The Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan has developed a humanoid it plans to send to RoboCup Japan Open 2011, a soccer tournament for robots that will be held in Osaka next month (we covered the event in two posts last year). Named “Hajime Robot 31″, the humanoid stands a respectable 1m tall, weighs just 5kg and comes with 17 joints.

Hajime moves at 0.4m/s, is powered by two processors and equipped with a Wi-Fi module, a USB port and gyro sensors.

Here’s Hajime shooting a penalty:

This video shows him navigating through obstacles:

Via Plastic Pals

Team USA play Argentina tomorrow at the New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey, and while we’re all excited to see Messi & Co. pretty much run circles around the team, at least our boys will look good in the process. Nike continues to supply the United States Men’s National Team with its official kit, and once again there are a few improvements worth highlighting. So let’s do just that now.

First off, it’s red! Yes, Nike has finally produced a red kit, to go along its usual white (home) and blue (away) designs. That’s not really tech-y, no, but it’s probably the first thing you’ll notice. Nike says it created the red kit in response to fan demand: USA, home of the red, white, and blue, so where’s the red? Along those lines.

As for the exciting technology, you can partially thank Twitter for the design. Nike had enlisted the micro-blogging service to ask fans to submit a slogan that will be embroidered on the sleeve in time for the game. The campaign, called #REDALLOVER, ended Wednesday night, so if you didn’t already submit your hashtagged slogan, oh well. Maybe next time.

Of course, like all Nike kits, it’s made from environmentally friendly materials that the players can actually breathe in as they try to chase down Messi’s mazy runs.

Good luck with that, guys.

We’ll be waiting at least one more year for goal-line technology to show up in soccer. The sport’s law-making body, the International Football Association Board, made the decision at the weekend to continue studying the technology for one more year before making any final decisions. The whole situation is mind-boggling.

But even though the board has dragged its feet for 800 years over the use of goal-line technology, it was super quick to make one decision that has terrorized the sport for too, too long: snoods.

Snoods, of course, are those scarf-looking things that have found their way into the sport in the past year. They’re particularly popular in the Premier League in England, and particularly among the league’s international stars. Pictured here is Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez, from Argentina, looking rather forlorn for some reason, wearing the garment.

Anyhow, the board banned the snood because, in the words of Fifa president Sepp Blatter, “it can be dangerous.”

So: no goal-line technology, but snoods have been banned. Makes sense to me.

What’s the secret to FC Barcelona and Spain’s Xavi Hernández’s success? Simple: think “like PlayStation.” If only it were that easy, Xavi. (El Mundo Deportivo’d)

It would appear that several popular streaming sites are being taken down as we speak. One that I’m familiar with, Roja Directa, has a note on its front page saying that its main domain, rojadirecta.org, has been taken down by its U.S. provider. (Dot-org now displays a scary-looking notice from the U.S. Homeland Security Department, while other domains, including dot-com are up and running just fine.) This, despite the fact that the site was deemed by Spanish courts (the site is based in Spain) to be 100 percent legal. Hm.

Another popular site, Atdhe, also appears to have been taken down, with only a simple message appearing on the site right now telling visitors to bookmark a specific I.P. address. The site’s Twitter account says that the site will re-launch sometime tomorrow.

None of this should surprise you. UFC has been on a tear of late, taking down illegal streams of its events all the time, even going so far as to sue Justin.tv. UFC is a peculiar company in that most of its revenue comes from pay-per-view dollars. If it gets to the point that not enough people are buying its pay-pew-view events it would more or less require a complete restructuring of the way the company does business.

Can the same be said for England’s Premier League, or Spain’s La Liga? Each and every weekend you can find streams of games from all of Europe’s major (and minor) leagues. A site like Roja Directa isn’t hosting anything, but merely serving as a link repository. I guess links are illegal now.

More on this as it develops; I doubt we’ve heard the last of this story.

Another day, another irresponsible use of social networks getting people in trouble. There’s actually two things here. Number one concerns Ryan Babel, who plays for Liverpool in England. Liverpool played Manchester United, their eternal rivals, yesterday, and the presiding referee, Howard Webb, awarded United a penalty. Questions were raised along the lines of, “Was that really a penalty?” Apparently Babel didn’t think so, and tweeted a picture of Webb in a United shirt.

You may think, meh, that’s a harmless prank. Oh, no, for now Babel has been charged with improper conduct by the Football Association, the English game’s governing body.

Babel must have known that tweeting this photo wasn’t exactly in his best interest, as he removed the offending tweet and then followed that up by saying: “Sorry Howard Webb. My apology if they take my posted pic seriously. This is just an emotional reaction after losing an important game.”

Dear everyone: please do not tweet stupid stuff. There’s simply no need for it, and even if you’re tweeting a valid point, Twitter doesn’t exactly lend itself to nuance.

As Lance Storm once said on an edition of Figure Four Daily, you need to kayfabe your social networks. Don’t say stupid stuff on them, and you’ll be much better for it. Save Twitter for things like, “the jets will beat the patriots, count on it!” and not your thoughts on this-or-that controversial subject.

Just north of England lies Scotland, where soccer authorities there have also to mind their manners on social networks, pleading with players or other club [read: soccer team] officials from using Twitter and the like to criticize referees. (Scotland’s referees have come under immense criticism this year, so much so that they went on strike a few months ago in protest.)

Here’s an idea: if you think you’re about to say something on Twitter that could get you in hot water, don’t! Everybody wins!

This isn’t so much a condemnation of Twitter or any other social network as it is a warning to keep your wits about you as you tweet silly things. Don’t say something that might come back to haunt you, is all.

Just because it’s on Twitter doesn’t mean people won’t take it seriously.

We’re still a hot 11+ years away from the 2022 Fifa World Cup, but the parade of moaning continues. The latest bit of gossip suggests that the tournament could be played during the wintertime in order to combat the extreme temperatures usually present in Qatar during the summertime. So much for developing a new stadium cooling technology that could then be exported to other countries.

What’s going on is that various people in and around football (I’m calling soccer football in the post for convenience’s sake) have come out against the Qatar World Cup not because of Qatar’s spotty record vis-à-vis women, homosexuals, workers’ rights, etc. but because it’s so hot there during the summer. (Never mind that it was hot as Hades during the 1994 World Cup here in the US!) The Qatar bid has promised to develop a new type of cooling technology to ensure the stadia aren’t 8 million degrees as the players are scampering around the pitch. That’s not enough, it seems.

FIFPro, the international footballers’ union, has come out against the idea of trying to play the World Cup in Qatar during the summer. (You’d think these complaints would have surfaced before Sepp Blatter’s big announcement a few weeks ago!) Instead, the union has come out in favor of playing the tournament in the wintertime, to be played in January, 2022.

Needless to say the various professional leagues around the world would have to re-jigger their schedule that year in order to accommodate a January World Cup. (The World Cup usually occurs in June.)

Aresnal coach Arsène Wenger has gone even further, asking that the England’s Premier League be played from February to November every year. Granted, this is more to do with England’s inability to deal with a few inches of snow, forcing the cancellation of several games at the weekend, but it shows that a top-tier coach is fine with the idea of adjusting the playing schedule to meet changing conditions.

And if Wenger, who generally likes to moan about every. little. thing. is fine with changing the calendar, why shouldn’t we be?

Me? I honestly don’t care when the World Cup is played. As long as it happens, I’m cool.

As part of our gift guide stuff this year we’re also doing something called “Our Favorite Things.” I think these things can be from all walks of life and not exclusively tech-y. In any event, one of my favorite things, then, is the World Football Daily podcast. I know I’ve mentioned it before in passing, but I guess this is my opportunity to say why it’s one of my Favorite Things™.

World Football Daily (here’s their Twitter) is a daily soccer podcast hosted right here in the US of A. Los Angeles, to be exact. It’s a premium podcast, so you have to cough up something like $40 per year to listen. But really, that works out to 11 cents per day. You couldn’t buy two drops of coffee for 11 cents.

It’s hosted by two fine gentleman, Steven Cohen, by way of England, and Kenny Hassan, by way of Scotland. I am in agreement with Cohen that this incarnation of FC Barcelona is one of the best teams in history. It’s certainly the best team I’ve ever seen. It’s kinda difficult to watch some random, mid-table Premier League game after having seen Barcelona over the past three years.

I guess I could consider myself a longtime listener, going back several years to its swinging bachelor days on Sirius.

The best is that it’s not just a podcast where the hosts blather on and on about their chosen subject, something endemic to many podcasts out there, but they actually talk to people. Proper soccer journalists—off the top of my head, you’ve got Phil Ball, Andy Brassell, Tim Vickery, Oliver Kay, and Neil Ashton—to talk about the sport.

If none of those names mean anything to you, well, that’s why you listen to the show. Trust me when I say these guys, and all the other guests they have, truly know their stuff.

Yesterday they had some English sports-business guy who tried to explain why Fifa picked Russia ahead of England to host the 2018 World Cup. Just as Formula 1 is now looking eastward to new markets, so, too, is Fifa. What’s so wrong about wanting to build up the game in Russia?

Same thing with Qatar. I laugh at people who think Qatar won’t have the most advanced stadiums in the world at the 2022 World Cup, or that somehow the tournament will now be an unmitigated disaster just because it’s hosted in the Middle East. Again, F1 says hi, and I don’t see Bernie Ecclestone complaining about the facilities over there.

More to the point, it’s the World Cup, not the Western World Cup. Spread that baby around! Spending a few weeks in a place I’ve never been before sounds infinitely more exciting than riding the Path train from Penn Station to Red Bull Arena again.

But yeah, World Football Daily is certainly one of my Favorite Things™ out there, and I highly recommend it.

Unfortunately, I’ve exhausted all of my Clásico references in that Windows Phone 7 post. How much sense would it make to use all of the references all over again? I mean, this time I could link to El País’s match report (“goals rain down in the Camp Nou like leaves in the autumn, in a natural manner, with a just rhythm, with a beautiful and serene shape, a sign of health and footbalistic prosperity”), but that would be gloating. So, seeing as though I can no longer reference the game, I’ll just come out with it: EA Sports will be backing the MLS’s newest team, the Vancouver Whitecaps, in a big, big way.

EA Sports will be the the team’s “official video game partner” as well as become a “founding partner” of the team.

What does that mean? Well apparently EA Sports won’t be the team’s main shirt sponsor, but advertising will be all over the team’s Web site. How big a deal that is, advertisements on the team’s Web site, I don’t know.

This is the part where I mention that the team’s southern neighbors, the Seattle Sounders (seen here), have Xbox 360 as their main sponsor, and that the EA Sports logo is all over the Premier League this year. It’s actually a little overbearing sometimes, but whatever.

The single biggest game in European soccer takes place in a few hours (3pm ET). It’s Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, and I can think of no better way to ease into the work week than to follow the game online. (Or, if you’re playing hooky today, watching it on GolTV or ESPN Deportes.) Thankfully it’s the year 2010 (nearly 2011!) so it’s pretty easy to keep up with the likes of Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi, and Benzema. Here we go!

Of course, the easiest way to watch the game is to watch it on GolTV or ESPN Deportes. (These are the channels it’ll be available on in the US.) If that means you have to stay home, go to a bar, or use something like Slingbox, that would be the simplest solution. Plus on GolTV you get Ray Hudson and Phil Schoen, two pretty great announcers.

If that’s not an option, your next best bet would be to check ESPN3.com. As mentioned during the World Cup, ESPN3.com is sorta an online channel that’s available to certain ISPs throughout the country, including Comcast. Best to check some time beforehand to see if you’re on the whitelist. If you are, then sit back and enjoy.

Of course, there are other, slightly less official steams out there you can tap into. I’d suggest visiting rojadirecta.com around 2:30pm ET, then look for alternative streams there. You probably should go here if you have a “real” job where you can get into trouble based on the sites you visit, since this site very much occupies a grey area in the world of copyright and all that.

Lastly, you could follow text play-by-play. The Guardian should have a good one in English, but also give AS, Marca, SPORT, and El Mundo Deportivo a shout, depending on your affiliation. Twitter may also be worth checking out, search terms like barcelona, real madrid, futbol, messi, ronaldo, etc. I’m sure some of these will be “trending” by then, so it shouldn’t be too hard.

So yeah, you shouldn’t have too much trouble following the game online today. You should be grateful, too, because back in the early 2000s there was no such thing as live video streaming. Well, there was Real Player, but unless you were on a university campus you’d be buffering all day long!

And while we’re at it, any scoreline predictions? I say draw: these two teams are so evenly matched that’s it would take some herculean effort on the part of the two cracks, Messi and Ronaldo, to see the balance tip one way or the other.

In related news, a very awesome reader has sent in this photo of Barcelona and Real Madrid potato chips found somewhere in Singapore.

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, the current top scorer in Spain’s La Liga, is a very fancy man. This much we know. But what I didn’t know till just a little while ago was how fancy he was. Nike has designed a new boot, the CR Mercurial Vapor SuperFly II (quite the mouthful, yes) specifically for him. The last time Nike did that for a player was when Ronaldinho was good. (Incidentally, Ronaldinho was just called up to the Brazil squad.) He’ll debut the boots in the Madrid derby (against Atlético, of course) on November 7.

The boots… well, they’re certainly unique-looking. A recent poll on as.com, one of the two big Madrid-based sports newspapers, shows that only 35 percent of respondents were keen on the pattern.

The leopard skin is a bold choice, yes, but the print doesn’t necessarily concern us here. We’re not the fashion police.

“Nice boots,” says Cristiano. Clearly he likes ‘em.

http://www.nikemedia.com/sites/default/modules/nikemedia/related/flash/Preloader.swf?applicationURL=http://www.nikemedia.com/sites/default/modules/nikemedia/related/flash/VideoPlayer.swf&swfUrl=http://www.nikemedia.com/sites/default/modules/nikemedia/related/flash/&videoSrc=https://www.nikemedia.com/sites/default/files/videos/CRSafariTransport_web.mov&previewSrc=https://www.nikemedia.com/sites/default/files/images/CRSafariTransport_preview.jpg&themeHexColor=3060735

No, what does concern us is the use of something called Nike Sense adaptive traction system, a technology that dynamically expands and retracts the studs on the bottom of the boot. So, depending on whether Cristiano is sprinting at full speed down the touchline, or if he’s waiting in mid-field for a pass, you know, the studs will react in kind. Different scenarios requires different tractions.

The boot also uses Nike’s Flywire, a carbon chassis of sorts that, among other things, keeps the foot closer to the ground as Cristiano is running about.

And here’s a video that describes, in greater detail, exactly what’s going on with the boots.

http://www.nikemedia.com/sites/default/modules/nikemedia/related/flash/Preloader.swf?applicationURL=http://www.nikemedia.com/sites/default/modules/nikemedia/related/flash/VideoPlayer.swf&swfUrl=http://www.nikemedia.com/sites/default/modules/nikemedia/related/flash/&videoSrc=https://www.nikemedia.com/sites/default/files/videos/CRSafariDesign_web.mov&previewSrc=https://www.nikemedia.com/sites/default/files/images/CRSafariButterflyFinal_0.jpg&themeHexColor=3060735

So, come November 7 be sure to look closely at Cristiano’s boots. You’ll be like, “Oh, yeah, those are the boots I read on CG that day.”

Which is all you can ask for, really.

The boot will be available to the public at large on November 15.

And, uh, I think one of the 8 million scripts our site runs may be fiddling with the ability of the videos to load, so you may have to ctrl-r a few times to get them working.

Oh, jeez. Uefa President Michel Platini has officially come out against the use of goal-line technology. This isn’t some TV pundit or anything, this is the president of Uefa, probably the most influential regional football body on the planet! Maybe Platini will come out against the use of studs in boots, or maybe he’ll come out against the use of stadium floodlights. After all, the football gods created the Sun so that we could play during the daylight hours, right?

Rather than rely on goal-line technology, Platini says the solution is putting an extra official (referee) on the goal lines, as well as to instill a better sense of respect for the word of the referee.

I don’t think anyone is opposed to respecting the referees a bit more (though the Respect campaign was always a bit silly), but that’s not what we’re talking about here. All I want is for when the ball crosses the line, I don’t know, a light turns on, like in the NHL. Will that really destroy the game?

Hilariously, Platini said the addition of goal-line technology would lead to “PlayStation football.”

By that I guess he means accurate football.

I’d be more willing to listen to arguments about the encroachment of other forms of technology in football, but the lack of goal-line technology in nearly 2011 is pretty much unacceptable.

And seriously: people who say that, oh, the game needs controversy like Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal against Germany, just go away. You’re defending a wrongheaded practice (the lack of goal-line technology) for your own selfish reasons, namely so that you and your mates can have something to argue about after the game.

Man this debate is annoying.

Good news! The demo for Sega’s Football Manager 2011 is now available. So put on your José Mourinho or Sir Alex Ferguson or Arrigo Sacchi or Helenio Herrera (drop enough names yet?) hats and get to it.

“Football Manager?” I pity the sports fan who’s not a fan of the game. I especially pity the American football (NFL, etc.) fan who thinks, automatically, “Bah, soccer, it’s probably stupid!”

Not so! Soccer is just as much about Xs and Os as your kind of football, with sites like Zonal Marking having brought the idea of tactics actually being genuinely fascinating to a larger audience.

The game isn’t so much a Fifa or Pes clone as it is as an RPG: you’re a football manager, and it’s your job to take your team of nobodies and bring them the league title.

The demo is available for the PC and Mac, but the game itself will also be available for the PSP.

The game comes out on November 5.

Who can forget the acrimony, not to mention the utter embarrassment, that followed Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal (better video here) during the England-Germany Round of 16 World Cup match? The ball was clearly over the line, but for the nearsightedness of the officials on the pitch. Not that it would have mattered—Germany well and truly beat up ol’ England—but the ghost goal should have been what’s now called a “teachable” moment: OK, this bad thing has happened, but let’s try to turn this into a learning experience. With word that 17 different companies are now vying for a goal-line technology contract, we can now say this: finally!

It comes down to two competing platforms: a camera-based solution called Hawk-Eye, which is currently used in tennis with zero problems whatsoever, and solutions that add microchips to the balls themselves. The microchip solution would be developed by Adidas and Cairos.

Given the amount of flack Fifa and Adidas received over the Jabulani ball, I don’t know how popular a solution that involves fiddling with the match ball will be.

The actual decision will be made in March when the International Football Association Board—sort of a council of elders that have the power to alter the rules of the sport—next meets.

Hawk-Eye and Adidas/Cairo will make their respective cases to the IFAB today. You know, “Our system is superior because…”

I do not care which company gets the contract: as long as Fifa has finally gotten over this ridiculous fear of technology I’m all for it.

And we now await the start of today’s big game: Inter v. Tottenham.

Ladies and gentleman, please welcome The Dube into your lives. “What’s The Dube?” Glad you asked. It’ the brainchild of former English international Dion Dublin, best known for his goal-scoring ways at Coventry City and Aston Villa. It’s a percussion instrument&fully customizable, yeah?—that’s set to revolutionize~! the way you envision percussion instruments.

The Dube is one letter away from its shape—a cube. Clever of me, yes.

The point is, inside this self-contained cube is a proper instrument that, according to the blurbs on the site, is 100 percent perfect for all sorts of venues, from classroom music classes to late-night DJ sets.

The Dube comes in different sizes, and it starts at just under £160 (around $250) for the 9-inch model. (It tops out at 18 inches.)

I sincerely hope The Dube takes off. It’s pretty lame to see something as tepid as Google TV steal headlines today when you’ve got legitimate inventions out there not feeling any love.

The following post brings me great joy. Years ago, almost like three years go, Cameroon international Samuel Eto’o scored a goal for FC Barcelona, then grabbed the nearest Nikon camera to take a photo of young Bojan, his team-mate. (Apparently the photo has exploded on our server since then.) It seems Mr. Eto’o has been bitten by the sports photography bug once again, grabbing the nearest camera after scoring his third goal for Inter in the Champions League this past Wednesday. Here’s the photo (click “guarda le foto”).

The photo, of Holland international Wesley Sneijder, truly shows that Eto’o could find himself on the payroll of a sports publication once he decides to hang up his boots.

Unfortunately, I can’t tell what type of camera he used this time around.

As anyone with working pair of eyes knows, EA released FIFA 11 yesterday. Far more important than Madden to EA’s global bottom line, FIFA 11 is the company’s latest chance for you take take Real Madrid to Wembley. Well, unless your name is Pedro León!

So the game came out yesterday, and EA has a fun little campaign behind it. There’s going to be some sort of tournament all over the country with players from the MLS. It kicked off last night here in New York with a few players from the New York Red Bulls.

And to be totally honest, the only players I’m familiar with on the Red Bulls are Thierry Henry and Rafa Márquez; I mainly follow the European leagues.

I still haven’t bought the game yet, so don’t expect a “review” or anything like that. I played the game a bit last night (and at other EA events here and there), and can safely say this: FIFA 11 is EA’s best effort yet. Not exactly breaking news, but there must have been something in that water at EA when they were making it because they definitely did a good job this time around.

Carles Puyol, the captain of FC Barcelona (and scorer of that bullet header against Germany in the World Cup) has embraced SOCIAL MEDIA~! like few others. In short, he’s putting his retirement age on the line, leaving it entirely up to his Facebook fans.

The deal is that his Facebook page has just over 21,000 fans. He has told a friend that if the page reaches 250,000 fans he will put off retirement till he turn 40. (He’s 32 right now.)

Does the man have eight years left in him? I don’t know, but the best years of his career have been the most recent years—the man is a beast.

So yeah, professional athlete leaves his retirement in the hands of his Facebook friends.

The European soccer season is well under way, and that could mean only one thing: the new FIFA and PES games are right around the corner! I’m a PES man myself, but I’m more than willing to give the new FIFA a try. And why not? Both EA and Konami have released demos of both games today. Here’s what you can expect.

The demos are available for all the major platforms, including Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. I downloaded the PES demo this morning for the PC before I left, and I think it’d be safe to say that the name of the game could be called Konami Presents Lionel Messi and a Bunch of Players Who Aren’t Messi.” The guy is all over the presentation.

The teams in the PES demo are Barcelona and Bayern Munich. It’s a standard exhibition match at the Camp Nou.

My complaint: how long would it have taken Konami to update the Barcelona squad? Ibra is still in there, as is Hleb, and there’s no Mascherano. At least David Villa made the cut.

Watch out, Europe: you’re about to meet the lethal strike-force of Villa, Messi, and Pedro (or Bojan).

As for FIFA, well, EA has gone all out. Despite the fact that EA has gone with the perpetually injured Kaká as its frontman, the demo is loaded. You can choose from Real Madrid, Chelsea, Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus, and Lyon. The stadium is the Santiago Bernabéu, Real Madrid’s home estadio.

To be fair, I haven’t played the FIFA demo yet, but I did play the game at an EA event during the summer. I don’t know, I had fun playing it with Mr. Peter Ha.

One of the fun things about the PES games is the number of fan patches that are released. Since Konami doesn’t have the license for a few teams and leagues, fans have stepped up and filled in the gaps.

The question on everyone’s mind today is: will Real Madrid actually do something in the Champions League this year. With Mourinho, I’d say yes.

As I’m sure all of you know, the English Premier League kicked off this weekend, with defending champions Chelsea knocking six goals past an unfortunate West Brom. Drogba’s still got it. Wealthy-beyond-all-reason Manchester City, having spent more than £100M this summer, only managed a 0-0 draw with Tottenham. Manchester United play later today. Why should you all care? Because Yahoo, the little engine that could, now has the exclusive rights to show highlights online.

Keep in mind the highlights are only available to UK viewers; international viewers are out of luck.

Well, not entirely out of luck, but you didn’t hear that from me.

One could configure his or her browser to connect through a UK-based proxy, or, even easier, download an install the Mgeni browser in conjunction with Tor. I was able to watch BBC’s World Cup highlights show using that exact method.

The Premier League has a history of fighting to keeps its videos off the Internet. It’s a losing battle, of course, as full games are available online via BitTorrent and other means right after airing on TV.