The team slowly started to gain the headlines and achieve success nationally after a bombing-assasination happened at the team's old stadium which killed Shakhtar's president at the time, Akhat Bragin. In 1996, the year following the death of President Bragin, a Ukranian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov assumed presidency of the club and began to heavily invest in Shakhtar Donetsk. Since then the club began its surge to become an European power house and have won 7 Ukrainian Premier League titles (including the last 3 competitions in a row) and 7 Ukrainian Cups. However, it wasn't until 2009 that Shakhtar achieved their goal of winning a major European Title. Shakhtar Donetsk are the last official champions of the UEFA Cup, defeating German side Werder Bremen 2-1 in Istanbul with goals from Brazilians Luiz Adriano and Jadson.
The 2012-13 Shakhtar Donetsk roster is definitely the best roster they have ever had, and one could become one of the best squads in Ukrainian football history. In addition to the team captain and Croatian international, Darijo Srna, they officially have 10 Brazilian born players, including Eduardo da Silva, a brazilian born striker who represents Croatia internationally. The team's top players, Brazilians Willian, Fernandinho, and Luiz Adriano have constantly been appearing in headlines all over Europe with rumors about transfers to London clubs such as Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham. It seemed as if such a step was going to be a natural one in the players' career, but one incident in yesterday's Shakhtar convincing win over Nordsjaelland 5-2 may have changed Luiz Adriano's future.
It was on the 26th minute mark of the match when Nordsjaelland were up 1-0 that after the referee stopped the play for a Nordsjaelland player to receive treatment. When the play was being resumed, Shakhtar's Willian struck the ball back to the Norwegian side's defense and goalkeeper. That was when striker Luiz Adriano hustled toward the ball and after clearing out goalkeeper Jesper Hansen scored his first of three goals on the night. Nordsjaelland players/coaches as well as the football community worldwide criticized Adriano's actions making the incident the number one trending topic on Twitter for November 21st. The Brazilian striker responded via his Twitter account "O Choro é livre" which translates to "Crying is free," referring to all the complaints that he has been receiving on Twitter.
This may seem like everyone is making a big deal out of this incident, since Shakhtar dominated in the 2nd half and defeated the Norwegians by a final score of 5-2 with Luiz Adriano scoring a hat trick and Willian contributing with two goals. Also, Shakhtar Donetsk is the first in their group and are well on their way to qualifying to the round of 16, leaving either Chelsea FC or Juventus FC behind. However, FIFA was undergoing a heavy amount of criticism for lack of real punishment to lack of fair play and any kind of discrimination including racism. This in part led to the creation of the FIFA program, "My Game is Fair Play."
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| USA International Michael Parkhurst confronts Luiz Adriano |
You can see the entire incident here:
I agree with you. I think that fair play is a state of mind and a code that should be followed by all teams and players, but there is no rule of fair play, so, I think , that is something that should be taught and followed by the clubs. I don't want here to judge the attitude of the player, because, I think that we cannot use him as a scapegoat for all the problems happening with FIFA. lets make rules, abide by them, then we will be able to judge. Football is a game with so many different interpretations of the law, depending on the judge's feeling, there is even a saying in Brazil " Cabeça de Juiz" wich means, the judge's head. Big changes have to be made before we begin imposing attitudes.
ReplyDeleteNordsjaelland is not a Norwegian side. :)
ReplyDeleteI meant Danish! :)
ReplyDelete