Here's a little secret in the soccer world: No one really understands the offside rule. Not all the time, anyway. That became very clear during the first half of today's World Cup opener, when fans and pundits alike called foul after the assistant referee lifted his flag just before Mexico's Carlos Vela slammed the ball into the net.

David Beckham, against doctors instructions decided to knock the ball around a little at an England World Cup training session in South Africa. In the video English coaches try and tell him to stop kicking the ball several times but Becks just won't listen. It is so funny to see how he is like a little kid still and loves the game and the ball so much.

Argentina coach Diego Maradona took a swipe at fellow legends Pele and Michel Platini and also criticized the World Cup matchball during another no-holds-barred press conference in South Africa on Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's Group B encounter between his side and South Korea in Johannesburg, Maradona said Pele should "go back to the museum" and claimed UEFA president Platini thinks he "is better than all the rest".

by Milos Kosic

Many things will be remembered about the nerve-wrecking game between USA and Slovenia: Landon Donovan's stunning strike, Bob Bradley's joy when his son scored, USA's amazing comeback, Slovenia's unusual celebration, etc. Unfortunately, it was a controversial referee call in the second half that overshadowed the whole match.

Fiero es el nombre del balón diseñado por Voit para el Torneo Bicentenario 2010, "El balón más mexicano", como la llama Voit, estará presente en todos los partidos del Torneo Bicentenario a partir de la pasada primera jornada. Entre sus características técnicas cuenta con una capa superior conformada por células termoplásticas laminadas al vacío con bajo coeficiente de deformación y tiene un alto desempeño en los disparos con parábolas más controladas.

With the World Cup ever so close, FIFA is today unveiling the World Cup final ball. The ball will be used in just one game this summer, but will be a prominent talking point of the single biggest football match of the year. Like the tournament's official ball, it will be produced by adidas.

Franz Beckenbauer and South African team coach Carlos Alberto Parreira will be broadcasting live from the adidas headquarters in Germany as they are joined by Dr.

I've been hearing players complain about the World Cup's official ball, Adidas' Jabulani, for over a week. All of those complains, however, are coming from goalkeepers, who think the ball is too light and too fast. Forwards, on the other hand, tend to love the ball for the same reasons just mentioned.

Fifa has finally acknowledged that there may be something wrong with the Jabulani World Cup ball, but won't act on the problem until after the tournament.

Many players have likened the Jabulani to a "supermarket ball," saying it is too unpredictable and flies through the air too easily.

Earlier in the week, I said the returning Michael Essien was primed to pillage. I did not repeat did not mean like this.

D***. World is Essien gave the kid his jersey following the game. And then took the mother out for drinks.

As the crucial matches start coming thick and fast this month, Gianfranco Zola realises the need to rally the West Ham fans to get behind his young team. I had already touched on the 12th man effect in my previous post and am convinced that the Hammers will avoid relegation if the fans are in full voice, supporting the team.

Fiero es el nombre del balón diseñado por Voit para el Torneo Bicentenario 2010, "El balón más mexicano", como la llama Voit, estará presente en todos los partidos del Torneo Bicentenario a partir de la pasada primera jornada. Entre sus características técnicas cuenta con una capa superior conformada por células termoplásticas laminadas al vacío con bajo coeficiente de deformación y tiene un alto desempeño en los disparos con parábolas más controladas.

Der Ball! Mann kann ohne Zweifel sagen, dass ohne einem Ball unserem Lieblingssport etwas fehlen würde. Er ist die Grundlage des Fussballs, ja manche sagen sogar die Mutter aller Vereine! Ohne den Ball würde ich heute hier wohl nichts schreiben, ihr würdet nicht ins Stadion gehen und auch nicht am Wochenende einfach mal so mit [.

Wolltet ihr schon immer mal wissen, wie ein Fussball produziert wird? Nähen ihn kleine Kinderhände zusammen und wir müssen bei jedem Kick ein schlechtes Gewissen haben oder machen das Maschinen? Eine gute Frage, die uns jetzt der Hersteller des WM-Balles beantworten möchste. Mit dem folgenden Video werden unsere Fragen genau beantwortet und wir sehen endlich [.

Die Weltmeisterschaft in Südafrika kann natürlich nicht ohne Bälle stattfinden. Fast schon traditionsgemäß kommen diese von einer deutschen Firma namens Adidas und werden wie immer auch marketingmäßig groß eingeführt. Diesesmal wurden sogar zwei Bälle vorgestellt, der Jabulani und der Jo-bulani und was es mit diesen Bällen so auf sich hat, habe ich mir mal genauer [.

Long before the gates opened at Great American Ball Park Tuesday night and long before either the Reds or the Pittsburgh Pirates hit the field to take batting practice, Reds outfielder Chris Dickerson was having some kicks in the outfield with a soccer ball.

He wasn't playing around, either.

I love the sound of watching our beautiful game in 3D. The chances of me watching Ronaldo coming straight at me with the ball doing 10 step overs is probably pretty small. With a 3D compatible TV I can now come one step closer to that dream.

With Comcast You'll be able to watch lots of World Cup coverage like never before: in 3D.

Brazil renewed their criticism of the World Cup ball on Thursday, coach Dunga saying players from other countries were also unhappy with it.

You don't think they are a little biased based on the fact that Nike is basically the owner of the Brazilian team?

Dunga was also angry with Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke, who implied during a news conference this week that, in criticising the ball, Brazil were looking for excuses in case they failed to win the tournament.

We know that at every World Cup players ( particularly goalkeepers ) complain about the ball being used. What is interesting is that half of it has to do with commercial interests. What I mean be this is the fact that Brazil ( aka team Nike ) have been by far the most outspoken critics of the Adidas Jabulani World Cup ball.

Premiership Talk is partnering up with adidas to give one lucky Premiership Talk reader the chance to win the exact and official ball held by Charlize Theron on stage at the World Cup draw back in December in South Africa. The official World Cup ball from the draw is, of course, a truly one of a kind prize that we're delighted to be bringing to our readers, and the ball itself encompasses much of the atmosphere witnessed across South Africa for the greatest tournament in the world.

Milos Kosic is a writer from New York that frequently visits The Final Third. He graciously decided to send us one of his short stories that is perfect for the start of the World Cup. We hope you enjoy it.

A few moments after Roberto Baggio had sent the ball skyrocketing towards the stars, my father and my uncle got up from their chairs, stepped in front of the TV, and began to dance.

After what happened with Robert Green you have to believe that Fabio Capello is not going to allow anything like that to happen again. Imagine if he were to start Green again and another fumble like that occurs? Everyone is going to stop looking at Green and spend most of their energy pointing out what the hell Capello was thinking.

Much has been said about two things in particular during this World Cup: the vuvuzelas and the new ball provided by adidas named the Jabulani. While I'm going to refrain from going into the much debated and highly controversial topic of the vuvuzelas, I cannot help but point out that the World Cup ball is not as big of an issue as people would like you to believe.

Review by Milos Kosic

After beating Cameroon 1-0, 45th ranked Japan booked their first World Cup win on foreign soil. The Blue Samurais entered the match more aggressively, showing their opponents something that Cameroon's players should have already known there are no outsiders in the World Cup.

Brazil midfielder Gilberto Silva is confident Kaka can return to the peak of his powers at the World Cup after a debut season at Real Madrid which has been dogged by injury.

Kaka started just 21 of Real's 38 Primera Division matches in his first season at the Bernabeu because of groin and thigh problems.

South Africa manager Carlos Alberto Parreira has rubbished claims that the adidas Jabulani ball and vuvuzelas are ruining the World Cup. Parreira went as far to say that his side actually enjoys the two as they are a taste of the local culture.

"We love both. We love the vuvuzelas, it's part of our culture and we are used to them, we should keep going with them," said the South Africa manager.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

The World Cup is a week old and if you are struggling to keep up or simply have no idea what's going on and you need some language for those World Cup conversations, then here's a list of 6 talking points to help you through till next week at least.

Yesterday's my11 blog briefly covered one well-publicised issue particular to this World Cup: the widely unpopular vuvuzela. The conclusion was that by handing over the mantle to South Africa you also give them the choice of how the tournament should be run off the pitch.

Another aspect which is having a negative effect on the tournament is the Adidas Jabulani ball.

Not that it would have mattered but the Frank Lampard goal that was missed by the officials does present another example of the need for goal line technology. Yes, Germany was the better team by far on the day. They had better quality in all areas, technically they were superior, the movement was great, and the counter attack was deadly.

Here is how it all adds up, it seems this World Cup is all about the counter attack. Mr. Mourinho, are you watching what you have done to the game?

In the search for tactical supremacy, soccer's big guns and some young pretenders have turned to the chapter marked ‘counter-attack' to blast their way into the World Cup quarterfinals.

Ist das nicht schön, wenn man an einem lauen Samstagnachmittag mit dem Laptop draußen auf dem Balkon sitzt, die ganze Stadt unter sich hat und nebenbei ein paar lustige Bilder im Netz findet? Genauso geht es mir gerade und ich kann euch nicht helfen, aber diese Bilder kann und darf ich euch nicht vorenthalten.

Thierry Henry ist ein großer Fussballer. Er konnte zwar bei der WM2010 nichts ausrichten und trat anschließend aus der französischen Nationalmannschaft zurück, aber das schmälert nicht seine Fähigkeiten am Ball. In den USA ist er jetzt schon der große Held, der es gewagt hat über den großen Teich zu kommen.

Sie haben sich wie ein Fisch gefühlt, sie haben Walzer getanzt und sich wie Rambo benommen. Das aber war noch lange nicht alles, was sich die kreativen Jungs vom isländischen Klub Stjarnan FC für ihre Torjubelaktionen ausgedacht haben. Bei ihren vielen Toren, die sie schießen, müssen sie ja auch kreativ sein, damit ihnen nicht noch [.

Es ist immer das gleiche. Es ist fussballerische Sommerpause keiner weiß so Recht, was er in dieser Zeit tun soll. Die einen suchen dann blöde Youtube Videos raus und stellen sie auf den Blog, die anderen kicken dann auf Baustellen, obwohl sie keine Ahnung von Fussball haben. Und wieder andere fallen zusammen mit einem Gerüst [.

MANCHESTER, Englanad Dimitar Berbatov declared himself stunned after hitting a sensational five goals as Manchester United destroyed Blackburn 7-1 at Old Trafford. Berbatov became only the fourth player in Premier League history to score five in a game, and he would have notched the first ever double hat-trick had Rovers keeper Paul Robinson not [.

MILAN, Italy Marco Di Vaio scored an injury-time winner to give Bologna a 2-1 victory over Chievo Verona in Wednesday's only Serie A game. The striker pounced on a loose ball moments after Chievo midfielder Michele Marcolini had blocked his goalbound shot for a corner. Chievo failed to clear the corner and Di Vaio [.

Das hier, meine sehr verehrten Damen und Herren, ist der Schiedsrichter beim Warmlaufen. Was ihm hier aber um die Ohren fliegt, sind keine Bälle, sondern die Reste vom Schneetief „Petra" und die hat, wie man sieht, auch in Holland ganz schön zugeschlagen... Quelle: Youtube (User: EredivisieLive) Fritten, Fussball & Bier - Ein alternativer Fussball-Blog, der sich um [.

Dribbling a soccer ball is a difficult talent to master especially if you are not a professional at the sport. To do so in high-heels seems almost impossible. That is not the case for Tasha Nicole Terani who has just broken her own world record for dribbling with 137 consecutive taps all while wearing platform [.