Great clip of Australian Mark Bresciano scoring a scorcher of a goal midweek against Bahrain, in their Asian Cup qualifying match. Australia won 2-0.

As much as I hate to admire anything that a player for Liverpool does, this video is incredible. What is even more amazing is that Xabi Alonso has scored a goal from even further out than this. Stay tuned for that video next week.

The best goal since David Beckham’s effort from a similar distance

England’s new manager, Steve McClaren, has made his mark on the team by dropping David Beckham from the squad that will play Greece in a friendly on August 16th. McClaren informed Beckham of his decision to exclude him from the squad, citing that it was time to take England in a new direction.

Although many thought that Beckham’s form in the World Cup was sub-standard, I personally believe that without him in the team, England would not have progressed as far as they did. He was directly responsible for victories against Paraguay and Ecuador, and he also setup the first goal against Trinidad and Tobago (a goal that came in the last 10 minutes of regulation). Fair enough he’s not as quick as he once was, but he’s also 31 years old. He’s still one of the best passing midfielders in the world, and his execution of freekicks is second to none. I still believe him to be one of the top players in the world, and I would definitely want him on my team. Who will ever forget the free kick in extra time against Greece that put England through to the 2002 World Cup?

Although McClaren hasn’t closed the doors on a return to the England squad for Beckham in the future, it is highly unlikely that the new manager will admit that he made a mistake and return him to the squad. I believe this is a premature end to Beckham’s superb international career.

One of many Beckham highlights - this one against Greece to put England through to the 2002 World Cup

Si.com’s Jonah Freedman is at it again with his rankings. Instead of botching World Cup rankings, this time he has moved on to club rankings.

His rankings start off poorly with his placement of Chelsea at #1. Freedman states “Until the Blues again show they can’t come up big in Europe or have trouble closing down the stretch, Roman Abramovich’s free-spending has made Chelsea the team to beat again.” Again show that they can’t perform in the European competitions? Wouldn’t that comment alone mean that Chelsea should not be in the top position in his rankings? Chelsea, for all their great performances in the Premier League (winning the past two seasons), still have not made the final of the Champions League during this period, losing to eventual champions Liverpool and Barcelona the last two years. It is true that Roman Abramovich has spent a lot of money putting a team full of stars together, but if anything has been proven in recent years, it is that spending great amounts of money building a team does not necessarily equal success in the extended European competitions. You just need to look at Real Madrid (who also didn’t make his top ten, but this was before the signing of Ruud Van Nistelrooy) for proof of this.

Barcelona, who Freedman had ranked at #2, won the Champion’s League last year and only got better during the offseason. Why then would Barcelona be placed behind Chelsea in the rankings? To be the best, you have to beat the best, and currently Barcelona are the best team in the world.

Two other things I found interesting were the exclusion of Manchester United from the top 10. Although they didn’t have a great Champion’s League last year, they still finished second in the Premier League - ahead of both Arsenal and Liverpool (#4 and #5 respectively on Freedman’s list) - and should have warranted a mention in his top 10. What makes this exclusion even worse is the fact that Freedman included D.C. United as an honorable mention. What is an American team doing in the honorable mention section of a top 10 list? If D.C. United could beat any team from League 1 in England - let alone the Premier League - I would be absolutely shocked. I thought I was patriotic towards Australia, but you wouldn’t see me putting Sydney F.C. in any honourable mention list when it came to club rankings. How can anyone take anything Freedman says relating to soccer seriously?

During the morning rounds of sports resources, I came across this article at smh.com.au. Australia is currently hosting the Women’s Asian Cup tournament, and last night’s match between North Korea and China produced some of the most disgusting scenes by players in recent memory. After the conclusion of the match, North Korean players attacked the Italian referee with the North Korean goalkeeper running up from behind the referee to push and kick her.

What led to this action? During extra time, the North Koreans had a goal disallowed because of an offside call (those pesky rules!). Once full-time was called, the Chinese started celebrating the victory that put them through to the final (who wouldn’t celebrate this?). Once the Chinese started celebrating, all hell broke loose (see video here - notice the North Korea official slap the goalie).

The North Korean goalie should be banned for life

It is one thing for players to go after each other, but when players go after officials because they don’t like a call - that’s when it REALLY crosses the line. Any player that attempts to, or does, physically assault an official should automatically be banned from the sport for life. What transpired after the conclusion of the game was shocking, but unfortunately because this was a woman’s game, it will get nowhere near the coverage that the Zidane headbutt did - even though the actions carried out by the North Korean players were far more disgraceful.

Fifa released their first official rankings since the conclusion of the World Cup.

Saying that the ranking criteria makes no sense would be an understatement. The biggest shock comes right at the top, with Brazil retaining the top spot despite the fact that they didn’t make it out of the quarter finals. Ukraine, a team that lost 4-0 to Spain and 3-0 to Italy, shot up 30 spots into 15th place. I think this is bloody awful, considering they only progressed to the second round because they were in the weakest group in the group stage. In comparison, Australia progressed to the second round from a much harder group, outplaying Brazil but losing and then being denied by a lousy call in the final minute against Italy, yet they only increased their position by 9 spots to number 33. I guarantee that if Australia had played Ukraine in the quarter finals, Australia would have won convincingly. Continuing with Australia, they are ranked behind Uruguay (14th), whom they beat to make the World Cup; Greece, whom they beat leading up to the World Cup; Croatia, whom they outplayed and would have beaten (instead of drawing with) if not for poor keeping and the referee calling time as John Aloisi scored a match winning goal; and Nigeria, Cameroon, Guinea, Romania, Turkey, and Egypt - all teams that failed to make the World Cup finals. Even the Ivory Coast, who scored less points in the group stage and didn’t make the second round, advance more places in the standings.

Other interesting things to take note of in these rankings: England gained 5 places to the 5th spot, while Portugal and Spain both lost places. Paraguay, another team that didn’t make it out of the group stage, moved up 12 places to 19th. One of the best teams in the tournament, Germany, only increased 10 places to 9th - they are easily good enough to be in the top 5. The U.S.A. managed to stay in the top 20, even though they scored 1 point in the group stage and only managed to score two goals (one of them an own-goal by another team).

It’s not hard to see that politics play a part in the Fifa rankings. Even after being the most surprising team in the tournament, the Socceroos can’t get any respect. If I were a cynic, I would say that the rankings reflect a conspiracy that would only magnify the horrible call they received against Italy. As it stands, Fifa needs to implement some kind of transparent rankings systems that the general public will be able to decipher.

Here is the Sportsbbq All-World Cup team, using a 3-5-2 formation.

Starting Line-up

	Goalkeeper - Gianluigi Buffon, Italy - Easily the stand-out goalkeeper in the entire tournament. Produced beautiful saves against Australia when Italy were down to 10 men. In the semi-final against Germany, he has a clean-sheet against the most potent attacking pair in the tournament, Klose and Podolski. To top that off, he made the save of the tournament in denying Zinedine Zidane’s header in the final moments of the first extra time, a save that a lot of other goalies would not have prevented.
	Defender - Philipp Lahm, Germany - Scored the first goal of the tournament, in the sixth minute of the first game. Lahm looked dangerous every time he moved forward in attack from the defensive line, but his defence was stellar too.
	Defender - Fabio Cannavaro, Italy - Runner up to Zidane for the Golden Ball, Cannavaro was the anchor for the best defensive line in the World Cup, and easily the best defender in the tournament.
	Defender - Lucas Neill, Australia - Australia’s best player was brilliant in all four games that the Australians played. Will be remembered as the player that Italy’s Fabio Grosso ‘fell’ over to concede the penalty that put Italy through to the quarter-finals. Solid defender, who will be the anchor of the Socceroos defence for many years to come.
	Midfielder - Maniche, Portugal - One of Portugal’s outstanding players in the tournament, scored the match winning goal in their match against the Netherlands. Was always dangerous with the ball at his feet. Wins the place on this team, over his teammated Ronaldo, because he was just as effective, but without the diving and theatrics.
	Midfielder - Zinedine Zidane, France (c) - The best player in the tournament. Had his tournament cut short following his headbutt on Materazzi, but his inspirational effort to get the aging French team in to the final of the tournament, defeating Spain, Brazil, and Portugal, cements his place on the team.
	Midfielder - Juan Riquelme, Argentina - When Argentina were at their best, it was because of this midfield magician. Riquelme was spectacular in the group matches for Argentina, with his incredible play resulting in a number of goals for Argentina. If Argentina had progressed past Germany, Riquelme would have been a front runner for the golden ball award.
	Midfielder - Maxi Rodriguez, Argentina Scored one of the goals of the tournament in extra time against Mexico after he chested a ball and shot the volley in the top corner of the net. Also scored two goals in the 6-0 drubbing of Serbia and Montenegro. Look for Rodriguez and Riquelme to be dangerous for Argentina in 2010.
	Midfielder - Franck Ribery, France - Probably the breakthrough player of the tournament. Scored the important equalising goal against Spain in their round of 16 match. Was electrifying for France throughout the second round of the competition and never stopped running.
	Forward - Miroslav Klose, Germany - The winner of the Golden Boot with 5 goals. Klose was deadly for Germany. Klose will be 32 at the next World Cup, but if he can be there to partner Podolski, Germany once again will be dangerous.
	Forward - Thierry Henry, France - Broke France’s 4 game streak without a goal in the 6th minute against South Korea. Was on the end of a Zidane freekick to score the winning goal against Brazil. In the final, Henry was magnificent, taking the ball into the Italian penalty box numerous times. The final was easily his best game of the tournament.

Substitutions

	Midfielder - Patrick Vieira, France - Vieira scored two important goals for France and was tireless in defence. It was unfortunate that he left in the early stages of the second half of the final with an injury. A sad end to a brilliant tournament.
	Midfielder - Andrea Pirlo, Italy - Pirlo was magnificent for Italy throughout the tournament and was the key to their offensive success, assisiting 3 goals and scoring another. Finished third in the Golden Ball voting.
	Midfielder - Michael Essien, Ghana - Ghana’s best player was unfortunatley missing from their round of 16 match against Brazil. If not for that, Ghana might possibly have pulled off a huge upset. Despite their 3-0 loss, Ghana played extremely well and were unlucky to have not scored. During Ghana’s important group match against the Czech Republic, Essien was brilliant in defence and equally effective in attack, producing a lot of Ghana’s best attacking movements.
	Forward - Lukas Podolski, Germany - Partnered with Klose to form the best attacking tandom in the tournament. Scored 3 great goals and was named the best young player in the tournament.

It’s good to see someone from the media sticking up for Zidane. This article, I thought, was brilliant.

To illustrate just how innocent Materazzi can be, here is a collection of some of his finer moments.

After watching this, I hope Zidane broke one of Materazzi’s ribs

The actions that led to the end of a career

The day after Zinedine Zidane was shown the red card for his headbutt to the chest of Italian player Marco Materazzi, Zidane was named the winner of the Golden Ball award as the most outstanding player in the tournament. Zidane received 2,012 votes from journalists, narrowly beating Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro, who received 1,977 votes. The votes began being received during halftime of the Final, before Zidane was sent off. This result will no doubt leave Fifa officials embarassed, but nonetheless, red card or not, Zidane was the most deserving player. If you take him out of the French line-up, there is no way they make it out of their round of 16 match against Spain, let alone make it to the Final and outplay Italy, only to lose on penalties. If you take Cannavaro out of the Italian line-up, they would still have a great defence, so there is no way he was more valuable to his team than Zidane was to France.

In the aftermath of Zidane’s actions yesterday, there has been the inevitable chatter as to why one of the greatest players ever to play the game would react in such a manner. I am still of the belief that Materazzi said something highly offensive to Zidane and some of the initial reports, including this one from Zidane’s agent, would seem to justify my belief. There have been numerous commentators that have said that Zidane should have known better and that it was an awful display. While that may be true, anyone who has played in a competitive atmosphere can understand Zidane’s actions - especially if it is revealed that Materazzi had made rascist or similarly offensive comments to Zidane, which he obviously did.

Notice Zidane running off, only to snap back towards Materazzi - I wonder why?

While watching the incident yesterday, it was clear that all the referees had missed the incident. This would mean that Zidane was sent off after one of the officials noticed the incident via a replay on one of the monitors. This is a theory that was also suggested by not only the French coach, but the Italian one too! While Zidane deserved to be sent off for his actions, if the referees did not notice the incident when it occurred, Zidane should not have been sent off once an official noticed the replay. Fifa will no doubt deny that the official noticed it on the replay, even if the official were to admit to Fifa that he did. French striker, Thierry Henry, pointed out that “If they want to use video evidence it’s not for one incident, they should use it for everybody and they should look at Materazzi too, Materazzi has a reputation for being a dirty player and also one who feigns injury.” This is no doubt in reference to Materazzi fondling Zidane’s chest area prior to the headbutting incident. If Fifa is going to deny the use of replay in their matches, they need to ban the stadiums from showing replays of incidents to prevent another incident like this, when a replay affects decisions made by referees.

While there is no doubt that Zidane’s sending off prevented the French from attacking in the final 10 minutes of extra time, there is no guarantee that France would have scored or won on penalties. For Zidane to be blamed for France losing the Final is highly unjustified, especially considering that France would have not been in the Final if not for his inspiriational play during the second round of the competition.

Italy won their fourth World Cup and first since 1982 when they beat France 5-3 on penalties after the match finished 1-1. Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring for the French in the 7th minute. France was awarded a soft penalty after Flaurent Malouda was taken down in the box. Zidane took the penalty beautifully, chipping the ball into the goal, leaving the keeper laying on the ground after diving to his right.

After this, the French went into a shell for some reason and the Italians had the best of the action. In the 19th minute, Italy equalised through Materazzi’s beautiful header from a corner kick. French keeper Fabien Barthez could do nothing to prevent the ball finding the back of the net and the scores were levelled. The Italians continued to dominate the rest of the half and had the majority of possession leading into the break.

The French came out in the second half and played some inspired soccer, with Henry making some nice runs into the box but unable to finish any of the opportunities. At the end of regulation, France were definitely looking the better of the two teams, and in the first period of extra time, Zidane almost became the hero with a cracking header on goal that produced one of the saves of the tournament from Italian keeper Buffon. If Zidane had been able to place the header a little better, there is no doubt that the French would have gone up 2-1.

Buffon makes the most important save of the tournament

Zidane is in disbelief after Buffon produced a beautiful save to deny the headed shot

One of the most bizzare moments in the entire World Cup occurred with 10 minutes remaining in extra time. After Materazzi was holding on to Zidane in the penalty box and appear to grab him on his nipple, Zidane started walking off and all of a sudden snapped back towards Materazzi (indicating that Materazzi said something offensive) and walked towards Materazzi, lowered his head and headbutted him square in the chest. Consequently, after conferring with the side judge (and no doubt the replay on the big screen, although that is not allowed) Zidane was shown the red card and he left the field.

Zidane walks past the trophy in what will be one of the lasting images of the World Cup

The game ended locked at 1-1, and for the second time in the history of the World Cup, the champion would be decided on penalties. Unfortunately for France, they were missing four of their star players - Viera, who had been subbed out with a hamstring injury; Ribery, who was also subbed out in the ending stages of regulation; Henry, who had been subbed at the beginning of the second extra period with cramps; and Zidane, who had been sent off. Penalties are an awful way for a champion to be determined, and although Italy were the better team early on, they were not the better team overall.

Although from a personal point of view, Fabio Grosso is a dirty player, he would have to be considered one of Italy’s top 3 players in the entire tournament. Without his dive, they would not have gotten past Australia in the round of 16. Without him scoring the first goal against Germany in extra time, their game against Germany most likely would have gone to penalties. To top off his tournament, he was the player who scored the winning penalty kick for the Italians, securing their fourth World Cup title.

Grosso will be happy with his tournament