Golden Ball 2010: The French magazine France Football has publicly issued the list of 23 candidates for the Golden Ball for 2010 FIFA as the best football player in the calendar year now ending.

For the first time the Golden Ball will be unique by combining the old trophy of the FIFA World Player (which almost always coincided). The trophy will be presented next January 10, 2011 in Zurich.

As mentioned, 23 players are candidates to win the Ballon d'Or. As largely preventable, there are many leaders in the 2010 World Cup as well as the protagonists of the last UEFA Champions League.

Very surprising, the absence of Diego Milito among candidates. El Principe has led to the historic victory of the Inter Scudetto, Italian Cup and Champions League and, while not disputing a world-leading, it seemed right to deserve a nomination for the award. On the contrary there is Samuel Eto'o who is experiencing a wonderful time to form. The other candidates for the award Inter Julio Cesar, Maicon and Sneijder. No Italian player was nominated for the award, no surprises here.

To contend for the 2010 Ballon d'Or should be, in all likelihood, Andres Iniesta of Barcelona and Inter Wesley Sneijder, major players in the Champions League and World Cup in South Africa. But be careful with Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the league are putting together record numbers.

The candidates to the Golden Ball 2010:

• Iker Casillas – Spain – Real Madrid
• Daniel Alves – Brazil – Barcelona
• Didier Drogba – Ivory Coast – Chelsea
• Samuel Eto'o – Camerun – Inter
• Cesc Fabregas – Spain – Arsenal
• Diego Forlan – Uruguay – Atletico de Madrid
• Asamoah Gyan – Ghana – Rennes / Sunderland
• Andres Iniesta – Spain – Barcelona
• Julio Cesar – Brazil – Inter
• Miroslav Klose – Germany – Bayern Munich
• Philipp Lahm – Germany – Bayern Munich
• Maicon – Brazil – Inter
• Lionel Messi – Argentina – Barcelona
• Thomas Muller – Germany – Bayern Munich
• Mesut Ozil – Germany – Werder Bremen / Real Madrid
• Carles Puyol – Spain – Barcelona
• Arjen Robben – Netherlands – Bayern Munich
• Cristiano Ronaldo – Portugal – Real Madrid
• Bastian Schweinsteiger – Germany – Bayern Munich
• Wesley Sneijder – Netherlands – Inter
• David Villa – Spain – Barcelona / Valencia
• Xabi Alonso – Spain – Real Madrid
• Xavi Hernandez – Spain – Barcelona

The news on the FIFA website.

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The list of the players candidate to the Golden Ball FIFA 2010 by France Football

World Cup June 12: probably it is not the big match of the stage group of the World Cup, but England – USA is the first big test for the team coached by Fabio Capello, who is considered a front runner for the victory of the World Cup, and the USA who always did well in the past editions of the Tournament (at least in the group stage).

Both teams are favorite in Group C where they play together with Algeria and Slovenia, hence the today match is already decisive for the first place and neither England nor US want to fail this target.

A good news for USA: Altidore can play. The striker had some problem in the last days with his ankle but can play. A bad news for England: Rio Ferdinand won't play, hence King will take his place. Heskey will probably win the ballot with Crouch to play with Rooney as forward.

ENGLAND – USA Line up:

ENGLAND (4-4-2): Green; Johnson, King, Terry, A.Cole; Lennon, Lampard, Gerrard, J.Cole; Rooney, Heskey.

USA (4-4-2): Howard; Spector, Onyewu, DeMerit, Bocanegra; Dempsey, Bradley, Edu, Donovan; Buddl, Altidore. 

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World Cup: England vs. USA line up

Football Argentina: do you remember Captain Tsubasa? Do you remember the twin shot? Do you remember the way in which the twins used to score? Well, two players of Gimnasia la Plata showed that it is not impossible to score in that way.

During the match between Gimnasia la Plata and Boca Juniors two players, Sebastian Romero and Marco Perez, scored a goal with a double bicycle kick. The two players, unwittingly, kicked the ball at the same time. The goal is not so different from the ones that we saw in the Anime TV show Captain Tsubasa, but this shows that some of the incredible things are possible.

This goal created some problem to the Argentine Football Association that had to assign the score to one of the two players. They have chosen the 19 years old Sebastian Romero (on the right in the video). Do you agree?

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Double Bicycle Kick video

We inaugurate a new column of the blog called "Recommended by CaP" (Calcio al Pallone), in which we will publish blogs found by the visitors.

We start with "Rolling-Balls", a very original blog, starting from the title.

Rolling-Balls is a blog about all the strange news related to the Soccer's world. Example: did you know that the Inter's player Wesley Sneijder, will get married in a reality show?

Reading  Rolling-Balls we found that a Serbian supporter is walking from Serbia to South Africa to watch the 2010 World Cup! 9,000 miles within June 11th.

The authors of Rolling-Balls write the posts in Italian and English and they have open a fan page on Facebook.

Enjoy the Reading

ps: If you want to send us an interesting link related to the Soccer's world, don't hesitate to Contact us.

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Recommended by CaP: Rolling-Balls

Calcio al Pallone wish to all the readers

Happy Easter!

We are closer to the next World Cup in South Africa (only 2 months) and to the final of the UEFA Champions League 2010. Check in our Archive for the history of the World Cup.

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Happy Easter!

During the last match of the Liga, Barcelona beated Zaragoza for 4-2. Three of the 4 goals realized by the Barça have been scored by Lionel Messi, without any doubt the currently best player in the World.

La Pulga from Argentina scored the hattrick in three different ways: the first by head; the second stealing a ball from the opponent and running for 40 meters with several dribblings; the third with a left kick from outside the box.

A great show for the #10 blaugrana. Barcelona are now tied with Real Madrid at 68 points but trail by two in the goal differential column.

Here's the video of the Hattrick against Zaragoza

This is the second consecutive hattrick for Messi, after the one against Valencia (and the midweek clash against Stuttgart in Champions League, where he scored 2 goals). Messi is now the Top Scorer of the Liga with 25 goals.

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The video of the hattrick scored by Messi in one half

2010 Africa Cup of Nations: … win the 2010 CAF with the final result of Egypt-Ghana 0-0. Top Scorer of the tournament is Mohamed Nagy, alias Geddo with 5 goals.

After an unusual boring first half, the second half starts with a different approach by both teams. Ghana weaked the defensive approach and started to push. Also Egypt starts with what they can do better: attack.

Ghana has several occasions to score and until minute 79′ it look the most likely to win. But at the 83′ the result changes. Geddo, the top scorer of the tournament, played a lovely one-two with Zidan and curled a brilliant shot from the inside right of the area.

Too late for Ghana to find a goal. Asamoah got the last chance for Ghana but he shoots instead of cross. The match finishes after 3 minutes stoppage time with the Egypt victory. 1-0 is the final result. Egypt champions of Africa for the third consecutive time.

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2010 Africa Cup: Egypt vs Ghana 1-0. Egypt CHAMPION

2010 Africa Cup of Nations: after the end of the first half the partial result of Egypt-Ghana is 0-0. Top Scorer of the tournament at the moment is Mohamed Nagy, alias Geddo with 4 goals.

At the Estádio 11 de Novembro of Luanda (Angola) Egypt and Ghana played the final of the 27th edition of the wonderful tournament of Africa. The final has been reached by two opposite example of the African football. On one side Egypt, with only one player who plays in Europe (Mohamed Zidan). On the other side Ghana, where 22 of the 23 players belong to an european club. Another interesting fact is that Ghana never scored more than 1 goal in this tournament, while Egypt scored at least 2 goals per game with an average of 3.

At the first of the first half the partial result is 0-0 with both teams that played a very tactical match and no clear chances. The impression is that Ghana controlled the game a little bit more than Egypt, even if the second had the best chance of the game at the 40th minute. Fathi took a free kick from the right. It beat everyone but he stook out a hand to try and deflect it.

The line-up:
Ghana: Richard Kingson, Hans Sarpei, Issac Vorsah, Samuel Inkoom, Lee Addy, Andre Ayew, Anthony Annan, Asamoah Gyan, Kwadwo Asamoah, Emmanuel Badu Agyemang , Opuko Agyemang.
Egypt: Essam El Hadar, Hany Said, Wael Gomas, Sayed Moawad, Ahmed El Mohamady, Hossam Ghaly, Ahmed Fathi, Ahmed Hassan, Hosni Abd Rabou, Mohamed Zidan, Emad Moteab.

Other news: this year the hosts Angola were to be joined by 14 teams, instead of the usual 15 because the Government of Togo decided to pull-out the team from the tournament. For this reason Togo has been banned for the next two editions of the tournament.

UPDATE: EGYPT HAVE WON THE AFRICA CUP 2010!!!

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2010 Africa Cup: Egypt vs Ghana, first half 0-0

Premier League, week 24: the “blues” defender and captain of the English national team scores the victory gol versus Burnley for 2-1. Manchester United and Arsenal will face tomorrow in a match that worth the second place.

Chelsea – Burnley 2-1: most taught that the Terry‘ scandal of these days would create some problem to the Chelsea defense (Terry is accused to chated his wife). At the opposite, the charismatic player led the Chelsea to the victory. John Terry scored at the 82′ by head on a cross of Malouda.

It has been a very taught match, with the Burnley that had drawn level through Steven Fletcher after the goal of Nicolas Anelka. At the end of the game the captain grabbed the match. Now Chelsea has 4 points more than the closest rival Manchester Utd, 5 over the Arsenal and the two teams will face tomorrow in a match.

Liverpool – Bolton 2-0: the Liverpool of Rafa Benitez doesn’t give up and win at Anfield for 2-0 against Bolton. The goals have been realized by Kuyt and an own goal of Davies. A negative protagonist of the match is Alberto Aquilani. Bolton asked for a penalty because he toched the ball with his hand. The italian player didn’t play brilliantly and at the 65′ has been substituted by Lucas. The offensive player insipired the goal that closed the match.

At the end of the match, Benitez showed his satisfaction for the performance (undefeated by 6 matches). The coach reassures the fans abouth the Champions League of the next year. However in these days there are several news about his transfer to Juventus next year, and seems that he his trying to ask more money to Liverpool to remains.

The results of the week 24 – Premier League:
Liverpool – Bolton 2 – 0
Wigan – Everton 0 – 1
Birmingham – Tottenham 1 – 1
Fulham – Aston Villa 0 – 2
West Ham – Blackburn 0 – 0
Hull City – Wolverhampton 2 – 2
Burnley – Chelsea 1 – 2

Matches of Sunday, January 31st:
Manchester City – Portsmouth
Arsenal – Manchester United

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Premier League week 24: Chelsea – Burnley 2-1

This video has been selected by ESPN as one of the “Turkeys of the Year“. It has always been common in soccer to find the way to distract the player that has to strike the penalty. From strange movements, to hypnotic Jersey, these tricks never worked.

The last one, and probably one of the most funny ever, happened in USA. The goalkeeper tried to distract the striker with a series of cartwheels. You can see the result in the video.

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Goalkeeper cartwheel