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. → Read More
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. → Read More
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. → Read More
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… → Read More
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?”… → Read More
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! → Read More
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 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™. → Read More
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… → Read More
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… → Read More
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… → Read More
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. → Read More
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… → Read More
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. → Read More
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… → Read More
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! → Read More
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. → Read More
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… → Read More
Captain America Landon Donovan is the cover boy for FIFA 11 here in North America. Well, Kaká, of Brazil, is the real cover athlete, but Donovan and Carlos Vela, of Mexico, share the cover with him. → Read More
Guess who’s the athlete with the most social network fans in the world. Go ahead, guess! OK, no more guessing: the answer is Cristiano Ronaldo. Good for him. → Read More
Finally. That’s literally the only word you can use in response to the following sentence: DirecTV will carry Fox Soccer Channel in HD beginning on August 11. Well, according to EPL Talk’s well-placed sources at the network. And yes, that’s just in time for the new Premier League and Serie A seasons. Thank you thank you thank you! → Read More
During the World Cup, particularly during the England-Germany and Mexico-Argentina games, there was a lot of debate over the role of video replay in the sport. FIFA responded, in typical fashion, by banning video replay inside stadia. Head in the sand, etc. Well now Italy broadcaster RAI has embraced that very same mentality. Starting with the upcoming Italian season it will not show… → Read More
When does the Premiership begin, in a few weeks? (Yes, I realize I could just Wiki that, but that would have deprived me of an opening question.) Word today is that the Barclays Premier League has teamed up with EA to make the games a little more technological. EA will henceforth be known as the Official Technology Partner of the Premier League. Yay, etc. → Read More
A few stories came out of the World Cup (besides the fact that Spain is the best team on the planet): the Adidas Jabulani is now the most (in)famous ball in history, Diego Forlán is the man diggity, and everyone hates the vuvuzela. Not me—I don’t mind ‘em. → Read More
Spain now have a star on their shirt. I’m not exaggerating when I say that my limbs were numb and my mouth was dry during yesterday’s World Cup final. I was truly a hot mess. Moving on… It’s now time for all publications to run their World Cup retrospectives, and since we barely qualify as a publication it’s time for ours. Well, mine; nobody else on staff could name a single player from… → Read More
Looks like Fox Soccer Channel has decided to embrace Twitter. It’s about time! Andy Gray, the former professional player turned TV pundit, will be on the channel’s Ticket to South Africa program tomorrow evening to discuss the ins and outs of the World Cup. How can you participate? → Read More
The World Cup is winding down (that psychic octopus has predicted a Spain victory, by the way), which means there will be a very real void in my life once again. I don’t even know of the Champions League or La Liga will be able to fill it. Sigh. I guess we should savor these last remaining moments while we can. One of those moments? As you know, Nike has pretty much taken over downtown… → Read More
And now Nasa hates the Jabulani. Wonderful. I suppose Nasa has nothing better to do now that it has less money than your little sister has in her piggy bank. The former space agency says that the ball becomes “unpredictable” at speeds greater than 44 mph, and that the high altitude that many of the games were played only exacerbates the problem. → Read More
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