World Cup 2010 Blog: “Yes, This Man Is Going To The World Cup™: Howard Webb.” plus 2 more

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• Yes, This Man Is Going To The World Cup™: Howard Webb.
• Fashion Faux Pas: No One Wants To Be England’s Goalkeeper.
• World Cup 2010 Team Nicknames

Yes, This Man Is Going To The World Cup™: Howard Webb. Posted: 11 Feb 2010 06:00 AM PST [101gg] I do desperately hope this becomes a regular feature, one in where we bathe in detailed schadenfreude the failings of the men who will be defining our South African experience this summer. For now, we’ll simply start with Howard Webb and hope that others follow his glittering lead. Howard Webb is a much-discussed name in a profession which often marks success by anonymity. This would lead one to believe he’s not very good at his job (feel free to debate amongst yourselves). And yet The Acronyms continually call on him to take part in big, meaningful matches. He was also given a big, meaningful match this week in the English Premier League. During the dying embers of Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Liverpool last evening, the Reds had one last chance to equalize from a free kick. A chance which was put on ice so long Cesc earned a yellow for being a general pain in the ass. Cesc then stopped the resulting free kick from going towards goal by raising a hand above his head, whilst standing on the 18 yard line. Which went entirely unnoticed by Mr. Webb. A blatant hand ball on the eighteen to stop a ball going to – perhaps even in – goal in the last seconds of a colossal one goal win for the guilty team. Yes, this man is going to the World Cup.

Fashion Faux Pas: No One Wants To Be England’s Goalkeeper. Posted: 11 Feb 2010 01:10 AM PST England, now famously, unleashed their World Cup away kit – perhaps unknowingly – through rock band Kasabian in Paris. There’s a French Connection UK joke in here somewhere, but we’ll pass. Continuing with the retro is the new future fashion theme, England have gone back to the future with this ode to a 1930’s widow’s faded sun dress. The hideousness of the yellow is on par with Chelsea’s old day-glo kits, just on the opposite end of the yellow spectrum. Now Fabio Capello must go from “who to play?” to “who will play in this?”. [Football Fashion]

World Cup 2010 Team Nicknames Posted: 10 Feb 2010 03:00 PM PST It’s time we started getting to know the 32 teams who will compete at World Cup 2010, and what better way to get familiar than with a nickname? Below you’ll find a list of the 32 teams, followed by their most common nickname or nicknames. Team nicknames usually refer to the colour of the shirt (eg the Azzurri or Les Bleus) or some element of the football association crest (eg The Three Lions). Others are a bit more imaginative (eg The Desert Foxes) and some refer specifically to recent events (eg The Pirate Ship and Olsen’s Eleven). Some may surprise you. Until very very recently I genuinely thought that everyone in Germany referred to the national team as Die Mannschaft. But then I read Jan’s post here and learned that wasn’t true. For one or two teams below I was either unable to find a translation or explanation for the team nickname (why are Slovakia called the Repre, why are Greece referred to as the Galanoleyki?) or unable to find any nickname at all (looking at you Slovenia). So feedback, corrections and suggestions are all welcome in the comments. Support your team and buy their World Cup 2010 jersey. Algeria – Les Fennecs (The Desert Foxes) Argentina – Albicelestes (White and Sky blue) Australia – Socceroos Brazil – Seleção (The Selection). Also Canarinhos (Little Canary) and Verde e Amarelo (Green and Yellow). Cameroon – Lions Indomptables (Indomitable Lions) Chile – La Roja (The Red) Cote d'Ivoire – Les Éléphants (The Elephants) Denmark – Olsens Elleve (Olsen’s Eleven) – In honour of popular head coach Morten Olsen. England – The Three Lions – From the FA crest. France – Les Bleus (The Blues) Germany – National Mannschaft (National Team) or DFB Elf (DFB Eleven) or National Elf (National Eleven). The nickname Die Mannschaft (the team) is only used by non-German media. Ghana – The Black Stars Greece – To Piratiko (The Pirate Ship) – Since Euro 2004. But another common nickname is apparently Galanoleyki, though I have no idea what that means. Honduras – Los Catrachos which is apparently how other Central Americans refer to Hondurans. Also La H (The H) – The crest is a large H, which looks extremely cool on the shirt.. Italy – Azzurri (Sky Blues) Japan – Blue Samurai Mexico – El Tri (after the three colours or “tricolor” on the Mexican flag). Netherlands – Oranje North Korea – Chollima (some sort of mythical horse) New Zealand – All Whites (rugby union team are the All Blacks) Nigeria – Super Eagles Paraguay – La Albirroja (The White-Red) or Guaraní (an indigenous people) Portugal – Selecção das Quinas (Team of the Five Shields) – Referring to the five shields on the FA crest. I think. Serbia – Beli Orlovi (White Eagles) – Referring to the white double headed eagle on the Serbia coat of arms. Slovakia – Repre (at least according to Wikipedia, but there’s no explanation as to what this means). Slovenia – Zmajceki (Dragons) – Because there’s a dragon on the crest of capital city Ljubljana. South Africa – Bafana Bafana (The Boys) South Korea – Taeguk Warriors. Fans are often called The Red Devils. Spain – La Furia Roja (Red Fury) Switzerland – Schweizer Nati United States – Often referred to as the MNT (Men’s National Team) or The Yanks. Uruguay – La Celeste (The Sky Blue)

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MAMUDU, Your February 11, 2010 issue of Sporting News Today is now available, please click here. Here are some articles in Today's Issue NFL mock draft: SN's experts update first-round picks Spring training countdown: 7 questions for 7 days In their own words: NBA players share experience of being traded Olympic hockey preview: Team Canada is SN's pick for gold Five-page NASCAR preview: 40 drivers ranked If you experience any problems with your issue, please click here to contact our customer service department. Know a friend who might like Sporting News Today? Email him/her this link: www.sportingnewstoday.com.     Trouble Viewing? If any of the above links do not work for you,   copy and paste this URL into your browser:   http://today.sportingnews.com/t=c/?1&121707&157690&18985&0000&1236490408&EIInjEOx9cS45     Please do not reply to this message. Questions may be submitted to Digital Support.   To stop receiving email notifications for digital issues of Sporting News Today,   click here.   Sporting News Today 120 West Morehead Street Suite 200 Charlotte, NC 28202

World Cup 2010 Blog: “The 30 Referees of World Cup 2010” plus 1 more

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The 30 Referees of World Cup 2010 Posted: 09 Feb 2010 09:48 AM PST When FIFA announced it’s final list of 30 referees for World Cup 2010 in South Africa, the big story was the inclusion Martin Hansson, the Swedish ref who somehow missed Thierry Henry’s handball vs Ireland. Somehow. There were 29 other referees on the list though, some of whom are very much aware that for 20 of the 22 men on the pitch, football is a feet only sport. Your full list of 30 World Cup 2010 referees is as follows: Europe Olegario Benquerenca, Portugal Massimo Busacca, Switzerland Frank De Bleekere, Belgium Martin Hansson, Sweden Viktor Kassai, Hungary Stephane Lannoy, France Roberto Rosetti, Italy Wolfgang Stark, Germany Alberto Undiano Mallenco Howard Webb, England South America Carlos Amarilla, Paraguay Hector Baldassi, Argentina Jorge Larrionda, Uruguay Pablo Pozo, Chile Oscar Ruiz, Colombia Carlos Simon, Brazil Asia Khalil Al Ghamdi, Saudi Arabia Ravshan Irmatov, Uzbekistan Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh, Malaysia Yuichi Nishimura, Japan Africa Mohamed Benouza, Algeria Koman Coulibaly, Mali Jerome Damon, South Africa Eddy Maillet, Seychelles North, Central America and Caribbean Joel Aguilar, El Salvador Benito Archundia, Mexico Carlos Batres, Guatemala Marco Rodriguez, Mexico Australia and South Pacific Michael Hester, New Zealand Peter O’Leary, New Zealand Source: Yahoo!/AP It’s easy to laugh at refs or point out past high profile mistakes. But it’s also worth noting that these 30 men are considered by FIFA to be the best in the world. Even Martin Hansson. So we should recognize their achievement in being selected for World Cup 2010, and cross both fingers and toes that all goes well in South Africa.

The Unlikely Fan Goes Super Bowl Mainstream. Posted: 09 Feb 2010 06:10 AM PST Those of you hanging around during Euro 2008 may remember The Unlikely Fan from his newfound Oranje fandom after moving to Amsterdam from the States. As you may expect of a comedian, or comedic actor of a comedic troupe, he was quite funny, and his bits – or segments, not the intro – were one of the best things to come out of Euro2008 with Andrei Arshavin, Petr Cech’s mortality and video replay (wait…). In fact we were discussing not a few weeks back whether or not he’d return for the summer shenanigans in South Africa. At least he’s back in some way – in a Super Bowl commercial for Teleflora. South Africa? We’ll have to wait and see. A selection here, or a little reminder after the jump. So many babies got made.

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