he's got a nice hat.

France actually got FIFA "threats" too because of interference (politicians asking for the French Federation's president to resign) ...

I predict Germany will beat Spain 3-1 today.

Where's this shit coming from the dam Lakers/Fakers were the ones that got away with murder. Every time they missed a shot in the fourth quarter there was the friendly whistle to bail them out. The foul by Ray on Kobe that netted him three foul shots was one of the worst calls I've seen in basketball in the 40 plus years I've been watching. Of course living LA you have to be a good actor right now I'd say Kobe is the leader for this year's oscar! Fuckin sour grapes you betcha!

spain spain pain pain.

i want spain to win, just let me be clear about that.

Insane, what a party... wish you'd all had been here to see it.

Once in a lifetime

as if Goodluck Jonathan had any such authority, he was selling as many wolf tickets as Sarkozy in this regard ;)




I agree with you completely, but my point is simple. FIFA puts pressure through threats, intimidation and black mail on african countries such as Ethiopia and Nigera and they in turn pay lip service to FIFA.. it is not fair. Why doesn't FIFA put this kind of pressure on other countries? They banned Ethiopia for two years over domestic political corruption (that wasn't even related to the Ethiopian national team in the slightest!) and they continue their FIFA style and put this same kind of pressure on Nigeria. Why did Nigeria cave so quickly? That is simply, Nigeria has seen the way in which FIFA opperates and enforces a double standard for African nations.

I'm not gonna try to sit here for hours and dig up old news articles documenting all the time FIFA has either threatened to ban or outright banned African national teams and African nations from either international play or hosting international qualifying/exhibition matches, but its a clear and obvious double-standard, one which has been pissing me off for years and years now.. It is no surprise to see it show its face again to Nigeria (and not necessarily France)

the bigger issue is not just FIFA targeting the mingling of politics and futbol, but actually trying to use its authority as a kind of bully pulpit, targeting African nations in regards to politics alone having nothing to do with futbol. The US is a corrupt, war hungry nation, is there team banned? No, but thats why Ethiopia was banned.

Nigeria, (or Brazil or North Korea or Honduras or USA or Mexico or Germany etc etc) is a nation with deeply entrenched political corruption, but only they were singled out and not the others?

it is exasperating!

as I understand it, Ethiopia was banned because of their inability to form an FA that could be recognised either by them or the Confederation of African Football, following it getting rid of its then current body. It seems like a fairly cut and dried case of political interventional of the kind FIFA can't accept.

details details.. if you ask the Ethiopian crowd, they will say it was because FIFA wanted to stick it to Meles (and honestly, who doesn't?!) but I think that using futbol as a bully pulpit is counter-productive to the kind of unity building which FIFA can and likes to do..

btw, honestly and sincerely thank you for having an intelligent conversation about this issue, so many of my threads have been destroyed lately I am reverting only to communicating in sound bytes

2-0 spain
or 4-1 germany

über alles, bitches

death to spain!

California isn't playing the world cup!

not anymore :(

that was a knee ramos shoved on ozil's leg & it was a penalty-- not very obvious unfortunately but it was

Please for the first time in a long time we have a game where the refs are letting them play. At least they're consistent. Ramos got tripped earlier by
Boeteng who also did a swell job pushing Villa off the ball. Ozeil got a minor shove from Ramos nothing to get excited about......:)

yes, ramos, sorry (fixed it). ok yes i didn't scream bloody murder, it was far & not very obvious. you got a point there.

oh, the fucking gachupines got what they wanted. they've been excellent on the attack and should have scored already. well deserved. they can suck it, but well deserved goal.

ole

feel so bad for fabregas. he would walk into and probably be the best player in any other team but can't get on for spain

 

Ironically spain has been the team I should be rooting for.. FIFA has declared them the best behaved team in the Cup, with the least fouls and cards pulled, South Korea is second, and Mexico is the worst with the most cards..

That was a brilliant game. Spain were amazing to watch, even if they struggled to score. After that I have to support them in the final. I've always treated Holland as my 'second' international side but I really don't like the way they're playing, while Spain are just playing beautifully. And Penelope Cruz is from there.

I was glad to see him listen to me and start Pedro who really played a strong game till he got greedy. Luckily the defense bailed him out. Of course even if he passed it, the way Torres has been playing he might have hit up into the cheap seats.

ah, penelope, yes. yummy.

spain really played great, but germany sucked-- this wasn't the team that beat argentina 4-0 and england 4-1. they had a very poor performance, horrible passing on the attack, but then again, the spanish pressure was fucking relentless, and i don't think they faced that before-- except maybe with serbia? but i didn't see that game and now i regret it.

come sunday it's going to be amazing. i won't voice any favorites as every team i've vocally supported has gotten fucked badly. grumble grumble.

Although I didn't really believed them, I secretly hoped for Spain, who are my currently favourite team. Hell yes.

when i said germany i meant spain. :D

I have been rooting against them, honestly for no particular reason other than my deep seeded chicano-esque beef with anything remotely Spanish. In truth, they have been a great team, fun to watch, a relative underdog in the World Cup history, and I am excited to watch them in the final, I just wonder what the Octopus is going to say?

Yes, the answer's in the details, on both sides. The truth is that FIFA has a very individual agenda and a very awkward relationship with European football as a consequence. The most pressure that FIFA receives within the game is for what the more established countries see as its over-committment to promoting football in developing countries. For better or worse, FIFA is committed to that. It's problems have come from the fact that sport in Africa is far more politicised than it is elsewhere (besides maybe in parts of S'th America). As such, FIFA continually finds its non-political stance compromised when dealing with these nations, and has to make decisions there that it doesn't have to elsewhere. There really is a clear difference between Sarkozy demanding to see Henry and the Nigerian prime minister threatening to dissolve the national team. I agree that FIFA's relationship with African football is a problematic one butnot one with a negative agenda.

relentless pressure is right. you have to be really good (or lucky) to beat this team. To be solid and organised for 90 minutes and run around chasing shadows and trying to 2nd gues where xavi or alonso or iniesta are gonna put the ball must be exhausting. To then have the legs to break and actually hit them on the break is near on impossible. If any one could (organised defence, awsome on the counter attack) it was germany.
The netherlands only hope is to hold out for penalties

The dutch haven't got good enough players

glad spain won, germany where passed to death in this game. question is, who was that fella that ran onto the pitch at the start?

suarez

truth. I can see both sides, I just wish FIFA would cut Africa some slack and let the African teams and nations catch up, because futbol means a lot to africans, it is truly their only international and even national sport, and if anything what Africa needs today is a rallying cry and a source of pan-African unity. What FIFA did to Ethiopia was demoralizing, Ethiopia is like the US, they will NEVER overcome the climate and culture of political corruption, but they do have a chance to develop themselves for African futbol, being the oldest independent nation and the home of the AU in Addis..
FIFA fucking with Nigeria just put another bad taste in my mouth is all..

thanks for the intelligent conversation btw, I haven't been having so many here the past week :)

No, I do think it's an interesting issue, which was why I said it needed more subtlety from both sides. FIFA is a weird body that, being based in Europe and headed by two Europeans, can lead to assumptions that it's Eurocentric when its policies (under Blatter anyway) have been quite the opposite. Blatter has a vision of internationalising football that the big nations publicly endorse but privately see as (at best) naive and (at worst) threatening their own fortunes. Personally, while I approve of Blatter's vision (who couldn't?) I do think he's at times guilty of the very kinds of naivety he's accused of, leading to things like the Ethiopian, Togaian and Nigerian affairs which definitely saw FIFA having to involve itself in areas it's not used to or equipped for.

best response of 2010, very very insightful :)

Hoffentlich hört die ganze Patriotenscheiße hier jetzt endlich wieder auf.

You should see the British media when it comes to patriotism and football :D

Disappointed that the Germans didn't get to the final, but it looks like Spain were worthy adversaries to the Deustchen. It would be something if Spain ended up lifting the Jules Rimet on Sunday, though my money is on Holland winning, possibly in extra time. We shall see!

Goth!

visigoth! :p

bandit

You got me there. Excuse me whilst I whip out some Sisters Of Mercy LPs, and have a side dish of Fields Of The Nephilim.

I wonder which team wiill come out on top in the Uruguay v Germany third place match. I would go for Germany (Gothly speaking), but one can not doubt the resilience of the Uruguayans. It should be an interesting match nonetheless.

I think both teams will be so utterly deflated that it's likely just the team that bothers to put any effort in at all will win. Personally i think they should abandon the whole third place thing altogether. The fans are never really interested in it and I imagine the players are by then thinking about their club careers, getting home, etc. Saying that, I want Uruguay to win, if only because I love Suarez and Forlan, plus they've got that Arevalo Rios bloke who looks like he should be in Crowbar.

i think you meant bandido