World Cup 2006 News

Yesterday Ronaldo scored his 15th World Cup goal and therefore is now the one and only player that has ever scored that much goals in all his World Cup appearances. He outdid Gerd Muller´s 32-year-old record. The goal machine himself is not that keen that it was his record though. The Bratwurstgang has a nice quotation for that matter:

I’ve always said that I wasn’t the record-holder. That honour, for me, goes to Just Fontaine, who scored 13 goals in one tournament.

Read more

Ukraine captain Andrej Shevchenko scored in his first game after a month of injury. He seems to have healed out his knee injury and therefore is confident to be ready to play in Ukraine´s first match against Spain next Wednesday. I hope for the best players to appear in the World Cup and “Sheva” is definitely one of those. So this is good news not only for Ukraine but for the World Cup.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, World Cup Players, Andrej Shevchenko

The one thing you couldn´t miss yesterday was Wayne Rooney´s scan result revealing that he might be able to play in the World Cup. Here are two funny “photos” of how young Wayne is praised to be back. Read more

As predicted earlier german captain Michael Ballack will miss the World Cup opening-match against Costa Rica. Tim Borowski is supposed to play Ballack´s position.

We want him to get back to full fitness so that he can be fit for the other games in the competition.

Klinsmann said today. Well, the opening-match without the captain is a bit annoying but let´s at least hope that he can play against Poland next Wednesday.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, World Cup Players, Michael Ballack

Serious doubts are circling around our team captain Michael Ballack. The 29-year-old was cleared to train on Wednesday, but had to interrupt his tests in the evening. Given that he could not appear in our opening match tomorrow it would give the german game a serious blow as it depends heavily on how he´s doing. If he´d not play at all I´m not sure how coach Klinsmann could compensate this, Werder Bremen midfielder Tim Borowski is said to take Ballack´s position - if necessary - but we don´t have another Ballack. So Michael make sure you´ll be ok. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, World Cup Players, Michael Ballack

Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse might be the unluckiest guy out there right now. He broke his leg in France´s last friendly before the World Cup yesterday against China. The 24-year-old was knocked off balance by a defender 10 minutes into the game and fell, his right leg twisting under him and buckling above the ankle says the BBC. This shows it can happen to anyone at any time. I was watching the second half of the game yesterday on Eurosport and the spirit seemed to be gone. Understandable. I hope “Les bleus” are able to recover from this serious blow in time before their opening match next Wednesday. How could you break your leg in the last friendly - unbelievable.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, World Cup Players, Djibril Cisse

I am pretty confident that we can drop a little of the Rooney-talk now as he has been said to be able to play a role in England´s World Cup squad. His club ManU insists that he can only play if he is 100% fit which means no Rooney in group phase. But hey given that a few days / weeks ago it didn´t look that good this must be pretty big news if you´re either a England or Rooney fan. I´m neither of those but I really want the best players to appear at the World Cup to make sure it´s gonna be great - Rooney seems to be one of those players, so great that he´s back in Baden-Baden. According to all the Rooney admirers all England has to do now is survive the group phase after that the messiah will kick in.

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

What might seem to be a quite simple problem forced Ronaldo out of Brazil´s last friendly against New Zealand on Sunday - blisters! Sounds a little silly when you consider how the stars are treated when it comes to material, you would think there are dummies who test those super-shoes for Ronaldinho & Co. and you´re probably right. But obviously even the semi-gods aren´t immune against temporal power. Ok, all kidding aside. Ronaldo seems to be fine, so nobody does have to worry about the evil blisters anymore.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, World Cup Players, Ronaldo, evil blisters

The day of the final scan is here, which will determine wheter young Wayne will remain part of England´s World Cup squad or not. The ManU-striker will have left England´s World Cup HQ in Baden-Baden when you read this. He´s flying back to England in a private jet along-side with doctor Leif Sward to take the scan at 12.00 BST in the Whalley Range private hospital. Sward will discuss the results with United doctor Tony Gill and the experts from the result to decide what´s going to happen with Wayne. Read more

Germany´s new number 1 goalkeeper Jens Lehmann is keen on playing on after the World Cup. In a SPIEGEL interview earlier this week he claimed:

I love football, and I´m fit like a 26-year-old and fitter than when I was 30.

Yeah, why not. He has been Germany´s number 2 for what felt like ages why not playing a little further. He is 36 now, as is Oliver Kahn our former “Titan”. But as we all know there was a goalie who won the World Cup when he was 40 in 1982. Hm, Lehmann is 36 the next World Cup would be in 2010. You do the math.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, World Cup Players, Jens Lehmann, Germany, Oliver Kahn