World Cup 2010 Blog: “David Beckham’s World Cup XI” plus 8 more |  |
- David Beckham’s World Cup XI
- Preview: Germany v Uruguay, 3rd Place Game.
- World Cup Final: Octopus vs Parakeet
- Coca Cola Is Ready To Move On To 2014
- In Defence of the World Cup Third Place Playoff
- World Cup Best Young Player Shortlist
- World Cup Golden Ball Nominees
- UAE Has The Right Idea, Declares A Fatwa On The Vuvuzela
- Paul The Octopus Gives The Final Order: Get Ready For A Spanish Celebration.
| Posted: 09 Jul 2010 08:09 PM PDT
However… what better and more basic way to judge David Beckham’s coaching talents than by looking at the World Cup Best XI he chose for Yahoo!? Assuming Beckham really did make this selection himself (my uneducated guess is he didn’t write the explanations in the article but did select the XI), he’s gone for Uruguay’s Fernando Muslera in goal, with a back four of Sergio Ramos, Ashley Cole, Carles Puyol and John Mensah. His midfield contains Bastian Schweinsteiger, Wesley Sneijder and Xavi, and his attacking line up is Thomas Mueller, Digeo Forlan and David Villa. On the bench he’s got Michael Bradley, Maicon and Leo Messi. Which would be an interesting conversation to watch take place on the sidelines if nothing else. I’m not 100% sure how Beckham’s team would line up, but here’s my best guess: Muslera I know, Forlan doesn’t really play on the left. Beckham’s team is actually a little like a Rubik’s Cube of footballers. Everytime you think you have a formation, someone is out of position. Which actually sounds a lot like the England team for the past 10 years, so maybe Becks really is the perfect man for that job.
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| Preview: Germany v Uruguay, 3rd Place Game. Posted: 09 Jul 2010 12:40 PM PDT BIG PICTURE The big picture is the story of a few small pictures. The most prominent and historical is Miroslav Klose's pursuit of the all-time goal scoring record, currently sitting one behind Ronaldo at 14, but maybe not sitting much at all with a back injury going into the game. On an individual level, it's an enormous game for Klose and Germany – who will be feeding him Jabulanis ad nauseam should he play. The other striker being watched is Diego Forlan, arguably one of the favorites for Golden Ball as player of the tournament despite on the losing end of the semifinal, and his propensity for shooting from absolutely anywhere on the pitch, including corners, which makes spectating fun. And then there are the subplots: the return of hero/villain Luis Suarez + hands; the potential Golden Ball runs of both Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mesut Ozil; the chance to see just how much of a difference Thomas Mueller makes in this side; and one last chance to see this phase of an evolving Germany, who will be one of the co-favorites for Polkraine 2012 and perhaps Brazil 2014. WHAT'S AT STAKE Pride and final standing, but those are relatively minimal to the outside observer. A losing semifinalist is a losing semifinalist, whether they win the consolation game or not. A win will help, but ultimately it does not change history. So the rest is for individual glory. OUR PREDICTION We won't see Uruguay recreating their tactics against France or Germany continually being pressed back into their own third a la Spain, which means this one should be enjoyable with a decent number of goals. So….3-2 Germany. Because Paul picked them too. And Klose gets one. FAN RESOURCES
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| World Cup Final: Octopus vs Parakeet Posted: 09 Jul 2010 12:39 PM PDT Paul the octopus has spoken, and he’s chosen Spain to win the World Cup. But Mani the parakeet has answered, and he’s chosen the Netherlands. One of them is going to be wrong. Yep, we have a new non-human World Cup prognosticator on the scene, and it’s a 13 year old parakeet from Singapore who predicts the winner by picking up one of two cards. According to this Associated Press story on The Guardian webiste:
Seems to me that this parakeet is a bit late on the scene, and I particularly like Brian at Dirty Tackle’s analogy that Mani the parakeet is “the Monkee to the octopus’ Beatle”. All that’s left is for Mani to make a surprisingly experimental film. The key to all this appears to be the parakeet’s owner:
Now we have a problem, because both pet predictors have chosen different teams. So one of these creatures is clearly a fraud, while the other is the true clairvoyant. We’ll find out which one on Sunday.
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| Coca Cola Is Ready To Move On To 2014 Posted: 09 Jul 2010 11:52 AM PDT If yesterday’s Brazil 2014 logo unveiling was curious, this is absolutely ludicrous. Coca Cola has, with two days left to run on the current World Cup, begun pimping the 2014 edition, with a familiar soundtrack, because we have nothing better to do for the next four years in int’l footy outside of wait for the thunderous Maracana. (Alright, that actually sounds…is it 2014 yet?) Of course it’s the Brazilian edition thus aimed at Brazilians who are looking forward to 2014 with the disappointment of 2010 now behind, and there’s also considering I have no idea what the voice is saying – he could be calling the female members of my family all sorts of unsanitary names for all I know – but it still seems, oh, a touch premature. [101gg]
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| In Defence of the World Cup Third Place Playoff Posted: 09 Jul 2010 10:58 AM PDT
First of all, the third place game is a welcome relief from all the tension. Nails were bitten down to the bone in the quarterfinals and semis, so I say it’s good to have a nice casual game between that and the final. If only to let everyone’s nails grown back so that we have something to bite on Sunday. Second, this game usually produces goals. World Cup games are often tight, because teams definitely don’t want to do something as damaging to their World Cup hopes as conceding a goal. But for the third place playoff both teams are already out. Doesn’t matter how clean your sheet is at the end of the game, there’s still no room for you in the final. As a result, the more relaxed approach allows for more goal filled games. The 2006 match produced four goals, the 2002 match five. So if you like goals, watch this game. It’s also the last chance to see two teams that have been part of the story of this World Cup. Germany’s exciting football has had everyone all excited, while Uruguay storming to the semis has been the big surprise. We now get to see them in action one last time before World Cup 2010 disappears, so you can think of the third place match as a lap of honour for these two teams. Maybe that’s not the greatest argument for the third place playoff, but I think what I’m getting at is that if we just accept the third place playoff for what it is – a World Cup game with nothing much at stake – then it becomes a whole lot easier to just sit back and enjoy it. Clearly it’s not the World Cup final. It’s more like the warm up act for the World Cup final. So, much like the warm up act at a comedy or music show, you probably don’t really care if it’s there or not, but you’re here now so you may as well just watch it. FAN RESOURCES
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| World Cup Best Young Player Shortlist Posted: 09 Jul 2010 09:17 AM PDT
The FIFA technical study group announced just three names for consideration, and those names (and the reasoning for theor selection according to FIFA) are as follows…
I was really pleased to see Ayew do so well, mostly because I love it when players of famous fathers manage to earn respect on their own terms. Dos Santos was exciting every time he got the ball, with more than one of us (I think in one the Mexico liveblogs) noting his physical and playing similarities to the 2005 era Ronaldinho. Headband and everything. Dos Santos’ performances were double impressive given the drama before the tournament involving his younger brother Jonathan’s exclusion from the Mexico squad. Last but not least… Thomas Mueller. I half expected to see him on the list of Golden Ball nominees, but now expect him to take this award, if only because Mueller went deeper into the tournament than the other two players, scoring in the quarterfinal. I’d also argue that while Dos Santos and Ayew both looked exciting and promising and so on, Mueller’s output at World Cup 2010 (the 4 goals and 3 assists) was the real deal.
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| World Cup Golden Ball Nominees Posted: 09 Jul 2010 07:45 AM PDT We posted the live stream of the Golden Ball nominees announcement earlier today, and you can go back to that post to see video of Jérôme Valcke list the 10 players in contention for the title of best player at World Cup 2010. Or… you can just read below where I’ve typed them into a good old fashioned list. The 10 nominees are: David Villa (Spain) Is anyone else noticing a total absence of goalkeepers and defenders here? Bastian Schweinsteiger is the closest thing on the list to a defensive midfielder, and even he’s not exactly that. So it’s basically all attackers. It’s almost as if the decisions about who to nominate for the adidas Golden Ball were in some way commercially influenced… The list was chosen by FIFA’s technical committee and will now be voted on by accredited media. We’ll discover the winner after the final on July 11th. There’ll be a Golden Ball winner for best player, a Silver Ball for second best and a Bronze ball for third. Who would you vote for in your top three?
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| UAE Has The Right Idea, Declares A Fatwa On The Vuvuzela Posted: 09 Jul 2010 07:36 AM PDT The vuvuzela has become almost tolerable throughout the World Cup as our worries shift to the flight of the Jabulani, the suspect officiating and angry Germans trying to eat that adorable little octopus. However, the Jabulani will not be following us back to the domestic and continental scenes, refereeing has always been suspect and Paul probably has better security than Angela Merkel at this point, with his upcoming world tour setting him up for life. The vuvuzela, however, will travel. So the UAE is setting the right tone, declaring a fatwa the vuvuzela on the grounds that it could damage hearing. Hallelujah! I mean…
Hopefully this ruling will pass along to the rest of the world and the mere holding of a vuvuzela will result in a slow and painful death by Diego Forlan free kicks. And the first to test these methods of execution should be the guy in the photo above, who created a diamond-encrusted vuvuzela which was picked up for a mere €17,000. Because that’s what the world needs – a luxury line of vuvuzelae which are thus acceptable at social gatherings simply because they wear diamonds. Kind of like Paris Hilton.
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| Paul The Octopus Gives The Final Order: Get Ready For A Spanish Celebration. Posted: 09 Jul 2010 06:47 AM PDT Well, no need to actually play out this World Cup final business – Paul the Octopus has spoken, and it’s going to be a Spanish fiesta come Sunday evening. Six for six in the World Cup now, this is the first game, I believe, where he’s chosen between two non-German teams, so perhaps his powers do not extend beyond one-half Jogi & Friends, one-half evil opposition. (Unlikely – the thing’s a soothsayer proper.) And has anyone posed the theory that Paul isn’t psychic, but simply tremendously tactically astute? He must be brilliant on a chalkboard with eight arms at his service.
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I know a lot of people think the third place playoff match between losing World Cup semi-finalists is a big waste of time, effort and television. To some extent I agree. When we look back on World Cup 2010 we’ll say that both 
As well as the shortlist for 
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