Tag Archives: argentina

ten words or less #32

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potential corinthians signing bing chang bao

i'm fairly certain bing chang bao's potential signing by corinthians is not what's kept the club from being able to buy tevez.

While it’s often times more fun to squabble and make a fuss about all of the (likely) false transfer rumors that abound this time of year in the soccer blogosphere, I find it interesting that this particular TWOL posting get’s half of it’s links from mainstream media outlets. They’re not usually known for diving into the transfer drivel, so you’ll get some interesting reads this time around.

And since it’s not very often that the likes of CNN, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports get to grace the hallowed spaces on my blog, I’m sure their editors are rushing to publicize their distinguished appearances on today’s quick update.

Ronaldo, Coentrão and Mourinho… you dirty dogs. – dirty tackle @ yahoo.com

How I feel during every USMNT “home” match.” – cnn.com

Ooooh… that burns, doesn’t it Messi? Doesn’t it!?!? - whoateallthepies.co.uk

Signing a rubbish player probably won’t catch the Chinese market. – ojogobonito.com

Nobody on the FIFA executive committee gets dirty money. – nytimes.com

The typical American soccer fan? I hope not. – reddit.com/user/devineman

Yet nobody wondered when decent-named players signed in Turkey. – si.com

A brilliant piece on the state of the women’s game. – foxsports.com

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just around the corner

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the blue and red halves of liverpool are much closer than you would think.

So as an avid reader of reddit.com, I often feel like I’m trying to avoid lifting entire discussions in the soccer sub-reddit and turning them into posts in this space. There’s no doubt that I’m guilty of using links from the site for my round-ups and ten words or less posts, but that’s the beauty of that user community… it’s like having an extra 18,000 pairs of eyes to scan the interwebz for interesting footy stories to share with you. I’m not afraid to say that the site is a great source of inspiration for me, as it’s varied user base never fails to unearth a variety of experiences and viewpoints.

Anyway, an extremely interesting discussion arose a few weeks ago on reddit concerning the proximity of Liverpool’s Anfield Road Stadium to Everton’s Goodison Park. Just in case you didn’t know it, the two Merseyside clubs are less than a 20 minute walk from one another.

Rival parks a mere walk away from one another… seems like a recipe for disaster, but somehow they manage (lessons learned from the past of course). But it would be foolish to think that Liverpool is the only city in the world where rival stadiums are just around the corner from one another.

As the redditors in on the discussion clearly demonstrated, there are numerous locales around the world that are more than a little close for comfort. Today, we’ll delve into the examples discussed and a few others that I managed to unearth. Much like my previous post on isolated football pitches around the world, this list is not definitive. Even with all-seeing eye of reddit, and my own investigative efforts, there’s bound to be a few neighborly grounds that were skipped over. Feel free to let me know in the comments.

Dundee's Dens Park and Tannadice Park

wait, which stadium are we playing at today?

Dundee FC & Dundee United – Dundee, Scotland (103 meters)
Behold: the closest rival football grounds in Great Britain. The two Scottish sides are literally just a stones throw away from one another, and are predictably fierce rivals. However, the rivalry has been limited in recent years as Dundee FC have been recently embroiled in financial chaos, receiving a 25 point deduction and subsequent relegation to the Scottish First Division. This however, does make it a little easier to stagger matches at each stadium to limit clashes between the fans. Sadly, there have been discussions of replacing Dundee FC’s Dens Park and Dundee United’s Tannadice Park with a larger, joint use stadium.

Al-Merreikh Stadium, The Red Castle

al-merreikh's colorful "red castle stadium" is only a 5 minute walk from the rival al-hilal stadium.

Al-Hilal & Al-Merreikh SC – Omdurman, Sudan (510 meters)
Though hardly the most famous of clubs in world football, the rivalry between the two most successful clubs in the Sudanese Premier League is intensified by the close proximity of their stadiums. Having won a combined 43 titles between them (and there have only been 45 SPL seasons) and a city population of 2.4 million, it’s easy to see why the Omdurman Derby is considered one of the most intense in East Africa. Al-Merrikh‘s “Red Castle” stadium is home to the Sudan national team, and seats a tidy 45,000. However, Al-Hilal’s stadium isn’t a shack either, with a capacity of 35,000.

the doble visera and el cilindro: racing and independiente like to keep their enemies close.

Independiente & Racing Club  - Avellaneda, Argentina (240 meters)
Argentinian football is well known for it’s rabid fan rivalries, and the neighborly love between Racing and Independiente is likely in short supply. More than just a neighborhood rivalry, the Avellaneda Derby is the second biggest in Argentina behind the River Plate/Boca Juniors’ Superclásico. A 2006 edition of the derby saw the fan violence escalate at Independiente’s Estadio Libertadores de América (a.k.a. the “Doble Visera”) to the point where the Argentine federation decided to crackdown by banning away fans at every single game in the top four divisions. The bad blood isn’t a recent trend though either nor is it one restricted to the fans, as a 1961 meeting at Racing’s Estadio Juan Domingo Perón saw 8 players sent off after three separate fights erupted between them.

partizan and red star belgrade stadiums

partizan and red star don't look to be close neighbors for much longer.

FK Partizan & Red Star  - Belgrade, Serbia (509 meters)
Easily the most recognizable and successful clubs in Serbia, it’s sometimes shocking to see how closely domestic giants will put their stadiums next to one another. Though Red Star have had the greater European success, Partizan’s Stadion has seen the greater success of late having hosted a number of high profile Champions League matches in recent years. However, such success will likely spell the end of the teams’ close quarters, as Partizan now have the financial clout to push for a move to a new sight farther away from Red Star’s Stadion FK Crvena Zvezda.

Nottingham Forest and Notts County across the River Trent

The Nottingham Derby would be a bigger rivalry if they played in the same league still.

Notts County & Nottingham Forest – Notingham, England (300 meters)
All that stands between these rivals — aside from differing levels of the English Football pyramid — is the River Trent. While Notts County are the oldest professional footbal club in the world, their Meadow Lane (built in 1910) isn’t even the oldest stadium in the city. Instead, Nottingham Forest’s City Ground was up before elder rivals ground by 12 years. Unsurprisingly though, both grounds opened by hosting their cross-river rivals for their ceremonial first matches.

ten words or less #15

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now, which one are you? rafael? fabio? does your manager even know? oh who cares, just get in there.

for a change, i will not talk about anything tottenham or transfer related in this post. none of the following links will cover those topics, for real. consider yourself both lucky and blessed.

some love for a fellow former-dayton resident’s footie blog. – goonersharks.wordpress.com

brad friedel is broke. :( – whoateallthepies.tv

maradona vs. valderrama… in the present. – youtube.com

mourinho’s prematch reports are… a sign of OCD. – bragafut.com

horrid anniversary kits. and where are dude’s boots? – footballshirtculture.com

this is awesome: la furia roja simpson-ized. – reddit.com/user/maese

sir alex is a bastard. – fourfourtwo.com

“mcdonaldization,” while a sweet word, is concerning to me. – inbedwithmaradona.com

i love you, man

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it’s often extremely difficult as a man to express one’s emotions. we’re all supposed to be stoic and told to ignore our feelings. instead we should be off doing manly things like building bridges with our bare hands, and crushing skulls on our hairy chests whenever someone insults our favored clubs.

but let’s be honest: we’re all humans here, and all of us have sissy, woman-like feelings stirring inside us.

we shouldn’t have to hide our feelings… and i’m going to do something about it. today, i’m declaring my love for my favorite people in football. they could be players, they could be managers, they could be vocal voices in the footballing community. but to me, they’re all an important part of my world, and it wouldn’t be as awesome of a place without them.

so read on emotional men and women, and learn why i think these people deserve not just my love… but also yours.

i mean come on... how can you not love arshavin?

cesc fàbregas
not that my history of cesc-centered stories doesn’t give this away already, but my official man crush as far as football is concerned is the arsenal and spain midfielder. fab4 is my ideal and favorite footballer… even though he plays for and will play for my two teams’ most hated rivals. i don’t care: he’s that good. already rated as one of the best distributing midfielders in the world at the ripe age of 23 (and has been for some time), i’m captivated by his style of play. he has one of the best first touches in the game, and he plays ridiculously simple yet brilliant passes. to put if plainly, if were to take over the footballing decisions at manchester city, i would pay him whatever amount it took –£300k a week maybe?– to convince him to bypass going back to barça to make him join my team.

jose mourinho
jose has one the champions league twice (winning it with porto is like successfully climbing mt. everest… without a jacket), he’s guided teams to league championships his first year in charge in three countries, and none of his teams have lost a home match in any competition since i was in college. until someone gives me enough evidence to prove otherwise, the self proclaimed “special one” is hands down the best manager on the planet. putting aside his coaching credentials, mourinho is also arguably one of the cockiest human beings alive. couple that with his willingness to keep his mouth flapping and talking shit to rival coaches (this is one of his most sublime and brilliant tactics by the way. he diverts media attention away from his team to himself, thus allowing the players to focus on playing), and my love for jose grows fonder every time i hear one his famous quotes.

andrei arshavin
yes, i know that placing two arsenal players on my list of people i love in football is near grounds for being convicted of treason by the yid faithful. i’m sure that liverpool fans probably aren’t too fond of him either. but, if you haven’t read andrei’s blog yet, then you are missing out. arshavin is hands down one of the unintentionally funniest people on this planet EVER. sure, his football skills can be fancy from time to time too… but it’s arshavin’s willingness to openly share his intense weirdness with the world that makes me truly love him.

tommy smyth
i love the beloved irishman at ESPN… wait, brain fart. i meant to say that i hate tommy smyth. i would pay vast sums of someone else’s money to make it possible to press a button on my remote that would cause him great pain each time i heard him say a team was trying to “punch the ol’ onion bag.” he’s an awful commentator to say the least, usually contributing about as much game analysis as your average household cat. this is worrisome, as he is incapable of providing a deeper understanding of the game to ESPN’s growing soccer audience. and since smyth lacks any professional playing experience, that means that he and i are equally qualified to call games. i need to stop talking about him before i give myself an aneurism.

diego maradona
nevermind that diego is arguably the best player of all time (at least, that’s how i rate him), or the fact that he balled all over everyone everywhere he went on coke. i love maradona, because, well he’s crazy. it’s been 15 years since he last laced up his boots for a competitive match, yet hardly a year has gone by since where he isn’t stealing football headlines across the globe. his ongoing rivalry with pelé. dedicating his fifa player of the century award to fidel castro, whom he also has tattooed on his leg. weight struggles of titanic proportion… as in he apparently swallowed a portion of  the actual titanic. nearly dying. twice. he publicly promised to run naked through buenos aires if he lead argentina to world cup glory last summer. he flops around on the sideline like a fish. he fluently speaks gibberish, such as when he described leo messi’s amazing skill by saying he “is having a kick around with jesus.” oh diego, how i love you.

jens lehmann
ah, this list wouldn’t be complete without the recently retired german shot stopper. i don’t so much love lehmann as much as i love to hate him. that, and he’s clinically insane. jens would talk smack about the players on his own team (though, he was pretty much spot on about almunia being crap). jens would pee on the field during a game. jens will beat up fans. jens will skip team functions to make an appearance at oktoberfest. sigh… it’s like shooting fish in a barrel with this guy.

am i racist if i say one welshman looks like a monkey?

gareth bale
looks like donkey kong, but plays like a badass. bale is the next player that every englishman wishes wasn’t welsh (ryan giggs, take your bow). as stoked as i was when we signed him as a youngster after i “discovered” him on fifa 2007, my favorite spur was almost sold off last season as he hadn’t quite lived up to expectations after being held back by some injuries early in his time at white hart lane. but bale got his chance last year after b.a.e. went down hurt, and took it he did. his blistering pace and eagerness to attack make him an amazingly fun player to watch. let’s just hope spurs don’t decide to cash in on him like they have to so many of our other stars.

this is not a popularity contest

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greetings from south africa on the last day of world cup 2010… ok, i’m lying. i’m sitting in my living room in ohio at 9 in the morning, just like i have for a majority of this summer’s big event.

and from my bird’s eye, HD view of the action, i’ve had a chance to watch a constant stream of amazing footballers grace the pitches in south africa. and though the football wasn’t necessarily the greatest most of the time, there is no doubt that some players really stepped up to the occasion.

of course villa made my best XI, but there is no way his world class teammate cesc could squeeze in.

with that in mind, i’ve tried my best to assemble my best XI of south africa 2010. i’ve always been quick to criticize to bash fifa’s decisions for this team in past tournaments, but doing this for the first time on my own was way more difficult than i had imagined. this is especially true when you could probably just use the whole of the spanish starting eleven and call it a day. and the difficulty of not naming high profile players, even those who didn’t perform to their abilities, is that much harder.

(a quick tangent… “the high profile player” pick easily explains how claudio reyna made the 2002 best XI, despite having a poor tournament. a USMNT spot on that team was guaranteed because of their impressive run to the quarters, and that spot should have been landycakes, or brad friedel’s. instead, the organizers probably looked down the US roster and said to themselves, “oh, i know who reyna is… he used to play for rangers!”)

anyway, without further delay, here are my picks for this summer’s edition. and feel free to throw out any objections you like.

fernando muslera (gk – uruguay)
i really struggled not to pick muslera’s teammate, luis suárez, for the keeper spot in the eleven. however, picking a striker who just so happened to make the save of the tournament seemed a little out of place. either way, muslera deserves the nod over portugal’s eduardo due to his team’s deeper run in the tournament and his huge penalty saves against ghana. despite the fact that muslera had only 12 caps with the national team.

giovanni van bronckhorst (d – netherlands)
love him or hate him, the oldest player in the tournament (this includes goalkeepers and outfield players) has been a rock in the back for the dutch. the captain somehow always evades the probing eyes of the referee when pulling off his dirty tricks, which makes him few fans despite the fact it’s part of what makes him so effective at this age. add in his thundering goal in the semifinal against uruguay, and there is just no way you can leave him off his this team.

philipp lahm (d – germany)
another captain, another solid performer. and it should have been expected from the right-sided back from bayern munich, as he was one of the standout performers in germany’s 2006 run to the final on their home soil. he also had to stepp up big to hold the captaincy in place of the injured michael ballack, and managed the job very well.

carles puyol (d – spain)
it pains me to put him in this team, even though he rightfully deserves it. at times for barcelona, he is so out of control that you have to wonder if he has any clue what he’s doing out there. and yet he always seems to make it work. plus, do i really want to put a neanderthal in my best XI? (after writing this, i’ve now become a little afraid of having the geico caveman show up and kick my ass.) alas, i have to. puyol was instrumental in spain’s three game clean sheet run to today’s final, and the winner in the semi against germany doesn’t hurt either.

michel bastos (d – brazil)
this kid is fun to watch. he runs up and down the flank just like any brazilian left back should, yet he does it with a little more style and class (probably due to the fact that he plays on the left wing for lyon). i’ll probably get some cocked heads from this selection, but i think the 26 year old is had a strong tournament and is a rising star in the game.

xavi (m – spain)
although i prefer the stylish play of his teammate, iniesta (who was a hard snub for the first XI), there is no doubting xavi’s place here. if he’s not on your team, you didn’t watch enough games or have no clue what you’re talking about. he will be one of the front runners for the golden ball, heavily depending on the result of today’s final and whether or not villa scores again.

wesley sneijder (m – netherlands)
i still don’t get how real madrid didn’t think they would need sneijder any longer. it makes me so mad. and yet here wesley is, after leading his new side inter to champions league glory this spring, pushing the oranje towards world cup glory. yeah, there is no way you would need him. especially when kaka is a shell of his former self.

schweinsteiger pushed his way into my team, despite the fact that he haunts my nightmares.

bastian schweinsteiger (m – germany)
i like to describe schweinsteiger as a bigger, stronger and more technical version of craig bellamy. they both look like they could kill you if they felt like it… you know, that crazy eye look that they both give players that they’re mad at. and all i can picture schweinsteiger as is a gigantic SS officer… and that’s exactly how he patrols his midfield. with intimidation, size and great technical ability.

thomas müller (f – germany)
in addition to making my best XI, he is probably a shoe in for the young player of the tournament award too. the young bayern stand out has been incredibly impressive this summer. he has formed a very impressive partnership up front with whomever he plays with, but is an especially strong 1-2 punch when partnered with klose. look for young thomas and his other young teammates (ahem, ozïl) to be an international force for years to come.

david villa (f – spain)
he’s been lethal. i don’t think i really need to say much more than that. and as a real madrid fan, he makes barcelona infinitely more scary.

diego forlán (f – uruguay)
from manchester united flop to perennial pinchichi candidate in spain, “san diego” continued his fine run of form this summer in south africa. along with national hero suárez, forlán carried uruguay all the way to the last four with style and pin ache. could a big move back to england be in the cards for the atletico madrid man?

on the bench are a few more decent players:

  • iker casillas (gk – spain)
  • john mensah (d – ghana)
  • andres iniesta (m – spain)
  • landon donovan (m – united states)
  • lionel messi (m – argentina)
  • keisuke honda (m – japan)
  • asamoah gyan (f – ghana)
  • luis fabiano (f – brazil)

round up #21

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two months after my last round up post, and i have finally gathered up enough stories to put together one of these. and upon further thought, it comes off as pretty stupid of me, because since then i’ve created a whole other type of links post since then to accomodate the supposedly “huge” amount of stories that i tend to accumulate in between postings.

i can't imagine this "trophy" would be ordered by anyone other than diego.

but in all actuality, the only reason another round up (or ten words or less for that matter) hasn’t been posted is because i’ve felt overwhelmed by the amount of story lines that have come out since then. this whole “world cup” thing apparently has all sorts of stories pouring out of it nearly 24 hours a day.

there’s just too damn much to write about, and i’ve been too damn busy watching games.

translation? i’ve been lazy.

so without further delay, here is my 21st edition of the internet news round up…

world cup replica made of cocaine found in columbia – bbc.co.uk
there is only one plausible explanation for this story line, and it goes like this: diego maradona completely convinced himself that the argies would win the world cup this year, and decided he would break sobriety to celebrate and help him find the courage for his pre-tournament promise. and the easiest way for him to have access to this huge stash of coke? mold it into a crap replica of the world cup trophy. from afar, it looks likely enough that no one would question him. and it’s not like anyone is going to rip the “world cup” from a living legends hands.

i challenge you to find a better explanation.

brazil vs. argentina – blog.leetsoft.com
here in america, we like to think our sports teams have real rivalries. MLB has the red sox-yankees rivalry. then there’s michigan-ohio state for college athletics. the NBA has lakers-celtics. and the NFL even has partiots-colts.

but none of those can eve touch the rivalries in football. think of the religious tensions of rangers-celtic. the star power of real madrid-barcelona. the in-house fighting of the milan derby in italy. lethal projectiles between river plate-boca juniors. and then you get to the even higher rivalries between national teams, representing national pride.

and it’s those international rivalries that really breed the best stone throwing (sometimes even wars!) between rivals. the posters produced by the argentine supporters, and the subsequent replies from the brazilians, is pure brilliance.

baby ‘joy’ for cristiano ronaldo – bbc.co.uk
less than a few days after being knocked out of the world cup by spain, real madrid and portugal superstar ronaldo announced to the world that he now has offspring. apparently the love child of ronaldo and some random american whore, ronnie dropped piles of money on negotiated with the mother to have soul custody of the smiling baby boy. after promptly naming him the best name he could come up with — cristiano of course — he pawned his new progeny off on his mother and sister in portugal, and then jetted off to holiday in new york. all the makings of a great father… or perhaps a giant ruse to cover up his homosexuality? i don’t know about that, but who knows with this guy?

custom boots of the world cup – footy-boots.com
i am insanely jealous of professional footballers. they get paid millions of dollars. they have fancy cars and houses and clothes. they get all the women. but what really makes me jealous, is their custom football boots.

sure, i could get my boots “customized” by eurosport, adding my name/number/flag/zodiac sign to the sides (stupid). or i could lavishly overspend and use nikeID to pick my own colors (pretty cool). but what if i want a different stud configuration on the bottom of by CTR360′s? or what if i want to remove a portion of a new shoe’s design to make it lighter? what if i want the shoe custom molded for my feet? well when you’re a pro, you get everything you want.

boil down the basics – studs-up.co.uk
this was a (mostly) magical world cup for us american fans. we somehow won our group. we played with courage and heart. landycakes finally grew up and became a man (with a hummingbird tattoo). we got to experience the true drama of a world cup for the first time. i still consider it a success even though we crapped the bed with a missed golden opportunity to make a run at the semifinals.

but the thing that really made this world cup for me wasn’t the success of the USMNT, but instead the way my country — the one on the wrongs side of the pond mind you — embraced the game. people were out in droves to watch all of the yanks’ games, even during the work week. it was unlike anything i’ve ever seen when it comes to the beautiful game in america.

but then studs up goes and runs this, and it puts everything back in perspective to me.

the themes of south africa 2010

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Sixty games into this World Cup finals, and with only four left to go, I can’t help but feel like this tournament has had some distinct, tournament-wide trends. While there have been some outliers, I feel like these themes have been prevalent in nearly every match.

That’s how it feels to me at least. And since this is my blog, I feel like you need to hear about them. So here are the four themes of South Africa 2010, in no particular order…

so many people were scratching their heads about the tournament as to why france kept domenech for the finals. apparently, raymond was doing the exact same thing.

CcCrRrAaAzZzYyY coaches
I thought for sure this space would be dominated by Maradona headlines. But while the legend has kept his trap mostly shut for a majority of the month, his counterparts from other countries are busy fighting with one another over who gets to fill the shoes I expected El Diego to be wearing.

First up: Italy’s Marcello Lippi. Critized long before the tournament for choosing a squad that would — nearly in its entirety – qualify for Social Security benefits here in the States (they’re so old), Lippi was busy laying the foundation of his craziness months ago. And following the Italians’ three-and-out performance, Marcello was so embarrassed that he literally ran out of the stadium. No handshakes with the opposing coaches. Nothing. Class act.

But Lippi was to be outdone, as the much-maligned Raymond Domenech continues to fly the flag as the world’s stupidest coach. Despite having a squad ripe with talent, everyone in the world knew that Domenech was a lame duck and that Les Bleus would suffer for having him there. And suffer they did. Raymond succeeded in letting the team implode, had to send home Anelka for subordination, had a team coach quit, and saw his players refuse to train under him. Further more, the Fench went winless for the second straight competition and were generally awful.

The icing on the cake? After being eliminated by a loss to 89th ranked South Africa, Domenech didn’t shake Bafana Bafana manager Carlos Alberto Parreira’s hand either. No, instead he lectured the brazilian for a comment he made about France’s illegitimate qualification… a comment he made nearly 4 months ago. Brilliant and extremely mature timing by the craziest coach in South Africa.

Blind men are everywhere
Aside from when I’m personally playing in a game, I really do hate to criticize referees. The (un)lucky refs picked to deputize the World Cup games honestly do have some of the hardest, most pressure-filled jobs on the planet. But in this summer’s tournament, I feel like you couldn’t walk through the South Africa without tripping over a crap referee.

Yes, the most talked about topic during this summer’s finals is the unbelievably poor standard of refereeing that we’ve seen almost completely across the board. The biggest poor call so far, at least from an American’s point of view, was the Coulibaly fantom offsides/foul in the USMNT-Slovenia game. But other atrocities so far have included: Tim Cahill being wrongly sent straight off against Germany, Lampard’s non-goal in the England-Germany match, Tevez’s clearly offsides goal against Mexico, the soft yellow that Thomas Müller was given against Argentina that will cause him to miss the German’s semifinal.

Needless to say, the level of officiating in their marquee event should be extremely worrying for FIFA. With mounting evidence to justify the use of some sort of goal line technology — and fifa finally “admitting” as much – this World Cup may finally be the last straw for keeping some sort of referee aid from making its way into the game. Though odds are, FIFA will intentionally pick the worst option just so they can reject it as a failure and go back to the current, mucked up system in a few years’ time.

It is important to remember that they aren’t all doing poorly… England’s Howard Webb has turned in a very consistent set of performances.

Empty seats
 This is a trend of the tournament that I really haven’t heard much talk about to this point: why are there so many empty seats? I figured at first it was just because the opening round games sometimes feature dud match ups. But this empty seat phenomenon has even reared it’s head in the later rounds (Japan’s snoozer against Paraguay being the chief example).

we probably wouldn't be seeing as many empty seats at the world cup if they didn't make the tickets so damn big.

I mean this is the world cup, right? How does this happen? In Germany, there were fans coming to host cities just to be near the stadium. In the ’94 in the USA, there were fans trying to sneak into games. But in South Africa in 2010, there are games with thousands of seats sitting empty.

Perhaps this is due to the African citizens not really being able to afford the tickets, or maybe it’s due to the fact that this game was so damn far away from anyone with money. Whatever the reason though, it’s unacceptable and frankly, a little embarrassing.

This is supposed to best football in the world, right?
Wrong. And in this tournament in particular, I feel like we’re not quite getting the Grade A, world-class level of play everyone expects from the World Cup. Or at least that’s what the American media market keeps telling us to expect.

As moronic SportsCenter anchors go on calling the World Cup the footballing world’s equivalent of the Super Bowl, it has become increasingly clear that the best comparison to the super bowl is still the Champions League. And it’s not just because their formats and functions are similar.

Let’s be honest: South Africa 2010 has proven that the world’s best football can be found in the Champions League, not in the World Cup. The play has been sloppy, disconnected, and at times down right atrocious. How many crosses have been off by about a mile? How many errant passes have been made by world class players?

Maybe it’s the ball. Maybe it’s the altitude carrying the ball further than normal. Maybe it’s even those damn vuvuzela’s distracting everyone. Maybe it can be attributed to an overly-long, drawn-out club season that keeps national teams from training together and pushes players past their physical limits. But it’s probably a combination of all three. Either way, the best football has not been on display this summer.

ten words or less #3

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we knew maradona was crazy, but i bet you didn't know that he was homicidal too, did you?

these “ten words or less” posts are fantastic little things. i love being able to bang them out in less than 20 minutes, especially when a normal post takes me, at minimum, an hour (but usually more like three). and with the transfer rumor mill spitting out doozies already (i will not talk about the spanish team trying to sign the spanish kid from the english team), and the world cup providing us with an endless stream of content, there really isn’t a better way to address the tsunami of stories i want to share.

so it’s about time for the third edition. let’s go.

maradona will run you over and call you an asshole – telegraph.co.uk

ibrahimovic and pique… gay lovers? you be the judge – momento24.com

if yugoslavia was still around, they would be sick – thirdkit.com

who would win if 100 kids played a pro side? – metro.co.uk …with video!

inter milan’s new away kit in one word: serpents – todosobrecamisetas.blogspot.com

propoganda spin or not, this is kinda scary – soccernet.com

transfer fodder: liverpool want everyone, but have no money – thespoiler.co.uk

unwed father of 13 loves football, is crazy – bbc.co.uk

round up #20

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so much to read. so many games to watch. not enough time to read, watch and post.

i organize the stories i find interesting on sticky notes on my desktop. in a typical week, i’ll collect fifteen which i whittle down to my top five (sometimes six). this week, there are at least 40. this list is overwhelming. i’ve got maybe ten links on my shortlist this week that are approaching a month old, and i’m adding two or three daily.

needless to say, it’s getting out of hand and my ADD is at full strength.

pep guardiola has had some minor success at barcelona, and pressing has a lot to do with it.

i’m not going to lie: i’m pretty curious to see how this round up turns out…

the question: why is pressing so crucial in the modern game – guardian.co.uk
as much as i would prefer to not speak about last saturday’s horrendous el clásico result, barcelona have certainly earned their praise this season. i mean, real madrid have spent the equivalent of building a space station, and they still can’t shut down barcelona’s homegrown, well tuned machine. arsenal are often considered the only team to play somewhat like the catalunyans, but barça clearly demonstrated why they’re still the masters at playing a truly beautiful game.

so how are they doing it? this link answers that question, as the author brilliantly breaks down why barcelona are destroying everyone’s hopes and dreams. this is the best article i’ve read this year. hands down.

are cska sofia the most dysfunctional team in europe? – thespoiler.co.uk
i know i’ve brought up the horrid british soap opera dreamteam on the blog before, and that i’ve said that liverpool were the closest thing to the show in real life. but i think i’m going to have to revoke the title from the merrysiders, as a bulgarian side clearly deserves it. i won’t spoil the article for you by giving away the list of drama that this club has gone through recently, bu i will tell you that it contains at least the following: their stadium has been condemned, their fans stormed the pitch and earned the club a stadium ban, and a kidnapping involving a celebrity. yep, a real life kidnapping. awesome. and just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, i’ll blow your mind a little more. all of the nonsense happened within a week. sorry liverpool, another title of yours is gone.

the firesale at chelsea must include drogba, ballack and deco – thetimes.co.uk
personally, this link comes off as a little crazy. one might think that just by looking at the title, and i wouldn’t fault them for that. why would anyone sell drogba or ballack? just like deco, the crazed east german and the oft-enraged ivorian are on the dark side of 30. their playing on borrowed time, and the future will be bleak if the blues don’t get any value out of them before they retire. since that’s obviously the reason why i feel like the title isn’t the crazy part, let me explain to you what it is.

it’s the author’s crazed replacement plans that have my head spinning. replace drogba with fernando torres (if he goes anywhere else in england, it’s either chelsea or city as they’re the only ones who will fork up the needed moneys). deco out, everton’s mikel arteta in (brilliant move that wouldn’t cost chelsea too much). and ballack can be replaced by another toffee, steven pienaar (a personal favorite, but there’s an impending bidding war for his services). could this newly constructed team, full of the arrival of fresh blood funded by the sales of chelsea stars of yesteryear, actually win them the league? i just don’t see that happening, mostly due to the nature of these arrivals making too much sense.

messi has few fans in argentina – guardian.co.uk
ok, my apologies for pulling out the crazy link card on the last story because this one should surely take that by title alone, right? in my opinion, no… not really.

messi, despite his obvious, jaw-dropping abilities, hasn’t played a bit of professional club football in his homeland. he left for greener pastures (and growth hormone therapy because he is a midget) at the age of 13, landing at barcelona’s youth academy. and to the typical argentinian fan, you have to prove your loyalty and worth before they will call you the next savior. tévez, riquelme, and that one dude maradona all earned their stripes at boca juniors. crespo, saviola, and aimar all at river plate.

my club's home pitch looks nothing like this. and suddenly, i'm depressed.

you can then couple messi’s unearned respect with his relatively tame performances with the national team (probably more due to coaching and deployment), and you can begin to understand why he may not be the average argentinian fan’s favorite player. but still, for a country that’s constantly looking for the next maradona to simply overlook the most similar player to maradona they will ever get because he hasn’t won their hearts yet… i will definitely call that crazy.

european fields: the landscape of lower league football – hansvandermeer.nl
i don’t know about you, but sometimes i’m a sucker for good works for art. combine football with art, and now you’ve really got me hooked. well this dutch photographer (hans van der meer) has done just that. but instead of traversing europe taking fancy pictures of big time clubs, hans decided he would capture scenes from sunday league and pub teams. and all i can say is, playing amateur men’s in ohio sucks when compared to most of the places my european counterparts get to play.

reactions to the world cup draw

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seven months out, and we’re already reaching fever pitch. today is the day that the 32 qualifying nations find out their fates for next summer’s world cup finals in south africa.

the stars aligned in cape town to help align the groups for the 2010 world cup.

i almost feel like i’m on the right side of the pond today, with all of the coverage that the draw in cape town is drawing from the american press. i’ve seen prominent, front page stories from CNN, the LA times, usa today, sports illustrated and the new york times. twitter is predictably blowing up, with even non-soccer fans tweeting about the sport for a change. and that’s not even mentioning all of the on-air time that we’re getting from ESPN2 today: a full hour-long pre-draw special from ESPN’s soccer team (i could, however, do without the presence of john harkes. i won’t get into that now.), and 90 minutes of post draw analysis, not to mention they’re covering the entire draw live.

the always easy-on-the-eyes charlize theron hosted the draw, although she might regret the decision after being accosted by fifa general secretary jerome valcke’s kiss. and they also brought out a host of athletic stars to further boost the profile of the draw, least surprising being david beckham and the small animal on his head his awful hair. but we’re not here to talk about celebrities, are we?

many were surprised to see portugal and france miss out on being seeded for the draw, but i can’t really argue with that logic. both associations had horrid qualifying campaigns, although the same could be argued for argentina (i suspect that their flaky manager, legend diego maradona, had something to do with that). going in, the USMNT seemed primed for a group of death again, and france definitely deserved to get a hard draw for their dubious qualification. but of course, that’s not how things all ways work out.

group a – south africa, mexico, uruguay, france
well, it’s fair to say that our hated rivals to the south had a somewhat friendly draw. mexico gets put in with the softest seeded side in south africa (tangent warning — why is fifa so dead set on giving the host country such a free pass? they’re the only side in the field that didn’t have to go through any qualifying, and then we give them a further break making sure they’re not pitted against one of the top sides in the world. i think that’s a load of bullsh*t.). however, they will also face a stern uruguay side that scored bucket loads during qualification. and of course the remaining side in the group is france, who were spared the sword they so deserved during this draw.

this group should really only be contested between les bleus and el trí. luckily for the mexicans, france will probably keep their pathetic excuse for a coach, raymond domenech. he couldn’t coach ice to melt, let alone coach an extremely deep side to advance. so i fully expect the french to once again struggle to make it to the next round. and sadly, i don’t think that the home side have enough talent to take advantage of the coaching shortcomings.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: steven pienaar (south africa/everton), adrés guardado (mexico/deportivol la corunña), diego forlán (urugay/atlético madrid), yoann gourcuff (france/bordeaux)
PREDICTIONS: mexico takes the group, while the french barely nip south africa for second.

group b – argentina, nigeria, south korea, greece
though many may give this group a “group of death” ranking, i don’t quite think that’s appropriate. that said, every side in this group is a pretty solid side and making it one of the hardest to predict.

with the talent that argentina have in their ranks, they should walk through this group. unfortunately, this national team is in crisis as they have an idiot at the helm. brilliant as maradona was as a player, he is a terrible manager and has done a very poor job inspiring a side with the best player in the world (messi) at their disposal. nigeria, though shaky in qualifying, have been one of the more dominant teams in africa for the last 16 years. i expect a good showing from south korea, as they look to build on their their seventh straight finals appearance. they will hope to channel their semi-final run of 2002, but . lastly are greece, champions of europe in 2004, who managed to scrape into the finals by beating a scrappy ukraine side in the european play-offs.

maybe having a legend like maradona leading your talented side isn't such a great idea.

though one would think that argentina will rule this group, it wouldn’t be wild to see any one of these teams advance. i do think the weakest team, on paper at least, is greece. but the game isn’t played on paper, is it?

PLAYERS TO WATCH: lionel messi (argentina/barcelona), taye taiwo (nigeria/marseille), park ji-sung (south korea/manchester united), sokratis papastathopoulos (greece/genoa)
PREDICTIONS: south korea shock to win the group, with argentina making it through by the skin of their teeth and at least one fake maradona seizure on the field after a narrow victory.

group c – england, united states, algeria, slovenia
i went into this draw fully expecting the USMNT to get screwed over again. i knew it was going to happen. everyone i spoke to knew it would happen. and then it didn’t, and i don’t even know how to react. relief? ecstatic? horror?!?! despite the favorable draw, i’m still very worried about the yanks. we have a nasty habit of playing to the level of our competition most of the time (remember the loss to iran in the 1998 world cup?), and and then there’s the bob bradley factor (read my previous piece on bob here). he’s not what i would call a tactical genius.

for that reason, i wouldn’t be surprised for them to get a positive result against england; i mean history is on our side. but for the very same reason, algeria and slovenia scare the crap out of me. i don’t really expect for the boys to get more than a single point from those games combined (so a loss and a tie). i hope for more, but i’m not holding my breath. the other thing we have to be concerned about is our growing list of injured stars, and whether not those players (onyewu and davies in particular) can make miraculous recoveries in time to make the plane.

england should also pretty happy with their draw. and while they’re sure to trip up against one of the sides (fingers crossed for the game against us!), fabio capello’s side should have no problem winning the group. if they can stay healthy, they will remain one of the tournament favorites. capello is arguably one of the best managers in the game, and i think he has righted the ship that mcclaren was trying to sink.

as for the other two sides, i really don’t know a damn thing about either. both algeria and slovenia are minnows in the world game. but they can’t be slouches either, as they qualified over traditional sides (egypt and russia respectively) that many expected to qualify.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: wayne rooney (england/manchester united), landon donovan (united states/l.a. galaxy), karim ziani (algeria/wolfsburg), rene krhin (slovenia/inter milan)
PREDICTIONS: england take the cake, while i’m pulling for the americans to take second.

beckham vs. donovan: the galaxy teammates will face each other in the first round

group d – germany, australia, serbia, ghana
this is another really tough group to call, as each side has a lot of talent and a lot to prove. the germans are the obvious favorites, despite not having a truly sensational player on their side. that said, i think they’re a very organized squad that play team football. you also can’t discount their extra motivation following the tragic suicide of number one goalkeeper robert enke.

austrilia’s golden generation will be looking to make one more big splash on the world scene before their time has passed. serbia are a team on the rise; they could easily upset the germans on the right day. and lastly are ghana, who are my dark horse in this tournament. i fell in love with them during the 2006 finals, and i think they could make a deep run on their home continent. led by do-it-all midfield michael essien, they’ve got a surprisingly deep squad peppered with euro-based talent.

while i think germany will win the group, the other spot is seriously up for grabs. can the socceroos reproduce their asian domination from qualifying? can serbia shake their underdog tag? and can ghana be the tormentors that they were in the germany four years ago. i’m having a hard time choosing!

PLAYERS TO WATCH: mario gómez (germany/bayern munich), tim cahill (australia/everton), danko lazović (serbia/psv), michael essien (ghana/chelsea)
PREDICTIONS: die mannschaft will steam roll the group, maybe with a hiccup along the way. the second spot is a bit of toss up, but i’m pulling for ghana to advance for the second straight finals.

group e - netherlands, denmark, japan, cameroon
i think this group will pretty much be straight up what you would expect from it. and while there could be some surprising results along the way, it would shock me if holland and denmark didn’t advance. of course i know i’ve just jinxed them both, but whatever. on paper both sides are far superior to the perennial asian and african finalists. i’m not saying that japan and cameroon suck by any means, i just don’t think either side is dangerous enough to overcome their european conunterparts.

the dutch and danes each rolled in their qualification campaigns, hence my belief that they will dominate this group. but don’t be surprised if the indomitable lions pull of a miracle on their home continent, especially if eto’o get’s hot.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: wesley sneijder (holland/inter milan), niklas bendtner (denmark/arsenal), shinji okazaki (japan/shimizu s-pulse), samuel eto’o (cameroon/inter milan)
PREDICTIONS: the flying dutchman will get a point from their clash with the danes, but win the group by squashing the other two sides. denmark will clean up, but not to the extent of the dutch, taking second place.

group f – italy, paraguay, new zealand, slovakia
boy did the defending champions land a sweet draw. as of right now, it looks like the italian’s path to the round of 16 is almost guaranteed. their biggest resistance will probably coming from the paraguayans or slovakians. keep in mind that the italians are an aging team (a prime example being former world player of the year fabio cannavarro, who is a shell of the player we saw inspire the italians to world cup glory in 2006), and their qualifying campaign was far than stellar. so maybe there is hope out there for the other sides to catch the azzurri on a day where their old legs aren’t quite up to the task.

paraguay and slovakia will definitely be threats to the italians, though. paraguay will view their CONMEBOL campaign as a huge success, including several high profile results, the biggest of witch were a 1-0 win over argentina and a 2-0 win over brazil. slovakia were shock group winners in eufa qualification, having dispatched traditional powers such as the czech republic and poland. and then there is new zealand, making only their second finals appearance ever. unsurprisingly, i’m not expecting much out of the kiwis.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: giuseppe rossi (italy/villareal), nelson haedo valdez (paraguay/borussia dortmund), shane smeltz (new zealand/gold coast united), stanislav šesták (slovakia/bochum)
PREDICTIONS: italy will move on to try  to defend their crown in first, with paraguay stealing a surprise move into the second round.

group g – brazil, north korea, ivory coast, portugal

luis fabiano lit up south africa during the confederations cup. will he repeat the task in 2010?

ladies and gentleman, this is your group of death. sure, there is a completely underwhelming team in the group in north korea (though i’m half holding out hope that their supreme leader kim jung-il will fire their manager and try to guide the team himself). but the rest of the teams are all being considered by some members of the press as potential teams to hoist the world cup trophy on july 11th.

what can i say about brazil that hasn’t already been said? talent wise, they’re loaded. they have some of the best players in the world playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world. and though coach dunga has them playing atypical brazilian football (this is called defense in the rest of the world), his results are hard to ignore.

les éléphants, lead by chelsea giant striker didier drogba, are considered by many to be one of the best african teams of all time. they have loads of players playing in european first division sides. honestly, i wouldn’t be shocked at all to see them make a run at the semifinals.

and then there is the enigma that is portugal. they have the other best player in the world, but poor cristiano ronaldo tends to disappear in big games (hey ronnie, just a reminder: every game in the world cup is big game). so if they can coax their star man to finally prove his big price tag, keep their deep side healthy, and put their dismal qualification run behind them, then we can expect big things out of this side. but that’s a big if.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: luís fabiano (brazil/sevilla), hong yong-jo (north korea/fc rostov), didier drogba (ivory coast/chelsea), cristiano ronaldo (portugal/real madrid)
PREDICTIONS: a tricky group will produce a predictable winner in brazil. as for the second spot, i’m going to have to go with the elephants of the ivory coast edging out the fancied portuguese. this will no doubt be followed by a large ronaldo temper tantrum.

group h – spain, switzerland, honduras, chile
despite the spaniards being knocked out of the confederations cup this past august by the USMNT, i still think they’re the best team in the world. their qualification record was spotless, going undefeated while scoring 28 goals and only conceding 5. they have the deepest midfield in the world, so much so that great midfielders such as everton’s mikel arteta can’t even hope to get a cap. and if torres and david villa can stay healthy, they have the most potent attacking duo in the world. though la roja might struggle to keep their amazing run of form going, they could easily replicate their success at euro 2008.

and boy did spain get a cake draw to help them repeat their success. switzerland won their uefa qualifying group, but it was very weak (greece, latvia, israel, luxembourg and moldova). honduras did so so in CONCACAF qualifying, but almost all of their wins were at home. and though chile were shock runners up in CONMEBOL qualifying, i can’t really expect them to be strong enough to knock down the spaniards.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: andés iniesta (spain/barcelona), alexander frei (switzerland/basel), david suazo (honduras/inter milan), mark gonzález (chile/CSKA moscow)
PREDICTIONS: spain sweep the competition aside to win the group. the other three teams will battle it out, but i think the swiss will end up at the top of the heap.

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so here we are. you’ve got my initial predictions for what’s going to go on in our newly formed groups. now we have the next seven months to argue back and forth about who will or won’t  meet my expectations. but remember, these are just predictions.

i for one find this next wait to be the worst seven months ever; the anticipation for the summer’s events is just too much to handle. thank god we’ve got all of the action in europe to keep my attention tied up. otherwise, i might just go insane.