by Kartik Krishnaiyer on July 13, 2010 · 9 comments

World Cup Buzz podcast host Richard Farley, along with co-commentators the Gaffer, Laurence McKenna, and Kartik Krishnaiyer selected their ultimate 23 man World Cup squad.
Only one England player made the ultimate 23: Left Back Ashley Cole who received the votes of both Krishnaiyer and McKenna. No USA or Mexico player made the final squad. (The Gaffer did select Landon Donovan on his ballot and McKenna picked Javier Hernandez for his ultimate 23)
Here it is, the Ultimate 23:
Manuel Neuer (Germany)
Maartin Stekelenburg (Netherlands)
Iker Casillas (Spain) UNANIMOUS SELECTION
Antolin Alcarez (Paraguay)
Diego Lugano (Uruguay)
Sergio Ramos (Spain)
Yuji Nakazawa (Japan)
Fábio Coentrão (Portugal)
Sergio Busquets (Spain)
Ashley Cole (England)
Kevin Prince-Boateng (Ghana)
Andres Iniesta (Spain) UNANIMOUS SELECTION
Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands)
Sami Khedira (Germany)
Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany)
Mesut Ozil (Germany)
Keisuke Honda (Japan)
Xavi Hernandez (Spain)
Dirk Kuyt (Netherlands)
Diego Forlan (Uruguay) UNANIMOUS SELECTION
David Villa (Spain)
Asamoah Gyan (Ghana)
Thomas Muller (Germany)
Others Receiving Votes:
Carles Puyol (Spain)Martin Caceres (Uruguay) Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Netherlands)Landon Donovan (USA) Carlos Tevez (Argentina)Luis Suarez (Uruguay)Fernando Muslera (Uruguay) Winston Reid (New Zealand) Phillip Lahm (Germany) Nadir Belhadj (Algeria) Robert Vittek (Slovakia)Lionel Messi (Argentina) Diego Godin (Uruguay) Claudio Morel (Paraguay)Diego Perez (Uruguay)Maxi Perrera (Uruguay) Gerard Pique (Spain) Jorge Fucile (Uruguay) John Mensah (Ghana)Richard Kingson (Ghana) Mark Paston (New Zealand)Caniza (Paraguay) Juan Sebastian Veron (Argentina) Xabi Alonso (Spain) Gonzalo Higuan (Argentina) Dirk Kuyt (Netherlands) Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon) Mark Gonzalez (Chile) Jesus Navas (Spain)Javier Hernandez (Mexico) Fabio Quagliarella (Italy) Luis Fabiano (Brazil)
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by John Boschini on July 12, 2010 · 1 comment

ESPN’s torrential onslaught of World Cup coverage seems to have been vindicated as 24.3 million Americans tuned in to either ABC or Univision to watch the 2010 World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands.
According to overnight estimates from the Nielson corporation, 15.5 million viewers tuned into the English broadcast on ABC with an 8.1 share. This makes it the most-watched men’s soccer game in history and second in overall soccer broadcasts, ranking behind 1999’s women’s World Cup Final between the USA and China which garnered 17.4 million viewers.
It was also a 6% increase from the 2006 final between Italy and France.
“The 2010 FIFA World Cup was an overwhelming success for ESPN,” said John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president, content. “We experienced record viewership across multiple platforms, including television, broadband, online and ESPN Audio, and it was evident from the overwhelmingly positive reaction just how much fans were drawn to the spectacle of this global sports event. We are already looking ahead with great anticipation to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.”
During the 64 matches ESPN/ABC’s average viewership was 3.2 million viewers, up a whopping 41% from 2006. Univision’s viewership was up 17% from 2006.
ESPN spent $100 million for the broadcast rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. This was also the first World Cup to be available on ESPN3.com but those numbers haven’t been released yet.
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A well deserved retirement
The world of football has shed a collective tear today, after it was revealed that Paul the octopus, from Germany, is ready for the quiet life, by retiring from the psychic business. Paul the psychic octopus has become as much a talking point in some countries as vuvuzelas, and his incredible predicting abilities have made him not only loved by many, but also severely hated by millions of people. Take for example, Argentina, who blame him entirely for their 4–0 thrashing at the hands of Paul’s beloved Germany and attempted to gain revenge by publicly blending an octopus live on their TV network. There are a number of nations who Paul predicted against (including Germany) that have sent in death threats and even octopus recipe suggestions aimed at the poor prophet. Hell, anti-psychic octopus chants have also been rumoured.
Paul’s desire for mussel based treats forced him to use his powerful abilities and predict 8 out of 8 correct World Cup results and he is now one of the most sought after acts in the world. There are a number of options open to the sea creature, including Golden Palace Casino, the IPL cricket league and even Bollywood film writer. Don’t rush into a decision Paul, although maybe you should make an instant decision — as you probably already know which path is the correct one. One thing that could slow things down for Paul, however, is a three nation tug of war that is occurring between Germany, England and Italy, who all claim that he is a son of their nation. In actual fact, Italy claim that he is in actual fact Paolo “the psychic” octopus — only adding to his legend.
I’d wish you luck in whatever you do Paul, but you don’t need it considering your incredible powers. The world of football will miss your amazing predictions and if you ever find yourself wanting to relive old times, you’re welcome to come see me in England and who knows — maybe we’ll put an accumulator on…
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It was hardly a spectacle to behold and failed to embody what some of us call “the beautiful game”, but it was a finale to the World Cup nonetheless and happily served up talking points. The resounding feeling from football fans worldwide must be a sense of loss, regardless of the final outcome. Before a World Cup final, or any cup final for that matter, it is almost a curse to wish for an exciting match that will provide some attractive football. This game between Holland and Spain definitely had a cursed aspect to it, and was painful to watch at stages.
They may not have flown like Dutchmen, but they did fight like pirates, as the tone for the match was set as early as the 2nd minute when a rash challenge from Robin van Persie on Pedro saw the Dutch striker given a yellow card. A flurry of yellow cards ensued and by the 23rd minute, three other players had paved their way into the referee’s notebook for cynical fouls. During the opening stages, Spanish players were drawn into this back and forward sequence of cynical play, collecting two yellow cards for their actions. However, as the game wore on, they comfortably grew out of this and were outplayed in the area of tactical fouls by the Dutch.
It was disappointing to see the Dutch performance degenerate to this level on a collective basis. Before the final, certain players, namely Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong, had been principally charged with stifling opponents’ play through fouling, but on a whole, Holland seemed to happily adopt this responsibility as a team for the final.
Their intentions are commonplace in World football. Specific players on all teams are in charge of marking key opposing player out of the game or fouling opponents while counter attacks still brew a safe distance from their goal, and in Holland’s case they started off with understandable intentions. From the start, the Netherlands’ holding midfielders Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong pursued Xavi and Iniesta higher up the pitch so as to prevent any flow or momentum building in Spanish attacks. Their execution, however, was mostly distasteful, with execution being the appropriate word.
Van Bommel’s actions quickly got him a yellow card after a late challenge on the aforementioned Xavi. His midfield counterpart, de Jong, soon after got himself a yellow card to his name for a ridiculous, bordering on intentional, kick to the chest of Xabi Alonso. One would have hoped that being reprimanded for their individual offenses would have seen these two players back away from the borderline of the law, but the excessive tackles continued and ruined the spectacle.
Trying to focus on more positive aspects of the game, the Spanish continued their habitual dominance of the game from the off and were deserved winners in the end. The first tactical victory went to their way as great off the ball movement from right-winger Pedro to a more central position dragged Netherlands left-back Giovanni van Bronckhorst infield and created space for attacking Spanish right-back Sergio Ramos. This move nearly led to the opening goal for Spain as Ramos was able to attack Dirk Kuyt and unleash a vicious cross across the face of goal that was luckily deflected away by Dutch defender John Heitinga.
The right wing offered a lot of joy for Spain as on the hour mark the introduction of touchline winger Jesús Navas gave Spain more width to their play, this time dragging van Bronckhorst right out to the touchline. Eventually the pace of Navas forced Holland coach Bert van Marwijk into changing his reliant captain for Edson Braafheid to deal with the this speed.
Another key battle on the field was fought out between Arjen Robben and Iker Casillas. Robben was talked of as a possible match winner for the Netherlands, and admittedly he could have been. On two seperate occasions, the flying Dutchman found himself one on one with Spanish goalkeeper Casillas. His first chance after latching onto Wesley Sneijder’s through ball was the clear cut opportunity, while the second nearly five minutes later which saw Robben fend off Puyol excellently was another great chance for Holland to take the lead.
Credit must be given to Casillas for the authority he showed over the two seperate situations. In the first incident, Casillas delayed his dive and forced Robben to take the initiative to shoot at goal, while for the second opportunity he prevented Robben from dribbling around him in what is usually second nature to the winger. The second chance for Robben also portrayed Casillas for the great keeper that he is as he anticipated the movement of Robben to calmly smother the ball.
After being so tactically astute in the first half with his application of Pedro, and then managing to change that system so effectively in the second half to wreak even more havoc, Vicente del Bosque made yet another inspired substitution in the 87th minute. His decision to bring on Fabregas for Alonso can be hailed as a match winning substitution that tipped the favour of the game towards the Spanish in extra time.
With Fabregas now on the pitch, Holland had an entirely new type of dynamic player to deal with. His late runs into the box and willingness to take the ball on around the penalty area offered something different to Alonso who stands off play. Having Fabregas higher up the pitch, he was able to pick up a stray clearance from van der Vaart to set up Iniesta for the winning goal.
It would be hard to end without lamenting Spain for being wasteful with their chances for the seventh game in a row. However, they are World champions now, and although they may leave a bit too much to chance, every champions goes through their fair share of luck.
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Spain has won their first world title, a 116th minute goal from Andres Iniesta giving the European Champions the 2010 World Cup with a 1–0 victory over the Netherlands. It was a match defined by missed opportunities and aggressive play, with the Dutch taking their new-found pragmatism to unexpected levels. Ultimately, a Spanish team which came to the fore of the footballing world early 2007 cemented their legacy by raising the world’s most most famous trophy on the pitch of Soccer City.
To talk about the final match of World Cup 2010, I was joined late Sunday by Kartik Krishnaiyer and Laurence McKenna for this edition of the World Cup Buzz Podcast.
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FIFA dodged a massive security threat Sunday night after the World Cup Final when a man ran across the pitch and attempted to put a hat on the World Cup trophy.
The pitch intruder was detained by security officers and whisked away. However, this raises questions about stadium security. Luckily the intruder seemed only intent on drawing attention to himself and the company he was promoting. But it could have easily been a dangerous incident if the intruder was intent on injuring someone.
More pictures after the jump: Read the rest of this story»
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It was a long and tense World Cup Final. Spain kept on creating chances up front and rifling shots after shots at the Netherlands, but the Dutch kept the Spaniards out of the game until late in extra time. It only seemed like a matter of time before Spain would score, and score they did with a well-taken goal by Andres Iniesta.
Here are photographs of Spain celebrating the 2010 World Cup win. Congratulations Espana and commiserations to Netherlands on a game well played. More pictures after the jump:
Read the rest of this story»
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