Germany vs England: Renewed Rivalry

This is a reunion of England and Germany the old rivals and Latin American hopefuls Mexico and Argentina. They will keep football fans glued to their seats on day two of the Round of 16 in the 2010 World Cup. The European giants have not foreseen their paths crossing at the early stage of the competition, but England’s second place finish in Group C deprived them a simpler route. Neither team has shown their best so far. And both teams worked hard for their advance. Germany managed to successfully integrate young talent from last year’s European U-21 Championship team. Coach Fabio Capello of England has toned down his disciplined approach but will use his veteran players to deliver the goods. Not fearing group stage fallout, the two candidates are free from tension but surely one of Europe’s biggest names will fall by the wayside at the end.

Diego Maradona the Argentina coach took his time to settle down with his new role and succeeded in getting his message thru the squad who was dedicated to his guidance. pull out from his own experiences being a player, he handed the captain’s responsibility to Lionel Messi before the game with Mexico and his tiny genius is increasing at ease with Argentina shirt, but Mexico will rely on their finest ever production of players and will never roll over.

A guaranteed interest will be given by the game between traditional powers even when the teams are not claiming to be at their best. England got one win and two draws throughout the group duties but stay distressed in proving that they can still continue but they will need more fluid motion and efficiency in front of goal if they want to survive further than this weekend. Wayne Rooney will carry the heaviest weight and pressure to improve as it is clearly shown that he is not in optimum form. But he should have noted that team Germany looks vulnerable at the back.

After just four years and four days meeting at the same venue of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Mexico and Argentina will renew their rivalry for a spot in the last eight. The Argentina’s primary attacking threat will be a youngster this time around, that will be operating in a free role behind two strikers. But he will have to compete with the attention given to Marquez, his friend and Barcelona team mate. While Los Aztecas defensive midfielder will be in meager mode and the result of their personal duel will no doubt have an enormous impact on the final score.

Argentina and Uruguay Top in Group A and B WorldCup Soccer

While a lot of big-name nations from Europe have struggled, the finest from South America finest have already taken off at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.  Uruguay and Argentina emerged on top of Groups A and B respectively after finishing their assignments and the continent’s other three representatives are at the moment ahead of their groups too, with Brazil, five-time world champions who already booked their place in the Round of 16 with a game to go.

Now it is Paraguay and Chile that is being eyed if they can complete a clean sweep in their last first-phase games. At this time, the CONMEBOL countries got ten wins and two draws of their 12 games. They have taking 32 of the 36 available points up at stake. This means that Paraguay of Group F and Chile of Group H need only a point to assure qualification to top their respective sections.

This is a turnaround if you think about what happened in Germany 2006, where no South American nation was able to make it to the semi-final stage. Jorge Valdivia the Chile schemer said that it is great that the South American teams are bouncing back. Coach Gerardo Martino of Paraguay is not even surprised and said that all the five teams were in good shape at the start of the tournament. All of them have high hopes and the majority has shown good displays in the first round. With this said, it is quite clear that Brazil and Argentina are two different case to contend with. And it is very clear that South American teams have risen from the group.

On Group A, Uruguay won without giving up a goal and Argentina did not give up a point in Group B. While Paraguay held a draw with world champions Italy in their first and made an impressive 2-0 victory against Slovakia in their second, to top Group F. Brazil had back to back wins against Korea DPR and Côte d’Ivoire in Group G, and Chile collected six points to their credit to become the first team to over run Switzerland in 559 minutes in the FIFA World Cup tournament.

Enzo Francescoli the Uruguayan legend said, the punishing and intensely aggressive nature of South American Zone matches is one factor behind this quick start. For the teams of South America it is a real tough qualifying phase. They have a different football standard with different marking styles and tactical movements.

Spain All Geared up to Play Honduras After Their First Game Defeat.

After their shocking defeat against Switzerland in their Group H opening match, Spain seemed to have woken up from their over confident daze. They did seem to take their opening game very lightly giving the Swiss enough of chance to put up a great defence and strike in a goal against the Italians. This will be Italy’s second match and they will be playing Honduras later this evening.

Raul Albiol the Italian defender said this at the news conference that was held on Saturday, “The loss helps to show you that there are no easy matches, that every team at a World Cup will make it hard for you. The favorites are not winning.” Coach Vincente del Bosque had to say, “If you look at past World Cups, we have often seen teams that start off losing go on to win the final.”

The coach will be playing his team in a 4-4-2 instead of the 4-5-1 that he had played against the Swiss. They may not be too many alterations in the team against Honduras instead they will be concentrating on playing their game with all their skill. The coach even said that the team will be looking for advantage open ups from Honduras that will help them pave the way to their well deserved victory.

Honduras who has also lost in their opening match against Chile 0-1 will be putting up a tough fight or else they could be ousted in the games. Reinaldo Rueda the Honduras coach said that the Spanish team would be putting up a brilliant performance so that they don’t loose this game. This would then only lower their chances of winning. He however mentioned hat his players will not make things easy either for the champions and would go out into the fields with a fighting spirit.

Netherlands vs Denmark: World Cup 2010

This is part of the World Cup 2010 Netherlands vs. Denmark; Netherlands Profile. The Oranje aims high for their match in South Africa, 32 years ago from a 3-1 extra-time loss from Argentina, which happened four years on from a 2-1 final loss from West Germany. Since coach Rinus Michels retired as its pioneer, a lot of players followed Johan Cruyff generation that did not even advance to the final hurdle, but one managed to get the European title in 1988. Known as spectacular but fragile, this team hope to wipe out this image. Now, under Bert van Marwijk, who carried out the challenge after their disappointing UEFA EURO 2008 campaign.

He and his players this time around have history on their side. West Germany in 1982, was the last team to reach FIFA World Cup™ finals without dropping a single point in the qualifying round and went on to contest the final. The present Oranje vintage are very vocal on their ambitions. Netherlands got eight straight games. The Van Marwijk era proved to be a great one so far leading the team on the top of Group 9.

Their coach is not the most prestigious player during his time, he had collected only one international cap, the father in law of Mark van Bommel has had more success in the dugout. He showed especially brighter at Feyenoord that led the Rotterdam team to the UEFA Cup championship in 2002 before winning the Dutch crown when he returned after a two-year in Germany. Calm, discrete and very approachable, the 56-year-old coach believes that it is vital to befriend his players and said that an international coach has little time to work with his team. In luau of this, he wants to spend more time with his players, especially during training and exercises to know them better. Although this style is very different from his predecessor, Marco van Basten, their tactics are very similar. Marco implements a 4-2-3-1 formation in place, and the players are used to it and he intends to stick to it. Being aided by Phillip Cocu a former stalwarts and Frank de Boer role as the assistant coach, Van Marwijk’s record is above reproach up to now.

They have several star players like Edwin van der Saar and Ruud van Nistelrooy who have had time on their international careers. Van Marwijk tried to integrate his own style to the heart of the players he got from Van Basten, without making a lot of changes. Now, the new key men are Arjen Robben, Andre Ooijer, Mark van Bommel, Dirk Kuyt, Joris Mathijsen, Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Giovanni van Bronckhorst, they now have a considerable playing time under their trainer. While Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder, Nigel De Jong and Robin van Persie are still closely involved. The other articles will feature Denmarks profile in the World Cup 2010 Netherlands vs. Denmark.

Africa Welcomes the Whole Soccer World

Soccer City stadium, the South African flagship featured a dominant yellow and brightly colored flags.  The buzz of thousands of people from all over the world was suddenly overwhelmed as fighter jets cruised overhead.  And as the sky cleared from the smoke, five silver falcons emblazed their tails with the South African flag.  This triggered the excitement of the crowd to a higher level.  The moment the African nation has been started counting down from the time they were awarded the venue of the 2010 World Cup.  Now the grand time has arrived. 

Zolina Mikhiva, a poet and praise singer cried out to his fellow Africans that on this day history is rewritten.   He is the youngest practicing poet of Africa’s oldest oral traditions called kubonga.  The World Cup has been brought to African soil. 

A drummer from each of the nine directions united in a ring and surrounded the praise singer. The song translated into different colors as 270 women in brilliant colored blankets went in line behind the drummers.  The lines pointed out to the nine directions of the other stadiums in the other host cities where new stories will unfold as the 2010 FIFA World Cup will become apparent as the games culminate on the month.

All in all there are a total of more than 1500 South African dancers, artists, performers and musicians ranging from the ages of six and sixty greeted the World to Africa.  Unlimited potential opens the hope for Africa with energy.  They performed dances and songs ranging from uQongothwane which was popularized by Miriam Makeba, to Didi which was sang by Khaled from North Africa.  This song was a tribute to the six teams of Africa, the greatest number that was represented at a FIFA World Cup.

Johannesburg started on a very ordinary day, but with a great make over by the African, the continent was unveiled to the world, it was no longer a usual day but a vibrant sun poured into Africa that warmly welcomed the world as they start to watch the cradle of civilization.

R Kelly a Multiple Grammy Award winner and the Soweto Spiritual Singers left the spectators overjoyed as they sang the showpiece ceremonial song ‘Sign of Victory’ which acknowledged all 208 initial member associations that participated for a position in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 32 nations that ultimately succeeded.  After the ceremony, the sounds of rejoicing rose again in South Africa.  And all was set for the opening match between South Africa and Mexico.

Slovakia vs Paraguay: World Cup 2010 Live Streaming Updates

World Cup 2010: Slovakia will play against Paraguay on 20/06 13:30 in Mangaung / Bloemfontein

News about World Cup 2010 Slovakia vs. Paraguay. Paraguay’s World Cup team top player Salvador Cabanas was shot in the head on dawn Monday on a bathroom bar in a neighborhood of a well off area in Mexico City. The 29-year-old striker had surgery but the doctors failed to remove the bullet stuck in the skull. Dr. Ernesto Martinez, member of the surgical team, said they could not guarantee that his life is no longer in danger. But he said the player is on a stable condition.

The Attorney General of Mexico City Miguel Angel Mancera made an ocular inspection to the bar and said the crime did not appear to be robbery since nothing was taken.

Cabanas is playing for the Mexico City team America. Michael Bauer the Club president said Cabanas was conscious when he got to the hospital and was able to talk while waiting for surgery.

He was confused and didn’t know what happened. He was asking where he is being taken and why he has to go there. This was what Bauer said to the Mexico television Televisa. He also said Cabanas’ wife said that they were about to leave the bar when he was shot in the bathroom. He was found in the bathroom door, this was said by his wife.

Mancera said, after the incident, four people were questioned, the bar manager, two security guards and the brother-in-law of Cabanas. He said that the brother-in-law even volunteered to testify.

Cabanas’ has been playing since 2003 in the Mexico league and is the highest profile player on the national team. Paraguay will be battling against the likes of New Zealand, Italy and Slovakia in June for the group stage of the World Cup in South Africa.

Cabanas’ accumulated 125 goals in 218 games in Mexico and played last weekend in America’s where they lost to Morelia 2-0. This month he got attention from Steve Bruce, Sunderland manager, who was interested for his services to his club in the Premier League in England.

The Mexican team, Club America said in a statement that they are deeply sorry for what transpired to their beloved Salvador Cabanas and manifest its full support for his family and friends. Juan Angel Napout the Paraguay Football Association president said a doctor will come from Mexico to assist Cabanas. And that they are all praying for him.

He was honored as Player of the year last 2007 on South America’s soccer by Uruguay’s El Pais newspaper; this was the only time a Mexican player has won the award, since there is a long history of violence that involved Latin American soccer players. Watch the exciting World Cup 2010 Slovakia vs. Paraguay game.

Next Page »