footballcircus

International Week over and a weekend of domestic fixtures ahead, followed by the return of the Champions League next week...So what better to squeeze in between than a brand spanking new edition of Football Circus! This week we feature Edgar Davids, Mexico, Romelu Lukaku and Mario Balotelli.

Pitbull Gets Vicious

The man nicknamed the 'Pitbull' featured in our Dirty Thirty segment last week and this week, Edgar Davids has justified his inclusion in the segment. Davids is still plying his trade at English side Barnet as player-manager and during a 20 man brawl between his side and Wrexham, he received a red card after a deliberate elbow to Wrexham player Stephen Wright.

Not only was Davids unable to control his players, he was unable to control himself and set a terrible example as his elbow to Wright left the Wrexham man requiring a skin graft.

Davids, wearing the number 1 jersey, orders his players to call him 'Mr Davids' both on and off the field, but following this controversy, he may find it difficult to earn their respect. When questioned about the incident, Davids was far from apologetic. The Barnet player-manager stated:

"I’ve got the ball and he wanted to get it off me. I was just a little bit too eager to hold onto the ball and he ran into my elbow.

"If you look at it from that perspective, my intention is to protect the ball. But from the other point of view you can give a red card. So it is what it is.

"I don’t have too many complaints because if you do something with aggression then you can hurt somebody. So it is fair enough and it is a red card. My intention was to protect the ball though".

Mexico Scrape Through to World Cup

Mexico this week qualified for Brazil 2014 but it was a far from comfortable qualifying campaign for the Mexicans. The Mexicans beat Panama 2-1 on Friday, leading to the following newspaper headline in Panama the next day:

"FUCKING CHILENA"

Chilena means bicycle kick and the bicycle kick in question was scored in the 85th minute. Mexico were already riding their luck.

Onto this week's final round of matches and with Mexico losing to Costa Rica it looked like they would not qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1990, as Panama were 2-1 up against the US. Cue two injury time goals from the US to beat Panama and send their CONCACAF rivals to a playoff for Brazil 2014.

The Mexicans, not renowned for their hospitality to the Yanks, were grateful to say the least. Headlines in Mexico the following day read "THANK YOU!", "GOD BLESS AMERICA" and "WE LOVE YOU! AMIGOUS".

Mexico will now go on to face New Zealand in the playoffs, while Panama will be left to rue that fucking chilena and the US.

Lukaku Reminisces about being a Twelve Year Old Giant

Everton's on loan striker Romelu Lukaku is proving to Jose Mourinho how big a mistake he has made by loaning him out this season by banging in the goals for Premier League rivals Everton. But during the international break week, Lukaku managed to find some time to post some pictures on Instagram as he reminisced about his past.

He first began posting photos of his ten year old self before uploading the photo below - him as a twelve year old playing for Lierse Anderlecht. The photo was from a tournament in 2005 in which his team played against Feyenoord. Lukaku tagged the photo with the line "Defending our 4-3 win against feyenoord in 2005! at a tournament in holland with lierse sk.. At 10 years old i didnt play for lierse". If this is what he looked like at twelve, it seems that the Belgian striker's domineering presence over defenders is hardly anything new.

Italian Football Story of the Week

- Balotelli Clashes with Media

Mario Balotelli's name was splashed across the back pages in Italy for the majority of the week this week for various reasons. Firstly, he arrived in Naples ahead of Italy's World Cup qualifier against Armenia. A cameraman for Italian company Mediaset got quite close to Balotelli after he landed in Naples, irritating Balotelli in the process and having his camera knocked to the ground by the striker.

Balotelli later apologised for the incident, though it is thought it may have been a forced apology as Mediaset are owned by AC Milan President Silvio Buslesconi. However it was not long before further controversy surrounded Super Mario, this time in the form of a Twitter furore. He tweeted a Gazzetta dello Sport headline which read "Balotelli is ill, but will be there in Naples as a symbol against the Camorra". The headline referred to the Italian side's usage of a training pitch in Naples that was built on land confiscated from the 'Camorra' - the Neapolitan mafia". Balo retorted to the headline with another tweet: "This is what you say! I am coming because football is wonderful and everyone should play it where they want, plus there's a game!!!!".

Despite his illness, Balo came off the bench for the qualifier against Armenia. Prior to his arrival on the pitch, the Italians were 2-1 down but Super Mario scored an equalisier to round Italy's qualifying campaign off with a draw.

Football Recommendation

- Total FPL: Premier League Fantasy Football guide

http://totalfpl.com/pricechanges

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- Bandsintown: Great app for finding out what bands are playing in your area

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