Roy Hodgson Names Squad, Already Confused

May 16th, 2012 | By: chris | Comments (0)

The Roy Hodgson era has begun for England with a slight stumble, and a delightfully promising one at that. He named his official 23 today, and two of the names garnering the most attention seem to be Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Andy Carroll, two youngsters with lots of potential, but actual contributions to the Euros up for liberal speculation. The former is 18 and uncapped, thus making this a rather big deal for him. But Roy's pretty comfortable with the selection for reasons which don't actually exist, which has to be reaffirming for the fans. [read more]

The Japanese Women Turn To "Supergirl"

May 15th, 2012 | By: chris | Comments (0)

Guess which one she is.

World class keepers on the male side tend to be fairly tall, and even the bejeweled Iker Casillas is considered undersized at 182cm, or under six feet. The keepers of Europe's better national teams typically range over 190cm - Neuer, Buffon, Cech, Hart, Stekelenburg, et cetera, et cetera.

Japan's a different story, and especially on the female side of the game. Wikipedia can give a hint. Which is why finding a 187cm female keeper is like finding the Holy Grail, enough to dub her Supergirl. [read more]

Euro 2012 Squads Begin Rolling Out

May 7th, 2012 | By: chris | Comments (0)

Most domestic seasons haven't closed, yet the names of those heading off to the lands of continental glory in the Polkraine are already dropping, along with some of the squads to be whittled down in the coming weeks (the deadline being May 29th). Today Giovanni Trappatoni announced Ireland's formal 23 and Germany a damn close 27.

Meanwhile, Bert van Marwijk & Co. decided to call up a decent portion of the country's population for its preliminary squad - 36 in total. [read more]