Recently in World Cup 2006 Category

More Sepp Blatter or blather. He is now insinuating that the 2006 World Cup was rigged to favour Germany.

When asked by the Swiss publication Blick about rumors of corruption surrounding the decisions to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively, Blatter responded: "World Cups being purchased.... I am reminded of the World Cup allotment for 2006, when someone left the room at the last moment. And instead of 10:10, the vote was suddenly 10:9 in favor of Germany.... Perhaps in that situation also I was too well-meaning and naïve."

The reaction in Germany was altogether predictable. Franz Beckenbauer and Theo Zwanziger were "unable to comprehend the statements" and there was "no indications to suggest anything was askew". These allegations are not new with Guido Tognoni, a former FIFA executive shedding light on how Germany was awarded the 2006 World Cup, but the timing is interesting.

The German FA had come down hard on Blatter to resign in the wake of the report that fingered him as the FIFA official called P1 with full knowledge of bribes being paid to Joao Havelange, the former FIFA president and a mentor to Blatter. Initially, after denying his complicity using as his defense Swiss law sanctioning such type of payments, he then under pressure said the 96 year old Havelange should be stripped of his title of honorary president. His reaction to the German pressure to step down was to also throw them under the bus. It's a pattern that Blatter has followed in his career as FIFA president. Under threat, he blusters and bluffs his way through, pointing fingers at everyone else except him for the corrupt state of affairs. He could give the late Ken Lay a run for his money.

Think about it. A person leaves the room and it changes the voting and the outcome. The FIFA president is aware of the situation but does nothing to stop it claiming he was too naive. This is the sort of parody that goes into awarding the world's biggest and most lucrative sporting spectacle.

The first family of crime: FIFA

The Guardian has a report on the International Sports Media and Marketing aka ISL, the now infamously bankrupt sports marketing company founded by Horst Dassler in the 1970s paying former FIFA president, Joao Havelange and his son-in-law, Ricardo Teixeira, a FIFA executive and former CBF president, millions of dollars in kickbacks for awarding them the 2002 and 2006 World Cup marketing and TV rights worth billions of dollars.

Swiss prosecutors based in the canton of Zug, launched an investigation linking these two men with the ISL kickbacks worth $42million as well as an additional $38 million as "commissions" to other FIFA and sports bigwigs which took place over a period of eight years from 1992 to 2000.

Under Sepp Blatter, who was Havelange's hand picked successor, these investigations were halted in 2004 after a small amount of money from those amounts were repaid as settlements. Very little was known until an amount of 1m Swiss francs in the name of Joao Havelange was mistakenly directed to a FIFA account.

Now, after eight years under a court order and under pressure by various public interest organizations, the results of these investigations have been finally made public and they make for one fascinating reading of FIFA's criminal activities. FIFA claims its all part of its reformation. But out of the ashes of ISL going belly up rose its successor, Infront Sports and Media. Guess who its CEO is? Philippe Blatter, the nephew of Sepp Blatter. The company was awarded the TV rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup in many Asian countries.

The Hair might have a few goals lurking under his mane

Brek Shea and Sacha Kjlestan get call ups as Timothy Chandler, Landon Donovan, Jose Francisco Torres, and Jermaine Jones miss out on the trip to Genoa through illness and injuries.

Juergen Klinsmann has bad memories of the last time he coached against Italy as Germany lost to the eventual winners in the 2006 World Cup semi-finals. This time he fields a patched up and new look US team. Tall order. But if he should get a positive result or a rousing performance his stock will surely rise.

El Fenomeno scores. Patrick Kluiwert ties. The PKs begin at the end of extra time. The Brazilians are perfect but the Dutch are off. Philip Cocu and Ronald De Boer have their efforts saved by Claudio Taffarel. Brazil are through to the finals against France.

This match could be headed the same way. We have seen some dour defensive intensity on both sides.

Germany seems to have taken the lead in sending out some hefty zingers against the Argentinians ahead of the Saturday semi-final. This will be a match with plenty of testosterone.

A Lahm-Bastiang:

Philip Lahm, the captain accused them of being bad losers characterizing it as a South American trait which should put him on the dock with not just Argentina but Brazil and Paraguay. Bastian Schweinsteiger called them "disrespectful."

Both were part of a German squad that sent the Argentinians packing in the 2006 World Cup in the quarterfinals after winning a penalty shootout. The match ended in a brawl with fisticuffs exchanged.

The English will be watching from the sidelines on Saturday. This could be the second best thing after an England vs Argentina match up.

With Ivory Coast bowing out, Ghana now carries the aspirations of a whole continent. A huge responsibility on the shoulders of the Black Stars.

The first African nation to become a democracy. The first country to broach the concept of Pan Africanism under Kwame Nkrumah. The first African country to organize a football league. The founding member of the CAF.

Ghana is the African country most intimately connected with the American civil rights movement of the 1960s with Marcus Garvey setting up the Black Star, a clandestine shipping line that would repatriate African Americans back to the homeland. The shipping line became the inspiration behind the name of the national soccer team.

Read Soccerblog's "Ghana is the crucible of African soccer" >>

Italy drew with Switzerland, 1-1 after falling behind to Gokhan Inler's goal. Sampdoria striker Fabio Quagliarella making a strong push for a starting XI scored the equalizer.

Why is the result so significant? There is historical precedent. Italy scored 1-1 all draws in the two previous occasions they met Switzerland - before the 1982 and 2006 World Cups, which they went on to win.

How's that for a morale booster? Italy can do with one. Their World Cup build up has been quite dismal.

Cristiano Ronaldo once again did not score but not because of the lack of trying. He got a number of chances but failed to convert.

What must have heartened Carlos Quieroz was that Portugal was able to find goals from other sources including two from Raul Miereles and the final goal by Nani.

Cameroon was reduced to 10 men in the 33rd minute when Samuel Eto'o received two yellow cards seconds of each other and was sent off. Check out his tackle which resulted in Duda executing some of the most theatrical rolls. See Eto'o's reluctance to leave the pitch and then his sideline behaviour.

Without Eto'o the attack lacked a bite although they were able to get on the scoreboard through Pierre Wome's goal.

Eto'o seems to have had a bad week with all the focus on Roger Milla's accusations that the Inter striker has yet to prove himself internationally.

Will Buddle make the final 23 to the World Cup?

23 will be dressed for the match against Czech Republic tomorrow.

The absentees might be the ones with injury concerns like Carlos Bocanegra and Oguchi Onyewu, who are a lock for the World Cup, so those who don't suit up are not necessarily in danger of losing their place. But those healthy and not named in the 23 could be in danger.

In particular, the strikers are going to be a big story. Jozy Altidore is already a shoo in. Brian Ching is going to be his strike partner.

There are two other spots that need to be filled and they are being contested by LA Galaxy's Edson Buddle, who leads the MLS in most scoring statistics including goals scored and shots on goal, RSL's Robbie Findley, an impressive speed merchant who seems to have fallen of the pace from last season, Eddie Johnson nursing a strained hamstring now in the Greek league with Aris Thessaloniki, and Hercules Gomez who scored 10 goals for Puebla in the Mexican Clausura, the most by a US player.

The front runners are Buddle, with his scoring consistency and familiarity with Donovan on attack. Gomez has given good minutes off the bench and could be looked on as a super sub should the US need a goal.

The midfield with 12 right now need to be pruned down to eight or nine. Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark, Maurice Edu, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Stuart Holden, Benny Feilhaber are sureties.

Jose Francisco Torres, Sacha Kljestan, DaMarcus Beasley, Alejandro Bedoya, and Robbie Rogers are the five midfielders in the mix for what should be one to two more spots.

Out of the group, Torres stands head above shoulders in talent level. He is a genuine creator with an eye for a pass and dazzling technical skills. He gives a different look to the US midfield and part of the transition has been integrating that different style.

If Torres is selected, then Bedoya and Kljestan are redundant. Bradley might choose to play someone on the wings having completed his complement of central midfielders. Beasley's lack of playing time at Rangers might go against him. Robbie Rogers is versatile and can play down either flank which might give him the nod.

In defense who will join Oguchi Onyewu, Jay DeMerit, Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Spector, Steve Cherundolo and Jonathan Bornstein?

The defense sports the most injury concerns with Onyewu, DeMerit and Bocanegra all coming back from time off. Bocanegra recently underwent a surgery to repair some torn muscle fibers in the front of the thigh which were restricting knee movement. Gooch is just coming back from a patellar tendon tear that kept him out for seven months. De Merit has an abdominal strain and prior to that a scratched cornea that has kept him away from the pitch.

The choices are Chad Marshall and Clarence Goodson. Both have been impressive on set pieces with Goodson edging out Marshall in his effectiveness. Heath Pearce is the other question mark.

The goalkeepers have little to worry about with Tim Howard, Brad Guzan, and Marcus Hahnemann taking the three spots.

The match against the Czech Republic should evoke some unhappy memories as the USA crashed to a 3-0 loss against them in their first group match in the 2006 World Cup. Many of their stalwarts like Jan Koller, Pavel Nedved, and Karel Poborsky have retired but the present team still boasts Petr Cech, Bordeaux's Jaroslav Plaisil and two dangerous forwards in Martin Fenin and Tomas Necid. An improved performance against them will be a good gauge of World Cup readiness.

David Beckham's World Cup appearances as a player have been nothing to write home about. The negatives have far outshadowed the fewer positive notes.

Now, he is being taken to the World Cup as a full time member of Fabio Capello's coaching staff. I wonder if Diego Simeone might have a few thoughts on this move. The Argentinian defender after retirement has had a fairly fruitful career as a coach in his county's domestic league. He is also the nemesis forever associated with Beckham's World Cup appearances.

One of Beckham's functions would be to assist Capello in communication. The Italian has never had the best command of the English language and he would entrust the former Milan player with the task of making his tactics known to the players, especially the younger ones.

Now, there would be some merit in this proposal if Capello had come on board two months ago as national coach.

At this stage, one would think if communication were indeed a problem for Capello, then there would be a glitch in England's dramatic comeback from Euro 2008 disaster. After two years as coach to Theo Walcott, Aaron Lennon, and Wayne Rooney, Capello did not give the impression that there was a letdown in information dissemination. And if Beckham is his choice of chief communicator, he could definitely do better.

Beckham will also assist on the training ground. Could Aaron Lennon and Theo Walcott benefit from coaching tips to better service the ball? Maybe. Beckham whose career has been built around such endeavours could be useful in solving these problem areas for both players. However, there is a distinct static quality to Beckham's service. Making such adjustments to the known pace and acceleration of both wingers will be a challenging task. Speed and accuracy are usually inversely proportional to each other.

Still, it does represent a step up from cheerleader in chief.

"It's a big decision for David because he is still getting over the fact that he can't play in South Africa," a source close to Beckham said last night. "But he's always keen to help England in any way he can."

Could be a move fraught with danger. The media circus will be a distraction as will all the less salubrious details of wife in tow.

" I was in the past twenty years, probably one of the most entertaining players in Germany, with my mistakes, escapades, special antics, and also with my performances, I made a lot of people laugh, cry, happy, offering wonderment. "

So begins Lehmann's new book. And it has a lot of Ollie Kahn.

" It is Friday, 7th April 2006. For almost a year the smoldering question who should be at the World Cup in Germany as goalkeeper of the national team - Oliver Kahn or me."

Lehmann gets a fateful call from Andy Kopke, the goalkeeping coach.

"It's not been easy for us, we have sat together since yesterday evening. But we have decided its you."

A number of ways he could celebrate cross his mind. But in the end he allows himself a small smile of satisfaction. It took 35 years for Lehmann but here he was, finally, the goalkeeper of the Mannschaft.

That paper he had which he kept looking at after each penalty kick in the match between Germany and Argentina and shoving back into his socks. In it all the vital information on the penalty takers written by Kopke. In pencil.

By the time it came to Esteban Cambiasso, the note was smudged. Lehmann looked for his name frantically but it was not there. Suddenly, in a split second he remembered the quarterfinal match in the Champions League: Inter vs Villareal. Cambiasso firing in a free kick into the left hand corner of goal.

The moment was nigh as the player had already begun his run to the ball and about to strike the ball when Lehmann centered himself and jumped to the left. It was the right decision. Germany were through to the semi-finals thanks to Lehmann's preternatural goalkeeping.

He also acknowledges Kahn's words wishing him well before the penalty shootout. Something that he was not able to to do at that time caught up with his preparations.

Gazzetto Dello Sport has a nicely chalked out primer Monopoly board on Calciopoli including recent developments. In an ideal world, the perpetrators would be facing considerable amounts of time in jail without bail.

The Calciopoli scandal which engulfed the Serie in May 2006 exposed the web of match fixing and rigged refereeing in the Italian league. It led to Juventus losing the Scudetto and relegated to Serie B. Fiorentina, Lazio, and AC Milan were the other clubs docked points.

However, four years later, the reverberations of Calciopoli are still being felt with the revelation that more clubs were involved.

The disgraced Juve general manager, Luciano Moggi has come up with 74 such phone taps that implicate not just Inter but the presidents of Palermo, Reggina, Cagliari, and Bologna who were in contact with FIGC referee designators. The biggest fish obviously is Inter because they benefited most from Juve's fall by being awarded the 2005 Scudetto.

Lawyer Paolo Trofino, defending Moggi, manager dropped that bombshell last month.

He read part of what he called "the mother of all phone calls." Giacinto Facchetti, Inter's president at that time talking on the phone to Paolo Bergamo and saying, "Put in Collina, into the grid for the draw." Bergamo is one of the referee designators.

The Collina reference is the most obvious one in a series of phone calls between Fachetti had with Bergamo and Pierluigi Pairetto, another designator. But there are others to Gennaro Mazzei in charge of assistants, Massimo De Santis, a former referee, Francisco Ghirelli, the FIGC secretary, and Tullio Lanese, the former president of the Italian Referee Association. The phone calls took place between 2004 and 2005. All the above mentioned except Pierluigi Collina were charged following Calciopoli and given varying sentences.

In one call Bergamo refers to Nicola Ayroldi, a linesman recently in the news for officiating a recent Fiorentina vs Inter match and then engaging in a small celebration after the match ended in a draw. The gesture did not escape the eagle eyed Jose Mourinho who instantly surrounded the linesman and demanded an explanation. It is commonly believed that Ayroldi is a Rossoneri fan.

Another call states that Paparesta was well prepared. Gianluigi Paparesta was a referee implicated in Calciopoli in 2006 and stripped off refereeing duties. So was Silvio Gemignani and Salvatore Racalbuto, two other referees named in the phone calls. In yet another call, "Trefeloni is calm and available." Matteo Trefoloni was the referee who caused quite a stir sending off Michael Beauchamp, instead of Mikael Jacobsen, for a foul on Rangers striker Georgios Samaras, in a Champions League match against Aalborg last season.

Facchetti talks to Mazzei asking him to," choose well the assistants for the Saturday game." With Pairetto, "In the message, did you inform Trefoloni these are private matters."

These are indications that Calciopoli was not just a scandal, it was a way of life in Italian football with its cozy connections with referee arbitrators and match officials. After all it is only a scandal, if a few get away with it. What if the whole system is rigged to benefit all. That might be what Moggi is telling us this with these new revelations. He most obviously took the fall. But still one would be dismayed at the prospect of the great Giacinto Facchetti, a player as clean as a whistle in his Inter career, being exposed as yet another idol with feet of clay. Where have you gone Joe Di Maggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes at you.

The expansion of the investigation takes place just a month before the World Cup in the same way Calciopoli hit a month before the 2006 edition. It led to the alleged suicide attempt of Gianluca Pessotto, Juve's vice president causing turmoil amongst the Juve members of the squad. Captain Fabio Cannavaro, a close friend of Pessotto returned for a brief time in the midst of the campaign to offer solace.

The Gazzetta primer is a great read. It is in Italian but hopefully the website might carry an English translation soon.

Almost five years after the Soca Warriors secured qualification to the 2006 World Cup, 13 of their players are still owed money by Jack Warner, the powerful president of the T&T football federation.

He is a kingmaker when it comes to keeping Sepp Blatter in power or awarding the World Cup. Andrew Jennings, the BBC reporter who has made exposing corruption in sports highest echelons has extensively documented Warner's career in corruption and nepotism.

The TTFF after the World Cup declared that they had made no money. They declared a revenue of £1.5 million and a expenditure of almost the same amount. This amounted to about a paltry sum of £500 each for the players. Naturally, the players refused. Warner accused them of 'greed.' Later it was revealed that the federation had made nearly £15 million.

A UK court decision in May 2008 ruled overwhelmingly in favour of the players receiving a substantial settlement. But after two years none of the players have seen any of the money.

What is galling about this situation is that the Soca Warriors were one of the big stories of the 2006 World Cup on and off the field. They held off Sweden with a man down. And kept England at bay till that fateful moment when Peter Crouch scored by climbing over Brent Sancho pulling on his dreadlocks. Toru Kamikawa, the referee completely missed the call as thousands of pictures and video footage showed the foul as it unfolded.

The Warriors were also followed by thousands of passionate fans whose joie de vivre livened up the World Cup. Those were promising times.

Many of the players have since retired or are out of contract and now cannot depend on a paycheck to keep them and their families above water. Kelvin Jack is one of them. At 34 years, he was getting £80,000 a year at Gillingham before he broke his leg. With his future uncertain, a nice healthy payoff would be very welcome.

Brent Sancho, whose dreadlocks helped Peter Crouch score was once again front and center when he scored an own goal against Paraguay, which effectively ended T&T's progress out of the 2006 World Cup group stages. He has since retired from international football and now plays for the USL Rochester Rhinos. Sancho's decision to retire was made in disgust at the TTFF reneging on their promise of payment.

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From Pele’s Telstar in 1970 to the Jabulani for South Africa 2010, the History of the Ball:

The first one of these that I owned was the Tango from 1978 - that was Mario Kempes‘  World Cup.

Good beer too.

The Egyptians summon the Algerian envoy twice, recall their envoy from Algiers. Sudan summons the Egyptian envoy in Khartoum. The Algerian embassy is currently under siege in Cairo with thousands of fans trying to storm their compound. It's all happening in rapid succession.

Now Egypt has upped the ante threatening to pull out of football for two years in protest of what happened to fans, sports officials, and players in Sudan.

It is no coincidence that these actions like recalling the Egyptian envoy to Algeria and now threatening withdrawal is happening while FIFA has launched disciplinary investigations into what happened in Cairo. It gives the Egyptians a moral high ground by manufacturing outrage, so very opposite to the genuine sense of injustice that the Irish feel at possibly missing out on the World Cup.

One of the overlooked aspects of this imbroglio is the fact that the Egyptians exploited their historical ties with Sudan to take sides before the match. The reaction to their overtures was decidedly lukewarm. After the match was over, the Egyptian media accused Sudan of not protecting their citizens in some isolated and minor incidents. This angered the Sudanese government who summoned the Egyptian envoy to register their protest at these unfair accusations and lack of appreciation at accommodating a match of this magnitude at short notice.

The Algerians are also turning the screws by slapping Djezzy, the Algerian subsidiary of Egyptian telecom giant Orascom, with a $596.6 million bill for outstanding taxes.

The match is long forgotten.

Bob Bradley, its been great coasting along in the CONCACAF on decaf but for the big leagues you need something stronger.

Unfortunately, this is what happens when you play in a region that creates a set of inflated expectations akin to playing the grandiosely named World Series. The US baseball team always gets found out in the World Baseball Classic just like the US team today against Italy.

One thing must be clear if we are to make meaningful progress.

There is no place for the Greg Lalas woe is us attitude. Those are just a grab bag of ill advised victimizations.

If only, but only if Ricardo Clark was on the pitch. See it happened last time too with Pablo Mastroeni and Eddie Pope, otherwise we would have won. We never catch a break. The big teams always get away with it. If it was Gattuso who had fouled, he would have been let off with a warning.

At the same time, we also proudly say, we were the only team to go undefeated against Italy. Which is it? And if we are saying that everything goes swimmingly for teams like Italy, spare a thought for Cristian Zaccardo who gave us the gift of an own goal that allows us that pride. The game is full of ups and downs.The Italians also had Calciopoli and Gianluca Pessotto's attempted suicide to deal with. They managed to pull through to win the World Cup.

We can say that it took an American of Italian heritage to sink us. But Giuseppe Rossi is part of the game's delicious ironies. Argentina's 6-1 historic lambasting to a Bolivian team was sparked by Marcelo Martins and Alex Da Rosa, two players with Argentinian roots.

It is noteworthy that Ricardo Clark, Pablo Mastroeni, and Eddie Pope who received red cards have spent their careers in the MLS. This might be a coincidence but it could suggest the league is on the average less disciplined or that players are ill prepared to deal with the pace of these international matches. These are structural issues Bob Bradley needs to deal with and come up with solutions.

Lets put it this way. We rarely get to play quality opposition and when we get beaten, it leads to the same sort of hand wringing. The Confederation Cup is a good way to find out where we actually are. 2002 was an aberration and from some of the reactions, still induces a hangover.

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Mohammed Bin Hammam, AFC president is thumbing his nose at FIFA directives that reinstate the voting rights of five countries in the AFC.

He had stripped these countries of their privileges at the behest of the ad-hoc legal committee's recommendations. As per the committee four countries did not deserve representation because their participation in tournaments do not meet AFC standards.

The countries falling foul are Laos, Timor Leste, Mongolia and Afghanistan. The fifth country, Kuwait has an interim association not recognized by the AFC.

FIFA has recognized the tournaments and the Kuwaiti association as legitimate. They however, have questioned the AFC's legal committee's jurisdiction. As per FIFA "it has no competence to take any decision with legal effect” and secondly it’s up to the AFC Congress to decide about voting rights of member associations.

Mohammed Bin Hammam has been Asian football's caretaker overseeing its revival since 2002. However, his increasingly authoritarian streak is causing many to throw their support behind Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa, from Bahrain who is challenging Hammam for a seat in the FIFA executive committee.

It is under Hammam's watch that Australia was admitted to the Asia zone which has been acknowledged by them as a major factor in improving their game. He obviously has a stake in improving football in Asia but the standards applied to these five countries appear very arbitrary and in contravention of FIFA rules.

Cristiano Ronaldo is a great club player. He has garnered every accolade including FIFA world player of the year and Man U's first Ballon d'Or winner in 40 years. In comparison, his national duty so far has been pedestrian by his own standards.

There appears to be a pattern. Very good performances into the lead up to the tournament where he tends to then play with a very marked "carry the team on the shoulders" quality that proves detrimental.

He came to the 2006 World Cup with the second best tally in the European qualifiers but gained notoriety for his extra curricular activities on Rooney. His actual contribution was just a PK goal against Iran. Again in Euro 2008, he scored a total of eight goals as David Healey stole the show in the qualifiers but apart from the match against the Czech Republic, where he scored a goal and assisted in the two others he did very little of note in the big quarterfinal against Germany. They lost the match 2-3 on a late rally.

So far his performances in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers have been very dull. 270 minutes of nothing. Portugal have struggled with three goal less draws against Sweden and Albania. This from a team brimming with attacking firepower like that of Ronaldo and in a group from which they should easily qualify. A note here, Ronaldo was captain of these three matches and he has not scored. It appears as if Carlos Queiroz is burdening the Man U winger.

I have to say, his performances are an inversion of another left winger, Lukas Podolski whose Bayern Munich career is pretty checkered but his national output has been outstanding.