Category Archives: World Cup

Lawyers, guns and money and Shari’a Law and air conditioning the desert: how the hell did the US lose World Cup 2022 to Qatar?!

By Sam Smith | Published: December 2, 2010
Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of world soccer, today awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. The move is regarded by most as an upset – the odds-on favorite to land the event was the United States, which hosted the most successful Copa in history in 1994. Also in the running [...]
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La Mano del Diablo, The Crossbar of God, The Fallibility of Man

By Raf Noboa y Rivera | Published: July 3, 2010
I’m still struggling with putting this game into words. It wasn’t the greatest game I’ve ever seen, from a technical perspective. There have been prettier goals scored, just in this World Cup alone. People ask me why I love soccer, and I tell them: because it’s the closest any sport gets to reflecting the agony and [...]
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GHANA 2, U.S. 1: A chance goes begging…

By Raf Noboa y Rivera | Published: June 27, 2010
First off, all praise to Ghana’s Black Stars. Bearing the hopes of an entire continent as the last African side in the World Cup, they showed themselves more than equal to the task. This was a truly well-deserved win by Ghana – they’ve now equaled 1990 Cameroon and 2002 Senegal as the third African team [...]
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Mama Said Knock You Out: Previewing the World Cup’s Sweet 16

By Raf Noboa y Rivera | Published: June 25, 2010
It all begins again tomorrow, when Uruguay tees off against South Korea to start the knockout round at the World Cup. From here on out, the stakes get higher, of course: win or go home, as the cliche goes. For those of you (paging Rick Reilly) who hate on soccer because of all the damned draws, [...]
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U.S. vs Algeria: WHO YOU GOT?

By Raf Noboa y Rivera | Published: June 23, 2010
Here’s the USA lineup for today’s match vs Algeria’s Desert Foxes: Howard; Cherundolo, DeMerit, Bocanegra (c), Bornstein; Donovan, Bradley, Edu, Dempsey; Gomez, Altidore And here’s the ALG lineup: Mbolhi; Bougherra, Halliche, Yahia (c); Kadir, Yebda, Lacen, Belhadj; Matmour, Djebbour, Ziani. All in all, an attacking lineup. Missing from it: Oguchi Onyewu, who, frankly, has had a rollercoaster World [...]
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Copa Mundial 2010: Why This World Cup is So Important for the US

By Sam Smith | Published: June 22, 2010
Copa Mundial is nearing the end of group play, with a few elimination round qualifiers already determined. Tomorrow’s featured match (featured here, anyway) sees the US taking on an Algeria side that’s outgunned on paper, with a spot in the Round of 16 awaiting if we can get the W. Of course, as England learned [...]
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Conspiracy or Ineptitude: Why Do So Many Bad Calls Seem to Go Against the US Soccer Team?

By Sam Smith | Published: June 21, 2010
Ken Gude has some thoughts on all the calls going against the US at the World Cup. It wasn’t the first time in this game that there were odd calls – all going against the US – in and around the Slovenan box. One play Dempsey was wrestled to the ground in the box, no call. [...]
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