Rigged? Yep. Good for Soccer? Nope

I am not a Chelsea true blue fan. I have never been to the UK. I don't watch Premiership games at 4:00 a.m. on some obscure cable network. Nothing disappoints me more about the World's game than to look up the Premiership table most of the year and see the same four teams at the top ALL season for decades. Still.... injustice on the field is injustice that must be addressed.

Chelsea was robbed. Either by sheer incompetence, or by master plan, Chelsea was robbed of a Champions League Final again Man. U. Now, I don't think it will matter much, given that Man. U. is unlikely to lose against either team, but the Barça/Chelsea final is reason enough to go back to only watching high school games so that I can be sure the referees don't have too much control over the game's outcome. Here in 2009 the powers-that-be* decided that "El Barça" should receive every advantage possible. My evidence for such an assertion?

Evidence #1: a Norwegian ref is employed for a key semi-final game. Norway? Really? How many big immense, huge Soccer matches has ANY Norwegian ref ever seen in person, let alone, worked on the field in?

Evidence #2: No less than 3 significant misjudgments by said referee and assistant referees, any one of which, if called at all or placed differently would have pushed the score dramatically in Chelsea's favor and would have made the score impossible for Barça to equalize on one goal. Consult the video from ESPN2 and make your own determination of the various referee calls in question.

Evidence #3: UEFA Champions league finals will be a massive TV draw for every country involved, especially for teams that rarely play against each other. The audience for an all-England finals would have been much smaller than for Man. U. against any team from another country, and realistically that only allows for Barcelona, since three of the five best teams in the entire world are in England, and rare it would be for Germany, France, Greece or .... Norway to have a team reach the Champions league finals. Following the money leads to the strong interest by TV promoters in have Barça play an English team in the finals, basically every year for a few years.

Of course, a referee does not determine of shots go in the net, but a referee can control the relative ease of some goals. The number of no-calls and the the obvious misplacement of the called foul that was moved from within the penalty area to just outside the penalty area do have a great impact on the final outcome.

Was the referee paid or threatened with loss? Maybe both happened, but I can tell you it wasn't neither of the them. The referee had an agenda for this match, and he followed it.

Soccer is the much worse for it. This event is enough for me to have Chelsea earn a warm place in my heart.

*Take your pick: FIFA, The Queen (Sophia), Sky Network, Rupert Murdoch - Follow the money.

World Cup 2010 Venues: Part 5 - Pretoria

Loftus Versfeld Stadium has a very classic though modern feel. With design inspiration from Europe, Loftus Versfeld looks permanent, well-built and experienced at hosting major soccer events. It was built in 2003 and has already been renovated (2008) for the World Cup. Some of rounds 1 and 2 will be hosted here in great style.

World Cup 2010 Venues: Part 4 - Rustenberg

Royal Bafokeng Stadium will be used in the early rounds of the South Africa World Cup next year. It is a multi-use stadium, which is not perfect, but very understandable smaller city to want to get the most future use out of the stadium decades after the World Cup has come and gone.

World Cup 2010 Venues - Part 3: Nelspruit

Mbombela Stadium takes its name from a southern African language called Swati, and it means "A lot of people together in a small space". Well, 40,000 people in the same building will be just that. Let's wait for its completion, which is expected this year.

Design? Nothing crazy here. I know that there are only so many ways to skin a cat, but I thought people went into the architecture field to be expressive. Well, most don't, obviously.

World Cup 2010 Venues - Part 2: Bloemfontein

Bloemfontein is home to Free State Stadium. Standard modern soccer stadium fair. Nothing to inspire, but at least fans are close to the field. Notice the cricket stadium at the top of the picture. This isn't Kansas anymore.

South Africa World Cup Venues - Part 1 : Durban

Of the ten stadiums planned for inclusion in next year's big adventure, this one is the most dramatic. It breaks from the English model (Finally!) and seems like Spain's Calatrava was channeled for the roof suspension design. Very innovative. Innovation is good.

It will be named King's Park.

FIFA 2010 South Africa - Number of Teams by Region

Home Team............ 1
Africa............... 5
America - At large... 1
Asia................. 5
Central and North Am. 3
Europe...............13
South America........ 4

Total................32

BTW, the official mascot as shown is named Zakumi. Using both a Z and a K (two unlikely letters in most languages) is astounding.

US MNT is listed as 17th in the World ?

FIFA rankings normally appear to made by drunk monkeys throwing darts at a board with the team names on it, but it is fun and quite heady territory to think that the drunk monkeys may be on to something that could prove quite intereting in the coming 15 months. The Men are winning convincingly and they haven't even really had all their best players on the field all at the same time yet.

Hope is a strange thing when it can spring from sauced primates.

Best Male Player of '08

Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo. FIFA Best Player of the Year for 2008. Let me guess. He plays in England or Spain. Yep (The former). So this coaches poll has really looked hard at every soccer player in the entire world? Please.

He is brilliant, of course. But this is just not a sensible award. How about put Cristiano on the LA Galaxy last season and let's see just how dominating he appears to be. David B. looked good but not brilliant with them.Soccer is a team sport.

People like individual awards, pet rocks, and winter. I don't.

Jersey Exchange

International play has a tradition of players exchanging jerseys as part of the brief post-game rites. I am not sure how they decide who will exchange with which opponent member, but I guess it works for them. Here, Claudio Reyna of US National team does the greet/exchange with a Czech republic team member after a 2006 match.

Your mother is a terrorist

Perhaps the most controversial play in modern soccer (Maradona's Hand of God is #2), Zidane responded to an opposing player who called is mother a terrorist by physically attacking him and getting kicked out of the game (which was almost over at the time). The comment was horrible, but comments are not ussually enforced in soccer, since enforcement in multilingual environments is nearly impossible. Physical violence is mostly enforced, though I am surprised that the referee actually saw this occur and therefore felt comfortable in correctly ejecting Zidane.

The comment was wrong. Zidane was wrong. Knowing what will be enforced is part of the game.

K is for Kick

K is for Kick is a soccer book that introduces early primary (grades 1-3) students to soccer. The art is appealing, and what soccer fan wouldn't want Junior to know that FIFA is pronounced "fee-fuh"?

FIFA HQ

Yes, Virginia, there is a beautiful soccer field at FIFA headquarters. Considering the money that FIFA has at its disposal, it could have gold leaf turf. Still, the campus is visually appealing.

Losing Ugly

Mexico lost to Honduras in the final CONCACAF qualifier. They moved on, but not before multiple fouls, and two red cards. This was bad. Multiple-game suspensions should be doled out.

Brazil - USA (4-2) 2007

HD MNT vs BRA Highlights from US Soccer on Vimeo.

Enjoy.

This Defense Wins the Moment

UEFA Champions League - Werder vs. Olympiacos
Originally uploaded by nicholas_m.v.h.

UEFA Champions League - Werder vs. Olympiacos (2007)

The photo is an example of poor offense in the face of good defense. The offense (red) has a few options, all unlikely to succeed because they have gone too far forward into heavily controlled areas of green defense.

When you find yourself in this situation, the most important thing is to find a teammate to pass back to. Start over, regroup, rearrange yourself on the field, and then attack anew. Suicide is to plow ahead.

Defenders reading this can note that this is what defense is supposed to look like.

The next time you think the refs are unfair, remember... you ain't seen nothing 'til you've seen the Chinese "soccer team"

In this video (8 minutes) the level of incompetent soccer with a slice of violence done by the Chinese team here (in red) should embarrass every honorable citizen of the country. Maybe Japan (in blue) has some "issues" with China from WWII, and before, but that was 60 years ago and more. I'm not sure if you will love or hate it when after many other offenses, the Japanese defender is taken down by one Chinese player and then for good measure kicked by a second Chinese player, all with no whistle. Unbelievable at any level of soccer.

I don't understand how FIFA could allow this referee crew to be all-Chinese in such a politically charged match.

Watch in awe and soccer horror.

Does the US have many fans like this? No, for better or worse.

This video (15 sec.) contrasts fans of soccer with soccer moms and dads that tend to be fans of their own child's play on the soccer pitch. Most soccer dad's and mom's wouldn't be drunk enough (my assumption) to jump for a ball that was clearly not reachable, only to fall into the concrete security trench.

All soccer players would like louder, more excited fans. How about just more fans.

Enjoy, I guess.

Who knew that "goal" in Arabic was still.... "GOOAALL"?

I had to watch at least 5 times to determine "Why was that goal Scored?".

In this video (first 15 seconds of Saudi VS. Japan) the main defender doesn't do a bad job, it's his buddy that just gets in the way and doesn't support. The second defender (upfield from the main defender on the ball) should have slipped goalside to defend the obvious open space.

Some goals are earned, and this WAS a nice finishing shot. But, hey, defend all space. When you are that close to the goal, defend every inch.

I like creative soccer, but not when it shows you don't know how to play the game

In this video (2 minutes), the Vietnamese defense appears to not know their job (twice).
In goal #1, the goalkeeper seems to just not keep track of the ball.
Better soccer is to ALWAYS keep your eye on the ball. Simple.
In goal #2 of a set play, the goalkeeper is rightly upset because the defensive wall is just an illusion, and the Iraqi player just shoots beside the wall.
Better soccer makes the offensive player AT LEAST shoot over the wall, since those shots that go over the wall and then drop quickly are not a widely-held skill.