But watch yourself:

Prior to every football game the captains of the teams and the referee gather in the middle of the field to decide which team will kick-off the game and which direction the teams have to play. But usually a coin-toss is used to decide which team can kick-off and which can choose the direction they wish to play. But unfortunately this referee forgot to take along the coin. Instead of finding another coin he decided to replace the traditional coin-toss with ‘rock-paper-scissors’. So the both captains played ‘rock-paper-scissors’ to decide the kick-off. Isn’t that weird?

Here you can see the ‘pre-game’ of the football match:

Maybe the FIFA gets its inspiration from this referee and considers take over this way in future…

Here’s a link to watch the press conference:

press conference

I’m not sure but I guess it can only be watched in Switzerland…

But at least I’ll try to translate what’s being said. (I’m sure that there are many mistakes. I really apologizes but it’s quite though to translate from Swiss-German into English)

“I’m happy that I’m well again and it’s nice to see you all again. Well… I had a bad accident and I was off for a while, but now I’m back. What did I go through? It was going on a lot.
I want to thank the persons who cared about me. Especially my family, my girlfriend – she has been doing a lot – , my fans and all the people who were thinking of me, wrote me, went to church for me and sent me letters. I was surprised and it was beautiful, because it means a lot when people to church to light a candle. And as I heard there were many people doing so.”

The interview:

Q: January 22th, a sad day. Do you have any memories of that day?
A: No, I don’t. I forgot everything.
When I woke up I saw people I knew, but the memory was not there. I’ve just been aware of what happend from the time on I came to Bern. Everything what happend before that, I’ve forgot. And that’s a long term.

Q: How did the memories come back? Who did help you?
A: At the beginning it was hard, because you came round, but you didn’t have any thoughts or questions. You don’t know what happend, what the date is, you don’t even know how old you are.
I’ve talked a lot with my parents and my girlfriend and everything came back gradually.

Q: You saw a video with your fall. Was it necessary to watch it in order to assimilate the fall and didn’t the people warn you not to watch it?
A: At the beginning the people told me not to watch it or not to watch it too soon. And there was a time where I didn’t want to watch it. There was also a time when I didn’t know that I’ve been such a good ski racer . And when I watched it, it was very special for me, because I knew that the person on TV was me, but I didn’t recognize it. It was like that there was someone else who had fall.

Q: I assume you did some tests in order to acsertain how strong you still are, didn’t you?
A: Yes, that’s the way it was. I knew how I had been before and when I saw myself in the mirror I noticed that I lost weight. Then I tried to do some press-ups, but I didn’t managed to do a single one. I thought then: “you’re out of shape” and accepted the way it was.

Q: You’re speaking as you always used to. But there was a time where it wasn’t like this. Did you have to learn word by word again?
A: Well, yes. For example I didn’t know anymore what a butterfly was. I mean I knew what it was, but I didn’t know the name of this animal.

Q: What are you looking for now?
A: I’m happy that I’m recovered. I’m looking forward to going home. And soon I will do some ski-practice.

Q: It seems that you decided to ski again.
A: I’ve already asked the question whether I should come back or not. But the fact is that we don’t know if I’ll be able to ski again, so we have to test it out. I liked to be a ski racer; it was a ‘cool job’. And at the moment I really want to come back. But maybe I won’t be able to ski at this level again. But we’ll see.

————————-
I have to say that Albrecht hardly stopped smiling during the interview. He really seems to be well.
I wish him all the best for the coming days, weeks and months of work to get there where he wants to get.

Daniel Albrecht

I don’t have the time to translate the whole text, so I’ll make a brief summary.

It’s told that Albrecht still making progress and that he might leave the hospital in Bern at the beginning of May. After that he will go to a rehabilitation facility, most probably he will go Leukerbad (you can see on the picture) which is near is hometown Fiesch.

Swiss Ski will make sure that Albrecht has a sepearte coach. Jörg Roten will do a special programm with Albrecht. And Roten is confident that Albrecht could be able to ski again in August.

To get back to the original subject: Stéphane Lambiel’s supposed comeback

here’s the related link: Stéphane Lambiel

I tried to translate the article. At the moment I’m quite busy so there are possibly some mistakes.
 

Stéphane Lambiel was present at the recent World Championships, but just as a guest – as he stressed. Lately he’s always made clear that he didn’t have the intention to stage a comeback. He justified his decision that he was still in pain with his adductores and that he liked the life as a “show-skater”. So everything seems to be clear, doesn’t it? No. “There are some signs that he wants to keep a possibility”, the Art on Ice-boss Oliver Höher said. “He’s practicing and he’s still taking part of the Antidoping-programme.
When Lambiel went to Los Angeles he proudly told Höner that his practice went great two days ago. He was even able to jump a triple axel and a quad toe-loop. Does this sound like an athlete that already retired especially in view of the fact that these difficult jumps aren’t necessary for a gala programme?

There’s also the rumor that Lambiel’s management is putting pressure on him. “We don’t pressurize him. It’s his own decision”, Höner told. “He can only support a decicion that he made himself. So it wouldn’t make sense to enforce.

Would a comeback have a positive influence on his “market value”? “It depends on the result. An Olympic Gold medal has always a positive infulence”, Oliver Höner told. The former ice skater thinks that Lambiel could also keep his high “marked value” without a participation in the Olympic Games. Not long ago there was hold a survey about the most famous and popular athletes in Switzerland. Stéphane Lambiel took the second place behind Roger Federer.
However Stéphane Lambiel has a full appointments diary. From April 8th he will skate in shows in Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, South Korea and Canada.

Höner does not totally agree that Lambiel’s comeback would be important for the ice-skating in Switzerland. “Finally Stéphane could just benefit if he’d win a medal. Otherwise it wouldn’t be good for him or Swiss Skate either. He’s expected to win medals. Everything else isn’t important.”

The text tells that the doctor’s are optimistic and that he makes a good recovery. And that he already practice with the exercise bike.

He does his rehability programme to improve the coordination and moving abilities. Week after week he can do more exercises.

The doctors still can’t do any prognosis if he’ll be able to do top-class sport again. He still needs to rest a lot. Just his family and his closest friends are allowed to visit him and he still doesn’t give any interviews.

On Monday my favourite ice hockey club – SC Bern – was eliminated in the the play-offs. They were the winner of the qualification round and that means that they lost against the last of the qualification round! It seemed to be an easy opponent since the SCB didn’t lose a single game against this team during this qualification round…
It was the same as last season: SCB was the winner of the qualification and then it was eliminated in the first play-off round. Damn!

The next disappointment was a day later. On Tuesday my favourite football club – Juventus –was eliminated in the Champions League. They seemed to be on the right way after Iaquinta’s goal, but Essien managed to equalize the score in the last minute of the first half. But Essien’s goal had even more importance than the drawn; due to away goal’s rule Juventus had to score two goals yet. And Juve was on the right way again after Del Piero’s penalty goal. But after the red card for Chiellini and Drogba’s equalizer was Juve’s elimination was almost fixed.

Howver I’m very proud of the team. They showed a great Champions League season. They won twice against Real Madrid and took the lead of the group H in the first round. And all this in the first Champions League season after the regalation to the Serie B in 2006/2007!
Moreover, many young players of Juventus could make Champions Leauge experience. I’m already looking forward to the next season!

Neyt disappointment was on Wednesday: I got my results of the exams from the university…

And on Sunday the Alpine Skiing season has ended. I will miss the races. But I think I should think positive: six month after date the new season will start again…

Let’s start with the downs:

The first negative point actually happened before the season begun: Austria’s Slalom queen Marlies Schild badly injured and missed the whole season. Her compatriot Nicole Hosp also injured some months later – she missed a couple of weeks – but she was able to finish the season.

But I think – and I’m sure you agree – the worst moment of this season was Daniel Albrecht’s terrible accident in Kitzbühel. I don’t remember how long he was in coma, for me it seemed to be months. Every single day I was hoping to hear good news about him. And it was a huge relief to hear that he woke up of the coma in February!

In general the injuries are always the negative points of the skiing season. But sometimes they aren’t inevitable. Ski sport is dangerous and each racer is aware of this.
I could mention even more racers who suffered injuries this season, but I don’t want to count them all.
I wish them all a speedy recovery and I hope we’ll see them in the next season soon again.

One big disappoitment for me was Bode Miller USA. Especially at the World Championships. I don’t know what happend, but sometimes I think he lost the motivation to be able to continue with skiing. Maybe it’s just his nature, but sometimes he seems to be so indifferent. It’s such a pity, since he’s such a great ski racer. He made me stunning again and again. I hope he will be able to do that again next season.

Also Julia Mancuso USA did not really have a good season. She was totally out of shape. I really hope she’ll do better next season.

The team event yesterday. Actually I find it a great idea to make a team event and I think it’s quite funny to watch it. But yesterday I found it almost wretched. There were just five nations participating! Neither USA nor Canada participated. It’s such a pity. In my view the team event is more interesting when there are many nations participating. On the other hand I understand the racers. They’re tired after the long season and the team event is not really incentive.

Let’s come to the positive points now:

I start with Lara Gut, our Swiss sunshine. She’s surely one of the raising stars of this season. It was her first World Cup season and what she achieved is simply amazing: first victory in a World Cup race, several places on the podium and 2 silver medals at the World Championships. And she’s just 17!

Another raising star of the season (from Switzerland’s point of view) is Carlo Janka. Also what he achieved is great: first podium, first victory in a World Cup race, bronze and gold medal at the World Championships and his first small globe in super-combine. And all this in one season!

One positive point is cerainly the first place of Switzerland at the medal’s table of the World Championships in Val d’Isère. Finally…!

Silvan Zurbriggen SUI did also well this season. It was the first season after his bad injury (his doctor told him that he would never be able to ski again…!). And what shall I say: He won the combine in Kitzbühel, missed a medal at the World Championships due to 0.01s and moreover, he almost won the super-combine globe.

And also all the other Swiss racers did well, but I don’t want to mention them all here.

Big respect to Aksel Lund Svindal NOR. In the first season after his bad accident in Beaver Creek he won the overall World Cup. And it was exciting til the last race. Benjamin Raich AUT almost took the overall World Cup from Svindal, but in the last race (slalom) he quitted the race and Svindal won the the overall World Cup by a margin of 2 (!) points. I hope the next season will also be so exciting.

Also big respect to Lindsey Vonn USA. It’s her second straight win of the overall World Cup. Besides she also won the downhill and the super-g globes and two gold medals at the World Championships. Even after suffering an injury on her hand we continued to participe in the races.

Overall World Cup – Men

1. Aksel Lund Svindal NOR 1009
2. Benjamin Raich AUT 1007
3. Didier Cuche SUI 919

Overall World Cup – Women

1. Lindsey Vonn USA 1788
2. Maria Riesch GER 1424
3. Anja Pärson SWE 1059

Downhill – Men

1. Michael Walchhofer AUT 470
2. Klaus Kröll AUT 424
3. Didier Défago SUI 363

Downhill – Women

1. Lindsey Vonn USA 502
2. Andrea Fischbacher AUT 326
3. Maria Riesch GER 292

Super-G – Men

1. Aksel Lund Svindal NOR 292
2. Werner Heel ITA 256
3. Didier Défago SUI 242

Super-G – Women

1. Lindsey Vonn USA 461
2. Nadja Fanchini ITA 416
3. Fabienne Suter SUI 408

Giant Slalom – Men

1. Didier Cuche SUI 474
2. Benjamin Raich AUT 462
3. Ted Ligety USA 421

Giant Slalom – Women

1. Tanja Poutiainen FIN 508
2. Kathrin Zettel AUT 501
3. Tina Maze SLO 368

Slalom – Men

1. Jean-Baptiste Grange FRA 541
2. Ivica Kostelic CRO 454
3. Julien Lizeroux FRA 419

Slalom – Women

1. Maria Riesch GER 670
2. Sarka Zahrobska CZE 459
3. Lindsey Vonn USA 440

Super-combine – Men

1. Carlo Janka SUI 242
2. Silvan Zurbriggen SUI 231
3. Romed Baumann AUT 169

Super-combine – Women

1. Anja Pärson SWE 205
2. Lindsey Vonn USA 180
3. Kathrin Zettel AUT 162

Federer and Mirka met at the Olympics in Sydney. Mirka was also a Tennis player but retired because of an injury some years ago.

I’m so delighted for them! I hope everything will go all right and I wish them all the best. They will be great parents, I’m sure of that.

I’m wondering if it will be a “little Roger” or a “little Mirka”. Anyway with these parents it must be a Tennis genius!;-)

But now I’m wondering if they will get married soon! We’ll see…