Forget the USA-England rivalry; the real fight brewing at the World Cup is not over soccer, but the vuvuzela, the plastic horn that when blown correctly makes a very loud and drawn out sound.

Supporters say it’s an inspiring cacophony, but critics say it sounds like a swarm of bees, drowning out fans, commentators, national anthems and generally ruining the World Cup experience for everyone.

FIFA , the soccer-governing body in charge of the World Cup, is under pressure to ban the noise-maker. It said in a statement that for now it will only outlaw vuvuzelas if they become a physical hazard, such as if fans throw the horns on the field, but that it “continues to evaluate the use of vuvuzelas on an on-going basis.”

The football odds have the vuvuzelas to be banned at 4/1

England have released their official world cup song, and the man behind it is none other than the multi-millionaire music producer Simon Cowell. The song was performed by Dizzee Rascal and James Corden on Saturday’s final of Britain Got Talent, where over 8million people watched it. Here is the live performance

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCEXdv0sdBw&feature=related]

Dizzee and James will both be following the livescores throughout the world cup, as well as keeping track of their single in the charts.

England were favourites to win both friendly games this week, and they proved the football odds right with wins against Mexico and Japan. The games were used as run-outs for the players which Fabio Capello may take to the world cup. Here are the highlights of both games, you can make your own assumptions of the final 23 man squad which is to be announced later today.

England v Mexico (24/05/10)

Fast Tube by Casper

England v Japan (30/05/10)

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The countdown is on to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and sports enthusiasts around the globe are gearing up.  YouTube has been one of the epicenters of FIFA World Cup anticipation, with excitement building over the last couple of months as inspiring World Cup clips have been uploaded, one after the other.  We’ve compiled a few of the best World Cup 2010 clips, perfect for getting you pumped up for a summer of world class football.  Gooooooal!!

Nike Write The Future

Nike’s ‘Write The Future’ campaign is the epitome of World Cup 2010 clips.  With more than 7.6 million views on YouTube, this epic clip brings together the world’s best players and inspires sports fans to leave their woes behind.  After all, who cares about the state of the economy when we have football greats like Christiano Ronaldo, Fabio Cannavaro, Andres Iniesta, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney and Ronaldinho?

Fast Tube by Casper

Pepsi Commercial 2010

For me, this Pepsi ad takes the cake when it comes to brilliant World Cup commercials.  Pepsi released this clip, despite the fact that they are not an official sponsor of this year’s FIFA event.  The commercial features football stars Thierry Henry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Lionel Messi, Ricardo Kaka and Andrei Arshavin playing against local African kids in a less than ordinary football match.

Fast Tube by Casper

Coca Cola History of Celebration

This inspiring Coca Cola clip takes us back twenty years ago, to Cameroonian football player Roger Milla’s first celebratory dance after a goal.  Milla’s dance changed goal celebrations forever, with fans and players letting go—celebrating success with dance.  You can’t help but smile when watching this great clip.

Fast Tube by Casper

MAke sure you watch all the live football from each game of the world cup as it is bound to be a cracker

All across Europe, league titles were being decided this weekend. Here is a breif round-up of the final standings in europes major leagues.

As you already know, Chelsea are th Champions of England and new F.A cup champions after they beat Portsmouth in the final at Wembley on Saturday.

La Liga
Barcelona retained their Spanish crown after beating Valladolid 4-0 in the final game of the season, and the galaticos of Real Madrid finished as runners-up as they could only manage a 1-1 draw with Malaga. Messi scored twice to take his tally this season to 34 goals, and with took the la liga golden shoe.

Seria A
Inter Milan and Jose Mourinho have their sights on a treble after securing their fifth straight League title, and the domestic cup. They were pushed all the way in the league by Roma, but a 1-0 win against Siena on the final day of the season clinched the title.

Ligue 1
Marseille are this season french league winners followed by Lyon and Auxerre, They did actually win the league with a game to spare, but it is a great result for the team.

Bundesliga
Bayern Munich are once again German champions and they aswell as Inter Milan have the chance to become a treble winning team, the final of the Uefa Champions league will decide which team goes down in the history books.

This is the best time to place a bet on the winners of next season compatitions so check the odds comparison at http://www.odds1×2.com and get your bet in early.

Chelsea went into the last game of the season knowing that a win would crown the Champions of England. With everyone kicking off at the same time all they could do was win, and they did in style. They hosted Wigan at Stamford Bridge whilst their nearest rivals Manchester United entertained Stoke at Old Trafford. Manchester United started the game needing a win and hoping the blues didn’t beat Wigan. Man U did their part of the deal by beating Stoke 4 – 0, but you could see by their muted goal celebrations they had heard the scoreline from Stamford Bridge.

After 6 minutes Chelsea were 1- 0 up thanks to Anelka, and any hope of a Wigan comeback were dashed when they conceded the second from the penalty spot, after Gary Caldwell fouled Drogba and was then sent off. It was 2- 0 at half time and the Trophy was clearly going to Stamford Bridge, Chelsea decided that they were going to end the season on a massive high, and entertain their fans.

The news had got through to Old Trafford of the situation at The Bridge but it didn’t stop united, from scoring 4 goals. No expected the drumming that Chelsea gave to Wigan in the second half though, it was a relentless attack, and in the end Chelsea ran out 8-0 winners. With the goals coming in the shape of, Anelka (2) Kalou, Lampard, A.Cole and Drogba (3). With Drogba getting a hatrick and Wayne Rooney failing to score it meant that the Ivorian won the Golden Boot award, and with it became the first African player to win the prestigious award.

Chelsea have the chance to do the league and F.A cup double on saturday when they take on relegated Portsmouth, they will more than likely be favourites for the cup, so why not make sure and check the odds comparison at http://odds1×2.com. Win yourself some money, and place a bet on a Chelsea victory.

The Premier League meeting had been billed as a cup final, with fourth-placed Spurs travelling to the North West aware that three points would guarantee a golden ticket to the qualifying rounds of next season’s European Cup.

Likewise, Roberto Mancini’s City knew success in front of their home fans would have put their future in their own hands ahead of Sunday’s trip to West Ham and would have given the Italian greater assurance in his job.

But in truth the thought of the Champions League, which brings in excess of £50million and significant player-pulling power in the transfer market, got to both sides on a nail-biting night in Manchester.

It was Harry Redknapp’s Spurs, though, who delivered a resolute and committed team performance throughout and held their nerve as Crouch headed past Marton Fulop in the 82nd minute to deservedly book a long-overdue return to the continent’s top table.

For City, the England striker’s late goal was a hammer blow as millions of pounds of investment last summer failed to produce Champions League football and left Mancini’s future far from clear.

It was just reward for an incredible season for Harry Redknapp and his men, who may yet pip old rivals Arsenal, who sit thrid, to a place in the main draw.

At the very least they will be in the final qualifier, with a route to riches clearly mapped out.

Spurs know that a win would guarantee they secure fourth spot in the Barclays Premier League – a massive achievement given they would have beaten mega-rich City and Liverpool.

And Redknapp has raised the temperature ahead of the crunch showdown by claiming he would rather keep all of his current players than swap them for any of City’s.

The Spurs boss told ESPN Soccernet: ‘We have Aaron Lennon coming back, and what a player he is, with his pace. Even behind him, there is Gareth Bale, who has come on in such leaps and bounds and has become an attacking force.

‘I wouldn’t swap our players for any of theirs. We have a terrific group of players, and that’s a nice position to be in.’

Redknapp has also questioned the value of Carlos Tevez, saying he agrees with Sir Alex Ferguson that the former Manchester United striker was over-priced.

He added: ‘There is only one point in it in for the race for the title, and that’s the fine dividing lines these days and, let’s face it, he has achieved that without Cristiano Ronaldo or Tevez.

‘To be fair to Sir Alex, he probably thought that £45million – or whatever the true cost for Tevez was – was a bit much, plus his wages  of £180,000-a-week, when he wasn’t even a regular in the United team last season, spending most of his time coming off the bench.

‘Sir Alex has spent £30m on Berbatov and he had Rooney and, at the start of the season, he would have thought that was enough, and so would most people.’

The showdown between Manchester City and Tottenham on Wednesday at the city of Manchester stadium is a winner takes all match, The looser will be in the Europa league whilst the winner will be in the champions league for the first time ever. Be sure to place a bet on the crunch game, as long as you check out the odds comparison before hand.

Last night Barcelona were knocked out of the champions league by Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan 3 -2 on aggregate.  Barcelona lost 3 – 1 in the first leg of the champions league tie which meant they had to win 2 – 0 to go through. Some may say that the fact that Barca had to do a day’s travelling to get to the first leg set them at a huge disadvantage but there were few complaints from the Barcelona team and they got on with the job in hand. It was clear to see that the players were tired though and it showed in the results and the stats after the match, Barcelona players had run 1km less on average than they had done in the round before against Arsenal. Inter Milan capitalised on this as they won the 1st leg 3-1 after going 1 – 0 down to a goal from Pedro.

Even after the 3 – 1 defeat many people thought that Barcelona could still go through, the game started and it was evident to see that inter were keen on defending their 2 goal lead. They seemed to employ time wasting tactics as early as the 2nd minute, just over 25 minutes into the game the first major piece of action happened with Thiago Motta already being booked, he caught Sergio Busquets in the face with what seemed like nothing but his little finger and the Spaniard went down rolling around, the referee then brandished the Portuguese midfielder a straight red card. Rightly the Inter team and fans were incised but the decision had been made, it was now a matter of setting up camp on the 18yard line and defending for their lives.

It took Barcelona 82 minutes to break down the Italian side who seemed to be making every stoppage in play last 20 seconds longer than necessary, Pique collected a through ball from Xavi and did a wonderful turn that sent both the Keeper and Defender flying in the wrong direction before coolly slotting the ball in the net. It was now a nerve racking last 10 minutes for Inter. Barca had attack after attack, and when all seem lost Yaya Toure blocked a clearance on the edge of the Inter box and the ball fell to Bojan who smashed the ball into the back of the net, Barcelona fans erupted but the jubilation was short lived as the referee blew the whistle for handball. This was a outrageous decision Toure was no more than a yard away from the ball with his hand on his stomach, yet the referee gave handball. Inter then defended for the last 4 minutes with ease and were through to face Bayern Munich in the Champions League Final.

Some people will say that Inter Milan were unfortunate to get a player sent off and that they deserved to win because of their performance in the 1st leg, but the fact of the matter is if the referee hadn’t of given the a handball for nothing, the right amount of extra time was added on and Barca hadn’t of had to go on a day long trek to Milan for the 1st leg then Barcelona would be in this year’s champions league final.

I watched the Live Football game on http://www.livegoals.com

If you are a halfback, you must be aware of the fact that as halfbacks can move to forward positions, they can be used for serving the offensive purposes as well. This is particularly useful when the coach is thinking off some counter attack strategy and the halfbacks also get a chance to score goals themselves. The positions in a team game like football are very important and unless all the players stick to their basic roles, a game cannot be ever won.

Center Back

The “king pin” of a football team, this position is pretty commanding one. A center back actually plays the role of a central defender who halts the attack of opponent team with certain interceptions and if required some timely tackles. Proper heights, speedy movement, strength to do necessary tackling are they key physical attributes of a center halfback. In addition, confidence, decisiveness and tenacity can help a center halfback grow fast with time.

Midfielders

Midfielders or the playmakers are always with the responsibility of organizing any attack of the team. They change the pace of the football game. Unless they are in sync with their teammates, the team will be led towards a poor performance. Possession is pretty important in this team game and only midfielders can ascertain this fact that the ball stays with the team.

Wingers

They have two different responsibilities to handle with the changing flow of game. They can either supply the ball to the strikers or they can stretch the defense in moments of crisis. Not the physical attributes but speed is the most important factor while choosing a defender and an ability to dribble properly makes things even better. Remember, at certain conditions, wingers may need to go in a body contact with bigger players, so they should have the confidence and know the “principles of the width in an attack.”

Forwards

The scorers of a team and as it said “Goals win Matches”, indeed one of the most important roles. The strikers sometimes rotate their role in the game as feeders. They look out for any possible flaw in the opponent defense and a chance to score a goal.
But, if you think this one as the best position, think again. This needs you to withstand the pain as the strikers are most likely to face the hard tackles of an opponent team. Stamina and speed are two added factors which may help you out as well.