Wednesday, October 7, 2009

World Cup 2006 Blog

World Cup 2006 Blog

Link to World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010

Caption This (PG-13 Edition): Fernando Tells Us How Big It Was.

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 02:03 PM PDT

Fernando Torres and Raul Albiol emerge from somewhere - the locker room, perhaps? - and Fernando proceeds to describe just how bit it was with his fingers. Just what do you think he could be saying?

First person to reference Rafa Benitez, a paint roller, vegetable oil and six Skittles wins a prize.

Pretending to Fancy an Unpopular Manager is the Route to Success

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 12:40 PM PDT

I first heard about this on The Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast, and it’s since appeared in The Times, ONTD, Unprofessional Foul, and probably plenty of other places too. But that doesn’t mean we can’t share it here as well.

Apparently unsackable French national team coach Raymond Domenech has received a bizarre tribute from French singer (and former clotheless film actress) Catherine Ringer, in the form of her tribute song “Je Kiffe Raymond”, which translates roughly as “I Fancy Raymond”.

The song (above, in French) is basically a celebration of Ray-Ray’s alleged attractiveness, and features euphorically euphemistic wordplay like “If he attacked my penalty areas I would be without defenders.” A bit like France were at Euro 2008.

This is just the latest bit of weirdness surrounding Domenech’s spell in charge of France. There’s all his astrology nonsense, the press conference proposal to Estelle Denis, the recent cray text message business. And now this.

It’s not 100% clear whether Catherine Ringer is serious or joking. My guess is that she’s taking the piss. What’s not up for debate is her marketing genius. The song is available as a free download at CatherineRinger.com in advance of her new album and according to The Times “has become a phenomenon — “downloaded more than 100,000 times on Ringer's site and heard a further 101,000 times on other sites by users in 113 countries.”

If you’ve clicked the download link in the above paragraph or clicked play on the YouTube video above, then add another one to that total. So apparently writing a love song about an unpopular manager is the route to internet based success. Which is why I’ve got the in-house WorldCupBlog band working on two potential hit tracks: “Leonardo Lovin”” and “I’m Keen on Keane”.

MLB playoff extra: Mark McGwire, 32 other baseball insiders make their first-round forecast

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

World Cup 2006 Blog

World Cup 2006 Blog

Link to World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010

Is the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup a Proper Tournament or Not?

Posted: 05 Oct 2009 02:40 PM PDT

FBL-WORLD-U20-TRI-PAR


I have several good reasons for asking. First is the absence of certain eligible big name players. Bojan Krkic, Jack Wilshere, Mario Balotelli etcetera. But I’ve already had a rant about that, so won’t do so again.

Second, as you can see in the above image from the Trinidad & Tobago vs Paraguay group game, several game are being played on artificial turf. There is a FIFA Quality Concept for Artificial Turf, and Sepp Blatter and co. have decreed that pitches meeting this standard are acceptable.

And I completely understand this in places where it’s a necessity. But it’s not so understandable for a supposed showpiece international event, where proper grass fields could be grown for the occasion. We’re pretty sure FIFA has the money.

Third but not least, it is apparently impossible to get knocked out of this tournament.

Italy finished third in Group A, behind Egypt and Paraguay. But because the format allows for four of the six third placed teams to make the knockout stage, the Azzurrini still went through to the round of 16 and today beat Spain (who finished first in Group B without conceding even a single a goal) 3-1, in what looks like a pretty exciting game:

Well done to the young Italians, and I don’t want to take anything away from their performance. But can we really take this tournament seriously if the best players aren’t there, the games aren’t played on real grass and teams can finish third in a group of four and still go through?

Favre returns to form under MNF spotlight

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Monday, October 5, 2009

NFL Week 4: The champs hit their stride, and the upstarts keep surprising

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Sunday, October 4, 2009

College Football Extra: 25 pages of results and analysis

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Saturday, October 3, 2009

World Cup 2006 Blog

World Cup 2006 Blog

Link to World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010

Rio 2016: Olympic Football Returns.

Posted: 02 Oct 2009 10:35 AM PDT

Anybody who knows anything has been predicting Rio de Janeiro to win the 2016 summer Olympics bid, and today that formality became a reality. With a vote which went something like this…

1. Rio
2. Madrid
3. Tokyo
4. Chicago

…South America gets its first ever Olympic games. And this on the back of the 2014 World Cup which will be taking over Brazil*. I think it’s fair to say this should be enough to revive a dying sport: Olympic football.

* - While we’re at it…why even hold the 2014 World Cup. Can’t we just hand it to the Selecao and dispense with the formality? Seems like an awful lot of trouble for the answer to a question which has only one.

There have been numerous discussions of late debating the ways to turn Olympic football from an afterthought at worst and tinder for the club v country debate at best into a competition of relevance again. Some theorize it should be open to everyone, others think it should be kept strictly at an amateur level (which would lead to an Arsenal v Barcelona final). Others think it should be scrapped altogether, as the refusal of some clubs to release players causes the tournament’s legitimacy to come into question. This is a small part of the problem with the decline of Olympic football.

The large part? No one seems to care.

But now, Olympic football has hope. Why? Because it’s going to London in 2012, the birthplace of football and now Brazil four years later. Two absolutely football mad countries whose appeal lies in the stands as much as it does on the pitch. And simply because of that, people will care. Sure, the athletes are nice, but an international football tournament held in and around Rio? Who wouldn’t be over their heels by that? Four years after taking over Wembley? It’s no revelation that atmosphere can often make or break a tournament, and those are two footballing meccas.

Players will want to party play at these places. People will want to watch players play at these places. Beijing, Athens and Sydney? All nice, but not quite football mad. Add this to the aftershocks of World Cup 2014 and you have the recipe for a rejuvenated Olympic sport.

Now if they can only figure out just who they want to send…

***

In order to pass the friday, enjoy the Rio pitch:

College Football Extra: 13 pages of previews, predictions

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