“FIFA are under fire for their press accreditation rules at the 2010 World Cup, with the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) at loggerheads over numerous restrictions the governing body is putting in place, most of which follow on similar tight controls from previous World Cups, which have been criticised before.” (Pitch Invasion)
“Finally, after an eventful January, I’ve got some answers to the big questions for this year of African soccer. Was Angola 2010 a success or a failure? Yes. Will the World Cup in South Africa be a success or a failure? Yes. Let me try to explain.” (Pitch Invasion)
“Football first came to Colombia via British sailors in the Caribbean Sea port city of Barranquilla. Football remained an amateur affair with no national league for decades, and with the game having little presence in the interior of the country. This was primarily because of the lack of transportation infrastructure in a nation which had some formidable barriers, namely steep mountain ranges and wide rivers. Coffee growing as an industry changed that, providing the wealth that allowed for transportation improvements, and by the 1930s and 1940s, football had spread throughout Colombia. The wealth also brought into focus the economic disparity between the privileged few and the teeming masses of the underclass. In 1948, at the same time that a professional league was about to begin play in Colombia, there was widespread civil unrest following the still-unsolved assassination of the presedential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, who was mayor of Bogatá. Gaitán was a threat to the entrenched oligarchy…his most famous pronouncement was ‘The people are superior to their leaders’.” (billsportsmaps)
“World Soccer: What do Argentina need to do to improve ahead of the World Cup? Sergio Aquero: I think the main problem is that we’ve had very few days training together. Normally we’d get together on a Tuesday and play on the Saturday, which doesn’t give us time to do very much. Now, ahead of the World Cup, we will have plenty of time and we can work on various aspects, like combinations and how we use the ball.” (World Soccer)
“Last month, as dozens of people out for the evening scrolled along the boardwalk, a popular area along the Indian Ocean with restaurants, specialty shops and bars here, the city was suddenly enveloped in darkness. Generators kicked in providing some power, but the shutdown brought most activity to a standstill for several hours.” (NYT)
Mountainous Landscape, Lucas van Valckenborch
“European soccer’s stance on video technology is officially under review. More than two months after Thierry Henry’s infamous handball helped France eliminate the Republic of Ireland in a World Cup qualifying match, Sepp Blatter, the president of soccer’s governing body, FIFA, has reopened the debate on whether the sport should introduce video footage of the goal line to aid referees.” (WSC)
Adriano
“We don’t yet know where the World Cups of 2018 and 2022 will be played. But some of the bidding countries have already worked out which cities they will use to stage matches if the circus does come to town. It’s unfortunate Brazil wasn’t so quick off the mark.” (SI – Tim Vickery)
“The stadia may be there or thereabouts and the police are confident about security. However, it is transport and accommodation that remain the great unknowns ahead of this summer’s World Cup in South Africa. Fans who are able to travel and find places to stay between June 11 and July 11 will enjoy some of the venues: the steel and concrete giraffes which hold up the stadium in Nelspruit, the enveloping calabash at Soccer City and, above all, the magnificent Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.” (World Soccer)
“The stadia may be there or thereabouts and the police are confident about security. However, it is transport and accommodation that remain the great unknowns ahead of this summer’s World Cup in South Africa. Fans who are able to travel and find places to stay between June 11 and July 11 will enjoy some of the venues: the steel and concrete giraffes which hold up the stadium in Nelspruit, the enveloping calabash at Soccer City and, above all, the magnificent Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.” (World Soccer)
“ITV compiled this little gem of the 50 greatest goals in World Cup history a few years back, which then made it to YouTube and then to our doorstep. Given that ITV is a proper media outlet, this should be rather accurate. However, it’s likely that there a few worthy omissions – notably those when television cameras weren’t quite so abundant. Which those are, it’s impossible to say at the moment (except for that rather stellar Argentine movement 4 years ago).” (World Cup Blog)
“This week’s Video Of The Week is from the BBC’s ‘Frontline Football’ series, and follows Ben Anderson as he visits Sarajevo for a 2006 World Cup qualifier between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia & Montenegro. It’s the first match between the two teams since the brutal war that followed the collapse of the Yugoslavian state in the early 1990s, and feelings are running predictably high. Anderson explains the background to the ongoing hostilities, meets people from both sides of the political divide and then goes to the match itself, where he sees the no-nonsense policy of the Bosnian police when there are outbreaks of trouble. Essential viewing.” (twohundredpercent)
(W – Srebrenica massacre, W – Serbia and Montenegro, W – Bosnia and Herzegovina, W – Bosnian War)
“You might not know the name Ilunga Mwepu. But you’ve probably seen him in action. Mwepu is the famous Zaire right back who cleared a Brazilian free kick in a 1974 World Cup group game by lashing it up the field. Before the Brazilians had chance to take it. Obviously you can’t do that. So obviously Mwepu was booked (much to his surprise, apparently). In some ways you have to credit Mwepu for his quick thinking. In other ways you have to despair at his lack of football knowledge.” (World Cup Blog)
Alcides Ghiggia
“Before there was Pele, there was Alcides Ghiggia. Before there was Brazil, there was Uruguay. And before Brazil became champions, there was heartache. The heartache felt was in 1950, directly after the final. A final held on home soil, in Rio de Janiero, at the mecca known as the Maracana, and a final they lost despite being heavy favorites. They became the first team to lose a World Cup final on its home soil, Italy and Uruguay had won their home finals previously, and are only the second ever. (A blow so crushing they forced Sweden to feel their pain in 1958 under the same circumstances.)” (World Cup Blog)
“A Austria, one of the great football powers of the era, was now no longer a country, swallowed up by the Anschluss. They qualified in October, but by April the FA ceased to exsist. So some of the Austrian squad was added to the Germans. Not Matthias Sindelar though, who now had to wear the Star of David on his clothing. B The first player that played on his birthday at the finals was Emile Veinante – on his 31st. C Coach Vittorio Pozzo was again the Italian manager, and the only one to win 2 World Cups back to back. He also sent his team out v France in an all black fascist kit. …” (midfielddynamo)
“Soccer seemed to defy financial gravity in 2009. While much of the world buckled into recession, FIFA, the sport’s governing body, declared that each of the 32 nations that qualified for the 2010 World Cup would receive financial rewards 60 percent higher than ever before.” (NYT)
“We all know Pelé was good. But it’s easy to forget just how good. If you have any doubts, take a look at Pele’s first goal for Brazil vs Sweden in the 1958 World Cup Final, below. The striker takes the ball on his chest, lifts it over the defender’s head with his right and then volleys home low with the same foot.” (World Cup Blog)
Argentina’s Guillermo Stabile slots the ball past American goalkeeper Jim Douglas
“We’re doing a World Cup team history post for each of the 32 teams at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. However, some teams have a little more history than others. The albiceleste stripes of Argentina have appeared in 14 previous World Cups, stretching all the way back to the inaugural 1930 edition. Theirs is a rich rich story, full of triumph, disappointment, and a fair bit of controversy. Too much for just the one post, and so our history of Argentina at the World Cup has been split into two parts.” (World Cup Blog – 1930 to 1982), (Part II: 1986 to 2006)
Scissors Kick 