March 21, 2010
The winter was long and harsh, but spring has finally arrived and you know what that means: there are less than three months to go before the World Cup kicks off in South Africa!
There is one however, that I am looking forward to more than all of the above: England v USA on June 12.
It can be pointed out that, being an American, I am biased in my opinion, but the USA have a chance in this one. .
An upset may not be in the cards, but it should be a good game anyway. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the USA’s qualities have gone unnoticed in the English camp and the luxury of flying below the radar was un-done last summer.
They may not be the most consistent of performers, but as they showed last summer against Spain in the Confederations Cup in South Africa, they have it in them to play some decent soccer.
Only a few days after the Confederations Cup Final, the United States hosted the ‘Gold Cup’. The U.S. began group play with a pair of victories over Grenada and Honduras, and won the group with a draw against Haiti.
In the quarterfinals, the United States beat Panama 2–1 and in the semi-finals the faced Honduras for the 2nd time in the tournament, and the third time in less than two months.
The US beat them 2-0 and thus advanced to their 3rd ‘Gold Cup’ final where they faced Mexico – which would be a rematch of the 2007 final.
The US got its ‘clock-cleaned’ by the Mexicans 5-0, thus surrendering their 58-match unbeaten streak against CONCACAF opposition and losing to Mexico at home in the U S for the 1st time since 1999.
In the summer of 2009, the US football team faced one of its busiest stretches ever in its history.
For the ‘Confederations Cup’ the U.S. was drawn into Group B and after losing 3-1 to Italy and 3-0 to Brazil.
The US made an unlikely but deserved comeback to finish 2nd in the group and reach the semi-final on the ‘2nd tie-breaker’ rule, meaning that they had a higher cumulative number of goals scored, having scored four goals to Italy’s three.
This was achieved on the final day of group play when the United States beat Egypt 3-0 while Brazil beat Italy 3-0.
In the semi-finals, the US defeated Spain 2-0. At this time, Spain was on top the FIFA_World_Rankings , and had had a record run of 15 straight wins, and 35 games undefeated -a record shared only with Brazil.
With this win, the US wentto its first-ever final in a men’s FIFA tournament; – they lost 3-2 to Brazil after leading 2–0 at half-time.
How will they do at the WC 2010 in South Africa?
Vote for your favorite team;
http://www.world-cup-2010-south-africa.com/
March 17, 2010
London – 17-03-2010
Wes Sneijder - Wikipedia -Attribution: http://www.postproduktie.nl
Chelsea were knocked out of the by a magnificent Inter performance. A superb display by Wesley Sneijder and one good finish by Samuel Eto.
Brilliant Drogba was kept under control – he is so good he can turn a game around at anytime – and this was due to very good defending – even though I did not enjoy the way he was man-handled in the penalty box – literally with Samuel almost in complete body lock at one point.
Millito who is very good had a bad night, but he works so hard and never gives up so its hard to ever blame him for anything.
Sneijder had some great passes wasted by the strikers up front – however in the end it all paid off.
In spite of some unsportsmanlike /childish behavior from players of both sides – it was a great game and a deserved win for Inter.
Chelsea seemed to be outsung by circa 4000 Inter fans during the whole match – the English fans seemed dead silent the whole night.
Chelsea, who had reached the Semi finals in 5 of the last 6 years and last lost a home Champions League game 4 years ago, were short of invention and rarely troubled keeper Julio Cesar.
Mourinho enjoyed a night to remember at Stamford Bridge – but not as before with Chelsea – but with Inter Milan!
March 12, 2010
Mexico City 12-03-2010
Mexican National coach Javier Aguirre has named his 18 man team for upcoming friendlies against North Korea -March 17th in Mexico and a game against Iceland -March 24th which will be played in the US.
New younger players expected to play in one of these warm-up games are Arreola, Reyna, and Molina.
Also the Mexican Football Federation announced that Mexico will play Angola May 13th also in the US. Angola – host of the recent African Nations Cup, did not qualify for ‘World Cup 2010’
March 7, 2010
Montevideo 07-03-2010
Having won two World Cups back in the 1930’s and 1950’, Uruguay has not had a good World Cup for at least half a century.
It is pretty amazing that this relatively small country can manage to be that good in international football having won 2 World Cups, 2 Olympic football Gold, and 14 Copa America trophies.
They are known for their strong defense and are great in the air – plus they are, like most South Americans tough – they can play well or not so well but they can never be faulted for effort- and always give 100%.
In spite of these successes, Uruguay, have in the interim years, been a very inconsistent and unpredictable side which can play world-class football one game and then look totally lost in the next.
In spite of having its very best players on the pitch, Uruguay seem always to waste the many chances they have on the other hand themselves created.
This should sound familiar for many European teams also.
The Uruguayan coach is a certain Washington Tabarez who feels most comfortable with a 4-3-3 line-up.
Best players in Europe are; Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz from Ajax Amsterdam, Diego Forlán from Atletico Madrid, Diego Lugano from Fenerbahce and Cristian Rodríguez who plays at FC Porto.
March 6, 2010
Berlin 06-02-2010
2010 FIFA World Cup
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2010 FIFA World Cup
| South Africa 2010 |
2010 FIFA World Cup official logo |
| Tournament details |
| Host country |
 South Africa |
| Dates |
11 June – 11 July |
| Teams |
32 (from 6 confederations) |
| Venue(s) |
10 (in 9 host cities) |
|
|
The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the 19th FIFA World Cup, the premier international football tournament. It is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the culmination of a qualification process that began in August 2007 and involved 204 of the 208 FIFA national teams. As such, it matches the 2008 Summer Olympics as the sports event with the most competing nations.
This will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by an African nation, after South Africa beat Morocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process. This decision left the Oceania Football Confederation as the only confederation yet to host the FIFA World Cup. Italy are the defending champions. The draw for the finals took place on 4 December 2009 in Cape Town.
March 3, 2010
Munich 03-02-2010
The German national team has had some internal problems during the last months – some believe that the dispute betwee the head coach Joachim Loew and the German football federation could jeopardise the team in South Africa.
The focus seems not to be on any sporting aspects but more on a stubborn and seemingly intransigent federation president and two equally immovable coaches – both parties have let it been known that they are the offended party – so this sauer party could go on for some time – at the expensive of the national team and fans.
How this all works itself out will be interesting to see during the up-coming international warm-up friendlies – 4 games before the World Cup this suumer.
Germany will be coming up against opponents Argentina, Malta, Hungary and lastly Bosnia-Herzegovina .
Argentina are a great team and will present a great challenge for the German defence. Loew has the chance to test new players that have not before on the national side and he will probably do that. The permanent goalie has not yet been named.
Diego Maradona’s squad will certainly try to spoil any ‘tea-party’ type of game and will attempt to do what they do well -try to score. Could be a good game if the coaches allow their players to actually do their thing.
Most friendlies end in ties – diplomatic solution. However nobody likes their clocks cleaned and no-one – least of all the Germans at home- will want to lose by more than one goal.
March 2, 2010
Cape Town 02-02-2010
With less than 4 months to go, organizers of this years World Cup in South Africa are still facing problems with ‘Soccer City’ — the as of yet incomplete Johannesburg venue for the opening game and the final.
Besides the World Cup stadium not being ready there remains the question of 700,000 unsold tickets still looking for owners.
In about 100 days — seems and is short time – it is short, but even if we have to stay awake all night, every day we will be ready by the time of the World Cup.”
England coach Fabio Capello is duly optomistic and said that after his third trip to visit the place where the English team will make home, he was impressed with the hotel, the progress of the medical centre, and he noted the sports facilities were fantastic.
South Africa’s government tourism ministry has said it will investigate allegations that hotel prices are being raised to unreasonable heights during the tournament.
The probe into hotel prices follows accusations that SAA, South African Airlines, are colluding to inflate prices during the World Cup.
February 28, 2010
Moscow 28-02-2010
Former Dutch national coach Guus Hiddink, who led the South Korea to the semifinals of the 2002 World Cup is considering becoming coach of Africa’s strongest team – the Ivory Coast – just in time for this years World Cup.
Hiddink has recently agreed to take over as Turkey’s national coach in August after having led Russia’s for the last 2 years.
The Ivory Coast with Chelsea striker Didier Drogba is probably the African continents biggest chance to win the cup, however the Ivory Coast was knocked out of the African Nations Cup last month and as a result has parted ways with its former coach the Bosnian Vahid Halilhodzic,
This news comes only days after Hiddink announced that he had agreed to take over as Turkey’s coach in August and only two weeks after he agreed to step down as Russia’s coach at the end of June.
Hiddink has an especially good relationship with Drogba –presently in form and one of the greatest strikers in the world – because of Hiddink’s time as Chelsea’s interim coach last year.
Berlin 28-02-2010
German coach Joachim Loew includes the two new players – Thomas Mueller & Toni Kroos - for upcoming friendly against Argentina
German national coach Joachim Loew has announced his team before the international friendly against Argentina this Wednesday March 3rd in Munich.
Loew has called up 26 players for Wednesday’s friendly game which could include a national debut for 2 new young players -Bayer Leverkusen’s goal machine Toni Kroos and Bayern Munich equally prolific Thomas Mueller.
They have both impressed with a string of good performances and rightfully deserve a chance due to their hard work and superb form in the Bundesliga over the past months.
Hamburger HSV midfielder Marcell Jansen is doubtful due to a recent injury, and Werder Bremen’s keeper Tim Wiese has also been forced to withdraw due to injury – however his recent lack-lustre form means his absence is probably a plus for the German side.
28 – 02 -2010
The English national football team has always been the subject of intense critical scrutiny from the UK press, especially in World Cup and European Championship years.
This has lead to the English team being unduly burdened with the deadly combination of very high expectations coupled with an enormous pressure to succeed and achieve.
This resultant pressure which transformed itself into a heavy burden – from the highly critical UK press and from supporters – is often given as the root cause in underwhelming performances in recent competions.
Fabio Capello has seemed to reverse this losing chain of events and seems to have removed the shackles of fear of underachievment which has in turn been transmitted itself into positive results on to the pitch.
Capello has done this by providing both more freedom for individual players to go and express themselves positionally and tactically – and at the same time demanding more team discipline and team organization from the whole group.
If Wayne Rooney can stay fit until the summer – after a long and gruelling English season – under the masterful guidance of Capello this English team may indeed go along way.
