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Saturday, December 19, 2009
Early bowls offer intriguing matchups-for a change
Friday, December 18, 2009
World Cup 2010 Blog: “World Cup Moments: Pelé Becomes the Youngest Goalscorer in a World Cup Final” plus 1 more
World Cup 2010 Blog: “World Cup Moments: Pelé Becomes the Youngest Goalscorer in a World Cup Final” plus 1 more |  |
| World Cup Moments: Pelé Becomes the Youngest Goalscorer in a World Cup Final Posted: 18 Dec 2009 04:04 AM PST We all know Pelé was good. But it’s easy to forget just how good. If you have any doubts, take a look at Pele’s first goal for Brazil vs Sweden in the 1958 World Cup Final, below. The striker takes the ball on his chest, lifts it over the defender’s head with his right and then volleys home low with the same foot.
That goals made the score Brazil 3-1 Sweden. Now factor in the fact that Pelé was just 17 years old at the time, and you’ve got yourself something special. The great man added a second goal when he headed home in the 90th minute as Brazil went on to beat Sweden 5-2. All seven goals are below: The first goal made Pelé the youngest goalscorer in a World Cup final at 17 years and 249 days. He still is. I’m not to keen to share what I was doing at 17, but it wasn’t that. Pelé also remains the youngest scorer in a World Cup tournament (vs Wales in the quarter-final, aged 17 years and 239 days) and the youngest scorer of a World Cup hat-trick (vs France in the semi-final, aged 17 years and 244 days). For more on Brazil visit Duvel at Brazil World Cup Blog.
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| World Cup Team History: Australia Posted: 17 Dec 2009 01:10 PM PST We’re doing a World Cup history post for every team at World Cup 2010. Today it’s Australia’s turn. The Socceroos have just two previous World Cup appearances in the record books, but they’ve come so close to making it so many times. I’m sure every Australian football fan has their fill of World Cup playoffs. Until 2007 Australia was part of the Oceania confederation, along with New Zealand and several smaller nations. It’s easily the weakest confederation in world football, and so doesn’t get a lot of love from FIFA in terms of World Cup qualification spots. Hence the playoffs. Which is why Australia has long lobbied to “move” and join the Asian confederation, a goal that was finally achieved in 2007. Below is the story of their two World Cup appearances in 1974 and 2006, plus the frustrating period inbetween where they continually fell at the final hurdle.
1974 World Cup in West Germany
The squad was managed by the 38 year old Serbian born (but Australia committed) Ralé Rašić, captained by English born defender Peter Wilson (pictured), and featured midfielder and Australian soccer legend Johnny Warren (the current A-League player of the year award is called the Johnny Warren Medal). It’s tough to argue that 1974 was a full on success given the lack of goals. But given the fact that many of the squad were not full professionals, a draw against Chile is nothing to be ashamed of. There’s a website titled The Southern Cross which puts a very detailed and very positive spin on the Socceroos adventure in West Germany, particularly in terms of how the squad represented their country. Here’s video of Australia in action, losing 3-0 to the hosts:
At the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, Scane carried a koala bear under each arm acted as the team mascot (leading the Socceroos out at every game) and also interpreter (having learned German while a World War II P.O.W. at Dunkirk). Scane wore a gold jacket (pictured) with the names of Australia’s opponents on it, ready to cross the names off as the Socceroos beat each team. He’d have to wait until 2006 to see Australia’s first World Cup win though. World Cup Playoff FrustrationsAustralia’s frustrations with the Oceania confederation were there for all to see in 1994, 1998 and 2002. In each of these campaigns Australia dominated Oceania but then had to face a tougher opponent from a different confederation in a two-legged World Cup qualification playoff. In qualification for the 1994 World Cup, Australia won a playoff against Canada but then had a further playoff vs Diego Maradona’s Argentina. The Socceroos managed a 1-1 draw at home, but lost 1-0 in Argentina. Close, but not quite. In qualification for the 1998 World Cup (with Terry Venable in charge) the Australia faced Iran in the playoff. The Socceroos got an excellent 1-1 draw in Iran, and led 2-0 at home. But Iran scored two late goals to make it 3-3 on aggregate, with Australia losing out on away goals. Harsh. Here’s a news report from that 1997 game: In qualification for the 2002 World Cup, manager Frank Farina oversaw the Socceroos demolition of Oceania opposition, including a ridiculous 31-0 win over American Samoa. But once again they fell short in the playoff game, this time against Uruguay. A 1-0 win at homes was followed by a 3-0 loss in Uruguay. Australia missed out again. They finally cracked it in time for the 2006 World Cup. With Guus Hiddink in charge they faced Uruguay (again) and after trading 1-0 wins and doing plenty if arguing over kick off time, Australia won a penalty shootout in Sydney. Here’s the Mark Schwarzer save that sent Australia to their second ever World Cup after years of disappointment: World Cup 2006 in Germany
It started badly, with Japan going ahead through a questionable goal. Nakamura’s cross sailed straight in as keeper Mark Schwarzer was impeded by a Japanese player, but the referee let it stand. Australia looked like losing that game and blaming the referee, until an incredible final few minutes that turned the whole World Cup campaign around. Tim Cahill equalized in the 84th and put Australia ahead in th 89th before John Aloisi scored the Socceroos third in the second minute of time added on. Dramatic stuff. This is how the Socceroos three goals were broadcast by Australia’s SBS television: In the second game, Australia held Brazil 0-0 for the first 45 minutes, but eventually lost 2-0. So it all came down to the game vs Croatia, where avoiding defeat would send the Socceroos through to the Second Round. It was an insane game, not least the moment when Graham Poll showed Croatia’s Josep Simunic three yellow cards. But if finished 2-2, which was good enough to send Australia through to the Second Round for the first time. In the Socceroos first ever World Cup Second Round game, they went toe to toe with Italy for 90+ minutes. Absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. But with stoppage time about to expire, this happened: There’s still debate about whether Fabio Grosso dived or not. I find it tough to tell, but this much is certainly true: Lucas Neill made a clumsy tackle and Fabio Gross went down. Francesco Totti stepped up and put the 95th minute penalty away to send Australia home and Italy on the way to World Cup glory. The excellent ending to this story involves Jim Scane. The Socceroos superfan passed away in 2008 at the grand old age of 91, but in 2006 – 32 years after World Cup ‘74 – Scane witnessed invited to travel to Germany where he and his grandson saw Australia’s incredible come from behind 3-1 win vs Japan. For more on the Socceroos read Australia World Cup Blog.
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Australia qualified for the ‘74 Weltmeisterschaft after coming through a qualification process that merged the Oceania and Asia confederations. In their first World Cup, the Socceroos were drawn into Group 1 with West Germany, East Germany and Chile. In three games they lost 2-0 to East Germany, 3-0 to West Germany and drew 0-0 with Chile. So bottom of the group, one point and precisely zero goals scored. 
One of the other highlights of the 1974 campaign was Socceroos super-fan Jim Scane, featured in 
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Desperate times for five NBA teams
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Thursday, December 17, 2009
World Cup 2010 Blog: World Cup Moments: Johan Does the Cruyff Turn in 1974
World Cup 2010 Blog: World Cup Moments: Johan Does the Cruyff Turn in 1974 | |
| World Cup Moments: Johan Does the Cruyff Turn in 1974 Posted: 16 Dec 2009 10:00 AM PST I’m sure Johan Cruyff (or Cruijjff, if you prefer) had performed his famous Cruyff Turn long before the 1974 World Cup. He was probably Cruyff Turning all over the place while playing football for Ajax in the ’60s and ’70s. But that was long before YouTube, long before footage from any league in the world could be uploaded and shared globally. So the world didn’t see the Cruyff Turn in all it’s glory until the 1974 World Cup. The images above are of the famous moment when the Netherlands and their Total Football took on Sweden in the second Group 3 game of the 1974 World Cup. The man to feel sorry for is Sweden rightback Jan Olsson. Cruyff plants his left foot and fakes to cross with his right, but instead uses his right to drag the ball behind, turn 180 degrees and accelerate away from poor Jan Olsson, with the poor Swedish defender left resembling a drunk who’s misplaced his housekeys. Here’s video of the famous Cruyff Turn moment:
And one with slo-mo for good measure: So the famous trick went global after the above moment, and now every kid learning to play gets taught the Cruyff Turn. It even has its own Wikipedia entry. Interesting side note: The famous Cruyff Turn moment in the above game was not actually the first time Cruyff pulled it out at the 1974 World Cup. As spotted by Guardian sports blog commenter slimjim68, Cruyff actually pulled the move in the opening Group 3 game vs Uruguay, one game before the Sweden match. You can see Cruyff fool Uruguayan fullback Baudilio Jáuregui at 3:06 in this video: So the facts are the facts and Jáuregui was the first to be fooled on the world stage. Also, Netherlands beat Uruguay 2-0 in that game and actually only drew 0-0 with Sweden in the second game. But the fact remains that the Cruyff Turn vs Jan Olsson is the famous one, most likely due to the fortuitous camera angle and Olsson’s reaction. Which is why it’s one our World Cup Moments. For more on the Netherlands national team, visit Jan’s ever-excellent Netherlands World Cup Blog. This post is part of our planned World Cup Moments series, where we profile famous moments in World Cup history. The series will feature goals, near misses, saves, tackles, tricks, controversies, red cards. Pretty much any famous World Cup moment that’s fun to write about and interesting to read. If you have any suggestions for future World Cup Moments posts, please email them to daryl[at]theoffside[dot]com or make a suggestion in the comments.
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We ask '72 Dolphins: Who has best shot at 19-0?
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Latest World Cup Blog Updates
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| World Cup Team History: Argentina (Part II: 1986-2006) Posted: 15 Dec 2009 07:00 AM PST We’re doing a World Cup team history post for every team at the 2010 World Cup. This is Part II of our Argentina World Cup team history, covering 1986 to 2006. Part I (1930-1982) can be found here.
1986 World Cup in MexicoIt probably doesn’t get much better than this. Especially not for Diego Maradona. After the frustration of 1982, El Diego dominated this tournament, winning the Golden Ball as best player and captaining Argentina to a second World Cup title. Mardona played every minute of every match, scoring five, assisting five and making himself inarguably the greatest player in the world. Not too shabby for the boy from Villa Fiorito. Argentina topped Group A by beating South Korea 3-1, drawing 1-1 with Italy and beating Bulgaria 2-0. In the knockout round of 16 they beat Uruguay 1-0 and then faced old rivals England in the quarter-final. The game is famous for two very Maradona incidents. First the infamous “Hand of God” goal where little Diego beat Peter Shilton to a high ball by using his hand, later claiming “The goal was scored a little bit by the hand of God, a little by the head of Maradona.” Yes, it was cheating. But even as an England fan, I have to admire the skill with which he pulled this off. There’s even a little nod of the head there to disguise it. Maradona more than made up for that little bit of cheating by scoring arguably the greatest goal in World Cup history later in the same game: El Diego picked the ball up in his own half, and dribble past at least half the England team before sidestepping Peter Shilton and rolling home. Can’t argue with that. Maradona scored another two as Argentina beat Belgium 2-0 in the semi-final, including this beauty: Maradona didn’t score in the final, but was influential as Argentina beat West Germany 3-2 with goals from José Luis Brown, Jorge Valdano and Jorge Burruchaga: 1990 World Cup in ItalyThis started badly, with Argentina losing their opening Group B game 1-0 to Cameroon. A huge shock at the time, though in hindsight not so much as Cameroon won the group and went on to the quarter-finals. Carlos Billardo made five changes to the team that lost to Cameroon and Argentina then beat the USSR 2-0 and drew 1-1 with Romania to go through as one of the best third placed teams. In the second round, Argentina beat Brazil 1-0, with Claudio Cannigia scoring after his buddy Maradona found him with a pass: The game became infamous for the “holy water scandal” after Brazilian left back Branco claimed the Argentinean staff passed him a water bottle laced with tranquilizers during the game. I’m still not sure if that’s true or not. But there’s a very simple lesson to be learned here: Don’t ingest anything given to you by your biggest international rivals in a World Cup game. In the quarter-final Argentina and Yugoslavia fought out a 0-0 draw, with Argentina winning on penalties. Then came the semifinal. Italy vs Argentina in Naples. Big because Maradona was a local legend having just dribbled Napoli to a second Serie A title. However, Maradona pushed things a little too far by suggesting the people of Naples should support Argentina instead of Italy in the World Cup semi-final. Brilliant New York Times story from 1990 about that request here. Any sane person could tell you that wouldn’t work, but Maradona has been famed for his sanity. The result was a bit of a backlash, as Italians in Naples booed Maradona. Italy took the lead through Toto Schillaci, but the albiceleste equalized through Claudio Cannigia and the match went to penalties. Ironically, it was Maradona who scored the spot kick that sent Argentina through to the final and Italy to the third place playoff. The final vs West Germany was a disappointingly dull affair, with West Germany winning 1-0 through an Andreas Brehme penalty. So Argentina picked up a second runners-up medal to match their two World Cup wins. 1994 World Cup in the USA Argentina were in Group D, and opened the tournament in style. A 4-0 win over Greece with a hat-trick from Batistuta, a goal for Maradona, and an all around beauty of a performance, especially the passing: Looking good. In the second game against Nigeria, Argentina won 2-1 with two goals from Claudio Cannigia. But Maradona went for a drugs test after the game and that was the end of his World Cup. He tested positive for the banned substance ephedrine and was sent home from the World Cup in disgrace. Two things worth noting here. To this day Maradona maintains that he had ingested the ephedrine unknowingly, given to him innocently by his trainer who made a mistake. His biography “El Diego” spends a lot of time protesting what happened. I honestly don’t know what to think. What I do know is that countless people (including everyone I knew at high school) ignored the fact that it was ephedrine that Maradona tested positive for, and the story soon spread that he’d tested positive for cocaine and that his goal celebratio vs Greece could be used as proof. In hindsight, that’s all extremely silly. However, Maradona’s disgrace had a profound impact on the rest of the team. They lost the final group game 2-0 to Bulgaria and only qualified for the second round as the third placed team in Group D. Argentina faced Romania in the Round of 16 and 3-2. A rough end to a rough World Cup, and in a lot of ways you have to feel sympathy for a talented squad that was overshadowed by the Maradona drug test controversy. 1998 World Cup in FranceSo we move on to the post-Maradona era. With Daniel Passarella now in charge and once again a talented squad (Sensini, Batistuta, Seba Verón a young Hernan Crespo) Argentina had a 100% record in Group H by beating Japan 1-0, Jamaica 5-0 (with two from Ariel Ortega and a second World Cup hat-trick for Batistuta) and Croatia 1-0. In the Round of 16 there was an epic battle with old foes England. The game is famous for Michael Owen’s goal and David Beckham’s sending off (which you have to say was well played by Diego Simeone). The game finished 2-2 with goals from Batistuta (again) and Javier Zanetti. Argentina held their nerve and won on penalties. In the quarterfinals it was the Dennis Bergkamp inspired Netherlands. Claudio López equalized after Patrick Kluivert had given the Dutch the lead, but then in the 89th minute Dennis Bergkamp did this: If you’re going to lose in the last minute, then it may as well be to a beauty of a goal like that. 2002 World Cup in South Korea & JapanThis did not go well. Marcelo Bielsa (who will manage Chile at the 2010 World Cup) was in charge. Despite having the twin talents of Gabriel Batistuta and Hernan Crespo at his disposal, Bielsa decided that going one up front was the best option. It wasn’t. Argentina opened Group F with a 1-0 win over Nigeria (Batistuta again) but then faced a fired up England in the second game and lost 1-0 to a David Beckham penalty and could only manage a 1-1 draw with Sweden in the final game. So out in the group stage it was. 2006 World Cup in GermanyBielsa was gone and José Pekerman was in charge. Gabriel Batistuta had retired after 2002, but there was an 18 year old Leo Messi in the squad, and the attack-minded team was organized around the lazy magic of #10 Juan Román Riquelme, then at the peak of his powers. Argentina were drawn into Group C with Cote d’Ivoire, Netherlands and Serbia & Montenegro, the undisputed Group of Death. With a 2-1 win over Cote d’Ivoire, a 6-0 spanking of S&M (see what I did there?) and a 0-0 draw with the Netherlands, Argentina finished 1st. Here are the highlights of that 6-0 win over Serbia, which had everyone talking about Argentina as favourites to win the 2006 World Cup. In the Round of 16 Argentina beat Mexico 2-1 in extra time, with this stunner from Maxi Rodriguez… …which set up a quarter-final clash with hosts Germany. Argentina took a 49th minute lead through Roberto Ayala, but then Pekerman lost his nerve and abandoned the attacking approach, taking off Riquelme and Cambiasso to defend that lead. It didn’t work, and Germany equalized in the 80th and went on to win on penalties. The big news in 2010 is that Maradona is in charge. For better or worse. But the good news is that – with the exception of Juan Roman Riquelme – the majority of that talented 2006 squad will return, with Leo Messi four years older and four years better. Argentina complete World Cup record: 1930 – Second Place
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