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Sunday, July 5, 2009
Sporting News Today: McNair brought more than talent to QB position
Saturday, July 4, 2009
World Cup 2006 Blog
World Cup 2006 Blog |  |
| 2009 Gold Cup Schedule & TV Listings Posted: 03 Jul 2009 12:38 PM PDT
For the uninitiated, this is the regional tournament (think Euros, Copa America, Africa Cup of Nations etc) for CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football). The USA is hosting, as usual (since the CONCACAF Championship became the Gold Cup in 1991, the USA has either hosted or co-hosted every edition). The 2009 Gold Cup teams, schedule and TV listings are after the jump… Group A: Group B: Group C: After that it’s quarter-finals, leading to the obvious question: How do you get eight quarterfinalists from three groups? Here’s how: At the end of group play, if two or more teams are equal on points The USA games are all on Fox Soccer Channel in the United States, with other games on Spanish language channels Univision, Galavision or Telefutura. Here’s the schedule and TV listings taken from USSoccer.com: If you’re in Canada, then Rogers Sportsnet will be broadcasting all of Canada’s games. So, who’s looking good? Well, the US initially named a weakened 23 man roster that looked a lot like Freddy Adu’s last chance to do something at international level this year. But due to their Confederations Cup involvement they’ve been allowed to add seven Confed Cup players (including Jozy Altidore) to make a 30-man megaroster. USA WCB has the final USA 2009 Gold Cup roster. Mexico have named a semi-strong roster (Mexico WCB has it here) featuring Carlos Vela and Gio dos Santos. Javier Aguirre will be keen to restore some Mexican pride after all that Sven business, and I think it’s fair toc all US and Mexico joint favourites here. Costa Rica have to be third favourites given their recent form, and that impressive win vs the USA at home in World Cup qualifying. Honduras should be capable of making challenge too, and you can see their roster on Honduras WCB. Canada (the only nation outside of US and Mexico to have won this thing since 1991) have gone with some fresh faces, so Mike at Canada WCB is providing squad bios for their complete roster. Complete 2009 Gold Cup squads/rosters can be found on Wikipedia. Team profiles on the official Gold Cup website.        |
No one is going to argue that the CONCACAF Gold Cup is the world’s biggest tournament. And winning the 2009 Gold Cup doesn’t even qualify you for the next Confederations Cup in 2013 (the 2011 Gold Cup will do that). But it’s still an international tournament, and it kicks off today.
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Sporting News Today: 3 NFL coaches who could engineer quick turnarounds
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Friday, July 3, 2009
Sporting News Today: What impact will Manny have on Dodgers?
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Thursday, July 2, 2009
World Cup 2006 Blog
World Cup 2006 Blog | |
| Posted: 01 Jul 2009 11:30 AM PDT
Or maybe FIFA’s rankings are just rubbish. [Link]   |
| Should Footballers Be Allowed to Celebrate With Religion? Posted: 01 Jul 2009 07:21 AM PDT There was a familiar site on display after Sunday’s Confederation Cup Final (above). Not just Brazil lifting another trophy, but Kaka’s famous “I Belong to Jesus” t-shirt, which he apparently got back from the dry cleaners just in time to wear for the final. Several of Kaka’s teammates also wore Jesus themed t-shirts, and the team got down on its knees to celebrate together in prayer, which you can see at the end of the video above. No harm in that, right? Well, depends who you ask…
But Denmark Football Federation Secretary-General Jim Stjerne Hansen has pointed out that religious displays contravene one of FIFA’s laws. Here’s FIFA Law 4, Decision 1:
[from page 20 of the 2009/10 FIFA Laws of the Game (released today!)] And here’s what Jim Stjerne Hansen had to say yesterday:
Obviously FIFA hasn’t cracked down on the Brazil team, because that definitely would have made the newspapers. In some ways this is tricky stuff, and so FIFA appears to be tuning a blind eye. But mostly it’s just common sense. If a team wins a trophy, and wants to celebrate by holding hands and kneeling in a circle, then that’s up to them. They’re not mocking any other religion or pushing their beliefs on anyone else. And if Brazilian players want to wear t-shirts saying “I Belong to Jesus” and “I Love Jesus” then that’s up to them too. It’s a personal message. If the message was “You Belong to Jesus” or “You Should Belong to Jesus”, then we’d have a problem. But it’s not, so we don’t.   |
Apparently FIFA was unimpressed with the footballing performances of the Confederations Cup. If not, how would you explain June’s World Rankings? Brazil knocked Spain off the top spot - as much was to be expected as Brazil have quietly been by far the best team in the world for a few months now - but no one else impressed. The United States made a 2 spot leap to #12 for their Cinderella run, but then Greece made a 6 spot leap to #11 for doing precisely, err, nothing.
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Sporting News Today: Are Florida State, Bama sanctions too soft?
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Wednesday, July 1, 2009
World Cup 2006 Blog
World Cup 2006 Blog | |
| The Confederations Cup Was Always Too Easy Posted: 30 Jun 2009 03:10 PM PDT
But it’s going downhill quickly and it might take World Cup 2010 with it.
Obviously World Cup 2010 is the least of their worries in these cases, but given the expected boost to South Africa’s economy as well as the country not just representing itself, but also the continent of Africa, this could be a major loss. As it stands, 5 stadiums have yet to be completed and, presumably, countless other details - both big and small - must be taken care of before the World Cup. It’s not as though they were going to finish these things in September and twiddle their thumbs while they await the cavalries next summer. Much like any decent host, they’ll need every moment possible to perfect, assess, perfect, reassess and perfect again. This couldn’t possibly be worse timing after all the good done over the last few weeks, and it certainly seems South Africa 2010 is going to prove just as difficult as expected.   |
| Germany Are (Smallish) Champions Of Europe Posted: 30 Jun 2009 06:44 AM PDT Last year was a rough one for Germany. They lost the final to Spain on a Phil Lahm faux pas and then proceeded to send German family counselors scattering abroad for fear of being roped into aiding the crumbling Mannschaft. (Remember that ridiculous meeting to clear the air between Captain Ballack & Jogi Lowe at an airstrip which was all cheesy James Bond? Exactly.) The big boy squad also lost a friendly to England which I’m sure they’d love back, as that was back when England was England, not Fabio Capello’s England. Not quite humiliating, but far from thrilling. So the U-21’s took revenge for the senior team against both yesterday. They won a European final - the Under-21 variety, their first ever - by thrashing England 4-0 (aided by some awful keeping) in a game which doesn’t quite make up for last summer, but is quite a nice consolation prize.   |
If you’ve taken to perusing the interwebs for football news with your morning coffee the last couple days, you’ve undoubtedly read about he praise over South Africa’s handling of the Confederations Cup. And in nearly all respects, they’re absolutely right. Not only was the infrastructure largely a success according to those in attendance (Sepp gave it a 7.5 out of 10, which is quite good for what was a first draft with one year left to perfect), but so wasn’t the tournament itself. It had people talking about what is barely more than a glorified run of friendlies.| 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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