If you wondered why the 2010 FIFA World Cup matches schedule has shifted to running games simultaneously, like today’s U.S. vs. Algeria and England vs. Slovenia games, it’s because of one of the biggest conspiracies in the history of sport that took place at the 1982 FIFA World Cup.

In 1982 after a few games were in the books, Austria and West Germany would meet in a game that could advance both teams to the next round IF West Germany could pull off a 1-0 win. That final score would allow both teams to make the cut due to the final goal differentials working in their favor.

From the opening kick West Germany got aggressive on offense and pressed Austria, taking a 1-0 lead just 11 minutes into the contest on a header by Horst Hrubesch. From this moment on, the world would be treated to one of the most gutless acts in the history of FIFA or any sport.

Both teams, who had obviously made a prior arrangement to fix the score at 1-0 so both could advance, slowly trotted around the field for the remainder of the game, passing the ball around for 79 minutes while the crowd erupted and burned flags in the stands, blow your vuvuzela to that!

Television commentators covering this disgraceful match condemned both teams including a German television commentator who said:

“What’s happening here is disgraceful and has nothing to do with futbol”

During post-game interviews, the West German coach Jupp Derwall admitted, “We wanted to progress, not play football,” and player Lothar Matthäus added, “We have gone [to the next round] that’s all that counts.”

Back home in Germany, the media slammed their team with headlines like in the country’s best-selling paper called the Bild that read, “Shame On You!”

FIFA scurried to decide if there was anything they could do but decided they could not change a score or annul any results for the 1982 tournament. From that point on however, the final round of group matches have been played simultaneously to eliminate or at least reduce the chance of a re-occurrence of another conspiracy like this West Germany and Austria game.

MORE FIFA World Cup:

It’s time for America to embrace FIFA horns 

French World Cup team continues their circus act

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

SOUTH AFRICA – The prime things France has to swank about is the Eiffel Tower, a 1998 FIFA World Cup and Napoleon and one of those was a 5-foot midget with a tiny penis complex.

In this year’s FIFA competition, France’s team has shown a personality many outsiders believe runs parallel their country’s.

After tying vast underdog Uruguay then getting their asses handed to them by Mexico 2-0 in their second game, team star, Nicolas Anelka, threw a temper-tantrum and was said to have given his coach, Raymond Domenech, a severe vulgar tongue lashing.

The coach’s response was sending Anelka back home to France to sulk in his tears after the player refused to apologize and smooth things over but the French team’s Cirque Du Soleil act didn’t end there.

The following day when the team’s bus arrived to practice for their final game in this round, the players had a get-together and refused to take the field and train leaving the team in so much turmoil, their team director resigned to get as far away from the fiasco as possible.

The French a ‘bunch of quitters’ . . . sounds familiar doesn’t it? Where’s that 5-foot tyrant with the penis complex when they need him.

Back to the French FIFA fiasco, after the incidents, the coach ripped his players:

“I tried to convince them that what they were doing was an aberration, an imbecility, a stupidity without name.”

Without a name! We have plenty of names for that here in America and one is called being a bunch of pussies. And if the word ‘pussies’ offends you then insert ‘Quitters’, ‘cry-babies’ or ‘Dickheads’.

The Frenchies did return to work out on Monday prepping for their match against South Africa on Tuesday in their Group A match. The leapers need a win to hold on to any mathematical chance of moving on to the next round.

Oh BTW, France’s captain, Patrice Evra, may be stripped of his role as captain, a position he has held for just five games for initiating the mutiny against his coach.

“I haven’t picked the team yet, we will see tomorrow.” Domenech said. “It’s sad.”

For some yes it is, but for others it’s happiness and justice. There’s a reason NHL top draft picks like Eric Lindros refused to go play in French-speaking Quebec for the Quebec Nordiques team when he was coming into the league. NHL players were treated like scum and basically ignored in the Nordiques’ locker room and around the town since they were English-speaking people. The French have long ago earned their reputation for reeking arrogance, blow your vuvuzela to that!

I have travelled several countries in Europe including Italy, Greece, Croatia, England and yes France; the ONLY country I have ever been to where I was treated with total disrespect from the time I stepped onto their soil.

Back to the FIFA thing because it’s getting even worse, when Coach Domenech was asked if some players had told him they do not want to play the game, he stumbled around the question.

“It is a possibility that we will finalize [the roster] tonight with the staff to see what team we put in place.”

Well whatever team the French put out on the field, expect some sort of boilover from their embarrassing Circus act, and if you are like a lot of people, you will enjoy every minute of it. Bring on the Freedom Fries!

MORE FIFA World Cup:

It’s time for America to embrace FIFA horns – Sports Climax

My World Cup is Half Empty – Schuepp’s Scoop

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

SOMEWHERE IN WISCONSIN – The 2010 FIFA World Cup is upon us, and the entire country is pretending to be soccer crazy, including my editor on this website who before this month thought a ‘strike’ in sports only related to ten pins and a  bunch of drunks in a Tennessee bowling alley.

This aberration occurs every four years when everybody jumps on proverbial soccer mom’s minivan, but I refuse to submit to the hype.

It may be the world’s game, but it’s not mine. It’s boring and sucks–which is the least of my “Top 10 things I hate about the World Cup”–besides those f***ing Vuvuzelas!

1. The World Cup is like leap year, in that it occurs every four years. The only difference is it’s much less enjoyable. If it were up to me it would be every forty years, and I would award the upcoming 2050 games to Mars.

2. Players acting as if they have been shot by a sniper when in actuality they have only stubbed their toe. Now I know where Pau Gasol got his acting lessons.

3. Referees who wear ear pieces as if they’re secret service escorting the Pope through the national Boy Scout jamboree. All they need to complete the get up is a bustier with the pointy bra. Strike a pose?

4. Alexi Lalas’ smugness (and hairdo). Lex is the only English speaking person who buys Rosetta Stone to learn English. What do you suppose these announcers do with the other three years and eleven months?

5. Tie games. They’re like kissing your sister*. If I’m going to invest two hours of my life watching a nil-nil (see below) game, I’d rather visit my dentist (which reminds me, I need to make an appointment. It’s been four years, and it’s a more enjoyable use of my time).

6. The use of the stretcher to remove presumably injured (see above) players from the pitch (see below). They should play the M.A.S.H. theme song in the process; I swear I saw Hawkeye and Pierce carting a faker off the other day.

7. It’s called SOCCER. I played football. I love football. Football is a game we, as red-blooded Americans love. You, my friend, are no football. Quit pretending to be a cool sport, and go eat your orange slices.

8. The use of British terms: pace=speed, pitch=field, nil=zero, etc. It’s a bunch of bloody rubbish. See, there I go again. If we’re not careful, we’ll all be talking like Austin Powers and have bad teeth.

9. Those stupid headbands the players wear. They’re OK if you’re a 12 year-old girl, which now that I think about it, go ahead and wear them. They’re all you, dudes!

10. The excessive use of slow motion. Do I really need to see the Dutch coach scratch his balls at half the speed?

* . . . ’like kissing your sister analogy’ does not apply to residents of West Virginia.

MORE FIFA – It’s time for America to embrace FIFA horns &  U.S. ties England 1-1 in FIFA World Cup

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Pat Schueppert is a contributor to Sports Climax who grew up on the frozen tundra and bleeds Packer green and gold. The Wisconsin native, while staying loyal to his teams in his home state declares he has never worn a ‘cheesehead’ and “The Bears still suck!”.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

After further review, this ‘horn-hater’ has ruled the ruling on the field should stand and the obnoxious non-stop blowing of Vuvuzelas at the FIFA World Cup 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa should be allowed to continue.

Okay, I admit it is the most obnoxious thing I have ever seen or heard at any sporting event, right up there with some fat inebriated guy with a dirty jersey shouting obscene-laced one-liners at some innocent opposing players. BUT, Americans need to step back and cool it with the criticism and grass root campaigns to ‘ban the horns’ and except it as a unique custom of our friends from Africa.

Like most Americans, this year I decided to jump on the fast-moving bandwagon of FIFA and tuned in to several games including the highly-hyped U.S. vs. England contest Saturday. And like most people in this country, media and fans alike, I acquired an instant dislike for the constant noise of the Vuvuzelas that at first I thought was a horrible overseas signal struggling to make its way from one satellite to another and through my cable to my television set.

While I was Tweeting “WTF is that!” and “Somebody make it stop!!” Skip Bayless from First and 10 was Tweeting “I had to turn my TV sound off, I couldn’t stand it.”

On the flip side of that NBA player Al Horford of the Atlanta Hawks welcomed the noise Tweeting several times throughout the tourney in support of the custom.

Examiner.com Sports Columnist Paula Duffy says in her column today, ”we have thunder sticks in baseball and NBA basketball, air horns in football and even cowbells when the Sacramento Kings want to drive Lakers coach Phil Jackson round the bend.”

Now before writing your favorite Congressman, ask yourself, how would you respond if citizens from India started a campaign in the U.S. to stop eating meat because cows are ‘sacred’ and the next time you’re hunkered over a steak at the local Outback Steakhouse, a group of them asked you to please drop to your knees and worship your 48-ounce sirloin instead of eating it?

In Russia, the fans join together creating an ear-piercing whistle when they are displeased while here in the states we boo. Should we ask Russia to ban whistling next time we play them in the Olympics on their soil? If they asked us to convert our booing to whistling to avoid confusion to their country, we would tell them the same thing we would tell the India folks who wanted us to praise our steak, “Shove it where objects are only supposed to exit.”

Africa’s business pertaining to sports is their business and if we are interested in jumping on board to take part in the FIFA activities and support Futbol, then we need to chill out and take a step back, way back.

The Vuvuzelas blowing is actually a really a cool tradition when you think about it. These fans are dedicated to spending hours, yes with a plural, pumping wind into these instruments non-stop. That’s more stamina then would have been required for any of the hell raising I did with my counterparts at raucous Olympia Stadium and Historic Tiger Stadium when I was a youngster growing up in Detroit and believe me, we blew the frickin’ roof off those places more than a few times.

Hats off to the people of Africa and the FIFA fans for introducing this unique custom to our country, and hopefully as I have done, many of you will get used to the African fans and their Vuvuzelas and welcome them with open arms.

Copyright © 2010 Sports Climax, LLC