Diego Forlan Receives Standing Ovation from Kolkata Football Fans

Uruguayan striker and World Cup Golden Ball winner Diego Forlan received a standing ovation from thousands of Kolkata's (India) soccer crowd on Sunday (1st Aug, 2010). Diego is in Kolkata to co-host a football reality show for private TV channel Mahuaa Bangla, which concluded with the exhibition match between The Challengers and city soccer giants Mohun Bagan


World Cup's Golden Ball winner Diego Forlan was Sunday accorded a standing ovation by thousands of soccer fans as he appeared in an exhibition soccer at the Salt Lake Stadium here. 31-year-old Diego Forlan assisted 1994's winning Brazil defender Branco in coaching The Challengers.

The match ended 2-0 in favor of Mohun Bagan, where goals came from Isfaq Ahmed and Santosh Oraon.

"I love this city and the people for giving me this chance to come here," Forlan told the crowd in broken English.

Wearing blue T-shirt with white stripes and blue jeans and sneakers Forlan opened the game for Challeger by passing the ball from center.

Image Courtesy: Indiablooms.com

World Cup 2010 Awards

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

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.

Diego Forlan's Hatrick Helps Uruguay Beat Peru 6-0

Diego Forlan scored a hat-trick to help his country Uruguay rout Peru 6-0 in their World Cup qualifier on Tuesday at Centenario stadium in Montevideo.

Carlos Bueno scored two goals and substitute Sebastian Abreu scored the final goal in the final minute.

Peru striker Paolo Guerrero was sent off after 39 minutes for furiously protesting the penalty which led to the second goal.

Uruguay, who had drawn their last two home games, moved on to 8 points from six games while Peru, beaten 5-1 in Ecuador in November, remained on 3 points.

Peru also lost 4-0 to Mexico in a friendly 10 days ago and the latest setback is widely expected to cost coach Jose del Solar his job.