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Can Lewis Hamilton become the new F1 World Champion?

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October 31, 2008

Formula one has reached it’s final round at Interlagos Brazil, and the days when Michael Schumacher ruled formula one , the title being already decided a few races before the last one, are long gone now.The race for the Formula one World Championship title is still open and it seems it will be decided on Sunday at Interlagos, Brazil between the British Lewis Hamilton and the Brazilian Felipe Massa.

The top favorite for this seasons World Championship title is Lewis Hamilton, who has most of the chances to win the title, while Massa has only slim chances.After a captivating season Lewis Hamilton leads the drivers table with no less than 94 points, while Massa follows in second place with 87 points.

It has been a thrilling season where, there where no more team orders like in the past, and drivers of the same team fought against each other. In all there where 7 different race winners and 4 different drivers leaded the driver’s table.There where 17 races, and there was no clear favorite to dominate the formula one championship, and the race for the world title is an open battle until the end.

Lewis Hamilton has the chance to break several records if he wins on Sunday and can take his revenge, after last season he lost the title, although he was favorite, after a bad performance in the last round.If he wins at Interlagos he can become the youngest driver in history to have won the title, the second British after Damon Hill, and the first colored person to win a F1 World Title.Lewis Hamilton said that he needs to concentrate and work seriously to prove his value and he wants to end the season with a victory.In order for Lewis to win the championship he needs only to secure position five at the end of the race, so the chances for Massa to claim the title are very small.

But miracles have been seen before, and Massa might become, with help from above, the second Brazilian after the legendary Ayrton Senna to win the F1 World title.Will Hamilton be able to prove that he has learned from the mistakes of the past and this time he will not let the title slip from his hands like he did last year in the same place, when he lost the title to Raikkonen after an intense fight with his team mate Fernando Alonso?We will find out on Sunday.

Hoffenheim, title contenders?

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October 31, 2008

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Hoffenheim is a team from a village of 3200 inhabitants. The newly promoted in Bundesliga is financed by “German Abramovich” Dietmar Hopp.
The billionaire Hopp has invested around € 150 million in the club since 1990.
Despite not having any star players, the total salaries are 13 millon, Hoffenheim sit at the top of Bundesliga after 10 matches.
Ralf Rangnick is very pleased with the performance “It’s very positive where we are. The development of the team has been great. But we don’t want to lose what has been our main strength, the carefree approach.”
And the opponents have already started to worry.

Klinsman declared “Right at the start of the season, before a ball had been kicked, I said Hoffenheim were contenders for a place in Europe at the minimum. TSG are full of quality, the club is solid as a rock, and they’re under no pressure from the media. No-one expects miracles from their players, so they’re good for surprise after surprise every week.”
Some players attracted the interestes of Germany’s big clubs but the managerial staff dismissed the possibility of selling some of the players. The club has one of the best managerial team and the results are already coming. The team is incredibly motivated and this is one of their advantages.
It remains to see if they can keep this form and strenght untill the end of the season.

Some football fans are already concerning about the next season if the team manage to qualify for European cups. They are saying that Hoffenheim is ruining football and their lack of experience will be decisive next year.
These issues remain questionable and only time can tell what will happen later. What’s sure is that Hoffenheim is living a dream and they should take the advantages of it.

Football & Poker Legends Cup

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October 30, 2008

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Sometimes football players compete against one another outside the football field. The most epic battle of this kind went down in when the poker site Party Poker hosted the Football & Poker Legends Cup.16 teams from different countries participated in the team poker tournament, which was played in England and aired on television. Each team consisted of two professional poker players and one former or current professional football player.

These were the participating teams in the Football & Poker Legends Cup:

England: Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, Ian Frazer, Alan Ball.
USA: Mixe Sexton, Kenna James, Carlos Bocanegra.
Canada: Daniel Negreanu, Evelyn Ng, Jason deVos.
Australia: Tony G, Damon Rasheed, Mark Bosnich.

Ireland: Andrew Black, Peter Roche, Tony Cascarino.
Russia: Alex Kuzmin, Olesya Kabbaj, Sergei Baltacha.
Germany: Toni Vardjavand, Lothar Landauer, Uli Stein.
France: Claude Cohen, Anthony Lellouche, Laurent Charvet.

Italy: Michael Greco, Alan Vinson, Wesley Garcia.
Netherlands: Marcel Luske, Noah Boeken, Glenn Helder.
Sweden: Ken Lennaárd, Erik Sagström, Tomas Brolin.
Denmark: Gus Hansen, Theo Jorgensen, Kim Christofte.

Norway: Henning Granstad, Torstein Iversen, Espen Baardsen.
Northern Ireland: Conor Tate, Marty Smith, Norman Whiteside.
Wales: Dave Colclough, Iwan Jones, Neville Southall.
Scotland: Tony Chessa, Rory Matthews, Ray Stewart.

Teams were matched against each other in elimination matches. A match was actually a Texas Holdem tournament, just as the ones you find in the best poker rooms, with six players (three from each team). The winner of the tournament progressed to the next round along with his team members.

A few special rules were used: If the tournament wasn’t finished in three hours, one hour of extra time would take place, and if that wasn’t enough there would be a penalty shootout. In addition to this, tournament director “Mad” Marty Wilson had the authority to give players yellow and red cards, if they behaved badly at the table. Something I think they should start with in poker on line!

If a player received a yellow card, half his chip would be given to the other team, and if a player received a red card, the opponents would get all his chips.

In the very first match, two footballers reached heads-up play, with Germany’s Uli Stein defeating England’s Alan Ball. Sweden, Northern Ireland, The Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, USA, Australia were the other teams who made it to the quarter finals.

Uli Stein, who played in the 1986 World Cup final, was knocked out first in the quarter final against Sweden, but Germany still won thanks to Lothar Landauer. The Netherlands defeated Northern Ireland, Denmark defeated Ireland, and USA beat Australia after a tough battle between classy WPT host Mike Sexton and trash-talker Tony G.

Lothar Landauer proved his poker skills again by winning the first semi-final. He defeated Dutchman Noah Boeken heads-up to take Germany to the final. Theo Jorgensen was the hero in the match between Denmark and USA.

Just like in the Euro 1992 the final was to be played between Denmark and Germany. Denmark’s Kim Christofte was actually a part of the Danish team who shocked the world of football by becoming European champions, and even though he was knocked out first in the final, he would get to celebrate another victory over the Germans. His pro team mates Theo Jorgensen and Gus Hansen didn’t have any problems defeating the German players, and Denmark had won the Football & Poker Legends Cup.

Ronaldo receives FifPro award

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October 30, 2008

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Is Maradona the right choice for Argentina?

Football

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October 29, 2008

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Yesterday Maradona has been appointed as the new coach of Argentina.

The Argentine football legend will be anounced as the new coach only Thursday 30 Oct when he will turn 48 years old. Maradona did not choose his coach stuff yet but he declared that will spoke with Checho Batista and with Tata Brown about it. He will be asisted by Carlos Bilardo but insisted that he is the only one that makes the team.

The contract ends in 2010 just after World Cup but it will be automatically extended if he will have results.

Maradona doesn’t have too much coaching experience and the bad voices already accused the Argentinean Federation for the decision of appointing him as a coach. Anyway there are other big teams that also assumed same risk and finnaly proved to be a good choice. Some examples of “unexperienced” coaches that obtain good results are Dunga, Klinsman, Bilic and there are lot more.

Another issue might be his relation with Messi, knowing the fact that Maradona is not realy a fan of him and probably will favorite his “son in law” Aguero. This could create an arguement between players and would ruin the atmosphere, definitely not what everyone expects to happen.

It remains to be seen if he will succeed to transmit his strength and mentality to his players.

In my opinion, if he is given neccesary time and faith Maradona will succeed in building a team capable of winning the World Cup, and I would bet on it.