World Cup 2010 Blog: “10 Players to Watch in the Asian Cup” plus 2 more

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• 10 Players to Watch in the Asian Cup
• Sepp On Housewives, Pots & Kettles
• Asian Cup 2011 Opening Ceremony: Qatar Knows How To Party

10 Players to Watch in the Asian Cup Posted: 07 Jan 2011 01:00 PM PST The Asian Cup is upon us, and although the sixteen teams represent the best of Asian football, many of the players will be unfamiliar to American and European fans. Here are ten names that you’d do well to remember – they could well be the stars of the tournament. Shinji Kagawa (Japan) Keisuke Honda may be better known after the World Cup, but Kagawa (who missed the final cut for South Africa) is the one grabbing all the headlines at the moment. An attacking midfielder he is currently starring, and often scoring, for runaway Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund. If he can work well with Honda, great things could follow for Japan. Son Heung-Min (South Korea) An 18 year old striker making waves at Hamburg currently, and winning plaudits from the likes of Franz Beckenbauer. Yasser Al-Qahtani (Saudi Arabia) Nicknamed "the sniper" so I'm sure you can guess he is a striker. Top scorer last time around in 2007 he will hope to bang a few more in this time too. Ismaeel Abdullatif (Bahrain) Scored the dramatic last gasp winner in Saudi Arabia to take Bahrain through to their fateful World Cup playoff with New Zealand, and also banged in a hat-trick during Asian Cup qualification. Bahrain will need him at his best if they are to progress. Tim Cahill (Australia) In my opinion one of the best Premier League players not at a "top" club. Consistently scoring from midfield, especially with headers which is impressive considering his size. A lot of Australia's hopes will rest with Cahill. Server Djeparov (Uzbekistan) What more do you want from your former-Soviet nation than a hero with a dodgy mullet? Step forward attacking midfielder Server Djeparov, who has already scored his first Asian Cup goal in the opener over Qatar. Javad Nekounam (Iran) One of two Iranians playing for Osasuna in Spain. He is the rock of the Iranian midfield. Sebastian Soria (Qatar) What's this? A Qatari striker with a distinctly un-Arabic name? Shocking! The first of many as 2022 gets closer I suspect. Soria is Uruguayan born, and can be a good striker on his day. Qatar will hope his day is imminent. Khalfan Ibrahim (Qatar) And let's balance things out for the hosts with a true Doha native. Striker Ibrahim was Asian player of the year in 2006 as a mere teenager, partly in recognition of a good performance at the Under 17 World Cup, and best player in the entire Arabic world (yes, there is such an award) in 2007. Now at the grand old age of 22 he has amassed 47 caps, scoring 15 times, and like with Soria he will need to be having a good month if Qatar are to progress. Jong Tae-Se (North Korea) “The Korean Rooney” as he is sometimes known caught the world's attention with his patriotic tears at the World Cup, but is also a very good striker. He now plays in the 2.Bundesliga having been extremely successful in the Japanese league previously. A real piece of quality in a hard working team.

Sepp On Housewives, Pots & Kettles Posted: 07 Jan 2011 10:10 AM PST Uber-creep Sepp is back to his old tricks, offering up his weekly soundbite that is both confusing and probably a little bit offensive. This week’s target: economically-challenged housewives. A group that, according to his Seppness, deserves to be randomly fired under the bus from time to time. And a group which had absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand, which was at the time the IOC and their handling of financial matters. He says “our accounts are open to everyone. … The IOC does it like a housewife. She receives some money and she spends some money.” Blatter also says the IOC “has no transparency,” and that any transparency was left to the Olympic-sanctioned sports themselves. What does this even mean? Housewives don’t know how to open a savings account? And doesn’t everyone “receive some money and then spends some money”? Isn’t that the basic crux of economics, when boiled down to something which could be explained to five year olds? And while FIFA’s supposed “transparency” is great, it doesn’t mean opening the curtains to reveal the organizational equivalent of a hairy nude fellow killing a hooker is okay.

Asian Cup 2011 Opening Ceremony: Qatar Knows How To Party Posted: 07 Jan 2011 08:27 AM PST Opening ceremonies are typically an exercise in finding out just what the hell is in the fridge. Not only are they by and large terrible, but some, like the dolls from Euro 2008, are even scarring. Qatar has no such problem, mostly because they’ve nailed the five year old’s guide to staying interested: Pretty lights, lots of color and big booms. Now project this times a thousand in 2022.

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