French scientists have claimed to unravel the secret of the “best free kick” ever in international football by Brazil’s Roberto Carlos against France in 1997.
Carlos’ free kick from 115 ft in the Tournai de France, which seemingly headed for the corner flag but suddenly curved to land in the net, has been written off by many as an incredible fluke…….
David Beckham will reject any invitation from Fabio Capello to appear in a farewell friendly that would mark the end of his England career. Fabio had made the impromptu offer after dumping the 35-year-old in an interview broadcast wherein he described Beckham as ‘too old’…..
The English coach Fabio Capello has declared in a televised conversation that Beckham(35) is “a little bit old” to win another competitive cap. He appeared on ITV before the 2-1 victory over Hungary…..
If efforts of Chinese entrepreneur Kenny Huang succeeds, Liverpool will become the second foreign state-owned club in the English top flight, following the first, Manchester City, which was taken over by Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi.
Two matches more and we all will witness the ceremony to felicitate the highest goal scorer of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Who will be he ?
David Villa or Sneijder or Mueller or Forlan !!
First we will witness the play off for 3rd and 4th positions between Germany and Uruguay on Saturday. Please watch Mueller and David Forlan if they can increase their existing tally of 4 goals each and surpass Villa and Sneijder’s score of 5?
Then the big final on Sunday wherein David Villa and Sneijder will be under the scanner.
The race for the Golden Boot is still wide open and the winner will only be thrown up during the grand finale on 11 July 2010.
Octopus Paul’s prediction came true when Spain defeated Germany by 1-0 at Durban.
It was the second semi final match and Spain dominated the off-color Germans throughout. Though Spain missed many chances to score and take lead, Germany without Mueller could pose no serious threat to Spanish citadel.
Lone goal of the match came in 73rd minute when a header from Spaniard Carles Puyol found the German net.
It was 12th FIFA semifinal appearance of the Germany and like 2006, they again lost it. Spain, on the other hand, appeared first time in a FIFA semi final and scored 1-0 victory to enter Final.
Spain will now meet another European team, Netherlands, in the final clash for coveted FIFA World Cup 2010. It is very difficult to guess the winner but let us wait for the pre match indication from Pal the octopus !
Man of The Match. Xavi of Spain
Green Point Stadium of Cape Town witnessed a very keenly contested semi final on 6th July 2010. Teams of Uruguay and Netherlands entered the arena to out play each other and secure berth for the FIFA 2010 Final at Johannesburg. Display of football prowess by these teams was truly worthy of a semi final.
Bronckhorst,the Dutch captain, opened the scoring in 18th minute with a magnificent strike which is in reckoning for goal of the tournament.
Uruguay’s captain Diego Forlan replied back with an equally stunning strike in 41st minute and both teams remained tied at 1-1 till half time.
Second half also witnessed absorbing football. The Oranje struck twice in quick succession in 70th and 73rd minutes through Sneijder & Robben respectively. Pereira of Uruguay found the Dutch net in 90+2nd minute and reduced the Netherlands victory margin to 3-2.
Thus the Oranje earned the distinction of First to enter 2010 FIFA final. They will now meet the winner of German-Spain face off which is scheduled today at Durban.
Man of the Match. Wesley Sneijder, Netherlands.
Three more matches, two semifinals and a final, are to be played in this year’s FIFA cup and the race for Golden Boot is very close. It is interesting to see that all top four contenders vying for this honour belong to Spain, Germany and Netherlands, the teams which are in semifinals and gunning for the cup.
Current contenders of Golden Boot are :-
1. David Villa of Spain is leading the pack with 5 goals to his credit.
2.Thomas Mueller of Germany is at second position with 4 goals.
3. Wesley Sneijder of Netherlands is third with tally of 4 goals.
4. Miroslav Klose , Germany with 4 goals in his kitty is at number four.
It is evident that probability of winning the trophy by any one of the above mentioned contenders is directly proportional to the number of matches, out of remainder three, his team will get to play.
We will have to wait for few more days to know as to who takes the Golden Boot.
Update after First Semifinal.
Wesley Sneijder of Netherlands is now at number two with 5 goals including 1 scored against Uruguay in SF.
Thomas Mueller of Germany is now at 3rd position.
Soccer extravaganza is reaching towards final crescendo.
Eight top teams fought fiercely for semifinal slots. Fancied and strong contenders Argentina and Brazil were knocked out by Germany and Netherlands respectively whereas dark horse Ghana & Paraguay were edged out by Uruguay and Spain.
Semifinal lineup and schedule is:-
My pick for top two
Netherlands
Netherlands
Germany
Germany
Germany
Argentina
Two fancied teams Argentina and Germany entered Green Point stadium in Cape Town for the third quarter final match.
Argentina was favorite to win but Germans had different plans.
Muller struck very early in 3rd minute through a header to give 1-0 lead to Germany. Argentina tried to equalise but to no avail and Germany continued to lead by 1-0 till half time.
Second half belonged fully to Germany and they completely outplayed Argentina.
Klose struck twice in 68th and 89th minutes and Friedrich found the Argentinian net in74th minute to increase the lead to 4-0.
Germany thus repeated FIFA 2006 where they had defeated Argentina in quarter final.
Germany will now meet the winner of Spain-Paraguay in 2nd semifinal.
Man of the match.
Schweinsteiger of Germany.
Schweinsteiger
RSS Feed
Colonel Speaks 