Posts tagged soccer

sweetcocoatakky: talk of the town!!

sweetcocoatakky:

talk of the town!!

afootballreport:

Brazil, it’s time to catch up in the race to 2014

“[Brazil] will be ready because it is the World Cup and no one can afford not to be ready for the World Cup.” - Sepp Blatter

Sepp, that’s just not how things work. The timetable of preparedness for the World Cup is against Brazil. We’re all going to try to go to the World Cup regardless of the levels of chaos, but we’ve all spoken with our Brazilian friends. The response from the World Cup hosts’ countrymen / voices of reason is the same: it’s going to be a mess.

Now, you expect a mess when the whole world throws a party for a month straight, but it’s rarely been this bad this close to the tournament. Only two of six stadiums are ready for the Confederations Cup in June.

Most recently, the Brazilian government has called upon the United Nations to assist with meeting deadlines for construction. As Reuters reports, “The Brasilia government signed this week a 35 million reais ($17.61 million) agreement with two U.N. agencies under which they will procure services and items such as tents, generators and security cameras for the stadium… The U.N.’s main advantage: It can acquire goods and services without going through the complex and lengthy procurement process required by the Brazilian government.”

Calling upon the UN is a desperate measure, but hopefully one that finally motivates the South Americans to get their act together. Brazil wants to truly showcase its standing as an emerging power, and - perhaps unfortunately - we’re all watching closely. [For more on the progress, or lack thereof, in Brazil, be sure to give our friend Chistopher Gaffney (Academic Geographer and Investigative Journalist) a follow. Posted by Eric]

afootballreport: The long road to recovery “With concussions, the hardest part was just sort of the unknown. There isn’t anything the doctors can do for you besides give you advice. As far as treating your body and giv[ing] your brain the adequate rest that it needs, there’s no ligament you can repair. Nothing like that so that was the hardest part for me, the uncertainty, kind of, you know, the constantness of my symptoms.” Over at Dynamo Theory, Houston Dynamo player Calen Carr talks about the effects of concussions, MLS’ league-wide response strategy, and the road to recovery. If we’re going to begin a dialogue about concussions, we have to start somewhere. Right? [Posted by Maxi]

afootballreport:

The long road to recovery

“With concussions, the hardest part was just sort of the unknown. There isn’t anything the doctors can do for you besides give you advice. As far as treating your body and giv[ing] your brain the adequate rest that it needs, there’s no ligament you can repair. Nothing like that so that was the hardest part for me, the uncertainty, kind of, you know, the constantness of my symptoms.”

Over at Dynamo Theory, Houston Dynamo player Calen Carr talks about the effects of concussions, MLS’ league-wide response strategy, and the road to recovery. If we’re going to begin a dialogue about concussions, we have to start somewhere. Right? [Posted by Maxi]

Fans at the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti take in the Real Madrid-Barcelona match. Onscreen is Cristiano Ronaldo being fouled. Photo by @dejiridoo

Fans at the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti take in the Real Madrid-Barcelona match. Onscreen is Cristiano Ronaldo being fouled.

Photo by @dejiridoo

President Obama watches the 2012 Champions League Final

image

May 19, 2012

“At Camp David for the G8 Summit, European leaders took a break to watch the overtime shootout of the Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich Champions League final. Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom, the President, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, French President François Hollande react during the winning goal.” (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

whitehouse.gov

hearthearart: Hombre Va!! #diving #futball #spain#soccer#boys

hearthearart:

Hombre Va!! #diving #futball #spain#soccer#boys

inventfootball: ‘He is like a Playstation player.’ – Arsène Wenger, 2010 Life is impossible to perfectly recreate, and football, restricted by reality, is the same. Video games are simply a reduced reflection of that on which they are based, and can never compete with the real thing – but that’s only obvious. There is only so much that current technology can achieve in taking life and art to the same level. There are only so many fingers on two hands, and only so many buttons and triggers that can be pushed at once. There are only so many different combinations resulting in only so many movements on the screen. A virtual Lionel Messi is good, but he has his limits. The Messi that scored 91 goals in 2012 , that has won the Ballon d’Or for a fourth time, seemingly has no such limits. Wenger was wrong to compare him to the artificial imitation. The real Messi is far better. We’re delighted to be working with Matheus, the man behind 8-bit Football, as we head into 2013. Words by Max Grieve. (via afootballreport)

inventfootball:

‘He is like a Playstation player.’ – Arsène Wenger, 2010

Life is impossible to perfectly recreate, and football, restricted by reality, is the same. Video games are simply a reduced reflection of that on which they are based, and can never compete with the real thing – but that’s only obvious. There is only so much that current technology can achieve in taking life and art to the same level. There are only so many fingers on two hands, and only so many buttons and triggers that can be pushed at once. There are only so many different combinations resulting in only so many movements on the screen. A virtual Lionel Messi is good, but he has his limits.

The Messi that scored 91 goals in 2012 , that has won the Ballon d’Or for a fourth time, seemingly has no such limits. Wenger was wrong to compare him to the artificial imitation. The real Messi is far better.

We’re delighted to be working with Matheus, the man behind 8-bit Football, as we head into 2013. Words by Max Grieve.

(via afootballreport)

afootballreport

The Murky History of Foosball

A group of young Parisians playing foosball at a cafe in 1958.

In the best tradition of skulduggery, claim and counterclaim, foosball (or table football), that simple game of bouncing little wooden soccer players back and forth on springy metal bars across something that looks like a mini pool table, has the roots of its conception mired in confusion.

A cool video on the Katlego, Adidas’ new soccer ball for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. I’ll always be partial to the 2008 edition, but I love how they’re developing these balls.

footy-boots.com

afootballreport:

It was always going to be Leo

Via the team over at adidas Football: “Congratulations to Leo Messi on winning his fourth consecutive World Player of the Year award! We’ve joined forces with illustrator Richard Swarbrick to celebrate this amazing achievement. Have a look!”

Now, who could possibly imagine what 2013 has in store for Messi? A manita of Ballon d’Ors, perhaps?

adidasfootball

Me lose brain? Uh-oh! Research suggests soccer players repeatedly using headballs may deplete gray matter

Me lose brain? Uh-oh! Research suggests soccer players repeatedly using headballs may deplete gray matter

Los Angeles Times

Milan friendly stopped after racist chants

BUSTO ARSIZIO, Italy — AC Milan players walked off the field because of racist chants, abandoning an exhibition match in the first half with lower division club Pro Patria on Thursday.

Boateng and team walk off after racist commentsThe game was interrupted and later ended because of chants directed at several black Milan players, despite appeals to stop from the public address announcer.

After repeated chants directed his way, Ghana midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng picked up the ball and kicked it at a section of the crowd in the 26th minute of the first half.

Zenit St. Petersburg fans support racism in the name of tradition

MOSCOW — Fans of two-time defending Russian champion Zenit St. Petersburg are calling for non-white and gay players to be excluded from the team.

Hulk recently signed with Zenit St. PetersburgLandscrona, the largest Zenit fan club, released a manifesto Monday demanding the club field an all-white, heterosexual team. It added that “dark-skinned players are all but forced down Zenit’s throat now, which only brings out a negative reaction” and said gay players were “unworthy of our great city.”

“I can personally assure you that I will do everything I can to help those who seek to explain to people what tolerance is, and the need to respect other cultures and traditions.”— Zenit coach Luciano Spalletti

The club quickly sought to distance itself from the fans. Without directly referring to their manifesto, Zenit’s coach, Luciano Spalletti, said in remarks posted on the club’s website that “tolerance for me is most of all the ability to understand and accept differences.”

afootballreport:

Maradona vs England: An animation made from magazines and newspapers

Our good friend Richard Swarbrick is at it again. This time he’s not only created a new Maradona-centric animation made from football magazines and sports newspapers, but he’s also brought a project with him. It’s called Fantasista, a site dedicated to art and the beautiful game.

Fantasista (the playmaker): 1. (n) A symbol of creativity and invention, of imagination and entertainment, of artistry and magic

Richard is behind Fantasista, but our very own Senior Writer Amy Eustace (writings) is also one of the main contributors. Have a look, spread the word, and - of course - enjoy this beautiful animation focused on one of the most creative men ever to play the game. [Posted by Eric]

Players of the local Voukefalas soccer team wearing T-shirts displaying the logo of their sponsor “Soula”, a luxury brothel, prepare for a soccer match in the city of Larissa about 320 km (200 miles) north of Athens October 20, 2012. REUTERS/John Kolesidis

Players of the local Voukefalas soccer team wearing T-shirts displaying the logo of their sponsor “Soula”, a luxury brothel, prepare for a soccer match in the city of Larissa about 320 km (200 miles) north of Athens October 20, 2012. 
REUTERS/John Kolesidis

reuters.com