A 49-year-old Diego Maradona shows how it's done during Argentina team practice at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Jabulani ball and all.
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Interesting statistics courtesy of the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/sports/soccer/2010-world-cup-team-rankings.html?ref=global-home England's worst defeat at any major tournament was meted out by an excellent German team. It will be pointed out that England had a perfectly good goal disallowed (it was), that the manager Capello did this and that, but in the end this was a poor England team throughout the 4 games played in this World Cup. The English must take a very close look at their Premier League and youth development programs.
None of this should in any way detract from the awesome German performance. This 4-1 drubbing of England will not be forgotten soon. It's worth pointing out that although an Italian team won the Champions League this year there were no Italian players on the team that won the title!
Italy have crashed out of the World Cup. And it was a horrible crash, bottom of their group! But it was no accident. The writing was on the wall. Below is the picture that tells the story.  I had intended to take a break from commentary on political and social issues and limit my self to the World Cup. But this sort of racism is totally unacceptable. Something must be done, especially in a country that deems itself "cosmopolitan" and a tourist destination.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/22/pan-arab-narrative-myth-lebanon (Arabic) http://international.daralhayat.com/internationalarticle/155906 I hasten to add that once when I filming was in Sudan on the banks of the Nile I saw some kids approaching gathering all sorts of plastic bags and rubbish. I asked the old Sudanese man I was interviewing who the children were. "Pay them no attention, they are Negroes," he said! Almost purely defensive, negative tactics by Greece. But Argentina were too good not to score, even with many changes to the first team. Justice done. Lovely to see Diego Maradona's passion for the beautiful game.
Switzerland's defence was bound to come unstuck after the incessant pounding of a non-stop Chilean attack. Unfortunately, Switzerland's manager Ottmar Hitzfeld didn't seem to have a plan B after Chile's 75th minute goal.
A card-happy referee and a dubious goal (offside) do nothing to change what is ultimately a fair result. Credit to the Chileans who kept pouring forward even after scoring what turned out to be the game winner. They could've retreated defensively and attempted to protect their advantage; instead they lashed the Swiss with wave after wave of continuous strikes. Depending on the results of the remaining 3 matches in the group (Honduras-Spain, Chile-Spain and Honduras-Switzerland) Chile may come to regret all their missed chances if goal difference comes into play All I will do is quote what our 9-year-old said after Portugal's 7th goal:
"This is a really sad moment for North Korea." Poor sportsmanship by Ivory Coast, or Cote d'Ivoire as they like to be called. Terrible refereeing by the French official who allowed the handballs that made Brasil's second goal. But more importantly the Ivory Coast players were unpunished for some terrible fouls on the Brasilians, they did everything possible to intimidate the boys from Brasil and with some shameful play-acting Keita got Kaka sent off. Terrible.
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Omar al-Issawi
The desert in the blog title is figurative, not literal. Archives
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