Sports News Update

After 16 Years Raul Gonzalez Leaves Real Madrid

After 16 years....33-year-old Raul Gonzalez Blanco leaves Spanish giants Real Madrid. He is heading for German club Schalke 04 to play in Bundesliga. An era of achivements ends in Real Madrid.

He was just 17 when he joined Real Madrid and won six leagues, three European Cups, two Intercontinental Cups, one European Super Cup and four Copa del Rey in 15 seasons at the club. Raul has opted for the German club in order to increase his tally of 66 goals record in the Champions League.

Since 1994, he played 700 official games between league and international cups for Real Madrid.

We hope a great career in Schalke 04 too. You have made Real and Spain proud. Good Luck Raul!

Labels: Bundesliga, football, Real Madrid, soccer, Spain

From Chokers to Winners: Spain Finally Wins the Big One

It has been a remarkable two years for the Spanish football side. After decades of underachieving they have won both the European and World Championship. Not bad for a side who struggled to get past the World Cup quarter finals.

They lost their first game of the 2010 World Cup and immediately people thought it was the same old Spain but they got through to top their group and then got past the knockout stages with four 1-0 wins. Their victories came against Portugal, Paraguay, Germany and the Netherlands.

None of these teams really challenged the Spanish. They played a defensive style of football and in each case it caught up with them. Spain is too good a team to try and hold out for a draw. With David Villa, Carlos Puyol, Xavi and Andres Iniesta Spain just had too many big guns.

Netherlands had a great tournament and will be kicking themselves for the way they played in the final. Had they tried to play football, they may have won. As it was, they basically threw it away. Making a World Cup final is near on impossible and to have got there and then wasted the chance was pretty poor. Still they are only human and most likely let the occasion get to them.

The two semi-finalists, Uruguay and Germany had really good tournaments, especially Uruguay. No-one would have thought they would have been the last South American team standing especially when all five of them made the knockout stage.

Going down to the quarter-finalists, Brazil will figure that a second successive loss at this stage is simply unacceptable. Maybe they aren’t as good as they thought they were. Likewise Argentina fell as this hurdle to Germany for the second straight World Cup. They were playing fantastic football until Germany demolished them 4-0. Diego Maradona got his structure wrong and this came back to bite him. Live betting was pretty even until the first German goal in the third minute.

Uruguay got past Ghana is very controversial circumstances. People are still talking about the Luis Suarez handball as they will be doing so for another 50 years. At the end of the day, he was punished for it and Ghana missed a penalty. They have no-one to blame for this but themselves.

Paraguay topped their group and then needed penalties to get past Japan. Making the last eight was good but Spain was just too good.

Darren Albert writes for this blog. He also writes about sport betting.

Labels: Holland, Spain, videos, Word Cup, World Cup 2010 videos

World Cup 2010 Awards

Golden Boot: Thomas Muller

Silver Boot: David Villa

Bronze Boot: Wesley Sneijder

Golden Ball: Diego Forlan

Silver Ball: Wesley Sneijder

Bronze Ball: David Villa

Best Young Player: Thomas Mueller

Golden Glove: Iker Casilla

Labels: Germany, goalkeepers, Holland, pictures, Spain, Uruguay, Word Cup

"Paul" Predicts Germany's Exit From Semi Finals

Heres Paul again!...The Oracle Octopus that lives at the Oberhausen’s Sea life Aquarium has predicted Germany's exit from the semifinal of the world Cup 2010. This Octopus has been giving accurate predictions of every Germany's match in this World Cup. Paul, now forecasts that the Germany will lose to Spain in the semifinals.

How does he make predictions? Everytime they wanted to know about Paul’s forecast, they randomly place two boxes of food in the octopus’ tank. One is with the German flag; the other with the opponent’s. To tell the psychic’s prophecy, they must see what box does Paul’s legs crawl and eat the food on it. Paul predicted Germany's win over Australia, Ghana, England and Argentina. Paul also forecasted Germany’s loss to Serbia.

Labels: football, Germany, soccer, Spain, Word Cup

Previewing the 2010 World Cup Final Four

It is hard to believe that the 2010 World Cup is already winding down. The truth of the matter is that we are already three weeks into the tournament. Now just three matches are left to decide who is going to be the 2010 World Champions.

The exciting thing about the remaining teams is that there is a great chance that there will be a new first time champion. This will be guaranteed if Germany are defeated by Spain and Uruguay by the Netherlands.

The Netherlands flew under the radar coming from an easy group and then only needing to defeat Slovakia to make the final eight. Suffice to say this isn’t the case once they defeated Brazil. All live betting was favoring Brazil especially after they raced to a 1-0 win. This changed though when they equalized and then once they took the lead. The Brazilians imploded and panicked and paid the price.

Now they face a resurgent Uruguay. Uruguay haven’t been this far in the World Cup since 1970. They came from another light group because of a failing France and then got by South Korea. They should have lost against Ghana but survived a penalty and then the shoot-out. The two time winners are dreaming of returning to an era of their previous dominance.

Coming into the tournament, the favorite was Spain. This changed after their loss in their opening game to Switzerland. In hindsight, this could have been the best thing that happened to them. They regrouped, topped their group and then got by Portugal and Paraguay with a pair of 1-0 wins. Now they face Germany in the semi-final.

No doubt that Germany has the experience but Spain know they beat them in the final of the 2008 European Championships. For Germany it has been another solid tournament. While everyone else has been losing their head, they have kept theirs. They made the final in 2002 and lost in the semi-finals four years ago. They would love to keep going.

With so much on the line, they should be two fantastic semi-finals. One only hopes that the games are marred by refereeing controversies. There have been too many in this tournament to date; too many wrong red cards and penalties. Too many cases of players trying to con the referees and them falling for it.

Darren Albert writes for this blog. He also writes about betting online.

Labels: Germany, Holland, Spain, Uruguay, Word Cup

Rafael Nadal's Girlfriend Maria Francisca ‘Xisca’ Perello At Wimbledon 2010 Final

Maria Francisca 'Xisca' Perello, Rafael Nadal's girlfriend, made her appearance at today's Wimbledon finals to watch her man beat Tomas Berdych in straight sets. Enjoy some pics of the lucky girl....