International Football
Five things to know about Morocco’s goalie Yassine Bounou
Yassine Bounou dives to save a shot by Spain’s midfielder Carlos Soler during penalty shoot-out. PHOTO: AFP
With Morocco conceding just once from an own goal at this World Cup, no opponent has scored against their goalkeeper yet. Incredibly, these include penalties in their round of 16 shootout win over Spain. Who is Yassine Bounou, the man with the safest pair of hands at Qatar 2022?
1. He has come a long way
Literally, he has, for he was born in Montreal, Canada to Moroccan parents.
He then moved 5,795km to Morocco at an early age, joining local club Wydad Casablanca from age eight and playing nine league games for them across two seasons before heading to Atletico Madrid in Spain on a pay cut.
With Thibaut Courtois, Sergio Asenjo and Joel Robles all on Atletico’s roster, Bounou played for the B team in the second division and never featured for them in La Liga.
Impressing for Zaragoza in the second-tier while on loan, he signed for Girona in 2016 and helped them win promotion. Two strong spells in the top tier earned him a loan deal with Sevilla in 2019 before the move was made permanent a year later after he helped the club win the Europa League.
From then on, he has been Sevilla’s first-choice custodian, winning the Zamora trophy for clocking the lowest goals-to-game ratio for the 2021/22 season in which he conceded only 24 goals in 31 games. He is the first player from Sevilla and Africa to win the prestigious award.
2. He has a good track record of saving penalties
On Tuesday, Bounou kept out Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets from the spot, while Pablo Sarabia struck the post (Bounou went the right way), and people shouldn’t be surprised even if he is the first African goalkeeper to save two penalties in a World Cup shootout.
After all, the 31-year-old has faced 50 penalties in his career and saved 13 of them
Morocco midfielder Azzedine Ounahi told ESPN: “We trust him. We know he is an excellent keeper. We knew that if we got to the penalties, he would do the job for us. And he did. Spain didn’t even score a single penalty.”
However, Bounou was modest when he told ESPN: “It was incredible. It is a historical moment. I hadn’t even prepared for the shootout that much. There was so much pressure in the game so I just tried to enjoy it.
“For the penalties, it is about instinct, a bit of luck and that’s it, there is not much else.”
3. He also has a sterling clean sheet record
According to football website Transfermarkt, Bounou has 109 shutouts from 334 games at club level.
For Morocco, he has an even better record, with 31 clean sheets from 49 matches. This translates to an average one every 2.7 games. Some top strikers don’t even score this frequently.
4. He is dangerous at the other end too
Nicknamed Bono, he is a rock star on both ends of the pitch. In March 2021, with Sevilla down 1-0 at Real Valladolid, he went to attack a corner kick, and scored his first and only professional goal.
5. Haaland feud
While he is known to be generally calm and soft-spoken, Bounou couldn’t help but be pumped up in a Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund and their striker Erling Haaland in 2021.
During their match, Bounou tipped Haaland’s penalty on to the post, denied the Norwegian on the rebound and celebrated in his face, only for the Video Assistant Referee to order a retake as the goalkeeper had stepped off his line before the spot-kick was taken.
Haaland made no mistake with his second chance and returned the favour by goading Bounou after scoring.
Now with Manchester City, Haaland said: “I missed and then he cheated. Then I took it again and scored when he didn’t cheat.
“When he was screaming in my face after the first one, I was thinking ‘it will be even better to score another goal’ – and that’s what happened, so it was nice… Maybe it’s karma in this world.”
-Straits Times
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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