We saw David Beckham looking very coach-like on the England bench at World Cup 2010. There was even a (made up) rumour that Beckham would be replacing Fabio Capello as England manager after the team’s World Cup exit. That rumour seemed to mysteriously disappear the second Argentina exited the tournament and proved that inexperienced coaches are probably not the way to go.
However… what better and more basic way to judge David Beckham’s coaching talents than by looking at the World Cup Best XI he chose for Yahoo!?
Assuming Beckham really did make this selection himself (my uneducated guess is he didn’t write the explanations in the article but did select the XI), he’s gone for Uruguay’s Fernando Muslera in goal, with a back four of Sergio Ramos, Ashley Cole, Carles Puyol and John Mensah. His midfield contains Bastian Schweinsteiger, Wesley Sneijder and Xavi, and his attacking line up is Thomas Mueller, Digeo Forlan and David Villa. On the bench he’s got Michael Bradley, Maicon and Leo Messi. Which would be an interesting conversation to watch take place on the sidelines if nothing else.
I’m not 100% sure how Beckham’s team would line up, but here’s my best guess:
I know, Forlan doesn’t really play on the left. Beckham’s team is actually a little like a Rubik’s Cube of footballers. Everytime you think you have a formation, someone is out of position. Which actually sounds a lot like the England team for the past 10 years, so maybe Becks really is the perfect man for that job.
The big picture is the story of a few small pictures. The most prominent and historical is Miroslav Klose's pursuit of the all-time goal scoring record, currently sitting one behind Ronaldo at 14, but maybe not sitting much at all with a back injury going into the game. On an individual level, it's an enormous game for Klose and Germany – who will be feeding him Jabulanis ad nauseam should he play.
The other striker being watched is Diego Forlan, arguably one of the favorites for Golden Ball as player of the tournament despite on the losing end of the semifinal, and his propensity for shooting from absolutely anywhere on the pitch, including corners, which makes spectating fun.
And then there are the subplots: the return of hero/villain Luis Suarez + hands; the potential Golden Ball runs of both Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mesut Ozil; the chance to see just how much of a difference Thomas Mueller makes in this side; and one last chance to see this phase of an evolving Germany, who will be one of the co-favorites for Polkraine 2012 and perhaps Brazil 2014.
WHAT'S AT STAKE
Pride and final standing, but those are relatively minimal to the outside observer. A losing semifinalist is a losing semifinalist, whether they win the consolation game or not. A win will help, but ultimately it does not change history.
So the rest is for individual glory.
OUR PREDICTION
We won't see Uruguay recreating their tactics against France or Germany continually being pressed back into their own third a la Spain, which means this one should be enjoyable with a decent number of goals. So….3-2 Germany. Because Paul picked them too.
Paul the octopus has spoken, and he’s chosen Spain to win the World Cup. But Mani the parakeet has answered, and he’s chosen the Netherlands. One of them is going to be wrong.
Yep, we have a new non-human World Cup prognosticator on the scene, and it’s a 13 year old parakeet from Singapore who predicts the winner by picking up one of two cards. According to this Associated Press story on The Guardian webiste:
If the bird’s many new believers are right, Holland will win their first World Cup. Mani grabbed a card in his beak today and flipped it over to reveal the Dutch flag.
The 13-year-old parakeet has become a local celebrity after its owner, M Muniyappan, claimed Mani accurately forecast the World Cup’s four quarter-final games and Spain’s semi-final victory over Germany. “He’s a special bird,” Muniyappan said.
The 10 adidas Golden Ball nominees for best player at World Cup 2010 will (I’ve been told) be announced at 6am eastern time today. You can watch the announcement live in the video feed at the foot of this post.
The shortlist is decided by FIFA’s technical committee, and then the eventual winner is voted for by the media. The 2006 winner was France’s Zinedine Zidane, with Italy’s Fabio Cannavaro and Andrea Pirlo coming in second and third respectively. There’s no runaway favourite for the best player at World Cup 2010, but I’m expecting we’ll see names like David Villa, Wesley Sneijder, Xavi Hernandez, Diego Forlan and Mesut Özil. Maybe even Leo Messi, though it feels like it’s been about six months since Argentina went out in the quarterfinals. Anyone else you think should or shouldn’t be on the 10 player shortlist?
Stay tuned for the announcement at 6am US eastern:
It’s not very often that a team needs to sweat out an injury for the third-placed game, given its relative unimportance in the grand scheme and all, but there is a very real and strange situation brewing in the German camp ahead of their second straight consolation game: Miroslav Klose is hurt.
Normally this is a non-issue, but Saturday’s game may stand as one of the largest in World Cup statistical history: Klose is one goal away from Ronaldo’s record with likely one World Cup game in his career.
And when I say “likely”, I say that with as much hesitancy and respect possible. For a country like Germany to trudge a 36 year old footballer to Brazil – someone remove Ballack from earshot – seems highly unlikely, but then Klose is not just any other footballer. His year was far from scintillating and yet he still continue to score goals like they’re going out of style in the World Cup, racking up 5, 5 & 4 in the last eight years. The man’s just a World Cup machine.
And what could be his final game is in jeopardy with a back issue.
“He was hurt in an aerial duel, and we are hoping that he will be okay,” stated assistant coach Hansi Flick.
The current goal standings:
15 – Ronaldo 14 - Gerd Muller, Miroslav Klose
It’d be a shame were he not to get another chance simply because of injury, but one can only combat that #11 voodoo doll Ronaldo’s throwing pins into back in Brazil for so long.
We’ve been rather fortunate to have four extremely likable and respectable coaches taking part in the semifinals; coaches who allow their teams and the football to do the talking instead of thinly veiled soundbites and outright attacks. Therefore, the final should be a very cordial affair on the sidelines, even if we’re missing the fashion house matchup of Jogi Loew’s smelly blue sweater and Bert van Marwijk’s razor sharp silver suit and black scarf. (Eat your heart out, Fabio.)
Hopefully we’ll get another video of their animations, though Del Bosque needs someone to slap some fire ants into his pants. Doesn’t he know that was a World Cup semifinal?
Or maybe the secret to Spain’s success is brainwashing the team into thinking this isn’t a World Cup…
Don’t you hate rolling out of the bathroom wearing merely a white towel only to bump into the Queen looking to tell you how wonderful you are? Me too.
Carles Puyol probably does as well, but he handled it like a champion. Or a finalist, at least.
Also notice Gerard Pique’s cougar radar going haywire as he tries to take his shirt off immediately as she enters into the room. Somewhere, Ibra is jealous.
When Howard Webb blows for time on Sunday, he’ll be ushering in one phase of history, the first European winner on non-European soil, while perhaps ushering out another: World Cup refereeing as we know it.
It’s not quite a big secret that the refereeing this tournament has been subpar at best, and FIFA, in a very un-FIFA move, appear to have resigned themselves to actually doing something about it. In fact, they appear to be coming around on technology, albeit 62 games too late and only beginning with goal-line technology, but going so far as saying this is likely to be the final World Cup “with the current refereeing system”.
“We’re talking about a goal not seen by the referee which is why we are talking about new technology,” said Valcke.
Fifa’s general secretary also suggested that the use of two extra referees positioned on the goal-line – a system trialled last season in the Europa League and set to be used in the Champions League this coming season – might be used in future World Cups.
“Let’s see if this system will help or whether giving the referee an additional four eyes will give him the comfort and make duty easier to perform,” added Valcke.
“I would say that it is the final World Cup with the current refereeing system.”
“The teams and the players are so strong and so fast. The game is different and the referees are older than all the players,” said Valcke.
“The game is so fast, the ball is flying so quickly, we have to help them and we have to do something and that’s why I say it is the last World Cup under the current system.”
This is of course one issue in a laundry list of wrongs during this World Cup, but for an organization which has been so stubborn in admitting what is sitting right in front of them, it is an enormous step to even hint that something like technology is on the horizon. Coming good on it is another matter entirely, of course, but this has been so necessary for so long we’re begging just for the smallest of morsels to be dropped our way, so that the athletes can be the ones who ultimately decide the games. A very small step, but a step nonetheless.
And if Frank Lampard’s goal is what ultimately tipped the balance, someone get that man a winner’s medal too.
I’m always taken aback a bit whenever a losing coach in a big game turns to the microphones and says “well they’re just brilliant!” – less because of his feelings toward the other team and more the delicate psyche of his own team at that point. However, Jogi Loew and his not-so-lucky blue sweater – now washed, hopefully – were full of sincere praise in the wake of Germany’s exit from meaningful games at the World Cup, despite having exited at the hand of the same team two major tournaments in a row.
“Spain are a wonderful team,” he said. “They are the masters of the game. You can see it in every pass. They can hardly be beaten. They are extremely calm and convincing. Spain were just better than we were and they deserved to win.
“In 2008 they won the European Championship in a very convincing way and they have been unchanged over the past two or three years. They play in an automatic way and I am confident they will win the title. They have put on top performances in all matches they have played and they can beat everyone.”
He added: “Over the past two or three years they have been the most skilled team of all. They circulate the ball quickly and we were not able to play like previous matches. We were not able to get rid of our inhibitions.”
Pretty difficult to argue otherwise. Spain have been the best collection of talent on one team for years and all that was left was to see if they could put it together on the pitch while dispatching of that nasty curse business; Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 seem to have firmly put the choking to bed. They also gave Germany, going into the game the most impressive team this World Cup and one which had scored 8 in their last two games, very few chances and rendered Jogi’s counter to a shell of its former self.
Alright, it’s impossible to argue otherwise: Spain are positively brilliant. And they’ll have one more blue sweater-wearing fan on their side come Sunday.
The England team has made the World Cup final. Not the 11 a side team though, they were rubbish. It’s the three man refereeing team of Howard Webb (center), and linemen Darren Cann (right) and Mike Mullarkey (left), who will be doing the whistle blowing and flag-waving when Spain meets Netherlands in the World Cup final this Sunday.
One nation of football fans possibly not happy about this: Poland. Webb awarded a last minute penalty against Poland at Euro 2008, which provoked an angry angry reaction. That was two whole years ago though, so maybe Polish fans have forgiven and/or forgotten?
Webb’s actually been very low key so far. No red cards and no spot kicks while refereeing Switzerland 1-0 Spain, Slovakia 3-2 Italy and Brazil 3-0 Chile. I’m not saying that that’s either good or bad, but Webb’s World Cup 2010 is already going way way better than compatriot Graham Poll’s World Cup 2006, where he famously awarded three yellow cards to Josip Simunic.
Most football fans became aware of the vuvuzela at the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa. The whole world became aware of the plastic horns and the noise they make at this year’s World Cup. But World Cup Blog reader Marcamps has emailed in to point out that The Simpsons featured a vuvuzela way back in 1997, when Bart got his hands on a “long plastic horn” in the season eight episode “Homer vs the Eighteenth Amendment”.
I’ve managed to find video of the episode and am willing to risk the wrath of the copyright gods by embedding below. The vuvzela moments start about 1 minute and 35 seconds in.
That classic episode was aired March 16th, 1997, so a full 13 years before vuvuzelas took over the world. It’s as if they were trying to warn us.
Big thanks to Marcamps for the tip. If you have any tips of your own, send them to tips[at]theoffside[dot]com.
After three weeks in South Africa enjoying the World Cup, Josh is back home and back in the studio to record a new episode of the Total Football Soccer Show. We discuss the World Cup quarterfinals (or, more specifically, Luis Suarez’ handball), review the recent World Cup semifinals, and then do a somewhat half-arsed preview/prediction of the Netherlands vs Spain World Cup final.
Also discussed: Dirk Kuyt’s usefulness, Diego Forlan’s unfortunate lack of alliteration, Taylor’s proposed two drink minimum for all World Cup players. Click play below to listen, or if that doesn’t work open the mp3 here:
My name is Mamudu Nurudeen popularly known as Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious born on 25 Feb. 1985, to Mr Mamudu and Hajia Safura at Bawku Central in the Upper East Region of Ghana.
I am currently a student of Sunyani Polytechnic offering HND General Agriculture.
I am also a freelance Journalist, a motivational speaker and the founder of PERSONALITY AND HUMAN RELATIONS (PHR)
PLEASE THIS WEBSITE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
The 10 adidas 
When Howard Webb blows for time on Sunday, he’ll be ushering in one phase of history, the first European winner on non-European soil, while perhaps ushering out another: World Cup refereeing as we know it.
After three weeks in South Africa enjoying the World Cup, Josh is back home and back in the studio to record a new episode of the 
Posts
