Finally the list of National squads for World Cup 2006 is out.

Here’s the list of my favorite National teams with their respective squads including each player’s current professional Clubs:

Brazil squad:

Goalkeepers: Dida (AC Milan), Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Rogerio Ceni (Sao Paulo)

Defenders: Cafu (AC Milan), Cicinho (Real Madrid), Lucio (Bayern Munich), Juan (Bayer Leverkusen), Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid), Gilberto (Hertha Berlin), Cris (Olympique Lyon), Luisao (Benfica)

Midfielders: Edmilson (Barcelona), Juninho Pernambucano (Olympique Lyon), Emerson (Juventus), Ze Roberto (Bayern Munich), Gilberto Silva (Arsenal), Kaka (AC Milan), Ricardinho (Corinthians)

Forwards: Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Robinho (Real Madrid), Ronaldinho (Barcelona), Adriano (Inter Milan), Fred (Olympique Lyon).

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Germany squad:

Goalkeepers: Jens Lehmann (Arsenal/ENG), Oliver Kahn (Bayern Munich), Timo Hildebrand (VfB Stuttgart)

Defenders: Arne Friedrich (Hertha Berlin), Robert Huth (Chelsea/ENG), Marcell Jansen (Borussia Monchengladbach), Per Mertesacker (Hannover), Christoph Metzelder (Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Jens Nowotny (Bayer Leverkusen)

Midfielders: Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Tim Borowski (Werder Bremen), Torsten Frings (Werder Bremen), Sebastian Kehl (Borussia Dortmund), Bernd Schneider (Bayer Leverkusen), Thomas Hitzlsperger (VfB Stuttgart), David Odonkor (Borussia Dortmund)

Fowards: Miroslav Klose (Werder Bremen), Lukas Podolski (FC Cologne), Mike Hanke (VfL Wolfsburg), Oliver Neuville (Borussia Monchengladbach), Gerald Asamoah (Schalke 04)

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Argentina squad:

Goalkeepers: Roberto Abbondanzieri (Boca Juniors), Leonardo Franco (Atletico Madrid/ESP), Oscar Ustari (Independiente)

Defenders: Nicolas Burdisso (Inter Milan/ITA), Gabriel Milito (Zaragoza/ESP), Juan Pablo Sorin (Villarreal/ESP), Fabricio Coloccini (Deportivo La Coruna/ESP), Leandro Cufre (Roma/ITA), Roberto Ayala (Valencia/ESP), Gabriel Heinze (Manchester United/ENG)

Midfielders: Maximiliano Rodriguez (Atletico Madrid/ESP), Esteban Cambiasso (Inter Milan/ITA), Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal/ESP), Lionel Scaloni (West Ham/ENG), Luis Gonzalez (Porto/POR), Javier Mascherano (Corinthians/BRA), Pablo Aimar (Valencia/ESP)

Forwards: Lionel Messi (Barcelona/ESP), Hernan Crespo (Chelsea/ENG), Carlos Tevez (Corinthians/BRA), Javier Saviola (Sevilla/ESP), Julio Cruz (Inter Milan/ITA), Rodrigo Palacio (Boca Juniors)

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England squad:

Goalkeepers: Paul Robinson (Tottenham Hotspur), David James (Manchester City), Robert Green (Norwich City)

Defenders: Gary Neville (Manchester United), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), John Terry (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Arsenal), Sol Campbell (Arsenal), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Wayne Bridge (Chelsea)

Midfielders: David Beckham (Real Madrid), Michael Carrick (Tottenham Hotspur), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Owen Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham Hotspur), Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham Hotspur)

Forwards: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Michael Owen (Newcastle United), Peter Crouch (Liverpool), Theo Walcott (Arsenal)

On stand-by: Scott Carson (Liverpool), Luke Young (Charlton Athletic), Nigel Reo-Coker (West Ham United), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham Hotspur) Andrew Johnson (Crystal Palace).

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Italy squad:

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Angelo Peruzzi (Lazio), Marco Amelia (Livorno)

Defenders: Massimo Oddo (Lazio), Cristian Zaccardo (Palermo), Marco Materazzi (Inter Milan), Andrea Barzagli (Palermo), Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan), Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Gianluca Zambrotta (Juventus), Fabio Grosso (Palermo)

Midfielders: Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan), Simone Perrotta (Roma), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Simone Barone (Palermo), Francesco Totti (Roma)

Forwards: Luca Toni (Fiorentina), Alberto Gilardino (AC Milan), Filippo Inzaghi (AC Milan), Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Udinese)

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For the list of squads of other National teams, visit the Fifa World Cup website.

Sports and Hobbies

Last Saturday evening while typhoon Caloy was pouring rain and blowing gusty winds over Metro Manila, I was glued on the TV set watching, what else - Football. But it was not any ordinary Football match, it was a live telecast of the FA Cup Final match between Liverpool FC and West Ham United. A match that will go down as one of the greatest in the competition’s 134-year history. Liverpool FC repeated the drama it played during last year’s UEFA Champions League Finals by winning the match via a penalty shoot-out.

The match started with West Ham United getting the first score courtesy of a Liverpool own goal and then earning its second score by a shot on goal. Liverpool managed to tag along by scoring their first goal before the first half ended. Liverpool started the second half with an equalizer by Steven Gerrard. But West Ham United immediately got the lead again by shooting another goal making the score 3-2. As the second half comes to a close and while West Ham United fans were already celebrating their imminent victory, the miracle of the match happened. Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard suddenly scored a goal equalizing the score to 3-3 as the clock marked exactly 90 minutes with an added 1 minute injury time - just a whistle away to full time. A 30 minute extra-time was played still resulting to a 3-3 standstill. The rest is already history. Liverpool lifted the FA Cup after defeating West Ham United in a sudden death penalty shoot out.

This FA Cup finals had shown that England is already warming up for the World Cup next month. BBC has recorded a peak of 11 million viewers who watched the FA Cup finals on BBC. According to BBC these figures are only for viewers who watched the match at home, and do not include those who saw it in pubs or clubs or from other channels. I wonder how many in the Philippines were able to watch the match? Perhaps a thousand, I wish.

Sports and Hobbies

As the anticipation and preparations for World Cup 2006 goes fever pitch, football fans around the world are now preparing their list of teams to root for and players to watch. Here’s mine:

My teams: (The usual favorites. Most likely to reach the semi-finals and finals)

Brazil
Germany
Argentina
Italy
England

But of course, I will still be cheering for:

Japan
Korea
Australia - With Guus Hinddink as Coach, Australia is a team to reckon.

My list of players to watch (A partial list of mostly my favorite old stars. Although this year’s World Cup will set the stage for the debut of a new generation of promising players.):

1. Ronaldinho (Bra)
2. Ronaldo (Bra)
3. Robinho (Bra)
4. Adriano (Bra)
5. Oliver Khan (Ger)
6. Michael Ballack (Ger)
8. Hernan Crespo (Arg)
9. Javier Saviola (Arg)
10. David Beckham (Eng)
11. Michael Owen (Eng)
12. Francesco Totti (Ita)
13. Gianluca Zambrotta (Ita)

PS: I would like to drumbeat the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2006 by dedicating my sidebar for news and updates about events and happenings leading to Germany. All news are RSS feeds from the news and features content of the official FIFA World Cup website. Read the news and updates and feel the heat rising as the World Cup 2006 drama unfolds.

Sports and Hobbies

It’s now 36 days before the FIFA World Cup 2006 kicks off in Germany. After four years, the whole world will once again focus its attention to the world’s most beautiful game where 32 National Teams compete in 64 Games for only One Prize.

Unfortunately unlike the rest of world, football is not much appreciated in the Philippines. While everyone around the globe is already struck with the World Cup fever, the Philippines is still stuck to developments in Pinoy Big Brother. Perhaps we can easily put the blame to our Yankee Legacy. I can only think of one reason why football is not popular in the Philippines - because it’s not Uncle Sam’s favorite game. Most pinoys adore Uncle Sam’s favorite games - throwing balls in the basket and invading other countries.

The only consolation we can get is that while almost everyone is not unfamiliar with the NBA, when it comes to football at least there’s still a few who knows about Pele no matter how trifle. This is the only thing that we share in common with planet football, the recognition of Pele as the undisputed and still reigning O Rei - the King of Football.

Here’s a video clip reliving the greatness of Pele playing the “Beautiful Game”.

Sports and Hobbies

The great Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho has once again showed the world why he is three times and currently FIFA World Player of the Year and also presently holder of the title as European Player of the Year. The Catalan team, FC Barcelona humbled Italy’s AC Milan in their home stadium at San Siro in a stirring first leg semi-final UEFA Champions league match. It was the first home defeat for Milan in nearly three years of European competition.Barca secured the only goal for the match. But no it was not Ronaldinho’s goal. Barca’s only goal was delivered by the Frenchman striker Ludovic Guily. So why Ronaldinho?

Since football is a team sport, a good football player is distinguished not only by individual scoring feats. It is also measured by one’s mastery in the art of playing set-pieces or providing good oppurtunity for the team to score a goal. Ronaldinho is master on both counts.

Right from the start of the match AC Milan made sure that Ronaldinho could not come close as to make any attempt to shoot at goal. Ronaldinho was closely marked by the Italian’s defense. But such maneuver didn’t handicapped Ronaldinho. The footballing genius of Ronaldinho took such manuevers against him as an oppurtunity to gain an openning for his teammates to attack. With awesome magical skill on ball control Ronaldinho enticed AC Milan’s defense to close in on him leaving his other teammates free. That was how Barca scored a goal against a tight and effective AC Milan’s line of defense. Ronaldinho effortlessly passed the ball in the most precise angle for Guily to strike it straight to the goal.

Their second leg semi-final match is surely another exciting match to watch. With just one more game separating them from the Paris final, Barca are enjoying a truly impressive run in the Champions League. Everyone in planet football is looking forward to a UEFA Champions League Grand final match in Paris between Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal FC and Frank Rijkaard’s FC Barcelona. But with Ronaldinho’s genius I’m pretty sure that Barca will be the next title holder of the UEFA Champion’s League.

Sports and Hobbies