Klinsmann Explains Why He Didn’t Take US National Team Job
Seems Jurgen Klinsmann was thisclose to being named the new USA head coach not once, but twice in the last four years. The California based ex-Germany manager was favourite to succeed Bruce Arena after the 2006 World Cup, until Bob Bradley was announced as interim and then perma-coach. Same thing just last month, with what...
Jose Mourinho Will Take Portugal Job, if Madrid Approve
Jose Mourinho wants to take charge of the Portuguese national team. Temporarily anyway. The Portugal team has been managerless since firing Carlos Queiroz on September 9th, and are desperately in need of someone to take over for the two Euro 2012 qualifying games vs. Denmark and Iceland in October. And apparently Mourinho is their man.
The...
Togo National Football Team Was “Completely Fake”
Have you always wanted to play international football, but were never quite good enough? Not a problem, provided you’re willing to tell a few lies and trick a few people. Because that’s how a team of footballers claiming to be the Togo national team managed to play an international friendly vs Bahrain last week.
Bahrain apparently...
Trapped Chilean Miners Watched Ukraine vs Chile Football Match
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, then you should know about the Chilean miners who are quite literally living under rock. The 33 men have been trapped nearly half a mile below the earth in a 500 square feet emergency shelter ever since the mine in Copiapo, Chile collapsed last month. It’s going to...
Goofing Goalkeepers and Slide Tackling Strikers
Two of my favourite things in football combined not once but twice in yesterday’s international games, as a goalkeeper’s goof was met with a striker’s slide tackle in two separate games.
The most embarrassing of the two errors came from Spain’s Pepe Reina, deputizing for the World Cup winning Iker Casillas in the friendly against Argentina....
European Club Association Threatens FIFA
European Club Association chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had some harsh words for FIFA ahead of today’s Euro qualifying games.
“It is no longer acceptable that we have to give up our players, taking the risk that, in case of injury, we still have to play their salaries,” Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, president of the European Clubs’ Association (ECA),...
Wayne Rooney, The Hooker and Why It Shouldn’t Matter to England Fans
You’ve probably read the Wayne Rooney in Not Very Good Role Model Shock! stories, detailing how the Manchester United and England striker (allegedly) paid prostitute Jennifer Thompson for sex while his wife Coleen was pregnant. Click that link if you want to read a story that’s part Rooney exposé, part advertisement for said prostitute.
Obviously it’s...
FIFA’s World Cup 2010 Technical Report is 289 Pages of Fluff
FIFA has released its World Cup 2010 Technical Report in the form of a 9.28 megabyte pdf document. Which might sound impressive, but only if you haven’t read it. Because this thing is 289 pages of fluff, in four different languages.
The document basically contains a lot of pictures, a lot of over-simplifications, and a lot...
Euro 2012 Schedule and Friday Night Lights – Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?
Euro 2012 qualifying gets underway in a few days, and – if you haven’t noticed already – the scheduling may come as something of a surprise. In a break from tradition, games will no longer follow the familiar Saturday afternoon/Wednesday evening pattern, but will instead be played on Friday and Tuesday evenings. The Tuesday games...
Bob Bradley Staying on as USA Coach Until 2014. Why It’s the Right Move.
Seems those recent Jürgen Klinsmann to coach USA rumours were as baseless as, well, as a story with no identifiable source. Because current coach Bob Bradley has now signed a contract extension to coach the US national team until the end of 2014. I know that this probably will not be popular with a vocal...
Jürgen Klinsmann Talking to U.S. Soccer Again?
ESPN started a rumour this weekend, and I can’t help spreading it. Apparently Jürgen Klinsmann has been talking with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati about replacing Bob Bradley as coach of the U.S. national team. That’s “according to a source with knowledge of the discussions” anyway. As opposed to a source with no knowledge of...
