Web, Design, SEO and other Hobbies » Football http://www.gwdesign.net/blog Graham Wöbcke : Sydney, Australia - Web and Design Tips plus any opinions I feel I need to express Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:00:22 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 FIFA Rankings http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/misc/fifa-rankings/ http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/misc/fifa-rankings/#comments Thu, 13 Jul 2006 12:48:42 +0000 Graham http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/?p=252 After an issue laden World Cup, you’d think FIFA would keep quiet. Instead, FIFA released its newest and probebly most controversial rankings on the 12th of July 2006. Here is a quick run down and then I’ll pass a few comments.

The new top ten are: 1. Brazil, 2. Italy, 3. Argentina, 4. France, 5. England, 6. Netherlands, 7. Spain, 8. Portugal, 9. Germany, 10. Czech Republic.

Other positions of note are: 11. Nigeria, 12. Cameroon, 14. Uruguay, 16. USA, 18. Mexico, 22. Sweden, 23. Croatia, 25. Ghana, 32. Greece, 33. Australia, 36. Serbia and Montenegro, 49. Japan

OK. So here are my comments on this ranking farce:

  1. How can Germany be ranked 4 places lower than England?
  2. How can Nigeria and Cameroon sit in 11th and 12th when they weren’t even in the World Cup?
  3. The USA droped from 5th to 16th but are they better than Mexico in 18th? It took probebly the goal of the World Cup by Argentina to beat the Mexicans in overtime.
  4. How can Sweden be ranked at 22nd?
  5. How can Uruguay be ranked 14th, when they didn’t qualify for the World Cup and were beaten by Australia?
  6. Australia ranked in 33rd is very harsh. Making the final 16 should have moved them to at least 20-25. They almost beat 2nd ranked Italy.
  7. Serbia and Montenegro is ranked at 36th and moved up the ladder despite being flogged in the World Cup
  8. Japan is ranked 49th and moved down so many places, yet played well against Brazil and Australia
  9. At least Ghana moved up the ranks and deserved there place.

I am starting to believe FIFA stands for Farcical International Football Association. There should be calls for the whole body to be investigated, especially after the huge number of black market tickets at the World Cup, of which FIFA promised would be reduced greatly. The state of the current World Cup and the scandals should have been enough to spark some form of action.

]]> http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/misc/fifa-rankings/feed/ 0 Liverpool Wins More Silverware! http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/misc/liverpool-wins-more-silverware/ http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/misc/liverpool-wins-more-silverware/#comments Mon, 15 May 2006 14:12:03 +0000 Graham http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/?p=162 Liverpool have won the FA Cup Final for the 2005-06 season against West Ham in a penalty shootout 3-1 after drawing 3-3 in extra time. Steven Gerrard, captain of Liverpool, saved the day yet again in the 90th minute of the game with a brutal freekick goal.

West Ham was up 2-0 due to an own goal by the usually near-perfect Jamie Carragher and a close range shot by Dean Ashton which I thought Reina should have saved. A few minutes later a goal was disallowed to Peter Crouch when he was deemed offside by a linesman with his eyes painted on. At the next freekick, Gerrard crossed a lovely ball to Djibril Cisse, who let fire with a vicious volley to pull one back. The teams went in for oranges with the scores in favour of the Hammers 2-1.

Steven Gerrard equalized in the 54th minute and just when things looked like Liverpool was back in control, a Paul Konchesky “cross” put West Ham ahead. Gerrard was Liverpool’s saviour again when his shot from 35 yards flew out flew past Hislop’s right and went into the net. 3-3.

In extra time, Riise almost scored the winner with a long range shot that was almost as sweet as Gerrards and just as far out. There was a bit of a scare with about a minute left when Nigel Reo-Coker’s deflection was turned on to the post by Reina. A goalmouth scramble for the ball followed and Harewood, who was suffering from bad cramp, couldn’t kick straight from 6 yards out.

So, it went to penalties. Hamann, Gerrard and Riise all scored from the spot for Liverpool with only Hyypia’s spot-kick saved. Teddy Sheringham was the only West Ham player to find the net with Zamora, Konchesky and Ferdinand all being saved by Reina.

Just as Liverpool did in their famous Champions League victory against AC Milan in Istanbul in 2005, Liverpool have taken the match to penalties after a 3-3 draw. In Istanbul, keeper Jerzy Dudek was the hero, but in Cardiff it was Reina, who had played below par until his dramatic late saves.

fa-cup
]]> http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/misc/liverpool-wins-more-silverware/feed/ 0 Football http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/misc/football/ http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/misc/football/#comments Mon, 10 Apr 2006 13:22:32 +0000 Graham http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/?p=39 Some people call it soccer but it is globally known as football and I have always called it that. I follow two teams closely in the world game and have done so since 1977. I follow Fiorentina in the Serie A but my favourite team is Liverpool FC and I can remember many of the greats from the late 70′s/80′s as though it was yesterday: Ian Rush, John Barnes, Kenny Dalglish, David Johnson, Kevin Keegan, Graeme Souness, Bruce Grobbelaar, Mark Lawrenson, Peter Beardsley, John Aldridge, Craig Johnson, Steve Staunton – and let’s not forget some of the more recent players have also been such great inspiration: Steve McManaman, Jason McAteer, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard, Paul Ince, Dean Saunders, Michael Owen, David James, Patrik Berger, Ronnie Rosenthal, Danny Murphy, Jamie Carragher, Harry Kewell – and I’ve left many others out I know.

Liverpool KitLiverpool

Home Ground Location: Anfield – Liverpool
Club Founded: 1892
Most Recent Trophy: Champions League 2004-05
Last Premiership Win: 1989-90
Theme Song: You’ll Never Walk Alone
Web Links:

]]> http://www.gwdesign.net/blog/misc/football/feed/ 0