The Footie Fool

It speaks to the magnitude of the event that yesterday a photo of Zinedine Zidane appeared on the front page of The National Post. I cannot remember ever seeing a photo of a soccer player on the front page of a national newspaper in Canada – not even Becks.
For me, the sad part is [...]

On the eve of the Quarter finals, here are my thoughts on the matches.
England vs Portugal
England has been god awful and the only thing that has saved them thus far is that they have played some pretty weak teams. I can’t see them getting past Portugal this weekend. Yeah, Deco & Costinha are blows, but [...]

If there is one definite conclusion you can take from the opening game of the WC, it’s that Jens Lehmann was right: this ball is deadly in the air. Lahm’s goal at 6 minutes and the strike by Frings at the 87th minute were both stunners. Can’t wait to see what Beck’s can do with [...]

This match will determine once and for all which nation is the greatest on Earth - Mexico or Portugal.

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 [...]

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.

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, [...]