Wednesday, July 1, 2009

World Cup 2006 Blog

World Cup 2006 Blog

Link to World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010

The Confederations Cup Was Always Too Easy

Posted: 30 Jun 2009 03:10 PM PDT

If you’ve taken to perusing the interwebs for football news with your morning coffee the last couple days, you’ve undoubtedly read about he praise over South Africa’s handling of the Confederations Cup. And in nearly all respects, they’re absolutely right. Not only was the infrastructure largely a success according to those in attendance (Sepp gave it a 7.5 out of 10, which is quite good for what was a first draft with one year left to perfect), but so wasn’t the tournament itself. It had people talking about what is barely more than a glorified run of friendlies.

And really, little about the tournament could’ve gone better. The home team did exceptionally well when expectations were hovering around bedrock. A Cinderella - a big media market Cinderella at that - made the tournament enjoyable for the underdog lovers and a nation (read: economy) which could always use a footballing kickstart - and they weren’t the only one providing upsets. The best team won - the ultimate goal for any big tournament whether a fan of the little guy or not. Even the vuvuzela was a success, getting people who have no vested interest in the sport talking about the Confederations Cup - a tournament most ardent fans of the sport care little about. Hell, there was even a hooker scandal to whet the appetites of the gutter-based tabloids. All in all, a wildly successful tournament.

But it’s going downhill quickly and it might take World Cup 2010 with it.


South Africa’s biggest union said on Tuesday 50,000 construction workers would launch a strike over pay from next Wednesday, halting work across the economy including on stadiums for the 2010 soccer World Cup.

“A strike action is set to begin on July 8,” Lesiba Seshoka, the NUM’s spokesman said.

“Its not just the World Cup stadia that will be affected, we are talking about power stations, hospitals, roads and the like. It will last until they (the employers) come to their senses and offer a 13 percent wage increase for one year.”

Obviously World Cup 2010 is the least of their worries in these cases, but given the expected boost to South Africa’s economy as well as the country not just representing itself, but also the continent of Africa, this could be a major loss.

As it stands, 5 stadiums have yet to be completed and, presumably, countless other details - both big and small - must be taken care of before the World Cup. It’s not as though they were going to finish these things in September and twiddle their thumbs while they await the cavalries next summer. Much like any decent host, they’ll need every moment possible to perfect, assess, perfect, reassess and perfect again.

This couldn’t possibly be worse timing after all the good done over the last few weeks, and it certainly seems South Africa 2010 is going to prove just as difficult as expected.

Germany Are (Smallish) Champions Of Europe

Posted: 30 Jun 2009 06:44 AM PDT

Last year was a rough one for Germany. They lost the final to Spain on a Phil Lahm faux pas and then proceeded to send German family counselors scattering abroad for fear of being roped into aiding the crumbling Mannschaft. (Remember that ridiculous meeting to clear the air between Captain Ballack & Jogi Lowe at an airstrip which was all cheesy James Bond? Exactly.) The big boy squad also lost a friendly to England which I’m sure they’d love back, as that was back when England was England, not Fabio Capello’s England. Not quite humiliating, but far from thrilling.

So the U-21’s took revenge for the senior team against both yesterday. They won a European final - the Under-21 variety, their first ever - by thrashing England 4-0 (aided by some awful keeping) in a game which doesn’t quite make up for last summer, but is quite a nice consolation prize.
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