In 2006 in Germany, Ghana took out the United States in Group play and sent them home. In 2010, Ghana again decided it was time for the U.S. to leave, taking down them down 2-1 in extra time. As per usual, the U.S. gave up an early goal to put themselves down 1-0 when Prince [...]
In 2006, the Italians recovered from a somewhat slow start in the group stages to catch fire and ride that momentum to a World Cup title. In 2010, it just couldn’t happen. Italy looked slow and old throughout and they were never able to get it going. Slovakia downed the Italians 3-2 on Thursday and [...]
If you watched the United States battle Algeria Wednesday morning the World Cup and had a rooting interest, you probably don’t have much skin left on your fingers. At least we don’t anyway. If the U.S. tied and England did as well (as long as it wasn’t 3-3 or 4-4 or some crap), the U.S. [...]
We admit that we don’t know much about Portugal’s politics. Don’t know; don’t care. We’ll be more concerned when we hear about them bombing our subways or selling illegal hand grenades to that radical Marxist known as Barack Obama. But one thing is clear about Portuguese policy: They hate communism. How do we know? Well [...]
According to multiple reports (including that scroll that runs along the bottom of ESPNNews), David James will replace Robert Green in goal for England this evening in Cape Town. England will battle Algeria this evening in an attempt to solidify their standing in Group C. In case you missed it, this is why Green won’t [...]
The United States played like a big sack of monkey crap in the first have against Slovenia. The decided to dick around until they were down 2-0 heading into the half. But, miraculously they fought back. With help from the trainers, Landon Donovan was able to remove his head from his ass at halftime. He [...]
Hooray for the United States soccer team! We have waited yet another four years only to see our team take a big fat dump on the field. That’s right, Slovenia, which has roughly the population of Houston, has come out and taken a 1-0 lead in the World Cup against the United States. But wait, [...]
If you’ve been having some issues with Twitter recently, get in line. It seems that the global event that is the World Cup is just assaulting the Twitter servers. Who is responsible? Is it Gianluigi Buffon? Is he tweeting about his bad back? Are the French tweeting/bitching about the new ball and the vuvuzelas? Maybe [...]
Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon left Monday’s match against Paraguay at halftime due to a bum sciatic nerve. After the match, he said he thought he’d be back to normal in a few days, but that might not be the case. The team physician said that Buffon has a “serious” back issue that could sideline him [...]
We previously posted a report that an irritated sciatic nerve sent Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon to the bench after the first half of their World Cup game against Paraguay. Now, ESPN is reporting that it was actually his hamstring that was injured. According to all the folks on Twitter, no one can figure out exactly [...]
Gianluigi Buffon is considered by many to be the best goaltender in the world. But, he was subbed out at halftime of Monday’s World Cup game against Paraguay and we’re trying to find out exactly why. UPDATE: ESPN’s Mike Tirico is now saying that Buffon injured his hamstring. We saw one item that claimed that [...]
Big news for the United States World Cup team. Tim Howard, one of the best goaltenders in the world, was cleared to play against Slovenia on Friday after he bruised his ribs in a collision with Emile Heskey Saturday night. The U.S. tied England 1-1 in that game and both sides are tied for second [...]
The FIFA World Cup will begin this Friday and the OTR newsroom is getting ramped up. Since Americans are finally showing some interest in soccer, ESPN has stepped up its plan for this year’s broadcast. It’s about time. All 64 matches will be broadcast live with any games on ESPN or ESPN 2 also being [...]
If Bob Bradley decides to use Jozy Altidore and Oguchi Onyewu in this weekend’s World Cup opener, they’ll be ready. Altidore sprained his ankle six days ago, but practiced fully on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Onyewu is good to go after sufferering a torn patellar tendon in a World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica back in October. [...]
Michael Essien, star midfielder for Ghana, has been ruled out for the World Cup. The Chelsea star suffered a knee injury in January and medical tests have revealed that he won’t be fully fit until after the tournament. “An evaluation by a combined team of medical experts from the Ghana Football Association and Chelsea Football [...]
This kid is something else. Madin Mohammad is an Algerian kid that clearly has watched some soccer/futbol at some point in his life. Mohammad is sporting the moves of a high school kid (maybe even older). And if you’ve ever played/coached/watched six-year old soccer games, then you know that this kind of ability equates to [...]
The Philadelphia Union are still in their first year in the MLS and could use some help. That’s why they reached out to try to sign former Arsenal star Robert Pires. The only problem? Pires doesn’t want to play for Philly because, according to reports, the city isn’t pretty enough for him. He says he’d [...]
Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack went down with an injured ankle on Saturday in the FA Cup final. Ballack is a starter for Germany, but now it’s not known if he’ll be able to play in the World Cup in South Africa. “It’s not that good at the moment, but I have to wait until tomorrow [...]
Despite not being able to play at the World Cup in South Africa for England due to an Achilles tendon injury, David Beckham is expected to help coach the team to victory, as far as you know. Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Beckham is expected to act as an intermediary between the management and players, [...]
In 1994, Russian forward Oleg Salenko won the Golden Boot (tied actually) award for the World Cup, which goes to the player who scores the most goals in the tournament. Amazingly, Salenko won the award despite getting knocked out in the first round. We guess that’s what happens when you put home five in one [...]
Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney limped off of the pitch in the 77th minute of the team’s season-ending 4-0 victory over Stoke. The 24-year old (how is he only 24? He’s been playing forever it seems) aggravated a groin injury just one month before he is to play in the World Cup for England. “I [...]
We understand why the official FIFA song selection committee (we don’t know if there really is such a thing) would want to pick Shakira to create and perform a World Cup anthem for this year’s tourney in South Africa. But apparently, the song “Waka Waka” (means “This is Africa”) isn’t being received so well. It [...]
We admit it. We love soccer (as far as you know). And as the World Cup gets closer, we’ll be posting more stuff about soccer, or futbol as the rest of the world knows it. We also admit that there are some problems with the sport. First of all, the diving just makes it a [...]
Oh boy. This is flat-out hysterical. You couldn’t make this up. MLS at its finest! Kansas City Wizards striker Kei Kamara found himself all alone with no one between himself and the goal. We know, you’ve heard this before. A guy has an easy goal and he screws it up somehow and sends the ball [...]
Former Real Madrid and French superstar Zinedine Zidane says that he regrets headbutting Italy’s Marco Materazzi at the end of a brilliant World Cup final in 2006. The headbutt drew a red card and he was unavailable in the penalty shootout, which France lost. He regrets it, but he’ll be damned if he tells him [...]
