Latest World Cup Blog Updates

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Club vs Country Crisis Averted: Cristiano Ronaldo Officially Out of World Cup Playoffs Posted: 11 Nov 2009 05:10 AM PST This seems almost impossibly unimportant following the sad news of Robert Enke’s passing, but Cristiano Ronaldo will now definitely miss both legs of Portugal’s World Cup 2010 playoff vs Bosnia-Herzegovina (November 14th and 18th). The story had been steadily building into the club vs country smackdown to end all club vs country smackdowns, with Real Madrid insisting their player was injured and unavailable (and doubly so since said ankle injury is a direct result of C-Ron playing for Portugal last month when not fully fit) and Portugal maintaining it was there right to call up whoever they want. I got the feeling that fingers in both camps were hovering over metaphorical nuclear weapon buttons. But… Incredibly, a very sensible compromise was reached. Real had initially refused to release Ronaldo, but then decided to let him meet up with the Portuguese squad and staff so they could see for themselves that his ankle was not football-ready. So he did, and they did, and all are now agreed that Cristiano Ronaldo needs more time to recover. “After clinical evaluation and imaging, it was concluded that the player is not physically able to integrate the preparation stage of the national team for these games,” read a statement on the Portuguese FF’s Web site on Tuesday night. “The Portuguese Football Federation wish the player a good and quick recovery.” A rare club vs country case where everyone did the right thing and the correct decision was made.

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NFL midseason report: New Orleans dominates players' first-half poll

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