http://www.worldcupblog.org/europe/ World Cup South Africa 2010 en-us World Cup Blog http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/arsene-wengers-pub-wisdom.html http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/arsene-wengers-pub-wisdom.html Jan Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:37:18 -0600 Thirteen years ago a football coach with the appearance of a rocket science arrived at Highbury. His name was Arsene Wenger, born in Duttlenheim, a little village in France. The English hadn't heard of the man. "Arsene Who?", was the headline of the Evening Standard. This newspaper bet on the signing of Johan Cruyff while another tabloid thought Terry Venables would be the man. But no, Arsenal chose Arsene. A stiff upper lip from France, unathletic, without a real history as a player and an accent straight from the Muppet Show. In England, they found him a nickname pretty quickly. Behind his http://ukraine.worldcupblog.org/group-h/earning-our-seat-among-europes-elite-13.html http://ukraine.worldcupblog.org/group-h/earning-our-seat-among-europes-elite-13.html Bannon Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:31:18 -0600 Well, its been a roller-coaster this year for our Zhovto-Blakytni, with a lot of close calls... In a tough Group 6, we held for a couple dramatic ties against Croatia and posted a narrow away loss to England – in both the shark-infested waters of Zagreb and Wembley stadium. Belarussian conviction nearly ended our Ukrainian campaign early - a win in Minsk on Sept 9th could have saved us a lot of anxiety, but it wasn’t meant to be. It took a home victory (largely Internet-watched) over England in Dnipropetrovsk to vault our Yellow-Blues to second, from which they haven’t http://italy.worldcupblog.org/group-e/will-anti-italian-sentiment-ever-end.html http://italy.worldcupblog.org/group-e/will-anti-italian-sentiment-ever-end.html Julian Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:11:09 -0600 I'm getting incredibly tired of reading articles and having to sift through the enormous anti-Italian sentiment to find actual content. This happens all the time on British websites, and the latest culprit is WhoAteAllthePies. http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/van-marwijks-shadow-list-of-potentials.html http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/van-marwijks-shadow-list-of-potentials.html Jan Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:32:49 -0600 Team manager Bert van Marwijk confirmed he uses a shadow list for potential Oranje players at last Friday's press conference in Zeist. The coach refused to publish the list, though. "It wouldn't do anyone any good to publish that list. It's not a fixed list either, so then I'd have to go out and justify all the changes all the time apart from all the media attention these players will get as a result. I don't think it's healthy. It will put extra pressure on and I don't think club coaches will be pleased if their youngsters are suddenly approached http://bosnia.worldcupblog.org/bosnians-abroad/said-husejinovic-back-on-track.html http://bosnia.worldcupblog.org/bosnians-abroad/said-husejinovic-back-on-track.html Harun Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:36:55 -0600 When Said Husejinović first emerged in the Bosnian premijer liga for FK Sloboda Tuzla, he was touted by some as the best homegrown Bosnian prospect since the end of the war. The talented Zvorničanin had plenty of pace, great technique and a good shot from long-range. In terms of physical predisposition and natural talent, he was far more hyped as a 19-year-old playing in the Bosnian domestic league than Edin Džeko or just about anyone else in recent memory. When Werder Bremen came calling, many were optimistic that he would be the first premijer liga talent to make it in a direct transfer to a big club. http://germany.worldcupblog.org/players/what-it-takes-to-play-for-the-dfb-11.html http://germany.worldcupblog.org/players/what-it-takes-to-play-for-the-dfb-11.html Nick Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:31:51 -0600 So what does it take to be nominated to play for the German national team? Well you have to be a German citizen of course and identify strongly with Germany for sure, but are there secrets to being consistently nominated or to get that crucial first nomination? Recently Aaron Hunt, Stefan Kiessling, Thomas Müller have been selected to represent the Nationalmannschaft in the final matches of the year. Here is a glimpse into how they did it. Aaron Hunt has been rumored to be pursued by England. When was the last time you saw a volley like that? Right here. No http://germany.worldcupblog.org/friendlies/low-nominates-hunt-muller-kiesling.html http://germany.worldcupblog.org/friendlies/low-nominates-hunt-muller-kiesling.html Nick Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:08:06 -0600 For the friendly matches against Chile (Köln) and the Ivory Coast (Gelsenkirchen) Löw has nominated the England prospect Aaron Hunt, the mercurial Thomas Müller, the Bundesliga topscorer Stefan Kießling, and of course the ever present Thomas Hitzlsperger. Overall this is a good selection, but one wonders why a player like Hitzlsperger merits a call up when he as captain of his club was benched because of his form? Also adding to this questionable selection are his fellow Stuttgart teammates Cacau and Sedar Tasci who were likely not picked at the last moment because of injury. Unfortunately, injury has also sidelined http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/the-dutch-in-europe.html http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/the-dutch-in-europe.html Jan Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:55:39 -0600 I don't think we'll win the Champions League this season. I'm sorry to break the news to you. But we're not doing too shabby in the Europa League and you have to start somewhere... Dembele tries... AZ Alkmaar is a club and a team in trouble. Replacing Van Gaal by Ronald Koeman is one thing, but having your sponsor, chairman and sugar daddy declared bankrupt is another. AZ could have impressed in Europe, under the right circumstances (and coach) but with all that's going on in Alkmaar, you can't blame them for being played off the pitch by Arsenal. And with Arsenal, http://ireland.worldcupblog.org/1/the-team-is-basically-composed-of-overrated-premiership-players.html http://ireland.worldcupblog.org/1/the-team-is-basically-composed-of-overrated-premiership-players.html Eugene Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:30:41 -0600 You know what I hate? Stupid, ill-informed, disrespectful comments about any team when it's unfounded, especially a team who was one of five to go through their qualifying group unbeaten. Rant over. http://france.worldcupblog.org/player-news/call-ups-for-france-vs-ireland.html http://france.worldcupblog.org/player-news/call-ups-for-france-vs-ireland.html Inara Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:24:07 -0600 France's do-or-die match against Ireland is just around the corner, with the first match taking place on November 14th in Ireland and the second taking place on the 18th at the Stade de France (boo...). I don't know about you guys, but I'll be praying extra hard that France don't screw up against a tough Irish team. Or else Raymond & Friends will be watching the World Cup just like the rest of us - from their living room couches. Unsurprisingly, there aren't any big surprises in the squad. Aly "The Teeth" Cissokho gets his first call-up, but it was somewhat expected in light of Gaël Clichy's injury. Loïc Remy gets the nod in favor of Bafetimbi Gomis, but again, that's not really surprising because Les Bleus are currently short on wide players. Yoann Gourcuff and Sidney Govou return after missing out on the last qualifiers due to injury. More notable are the absences. The biggest one is Patrick Vieira, who hasn't been playing regularly at his club and has also been struggling on and off with injuries. Though his recent performances were positive, Domenech didn't think it was enough to justify his inclusion in the squad (Vieira is not happy about that, btw). Franck Ribery is still out due to a knee injury, and despite Samir Nasri recently making his comeback for Arsenal after a long injury layoff, he was left out as well. Totally unrelated, but here is an interesting fact I discovered the other day: Sidney Govou has scored 10 goals for France in 42 appearances. Compare that to Nicolas Anelka, who's scored 13 goals in 61 appearances. Three less goals with 20 less appearances - and I'm sure Anelka has had more starts as well. It's weird to think about Govou in a productive light, isn't it? Full list after the jump. http://england.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-bid/the-great-handbag-scandal-of-09.html http://england.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-bid/the-great-handbag-scandal-of-09.html Matilda Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:17:06 -0600 [caption id="attachment_1015" align="alignleft" caption="Could this work of art kill England's World Cup Bid?"][/caption] OK so perhaps the title is a tad hyperbolic, but really things are getting ridiculous. A quick refresher course for those of you who have missed this: England (as you all should know) is bidding to host the 2018 World Cup. Recently there was a conference in London at which Jack Warner, a FIFA vice-president, was present. Geoff Thompson, former FA chairman and current FIFA vice-president, held a dinner which Warner and his wife attended. At said dinner Geoff Thompson presented Warner's wife with a Mulberry handbag (and let me just state for the record that I'm incredibly jealous) valued at £230.