The 2010 World Lacrosee Championships opened in Manchester, England with – almost all - national lacrosse teams present at the 5:30 P.M opening ceremony. The fourth ranked lacrosse team in the world was absent during the opening ceremony not because of traffic but because of the fact they were on the other side of the Atlantic still in New York City.

The British government refused to allow the Iroquois Nationals team in England. Why? Well it wasn’t because the Britons felt peeved they lost a war against the Americans some 200 years ago even when British soldiers fought alongside the Iroquois Confederacy, but because they “couldn’t accept” the team members’ unique passports. The passports are of Haudenosaunee origin, not American but a Native-passport of the “People of the Longhouse”. The Iroquois team represents the five nations of Native Americans residing in Canada and the United States and so on principle, refused to travel on non-Native passports.

Usually most countries accept Haudenosaunee passports as valid and Britain had also accepted the Haudenosaunee passport in the past. In a standoff with the lacrosse team, the British government told the team to get a special letter from the US State Department approving of the Haudenosaunee passport. And so the State Department did give a letter of approval that the Native team would be accepted back on US soil after their trip to Britain. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton herself even approved of the usage of the Haudenosaunee passport.

However British officials requested that the Iroquois Nationals bring either Canadian or American passports along with their Haudenosaunee passports.

Earning sympathy and support from other Native Americans, the Seneca Nation of Indians donated 10,000 U.S dollars to the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team as a small amount of monetary cover for their wasted expenses which totals up to $300,000 including airplane tickets. Some people feel that the rejection of the Iroquois lacrosse team is slightly perverse as the origin of  lacrosse lies with the ancestors of today’s Iroquois.

 The existence of Haudenosaunee passports has been around since the 1930′s when Native nations of the Iroquois Confederacy wanted to set apart a seperate, cultural identity.

(Cover Picture: New York Times)

Alberto Contador secured the yellow jersey on Monday following amid controversy and Andy Schleck’s mechanical issues, but the race is far from over despite Contador’s far superior time trialing ability. A long road lies ahead for Contador in this year’s Tour De France, the overall leader by 8 seconds, with the first bump coming at the Cole Du Tourmalet on Thursday. The route up the Tourmalet is semi-steep and long, favoring the lankier Schleck, who pledged revenge for his mechanical difficulties that cost him the yellow jersey.

 The monster of the Pyrenees is similar terrain to that of a climb Schleck gained 10 seconds on in the Alps. Contador will have to cover dozens of savage attacks from Schleck for about 10 kilometers, making sure not to lose more than 8 seconds. To make matters worse for Contador, the Tourmalet is going to be scaled twice, the other on a later day.

The Col Du Tourmalet

It won’t be just Schleck looking to attack the yellow jersey. It will be other big names, such as Sammy Sanchez or Denis Menchov, who are looking to gain time for a possible steal of the yellow jersey in the final time trial. These men, along with other top ten competitors, will fire vicious attacks at the overall leader in an attempt to break his spirit and his energy.

If Contador has any loss of energy or mechanical problems, he could find himself a long way back from the leaders. With two stages left in the Pyrenees, Contador must rely on his climbing prowess and on an extremely skilled teammate Alexander Vinokurov to guide him to the final time trial in yellow. If Contador can overcome the struggles ahead in the last 2 mountain stages, he may find himself atop the podium in Paris once again.

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa was a well-organized event that saw to a very tense final match between Netherlands and Spain. As the hubbub of the World Cup ebb away in South Africa, football fans everywhere are turning their eyes towards Brazil, the host country of the 2014 World Cup. When Joseph Blatter pulled out the card with Brazil’s name on it (above), people expected the 5-time World Cup champion Brazil to have no problems in preparing for the 2014 World Cup…after all, this will be the second time Brazil will be hosting the World Cup, a rare honor only bestowed upon very few countries.

Lovers of football over the last month have become slightly anxious on the matter of Brazil hosting the World Cup, not because the World Cup is scheduled past the-end-of-the-world 2012 deadline, but because of Brazil’s “lax” in preparing the host cities for incoming tourists, fans, teams, news crews and co.

CBF President Ricardo Teixeira

FIFA berated the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) for its appalling lack of progress. Officials from the CBF and FIFA had a dispute over the participation of Sao Paulo, a city equal to Kolkatta, New York City, and other renowned financial hubs. To the dissapointment of the inhabitants of Sao Paulo, the Morumbi Stadium in Sao Paulo was excluded from hosting the 2014 World Cup games because of financial matters.

Many see that the host cities’ infrastructure needs to be renovated, rebuilt, or expanded. Many construction projects for roads, spaces, and other necessary components to relieve the stream of people moving into Brazil for the 20th World Cup are not yet underway. Last Thursday, the CBF President, Ricardo Teixeira lightly stated that the “three main priorities we have are airports, airports, and airports.”

Airports are essential in showing economic capability, which lures significant investors, and easing the traffic of visitors as shown by the recent unveiling of the Delhi Airport Terminal 3, and the transportation projects commenced by South Africa for their hosting of the 2010 World Cup. Most of Brazil’s airports pre-dates 1960 and cannot “handle World Cup traffic” according to the Brazilian General Aviation Association.

"Inspiration"

Security will also be a concern but will certainly be a particular issue paid attention to as Brazil is notorious for its “urban wars” between police and gangs alongside drug trafficking groups.

In response to the glaring attention at its lack of progress, Brazil has already designed its official World Cup logo called “Inspiration”. Twelve, Brazilian host cities were also chosen last year. The stadiums are: Mineirão (Belo Horizonte), Estadio Nacional (Brasilia), Verdao (Cuiaba), Arena da Baixada (Curitiba), Castelao (Fortaleza), Arena Manaus (Manaus), Estadio Beira-Rio (Porto Alegre), Arena das Dunas (Natal), Cidade da Copa (Recife), Maracana (Rio de Janeiro), and Fonte Nova (Salvador). The twelfth city is Sao Paulo, but as pointed out earlier, the Morumbi Stadium was burnt off the list which means it is not known what stadium will be used in Sao Paulo, if at all.

Model of the planned Arena das Dunas stadium in the city of Natal.

Estimates for the upgrading and construction of each stadium sums up to more than $1.6 billion USD. Each stadium, once renovated or built, averages 50,000 – 90,000 seats in capacity. Officials estimate that some 500,000 will be coming to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.

It seems despite a somewhat late start, Brazil will do its best to get back on track (as it announced a couple of days ago) and provide a memorable World Cup for the entire world while providing utmost comfort to its audience.

To those who are planning to go and to those who will be glued to their television screen or cupping their ears to the radio, we’ll all be seeing each other again in four years.

The closing ceremony of South Africa’s hosted 2010 World Cup began with the appearence of the famous Nelson Mandela who made a bid to unite an embittered, racially divided country through rugby back in 1995. Many people speculate South Africa’s fate after the World Cup truly ends, which includes the building of infrastructure in the country and attempts to solve issues such as corruption in the government and the AIDs infecting large chunks of South Africa. Many people have faith that South Africa will begin to lure foreign investers and companies in order to build up its economy, while others are skeptical that although the country ran the World Cup with a relatively-low crime rate, which unfortunately included Paris Hilton’s detainment for possession of marijuana, will have much work ahead of them even if investers are attracted to the rainbow nation.

Nelson Mandela greets the stadium at the closing ceremony. (Getty Images)

After Shakira performed ‘Waka Waka’ with several key African pop singers, the World Cup Final took off between Spain and Netherlands. True to their nickname, Oranje, the Dutch team was clad in complete orange while Spain was adorned in their uniform of navy dotted by gold and red. Fans watched as the two teams battled for the possession of the World Cup.

The game started early with Spain’s players driving it deep into Dutch territory. For the first four minutes of the final, the ball dangerously strayed near the Dutch goal. Spain’s Ramos received a free kick after he fell in contact. Kicking the ball in the air, Spain nearly scored a goal but didn’t count on Netherland’s goalkeeper Stekelenburg making a fantastic save. For the next three minutes, the Dutch attempted to enroach on the Spanish part of the field but shortly resorted to their half of the field in defense. Ramos nearly made a goal but Netherland’s #3 John Heitinga kicked it away from the goal at the last moment.

While both teams struggled to get the ball past each other, Netherland’s (#9) Robin van Persie was handed a yellow card after he fouled. Later, the Dutch got a free kick with (#10) Wesley Sneijder. 38 meters away from Spain’s goal net, Sneijder tried to kick it into the goal but Spanish goalkeeper Casillas caught the ball.

Dutch player Arjen Robben showed his amazing prowess as striker in the first half when he made a run for the Spanish goal, making outstanding dribbles between the legs of Spanish defense. Nothing much happened until 28 minutes into the game, Nigel de Jong (#8) of Netherlands struck his foot against Spanish player (#14) Alonso’s chest. The referee immediately handed de Jong a yellow card to which ABC commentators remarked “he was lucky, that should have been a red card..that kung fu kick”.

 The second half of the final included spectacular plays by both teams. There were many close-calls for both teams 15 minutes into the second half. Robben had almost scored a point for Netherlands when he was in front of the Spanish goal. Luckily for the Spanish national football team, their goalkeeper and captain, Iker Casillas, deflected the ball with the side of his shoe as he dived.

de Jong's "kung fu kick" (AFP)

Spain’s David Villa (#7) almost made a goal as he faced a fallen Robben and a clambering Stekelenburg. But..he kicked it way too high. Villa did the same thing a second time when Alonso passed the ball to him from near the Dutch corner.

Ramos was also close in scoring a point but he headed the ball above the goal bar. Spain’s Iniesta (#6) was very close to scoring a goal until he was tripped up by Netherland’s Sneijder. Robben simply shined during the second half when he outran Puyol and Xavi and nearly scored (again). Some goal attempts were close except most of them were aborted when the whistles declared they were offside.

The teams were in a deadlock and it seemed that the great match would go into extra time.

And so it did. There were as many close goals during extra time as there were during both halves of the final match. Stekelenburg made another magnificent save by sliding and kicking the ball away after Spain’s strikers charged into the goal’s proximity and kicked the ball at point-blank range.

(AFP Photo / Gabriel Bouys)

It was certain that, as extra time was dragging on, that it would come to a penalty shootout. But some took back their comments about a 100% outcome of a penalty shootout when Netherland’s (#3) Heitinga received a red card when he pushed down Spain’s Xavi.

Xavi however missed in his free kick. Xavi again received a free kick around 111 minutes into the game, the ball almost made its way to a Spaniard’s head but Stekelenburg made yet another (yes, again) save by swatting the ball away with both hands. Some were certain that with Heitinga out and Spain’s Torres in, extra time could have Spain score a goal before the last seven minutes were up.

In front of the Dutch goal, Torres passed the ball over to Iniesta, setting a potential stage for a goal and… GOAL! Iniesta shot the ball into the goal past Stekelenburg, making a point for Spain with nil for Netherlands much to the dismay of the Dutch fans in the stadium and back in Amsterdam. Two minutes were added to extra time and near the end of the game, Torres strangely fell because of a hamstring injury.

And so, Spain won, 1-0, with Iniesta as the Man of the Match becoming the winner of the 2010 World Cup and football champion of the world. Netherlands on the other hand did very well in working hard to climb up to the grueling final match with Spain and shouldn’t feel ashamed but instead, proud as their fans feel about them.

(AFP Photo / Pierre-Phillipe Marcou)

(Cover Picture: AFP / Monirul Bhuiyan)

After the tense penalty shootout between Ghana and Uruguay in the quarter-final, Ghana’s Sports Minister Akua Sena Dansua called on the International Federation of Association Football (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) to reconsider its rules for matches.

Minister Dansua did not specifically say which rules should be looked over and changed, but clearly she was referring to Uruguay’s striker Luis Suarez blatant, illegal handball-move  that saved Uruguay. Although Suarez was punished by being given a red card and Ghana was again given another penalty kick, however Asamoah Gyan of Ghana missed the point ultimately leaving Uruguay to win 4-2 after a penalty shoot-out.

Although Suarez “saved Uruguay’s dream run”, it controversially ended another country’s dream run. Ghana’s Black Stars are the only third African team to ever reach the quarter finals of the World Cup. Of course, the Ghana team was well received back in their own country and each member of the Rajevac squad was given $20,000 by Ghana’s government. President Mills of Ghana proudly praised the team for “carrying high the flags of not only Ghana but Africa”. Other football fans in other countries were pleased that Ghana had made it so far, “Huge pressure on them, it’s not like our own team has its pressures that aren’t on Ghana’s team but Ghana’s team has the burden of an entire continent, not just a single country” pointed out James Rolfe of USA.

FIFA, with Minister Dansua’s insistence, may consider changing the penalties for a deliberate handball and other rules that give a “cop-out” game. However, the FIFA Board does not meet until March 2011. Besides insisting that the Federation of Association Football look at its own rules again, Minister Dansua requested the African Union to consider the “unfair treatment” African players received during the World Cup, this sentiment is very unclear to what it means.

Uruguay should make a holiday titled: Luis Suarez Day. This one man, a striker generally known for his goal scoring, made one of the most heads up defensive plays I have ever witnessed. With the final overtime period coming to an end and the score tied at 1-1 in the quarterfinal match up of Uruguay and Ghana, Ghana made a last push for a possible game-winning goal. The ball was sent into the penalty area, where the ball ricocheted until it set a course for the Uruguayan goal, in the vicinity of striker Luis Suarez.

With the ball out of his head’s reach, a goal seemed imminent. Then, Suarez pulled a completely illegal yet heads up move by punching the ball off the line, saving the goal. This gave Suarez an immediate red card, and a last minute penalty kick for Ghana. However, Suarez’s handball proved to be the saving factor for Uruguay as Asamoah Gyan of Ghana missed the subsequent penalty, and Uruguay went on to win 4-2 in a penalty shootout, reaching the semifinals once more. In a desperate and witty punch off the line, Luis Suarez took more than a bullet for his team and very well may have saved Uruguay’s dream run.

 And hey, it’s anyone’s match. Maybe he saved their 3^rd World Cup.

As I’m watching each match of the World Cup, I can’t help but notice that the South American teams are on a collision course with the European nations participating in the World Cup. With contrasting styles, the Europeans the pretty players and the South Americans the gritty, hard-nosed bunch, the two continents have nations that are squaring up against each other in the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup: Paraguay vs. Spain, Argentina vs. Germany and Brazil vs. Netherlands.

The Paraguayan National Team

All of these games should provide the best action in the newest Europe-South America rivalry, but the game that shouldn’t be overlooked is Paraguay vs. Spain. Paraguay is a tough defensive team that looks to counter, while Spain looks to spread the field and keep possession.

These two clashing styles will most likely result in a penalty shootout, where I believe Paraguay will continue their historic run. Argentina and Germany will be an offensive shootout, and will come down to which goalkeeper can make more saves. The Germans have that advantage, so I believe it is Germany that will continue onto the semifinals to face Paraguay.

For the third and final South America-Europe matchup, I believe Brazil will overwhelm the Netherlands defense like they did the Chilean defense with their prolific attack, allowing them to advance to face Ghana, who will outrun the Uruguayans to move to the semifinals.

That’s enough. I’ve seen enough goals and dreams dashed by the lack of vision of the referees. I mean, we all make mistakes, but the World Cup needs a system to give blatant goals that are missed, such as the one in the Germany-England match. It’s a bit of a shame that the world’s biggest sporting event doesn’t use replay, even if the technology is available to them.

Too many conversations have been made about goals being denied, momentum of the game being changed, and worst of all, the officials stating they’ll look into the system. Adding a replay system would solve the complaints of the players, the fans and the coaches and also would reduce the heat a referee would get after the match. The World Cup needs to act now and implement a replay system as soon as possible.