Leicester City won't renew the contract with Ricardo

The club has announced that they won't renew Ricardo's contract when it expires on 30 June 2011.

It is not known yet where Ricardo is going to play next.

Ricardo picspam

Just a bunch of photos of Ricardo in Leicester City. Couldn't find more...

Ricardo ruled out by injury for the rest of the season

Seems it's the end of this season for Ricardo. Portuguese goalkeeper suffered shoulder injury on Sunday, a day before the game against Watford on Monday.

According to Leicester coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson, it is most unlikely Ricardo is going to return for the two remaining games of this season.

How long did Ricardo's luck last?

It seemed that everything is going well, since has Ricardo signed a contract with Leicester City back in January and finally started to play again after sitting on the bench in Betis for almost 1,5 year.

Somehow I lost a track on him lately so it came as a surprise to me, when I turned on TV a week ago to watch Leicester game against Reading, to discover that Ricardo was not in the first squad. He was replaced by Chris Weale.

His stats doesn't look bad. In eight games he started he kept two clean sheets and made 24 saves in total. He did quite well in those game I saw him.

Overall with Ricardo in the squad Leicester noted three wins, one draw, and lost four times. Did he commit any mistakes in those four games? Apparently the coach did think so, if he replaced him.

Wonder if he is going to come back before the end of the season? But then again, they are only three games till the end. Leicester is on the 12th place in the table. It seems that they already missed they chance to play in play-offs for the Premier League...

Pity that Ricardo's time in Englad lasted for such a short time.

Ricardo debuted in Leicester City

Today Ricardo debuted in Leicester City and played full 90 minutes in the away game against Derby. Nice gift for the birthday, which he had yesterday.

So happy to see him again in the goal, after so long time. It's almost two years since he played last time. Unbelievable for the footballer who used to be no. 1 of the Portuguese national team.

I think Ricardo played good today, although he should be more careful when there is a need to run out of the goal. One of such situations almost ended up with a goal for the opponents. However, Derby didn't troubled him much and had to make only two saves.

Leicester controled the game in the first half and scored two goals. Derby tried to catch up with the result at the beginning but then again, Leicester was better.

Looking forward to see Ricardo again in the next game.

Ricardo signed up the contract with Leicester City

The club has confirmed that Ricardo joined it until the end of the season.

Ricardo left Betis in early January by mutual consent and found a new club on a free transfer. He was training with Leicester since the last week and apparently his performance was impressive enough to earn him a fifth-months deal.

Leicester City plays in Football League Championship and currently is on 10th position in the table.

"I am delighted that we've been able to secure Ricardo on a permanent contract. He has impressed during his time at the club and brings extra competition to our goalkeeping department,” said Sven Goran-Eriksson, Leicester's coach.

“Ricardo is an excellent shot-stopper with agility and he plays with great confidence. He has played at the highest level and will be a great addition to our squad. Plus, he owes me after 2004 and 2006, so I'm sure he will be keen to do well for us." (quoted from PortuGOAL.net).

Ricardo in Leicester City?

Last years were not good for Ricardo. His club Betis Sevilla was relegated to Segunda Division after 2008/2009 season and he himself lost the place in the frist squad. He was not even given a squad number ahead of this season.

But finally there is a hope for a change. Ricardo was released by Betis in this month and is without a club for the time being. It is said that he was invited to train with Leicester City club by Sven Goran-Eriksson. The Swedish coach knows Ricardo two well. He managed the English team when they lost against Portugal in penalty shoot-out on Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006. In both those cases it was Ricardo who stopped England, sucessufully defending penalties.

Although a contract has been not signed yet Maisfutebol claims that Ricardo intends to make the move to the club.

Will Ricardo join Leicester and fullfill his dreams to play in England? I wish him all the best.

World Cup 2006 Goalkeeper Saves video

This is just great. Another video made by YT user LCTrussell1992Media, showing the best saves of World Cup 2006.

So many great saves of Ricardo! It was his best tournament for sure. Wish Portugal had made to the final.

Liked also Buffon's saves. Amazing double save in 0:38-0:43. And Artur Boruc. Remember him especially from the very dramatic match against Germany. He proteced Polish goal sucessfully for 90 minutes. In 91' Germany scored...

Goalkeepers in the video: Roberto Abbondanzieri (Argentinia), Fabien Barthez (France), Aldo Bobadilla (Paraguay), Artur Boruc (Poland), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Iker Casillas (Spain), Petr Cech (Czech Republic), Nelson Dida (Brazil), Shaka Hislop (Tinidad and Tobago), Dragoslav Jevrić (Serbia and Montenegro), Oliver Kahn (Germany), Kasey Keller (USA), Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Japan), Jens Lehmann (Germany), Ricardo (Portugal), Paul Robinson (England), Oswaldo Sánchez (Mexico), Mark Schwarzer (Australia), Edwin Van Der Sar (The Netherlands), Lee Woon-Jae (South Korea).

IFFHS: The World‘s best Goalkeeper of the First Decade (2001-2010)

Gianluigi Buffon was named by IFFHS the best goalkeeper of the decade. Iker Casillas is on the second place, while Petr Cech is third. The two first goalies can switch places by the end of the year, as annual votes from 2010 will be added to the total value of the points.

The ranking is based on:
- annual vote by different jurors (countires) on three top places (3 points to 1 point) in early years; in later years on four top places (4 points to 1 point),
- IFFHS annual ranking of the goalkeepers; points were given for the top twenty places (20 points for the first place, 19 for the second etc. to 1 point for the 20th).

	Goalkeeper	Country	Points (2001-2010)
1.	Gianluigi Buffon	Italy	170
2.	Iker Casillas	Spain	157
3.	Petr Čech	Czech Republic	120
4.	Oliver Kahn	Germany	99
5.	Edwin van der Sar	Netherlands	92
6.	Nélson de Jesus e Silva "Dida"	Brazil	90
7.	Jens Lehmann	Germany	72
8.	Roberto Carlos Abbondanzieri	Argentina	68
9.	Fabien Barthez	France	55
10.	Rogério Ceni	Brazil	53
11.	Francesco Toldo	Italy	52
12.	José Manuel Reina	Spain	50
13.	Victor Valdes	Spain	49
14.	Júlio César Soãres Espíndola	Brazil	44
15.	Jerzy Dudek	Poland	42
16.	Igor Akinfeev	Russia	41
17.	Santiago Cañizares	Spain	35
18.	Grégory Coupet	France	28
19.	Rüştü Reçber	Turkey	27
20.	José Luis Félix Chilavert	Paraguay	26
21.	José Francisco Cevallos	Ecuador	25
	Timothy Matthew Howard	USA	25
23.	Andonios Nikopolidis	Greece	24
24.	René Adler	Germany	23
25.	Bradlay Howard Friedel	USA	21
26.	Oscar Eduardo Córdoba	Colombia	19
27.	Andrés Palop	Spain	17
	Francisco Guillermo Ochoa	Mexico	17
	Justo Wilmar Villar	Paraguay	17
	Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis	Brazil	17
31.	Ricardo Alexandre Martins Soares Pereira	Portugal	16
	Vítor Manuel Martins Baía	Portugal	16
33.	Heurelho da Silva Gomes	Brazil	15
	Timo Hildebrand	Germany	15
35.	Juan Carlos Henao	Colombia	13
	Woon-Jae Lee	South Korea	13
37.	Oswaldo Sánchez	Mexico	12
38.	Ruslan Nigmatullin	Russia	11
39.	Andreas Isaksson	Sweden	10
	Carlo Cudicini	Italy	10
	Doniéber Alexander Marangon "Doni"	Brazil	10
	Hugo Lloris	France	10
	Ivan Pellizzoli	Italy	10
	Óscar Pérez	Mexico	10
	Peter Schmeichel	Denmark	10
	Samir Handanović	Slovenia	10
	Séamus John James Given	Ireland	10
48.	Magnus Hedman	Sweden	8
	Mark Schwarzer	Australia	8
	Pascal Zuberbühler	Switzerland	8
	Ricardo Tavarelli	Paraguay	8
52.	Nigel Martyn	England	7
	Sergey Ovchinnikov	Russia	7
	Agustín Julio	Colombia	6
	David Seaman	England	6
	Roberto Óscar Bonano	Argentina	6
	Tony Mario Sylva	Senegal	6
	Vyacheslav Malafeev	Russia	6
59.	Artur Boruc	Poland	5
	Carlos Fernando Navarro Montoya	Argentina	5
	Fabián Carini	Uruguay	5
	Sander Westerveld	Netherlands	5
	Sebastián Saja	Argentina	5
64.	Germán Adrian Burgos	Argentina	4
	José María Buljabasich	Argentina	4
	Manuel Rivero	Spain	4
67.	Thomas Sørensen	Denmark	3
68.	Grégory Wimbée	France	2
69.	Carlos Idriss Kameni	Cameroon	1

Source: http://www.iffhs.de/

Conclusions:

- I'm almost sure Iker is going to outrun Gigi, as Buffon lost half of the year due to an injury,
- interesting to see that Ricardo and Vitor Baia occupy the same place,
- only two Polish goalkeepers made to the list - Jerzy Dudek and Artur Boruc,
- the fact that El Hadary of Egypt is completely missed in this ranking suprises me the most
- really curious if any African goalkeepers are going to make on the list after the final vote.

Ricardo: "I want to finish my career in Portugal", video

Found this shor video interview with Ricardo when I was looking at sapo.pt for videos about todays Portugal's qualifier (4-4 with Cyprus, no comment!).

He said that he is certain he want to finish his career in Portugal ("acabar a sua carreira em Portugal, quase de certeza") and that Sporting and Boavista will always be close to his heart - "vão ficar sempre no seu coração".

Pity that he didn't move this summer or at least went on the loan. He loses his time in Betis and he is not getting any younger...

Ricardo in Deportivo La Coruna vs Betis match 1:1 22 Mar 2009, photos

Some photos of Ricardo from Betis Sevilla away match agains Deportivo La Coruna. It's been a long time since Ricardo was playing... It doesn't seem anything is going to change in upcoming season :(

Quotes about Eduardo's performance

The press and the fans are far from being flattering towards the performance of Portuguese team and players. However, there is one person whose efforts had been valued.

It's Eduardo.


PortuGoal named Eduardo a man of the match.

"There can be no doubts as to the PortuGOAL man of the match – Eduardo – who kept the Spaniards at bay for over an hour with a series of breathtaking saves."

Eduardo: 9.5/10 PortuGOAL man of the match
"A cat-like leap to turn a Fernando Torres shot round the post in the first minute set the tone as Eduardo proved an almost impregnable shield against the incessant Spanish attack. Further superb saves in the 3rd, 6th, 60th, 69th, and 76th minutes kept Portugal in the game, and as a disconsolate Eduardo left the pitch bathed in tears one could not help feeling the Braga man deserved a better supporting cast."


More quotes:

"I think Eduardo was the man of the match. He was very good. He provide the team with a feeling of security and gave them hope. He made a great show, but everyone played well."

- Ricardo, the former goalkeeper of Selecção, a commentator at Maisfutebol


"Eduardo kept the team in the fight for most of the time; he was just unfortunately that the rebound from him fell to a Spanish player"

Eduardo gave us a brilliant performance

– Carlos Queiroz, the coach


Eduardo, was very assured, and did not deserve this defeat.

- News24

Ricardo no Maisfutebol: „ I hope we can show them where their place is”

What is happeing with Ricardo, a former goalkeeper of the Portuguese national team? Well, he is not with Selecção in South Africa of course, but he is writting articles for Maisfutebol page.

Some excerpts of the newest text. He writes about upcoming match with Spain and comments also about referees case.

“We are not afraid of Spain”, said Simão and he was right. We have no fear. The Spanish team is not as strong as it used to be. However, we have to pay them the respect. Those who underestimate the opponent can easily lose.

I think that in the first few minutes the game will to be a bit monotonous, unless some goals are scored. Portugal will try to not let Spaniards control the ball, which they love to do. But after the first 15-20 minutes the game will become faster and I believe it’s going to be a great show.

Spanish has a great offensive power and the defensive is even better. However, we have a lot of individual strength which may turn out to be our advantage.

In our team every players is supposed to support the others. There is a place of individuals but not for individualism. They are 11 players on the field.

There must be some aggression aimed in the right direction. You can’t be too cautious, because now it means the team will be eliminated. (...)

Some of our players play in Spain, so keeping in touch with Spanish colleagues is normal. Friendship exists before and after games but during the match there is no friendship. (...)

In the knockout stage there is a possibility of overtime and then going to the penalties. It’s normal that the coach tests players to check who feels more comfortable under such pressure. All responsibility is when it come to it in the game. Mark of defend a penalty is not easy. You must be very cold blooded.

No matter if the match is going to last 90 or 120 minutes or if there are going to be penalties, the most important is to have humility and respect, which helps win and make a good show. In the end I hope we are going to be the winners of course!

The 17th day of the World Cup and everyone is talking about the refereeing... in the two games of the day. We have witnessed huge errors which may have change the course of the event. Lampard’s goal which was disallowed and Tevez’s, which was scored from an offside. However, in that second case don’t blame the referee, because the assistant had a better view on the situation and should notice this.

Original article (Portuguese) can be found here.

'I don't fear penalty shoot-out', says James

England had never won penalty shoot-outs. Will it come to it in todays England - Germany match?

Found an interesting article in Dialy Telegraph. Some excerpts:

James's German counterpart, Manuel Neuer, talks of playing the "memory game" if Sunday's World Cup round of 16 game climaxes in a shoot-out. This involves Neuer remembering all the advice from the German technical staff on which way to dive for which player. At the last World Cup, Jens Lehmann frustrated Argentina by checking on their players' preference from a slip of paper shoved down his sock. (...)

James would not reveal his intentions, saying: "I'll probably look over to the physio!" Most of the information will be absorbed on Saturday, leaving him far better prepared than in Euro 2004. "We played Portugal [in the quarter-final shoot-out] and didn't have the access to as much information as we could have done." (...)

England bowed out of Euro 2004 because Portugal's keeper, Ricardo, swept in a majestic penalty. "Of course I am up for taking one. In the preparation, all 23 can practice. There's only 11 and three subs who can end up on the pitch and take one. Whoever the goalkeeper is needs to be prepared," James said.

Read full story here.

It's one of the top stories also on Polish page of Gazeta Wyborcza.



Ricardo is on the photo! But of course his name was even not worth mentioning in the article. Why they always write this or that player wasted a penalty? Beckham in 2004 did waste it shooting over the goal. Ricardo did save Darius Vassell penalty in 2004, and Gerrard's, Lampard's and Carragher's at World Cup 2006.

Goalkeepers I miss at the World Cup: Ricardo

Ricardo is the goalkeeper I miss the most at the World Cup. I expected that Euro 2008 is going to be his last big perfromance but it doesn't change anything. His time at the national team might pass but he still can play in the club. If he change Betis for something else. I hope he is going to do this soon.

Quote of the day

Found this quote in an article about the most effective way of scoring penalties:

"When it comes to the penalty shoot-out the most disturbing element is the goalkeeper."

It is thought that the best chances to score have the players who focus on shoting the goal, not on a goalkeeper and what he is doing.

Is that true? Probably partially. Remeber than in Portugal - England penalty shoot-out at World Cup 2006 the only English player who scored was Hargreaves, who actually didn't look at Ricardo.

Goalkeepers can disturb players and win that way the battle of nerves which is penalty shoot-out. Who doesn't remember the famous Dudek dance in the Champions League final Liverpool - Milan in 2005?

World Cup 2006 memories

When I'm thinking about the previous World Cup one of the most notable moments is the penalty shoot-out Portugal - England. It was Ricardo's moment of glory. He saved three shots and so far he is the only goalkeeper who achieved it on the international championship stage.



Now there is no Ricardo in the squad, Portugal doesn't seem to be as strong team as it used to be after so much struggle in the eliminations, and there is no possibility they will face England on the quarter-final stage. The story can't repeat again.

But perhaps it will come to penaties in one of Portugal matches. Eduardo seems to be quite good in defending penalties so I'm not afraid on this side. I only hope that the Portuguese players were practising scoring penalties... It wasn't their strong side.

Ricardo - moments of glory

It has been over a year since I made this video.



I really hope Ricardo is going to change his club this summer! Want to see him in a goal again.

Official and unofficial pages

Quim's fansite

Beto site oficial

Like to visit those two pages from time to time. Pity that they lack English version. But at least it's a motivation to learn Portuguese ;)

Unfortunately Ricardo still doesn't have his own page. But what could be write there anyway? He haven't been playing in months. Well, Beto's situation doesn't look good as well. Played only once since he moved to FC Porto, Helton is the first choice.

So far I've seen Beto in only one match but he made very good impression on me. Pity that now he is sitting on the bench. Might lose a chance to compete for a place in the squad for World Cup 2010.

Ricardo picspam - part 3

Some of Ricardo's photos while playing at his current club Real Betis Sevilla.

It's still a mystery for me why he had chosen Betis which is not too big club...











Photos from the match with Barcelona (February 2009).



Dueling with Eto'o in the penalty box (not a good idea).



He was amazing at Betis Sevilla - FC Barcelona match.



If glance could kill... Look-of-doom!



Only a week later there was a distastrous match with Real Madrid. Betis lost it 1:6, all goals scored in the first half.





Another look-of-doom. This time for the defenders I guess.

I really prefer to see him happy.



Defenses:



Portugal - Angola, World Cup 2006.



Betis - Barca. He had 12 interventions.





And few caps from Portugal - Poland match at Chorzów (fall of 2006, eliminations for Euro 2008).



Before the match.



During the match. Can you see that look full of reproachful? Portugal defense had bad day, left Ricardo more than once in situation one to one, two to one, three to one (on the contrary Polish attack had very good day - it usually happens once a year).



Bad thing of this result of the match (it was first time since 20 years when Poland actually win with a team from the top of UEFA ranking) and of the draw year later (ball bouncing from Ricardo's back near the end of the match and there was 2:2 after Krzynówek's shot.



Another look-of-doom. I couldn't stop myself from posting this as well. This is Polish goalkeeper, Wojciech Kowalewski, also one of my favorite goalkeepers. That look was for the refeere who gave him a yellow card.

It was after that situation:



Portugal just scored a goal nearly the end of the match in additional time.





As you can see Ronaldo and Nuno Gomes were trying to take the ball from Kowalewski. Bad idea trying to take anything from him... I don't now what it was all about because after scoring the goal by Portugal it was Poland turn to start the game.

Back to Ricardo.

Another unhappy topic, friendly match with Greece, just before Euro 2008.





Portugal lost it 2:1. Ricardo's performance was not too impresive.



Boavista vs Celitc



Sporting Lisboa time.



One more portrait photo from his debut.

















Now I follow many players, all of them are goalkeepers. But Ricardo was the very first one.

I will always remember him like at Euro 2004. He was at the beginning of his international career, Euro was his first big event. His focused, defiant look at penalty shoot-out with England. Penalty save. Scored goal. Portugal in semi-final.



Hope to see him in the goal soon...