WorldCupBlog 24 October @ 10:42 AM EST
There was a time when the names Diego Armando Maradona, Carlos Bilardo and the
Argentine National team were synonymous with success. The magical run to the 1986 World Cup made
both men house hold names in the sport, and heroes back home.
Boy, does that seem like a life time ago.
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WorldCupBlog 14 February @ 12:49 PM EST
The sad sad news today is that Ronaldo may be finished. Just when it looked as if the Brazilian
legend was getting it together at Milan, he jumped to meet a cross while playing against Livorno
last night and completely severed the tendon in his left knee. It's not 100% definitely the end,
but it's 99% [.
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WorldCupBlog 12 February @ 12:20 PM EST
Now that the Africa Cup of Nations is over, you might be wondering what's next for World Cup Blog.
How will we fill the days with no more Hosny Abd Rabou hammer strikes, Salomon Kalou slaloms or
Manucho magic? Luckily for us, there's loads more international football on the horizon.
Qualification for World Cup 2010 continues [.
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WorldCupBlog 02 January @ 05:40 PM EST
Bad news for Brand Beckham, as it seems Golden Balls' globe trotting lifestyle is slowly but surely
destroying planet earth. According to climate watchdog Carbon Trust the former England captain has
both "the biggest carbon footprint in the world" and "the largest carbon footprint in human
history." Ouch.
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WorldCupBlog 31 December @ 06:21 PM EST
The year is almost done, so here's the final part of the World Cup Blog A-Z of 2007. Part one (A-M)
can be found here, part two (N-Z) is after the jump and features everything from Hope Solo's
tantrum to Ashley Young's bout of exhibitionism. If any big stories are missing, let me know in
[...]
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WorldCupBlog 31 December @ 01:07 PM EST
It's the last day of 2007, so here's an alphabetical look back at the last twelve months in world
football. There's so much happened that it's impossible to cover all of it, so please remind me of
anything that's been missed out in the comments. Part one covers A to M, with part two to [...]
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WorldCupBlog 28 December @ 03:00 PM EST
Like most English tabloids, The Sun is mostly full of gossip, nonsense and hastily assembled
headlines. But every once in a while they do something decent, like compiling a list of 20 young
players to watch in 2008 (list after the jump.) It's a little bit Euro-centric, but there's still
plenty of talent to get [.
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WorldCupBlog 26 December @ 03:59 PM EST
Ronaldo's career-rejuvenating move to AC Milan isn't quite going as planned is it? Despite an
encouraging end to last season the now afro-sporting striker has only played one Serie A game for
Milan this season and is battling some oddly persistent thigh and calf injuries. Now rumour has it
that the buck-toothed wonder could be [.
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WorldCupBlog 26 December @ 02:00 PM EST
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is pushing for his Spanish goalkeeper Manuel Almunia to get a call up to
the England squad. You read that right. Though Almunia is Spanish, he's never been capped by his
country and looks very unlikely to ever get a game. Not with the likes of Iker Casillas and
Santiago Cañizares [.
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WorldCupBlog 22 December @ 09:13 PM EST
If this question hasn't already been asked, it will be soon. We are coming to the point in
Gianluigi Buffon's career where it's impossible not to wonder, "Is he....the greatest?". Obviously
it's tough and complicated question but the list is short, which makes it a little bit easier. In
fact, the list is two names [.
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WorldCupBlog 17 December @ 04:11 PM EST
Chris spent the weekend lining up a European XI and a South American XI, and that got me thinking
about Africa. What would an African XI look like, and how would they fair against their European
and South American counterparts? The standard of African football gets better every year. More and
more African players are [.
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WorldCupBlog 15 December @ 09:00 AM EST
Europe v South America With the Club World Cup final this weekend, we get a chance to see who is
supposedly the best club in the world. Plenty of South Americans will admit that, as they watch
boatloads of elite, young South American talent make the trip northeast, European clubs have far
better players in their [.
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WorldCupBlog 14 December @ 05:28 PM EST
Brazilian coach Professor Neto gave a speech in South Africa recently, arguing that for football to
develop in the 2010 World Cup host nation, the word "soccer" needs to be abandoned. Apparently the
74 year old gave an impassioned speech arguing that the use of the term "football" is integral to
developing a strong national [.
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WorldCupBlog 13 December @ 01:06 PM EST
Ever since 2001, UEFA have embraced the magic of the internet and asked readers of their website to
vote on a Team of the Year. 2007 is nearly done with, so it's that time again. Go to their website
and vote for your first choice 11 from the shortlist of 60 players they've narrowed it [...]
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WorldCupBlog 11 December @ 02:03 PM EST
After dangling himself in front of England for the last couple of weeks, like a donut just out of
Homer Simpson's reach (and making the English media drool accordingly) Jose Mourinho has finally
himself unavailable for work yesterday afternoon. Proof indeed that the essence of being The
Special One is the essence of "what if?
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WorldCupBlog 10 December @ 03:11 PM EST
Ever worried about how David Beckham is going to fill that long gap between MLS seasons? Well worry
no longer, seems old Golden Balls is finding all kinds of ways. There are money-spinning tours to
Australia and New Zealand to go on, rancid table scraps to be auctioned and head to head Christmas
ratings wars [.
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WorldCupBlog 06 December @ 01:39 PM EST
Now I love football. And I'm sure you love football. But turns out neither of us loves football
quite as much as Ivica Osim. The Bosnian manager of the Japanese national team suffered a stroke
while watching football at home on November 16th and had been in a coma. But he woke up last week
[...]
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WorldCupBlog 05 December @ 12:00 PM EST
I thought there was universal agreement this week that Kaka deserved his Ballon d'Or and that all
was right in the world of football. But then along came Diego Maradona, who was and is never afraid
to be different, claiming that "Rooney, Ronaldinho and Messi would have been the worthy winners."
His most interesting quote [.
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WorldCupBlog 04 December @ 04:07 PM EST
Netherlands boss Marco van Basten and his assistant John van't Schip will be stepping down after
Euro 2008. It's been an interesting spell for the former AC Milan striker. He had no first team
managerial experience when he took the Dutch job, but had spent a few years studying coaching and
also some experience with [.
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WorldCupBlog 04 December @ 01:17 PM EST
For all the talk about tactics, injuries, blundering goakeepers, foreigners and plastic pitches,
the one thing England players definitely need to work on is how they spend their free time. Roy
Keane said as much when he labeled certain England players "big heads who are side-tracked by stuff
away from football.
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WorldCupBlog 03 December @ 04:00 PM EST
He knew it, you knew it, even I knew it. But last night it was made official and Kaka was awarded
the Ballon d'Or. The cat was out of the bag a while ago, when France Football magazine (who hand
out the award) told Kaka to buy some nice shoes and make some room on [...]
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WorldCupBlog 03 December @ 12:30 PM EST
Do you have a passion for football? Are you opinionated? Can you string a sentence together? Then
World Cup Blog wants you. We're looking for writers to captain the many national team blogs here on
WCB. There's no money in it, but you'll have a big audience of worldwide football fans and a bullet
proof [.
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WorldCupBlog 29 November @ 12:00 PM EST
Saudi Arabia captain Yasser Al-Qahtani was named Asian Player of the Year yesterday, at a fancy
dinner in Sydney. Oddly, the award can only be won by players who make the effort and show up on
the night, but there were plenty other players in attendance so the Al-Hilal striker won his trophy
fair and [.
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WorldCupBlog 28 November @ 02:00 PM EST
Seems the draw for 2010 World Cup qualifying groups wasn't the only thing decided in Durban last
weekend. The Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were busy ironing out the
details of the Celtic Cup, similar to the old British Home Nations Championship but with England
replaced by Ireland.
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WorldCupBlog 28 November @ 12:00 PM EST
Argentinian dribbling machine Leo Messi has been awarded the brilliantly named Bravo Trophy by
Italian sports magazine Guerin Sportivo. It's basically an Under-21 version of the more famous
Ballon d'Or (which will be handed to Kaka in the very near future) but not associated in anyway.
It's somewhat belatedly awarded for performances in the previous [.
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WorldCupBlog 08 October @ 01:25 PM EST
Think back to the 2006 World Cup when Jens Lehmann was named Germany's number one keeper ahead of
Oliver Kahn, who at first didn't take the move too well but who later played the good guy by
supporting Lehmann and the team. Well, it turns out that Lehmann has some thoughts about Mr. Kahn
[...]
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WorldCupBlog 04 October @ 02:31 PM EST
You'd think that more than a year after the final whistle of the 2006 World Cup all of the players
who participated in the tournament would have already spent their bonuses on productive things like
fancy cars, shopping trips for their WAGS, and bling to attract new WAGs. That is likely the case
for [...]
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WorldCupBlog 03 October @ 12:44 PM EST
Where will you be 23 years from now? You don't know? Well, you be start thinking about it. The year
2030 will be here in no time and already we have a front runner for who will host the World Cup
then. CONMEBOL's executive committee has proposed that Argentina and Uruguay [...]
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WorldCupBlog 02 October @ 04:00 PM EST
Let's hope it was one heck of a party. A pair of players from Cameroon has been suspended for six
months by their country's football federation because they did a wee too bit much partying before
last month's meaningless African Cup of Nations qualifier against Equatorial Guinea. Daniel Ngom
Kome and Albert Meyong Ze did [...]
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WorldCupBlog 02 October @ 04:00 PM EST
Let's hope it was one heck of a party. A pair of players from Cameroon has been suspended for six
months by their country's football federation because they did a wee too bit much partying before
last month's meaningless African Cup of Nations qualifier against Equatorial Guinea. Daniel Ngom
Kome and Albert Meyong Ze did [...]
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WorldCupBlog 30 August @ 02:21 PM EST
When you are a fat cat you like nothing more than to be wined and dined as various entities try to
sway your opinion. It puts you in a position of power, a power that can enrich your personal
fortunes. So it goes without saying that when the bids for the 2014 World [...]
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WorldCupBlog 24 August @ 11:58 AM EST
It was a few months back when we first heard the rumblings that Nike were prepared to supply the
kits for the German national team. At the time it seemed hard to believe even with the Swoosh offer
gobs of money to replace the German company Adidas as the country's official supplier. In [...]
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WorldCupBlog 09 August @ 01:09 PM EST
It is hard to take a man who has proven to be as corrupt as Jack Warner seriously, but since he has
a firm stranglehold on his position as FIFA vice-president and because he is best friends forever
with Sepp Blatter we must. On Thursday the president of Concacaf made it clear in no uncertain
terms [...]
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Everyone knew that Brazil would be the only country bidding to host the 2014 World Cup and Tuesday
they made it official. All it took was printing off 900 pages and presenting a dossier to FIFA. If
it is that easy why didn't anyone else bid? Oh yeah, it is because FIFA has all [...]
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Everyone is talking about Iraq's victory in the 2007 Asian Cup, including US comedian John Stewart
and the Daily Show's "Senior Football Correspondent" John Oliver.
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