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REUTERS - Three players from Algeria’s national football team were slightly hurt on Thursday when youths stoned their bus as they arrived in Cairo for a World Cup qualifier against Egypt, Algerian state radio reported. Algeria’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing its “consternation” at the attack, which came two days before the match to decide which of the two teams will take part in the World Cup finals in South Africa next year. A reporter for Algerian state radio said that about 200 young people appeared just as the bus arrived at the team hotel and launched a hail...

South African traditional leaders plan to perform ritual animal slaughters to bless stadiums for the 2010 World Cup tournament ahead of the start of the showcase event next June, they said on Friday. Zolani Mkiva, chairman of the Makhonya Royal Trust, a grouping responsible for co-ordinating cultural activities, said the tournament, the first to be held in Africa, needed to be blessed in true "African style." "We must have a cultural ceremony of some sort, where we are going to slaughter a beast (cow)," said Mkiva. South Africa is set to host the World Cup -- the world's most watched...

Belgrade police charged Serbian President Boris Tadic for allegedly violating anti-hooligan laws by opening a bottle of champagne to celebrate Serbia's World Cup qualification, they said today. Tadic and a number of other officials uncorked the champagne in a VIP lounge at Red Star Belgrade stadium last Saturday after Serbia's victory over Romania qualified them for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Police filed charges to a magistrate in Belgrade against Tadic, Serbia's Football Association chief Tomislav Karadzic, Sports Minister Snezana Markovic-Samardzic and other officials for "violating the law preventing violence and indecent behaviour at sports matches," the statement...

USA USA USA!!!!

Looks like those little Honduran soccer guys are holding their own against the US in their World Cup qualifier tonight. 0-0 at the 1/4 point. No television coverage, you have to follow it on the USSoccer.com website's matchtracker. This could be a big night for both teams.

Chaos in Honduras has not created such safety risks as to force the movement of a scheduled World Cup qualifying match against the United States, FIFA officials said here Tuesday. Hours after Honduran officials protested any notion of moving their October 10 home qualifier against the US squad, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said the crisis would not force relocation of the crucial match. FIFA does reserve the right to revisit the issue should conditions change. The issue became a concern after Mexican side Toluca announced Monday it would not travel to Honduras for a CONCACAF Champions League match, citing...

South African police will have a shoot to kill policy at next summer’s World Cup in a bid to cut gun crime. The war on weapons is called Operation Wanya Tsotsi, which translates as: “You will soil your pants, criminal.” Deputy minister of police Fikile Mbalula warned armed criminals that officers were entitled to open fire at them. He said: “If you are a criminal and you are gun-toting, our message to law enforcement officers is clear – shoot to kill.” “We say we are going toe to toe, tooth for tooth, nail for nail with the criminals. Street by...

The president spoke with FIFA head Sepp Blatter in a meeting at the White House on Monday and stated his belief that hosting the event may help to promote the profile of soccer in the United States. Blatter said in a press conference that he has a duty to be impartial to all 11 contenders for the 2018 event -- but confirmed that Obama had appealed to him to "make another move toward United States soccer."

NEW YORK -- FIFA president Sepp Blatter has specific ideas on upgrading the popularity of soccer in the United States. He hopes he has an eager listener in President Barack Obama. Blatter plans to extend a personal invitation to Obama to attend the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when the two meet at the White House on Monday. In an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, Blatter said the invitation has been extended and that he will "confirm it" at the meeting. "I know there are people around the president who are football fans, and that they will...

Sorry, been meaning to say this for a couple of days. It’s not very fair that the Americans, who couldn’t give a fig about soccer, are getting really good at it. Meanwhile, dear old England, as far as I can see, have got tons of work to do before they become serious contenders for next year’s World Cup in South Africa. I’ve been saying since the World Cup was played in the US in 1994 and the hosts lost narrowly to Brazil, that the USA would win the trophy before England did so again. And I haven’t been proved wrong...

Confederations Cup USA vs Brazil

Only 70 miles from a 2010 World Cup football stadium, a farmer's wife and a boy aged 13 learn to defend themselves with lethal weapons. They say thousands of white landowners have been killed by Zimbabwe-style marauders; their black rulers accuse them of belligerence and right-wing tendencies...

Costa Rica 3 USA 1 in World Cup Qualifier in San Jose, Costa Rica.

SNIPPET: "On Thursday, April 2, a federal judge ruled that Guantánamo detainee Hedi Hammamy is being held for good reasons. Judge Richard Leon of the DC District Court found the US government’s evidence was sufficient to show that Hammamy supported al Qaeda and the Taliban. Hammamy, who is also known as Abdul Haddi bin Hadiddi in the US government’s unclassified Guantánamo files, was arrested by Pakistani authorities in April 2002 and transferred to Guantánamo months later. Government prosecutors demonstrated that Hammamy’s passport was recovered in a cave in the Tora Bora Mountains, which were the main fallback zone for fleeing...

Just a day after clinching the overall World Cup championship and the downhill championship, Vonn won the final super-G race of the season and clinched the world championship in that discipline as well. She is the first American woman to win a super-G world championship. It was her ninth World Cup win this winter and the fourth straight super-G win. She now leads all American women with two overall titles, 22 career wins and 47 podium finishes.

American Lindsay Vonn continued her incredible season on Wednesday when she retained the women's alpine skiing World Cup title at the season-ending finals here. Vonn won the downhill in 1min 42.49sec to edge out Maria Riesch of Germany and Austria's Renate Goetschl. "My life could not be any better," said the 24-year-old. "I have a fantastic husband, two cristal globes, two downhill globes. I'm missing nothing." It's the first time an American woman has ever won two overall crowns, and the trophies will be added to a burgeoning collection that also includes two World Championship golds

U.S. players can't crack Europe's glass ceiling Monday, March 2, 2009 It was another lost weekend in Europe for the three most talented players the United States has ever produced. With the World Cup just 16 months away and Bob Bradley, like most managers, reluctant to call on players not receiving regular minutes at the club level, this situation could become a problem for the national team really soon. But I suspect the bigger issue for U.S. fans at present is the simple lack of respect afforded their biggest stars. I've never bought into the theory of a bias against...

Lindsey Vonn set an American record with her 19th women's World Cup victory Sunday in a super-G. Vonn is the reigning overall champion. She became the first American woman since McKinney in 1983 to win the overall title. McKinney's wins in the 1980s were all in slalom and giant slalom. No American woman has ever won back-to-back overall titles. Vonn has won 11 downhills, four super-G's, two super-combis and two slaloms. This was her sixth win of the season.

MADRID - FIFA is in talks with authorities in Brazil about staging the 2010 World Cup if South Africa should be unable to host the event, a Spanish newspaper reported Thursday -- though Brazilian officials denied the claim. "The South American country, which was chosen to organize the World Cup in 2014, has become the first option if South Africa is not able to organize" the 2010 edition, the sports newspaper AS said. South African organizers remain confident of the nation's readiness for the first World Cup to be held on the continent, despite delays in the construction of stadium....

Brazil honoured the great Pele on Thursday and the other eight surviving players from its maiden FIFA World Cup™ triumph in 1958, a victory that put the nation on the football map and paved the way for four more titles. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gave the nine men medals of honour at a banquet dedicated to their 5-2 final victory over hosts Sweden 50 years ago. "You helped us understand...we could make Brazil a winner," Lula told the players at the ceremony. Brazil, the most successful football nation with five FIFA World Cup titles, is now in a...

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

A giant calabash, the traditional African cooking pot, is rising from the red earth between Johannesburg and Soweto. Two thousand workmen toil into the night to make sure that the vast structure is ready to welcome 94,000 spectators at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, two years from this week. Across the country, foundations are being laid for the first African cup and the biggest party in South Africa since the fall of apartheid. The Government has seized on the occasion to sink billions of pounds into a creaking infrastructure built for white minority rule but hopelessly...

Incomplete information about the world continues to challenge our ideas about democracy and its benefits in other countries. The intense violence that marred lives for almost a century in South Africa under the apartheid system has returned. This time, it is not racial but xenophobic, raising the question of whether majority rule is really all it takes to solve social ills justly. Over the course of the past week, South Africans have attacked refugees from neighboring countries, killing a dozen and severely wounding more than 50. The attacks were fueled by rage – the victims burned or beaten to death,...

Julio Gonzalez Asunción, Mar 31, 2008 / 01:08 pm (CNA).- Four months ago Julio Gonzalez surprised all of Paraguay when he returned to the soccer field after having one of his arms amputated.  Since returning, he says that he was able to overcome all of his obstacles because of his faith in God.In December of 2005, Gonzalez, a 24 year-old player on an Italian soccer team, was asked to play on the Paraguayan national team for the 2006 World Cup.  However, while he was on his way to the airport in Venice to catch a flight back to Asuncion...

World Cup downhill course on Saturday morning, dumping layers of snow and hampering the visibility, one racer felt right at home. Britt Janyk, a 27-year-old Canadian, picked up her first World Cup win ever when she beat out all competitors in the downhill by almost half a second. And while most racers complained of the snowy conditions -- the race had already been postponed one day due to a strong winter storm -- Janyk actually was actually grateful for them. "Growing up in Whistler, I got used to skiing with horrible visibility and fresh snow on the course," said Janyk....

DURBAN, Nov 25 (Reuters) - A group-by-group analysis of the European qualifying competition for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa following the draw made on Sunday. The nine group winners will qualify for the finals with the eight runners-up with the best records meeting in four play-offs to produce a total of 13 European finalists. GROUP ONE (Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta) Top seeds Portugal and Sweden should both advance from a group in which they have been drawn to play each other competitively for the first time since the qualifying competition for Euro 88. Scandinavian rivals...

Shanghai, China (Sports Network) - U.S. goalie Hope Solo, who criticized coach Greg Ryan and veteran teammate Brianna Scurry on Thursday, will not even be on the bench for Sunday's third-place match against Norway in the World Cup. After the United States lost 4-0 to Brazil on Thursday - its worst loss ever - Solo said it was the "wrong decision" to bench her in favor of Scurry for the semifinal match. She went on to criticize Scurry, who led the United States in the last three World Cups but didn't play in the first four games of this year's...

CHENGDU, China - Playing with a sore toe and 11 stitches in her head doesn't seem to bother Abby Wambach. The top U.S. striker scored both goals Friday in a 2-0 victory over Sweden in the women's World Cup. She now has three in two games, and the win puts the No. 1-ranked Americans in good position to make the quarterfinals.

<p>In a celebration of women's sports on the 35th anniversary of Title IX, U.S. Soccer and Nike unveiled the new U.S. Women's National Team uniforms...</p> <p>The uniform features a solid gold torso, marking the first time the U.S. Women have worn a color other than red, white or blue as their primary color. The new kit has a gold-outlined U.S. Soccer crest over the left chest and a gold collar, and features white and blue trim on the right sleeve and red and blue trim on the left sleeve.</p>

German politicians have been trying to improve the nation's flagging birthrate for years. The answer, it seems, lies not in childcare subsidies or school places but in a successfully staged World Cup, with a bit of good weather thrown in. Nine months after the Uefa World Cup it is German midwives who are having to be on the ball as the country celebrates an unprecedented baby boom, being attributed to the euphoria of last summer, when the team performed well and the nation basked in a successful tournament. A survey by Die Zeit shows that in some parts the birthrate...

The death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer is being treated as suspicious, a Jamaican police spokesman has said. Woolmer, 58, died on Sunday after collapsing at his hotel hours after Pakistan's World Cup loss to Ireland. Deputy commissioner Mark Shields said there was "now sufficient information to continue a full investigation". That investigation will be "into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Woolmer which we are now treating as suspicious," added Shields.

"Furious Indian cricket fans stormed the home of national wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to protest a five-wicket rout by Bangladesh in their opening World Cup match, police said. Some 200 fans Sunday brought down walls and pillars of Dhoni's house, which is under construction, in the eastern city of Ranchi to protest the 26-year-old player's performance in India's shocking defeat in Port of Spain, Trinidad." " "Dhoni die, die," protesters chanted, burning effigies of the long-maned player, who has scored 1,958 runs in 68 one-day international matches and is counted among India's most aggressive batsmen, an AFP reporter at the...

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, died in hospital in Jamaica on Sunday after being found unconscious on the floor of his World Cup hotel room earlier in the day. He was 58. Pervez Mir, Pakistan's media manager, said: "Bob Woolmer has passed away. I am speaking from the hospital and all the team management is also at the hospital. Doctors have pronounced him dead. Bob has passed away and it is very shocking news to all of the team and the team management. "Bob's family and wife were informed by the management about his condition when he was brought to...

West Indies v Pakistan, Group D, Jamaica Smith and Bravo come to the fore The Bulletin by Will Luke March 13, 2007 West Indies 241 for 9 (Samuels 63, Sarwan 49) beat Pakistan 187 (Malik 62, Smith 3-36, Bravo 3-42) by 54 runs The West Indies shrugged off any early-tournament nerves with a convincing 54-run win over Pakistan in the opening match of the World Cup at Kingston in Jamaica, with a notable allround performance from Dwayne Smith. It was an impressive win, not least for their ability to absorb the expectation of hosting their first World Cup. Furthermore, the...

Last summer's mix of sun, beer and excitement during the football World Cup appears to have produced a massive hormone rush in German bedrooms, gardens and back alleys. Nine months on, birth clinics across the country that hosted the tournament are reporting a much-needed baby boom. The football World Cup from June 9 to July 9 last year appears to have sparked a baby boom in the host country Germany, where hospitals are reporting a marked rise in imminent births nine months after the tournament, remembered here as a month-long fairy-tale of sunshine, parties and soccer success. The head of...

Police officer killed in riots; all Serie A and B matches suspended Maria Sanminiatelli Canadian Press Friday, February 02, 2007 In this frame made from SKYTG24, fans clash with police outside Catania's Angelo Massimino stadium after the Italian first division soccer league match between Palermo and Catania, in Sicily, southern Italy, Friday. (AP/SkyTG24) ROME (AP) - A police officer was killed Friday when fans rioted at a Serie A game between Sicilian sides Catania and Palermo, prompting the Italian soccer federation (FIGC) to postpone all league matches this weekend and cancel next week's friendlies involving the national teams. Fans rioted...

The 2010 Soccer World Cup will be a "monumental flop" if South Africa does nothing to counter international perceptions that the country is a criminal haven, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi warned on Friday. "South Africa, unfortunately, is perceived in many parts of the world as a criminal haven. A walk down London's Regent Street or Sydney's Oxford Street will, sadly, provide ample anecdotal evidence to support this perception," he said in his weekly message. Once a perception id cast, it can prove almost impossible to shift. The 2010 World Cup is expected to attract 450 000 visitors...

... a black police officer seeking to protect a Jewish fan of a visiting Israeli team shot and killed one man and wounded another.Antoine Granomort, 32, rushed to the aid of a French fan of the Hapoel Tel Aviv club late Thursday after the Israeli team defeated Paris Saint-Germain ... About a hundred fans cornered the two men ... shouting racist and anti-Semitic epithets at them and making Nazi salutes ...Both victims were identified by the police as members of a far-right group supporting Paris Saint-Germain ...Overt racism is a common occurrence at the ... home stadium of PSG, with...

A supporter of the French football club Paris Saint Germanin was shot and killed by police Thursday night after a UEFA-cup game against the Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv. The tradgedy occurred outside the stadium Parc de Princes in Paris after PSG had lost against Hapoel with 2-4. According to police sources a lonely Hapoel fan was surrounded by 150 fans from the Parisian club on a street outside the areana. A policeman hurried tthere and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. He then fired two live rounds. Two PSG suporters were hit and one of them was killed....

Klinsmann talking with U.S. Soccer ST. LOUIS (AP) - Former Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann is in informal talks with the U.S. Soccer Federation that could lead to him taking over as coach of the United States. Klinsmann, who coached Germany to a surprising berth in the World Cup semifinals this summer, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Thursday that he's been speaking with USSF president Sunil Gulati. "We've had a couple of conversations. I'm evaluating everything that comes up," Klinsmann said. "I'll stay in touch with Sunil and see what it leads to. It's a very casual...

Oslo: A 29-year-old Pakistani origin man with links to the criminal A-gang is among the four suspects arrested on Tuesday and charged with firing on Oslo`s synagogue last weekend, Aftenposten`s Norwegian reported. The man was arrested in Germany this summer, suspected of participating in the planning of a terrorist attack on the soccer World Cup there. He was released quickly. Last week he was arrested again, this time charged with threats against crime journalist Nina Johnsrud from the newspaper Dagsavisen. Police suspect him of having something to do with shots having been fired against her house this summer, but he...

"Materazzi said it was mention of Zidane's sister which prompted the butt"

ROME (AFP) - Italy defender Marco Materazzi has broken his silence over the verbal exchange that led to his violent World Cup final clash with French star Zinedine Zidane. Materazzi was sent crashing to the turf by a Zidane head-butt near the end of extra-time of the July 9 final in Berlin following a verbal altercation. Mystery has surrounded the exact nature of the abuse directed at Zidane by Materazzi ever since the incident, which subsequently earned the Inter Milan centre-half a two-match ban from world governing body FIFA. But in an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport here Tuesday,...

TWO failed attempts to bomb trains in western Germany in July had originally been planned for the football World Cup, a newspaper reported overnight. The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung cited security sources as saying interrogation of the suspects had established that the would-be bombers had abandoned the original plan as they had considered the implications of such an attack. One of the bombs was found in July on a train in Dortmund, which hosted some of June and July's World Cup matches. The other was found on a train in Koblenz. Extracts of the article, released in advance of today's publication,...

German bomb plot intended for World Cup: paper Fri Sep 1, 2006 3:14pm ET BERLIN (Reuters) - Two failed attempts to bomb trains in western Germany in July had originally been planned for the football World Cup, a newspaper reported on Friday. The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung cited security sources as saying interrogation of the suspects had established that the would-be bombers had abandoned the original plan as they had considered the implications of such an attack. One of the bombs was found in July on a train in Dortmund, which hosted some of June and July's World Cup matches. The...

2006 SIERRA MIST MLS ALL-STAR GAME Toyota Park, Bridgeview, Ill. Saturday, Aug. 5, 2005 (6:30 p.m. ET; Live on ESPN)

Miss France Hits a Miss Italy Like She is Zidane

/begin my translation N. Korea Attempted Terrorist Attack On Seoul & Tokyo During 2002 World Cup In December, 2001, a suspicious N. Korean ship appeared at the water to the south west of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. After trading fires with Japanese Coast Guard, it was sunk. Now we secured a testimony that it was carrying special ops to mount terrorist attacks during S. Korea-Japan World Cup Soccer Tournament. At the time, Japanese authorities and media gave more weight to the analysis that the ship was sent to smuggle METH(into Japan.) According to August issue of Monthly Chosun(Wolgan-chosun; note - a well-known S. Korean news magazine,) Chang...

ZURICH, Switzerland (AP)—Zinedine Zidane was banned by FIFA for three games Thursday for head-butting Italy defender Marco Materazzi during the World Cup final. Materazzi was suspended for two matches. World soccer's governing body also fined Zidane $6,000 and Materazzi $4,000 after a disciplinary committee heard the former France captain's account of what led to the incident. Because Zidane has retired, he agreed to do three days of community service with children as part of FIFA's humanitarian projects. Zidane has said he attacked Materazzi because he insulted his mother and sister, while Materazzi denied insulting Zidane's mother. “Both players stressed that...

Berlin — Was it something he said? With France and Italy tied in extra time of Sunday's World Cup final, Zinedine Zidane head-butted Marco Materazzi in the chest and was ejected. France went on to lose on penalty kicks. The day after, still no one knew what the Italian defender might have said to the French star. "The Italians did everything they could do to provoke Zidane," France defender William Gallas said. Seconds before, Materazzi had grabbed a handful of Zidane's jersey just as a French attack on goal passed harmlessly by. The two exchanged words as they walked back...