BEIJING, March 12 (Reuters) - More than 200 Chinese soccer officials have been sent on a five-day
"Anti-corruption Rectification Education Camp" as China tries to rebuild the game after the
match-fixing scandal, local media reported on Friday.
Huang Junjie, a FIFA international referee since 1998, was taken away for questioning by police
earlier this week as part of the investigation into corruption in the Chinese domestic game.
Yanks Abroad is out with its latest '23 tickets to South Africa' list, and while I agree with most
names, there are a few points to make:
During the USA-Netherlands match, the scrawl said Feilhaber was out "indefintely." Let's hope his
returning to traiing with his club is swift. He ought to be on the squad, but his health is unkown.
I think keepers will be unhappy with this new ball. More speed but easier grip doesn't sound like
much help...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/graphic/2009/dec/07/how-why-world-cup-ball-jabulani
Good news:Sony Corp. said Friday it has signed a deal with FIFA, the international football governing body,
to record up to 25 World Cup games in 3-D — a technology that gives viewers an illusion of depth
on the screen.
.....
They will be shown at Sony booths at FIFA events in Berlin, London, Mexico City, Paris, Rio de
Janeiro, Rome and Sydney in June and July.
Pot 1: Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England join hosts
South Africa
Pot 2: Asia (Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic), North, Central America and the
Caribbean (Honduras, Mexico, USA) and Oceania (New Zealand)
Pot 3: Africa (Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria) and South America (Chile,
Paraguay, Uruguay)
Pot 4: the remaining European teams (Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia,
Slovenia and Switzerland)
South Africa will be automatically positioned as A1; the other seeded teams will be drawn into the
other groups B-H, but will always be in position "1" of their group
Groups will be drawn from A to H and the positions in the group will be drawn for Pots 2 to 4
FIFA says "Geographical criteria will also be respected, meaning that no two teams from the same
confederation will be drawn in the same group (except European teams, where a maximum of two will
be in a group).
From time to time, especially after U.S. Men's Team matches and other big games, the Ref chats with
a seasoned USMNT observer -- the Samurai.
Samurai is familiar with the academy system and is a longtime watcher of the US team and club
soccer.
Here is the conversation after the U.
OK, so Gooch isn't doing too bad these days...
We will be up and running again soon, in time for the prep for South Africa 2010
As measured by FIFA points, the U.S. seems to come fairly close to satisfying the criteria
needed.
This is from a paper by Eva Marikova Leeds and Michael A. Leeds, given at the Eastern Economics
Association Conference, February 2007, New York, NY.
Using OLS and Poisson regressions, we
corroborate previous studies and find that success increases with income, population, and having
hosted a World Cup competition.
Let's officially do an about-face on Landon Donovan. His goals, all three of them, were superb.
We had our doubts, especially after an anemic World Cup in Germany, that he could change a
game.
On Sunday, he wasn't wandering around mopping up for the midfield so much as he went and grabbed
that game to call his own. Has to make one feel better about the future of the U.
From U.S. Soccer:
ESPN2's broadcast was the most-watched U.S. game in the team's history, outside of the World Cup and World Cup qualifiers. The network earned a 0.7 household rating, which translates to 1.1 million viewers and come
GOALKEEPERS (4) – Joe Cannon (Los Angeles Galaxy), Matt Pickens (Chicago Fire), Troy Perkins (D.C. United), Matt Reis (New England Revolution)
DEFENDERS (9) – Chris Albright (
The guys over at Yanks-Abroad have nailed it. Are there really going to be more Europeans coming over to play in the U.S.?But tell me, how many top European players are going to sacrifice top paychecks in England, Germany, Italy and Spain to play in front
Who got the better deal, Fulham paying $4 million for Clint Dempsey or MLS shelling out $150 million for Beckham?
Fulham. No doubt about it. Beckham's signing is the death of the MLS.
An 89% TV market share in France for the semifinal against Portugal, that's why ---
French commercial broadcaster TF1 attracted record TV ratings in 2006, in large part due to the success of its World
