Where did the term 'Soccer' come from?

So why is it that the most popular sport in the world has two names? Well, because in England when football (soccer) first started it was known as 'association football' but there was already 'rugby football' which could cause some confusion.

The word soccer was just a shorting of the word association formed by university students from Oxford and Cambridge. As these were the more upper class people that called it soccer it probably explains why it did not spread through the rest of the working class and the name remained football through out most of the world.

Only three English speaking countries in the world refer to it as soccer in their rules and their association; United States, Canada and Samoa. Although it is often called soccer in Australia and their national teams nickname is the 'Socceroos' they still officially refer to it as football.

The US did not always call it soccer as when the game was first introduced in the late 19th century from England it was called football but after World War Two the growing popularity of the NFL caused the US to change it's name from football to soccer.

England vs Germany!

Grab your flags and polish your vuvuzelas, it's time for England vs Germany! Mark Sunday 27th on your calender as one of the fiercest rivalries in football is about to spill out into the Free State Stadium. The last time these two teams played in a competitive match was 2001 in a world cup qualifier witch resulted in a 5-1 smashing by England. But you have to look back 20 years for their last World Cup meeting in witch Germany bested England in penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Although Germany have looked much the better side in qualifying, England's last performance versus Slovenia should show a glimmer of hope. England also have a tendency to pick up their performance in the knock out phase when playing the big teams.

Their history has been fairly even with England winning 12, Germany winning 10 and 5 draws between the countries. Although 7 of those England wins came before 1966. They have met four times in the world cup, three times in the knock out rounds. England has won once in the 1966 final in London, while Germany has won twice one of which was a penalty shootout and the final game in group stages was a 0-0 draw in Spain.


So who will come out on top, well Germany are favorites going into the match but take example from the Italians in the 1982 World Cup in Spain who barely made it through the group stages with a series of draws due to the under performing of their star Paolo Rossi but Rossi found his feet in the knock outs and Italy stormed their way to a World Cup title. England can only hope their under performing star Wayne Rooney can do the same.

Defoe Gets the Start

Defoe finally got the opportunity to plead his case for starting and he didn't waste it, scoring the goal that sent England into the round of 16. If that game didn't secure his spot on the first 11 I don't know what will. The way Rooney is playing, England are going to need a lot more performances like that if they want to go far in this tournament. Heskey has almost defiantly been confined to substitute appearances if Defoe can keep his form. And it's quite clear Capello should have listened to the public long ago.

Advantage England

England will feel right at home against Slovenia today. They will be playing on a pitch that is quite possibly even worse then England's home ground back in London.

The Nelson Mandela Stadium was never fully preperard as experts have concluded it may be because too much sand was used on the pitch and the bad weather hasn't helped. The Wembley Stadium's $184,000 pitch has been publicly critised by many and has resulted in quite a few injuries, just imagine how bad the Madela Stadium's pitch.

Milner to Start

Hmmmm...... So Milner has an absolute shocker versus the USA and gets subbed off in the 31st minute. He played so bad he sits bench agianst Algeria and then Capello has a brilliant idea lets start him in Englands must win game vs Slovenia. So far all of England's wingers have been a dissapoinment. Lennon is doing well to beat his man but he just cannot deliver a good cross, the same is true with Wright-Phillips. So why does Joe Cole not play. Even when it was clear England were failing to create a spark against Algeria he still refused to play Cole. Seriously Capello what ever problems you have with Colde, deal with them and put him on the field.

New Record For Switzerland

Switzerland have now become the record holder of the most minutes played without conceding a goal in the World Cup. They managed to last 75 minutes in today's fixture versus Chile which brought them up to 559 minutes without conceding before Mark Gonzalez's header found the net. This beat out previous holders Italy's 550 minutes which was set in the 1986 and 1990 world cups.

Switzerland started their run against France in the 2006 world cup with a 0-0 draw. They then got passed Togo and South Korea without allowing a goal and finally became the first team to be knocked out of a world cup without conceding after losing on penalties to Ukraine in the round of 16.

The run surprisingly stayed alive with a 1-0 win against the Euro 2008 winners Spain in their first game of the 2010 World Cup before Diego Benaglio was denied another clean sheet by Gonzalez's header.

The Swiss are unlikely holders compared to the second and third place teams, Italy (550) and England (501) both prided on a strong defence. With only Senderos as a top class defender and he was injured for most of the Spain and the Chile game.