World Cup 2010 Blog: “Why You Should Care About the Asian Cup” plus 2 more

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• Why You Should Care About the Asian Cup
• Blowing Up The World Cup And Its Rules
• Outing A Fixed World Cup Qualifier

Why You Should Care About the Asian Cup Posted: 05 Jan 2011 03:10 PM PST The Asian Cup doesn’t get a tremendous amount of pub outside the continent itself. It isn’t even afforded the luxury of being whined about as club teams lose their stars for a few weeks in the middle of the winter (ahem, Africa). But it does have appeal, if you’re willing to look in the right places. A few of the many reasons: i. Because some of these teams are defensively terrible. It’s something a bit like the Eredivisie’s appeal: there are a few good teams, some of them talented, but zero finished articles. So occasionally, you get a group like C in 2007… 1-5, 2-0, 5-0, 2-2, 0-2, 3-1 With just one nil-nil in the groups total. The stuff dreams are made of after the summer’s impotence. ii. Surprisingly, others are actually good. Take Japan and South Korea, for instance. Neither will dwarf Brazil’s trophy cabinet anytime soon, but they’ve progressed exceptionally well, both on the international stage and domestically. Burgeoning powers? Not yet, but they’ve given a new relevance to what was once almost entirely an overthought in the footballing realm. iii. Because Cinderellas do exist, Virginia. Will a Cinderella win the World Cup in our lifetime? Likely not. Think about it – just when was the last time a Cinderella even made the final? A moment to think it over… . . . I’m stumped. The last time what is now a non-traditional power made the final, it was 1962, with Czechoslovakia. Well, not only do Cinderellas exist in Asia, but they can win, too – just ask defending champeens Iraq. iv. Get a glimpse of the Qatari national team before the entire roster ends in -inho. What, you think that’s a joke? v. More importantly, the tournament is being held in Qatar. Despite next to no one caring about football in Qatar outside of paycheck-hunting twilighters just a few months ago, everyone should care now with the amount of hubbub surrounding their hosting of the 2022 World Cup. It will make for an interesting before and after segment, 11 years and several trillion dollars later. vi. Jong Tae Se. vii. Watching Keisuke Honda stand over a freekick without the need for T.A.T.U. in the background. Oh, and Yasuhito Endo’s not bad either. Japan’s free kick prowess is reason enough to tune in, really. If only they went to ground to win more fouls… viii. No Jabulani! It’s actually the same ball being used in La Liga, Serie A and the Prem. We’ll miss the occasional “what’s it gonna do?”, but not 90 minutes of it. ix. The timing. The football in the mid-afternoon European time/early and mid-morning US isn’t exactly bountiful. Easing into work with some Japan-Jordan and India-Australia will not only make the day better, but it also won’t interrupt any evening games European time. Asian in the morning, European in the afternoon and the Americas in the evening. (Do note these should be reversed if talking cuisines.) x. You know absolutely nothing about Asian football, and maybe you should, because someday, someone in your conversation just might…and he or she might be attractive. ‘Tis best to be well-versed.

Blowing Up The World Cup And Its Rules Posted: 05 Jan 2011 01:00 PM PST Without changing a thing, the face of the World Cup has already changed greatly for the near future. The award of Brazil is about as traditional as it can get, but Qatar in 2022 will see the first World Cup in the Middle East, in an Arab nation. So that’s a large change. The rumblings of a potential winter World Cup would give it an odd feel. And if they pass even a couple of the proposed rule changes by then, the sport could be near foreign. They sort of tip-toe around these subjects constantly, so it’s not really breaking, pressing news, but their concession that technology may be necessary opens up a line of possibilities which now seem…possible. Reluctance to deviate from a traditional path isn’t really on order anymore. There is a panel which will now look at a number of things, namely fixing the World Cup since South Africa’s on-pitch play was such an abomination. Name: Task Force Football 2014. This is your leader, people. On the docket: - Bringing back the Golden Goal. - Changing the structure of awarding points in the group stage. - A combination of the two. Sepp: “At the moment, three points are awarded for a win and one for a draw, which is something we can discuss and decide whether it’s a good thing or not,” he said. “Is extra-time the only option we have when a game ends in a draw? And if we stick with extra-time, how should we end games? Is it worth taking another look at the golden goal? Some people like it, some people don’t. There are a lot of issues regarding tournaments we can look at and discuss.” These things are neither new nor unfamiliar, but if FIFA’s willing to make such changes Cup-to-Cup, just imagine what the games might look like come 2022 in Qatar – in the winter.

Outing A Fixed World Cup Qualifier Posted: 05 Jan 2011 09:19 AM PST The big match-fixing trial in Bochum is happening, and so the games themselves are rising to the surface. One such game arose today – the above World Cup qualifier between Finland and Liechtenstein back in September of 2009. The fixer, Ante Sapina, said that he requested both goals come in the second half, which they did – one off a penalty for absolutely no apparent reason (blind elbow?), and another off a deflection which Jesus Christ himself would’ve had to have fixed. The Bosnian referee was banned for life once his ties arose, obviously, but the implication of the article makes it seem as though a 1-1 draw was ordered with the referee (notice he blows the final whistle mere seconds after Finland clangs the post, heart rate somewhere around 3,712bpm). How, then, did they factor for the players not scoring goals of their own volition? Oh, right – Liechtenstein and Finland. These gangsters are cunning bastards.

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