Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious: Jan 14, 2011

Friday, January 14, 2011

World Cup 2010 Blog: “Asian Cup Defending Proving Difficult, Awesome” plus 1 more

Asian Cup Defending Proving Difficult, Awesome

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 10:37 AM PST

For the second time in three days, a path was created from the left-hand flank, or close to it, and the ball intended for the head of an attacker landed in the net without touching another soul. This little cross – even if Baha’a Abdulrahman would swear on his mother it was a shot – was the decisive goal which sent Saudi Arabia to their ultimate Asian Cup demise.

Meanwhile, in the ultimate no-no for keepers, Eiji Kawashima cleared it right to a Syrian attacker, earning himself a nice red card and warm shower in the process, despite the consequences to the offside rule.

As if you needed anything past reason number one to watch the Asian Cup.

The only thing that beats great football is good football married to defensive imperfection.

FIFA World Rankings – January 2011

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:30 AM PST

SOCCER-FIFA/BLATTER

There are some months FIFA just has to punt their rankings. The cynics and wiseasses among us (aye) might say all of them, but it is at the very least the month of January, with December largely a barren thirty-one days.

Evidence? The only two moves worth mentioning were Burundi and Lebanon, which dropped to 140th and 168th in the world, respectively.

And then came a stumble into the abyss that is known as ‘Page 5′ on FIFA’s official rankings.

‘Page 5′ reads like more like a potential vacation listing than a list of nations with football relevance, which is precisely why they’re on Page 5.

And with a tip of the cap to the master of maps like such, The Best Eleven, these are the locations of the world’s most rubbish national football teams.

View FIFA’s Bottom Ranked Teams in a larger map

(Quite like the subtle dig at the US too.)

Oh, and here are the rest of ‘em:

fifajan