world cup facts and info

World Cup trivia.

Golden Boot
It’s 40 years since Gerd Müller of Germany broke into double figures of goals
scored in a finals tournament when he netted 10 times during Mexico ’70.
All the world’s eyes will be on Rooney, Klose, Messi, Torres, Villa et al, who
will be vying to be the first since Der Bomber to emulate the feat.


Modern Men
Among the players with more diverse pastimes are English talisman David
Beckham, who enjoys fencing with his celebrity pals, Denmark defender
Daniel Agger, who is a qualified tattoo artist, and Portugal’s Cristiano
Ronaldo, who has a liking for Bingo. To prove that footballers are also
domesticated, Germany’s Moritz Volz has been known to bake a cake as
part of his pre-match preparation.


Those Italian girls
In terms of column inches, the world champion footballers’ wives are
undoubtedly England’s, but there are more exotic girls to be found at any
World Cup. Rather than pretending to hide from the paparazzi, the Italian
ladies simply love place themselves on display.
Take swimwear model Alena Seredova wife of Italy goalkeeper
Gianluigi Buffon, who – along with her fellow Italian wives – don their
Husbands’ shirts when at the match in a fabulous show of support.
Cheers!


In a subplot to this year’s football extravaganza, the 2010 World Cup will be
the first to feature all the world’s great wine producers. Will France, Germany,
Italy, Portugal and Spain prove that Old World is better than New World, or
will the cheeky upstarts of Australia, New Zealand, USA, Argentina, Chile and,
of course, South Africa be the ones popping the corks? It’s one reason to hope
that Greece don’t go all the way!


Pay as you goal?
The 2010 World Cup will be watched by more people than ever before –
official! A host of global broadcasters will be bringing live football to smart
phones for the first time. Football fans will be able to access live match video,
whenever it’s being broadcast on TV, and on-demand clips of every goal
scored in the tournament via online TV players and iPhone apps.


Any hope for Africa?
In all previous tournaments the winner has either been from South America
or Europe and unless we see a major upset in 2010 we’ll no doubt see
another winner from these two dominant continents. At present the two
traditional hotbeds of football are tied with nine wins each and while the hosts
traditionally perform well, South Africa might fi nd themselves overshadowed
by one of their African neighbours, with Ivory Coast and Cameroon the
most widely fancied.

Just one player has scored a goal and an owngoal in one game – Dutch
Ernie Brandts did it in 1978 in a match against Italy (the Netherlands won 2-1). Any player to
score a goal and an own-goal in one match in World Cup 2010 – ODDS 81.00


This year’s final will be played on 11 July, 28 years after the
Final between Italy and West Germany when the Italians defeated the Germans 3-1.
Italy to achieve a 3-1 victory in the Final Match – ODDS 301.0


Group G, comprising Brazil, North Korea,
Ivory Coast and Portugal, has been labelled
the ‘Group of Death’, but there will be
plenty of other teams feeling the same
applies to their groups. Such has been the progress
of football in Africa and Asia that there are no soft
touches any more.
Historically, the group of death was made up of European
and South American teams, and any group featuring Brazil
has always spelt bad news for the others. For example,
Group 4 at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, regarded as the
first true Group of Death, saw the early demise of much
fancied England, as Brazil and Soviet Union went through.
The ‘grupo de la muerte’, as it was named, at the 1970
tournament in Mexico saw England, the holders, and
Brazil, the favourites, drawn together again, along with
Czechoslovakia and Romania. This time the two eastern
European sides went out.


Whilst 20 players have won two World Cup winners’ medals,
Brazil’s Pelé is the only player to have won three.


All World Cups won by European teams have taken place in
Europe. Will a European team win the World Cup in a non-European tournament?
ODDS 5.5


The Englishman Geoff Hurst is the only player with a hat-trick in a
World Cup final (1966 vs. West Germany, 4-2 to England). A hat-trick to be scored in the
final in 2010 – ODDS 21.0

The first Briton to score at three separate World Cup finals

- Joe Jordan, 1974, '78, '82

Only David Beckham has achieved it since and none of his came from open play.

Jordan's the only one to do it out of around 20 and yet to never have played in the latter stages.

And you thought she was just a pair of tits who shagged Dwight Yorke and Gareth Gates.

All that and he still couldn't find a dentist.

Incidentally, this is the Jordan I remember from my youth ...

For the humour thread, a timed recall gag goes a long way as well, Snake.

Unless it falls flat on its face. Only one of the Jordans could (and probably had, as you say) do that.

for some reason this is in my head now