The United States will not be hosting a World Cup any time soon. And if you are a statistic, then you won’t ever see a World Cup in the United Stated in your lifetime. The 2018 World Cup will be played in Russia, provided that it is still called that. And that is also provided [...]
When people talk about the greatest soccer (futbol) players of all time, the names of Pele and Diego Maradona always come up. George Best might as well. But one guy that gets overlooked too often is former Dutch legend Johan Cruyff. Cruyff was an unmitigated stud and he has no problems stating that he didn’t [...]
Spain had high expectations headed into the 2010 World Cup. They were considered the favorites to win the tournament and that’s just what they did when they took out the Dutch 1-0 in Sunday’s final. The Dutch were walking the line of fair play all game. It seemed at one point like every single one [...]
By now, you’ve surely heard about the misfortunes of Ghana in this World Cup. After a great run in the tournament, they were seconds from squaring off against Uruguay in penalty kicks. But then Luis Saurez intentionally handled the ball on the goal line to prevent a last minute goal in the….well…last minute. So that [...]
For the first time ever, Spain will appear in the World Cup’s final four on Wednesday. It seems odd that they never made it this far considering all the talent they have, but it’s true. And they’ll be facing a German squad who probably view this stage of the Cup as old hat. But Spain [...]
On Saturday in South Africa, two world soccer superpowers will do battle in the World Cup quarterfinals. Argentina and Germany are two countries that always seem to have great sides, and this year is no different. And the two teams do have quite an international history. In Mexico in 1986, Diego Maradona and the Argentinians [...]
This World Cup match was brilliant. Very evenly fought. Two teams with completely different styles that were very difficult for the other to take down. Ghana has the big horses that will run and fight all day. They are big and pass pretty well despite their limited soccer skill. Uruguay has the uber-talented Diego Forlan, [...]
Heading into the World Cup, Nigeria was considered to be one of Africa’s more heavily favored teams. They lost their first two games to Argentina (0-1) and Greece (1-2), and tied South Korea (2-2) in their final match finishing dead last in their pool. The Nigerian president was so upset with the under achieving team [...]
We just found a new website that we like and it’s called TheSpoiler.co.uk. It’s all soccer (futbol) news and rumors and we dig it. Well, they are currently hearing that Chelsea is looking to dump one Mr. John Terry. Apparently, they’ve grown tired of his inflated sense of self importance and his knack for sticking [...]
Ah yes, the Vuvuzela. The obnoxious horn that the South Africans think they have to blow into constantly to make a World Cup match more entertaining. We’re too the point where we are so used to it, we don’t know how we’ll react when we watch a soccer game without it. We just started getting [...]
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 [...]
