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
The move to all-digital distribution is already well under way, and it poses a problem for businesses that have based themselves around the sale of shiny plastic discs. That, combined with the rampant piracy of these discs when they’re released has particularly hurt independent pro-wrestling organizations (to pick something out of thin air). Gabe Sapolsky, vice-president of Dragon Gate USA, owner… → 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
Are sports organizations beginning to turn away from technology? (Which is hilarious, because only now is international soccer willing to look into goal-line technology!) The NBA, which I believe I’m correct in saying is the second most popular sports league in the U.S. (behind the NFL, obviously), has banned the use of the Concept 11 shoe. The shoe, created by Athletic Propulsion Labs, would… → 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
The baseball post-season games started yesterday and, according to a new notification service for sports fans called Thuuz, the most exciting game was the Cincinnati Reds Vs. the Phillies. The Yankees Vs. the Twins was a bit tamer, and the Rangers Vs. the Rays was meh. Thuuz creates an excitement score for each game and sends out alerts via email or text message when games get pass a predefined… → 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
Looks like some of the technological advancements adidas brought to the World Cup (and have since moved into the domestic leagues… see Alexandre Pato wearing that TechFit kit) are starting to make their way into American sports. The company announced earlier today the release of NBA Revolution 30, the “lightest and most technologically advanced” NBA uniforms ever. That means when the Knicks… → Read More
Boxee, the social network-y media center for Windows, Mac, and Linux, has a fancy new App that may interest you, particularly if you’re a sports fan. It allows you to watch live games of the United Football League right from within the Boxee software. → Read More
As you all know, any chance I get to mix soccer and tech is a chance I will absolutely take, and with zero hesitation. On today’s edition: Real Madrid! Yes, the 31-time Spanish champions, and nine-time European champions (a por la décima and all that) have something in the works that may interest those of you keen on Apps of all shapes and sizes. In the near future, you’ll be able to bring… → 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
Last night was the first big test for the stream police after Zuffa, parent company of UFC, had subpoenaed Ustream and Justin.tv last week for the IP addresses of its users caught illegally streaming pay-per-view events. A quick look around the Internet during last night’s UFC 117 event showed one thing: streams haven’t gone away. → 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
Living in ski county, I hear every year about skiers and snowboarders that have sustained head injuries from crashing into trees, pylons, rocks, each other, etc.. There’s always a risk of head injury, and a smart person wears a helmet no matter what they are doing. → 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
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
Hopefully THQ has learned that you can’t release UFC games like you would Madden. For one, there’s not enough year-over-year change in UFC to warrant a new game. The same fighters who were main-eventing last year (Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, etc.) are main-eventing this year. There’s no excitement of seeing, I don’t know, Brett Favre put on a Vikings jersey. → Read More
It’s free agency season in the NBA, and the only people who are more excited than the fans are the nation’s sports reporters. How easy it is to be a sports reporter in 2010! Thanks to Twitter, you’ve got guys like Chris Bosh dropping morsels of information all day long. For example, Bosh tweeted the following last night, sending the sports world into a tizzy: → Read More
Some auto racing news for your Wednesday morning. Formula One, the fancy circuit that, like soccer, is popular everywhere but the U.S., plans to cut emissions by some 15 percent within three years. That’s a remarkable goal seeing as though Formula One cars (and all supercars, for that matter) are about as green as a smokestack from 1900. → Read More
Fifa President Sepp Blatter has apologized (!) for the terrible referring that led to Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal against Germany on Sunday. Even bigger than Sepp Blatter admitting fault, which is huge in and of itself (it’d be like Apple saying sorry over the iPhone 4 fiasco), is the news that Fifa will once again investigate the possibility of goal-line technology at a board meeting on July… → Read More
Kobe Bryant, fresh from bringing another championship to Los Angeles, is in South Africa enjoying the sights and sounds of the World Cup. Even if Team USA is out, there’s still plenty of reasons to celebrate, chief among them that my fantasy team’s captain, Holland’s Wesley Sneijder, scored another goal. Beyond that, though, Kobe, a longtime soccer fan (remember when he visited FC Barcelona?), has… → Read More
Fifa , world soccer’s organizing body, has responded to requests for goal-line technology (among other technologies) with a non-response. Said the organization, by way of spokesman Nicolas Maignot, at a media briefing earlier today: “The International FA Board, which Fifa is a member of along with the four British associations, dealt with this topic in March. A clear decision on the use of… → Read More
Dear Fifa, Please wake up and smell the coffee: we need goal line technology, and we need it now. England’s Frank Lampard just had a 100 percent legitimate goal stricken from the record by some dunderhead linesman. DOES HE EVEN HAVE EYES? The integrity of the sport is at stake here. I’m not asking for instant replays for outfield play or anything, but we need a camera on that goal… → Read More
Strikeforce, the mixed martial arts promotion that’s the focus of the upcoming EA Sports MMA video game, has an event tonight headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum. Normally I wouldn’t mention that here on CG, but there’s a fairly neat tech angle that’s worth mentioning. Not only is there an Internet pay-per-view option at $24.95 (the event otherwise airs on Showtime here in the… → Read More
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