World Cup 2010 Blog: “Soundoff: What Grade Would You Give World Cup 2010 So Far?” plus 8 more |  |
- Soundoff: What Grade Would You Give World Cup 2010 So Far?
- Bert van Marwijk Prevents Robin van Persie From Confirming Dutch Stereotype
- Match Review & Highlights: Spain 1-0 Portugal
- Cristiano Ronaldo’s Spit Felt ‘Round The World.
- Adidas Can Write The Future, Nike Cannot.
- World Cup Quarter-Finalists: Pick Your Winners…
- Liveblog: Spain 1-0 Portugal, Round of 16
- Match Review & Highlights: Paraguay 0-0 Japan (5-3 pso)
- Soccer More Popular than Baseball, Basketball with US TV Viewers (briefly anyway)
| Soundoff: What Grade Would You Give World Cup 2010 So Far? Posted: 30 Jun 2010 01:00 AM PDT
So I’m interested to hear: What grade would you give World Cup 2010 so far? More importantly, why? Would you give it an A+ for providing plenty of entertaining games? Or an F for the refereeing controversies that affected USA, England and Mexico. Maybe you’re a Ghana fan, and your team’s performance alone is enough to make you give a high grade. Or maybe you’re a France or Italy fan (you can’t be both) and your team’s ignominious exit was bad enough for you to label World Cup 2010 a failure. You’re the teacher here, so the grading system is up to you.
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| Bert van Marwijk Prevents Robin van Persie From Confirming Dutch Stereotype Posted: 29 Jun 2010 11:29 PM PDT
Before the World Cup, I posted my 10 World Cup stereotypes, and argued that said 10 stereotypes were not necessarily accurate. Near the top of that list… #2 The Netherlands team is always arguing in public. Yes, this had happened in the past. But it wasn’t happening in 2010. Until now. Robin van Persie was subbed out in the 80th minute of the Netherlands 2-1 win over Slovakia on Monday, and did not take kindly to leaving the field. There are even reports (via lipreaders) that van Persie complained that Wesley Sneijer and not himself should have been taken off. Which is dangerously close to the start of a squad rift. That’s the same Wesley Sneijder who scored four minutes after van Persie left the field by the way. Spotting a stereotype about to be reinforced, coach Bert van Marwijk stepped in to end the drama:
I hope van Marwijk’s right. Because because many of the stereotypes on this list have been disproved at World Cup 2010 (Germany have looked more inspired than efficient, for example) but also because I want to see the strongest Dutch team possible take on Brazil this Friday.
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| Match Review & Highlights: Spain 1-0 Portugal Posted: 29 Jun 2010 05:10 PM PDT
Portugal looked equal to Spain for much of this game, and had their share of chances. Cristiano Ronaldo had a couple of strikes at Iker Casillas, and there was a moment where Tiago’s shot forced Casillas into a weak parry that almost allowed Hugo Almeida to beat him to the rebound. But only almost. The longer the game went on, the more possession Spain seemed to have. Pass, pass, pass. Yet Portugal’s defence – unbreached in the group stage, even against Brazil – was a securely closed door. Secure that is until Andres Iniesta and Xavi unpicked the lock with quick and precise passing to send David Villa one one one with Eduardo: I’m in absolute awe of that goal. The pace the ball moves at in such constricted space seems to break several laws of physics, and serves as a warning that Spain can work the ball beyond any backline that’s put in front of them. I hope Paraguay weren’t watching. Extended highlights (via 101 GG): Reactions to Spain 1-0 Portugal, at the Spain blog and the Portugal blog.
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| Cristiano Ronaldo’s Spit Felt ‘Round The World. Posted: 29 Jun 2010 04:10 PM PDT After Portugal’s defeat, a stalkerazzi was walking Cristiano Ronaldo off the field – presumably without being invited – which was received with a spit by the divo. Was it intentional? Sure looks like it. The cameraman then clearly backs away, so we don’t know if he was hit – probably not, given Cristiano’s accuracy in SA – but it appeared to be something of a message. Let’s hope it didn’t hit the nice cameraman, because we sure as hell don’t know where Ronaldo’s mouth has been. So much like ‘06, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano are inextricably linked: both had their most notable moments after the game, towards the camera. No wonder both teams were kayoed in the second round.
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| Adidas Can Write The Future, Nike Cannot. Posted: 29 Jun 2010 02:59 PM PDT This has been percolating throughout and hit a fervor today, as every single main star of Nike’s Write The Future ad is now out of the tournament. Even a few of the minor stars, like the US duo and Cesc, who’s played a whole 59 minutes in 4 games, are falling to the curse as well (Iniesta and Pique are still going strong). The verdict: Fabio Cannavaro: First round exit; tainted his legacy with a pretty mediocre showing in central defense; added injury to insult by retiring to Dubai. Franck Ribery: First round exit; may or may not have called Yoann Gourcuff names and/or punched him in his pretty face. In summation: complete failure by Nike. adidas, on the other hand, went with Lionel Messi and David Villa. The former is a heavy candidate, if not favorite, for the Golden Ball and David Villa is joint-leader for top scorer (with Higuain and Vittek at 4) – an award conveniently sponsored by adidas – and just as importantly, still playing. They also might have predicted a semifinal, with Argentina needing to beat Germany and Spain to slip past Paraguay for the semifinal of speed. So clearly we can deduce adidas’ products are better than Nike’s. Because commercials never lie.
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| World Cup Quarter-Finalists: Pick Your Winners… Posted: 29 Jun 2010 01:48 PM PDT
3rd July: (for semi-finals, July 2nd winners play each other, July 3rd winners play each other) The Brazil vs Netherlands and Argentina vs Germany games already have that classic World Cup feel to them. The sort of games that happen as you get into the later stages of a World Cup, and the sort of games that have plenty of history already. Anyone remember Brazil 3-2 Netherlands from the 1994 World Cup quarterfinal? Definitely worth a watch: I also count four South American teams in the quarter-finals, and none of them playing against each other. So we could potentially have an all South American semi-final lineup. Alternatively, we also have the last remaining African team on the verge of making history. If Ghana can get past Uruguay, they’ll be the first ever African team in a World Cup semifinal. I can’t even imagine the buzz that would create, and I’m not just talking about vuvuzelas. I’m looking at Paraguay vs Spain as the least exciting game for neutrals, but will still be interesting to see how Spain’s so far steady but not supernova attack deals with Paraguay so far very sturdy defence. Now the inevitable predictions question: Which of these four teams do you see making the semi-final?
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| Liveblog: Spain 1-0 Portugal, Round of 16 Posted: 29 Jun 2010 10:30 AM PDT
Welcome to the liveblog of Spain vs Portugal in the World Cup Round of 16. Just nine teams remain in the World Cup. Once this game is over, we’ll be down to eight. Read up on the match with our Spain vs Portugal preview. Make your comments before, during and after the match in the liveblog window. Don’t just take our word on the match. Check out match comments from carefully selected Twitter accounts: FAN RESOURCES
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| Match Review & Highlights: Paraguay 0-0 Japan (5-3 pso) Posted: 29 Jun 2010 10:00 AM PDT
When the Round of 16 pairings became clear, Paraguay vs Japan was easy to peg as the least glamorous. And so it came to pass that it was also the least exciting. For 120 minutes anyway. Because once extra time was over we had our first penalty shoot out of World Cup 2010. The 120 minutes of football wasn’t the worst ever. The problem from the perspective of a neutral viewer was mostly the quality of the defending, with guys like Paulo Da Silva for Paraguay and Marcus Tulio Tanaka for Japan making endless blocks, tackles and headed clearances. Then it came down to penalty kicks. Drama. Heartbreak. All that. Watch the full odeal in the Paraguay vs Japan penalty shootout highlights below: Poor Yuichi Komano is the man who hit the crossbar. Normally hitting the bar means you came close. Today it meant that Komano failed, and that Paraguay’s Oscar Cardozo has the chance to step up and end this game. He did of course, and so Paraguay are through to the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in their history. Japan have still never been, and will have to wait to try again in 2014. More at the Japan blog and the Paraguay blog.
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| Soccer More Popular than Baseball, Basketball with US TV Viewers (briefly anyway) Posted: 29 Jun 2010 09:27 AM PDT
"That's phenomenal," said Stephen Master, the vice president for sports at the Nielsen Company. "If the U.S. had kept going, to the quarters and semifinal, you would have gotten really big numbers." That 19.4 million makes USA vs Ghana the most watched soccer game in US television history. Impressive, but expected. It’s much more interesting – and turns out much more encouraging – to measure the numbers against more mainstream American sporting events. According to the LA Times, the 2010 NBA Finals averaged 18.1 million viewers per game, while 2009 World Series (baseball) averaged 19.1 million per game. So there you have it. Soccer officially more popular than basketball and baseball. Albeit only when you compare the US’s single biggest game in eight years against the average viewership of several baseball and basketball games (which, statistically speaking, is massively unfair). But still, progress. Now if only Bob Bradley hadn’t started Ricardo Clark…
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There’s still almost two weeks of World Cup 2010 to go, but 56 of the 64 matches have now been played. That’s all of the group stage, plus eight knockout games in the Round of 16. So while the best is yet to come (looking at you, Netherlands vs Brazil), the majority of this World is now in the rear view mirror.
I am not happy with Netherlands forward Robin van Persie right now. But very happy with Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk. Here’s why:
Can you believe we’re down to eight World Cup teams already? Feels like the World Cup only just started, yet we’re already at the 
I imagine most USA fans are still disappointed with their team’s World Cup Round of 16 exit. But the good news is that the game was a TV ratings winner. A total of | You are subscribed to email updates from World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010 To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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