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World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

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Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

JF_Gophers said:
I'm not surprised to see Henry might sign with the Red Bulls. I am surprised he is playing for France in the World Cup. :eek:
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He might not make it out of NYC alive if the Irish community has anything to say about it.

Also, United will be the opponent for Chelski in the Charity Shield (I refuse to call it Community Shield.) I was kind of rooting for Pompey to get it provided they have a team still. It would have given them a chance at a payday.
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

Shirtless Guy said:
Wish you would see this in American Professional sports when players have horrible years or injury plagued years.
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Quite a generous gesture by Gooch.

Although, one does have to wonder if its really necessary. Clubs (in any sport) should acknowledge that there's a certain degree of risk involved with signing any one player. I wouldn't want players to think that they have to be responsible for that risk if they get injured.

Granted, this gets into the whole "play for club or country" question and the liability that exists when clubs let their players play elsewhere...
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

I think Gooch's move is more of a feel-good gesture than anything. I doubt he'll be in Milan when the unpaid year comes around.
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

Do they have players unions over there?

Because I can't see one here ever letting that happen. They might encourage him to donate his salary to a charity or something, but playing for free would be a no-no.
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

Scheisse.

FRANKFURT -- Germany captain Michael Ballack will miss the World Cup because of a right ankle injury, dealing the three-time champions a serious blow less than a month before the tournament.

The German soccer federation said Monday that the 33-year-old Chelsea midfielder had torn ligaments in his right ankle from a tackle during his club's 1-0 FA Cup final victory over Portsmouth on Saturday.

Ballack's ankle has been put in a cast and the federation said he won't be able to train for at least eight weeks.
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Like most (legal) Americans, I root for USA first and foremost. Then, when the USA is no longer involved, I tend to root for the countries that my ancestors came from. Since Norway and Austria are pretty much nothing in the international sports scene (unless skis are involved), this pretty much makes Germany my #2 team in almost any event not involving warfare.

Frankly, I'm not necessarily worried about losing Ballack's on-pitch contributions (Bastian Schweinsteiger, in addition to having the most German name in existence, is probably their best attacking midfielder), but his leadership will be sorely missed. You don't lose your captain without losing a few strides.
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

And ironically Boateng who is German by birth committed the reckless tackle that injured Ballack and is likely going to play for Ghana, one of Germany's group D opponents.
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

Also in the news - Bob Bradley tries to belatedly manage expectations with regard to Charlie Davies:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2010/05/bob_bradley_comments_on_charli.html

"There is a lot of emotion at the time. From right after the accident until now, he put all his energy and emotion into his rehab and he did it with an obvious timetable. We talked about that along the way."

Bradley then shared a conversation that he had with Davies in February.

"I told him that I felt that, if he could keep his attitude, his mentality, his work ethic, that that was going to be very important. But I also said, 'If you can find a way to work and put everything into it and maybe not have so much to say, I think it would work for you. You don't want to put yourself into position that you are making all this progress, and yet somehow it seems like a failure because the timing just doesn't coincide with the World Cup. What is most important is that you can still get yourself back to the level that you were playing before the accident.'

"We still talk about that with him, and hopefully he got his emotion out but that he can continue to move forward. The guys on the team, his friends, are right there behind him."

Understandably, with training camp open, Bradley didn't want to discuss the issue any further.

My take: Bradley was disappointed in Davies' decision to speak publicly over the last few months and, with the help of flowery media reports, create an impression that he was further along than he actually was. Essentially, Davies built an expectation that he might not (probably not?) be able to meet.
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Also, expect the roster to be trimmed to 23 after next week's friendly with the Czechs.
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

Terrierbyassociation said:
And ironically Boateng who is German by birth committed the reckless tackle that injured Ballack and is likely going to play for Ghana, one of Germany's group D opponents.
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His brother Jerome was also included in Germany's preliminary 27-man roster. He seems unlikely to unseat the Jansen-Mertesacker-Friedrich-Lahm group of probable starters, but might be one of the first couple of guys in off the bench if need be.

How is Lahm still only 26? It seems like he's been around forever. Overall it's a very young group for Germany: Butt, Friedrich and Klose are the only guys over 30 now that Ballack is out; all the midfielders and all the defenders other than Friedrich are 26 or younger.
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

Yeah its weird when brothers chose to play for different countries.

The older brother plays for German youth teams but eventually chooses to play for Ghana, the younger brother stays with the German system and plays for Germany.

So weird.

Lahm is like Michael Owen, how is Michael Owen only 30? Sheesh! He played in a World Cup 12 years ago!
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

Because I'm exhausted and having a hard time focusing on work, here are random things I noticed about the World Cup preliminary rosters:

South Africa: Has players named Surprise, Innocence and MacBeth.
Mexico: Brought back Cuauhtemoc Blanco for some reason. (Diving will presumably ensue.)
Argentina: Has three goalkeepers on the roster, none of whom have more than 5 caps.
Nigeria: All three goalkeepers play club soccer in Israel; none of their other players do.
Greece: Has the most fun names to say. Papastathopoulos. Pastatzoglou. Christodoulopoulos.
England: Was initially the only team consisting entirely of players playing in its own domestic league, though that is also true of Germany now that Ballack is out.
Germany: Has a guy named "Butt".
Ghana: John Paintsil has the most caps (65) of any player included in the roster, more even than Michael Essien.
Denmark: Only has three forwards on their preliminary roster.
Japan: Already named their final squad, which has only four players playing outside Japan.
Cameroon: Has eleven players on the preliminary squad with one cap or fewer, the most of any country.
New Zealand: Has two free agents on their preliminary squad, Simon Elliott and Dave Mulligan.
Brazil: Does not have any Ronaldos of any sort this time.
North Korea: Will probably be the worst team in the tournament, but on the bright side, they do claim to have successfully performed nuclear fusion.
Spain: Lost to the USA last summer. That doesn't have anything to do with their preliminary roster, but it was still awesome.
Switzerland: Already gave their players shirt numbers and everything.
Honduras: Are captained by Amado Guevara, who always struck me as kind of a dick.
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

Is bringing back Blanco so weird? I mean he's old, fat, and slow, but he was a rather large( in more ways than one, hey!), part of their late qualifying effort.
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

jmh said:
Because I'm exhausted and having a hard time focusing on work, here are random things I noticed about the World Cup preliminary rosters:

Spain: Lost to the USA last summer. That doesn't have anything to do with their preliminary roster, but it was still awesome.
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Indeed.
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

blockski said:
Also in the news - Bob Bradley tries to belatedly manage expectations with regard to Charlie Davies:

Also, expect the roster to be trimmed to 23 after next week's friendly with the Czechs.
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I respect Bradley's decision 100%, I think some of this could have been avoided though if he had just said that the first time.

As for the 23, that's a really tight window to make decisions in. Especially when we have 5 forwards who need a look . I'd start Gomez-Altidore, maybe go with Ching-Buddle at halftime, no idea when EJ or Findlay get a look?
 
Re: World Soccer XII: South Africa Awaits

WeWantMore said:
I respect Bradley's decision 100%, I think some of this could have been avoided though if he had just said that the first time.

As for the 23, that's a really tight window to make decisions in. Especially when we have 5 forwards who need a look . I'd start Gomez-Altidore, maybe go with Ching-Buddle at halftime, no idea when EJ or Findlay get a look?
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Is EJ healthy? And I'm assuming Findley is just there to make up numbers. He missed the frame entirely on a break away against Houston last week in the game I saw. Can't say my opinion changed much.

Oh and I expect Thierry Henry's bff status with Tony Parker to get a lot of play in the media. I imagine he'll be joining Spike Jones courtside on a regular basis at the Garden.
 
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