This year will mark the 20th anniversary of "goooooooooooooool" (give or take an "o" depending on the moment) becoming part of the American vernacular.
The World Cup was hosted on home soil and it didn't take a broadcasting analyst to realize that American announcers were not ready for the spotlight (p.s. how spectacular was Baggio's hair?).
Just as the World Cup is battleground in the gear war between Adidas and Nike, it is also a time for purveyors of sparkling refreshment to do battle.
Bloomberg Sports is pretty confident it knows the answer to a question 32 nations and billions of soccer fans are asking right about now: Who will win World Cup 2014?
This summer, 32 countries will compete for the greatest achievement on the international soccer stage. This summer, millions of fans will place bets – whether at sports books or in their living rooms – on who is going to win the World Cup. Below are the favorites:
Brazil, 3/1 Odds
Nike has always gone above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to its commercials and the newest Nike Football ad doesn't dissapoint.
Today, they came out with a 2014 World Cup ad which features 15 soccer players from around the world, with surprise cameos from Kobe Bryant, the Hulk and Cristiano Ronaldo's lovely girlfriend Irina Shayk. Don't let the 4-minute timespan detour you, it's worth it.
Amid investigations for corruption from the FIFA ethics committee, officials released a statement saying they were going to reduce the number of stadiums built for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar by a third.
No official reason was given for eliminating the four stadiums, but John Sfakianakis, a chief investment strategist in Saudi Arabia said “their decision was motivated by cost-cutting following an assessment of the real needs on the ground.”
Putting on an event for the entire world can be tough.
Especially when stadiums, IT networks, public transportation and airports aren’t finished.
Those are just a couple of things that Brazil and FIFA have on their plate with less than three months until the opening whistle between Brazil and Croatia on June 12th.
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke is doing the best he can to calm people’s nerves but he knows the challenges ahead. It was him two years ago who said, “Brazil needs a kick up the backside” in regards to the local organizing committee.
With The Americans second season getting rave reviews, who hasn’t been a little nostalgic for some old-fashioned, Cold War-style tension between the U.S. and Russia? And who can really blame a few U.S. politicians for being upset about Russia’s human rights record and its aggression in the Ukraine – and perhaps even a little jealous with Mother Russia for having just hosted the Sochi Olympics, and for having won the rights to host the 2018 World Cup over the U.S.?
If FIFA strips Qatar of its 2022 World Cup hosting rights over corruption allegations, the Japan Football Association says it would be able to step in and put on soccer’s biggest event.
Japan was one of the countries that lost out to Qatar for the rights to host the 2022 World Cup, but they believe they have all the resources needed to host if necessary.