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Video Highlights: Germany v. Argentina

Try to ignore the commentary, but we bring for your viewing pleasure the goals and full penalty shootout drama of the World Cup quarterfinal between Germany and Argentina.

Enjoy.

Best Football Boots Ever!

Sure, Nike and Adidas both claim to offer football boot customization through the Tunit’s and Nike ID respectively, but compared to Prior 2 Lever’s world’s first ever bespoke football boot - Nike and Adidas look like tits.

Taking a scan of each customer’s foot, Prior 2 Lever builds a pair of boots from scratch specifically designed for them and which can be customized further with a variety of colorful soles, casts and graphics.

According to Gizmag:

“The upper is made of exclusively sourced calfskin from Italy which can be manipulated using sophisticated technology to adapt color, appearance and function to the athlete’s needs. The outsole is designed using a three dimensional scan of the individual’s foot dimensions and unique walking/running style. The bespoke fit of the boot coupled with the hand crafted one-piece upper (negating uncomfortable seams and improving contact with the ball) make for an incredibly light design that preserves energy levels without forsaking protection and comfort. …

More details and photos after the jump…

Read more

Best VIP Lounge Ever!

Already easily the most distinct stadium in the world, Bayern Munich’s home and venue of the World Cup opener the Allianz Arena is one giant merging of sport and fashion. But the cutting edge design isn’t limited to the outside halo…balloon…type thing.

The VIP rooms (above) are a cut above the rest. Designed by German architects Hild & K, the rooms feature actual astro turf on the walls to create a truly football-centric atmosphere to enjoy one’s prawn sandwich.

Real Presidential Race: A Lesson in Lying

Apparently no one outside of England gives a toss about tapping players up, with Real Madrid presidential candidate Lorenzo Sanz now claiming that Michael Carrick and Tottenham have both agreed to a deal should Sanz win the election to add the England player to the long list of English players to become heroes in the Real shirt…well actually…whatever.

However, he has admitted that his two staff members responsible for the deals will ’step down’ should they fail to deliver the players on Monday after he is elected. Unless something has been lost in the cultural translation, that means “I’M LYING”.

In all honesty, it’s actually not really tapping up so much as blatant lying. The candidates aren’t trying to secretly strike a deal with a player, they are simply claiming outright that’s it’s been legally agreed to already. And it wouldn’t be the first time a Spanish presidential candidate has failed to deliver on an election promise.

Interesting though that Michael Carrick is the latest Premiership player to be thrown into the mix, along with Arjen Robben and Cristiano Ronaldo, as most figured Ashley Cole would be the one named after a rocky year with Arsenal. But Sanz has opted for Zambrotta at left back instead for his slightly-deluded eleven.

But Tottenham supporters should take heart - given Manchester United’s interest in the Spurs midfielder over the past month, the London club’s negotiating position and asking price just got a lot better with Real sniffing around.

If any of the presidents deliver on their promises, it would certainly shake things up in the Premiership. Except at Chelsea, who are probably about to buy four or five wingers just in case Robben does leave.

Nothing like a good presidential race to spice up a boring transfer window.

Three Changes To Win England The World Cup

Sven sucks. England suck. Everyone sucks.

Depending on who you listen to - the football has been crap, the defense less than confident on set pieces, goalkeeper is flapping at crosses, wingers are diving, striker’s aren’t scoring, manager has one eye on Madrid, central midfield can’t perform for their country, and the squad engages in Wicca rituals at halftime.

While the World Cup’s biggest underachievers thus far may yet Greece their way to the World Cup final, common sense would say that England can only ride their luck so far. It’s fair to say that virtually everyone has a few suggestions as to how to get the squad playing the kind of football that makes us believe they can actually topple the likes of Brazil, Argentina and, more importantly, Portugal.

So if you had up to just three changes to make to the England squad; tactics, players, length of socks - anything - to get England to the final, what would they be?

Slakr: Applaud Henry and wave farewell to Aragones, the Human Stain of Football

Slakr politely requests that those who’ve come out criticizing Thierry Henry for “diving” should shut the hell up. Here’s his justification.

So Thierry Henry grabbed his face as he went down after a stupid, stupid challenge by Carles Puyol. I’ll be the first to admit that there was no contact to his face, but its within reason to argue that he was actually fouled. And indisputable that it was completely unnecessary since he had already lost the ball. Maybe he was just holding his hands to his face in shock that a great defender like Puyol could be so stupid. Maybe the ref gave the yellow to punish Puyol for stupidity? Or maybe Henry has learned a little bit of gamesmanship finally? This furor is like the outburst when Stevie G dived to get a penalty during the World Cup friendlies. Like it or not, its now part of the game. And much as we wish some of the true heroes of the game didn’t subject themselves to this, we all wish for success a whole hell of a lot more.

And really, if France’s win was due to gamesmanship, there couldn’t have been a more deserving loser than Luis Aragones. I’m a Liverpool fan — I’d have loved to see Luis Garcia and Xabi Alonso achieve success on this stage. As a neutral, Puyol, Reyes, Raul, Villa, Joaquin and co. were among the most enjoyable players to watch, and yesterday’s game was a thunderous spectacle and a joy to watch. But as a human being, I couldn’t tolerate Aragones coming out on top of Henry, and unless you’re a Spaniard or a racist (and certainly on the evidence there’s a fair overlap in the consituencies), you should be glad that this worthless stain, this disgrace to football has shown his ability to fail with a team of spectacular talent. So instead of critisizing Henry, lets raise our glasses in a toast to whoever is writing the letter today that will kindly inform this bastard that his services are no longer needed. Maybe then all independent fans can proudly support a wonderous Spanish team next time a major tournament comes around?

Yes, Henry Did Fake It: Video

Well it seems like Boggs was right on the money. And we’ve got the video to prove it:

Ribery…any good?

As much as they’d like to claim they’ve been watching him since he was 6 years old and using a ball of human hair as a football, the World Cup represents most people’s first time seeing Frank Ribery playing outside of YouTube highlights.

Despite claims that he has rejected Manchester United and Arsenal for French champions Lyon, nothing solid has been agreed yet and the winger is still up for grabs. With Cristiano Ronaldo apparently sick of being yelled at by that mean ol’ Scot, Ribery could be a perfect replacement.

A decent goal against Spain and some solid performances thus far won’t have hurt his value despite some claiming he’s been disappointing against the pre-tournament hype (though not of Kuytesque proportions).

So for those carefully watching him terrify defences with his tricks and disturbing facial damage - are you impressed?

Boggs: Thierry Henry The Diver, Naughty Naughty.

Boggs rues the day one of the last honest, respectable footballers goes the way of the Drogbas.

Oh dear, Thierry, you’ve let yourself down and your fans. Well, except for the Goons congratulating you for finally diving after being ‘too honest’.

After being held up by supporters and media as a model footballer who would never resort to such tactics, it was highly disappointing to see Thierry Henry take part in some blatant playacting in the World Cup round of 16 match against Spain. Carlos Puyol caught the striker in the chest, but Henry went down clutching his face in all the glory of slow-motion replay to ‘earn’ the freekick from which France scored the goal to take the lead. He has always said himself he would never dive, and criticized others harshly for doing so - now he no longer has the right.

Cue “It’s ok because he’s only done it once” or “It’s revenge for the CL final” excuses.

Even as a Spurs supporter, I’ve always given credit to Henry that he had conducted himself so well compared to the rest of his diving, cheating Arsenal teamates like Pires and Reyes. I even admired him for choosing to stay with the Goons when a most would had him going to Barca.

In lieu of a video of the incident, the one below is pretty much the same thing. Except Henry won’t face any sort of FIFA punishments, of course. Because he’s Henry.

Cristiano Ronaldo Hates United…Hooray?

So after all the talk of Ruud Van Nistlerooy having a massive bust up with Cristiano Ronaldo and being shown the door of Old Trafford, it turns out the latter wants to join him.

The Real Madrid presidential elections continue to wreak comical havoc across europe as Ronaldo has openly expressed a desire to join the camp of candidate Villa Mir, who has also promised that Arsene Wenger will join the club should he be elected,

‘I have told my agent I am prepared to leave. I want to do it in the best manner possible. I want to play for Real Madrid and dream of doing so,’ Ronaldo told the Spanish sports daily Marca on Tuesday.’

‘Other candidates wanted me to sign a document which is not legal. Villar Mir has promised me he will talk to the club and all we have done is talk through an agent.’

Even though the winger would command a massive fee Ferguson has struggled to recruit any world class players recently, most opting for Chelsea instead, and some must be worried (or delighted) that this is another nail in a slowly-built coffin.

Arsenal and Chelsea must be loving it - Rooney, Ruud and Ronaldo sounds a tad more dangerous than Rooney, Saha and Rossi.

Will you accept Sven as your saviour?

We’ve given up hope that England will ever aspire to Joga Bonito and have come to the terms that all the terrible, defensive performances being rolled out by Sven and Macca are not due to incompetance, but rather some sort of carefully executed plan.

So here’s another thought, if England turn out to be World Cup’s Greece, will anyone care?

England are playing the sort of football that makes you cringe constantly, tear your hair out and celebrate like a madman when Joe Cole manages to beat one player. They’re led by a manager who has to be the least inspiring (and inspired) man in football today and who is genuinely hated by a fair portion of supporters.

And they’re progressing.

But despite the fact that they’re both incredibly boring to watch, there are some key differences between the two teams. Greece were perfectly organized while England rode their luck at times against Trinidad and Tobago and Ecuador. Instead of getting the most out of a band of ragtag journeyman players as Otto Rehhagel did - Sven is getting the least out of some of the world’s finest talent.

But could England go all the way just by grinding out the results they need and would any of us really care when Becks is lifting the Jules Rimet trophy for the ultimate photo-op?

No matter how much we’d like to think that winning is all that matters - Sven Goran Eriksson, legendary England coach and hero to millions, just doesn’t sound quite right, does it?

Slakr: Italy’s winner, fair or foul?

Slakr’s mortified by the ending of one of the best games so far in the World Cup. While Italy probably deserved to win after missing a string of key chances, the sheer opportunism of Fabio Grosso leaves a bad taste.

I’ve already written one article on how impressed I’ve been with the Aussies in this World Cup. And that was before their staggering performance against Croatia. So it was with very mixed emotions that I approached today’s early game between Australia and Italy. Italy inspire mixed feelings in just about everyone I think — its hard not to want them to do well after they were cheated out of the previous World Cup by a string of incredible decisions (how many other countries can claim to have had five goals disallowed in three games — most of them perfectly legal on review?) while Totti’s comeback puts Rooney’s to shame.

So I was staggeringly pleased with the first 50 minutes of this game. Australia had their share of possession, and Italy had the better of the opportunities. It was flowing, beautiful football. There were hard tackles, but it wasn’t a violent game by any stretch. The red card changed the nature and tone of the game, but it was still a great spectale and the sense of belief that it could go either way added to the excitement.

After 90+ minutes of quality, its shattering to have the game end with a questionable penalty instead of on the merits of play. Lucas Neill slid in unneccesarily without a doubt but he was on the ground, Grosso was up, and had gotten the ball around him. Opportunistically choosing to catch his foot on the prone defender probably doesn’t qualify as cheating, but certainly wasn’t in the same spirit as the rest of the match and that’s what really disappoints me.

Had he taken the ball, curled it in past Mark Schwarzer, this would have been the perfect end to yet another perfect game at what is shaping up to be close to a perfect World Cup (refereeing aside).

Tenner: McClaren is already the Worst England Manager Ever.

Tenner delivers a sucker punch to the gut of orphaned deer as he tries to come to terms with a McClaren-led England.

In an interview with Sky, Steve McClaren has revealed he is completely out of touch with football, England supporters and reality as a whole.

Some key, terrifying quotes:

“We’re getting better and better and we’re in the quarter finals…”

Uh…what? Better and better? WTF?

“For England now, for the players, for the staff, everybody involved who’s worked so hard to get to this stage, for us the World Cup begins now.”

So THAT’s why you’ve been so s**t till now. Thanks! I thought it was because you had no idea what you were doing, but good to know it’s because you weren’t trying.

“There are certain things you can’t control. Who can control that Michael Owen has a serious knee injury and we are missing from the World Cup one of our top strikers and our main goalscorer?

You can’t, but you CAN make sure that you have a fit, established striker as a contingency instead of some child like everyone and their nan was saying. Just admit you’re idiots!

“As we have seen with other teams, there are great examples of other teams changing formation and tactics to their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses.”

So what was going on against Ecuador because it sure as f**k wasn’t playing to their weaknesses. Unless you were playing to their strengths, which isn’t that surprising.

“We wanted to nullify Ecuador and win the game and we achieved all three.”

Three? That’s TWO. Come on FFS!

Is there one single person out there who has any semblence of confidence in this man leading England to major tournaments?

Crouch Looks Silly Shocker

We put the original photo up as a caption competition and not only did we get just 7 suggestions, but they were some of the worst captions ever seen. But the now semi-famous shot, and rumored reason for Crouch being dropped, has made the rounds of football followers with Photoshop and the results are…well…moderately amusing.

Worth at least a quick look if you really, REALLY have nothing better to do.

Most Disappointing Players: World Cup Group Stage

As the first World Cup round of 16 matches come to an end and some of the world’s best footballers thrill us, and the world’s worst referees astound us, we can’t help but spare a moment to consider those who angered us with their mediocrity during the group stages - whether through their own fault or not.

Plenty of players were supposed to set the tournament alight but many failed to deliver. Zidane’s return to international football hasn’t inspired the French, Zlatan Ibrahimovic failed to produce any magic and struggled with injury, the Ivory Coast couldn’t make it out of the group of death and the entire England squad still can not overcome their Sventosis.

The list of disappointments goes on depending on how high your expectations are, Nedved, Henry, Adriano, Frank Ribery, Luca Toni and Lampard are just a few of the players who did alright to varying degrees but nothing near what was expected of them.

So who were the most disappointing players of the group stage?

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