Archive for the ‘World Cup 2006’ Category
Where Does Joe Cole’s Future Lie?
Its funny. Four years ago, heading into Germany for the 2006 World Cup, we were convinced Lampard and Gerrard were the two best midfielders in the world (they’d come second and third at the 2005 Ballon d’or). They both misfired at the World Cup, spawning what we now think of historically as the Lampard/Gerrard Problem. [...]
Sepp Blatter Hands England All Future World Cups
The recent revelation that Sepp Blatter wants to scrap penalty shootouts for the 2010 World Cup is fantastic news for England fans.
Catching Up
The England blog is back and – much like the team – it’s under new management. Shawn was caught negotiating with a fake sheikh about writing another blog for more money, so here I am.
That’s a Wrap
I’ve had fun, I’ve learned, I’ve been entertained and I’ve also been appalled, but it was all part of a journey that was, for me at least, a blast.
Thanks to loyal readers and new internet friends. Thanks to Bob and the gang for hosting and inviting me aboard. Thanks to an English squad [...]
Player Ratings for the Tournament
My deeply subjective ratings of individual players throughout the tournament (1-10 scale, with 10 being tops):
DAVID BECKHAM — Absent for long stretches and absolutely vital for key moments of 3 of the 5 matches; 5.5 overall, 7.5 for set pieces
WAYNE ROONEY — Never found his pace, never figured out a way around in the 4-5-1 [...]
The Portugal Match: Final Takes, With Some Thoughts On The Whole English Campaign
A night’s sleep and a clear, bright day, and so to the autopsy.
Yesterday’s match was a battle of wills between two teams afraid to lose. Both sides featured egoistic foreign coaches, both had superstar players who’d grown up together and were likely participating in their final World Cup tournament, both had some hot young [...]
The Day After: Brief Notes
1) David Beckham has resigned his captaincy…which effectively ended when he walked off the pitch on Saturday.
2) FIFA has begun the requisite inquiry into Wayne Rooney’s red card.
3) Cristiano Ronaldo declares that he was not the instigator of Rooney’s sending-off.
4) Steven Gerrard insists that the squad
don’t blame Rooney for the result.
Comments Off
Until a decent interval has passed, I am turning off comments on posts having to do with the England-Portugal quarter-final.
One asshole after another has ruined this space for anybody hoping to have a cogent and intelligent conversation.
Well done, Lowest Common Denominator!
As in American politics, you win again!
The Portugal Match: First Early Reactions
That was an appalling way to lose, and yet it was inspiring to see so gutty and commited a performance from an undermanned squad for so long.
Minus its captain for more than an hour, down a man for nearly an hour, England played rock-hard in defense and continually tried to craft an attack out of [...]
Gutted
More later.
But that was simply gutting.
Podcast: World Cup 2010 Group B Preview. "You hear that, Mr. Anderson?"
World Cup previews. They can be a bit dull and not particularly helfpul when it comes to predicting who will qualify from each group. One reason for this is that they focus too much on things like players and not enough on the really good things. Like quality of national [read more]
FIFA Has $1 Billion in Reserve Funds, But Still Doesn't Appreciate Clever Advertising
Two bits of news today. Read them both, and then decide for yourself whether the two are related.
The first story is that FIFA made a profit of $196 million in 2009, and now has a reserve cash fund of more than $1 billion. One billion dollars in the vault. Which makes FIFA sound a little like a Bond villain.
The second story is that FIFA have come down hard on South African budget airline kulula.com for what FIFA calls "ambush marketing". Basically, Kulula isn't an official World Cup sponsor, and as such is not allowed to suggest otherwise. Which makes perfect sense. However, Kulula - famous for its slightly left-field advertising campaigns - recently ran an ad in the South African Sunday Times newspaper on February 28th stating the airline was the "Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What". [read more]
The World Cup 2010 DJ Playlist (Musical Lineup)
(That kid immediately gets some sort of WCB Order of Merit.)
There's going to be a rather large party in South Africa this year. Some call it the World Cup.
But before there can be the real party, there must be another party beforehand. Because it's not really a party unless it's sandwiched by eight other parties of no importance whatsoever. And judging by the musical lineup for the World Cup pre-party, this will be no different. [read more]
FIFA World Cup 2026: Colombia!
There are many things which FIFA isn't very good at. One of them is putting anyone in the organization in front of a microphone, or allowing spilled words onto a page into the hands of the media. Another is running the world's football organization.
So FIFA, after handing this year's World Cup to the country with the second highest per capita murder rate, are looking to outdo themselves by sponsoring a World Cup bid by the world's most dangerous country, Colombia. Hip hip. [read more]
Other Recent Articles
Club Football News
Villa Offside Update - Wolves Preview
Share // It's been a while, my laptop decided to produce smoke and cook itself so I've had no real internet access, but now I'm back up on my lovely new PC. It broke during the stoke game, I'm not sure if it watched that match and self destructed ... ...
CL Recap (finally): Internazionale 1, Chelsea 0
You're probably asking yourself: Is this really necessary? Do we really need to recap what was an appalling evening in pretty much every sense. Sure say that rather large anti-Chelsea group that invade this place every time we're bounced out of the world's 'most prestigious' club competition. The loyalists, well you're ...
Fulham 4-1 Old Lady
I think I've sobered up. Fulham rallied to put four past Juventus and will play Bundesliga Champions Wolfsburg in a few weeks. Wait, no. That still doesn't read right. One nugget of information I've noticed little mention of is the absence of Juventus defender Nicola Legrottaglie. Last week he manhandled Bobby ...
Arsenal - West Ham Preview/Match Thread
West Ham United Position: 16th, 6-9-14 (27 points, -12 goal differential) Recent Form: WWLLL Away Form: 1-5-9 Last Meeting: West Ham 1 - Arsenal 2 (1/3/10) This match is probably a little tougher than it looks at first glance, but really, there's no excuse for anything less than 3 points tomorrow. ...
Red Devils Offside - Episode 6 - Man Utd vs Liverpool Preview
Apologies for the late post here, been a bit busy. Mostly watching basketball. But between games I managed to record a new Red Devils Offside podcast. My guests in the studio were Albert Ottati (a Liverpool fan) and Patrick Brigman (a diehard United / Kentucky / skipping work to record ...
Champions League Draw: It's Barca
Gee, couldn't have seen that coming. ...
Our next must win match
There can be no understating the importance of Wigan's upcoming home fixture against Burnley, where anything but all three points is a necessity. What worries me most about our chances is that although the Latics have been able to upset some solid opposition (Chelsea, Liverpool, Aston villa etc), we have ...
USER COMMENTS
How Not To Act Like England Vice-Captain, Presented to You by Steven Gerrard
Similar point is can you think of anyone in the England squad you'd actually enjoy a conversation wi ... [Read More]If the English Tabloids Want England to Win the World Cup, Then Why Don't They Leave England Players Alone?
It is said that courtesy costs nothing but brings a lot. One can easily win the heart of others by b ... [Read More]England vs Egypt - now A Big Game
Specialists claim that b ... [Read More]How Not To Act Like England Vice-Captain, Presented to You by Steven Gerrard
That's a good point steven. Recent events make it hard to argue. You could even go through the XI by ... [Read More]David Beckham's New World Cup 2010 Role
like to leave message to get to David Beckham. I specialise in Achilles tendon problems and have had ... [Read More]

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