Many new soccer fans are born during World Cup competitions. With hours and hours of soccer coverage on the television you begin to become partial to watching it at some level. The following seasons used to be a bit of a come down , but now domestic football around the world is played to an excellent standard. We have lots more top flight games with the best players involved in, to enjoy.

The MLS is already in full flow, and the teams have started battling it out, heading towards the MLS Cup final in November. The quality of the football is getting better and better in the league with many major stars now heading to America to play their soccer.  The big players who were at the World Cup though, mainly play in Europe. If you are new to soccer, you can watch the English Premier League and other big European leagues on network TV regularly now. One team you may enjoy following were last seasons best team in Europe, Inter Milan of Italy. Internazionale as they are also known, beat Germany’s Bayern Munich in the European Champions League final.

Many of the USA World Cup squad play in Europe. International stars Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey play in Spain and England respectively. USA players play in many other leagues too. And not just top flight leagues, with Jay DeMerit spending the last few seasons in the npower Championship in England.

As a new fan you have it all ahead of you. People are always saying things were greater in their day, so go look. It’s a lot of fun learning about the history of soccer. I am very jealous of the fun you will have learning all about it as new. Get your knowledge up to scratch on greatest ever goal scorers and most influential players, and you will be able to have hours of fun speculating about who were the best.

If you had fun watching the Spanish lift the trophy, their league season begins in late August. The two best domestic sides in Spain, are Barcelona and Real Madrid. They are both very famous clubs. Spain had seven Barcelona players in their World Cup winning side, with three from Real Madrid and one from Villarreal (left-back Capdevila).

So welcome soccer fan, you will soon find your feet. Be careful though, this game can be cruel. Us seasoned professionals keep coming back for more however, even when our teams don’t win anything season after season. But as you have found recently, you can’t help falling in love with this game. And because we love it, we forgive it time and time again.

photo credit: dheuer

So that was it Ladies and Gentlemen, the 2010 Fifa World Cup. What will you remember it for? Will you remember the ‘total’ defence style adopted by the Dutch, or the slick passing of the now World Champions? Personally, i’ll remember the Germans. Without the Germans this would have officially been the dullest World Cup on record. You can count the great goals scored in the tournament on one hand, a very poor return from 5,880 minutes of football. It may be an age thing though, the last World Cup I enjoyed was in 2002 when I was still in my twenties.

As the Vuvuzelas are inspected for contraband at airports around the globe, and the Spaniards enjoy a longer than usual siesta, it is time for us all to go back to domestic football. Woohoo, domestic football, I can’t wait. I mean that most sincerely too, that is not a sarcastic woohoo. This is one of the most exciting times for us football fans. New players through the door, renewed optimism, and no matter how rubbish our league sides are there is a good chance that they will stil have something to play for until at least April. Even if that something to play for is not getting relegated.

Our teams may get knocked out of cup competitions, but we only have to wait a few days to see our beloved side play again in the hope of excorcising the last defeat. Who knows what success may lie ahead for us this season. These are all similar feelings I felt before the World Cup, but at least you aren’t let down as soon as you are built-up by your favourite league team. At least you get a minimum of 38 games to get used to defeat. I am not a pessimist, I am very much an optimist but I am trying to become a pragmatist.

Well done South Africa, they can hold their heads high as a nation for the excellent job they did in hosting the competition this Summer. It wasn’t their fault most of the teams didn’t come to play football. The baton is passed across the water to Brazil who will have already began their preparations for 2014. And for those nations that needn’t have bothered turning up, they need to begin their preparation too. They will all have many competitive games to win before then, but many failed this time, by thinking about the end game only a few weeks before it was upon them. The road to the World Cup starts now if you want a shot at lifting the trophy.

Howard Webb has packed his yellow cards in his oversized suitcase and headed home. The criticsim of him has been over the top. If he had sent off every Dutch player he should have sent off, the game would have been over as a contest by half-time. The fact that the best team in the competition were able to win, against a team that went on the field to kick them up in the air, shows that Howard Webb did his job. In fact most of the criticsim is coming from the losers.

Viva La Futbol

photo credit: Mat Honan

Just as the four best teams in the world right now prepeare to do battle with each other, the generals are counting their wounded. The very nature of big international competitions means that as games come thick and fast, players get suspended or injured. Sides will go up against each other with some of their most experienced soldiers on the sidelines. This gives others an opportunity to shine on the biggest of stages, and it also means that results are less predictable.

For tonight’s semi-final between Uruguay and the Netherlands, nine players are potentially out of the game. All but one of these has been a regular for his country throughout. The yellow card count was wiped clean after the quarter-finals and so nobody can get a second yellow in the last four. A straight red or two yellow cards in the one match however, will still obviously lead to a suspension. Luis Suarez is missing for Uruguay against the Dutch after his now infamous handball against Ghana, Also suspended for the South Americans is defender Fucile. Some believe the referees have been card happy this summer and Holland are without midfielder Nigel de Jong and regular defender Gregory Van der Wiel for the most important match in their recent history.

Players are carrying niggles and knocks after a tough few weeks in South Africa. Uruguay’s Lodeiro is out of the match with team mates Lugano and Godin, and Holland’s Van Persie and Mathijsen all doubtful. New starters will have to settle in quickly and have a great opportunity to try and stake a starting berth for the biggest game in football on Sunday. All these suspensions and possible absentees add spice to the mix. Both these sides are compact, and haven’t gone out to attack teams yet in this tournament. They can’t both soak up the pressure if none is coming, so one of them will have to be brave to get the result. Weakened teams, nervous new faces, and unsettled lineups will either give us even more caution, or goals through mistakes. Let’s hope it is the latter. Apart from the Germans, I have yet to see a team who deserves to be in the semi-finals of this competition.

It has been fairly underwhelming to date. But the German side have shown that he who dares really does win in this World Cup. So few teams have been prepared to go for it, and make their own luck. I expect Joachim Loew’s team to win the battle of the Europeans on Wednesday, but whether it will be against their arch rivals Holland, or the South Americans, really is anybodies guess.

photo credit: uberzombie

As Fabio Capello waits with baited breath to hear if he has kept his job, the former Milan supremo has named some of the future stars for England. Capello has singled out several young players, three of whom were in his pre-World Cup 30 but were left at home. Theo Walcott was the surprise name left out of the 23, but Capello has said he is in his future plans should he stay. The other promising youngster currently teetering on the brink of the first team is Adam Johnson. The former Middlesborough and now Manchester City winger was also left at home by Capello, but has been singled out by England’s current head coach.

Capello also named Bobby Zamora (Fulham), Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal), Owen Hargreaves (Manchester United), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal) and Gabriele Abonglahor (Aston Villa) as potential England regulars. Zamora is probably the most unlikely choice as he is now 30 years of age. Michael Dawson who was called up to the 23 late, but never played for England was also referred to by Capello as a good prospect.

With all those players knocking on the door, who stays and who goes? Although he was Capello’s go to man during qualification for the World Cup, Emile Heskey may have played his last game at international level. Especially with the wink tipped towards Zamora who can both work the channels and has a good scoring record. Whilst Zamora is also in his thirties, he raised his game last season and is in good form. Jamie Carragher will surely finally call it a day at international level now. He was encouraged back in to the fold by Capello, but at this late stage in his career, more international  football could cut short his domestic shelf-life.

Matthew Upson, Ledley King and Michael Carrick are other players I would not expect to see in an England shirt anytime soon. The problem with England’s summer was that they never looked a settled side. Since qualification Capello had not played the same eleven players and nobody was sure of their place in the squad. The Don needs a settled eleven, with a back-up player for every position who has expereinced international football and has played regularly with his international colleagues. It is no mean feat, international managers get their players for so little time.

Apart from Upson though, just how many of Sunday’s starting eleven would you wave goodbye to? Can you really leave out either Gerrard or Lampard?  Is there room for all this new talent, when we have just seen the emergence of James Milner and Jermaine Defoe at international level? If I was to pick an eleven to start England’s next game (which is a friendly against Hungary at Wembley in August), I can’t see Fabio blooding too many youngsters so soon, but the team may look something like this:

Hart, Johnson G, Cole A, Terry, Dawson, Johnson A, Hargreaves, Wilshere, Milner, Gerrard, Rooney.

No one has a divine right to put on an England shirt, but when Rio Ferdinand comes back from injury can you leave him out? Is it time for Lampard to warm the bench? Where do you play Bobby Zamora, Jermaine Defoe and Agbonlahor? Fabio is maybe best placed to make these tough decisisons after a few weeks away getting to know the squad on and off the pitch. It is far too much for us mere mortals to get our heads around. The FA should get on with letting him get on with doing his job.

photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar

After a desperately disappointing World Cup exit at the weekend, the question is where do England go now?
The whole tournament showed England to be an over hyped mediocre side set up in a way by Capello that below average sides were able to simply raise their game and get a result against them.
People have actually forgotten that before this tournament England actually failed to qualify for Euro 2008, with exactly the same squad as the current campaign. So it’s the same squad, just four years older, or as Capello whinged in his press conference, ‘four years more tired’.

There are serious issues that go deeper than just who is manager and these must be addressed if England are to have any success on the international stage.

Premier League vs Football Association

Firstly the Premier League must work closer with the FA. A winter break must be introduced to maximise tournament play. The premier league is more physical and faster than most of the European leagues and having a break would allow battered bodies time to recover fully and allow for a strong finish to a campaign.
Where are the international super stars?

This next issue is painful, but where are the next batch of world class international stars? Where is the next Alan Shearer. Where are the mesmorising Paul Gascoignes, the next fox in the box Michael Owen? Where is the next David Beckham or Paul Scholes? Opinions will vary and people will argue that Jack Rodwell, Jack Willshere, Adam Johnson, Ashley Young and a few others will fall in to that category, but seriously, are these players international quality?

This brings me on to the next issue. Whoever has the job after Fabio Capello needs to be English speaking and has the full backing of the media, the public and the club managers to play these youngsters alongside current players like Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney and John Terry, so when the time arrives to pass on what legacy is left of the three lions, they all have enough experience at this level to go on and compete against all opposition in major tournaments, like Germany did so amazingly against England on Sunday. Remember five of the starting eleven played in the victorious Under 21 German side against England last year. James Milner was the only member of our successful set up to play on Sunday.

The issues will not be resolved overnight and the whole problem needs all the right people in all the right places to be singing off of the same sheet (preferably God Save the Queen) in order to achieve the collective glory that everyone, well almost everybody craves.

Finally who springs to mind when speaking about choosing a manager?
Who commands instant respect from the players? Who is great with the media and has seen it all before in an international career spanning 14 years .That’s right Fabio Capello’s number 2…….. David Beckham?!

Not that kind of toast although it is fitting considering the Germans did toast John Terry and the Three Lions for four goals a few days back, but how about a toast with Das Boot? 

After all ESPN had England as the projected favorite of the huge second round match and Sports Illustrated picked Capello’s squad to advance all the way to the final match in the tournament, but Ze Germans proved once again that they are a truly a winning team (like Klose said) and they simply outran, outhustled, and outperformed their inferior opponent.

And heading into the match I thought Ze Germans were heavily underrated considering their early match form compared to sputtering Englands.  Not being able to win Group C had serious consequences for the Three Lions and Miroslav Klose and the German attack took full advantage of the fading squad.  The key was the German’s quick scoring tactics by relying on long runs off of the change of possession and big passes that broke down the English defense in just a few brief moments.  All four goals scored by Klose, Podolski, and young twenty year old Thomas Muller were because of top notch speed and passing from the German attack.  The English side lacked the hustle to keep up with the youngster and the Polish born stars of Germany and the goals were unavoidable due to this overcommitment down the field.  Scoring the first off of a goal kick (Neuer looks great in the net as well) is not only embarrassing for John Terry and the rest of the back line it is unaccepatable in such a huge match.

But there is a reason why Klose has 12 career goals in the World Cup (tied with Pele) and there is a reason why Ze Germans won the match.  Because they were the better team and they proved it by winning the match in every single way possible.  And of course it never hurts to have a few breaks go your way either.

Now raise your boots gentleman.   

photo credit: sizumaru

Frank Lampard‘s shot bounced two feet over the line on Sunday, and the keeper had to reach in to his own net to retrieve it. The referee’s assistant didn’t see it as he wasn’t up with play, and the referee was not in a position to give the goal either. Fifa have refused to introduce technology in to the game which would eliminate such errors, and make the game fairer. That is what we are talking about here, making the game fairer. A side could be cheated out of an opportunity because Fifa refuses to explore the use of technology.

We have it in American sports and it works to great effect. Both in American Football and in Tennis, they employ a system whereby each side has so many challenges to the decisions that are being made. If a side challenges a call, and it turns out the decision was incorrect, they keep the challenge and can use it again. If they incorrectly challenge and the call was good, they lose that challenge. England would have used a challenge on Sunday, and instead of going in to the changing rooms a goal down the scores would have been even. What difference could that have made to their chances?

The problem is we have this discussion during every major tournament. Is Fifa just interested in perpetuating the injustice? It is no fun for the football fan to see a side get cheated. I want to see the best side lift this trophy, not the side that gets the lucky call. Look at the amount of errors we have already seen in this tournament, and we haven’t reached the quarter-finals yet. Brazil fortunately survived thier scare to make it through, but the sending off of Kaka was a terrible decision. What’s is more, it seemed like the referee was guessing what had happened rather than actually seeing what had happened for himself. To all intents and purposes he saw a player on the floor, and sent off who was nearest to him. A quick video replay would have seen Kaka remain on the field and be available for Brazil’s next match.

Argentina scored past Mexico on Sunday night with Carlos Tevez offside by several yards. The biggest game in Mexico’s recent history and that is how they get treated. Goals change games is the old addage, but so do refereeing decisions. Especially when the decision is to incorrectly cancel out a goal, or to incorrectly allow a goal. The United States were penalised in this tournament by having a win taken away from them due to a bad call and a goal being disallowed.

The governing body are arguing that they think the introduction of technology will effect the game and the fans enjoyment of the game. What Fifa fails to realise is that they are alienating fans by not introducing the technology. A colleague of mine says to me before every major tournament that he isn’t interested in watching it as the team he follows will get a bad decision and will be knocked-out, and that teams will gain an advantage by cheating and getting away with it. Well he is right, it happens every tournament, and if Fifa doesn’t act soon it will be to the detriment of the beautiful game.

photo credit: wjarrettc

The English FA have decided to let Fabio Capello sway in the wind for the next two weeks as they decide whether to keep him or fire him after England’s disappointing World Cup.

Capello wants to stay on saying in his press conference today:

“I want to stay on as manager of England. I refused a lot of opportunities to be manager of important clubs because I like to stay here. I like this job. I like to be England manager.”

England managing director Adrian Bevington did not give Capello the strongest vote of confidence saying:

“We are all very clear that Fabio is under contract to the FA until the 2012 European Championships and nothing has changed in that respect. Everyone is very disappointed in going out of the World Cup. Everyone is frustrated. It makes perfect sense for us to go back to London and take stock of the situation and reflect fully on the tournament, what we can take from it and speak again to Fabio again from there. We just want to show a common-sense approach rather than making a knee-jerk reaction within 24 hours of a very disappointing result.”

Capello has already said that he will not resign as England boss and with a contract worth £12million over the next years, you would not expect Capello to walk away from that kind of money. But there is no doubt that England underperformed at South Africa and the FA have the right to ask a lot of questions of Capello from the tense atmosphere in the England camp to his selection policy.

When Capello took over from Steve McClaren in late 2007, England had just failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championship and morale was at an all-time low. Capello came in and laid down the law in the England camp, increasing discpipline and the team responded winning its qualifying group easily.

But that authoritative style of Capello that worked so well when he only saw the players for 4 or 5 days every three months, did not work so well when he had the players for 5 or 6 weeks straight.

In his press conference Capello was asked about his rigid 4-4-2 formation, that caused Steven Gerrard to be stuck on the left and not in a deeper role behind Rooney. He responded

“I think you can decide on a different style but a good style depends on the form of the players,’ he said. We played this style for a long time and the results were very good. Sometimes you can change with the game but that depends on the physical situation and not the style. The style always depends on the players in my squad.”

Capello cannot blame the players for being tired, the Lampard “goal” against Germany or anything else. He just got it wrong.

The best England player is Wayne Rooney. How Capello cannot play Rooney as the target man where he has played all season for Man United is beyond me. How can Matthew Upson be a better choice to face the speed of the German attack than King, Dawson or Carragher? Heading into the first game against the U.S. and with all that hype, how could he not tell RobertGreen the night before that he would be playing in the biggest game in his life?

An England team with quality players like Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney should be able to do more than finish second in a group that includes Slovenia, Algeria and the U.S.

This is an aging England team that needs retooling for the 2010 Euro’s and I don’t think that Capello is the man to do that. It is time that England go back and get an English manager.

Either Roy Hodgson (who has international managerial experience) or Harry Redknapp would be my choice as England’s new manager.

Germany reached the World Cup quarterfinals by beating England 4-1 in a match that will be remembered for the goal not awarded to Frank Lampard. Germany raced out to a early tow goal through Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski before Matthew Upson pulled a goal back for England in the 37th minute.

Then came the moment of controversy. One minute after Upson’s goal Frank Lampard‘s shot from outside the box hit the cross-bar and fell a good yard behind the goal line. But the linesman was not in a position to see that and the referee waved play on.

The Lampard shot brought back memories of the 1966 World Cup final between England and Germany when Geoff Hurst’s shot came back off the crossbar and on that day the linesman said the ball had crossed the line.

But goal or no goal, England started the second half only a goal down and they were torn apart by the young Germans. Thomas Mueller finished two quick German counterattacks within four minutes in the second half to kill of this game and end England’s World Cup dreams.

The bottom line against Germany was that England were very poor. Matthew Upson, who is England’s fifth best center half, showed that he is not good enough to play at the international level and John Terry had one of the worst games I have ever seen him play.

In midfield Barry was terrible and Gerrard kept drifting into the middle of the park, depriving England of needed width and making it easy for the Germans to defend. Up frotn Defoe never got going and Rooney, who played better, still does not look fully fit.

This was an experienced England team that carried a lot of expectations, but they failed to live up to them in this tournament. In four games England played well for 45 mins against Slovenia and for 15 minutes against Germany. That is it. The rest of the time they looked slow, the ball movement was terrible as was the defending.

With many of the England players playing in their last World Cup game today, it will be interesting to see if Capello (or the new England manager) retools this England side with an eye on Brazil in four years.

As for Germany, they looked great going forward today. They still look a little suspect at the back which Argentina and Spain will probably test as this tournament progresses, but their young players are coming of age and they will be hard to beat.

Once again England are gearing up to face the old enemy today, this time in South Africa. England fans around the globe will be renewed by the performance of their side against Slovenia, and will hope to see them improve every game. But whilst England fans are as bad as any for indulging in misguided optimism, the reality of this game is clear in their minds. It’s Germany, we never win against Germany they will think. But what about the 5-1, they will also think.

The 5-1 mattered as it was for World Cup qualification. England crushed the Germans in their own backyard with Sven Goran Eriksson in charge. In major tournaments however, England have rarely failed to get one over on their most historic of European rivals. In relatively recent years their are two key defeats which England fans remain conscious of. Both of these defeatss came in semi-finals. England faced the then West Germany in the Semi-final of the World Cup in Italy twenty years ago. England certainly had no luck that night as the game ended 1-1 with the West German goal taking a big deflection and looping over Peter Shilton in to the net. The less said about what happened next from England’s perspective the better, as English hearts were broken as they failed on spot-kicks.

It was a penalty shootout again that put paid to England’s chances of glory in Euro ’96. The sides were again inseparable through ninety minutes, and through extra-time. The Germans proved again, that they were up to the job and confidently swept England aside on penalties. And if you are an England fan, you will be getting sick of losing on penalties. They went out of the tournament in 1998 to Argentina on penalites, and they lost to Portugal in the European Championships in 2004 on penalties. With these games and the German games in mind, there seems to be something of an inevitability looming today. All of England will be hoping that this time they can not only beat the Germans, but that they can avoid having to take penalties to try and do it.

To win a World Cup tournament you have to beat the best to become the best. The last time England lifted the famous trophy, the side they beat in the final was West Germany. In 1990, the West Germans went on to win the World Cup after putting England out. In 1996, they went on to become European Champions after defeating England. In both those tournaments, they were the best, and as England are hitting second gear in this tournament, we await to see who is the best in the world right now.

photo credit: Art By Steve Johnson