David Beckham

Beckham has made it very clear that his biggest ambition in life is to win his country a World Cup Title. Something that has only been done once and only back in the 60’s. Many find it strange that England doesn’t have more World Cup wins under their belt but most agree that their best chance of a win will be with Beckham playing forward.Team USA wants this win badly as well though they seem to have a hard time making it past the first round.

So dispite the old fights and rivalries the two LA Galaxy team mates will be playing for real in June as they are both eager to prove themselves on the field for their countries. Not that it’s likely to happen, but what if Donovan happened to put one past Beckham and eliminate England from the World Cup? What would that do for them once the MLS season begins again? Well whatever happens they are both professionals and keep their competitiveness on the field.

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World Cup

England has hosted the World Cup before in 1966 and it turned out to be a huge success. Since then the event has traveled the world and will be played in South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014. The 2018 and 2022 World Cup Games are still up for grabs as other nations are competing for the same highly coveted spot.

Countries currently competing for the 2018-2022 World Cup Games are Australia, Belgium & The Netherlands, England, Indonesia, Japan, Portugal & Spain, Russia and The United States. Personally I’d like to see 2018 go to England and 2022 to Russia.

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Zidane & Henry

Because there are no video review of plays by the officiators, infractions need to be seen on the spot. Naturally allot gets missed. To blame the refs for their problems seems like a bit of a cop out to me. It’s just another diversion of attention from the real matter which is that Henry deliberately touched the ball to gain the advantage for France in the World Cup Qualifiers. It was an important game so he did whatever he had to to get the job done.

Zidane spent the day defending his old team mate by saying that Henry is anything but a cheat and that he merely had a slight lapse of judgment.

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The World Cup Stadium in Capetown, South Africa, 17 February 2009.

I personally don’t see what the big deal is about sacrificing a cow for the South African World Cup. No one seems to care about the cow that died to end up in their Big Mac. Why is this such a big deal. For the Muslim people they ’sacrifice’ lambs once a year for Ramadan, after which they are eaten. But I mean we don’t even need to look to foreign countries to see ritual sacrifices. Here in North America we go out into the woods to find a wild turkey to ’sacrifice’ for our traditional Thanksgiving Day celebration. What exactly is the difference. Isn’t killing the turkey apart of our tradition? My goodness people need to chill on other people’s traditions. I really hope South Africa does go ahead with their rituals.

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October 14th, 2009 - Stade de France, Saint Denis near Paris - France vs. Austria 2010 World Cup Qualifying. (3-1)

France has a second chance with their pair up against Ireland in their November 14th and 18th match up. Other teams playing qualifying games on those days include Russia against Slovenia, Greece vs. Ukraine and Portugal was drawn to play against Bosnia-Herzegovina. Watch out for the crowds Portugal.

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The United States should also celebrate as they too have made it in the 2010 World Cup. So far the list of team who will definitely be playing in the 2010 World Cup games in South Africa are:

• Denmark
• Switzerland? – Undecided
• Slovakia? – Undecided
• Germany
• Spain
• England
• Serbia
• Italy
• Netherlands

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FIFA President Joseph Blatter poses during a press conference prior to the opening ceremony of the FIFA U-20 World Cup championship at the Borg El-Arab military stadium in Alexandria, Egypt, Sept. 24, 2009. Twenty four countries will compete for the trophy in five Egyptian cities over the period of 23 days.

FIFA is having to crack down of counterfeit World Cup tickets after receiving complaints. FIFA is warning people now to help curb the traffic of these illegal tickets. They mentioned that official World Cup tickets can only be purchased legally through their online kiosk at FIFA.com or through their distribution partner MATCH. Anywhere else is unreliable and should not be taken seriously. FIFA is also working closely with New Scotland Yard’s e-crime department who monitor illegal transactions online. People should also be warned about purchasing real tickets from third party vendors. If it didn’t come from FIFA it’s not guaranteed. And no one wants to fly out to South Africa only to find out then that their tickets are worthless.

To get real FIFA World Cup tickets you have to submit an application here.

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Electricity company Eskom of South Africa has promised that they will be able to provide enough electricity to the host cities. The World Cup attracts allot of people and they will undoubtedly see a surge in power consumption. This wouldn’t be a problem for most developed nations but South Africa’s Eskom has already had some blackouts that have forced many factories and mines to shut down causing millions in damages.

As a backup FIFA has insisted to enforcing implementation of backup generators in place at all of it’s stadiums. Eskom has said that they are unnecessary as they have learned from their mistakes and are ready to provide power for the games. Eskom are upgrading their electrical grid but many of their projects won’t be completed till well after the games. In the meantime they are asking residents of South Africa to conserve electricity while the games are on.

Well if you do have tickets and are making your way to South Africa just make sure that you have a pocket flashlight handy.

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Nigeria's players and team's head coach 'Yemi Tella' (C) celebrate their victory against Spain at the final match of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Seoul, 09 September 2007.

FIFA has announced that they will randomly test players from the 24 competing U-17 nations with a new bone magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner that will determine the age of the players. The test in non-invasive and causes no harm to the players. The integrity of the sport however is what is at stake. It’s not uncommon for teams to recruit players who are over aged but who look under-17 years old to give themselves the competitive edge. Players may also lie about their age to make the cut.

The U-17 FIFA World Cup Games are scheduled from October 24th through to November 15th and are being held in Nigeria, the current and defending U-17 title winners.

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Canadian Soccer Association

Soccer critics have blamed the Canadian Soccer Association for not giving their best players more support in the game. But I guess that’s what happens when there is no money from sponsors for the game.

The United States on the other hand has almost been able to take the top ten spot. This comes as renewed funding for the games has improved since the USA are looking towards sponsoring the World Cup games in the future.

The best Canada has ever done in the past was in 1996 when they placed 40th place in the ranking system.

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