Soccer archive

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were not the most famous athletes at AmericanAirlines Arena for the Heat-Pacers playoff game Thursday night.

Global soccer icon David Beckham, in town exploring possible Major League Soccer expansion, sat courtside as a guest of Marcelo Claure, the Bolivian billionaire owner of Brightstar Communications who tried in 2009 to bring an MLS team to Miami.

Although an expansion team would be years away, and nobody knows where the team would play, the possible partnership of Beckham, an A-list celebrity worth an estimated $275 million, and soccer-savvy Claure has local fans abuzz.

A group calling itself “MLS Miami Bid” organized a pre-game rally to welcome Beckham to Miami and display the local fans’ passion for the game. About 75 fans decked in soccer gear chanted “Vamos! Vamos Miami!”, carried MLS Miami banners, and waited outside an arena gate for nearly three hours expecting a greeting from Beckham. They — and members of the media — had been told Beckham would stop by to say hello. Neither he nor Claure showed up.

Nevertheless, they felt Beckham’s interest in Miami was reason for excitement.

“He’s a walking billboard, definitely has pulling power, and if he wants a team here, I think the community would get behind him,” said Ed Serrano of Kendall, wearing a jersey of the defunct Miami Fusion.

Michael Hook and Darren Jury, tourists from London, stumbled upon the gathering after buying tickets to watch the Heat game. “Having Beckham bring a team here would be a massive plus, wouldn’t it?” said Hook. “He gets followed wherever he goes. He’s iconic. Doesn’t get any bigger.”

Beckham is said to be researching Miami, Orlando, San Antonio and a few other cities.

“From what I understand, [Beckham] is visiting cities, including Miami, to explore the possibility of MLS expansion,” said former Miami mayor Manny Diaz, who has been a longtime advocate of pro soccer in Miami. “At this point, it’s very early conversations. I don’t know what will happen, but it’s terrific that he is looking at our city as an option.”

When Beckham signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy six years ago, the contract included an option to buy an MLS franchise for a discounted price believed to be $25 million. There have been reports he would buy the Galaxy and move back to California, where his family was very happy. But he also happens to love Miami’s beaches and international flair.

It’s no secret MLS would like a team in the southeastern United States. There is no East coast team south of Washington, D.C., and Miami is a soccer-crazed market that would serve as a gateway to Latin America. The league once had two teams in Florida — the Miami Fusion and the Tampa Bay Mutiny, both of which folded in 2001.

Orlando is pushing aggressively for an expansion team, and league officials say that market has the edge right now over Miami, which is known to have a strong passion for international soccer but has not proven yet to be as supportive of domestic teams. There is also the question of where the team would play. FIU Stadium and Marlins Park have been mentioned as possibilities, or a soccer-specific stadium could be built.

“Our focus is on the second team in New York [in 2015], and Orlando City SC’s owners are very aggressive about bringing an expansion team to Central Florida,” MLS vice president of communications Dan Courtemanche said last week. “We’d love to be in South Florida at some point, but we currently do not have any specific plans for an expansion team in Miami.”

Thus far, there have been no talks between Beckham and Sun Life Stadium officials, according to Charlie Stillitano, CEO of Relevant Sports, the soccer arm of Dolphin owner Stephen Ross’ RSE Ventures.

“It makes sense that Beckham would look at Miami because people here love soccer and MLS has no team in Florida,” Stillitano said. “Lots of European and South American players have condos here and this is a hot city for soccer fans. The key is to convince the classic Miami soccer fan to support MLS. The stadium has to be right, the ownership has to be right. If they have that, it could work.”

Read more here: David Beckham makes presence felt at Miami Heat game - Total Soccer | Fútbol Total - MiamiHerald-com

When should Beckham quit?

In the latest embarrassment to Brazilian organizers, the official instrument of the 2014 World Cup has been banned from the Confederations Cup because of safety concerns.

Brazil's Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo said Friday that the maraca-like instrument is "not adequate" to be used during the warm-up tournament.

The Brazilian version of the vuvuzela, which had been approved by FIFA, made headlines for the wrong reasons last month after fans upset about their team's loss in a test event threw the green-and-yellow objects onto the pitch, putting players in danger and briefly interrupting the match.

The announcement of the ban comes just a day after a court order temporarily suspended the Brazil vs. England friendly scheduled Sunday at the new Maracana, saying the venue was not safe for fans. The decision was later reversed after the Rio de Janeiro state government appealed.

The hand-sized caxirola, which costs about $15, produces a continuous rattling sound that is softer than the one produced by the much-criticized vuvuzelas at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Created by Brazilian artist Carlinhos Brown, the caxirola was presented earlier this year and was recognized by the Brazilian government and FIFA as the official fan instrument of the World Cup.

But after fans hurled the green-and-yellow objects onto the pitch at the Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador, local police banned the instrument from some stadiums, and FIFA and the local organizing committee said they would reevaluate the authorization granted to the caxirola as an approved item during the Confederations Cup.

The minister said the decision to ban the instrument was made after a technical analysis by local authorities.

"Taking into consideration public safety concerns, the caxirola is not adequate to be used in stadiums," Cardozo said. "A technical study was sent to World Cup organizers."

Brazil Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo, who is in charge of Brazil's preparation for the World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics, had said he didn't think the caxirola would be a problem during the Confederations Cup and the World Cup.

The caxirola is based on the African instrument caxixi, which is played during the Capoeira, a popular afro-Brazilian martial art. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said the instrument would come in handy to "to celebrate the goals, to celebrate our athletes" at next year's World Cup.

But critics said the caxirola would produce an atmosphere that is not characteristic to football matches in Brazil, which are dominated by chants and percussion instruments. They also said the hissing sound produced by thousands of caxirolas shaken at the same time would create a nuisance like the vuvuzelas.

The company which produces the caxirola said earlier this week that it would continue selling the instrument despite the ban in the Confederations Cup. It wasn't clear if the ban would continue during next year's World Cup.

The company tried to make the instrument lighter and more flexible, but it wasn't enough to get it approved by Brazilian authorities.


Soccer: Brazilian vuvuzela banned from Confed Cup - Sport - NZ Herald News

David Beckham is apparently ready to move on to the next stage of his soccer career.

Just two weeks after bringing an end to his playing days, the international superstar took his global appeal to South Beach as he kicks around the idea of bringing a Major League Soccer franchise to Miami.

The free-kick wizard sat courtside Thursday night at American Airlines Arena as the Heat beat the Pacers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Beckham was reportedly a guest of Bolivian billionaire Marcelo Claure, who is a potential partner with Beckham on the expansion franchise.

Following his arrival by private jet, his whirlwind tour included a police escort to the game, then dinner at the Japanese restaurant Zuma.

Beckham, who capped his career by winning a French league title with Paris Saint-Germain, has an option in his contract with the L.A. Galaxy to own a franchise in MLS for a set fee of $25 million. His name has surfaced in expansion talks previously, and the only city that is off limits to Beckham's pursuit of team ownership is New York.

Just last week the Yankees and English Premier League power Manchester City announced a partnership to bring a 20th franchise to MLS. The new NYC F.C. will begin play in 2015.

"Our focus is on the second team in New York (NYC F.C. will begin play in 2015), and Orlando City SC's owners are very aggressive about bringing an expansion team to Central Florida," MLS vice president of communications Dan Courtemanche said last week. "We'd love to be in South Florida at some point, but we currently do not have any specific plans for an expansion team in Miami."

The 38-year-old former captain of the England national team has played for some of the most famous clubs during his two-decade career including Manchester United and Real Madrid.

Just as famous for hawking underwear and marrying a Spice Girl as he is for his signature "Bend it like Beckham" free kicks, Beckham first arrived in the U.S. in 2007. He signed a five-year deal with the Galaxy with the goal of putting a global face on the upstart American league. His massive $250 million deal included revenue sharing, endorsements, appearances, licensing plus the option to buy a team when he retired.

While Miami is reportedly just one city under consideration by the Beckham team, it's believed that another new MLS franchise could be years in the making.





Read more: David Beckham takes in a Heat playoff game as newly-retired******soccer star eyes bringing an MLS franchise to Miami ****** - NY Daily News

Police were called to a fight between parents at a youth soccer tournament in Barrie, Ont., Saturday.

The fight involved verbal and some physical confrontations between an estimated 30 people, including parents, at the Victoria Woods soccer field on Lillian Crescent, said Barrie police.

The fight was a result of a call made during a boys' under-14 game involving teams from the Kitchener Soccer Club and the Barrie Soccer Club. Parents on the sidelines disagreed with the referee's call and things escalated when one of the parents directed a racial slur at a black family from Kitchener, said Sgt. Curt Phillips of the Barrie Police.

"The parents of both teams had an opinion of what was happening on the field and they got in a confrontation about it," said Kim Nicholl, administrative consultant for the Barrie Soccer Club.

Officials from the Barrie Soccer Club, who were hosting the tournament for teams from across Ontario, called police who arrived at the scene and broke up the fight.

No charges have been laid, but the Barrie Soccer Club said they will be speaking with parents.


Parent fight involving 30 breaks out at soccer game - Kitchener-Waterloo - CBC News

When it comes to international soccer matches, nobody is as fiercely loyal or travels as prodigiously as the Central American fan base. For that reason, U.S. Soccer Federation officials regularly hide their World Cup qualifying matches in distant outposts such as Salt Lake City, Columbus and Denver, hoping to outrun these staunch, opposing supporters.

The phenomenon was strikingly apparent again during an exhibition match on Sunday at Citi Field, where Honduran-Americans vastly outnumbered backers of the Israeli national team. The Honduran fans arrived early and in substantial numbers.

The Israeli supporters, not so much.

While Israel won the friendly, 2-0, the contest provided a curious lesson in demographics and sports marketing. Honduran-Americans definitely pay to watch Hondurans play soccer here and everywhere. Meanwhile, the New York Jewish community maintains close cultural ties to Israel, but it doesn’t necessarily identify with Israeli sports teams. The Yankees’ Kevin Youkilis is a far more familiar kindred spirit than Yossi Benayoun, the Chelsea midfielder.

“I don’t know,” said the Israeli coach, Eli Guttman, citing the similar colors of the two national teams. “I saw 30,000 people in blue and white, for me it’s OK.”

The crowd actually was announced at 26,170, and organizers did their best to welcome the Israelis. Amar’e Stoudemire, who visited that nation in 2010 and has claimed Jewish roots through his mother, greeted the teams at midfield. Anthems were played. Blue flags were waved. Mostly Honduran flags.

“I have a Honduras teammate at Celtic (Emilio Arturo Izaguirre Girón), and he told me there would be a lot of people here for them,” Israeli defender Rami Gershon said.

The two sides arrived in very different training modes. This trip marked the start of the Israelis’ offseason. Their players won’t return to club teams for more than a month, and they have no World Cup qualifying matches until September.

Honduras is laboring to reach top form and used the match as a final tuneup, though a couple of starters skipped the friendly. The team faces a critical qualifier Friday at Costa Rica, a test that may well determine which side advances to Brazil 2014. During the last qualifying cycle, Honduras edged past Costa Rica on the final qualifying date to book a trip to South Africa. The Hondurans stand in fourth place in CONCACAF qualifying at the moment with four points in three matches, including a victory over the U.S.

The match itself on Sunday was evenly contested, with several half-chances at both ends, until Hen Ezra found surprising space in the 52nd minute and curled a pretty 30-yarder high and just beyond the reach of Honduran keeper Noel Valladares.

“Because of such goals, you come to the stadium,” Guttman said.

The match opened up after that, with both sides threatening often. Eventually, in the 76th minute, Shimon Abihazira redirected a pass, flipping the ball from close range, past Valladares for a second goal. Roger Rojas attempted a “Hand of God” goal in the 86th minute, but earned only a yellow card for his sneaky arm-shot.

“This winning is very important to continue this way for us,” said Guttman, whose team is battling Russia and Portugal for World Cup qualification. “I will be coming back to Israel with my head up.”

Read more: Israel soccer team wins friendly, but doesn't draw many fans at Citi Field - NY Daily News

After experiencing the atmosphere that "sucked the ball into the net" in Saitama, Australia captain Lucas Neill has demanded local crowds emulate their Japanese counterparts at the Socceroos' final two World Cup qualifiers at home.

Japan became the first team to qualify for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil on Tuesday courtesy of a 1-1 draw after Keisuke Honda converted an injury-time penalty to clinch one of the two automatic qualifying spots from Group B.

"That crowd helped them keep going," Neill said of the 62,000 passionate home fans at Saitama Stadium on Saturday.

"I think they proverbially sucked the ball into the net tonight to get them to the World Cup.

"I think we need the same. You get the noise, the colour and everybody willing the team on it makes a big difference and we have players who thrive on that.

"We need the Australian supporters behind us. We all want to go to Brazil and the supporters need to play their part."

The draw against Japan moved Australia to seven points, two points behind second-placed Oman and with a game in hand.

The Socceroos' hopes of qualifying for a third successive World Cup remain in their hands, but their campaign has stuttered in the final phase in Asia with four draws.

Despite taking a valuable point from Saitama, Australia were disappointed not to take three after Tommy Oar put them ahead in the 81st minute.

"Before the game you will take the point. But as the game panned out I felt we deserved all three," Neill said.

"It's a bitter pill to swallow because (the penalty) happened in the last minute and it's a penalty and they didn't really trouble us in the second half.

"We felt we could have spoiled the party and three points is probably what we deserved."

The Socceroos host Jordan, who beat a New Zealand 'A' team 1-0 in Auckland in a warm-up on Tuesday, in Melbourne on June 11 and Neill said the game could ultimately determine their World Cup future.

"The Jordan game is a must-win, or must-not-lose and ... we will know exactly what we need to do to get to Brazil," Neill added.

The Socceroos' final World Cup qualifier is against bottom-placed Iraq (five points) on June 18 in Sydney.

The team that finishes third in the five-team group can still qualify for Brazil, but must win a two-legged playoff against the equivalent finisher in Group A before another playoff against the fifth-placed team in South America.




Y! SPORTS

The European Commissioner for sport, Androulla Vassiliou, commented recently about the integrity of sports, “Match-fixing is a complex problem with many sides to it. But one very important element that the European Commission focuses on in our efforts to tackle match-fixing is prevention. In this respect, educational programmes and awareness raising campaigns can have a significant impact by reaching those most at risk of being approached to fix matches, the athletes themselves. I therefore very much look forward to the results of the project lead by EU Athletes and the European online betting industry.”

Words don’t fix problems as invasive as corruption in sports and the recent results indicated quite a few E.U. members of parliament don’t want to intervene in the legalization of online gambling in individual states preferring to leave the states to set their own particular rules.

The recent three day seminar on education related to stopping match fixing was attended by EU Athletes, the federation of player associations in Europe representing 25,000 athletes. The seminar is part of multi-year program financed jointly by the European Commission and the European licensed online betting industry, highlighted the vital importance of all sectors working together to educate professional sportspeople about sports betting integrity.

The purpose of the seminar was to give the player associations’ tutors tools to use during the locker room visits, when they are educating the players face to face. The seminar is part of a ground breaking co-financed campaign by the European Commission and the European licensed online betting industry.
The project targets 15,000 athletes in thirteen countries and ten sports.
Jean-François Reymond, Secretary General of EU Athletes, also commented, “Our education project is unique in its focus on face to face education delivered directly into the locker rooms by people the players know and trust. This personal touch is giving players the knowledge to make sure they don’t gamble with their careers.”



Online Gambling United Against Match Fixing

For the first 20 minutes, Jozy Altidore talked effortlessly about racism, his thoughts and feelings on the subject clearly well honed. In an interview in a hotel restaurant here last weekend, Altidore, a striker for the United States soccer team, navigated some difficult memories with ease. The game in January during which thousands of Dutch league fans chanted monkey noises at him? He seemed unfazed by the recounting. The vile language he heard at an under-17 tournament? He did not blink as he described the hateful scene.

Born in November 1989 to Haitian parents in New Jersey and raised in Boca Raton, Fla., Altidore has encountered discrimination for much of his life. When the subject of Italy was raised, though, he hesitated.

After scoring 38 goals last season for his Dutch club team, AZ, Altidore is all but certain to transfer to a more prominent team this summer. Recent reports indicated that Lazio, a team in Italy’s Serie A, was interested in adding him to its roster.

That kind of move, whether to Lazio or another team in Italy, would be a significant opportunity for Altidore to grow as a player. Yet he paused as he considered the possibility last weekend, ahead of the United States’ World Cup qualifying matches that begin Friday in Jamaica. He knew the subtext of any move to Italy: in the past year, incidents of racial abuse have sullied the image of Italian soccer, including several nasty situations involving Lazio fans.

Yes, racism persists in European soccer in general, but its presence in Italy is pronounced. So after what he endured in January in the Netherlands, could Altidore really see himself voluntarily moving to a country where another incident was all but assured?

He looked out the window.

“Racism in football is not a little problem; it’s a big problem, a problem that is more alive than people realize,” he said finally. “To go and face it at the root? It would almost make it more appealing to go there.”

After a moment, he added: “I’m not saying Italy is a racist country, but it would be a good opportunity to take a stance. Italy is a stage.”

Then he shrugged. “If anything,” he said, “it would make it feel like there’s more to win, there’s more to gain.”

The issue is both simple and complex for Altidore. For years, he has been defined by a puzzling inconsistency, the result of scrutiny since he was 16 and expectations that were almost impossible to meet.

At 17, he juggled prom plans with practices for the Red Bulls. (He was allowed to miss a game once to attend the dance.) At 18, he was on the cover of a soccer video game. At 21, he arrived in the Netherlands, having bounced from New York to Spain to England back to Spain and then to Turkey.

Now, he is finally showing signs of delivering the production predicted for him since Adidas signed him as a teenager in 2006. Then, the company saw nearly unlimited potential: a young, athletic American goal scorer who could be in the spotlight for years.

“We always look for icons,” said Chris McGuire, the head of sports marketing for Adidas. “Jozy was that. He was targeted as a future star for club teams and the national teams.”

It was not until recently, however, that Altidore broke out. And even with his abundant scoring in the Dutch league, there are no guarantees the success will translate. He scored in the United States’ exhibition victory over Germany on Sunday, his first international goal since 2011. Yet Jürgen Klinsmann, the United States coach, cautioned that there might yet be a ways for Altidore to go before he could become the striker fans have craved for years.

“The international game is a different speed” than the Dutch league is, Klinsmann said. “You’re talking about two or three different levels.”

That uncertainty is part of the reason Altidore is so passionate about addressing the issue of racism in soccer. Whatever happens in terms of his career as a player on the field, he said, he wants to be certain that he does everything he can to address an issue that he knows, firsthand, continues to have an insidious presence in the world game.

Awful incidents cropped up seemingly weekly throughout Europe last season, with the ugliness including racist chants in the stands, bigoted signs waved by spectators and bananas thrown at black players. There was also the much-scrutinized criminal trial in England involving Chelsea’s John Terry, who admitted to using racist language toward an opponent during a game in 2011.

“We’re all human, and we all make mistakes, but at the end of the day, John Terry has to live with that,” Altidore said. “That’s the biggest punishment. You only get so many ways to define who you are, and that is never going to go away for him.”

On Jan. 29, Altidore was targeted by fans during AZ’s Dutch Cup match at Den Bosch. Teammates told him they had heard the monkey chants early in the game, but it was not until Altidore chased a pass into the corner near one particular section of the stands that he became fully aware of what was happening. Then, after he was awarded a penalty kick and converted it, the monkey chants and racist taunts grew louder.

The episode hurt Altidore on multiple levels. First, he was stunned simply by the overt nature of the hate. Second, he was crushed because he had come to adore living in the Netherlands, having built a network of friends there. He had favorite restaurants and cafes. He loved his apartment.

“It was like moving into a new neighborhood and you’re getting along with everyone and then something happens and all of a sudden you feel like an outcast,” he said. “The referee asked me if I wanted to stop the game, but I said no. I can’t fight 8,000 people. I can’t. I didn’t want to stop because I didn’t want them to see that they hurt me.”

The episode was hardly Altidore’s first encounter with racism, although the intensity of the experiences has varied. At age 7 or 8 in Florida, he said, a neighboring child

Local Seattle artist Art Chantry has designed a game-specific poster for the U.S. Men’s National Team’s FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Panama on June 11 at CenturyLink Field.

Chantry is a graphic designer based in the Northwest whose lo-fi, high contrast designs have been used by famous rock bands such as Nirvana, Hole, Gang of Four and several others. His low-tech design approach has also been showcased at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum of Modern Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Smithsonian and the Louvre. The limited-edition poster will be available for purchase at the U.S. Soccer Pep Rally at Cinerama on Monday night (door open at 7:30 p.m.) and on ussoccerstore-com. There will also be a limited number of posters signed by Chantry for sale only on ussoccerstore-com.

“Having seldom executed 'sports' posters before, I realized that there was little I could do to actually compete against the standards within the genre of sports graphics,” said Chantry. “So, I decided to treat the idea of a sports poster as if it were a grunge rock gig poster. All the graphic elements in the poster carry along that aged, worn feel along with a casual disregard for formal restraints.”

Chantry utilized the dynamic movement of a soccer player in motion to capture a design that is literally throwing itself off the frame of the poster’s edge.

“I captured that moment of impact between the kicking foot and the flying ball,” said Chantry. “That split second when the world stops mid-motion, when you don't know which way it's all going to go. It can fly directly into the goal, or it can fall off the poster entirely.”
- See more at: U.S. Soccer Unveils Game-Specific Poster for FIFA World Cup Qualifier Against Panama in Seattle - U.S. Soccer

The Canadian Soccer Association has red carded a provincial association over its refusal to let turban-wearing children play, announcing the Quebec organization will be suspended until the ban is overturned.

The national organization took a more aggressive stance Monday in the ongoing controversy surrounding the Quebec Soccer Federation’s decision to restrict turban-wearing Sikhs from the pitch, saying its earlier efforts had failed to resolve the matter. “The Quebec Soccer Federation’s inaction has forced us to take measures in order to ensure soccer remains accessible to the largest number of Canadians,” it said in a statement Monday night.

The national organization said last week it expected the Quebec association to reverse the ban, which has drawn international news coverage and condemnation from several federal politicians.

The extent of the impact of the suspension on Quebec players is not yet clear. However, according to Canadian Soccer News, the impact could be felt in a variety of ways unless the situation is resolved soon.

Its website said it could result in Quebec all-star teams being banned from play outside the province, and even the cancellation of games within Quebec that involve a nationally certified referee.

“Unfortunately, that means soccer players are being punished for something that the Quebec Soccer Federation should have corrected right away,” said Dr. Sanjeet Singh Saluja, a physician and former coach who publicly denounced the ban as having no medical justification.

“I’m sad to see it happen and I’m sad to see that it went this far but unfortunately the Quebec Soccer Federation, they chose not to follow the rules.”

The Quebec federation couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

It has said it is concerned about safety and points out that the rules of the world governing body, FIFA, don’t specifically allow turbans.

Critics of the Quebec decision point out that FIFA’s rules don’t explicitly ban turbans, either.

Some of those who opposed the ban said they welcomed the national body’s tough-love approach.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney tweeted his approval: “Good to see CDN Soccer Association take action against the Quebec Soccer Federation over its ridiculous turban ban.”

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau echoed the sentiment, tweeting that “Barring kids from playing soccer because they wear a turban is wrong. The CSA is right to suspend the #QSF.”

The CSA reports directly to the FIFA world body and is responsible for granting or revoking the membership of provincial federations.



Quebec Soccer Federation suspended over turban ban - The Globe and Mail

The sponsorship of football teams in Europe is being taken up by the online gambling operators who know the sports punter will notice. The sponsorship of teams has always been good for the internet gambling industry and the teams.
It was recently revealed that Dafabet a leading Asian online gaming website, offering sports betting, online casino, online poker and online games will be sponsoring well positioned British football team Aston Villa.
Dafabet has been serving the Chinese and Asia Pacific market since 2004. The firm is fully licensed in the Philippines and regulated by CEZA and First Cagayan.

The contract is scheduled to run for two years and will see the Dafabet Logo on the team’s uniforms. Dafabet will also be part of the football club’s support for the Acorns children's hospice.

Paul Faulkner, Chief Executive Officer for Aston Villa, commented, "Crucially for us, during negotiations Dafabet displayed a strong willingness to work with us in our continued support for Acorns and we look forward to progressing some ideas around that in the near future. Mr. Faulkner continued, "There is a real sense of excitement, anticipation and optimism as we look forward to the new season, building on the solid foundations we have in place. This will be a good and positive partnership for the club and we are looking forward to working together with Dafabet as we continue to build and move the club forward.”

Dafabet parent company AsianBGE’s, managing director of Online Betting and Gaming, Dimitris Karatzas, also commented on the arrangement, "After entering the Premier League last season as international betting partners to two clubs, we saw the increased potential of becoming an official club sponsor.” Karatzas added, "It's a very significant and proud moment for us to form such a partnership with Aston Villa, a side steeped in tradition. We are delighted to see Dafabet on the front of such a well-recognized shirt and to be associated with a club respected throughout the footballing world. I am sure all the fans will agree the kit looks great."



Online Sports Betting Dafabet Sponsors Aston Villa

The Canadian Soccer Association listed Wednesday the conditions of its indefinite suspension of the Quebec Soccer Federation over the provincial body's decision to ban players from wearing turbans, patkas and keskis on the field. The ban, which severs ties with the provincial group until it reverses its turban ruling, prohibits the federation from competing against other provinces and in national competitions.

The suspension also:

Prohibits the participation or hosting of international competitions, tournaments or matches.
Prohibits the appointment of international or national list officials to QSF's competitions, tournaments or matches.
Prohibits the participation or benefiting from CSA meetings (AGM, technical director meetings, executive directors meetings, members forum, competitions committee, etc.).
Prohibits the participation or benefiting from FIFA, CONCACAF, CSA courses, including coaching and refereeing.
Does not grant access to hearing for appeals/disciplinary matters.

The Canadian Soccer Association suspended the provincial body on Monday after it showed no sign of overturning its decision to prohibit Sikh religious headwear on the pitch.
Quebec cites safety concerns

The QFS said Wednesday it is maintaining its ban while hoping to hammer out a compromise on the controversial issue.

Quebec federation officials issued a short statement Wednesday saying the controversial ban remains in effect for the time being, but that they will do everything it can to re-establish dialogue with the CSA.

Earlier this month, the provincial body decided to uphold the ban despite a CSA directive in April that called for provincial associations to extend an existing rule that allows Islamic hijabs for girls.

Quebec is the only province that has balked at the directive and says it wants soccer's governing body, the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), to issue a ruling on turbans.

The Quebec federation has said it made its decision with player safety in mind, although it has no evidence that shows turbans pose a risk.

Quebec referees began cracking down in the last year on turbans, patkas and keskis — the religious headgear worn by Sikh men and boys.

A provincial soccer official suggested that kids who wear the banned items can "play in their backyard. But not with official referees, not in the official rules of soccer."

The Sikh community says the ban means 100 to 200 children must either ditch a religious requirement or quit playing organized soccer.
Quebec premier stands by ban

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois said this week that it's unacceptable for the Canadian body to suspend the provincial organization.

The province's sports minister, Marie Malavoy, repeated that line on Wednesday, saying the government supports the provincial federation's ability to do what it thinks is right.

Malavoy said the neither the government nor any of its arm's-length bodies were involved in the soccer federation's operations.

The Quebec federation said Wednesday it wouldn't grant any interviews.

"To give every possible opportunity for discussion, we do not wish to comment further on the situation, whether in the media or in public," the statement said.

"We hope for the fastest possible resolution to this impasse."




Canada soccer body issues sanctions for Quebec's turban ban

The Canadian Soccer Association's suspension of the Quebec Soccer Federation over its refusal to allow turban-wearing players is having an impact on soccer players of all ages, as more and more regularly scheduled games are postponed or cancelled, and tournament organizers are left scrambling.

Twenty Ontario teams have cancelled plans to participate in a youth tournament on Montreal's West Island this weekend.

"The players from Quebec, they're still playing in the tournament," said Edouard Saint-Lo, president of the Lac St-Louis Soccer Association, which is organizing the tournament. "The ones from Ontario are very disappointed that they're not coming, because this is an international tournament."

Saint-Lo says he is scrambling to fill the newly available spots with teams from Quebec.
Oldtimers' games postponed

Quebec teams that usually play in Ontario are also being affected.

Oldtimers' teams in Gatineau and Chelsea, Que., just north of Ottawa, have received word from the Ottawa-Carleton Soccer League that their games have been postponed until further notice.

The league's office manager, Shanna Slater, said the 12 Quebec teams play in a number of divisions, so the postponed games affect many Ontario teams as well. "We're not cancelling games yet," said Slater. "We have a drop-dead date after which we will have to cancel.

"All governing bodies are working together to mitigate this," she said. "For now, the action is to postpone games and revisit the situation next week."

"I'm outraged," said National Post reporter John Ivison, who plays on the Chelsea team. "I mean, I was outraged as a journalist and a Canadian, and now I'm outraged as a soccer player." Ivison lays the blame squarely on the Quebec Soccer Federation for its turban ban.

"Whoever made this decision on their part are half-wits, and they've brought the beautiful game into disrepute in Quebec," he said.



Soccer turban dispute affecting players of all ages - Ottawa - CBC News

A controversy over faith, sports and tolerance in Canada appears to be heading toward resolution after soccer’s top authority gave its approval to Sikh turbans on the field.

The nod from soccer’s world body, FIFA, could bring an end to Quebec sports officials’ ban on Sikh head coverings, which sparked a nationwide furor and gained worldwide attention. The Quebec Soccer Federation has called a 10 a.m. news conference for Saturday at which it is expected to repeal the widely criticized measure. If it goes ahead, it will open the door to as many as 200 turban-wearing Sikh boys hoping to play organized soccer again after being told they were unwelcome.

The turban debate spilled from the soccer pitch to the political field after Quebec soccer executives gained support from Parti Québecois Premier Pauline Marois. On Friday, as opinions shifted away from the Premier, Ms. Marois maintained that the provincial soccer group was right to wait for FIFA’s ruling.

“The Quebec federation was totally within its rights to make this decision [for the ban], and I continue to respect its autonomy,” she said in Quebec City. She said criticism of Quebec over the turban ban, the only such prohibition in Canada, was “sad” and “a shame.”

“There are plenty of countries in the world where different rules apply and people respect one another,” she said.

FIFA issued its decision after the Canadian Soccer Association suspended the Quebec group this week over the dispute. In its ruling, FIFA specifically addressed Canada and said that men’s head coverings were permitted as long as they met safety standards and complied with rules such as being the same colour as uniforms. The rules applied “in all areas and on all levels of the Canadian football community,” FIFA said.

In issuing its ruling, the body demolished one of the Quebec group’s two arguments against turbans. The Quebec federation argued they were a safety risk, although it never offered any evidence. It also said FIFA had not explicitly endorsed turbans.

The Quebec Soccer Federation said it welcomed FIFA’s decision with “enthusiasm and relief” because it offered the clarity it was seeking. FIFA’s ruling is temporary, and the body is expected to issue a final decision next year.

Quebec has been roiled for years by debates about the place of religion and the accommodation of minorities in the province. Sikh organizations, which say the Quebec Soccer Federation has not responded to their requests to discuss the issue for two years, hope FIFA’s intervention has put an end to the saga.

“We hope [the Quebec federation] will do the sensible thing and lift the ban,” said Balpreet Singh, spokesman for the World Sikh Organization of Canada. “We look forward to the day when all children can play soccer regardless of their faith and background. At the end of the day, it was really about letting these kids play with their friends. It confuses us why it had to go this far.” He noted that registration for organized soccer is over and hoped the deadline would be extended to allow Sikh children around Montreal to return to the field.

Most, though not all, Quebec commentators were critical of the turban ban, while public comments on news websites often expressed hostility to religious headwear on the pitch – some calling it a refusal to integrate. (A Léger Marketing poll found that more than 80 per cent of Quebeckers think athletes should not be allowed to modify their gear for religious purposes.)

However, other people showed gestures of solidarity toward the sidelined Sikh boys. On Friday night, a group of non-Sikh soccer players in Montreal’s West Island planned to don turbans during their regular league match.

“I think the Quebec ruling was wrong and I don’t think it’s fair that kids who wear turbans couldn’t play,” said organizer Derek Kopke. “I just felt it was something to stand up for.”



FIFA authorizes wearing of turbans at all levels of Canadian soccer - The Globe and Mail

On the list of places hosting important World Cup qualifying matches this year, there is Wembley in London, there is Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, and there is Rio Tinto Stadium in the home of “Big Love.” That is not a mistake. When the United States national soccer team plays an important qualifier against Honduras on Tuesday night, it will do so in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City perhaps best known for being the home of the Henricksons, the fictional fundamentalist Mormon family on the popular HBO series “Big Love.” The Henricksons were a man, his three wives and their eight children on the show, which ran from 2006 to 2011.

From a soccer perspective, the choice of location is not unusual. Rio Tinto is a beautiful soccer-only stadium that was built for Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer. But in a broader sense, the stadium’s relative obscurity highlights the nomadic nature of the United States team. Unlike teams from many countries, including each of the other five nations competing in the final round of Concacaf’s qualifying tournament, the United States soccer team does not have a permanent home.

This reality raises two obvious questions: first, should the team have a dedicated stadium the way Mexico, for example, does with Azteca? And second, if the United States ever wanted to settle down in one particular place, where should it be?

Jozy Altidore, the team’s star striker, did not hesitate in voting for the New York area (he was born in New Jersey), while Steve Sampson, a former coach of the team, said he thought Seattle would be perfect. Other suggestions from those with ties to the team included St. Louis; Columbus, Ohio; and Kansas City.

Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, said he understood the debate and conceded that there had been sporadic talk over the years about finding the national team a permanent home. But most discussions rarely get far, Gulati said, because “it immediately becomes obvious that it doesn’t make much sense.”

Gulati listed a few of the basic obstacles, including erratic weather patterns, differing needs in terms of the size of the stadium and concerns about ensuring a crowd that is pro-United States against certain opponents. He also noted that “we’re in the business of promoting the game” in the United States, which is a task surely helped by the national team’s barnstorming persona.

Some critics of the idea also point to the sheer size of the United States. On the surface, that seems a fair point; after all, virtually anywhere in England is within a reasonable train ride of Wembley. Yet a number of larger countries, including Canada, Russia and Australia, still play a majority of their important international matches at a select few stadiums instead of embracing the full-on drifter approach.

The prospect of familiarity is appealing to some American players, who point out that playing games in the same place would allow them to develop routines for training and game days, and to learn the intricacies of a particular field. Concacaf opponents like Jamaica (at the Office in Kingston) and Honduras (Estadio Olimpico in San Pedro Sula) have that advantage and do their best to exploit it; the United States, by design, does not.

“As a player, I think it would be better,” United States forward Joe Corona said. “People would have a place they identified us with and it would be an identity for us as players, too.”

Still, the United States is hardly alone in its institutional wanderlust. Even some geographically smaller nations like Spain and Italy do not have national stadiums.

The United States also has a history of touring. The first men’s national team match played on American soil was in 1925 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, and since then the team has visited a variety of sites, including colleges, football stadiums and even a place named Wrigley Field (though it wasn’t the famous ballpark in Chicago but, rather, a smaller park in California).

In total, the national team has played in 26 states and the District of Columbia — R.F.K. Stadium in Washington has hosted the most total matches with 22 — and there have been several small cities, including New Britain, Conn. (four times); Cary, N.C.; and Bethlehem, Pa.

Sampson, who coached the team from 1995 to 1998, said finding places where the crowds would be favorable was a unique challenge “because we are a country of immigrants.”

He laughed. “It’s a wonderful thing, but it’s also a huge challenge.”

As recently as 2011, the United States was booed by a pro-Mexico crowd at the Gold Cup final in Pasadena, Calif., and Sampson said the formula for choosing sites was generally pretty simple. “In general, we liked the Northeast, the Midwest and the Northwest,” he said. “I think most of that is still true today.”

During this year’s qualifying cycle, the United States chose as home sites suburban Denver in March (during a blizzard, as it turned out), Seattle, Sandy, Columbus and Kansas City.

Figuring out which games to schedule where is a complex process, Gulati said, and involves matching Concacaf schedules with local stadium obligations as well as coordinating travel. Last week’s game in Seattle, for instance, necessitated putting down natural grass before the team could play. That meant the United States needed to be sure the stadium was free for several days before the team arrived.

In an effort to keep the players as comfortable as possible, the team does its best to recreate a similar setup in the team hotel regardless of which city it is in. Team break rooms and workout facilities are pretty standard, said midfielder Sacha Klejstan, and that allows players to stick to their habits.

Given the buzz generated by the team’s arrival in different cities, that attempt at homogeneity figures to be as close as the American players get to a national stadium experience any time soon.

“It would be cool and it would be helpful in

The driver Oregon police say fatally struck a man trying to dribble a soccer ball 10,000 miles from Seattle to Brazil for the World Cup has been arrested.

Scott Van Hiatt, of Neskowin, was arrested Monday on a charge of criminally negligent homicide, said Lincoln City Police Chief Keith Kilian.

Richard Swanson, of Seattle, planned to dribble the ball for more than a year through 11 countries before reaching Sao Paolo, Brazil, where the opener of the World Cup soccer tournament will be played June 12, 2014.

He was hit from behind by a pickup while walking south along busy U.S. 101 on May 14, just a few days shy of his 43rd birthday. Hiatt stayed at the scene and has been cooperative with the investigation, police said.

Hiatt was indicted by a Lincoln County grand jury last week. He is jailed on $50,000 bail pending arraignment Tuesday, said Lincoln County District Attorney Rob Bovett.

Swanson began his intercontinental journey in Seattle on May 1. He was partly promoting the Berkeley, Calif.-based One World Futbol Project, which donates durable blue balls to people in developing countries.

The day of his death, Swanson posted a video on his Facebook page that shows him walking along the beach, kicking his blue soccer ball. He said he was looking forward to his journey south along U.S. 101.

''Very exciting moment today,'' he said. ''I'm going to be on the ocean for thousands of miles. This is my first taste of it and I'm very excited about this.''

In an earlier interview with a Seattle TV station, Swanson joked that he hoped he wouldn't be run over on the coastal road.

''I'll be on Highway 101, but I'll also try to utilize any of the trails that run along the coast, just trying to get off the beaten path, there's a lot of cars and just not get run over,'' he told Q13 FOX News.

Kilian said police do not believe Swanson was dribbling the ball at the time he was hit. He declined to elaborate on the circumstances that led to the crash.



Y! SPORTS

The U.S. national soccer team has not quite clinched its seventh straight World Cup berth, but the Americans are now very much in control of their CONCACAF qualifying group after a patient 1-0 victory over Honduras in Sandy, Utah on Tuesday night.

The winner was again scored by Jozy Altidore, the former Red Bull and current standout in the Dutch league, who recorded a fourth goal in four matches for the U.S. over the past three weeks. After a frustrating and lengthy siege against the well-organized Honduran defense, Altidore received a cutback pass from Fabian Johnson in the 73rd minute and finished the job with a left footer past keeper Noel Valladares from eight yards.

“It was good ball movement,” Altidore told ESPN. “Fabian laid off a great ball to me. It’s just a matter of us clicking as a whole. These last four or five games we’ve been playing at our best.”

The victory gave the U.S. (4-1-1) an impressive 13 points from six matches, still good for first place, six points clear of fourth-place Honduras with four games to play. The top three nations in the round-robin hexagonal tournament automatically qualify for Brazil.

The result proved more difficult than expected against the shorthanded Central Americans. Whether it was the hot sun, the elevation, the short grass, or the stubborn Honduran defense, the Americans had great difficulty producing much of an attack. They spent the first half searching for some sort of rhythm.

Honduras entered this match in considerable disarray, missing both starting central backs and experiencing a controversial divorce between striker Jerry Bengtson and the national team. But to the credit of coach Luis Fernando Suarez, the team retained its discipline and shape. The Hondurans actually produced the best scoring chances in that first half, due to some sloppy defensive play from Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler.

“They’re a good team. You got to grind ’em, break ’em down,” coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. “We told them at halftime we have to raise the tempo, and one of those chances finally found the net.”

The U.S. took charge after the break. Both Clint Dempsey and Brad Evans had excellent chances on headers before Altidore finally settled matters. In the 63rd minute, Graham Zusi’s cross slid off Valladares’ hand off the post, and then Dempsey’s follow header clearly struck the hand of Wilson Palacio. No penalty was called.

The Americans now take a break of more than two months from qualifying before playing on Sept. 6 at Costa Rica, where they generally lose. Now, such a setback will hardly matter. Meanwhile this summer, the U.S. will compete in the Gold Cup, allowing Landon Donovan a chance to convince Klinsmann he belongs back on the roster before Brazil.

“We told the players to be proud of themselves, to enjoy the moment,” Klinsmann said. “We said, ‘Enjoy your beer now.’ It gives the team even more belief it can get the job done.”

Read more: Jozy Altidore scores game-winning goal as United States national soccer team defeats Honduras, 1-0 - NY Daily News

Eddy Etaeta has learned the art of how to lose gracefully. Etaeta is the 43-year-old coach of Tahiti’s national soccer team, which is making its first appearance in an international tournament at the Confederations Cup this month in Brazil.

But unlike the seven other coaches attending from powerhouse teams like Spain, Italy and Brazil, Etaeta is not plotting a path to the title. His objectives are much more modest.

“We want to score a goal or maybe get to halftime at 0-0,” he said before the tournament, sitting in the lobby of his hotel in Belo Horizonte, an hour’s flight north of Rio de Janeiro.

“We are honest,” he admitted. “Tahiti has not come to win.”

The fact that Tahiti is in the tournament is something of a miracle. It is a team made up almost exclusively of amateur players from a collection of islands in the Pacific Ocean with a population of a quarter of a million.

When they are not on the field, the players earn their paychecks as delivery drivers, accountants, personal trainers and teachers. Nine members of the team, including the captain Nicolas Vallar, are unemployed.

But last year Tahiti secured a surprising victory in an obscure regional tournament — hosted in the Solomon Islands — that catapulted Etaeta’s team of amateur players into the soccer elite. He still cannot quite believe his team has made it here.

“Wow, we are in Brazil to play the best teams in the world,” he said, shaking his head.

The Confederations Cup’ field has the winners of FIFA’s six confederation championships, plus the World Cup holder and the next host country.

The competition is seen as a chance to test Brazil’s stadiums and infrastructure 12 months before the World Cup finals.

Spain, the reigning World Cup champion, is here, along with Uruguay, Japan, Nigeria, Mexico and Italy.

And then there is Tahiti.

For 40 years, only Australia or New Zealand had won Oceania’s Nations Cup.

But when Australia joined the Asian Football Confederation in 2006, it opened the door for some of the smaller Pacific island nations to make a name for themselves.

Tahiti, which has just one professional player, did just that by winning the 2012 Nations Cup, beating another French territory, New Caledonia, by 1-0 in the final.

For the Confederations Cup, Tahiti — ranked 138th in the world — was drawn in the same group as Nigeria, Uruguay and Spain, a team considered to be one of the greatest in the sport’s history. The Tahiti-Spain game will be played in Rio de Janeiro’s 80,000-capacity Maracanã stadium Thursday.

“My students always ask me: ‘Sir, please, bring me back the T-shirt of Iniesta or Xavi, please,’ ” said Mikael Roche, 30, a physical education teacher who will be in goal against Spain.

Tahiti’s improbable rise began with the appointment of Etaeta, a former national team player, as coach in 2010.

“For me it was not just a sport project, it is also about life,” he said.

Etaeta said his aim was to first foster a family atmosphere, perhaps inevitable given that three of his players are brothers. A fourth member of the family, a cousin, is also on the squad.

In Brazil the team has experienced many of the trappings of international soccer for the first time. Most of the players had never traveled this far from home before, or even stayed in a five-star hotel.

The team’s preparations have been mixed. Etaeta watched Tahiti lose its final warm-up match against Chile’s under-20s team by 7-0. Training sessions have been mobbed by a curious Brazilian news media.

Etaeta said he had two pressing issues. The first was how to prevent his players from becoming star-struck by their Spanish opposition.

“I took pictures of Iniesta, Xavi and Torres and said: ‘Hey look, look at him, take your picture now, don’t take the picture when we play them in the Maracanã,’ ” he recalled.

The second was how to acclimatize his players to the noise made by Brazil’s loud crowd when they enter the Maracanã. This, too, had a simple solution.

“I put my players in a room with the recording of a crowd,” Etaeta said.

“I say: ‘Hey, hear this, this is what it will sound like in the Maracanã. They will shout, they will cry, they will whistle.’ In Tahiti we don’t hear that. We play in front of 100, 200 people in the stadiums.”

Etaeta added: “We want to win the hearts of the crowd and the citizens of the world. Ninety-nine percent of footballers are amateurs. Just 1 percent are professional. We represent this 99 percent of the world.”

For the players who have taken an extended leave from their day jobs, there is no talk of money or contracts or disputes over appearance fees, as there has been with the Nigerian team.

“We just take this as an amazing gift because we are all amateur players,” Roche said.

Tahiti made its Confederations Cup debut Monday against Nigeria in Belo Horizonte.

The crowd of 20,000 in the Mineirão stadium was the largest the Tahitians had ever seen. When they entered the field, the fans chanted Tahiti’s name from the bleachers while mercilessly booing their Nigerian opponents.

Parity lasted for all of four minutes.

A shot by the Nigerian defender Uwa Echiejile pinballed off Tahiti’s Vallar. A few minutes later, the score was 2-0, then 3-0. The rout that the soccer world had expected was coming to pass.

Then came the moment that Etaeta and his Tahiti team dreamed of. A rare attack led to a corner kick. Jonathan Tehau rose higher than anyone else and headed the ball down into the goal.

The goal was greeted by the crowd as if Tahiti had won the World Cup. Every player celebrated on the field, gathering together to mimic paddling a canoe.

For a brief few moments, Tahiti was Nigeria’s equal, bursting forward with vigor. The Nigerians were pressed back, confused, suddenly unsure of their superiority.

But when Marama Vahirua, Tahiti’s only professional player, was taken off, the Nigerians rediscovered their confidence and won the match,

Soccer fans have long memories. From time to time their recollections become somewhat selective, but in the same way they never forget great players, they also remember the duds.

Depending who you talk to Diego Forlan is either a national treasure, or an over-hyped misfit.

In his native Uruguay, there is no debate. At the age of 34, Forlan is edging towards the conclusion of a stellar career. In some parts of Europe, where he spent more than a decade before returning to South America, his contributions are remembered rather less fondly.

The man who led his country to the semifinals of the 2010 World Cup has just reached another milestone. First it was Andrea Pirlo scoring on his 100th appearance for Italy. Now Forlan has followed suit at the Confederations Cup, smashing an unstoppable winner for Uruguay, to mark his entry in the elite club of international centurions.

The hard fought 2-1 win over Nigeria was critical. In a group where Spain stands supreme and Tahiti is out of its depth, the battle for a semifinal berth in Brazil was always going to come down to the clash of the respective African and South American champions. Forlan ran the show. Having been left on the bench for Uruguay's Group B opening loss to Spain, he was recalled to the starting line-up for the must win tussle against Nigeria. With Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani also featuring, the attacking intent was clear and Forlan was in the mood.

The hairline is beginning to recede. The blonde, flowing locks of his 20's are long gone but his ability is undiminished. Now employed in a deeper, playmaking role, Forlan has the experience to dictate the game. But when the chance presents itself, as it did against the Nigerians, he is often still the centre of attention.

Which is more than he was at the two of the world's biggest clubs.

Tough time settling in

When Manchester United hijacked Middlesbrough's move to bring him to the English Premier League in early 2002, Forlan was hailed as the next great South American hotshot. Perhaps it was the culture, the style of soccer, or the weather. Whatever it was, or wasn't, Forlan never settled with the English champions. He scored just 10 goals in two and a half seasons before moving onto Spain.

Seven seasons, and well over 100 La Liga goals later, Forlan was tempted to join Inter Milan. He would replace Samuel Eto'o and duly scored on his debut. It took nearly six months before he found the net again and his contract was cancelled after a single forgettable campaign at the San Siro.

Forlan wants one more crack at the World Cup. Whether or not he gets the chance to return to Brazil in 2014 may well hinge on his leadership qualities in the coming months. Uruguay is playing catch-up in South American qualifying and with four games to go is sitting right on the cut line.

For the time being Forlan and company can look forward to filling their boots. Anything other than a sizable victory over Tahiti on Sunday will be a major shock and, having beaten Nigeria, a place in the final four seems Uruguay's for the taking.

Spain's record 10-0 mauling of the Tahitians presents the head coach with an interesting dilemma. Vicente del Bosque's B-team ran riot in Rio with Fernando Torres scoring 4 and David Villa completing a hat-trick. It will be interesting to see if either or both did enough to earn a promotion to his first choice team for the remaining round robin game against Nigeria.

Pedro and Roberto Soldado both scored in the win over Uruguay and are likely to be recalled after a rest but there is little more Torres or Villa could have done to press their respective claims.

The waters are beginning to clear. The group standings are almost sorted. By the end of the weekend we'll know for sure. Brazil and Italy have both qualified, but neither will want to face Spain in the semi-finals. All to play for on Saturday in Salvador.


The force remains with Uruguay's Diego Forlan | Soccer | CBC Sports