Will Ferrell as Jeff Vuvuzela
The World Cup is very much over. Which means the complaints about vuvuzelas are also very much over. Or at least they should be. So who better to have the last World Cup Blog word on the whole topic than plastic horn inventor Jeff Vuvuzela, appearing ...
Animated Diego Forlan Golden Ball Tribute
I officially heart this. Because the only personal honour better then receiving the World Cup Golden Ball for best player – as Uruguay’s Diego Forlan did – is having a cartoon/song combo made to immortalize your achievement. According to The Spoiler, the celebratory song is by The Golden Vuvuzelas and features the line “his hair...
FIFA’s World Cup All-Star Team
There are plenty of World Cup best XIs floating around. Mr. David Beckham did one just before the final, and we did two ourselves, split between semi-finalists and non-semi-finalists.
There’s only one XI that goes in the history books though, and that’s the FIFA one. The FIFA World Cup All-Star Team was decided by the votes...
Soccer Goes Mainstream as Team USA Wins ESPY for Best Moment
That headline might be overstating things, but not by much. The ESPY Awards were created by American sports broadcaster ESPN in 1993. A little like the Oscars, if everyone was a lot more relaxed. Various sporing achievements from the year are honoured, with more than a little ESPN self-promotion thrown in. The important thing is...
Argentina to Offer Diego Maradona Four More Years
Diego Maradona will apparently be offered a new four year deal to stay on Argentina coach when he meets with Football Association president Julio Grondona next week. At first I thoughtn the BBC were just making things up to fill a slow news days. But a bit of Googling and translating reveals that the news...
The World Cup Final in Lego
The game recreations at Lego Fussball have been one of the small joys of World Cup 2010. Of course they did one of the final, so if you want to see Spain 1-0 Netherlands, complete with Lego Mark van Bommel slide tackles and Lego Nigel de Jong delivering a Lego kick to the Lego chest...
International Football Tournaments Between Now and World Cup 2014
World Cup 2010 gets a little smaller in the rear view mirror every day now, and the next big show isn’t until 2014. But if you find yourself in need of an international football tournament fix, then don’t worry. There are plenty of events scheduled. Below you’ll find an extensive (but not complete) list of...
Nigel de Jong is Now Coaching Girls Youth Soccer…
He’s not really of course. The World Cup Blog/Offside legal team has asked me to state very clearly that Nigel de Jong will be playing for Man City next season, and will definitely not be coaching girls to execute dangerous high kicks on opposition players. That’s more of a World Cup final move than a...
FIFA World Rankings July 2010 (Can You Guess Who’s Top?)
FIFA has released its first post-World Cup 2010 rankings, and – as you’d expect – there’s been plenty of movement. Nnew top dogs are World Cup 2010 winners Spain, obviously, with losing finalists the Netherlands in second. Former #1 Brazil is now third.
The big big movers are Uruguay, whose run to the World Cup semifinals...
Soundoff: Was World Cup 2010 a Success or Failure?
There are many many ways to measure the success or failure of World Cup 2010:
We could judge it on the quality of the football played and the excitement of the games: Was it enjoyable? We could judge it financially: How much did FIFA and/or South Africa make/lose? What were the TV ratings like? How many...
Don’t Stop Watching Soccer Just Because the World Cup is Over
This post is addressed to everyone who didn’t consider themselves full on football fans before June 11th 2010, but tuned in to watch the World Cup because it’s one of those unmissable global events. I’m not exclusively talking to Americans here. I could be talking to Australians or New Zealanders, or anyone really. But if...
