World Cup 2006 News

Anyone who ever played 90 minutes in real soccer-game knows how exhausting this can be. But this guy on the photo doesn´t seem to bother. Despite the fact that his performance in yesterday´s Champions League Final wasn´t ordinary Ronaldinho niveau he´s always smiling as he would like to say “Yeah guys, we all know I can do better”. Read more

Champions League semi-final scorer and Barcelona striker Ludovic Giuly has revealed he expects Thierry Henry to join Barcelona from Arsenal this summer. The two sides are supposed to meet in the Champions League final in Paris on May 17 and according to Giuly this would be Henry´s last match for Arsenal. Giuly who is an old friend and former Monaco team-mate of Henry said:

We speak on the telephone all the time and we have had a conversation recently.

I think he’s coming. He will say so when he makes an announcement before the World Cup starts,

Big news. Read more on that over at ESPN Soccernet.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, Champions League, Henry, Barcelona, Arsenal, Giuly

England coach Eriksson plans to take Rooney, who broke his fourth metatarsal bone in his right foot to the World Cup finals in Germany next month if there is any chance that the striker is fit enough to play at some stage.

I am not that huge of a fan of England but I´d like to see the best players performing this summer. Therefore I really appreciate Eriksson´s decision. This way there might be a chance to see Wayne scoring for the english fans. Anyway it´s also a good way to keep young Wayne motivated, if he knows they need him.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, England, Eriksson, Wayne Rooney, Germany

I´m getting the feeling that some teams have an enormous amount of bad luck lately. England for instance Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen the two top strikers are both injured and it´s not for sure that they will be playing at the World Cup this summer.

And on the other hand take Brazil they seem to be blessed with health. Or can you think of any major injury that occured lately? I can´t. Well, some players might be more susceptible to get injured than others but that can´t be the whole wisdom or can it? I´d say a good team does also need a tremendous amount of luck these days. But is it all about luck? What are your thoughts?

Technorati Tags: World Cup, Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, England, Brazil

Italy coach Marcello Lippi named a 29-man squad for a pre World Cup get-together at the Centro Tecnico Borghesiana training centre in Rome beginning tomorrow. The main surprise was the comeback of Filippo Inzaghi, who hasn´t played for the Azzuri since October 2003. The 32-year-old striker has scored 21 goals in 48 international appearances and might get a chance to catch a spot in the 23 men squad who is heading to Germany.

15th of May might have a few surprises for us. We´ll see.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, Italy, Azzuri, Filippo Inzaghi

A few days back I had a conversation with two of my mates at my football club and we were discussing who´s gonna win this summer. It´s a usual thing we talk like everytime about football and what happened lately in the world of soccer. This time we came across a very interesting topic which I made the headline of this post as well. Can one player carry all the hope? Or even better can only one player be responsible for a country´s performance at World Cup? Read more

According to a current BBC article former Argentina star Maradoa predicts that England could perform very well this summer.

England has a good team - much stronger than at previous World Cups,

Maradona said in a BBC documentary that will be shown today. During this documentary Maradona is talking to former England star Gary Lineker and they´re both talking about the 1986 World Cup where England suffered 1-2 quarter final loss against Maradona´s Argentina. Lineker is commenting the second of Maradona´s two goals in that game where the little magician dribbled from his own half before rounding England goalkeeper Peter Shilton to score.

probably the one and only time in my whole career I felt like applauding the opposition scoring a goal

This may be worth watching. You might also wanna check out a similar topic over on the England Blog.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, England, Argentina, Maradona, Gary Lineker

Those of you who are interested in knowing exactly where each team will stay this summer might be interested in a map Harvey is pointing to. The german magazine “Stern” put togehter this overview. So Dude, where is my team?

Technorati Tags: World Cup, Maps

According to Bob over at WCB chances are that Germany might win the World Cup at least regarding the odds. Our largest private bookmaker (sadly most of them are federal ones) has Klinsmann´s team with 8-1 placed 2nd and Brazil with 4-1 at the top position. Flattering, thank you.

I don´t know what value is being given by those numbers. Although Germany is the defending vice-champion, we did perform very badly in Portugal 2004. On the other hand Klinsmann´s staff changed a lot so I guess we´ll have to wait ´n see.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, bookmakers, World Cup favorites, Germany, Brazil

England will be allowed to replace the Wayne Rooney spot in their World Cup squad up until 24 hours before their opening match against Paraguay on 10 June says the BBC. This has been confirmed by the governing body if they´re provided with sufficient information that the player is in fact injured.

This gives England Coach Eriksson the opportunity to count on young Wayne as long as possible. So let´s hope that he can make it to Germany.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, World Cup Players, Wayne Rooney, England, Eriksson