South Africa should be very proud of hosting a wonderful tournament & Spain are worthy World Champions

Spain have cemented their place as the best as well as most entertaining footballing nation in the world.

They are the new football kings of the world & their team sheet reads like the "who is who" of the football world, a team of champion players playing beautiful football in a champion team

They won a spiteful final match this morning against a Dutch team which played very ugly at times but should nevertheless be commanded for trying to neutralise Spain's attractive & attacking style.

South Africa & her people should also be very proud of staging such a wonderful tournament & largely the sceptics (including myself) wrong.

Other accolades go to New Zealand for its gutsy & impressive effort, & to Germany & Argentina for playing the game in its right spirit & scoring plenty of goals (as opposed to Spain who played beautifully but were unable to capitalise on their superiority most of the time & scored a mere 8 goals, one of the lowest for a World Cup winning side).

Whilst many expected France to disappoint, having only qualified by "the hand of Henry", & considered the defending Champions Italy over the hill & out of sorts, most were surprised by the poor results of England in particular, and Portugal & Brazil to a lesser extent.

And then there was the one & only worldwide superstar of the World Cup,"Paul the Octopus"! He managed to correctly pick all of Germany's 5 wins & 2 defeats plus Spain's win in the final & in the process became a superstar. How I wish he had picked Germany to beat Spain in the semi finals!
As for me personally, this has been a great World Cup despite my beloved Socceroos poor start to the tournament & their subsequent early elimination & my life long idols Germany not reaching the final.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the kind remarks & show of support & encouragement from all of you who were following my blog. A special mention also goes to Deborah Cameron & Jennifer Lacey at ABC 702 Sydney morning show (radio station) for their enthusiasm & support.

To top it all, I even managed to inadvertently get under the skin of a rather cranky Les Murray of SBS TV, who this morning sent me a less than complimentary email belittling me for merely suggesting that despite Spain's attractive way of playing, their multiple 1-0 victories & lack of goals were not a great way to promote the beautiful game to the casual non core supporters! I hope most of you agree with my point.

I must however emphasise that SBS once again provided Australia with a world class presentation & in fact managed to show all 64 games live. We are very lucky in Australia to have such a dedicated team at SBS.

On a final note, as exciting as the annual club competitions such as the Champions League & some of the European and other leagues are, they will never be able to fully replace the World Cup as the premier football (& indeed sporting) event in the world stage. Only European Championships come close & that is because it is similar to a mini world cup!

My blog will recommence at the beginning of the European season in late August. I hope you can join me from time to time!

Viva Espana! Congratulations to Spain & its supporters for playing wonderfully entertaining football on their way to winning the World Cup. They are worthy winners & will be hard to catch in the coming years.

Spain are the best team in the world of football but will they be crowned the World Champions?

The World Cup final on Sunday will feature some of the greatest footballers around the world. Footballers whose records outshine superstars such as Ronaldo, Rooney & the stars of France & Italy who usually get all the media attention but who faded away in this World Cup.

It is broadly acknowledged that the pillars of the success of the great Barcelona side of the last few years led by Lionel Messi are in fact Inesta, Xavi (above first & second from right) & their inspirational Captain Carlos Puyol ,whose goal took Spain to the final of the World Cup.
In Casillas Spain arguably have the best goalkeeper in the world & in David Villa (no 7 above) the striker with the best average goal scoring record in the world. Add to this players such as Piquet & Sergio Ramos, & Pedro who replaced the out of form Torres against Germany & it is easy to see why Spain are such a great side. Even their lesser known players like the no 11 (above) Capdevila of Villarreal have ended up being amongst the stars of the tournament.

It is difficult not to admire Spain & the way they play. They are simply irresistible to watch & play football they way the beautiful game is meant to be played. Commentators, players, coaches, journalists & past great players are all tipping Spain to win the final on Sunday. Even Johan Cruyff, the Captain of the legendary 1974 Holland team credited for creating the concept of total football believes this great Spanish side (& no doubt they are great to watch) will be crowned World Champions on Sunday.

Nevertheless, despite all the well deserved accolades & all the media hype I believe Holland will be crowned Champions on Sunday!

Whilst Spain are superior in tactical & technical terms & have better individual players overall, most media commentators are ignoring the main worrying signs in the Spanish side & idealistically concentrating on the attractive way they play. Yes! Spain have been one of the more attractive teams of the tournament to watch, but they can not be given so much compliment when they have only crawled their way into the final by three hard fought 1-0 results, a 1-0 loss to Switzerland & only above average performances against Chile & Honduras! This is despite the fact that Germany & in particular Italy have in the past won the World Cup despite mediocre performances on the way to winning the Cup.

Nevertheless, my main reason for suggesting that Netherlands will win the final lies in the great performances of the players in the above photo (photo from Euro 2008). Wesley Sneijder & the fit again Arjen Robben have been underestimated by everyone to their benefit!

For the first time in many years (including Gus Hiddink's Holland side of the 1998 World Cup) Bert Marwijk has managed to instill a great team spirit in the notoriously fickle & egotistic Dutch camp, and a team which achieves much more than the sum of its individual players suggests on paper. ie Here's my point:

Spain as a team have produced much less than the sum of their brilliant players on paper would suggest whilst Holland, led by the magnificent four ie Sneijder, Robben, Van Bommel & Van Bronkhorst have prodced much more than their individual players would suggest.

My other reason to believe Holland can win the final is the fact that 7 of their players have scored in this World Cup whilst Spain have been wasteful, missed many goal scoring opportunities & only 3 of their star studded players have scored their miserly 7 goals in six matches. Whilst many commentators have pointed to at times some less than impressive periods by Holland against Uruguay, they have ignored the fact that they have proven they can score goals & come back from behind, whilst Spain have been struggling to score & lost the one match they fell behind as a result of their inability to score.

So my prediction is we can expect an exciting & tactically enticing world class final, perhaps the best since the 1986 final between Germany & Madonna & Argentina, with Holland to win 2-1.

As for the third place play off which is becoming more & more of a prestigious match, I would like to see Germany to cap off a great World Cup with a big margin win, and for Klose to become World Cup's all time highest goal scorer! That's the least Bastina Schweinsteiger, Philip Lahm (above) & the exciting brave German side deserve after their great displays in becoming the first team since the legendary Brazil side of 1970 to score 4 goals in three World Cup matches.

The young German lions' path to the final overcomes another hurdle: Germany 4 Maradona's Argentina 0

Miroslav Klose equalled Gerd Muller's 14 WC goals in the 4-0 win vs Argentina & will be aiming to surpass Ronaldo's all time 15 goals in the next two matches

The young German lions did it again! For the second time ina week they scored 4 goals in a World Cup match. This time they systematically disposed of the over the top antics of Maradona & his surprisingly below par & up to now impressive Argentine side.

And in doing so Miroslav Klose equaled the legendary Gerd Muller's record of 14 World Cup goals for Germany, the last of which was scored in the 1974 final win vs Holland.

In my predictions, I have set up my approach for a potential Holland vs Germany final & I hope Klose will break Ronaldo's all time World Cup record of 15 goals in the next two matches.

Loew's faith in Klose & Podolski has fully paid off. They had scored a miserly 5 goals between the two of them in Bundesliga this year going to the World Cup & Klose had become a bit player in Bayern's run to the final of the Champions League & the German media were putting pressure on Loew to axe Klose & Podolski.

Germany, the ultimate "Tournament Team" as they are known in the world of football, have now enhanced their unbelievable record to 12 World Cup semi final appearances (7 finals) and on this form can surprise any team as long as they stay calm & do not get ahead of themselves.

The only slight blemish in tonight's result was the opening goal scorer, the young Thomas Muller will miss the semi final as a result of receiving his second yellow card. Amazingly, during the prematch friendly in March Maradona refused to attend a press conference with Muller, who was receiving his first cap at that match. Maradona called Muller a ball boy & demanded Muller be kicked out of the press conference or he would leave! (You can see this on Youtube). Muller took 3 minutes tonight to exact his revenge!

Well done to Lowe, his assistants & all German players involved, a fully deserved victory which should put an end to the controversy over Lampard's disallowed goal in the 4-1 win against England, and at the same time put the Socceroos loss to Germany in perspective.

On a final note, as I have mentioned in numerous occasions previously: The English speaking media brainwashes fans into thinking the English Premier League (EPL) players are superior superstars!

Not a SINGLE German player in the 23 man squad plays in the EPL. In fact they all play in the German Bundesliga. It is the German Youth Development system that produces such talented young players, something that the English game is suffering from as a direct result of the foreign influx to the EPL.

I have now predicted the first 3 semi finalists & look forward to seeing Germany avenge their Euro 2008 final loss to Spain in the semi final!

Early signs of trouble for Joachim Löew & Germany in the upcoming World Cup in South Africa

The German national team, or Die Nationalmannschaft are known as the ultimate "Tournament" team. They usually have a slow start in World Cup tournaments & grind their way into the latter stages whilst more talented teams fall by the way side & get eliminated. Germany (including west Germany) have reached the World Cup semi final 11 times, the final 7 times & have of course been winners in 3 occasions. Outside the 1990 win & the 2006 campaign, they have always been slow starters & at times labeled boring and/or lucky. Nevertheless, Germany's performance & record in the world Cup continues to generate intense envy amongst rival fans.

Germany are currently the Under 17, Under 19 & Under 21 European Champions & the crop of young talent coming through the ranks is almost second to none in Europe. However, with less than 100 days till the start of the World Cup, most the young talented players will miss out on Loew's team selection for the World Cup. Only Ozil, Marin & Kroos have any realistic chance of being selected in the final 23 man squad for the World Cup.

The recent friendly 0-1 defeat to Madonna's hapless Argentina in Munich raised many worrying questions about Germany's prospects in South Africa. The shortcomings were clear in all areas. The following is a list:

1. Loew & his team have failed to sign a new contract with the DBF beyond the World Cup. Whilst both the German Federation & Loew have diplomatically agreed to decide to postpone negotiations to after the World Cup in order to avoid destabilisation, the fact that they have not reached an agreement will by itself cause some disharmony.

2. In the goal keeping department, Loew's stubborn insistence to allow Lehmann to be the no 1 keeper in Euro 2008, and the subsequent recent tragic death of Robert Enke has left this always reliable area of the German team well short of international experience.
Both Rene Adler of Leverkusen & Manuel Neuer of Schalke have shown promising signs of being able to emulate the feats of their legendary colleagues of the previous years. Nevertheless, the fact remains that between the two of them they only have 11 caps, and neither plays for a clubside which appears in the Champions League regularly. Therefore, both have limited international exposure.

In Central defence, where problems were evident in 2006 & Euro 2008, a reliable long term partner for Mertesacker is yet to be found. Tasci of Stuttgart & Boeteng of Hamburg as well as Westermann of Schalke are all unproven in international level.

Then there is the issue of where to play Lahm! He played so effectively as a left back in WC 2006. But Lahm has appeared as an attacking right back for Bayern all season & has stated he prefers to play in that position. He's also stated it takes him a few weeks to get used to switching from right to left. Should Loew try why he successfully experimented on with in Euro 2006 again? i.e. Use Podolski as a right midfield player & emulate the successful Lahm/Robben combination at Bayern?

Then there's the question of total loss of form by Ozil! The promising talented midfielder has had a poor run of form & the question now is whether he should be selected at all. On top of that, Ballack's relationship with Loew is still at best cordial. This can't be good for team moral.

Nevertheless, there is an abundance of talent in the likes of Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller, Sammy Khedira & Marco Marin who will help reduce Loew's tactical headaches (but not selection headaches). Nevertheless, they are all untested on the big stage.

Finally, there are major headaches upfront in attack. Kuryani is the in form German striker right now & he's out of favour. Both Podolski & Klose have been out of form & between the two of them scored a miserly 3 goals all season! I believe Cacau & Kiessling are not of World Cup pedigree & Patrick Helmes will take too long to reach his optimal form after a long injury lay off.

And last but least, as a Bayern & Germany fan, I am yet to understand what the big fuss about Mario Gomez is! He was a total flop in Euro 2006 & his international record is by no means impressive. Yet both Loew & Bayern insist on starting him in every game!

To top it all off, Germany are in the toughest group with Ghana, Australia & Serbia ready to Pounce on any mistake they can!

The good news however is that before every World Cup & European Championships, thousands of obituaries like mine are written about Germany, and they still make it to the latter stages & the finals!

As Gary Lineker famously said (paraphrasing) "Football is a game which 22 men run after a ball & try to score, and at the end Germany wins!"

Enjoy the World Cup & good luck to whichever team you support!

3 Days To Go: All-Injury Team

3 days to go and can Friday come any sooner?
I'm tired of waiting! Let's start the 2010 World Cup already!

No idea where I'm watching the first match between South Africa and Mexico.
I'll have more on that tomorrow.

For now, 3 posts today. So make sure to come back and check out the other material after reading this entertaining, enlightening post.

Today's big news concerns Portugal winger Nani, who's been ruled out of the 2010 World Cup with a collar bone injury.

Nani, who plays for English side Manchester United, suffered the injury in a training session with his national side in Portugal, before leaving for the tournament.

Bad news all around, as Nani is a wonderful talent.

But this tidbit got me to thinking: How many star players are going to miss the World Cup?

Take a look at this list of the injured and the doubtful ... You could field a nice team with all these guys. Also, lots of Germans and Chelsea players on this list, eh?

MICHAEL BALLACK, Germany

The German captain was ruled out of the Cup with an ankle injury after a late challenge during Chelsea's FA Cup final win over Portsmouth in May.

RIO FERDINAND, England

The England captain will miss the finals after injuring his knee in his country's first major training session in South Africa on Friday.

MICHAEL ESSIEN, Ghana

The Ghana midfielder suffered a knee injury at the African Cup of Nations in January and has failed to recover in time.

JOHN OBI MIKEL, Nigeria

The midfielder was forced out of the tournament with a badly bruised ankle suffered in Nigeria's first full contact training session in South Africa on Friday.

LASSANA DIARRA, France

The holding midfielder will not play in South Africa after being told he needed an extended rest because of persistent stomach pains which began during France's week-long training camp in the French Alps last month.

DAVID BECKHAM, England

England's most capped player ruptured his Achilles tendon playing for AC Milan in March.

RENE ADLER, Germany

Germany's first-choice goalkeeper underwent surgery on a rib injury in May and will play no part in the finals.

SIMON ROLFES, Germany

The midfielder ruled himself out of the World Cup after saying he was short of match fitness following knee surgery in January.

CHRISTIAN TRAESCH, Germany

The midfielder, who was considered a possible replacement for captain Michael Ballack, is out after injuring his ankle in a friendly at the squad's training camp in Italy.

HEIKO WESTERMANN, Germany

The defender will miss the tournament after fracturing a bone in his foot during a warm-up win over Hungary last week.

MIROSLAV KARHAN, Slovakia

Slovakia's most capped player has a hamstring injury and will miss his country's first World Cup appearance.

Doubtful


DIDIER DROGBA, Ivory Coast

The Ivory Coast's fearsome striker underwent successful surgery on an injured elbow on Saturday but remains a doubt for the finals. Drogba picked up the injury in a World Cup warm-up against Japan on Friday.

ARJEN ROBBEN, Netherlands

The Dutch winger needs a scan to determine the extent of a hamstring injury he suffered in a 6-1 friendly thrashing of Hungary on Saturday.

ANDREA PIRLO, Italy

The Italian midfielder will miss the defending champions' opening game of the tournament against Paraguay, and possibly the whole tournament, after injuring his calf in Thursday's 2-1 friendly defeat by Mexico.

HARRY KEWELL, Australia

The Australian winger has hardly played since December because of a troublesome groin injury.

TIM BROWN, New Zealand

It is unknown if the New Zealand vice-captain will recover in time from surgery on a fractured shoulder suffered in the friendly defeat to Australia last month.

HUMBERTO SUAZO, Chile

Chile's leading striker will reportedly miss their opening World Cup match against Honduras and possibly the second game with Switzerland because of a hamstring injury.

LEE DONG-GUK, South Korea

The South Korean striker was named in the final 23-man squad despite concerns over a thigh problem which is expected to keep him out of their opening game against Greece on June 12.

4 Days To Go: The 5 Best Games of the First Round

4 days left and the 2010 World Cup gets underway!

There's SO much news on the internet, magazines, newspapers, television, etc.
I'm but a lowly blogger trying to carve his niche in the big, bad soccer media world.

Having said that, I'm BEYOND excited for the Cup, even if I can't make it to South Africa.
I'm making lemonade out of lemons, looking forward to enjoying the Cup in New York City!

So what are the 5 biggest matches of the first round?

1 - USA vs. England (June 12, 2:30pm)

Call this the teacher vs. the student, if you wish. It's the colonial power against the formerly subjugated. The football powerhouse against the budding superstars.

USA-England has all the drama of a Spanish soap opera.

Most prognosticators give USA little chance against the magic of Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard.

Having said that, USA's not as bad as many pundits think. They're scrappy, they're quick and with Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley, they have pace and vision.

Expect a tough one before the USA succumbs to the English brawn and power.

2 - South Africa vs. Mexico (June 11, 10 a.m.)

Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg will be rocking for the opening match of the 2010 Cup. South Africa's not a strong team, but Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has provided the squad with much needed structure.

Mexico is consistently one of the quickest, most offensive sides in the world, so this should be a show stopper and a fancy way to open the Cup.

3 - Argentina vs. Nigeria (June 12, 10 a.m.)

The unstable Diego Maradona guides the likes of world player of the year Lionel Messi and Gonzalo Higuain into a match against one of Africa's powerhouses. Who knows what'll happen here?

Expect a raucous atmosphere. It's one of Africa's best hopes of advancing out of the first round against a perennial power, coached by the greatest player of all time.

Must See TV, anyone?

4 - Brazil vs. Portugal (June 25, 10 a.m)

Brazil is the co-favorite to win it all. Portugal boasts the world's most expensive player in Cristiano Ronaldo and a fast, loose style.

Both teams will be looking to finish first in the group, as the second-place side settles into a likely match with co-favorite Spain. So expect a knockout, drag-out fight by these two Portuguese-speaking nations

5 - Ghana vs. Germany (June 23, 2:30 p.m)

Who will feel the injury bug the most: Ghana, who is missing Michael Essien? Or Germany, who is missing Michael Ballack?

The Ghanaians will be hard pressed against the efficient Germans, but their freewheeling style may cause fits of anxiety for the former World Champions.

The pro-African crowd may play a part in this.


All in all, five games that will entertain and excite. What do you think?

Ghana-Brazil 2006 World Cup Match Fixed?

I've been away from the blog for a bit too long. That's life.

So today, Day One of a little project I'm going to undertake, where I post on the blog for 31 straight days. So dear reader, stick with me.

Today's big news, besides the ongoing transfer talk and the huge acquisition of Manchester City by a United Arab Emirates business group concerns the accusation of match-fixing at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

According to German weekly news magazine Der Speigel, the 2006 World Cup knock-out stage match between Brazil and Ghana was influenced by an Asian betting syndicate. What do we mean by influenced?

Fixed.

The magazine reports large sums of money had been bet on Brazil winning by at least two goals and a former Ghana international acted as an intermediary.

Ghana lost the last 16 round match 3-0 in Dortmund on June 27, 2006 which put Brazil into the quarter-finals, where they lost to finalists France.

The information in Der Spiegel comes from Canadian investigative journalist Declan Hill, whose book about betting on sport around the world is published in German on Tuesday.

Der Spiegel also claim their investigations show two matches in Germany come under suspicion after huge sums were placed on them by a Malaysian who has been convicted of attempted match-fixing.

According to the report, William Bee Wah Lim placed 2.8 million euros ($4.1 million US dollars) with Asian bookmakers on Kaiserslautern losing a first-division match at Hanover in November 2005.

As a result of Hanover's 5-1 victory, he won 2.2 million euros.

Lim placed almost 4 million euros on Karlsruhe beating Sportfreunde Siegen in a second-division match in August 2005. Karlsruhe won the game 2-0.

A Frankfurt court gave Lim a two years and five months prison sentence in June 2007 after he was convicted of attempted match fixing in the German regional league and Austria's first division.

He was released on conditional bail, but has since left the country and a warrant for his arrest was issued in January.

The German Football Federation (DFB) have said they will investigate Der Spiegel's allegations concerning the two Bundesliga games in 2005.

"DFB and the German League have so far no reference points that the matches mentioned are to have been manipulated," said a statement on the DFB website.

"Immediately after becoming known of the suspicious factors DFB president Dr. Theo Zwanziger and German League president Dr. Reinhard Rauball affirm both federations aim at a comprehensive clearing-up of the affair.

"Already on Saturday morning an inquiry was started to look into the games concerned."

German football endured the most serious crisis in its history in 2004 when referee Robert Hoyzer admitted having received 70,000 euros to influence the results of 23 matches, mainly second and third division games, between April 10 and December 3, 2004.

MY POV: This would be absolutely devastating news. No one wants to see professional football turned into professional wrestling, especially at an event as big as the World Cup.
If this story is true, all the work FIFA's undertaken to prevent this very situation will be for naught. An immediate inquiry needs to be undertaken, much like Germany's doing, to make sure world football isn't polluted by gambling syndicates.

I found this excellent interview on Der Speigel's website with the author of the book, Declan Hill. Here's the whole interview. I've included a small excerpt. It's a riveting account of Hill's attempts to track down the characters involved in the scandal. It reads like a James Bond 007 spy thriller.

SPIEGEL: You have spent three years investigating the international betting mafia. Have you lost all pleasure in football?

Declan Hill: I love football the way one loves a woman, but by now I ask myself quite early on in a match, whether there is anything suspicious going on. There are no precise statistics about betting manipulation in football, of course, but it is shocking how often people in the world of betting talk about matches that have been manipulated – not just in Asia or Eastern Europe, but also in the major football leagues, such as in Germany, and even during world championships.

SPIEGEL: On June 27, 2006 the match ended 3:0 for Brazil.

Hill: The Ghanaians played as though they were putting their whole heart into it, but then there were a number of stupid mistakes: passes didn’t succeed, the defense was careless, the team collected three stupid goals. After the game I was in the stands in Dortmund with tears in my eyes because I was convinced, at least emotionally, that the match had been fixed. I phoned Chin from the stadium: “I didn’t believe you, but you are a genius.” He said: “How can I be a genius if I earn so little money with this?”

SPIEGEL: Did you speak with (Ghana Captain Steven) Appiah about the accusations?

Hill: Not just with Appiah, but also with the goalkeeper Richard Kingson and other national players too. They all assured me that they were completely unaware of the manipulation of the team in Germany. However one of the players did admit that he had been approached by Asian betters in 2004 during the Olympic Games. And they all said that Appiah was the captain of the team and that you would have to talk to him. I then met with him in an industrial area in Accra. We talked in his car and he said that he had been approached a number of times in the course of his career and that he had taken money too. The first time was in 1997 during the under-17s World Cup in Malaysia and also in 2004 at the Olympic Games in Athens; however he had been given money in order to win games, not to lose them. He had then shared the bonus among the players.

SPIEGEL: Ghana’s team captain, who was until recently signed to Fenerbahce Istanbul, says that he has accepted money from third parties twice during his career?

Hill: That’s exactly what he says. I had trouble comprehending this, so I spoke to him again over the phone, and he repeated his account.

SPIEGEL: And during the 2006 World Cup in Germany?

Hill: He was approached there too, but he says that he refused. I also asked him whether the Malaysian had gone to other players too. He replied: “Yes, I think he did the rounds.”