World Cup 2014 Thread!

[TaichiMantis]

I will be overdosing on matches soon! Woohoo!

[@PLUGO]

Just about says it all.

[GeneChing]

See the Capoeira & Shaolin-Soccer-for-real threads.

[TaichiMantis]

Oliver is brilliant! And yes, FIFA is evil....but I'm still giddy about World Cup!

[GeneChing]

Will Janot be at the World Cup?

Start Believing: Meet the kung-fu keeper


Jun 6, 2014 10:00:00 AM
The hobby of former St Etienne star Jeremie Janot features in the latest in our series chronicling the extraordinary power of belief

Rituals for good luck are common, but routines to punish yourself for losing are less so. Jeremie Janot, however, was far from your ordinary goalkeeper.

Standing at a relatively modest 1.75m and immediately identifiable by the tribal tattoo on the back of his shaved head, Janot was agile, muscular and extrovert. Indeed, in a game against Istres, he once played in a customised Spiderman kit, complete with balaclava.

So perhaps it’s natural that after each defeat of his professional career, keen amateur martial artist Janot habitually descended to his home gym, based in the garage of his house – and locked himself in to beat the life out of his favourite punch bag. All night.

This will be of little surprise to any who saw his furious reaction to conceding a free-kick to Juninho in the October 2004 defeat to Olympique Lyonnais – Janot performed a two-footed kung-fu lunge on the post after the ball hit the net – or visitors to his website.

On jeremie-janot.net, readers are greeted by the goalkeeper in a fists-up boxing pose, and he goes on to talk about meeting mixed martial arts star Wanderlei Silva (nickname: “The Axe Murderer”) as a personal highlight. Now 36, former St Etienne stalwart Janot has been without a club since Le Mans’ collapse in October 2013, having moved there the previous summer. Shortly after, he floated the possibility of transferring his skills to another sporting sector.

“An agent offered me [the chance to go to] a club in Thailand,” tweeted Janot. “I told him that if I go, I’ll end up at Lumpini Stadium doing Muay Thai.” Janot may have appeared to be joking, but name checking the Bangkok-based home of Muay Thai is another reminder of what a martial arts fanatic he is. Besides, he already showed in his football career that he’s pretty good with his fists.

balaclava?

[David Jamieson]

I am boycotting it this year as I did with the Olympics.
I don't understand these bloated organizations void of morality paying obscene amounts of money to men to play games and how they can overlook the abject poverty around them, the political strife, the oppression, the suppression.

If anything, you would think they would have the courage to use their popularity and worldwide support to say something real and meaningful and incite much needed change.

But nope.

FIFA and the IOC are ridiculous corrupt organizations and I would give anythng to see the players stand up for something right instead of those orgs and their own fame and wallet.

I love futy as much as the next guy, but I loath greed and cognitive disconnection even more.

[TaichiMantis]

Maybe this will warm you up!

[TaichiMantis]

Will Janot be at the World Cup?
?

No...but not surprised about goalkeepers and martial arts, it happened to me!

[GeneChing]

...That's what makes you a superb mod here.

Honestly, I know so little about soccer. I do know Shakira. I stood right next to her once, close enough to smell her. Mmmmmm. She smelled hot...smoking HOT.

Well, if Janot won't be there, at least De JOng will rep Kung Fu for us.

Nigel de Jong won't repeat his 'kung-fu kick' when Holland meet Spain at the World Cup

De Jong caught Spain's Xabi Alonso with a high challenge during the 2010 World Cup final
The Dutchman says his side's game with Spain in Brazil will be clean
Holland also face Chile and Australia in Group B

By David Kent
Published: 18:29 EST, 7 June 2014 | Updated: 18:29 EST, 7 June 2014

Nigel de Jong insists there will be no repeat of his infamous 'kung-fu' challenge against Xabi Alonso when the pair meet again at the World Cup on Friday.

Holland play Spain in the opening game of Group B in Salvador’s Arena Fonte Nova and the midfield duo are likely to feature on the same pitch for the first time since the 2010 final.

The Dutchman was only given a yellow card for that challenge but believes this will be a clean game.


Ouch: Holland's Nigel de Jong (right) only got a yellow card for this challenge on Spain's Xabi Alonso in the 2010 World Cup final


Ready for action: De Jong (centre) and his team-mates Robin van Persie (left) and Daley Blind (right) arrive at Rio airport

‘That is in the past. It has nothing to do with this game,’ said De Jong. ‘It will be a different kind of game.’

Asked if he was honest on the pitch, De Jong said: ‘Yes, of course. That is how I am going to play in this game.’

Holland had the best record of any European team in qualifying for Brazil but are not among the favourites to lift the trophy.

De Jong thinks otherwise and said: ‘We can go far but only if we have the confidence and we stick together as one team.’


Confident: De Jong (right) believes Holland are capable of progressing to the latter stages of the World Cup

[GeneChing]

Dang it, TCM. I've been humming that tune all day now and dreaming of sniffing Shakira again.

Ok, that didn't come out quite right, but now, to put this here thread a little more on topic:

Sat, Jun 07, 2014
Experts pan Blatter’s claim of soccer’s birth
AFP, ZIBO, China


A traditional Chinese cuju player shows his skill at the Zibo Football Museum in Zibo, Shandong Province, China, on May 15.
Photo: AFP

Images of a beaming FIFA president Sepp Blatter and a small blue certificate in the Chinese city of Zibo proclaim it as the birthplace of soccer, to the fury of English experts.

A map in Zibo’s Qi State History Museum shows a thin line stretching from China to Egypt, then to Greece, Rome and France, before finishing in England, commonly known as the home of soccer after the rules were codified there in the 19th century.

The track represents the path of soccer’s development, according to the museum, with the certificate — signed by Blatter — honoring China as “the cradle of the earliest forms of football,” but international experts are skeptical of such claims, pointing to a “tenuous” link between the ancient Chinese game of cuju and the modern sport, and questioning FIFA’s motives.

Despite its long supposed soccer history, China’s national team failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil next week.

China has only appeared at one finals, in 2002, when they lost all three of their group matches and went out without even scoring a goal, but millions of fans will be watching the tournament and in Zibo — the modern city on the site of the ancient Qi state’s capital Linzi — soccer is booming.

Statues of cuju players stand on street corners and posters on bus shelters depict the supposed forebear of the modern game.

“I really like Sepp Blatter,” beams Zhu Shuju, vice director at the separate Zibo Football Museum, which pays homage to the sport’s history, and gives huge prominence to Blatter and other FIFA officials.

“He is very popular here,” she added, surrounded by images of Blatter and with a video of his speech confirming Zibo’s status continuously looping in the background.

Zibo has invited Brazilian superstar Pele to open a new multimillion-dollar museum later this year.

Different types of cuju existed in ancient China, but the competitive game still played today involves keeping a leather ball stuffed with feathers off the ground without using arms or hands, before heading or kicking it though a hole above head height.

A gladiatorial version with much physical contact emerged in the Warring States period which unified China almost 2,500 years ago and was popular with soldiers exercising their legs after days on horseback, but experts outside China believe there are huge differences between cuju and modern soccer.

“I find it absurd to suggest ancient Chinese had comparable mentalities as football enthusiasts today,” Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Britain’s Staffordshire University, said via e-mail. “So the link is tenuous.”

Historians say other ball sports existed at about the same time as cuju emerged, including a Greek game known as episkyros.

An ancient stone carving at the Acropolis Museum in Athens shows a naked Greek athlete balancing a ball on his thigh and some say episkyros evolved into a game played by the Romans, called harpastum, which was then transported to Britain.

There the modern game was born when the Football Association rules, drawing on a public school mob game, were written by Ebenezer Cobb Morley in 1863 and they have since changed very little.

For British historian Tom Holland, soccer began in the 19th century.

“I’m afraid I don’t know anything about the classical origins of football, for the simple reason they don’t exist,” Holland said. “Kicking something around is an obvious human activity. That various peoples, in various parts of the world, may or may not have engaged in such activities does not prove that they were the originators of football.”

British soccer author Jonathan Wilson agreed, saying that the 1863 rules “were then spread across the world by British sailors and traders.”

“At no point did they come upon a local form of football that needed to be eradicated before the British game could take root,” Wilson said. “Rather, foreign cultures took on those laws and interpreted them in their own way.”

Eyebrows were raised when FIFA came out in support of China’s claims.

“Blatter sees his brief to make football the richest sport in history and he has already achieved that, but to maintain its commercial dominance, he needs to keep conquering new territories,” said Cashmore, whose book Football’s Dark Side explores corruption in the game. “China is obvious: huge territory, an economy that’s been growing like a blur and a population that has already shown enthusiasm for the sport.”

FIFA and Blatter have been criticized for several decisions in recent years, most vociferously over the controversial award of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to a tiny Gulf emirate that has immense gas wealth, but sweltering summer temperatures.

British historian Guy Walters, from London’s New College of the Humanities, said: “Frankly, I’m surprised he hasn’t stated that the game kicked off in the ancient deserts of Qatar.”

[GeneChing]

La La La

[Syn7]

Not a soccer fan, but that was pretty cool.

[MarathonTmatt]

I am boycotting it this year as I did with the Olympics.
I don't understand these bloated organizations void of morality paying obscene amounts of money to men to play games and how they can overlook the abject poverty around them, the political strife, the oppression, the suppression.

If anything, you would think they would have the courage to use their popularity and worldwide support to say something real and meaningful and incite much needed change.

But nope.

FIFA and the IOC are ridiculous corrupt organizations and I would give anythng to see the players stand up for something right instead of those orgs and their own fame and wallet.

I love futy as much as the next guy, but I loath greed and cognitive disconnection even more.

I think the games are fun to watch too- also agree about cognitive disconnection.

[GeneChing]

We try to reconnect through martial arts.

Sneijder fighting fit thanks to martial arts
Associated Press
By MIKE CORDER June 10, 2014 4:31 PM


Wesley Sneijder, right, and Dirk Kuyt, left, of the Netherlands are seen during a training session in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, June 10, 2014. The Netherlands play in group B of the 2014 soccer World Cup. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A year ago, Wesley Sneijder was out of form, out of shape and playing out of position for his Turkish club.

Now, thanks to a regime of mixed martial arts training and more playing time with Galatasaray, the Dutch midfield playmaker is fighting fit and looking to repeat his heroics from the 2010 World Cup in Brazil.

Sneijder was the star of the Netherlands' charge to the World Cup final in South Africa and the tournament's joint top scorer with five goals, including two to oust Brazil in the quarterfinals.

In training Tuesday, he looked the part — sprinting after balls and firing in free kicks.

It was a totally different Sneijder from the player coach Louis van Gaal stripped of the Netherlands' captaincy last year after a drawn-out transfer from Inter Milan to Galatasaray and a series of injuries plunged him into a form crisis.

"First he has to get fit, then into form, and then I'll compare him with what I have available," Van Gaal said last year.
View gallery


Wesley Sneijder, of the Netherlands watches the ball during a training session in Rio de Janeiro, Br …

Sneijder took the criticism to heart and turned this year to a mixed martial arts fighter to get back in shape. It paid off with a ticket to Brazil.

"They were explosive training sessions," he said. "It has made me more explosive in the first meters. I feel that I've benefited."

He also says that playing more since the winter break has helped hone his match fitness. Sneijder crowned his return to form by scoring the only goal in Turkey's domestic cup final last month to give Galatasaray a record 15th cup triumph.

And even though he no longer wears the captain's armband, he is still an influential force on the field, given a free hand to roam behind strikers Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben and set them free with his trademark incisive passes.

"I'm not captain any more, but I'm still a leader," he told Dutch daily De Telegraaf at a meeting between players and Dutch reporters in Rio.

Van Gaal, whose decision to take the captaincy from Sneijder may have proved a motivational masterstroke, likes what he's seeing at the team's training sessions ahead of the World Cup.

"Wesley is very fit. If he stays in form, he can mean a lot to us," the coach said. "I'm unbelievably happy with that."

This is a big week for the diminutive midfielder who rose through Ajax's fabled training system before playing for Real Madrid and winning the 2010 Champions League with Inter Milan. He turned 30 on Monday and will earn his 100th international cap for the Netherlands when the team takes on Spain on Friday in Salvador.

"Time flies," he said. "Ten years ago, I thought 30-year-old footballers were old. Now I'm one of them. But I hope to keep going. You haven't seen the back of me yet."

[TaichiMantis]

Lot of cool vids out there...keep 'em coming!