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Archives: February 2006

Mexican Surprise?
31st March 2006
Goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez has predicted that Mexico can cause an upset in Germany. He believes that Mexico are not too far behind the leading nations and if they hit form, they could go a long way in the competition. The 2002 tournament in Japan and Korea provided several upsets
Sporting Life

No Speculation for Henry in Germany
31st March 2006
Arsenal striker, Theirry Henry, has said his club future will be resolved before France start on their World Cup campaign in Germany. There is mounting speculation linking the French superstar with a move to Barcelona this summer. While the news may not be good for Arsenal, it's good news for France as one of their key players will not have his thoughts distracted during the tournament. 2 years ago, Steven Gerrard's poor form in Euro 2004 was blamed on the fact that Chelsea were trying to line up a £30m bid for the midfielder.
Sporting Life

Embrace the World Cup song
28th March 2006
Rock band, Embrace, have been selected to sing England's official World Cup song. The song will be title "World At Your Feet" and the group are hoping it will become a favourite with the supporters at the games. In the past, England have produced some excellent songs for the World Cup with the best being back in 1990 when New Order sang "World in Motion"

TV in school for Argentine pupils
28th March 2006
4 provinces in football-mad Argentina have agreed to allow pupils to watch World Cup matches on TV at school. Naturally, there is a huge amount of opinion on both sides of the fence discussing if this is a good idea or not. During the 2002 tournament, truancy rates rocketed although the dilemma wasn't long lived as Argentina crashed out in the first round. Those against this idea may be praying for a repeat performance
BBC

Eriksson to Madrid
28th March 2006
Real Madrid President, Fernando Martin, has announced a short-list for the managers vacancy. On the list is England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson who is leaving his current job after this summer's World Cup finals. Other names on the list include Jose Mourinho, Rafael Benitez and Arsene Wenger. The big factor in Eriksson's favour is that he is the only one of the group currently without a job so there would be no complications in dealing with a current employer.
Sporting Life

World Cup Ticks
23rd March 2006
Yes ticks. The little blighters will be present in several of the venues for this summer's finals. By venues, we mean the campsites in the area - they're not staffing the refreshment stalls in the stadiums. Ticks are blood-suckers and they don't even have the decency to live in a big Transylvanian castle and only come out at night. Instead, the homeless scroungers set up camp in your crevices - the groin being the favourite, the armpit a close second, then they get stuck in for a dinner...of you! If that wasn't unpleasant enough, they might have Tick Borne Encephalitis (TBE) and that - being potentially life threatening - is about as funny as being hit in the face with a javelin.

However, they're having a bad week because we've just told you to be on the lookout for them if you're heading for Germany in the summer. If you see one we suggest you bludgeon it to pieces with a shoe.
World Cup 2006 News

World Cup Referees
23rd March 2006
If there's anything top referees enjoy more than marking out the ten yards a wall must retreat, it's the chance to meet up with fellow whistleblowers and swap tips, compare whistles and tell anecdotes about checking the bottom of substitutes' boots. So, at the very moment you are reading this, forty-four of the world's top officials are having the time of their little lives as they attend a special pre-World Cup workshop in Frankfurt.

There's a fitness test! There's a quiz on the rules of the game! There's an English exam! It sounds like a laugh a minute. There's also a psychological test, which, we'd image, consists of refs being shown pictures of Jose Mourinho and asked what words pop into their head. It's not all fun though, because at the end of workshop just thirty refs will remain, as fourteen are eliminated from the World Cup finals roster, presumably by viewers texting in for their favourites.
World Cup 2006 News

South Africa chasing Eriksson
21st March 2006
The CEO of South African football, Danny Jordaan, believes Sven-Goran Eriksson would be the ideal choice as new team boss when he leaves England after the World Cup. Bafana Bafana suffered a humiliating African Nations Cup recently and there are concerns that in 2010, they could become the first hosts to fail to make the 2nd round. The outrageous £4m ($7m) a year salary Eriksson earns in England does not seem to be a barrier. Jordaan was quoted as saying "I don't think the size of the salary is a consideration"
BBC

No extension to squad deadline
15th March 2006
FIFA have confirmed that there will be no extension to the deadline to name the World Cup squads. All squads must be named by May 15th 2006. Some leading managers had criticised the decision as it is more than 3 weeks before the start of the tournament and 2 before the Champions League final
Sky Sports

Andrade to miss tournament
7th March 2006
Portugese defender, Jorge Andrade, has been ruled out of the World Cup finals after injuring his knee whilst playing for Deportivo La Coruna against Barcelona. Coach Scolari has said "His injury is terrible news" but added that Andrade would be more than welcome to travel to Germany with the squad
BBC Sport

Australia set to lose Hiddink
7th March 2006
Australia Football Federation believe they will lose the services of Guus Hiddink after this summers finals in Germany. Hiddink has been part-timer manager of the Socceroos as well as PSV Eindhoven. Hiddink has led Australia to their first finals in 32 years but has been strongly linked the vacant jobs as national coach of England and Russia
BBC Sport

Leading teams suffer in friendlies
1st March 2006
Today's round of friendly matches provided a few upsets amongst the teams who have ambitions of lifting the World Cup in Berlin this summer. Germany lost 4-1 in Italy. The Italians were 2-0 up inside 7 minutes and 4-0 up in less than an hour. Germany scored a consolation goal in the dying minutes. There were also early goals in the match between Croatia and Argentina. The South Americans led 2-1 after 6 minutes but a goal 2 minutes into injury time gave Croatia a 3-2 victory.  In Paris, a crowd of 70,000 saw France lose 2-1 to Slovakia. In Spain, the match is still in progress but with 30 minutes to go, the home side are 2-1 down against the Ivory Coast.

FIFA may extend deadline
1st March 2006
FIFA president, Sepp Blatter has said that FIFA may consider extending the deadline for countries to finalise their squads for the World Cup. Sven-Goran Eriksson and Jurgen Klinnsman have both publicly objected to the 15th May deadline which is 3 weeks before the tournament starts and before the Champions League final. The matter will be discussed at a FIFA workshop in Dusseldorf later this month
Yahoo Sport