FIFA February 2010 Rankings: No Respect For Second Place.
By: chris |
2 comments
For most of the world, January was a lost international outside of Japan lowering World Cup expectations to "France in 2002 would be a blinding success" and Diego Maradona continuing his one-man crusade to give every single Argentine footballer, professional or otherwise, a senior cap.
But for Africa, everything happened.
As you may have heard, Egypt won it again. And with that, they were handed the second-highest FIFA ranking ever for an African team - the best since 1994 - and a spot in the top ten. Which is pretty curious for a team that didn't make the World Cup.
Category: World Football
Robinho’s Second Santos Debut, and Neymar’s Paradinha Penalty
By: Daryl | 3 Comments
Robinho didn’t disappoint on his second Santos debut, coming off the bench to score a Zola-esque near post flick of a winner vs São Paulo. Whatever you might think of the man who rides the Pelécopter, it’s good to see such an entertaining footballer looking happy again.
But don’t worry, there’s more to this post than just Robinho’s pretty goal. There’s also Santos’ other big draw: 18 year old Neymar and his paradinha penalty. Don’t know what a “paradinha” is? Then read on.
Category: South AmericaJapan Fans Boo China Draw; China Claim It Never Happened.
By: chris | 1 comment
This game, like many before, has made Japanese fans furious. Japan have embarked on their World Cup run up with a number of disappointing results, resulting in a chorus of boos with the Japanese higher-ups leading the charge. The officially unofficial East Asian Championships gives them a chance to get back on track, but a scoreless draw was all they could muster. They'd probably love to pretend it simply never happened.
China are doing just that.
Category: World FootballCharge Your Cell Phone With a Soccer Ball
By: Daryl | 6 Comments
I don’t know much about green technology, but I know what I like. So when I heard about the sOccket – a soccer ball that stores the energy generated through playing the beautiful game – I wanted to know more.
The sOccket is the brainchild of four ladies at Harvard University. They saw that in certain developing countries, communities were using kerosene lamps for light. The fumes from kerosene lamps don’t do anyone’s health any favours, and they are also big CO2 producers. In short, they’re not good. But if you live somewhere that’s not connected to an electricity grid, then you don’t have a lot of choice. The Harvard ladies are aiming to change that with the sOccket.
It’s a regular shaped football, but with an “inductive coil mechanism” inside. Don’t worry, I didn’t know what an “inductive coil mechanism” was either, but according to Inhabitat it means there’s a magnet inside that’s drawn through a coil when the ball moves around, and the resulting kinetic energy is then stored in a battery. Once the game of football is over, the energy in the battery can then be used to power an LED lamp, as a replacement for the kerosene lamp.
Category: World FootballHow Sustainable is a World Cup?
By: Jan | 2 comments
...or European Championship for that matter?
I recently came across an article (Warning: Google Translate content) on a German website called Stadionwelt (Stadium World), that dealt with the rather grim reality in post Euro 2004 Portugal, or better the post Euro 2004 SuperLiga.
Photo: Mohamed Zidan Loves Shrimp
By: Jan | 11 comments
Egypt's striker Mohamed Zidan decided that his head is the perfect platform to declare his love for his favorite sea food.
Meanwhile, if you love Egyptian football: we are looking for someone to continue Tamim's work over at the Egypt Worldcupblog.
(Photo: Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Category: African Cup of NationsEuro 2012 Qualifying Draw
By: Jan | 2 comments
The biggest sporting event of 2010 will undoubtedly be the Euro 2012 qualifiers due to begin on September 3rd and 4th. At least for the alpine micro state of Liechtenstein, drawn into Group I together with Euro title holders, current cream of the crop of world football and by then potential World Cup winners Spain. If you are not a micro citizen you might want to stick to the World Cup in South Africa of course.
Here's the rest of today's draw for the qualifying stage of the European Championships 2012 in Poland and Ukraine (taken straight from uefa.com):
Category: World FootballSoccer and the Super Bowl, or: Football vs Football, or: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?
By: Daryl | 22 Comments
As I’m sure most of our American readers will know, today is Super Bowl XLIV (or Super Bowl 44, if you don’t speak Roman numeral). Super Bowl Sunday is an easy excuse for us soccer fans to indulge ourselves by bashing the “other” football, reminding fans of said sport that there’s only one beautiful game.
But as anyone who’s ever looked at the internets knows, the trading of football vs football jabs usually ends in a massive, unproductive flame war with a line drawn down the middle and no one keen to shake hands. So, because The Offside is a soccer blog with a sizeable percentage of US based readers, some of whom I’d wager are fans of both footballs, I thought maybe this was a good place to make the case for peaceful co-existence.
Category: World Football
The Rebirth of Corinthians Blog!!!!
With the return of Robinho, Sao Paulo's pride and Palmeiras's defense, also comes E Blog do Timao!!! It's been a while since Corinthians have been mentioned in this website. The Sao Paulo rivals Santos have been stealing the headlines but rest assure that Corinthians is back for good!!! So its only
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Rhinos 2010 Schedule Announced
The 2010 Rochester Rhinos schedule has been posted. Here it is: Saturday, April 10 @ Miami FC TBD Saturday, April 17 @ Portland 10 pm Saturday, April 24 @ Austin TBD Wednesday, April 28 @ NSC Minnesota TBD Saturday, May 1 vs. Carolina 7 pm Saturday, May 8 vs. AC St. Louis 7 pm Wednesday, May 19
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
The Post Where I Manage to Be Mature. Granted, It's Probably Temporary, but I Would Like a Little Credit
Got this in a tweet from my buddies over at GoSounders. Sounders Injuries: Jaqua- "inflamed lower-abdomen", Ljungberg- "groin", Boss- "Ankle", Zakuani stil recovering from should surgery I would like to note, for the record, that as soon as I hit "publish" I will have done a post that contains the words
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
We have a schedule!
Here is the Montreal Impact's 2010 USSF Division II regular season schedule: Home games are in bold: 1. Sunday April 11 @ Austin Aztex 2. Friday April 16 @ Puerto Rico 3. Sunday April 25 VS Portland Timbers 4. Saturday May 1 VS Puerto Rico 5. Sunday May 9 VS NSC
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Hartlepool 2 Leeds 2. Injury time heartbreak, do we have deluded fans?
One point gained or two points lost. Every time your side has a draw this is always the first debate amongst fans. Did we earn a point or throw two away? Is it a good point or a bad one? Looking at the stats going into the game its hard to say.
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Milan's Tactical Difficulties
I may have had some computer issues yesterday morning, but it was Milan that had the real technical difficulties on the pitch. Call it whatever you want; regression, ineptitude, lack of awareness, but no matter what fancy name you give it, in the end it all sucks. Leo
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Villa Wembley Song?
Share // ('’) So yeah, here it is, sung by X-Factor star Niki Evans. Gotta love it, cheese or not! Your thoughts? Rx My twitter : StagediveRy RSS : RSS FEED
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...Portland! It's Portland! We're Playing Portland for Charity!
A little bird gave me this info a few days back but swore me to secrecy. But now it's official! Portland, March 11 at Qwest! Tickets go on sale Wednesday. RENTON, Wash. – The Seattle Sounders FC announced today details for the club’s inaugural “Community Shield”
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Exclusive Interview With Kevin Phillips!
The West Brom Blog is its own worst enemy sometimes, but usually it's its number one guy. Now onto Kevin Phillips. *This interview may have been a figment of The West Brom Blog's imagination On Sunday former West Brom star Kevin Phillips made his first appearance for Birmingham City in almost two
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Coming Soon: New Ideas
I need something to write about for the midweek duldrums. I am currently fresh out of ideas for new posts, and I do not have much of a pipeline for posts in the future. I going to leave it up to all of you to provide me with ideas for
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Throwback to the Reja Era
Udinese 3 Napoli 1 It's ironic that former Napoli mister Edy Reja should be linked with a move back to Serie A (Lazio) the same week in which his old team played a game reminiscent of his time in charge. Basically, there were a lot of major incidents, most of
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Players Who Played Poorly on Sunday Talking About Match
This probably doesn't even really deserve its own post, but it's a pet peeve of mine, so I'm going on a mini-rant about it. In the wake of Sunday's defeat to Chelsea, several players have spoken to the press about it. While I don't actually find anything they said objectionable,
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Injury Update Ahead of Celtic Trip
Hearts are again facing near crisis as three more key players are due to miss time with injury, two of them out for significant periods. Rubén Palazuelos (pictured) is looking at about six weeks of rehab after visiting a specialist in London in regards to the knee injury he suffered
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Arrogant or Not, World's Hottest Team Keeps on Winning
Louis van Gaal's distaste for his team's "arrogant" attitude in Saturday's victory brought a certain word association to my mind. It went something like pot---kettle---black. The team's collective "let's play out the clock" attitude for the last 30 minutes was no more of a mortal sin than Van
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
ROBREESINHO
My Saints from Santos and my Santos from New Orleans destroyed everything, beautiful. A lot of journalists were putting into question the capacity of both teams. Here in Atlanta I had to hear during the day that Peyton Manning was the man and does not feel pressure, while Brees, on the
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
The Fight To Go Down
You might think that that title should read the "The fight to stay up", but that wouldn't be at all appropriate. Just having a look at the form books, and it is absolutely shocking just how bad the teams at the bottom of the league are playing. Alright its not
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Boca's wildly fluctuating form continues
Newell's 4-2 Boca Ok, be honest. Even with all our defensive flaws, who really saw that coming? For those of you nodding your head up and down as you read this - really? Well, if you are claiming that you did, I am going to need to see written, verified, proof. I, for
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Of Monday mornings, referees, interactive polls and other fantastic beasts…
Monday mornings are horrible things. Rainy Monday mornings are horrible, horrible things. Rainy Monday mornings when the first thing you see on your way to work is this should be outlawed by the Geneva Convention: “AND STILL THEY COMPLAIN ABOUT THE REFEREES!” Real Madrid mouthpiece sympathisers Marca had that lovely front page
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
Retirement? Albert Celades Signs With Kitchee of Hong Kong
When Albert Celades was last heard from, he was rejecting a potential deal to return to the New York Red Bulls in favor of a long overdue retirement. Surely, a season like 2009 would tempt any player to do so. But after some time off where he even
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
The Bosman Probings
The reparation mercato is officially over, now starts the purge of the Parametro Zero players or as I like to call it, The Bosman Probing. Players with a contract expiring in June 2010 are now free to agree on terms with other clubs for next season. Some of the names
Feb 08, 2010 | Read this article...
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