"Better than Messi: Schweinsteiger completes his masterpiece," the paper published, adding that it was his "best game of the World Cup".
German newspaper -Welt
Joachim Low has insisted that he will continue to wear his trademark blue sweater throughout the finals, and will not be washing it.
"The thing with the sweater is that I am not driven by superstition," he said today. "The other coaching staff said I should be wearing the sweater now because every time I wear it we score four goals.
"I am not even allowed to wash it now and I think I will wear it again."
About Suarez — who won’t play Tuesday owing to a red-card suspension — HAND BALL!!
Dutch goalkeeperMaarten Stekelenburg is Suarez’s teammate at Amsterdam’s Ajax FC. Stekelenburg sent his buddy a text message telling him he was the “best goalkeeper in the tournament.”
Dunga and Maradona : "A couple of idiots"...
Sneijder
"It feels like I have been punched by Muhammad Ali"
When Maradona was asked about his new beard. "I grew it because my dog almost ate my mouth and left me a big scar." It later emerges he had startled his Chinese shar pei, Bela, by trying to kiss it, and had to undergo plastic surgery. "My daughters tell me I look good with a beard, so I'm keeping it."
Later confirms his newfound body confidence by revealing a plan to streak through Buenos Aires if it all goes well in South Africa. "If we win the World Cup, I'll get naked and run around the Obelisk."
Argentina secure a group-topping finish with a 2-0 win over Greece. Diego's happy, but not with the ball.
"I would ask all Fifa directors to stop talking about me and to start working on having a proper football. This ball is useless. It's impossible to control."
"I am as sad as anyone, but I want to thank the whole Argentina team. I want these boys to stay strong, to keep showing who they are. I want them to continue debunking the myths that millionaire footballers don't care."
He defended goalless Lionel Messi ("anyone saying he didn't have a great World Cup is an idiot") and said he would now talk to his family before deciding whether to carry on.
"I could walk away tomorrow, but I don't know. I'm going to be 50 on 30 October, and this is the hardest thing I have had to go through since the day I retired from football. It was like a smack in the face from Muhammad Ali. I am drained of strength, but will I leave? I really don't know. We will see what the future holds."
Diego Maradona
"FIFA officiating does not meet North American standard as set in NHL, MLB, NFL."
"Bush league Refs, with no instant reply."
"Players who take dives should be thrown out of entire competition"
(Many) unknown authors
"I prefer a calm coach on the bench like Van Marwijk, rather than an idiot like Maradona or Dunga."
Wesley Sneijder.
"There's no reason to fear England."
Lukas Podolski.
"What's apartheid?"
Joan Capdevila
"I can't say what my granny said about the referee when he sent me off but they were some harsh words"
Kaka's
"I'm not in favour of technology in football or a chip in the ball. The best thing about football is the controversy. But as for that England goal [against Germany] ... even my granny could see that it was in. And she wears super-thick glasses."
Luis Fabiano
"God never sleeps, he knows who deserves success."
Cristiano Ronaldo
"I like the Jabulani it's very pretty."
FIFA boss Sepp Blatter
"It's going to take us 25 years to win again if we carry on like this."
Fabio Cannavaro (Italy)
"Maradona is a nice guy but he can be a bit pesado [a pain, boring] . And I mean pesado in the nicest possible way."
Vicente del Bosque
"Luis Suarez's hand was the Hand of God ... and the Virgin Mary."
Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez
"What I saw from the English in their 1-1 draw against the United States had very little to do with football. English have gone backwards into the bad old times of kick and rush."
Franz Beckenbauer
"We beat Germany two years ago and they will not be happy to meet us again. But we also have to forget that match. If we finish without the World Cup, it will be as if we have not done anything."
David Villa
By Chris YoungSports Reporter
Life is unfair.
Soccer is life. Football is life. It must be so. The T-shirts insist, whichever nomenclature and whatever size you order.
Ergo, soccer/football is unfair.
Think about it. Luis Suarez was being toasted in Montevideo on Friday night, while he was being hoisted on the shoulders of his Uruguay teammates, while he was roasted with a side order of rueful regret across Africa. The Uruguayan’s blatant cheating, and Asamoah Gyan’s overexcited, overcooked penalty following, was the pivot point of this lesson.
Unfair? Of course it was.
On the topic of handballs.
Associated Press sports columnist John Leicester's take was short and sweet:
Uruguay forward Luis Suarez escaped with a one-match suspension from FIFA on Saturday for deliberately using his hands to slap away what would have been a certain match-winning goal for Ghana....That is so wrong. FIFA should have sent him packing from the World Cup, deterred cheats by making an example of this one."Foot" and "ball." It couldn't be any simpler. The most basic rule is no handling by anyone other than the goalkeeper, and Suarez slapped it in the face.Atta Mills seems to think so when i interviewed him. "There is no reason why we cannot win the World Cup, we can do it if we believe we can."FromBill Bailey on Twitter: "Mournful chumps in grey M+S suits - is that how Team England will be remembered?"What is Holland's secret to such a successful 2010 World Cup? (so far) Well the answer is….a bracelet!Most Oranje starters have one. A bracelet with two round holograms. Balancing Bracelets, they’re called. And who ever wears them wins power, balance and agility. They restore the electromagnetic balance, according to the supplier.“Wesley Sneijder introduced them to the lads,” says Rafael van der Vaart. “It’s actually a hype in Spain, where a lot of people use them. Does it work? I’m not sure, but it doesn’t hurt to wear them.”Sneijder: “I thought it was nonsense, but in all honesty: they work. I feel much better with them, more in balance.”Recently, Sneijder demonstrated how he can easily put his hand flat on the ground without bending his knees. “Without the bracelet I wouldn’t be able to.”*******************************************************************
Some of the Best Soccer Quotes from the Past
Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.
Bill Shankly
English soccer manager.
Football's a difficult business and aren't they prima donnas. But it's a wonderful game.
Queen Elizabeth II
To Premier League Chairman David Richards, November 2006.
Every time I went away I was deceiving my mum. I'd tell her I was going to school but I'd be out on the street playing football. I always had a ball on my feet.
Ronaldo
Brazilian soccer player.
If a team wants to intimidate you physically and you let them, they've won.
Mia Hamm
American World Cup Soccer champion.
I'm here to score a lot of goals. It's my speciality, that's what I've been brought here to do, and I want to score plenty ; like I did with Barcelona. And here, there's every reason to think I can do it.
Ronaldo
Brazilian soccer player.
The rules of soccer are very simple, basically it is this: if it moves, kick it. If it doesn't move, kick it until it does.
Phil Woosnam
Welsh soccer player and manager.
To say that these men paid their shillings to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that Hamlet is so much paper and ink.
J. B. Priestley
The Good Companions.
In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.
Jean Paul Sartre
French philosopher.
Every single day I wake up and commit to myself to becoming a better player.
Mia Hamm
American female soccer player.
I fell in love with football as I would later fall in love with women: suddenly, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain it would bring.
Nick Hornby
Opening sentence from English writer's book Fever Pitch.
The vision of a champion is someone bent over, drenched in sweat, to a point of exhaustion, when no one else is watching.
Anson Dorrance
American women's soccer coach.
I loathed the game, and since I could see no pleasure or usefulness in it, it was very difficult for me to show courage at it. Football, it seemed to me, is not really played for the pleasure of kicking a ball about, but is a species of fighting.
George Orwell
English writer.
Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.
Pele
Brazilian soccer player, considered possibly world's greatest.
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
Roy Keane
Irish soccer player and English football club manager.
I'm sure sex wouldn't be so rewarding as this World Cup. It's not that sex isn't good but the World Cup is every four years and sex is not.
Ronaldo
Brazilian soccer player, after winning 2002 World Cup.
Pele called me the greatest footballer in the world. That is the ultimate salute to my life.
George Best
Northern Ireland soccer player, from his autobiography, The Good, The Bad and the Bubbly.
The goal was scored a little bit by the hand of God, another bit by the head of Maradona.
Maradona
Argentinian soccer player, on goal against England in 1986 World Cup.
Football is all very well a good game for rough girls, but not for delicate boys.
Oscar Wilde
Irish writer.
I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.
Mia Hamm
American female soccer player.
Rugby is a beastly game played by gentlemen; soccer is a gentlemen's game played by beasts; football is a beastly game played by beasts.
Henry Blaha
The goalkeeper is the jewel in the crown and getting at him should be almost impossible. It's the biggest sin in football to make him do any work.
George Graham
Scottish soccer player and manager.
Italians can't win the game against you, but you can lose the game against the Italians.
Johan Cryuff
Dutch soccer player.
Some people tell me that we professional players are soccer slaves. Well, if this is slavery, give me a life sentence.
Bobby Charlton
English soccer player and 1966 World Cup winner.
Whoever invented football should be worshipped as a God.
Hugo Sanchez
Mexican soccer player and coach.
Five days shalt thou labour, as the Bible says. The seventh day is the Lord thy God's. The sixth day is for football.
Anthony Burgess
English writer.
In Latin America the border between soccer and politics is vague. There is a long list of governments that have fallen or been overthrown after the defeat of the national team.
Luis Suarez
Mexican journalist, quoted in The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski (1969).
At a football club, there's a holy trinity the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are only there to sign the checks.
Bill Shankly
English soccer manager.
If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.
Bill Shankly
English soccer manager.
The person that said winning isn't everything, never won anything.
Mia Hamm
American female soccer player.
Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.
Mia Hamm
American female soccer player.
When I go to the press conference before the game, in my mind the game has already started.
Jose Mourinho
Portuguese soccer manager.
We lost because we didn't win.
Ronaldo
Brazilian soccer player.
You can have the top stars to bring the attention, you can have the best stadium, you can have the best facilities, you can have the most beautiful project in terms of marketing and all this kind of thing. But if you don't win... All the work these people are doing is forgotten.
Jose Mourinho
Portuguese soccer manager.
Uruguay forward Luis Suarez escaped with a one-match suspension from FIFA on Saturday for deliberately using his hands to slap away what would have been a certain match-winning goal for Ghana.
...
That is so wrong. FIFA should have sent him packing from the World Cup, deterred cheats by making an example of this one.
"Foot" and "ball." It couldn't be any simpler. The most basic rule is no handling by anyone other than the goalkeeper, and Suarez slapped it in the face.
Atta Mills seems to think so when i interviewed him. "There is no reason why we cannot win the World Cup, we can do it if we believe we can."
FromBill Bailey on Twitter: "Mournful chumps in grey M+S suits - is that how Team England will be remembered?"
What is Holland's secret to such a successful 2010 World Cup? (so far) Well the answer is….a bracelet!
Most Oranje starters have one. A bracelet with two round holograms. Balancing Bracelets, they’re called. And who ever wears them wins power, balance and agility. They restore the electromagnetic balance, according to the supplier.
“Wesley Sneijder introduced them to the lads,” says Rafael van der Vaart. “It’s actually a hype in Spain, where a lot of people use them. Does it work? I’m not sure, but it doesn’t hurt to wear them.”
Sneijder: “I thought it was nonsense, but in all honesty: they work. I feel much better with them, more in balance.”
Recently, Sneijder demonstrated how he can easily put his hand flat on the ground without bending his knees. “Without the bracelet I wouldn’t be able to.”
*******************************************************************
