Football/Soccer Is The Greatest Game On Earth.

I don't remember who but back in the Italia90 (I think), someone tripped when getting off the bus just right after the team landed on Italian soil broken his ankle.

For some reasons, footballers are famous for their freaky incidents.

I love this: http://www.theguardian.com/football...readers-world-cup-posters-2014-brazil-england

We Can Do It poster is fantastic.

Jennifer Lopez has pulled out of the World Cup's opening ceremony in Brazil where she was due to sing the tournament's official song alongside fellow artists Pitbull and Claudia Leitte.

Football's governing body Fifa said Lopez cannot perform at Thursday's event as earlier planned because of unspecified "production issues".

The singer's representatives gave no explanation about why Lopez would not be joining the act. They only confirmed the announcement in an emailed response, saying "regretfully Jennifer Lopez will not be attending this year's World Cup opening ceremonies".

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/09/j-lo-is-a-no-no-for-world-cup-song

Back to Shakira I guess.

Matches Schedule: http://www.sportsbarnerja.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/WorldCupBrazil2014.jpg

Thx for the schedule. I'm beyond pumped for this to start but am not very pumped for USA's chances. I've never really been a very loyal fan though and tend to pull for other countries anyway

Sam-Skwantch said:

Thx for the schedule. I'm beyond pumped for this to start but am not very pumped for USA's chances. I've never really been a very loyal fan though and tend to pull for other countries anyway

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You're not in an easy group either. You never know in football though.

Not so sure about US team this time. 8 German-born players might make a different.

And Klinsmann is under scrutiny because he thought US team has zero chances for a World Cup title. :think:

I'm still mad because Donovan has been left behind.

BusyMom said:

Not so sure about US team this time. 8 German-born players might make a different.
And Klinsmann is under scrutiny because he thought US team has zero chances for a World Cup title. :think:
I'm still mad because Donovan has been left behind.

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What... They really invest that much for the US team? I am surprised. this could be fun!

Religious plays a big part nowadays: https://twitter.com/CreativeReview/status/476678314623778816/photo/1

New news (er... ) about Jennifer Lopez:

http://www.deadline.com/2014/06/jen...ming-at-thursdays-world-cup-opening-ceremony/

She will perform now apparently....

Adidas Japanese National Team Jersey -Hello Kitty version.

http://procrasti-nation.eu/wp-content/uploads/hellokitty-1-720x300.jpg

Nike commercial- The Last Game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW0OalZiKBk
@LRK Zlatan is also in this!

Details on Opening Ceremony: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-date-start-time-live-stream-info-and-details

Less than 12 hours...:yay:

And the best dress team title goes to: http://m.9gag.com/gag/aKzojVj?ref=fbp

Meoima said:

And the best dress team title goes to: http://m.9gag.com/gag/aKzojVj?ref=fbp

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If you got Dolce&Gabbana as a sponser, of course the title is yours.
http://www.dolcegabbana.com/italy-national-football-team/

BusyMom said:

I don't think Thai snooker players right now are that good. The fact is since we have Asian Association they are kind of the power players in the World stages. Australia is also the great supporter. Half of the tournaments these days are in Asia (and more than half of that are in China). Asian players benefit from that fact alone. Also Thai players got plenty of free wild-cards lately thanks to Indian Association. China Open took forever for the qualified stages. James Wattana won 4 consecutive games this years in China Open that's why his World Ranking drop back to 63. Chinese team is the one to watch though.

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I see what you are getting at with regards the Thai snooker players, but nearly all of them have youth on their side. Apart from Wattana (44) and Poomjaeng (is he really only 35?!), they are all in their twenties: Un-Nooh (29), Suwannawat (28), Saengkham (21), Thirapongpaiboon (20)

With the Ulstermen, Swail (44), Wallace (44) and Greene (40) are all in their forties. Only our top player, Mark Allen (28), is under 30. And there are no younger players coming through.

So, although your players may be down the order at the moment, they are young enough to have time to move up the rankings.

That said, in 10 years time, China is definitely going to be the top country for snooker. Their production line of snooker players is even better than Russia’s production line for Ladies skaters!

And therein lies the problem for China. There are too many good Chinese players for them to all get a shot at the professional game. Every year at the Chinese tournaments we see lots of promising teenagers hoping to make a name for themselves. But most of them we will never see again. Whenever we return to that tournament the following year, it is different Chinese teenagers that are playing.

As for the players that do make it onto the professional tour, they do not normally stay on the tour for long. A few years ago, there were 2 players that were seen as the future of Chinese snooker – Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo. Ding is now No.1 in the money ranking list. Liang got into the Top 16 a few years ago, but then they started updating the rankings during the season, and he has fallen down the order. He’s still high enough to stay on the tour for the 2014/15 season, though.

As for the other Chinese players we are used to seeing on the professional tour, they all finished the 2013/14 season in the area of the rankings where they were in danger of losing their guaranteed place in the tour. And, who knows, the Chinese Federation might decide to give a chance in the Chinese tournaments to other, younger players.

Sound familiar? (*cough* Russian Ladies Figure Skating *cough*)

BusyMom said:

George Best was known for his drinking so no surprised there. But Higgins' COD was pretty bizarre. I read it somewhere that he starved himself to death. Was that true or just a rumour? Anyway his final years of his life also very eccentric. They should make a movie about his life.

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With regards Alex Higgins, yes he starved to death. But that is only part of the story.

As you know, Alex was a heavy drinker and smoker all his life. He developed throat cancer, and the radiotherapy he received meant that his teeth decayed. He couldn’t afford tooth implants, so he lived on baby food. Alex was always very slim anyway, so, predictably, this diet led to him losing an awful lot more weight.

A month or so before he died, the Sunday Life did an interview with Alex at his home. And he told the reporter that he was only 6 stone 7 pounds! The reporter also told us that Alex had lots of dentures knocking about the flat, but none of them fitted comfortably.

Writing after his death, another local paper, the Sunday World, ran a story whic hsaid that shortly before his death, Alex had been told that if he didn’t get his teeth pulled, he would get blood poisoning. So, some of his friends raised money for him to get tooth implants. But, when he got to the hospital in Spain, he was told he was too frail.

Anyway, he then got pneumonia, and it was a combination of that, being malnourished, and his lung cancer that finished off this once great man.

As a snooker fan, what angers me is that, nearly 3 years after his death, there are still no memorials to Alex Higgins. Almost as soon as George Best died, it was announced that Belfast City Airport would be re-named in his honour. Alex has nothing.

Just shows that even in honouring our sporting heroes, football takes priority over snooker.

BusyMom said:

Thank you Caroliza for your analysis. I missed the first half and first-15 minute of second half because dinner. I missed too much of the game to discuss the matters. But from the last 30 minutes, I think Everton GK was a true hero since Arsenal side didn't slow down one bit even with the advance goals.

I'm not so sure what the cause but this year women football in the UK seems to gain all-in-sudden kind of attention. I was told that almost 15,000 tickets had been sold previously before the final. Live televised by the mainstream channel also help.

Here's some hot photo to celebrate women football. : http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/03/03/article-1362607-0D748C12000005DC-559_634x379.jpg

Also congratulation for Liverpool's women u-17 for their Youth FA cup.

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Speaking of football, that’s a nice picture. I can spot a few players that I recognise (I don’t recognise the girl bottom left, and can’t see enough of the faces of the other girls to identify them).

Top right is Everton goalkeeper Rachel Brown, who I too thought did a great job in the FA Cup Final. In the pink Nike top is Faye White, former Arsenal and England captain and current BBC pundit. And far right (below Rachel Brown) is Rachel Yankey, the most capped England player ever (male or female).

Did you ever hear the story about how Yankey started playing football? There was a talent spotting session held near where she lived, so Rachel and a few friends went just for a laugh. As it turned out, Rachel was by far the best player that turned up.

The problem was that it was a trial for a boy’s team. But the coach didn’t want to miss out on a player that good. So they decided to pretend that Rachel was a boy! So she shaved her hair off, and became “Ray”, because that’s her initials (her full name is Rachel Aba Yankey).

To avoid the obvious problems in the changing room, Rachel would turn up already in her kit, and would be picked up soon after the matches finished, with the excuse that “her Mum had to go to work”.

It worked for a few years, but then puberty hit, and the coach had to reluctantly let her go. Rachel eventually found a girls team, and the rest is history.

I only heard this story for the first time during the BBC’s coverage of the match where Rachel broke the record for number of England caps. They had recorded a feature with Rachel in which she talked about her football career. But, what Rachel didn’t know is that they had arranged for the original coach that had discovered her all those years ago to be brought onto the pitch after the match. Suffice to say, she got all emotional!


Anyway, this will probably be my last post in this thread for the foreseeable future, as it will be totally taken over by the Men’s World Cup. I never bother watching it. So, over the next month, I am going to take the opportunity to catch up of a pile of things I have taped over the past year.

And (hopefully) I’ll maybe finally get around to watching the Figure Skating from this year’s Universiade (although, due to events in the past week, I now know who won the Ladies competition! Grrrr!!!!)

For those that are watching the football, I hope you enjoy it.

CaroLiza_fan

Not sure if this was posted

Brazil VS Croatia Live streaming on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuQ7Jzv3pWk

I haven't confirmed if it will stream though

The stream for the opening ceremony http://www.vipboxus.co/football/231...2014-opening-ceremony-live-stream-online.html

makaihime said:

Not sure if this was posted

Brazil VS Croatia Live streaming on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuQ7Jzv3pWk

I haven't confirmed if it will stream though

The stream for the opening ceremony http://www.vipboxus.co/football/231...2014-opening-ceremony-live-stream-online.html

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Or try this: http://www.stream2watch.me/live-tv/itv-1-live-stream

ITV commentary team is the best IMHO http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/05/13/article-2627602-1DCD90F300000578-774_634x535.jpg

Football streams are the worst unpredictable and unreliable.

Alba said:

I love this: http://www.theguardian.com/football...readers-world-cup-posters-2014-brazil-england

We Can Do It poster is fantastic.

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Great... thanks

CaroLiza_fan said:

Anyway, this will probably be my last post in this thread for the foreseeable future, as it will be totally taken over by the Men’s World Cup. I never bother watching it.
CaroLiza_fan

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You sure...? You changed your mind about watching cross country at winter olympics

Oh damn Croatia got the first goal

Wowser! Who expected that?! 1-0 to Kroatia... well, this match has certainly hit the ground running... (And of course I was in the kitchen when it happened - but that is almost as expected... )