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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
SN Today: Pens force Game 7, chance for revenge, Cup
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
World Cup 2006 Blog
World Cup 2006 Blog |  |
| Europe’s World Cup Qualifying Underachievers Posted: 08 Jun 2009 11:39 AM PDT
Most of the big teams are doing quite well, thank you (Holland sends its love from South Africa), but as it stands, there are some expected participants who might not have any security concerns for the summer of 2010 in the southern most part of Africa. Security issues at home, however, might be another case entirely… Africa’s third round has only just begun, having played two of the six games (and squads like Gabon adorning the top of the group tables), so it’s not quite time to sound the sirens there - though two-time defending continental champs Egypt might want to start worrying about picking up one point from their first two fixtures. Ditto for CONCACAF, which is just halfway through a one group home-and-away leaving ample time for the faltering. Asia’s three biggest footballing nations - Australia, Japan and South Korea (sorry, Uzbekistan) - have already taken three of the five spots, so for the others it’s merely Christmas come early. And over in South America, things seem to be shaping up as they should, with Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Argentina all deservedly looking to a holiday-free summer of 2010 (with two-time WC champ Uruguay currently looking at that playoff spot). Full standings for the others at FIFA. And this, for now, leaves Europe, obviously the largest and deepest qualifying group with some teams feeling the heat. Five, maybe six, teams expected to do far better find themselves in real danger of missing out on second place. A spot which doesn’t even guarantee automatic qualification to the finals - it only ushers them into a playoff which will send eight of the nine runners-up to South Africa. Work to do certainly.
Portugal: Four points away from Hungary with four to go and it was damn near six away only for Bruno Alves to win it at the death in Albania. The home match against Malta will be an easy three on the final day of qualification, but by then it might not matter. Before that they must travel to runaway group winners Denmark while playing a crucial home-and-away with upstarts Hungary. Easily the biggest upset should they miss out on SA2010.
Of course it should be said they’ve played Spain twice already, which only helps despite the results.
And the teams which have, at least partially, capitalized on their downfalls: Denmark, Hungary, Slovakia, Northern Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia. Sometimes the World Cup itself is just getting there.        |
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SN Today: 'Calm' Red Wings ready to close out Penguins
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Monday, June 8, 2009
SN Today's scouts rank the NFL's coaches from 1-32
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Sunday, June 7, 2009
World Cup 2006 Blog
World Cup 2006 Blog | |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2009 02:07 PM PDT
In the world of World Cup qualifying, which would you prefer for your team? That they qualify for World Cup 2010 by having to fight for every point right up until the last second? Or that they qualify a full year in advance and have that year to coast and rest? Different confederations have different philosophies on this, with the Asian Football Confederation coming down on the “get it over with and rest” side of the issue. As of today, three of the four (or five) AFC slots have been finalized, with the fourth slot to be decided no later than June 17. After that, the third place teams from both qualifying groups will do battle for the right to play against the top team from Oceania for the AFC-or-Oceania slot. (For a primer on AFC qualifying process, including why the heck Australia is here, stop by this post.) The early achievers who’ve already qualified are Japan, Australia and Korea Republic (S. Korea). Australia only needed a point from their match with Qatar, and that’s what they got in a nil-nil draw. I’d post highlights, but… Come on, people. Nil-nil. Would you really watch them? (Plus, I can’t find any. If you’re really interested, keep checking at 101 Great Goals or TV Golo.) And finally, S. Korea advances with a 2-0 win over United Arab Emirates, with goals by Park Chu-Young and Ki Sung Yueng. The other AFC result: 06/06/09 Korea DPR 0:0 Iran   |
(I found this photo of Japan fans quite disturbing. Let’s hope those are Japanese flags on his chest and not the result of piercings gone horribly wrong.) | You are subscribed to email updates from World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010 To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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SN Today: Red Wings regain momentum with decisive Game 5 win
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Saturday, June 6, 2009
SN Today: Sporting News Today ranks the 25 most dominant NFL players
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Friday, June 5, 2009
World Cup 2006 Blog
World Cup 2006 Blog | |
| Weekend Predictions: World Cup Qualifying Posted: 05 Jun 2009 03:40 AM PDT
This weekend we’re previewing and predicting three World Cup Qualifiers: USA vs Honduras, Sweden vs Denmark, and Argentina vs Colombia. Read on for those predictions, and then leave your own in the comments. USA vs Honduras (Chicago, Saturday 6th June, 7:30pm) USA were apparently coasting through the hexagonal and all the way to South Africa 2010. Until they met Costa Rica on Wednesday night and were handed a 3-1 defeat/foobtalling lesson combo. Now it’s panic stations, with Michael Bradley suspended and chronic lack of decent full-backs Honduras are a team on the rise and beat Mexico 3-1 back in April, but will be missing David Suazo through injury. Prediction: Bob Bradley’s men to get back on track(ish) with a nervous 2-1 win. Onyewu to score off a set piece. USA vs Honduras betting odds via PaddyPower Sweden vs Denmark (Solna, Saturday 6th June, 8pm) Several reasons this is exciting. First, it’s the big Scandinavian derby. Second, Denmark are currently top of Group 1, while home team Sweden desperately need the points. Third, when these two met in Euro 2008 qualifying, a drunken Danish fan attacked the ref. Not saying that’s a good thing. And not saying it will happen again. But it’s an example of the type of wackiness that ensues when these two meet. Oh, and it’s also Zlatan Ibrahimovic vs the future Zlatan Ibrahimovic. At least in Nicklas Bendtner’s head it is anyway. Prediction: Home advantage is king. Sweden to win 1-0 with the real Zlatan on the scoresheet. Sweden vs Denmark betting odds via PaddyPower. p.s. We still need a new Sweden blogger. Argentina vs Colombia (Buenos Aires, Saturday 6th June, 6pm) Argentina will still be stinging from that 6-1 defeat vs Bolivia. But weird things happen at altitude, so it’s not quite the disaster it looks on paper. Still, it’s going to be interesting to see how successfully Diego Maradona’s men bounce back. (Also, is it weird that it now feels perfectly natural for El Diego to be ib charge of the albiceleste?) This game is even more important for Colombia, who need to make up three points on Uruguay to take 5th place (which gets you a playoff vs the 4th place CONCACAF team). Will be interesting to see what sort of state the pitch at El Monumental is in. There was a rock concert by Los Piojos (The Lice) there last weekend and a certain someone is not impressed.
What could the world’s most famous Boca fan possibly have against River? Prediction: The pitch will be fine and Argentina will win 3-1, with Leo Messi (who else?) amongst the goals. Argentina vs Colombia betting odds via PaddyPower Bonus Video: Fan footage of Los Pijos at El Monumental: Time to look back at last week’s predictions. I scored a very disprespectable zero. So let’s move on to some other people’s scores. Congratulations to: Gold Silver Bronze Special mention to Lilrashio for being the only one to predict Betis falling through the La Liga trapdoor (on the basis that Osasuna had two players from Iran). So, what are your predictions for this weekend? USA - Honduras   |
| Posted: 04 Jun 2009 03:10 PM PDT
From September 2009 to May 2010 the World Cup trophy will make like a world famous rock band and go on a fizzy drink sponsored 225 day world tour, covering 134,017 kilometers (83,274 miles) as it visits 86 countries. From the fizzy pop press release:
There’s a PDF file with an itinerary of the trophy’s tour. Basically it starts off in Cairo, Egypt on September 24th, 2009 before working its way around the African continent and down to Cape Town, South Africa by December 3rd, 2009. After a brief rest, the trophy arrives in Seoul, South Korea on January 17th, 2010 and works its way south and then east to South America, working north until Mexico and then east again to begin it’s European tour in Ireland. It keeps going east, though Russia, Kazakhstan, India and Japan and then Canada before ending a long journey in the USA on May 2nd (American city TBC, but the smart money’s on NYC, right?). Finally, the trophy gets back to South Africa on May 4th, where it will sit and wait for a team captain to lift it on July 11th, 2010 in Johannesburg. Here’s a map of the World Cup trophy tour. Click to enlarge, and then click again to make it so big your eyes hurt.   |
The big European leagues might have closed their doors for summer. But Weekend Predictions doesn’t quit so easily.
Want to get your hands on the World Cup trophy? Well, you can’t. Not unless you’re an international footballer anyway. And even then it’s an uphill battle. But you might be able to get your photo taken with it.
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