Pies have long considered South African football's audio torture device of choice, the vuvuzela, to be offensive, largely due to the parp-induced tinnitus we still suffer with after sitting through the 2010 World Cup two summers ago.
It seems the South African footballing authorities are finally twigging too, though it's not the perpetual, stupefying 190-decibel drone that they have a problem with, it's the fact that the vuvuzela may now have to be classed as a "dangerous weapon" after a flurry of trumpet attacks over the past couple of weeks.
Brought to us by the maths websitenumperphile.com, this is a rather interesting look at how the stats geeks at Opta look, in minute detail, at the sport we are all obsessed with.
The video focuses on Andrés Iniesta, he of the ghostly pallor and quick feet, and his match-winning goal for Spain against the Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup final.
It's incredible to see how far Joe Hart has come in such a short time. At the 2010 World Cup, when I was hosting a World Cup viewing party at Wowies sports bar featuring USA and England, Umbro was nice ... Continue reading →
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The title should actually read what fails Brazilian soccer? Clearly, with all its unsurpassed
talent, Brazilian soccer should have no ailment. Jonathan Wilson's article in the Guardian exposes
Brazil's fatal flaws when competing against teams which individual talent may find tough to
overcome.
Two years ago exactly on this day 11th of June SPAIN won its first ever FIFA WORLD CUP title
defeating Holland 0-1 in extra-time with a now historical goal from Andres Iniesta. To live some of
those memories again watch this video tribute to SPANISH FOOTBALL & its NATIONAL TEAM.
This past weekend, I compiled the various outcomes that would see the USMNT either advance to the Hex or be out of the World Cup Qualifying stages entirely and thus the World Cup in 2014. It's a pretty dismal scenario, but one that is not entirely out of the realm of possibility at this point. One lackluster performance tonight and a fantastic Jamaican win could see USA fans forced to wait until 2018 to see their country represented in the World Cup.
Russia may have failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, but on Friday the Russians looked like a team determined to get to Brazil for the 2014 edition of the tournament.
Alexander Kerzhakov's early goal was enough for the Russians to hold off Portugaland earn important 1-0 victory in the battle for Group F.
Quite predictably following an over-hyped victory over football minnows Moldova last week, England's 3rd ranked senior side struggled to salvage a 1-1 draw against a stubborn Ukraine side at Wembley stadium last night. A late Frank Lampard penalty salvaged a lame point for a team that labored to contain the East Europeans who were content [.
Quite predictably following an over-hyped victory over football minnows Moldova last week, England's 3rd ranked senior side struggled to salvage a 1-1 draw against a stubborn Ukraine side at Wembley stadium last night. A late Frank Lampard penalty salvaged a lame point for a team that labored to contain the East Europeans who were content [.
Quite predictably following an over-hyped victory over football minnows Moldova last week, England's 3rd ranked senior side struggled to salvage a 1-1 draw against a stubborn Ukraine side at Wembley stadium last night. A late Frank Lampard penalty salvaged a lame point for a team that labored to contain the East Europeans who were content to allow England to have the ball for long periods, content that their opponents could not capitalize.
Quite predictably following an over-hyped victory over football minnows Moldova last week, England's 3rd ranked senior side struggled to salvage a 1-1 draw against a stubborn Ukraine side at Wembley stadium last night. A late Frank Lampard penalty salvaged a lame point for a team that labored to contain the East Europeans who were content to allow England to have the ball for long periods, content that their opponents could not capitalize.
Leo Messi's recent national goalscoring is well ahead of his Barca output. He scored his 9th
goal in five matches. Unleash the kracken as they say. Sami Khedira got the ball rolling for
Argentina with an own goal, Messi followed suit, and then it was the goal of this day's friendlies
when Angel Di Maria absolutely belted the ball from 30 yards out.
Which is Spain's greatest influence or factor in their triumph at Euro 2012?
- Squad's Depth: Spain remains the deepest team, particularly in the midfield
area. With a host of players capable of dictating play or dominating possession or creating scoring
opportunities such as Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and Xabi Alonso, the Spaniards
did not have any problem maintaining control of matches.
There is just no end to the toxic storm which encircles the French national team. After
seemingly breaking from the dysfunction which defined their World Cup 2010 campaign, Euro 2012 was
to be their fresh new start under the fresh new Laurent Blanc regime. Yeah, didn't happen.
Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas has revealed that his national team's unmatched confidence on and
off the pitch was not nearly as strong before Euro 2008.
Along with England, the Spaniards were considered to be an under-achieving football nation and
despite a plethora of talented players in their squad, Fabregas admits that Spain's players
doubting their credentials heading into that tournament four years ago.
SPAIN has made Football History after defending & winning ( retaining ) the 2012 EUROPEAN NATIONS
CUP 4 - 0 against ITALY in the Final.Never before has a team (nation) won the "triple crown" : Euro
2008- Fifa World Cup 2010 & now Euro 2012. The below team pictured as the starting 11 has managed
to shut many mouths - happily mine as well - throwing into the rubbish bin criticisms about
internal
Spain won Euro 2012 and, in doing so, proved that they are just too good. Winning a historic
three major tournaments in a row (Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 12) is probably enough to
prove that statement alone, but the way they've done is what obliterates any stubborn arguments to
the contrary.
Spain won their third major tournament in a row with an impressive 4-0 result over Italy in the
UEFA Euro 2012 final. It was a dominating performance from start to finish with Italy rarely having
a realistic chance to lift the trophy.
Opposite of the Portugal match, Spain started the final very quickly and had a 1-0 lead by the
14th minute.
Below are player ratings for the UEFA Euro 2012 Final between Spain and Italy. Spain won the
match 4-0 and have now won three major titles (2008 & 2012 Euro, 2010 World Cup).
Spain
Casillas 7 Was tested a few times and always up to the challenge
Arbeloa 5.5 Didn't have much to do as Spain dominated most of the match
Piqué 6 Solid as usual and didn't have to do much defending
There you have it. The greatest team of all time: Spain 2008-2012 edition. Euro 2008 Champions.
World Cup 2010 Champions. Euro 2012 Champions. And there was massive Premier League influence in
the final and it wasn't Super Mario Balotelli. ... Continue reading →
SPAIN will attempt tonight to win back-to-back European Nations Cup titles & thus create History as
the only National squad to win Euro (2008) - World Cup (2010) - Euro (2012). If they can manage to
defeat the difficult & inform ITALY in tonight's FINAL this SPANISH FOOTBALL NATIONAL TEAM will
certainly go down as the "Greatest Football Team in History" overtaking the unbelievable 1970
Brazil
After four relatively disappointing quarterfinal matches, we hoped the two semifinal matches
would live up to high expectations. Here is Sid Lowe writing right after the quarterfinals ended
and the semifinal matchups were set:
Spain versus Portugal, Germany versus Italy. The semi-finals couldn't be better.
SPAIN will attempt tonight to win back-to-back European Nations Cup titles & thus create History as
the only National squad to win Euro (2008) - World Cup (2010) - Euro (2012). If they can manage to
defeat the difficult & inform ITALY in tonight's FINAL this SPANISH FOOTBALL NATIONAL TEAM will
certainly go down as the "Greatest Football Team in History" overtaking the unbelievable 1970
Brazil
Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas has described compatriot and Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta as
the most impactful player in the defending champions' Euro 2012 campaign.
Iniesta, whose last-gasp goal won the FIFA World Cup 2010 final for Spain, has yet again been in
brilliant form as Vicente Del Bosque's men aim to win a historic second European title in
succession.
Jurgen Klinsmann has been reporting on the European Championship for the BBC and no doubt picking
up tips for his job as coach of the USMNT. When I asked him last year in Brussels if he preferred
playing European nations given his background, he paused for thought, before replying that every
country has something to teach you.
All non-German Arsenal players exited the Euro 2012 tournament at the quarters, so no more
Tomáš Rosický, no more Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott or even new signing Olivier Giroud,
the 6'3 striker who scored the most goals in the Ligue 1 with Montpellier this past season. Giroud
knows what it feels like to win titles and scores goals.
Xabi Alonso scored a powerful first-half header and added a stoppage-time penalty to help
defending champions Spain defeat France 2-0 at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk.
In a vintage performance that saw the Spaniards open the scoring early and play the game out
with a majority of the possession, Vicente Del Bosque's men proved to be too good for Laurent
Blanc's Les Bleus.
Alarming news coming out today: something involving FIFA might be corrupt. Tis true.
A former security official for FIFA has said that the game between Greece and Nigeria at the
2010 World Cup was, at least at one point, under investigation for match-fixing, which would be the
first World Cup fixture ever.
Money. It's changed football. It's in the process of ruining one of Scotland's biggest clubs.
Our sport has both a complex relationship with cash and an insatiable desire for more dosh. It's
not always a healthy relationship.
Maybe we should ask not what money can do for sport but what sport can do for the economy.
Benny Feilhaber in 2010 was a great player. He saw regular time on Bob Bradley's USMNT squad and saw minutes in the US' last three matches in the 2010 World Cup. The future looked as bright for Benny. Opting to come to the US when his contract expired in Denmark should have been our first indication that Benny was not a "great" player, but rather a really good player.
Brazil's chances of winning the 2014 World Cup on home soil have received a huge boost this week after the Brazil Football Confederation (CBF) revealed their new manager who will lead the team into the tournament: Luiz Felipe Scolari.
The former Chelsea and Portugal boss is regarded as one of Brazil's greatest ever managers after guiding the national side to World Cup glory in 2002.
Joe and Carly Cole take their daughter Ruby for a spin in Sun City, South Africa during the 2010 World Cup. Hello! announced exclusively this afternoon that Carly Cole, wife of Liverpool midfielder Joe, had a bouncing baby boy on 19 October at Portland Hospital. We don't think it's ever taken this long for news [.
Welcome to the new Just Football! is a post from: Just Football
Having been created in late 2007, in February 2010 Just-Football.com was a simple
football blog run on a simple Blogger template, slightly customised and with one of the worst
banner header images ever known (why no-one pointed this out to me at the time I'll never
know).
American striker Charlie Davies is taking his search for regular playing time to Denmark.
Sources have confirmed to SBI that the 26-year-old has signed with Danish side Randers FC.
Davies had been with French club Sochaux since December, when his season-long loan deal with D.
