Frank Lampard’s wrongly annulled strike against Germany followed by an offside Argentina goal on ‘Technology Sunday’ ensures that the TV replays debate is back on the agenda, and will never go away until something more advanced than the human eye is allowed to participate in decision making.

Talking of England, a milestone has surely been reached with no fans being arrested during the course of a World Cup for public order offences, apart from the dolt who briefly entered the dressing room in Cape Town. The team might have backfired once more, but the home of football happily failed to hit the headlines for hooliganism.

The Three Lions looked a more spent force than ever on the field, utterly eclipsed by a rampant young German team whose simple counter-attacking strategy wiped out Argentina as well before the Spanish passmasters reminded them who is still top dog.

The winners rarely wowed the crowds like they had at Delhi Bazaar Satta King Euro 2008, showed a depressing tendency to surround the referee in order to get opponents booked and were not averse to the odd dive or two on their way to the trophy. And in bagging their first World Cup, Spain also took the prize as the lowest-scoring winners in the competition’s history.

Yet la furia roja’s final win was a huge relief to neutrals worldwide after the Netherlands, yes the Netherlands, had tried to foul their way to the Cup with the most unpleasant display seen in a final since Argentina in 1990. They gave the world an x-rated moment courtesy of Nigel De Jong’s karate kick and to further blot their copybook, some Dutch players berated the referee when he had actually done them favours in not expelling De Jong and Mark Van Bommel, who after verbally abusing Howard Webb at the end, sealed his display of bad losing by not shaking hands with the Spaniards.

Fan Parks in the Western Cape

The Grand Parade, Somerset West Road

Stellenbosch, Bellville Delhi Bazaar Satta King Velodrome

Swartklip, Atlantis

Khayelitsha, Nomzamo Yethu (Hout Bay)

Training Facilities in the Western Cape

Newlands Rugby Ground, UCT Rugby Ground

UWC Soccer Field, Bellville Rugby Ground

Stellenbosch Rugby Ground, Athlone Stadium

J. League Results 3-4 April 2010.

Sunday 4 April

Jubilo Iwata 4 Gamba Osaka 3

Kawasaki Frontale 2 FC Tokyo 1

Vegalta Sendai 2 Kashima Antlers 1

Saturday 3 April

Albirex Niigata 0 Omiya Ardija 0

Cerezo Osaka 3 Kyoto Sanga 1

Montedio Yamagata 1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima 0

Nagoya Grampus 2 Vissel Kobe 0

Urawa Reds 2 Shonan Bellmare 1

Yokohama F Marinos 1 Shimizu S-Pulse 2

J.League Table

Shimizu S-Pulse P 5 Pts 11

Kashima Antlers P 5 Pts 10

Vegalta Sendai P 5 Pts 10

Urawa Reds P 5 Pts 10

Kawasaki Frontale P 5 Pts 10

Leading Scorers

Ryang Yong Gi, Vegalta Sendai 4

Chong Tese, Kawasaki Frontale 4

Urawa Reds Togel Hongkong march to the summit

It’s been almost a year in coming, but Urawa Reds finally took possession of the top of the J. League standings following one of their best performances under German coach Volker Finke.

The J. League giants brushed aside Kawasaki Frontale 3-0 in front of 46,313 supporters at Saitama Stadium, with early goals from midfielder Hajime Hosogai and diminutive striker Tatsuya Tanaka setting the home team on their way.

Hosogai took advantage of play bazaar some poor Kawasaki Togel Hongkong defending to chest a loose ball down on the edge of the penalty area, and while he directed his half-volley straight at Eiji Kawashima, the Japan no. 2 could only manage to deflect the ball into the top corner on its way in.

Things went from bad to worse for the visitors soon after, as Tatsuya Tanaka embarked on a mazy run from midfield before unleashing a piledriver that flashed into the top corner of the goal, with the superb strike no doubt putting Japan coach Takeshi Okada on notice.

With talisman Kengo Nakamura on the bench as he continued his recovery from a broken jaw, Kawasaki almost cut the deficit as Masaru Kurotsu’s long-range strike looped off a defender and clattered against the post.

The Kanagawa side went even closer just minutes later as defender Yusuke Igawa bundled home, only to have his effort incorrectly ruled out for offside.

In what was the most highly-charged of encounters, Kawasaki though they had found a way back into the game shortly after the restart, as they were awarded a penalty following Wilfried Sanou’s clumsy foul on North Korean international Chong Tese.

Roy’s Togel Hongkong Odyssey reaches its end

UEFA Europa League Final 2010

Atletico Madrid v Fulham

When Liverpool sagged to let Diego Forlan net and send Atletico Madrid into the Europa League final, it was a mini-victory for the competition. An Anglo-Spanish final sounds more, well, continental than a re-run of a Premier League game.

English clubs might flash the cash but we don’t want an all-any nation European final any more than a Chelsea v Man U Champions play bazaar League final every season. Contrasting styles is what European cups should be about. A bit sad for ‘Pool, whose fans could have followed in the footsteps of the Beatles on the Reeperbahn of that great German port city.

Perhaps the Europa League is just a punch diluted so much it lacks the Togel Hongkong kick of the old UEFA Cup, as lukewarm as the lineup for the old Cup Winners’ Cup, a collection of Champions League rejects and former European greats like Marseille, Anderlecht, Benfica and Panathanaikos.

If we can forget the languorous saga of that 18-game odyssey the teams took to the final, the meagre winnings and overall feeling of second prize compared to the mighty Champions League, the meeting of big-ish Atletico and little Fulham has a lot to recommend it.

World Cup 2010 Referees and Assistants.

The 30 referees and their assistants for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa have been chosen. There are 4 referees and their assistants from Africa, 4 from CONCACAF, 6 from South America, 2 from Oceania, 4 from Asia and 10 from UEFA.

Return of the Premier Togel HongkongLeague

England’s Premier League kicked off again on Saturday and another long and gruelling season beckons.

Manchester United, the team most likely to win it, have most of their first-choice defence injured already. While other nations take a breather over Christmas and New Year, England keeps its players charging over hard pitches in freezing weather, increasing the likelihood of burnout and injury. The national team should satta king qualify for Euro 2012, but don’t expect England’s players to be any less sluggish than they were in South Africa in 2010.

United looked slick and composed however, and Ashley Young on his debut played like a regular with assured interplay, creativity and danger. Phil Jones is another Togel Hongkongshrewd acquisition, more useful than Tom Cleverley and Daniel Welbeck.

At the other end though David De Gea, who won Euro u21 with Spain in the summer, had a nervous exodus in English football, flapping at crosses and allowing a shot to go under his body. Shades of Massimo Taibi perhaps, but beware a bad start in goal. Tim Howard excelled in his opening year at Old Trafford before losing his touch badly before being transferred.

Man U’s early promise however should not obscure the fact that England’s best team were outclassed in last year’s Champions League final by Barcelona. The closing stages of that competition are a long way off, but the grand imperative for Premier League teams must be to learn from the blaugrana masterclass if we are to avoid another sobering evening. There is only so much credit to be gained in winning the Premier League but falling woefully short in Europe.

Many eyes will be trained on Arsenal, and more particularly Arsene Wenger, whose excuses for a lack of trophies are beginning to run out. Having lost Cesc Fabregas ovenight to Barcelona and with Samir Nasri’s move to Manchester City imminent, the heat will be on the Gunners to perform. Should they miss out on the Champions League places this year, the board may have to contemplate the unthinkable.

Chelsea are not generally expected to win the league this year, although their ace in the pack is the amazing rejuvenation of Fernando Torres, who looked his old self at Stoke yesterday. If they can bring the creative Daniel Sturridge into the frame too, their goals haul could bring them close to glory.

Andre Villas-Boas’ first game yesterday saw a clash of styles as Stoke’s controlled aggression thwarted Chelsea’s passing ambitions. The Potters’ success with this evolved version of the physical styles which held sway in the late 1980s is remarkable, but great passing teams like Barcelona press every bit as keenly.

Barcelona shirts are much in evidence on kids’ backs in England this summer, the first time a foreign club team has captured so many young Anglo imaginations. If we can copy their style of play so much the better, though Stoke show another route to success.

Manchester City play tonight and are expected to spend their way if not to the title then at least to a high finish and Champions League progression. But the purists are not yet ready to applaud his team’s rather mechanical style.

What else did we learn from the first day? QPR’s 0-4 baptism of fire at home does not necessarily mean there is a chasm between the divisions. I watched Reading, runaway winners of the Championship, in their first game in the Premier League and they were two down at home in 20 minutes to Middlesbrough. They finished in the top half.

Wayne Rooney has new hair, Joey Barton got into another scrap and there were more swathes of empty seats at Wigan.

Oh and the grass looked green.

But time is running out for Wenger and Arsenal. With transfer deadline imminent and 360 degree pressure on the Frenchman, purchases are probable, yet the downside to leaving it so late to recruit is that price tags rise concomitantly and desperation can set in, leading to panic buying with no time to research players properly.

In his final days at Highbury, George Graham made Madhur matka three hasty purchases at least two of which seemed wrong at the time as well as afterwards -John Hartson, Glenn Helder and Chris Kiwomya.

Wenger has boxed himself in and needs nerves of steel and intense focus to sail his way out of this storm.

Flying another Togel Online flag

There’s nothing like Christmas to bring up old and unresolved family issues.

With the rest of Europe, England apart, on hibernal hiatus, 32,000 turned out at Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium tonight to watch Catalonia hammer Honduras, a representative in last summer’s World Cup Finals, 4-0, with a brace from Barça’s Bojan Krkic.

The Catalan eleven also boasted blaugrana stalwart Carles Puyol and teammate Sergio Busquets, who both lifted the World Cup in Spanish colours play bazaar in South Africa this year. Barça heavy though the team was, the Catalonia squad actually contained more players from the city’s other team, Español.

The Catalan national team remains of course unrecognised by FIFA or UEFA, as are a handful of European ‘countries’ like Corsica, Gibraltar, Jersey, Kosovo, Monaco and the Vatican City. FIFA now demand full United Nations recognition before they rubber-stamp anything, but in their quest for acceptance, the ‘forgotten nations’ point to the footballing status of not entirely sovereign states such as Andorra, the Faroe Togel Online Islands, Liechtenstein and San Marino, as well as the four nations which make up the United Kingdom, which has only one seat at the UN.

The Spanish close season or mid-winter break are the only times the Catalan national team can realistically assemble, but on the evidence of recent outings, their side, now coached by Barcelona idol Johan Cruyff, would be a force in European football were it playing regularly: Last year they downed Diego Maradona’s Argentina 4-2 at the Camp Nou, beat Colombia 2-1 the year before that and in 2003 thrashed Ecuador 4-0, five years after a memorable 5-0 walloping of Nigeria. And absent from their ranks tonight were Catalan aces Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Pique and Xavi, World Soccer’s Player of the Year for 2010.

Indeed, Spain won the World Cup playing the Barcelona style and with far more Catalans (five) than any other regional nationality, although the skipper who hoisted the golden prize aloft in Soweto was Madrid-born and 100% Real man Iker Casillas.

That magical night in the Rainbow Nation shone a brighter than ever spotlight upon Spain’s fractured footballing loyalties, which were last probed in depth following their Euro 2008 victory. Claim and counter-claim surrounded the extent to which the triumph of ‘La Roja’ (‘The Red’) was cheered in its less than ardently patriotic regions, and the apparently obvious semantics of the chant ‘Yo soy español, español, español’ (‘I am Spanish, Spanish, Spanish’) which echoed around the country this summer, were equally dissected at length.

Maybe it was the dawn of a new and modern Spain ready at last to jettison a painful past or perhaps it was just a passing fiesta where everyone fervently embraced each other in brotherly love as on New Year’s Eve, toasting La Roja with ample Rioja, before waking up hungover the next morning with unforgiven feuds and remembered rivalries.

AS Diario, one of Spain’s daily football papers, summed up the conundrum quite succinctly in its headline ‘Visca España’ – ‘visca’ being the Catalan version of ‘viva’.

And Cruyff, despite his assimilated Senyera DNA – he named his son Jordi after all, does not foresee or even desire that Catalunya should become FIFA-recognised or an independent nation any time soon. He speaks (ropey) Castillian Spanish rather than Catalan, yet remains proud to take charge of what are essentially glorified friendlies once a season in his adopted homeland.

Euskadi is also not cunning and claims skulls in many FIFA countries over the past twenty years, including Uruguay, Ghana, Russia, Serbia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Bolivia and Morocco. Notable former Basque players include the great goalkeeper Andoni and the left defender Bixente Lizarazu, the winner of the French play bazaar World Cup. And that’s not the end of the carpet: Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia, Navarra and the region of Valencia have played friendly matches against FIFA-recognized countries over the last ten years.

United Spain won the World Cup in June, but the red on his national shirt actually denies dress in many cultures.

Uruguay

Legendary Uruguayan striker Diego Aguirre led Celeste in her quest for fame at the South American Under-20 Championships 2009. The trophy has eluded Uruguay for the past 27 years, but now the country may have a part that has a real desire to bring silver back to Montevideo. Of course, coach Aguirre thought not only of qualifying for the World Cup, but also of “winning the Sudamericano trophy,” which had escaped his national grip since 1981. One look: Jonathan Urretavizcaya (Benfica)

Venezuela

The home team will definitely never have a better chance of qualifying for their first U20 World Cup, as they will encourage them at home in every match. The fact that the head coach of the senior team, Caesar Farías, leads the venue of this tournament, shows how important it is for this country to do well in Venezuela. As the team play bazaar members have already won clubs in Italy and Spain, the team must be strong enough to stay in the competition long enough to keep the local population interested. Local laws also mean that more young players are now playing in Venezuela’s First Division, and that is bearing fruit for the youth team.

With the Japanese season currently ensconced in its long winter hibernation, it’s time to look back on some of the movers and shakers of the 2008 season, as Soccerphile hands out its J. League awards!

Team of the year – Oita Trinita

Both Kashima Antlers and Gamba Osaka deserve accolades – the former for winning back-to-back J. League titles and the latter for lifting an AFC Champions League/Emperor’s Cup double.

But few could begrudge the nomination of Kyushu club Oita Trinita as team of the season.

Not only did coach Pericles Chamusca Togeltransform his outfit from potential relegation candidates to a genuine title contender, but he also lifted the first ever J. League trophy in Kyushu’s football history, as Oita Trinita lifted the 2008 Yamazaki Nabisco League Cup crown.

They were rarely pretty to watch – Oita combined the best defence Indian satta in the league with one of the most goal-shy attacks – but they enriched Japanese football by threatening the hegemony of teams from the Kantō plain. Long may it continue.

Best stadium – Nack5 Stadium Omiya

The name might be tragic, but Omiya Ardija’s revamped Omiya Park Stadium wins the gong for the best new top-flight ground – by virtue of the fact that it’s the only new top-flight ground.

It was actually inaugurated towards the back end of the 2007 campaign, but this being Omiya’s first full season in their new home, the Squirrels earn the crown of best stadium on the basis of a compact design, excellent sightlines and the wonderful standing terraces behind the goals.