Showing posts with label Venezuela national team. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Venezuela national team. Show all posts
Cesár González golazo contra Ecuador, Copa América 2011
On 9 July 2011 Cesár González scored one of the best goals of the 2011 Copa América tournament to give Venezuela a 1-0 win against Ecuador and move themselves to the top of group B and within touching distance of qualifying for the knockout stage. The result can be seen as further evidence that Venezuela have finally shed their traditional status as the whipping boys of South American football.
The quality of the strike was reminiscent of another stunning long range strike for Venezuela in a 1-0 win against Ecuador.
Group B Copa América 2011
Match reports and highlights from Group B of the 2011 Copa América tournament.
Standings
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Brazil | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 5 |
 Venezuela | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 5 |
 Paraguay | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 3 |
 Ecuador | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | -13 | 1 |
Brazil, Venezuela and Paraguay progress to the quarter-final.
Results
| 03-07-11 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 0-0 | Venezuela |
| 03-07-11 | ||
| Paraguay | 0-0 | Ecuador |
| 09-07-11 | ||
| Brazil | 2-2 | Paraguay |
| 09-07-11 | ||
| Venezuela | 1-0 | Ecuador |
| 13-07-11 | ||
| Paraguay | 3-3 | Venezuela |
| 13-07-11 | ||
| Brazil | 4-2 | Ecuador |
Match reports
Venezuela held out for a 0-0 draw against Brazil in the opening game of group B, the first time they have ever avoided defeat against Brazil in the history of Copa América. Brazil put on a disappointing display and in the end Venezuela deserved their point.
The goaldrought at the beginning of the tournament continued in the next game with Paraguay and Ecuador settling for a 0-0 draw. Both sides looked good in patches but neither of them could find a goal, Ecuador looked short on composure every time they came close and Paraguay were thwarted by solid goalkeeping from Marcelo Elizaga on the few occasions that they managed shots on target. The result blew Group B wide open with a four way stalemate after the first round of games.
In the second round of games Brazil scored a late equaliser to pick up a 2-2 draw with Paraguay that their performance didn't really deserve bringing back memories of the Copa América final in 2004. Jadson gave Brazil a first half lead with one of the goals of the tournament so far but Paraguay fought back in the second half to earn the advantage that they deserved with goals from Roque Santa Cruz and Nelson Valdéz but Brazil's second half substitute Fred bagged the equaliser in the dying moments of the game.
Venezuela bagged on of the shock results of the tournament with a 1-0 win against Ecuador to go to the top of the group and put themselves on the brink of qualification for the second round. Venezuela finally seem to be shedding their role as the traditional whipping boys of South American football, they completely dominated the game and Cesár González bagged the winner with a wonderful long range strike in the 62nd minute.
Following Costa Rica's defeat to Argentina, Venezuela knew that they had already qualified to the knock out stages of Copa América for the first time ever on foreign soil however they still put on an entertaining display in their final group game against Paraguay, who needed at last a draw to progress to the next round. José Salomón Rincon put Venezuela ahead after only five minutes but Paraguay worked their way back into the game, scoring three goals to establish a two goal lead with only minutes remaining, however Venezuela fought back with two injury time goals to tie the game 3-3 and keep their unbeaten record.
Brazil secured to spot in the group with a 4-2 win against Ecuador who were eliminated. Brazil twice established the lead through Alexandre Pato and then Neymar only to see Felipe Caicedo equalised both goals. Pato and Neymar scored another goal apiece to secure the two goal victory they needed in order to win the group and ensure that the game finished with six goals neatly divided between three forwards.
What ever happened to? Fernando de Ornelas
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| De Ornelas in Celtic colours. |
De Ornelas was born on 29 July 1976 in the city of Caracas. He began his professional playing career with Maritimo Caracas in 1994 and had also played for Unión Táchira and Deportivo Italchaco before beginning his international football odyssey in Hong Kong.
He only ever played 9 games for Crystal Palace, starting 5 and coming on as a substitute in the others he left Palace in December 1999 with some fans complaining that he did not live up to expectations, however anyone with high expectations of a Venezuelan winger signed from a Hong Kong based side called Happy Valley would clearly not have a very firm grip on reality.
After leaving Palace he had an unsuccessful spell with Spanish side Real Zaragoza in which he failed to make a single appearance and then he joined Scottish side Celtic in December 2000. He got even less game time for the Glasgow giants than he had for Palace, he played in a friendly game against Bayern Munich and made only two league appearances for the first team. His league debut was as an 82nd minute substitute in a game against Dundee on 15 April 2000 and his other appearance came as a 73rd minute sub against Hibernian later that month.
- De Ornelas at the Celtic Wiki
Within a few months of arriving in Scotland he was on his way again. His next club were Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia where he also failed to settle, appearing in only 2 league games. It was during this first stint in European football that he began to establish himself as a regular first team player for the Venezuela national team. In the 1999-2000 period he played nearly as many games for Venezuela as he did for his European clubs.
His next move was to return to the Hong Kong league to play for South China AA, it was from here that he made his surprise return to British football in October 2001 when he was signed on a short term contract by QPR. Manager Ian Holloway threw him into the action as a late substitute in a game against Oldham Athletic, in which he didn't really do anything except earn himself a yellow card within about a minute of coming onto the pitch. He only ever made one more appearance for the club before being offloaded to Portuguese side Maritimo.
During his time in British football De Ornelas had three clubs, started six competitive games and appeared as a substitute in seven more, he never scored a goal in British football.
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| De Ornelas was a popular player for Odd Grenland. He is pictured here in a game against IK Start. |
In 2004 he joined Cypriot side Olimpiakos Nicosia where after 3 years of roaming around making sporadic appearances for a multitude of clubs he finally established himself as a regular first team player making 21 league appearances over the next two seasons bagging himself 3 goals.
In 2005 he joined the brilliantly named Norwegian team Odd Grenland where he made 57 league appearances and scored 11 goals (see video). This run of form earned him a recall to the Venezuela national team in 2005 and in 2007 he was part of the Venezuela squad for the Copa América tournament in Venezuela. He played in all three of the group games and helped the team progress to the 2nd round for the first time in the history of the competition. He also appeared in the 1-4 defeat to Uruguay in the quarter-final.
Fernando de Ornelas looks a pretty good player in this video, however the standards of
defending and marking do not appear to be that great in the Norwegian first division.
 | |
| De Ornelas and Bolivian defender Ronald Raldes pictured during the group stage game between Venezuela and Bolivia in Copa América 2007. |
He made his last appearance for Venezuela in 2007, he made a total of 27 appearances for his country between 1999 and 2007 and scored 5 goals. Some of his international goals can be seen on this video.
After Odd Grenland were relegated to the Norwegian 2nd division De Ornelas returned to Venezuelan domestic football in July 2008 but after short stints with Monagas and Zulia he returned to Norway in 2009 to play for 2nd division side Mjøndalen IF, because his family could not settle back in Venezuela. He currently plays in the lower leagues of Norwegian football for semi-professional side Gulset IF.
De Ornelas never really set the world on fire for any of the clubs he played for, however he seems to have been well liked by the fans of Odd Grenland, he earned his place in the history of Venezuelan football by playing in the most successful Venezuela side ever to play in the Copa América and he has definitely earned his place on the list of the world's greatest international journeymen footballers.
Part of the What ever happened to? series.
Golazo: José Manuel Rey Ecuador vs Venezuela, WCQ 2007 - Monster free kick
13 October 2007. José Manuel Rey, (Venezuela's most capped player) lined up a free kick against Ecuador in the high altitude venue of Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa, in the first round of the gruelling South American qualification campaign for the 2010 World Cup.
Judging by his enormous run up, it seemed like the former Dundee FC player was going to have a crack at goal, surely not from that far out? But he did, unleashing an absolutely blistering shot and when the ball hit the net the stadium fell into stunned silence apart from a tiny pocket of travelling Venezuela fans.
Venezuela held on to record their first ever win against Ecuador in Quito and got their World Cup qualification campaign off to an unexpectedly good start. The traditional whipping boys of South America eventually finished 8th out of the 10 teams, but only 2 points behind the Uruguay team that made it all the way to the World Cup semi-finals.
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