Category: World Cup Watch

Concacaf president Jack Warner, who serves on the FIFA executive committee as one of its eight vice presidents, certainly doesn’t mince his words. Speaking at the Leaders in Football on Tuesday, Warner stole the show with his comments critical of the England World Cup 2018/2022 bid committee.

When it comes to folks who carry weight abroad, few American political figures can match Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Austrian-born governor who joined the board of directors of the USA Bid Committee seeking to bring the World Cup to the United States in 2018 or 2022.

Most of the 11 bidders for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup will be happy to show FIFA in concrete or on paper the minimum of 12 stadiums seating 40,000 or more fans. The USA Bid Committee has set the minimum capacity at 50,000 seats and come up with 70 stadiums it has targeted in the initial step of outlining the bid process and criteria for venue selection for public officials and stadium operators.

Long before American soccer had celebrity fans like Drew Carey, Spike Lee or Kobe Bryant, there was Dr. Henry Kissinger. Long before it was fashionable to follow soccer, Kissinger was America’s most famous soccer fan. His appointment to the USA Bid Committee marks the third time in the last quarter century he has been involved in a U.S. effort.

U.S. STADIUMS. Concacaf’s decision to play the 2009 Gold Cup in 13 different U.S. cities over 13 dates is an ambitious undertaking — it’s a record for a continental championship and one less than Spain 1982’s World Cup record for a single host — but it says a lot about the availability of U.S. stadiums for its World Cup 2018/2022 bid effort.

The war of words over Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohammed Bin Hammam‘s seat on the FIFA executive committee reached a new level when the Korea Football Association threatened to file a complaint about Bin Hammam with FIFA after he said he was ready to cut off the head of Cho Jung-Yeon, the KFA president.

The KFA is leading a campaign to back Bahrain’s Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa in his bid to unseat Bin Hammam on FIFA’s executive committee.

(Soccer America debuts ongoing coverage of the 2018/2022 World Cup bid process with the return of its World Cup Watch e-newsletter. Let us know your thoughts on the possibilities of the World Cup returning to the United States.)

By Paul Kennedy Managing Editor Soccer America Just what did Marco Materazzi say or do, if anything, to provide France captain Zinedine Zidane to viciously head-butt the Italy defender and get sent off in Sunday’s World Cup final? “According to several very well informed sources from the world of football,” the anti-racism group SOS Racism […]

By Mike Woitalla in Berlin The fans who watched the World Cup final in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium probably enjoyed the final more than the estimated 1 billion who watched on TV. The festive atmosphere began an hour before kickoff. Fans belted out competing chants. They danced and sang along to the piped-in tunes, from “I […]

By Ridge Mahoney In Berlin On a night of finely balanced tensions, set under darkening skies and poised between two teams replete with heroic storylines and marvelous players, a great career ended in disgrace and a grand tradition prevailed once again. Italy, purveyor of defensive efficiency, rode out numerous French attacks to end regular play […]

By Paul Kennedy Managing Editor Soccer America Juergen Klinsmann wants more time to decide whether he will remain as Germany coach. Klinsmann is considered the leading candidate to replace Bruce Arena as U.S. national team coach if Arena’s contract is not renewed, but he’s under heavy pressure to remain as Germany coach, despite objections to […]

By Paul Kennedy Managing Editor Soccer America Retiring Zinedine Zidane is letting his feet doing the talking. In what would be unheard upon in American sports, Zidane has refused to speak to the press since before France’s opening game of the 2006 World Cup. Even before the final game of his career, he didn’t talk […]

Seven Italians and four Frenchmen head the 23-man MasterCard All-Star Team, as selected by FIFA’s Technical Study Group. World Cup semifinalists Germany and Portugal also had four players apiece on the all-star game. Argentina had two, and Brazil and England one apiece. The MasterCard All-Star Team: Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Jens Lehmann (Germany), Ricardo (Portugal). […]

By Mike Woitalla in Munich Even the Germans who would never admit to reading the Bild newspaper can’t escape its giant headlines. They jump out from the newsstands and can be easily spotted if someone’s reading the tabloid at the far end of a subway  car. When German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was anointed head of […]

Retiring France star Zinedine Zidane heads the list of players on the short list for the 2006 World Cup MVP award — the adidas Golden Ball. Zidane is one of seven players in Sunday’s final who were nominated for the award. Three Frenchmen — Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Zidane — and four Italians — […]

By Mike Woitalla in Munich Theo Zwanziger, the president of the German soccer federation (DFB), says he believes Juergen Klinsmann will remain coach of the German national team. Klinsmann says he’ll decide after discussions with his family, following the World Cup. U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati won’t say who the candidates for the U.S. job […]

By Ridge Mahoney in Munich To stop a most remarkable streak required a gritty team on a great run of its own led by a flickering star not yet willing to be dimmed. France, mired in self-doubts in the run-up to the World Cup and a surprise runner-up finisher in group play behind Switzerland, knocked […]

Germany’s dream of winning a fourth World Cup title ended Tuesday night when it fell to Italy, 2-0, in overtime in the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup. All across Germany, fans were glued to the game, hoping that the improbable run of Juergen Klinsmann‘s team would continue, and a lot of tears were shed […]

By Mike Woitalla in Dortmund If Bruce Springsteen were German, he’d write songs about Dortmund. The Ruhr city was once a leading producer of steel, coal and beer, but its last coal mine closed two decades ago, the last blast furnace folded in 2001, and the eight  breweries that once produced a tenth of Germany’s […]

By Paul Kennedy Managing Editor Soccer America Franck Ribery came out of nowhere to be one of the stars of the World Cup. He’s only played two seasons of top level soccer and never played for France before being called up for the World Cup, but he’s emerged as one of the key players in […]

By Paul Kennedy Managing Editor Soccer America The suspension of Torsten Frings has put a damper on German hopes of reaching the World Cup finals. The German national team was flying to Dortmund on Monday for Tuesday’s Germany-Italy semifinal when it received news that the 29-year-old defensive midfielder was banned for his part in the […]

By Mike Woitalla in Hamburg Fans who take the S-Bahn to the Hamburg Fan Fest get out the Reeperbahn  station and walk east down the red-light avenue. The McDonald’s is flanked by Erotik Heaven and Blue Banana’s Table Dance  Club. Across the street is the St. Pauli Theater, soon to stage “The Threepenny Opera” by […]

By Paul Kennedy Managing Editor Soccer America Ronaldinho, the reigning World and European Player of the Year, came in for heavy criticism in the aftermath of Brazil’s shocking exit from the World Cup. O Globo and Estado de Sao Paulo, two of Brazil’s biggest newspapers, ran identical headlines: “Ronaldinho was the big letdown of the […]

By Ridge Mahoney in Gelsenkirchen   It is sometimes said of a match decided on penalties that neither team deserved to lose. In the case of Saturday’s quarterfinal between Portugal and England, neither team really deserved to win, and the team less deserving to lose, did. Despite playing a man up for nearly an hour […]

By Paul Kennedy Managing Editor Soccer America Luca Toni came into the 2006 World Cup as one of the tournament’s most hyped players. having scored 31 goals for Fiorentina in the 2005-06 season, the most goals by a player in Serie A since 1957. But Toni didn’t score in Italy’s first four games at the […]