Lawmakers in Portugal have heeded World Cup Blog’s call for an international World Cup holiday by announcing today that Parliament will not be in session during Portugal’s match against Mexico on June 21. Instead of debating something silly like military reform, the lawmakers will be joining the rest of the conscious world in watching [...]

It is a good thing that friendlies don’t matter. Otherwise if you are a Poland fan you might be a bit concerned about your team’s form heading into the World Cup. Not only did Poland lose to Colombia at home 2-1, but they were scored upon by Colombia goalkeeper Luis Martinez. I [...]

Who are these people? A recent survey revealed that 25% of Germans are not interested in the World Cup. You may not think this is a lot, but according to the CIA (I’ve always wanted to write that) there are 82 million people in Germany. That means that if the survey is [...]

If you are stuck at your computer or forgot to pay the cable bill this month, you can catch a number of today’s friendlies online thanks to the kindness and generosity of the pirates in China (as noted in the comments use Internet Explorer to get it to work). If you plan it right, [...]

For months now we have been detailing the differing philosophies World Cup coaches have towards whether or not to allow their players to have sex during the tournament. This is important information to know if you are betting on a particular team. Today, Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin revealed a new approach: offering his [...]

Some World Cup stories you might have missed while you were counting the seconds until the tournament starts….

Students burn furniture in Bangledesh so they can watch World Cup (Reuters)
German doctors strike; players might want to stock up on tha magic spray (Gulfnews)
The World Cup is unifying South & North Korea in one way (Reuters)
What if [...]

You’ve looked the groups. You’ve predicted who is going to win each group and which teams will win all three of their games. You’ve determined which group is the most exciting. Now it is time for you to look again at the pairings and to determine which of the teams is going [...]

If you live in a country that isn’t necessarily rich in football tradition, how do you end up supporting a team from a country halfway around the world? I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately as I see comments on this blog from people living in countries all over the world that don’t [...]

For a good number of years I have wondered why I never got to play in a World Cup. Sure I was merely an average football player with a below average work ethic, but that never stopped a guy like David Beckham from wearing his nation’s uniform. No, it had to be something [...]

If you support one of the teams in the World Cup, the odds are with you this week that your team is playing at least one friendly. By my count, 29 of the 32 teams are taking part in the exhibition fun with only the United States, Serbia and Montenegro, and Ecuador choosing to [...]