World Cup 2010 in South Africa: Spain is the Champion of the World!

The spanish team wins its first title of the history, thanks to the victory in the final against Netherlands for 1-0. Andrés Iniesta scored the goal 4 minutes before the end of the OverTime.

Netherlands – Spain

In Johannesburg, after the final ceremony of the World Cup 2010 with the greet of Nelson Mandela, it’s time to play. Netherlands and Spain enter in the field with the announced lines-up, the same of the semi-finals. Del Bosque confirms Pedro instead of Fernando Torres.

The first part of the match there is only one team: Spain. Sergio Ramos is close to score for two times. The first with a header where Stekelnburg is prepared. Then with a play from the right side. Netherlands waits, plays strong and commits several fouls, one of them extremely dangerous by De Jong on Xabi Alonso. Close to the end of the first half the Oranjes have the great occasion with Robben, but Casillas saves the goal.

In the second half Netherlands plays better. The team coached by Van Marwijk has another great chance at 62′. Sneijder finds Robben alone in front of Casillas. Robben shots but the Goalkeeper of Real Madrid is lucky and touch the ball with the right foot. Corner. After few minutes Villa has the great chance, but Heitinga saves literally the goal with his body. After 90 minutes the result is 0-0. It’s overtime.

In the first of the two overtimes Spain overcomes Netherlands, thanks to two fresh players Fabregas and Navas. But Stekelenburg saves the goal on Fabregas. On the other side Mathijsen tries to score by head on a corner.

Second half: Heitinga makes a foul on an unstoppable Iniesta. Second yellow card for him and Netherlands plays with 10 men. Spain overpowers Netherlands and there is a chance also for Fernando Torres to play. 4 minutes before the end, Torres cross to the center, Fabregas gets the ball, assist for Andrès Iniesta in the box and GOAL! Iniesta show the t-shirt in honor of Jarque, player of the Espanyol dead one year ago. Casillas cries. The bench is euphoric.

The final score is 1-0, Iniesta gives this victory to Spain. For the first time Spain is the Champion of the World. Parties can start.

Post from: Calcio al Pallone

World Cup 2010, Spain champion of the world

World Cup 2010: On July 11th, the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg will host the final of the 2010 edition of the World Cup. Two fresh teams reached the final: Spain, the European Champion with an incredible quality in their midfielders, and Netherlands, a concrete team led by 2 great players.

After several editions dominated by the “classic” football teams (Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy), this time the two teams that will play Sunday 11th are “fresh”. Neither Netherlands nor Spain won a World Cup before and this is a prelude of a great match.

Netherlands, who won all the 6 matches played up to now in South Africa, is a way different from the team who invented the “Total Football”. Sneijder instead of Cruyff as playmaker and two great strikers, Robben and Van Persie (the second one still needs to show his talent in this World Cup), made this team one of the two candidates for the title of one of the “strangest” editions of this Tournament.

On the other side we have the big favorite, Spain, with a long list of wonderful players, from the defender Puyol, who scored the goal against Germany in semi-final, to the striker MARA-Villa, who wants to win the title of top goalscorer.

No changes in the line-up for Netherlands, a big dilemma with the strikers for Del Bosque: Pedro or Torres? Probably Pedro will be in the starting eleven, as in the match versus Germany, since Torres is (still) not in shape.

THE LINE-UP OF THE FINAL

NETHERLANDS (4-2-3-1): Stekelenburg, Van der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathijsen, Van Bronckhorst; Van Bommel, De Jong; Robben, Sneijder, Kuyt; Van Persie. Coach: Bert van Marwijk

SPAIN (4-2-3-1): Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Puyol, Piqué, Capdevila; Xabi Alonso, Busquets; Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro; Villa. Coach: Del Bosque

• 2010 World Cup Qualifying results and fixtures.
• 2010 World Cup Qualifying groups standings.
• Calendar and results – World Cup 2010
• Groups and Standings – World Cup 2010
• World Cup Winners List.
• News on World Cup 2010.
• World Cup Ball.

Post from: Calcio al Pallone

World Cup final: Netherlands – Spain line up

World Cup: the day has come. In few hours millions of people will watch on tv the first two matches of the World Cup 2010. South Africa, the host country, will play vs. Mexico. Later we will finally see if France vs. Uruguay will tell us if the European Country is a candidate for the victory.

South Africa vs. Mexico: the first match is more interesting than expected. On the one hand Mexico seems to be a really well prepared team. They had a good pre-World Cup and they won versus Italy. On the other hand won’t be easy to beat South Africa in their country. Do you remember the Rugby World Cup in 1995? South Africa defeated New Zealand. Hence we can expect that the spectators today in Johannesburg will be the 12th man on the field.

The LINE-UP

SOUTH AFRICA (4-2-3-1): Khune, Thwala, Mokoena, Khumalo, Gaxa, Dikgacoi, Letsholonya, Tshabalala, Modise, Pienaar, Mphela.

MEXICO (4-4-2): Pérez, Juàrez, Màrquez, Magallòn, Salcido, Dos Santos, Castro, Torrado, Guardado, Blanco, Hernàndez.

France vs. Uruguay: the great enigma of this year is “Can France win the world cup?”. After the pre-World Cup match vs. China several experts said no. The France of Domenech is not in good shape, but it has a lot of stars as Malouda and Ribèry that can change the result of a match. The opponent, Uruguay, is a good team, with a good perspective young players (and a great goalkeeper, Muslera), but probably not as good as needed to win pass the stage group.

The LINE-UP

FRANCE (4-2-3-1): Loris, Sagna, Gallas, Abidal, Evra, Toulalan, Diarra, Ribèry, Gourcuff, Malouda, Anelka.

URUGUAY (4-4-2): Muslera, Pereira, Godìn, Lugano, Victorino, Gonzàlez, Pereira, Arevàlo, Pérez, Forlàn, Suarez.

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South Africa – Mexico and Uruguay – France line up

The World Cup is not only sport. We have seen in the past editions how interesting could be the spectators of a World Cup match. In particular, the female supporters of all the nations.

In 2006 there was no day where the newspapers showed the beauty of the World Cup girls from all around the world. And probably this year won't be so different.

Hence, waiting for the photos of the hottest girls of this World Cup in South Africa, here is a gallery of some of the "famous" pictures from the World Cup 2006 in Germany. (So bad that Sweden won't play this year)

Post from: Calcio al Pallone

World Cup Girls

World Cup 2010: we can say that this edition of the World Cup in South Africa is not very lucky from the point of view of injuries. Starting from captain Ballack, several stars injured before the beginning of the Group Stage.

In terms of private clubs the one that seems to have a sort of curse is Chelsea. Other than Ballack also Didier Drogba (elbow's fracture) and Michael Essien (knee injury) will not play for their national teams, Ivory Coast and Ghana respectively. Unfortunately there was a lot of expectation for this two players since for the first time the World Cup is played in Africa, and they represent two of the African Countries. If we consider also the forfait of Bosingwa for Portugal there role of the "blues" in this World Cup is downsized (even if other 13 players will play this competition).

Two big problems for Italy. The Azzurri's playmaker Andrea Pirlo has a calf strain. He is the second midfielder of Italy that won't start this World Cup, together with Mauro Camoranesi, even if Lippi wants them in the team.

Another man of the Premier League seems to give up to his role in the english national team: Rio Ferdinand, that became the captain of the team after the Terry's scandal, is out for a knee ligament injury. Maybe we will see David Beckham has a captain "but not as a player" (strange). For Netherland Arjen Robben doesn't look good (harmstring injury).

On the other side of the ocean Julio Cesar (Brazil) is not training yet while Cabanas, the star of Paraguay, is still recovering from the shooting of few months ago in Mexico City.

Apparently the only team who is not having any injury is Argentina. One more reason to consider the Maradona's team them the front-runner.

THE LIST OF THE PLAYERS INJURED:

• Michael Ballack (Germany – ankle)
• José Bosingwa (Portugal – knee)
• Mauro Camoranesi (Italy – left thigh)
• Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast – elbow's fracture)
• Michael Essien (Ghana – knee)
• Rio Ferdinand (England – knee ligament)
• Andrea Pirlo (Italy – calf strain)
• Arjen Robben (Netherland – harmstring)

• 2010 World Cup Qualifying results and fixtures.
• 2010 World Cup Qualifying groups standings.
• Calendar and results – World Cup 2010
• Groups and Standings – World Cup 2010
• World Cup Winners List.
• News on World Cup 2010.
• World Cup Ball.

Post from: Calcio al Pallone

World Cup 2010: the list of players injured

World Cup 2010 South Africa: the most important football event of the world is about to start. The 19th World Cup in South Africa want to be different from the previous editions. For this reason there is a question that could deserve some unexpected result. Who will win the World Cup?

32 teams, some of them seems that have good chances to reach the final of July 11th, 2010. First of all Italy, the 2006 Champion. It's hard to win 4 years later Germany 2006; but even in that occasion Italy was not the favorite for the victory.

Another candidate is, as usual, Brazil. The home of futbol bailando, the only national team who won this competition 5 times.

Germany won 3 World Cup, and so will struggle also this year for the 4th title.

England wants to win. After the great success in Europe and in the World of the Clubs, this nation wants to win something important, and with Fabio Capello as Coach there is an high probability.

Spain is a great team. They won the Euro 2008 and they have an impressive number of great players. Fernando Torres (will he play?) is a player that can make the difference against anybody.

Argentina is another good candidate. The team trained by the ex Pibe de Oro Diego Armano Maradona has talented players, like Messi and Milito.

French, Netherlands and Portugal are in and can do very well. Don't forget that we will play in Africa: hence Ivory Coast and Cameroon have an advantage and are really interesting teams.

• 2010 World Cup Qualifying results and fixtures.
• 2010 World Cup Qualifying groups standings.
• Calendar and results – World Cup 2010
• Groups and Standings – World Cup 2010
• World Cup Winners List.
• News on World Cup 2010.
• World Cup Ball.

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World Cup 2010 Poll: Which team will win the World Cup 2010 in South Africa?

World Cup video: the Magnitude of an event like the first World Cup organized in Africa could be understood by the campaigns that the Media are organizing for this event. Among them the commercial of U2 for South Africa called "United".

These are the video of the commercials that Bono and U2 made for ESPN. It's just the beginning: today ESPN showed the video of Magnificent interpreted with the Soweto Gospel Choir for the World Cup. As soon as it will be available on youtube we will post it.

Another Commercial of ESPN. 

Once every 4 years a ball does the impossible..

Post from: Calcio al Pallone

Magnificent U2 World Cup 2010 video song with the Soweto Gospel Choir

World Cup 2010 South Africa: Vicente del Bosque, coach of the spanish national team, officialized the list of the players of will play in the World Cup in South Africa.

In the list of the European Champions there are Andres Iniesta and Fernando Torres, both injured. 8 players are from Barcelona, while only 5 from Real Madrid. Valencia has 4 players (Villa, Silva, Mata and Marchena).

Del Bosque has chosen 5 Goalkeepers: 2 of them will come back home before the beginning.

UPDATE THE FINAL LIST OF THE 23 PLAYERS

The list of the Spain players for the World Cup 2010:

Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), David De Gea (Atletico Madrid), Diego Lopez (Villarreal), Jose' Manuel Reina (Liverpool), Victor Valdes (Barcelona).

Difenders: Raul Albiol (Real Madrid), Alvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid), Cesar Azpilicueta (Osasuna Pamplona), Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), Carlos Marchena (Valencia), Gerard Pique' (Barcelona), Carles Puyol (Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid).

Midfielders: Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Sergi Busquets (Barcelona), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Javi Martinez (Athletic de Bilbao), Marcos Senna (Villarreal), David Silva (Valencia), Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona).

Forwards: Santi Cazorla (Villarreal), Jesus Navas (Siviglia), Juan Manuel Mata (Valencia), Pedro Rodriguez (Barcelona), Dani Guiza (Fenerbahce), Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao), Alvaro Negredo (Sevilla), Fernando Torres (Liverpool), David Villa (Valencia).

Spain is in the GROUP H with Chile, Switzerland and Honduras

• 2010 World Cup Qualifying results and fixtures.
• 2010 World Cup Qualifying groups standings.
• Calendar and results – World Cup 2010
• Groups and Standings – World Cup 2010
• World Cup Winners List.
• News on World Cup 2010.
• World Cup Ball.

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Spain call-up for the World Cup in South Africa

World Cup 2010 South Africa: Carlos Queiroz officialized the list of the players of the Portugal national team for the World Cup in South Africa.

We all know that Portugal means Cristiano Ronaldo. However this year the team is stronger than usual, with great players like Nani, Deco, Pepe and Carvalho.

Portugal is in the GROUP G, the most interesting of this Tournament, together with Brazil, Ivory Coast and North Korea.

UPDATE THE FINAL LIST OF THE 23 PLAYERS

The list of the Portugal players for the World Cup 2010:

Goalkeepers: Eduardo (Sporting Braga), Daniel Fernandes (Iraklis Salonika), Beto (Porto).

Defenders: Miguel (Valenzia), Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea), Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea), Bruno Alves (Porto), Rolando (Porto), Ricardo Costa (Lille), Duda (Malaga), Fabio Coentrao (Benfica), Pepe (Real Madrid).

Midfielders: Pedro Mendes (Sporting Lisbona), Ze Castro (Deportivo La Coruna), Tiago (Atletico Madrid), Deco (Chelsea), Raul Meireles (Porto), Miguel Veloso (Sporting Lisboa).

Forwards: Simao Sabrosa (Atletico Madrid), Danny (Zenit St Pietroburgo), Liedson (Sporting Lisbona), Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Nani (Manchester United).

• 2010 World Cup Qualifying results and fixtures.
• 2010 World Cup Qualifying groups standings.
• Calendar and results – World Cup 2010
• Groups and Standings – World Cup 2010
• World Cup Winners List.
• News on World Cup 2010.
• World Cup Ball.

Post from: Calcio al Pallone

Portugal call-up for the World Cup in South Africa

World Cup 2010 South Africa: Diego Armando Maradona officialized the list of the players of the Argentina national team for the World Cup in South Africa.

Maradona, for the first time in a World Cup as a Coach, keeps relying on the group of the qualifying round. Consequently, the two Inter players (that just won the UEFA Champions League) Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso will not play. Surprisingly Bolatti (Fiorentina) has been called to replace Cambiasso.

Several players come from Italian clubs: Andujar from Catania, Samuel and Diego Milito (the Price) from Inter, Burdisso from Roma and Pastore from Palermo. Even Ezequiel Lavezzi, who had several problems this year, is in the list of la Seleccion argentina.

The Argentina of Maradona is one of the favourite teams for the victory, even if they never played at the level expected. However the offense is impressive: Messi and Huiguain, plus Aguero, Tevez, Milito, Palermo and Lavezzi.

UPDATE THE FINAL LIST OF THE 23 PLAYERS

The list of the Argentina players for the World Cup 2010:

• Goalkeepers: Sergio Romero (Az Alkmaar), Mariano Andujar (Catania), Diego Pozo (Colon).
• Defenders: Nicolas Otamendi (Velez Sarfield), Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich), Walter Samuel (Inter), Gabriel Heinze (Olympique Marsiglia), Nicolas Burdisso (Roma), Clemente Rodriguez (Estudiantes), Juan Manuel Insaurralde (Newell's Old Boys), Fabricio Coloccini (Newcastle), Ariel Garce' (Colon).
• Midfielders: Jonas Gutierrez (Newcastle), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool), Juan Sebastian Veron (Estudiantes), Angel Di Maria (Benfica), Juan Mercier (Argentinos Juniors), Javier Pastore (Palermo), Mario Bolatti (Fiorentina), Jose' Sosa (Estudiantes), Maximiliano Rodriguez (Liverpool), Jesus Datolo (Olympiakos), Sebastian Blanco (Lanus).
• Forwards: Lionel Messi (Barcellona), Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid), Martin Palermo (Boca Juniors), Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid), Diego Milito (Inter), Carlos Tevez (Manchester City), Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli).

Argentina is in the Group B, with Nigeria, Greece and South Korea.

• 2010 World Cup Qualifying results and fixtures.
• 2010 World Cup Qualifying groups standings.
• Calendar and results – World Cup 2010
• Groups and Standings – World Cup 2010
• World Cup Winners List.
• News on World Cup 2010.
• World Cup Ball.

Post from: Calcio al Pallone

Argentina call-up for the World Cup in South Africa