The Footie Fool

Freddie Ljungberg’s season at Arsenal has been a pretty muted affair. Scoring just 2 goals, the Swedish midfielder has looked less than his dangerous self. Injuries are taking their toll on the 29 year old (he is something of a medical miracle when you consider he plays though migraines and has had injuries to his [...]

It’s no surprise that the Fifa rankings need to be overhauled. Just look at the high rankings of both Mexico (#4) and the US (#5). That’s not saying the US and Mexico are not strong sides, but are they stronger than France, Argentina, Italy and England? I don’t think so. So it’s nice to [...]

Portugal’s most capped player Luis Figo says he is heading into the World Cup finals ‘drained’ after a demanding season at Inter Milan.
Great. Nice motivation, Mr. Team Captain.
Sometimes it’s hard to be a fan.

In the latest issue, the National Geographic has enlisted a fine group of authors, journalists and other literary types (including Nick Hornbyand Sean Wilsey) to pen odes to both the beautiful game and The World Cup. The resulting articles in The World’s Game are both entertaining and enlightening – worth a read.

It’s a scoreline that probably hasn’t been seen in the history of Canadian soccer, but tonight the Canadian U20 team put in a strong performance and beat Brazil 2-1 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
Defender David Edgar (Newcastle, England), midfielder Jaime Peters (Ipswich Town, England) and striker Will Johnson (Heerenveen, the Netherlands) were stellar, with Edgar [...]

Both The Guardian and the BBC are reporting today that Thierry Henry will be signing a new contract with the Gunners, ending months of speculation that he would leave the club at the end of the season.

I’m a big fan of Thierry Henry, but I am a bit disappointed by his performance yesterday. Not in the game. He was on fire during the game, especially at the beginning of the match where he had 2 fine chances. But his post game press conference left a bad taste in my mouth.
Understandably [...]

A roundup of a few lighter stories about the upcoming World Cup.
First, the great beer controversy. From the World Cup blog comes a story about a new website called BudOut, whose sole purpose is to get Budweiser removed as the official sponsor of the World Cup. No kidding. Fifa blew this endorsement deal. What, [...]