and bounds in the last two years. Even though he has been a Chelsea player since 2011, he has spent all of his time at Atletico Madrid. After a mediocre first season, the young goalkeeper has been one of the best in the world with his impressive performances, which have started speculation that he will be fighting for the first-team spot at Chelsea from next season.

Courtois, though, has revealed that he does not want to be fighting along with Cech, who he thinks is the best in the world, since it would be unhealthy for both players. At just 22 years of age, Courtois says that he wants to play regularly in order to improve his game. There has been a lot of speculation that Courtois may make the move to Atletico Madrid permanent, but it has also been reported that Czech Republic’s number one stopper Petr Cech may be sold. At 32 years of age, he is in the prime of his career – for a goalkeeper.

Courtois still has two years left on his current contract and there have been discussions to extend it.

“I still have to talk to Chelsea to discuss my future. I want to have my future done quickly. Hopefully we can find an agreement for next season shortly. I have the biggest respect for Petr Cech, but I think putting me and him in the same team is not the healthiest thing. Neither of us would be happy to just play the FA Cup or League Cup. We need to talk about this and see what will happen,” said the youngster.

INTER CHASE TORRES

Since Fernando Torres made his move away from Liverpool and joined Chelsea in January of 2011, he has struggled trying to score goals and this is why Jose Mourinho had to resort to the transfer market in order to sign other forward and the Portuguese went on signing Demba Ba and Samuel Eto’o.

Torres arguably was one of the best forwards in the world when he used to wear a Liverpool jersey as he formed a superb attacking partnership with Steven Gerrard but now with Chelsea, he is a completely different player who hasn’t been able to score more than 10 goals in a single season since he left Anfield. Continue reading INTER CHASE TORRES

Paletta Happy with Italian Debut

Parma’s ace defender Paletta chirped that he is pretty happy about his debut in the Italian Team. However he feels disappointed about outcome of the Spain Vs Italy Match. Playing along with Leo Messi for Argentina, the defender bagged the game in the Under Twenty World Cup. Tonight the player made his remarkable Azzurri bow in which they faced a 1-0 defeat, earning praises from one and all.

The twenty year old defender says that post his debut on Monday he has settled in pretty well and his team mates have given him a very warm welcome. He adds that since his family is from Catanzaro, he is well connected to his roots.

Talking about the variance in fitness levels of the players of Spain and Italy, Cesare Prandelli, the Azzuri Coach criticized that this difference was much embarrassing. However, Palette had to say otherwise. He commented that leaving everything else, the reason why Spain could maintain their solid fitness level throughout the game is because they know how to make the ball run. He thinks that the entire Italian defense team worked perfectly and Spain won only because of lucky ricochet but on a whole the Italy defended quite marvelously. This ex Liverpool defender (centre half) was heavily praised by Prandelli for his fantastic performance.

Besides being an ace defender Paletta is also known for his artistic skills especially caricatures. His caricature calendar featuring his teammates from Parma was release as a way to raise fund for a charity. However this versatile player hasn’t done any for his new Italian Teammates. He started it off as a joke by drawing caricatures of his teammates on postcards, and he never had any clue that it will be turned into a full calendar.