Category: Soccer (Page 14 of 29)

2010 World Cup: France, South Africa both finished

June 22, 2010 / Anthony Stalter

France, South Africa, you can both exit stage left now.

Despite their 2-1 victory over France on Tuesday, South Africa didn’t survive its group stage, making it the first host nation not to advance from the opening round.

But hey, at least they won a game, which is more than what France can say.

From FOX Sports.com:

French soccer has been a mess ever since sports daily L’Equipe printed details of striker Nicolas Anelka’s expletive-filled rant at coach Raymond Domenech during halftime of last Thursday’s 2-0 loss to Mexico.
The French soccer federation sent Anelka home Saturday and the French players protested by refusing to practice the following day. Footage of the players refusing to come out of the team bus were beamed back to a shocked nation.
Not even a dressing down by French sports minister Roselyne Bachelot on the eve of the match could inspire Les Bleus. Bachelot called an emergency meeting Monday to tell the players they had let the country down and had one last chance to redeem themselves.
In the stands, one fan flew a French flag with the word “shame” emblazoned on it.

France has not won any of its six matches in major international tournaments (Euro 2008, 2010 World Cup) since the retirement of Zinedine Zidane.

Excuse me while I…

External Sports, Soccer

As direct as a quote can get

June 20, 2010 / Christopher Glotfelty

ESPN’s coverage of the World Cup has so far been incredible. Instead of just using unknown (to rest of the world) American soccer pundits, the Worldwide Leader has brought in a slew of international journalists to add expert insight.

Following the incident where Nicolas Anelka berated his coach during France’s loss to Mexico, French sports journalist Erik Bielderman told ESPN’s Bob Ley exactly what was said. And I mean exactly.

Ley’s reaction is classic.

External Sports, Soccer, Video, World Cup

Erik Bielderman Erik Bielderman F-bomb World Cup

FIFA doles out poor rating to criticized referee

June 20, 2010 / Christopher Glotfelty

FIFA’s referee committee evaluated the performance of Koman Coulibaly, who centered the U.S.-Slovenia match, and gave him an unfavorable rating. This not only spells the likely end for Coulibaly’s time at the World Cup, but his entire crew as well.

From Yahoo! Sports:

The committee evaluated Coulibaly’s performance on a series of factors, including his condition, positioning and decision-making, said the source, who is close to senior figures on the committee.
While the official’s fitness and movement were solid, FIFA referee chiefs were concerned about several of Coulibaly’s decisions and the way he appeared to lose control of a highly physical contest.
The assignments for the final round of group matches have yet to be assigned, but given Coulibaly’s rating, there is virtually no chance he will get to referee any more matches in the tournament. However, he could still be used as a fourth official.

To be clear, the fourth official simply assists the referee at all times, helping keep track of substitutions and other forms of logging.

It’s unfortunate that Coulibaly’s crew is also effected by the situation, but I guess it goes hand in hand with many of FIFA’s bewildering rules.

External Sports, Soccer, World Cup

Koman Coulibaly Koman Coulibaly poor rating U.S.-Slovenia blown call U.S.-Slovenia referee U.S.-Slovenia referee poor rating

Sacrebleu! France striker to retire following World Cup incident

June 19, 2010 / Christopher Glotfelty

After Nicolas Anelka told coach manager Raymond Domenech “Go f*** yourself” during France’s defeat to Mexico on Thursday, he refused to apologize, despite the wishes of FFF president Jean-Pierre Escalettes. In due course, Anelka was dismissed from his squad. Now it appears as though the veteran striker would just rather retire from the sport altogether.

From Goal.com:

Multiple reports suggested that Anelka had reacted angrily to Domenech’s questioning of his first half performance and that led to him being taken off at the interval. It had been reported that Anelka launched an obscenity-laden tirade at the coach.
Anelka was also absent from training on Saturday which fuelled rumours that his World Cup was over and that was later confirmed by the French Football Federation (FFF)
But now it seems Anelka has stepped away from the national side for good.
It further compounds a disastrous few days for France, who seem destined to be knocked out of the World Cup and need a win against South Africa in their final game to stand any chance of progressing.

This World Cup has been a complete disaster for France. Remember, this is the team, led by Zinedine Zidane, that made the final in 2006. Now France sits with a meager single point in their pool, and likely won’t advance to the knockout stage.

External Sports, Soccer, World Cup

Nicolas Anelka Nicolas Anelka France Nicolas Anelka thrown off team Nicolas Anelka to retire World Cup

Three things I’d change about the World Cup

June 19, 2010 / John Paulsen

I realize that soccer/football is the most popular sport in the world, but watching the USA/Slovenia game yesterday morning, there are a few glaring problems that I have with the sport. (Note: I played soccer through the 9th grade, so I am familiar with its rules.)

1. The ref has too much control.
Referee Koman Coulibaly stripped the U.S. of its go-ahead goal by calling a foul, yet he doesn’t have to explain what the foul was. Replays showed that no one was offsides, and the only physical fouls that could be seen on the replays were on the Slovenian players. Moreover, the ref keeps the official time. Why is this? Why can he arbitrarily say there’s three minutes or four minutes of injury time? Why not have an official clock that stops and starts when the official blows the whistle?

2. Offsides takes the excitement out of the sport.
It seems like anytime a player makes a nice run, there’s the sideline official raising his flag and stopping the play. Why is there offsides in the first place? Look at American football and basketball, two of the most exciting sports in the world — no one is penalized for beating the opposing team down the field/court. If a player can make a break for the goal and his teammate can hit him with a nice pass, why are we penalizing them? The defender needs to stay with his guy; that’s the whole point of defense. Under the current format, the defender is encouraged to sandbag it (pull up when he’s beat) in order to get the offsides call. With no offsides, scoring would go up and it would be a far more free-flowing and exciting sport.

3. The vuvuzelas.
WTF? What are these and why do fans feel the need to blow them for the entire game?

What about you — what would you change about the World Cup?

Photo from fOTOGLIF