John Cleese rants - Soccer vs Football

You gotta love John Cleese. Here he has the cheekiness to tease USA about fútbol never having caught on in this country. (This after Monty Python's genius sketch of Famous Philosophers' Football match!)

The Best World Cup Calendar EVER

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Yours in sport,
Pablonius Monk

Observations, Predictions and Pitfalls for the 2010 World Cup (Pt 4):

1. Why England could win?

• Wayne Rooney. If he remains healthy, England is an incredible force.
• England is one of the hottest teams and overdue for an appearance in the championship match.
• They play the US. In 6 out of a 8 World Cups, when other teams played the US, they did the following:

• 6 Semi-Finalists
• 5 Finalists
• 3 Champions

2. Why England won’t win?

• No European team has won the championship outside of Europe.
• No team has won the World Cup with a foreign born coach.
• Rooney has a gimpy hamstring and has a history of getting injured in big tournaments. He may get England to the Final, but he will not play in it.
• England will glide through group play with 3 victories. Almost all World Cup champions should have a tie or a loss before entering single elimination – more on this later.

3. Why not Brazil or Spain?

• High expectations do not hold up in the World Cup. These two continue to flip flop the #1 ranking by FIFA. This is a kiss of death.
• Recent success does not continue. Spain won the 2008 European Championship. Brazil won Confederations Cup in 2009 and Copa America in 2007. The odds are against this to continue. Interesting note, when Brazil loses in Copa America to Argentina, it goes on to win the World Cup. This trend holds true for when Argentina loses to Brazil; they too go on to win the World Cup. Brazil beat Argentina in the 2007 Copa America.
  
• Group play troubles. Brazil is in the “Group of Death” and no team wins the Cup from this proclaimed group. It will be over-tested and may lead to injuries. Spain is in one of the softest groups and will not be tested and will have their customary early exit by the quarterfinals.

4. So who wins? Argentina. Why?

• They are the LEAST likely best team to advance to the Final. The recent trend is that the best team who is written off first, wins. In 2002, the press hounded Brazil for the 1998 Final and the lack of organization coming into the tourney. Result: Brazil won. In 2006, Italy was the whipping boy for their match fixing controversies and lack of player diversity since their squad was Serie A players only. Result: Italy won.
• The experts are picking Spain, Brazil, Holland, England and Germany. None are picking Argentina. They are picking Lionel Messi to win the Golden Boot. For this to happen, Argentina must go deep. DUH!
• Ideal group play. Argentina will be tested enough to keep their confidence and hunger in check. As a top flight team, you do not want to dominate too much and you don’t want to play weak either. Brazil in 2002 struggled against Turkey and Italy stumbled against the US in 2006, but both became cohesive units from those matches. Argentina will experience the same battle this year against Greece. It will be ugly, but it will help Argentina in the end. Key stat: 14 of the 16 World Cup Champions had either a tie or a loss in group play before winning it all (there are 18 champions and two tournaments did not have group play).
• The Copa America trend continues. The team who loses America wins Mundial.
  
• Least injured team.

5. Final Score: Argentina 3 - England 1

6. Expectations for future World Cups:

• Italy plays in championship matches every 12 years. It wins the World Cup every 24 years. Next championship appearance 2018.
• Brazil hosts and wins the World Cup in 2014 (beating France).
• England hosts and wins the Cup in 2018 (beating Italy).
• US hosts and wins the Cup in 2022 against Germany.