Running, all-purpose World Cup thread

T&T has everything to play for and Paraguay, now eliminated, will likely play a lot of its bench players, much like Poland did against the USA in 2002.

 

This is going to be dumb, but I was wondering why Beckham and the other guy were wearing long sleeves while the other English players were in short sleeves.

 

i can honestly say that i didnt even notice this

 

Personal preference, since I'm guessing the temperature wasn't cool enough to warrant them.

 

I noticed and my only guess was that Beckham doesn't want to damage his skin. I'm not sure I've ever seen him play in short sleeves.

 

I'm starting to get a 1998 flashback:

Blowout loss, backbiting between players and coach.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_sports14jun15,1,2941487.story?coll=la-ap-sports

 

Chiming in really late on the hosting thing.....

FIFA has said they will not do the co-hosting thing again - too many logisitical problems with 2002. I don't necessarily disagree, but I think two European countries could probably pull it off (think Holland and Belgium). The Euro and open borders would make that easier to do. We'll see if their stance changes.

FIFA has also said the continental rotation system is only in place through 2014 - to ensure that the cup gets to Africa and then to South America. After that, look for a newer rotational system where it follows the similar patter as now - 1 cup in Europe, one elsewhere, and back to Europe. So, for 2014, FIFA wants to take it back to South America, and the South American confederation has already thrown its support behind Brazil. After that, it's all hands on deck....

The only reason I can see this working like that is because of the requirements of hosting. FIFA requires a host nation to have 10 "4-star" stadia seating at least 40,000. There's fewer than a dozen countries around the world that currently satisfy this requirement (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Japan, Korea, USA, Mexico). Several others have expressed an interest in attempting to host the event (China - following the Beijing Olympics - Australia and Canada).

I recall reading where the USA spent less than $30 million in stadium renovations to host the cup in 1994 (the grass in the Silverdome, and a renovation of the Cotton Bowl), but that eight million years later, Korea spent well over $200 billion and Japan spent about half that in constructing new stadiums - stadiums that in Korea are currently going unused. I just can't see too many countries willing to take that kind of investment.

But whoever said it a while back was right - South Africa may not be ready to go in time, and a last-minute switch might become necessary. That could put the cup back in the USA - one of the few nations that could do so on short notice - in 2010.

My guess - 2010 goes off without a hitch in South Africa. Brazil gets awarded the 2014 Cup. England or Spain win the host rights in 2018 (no way Europe goes three consecutive Cups without hosting one), setting up a bidding war between the USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia and China for the 2022 Cup.

 

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91167-1224687,00.html?f=rss

 

From the "big soccer" board linked one page back ... people ranting about ESPN's coverage, and some dude from Germany says his broadcasters aren't much better:

Awesome!

UPDATE: Posters on that board were complaining about not seeing the anthems. I saw the ENG team sing "God Save The Queen" today on ESPN. It was quite cool.

 

I thought it was an indicator of his status as a Padawan learner.

 

Good stuff Ziz. I bet South Africa does OK as host and Brazil will also in 2014. You're probably right about Europe in 2018, and then I bet the USA gets it in 2022. Too much money to be made (assuming the USA is still in great shape in 2022). Mexico has already had two Cups, Canada is out, and I just think it'll be time for another huge money maker for FIFA. China and Australia would be considered heavily.

 

I wondered that, too.

Seeing some Saudi players wearing long sleeves made sense ... 93 degrees is probably a cool front to them.