For the World Cup in England the home nation was full of expectations. Having never won a World Cup before, everyone thought that England should excell at home, and had indeed assembled a very strong team, where the West Ham captain Bobby Moore, led what became the best defense of the World Cup. In midfield the star was Bobby Charlton from Manchester United, an extraordinary offensive midfielder Click to continue reading...

November 19th 1969. 40 years ago, Pele scored his goal number 1000. No matter what the youngest say, there will be no better player to step on earth.

Click to continue reading...

Spain have just launched their home jersey for the 2010 World Cup and the design has a 1980s feel about it. Adidas have once again manufactured this World Cup kit, which is the usual red with a hint of blue on the sleeve and neck areas, and yellow Adidas stripes up the arms and shoulders. The Adidas logo is featured on the top centre part of the shirt and the Spanish badge is on the left of the shirt.

Click to continue reading...

For many years Carlos Bilardo campaigned for his players from the 1986 World Cup to be brought as managers to all levels of the national team. These players who eventually became managers are refered to by the Argentine media as the "86 Generation".

Players like Jorge Luis Burruchaga, Hector Enrique, Sergio Batista, Jose Luis Brown, Nery Pumpido, Oscar Garre, Julio Olarticochea.

Click to continue reading...

The infamous beach ball which cost Liverpool FC the match against Sunderland is being offered a place in football history.
The National Football Museum want to put the red inflatable on display alongside the ball from the 1966 World Cup Final and the original FA Cup.
Last night the ball was sold for £411. Click to continue reading...

Before the largest crowd in New Zealand football history, New Zealand beat Bahrain 1-0 to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, Over 35,000 fans packed into Wellington's Westpac Stadium to see the All Whites reach the World Cup finals for the first time since 1982. Plymouth Argyle striker Rory Fallon headed the decisive goal just before half time and Wellington Phoenix keeper Mark Paston saved a second half penalty five minutes after the restart from Sayed Mohamed Adnan. Click to continue reading...

England and Argentina have one of the most intense rivalries in world football, surely the only classical cross-continental footballing rivalry. Being two of the most passionate footballing nations in the world, and much more closely associated than many know (indeed, the English brought football to Argentina in the 19th century! Click to continue reading...

Earlier today, we featured the review of the book 'Secret Diary of a Liverpool Scout' which, I think is a must read for all Liverpool fans. Now here's a chat with the writer of the book Simon Hughes about what went into the writing of the book. We hope you'll enjoy.
How did the idea to write a book about Geoff Twentyman come about? Click to continue reading...

Robert Enke's untimely death touched us all.It's almost hard to credit given that he achieved the sort of dreams millions of us fail to realize - representing your country, signing for Barcelona and being in line to play at the World Cup, but his personal reasons for dying were valid for him. Ultimately individuals make their own choices. Click to continue reading...

River Plate held a ceremony yesterday to celebrate the opening of of the club's museum.

Here's an inside look at the museum.

Very impressive and one of a kind.

Really fitting for a club with such great football history and winning tradition.

Click to continue reading...

Vasco da Gama is back from hell. The Brazilian giant granted its return to the first division of Campeonato Brasileiro less than a year after being relegated. Vasco was another giant that, as it's been happening a lot lately, felt the results of the poor administrations that control most of Brazilian football.

Click to continue reading...

On this day 23 years ago, a certain Alexander Chapman Ferguson was appointed as the manager at Manchester United. Today Sir Alex is the most decorated manager in British football history.

His tactical genius, inspirational personality and tremendous focus have put him in a league above others.

Click to continue reading...

On this week's show we take a look at Folk Football and discuss its influence on the Beautiful Game. In addition:

• Read our football news review in the good, the bad and the ugly
• Check out a new football expression in English for Football
• Follow the weekly predictions battle between Damon and Damian in the Predictions competition
• For learners of English check out our Football Language Resources page with:
• Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)
• Worksheets and transcripts from previous podcasts
  

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking on the icon

Click to continue reading...

Some Lovely Links Just For You!

Portsmouth Vs Liverpool Tickets Still Available!

Portsmouth Vs Manchester United Tickets Still Available!

Join Our Facebook Fan Page!

Facebook

Subscribe to CaughtOffside!

Click to continue reading...

While Maradona is busy making a shamockery of the Argentinean national side, the man who typically lurks behind Diego & Pele whether prudent or not in the discussion for the world's greatest ever player has returned to football. Johan Cruijff, arguably the greatest ever player/coach combination in football history, has returned to the bench Catalonia and don't you call it Spain.

Click to continue reading...

-
- In addition to this site, try the combination messageboard and quasi-blog QPR Report Messageboard. If your interest is constantly-updated QPR-related news (not always found on other QPR sites) QPR nostalgia and some other more-general football news, the QPR Report Messageboard is there for you. Click to continue reading...

The news that Mike Ashley is seeking to sell off the naming rights to St. James' Park is up there with Ken Bates' electric fence at Chelsea, Colin Moynihan's supporters' ID cards and Newcastle's own recruitment of Dennis Wise as one of the crassest notions in football history. Until now, I think most outside the Gallowgate have looked on with some bemusement at the Geordie fans' vilification of Click to continue reading...

On the most emotional night in Argentinian football history, Diego Maradona celebrated Argentina's direct qualification for South Africa World Cup Finals 2010 with a sexually provocative and profanity loaded outburst towards media critics and doubters alike.
This is what Maradona let fly during that now-famous TV interview,

"To those who did not believe in us, and I apologise in advance to the ladies present, they can go and suck my c*** and they can keep sucking it," he said.

Click to continue reading...

Adidas is bringing back all balls used on World Cups since 1970. The commemorative set includes 10 balls and goes for $849.99. Each ball comes with its own ring stand commemorating the year in which it was used. Such a neat idea!

Click to continue reading...

There still 9 spots left for the World Cup. But one thing is for sure: 32 is not enough for the number of cool nations around. We are still months away from the World Cup, but here are nations that we already miss. And the reason we miss them? Some of them,at some point in some edition of the tournament, played nice football.

Click to continue reading...

It wasn't the prettiest match in football history, nor was it supposed to be. Brazil had already qualified and Venezuela had almost no chances of qualifying (unless they beat Brazil 6-0 and Argentina beat Uruguay 9-0!), so it was what it was. Dunga did some experimenting and some things are definitely clear: Robinho should never come back, neither should Filipe Luiz, who plays anything but good football.

Click to continue reading...

This evening Uruguay and Argentina are facing each other in Montevideo, Uruguay for the final qualifying match of the South American World Cup qualifying group. Uruguay is currently on fifth place, one point behind Argentina on the fourth place, which qualifies directly to South Africa. Therefore, Uruguay needs a victory, while Argentina is not necessarily sure of keeping its fourth place with a Click to continue reading...

They won nothing, but the ultra-attacking team of Elkjaer, Laudrup and the Olsens was one of the most interesting in football history. Click to continue reading...

Going into last weeks World Cup Qualifiers, Belarus found themselves playing purely for pride and no longer are competitively seeking a spot in this summers World Cup in South Africa. The small Eastern European country is actually still searching for their first World Cup birth during their short football history.

Click to continue reading...

I know this sounds a bit weird given the circumstances and the fact that Ronaldinho hasn't played good football since 2006. But yes, he won the Golden Foot award. As we know, though, the point of the award is to celebrate a player's (the ones over 28 years old) career and overall accomplishments, judged by a jury made of international journalists.

Click to continue reading...

Overnight the peoples of Ivory Coast, Chile, Serbia, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Mexico popped the champagne. Now there are 19 on the party list, and there's mass patriotic emotion attached to the competition for the final 13 places. I'll have a look at some of the more interesting ones (to me ok).
Last night New Zealand held Bahrain to a 0:0 draw on Bahrain's turf. Click to continue reading...

In the world of football Armenia is not exactly considered an awesome team with an unbelievable history. In fact you could compare them to the MLB's Kansas City Royals for you Yanks out there. Armenia's biggest career matches have been in World Cup qualifiers if you get my drift. In other words Armenia has never been good enough to make the Cup in the first place, so their World Cup history is as limited as it can get.

Click to continue reading...

A great piece of Argentine football history was published by Clarin today.

Even though there have been countless numbers of Argentine players that have been goal scorers in Europe, only one Argentine player has actually won the European Golden Boot.

So, who is the only Argentine player to win the European Golden Boot as top goal scorer in all of Europe?

Click to continue reading...

Shay Given is desperate to give the Irish nation a chance to dance in the streets as he once did by securing another trip to the World Cup finals.
The Irish keeper was a teenager back in 1994 when Ray Houghton's strike at Giants Stadium in New York saw off the mighty Italy and sparked one of the most memorable nights in Ireland's football history. Click to continue reading...

PVC, the great football researcher, proves with numbers in his blog that Luis Fabiano is better than Ronaldo. When it comes to the national team, the Fabuloso has a better goal average than the Corinthians forward. More than that, he is already the 15th top scorer in the history of the national team (true that Ronaldo is the second, just behind Pele).

Click to continue reading...

The position of a patron, that is to say owner of the club gives you limitless possibilities. Besides the reputation, it gives you a chance to assure everyone of your football knowledge, to sack managers, give players a hard time; simply put, you have a toy that you can even break and act as if nothing happened.

Click to continue reading...

On Saturday the two viking nations of Denmark and Sweden are facing one another in an all-important World Cup qualifier in the European qualifier group 1. Denmark is leading the group with 18 points, three more than Sweden on second place (and with Portugal and Hungary on third and fourth place respectively, with 13 points each). Click to continue reading...

The VVIPs admiring the trophy.
Sometimes I have been wondering if this country is a nation of glory-hunters, that when things get tough people try to find an easy way out to avoid the calamity to be fallen on them?
This legend who used to be feared by strikers in Asia for his tackling, can you tell who he is? Click to continue reading...

The World Cup of 1950 in Brazil was the only one ever that was played without a final. Instead, all four teams in the final round (Brazil, Uruguay, Spain and Sweden) played in a final group, where the winner would become world champion. In spite of this, the group went into what was practically a final when Brazil faced Uruguay in Maracana in the last group match on the largest football stadium Click to continue reading...

England, the home of football, had refused to participate in the first World Cups of the 1930s due to disagreements on their qualification as part of the British championship (where they competed against Scotland, Wales and Ireland) as well as some arrogance that England was the "King of football" anyway. Click to continue reading...